Who Would Have Believed The Singularity Would Be So Stupid?

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Oh My: Obama May Scrap 9/11 Civilian Trials And Move Them Back to Military Tribunals...

(NY Post)- The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Click on the title to get the story at Weasel Zippers.

Got some running around to do. Enjoy!

Maksim Mrvica

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2

Pelosi Is A Dumb Bitch - Oh Yeah, And She's a Liar Too

From Ace:

Nancy Pelosi Stopped One Useful CIA Operation in 2004. So, Um, If Waterboarding Was So Bad, How Come She Couldn't Stop That?

She "came unglued." Unstitched might be a better metaphor.
In mid-2004, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi learned something from a CIA briefing that made her blood boil. Pelosi reportedly "came unglued" at the revelation and had "strong words" with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, demanding that the CIA abandon its plans. As a result, a top-secret finding that President George W. Bush signed to authorize the CIA's activities was revised. Pelosi succeeded in stopping the agency from moving forward with the controversial operation.
What drove Pelosi to action? Not the CIA's waterboarding of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists. In a 2009 interview, a former senior Bush administration official directed me to a little-noticed item from Time magazine. According to this 2004 report, Pelosi objected to a CIA plan to provide money to moderate political parties in Iraq ahead of scheduled elections, in an effort to counter Iran, which was funneling millions to extremist elements.
Why is this important? Because on May 14, 2009, Pelosi, now speaker of the House, declared in a Capitol Hill news conference that she had opposed CIA waterboarding but was powerless to stop it.

Ace concludes:

That move -- stopping the funding of moderate parties -- seemed to have no other point than to try to sabotage the entire war effort.

Go read the whole thing.

A Christian Jihadist

I know this is a serious story. However, I can't help but laugh.

Alcoa pastor's son accuses him of pulling gun during argument at church
Colquitt reportedly told officers that his father — Joe Colquitt, 60, Evergreen Farms Lane, Greenback — called him to St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 178 Bessie Harvey Ave., Alcoa, “so they could talk.” Joe Colquitt was listed in the Alcoa report as being pastor at the church.

Once Michael Colquitt arrived to meet his father, he said Joe Colquitt was upset because he wasn't attending church like he should, and at some point alleged the argument came to a head with the pastor pulling out a handgun.

“(Michael) Colquitt stated (Joe) Colquitt pulled out a handgun and stated he would kill him, his wife and family,” the report said. “(Michael) Colquitt stated (his father) was upset because he cussed him.”

The father says he didn't really threaten to kill his son's family. Instead, God did.

Freaking funny.

The Jihadist Next Door

NYT

ON A WARM, cloudy day in the fall of 1999, the town of Daphne, Ala., stirred to life. The high-school band came pounding down Main Street, past the post office and the library and Christ the King Church. Trumpeters in gold-tasseled coats tipped their horns to the sky, heralding the arrival of teenage demigods. The star quarterback and his teammates came first in the parade, followed by the homecoming queen and her court. Behind them, on a float bearing leaders of the student government, a giddy mop-haired kid tossed candy to the crowd.

Omar Hammami had every right to flash his magnetic smile. He had just been elected president of his sophomore class. He was dating a luminous blonde, one of the most sought-after girls in school. He was a star in the gifted-student program, with visions of becoming a surgeon. For a 15-year-old, he had remarkable charisma.

Despite the name he acquired from his father, an immigrant from Syria, Hammami was every bit as Alabaman as his mother, a warm, plain-spoken woman who sprinkles her conversation with blandishments like “sugar” and “darlin’.” Brought up a Southern Baptist, Omar went to Bible camp as a boy and sang “Away in a Manger” on Christmas Eve. As a teenager, his passions veered between Shakespeare and Kurt Cobain, soccer and Nintendo. In the thick of his adolescence, he was fearless, raucously funny, rebellious, contrarian. “It felt cool just to be with him,” his best friend at the time, Trey Gunter, said recently. “You knew he was going to be a leader.”

A decade later, Hammami has fulfilled that promise in the most unimaginable way. Some 8,500 miles from Alabama, on the eastern edge of Africa, he has become a key figure in one of the world’s most ruthless Islamist insurgencies. That guerrilla army, known as the Shabab, is fighting to overthrow the fragile American-backed Somali government. The rebels are known for beheading political enemies, chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning women accused of adultery. With help from Al Qaeda, they have managed to turn Somalia into an ever more popular destination for jihadis from around the world.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Obama meets the GOP in congress - LIVE on TV

And it HURTS ...

Here's a question:

When Georgia congressman Tom Price charged that
Obama had repeatedly accused Republicans of offering "no ideas and no
solutions," Obama shot back, "I don't think I said that."

Just how stupid does he imagine we really are?
C-SPAN an absolute must:

China flight disrupted after passenger burns toilet paper

From AFP:

BEIJING — A China Southern Airlines flight had to turn around Saturday, returning to the capital of China's restive Xinjiang region after a passenger burned toilet paper in the washroom, state media reported.
The crew of the flight from Urumqi, in the west, to the central city of Wuhan, discovered the passenger's actions after take-off, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Police said a man and a woman were arrested after the flight landed, according to Xinhua.
The case is under investigation, the report said, giving no further details.
The security situation is more tense in Xinjiang than other parts of China because Beijing says it faces a serious separatist threat in the region.
Exiled members of the region's Muslim Uighur majority say Beijing exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls in the region, which is rich in energy reserves and borders several central Asian countries.
Earlier this year, authorities also issued orders to step up identity checks and monitor religious activities in Xinjiang in a renewed bid to quash terrorism, separatism and extremism, state media reported.

And, of course, China is wiser than us, when it comes to handling terrorists. We give KSM the rights of an American and a "fair" trial in front of a "jury of his peers" in Manhattan. China? They don't take no shit:

China must account for the whereabouts of ethnic Uighurs forcibly repatriated from Cambodia, a US-based rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said such groups had "disappeared into a black hole" on their return to China.
The Uighurs fled to Cambodia after mass ethnic riots in China in July. Beijing has referred to them as criminals.
In December, a group of 20 Uighurs were put on a plane to China despite opposition from the UN and US.

They said the group were likely to face persecution in China.
"Uighur asylum seekers sent back to China by Cambodia have disappeared into a black hole," said Sophie Richardson of HRW.
"There is no information about their whereabouts, no notification of any legal charges against them, and there are no guarantees they are safe from torture and ill-treatment."

Bye bye.

Introducing The Naomi Wolf Award

For too long, extraordinary feats of feminist moral blindness have gone unrecognized. But now, those dark days are finally over.

Today, I am pleased to introduce The Naomi Wolf Award, affectionately known as The Howler. read more…

The laments of the center-left, or 'the discrete charm of the bourgoisee'

In 1972 we heard of Richard Nixon, 'I don't know how he got elected, I don't know a single person who voted for him'. Nixon was certainly an execrable president, but there is no argument his opponent in 1972 could not have figured out a way to get less votes if he had tried.

And now, amid the post Katrina-like denouement after Scott Brown's ascent, what do we hear?

Eleanor Clift of the tea party people:

It's hard to take their rhetoric seriously

Charles Blow of the NYT:

The president simply couldn't seem to escape his professorial past, to convey his passion and convictions in the plain words of plain folks, and to breach the chasm between the People's House and people's houses.

Gail Collins on the KSM Trials:

As I was saying, last November, the Justice Department announced that the terror trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be held in Manhattan. Almost everyone in New York rallied around. This was seen as standing up to terrorism.

Joan Walsh, Salon:

In case he wasn't fully aware that Republicans are impervious to his political charm, President Obama saw it early in his first State of the Union address. After ticking off a list of taxes he'd lowered, the chamber was in cheers -- except for the GOP side of the aisle, where traditionally tax-cutters have clustered. Obama smiled and ad-libbed, "I expected some applause for that one."

These confused, unrealistic pleading sort of whines are very informative.

They do NOT comprehend WHAT IT IS the tea party people are so totally dedicated about, except foggy comprehension of anger and snarling, most of which does not really redound to their own benefit, anyway.
They believe if Obama merely explains himself better, all will be well.
They really believe the republicans have done nothing but say no, offered no plans of their own, and that the people believe that as they do
They believe FOREIGN enemies of the United States, anywhere on the planet, and our way of life deserve all the benefits of Americans in court when captured in the act of slaughtering Americans, and that the world will celebrate this attitude and all will be better.

Is it any wonder they do not really understand what is going on around them?

They are called priorities for a reason...

No matter who you are, and no matter what your organization, only so many things of importance can be tackled, and in the right order....

Obama administration may take action on College Bowl System
The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review
the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.
In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

"Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/01/29/obama.bcs.ap/index.html?xid=si_ncaaf#ixzz0e6HKpDRj

Maybe correct disposition of enemy prisoners in time of war would be a better use of resources?

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Suppose Hizballah, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Mullahs of Iran understand the American People far better than we think?

More airport security won't do much to stop terrorists. Leaving the Middle East would.
Ending US interference, including military support for Israel, could significantly reduce the rationale for terrorist acts.
Earlier this week, Osama bin Laden praised the Christmas Day attack in which a Nigerian-born man living in London attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane by igniting explosives in his underwear.
Mr. bin Laden's endorsement, along with recent attacks in Baghdad, raise concerns about a new round of attacks against the United States. Politicians, security experts, and pundits have therefore called for heightened security measures at airports and on airplanes.
It won't work without addressing why there are attacks to begin with.
Additional security measures may prevent a few attacks, at least until terrorists learn to circumvent the new policies. But these measures will have little lasting impact, as with many past tactics, because they do nothing to reduce the demand for terrorism against the US.
If the desire to engage in a certain activity is not reduced, attempts to raise the costs (such as harsher punishment) of such an activity do not matter much.

Continue reading Suppose Hizballah, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Mullahs of Iran understand the American People far better than we think?.

My conclusion:

This entire thesis rests on the arrogant anthrocentric assumption that it's ALL ABOUT US. This entire mode if thinking ignores 'insignificant' items of indisputable history:

FOR STARTERS... today one could argue quite effectively that a plurality (at a minimum) of Muslims agree that all conquests cultural, by peoples, movements, and finally and most importantly, religiously MUST go forward as prescribed, in the way of Allah, by other means. The ultimate goal is that the call to prayer be heard everywhere, and that all means of dawa succeed. This has NOTHING to do with where investor's decide it's a good idea to put McDonald's, or if a young lady's desire to BE DESIRED is expressed in a tight pair of Levis. What WE do, how WE act can never be more than an IRRITANT in their motion.

Nasrallah's dream, and the Iranians' confidence comes from their faith that god will make americans weak, not in the field, but by coming up with rational men whose aversion to all risk will end our ability to survive and thrive ANYWHERE, placing us in retrograde motion, EVERYWHERE.

In this world the first rule of survival is this: If you are not growing you are shrinking. That is true personally, in business, and as a nation. The idea of a plateau is an invention of a shrinking society's risk averse cowards to justify the act of doing nothing while they shrink, and pass less onto their descendants.

Less in their way of life.
Less in their freedom of action.
Less in their economic dreams.
Less in THEIR own dreams for THEIR own children.
Less, finally, of their own freedoms.

LAW OF NATURE

Full article continues....

Continue reading Suppose Hizballah, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Mullahs of Iran understand the American People far better than we think?.

Sheik Khalid Mohammed, Rights, and the Terrorist Aftershock

Culturism does not hold that rights are – with apologies to the great Thomas Jefferson - inalienable or God-given. They do not hang in the sky enshrined by metaphysical truths as “human rights” advocated contend. Rights come from cultures that believe in them and can afford them. Enshrining rights in mystical ether and ignoring their real-world basis and costs endangers our nation.

Today the White House abandoned their plan to have Sheik Khalid Mohammed, the admitted 9-11 mastermind, tried in lower Manhattan. The decision was done on the basis of considerations that show rights are not metaphysical abstractions. Trying Mohammed requires creating a security perimeter. This would have meant locals would have had to have shown identification to get to their homes, traffic would have been terrible, and businesses would have been virtually inaccessible. Rights happen in real times and places.

Mohammed’s right to be tried in Manhattan would have come at the cost of others’ right to stay in business. The trial will cost, according to New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelley, around $200 million a year and last for several years. The Federal government may reimburse for some of the costs. But whoever supplies the dimes, we can see in times of financial stress and hiring freezes, Mohammed’s rights happen at the expense of others’ rights to get fire service, police protection, or teachers. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Rights cost money.

Rights happen in a spectrum that, in our history, could be said to run from lynching to Sheik Khalid Mohammed. Lynching could not have been called a form of justice when the wrong person was caught. But, for arguments sake, on that occasion when the person lynched was guilty, the justice was swift. Such deterrent and retribution required zero lawyers, delay, or cost. In the middle of our spectrum of justice, we have cases where guilt is in doubt and we have a trial. And, at the other extreme, we have a clearly guilty man getting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of protections. The extremes are clearly problematic.

During times of war, even America has had a culturist, rather than an absolute metaphysical, vision of rights. We did not, for example, both have the resources to give every person of Japanese descent a trial before relocation and fight World War Two. Nations have long interned enemy combatants, or potential enemy combatants, en masse for just such reasons. We knew that had we lost World War II, no one would have rights. We understood that rights do not exist in a vacuum; they cost money, take time, and require a culture that believes in them for them to be in existence.

It is unprecedented that we now, in debt and at war, spend hundreds of millions to protect a man clearly guilty of killing thousands of Americans. Obama believed that the cost was worth the international propaganda value of the trial. This change of location shows that he only secondarily realized the disruption caused by the trial will have a domestic political costs. It will also have the domestic impact of disrupting businesses and costing us each lots of money. In a time of War this chaos and economic bleeding could be considered a second terrorist hit. Until we realize that rights cost money and require a sustainable functioning society to buy them, we are vulnerable to such aftershock terrorism.

www.culturism.us

Midnight Special

Billie Holiday

Love Me or Leave Me

In A Disastrous Economy, The One Thing Americans Will Not Live Without? BOOKS

I know the image of Americans is that we're a bunch a stupid, illiterate rednecked "bitter clingers".

But, the truth is, we're a diverse melting pot of people who elected a black President, with an Islamic name, and we fucking love to read.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – During tough economic times when U.S. consumers are trying to cut back the indulgence they can't seem to live without is books.

Three-quarters of adults questioned in an online poll said they would sacrifice holidays, dining out, going to the movies and even shopping sprees but they could not resist buying books.

Right now, I'm reading two books; Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus, and a biography of General George S. Patton.

I spend a good 8-10 hours a day reading. What about you?

Krauthammer on the pantybomber

The handling of the Christmas Day bombing suspect: the scandal grows
The real scandal surrounding the failed Christmas Day airline bombing was not the fact that a terrorist got on a plane — that can happen to any administration, as it surely did to the Bush administration — but what happened afterward when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was captured and came under the full control of the U.S. government.
After 50 minutes of questioning him, the Obama administration chose, reflexively and mindlessly, to give the chatty terrorist the right to remain silent. Which he immediately did, undoubtedly denying us crucial information about al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had trained, armed and dispatched him.

We have since learned that the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab had been made without the knowledge of or consultation with (1) the secretary of defense, (2) the secretary of homeland security, (3) the director of the FBI, (4) the director of the National Counterterrorism Center or (5) the director of national intelligence (DNI).

The Justice Department acted not just unilaterally but unaccountably. Obama’s own DNI said that Abdulmutallab should have been interrogated by the HIG, the administration’s new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.

Perhaps you hadn’t heard the term. Well, in the very first week of his presidency, Obama abolished by executive order the Bush-Cheney interrogation procedures and pledged to study a substitute mechanism. In August, the administration announced the establishment of the HIG, housed in the FBI but overseen by the National Security Council.

Where was it during the Abdulmutallab case? Not available, admitted National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, because it had been conceived for use only abroad. Had not one person in this vast administration of highly nuanced sophisticates considered the possibility of a terror attack on American soil?