max igan discussing the nukequake and his motives

[click image, mp3, via Phil]

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An Aussie whose radio show is called "The American Voice"? Anyway, a good listen.

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I am so gonna suck as a revolutionary! I'll need earplugs....

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Is it clear enough for you yet?

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Oh, that nutty Murdoch:

Rupert Murdoch, aside from owning FOX News and the Wall Street Journal has also managed to scoop up a large portion of Britain's newspapers. Well, it ends up Murdoch's papers have been hacking the phones of the liberal politicians and using the info gleaned to chase them out of office, ruin their character, etc. Besides politicians they have been hacking phones of both the rich and the famous...including the Princes of England.

Pfeh.

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love, 99
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yup

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From a redneck....

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love, 99
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your kids will do windows

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Oh, oh, no worries for your dumbed-down kids. Plenty they can still do. It won't be like working your way up from the mail room, but maybe it will feed you. The synchronicity of this email coming in as I was fervently wiping my monitor is... well... is karmic, ain't it?

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love, 99
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another link from another bubba

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I mean, are these guys illiterate or what?

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love, 99
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i can't believe i forgot to yell at you about this!

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One of my bubba friends... Mr. Tea Party... sent me this link for Christmas.

You assholes.

This was my answer.

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love, 99
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some things make me homesick

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If you had any idea how many times I've driven this road—fast—I mean really fast—I think you would be amazed I'm talking to you right now. It was pretty hip to use this particular band for this clip too. They were homies. I dated the drummer.

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love, 99
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i'm with stupid

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One of my Bubba Tea Party Sympathizer friends just emailed me this:

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
It's time to apply
The inheritance tax.

And when you think about the taxes and fees and fines and mandatory coverage out there, maybe you would concede that the righties have plenty of reason to bitch about being taxed to death. They scream about it, and we default to thinking they mean having to help poor people. No. They mean they can't afford to eat.

Alcohol Tax
Bridge Tolls
Building Permit
Business License
Capital Gains
Cigarette Tax
Dog License
Driver's License
Excise Tax
FICA
Fishing License
Gasoline Tax
Health Insurance
Hunting License
Income Tax
Inheritance Tax
Marriage License
Municipal Water Charges
Parking Meters
Passport Fees
Property Tax
Regulatory Infraction Fines
Sales Tax
Telephone Surcharges
Unemployment Insurance
Vehicle Registration
Vehicle Liability Insurance
Workers' Compensation

I've probably left out a ton of what the average citizen is mandated to pay, but you get my drift....

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And, for any of you who doubted me when I mentioned the legislating this week will be about the Republicans' need to clamp down on the Tea Party, this would begin to fit the bill, no?

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love, 99
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my inbox

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Probably the most entertaining for PC users....

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love, 99
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i had a pet goat

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Her name was Twinkle. I didn't get to keep her because she wouldn't stop wailing all night to be with me. The whole neighborhood was united against her nocturnal tantrums. She liked sleeping with me. She didn't want to be out in the cold barn. She didn't want to be anywhere that wasn't with me.

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love, 99
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don't drink and drive

[click image — WARNING, this will pin your ears back but good.]

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My prickly boyfriend, Sam, sent me this image to express his love for me 'n' my blog.... I love him back.

Have been trying to pay attention to my life around here today and even out in my fright about all the blatantly fascist moves being made by our government, our hopey/changey shit government. Had to go to town to pay bills, move my no money, stock back up on things to bandage my mangled finger, and noticed a sort of detent with my eighth dimension go-cart is developing, which is good because I don't have the room for all its bells and whistles vexing me while I try to get to the store.

A NUMBER OF MY FRIENDS ARE JOINING IN YANKING THEIR FUNDS FROM BIG BANKS TOMORROW.

I did it today.

Anyway, according to the email from one of my bubbas, this video at the image link is on TV in Australia. I gotta say, if this doesn't do it, you are definitely drinking too much.

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love, 99
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my passion for polar bears

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People know about my polar bear thing. They send me polar bear things. I guess my lack of a tv set is all that is preventing me from dissolving into a heaving lump of ectoplasm every time this dumb car ad pops up between the debauched plebes scratching each other's eyes out for a million-dollar prize.

You know, when I was a kid, this dignified-looking fellow just knocked on your door and handed you a million dollars. Everyone kept their clothes on. Nobody did anything despicable. Happy ending every time. And polar bears were not drowning in the Arctic from the ice cap receding too far for them to swim back to land.

I don't think this fucking car is going to do an iota of good. If a polar bear lives through WWIII it'll be a fucking miracle.

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love, 99
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my inbox

[click image, image from Bippy, video from DGPNorth]

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My inbox sometimes is an amazing thing.

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link i just got from a racist putz tea partier friend

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Check out the pledge after you watch the video....

I hauled my frazzled ass off to town to make sure I had all the bare necessities—cigarettes and chill pills—oh, and some food—and returned to the karmic answer to my plea from overseas. I'm going to be one busy maniac for quite a while. I am going to try not to let it interfere with my blogging here, but I'm drying up yonder so I can have some productivity back. The buddhas of the ten directions have this startling way of affirming one when the mind finally lands on the right thing.

I don't know if I'm finally getting used to being senile or if all the hormones and vitamins have finally given me back my wild and crazy brain, but, whatever it is, I'm not wasting it.

Do you hear that?

I'm not wasting it.
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[Whoa, and sheesh, and pfeh, this weather is NUTS. It's been springtime and the North Pole by turns about eight times here today, with one burst of rain that was SO cold I couldn't believe it wasn't snow. VERY weird. Is it going to keep being this calamitously outrageous until 2012? Or are we going to get off our asses?]

the immortal inbox

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That's my bellybutton... OMG!
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and now for something completely different

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...but way cool. Sometimes my inbox amazes me....
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loss of lou dobbs is a major blow

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Danny was speculating yesterday that Lou Dobbs may be senile.

Well, according to this link someone just sent me Lou Dobbs may be one of the precious few sane people left in America, and the loss of him on the boob tube is indeed a blow. I didn't read the comments at the link, except I saw the first one and it doesn't bode well. This was from back in March... when the signals were very strong... but not strong enough for the hypnotized....

It's plain as the nose on your face now. Do you see it yet?

it is SO time for you to watch this again

[click image, video, hour and a half]

A friend emailed me the image link, but you can also watch it on Google Video if that's better for you.

I decided to bring this up because there are a whole lot of people in Tehran and in Honduras and across the world who really, really, really need to get a handle on just how perfidious American fascists are, just how outrageous it gets, just how easy it is for them to deceive their own population and the world.

I don't know how many times you have to be told, but, dammit, one of these times it's going to sink in.

The people who were in charge in Panama are still in charge now. They haven't stopped their filthy, criminal activities anywhere they deign to turn. Their capabilities are only limited by the number of people they can buy or scare into doing their will.

They will not stop until they are stopped.

[P.S. We are moving troops to the border.]

my inbox

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At least they're blunt about it, no?

Israel keeps Mossad chief on for Iran "shadow war"
Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:55am EDT
By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended the tenure of the Mossad chief to an eighth year on Sunday, a testament to the spymaster's perceived success in waging shadow wars against Iran and its allies. Meir Dagan, a former commando and retired general, took over Mossad in 2002 with what security sources described as a mandate to monitor and sabotage the Iranian nuclear program ahead of any decision by Israel to launch full-scale preemptive strikes.

Mossad also has been credited with spotting an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor which Israel bombed in 2007, and with assassinating Islamist guerrillas such as Imad Moughniyah of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, who was slain in Damascus in 2008.

"This is an excellent man who, at the head of an excellent team, has improved the country's capabilities," an aide to Netanyahu quoted him as telling the Israeli cabinet in its weekly session.

The son of Holocaust refugees, Dagan, 64, has spearheaded assessments that a nuclear-armed Iran would present a mortal threat to Israel. Iran -- which denies seeking the bomb -- could produce its first such warhead by 2014, Dagan said last week.

He also played down prospects of the current civil upheaval over Iran's disputed June 12 election leading to a change in government, but said Tehran could be persuaded to curb sensitive nuclear technologies if U.S.-led sanctions are intensified.

Failing that, Israel, which is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has hinted at a military option, though many analysts think Iranian sites are too dispersed and fortified for its air force to take on alone.

That leaves covert action as a stop-gap countermeasure, something Israeli officials privately confirm is under way.

Western media reports have spoken of Mossad involvement in sabotage at Iranian nuclear facilities and sneak attacks on Iranian scientists and military personnel. Iranian media have reported the disruption of some suspected Israeli spy cells.

Mossad's purview is "human intelligence" -- recruited agents with first-hand information about, and access to, enemy plans. Security sources say this has lent Dagan authority among Israeli decision-makers reluctant to design their Iran strategy around satellite pictures or electronic eavesdropping transcripts.

Mossad's headquarters, north of Tel Aviv, has almost doubled in size since 2002 -- an indication of Dagan's budgetary clout.

"If there is one service that has brought us close to knowing what's really going on in Iran, it's Mossad," said a recently retired government official, who formerly had a top post in a rival Israeli spy agency.

Israel's military top brass and civilian defense chiefs generally serve for four years, with a traditional one-year extension. Dagan's tenure was extended twice before. He is now due to step down in 2010.

I already needed the extra-strength ibuprofen before I opened this email, Greg, so, really, don't feel bad....

a little problem with our 'support for iranians'

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Hint....

Another hint....

If you don't get it by THIS hint from five years ago, yer hopeless:

New Front Sets Sights On Toppling Iran Regime
By Marc Perelman
Published May 16, 2003

A budding coalition of conservative hawks, Jewish organizations and Iranian monarchists is pressing the White House to step up American efforts to bring about regime change in Iran.

For now, President Bush’s official stance is to encourage the Iranian people to push the mullah regime aside themselves, but observers believe that the policy is not yet firm, and that has created an opportunity for activists. Neoconservatives advocating regime change in Tehran through diplomatic pressure — and even covert action — appear to be winning the debate within the administration, several knowledgeable observers said.

“There is a pact emerging between hawks in the administration, Jewish groups and Iranian supporters of Reza Pahlavi [the exiled son of the former shah of Iran] to push for regime change,” said Pooya Dayanim, president of the Iranian-Jewish Public Affairs Committee in Los Angeles and a hawk on Iran.

The emerging coalition is reminiscent of the buildup to the invasion of Iraq, with Pahlavi possibly assuming the role of Iraqi exile opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi, a favorite of neoconservatives. Like Chalabi, Pahlavi has good relations with several Jewish groups. He has addressed the board of the hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and gave a public speech at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and met with Jewish communal leaders.

Pahlavi also has had quiet contacts with top Israeli officials. During the last two years, according to a knowledgeable source, he has met privately with Prime Minister Sharon and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Israel’s Iranian-born president, Moshe Katsav.

In another parallel to the pre-invasion debate over Iraq, an intense policy battle is heating up between the State and Defense departments over what to do in Iran.

“The president, the vice president and, even more so, the Pentagon support regime change,” said a source who follows the internal debate closely. “But State does not want to meddle in Iran, so you have a big fight right now within the administration.”

As was the case during the Iraq debate, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol is leading the charge for a more aggressive policy on Iran. In the magazine’s May 12 issue, he wrote an editorial pushing for covert action and other steps to trigger regime change in Tehran.

Advocates of a more restrained policy note that American and Iranian officials meet regularly, but say that the disappointing performance of the reformist camp in Iran has undercut their efforts to promote American engagement with Iran.

“Some people at the Pentagon have concluded that the reformists are just mullahs with smiling faces and that regime change is the only way,” said Gary Sick, director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University and an advocate of engaging Iran. “They believe that Iran is ripe for revolution, but I think this is highly questionable.”

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputies Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith are known to support regime change, although they have been much less vocal about Iran than Iraq.

At a lower level, two sources said, Iran expert Michael Rubin is now working for the Pentagon’s “special plans” office, a small unit set up to gather intelligence on Iraq, but apparently also working on Iran. Previously a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East policy, Rubin has vocally advocated regime change in Tehran. He did respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Intelligence sources have complained about what they describe as the tendency of the secretive office to color intelligence on Iraq according to its hard line. “The office of special plans has been interviewing people and gathering intelligence on Iran in order to be ready to support democracy,” a hawkish source said. “They have spent much more time doing that than the State experts on Iran.”

Meanwhile, in Congress, Democrat Rep. Tom Lantos of California is sponsoring a resolution supporting the people of Iran against the regime. Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has introduced an amendment that would set aside $50 million to fund Iranian opposition television and radio stations in Los Angeles — most of which promote a restoration of the shah’s monarchy — as well as human rights and pro-democracy groups.

Supporters of the shah’s son, Pahlavi, have been supporting Brownback’s amendment, know as the Iran Democracy Act. So has the main pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“We support efforts to encourage the people of Iran to cut the regime’s ties to terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” said Rebecca Dinar, a spokeswoman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. While Morris Amitay, a former Aipac director and active hawk on Iran, told the Forward that it would only be natural for Jewish groups to openly back regime change in Iran, most prefer to keep a low profile on this issue.

For example, Pahlavi was slated to meet Iranian Jewish members of Aipac at the group’s annual conference this spring. But Aipac officials, worried that it could be seen as inappropriate, scuttled the plan, two sources said.

“The Jewish groups are telling Reza that they will give him private support and help arrange meetings with U.S. officials,” one of the sources said.

Iranian Jewish groups are playing a key role in forging the relationship. The Iranian Jewish Public Affairs Committee’s Dayanim, a regular contributor to the National Review Online, has been one of the most active hawks. He argued that support for Pahlavi among Iranian Americans may have less to do with deep pro-monarchist feelings than with his status as the most recognizable opposition figure among immigrants.

Still, Dayanim acknowledged that many Iranian Jews were “in love with Pahlavi” because they see his father’s reign as a golden era for Jews. Pahlavi has expressed support for democracy while calling for a referendum restoring the monarchy.

One key Pahlavi supporter who has become popular in Iranian American circles is former Reagan administration official Michael Ledeen, now a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

In numerous addresses and articles, Ledeen has been arguing that the mullah regime is on the brink of collapse and that the time has come for Washington to push it over the edge. He has joined with Amitay, ex-CIA head James Woolsey, former Reagan administration official Frank Gaffney, former Senator Paul Simon and oil consultant Rob Sobhani to set up a group called the Coalition for Democracy in Iran. Several of them took part May 6 in a one-day American Enterprise Institute conference titled “The Future of Iran.” During the event, Ledeen argued that help from outside actors was needed to help ignite revolutionary changes in Iran.

While Ledeen has not called for military action, some of his declarations appear to suggest that aggressive action could be taken.

Last month, Ledeen gave a speech to a pro-monarchist crowd in Los Angeles. In the question-and-answer session, he reportedly said that with $20 million, there could be a “free Iran” — and that he knew how best to use the money.

Ledeen, who was involved in the Iran-contra scandal but never charged, declined comment.

Asked about the possibility of covert action, a member of the Pentagon-linked Defense Policy Board answered with one word: “maybe.” He refused to elaborate.

You will not have failed to note the involvement of the execrable Michael Ledeen, yet again.

memorialize this

[click image, video, hour and a half]

Maeve just linked me to this, and what I usually do if I think I'm going to watch it is use the download function, when available, to save on the RAM usage it takes to watch the whole thing on Google Video. And they generally play better in Quicktime, and I imagine Windows Media Player, too, than online. So I haven't seen this yet, but think from just the start of it that it's pertinent for this holiday, and will be watching it before the day is out.

I have preferred to spend my entire Memorial Day Weekend memorializing time soaked in Ghassan Kanafani's Letter From Gaza... a man worth memorializing, but find today, also from Maeve's email, that there is a particularly disturbing Letter To Gaza dropping from the sky half a world away. More of us need to be thinking about the enlightened heroes killed by the greedy plutocrats' armies full of very badly deluded heroes just now. I love the men and women who gave their lives to protect me and the future of our nation, but that wasn't the purpose of putting them in harm's way, turning them into martyrs for fairy tales against martyrs for true humanity. I love them, and I weep for them, but it is time to point out certain realities not even the selflessness of our troops can obscure.

Egypt let the Hope Convoy into Gaza just a while ago.