Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of the World War I battle of Passchendaele: a horror in which 3/4 of a million soldiers were killed.

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), one of the WWI poets, wrote this, not about Passchendaele particularly, but about that war — and all other wars.

AFTERMATH

HAVE you forgotten yet?…
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days
Like traffic checked a while at the crossing of city ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heavens of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare
But the past is just the same,—and War’s a bloody game….
Have you forgotten yet?…
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz,-
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,—
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, “Is it all going to happen again?”

Do you remember that hour of din before the attack,—
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads, those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet?…
Look up, and swear by the green of the Spring that you’ll never forget.

RED DAVE

August 1, 2007 - Wednesday

1586 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3651
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 26953

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68038
(MAXIMUM): 74435
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $448,192,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

I-35W Bridge Collapse Into Mississippi River

Not terrorism.

But really bad shit.

RED DAVE

August 2, 2007 - Thursday

1586 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3659
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27104

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68038
(MAXIMUM): 74435
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $448,477,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

The avocado fruit makes no sense from the avocado plant’s point of evolutionary view. After all, why have a nutrient-rich, yummy mix of vitamin-filled flesh if that all gets eaten up by fruit flies when it sits on the jungle floor after falling off the avocado tree? The big seed in the middle is really the only thing left after the fruit flies are done. So why doesn’t the avocado plant just grow the big seed in the middle? The answer: God’s plan. As with so many other fruits, the avocado is delicious, showing an alignment with our taste buds that can only be explained by design. It provides fat stores for humans and essential other nutrients. Then, when a human is done with it, all he needs to do is to plant it and grow another plant, which makes more food! This is a design made for people. The evolutionist view of it makes no sense. The avocado is proof god exists.

In my writing about the upcoming Raw Spirit Festival, which will be attended by Dennis Kucinich and at which Elizabeth is giving a keynote speech, I’ve come across some strange and shady characters, hucksters who go even further than selling snake oil. Some, like Jasmuheen, make money by convincing people that they don’t need to eat food in order to get nutrition.

One thing that Jasmuheen has in common with a lot of the speakers at Raw Spirit Festival is that she doesn’t use her real name. She insists upon being called Jasmuheen, even though her real name is Ellen Greve. I suppose that having someone named Ellen tell you that you can live on sunlight and prana energy is deemed less credible than if someone named Jasmuheen says the same thing.

An unusual number of people involved in Raw Spirit Festival are using aliases instead of their real names. Count the founder of the festival as among these. She calls herself Happy Oasis.

One of the name changers of Raw Spirit is Jameth Sheridan, who writes on his Health Force web site in an attempt to explain why he changed his name. He says he wanted to change his last name so that he could share a family name with his wife without forcing her into the patrilineal system of taking the last name he was born with. But why choose the name Sheridan? That’s not at all clear. “After much consideration, the name that felt the most right was Sheridan. This name has personal meaning for both of us,” says Jameth, ambiguously.

What about Jameth? Well, that’s almost his given name. Jameth was born with the name James, and “did call himself “James” briefly; a fine name indeed, but it did not fit for him. Thus, the name “Jameth” was born.”

I’m confused by this half-explanation. Why would the name Jameth fit this man better than the name James? Is it just that Jameth wanted to seem a bit more exotic?

What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but if we renamed roses “celestial sky love blossoms”, most of us couldn’t bring ourselves to talk about it without feeling silly.

Why have so many people involved in Raw Spirit Festival chosen to change their names or use pseudonyms for the sake of the business related to Raw Spirit? There isn’t anything necessarily sinister about a pseudonym. Ann Landers was not the real name of the advice columnist. Still, I’m left wondering what brings so many people with cooked names to a Raw Spirit conference. I’m assuming that Elizabeth Kucinich will be speaking under her legal name, and not as Redwood Aura.

August 3, 2007 - Friday

1588 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3665
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27104

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68172
(MAXIMUM): 74575
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $448,889,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

August 4, 2007 - Saturday

1589 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3665
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27104

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68347
(MAXIMUM): 74753
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $449,065,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

My friends who do not believe often bring up war as proof that God does not exist. How can a just and loving God allow wars to happen, with all their death and destruction? they ask. Well, I don’t know if you haven’t noticed before now, but death and destruction happen all the time. People die, things rot. It’s part of the circle of life. How they die is important, though. If everybody lives to old age and dies in bed, there’s no useful winnowing process. But if we have wars, the stronger of spirit and body survive, making us stronger. From the point of view of simple evolutionist survival, war does not make sense, because it reduces the number of the species. Evolution cannot explain why war is here. Only if we are living part of God’s plan to make us stronger does war make sense. War proves that God exists, because it shows that there is a plan larger than us, larger than we can understand.

Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and resurrected by the power of God, to save you. Jesus loves you. Jesus wants to save you. Jesus wants you to have eternal life. Jesus is the doorway to Heaven. But you must step through.

“For God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Look in your heart. Deep down, you know you live a life of sin. Do you want to be saved? There is a way: pray this simple sinner’s prayer and mean it with all your heart.

“Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner, I believe that Jesus died for my sins, I repent of my sins, and trust Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Thank you Lord Jesus for saving me. Amen.”

You will be amazed to see how differently the world appears from the other side of the door. Trust in Jesus with all your heart and His grace will fall upon you.

August 4, 2007 - Sunday

1590 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3665
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27104

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68441
(MAXIMUM): 74862
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $449,346,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

August 6, 2007 - Monday

1591 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3670
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27104

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68495
(MAXIMUM): 74927
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $449,690,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

Today is the 62nd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

HIROSHIMA HAIKU

Swallows
coming again and flying
not forgetting Hiroshima

Swings—
nowhere are they to be found
in the A-bomb park

RED DAVE

It’s a fascinating theory, this idea that the Protect America Act was rushed through to protect a Total Information Awareness program. It provokes questions, and reconsiderations of some moments in Bush Administration history.

The question that comes into my mind is this: Given what we know about the tenacity with which the Bush White House has held onto its powers, no matter now outrageous the claims to power are, how likely is it that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Alberto Gonzales just relinquished the Total Information Awareness program, as they appeared to do at the time, back in 2002? Not likely at all. It’s just not in the character of the Bush White House.

In fact, as was pointed out a while ago here, the Total Information Awareness program never died. It just went underground in the National Security Agency.

Oh, connection! The National Security Agency is where the alleged warrantless wiretapping that the Protect America Act is supposed to legalize was taking place.

The question that now rests most heavily upon my mind is this: How do we test the hypothesis? What are some of the pieces of information that would prove or disprove it?

Barring that, what are some of the pieces of information that would strengthen the Hepting v. AT&T hypothesis, without going so far as to prove it?

As I look at the issue of the possible relationship between a new Total Information Awareness program in the National Security Agency and the sudden urgency with which the Protect America Act was passed, the thing that piques my interest is the timeline of events.

I searched Google News for information related to FISA. Before July 25, I find nothing much. There’s nothing from the Bush Administration about an urgent need to “reform” FISA in order to expand the authority of Alberto Gonzales to spy against Americans. Zilch. When FISA is mentioned, it’s in articles that slam Bush and Cheney, or call for the impeachment of Alberto Gonzales.

On July 22 and 23, the only articles you’ll read about FISA have to do with the FISA World Rowing Championship for people under the age of 23 in Scotland. There’s no push at all from the White House to reform FISA. No urgency. No special terrorist threat. No need for new legislation.

Then, all of a sudden, on July 25, that changes. On July 25, United Press International publishes an article saying that Congressman John Boehner, out of the blue, is supporting a bill introduced on July 24 by Republican Heather Wilson that was like the first draft of the Protect America Act. It’s H.R.3138, given the cumbersome title: To amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to update the definition of electronic surveillance.

Electronic surveillance, huh? What else happened on July 24 to do with electronic surveillance? Oh, yes - U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker issued a ruling saying that the government’s effort to stop a lawsuit by the state governments of Connecticut, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey and Vermont, demanding had no merit… except for possibly the claim that state secrets were at stake, and that claim would be judged in the August 15 hearing. Those 5 states were seeking information about how the privacy of their citizens had been violated by telephone companies like AT&T, in collaboration with the NSA.

Judge Vaughn Walker refuses to kowtow to the Bush White House, the case is going forward, and Judge Walker announces that he will make a decision about whether what the Bush team calls “state secrets” can be revealed on August 15.

Boom! All of a sudden, it’s a full court press by the Bush White House saying that Alberto Gonzales must be given new spy powers… exactly the kind of spy powers it is alleged in the states’ lawsuit that he is already using. Furthermore, George W. Bush insists, mysteriously, that Alberto Gonzales must be given the new spy powers, which include the power to keep all information related to the spying sealed and secret, before Congress goes into its August recess. September will be too late, Bush says.

George W. Bush, who never met an August vacation during the War On Terror that he didn’t like, all of a sudden insists that if Congress doesn’t give Alberto Gonzales exactly the spy powers that Bush says Gonzales needs, he will call a special session of Congress to force them to pass the Protect America Act, not in September, but in early August.

I don’t see a smoking gun. There is no memo I have seen that says “We need to get the Protect America Act passed, because Judge Walker’s decision will force us at that hearing on August 15th to reveal our giant computer database spying program gathering the personal details of Americans’ habits on the Internet.” However, I see a gun, and not too far away from it, I see a wisp of smoke rising into the air. Maybe someone was smoking, or burning incense, but it looks mighty funny to me.

August 7, 2007 - Tuesday

1592 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3679
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27104

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68747
(MAXIMUM): 75194
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $449,972,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

THE ARCHITECTS OF WAR: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

President Bush has not fired any of the architects of the Iraq war. In fact, a review of the key planners of the conflict reveals that they have been rewarded — not blamed — for their incompetence.

Featuring:

PAUL WOLFOWITZ
DOUGLAS FEITH
STEPHEN HADLEY
RICHARD PERLE
ELLIOT ABRAMS
SCOOTER LIBBY
JOHN HANNAH
DAVID WURMSER
ANDREW NATSIOS
DAN BARTLETT
MITCH DANIELS
GEORGE TENET
COLIN POWELL
DONALD RUMSFELD
CONDOLEEZZA RICE
DICK CHENEY
GEORGE W. BUSH

Read how your favorite war criminal is doing. Find out their “Role In Going To War.” Find out “Where He [or She] Is Now” And get a “Key Quote.”

RED DAVE

As I have been reading many of the articles here at Irregular Times about the Protect America Act and the associated programs at the NSA to spy on our activity on the Internet, I have been asking myself one question over and over: How can we live under this constant surveillance by our government?

Our email is being read. Our telephone calls are being listened to. Where we go and what we do on the Internet is being recorded.

How can we do anything when we know that our words and actions are all being recorded, to be used against us at some future date by our own government?

I didn’t come up a good answer to that question, until I realized it was the wrong question. Here’s the right question for us to ask ourselves in these times: How, when the government is constantly watching and recording us using the Internet, should we respond?

The idea that we would respond to government spying against us on the Internet by withdrawing, pulling back into our private lives, in our own homes, huddled away from the telephone and the computer for fear of the prying eyes and long ears of Alberto Gonzales, is exactly the kind of reaction the right wingers would love. They would love for us to withdraw from political activism. They would love for us to be afraid.

So, I think that the best response to the Protect America Act is to go on doing things just as we have in the past. We keep on speaking up. We keep on living, and expanding our lives online. We refuse to be afraid.

The Internet levels the playing field. It’s no wonder that people like George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales want to abuse it, and tarnish it with the stain of constant suspicion.

Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Keep on.

August 8, 2007 - Wednesday

1593 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3680
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27104

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 68747
(MAXIMUM): 75194
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $450,194,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE