miscellany

usasafi — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:24:23 +0000

So let’s get this straight. A US intelligence report decides that Iran isn’t as big a threat as once feared, and Bush decides this proves that, actually guys, I think you’ll find it is. You’ve got to admire his steadfast refusal to acknowledge anything that doesn’t complement his monochromatic world view. He’s a true tunnel visionary. Awkward facts simply ricochet off him, like peashooter pellets bouncing harmlessly from an elephant’s hide. He knows what he wants to believe, and he’ll carry on believing it until it kills him.

So Iran’s Not a Nuclear Threat Anymore? All the More Reason for Bush to Unleash Armageddon – The Guardian, 10 December 2007

usasafi — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:50:37 +0000

“He was such fun,” she says, brightening. “Just the most charismatic incredible man. A line in one of his songs says, ‘We’re alive – that’s the one.’ I mean, we’re alive. Each day was a celebration.” Has she been able to keep that sense of fun? “I think so. I mean, God there have been times when I’ve been utterly distraught, but today I can think of him with a smile and…” she trails off, smile still there, but too many words to fill the pause, and a train to catch back to Somerset.

Lucinda Mellor: My Life with Joe Strummer – The Independent, 8 December 2007

usasafi — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:21:17 +0000

The New York Times‘ revelation that “the Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody” conclusively demonstrates obstruction of justice which, if Michael Mukasey has an ounce of integrity or independence, will be the subject of a serious and immediate criminal investigation. While the revelation is obviously significant, it is also is part of a long-standing pattern of such obstruction.

‘Missing’ Evidence Is Familiar Bush Pattern – Glenn Greenwald’s blog in Salon, 7 December 2007

usasafi — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:40:52 +0000

The House on Thursday approved the biggest increase in vehicle fuel-economy standards since gasoline cost less than a dollar a gallon, in a sweeping energy bill that is headed for a showdown in the Senate and a possible veto from President Bush.

House Passes a Sweeping Energy Bill – LA Times, 7 December 2007

usasafi — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:41:02 +0000

Just months after U.S. Army troops whisked a German man from Pakistan to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002, his American captors concluded that he was not a terrorist.

“USA considers Murat Kurnaz’s innocence to be proven,” a German intelligence officer wrote that year in a memo to his colleagues. “He is to be released in approximately six to eight weeks.”

But the 19-year-old student was not freed. Instead, over the next four years, two U.S. military tribunals that were responsible for determining whether Guantanamo Bay detainees were enemy fighters declared him a dangerous al-Qaeda ally who should remain in prison.

Evidence of Innocence Rejected at Guantanamo – Washington Post, 5 December 2007

usasafi — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:05 +0000

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.

- Frederick Douglass

usasafi — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:58:21 +0000

Being an old maid is like death by drowning, a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle.

- Edna Ferber

usasafi — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:56:18 +0000

And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history; repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

usasafi — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:54:59 +0000

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

usasafi — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:53:09 +0000

From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were – I have not seen
As others saw – I could not bring
My passions from a common spring -
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow – I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone -
And all I lov’d – I lov’d alone -
Then – in my childhood – in the dawn
Of a most stormy life – was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still -
From the torrent, or the fountain -
From the red cliff of the mountain -
From the sun that round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold -
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d my flying by -
From the thunder, and the storm -
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view -

Alone – Edgar Allan Poe