Why I say "ugh" on Kos

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Friday February 23, 2007 · 12:40 PM PST

2007/02/23 · 12:40

Congratulations, Kos. I've been reading and posting on this community since it began, and I've read many, many of your posts. Sometimes I disagreed with you, but I always found you to be reasonable, openminded and conscientious with your criticisms.

This is the first time I've seen such a vapid, dunderheaded, ill-considered, rancorous and sophomoric attack like the one you posted on Kucinich earlier today. Not only have you revealed a glimpse of your inner homonculus here, you've succeeded in lowering the bar of the whole debate. Look at the comments section--you've inspired nasty discussion with all the elegance and perspicacity of a schoolyard brawl. This is a disappointing contribution to dKos, and not just because I disagree with most of it. Rather, you fail to even consider what possible benefits a guy like Kucinich brings to the national debate, ideas that are so far out of the mainstream that the only response people of limited vision can muster are inarticulate groans -- "ugh." But the failure is yours, not his.

Crypsis

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Saturday January 13, 2007 · 1:32 PM PST

2007/01/13 · 13:32

David Kurtz today over at TPM ended a post regarding the Pentagon's effort to make public the names of laywers doing pro bono work for Guantanamo detainees:

The Administration has already done virtually everything possible to deny detainees any hope of justice. Encouraging boycotts of the law firms representing detainees is an effort to close off any last chance that the detainees will be treated in accordance with Anglo-American legal standards. Each of us will mark our own low point of the Bush presidency. This is on my short list.

Crypsis

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Wednesday November 22, 2006 · 3:36 AM PST

2006/11/22 · 03:36

One Ke Gendeng Pamungkas, an Indonesian shaman, reportedly cast a curse on George W. (as if he needed one) during the latter's recent Asia tour. It must have been a doozy; it required the blood of a goat, a snake and a crow.

Say what you will about the black arts. Since then, much ill luck has befallen the Bush house:

Crypsis

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Sunday September 10, 2006 · 3:43 PM PDT

2006/09/10 · 15:43

I was born and raised in New York. I lived a few blocks north of the Towers, a block off the West Side Highway. I had worked in the Towers, had eaten at Windows on the World. I now live in Hawaii, where it was almost 5:00 am when a good friend of mine called to tell me what was going on. Confused and groggy, I could barely understand what she was saying: turn on the t.v.

I did, just in time to see the second tower crumble. I didn't really know what I was looking at. Was it a drama? Was this the news? I stood in the shock and horror that all of us who were watching shared that morning; more so perhaps because I had lived near there, worked there, knew people there. Yet, either because I was sleepy or half a planet away, it still felt remote and unreal. Before that second tower even hit the ground, I knew that American life would be profoundly changed, though not in the way the newscasters and politicos, in their sober or half-hysterical intonings, said it would be. Read More

Perversity, Tinfoil Hats and 9/11

Crypsis

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Wednesday September 06, 2006 · 4:11 AM PDT

2006/09/06 · 04:11

The perversity of it still defies belief, though I've made every attempt to be unperturbably jaded by now. I just watched, again, Condi Rice's stuttering testimony to the 9/11 commission, during which Benveniste asked her to explain the August 6 2001 PDB entitled "Bin Laden determined to attack within the United States." And I just read the transcript of Bob Kerrey's interview with Paula Zahn, wherein he attacks the Bush administration for not acting to preempt a terrorist attack they should have seen coming. With all that's occurred since then, the leaked memos, the whistles blown, the insiders going public, the simplest explanation really stares one in the face. Read More

The "Safe Haven" fallacy - a rebuttal & sundry thoughts

Crypsis

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Monday August 21, 2006 · 3:17 PM PDT

2006/08/21 · 15:17

In his press conference today, Bush declared:

A failed Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will provide a safe haven for terrorists and extremists.

Since every other justification for the Iraq war has dissolved into the welcoming ether, I thought I'd take a crack at vaporizing the latest reason Bush offers for our continuing participation in one old school clusterf**k. And along the way I'd like to vent a little spleen.
Read More

Remember Al-Qaqaa? The Media Doesn't.

Crypsis

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Thursday August 17, 2006 · 5:24 PM PDT

2006/08/17 · 17:24

With the recent spate of bombs going off in Iraq, you'd think SOMEONE in the MSM or even here on the blogosphere would recall Al-Qaqaa (http://www.dkosopedia.com/...) to the fore. Today's NY Times article, "Bombs Aimed at G.I.'s Are Increasing," has already been excerpted and ably analyzed ad nauseam, but one paragraph bears another look:

Along with a sharp increase in sectarian attacks, the number of daily strikes against American and Iraqi security forces has doubled since January. The deadliest means of attack, roadside bombs, made up much of that increase. In July, of 2,625 explosive devices, 1,666 exploded and 959 were discovered before they went off. In January, 1,454 bombs exploded or were found....

Crypsis

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Monday July 31, 2006 · 12:36 PM PDT

2006/07/31 · 12:36

Lebanon is a lost opportunity to win hearts and minds in the middle east. It may have been this administration's last.

We [I use the pronoun only as a short-hand for US policymakers] could have made a small step to restoring our credibility and making ourselves politically and philosophically relevant in the region. This "crisis" really would have been an opportunity...had Israel responded with restraint or the US been willing to at least publicly try and talk Israel down from a full scale invasion. Read More

It's all YouTube's Fault! And the Internet! And Blogs! But not Bush's...

Crypsis

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Friday July 21, 2006 · 5:50 PM PDT

2006/07/21 · 17:50

On CNN's website just a few minutes ago, I read the following article, ripped from the AP and categorized as "offbeat news" about the backrub felt 'round the world.

http://www.cnn.com/...

The author makes the claim that Bush's invasion of Angela Merkel's personal space and her subsequent brush-off is being blown WAY out of proportion; there's nothing wrong with a friendly, statesman-like snuggle every now and then. The problem is with, of course, the Internets. Read More

Catching Coulter at Plagiarism: A Plan

Crypsis

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Monday June 12, 2006 · 4:30 PM PDT

2006/06/12 · 16:30

Recent allegations of Coulter plagiarizing the language of sources in her newest "book" (I use the term loosely, only because it has pages, print and a binding) have been recorded by Rude Pundit. He takes a couple of sentences from the first chapter of "Godless" and compares them to suspiciously similar passages from sources printed over thirty years ago.

Two sentences in the first chapter doesn't bode well for the rest of the book, but I have a plan if any Kossacks out there can help me...see below Read More

Sarah MacLachlan Makes Me Feel Bad for Having My Morning Latte

Crypsis

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Monday June 05, 2006 · 8:08 AM PDT

2006/06/05 · 08:08

But this video speaks for itself. It's a good song too. Check it out if you have 3 minutes.

http://worldonfire.ca/

It saddens me not because giving the kind of assistance to the poor she's doing is right and proper and I'm not doing enough; it saddens me more that no matter how much we can do, I fear it will never be enough to avert the environmental, economic, social and human disaster that we are now living through ("we" in the developed world far less so than the developing) and which will worsen before it improves. But it serves, if nothing else, as a reminder of how precious our good fortune is, and whatever else may be going on for us today...however angry some rightwing gasbag makes us, or whatever...that we are blessed.

If we can hold gratitude for our lives equally in our hearts to suffering for all sentient beings (including ourselves) then we can make a difference today, even if we "do" nothing.

A Pacifist's Agony

Crypsis

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Friday June 02, 2006 · 5:55 AM PDT

2006/06/02 · 05:55

I've always hated the term "war crime," since it's an insidious tautology. It implies that some wars are not crimes, and some of the atrocities committed during war are excusable by virtue of their context.

I believe that if there can be any single concept by which a civilization ought to be defined it's this: there is no context that can justify the intentional killing of a sentient being who does not wish it. Period.

Today is a special agony for a pacifist like me. Read More

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Why I say "ugh" on Kos

Bush's Worst Hits

Bad Luck or Shaman's Curse?

My 9/11

Perversity, Tinfoil Hats and 9/11

The "Safe Haven" fallacy - a rebuttal & sundry thoughts

Remember Al-Qaqaa? The Media Doesn't.

Lebanon: Bush Blows It

It's all YouTube's Fault! And the Internet! And Blogs! But not Bush's...

Catching Coulter at Plagiarism: A Plan

Sarah MacLachlan Makes Me Feel Bad for Having My Morning Latte

A Pacifist's Agony