soupy says

The Talking Heads, “Life During Wartime (Live)”

Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons,
packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway,
a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstore, lived in the ghetto,
I’ve lived all over this town

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain’t got time for that now

Transmit the message, to the receiver,
hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
you don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading,
everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime,
I might not ever get home

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no mudd club, or C. B. G. B.,
I ain’t got time for that now
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peant butter,
to last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no
headphones, ain’t got no records to play

Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard,
I can’t write nothing at all
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
I’d like to kiss you, I’d love you hold you
I ain’t got no time for that now

Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock,
we blended with the crowd
We got computer, we’re tapping pohne lines,
I know that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives,
or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now,
I don’t know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender,
we make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving,
you ought to get some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions,
then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day,
whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are
notebooks? They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace,
the burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness,
don’t want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don’t take no chances,
you better watch what you say

Also, on this Memorial Day, ditch the magnetic ribbon, and support the troops.

The horrific celebrity stalker rag US Magazine has a feature called “Just like US!” The magazine points out, with photographic evidence, that celebrities are indeed human beings: “They hail a cab - Just like US!”

I am shamelessly stealing their phrase to provide evidence that Mongolia, a developing Asian nation, is really no different than the good ole US of A.

The Mongolian government montiors the press’s phone calls.

Last Thursday, if you called the MM News Agency at /97611/ 300771, your conversation would have been heard by somebody in a room of the financial collection department of the Public Radio and Television. This blatantly illegal act of wiretapping was done under the order of N.Altanzul, chief of the department.
The department was listening in to the number to gather information that might help it impose some control over the agency, according to Altanzul

Just like US!

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

“It’s time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,” the source told us in an in-person conversation.

The difference between Mongolia and the US? The Mongolian government discontinued their monitoring after three days.

From a May 3, 1998 Washington Post Article by Barton Gellman,“‘Impressed’ Albright Gets a Taste of the New Mongolia”

A country mad about horse racing, archery and wrestling turned out to be fertile ground for Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America” during the 1996 election here.

The International Republican Institute, an arm of the congressionally financed National Endowment for Democracy, brought the authors to Ulan Bator to help draft a “Contract With the Mongolian People” for the leaders of the Democratic Union, the governing coalition.

The contract called for private property rights, a free press and foreign investment, and its printing of 350,000 copies made it the most widely distributed document in Mongolian history.

The Democratic Party in Monoglia only held power between 1996 to 2000. The ex-communist party, Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, has controlled the government before 1996 (since the pull out by the Russians) and since 2000.

From a Winter 2002/2003 issue of The Mongolia Times

The rush by Mongolian democrats to embrace the free market has caused US conservatives to see this country of steppes, taiga and desert, as the bright shining light of developing-world capitalism. The International Republican Institute, the Republican wing of the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, has an office in Ulan Bator to train local politicians. With their encouragement, the young democratic reformers have launched a sweeping privatisation programme - though it has since stalled - and introduced a bill for a 30 per cent flat tax, the dream of US Republicans such as Steve Forbes.

Officials from the Soros Foundation, the International Monetary Fund, the Asia Foundation, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, the World Bank and other international organisations have descended on Mongolia to nurse it through shock therapy. The prognosis is mixed. A recent USAID report suggested that financial sector aid programmes might actually be hindering modernisation as they have helped bankrupt banks to find ways to stay afloat.

Cheney’s Aide Says President Approved Leak

Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff testified that he was authorized by President Bush, through Mr. Cheney, in July 2003 to disclose key parts of what until then was a classified prewar intelligence estimate on Iraq, according to a new court filing.

The testimony by the former official, I. Lewis Libby Jr., cited in a court filing by the government made late Wednesday, provides an indication that Mr. Bush, who has long criticized leaks of secret information as a threat to national security, may have played a direct role in authorizing disclosure of the intelligence report on Iraq.

—

By Mr. Libby’s account to the grand jury, the presidential authorization to disclose selective parts of the intelligence estimate was made in advance of a meeting on July 8 between Mr. Libby and Ms. Miller. Mr. Libby brought a brief abstract of the N.I.E.’s key judgments to the meeting.

Mr. Libby testified, the prosecutors said, that he was “specifically authorized in advance of the meeting to disclose the key judgments of the classified N.I.E. to Miller on that occasion because it was thought that the N.I.E. was ‘pretty definitive’ against what Ambassador Wilson had said and that the vice president thought that it was ‘very important’ for the key judgments of the N.I.E. to come out.”

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that journalist Jill Carroll was released after almost three months of being held hostage.

Her release was announced during “Good Morning America” on March 30th. With the announcement, the video described in this article was shown. Charlie Gibson said it was an interview for a Bagdad Television station. There was no commentary on the fact that Jill said she was “not threatened.” Well, there was no commentary except exclamations of “She’s alive!”
Oops:

I also gave a TV interview to the Iraqi Islamic Party shortly after my release. The party had promised me the interview would never be aired on television, and broke their word. At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely. Out of fear I said I wasn’t threatened. In fact, I was threatened many times.

There is also another video that she made her last night in captivity, and as you can imagine, it wasn’t exactly praising the US. As far as I know, this video has only appeared online. The blog world had a field day with these videos. If you want to know some details, this Right-Wing Nutcase sums up the whole situation quite nicely.

Although applied to a slightly different context, Speak Up, a graphic design blog, dubs America “Culture of the Quick.” Later is too late, and thus ABC News doesn’t think before airing a suspicious video, the blogger world gives a knee-jerk reaction to this video, and when I used to buy ice cream from the the student center, I would start eating it during my five minute walk back to my room.

—

I was about to hit send, but the Washington Post just sent me an email news alert: Rep. Tom DeLay isn’t seeking re-election. Hooray.

Note: I have mentioned my GMA viewing habits a couple of times. My mother watches this particular morning show. I usually catch some of it while chatting with her, drinking coffee, and making breakfast. You know, I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to think I actually watch it on my own.

quoted from East Timor Revisited: FORD, KISSINGER AND THE INDONESIAN INVASION, 1975-76. (emphasis added by me)

Background:

The Indonesian invasion of East Timor in December 1975 set the stage for the long, bloody, and disastrous occupation of the territory that ended only after an international peacekeeping force was introduced in 1999. President Bill Clinton cut off military aid to Indonesia in September 1999—reversing a longstanding policy of military cooperation—but questions persist about U.S. responsibility for the 1975 invasion; in particular, the degree to which Washington actually condoned or supported the bloody military offensive.

The goods:

Ford and Kissinger took great pains to assure Suharto that they would not oppose the invasion. Ford was unambiguous: “We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have.” Kissinger did indeed stress that “the use of US-made arms could create problems,” but then added that, “It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self defense or is a foreign operation.” Thus, Kissinger’s concern was not about whether U.S. arms would be used offensively—and hence illegally—but whether the act would actually be interpreted as such—a process he clearly intended to manipulate.(26) In any case, Kissinger added: “It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly.”

Indeed, timing and damage control were very important to the Americans, as Kissinger told Suharto: “We would be able to influence the reaction in America if whatever happens happens after we return. . . If you have made plans, we will do our best to keep everyone quiet until the President returns home.” Kissinger also asked Suharto if he anticipated a “long guerilla war,” apparently aware that a quick military success would be easier to spin than a long campaign. Suharto acknowledged that there “will probably be a small guerilla war” but he was cagey enough not to predict its duration. Nevertheless, his military colleagues were optimistic; as one of the architects of Indonesian policy, General Ali Murtopo explained to a U.S. scholar some months before the invasion, “the whole business will be settled in three weeks.”(27)

The following links were taken from the website The Revealer:

Wall Street columnist gives up being “not a lady” for Lent.

“You are embarrassing the angels.” This is what I intend to say for the next 40 days whenever I see someone who is hurting the culture, hurting human dignity, denying the stature of a human being. I mean to say it with belief, with an eye to instruction, but also pointedly, uncompromisingly. As a lady would. All invited to join in.

I guess I am not a lady.
—
Have you ever bought a pizza from Domino’s? Then you helped to create this.

If Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

Florida is a scary place.
—
File this under big fucking surprise.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. sent a note to Dr. James C. Dobson, the influential Christian conservative, thanking him for his support and vowing that “as long as I serve on the Supreme Court, I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me,” Dr. Dobson said Wednesday in a radio broadcast.

Yeah, he’s in there for life.

It’s nice to see that renaming food for propagandic purposes knows no borders.

Man, I wish the US Navy had recruitment videos like this. (video link)

US Plans Massive Data Sweep

It would collect a vast array of corporate and public online information - from financial records to CNN news stories - and cross-reference it against US intelligence and law-enforcement records.

Unhappy about this? Well, let “The Daily Show” prove you wrong. In this classic clip, Stephen Colbert shows us how the curtailing of our civil liberties doesn’t have to be oppressive.