RIP Benazir Bhutto

The Pakistani newspaper guys at Bulls Head were holding a printout of the BBC report about body parts and shredded clothes. They had tears in their eyes and not much to say. You couldn't call it unexpected.

Benazir Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest before the suicide bomb attached to the shooter exploded, taking him to his just rewards.
Simply Left Behind cuts to the quick with an inbox notice asking "why are we allied with a terrorist?;" echoed over blogtopia (tm skippy,) this news rolls over us; a capper on a pretty horrific year.

International affairs are messy, you know? messy enough for Herr Bush to interrupt his holiday at the ranch in Crawford to make a statement. That's all we need....why cant he just shut the fuck up? Considering that Bushco is expected to stay aligned with Musharraf....oh well....Any idea that we had put forth about our middle east policy being about democracy has fallen by the wayside. Elections will be suspended and the country will, no doubt, be held under martial law. Bush, thankfully, hasn't got that much to say at this point, which may be the smartest thing that has come out of the White House in a while.

Bhutto represented hope for the region, and some sort of idealistic leadership for the world. She was imperfect, and held up to scrutiny for what might have been her mistakes, but she was selfless and courageous in the face of her desire for a progressive Pakistan.

This calls into question the safety of all leaders who represent change in this world. How many more visionary leaders are there left in the world willing to put themselves on the line? Who else wants to face down an army or look sideways at the crowd waiting for someone to pull a gun? The ones who stand up and march towards danger in the interest of greater ideals for humanity deserve the protection of all of us. Why is it that we tend to end up supporting the bad side of these things? How much longer can we continue to label our aims in the Middle East as democratic or humanitarian in any way?

Regardless of the amount of aid that we have pumped into his administration, Musharraf did not set up the necessary democratic infrastructure for any idea that has been put forth to be successful in the region. No matter how much "support" we throw his way he is not going to use it in a way that will allow the country to go forward. This guy is a dictator and Pakistan is a force to be reckoned with; they do have a nuclear weapon and they do represent a threat to the world. I say that as someone who strongly believes that these issues must be policed by the United Nations. We have proved beyond a doubt that any one country acting on its own in world matters such as this cannot succeed.

Zbignew Brezinsky called in to his daughter Mika on MSNBC this morning, and simply, clearly stated that we can't possibly expect to meddle in the complex affairs of countries that are so far away physically and from the realm of understanding of an administration with such a narrow world view, and not have these sorts of things happen. The situation is so much more complex than we have treated it, and the days of throwing money and weapons at one side or another are long gone...long gone, with the radical ideals of an insecure country that offers little in the way of a life, and the promise of a better reward in heaven....almost like the rapture, huh?

Ann Curry, who recently interviewed Bhutto for MSNBC, said that Bhutto had wanted to restore power to politicians in regions of Pakistan that had been suppressed. She was anti-extremist and wanted to give rights to the people; she wanted to save Pakistan by saving democracy there. Bhutto publicly named extremist leaders who were working against the better interest of an inclusive and progressive Pakistan society. When asked why she would give up her comfortable life to jump back into the dangerous political fray, Bhutto said that it was just that she loved Pakistan and wanted to make it a better place. She looked into the eyes of the people and that was the answer for her. The joy and hope of the people who greeted her upon her return was enough proof for her that the struggle that she was driven to was the right thing to do; anything beyond that was unimportant.

RIP Benazir Bhutto. The world will sorely miss you .

Paul Krugman on Terror Doctors....And the Hard Cold Terror of Just Trying To Live in These Very Strange Times....

I'm wondering if, in the unstable atmosphere of strange weather and hailstorms closing the airports, making the air thick, Skeletor predicting with his gut, if the chances are better that one of us will die because of a "terror doctor" plot or if we might not just die at the hands of an overwhelmed and screwed up health care system that regularly wont pay for basic needs and that wont allow even for a skeleton crew in most hospitals.
Try to get a nurse to come and help you in the middle of the night at any major metropolitan hospital. My experience is something like this: "Help, my grandfather fell on the floor!"...a nurse running by says "I have patients who are crying out for pain medications...you will just have to wait!" Its not their fault, but follow the money and realize that the the CEO of this not-for-profit is doing OK, just like the elite few all over the place.
Try to get a "private" aide to sit by a loved one's bed for $12 an hour or $112 for 24 hours, (of which they get just the stone cold minimum wage.) No one is available half the time and the ones who are do not speak great English and they are not certified to do more than hold the pee bottle in an emergency; forget lifting a patient.
And then look at how many people get infections and die in hospitals, and at home, and in waiting rooms, overworked and understaffed with people who mostly cant afford to live in the neighborhoods they serve, so travel a couple of hours to and from work, to make the minimum wage on contract so that they don't have to get health insurance (such as that is,) or overtime.
The doctors who go to school and get in debt are not the ones getting rich here...and they end up having to answer to the medical committees of insurance companies who second guess everything from the choice of which drug to prescribe to the necessity for surgery.

So, I am supposed to be AFRAID of the TERROR DOCTORS!! Is Fox news Shitting me?? Could they be serious? Well, yes, according to the National Review, among other Google finds, there is a social problem is some Islamic countries where they have overeducated their young people, and in response to underemployment of young professionals there is a jump in extremist religion...? And I'm sure that socially responsible countries could find ways in which to divert all of that training towards a lack of doctors in other parts of the world or whatever...but there is some sort of disconnect there and a growing disgruntled youth turning to extremism rather than revolution.

But, Couldn't this whole thing be just as easily terror pilots, terror dog walkers, terror taxi drivers?? If its not that doctors are the elite, trusted, wealthy members of society, then how do they slip through?

I see a larger social problem in that America is hated so much and these days...even the educated masses who maybe would have a shot at getting here and realizing the western dream, hate us!...and for such good reasons. We are not a force for good in our actions and our example of how to live and treat others and our planet is sorely lacking. The less success that we have had diplomatically and philanthropically around the world as a force for good, the more the problems of other societies have been directed this way, as hate for US! And not only that, we have then overtly acted so as to be a magnet for worse hate...and, we set no example anymore about ways that the lower classes can rise up and live in a better place, which was the founding plan...and, hell, if the whole lot of humanity on the fringes isn't back to the only hope being the afterlife.
After all, the afterlife seems to be all the our leader cares about...and when you put things in that stark of a light, and you offer no way out but that, then why not join a terror cell that promises a little extra in that area? Its sort of like investing in the only retirement fund you'll ever need!


Listen, if Terror Doctors were gonna do something to us, wouldn't they use their doctoring skills? Wouldn't they unleash some horrible sickness or corrupt vaccines or work their way into being in Cheney's medical brigade and....? oh, never mind. Why rise to a trusted level of society and then use crude instruments to do the deed?

Actually, I don't think that terrorism is the first refuge of scoundrels...probably religion is.. The corrupted forms of religion and all its various tentacles. It seems to be that whats largely going on is that religion has provided a path for the scoundrels to somehow dump all of the previous moral and ethical values that are such a struggle for humanity anyway...or what we were trying to be, back when there was art and philosophy. From Bush to Congress to a bunch of Doctors in London via the Middle east, all thats left is to somehow make their peace with their god and their family before ruining the world in one way or another. I'm not seeing much difference between the terrorists in our corporate world, government, and those roaming the streets of the world these days. Everyone wants to get to heaven and no one wants to look at the hard work of how to live out this life here.
Isn't it supposed to be that heavenly admittance is based on how you lived in this world of falsehoods and temptations? Isn't this the testing ground?...maybe its not...



Here is Krugman:

July 9, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Health Care Terror
By PAUL KRUGMAN

These days terrorism is the first refuge of scoundrels. So when British authorities announced that a ring of Muslim doctors working for the National Health Service was behind the recent failed bomb plot, we should have known what was coming.

“National healthcare: Breeding ground for terror?” read the on-screen headline, as the Fox News host Neil Cavuto and the commentator Jerry Bowyer solemnly discussed how universal health care promotes terrorism.

While this was crass even by the standards of Bush-era political discourse, Fox was following in a long tradition. For more than 60 years, the medical-industrial complex and its political allies have used scare tactics to prevent America from following its conscience and making access to health care a right for all its citizens.

I say conscience, because the health care issue is, most of all, about morality.

That’s what we learn from the overwhelming response to Michael Moore’s “Sicko.” Health care reformers should, by all means, address the anxieties of middle-class Americans, their growing and justified fear of finding themselves uninsured or having their insurers deny coverage when they need it most. But reformers shouldn't focus only on self-interest. They should also appeal to Americans’ sense of decency and humanity.

What outrages people who see “Sicko” is the sheer cruelty and injustice of the American health care system — sick people who can’t pay their hospital bills literally dumped on the sidewalk, a child who dies because an emergency room that isn’t a participant in her mother’s health plan won’t treat her, hard-working Americans driven into humiliating poverty by medical bills.

“Sicko” is a powerful call to action — but don’t count the defenders of the status quo out. History shows that they’re very good at fending off reform by finding new ways to scare us.

These scare tactics have often included over-the-top claims about the dangers of government insurance. “Sicko” plays part of a recording Ronald Reagan once made for the American Medical Association, warning that a proposed program of health insurance for the elderly — the program now known as Medicare — would lead to totalitarianism.

Right now, by the way, Medicare — which did enormous good, without leading to a dictatorship — is being undermined by privatization.

Mainly, though, the big-money interests with a stake in the present system want you to believe that universal health care would lead to a crushing tax burden and lousy medical care.

Now, every wealthy country except the United States already has some form of universal care. Citizens of these countries pay extra taxes as a result — but they make up for that through savings on insurance premiums and out-of-pocket medical costs. The overall cost of health care in countries with universal coverage is much lower than it is here.

Meanwhile, every available indicator says that in terms of quality, access to needed care and health outcomes, the U.S. health care system does worse, not better, than other advanced countries — even Britain, which spends only about 40 percent as much per person as we do.

Yes, Canadians wait longer than insured Americans for elective surgery. But over all, the average Canadian’s access to health care is as good as that of the average insured American — and much better than that of uninsured Americans, many of whom never receive needed care at all.

And the French manage to provide arguably the best health care in the world, without significant waiting lists of any kind. There’s a scene in “Sicko” in which expatriate Americans in Paris praise the French system. According to the hard data they’re not romanticizing. It really is that good.

All of which raises the question Mr. Moore asks at the beginning of “Sicko”: who are we?

“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.” So declared F.D.R. in 1937, in words that apply perfectly to health care today. This isn’t one of those cases where we face painful tradeoffs — here, doing the right thing is also cost-efficient. Universal health care would save thousands of American lives each year, while actually saving money.

So this is a test. The only things standing in the way of universal health care are the fear-mongering and influence-buying of interest groups. If we can’t overcome those forces here, there’s not much hope for America’s future.

On to the Bomb Plots...

I understand that we are all nervous and hot and furious at MSNBC and M-Ann Coulter for being ...just being... (oh wait...thats me...well, maybe not just me...) But this whole London bomb thing is just too much...Please, give me a break!! I have been crazy busy and half dead, running around, and unable to really keep up with all of this, but I did hear alot of Main $tream Media on this , and I heard a little of the fringy side of whats left of Air America, when the wind is blowing the right way and the signal isn't too fuzzy. I also just did a Google search and scan of the international print to try to get the story on this, and as far as I can tell, this is all a whole lot of nothing except a big hello and a confirmation, if we needed any further, of how wrong we were to start this Iraq thing, and how wrong we would be to start with Iran. We are fighting them over there so they wont come here, like the surge is working; its not, and thats the deal here. But to say that this has anything to do with any particular organized group is just not supported by anything I'm seeing.
Its really our responsibility; even those of us who are busy shopping at the mall, to try to tease the truth out here, because we are into something that we are not likely to be able to recover from. And this thing is going to reverberate on our grandkids and beyond if we don't step up and take some individual responsibility for what is being done in our names.

Terrorism isn't just Al Qaeda, any more than its just in Iraq, Iran, or London (and now Scotland for that matter.) It is everywhere, and we are widely hated everywhere, thanks to Bushco.
So here we are folks...We're so far into this thing, and getting in further is not working. The failed surge continues to inflame the growing number of real terrorists here and all over the world, and we are likely stuck in this farce of a plan until next spring. The state of society and the lack of and cuts in social programs are inflaming the wannabe terrorists; and its a wide field! How does that grab you?
Last night I watched in disbelief as "chief investigative correspondent" Brian Ross of ABC spouted all sorts of nonsense about this London thing having the "mark" of Al Qaeda. In what world would Al Qaeda ever make such a lame bomb that failed so completely, alerting the police to itself by it's smoke output? The numerous reports saying that the thing was made so poorly as to be only capable of burning the car up, and that it lacked any sort of projectiles, completely contradict everything that is being said in the M$M, except for a tip of the hat by the NY Times which says the following (my emphasis:)

(British Police)...hunted for suspects linked to what appeared to be a double car-bombing plot modeled on terrorist tactics in Iraq.

Counterterrorism experts suggested, however, that the bombers who abandoned two explosives-laden Mercedes sedans in central London may have been what a senior Western official called “less directed from Al Qaeda and more a matter of a home-grown group.”

Several experts and officials said the technology behind the foiled bombings seemed to be amateurish.

But then it goes on to say that IF...IF...IF it turns out to be an unknown cell (the cell that couldnt shoot straight no less!) then it will be a big worry for Scotland Yard.
Give me a break!
I'm sorry that some disgruntled whoevers, maybe even Muslims or some terrorist group somewhere, have tried again to blow something up, but the state of things has been such that who can blame anyone for going crazy?
As a matter of fact, when I hear the newsguys go on about this crap in lockstep, trying to scare us into thinking that we have to be on the alert, I feel like my head might explode! Does that make me an Al Qaeda cell?
Just call me a stem cell, OK? I'm all full of possibility, and some of it may not be all that great, with how I'm feeling. ("...I hope you never get well...!")








I just got back from NYC where its common now to see uniformed soldiers with big guns and bigger German Shepards walking around, lounging around, standing around, and joking around, just like it was a normal sorta thing to have tanks in your streets and soldiers at the stations checking papers! It appears clear to me that we are not safer by continuing in the Middle East...not at all. We need to tighten security at our borders and in our supply chains. We also need to start a diplomatic fix immediately, and get back to being a generous and helpful, (if manipulative,) nation, who really takes care of our own people.
The truth is that there is more danger right now from how disgruntled people are right here at home...the sub-groups who have been marginalized, like the Muslims in London, and the poor in general here, who have really not been properly integrated into the mainstream middle class, probably have no hope of it anymore, and have a clear line around them and where they belong....who can say if anything that anyone does is "inspired by" Al Qaeda, or just a copy of the carnage they've seen for years and born out of the desperation of knowing that there is no way out of the place where they are. Not everyone can just resign themselves to poverty and hopelessness without striking back.

So, until I see a picture of actual nails from the bomb(s,) and until some investigative reporting more thorough than the bullshit that ABC is dishing up, along with everyone else, I think I'm gonna have to return my Terra Alert icon back to yellow...OK? Chertov is keeping things at orange, because even HE can see that the threat is not to the "homeland." OK?

Scotland? Well, I don't know...that just happened...But it does seem to be alot of hoopla for a not too splashy ending. Real terra-ists don't just burn one car near where people are standing. And though the British police seem to think that this attack is connected to the foiled London cars...I'd like to know how they managed that conclusion, besides that both were pretty lame. Attached in lameness...That I can understand.

Ah, another day...another weekend...another bobblehead day tomorrow...another PJ Sauter Bobblehead Thread...and finally, another Sammy Seder Presents The Seder on Sundays Show: That which makes the week move faster...that which keeps me in ideas and outrage...that which is one of the very few intelligent discussions left on AAR.
How much longer till the Green, who takes no pains to limit himself to once a week in the media!...and oh dont I wish for a week without Green being considered a pundit worth hearing by anyone but his own greasy self in the mirror!