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The Blogmanac: "On This Day" ... and much more
Think universally. Act terrestrially.
For in a hard-working society, it is rare and even subversive to celebrate too much, to revel and keep on reveling: to stop whatever you're doing and rave, pray, throw things, go into trances, jump over bonfires, drape yourself in flowers, stay up all night, and scoop the froth from the sea.
Anneli Rufus*
On this day in 2003, Colin Powell addressed the UN Security Council on Iraq and falsely said that a tape recording he held revealed that Osama bin Laden was pals with Saddam Hussein.
In fact, a translation showed that in the tape, bin Laden called for Hussein’s assassination, as reported in Wilson’s Almanac. The story hardly surfaced in the media.
Powell, the so called "White House dove" who oversaw the unnecessary death of many tens of thousands of Iraqis in the first Gulf War, excelled himself on September 27 later that year of 2003.
Powell publicly lied that the Clinton administration "conducted a four-day bombing campaign in late 1998 based on the intelligence that he [UNSCOM director, Richard Butler] had. That resulted in the weapons inspectors being thrown out."
In fact, Saddam Hussein, after having ceased to comply with UN weapons inspectors on October 31, had sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan offering to facilitate the inspections. UNSCOM was withdrawn by the US, not kicked out by Hussein (read more). Yet another story that you won't see much in the media.
Powell has an uncanny ability to maintain some sort of image as one of the good guys in the Bush regime. Worth thinking about.
Global warming due to massive amounts of hot air emanating from Washington, D.C.
[The State of the Union speech shouldn't have been surprising for its total lack of content and pure jabberwocky jibberish. We should be used to it by now. Here's a late January example that should have warmed us up. -v]
Bush's Unprecedented Attack on African Americans By James Ridgeway, Mondo Washington, The Village Voice
"We've got to shed ourselves of bigotry if we expect to lead by example," Bush said. "And I'll do the very best I can, as president, to make sure the promise—and I believe in the promise of America—is available for everybody."
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For four years Bush didn't meet with the Congressional Black Caucus and paid no heed to African Americans, except, of course, to repeat the Republican mantra of how terribly concerned we all are and how we just want to include you under the big Republican tent. But yesterday, reinvigorated by his election mandate, Bush called the caucus and fed them a line of bullshit.
Arguing that his "reforms," ranging from education to Social Security, will help blacks, he offered an insulting cliché: "Civil rights is a good education. Civil rights is opportunity. Civil rights is home ownership. Civil rights is owning your own business. Civil rights is making sure all aspects of our society are open for everybody." When you get past the rhetoric, Bush's ownership society amounts to an unprecedented attack on black people.
An article by Michael Lind (senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington) which was originally published in the Financial Times in January. I think it's even more interesting after the SOTU address.
"In a second inaugural address tinged with evangelical zeal, George W. Bush declared: 'Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world'. The peoples of the world, however, do not seem to be listening. A new world order is indeed emerging -- but its architecture is being drafted in Asia and Europe, at meetings to which Americans have not been invited.
"Consider Asean Plus Three (APT), which unites the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with China, Japan and South Korea. This group could become the world's largest trade bloc, dwarfing the European Union and North American Free Trade Association. The deepening ties of the APT member states are a big diplomatic defeat for the US, which hoped to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to limit the growth of Asian economic regionalism at American expense. In the same way, recent moves by South American countries to bolster an economic community represent a clear rejection of US aims to dominate a western-hemisphere free-trade zone.
"Consider, as well, the EU's rapid progress towards military independence. American protests failed to prevent the EU establishing its own military planning agency, independent of the Nato alliance (and thus of Washington). Europe is building up its own rapid reaction force. And, despite US resistance, the EU is developing Galileo, its own satellite network, which will break the monopoly of the US global positioning satellite system.
"The participation of China in Europe's Galileo project has alarmed the US military. But China shares an interest with other aspiring space powers in preventing American control of space for military and commercial uses. Even while collaborating with Europe on Galileo, China is partnering with Brazil to launch satellites. And in an unprecedented move, China recently agreed to host Russian forces for joint Russo-Chinese military exercises.
"The US is being sidelined even in the area that Mr Bush identified in last week's address as America's mission: the promotion of democracy and human rights ..."
Lava from Kilauea volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park enters the Pacific Ocean at dawn on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005, in Volcano, Hawaii. (AP Photo/David Jordan)
"In 1992, a year after the first Gulf War, I heard Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, say that the US had been wise not to invade Baghdad and get ‘bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq’. I heard him say: ‘The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is: not that damned many.’
"In February 2001, I heard Colin Powell say that Saddam Hussein ‘has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours.’
"That same month, I heard that a CIA report stated: ‘We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has used the period since Desert Fox to reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction programmes.’
"In July 2001, I heard Condoleezza Rice say: ‘We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.’
"On 11 September 2001, six hours after the attacks, I heard that Donald Rumsfeld said that it might be an opportunity to ‘hit’ Iraq. I heard that he said: ‘Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.’
"I heard that Condoleezza Rice asked: ‘How do you capitalise on these opportunities?’
"I heard that on 17 September the president signed a document marked top secret that directed the Pentagon to begin planning for the invasion and that, some months later, he secretly and illegally diverted $700 million approved by Congress for operations in Afghanistan into preparing for the new battle front.
"In February 2002, I heard that an unnamed ‘senior military commander’ said: ‘We are moving military and intelligence personnel and resources out of Afghanistan to get ready for a future war in Iraq.’
"I heard the president say that Iraq is ‘a threat of unique urgency’, and that there is ‘no doubt the Iraqi regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised’.
"I heard the vice president say: ‘Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.’
I heard the president tell Congress: ‘The danger to our country is grave. The danger to our country is growing. The regime is seeking a nuclear bomb, and with fissile material could build one within a year.’
"I heard him say: ‘The dangers we face will only worsen from month to month and from year to year. To ignore these threats is to encourage them. Each passing day could be the one on which the Iraqi regime gives anthrax or VX nerve gas or, some day, a nuclear weapon to a terrorist ally.’
"I heard the president, in the State of the Union address, say that Iraq was hiding materials sufficient to produce 25,000 litres of anthrax, 38,000 litres of botulinum toxin, and 500 tons of sarin, mustard and nerve gas.
"I heard the president say that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium – later specified as ‘yellowcake’ uranium oxide from Niger – and thousands of aluminium tubes ‘suitable for nuclear weapons production’.
"I heard the vice president say: ‘We know that he’s been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.’
"I heard the president say: ‘Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans, this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.’
"I heard Donald Rumsfeld say: ‘Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent. I would not be so certain.’
"I heard the president say: ‘America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof – the smoking gun – that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.’
"I heard Condoleezza Rice say: ‘We don’t want the “smoking gun” to be a mushroom cloud.’
"I heard the American ambassador to the European Union tell the Europeans: ‘You had Hitler in Europe and no one really did anything about him. The same type of person is in Baghdad.’
"I heard Colin Powell at the United Nations say: ‘They can produce enough dry biological agent in a single month to kill thousands upon thousands of people. Saddam Hussein has never accounted for vast amounts of chemical weaponry: 550 artillery shells with mustard gas, 30,000 empty munitions, and enough precursors to increase his stockpile to as much as 500 tons of chemical agents. Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical-weapons agent. Even the low end of 100 tons of agent would enable Saddam Hussein to cause mass casualties across more than 100 square miles of territory, an area nearly five times the size of Manhattan.’
"I heard him say: ‘Every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we’re giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.’
"I heard the president say: ‘Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas.’ I heard him say that Iraq ‘could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given’.
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror
by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3-- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.
"Today, the 1980s are remembered as the decade in which American strength and determination under the presidency of Ronald Reagan led to the final collapse of communism and the liberation of eastern Europe. Yet the world nearly paid a terrible price for Reagan's uncompromising stand against the 'evil empire' in the early 80s." Listen
Torn Curtain: The Secret History of the Cold War This is Part One of the radio doco series Torn Curtain:
"We all know now that the cold war ended, not with a bang, but the popping of champagne corks at the Berlin Wall. But since the collapse of communism, a whole secret history has emerged from the shadows.
"Since the crumbling of the Soviet Union, historians working in the former Soviet and eastern European archives have uncovered an extraordinary harvest of new insights into the cold war. At the same time, declassified documents from sources such as the CIA and the National Security Archive in the United States have revealed a similar hidden history. Complementing these sources on both sides of the Iron Curtain are the first-hand accounts of former spies, senior intelligence officials, politicians and diplomats.
"Torn Curtain synthesises these new insights into an alternative, iconoclastic narrative of cold war history – based on hard evidence from formerly secret sources. We lay some old cold war controversies to rest, and ignite new ones."
Amazing coincidence: Aussie housewife and cosmonaut
Every now and then you hear a true story that's just too, too remarkable.
An Australian woman, Maggie Iaquinto, from Colac, a country town in the state of Victoria, describes herself as a "housewife", but she also teaches at a technical college and is a whiz at ham radio. At the end of the 1980s as the Soviet Union was collapsing, she made radio contact with one of the Soviet cosmonauts on the MIR space station.
"Over a period of five years she spoke to 19 cosmonauts on ham radio and made history by establishing the first computer-to-computer civilian communication with a space station."
She formed a close online relationship with the one cosmonaut in particular, catching him for ten minutes a day as MIR flew over Colac, and later was invited to Houston to speak to an envious ham operators' club about her extraordinary experience. But that's not the amazing bit.
In 2004, also in Australia, unbeknown to Maggie was launched an opera that tells the story of a Soviet cosmonaut who, through radio contact with an Australian woman, learns about the fall of the USSR, and they fall in love. Apart from the falling in love part, the opera's story is an almost perfect match for what actually happened, though the opera's writers did not know about Maggie and the cosmonaut.
Maggie Iaquinto is an incredibly engaging interviewee and her story is one of the best I've heard for ages ... best of all because it's true.
Interesting piece on language and identity. And very interesting that the writer, when he talks about how we speak in Ireland, doesn't mention how heavily we are influenced by our native language, Irish (Gaelic) -- nor the fact that it is dying fast. My apologies for the long post, but the piece is "subscription only".
By Brendan Killeen, in The Irish Times.
"Letter from Copenhagen: Danish ducks "rap". That is to say that they do not "quack". Dogs don't "woof", they "vow". Cows "muu", pigs "øf", and so on. In an international marriage, this has surprising impacts. Old MacDonald is a minefield.
"Those animal picture books where you point at a picture and imitate the sound the animal makes are too contentious to be bothered with -- at least in the open. We take turns putting our son to bed so every second night. I can make 'quack-quack' sounds to my heart's content, albeit in a whisper.
"If the famous linguist Noam Chomsky is right, 'language provides a link to the character of our mental processes'. In other words, language and the way we use it says a lot about how we think and ultimately who we are. In this light, the battle to teach a child to say one thing rather than another reflects a bigger battle to imbue your child with your attitude and outlook.
"Danes speak literally. They also think logically. It's a dangerous combination. Ask a Dane if he can play a violin, the joke goes, and he will answer: 'I don't know, I haven't tried'. It's not a funny joke but that's the point -- this literal approach is maddening for non-Danes and results in the strangest conversations.
"'Have we got lights for the bikes?' I asked my wife recently after dinner at a friend's place. 'Yes', she replied. 'But they're at home.' I almost choked. Nobody else batted an eyelid. Why would they? It was a perfectly reasonable answer to a Dane. Imagine your child growing up like that!
"Unfortunately, as an Irishman, I don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to the use of language. We don't speak -- we communicate through a 'half-talk code of mysteries, the wink-and-elbow language of delight', as Kavanagh called it.
"'Will you have a cup of tea?' asks person A, putting the kettle on. 'No, I'm in a terrible hurry', says person B, taking off their coat. 'A half cup then', says person A. That conversation would make no sense to a Dane.
"To be fair, Chomsky himself might be confused with that one. On the other hand, I'm sure he would have lots to say about the political campaign that is in full swing here ahead of next Tuesday's general election.
"Despite involvement in the war in Iraq, immigration rather than nation-building abroad is the dominant topic. A central theme of the anti-immigration campaign is the presumption that the Danish language and ultimately Danish culture, are at risk as a result of 30 years of immigration, mostly from countries in the Middle and Far East.
"'To sprogede børn' -- or two-languaged children -- are the children of immigrants who speak Danish at school but resort to another language at home or with their friends. [Has he never heard the term "bilingual"? - N] Statistics are bandied about wildly as to how many of these children leave school without being either able to read or write Danish properly. The argument goes that 'to sprogede børn' are now so prevalent in Copenhagen that the standard of Danish is dropping generally in schools.
"It is difficult to back these statements up with hard facts but there is no doubt that some immigrants make little or no effort to blend in here. On the other hand, free language classes taking place across the country every night are packed to the rafters with desperate foreigners -- me among them -- trying to turn words spelt 'gade' (street) in to something that is pronounced 'gelh' or 'mad' (food) into something resembling 'melh'.
"Fighting the current election campaign on a mandate of forced 'culturalisation', several parties are promising to put more pressure on immigrants to speak Danish. Removing information in English from hospitals is just one of the options being mentioned. That may not only be extreme -- it may prove dangerous. Having said that, long-term residents here should learn the language.
"The problem is that some of these parties ultimately want to turn all immigrants into Danes.
"Even if every immigrant -- including me -- started speaking perfect Danish in the morning, it would only be a veneer of Danishness. I would still keep drinking half-cups of tea and -- in my head, at least -- ducks would keep quacking. In other words, we will never be Danish and our kids will be Danish with a twist. That doesn't mean they won't respect or indeed enhance Danish culture.
"Ireland, watch out, immigration is a fact of life and we can learn a lot from Denmark. Rather that attempting to reduce a rainbow of nationalities to a monotone of green, maybe we should consider adding a few tones to what it means to be Irish. The Danes will have to do something similar -- many people here just haven't realised it yet."
See also In defence of 'lost' languages at the BBC where Mark Abley says, "The point is that it's not just picturesque details that are lost if a language dies out, it's also a whole way of understanding human experience."
And when a language dies, its body of literature generally dies too.
Wired 13.02: Nuclear Now!: "Some of the world's most thoughtful greens have discovered the logic of nuclear power, including Gaia theorist James Lovelock, Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore, and Britain's Bishop Hugh Montefiore, a longtime board member of Friends of the Earth " Source: Wired
"ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan researchers have developed a faster, more efficient way to produce a wide variety of nanoparticle drug delivery systems, using DNA molecules to bind the particles together ...
"Nanoparticle complexes can be specifically targeted to cancer cells and are small enough to enter a diseased cell, either killing it from within or sending out a signal to identify it. But making the particles is notoriously difficult and time-consuming." Source: Science Daily
Good to see that something as on the edge as Outfoxed will air on a channel as mainstream as ABC, Australia's national broadcaster (taxpayer funded). Good onya, Auntie, that's really putting our 7 cents a day to good work.
For those still burdened with a telly, it's on tonight at 9:20 PM.
This thing is for sale at Amazon. I've always wanted to sell something like this so I've even put it on my own Amazon account. You must buy one -- I get 5% commission which I will spend on promoting peace, I promise.
"The JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank is an open-ended custom-made, Star-Wars-oid personal tank that carries up to five people at 40mph over sand. It comes with a giant 400w stereo and a camera for recording the reactions of the people you drive past. Only 20 grand!"
Irish Blogmanac team member Nora thinks it would be great for Sandy Beach visitors who salivate at the thought of running over crabs. The ones in the Caravanserai of Corpulence about which I wrote on January 9 in Sandy Beach Almanac (Crabstock: I came upon a crab of God).
I always recommend My Yahoo! to anyone who wants a start-up page. (For those to whom this word is a mystery, I simply mean the website that opens when you first click on the Internet Explorer icon, or whatever Web browser you use, when you connect to the Web.)
The beauty of My Yahoo! is that you can customize it very well and easily to have news, comics, a calculator, calendar and lots of other very useful features. Every day I use the Favorites list that I've built there. These are the pick of my Faves, many of which i use every day. Whenever I need them, I just click on the Explorer icon and up comes My Yahoo! with my bookmarks.
My Yahoo! has another feature I didn't know about till yesterday. As I explain at this page, you can add the headlines of Wilson's Blogmanac to your My Yahoo! quite easily. however, I didn't realise that once you do that, and then you will have an RSS module at the head of your page, if you click Edit you can add up to another 49 RSS feeds. I just hadn't been there, so I didn't know.
At the foot of Daily Planet News I have a list of links of news sources and RSS sources, if you want to do this; many progressive feeds, and even one for comics.
If you already have My Yahoo! and want Blogmanac headlines, simply click this link.
"It was the night a politican turned up at a rock concert – and the fans went wild.
"In a momentous musical tribute to the victims of Asia's tsunami disaster, Midnight Oil headlined the star-studded WaveAid concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground last night.
"Lead singer Peter Garrett, now the Labor member for Kingsford-Smith, relished the opportunity to perform, showing off his trademark antics including outstretched hand and manic dancing.
"Crowd members went berserk as the Oils belted out some of their biggest tunes in what was considered their farewell show.
"Garrett joked to the crowd of 48,000: 'I'm probably the only Labor MP who is singing in a band tonight.'" Source: Sydney Morning Herald More
Actress Sharon Stone raised $1 million in five minutes from business tycoons at the Davos World Economic Forum Friday to fund bed nets to protect African children from malaria-carrying mosquitoes:
Responding to an appeal from Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa for immediate help, the movie star jumped up from the audience at a session on debt relief and challenged the assembled political and business leaders to pledge donations.
"I was particularly moved by President Mkapa and by his urgent need of today, so if you don't mind I'd like to offer my help and support to you, and I'd like to offer you $10,000 to help you buy some bed nets today.
"Would any one else like to be on a team with me and stand up and offer some money and help him as well?" the star of sultry thrillers such as "Basic Instinct" asked. A man next to her rose and pledged $50,000, prompting a stream of participants to stand and offer donations amid rising applause.
Have you had a bypass in Bangalore? Root canal in Bali? A boob job in Argentina? Knee surgery in Penang?
Background Briefing wants to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly of medical tourism. Surgery and dentistry at bargain prices (with the bonus of an exotic holiday) are the new market niche as health care services go global.
"The Bush administration was confronted with fresh evidence of a far-reaching clandestine campaign to influence public opinion yesterday after a third conservative commentator admitted receiving payments for championing its policies.
Michael McManus, a newspaper columnist, was paid up to $10,000 (£5,300) to praise the administration's marriage initiative, which diverts funds from welfare to marital counselling, the Los Angeles Times reported."
Iraq: Coalition responsible for most civilian deaths
"More Iraqi civilians may have been killed by coalition forces and their allies than by insurgents, according to Iraqi government figures.
"The figures, which have been compiled by Iraq’s Ministry of Health, will be disclosed on the BBC’s Panorama programme tomorrow.
"They show coalition troops and Iraqi security forces were responsible for 60% of Iraqi civilian deaths in conflict-related violence in a six month period ...
"The BBC says that in an interview the US ambassador John Negroponte, prior to the release of the figures, said he believed the largest amount of civilian casualties were due to car bombings ...
"Panorama’s film, Exit Strategy, reported by John Simpson from Baghdad, is due to be shown at 10.15pm tomorrow on BBC 1."
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Almanac
Torn Curtain: The Secret History of the Cold War
Every now and then you hear a true story that's just too, too remarkable.
DNA molecules assemble nanoparticles
"It was the night a politican turned up at a rock concert – and the fans went wild.
What did you do on your holiday?