Spc. Zachary Boyd

This photo has made the rounds in the MSM and blogosphere by now, and has become iconic. I just wanted to point out something that has not been explicit in all the media attention. Spc. Boyd, seen here fighting in Afghanistan, was 11 years old on September 11th, 2001.

Those of us who have been adults for the entirety of the intervening time span can easily forget how long it has been. But the people entering the military now were children when this all started and their world has been shaped by this conflict.

Spying On The Innocent

This article details some of the absurdity of the Maryland terrorism list wherein peaceful people who never committed any crime and never planed to do so were labeled as terrorists. Remember, people still claim that the president has the power to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen living in the United States after merely labeling them an enemy combatant. A term the government was unable to define even at the Supreme Court. Also remember that the people detained as enemy combatants are tortured prior to determination of guilt or complicity in any criminal act.

We don't have any examples yet of someone being detained and tortured merely for exercising their First Amendment rights by expressing a liberal opinion and hopefully we will never see any. This is still the danger we have to be aware of when a government takes these kinds of powers for itself. The above article details how intelligence that repeatedly says these people were not dangerous leads to them being labeled as terrorists and in many cases misidentifies what these people were involved with and where they were. If these cops really thought these people were terrorists and a danger to the country I would hope that they would be more careful with the information they gather so as to actually know where someone was on a certain day rather then place them on the opposite side of the continent. Here we are seven years after 9/11 and we still haven't learned the lessons about putting quality people between us and the enemy and not wasting time and taxpayer dollars on witch hunts.

The Urban Shaman

In days long past and in parts of the world untouched by the corporate monoculture there are psychopomps and shamen who know the spiritual secrets of the Earth and can walk between the worlds. These men and women gain access to a spiritual dimension through chanting, ritual, drugs, or raw spiritual power. They walk in a dangerous world in between life and death where they are alive, yet not. Where they walk among the dead and the not-yet born. They are able to pass through this liminal state of not-being without loosing their soul because of their wisdom and spiritual power.

It occurs to me that airline travel has become one such a dangerous liminal state in this post 9/11 world. In a world where one can be apprehended and shipped off to a foreign country or secret prison to be tortured based on faulty intelligence, mistaken identity, or no evidence at all, airline travelers face a very real danger. When one enters an airport they pass within a barrier that the public cannot penetrate. The traveler only enters into this parallel land by performing arcane rituals and by passing the arbitrary and ever changing tests of the gate keepers. They pass into a world where names and shapes are familiar but strange. The worst part is that no one knows whether you will come out on the other side.

The difference is that air travel isn't like this because of the immutable laws of nature and of the spirit but because of the actions of wicked men.

Cleveland Ohio: Terrible American City, Or The Worst American City?

Remember five years ago when there was a massive blackout that left over 50,000 people in the North East United States without power for three days? There was the widespread fear that it was the result of another terrorist attack in the wake of 9/11. Afterward there was some news coverage about our vulnerable electric infrastructure and that this accident should never have gotten to this scale. That was all quickly forgotten and last week there was a power outage at the same electrical substation that caused the massive blackout right on the five year anniversary. The public response to the outage by the company was terse and full of self admiration. It was also devoid of any reference to the massive outage of five years ago and it appears the the MSM has failed the public again by refusing to ask any pointed questions.

Terrorism

Earlier this week I was thinking about the racism that is frequently concealed within anti-terrorism rhetoric. Particularly among Fox pundits. People are so willing to forget that Timothy McVeigh bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, and the Anthrax scare was perpetrated by a white American. Then I came across this story which recounts that the Bush administration tried to get the FBI to ignore the whole investigation thing and blame it on al Quaeda. You know, because they care about security. The images are mostly things i have come across on the Internet related to 9/11 and making light of the situation. The one with the Muppet's was a joint creative venture between Th'Dave and APPhilosophy.

Don't Know What to Make of This; Another Big Suprise

Congress knew the tapes of the CIA torturing terrorists would be destroyed. They planed to destroy them a few years ago. They were told not to destroy the tapes by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. The CIA was ordered not to destroy the tapes by a federal judge. The CIA did destroy the tapes. Now there is a criminal investigation into the destruction of the tapes.



Article



Its too fucking bad the Valerie Plame/Scooter Libby thing showed us that a criminal investigation will only net a mid level conspirator and if that person is well connected they will only get a slap on the wrist.



It will take a long time to repair the justice system in America and this would be a good start.

Another Perspective.

Heres a thought on the motivations behind the NIE. The intelligence community has seen how the Bush administration operates. They come to a conclusion and then seek out evidence that supports their position and ignore anything that says otherwise. Then after the resulting flawed idea comes toits inevitable result the administration casts about for someone to blame. My guess is that these guys still remember how heads rolled after the 9/11 an Iraq failures of the intelligence community and are making an effort to protect their jobs by being forthright with the American people.

The new cover to Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Don't Panic

Swept Under the Rug Monday: The Wyrm Eats Its Tail

Over the course of the Bush administration, there have been many famous cases of personnel management, such as the case of Valerie Plame. However, there has also been pretty severe staffing problems. Readers may remember, this Oct. 14th story in the New York Times about issues at the "Level I" level, but the problem goes much deeper than that. In the course of politicizing every political appointment in the federal bureaucracy, the Bush administration has pushed or otherwise drove highly qualified people from career positions in the various departments. From the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, to the State Department's Foreign Service Corps, from the Transportation Department's Transportation Security Officers (and the Homeland Security Department's Procurement staff), to Patent and Trademark Office's examination workforce, there is a common story of staffing problems. There is a recurrent question in recent times about whether the U.S. can survive the Bush administration, but I think the real question is whether the Bush administration can sustain itself in the one year, two months, and twenty two days that it can legally retain its authority.

In addition to driving down the unemployment rate in the greater Washington metropolitan area, this phenomenon has combined with another alarming trend in the Bush administration, that of over-classification (and more) and retroactive classification, a trend that supposedly found its origin in 9/11. Because of the volume of classified material and the resultant increase in demand for clearances, there is a backlog for security clearances that could force wait times to be most easily measured in months or years. If positions requiring security clearances are being filled by less than the best, it might explain why the Bush administration's approaches to sensitive intelligence work range from the illegal to the dysfunctional.

And the punch line is that the DHS can't properly comply with the Vacancies Reform Act.

An Abstract Measure of Progress in the War on Terror

The picture on the right is an unforgettable image that captures the spirit of the Bush Age. The presence of a clock reminds the viewer that Armageddon is nigh, while Mr. Bush's expression is one of confusion, and the kind of calculations that can be derived from a black/white, 0/1 decision-making process.



Here is a picture of Osama bin Laden, taken roughly around the time of 9/11. Notice how he appears to be sitting in a tent, probably in the middle of nowhere.








This picture of Mr. Bush taken at the recent APEC Summit in Sydney, Australia, places him perfectly within his element. He stands alone, against a colorful and confusing backdrop. Judging from the smirk on his face, his calculations, political and military, must be working out right about the way that he wants them to.




Bin Laden, I would say has fared the best from the War on Terror. Not only has his production value gone up considerably, but he obviously has enough free time to take care of himself and properly dye his beard. Also, when he tells people to rebel against the government of a particular country, he is taken seriously.