Mustt Mustt from the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Humbling brilliance.

Congress has passed four similar emergency spending measures for the wars since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This one would put the overall cost of combat and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan - as well as Pentagon operations against terrorists worldwide - past $300 billion.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, says lawmakers previously approved $228 billion. The latest money is to last through Sept. 30, the end of the current budget year. Pentagon officials have said they will have to ask for more money for 2006.

Remember the guy who was fired at the start of this insanity for saying the war would cost 50-60 billion? Gee, bet he’s laughing now.

This war must stop. It is bankrupting us morally and financially.

FBI PROTECTS OSAMA BIN LADEN’S “RIGHT TO PRIVACY” IN DOCUMENT RELEASE

Judicial Watch Investigation Uncovers FBI Documents Concerning Bin Laden Family and Post-9/11 Flights

(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that fights government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act (”FOIA”) in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (”FBI”) has invoked privacy right protections on behalf of al Qaeda terror leader Osama bin Laden. In a September 24, 2003 declassified “Secret” FBI report obtained by Judicial Watch, the FBI invoked Exemption 6 under FOIA law on behalf of bin Laden, which permits the government to withhold all information about U.S. persons in “personnel and medical files and similar files” when the disclosure of such information “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” (5 U.S.C. S 552(b)(6) (2000))

This is not some whackball lib group making this statement, either. Sure, the FBI has nothing to hide re: 9/11. Nothing to see here, move along.

Ribs and beer music. Which makes listening to it at work somewhat annoying. Sing, sister sing!

Theologian calls for response to 9/11

By Samara Kalk Derby

05/19/05 “madison.com” - - David Ray Griffin asks the tough questions about Sept. 11, contending U.S. officials had some knowledge of what was coming and possibly orchestrated the attacks.

Griffin, whose book, “The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11,” came out a year ago, drew an enthusiastic standing ovation from the majority of the 400 or so people who packed his lecture Monday night at Bascom Hall.

I’m of the belief that this mans work should be required reading for all Americans. At least, visit this link.

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

by Naomi Klein

04/18/05 “The Nation” - - [from the May 2, 2005 issue] - - Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration’s doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate “post-conflict” plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries “at the same time,” each lasting “five to seven years.”

Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.

Get ‘em, Naomi.

A Time for Disobedience

Sydney H. Schanberg

April 19th, 2005 10:24 AM

The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. –Henry David Thoreau, 1848

The press is now looking squarely at a perversion of government. The administration of George W. Bush has raised secrecy and information control to a level never before seen in Washington.

Excellent look at the role of the press standing up to Bush. Or rather, how they should…

Modern look at Miles Davis electric, from guitarist Henry Kaiser and others. Wild stuff.

The Theocrats
William Rivers Pitt

Tuesday 19 April 2005

… They are the Theocrats, the Christian Taliban right here in America, and they are deadly dangerous both to this nation and the world entire. These people do not in any way represent mainstream Christianity, yet sadly they are redefining the meaning of that faith across the board. They would annihilate all that America has stood for these last two hundred years to ’save’ the nation, literally as far as they are concerned, and right now, they believe they have the power to get everything they want.

Good stuff from Truthout.

Drunk Monkeys?

A group of drunk monkeys rampaged through an Indian village after stealing a specially fermented drink.

Stunned Baralapokhari villagers struck back at the inebriated monkeys with sticks and other weapons and drove them away.

Ya know, that sounds a bit harsh. Why not invite them in, put on a little music, and give them snacks?