BBC News - Risk of robot uprising wiping out human race to be studied

BBC News - Risk of robot uprising wiping out human race to be studied:

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http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64395000/jpg/_64395671_86871522.jpg

MJ Rosenberg: Mitt Romney Insults American Jews

MJ Rosenberg: Mitt Romney Insults American Jews:

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The United States has never contracted out its foreign policy to any foreign country. But Mitt Romney is prepared to do just that... at least he says he is.

Iraq-Iran Ties Grow Stronger As Iraq Rises From The Ashes

Iraq-Iran Ties Grow Stronger As Iraq Rises From The Ashes:

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Thank you George Bush... you blithering idiot.

Even more sadly, there's not much in these results that wasn't predicted in New Yorker magazine in the months just prior to our war against Iraq... if not in detail, at least in the broad sense of things. In fact, about the only result of our criminal assault on Iraq that was a surprise was the horror of the Abu Ghraib revelations. I would never have imagined that torture of political prisoners would have become an official U.S. policy. More fool me...

Thank you George Bush!

Gary Stein Case: Military Board Recommends Dismissal For Marine Who Criticized President Obama On Facebook

Gary Stein Case: Military Board Recommends Dismissal For Marine Who Criticized President Obama On Facebook:

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I think military service is not just another job. It is long standing military policy that a soldier’s rights to free speech are limited. Sergeant Stein knew this. He violated his commitment to the service. He was warned that he was in violation of military policy and was ordered to cease lampooning the President... he ignored these direct orders. He should be out of the service... now! We have an all volunteer military after all.

And his “free speech” stand is dishonest and dishonorable. If he wanted to publicly complain about our country's foreign policies he should have resigned and then complained. That would be the military way. If you believe in your cause throw your badge on the table, don't whine about it in the dark.

I notice that Stein is a nine year veteran Marine. I assume that means he has served in Iraq or Afghanistan... two of the most bungled wars in America’s history. The total mismanagement of these two misadventures clearly falls at the feet of the Bush-Cheney Administration and their cadre of incompetent neocons...  people who demonstrably had no idea what they were doing. It does not belong to the Obama Administration.

How is it then that President Obama bears the full burden of Stein's ire? Why is President Obama lampooned by a serving soldier? I suspect it is pretty much because President Obama is black and in the White House. The Sergeant, like his "tea bagger" supporters... Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter, and the like... cannot stand for that. I believe it is simply racism.

It must be difficult for the many black servicemen and women who fought bravely under Presidents Bush and Obama to tolerate this kind of racism in the military they honorably served.

US, EU And Japan Challenge China Over Rare Earth Minerals At WTO

US, EU And Japan Challenge China Over Rare Earth Minerals At WTO:

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Yes this is economic warfare. By China against us. They used the threat of an embargo of these minerals to bring Japan to heel over some Chinese fishing boat captain, arrested for violating Japan’s fishing regulations in Japanese waters. I think they were surprised at how easy it was to get Japan to roll over.

But rather than whining about it we should simply go back into production here in the USA. My understanding is that there are still rich deposits of these minerals right here in America, as well as in Canada, in Australia, Afghanistan, etc, etc. I’m not sure why we allowed the sale of this strategic business to China but it’s really only a question of money for us (ie. the USA) to get back in the business. Since this a strategic resource, if private business can’t do it the government should.

A little socialism might be a good thing here. I suppose the republican dominated House of Ill Repute will try to stop such a heretical idea. But this really is a strategic resource and we need to reverse the silly decision to allow China to purchase world control of it for a few bucks... who ever made that decision. Oops... that was Bush/Cheney... oh my.

Dare one call it treason?

Veterans Crisis Line Seeks To Help Those Struggling With Civilian Life, Unemployment, Post-Combat Stress

Veterans Crisis Line Seeks To Help Those Struggling With Civilian Life, Unemployment, Post-Combat Stress:

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This is a great article. Good on Huff Post for posting it. Someone is doing something good.

The statistics on suicide among our military are appalling. And they are just a part of the detritus that making war on Iraq has cost us as a society.

Our success in managing physical battlefield casualties is truly amazing. I understand that we have about six survivors for every death now. So with 4,500 deaths in Iraq that would mean about 27,000 physically maimed... blinded, legless, burned... but still alive. One has to guess that there are at least twice that many... or maybe three, or four, or even five times as many... veterans that escaped physical maiming and just came home totally fucked up.

They saw things they never expected to see. They did things they never imagined doing. They lived for months in an environment where friends and enemies all looked the same... where their lives were in danger 24/7 because you couldn't tell the difference. And so on and so on... they would have to tell us, because I wasn't there and I can't even imagine all the fear and horror they lived with for months. And then they got to go back and do it all again!

So they come home looking pretty normal but suffering from those long periods of stress... of constant fear and loathing, of seeing and even participating in horrors they never imagined in their real lives. Traumatized!

They come home to a country that really doesn't want to hear about it. Their parents may care deeply about them but they really don't want to hear about the horrors. Nor do their siblings. Nor do their friends and drinking buddies... not really, and certainly not for very long. Their wives might take on the burden of listening... some do. But...

And they've come home to an economy that can't provide jobs. And remember that we fought this war with a reserve army. Many of these soldiers had good jobs or owned small businesses. They expected society to stand behind them during their tour of duty... to protect those jobs and businesses. Unfortunately tour became tours, and time marched on, and society forgot those promises.

So now they are home, feeling fucked up, fucked with and fucked over. No job, no help and no hope! And there's not a lot of hope on the near horizon... that's for sure. Our very form of government is broken... it simply no longer functions. Is this what they sacrificed to protect from imaginary atom bombs?

It must really be painful to realize that their war need never have been fought. They made all these sacrifices to satisfy some little twist in George Bush's brain. Family dynamics? What else? It's really impossible to find a plausible reason for America's having made all of this sacrifice of blood and treasure... except for the singular pleasure of hanging Saddam Hussein. WOW!

And our "victory" in Iraq... the imagined "victory" defined and redefined by Bush and Cheney and now declared by President Obama? It has been a bit transitory. We left them this wonderful thing called a democracy only weeks ago. Our gift. Their civil war is already under way. The killing has begun in earnest. And the major beneficiary of that war will very like be our current arch enemy Iran.

I'm just say'n... Thank you George Bush.

Employers Moving From Furloughs To Outright Pay Cuts

Employers Moving From Furloughs To Outright Pay Cuts

In the short term salary compression is just the result of our current economic situation. American workers need jobs desperately and they are not in a position to demand the same wages and benefits they had before catastrophe of the Bush/Cheney years. Employers know this and can offer less for more... less pay, more work. In the longer term I suspect Americans will need to get used to much less... in terms of wages and benefits... than we are used to getting.

In the 65 years since WW2 we Americans have had a wonderful run. We've lived high on the hog and we've done wonderful things. We won the cold war, went to the moon, invented the personal computer, all that! Now we've exhausted the legacy that the "the greatest generation" bequeathed us. We've just had a lot of fun spending other people's money... our inheritance, our grand children's future, and China's labor.

In the broader sense, we Americans, at less than 5 per cent of the world’s population, can't continue to consume in excess of 30 to 40 per cent of the world's production of resources, goods and services. Not forever... and not even for much longer. Eventually the workers of other nations will demand a bigger piece of the pie. After all, they're the ones actually making most of the pie now.

So we need to start getting used to less pay for more work. Less pay may be direct... as reported in the article... or it may come as inflation or a weaker dollar. They're really the same... it's just a question of whose ox gets gored. And I'll bet the ox belonging to the wealthy oligarchy that now owns our government will not be the ox that gets gored... but then I'm just a cynic.

I don't believe our real wages will rise again unless we invent another new technological miracle as revolutionary as the PC. I don't mean just a better telephone... I mean a game changer... robot factories, nuclear fusion, genetically altered food. Personally, I don't think marketing fraudulent securities made up of worthless "assets" will do the job for us.

Well, we're still the the 600 pound gorilla in the room, but at the end of the Clinton/Gore years we weighed in at a solid 1200 pounds! Even 18 months ago we were probably still at 900. I hope we're not down to 300 pounds 18 months from now.

Of course, we are still the world's only military superpower. We could try “conquer and pillage” as an economic system. It kept the Romans in bread and circuses for centuries!

Senator Gregg's "Modest Proposal"

Blue Hampshire: Politics ::: Gregg: Cut off extended unemployment NOW

I really hate to agree with Senator Gregg and his crowd on any economic policy affecting my fellow Americans… but maybe he has a point.

I don’t think the dole can support our unemployed millions for very much longer. Well, not without higher taxes on somebody. God forbid the wealthy of America should suffer any more predation by the useless unemployed.

The politicians of the free market crowd don't really want to talk about the basic problem with American unemployment, because American voters don’t want to hear about it. We just can’t tolerate the most basic free market fact... that you can't have a world wide "free" market economic system and expect that the jobs supporting that economy won't migrate to those nations with the cheapest wages, if they can do the work. They can do the work!

Maybe our politicians don't understand this basic fact, but I think many do... they just don't want to talk about it with the voter. Our response would probably be about the same as that of the Greeks.

Of course I mean a "real" free market system, which we do not currently have. In our current world wide marketplace some nations are allowed to have tariffs on imports and other nations are not. Some nations are allowed to manipulate their currencies and others are not. And some nations are allowed to join price fixing cartels and others are not. I guess it's a "sort of, kind of" free market, but these distortions of “free” market just exacerbate the unemployment problem for we Americans.

And “our” government… America’s government, nominally… just goes along with the selling out of American interests. Why? Well, some nations are allowed, even encouraged, to buy our politicians, our regulators, our negotiators, our regulatory commissions, even whole branches of government if they want. On a shared basis, you understand, sort of like a time share condo. It really is a free market... open to all… nations, industries & corporations, individuals… domestic and foreign… ya’ll come. Maybe that’s why!

And I also mean real jobs... where workers take something, do something useful to it, and produce something else that is worth more in the market place. And the workers get at least a portion of that added value to build a life on. Value added can also consist of ideas and inventions, designs and applications of new technologies, and services, and all of the other wonderfulness of third wave economics. Even fraudulent securities apparently.

But I don't believe we Americans can have an economy based solely on ideas and services, or fraudulent securities. For one thing many of our workers are not equipped to participate in that economy. What shall we do for them? The dole maybe? And for another, many workers in other nations are so equipped. Americans are not the only smart, creative… and educated… people in the world!

Of course most American workers are not married to a free market system. We just want our toys cheap and now! But in the broader sense, we Americans, at less than 5 per cent of the world’s population, can't continue to consume in excess of 30 per cent of the world's production of resources, goods and services. Not forever and not even for much longer. Eventually the workers of other nations will come to understand that they deserve a bigger piece of the pie. After all, they're the ones actually making most of the pie now. Actually, I think they have already come to understand that!

Well, we’ve had our century of economic dominance. It's probably over. We are no longer the 800 pound gorilla in the room… probably only a 400 pounder now… and likely to lose a lot more weight soon! Not because of intrinsic weaknesses of our system, but because of carelessness and stupidity on our part. We stood by and watched as our industrial base was sold out from under us. We believed what we read about the peerless CEOs saving our corporations… by terminating their research arms, firing all those costly experienced workers and outsourcing their jobs, and selling off any left over profit making elements piecemeal.

It’s called “being on a going out of business curve". But it makes the stock market happy... temporarily… and that leads to gigantic executive pay packages and parachutes.

We have allowed our leaders, including our labor union leaders, to convince us that we could continue to have more and more goods for less and less effort. We bought into that lie because we wanted to.

Worst of all, we have allowed our government to be purchased pretty much outright, selling "we the people" out for a song.

The Judd Gregg crowd of congressmen and senators (republican and democrat) believe that the free market will solve our unemployment problem if we’ll just let it work. They don’t know how… they just know it will. Third wave economics or some other magic maybe! What other hope have they?

Of course the free market could solve this problem. We just have to accept that working 10 or 12 hour days, for $10 or $12 a day, is a solution. That’s the competition! That’s the free market.

Many of the currently unemployed will never again attain the wages and benefits they held before the Bush/Cheney economic collapse… if they ever get a new job at all. We are going to have to accept lower wages and benefits if we want jobs in the new world economy. Or run-away inflation which will amount to the same thing... a lower standard of living!

We need to create some 20 to 40 million new jobs over the next few years to solve this problem. It depends on what you mean by "solve"? Like maybe a return to the Clinton/Gore years? Forty million new jobs is just not credible. Hell, 20 million is pretty far fetched.

So maybe the republicans are right with their modest proposal… we should just shut off unemployment benefits right now and let the free market do its job. Make those lazy unemployed folk cut bait or die. Otherwise, living on the dole is going to be "life as we know it" for a lot of Americans for a long time to come.

We have pissed away our inheritance from our forefathers. Get used to it!

Of course, we are still the world's only military superpower. We could try “conquer and pillage” as an economic system. It kept the Romans in bread and circuses for centuries!

Israeli Ambassador To U.S., Michael Oren, Rejects International Investigation Of Flotilla Deaths

Israeli Ambassador To U.S., Michael Oren, Rejects International Investigation Of Flotilla Deaths:

"I don't think the United States would want an international inquiry into its military activities in Afghanistan, for example."

Or the Bush/Cheney gaggle of war criminals for that matter.

It's not rocket science!

Where are the DEMs?

It's just not rocket science!

Amazing! Once again the DEMs have allowed the GOP to redirect a critically important argument to the GOP’s advantage. The GOP has essentially changed the discussion of "enhanced interogation techniques" from “Is ‘water boarding’ torture?” to “ Was ‘water boarding’ effective?”

If ‘water boarding’ is torture then these horrible acts, over two hundred of them admitted to by government officials, were against both federal and international law. It does not matter if the “technique” was effective or not! It is especially egregious that these acts were committed in an attempt to prove a link between Sadam Hussein and the atrocity of “9/11”… a link that did not exist other than in the fear filled mind of our then Vice President.

Water boarding is torture. These acts were crimes. Those who committed them are war criminals. Those who directed them, those who conspired to legalize them, and those in positions of authority who were made aware of them and did nothing... are war criminals. We hanged several Japanese soldiers for water boarding following World War II. We established that water boarding was torture!

The list of such criminals apparently includes at least a past Vice President of the United States of America- Dick Cheney, a past Attorney General- John Ashcroft, a past Secretary of Defense- Donald Rumsfeld, and a past Secretary of State- Condoleezza Rice … National Security Advisor to our President at the time. And so many others including, quite possibly, the current Speaker of the House- Nancy Pelosi... who knew and did nothing.

It is incumbent on our current Attorney General to bring this matter to the courts... to indict and try these criminals. Else our current President’s rhetoric about the sanctity of the “rule of law” in our country is just more hot air. I don’t see “Change you can believe in” from our new Administration on this issue! I see "Circle the wagons and keep your heads down."

It does not appear that any real investigation of these crimes will be mounted, much less will any indictments be handed down. And this stain on American honor will never be erased... certainly not by our vaunted system of justice.

Hardly the new image of America we were all hoping for.

Andrew Card is still here... amazing

On Thursday former Bush White House chief of staff Andrew Card told conservative talker Michael Medved that he felt the new White House dress code showed a lack of “respect” for the Office of the Presidency.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/31/card-oval-office/

Amazing. I would find it hard to believe that the chief of staff of the most incompetent White House in the history of our country has the arrogance to comment on just about any operational policy the current White House chooses to implement, except.... that the Bush White House is also in the running for the most arrogant collection of incompetents in our history. The Senate may edge them out of that distinction, but they've had a big head start.

I should think that those trying to rebuild a meaningful Republican Party would encourage Bush White House staffers to disappear for the foreseeable future... maybe for ever. Silence should be golden. "Go away! Get out of Washington! Don't come back!" should be the message.

Alas, not so. The "old" party is apparently going to fight the "new" party tooth and nail to keep the same old culprits in power in the House and the Senate. A principle tenant of their argument will apparently be that republicans have nothing to be ashamed of... that the Bush legacy is one of accomplishment and success... that the free exercise of republican thinking by the Bush administration and his captive Congress did not destroy our beloved country. Well, they have destroyed our country. We will never get back all that they destroyed... ever.

Amazing. Even the village idiot himself clearly knows his legacy is one of unmitigated disaster. He is incapable of admitting failure of course... but his public body language is pretty clear. Even Nixon departed Washington with a less abject face than did the dubya. Well, Nixon did much less damage. Republicans should be ashamed.

It's just not rocket science!

Yet another village idiot "leads" the republican party

During an appearance on Fox "News", John McCain adamantly defended conservative talk host Rush Limbaugh, whose devout hope for America is is, apparently... "failure"... abject or otherwise.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/30/mccain-defends-limbaugh-f_n_162633.html

Well... if you needed another example of what kind of "patriot" John McCain actually is... this statement should be the final nail in the coffin of his tattered reputation. He really seems to believe that we all must accept his unchallanged claim to patriotism... regardless of what foolish things he says and does. Thank God we don't have to suffer eight more years with another "patriotic" village idiot in the White House.

Limbaugh's statement was about as close to treason as he could have come without exactly crossing the line. This was not a matter of political opinion, or political agenda, or political rhetoric... it was quite simply a blunt statement of Limbaugh's desire to see our country fail rather than see a democrat (a black democrat at that) succeed. Maybe he thinks, like most republicans, that a good dose of poverty would be good for all of us... to help us peasants know our place.

Limbaugh has always been a pretty disgusting piece of work, but McCain's defense is another sad example of his own twisted idea of leadership. He really hasn't caught on to the fact that he is not the leader of the republican party anymore... if he ever was.

Regardless of republican attempts to reinterpret what ol' Rush said there's just not any room for misinterpretation here. Rush said what he said. Rocket science is not involved... treason is pretty much treason. Limbaugh done said it... for all of us to hear. McCain should just crawl into a hole and shut the f___ up.