The Fat Lady Sings

What Torture Feels Like

I’ve been reading a lot lately about torture.  What Bush did or did not do, and will Obama reverse those policies and prosecute the offenders.  So many opinions – mostly from people who seemingly have no idea what severe pain actually feels like – especially chronic pain, a curse I’ve been afflicted with for many years.  ‘Cause that’s what torture is, really – the systematic application of chronic, escalating pain.  You’d think over time, a body would become inured to it.  That the perception of pain would lessen with time.

 

But it doesn’t.

 

That’s not what happens.

 

The opposite becomes true. 

 

My doctor explained it to me.  It’s one of those odd medical factoids usually relegated to TV programs showcasing scientific miscellany.  You see - pain has to make its way past any number of physical roadblocks, or barriers before registering with the brain.  Those barriers are the body’s natural defenses.  They ameliorate the experience – lessen the pain.  Everybody has them – some more, some less – it depends upon everything from ethnicity to family heredity.  I’m a redhead.  According to my doctor – pale-skinned, redheaded people seem to experience pain more severely than other colorations.  We have more nerves per square inch, evidently – so there’s that to affect things.  Redheads also metabolize pain medications (including various anesthesias) very quickly; making trips to the dentist quite an experience.  Heredity again, I’m told.  Hooray for redheads.

 

But there’s something else – something applicable to nearly everybody.  Not very many people know this.  I certainly didn’t.  I had to consult my doctor.  It’s a thing that happens when severe pain is applied regularly over long periods of time.  The quality of the pain intensifies (odd, using such a positive sounding word [quality] to describe the farthest reaches of hell).  All those natural barriers – those roadblocks impeding the pains progress get bypassed.  The pain finds a more direct route from perceived point of injury to the brain – meaning you experience the peak of pain quicker, for a longer period, and at greater intensity.  Evidently studies have been done in hospices confirming this (or so I’ve been told). 

 

I spoke to my doctor because I thought I was going crazy.  I’ve been experiencing severe chronic pain for five years now – and by chronic, I mean I am never without pain, usually acute, often bad enough that I all I can do is curl up and scream.  What was happening, was my body no longer distinguished (pain wise) between a paper cut and a bisected toe.  All pain (of any kind) registered at the same high level (on a scale from 1–10 – my pain was always an ‘11’).  Example: my cat scratches me, and I feel as much pain as if that scratch were a slice by a scimitar.  No barriers exist any more betwixt the injury and the pain centers of my brain.  Pain = agony, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

 

Just so we’re clear - this is what torture is – what it does.  Imagine experiencing that kind of pain every day - day after day after day after day.  You’d go crazy.  I know.  I’m there.  It’s a terrifying place to be.  So please (and I mean this generally and to the general population, both here and at large) - know what you’re talking about before tossing off certain torture techniques – downplaying their effect.  Trust me.  After a while, you don’t need medieval implements or sadistic techniques to cause mind numbing pain.  The effect can be duplicated with the touch of a hand.  When I’m in pain – everything is an assault: extra-loud noises, my cat jumping on me, any exhaustion I might feel.  This includes emotional and mental as well, by the way.  All of it combines.  I want cool respite – but the world consists of fire and pain.

 

And there’s more.  With some (and this unfortunately includes me) - the body reacts to the pain histemically.  It interprets all that pain as something it should be allergic to.  The receptors do what receptors always do when confronted by a foreign substance: they make you itch.  Sometimes you develop hives or a rash – like when taking certain medications or contracting poison ivy.  So – not only are you screaming on the floor – you feel the need to rip your skin off to boot.  Now, not everyone has this reaction – but it isn’t uncommon.  Just a little extra-added misery on top of already blinding pain.  You can add to that strained muscles and tendons from clenching the body whilst in the throes, and permanently dry eyes from all the weeping.  Then there’s the emotional and mental detritus – rancid leavings guaranteed to poison anything they touch.  Small things, perhaps; but small becomes a mountain when all the world is hurt.

 

Funny how they don’t show that kind of thing on ‘24’.  Jack Bauer always manages to look so heroic, bravely gritting his perfect, white teeth.  There are no bloody scratches on his arms or face – testament to a body classifying pain as so much pollen.  He even manages to look sexy – hairy face, crazed eyes and all.  You just know he’ll make it through.  I wish I was so sure about me.  Now - not to knock the acting ability of Kiefer Sutherland – but I’d imagine he’s never actually experienced chronic pain.  I guarantee if he had – the performance you’d see would be much more harrowing.  My best friend tells me that watching me in pain made her want to throw up.  It actually gave her nightmares.  I’d venture a guess most of those recommending torture driven interrogation (or assuming that it’s ‘not as bad as all that’) haven’t experienced anything remotely like that either. 

 

There’s one other thing you should know about repetitive pain.  It makes you really, really, REALLY angry.  It engenders hate.  Since there’s no escaping your body - that means there’s no escaping pain within that body.  After a while, it all begins to eat at your mind.  You blame whoever’s present – any one; doesn’t matter if they are the pains inflictor or not.  Pain turns into this stinging hive of hate.  You lash out.  It’s reflexive.  Last night I experienced a particularly horrific bout.  All I could do is hold onto myself and scream.  The screaming almost seems to help, actually.  It’s a release.  Something has to give – and with me it’s the vocal chords.  The peak eventually passes (eventually) – 30 minutes, 60, sometimes more (sometimes much more) – depending upon which kind of pain it is (mine has multiple sources).  I don’t really know.  It’s hard to tell time when you’re swimming through fire.  My husband did what he usually does when my pain hits – withdrew into himself, pulling away - leaving me to cope all on my own.  That’s hard.  It isolates me even more.

 

So last night (and only for the purposes of last night) – I hated him.  I hated him with all the ferocity of a cornered animal.  Though he wasn’t responsible for my pain, nor in a position to relieve it – I hated him nonetheless.  I watched him pet and comfort our dog, and that gentle hand came to symbolize my pain – all of it; all of it for that specific moment in time.  I wanted that hand to soothe me as it soothed the dog – but it didn’t.  He didn’t – he withdrew - so I hated him.  I saw his lack of empathy as abandoning me to my torment.  In doing this - he linked himself to that pain.  By standing by (even though he wasn’t the proximate cause, nor even capable of lessening the agony) – he made himself part of it – and that precipitated the hate.  Just as on occasion, I hate the doctors that under-prescribe sufficient pain medication, or the Insurance Company that refuses to pay for that medication because the prescription is ongoing and it won’t mail order anything containing codeine; meaning there are times I am forced to go without. 

 

Now – will that anger ever metastasize into unresolved bitterness or a thirst for revenge?  No.  No.  That’s not me.  The hate fluctuates – it comes and goes – often mirroring the severity of the pain; but unlike the pain, it never overwhelms.  I’m not at risk for drowning in either anger or hate (thank god).  It’s one of the few things I know for sure about myself.  You see - I grew up in an abusive household – yet I did not become an abuser, nor in the end do anything more than irrevocably divorce my diseased relatives.  But I’m rather a rarity in this.  More choose to answer violence with violence – pain with more pain.  I understand it – I just don’t see how my inflicting pain on anyone else is going to ease mine. 

 

So think about this, please, everyone, when you consider the lives shattered in the name of our country. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, the nameless prisons in Syria and Saudi Arabia.  All those victims of extreme rendition.  Oh – they’ll hate their individual torturers – I guarantee you that; but much worse and much more worrisome - that hate will reach beyond what or who is immediately visible.  America itself will be hated – and by extension all American citizens.  We (as in the collective) will become the symbol of their unrelenting pain.  And most will never forgive us.  Now – not all will turn that hate into action – but some will.  Doesn’t matter if it’s logical.  Pain doesn’t think.  When I hurt, the pain is all there is.  Interrogators who say torture doesn’t work understand this.  No one can think who’s in screaming agony.  Ask me a question – and you’re lucky to get coherence.  Add in someone promising to alleviate that pain – and I swear the moon was made of green cheese.  I’d say my name was Mudd – anything to escape.  That’s the trap all torture enthusiasts get caught in.  Pain exterminates reliability. 

 

This is torture.  This is applied pain.  No euphemistic jokes about extra loud ‘Stones’ concerts, or sleep deprivation being likened to cramming for college exams.  Condition the body to interpret all negative stimulation as pain – and the dropping of a single pin will sound like sirens in a closet.

 

So that’s it.  I guess some could still say I’ve never experienced actual torture - so what do I know…but see - I think I do know.  The situation has changed.  I’ve changed.  If you’d asked me ten years ago to talk about torture – I’d have mouthed all manner of myths – and they’d be bollocks.  I understood pain sure – even extreme pain.  I’ve lived with migraine headaches all my life.  But those headaches at their worst came once a week – and the pain was limited to my head.  What’s going on with me now renders all that laughingly academic.  I understand pain more intimately then I’ve ever experienced anything in my life.  Now that may not be torture – but it comes really fucking close. 

 

So please listen when I tell you that torture condenses into hate, turning it into a kind of infection.  That is it’s only effect.  There is no ‘up’ side for anyone or any thing.  The only people profiting from torture are the mentally deranged.  If we stop now – if we hold the torturers responsible – there’s a chance we may stem (or contain) that infection.  If not – if we ignore what happened – or worse, allow it to continue – that infection will eat us alive.   And don’t ever, for the love of god, compare being tortured to everyday mundanities.  Being tortured using loud noise is NOT standing next to the speakers at a Stones concert.  This I know.  Now I’m sure those in Guantanamo have experienced even worse than the hell of my chronic pain.  But I think I have somewhat of a clue how it feels.  And friends - we should consider it a miracle if anyone comes out from there not poisoned by hate or consumed by a thirst for unstoppable revenge.

Forward The Unfuckables - Update

   

A few weeks ago I read an article in Vanity Fair that really scorched my shorts.  I was so pissed off, I had to think about it a while – let it simmer, so to speak – see if the pot came to full boil.  Well it did.  I’d say I’m well and truly ‘boiled’ now.  In fact – the more I think about it the ‘prime-ier’ I get.  Why this particular diatribe?  Out of the encyclopedia of ‘I Hate Hillary’s’ littered like smashed walnuts on the side of the road – why did this pop my kettle?  The complete and utter denigration and dismissal of women in general.  Call it the final straw – the last nail in the coffin – one insult too far.  You see - Michael Wolff has declared us over 50 types unfuckable – and you know what that means: invisibility to the point of shunning (he even uses that word!).  Guess we can all go home now girls - at least those of us in what the opposite gender sees as peri-(pathetic) menopause.  We are now officially invisible – except for Hillary, of course.  She’s still out there - plugging away – but it’s only a matter of time.  She’s fading – shrinking towards germ status (with any male handy the prescribed antibiotic).  The estimable and oh so quip worthy Mr. Wolff has pronounced her persona non grata, so – behold the unfuckable woman! 

 

It’s all about the sex, you see:

Sex (sex, not gender) in politics is as significant a subtext as race.

Isn't that special?  Michael, honey – you do make a girl swoon!  Oh.  Sorry.  I’m unfuckable – unfuckable women don’t (or can’t – I’m not sure which) swoon.  'Old' women only support Hillary because she's as ‘unfuckable’ as they themselves are.  Such a prince, this guy!  Such insight!   

But wait - there’s more!  The candidate most likely to win will do so because fuckable women can imagine him (it has to be a ‘him’, you see) ‘doing it’.  Gee – I guess that leaves McCain out.

….in real life everybody is constantly and openly speculating on the sexual nature and needs and eccentricities of every rising and demanding political personality.

It’s a point of identification and differentiation. We vote for or against sex lives.

I don’t care whether you’re for Hillary or against her – its no longer possible to pretend that gender hasn’t entered this election.  You know - a couple years back, the UN studied the plight of women in this wide world.  Know what they said?:

...women will have to wait until the 25^th century, 2490 to be precise, before they can achieve parity with men.

So drop the scales from your eyes, my friends.  Wake up and smell the misogyny.  Michael Wolff does.  Smell things, that is.  And what he smells is the aroma of unfuckableness.  Hillary obviously isn’t getting any from Bill (did she ever?) – so why vote for her?  (Serial adulterers become that way because the women in their lives aren’t fuckable, after all.  Everyone knows that!).  We want stained sheets in the White House – not brilliant minds.  And EVERYONE thinks that way (only secretly, of course):

Although it’s not discussed in reputable commentary, it’s discussed by everyone else: so what exactly is the thing with Hillary and sex, with the consensus being that she simply must not have it (at least not with her husband; there are, on the other hand, the various conspiracy scenarios of whom else she might have had it with).   

Except for us dried up old prunes (or as Wolff categorizes us – the ‘sexually desperate’).  We want Hillary because her vagina is as dusty and useless as our own.  No KY Jelly for you!   (Not even the warming kind).   Wolff kindly enlightens us on this subject as well – at least where it touches on Hillary and the unfuckables:

She’s the special-interest candidate of older women—the post-sexual set. She’s resisted by others (including older women who don’t see themselves as part of the post-sexual set) who see her as either frigid or sexually shunned 

I won’t even get into how he labels and denigrates Cindy McCain and Jeri Thompson Kehn (pole dancing, anyone?).  Oh – he backs it all up with quotes from other middle-aged white men (Joe Scarborough for one) – but that’s what middle-aged white men do – flock together and compare their diminishing sexuality.  It’s ageing roués anonymous – or as my best friend Amy puts it – the dick club (no tits allowed).  Of course, the only thing hardening in these guys lately is their arteries – but who cares!  They have penises!  And we don’t.  I can just see those testosterone molecules dashing about – brandishing little swords – making sure not a drop of estrogen remains standing.  Of course – no estrogen in the brain means forgetting that tab ‘A’ fits into receptor ‘B’ – but like I said - who cares?  It’s possessing the penis that counts – not the ability to use it. 

And that’s not even the worst of it.  Wolff goes on to say that women are part of a ‘prosecutorial matriarchy’.   He sexually fetishisizes middle-aged politicians (a la Elliot Spitzer, whom Wolff at once criticizes and admires) holding them up as the great American arbiter: they act as we all do (or would like to); the ‘we’ being card carrying members of the dick club, I guess.   Wolff really feels for fellow middle-aged philanderer Spitzer.  He’s pissed off Spitzer didn’t fight getting caught:

Spitzer should have, reasonably, blamed the Bush Justice Department, the Patriot Act, the entire culture of investigation (again, mea culpa, mea culpa), instead of giving in to his own shame. He should have stood up for higher principles.

You have to be particularly shameless, of course, to stand such ground. But shamelessness is what we pay politicians for.

As for the unfuckables?  We females who put up with the Elliot Spitzer’s in our lives?:

The result is a consensus on sexual politics that is driven by women, striking in its asperity and lack of generosity.

And Hillary?  Well – she’s just Bills ‘beleaguered’ and eminently unfuckable wife.  That’s what it all comes back to, you know: Bill – Bill and sex in the Oval Office i.e.: the ever-present and always terrifying ‘Clenis’ .  Wolff calls Bill Clinton the ‘Amos ‘N Andy of sexual need’.  Imagine if he’d used that very same analogy on Barack Obama - Moyers would do a documentary!  And Hillary – poor Hillary!  That’s what everyone’s saying these days – ‘Poor Hillary’.  It’s become almost as ubiquitous as ‘pass the potatoes’.  Washington Post writer Libby Copeland calls it “death by condescension”.   I say it’s a chuck under the chin complete with lollipop (make mine cherry, please).  There just aren’t enough votes to be class president.  Tracy Flick will never morph into Elle Woods – too organized, too strident, too needy – not enough flair in all the ‘right’ places.  Hillary just doesn’t register on the bimbo meter.  No – the only jiggle affecting men when regarding la Clinton is the tweak she gives their blood lust.  They don’t just want her gone – they want her dead.  Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune labels it:

….the appalling preponderance of violent, death-infused imagery in conversations about Clinton, smuggled into otherwise ordinary political discourse like a knife taped on the bottom of a cake plate: On CNN, pundit Alex Castellanos said democrats must realize that "it's time to take the family dog to the vet." Matthews' MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann expressed the hope that "somebody will take her into a room—and only he comes out." CNN's Jack Cafferty gleefully floated the specter of Clinton being run over by a flatbed truck. A recent Tribune editorial compared Clinton to a euthanized Kentucky Derby contender.

So bring out your dead, my friends (especially if that dead is blond and wears a pantsuit)!  And all women over 50 please line up for mandatory shunning.  Get your unfuckable stamp here – big, red letters (Helvetica, of course – it has to be universally readable).  All snark aside – I find everything Michael Wolff said absolutely appalling.  And I am shocked beyond words that a so-called ‘woman’s magazine’ actually published such tripe. Oh I know – many will read what Wolff said and label it some form of comedy: ‘he didn’t really mean it’.  He was pointing out what OTHERS believe, or have said, or silently think in the long, dark tea-time of their souls.  Right.  Well I don’t buy that bullshit – not one stinking stone of it.  It’s like the guy who says he doesn’t hate Hillary because she’s a woman – he hates her because she’s a bitch.  Its bumfuzzel; a distraction – misogyny slipped under the door like so much pornography.  Even the brown paper it’s wrapped in carries a stink.  And before you dismiss this as the opinion of just one man – have a gander at the links I’ve provided.  From Marie Cocco over at The Washington Post to Nina Burleigh of the Huffington Post – note has been taken of what is being said (and what is being ignored) - on all sides.  It’s open season on women, my friends.  This isn’t just about Hillary; though she’s the current locus.  And it really isn’t about politics per se.  Obama’s quest for the presidency has unleashed many racist elements in our country – something I predicted, by the way – more than a year ago (An Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama).  That certain elements have set these dual hatreds against one another is shameful – but not unexpected.  The adage of divide and conquer is as old as civilization – even though as a modern society we should eschew such crap.  The politics of exclusion should belong to our historical past.  But they don’t – and here we are.  No – no matter how you slice it – Wolff and the host of other’s battering Clinton’s gender posses twelfth century beliefs: a woman is only as useful as her vagina.  When that dries up – when we become ‘unfuckable’ - we become useless.  Discardable.  Invisible.  Hell - even Match.com has issues!     

Well I say hooray The Unfuckables!  Bully for us!  Michael Wolff doesn’t want us?  To hell with him and the old-boy network he rode in on.  We unfuckables don’t need your stinkin’ imperator.  We do alright on our own, thank you very much.  Hey – we oughta band together – don’t you think?  Get a website - maybe our own reality show.  Loreena Bobbit (bless her sharp little heart!) can be our patron saint.  Imagine - hoards of unfuckabe women roaming the countryside like maenads - looking for the men who done them wrong.

It'd be a freakin' apocalypse!

Summary of links (Homework):

It's the Adultery, Stupid

Misogyny I Won’t Miss

Belittled Women

Nina Burleigh

Devil in a Pantsuit

Estrogen and the Male Brain

UN Study on Women

Racism vs. sexism:

   CNN

  Salon 1

  Salon 2

A Lighter Look:

  Clenis

  Match.com

Update:  I received an email from someone claiming to be Michael Wolff pointing out that I use the name 'Richard' several times in this essay.  Ooops!  He got me!  Chalk it up to a bad pain day.  Most of you know I'm usually vigilant when it comes to details like this - but sometimes, when the pain gets really bad, the back of my brain takes over.  I was thinking about the TV pundit Richard Wolff (the Wolff I know best).  It just came out - and for that I am sorry.  If I'm eviscerating the man - I should at the very least get his name right!

So thank you MICHAEL Wolff for the correction.  That took courage.

Would That it Were.....

From the Tony winning musical1776

As John Adams once put it:  "Piddle, twiddle and resolve - not one damn thing do they solve".  And like Adams, by God I have had this Congress!  Despite promises to the contrary - the Democratic Party rolled over and gave George Bush full funding for his war - no strings attached.  It was buried in the Omnibus spending bill - along with hundreds of other cushy little attaboys shoveling money in their pockets.  Would that we had someone of Adam's caliber in Congress now!

God Preserve Me From Christians Like These!

Four o’clock in the morning and my husband and I are up rescuing our neighbors puppy from freezing to death in 20 degree temperatures. The poor thing got my attention screaming for help.  I have a hard time walking without my leg braces, so I woke up my husband and asked him to go outside and get it. Molly is a daschund, sweet as all get out – and very, very small. She was shaking so hard I thought her skin would fall off her bones. My husband banged and banged on the neighbor’s door.  Nothing.  So he came back inside the house and called the bastards while I rubbed the puppy down with a warm towel. “Oh” – the neighbor said – “I thought she’d already come in.”  Off my husband goes with the puppy. “Thanks!” is the breezy reply, whereupon the neighbor puts the dog down and goes inside her house, again not even noticing that their OTHER dachshund puppy got left outside. My husband had to shout to get the stupid woman’s attention.  Ooops.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. We have rescued other dogs from these yahoos over the years. These people ‘lose’ dogs the way some people lose a set of keys. Oh but you can’t criticize!  They have ‘god’ on their side. Both are ordained CHRISTIAN ministers, something they make a huge show out of.  Every summer they destroy the neighborhood with car after car (17 is the all-time high), carting in people from out of state for their ‘ministry’ work - strangers who speed through our neighborhood without a care, frightening small children, running over pets – all in the name of Jeebus. Complain and you are simply ‘not Christian enough’.  Well god preserve me from Christians like these!  Our neighbors go through a dachshund a year – shutting them outside to fend for themselves, forgetting to bring the poor little things in during freezing weather, allowing them unfettered access to the nearby highway. Complain to animal control or the SPCA, you say?  This is Michael Vick territory, folks!  You should hear the horrific stories of abuse on the nightly news. Animal control?  There is no animal control or functioning SPCA. They don’t care about abuse. I know – I’ve called.  Hell - our local shelter operates in lock-down mode – frightened that people will break in and steal animals to torture.  It’s a horror show.  So a couple of people who don’t care enough to keep their puppy inside on a cold winter’s night translates into chump change.

Dear god I want to get out of here!   

Where’d You Park Your Broom, Honey?

By yours truly and Kelley Wenzlaff

This is one of the essays to be included our new book: MOM for The House: Your Essential Guide to Housekeeping and Politics

Ann Coulter is God’s gift to the Democratic Party.  This woman exposes the putrid underbelly of conservative thinking like no other.  In October of 2007 she appeared on national television with this insightful comment:

"If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.”

“It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, The Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it’s the party of women and ‘We’ll pay for health care and tuition and day care — and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?’”

Let’s analyze shall we?

To begin with: Yes, Ann - I am a woman.  I am proud to be a woman; and as a woman it is SMART, not stupid, for me to support a political platform that reflects my interests – interests that include access to books at the public library, fire and police services, paved roads and public parks, and yes - they also include universal healthcare, public schools, affordable college tuition, and equal pay for equal work.  I consider these to be the building blocks of a healthy society, and as such I support them wholeheartedly.  Ann decries the fact that The Democratic Party believes in using our collective buying power to provide services, but I’d like to remind her Republicans do this too.  The difference is what we spend it on.  Republicans want to spend the money on a large standing army.  They want to use the money to protect big business.  They want to divert social funds into private “faith based initiatives.”  They say this is because government does not work and the private sector can do everything better.  Democrats on the other hand, believe in a balance between public and private.  They believe there is a role for both profit and non-profits.  They cite our fire departments, our police departments, our public libraries and our public roads as examples of socialist institutions using our collective tax dollars for the public good. 

Govt Sting Uncovers Lax Nuclear Regulation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Undercover investigators, working for a fake firm, obtained a license to buy enough radioactive material to build a "dirty bomb," amid little scrutiny from federal regulators, according to a government report obtained on Wednesday. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the license to the dummy company in just 28 days with only a cursory review, the Government Accountability Office said in a report to be released on Thursday.

The GAO, which set up the sting, said the NRC approved the license after a couple of faxes and phones calls and then mailed it to the phony company's headquarters -- a drop box at a United Parcel Service location.

"From the date of application to the issuance of the license, the entire process lasted 28 days," the GAO said. "GAO investigators essentially obtained a valid materials license from the NRC without ever leaving their desks."

~ snip ~

The GAO report said its undercover agents made counterfeit copies of the license, changed the wording to remove restrictions on how much they were allowed to buy and then ordered enough radiological materials to build a dirty bomb.

The GAO, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said its investigators did not take possession of the radiological materials.

So, let me get this straight:  Six years after the worst attack this country has ever seen on it's soil, anyone with the money to set up a home office and a PO Box can buy enough nuclear materials to kill thousands.  Our vaunted CIA and FBI, with all the  spying they're doing on all of us, don't have the time or energy to do even a cursory check of these companies before they are given the green light.

Clearly, contrary to what they trumpet every day and all weekend, they have no fear of another attack here.  There are only three reasons that they would not have that concern:

1. They're incompetent  : good case for this, inarguable, really, after Katrina

2. They're treasonous bastards  :  Instead of listening to what they say, since an open piehole means they're lying  - look at the results of  what they've done....

3.  They don't have enough imagination to fill a thimble... which is to say, they're incompetent.

Another story in the long littany of corruption, greed, and incompetence.

You can read the whole story here

At Last: A Newsperson has some sense

Dear News Editor,

I am so glad that Mika made a stand yesterday about the constant drumbeat over Paris Hilton getting out of jail. It is completely ludicrous that we be subjected to the rich white girl nonsense when our government is melting down and is economically and morally bankrupt.

It's time for clear, unbiased, quality coverage of our political scene, so that we may never again be subjected to venal fools and greedy, evil men making war and torturing innocents in our name. The american news services bear much of the blame for the  secrecy and lawlessness in our present  administration, because they did such a piss poor job for lo these last 15 years.

When will we get the news coverage that a republic needs in order to choose our leaders wisely and guide our course safely through this post industrial economy?

Thank you for your attention
SBGypsy

hattip: The Vanity Press

Anatomy of a disaster

In the new WP article about Cheney's excess of partisan zeal in reducing our environment to a polluted, hothouse mess, we find this scenario:

'Let the water flow'
There was, as it happened, an established exemption to the Endangered Species Act.

A rarely invoked panel of seven Cabinet officials, known informally as the "God Squad," is empowered by the statute to determine that economic hardship outweighs the benefit of protecting threatened wildlife. But after discussing the option with Smith, Cheney rejected that course. He had another idea, one that would not put the administration on record as advocating the extinction of endangered or threatened species.

The thing to do, Cheney told Smith, was to get science on the side of the farmers. And the way to do that was to ask the National Academy of Sciences to scrutinize the work of the federal biologists who wanted to protect the fish.

Smith said he told Cheney that he thought that was a roll of the dice. Academy panels are independently appointed, receive no payment and must reach a conclusion that can withstand peer review.

"It worried me that these are individuals who are unreachable," Smith said of the academy members. But Cheney was firm, expressing no such concerns about the result. "He felt we had to match the science."

Smith also wasn't sure that the Klamath case -- "a small place in a small corner of the country" -- would meet the science academy's rigorous internal process for deciding what to study. Cheney took care of that. "He called them and said, 'Please look at this, it's important,'" Smith said. "Everyone just went flying at it."

William Kearney, a spokesman for the National Academies, said he was unaware of any direct contact from Cheney on the matter. The official request came from the Interior Department, he said.

It was Norton who announced the review, and it was Bush and his political adviser Karl Rovewho traveled to Oregon in February 2002 to assure farmers that they had the administration's support. A month later, Cheney got what he wanted when the science academy delivered a preliminary report finding "no substantial scientific foundation" to justify withholding water from the farmers.

There was not enough clear evidence that proposed higher lake levels would benefit suckerfish, the report found. And it hypothesized that the practice of releasing warm lake water into the river during spawning season might do more harm than good to the coho, which thrive in lower temperatures.

Norton flew to Klamath Falls in March to open the head gate as farmers chanted "Let the water flow!" And seizing on the report's draft findings, the Bureau of Reclamation immediately submitted a new decade-long plan to give the farmers their full share of water.

When the lead biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service team critiqued the science academy's report in a draft opinion objecting to the plan, the critique was edited out by superiors and his objections were overruled, he said. The biologist, Michael Kelly, who has since quit the federal agency, said in a whistle-blower claim that it was clear to him that "someone at a higher level" had ordered his agency to endorse the proposal regardless of the consequences to the fish.

Months later, the first of an estimated 77,000 dead salmon began washing up on the banks of the warm, slow-moving river. Not only were threatened coho dying -- so were chinook salmon, the staple of commercial fishing in Oregon and Northern California. State and federal biologists soon concluded that the diversion of water to farms was at least partly responsible.

Fishermen filed lawsuits and courts ruled that the new irrigation plan violated the Endangered Species Act. Echoing Kelly's objections, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit observed that the 10-year plan wouldn't provide enough water for the fish until year nine. By then, the 2005 opinion said, "all the water in the world" could not save the fish, "for there will be none to protect." In March 2006, a federal judge prohibited the government from diverting water for agricultural use whenever water levels dropped beneath a certain point.

Last summer, the federal government declared a "commercial fishery failure" on the West Coast after several years of poor chinook returns virtually shut down the industry, opening the way for Congress to approve more than $60 million in disaster aid to help fishermen recover their losses. That came on top of the $15 million that the government has paid Klamath farmers since 2002 not to farm, in order to reduce demand.

The science academy panel, in its final report, acknowledged that its draft report was "controversial," but it stood by its conclusions. Instead of focusing on the irrigation spigot, it recommended broad and expensive changes to improve fish habitat.

"The farmers were grateful for our decision, but we made the decision based on the scientific outcome," said the panel chairman, William Lewis, a biologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "It just so happened the outcome favored the farmers."

But J.B. Ruhl, another member of the panel and a Florida State University law professor who specializes in endangered species cases, said the Bureau of Reclamation went "too far," making judgments that were not backed up by the academy's draft report. "The approach they took was inviting criticism," Ruhl said, "and I didn't think it was supported by our recommendations."

So, they threw $75 million at the problem, had the worst fishkill in history anyway, and the problem remains and will get worse as the glaciers in the american west disappear and global warming dries out the breadbasket of North America.

How much does it cost to build a desalination plant??  How many could we have built with $75 million and a functioning army corps of engineers?

Birth And Death Of A Civilization

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The Baghdad Museum

I definitely was against our nation sticking its nose into Iraq. Even I couldn't have known how this could have gone as badly as it surely has...I didn't consider the fact that it could so devastatingly ruin a nation as I had never seen before. Even Japan wasn't ruined by the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan suffered much with people permanently maimed, thousands of deaths and land radioactive for generations to come. It is a smaller nation...yet it bounced back, much to their credit and spirit of will. I have to make it clear that I thought there would come a time when things would "look up" for Iraqis and they would finally prosper as a people. It's not that I bought into the 'administration speak' about how wonderful things would be...I'm not that gullible. They certainly were due their share of the oil pie that their nation produced...and silly me...I thought that is what we would do for them. It is their land...it is their oil...it is their heritage. Britain and the United States took that away from them instead...and much to our shame as a nation...the Iraqi people were raped 10 ways to Sunday.

Could it be that because western civilization was born there in the sands of Iraq that it simply suffers from it being their turn at the rack of instability? Britain and America have created anarchy there...and there are many side effects that are shaking this country to its very foundation on a daily basis. Two million refugees camping in Jordan and Syria...largely ignored. We out of harms way at home are told life there is 'better than before"...this coming from those who live on an alternate universe of thought...that of lies. Iraqis working for the British (facing death threats) are denied asylum. Because...John Reid, former defense and now home secretary...would have to admit he's wrong by granting them asylum...and since he said things are peachy...he not going to do it. So...they are in a catch 22. The Iraqis are being murdered systematically mostly due to a grievous lack of order. That's a fine thing to die for. Authority is non-existent...there is such a thing as international law though. And what they have wrought on this 'cradle of civilization' is in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention that an occupying army should 'use all means within its power" to guard the cultural heritage of a defeated state. And this is what interests me about what is being lost in this old land...besides the terrible loss of life and limb.

Antiquities and historical tangible evidence from the past have always been very important to me. As a child growing up and learning of what happened in WWII such as the 'blitzkriegs'...I always thought how tragic it would be to lose historical buildings or artifacts of the past. London was so full of rich old historical sites and residences that the loss of any of them would be devastating. So many things in our world are one of a kind and cannot be replaced. So too...the beginning of our civilization as historians believe is in Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar was the King with the beautiful hanging gardens...one of the wonders of the world centuries ago. And that brings us up to modern times and the war in Iraq. While being aware of many of these facts...I came across some updated information from the Guardian that sheds light on how it went down there from the start of the war. If you fly into the American air base of Tallil which is outside of Nasiriya in central Iraq the flight path will take you over the great ziggurat of Ur, which is considered the earliest city on earth. The structure is greatly obscured and indistinguishable from the mounds of fuel dumps, stores and hangars. Ur is safe within the base compound. Wartime shrapnel mark the walls...and a blockhouse is being built over an archaeological site nearby. When the head of Iraq's sovereign board of antiquities and heritage, Abbas al-Hussaini, tried to inspect the site recently, the Americans refused him access to his own most important monument.

A few days ago Hussaini told the British Museum about his problems to protect his work while basically in a constant state of anarchy. Apparently it was a very emotional scene as Hussaini imparted his information. Under Saddam's rule...a person would more likely be tortured and shot if you let someone steal an antiquity; in today's Iraq you are likely to be tortured and shot if you don't. The terrible fate of the national museum in Baghdad in April 2003 was as if federal troops had invaded a major US city (like New York), sacked the police and let the criminal groups know that the Metropolitan was ripe for their picking. The local tank commander was told specifically not to protect the museum for a full two weeks after the invasion. It seems that even the Louvre received better protection by the Nazis.

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Looters

Six months later the a new director of the museum, Donny George, showed how he was making the best of a bad job. He was about to reopen with about half of his most important stolen objects. The pro-war lobby had stopped pretending that the looting had nothing to do with the Americans, who were helping retrieve stolen objects under the US colonel, Michael Bigdanos who just so happened to author a book on the subject. Mario Bondioli-Osio the Italian cultural envoy to the coalition was giving generously for the restoration. A beautiful Warka vase, carved in 3000BC, was recovered although it was smashed into 14 pieces. The Lyre of Ur, the world's most ancient musical instrument was found terribly damaged. It seems Clerics in Sadr City were asked to tell wives to refuse to sleep with their husbands if looted objects were not returned...and it apparently met with some success. The national library was fire-gutted, nothing could be done there, so the loss of five centuries of Ottoman records, works by Picasso and Miro were lost.

Today four years later, things are very different. Donny George had to flee for his life last August after death threats. The national museum is not open. It is shut...the doors are bricked up, it is surrounded by concrete walls and the exhibits are sandbagged. The staff does not have access to get to the inside. As of now...there is no prospect of reopening. It seems America has made the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar's ancient city of Babylon into the hanging gardens of Halliburton. This meant a 150-hectare camp for 2,000 troops. In the process the 2,500-year-old-brick pavement to the Ishtar Gate was smashed by tanks and the gate itself damaged. The archaeology-rich subsoil was bulldozed to fill sandbags, and large areas covered in compacted gravel for helipads and car parks. Babylon has been rendered archaeologically barren. Meanwhile the courtyard of the 10th-century caravanserai of Khan al-Raba was used by the Americans for exploding captured insurgent weapons. One blast demolished the ancient roofs and felled many of the walls. Needless to say...the place is now a ruin. Outside the capital there are 10,000 sites of great importance to the history of western civilization, barely 20% yet excavated, that are being systematically looted as was the museum in 2003. When Donny George tried to remove vulnerable carvings from the ancient city of Umma to Baghdad, he found gangs of looters already in place with bulldozers, dump trucks and AK47's.

Thanks to a four-year looting-frenzy, Hussaini showed one site after another lost to archaeological find. The remains of the 2000BC cities of Isin and Shurnpak appear to have vanished. Pictures show them replaced by desert badger holes created by an army of some 300 looters. Castles , ziggurats, deserted cities, ancient minarets and mosques have gone or are going. Hussaini has 11 teams combing the country engaged in rescue work, mostly collecting whats left behind by the looters. His small force of guards for the site are no match for the heavily armed looters...who manage to get objects to eager European and American dealers in days. A message purportedly put out from Moqtada al-Sadr's office...'while the Muslim heritage should be respected, pre-Muslim relics were up for grabs'. Donny George said before he had to flee for his life...his successors might be "only interested in Islamic sites and not Iraq's earlier heritage". While Hussaini is devoted to all Iraq's history, the Taliban's destruction of Afghanistan's pre-Muslim Bamiyan Buddhas is in every mind of the antiquities community.

Despite Sadr's apparent preference, sectarian militias are pursuing the complete destruction of Muslim sites. Apart from the high-profile bombings of some of the most beautiful surviving mosques in the Arab world, radical groups opposed to all shrines have begun blasting 10th- and 11th-century structures, irrespective of Sunni or Shia origin. Eighteen ancient shrines have been lost, 10 in Kirkuk and the south in the past month alone. The great monument and souk at Kifel, north of Najaf...reputedly the tomb of Ezekiel and once guarded by Iraqi Jews (mostly driven into exile by the occupation) - have been all but destroyed.

It is clear that the Americans and British are not protecting Iraq's historical sites. All foreign archaeologists have had to leave. Troops are doing nothing to prevent the "farming" of known antiquities. Shortly after the invasion, the British minister Tessa Jowell pledged £5m to protect Iraq's antiquities. There is no evidence of where, how or whether this money has been spent. It appears to have been pure spin. Only the British Museum and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq have kept the flag flying. The British School of Archaeology's grant has been cut, rumor has it, it is to help pay for the Olympics in Britain in 2012. So...as long as Britain and America remain with their blinders on and deny the anarchy they have collectively created in Iraq...they can also deny the side effects that it has brought along the way. They would have us in America and Britain believe that the Taliban and al Quaeda are the vandals of this nation of Iraq...but they would be wrong. I fervently hope this is included in Bush's Presidential Library for the world to see. After all, it is the truth...a very sad truth to be sure. It is funny to me to think of Alexander the Great traveling through this country and seeing its once great beauty...and now it is nothing to recognize because somebody wanted to play war games. Saddam Hussein cared for those antiquities as the heritage of his people. He may not have always had their interests at heart as a leader should...but he knew the value of Iraq's ancient heritage and what it meant to the world at large and even he tried to protect it. But a leader that has probably never opened and read a book about ancient history or artifacts could care less about the mass destruction of humanity of the past. So he is not only overseeing the killing of this nation's past and present...he is taking part in the killing of its future.

The Bane of Wolfowitz...

When Worlds Collide....

Update: The descriptions I used for Ms. Riza were meant as humor. The next day I realized to my shame...as did Imus...bad humor...and just plain stupid. I was going for what I thought were laughs...and it turns out to have been at the expense of a woman that certainly didn't deserve it. I don't care what she does in her private life at all...and my descriptions certainly were not her...or proper for describing any woman certainly. While I do not condone their unethical conduct in the business world...I dislike intensely that it looked like I was making a judgment on their lifestyle...and I wasn't. I apologize to the readers here and to Ms. Riza profoundly. I believe in learning lessons from my mistakes...as I intend to do with this one.

Wolf sorry for favoritism...
Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank, has apologized for making a "mistake" over hefty pay rises given to a close female friend, (it's mistress dummy!) amid an uproar about alleged favoritism. (4/13/2007)

Wolf hires lawyer in fight for his job...
The hanky-panky president of the World Bank has hired a prominent lawyer to help him fight to keep his job following a furor over his admission he approved generous pay increases for his girlfriend (whore). (4/24/2007)

European MP's demand Wolf quit 'his' job...
Screams for the resignation of Wolfowitz from his presidency of the World Bank are really heating up with the European Parliament adding their heckling for him to stand down over allegations that he arranged a promotion and pay package for his girlfriend (give me a break!). (4/26/2007)

Wolf thinks he's been treated badly...wah wah wah...
Wolfowitz has reportedly accused the board of the World Bank of treating him "shabbily and unfairly" as he fights to retain his job as the bank's president. (Do I see crocodile tears?...No that's him licking his comb). 4/27/2007)

Wolf refuses to resign...
Wolfowitz, has repeated his refusal to step down...(because he knows what awaits him down there), while the US president has spoken out to back him. (Really...are we surprised?) Wolfie, a former deputy defence secretary, said the charges over his handling of a pay rise for his girlfriend (argh!) was a "smear campaign". He said he would not resign over "unfair charges".
(Smear campaign...as in Pap Smear?)   (4/30/2007)

Panel says Wolf broke the rules...
An investigative panel has found that the World Bank president broke bank rules in arranging a pay package and promotion for his girlfriend (skeezer!). Wolfowitz will face the bank's 24-member board of directors before a decision is made on any disciplinary action, which may include him being asked to resign, sacked, fired, given the boot, lynched or reprimanded. (I wonder what criteria it requires for someone to be able to realize that rules have been broken?...maybe a brain that works?) (5/8/2007)

Wolf violated his contract...
Paulie's handling of his girlfriend's (stripper!) promotion violated the terms of his contract and constituted a conflict of interest, precipitating a "crisis in the leadership" at the World Bank, so said the panel...(de de de!). It recommended that the bank's board consider whether its president could "provide the leadership needed" to fulfill the bank's mandate. (If there were a 'mandate'...I'm sure this idiot should never have made it into his position...oops!...I forgot...the Dub placed him in that position. No surprise there...since Dubbie has filled all his positions one way or another with complete and total incompetents. Wolfie described the report as "unfair and unwarranted". (Yeah...you wish!). (5/13/2007)

Wolf pleads to keep his job...
Paul Wolfowitz, has implored the bank's board to let him keep his job, despite a recent scandal over favoritism, according to a hearing transcript released by his lawyer. Wolfowitz told the board on that a loss of confidence in his leadership over his role in a pay upgrade for his girlfriend (gold-digger), would be "unfair". (What planet does this guy come from?). "I implore each of you to be fair in making your decision," Wolfowitz told executive directors who had gathered to hear his rebuttal of the allegations. "Your decision will not only affect my life, it will affect how this institution is viewed in the United States and the world." (slap!) "You still have the opportunity to avoid long-term damage by resolving this matter in a fair and equitable way that recognizes that we all tried to do the right thing, however imperfectly we went about it," he said. (Okay...he's on drugs or drinking heavily now!).  The controversy arose after it was revealed Wolfowitz had agreed a large pay deal for Shaha Riza, a World Bank Middle East expert and Wolf's companion (heh!), who was made to move to the US State Department when Wolfowitz took over at the bank. "I have been caricatured as a 'boyfriend'...(would you rather be known as the headless horseman?) who used his position of power to help his 'girlfriend'," he said. (I'm stymied to come up with something snarky at his point...maybe he should just drop his pants...let us all have a good  laugh...and then move on!).   (5/16/2007)

Wolf resigns from World Bank...
Wolfowitz has said he will resign as World Bank president at the end of June, (what happened to right now moron?) ending a protracted battle over his leadership sparked by a promotion he arranged for his girlfriend (pillow friend). The bank's board said it accepted that Wolfowitz had acted "in good faith" and acknowledged that "a number of mistakes were made by a number of individuals". (Gouging out eyes!) "He assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith ... and we accept that," it said. (You guys need to be flogged for making nice when you know you hate his guts!) The board said it was "grateful to Mr. Wolfowitz for his service at the bank", adding that "much has been achieved in the last two years" - a move condemned by the bank's staff association. (Go staff!...yeah...he achieved to set up his mistress...successfully I might add...but he happened to get his fingers caught in the cookie jar). Wolfowitz, 63, said he was pleased the board "accepted my assurance that I acted ... in what I believed were the best interests of the institution, including protecting the rights of a valued staff member". (Cough...bullshit!) His departure was all but forced, though, by the finding of a special bank panel that he violated conflict-of-interest rules in his handling of the 2005 pay package of his girlfriend, bank employee Shaha Riza. European members led by France, Germany and the Netherlands had said Wolfowitz should step down to salvage the bank's credibility. (What credibility now?) Wolfowitz said he acted on the advice of a board ethics committee and wanted it to acknowledge its own failures. (Now, this is where the guy needs some serious therapy. He wanted them to acknowledge their failures...well yes...they failed to kick his ass out the moment they found out his perfidy. Where has all the honesty gone?...Long time passing!). (5/17/2007)

RIZA...the SKEEZA

* Oxford-educated Arab Muslim British citizen...
* Promotes freedom-women's rights link in the Arab world...
* Worked for the Iraq Foundation, set up by expatriates to overthrow Saddam 
* Hussein after the first Gulf War...
* Worked eight years at World Bank before Wolfowitz became president...
* Apparently started dating Wolfowitz some time after he separated from his wife in 2001...
* In her 50s, divorced and has an adult son...
* Relationship with Wolfowitz, a Jewish conservative, has drawn gossip...
* Speaks Arabic, French, Italian, Turkish and English...

How many languages does one have to speak to know when they are behaving ethically wrong?  Or for that matter...which language does one acknowledge it in?  Good riddance to a couple of dumb, avaricious clucks!    (5/20/2007)