Apparently, Canada has also gone over to the dark side, of PASTism (& @sig), with its own torture investigation.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/728958--eu-diplomat-backs-claims-on-torture

Palin? Probably wouldn't make much difference. Her comments about Reagan and Reaganism were delusional (or lying), but she has a lot of company.Seems to have a quite wide vindictive streak, but again, is not alone in that. That she made it where she is without the priveledged background , is a plus, but a meager consolation for the rest of it . One positive could be that she, as Bush did, would generate some opposition. ( As opposed to what many of the Obamabots are currently doing). *shrug*

That's not the George Pataki that got elected Gov. He was a middle-of-the-road Republican, with a relatively good environmental record in the legislature.( He dumped ol'DeathPanel McCaughey for the second term, 'cause she was such a whack-job;) I'd guess he must still have some larger ambitions . Only thing I can figure for his recent trip to the wingnut side. (in NY23 & otherwise).When he was in Pres. exploratory phase, we forgot there was a gov. most of the time (except when he was pandering to the Righteous Ones) , he was gone so much. Maybe he picked up a (wingnut-replicant?) virus out West somewhere? ;)

Btw, Chris Wallace committed some( a little) actual journalism yesterday . Giuliani trotted out the GOP anti-trial stuff, and blamed 9/11 on the fact that the'93 bombers got trials . Wallace brought up all his glowing rule-of-law praise from after the '93ers' convictions. Let him off relatively easily otherwise, but for Wallace & Fox, it was a bit better than usual.

Re Amnesty International,in case y'all haven't seen them, AI has cards that you can send ( that AI delivers) to political prisoners. They say " You are not forgotten" in several languages.

Love Almodovar's films. :) Like buffets, where there's too many wonders to take in, in one sitting. Looking forward to this one.

As for the film about making the film , it was done in Eric Idle's faux documentary Burn,Hollywood,Burn. Whole different animal , a comedy, worth seeing, IMHO.

"Oh no, says Glen Greenwald. So much more fun to just blame America. Muslim terrorism is a phantom invented by Cheney and Halliburton, so they can seize the oil fields!

You forgot about the gas pipeline. The latest from the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan is @ sig.

The short version (of that, & related points from elsewhere)

1) Most of our existing & proposed bases in Afghanistan follow the route of the proposed pipeline.

2) The CIA was in cahoots with the government of Uzbekistan, to torture confessions of Al Qaeda membership/associations out of people. How? Raping with broken bottles, boiling, & torturing the children of the "suspects" , was in the mix . Why? That's the big question, but some guesses can be made . The only thing that Uzbekistan has of value (to us) is large natural gas deposits. There are two problems though. It's among the worst of the worst , as governments go, and the current best options for the gas are through Iran or Russia. The presence of the evil-terr-rist-threat could be used to justify dealing with the Uzbeks, and bringing in enough force to protect a U-stan-A-stan-P-stan pipeline.

3) The negotiations started in the late 90's, with Gov. GW Bush interceding on behalf of Enron, with the help of an Afghan intermediary. Some guy named Hamid Karzai.

"Sick. Demented. Really treasonous!"

— jcambro

Youbetchya!

(& a few others ) @ sig . ;)

Deja vu all over again. This is the same conversation that I had with a co-worker today( Call him R) . Wish I had this post with me, for notes. The only real difference is that R is willing to say what Brooks et al actually mean, couched in all that REASONABLE-SERIOUSNESS.

The money shot : R: " We need to eradicate Islam, the Muslims, just like cockroaches,until it's wiped out, gone. Until we realize that, if we don't do that,... we're gonna be in trouble."

Started to ask if he really would murder ~ a billion people, but he had to answer the phone, so didn't get any further . I'm sure that there'll be other opportunities . :( )

I watched some of the other videos, that showed up after the ACLU video. Apparently Lady (CIA station chief, that got 8yrs) was supposedly offered immunity for his testimony . He declined , because he might have been asked about the whole phony Niger/yellowcake/Saddam thing. (& what else?) Apparently, he and one of the convicted Italians were in the middle of that episode. (video @ sig) I hope somebody gets enough on him and/or the Italian, to get some testimony about that.

People die for lack of health care = the islamofacistterr-ristlovers are trying to taking over Congress.

Ten of the top ten defense contractors have been convicted of fraud = Clinton is a guilty of treason for (fill in blank).

Bills of attainder are unconstitutional = Joe Wilson lying about Obama lying about illegal alien health care.

At least in David Herzenhorn's latest installment of Broderian false equivalence.(in case you missed it)

( & he apparently doesn't know the proper term is "moonbat" for far-left-kooks, not "wingnut" )

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/weekinreview/01herszenhorn.html?scp=1&sq=grayson&st=cse

The PNACers had 30 countries on their list. I haven't looked since they took down their site last year. ( Due to too many people citing it during the campaign?) Might have changed. Don't know. ( I can't afford a new monitor, or ulcer medication ;)