The Rag Blog

Here is good news for unhappy homos and homo-hating Christians alike. Rev. Ted Haggard has completed his therapy and apparently has forsworn consorting with male prostitutes forever. After only three weeks of therapy, he has been judged to be “completely heterosexual” now:

“He is completely heterosexual,” [said Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur, Colorado, one of four ministers who oversaw Haggard’s re-education therapy.] “That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn’t a constant thing.”

Ralph said the board spoke with people close to Haggard while investigating his claim that his only extramarital sexual contact happened with Mike Jones. The board found no evidence to the contrary.

“If we’re going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly,” he said. “We’re into this thing over 90 days and it hasn’t happened.”

Science, of course, says that sexual identity is engrained and immutable, and that no amount of guilt, recrimination or praying away the gay can change it. Of course, Evangelicals like Rev. Haggard believe science has a liberal bias, as Stephen Colbert put it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An outspoken supporter of the Iraq war on Tuesday called for a new tax to pay for its astronomical cost as Congress opened a debate on President George W. Bush’s $2.9 trillion budget plan for next year.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut proposed a “war on terrorism tax” at a Senate hearing during which he said the Pentagon’s $622 billion defense budget proposal for fiscal 2008 threatened to crowd out funds for domestic programs.

The lawmaker, a former Democrat turned independent, favors a U.S. troop buildup in Iraq.

Bush traveled to Manassas, Virginia, to deliver the opposite message about the budget he submitted to the Democrat-controlled Congress on Monday.

“This budget can work if Congress resists the temptation to raise your taxes,” the Republican president told employees of Micron Technology Inc., a semiconductor manufacturer.

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on and their costs could hit $662 billion by the end of next year, Congress is becoming increasingly worried about cutting domestic programs to keep wartime budget deficits down.

Unless released from ‘coercive confinement’ by the end of the day, Josh Wolf will become the longest incarcerated journalist for contempt in United States history. Wolf is in prison for refusing to provide testimony and unpublished video footage to a federal grand jury investigating incidents that may have occurred at a 2005 political protest at which he was filming. Just why a federal grand jury was convened to investigate a broken taillight on an SFPD cruiser has never been fully illuminated. Many have characterized the investigation as a fishing expedition by an Administration determined to identify and threaten voices of dissent. What is evident is that despite protections supposedly afforded in the United States and California constitutions, protections designed to safeguard individual and journalistic rights, Josh Wolf finds himself the victim of an intrusive federal investigation.

The 24-year-old independent journalist has shown no signs of wavering in his refusal to comply with the federal grand jury that subpoenaed him one year ago. Wolf has refused on journalistic principle to comply and for his brave stand Americans owe Josh Wolf a great debt of gratitude. But he is only doing what any other self-respecting journalist would do and ultimately his case is not only about individual rights or the rights of journalists, but about the right and need of the public in a free society to be informed.

Investigative journalism and the free flow of information are no less important to the functioning of a healthy democracy than fair elections or the separation of powers. If journalists are unable to protect their sources of information, there can simply be no guarantee of press freedom. Who would share sensitive information with a journalist if that journalist could at anytime unwillingly become a tool of a law enforcement investigation and be forced to divulge confidential communications?

Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Alsalam Alykum Warahmatu Allah Wa Berakatuh,

The aim of this paper is to render homage to Iraqi people, whose resistance and sacrifices accelerated the decline of the Uni-polar World Order. The Peace Movements around the world are urged to express solidarity with Iraqi resistance. the victory of Iraqi resistance is a victory for the International community in its struggle to defeat war mongers and create a New World Order based on respect of International Law and the right of peoples to live in peace.

1- With the end of the cold war, the US emerged as the only super power dominating the world with no geopolitical or ideological contenders. Many in the world hoped that the American leadership will promote liberal Ideals of democracy, economic openness, human rights and the rule of law.

2 – The first serious test of the American leadership came with the Iraq-Kuwait dispute (Summer 1990). From the beginning , the US proved its inability to lead the world in a civilized and legal manner. The US used Iraq-Kuwait dispute to advance its short sighted national interest putting the following goals for its intervention;

*Topple the Iraqi legitimate Government and establish a poppet regime in Baghdad.

* Control the oil and plunder the wealth of Gulf States. * Strengthen its military presence in the region , in particular in the Arab Gulf.

* Provide better protection for Israel and its war of aggression.

It is clear that non of these goals has to do with US main responsibility as Permanent Member of Security Council, IE; Preserving International Peace and Security and resolving international crisis by peaceful means.

3 – Following is a short reminder of main actions taken by the US against Iraq that disclose the extent of US war crimes, genocide, and crimes against Humanity.

* The US dismissed all International and Regional initiatives to resolve Iraq- Kuwait dispute peacefully.

* US Imposed , through the UN Security Council , a comprehensive regime of sanctions against Iraq . These sanctions continued for 13 years costing the life of two million Iraqi civilians and the suffering of the rest of Iraqi population.

It is worth to mention here that sanctions were imposed on Iraq only four days after its invasion of Kuwait ( Res. 661 of 6 Aug. 1990). That means that the US jumped to the provisions of Chapter Seven of the UN Charter dismissing Chapter Six provisions on peaceful measures to resolve disputes. It is also worth to mention that after nine days of US invasion to Iraq, the only reaction of the UNSC was Resolution 1472 of 28th Mar 2003, which (Requests concerned parties to strictly abide to there obligations under International Law).

February 1966

David Lawrence, editor of US News & World Report, wrote: “What the United States is doing in Vietnam is the most significant example of philanthropy extended by one people to another that we have witnessed in our times.” When challenged with stories of American atrocities in Vietnam, Lawrence explained, “Primitive peoples with savagery in their hearts have to be helped to understand the true basis of a civilized existence.”

February 1968

An unnamed U.S. major, quoted by Associated Press on February 8, 1968, was asked about the American assault on the Vietnamese town of Bentre. The major explained: “It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it.”

February 1991

High above a swamp, over 60 miles of coastal Highway 8 from Kuwait to Iraq, a division of the Iraq’s Republican Guard withdrew on February 26-27,1991. Baghdad radio had just announced Iraq’s acceptance of a cease-fire proposal and, in compliance with UN Resolution 660, Iraqi troops were ordered to withdraw to positions held before August 2, 1990. President George H.W. Bush derisively called the announcement “an outrage” and “a cruel hoax.”

“U.S. planes trapped the long convoys by disabling vehicles in the front, and at the rear, and then pounded the resulting traffic jams for hours,” says Joyce Chediac, a Lebanese-American journalist. “It was like shooting fish in a barrel,” one U.S. pilot said. “Many of those massacred fleeing Kuwait were not Iraqi soldiers at all,” says Ramsey Clark, “but Palestinians, Sudanese, Egyptians, and other foreign workers.”

Randall Richard of the Providence Journal filed this dispatch from he deck of the U.S.S. Ranger: “Air strikes against Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait were being launched so feverishly from this carrier today that pilots said they took whatever bombs happened to be closest to the flight deck. The crews, working to the strains of the Lone Ranger theme, often passed up the projectile of choice… because it took too long to load.”

“Every vehicle was strafed or bombed, every windshield is shattered, every tank is burned, every truck is riddled with shell fragments,” Chediac reported after visiting the scene. “No survivors are known or likely. The cabs of trucks were bombed so much that they were pushed into the ground, and it’s impossible to see if they contain drivers or not. Windshields were melted away, and huge tanks were reduced to shrapnel.”

“At one spot,” Bob Drogin reported in the Los Angeles Times, “snarling wild dogs (had) reduced two corpses to bare ribs. Giant carrion birds pick(ed) at another; only a bootclad foot and eyeless skull are recognizable.”

Major Bob Nugent, an Army intelligence officer, said: “Even in Vietnam I didn’t see anything like this. It’s pathetic.”

The Baghdad municipality is finding it hard to recruit workers to clean the city and collect mounting garbage dumps from its streets.

The unwillingness to work, despite rampant unemployment, is due to the upsurge of violence in the city, which, according to the Mayor Saber al-Isawi, has claimed the lives of more than 600 municipal workers.

“This more than the number of U.S troops killed in the same period,” says Isawi.

He said it has become almost impossible to persuade part-time workers, the bulk of the municipality’s workforce, to take up jobs in the city particularly in very restive areas.

As a result, most Baghdad streets are littered with garbage and garbage mounds pile up in open spaces and squares.

Um Ala from the Suleikh district says garbage has been left uncollected in her area for more than a year.

Ahmad Jabbar from Mansoor, which used to be one of Bagdad’s smartest districts, said waste dumps in the area were increasing in volume in the absence of garbage trucks.

He said no waste collection vehicles have visited the area in the past four months.

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Tuesday the increase in U.S. forces in Iraq is “not the last chance” to succeed and conceded he’s considering what steps to take if the buildup doesn’t work.

“I would be irresponsible if I weren’t thinking about what the alternatives might be,” Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Gates was grilled on the war as the full Senate remained stalled over Democratic leaders’ efforts to begin a debate over President Bush’s course for Iraq.

Gates did not say what other options he was considering if the addition of 21,500 troops fails to control the violence in Baghdad and western Anbar province, where the Sunni insurgency is based.

“As fool’s paradise is a wise man’s hell.”
Thomas Fuller

You’ve heard the term, “fool’s paradise,” but have you ever wondered what one looks like? The trouble is real fool’s paradises are a bit like sub-atomic particles, they have such short half-lives that it’s hard to observe in real time. But, like Quarks, they do reveal themselves, if not in the flesh, at least in the data. The careful observer can see them coming, if they bother to look. Later. once they pass, you can observe the effect they had on their surroundings.

So it’s not surprising that so many Americans are living and planning as though nothing were amiss. The stock market — the worst of all possible fool’s paradise indicators — is perking right along as though these were boom times. Housing values are down a bit, but have yet to collapse. Consumers continue spending, now dipping into savings to do so. And when savings run out and lower wages can’t keep up, they borrow.

The federal government apparently thinks there’s not a thing wrong in continuing to borrow over $8 billion a month — month in and month out — to finance a war of choice.

Meanwhile our whole damn country runs on oil, the stuff is not only running out, but comes mostly from parts of the world busily tearing themselves apart.

The above behavior has turned our atmosphere into a trash pile which has finally caught fire — feel the heat? Ice caps are melting so fast you can watch them shrink in real time. Prime beach-front real estate is on the way to being submerged beneath up to five feet of water over the next few decades. The days left for thousands of low lying islands — and the people that live on them — are numbered.

Yet, by observing the behavior of government, businesses or the general population, you wouldn’t think any of that was going on, or that if it is, that it mattered little. That’s where the careful observer can detect a fool’s paradise in the making.

Maybe you’re one of those who has not noticed. If you don’t look, you can’t see it, or even feel it. But trust me, all the data says it’s so. Even as you read these words it’s ripping at the fabric of the comfortable and familiar life most of us still enjoy, and veneer that surrounds daily life. By the time you can see through it, it’ll be too late.

Noam Chomsky is as prolific and controversial as ever. Beginning his career with pioneering and immense contributions to the field of linguistics and early cognitive science, Professor Chomsky of M.I.T. turned his attention to politics during the Vietnam War. He has published condemnations and critiques of corporate media control, American foreign policy and imperialism, global capitalism, and economic inequality in an unrelenting torrent since then. Chomsky’s contrarian and sweeping dissents, and unreconstructed (some would say anarchistic) politics have earned him adulation in some quarters and derision in others. He has been described by the New York Review of Books as “the most widely-read voice on foreign policy on the planet” and an “anti-American fascist“ by David Horowitz. In his forthcoming book, Interventions, Chomsky continues this wide ranging and impassioned contribution to the policy debate with a collection of 30 essays covering issues from Hurricane Katrina to Iraq, and from Intelligent Design to Hamas. Campus Progress called Chomsky this week to talk about the current state of the globalization, the United States, activism, and why there is still hope for the future.

What do you see as most fundamental obstacle to a functioning and socially-just democracy in America?

Well the most pressing obstacle was one of the themes of the leading American social political philosopher of the 20 th century, John Dewey. He pointed out that, as long as we live under what he called industrial feudalism, rather than industrial democracy (by industrial feudalism he meant the corporate, capitalist structure) then politics will be nothing more than the shadow cast by business over society. Industrial democracy would mean placing economic decisions and workplaces under democratic control. And yes, that’s true. As long as there’s a very high concentration of private power, essentially unaccountable to the public and overwhelming influence in state policy, then yes, politics will be the shadow cast by business over society. That’s a major obstacle. You can’t have a democratic society, a functioning one, where the major decisions are out of public control.

How does current antiwar activism compare to that of the Vietnam era, and what effect has it had?

Activism is much higher than it was in the ‘60s. You hear the opposite. People say, “Well how come we don’t have a 1960s style anti-war movement,” [but] people have completely forgotten that antiwar protest was so limited in the ‘60s. Most people don’t even know that John F. Kennedy attacked South Vietnam outright in 1962. That was war, but there was no protest. You could barely get three people in a room to talk about it. It was years before a protest developed. In October 1965, when there were already hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops in South Vietnam and the country had been destroyed, we had the first national day of protest in Boston. It was broken up by counter protests, and to the applause of liberal press.

At any comparable stage, the protest is far higher right now than it was in the ‘60s. It did develop in the late ‘60s into a significant enough force to truly influence policy, as has already happened with Iraq. That’s part of the reason there are constraints on the extent to which the U.S. can use violence in Iraq. There should be a lot more in my opinion, just as there should’ve been far more in Vietnam, but what’s happened is significant.

Why have college students organized a very large and effective movement against the genocide in Darfur, but not against the war in Iraq?

You can say the same about columnists in the press, or commentators and editorial writers. They’re very upset about the atrocities in Darfur, but not the atrocities that we carry out. There’s a very simple reason. It’s extremely easy to condemn the crimes of others, especially when you’re not making a proposal to do anything about it. The condemnations of the crimes in Darfur are not accompanied by any proposal about what we should do. Nobody’s saying “let’s send an expeditionary force to end it.” The proposals are all in the form of, “Why don’t you do something about it, and we’ll applaud.”

Furthermore, in the case of Darfur, the crimes happened to be carried out by an official enemy, Arabs. There’s nothing easier than condemning the crimes of an official enemy. On the other hand, looking at your own crimes, that takes moral integrity. And that’s difficult. You don’t get praised and lauded: You get denounced and vilified. It’s not just true of the United States. If you were in the old Soviet Union, it would’ve been very easy to protest American crimes, with great drama and breast-beating, but how about Soviet crimes? That would’ve been different.

Cuba is a country of avid readers and since 1982 its annual International Book Fair attracts people from all walks of life and ages. It’s a chance to expand home libraries and have a good time as well, in a nation where literacy is a given.

This year’s event, spotlighting Argentine authors, publishers and culture, runs in Havana from February 8 to18 before extending island-wide to 40 cities and concluding in eastern Santiago de Cuba on March 11.

A visitor from the United States, who had to violate his country’s travel ban on Cuba to attend the fair in 2006, said “Seeing so many people interested in literature restores one’s faith that books can hold their own in the electronic age, at least in Cuba.”

The fair begins at the 18th century San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress that the Revolution turned into a permanent museum-cultural center. The facility has a breathtaking view of the Havana harbor and skyline and has large, well-kept grassy areas where people picnic and children get a first glimpse of their new books.

First time foreign visitors are stunned by the huge daily turnouts —more like crowds that one would expect for a soccer game or a salsa concert— to attend book launchings, lectures, poetry readings and make purchases. The large number of activities for children including dance, clowns, theater and readings make the outing a family affair.

Entrance tickets, still costing the equivalent of 8 cents US, are on sale at numerous Havana bookstores that will also be selling titles from the fair at the same discount prices.

The selection from dozens of Cuban publishing houses will run from a few cents for children’s books to 25 cents to a dollar for thicker volumes of poetry, fiction or non-fiction. Cuban’s reading tastes are varied but children’s literature is always of greatest demand at the fair.