] The monetary bill is more than $100 billion, and the cost
] is still rising. The cost in American lives is more than
] 600, and the number is still rising. The cost in world
] opinion is considerable. There's a question that needs to
] be addressed: "Was this the best way to spend all of
] that? As security consumers, did we get the most security
] we could have for that $100 billion, those lives, and
] those other things?"

k's comments remined me of this essay...

We are all security customers | Perspectives | CNET News.com

] "Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different
] from shooting a turkey. Every season here you're hunting
] something. Over there, they're hunting Iraqis."

A portrait of West Virginia...

The Daily Telegraph | Good ol' girl who enjoyed cruelty

dmv wrote:
] ] Then Rush Limbaugh put it all in perspective, after a
] ] caller remarked that the "stack [of] naked men" was "like
] ] a college fraternity prank."
] ]
] ] RUSH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no
] ] different than what happens at the skull and bones
] ] initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it
] ] and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then
] ] we are going to really hammer them because they had a
] ] good time. You know, these people are being fired at
] ] every day. I'm talking about people having a good time,
] ] these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of
] ] heard of need to blow some steam off?

My god... The lesson of WWII is that when powerful people become poor and afraid they are willing to submit their freedom for a kind of control and they exert their energies into violent hate. Read "Escape from Freedom" by Erich Fromm...

Thats really been my fear in all this. That we'll succumb to this. All the ingredients are here. The fevered, unquestioning nationalism, the symbolism which takes the place of values, the fear, the self assured jingoism. We slap an American Flag on our SUV and talk about how we can dominate any military in the world...

People watch fox news because it reinforces all of these emotions. Fox tells you that you are right and good and you've made the right choices and everyone else is wrong, no matter what. And the opposition has become just as unthinking. Hate Hate Hate, all around. Its a perfect environment for a tyrant. Ripe for the picking. We're sitting ducks. All that is required is the right person to arrive on the scene.

And now we're rationalizing an atrocity. Limbaugh has been a major public figure for over a decade. Millions look to him for leadership. And he is rationalizing an atrocity.

If you can rationalize this, you can rationalize death camps. You can rationalize anything. Your values. Your honor. Your worth. You've replaced it with a sticker. And you're doomed.

This might be the point where it actually does make sense to consider getting out of this place. If that person arrives. The one who sees the opportunity here and exploits it. The one who talks of america for americans and the world for america.

If he arrives, he'll take it all, and the world will burn.

RE: Wonkette

] Among the corrosive lies a nation at war tells itself is
] that the glory -- the lofty goals announced beforehand,
] the victories, the liberation of the oppressed -- belongs
] to the country as a whole; but the failure -- the
] accidents, the uncounted civilian dead, the crimes and
] atrocities -- is always exceptional. Noble goals flow
] naturally from a noble people; the occasional act of
] barbarity is always the work of individuals,
] unaccountable, confusing and indigestible to the national
] conscience.

washingtonpost.com: A Wretched New Picture Of America

] Like a well-targeted attack-ad in a U.S. election
] campaign, the Abu Ghraib images make a visceral
] connection with an Arab audience, that no amount of
] contextualizing, apologies, reprimands or school-painting
] can reverse. No ad agency could have produced a more
] effective al-Qaeda recruitment tool: Bin Laden's movement
] presents its goal as the redemption of Muslim honor which
] has been "prostituted" before the West by "apostate"
] pro-U.S. regimes. Scenes of graphic humiliation of
] Muslims by American soldiers -- women mocking the
] genitalia of naked men -- will reinforce the appeal
] among the shamed young men of the Arab world of the
] extremists' message that violence against America as the
] path of Muslim redemption.

I never thought I'd find myself blogging an article from time
magazine. Of course, you don't need stratfor to tell you what the impact of this is going to be.

TIME.com: How the Prison Scandal Sabotages the U.S. in Iraq

] The Sasser worm, which exploits a flaw in Microsoft's
] Windows software, disrupted work at the Marine and
] Coastguard Agency, forcing staff to use pencil and paper
] to find ships and locate distress calls on maps.

Coastguard Sunk by Sasser

] It probably started with one person, who by curiosity or
] accident, swiped a driver's license through the gas pump
] charge card reader at the Meijer store on Carpenter Road.

I thought you were supposed to run credit card numbers with the bank in real time?

This would have made a good g-phile...

Well, I've been agitating for some friends of mine to help me work on this for the better part of a year. Now, its here. But the glory goes to someone else.

I wish I had a compatible cellphone...

] As of this moment, semacode reader is now available as a
] free download for your Symbian/Series 60 phone. It's been
] a while that we've been working on this, and we also have
] a preliminary semacode creator up for your creative
] uses. I've written updates site-wide, with lots of
] pictures, screen shots, a quick start guide, and
] there's more. Join the mailing list. Send us an email;
] join the mailing list. Enjoy! #

Semacode: BarCode to URL translation for the people

] Austin's crucial mistake would seem to be putting the
] explosives information on the same web site as his
] anarchist protest rhetoric. Publishing the information on
] a separate site would apparently have shielded him from
] prosecution.

A retrospective look at the Sherman Austin case.

What the FBI Doesn't Want You to See at RaisetheFist.com

] Mr. Bush is right to champion free trade and global
] prosperity, since an economically integrated world will
] be a more stable one. And he is right to hope that China
] in particular stays on the free-market path. But if
] China, with its 1.2 billion people, does keep up its
] brisk economic growth, won't the day come when it can
] match America's defense budget without breaking a sweat?
] How can America then afford to keep its military so
] potent as to "dissuade potential adversaries from
] pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or
] equaling, the power of the United States"?

this is Robert Wright from Sept. 2002... another quote :

"Yet the Bush administration, with its limited regard for both international law and world opinion, is making America not just sheriff, but judge, jury and executioner. This strategy could lead to a number of outcomes, but national security isn't among the more likely."

Contradictions of a Superpower