ex-lion tamer

from paul craig roberts, the truly alarming recipe for destruction that is bushco’s latest foreign policy fiasco in the making.

• US Navy aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran.
• US Air Force jets and missile systems are deployed in bases in countries bordering or near to Iran.
• US B-2 stealth bombers have been refitted to carry 30,000 pound “bunker buster” bombs.
• The US government is financing terrorist and separatist groups within Iran.
• US Special Forces teams are conducting terrorist operations inside Iran.
• US war doctrine has been altered to permit first strike nuclear attack on Iran and other non-nuclear countries.

really, how the flying fuck do these people really expect this to turn out? after trolling the military policy discussion boards - and none of those people are what one would reasonably describe as “doves” or “peaceniks” - it seems a lot of people on all sides are very uneasy about this. the problem is, how do we unify ourselves under one purpose to stop this madness?

it’s unclear also whether we can expect any kind of full-scale revolt by upper echelon brass against the executive push for this invasion - there is unprecedented dissent within the ranks of the upper-level military, but it’s still not more than half as far as i can tell.

the other thing to keep in mind is that while we were never able to find WMD’s in iraq, surprise surprise, we’ll have no trouble finding them in iran………..the hard way.

this whole business is enough to make one go out and stock up on cardboard, paint and duct tape…….

ADDENDUM:
Larry Johnson is a very good source of intel on this subject as well as many others.

a friend emailed me a link to the yahoo! news article this morning.

Gourmet coffee guru Alfred Peet dead at 87

by Dana Ford Sat Sep 1, 3:36 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Coffee legend Alfred Peet, creator of Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc., a forerunner to Starbucks Corp., has died at his home in Ashland, Oregon, his company said. He was 87.

Peet, known as the grandfather of the specialty coffee movement in the United States, taught the tricks of the trade to the founders of Starbucks and sold them their first year’s supply. He passed away on Wednesday.

“He had this great love of coffee,” said Jim Reynolds, roast master emeritus of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, who worked with Peet in his early years.

“He was so helpful to many people in the business. When Starbucks was getting going, the founders of the company really needed help. He let them work in his store and taught them about coffee,” said Reynolds on Saturday.

Peet was born in Holland, the son of a coffee and tea merchant. He learned the trade in Amsterdam, London, Indonesia and New Zealand before moving to the United States in 1955. Peet opened his first shop in 1966 in a rundown neighborhood in Berkeley, California that was later dubbed the “Gourmet Ghetto.”

The store flourished and Peet soon opened additional shops in the San Francisco Bay area. Peet sold his business in 1979 but stayed on as a coffee buyer until 1983, and as a consultant after that.

“Up to the time he started, the quality of coffee in the U.S. was really poor,” said Reynolds. “But he developed a market for those types of coffee.”

The gourmet coffee trend in the United States started on the West Coast and moved east. Peet was known for using high-quality beans and a roasting method that produces a distinctively deep flavor. His company, which went public in 2001, continues to use his techniques today.

[- used entirely without permission. send cease and desist orders here]

(more…)

a real beaut from the master of imagery [link courtesy of kalilily]

When I started meditating, I was filled with anxieties and fears. I felt a sense of depression and anger.

I often took out this anger on my first wife. After I had been meditating for about two weeks, she came to me and said, “What’s going on?” I was quiet for a moment. But finally I said, “What do you mean?” And she said, “This anger, where did it go?” And I hadn’t even realized that it had lifted.

I call that depression and anger the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity. It’s suffocating, and that rubber stinks. But once you start meditating and diving within, the clown suit starts to dissolve. You finally realize how putrid was the stink when it starts to go. Then, when it dissolves, you have freedom.

thanks, joe, for reminding me why i was singing this song to myself as i walked to the store on my lunchbreak to buy PBJ fixins.

People work like dogs, have few or no educational opportunities, live surly lives of struggle just trying to get by, get their cods shot off for the amusement of Cheney and Condi, yet, the country music industry sells even that identity back to the very people who are being screwed and should be pissed as hell about it but aren’t because of the cultural ghetto we poor whites are raised in. As the old Johnny Russell song says, “There’s no place I’d rather be than right here, with my red neck and white socks and blue ribbon beer.” And so the nine-buck-an-hour skidder operator with the double hernia and no health insurance listens to the song and says to himself: “Hey! That’s my life! And he’s a star and he’s singing a hit about it, so other people must be satisfied with it. I reckon there’s no place I rather be than right here! That was true in 1973 when Johnny Russell won a Grammy for the song and it’s still true. It’s a damned good song. I’m still playing it.

and i promise to kick out the jams.

my first act as commander in chief will be to….

TEAR THE ROOF OFF THE SUCKA.

proof positive (as if we needed any at this point) that even insanely self-destructive freaks can be insanely creative.

now excuse me, i need to go to the bathroom and cut off my ear so i can send it to her in the mail.

1. well, at least we don’t invade other countries preemptively “for their own good”.

2. uh - well, at least we don’t round people up and lock them in secret prisons without a trial.

3. oh…well…uh, well, er, at least we don’t torture people.

4. ummmmmm…..well……..at least we don’t practice collective punishment on civilians.

5. er. ack. well - well, at least we don’t use slave labor.

next up: ovens

10 Zen Monkeys interviews Greg Palast.

JEFF DIEHL: First off, the “lost” emails. I guess you’re confident those 500 emails aren’t themselves a hoax? Considering the source? [John Wooden, the man behind the spoof site, whitehouse.org, forwarded them on to Palast after someone accidentally sent them to Wooden’s georgewbush.org domain.]

GREG PALAST: Oddly, the GOP verified their authenticity to BBC. I almost fell over dead when they did that.

JD: How did they do that exactly?

GP: We asked them on camera. They did not deny they were the party’s internal emails — just disagreed what the “caging” lists were. Saying, for example, they were “donor” lists. Men in homeless shelters?

Remember, there’s no First Amendment in England. I’m wrong, I’m sued, I’m broke, I’m toast.

read the rest.

UPDATE:

upon further consideration of this interview, i would advise mr. palast not to board any small aircraft or linger in empty parking garages at night for the remainder of this administration….actually, probably for the rest of his natural (god save him) life.

…and not merely an experience.

UPDATE:
Xan at Corrente chooses to remember the “independence day of our second american revolution”, and the debt all of us owe to those of us who paid the highest price possible for liberty, as well as the debt all of us owe to those of us that carry the conscience and memory of this nation.

EARLIER:
today i want to remember my ancestor who fought many battles for the union army, and was imprisoned at andersonville and lived to tell the tale. besides the fact that the only reason i am here today [along with many others of his descendants] is because the all-father did not call him to valhalla from the battlefield, i feel that in many ways i owe him my understanding of freedom, and what it means to sacrifice everything for the sake of future generations. what sort of country would this be if the union had fragmented and slavery still practiced in the south? some say that it would have ended on its own eventually - but how many would have had to suffer and die in chains? some say that the opportunistic north wanted to keep slavery for themselves and not for the south - that it was a war of economic competition. i don’t think that the historical record bears this out particularly, but i fear that for some it is an argument that is attractive in that it bestows upon them the righteousness of victimhood that is undeserved. some that were there state that abolition was merely the strongest political argument for war, but from Lincoln’s point of view it was to preserve the union, and defend the constitution that the north waged war upon the south. i find this argument to be somewhat more supported by the historical record, but as i’m only an amateur at history i’d have to get back to you on that. i feel that what my ancestor would want me to think about and remember on this day is that the union as it stands, and the constitution which we are sworn to defend, is something that many men died to preserve, and so we oughtn’t to let it be bandied about lightly by vain and servile men without honor, who deem it “just a goddamned piece of paper“.

the who without keith is not the who.

the jam without paul is not the jam.

ac/dc without bon is not ac/dc.

fairport convention without sandy denny and richard thompson is not fairport convention.

etc. etc. etc.