Discrimination

Britain's MI5 discriminates against tall spies (by Martin Wainright, in the Guardian):

Ignoring the imposing stature of all five actors who have played James Bond, recruiters plan to operate the equivalent of a funfair ride measurement check. Short-listed men are likely to go no further if they top 5ft 11in; women if they stand taller than the 5ft 8in of MI5's current director, Eliza Manningham-Buller.

The warning is part of the ancient spying tradition of 'bland is beautiful', based on the theory that the best agents blend as boringly as possible into their surroundings.

In Bond's exotic world, the 6ft-plus of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan arguably meets this criterion. However, real-life spies spend less time in casinos, luxury hotels and private pools.

The agency advises on its application forms: 'You should be able to blend into the background. We are looking for average height, build, appearance.'

Alas, I am too tall to blend into the background.

Cancel that powerwebmusic

I notice that Jewel's singing spawns deceptive pop-ups, so I am cancelling Ghost Town Orange's theme music.

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Sunday readings

For the second Sunday of Lent:
Jeremiah 26:8-15

But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, "You must die! Why do you prophesy in the LORD'S name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?" And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD'S house. Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, "This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!"

Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Luke 13:31-35

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."

He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day--for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'[Psalm 118:26]

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Bush Campaign Shamelessly Exploits 9/11

The first TV ads reveal the desperation of the Bush campaign:

Bush-Cheney '04
TV: 30

"Safer, Stronger"

President Bush:
I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message.

Graphics:
January 2001: The challenge:
An economy in recession. ["It's not my fault."]
A stock market in decline. ["It's not my fault."]
A dot com boom....gone bust. ["It's not my fault."] Then...
A day of tragedy. A test for all Americans.
Today, America is turning the corner. [by preparing to vote against Mr. Bush?]
Rising to the challenge.
Safer, stronger.
President Bush. Steady leadership in times of change.

Or another:

Bush-Cheney '04
TV: 30

"Tested"

President Bush:
I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message.

VO:
The last few years have tested America in many ways.
Some challenges we've seen before.
And some were like no others.
But America rose to the challenge. [by attacking a country not responsible for 9/11.]
What sees us through tough times?
Freedom, faith, families, and sacrifice. [sacrifice of soldiers' lives--not rich people's taxes]

President Bush. Steady leadership in times of change. [Deficits as far as the eye can see.]

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Horse Race

Is it over yet? Almost. Here are the numbers from the Green Papers:

Candidate              hard      soft

John F. Kerry        1,187   1,324.5

John Edwards         452      476 (has withdrawn)

Howard Dean           66      120.5 (has withdrawn) 

Wesley K. Clark        63        68 (has withdrawn)

Alfred C. Sharpton    20        20 (probable quit soon)

Dennis J. Kucinich     12        19 (says he will continue)

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Big Brother is Watching

Phillip Adams (one of my favorite columnists and host of 'Late Night Live' on Australia's Radio National [recent shows available on demand using RealPlayer) has a column in the Australian commenting on Tony Blair's bugging of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. After speculating about the probability of other opponents of the war in Iraq being bugged by MI5, CIA, etc., Mr. Adams comments on the ubiquity of 'bugs' and how the battle to protect our privacy has been lost:

Those of us on the political Left are used to it. They've been bugging us since the early '60s. It hardly compares with what the Stasi was doing in East Germany during the Cold War, but you got used to hearing all sorts of odd clicks on your phone line. Decades later, I'm still trying to get my ASIO files. At first there was a blanket denial that they existed. More recently, ASIO admitted that they couldn't be handed over – for fear of revealing the identity of their dobbers. As Labor icon Jim Cairns once warned me, some of our best friends were enemies.

So one hopes that the surveillance of the Secretary-General and other upper echelon UN figures won't be hastily erased by Bush and Blair. Let's demand the right to hear this material, to be taken backstage in this mightiest of power plays.

Few, if any, can escape the electronic net. It's not just that you're under surveillance from cameras that watch you misbehaving on railway stations or shoplifting in department stores. It was revealed years ago that the US has an immense filtering system – a technology that screens and sifts every electronic communication on the planet.

Scores of satellites, with a little help from ground stations such as Pine Gap, check out the billions of emails, trying to separate spam from terrorist traffic. But can we be sure that all those offers of penis enlargement and discounted Viagra aren't, in fact, coded messages from al-Qa'ida operatives?

So make no mistake. Your personal emails are being read before you can open them. Can you keep a secret? I don't suppose you can.

I recently attended an international conference of privacy commissioners, hundreds of them, from across the world. Although some of them were still urging their respective governments to pass privacy laws, most conceded that the battle is lost.

Just as sexual censorship is impotent in the face of all-at-once, show-and-tell technologies, the notion of secrecy is becoming anachronistic. Like it or not, transparency applies to your life. Only the machinations of our governments remain opaque.

. . . no-bid contracts; 'unvarnished advice' in secret meetings; denouncing armed thugs and drug dealers while putting them in power (Haiti) . . .

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Republican lies about Senator Kerry

Over the past couple of weeks I have heard Sean Hannity constantly accuse Senator Kerry of voting against every weapons system that is being used in the war on terror. Also, Mr. Hannity accuses Senator Kerry of voting to "gut" American intelligence. All Republican lies and distortions (follow the link to Fred Kaplan's story in Slate, which explains all.) I am sorry that Mr. Hannity has so many listeners that believe everything he says--he is a liar.

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

My Representative in Congress is an Idiot

Rep. Tom Cole claims a vote against the re-election of President Bush is like supporting Adolph Hitler during World War Two.

I promise you this, if George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election, it's that simple. It will be interpreted that way by enemies of the United States around the world

I wonder if any Republicans voted against President Roosevelt during WWII? They must have been Hitler supporters too.

Mr. Cole just recently mailed me some constituent mail campaign literature informing me how hard he is working at reducing the Federal deficit. He mailed thousands of these postcards at government expense--and their obvious purpose is to help him get re-elected. Only in Washington can you contribute to the deficit while claiming that you're against it--and getting the taxpayers to subsidize your re-election campaign at the same time.

Egad! The Republican National Committee is advertising on Ghost Town Orange

[Please do not contribute to Republicans. Thank you.]

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Ralph Nader is a Fraud, part 2

Another in my occasional series. This installment features an article in LA Weekly by Doug Ireland-- "Nader and the Newmanites":

Nader has now jumped into bed with the ultrasectarian cult-racket formerly known as the New Alliance Party and its guru, Fred Newman: Ralph was the star attraction at a January conference of “independents” that was just a front for the Newmanite crazies. By rejecting the Greens’ ballot line, Nader will have huge difficulties getting his name on the ballot. So he went shopping for help in ballot access from the Newmanites. The New York Times reported Nader says he’ll “link up” with existing “independent” parties in New York and elsewhere — which can only mean the Newmanites (who control New York’s Independence Party and similar remnants of the Reform Party in many states).

This cult is the antithesis of every value Nader holds dear. A Maoist grouplet in the ’70s, the Newmanites morphed into supporters of Pat Buchanan in the Hitler-coddling commentator’s 2000 takeover of the Reform Party. Newman recruits and controls his followers through a brainwashing scheme baptized “social therapy,” designed to create blind allegiance to Newman. He has frequently dipped his rhetoric in the poisonous blood-libel of anti-Semitism, denouncing Jews as “storm troopers of decadent capitalism.” By French-kissing the cultists to get on the ballot, Nader has allowed himself to be used as bait to lure the unsuspecting into the Newmanite orbit, where they risk being sucked into the cult. That’s a betrayal of the many young people to whom Nader is still a hero. And an acid commentary on Nader’s judgment.

The groundswell of support Nader claims exists only in his mind. When the Times asked him if he wasn’t troubled by the fact that, on Meetup.com, only 375 people had registered for him — compared to 188,000 for Dean, 45,000 for Kerry, 23,000 for Kucinich and 9,000 for Edwards — Nader’s mind-boggling response was: “I really don’t deal with the Web. There isn’t time in the day to go into virtual reality.”

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Democracy Now! | EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS:PRESIDENT ARISTIDE SAYS 'I WAS KIDNAPPED' 'TELL THE WORLD IT IS A COUP'

If there's any doubt, Aristide was taken out in a US led coup d'etat: Democracy Now! | EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS:PRESIDENT ARISTIDE SAYS 'I WAS KIDNAPPED' 'TELL THE WORLD IT IS A COUP'

Representative Maxine Waters spoke with former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide this morning:

He said that he was kidnapped; he said that he was forced to leave Haiti. He said that the American embassy sent the diplomats; he referred to them as, to his home where they was lead by Mr. Moreno. And I believe that Mr. Moreno is a deputy chief of staff at the embassy in Haiti and other diplomats, and they ordered him to leave. They said you must go NOW. He said that they said that Guy Phillipe and U.S. Marines were coming to Port Au Prince; he will be killed, many Haitians will be killed, that they would not stop until they did what they wanted to do.

I'm going to put two and two together and say that Mr. Moreno is an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Notice what this article tells about the anti-Aristide plotting in the US government:

The departure of Haiti's Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a victory for a Bush administration hard-liner who has been long dedicated to Aristide's ouster, U.S. foreign policy analysts say.

That official is Roger Noriega, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, whose influence over U.S. policy toward Haiti has increased during the past decade as he climbed the diplomatic ladder in Washington.

"Roger Noriega has been dedicated to ousting Aristide for many, many years, and now he's in a singularly powerful position to accomplish it," Robert White, a former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay, said last week.

White, now president of the Center for International Policy, a think tank in Washington, said Noriega's ascent largely has been attributed to his ties to North Carolina Republican Jesse Helms, an arch-conservative foe of Aristide who had behind-the-scenes influence over policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean before retiring from the Senate two years ago.

"Helms didn't just dislike Aristide, Helms loathed Aristide because he saw in Aristide another Castro," said Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which has been strongly critical of the Bush administration's policy on Haiti.

Working hand in hand with Noriega on Haiti has been National Security Council envoy Otto Reich, who, like Noriega, is ardently opposed to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, say analysts such as Birns. Washington diplomats have seen Aristide as a leftist who is often fierce in his denunciations of the business class and slow to make recommended changes such as privatizing state-run industries.

"On a day-to-day basis, Roger Noriega [has been] making policy, but with a very strong role played by Otto Reich," Birns said.

Reich is a controversial Cuban-American criticized by some who have lingering concerns about his contacts with opposition figures who plotted a short-lived coup against Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chávez, two years ago. Reich also is linked to the Iran-contra scandal of two decades ago that was part of President Ronald Reagan's policy of defeating Marxists in Central America.

The Bush Administration is still itching to remove Venezuela president Hugo Chávez.

American Beef Industry would rather commit suicide than test cattle for BSE

One Producer of U.S. Beef Wants to Test All Its Cattle