does anyone know if the place we're going to has wi-fi so's we can live blog ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

Yet another reminder of why we should avoid war at all costs. Because otherwise, some very nasty genies get let out of the bottle, and its very difficult to shove them back in.

Drew - want to get in touch? I'm not sure what my schedule will be like, but I might be able to meet up at some point.

The American administration has rejected an Israeli request for military equipment and support that would improve Israel's ability to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

A report published last week by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) states that military strikes are unlikely to destroy Iran's centrifuge program for enriching uranium.

The Americans viewed the request, which was transmitted (and rejected) at the highest level, as a sign that Israel is in the advanced stages of preparations to attack Iran. They therefore warned Israel against attacking, saying such a strike would undermine American interests. They also demanded that Israel give them prior notice if it nevertheless decided to strike Iran. As compensation for the requests it rejected, Washington offered to improve Israel's defenses against surface-to-surface missiles.

Israel responded by saying it reserves the right to take whatever action it deems necessary if diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclearization fail.

Senior Israeli officials had originally hoped that U.S. President George Bush would order an American strike on Iran's nuclear facilities before leaving office, as America's military is far better equipped to conduct such a strike successfully than is Israel's.

Jerusalem also fears that an Israeli strike, even if it succeeded well enough to delay Iran's nuclear development for a few years, would give Iran international legitimacy for its program, which it currently lacks. Israel, in contrast, would be portrayed as an aggressor, and would be forced to contend alone with Iran's retaliation, which would probably include thousands of missile strikes by Iranian allies Hezbollah, Hamas and perhaps even Syria.

Recently, however, Israel has concluded that Bush is unlikely to attack, and will focus instead on ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Tehran. It prefers to wait until this process has been exhausted, though without conceding the military option. Israel's assumption is that Iran will continue to use delaying tactics, and may even agree to briefly suspend its uranium enrichment program in an effort to see out the rest of Bush's term in peace.

The American-Israeli dispute over a military strike against Iran erupted during Bush's visit to Jerusalem in May. At the time, Bush held a private meeting on the Iranian threat with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and the Israelis presented their request for certain specific items of military equipment, along with diplomatic and security backing.

Following Bush's return to Washington, the administration studied Israel's request, and this led it to suspect that Israel was planning to attack Iran within the next few months. The Americans therefore decided to send a strong message warning it not to do so.

U.S. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen both visited here in June and, according to the Washington Post, told senior Israeli defense officials that Iran is still far from obtaining nuclear weapons, and that an attack on Iran would undermine American interests. Therefore, they said, the U.S. would not allow Israeli planes to overfly Iraq en route to Iran.

The Americans sent a similar message to Iraq, which had objected vociferously to the idea of its air space being used for an Israeli attack on Iran.

Well, we also heard that Bush administration told Saakashvili not to attack South Ossetia...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

AP Coverage
The Russian operation began after Georgia last week tried to secure control over South Ossetia, a breakaway region loyal to Moscow. Russia's fierce military response expanded to Abkhazia, another separatist province, and ended up on purely Georgian soil.

Questions answered on Russia, Georgia conflict  USA Today, (online blog. Posted on Aug 9?) Posted 4d 22h ago By Jeffrey Stinson, USA TODAY

Q. What are Georgia and Russia fighting over?

A: Georgia launched a military strike on the province of South Ossetia, aiming to reclaim it after 16 years of semi-independence. In response, Russia sent tanks in. Moscow says Georgian forces had killed Russian peacekeepers there and were committing acts of "ethnic cleansing" of native Russians living there.

<a<br> href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/world/europe/08georgia.html?scp=34&sq=Georgia%20attacks% ">iercest Fighting in Years Near Georgian Border</a<p> By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: August 7, 2008

MOSCOW -- Fighting in the border region between the former Soviet republic of Georgia and a breakaway Georgian enclave escalated sharply Friday morning to its highest level in years.

NTV, via Agence France-Presse

Soldiers from South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgia enclave, on Thursday near Tskhinvali, where heavy fire was reported.

Georgian officials said their troops had made a significant incursion into the breakaway region, South Ossetia, in response to what the officials contended were provocations from over the border, including shelling. The Georgian officials said they had taken up positions outside the capital of the enclave, Tskhinvali.

So naturally this has ignited a little discussion on blogs that are more transfriendly. . What's interesting is how ignorant and ...stupid the phobics sound. they don't have a good argument, so they shift around changing the subject and constantly harping back to Aunt Sally's and diversions. They really ought to avoid these sorts of debate.

Generally I wish I could be blase about trans-exlusion policies, they are 2nd wave feminism and are so deeply 20th century in a real olden days way. But I'm 50 and many of my female contemporaries are of an age where their ideas are largely informed by 2nd wave thinking. So, I even tho' it's yesterday's news in terms of current thinking, I'm still meeting it.

So, first a comment from me about Michaigan Womyn's music festival

If the women who attend MWMF only want to talk to people they feel share their sympathies and have the power to exclude all other viewpoints and experiences, then they win. But some victories cost the victor more than the vanquished.

In this I'm ambivalent about camp trans. Even if MWMF change the policy and "welcome" transwomen, it has already done its work so that those who attend are self-selected as solidly trans-woman-phobic. However, in the wider world, the very ugliness of such overt bigotry, annually paraded, is slowly undermining the soundness of the very intellectual basis for such wbw separatism. They are defeating themselves. Let them get on with it.

and then one that's a lot more informed

I think Koyama's right that trans inclusion is threatening to the type of feminism that MWMF represents not because evil trannies are going to molest innocent wombmoons in their showers, but because the whole absurd narrative of universal sisterhood bonded by biology and a supposed universal experience of growing up a girl under patriarchy is threatened by the existence of transexual women.

Facebook: What Georgia Is; What The West Isnt; What We Can and Will Do

The following will be presented to Western organizations in response to their blatent bias and misreporting of the situation in Georgia and Osetia.
CNN, BBC, The Daily Mail, The New York Times, The Mirror Group, Fox News will all receive a copy of the document, outlining our position.

We must all remember that Russia shares a 200 year history with the Caucasus region. It has always been central to our country, protecting our Czar, participating in the common defense of our borders and now a part of our Federation.

American interference in Georgian affairs and forcing this war on the Georgian people has, for the first time demonstrated the West's actual intentions to our generation; to make our allies our enemies, to surround us with missiles and to force us to surrender to a global common culture, lead by the United States.
Their main aim is to divide and rule. A concept pioneered by the Romans, adopted by the British, driven by the Americans.

Dear Editors,

We, the undersigned would like to bring to your attention the blatant bias and misreporting adopted by your news organisation in relations to the current Georgia-Osetia conflict.
We hereby state that it is the first time an anti-Russian stance has been openly put forward and it is the first time you, the news organizations have demonstrated to us, Russia's new generation the double standards of the West that our governments have constantly referred to. If anything, this serves an invaluable lesson not only to the people of Russia, but to the citizens of countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, who deep down certainly realize that they are not under democratic governments, but under Regimes imposed by the United States that will involve them in further unnecessary conflicts on behalf outside governments.
We hereby inform you, that in the current economic climate in particular, the Russian speaking target audiences are some of the most valuable in the world.
And you, being owned or jointly operated by major American industrial corporations corporations (NBC by General Electric, Fox, The Times, The Sun and Sunday Times by Philip Morris, ABC by Sid R Bass Oil and Gas among others) stand the risk of losing this high net worth audience for your parent brands if this continues.
We CAN stop smoking your cigarettes.
We CAN stop driving your cars.
We CAN stop flying your airlines.
We CAN stop buying your electronics
and we HAVE already started buying your financially troubled national industries.
We hereby express our allegiance with the Georgian, Osetian and Ukrainian people - who have been forced into an unlikely alliance with the West via puppet governments aimed at destabilizing Russia's sphere of influence. Some of these governments, such as that of Georgia demonstrate blatant disregard for their national purpose and sense of belonging and choose to speak English to the World Body instead of native Georgian. Which beautifully demonstrates where their intentions and directions come from.
We hereby confirm our status as Citizens of the Russian Federation and acknowledge our power.
We understand our worth to you as a market, and our worth to our country as its Citizens.
We confirm friendship to our neighbors as well as our duty to defend them when the interests of others are being imposed on them.
We are Russians. We are the first generation to grow up without prejudices, and can be the first to build lasting bridges. Or we can be the first to show the world that Western pop culture is a front for indoctrination of the masses and that other cultures to exist, that the dollar is not the global currency - oil is, and that saying NO to the Anglo Saxon world is very possible.

Let us offer You a warning by your own President Eisenhower in 1960 - " In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Eisenhower warned you of today. Do not allow your Corporations run your country. Do not let your military industrial complex think on your behalf. And vote instead of you again.

For if the worst comes to worse, in the battle for hearts and minds, we will win where you have always lost. We can associate our selves with the underdog, we can offer help and assistance without conditions, and our culture takes off where your pop culture has failed. Our masses mobilize themselves till the last drop of blood. Yours, have to be convinced, and will stop at the first.

Natalia Antonova: What moral authority do George W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice have?

Oh, that's right, none whatsoever.

If I wanted to hear guidance and opinion on the Russia-Georgia debacle, I'd fish a mongrel cat out of the trash-bin and listen to its theories before I'd listen to these two. What does the President of the Republic of Burundi think about this situation? His opinion ought to matter more.

In "This Week with George Stephanopoulos", Roberts spoke about Obama's visit to the islands, saying "I know his grandmother lives in Hawai'i, and I know Hawai'i is a state. But it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place."

Roberts went on to say, "He should be in Myrtle Beach if he's going to take a vacation at this time."

Congressman Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii responds beautifully:

"She's a bit of a fool that's the only thing you can say.  Don't forget Cokie Roberts and the whole Washington crowd live in a kind of an incestuous relationship to one another, they talk to one another, they see one another, they know nothing about ordinary people."

And I'll add: Myrtle Beach is a shitcan.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Whatcha wanna bet this was some psycho hopped up on Limbaugh/Hannity hate speech?

But it's only terrorism when Muslims do it.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Again.

By my count this is 152nd #3 Leader to be off'ed in the past 7 years.  One would think Al-Qaida would start naming the position something else.  Like #2 3/4 Leader.  Or Leader #No Number.  

Seriously, looks like Al-Qaida's #3 Leader is the cut-off position between the high command and the local organizations.  This idiot dude is exposed for some reason and can be detected with a bit of Intelligence work.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

Barack Obama, s'il est élu, pourrait bien mettre ses pas dans ceux de la dernière administration démocrate. Dans les années 1990, ses émissaires parcouraient l'Europe pour sonder les Européens. Si vous êtes d'accord avec nous, disaient-ils en substance dans les chancelleries, soutenez notre politique. Si vous n'êtes pas d'accord, nous agirons seuls.

La manière dont le candidat démocrate à la Maison Blanche voit les rapports avec l'Europe n'est pas très différente. Elle rappelle une vieille anecdote sur la vie de couple : avec mon compagnon, nous partageons également les décisions, dit la femme. Quand nous sommes d'accord, c'est lui qui décide. Quand nous ne sommes pas d'accord, c'est moi.

This comes from Daniel Vernet, hardly an anti-American chronicler in Le Monde.

(Short version: Obama and Europe will be like that couple, where one spouse says 'we share decisions equally: when we agree, s/he decides, and when we disagree, I decide')

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

<Darn, I´m 13 minutes late.>

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

At least i can iVent here through my phone connection, as my laptop has been hijacked, no net now and all attempts at fixing thwarted.

Can't tell if i'm angrier at amurka's insanity or my lack of net access. (And here i am on ET anyway.)

Non-peated Caol Ila 8 is my lame response!

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin