2005: Time for us to bug out

Some stuff happened. Well, a final semester at Macalester. Thanks to Peter "I really am a reporter in Wyoming right now" Gartrell, he and I started working at Politics in Minnesota, as the new edition of the state directory of legislators and politicos got put together. Along the way I ran into Al Franken at the Capitol, after he talked to DFLers in caucus (Matt Entenza took the photo!). So Peter and I each interviewed about 1/3 of the state legislature, which I think adjusted my perceptions of why people get into office, and what sorts of folks they actually are. Overall it was quite a stunning experience.

In my time there, I uncovered an old document, "Minnesota's Non-Party Legislature" by Senator Daniel S. Feidt, written by my grandfather in 1957. A sort of paean to a lost legislative system, the nonpartisan arrangement that he served under for many years.

Hunter Thompson shot himself, which was pretty brutal, but an understandable exit for an old man in increasing, terminal pain. Towards the end he was as surprised as everyone else to still be alive. He shot himself in front of the typewriter, with one word inscribed: 'counselor.' A Raw Story contributor noted its meaning:

I picked up the Bible and quickly scanned the Gospel of John. There it was in the 14th chapter:

“16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.”
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For following your Counselor often means discovering things that aren’t fit for polite company. It’s never pleasant to find evil growing among the peonies. Or in the hearts of your elected officials. Better to be “vaguely happy” than uncomfortable. Thompson, though, never fell for that devil’s lie. He knew that even though the truth often cuts like a razor, it also serves as a “Comforter” when the jackals begin circling. Because as Thompson recognized, the jackals don’t really give a damn whether you speak the truth or not. They are coming after us all one day. But facing the bastards down is a whole lot easier when you’ve got the truth by your side.

Nick Petersen and I did a tribute radio show on WMCN on Fri.,Feb 25th. I still have the recording of this session, and I'm going to get it out here pretty soon. The show had a real good feel to it, and strange things happened that day.

Nick and I randomly ran into Flan for what would be our final time. Matt Norman lit a shot of Wild Turkey on fire and spilled it on a desk, spreading a large fire that I quickly blew out. I purchased two red stoplights from Ax-Man. The Alfalfa Males performed at the Peters' house on Dayton & Fry, which was awesome.
So then, it seems a strange and bittersweet day now, but still, it was a worthwhile venture.

In terms of academics, I was glad that I took a difficult class on the Holocaust from Dr. Frank Adler in my final year. The basic historical lessons of the Holocaust are incredibly valuable today; the many connections between the Shoah and the War on Terroah's murderous political atmosphere these days disturb and alarm me. It has taught me that only by first making fellow humans into two-dimensional characters (filthy Jew / terrorist rat nest) and merging perceived negative identities (Judeobolshevik / Islamofascist) can a rationalized, industrialized process of annihilation take hold, and drive a war ever further.

Graduation was momentous, etc. etc. It was profoundly weird, since I'd been arrested the prior Wednesday at an unexpectedly aggressive police raid against a cottage that had only contained a party for about five minutes. I took pictures of police action (as I have in the past, successfully) and they didn't appreciate that, and slapped the camera of out my hand and arrested me. This began seven months of repeated hearings and delays, and shifts to three different judges at Ramsey County courthouse. The city refused to cough up the memory card. When I finally got to tell the judge my side, she was upset that the photo evidence had not been presented, and my charges were summarily dismissed. A tiny victory added to the sediment of legal affairs...

This summer I moved in with Colin Kennedy, with Matt and Eric next door, sharing a massive front porch overlooking Selby and Fry. Good times were had by all. I was employed part-time by Politics in Minnesota and Computer Zone Consulting, which was not really quite enough income, but still somewhat interesting. I knew that I needed to find a full time job, but the case of the Macalester raid was still hanging over me and I feared (somewhat irrationally) that background checks would backfire terribly.

We had a good time hanging out with the Jane Cat, debating anarchy and the waxing and waning of empires. I read quite a few political books from differing perspectives...

The CIA hits Hongpong.com again. In late July I determined that the Central Intelligence Agency had visited this fine site on July 7 looking for 'text messaging IED' on Google. Also for some reason they came looking for 'bloomington lrt condo' in March. This was not as cool as the CIA hit from 'goss punish cia analysts cold war 2004' back in November 10, 2004, as CIA employees were surely considering the blowback from the election in their agency. There have been a lot of other government hits this year, from the Defense and State Departments, the Australian Defense ministry, etc. etc.

Indeed, I feel very strongly that intelligence analysts in the CIA, DIA, State Department and other institutions should be free to give their unvarnished views of the facts as they see them. I fear that the neo-conservatives and other National Security Nasties like Porter Goss are threatening analysts who vary from the preferred political standpoint. For example, it would have been a bad career move for an analyst to say that 'I don't think there are real WMDs in Iraq' before the war (the NSA's Kenneth Ford may be such a case - perhaps). Are Goss and others crushing all factual dissent, pursuing an empire of suppressing analyzed reality in the American intelligence community, in favor of synthetic neo-con paranoid bullshit, designed to scare America into compliance and endless wars?

There was a Times story that John Bolton at the State Dept. used NSA intercepts that monitored conversations between American officials -- as a way to try to outmaneuver his rivals (like probably Armitage, for example). This is individual information warfare inside the government at its most dangerous -- especially since the neo-cons are fuckwits who don't deserve to keep their jobs at all. They are better at backstabbing then 'delivering the goods' we need to solve our multiplying problems. As a source said to Laura Rozen:

Bolton was running his own counterintelligence operation, was using the intelligence to figure out how he can get back at people.

The point is this: My perspective on this site is very wary of the deepening dominance of political appointees in places like State and CIA, and with it, increasing surveillance and political pressure against the 'career professionals' of our government.

We have intelligence agencies to attempt to sift fact from fiction, prevent foreign manipulation, and present the political leadership with options. The WMD stories about Iraq, propagated by the INC and Chalabi, supported by Cheney, his hawks and journalists like Judith Miller, should have been stopped cold by personnel in the intelligence agencies, since as it turned out, much of Chalabi's stuff was made up by Iranians who wished to get the US to topple Saddam. I think that the war in Iraq couldn't have happened without browbeating the rank-and-file at the CIA, who didn't trust Chalabi or the WMD yarns. Political appointees made it impossible for the rest of the intelligence community to speak out against the war.

Libby was a Fixer of Intelligence around the Policy: The big, weird political story of the year was Libby's indictment. but what was his motive for defending the Yellowcake story and trying to discredit Rove? That is pretty much the kernel of the story, not the contested chronology of reporter conversations. If the Iraq war started because of purely 'altruistic' intelligence mistakes about WMD, then why would Libby try to enforce the silence of the intelligence community by suddenly burning a top agent, Valerie Plame?

On the other hand, if the war started because of wholly fabricated stories, if the Office of Special Plans and Michael Ledeen, among others, were systematically spoofing the 'threat perception' of Iraq while suppressing the realistic views of the general intelligence community, then suddenly we see that Libby attacked the CIA in order to intimidate the rank-and-file to shut them up about all the gaps in the fake war rationales.

I have tried to be alert for information that indicates this kind of deception, stuff offering some insight into the complex of fear and disinformation that has settled over this country. I think that HongPong.com, on the whole, provided a useful core of information to begin teasing apart the big picture. I have a great respect for the many in the government who struggle with this stuff. The conflict will continue, and I'll try to help illuminate what I can. (each one of us can be the eye in the pyramid sometimes, right? :-)

On September 1, I found myself very underemployed and with little money. I was forced to move back into Hudson, WI, with the folks, as I worked on some projects and slept in the family room upstairs. However along the way I met Russ Feingold at a fundraiser at a Wisconsin farm. Good times. He called for a firm deadline for withdrawal, continued scrutiny of the Patriot Act, and other sound yet gutsy political positions that have the added benefit of actually defending freedom and our national interests. He's lining up to be the Progressive Dem presidential candidate for '08, and it seems basically impossible, but it would be great to get his perspective in the mix.

Peace efforts in the fall continued to raise some consciousness, as a kind of war fatigue set in, causing Bush's poll numbers to plunge. I took photos at a peace vigil on the Lake Street bridge — as the White House refused to release documents that should have been released to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 — documents that would surely have influenced their conclusions about how bad the spoofed intel was, helpting to blame it on the CIA.

Depressingly, this year it was confirmed that the US deployed 'White Phosphorus' weapons as chemical weapons in the vicinity of Fallujah, and possibly elsewhere. How grimly ironic that we invaded the cradle of civilization in illusory pursuit of some moldering VX and mustard gas shells, only to find ourselves so hated by the occupied that we chose to apply to combat a chemical that essentially melts flesh?

The Pentagon initially claimed that these were 'incendiary' not 'chemical' weapons, and indeed, WP can be used to light up or torch a sizable area. However, it can also be deployed as a 'shake and bake' chemical assault, as an Army publication termed it. This shows that we still haven't nuked anyone, but we're getting there. Although, arguably, Depleted Uranium is a form of chemical warfare as well.

Nonetheless, as the polls inexorably shifted against Bush and confidence in his war conduct, it seemed that reality would finally snap back against their utopian fantasies and sordid machinations. The Downing Street Memo and the abrupt secret Senate session to demand intel investigations finally shifted the ball in the 'fake intelligence' conflict, and a majority of Americans now seem to believe that Bush misled them. These were no small feats.

I also went along a march and rally at the U of M, which culminated in a protest in front of the recruiter's office near the University. The protests showed the strain of this costly and destabilizing war on the students. I mean, simply put, how much more could we put into our dilapidated schools and anxious students, if not for the Mesopotamian Follies?

In October, Colin unearthed a sweet apartment in downtown Minneapolis, and I decided it was worth swooping on. We've had a number of good parties, which has made it all worthwhile. Life at Politics in Minnesota has picked up a bit, and seems worth sticking with for a while.

A final twist: Dan sets a bit of the agenda on a Clear Channel transmission: As it turned out, one of my two superiors at Politics in Minnesota, the shadowy Republican lobbyist/analyst Sarah Janecek, somehow landed a major radio hosting gig on a new Clear Channel station in the Twin Cities, KTLK. From 4 to 7 on weekdays, she and Brian Lambert (formerly of the Pioneer Press) will host a radio show. They had a warm-up show on KFAN on Friday, and I provided some material - mainly of 'Top 10 of 2005' style lists from the Internet. It added a few parts to the show, so that was good.

Much as at the beginning of this year, I never thought I'd be involved with something like the Politics in Minnesota directory, and yet, there I was. Now I find myself nearby the genesis of something almost mythically shady, a new Clear Channel station. Time to see what is happening in there....

This year has been one strange episode after another. I got arrested but won the legal case, met the Legislature, got checked by the CIA, worked for a Republican operative, moved to downtown Minneapolis, and oh yah, graduated from college.

We've got hazy but ambitious plans here. It's a short 11 months to the next election. Congress is on the table, the stage is set, the dance will continue, Bush will skate the edge of the Eschaton and I'll stick to my operations. With Katrina, the Tsunami, and the obliteration of a Great American City, nothing can be taken for granted. With the expanding Information Wars, nothing can be trusted.

Like I said before, the operative principle here for 2006 is "Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted." Call this strange year cashed.

Palestinian truce off for New Year; Kurds planning to grab Kirkuk; Shiites lock down

Palestinian militants say truce ends at midnight

By Arnon Regular and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Militant Palestinian factions said on Saturday that as of New Year's Day they would no longer be bound by a truce that has brought the most peaceful spell since the start of the five-year-old uprising.

Meanwhile, Israel Air Force fire killed two Palestinians in the no-go area of the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday night, according to Palestinian security sources.

Haaretz: A waiting game
By Amir Oren

According to his strategic adviser, Eival Giladi, Sharon's time frame for a permanent settlement is approximately 2025: only 19 years from Sunday. The new year, 2006, is already shaping up as a wasted one, a year of treading water, unless a different Palestinian leadership arises, replacing Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) or displacing him. Absent such a leadership, the terrorism will continue, including the launching of Qassams. And if no new leadership emerges, a generation will pass before new leaders appear.

The cruel choice that is becoming constantly clearer is between Hamas and Marwan Barghouti. Anyone who does not want to see Hamas in power will have to accept Barghouti as the prime minister of a Palestinian government until the end of the Abbas presidency, and accept him as president afterward.
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At the beginning of the month, a senior General Staff officer was invited to represent Israel in a joint course of about 30 generals from the Western armies that are mired in Iraq and Afghanistan. The topic under discussion was urban combat against insurgents and terrorist and guerrilla elements. At the meeting in which lessons were drawn, the IDF representative agreed with the accepted view that dealt with the importance of intelligence and command-and-control systems, but in his view the true challenge facing the governments, armies and intelligence agencies of the advanced countries is more conceptual than operational or technological. The gist of the challenge involves shattering the regular format of military behavior, to the point where terrorist groups will be unable to predict the behavior of the state system they are facing.
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The officers and Shin Bet personnel who always aspire "to close a circle" - to see, identify and shoot before the target disappears - know that the substantive difficulty does not lie in their sphere. With the Palestinians - and with the Lebanese, too, until the Syrian and Iranian influence on them is annulled - there is no way to close a political circle of give-and-take, agreement, upholding and domestic enforcement.

Meanwhile In Iraq... the Kurds seem to be preparing to make a move in 2006.... We were told that Ambassador Negroponte would bring some of that 'Salvadoran Option' death squad tactics to Iraq. And indeed, he did with his practiced, masterful skill from the salad days in Honduras. Fortunately, many of the new Death squads / 'freedom fighters of free Iraq' were trained (and are still paid) from Iran, lending a certain Persian texture for those now chafing under the Badr Corps and other various militia.

Turning (much of) Iraq into something of an Iranian satellite state was an obvious effect of an invasion that anyone could see coming. Why the hell was that in vital American interests? Tell me, you hawks, what does that get us?

US-Shiite Struggle Could Spin out of Control
Analysis by Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Dec 26 (IPS) - The George W. Bush administration has embarked on a new effort to pressure Iraq's militant Shiite party leaders to give up their control over internal security affairs that could lead the Shiites to reconsider their reliance on U.S. troops.
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For Shiite party leaders, U.S. pressure to share state power with secular or Sunni representatives -- especially on internal security -- touches a raw nerve. They regard control over the organs of state repression as the key to maintaining a Shiite regime in power.

If Abdul Aziz al-Hakin and other SCIRI leaders feel they have to choose between relying on U.S. military protection and the security of their regime, they are likely to choose the latter. They could counter U.S. pressures by warning they will demand a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops if the United States continues to interfere in such politically sensitive matters.

That would not be an entirely idle threat. Last October, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was reported by associates to be considering such a demand. The implication of calling for a relatively rapid U.S. withdrawal would be that the Shiite leaders would turn to Iran for overt financial and even military assistance, in line with their fundamental foreign policy orientation.

The Bush administration's strategy of pressure on Shiite leaders over the issue of control over state security organs thus has the potential to spin out of control and cause another policy disaster in Iraq and the entire Middle East.

Kurds in Iraqi army proclaim loyalty to militia
By Tom Lasseter
Knight Ridder Newspapers

KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.

Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national army aren't gaining traction. Instead, some troops that are formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them think is inevitable.

CSM:Iraq's micro parties could play key role
Shiites and Kurds look to be big winners of this month's vote, but tiny parties could emerge as power brokers.

NY Times: G.I.'s to increase U.S. Supervision of Iraqi Police
The increase is seen as a way to exert firmer control over the commando units, which are suspected of carrying out widespread atrocities against civilians in Sunni Arab neighborhoods. Human rights groups here say the units may be guilty of murdering and torturing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Sunni Arab men of military age.
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American officials say it is unclear whom the units are taking orders from, the ministry or militia commanders. The minister of the interior, Bayan Jabr, is a senior member of the Badr Brigade.

Mr. Jabr is fighting the American plan to place more advisers in the Iraqi commando units, according to the senior American commander. "We'd know exactly what they are doing, and we'd have some more control," the commander said.

Momentarily, a summing of the year 2005, such as it was.