the frig blig

This is the day that my country, the United States, has set aside to remember and honor our fallen (’killed in battle’) soldiers.

The number of foreign countries the US has invaded in my lifetime is large and getting larger. Here is a partial list:

1954: Guatemala
1956: Vietnam
1961: Cuba
1965: Dominican Republic
1970: Cambodia
1983: Grenada
1989: Panama
1990: Iraq
2001: Afghanistan
2003: Iraq

None of the above countries invaded the US; they were all invaded by the US, with varying degrees of ’success’. Will the length of this list double before I die? I don’t see this country’s modus operandi changing anytime soon, regardless of the opinion of it’s citizens. It works for the military-industrial complex, so their representatives will continue to control the federal government. And the numbers of memorious will continue to grow.

Raed Jarrar was the keynote speaker at last week’s antiwar demonstration in Portland, OR comemmorating the fourth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq (the US is still the occupying military force, not too popular with native Iraqis). Someone kindly videotaped his speech and posted it on youtube, here.

Jarrar also has a blog: In The Middle.

As reported by Jeremy Lovell in the Vancouver edition of the Globe and Mail, a leaked draft of the United States’ final communique for next month’s G8 summit in Germany reveals that the US wants to remove references to the urgency of global warming and the need for a new global deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

According to the draft, the US supports deletion of the following paragraphs:

“We firmly agree that resolute and concerted international action is urgently needed in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and sustain our common basis of living.”

“To this end we will, in the face of the UN Climate Change Conference at the end of this year, send a clear message on the further development of the international regime to combat climate change.”

The deletions are part of a concerted effort by the United States, which rejected Kyoto in 2001 and has ever since tried to undermine it, to water down the tone and content of the G8 summit declaration, Lovell reports.

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I was fortunate to host bin7674 during his stay in Seattle. He is a 25-year-old Korean 9-dan ex-insei. It was his first visit to America. I attended all of his 4 lectures at the Seattle Go Center (the first 2 were about higher-level josekis, the second 2 were aimed at kyu players). I also had the pleasure of his beating me during simuls, as well as two personal teaching games. He gave me some good pointers, and encouraged me to play more games and faster.

We also attended three Mariners’ baseball games together. The best one was last Friday when the M’s Washburn shut out the Yankees 3-0.

It was a pleasure getting to know him, although our schedules didn’t always coincide (I work 40-hour weeks and go to bed by 10, while he frequently arrived home around sunrise after a night of beer and karaoke). He was surprised to see so many Koreans here, and thought Seattle should have better mass transit. I hope he returns to this country (maybe for next year’s Go Congress in Portland).

Congressional Democrats in conjunction with assorted anti-war organizations are attempting (unsuccessfully, so far) to set a timed withdrawl of US troops from Iraq. Once our armed forces are freed up from that engagement, how long do you think it will be before they are deployed to Iran? Allow me to make a little prediction here: not very long! And the new deployment (aka invasion) will be fully backed by the Demublican or Republocrat President du jour. We will be defending our citizens from more terrorism!

Well I want no part of that future sham. I say, US out of Iran now!

Perhaps one reason the Bush administration wants them to stay in Iraq is, not to make Iraq more stable (a questionable proposition), but that it’s easier to stage an invasion of Iran from neighboring Iraq. Saves lots of logistics, much more efficient.

I am extremely curious how each presidential candidate would answer the question, “What is your stance on using military force against Iran?”

“By a vote of 5-4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today sharply limited the free speech protections of the First Amendment in violation of binding Supreme Court precedent.” Thus begins Representative Jim McDermott’s statement yesterday after losing the appeal of his conviction for disclosing an illegally-taped phone call to the New York Times and the Washington Post, both of which published stories about the call (a 1996 cellphone call including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, taped by another party before being given to Rep. McDermott). The appeals court argued that because McDermott was on the House Ethics Committee at the time he leaked the phone call, the Committee’s rules override the constitution’s first amendment right to free speech.

This is certainly good news for secrecy buffs. If the first amendment right to free speech may be overridden by a House committee’s rules, what other rules may override this right? And what about other rights formerly guaranteed by the US Constitution? Can they be overruled too?

Prez B nominated Michael Baroody to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission! Brilliant move Prez! No one (important) will notice or care, and your friends will make more dough!