http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss thenervousfishdown@mac.com Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:22:45 -0400 Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:22:52 -0400 iBlog 1.4.6 Nicholas J. Kiersey NervousFishblog A current affairs and theory-focused blog by Nicholas Kiersey Nicholas J. Kiersey thenervousfishdown@mac.com NervousFishblog http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C420009346/E20060417002240/index.html NervousFishblog has now moved. Please update your bookmarks to point to the following URL:

http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/ ]]> Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:22:40 -0400 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C420009346/E20060417002240/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20060409105202/index.html http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060417fa_fact
THE IRAN PLANS
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
Issue of 2006-04-17
Posted 2006-04-10

The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.

Click 'Read More' for the rest of the article... ]]> Sun, 09 Apr 2006 10:52:02 -0400 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20060409105202/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20060216140035/index.html Collegiate Times
February 15th, 2006
Nicholas Kiersey, guest columnist

http://collegiatetimes.com/print.php?a=6486

This January, the University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mark McNamee sent a letter to over 30 Virginia Tech professors and instructors. His letter replied to several points made by these faculty members in an open letter they had published in the Collegiate Times late last fall. ]]> Thu, 16 Feb 2006 14:00:35 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20060216140035/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20060112113000/index.html http://www.slate.com/id/2134151/

Europeans hate America these days. So, why are they still buying our stuff?
By Daniel Gross
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006, at 4:54 PM ET

It is an article of faith among marketing types, Bush administration critics, and even awkward practitioners of public diplomacy, like Karen Hughes, that the unpopularity of U.S. foreign policy in Europe and the Middle East could hurt American economic interests. ]]> Thu, 12 Jan 2006 11:30:00 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20060112113000/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051223145707/index.html http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/21/EDGU6GAM691.DTL
- Robert Scheer, Creators Syndicate
Wednesday, December 21, 2005

FOR the Bush White House, the good news from Iraq just never stops. But the joy that President Bush has expressed over the country's latest election, though more restrained than his infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, will similarly come back to haunt him.

Soon after Bush spoke of the Iraqi election as "a landmark day in the history of liberty," early returns representing 90 percent of the ballots cast in the Iraq election established that the clear winners were Shiite and Sunni religious parties not the least bit interested in Western-style democracy or individual freedom -- including such extremists as Muqtada al-Sadr, whose fanatical followers have fought pitched battles with U.S. troops.

]]> Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:57:07 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051223145707/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051223144313/index.html http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051222.wiraq22/BNStory/International/
Thursday, December 22, 2005 Posted at 10:47 AM EST
Associated Press

Baghdad — Dozens of Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups threatened to boycott Iraq's new legislature Thursday if complaints about tainted voting are not reviewed by an international body.
A representative for former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi described the Dec. 15 vote as "fraudulent" and the elected lawmakers "illegitimate."

A joint statement issued by 35 political groups that competed in last week's elections said the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, which oversaw the ballot, should be disbanded.

It also said the more than 1,250 complaints about fraud, ballot box stuffing and intimidation should be reviewed by international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of the Islamic Conference or the Arab League. ]]> Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:43:13 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051223144313/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051223143142/index.html By Geov Parrish, AlterNet
Posted on December 20, 2005, Printed on December 23, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/29827/

The ever-widening scandal surrounding Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatens to take down at least a half-dozen Congressmen in 2006, more of their aides, Executive Branch employees, and untold numbers of other members of the Republican Beltway hierarchy. At least four dozen lawmakers from both parties are documented as having taken actions favorable to Abramoff clients around the time they received large donations from Abramoff and/or his clients.

It's a sordid tale of Washington corruption, and of crony capitalism at its worst, and it is so dizzyingly complex that few media outlets and even fewer members of the public have yet appreciated just how thoroughly it indicts not just Republican leadership, but the entire bipartisan way of crafting public policy that masquerades as 21st century American democracy. ]]> Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:31:42 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051223143142/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051130214550/index.html Is it me or is this a completely daft interpretation of South Park? I have a friend in the marine corps who loves South Park and Team America. He thinks it makes fun of the fictional people of Durkadurkastan. Sadly, however, he seems incapable of seeing how the movie makes fun of the protagonists by pushing their stereotypical perceptions of their enemies to an extreme. There is an irony then, because when he laughs at those extreme stereotypes, he doesn't see that the movie is using these stereotypes to make a commentary on America's 'heroes' (who accept these stereotypes unquestioningly and are thereby revealed to be incapable of sophisticated thought and seeing nuance).

I first starting reading the article below hoping it might say something to help me understand my marine friend better. However, all it seems to do is reproduce a slightly more intelligent version of the same cognitive dissonance. The argument below basically suggests that we should ship shit loads of South Park videos over to the Middle East so that people will see how ridiculous Saddam Hussein really was! Are you kidding me???

Wouldn't that be a candidate for the most counter-productive propaganda strategy in the history of propaganda? Rest assured, this move would do NOTHING to undermine the Iranian regime. Instead, it would do just the opposite. Can you imagine 1000s of kids across the Middle East laughing their heads of at 'those stupid Americans and their ridiculous stereotypes of us'?

Upon watching South Park and Team America, I think there is only one thing an Iranian would want to do. That is, join Al Queda right away in order to better defend all right thinking human beings against those gun-toting buckaroos...

~N

http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/comment/woolsey200511290838.asp

November 29, 2005, 8:38 a.m.
Al Qaeda Killed Kenny!
Carting Cartman off to war.

By R. James, Suzanne, Robert, Daniel, and Benjamin Woolsey ]]> Wed, 30 Nov 2005 21:45:50 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051130214550/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051116210440/index.html College life reporter for the Roanoke Times, Greg Esposito, mentions tomorrow's protest of the CIA at Virginia Tech here:

http://blogs.roanoke.com/campuswatch/archives/2005/11/cia_recruiting.html   ]]> Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:04:40 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051116210440/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051114213111/index.html Twisted reasoning on the McCain Amendment, as published in the Clarion Ledger...

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051104/OPINION/511040317/1009   ]]> Mon, 14 Nov 2005 21:31:11 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051114213111/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051114212708/index.html DAILY BRIEFING November 14, 2005

By George C. Wilson, CongressDaily

This document is located at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1105/111405fo.htm

If Vice President Dick Cheney and his allies in the Bush administration manage to kill an amendment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would forbid the CIA or other U.S. government entities from torturing captives, brutal foreign governments will be less inclined than ever to observe the narrow firebreak between life and death when abusing U.S. prisoners.

That cause and effect has been cited by McCain and others who have felt and seen the dark side of vengeance while held prisoner by another nation or an enemy.  ]]> Mon, 14 Nov 2005 21:27:08 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051114212708/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051114212121/index.html *** PRESS RELEASE *** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

PLEASE FORWARD

HEADLINE: Virginia Tech Students Protest Intelligence Agency Recruitment on Campus, Submit Letter To President Steger

CONTACT: Nicholas Kiersey or Devin Stone
EMAIL: nkiersey@vt.edu; devins@vt.edu
PHONE: (540) 250-3056; (540) 250-0939

Blacksburg, VA November 13, 2005 - A coalition of concerned graduate students and campus organizations at Virginia Tech are this Thursday staging a 'teach in' to protest CIA recruitment on campus. Planned events also include the protest of a 'career information' session to be held by the CIA later that evening.

[Click 'Read More']  ]]> Mon, 14 Nov 2005 21:21:21 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051114212121/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051111214343/index.html Friday, November 11th, 2005

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/157256

We speak with journalist Jane Mayer of The New Yorker as the Senate rejects demands for an independent commission on torture and the US military. We look at whether CIA agents are being allowed to kill detainees in their custody. [includes rush transcript]

The Republican-led Senate has rejected a Democratic effort this week to establish an independent commission to investigate the U.S. military for its interrogation practices. The 55 to 43 vote was split largely along party lines.   ]]> Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:43:43 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051111214343/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051111212903/index.html http://print.signandsight.com/features/399.html

2005-10-17

Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben is a beacon for an entire generation of young intellectuals across Europe - and a flighty eclectic.

By Daniel Binswanger

With his collarless shirts and dark suits, he comes across like something of a cleric. In fact the newest rage among philosophers at German universities is not lacking in prophetic aura, even if his thinking is not exactly Catholic. On the contrary, his ideas are more like present day pessimism, reminiscent of the Gnostics, with their mystic counter-utopias and disdain for the world, according to whom Creation was the reprehensible work of an evil God. But regardless where the theological, mystical, philosophical and other roots of Giorgio Agamben's thinking are to be found, the Italian philosophy professor has become a remarkable fashion phenomenon.  ]]> Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:29:03 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051111212903/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051111212503/index.html This article is permanently archived at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2379/

[On Thomas Barnett and his imperial mapping ~ NiK]

By Phyllis Eckhaus

November 4, 2005

Banish those nasty guilt twinges over America's ambitions to empire. Getting a jump on the holidays, Thomas P.M. Barnett is marketing a feel-good guide to conquest and capitalism, a sequel to his bestseller, The Pentagon's New Map. In Blueprint for Action, the Esquire editor and former Defense Department strategist declares that we're doing the world a favor by bombing our way to global free enterprise.

Brash and breezy, Barnett's plan for world conquest comes complete with its own video game vocabulary: The industrialized West is the Core. The Third World is the Gap. The aim of the game is to "shrink the Gap" by deploying the Leviathan, America's "high-speed, high-lethality and high-precision" warfighting capacity, "a force for global good that ... has no equal."  ]]> Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:25:03 -0500 http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/iblog/C1395755667/E20051111212503/index.html