“10:00 — Disclosing Classified Information

A longtime CIA officer was fired for undisclosed contacts with journalists. We discuss classified information, First Amendment rights and federal espionage laws.

Guests:

– Jeffrey Smith, rerporter, Washington Post

– Jonathan Turley, professor, public interest law, George Washington University Law School

– Anthony Lapham, attorney in private pratice, former general counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency”

“Political situation in Iraq (4:30)

Host Lisa Mullins speaks with Saad Jawad, professor of political science at the University of Baghdad, on the political situation in Iraq. Today Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld both paid surprise visits to Baghdad.”

Click the speaker icon to hear the four and a half minute peice.

huh…? wha…?

Oh. Right.

Sorry, I drifted off while reading the posts above. Something about…predictability…

Here’s my reply:

“You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.” http://www.venganza.org/index.htm#announce

How convenient!

Whenever two events take place in a sequence, one can attribute the second event to the first.

For example, Jerry Falwell attributed 9/11 to God’s hatred of Lesbianism.

And all those revolutions Winston cites above are just as due to the White House being inhabited by the current cast of ideo-savants as global warming is due to the diminution of piracy and 9-11 is due to Lesbianism.

This is called “Correlation implies causation” — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_implies_causation — a subspecies of logical fallacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_fallacy

“Recognizing fallacies in everyday arguments may be difficult since arguments are often embedded in rhetorical patterns that obscure the logical connections between statements. Informal fallacies may also exploit the emotions or intellectual or psychological weaknesses of the audience. Having the capability to recognize fallacies in arguments will hopefully reduce the likelihood of such an occurrence.”

From Wikipedia’s Correlation implies causation:

“Another example:

Ice-cream sales are strongly (and robustly) correlated with crime rates.

Therefore, ice-cream causes crime.

“This argument, and any of this pattern, is an example of a false categorical syllogism. One observation about it is that the fallacy ignores the possibility that the correlation is coincidence. We can pick an example where the correlation is as statistically “robust” as we please, but we still cannot assume one factor causes the other.

(You might also like to know that stepping on a sidewalk crack will break your mother’s back. Now, if I could just find a roadway whose concrete joints are responsible for Republican-leadership backs…)

Following Bush statement, Camp arrived in Kathmandu to relay the message to Nepalese domestic political actors including the parties and the King.

“The United States ’ primary objectives in Nepal are the restoration of multi-party democracy and the prevention of a Maoist takeover. We believe that reconciliation between the King and the political parties, and a return to democracy is the only path toward an effective counter-insurgency strategy and the restoration of security, government services, exercise of political rights, and respect for human rights,â€? Camp stated before the House Committee in Washington . ”

http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=8200

“by Tatiana Silana

It was really emotional: Bush smiling warmly and amicably at Yushchenko (and only once in a while at pretty Ukrainian journalists); Yushchenko’s spouse conversing at ease with Laura Bush; Russian journalists applauding violently; Rumsfeld looking very glad; Cheney wearing an orange tie; . . . ”

“Not only members of the Ukrainian delegation, but also the U.S. and European press called the visit Yushchenko’s and Ukraine’s triumph.”

“The Orange Revolution does not only belong to Ukraine. To many nations, it is an inspiring example of how to defend civil rights and win without any violence. The Ukrainian revolution was really unique, ”

“This fact is extremely important for the United States. Condoleezza Rice and Richard Cheney said once that “the USA won the cold war on an ideological basisâ€?. The victorious Ukrainian revolution has set a new example that the United States means to use in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries with early signs of nascent democracy. The USA regards Ukraine as a potential regional leader, capable of facilitating security and promoting democratic values in the region. Therefore, if Ukraine succeeds, it will not be only Ukraine’s success. ”

“The joint declaration signed by Yushchenko and Bush contains the following paragraph: “We undertake to cooperate in supporting reforms, democracy, tolerance, and respect for all communities, as well as in peacefully resolving the conflicts in Georgia and Moldova, and to support the advancement of freedom in such countries as Belarus and Cuba.â€?

http://www.orangerevolution.us/blog/_archives/2005/4/11/571496.html

The leader of the Lebanese opposition, a sharp critic of Washington foreign policy, says he’s changed his view of the U.S. war in Iraq, seeing it now as a catalyst for democratic change across the Arab world.

“It’s strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world”

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43010

http://www.radioopensource.org/striking-for-democracy-in-nepal/