21 Reasons Rick Perry's Texas Is a Complete Disaster

♪♫ Deeder Zaman - Brothers & Sisters (IR25 Dubversive Mix)

Remembering Galdino In Ethiopia

Love the remixed 't' shirt too...
Via

CIA told Kennedy in 1960 that Cuba invasion plan was 'unachievable'

This week, in response to a FOIA request from the National Security Archives project at George Washington University, the CIA released most of its top-secret internal history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The 1200 page history was written between 1974 and 1984 by Jack Pfeiffer, who later became the agency's official historian. Four of the five volumes have now been posted on the NSA's website. A fifth volume, which critique's the Agency's own internal review of the incident is still classified.
The released documents contain a number of interesting revelations including a friendly-fire incident during which one of the CIA transport boat shot at one of the invasion force's own planes. Most interesting for presidential historians may be the minutes of a briefing given to President-Elect Kennedy on Nov. 15, 1960, during which the CIA task force expressed skepticism about whether the mission was viable with the small invasion force that the administration insisted upon, in order to maintain plausible deniability. They wrote:

Our [CIA's] original concept is now seen to be unachievable in the face of the controls Castro has institutued. There will not be the internal unrest earlier believed possible, nor will the defenses permit the type strike first planned. Our second concept (1,500-3,000 man force to secure a beach with airstrip) is also now seen to be unachievable, except as a joing Agency/DOD action. Our Guatemala experience demonstrates we cannot staff nor otherwise timely create the base and lift needed.

Reviewing the (still-classified) minutes decades later, Pfeffer wrote:

How, if in mid-November 1960 the concept of the 1,500-3,000 man force to secure a beachhead with an airstrip was envisioned by the senior personnel ... as "unachievable" except as a joint CIA/DOD effort, did it become "achievable" in March 1961 with only 1,200 men and as an Agency operation?

Good question, and perhaps some more ammunition for Tom Ricks' contention that Kennedy was "the worst American president of the previous century."
Joshua Keating @'FP'

Chain Reaction w/ Peter Hook & John Cooper Clarke

Chain Reaction is Radio 4's tag-team interview show. Each week, a figure from the world of entertainment chooses another to interview; the next week, the interviewee turns interviewer, and they in turn pass the baton on to someone else - creating a 'chain' throughout the series.
After Rhys Thomas interviewed Simon Day, Simon interviewed the musician and author Peter Hook. This week, Peter interviews a fellow Salfordian, the punk poet laureate John Cooper Clarke. Coming to prominence during the punk years of the late 70s, Clarke would appear on the bill with The Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, and Peter's own Joy Division - and Peter's next band, New Order, would support John on a tour of New Zealand and Australia. The interview takes in their shared Salford heritage, doing adverts in the 1980s, and John's recent appearance on the GCSE English syllabus.
Download/Listen @'BBC'

'...Hooky chatting to John Cooper Clarke? That's only a Mark E Smith away from Salford Bingo heaven!'

♪♫ JME ft Skepta - Tottenham

(Thanx SJX!)

Cost of detention? $113,000 per asylum seeker

A Eulogy for Google Plus

It may not be dead, and it’s entirely possible I’m shoveling dirt on something that’s still writhing around, promising me it is in fact the next big thing, but I’m now deaf to its cries. Google Plus is a failure no matter what the numbers may say. 25 million users in barely a month is nothing to sneeze at. Google Plus holds the honor of being one of the fastest growing websites in history, and these early numbers had analysts screaming that Facebook would be all but dead in a few more months.
But today I click on my newsfeed and see tumbleweed blowing through the barren, blank page. It’s a vast and empty wasteland, full of people who signed up but never actually stuck around to figure out how things worked in this new part of town. One simple click takes me back to Facebook, and my wall is flooded with updates and pictures from 400+ friends. This just isn’t a contest, and it never will be.
To know why G+ has failed, we must first look at how Facebook succeeded.
Facebook had exclusivity on its side, a once-upon-a-time fact we’re only reminded of when we watch The Social Network, but even when it expanded past college to the general population, it was a hundred times more user friendly and visually streamlined than MySpace. That site was destroyed by the tackiness of its own users with a propensity for glitter text GIFs and autoplaying pop songs, and when it failed to evolve, the exodus to Facebook was massive and unstoppable...

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Paul Tassi @'Forbes'

London Riots and the Coming Global Class War

CPJ: Israel Charges Al-Jazeera Journalist with Militant Ties

Hanni El Khatib - I Got A Thing

'Bed Peace' starring John Lennon & Yoko Ono

MESSAGE FROM YOKO ONO ↓
Dear Friends,
In 1969, John and I were so naïve to think that doing the Bed-In would help change the world.
Well, it might have. But at the time, we didn't know.
It was good that we filmed it, though.
The film is powerful now.
What we said then could have been said now.
In fact, there are things that we said then in the film, which may give some encouragement and inspiration to the activists of today. Good luck to us all.
Let's remember WAR IS OVER if we want it.
It's up to us, and nobody else.
John would have wanted to say that.
Love, yoko
Yoko Ono Lennon
London, UK
August 2011

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,
I have had so many of you contact me and ask if we can keep BED PEACE playing for longer, so I have decided to extend the deadline for another week -- until midnight on 21st August -- so everyone can get a chance to see it.
Tell your friends to go to http://imaginepeace.com/archives/15702 to watch the film, read about it, Tweet and Facebook message about it -- discuss PEACE with your friends.
GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
REMEMBER LOVE
IMAGINE PEACE: Think PEACE, Act PEACE, Spread PEACE.
i love you!
love,
yoko
Va

Tories' reaction to riots 'bonkers', say Liberal Democrat MPs

PythonJones Terry Jones

Well I suppose the Murdochs are going to jail - if the rioters are I guess it's only fair.

♪♫ Yves Montand - Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves)

"Autumn Leaves" is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song "Les Feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves") with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand (with Irène Joachim) introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit. The American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947 and Jo Stafford was among the first to perform this version. Autumn Leaves became a pop standard and a jazz standard in both languages, both as an instrumental and with a singer.