Days That Test the Truth as We Know It

Some days the paradoxes, ironies and plain old bullshit of trying to keep up with local, state, national and global events and politics are just a bit too bizarre. Today was one of them:

I. Rick Steiner vs Mark Hamilton.

University of Alaska President, Gen. Mark Hamilton has tentatively agreed to appear on Alaska Public Radio's Talk of Alaska with UA Prof. Rick Steiner on November 24th, to talk about freedom of expression on the UA campus, as long as Steiner agrees not to discuss Steiner's case.

Steiner's case is that he protested the lack of neutrality by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at a workshop about oil development in Bristol Bay. The workshop was partnered and partially funded by Shell Oil.

The whole setup was pure advocacy - for an oil giant. Steiner, by objecting to NOAA's dirty act, was doing what he felt was best in the situation - restoring a semblance of even-handedness to NOAA's ill-considered advocacy position. The consequence for Steiner was that a Bush appointee, with help from Hamilton proteges, had Steiner's NOAA funding terminated.

Recently, NOAA has announced that they intend to not recommend oil drilling possibilities in Bristol Bay, or look at it for a long, long time. Steiner was right. NOAA, in their Shell Oil advocacy, was wrong.

So, Steiner has been de-funded by one of his position funders for having been right. Hamilton, who brags about his award for supporting freedom of expression on Alaska campuses, is OK with talking to Steiner on the air, as long as Hamilton is able to veto Steiner's freedom of expression during the hour-long program.

II. Rep. Alan Grayson called out for calling ex-Enron lobbyist a whore.

Insulting sex workers and prostitutes worldwide, maverick Florida U.S. congressman Alan Grayson called ex-Enron lobbyist Linda Robertson, who is now working for bankster-in-chief Ben Bernanke, a whore.

Grayson made the comment in a radio interview in September. It has just surfaced, as both Republicans and Democrats in Washington D.C. are beginning to finally show some bipartisan support on an issue - Grayson. They may have agreed on throttling the first Democrat in a generation to have seized the moment as effectively as did Rep. Newt Gingrich, back in the very early 1990s.

Nobody wants to talk about Grayson's demand for an audit of the Federal Reserve. Few want to point out that the GOP has been far more strident in their accusations of Democrats' policies than has been Grayson about the GOP's.

III. The CIA has had the kingpin of the southern Afghanistan opium cartel on their payroll for years. His brother is the Afghan President.

And the Obama administration may have known about it since day one. It just surfaced today. No doubt, this has been leaked by Rahm Emanuel, to give Obama even more maneuverability in determining where the course of this awfully mismanaged war will go next.

Why am I not shocked that the CIA is aiding and abetting a guy heavily involved in a serious drug epidemic in the European countries. And why am I not surprised that - once again - the CIA is tied to the fucking narcotics trade.

But the biggest problem here is that as this drug trade in southern Afghanistan has grown, so has the power of the Taliban there. While the press says that the Taliban is getting a lot of their operating funds from opium, our guy (your tax dollars pay his CIA paycheck) is helping them.

So how is the GOP going to spin this one?

Or the Democrats?

image - drug kingpin and CIA operative Ahmad Karzai