Top Interior Official Resigns: "A top Interior Department official said he was forced to quit Tuesday because he challenged the department's claims that it is repairing a historically mismanaged trust fund for American Indians."

Gabrielle de Montmollin... Miss Milligan and La Belle Lucie, at the Dance. A brilliant new series of 30 photographs by one of our favourite fine art photographers, Gabrielle de Montmollin. From Art Is Hell. Works by Tony Calzetta and Gabrielle de Montmollin.

The United States Ousted the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mary Robinson, the outgoing United Nations human rights commissioner, discusses the U.S. role in her leaving: "'I am not somebody to just walk away,' Robinson, a former president of Ireland, told Reuters in an interview in Geneva. She said she would have agreed to stay if asked, but added, 'There seems to have been strong resistance from just one country.'
    "Robinson has had sharp differences with the Bush administration on several issues. They include her criticism of U.S. treatment of prisoners from Afghanistan being held at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; the idea of using U.S. military tribunals to try suspects on charges arising from the Sept. 11 attacks, and the lengthy U.S. detention without trial of some suspects.
    'I do appreciate that the United States was very traumatized by the attacks of Sept. 11 and geared itself for a situation of being at war,' she told Reuters. 'That meant that it did not put the same emphasis on human rights standards, and it was my job to say that human rights standards apply even more at times like that.'"

CIA Expert: Leaks of Classified Information Must Stop: "We’ve got to do whatever it takes – if it takes sending SWAT teams into journalists’ homes – to stop these leaks,” admonished James B. Bruce, vice chairman of the CIA's Foreign Denial and Deception Committee.

Foreign Denial and Deception Committee? Even the name spooks.

Fundamentally unsound
Left Behind, the bestselling series of paranoid, pro-Israel end-time thrillers, may sound kooky, but America's right-wing leaders really believe this stuff.

Israel is the key to the theology that dominates Left Behind, the chain of events that lead to the return of Christ depends on the existence of a Holy Land that is under catastrophic assault. No wonder the born-again lobby is obsessed with Israeli self-defense, but opposed to any peace plan.

Bush Admin Backs Bill for Offshore Energy Projects

Surface: "The Bush administration last week urged Congress to pass legislation giving the Interior Department authority to permit wind, solar and other alternative energy projects in federal offshore waters."

Beneath: "However, environmentalists fear the bill would allow the department to also easily approve facilities that are related to traditional oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, providing a shortcut to avoid jurisdiction by existing federal agencies."

Remember, folks: play Surface/Beneath with all corporate news items before ingestion! You'll be glad ya did!

Here is the sound of Homer Simpson introducing Paul Krassner. Here is Paul Krassner talking about his latest album--dedicated to Ken Kesey--and how the aforementioned snippet of Homer Simpson was supposed to be on it, but Fox said no. The Guardian reports: "The album, which was due out this month, pokes fun at President Bush, the US attorney general, John Ashcroft, and the 'war on terrorism'."

If you point out that Krassner is the "father of the zine," he will, for the umpteenth time, demand a paternity test. The Guardian also points out that Krassner is finishing up a novel about his friendship with the late Lenny Bruce. As always, Lenny lives on.

Bush Far Outspent Gore on Recount

Public Citizen, which advocates strong enforcement of election laws, said "the recount fund created by the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign evaded a soft money campaign finance disclosure law for 18 months and did not file required forms until the last day of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 'amnesty' program for out-of-compliance groups." [more]

Foundations are in place for martial law in the U.S.

Dr. Menlo has a posse comitatus?

New [Corporate] Secrecy Proposals Are Center of Homeland Security Debate: "The top Democrat on a House government reform panel accused the Bush administration on Wednesday of supporting a proposal she said would let corporations keep embarrassing secrets from the public by claiming they involve the security of important computer networks and other systems."

BUSH-CHENEY WHITE HOUSE OBSTRUCTS HALLIBURTON LAWSUIT: White House Refuses to Allow Complaint to be Lawfully Served On Vice President Cheny

Israel Epitome: This is Democracy?

Perhaps the most laughable condonation is Israel calling herself a democracy. America constantly reminds the world that Israel is the only democracy in the middle east, while other world leaders scratch their heads, recalling that nearly every regime in the middle east has been installed by the United States, including Saddam's Iraq. Israel's blueprint for a democracy is as follows: first and foremost you must share a single religion in order to share the full benefits of Israeli citizenship. Second, if your territory is annexed by Israel through occupation or war, count on being expelled or just living a terribly difficult life, as you have no recourse but blowing yourself up in Israel's democracy. Israel's 'democracy' is full of second and third class citizens, and many who don't even count as humans, even when they die. [more]

Trade Cards from the Daniel K.E. Ching Collection featuring racist depictions of the Chinese. Also... to put it all into historical perspective... Rough on Rats: Racism and Advertising in the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century. "...Show an image of a Chinese person eating a dog to enough people enough times, and that image will become a stereotype. Eventually, the portrayal of a Chinese person eating a dog will no longer be needed to elicit the stereotype of the Chinese as dogeaters. Simply show a Chinese person, and the stereotype of dogeating will be invoked within the viewer's mind."

"A digging through these images and sinking into them is recommended. At the least, they give the vanities and conceits of contemporary culture a little context." -- Michael Webb, MLWebblog

Yue Minjun... Farmer (1997, Oil on canvas). From Yue Minjun at Chinese Contemporary Art. "...After Fang Lijun and Liu Wei, Yue Minjun is the most important artist of Cynical Realism. He repeatedly uses his own image, in varying funny positions, always laughing with a cynical but infectious laugh. He laughs both at himself and at the apathetic spiritual void in present day Chinese society."

COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY
ACT COMPLAINT

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

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



BARBARA NITKE, THE NATIONAL

COALITION FOR SEXUAL FREEDOM, and

THE NATIONAL COALITION FOR

SEXUAL FREEDOM FOUNDATION



Plaintiffs, COMPLAINT



-against- Index No. 01 Civ.



JOHN ASHCROFT,

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA;



Defendants

lost in each other

also:
unconstitutionally vague


><((((º>

The Rogue Elephant, by Francis A Boyle

In quick succession the world saw these Bush Jr Leaguers repudiate the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, the International Criminal Court, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), an international convention to regulate the trade in small arms, a verification Protocol for the Biological Weapons Convention, an international convention to regulate and reduce smoking, the World Conference Against Racism, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems Treaty, inter alia. To date the Bush Jr Leaguers have not found an international convention that they like. The only exception to this rule was their shameless exploitation of the 11 September 2001 tragedy in order to get the US House of Representatives to give Bush Jr so-called "fast-track" trade negotiation authority so as to present the American People and Congress with yet another non-amendable fait accompli on behalf of American multinationals, corporations, banks, insurance companies, the high-tech and biotech industries, Wall Street, etc. The epitome of "globalization," American-style.

. . . There very well could be some itty-bitty "rogue states" lurking out there somewhere in the Third World. But today the United States government has become the sole "rogue elephant" of international law and politics. For the good of all humanity, America must be restrained. Time is of the essence! [more]

. . . via Jorn's Robot Wisdom

Am I some sort of gesture, am I a symptom of your despair

I am here to organize. I am here to be political. I am here to be a citizen in a pluralist democracy. I am here to be effective, to have agency, to make a claim on power, to spread it around, to rearrange it, to democratize it, to legislate it into justice. Why you? Because the world will end if you don't act. You are the citizen of a flawed but actual democracy. Citizens are not actually capable of not acting, it is not given to a citizen that she doesn't act, this is the price you pay for being a citizen of a democracy, your life is married to the political beyond the possibility of divorcement. You are always an agent. When you don't act, you act. When you don't vote, you vote.

Tony Kushner's commencement address at Vassar

Look What I Found! - Republican Electoral Strategy for the 2002 Elections

"Well, not me, really, but someone in Washington DC found a computer disk lying on the ground in a park (or maybe a street, I've heard both) and wouldn't you know it but the disc contained a Power Point presentation by White House Chief Political Adviser Karl Rove on Republican Electoral Strategy for the 2002 elections ...

Check out slide 19, Democratic strategies: Use Budget, Tax Cuts and Enron for Class Warfare. Yes, bringing up the fact that a low income family might actually need a tax break more than a multimillionaire does, that's class warfare all right ...

And, as if to definitively illustrate that fact, PBS Frontline last night aired a very good expose on the events leading up to the Enron scandal, including the deep complicity by Congress in removing regulatory barriers and enabling these sheisters to basically make up profits out of thin air. It's amazing the lengths some legislators will go to to make sure that the rich never have to do any actual work." - Matthew Duss

The Gary Sheraton Hotel (465 Broadway, Gary, Indiana). "...The exact date of the hotel's closing is difficult to pin down - no record in the newspaper exists. Most accounts place it in 1984 or 1985, but it could have closed even a few years earlier. Thus a symbol of failed urban redevelopment overshadows City Hall only a few steps away - the mayor and the city council park their cars in what once was the hotel's shared front parking lot." From Lost Indiana. A fabulous chronicle of the lost, abandoned, and derelect.

Depression and Islam.

"Al Yusra is here to provide information about mental health issues in Islam. We are coming towards the time that the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) mentioned in a hadith. This is the time when mental illnesses will be prevalent. One of the coming signs of the Day of Judgment is that people believers and non-believers will "lose their minds" and suffer from mental illnesses. These mental illness manifest themselves in a number of areas such as depression, paranoia, post-partum depression, pre-menstrual syndrome, amongst others.

There are solutions out there for the believers although there is very limited information that has been compiled in one place for Muslims. Our goal is to find all of the information available and place it here at Al Yusra. "

WTO Protestors Appear Prophetic

Say, you don't say . . .

Research Shows Alaskan Ice Mass Vanishing at Twice Rate Previously Estimated

israelinsider: Spreading the Secret

One of the best-kept secrets in Israel is that most Israelis are fed up with the occupation, and just want to get out.

According to June's findings by Mina Zemach, Israel's foremost pollster, 63% of Israelis are in favor of "unilateral withdrawal." In fact, 69% call for the evacuation of "all" or "most of" the settlements. [more]

E-mails Bare Coverup: "The Justice Department apparently didn't tell the whole truth when it denied that new curtains were meant to hide a bare-breasted statue that loomed over Attorney General John Ashcroft's news conferences."

Scott Ritter: Bush Could Not Do More For Al-Qa'ida

You don't allow a friend to drive drunk. We have now got a drunk at the wheel of America; Britain needs to take the keys away from him.

What George W Bush is proposing, taking military action against Iraq to eliminate Saddam Hussein, will effectively mean that Osama bin Laden will have won. [more]

House OKs Life Sentences for Hackers

Ex-U.S. Officials Warn that U.S. Policies Threaten Repression

Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and former FBI and CIA chief William Webster challenged administration policies dealing with terrorism suspects Tuesday, and Christopher warned that secrecy threatens to lead America down a path to repression... In a panel discussion of national security and civil rights, Christopher raised the specter of the kind of repression once common in Argentina.

MOACIR: Works by Moacir Soares Farias. "...Moacir Soares Farias is an artist that lives in São Jorge, a small village next to the entrance of the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park in the state of Goiás. 'Seu Nô' suffers from bone malformation, and has speech and hearing impediments. Nowadays he lives off his art, but before he searched for crystals. He began drawing on local stones using colored rocks when he was eight years old. Crying, he would often ask his mother to make his visions stop. Most of his works are done with crayons. He paints and draws his visions. According to him, the images he creates are all things he sees. Moacir has no formal art instruction, and believes in the beings he depicts in his paintings." New from Lost Art em São Paulo. (br)

This is hilarious: Scoobie's Interview With Ann Coulter . . . I found this just tonite via MeFi, and, perhaps, by coincidence, had never heard of Scoobie until yesterday (well, Monday now), when I saw him highly recommended by The Rittenhouse Review--another site which is new to me. Scoobie's main site is here.

I am also pleased to announce that both Scoobie and the proprietor of The Rittenhouse Review--James Capozzola--have both accepted invitations to participate at Warblogger Watch.

BECAUSE WE'RE JUST NOT KILLING ALL THE COOL STUFF ON EARTH FAST ENOUGH....
New bill allows the US Navy to use ultra high frequency sonar waves to detect the new quieter subs of China and Russia, more than likely harming marine mammals who use sonar themselves...bad enough- but the pathetic joke is that the 4 ships scheduled to use this sonar are "supposed to check visually to see if there are any turtles or marine mammals in the vicinity, and turn it off if there are..." Ummm... right.

"Environmentalists' fears are partly based on the Navy's deployment of a powerful mid-range sonar in March 2000 during a submarine detection exercise in the deep water canyons of the Bahamas.
At least 16 whales and two dolphins beached themselves on the islands of Abaco, Grand Bahama and North Eleuthera within hours. Eight whales died. Scientists found hemorrhaging around the brain and ear bones, injuries consistent with exposure to loud sounds."

Brothers and sisters, can I get a "Duh"!

Rantburg Reports - Tehran Coppers Tear Gas Workers

"Iranian police on Tuesday used tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesting workers in central Tehran after they tried to storm the labour ministry, witnesses told AFP. Hundreds of workers, protesting against low wages, pushed their way through the ministry's entrance in the centre of the city, witnesses said."

"They don't need jobs! They need religion! If they were devout, by Allah, they wouldn't worry about their families starving! Ardeshir, flog them!"

Operation RATS - the Retrograde Activities and Treachery System -

will be a nationwide program giving millions of American bigots, paranoiacs, nosy neighbors, snoops, snobs, and others a formal way to report innocent actions by others that offend them. Operation RATS, a project of the U.S. Department of Anachronisms, will begin as a pilot program in 10 cities that will be selected based on the number of statues they have erected to Senator Joseph McCarthy ...

Two Blogs of Interest to someone. But who???

Cointelpro Tool
"Manufacturing Consent since 2002" - and mincing no words about wrongheaded individuals, groups and viewpoints in the process!

WhatDIDN'Treallyhappen.com
"Devoted to smashing conspiracy theories and humiliating their purveyors!"

Posting these items feels a little like tuning in to Radio Moscow for better coverage of your own country's nuclear freeze movement ... or turning on Rush Limbaugh because he's sufficiently upset with your buddies that he's putting them all over the national airwaves for free. Perhaps someone's up for digging through the informational manure and "spreading it skillfully on the field of enlightenment," as the guru suggested.

Homeland Security May Require Environmental Sacrifices
The Bush administration's proposed new Department of Homeland Security could cause a variety of harmful environmental side effects, ranging from increases in invasive species to restricting the types of information available to the public.

Earlier in the week, House and Senate committees debated provisions of homeland security legislation that would exempt industries providing security information from the Freedom of Information Act.

One such provision would bar the federal government from disclosing information regarding environmental hazards, health hazards, product defects and other dangers, including reports of accidental spills. The exemption also would give industry shelter from the consequences of violating the nation's environmental, consumer protection, and health and safety laws...

Democrats Call Bush Global Warming Plan "Baloney"

"Demo-crats" . . . sounds vaguely familiar . . . what do these people do, again?

Oh, man, this is sad: Black Sparrow folds.

Martin was manager of a Southern California office supply company that did some printing when he read the work of writer Charles Bukowski in mimeographed magazines in 1965, and sought him out. Meeting over the next six months, the two men worked out a deal. Bukowski needed $100 a month in order to quit his post office job and work on the writing that was stacked waist-high in his closet. Martin gave up one-fifth of his monthly salary to sponsor Bukowski and become his publisher.

In an interview with Transit magazine before his death in 1994, Bukowski said, "Black Sparrow Press promised me $100 a month for life if I quit my job and tried to be a writer. Nobody else even knew I was alive. Why shouldn't I be loyal forever? And now the royalties from Sparrow match or surpass all other royalties. What a flashing heaven of luck."

The Great Charade
As the West prepares for an assault on Iraq, John Pilger argues that 'war on terror' is a smokescreen created by the ultimate terrorist ... America itself

It is 10 months since 11 September, and still the great charade plays on. Having appropriated our shocked response to that momentous day, the rulers of the world have since ground our language into a paean of cliches and lies about the 'war on terrorism' - when the most enduring menace, and source of terror, is them.

The fanatics who attacked America came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. No bombs fell on these American protectorates. Instead, more than 5,000 civilians have been bombed to death in stricken Afghanistan, the latest a wedding party of 40 people, mostly women and children. Not a single al-Qaeda leader of importance has been caught. [more]

. . . courtesy of Douglas Kellner of BlogLeft

Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency. "...Many Southern notes did not feature images of slavery; this exhibit focuses on the ones that did. This collection features notes issued and circulated in the South during the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Eras. Notes were issued by various entities, including the Confederate government, state governments, merchants, and railroad companies."

Nigerian Women Take On Oil Giant

Weapons of mass destruction
it's amazing how easy it is to become what you hate.
::
banksy
  
found thru ::
danklife

><((((º>

Marc Cooper interviews Gore Vidal: The Last Defender of the American Republic.

"I was in Guatemala when the CIA was preparing its attack on the Arbenz government [in 1954]. Arbenz, who was a democratically elected president, mildly socialist. His state had no revenues; its biggest income maker was United Fruit Company. So Arbenz put the tiniest of taxes on bananas, and Henry Cabot Lodge got up in the Senate and said the Communists have taken over Guatemala and we must act. He got to Eisenhower, who sent in the CIA, and they overthrew the government. We installed a military dictator, and here's been nothing but bloodshed ever since.

"Now, if I were a Guatemalan and I had the means to drop something on somebody in Washington, or anywhere Americans were, I would be tempted to do it. Especially if I had lost my entire family and seen my country blown to bits because United Fruit didn't want to pay taxes. Now, that's the way we operate. And that's why we got to be so hated."

(Some of it you've heard before, but not quite like this.)

MAMBO... Enjoy Privacy... MAMBO, Love and Underwear. From Works by MAMBO. "...MAMBO is an emerging artist of the hip-hop French scene, who started painting on the B line of the Paris subway. Half French, half Hungarian, born in Chile, he chose his afro-Cuban signature after an African proverb: 'If you have not studied, travel and paint the streets'."

Roy Edroso, Editor

"Roy makes decisions for Martin and writes the column Crank Watch. He also teaches English, writes copy, plays bass with Lach and the Secrets, and works as a freelance reporter. In the 1980s, Roy was a member of New York punk-rock sensations the Shaved Pigs and the Reverb Motherfuckers. More recently, he played with Lancaster County Prison. Roy lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn."

Roy's official site is here.

Roy Edroso, folks! Just one of the many talents currently over at Warblogger Watch!

First of all, let me say that my pseudonym is for literary fun . . . and my real name has been published on my blog as well as on Craig Jensen's (BookNotes). If you want to be a good sleuth, you can trace my actual identity back on the net to the first blog ever--links.net, which claims that the comedy newspaper I created at Georgetown--the Georgetown Gonzo--is the first comedy rag ever to be put on the internet.

Second, I don't take kindly to those who threaten lawsuit over information which is publicly available--that is, Dr. Weevil's real name--which is Michael Hendry.

Now, Blair may not found out, Weevil--but I will.

I'm calling your bluff.

Sue me.

Lori Nix... Accidentally Kansas. "...In 'Accidentally Kansas' I offer viewers the terror of the terrain - found not in the image itself, but in their own imaginations. Through the mind's own processes of massification my Dixie Cup sized pieces of wood and miniatures become large and looming, such as a nuclear reactor meltdown, even if it's just for a couple of seconds." From Lori Nix Photography.

The MIT Technology Review Wind Power Portal

[database systems to enforce control]

                        /\    noborder-camp July 19-28, 2002

                   /\  /  \   strasbourg

                  /  \/____\  www.noborder.org

                 /____\



P E O P L E   M O V E --- P E O P L E   C O M M U N I C A T E  

d.sec is about reflecting the mechanisms of repression/control in the fields of free movement and free communication, the experiences of electronic and physical bordercrossing. An attempt to integrate cyber-activism and taking the streets, and find the relations between social and technical skills. The wider objective is to give momentum to an ongoing exploration of technical potentials in the resistance against the border regime.


Mind-boggling audio interview on creating creating Database Systems to Enforce Control, with Jeffery Rosen. He discusses some of these technologies and what civil libertarians think of them.

Origins of the Christians for Cannabis Website - ABC

Surprisingly thoughtful coverage of why well-known Christian denominations are signing on.

Former Army Space Command Whistleblower Sacked - The Colorado Springs Independent Newsweekly

"The national missile-defense system is supposed to protect America against a nuclear attack. Biff Baker's job was to protect American taxpayers against getting ripped off by the agencies and contractors developing the system. When he did his job too well, he says, he was fired ..."

Terrorists Hang Ronald McDonald, Bush Vows Revenge Air Strikes Against Iraq

"We have incontrovertible evidence that this dastardly act of terrorism against this symbol of American freedom was carried out by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein," said President Bush in an address to the nation last night. "We will strike swiftly against the Iraqi menace who perpetrated this foul deed and let the world know that we will not tolerate terrorism of any kind."

Two Americans, One Brit Held Captive By Israeli Army

NABLUS - Israeli soldiers on Monday took Eric Levine, a U.S. human rights worker from New Haven, Conn.; Brian Dominick, a U.S. medical worker; and Peter Blacker, a U.K. medical worker to an army-occupied house near Nablus where they were made to stay under inhuman conditions, with no explanation, for over 45 hours. The detentions took place at 4pm on Monday, July 1.

The three were put in a small, unfinished room, out in the open. They remained in the open day and night without adequate shelter from the heat or nighttime cold. They were given one meal a day consisting of canned food and not allowed to use toilet facilities. The men repeatedly asked why they were being held and requested to make phone calls to their family and consulates, but were denied. Soldiers yelled at them, pushed them, and told them that if they tried to leave they would be shot.

Some Missing Kids Make The News, But Most Don't

Ann Coulter's Libels in Slander, via LAM

The G-8 and the American Empire, by Murray Dobbin

All the pomp and ceremony surrounding the meeting in Kananaskis would suggest serious democratic leaders grappling with intractable problems. The trouble is, the problems were created by this same gang. These are not statesmen. They are more like a political Hells Angels handing out toys to poor kids at Christmas to polish their image -- all the while running a protection racket for the world's most powerful corporations. [more]

While the Shrub recently spoke out against easing economic sanctions against Cuba to help out his brother Jeb's gubernatorial re-election campaign with influential American-Cuban voters after Diplomat Jimmy Carter's visit there (and speech vociferously recommending an end to the sanctions), Washington State just shipped their first apples to Cuba.

Waiting to Fight Climate Change Is Note a Viable Option, by Dr. David Suzuki

The Pentagon has some cool chemicals for you

The war on terrorism is gonna get a whole lot groovier...

The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives for Use as a Non-Lethal Technique, a 49 page report obtained last week by the Sunshine Project under US information freedom law, has revealed a shocking Pentagon program that is researching psychopharmacological weapons. Based on "extensive review conducted on the medical literature and new developments in the pharmaceutical industry", the report concludes that "the development and use of [psychopharmacological weapons] is achievable and desirable." These mind-altering weapons violate international agreements on chemical and biological warfare as well as human rights. Some of the techniques discussed in the report have already been used by the US in the "War on Terrorism".

The team, which is based at the Applied Research Laboratory of Pennsylvania State University, is assessing weaponization of a number of psychiatric and anesthetic pharmaceuticals as well as "club drugs" (such as the "date rape drug" GHB). According to the report, "the choice administration route, whether application to drinking water, topical administration to the skin, an aerosol spray inhalation route, or a drug filled rubber bullet, among others, will depend on the environment." The environments identified are specific military and civil situations, including "hungry refugees that are excited over the distribution of food", "a prison setting", an "agitated population" and "hostage situations". At times, the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) team's report veers very close to defining dissent as a psychological disorder.

...Most of the JNLWD team's weapon candidates are controlled substances in most countries. Some are widely used legitimate pharmaceuticals that are also drugs of abuse, such as Valium and opiates. The Pentagon team advocates more research into the weapons potential of convulsants (which provoke seizures) and “club drugs”, the generally illegal substances used by some at "rave" and dance clubs. Among those in the military spotlight are ketamine ("Special K"), GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutrate, "liquid ecstasy"), and rohypnol ("Roofies"). The latter two in particular are called "date rape drugs" because of incidences of their use on victims of sexual and other crimes. Most are DEA Schedule I or II narcotics that provoke hallucinations and can carry a sentence of life imprisonment.

Taking drugs to fight terrorism to take drugs to...

::Project Sunshine: Pentagon Program Promotes Psychopharmacological Warfare

New from Art is Hell... Photocopy Art by Tony Calzetta and Gabrielle de Montmollin. "...Tony Calzetta and Gabrielle de Montmollin are pleased to present their first collaborative artwork... a booklet of photocopy art to be distributed for free as part of FREE MANIFESTA, an open exhibition of nonmonetary artworks to be held in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from May 24 - August 25, 2002."

Police Murder Two Anti-IMF Protestors

Arafat Calls for Democratic Elections in the United States; World Reaction is Mixed, by Rahul Mahajan

"Mr. Bush is tainted by his association with Jim-Crow-style selective disenfranchisement and executive strong-arm tactics in a southeastern province controlled by his brother," said Mr. Arafat, who was elected with 87% of the vote in 1996 elections in the West Bank and Gaza, declared to be free and fair by international observers, including former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. "Our count shows that he would have lost the election if his associates hadn't deprived so many thousands of African-Americans, an oppressed minority, of the right to vote. He is not the man to bring peace to the Middle East." [more]

See also via Rahul: Of Lies and Oil

If you look at the larger picture in both the Bush and the Clinton administrations, including, of course, past U.S. history as well, you see a systematic pattern of privileging corporate interest and corporate profits more than any questions of real security. When U.S. officials talk about national security, it is usually a code word for protecting corporate profits and U.S. military dominance abroad.

Once again, with Afghanistan, it is very clear that a lot of balls were dropped in the investigation of Al-Qaida, in part because they were more focused on getting the Taliban to agree to establish stability in the country so Unocal could have its pipeline (which they are now again moving forward with) and getting a foothold on the immense potential oil and natural gas reserves of all Central Asia, not just Afghanistan.

There is a consistent story here. U.S. officials are much more interested in their dealings with corporations and shilling for them than they are in the safety of the average American. [more]

So why do the Warbloggers so aggressively tow the line?--Do they get a cut, or are they just stupid?