hahahahahahahahahahahahaha... laughter of a mad man? To be sure, it's not the hysterical laughter that bothers me, it's my inability to stop.

APN) ATLANTA Top Diebold corporation officials ordered workers to install secret files to Georgia?s electronic voting machines shortly before the 2002 Elections, at least two whistleblowers are now asserting, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

Who are these people? Who are these useless hanks of bone and fat that call themselves Senators of the United States? Let's call them what they really are, let's speak the truth about what they've done today with their votes on the bill to enshrine Bush's gulag of torture and endless detention into American law.

Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Sold our liberty to keep their coddled, corrupt backsides squatting in the Beltway gravy a little longer.

Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Cowards and slaves, giving up our most ancient freedoms to a dull-eyed, dim-witted pipsqueak and his cohort of bagmen, cranks and degenerate toadies. For make no mistake: despite all the lies and distorted media soundbites, the draconian strictures of this bill apply to American citizens as well as to all them devilish foreigners.

Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Traitors to the nation, filthy time-servers and bootlickers, turning America into a rogue state, an open champion of torture, repression and terror.

Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
Threw our freedom on the ground and raped it, beat it, shot it, stuck their knives into it and set it on fire.

Who are they? The murderers of democracy.
If there was an ounce of moxie left in the American system, these white-collar criminals would be in shackles right now, arrested for high treason, for collusion with a tyrant who is gutting the constitution, pushing terrorism to new heights and waging an unholy, illegal war of aggression that's killed tens of thousands of innocent people and bled our country dry.

There is no honor in them. There is no decency, no morality, no honesty - nothing but fear, nothing but greed, nothing but base servility. Cringing, wretched little creatures, bowing to the will of a third-rate thug and his gang of moral perverts. This is their record. This is their doing. This is the shame they will have to live with. And this is the darkness, rank, fetid and smelling of blood, that now covers us all.

from: Prison Planet:

In section 950j. the bill criminalizes any challenge to the legislation's legality by the Supreme Court or any United States court. Alberto Gonzales has already threatened federal judges to shut up and not question Bush's authority on the torture of detainees.

"No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever, including any action pending on or filed after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions under this chapter."

The Bush administration is preemptively overriding any challenge to the legislation by the Supreme Court.

Here's my haiku inspired by the disgraceful torture legislation:

Torture Bill Haiku

The Constitution
Was cast aside by Congress.
Hideous corpus!

Also, I want to let you know that I've moved my Notables political blog to Mad Kane's Political Madness.

A revolt is brewing among our retired Army and Marine generals. This rebellion--quiet and nonconfrontational, but remarkable nonetheless--comes not because their beloved forces are bearing the brunt of ground combat in Iraq but because the retirees see the US adventure in Mesopotamia as another Vietnam-like, strategically failed war, and they blame the errant, arrogant civilian leadership at the Pentagon.

----

This kind of protest among senior military retirees during wartime is unprecedented in American history--and it is also deeply worrisome. The retired officers opposing the war and demanding Rumsfeld's ouster represent a new political force, and therefore a potentially powerful factor in the future of our democracy. The former generals' growing lobby could acquire a unique veto power in the future by publicly opposing reckless civilian warmaking in advance.

----

I speak regularly to retired generals, former intelligence officers and former Pentagon officials and aides, all of whom remain close to their active-duty friends and proteges. These well-informed seniors tell me that whatever the original US objective was in Iraq, our understrength forces and flawed strategy have failed, and that we cannot repair this failure by remaining there indefinitely. Fundamental changes are needed, and senior officers are prepared to make them. According to my sources, some active-duty officers are working behind the scenes to end the war and are preparing for the inevitable US withdrawal.

----

The dissenting retired generals are bent on making Iraq this nation's last strategically failed war--that is, one doggedly waged by civilian officials largely to avoid personal accountability for their bad decisions. A failed war causes mounting human and other costs, damaging or entirely destroying the national interest it was supposed to serve.

----

The senior military dissenters will not rest until they indict the mistakes of Rumsfeld and his principal civilian aides at Congressional hearings. The military always plays this game of accountability for keeps. Should the Democrats gain control of a Congressional chamber in the November midterms, televised Capitol Hill hearings in 2007 will feature military protagonists speaking of "betrayal" and "tragically wasted sacrifices." The retired generals believe nothing would be gained, and much would be lost, by keeping the truth about Iraq from the families of America's dead and wounded.

Whalen includes analysis of the strategic debacle Bushco has created for the US as the "realists" see it and his view of the best possible way out, assuming the realists prevail, though the best may not actually happen. Anyway, he paints a picture of a military brass that wants civilian scalps for this disaster, which makes me wonder what kind of back room talk is going on between them and Dems. It's hard for me to imagine Dems leading a charge even if they win one of the houses, esp since Rove will call up the Swift Boat generals in response, but we're down to Hail Marys here so I hope they and the generals get their shot. Can't make things any worse.

Interesting (to me) aside, Whalen writes that Nixon's secret plan to end the Viet Nam war included a summit with the Soviets (leading to detente?) and an opening to China in return for their help getting us out. He also claims the end of the draft proceeded from the decision to exit Viet Nam. I'd never heard any of that. For what it's worth...

The story:

In 1983, Carlos Mauricio, a professor at the University of El Salvador, was abducted from his classroom by individuals dressed in civilian clothes who forced him into an unmarked vehicle. Mauricio was detained at the National Police headquarters in San Salvador for approximately a week and a half. During his first week in detention, he was tortured and interrogated in a clandestine torture center at the National Police headquarters as a suspected FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) commander. Mauricio's captors at the National Police headquarters strung him up with his hands behind his back over his head and repeatedly hit him with a metal bar covered with rubber, inflicting injuries to his face and torso. During the first 2-3 days of detention, he was given no food to eat. He was denied use of a bathroom throughout his confinement in the torture center.

In 2002, Carlos Mauricio, along with two other torture victims, won a $54 million verdict against two retired Salvadoran generals. He has continued to speak out against torture and other human rights abuses.

What Prof. Mauricio has to say about the US government's role in perpetrating torture:

I am here because I am a torture survivor, so it is very important for me to come and tell people what happened in that horrible experience. I was captured by the Salvadoran army in 1983 and I was tortured for nine nights in a row. It was truly horrible. But the idea of coming here to protest John Yoo is precisely because the legalization of torture in the United States is coming with the idea of torturing U.S. citizens. Torture is carried out now openly abroad. The USA army has been torturing prisoners for many, many years. It was reported in Vietnam, so it is nothing new. But the idea of making torture legal in the United States-because the U.S. Constitution forbids it-is very important if the government wants to carry out torture of U.S. citizens. I am very concerned about that because I do believe the rights of U.S. citizens have been eroded by the administration. You see right now we have disappearances-they are called "extraordinary renditions." We have clandestine cells being run by the CIA. We have the government of the USA torturing openly in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. So what is next? Next is here in the United States, openly torturing citizens of the United States. That is my concern. That's why I want to denounce John Yoo.

I am here because I want to tell the story of what happened to me because I don't want that story repeated in others. Torture is very, very horrible.

Nerdified link. My emphasis added.

I'd like those supporting this evil bill to spare me one affliction: Do not, please, pretend to be shocked by the consequences of this legislation. And do not pretend to be shocked when the world begins comparing us to the Nazis.

Uited Nations Human rights envoy to the Palestinian territories John Dugard has published a report Tuesday where he does not shy away from sharply criticizing Israel and the West for the situation in Gaza. "Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians and have thrown away the key," he said, adding that "in other countries this process might be described as ethnic cleansing."

At least someone's brave enough to speak the truth. The situation on the ground in Gaza is almost beyond belief.

When history judges early 21st century USA, the verdict will be harsh. The first decade of this century will likely be known as the decade in which the notion of "American exceptionalism" (a delusionary notion to begin with) died. What killed off the exceptionalist myth? Was it the initiation of multiple wars leading to carnage comparable to that of the Dresden air raids or Guernica? Was it the flagrant nose-thumbing of the rest of the international community as such carnage was carried out? Was it the relative apathy of US citizens and those representatives of the so-called opposition party in the face of ever-worsening human rights violations committed by a White House that can only be described as fascist? Those elements will certainly be among those considered in the court of historical analysis. The true death knell to the exceptionalist myth will be said to have occurred in the early fall of 2006 when a Republican-led congress (with the meek enabling of a Democrat minority party) made torture the law of the land and simultaneously trashed the standard of habeas corpus - a move that no doubt puts the might USA in the company of world powers past: Stalin's USSR, Hitler's Germany, ad nauseum.

Americans will take their place as largely conformist, authoritarian, and bloodthirsty - with a majority having few if any qualms in displaying a fetish for cruelty. The American character, far from civilized, will instead be remembered as one of savagery masquerading as sophistication. That is our legacy.

Why the fuck did the NY Post put this on the gossip page??? Since when, did an anthrax scare become fodder for the gossip pages? A serious crime has been committed,
and these fuck joke about it?

more, here...

Sez it all. Via Rusty Idols.

Why do Iraqis hate democracy?

This weekend, some of the nation's leading conservatives - from Tony Snow and Attorney General Gonzales to Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK) to Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity - appeared at the Family Research Council's "Values Voter Summit."

An hour and a half after Snow's speech, Bishop Wellington Boone, founder of the Wellington Boone Ministries, took the stage and announced, "I want the gays mad at me." Boone said that while "the gays" are "saying a few things" about him, "they're not coming at me strong." In an effort to change that, Boone declared:

"Back in the days when I was a kid, and we see guys that don't stand strong on principle, we call them 'faggots.' ... [People] that don't stand up for what's right, we say, 'You're sissified out!' 'You're a sissy!' That means you don't stand up for principles."

[Of course these people don't represent what the Bible really says about homosexuality. The Bible doesn't say to call homosexuals dirty names. It says to kill them, and Jesus Himself agreed. What a bunch of fags.]

"Youth Against Fascism" by Sonic Youth

It's a war on the "left" and "anti-globalization" folks, especially when they use the Internet. Anyone feeling targeted?

While Iran, and to a lesser extent Syria, remain the most active state sponsors of terrorism, many other states will be unable to prevent territory or resources from being exploited by terrorists.

Anti-US and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical
ideologies. This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack US interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly, more widely, and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint.

* We judge that groups of all stripes will increasingly use the Internet to communicate, propagandize, recruit, train, and obtain logistical and financial
support.

He confessed to anything and everything they wanted to drag from his hoarse, howling throat; he invented accomplices and addresses and culprits; and then, when it became apparent that all this was imaginary, he was subjected to further ordeals.

There was no escape.

That is the hideous predicament of the torture victim. It was always the same story, what I discovered in the ensuing years, as I became an unwilling expert on all manner of torments and degradations, my life and my writing overflowing with grief from every continent. Each of those mutilated spines and fractured lives -- Chinese, Guatemalan, Egyptian, Indonesian, Iranian, Uzbek, need I go on? -- all of them, men and women alike, surrendered the same story of essential asymmetry, where one man has all the power in the world and the other has nothing but pain, where one man can decree death at the flick of a wrist and the other can only pray that the wrist will be flicked soon.

It is a story that our species has listened to with mounting revulsion, a horror that has led almost every nation to sign treaties over the past decades declaring these abominations as crimes against humanity, transgressions interdicted all across the earth. That is the wisdom, national and international, that has taken us thousands of years of tribulation and shame to achieve. That is the wisdom we are being asked to throw away when we formulate the question - Does torture work? - when we allow ourselves to ask whether we can afford to outlaw torture if we want to defeat terrorism.(...)

Can't the United States see that when we allow someone to be tortured by our agents, it is not only the victim and the perpetrator who are corrupted, not only the "intelligence" that is contaminated, but also everyone who looked away and said they did not know, everyone who consented tacitly to that outrage so they could sleep a little safer at night, all the citizens who did not march in the streets by the millions to demand the resignation of whoever suggested, even whispered, that torture is inevitable in our day and age, that we must embrace its darkness?

Are we so morally sick, so deaf and dumb and blind, that we do not understand this? Are we so fearful, so in love with our own security and steeped in our own pain, that we are really willing to let people be tortured in the name of America? Have we so lost our bearings that we do not realize that each of us could be that hapless Argentine who sat under the Santiago sun, so possessed by the evil done to him that he could not stop shivering?... (more)

. . . let the Homeland Expurgation Begin! Cleanse these vile lands of all O'Reilly defamers, oh Holy Lord! You shall know the name of Fox, and fox is the WORD, my brother, my sister! Do not question FOX or you shall disappear, my brother, my sister!

Criticize not, lest ye be expurgated, too!

A great essay by Ed Herman.

Arlen Specter, habeas corpus, History in the making...

A group of local bloggers and activists has created a storm of controversy. From their press release:

"Western North Carolina News Network (WNCNN), created by local political organizer, Gordon D. Smith, is political satire presented as a cable news program in the vein of Steven Colbert's The Colbert Report and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. WNCNN will air weekly on Mondays on numerous internet sites including YouTube.com beginning on September 18, 2006. The series intends to highlight the shortcomings of Republican incumbent Congressman Charles H. Taylor through the use of satire, sarcasm, and visual humor."

Episode One - The Immigration Emergency

"Smith says of the show, "Too many people are turned off by dryly produced news programs and nasty campaign ads. WNCNN is a way to learn more about Charles Taylor and have a good laugh at the same time." Exclusively aired on internet sites, WNCNN's target audience is made up of the "netroots", a broad-based demographic of politically minded internet users. The weekly series will be available at Youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/user/wncnn), DailyKos, MyDD, BlueNC, Scrutiny Hooligans, and a host of other political blogs and websites. "Scores of political blogs and websites will link to the series and will advertise it through a graphic logo at their sites," Smith added, "We expect to have 10,000 viewers for our first episode, and we'll see where it goes from there".

Episode Two - Live On The Scene
Part I
Part II

"WNCNN is not affiliated with any campaign or political organization. It is an example of netroots activism with a sense of humor. The weekly series will, through newsdesk style performance and on-the-scene "reporting", lampoon the record and reputation of Congressman Taylor. "It's all in good fun," Smith says, "and it's a good way for people to learn more about the incumbent." To view the first installment and future installments, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/wncnn. To contact the show's creators, writers, actors, and producers, email them at wncnn@yahoo.com."

Thanks for watching! If you like what you see - CLICK HERE to get sidebar graphics for your blog or website!

CNN aired an interview with President Bush in which he declared that one day the Iraq war will look like "just a comma."

Yeah, 'Just a comma'

BLITZER: Let's move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war . . . We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see - you see it on TV, and that's the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there's also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people . . . Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is - my point is, there's a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)

Whereupon Karl was seen banging his head screaming "I said footnote! Footnote,you idiot!

A 23 isn't for everyone...I can't always listen to I can't always do emo/industrial etc... but when I'm in a dark space, it resonates, and Tom Sheer, aka A 23 is an excellent artist.

On my dark days I really like Assemblage 23

For the hapless TV watchers...

ALERT: Important HBO Documentary on Daniel Pearl, Saeed Sheikh
For those of you who are interested in 9/11 issues concerning Atta's financing by the ISI, rather than physical evidence, HBO is going to air a documentary called, THE JOURNALIST AND THE JIHADI: THE MURDER OF DANIEL PEARL.

From the commercial I saw, it will trace the lives of Saeed Sheikh and Daniel Pearl.

Most surprisingly from the commercial, the documentary will assert that Daniel Pearl was murdered because he was tracing the financing of 9/11 back to Pakistan -- an assertion that I understand Pearl's widow has been reluctant to make.

I am posting this especially for Paul Thompson, because in another thread he mentioned that he was interested in a number of upcoming documentaries and I want to make sure he is aware of this one.

.........

click on HBO DOCUMENTARIES CLIPS, you can see a one minute trailer. One of the lines is that Pearl was investigating how Al Qaeda was financed.

Also see, Daniel Pearl and the Paymaster of 9/11: 9/11 and The Smoking Gun that Turned On its Tracker

Do the math buddy.


This is an excellent expose of how the cover story's patsies were developed into the cover story led by an archvillain whose name Americans can pronounce.

Being able to say the villian's name is very important to marketing, y'know. "Mohamed Atta."

This makes me think that the suppression of the Able Danger datamining project is now part of the story line building up to the Atta-dunnit narrative.

This is an article written by Richard Hofstadter for Harper's Magazine in 1964. Most likely it will annoy some of you but you probably will still find it interesting. It certainly is relevant today, moreso actually as the creation and speed of conspiracy theories has grown considerably. You may find as I did that it presents a sort of view from the outside looking in. Or maybe you will think it is a load of crap without a single profound thought in sight.

This guy over at the tube has been kicking ass lately...
I luv the medium

Frank Zappa's "Regyption Strut" from Sleep Dirt. Wow. You know how girls used to scream at the Beatles? That's how I feel when I listen to a song from one of the best Jazz Rock albums ever: Frank Zappa's "Sleep Dirt". Like the politics too.

Not a great song, but right on just about every point. Except meat. Mmmmm....steers.

Russian Historian Kate Brown has just finished her study on a treasure trove of recently declassified documents of the Soviet Gulag. Harper's asks her to compare BushCo's system of American's recent policies of the GWOT to her NKVD, KGB, prisoners in the Gulag research.

Today, President Bill Clinton taped an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, which is scheduled to be aired Sunday. He was told the interview would focus on his nonpartisan efforts to raise over $7 billion to combat the world's biggest problems.

Early in the interview, Wallace attempted to smear Clinton with the same kind of misinformation contained in ABC's Path to 9/11. Clinton was having none of it.

ThinkProgress has obtained a transcript of the interview. Here are some highlights.

He also likes penis pumps. Can you feel the Joementum? Pump harder if you can't yet.

Related: One woman's attempt to get the morning after birth control pill. Short version: We're definitely in Handmaid's territory here.

A DEFENSE OF THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

Over at American Samizdat where I'm pretty much the John McCain Republican there was an attack on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Where Uncle Scam, who I mostly agree with despite his affection for the band The Afghan Wigs, said some things and quoted from some sources that I didn't agree with:

Gates Foundation: Helping the world, one murderous investment at a time.

Look at that list of corporations. Does any one of those represent your vision of what the world should look like in the future? It's almost a top ten list of the world's top environmental marauders.

Okay, let's offer some defenses here:

One.) There needs to some separation between what the evil company Microsoft does and what the Foundation does. Quite frankly, the foundation does wonderful stuff. They've saved, if this page is correct, about 1 million African lives with many more to come. Yes, there probably are attempts to build the Microsoft brand while they're saving poor people just like I'm stuck with Explorer and Explorer only in public libraries but who gives a fuck? If you're living in sub Saharan Africa and you're alive because of a Microsoft funded vaccine then I think you're okay with the branding.

Two.) I don't hate Bill Gates because he's autistic. A lot of smart people are. It's a combination of genetics and environmental poisons. Its not his fault. Perhaps his foundation can do something about that.

Three:) I think Bill Gates generally wants to help people through the Foundation. Yes, there's a branding component to it, but I don't think its the main thing.

Four.) I don't hate all capitalists. Some of them are very talented and have earned their money by offering innovative and exciting products and ideas. Bill Gates, even though you could argue that he was groomed to be a part of the ruling classes, earned his money through his ideas and his drive. It's not like he's incompetent like our President. The kind of guy who will kill, well, pretty much an unlimited amount of people in order to further the interests of the oil industry. Microsoft, while no saint, hasn't murdered a hundred thousand Iraqis to further its ends. And the Foundation does much much good.

Five.) Okay, so you're unimpressed with Bill saving, perhaps, millions of lives or that really cool school experiment in Philly (Quick Leno like joke:"Heard Microsoft is funding a school in inner city Philly...but then the school crashed and the 700 students were lost...(rimshot)!), what about the fact that it probably inspired Richard Branson to spend $3 billion to fight global warming, inspired Google to set up its own billion dollar foundation and probably inspired Craig Newmark (okay he might have done it anyway) to set up the Craigslist foundation. I might note that all of these men have exciting ideas about philanthropy. It's not United Way handout stuff. I've already applied for a grant from one of them and been turned down but I'll keep trying. Bottom line: Bill's foundation is encouraging Atlas not to shrug. And being that Atlas will drown with the rest of us if the worst case Mother of Storms global warming scenarios come true then that might be worthwhile.

Six.) How ethical is it to use profits from unethical companies to fund ethical causes. I don't know. But at least Bill is trying. What exactly are the good works of Exxon that they've done with their record ill-gotten, price gouging profits? I'll wait.

Seven.) Yes, I will be asking the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a small personal grant...And perhaps a yacht.

"Biscuit" by Portishead

"King of the World" by Steely Dan

and his "agreement" today serves some of the most evil principles ever supported openly by the United States government since slavery.

By Robert Parry

Having gone through the diplomatic motions with Iran, George W. Bush is shifting toward a military option that carries severe risks for American soldiers in Iraq as well as for long-term U.S. interests around the world.Yet, despite this looming crisis, the Bush Family continues to withhold key historical facts about U.S.-Iranian relations.

You guys really really need to read this...
I have followed Parry's work since 95. His was one of the very first websites I would visit on a regular basis back then. One of the very first muckrakers on the net imo. Always thought-provoking always digging deeper.Always one w/the story behind the story.

The United Nations has announced that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared and is expected to increase by 59% in 2006. The production of opium is estimated to have increased by 49% in relation to 2005.

...

The Vienna based UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the 2006 harvest will be of the order of 6,100 tonnes, 33 times its production levels in 2001 under the Taliban government (3200 % increase in 5 years).

Cultivation in 2006 reached a record 165,000 hectares compared with 104,000 in 2005 and 7,606 in 2001 under the Taliban.

...

According to the UN, Afghanistan supplies in 2006 some 92 percent of the world's supply of opium, which is used to make heroin.

The UN estimates that for 2006, the contribution of the drug trade to the Afghan economy is of the order of 2.7 billion. What it fails to mention is the fact that more than 95 percent of the revenues generated by this lucrative contraband accrues to business syndicates, organized crime and banking and financial institutions. A very small percentage accrues to farmers and traders in the producing country.

Anyone ever heard of the North American Competitiveness Council? I hadn't either - maybe if I'd read dailykos more closely...But as Maude Barlow - head of Council of Canadians that's leading the fight against destroying Canada - tells us, we best find out. It's one of the Kleptocrats shiny new vehicles for hollowing out our government's ability to protect us from their ravages, so it's impt. to start getting informed - and understand that their political lackeys code about making xAm. "competitive globally" is their code for saying it's our country now buster so screw you. (Too bad activists aren't focusing as much energy on fighting this as they are on foreign policy stuff. There's not even an Am. equivalent of Maude Barlow's organization.)

Since Paul Martin, Vicente Fox and George W. Bush signed the Security and Prosperity Partnership in March 2005, discussions on continental integration have gone underground.

...

Make no mistake, this process of harmonization is not about improving food, environmental and other norms; it is about priming North America for better business by weakening the impacts of such perceived obstacles as environmental standards and labour rights.

This is why the public has been kept in the dark while the business elite has played a leading role in designing the blueprint for this more integrated North America. In fact, they have been the driving force.

In June this year, their power was formalized when our governments created the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), an advisory committee comprised of representatives from the largest corporations in North America including Wal-Mart, Chevron, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Suncor and others.

Their goal is to make North America more competitive globally, which means weakening our government's ability to regulate industry, protect the environment or our social safety net.

Lockheed Martin's Ron Covais's statement to Maclean's magazine earlier this month about the role of the NACC was quite revealing:

"The guidance from the ministers was, tell us what we need to do and we'll make it happen."

Sadly, we the public are not informed of what big businesses are telling our ministers to do.

The NACC met in Washington on Aug. 15 to discuss its priorities, but we have very little information about what was said as it was not reported anywhere in the press. Kleptocracy Inc. Taking Over

So stylish that I couldn't tell it was about sex until my third viewing.

"No Peace" by Terranova

Link is here:

Prime Quote:

Paper ballots will not completely eliminate the threat of tampering, of course - after all, election fraud and miscounts have occurred throughout our history. As long as there has been a paper trail, however, our elections have been conducted with some measure of public scrutiny. But electronic voting machines are a hacker's dream. And today, for-profit companies are being given unprecedented and frightening power not only to provide these machines but to store and count our votes in secret, without any real oversight.

You do not have to believe in conspiracy theories to fear for the integrity of our electoral system: The right to vote is simply too important - and too hard won - to be surrendered without a fight. It is time for Americans to reclaim our democracy from private interests.

"City Girl" by Kevin Shields (very talented cartoonist)

"Reel Life" by Cinematic Orchestra...with a kickazz beat!

A bill approved by the U.S. House yesterday would require school districts around the country to establish policies making it easier for teachers and school officials to conduct wide scale searches of students. These searches could take the form of pat-downs, bag searches, or strip searches depending on how administrators interpret the law.

The Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295) would require any school receiving federal funding--essentially every public school--to adopt policies allowing teachers and school officials to conduct random, warrantless searches of every student, at any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Saying they suspect that one student might have drugs could give officials the authority to [strip] search every student in the building. [more]

Fabulous vid. Damn they were good.

A Conversation With Hermann Goering
an excerpt from Nuremberg Diary by Gustave Gilbert

Mofaz argued that any preemptive action - not necessarily launched by Israel - against Iran's nuclear facilities would need to employ tactical nuclear weapons.

I love the line here about 'any preemptive action - not necessarily launched by Israel'.

So, the US is supposed to bomb the heck out of Iran in Israel's behalf?

And what happens when our kids in Iraq get caught in the crossfire?

How will Iran respond, by throwing roses back?

And ultimately, how will Russia and China respond, as they have many key assets in the region via WRH blog

Scott Rothschild: Kline's memo blurs lines. Ministers who invited Atty. Gen. Phill Kline to their pulpits said Wednesday that the Republican preached the Bible, not politics. But Kline's leaked campaign memo on 'church efforts' showed that Kline saw his Sunday sermons as a way to raise more campaign cash in a tough race against Democrat Paul Morrison.

Bob Banta: Study says many Bible classes in Texas schools are biased. A course at Cedar Park High School on the Bible's influence in history and art won praise from a church-state watchdog group Wednesday that criticized similar courses in other Texas schools as "hostile to religious freedom, science, and public education itself." The Austin-based Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, a self-described "mainstream voice to counter the religious right," surveyed all 1,031 public school systems in the state last year and found that 33 taught or offered elective Bible courses at least once since 2001.

Daniel Hoare: Religious sect accused of political interference. After emerging at the last federal election, the secretive Christian sect, the Exclusive Brethren, is now accused of being behind a number of controversial political campaigns, both in Australia and across the Tasman.

[Yeah, but whe cares if religion encroaches on law since religion makes you smart and ethical?]

The coming police state begins to take physical form. Preemptive abroad, preemptive domestically. All aboard the disappearing express for any who are not with 'us'. This is from a lengthy article on Dissident Voice. You'll need to scroll dow to get to this part:

The Web and the New "Enemy Within"

As part of its drive toward a fascistic state, the regime has found a new "Enemy Within" -- and it's not just the Muslim Americans targeted for arrest, the Mexicans targeted for round ups and deportations, or the Blacks, Native Americans and "gang members" targeted for prison.

It's what they now call the "homegrown terrorist" -- apparently a most dangerous kind of terrorist, according to The Los Angeles Times; one almost impossible to track; one with no formal ties to known "networks"; one with no particular religion; a self-radicalizing "terrorist" whose "terrorist breeding ground" is the Internet and whose piper is not just "Osama Bin Laden," but the radical writer, the blogger, and the so-called "conspiracy theorist."

The BBC, in the opening line of a piece entitled US plans to 'fight the net', states it plainly: "Bloggers Beware."

The LA Times reports -- with a straight face -- "US officials said the enemy from within was posing a new challenge and a new danger."

The self-radicalized new "threat" doesn't fit previous "profiles," and the Feds are working overtime to build a new profile for these misfits. The Times says that according to one "terrorism expert" it's "very difficult to find someone like that, someone not from the Middle East, not converted to any religion."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made it clear; the new target is those who "are radicalized over the Internet." Citing the "threat" of "home grown terrorists" FBI director Robert Mueller said the FBI is focused on understanding the "radicalization" process.

L.A. police chief William Bratton plans to build a new national anti-terrorism training academy for cops to reinforce the idea of "getting the bastards before they get us." The Attorney General backed Bratton, framing it this way, "We know local police departments are in the best position to identify home grown radicals, so our network will be led by them."

In other words, if you're reading this essay -- or writing essays like this one -- you're a potential target; you may be engaged in a process of self-radicalization. If so, the FBI wants to "understand" you. They want to know what makes the thought criminal tick.

Make no mistake; thought crime, much of it bred by the relatively free flow of information on the Net, is costing the neo-fascists dearly and creating a hell of a "breeding ground" for "home grown terrorists" -- which is to say it is helping to create a social base for mass resistance to the emergence of home grown fascism and imperial war. A recent Zogby poll shows that 52% of Americans now question the "official story" of the 9/11 attacks, even as an overwhelming majority oppose the military occupation and colonization of Iraq.

This free flow of information is what the Bush regime calls "Subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation."

Oh, and here is a gratuitous self-radicalization "attack" : Critical Iraq report withheld to avoid "politicizing" Nov. 7th elections! Take that you control freaks!

Also, Lest ye forget ...The Pentagon's War on the Internet.


Could your social networks brand you an enemy of the state? As I have said, a several times, this illegel war is not only abroad, but here at home, you (yes, you the American people ) are the enemy. Also see: Bush Tags Bloggers As Terrorists!

From the creating their own realities (propagenda) dept:

Strategic Communication Laboratories

Strategic Communication Laboratories has pioneered a new methodology to enable governments and countries to manage their relationships with their key audience groups through more powerful communication.

In a world where the perception is the reality, all countries need to have the capability to manage their own perceptual alignment otherwise someone else will.

Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egypt's president, proposed Tuesday that his country pursue nuclear energy, drawing strong applause from the nation's political elite, while raising expectations that Mr. Mubarak is being positioned to replace his father as president.
...
He also said in a clear reference to the White House: "We do not accept visions from abroad that try to dissolve the Arab identity and the joint Arab efforts within the framework of the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative."

Rumor has it that Gamal has covert ties with "The Society of the Muslim Brothers" aka the Muslim Brotherhood.

Interesting Harpers interview with the CIA's Director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program:
Six Questions for Dr. Emile A. Nakhleh on the CIA and the Iraq War

6. Is there an inherent threat to Western democracies from the Islamic world?

No, there's only a threat from those who use Islam for ideological reasons and who are willing to employ violence. There are 1.4 billion people in the Islamic world and only a tiny minority, maybe 2 or 3 percent, are politically active. Just like Jews and Christians, most have kids to raise and bills to pay. Most view Islam as a personal and societal force, not a political one, and only a tiny minority becomes terrorists.
...

Well worth your time ...

AUSTIN - Texas politicians who receive suitcases full of cash may not be required to report the amount of it, according to a draft ruling by the Texas Ethics Commission.


Under the proposal, candidates for state offices could satisfy Texas disclosure laws by simply calling it "currency."


Watchdog groups deplored Tuesday's draft opinion by the agency established to monitor campaign-finance laws. Agency commissioners are expected to vote on it Friday.


"If the Texas Ethics Commission adopts this opinion ... public officials can take millions of dollars in cash and legally write 'currency' on their disclosure form," Craig McDonald, director of the Austin-based Texans for Public Justice, which favors tougher campaign-finance laws, said in a statement. "This interpretation of the disclosure law is absurd and dangerous."


The vote will come six months after the same commission ruled that a gift of two checks for $100,000 could be listed simply as "checks."


Texas requires all public officials to report cash donations in excess of $250. But the law, according to the Ethics Commission, doesn't define how much description is needed.


"In our opinion ... the legislative intent as discerned from the plain reading of the words in the statute is that the description of a gift is not required to include the value of the gift," stated the draft ruling, put together by agency staff.


Under the draft, a candidate could describe a gift of cash as "currency" and still be within the law, but describing a cash gift as "a piece of paper" or "an envelope" would put one outside the law, it said.


Agency staff said it hoped the Legislature would consider amending the law.

Can't wait...

Oh, and other things...

"I started the PEEPSHOW series of stencils as an homage to Pagan Moss. I've been a long-time fan of her blog and wanted to give her some love on the street. I think writers like Pagan - and their stark, honest, reporting on The Great American Skin Trade - have changed the face of 'sexy' in this country."

--Punch70

it's crude, blunt, effective framing -- you're either with us or with the paedophiles. you speak up against it, the noise machine will attack you as a paedophile, or a paedophile enabler.

And as someone asked: How much you want to bet that two years down the line they decide they should be prosecute anyone who pirated music, and hey what do you know, we already have all this data to mine!

Bush also praised the push for democracy in the middle east, referring to the goal as "the calling of our generation."


The October Surprise will get rolling about the 10th of next month.

President Cheney and his Amazing Meat Puppet will keep their whole Iranian sanctions pot a boilin' over until then. But they will not attack Iran preemptively.

That won't work, not after the debacle in Iraq. Nor will they actually engage in sanctions, a boycott or a naval blockade, which the world will neither observe nor countenance. They need a war, but America can't start it.

That's why the plan is for Israel to attack a few nuclear enrichment facilities inside Iran, using conventional bunker buster bombs. This won't accomplish a damned thing, since those bunkers are a full hundred feet underground. But it will let Bush hold up his hands and say, "There's jes' no holdin' them Israelis back, heh heh . . ."

Then, when mean, bad old Iran responds with missiles at Israel, at US troops, or at oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, or at Saudi, Kuwaiti or other oil fields, or simply stops shipping oil -- well, Bush will put on a ten gallon white hat, give a speech about brimstone and Jesus, and begin the 30-day 4,000-target bombing campaign that's been planned for well over a year.

He carries the speech in his breast pocket, and he reads it to his bathroom mirror every night after he brushes that crooked smile of his. He's ready. We're ready. We've already moved several aircraft carriers to the region, and now we're sending minesweepers to the Gulf from the first of October.

We're primed and pumped for CNN's next video war, but Israel has to start it so Bush can ride in on a white horse and save poor, defenseless Israel from the slavering Muslim hordes. And save Western civilization, too. And white wimmens everywhere, and kids, and puppies, and our precious bodily fluids. Just like Audie Murphy used to do.

Buy yourself some Exxon, some Blackwater and some Halliburton stock, or run the risk of working for a living from here on out.

Bush doesn't bluff. He's not going to lose this election and be investigated and impeached and imprisoned. None of the above. He's down to a pair of deuces, and not much left to lose. He's going to kick over the table, and start shooting. He figures it's a heap sight better n' playing out a losing hand.

A man has got to know his limitations.

Bush hasn't a clue.

If anyone, ever, anywhere, wants a proper definition of 'completely fucked', just have them read this...

Tony Judt's beautiful and acute essay on the state of American liberalism is well-worth reading. One wonders if "liberal" is destined to become yet another of those words, like "freedom" and "democracy", that have been hopelessly debased by the epigonoi of such noble traditions.