Cartoons, Two Responses: "Islam, like all of us, has two choices."
Child Rape Yes, Magic Cookie No: Communion denied Senator Kerry on orders of Cardinal who confimed the Crimine Soliciaciones.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (The Mormons): "Learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints than most LDS members know."
Dr. Condoleezza Rice: "Could it be that Dr. Rice is okay with people of non-traditional sexuality?"
Evolution and Those Who Prefer Not to Evolve: "This atheist hopes to see you down here in the foxholes soon, tovarish."
FEMA Funding Clergy to Quell Unrest: "Should United States clergy go along with martial law they will be doing God's work."
For Religious Purposes: "If keeping an amputated body part is legal as long as it is for religious purposes, would a court forbid an atheist from owning his or her amputated body parts? What about someone keeping their amputated body part for aesthetic reasons?"
Happy Birthday Anne Gaylor: "Nothing fails like prayer."
I Am Going to Murder Christians On Sight: "Nobody ever really said the above."
Jesus is a Busy Fellow: "Jesus had time to tell Focus on the Family to give Jimmy Buffet's new album a bad review, but not enough time to focus on the families being killed in Iraq"
Kill 'Em All, Let God Sort 'Em Out: "How awesome that magic spells are going to take care of the vets that Bush isn't going to take care of!"
Metzizah B'peh: "the practice of adult men sucking blood from the mutilated genitals of infant boys."
O ye who believe: "It seems that the invisible monster that lives in the sky is fed by blood and deceit."
Oh, But He's Not a Real Christian: "There is a basic problem with the logic of saying that he's not a real Christian because real Christians do not behave in that way."
Olympic Security: "How many articles have you seen on the real history of religious terrorism at the Olympics?"
Outing: "When a person has a private habit that harms/benefits only themselves and those who make informed decisions to be involved, it's just plain nobody else's business."
Paul Crouch: "Paul Crouch is a good Christian man. He is one of the multi-millionaires behind TBN."
Paying the Piper: "First, get the votes (such votes as not generated by rigged machines, that is)."
Preserving Our National Heritage: "The bill, which was passed 247-173, would prohibit federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from hearing cases involving the Ten Commandments and would prevent federal courts from preparing, serving or consuming lamb prepared with the milk of it's mother."
President Bush Violates Executive Order 12333 2.11 and 2.12: "Just in case all the other arguments for the impeachment and war crimes trial of President Bush fail, here's another one."
Prudishness: "Three people cost Fox $1.2 million."
Rescuing Values from Christianity: "We can start with a reminder that whatever a person holds as a moral value, they hold it because it is true."
Satanic Ritual Abuse: "Between the Christian panic over Dungeons and Dragons and the Christian panic over the Internet came the Christian panic of 'satanic ritual abuse.'"
Twenty Recommended Art Links: books and paper, old art, random art.
U. S. Senator David Vitter: "I guess the voters of Louisiana haven't learned anything yet about Sen. Vitter."
Unit Bias as a Stressor for Media Piracy: "People with a sense of unit bias need to fill their ipods but the means to do so legally are not as readily available as the means to do so illegally."
We Don't Try to Do Illegal Things: "What do you do when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar?"
What We're Up Against: "Sixty percent of those asked believed that the story of Noah and the ark literally occurred word for word as described in the Bible."
Who to Believe?: "What makes secular bodies superior to religious bodies is that they can freely admit error and change for the better."
As well as an original piece by the late Kerry Wendell Thornley titled Saint Distaff's Day.
Somebody at the Guardian should take a refresher course in basic English after that one. Is the FCC fining fakers, or are they saying that faking is fine? Funny, there's so much fanfare for frivolous fakery while federal-level fictions frequently fail to be fettered.
Ahmedinjad was nicely verbally assassinated by the University President before he even reached the stage. The anti ahmedinjad protests had all the 'innocence' of a nazi youth rally during the olympics and the Pres. of Columbia university bollinger appeared to be the more 'fanatic' & fundamentalist, perhaps bollinger holds the bill o'reilly chair of moral philosophy, ahmadinejad, hardly the sharpest engineer in the metalshop but verily at columbia he was einstein before the apes. Any decent human being, - in any formal cultural setting, in any nation of this planet - would at least have let the invited guest speak his words and then afterwards, allow him to answer questions. There was no need to begin with insults.
You know like the goons who tazered Andrew Meyer, Bollinger seems to be oblivious off the cultural image he projects but don't take my word for it, watch it or read it for yourselves.
Trevor Blake: President Bush Violates Executive Order 12333 2.11 and 2.12
On February 22, 2003, President George W. Bush met with President José María Aznar of Spain at President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Information about that meeting is is now online [article] [transcript]. Some excerpts, translated by way of Metafilter:
Bush: I prefer the 10th. This is like good cop, bad cop. To me, it doesn't matter who is the bad cop and that Blair be the good cop. Aznar: Is it true that there's a possibility for Saddam to be exiled? Bush: Yes, it's a possibility. Also that he be assassinated.
Executive Order 12333 2.11 Prohibition on Assassination: No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.
Executive Order 12333 2.12 Indirect Participation: No agency of the Intelligence Community shall participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden by this Order.
Now might be a good time to repeat comments and questions I made in January 2007: In no way is the fact that George Bush considers himself not subject to the Constitution of the United States a difficult to find fact. Why is it that most Americans aren't up in (metaphorical) arms that the rule of law has been suspended in their country? Where's that 'class consciousness' the left speaks of, the correcting mechanism that is activated by oppression and that causes oppressed groups to act in their own best interest, not in the interest of the rulers?
Craig Murray is a valuable voice on the internet. I've read everything on his site, he has credible information and is unafraid to speak the truth as he sees it. No doubt he is irksome to many, and not just Russian billionaire mafia types.
Craig Murray is the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and he exposed complicity in torture and quit to go whistleblower.
Recently he outed the British military's role in enabling the massive Afghanistan opium crop. I would think that would be why he's getting cyber-censored.
Interesting that football is being offered as a reason.
Alcohol surveys spur complaints A motorist who was stopped wants a halt to voluntary testing that is so "persistent" it feels like a DUI checkpoint. By Christopher N. Osher Denver Post Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 09/18/2007 06:12:59 AM MDT
Roberto Sequeira says he was traveling northbound on Hwy. 119 in Gilpin County with his family one night recently and was stopped at a traffic checkpoint by a research group saying they were attempting to collect data on drugs and alcohol and asked if they could breathylize him. Posing for a portrait in his car in Boulder on Monday, Sept. 17, 2007, Sequeira says he repeatedly asked if they were law enforcement officials and said he was not interested in participating in the study, but was not given clearance to leave. (Post / Kathryn Scott Osler)The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office was apologizing Monday after a weekend effort to help a research group led to complaints about what appeared to be a DUI checkpoint - but wasn't.
Sheriff's officials who participated in the stops now acknowledge that the nonprofit organization requesting voluntary DUI and drug tests from drivers was overly persistent, according to complaints.
"It was like a telemarketer that you couldn't hang up on," said Gilpin County Undersheriff John Bayne.
Sgt. Bob Enney said deputies assisted the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in stopping motorists at five sites along Colorado 119 for surveys on any drug and alcohol use. Surveyors then asked the motorists to voluntarily submit to tests of their breath, blood and saliva. At least 200 drivers were tested, Enney said. About five motorists later complained, he said.
Roberto Sequeira, 51, said he and his wife, Terry, were detained for 15 minutes Friday evening despite their protestations that they needed to get their sleepy 10-year-old child back to their home in Nederland.
He said they had to deal with two Pacific Institute researchers. After Sequeira's repeated refusals, the officials offered his wife, who was driving, $100 in an attempt to get the couple to participate in a DUI breath test.
Unfortunately, it says only 5 people out of at least 200 complained, so the sheeple are getting what they deserve.
Also Buried in the September 5 issue of the Federal Register, was a notice that last Thursday, September 20th, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) held public hearings on their Secure Flight Plan. (pdf) Of course it wasn't announced very loudly if you know what I mean.
Beginning in February 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement their ¨Advance Passenger Information System (APIS),¨ the gist of which is that you will need permission from the United States Government to travel on any air or sea vessel that goes to, from or through the U.S. The travel companies will not be able to issue a boarding pass until you are cleared by DHS. This applies to ALL passengers, US citizens and visitors alike. And how do you get said permission to travel? That´s for your government to know and you to never find out.
Now TSA proposes to do for domestic travel what APIS will do for international routes. That´s what I said: the new TSA rule would require that you obtain PERMISSION to travel within the U.S.
Here is the summary of their proposed rules, which seem so reasonable, couched as they are in the blandness of governmenteez [emphasis added].
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to assume from aircraft operators the function of conducting pre-flight comparisons of airline passenger information to Federal Government watch lists for international and domestic flights.
[snip]
This rule proposes to allow TSA to ... receive passenger and certain non-traveler information, conduct watch list matching ... and transmit boarding pass printing instructions back to aircraft operators.
[snip]
TSA would do so in a consistent and accurate manner while minimizing false matches and protecting privacy information.
Right. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn...
We propose that, when the Secure Flight rule becomes final, aircraft operators would submit passenger information to DHS through a single DHS portal for both the Secure Flight and APIS programs. This would [result] in one DHS system responsible for watch list matching for all aviation passengers.
Don´t you feel great knowing that your government will use economies of scale to protect you?
Edward Hasbrough states that these rules are more insidious than merely complying to demands for ¨Your papers please.¨ He states,
The proposal ... require[s] that travellers display their government-issued credentials not to government agents but to airline personnel (staff or contractors), whenever the DHS orders the airline to demand them. But since the orders to demand ID of [certain passengers] will be given to the airline in secret, ... travellers will have no way to verify whether ... demands for ID are actually based on government orders.
Think about that: you will not be allowed to verify if the person demanding your papers is actually authorized to do so. In addition, the airlines or their contractors (or sub or even sub sub contractors) have the right, under the proposed rules, to do anything they like with your personal information including:
keep copies of your passport ... as long as they like, use it, publish it, broadcast it, sell it, rent it, or pass it on to whomever they please.... [T]hey would have no obligation to get your permission for any of this.
Aside from the privacy issue, this is the DHS. Their past performance is an indication of future returns and we can look forward to true travel nightmares beginning February 19, 2008. Just think about the mess that occurred when CBP demanded that travelers to Canada and Mexico have a passport. Multiply that by orders of magnitude to imagine what travelers will be facing.
If you can, please attend the TSA hearings on Thursday (Grand Hyatt Washington, 1000 H Street, N.W. beginning at 8:00am). If you can´t attend in person, you have until October 22, 2007 to submit written comments through the Docket Management System. The docket number is TSA-2007-28572.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States...
This YouTube clip is an old clip that's not referring to the past month's events regarding Blackwater.
What's important about the clip is the example of the "Play Dumb/Inept" strategy.
"What law governs their actions?" the student asks.
"I was gonna ask (someone else), heh heh," the pResident replies.
But wait:
Bush issued Executive Order 13303 on May 22, 2003 by United States President George W. Bush to protect the Development Fund for Iraq for the rebuilding of Iraq from any legal attachments or liens. Further, it protects Iraqi oil products and interests and ownership by US persons (defined to include US corporations) from attachment as well. Executive Order 13303 also terminates sanctions specified in EO 12722, EO 12724, EO 13290, as it applies to the development fund. In effect, EO 13303 provides an extraordinarily broad legal shield for any and all contractors and mercenaries working in Iraq on behalf of US corporations in any oil related enterprise.
Bush certainly did not write EO13303 but, Bush certainly knows about EO13303. His liability was explained to him, so that Bush could generally evade answers to questions (such as the student's) and not be caught by surprise.
What's important here is (a) we don't react with disgust and contempt for Bush's inappropriate "humor" because (b) the strategy of "Play Dumb/Inept" is more important and more dangerous.
Team Bush/Rove/Cheney and their handlers have smartly crafted a strategy which uses most Americans' disgust for incompetence, for ineptness, for bad grammar, for Southern U.S. stereotypes, for social inexplicata against them.
The American Middle Class is being destroyed by justifiable but minor Middle Class prejudices.
A very well written article about what is really going on in Iraq as it relates to sectarian violence and a failed government.
n the past, few outsiders have expressed much sympathy for the Sunnis, those Saddam-loving authoritarians, but that has recently begun to change. Now that the White House has labelled the Anbar sheiks “heroes,” and the Shia government is described as pro-Iranian and anti-American, we are beginning to see a sudden outpouring of sympathy for Sunnis in the Western press. This will probably be short-lived, because the Sunnis have a talent for making themselves despised. But intellectuals and journalists are, to an astonishing degree, sentimental, and fawn over cultures like high school kids with a new crush. If you protect us and tell us your story, we like you and are very sympathetic—for a while. If you try to kill us or, worse, treat us with contempt, we’ll demonize you. The Sunnis treated Westerners with contempt under Saddam, tried to kill us during the insurgency, and were vilified. Now they are weak and friendlier. It is the Shia government that is contemptuous, and its militias life-threatening, so journalists aren’t quite so enthusiastic anymore.
A special agent with the Department of Commerce has been charged with unlawfully accessing a database within the Department of Homeland Security to stalk his former girlfriend and her family. Benjamin Robinson, 40, of Oakland, Calif., was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Jose Wednesday in connection with allegations that he accessed a government database known as the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS) at least 163 times to track a woman's travel patterns. He is being charged with making a false statement to a government agency, and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer. Robinson faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of US$500,000.
Who watches the Watchmen? Apparently not enough people.
You can pretty much bet that at some point, someone has been digging around in your shit.
The North Carolina investigation was first brought to light by State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, who mentioned it, perhaps inadvertently, this week while denying he had improperly blocked fraud and corruption probes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Howard Krongard?
No relation to the CIA Executive Director Buzzy Krongard of course, who managed the same firm that handled the 9/11 put options on United Airlines stock?:
A.B. ("Buzzy") Krongard was a participant or observer in the following events:
June 3, 2002: The Results of 9/11 Related Insider Trading Inquiries Are Still Unknown A rare follow-up article about insider trading based on 9/11 foreknowledge confirms that numerous inquiries in the US and around the world are still ongoing. However, “all are treating these inquiries as if they were state secrets.” The author speculates: “The silence from the investigating camps could mean any of several things: Either terrorists are responsible for the puts on the airline stocks; others besides terrorists had foreknowledge; the puts were just lucky bets by credible investors; or, there is nothing whatsoever to support the insider-trading rumors.” [Insight, 6/3/2002] Another article notes that Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, purchased at least some of these options. Deutsche Bank Alex Brown was once headed by “Buzzy” Krongard, who quit that company in March 2001 and became Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “This fact may not be significant. And then again, it may. After all, there has traditionally been a close link between the CIA, big banks, and the brokerage business.” [Business Line, 2/11/2002]
January 9, 2005: Newly Departing CIA Executive Director Says It’s Better If Bin Laden Remains Free A. B. “Buzzy” Krongard, the CIA’s recently departed Executive Director, says in an interview that the world may be better off if bin Laden remains at large. Krongard had been Executive Director, the CIA’s third most senior position, from 1998 until six weeks before this interview. He states, “You can make the argument that we’re better off with him [at large]. Because if something happens to bin Laden, you might find a lot of people vying for his position and demonstrating how macho they are by unleashing a stream of terror.” The London Times notes that, “Several US officials have privately admitted that it may be better to keep bin Laden pinned down on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan rather than make him a martyr or put him on trial.” However, Krongard is the only senior official to say so publicly, and this position completely contradicts the rhetoric of the Bush administration, which has consistently claimed that catching bin Laden remains a top priority. [London Times, 1/9/2005]
WASHINGTON - Once her son is off to school, Laura Mansfield settles in at her dining room table with her laptop and begins trolling Arabic-language message boards and chat rooms popular with jihadists.
Fluent in Arabic, the self-employed terror analyst often hacks into the sites, translates the material, puts it together and sends her analysis via a subscription service to intelligence agencies, law enforcement and academics.
Occasionally she comes across a gem, such as when she found a recent Osama bin Laden video — before al-Qaida had announced it.
And the most important ironic part? Aside from the obvious disconnect between "average mom" and "hacker/linguist"? Well, this:
There have been times when an impending video release has kept her from a planned shopping trip with her daughter.
I'll share this, I was at a artsy fartsy party down in San Fran bay several years ago and political scientist Michael Parenti happened to be there, some how the topic turned on that of Bush's incoherent inarticulate speech, everyone was insulting Jr. in between puffs and coughs of high grade pot smoking, and Parenti looked over at me and said, "if you thibnk Bush is a dumbass, then he is fucking you up one side and down the other, these guys don't run the most powerful country in the world because they are stupid."
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by U.S. President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq.
No God Zone questions Ron Paul's libertarian credentials:
The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders’ political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion.
No God Zone counts the references to God in the constitution: zero.
Also of note, from the comments:
Local laws are easier to change and easier to avoid. But that doesn’t mean local violation of rights is okay. It is just another version of the “love it or leave it” school of thought. I argue from a rights perspective and it is wrong to violate rights at ANY level of government.
Ron Paul said it is the government’s funciton to support “traditional marriage” so he is willing to have his view enforced by the state. He only bickers over at which level the coecion should be done. That may be Constitutionalism but it is not libertarianism.
I realize this isn't a libertarian blog, but I think this is something we can (mostly) agree with here.
This recent Memri analysis found that most Iraqi jihadist sites were hosted in the United States. I've had questions since seeing this about how they're paid for and why they're allowed to continue in business. Only questions, you understand.....
The Al-Ramadiforum http://rmadi.top-me.com/login.forum?redirect = ISP: SoftLayer Technologies Inc., Dallas, TX, USA
The Shumukh Al-Islam forum http://www.shmo5alislam.net/vb/ ISP: R & D Technologies LLC, Las Vegas, NV, USA
The 'Alam Al-Romansiyyaforum http://vb.roro44.com/index.php ISP: Layered Technologies Inc., Frisco, TX, USA
The Al-Faluja forum: Supporting Jihad in Iraq http://www.al-faloja.org/vb/ ISP: SoftLayer Technologies Inc., Dallas, TX, USA
The website of Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiyya Hamas-Iraq http://www.hamasaliraq.com/ ISP: Layered Technologies Inc., Frisco, TX, USA
The website of Al-Jaysh Al-Islami fi Al-Iraq http://www.iaisite.info/ ISP: Zipa LLC, New Orleans, LA, USA
Blog devoted to the Baghdad Sniper http://www.juba-online.blogspot.com/ ISP: Google Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA
Blog devoted to Iraqi terrorist organizations http://aboaumir.modawanati.com/ ISP: Carpathia Hosting, Ashburn, VA, USA
Blog featuring video messages by prominent Islamist figures (e.g. Al-Zarqawi) http://almagribi.blogspot.com/ ISP: Google Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA
It seems like everything we are told is a lie. EVERYTHING. If it wasn't a lie, it wouldn't need to be told to us, it would be obvious and we would know it. If we were winning the fake "war on terror," the stories wouldn't say "We Are Winning," they would say, "Drugs Found in Venezuelan Tanker," or "Threat of Global Warming Forces Innovative New Pre-emtive Climate-Saving Intervention Strategy," or some such other drivel. Anyone can make up the sad rationalizations the press bombards us with 24/7; it is evil child's play, a simple parlor game.
Ten years ago, the big new "thing" on the web was called "push technology," i.e. finding ways to prevent user choice -- the one feature which made the medium so attractive -- and shepard users into "portal sites," where they would be treated to the same gamut of advertising propaganda that they get 24/7 in every other activity of modern life.
CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden will release a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, al-Qaida announced Thursday.
The announcement of the upcoming message came as al-Qaida released a new video in which bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts. ... A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.
"Soon, God willing: 'Come to Jihad (holy war)', from sheik Osama bin Laden, God protect him" the banner read.
"Urgent, al-Qaida declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Osama bin Laden," it read.
Such advertisements usually precede the release of the video by one to three days, according to IntelCenter, a U.S. counterterrorism group that monitors militant messages.
After the recent dubious 'Bin Laden tape', with only still pictures while the voice over talked about recent events, plus the above also dubious hosting issues, we should judge this 'new evidence' carefully no?
Certainly gives Musharraff something to point at as a justification of major crackdown in Pakistan eh?
No video, only voice over. Released by Laura Mansfield Mansfield, is an Arabic translator and former Associate Director of the Northeast Intelligence Network [1]. Mansfield is a contributor to World Net Daily and FrontPageMag.com. Both neo-con websites.
The CIA will confirm that the voice is Bin Laden's (via speech synthesis, but who will care) and when in the near future some outraged Pakistani will try to ouster Musharraff, the 'Bin Laden tape' will justify to kill them as 'Al-Qaida terrorists'.
Carlos Arredondo, 47 year old father of two sons, arrived in the nation’s capitol on Monday, 09/10/07 to share a memorial he has made to honor for his eldest son, Alex. Carlos has visited thirty of the United States with the traveling memorial to his son Alexander. Lcpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, USMC was killed on 08/25/04. He was 20 years and 20 days old. The memorial consists of a casket, poster- size photographs of Alex when he graduated from boot camp, before his second tour in Iraq, lying in state at his wake, and a photo of Alex with his younger brother Brian.
Saturday, September 15, 2007 consisted of first a rally, a march towards the capitol and then a die-in. Carlos pulled the memorial along the march route approaching the rotunda near the capitol building. Several of the marchers requested for him to speak about the memorial where a crowd gathered around him. After finishing, several people walked with Carlos as he pulled the memorial. Several pictures of Alex dressed in his blues were attached to the display.
As Carlos passed counter protesters, one man ripped a picture of Alex from the memorial. Carlos leaped on the man to retrieve the picture. It was at that point that approximately five others all began to attack Carlos by kicking him in the head, legs, stomach and back.
This is actually from an incident a couple weeks old. Still, it's important to note the continued blurring of lines between neo-nazis, the minutemen, and the "border regime" of ex-military, U.S. Border Patrol and Wackenhut goons and their ilk.
“J.T.” Ready, a prominent Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteer and anti-immigration activist based in Phoenix, has been flitting around the edges of the neo-Nazi movement for more than a year now, quietly creating a profile on the racist social networking website New Saxon and attending a private gathering organized by the neo-Nazi organization National Vanguard.
But when the National Socialist Movement held an anti-immigration rally in Omaha, Neb., on Sept. 1, the leader of the Americans First nativist extremist group was making his public debut as a full-blown neo-Nazi. Photographs (above) captured a grinning Ready, clad in a grey business suit, standing side-by-side with NSM members who wore brown-shirt uniforms with swastika armbands. Any doubt that Ready was an open white supremacist, as well as a hard-line nativist, evaporated at that point.
SIMI VALLEY, California, Sunday, September 16, 2007: At 10 a.m., 40 pro-immigrant supporters and about 80 Minutemen and their supporters gathered on each side of the driveway leading to the parking lot of the United Church of Christ on Royal Avenue where Liliana took refuge from the Immigration Services. During the protest, a small group of three Minutemen came on the pro-immigrant side apparently to provoke. Pro-immigrant supporters complained to the Simi Valley PD, but to no avail. Despite the angry protests of immigrant supporters, the police didn’t force the Minutemen to move, Half an hour later at 11: 12 a.m. a Minuteman pepper sprayed Naui Hutizilopochtli, an immigrant activist, so badly that he had to be taken to the hospital by paramedics.
Igor Smirnov, founder of the Psychotechnology Research Institute, died of a heart attack in 2005. Smirnov is best known in the United States for consulting with the FBI during the 1993 Waco siege.
A dungeon-like room in the Psychotechnology Research Institute in Moscow is used for human testing. The institute claims its technology can read the subconscious mind and alter behavior.
MOSCOW -- The future of U.S. anti-terrorism technology could lie near the end of a Moscow subway line in a circular dungeon-like room with a single door and no windows. Here, at the Psychotechnology Research Institute, human subjects submit to experiments aimed at manipulating their subconscious minds.
Elena Rusalkina, the silver-haired woman who runs the institute, gestured to the center of the claustrophobic room, where what looked like a dentist's chair sits in front of a glowing computer monitor. "We've had volunteers, a lot of them," she said, the thick concrete walls muffling the noise from the college campus outside. "We worked out a program with (a psychiatric facility) to study criminals. There's no way to falsify the results. There's no subjectivism."
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gone to many strange places in its search for ways to identify terrorists before they attack, but perhaps none stranger than this lab on the outskirts of Russia's capital. The institute has for years served as the center of an obscure field of human behavior study -- dubbed psychoecology -- that traces it roots back to Soviet-era mind control research.
The United States Senate celebrated this week's 220th anniversary of the Constitution by failing to endorse the restoration of the habeas corpus protections that legal scholar Albert Venn Dicey once described as being "worth a hundred constitutional articles guaranteeing individual liberty."
Of all the insults to the nation's founding principles that have been recorded in this era of undeclared wars, unwarranted spying and unlimited executive excess, none is more galling than this one.
That a single senator, having sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, would vote against the renewal of habeas corpus protections ought to be a shock to the system.
That 43 of them -- enough to block a cloture motion that would have allowed the Senate majority to undo the damage done by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 -- is evidence of the depth to which the Republic has sunk.
The founders of the American experiment left no doubt of the commitment of the new United States to the rule of law and right. While Madison, Mason and their contemporaries assumed that habeas corpus protections would be embraced and respected by all Americans who understood the point of their revolt against the British crown, they specifically added a notation to the Constitution stating that, "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it."
In absence of rebellion or invasion, the Congress voted last fall -- at the behest of then-White House political czar Karl Rove, who hoped in vain that fear-mongering might renew Republican electoral prospects -- to suspend habeas corpus protections for suspects deemed to be "unlawful enemy combatants" by the Bush administration.
Wednesday's cloture vote provided an opportunity for senators to recommit themselves to the Constitution.
Of the 56 votes to restore habeas corpus protections, 49 came from Democrats and one from Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats. Six came from Republicans: Nebraska's Chuck Hagel, Indiana's Richard Lugar, Oregon's Gordon Smith, Maine's Olympia Snowe, Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter and New Hampshire's John Sununu.
Of the 43 votes against the Constitution, 42 came from Republicans and one from Independent-Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the Bank of China, must sympathize with the plight of poor Raoul, the waiter whose good service is rewarded with a brick to the back of his head.
In a 2004 episode of the US cable network series The Sopranos , New Jersey mafia boss Tony Soprano takes the senior leadership of his crime family to an expensive dinner at a casino restaurant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
There they enjoy multiple rounds of the best cuts of steak, lobster and the finest beverages; it is Tony's nephew and heir apparent, the sobriety-, impulse-control-, fidelity- and literary-talent-challenged would-be part-time Hollywood screenwriter and full-time thug Christopher Moltisanti who gets stuck with the US$1,184 check.
Christopher is none too happy with this situation; he is particularly enraged that his fellow goomba Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri sent over an expensive bottle of Cristal to two young ladies he classified as "skanks" at an adjoining table. He leaves a $16 tip, for an even $1,200. The waiter, Raoul, is none too pleased with this, and he comes out to the parking lot to complain to Christopher about his stinginess.
There was no problem with his service; he feels he deserves more. Standard American tipping protocol calls for gratuities to amount to about 15% of the check, which, in this case, would have called for a $177.60 tip.
Christopher is in no mood for interlocution. As in most scenes in The Sopranos up to and including solemn religious observations, the situation rapidly descends to exchanges of rank obscenities. As Raoul turns away to return to work, Christopher throws a brick that hits the waiter in the head.
Father, mother, sister, brother, Uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, Soldier, sailor, physician, labourer, Actor, scientist, mechanic, priest Earth and moon and sun and stars Planets and comets with tails blazing All are there forever falling Falling lovely and amazing - Nick Cave
The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.
Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "House of Wisdom." ... Stone said he wants to identify "irreconcilables" -- those detainees whose views cannot be moderated -- and "put them away" in permanent detention facilities. Psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and interrogators help distinguish the extremists from others, he said.
Pentagon has compiled the casualty stats collected at the level below Petraus. They don't match. That must be one heated debate leaking out of the five-sided fortress.
The University's Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Affairs plans to pick a new name by the end of the semester in an effort to be more inclusive. Gabe Javier, an LGBT affairs assistant, said the current name doesn't represent allies - members who suport the group regardless of whether they fit into any of the categories mentioned in the title. "Part of it is that the letters are more exclusive than inclusive," Javier said. "There are lots of people who are part of the LGBT community that may not identify as a lesbian, bisexual or gay person."
Personally, I think Kerry was an absolute pussy for not trying to put a stop to it. The kid was asking a freaking question. Sure, he was irate, but since when is it illegal to be irate?
This is pretty typical of modern law enforcement. They are unable to maintain order because they have no respect for the citizens they're supposedly sworn to protect. They barely see civilians as humans, which is why they will use a lethal weapon such as a taser on a fellow human being not to protect themselves or the public, but to force compliance via pain, because it's more convenient than doing their job.
The thing to remember is that tasers are supposedly an alternative to deadly force. Any cop who uses a taser in order to enforce compliance should be fired and given a jail term at the very least. This is about training the public to be afraid. Further, this is about methodically introducing fear into a 'total institution'*. Teaching our kids to fear authority and more importantly not to ask questions of our elite on a campus setting.
*Total institution from answers.com, in it, it describes the Total institution as social microcosmos dictated by hegemony and clear hierarchy. Total institutions include some boarding schools, concentration camps, prisons, mental institutions and boot camps. But wait, that is only the begining, the ones you can see.
I suggest we look at this transmogrification as if it were a continuum, if we take it a logical step further, you can see the continuing results of Panopticon like institutions and systems you can't normally see through this lense. Answers.com points out that, "..sociologists [anthropologist's and other scientists have also recently pointed out that] tourist venues such as cruise ships and theme parks are acquiring many of the characteristics of total institutions. Tourists may not be aware that they are being controlled, even constrained, but the environment has been designed to subtly manipulate the behavior of patrons."
What about shopping malls , college campuses, gated communities, retirement communities, city/State government e.g. the DMV etc, the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA).
I have stated before, it seems as if we are covertly and methodically being herded into a mental plantation, by a system that has gladly inherited the worst of both the Soviet and Nazi germany type authoritarian means of control and governship.
A "quasi-Soviet/facist/totalitarian system." A "Kafkaesque" bureaucratic i.e. State induced non- static labyrinth. Whose rules change only for the elite and not the governed.
A NEW Zealand pro-cannabis groups says it has scientific evidence that cannabis can stop the development of mad cow disease.
It was not clear whether the findings applied to both cows and humans.
The National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml) said a French study showed cannabidiol might be effective in preventing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, the New Zealand Press Association reported tpday.
Scientists at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France found cannabidiol - a non-psychoactive ingredient - may prevent the development of prion diseases (progressive neurodegenerative disorders), the most well known of which is BSE, Norml said.
Researchers found cannabidiol inhibited the accumulation of prion proteins in infected mice and sheep.
Norml spokesman Chris Fowlie said the discovery added to the scientific evidence supporting a bill from a New Zealand Greens MP to legalise the medicinal use of cannabis.
"(It) should be supported by any MP with a clear head. Unfortunately most politicians act like mad cows whenever cannabis is mentioned," Mr Fowlie said.
A federal appeals court panel has refused to reinstate a lawsuit brought against Caterpillar Inc. by the family of a 23-year-old peace activist crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer.
The three 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges unanimously ruled that the lawsuit presented foreign policy questions best left to the White House.
Rachel Corrie, of Olympia, was crushed in 2003 by a 60-ton Israeli bulldozer as she stood before a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip. Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, sued Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar, which manufactured the bulldozer, seeking to hold the company civilly liable for aiding and abetting human rights violations -- the destruction of civilian homes.
Of course this would change everything, if private security firms/contractors (aka mercenariness) were to be controlled the whole plan in Iraq would collapse. So, I am very sure this is only temporary. And if so, if these corps come home, they come home with their taste for blood money.
Iraqi Brigadier-General, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, confirmed that a mortar had landed close to the convoy and said the US firm had 'opened fire randomly at citizens'.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has strongly condemned the company's actions and denounced what he called the criminal response of the US contractors.
And today Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani issued an order to cancel Blackwater's licence and prohibit the company from operating anywhere in Iraq.
This Blackwater story is big. The US relies on its mercenaries. If their license remains revoked and they are kicked out, then this is the beginning of the end. It sets a precedent for all other mercenaries.
Of course this means, Maliki and al-Bolani will be gone or dead soon.
The Bush administration has taken several important and little-examined measures to institutionalise the privatised warfare model forged in Iraq, making it a permanent fixture of foreign policy. In July 2006, Bowen, the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, issued a report on "lessons learned" from the various contractor debacles. It concluded that the problems stemmed from insufficient planning and called for the creation of "a deployable reserve corps of contracting personnel who are trained to execute rapid relief and reconstruction contracting during contingency operations" and to "pre-qualify a diverse pool of contractors with expertise in specialised reconstruction areas" - in other words, a standing contractor army. In his 2007 State of the Union address, Bush championed the idea, announcing the creation of a brand-new civilian reserve corps. "Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them," he said. "It would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time."
A year and half into the Iraq occupation, the US State Department launched a new branch: the Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization. On any given day, it is paying private contractors to draw up detailed plans to reconstruct 25 different countries that may, for one reason or another, find themselves the target of US-sponsored destruction, from Venezuela to Iran. Corporations and consultants are lined up on "pre-signed contracts" so that they are ready to leap into action as soon as disaster strikes. For the Bush administration, it was a natural evolution: after claiming it had a right to cause unlimited pre-emptive destruction, it then pioneered pre-emptive reconstruction - rebuilding places that have not yet been destroyed.
So in the end, the war in Iraq did create a model economy - it was just not the "tiger on the Tigris" that the neo-cons had advertised. Instead, it was a model for privatised war and reconstruction - a model that quickly became export-ready. Until Iraq, the frontiers of the Chicago crusade had been bound by geography: Russia, Argentina, South Korea. Now a new frontier can open up wherever the next disaster strikes.
Fisk documents the dismantling of Iraqi culture - Klein exposes the history behind the destruction.
As above so below, as abroad so at home; just look at New Orleans. This is the utmost of importance in all this. The war is two fold, abroad and at home. You are just as much the enemy as any one in Iraq.
Pinochet's coup in Chile, the massacre in Tiananmen Square, the collapse of the Soviet Union, September 11th 2001, the war on Iraq, the Asian tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina. Award-winning investigative journalist Naomi Klein brings together all of these world-changing events in her new book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." In her first national broadcast interview since the publication of "The Shock Doctrine," Klein joins us in our firehouse studio for the hour. Klein writes, "The history of the contemporary free market was written in shocks." She argues that "Some of the most infamous human rights violations of the past thirty five years which have tended to be viewed as sadistic acts carried out by anti-democratic regimes, were in fact either committed with the deliberate intent of terrorizing the public or actively harnessed to prepare the ground for the introduction of radical free-market reforms."
Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said in an interview that the removal of Saddam Hussein had been "essential" to secure world oil supplies, a point he emphasized to the White House in private conversations before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Greenspan, who was the country's top voice on monetary policy at the time Bush decided to go to war in Iraq, has refrained from extensive public comment on it until now, but he made the striking comment in a new memoir out today that "the Iraq War is largely about oil." In the interview, he clarified that sentence in his 531-page book, saying that while securing global oil supplies was "not the administration's motive," he had presented the White House with the case for why removing Hussein was important for the global economy. ...
When I first saw Alan Greenspan perched in the back row of Billmon's Anglo-American War Crimes Tribunal photo (above: click to enlarge), I thought he was there as a joke. But in a very real sense he is the man that enabled all of this. Remember that as you watch his dull bored face in response to Sanders rebuke.
Jim Hightower explains the mortgage crisis with handy toons.
And if you recall (they'll be a quiz later) Jim Hightower also explained why we're in Iraq and it's not about democracy or "helping" the Iraqi people, unless you define helping as killing about 600000 Iraqis. We're full of help over here. We're really there so that our puppet goverment can pass something called the Iraqi Oil Law, which Hightower explained here. Or as I described it earlier this is legalized plunder. Nobody talks about it, even the dems. It would be nice if they said that we're above killing hundreds of thousands of people and taking their stuff "christian" nation we are and all that....
It was Rocio Palacios who first noticed the woman who appeared to need help.
It was 8 a.m. when she and her husband, Erasmo, dropped their 6-year-old daughter off at school and had picked up their 22-year-old daughter to go out for breakfast when they saw the woman waving her arms at 53rd Street and Kedzie Avenue last November.
The Palacioses, of Chicago, claim the woman approached their car, parked outside Manolo's restaurant, leaned in to the passenger side where Rocio was sitting and asked Erasmo if he wanted oral sex for $20 or sex for $25.
The couple laughed, realizing this wasn't a woman in distress after all.
But within seconds, Chicago police swarmed the family car, hauling Erasmo Palacios out in handcuffs. He was charged with solicitation of a prostitute.
[...]
Eight hours later, Palacios, who has no criminal record, was released from custody. And weeks later, charges against him were dropped.
[...]
The city wants more than $4,700 in towing and storage fees if he wants the car back.
From Ian Welsh over at The Agonist. Short, and I'm quoting almost in full:
...I think it needs to be pointed out that what Ron Paul wants to do is essentially repeal the progress made in the 20th century. Radical de-federalization would mean endgangering civil liberties in large parts of the country - the US did not de-segregate because the states wanted to, it desegregated because the Federal government made the States do so at the point of a gun. The entire network of laws and institutions created by the New Deal and the Progressive era would be swept away if Ron Paul's plans were to go through. The US would move back to uncontrolled capitalism even more ugly than what it has now. While the government is currently not controlling the excesses of business, it has most of the tools to do so. Ron Paul would take away those tools, along with most of the tools used to enforce civil liberties (when a Democrat is in government, anyway.)
Very much the same sort of argument can be made about all those that oppose government in the abstract. Unfettered capitalism has been tried, it was very destructive to the average American, and it nearly led to a bloody revolution in this country.
The General Assembly today [13 September 2007] overwhelmingly backed protections for the human rights of indigenous peoples, adopting a landmark declaration that brought to an end nearly 25 years of contentious negotiations over the rights of native people to protect their lands and resources, and to maintain their unique cultures and traditions.
By a vote of 143 in favour to 4 against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States), with 11 abstentions, the Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which sets out the individual and collective rights of the world’s 370 million native peoples, calls for the maintenance and strengthening of their cultural identities, and emphasizes their right to pursue development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations.
A non-binding text, the Declaration states that native peoples have the right “to the recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties” concluded with States or their successors. It also prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them.
Whenever noted jazz police fascists like Wynton Marsalis or Stanley Crouch (and Uncle Scam Hah!) talk about all that "bad" jazz that doesn't meet their pre 1962 standard they usually refer to people like the late great Joseph Zawinul. Unfortunately for them and yet fortunately for us Mr. Z produced a lot of demanding world class work that the entirety of the imagination/vision starved Marsalis clan will never ever touch in the forever Kind of Blue continuum that they're hopelessly trapped in. (And what's sad is that they don't realize its a trap.) Z even wrote better trad standards than Wynton or what's a Marsalis tune that's as memorable as "Mercy Mercy Mercy", or "Country Preacher"? I still can't believe a white dude from Austria wrote those tunes.
Zawinul understood that the beauty of jazz is in its growth and reach. You're supposed to improvise andexperiment in jazz. Bebop and smaller than Big Band ensembles used to be heresy too. Thank you Z for music that expanded my ear and blew my mind. I never needed drugs thanks to you. Not to mention music so futuristic fluid and cool that 30 years later it still sounds futuristic fluid and cool. By the way, Z isn't only the father of acid jazz but he was one of the first samplers. A fuckin' genius.
Thanks to the Youtubes you can visit the entirety of the Z canon from his days with Cannonball Adderly:
to his peak work with Weather Report and even, and I admit this as a fan, his somewhat disappointing work with the Zawinul Syndicate. Just about every song from Heavy Weather, definitely their masterpiece even though Night Passage is a beautiful album as well, is online. You can find tunes from Heavy Weather here, here, here, here and here.
As for showcase pieces, I think these two songs from Mr. Gone kind of catch Z at his best. I just wish someone had taped the 79 Weather Report that I caught at the old Stanley Theater with Jaco. Still one of the most memorable concerts that I had ever seen. I was actually not a big fan of Mr. Gone when it came out but these tunes have aged very well or maybe its Jaco's sinewy live bass lines. Z or Weather Report was never as good post Jaco. Just an opinion. (Another opinion: He probably needed another heavyweight like Wayne Shorter to occasionally tell him no.)
and River People:
You'll never be forgotten Z. I can't imagine my life without your sound.
One of the problems with the atheist movement is that people likes their rituals. We need to find replacements for prayers and mourning and fellowship. (And no bars don't count although its certainly a place of worship.) I have noticed a disturbing trend on the left and possibly in some of Thistle's arguments against science and reason. The left will never win if we don't use logic and reason in defense of our arguments. We're never going to levitate the Pentagon. When they want pollution based fission, we argue non polluting fusion and clean energy like solar and wind. When they argue the violent military industrial complex, then we counter with peaceful space expansion which offers just as many boondoggles but far less of a body count directed at the usual brown suspects. Recently, I came across a transhumanist statement of principles that I think could be defined as a secular prayer. I think its pretty cool.
I have seen a world where death and disease have been defeated by science… where food, shelter, and clothing is manufactured quickly, and without waste… where transparency makes violent crime impossible, and authorities accountable… where people walk on other planets and in endless virtual worlds… where intelligence and empathy are magnified far beyond present levels… where the diversity of sentient beings has expanded to unimaginable proportions… where the risk of human extinction has been reduced to near zero.
I will endeavor to take the fastest safe route to such a future, and direct my present-day energies towards its realization. I will be polite and understanding to skeptics and naysayers. I will thoroughly enjoy my daily life while simultaneously working for a better future. I will work towards that future for the good of all, not just myself, and try my best to maintain an altruistic point of view at all times.
Reading this story I have come to realize that the whole bin Laden operation is slowly evolving to discredit everyone who is anti-war and/or questions the status quo.
by making his (binny's) arguments concerning Fisk or Chomsky the same as those held by most of the blogosphere it will be quite simple for the rightwing noise machine to state that bloggers are AQ supporters.
On October 26, 2006 I posted Cultural Relativity: A Survey at American Samizdat. The post read in its entirety: "The left (but not only the left) sometimes supports the idea of 'cultural relativity.' Read up on the case against Khalid Adem, then leave a comment on the theme of 'cultural relativity.'"
I remain a foe of cultural relativity. But I must publicly amened my condemnation of Khalid Adem. Since the time of my first post I have learned that Khalid Adem maintains he is innocent, and that he specifically disavows the crime he is accused of. I do not know if Khalid Adem is guilty or innocent. I do know that he claims to be against the crime he is accused of, and in that we agree.
The best estimate indicates that more than a million Iraqis have been killed as a result of the invasion and occupation. It is reasonable to suppose that if politicians and news media in the United States were forced to confront this reality, pressure for the end of the war would increase dramatically, and cavalier discussions of new military actions in Iran and Pakistan would be less likely.
A call for a new independent investigation of 9/11
Today was the 9/11 Truthers general strike for a new 9/11 investigation (and immediate impeachment of President Bush). Since I didn't have to work or go to school, I did not have to make a decision as to whether I would participate. Generally, I find the Truth Movement to be too certain, too religious in their positions to take completely seriously. At this point, I make no speculation about who was behind the attacks, or what precisely happened that day. That approximately 3,000 people died that day is enough.
But I believe there are enough unanswered questions to justify an extensive, independent investigation into 9/11. And regardless of whether Bush had a role in planning or executing 9/11 (or just let it happen, or whatever), he deserves to be impeached.
So while today was just another day for me, I do want to register in some way my support for a new investigation. I think it is the best way to honor those who lost their lives. We should know what happened, who was responsible, and, most importantly, what we can do to prevent something like this from happening again.
Robert, September 11, The date which will live in infamy: Now it has been six years. The global jihad proceeds apace, with well over 9,000 deadly attacks carried out in the course of those six years by believers in the proposition that "Islam must dominate, and not be dominated." Yet we are no closer as a society to recognizing how exactly to combat this foe, and our responses flail wildly -- witness this report that prisons have removed Jewish and Christian books from their libraries so as to allow them, within today's suffocating multiculturalist ethos, to remove also books advocating jihad violence and Islamic supremacism. [...]Six years after 9/11, the jihad proceeds apace, and the UN investigates...Islamophobia.
Want to end Islamophobia? End violent attacks committed by Muslims in the name of Islam. I guarantee that Islamophobia will then vanish utterly.
Adrian Morgan, Six Years After The Wake-Up Call: It is now exactly six years to the day that the world woke up to the true horror and the evil of Islamism. [...] Since that time, some people seem to have forgotten what created that day of slaughter and the loss of innocence. Conspiracy theorists, taking denial to the furthest degree, still try to capitalize on those tragic and gut-wrenching acts of Muslim terrorism to blame the CIA, the US government, anything to suggest that followers of a barbaric, bloodthirsty, punitive religion invented by a genocidal 7th century caravan-raider could never have committed such a dastardly plan. The wake-up call was made, but too many people prefer to forget, or to minimize the reality. Islamists try to rule through fear. They violently silence a few brave people and the rest of us hide in the shadows, fearful that if we too speak out, or if we are identified as enemies of Islamism, that we too will be silenced by violence.
David Charter, Young Muslims begin dangerous fight for the right to abandon faith: A group of young Muslim apostates launches a campaign today, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, to make it easier to renounce Islam. The provocative move reflects a growing rift between traditionalists and a younger generation raised on a diet of Dutch tolerance. The Committee for Ex-Muslims promises to campaign for freedom of religion but has already upset the Islamic and political Establishments for stirring tensions among the million-strong Muslim community in the Netherlands.
Ehsan Jami, the committee’s founder, who rejected Islam after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, has become the most talked-about public figure in the Netherlands. He has been forced into hiding after a series of death threats and a recent attack.
[Originally appearing at OVO blog. Let every day be one day closer to the withering away of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and all religions. - Trevor Blake]
Then, yesterday evening, I spoke with the owner and manager of a bar in Manassas Park, Virginia. In 2004, their business was raided by 90 -- yes ninety -- police in paramilitary gear. The police raided under the guise of -- are you ready for this? -- an Alcohol Beverage Control inspection. The advantage of raiding under an ABC warrant is that its a regualtory inspection not a criminal investigation, which means that the police didn't need to get a warrant before going in. The owners have video of the raid captured by their security cameras. I'll be posting it here once they condense it and send it to me.
For the last three hours, I sat with the two men while they went over detail after excruciating detail of the Manassas Park police departments endless efforts to entrap them, bait them, and run them out of business. The manager has no criminal record. Neither does the owner, his father, who's a business owner and a practicing lawyer for 40 years. The manager's brother is the income president of the Fairfax Bar Association.
Before 2004, the bar had a spotless ABC record. Not a single violation.
That's just the beginning... what follows is a stranger-than-fiction story about local police and city counsel corruption complete with cocaine, strippers, child pornography, gambling, and shady redevelopment schemes.
Do I think Bush knocked down the towers? Frankly, I don't know. But--strange to say--regardless of the truth, I find it heartening that so many people question the government's version of events. It means that people are paying attention to the discrepencies.
Something is not right in America. People know it.
The idea that the Bush administration participated in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is not limited to fringe Web sites and conspiracy theorists, according to a poll commissioned by a Web site that promotes alternative explanations for the events of September 11.
The poll, conducted by Zogby International for 911Truth.org and released last week, found that 31 percent of Americans do not accept the official explanation for September 11 -- that "19 Arab fundamentalists executed a surprise attack which caught U.S. intelligence and military forces off guard."
Among that 31 percent, around 26 percent agreed that the American government "knew the attacks were coming but consciously let them proceed for various political, military, and economic motives." Almost 5 percent believed that U.S. officials "actively planned or assisted some aspects of the attack."
If you aren’t aware of the fact military-run prison camps are a reality in the United States of America and detailed plans for their use have been in existence for over a decade, read up. We’re going to assume our audience has been walking around with their eyes open.
Given the sheer velocity of recent events, it’s a good time to assess ugly possibilities. One of these is a martial law situation, which would lead to the US military attempting to take control over the US. This involves disarming the populace, establishing a strategic position in the community, and tracking down the citizens who have been dubbed potential threats by the Pentagon, Justice Department, or FBI. (Apparently it’s a quite a long list of naughty children.)
This article is a collection of tools for you to assess the situation in your community and make plans for effective resistance with your neighbors and friends. As the great man once said, “An armed and educated populace can be invaded, but never conquered.”
I haven't supported the hands around the burgosphere effort one because I'm poor and two I don't think this solves a problem and three if my tax dollars were spent properly there would be plenty of money for the care of this society's victims. and four I think the real solution to this kind of problem is a more open and tolerant understanding of male sexuality whichmeans legalizing prostitution and porn(studies show that rape goes down when availability of either porn or prostitution goes up) so that bathroom stalls or force aren't options that grown men would ever need or use. But I should probably keep that to myself.
I will be supporting the efforts of the Real News because I really think the problems of society remain problems because the corporate media is run by the same people who are creating these problems. (Read the propaganda model for the lowdown. And as someone who has worked in a couple of newsrooms I can testify that its true.)
Their theory is that if 20 million people give 10 dollars a month you can create a real alternative press. Well, I think I can give 10 bucks. Not sure if I can give monthly but...Watch the promo above.
I'm sure that Trevor used the term "noble savage" to describe gay people. I suppose when he's refused service at the pub or pointed to the gays only john he'll remain firm in his separate but equal principles.
Long-time readers of American Samizdat will remember my previous reports [Feb 3 2005] [Aug 26 2005] [Nov 1 2005] about the practice of adult men sucking blood from the mutilated genitals of infant boys. Unimaginably illegal in all other circumstances, this act is outside the law if done in the name of an invisible monster that lives in the sky. Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer of Rockland County, New York, gave three baby boys herpes by performing metzizah b'peh. One of them died. The State of New York asked Rabbi Fischer to refrain from performing metzizah b'peh for a short while during an investigation. No action was otherwise taken against him.
In November of 2006 the State of New York issued a Circumcision Protocol Regarding the Prevention of Neonatal Herpes Transmission. The Protocol states: "The person performing metzizah b'peh must do the following: 1. Wipe around the outside of the mouth thoroughly, including the labial folds at the corners, with a sterile alcohol wipe, and then discard in a safe place. 2. Wash hands with soap and hot water for 2-6 minutes. 3. Within 5 minutes before metzizah b'peh, rinse mouth thoroughly with a mouthwash containing greater than 25% alcohol and hold the rinse in mouth for 30 seconds or more before discarding it." This Protocol is not a law. It was submitted as a proposal for evaluation by unnamed Rabbis.
Ideally no one would request or allow such a monsterous practice in the 21st Century. Until such time, the state should prosecute religious child sacrifice with the vigor it does for any sort of child murder.
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
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