I just flew back from Australia, where I was speaking about the erosions of our civil liberties. Believe me, the rest of the world is agog at our inaction as what makes us Americans is being set aflame; and they are more scared of what an unsheathed US could do to the rest of the world than we are.
They also get more news out in the rest of the world about these depredations than we do here in our media bubble.
For instance: As the Australian reported earlier this week, New South Wales Justice of the Peace Mamdouh Habib is suing the Australian federal government — which under the Howard administration had colluded with the US in committing various abuses against detainees and due process — for having allowed him to be arrested wrongly in Pakistan in 2001, kidnapped and sent illegally to Egypt. There this Justice of the Peace was illegally imprisoned and tortured for six months. After that the United States held him for FOUR YEARS in Guantanamo. His complaint notes that he is a law-abiding citizen who was swept up under false pretexts. “It turns out that Habib has incontrovertible proof of his good standing,” the Australian noted. “[H]e is a fully accredited Justice of the Peace in NSW. A search of the NSW Attorney General’s Department website reveals that not only Habib, but his wife Maha Habib, is a JP.” To become justice of the peace in New South Wales, the Australian added, “you have to be NOMINATED BY A MEMBER OF THE NSW PARLIAMENT and submit to a full character inquiry, including a criminal records check by NSW Police.” (ALL CAPS mine)
Get that? A justice of the peace in a developed-world democracy. Had you heard of that?
Me neither.
It is rumored, that Bush Sr. was known to have said, "if the masses knew what we've done we'd be chased down and hung", or something to that effect. Who knows if the statement was made by him or not, however true it may or may not be. I believe it is true in one aspect, if from the man himself or not. Read my lips, the Bush family and cohorts are traders to this nation. And you will know it when they finally collapse the American economy on their grandiose and megalomaniac visionary ideology of empire.
The same farce Wolf speaks of above is the same farce with which the elite systemically control the masses. Mostly financially. Read the post below, 7 Trillion goddamn dollars, of your money spent to enrich the already rich. Not only do they want all the money and all the power, they want you to have none. Let em/ eat dirt, or each other. Because, as I read recently, the only people who believe in class war, is the elite.
The War on Terror was presented as such a noble cause that any means justified its ends. The same argument was used in promoting the War on Drugs. And in defending the Revolution against Royalist reactionaries, the Mother Church against Protestant heretics, etc, etc...
It was the image of the fellow with the pointed hood at Abu Ghraib that relly brought back associations with the Inquisition.
Now that we have arrived at this new serfdom, few individuals actually recognize it exists, but make no mistake, you will and soon.
Bush and the patriot act was bad. However Obama and the NDAA is far far worse. There is no difference between parties and they all receive funding from the same corporations.
I do believe in protecting American interests abroad. How else do we live a cushy lifestyle back home. However there is a clear cut line between protecting interests and raping the world.
I also find it interesting that the TEA Party and the liberal ACLU do not team up. In fact the illusion of polarization in Washington is just that an illusion. TO keep very powerful groups from uniting forces. The Tea party and ACLU have differences but they have A LOT in common. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th amendment rights they see eye to eye on.
Nineteen goddamn years is enough. I’m sorry if you don’t like my language, but when I think about what they did to Paul Kompkoff, I’m in no mood to nicey-nice words.
Next month marks 19 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped its load of crude oil across the Prince William Sound, Alaska. A big gooeysmallalaksaoil.jpg load of this crude spilled over the lands of the Chenega Natives. Paul Kompkoff was a seal-hunter for the village. That is, until Exxon’s ship killed the seal and poisoned the rest of Chenega’s food supply.
While cameras rolled, Exxon executives promised they’d compensate everyone. Today, before the US Supreme Court, the big oil company’s lawyers argued that they shouldn’t have to pay Paul or other fishermen the damages ordered by the courts.
They can’t pay Paul anyway. He’s dead.
That was part of Exxon’s plan. They told me that. In 1990 and 1991, I worked for the Chenega and Chugach Natives of Alaska on trying to get Exxon to pay up to save the remote villages of the Sound. Exxon’s response was, “We can hold out in court until you’re all dead.”
Nice guys. But, hell, they were right, weren’t they?
But Exxon didn’t do it alone. They had enablers. One was a failed oil driller named “Dubya.” Exxon was the second largest contributor to George W. Bush’s political career. Enron was firstr. They were a team, Exxon and Enron.
To protect their corporate backsides, Enron’s Chairman Ken Lay, prior to his felony convictions, funded a group called Texans for Law Suit Reform. The idea was to prevent consumers, defrauded stockholders and devastated Natives from suing felonious corporations and their chiefs.
When Dubya went to Washington, Enron and Exxon got their golden pass in the appointment of Chief Justice John Roberts. On Wednesday, as the court heard Exxon’s latest stall, Roberts said, in defense of Exxon’s behavior in Alaska, “What more can a corporation do?”
The answer, Your Honor, is plenty.
For starters, Mr. Roberts, Exxon could have turned on the radar. What? On the night the Exxon Valdez smacked into Bligh Reef, the Raycas radar system was turned off. Exxon shipping honchos decided it was too expensive to maintain it and train their navigators to use it. So, the inexperienced third mate at the wheel was driving the supertanker by eyeball, Christopher Columbus style. I kid you not.
Here’s what else this poor ‘widdle corporation could do: stop lying.
On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not even supposed to leave harbor. Here’s why. Tankers are not allowed to sail unless unless a spill containment barge is operating nearby. That night, the barge was in dry-dock, locked under ice. Exxon kept that fact hidden, concealing the truth even after the tanker grounded. An Exxon official radioed the emergency crew, “Barge is on its way.” It wasn’t. Had the barge been in operation, it would have surrounded the leaking ship with rubber skirts - and Paul’s home, and Alaska’s coast, would have been saved. But Exxon couldn’t wait for its oil. Paul’s gone – buried with Exxon’s promises. But the oil’s still there. Go out to Chenega lands today. At Sleepy Bay, kick over some gravel and it will smell like a gas station.
The Air Force is developing a data-mining technology meant to root out disaffected insiders based on their e-mail activity--or lack thereof, according to an article in this month's International Journal of Security and Networks.
The technology, based on something called Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PDF), scours an organization's e-mail traffic and constructs a graph of social network interactions illustrating employee activity. If a worker suddenly stops socializing online, abruptly shifts alliances within the organization, or starts developing an unhealthy interest in "sensitive topics," the system detects it and alerts investigators.
All part and parcel of the Military psychobiology techniques of of 'systems intelligence' vs 'Social intelligence' using an AI platform project to track the algorithm of social dissent.
U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft By Ryan Singel February 22, 2008
Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.
The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of “automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.”
The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.
If it shows early promise, this small seedling effort may increase its scope to a full project. Reynard will conduct unclassified research in a public virtual world environment. The research will use publicly available data and will begin with observational studies to establish baseline normative behaviors.
The publicly available report — which was mandated by Congress following earlier concerns over data-mining programs — also mentions several other data-mining initiatives. These include:
Video Analysis and Content Extraction – software to automatically identify faces, events and objects in video
Tangram – A system that wants to create surveillance and threat warning system that evaluates known threats and finds unknown threats to issue warnings ahead of an attack
Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination – This tool is reminiscent of the supposedly-defunct Total Information Awareness program. It seeks to access disparate databases to find patterns of known bad behavior. The program plans to work with domestic law enforcement and Homeland Security. The report gives no indication why the find-a-terrorist cell in Sims project is called Reynard, though that is a traditional trickster figure in literature.
I was reading this interesting Uncle Scam post and it got me thinking what note would I attach to bricks or pieces of concrete that I've thrown through bank building windows. I came up with 11 such notes. This certainly isn't an endorsement of perhaps justified vandalism against the state. As I've been saying quite a bit lately: I have the same respect for the rule of law as does the current president of the United States, perhaps even slightly more, which probably isn't saying much.
Look, I read the financial reports, its not as if you'll be standing here a long time anyway...
I'll turn myself in as soon as the attorney general I appointed charges me.
I would appreciate it if you would ignore this brick just like you ignore impeachment and a million dead iraqis.
Hey, I tried voting...
If life was fair, I'd get a parade and you would be locked up for usury you bankin' bitches...
Hey, you said you wanted the house back because I couldn't pay the mortgage...
Redline this!
And I'm not too thrilled with the insurance industry, either.
There might be some anonymous people out here who aren't just only upset about scientology. Just sayin'...
This is in no way a modern day cointelpro psyop meant to trigger massive detention camp arrests, followed by subsequent rioting and thereby a legitimate "shock doctrine" excuse to cancel elections and permanently keep Bush in power. But if you need more explanation call me at NSA headquarters, across the street from the book deposity and remember the codename is "Operation Grand Slam".
I'll have you know that despite this latest attack against the evil institutions of the state I still have more respect for the law than the current president of the United States. I mean, at least I haven't killed anybody, yet.
Silly Bill. He thought Bank of America would let him spend $5,800 on a home theater system just because he had over $10,000 in the bank. He tried to charge the system to his Bank of America Visa Platinum Check Card but was declined. Confused, Bill called Bank of America customer support for an explanation and had the sort of conversation that makes you want to drive a fork through your ear someone's forehead.
So tonight I went to my local Best Buy, planning on surprising the wife with a new bigscreen TV.
We get there and, believe it or not, the Best Buy people are helpful, friendly, informative and DON'T try to push Monster cables on me. (I know - I nearly fainted too).
Having done my homework, I picked out a receiver, speaker system, wall mount, some blue ray movies , and a 58" plasma TV. Total cost : $5870.69
So I head to the register to pay for my newly acquired goodies and my card - despite having a few grand more than the total in my "available funds" is declined.
[More:]
Puzzled - I call Bank of America , wait on hold about ten minutes, go through countless adverts for bank services, double authorizations etc and FINALLY I get to a human. Of course in spite of all of this the woman wants my information all over again even though I just typed it in. She wont even help me til I provide it and so I do.
I explain that I am in the store, at the register, and that I know I have available funds.
She puts me on hold about 5 minutes , then comes back and says "Im sorry - that's over your daily limit. There's nothing I can do. Was there anything else I can help you with?"
Remembering to keep a cool head, I ask about a supervisor giving me an override on the limit. She says "let me transfer you to the ATM department." And before I can explain that this isn't an ATM problem, she disconnects me.
Frustrated - I dial again, more menus, get a human, get transferred, get another human, get transferred, (every time re-verifying my ID)finally I get to the FOURTH person who apologizes 10 times and says "don't worry sir - I can help you!"
I think I'm getting somewhere but then a supervisor comes on and explains to me that "Everyone in the United States that uses Bank of America has a daily spending limit of 5000.00 no matter what."
Stunned, I ask for an exception and in a parent-giving-me-a-cookie tone he says "well, I suppose we can up that to 6000.00 just this once."
At this point I am over an hour on the phone but we try the transaction again. Declined.
More hold time. He comes back and says that he is sorry but 6000. is the limit and buying gasoline and dinner earlier in the day is going to put me at more than 6 grand for the day and so I can come back tomorrow and buy the TV or I can go to my branch and get a money order.
Fuming, and doing my best to remain calm, the conversation goes like this:
"Let me get this straight - I have an "available" balance of nearly 10 grand in my account?"
"yes sir"
"And its not pending or a deposit waiting to clear, that's my money, confirmed and in your bank?"
"yes sir"
"And you have kept me on the phone for over an hour, asked me multiple times to verify my identity and are satisfied that I am who I say I am?"
"yes sir"
"And you are going to deny me access to MY money?!?!"
"No sir - we are not denying you your money, your're just over your daily limit."
"My daily limit? This isn't a credit card. It's a PLATINUM Visa checkcard. I understand that you have to put limits in for my protection but I need to make this purchase"
"Im sorry theres nothing I can do"
At this point, after nearly an hour an twenty minutes on the phone, I lose my cool. I am embarrassed, have essentially shut down a register lane on a Friday night at Best Buy and am obviously the talk of the store both from employees and customers.
I ask to speak to a supervisor and am told that I am speaking to one. I ask to speak to HIS supervisor and am told that's not possible.
Out of desperation I ask again and he says "wait just a moment"
More hold. Ten more minutes. I am fuming. He comes back and excitedly tells me "try it now."
So for the umpteenth time I swipe my card. This time it comes up "authorization code needed"
I relay this to the BoA guy and he says "well, we are making progress"
A few more minutes of hold time later and he comes back with the code and makes my purchase go through.
I have NEVER experienced such shoddy customer service ever. Im sure Im preaching to the choir when I say this, but Monday morning I am cancelling my BoA account, and fellow consumerists - Stay the heck away from Bank of America!
As a side note, after the transaction was completed I said to the supervisor, "So, what if I was say, Donald Trump and wanted to spend 30 grand on something?"
His response, " Well , for Mr Trump we would have made an accommodation ahead of time."
I said "And if I'd decided tonight to buy the $14,999.99 71" plasma TV in here this evening?"
"You wouldn't not have been allowed to do that."
At that point I hung up.
Sheesh!
Bank of America, though still thoroughly decrepit and evil, may have been sending a helpful signal. Large purchases like home theater systems should be charged to a credit card, ideally one that offers rewards and extended warranty protection. As Bank of America would say, it's for your own good.
Had this very same scenario happen recently --at a credit union no doubt--, albeit with a much lower withdraw. It burns me to no end that they can tell me how much of MY own money I can spend...
Bremerton police said four banks were vandalized early Thursday, with each incident involving windows broken with pieces of concrete that had notes taped to them, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.
...
According to police, the vandals did not go in any of the banks.
“No entry was gained and nothing was taken, so it appears this was the delivery of some kind of message by the perpetrators,” Andy Oakley with Bremerton police said.
Police said the content of the notes were all the same and read as follows:
“Directions: Attach to brick and throw through window”
“Here is your brick back."
"Recognize it? You should.”
“It is part of the wall that you, as one of the elite upper class, have helped to build between the minority ruling class, and the majority working class throughout history. By flaunting your decadence, you have made yourself a target.”
I usually roll my eyes, and hate lame ass skits like this, my mom and others use to send me link after link and e-mail after e-mail of stupid, silly, cute stuff, her first few years on the WWW. It got to where I wouldn't even open em, straight to the trash, and deleted em (only so many cute bunnies and cats and lame ass limericks and joke/care cards etc.. you can take...lol ) but, this one is quality. Bravo...
Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq
I haven't had any respect for Rolling Stone for years, but it was for their Music and Culture reporting. I have to admit this is top notch war reporting.
The Siegelman story foreshadows something ugly. The people who are responsible haven't gone anywhere, despite whatever change-of-mood the U.S. has invented.
Alabama station's explanation (that's their misspelling of "technical"):
60 Minutes Programming Note
February 24, 2008
We apologize that you missed the first segment of 60 Minutes tonight featuring "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman."
It was a techincal problem with CBS out of New York. We are working with them right now to see if we can re-broadcast the segment.
Please be patient with us during this time. We are doing our best to correct the problem.
Soviet America Now, let me tell you what has been going on. As 60 Minutes was putting its show together, the White House put pressure on CBS -- the parent company -- to kill the show. Over the last few days, as word got out that the 60 Minutes show would air tonight, Karl Rove's associates began planting defamatory stories about journalists working on this story (see example here) and attacking the whistle-blower who came forward, Dana Jill Simpson. If you recall, Ms. Simpson testified, under oath, to Congress about Karl Rove's involvement in politicizing the DOJ. What you may not know, however, is that her house mysteriously caught fire and she was run off the road in the weeks leading up to her testimony.
What you may also not know is that Governor Siegelman's house was broken into twice during his trial as was his attorney's office.
Yesterday, the attacks on Simpson and journalists increased with a series of emails from the Alabama GOP. See here
” I contacted CBS News in New York and was told that “there is no delicate way to put this: the WHNT claim is not true. There were no transmission difficulties. The problems were peculiar to Channel 19, which had the signal and had functioning transmitters.” I was told that the decision to blacken screens across Northern Alabama “could only have been an editorial call.”
For those of You keeping score at home...
In other words, those following the Siegelman story from my post above, may find the following comment from Larisa Alexandrovna's huffpo story of interest...
You know, we're supposed to be going to mandatory digital TV broadcasts for high power stations in 2009. Low power stations are exempt for now, but they serve rural areas. They'll still receive analog.
"To put an exact number on it is difficult but think of it this way " most full-power stations are the stations affiliated with national broadcast networks, like ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, etc. Low power, Class A or translator stations are generally in smaller or rural markets, distribute non-English programming and/or function in a big market to a smaller niche group of individuals."
The FCC just allowed for mega corps to consolidate media venues too. This is a very disturbing trend. We all know how digital video is editable before broadcast. I'm not sure what the implications are, but it can't be good. Any dissidence or news-suppression is made simpler by going digital. This compromises our media beyond anything we've ever experienced in the history of our nation. Once net neutrality goes, there we go.
A company wishing to block a broadcast like the 60 mins segment will be much easier to do once we go digital. And tracing the source of the block will be impossible. Not good people.
FCC.gov (The Federal Communications Commission). Go getemkids!
I was already working on a story about the nefarious split in online verse print (tailored)news, more on that later...(Tangentially related of course).
Howard Zinn offers this historical perspective on elections & democracy in our desperate times:
Snip:
This seizes the country every four years because we have all been brought up to believe that voting is crucial in determining our destiny, that the most important act a citizen can engage in is to go to the polls and choose one of the two mediocrities who have already been chosen for us. It is a multiple choice test so narrow, so specious, that no self-respecting teacher would give it to students.
Snip:
So we need to free ourselves from the election madness engulfing the entire society, including the left.
Yes, two minutes. {This refers to the time it takes to actually vote.} Before that, and after that, we should be taking direct action against the obstacles to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
For instance, the mortgage foreclosures that are driving millions from their homes-they should remind us of a similar situation after the Revolutionary War, when small farmers, many of them war veterans (like so many of our homeless today), could not afford to pay their taxes and were threatened with the loss of the land, their homes. They gathered by the thousands around courthouses and refused to allow the auctions to take place.
The evictions today of people who cannot pay their rents should remind us of what people did in the Thirties when they organized and put the belongings of the evicted families back in their apartments, in defiance of the authorities.
Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war. Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.
McCain has positioned himself as a die-hard opponent of special-interest influence. But a U.S. News analysis of his 25-year legislative career shows he has been an avid seeker of special-interest money to support his campaigns and initiatives. The pattern goes all the way back to his first House race in 1982. Moreover, as the boss or No. 2 member of the Senate Commerce Committee, he has drawn heavy support from pacs and individuals associated with industries overseen by that committee—especially telecommunications, media, and technology firms.
Between 1997 and June 2006, he collected nearly $2.6 million from such interests, according to the Center for Public Integrity, an independent watchdog group in Washington. In some cases, the review showed, McCain's positions mirrored those of his biggest supporters. Big corporate donors also have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Reform Institute, a tax-exempt organization—once closely affiliated with McCain—that was established to promote campaign finance reform.
George and/or Eric Blair rules. My fantasy is that I'm George in the very end of this video's debate where I clearly put the poet and sexologist (I want that title.) and the guy who's pushing pacifism against the nazis in their places. I suppose if we were updating the argument I would be arguing that anyone who rules out the use of force is objectively pro corporate fascism. And is it me or is the poet/sexologist (which I think translates into, at the very least, bisexual if not omnisexual...) giving George a look of badly constrained lust...? As well as he should because in my fantasy I'm a very masculine George Orwell...watch the vid here:
UPDATE: I forgot to link to the page where you can find more of these George Orwell bios. You can find that page here. You might notice that the vid is hosted at Sevenload and not Youtube. That's because the hoster at Youtube disabled embedding. You could, and I'm not saying I did this because it might be a crime at worst and thoughtcrime at least, download the vid by using a resource like keepvid. And then, while stressing that I would probably never do such a lawless thing, upload it to Sevenload, where they seem to be much more understanding when it comes to copyright violations and by "understanding" I mean that they don't enforce copyright, at least not as strenuously as either Youtube or Daily Motion.
Apparently, the people behind Wikileaks are trying to create an Open Source Intelligence Movement. Yeah, I can see why they would be considered a threat. From the article:
Dynadot, the California resellers who collect a few dollars by this internet trade, submitted to a legal injunction ordering the name to be deleted. Yet however wise this scheme may have appeared at the time to the Swiss bank's Los Angeles lawyers, Lavely & Singer, it has now backfired in a big way.
The injunction blew up a gale of debate about internet freedom, and sprayed the bank's secret documents all over the net. It has also thrust into prominence an obscure group of dreamers and programmers who want to provide what they call an "untraceable and uncensorable" leaking machine, to be used by dissidents worldwide.
Those behind Wikileaks include Tibetan, Chinese and Thai political campaigners, an Australian hacking author, and Ben Laurie, a mathematician living in west London who is on the advisory board.
By Ross Tuttle, The Nation Posted on February 21, 2008,
Secret evidence. Denial of habeas corpus. Evidence obtained by waterboarding. Indefinite detention. The litany of complaints about the legal treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is long, disturbing and by now familiar. Nonetheless, a new wave of shock and criticism greeted the Pentagon's announcement on February 11 that it was charging six Guantánamo detainees, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, with war crimes -- and seeking the death penalty for all of them.
As the murky, quasi-legal staging of the Bush Administration's military commissions unfolds, a key official has told The Nation that the trials are rigged from the start. According to Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Guantánamo's military commissions, the process has been manipulated by Administration appointees in an attempt to foreclose the possibility of acquittal.
Colonel Davis's criticism of the commissions has been escalating since he resigned this past October, telling the
Washington Post that he had been pressured by politically appointed senior defense officials to pursue cases deemed "sexy" and of "high-interest" (such as the 9/11 cases now being pursued) in the run-up to the 2008 elections. Davis, once a staunch defender of the commissions process, elaborated on his reasons in a December 10, 2007, Los Angeles Times op-ed. "I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system," he wrote. "I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively."
Then, in an interview with The Nation in February after the six Guantánamo detainees were charged, Davis offered the most damning evidence of the military commissions' bias -- a revelation that speaks to fundamental flaws in the Bush Administration's conduct of statecraft: its contempt for the rule of law and its pursuit of political objectives above all else.
Concerns over Economy Push George W. Bush's Overall Job Approval to New Low
George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has dropped to a new low in American Research Group polling as 78% of Americans say that the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group.
Among all Americans, 19% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 77% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 14% approve and 79% disapprove.
Among Americans registered to vote, 18% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 78% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 15% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 79% disapprove.
A total of 78% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse and 47% say the national economy is in a recession. A total of 42% of Americans, however, say they believe the national economy will be better a year from now, which is the highest level for this question in the past year. This optimism does not spread to improvements in household financial situations as 17% of Americans say they expect their household financial situations to be better a year from now, which is the lowest for this question in the past year.
The results presented here are based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews conducted among a nationwide random sample of adults 18 years and older. The interviews were completed February 16 through 19, 2008. The theoretical margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split.
Bradblog is onto something when it comes to the irresponsibility of the Daily Kos about the election integrity debate. The record of Markos and his gang of election fraud denialists (phrase courtesy of Mark Crispin Miller) is simply horrible. We've tried the DNC establishment/Markos technique of simply ignoring the problem and hoping that it will go away in both 2000 and 2004. That simply didn't work. Democrats, or at least democrats who don't secretly like the results of the 2000 and 2004 election that screws the working fella base of the party, should assume the election process is guilty until proven innocent by both verifiable ballot and open auditing that we all can see. In fact, you should be pissed off about it and you should even "hyperventilate" some.
Now, thanks to the Youtubes, which we can find on the Internets, someone explains the problem in a simple way that even Markos Moulitsas and his election fraud denialist attack hack Dana Houle can easily understand. God knows they won't read and probably can't comprehend the half dozen excellent largely unrebutted books written by Bob Fitrakis, Mark Crispin Miller, Greg Palast and a number of statisticians and even one Kennedy. Here it is in moving pictures.
You know, this is pretty funny but from what I've seen I'm pretty sure it isn't a joke.
Bottom Line: If you've lost two consecutive presidential elections because of voter suppression of the DNC base, then you might want to counteract those efforts in 2008. That means not calling election integrity movement leaders "nutters" and not banning people who bring these issues up at your "forum". You might even take a hand in pushing for a stronger Holt bill. Both Fitrakis and Kathy Dopp have outlined solutions. Unless you're on the other side of course. And, I have to admit, I sometimes wonder if Markos did take that CIA job. There were old school media persons who were Company Men in the past, why not New Media men, who were once republicans, on the payroll as well? Remember: all of the glitches seem to benefit republicans and/or the most conservative of democratic candidates. It would be nice if the Great Orange Satan could catch a clue.
Bio: I have worked as a reporter, media watch columnist, ran a consumer group for three years and been an occasional pro se attorney. I've sold everything from vacuum cleaners to satelite dishes to computers. I am a huge fan (literally, I'm 6' 5") of comics and science fiction and am a Pop Culture addict in general. (This might appear on OpEd News. You never know.)
Let's be honest. Those anonymous vids are both scary and inspired. They also seem to spark real action. I guess it would be asking too much for the Green Party to pull something off like that. I also think they're comics fans. Aren't there two comics allusions...the "be wary" phrase comes from "V for Vendetta" and the cut down one and ten will replace it seems to be taken from the mantra of Hydra: "Cut off one arm and two will replace it." Hydra was the main nemesis of Shield, at least when Steranko drew it. The Internets is the modern counterculture. Don't let anybody tell you different. (One question for anonymous, who is legion: why stop at scientology? Why not Mormonism or the pope or thoroughly evil republicans? Just a thought....)
Speaking of the Green Party, what the fuck is wrong with the Green Party? They're planning on running a candidate against Mike Doyle, arguably the most progressive congressman in the state (look at his record.). If they do really well they won't win but they could tip the race to the hideous republican, which is the reality of the winner take all system. Are they planning on ever contesting a mayor's race again? If they had attacked the last Pittsburgh's mayor's race with funding and, you know, a candidate, I just think they would have gotten a lot of support. I don't understand their strategy. Why can't they raise money from small donors? What is their strategy? Annoying and quixotic presidential runs only?. Related: Did you know that there are other third parties out there? I didn't. Until yesterday. Let's all read about the Working Families Party and The United States Labor Party, not to be confused with wacko Lyndon Larouche's Labor Party, probably a psyop to discredit a decent labor party.
Fidel Castro Resigns Cuban Presidency After Nearly Half-Century in Power
An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.
The end of Castro's rule — the longest in the world for a head of government — frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.
"My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro wrote in a letter published Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma. But, he wrote, "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer."
There is a bunch of backup servers / mirrors available, but for how long?
A bit more in depth info at mefi; I can't help but wonder if this is a test project, to see how the blogsphere reacts and to monitor the transmission of samizdat data flow. Paranoid? Oh, of course...
UN shipping crates filled with kidnapped children for overseas sex slavery http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6682018%255E401,00.html\ http://www.prisonplanet.com/un_ship_carried_child_prostitutes.html
UN involved in massive child sex kidnapping http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/03/wsudan03.xml http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6195830.stm
UN involved in large scale Congo child kidnapping operations http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,149334,00.html
NGO Groups in Chad behind organized child sex kidnapping: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1031/p01s03-woaf.html?page=2
Top government officials in Portugal involved in child sex kidnapping abuse http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3355621.stm
Halliburton and Dyncorp try to stop a ban that would outlaw this sick crap http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512270176dec27, 0, 1632557.story
Same thing with top Chilean officials http://boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/01/10/sex_scandal_divides_conservative_allies_in_chiles_congress/
Belgium elites and politicians involved in child sex kidnapping and Satanic sacrifices http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/03/belgium.trial/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/1944428.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/08/17/wbelg17.xml
Blair UK government officials involved http://www.counterpunch.org/james01292003.html
Leaders of Dubai United Arab Emirates behind 30,000 children used in slavery: http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=187580
Saudi elites/government involved in child trafficking http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/6431957.stm
Evidence of UN involvement in massive global child kidnapping, and attrocities mounting www.jfednepa.org/mark%20silverberg/unsrealmission.htm
"Fla. can't find 1,000 kids in state custody," CNN, June 4, 2002 http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/06/03/florida.child.welfare/
"1989 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse," jaketom3, December 14, 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5OJPeHCmhA
"1989 #2 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse," jaketom3, December 15, 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU-k-tfiPfs
"Father attacks 'cover-up over child sex ring,'" Toby Helm, Telegraph (U.K.), Issue 999, February 18, 1998 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/02/18/wabu18.html
"Pedophile Israeli diplomat arrested by FBI in Atlanta," Nathan Guttman, Jerusalem Post, August 31, 2006 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525981602&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
"British government link to 'snuff' videos," Jason Burke, Amelia Gentleman and Philip Willan, Observer (U.K.), October 1, 2000 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4070446,00.html
White House officials and DC elite involved in child sex slavery and abuse http://www.thelawparty.org/FranklinCoverup/franklin.htm
Italy rocked by Satanic child sex abuse in schools http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msfullart.asp?an=11655
"Homosexual Child Prostitution Ring Involving George Bush Sr.: Archive of Published Articles of Yet Another of Massively Suppressed Story Involving the Family Who is Above All Laws--the Bushes" http://www.voxfux.com/features/bush_child_sex_coverup/article_archive.htm
Dyncorp US defense company involved in child sex slavery on an epic scale http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/06/26/bosnia/index.html
(edited, added) CIA involved in child kidnapping in 1980's America http://www.whale.to/b/mcgowan2.html http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm9.showMessage?topicID=4.topic http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=8555&highlight=findersl http://www.spiritualteachers.org/the_finders.htm
Texas Corrections involved in teen boy rape rooms and torture http://www.dallasnews.com/investigativereports/tyc/
One of the heads of Homeland Security trying to lure children http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/04/homeland.arrest/index.html
Big pharma companies turn black kids into lab rats: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/4035345.stm
a bunch of mainstream links posted in great articles at prisonplanet: http://www.prisonplanet.com/archive_elite_sex_ring.html http://infowars.net/articles/january2007/030107UN_Sex.htm
From 1997
Last December a UN study on children in war reported that blue berets had been involved in child prostitution in six of the 12 countries which had been studied. In country after country unfortunate enough to attract the UN’s "humanitarian" intervention, "the arrival of peacekeeping troops has been accompanied with a rapid rise in child prostitution," the document reported. Following the signing of a peace treaty in Mozambique in 1992, for example, "soldiers of the United Nations operation … recruited girls aged 12 to 18 years into prostitution."
"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." ~J. Edgar Hoover
Anyone'd think it was planned that way...
Conspiracy Of Silence
Conspiracy of Silence, a documentary listed for viewing in TV Guide Magazine was to be aired on the Discovery Channel, on May 3, 1994. This documentary exposed a network of religious leaders and Washington politicians who flew children to Washington D.C. for sex orgies.
Since his last combat deployment in Iraq, Jeremy Hall has had a rough time, getting shoved and threatened by his fellow soldiers. The trouble started there when he would not pray in the mess hall.
"A senior ranking staff sergeant told me to leave and sit somewhere else because I refused to pray," Hall, a 23-year-old US army specialist, told AFP.
Later, Hall was confronted by a major for holding an authorized meeting of "atheists and freethinkers" on his base. The officer threatened to discipline him and block his re-enlistment.
"He said: 'You guys are being a problem and problems can be removed,'" Hall said. "He was yelling at us and stuff and at the very end he says, 'I really love you guys, I want you to see the light.'"
Now Hall is suing the major and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, accusing them of breaching his constitutional rights. A campaign group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is waiting for the Pentagon to respond to a lawsuit filed in a Kansas federal court on Hall's behalf.
It alleges a "pernicious pattern and practice" of infringement of religious liberties in the military.
The group's founder, former Air Force lawyer Mikey Weinstein, said he has documented 6,800 testimonies by military personnel -- nearly all of them Christians -- of sometimes punitive or humiliating attempts to make them accept a fundamentalist evangelical interpretation of Christianity.
"I am at war with those people who would create a fundamentalist Christian theocracy in the technologically most lethal organization ever created by our species, which is the United States armed forces," he said.
He plans to add extra charges and possibly other lawsuits this month.
"It violates title seven of the US code for an employer to push their Biblical world view on an employee," he said. "But it's a trillion times worse when that is not just your shift manager at Starbucks but that is your military superior."
He singles out one of the major Christian groups in the military, the Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF).
The group represents 15,000 US military personnel around the world, according to its director, retired Air Force general Bruce Fister.
"It is not the position of OCF to try and coerce people to believe what we believe," Fister told AFP.
OCF's aim, as stated on its website, is to achieve "a spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit."
It professes belief in "the eternal blessedness of the saved; and the everlasting, conscious punishment of the lost."
Fister emphasized the group's work to support families of soldiers deployed in the "global war on terror."
"People make mistakes. There's probably been some instances where people have wrongly spoken," he added. "We'd like them not to, but that's life."
"Our checks within our equal opportunity channels identified fewer than 100 formal complaints over a two-year period," said Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez.
Army spokesman Paul Boyce told AFP: "The Army places a high value on the rights of its soldiers to observe tenets of their respective religious faiths."
The MRFF's constitutional complaint "is a matter of the courts system to address and resolve," he added.
"The joint standards of conduct for the Armed Forces and military equal opportunity policies address the freedom of religion, avoiding discrimination because of religion."
But Weinstein argued that most personnel are "too terrified" to speak out.
"When you actually fight against them, they make your life hell," said Hall, adding he has been passed over for promotion since launching his lawsuit. "I can't get a leg up no matter what I do."
A former military chaplain of a prestigious US military college reported being prevented from leading worship after disagreeing with the fundamentalist stance of other officials.
"I am not ready to say that if someone does not profess Christ as their savior that they are going to hell ... That got a lot of people angered," the minister told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation against a spouse who is a senior officer.
"The leader of the youth group that ministered to the teens (at the academy) said that Catholics were not Christians and that Muslims hated Christians, and that created a lot of tension," the ex-chaplain added.
"As a soldier, many times you want to believe you're fighting on the right side. It's easy to kill someone if you believe that they're going to hell and that they are religiously opposed to you."
And word on the street is that Blackwater is Opus Dei.
Maybe we, as a species, aren't far enough away from the "Sun-King" era to be completely up & off our knees.
The tireless Paul Thompson has just posted some very interesting information from the FBI about the alleged 9/11 hijackers and their movements in the US during the months and weeks preceding the attacks. Much of this FBI Timeline has been redacted to the point of invisibility - but what remains is still well worth reading. It suggests heavy, high-level Saudi involvement, which could hardly have taken place without the tacit approval of US authorities and intelligence agencies. It also indicates quite clearly that, far from endeavouring to avoid the police at all costs, the Nineteen Deathloving Superstudents sometimes went out of their way to contact them.
And although all this information was available to the Kean/Hamilton/Zelikow Commission, they seem to have made a point of ignoring it.
Among the many gems:
Around 10:00 a.m. on the morning of 9/11, a housekeeper at the Park Inn in Boston went to clean the room that hijackers Wail and Waleed Alshehri used the night before. She was confronted by a foreign male who told her that someone was still sleeping in the room and that she should come back around 1:00 p.m. The FBI was obviously puzzled by this, as the FBI’s timeline entry for this event ends with five question marks.
Hijackers Marwan Alshehhi and Hamza Alghamdi purchased hundreds of dollars of “pornographic video and sex toys” in Florida. They spent $252 on video and toys in early July 2001, and then another $183 later that month. Furthermore, Satam Al Suqami likely paid for a sex escort in Boston on September 7, 2001. Alshehhi was also recognized by six dancers at Cheetah’s, a nightclub in Pompano Beach, Florida. This fits in with other evidence of the hijackers drinking alcohol, paying for lap dancers, watching pornographic videos, etc…—hardly the expected behavior of religious radicals.
Hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi was mugged outside of his apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, by an “unknown black male” on May 1, 2001. He filed a police report about this and gave his correct name and address. In August 2001, Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar were watchlisted by the CIA, and an FBI investigator began looking for them in the US. But, as one news report later noted, the investigator “never performed one of the most basic tasks of a police manhunt. He never ran Almihdhar or Alhazmi through the NCIC computer,” a widely used police database that should have listed this mugging, as well as a speeding ticket Alhazmi had received the month before.
A commenter from another board shares the following:
Earlier, two women and one man had been taken into custody at a downtown Boston hotel during a major search by the FBI.
A witness described the search effort there. "SWAT teams were all around holding machine guns," said witness R.J. Ryan of Boston, who joined hundreds of other onlookers outside the Westin Copley Hotel.
"They put somebody in the van. Then they started moving everybody," he said.
WCVB-TV in Boston reported that the hotel search was apparently triggered by the discovery that a credit card that was used to purchase at least some of the airline tickets Tuesday also was used at the Westin Hotel.
Reports are that investigators received information that two men fitting the description of suspects in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks had been staying on the 16th floor of the hotel recently and had a "Do Not Disturb" sign on their door.
The FBI was believed to have made major breakthroughs in their efforts to identify the terrorists in Florida and in Boston, where three of the four planes originated.
Police said associates of Osama bin Laden had been under surveillance in Boston in the past and he might have set up a cell in the city. Police in Providence, Rhode Island, stopped a train from Boston bound for New York.
No details were released, but it is believed that officers were looking for men who had evaded the FBI in an earlier search of the Westin Hotel, in Boston.
Lastly, they say, If cooperativeresearch doesn't have an entry for the Westin raid, I should probably put these links together and submit an entry. Looking, and...no, no entry for the Westin raid.
Bronx jazz musician Tarik Shah told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to teach karate moves to members of Al Qaeda. It wasn’t a smart move: Last April, he was sentenced to serve 15 years on charges of supporting terrorism.
Previous news stories have described Shah, a jazz bassist and martial artist with a propensity for big talk that eventually got him into serious trouble. But until now, there’s been little information about the two undercover informants that the FBI used to investigate a man it considered such a dangerous terrorist that the bureau surveilled him for four years and spent considerable resources to take him down.
Shah’s arrest came about thanks in part to an informant known in court documents as “CS-1” (shorthand for “Confidential Source No. 1”). Shah’s attorneys never made CS-1’s real identity or his role in the case an issue.
“CS-1”? Sure that wasn't Curveball or some shit? Because, the Powers that be now have a pan-national and pan agency cohesive ideology, a mimetic desire to rule by economic chaos.
While this is news to me, and I couldn't find any video of Tarik Shah, however, the Jazz news at all about Jazz has obviously been on the case. And here is a treat, a deeply moving vid of the late Mal Waldron acompanied by Jeanne Lee whom is mentioned in the all about jazz article:
Mal Waldron & Jeanne Lee Medley
Sidenote: Also from the article:
("When you get a chance, please listen to Jeanne Lee's magnificent album called “Conspiracy.")
Philip or anyone, I'd love to hear samples of this if anyone has vid or mp3's or whatever.
But I digress, you know, I take no pleasure in always relentlessly attacking our system, be it Government, Federal or State. I really would like to believe there are some goods guys out there in these agencies you know, 'doing the right thing', as Spike Lee says, but it always seems FBI informants and sting operations are used for two reasons:
1. To make it seem like the government is cracking terror plots
2. As cover to stage inside job terror attacks
The World Trade Center 1993 and Oklahoma City 1995 bombings are prime examples of FBI informants getting would be dupes to go along with terror plots.
The Miami 7 Sears Tower Plot, Fort Dix and JFK airport are recent government orchestrated attacks. In every one, if you look hard enough obliquely we find an auspicious "informant" or the suspect with hidden ties to the alphatbet agency that busts them, or more often than not just plain innocent and not so innocent patsies.
This sucking of Rumsfeld dick, and hisProactive Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG) mentality that he and his lifelong sidekick Cheney have infected this nation the rest of the world with, these projects/investigations always consist of provoking terrorists to act, usually resulting in false flag bullshit, destroying this nation by design. It gives them ever more power through 'controlled chaos' the same deception game played out over and over from the Team B manuscript/playbook. Think, Adam Curtis's 'Power of Nightmares' documentary.
If things proceed on the course now set by the Bush Administration and its shortsighted collaborators, and the national surveillance state is achieved in short order, then future generations looking back and tracing the destruction of the grand design of our Constitution may settle on yesterday, February 12, 2008, as the date of the decisive breach. It hardly got a mention in the media, obsessed as it was with reports on the primary elections, the use of drugs in sporting events, and that unfailing topic, the weather. Yesterday the Senate voted down the resolution offered by Senator Dodd to block retroactive immunity for the telecoms and it voted for a measure which guts the Constitution’s ban on warrantless searches by extending blanket authority to the Executive to snoop on the nation’s citizens in a wide variety of circumstances, subject to no independent checks. On the key vote, the Republicans in the Senate continued to function in lock-step, as they have on almost all significant issues for the last seven years, while the Democrats fragmented. Their vote summed up everything that’s wrong with Washington politics today. Fear and hard campaign cash rule the roost, and the Constitution is regarded as a meaningless scrap of parchment, indeed, a nuisance.
Alfred McCoy, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, explores the history and use by the CIA of psychological torture in terms of how this particular form of torture was discovered, perfected and made legal.
Must listen to Democracy Now interview with David Cay Johnston. In case you're wondering why poor people can't move back to New Orleans and why the Hill District gets nothing for development while the Pens get millions in tax breaks...
An excerpt:
MY GOODMAN: Explain the wealth transfer.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, I was struck, listening to the program from Kenya, where they talked about the president and his power to give money to people, give land, and that’s why many people identify with it. We have created in the United States, largely in the last thirty years, a whole series of programs—a few of them explicit, many of them deeply hidden—that take money from the pockets of the poor and the middle class and upper middle class and funnel it to the wealthiest people in America. And among the biggest recipients of these subsidies are the wealthiest family America, the Waltons; George Steinbrenner; Donald Trump; a whole host of healthcare billionaires. And these are policies that either have not been reported on or the news reporting on them generally has not informed people about what they really are.
Preemptive and Justified Nuclear Strike Against Trevor's Quite Silly and Irritatingly Inane "Phil Hasn't Responded So I Won's Our BET" Personal Psyops Propaganda Commentary When I Have In Fact Responded Dozens of Times Until I Sensibly Realized That This Wasn't Getting Either Of Us Anywhere....
1. Our bet seems to have fallen on one argument that neither of us are willing to do the work to prove or disprove based on the fact that we don't feel like doing it and/or we have lives. This blocking point is: We do not agree on the parameters of the bet. It is my understanding that you have to prove that you're not a de facto segregationist from your comments and that you have to do the work. It is your understanding that I have to do it. Never the twain shall meet. Let's move on.
2. You have also misconstrued my statement that you are a segregationist. I never flat out said that you were a segregationist. I stated, very clearly I thought, that you were a de facto segregationist because you didn't immediately come out in strong unambiguous support of Brown v. Board because people who know a little bit about the law--and apparently this excludes you--know that this law led to the laws that ended forced and legal segregation in the United States. Not a small thing. (I might also add that Brown v Board and its subsequent laws would be the basis, in all probability, for equality under the law for gay Americans like yourself. Shouldn't you know that?)
3. The reason I started the Real Economics for Trevor line of posts is that I'm actually curious as to what your perceptions of Capitalism are. You seem to be a fundamentalist capitalist who doesn't question or understand the damage that American style capitalism actually does in this world. I mean, I moved away from Christianity because evidence and reason simply didn't support its view of the world. It just struck me not as the divine word but a book written by a buncha guys, some of which would be revealed to be hustlers and crackpots in the Mormon or scientology vein with modern eyes and cameras. This post, for better or worse, defines my world view about American capitalism, as do my other posts. Your job, if you really believe in this libertarian Hayek view of the world is to tell me where its wrong. When you simply repeat this myth about this bet--that I do not agree that I've lost because we don't agree on the parameters-- it strikes me not just as dishonest, but quite frankly somewhat cowardly. Either you can defend your positions based on reason or facts or you can't. I also think that this would prove to be an interesting debate for the site, which would enrich it. Something that your repetition of the bet with your Patriots Win Superbowl tone do not...
4. This is yet another opportunity to defend capitalism or to post falsehoods in the comments section. I will respond to critiques to the post but probably not the bet. (See 1 and 2 as to why.)
Must read by Peter Bagge on The War Against Fornication. One weird aspect to this story: one of the evildoers pushing these Taliban laws here is a board member of Reason! How is that possible? What kind of libertarian is that? If you didn't know, Reason is the mouthpiece of the American Libertarian movement.
A militarist suffering from acute narcissism and armed with the Bush Doctrine is not fit to be commander in chief.
by Justin Raimondo
John McCain’s reputation as a maverick is no recent contrivance. The senator first captured the media spotlight in September 1983, not long after he’d been elected to his first term in the House, when he voted against President Reagan’s decision to put American troops in Lebanon as part of a multinational “peacekeeping” force. One of 27 Republicans to break with the White House, the freshman McCain made a floor speech that reads as if it might have been written yesterday—by Ron Paul:
The fundamental question is: What is the United States’ interest in Lebanon? It is said we are there to keep the peace. I ask, what peace? It is said we are there to aid the government. I ask, what government? It is said we are there to stabilize the region. I ask, how can the U.S. presence stabilize the region?... The longer we stay in Lebanon, the harder it will be for us to leave. We will be trapped by the case we make for having our troops there in the first place.
What can we expect if we withdraw from Lebanon? The same as will happen if we stay. I acknowledge that the level of fighting will increase if we leave. I regretfully acknowledge that many innocent civilians will be hurt. But I firmly believe this will happen in any event.
Now insert “Iraq” where McCain said “Lebanon.” It’s as if McCain the Younger foresaw our present predicament and taunted his future incarnation, showing that wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age.
Here's and interactive post for ya, for those willing to experiment. Open this* window, disregard the vid there, and let it play as a soundtrack to the following post:
Pripyat - city of the future
in soviet ukraine, pripyat was known as the city of the future. built in 1970 for the workers at chernobyl's nuclear power-plant, it had beautiful new housing, modern facilities and a vibrant young community. then on april 26th, 1986, reactor 4 at chernobyl explodes, sending an enormous radioactive cloud over northern ukraine and neighboring belarus. the danger is kept a secret from the population of pripyat who go about their business as usual 3km away. children play, lovers get married, shops trade and the residents marvel at the spectacular fire taking place at the reactor. after 3 days an area the size of england becomes contaminated with radioactive dust. the 50,000 inhabitants are eventually evacuated over the course of a single day. with the population displaced, forgotten and damaged, pripyat still remains empty today. twenty years to the day, april 26th 2006, will be a remembrance of the devastation to what was originally a promised future.
Wait!
Wonder how an American city will fare after SkeletorChertoff's gut tells us whats they have in store for us yet again:
Closely allied with post-industrial dub terrorists such as Bill Laswell... Techno Animal, James Plotkin, Robert Musso, and Anton Fier, Birmingham-based artist Mick Harris is something of a study in extremes. A drummer with noted death metal outfit Napalm Death through the group's late-'80s/early-'90s heyday, Harris began experimenting with monochrome ambient and dub styles toward the tail end of his association with that group. Releasing material through Earache as Scorn (his ambient dub aegis) and through Sentrax as Lull, in addition to other sporadic projects, his genre-spanning activities have done much to jar the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously kept aggressively opposed. To the present, Scorn and Lull, along with John Zorn's experimental jazz-dubcore outfit Painkiller have remained Harris' primary ongoing projects, although one-off collaborations with the likes of James Plotkin, Nicholas Bullen, Bill Laswell, and Martyn Bates are common. Harris formed Scorn in 1991 in collaboration with bassist Nick Bullen, incorporating elements of ambient, industrial, dub, rock, and hip-hop. The group (though pared back to just Harris following Evanescence) have released a number of increasingly well-received full-length recordings, including the remix LP Ellipsis, which features outbound reworkings by the likes of Coil, Autechre, Laswell, and Germ. Harris' solo work as Lull focuses on darker, more "isolationist" ambient soundscapes, some of which have been reissued domestically by Laswell's now-defunct Subharmonic imprint. [See Also: Mick Harris, Lull]
This album has been on heavy rotation on my system, especially good with headphones... I think you will agree, it's the perfect musical selection for background to the grim meathook future awaiting us. Soundtrack for apocalypse now soon.
The Bush administration has instructed U.S. diplomats abroad to defend its decision to seek the death penalty for six Guantanamo Bay detainees accused in the Sept. 11 terror attacks by recalling the executions of Nazi war criminals after World War II.
These jackals revel in their hubris . They are so clever in their arrogance as to be brilliant. In your face and taunting, as to be burlesque. Hows that for your Human Rights Report...
my vitriol cup runneth over...I stand in awe of such a Rovian move, without Rove; and you thought the boyking was a lame duck...lmao! Bravo! Master stroke!
WHACK!
Thank-you mam', may I have another?
HAHAHAHA... It's not the laughter and simultaneous cathartic tears that bothers me, it's my inability to stop...
"I was always astonished at the extraordinary good nature and lack of malice with which men who had been flogged spoke of their beatings and of those who had inflicted them..."~Dostoevsky (Memoirs From the House of the Dead)
"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."
I didn't write this. A writer's strike scab did:
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Anonymous said...
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Bush and the patriot act was bad. However Obama and the NDAA is far far worse. There is no difference between parties and they all receive funding from the same corporations.
- 3:35 PM
Post a CommentI do believe in protecting American interests abroad. How else do we live a cushy lifestyle back home. However there is a clear cut line between protecting interests and raping the world.
I also find it interesting that the TEA Party and the liberal ACLU do not team up. In fact the illusion of polarization in Washington is just that an illusion. TO keep very powerful groups from uniting forces. The Tea party and ACLU have differences but they have A LOT in common. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 8th amendment rights they see eye to eye on.