Now bushco doesn't even try to hide how badly they lie…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 9:13 AM Permalink Just as the lies get thicker than San Francisco fog comes this, via the Huffington Post, one of the most idiotic, obviously obvious lies I have ever seen in print, a lie that is so clearly a lie that it puts to shame the greater art of lying in general or lying for fun and profit or lying about the systematic genocide America is inflicting upon the Iraqis in pursuit of their national resources. It's not even a well-told lie that anyone at some future date would care to lay claim to (Hey, honey! C'mere quick, they used my lie after all!). And it has within the lie a conflict which cannot be reconciled:
The second half of 2007 saw violence drop dramatically in Iraq, but the progress came at a high price: The year was the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed.
And bush/cheney wonder why no one believes them anymore.
Makes sense to me that a dramatic reduction in violence results in the greatest number of Americans fatalities since 2003.
If peace breaks out, we could lose more soldiers than ever according to this rubric.
Some sick minds had to struggle with this lie. eh?
The new phone books are here, the new phone books are here!
posted by The Sailor @ 7:12 PM PermalinkJon Swift has a Year In Review, (or is that Rear End Review? I always get those 2 confused, but then I always get a little behind in my work;-), of his favored bloggers favorite posts.
Our own Bill Arnett is featured, along with many other deserving bloggers. You should not only read the whole post, but follow all of the links. It's time well spent and by the time you're done it will be January 1st and you'll have avoided all those pesky parties and hangovers.
Friday, December 28, 2007 BAQUBA - The Iraqi government announcement that monthly food rations will be cut by half has left many Iraqis asking how they can survive.
The government also wants to reduce the number of people depending on the rationing system by five million by June 2008. [...] The sanctions, imposed after Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait, were described as “genocidal” by Denis Halliday, then UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq. Halliday quit his post in protest against the U.S.-backed sanctions.
The sanctions killed half a million Iraqi children, and as many adults, according to the UN. They brought malnutrition, disease, and lack of medicines. Iraqis became nearly completely reliant on food rations for survival. [...] The imminent move will affect nearly 10 million people who depend on the rationing system. [...] According to an Oxfam International report released in July this year, “60 percent (of Iraqis) currently have access to rations through the government-run Public Distribution System (PDS), down from 96 percent in 2004.”
The report said that “43 percent of Iraqis suffer from absolute poverty,” and that according to some estimates over half the population are now without work. “Children are hit the hardest by the decline in living standards. Child malnutrition rates have risen from 19 percent before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 28 percent now.” [...] Many fear the food ration cuts can spark unrest. “The government will commit a big mistake, because providing enough food ration could compensate the government’s mistakes in other fields like security,” a local physician told IPS.”
posted by The Sailor @ 5:50 PM Permalink
SteveAudio copped out and tagged his fellow bloggers for this Christmas survey so I'm copping out and tagging my fellow bloggers, because nothing epitomizes the holiday season like making friends and loved ones suffer along with you:
Da Rulez
1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog. 2. Share Christmas facts about yourself. 3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs. 4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
My responses were: 1. Wrapping or gift bags? Wrapping for what I give, and it doesn't matter with what I receive.
2. Real or artificial tree? Real, a tree that I hunt down and kill myself. After slogging thru 6 ft of snow, uphill both ways, and mount on the hood of my sleigh for the drive back over the hill and thru the woods.
3. When do you put up the tree? Umm, actually I don't.
4. When do you take the tree down? See above.
5. Do you like egg nog? Gotta go with SteveAudio on this one, but as a sailor I prefer even more rum.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? If it's xmas gift only I think a red pedal car, but I had a bunch of good ones. But if it's any gift I'd have to say my 1st sailboat.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope, it got creched by the reindeer.
8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Some bastard tagging me to play 20 questions;-) But seriously folks; when I was a kid I hated getting clothes.
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Hand delivered or email.
10. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life, but currently second would be White Christmas. I always thought I'd seen it but the other night I surfed in just after the credits and didn't know it was a christmas movie till half way thru.
11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Late December.
12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Santa's little helper.
13. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Both, I like the sparkle of the tiny whites and the gaudy, prismatic exuberance of the colors, (especially the bubbly candles.)
14. Favorite Christmas song(s)? Please Come Home For Christmas, White Christmas, Blue Christmas.
15. Travel at Christmas or stay home? If I'm lucky there's no travel.
16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? I can't even name the 7 dwarves.
17. Angel on the tree top or a star? I've had both on top of the tree, but the stars were more self involved.
18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning? It used to be morning, but my favorite present these days I unwrap at night.
19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? SteveAudio nailed it: "War on Christmas" crap from O'Reilly et al.
20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? Nope.
21. What do you leave for Santa? My wallet.
22. Least favorite holiday song? All of them.
23. Favorite ornament? There was this really cool indented sphere with a little sparkly tree on top when I was a kid.
24. Family tradition? I don't go there. Really, I don't go there.
25. Ever been to Midnight Mass or late-night Christmas Eve services? Never, but once I came out of a pinball palace when I was a teenager and saw all these folks with funny hats swinging braziers and chanting. It looked pretty cool.
I'm not a Scrooge and I'm not a Grinch, but my favorite Christmas these days is just me and my winch wench.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:01 PM Permalink First Former Prime Minister Bhutto died of gunshot wounds, then from shrapnel from an explosive device, now the new claim is that she simply broke her neck trying to duck back into her vehicle. A freak accident.
Now there has been another mysterious phone call "intercept" with al-Qaede members and the Taleban allegedly congratulating themselves for a successful assassination, which is bizarre since the government is saying the death was accidental and not an assassination at all.
I can just hear bush and the Big Dick hammering Musharraf to death with, "Blame it on al-Qaede! Blame it on al-Qaede! And the Teleban, too!" while making frantic plans to invade Pakistan, not to expand the American Empire of course, but for the noble purpose of securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons and saving the people of Pakistan, just as he saved the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Might not that have been the plan from the moment Bhutto returned to the country? It certainly would not be the first (or last) extra-judicial execution ordered by bush.
But true to form, bush will expect Americans to consume whatever pabulum (or propaganda) he dishes out. This is gonna get really weird.
Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests attacked each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning on Thursday.
The basilica, built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born, is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities.
Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can touch off vicious feuds.
On Thursday, dozens of priests and cleaners were scrubbing the church ahead of the Armenian and Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in early January. Thousands of tourists visited the church this week for Christmas celebrations.
But the clean-up turned ugly after some of the Orthodox faithful stepped inside the Armenian church's section, touching off a scuffle between about 50 Greek Orthodox and 30 Armenians.
Armenians are meany ones with a broom and now the orthodox need ortho docs.
I'd be an analyst, too, when the future can't be missed.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:13 PM Permalink Shockingly, Ronald White of the LAT, has really gone out on a limb now: he is openly predicting that gas prices will rise this year to all-new record highs. A remarkable forecast made without a net.
I have watched gas prices go from 21¢ per gallon to over $4 a gallon within my lifetime, and NOW the analysts predict even higher prices that are not likely to go down in the foreseeable future.
Benazir Bhutto 1953-2007: Where have I seen this before?
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:34 PM Permalink Sadly, Benazir Bhutto, two time Prime Minister of Pakistan, has been assassinated.
Given the genuinely "rough and tumble" politics of other nations than ours however, this was entirely predictable, which only increases my belief that some politicians really are willing to die for their beliefs, and will still put themselves in mortal danger while fully aware of the consequences.
I was in the Philippines in 1972 when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, and it was total chaos: no one knew what was happening, how long it might last, and how the Filipinos might regain control of their country after Marcos effectively exiled and deported Benito Aquino, probably the most popular politician in the country.
Marcos went a little further as well, swearing a blood oath that Aquino would never again set foot on Philippine soil.
Benito Aquino swore to return and, in 1982 he did. He was assassinated by one of the aircraft guards while deplaning and before he reached the tarmac. The guard then turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide.
The actors behind the assassination were never found out and the crime remains unsolved. His widow, Mrs. Corazon Aquino was elected president soon after the death of her husband.
Call me cynical, but I can't think of a single American politician so self-assured and confident as to be willing to literally lay their life on the line for this country, and I don't believe that bodes well for America.
It ain't no party, it ain't no disco, ain't no women allowed…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:08 PM Permalink I sincerely hope that HRC is not our democratic nominee for president in '08, not because she's a woman, but to simply put a stop to "political dynasty families" (B/C/B/?C?) once, and hopefully, forever.
But that scalawag Fred Thompson has no problem stating flatly that "there is no woman" that should be elected president next year.":
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson says there's not a woman who should be president next year.
It was a jab aimed at Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The former Tennessee senator was in Iowa today, challenging potential caucus-goers to choose the best man to help fend off what he described as a Democratic Party that would lead the country into a welfare state. [Can anyone help me figure out the difference between a "welfare state" and a state so deeply in debt from reckless spending policies that Satan has a lending office just off the West Wing? Bill]
Without saying Clinton's name, he said -- quote -- "There is no woman on the horizon that ought to be president next year, let's all agree on that."
Thompson continued to refer to the next president as a man who should represent conservative principles and values.
If you go to the link you'll see that Thompson was allegedly "teasing" HRC, something I'm sure political opponents do all the time out on the stump, just like George "Macaca" Allen just loves to tease minorities and people of color.
What a hoot that Fred Thompson is - but will he be able to remember four years of scripted dialogue?
Facing growing criticism of his agenda and tactics, a defiant Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, refused senators’ requests Thursday to delay a vote next week on his plan to loosen restrictions on owning a newspaper and broadcast station in the same city. [...] Martin wants to lift the so-called cross-ownership ban in the top 20 U.S. markets and allow such combinations in smaller markets if the FCC determines that they would be in the public interest. [...] Lawmakers and public interest groups had expected the FCC’s periodic review of its media ownership rules to extend into next year. But Martin accelerated the process in October, rushing to hold the final two public hearings with minimal notice and proposing to vote on a plan Tuesday, just a week after public comments were due at the FCC.
The congress, the public hearings and public comments were overwhelmingly against more media consolidation. So what's Martin's reaction? He and his fellow bush appointees changed the freakin' rules anyway!
Federal regulators Tuesday brushed aside the concerns of lawmakers and decided to ease the reins on media companies seeking to own newspaper and broadcast properties in the same market in the nation's 20 biggest markets.
The Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is disputing Democratic assertions that a new rule loosening restrictions on media ownership is full of loopholes and will lead to a wave of mergers and fewer choices for consumers. [...] The conflicting impressions say a lot about the divisive nature of the media ownership debate. Too much media in the hands of too few companies raises fears of an emerging corporate big brother and fewer news and information sources. [...] Since then, questions over what the rule actually means have lingered. The rule itself — despite a commission vote — has yet to be released to the public.
Quick summation; the rethuglican chairman of a public agency ignored Congress, studies and the public to institute a rule that they haven't released to the public ... and defended his illegal and unconstitutional actions on Christmas Day.
Do they know it's Christmas? Yeah, but they don't care. I see a Meddle In Honor in his future.
Looks vs. Content. Their time could be better spent.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:38 PM Permalink It looks as if something my wife and I noticed a l-o-o-o-n-n-g time ago is finally becoming apparent to televisions news readers: There will be no more pretty faces with High Definition TV, which has a way of revealing every flaw in every square inch of skin displayed.
See this bit from Huffington Post, where we find intrepid news reader and Vanderbuilt Beauty Boy Anderson Cooper actually saying:
[…]even the best makeup can fail under digital scrutiny. During an appearance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" in October, CNN host Anderson Cooper said he contemplated plastic surgery after seeing himself in HD.
"You notice things about yourself that you've never noticed before," he told O'Brien. "I learned I have a little fatty deposit under my left eye."
I find it both laughable and pitiable that the main concern of these egotistic, arrogant news readers would be how good they look on TV while completely ignoring the fact that they have done more to "dumb down" America than any other single group of people except those for whom they work.
America is falling apart at an ever faster rate of speed, the Empire is collapsing under the sheer weight of sinking every dollar, including those that could benefit so many Americans, into the never-ending black hole of Iraq.
Our deficits are crushing us, we live on a borrowed dime, our national assets are being snapped up as "bargains" because of the falling dollar, banks are pumping record amounts of their operating capital into their day-to-day business creating a coming collapse that will dwarf the 1929 crash, housing prices continue their free-fall and are providing Europeans and people from other countries the perfect opportunity to snap up American real estate at record low prices, and there is no hope to hold forth that America will ever be able to recover from becoming the largest debtor society on earth, and one of the most secretive and oppressive societies the world has seen along the way.
We still have 40-50 soldiers a week dying and an unknown number being wounded everyday in Iraq and we still have an administration that would rather nuke Iran than sit down for some civilized conversation and diplomacy.
The war/fear-mongers here in America, joined now by the Israelis, hold forth only the promise of war with Iran, and they have already estimated that when Israel bombs Iran with nuclear weapons 20-30 million people will die during the initial attack and countless others will die from the radioactive fallout. Among those dying from fallout will be not just Iranians, but Iraqis, Americans in Iraq, Afghanis, Syrians, Lebanese, and if the wind shifts, Israelis, Egyptians, the Saudis, Italians, Germans, France, and a whole raft of formerly Soviet countries.
It would also be ridiculous the assume that the Russians and Chinese will take the word of the lying-est world leaders ever that they intend to stop their nuclear attacks at the Iranian borders and NOT consider that it may very well be the intent of Americans and Israelis to continue their attacks unabated unless those two countries, Russia and China, retaliate against America and Israel with a counterattack against us to which our military can no longer respond.
Which could easily explain Russia dropping out of treaties and restarting their long range bombing operations (that come right up to our borders), developing a new ICBM carrying multiple warheads to negate our "missile shields" that, contrary to our propaganda, do not work, and could further explain the stealth nuclear submarine the Chinese developed last year that could be parked off our coastlines, putting America within 200 miles or less of incoming nuclear missiles.
Millions of Americans with no health care or the means to obtain it, more children going to bed sick and hungry than ever before in the history of America, and yet only the tiniest fraction of our defense budget alone being earmarked to help Americans.
All of this and so much more, and yet our leaders care only about continuing eternal warfare, conducting genocide in the Middle East countries of Iraq, and now Iran, all so these two countries, America and Israeli, can lock down the oil supply of the richest area for oil in the world (Makes me wonder when we will decide Israel is using too much oil and should therefore be "cut off" from the supply.) It is a mystery to me why a country that suffered a Holocaust, with millions of their people killed, would now be actively planning a Holocaust against the Iranians that will dwarf the WWII holocaust suffered by the Jews.
We are on an absolutely unsustainable fiscal path, one sure to devastate not just the American economy, but the world's economy as well.
Yet our "news readers," rather than seeing the looming disasters ahead and endeavoring with every breath to keep America truly informed of our disastrous and ever faster decline to absolutely zero importance to the world, much less "superpower" status (would a true superpower need to borrow money everyday to sustain itself?), these news readers are concerned that HDTV will reveal the flaws in their beauty. Let's hope it might also reveal the paucity of real news coverage and lack of quality of the fluffy, feel good, utterly plastic and meaningless news they purport to be reporting and that they read off the teleprompter placed before them so they may deliver the news by rote.
Yes, sir. Nothing to see here - move along- but does my make-up look good?
posted by The Vidiot @ 6:52 PM Permalink
Watch Ron Paul on Meet the Press from this morning. Mostly because he made Tim Russert look like the goddamn moron that he is. Dee-liteful. (This is part one of four. Go here for the rest of them.)
If you've stood in one line too many at the mall as you watched your bank account dwindle and your credit debt rise this holiday season, you might find a kindred spirit in Art Conrad.
The Bremerton, Wash., resident is fed up with the commercial aspects of Christmas, and he's voicing his protest in the form of some unorthodox holiday decorating: Santa on the cross.
For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure. [...] Frank Bussey, director of Military Ministry at Fort Jackson, has been telling soldiers at Fort Jackson that "government authorities, police and the military = God's Ministers,"
Bussey's teachings from the "God's Basic Training" Bible study guide he authored says US troops have "two primary responsibilities": "to praise those who do right" and "to punish those who do evil - "God's servant, an angel of wrath." Bussey's teachings directed at Fort Jackson soldiers were housed on the Military Ministry at Fort Jackson web site. Late Wednesday, the web site was taken down without explanation. Bussey did not return calls for comment. The web site text, however, can still be viewed in an archived format.
These religious extremists are not only targeting boot camps, they are in the military Academies:
A video made by a Christian ministry group shows Air Force Academy cadets being pressured to become “government paid missionaries when they leave” the academy, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), which released the video this week.
A military watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate whether seven Army and Air Force officers violated regulations by appearing in uniform in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization.
In the video, much of which was filmed inside the Pentagon, four generals and three colonels praise the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military. [...] Pete Geren, a former acting secretary of the Air Force who oversaw the service's response in 2005 to accusations that evangelical Christians were pressuring cadets at the Air Force Academy, also appears in the video.
If you have a rifle in one hand and a bible in the other you should be made to disassemble one because you're dissembling with the other.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:27 PM Permalink For those who read my post below about …a holiday story for our times, it must be apparent that I no longer believe in Jesus, Christianity, a benevolent god, churches and large groups of people, especially evangelicals, that purport to serve god while encouraging and enabling bush's eternal war.
My reasons, as stated, are also obvious as well. But my cynicism is not founded so because I have always been atheistic. My cynicism comes from reading the alleged words of Christ and the utter failure of man to live by the tenets expressed or even attempting to do so.
Listen to all our presidential nominees, especially those professing to be "men of god," then compare their words and deeds to these simple, but beautiful words:
THE EIGHT BEATITUDES OF JESUS
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (The poor in spirit have no lobbyists or enough money to influence politics, which is why they will probably go to heaven, if it exists.Besides, Hell will be overflowing with the GOP religious right-wingers, if it exists.)
Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. (There can be no comfort for those poor souls who lose their loved ones in an illegal and unjust war, and the tears and wishes of us peons apparently cannot be heard from the tops of all those Ivory Towers.)
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (No Republican, viewing actions compared to words, will inherit anything, for there is not a meek "Christian" to be found in the GOP, which wishes world domination to further their own ends. They would rather keep destroying our planet in the name of greed, so there will be nothing left to inherit.)
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (I fervently pray that all our war criminals will be prosecuted for their war crimes, but I expect no amount of prayers will bring it about.)
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. ("Your either with us or you're with the terrorists, and if you're with the terrorist we will kill you and destroy your country," is hardly merciful, and soon no country in the world will show mercy to America.)
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. (Claiming to talk to and receive political advice from God to go to war is not demonstrative of a pure heart or seeing God.)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. (We have no more peacemakers in American politics so we have no children of God to lead us. And desiring eternal war is not "peacemaking.")
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (The religious right has persecuted liberals, democrats, gays, flag-burners, Muslims, African-Americans, illegal immigrants, brown people in general, anyone "different" than themselves, and those who do not follow their evangelical religion ever since I have been alive. Democrats are the party of the people who seek to improve America for all, not just the rich, and they seem powerless to do anything about anything. The religious right wants more and more warfare and American hegemony.)
I could continue for days counting the ways and means by which the religious right continuously violate these simple beatitudes, but I think you get my point, and you might now understand why I do not believe in god any longer. If there were genuinely a god who could unite mankind behind the ideals expressed in the beatitudes, the world would be a very different place.
And forget about the old saw, "God works in mysterious ways," stuff either, especially when god apparently is fine with more people dying in his name than any other single cause and allowing the continuation of the slaughter of innocents everywhere.
But hey, that's just my opinion, one which I admit could be entirely wrong.
The Thoughtlessly Cruel America the World Sees - a Holiday Story for Our Times
posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:59 AM Permalink Because of the ridiculous jibber-jabber that passes for news reading in the world today, most Americans do not understand why we are becoming so universally despised.
A case in point: a young Iraqi boy, who shall remain nameless here, was horribly burned after a gang of thugs poured gasoline over his head and lit him ablaze. A group of caring citizens, or at least people working within the bush propaganda machine, banded together to bring the boy and his mother here to America to provide surgical and medical care to try and give the boy a better life, less disfigured, suffering less physical pain, and, hopefully, less mental anguish. A real, feel good story.
After each surgical procedure the boy and his mother will be paraded on national television showing the boy playing with other children, laughing, his mother, beaming with love and gratitude thanking the reporters (as if they had anything to do with it) in her broken english, a smile beaming from her face, and the entire story will be retold each time.
Yes, sir, a real, old-fashioned, American-style brand of compassion that will warm our hearts, bring a tear to our eye, and remind each of us just what a wonderful country in which we live that we can be so generous and helpful to this family. It would not surprise me at all to see the boy and his mother sitting next to laura during the next State of the Union speech, bush pointing them out with pride as a symbol of American generosity and compassion, the poor woman and her son will stand and wave to America, smiling; the perfect props to demonstrate how kind is the president and how good is America.
And it's all bull$hit on a silver platter with a hugh dose of hubris and chutzpah, a typical American P.R. story meant to reassure Americans and the world just how terrific it is that America can be so generous to a child from another land who has suffered so horribly, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars treating this one child just a few scant months after bush denied even the faintest bit of medical care or insurance to tens of millions of American children.
No mention will be made during this coming Christmas week of those ten million or more children who themselves, along with their families, are just one brief illness away from devastating the family's finances, losing their homes, begging welfare and charitable organizations for services and help those agencies can no longer provide due to overwhelming demand, and a public so swamped with debt that they can contribute no more. There will be no news stories about the poor and infirm that must choose between eating, heating their homes, buying medicine for themselves or family, or who must watch as their children grow so ill that they must, at last, take the child, or themselves, to an Emergency Room for the very most expensive form of medical care.
There will be barely a mention of the children and families suffering brutal winter cold because it is more important for the oil companies to make their profits than to care for the people to whom the oil will be sold. Once again there will be only one oil company that will give away hundreds of thousands of gallons of free or very low cost oil up in our cold northeastern climes, and in what should be the shame of American, our Big Oil will not be those who give this help, but Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Citgo Oil, who will be the compassionate one, helping the poor and infirm in a country that despises, vilifies, demonizes, and threatens Chavez at every opportunity.
There will be hardly any talk of the millions of American children, living in what is supposed to be the richest and most powerful country in the world, who will be going to bed hungry in larger numbers than ever before or their parents who will be losing their houses in record numbers while our government will be busy bailing out the real estate billionaires and bankers of our society with nary a thought towards the people whom they purport to serve.
Lastly, for now, comes the ultimate hypocrisy, our greatest shame, and one of which you are certain to not hear addressed at all by American media: America has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and their mothers and fathers while committing a systematic genocide of the Iraqi people just so we may satiate our thirst for the oil under their sands.
America has laid waste to every structure of government and most physical structures in Iraq with the singular exception of those structures that aid the oil industry and those magnificent palaces Saddam built, now occupied by American forces.
We have caused one of the greatest humanitarian disasters the world has seen, driving over two million Iraqi children and women out of Iraq to suffer the slings and arrows of fate in countries other than their own, countries which do not view these Iraqis as anything but a border and refugee problem, making them live in tent cities constructed to provide minimal shelter and caring not at all whether they have the means and resources to feed and care for themselves and their children. How many tens and tens of thousands of children has America killed in this way?
Over two-and-a-half million more Iraqis have had their homes destroyed, their lands taken over by occupying forces, and have been internally displaced by Americans who, again, do not give a damn how many more thousands and thousands of children and women die, either as "collateral damage," or from illness and starvation caused by being uprooted from their ancestral homes and driven out into the barren deserts of Iraq to suffer misery right up to the very moment they die.
But we have helped a single child, horribly disfigured, and so, America is once again, in our eyes, a kind and compassionate country. The richest and most generous in the world. A paragon of virtue and the shining light of democracy.
I no longer participate in the mass delusion that there will be "peace on earth and goodwill towards men," brought about by celebrating the birth of another child, worshipping that child, supposedly born over 2,000 years ago in the same region of the world in which we are now conducting eternal warfare, putting up crass displays of commercialism and the expression of empty slogans which, at least here in America, have become too trite for description. But for those that do not recognize the unmitigated gall and hypocrisy of helping a single burned child, and celebrating the long-ago birth of another, and then claiming to be good "Christians" while we continue the American-sponsored killing of children and finishing our genocide in Iraq, well…
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:36 AM Permalink
I didn’t read the whole thing very closely, but one paragraph did jump out at me because it’s something that’s been bugging me for awhile. Why is it I can see that the whole system is a farce? Why can Mr. Vidiot see it? Why can so many see it, yet so many more don’t, can’t or won’t?
Perhaps the biggest hidden reason people don't make the paranoid shift is that knowledge brings responsibility. If we acknowledge that an inner circle of ruling elites controls the world's most powerful military and intelligence system; controls the international banking system; controls the most effective and far-reaching propaganda network in history; controls all three branches of government in the world's only superpower; and controls the technology that counts the people's votes, we might be then forced to conclude that we don't live in a particularly democratic system. And then voting and making contributions and trying to stay informed wouldn't be enough. Because then the duty of citizenship would go beyond serving as a loyal opposition, to serving as a "loyal resistance"—like the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, except that in this case the resistance to fascism would be on the side of the national ideals, rather than the government; and a violent insurgency would not only play into the empire's hands, it would be doomed from the start.
Forming a nonviolent resistance movement, on the other hand, might mean forsaking some middle class comfort, and it would doubtless require a lot of work. It would mean educating ourselves and others about the nature of the truly apocalyptic beast we face. It would mean organizing at the most basic neighborhood level, face to face. (We cannot put our trust in the empire's technology.) It would mean reaching across turf lines and transcending single-issue politics, forming coalitions and sharing data and names and strategies, and applying energy at every level of government, local to global. It would also probably mean civil disobedience, at a time when the Bush regime is starting to classify that action as "terrorism." In the end, it may mean organizing a progressive confederacy to govern ourselves, just as our revolutionary founders formed the Continental Congress. It would mean being wise as serpents, and gentle as doves.
It would be a lot of work. It would also require critical mass. A paradigm shift.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:19 AM Permalink
That’s pretty much how we, the proles, are viewed by the powers that be. They don't give a damn about us. It’s obvious. For instance, would they have destroyed the CIA tapes if they really thought we would or could do anything about it?
The CIA's official explanation for destroying at least two videotapes depicting severe interrogation techniques "fails the straight-face test," an expert witness told the House Judiciary Committee Thursday.
Chertoff insists the scheme to turn spy satellites -- that were originally designed for foreign surveillance -- on Americans is legal, although a House committee that would approve the program has not been updated on the program for three months.
By now it's well known that FBI agents can't always be troubled to get a court order before going after a surveillance target's telephone and internet records. But newly released FBI documents show that aggressive surveillance tactics have even caused friction within the bureau.
if they thought we would or could stop them? Hell, they don’t even care about following the law in countries where they had a hand in creating the law.
On Tuesday, the Bush administration and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pushed a resolution through the U.N. Security Council extending the mandate that provides legal cover for foreign troops to operate in Iraq for another year.
The move violated both the Iraqi constitution and a law passed earlier this year by the Iraqi parliament -- the only body directly elected by all those purple-finger-waving Iraqis in 2005 -- and it defied the will of around 80 percent of the Iraqi population.
Texans seeking to escape the next hurricane or state emergency by evacuation bus will first be submitted to criminal background checks, the state's emergency management director says.
Or worse. They don’t give a damn about the environment or the long-term effects of something like nuclear energy and the dangerous waste it creates.
US President George W. Bush said Thursday that nuclear power represents the "best solution" to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and stressed he was serious about fighting climate change.
Why worry about that when there’s money to be made?!
Gee. It’s almost like the US Government is a corporation. Hey, wait a minute....
(15) "United States" means — (A) a Federal corporation; (B) an agency, department, commission, board, or other entity of the United States; or (C) an instrumentality of the United States.
The Justice Department delayed prosecuting a key Republican official for jamming the phones of New Hampshire Democrats until after the 2004 election, protecting top GOP officials from the scandal until the voting was over.
An official with detailed knowledge of the investigation into the 2002 Election-Day scheme said the inquiry sputtered for months after a prosecutor sought approval to indict James Tobin, the northeast regional coordinator for the Republican National Committee.
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Julie L. Myers as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two years after President Bush [...] had used a recess appointment in 2005 to [appoint her.]
That would be this Julie Myers:
Critics also noted her personal connections within the Bush administration. She was engaged — and is now married — to John F. Wood, who was chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and is now the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Ret. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is her uncle.
Myers herself was Chertoff's chief of staff when he led the Justice Department's criminal division. However, her appointment in 2005 came after Hurricane Katrina, which brought criticism over the experience of those handling the federal response to the disaster.
Her appointment ran into trouble again this fall when she gave the "most original" costume award to a white employee who came to the agency's Halloween party dressed as an escaped prisoner with dreadlocks and darkened skin.
Nepotism and racism go hand in hand, As Bush and Reid lead us to the garden land, A garden filled with sticks and stones, For their actions they cannot atone
Sorry for the doggerel, I apologize, But just saying motherf***er, motherf***er Wouldn't reveal their lies.
…according to Nielsen data provided by CNN, through the end of November, the cable network’s total day and prime time audience had increased by 3 percent overall and 5 percent in the crucial 25-54 demographic versus the same stretch last year.
Still, the network continues to chase Fox News in across-the-board ratings, and at the same time must fend off MSNBC, which so far has enjoyed a 20 percent jump in total year-to-date viewers over last year—thanks in part to the popularity of its late-night “doc block,” which often features grisly true-crime narratives and repurposed Dateline programming.
“When they do that, they’re really competing with Court TV,” Mr. Klein later told NYTV in an interview in his office overlooking Columbus Circle. “They’re saying, in effect, we give up trying to cover the news in any meaningful way. It enhances our brand. We’re the last man standing in terms of covering the news. We love that.”
Got some news Klein can report about CNN: Not only are you Faux Noise hangers-on, but the reason - one anyway - is that CNN has the worst programming of any news station on the air.
Watch CNN for 15 minutes in the morning when you get up and - barring something hugh like a missing white girl - you have heard every bit of news they are going to report FOR THE WHOLE DAY. It is the most pitiful news station on the air now: uninformative, conservatively biased, willing to gladly shill for the administration, and thoroughly propaganda-filled. They spend more time trying to avoid reporting the truth about Iraq than anything else.
Its news readers are so busy trying to be smarmy, smooth-talking, cheerful snake oil salesmen that it is a laugh a minute as they attempt to show their "charm, wit, and intelligence," all of which they lack in spades. (When I want news delivered by someone with a real personality I turn to Jon Stewart or Keith Olbermann.)
Yep, CNN and Jonathan Klein. Comic relief everyday of the week (if you can stand watching for that first 15 minutes).
This is awesome if it’s not just a publicity stunt.
The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.
"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.
(Here’s a link to LakotaFreedom.com and here’s a link to a map of their territory.)
People are so fed up. I would love to see them pull this off. Of all the cultures that have been destroyed by conquerors, what was done to the Native Americans was one of the worst. I’m teeny part Algonquin AND part Italian. So I’m angry AND guilty.
I wonder how many Lakota are really behind this effort and I wonder if other tribes will join them. Wouldn’t that be wild? Little pockets of non US territory. It could happen. A lot of tribes don’t need Federal money since they started with the casinos. Though, everything they do need and can’t provide for themselves would have to be trucked in through US territory and well, we all know what bastards the US government can be. Maybe those trucks just won’t make it to Lakota country. [wink wink]
Beyond that though, the land that they’re claiming, ironically enough, contains Mt. Rushmore.
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:50 PM Permalink
I have to wonder if this move by the FAA...
Under new rules that take effect in March, JFK will only be allowed 82 or 83 flights per hour at peak times, down significantly from the 90 to 100 that had been scheduled this past summer. Similar caps will go into effect at Newark, but the exact number has yet to be determined. LaGuardia already has limits on flightss
...has less to do with security congestion and more to do with hiding the fact that we are running low on fuel in this country, what with the war machine in full swing and all. Also, if I were a REAL conspiracy theorist, I would think it also had to do with keeping those pesky New Yorkers in their place.
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:24 PM Permalink
Oddly enough, the scariest one isn’t Giuliani. Though, he's a close second. No, the scariest one is Mike Huckabee. For one thing, his kids are a bit scary. Seems he had to cover up some of his son's, um, bad behavior a few years back.
(Miller County, Arkansas) Two boy scout counselors, 17 year old Clayton Frady and 18 year old David litickabee [sic], the son of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, have admitted to catching a stray dog during their summer session at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, AR, and hanging the dog by his neck, slitting his throat and stoning him to death.
Nice.
But that's not the reason he's so scary. The real reason he's so scary is that Huckabee, unlike GW, actually believes in this God stuff.
Huckabee has recently surged in various polls in several states with upcoming primary elections. His modest explanation for his recently increased popularity:
"A biblical miracle."
"Divine intervention."
Bush only says he believes in it. I don't for a minute believe that GW is the holy roller he portrays himself as being. I really think he's just wearing the 'suit' of evangelicalism as a political ploy. But Huckabee, now HE actually believes that God directs him and guides him and all of that stuff.
The blaze was located in Cheney's suite of ceremonial offices. His working office is in the West Wing. Secret Service spokesman Darrin Blackford said the building was evacuated as a precaution. District of Columbia firefighters poured water on the blaze, broke windows and moved furniture onto a balcony.
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:58 AM Permalink
The reason my posting has been more than a little frivolous of late is because I just have a bad case of rhetoric fatigue. From the Senate voting to giving Bush all the money he needs to run his war (way to go team opposition!), to Congress wasting their time holding hearings on steroids (when they SHOULD be holding impeachment proceedings), to a huge defense industry corporation, Carlyle, purchasing a rare and valuable copy of the magna carta (tell me that’s not ironic) to, oh, whatever else you can possibly think of. My head just spins from the constant barrage of bad news, stupid news, false news, lies, bleating, blovating, coercive, misleading, and manipulative rhetoric that passes for information in this age of over stimulation.
That is of course the point of all all the rhetoric. To fatigue the population so that they forget from one day to the next what the previous day’s atrocities were. It’s true. They know that the more they lie, the more the just say anything, the sheer quantity of information being spewed will effectively numb the populace, disarm them, and weaken their resolve to fight back. If you’re being attacked on all sides, you can’t defend yourself. It’s no wonder people escape into their ipods or wii or WOW or Second Life or whatever else they can do to fill the void that the destruction of their humanity has left. I’m this close to withdrawing myself.
How much longer can I go on having insipid conversations about what candidate is saying what, which candidate’s politically nuanced stance is better than some other candidate’s politically nuanced stance, which party is evil and which party is not? When the reality is 99.9% of our politicians are bought and paid for by special interests. Money talks and we don’t have money and they do. We are muted by our lack of financial resources. We are nothing. We are proles. They don’t listen to us. They never have and they never will. THAT is the reality.
Don't call me cynical. I’m not. I’m a realist, a pragmatist. How many times do you trust someone to do the right thing and EVERY SINGLE TIME they don’t? If that were a friend of yours, you’d ditch that friend. If it were a relative, you’d try to get them some help or at the very least, ignore them. Yet, as a country, we insist on continually expecting our selected officials to do the right thing, yet THEY NEVER DO. EVER. From either side of the imaginary aisle, they screw this country. They screw the proles. And they don’t care. Yet as a country, we keep expecting them to do otherwise. Isn’t that one of the definitions of insanity? To keep doing the same thing over and over yet expect different results?
Remember how when Orwell’s 1984 came out, and everyone was, “Oh well, that could never happen. That’s just too much?” and well, it’s exactly what has happened? Watch the movie “Idiocracy”. I think that is just as prescient. With each passing generation, the ability to think critically and clearly is being crippled and erased. The time to fix this is now. Or soon, it will be too late.
I know, I know. Yet another blog post by a stupid blogger that is all “woe is the state of the world” with no thoughts on how to make it better. Just bitching and moaning. A typical whiny blogger I am. Sorry about that. If I could come up with something constructive, I wouldn’t be working a stupid job and living in Brooklyn. But I don’t feel so bad. Marx saw that capitalism sucked, but even he couldn’t come up with an alternative. And he was brilliant.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:03 PM Permalink
Bumped and updated by The Sailor
One has to wonder who is paying off the FCC, and when I say wonder I mean "it really is no mystery"
The Federal Communications Commission, overturning a 32-year-old ban, voted Tuesday to allow broadcasters in the nation's 20 largest media markets to also own a newspaper.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:15 PM Permalink This is the letter I wrote today to Harry Reid, I encourage everyone to write their own:
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your service, but I must object to this nonsense "retroactive immunity" for probable criminals.
As an American I USED to enjoy:
Privacy in my papers, communications, home, and personal effects. The right to Habeas Corpus. The right to a speedy trial, not indefinite detention at the whim of the president. The right to counsel, without that right being stripped from me at the whim of the president. The right to petition my government for redress, not having my case thrown out on a technical "state secrets' doctrine at the whim of the president. The right to travel unimpeded, without worrying if some grumpy airline clerk will list me as a security risk and places me on a "no fly" list, a listing I cannot challenge in court. The right to free speech wherever I am, not just in state-determined "free speech zones." The right to have the courts determine if there was probable cause for a search warrant of my home, arresting me monitoring my phone calls, or for violating any of the rights listed in those formerly great documents known as "The United States Constitution" and its companion "Bill of rights."
These rights are being slowly taken away from me, and we are now a totalitarian surveillance state with a president who can order extra-judicial kidnappings, confinement forever while being tortured relentlessly (to the point of insanity in the Jose Padilla case) with no charges, trial, or attorney, and, horribly, a president who orders extra-judicial assassinations with 500-2000 pound bombs or a quiet bullet in the back of someone's head.
America is America no longer and I must respectfully ask you and your fellow senators to return to honoring the oath you took to protect our Constitution from all enemies, foreign or domestic, something that is obviously not being done, as I am witnessing the destruction of our Constitution from within by the most power hungry and most secretive administration in American history.
I am also watching every tax dollar and every dollar we can borrow vanishing into that black hole called Iraq while our schools, infrastructure, children, the elderly, and the infirm are falling farther and farther behind, and a "middle class" that also being destroyed as almost every househild now must have two or more family members working to barely make ends meet.
Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans.
There are several vital points raised by the new revelations in The New York Times that "the N.S.A.'s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before" and includes both pre-9/11 efforts to tap without warrants into the nation's domestic communications network as well as the collection of vast telephone records of American citizens in the name of the War on Drugs. The Executive Branch and the largest telecommunications companies work in virtually complete secrecy -- with no oversight and no notion of legal limits -- to spy on Americans, on our own soil, at will.
Read the whole thing, the Bush admin has been spying on us domestically long before 9/11.
Whatever happened to lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way?
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:31 PM Permalink First Harry Reid was going to present a version of the telecom spying legislation that gave complete immunity to the phone companies. After a hugh uproar and thousands of calls, letters, and emails to his office he agreed to present TWO versions of the bill, one granting retroactive immunity and one that does not.
He is presenting both bills despite holds placed on the immunity version by members of the Democratic Party. How many times have we all seen a single Republican place a hold on legislation that stops any further proceedings, and just how chickesh*t is it that our Democratic "leader" would ignore holds placed by members of his own party and allow votes on both bills?
Anyone wanna bet the farm on which version will win? Just don't discuss anything about it on a telephone or cell phone if you want to try and keep your secrets or opinions private.
With violence on the decline in Iraq but on the upswing in Afghanistan, President Bush is facing new pressure from the U.S. military to accelerate a troop drawdown in Iraq and bulk up force levels in Afghanistan, according to senior U.S. officials.
Administration officials said the White House could start to debate the future of the American military commitment in both Iraq and Afghanistan as early as next month. Some Pentagon officials are urging a further drawdown of forces in Iraq beyond that envisioned by the White House, which is set to reduce the number of combat brigades from 20 to 15 by the end of next summer. At the same time, commanders in Afghanistan are looking for several additional battalions, helicopters and other resources to confront a resurgent Taliban movement.
Then they give away the fact that bush will again lose by stating:
[…] They say Bush will listen closely to his military commanders on the ground before making any decisions on troops…
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:58 AM Permalink
What do you do if the greedy corporations won’t agree to do the right thing? Why, you bypass them altogether!
Dozens of striking film and TV writers are negotiating with venture capitalists to set up companies that would bypass the Hollywood studio system and reach consumers with video entertainment on the Web
I can think of no better way to stick it ‘the man’ then by ignoring him altogether.
I think they way the writers are thinking about it, they’ll produce their own stuff, send it out on the web first, then have the corporations pay THEM to air it on TV.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:26 AM Permalink
Since MSM is horrible at covering such things, that Ron Paul took in over $6 million in one day yesterday. He’s also $6 million over his end of year goal of $12 million.
No matter what you think of the man’s politics, you have to be impressed. But my favorite part of the Ron Paul story are the youtube love letters his supporters make. Here’s one advertising the Tea Party donation day (which was yesterday)
And here’s one that’s sort of a Ron Paul/Network the movie mash-up.
That one is my favorite thus far. Though, both videos, and most of the others that I’ve seen really tweak my pet peeve of bad typesetting. I grimace every time I see the wrong kind of apostrophe used or paragraphs where the first line is longer than the second. But that’s just me.
If Ron Paul were to actually win, he would indeed fail to smash the state entirely. That is neither his intention nor his promise. However, he would clearly move American society far closer toward the anarchist ideal. He would put to rest the most tyrannical and hierarchical organization as it concerns international affairs – the US empire. He would close down the American bases on foreign soil, halt the murderous invasions and bombings, stop dictating terms to other nations, and end the horrifying US regime of torture and indefinite, unchecked detentions. He would end the war on terror, which the two parties intend to maintain for a lifetime. All this alone would make Paul a remarkably unique president. On the world scene, it would finally mean anarchy between nations: There would be no global policeman, the role currently executed by the US government.
She always voted her conscience, she always said what she thought, she always represented the least of her constituents as if they were her biggest donors, she always spoke truth to power and she always seemed so strong, so dynamic that it seemed she would always be with us. She was a true representative of the people.
... ... ... I just looked back at what I wrote and it looks like every damn political tribute ever written. I wasn't trying to do that, I was just trying to do justice to one of the best people I've ever met and one of the best ever elected.
Her life story puts Hollywood screenwriters to shame. Raised by an unwed mother who cleaned white folks' houses to put her thru school. After high school she married and had 2 children. It didn't work out and she put herself thru college while raising the children. In 1965 Julia was working as a secretary for the UAW when newly elected Congressman Andy Jacobs hired her as his legislative assistant.
Just think what it meant that in 1965 a white congressman in his first term hired a black woman to run his office.
And Julia did that until Andy knew he'd lose the 1972 election after his district had been gerrymandered. He insisted she run for statewide office and she served in the Indiana House and Senate until 1990.
Andy Jacobs won the election in 1974 and retired in 1996 and Julia ran for his US Congressional seat. And won.
She was always outspent, and even tho her district was gerrymandered and reapportioned, she never lost an election. The only fight she ever lost was to cancer.
Julia Carson was the epitome of the ideal of our democracy.
And in these dark days of our country, I grieve her loss but take hope that we can survive and flourish as Julia did.
The Bush administration is pushing to take control of the promotions of military lawyers, escalating a conflict over the independence of uniformed attorneys who have repeatedly raised objections to the White House's policies toward prisoners in the war on terrorism.
The administration has proposed a regulation requiring "coordination" with politically appointed Pentagon lawyers before any member of the Judge Advocate General corps - the military's 4,000-member uniformed legal force - can be promoted.
A Pentagon spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the reasoning behind the proposed regulations. But the requirement of coordination - which many former JAGs say would give the administration veto power over any JAG promotion or appointment - is consistent with past administration efforts to impose greater control over the military lawyers.
Okay, so you've been held illegally for six years, you can't see the evidence against you, the rules change with each ruling against the bush maladministration, and now the government can tell your appointed attorney that their careers are over if they don't play nice with the military commissions monkey show trials.
This general said it best:
Retired Major General Thomas Romig, the Army's top JAG from 2001 to 2005, called the proposal an attempt "to control the military JAGs" by sending a message that if they want to be promoted, they should be "team players" who "bow to their political masters on legal advice."
It "would certainly have a chilling effect on the JAGs' advice to commanders," Romig said. "The implication is clear: without [the administration's] approval the officer will not be promoted."
"…they should be "team players" who "bow to their political masters on legal advice."
Does that statement scare the bejesus out of anyone but me?
Shortness of Breadth ... or ... The Shallow End of the Gene Pool
posted by The Sailor @ 3:29 PM Permalink
My take on the republican residential debauch debates:
Shorter Huckster: Supreme executive power derives from some mary telling her fiance she was a virgin & pregnant, by god, and from some farcicial aquatic ceremony, not from some mandate from the masses! Help, I'm being repressed!*
Shorter Mittster: [Sing it in 5/4] According to the angel moroni, Joe Smith was really horny, He's the one with the many wives, He'd stopped doing the old hand jive.
I want to be president, 'cause I believe I was heaven sent, If you don't vote for me In hell you'll be for eternity**
Shorter Rudyism: Hey, some long haired freak from the middle east who tried to spread his religious doctrine here!? I'd have him tortured even more than we do now because we need to protect America, just like I did on 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11.
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:40 AM Permalink
Remember the woman who got arrested for swearing at her clogged toilet? Well, the charges were dropped on first amendment grounds.
Now, what I’d like to see is the neighbor who reported her arrested for filing a frivolous charge AND for being a ginormous pansy ass.
I don’t mind if someone else runs the show for a while because whomever is capable of winning will obviously be the kind of person who is one of “us” anyway. And it’s good for the country because the country will believe that there has been a change and it will further sedate them back into their lethargy.
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:43 AM Permalink
Here I am, sipping my coffee and eating popcorn (I had some left over from what I made for Mr. Vidiot’s lunch) and I click on one of my favorite websites, BoingBoing. Now, usually what you find on BoingBoing is a sort of mishmash of different stuff from weird art to fascinating gadgets to commentary on DMCA, etc. You just never know what you’ll find. So today, what do I find but them writing up a book called Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, By Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara.
For most Americans, the word “NASA” suggests a squeaky-clean image of technological infallibility. Yet the truth is that NASA was born in a lie, and has concealed the truths about its occult origins. Dark Mission documents this seemingly wild assertion.
I’ve been reading Hoagland’s website for years. I can’t really remember how I found out about him, but I’ve enjoyed his semi-sane ramblings about hyperdimensional physics, NASA cover-ups, and Mars anomalies. You know, I LOVE that stuff. But I always thought of him as a bit fringe. So I almost did a spit take when I saw him mentioned on BoingBoing.
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government has ordered all policewomen to hand in their guns for redistribution to men or face having their pay withheld, thwarting a U.S. initiative to bring women into the nation's police force.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, issued the order late last month, according to ministry documents, U.S. officials and several of the women. It affects all officers who have earned the title "policewoman" by graduating from the police academy. It does not apply to men in the same type of jobs.
Critics say the move is the latest sign of the religious and cultural conservatism that has taken hold in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster ushered in a government dominated by Shiite Muslims. [...] The ministry has been "whittling away step by step" at the initiative launched by U.S. troops in late 2003, Phillips said. [...] The impact of the growing religious influence on Iraqi women has manifested itself in other ways as well. In the southern city of Basra, police say religious militants this year have killed dozens of women who did not cover their hair or dress modestly.
Hey, anyone else remember this Shining moment where the bushies used an Iraqi woman (and illegally used US troops in uniform) to propagandize the freedoms they've wrought on Iraq?I'm thinking Safir raised the wrong finger for bush.
A team of experts from Indiana University announced today they have discovered one of the most storied treasure ships of the pirate age. [...] Capt. William Kidd was at first hired by the British government to raid enemy shipping in the 1600s. But after capturing the heavily laden Quedagh, he was accused of turning pirate. He sailed the ship to the Caribbean, where he offloaded most of her loot and left her in the care of a small crew in 1699 while he headed to New York in a doomed effort to clear his name.
Kidd was eventually executed and the fate of the Quedagh had remained uncertain until Beeker's discovery.
Wow! Not bad for a landlocked university in the Midwest!
A tip o' the cocked hat to Dr. Beeker and his team.
(BTW, you Googlers who got here by mistyping Kidd's Booty should be ashamed of yourselves! But thanks for the traffic.)
A well-known writer walked into a producer’s house and said to the producer that he had come up with a great act. The producer, intrigued, told the writer to briefly describe his idea.
“Well,” said the writer, “I have an idea for a political party who claims to be against the war in Iraq, but won’t do anything about it. The party will also claim to be against torture, but won’t do anything about that either. In fact, they will be swept into power precisely because of their public opposition to both of those things, but privately they will be informed of possible acts of torture performed by our government, and they won’t say anything about it. At any rate, they continue their two-faced behavior- publicly opposing the war and torture, but privately being apparently content with it, until the end of their congressional term, when they will all gather together on the floor of the House, where they will all publicly shit on the original version of the Constitution, on loan from the National Archives.”
The producer looked at the writer, and said, “That is really quite disgusting. What do you call the act?”
The writer responded, “The Democrats.”
While skippy thinks that's funny, and I agree on many levels, I gotta mention that John Cole just recently came over from the dark side, where he was an Iraq war cheerleader.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
