Iran Busts CIA Terror Network

What are the odds of seeing this in american media?

"TEHRAN - The Intelligence Ministry on Saturday released details of the detection and dismantling of a terrorist network affiliated to the United States.
In a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars, Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the Intelligence Ministry announcement said.
The group’s plans were devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and making public places in various cities insecure.
One of the terrorists was killed in the operation, but the rest are in detention, the Intelligence Ministry said, adding that the group’s main objective was to create fear among the people.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency comprehensively supported the terrorist group by arming it, training its members, and sponsoring its inhumane activities in Iran, the Intelligence Ministry stated.
The terrorists had maps, films, pictures, and sketches of important and sensitive sites in various cities in their possession when they were arrested. They also had a large number of weapons and ammunition and a great deal of highly explosive chemicals and cyanide.
The blast at a religious center in Shiraz last month was carried out by this group, and it also had plans to carry out similar attacks on the Tehran International Book Fair, the Russian Consulate in Gilan Province, oil pipelines in southern Iran, and other targets, the communiqué stated."

Et Tu, Baretta?

The newly found bust of Julius Ceasar recovered by divers from the Rhone River:



Diminutive Electra Glide in Blue cop Robert Blake:

Y2K At The Gas Pump

Old gas pumps can't handle ever-rising prices

"REARDAN, Wash. (AP) — Mom-and-pop service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon: Thousands of old-fashioned pumps can't register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials.
The pumps, throwbacks to a bygone era on the American road, are difficult and expensive to upgrade, and replacing them is often out of the question for station owners who are still just scraping by.
Many of the same pumps can only count up to $99.99 for the total sale, preventing owners of some SUVs, vans, trucks and tractor-trailers to fill their tanks all the way.
As many as 8,500 of the nation's 170,000 service stations have old-style meters that need to be fixed — about 17,000 individual pumps, said Bob Renkes, executive vice president of the Petroleum Equipment Institute of Tulsa."

I remember when we used to be able to take road trip vacations.
So why are those dials spinning like mad? Dave Lindorff at Counterpunch says it's the direct result of all war, all the time. Guess who's buddies are making a killing?

Fear at the Pump

"In an article titled “Worried About the Price of Gas? End US Wars,” Hussein-Zadeh writes, “Soon after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq the price of oil began to escalate in tandem with the escalation of war and political turbulence in the Middle East.” Furthermore, he says, “Anytime there is a renewed US military threat against Iran, fuel prices move up several notches.” If the US were to actually make good on Bush’s and Cheney’s threats to attack Iran, in Hussein-Zadeh’s view “the sky would be the limit” to oil prices, with $200/barrel being a starting point.
The dollar’s fall, too, is significantly a result of the wars—particularly the Iraq War, he says. That war has been costing the US $200 billion a year, all in borrowed funds. That in itself is a huge hole that has to be funded by borrowing from China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and other nations. But as Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz has pointed out, the true cost of the Iraq War, when interest on debt, health costs of injured veterans and other long-term costs are factored in, is more like $3 trillion and rising."

Crater Gets A Gator

In what's likely to be a metaphor for the direction our country is headed, meaning backward toward the paleozoic era, giant potholes fill with reptiles.

Texas sinkhole becomes a lake, home to gator

"DAISETTA, Texas - The giant Texas sinkhole that formed last week is now a lake big enough to become the home of an alligator.
Area residents believe the reptile was washed into the 600-foot-diameter crater by water from surrounding swamps.
Ground water is seeping into the hole, and its exposed walls are about 30 feet high, the Houston Chronicle reported in its online edition on Friday."

One Way To Make It Look Less Ugly

Official Urged Fewer Diagnoses of PTSD

"A psychologist who helps lead the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.
"Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," Norma Perez wrote in a March 20 e-mail to mental-health specialists and social workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Tex. Instead, she recommended that they "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."

The Pathetic State Of Bush Support

This know nothing blowhard wandered onto the set of Hardball with one thing in mind - endlessly repeat the latest neocon "talking point", literally shouting it at the audience while refusing to answer a question from Matthews. Who asked it 28 times.
Cheap, ignorant, cartoonish political blather like this fool brought to the table is, in the truest sense of the word, a cancer.

Stimulus Check Hijinks

Tax rebate checks delayed, may not arrive until July

IRS: Some stimulus checks sent to wrong accounts

People told they would get direct deposit will get checks instead

Von Rumsfeld Mulled Over How To Energize The Fascist Agenda

The former secretary of defense in a conversation with military analysts about public antipathy towards the Bushista endless yet very profitable war plans.
Took place in December of 2006 and they were sitting around wringing their hands and complaining about all the complacency in Europe and the US.

"DELONG: Politically, what are the challenges because you're not going to have a lot of sympathetic ears up there until it [a terror attack] happens.
RUMSFELD: That's what I was just going to say. This President's pretty much a victim of success. We haven't had an attack in five years. The perception of the threat is so low in this society that it's not surprising that the behavior pattern reflects a low threat assessment. The same thing's in Europe, there's a low threat perception. The correction for that, I suppose, is an attack."

Yes. Don, that will cure things, won't it?

audio here

h\t to PrisonPlanet

Carrying A Few Pounds? You're Responsible For Climate Change

Bwaa ha ha

Notice nobody claims authorship. They must have little to do sometimes at the Beeb.

Israelis Commemorate Anniversary In Their Own Particular Way

Paramilitary Police Attack Al-Nakba March

"Away from the cameras, a fifth of the Israeli population -- more than one million Palestinian citizens -- remembered al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948 that befell the Palestinian people as the Jewish state was built on the ruins of their society.

As it has been doing for the past decade, Israel’s Palestinian minority staged an alternative act of commemoration: a procession of families, many of them refugees from the 1948 war, to one of more than 400 Palestinian villages erased by Israel in a monumental act of state vandalism after the fighting. The villages were destroyed to ensure that the 750,000 Palestinians expelled from the state under the cover of war never return.

But in a sign of how far Israel still is from coming to terms with the circumstances of its birth, this year’s march was forcibly broken up by the Israeli police. They clubbed unarmed demonstrators with batons and fired tear gas and stun grenades into crowds of families that included young children."

Gaza Terrified With Inhuman Nighttime Sonic Booms

"Recent disclosures of the Israeli practice of sonic bombing of the 1.3 million fenced in and captive people in the Gaza Strip may take the award for the meanest trick yet. Israel's pilots fly made in the USA F-16 Fighters low and fast, deliberately breaking the sound barrier over sleeping people."

Dead Terrorist Speaks

Dubai - Osama Bin Laden, who died in late 2001, rose from the grave yet again in an audio tape, this time to mark Israel's 60th anniversary.

Known for his uncanny ability in re-animating to deliver reminders of who americans are to blame for the fake terror event on September 11, Bin Laden has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We will continue, God permitting, to pretend to fight against the Israelis and their allies, and I will continue, God willing, to raise from the dead at the most opportune times to further their designs."



The dead Bin Laden closed with his usual complaint. "And at some point, God willing, the American FBI will at last recognize me for masterminding the 9/11 attacks on their ten most wanted list."

The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified but the voice kind of sounded like Bin Laden's.

Euro 2008 Attack Hype - Potential False Flag Event?

Al Qaeda 'Planning Euro 2008 Attack'

"The Euro 2008 tournament is a target cited by the Islamist terrorist network," federal police spokesman Juerg Buehler told Swiss newspaper La Liberte.
He said messages had been posted on Islamist websites and police were "following the situation very closely".

And we know that obscure statements on websites are grounds for panic. By the way, how is it, in this ~war~ on terror that nobody ever tracks down and examines these sites? But... Switzerland? Why should muslims want to harm the people of Switzerland? The answer is that muslims don't, but the people who whip up those phony Bin Laden tapes or perhaps these fake muslims might.

"Officials from the Palestinian Authority have accused the Israeli spy agency Mossad of setting up a fake al-Qaeda terrorist cell in Gaza. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said that Israel had set up the mock cell in order to justify attacks in Palestinian areas."

OK, so there are reams of evidence proving AQ is a phony ass prop used by the CIA/Mossad as a straw dog to pull off false flag events. AQ in essence is the CIA/Mossad. What the hell do they have against Switzerland and the Euro 2008 soccer tournament.?

Iran-Switzerland gas deal irks US

"A major energy deal signed between Iran and Switzerland for delivery of Iranian gas to the European country has infuriated the US."

Desperate ADL leaders smear Switzerland as ‘financier of terrorism’

"In March, Switzerland was the only European member of the 47-nation United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to vote in favor of a resolution condemning Israeli military action in Gaza that resulted in the death of more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians."

h/t to PrisonPlanet

What Really Went On When O'Reilly Lost It

Killing Them Softly

Since the invasion and occupation of Iraq the farmers there have suffered tremendously. It's no accident that muslim farmers are targeted relentlessly. Next to life itself, food is our greatest common denominator, and is now being used as a weapon by scumbags in power. There isn't anything else that compares to growing food as the symbol of being independent and hope for the future. Fascism dictates that those two things must be eradicated and replaced by fear and abject dependence.

The US had it planned right from the beginning. You remember L. Paul Bremer, the CPA administrator in the chaotic first days of Iraq's destruction as a functioning society? A legacy of his was the infamous Order 81, a colonial mandate which was forced down Iraqi farmers' throats on April 26, 2004, like they were being waterboarded:

"What the United States' man in Iraq had done was no less than tell each and every Iraqi farmer -- growers who had been tilling the soil of Mesopotamia for thousands of years -- that from here on out they could not reuse seeds from their fields or trade seeds with their neighbors, but instead they would be required to purchase all of their seeds from the likes of U.S. agriculture conglomerates like Monsanto."

But the policy of destroying the farmers in the "fertile crescent" began a long time before 2003.
After 20 years of bombing, sanctions, oil-for-food, and depleted uranium, the effort was to effectively collapse the ability of farmers in Iraq to supply enough food for their society:

"In 1991, the U.S. deliberately bombed Iraq’s civilian infrastructure of water purification and electrical plants, and then prevented Iraq from rebuilding same by imposing sanctions (more accurately a “military blockade” – an act of war). In both 1991 and 2003, “US bombing raids targeted cattle feed lots, poultry farms, fertilizer warehouses, pumping stations, irrigation systems, fuel depots and pesticide factories . . . --- the very infrastructure of Iraqi agriculture."

How many times do you have to read that farmers in their fields were "mistakenly" slaughtered because it was thought they were "militants", or "insurgents", before you realize the true intentions of the country's occupiers? The agenda was and is to crush indigenous agriculture and instead absorb the country into corporate america's orbit, forcing the farmers to grow high yield crops for export to the US instead of feeding the Iraqi people.

Now, with the onset of summer's heat, the situation is critical - Nature Adds to Occupation Blows

"Farmers in the Diyala province in Iraq have been hit by just about every crisis possible. First the security disaster dried up supplies and markets, then lack of electricity cut irrigation, and now comes a drying up of water resources.
Nothing now seems more difficult in Iraq than the business of farming."

Nobody should expect the occupation with all it's bullshit five year rhetoric about "reconstruction" to do anything about the situation. The plan to collapse agriculture in america's colony is proceeding quite well, thank you.

"The government is doing little to help people over this crisis. "The directorate is impotent and can give nothing to the farmers," the irrigation centre employee said. "Hundreds of thousands of acres are now desolate, and thousands of people jobless."Most villagers work in farming, and now that farming no more sustains people as it did, life there is badly hit. Agriculture in this area kept Iraq supplied, and also produced enough for exports. But now farmers sometimes have a hard time feeding themselves."

"The majority of our village farmers have quit and the rest will follow."

So, When DO You Call It Fascism?

Airport metal detectors on the streets of London

"Police are to use hundreds of airport-style and hand-held weapon detectors in the crackdown on knife crime.
Teams of 15 officers will be deployed across the 10 boroughs in London that have recorded the most knife crime.
Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin, head of territorial policing in the capital, said officers would be deployed in areas blighted by stabbings to stop and search teenagers suspected of carrying weapons.
Police admit the "in your face policing" is expected to raise community tensions in some areas."

And you know exactly what's coming next:

"Officers will use contentious Section 60 powers to enforce effective "no-go" areas for people carrying knives.
The powers enable officers to stop people and search them without the need to have "reasonable suspicion" that they are engaged in wrong doing.
There has been criticism of the powers because research has found it hits black communities disproportionately."

Israelis: Thanks For Visiting, Here's Our List

Olmert to hand Bush a weapons wish list

"During U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Israel, which is scheduled to begin this morning with the American president landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to ask Bush to upgrade substantially the security relationship between Israel and the U.S., according to sources close to Olmert. Olmert's people are leaning, said the sources, toward presenting the visiting president with a list of weapon systems that Israel wants to purchase or otherwise gain access to. Next month Olmert is scheduled to visit Washington D.C. for 48 hours, expecting to receive Bush's answer on the possibility of supplying the items on the list."

The unmitigated arrogance never fails to astound. "Here's a list of what we want and we expect an answer when we show up next month." Of course the Bushistas will comply, they always do. Israel gets all it demands of the US and much, much more. While Sockpuppet visits America's Best Little Buddy he's going to present a very advanced radar system to them. Earlier this year he wanted and got a substantial increase in money to dump in Israel's lap, $30 billion (that we know of) over the next decade.

It's like the zionists have something on our compliant politicians, something very powerful that makes our criminals dance and sing and bend over to take it time and again. (It's been put forth that the Israelis have complete knowledge of who the real perpetrators of 9/11 are, and it ain't the arab patsies, but this obsequious behavior has been going on for a lot longer than seven years.)

The largesse has literally poured into Israel during this criminal thugocracy since 2000. The day before 9/11 Von Rumsfeld got in front of a microphone and allowed that oopsies, the pentagon "lost" almost three trillion dollars, that's trillion with a T, as in $3,000,000,000,000. The following day this little bit of news disappeared into the media black hole, but it's worth it to point out that the pentagon comptroller at the time was the Rabbi Dov Zakheim, a man with dual Israeli/American nationalities. This was the same Dov Zakheim who got the pentagon to declare whole squadrons of F16s and F15s declared surplus and sold to Israel for pennies on the dollar, so it's not hard to imagine where all that "lost" meney went. The same place that tens of thousands of tanks, helicopters and missiles have gone. The same place that everything on Olmert's list is going to go.

Clinton Questions Obama's Ability To Greet World Leaders

Cites vast experience as hostess

"CHARLESTON, WV—Hillary Clinton once again attacked Barack Obama on the issue of experience Tuesday, this time questioning the Illinois senator's ability to effectively smile, make appropriate eye contact, and offer sufficiently delicious finger foods when welcoming visiting world leaders. "My opponent has never greeted foreign dignitaries such as the Japanese Minister of Forestry and Fisheries, as I had the opportunity to do when I was first lady," Clinton said, adding that she has an extensive background in both double-clasped hand shakes and idle small talk with political luminaries from several nations. "Do the American people really want a president who doesn't know when it's appropriate to gesture toward a chair, indicating where a head of state should be seated?"

Sirloins, Sausage And Speed

Packing meat and heat.

Slaughterhouse had a little side business

"Federal authorities charged that a methamphetamine laboratory was operating at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and that employees carried weapons to work. The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors.
The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture. According to the application, a former plant supervisor told investigators that some 80 percent of the workforce was illegal. They included rabbis responsible for kosher supervision, who the source believed entered the United States from Canada without proper immigration documents. The source did not provide evidence for his suspicion about the rabbis.
The source also claimed to have confronted a human resources manager with Social Security cards from three employees that had the same number. The manager laughed when the matter was raised, the source said. At least 300 people were arrested Monday during the raid, for which federal authorities had rented an expansive fairground nearby to serve as a processing center for detainees.
The search warrant application said that 697 plant employees were believed to have violated federal laws."

The place hasn't been kosher for years

"The videotape by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which shows a steer struggling to its feet and walking into a corner after its throat has been cut and its trachea and esophagus are dangling out, has caused a furor among Jewish organizations and rabbis around the world."

Yet One More Reason To Own A Gun And Know How To Use It

911 operator - "I really don't give a shit what happens to you".

Colbert Admits He Too Had O'Reilly Moment

Musical Bonus - minute and a half of O'Reilly Remix

Useless Critters Might Get In The Way Of Resource Extraction

Bushistas Set New Record In Refusing To Protect Endangered Species

"WASHINGTON , D.C.— Today marks two years since the Department of the Interior last protected a new U.S. species under the Endangered Species Act. This period includes the entire tenure of Dirk Kempthorne as Secretary of the Interior and is by far the longest period without a new species being protected since the landmark federal law was passed, surpassing even James Watt, who, under Reagan, in 1981 and 1982 went 382 days without protecting a species.
“The Bush administration has been an unmitigated disaster for the nation’s endangered species, delaying and denying protection for hundreds of animals and plants,” said Noah Greenwald, science director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The drought in new species protections is not for lack of species in need. Indeed, the Fish and Wildlife Service currently maintains a list of 280 candidate species that are recognized as warranting protection, many desperately, but for which the agency claims they lack resources to provide such protection. On average, these 280 candidate species have been waiting for protection for 19 years. Such delays have real consequences, with at least 24 species having gone extinct after being designated candidates for protection."

"No more of that snail darter bullshit, that's for sure." unnamed flunky

Added - Whaddya know, a little exposure in the media makes the scumbags a little nervous. Since the scathing article above got disseminated it seemed the bad press made them scramble to do their job. Somewhat.
Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species - but the myriad number of not so splashy species gets ignored.

Bush Gives Up Warmongering 'In Solidarity' With Families Of Soldiers

Just kidding.

Bush Says He's Not A Golfer In Wartime

"President Bush said yesterday that he gave up golfing in 2003 "in solidarity" with the families of soldiers who were dying in Iraq, concluding that it was "just not worth it anymore" to play the sport in a time of war.
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," Bush said in a White House interview with the Politico. "I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

Quite the selfless sacrifice. But now he can't go vroom! vroom! and zip around in his special little cart.

Earthquake Conspiracies

Chinese authorities deliberately ignored omens

"The Chutian Metropolis Daily reported that on April 26, 80,000 tonnes of water suddenly drained from a large pond in Enshi, Hubei province. The province shares a border with Chongqing Municipality, which was devastated by the earthquake on Monday.
On May 10, a Sichuan-based newspaper, the West China Metropolis Daily, reported that hundreds of migrating toads descended upon the streets of Mianyang, the second largest city in the province which neighbours Wenchuan County, the epicentre of the earthquake.
The Chinese state news agency reported today that 18,645 people were buried under the city's collapsed buildings and 3,629 people confirmed dead.
In the city of Mianzhu, 60 miles from the epicentre, bloggers pointed to reports just weeks before the earthquake of a mass migration of more than one million butterflies.
Other bloggers seized upon an as yet unsubstantiated rumour that a Chinese geologist had predicted the earthquake in advance but had been stifled by the authorities, and by fear."

The Large Hadron Collider did it

"The team of Russian Physicists who assisted in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), located in Switzerland, are reporting today that an experiment being conducted during the colliders ‘cool down’ phase has resulted in what they are calling an ‘antiquark spree’ that has, literally, “Nailed the heart of Earth”.
Working in conjunction with Chile’s National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT), these reports continue, CERN scientists, while attempting to establish a quark based means of near speed-of-light communications with other Western scientific and military installations, ‘lost control’ of this experiment on the South American ‘anchor’ triggering an ‘unexpected’ stream of antiquark’s which first ignited a massive volcanic eruption in Chile, and in a ‘straight shot’ through the entire planet has further triggered a catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake in China."

US and China are engaged in HAARP wars

Their turn.

America's Bestest Little Buddy Doesn't Like Palestinian Children

"Nits make lice" - Colonel John M. Chivington, on Native American kids before the Sand Creek Massacre, where Colorado's First Regiment slaughtered hundreds of Indians, almost all women and children.

350 Palestinian children are suffering inside Israeli prisons

"The Palestinian Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Centre ADDAMEER, declared that the Israeli Zionist forces have arrested almost 6200 Palestinians since the last Intifada started in September of 2000. 350 of those languishing in prison are children who, against international conventions, are still imprisoned in Israeli jails and detention centers.
Those youngsters undergo severe punishment and mental stress, living an extremely horrifying health and mental situation. Being subjected to torture, interrogation, beatings, humiliation, insults, degradation, and regular terrorizing, "such conditions will affect their mental well being forever, and will accompany them through their adult life," the report said.
The report published by the Palestinian centre on Friday 9 May 2008 revealed that hundreds of children were arrested while they were quite young, and detained in prisons. Some of them are now over 18 and still are imprisoned."

And those are the lucky ones, you see. In a chillingly frank interview with a Ha'aretz journalist, an Israeli sniper admitted it was policy to shoot them in the head. [AH = correspondent, IS = sniper]:

"(AH) You haven't shot children.
(IS) "All the sharpshooters haven't shot children."
(AH) But nonetheless there are children who were hit, wounded or killed after they were hit in the head. Unless these were mistakes.
(IS) "If they were children, they were mistakes."
(AH) Do they talk about this?
(IS) "They talk to us about this a lot. They forbid us to shoot at children."
(AH) How do they say this?
(IS) "You don't shoot a child who is 12 or younger."
(AH) That is, a child of 12 or older is allowed?
(IS) "Twelve and up is allowed. He's not a child any more, he's already after his bar mitzvah. Something like that."
(AH) Thirteen is bar mitzvah age.
(IS) "Twelve and up, you're allowed to shoot. That's what they tell us."

McBush's Spiritual Guide "Gets Off On Warfare"

You have to wonder what else he gets off on.

Bubble Boy Peers Into Olmert's Soul Too

Ehud Olmert is 'honest', says George W Bush

"Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is under investigation for bribery, was an “honest man”, President George W Bush said yesterday, on the eve of his visit to the Middle East.

Mr Bush’s comments came as police raided Jerusalem’s city hall in search of evidence to be used in the bribery case which could force Mr Olmert from office."

Also, attempting to comment on the vicious, ongoing war crime against the palestinians, we're supposed to translate this garble into english:

"I also believe over time that when confronted with life in Gaza, what that’s like, or life in a place where you can raise your child in peace, most Palestinians will choose peace,” Mr Bush said."

News Anchor Asks Listeners A Brutal Question

Must be a tough business to work in.

Just a note. I originally posted this video hosted by MySpace about 10 hours ago and they had yanked it by the time I logged on again. The NYC anchor got shocked by something and let loose with an expletive and it's funny. Apparently MySpace pretends that there's something called "innapropriate content" and censored the video. No matter, YouTube will pick up the slack.

Yet the hypocrites at MySpace has this at the bottom of their 'child friendly' video site:

Perfect Fit For Fox

They gave this man his own show.

Whitest People In The World Want "Tension Squads"

Brit Town Halls should map race and religion to identify 'tension hotspots', says Hazel Blears

"More than 10 million people are to have their everyday disputes, their politics and their business lives checked by new "tension monitoring" committees.
The committees are to be set up to try to cut the risk of riots or disturbances in the aftermath of terrorist outrages or outbreaks of local racial trouble.
They will ask for and file reports on named troublemakers whose political activities are considered to be raising community tensions.
Reports on the behaviour and attitudes of local residents will be collected by community workers, neighbourhood wardens, local councillors and provided by voluntary organisations, according to a paper published by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears today."


"watch the wogs!" wails white woman

They're Not Even Pretending With The Phony "Terror Cell" Cases Anymore

Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions

"WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously.The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it."

That's because there was never anything to show for it to begin with. Virtually every trumped up case that the federal government has bellowed about has been laughed out of court, every time some "terror" group is rounded up it turns out the whole thing was set up by the feds themselves. The shame of this rush into fascism is that people believed the fetid "terror" scam in the first place, now exposed time and time again as justification for turning this country into a miserable police state, a shiny and barbaric hell hole I guarantee you'll wish you saw coming after it's too late.
It seems they're not even going to try to prove reasons anymore for their snoop society wet dream. Why bother with failed prosecutions when the majority of dumbed down americans are already bamboozled and are gleefully willing to take it up the ass even further without any show trials?

"These concerns come as the Bush administration has been seeking to expand its ability to gather intelligence without prior court approval."

Soaring Gas Prices = Bike Shop Boom Times

BISMARCK, N.D. — "Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is good for business _ if you run a bike shop. Commuters around the country are dusting off their old two-wheelers _ or buying new ones _ to cope with rising fuel prices, bicycle dealers say."

I did exactly what this article says people are doing - I took my trail bike down from where it hangs in the garage and made a vow to ride it every day. I've been wondering when we'd feel the effects of idiotically high fuel prices and it looks like we'll be seeing a lot more bicycles on the streets, especially when a gallon starts nudging the $5.oo mark when traditional vacation season rolls around and the corporations automatically gouge motorists.

The only thing about my trail bike and a lot of people's old two wheelers that have been gathering dust for years is that they're really not suited for street use or commuting. Older units can be heavy and those fat tires really slow you down. I used to have a sleek (for the time) 10 speed Schwinn decades ago that racked up thousands of miles because it was comfortable and fast. If you price comparable road bicycles these days you're looking at a base price that starts at around $600 if you want some quality, but how long will it take to save money if it costs a hundred bucks to fill your gas tank? Not very.

It May Not Be Prudent To Install Win XP SP3

Users complain Windows XP SP3 wreaks havoc

"According to information posted on Microsoft’s Windows XP message board, hundreds of users are complaining that the update is wreaking havoc on their PCs.
The problems range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes.
According to a user Michael Faklis, who posted on forums:
"My external disks are having trouble starting up, which results in Windows not starting up."
Anther user Doug W. complained:
"After three attempts with different configurations each time, System Restore was the only way to get me out of deep s**t,”

Tornado Final Straw For Residents Of Picher, Oklahoma

What's next? Swarms of locusts?

Lead pollution and the threat of cave-ins

"The culprits of Picher's demise are the same lead and zinc mines that brought the town its prosperity and boosted its population to a high of 16,000 before World War II. But the mines were shut down in the 1970s, and all that is left in and around Picher are about 1,000 people and giant gray piles of mining waste, known locally as "chat," some hundreds of feet tall and acres wide, that loom over abandoned storefronts and empty lots.
The piles are loaded with heavy metals that have contaminated the air and the groundwater and placed the northeastern Oklahoma town in the middle of the Tar Creek Superfund Site, the largest and one of the most polluted in the country. To add to Picher's misery, a federal study released in January determined that the abandoned mines beneath the city could cause cave-ins without warning."

Tornado-ravaged Oklahoma town might not rebuild

"The tornado — spawned by storms that also killed at least 16 people in Missouri and Georgia — could be the ultimate incentive for those 800 or so residents who have been reluctant to leave, said John Sparkman, head of the local housing authority.
"I think people probably have had enough," he said. "There's just nothing to build back to any more."