Two Photos

A U.S. Marine from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, 1st Battalion 5th Marines pauses briefly in the heat to rest with his heavy pack filled with mortar equipment, ammunition, food, and water in the Nawa district in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, July 4, 2009.

Obama leaving the white house to play golf in Virginia July 4.

Yes,The Honduran People Are Upmost In His Thoughts

Honduras Coup General Was Charged in 1993 Auto Theft Ring

"General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, who appeared on stage this week with Honduran coup “president” Roberto Michiletti, and who ordered the kidnapping and forced deportation of P
resident Manuel Zelaya last Sunday, was charged with grand auto theft in 1993, Narco News has learned.
On February 2, 1993, the front page of the Tegucigalpa daily El Heraldo included this headline: “Eleven Members of the Gang of 13 Go to Prison”:
“Eleven individuals arrested for their alleged participation in the theft of 200 luxury automobiles… were sent to prison yesterday… (including) Colonel Wilfredo Leva Caborrea and Major Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, accused as alleged participants…”

Thugocracy

Little Sarah's Word Soup

Sarah Palin Turns Pro

"I wish Hunter S. Thompson had lived to see this.
As Hunter said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Sarah Palin makes Mark Foley, the congressman who sent filthy emails to pages look almost normal. She makes David Vitter, the senator who was hanging out with hookers, look almost boring. She makes Larry Craig, caught hitting on a cop in a men's room, look almost stable. She makes John Ensign, the senator who was having an affair with a staffer, look almost humdrum (and compared to the rest of the GOP whack-jobs, he is). And she makes Mark Sanford, the governor with the Latin lover, look positively predictable.
It was an almost impossible mission, but in resigning from office with 17 months to go in her first term, Sarah Palin has made herself the bull goose loony of the GOP.
Let's stipulate that if there is some heretofore unknown personal, medical or family crisis, this was the right move. But Gov. Palin didn't say anything like that. Her statement was incoherent, bizarre and juvenile. The text, as posted on Gov. Palin's official website (here), uses 2,549 words and 18 exclamation points. Lincoln freed the slaves with 719 words and nary an exclamation; Mr. Jefferson declared our independence in 1,322 words and, again, no exclamation points. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1,796 words -- still no exclamation points. Gov. Palin capitalized words at random - whole words, like "TO," "HELP," and "AND," and the first letter of "Troops."
Gov. Palin's official announcement that she is resigning as chief executive of the great state of Alaska had all the depth and gravitas of a 13-year-old's review of the Jonas Brothers' album on Facebook. She even quoted her parents' refrigerator magnet."

Cattle Prod News

Finally a tasering case where the electrocution is taken as seriously as it should. It also illustrates the cavalier attitude some, if not most, cops hold towards using their deadly toy. In a saner world there'd be congressional hearings and the torture device removed from police forces nationwide, but this isn't a sane society.

Waffle House waiter sues over Taser incident

"Daniel Wilson, the 22-year-old waiter, spoke publicly about the encounter Wednesday at his attorney’s office in Snellville. The incident has already resulted in the arrest of Cpl. Gary Miles, 33, and the resignations of Sgt. Christopher Parry and Sgt. Joey Parkerson. None of the officers could be reached for comment this week because their phone numbers are unlisted.
Wilson said all three officers were regular customers at the Waffle House at 2725 Grayson Highway in Loganville.
He said the restaurant provided police with free food.
Wilson said the officers often pointed the red laser from their Taser at him playfully. They would do so when Wilson picked a song they didn’t like on the jukebox or when telling him not to mess up their order, Wilson said.
“It was uncomfortable, but they are my customers and they tip pretty well,” Wilson said. “I just thought they were being foolish.”
Then on Feb. 16, Wilson was chatting with Parry and Parkerson when Miles sidled up behind him. Without saying a word, Miles zapped him with the Taser, Wilson said.
“I remember feeling the pulse go through my body,” Wilson said. “It hurt.”
Taser stun guns deliver a 50,000-volt electrical current capable of incapacitating a person. The weapon can fire barbed probes a distance of up to 35 feet, or it can be used in “drive stun mode” when pressed directly against a suspect. Gwinnett police checked the data recording from Miles’ Taser and found it was fired for one second at 2:48 a.m. on Feb. 16.
Miles told investigators that he only “spark tested” the Taser near the employee’s back “just to scare him a little bit,” according to the internal investigation file.
Parry, 41, and Parkerson, 39, witnessed the employee being shocked but did not report it. They laughed along with Miles, Wilson said. The sergeants later told investigators they didn’t realize the Taser made contact with Wilson’s body.
Wilson said he remembers telling Miles in the presence of the other officers, “Hey, you actually tased me.”
Wilson again sought an apology from Miles a few days later for accidentally stunning him. He said Miles replied, “Who says I did it by accident?”

Real Reason Governor Gidget Resigned

stolen from WRH

The Film Big Coal Does Not Want You To See

Big Coal ain't happy.



"After a year-long campaign of threats and intimidation, the Big Coal lobby plans to have its Friends of Coal sycophants out in force to picket the premiere of the film on July 11, 7pm, at La Belle Theater in the South Charleston Museum in Charleston, West Virginia.

Why is Big Coal so afeared of this documentary film by native Appalachian daughters Mari-Lynn Evans and Phylis Geller, producer and director of three-part award-winning landmark PBS series, "The Appalachians"?

If anything, Coal Country goes out of its way to include the views and voices of the Big Coal lobby and its executives, engineers and miners. This, in fact, might be why Coal Country is so compelling; far from any hackneyed agenda, Coal Country simply allows the coal industry and those affected by its mountaintop removal operations and coal-fired plants to tell their personal stories. The end result is devastating. In a methodical and deliberate fashion, Coal Country brilliantly takes viewers on a rare journey through our nation's coal-fired electricity, from the extraction, processing, transport, and burning of coal.

Once you see the breathtaking footage by cameraman Jordan Freeman, and the unaffected and heart-rending portraits of coal mining families, you will never flick on your light switch again without thinking about Coal Country."

"Big Coal doesn't want you to see this stunning expose because they have been allowed to let the truth slip out of their mouths."

Why There Was A Coup In Honduras

Crushing hope and dreams of a better society, maintaining the plutocracy, and most of all the tried and true Getting Rid of the Threat of a Good Example.

"The coup itself was an entirely traditional enterprise. Honduras is a wretchedly poor place – the third poorest in the hemisphere, where about 70 per cent of the population live in grinding poverty. President Zelaya, ousted last weekend, took office as a credentialed member of the commercial and political elite and then, against all expectation, moved to the left, as well described on this site last week by Nicholas Kozloff and other writers.

He ordered a 60 per cent increase in the minimum wage This, he declared, would “force the business oligarchy to start paying what is fair.” He joined a regional organization, the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas - known by its Spanish acronym ALBA - a socially progressive trade pact backed by Hugo Chávez of Venezuela opposing the U.S “free trade” model. He started using Chavezian rhetoric, declaring his to be “a government of great social transformations, committed to the poor.” He welcomed Cuban doctors and harshly denounced US meddling in the region.

The Honduran elite viewed Zelaya, elected to his 4-year term in 2006, with growing alarm and diligently communicated their disquiet to Washington, where the military and civilian intelligence agencies were already being primed by their substantial assets and agents inside Honduras, historically an important CIA and military staging post in Central America, from which many sinister and lethal operations in the region, such as the Contra war, were supervised.

A large number of Honduran military commanders have their own long-term relationships with the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies, many of them forged during their training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Here is the notorious School of the Americas where promising officers from Argentina, Colombia, Honduras and other US allies are given training such useful skills as seizing power, hunting down leftists and torture."

Our Capitalist Valus At Work Again

US-backed Colombian soldiers execute innocents for cash

"The Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe is facing questions about its handling of the war against the country’s FARC rebels following a UN report that accuses Colombian soldiers of systematically killing innocent people for a cash reward."
"At the heart of the problem is the Colombian government’s practice of paying soldiers for dead bodies of FARC members. Predictably, the incentive has led some soldiers to kill innocent civilians, dress their bodies up as FARC rebels, and hand them in for cash.
The phenomenon has come to be known as “falsos positivos,” or “false positives.”

Pakistanis finger innocents for cash

"One detainee who said he was an Afghan refugee in Pakistan accused the country’s intelligence service of trumping up evidence against him to get bounty money from the U.S.
“When I was in jail, they said I needed to pay them money and if I didn’t pay them, they’d make up wrong accusations about me and sell me to the Americans and I’d definitely go to Cuba,” he told the tribunal."

Kill an Afghan kid, hand the family cash

Twit Quits

Caribou Barbie Profundities

"The world needs more Trigs, not fewer."

"Only dead fish go with the flow"

"And I know when it's time to pass the ball - for victory!"

"In the words of General MacArthur said, "We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction!"

"It may be tempting and more comfortable to...plod along...but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out."

As you annonce you quit.

Reddit headline:

"For the first time, a Palin actually decides to pull out early."

We're Not Being Told The Truth About Flight 447

Probe: Doomed Flight 447 fell intact into sea - July 2


"LE BOURGET, France - Air France Flight 447 slammed into the Atlantic Ocean, intact and belly first, at such a high speed that the 228 people aboard probably had no time to even inflate their life jackets, French investigators said Thursday in their first report into the June 1 accident."


Doomed Flight 447 fell apart in the air - June 17


"In the latest sign that Flight 447 was no longer intact when it plunged into the Atlantic, medical examiners said the bodies had multiple fractures of legs, hips and arms.
Such injuries could mean the plane broke apart in air, forensic experts said. Bodies and debris would be severely fragmented if the jet crashed intact.

The theory that the plane broke up in the air is also supported by the location of victims' bodies found more than 50 miles apart."


Such discrepencies are a sure sign of a coverup, for whatever reason. Once you start in a-lyin', you have to keep doing it, because once you finally tell the truth it exposes how you've been lyin' all along.

Remember on 9/11?


"Let's Roll" (One of the most pornographic pieces of propaganda ever devised)


"The plane crashed in a field in Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., killing all on board including 40 passengers and crew and four hijackers."

FBI and State Police Cordon Off Debris Area Six to Eight Miles from Crater Where Flight 93 Went Down


Flight 93 landed in Cleveland

We're Not Being Told About Dissent In The Ranks

Refusing to Comply

"Writing on his blog from Baquba, Iraq, in September 2004, Specialist Jeff Englehart commented: "Three soldiers in our unit have been hurt in the last four days and the true amount of army-wide casualties leaving Iraq are unknown. The figures are much higher than what is reported. We get awards and medals that are supposed to make us feel proud about our wicked assignment..."
Over the years, in response to such feelings, some American soldiers have come up with ingenious ways to express defiance or dissent on our distant battlegrounds. These have been little noted in the mainstream media, and when they do surface, officials in the Pentagon or in Washington just brush them aside as "bad apple" incidents (the same explanation they tend to use when a war crime is exposed).
But in the stories of men and women who served in the occupation of Iraq, they often play a different role. In October 2007, for instance, I interviewed Corporal Phil Aliff, an Iraq War veteran, then based at Fort Drum in upstate New York. He recalled:
"During my stints in Iraq between August 2005 and July 2006, we probably ran 300 patrols. Most of the men in my platoon were just in from combat tours in Afghanistan and morale was incredibly low. Recurring hits by roadside bombs had demoralized us and we realized the only way we could avoid being blown up was to stop driving around all the time. So every other day we would find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapon caches in the fields and everything was going fine. All our enlisted people had grown disenchanted with the chain of command."
Aliff referred to this tactic as engaging in "search and avoid" missions, a sardonic expression recycled from the Vietnam War when soldiers were sent out on official "search and destroy" missions.
Sergeant Eli Wright, who served as a medic with the 1st Infantry Division in Ramadi from September 2003 through September 2004, had a similar story to tell me. "Oh yeah, we did search and avoid missions all the time. It was common for us to go set camp atop a bridge and use it as an over-watch position. We would use our binoculars to observe rather than sweep, but call in radio checks every hour to report on our sweeps."
According to Private First Class Clifton Hicks, who served in Iraq with the First Cavalry from October 2003, only six months after Baghdad was occupied by American troops, until July 2004, search and avoid missions began early and always had the backing of a senior non-commissioned officer or a staff sergeant. "Our platoon sergeant was with us and he knew our patrols were bullshit, just riding around to get blown up," he explained. "We were at Camp Victory at Baghdad International Airport. A lot of the time we'd leave the main gate and come right back in another gate to the base where there's a big PX with a nice mess hall and a Burger King. We'd leave one guy at the Humvee to call in every hour, while the others stayed at the PX. We were just sick and tired of going out on these stupid patrols."

Branding Isn't Their Strong Suit

Racism debate after Russian and Nigerian gas companies combine to form 'Nigaz'


"When a $2.5billion international venture is being planned you might expect there to be hours of debate over what to call it.
Yet branding is not the forte of some companies, it seems.
Russian Energy giant Gazprom has inadvertently walked into a racism row with the announcement of its joint venture in Nigeria - Nigaz."

Challenge A Ticket, Pay $25 Even If It's Dismissed

Here comes a blizzard of tickets

Mass. - "Armed with the knowledge that more than 250,000 tickets for civil motor vehicle infractions were challenged in the state last fiscal year, legislators have voted to charge drivers $25 for such hearings. The budget Gov. Deval L. Patrick signed into law this week includes the change, which took effect yesterday, according to Trial Court spokeswoman Joan Kenney."

"State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, was a member of the conference committee that discussed attaching a cost to clerk hearings. Legislators estimate the change will yield $5 million this fiscal year in revenue."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - Cynthia Davis & Fox News
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

Brit Pit Mine Tries To Make Nice With Slag Sculpture

Like Israelis forming a massive peace sign with palestinian corpses.

Giant naked goddess to be carved into hillside

"Dubbed the "Goddess of the North", Northumberlandia will be made from two million tonnes of earth dug out from an open cast mine in Cramlington, and tower 112ft into the northern sky.
The Goddess, designed by artist Charles Jencks, will recline over the Shotton open-cast mine and form the centre piece of a new public park at the site."

Looks like mother earth lying in a pool of blood.

Obama Simply Will Not Criticize His Masters

US remains silent over McKinney arrest by Israel

"Nearly a day after the detention of former US lawmaker Cynthia McKinney by Israeli forces, Washington has yet to make a reaction. Israeli Navy detained former US congresswoman and Nobel Prize laureate Cynthia McKinney and twenty other human rights activists on board a relief boat outside Israel's territorial waters on Tuesday as they were heading to Gaza on a humanitarian mission."

flashback - Obama silent on Gaza catastrophe

"Barack Obama's chances of making a fresh start in US relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, appear to diminish with each new wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza."

Junket Junkies

Congress's Travel Tab Swells

"WASHINGTON -- Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.
The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.
The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as "codels," has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data."

Got that?
The preening blowhards are so accustomed to flitting off to a resort in the Virgin Islands and calling it a symposium or some crap, that when open bribery from lobbyists was deemed unsavory they just forwarded the bills to you and me.

"Although complete travel records aren't yet available for 2009, it appears that such costs continue to rise. The Journal analysis shows that the government has picked up the tab for travel to destinations such as Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Australia's Great Barrier Reef."

They want us to believe all this luxurious travel on a paris river cruise or to see the Galapagos iguanas helps them do their jobs better.
In reality they genuinely believe that as our privileged elite they deserve this lavish lifestyle. On our dime.

Cattle Prod News

Fearing for their lives, cops taze and pepper spray a minister and his congregation

"WEBSTER, Texas – Police used a Taser on a pastor and pepper spray to disperse his congregants Wednesday after the pastor allegedly interfered with a traffic stop in the church parking lot.
Congregants say they were in the Iglesia Profetica Peniel church for an early morning prayer when pastor Jose Elias Moran went to assist the stopped driver, a church member, by asking the police what had happened.
An incident report on the Webster police department's Web site said Officer Raymond Berryman tried to calm Moran and arrest him. But police say he pushed the officer, went inside the church and returned with 40 other congregants.
The congregants say Moran fled into the church when the officer grew angry and began to yell, and Moran's family disputes that the pastor touched the officer.
Moran's son Miguel said 30 witnesses saw the officer turn aggressive and repeatedly kick the church door. Several members were hit with pepper spray and children were present, Miguel Moran said.
"They treated him as if he were a drug dealer or murderer, but he is a pastor that tries to help the community," Moran said. "The police always want to be right but they are not."
Moran's wife, Maria, said she tried to help her husband after he was hit with the Taser but police threatened to arrest her.
"My husband has a heart condition and with electrocution who knows what could've happened," Maria Moran said.
She added that police told them Moran had been taken to a hospital, but Miguel Moran said when the family arrived there, police refused to give them any information.
They learned from a bail bond firm that Moran had been released from the hospital and was in jail on $500 bail. Moran, 42, was charged with interfering in the duties of a police officer.
Police Sgt. James Lovel did not specify Moran's status, except to say he was in custody and negotiations for bail were taking place Wednesday night.
"A pastor has to tend to his flock," Maria Moran said. "That is all he was doing."

$2,000 for a Dead Afghan Child, $100,000 for Any American Who Died Killing it

And the wogs have to apply for it, if anyone's left

"After Obama apologized for the strike which the Afghan government claimed killed well over a hundred ordinary country folk, came the report that the families of those killed, and subsequent Afghani dead falling in harms way of the US military, continuing as before, can apply to receive up to $2,000 compensation. This is the price the great United States of American puts on an Afghan or Pakistan human being, while awarding $100,000 to families of Americans who die while fighting and killing wherever.
Shocking? Shame provoking? Embarrassing that no Afghani or Pakistani child or parent has any human right at all, including the right not to be blown to pieces in a US drone air strike? - the final insult being the value of their lives put at a mere $2,000 by the wealthiest nation in history?
Naw, not within the general public, which more or less accepts this assessment of a well-liked Commander-in-Chief President Obama, and accepts the calculations by his generals and higher officers."

Brit Drug Haul In Afghanistan Exposed as Propaganda

Opium crop haul just a hill of beans, admits MoD

"It was just the sort of good news the British military in Helmand needed. Soldiers engaged in Operation Panther's Claw, the huge assault against insurgent strongholds last week, had discovered a record-breaking haul of more than 1.3 tonnes of poppy seeds, destined to become part of the opium crop that generates $400m (£243m) a year for the Taliban.
Ministry of Defence officials more used to dealing with negative stories about the British operation in southern Afghanistan swung into action to extract the maximum benefit from this unexpected PR coup.
A press release hailed the success of the offensive, and armoured vehicles were hastily laid on to allow the media, including the Guardian, to visit the site where the seizure was made, an abandoned market and petrol station that was still coming under sustained enemy fire when the reporters arrived.
Major Rupert Whitelegge, the commander of the company in charge of the area, tugged at one of the enormously heavy white sacks.
"They are definitely poppy seeds," he said emphatically.
Except they weren't. Analysis of a sample carried out by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation in Kabul for the Guardian has revealed that the soldiers had captured nothing more than a giant pile of mung beans, a staple pulse eaten in curries across Afghanistan.
Embarrassed British officials have now admitted that their triumph has turned sour and have promised to return the legal crop to its rightful owner."

Here Comes The 4th Of July

Time to be in lockstep with the most misunderstood and twisted event of the year. Our understanding of our brave ancestors daring to demand and declare freedom from the British empire, and in doing so automatically becoming criminals in the eyes of established authority, has morphed into a tame and meek acquiescence and celebration of repressive government. Don't forget to wave that flag and support our troops, doncha know.

You're Not the Boss of Me!

"The Declaration of Independence basically amounted to a bunch of guys telling their king, "You're not the boss of us anymore." The Declaration was an act of treason, written by a bunch of tax cheats and lawbreakers. It wasn't merely some people whining or petitioning the government to do something different. In fact, the Declaration describes how they had already tried that, and it hadn't worked. So they resorted to open disobedience. And it wasn't just one protest or demonstration, to make a point or try to convince their masters to change; it was a declaration that they were completely and permanently denying the right of the standing regime to rule them at all, ever again. And that's a pretty darn radical thing to do.
For all the parades, fireworks, picnics, and other events which will happen on July 4th to celebrate "Independence Day," how many Americans today do you think are capable of even contemplating the possibility of engaging in "illegal" resistance against "authority"? Not many.
What would the equivalent of the Declaration of Independence look like today? Well, we would have a lot more to complain about than the colonists did, with far higher taxes, far more intrusive regulation, and a much higher level of oppression all around. But what would the conclusion be? It wouldn't be, "So you better change those laws!" It would be more like this:
"Dear Federal Government, you're fired! We're not paying your taxes anymore, not obeying your laws ever again, and from now on we will resist your thugs when you try to enforce your will on us.
"How many Americans would dare to even think such a thing, much less say it out loud, or write it down and send it to the feds? Very few, indeed. The truth is, the spirit of resistance is all but dead in this country. Even among those in the pro-freedom movement, the vast majority of efforts revolve around begging the masters to be nice, petitioning for or against this or that legislation, arguing over which politician should run our lives and take our money."

Three Minute Treacle

Around 1968 the world would be an alien place if today's young people hopped on a time machine and spent a while there. You know, no computers, no cell phones, networking, or internet. Color TV had been around for a few years but most sets were still black and white. Hell, stereo systems were so much of a recent phenomena that record albums still boldly claimed to be ~Stereo!~ on the jacket front. But we all had transister radios. AM ruled the roost before it turned into a vile talkfest swamp, and technology still had to play catch up to superior FM quality.

So everybody listened to AM music and young people were about to endure probably the most vile, but thankfully short, episode in american popular music history - Bubblegum.

Sugar Sugar - The Archies

It was the fluffiest, most repetitive and noisome crap imaginable. It was an invented style cranked out in an assembly line process and aimed straight at ten to sixteen year olds. You see it was a marketing decision. Back then if you wanted music to play at home on your phonograph you basically had three choices of speeds, all records, and turntables allowed you to choose between them. Pubescent kids didn't have the cash to buy more expensive 33 1/3 albums from established bands but would go and buy a cheaper 45 with a song on each side, so these execrable bubblegum songs would be cranked out on 45s, lots of times just manufactured by studio musicians.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Ohio Express

Truly simple, bouncy, childish music with those horrific melodies that make you wish you could wash your brain with bleach, these songs. I don't think for a second there was any groundswell of demand for them, rather they were forced on us all either as a vile social experiment or vicious pursuit of profit, probably both. The funny thing about these songs was that since youngish people were targeted the lyrics dripped with references to sugary food, I guess it worked. What compounded the agony was the tendency of pop/rock stations to do heavy rotation of their top 40 with these torture tunes liberally included, probably because some crook somewhere greased some palms to put them on the list.

Chewy Chewy - 1910 Fruitgum Company

To credit this contrived sludge as a a separate style a la acid, grunge, rockabilly or punk is wrong, oh so wrong in my opinion, and it's probably the only music you can say that about. It wasn't born from the ground up but forced into existence like a fat, constipated producer on the toilet. You can't really claim the "genre" left a legacy or influenced other styles, except perhaps later teeny idols mimicking the manipulative business aspect of the era, targeting the pimply crowd. I suppose one could make the case that it could be admired from afar as a case of successful hitmaking craft, but that would be damning it with faint praise anyway. The whole thing was constructed around the idea of selling records and churning the stuff out. Surf music, slightly older, was a brilliant gift to the world by comparison.

Fortunately the phenomena died a relatively quick death. The few bands that had actually formed to pump out this bilge were basically one hit wonders. The pubescents who got sucked into buying the 45s aged, bought drugs and started listened to the Dead. Society's mood changed and the taste for listening to chirpy nothingness over and over gratefully passed.
But of course, that void had to be filled. Then came Disco.

Bubble Gum Music - The Rock & Roll Dubble Bubble Trading Card Co. of Philadelphia - 19141

CIA Front Pretends To Be Outraged

Al Qaeda threatens France for perceived anti-burqa stance

"Al Qaeda threatened to "take revenge" on France "by every means and wherever we can reach them" because of a debate in France over whether the burqa, a traditional Islamic woman's covering, violates French law, according to a statement posted on radical Islamist Web sites.
"We will not tolerate such provocations and injustices, and we will take our revenge from France," said the statement, signed by Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, calling himself "commander of al Qaeda in North Africa [Islamic Maghreb]."
The statement is dated June 28, five days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy controversially told lawmakers that the traditional Muslim garment was "not welcome" in France."

Not Always Science Agency

For a supposed space agency, NASA spends a lot of time looking back at the earth. Or so we're led to believe.


NASA shoots volcano erupting from space.


NASA satellite photos reveal Yellowstone's recovery from fires


Astronauts Photograph Mount Fuji


And shamelessly tries to get in the limelight as the 40 year anniversary of the supposed first man on the moon event approaches.


The lost NASA tapes: Restoring lunar images after 40 years in the vault


And a week ago ballyhooed this pathetic shot as the first picture return from their LCROSS mission.



Now think about this image for a second. They actually released this photograph to the media and it's far worse than those taken fifty years ago by much more primitive technology. I take much better pictures of the moon than this with a cheap camera. LCROSS costs almost $100 million and all it will do is basically take some redundant imagery and then crash onto the lunar surface, ostensibly to "search for water". Which will, if it's there, immediately dissipate into the vacuum because, um, water disappears completely in a vacuum. But we're told the second half of the spacecraft will sort of fly through the debris cloud and see if it has to turn on it's windshield wipers.
Who cares. It's all window dressing anyway.

Operation Stabilize Drug Profits A Roaring Success

Cheap, plentiful opiates from Afghanistan and you've got a stranglehold on the market. Protected by american military muscle and well oiled by american tax dollars, using established smuggling routes from Tajikistan to Kosovo, and life is sweet.



Heroin prices

"American wholesale prices remain at around twice the level in Western Europe. The UN estimates that annual opiate production—almost all of which is from Afghanistan—jumped to about 8,900 tonnes in 2007, having been flat at around 4,500 tonnes over the previous decade. Seizures of heroin rose to 65 tonnes in 2007 but were still only a small fraction of global production."

U.S.-built bridge is windfall — for illegal Afghan drug trade

"NIZHNY PANJ, Tajikistan — In August 2007, the presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan walked side by side with the U.S. commerce secretary across a new $37 million concrete bridge that the Army Corps of Engineers designed to link two of Central Asia's poorest countries.
Dressed in a gray suit with an American flag pin in his lapel, then-Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the modest two-lane span that U.S. taxpayers paid for would be "a critical transit route for trade and commerce" between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Today, the bridge across the muddy waters of the Panj River is carrying much more than vegetables and timber: It's paved the way for drug traffickers to transport larger loads of Afghan heroin and opium to Central Asia and beyond to Russia and Western Europe."


Afghan farmer with 2 US soldiers dressed in poppy camo

Jeebus Raves

Twitter This

Mossad, CIA and MI6 agents are nice and busy.

Police, Basij 'imposters' arrested in Iran

"Iranian police officials have reportedly arrested the armed imposters who posed as security forces during post-election violence in the country.
Iran's Basij commander, Hossein Taeb, said Monday that the imposters had worn police and Basij uniforms to infiltrate the rallies and create havoc. Taeb added that the recent anti-government riots have killed eight members of the Basij and wounded 300 others.
Iranian security officials --and in particularly the Basij volunteer forces-- have been accused of killing and injuring protestors who took to the streets to protest the outcome of the June 12 election -- which saw incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad win by a landslide.
“Basij forces are not authorized to carry weapons,” said Taeb, asserting that armed groups are the main culprit behind the killings.
Tehran Police Chief Azizallah Rajabzadeh has also insisted that his department had no role in the shoot-out that has become the focus of most media outlets in the West.
“Policemen are not authorized to use weapons against people,” said Rajabzadeh. “They are trained to only use anti-riot tools to keep the people out of harms way,” said Rajabzadeh. Last week saw some of the worst violence since the election after some 'terrorist elements' infiltrated the rallies on Saturday, according to Iranian officials.
The insurgents set fire to a mosque, two gas stations and a military post in Western Tehran, leaving scores of people dead and wounded."

Rockets Red Where

Struggling cities cancel Fourth of July fireworks

"As the economic crisis has dragged on, city leaders around the country say fireworks are a luxury they can no longer afford. Big and small, urban and rural, the skies will remain dark over at least four dozen communities nationwide come July 4.
"It came down to this: Did we want to spend $150,000 on something that would be over in a few hours?" Cervenik said. "Or did we want to use that money to keep city workers employed?"

US aid to Israel to continue despite crisis

"Despite the deep financial crisis in the United States, Washington has no plans to halt its foreign aid. The American administration recently asked the Congress to approve the full security aid to Israel, which stands at $2.775 billion, as part of the 2010 budget plan."

Our Bestest Little Friend In The Middle East Deals With It's Niggers

Israeli soldiers poisoned well in West Bank village, say local officials

"Israeli soldiers poured dirt, stones and toxic chemicals in the only well in the hamlet of Khirbat Makehl near the village of Yabad in the northern West Bank overnight on Saturday, according to Palestinians in the community.
The village's official representative, Walid Hamdan, said soldiers riding in three military jeeps entered the community overnight and sabotaged the well. The chemicals caused the water to change color and taste, he said.
The 80 cubic-meter well is the only source of water for the village of 70 to 80 families, Hamdan said.
He also said that, since the village lies near the Israeli settlement of Hermesh, the armed guards of the settlement often harass and assault Palestinians, particularly herders who venture near the edges of the settlement. Israeli forces also sometimes close the road leading to the community, preventing deliveries of food.
Hamdan invited human rights organizations to visit the community to see the situation there and ultimately put pressure on Israel stop the abuses in the area. He said the situation is "unbearable," and some of the local families have begun moving to nearby towns and cities because of these repeated attacks."

Smiling Tyranny

Executive Order Would Reassert Power To Hold Terror Suspects Indefinitely

"Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.
Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war."

"World's Ugliest Pedigree Dog" Winner

Miss Ellie

My Trip To Neverland

By Paul Theroux

"I heard the news today, oh boy, that Michael Jackson had a heart attack – and died of cardiac arrest, at the age of 50, in Los Angeles. I am reminded of a long conversation I had with him at four o'clock one morning, and of my visit to Neverland. The visit came first, the conversation a few weeks later, on the phone.
Neverland, a toytown wilderness of carnival rides and doll houses and zoo animals and pleasure gardens, lay inside a magnificent gateway on a side road in a rural area beyond Santa Barbara. Nosing around, I saw pinned to the wall of the sentry post an array of strange faces, some of them mugshots, all of them undesirables, with names and captions such as "Believes she is married to Mr Jackson" and "Might be armed" and "Has been loitering near gate".
A road lined with life-sized bronzed statuary – skipping boys, gamboling animals – led past an artificial lake and a narrow-gauge railway to Michael's house. Neverland occupied an entire 3,000-acre valley, yet very little of it was devoted to human habitation – just the main house with its dark shingles and mullioned windows, and a three-bedroom guesthouse. The rest was given over to a railway terminus, Katharine Station, named after Jackson's mother, a formidable security headquarters, various funhouses, a cinema (with windowed bedrooms instead of balcony seats), and almost indefinable sites, one with teepees like an Indian camp.
And sprawling over many acres, the Jackson zoo of bad-tempered animals. The giraffes were understandably skittish. In another enclosure, rocking on its thick legs, was Gypsy, a moody five-ton elephant, which Elizabeth Taylor had given as a present to Michael. The elephant seemed to be afflicted with the rage of heightened musth. "Don't go anywhere near him," the keeper warned me.
In the reptile house, with its frisbee-shaped frogs and fat pythons, both a cobra and a rattlesnake had smashed their fangs against the glass of their cage trying to bite me. The llamas spat at me, as llamas do, but even in the ape sanctuary, "AJ", a big bristly, shovel-mouthed chimp, had spat in my face, and Patrick the orang-utan had tried to twist my hand. "And don't go anywhere near him, either."
In the wider part of the valley, the empty fairground rides were active – twinkling, musical – but empty: Sea Dragon, the Neverland Dodgem cars, the Neverland carrousel playing Michael's own song, Childhood ("Has anyone seen my childhood?…"). Even the lawns and flower beds were playing music; loudspeakers disguised as big, grey rocks buzzed with showtunes, filling the valley with unstoppable Muzak that drowned the chirping of wild birds. In the middle of it, a Jumbotron, its screen the size of a drive-in movie, showed a cartoon, two crazy-faced creatures quacking miserably at each other – all of this very bright in the cloudless California dusk, not a soul watching."

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