Cheney's Pet Corporation Poisons US Soldiers

Nearly 3,000,000 Internal Iraqi Refugees

Over 2.77 million people inside Iraq are living as displaced persons, according to a recent report released by a consortium of advocacy and international agencies.

From IraqSlogger

I Wonder If You'll Get A Refund From The Airline

If you're on a no-fly list. I'll soon find out because I'm jetting off to Florida for a few weeks to help my parents out. Piglipstick hasn't been at all kind to the criminal cabal who's stolen this nation and it'll be interesting if the slugs at Oбеспеченность Homeland have decided I'm a terrible risk and have grounded me. Probably not but it will be interesting to fly for the Airport Security Experience as I haven't flown in a long while.

I'm driving back though. Budget has the sweetest rental car deal in the world. Every once in a while they feel they have to get their one way rentals back to point of origin, so they offer a jaw dropping rate of $5 a day with unlimited miles. The catch is they want to get these vehicles back so you have to drive them out of state, in my case 3000 miles out of state. Beats flying, which I hate, and will probably hate more once the TSA goons feel me up.

Plus let's avoid the professional airline personnel at my destination-

3 baggage handlers arrested at Tampa airport
"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say three baggage handlers at the Tampa International Airport have been arrested for dealing with stolen property."

The Top 100 April Fools Hoaxes Of All Time

#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

"In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

See all 100 here.

Ready For An Orgy Of Death And $10 Gas?

Saudi Newspaper: Prepare for radioactive fallout from US nuclear attack on Iran
"According to Chris Floyd at the Empire Burlesque web site:
The Saudi government is now preparing plans to deal with "any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards" that may arise from an attack on Iran's nuclear reactors. This was reported by a top Saudi newspaper, Okaz, and relayed by a leading German news service, DPA -- one day after Dick Cheney paid a visit to the kingdom. As we noted, no one knows exactly what was said at that confab of allied authoritarians -- but something sure lit a fire under the Saudis, and convinced them that urgent action is needed to brace for the lethal overspill from a strike on Iran.
Floyd points out that nothing in Saudi Arabia becomes the top news story without government approval. That such a story should be released the day after Cheney's visit, sends a message to everyone about what’s on Cheney's mind."

US deploys nuclear sub to Persian Gulf’
"TEHRAN: An American nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say. Egyptian officials reported that the nuclear submarine crossed the canal along with a destroyer on Friday and Egyptian forces were put on high alert when the navy convoy was passing through the canal. An American destroyer recently left the Persian Gulf, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea; earlier on Thursday, a US Navy rescue ship crossed the canal to enter the Red Sea. The deployment comes as recent reports allege that US Vice President Dick Cheney is seeking to rally the support of Middle Eastern states for launching an attack on Iran."

'Syria ready for possible US strike'
"Syrian Foreign Minister says Damascus is prepared for all scenarios, including military action, amid mounting tension with the US. "A prudent person must make all his calculations, especially when we have to deal with an administration which knows how to strike but does not know how to withdraw," Walid Muallem said on Sunday."

CIA Honcho Lies About Iran being Nuclear Threat Yet One More Time
"Hayden says he believes Tehran is pursuing a nuclear bomb, even though intelligence agencies have said the effort was halted in 2003."

Petraeus Lies About Iran Being Responsible For Green Zone Barrage
"General David Petraeus said that the rockets "were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets" and added that Iran's actions were "in complete violation of promises made by President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts."

A Nuclear Epiphany in Iran?
"Twelve hours. One circuit of the sun from horizon to horizon, one course of the moon from dusk to dawn. What was once a natural measurement for the daily round of human life is now a doom-laden interval between the voicing of an autocrat's brutal whim and the infliction of mass annihilation halfway around the world.
Twelve hours is the maximum time necessary for American bombers to gear up and launch an unprovoked sneak attack – a Pearl Harbor in reverse – against Iran, the Washington Post reports….And when this attack comes – either as a stand-alone "knock-out blow" or else as the precursor to a full-scale, regime-changing invasion, like the earlier aggression in Iraq – there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no hearings, no public debate. The already issued orders governing the operation put the decision solely in the hands of the president: he picks up the phone, he says, "Go" – and in twelve hours' time, up to a million Iranians could be dead.
This potential death toll is not pacifist hyperbole"

One last meeting before the fascists burn the Persian Gulf?

Gay Scientists Isolate Christianity Gene

H↑T to BlondeSense

Famine Is One Of The Four Horsemen

Billions at risk from wheat super-blight
from New Scientist, 4/3/2007

"This thing has immense potential for social and human destruction." Startling words - but spoken by the father of the Green Revolution, Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, they are not easily dismissed.
An infection is coming, and almost no one has heard about it. This infection isn't going to give you flu, or TB. In fact, it isn't interested in you at all. It is after the wheat plants that feed more people than any other single food source on the planet. And because of cutbacks in international research, we aren't prepared. The famines that were banished by the advent of disease-resistant crops in the Green Revolution of the 1960s could return, Borlaug told New Scientist.
The disease is Ug99, a virulent strain of black stem rust fungus (Puccinia graminis), discovered in Uganda in 1999. Since the Green Revolution, farmers everywhere have grown wheat varieties that resist stem rust, but Ug99 has evolved to take advantage of those varieties, and almost no wheat crops anywhere are resistant to it.
The strain has spread slowly across east Africa, but in January this year spores blew across to Yemen, and north into Sudan (see Map). Scientists who have tracked similar airborne spores in this part of the world say it will now blow into Egypt, Turkey and the Middle East, and on to India, lands where a billion people depend on wheat."



I first came across stories predicting dire consequences from this fungus about a month ago, when news reports stated an infestation had begun in western Iran. That this plant pathogen was going to spread far and wide was never in any doubt. It just seems very supicious to me that it jumped great distances and spared vast wheat growing areas to start an outbreak just over the border from Iraq in Iran. I'm not the only one who suspects dirty business with this:

Iran’s Wheat Fungus: Coincidence or Biological Warfare?
"Sure, maybe it was carried by the wind — and maybe the fungus was introduced by man. Not so much a conspiracy theory when history is taken into account. For instance, back in 1977, the San Francisco Chronicle reported the CIA dispatched “anti-Castro terrorists” to introduce “African swine fever virus into Cuba in 1971…. Six weeks later an outbreak of the disease forced the slaughter of 500,000 pigs to prevent a nationwide animal epidemic.” It was so scary that the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization labeled the outbreak the “most alarming event” of 1971.
It wouldn’t be an isolated event. Earlier operatives introduced a disease infecting Cuban sea-turtles, coffee crops, and sugar. In fact, Cuba’s sugar crop was the economic target of choice. In 1977, cane smut mysteriously appeared in Pilón, eastern Cuba. The disease had never been known in Cuba. In 1978, sugar cane rust infected a new variety of cane imported from Barbados and as a result 1.35 million tons of sugar was lost.
Bovine skin disease, haemorrhagic dengue fever affecting 350,000 people, and the introduction of haemorraghic conjunctivitis, these are just a few of the plagues that have afflicted Cuba since the United States declared a covert war on the country."

Leave it to Kurt Nimmo to dig up some pertinent background information.
This UG99 is horrible stuff. It's the worst of the three types of fungus that affects wheat plants; it's a stem rust that prevents nutrients from getting to the fruit and it can destroy entire fields at once. It mutates and at this point there isn't anything that can be planted that's immune from infection. If indeed the fascists helped it along with bio engineering or enabled it's spread by deliberately inserting it in Iran as a form of warfare, which the monstrous criminals are perfectly capable of doing, it will be the worst crime in the history of civilization. It threatens to destroy much of this year's crops at a time when the world's supply of grain is dangerously low.

There's an interesting sideline to this. Since the middle of the 90s Art Bell has had a guy named Ed Dames on the late night Coast to Coast show. Dames was a minor figure in the Remote Viewing program that US spook agencies and the air force investigated (and probably use today) for several decades. Dames has been on the radio show numerous times to predict lots of things using his remote viewing prowess and has seriously embarrassed himself by getting everything wrong.
Except for this fungus which he predicted ten years ago. It was back when comet Hale Bopp showed up and Dames saw a plague, starting in Africa, sweep across the world and devastate crops. He said it was a "package" sent to earth from otherworldly entities to "clean the petri dish", but this was Head Games after all and he's prone to embellishment.

For some audio about this go here.

Since Remote Viewing was established as a viable science and research is still ongoing, maybe even a self important hack like Dames was able to see this blight ten years in the future. And since he was apparently dead on about this disease beginning in Africa, it's very possible that he was able to sense deliberate purpose behind it's terrifying sweep. Maybe he didn't see extraterrestrials sending it to earth from outer space but certain earthlings here deliberately spreading the fungus to cause crop failure and starvation, which is sure to come later this year.

Deconstructing The Republican National Convention Logo

Somebody didn't do a very good job of whipping up a logo for the repugs this time.
Why a blue elephant? Are they stealing the democrats' color?

What's with the prison stripes?

You would think the designers would strenuously avoid all references to sleazy misdeeds, especially since the convention is being held in Minneapolis, scene of Tappyfoot McHandsignal Larry Craig's notorious outing.

And why the star for the eye? Don't stars and crosses usually mean, well, you're dead?

So we have a dead, blue elephant convict rearing up and flailing in terrified confusion, the preferred emotional state in which the republicans wish you to remain.



Better logo:

Trillions For Iraq

One in 6 West Virginians is on food stamps

"About one in every six West Virginians gets food stamps, the highest level of participation in at least 30 years.
Amid rising food and fuel costs, the assistance is becoming worth less and less.
And supplemental food programs for poor families are struggling to keep up with the added demand as donations are on the decline."

But the good news is that the federal government raised the amount each hungry person gets - to $2.74 a day.

And Soon To Be Trillions For Iran

Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border

"MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.
"The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.
He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran "that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost."
He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003."

Used To Be Fair Or Rainy Or Something

From PressTV

Hold The Phone

We know this one's been shopped:



But what about this one?

Chinese Dressed As Tibetan Monks To Justify Violent Crackdown?

Dalai Lama - 'China cloaking soldiers as monks to incite riots'

China Celebrates Its Status As World's Number One Air Polluter

Pollution may help athletes break records, says Chinese FM

"BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Foreign athletes may have a better luck in breaking world records in Beijing's Olympics, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Wednesday.
Yang made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the parliament, in response to a question concerning Beijing's air quality.
Yang dismissed worries of some athletes about air pollution in Beijing, saying that many Chinese athletes have broken world records in China, especially at the venues in Beijing.
"If they (foreign athletes) cannot break world records in other places, maybe they can come to Beijing, where they will have a better luck," he said."

How Bad Is It Getting?

Financially overwhelmed owners abandon homes, with pets still inside

"Call it reckless abandonment. Shelters and animal rescue organizations across the country are packed cage-to-cage with dogs and cats, even birds and reptiles, that have been ditched or dropped off as scores of foreclosed-upon homeowners relocate. It is a disturbing trend and a sign of the tough economic times that has prompted a number of organizations to form hotlines for pet foster homes and to implore pet owners -- or what the industry calls "pet parents" -- to seek help for their animals before they head off.
"There are a lot of people who are just walking away and leaving their pets behind, which breaks everyone's heart," said Windgassen, the president of Anthem Pets, a nonprofit animal welfare organization in her community.
The number of abandoned pure-bred dogs in her neighborhood alone has jumped 10-fold just since Christmas. "It just boggles my mind," she said. "It's cutting across all income levels and age levels."
Owners surrender their pets for a variety of reasons, ranging from allergies to plain disinterest. And there's no law that says people have to be honest about why they're giving up their pets (though there are laws in many states that prohibit pet abandonment).
There are no national statistics on pet abandonment or on the number of pets found in vacant properties. But Stephanie Shain, director or outreach for the Humane Society of the United States, said shelters are reporting full capacity and rescue organizations tell of sharper increases in the numbers of animals coming in."

And 313,000 google results for "tent cities".

Occupational Hazards - Vichy Army Defects

Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles and switched sides

"Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.
His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.
Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Army’s policy in southern Iraq."

Occupation stooge Maliki ignored

"As clashes contineu, Maliki postpones the Saturday deadline to April 8. An Interior Ministry official says no one has handed in his weapons." (For money. by the way)

US military resorts to bombing the shit out of another city

"March 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. aircraft bombed militia positions in Basra overnight, joining the fight four days into an operation by Iraqi forces against Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in the southern oil hub."

War criminal praises violence

Yeah, things are going great in Bush's ongoing war crime. These filthy endeavors always go the same route - initial invasion and destruction, looting the place and stealing the resources, setting up a fascist puppet "government" that will do the occupiers' bidding, finally battling the local patriots who want the damned place back.

The end result to this madness in Iraq could be far worse than the myriad number of times it's been done before. If the Shiite majority declare war on the occupiers the entire country could erupt in flames. This will certainly happen if the fascists send cruise missiles into Shiite Iran. The occupiers will then have a huge problem - their supply lines run up from Kuwait through hundreds of miles of Shiite dominated land. Re-supply by air will then be necessary and won't nearly be adequate, especially when the sandstorms begin. The only recourse for the US and British forces will be to slaughter indiscriminately from the air, something which appears to have started. The entire expeditionary force is in danger of being annihilated.

More Indications Something Big Is In The Works

A week ago I noticed that there seemed to be intense activity by heads of state and their honchos around the globe, presaging something big in the works. Whatever it is, war, economic collapse, food shortages, pandemics, it isn't going to be good for us. The flitting about continues with news that Dim Son and his posse are going to go to Russia around April 6 to meet with Putin. Whatever they're going to chat about must be awfully important because impromtu face time like this is very rare. Usually a trip like this is planned well in advance.

So now's as good a time to issue the yearly warning. For some reason the period between April 10 or so to April 20 or so seems to be of immense importance to the fascist mob running the show. This is their window of opportunity to pull off splashy events that entail great loss of life in what seems to me to be some sort of ritual cult sacrifice for indistinct and arcane empowerment. I'm just guessing but the tremendous attention these acts gather may be focused somehow and the energy used to further their nefarious agenda. Last year they decided to send a mind altered gunman into Virginia Tech to kill college students. Other years they roasted the Branch Davidians, blew up the Murrah building, blew up a US embassy and did Columbine. If the frenetic activities of Bush et al mean that the governments have some surprise in store, this ten day period is when they're probably going to spring it.

Violent Unrest In Tibet And China Sparked By Chinese Themselves

Time tested tactics practiced by authoritarian regimes worldwide.

Sources at British Spy Agency Confirm Tibetan Claims of Staged Violence

"LONDON—Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer.
For weeks there has been growing resentment in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, against minor actions taken by the Chinese authorities.
Increasingly, monks have led acts of civil disobedience, demanding the right to perform traditional incense burning rituals. With their demands go cries for the return of the Dalai Lama, the 14th to hold the high spiritual office.
(...)
Discovering that his supporters inside Tibet and China would become even more active in the months approaching the Olympic Games this summer, British intelligence officers in Beijing learned the ruling regime would seek an excuse to move and crush the present unrest."

Our "Special Little Friend" Authorizes IDF To Murder Non Violent Demonstrators

The "only democracy in the Middle East" merely makes formal what's been de facto behavior all along.

Israeli Justice Minister supports Israeli forces in opening live fire on nonviolent demonstrators

"Nablus / Amin Abu Wardeh – The Israeli Minister of Justice is supporting the decision of Israeli forces to open live fire on nonviolent demonstrators in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Daniel Friedmann defended the orders to shoot Palestinian anti-Wall protestors by telling a Knesset meeting that “this is a normal response when soldiers are in danger.”


israelis in acute danger

Saved From The Body Piercings Of Doom

TSA Forces Woman To Remove Nipple Rings For Flight

"The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
Hamlin said she told the woman that she was wearing nipple piercings. The female agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the body piercings, Hamlin claimed.
Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked if she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was removed, she said.
She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped nipple piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring. "Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney."


TSA stays abreast of new al qaeda weaponry

Hillary's Campaign Releases New Video Of Her Bosnia Trip

The Truth Behind Hillary in Bosnia - Watch more free videos

Impertinent Wogs Seem Desirous Of A Drubbing

Pakistan's new leaders tell US: We are no longer your killing field

"The Bush administration is scrambling to engage with Pakistan's new rulers as power flows from its strong ally, President Pervez Musharraf, to a powerful civilian government buoyed by anti-American sentiment.

Top diplomats John Negroponte and Richard Boucher travelled to a mountain fortress near the Afghan border yesterday as part of a hastily announced visit that has received a tepid reception.
On Tuesday, senior coalition partner Nawaz Sharif gave the visiting Americans a public scolding for using Pakistan as a "killing field" and relying too much on Musharraf."

The Vice President Of The US Will Profit Enormously From Economic Collapse

Slow Motion 9/11 Put Options

"Wouldn't you like to know where Dick Cheney puts his money? Then you'd know whether his "deficits don't matter" claim is just baloney or not.

Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on Cheney's financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out that the VP is lying to the American people for the umpteenth time. Deficits do matter and Cheney has invested his money accordingly.

The article is called "Cheney's betting on bad news" and provides an account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While the figures may be estimates, the investments are not. According to Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has invested heavily in "a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation."

Cheney has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a European bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening dollar. So, while working class Americans are loosing ground to inflation and rising energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing his wealth in "Old Europe". As Blackburn sagely notes, "Not all 'bad news' is bad for everybody."

This should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the "Bush Economic Plan" is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the public till. The whole deal is intended to shift the nation's wealth from one class to another. It's also clear that Bush-Cheney couldn't have carried this off without the tacit approval of the thieves at the Federal Reserve who engineered the low-interest rate boondoggle to put the American people to sleep while they picked their pockets.

Reasonable people can dispute that Bush is "intentionally" skewering the dollar with his lavish tax cuts, but how does that explain Cheney's portfolio?

It doesn't. And, one thing we can say with metaphysical certainty is that the miserly Cheney would never plunk his money into an investment that wasn't a sure thing. If Cheney is counting on the dollar tanking and interest rates going up, then, by Gawd, that's what'll happen."

Betrayal By The Clinton Camp Exposes The Corrupt Left/Right Myth

It's extremely important to understand the "traditional" appelations of left wing and right wing have completely lost their meaning, and we must look at this corrupt system in a new light. Aside from the class war being waged from the top down, don't ask me to define what political affiliations should be called - we're in uncharted territory.

The Clinton Campaign Embraces the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy to Launch Attacks on Obama from Buzzflash

"After ferociously defending the Clintons in the '90s against the vast right-wing conspiracy, we have seen them embrace the dangerous anti-democracy conspirators in order to attack Barack Obama. Time and time again since 2000, Senator Hillary Clinton has sought out and used the very people whom we defended her against -- and the evidence is damning."

All In The Illuminati Family

Obama Related to Pitt, Clinton to Jolie

"BOSTON (AP) — This could make for one odd family reunion: Barack Obama is a distant cousin of Brad Pitt, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt's girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.
Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.
Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother's side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush."

Der Gleiche Zweck

Congenital Liar And Zionist Butt Kisser

Hillary, Lies, and Videotape
That Tuzla thing. Repeatedly. Now she's dodging bloggerfire.

Hillary Clinton Again Lies about Iraq - 2/2/2008
"In Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton lied again about Iraq.
At the forum in Los Angeles, Hillary Clinton declared, “We bombed them for days in 1998 because Saddam Hussein threw out inspectors.”
That statement was totally false. The bombing campaign had been planned for months and the inspectors were not thrown out. They were ordered out by President Bill Clinton in anticipation of the four-day U.S.-led bombing campaign."

You Know Who lied about NAFTA support

She Who Misspeaks even made up story about her name

Hillary Lied About China Briefings
"Sen. Clinton has made much of a September 1995 speech she delivered in Beijing, in an effort to show she is willing to get tough on China. She said in her book "Living History" that she was briefed by the State Department and the Secret Service in advance of that speech, and was even fed "intelligence information" during those discussions. The schedules don't reflect such briefings, however."

Hillary lied about Whitewater records
"On her book tour, she was asked on National Public Radio about the re-emergence of dormant Whitewater questions that week, when the so-called "missing billing records" had been found. Hillary stated with unequivocal certainty that she had consistently made public all the relevant documents related to Whitewater, including "every document we had," to the editors of the New York Times before the newspaper's original Whitewater story ran during Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.
Even her closest aides -- as in the case of the Bosnian episode18 years later -- could not imagine what possessed her to say such a thing."




Why do we even have to pay attention to this disfunctional family? Hillary seems to be a deliberate fabulist, making crap up to exaggerate importance. As a guy who I usually disagree with, Christopher Hitchens, puts it in his The Case Against Hillary Clinton, subsequent to that little fable about her being named after Sir Edmund Hillary blew up in her face:

"It was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add."
Perfect. It worked, in other words, having been coined long after Sir Edmund became a bankable celebrity, but now its usefulness is exhausted and its untruth can safely be blamed on Mummy. Yet isn't it all—all of it, every single episode and detail of the Clinton saga—exactly like that?

And isn't some of it a little bit more serious? For Sen. Clinton, something is true if it validates the myth of her striving and her "greatness" (her overweening ambition in other words) and only ceases to be true when it no longer serves that limitless purpose. And we are all supposed to applaud the skill and the bare-faced bravado with which this is done."

Gorda, CA Up To $5.40 A Gallon

Gasoline Sticker Shock Shocks Tourists Along Highway One

I think the gas station is actually capitalizing on it's notoriety, much like the restaurants who claim to be the rudest in the world.

Monty Python Is Alive And Well

EU forces passengers on and off the buses

"Bus passengers who travel along a route of more than 30 miles must get off the vehicle midway through their journey to comply with new EU laws.
The Brussels ruling dictates that drivers must pull over and let everyone off their bus after 30 miles, to ensure they do not spend too long behind the wheel.
Western Greyhound, a bus company operating in rural Devon and Cornwall, is among those affected.
Its Newquay to Plymouth route has been split in three, even though a single driver is used for the entire distance.
The driver is obliged to pull over and ask everyone to get off before the route number on the front of the vehicle is changed, and all the passengers are invited back on board.
Passengers have been told they must buy three tickets to complete the route, and they must also break their journey twice.
Western Greyhound managing director Mark Howarth said: “It’s a farce. We have to kick customers off as soon as the driver hits the 30-mile limit.
“Often it’s in the middle of nowhere. The passengers think we are crazy."

Limbacile, You Simpering, Lying Moron

Overheard on the Rush Limbaugh show today, as His Heftiness tries to wiggle out of campaign tampering:
"Have you Republicans, when you've registered to vote as a Republican, ever had to sign a loyalty oath, to pledge support -- ongoing, never ending support -- for Republican Party principles?"

From the Christian Science Monitor September 27, 2004
"At Bush campaign stops, attendees sometimes must sign a loyalty pledge, and staffers screen those who would ask the president questions. The Bush-Cheney campaign did not respond to requests for comment."

Virginia Tech Bribes Victim's Families Not To Sue

Va. Tech Relatives Offered $100K Not To Sue

"A relative of a Virginia Tech shooting victim says the families of those killed would receive $100,000 each under a settlement designed to prevent lawsuits.
The family member received a copy of the settlement and asked Monday to remain anonymous because those involved were told not to discuss it."

If I were involved in this incident I would throw that offer back in their faces and sue the shit out of that school and it's anti gun policies.

The fact of the matter is that Virginia Tech, and many other schools, have private policies that ban students from legally carrying weapons on campus. In effect this deprives the young people from defending their and others' lives from exactly what happened a year ago. If a student was carrying a concealed pistol that day a lot of lives might have been saved. Instead all those kids are dead, their families grieve and the school is trying to buy their way out of stupid decisions.

Let's go back to two incidents, one at another school and one at V tech. In 2002:

“A student at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, who has just been told he will be suspended for failing grades, storms through the campus, clutching a handgun. As terrorized students run for their lives, they hear him say, ‘Come get me, come get me.’ But before anyone can get him, the student, a forty-two-year old immigrant from Nigeria, goes on a shooting spree, killing a dean, a professor, and a fellow student. He also shoots and wounds three other students – one in the abdomen, one in the throat, and another in the chest.

(...) The bloody incident happened on January 16, 2002, and was picked up by news organizations all over the country, almost all of which covered the story the way the Washington Post and the networks did. Which means virtually all of them left out one tiny, little fact. Two of the three students who ‘pounced on’ and ‘tackled’ and ‘overpowered’ the gunman, also had guns.”

No one knows how many other people might have been hurt because armed students ended the threat. Fast forward three years to an incident at V tech which promised that the school was going to be advertised as a soft target for homicidal psychos:

Virginia Tech's ban on guns may draw legal fire

"BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech's recent action against a student caught carrying a gun to class could draw unwanted attention from groups already angry about firearms restrictions on public college campuses.
University officials confirmed that, earlier this semester, campus police approached a student found to be carrying a concealed handgun to class. The unnamed student was not charged with any crimes because he holds a state-issued permit allowing him to carry a concealed gun. But the student could face disciplinary action from the university for violating its policy prohibiting "unauthorized possession, storage or control" of firearms on campus."

The only thing allowing public venues to get away with this insanity are the endlessly repeated myths about firearm carry that people erroneously believe. I carry all the time. Contrary to what the emotionally ignorant believe, I don't dwell on it. I just do it like putting on a piece of apparel. I know what I'm carrying but it isn't what I think about in social interactions. The last thing I want to do is draw that weapon but I've resolved to take on the responsibility to do just that if need be after training for a concealed carry license, which is a lot more intense than people realize. All the talk of OK corral shootouts in the streets is total garbage. Contrary to the lies being spewed about this, taking on the responsibility for being armed forces you to be more socially constrained and accountable, meaning polite.

People would be shocked to know how many of those individuals around them are armed, and that's the point. When you have a concealed carry license you can't display and you don't want anyone to know you're packing a gun. Social misfits with violent intent will steer clear of groups of people where this might be the case - they want free fire zones where victims will be easy prey because it's advertised "guns not allowed here". Sure, private property owners can put those signs up and make those restrictions, but they should also be liable if a gun free zone allows people to be harmed.

Same Day Front Pages

Meanwhile, over at Rupert Murdoch's rag:



And one little statistic that may slip under the radar - 97 percent of US death toll came after 'Mission Accomplished'

Restoring Sight For The Elderly Blind Is All A Left Wing Plot

Peruvian leaders cry foul as Chávez exports healthcare

"The plane door opened and the elderly visitors, all visually impaired and in some cases blind, shuffled out slowly and carefully into Venezuela.
Disease, age and poverty had stolen their eyesight but now they were in the land of Hugo Chávez and that was about to change. A scheme called Misión Milagro - Mission Miracle - had flown them here from Peru for free surgery which would transform their lives.
A portrait of Venezuela's president gazed down from the airport terminal. "It is thanks to Chávez we are here," beamed Rosario Vilcavilca, 88, a peasant farmer in a traditional highland skirt.
Mission Miracle has helped 400,000 impoverished Latin Americans see again and cast Venezuela's revolutionary leader as the region's humanitarian benefactor.
Critics, however, see an agenda behind this and other Venezuelan-linked initatives. They claim Chávez is trying to export populist leftwing rebellions and further tilt the region away from US influence."

Well of course there has to be a sinister agenda behind helping almost a half million impovershed oldsters to see again. There must be a malevolent motive why Chavez is spreading his oil wealth to the people who need it the most, after all it's not natural like american corporate greed, so there's gotta be a commie plot in there somewhere.

The Economy Is Really Booming

At Pawn Shops

"For all the reassurance from the Bush administration and Federal Reserve that steps are being taken to keep the U.S. economy from going down the toilet, the harsh reality from the consumer's perspective is that times are tough and getting tougher."

Say hello to Mr. Depression.

National gas price map

Don't Trust The Dow

"Someone" fiddled with it every hour or so today, probably to mask bad news.

Yet another video of out of control steroid laden cop behavior.
If you look at this video, please ask yourself a question. There's obviously a city ordinance against skateboarding on city streets and sidewalks, probably with the ostensible intent of avoiding collisions and lawsuits. That the cops spend most of their time punishing people for breaking laws rather than serving and protecting is a given, so the cops are going to confront kids who skateboard on streets.
But ask yourself this - is the cop's comportment commensurate with that infraction or is there something else going on here? Is this and countless other examples showing us that people are being punished not for flouting the law, but because the cops are being taught they have the right to control our every behavior?
Grabbing kids by their throats is really going to help them learn to respect others.

Coming Soon To A Pub Near You

This utterly disgusts me. Out of control police state mentality is taking over Britain as well as this country and individual freedom is losing ground daily. I don't know what's more repellent, the fact that so-called authorities would do this or that people would be so bovine and docile as to put up with it.

Want a pint of beer? Take a drug test first.

"Customers were tested for drugs before they could go for a pint in an Oxford pub.
About 80 people were tested with a drugs itemiser outside the Blackbird, in Blackbird Leys, last Friday night, with the promise of more crackdowns to come.
Two people were arrested, seven were searched and a quantity of suspected cocaine was found, police said.
Landlord Glen Williams said he wanted to prove drugs were not being taken in his pub.
Officers hailed the stop checks, the first such operation at the Blackbird, a success.
Pc Alex Shepherd said: "Only one person refused to go through and that gentleman was arrested. I believe it was a success and we will be using the itemiser again at the Blackbird and wherever we see fit. This was the first in a line of initiatives to fight drugs we will bringing to The Leys.
(...)
"Any time the police want to do it here they are free to do it. Being one of the pubs with most of the black community I would have thought they would have done it before."

Like Cancer, The Empire Must Grow

725+ and counting.

Why All the Foreign Bases?

"On May 14, 2005 the Associated Press reported Bulgaria's announcement that it would provide three new military bases to the US. General James Jones, the top commander of US and NATO troops in Europe, said that he would propose to the US Congress "four or five Bulgarian military facilities for use by US forces." More recently, the US announced plans for new bases in Romania.

Why does the US need new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania? According to Chalmers Johnson, in his book "The Sorrows of Empire," America already possesses more than 725 overseas bases. This incredible estimate comes from two official sources: The Department of Defense's "Base Structure Report," and "Worldwide Manpower Distribution by Geographical Area." Johnson claims that the figure is actually an underestimate, because many bases are "secret" or otherwise not listed on official books. As an example, Johnson quotes several sources who cite at least six US installations in Israel which are either operating or are under construction.

During the Cold War, it was argued that the US needed forward basing in strategic areas of the world to counter the Soviet position, and contain Soviet expansion. But the US continues to aggressively pursue more bases in far-flung areas of the globe, despite the fact that the Cold War has been over for more than a decade. American officials have explained that the new bases in Bulgaria and Romania are part of a broader US strategy of shifting troops based in Western Europe further east. In other words, now that the Soviet Union has collapsed, America is aggressively expanding into its former sphere of influence by recruiting former Soviet satellites into NATO, and garrisoning them with bases and troops. In fact, since 9/11 alone the US has acquired at least 14 new bases in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Persian Gulf, and Pakistan, and was evicted from a recently procured base in Uzbekistan. This figure does not include the newly-announced Bulgarian and Romanian bases. Are we to believe that the US needs more military bases worldwide – not less – now that the Cold War is over?

Apparently so."

Mexicans Eye Obesity Prize

Mexico on road to surpass U.S. — as world's fattest country

"In 1989, fewer than 10 percent of Mexican adults were overweight. No one in the country even talked about obesity back then, said Barry Popkin, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor who studies global weight gain. Experts were too concerned with poverty and hunger.
"It certainly snuck up on them," said Popkin, who's working with the Mexican health ministry to develop strategies to address obesity throughout the country. "Mexico has probably had the most rapid increase of obesity in the last 15 years."

Fascism And It's Fusion Centers

The Ohm Project

"Imagine that somewhere close to your local community there exists a secret computer center. Equipped with powerful mainframe computers and the database integrating powers of XML, this government-funded facility gathers data from thousands of sources including local, state and federal law enforcement, social welfare agencies, hospitals, banks, telephone companies, ISPs, computer search engines, private security companies, schools--essentially an endless list. With its massive computing power, this secret outpost is able to search and sift this data using vaguely defined criteria like "suspicious activity" in order to identify individuals for even closer scrutiny. Finally, this computer center dispenses the results of its analyses to local, state and federal law enforcement and to the military so that they can take action against the citizens tagged as threats.

Such a scenario is no longer the product of a paranoid, over-stimulated imagination. It is a reality called "fusion centers," forty of which have been established throughout the United States."

DC Police Issued Citizens Advice On Sniper Attacks - "Run In Short Zig Zag Dashes"

Surprise! US Did Everything Possible To Force Iraq Invasion

Strong arm tactics for war

"In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat.
The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting "bitterness" and "deep mistrust" in Washington's relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, wrote Heraldo Muñoz, Chile's ambassador to the United Nations, in his book "A Solitary War: A Diplomat's Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons," set for publication next month.
"In the aftermath of the invasion, allies loyal to the United States were rejected, mocked and even punished" for their refusal to back a U.N. resolution authorizing military action against Saddam Hussein's government, Muñoz wrote."

This isn't news to those of us who weren't taken in by the criminals' propaganda blitzkreig. While the fascists were busy bellying around the international bar they were seriously working americans over with meticulous manipulation. It was a $200 million marketing campaign that kicked off in the fall of 2002 to sell us their long planned for invasion and occupation of Iraq. This was cold blooded murder carefully thought out in advance and deliberately presented with lies.

Just like any other marketing campaign it was long on emotion and feelings and woefully short on facts. The 9/11 perpetrators knew their boffo terror attack that day was going to be the justification for invading and occupying Iraq and use it they did, ad nauseum, in balls to the wall saturation coverage by the vile and corrupted MSM. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz with their Office of Special Plans (OSP) spent hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to sell you their fucking war that would bleed the country dry to the tune of trillions.

Of course justifying the illegal invasion was the hard part, once the occupation began the dependably despicable MSM treated it all as a grand, thrilling spectacle where we cheer the home team on.

As Henry Jenkins tells it in Technology Review:"The U.S. news media covered the war in Iraq the same way they cover the Olympics—with red, white, and blue trappings, human interest stories, bombastic theme music, and an almost total focus on American accomplishments at the expense of any international context. Around the clock coverage gave the illusion of telling and showing everything and made us forget how little we actually knew."

Bush in spring, 2003 - "We're doing everything we can to prevent war."

This is the war that started with lies, and continues with lie after lie after lie

China's Getting Scared Their Olympic Lollapalooza Won't Be A Pristine Showpiece

The 2008 Olympics were supposed to be China's re-entry into accepted world community after the Tienanmen Square massacre nineteen years ago. When they were given the nod for the games in 2000 a successful extravaganza became priority #1 for the ruling caste, a way to finally sweep aside the world's opprobrium for publically slaughtering protesters and crushing dissent.

Of course the criminal mafia running this country has no problem with their brothers in fascism putting on the ritz while massacring Buddhist monks in Tibet, but a lot of people around the world aren't buying China's happy face facade. This is making the government over there quite uneasy and authoritarian thugs being the same worldwide, they'll try to hide their inner ugly. They're scared shitless with talk of an Olympic boycott.

China might bar Tiananmen broadcasts
"BEIJING - China might bar live television broadcasts from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics, apparently unnerved by the recent outburst of unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the Chinese capital.
A ban on live broadcasts would disrupt the plans of NBC and other major international networks, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the Aug. 8-24 games and are counting on eye-pleasing live shots from the iconic square."

Films censored
"In a move unusual for its frankness, China's film censors have quietly released their private list of what is not acceptable on screen. And it is not a short one."


cute little censors, aren't they

The great firewall of China
"IMAGINE living in a country where bird flu is a constant danger, yet you can't look it up on Google. You're diagnosed with HIV AIDS but you can't search for a Facebook support network. You're trying to research a school project on religion but Wikipedia's content on the subject is blocked. You're in the mood for some distraction but can't access YouTube.
Even worse, imaging living in a country where trying to find this information online could land you in trouble."

added - Tibetan revolt has China's empire fraying at the edge

It can only get worse for them now.

Thai Olympic torchbearer withdraws in protest over China's crackdown in Tibet

Being White Gives You Immunity From Scrutiny For Being A Religious Asshole

Different Standards In The Campaign Farce by Cenk Uygur

"Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.
Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.
Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.
Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.
Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think.
John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."
What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's? You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not. If it's not racism that's causing the disparity in media treatment of these preachers, then what is it?"

BATF Orders Pocketknives Engraved With "Always Think Forfeiture"

I wonder whose assets they mean?

"The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms requires the following items, Purchase Description Determined by Line Item, to the following: LI 001, EXACT MATCH ONLY - Leatherman Micra Color: Blue - Part number 64340101K Engraved with: ATF-Asset Forfeiture AND "always think forfeiture" PLEASE REFER TO THE ATTACHMENT. NOTE: ATF MAY REQUEST A SAMPLE TO DETERMINE IF IT MEETS OUR REQUIREMENT. A picture of the item may be substituted in place of the actual sample."


ATF - always think forfeiture

The Wal-Mart Virus

Watch as it infects the country over time

Dick Cheney, International Man Of Misery

At Least They Tell The Truth About It

Company promises to monitor your every internet activity

"Amid debate over how much data companies like Google and Yahoo should gather about people who surf the Web, one new company is drawing attention — and controversy — by boasting that it will collect the most complete information of all.
The company, called Phorm, has created a tool that can track every single online action of a given consumer, based on data from that person’s Internet service provider. The trick for Phorm is to gain access to that data, and it is trying to negotiate deals with telephone and cable companies, like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, that provide broadband service to millions.
Phorm’s pitch to these companies is that its software can give them a new stream of revenue from advertising. Using Phorm’s comprehensive views of individuals, the companies can help advertisers show different ads to people based on their interests.
“As you browse, we’re able to categorize all of your Internet actions,” said Virasb Vahidi, the chief operating officer of Phorm. “We actually can see the entire Internet.”

So what if I visit Girls Gone Wild!

Boy Argues With Boss, Cops End It By Tasering Him To Death

The murder spree continues. He probably was uncooporative and didn't grovel fast enough.

Teenager Dies After Police In Charlotte Use Taser

"CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A teenager died after police used a Taser on him inside a grocery store in northeast Charlotte.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police homicide detectives said they will investigate why police used the Taser on 17-year-old Darryl Turner Thursday afternoon.
His mother, Tammi Fontenot, told Eyewitness News, "I want answers. I want to know why. I just want to know why."
Police said an argument escalated between Turner and one of his supervisors at a Food Lion on Prosperity Church Road. Officers said the teen assaulted a store manager by throwing an object after officers arrived on scene.
Police released a statement reading, "[Turner] was highly agitated and refused all verbal commands and began walking toward the officer." At that point, the officer used his Taser on Turner."

They always menace the big, bad cops, even the little kids and wheelchair bound.

Finding New Ways To Strip You Of Your Dignity

A company has come up with the brilliant idea of having every person that flies put on a bracelet that "delivers debilitating shocks when remotely triggered."
The idea being if you get out of hand and threaten the flight somehow or the stewardesses don't like you flirting with them they can shock the ever loving shit out of you.

Air safety proposal: shock-bracelets controlled by flight attendants
"A method of providing air travel security for passengers traveling via an aircraft comprises situating a remotely activatable electric shock device on each of the passengers in position to deliver a disabling electrical shock when activated; and arming the electric shock devices for subsequent selective activation by a selectively operable remote control disposed within the aircraft. The remotely activatable electric shock devices each have activation circuitry responsive to the activating signal transmitted from the selectively operable remote control means. The activated electric shock device is operable to deliver the disabling electrical shock to that passenger."

Future pre-flight screening:

Top Three Diebold Picks Perused

3 Candidates' Passport Files Breached

"WASHINGTON (AP) - The passport files of the three presidential candidates - Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain - have been breached, the State Department said Friday.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the breaches of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the privacy violation regarding Obama's records and a separate search was conducted."

Probably a public relations strategy to make us think that government intrusion is an equal opportunity exploiter, not out to "get" a particular media personality. And to get you to accept the intrusion as normal.

Something Smells

I got intrigued by a SOTT entry where they hinted that with all the players on the world stage flitting back and forth, something wicked this way comes. So I decided to take a look at their travels and it appears that something indeed seems to be pending because there's been a frenzy of travel and meetings between heads of state and their minions. I'm sure there's more, I got tired of looking.

Feb 15 - 21 - Bush in Africa
Feb 24 - Olmert and Rice in Japan
Mar 7 - old man Bush and Hu Jintao in China
Mar 8 - Merkel and Putin in Russia
Mar 9 - Polish PM Tusk and Bush in Washington
Mar 10 - Peres and Sarkozy in France
Mar 13 - Rice to Brazil and Chile
Mar 17 - Rice and Gates and Putin in Moscow
Mar 16 - Merkel and Olmert in Israel
Mar 19 - Cheney to Turkey, the Gulf and Afghanistan
Mar 22? - Cheney and Olmert in Israel, perhaps with British minister Miliband
Sarkozy and Brown in London next week
Australia's Rudd on 15 day world trip

Getting Down And Wrestling In The Mud With Them

Free! Handy and easy to use. Remember, their family tree don't branch much. Remind them!


The Conservative Insult Generator - "Use this handy tool to generate 27,000 possible random insults to hurl at all those fanatical, unmedicated, warmongering, FOX News-humping, Constitution-trampling, right-wing morons in your midst."

Up To 4 Years In A Federal Pen For Clicking On A link

We're only going to see more of this entrapment bullshit as our authoritarian police state needs a steady flow of criminals to justify it's miserable existence. Just like in Iraq:

U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With 'Bait' "A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents."

To subways in NY:

Operation Lucky Bag "The decoy operation involves planting shopping bags, purses, backpacks and wallets around the subway system, where unsuspecting passersby are watched to see how they react."

To just driving on a road:

Random Saturation Patrols To Stop Drunk Drivers

"A total of 74 vehicles were stopped Monday night in Bennington and North Bennington, Doucette said. Not a single person was found to be driving while impaired..." (This report is as fawningly obsequious to state power as can be.)

Fascism creates crime to justify itself. In fascism you're guilty until proven innocent, and it's militarized goon squads are endlessly out to prove it. As for the naive person who will claim that the police are justified in dawn raids or busting down a door in the middle of the night because the so called perps displayed intent to commit a crime, are you comfortable with such surveillance of your net activities? Don't you understand how easy it would be to make the next step to political sites that the fascists don't like? And how many times have you distractedly or accidently clicked on a hyperlink, Binky?

FBI posts fake hyperlinks to snare child-porn suspects

"The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.
Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.
A CNET News.com review of legal documents shows that courts have approved of this technique, even though it raises questions about entrapment, the problems of identifying who's using an open wireless connection--and whether anyone who clicks on a FBI link that contains no child pornography should be automatically subject to a dawn raid by federal police.
Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University, was raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI's hyperlink. Federal agents knocked on the door around 7 a.m., falsely claiming they wanted to talk to Vosburgh about his car. Once he opened the door, they threw him to the ground outside his house and handcuffed him.
Vosburgh was charged with violating federal law, which criminalizes "attempts" to download child pornography with up to 10 years in prison. Last November, a jury found Vosburgh guilty on that count, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, at which point Vosburgh could face three to four years in prison.
The implications of the FBI's hyperlink-enticement technique are sweeping. Using the same logic and legal arguments, federal agents could send unsolicited e-mail messages to millions of Americans advertising illegal narcotics or child pornography--and raid people who click on the links embedded in the spam messages. The bureau could register the "unlawfulimages.com" domain name and prosecute intentional visitors. And so on."

Translating Fear Propaganda Into English

Just on time to mark five years of war crimes and genocide in Iraq, and just on time to inject a little oomph into a phony "war on a noun" that seems to be losing steam, the propagandists hand us new poop from a stiff spook.



Put through the handy Fear-O-Matic® translator:

Dead Guy: Muslims And Christians Are At War
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Dead Guy is miraculously resurrected to fan the flames of religious hatred, and issues vague but scary threat about some stupidity that worked people into a frenzy before.
Europe should tremble because the CIA says a lifeless corpse is hiding under their beds. Since he's really dead and buried, they also say they'll pull a false flag attack and you can hate the designated patsies.

Media Scum Praise Cheney For Not Giving A Rat's Ass About Americans

Call him an "old school hero"

"Dick Cheney does not care what you or anyone else thinks about the war in Iraq or any other subject for that matter, and because of this he is a "hero".
That was the sentiment expressed by both Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson yesterday after The Vice President made it clear during an interview that he is not bothered in the slightest what the American people think.
In the interview with ABC News, reporter Martha Raddatz questioned Cheney's statement that "there's a general consensus that we've made major progress" in Iraq:

"Two-third of Americans say it's not worth fighting," Raddatz said.
"So?" replied Cheney.
"You don't care what the American people think?" Raddatz asked.
"No," Cheney replied.

That about sums up the fact that the government has been usurped by those who do not care about America, who have no interest in the well being of the people and will grind the nation into the dust for their own evil gains until it is no more.
The icing on the cake however came with the reaction of MSNBC's talking hacks in the studio. If ever any thirty second soundbite could sum up the state of the media today then this is it.
Scarborough: "Look at his face, look how shaken up he is... The question was what do you do when two-thirds of American think this war is not worth fighting. Dick Cheney's response: 'So?' There's a guy that sticks his finger in the wind!"
Tucker Carlson: "He's kind of a hero in that way. I know I'll probably have my car egged for saying this, but ... it's so nice to see someone that old-school. 'Hey, you kids, get off my lawn.' That's Dick Cheney. I love that."

Gotta Punish Them Somehow

Venezuela's state-run oil firm demands payment in euros
"CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela's state-run oil firm is starting to demand payment in euros — a measure aimed at protecting revenues from a weakening U.S. dollar, Venezuela's oil minister said Tuesday."

US blocks Venezuelan purchase of food
"Venezuela’s economy is essentially oil-based. It imports around 70 percent of its food products. The blocking of food supplies is just one of the methods being used by the US in its attempts to undermine the popularity of the government and destabilise the internal situation there."

Army Holds Annual 'Bring Your Daughter To War' Day

Hey Kids! Get Your Very Own Police Checkpoint Set!

Only $49.99! Kids who bought this also bought Snarling Dog Figurines!

And Lego© Concentration Camp Sets!

Potential Putin Assassin Had Interesting Travel History

Western Oil Giants Said Behind Putin Assassination Plot

"FSB reports circulating in the Kremlin today are reporting that President Putin and President-elect Medvedev were the ‘intended’ targets of Tajikistan citizen Shakhvelad Osmanov, and who was captured by Russian Security Forces prior to his being able to assassinate both of Russia’s leaders during a planned victory celebration in Red Square.
These reports further state that the assassin Osmanov had an ‘arsenal of weapons’, to include a British made Model 85 Parker Hale sniper rifle, and who many in the Russian Military believe to be one of the best sniper rifles in the World.
Most disturbing, however, about these reports are the detailing of assassin Osmanov’s travels since 13 February 2008, and which show him having traveled from Tajikistan to the United States where he stayed for 3 days in the Texas City of Houston. From Houston, these reports state, assassin Osmanov than traveled to London and after 3 days there left for the Netherlands and stayed in the Hague for over a week.
From the Hague assassin Osmanov traveled to the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, stayed there for 2 weeks then debarked for Moscow where he remained until captured prior to his being able to kill Russia’s leaders."


Osmanov

Sweet Jeebus, there's that Texas and oil connection again. And there are a couple of conflicts which would explain it.

Sakhalin Island in eastern Russia sits on top of staggering resources - an estimated 90 trillion cubic feet of untapped natural gas and 12 billion barrels of crude oil under the ocean floor. In 1994 the west's buddy and drunken clown Boris Yeltsin was busily selling out Russia to corporate interests and penned a deal with the Anglo-Dutch firm Royal Dutch Shell to exploit Sakhalin's resources.
Much to Shell's chagrin, Vladamir Putin was able to out maneuver them and enabled a Russian state-owned company conglomerate, Gazprom, to get majority interest last December.

Needless to say, Shell was pissed.

There's another reason why oil companies may have wanted Putin and his successor out of the way. The usual suspects - Exxon, Shell, Mobil - have billions invested in Caspian Sea oil extraction and plan to spend billions more in pipelines to get it to market. New routes had to be found to get oil from these newly discovered vast eurasion fields to Europe.

"In 1995 a seemingly safe and short alternative route was discovered to get around the unsafe overloaded Bosporus Channel in Turkey.The oil tankers on the Black Sea, instead of going south through the narrow Bosporus, would turn northward up the wide Danube River toward Europe. But then at Belgrade, in Serbian Yugoslavia the tankers would make a quick left turn up a tributary river, unload the oil, and with only a short 50 mile pipeline could reach the large Mediterranean seaport of Tirana, Albania and then on to the world. It looked cheap and easy. And where would that short pipeline be built? Across a small province called Kosovo."

So aside from being extremely rich in natural resources, wrenching Kosovo from Serbia meant that the oil giants would have their pipeline route, which goes a long way in explaining mysterious touching US concern for Kosovar muslims in their quest for independence. There was a problem though. Putin has said repeatedly that he absolutely opposes a separate Kosovar state from Russia's ally Serbia and has threatened force in stopping it.

In the fascists' eyes, Putin and his heir have to go, their oil buddies are running out of patience.

It's Become Our God Given Priviledge To Murder Indiscriminately

Blowing Them Away Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry By Tom Engelhardt

"Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a small town somewhere near the Southern California coast. You're going about your daily life, trying to scrape by in hard times, when the missile hits. It might have come from the Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) -- its pilot at a base on the outskirts of Tehran -- that has had the village in its sights for the last six hours or from the Russian sub stationed just off the coast. In either case, it's devastating.

In Moscow and Tehran, officials announce that, in a joint action, they have launched the missile as part of a carefully coordinated "surgical" operation to take out a "known terrorist," a long-term danger to their national security. A Kremlin spokesman offers the following statement:
"As we have repeatedly said, we will continue to pursue terrorist activities and their operations wherever we may find them. We share common goals with respect to fighting terrorism. We will continue to seek out, identify, capture and, if necessary, kill terrorists where they plan their activities, carry out their operations or seek safe harbor."

A family in a ramshackle house just down the street from you -- he's a carpenter; she works at the local Dairy Queen -- are killed along with their pets. Their son is seriously wounded, their home blown to smithereens. Neighbors passing by as the missile hits are also wounded.
As it happens, there are no terrorists in the vicinity. Outraged, you organize your neighbors and march angrily in protest through the town, shouting anti-Russian, anti-Iranian slogans. But, of course, there is nothing you can really do. Iran and Russia are far away, their weaponry powerful, your arms nonexistent. The state of California is incapable of protecting you. This is, in fact, at least the fourth time in recent months that a "terrorist" has been declared "taken out" from the air or by a ship-based cruise missile, when only innocent Californians have died.

As news of the "collateral damage" from the botched operation dribbles out, the Russian and Iranian media pay next to no attention. There are no outraged editorials. Official spokesmen see no need to comment further. No one is held responsible and no promises are made in either Tehran or Moscow that similar assassination strikes won't be launched in the near future, based on "actionable intelligence," possibly even on the same town. In fact, the next day, seeing UAVs once again soaring overhead, you load your pick-up and prepare to flee.

(...)

In fact, an almost exact replica of the above fictional incident -- at least the fourth of its kind in recent months -- did indeed take place at the beginning of March in the embattled failed state of Somalia."

The military thinks "decapitation" strikes are way cool

"Virtually all aspects of the assassination program are classified, and so information about it has emerged only in bits and pieces. In January 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that unnamed officials had confirmed that Predator drones bearing Hellfire missiles—the preferred weapon in decapitation bombings—had hit "terrorist suspects overseas" at least 19 times since 9/11. "The Predator strikes have killed at least four senior Al Qaeda leaders," according to the Times sources, "but also many civilians, and it is not known how many times they missed their targets."

Seen On CBS Warketwatch, Normally Chamber Of Commerce Boosters

It's going to take a two x four upside.

Deranged War Criminals Sneak Into Iraq

What is it with these warmongering thugs? First off, notice how they all skulk into Baghdad unannounced, pretending to just, you know like, happen to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop in for kabob. Nothing could be further from the truth. Intense and overwhelming security dominates these furtive visits which are secret with good reason - bloodthirsty war profiteers like Cheney and Bush are kill on sight targets in Iraq. They don't dare announce itineraries beforehand. Contrast this with Iran's Ahmadinejad who moved quite freely in the country, even motoring on the Highway of Death between the airport and Baghdad.

So Cheney visits the scene of his war crime on the fifth anniversary of beginning it, and McCain decided to revisit the market he infamously took a stroll in last year. The market he and some congressional buddies declared was “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.” Normal that is if you have half a dozen helicopter gunships overhead, snipers on the rooftops and walk in the midst of a hundred US troops in South Bend on a regular basis. If McCain's little shopping spree this time is like last year's, and of course it will be because it's just as dangerous if not more so this year, then all he'll be doing is pissing off the locals again:

"A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions.
“What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal! … They paralyzed the market when they came. This was only for the media.”

Meanwhile Cheney gushes about his handiwork five years on:

"Cheney said he sensed "phenomenal changes" since his last visit 10 months ago and described security gains as "dramatic".

What is with these shitheads? You truly have to be a raving sociopath to admire destruction, carnage and wretched human despair, you truly have to be an evil scumbag to announce to the world that the murderous death orgy you created is progress for the Iraqi people. Mouthing the idiotic premise that Baghdad is now a wonderful vacation destination or pretending that americans are safe to move freely in Iraq are the utterings of twisted madmen. This isn't irresponsible blindness, these despicable scum are fully conscious of the raw hell that americans made of the country and are willfully lying to our faces about it. One should be rotting in prison for the rest of his miserable life and the other should be committed to the professional care he so obviously and desperately needs.

BBC Reports On Tent Cities In LA

Bushville, USA