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Dialogue for
Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008
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Are you doing business with the Bank of Fascism?
Facing losses on bad loans, banks boost credit card rates| |
Excerpt: Moore, of Elkton, Ky., says he always pays more than the minimum due on his credit cards, and does it on time, every time. But in January, Bank of America told him it was nearly tripling his interest rate, to 22%. |
Etc., etc. ...
These companies are the worst, most heinous pigs in existence. They are the ones who helped Enron create its scams, and then went to the Supreme Court to evade liability for participating in the massive thefts from Americans. And they are the ones who created bogus mortgages -- rip-offs -- and then sold them to unsuspecting investors around the world, and now that everything is going badly for them ("poetic justice" according to Warren Buffett), they're demanding that the government bail them out with below-inflation rate interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, and outright bail-outs in other cases (like FHLB loaning Countrywide Financial /another/ $50 billion).
In the USA Today article the people quoted seem to feel that keeping a balance on their cards is a normal thing. Maybe they're stuck in the trap, or maybe that is the old "normal", the way things used to be. But these days, paying 22% interest amounts to economic suicide.
The companies make it very hard to actually get to a zero balance. You may need to pay the balance in full TWICE, because after the first payment there will be some additional interest. So overpay by a few bucks, say, $5, and try to prevent that.
And then just stop using the fucking cards. Just don't do it unless it is an absolute emergency -- or if you are forced to do it, like to rent a car -- in which case send in a payment immediately, in full, even before they send you the bill.
Time to get free, baby. Do it, do it now.
And switch companies. Don't be a customer at the Bank of Fascism any more. You know the big banks I am talking about.
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I don't do credit cards any more, but it's beyond outrageous and ought to be criminal, what I read that the banks are doing to customers. I will just say, despite everything you see on TV it's entirely possible and really not all that difficult to live on what you earn, without credit cards. Those plastic rectangles ought to be for unexpected emergencies only, or scissored to bits.
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Teetering on collapse
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 9, 2008 |
In the vacuum that will result from the collapse of centralized authority, decentralization and reorganization around the basic needs of local communities and relying on local resources will likely generate different, more egalitarian, more ecological institutions designed by the people that participate in them. ... MORE ...
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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A little inbreeding
by JR Mooneyham
| Feb. 9, 2008 |
Surprise! Ben Franklin (the wildest founding father) used to say something like 'all things in moderation'. Now scientists find a LITTLE inbreeding is actually the very best formula for having kids!
Demography and genetics: Kissing cousins, missing children| |
Excerpt: A wider choice of mates reduces people's reproductive output. That may explain why families in rich countries are smaller than those in poor ones ...
The study's principal finding is that the most fecund marriages are between distant cousins. ... outbreed too far and other difficulties arise as genetic incompatibilities between the parents make reproduction harder. (A well-known example is the case of rhesus blood groups, when the mother's immune system may reject a fetus because of its father's genes.) |
The spookies are back
It's a gloriously sunny day out here in deep western desert America. Life in the Gaza Strip, Utah/Nevada goes on as if, well, as if life were going on as usual.
The military spookies are back. These bozos are still driving the same urban Subaru command urban warfare vehicles that they drove the last time these clowns were here. So, they're up on the hill above our humble little abode and doing what those military spookies are wont to do. Radios and funny looking little hand held devices and the damnedest curious looking binoculars. I know because, soon as I spotted the spookies on the hill, I went and got my binoculars.
So I'm looking at military spookie guy looking at me, and I just figured it would be the polite thing to do and wave. So I did. Don't you just know that military spookie guy won't wave back. Kind of an unfriendly sort of military spookie asshole. You know what I mean?
Watched 'em up the hill for about ten minutes. Waved at spookie guys at least twice and once I just threw that old one finger salute for old time's sake. Nothing says watching the military spookie types like throwing them the bone.
So America, there's your taxpaying dollars at work. Military spookie guys standing around on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip, Utah/Nevada and watching me watch them.
God, ain't it just grand to know that you're getting a real bang for your buck? Osama bin Ladin is running loose around our world, or at least that's what mainstream media and the Bush administration keeps telling everybody, and the military spookies are out in BFE west desert Utah playing binocular tag with the lowly likes of me. Criminy, I could guess that the Pentagon has it's priorities in order.
Just figured it be a good idea to offer up a little "on scene" report from yours truly. This has been craggy old freaking wise-ass dissident reporter, Don 'skulz' Nash reporting. TTFN and buy bonds. The U.S. military needs the money for playing binocular tag and laser washing civilians. Just like in old Iraq!
Don Nash
Gaza Strip, Utah/Nevada
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Is there ever anything in the local media? Ever a word, even a lie, about what the fuck these fucks are up to? |
Bodes ill
And Obama Wept
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Excerpt: Says Klein: "That is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause - other than an amorphous desire for change - the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is. “
The always interesting James Wolcott writes that "(p)erhaps it's my atheism at work but I found myself increasingly wary of and resistant to the salvational fervor of the Obama campaign, the idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria. I can picture President Hillary in the White House dealing with a recalcitrant Republican faction; I can't picture President Obama in the same role because his summons to history and call to hope seems to transcend legislative maneuvers and horse-trading; his charisma is on a more ethereal plane, and I don't look to politics for transcendence and self-certification."
Then there's MSNBC's Chris Matthews who tells Felix Gillette in the New York Observer, “I’ve been following politics since I was about 5. I’ve never seen anything like this. This is bigger than Kennedy. [Obama] comes along, and he seems to have the answers. This is the New
Testament." |
All I can say about this is .....| |
"Listen Jesus I don't like what I see.
All I ask is that you listen to me.
And remember, I've been your right hand man all along.
You have set them all on fire.
They think they've found the new Messiah.
And they'll hurt you when they find they're wrong.
I remember when this whole thing began.
No talk of God then, we called you a man.
And believe me, my admiration for you hasn't died.
But every word you say today
Gets twisted 'round some other way.
And they'll hurt you if they think you've lied."JC Superstar |
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I found this little item by "The Rude One"
to be very enlightening.| |
RP: What about Obama?
RM: I don't like him. I don't like some of the things he said at the debates.
RP: What do you mean?
RM: He was just arrogant. I didn't like him.
RP: You mean he was an uppity nigger?
RM: (Almost audibly rolling her eyes) Stop it.
RP: No, I mean, what didn't you like?
RM: Didn't he get his home half price from someone in the mafia? |
And believe me, this IS the kind of thing that will be going through more than a few peoples minds. Despite what some would like us to believe, the race thing is still a BIG factor.
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Race matters to millions of Americans, of course, and stoking still more racism has been a cornerstone of Republican strategy for decades. That ain't news to Barack Obama. I'm curious to see whether he can overcome that built-in disadvantage...
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That's the trick. That is why I've been saying, maybe not here but elsewhere, that having him and Clinton on the ticket would be the best solution.
I was up in North Carolina a few years ago and was surprised that even in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area (Duke, NCSU, UNC) the segregationist "feel" of the place. Sure there were African Americans working there, but you saw very few (if any) in the "Upper Class" parts of town and the unsaid rule of not fraternizing with them. And not just Blacks, but Hispanics are barely tolerated. Very different than down here in Florida. But then Florida's thing was never really "slaves" and plantations. It was more fleecing northerners with real estate scams.
Yes, racism is alive and well and living in America.
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Obama just has ordinary racism to deal with, but Hillary Clinton might be the most hated woman in America. If she's on the ticket, McCain is the next President.
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Helen & Harry
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Friends
Again winning friends and...
Survivor of Philippine slaughter claims US soldiers were involved| |
Excerpt: “I saw four Americans on the naval boat. When I climbed aboard, the soldiers blindfolded me. I asked them, ‘why did you blindfold me?’ They said, ‘so that you won’t see anything when we climb up,” she told ABS-CBN television in an interview. |
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Wig
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Up their noses
by Marshall S.
| Feb. 9, 2008 |
Waterboarding should be prosecuted as torture: U.N.| |
Excerpt: The controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding and used by the United States qualifies as torture, the U.N. human rights chief said on Friday. |
Good idea. Who's going to do the prosecuting?
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Court strikes down EPA's plan (I.e. Bush's plan) on mercury| |
Excerpt: A federal appeals court said Friday the Bush administration ignored the law when it imposed less stringent requirements on power plants to reduce mercury pollution, which scientists fear could cause neurological problems in 60,000 newborns a year. |
Let's see if Bush ignores the courts like he ignores Congress
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Crime lab tech gets 45 years for stealing cocaine| |
Excerpt: A former Department of Public Safety technician was sentenced to 45 years in prison Friday for stealing cocaine from the agency's Jersey Village crime lab. Hinojosa is the last of four men implicated in the scheme to sell more than 26 kilograms of cocaine stolen from the Jersey Village lab. |
They should have settled with just shoving it up their noses. Then nobody might have noticed.
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War demands strain military's ability to meet other crisis| |
Excerpt: A classified Pentagon assessment concludes that long battlefield tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with persistent terrorist activity and other threats, have prevented the U.S. military from improving its ability to respond to any new crisis, The Associated Press has learned. |
At least the defense contractors are doing well.
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Many in poll say get out of Iraq to help the economy| |
Excerpt: The heck with Congress' big stimulus bill. The way to get the country out of recession -- and most people think we're in one -- is to get the country out of Iraq, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. |
This is good news. People are realizing that the Iraq war is mainly a means to suck money out of the US Treasury and into private hands by running up the national debt to a point where the country is being destroyed.
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Poll: Public has dimmest view yet of Bush, Congress| |
Excerpt: It's almost as if people can barely stand the thought of President Bush and Congress anymore. |
I can stand the though of Bush and Congress, if I'm thinking of them standing in court for the many, many crimes they have committed.
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Best of green intentions wasted on biofuels| |
Excerpt: The rush to grow biofuel crops -- widely embraced as part of the solution to global warming -- is actually increasing greenhouse gas emissions rather than reducing them, according to two studies published Thursday in the journal Science. |
The amount of energy needed to produce corn is about the same as the energy gotten out of it in a biofuel. So the whole enterprise is a waste, just resulting in higher prices for grains for no good reason, other than to make lots of money for Archer-Daniels Midland.
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Top 10 reasons conservatives dislike McCain| |
Excerpt: 10. Belligerence. McCain can be acerbic toward his critics, such as when he labeled televangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance." |
I like McCain for all the same reasons.
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Marshall S.
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McCain is Bush's guy
"Super delegates" will decide Democratic nomination
Keep the videotape handy, and run it as an Obama campaign ad come November.
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Goldwater
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Dialogue for
Friday, Feb. 8, 2008
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Protection
Who will ...
FBI deputizes private contractors with extraordinary powers, including 'shoot to kill'
... protect us against our protectors?
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Wig
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Sticking together when the time comes
by Kathy Fisher
| Feb. 8, 2008 |
Can you imagine when and if the time comes that we must move into a friend's big two story house? Someone who needs help and has a lot of room and a bit of land, and finds themselves needing help paying the taxes and monthly bills? This is probably going to be the only way to survive and keep a bit of what you own, until they figure a way to take it from us that is.
We all move in and become one big working family, different shifts, many skills all contributing. All of us against the machine that wants to burden us. We'll be just like the ILLEGAL ALIENS only we'll be legal. We'll pool our SS checks and our pay from part time jobs, have them sent to a PO box so they don't come to the same address. We could live like kings and queens.
Providing some nosey envious neighbors a half mile away don't rat on us and the bastards running the police state don't quickly change the laws and say we can't do this or raise the taxes so we all have to pay more. Believe me, I wouldn't put it past them They don't want us to get smart and stick together!
Nevertheless it's still worth a try before we're all out on the streets!
Oh no, I wasn't thinking of the old commune thing. Just maybe eight or nine old souls over fifty banking their money on survival. Putting their wisdom and know-how to good use. It will turn out to be better than the streets or a cave for that matter. Sort of a group home. Much better than a nursing home too!
A collective small farm would take long-term planning and quite a bit of work and positive thinking. Hopefully the young ones will get their act together for that. After WW3 most caves will be all that's left.
I do think I'm wiser than that young hippie I pretended to be 40 years ago. Although my values are still the same.
As the Empire folds in on itself
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 8, 2008 |
Certainly I will shed no tears for the passing of the insane way of life that we have been forced to depend on, almost no matter what happens. And I do expect to see this in my lifetime. ... MORE ...
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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Crime in Second Life
by JR Mooneyham
| Feb. 8, 2008 |
Intelligence officials see 3-D online worlds as havens for criminals
In my timeline I predict virtual states online will over time replace today's geopoliticals. I describe milestones in their development in several spots throughout my timeline. But don't forecast the old system being rendered practically non-existent until 2600, as written up in: The Signposts timeline: 2351 AD-2600 AD.
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Surveillance states (the chart is poorly designed -- you must examine it carefully to get the proper sense of things; the US is the sixth-worse surveillance state on the chart ...
Scoop
Re Islamic savageryTheodore Roosevelt was a Republican; you must mean his cousin, FDR.
Nope... I meant Teddy. He was responsible for the National Park System and dissolved forty monopolistic corporations as a "trust buster". He was pro labor unions and regulation of railroad rates. Many more things... need I say more.
Clinton is your "old school" Democrat/Dixiecrat. Cut from the same mold as Henry "Scoop" Jackson, LBJ and the rest. Unfortunately she appeals to two of the larger groups. Women (except you of course) and the rank and file blue collar.
Obama has a following simply because he is African American. Period.
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Scoop Jackson was before my time, but I'd take his reincarnated rotting bones over Hillary Clinton any time. As for Obama, being black doesn't hurt him, at least not in the Democratic primaries, and there's really not a lot to his résumé, but c'mon, his popularity is based on much more than just being black. He's also dreamy! And gives catchy speeches!
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If you had been around, you wouldn't say that. [about Scoop Jackson].As for Obama, being black doesn't hurt him, at least not in the Democratic primaries, and there's really not I never said it did.a lot to his résumé, but c'mon, his popularity is based on much more than just being black. Oh you would not believe how superficial people can be. There are far more "political groupies" out there than you realize.He's also dreamy! And gives catchy speeches! As I said....
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Among women, Clinton-Obama contest is one for the ages| |
Excerpt: While some on each side point to specific differences in the candidates' platforms and resumes, the reasons behind the generational patterns are also representational, observers say. For older women, some of whom have been active feminists since before the women's movement, Clinton represents a life dream realized.
"With older women, they have waited a long time to vote for a woman candidate," said Alison Peters, a local pollster. "You bet they're excited."
"They have such a strong track record of showing up" for local as well as national elections and political events, Peters said. "They're voting in every single race."
By contrast, there's often a surge of youth involvement with big presidential races. But those younger voters tend to bail out on off-year races, Peters said. |
They (the young) are also less likely to actually show up and vote during any election. I'm very leery of young "progressives" who appear to have some how "got religion" politically when their day to day lives are quite the opposite.
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Chris M.
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Defies common sense
by Angry Annie
| Feb. 8, 2008 |
Federal investigators say nothing went wrong in stolen 2006 Congressional election| |
Excerpt: Democrat Christine Jennings lost the election by 369 votes to Republican Vern Buchanan. She called for the congressional investigation after finding out the machines failed to record more than 18,000 votes in the election in 13th Congressional District election.
The Government Accountability Office says it's more likely that voters skipped the race on the ballot, either intentionally or by mistake. |
This defies common sense so, of course, it's perfectly in keeping with the Bush-Cheney administration. The election was close, garnered lots of local attention, and it was the highest-profile contest on the ballot -- there's simply no way in hell that 18,000 voters made their way to their voting places not to vote.
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Angry Annie
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Agnostic on the Big Bang
by Siskiyousis
| Feb. 8, 2008 |
Thus it has always been.
We have been watching The Universe series on History Channel. The first one postulates conditions before the Big Bang. The program says nothing existed.
We got into an argument that was mainly semantic. *Nothing* is something that we cannot prove or disprove, like many of the particles and black energy that scientists are trying to capture.
When it comes to Big Bangs, I am an agnostic, perhaps even a nonbeliever.
Energy cannot create itself out of nothing. Therefore *Nothing* had to be a *something*...
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Well said and absolutely agreed. The Big Bang doesn't really answer the question of the universe's origin; it just begs the question. The Big Bang theory says there was a giant chemical reaction, which leaves un-answered the next logical question: where did the stuff that went bang come from? And that's really no better than saying God made the universe, which leaves un-answered the next logical question: who made God.
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Helen & Harry
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But I'm the Commander-in-Chief
by Marshall S.
| Feb. 8, 2008 |
AP confirms secret camp inside Gitmo| |
Excerpt: Guantanamo commanders said Camp 7 is for key alleged al-Qaida members, who must be kept apart from other prisoners to prevent them from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to interrogators. They also want the location kept secret for fear of terrorist attack. |
Is secret torture going on at the secret camp?
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Doubts in Guantanamo about Canadian captive's guilt| |
Excerpt: A U.S. soldier's account casting doubts on military prosecutors' claims against a young Canadian al Qaeda fighter highlights one inherent difficulty of the Bush administration's efforts to win convictions before war crimes tribunals in Guantanamo. How to figure out what happened on the battlefield in places like Afghanistan six years later and half a world away? |
Shows that the whole Gitmo legal procedure is crapola.
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Moussaoui prosecutor knew of CIA tapes| |
Excerpt: The lead prosecutor in the terror case against Zacarias Moussaoui likely knew the CIA destroyed tapes of its interrogations of al-Qaida suspects more than a year before the government acknowledged it to the court, newly unsealed documents show. |
In a normal courtroom, wouldn't this lead to a mistrial?
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FDA fines Red Cross another $4.6 million| |
Excerpt: The Food and Drug Administration has fined the Red Cross an additional $4.6 million for the distribution of "unsuitable blood products," bringing penalties against the organization to more than $19 million in recent years. |
The Red Cross seem to be as corrupt and incompetent as the FDA.
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Trial opens in growth hormone deaths| |
Excerpt: Seven doctors and pharmacists went on trial Wednesday for the deaths of more than 100 young people who contracted a brain-destroying disease after being treated with tainted human growth hormones.
Prosecutors say that by 1985, scientists were warning of a link between the hormones and CJD, and that the French program should have been halted earlier. |
The 1st world has been sending junk drugs to the 3rd world for so long, they're using them on their first world "white" people too.
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Bribery indictment stands against Louisiana congressman| |
Excerpt: A judge refused Wednesday to toss out an indictment against a Louisiana congressman accused of taking bribes, rejecting the argument that the indictment unconstitutionally infringed on his privileges as a congressman. |
I think most Congresspeople think they have a Constitutional right to legally accept a bribe. At least, that's how most of them behave.
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Florida voting machines exonerated in 2006 undervote| |
Excerpt: Democrat Christine Jennings lost the election by 369 votes to Republican Vern Buchanan. She called for the congressional investigation after finding out the machines failed to record more than 18,000 votes in the election in 13th Congressional District election.
The GAO says it's more likely that voters skipped the race on the ballot, either intentionally or by mistake. |
And I believe that GWB rules by the grace of God, too.
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3 firms indicted in tainted pet food incidents| |
Excerpt: Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company were indicted today in the tainted pet food incidents that killed dozens of animals last year and raised worries about products made in China. |
They'll get a slap on the wrist, then they'll keep doing it, or some other scam that kills.
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Military 'significantly stressed,' top officer will say today| |
Excerpt: The military's top uniformed officer says U.S. forces are
"significantly stressed" by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan while
simultaneously trying to stem the tide of violent extremism elsewhere. |
Bush will say, "But I'm the Commander in Chief, and I'm not stressed."
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CIA boss: Waterboarding may be illegal| |
Excerpt: Debate over waterboarding flared Thursday on Capitol Hill, with the CIA director raising doubts about whether it's currently legal and the attorney general refusing to investigate U.S. interrogators who have used the technique on terror detainees. |
This guy's got guts, knowing the Administration's penchant for axing anyone who doesn't goose step to the Neo-Con party line.
New war veterans face job woes| |
Excerpt: Strained by war, recently discharged veterans are having a harder time finding civilian jobs and are more likely to earn lower wages for years due partly to employer concerns about their mental health and overall skills, a government study says. |
The "support the troops" sham continues. Yet another parallel to the Vietnam war, where those vets who gave all were shunned upon their return. Is another series of Rambo movies on the way?
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Study finds teacher inequity in Texas' poorest schools| |
Excerpt: Low-income and minority students in Texas are more likely to attend schools with inexperienced teachers who are not fully certified, according to a study released Thursday. |
A truly humane and progressive society would put the best teachers where they are needed most, in the worst schools. Since we do the opposite, it can only be concluded that we are striving to create an underclass of people with no skills, education or hope. People who will be the cannon fodder for the perpetual war. Who will buy the drugs to finance the Intelligence community's next black ops. Who will provide the pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and dirty job doers for the rest of us, who went to schools with good teachers.
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Marshall S.
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No obstruction of injustice
CIA destroyed tapes as judge sought interrogation data| |
Excerpt: At the time that the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed videotapes of the interrogations of operatives of Al Qaeda, a federal judge was still seeking information from Bush administration lawyers about the interrogation of one of those operatives, Abu Zubaydah, according to court documents made public on Wednesday.
The court documents, filed in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, appear to contradict a statement last December by Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the CIA director, that when the tapes were destroyed in November 2005 they had no relevance to any court proceeding, including Mr. Moussaoui’s criminal trial. |
What happens to ordinary people in ordinary trials, if they destroy evidence that the judge has asked for? When I watch law shows on TV, that's called obstruction of justice and people are threatened with jail time, but in real life it's just corruption as usual with no penalties at all.
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Dame Edna
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Dots to connect -- all over the place :-)
by Hazel Burke
| Feb. 7, 2008 |
OK, this is a masterpiece -->
The Blue Pill People
by Hari Heath, Idaho Observer| |
Excerpt: There are none so blind as those who will not look. If you are one of those who will look, take a look around. You are surrounded -- surrounded by millions who will not look. These are the blue pill people. Who are these blue pill people and why won't they look? |
Sen. Rockefeller Lets Slip the Spying Truth
by John Dalmas, The Playmasters| |
Excerpt: To solve a problem, there has to be a problem or problems to solve. So the solver must first create the problem, or more often recreate it. And, of course, you have to replace any that you actually get rid of. That's the usual function of organizations: to help one create new problems or take old ones out of mothballs. [...] Organizations carry it beyond that level--to the point of engineering, promoting, and enforcing problems. I'm sure you've noticed how their solutions provide a next generation of bigger and better problems. Call it a game of posing and resolving problems. |
(I am most impressed with the value of this book, and not just this excerpt. But this insight into the self-perpetuating nature of organizations is particularly relevant to the U.S. government and basically everything about it -- not the least of which are its self-defense mechanisms against the American people. But also, consider dumb-ass things which don't work but which are Enforced, such as Prohibition. Just the prohibition against alcohol created massive problems and was later overturned but even more massive problems resulting from drug prohibitions do not result in "sanity" and overturning of policies which manifestly create bigger problems than they purportedly "solve"... for that is the unwritten Intent of the organization!
Good stuff. It doesn't matter to the leaders whether anything is solved or that new problems are created. Power is used mainly to maintain power. Every crisis creates its own necessary conditions that can be used to justify new interventions by the very same people who ought to be held accountable for creating those problems. This is so manifestly obviously true that it must be considered a Red Pill Insight -- otherwise there would have been a second American revolution long ago!
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Hazel Burke
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Maybe not bulletproof
DoD cover-up alleged over maybe-not-bulletproof military helmets| |
Excerpt: "U.S. Attorney David Peterson said, "The matter was looked into, and a
settlement was ultimately reached." |
Case closed.
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An excuse for Bush ...
Grandson of Khomeini barred from Iranian elections
... to invade Iran on the pretext of defending democracy in Iran.
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LOL...
U.S. military has new name for neighborhood militia groups| |
Excerpt: Now known as “Sons of Iraq,” the groups previously had been called “concerned local citizens” throughout the military and in press releases. In recent days, briefings by military officials and news releases have used the new name.
Spokesmen in Baghdad said the change was made because of both a language shortcoming and to make a distinction between two different movements -- the “Awakening” groups in Anbar and the local militias that have been funded by U.S. troops in other parts of the country. |
Whatever the name it still boils down to "COLLABORATOR"
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US Admiral confirms secret prison within Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded - a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret.
For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup. |
We keep digging deeper and deeper in slime ...
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And I'll wager the Red Cross inspectors have never been allowed to see these secret facilities, for obvious and sickening reasons. |
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Helen & Harry
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Que sera, sera...
by Mr. Chuckles
| Feb. 7, 2008 |
Well, this was the most stressful and depressing day I can recall! Mostly the bad stuff had to do with my Expectations, which are nearly always bad to have (if you get what you expect it doesn't seem as good as you imagined it would be, and if you don't get what you expect then you're dissatisfied even though you actually do get what you need -- and all that future tripping saps energy!)
Anyway, I voted. I always vote for the loser it seems. But Barack might have been hurt by the mail-in votes which were made weeks ago. That's what I heard, anyway. Most of the voters on the roster at the polling place are mail-in voters -- I rarely see anyone when I vote, and it is a little weird. Whatever.
I am re-reading John Dalmas' three novels about reality. These are from 20+ years ago, "The Reality Matrix", "The Playmasters" and "The Scroll Of Man". Good stuff. The common thread is that our reality is a Game played by extra-temporal beings with wayyy too much time on their hands.
I need to get back to philosophies now because if I stop and think about Hillary really being a reality my mind just breaks :-) (I believe I can vote for McCain as a F**k You. Why not. My votes never seem to make a difference anyway so why not receive the satisfaction of a ceremonial F.Y. vote!)
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I don't believe the election results have much to do with how people vote. And from listening to talk radio, and more scientifically from the polls, it's pretty obvious that Obama draws significant Republican voters, and that McCain draws significant Democratic voters. Thus it won't surprise me if the Republicans who run the Democratic Party rig it so Clinton is the Democrats' nominee.
And if that happens, I'd seriously consider a "fuck you" vote for McCain, or Mickey Mouse.
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Helen & Harry
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Flashblinded
by Kathy Fisher
| Feb. 7, 2008 |
Homeland Security proudly presents "flashblindness"| |
Excerpt: ... the device flashes LED lights at several specific frequencies. Before your brain has time to adjust to one frequency, the Incapacitator flashes another. Add multiple colors and random pulses and the brain just can't keep up. ...
The only ways to escape the effects? "Close your eyes, put your hand up, turn your head away, all of which will give the user the advantage they need," said [manufacturer spokesman Bob] Lieberman. |
Just wait till they aim this thing at people who suffer from epilepsy! As for me I will add a 6 inch round mirror to the things I carry in my pocketbook and backpack, and shine their fucking death ray right back at them. When things get really bad I'll wear a tool belt with a battery powered nail gun. Hair spray and a Bic lighter set the MFs on fire, they'll never see it coming. The time to fight back is here...
They want to tell us it's scary out there. OK, I'll start carrying a gas mask with me at all times I say I'm afraid of terrorists but it will really be for my protection from their tear gas and pepperspray. Someone out there invent a rubber shield that opens like an umbrella, something light but strong enough to repel their god damn tasers.
It's time, people, start getting prepared for the Police state. Yes it's going to come down to this. Ya see, after the next few False Flag events people are going to stop traveling and OMG! Stop shopping in big malls too. They'll just go out when they have to and many might even say FUCK WORK ...
Hey that's what they want, that's what they are going to cause! I see a market for fashionable rubber pants suits very soon with nice reflective tiny mirrors on them! Maybe you'll see them at the 2008 Paris Spring fashion show.
For every action there is a reaction... We've lost our freedom, the next thing is our lives!
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I ask you all for the next few weeks to take a few minutes a day to send healing prayers to a good friend of ours Judy Moriarty.
No question now just good vibes. She is recuperating from an operation and needs us all to send her our thoughts and prayers and love.
Why the current election "fever" is so disgusting
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 7, 2008 |
The illusion of democratic government is so overwhelming that most people have a hard time coming to grips with the reality that our country is totally controlled by a small set of hugely wealth families and their foreign friends and that our national elections are just shams.
Packaged as a sort of professional sport, our elections serve only to dull the mind and suspend real critical judgement. ... MORE ...
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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Islamic savagery
US stocks rise on upbeat results| |
Excerpt: US stocks have risen in early trading, recovering some ground from Tuesday's falls thanks to strong results from Disney and upbeat US productivity data.
In opening exchanges, the Dow Jones index was up 50 points, or 0.4%, to 12,317, while the NASDAQ added 0.5%.
Analysts said Disney's latest figures and a stronger than expected rise in US worker productivity overshadowed continuing recession fears. |
Which just goes to prove what we have suspected all along. That those who play the market live in Disneyland.
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Super Tuesday roundtable| |
Excerpt: And the challenge for the progressive movement and the peace and justice movement is to come off the sidelines and continue in this effort to hold the Clinton machine back, to hold back this election to make sure that we get a full accounting of all of the primaries and caucuses, and to try to make Barack Obama a better candidate. And I think that’s what happened last night on Super Tuesday. Yes, the big states did certainly go for the Clinton machine, but without a challenge, and a strong challenge here at the end. |
Two points. First off Obama is hardly a progressive candidate. In fact the last real progressive president we had in the country was Theodore Roosevelt. Secondly the progressives in this country are a minority and we have not had any true progressive movement since the 1920s and 1930s when the Socialists were gaining strength.
In the Democratic party the "progressive" wing is and always has been a small group. Despite what the polls are saying (yes I have been following them), I do not believe Obama can win. He is just not popular enough with the rank and file. If by some miracle he should be the candidate and should win the election, it would be a one-term presidency with the presidency and most of congress going right back to the Republicans.
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'Adultery' sisters to be stoned to death in Iran| |
Excerpt: The two sisters were found guilty of adultery -- a capital crime in Iran -- after the husband of one of the pair presented a video showing them in the company of other men while he was away.
The penal court of Teheran province had already sentenced the sisters, identified only as Zohreh, 27, and Azar, to stoning, the newspaper said. |
It is this sort of thing, more than any political action, that turns people off to Iran's Islamic state and will garner support for military action against it. Just like the reports of what Germany was doing to its Jewish population that was the primary reason for this countries distaste for Germany and the Nazis during WWII even though there was a significant anti-Jewish sentiment at the time.
It makes it much easier to portray the people performing these acts as less than human. When this happens, it is easy to justify any act against them, whether justified or not. Technology today means that no country or people are an Island and what they do will come back to haunt them.
Like it or not the whole world is now intertwined and no-one can do as they damn well please no matter who you are. Not us, not the middle east, not Europe, not Asia. With information traveling at the speed of light, everyone (unless they are living in a cave somewhere) will find out about it sooner or later. As they say "You can fence yourself in, but you cannot forever fence the wide world out." You may try to justify you actions by your beliefs, but the rest of the world may not see it that way and sooner or later you will as a country and society have to deal with them and they may not be very pleasant about it.
This does not meant in any way that I would support any action against Iran or anyone else. Just my pragmatic, reality-based view.
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I'll see your pessimism and raise it. There are still people who can do as they please with impunity and with no moral or legal constraints: the wealthy.
And two things about the ever-present reports of Islamic savagery: First, most such savagery is reminiscent of Christian savagery from not so very long ago. It ain't like the Muslims invented execution for minor moral violations. And second, it is (as you say) "this sort of thing" that helps fuel western fear and hatred of Islam, and that's why such stories get big play in western media.
On progressive candidates, Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican; you must mean his cousin, FDR. And on Obama, I'll confess, I'm immune to his charisma and popularity -- to me, he looks like what used to be called a moderate Republican, before that species went extinct -- but a lot of people love him. And I'm cynical, but I don't hate him half as much as I hate Clinton -- and after eight years of Nazi rule, a moderate Republican looks to me like Christ reincarnated.
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Pay more for less
by Marshall S.
| Feb. 7, 2008 |
Tainted pills from Puerto Rico hit U.S. mainland| |
Excerpt: "People would be shocked to find this whole variety of contamination," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Washington watchdog group Public Citizen. "The common denominator of all these is there's really poor quality control." |
What does Big Pharma care? Pay a few million in fines and keep the many billions in profits. What is really bad is that we pay far more in the US than other countries for drugs. Pay more for less. I bet they are using this as an example in business school.
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CIA says used waterboarding on three suspects| |
Excerpt: The CIA used a widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three suspects captured after the September 11 attacks, CIA Director Michael Hayden told Congress on Tuesday. |
Three times is three times too many. Besides, how believable is this? Doesn't "spy" rhyme with "lie"?
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Willie Nelson doubts official explanation for 9/11| |
Excerpt: "I saw those towers fall and I've seen an implosion in Las Vegas, there's too much similarities between the two. And I saw the building fall that didn't get hit by nothing," the singer-songwriter said. "So, how naive are we, you know, what do they think we'll go for?" |
I wish many other well known people would speak out about the lies our government tells us.
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US Gov't proposes change in foreign farm worker pay, lowering it| |
Excerpt: Foreign farm workers who come to the United States legally could be paid less under changes to government regulations aimed at getting companies to stop hiring illegal immigrants. |
I think these nuts should see The Grapes of Wrath. They have only contempt for the working person. Making foreign workers "half humans" is no answer to anything.
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UN survey: Afghan opium high in 2008| |
Excerpt: "Opium cultivation in Afghanistan may have peaked, but the 2008 amount will be shockingly high," Costa said in a statement. |
The Taliban outlawed opium production, but Bush has brought it back.
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Marshall S.
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Shame
Time and life runs out for an Afghan held years at Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: in 2003, [Abdul Razzaq Hekmati] was arrested by American forces in southern Afghanistan when, senior Afghan officials here contend, he was falsely accused by his enemies of being a Taliban commander himself. For the next five years he was held at the American military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he died of cancer on Dec. 30. |
Shame on the Bush/Cheney war criminals.
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I'll state this not in anger, just as an informed observer of American politics: To Bush, Cheney, and the people they've put in charge up and down the hierarchy, this man's death means nothing, and the deaths of a million Iraqis mean nothing -- because to these all-American monsters, Iraqis are not people.
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Helen & Harry
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Helpless and grieving
A thousand times I have searched myself for an answer I could understand. I cursed myself. I was angry with myself and then angry that I felt that I thought my self so important that I SHOULD have made this NOT happen. Who am I to think I have such power as that? ... MORE ...
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Gina Dee
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A test in asymmetrical warfare?
Re Severed & 4th undersea cable severed (incl. Helen & Harry’s comments)
I guess that it is “innuendo” season again. The fact that Iran MAY have escaped the effects of all of the severed cables leads to the asymmetrical warfare comment. Please just spit it out -- what are you trying to say exactly?
To give you some help. I’ll mention some other countries in the region that seem NOT to be affected: Iraq (whenever those that still have Internet service get electricity), Israel, Jordan, Turkey, and Yemen. Afghanistan also seems NOT to have been affected.
As for what newer articles are saying, this one from the UAE, using the word “cut,” updates the story saying that the FLAG cable was cut twice near Alexandria, Egypt (Jan. 30) and near Dubai, UAE (Feb. 1) and that the SeaMeWe-4 cable was cut twice near Alexandria (Jan. 30) and Penang, Malaysia (date ??). Then, importantly, it says that the FALCON cable was cut near Bandar Abbas, Iran on Jan. 23, 2008 -- that it was NOT reported, the cause remains unknown, and it still hasn’t been repaired. Given this new news, it could be the FALCON cable (rather than the FLAG) that was cut twice. Another article indicates that Iran lost about 20% percent of its service. Another speculates that the cuts (now totaling 5) to cables was carried out as a cover for the US as they added wire-tapping capability to those networks.
As for the ABC News (Australia) article, it is NOT talking about a 4th cable, it’s talking about the cable cut (that’s the term used) near Dubai, UAE on Feb. 1 (either the FLAG or FALCON cable from the same company -- FLAG Telecom) usually seen as the “3rd” cable. It also mentions the main “conspiracy theory” -- deliberate cutting “in an attempt by the US and Israel to deprive Iran of internet access. Others back up that theory, saying the Pentagon has a secret strategy called ‘information warfare.’”
You have stated rather categorically that “it was not the US and not ‘terrorists.’” Interestingly, NO ONE has brought up the idea of “terrorists.” The US government has been accused from the start, and from what I can tell from here, it is the Internet and NOT the mainstream media in the US that is covering this story. That would indicate that those in control in the US are trying to keep this story secret or not well understood which automatically implicates them.
As for why the story has gotten mixed up so much, I’d say that that has to do with the fact that the companies involved haven’t come out with much clear information and the rest of us are having to learn about undersea cables for the first time. From what I understand, there are the main cables with branch lines that go to particular locations. Do you call the branch line a “new” cable or do you use the name of the main line (they all have names)? The linked article above used the names of the main lines while mentioning the locations of the cuts -- a good solution.
Another way to speculate regarding this story is to look at the countries hardest hit -- are “messages” from the US being sent to them? For example, there’s India. India and the US were working out a nuclear deal. However, an IPS article dated Jan. 25, 2008 has the headline “Nuclear Deal Runs Out of Steam.” As for Pakistan, the US wants to put US forces inside Pakistan, but the Pakistanis don’t want them. Then, there is Egypt, they’ve been aiding the Palestinians as they deal with the Israeli “siege” of their areas. Is the US trying to pressure India, Pakistan, and Egypt using these cut cables?
Well, that is enough speculating. It IS risky. You can look pretty stupid if you get it wrong. But the Internet helps out. Offerings from around th |
