X-Files canceled spin-off predicts 9/11

this is entirely too weird... a show debuts in march 2001, is canceled in june 2001, and in september 2001, its plot morphs into reality...

The Lone Gunmen, a spin-off of the popular series The X-Files, was a television show that aired on FOX, featuring the characters of the same name. The show first aired in March 2001, and, despite good reviews, it was cancelled due to a drop in ratings. The last episode aired in June 2001.

The debut of the show in March of 2001, began with Byers father faking his death to un-cover a conspiracy to hijack an airliner. While the lone gunmen try to get to the truth of his supposed death and uncover the conspiracy.

One retrospectively interesting aspect of this pilot Episode is that the airliner has been hijacked (via remote control of the plane's Auto Pilot) and by the end both Byers and his father have boarded the plane to try to stop the hijacking. Through aid of the other Gunmen they are able to regain control of the plane and just miss crashing into the World trade Center with the Airliner. This of course is before the actual attack against the Trade centers later that year.

i'm sorry... this is entirely TOO coincidental...

here's the full show, broken into 5 segments - the intro plus the 4 chunks that fit into an hour television time slot...

The Lone Gunmen - Pilot (Part 1 of 5)

The Lone Gunmen - Pilot (Part 2 of 5)

The Lone Gunmen - Pilot (Part 3 of 5)

The Lone Gunmen - Pilot (Part 4 of 5)

The Lone Gunmen - Pilot (Part 5 of 5)

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What a shame - General Clark endorses Hillary

well, well, well...



honest to god, i thought he had more smarts than this...

Dear General Clark,

You have made a very serious mistake and I am sorely disappointed in your judgment. Hillary Clinton is about as compromised a candidate as they come and I thought that you, of all people, would be smart enough to recognize that. The only difference between Hillary Clinton and the Bush administration is the difference between covert and overt. Hillary will take us right down the same road we're traveling right now, just as her husband did, only we will feel better along the way about what an "enlightened" choice we made in getting rid of the current band of criminals.

Unfortunately, General Clark, your choice tells me more about you than it does about Hillary Clinton.

In disgust,

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War Crimes

the existentialist cowboy has a nice summary of the case for war crimes charges against bush and his criminal compadres... this video captures some of the discussion that was going on last november...

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"[The Iraq media debate] is all just complete blather*, and never means anything"

we-e-e-e-e-ell... i would dispute the term "blather*"...

glenn greenwald...

It has been extremely difficult over the past several months to pay any attention at all to the discussion of Iraq from our political and media stars. It is all just complete blather, and never means anything. All of these stern and worried and tough words spill endlessly from their mouths -- they all proclaimed in May that September was the Day of Reckoning: there would be bipartisan, forced withdrawal if the political benchmarks weren't met -- only for the same thing to happen over and over. The conditions are not met; Bush proclaims we are staying; and the Washington Establishment submits.

[...]

(1) If X does not happen, there is no justification for staying; (2) X has not happened; (3) we must stay. That is why nothing they say has any meaning. Staying in Iraq is always the only real goal. Everything else is just pretext and blather to continue to do that.

perhaps i'm being excessively picky, but i think that "talking foolishly" ISN'T what is happening here... i think glenn destroys his own case for "blathering" when he says that "staying in iraq is always the only real goal"... if the "blathering" were being done "foolishly," it wouldn't HAVE a goal... instead, i believe it is being done consciously and deliberately...

blath·er
Pronunciation: 'bla-[th]&r
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): blath·ered; blath·er·ing /-[th](&-)ri[ng]/
Etymology: Old Norse blathra; akin to Middle High German blOdern to chatter
: to talk foolishly at length -- often used with on

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Psychic numbing

an oldie but a goodie...

carol wolman, writing in counterpunch, 8 december 2003...

AMERICANS tend to identify with America's nuclear weapons, thinking that they meant to defend our country. We plebes don't realize that their real function is to defend the interests of a small group of corporations, the military-aerospace-oil complex. Our role is to be HOSTAGES. The people in power have bunkers and bomb shelters in which to ride out a nuclear war. There is no civil defense for the rest of us. Not only are we targeted, but we pay for the privilege, with our taxes. (The actual price tag for US military spending in fiscal 2004 will be $486 billion, or 56 percent of all federal discretionary spending.) Our DENIAL OF THIS SHATTERING TRUTH IS HEAVILY FOSTERED by the warmongers. We are told by the media, over and over, that we have an enemy, and we need nuclear weapons to protect us. When the Cold War ended, a new threat called terrorism was quickly produced.

As if thought control by the media weren't enough, our culture is geared toward violence and exploitation. Our children are raised on sadistic cartoons and video games. We are taught to channel our aggression into team sports- mostly as spectators- and to always root for the home team. "Us against them" thinking is ingrained, and of course we are always the good guys.

We are also trained to be passive. We are fed all sorts of drugs, legal and illegal, that sedate us or make us crazy. The education system trains our children to sit still and give the right answers. Our diet and lifestyle makes us fat and lazy.

We are also terrorized. Protestors are given harsh sentences these days. Sane leaders who advocate love and peace have been systematically assassinated or killed in mysterious accidents- both Kennedys (3 with John Jr.), ML King, Jr., Mel Carnahan and Paul Wellstone to name a few.

We are socially fragmented. We are encouraged to focus on ourselves and personal success, rather to face our common problems and seek solutions together. The divorce rate is high and children are neglected or abused. The social service system breaks up our families. As we are socially atomized, we feel more and more powerless to deal with the threat of nuclear holocaust.

We are out of touch with our bodies. We sit in cars, in front of TVs and computers, at desks, but we don't experience our physical reality and that of the world around us. No wonder we don't take care of the environment!

We worship money and goods instead of the God of love and truth. After 9-11, the president told us to keep shopping. Our health as a nation is measured by the stock market rather than by the number of people in prison.

this ought to be required reading for everyone in the united states at least once a week...

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Gosh, I'm so busy I can't even pay attention to the criminal disaster I helped perpetrate by lying

somehow, rummy as the white rabbit just doesn't work for me...



white rabbit...

I'm late / I'm late / For a very important date. / No time to say "Hello." / Goodbye. / I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.

but, hey... i'm glad to see he's keeping busy with what's REALLY important...

In an interview with Fox News last night, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — one of the key architects of the Iraq disaster — was asked whether he currently “pays attention to specifics about what’s going on day to day in Iraq.”

Rumsfeld responded by claiming it’s impossible to follow events when you’re “on the outside.” He then added that he doesn’t have time to follow what’s going on in Iraq because he’s too busy with administrative tasks:

I’ve been very busy doing a series of things: setting up an office and hiring staff, arranging my papers to give to the Library of Congress, setting up a new foundation…

Rusmfeld re-emphasized the point, concluding his answer by stating: “So I’ve been busy doing those kinds of things and I have not even attempted stay as current as one would if you were in the government, constantly seeing all the intelligence and information.”

maybe when he's indicted for war crimes at the hague, he'll start to take notice...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Larisa boils Bush's speech down to 10 highly manipulative and misleading points

and, as is her wont, does an outstanding job of it...

The real speech is...

In my view, if you take out all the filler, that is, all of the items not in bold, you get a real sense of what is being said, here is the summary version:

1. We were asked by the Iraqis to help defend them from Al Qaeda, an Iraqi evil that attacked us on September 11, 2001.

2. We defended the Iraqis against Al Qaeda and they were appreciative and vowed to continue what we started, so our mission to come to the defense of the Iraqi people was a success.

3. But other countries (Iran) and groups (Al Qaeda) keep interfering, killing Iraqis and Americans alike, despite all of our progress.

4. We won't be safe from another 9/11 attack until we secure Iraq, which we cannot do because Iran and Al Qaeda won't let us.

5. Iran, Syria, and Al Qaeda are the real problem, not our efforts to secure Iraq, which have proved a success.

6. Patriotic Americans will understand this, despite their party affiliations, they understand that until Iraq is secure, we are not safe, and we cannot secure Iraq because of Al Qaeda and Iran.

7. Those in the region and elsewhere better take sides now, because you are either with us (our energy war) "for peace" or against us - terrorists - who will not have peace.

8. We have a moral obligation to the Iraqi people and an security obligation to our own country to ally ourselves with Iraq as she defends herself from Al Qaeda and Iran.

9. The leaders of Iraq and the United States have agreed to defend Iraq from terrorism from Al Qaeda and interference from Iran, who is likely soon to have WMD to use against the entire region.

10. We must secure Iraq and stop the enemy (any country, but for the present Iran, who controls the global energy market).

lies... damned lies...

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Trust us, no domestic surveillance without a court order

who do they think they're kidding...?

Bush Administration Aiming To Ease Surveillance Concerns

The Bush administration, facing withering criticism over its temporary foreign intelligence wiretap law, has launched a campaign to assure Democratic lawmakers that the law will not result in domestic surveillance without a court order, and at the same time it has indicated that it is willing to consider changes.

The effort comes as Congress prepares to tackle a broad overhaul of the government's foreign intelligence wiretap authority.

In a letter sent to Capitol Hill yesterday, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L. Wainstein said the Protect America Act, passed in August under intense White House pressure, does not authorize physical searches of homes, domestic mail or people's personal effects and computers, and that Justice Department lawyers "do not think" it authorizes the collection of medical or library records.

He said that "to the extent that this provision could be read to authorize the collection of business records of individuals in the United States . . . we wish to make very clear that we will not use this provision to do so."

"To put it plainly," Wainstein said, "the Protect America Act does not authorize so-called domestic wiretapping without a court order, and the executive branch will not use it for that purpose."

But key Democratic lawmakers said their concerns are not allayed.

"The Bush administration admits that the Protect America Act can be read to let them collect Americans' business records," said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "They simply ask us to trust them not to. Trust is not good enough -- that's why we need to have court oversight."

another fresh load of bollocks...

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"A stubborn, unseeing, unthinking man from Crawford, Texas"

mcclatchy's on fire...!

Galloway commentary: Bush still refuses to admit he was wrong
By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers

Well, now we’ve heard from General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker and President George W. Bush, and it appears that the Surge has succeeded — succeeded in guaranteeing that the Iraq War will drag on for the last 16 months of the Bush presidency at a cost of another 1,600 American dead and $13 billion a month.

[...]

It’s a long journey from now to January 20, 2009, and the blood of many Americans and even more Iraqis will flow freely and stain the hands of those who allow this insane war to continue at the behest of a stubborn, unseeing, unthinking man from Crawford, Texas.

i've got nothing to add, believe me...

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McClatchy honors its motto

particularly in light of the pandering headlines generated by other media outlets (see previous post), perhaps mcclatchy takes journalism and its pledge, "truth to power," seriously...

Top Story
New Iraq plan recalls strategies past
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

The President declared success and said troops were coming home despite a range of government reports that says Iraqi civilian casualties remain high and that Iraqi security forces remain incapable of taking control.

[...]

There was no mention of a range of government reports, from a National Intelligence Estimate to a Government Accountability Office report and even the testimony this week of U.S. Iraq commander Army Gen. David Petraeus, that has said Iraqi civilian casualties remain high and that it will be years before Iraqi security forces can take control.

Other reports have stressed that Iraqis continue to flee their homes looking for safety at unprecedented rates and that Shiite militias continue to force Sunni Muslims from their homes. Baghdad residents complain that their city has become even more segregated than before the surge, divided now by hastily erected concrete walls to keep rival sects separate.

good on mcclatchy...

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Bush is still getting the headlines he wants

any discussion of troop cuts is simply a distraction from the cold, hard fact that, as a country, we have been positioned to remain in iraq forever...

robert parry...

Let it be noted that the morning after George W. Bush announced an open-ended – possibly permanent – military occupation of Iraq the premier U.S. newspapers ran headlines about the President ordering “troop cuts,” itself a troubling reminder of how the American people got into this mess.

The New York Times’ lead headline read: “Bush Says Success Allows Gradual Troop Cuts.” The Washington Post went with: “Bush Tells Nation He Will Begin to Roll Back ‘Surge.’”

[...]

So, Americans bustling past newsstands on their way to work would get the superficial impression that Bush was finally moving toward the Iraq exit door when he really was doing all he could to paint the country, and his presidential successor, into a corner.

While the newspapers played up Bush’s relatively modest troop cuts – 5,700 by year’s end and another 20,000 or so by July 2008 – the more significant point was that the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq would still exceed the 130,000 or so who were in Iraq last November when anti-war sentiment led to the defeat of Republicans in Congress.

In his televised address, Bush also made clear that he foresaw an indefinite U.S. military commitment to Iraq reaching “beyond my presidency,” with any possible future de-escalation tied to Bush’s new slogan, “return on success.”

So, the headlines after the Sept. 13 speech could have read: “Bush Vows Indefinite U.S. Military Occupation of Iraq.” Indeed, if Bush’s speech is remembered historically, it will almost surely be for that reason, the clearest indication yet of his imperial impulse in the Middle East.

it's all about permanent war... permanent war means permanent rivers of cash flowing into the pockets of the chosen ones and the means to permanently continue to gain power over the world's population...

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It's about time a Democrat did something like this

too bad it's not someone who currently holds a powerful, national, elected office who can put some real clout behind the words...

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A Thursday evening larf *

never - i repeat, NEVER - let facts get in the way of your strongly-held beliefs...

A British comedian tells the following story:

"I was in a taxi early on a Sunday and the cab-driver started talking about how homosexuality was immoral. I was fed up with this and so I said I didn't know how useful hard and fast concepts of morality were in discussing this kind of issue. I then elaborated on societies, such as the ancient Greeks or the Zunis, where, far from being subhuman, homosexuality was actually viewed as a higher, more profound form of love, so all our ideas about its degeneracy may actually be bound-up in our own cultural context. The cab driver then said: ‘Well, you can prove anything with facts, can't you?'"

fortunately, most of the cab drivers i speak with don't have their heads quite so far up...

* from the urban dictionary...

1. Larf

a good time, or a good idea

Sounds like a larf.

2. Larf

to laugh in olden times

Let's go to the comedy pub and have ourselves a larf.

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Naomi Klein, in her book "Shock Doctrine," looks at Milton Friedman and government manipulation

from the toronto star via WantToKnow...

[Naomi Klein in her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism] argues persuasively that over the last 40 years, no single thinker has shaped the economic and political policies of corporate CEOs, military dictators, presidents, prime ministers and bankers more than [Milton] Friedman. His thesis was simple: The job of governments is to facilitate the free flow of capital across national borders by removing any impediments to trade [and establishing] a drastic regimen of market deregulation, free trade treaties, spending cuts to social programs, the breaking of labour unions and mass privatization of publicly owned resources and industries ... chiefly through the careful manipulation of collective crises such as wars, military coups, natural disasters and economic recessions and depressions. For Friedman's ideas to be implemented, a nation's existing economy and civic society must first be reduced to a state of tabula rasa before being rebuilt according to the [Chicago School] model. [Klein contends] that this capitalist doctrine also has its roots in a series of mind-control experiments performed on often unwilling patients by psychiatrist Ewan Cameron, working out of McGill University in the late 1950s. He imposed a sustained regimen of sensory deprivation, isolation, enforced sleep and a cocktail of LSD, PCP, insulin and barbiturates [and] a barrage of electroshock therapy. The CIA, which paid for Cameron's experiments, modified these techniques for use in prisoner-interrogation sessions. The results were so good that the CIA taught the methods to the Latin American security forces in charge of reprogramming anyone who dared resist the devastating free market "reforms" that swept through South and Central America after Augusto Pinochet's successful, Chicago-School inspired (and CIA-sponsored) coup of populist leader Salvador Allende in 1973.

chilling shit, but no news to anyone who's been paying attention...

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Google ads

one of the ads appearing today at the top of this blog...



uh, 'scuse me... WHAT are they THINKING...? that PERFECT iraq hotel...?

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The APEC group was asked to raise their right hands

thanks to good friend s. in skopje, macedonia...

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Petraeus Is ‘An Ass-Kissing, Little Chickensh*t,’ ‘I Hate People Like That’

well, THIS oughta be real interesting...

In January, President Bush replaced Abizaid and Casey, who were “surge” skeptics, with Adm. William Fallon and Gen. David Petraeus. This week, Petraeus — first public hearings since taking on his new role — delivered his Iraq assessment to great media fanfare. But where was his boss, Admiral Fallon? Inter-Press Service suggests animosity between the two might be one reason for Fallon’s absence:

Fallon told Petraeus [in March] that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickensh*t” and added, “I hate people like that”, the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

and...? and...?

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) announced today that he will be asking Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) to call Fallon to testify on “his views on the region.” Webb decried the lack of independence in Petraeus’s reporting, observing that there are “a lot of control factors going on that haven’t been visible” from the one-sided testimony of Petraeus:

WEBB: And there’s something of a kabuki going on right now. You know, the Petraeus report was brought in. On the one hand they’re calling it independent; on the other, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, from my understanding, gave a one-hour exclusive interview to Fox News after their first day of testimony. […]

So it was a very narrow and focused two days of hearings…we need to hear from people like Admiral Fallon and others to get a sense of how the region is in play. … He was, by many accounts, questioning keeping these troop levels this high. […]

So I’m going to be recommending to Senator that we get Admiral Fallon in and get his views on the region.

damn straight...! nobody was thinking clearly or fallon would have already been scheduled to testify instead of simply going along with bush's way... but, hey...! it's our roll-over congress, so i guess it's par for course...

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Texas Straight Talk

This comes from Rep. Ron Paul's weekly newsletter, Texas Straight Talk. It's fairly short, so I'll post it in it's entirety. I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

Surrender Should Not Be an Option

Faced with dwindling support of the Iraq War, the warhawks are redoubling their efforts. They imply we are in Iraq attacking those who attacked us, and yet this is not the case. As we know, Saddam Hussein, though not a particularly savory character, had nothing to do with 9/11. The neo-cons claim surrender should not be an option. In the same breath they claim we were attacked because of our freedoms. Why then, are they so anxious to surrender our freedoms with legislation like the Patriot Act, a repeal of our 4th amendment rights, executive orders, and presidential signing statements? With politicians like these, who needs terrorists? Do they think if we destroy our freedoms for the terrorists they will no longer have a reason to attack us? This seems the epitome of cowardice coming from those who claim a monopoly on patriotic courage.

In any case, we have achieved the goals specified in the initial authorization. Saddam Hussein has been removed. An elected government is now in place in Iraq that meets with US approval. The only weapon of mass destruction in Iraq is our military presence. Why are we still over there? Conventional wisdom would dictate that when the "mission is accomplished", the victor goes home, and that is not considered a retreat.

They claim progress is being made and we are fighting a winnable war, but this is not a view connected with reality. We can't be sure when we kill someone over there if they were truly an insurgent or an innocent Iraqi civilian. There are as many as 650,000 deaths since the war began. The anger we incite by killing innocents creates more new insurgents than our bullets can keep up with. There are no measurable goals to be achieved at this point.

The best congressional leadership can come up with is the concept of strategic redeployment, or moving our troops around, possibly intoSaudi Arabia or even, alarmingly enough, into Iran. Rather than ending this war, we could be starting another one.

The American people voted for a humble foreign policy in 2000. They voted for an end to the war in 2006. Instead of recognizing the wisdom and desire of the voters, they are chided as cowards, unwilling to defend themselves. Americans are fiercely willing to defend themselves.

However, we have no stomach for indiscriminate bombing in foreign lands when our actual attackers either killed themselves on 9/11 or are still at large somewhere in a country that is neither Iraq nor Iran. Defense of our homeland is one thing. Offensive tactics overseas are quite another. Worse yet, when our newly minted enemies find their way over here, where will our troops be to defend us?

The American people have NOT gotten the government they deserve. They asked for a stronger America and peace through nonintervention, yet we have a government of deceit, inaction and one that puts us in grave danger on the international front. The American People deserve much better than this. They deserve foreign and domestic policy that doesn't require they surrender their liberties.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

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Keith Olberman presents a rogues' gallery of unpunished criminals

sad... sobering... shameful... but it's what our country has come to...



thanks to atrios...

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Another day, another pile of fresh, steaming bullshit

another load of bollocks...

Ronald Brownstein:

Partisan bickering won't end the war
How can Americans lecture Iraqis about 'reconciliation' when we can't even manage it at home?
September 12, 2007

Not for the first time, self-awareness was in short supply across Washington during this week's marathon congressional hearings on Iraq with Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

The one point that drew agreement from Republicans and Democrats alike was that Iraq's political leaders have too often failed to transcend their narrow sectarian interests to forge compromises in the national interest.

Pot, meet kettle.

Here in the U.S., the two parties are doing much the same thing. President Bush and congressional Democrats are each so determined to win the argument over Iraq that they have lost sight of their joint interest in finding a way forward that can attract broad and lasting support from a public disillusioned and dangerously polarized over the war. More than ever, the parties this week structured the debate as if it were an electoral campaign. Each asked Americans to ponder only the pieces of the picture most congenial to its arguments.

he's right about one thing - both parties are trying to gain political advantage, but it sure as hell ain't "AMERICANS" who are bickering... we, the people, are pretty remarkably unified in our opinions... we want the goddam war over, the killing to stop, and our troops to come home, and our esteemed congressfolks ain't listening to a single thing we say... they have ceased to even PRETEND they're listening, and that's nothing that a bogus spirit of "bipartisanship" is going to fix...

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Bugs, Daffy and Elmer in "Surge Seasoning"

as a HUGE fan of the classic warner brothers cartoons, i simply could NOT pass this one by... it's a re-made version of the all-time great, 1952 animated short, "Rabbit Seasoning," directed by my personal hero, chuck jones, and featuring elmer fudd, daffy duck and bugs bunny spoofing the iraq "surge"...



the idea of re-making it around the surge is terrific but, unfortunately, imho, it's not all that well done... the genius of the classic warner brothers cartoons was their unrelenting wise-ass intelligence, the unforgettable personalities of the characters, the outstanding drawing and animation, and the appeal they had for all ages... you can judge for yourself by checking out the original below...

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Comunidades y Viviendas, Monologue 3

Bottom-Up Power
Creating a New Era through Community

Our world is facing a critical challenge. For too many years, the levers of global society have been controlled by small groups of people who are only interested in money and power and have little to no concern for the common good of the rest of humanity. People everywhere, whether or not they were consciously aware of it, were forced to surrender their power, their livelihoods and, in many cases, their lives, to satisfy the voracious and unending needs of their masters. Slowly but surely, this is changing. People are beginning to wake up to this reality and, bit by bit, are starting to re-claim their god-given right to take charge of their own lives, to live and work with dignity and to enjoy the health and prosperity they so richly deserve. As this happens, the depth of our challenge becomes ever more apparent.

When power shifts, as it must, from the few at the top to the grassroots, people need to learn how to exercise it, not only for their benefit but to achieve the common good of all. To do this means building healthy, effective, sustainable systems, structures and communities, communities which are strong enough to insure that power and resources remain where they belong – in the hands of the people.

The fundamental building block of society since the dawn of human history has been the community. One of the subtle strategies employed by those seeking money and power has been to turn our focus away from community to the family. It is much easier to isolate and control individual families than it is strong communities. Because the family is indeed an important and fundamental element of society, this strategy has been wildly successful, and, as a result, we have seen communities across the globe virtually erased as a functional element of the societal landscape. Long commutes to work and many hours per week on the job, minimal vacations and recuperative time, bedroom communities only used for sleeping, “cocooning,” an emphasis on materialism and the money it takes to continually acquire the newest goods, geographic mobility and the subsequent demise of the extended family, and a deliberate disenfranchisement accompanied by an increasing inability to effect positive change in the larger system, all have served to drive us apart and restrict any natural tendency we might have to banding together in healthy communities. Now that we are on the brink of an unprecedented shift of power back to the hands of the people, we need to learn how to build communities.

What I propose to do is to put power into people’s hands and to teach them how to use it to create the strong communities that will allow us to take charge of our own lives. Doing this requires, first and foremost, enlightened and skilled leadership, but, equally important, it requires an understanding on the part of all community members about how community must function as an integrated system. It is impossible to construct and maintain an effective, healthy, sustainable community system without a baseline set of knowledge and skills about how systems function, how to design them and how to make them work over time. More about how to go about doing that in subsequent posts.

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In memory of 9/11: Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" from 9/11/2006

on 9/11/2001, i was working for united airlines at washington dulles international airport... my memories of that day are as vivid as they are of the day john f. kennedy was assassinated, the day the cuban missile crisis came to a head, and the day i arrived in vietnam for the first time as a young, scared to death, and wet-behind-the-ears army private... i stood under a jetway on the eerily quiet and empty tarmac, outside the passenger concourse, a tarmac devoid of the usual ear-splitting roar of moving aircraft, and waved goodbye to our crisis team as they boarded vans for the drive up to pennsylvania to the site of the crash of flight 93... i knew the world would never be the same...

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How Germany sees Petraeus: "The Show Must Go On" while preparing to go to war with Iran

there's no business like show business...

THE PETRAEUS REPORT

The Show Must Go On

Gen. David Petraeus' progress report on Iraq is doing nothing to calm down the debate on the war. He called Monday for "a long-term effort" and only a minimal troop withdrawal. And he laid the groundwork for the next war -- with Iran.

[...]

He mentioned Iran 10 times in his report. Iran, he says, consciously adds fuel to the violence in Iraq by supporting the Iraqi militias: "None of us earlier this year appreciated the extent of Iranian involvement in Iraq." Iran is also trying to transform the militias "into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq."

The Republicans promptly took the bait. Hunter grumbled about the "deadly military equipment (that) continues to flow from Iran." His party colleague Ileana Ros-Lehtinen predicted that "the radical Iranian regime ... will increase its interference in Iraq if the US rapidly withdraws."

in honor of spiegel's well-chosen headline, here's a clip from the movie, "moulin rouge!," featuring jim broadbent delivering an electrifying performance of "the show must go on..."



i must confess, i would have never gone to see moulin rouge! had it not been for the compelling recommendation of my daughter, who so happens to be one of my very best sources for both movie and book recommendations...


Moulin Rouge! (2001) - Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo,
Jim Broadbent, Nicole Kidman

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Selling the "Surge"

oh, yeah... this captures it, all right...



thanks to john at americablog...

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Larry Craig's b.s.

aw, c'mon, larry... fercryinoutloud... pleading guilty on the basis of a promise not to inform the media and then expecting us to believe you're innocent...? puh-le-e-e-e-eze... just how dumb do you think we are...?

The Idaho Republican wrote in a sworn statement that he never engaged in "offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy conduct" in the restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on June 11, when he was arrested in a sex sting that led to demands from many Republicans that the three-term senator resign. Craig has said that if he cannot overturn the guilty plea by a self-imposed Sept. 30 deadline, he intends to step down.

Craig's attorneys filed motions in Hennepin County District Court asking for a speedy hearing and arguing that the plea should be waived because the undercover officer who arrested Craig had promised the senator he would not call the news media -- a major concern to Craig because the Idaho Statesman newspaper had been investigating his sexual orientation after allegations from a gay rights activist.

"Deeply panicked about the events, and based on [the officer's] representations to me regarding the potential outcome, my interest in handling the matter expeditiously, and the risk that protracting the issue could lead to unnecessary publicity, I did not seek the advice of an attorney . . . and I made the decision on that date to seek a guilty plea," Craig said in his statement filed with the court.

as i've said before, with all the more important things going on, i've deliberately stayed away from this story, but such direct attacks on our intelligence beg to be refuted...

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The EPR has been busy once again

i posted back in mid-july on the Ejército Popular Revolucionario [EPR], the little-known group that's blowing up Mexican natural gas pipelines... it looks like they may have been at it again...

In an apparent case of politically motivated sabotage, six explosions blew apart oil and natural gas pipelines operated by Mexico's Pemex state oil and gas monopoly early Monday in Veracruz and Tlaxcala states, causing fires and forcing the evacuation of 15,000 people from surrounding towns.

The blasts forced Pemex to shut down at least four affected pipelines and prompted federal authorities to close two major roads. No injuries were reported.

Mexico is the world's sixth-largest oil producer and a major supplier of petroleum to the U.S. The outages drove the price of oil above $78 a barrel in futures trading Monday.

Monday's attacks occurred two months after a leftist guerrilla group, the Popular Revolutionary Army, known by its Spanish initials EPR, took responsibility for carrying out four similar bomb attacks on Pemex pipelines and a switching station in the central states of Queretaro and Guanajuato.

these people obviously know what kind of destructive action is most effective at disrupting not only mexican but also the global economy...

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The real purpose of higher education

ah...! the priceless benefits of a college education, not the least of which is to insure that you will be forever in servitude to the money and power elites that make the rules...

barbara ehrenreich...

[N]ever forget that your real purpose here is to shake off the pointless freedom of youth and assume the burden of debt. To this end, we have just raised our tuition in an attempt to keep up with such top-of-the-line institutions as George Washington University (now weighing in at $39,210 a year, or $50,000 with room and board). You will find us also charging a plethora of additional fees -- a "student activities fee," a "technology fee," and an "incidentals fee." In addition, we will be experimenting this year with a "snow removal fee," a "lecture hall seat-use fee," and the installation of pay toilets in the dorms.

[...]

On average, you will graduate with a respectable-sized debt of $20,000, which will enable you to establish your all-important "credit history." If we have succeeded in our educational mission, you will be a first-rate debtor, capable of making minimum monthly payments much of the time. As fresh offers of credit cards and home equity loans pour in, you will beam with pride at your achievement.

Please note carefully that Fleece U degree cannot guarantee you a future income that will allow you to pay off your debts. Many of our most promising graduates are now, three or four years later, working for $8-12 an hour serving up lattés, counseling disturbed youth or creating business computer networks. They are set for a lifetime of debt, and we are proud that they first began to accrue it right here, on our lovely mock Oxfordian campus.

We don't have to remind you not to stigmatize debt as a condition associated with poverty. In 2006, for the first time, the average household's debt exceeded its income. By becoming a debtor, you will have entered the American mainstream! We have confidence that you will go on to mature effortlessly from college debt to car loan to mortgage to medical debts occasioned by the ever-growing gaps in coverage.

as the parent of three children, all of them saddled with significant debt left over from their college educations, i all too well understand the dynamics of this particular form of slavery...

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Burning salt water

i've seen this story enough times and in enough places that i figured it was about time to devote a post to it...

An Erie [Pennsylvania] cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.

John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.

The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.

Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations.

The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen, Roy said. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.

The discovery is "the most remarkable in water science in 100 years," Roy said.

now let's see if kanzius doesn't mysteriously die or disappear along with his discovery and all the potential promise it offers...

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Enough is enough! Stop the lies! Stop the war!

listen to glenn greenwald and sign the petition...

Tell the DC Establishment: Enough!

In 2006, the Americans elected a new Congress to end the occupation of Iraq. Despite this mandate, the political leadership in both parties have refused to heed the public will. Worse still, these leaders, as well as various reporters and think tank 'experts' have been rolled by a PR campaign to justify the military surge by General David Petraeus, a man who has consistently touted progress in Iraq since 2003.

By signing this peitition, you are demanding that reporters acknowledge Petraeus's long record of errant judgment in Iraq. You are also demanding that politicians to heed the public will and vote against this occupation, by refusing to vote for any bill that funds the war that does not contain binding timelines for withdrawal that compel Bush to remove troops. Anything else enables the occupation of Iraq until at least the end of Bush's Presidency. Enough is enough. The noxious stew of DC 'experts', journalists, and political leaders of both parties that keep troops in Iraq needs to hear our anger.

We will deliver this petition to the Democratic leadership in Congress.

tell them that they are there to represent the people who voted them in to office, not those with power and money and entrenched interests who are dedicated to a state of permanent war...

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Ray McGovern gets thrown out of Petraeus' hearing for asking that Petraeus be sworn in

what in the holy hell would cause such sensitivity about petraeus being sworn in...?

It had dawned on me that when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, invited Gen. Petraeus to make his presentation, Skelton forgot to ask him to take the customary oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I had no idea that would be enough to get me thrown out of the hearing.

[...]

I had not the slightest hesitation being sworn in when testifying before the committee assembled by Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, on June 16, 2005. Should generals be immune? Or did his masters wish to give him a little more assurance that he could play fast and loose with the truth without the consequences encountered by Scooter Libby.

i had so little interest in petraeus' testimony that i've barely followed the reports... i figured, rightly so, that the good general would only be spouting the bush administration approved line, and, from the little i've read, that was clearly the case... i'm dumbfounded, however, to find that ray mcgovern was expelled from the hearing for the mere suggestion that petraeus testimony should be given under oath... what the f*** is the matter with my country...?

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MoveOn takes on Petraeus

moveon moves on bush's general...

General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts. In 2004, just before the election, he said there was “tangible progress“ in Iraq and that “Iraqi leaders are stepping forward.”

[...]

And last week Petraeus, the architect of the escalation of troops in Iraq , said ”We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress.”

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Tom Tomorrow 'splains the market's "invisible hand"

tom tomorrow in salon ...

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Ray Hunt, Iraq, Hunt oil, Halliburton, Kurdistan, production-sharing, the Bush family, and the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

marcy (emptywheel) wheeler highlights the latest iraq profiteering venture...

Does it surprise you that the first company to sign an oil deal with Iraqi Kurds is Hunt Oil, a company with very close ties to Bush and our country's intelligence infrastructure?

Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and Kurdistan's regional government said Saturday they've signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.A Hunt subsidiary, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region, will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, the parties said in a news release.

Nope. It doesn't surprise me, either. But I am interested in what it portends for long-term plans in Iraq.

First, some background. The Hunt family that owns Hunt Oil (it's privately held, so we don't get to scrutinize financial statements) is one of the big money Texas donors behind the Bush family political empire. Ray Hunt, the current chair of the company, is also on the board of Halliburton and the King Ranch, meaning he probably knows to duck when he goes quail hunting with Dick Cheney. Hunt is also on the board of trustees for Shrub's new presidential library, which has just announced its plans for a wacky democracy institute that will give cover for more imperialism around the world. Oh, and Hunt is also on PFIAB [President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board], which means he gets to review a huge amount of intelligence information and then refuse to reveal its classification and declassification activities--not to mention weigh in on whether or not the President's illegal intelligence activities are illegal or not.

It's also worth noting that one of Hunt Oil Company's planes has been spotted taking off and landing at a CIA training facility. *

In short, Hunt Oil Company is as wired in as oil companies get--which is saying something.

it's good to know that what we are occupying iraq for is paying off for those who decided we should go there...

and this is the giant bed they all sleep in...


Thanks to The Daily Show and Raw Story

* Between the 27th and 28th of November, 2006, a civil aircraft registered to Hunt Oil's holding company, Hunt Consolidated, Inc., made two visits to the CIA's Camp Peary training facility. Prior to flying into Camp Peary it made an overnight stop at Washington Dulles airport. It also made a briefer stop at Washington Dulles at the end of its visit.[4] The aircraft's registration number is N46F.

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Air Combat Command day off for "safety" 14 September

A B-52 on a carpet-bombing mission in Vietnam

why is my tin-foil hat buzzing...?

from the air force times...

On Sept. 14, flight lines will be very quiet at Air Combat Command bases.

The entire command — about 100,000 active-duty airmen — is standing down training flights and many other operations as part of a command-wide safety day.

Command boss Gen. Ronald Keys ordered the Sept. 14 safety stand-down in the wake of the Aug. 30 nuclear incident at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., in which six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were loaded onto a B-52H and then flown to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., without anyone on the ground or bomber realizing the nuclear weapons were on the plane. It was not until the B-52H was parked at Barksdale that ground crews discovered the cruise missiles were carrying real warheads.

[...]

Just how serious Keys takes the lapse of regulations at Minot is reflected in the fact that the safety stand-down is the first command-wide safety day in recent memory.

(thanks to casey at open your mind's eye...)

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A verifiable, fact-checked timeline of potential government conspiracy

courtesy of WantToKnow...

1996-2001: Federal authorities are aware for years before 9/11 that suspected terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden are receiving flight training at schools in the US and abroad. One convicted terrorist confesses that his planned role in a terror attack was to crash a plane into CIA headquarters. [Washington Post, 9/23/01, CBS, 5/30/02, more]

1996-2001: On multiple occasions spies give detailed reports on bin Laden's location. Each time, the CIA director or top White House officials prevent bin Laden's elimination. [Los Angeles Times, 12/5/04, New York Times, 12/30/01, more]

2000-2001: 15 of the 19 hijackers fail to fill in visa documents properly in Saudi Arabia. Only six are interviewed. All 15 should have been denied entry to the US. [Washington Post, 10/22/02, ABC, 10/23/02] Two top Republican senators say if State Department personnel had merely followed the law, 9/11 would not have happened. [AP, 12/18/02, more]

2000-2001: The military conducts exercises simulating hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets causing mass casualties. One target is the World Trade Center (WTC), another the Pentagon. Yet after 9/11, over and over the White House and security officials say they're shocked that terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into landmark buildings. [USA Today, 4/19/04, Military District of Washington, 11/3/00, New York Times, 10/3/01, more]

Jan 2001: After the Nov 2000 elections, US intelligence agencies are told to "back off" investigating the bin Ladens and Saudi royals. There have always been constraints on investigating Saudi Arabians. [BBC, 11/6/01, more]

Spring 2001: A series of military and governmental policy documents is released that seek to legitimize the use of US military force in the pursuit of oil and gas. One advocates presidential subterfuge and hiding the reasons for warfare "as a necessity for mobilizing public support." [Sydney Morning Herald, 12/26/02, more]

May 2001: For the third time, US security chiefs reject Sudan's offer of thick files on bin Laden and al-Qaeda. A senior CIA source calls it "the worst single intelligence failure in the business." [Guardian, 9/30/01, more]

June-Aug 2001: German intelligence warns the CIA that Middle Eastern terrorists are training for hijackings and targeting American interests. Russian President Vladimir Putin alerts the US of suicide pilots training for attacks on US targets. In late July, a Taliban emissary warns the US that bin Laden is planning a huge attack on American soil. In August, Israel warns of an imminent Al Qaeda attack. [Fox News, 5/17/02, Independent, 9/7/02, CNN, 9/12/02, more]

July 4-14, 2001: Bin Laden reportedly receives kidney treatment from Canadian-trained Dr. Callaway at the American Hospital in Dubai. Dr. Callaway declines to comment. During his stay, bin Laden is allegedly visited by one or two CIA agents. [Guardian, 11/1/01, Sydney Morning Herald, 10/31/01, London Times 11/1/01, UPI, 11/1/01, more]

July 26, 2001: Attorney General Ashcroft stops flying commercial airlines due to a threat assessment. [CBS, 7/26/01] In May 2002, Ashcroft walks out of his office rather than answer questions about it. [Fox News/AP, 5/16/02, more]

Aug 6, 2001: President Bush receives an intelligence briefing warning that bin Laden might be planning to hijack commercial airliners. Titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," the briefing specifically mentions the WTC. Yet Bush later claims it "said nothing about an attack on America." [Washington Post, 4/12/04, Briefing, 8/6/01, more]

Aug 27, 2001: An FBI supervisor says he's trying to keep a hijacker from "flying a plane into the WTC." [Senate Report (Hill #2), 10/17/02] Headquarters chastises him for notifying the CIA. [Time, 5/21/02, more]

Sept 10, 2001: A number of top Pentagon brass suddenly cancel travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns. Why isn't this news spread widely? [Newsweek, 9/13/01, Newsweek, 9/24/01, more]

Sept 11, 2001: Data recovery experts extract data from 32 damaged WTC computer drives. The data reveals a surge in financial transactions shortly before the attacks. Illegal transfers of over $100 million may have been made through WTC computer systems immediately before and during the 9/11 disaster. [Reuters, 12/18/01, CNN, 12/20/01, more]

Sept 11, 2001: Described as a bizarre coincidence, a US intelligence agency was set for an exercise on Sept 11 at 9 AM in which an aircraft would crash into one of its buildings near Washington, DC. [USA Today/AP, 8/22/02, more]

Sept 11, 2001: Hours after the attacks, a "shadow government" is formed. Key congressional leaders say they didn't know this government-in-waiting had been established. [CBS, 3/2/02, Washington Post, 3/2/02, more]

Sept 11, 2001: Six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners make a tape recording describing the events within hours of the attacks. The tape is never turned over to the FBI. It is later illegally destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it. [Washington Post, 5/6/04, New York Times, 5/6/04]

Sept 13-19, 2001: Bin Laden's family is taken under FBI supervision to a secret assembly point. They leave the country by private plane when airports reopen days after the attacks. [New York Times, 9/30/01, Boston Globe, 9/20/01, more]

Sept 15-16, 2001: Several of the 9/11 hijackers, including lead hijacker Mohamed Atta, may have had training at secure US military installations. [Newsweek, 9/15/01, Washington Post, 9/16/01, New York Times, 9/15/01, more]

Sept 20, 2001: Several 9/11 hijackers later mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report turn up alive. "Five of the alleged hijackers have emerged, alive, innocent and astonished to see their names and photographs appearing on satellite television...The hijackers were using stolen identities." [quote in London Times, 9/20/01, see also BBC, 9/23/01, more]

Dec 2001-Feb 2002: The US engineers the rise to power of two former Unocal Oil employees: Hamid Karzai, the interim president of Afghanistan, and Zalmay Khalizad, the US envoy. The big American bases created in the Afghan war are identical to the route of the projected oil pipeline. [Chicago Tribune, 3/18/02, more]

May 17, 2002: Dan Rather says that he and other journalists haven't been properly investigating since 9/11. He graphically describes the pressures to conform that built up after the attacks. [Guardian, 5/17/02, more]

May 23, 2002: President Bush says he is opposed to establishing an independent commission to probe 9/11. [CBS, 5/23/02] Vice President Cheney earlier opposed any public hearings on 9/11. [Newsweek, 2/4/02, more]

May 30, 2002: FBI Agent Robert Wright formally accuses the FBI of deliberately curtailing investigations that might have prevented 9/11. He is threatened with retribution if he talks to Congress about this. [Fox News, 5/30/02, more]

July 22, 2004: The 9/11 Commission Report is published. It fails to mention that a year before the attacks a secret Pentagon project had identified four 9/11 hijackers, including leader Mohamed Atta. The Commission spokesperson initially states members were not informed of this, but later acknowledges they were. [New York Times, 8/11/05, more]

2004 - 2005: A growing number of top government officials and public leaders express disbelief in the official story of 9/11. 100 prominent leaders and 40 9/11 family members sign a statement calling for an unbiased inquiry into evidence suggesting high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the attacks to occur. [Various Publications]

Aug 9, 2006: A book by 9/11 Commission chairmen Kean and Hamilton outlines repeated deceptions by the Pentagon and FAA, including the timelines of Flights 77 and 93. CNN News: "The fact that the government would...perpetuate the lie suggests that we need a full investigation of what is going on." [CNN, 8/9/06 , MSNBC/AP, 8/4/06, more]

this site is a new one for me, but i like it so far, primarily because it includes verifiable links to everything it posts... if we're after truth, it only makes sense to be as factual as possible, which, admittedly, in these days of spin, disinformation, propaganda and media brainwashing, is no small task...

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Sunday Opus looks at George and David

berkeley breathed hits another one outta the park...

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