Slashdot Mirror

"What could the poor idiot do but sit there and take it?"

He could do to Colbert what he did to that garage door after Laura mildly rebuked one of his stump speeches...

I hate freeloaders.

So do I! Oh, wait. You did mean ALL freeloaders, right? Or are you talking about a particular kind that's somehow more repulsive than the rest?

One of the authors of the Washington Post article cited above is Rita Katz, director of the stupidly named "The Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE), which seems to be an asinine play on SETI. The SITE website is actually very light on real original content. As I revisited it tonight, I found that they have given citation for their copy and paste of the US State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 Report, which is the entire contents of SITE's "terrorism library". A year ago, they did not offer this bit of enlightening data. This should be enough to question the veracity of the whole story.

Katz obtained a degree from the Middle Eastern Studies program at Tel Aviv University, and is speaks Hebrew and Arabic. She emigrated to the US in 1997. She has both personal and financial issues which could bias her analysis.

• Katz is Iraqi born, and her father was tried and executed as an Israeli spy, whereupon her family emigrated to Israel.
• Katz is/was a paid consultant for the law firm, Motley-Rice, which file a 1 trillion dollar lawsuit on behalf of the 911 WTC victims.
• Katz is author of the book Terrorist Hunter (HarperCollins, 2003) in which she writes of infiltrating US-based Arab groups to investigate terrorist connections as a private investigator, and receives a plug for the book in every bio blurb that is published with her articles.

Katz got her terrorism expert start working for Stephen Emerson, who himself has credibility issues.

Katz was the anonymous source for a 60 Minutes segment that alleged a chicken farm supported terrorism, and for which both CBS and Katz were sued by Gainesville, Georgia based Mar-Jac Poultry Inc., as well as two Virginia-based muslim charity orgs, for libel.

Katz was also a principle player an an egregious example of of post-911 governmental misuse of prosecutorial powers in the case brought against a Saudi Arabian Computer Science doctoral student at the University of Idaho, Sami al-Hussayen.

Al-Hussayen was charged with giving material support to terrorist, for doing volunteer web mastering of the site of the Islamic Assembly of North America, an organization which the government has never charged. He was also charged with 11 minor visa violations, one being that his student visa didn't allow him to work, and he had received $300 from the Islamic Assembly of North America spread out over his five years of volunteer work for it.

The jury in Idaho acquitted on all three terrorism charges, and 3 of the visa charges, but hung on the remaining 8 visa charges.

The main thrust of the material support charges stemmed from the website Al-Hussayen worked on having published 4 fatwas by 4 radical immans on it. A government expert witness blew holes in that theory when he admitted that he had published the very same speeches on his anti-terrorism website.

When Katz testified, she admitted to the same visa violations that Al-Hussayen was charge with, only she had earned real money in violation of her entry terms.

Katz's testimony ended Friday with questioning about her own visa problems when she entered the United States. Katz testified that as a new immigrant in 1997, she misunderstood work permit requirements related to her visa and was employed, in at least one job and possibly two, before she was legally authorized to work. Under cross-examination, she acknowledged that she detailed those problems in her autobiographical book, in which she expressed disgust for burdensome government re

The next round of elections will do exactly ZERO to stop this erosion of democracy through fear mongering. BOTH parties are going to run a flag waving fear mongering improve "national security" campaign. The Dems are calling their's "real security," and it's all about waving national and state flags, and "posing in front of tanks," according to the Dems leader Reid. Read it and weep neither party could care less for our most basic freedoms. Note this a critique of the Democrats from the left not the right.

""Real Security" calls for Democrats to hinge the 2006 fall campaign on how the Republicans have failed us on the issue of national security. Harry Reid says Democrats should wrap themselves in the flag, use tanks as backdrop and then try to outflank the Republicans from the right with demands for increased military funding, a better fought war, tighter borders, and ports run by white American-born Christians, preferably free of radical organizers from the ILWU.

As reported in the Washington Times, Reid's strategy memo advises: "Ensure that you have the proper U.S. and state flags at the event, and consider finding someone to sing the national anthem and lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the event." Next up was Joe Biden, standing between two gold-fringed flags, and probably with Old Glory underwear, telling the press that " to the extent that Bush fails in Iraq, American interests are seriously damaged, and I'm rooting for his success, not his failure." This is the man who explained his 30-minute opening speech at the Alito hearings by saying he wanted to put the nominee at his ease.

So what are we looking down the road towards, across the next year or two? A bunch of national Democrats like Hillary Clinton screaming about illegal immigrants and voting for funding for a wall running from Corpus Christi to San Diego, staffed by Israeli death squads. If the war gets mentioned at all, it'll be back to the old winning Kerry formula: We'll fight it better. They'll be drawing up Patriot Act 3, plus new national ID cards and street cameras on every street corner, just like they're installing in the UK."

http://counterpunch.org/cockburn03252006.html

The lady is no friend to real opposition and champions of the people of America.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/171/171_blankfort_ mckinney_seniority.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/donham12092004.html

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction
rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.
-- John Kenneth Galbraith

This means Pelosi would sell you to the glue factory, if it meant keeping her mansion in Pacific Heights.

Sorry, have to differ with you there. I don't want a tac nuke in private hands, because I don't believe you're capable of only hitting those who are actually posing a threat to you personally. I also wouldn't let you have land mines, pursuant to the common law principle of prohibiting reckless endangerment.

Friedman is a psychotic, apertheidist with a simpleton's understanding of international politics, and economics. In his supposed area of expertise, the Lebanese Civil War, he is far outshone by Robert Fisk.

Friedman is a psychotic, apertheidist with a simpleton's understanding of international politics, and economics. In his supposed area of expertise, the Lebanese Civil War, he is far outshone by Robert Fisk.

She's horrible on all the issues I care about.

She's in favor of that quagmire in Iraq

In favor of getting us into a losing war with Iran

Pro-Patriot Act(and probably brewing her own "improved" version in her cauldron as we speak)

anti-immigration

pro-banning video games...

I hate the woman. Ditto for Joe Lieberman. (Mega-Dittoes to Joe Lieberman.... heh... heh... heh...)

I don't think Lieberman (or any government official) is for fascist measures because they are cowards (though cowards they may be). I think they are after power, and they mean to get it, and 9/11 was a gift from God to them.

By the way, I don't think your post is off-topic at all. This is all about Hillary and Joe, I wouldn't be surprised if he was her running mate or Secretary of Defense or something. This anti-video game legislation just one part of a tapestry of misery they will weave in office.

She's horrible on all the issues I care about.

She's in favor of that quagmire in Iraq

In favor of getting us into a losing war with Iran

Pro-Patriot Act(and probably brewing her own "improved" version in her cauldron as we speak)

anti-immigration

pro-banning video games...

I hate the woman. Ditto for Joe Lieberman. (Mega-Dittoes to Joe Lieberman.... heh... heh... heh...)

I don't think Lieberman (or any government official) is for fascist measures because they are cowards (though cowards they may be). I think they are after power, and they mean to get it, and 9/11 was a gift from God to them.

By the way, I don't think your post is off-topic at all. This is all about Hillary and Joe, I wouldn't be surprised if he was her running mate or Secretary of Defense or something. This anti-video game legislation just one part of a tapestry of misery they will weave in office.

She's horrible on all the issues I care about.

She's in favor of that quagmire in Iraq

In favor of getting us into a losing war with Iran

Pro-Patriot Act(and probably brewing her own "improved" version in her cauldron as we speak)

anti-immigration

pro-banning video games...

I hate the woman. Ditto for Joe Lieberman. (Mega-Dittoes to Joe Lieberman.... heh... heh... heh...)

I don't think Lieberman (or any government official) is for fascist measures because they are cowards (though cowards they may be). I think they are after power, and they mean to get it, and 9/11 was a gift from God to them.

By the way, I don't think your post is off-topic at all. This is all about Hillary and Joe, I wouldn't be surprised if he was her running mate or Secretary of Defense or something. This anti-video game legislation just one part of a tapestry of misery they will weave in office.

The DLC was--and is--a creature of New York high roller Michael Steinhardt, son of Sol Steinhardt, a jewel fence for the Meyer Lansky mob. Like most of organized crime, Steinhardt fils decided to go upmarket and merge with Wall Street. His millions created the Hon. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT). -- Werther: The Whig Interpretation of Recent History

This is very reminiscent of The The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, which was set up in order to find something wrong with comic books in order to ban them.

The Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, pursuant to authorization in Senate Resolution 89, 83d Congress, 1st session, and Senate Resolution 190 of the 2s session of said Congress, has been making a "full and complete study of juvenile delinquency in the United States," including its "extent and character" and "its causes and contributing factors." In addition to a number of community hearings that have been held in major cities, the subcommuttee has undertaken studies of various special problems affecting juvenile delinquency.

Over a period of several months the subcommitee has received a vast amount of mail from parents expressing concern regarding the possible deleterious effect upon their children of certain of the media of mass communication. This led to an inquiry into the possible relationship to juvenile delinquency of these media.

Members of the subcommittee have emphatically stated at public hearings that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are not at issue. They are fully aware of the long, hard, bitter fight that has been waged through the ages to achieve and maintain those freedoms. They agree that these freedoms, as well as other freedoms in the Bill of Rights, must not be abrogated.

The subcommittee has no proposal for censorship. It moved into the mass media phase of its investigations with no preconceived opinions in regard to the possible need for new legislation.

Consistent with this position, it is firmly believed that the public is entitled to be fully informed on all aspects of this matter and to know all the facts. It was the consensus that the need existed for a thorough, objective investigation to determine whether, as has been alleged, certian types of mass communication media are to be reckoned with as contributing to the country's alarming rise in juvenile delinquency. These include: "crime and horror" comic books and other types of printed matter; the radio, television, and motion pictures.

In its investigations of mass media, as in its investigation of other phases of the total problem, the subcommittee has not been searching for "one cause." Delinquency is the product of many related causal factors. But it can scarcely be questioned that the impact of these media does constitue a significant factor in the total problem.

Juvenile delinquency in America today must be viewed in the framework of the total comminuty-climate in which children live. Certainly, none of the children who get into trouble live in a social vacuum. One of the most significant changes of the past quarter century has been the wide diffusion of the printed word, particularly in certain periodicals, plus the phenominal growth of radio and television audiences.

The child today in the process of growing up is constantly exposed to sights and sounds of a kind and quality undreamed of in previous generations. As these sights and saounds can be a powerful force for good, so too can they be a powerfu

From the article:

""Companies could still maintain intellectual property rights, so that they are the only ones who can sell it, but members of the public should be able to inspect it," Dill says."

Not only does maintaining "intellectual property rights" not preclude others from distributing copies of the software for a fee (as anyone who understands Free Software licensing already knows), merely inspecting the software is insufficient to get real work done in a way that is beneficial to the public.

I served on the Champaign County election equipment advisory board—an appointed board made up of representatives of businesses and political parties from Champaign County, Illinois. Over months in the past couple of years this board weighed a few machines from a variety of vendors so that we could make a recommendation to the elected County Board who would then make the final decision and sign the appropriate contracts. We were told at the first meeting that we were only to consider machines from "approved vendors" but in the end we learned that even the machines we were considering had not yet all been approved by the State of Illinois. It was just a means of narrowing the allowable debate, effectively excluding a variety of vendors who probably never knew we were seriously considering voting machines.

I knew early on (and did my darndest to convince my fellow board members) that we want complete source code to the machines we'd buy so that we could make repairs and improvements while enjoying the benefits of global competition. Locally we have lots of talented computer programmers, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is in this county. It is a shame to waste all the talent we have by getting into a monopoly.

Politically, there are good reasons to need the source code too: it's your machine paid for with your tax dollars, so you should not be restricted from getting it fixed when it breaks, running it any time you want, and not just inspecting what it ostensibly does. But we should also not constrain ourselves to the features the machine has today. Locally, we could switch from a first-past-the-post to some kind of ranked voting system (like instant run-off or some Condorcet system) for local elections. But so long as we can't get the vendor to do what we want and as long as we can't help ourselves because we're choosing to buy into a monopoly for support (which is what you do when you get proprietary software), we have an additional restriction to overcome with our voting machines—we can't switch to the voting system we want because the proprietor won't let us and we can't afford to simply switch to another set of machines.

I discussed Free Software voting machines on Counterpunch.

Too bad they didn't pass it on the 70th anniversary of the Reichstag fire February 27, 1933, but that might have been too obvious. History does not repeat itself but it does produce derivative acts. I haven't read what passed, but it did have a provision to allow you to protest a gag order/national security letter. After ONE year. Let's enjoy freedom of expression while it lasts. Do an I'm-feeling-lucky Google search for asshole.

You are of course, correct in my lumping the National Security Agency with members of the National Security Council. My trying to be cute, and some contemporary reading subjects are to blame.

Recently I have been reading the Walsh Iran/Contra Report, as well as some other related reading, and it seems that I confused the president's Naional security Advisor (NSA - a the time of the Reagan ongoing criminal enterprise it was Robert McFarlane) as someone who is a part of, and holds great policy control over the NSA.

It didn't help that some of the other reading I've been doing are transcripts of the NSA archive's interviews for the CNN series: The Cold War Experience. The direct Iran/Contra link being Duane Clarridge's Interview.

If you visit, don't just read Dewey's silly condensed history of the Monroe Doctrine and run. Ziggy Brzezinski's interview is quite illuminating, especially when taken in context with his Le Nouvel Observateur Interview in Paris, January 15-21, 1998, which has been translated and published by that incorrigible lefty for life muckraking journo, Alexander Cockburn. For a more contemporary flavoring of the ties that grind there are also interviews by: Condi Rice, Richard Perle, and the long-term Machinator of US policy, John Negroponte; Part One and Part Two.

Dumbass did you read what I said?

"Racist, sacrilegious, cartoons help no one, whether it's intentional desecrations of Islam or anti-Semitic cartoons published in the Arab world BOTH should be morally condemned."

It's precisely this mindless hatred of Muslims that is exemplified by your post has me terrified. And no of course the radical Mullahs who are ALSO taking advantage of the situation aren't helping.

We are seeing a lot of bad players on BOTH sides, I know that's hard to swallow when our elected leader talks like a 3rd grader pretending to be a cowboy about "smokin' out dem bad guys." In the real world unfortunately there is a lot more gray that is missed by BOTH anti semitic racist Mullahs who inflame people to burn down buildings AND racist neo-cons who inflame hatred of all Muslims when 99% are not involved in this controversy at all. Again Qui bono, who gains by inflaming hatred against Muslims in the run up to a war against Iran?

I would note as well that racist cartoons were one of the mechanisms the Nazis used to inflame hatred against the Jews. BOTH the anti-Muslim right and the anti semitic Arabs need to cut it out before we wind up in a pointless war that mainly benefits a rich chosen few. You can bet the owners of the oil companies are laughing with glee at the stupid antics of both sides as they draw up their war plans. We can and must do better. And don't just think this is some sort of left issue of political correctness IMO some of the best critiques of the neo-cons war plans come from Pat Buchanan's American Conservative magazine

http://www.amconmag.com/

And the Libertarian right: http://antiwar.com/

Another hero in our fight for rationality against mindless (unconstitutional) "patriotism" has been Republican Ron Paul, and former deputy treasury secretary under Reagan Paul Craig Roberts who has stretched himself enough to write for the leftist http://counterpunch.org/

We must approach this in a nuanced sophisticated fashion, allowing ourselves to be manipulated by EITHER simple minded mullahs or war mongering neo-cons will only lead to the world wide bloodshed of WWIII.

US's continuing economic decline?

The US is living on its seed corn. Under Bush a change was made so that the US gov't no longer reports the metrics to calculate how many decreasing-value dollars they're printing, and we are literally exporting wealth. (Isn't another front-page /. article today about the Japanese buying up Westinghouse?! That is this dynamic in action.) Both Ford and GM teeter on bankruptcy (Chrysler was already bought by foreigners). Our country's net savings just went negative.

Unemployment stats have little to do with reality. I distinctly recall that cooking the unemployment rate started under Reagan -- slight fudging of the algorithms will do the trick. The AFL-CIO's stats, using 1970s methods for figuring unemployment, puts the real unemployment rate at just under twice the gov't-reported level.

As far as "growth", what does that mean for normal people? Bush has created fewer jobs than any president since the Great Depression. GDP = corporate profits and production, not necessarily jobs and employment.

Worse, we all know Americans are working longer and getting paid less. Average real (after-inflation) wages have fallen for consecutive years; the average American now works more hours per year than do the Japanese.

If you actually look at the gov't stats, what are the jobs being created? They are overwhelmingly (almost entirely!) low-paying service sector jobs. This is happening while good-paying manufacturing jobs are being exported. High Tech? Dying quickly -- the US now imports more high tech than it produces.

The core of the US economy is being gutted and wages are being pushed down by the so-called "free trade" which Republicans, Democrats, and corporations all cheer for.

Don't believe me? Consider what the economist, and former Wall Street Journal editor and Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, has to say on The True State of the Union or So Much for the New Bush Economy?

US's continuing economic decline?

The US is living on its seed corn. Under Bush a change was made so that the US gov't no longer reports the metrics to calculate how many decreasing-value dollars they're printing, and we are literally exporting wealth. (Isn't another front-page /. article today about the Japanese buying up Westinghouse?! That is this dynamic in action.) Both Ford and GM teeter on bankruptcy (Chrysler was already bought by foreigners). Our country's net savings just went negative.

Unemployment stats have little to do with reality. I distinctly recall that cooking the unemployment rate started under Reagan -- slight fudging of the algorithms will do the trick. The AFL-CIO's stats, using 1970s methods for figuring unemployment, puts the real unemployment rate at just under twice the gov't-reported level.

As far as "growth", what does that mean for normal people? Bush has created fewer jobs than any president since the Great Depression. GDP = corporate profits and production, not necessarily jobs and employment.

Worse, we all know Americans are working longer and getting paid less. Average real (after-inflation) wages have fallen for consecutive years; the average American now works more hours per year than do the Japanese.

If you actually look at the gov't stats, what are the jobs being created? They are overwhelmingly (almost entirely!) low-paying service sector jobs. This is happening while good-paying manufacturing jobs are being exported. High Tech? Dying quickly -- the US now imports more high tech than it produces.

The core of the US economy is being gutted and wages are being pushed down by the so-called "free trade" which Republicans, Democrats, and corporations all cheer for.

Don't believe me? Consider what the economist, and former Wall Street Journal editor and Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, has to say on The True State of the Union or So Much for the New Bush Economy?

CNN had until 2000 played host to members of Psyops who helped in the presentation of news for the U.S. Public. This has been characterized as a training program for Psyops and no more. While it is unclear whether they actually directed CNN to report the news in one way or another. Their role in "packaging" the news is. As such it represents a long history of such biasing work. See articles here and here.

Because the illegally re-entered a closed highly-secure military base after being denied entry. That's what security cops are there for. That's what the NSA security guards did anyway. If you are concerned about the surveillance of them before the came to NSA property then take that up with the Baltimore Police Department. The NSA security guards had nothing to do with that other than receive the report from the Baltimore Police Dept (BPD) and log it. You may not like it but nothing the BPD did was illegal either. They are allowed to observe groups demonstrating and be there to provide security if needed.

and how they gathered all the intel that they did...

Like I said, the documents say that was done by the BPD before the group got to NSA.

Why aren't they people protecting the country like they are supposed to be doing ?

Expelling trespassers from NSA property is what the NSA security guards are supposed to be doing. What else would you have them do if not provide security for NSA property?

Do you feel safer knowing that a dozen helium-ballon-wielding peace activists are under control now ???

Protest groups have a history of inflicting damage to government property. You only know this group was peaceful becasue they were observed. How can you determine if they are peaceful or not unless you observe their activities?

Every time I see someone calling CNN "left-slanted", "left-biased" etc, I can't help but laugh at the success of the brainwashing of the American TV audience. "Left" biased?! Mother Jones or CounterPunch are examples of a "left-biased" media not CNN. CNN to many of us Canadians looks like a bastion of inane apologisms for the ruling elites (regardless of which side they are on), generic, incompetent disinformation (mostly right leaning) combined with massive amounts of brainless "infotainment". In short, CNN is a pathetic result of trying to appear "unbiased" while pandering to the lowest common denominator. As opposed to FOX which tries hard to pander to the lowest elements of the right-wing crowds and thus tries to inflame and profit from "us vs them" psychosis, persecution complexes, medieval theocratic throwbacks etc, and yet it loudly proclaims to be "unbiased" and "no spin". While offering nothing but.

In general it appears that the enemies of the liberal phillosophies managed to shift the lanugage so that "left" is now renamed "extreme loony left", "center" to "left" and everything else "conservative". It is an interesting -- albait sad -- Orwellian language war to watch for us outsiders.

Did the French sell them chemical weapons? Is that why Dubyaw was so sure he would find WMD in Iraq, he still had the receipts?

campaign to outlaw the use of English words in french advertising

What do you care, I thought you were american, not english...

France and the french (yeah, I've been there several times on business) are a bunch of snobs

I think you'll find that people everywhere are less than pleasant when you start acting as though you have some natural advantage purely by dint of being american. Now I realise I'm making an assumption here, but based on your previous diatribes, I'd feel fairly confident putting money on it.

responsible for their own reputation

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, buddy.

Yup, and if it happens to convenient to test psychotropic drugs on him - they certainly won't have any qualms, or at least did not have any in the past:

CIA shrinks and LSD
LSD And The CIA

Or if you're a pesky US citizen in a 3rd world country, or have any contact with anyone from there, even in the US, you could wind up in a big mess:

John Negroponte - Ambassador to Honduras
The Salvador Option

Am I 100% sure that all of these bad things happened? No. But I do know that people abuse power, and it's the nature of these organizations that very little, if anything, that they did which puts them in a bad light will wind up as public knowledge.

Thanks, professor!

Now, let's get our terms straight. "Declining middle class" isn't a secret code for communism, as you seem to think. The phrase means the economy doesn't create enough good jobs to move people up from the working class. It also means that members of the present middle class move downward as professional jobs are outsourced or businesses fail, with the result that these displaced workers have to take lower-skilled, lower-paying jobs.

Nobody's "forcing" anyone into the middle class. Just the opposite--people are trying hard as hell to get into it! And failing. This is a national problem that we have to fix. As our middle class dissolves, we can tell from history what will happen: higher prices because of declining consumption, slowdowns in markets, rising social ills like crime and drug use, and the weakening of our industries as other nations move to capitilize on our failures.

Don't take it from a left-winger, either. Ronald Reagan's former assistant treasury secretary Paul Craig Roberts will tell you as much. You should read the conservative Roberts; even professors can learn new tricks! Writing in March of this year in his Creators Syndicate column, Roberts observed:

The US has lost its ability to create middle class jobs or for that matter any jobs. During the last four years the US has experienced a net loss of 760,000 private sector jobs (January 2001 - January 2005). Think what this means for graduating classes and people coming of age to enter the work force.

(Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03012005.html)

If you agreed with my earlier post up to the last sentence, then you, too, think this hacking story is meant to distract us from our real problems. Let's get the nation focused on what really matters--we've got much bigger fish to fry than Chinese hackers!

As I just happened to read today... http://www.counterpunch.org/grossman12132005.html ...an in-flight explosion could be quite serious if that shuttle happens to be carrying large quantities of plutonium.

Yeah, interesting fellow... more nuggets here and here and here...

The google-watch-watch one has a good quote from a Salon article:

When you type "NameBase" into Google, Brandt's site comes up first, but Brandt is not satisfied with that. "My problem has been to get Google to go deep enough into my site," he says. In other words, Brandt wants Google to index the 100,000 names he has in his database, so that a Google search for "Donald Rumsfeld" will bring up NameBase's page for the secretary of defense.

This also adds a little interesting twist to his disdain for wikipedia...

You would love O'Reilly vs Donahue. I hope Phil runs for office someday.

It's always interesting to hear how stories are covered in different parts of the world. I mean, my job has me reading the websites of the BBC, the Guardian, the Independent, and the Telegraph on a daily basis, but I find that the stories covered on news websites and the stories covered on TV and print news (even if its they're both run by the same people) are often markedly different.

The whole deal with the UN's "peacekeepers" being portrayed as a good thing does seem to be quite common on the television news (its true here in the US, and in Canada, and apparently its true in the UK as well). The stories of UN peacekeepers, however, intentionally killing civilians in Congo, or complicity in similar actions in Haiti, or (and this one is actually from the BBC) sexual abuse of women and underage girls are things that can't just be ignored, even if a big deal is not generally made of them by the broadcast media.

In fact, Refugees International just recently released a report on the culture within UN peacekeeping forces showing that these are no isolated incidents, but rather endemic.

I guess the argument could be made that recent US aggression is liable to lead to an increase in attempts to control the internet, but personally I tend to see it as the exact opposite case: that they're too busy trying to conquer the world and reshape the middle east in their own image to really tackle any serious curbs on the internet. Indeed, I think that the seperate nature of the UN might make it appealing for the US to pursue an agenda of censorship of the internet that runs afoul of their own laws since its done under the auspices of "global control". I'm also concerned that an organization that has nothing better to do than make Smurf-bombing fanfics is liable to be more proactive.

If I had my way, I'd keep both of them and every other government entirely out of the internet.

thing is a red herring.

it has nothing to do with software.

she's the person who helped wipe bush's national guard records.

it's called cronyism. just about everyone in the current administration is there because of donating to the GOP or is a close friend of the bushs.

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank10042005.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/miers-l ed-law-firm-repeat_b_8277.html

http://www.globalnewsmatrix.com/modules.php?name=N ews&file=article&sid=2835

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/ 002383.html

just some interesting links.

Bush didn't do all of that himself. He had a fully compliant House and Senate and any one of those elected representatives could have voted against his policies ... but did not.

Not true. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), a self-described Libertarian, voted against the Patriot Act (he was the only member of either house to do so, afaik). 133 members of Congress and 23 Senators opposed the Iraq war resolution.

http://www.counterpunch.org/pauliraq1.html
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/11/ira q.us/

Before Katrina hit the coast Bush had declared Louisiana and Mississippi disaster areas, allowing FEMA to swing into action.

If FEMA was already preparing before Katrina struck at Bush's instruction, then why did it still take them four days to really begin rescue operations? And why isn't anyone talking about Bush's early disaster declarations now?

Obviously, officials would have been aware of the possibility of massive flooding, so they would have obtained the necessary vehicles. The trucks that did eventually roll into New Orleans even drove through flooded streets without a problem...

This story disappeared off of MSNBC's web site, but it can still be found in Google's cache.

And Mitchel Cohen writes. . .

[. . .]
the so-called looters are simply grabbing water, food, diapers and medicines, because the federal and state officials have refused to provide these basic necessities.

Les says that "it's only because of the looters that non-looters -- old people, sick people, small children -- are able to survive."

Those people who stole televisions and large non-emergency items have been selling them, Les reports (having witnessed several of these "exchanges") so that they could get enough money together to leave the area.

Think about it:

- People were told to leave, but all the bus stations had closed down the night before and the personnel sent packing.

- Many people couldn't afford tickets anyway.

- Many people are stranded, and others are refusing to leave their homes, pets, etc. They don't have cars.

You want people to stop looting? Provide the means for them to eat, and to leave the area.

Some tourists in the Monteleone Hotel paid $25,000 for 10 buses. The buses were sent (I guess there were many buses available, if you paid the price!) but the military confiscated them to use not for transporting people in the Dome but for the military. The tourists were not allowed to leave. Instead, the military ordered the tourists to the now-infamous Convention Center.

How simple it would have been for the State and/or US government to have provided buses for people before the hurricane hit, and throughout this week. Even evacuating 100,000 people trapped there -- that's 3,000 buses, less than come into Washington D.C. for some of the giant antiwar demonstrations there. Even at $2,500 a pop -- highway robbery -- that would only be a total of $7.5 million for transporting all of those who did not have the means to leave.

Instead, look at the human and economic cost of not doing that!

So why didn't they do that?

On Wednesday a number of Greens tried to bring a large amount of water to the SuperDome. They were prevented from doing so, as have many others. Why have food and water been blocked from reaching tens of thousands of poor people?

On Thursday, the government used the excuse that there were some very scattered gunshots (two or three instances only) -- around 1/50th of the number of gunshots that occur in New York City on an average day -- to shut down voluntary rescue operations and to scrounge for 5,000 National Guard troops fully armed, with "shoot to kill" orders -- at a huge economic cost.

They even refused to allow voluntary workers who had rescued over 1,000 people in boats over the previous days to continue on Thursday, using the several gunshots (and who knows who shot off those rounds?) to say "It's too dangerous". The volunteers didn't think the gunshots were dangerous to them and wanted to continue their rescue operations and had to be "convinced" at gunpoint to "cease and

I take about 200 mg per day of Provigil to improve performance when I pull 80 - 100 hour weeks (got it from my doc to combat "excessive sleepiness.")

One study of the drug had US Airforce pilots working 80 hours out of 88 (40 awake, then 8 asleep, then 40 more awake,) without the ill effects of amphetamines.

Anyway, the stuff works great. I don't feel all "cracked out," and I'm able to stay productive many hours longer than before. We should put the stuff in the water supply, like we do with floride....

Being in the habit of questioning orders is not a good habit. People die ("gee, what if I get shot going over that rise"). Sometimes orders suck, thats the POINT of making them orders. The situation did not have anything to do with lawfulness, it was a situation where orders were being followed in an insecure channel... it should be mandated that official orders will not travel through such channels.

AND speaking of Mai Lai from a news article @ http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/mostert/040518
The gentleman was following his duty to the laws of the United States. Thats why soldiers can be tried for Murder in the middle of a war. You are still bound by the laws of your country.

Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot who stopped the massacre and promptly reported it to his commander. According to Chief My Lai prosecutor William Eckhardt, when Thompson realized what was happening "He put his helicopter down, put his guns on Americans, and said he would shoot them if they shot another Vietnamese.

He was doing his duty, and following his Oath to defend the consitution. He also followed to proper channels to report the massacre.

Lets take a look at the Oath:

"I,____________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God"

From http://www.counterpunch.org/mosqueda02272003.html:

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) 809.ART.90 (20), makes it clear that military personnel need to obey the "lawful command of his superior officer," 891.ART.91 (2), the "lawful order of a warrant officer", 892.ART.92 (1) the "lawful general order", 892.ART.92 (2) "lawful order". In each case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to only obey Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation of the Constitution and the UCMJ.

Totalitarian control in the U.S. can't take place without turning the populace into its own jailers, a'la the GDR. DHS has had Yvgeny Primakov and Markus Wolf as consultants for creating "internal security measures."

Ten years from now, one-third of you will be reporting on the rest, just to keep your rare and valued job in the cafeteria. - That BTW, is the agenda behind ruining the dollar and the U.S> job markets: scarce jobs and government payrolls == social control.

Primakov said that this is one of the steps now being employed along with NICA and new identity upgrade features which are coming to your driver's license. It is being used to get the people used to new types of documentation and carrying new types of identity cards pursuant to the United States instituting a formal policy of internal passports. And he actually used the words "internal passports."

It's like he said and he was pretty knowledgeable. When the NICA (National Identity Card Act) gets passed, the Posse Comitatus Act gets overturned, a few other pieces of legislation yet to be proffered get passed, the White House will have more control over the American people than the Kremlin had over the Russian people when Stalin was alive. He said that and then he laughed.

What Primakov finds funny are what he calls these "right wing flag wavers" that were so anti-communist and now they're supporting a state policy of internal passports.

Primakov continued by saying that he had been hired as a consultant and he was consulting on other "security" matters, an ongoing policy in various agencies of government (some of these offices haven't even been created yet) to consistently narrow the rights of the American people and to expand the power of government. He professed not to know why, the reason for all this was, other than he admitted that "it doesn't have much to do with 'fighting terrorism.'"

Here is the breakdown of the major categories:

30,000 food servers and bar tenders;
28,000 health care and social assistance:
12,000 real estate;
6,000 credit intermediation;
8,000 transit and ground passenger transportation;
50,000 retail trade; and
8,000 wholesale trade.

(There were 7,000 construction jobs, most of which were filled by Mexicans immigrants.)

Not a single one of these jobs produces a tradable good or service that can be exported or serve as an import substitute to help reduce the massive and growing US trade deficit. The US economy is employing people to sell things, to move people around, and to serve them fast food and alcoholic beverages. The items may have an American brand name, but they are mainly made off shore. For example, 70% of Wal-Mart's goods are made in China.

Where are the jobs for the 65,000 engineers the US graduates each year? Where are the jobs for the physics, chemistry, and math majors? Who needs a university degree to wait tables and serve drinks, to build houses, to work as hospital orderlies, bus drivers, and sales clerks?

NO! That is a recipe for continuation of the status quo. They BOTH need to feel the heat NOW. Otherwise the Dems will take over and think their social agenda of increasing the loss of our freedoms for different reasons was the cause of their "success" at the polls. You wind up in a perpetual seesaw resulting in the steady elimination of all rights equally between the two. You repeatedly trade bully one for bully two, then reverse and repeat.

There is nothing you or I can do to stop the pendulum of the bi-polar polity, other than convince enough people who will vote to actually change it. There was a chance at a third party with clout, but Buchanan, the Republican loyalist to the end, took the FEC money and trashed them in 2000. Demcorats still blame Nader, the fools, they should be blaming Buchanan, Perot and Ventura.

In the current circumstances, the best that can be achieved is an evenness of parties, and the abrasion that comes with it. I think that a large part of the economic boom in the 90's was due to the great friction between the parties. Neither side had enough power to suck their vigorish off of the top, and the free market that could, did. The equities traders screwed it up, but equity traders should be dealt with. If they didn't venture for capitalisation of the business, they are leeches, sucking from the valuation of the compensation provided to the producers of the product.

An Abridged Listing Why I Beat Upon Republicans Presently

The republicans have gained the upper hand in large part by betraying both their core ideology and the Dreamtime America. NeoConservatism's maturation can be traced from marxism to trotskyite CIA stooges to Scoop Jackson DemoHawks to Reagan to the Son of Bush. They have never given up the marxist trait of spewing rhetoric, the truth notwithstanding. The self-confessed American traitor, David Horrowitz calls Kerry and Fonda traitors, and is given stature within the Right. The putrescence of moral relevancy oozing from the partisan defense of a president who fixed the intelligence and the facts around his policy of familial vengence, and took America into an unrighteous conflict without contemplating the aftermath. a president who sings sweet songs of liberty and democracy, yet gives aid to dictatorial destroyers of democracy, has liasons with leaders loathsome of liberty, and goes out on ManDates with Saudi Princes who come to the USA laden with extra baggage.

When did conservatives begin to support due process of law applied inequally to humans? That is a high crime against America, yet they still repeatedly remind us that a stained blue dress is impeachable? Why not decry Blood-Stained Iraq Sands?

Bush's SCOTUS nomimee Roberts is a dangerous and activist judge who DOES NOT adjudicate using original intent, and all the country can think about is which way he'll decide on abortion cases. His assent in the Hamdi v Rumsfeld appeal is frightful. It posits that a president is above the very law that legitimises his power, stating this is a function of war power, in a war upon unstated enemies, of an indeterminate duration. Why hasn't anyone asked Roberts just what the hell he was doing during that ongoing criminal enterprise: The Reagan Administration? This is ano

I'm thinking Ireland. They have a booming, economy, speak English, like to party and I think have a shortage of high tech workers. Their government is unfortunately a little pro Bush for my liking sometimes, and they are in NATO, but they have a pretty stong and vocal anti Bush faction.

From this article I gather the anti Iraq war movement there is doing their best to offer all the large number of U.S. soldiers that transit through Ireland on the way to Iraq asylum if they don't want to kill (often civilians) and be killed in a war based on lies.

Its obviously a very Catholic country which has its issues but I'll take Catholics over born again nut jobs most days.

Canada is #2 and New Zealand #3 on my list assuming you want an English speaking country. I wish Australia could be on the list but their government is as whacked in the head as the U.S. and U.K.

The big problem emmigrating these days is thanks to globalization and a global American empire its getting harder and harder to find a corner of the world that hasn't been ruined by the influence of the U.S and its multinational corporations.

With troops in about 120 countries, CIA and FBI probably the same number, programs like Rendition in which the U.S. can snatch anyone, anywhere and send them to be tortured, there really isn't any place to get away from the U.S. anymore. At some point people are going to have to start saying no to the insanity currently infecting America before it infects the whole world.

Hey guess who supported the Taliban and gave them millions of taxpayer dollars to them?...

The current occupier of the Whitehouse, President Bush. Even as they were blowing up historically and culturally significant monuments and executing people in a soccer stadium.

• Bush Gives Taliban $10 Million To Fight Opium
• Underwriting the Taliban

Thanks for the link. I see where it says congress ended educational funding via USAID in the mid '90s. I'll have to spend more tyme reading it.

The next Justice of the Supreme Court believes that the President has the authority, without any due process, to imprison and torture anyone he declares an "enemy combatant".

John Roberts and Enemy Combatants

Don't let the red, white, and blue flags fool you. You are living in a totalitarian state. Get used to it.

Sure, go read this.

In fact, it was by far German & other EUROPEAN firms that happliy sold Saddam the majority of his his chemical weapons precursors.

They were all selling him crap but none other then the US gave Saddam loan guarantees. That is, they were all peddling him their wares on credit (and got stung when he fell), but the US was financing him. I hope you grok the difference.

You gotta be kidding. I am not gonna waste a day looking for primary sources, I will point you instead to this report, they cite their sources, go check them yourself. They mention figures totalling over $5 billion.

USSR sold weapons to Saddam as he was not part of the Warsaw Pact and USSR was in no position to give him stuff. As a matter of fact when Saddam fell, he was $8 billion or so in debt to USSR/Russia for all that junk.

Note that while the US money was earmarked for weapons, it was funnelled through various covers like the agriculture department. This is a standard practice with clandestine military aid, serving among other things to hide it from the taxpaying public.

Also from the article:

The Soviet government had refused to deliver arms to Iraq as long as Baghdad continued its military offensive against Iran.

and

The US government approved 771 licenses [only 39 were rejected] for the export to Iraq of $1.5 billion worth of biological agents and high-tech equipment with military application ...

Look, I'm not excusing the fact we provided this materiel to Iraq, only that we were hardly alone, and weren't nearly the worst offender.

The difference is that all the other participants were just trying to peddle their wares to Saddam (which still makes them covered in blood snakes) although of course they had their agendas. Particualry amusing is the fact that Saddam was falling out with the USSR over his war with Iran, which is what made him such a great buddy of the US. But unlike even the USSR (although they did sell him arms on credit - which ended up costing them dearly), the US was actively funding him during his attrocities, which is worse. Doubly so now, when the hypocrisy is of cosmic proportions, with all the "liberation" and search for WMDs crapola.

People either consciously know or instinctively feel that there is no career there. And the real reason why there aren't there?

July 15, 2005
Economic Treason
What Kind of Country Destroys the Job Market for Its Own Citizens?

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07162005.html

When the Patriot Act was passed 98-0 how many of the senators actually read through the THOUSANDS of pages?

Not one congress critter read the whole thing, at best they only read parts of it. I'd bet there's not many people who recall that when congress was "debating" the PATRIOT Act Ralph Nader challenged everyone in congress to take a quiz on the act, saying that if they passed it he would donate I think it was $10,000 to any charity the person wanted it donated to and not one person took him up on it. Here's an article written by Ron Paul, one of the less than handful in congress who voted against it, Monitor Thy Neighbor

Good points, but you should probably read this too: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11012004.html

If outsourcing is bad for America, then isn't outsourcing bad for your state, your hometown and for your family?

Whether outsourcing -- in this case meaning outsourcing jobs overseas -- is bad for your hometown/family, etc., depends on a number of factors. Obviously, if my work is in a company reliant on exports, I'm going to think it's good.

But overall, stats from both the US gov't and labor organizations reflect that we're losing more jobs overseas than we're gaining jobs from exports or from other job creation. (Bush *still* has a net job loss record during his presidency.)

things i suspect aren't true:
- the US built its industry based on high tariffs and high labor costs.

Check any decent history of the 1800s. You'll find that tariffs were a huge source of gov't revenue and was -- decade in and decade out -- the perennial political issue. Working classes, in general, wanted low tariffs to have access to cheap goods, and capitalists wanted high tariffs to protect their industry (the capitalists typically controlled gov't and politics).

As for high labor costs, again, any good history of the 19th century will cover that. Though not recorded in typical US history books, there was a huge "push-pull" dynamic going on with European labor. Many Europeans came to America for free land and opportunity and became immigrants. But there were also many who were "pulled" to the US attracted by the high wages, and then were "pushed" back home during times of depression. Good economic texts will also document the labor costs as a driving force for US industrial automation and innovation.

- jobs being created in the US are overwhelmingly in low-paying service industries

I've mentioned Paul Craig Roberts repeatedly, so I'll quote a part of one of his articles, The US Labor Force: One Foot in the Third World: "In May the Bush economy eked out a paltry 73,000 private sector jobs: 20,000 jobs in construction (primarily for Mexican immigrants), 21,000 jobs in wholesale and retail trade, and 32,500 jobs in health care and social assistance. Local government added 5,000 for a grand total of 78,000. Not a single one of these jobs produces an exportable good or service. With Americans increasingly divorced from the production of the goods and services that they consume, Americans have no way to pay for their consumption except by handing over to foreigners more of their accumulated stock of wealth. The country continues to eat its seed corn."

"Only 10 million Americans are classified as 'production workers' in the Bureau of Labor Statistics nonfarm payroll tables. Think about that. The US with a population approaching 300 million has only 10 million production workers. That means Americans are consuming the products of other countries labor."

So that's the May 2005 stats. And I'll refrain from adding that it takes about 150,000 jobs per month to be created just to break even (the number of people turning 18, increases in population, etc.).

-FL

true, IIRC, every single member of Congress voted for the Patriot Act except one weirdo, Russ Feingold (D - Wisconsin).

Another member of congress voted against the PATROIT Act, Ron Paul. Here'an article by him in Counter Punch dated 26 July 2002:

Rep. Ron Paul: Monitor Thy Neighbor

Opposition to the Patriot Act, legislation passed by Congress and signed by the President last year, is growing. Americans are beginning to understand that many precious liberties have been put in jeopardy by the government's rush to enact new laws in the wake of September 11th. Federal law enforcement agencies now have broad authority to conduct secret, warrantless searches of homes; monitor phone and internet activity; access financial records; and undertake large-scale tracking of American citizens through huge databases. We're told this is necessary to fight the unending war on terror, but in truth the federal government has been seeking these powers for years. September 11th simply provided an excuse to accelerate the process and convince all of us to relinquish more and more of our privacy to the federal government...

I'd bet most people don't recall that when congress was "debating" the act Ralph Nader challenged congress to take a quiz on it saying he would donate, was it $10,000, to any charity the congressional member who passed it wanted the money to go and not one took him up on it.

First of all, let's please distinguish between prisons and jails. Jails, like the LA County system, exist to hold people who have not been convicted of any crime (that is, pretrial detainees), in addition to those convicted of misdemeanors carrying a sentence of less than one year.

So before you start saying jail inmates have no rights, remember that many of them have not been convicted of any crime. Until they are tried and proven guilty, they are guilty only of not having enough money for bail.

Prisons, as currently constituted in the US, are a means to control the surplus population of the country. Traditional employment is effectively banned for much of the population, and then moneymaking methods that lie outside the mainstream economy are criminalized. This is how we have ended up with 2 million people in our prisons and jails.

Another function of prisons is to serve as laboratories of human rights abuse. Much of what we see going on at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib began in US prisons, especially in Control Unit prisons, super high-tech dungeons that isolate prisoners almost completely from human contact, driving them insane. It's interesting to note how many of the personnel at Camp X-Ray and Abu Ghraib came from a (so-called) corrections background.

US prisons have been the site of Abu Ghraib-style atrocities for decades. But because of the nature of prisons, and the fact that hardly anyone gives a rat's ass about prisoners, people aren't really aware of the facts.

A good point has been raised here: namely, that prisons do not, (or at least definitely should not) have any problems knowing where their prisoners are: therefore the large scale deployment of RFIDs may not seem to make much sense.

Looked at in a broader context, however, how better to begin large-scale testing of a technology that one might wish to deploy to monitor the population at large?

The Bush administration is certainly engaging in test runs of this sort, as this article http://counterpunch.org/whitney05182005.html points out.

Call me paranoid, but during these times it seems to me that the most sinister explanation is usually the correct one.

Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops

Senate Gives Dept. Homeland Security Power to Waive All Laws

By ROBERT SHULL

In passing the Iraq War Supplemental yesterday, the Senate also gave the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to waive any and all law in the course of building roads and barriers along the U.S. borders -- without limit and with no checks and balances. The measure is part of the "REAL ID Act of 2005," the controversial immigration bill attached by the House as a rider to the Iraq war supplemental.

The consequence of this decision is that Congress has given one man a license to waive any law, for any reason or for no reason at all. Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security, now has the power to simply waive away laws that protect the environment, safeguard public health, ensure consumer and workplace safety, prevent unfair business practices, and ban discrimination -- at his sole and unreviewable discretion.

There is too much at stake to grant any government officials the power to waive all law. Immediately at stake, of course, are current environmental protections in the vicinity of the borders, but even more is at stake. These fences and roads will not build themselves-- they must be put in place by workers, who could lose all their workplace safety protections as well as their rights to collective bargaining or even overtime pay. This new power comes completely without limit; every law, from child labor to ethical contracting, can now be waived.

Congressional supporters of this measure would like us to believe that this measure means only that DHS can speed up completion of one small stretch of fence in the "Smuggler's Gulch" area near San Diego. Nothing could be further from the truth. This measure is written so that Michael Chertoff will have unlimited authority to waive all law in the course of building roads and barriers and removing obstacles to the detection of illegal immigrants, and it applies anywhere in the vicinity of the borders. Earlier versions of this provision would have limited its scope just to environmental laws and just to Smuggler's Gulch, but the version now passed by both houses of Congress applies everywhere along the borders and applies to all laws on the books.

We expect government officials to execute the law. No government agency should be above the laws that preserve America's democracy. Congress has granted the Secretary of Homeland Security unbridled authority to act however he sees fit, without consequence, accountability, and any opportunity for judicial review.

[Robert Shull is Director of Regulatory Policy at OMB Watch.]

But then GE, GM or Unilever don't set themselves up for it such s, with sanctimonious crap like Do No Evil as a corporate mission statement. Larry and Sergey may as well walk around with a "kick me here" sign stapled to their asses.

No conclusive national data exists regarding the prevalence of this phenomenon, but the most recent statistical survey, published in the Prison Journal, revealed that 21 percent of inmates in seven Midwestern prisons had experienced at least one episode of pressured or forced sex since being incarcerated, and at least 7 percent had been raped in their facility.

Correctional authorities generally deny that rape is a serious problem. In Human Rights Watch's survey of all 50 states, not one correctional authority reported abuse rates even approaching those found by the rights group. The authorities' reluctance to acknowledge the scale of the violation is reflected not only in misleading official statistics, but also in a glaringly inadequate response to incidents of rape.

Similarly, a 1988 study of line officers in the Texas prison system reported that only 9 percent of officers agreed that rape in prison was a "rare" occurrence, while 87 percent disagreed. These findings are all the more notable when one considers that the question was limited to instances of "rape" -- not sexual abuse in general -- a term that many people interpret narrowly (typically believing that rape only occurs where physical force is used).