A Theoretical Strategy Proposal in Two Aspects

Here I propose a two-part strategy in our rhetorical onslaught of the neocon agenda. I will use Fox News as a fulcrom.

Aspect 1: See the present in historical terms.
Aspect 2: Focus on individuals, not groups.

Aspect 1

Fox News is a strange phenomenon. It's not "state press" in the traditional sense, but it is in a more complex, modern sense. There is a certain inevitability to its existence as a propaganda organ of the neoconservative agenda, which, in itself, is an equally strange yet inevitable phenomenon. It is always difficult to compare contemporaneous forces with the historical record, because we see the present for what it is, while we see history for what it merely appears to be. In other words, the present never looks like the past, because of our inability to see both time frames with the same pair of eyes. The past tends to be amplified in importance, while the present is trivialized as so many daily minutiae. With each history book written, with every document declassified decades or even scores of years after the fact, the past looms larger and larger. So odd it is that the farther away we get from a historical time frame, the bigger it appears. And how poignant it is that the more recent a thing is, the less important it seems. Is it possible we fundamentally fail to "see" what is happening before our very eyes? I would say the answer is YES. Some call it myopia.

Therefore, it might be worthwhile to posit that our ongoing critique of Fox News is worth even greater force on our part. I think we should be taking some kind of quantum leap of perception into the present. Our psyches seems to exist in the past, while our criticisms tend to exist solely in the present. We need to marry those two elements. We need to dig deep into the recesses of our social underpinnings, dig out whatever feelings we harbor towards Nazi Germany, the Roman Empire, the Egyptian Pharoahs, and apply that same "historical" feeling to the present.

Therefore, it would perhaps be a wise gambit to begin to refer to Fox News in the same way the historians of the future will. We should amplify our alarmism. We should denounce Fox News as a Joseph Goebbels-type institution. We should not fear to extend our denunciation to PNAC, to the New Republic, to Salon, to every news outlet that insists on embracing the myopic justificationism of our present atrocities. We mustn't shrink from explaining, to anyone who is able to listen, that, while the employees of Fox News may or may not know what they are doing to humanity, they nonetheless are 100% complicit in our likely premature demise.

Certainly we could opt instead to take the road of explaining it all as "sociological forces". That would make sense on a cognitive level. But what then, is the agent of change? What remains?

Aspect 2

The answer is accountability. Too many people feel their innocence, while in fact they are guilty. Too many people know they are right, when in fact they are wrong. The thing that allows them to do this is the blending of the individual into the mass. It is the merging of the human sole into the corporation, the governing body, the organization, the movement. It is the surrender of the individual to the group.

We must reclaim our own individuality, and never shirk pointing out individuals who may be guilty. We must not let them hide behind the cloaks of their parent body. We must see the trees for the forest. That is where you get people. You attack them on an individual basis. You shine a light on one person at a time. You embarrass them. You make a sacrificial lamb out of them.

Therefore, I propose that we spend less time blaming Fox News, the Bush Administration, the Republicans, General Electric, the terrorists, the conspiracy theorists, the neocons, the New World Order, the masses, the organizations, the sociological forces. There is no accountability in groups.

Instead, we should blame each and every person on the Fox News programming board, each and every person in the Bush Administration, and so on down the line. We have to take a "sniping" approach. We have to pick off their reputations, one individual at a time.

Only then will we transcend the present, so that we can heal it.

I hope I've spoken clearly here.

Another Airport Evacuation

This is getting ridiculous. A dance troupe that uses a fake momb in their prop set caused a Philadelphia airport to be shut down. Okay, so that's understandable. But it's fun to chronicle all the freaked out Americans. You can never be too safe, yeah yeah, but this is symptomatic of a larger mindset of fear. I swear, there must be at least one evacuation every day now.

What's Up, Michigan?

What's the First Amendment good for, anyway, Michigan?

A Michigan man might get 30 days in jail for writing "Bullshit Money Grab" on the memo line of the check he sent in to pay off a parking ticket he didn't deserve in the first place. An ACLU lawyer will defend his First Amendment rights. Long live the ACLU.

Last April, a Michigan State University professor of mechanical engineering told the university's Muslim Students' Association to leave the United States. In the letter he sent, he lumps all Muslims into one category: the terrorist category. But despite twelve different MSU student groups asking that the professor be reprimanded - not fired, mind you, merely reprimanded - the university said his hate speech was protected by the First Amendment.

Wires crossed, much, Michigan? How about you, Colorado?

The infamous University of Colorado at Boulder professor Ward Churchill is getting fired for comparing some of the victims of the WTC attacks to Nazis. Yes yes, what he said was downright blasphemous and all, but in comparison with the MSU story, isn't this fucking wierd?

What's the pattern here? Here it is: the First Amendment is for protecting the status quo, not free speech.

More Nervous Chihuahuas

The girlfriend wasn't sure about accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal. To convince her that it is important to take risks in life, he jumped naked out the first-floor window and ran across the street. Before he could return, he saw a couple walking up the street. He hid his naked ass in a shrubbery. The other guy, a real cowboy, a real patriot, a real one-man crime-fighting machine, drew his gun, and, well:

The rest is history.

How does this relate to 9/11? Psychologically, it relates. People are more nervous, more on-the-ready. The theatrical effect of 9/11 and its jingoistic aftermath increased the number of incidents in which people get shot for no reason, airports get evacuated on false threats, stereos get mistkaen for bombs, and so on. Ninety-nine percent of "terror threats" are bogus.

I'll be chronicling us nervous chihuahuas until the anti-terorrism fever wears off. Hell, at least it's an entertaining way to keep a finger on the pulse of the United States.

Norman Mineta Resigns

U.S. Transportation Secretery Norman Mineta has announced his resignation. This in itself is not big news; he was the longest-serving Transportation Secretery in U.S. history. It was just his time. Now there are only two members left in Bush's original cabinet: Defense Secretery Donald Rumsfeld and Labor Secretery Elaine Chao.

It is of note that Mineta was Bush's only Democrat in the cabinet, and that that cabinet post is considered a second-tier post. In other words, Mineta was somewhat distanced from the president, although they got along well. Mineta played ball. You can consider him objective.

That's why Mineta's status as a 9/11 puzzle piece - albeit a small one - is worthy of inspection. Mineta was present in the Presidential Emergency Operating Center, underneath the White House, with Vice President Dick Cheney and then-National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice during the 9/11 attacks. A snippet from Mineta's 9/11 commission testimony seems to suggest that Cheney was ordering his subordinates to NOT shoot down Flight 11. Click the link. It's worth a peek. Maybe it's on to something, maybe it's not. But just take note of it, m'kay?

Meanwhile, here are some far more convincing puzzle pieces to consider. It's a basic slideshow simplifying 9/11 for beginners. Just don't stop with the slideshow. Keep digging for clues on your own.

Here's hoping Norman Mineta stays alive a long, long time.

The Nerve-Wracked Chihuahuas of Post-9/11 America

People are going psycho with terrorism paranoia. The South Bend Tribune of Indiana reports that a bartender saw a flashing red light on a window and thought it was a bomb. So he evaculated the hotel in which the bar was situated. Full story here, or you can just read it below. You know, I could start a whole separate blog dedicated solely to these nerve-wracked chihuahuas of post-9/11 terrorism-obsessed America.

Suspected bomb at Plymouth resort turns out to be Pabst Blue Ribbon advertisement

False alarm a sign of post-Sept. 11 times, manager says


By MIKE GILLOON
Tribune Staff Writer

PLYMOUTH — A suspicious object that turned out to be a flashing red light on a beer advertisement forced the evacuation of a Plymouth resort hotel early Monday morning.

Doug Leedke, general manager of Swan Lake Resort, said about 30-40 guests were evacuated about 12:45 a.m. Monday after a bartender in the hotel’s restaurant noticed a blinking red light on a white object on the wall and suspected it might be a bomb.

A Marshall County Sheriff’s officer later determined the light was part of a Pabst Blue Ribbon advertisement suction-cupped to the restaurant’s window.

Detective lieutenant Jon Van Vactor of the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department said officers were first called to the resort’s Sam Snead’s restaurant, 5203 Plymouth-LaPorte Trail, at 12:39 a.m. and determined that no bomb squad was needed by 12:56 a.m.

Leedke said hotel guests were allowed back in their rooms by 1:30 a.m.

The false alarm is a sign of the times in a post-Sept. 11 world, Leedke said.

“Our employee saw something unusual and reported it,” Leedke said. “Everything is back to normal today.”

UPDATE: And in other, very much related news...

A man's grenade-shaped belt buckle has caused a Salt Lake City airport to be evacuated.

The fun just does not stop.

The Fog of War

The Fog of War, starring Robert McNamera. WW2, Cuban Missile Crisis, Viet Nam, and more, all seen through the eyes of a former Secretery of Defense. Required viewing.

Down the Memory Hole

"We Will Never Forget."

Yeah, right. A Tufts University study led by Professor of Psychiatry Ernest Hartmann, MD, who is based at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and specializes in trauma as expressed in dreams, shows that "Americans aren't having nightmares—or dreams of any kind—that replay the 9/11 attack on New York." Hear that?

Instead, the 9/11 event has had the effect of increasing the intensity of imagery in dreams that superficially have nothing to do with airplane attacks on downtown New York.

So 9/11 hit us on an unconscious level. The memory itself will eventually become corrupted with false data and idealizations, but the core shock will always remain as a traumatic memory. That way, 9/11 can be invoked anytime or anywhere, to scare us into accepting anything and everything.

Here's more evidence that people are, in fact, forgetting. According to a study conducted by market research firm Longwoods International, air travel to Denver is "finally returning to pre-9/11 levels." Finally? America was brought to its knees not five years ago. Looks like "never forget" means "forget in five years." Look for further signs of pre-9/11 normalcy in the coming weeks.

Now this is not to say we shouldn't "move on" or anything. Because we should. But mark my words: people will forget. These are just some early symptoms of the mass amnesia we are all in the process of contracting. As soon as a sort of post-9/11 equilibrium of emotion and action sets in, the memory will be no more, leaving a mere scar on our subconscious minds. That scar will then forever be poked and prodded by opportunists who need but say "9/11" in order to get us to submit to their plans.

Remembering takes work. It takes a constant effort. That is the battle most worth fighting right now. Don't let the past die. Exercise your conscious mind, so that you can minimize the extent to which you are manipulated via your innermost feelings.

Even today, news organizations can't agree on what happened on 9/11. This week, Moody's Investors Service decided to lease a large portion of the new WTC7. According to Reuters,

Moody's Investors Service has agreed to lease 15 floors of 7 World Trade Center, the first of the skyscrapers destroyed on Sept. 11 to be rebuilt, a source familiar with the deal said on Tuesday.

But according to NY1, "NYC's 24-Hour Newschannel On The Web":

The original 47-story building collapsed in the terrorist attacks.

There's a big difference between the two. One implies that WTC7 was destroyed by the owner. The other implies it was destroyed by the terrorists. (Hint: it was destroyed by the owner.) I've got a real problem with this. It's not an insignificant detail. It is, in fact, a de facto assault on the strongest extant piece of evidence against the real perpetrators. To dive headlong into an overused literary reference:

The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.

Stay tuned.

Muslims: Is This Offensive?

I found this Google Top 100 video, Girls Gone Wild Baghdad, to be an original idea. It shows women peeling away portions of their traditional Muslims coverings - wrists, ankles, faces - and censors them with the same blockouts usually associated with breasts and pubic area. It's not porn, but it's not exactly funny either. Just original.

But is it offensive to any Muslims? I encourage anyone and everyone to share this video with any Muslims you know in the world and ask them how they feel about it. The answer could very well increase our understanding of the various Islamic and Islam-influenced cultures. Let's turn this video into a conversation piece.

Activist Judges Jilt Fourth Amendment Provision

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that police officers with warrants can barge into your home without announcing themselves. This materially overturns a 45-year-old precedent called the "exclusionary rule", which was made universal via the 1961 Mapp v. Ohio case and holds that evidence obtained improperly cannot be used in a court of law. Very sexy. What's more, the case, which ended in the usual 5-4 split decision, was actually argued twice: first when Sandra Day O'Connor resided, and second after she had retired and Samuel A. Alito, Jr. had taken her place. Neocons, you're getting me all hot and bothered!

Another brick in the wall.

Puke.

Darryl Hannah Up a Tree for South Central L.A. 14-Acre Farm

This is sad. A 14-acre farm smack dab in the middle of the ghetto that feeds 350 families is under attack by a developer who wants to eradicate it and replace it with a warehouse. Up until May 22 the plot of green land teeming with perfectly flavorful and nutritious vegetables and fruits was owned by the city, which had donated the strip to the neighborhood after the 1992 riots. Now the developer is buying it from the city for a few million dollars.

But the case is still under consideration in the court. It appears the sale was perhaps illegal. The farmers, along with many others around the world, are fighting this battle. If they cannot win in court on July 12, perhaps they can buy the land and keep it. They need a few million dollars.

Meanwhile, they have been forcibly evicted from the land. Bulldozers have already razed the farm. In an 11th-hour effort to gain public attention, they have staked out 24-hour vigils around the site. Darryl Hannah even joined in and was interviewed by Larry King on Thursday.

Alameda neighborhood doesn't need another abandoned warehouse. Make a donation if you can. What a worthy cause! A perfect cause.

It's a fundamental issue. Community farms like this consume far less petroleum than the usual corporate farming and meat producing tactics. Did you know, for example, that we practically eat oil? These days, the mass of food produced is almost exactly equal to the mass of oil consumed in producing it. Here, check this report.

Stephen Colbert Debates Gitmo

This June 15, 2006 clip from the Colbert Report is an amusing summation of the illogic that is Guantanamo Bay.



If only logic still existed in the greater public sphere.

9/11 Thefts Not Prosecuted

So a bunch of people stole artifacts from the World Trade Center site. Big woop. But you've got to read between the lines. Example. The artifacts in question are of the souvenir type: crystal globes, pieces of phone, etc. The FBI was in the middle of investigating this not-so-earth-shattering theft, when it found out that perhaps 16 of its own agents had also liberated a few items themselves and displayed them on their office desks, and so the case was dropped. Magical!

But what about the countless tons of steel trusses and columns that were stolen from the site mere days after the attacks? Yes. Most of the steel from the wreckage was loaded onto trucks, driven to a port, and shipped off to Asia to be melted down and recycled. This was at the behest of the venerable mayor Rudy Giuliani. Being a lawyer himself, Giuliani knows it is a federal offense to remove anything from a crime scene before it has been investigated. When confronted by citizens about this later, he said something to the effect of, "Gee, I didn't know. Oh well. Next question."

Why didn't the FBI investigate that one? Was it involved in some kind of a *gasp!* cover-up? Sure, why not. They were the ones who stole upwards of 84 videotapes from around the Pentagon, allegedly "fueling" the "conspiracy theories" about Flight 77.

Say, who watches the watchers? I'll tell you who. We The People do. And if you're not investigating the FBI and other organizations and individuals concerning the events preceding, during, and following the attacks, then you are derelict in your duties. If the government won't re-open the 9/11 investigation, the people must do it themselves. That is why I will never stop searching for the remaning puzzle pieces.

Join me in my search, won't you?

Rock the Vote for Lamont in Connecticut

The Connecticut primaries will take national center stage this August 8th when Democrat Ned Lamont will go up against fake Democrat Joe Lieberman. Lamont took 33% of the delegates in the Democratic State Convention (15% is the minimum in order to qualify for the primaries.) Lamont differs from Lieberman fundamentally. Whereas Lamont says he would join real Democrats like Wisconsin's Russ Feingold in standing up firmly against the president, Lieberman is the Bush Administration's most favoritist Democrat. Seriously folks, Bush and Cheney and Lieberman conduct nightly circle jerks. Bush might even make Lieberman Secretery of Defense when Rumsfeld gets axed (so that Bush can blame the Iraq catastrophe on the Democrats).

Here is a short but informative interview with Amy Goodman and Ned Lamont on Democracy Now:



The following link is a quick and easy way to register to vote. Piece of cake.

Rock the Vote - Home

They Want Your Soul

Who wants your soul? Them. I don't buy the whole Biblical angle near the end, but this 16-minute video will fly right through you and tear you to pieces. Buckle up and pay close attention now.



You can't say I never posted any mind-blowing movies.

Martin Peretz: Wolfowitz in Sheep's Clothing?

A comment on a recent post of mine got me to thinking about the who, what when, where, and why of the subject of rampant false accusations of anti-Semitism. The most recent example of this much-in-vogue demagoguery was inflicted by Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers last week. Summers recklessly stated that a recent resolution by a British teacher's union to boycott two universities in Israel constituted anti-Semitism. According to the Harvard Crimson,

One of Britain's largest unions of university instructors passed a resolution urging its members to boycott speeches by Israeli academics who do not condemn "“continuing Israeli apartheid policies, including construction of the exclusion wall and discriminatory educational practice."” ... The boycott controversy began in March 2005 when Britain's Association of University Teachers (AUT) passed an advisory resolution urging its 48,000 members to boycott Israel'’s University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University. AUT targeted the two institutions because Haifa had allegedly disciplined a lecturer after he defended a student who criticized Israel, and because Bar-Ilan held courses in the West Bank, an area designated by the United Nations as "occupied territory."”

The resolution clearly targets just two universities that just so happened to be systematically suppressing dissent. It does not target all of Israel. However,

In a statement issued Thursday, Summers said that "“there is much that should be, indeed that must be, debated regarding Israeli policy...But the academic boycott resolution passed by the British professors union in the way that it singles out Israel is in my judgment anti-Semitic in both effect and in intent."”

That is a very inflammatory thing to say indeed. One should not so lightly toss the term "anti-Semitic" about. Of course, it wasn't the first time Summers had committed this type of slander.

Summers' statement on the British boycott evokes echoes of his September 2002 Memorial Church address, in which he excoriated a group of Harvard and MIT professors who had called on the University to cut financial ties to Israel. "“Serious and thoughtful people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent,"” Summers said at the time.

It is a fact that many American Jews do not necessarily support Israel's Palestine policies. Here is a smattering of such Jewish organizations, according to Frontline: Jewish Voices for Peace, Jews Against the Occupation, Jews for Peace in the Middle East, the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, Tikkun, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, and Women in Black. Therefore, it is unrealistic to assert that just because someone opposes a government, doesn't mean that the person opposes the identities of the people who live under that government.

But former Harvard lecturer Martin Peretz, the editor-in-chief of The New Republic and a prominent supporter of Israel, defended Summers, saying that he "“is absolutely right,"” and that "“he was one of the first people to recognize this trend in the American academy."” ... "“In a way, it is good that these academics have expressed themselves in this way because it will make people understand how intellectual honesty is easily vanquished by propaganda,"” Peretz said.

Again, Peretz has a long history of such slander. The most egregious and damaging example of his McCarthy-esque habit of witch hunting occurred in 1995. According to Answers.com (and corroborated in plenty of other writings found on the Web),

"Peretz made headlines when he successfully pressured Vice President Al Gore to rescind his offer to Harvard historian and Tennessee writer Richard Marius to the House speechwriter. Peretz accused Marius of anti-Semitism, citing a 1992 book review in which Marius compared the tactics of the Israeli secret police searching for Palestinian terrorists in the occupied territories to the Nazi Gestapo in occupied Europe during World War II. Gore, a former student of Peretz's at Harvard in the 1960s, complied with his request. Many defenders of Marius', who had written a major Holocaust speech for Gore to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising and who criticized Martin Luther in a biography for the Reformation figure's anti-Semitic writings, said Peretz's charge was without merit.

And those observers were right. Richard Marius was about the least anti-Semitic person you could have met (Marius died in 1999.) To make matters worse - and this is the point to which you should pay very close attention - it is arguable that this targeted character assassination, coupled with Peretz' manipulation of Gore, lost Gore the election in Tennessee. This, of course, would have made the Florida debacle a moot point, and we would now have a Democratic president.

Is it possible Peretz was intentionally sabotaging Gore's presidential chances? Let's look at the record. Peretz bought The New Republic in 1975. He soon turned it into America's leading "liberal" pro-war newsweekly. Twenty-some years later he was signing on to statements issued by the imperialist think tank Project for a New American Century (four, to be exact) - including the Sept. 20, 2001 letter to president Bush urging him to start the war in Iraq just nine days after 9/11. He is on the elite advisory board of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, along with such PNAC members as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. If you compare the rosters of the two think tanks, you can see that the WINEP essentially acts as an Israel expertise wing of the PNAC.

Just how "liberal" is this guy? Here is an article Peretz wrote for The Vanguard, a very well-heeled conservative publication (just look at the company he keeps), in which Peretz completely castigates every vestige of liberal America. One could view the article in one of two ways. Either he is exercising tough love by pointing out every failing of the liberal tradition, or he is simply pandering to conservatives a la Joe Lieberman. Take your pick. I think it's the latter.

In fact, it is my conclusion that this Martin Peretz is about as liberal as an M16 machine gun spraying bullets into a crowd of protesters. He is a Wolfowitz in sheep's clothing. He likes to call himself liberal so that unsuspecting readers will swallow his every word. He is passionately Zionist, for which I cannot knock him, but I believe his passion has clouded his judgment. Martin Peretz is to anti-Semitism what Joseph McCarthy was to Communism: he sees witches everywhere, and he feels it's his duty to destroy them.

Finally, I suspect Martin Peretz gained quite a few brownie points with the in-crowd at PNAC when he manipulated Gore back in '95. In so doing, he became a willing PNAC weapon for use against anti-war politicians like Howard Dean and John Kerry, both of whom he has dressed down in his personal bullhorn, The New Republic(an).

Hey, if you're an Imperialist, you really gotta love Martin Peretz. But if you're a normal human being, Peretz acts as a lesson in how wily these neocons can be. Keep an eye on this jerk.

Why Libertarian?

Here's why:

If You Are a Jew, Please Read This

I pose a question to any Jewish readers out there - as well as to any non-Jews who care to comment.

Many people and organizations, of both Jewish and non-Jewish backgrounds, seem to strongly believe that those who question the official dogma of world history and current affairs are actually just anti-semites speaking in code. This of course is a conspiracy theory in and of itself, but let's not get bogged down in accusations of hypocrisy for the moment.

Now of course there are some people who really are anti-semites. Just as there are some people who really are terrorists. Just as there are some people who really would love to take over the world if they could. Just as there are people who are actually afflicted with some form of paranoia, be it clinical or otherwise. But certainly it is safe to assume that not all so-called "conspiracy theorists" (a label at which I am becoming increasingly annoyed) are anti-semites.

So my question is this: In your estimation, if any, what percentage of conspiracy theorists are anti-semites?

Just to be clear, I am not an anti-semite. Paranoid anti-conspiracy theorists can accuse me all they want, but my cards are on the table. I have no tricks up my sleeve. Read my entire blog; go to my Myspace profile and look for evidence of anti-semitism if you must. I am not an anti-semite. I am originally from Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Politically Correct Activists. Those are my roots. Ask around to all my friends; dig up all the dirt. I am not an anti-semite.

Now, nobody has ever accused me of being an anti-semite, but I have seen other so-called "conspiracy theorists" (i.e., fact-checkers) get accused up and down the block. That's why I've chosen to address this issue here. So if anybody has anything to say, then let it be known.

Paranoid Anti-Conspiracy Theorists

And they call me paranoid.

People, if you think it's paranoid to think 9/11 was an inside job, then I suggest you do some soul-searching. Paranoia involves fear. If you're seriously considering the mountain of evidence debunking the official lies about 9/11, then you're not paranoid -- you're brave.

The real paranoids are the ones who think a bag of food is a bomb. "Oh, but you can never be too careful." Spoken like a true paranoid. "Well didn't you see the Trade Center attacks? There is a real threat here." Yes, and it's primarily the domestic mafia. "That's crackpot stuff." Avoidance, denial, obfuscation, ad hominem polemics: the first lines of defense in the War on Truth. "You psycho." I would rest my case, but it's just too important to let rest.

That's your typical argument between those who think and those who do not. The argument will go on in circles until the end of time, because millions are too paranoid to be able to open a single website and check things out for themselves.

And just in case you still haven't seen any 9/11 videos worth seeing, here's the first one you should watch. I'll even include a study guide from 911 research.com that shows where the movie is correct and where it is incorrect. The point of watching this is to crack your mind open for once. Don't worry; you won't catch cooties.

Loose Change, 2nd Edition (with extra footage)


Now go do your homework.

Greg Palast and Dan Rather Bring the Pain

What do Venezuela and North Korea have in common?

Tick, tock, tick, tock...

BUZZ! Answer please!

They're both telling Bush to bring it on. Venezuela has heavy oil and so will soon be the world's oil nexus; North Korea has nukes and the world's third largest military. You have got to see these two videos, each about 12 minutes in length, each bravely investigated.

The charismatic populist president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez endears himself to plucky investigative reporter for the BBC Greg Palast in this video:




How 'bout that, eh?

And if you haven't seen Dan Rather's unbelievable 60 Minutes exposee of North Korea, The Hermit Kingdom, then you ain't seen nothin' at all.



Oh man, the U.S. is going DOWN. You watch. You'll see. Mark my words. The American Dream is about to go POOF. We been writin' bad checks - both literally and metaphorically - and the repo man's a-comin'.

Letters to Josephine Goebbels

This is an email I sent to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Colleen P. Graffy in reference to her recent BBC appearance. Her email address turned out to be invalid, so I will simply post it here. Feel free to circulate it; maybe someone will compile all the letters Graffy is receiving of late. I would propose a title to this hypothetical volume: "Letters to Josephine Goebbels".

Letter #573:

Mrs. Graffy,

I am upset and ashamed as an American that you would refer to someone's suicide as a PR move. Your remarks demonstrate zero respect for human life. Now I don't know if you actually believe what you said. If you did, then you are evil and there's nothing I can do for you. If not, then you are a whore of state and I encourage you to wake up to this fact and re-evaluate your career path. "Diplomacy"? How does that figure into your job title? Your words and demeanor betrayed a pervasive heartlessness reminiscent of the cold and calculated monstrosity that was Nazi Germany. The world does not want that. Yes yes, there are many who choose to believe anything and everything a state official says, but that is because they want their daddy or their mommy back and they're grasping at surrogates. But those of us who have the strength and maturity to think for ourselves could see with clarity that your apparent attitude is one of heartlessness.

Please respond. Tell me you don't believe what you said. I need to know.

Sincerely,
Musclemouth
musclemouth.blogspot.com - Great Power is a Blunt Object

Full Version: Bill Moyers' documentary "The Secret Government"

This is the full version of the 1987 Bill Moyers documentary The Secret Government. Moyers is among the last of a dying breed called journalists.

,

Snuff Film

Um...wow. I was really shaken by this. It's a real snuff film shot by contracted British security guards indiscriminately shooting up Iraqi drivers, set to the tune of Elvis Presley's "Train". The overall mood is one of a laid-back Sunday afternoon playing Grand Theft Auto. And do you know how the British military responded? They won't press charges, as "there was no probable cause".

Huh? No cause. Here are three possibilities right off the top of my head: racism, fear, xenophobia, and Tony Blair. Okay, four.

A Washington Post article explains that this goes on all the time, and nobody is ever charged with a crime. The worst punishment ever doled out to these private killers is dismissal from duty.

The American Dollar: Basis for a Counterfeit Economy?

First I should say I am just dreaming here. Just imagining possibilities, based on gut instinct. I'm no expert; but I definitely hope experts and amateurs alike will comment on what I am about to say.

If you watched the video below, Robert Newman's History of Oil, you will run across something called the Magic Checkbook. The idea basically suggests that the American dollar is based in large part on debt at interest. The rest of the world never "cashes the checks" we write, in other words. And they never will, in my opinion. The only reason the world keeps giving us things in exchange for fake checks is that we are an aggressive superpower and are therefore not to be toyed with.

In his performance, Newman pointed out that America reached peak oil in 1970. In 1971, America convened an OPEC meeting that basically set an edict: the only legitimate form of currency when dealing in oil is the American dollar. Then in 2001, oil began being traded in Euros, thus undermining the fraudulent American dollar.

Am I being to extreme here? Am I blowing this whole issue out of proportion? I don't know. But it appears to me that America contributes very little to the world materially. We push pieces of paper around, we open amsuement parks and resorts, but that's basically it. We don't produce that much food, we don't manufacture very many goods (that's China). We are a society of aristocrats living large for very little effort, while most of the world toils away for 10 or 14 hours a day and gets very little in return. Just the basic necessities for them, if they're lucky.

That's the way I understand what's going on here. We're just a big fat cat. A big bully. Isn't that what it comes down to? Well the rest of the world is now standing up to us. They refuse to trade oil in US dollars anymore, thus removing the last shred of legitimacy of the dollar. They are fighting us in the form of terrorism. I guess. And now we are showing them that if you mess with us, you'll be killed and maimed.

Just a big bully. And common American citizens are the recipients of hush money. We aren't mad at our government - not really. Oh sure, many of us are somewhat peeved, and we bitch and complain about it. But we're not mad. If we were mad, we would rise up and drag the administration out of the White House and beat them to death in the streets and display their heads on stakes in the town square. No, we're not mad. We're pretty content. And well fed.

My main point here is that the U.S. economy is based on a falsehood. The dollar has no sweat and tears behind it. The dollar is not based on hard work, but on numerical manipulation and sleight-of-hand. Isn't that true? Am I missing something here? Am I being too simplistic? Naive?

The countefeit economy. It has a nice ring to it, and it sure makes a lot of sense to me. If I'm wrong, I'd like to hear why.

Robert Newman's A History of Oil

Bill Moyers 1987

Who Killed John O'Neill?

June is Torture Awareness Month

Check out the happy fun time anti-torture agenda. Human rights abuses are the regime's wet dream. Let's all be the regime's worst nightmare. Join the club, as I have.

Gitmo Suicides "a PR Move"

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretery of State for Public "Diplomacy" Colleen Graffy today called the first three successful Guantanamo Bay suicides a PR move. She said the two Saudis and one Yemeni did not value their lives. She said the detainees had access to lawyers, received mail, and had the ability to write to their families, and so could not understand why they would want to kill themselves in Camp One, the highest security section of the prison. She said they had other means of making protests.

Let's set aside the fact of her horrifying heartlessness signifying that the administration is surely the Fourth Reich for a moment to point out that she's lying. Lying, lying, lying. The prisoners did not have the ability to petition for a trial. The prisoners were not allowed to write to families; it was their lawyers who disobeyed the wishes of the military by smuggling the letters out by hand.

Dozens of suicides have been attempted at Gitmo; these three are the first to succeed. The most previous suicides were aborted as fellow prisoners tried to waylay the guards with slicks of urine and projectiles of feces. The military later tried to tell the public that the attempted suicides were just a means of luring the guards into a "trap".

After the U.N. gets Gitmo shut down, we the public will have to find out where they moved it. God, this sucks.

Not Just "Oops"

In England 9 days ago, 250 cops stormed the home of two suspected terrorists. The cops said they had strong reason to believe there were chemical weapons. Yeah, right. They can believe whatever they want. I can believe there are pink elephants dancing on the dark side of the moon.

Turns out a stupid racist neighbor of theirs cried wolf.

But of course. This war is on terror! Yeah, right. It's on Muslims. The talking heads insist it's a war on radical Islamists while showing you pictures of Muslims. What's the difference in how they look? There is no difference. But they show you the pictures. That's how they get you.

That's how they get the public all nervous about Arabs. White people everywhere are ready to snap at a moment's notice. If you're and Arab and you sneeze wrong, you just might get shot. And that's what happened at Forest Gate 9 days ago.

Torch My Ride for the Troops!

Gotta love this. "Rotisserie arson" is on the rise due to rising blood-I-mean-gas prices. That's where you hire someone to torch your gas guzzler, tell the insurance company it was an accident, collect the cash, and go buy a hybrid. I think everybody should do it.

Meanwhile, the insurance companies get to use it as an excuse for increasing the premiums. How convenient. Everybody's raping everybody else.

War is hell. Think about the death and the mayhem in Iraq and elsewhere. Think about how the oil companies are doing great as a result. Think about the fraudulent price gouging.

Now think about all the flaming SUVs. Death and mayhem, flaming SUVs. Death and mayhem, flaming SUVs.

See the connection?

I'm just waiting for the TVs to burn. Then we'll know we're winning the war.

A Chance to Speak with World Trade Center Landlord Larry Silverstein

Would you like to ask Larry Silverstein a few questions about his role in the 9/11 attacks? This Wednesday is your chance. He is the scheduled keynote speaker for the 26th Annual BuildersNY trade show at the famed Jacob Javits center in New York City at 9:00 a.m. sharp in room 1A04. Just bring a few gutsy friends, synchronize your watches, and then scatter and pretend like you don't know each other. Make sure you are dressed nicely, and don't bring anything that could be peceived as a weapon. Wait until he has been talking long enough to quiet the audience (two minutes ought to do it) and then begin the interrogation. Be sure to bring scripted questions, such as:

How should one go about preparing a tall office building for controlled demolition without any of the tenants knowing about it?

Can you offer any advice on making money from fraudulent insurance claims?

How well do you know Marvin Bush?

And so on. You will definitely get kicked out after about 60 seconds, and maybe even arrested and charged with criminal disorderly conduct. The point of this exercise would be to remind Larry Silverstein that the crime family to whom he is beholden is the least of his worries. He has 300 million Americans to fear.

Gitmo Letters and Suicides; Congress Approves Iraq Permanency; Social Networks Compromised

The mainstream media services ain't all bad. Here's today's news, hot off the server:

1. Knight Ridder reports 10,000 letters, including numerous habeas corpus petitions, from Guantanamo Bay detainees to U.S. lawmakers are being withheld by the U.S. military.

2. New York Times reports three sucides at Guantanamo.

3. Reuters reports Congress is officially, if tacitly, approving permanent military bases in Iraq.

4. New Scientist, a magazine aimed mostly at science professionals, reveals that Friendster and Myspace are the National Security Agency's latest arena in which to spy on Americans.

(Note: Myspace is owned by Rupert Murdoch by way of state propaganda machine Fox News. Friendster is headed by a former NBC executive, which is owned by General Electric, a defense contractor.)

All this stuff connects. It's all part of the same story.