PCNs 
September, 2008

hi,
Everybody's got a wiki page ('cept me).  I wanna wiki page, I wanna wiki page!

http://valleywag.com/5043886/sarah-palins-wikipedia-page-scrubbed
"    If you happened to check Sarah Palin's Wikipedia entry Thursday, you might have had a good tip about Friday's announcement.

"    Someone — and apparently it was just one person — felt like the existing biography wasn't appropriate for a vice-presidential candidate.On Friday, 15 minutes before the rumor that John McCain had picked Palin as his running mate, a Wikipedia editor discovered 30 mostly favorable changes had been made to the Alaska governor's profile.

"    She was called "a politician of eye-popping integrity" and sections on her participation in a beauty pageant and her alleged use of influence to get her former brother-in-law fired were diminished.

"    Wikipedia is now restricting who can alter Palin's page. "

Hi,
Or should I say "duck!"? 

Cheers -
Mark

"St. Paul Police Conduct Mass Preemptive Raids Ahead of Republican Convention"
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/1/st_paul_police_conduct_mass_pre

"Armed groups of police in the Twin Cities have raided more than half-a-dozen locations since Friday night in a series of “preemptive raids” before the Republican National Convention. The raids and detentions have targeted activists planning to protest the convention, as well as journalists and videographers documenting police actions at protests.

"Guests:

"Coleen Rowley, worked as an FBI special agent for almost twenty-four years. In 2002, she was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year after she blew the whistle on pre-9/11 intelligence failures. She lives just outside Minneapolis.

"Bruce Nestor, President of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

..."Five Minnesotan activists are still detained on probable cause holds, which means they can be held for thirty-six hours without charge, excluding weekends and public holidays. According to this timeline, they won’t be released before Wednesday. The sheriff called them "criminal anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention.”"...

..."Groups directly affected by the raids include Food Not Bombs, the RNC Welcoming Committee, I-Witness Video and Communities United Against Police Brutality."...

..."(Michelle) Gross was held for forty-five minutes, then released. But when she returned home, she found her home and car had been broken into and all her documents thoroughly searched."...

..."BRUCE NESTOR: It was really an effort led by the Ramsey County Sheriff to put people in preventative detention. The raids were carried out by Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who had been arguing for months that there needed to be a stronger law enforcement response, and he was being told that wasn’t necessary. And so, he sent his officers in, after doing intelligence gathering and infiltrating these groups.

"And then, really what he did is he took common household items that you would find in any home in Minnesota—a hatchet, rope, glass bottles and rags—attached the label “anarchist” to the people who are living in the homes, and then raise this public fear that the anarchists were threatening violence, public disorder. But really, it’s taking a common household item, something you’d find anywhere, calling it an edged weapon and then attacking people for their political beliefs, that then is used to generate this public fear and keep activists detained, as you said, through Wednesday at noon."

..."BRUCE NESTOR: They did the same thing in the house raids in south Minneapolis. They broke down doors, even though these were knock warrants, meaning they were supposed to knock and announce themselves. I was personally present and saw officers with riot gear and assault rifles, pump action shotguns. The neighbor of one of the houses had a gun pointed in her face when she walked out on her back porch to see what was going on. There were children in all of these houses, and children were held at gunpoint. Everyone was forced to the floor and handcuffed and then detained for about an hour, while they were processed out, and then individuals were released."...

Text continues at length...

Hi,
On 9/11, a man with a remote control may have produced everything that we saw. Or, something to that effect...

There’s a lot of infrastructure being used in the ongoing development of remote controlled craft.  There are positioning and command data networks and protocols, and callings for managing multiple UAVs (unmanned air vehicles) simultaneously, in articles I’ve read, ranging from Nov. 2003 to Jan. 2006.  I presume there are various weather conditions to consider, and having sufficient redundancies in the system.  When a UAV has a problem, I don’t suppose we can say its Ok for it to just crash-land in someone’s neighborhood, can we?  The latest trend with considerations towards remote-controlled commercial aircraft seem to be for re-taking the craft in the event of a hijacking.

“Boeing patents anti-terrorism auto-land system for hijacked airliners”
Link
January 12, 2006

“Boeing last week received a US patent for a system that, once activated, removes all control from pilots to automatically return a commercial airliner to a predetermined landing location.
“The “uninterruptible” autopilot would be activated – either by pilots, by onboard sensors, or even remotely via radio or satellite links by government agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency, if terrorists attempt to gain control of a flight deck.”…

Then, we have a few articles surrounding the Raytheon company, and UAV activity (using a Boeing 727) from August 25th and 26th of 2001, just 2 weeks before September 11.  Digging deeper into 9/11, I’d have to say, it seems like Raytheon is a real eye-catcher.  Not only did they demonstrate a remote-controlled Boeing 727, but 4 of their top people were on 9/11 flight manifests, and they are the only company at 911 Research listed to have been heavily invested in by way of “call options” just before the attacks.

Could that be someone stupid enough to steal their own (personal) check out of the safe when they rob the place where they work, but not take anyone else’s?  Why Raytheon?  Aren’t they guilty already?  The investigation into who made all the crazy investments in the week prior to 9/11 was an FBI and SEC led farce, which produced a report saying that they didn’t find any unusual investment activity.  Let’s just say that if you check the link (below), you might find the investment activity a little unusual.  The trick?  According to the link, a few higher-ups gave federal gag orders to every one of the 150 or so people that they deputized to contribute to their investigation. 

“Raytheon and Air Force Demonstrate Civil-Military Interoperability for GPS-Based Precision Landing System”
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=6153
Monday, October 1, 2001

“A government-industry team accomplished the first precision approach by a civil aircraft using a military Global Positioning System (GPS) landing system Aug. 25 at Holloman AFB, N.M., Raytheon Company announced today.
“A FedEx Express 727-200 Aircraft equipped with a Rockwell-Collins GNLU-930 Multi-Mode Receiver landed using a Raytheon-developed military ground station. Raytheon designed and developed the differential GPS ground station under an Air Force contract for the Joint Precision Approach and Landings System (JPALS) program. The JPALS system is being developed to meet the Defense Department's need for an anti-jam, secure, all weather Category II/III aircraft landing system that will be fully interoperable with planned civil systems utilizing the same technology. Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force have been conducting extensive flight testing for JPALS at Holloman over the last three months.
“The FedEx Express 727-200 aircraft at Holloman successfully conducted a total of sixteen Category I approaches. After completing a number of pilot flown approaches for reference the aircraft conducted six full autolands using the JPALS ground station. ``The consistency of the approaches allowed us to proceed to actual autolandings with very little delay,'' said Steve Kuhar, Senior Technical Advisor Flight Department for FedEx Express. The aircraft was guided by differential GPS corrections, integrity information, and precision approach path points transmitted from the Raytheon developed JPALS ground station.”…

Detailed information from the Air Force regarding these tests can be had by right-clicking this link, and saving the PDF file…
http://dl4u.savefile.com/e7ced4087e9f866da1c42a430ccc5387/AF_FOIA.pdf

“September 25, 2001: Several 9/11 Passengers Have Possible Connections to Pilotless Aircraft Program”
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a100201raytheon#a092501globalhawk

…“As details of the passengers on the four hijacked flights emerge, some are shown to have curious connections to the defense company Raytheon, and possibly its Global Hawk pilotless aircraft program. Stanley Hall (Flight 77) was director of program management for Raytheon Electronics Warfare. One Raytheon colleague calls him “our dean of electronic warfare.” [Associated Press, 9/25/2001] Peter Gay (Flight 11) was Raytheon’s vice president of operations for Electronic Systems and had been on special assignment to a company office in El Segundo, California. [Associated Press, 9/25/2001] Raytheon’s El Segundo’s Electronic Systems division is one of two divisions making the Global Hawk. [Intelligence Surveillance Reconaissance Journal, 3/2002] Kenneth Waldie (Flight 11) was a senior quality control engineer for Raytheon’s electronic systems. David Kovalcin (Flight 11) was a senior mechanical engineer for Raytheon’s electronic systems.
[CNN, 9/2001]”…

-----
Fyi, it says here, Raytheon was invested in just before the attacks…
http://911research.wtc7.net/sept11/stockputs.html
“Purchases of call options on Raytheon stock increased sixfold on the day before the attack.”

Raytheon has also had direct dealings with Rudy Giuliani and Donald Rumsfeld, and no doubt the list goes on.  For Giuliani, I see he’s making money from UAV drones along the Mexican border.  There’s a lot of interesting technology being deployed there, so watch your back, and your head, and anything else.  You may get zapped by a space machine with a laser beam!

Cheers –

Mark

Older UAVs:
RQ-1 Predator Drones (UAVs of the mid 1990s):
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/predator.htm
Pictures: http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/predator-pics.htm
Text and Pics for the MQ-1 (upgraded) UAV:
http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=122
“The MQ-1 Predator is a medium-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft.”…

Hi,
After that last send (remote control theory), I came to realize that a 5th fellow was also a top Raytheon fellow, named Herbert Homer, a Raytheon Corp. Exec., and who was on flight 175.
http://mindprod.com/politics/asbestos.html

That means that 5 top Raytheon people, spread over 3 of the 4 flights, died that day.

I suppose any line of investigation is interesting when you take it upon yourself.  I have no idea what exactly happened with the planes on 9/11.

For all I know, those 5 Raytheon people actually now run an island in the south pacific, with one or two plane-loads of guests and a really short bell-hop.  ;-)

Other notes of historical interest: I have read, briefly, of something like UAVs as far back as in the Vietnam war.  Here's a couple of other links...

From 1962, "Northwoods Document": Intelligence Advise to President Kennedy on dealing with the Cubans by way of false flag/black ops (and other delights)...
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/04/10/15/ward.htm

..."Page 13
"8. It is possible to create an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner enroute from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela. The destination would be chosen only to cause the flight plan route to cross Cuba. The passengers could be a group of college students off on a holiday or any grouping of persons with a common interest to support chartering a non-scheduled flight.

"a. An aircraft at Eglin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami area. At a designated time the duplicate would be subsituted for the actual civil aircraft and would be loaded with the selected passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone.

"b. Take off times of the drone aircraft and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rendezvous south of Florida. From the rendezvous point the passenger-carrying aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly
into an auxiliary field at Eglin AFB where arrangements will have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status. The drone aircraft meanwhile will continue to fly the filed flight plan. When over Cuba the drone will being transmitting on the inter-national distress frequency a "MAY DAY" message stating he is under attack by Cuban MIG aircraft. The transmission will be interrupted by the destruction of aircraft which will be triggered by radio signal. This will allow IACO radio "...

From 1984:
"NASA: Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID) Aircraft"
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Movie/CID/index.html
..."On the morning of December 1, 1984, a remotely controlled Boeing 720 transport took off from Edwards Air Force Base (Edwards, California), made a left-hand departure and climbed to an altitude of 2300 feet. It then began a descent-to-landing to a specially prepared runway on the east side of Rogers Dry Lake. Final approach was along the roughly 3.8-degree glide slope."...

..."The aircraft was remotely flown by NASA research pilot Fitzhugh (Fitz) Fulton from the NASA Dryden Remotely Controlled Vehicle Facility. Previously, the Boeing 720 had been flown on 14 practice flights with safety pilots onboard. During the 14 flights, there were 16 hours and 22 minutes of remotely piloted vehicle control, including 10 remotely piloted takeoffs, 69 remotely piloted vehicle controlled approaches, and 13 remotely piloted vehicle landings on abort runway."...

And this is from Tom Flocco (whoever that is)...

""SECRET GLOBAL HAWK REFIT FOR SKY WARRIOR!"
"Secret 911 Grand Jury in NY!"
http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/WitnessesLink.htm
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/05/318250.shtml
May 26, 2005

"More corrolative evidence for the Sky Warrior as Pentagon plane: "According to two civilian defense contractor employees working at commercial corporate facilities at Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport, in the months before the 9-11 attacks U.S. Air Force...[had military tech corps bring in] A-3 Sky Warrior aircraft UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS TO BE COMPLETELY REFITTED AND MODIFIED at the small civilian airport in Colorado.""...
..."Raytheon/TRW owned by Blackstone, private financial corp., CEO, Peter Peterson (of NYC Fed. Reserve); Blackstone buys full WTC7 mortgage through in-house mil. contractor Raytheon/TRW mere months before 9-11 while other Raytheonites refit Sky Warriors as Global Hawks. "...

------
Sky Warriors are very high tech planes.  They are immense data gatherers where they are sent.  I suppose the only Sky Warrior possibilities on 9/11 are any ones that weren't the two that hit the towers, because I saw Boeing airliners do that.

Cheers -

Mark

"Republican Convention protests turn violent as 250 arrested"
Link
"At least 250 people were arrested outside the Republican Convention last night as police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse rioters attacking property and blocking roads in protest at the war in Iraq. "...

"Police hope violent St. Paul protests will end"
(link is broken across 2 lines)
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/conventions
/27737929.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

..."Police arrested more than 280 people Monday during a series of skirmishes that ranged throughout downtown St. Paul, some within blocks of the hockey arena where the Republican National Convention began its four-day run."...

That was fun, thanks, Anne!

Cheers -

Mark

Hi,
I'm not sure how ironic this is, but you're receiving an email with a link to a (one page) document by me, about how to write emails.

http://www.oocities.org/markgmeyers/pinfonet.htm

In it, I'm sure you'll find me pitting myself for or against its ideas, and perhaps with thoughts or remembrances of persons in my mailing list.

Cheers -

Mark

Hi,
That's my woman, Violet, talking about the Polar Bears and the Walrusses.  If nobody mentioned it, "Arctic Tale" was a big production in this regard, they followed these animals up north, kind of meticulously, for years.  We'd both recommend it.

Gosh, Violet sent me a PCN! I guess I'll forward it. :-)

Cheers -
Mark

For a great time, visit:
http://www.oocities.org/markgmeyers/pinfonet.htm

--- On Mon, 9/8/08, Irene Violet Gadapee wrote:

> Subject: Endangered Species Act Under Assault: Send Comments to Secretary Kempthorne
> Date: Monday, September 8, 2008, 7:51 PM
> To My Friends,
>
> I need your help to prevent Bush from fatally crippling our
> nation's most successful wildlife law and we only have
> ONE week left to do it.
>
> Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced devastating
> changes to the Endangered Species Act, signaling the end of
> protection for thousands of imperiled species.
>
> The new regulations would:
>
> - Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under
> the Endangered Species Act;
> - Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight;
> - Limit which effects can be considered harmful;
> - Prevent consideration of a project's contribution to
> global warming; 
> - Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to
> evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to
> participate -- or else the project gets an automatic green
> light;
> - Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing
> them into hundreds of small projects.
>
> Send a message to Kempthorne and members of Congress that
> these changes are unacceptable.
>
> Thanks
>
> Your friend
>
> Visit:
> http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25351

Hi,
"PinfoNet" was an idea at an architecture for people exchanging information using email (without changing anything existing), but what it also revealed was what I would call a shortcoming when using email.

There's some (addressing) things that you just can't do.

Second page: Email Problems

http://www.oocities.org/markgmeyers/pinfonet2.htm

" This is how existing problems become evident - when starting with a blank slate.

PinfoNet architecture calls for a person's ability to send (emails) with varying degrees of association, such as to send an email to some people as protected, but to others as public.  In the case of the public ones, one could say that all protected (address) information should not be there, but that for protected recipients, it should.

And what are "to", "cc" and "bcc" anyways?  These are old conventions for office documents.  What the addressing part needs to understand is who can and cannot see the addresses.  As it presently stands, the BCC recipients see everyone's addresses but their own, and the CC recipients see everyone's addresses but the BCCs.  That's a combination of visibly privileged and invisibly privileged.  Everybody is privileged to the address information of the visible. You can have some people overseeing others, but the overseers can't see each other.  The most privileged recipients are the least facilitated, on the matter of sharing address information.

I occasionally use BCC as intended to send a secret copy to someone at a higher level of privilege.  Far more often, however, I use BCC to protect the addresses of closer associations from more distant ones.  In today's day and age, I BCC every recipient for my email creations, (which just aint PinfoNet).

What people need, for a given transmission, is for some people to be able to share and see each other's addresses, but for others to not.  Present-day email technology does not have that capability.

Not all groups are concentric.  Perhaps user-defined groups could be made to see other group-member's addresses, with lots of configuration options, and that could become a big design, albeit anthropologically rooted. 

It would be nice to be able to see personal information, when desired, within ones own group.  It would be nice to dispatch an email to different groups, and mind the addressing protections.  In fact, it's looking like the headers are playing a part in how people read their emails - they're examining the lists of recipients, as though that were a part of it! ;-)  The only other thing is "blinding" an address, which could be happening by not seeing the addresses outside of one's group.  So, I suppose a person would define a groups as where people would see each other's addresses. "

Cheers -
Mark

Hi,
I don't know what's going on, because I haven't read the news, but I did see on one site just now that 30 million russians are about to watch a 911 Truther flick, called "Zero", with Gore Vidal and many others, on russian national television.  What are they thinking?

In case you hadn't guessed, "Zero" shows the people running things over here in quite a corrupted manner (the gaul!)  And if they go and do that, then russians may  - 
WOLVERINES!   

WOLVERINES!

"30 Million Will See 9/11 Truth Documentary "ZERO" On Russian State Television Sept. 11"
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/60998

Cheers -
Mark

Hi,
Ike news from sis at JSC...

Cheers -
Mark

--- On Thu, 9/11/08, Meyers, Karen (JSC-SD3) wrote:

> Subject: Ike - take a hike!
> Date: Thursday, September 11, 2008, 12:38 AM
> Well Hello,
>
> For all of you northerners, you're probably enjoying
> either 38F
> overnight temps or a bit of rain.  However, here in balmy
> tropical
> Houston, we're preparing for what Winnie the pooh
> calls.....    "the
> very blustery day".
>
> Yeah right. 
>
> So hurricane Ike innocently started out heading south
> west...  but
> today, each new tracking map that came out put it closer
> and closer to
> Houston.  Hobart (my kitty) basically said, take me to the
> NW side of
> town NOW or I'm leaving you.  I agreed.  So here I am
> typing away in a
> hotel on the NW side of Houston, waiting for the 70mph
> winds and
> tornados to arrive.  And those are supposed to be the slow
> winds.....
>
> Ike is 400 miles wide.  That's almost half way across
> TX.  TX is almost
> one third the width of the Southern portion of the US (CA
> to FL).  Our
> hurricane ride-out team at JSC believes that this might be
> the next
> Hurricane Wilma, the hurricane with the highest recorded
> wind speeds.
> Apparently the warm waters of the gulf (well over 90 these
> days) helps
> to intensify Ike.  But the real problem is that there are
> no cross winds
> competing with Ike in the upper atmosphere.  And this is
> the more
> important element for hurricane control.  Essentially, Ike
> has nothing
> to stop it from getting stronger.  Eduardo, Gustav, Rita
> etc eventually
> slowed down due to upper atmosphere cross winds.  But good
> ole Ike won't
> be fettered with such ridiculousness.
>
> So, even though I'm a wellness person, I grabbed the
> most expensive meat
> from the freezer (private stock rib eyes I snagged on sale)
> the
> expensive lean ground turkey, veggies for cold packs and
> headed west.
> Oh, and of course, once we loose power in all of Houston, I
> made sure to
> stock up on Dainty Moore and Chef Boy R Dee....  Well, that
> and candles
> and a jug or two of wine. 
>
> The interesting part of this hurricane is that while
> southern TX is
> preparing, Houston has had little to no discussion of this
> regarding
> evacuations.  If you look at hurricane maps, it's just
> about heading
> straight for us.  Go to Google maps and click on
> hurricanes.....  Yet
> all of the evacuations are in Matagorda, Brazoria county
> and only the
> most western end of Galveston (south).
> http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
> Note the solid blue line, and the fourth largest city in
> the US......
> converging....
>
> Houston is essentially unprepared.  They sent 200 busses,
> and schools
> are closing.  But this will hit late Fri night in
> Galveston.  That's
> only 48 hours away.  There's 4 million people here.....
>  Sounds to me
> like Rita traffic jam all over again.  Fortunately I work
> with the
> hurricane ride-out team at JSC.  We've been all over
> this all day long.
> I left my house at 9pm tonight.  Tomorrow till be a fiasco
> if this thing
> hangs a right, just like Rita did.....
>
> And the actual 5-day Tracking and Computer Models are at
> this web site
> below:
> A mere 8 hours ago, Ike was headed south.....  Big jump
> fast.....
> http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200809.html
>
> JSC finally announced tonight, literally at 10pm, that they
> will close
> at noon on Thur.  Needless to say, much of Houston will be
> sound asleep
> tonight....
>
>
> So- here's a little drama for all of you.  I'll
> keep the laptop charged
> and ready for any blustery updates if they make for good
> press.
> However, I'm sure CNN will summarily humiliate Houston
> if the Mayor
> doesn't stay on top of this one....
>
>
> Goggles and flippers locked and loaded.  That's all for
> now!!!
>
>
> -Karen & Hobart

Hi,
I'm just starting to let folks know, today, that I'm starting to make links and sites public, for a personal project, the Co-Operative Assembly, that I've been sitting on for a few years now.

Blog: http://coopassembly.blogspot.com
Discussions: http://groups.google.com/group/coopassembly

Well, this is a nice announcement.  It seems to me that the 4th House, as they say, has been hijacked, and people need some kind of infrastructure to get their freedom of information back. 

Enter the Co-Operative Assembly, an organization that people create, with 3 internal branches of information processing, with verified identities for all work performed, and with other checks, such as a complete set of public records to back up any public, informational product.  The purpose of this design is to give people the infrastructure they need, and the ability to gain trust in the public eye. Even to the point of organizations endorsed by reputable sources as useful for research purposes. 

Modern technology gives us the ability to enforce checks and balances our forefathers never would have considered.

Any are welcome to stop by and say hi at the blog or discussions page.

Cheers -
Mark

p.s. PinfoNet pages are done. That was fun, too!
http://www.oocities.org/markgmeyers/pinfonet.htm

Hi,
Well, a couple, from Germany and Russia.

From Heise publications of Germany...
(translated from German to English)
Link

58% say parts of the US government were responsible.
(for the 911 attacks)

From Russia Today...
http://www.russiatoday.com/poll/results/377

88% think that the 911 commission deliberately hid the truth.

Remember "Red Dawn".

Wolverines!

I don't know what they're going to do, but Russia has testicles
these days, it seems, and Germany really needs natural gas
(which they need from Russia). So, maybe Georgia and the Ukraine
won't make NATO this year. I also read the president of Belgium
condemning the attack on South Ossetia recently.

Cheers -
Mark

Hi,
I just wanted you to know, that I am always concerned about what's in your panties.

http://www.stylelist.com/blog/gallery/palin-in-your-pants/1020903/

The link above is to "Palin in your panties".

The last time I saw anything like this, Caligula was in power, and the senate ruled the empire by way of assassinations.  Only this is like some kind of chastity panty for some, or perhaps for men, a kind of prayer tool.

Cheers -
Mark

Hi,
Thanks, dude, for the heads up...

They just can't stop going at it, like it was an East-West thing.  If it was just the Russians, I'd say, "Wolverines!", but with Iran, there is also mentioned a connection brewing with Syria that can be used by the west to be inflamed. But then there is Israel, and how they feel about Iran and Syria (that way).  And so, they are inflaming, and they are inflamed. All of them.

I think this article nicely gives Bush credit for working to create the worst relationship with Iran that the US could possibly have.

Cheers -
Mark

"US a step closer to Iran blockade"
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JI13Ak01.html
"The United States government has imposed new sanctions on Iran, this time targeting its shipping industry, by blacklisting the main shipping line and 18 subsidiaries, accusing the maritime carrier of being engaged in contraband nuclear material, a charge vehemently denied by Iran.

"While the economic impact of the measures against Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) will be minimal in light of the near absence of any connection between the shipping company and US businesses, this latest US initiative against Iran sends a strong signal about the US's intention to escalate pressure on Iran, even unilaterally if need be. And, perhaps, it is a prelude for more serious and dangerous actions in the near future, above all a naval blockade of Iran to choke off its access to, among other things, imported fuel. "...

Hi,
Or so they say, and I find the links work to get to the orignal pics if they don't show at matadorpulse.  This is a special collection of pics...

"Anti-Bush Graffiti: 25 Countries, Six Continents"
http://matadorpulse.com/anti-bush-graffiti-25-countries-six-continents/

The Digg Description:
"Traveling by air — er, compressed air, that is — and landing on everything from brick walls to telephone poles to the doors of trash chutes, Bush boasts a presence in just about every last nook in the world."
http://digg.com/arts_culture/Anti_Bush_Graffiti_From_25_Countries_Six_Continents_PICS

Cheers -
Mark

Hi,
I lost all my links, but we're battling in Waziristan, and that's a tribal area in Pakistan, bordering on Afghanistan, and generals are saying we need hundreds of thousands of troops to secure Afghanistan, which is something like what they said we needed in Iraq, but problems in Afghanistan continue to grow, along with military activity there.  Its as if this administration can't keep track of wars. 

Bush just sent 5000 more to Afghanistan, and it has escalated there recently.  Maybe we could have skipped Iraq for now?  How about limits on wars?  Only one or two per president, perhaps?  Ok, that's too much for this guy.  If you graduated with a C average, then only one war per president. The next one can clean it up.  With over 200 countries, only a small part of the world will be destroyed at any one time. 

There were a few wars during the Reagan administration, but many people feel that Reagan was not totally aware of what was going on in the White House. 

Cheers -
Mark

Hi,
In a letter from the US Senate to FBI Director Mueller, he has been invited to a hearing, to answer for the misuse of reporter's phone records, as led by Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter, which I think have made an enjoyable duo since they started.

Secondly, there are 18 (pedantic) questions listed by Iowa senator Charles Grassley (R), that he would like the FBI (and the AG) to answer, in regards to the evidence and case they are putting forward, saying that Bruce Ivins did it. 

I think maybe the senate is getting sick of these guys.  The funny thing is, is anybody wondering, this is the anthrax attack following 911, and the FBI case is paltry.  Ok, so if their case is like that, then who's case is a good one?  Can anybody do better than the FBI?  Please forward your information to Charles Grassley.  Patrick Leahy might be temperamental about his mail, after being one of the anthrax addressees. He can get his mail from Charles Grassley.

Cheers -
Mark

"Mueller To Testify At FBI Oversight Hearing In September"
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200808/081308a.html
(from PDF of letter to Mueller)
"Dear Director Mueller:
"We were disappointed to learn that, in 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) misused so-called "exigent letters" to obtain the telephone records of reporters working in the Jakarta, Indonesia, bureaus of The Washington Post and The New York Times. ...
"The FBI's misuse of "exigent letters" first came to light in March 2007, as part of a congressionally-mandated Inspector General (IG) audit of National Security Letters (NSLs). ...
"We recognize that, after the March 2007 report, you ended the FBI's practice of using "exigent letters." ...
"Together, these revelations underscore the importance of vigorous
congressional oversight and suggest that additional legislation may be needed. ...
"If nothing else, these new findings suggest a pressing need for the legislation we have cosponsored with a bipartisan group of Senators to create a qualified privilege for reporters, the "Free Flow of Information Act of 2008." Our bill includes a provision designed to limit the government's ability to collect the telephone records of reporters. "...


"Capitol Hill Questions FBI Anthrax Investigation: Where's The Polygraph?"
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/capitol_hill_questions_fbi_ant.php

(letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA))
Dear Attorney General Mukasey and Director Mueller:

Thank you for ensuring that Congressional staff received an advanced briefing yesterday of the information released to the public in the Amerithrax investigation. The three affidavits provided represent an important, but small first step toward providing Congress and the public a full accounting of the evidence gathered by the FBI.

At yesterday's briefing, Justice Department and FBI officials invited follow-up questions after there had been time to read the affidavits. Indeed, there are many important questions to be answered about the FBI's seven-year investigation, the basis for its conclusion that Dr. Bruce Ivins conducted the attacks alone, and the events leading to his suicide. To begin this inquiry, please provide complete and detailed answers to the following questions:

1. What is the date (month and year) that the FBI determined that the anthrax came from a specified flask in Ivins's lab ("RMR-1029")?

2. When (month and year) did the FBI determine that Dr. Hatfill never had access to the anthrax used in the killings?

3. How did the FBI determine that Dr. Hatfill did not have access to the anthrax used in the killings? Was that because the FBI determined that Dr. Hatfill no longer worked at USAMRIID when the powder was made?

4. Was Dr. Hatfill or his counsel informed that Dr. Hatfill had been cleared of any involvement in the anthrax killings before the Department of Justice offered a settlement to him? Was he informed before signing the settlement agreement with him? If not, please explain why not.

5. Was Judge Walton (the judge overseeing the Privacy Act litigation) ever informed that Dr. Hatfill had been eliminated as a suspect in the anthrax killings? If so, when. If not, please explain why not.

6. Was Dr. Ivins ever polygraphed in the course of the investigation? If so, please provide the dates and results of the exam(s). If not, please explain why not.

7. Of the more than 100 people who had access to RMR 1029, how many were provided custody of samples sent outside Ft. Detrick? Of those, how many samples were provided to foreign laboratories?

8. If those with access to samples of RMR 1029 in places other than Ft. Detrick had used the sample to produce additional quantities of anthrax, would that anthrax appear distinguishable from RMR 1029?

9. How can the FBI be sure that none of the samples sent to other labs were used to create additional quantities of anthrax that would appear distinguishable from RMR 1029?

10. Please describe the methodology and results of any oxygen isotope measurements taken to determine the source of water used to grow the spores used in the anthrax attacks.

11. Was there video equipment which would record the activities of Dr. Ivins at Ft. Detrick on the late nights he was there on the dates surrounding the mailings? If so, please describe what examination of the video revealed.

12. When did the FBI first learn of Dr. Ivins' late-night activity in the lab around the time of the attacks? If this is powerful circumstantial evidence of his guilt, then why did this information not lead the FBI to focus attention on him, rather than Dr. Hatfill, much sooner in the investigation?

13. When did the FBI first learn that Dr. Ivins was prescribed medications for various symptoms of mental illness? If this is circumstantial evidence of his guilt, then why did this information not lead the FBI to focus attention on him, rather than Dr. Hatfill, much sooner in the investigation? Of the 100 individuals who had access to RMR 1029, were any others found to suffer from mental illness, be under the care of a mental health professional, or prescribed anti-depressant/anti-psychotic medications? If so, how many?

14. What role did the FBI play in conducting and updating the background examination of Dr. Ivins in order for him to have clearance and work with deadly pathogens at Ft. Detrick?

15. After the FBI identified Dr. Ivins as the sole suspect, why was he not detained? Did the U.S. Attorney's Office object to seeking an arrest or material witness warrant? If not, did anyone at FBI order a slower approach to arresting Ivins?

16. Had an indictment of Dr. Ivins been drafted before his death? If so, what additional information did it contain beyond the affidavits already released to the public? If not, then when, if ever, had a decision been made to seek an indictment from the grand jury?

17. According to family members, FBI agents publicly confronted and accused Dr. Ivins of the attacks, showed pictures of the victims to his daughter, and offered the $2.5 million reward to his son in the months leading up to his suicide. These aggressive, overt surveillance techniques appear similar to those used on Dr. Hatfill with the apparent purpose of intimidation rather than legitimate investigation. Please describe whether and to what degree there is any truth to these claims.

18. What additional documents will be released, if any, and when will they be released?

Ok,
This is what they've got. 

"The UK says its troops have intercepted arms which it believes were given by a group within the Iranian state. "

And what does that say?  They don't know from who, they don't know from where, but it gets religious.  What, exactly, is a group within the Iranian state?  Could it be the Iranian arm of a US-based arms dealer?  Maybe, it's an Iranian used car dealer.  Did they ever think about that?  But noooooo, it's always Iran itself. 

The US and Russia and a bunch of others sell their weapons all over the world, but, oh, that's right, Russia complained about US involvement in the attacks on South Ossetia, but they reported an actual passport for a guy from Texas, and provided pictures of actual weapons caches. They also reported having evidence of Americans working with Georgian special forces in the operation. Well, that's something.

Maybe the single quotes around the better part of the title is a quote of the belief of the UK troops guy.

Here it is (read it and barf, if you like, that's what I think - the BBC has gone the way of the American media moguls)

------------
Iran 'sending weapons to Taleban'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7616429.stm

Elements in the Iranian state are sending weapons across the border to the Taleban in Afghanistan, a BBC investigation has uncovered.

Taleban members said they had received Iranian-made arms from elements in the Iranian state and from smugglers.

The UK says its troops have intercepted arms which it believes were given by a group within the Iranian state.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul dismissed the allegations, saying Tehran supported the Afghan government.

'It's called Dragon'

Among the Taleban, Iranian-made weapons are greatly sought after in the fight against the government of Hamid Karzai and the Nato and US-led forces deployed to support him.

They are considered to be reliable and particularly destructive.

For example, an Iranian-made Kalashnikov rifle can be adapted to fire grenades. It costs $200-$300 more than one made in Pakistan, Russia or China.

Iranian-made weapons, one commander told me, had really improved the Taleban's ability to attack the American military deployed in his area.

"There's a kind of mine called Dragon. Iran is sending it, we have got it," the Taleban commander said.

"It's directional, it destroys. If you lay an ordinary mine, it will cause only minor damage to Humvees or one of their big tanks. But if you lay a Dragon, it will be destroy it completely."

'Limited supply'

The question is - are Iranian weapons only being brought across the border by smugglers for profit or are elements of the Iranian state also donating arms?

The Taleban commander and other sources in the south told me both routes were operating.

The British ambassador in Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, made the same allegation.

"We've seen a limited supply of weapons by a group within the Iranian state, not necessarily with the knowledge of all other agencies of the Iranian state, sending some very dangerous weapons to the Taleban in the south.

"It's a very dangerous game for Iran, a Shia state, to be supplying Sunni extremists, like the Taleban."

Seven years on, the worsening of American-Iranian relations might give some groups within the Iranian state a reason to help the Taleban fight their mutual enemy - the US army deployed in Afghanistan.

Hi,
I'm seeing gossip lately, in Europe and in Russia, at least, where they're asking the big question as to whether or not Bush, Israel or some combination, plans to attack Iran before the elections here, or before the elections in Israel, in either case, to create domestic conditions calling for hardliners in elections.  At the UK Guardian, there is a guess that perhaps an attack would strengthen McCain in the US election, and the euro-blog article goes into a hardliner in Israel (to replace Ehud Olmert).

In the event of an attack on Iran, they have a special army of terrorists, now numbering around 50,000, for world-wide deployment.  If we attack Iran, you won't be seeing me at Starbucks anytime soon.  There's another way to look at this.  As mentioned in one of these articles, Iran has one of the world's most advanced biowar programs, so the notion is discussed of these guys doing that abroad (bio-weapons).

Domestic attacks, if they occured, could create a condition that some people might like to see, such as martial law.

There is mention of military hardware.  Once again, there is reference to two carrier (sized) groups in the Persian gulf, with a 3rd on the way (UK Guardian).  This time, it's said they're needed to block shipping lanes.  In Afghanistan, a thousand tanks and other vehicles (Russia Today), but perhaps for use in Iran, just over the border, where tanks would be more effective on open ground. (Also saying that Afghan mountains suck for tanks)  In Israel, 1000 US missiles (euro-blog).

However we slice it, Bush is going out with a bang for me, because I'm still eating my fucking popcorn.  One positive note, the IAEA report from Iran says that they can't support the claim that there is any missing uranium.  OTOH, the US is saying that something is missing.  It's blame without substantiation (they're not showing their evidence).

Cheers -
Mark

"Bush could still attack Iran"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/17/iran.usa
Sep 17, 2008

"Bush agrees to war on Iran"
http://europebusines.blogspot.com/2008/09/bush-agrees-to-war-on-iran.html
Sep 16, 2008

"US to invade Iran any day now?"
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/30312?gclid=CJui5pX_4ZUCFQOIFQodrDfEfQ
Sep 12, 2008

"A few weeks ago the Russian newspaper Izvestia, a well-known and authoritive daily published nationwide and abroad, came forward with something that would have been looked upon as a conspiracy theory if published by a tabloid."...

and, they say, clean up the streets.  This is how Israel cleans up the streets?  Why don't they get to be the green zone?  Sounds more like a technology rollout, with a little pavlovian conditioning for its subjects.

Cheers -
Mark

"City Uses DNA To Fight Dog Poop"
http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUKLG37942520080916

PETAH TIKVA, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli city is using DNA analysis of dog droppings to reward and punish pet owners.

Under a six-month trial programme launched this week, the city of Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv, is asking dog owners to take their animal to a municipal veterinarian, who then swabs its mouth and collects DNA.

The city will use the DNA database it is building to match faeces to a registered dog and identify its owner.

Owners who scoop up their dogs' droppings and place them in specially marked bins on Petah Tikva's streets will be eligible for rewards of pet food coupons and dog toys.

But droppings found underfoot in the street and matched through the DNA database to a registered pet could earn its owner a municipal fine.

...

Cheers,
Newsweek blogger Andrew Romano is reporting on Diageo/Hotline polls, which have been conducted daily on the top candidates.  No doubt this is just the beginning.  In other news, it also looks like the McCain campaign, with help from Alaska republicans, are blocking an ethics investigation that could wrap Palin up pretty good.  I'm sure she'll just mellow out into the same old lipstick wearing bulldog.  Hey, I thought we had one of those, with Hillary...

- Mark

"Palin's Favorability Ratings Begin to Falter"
Link

..."Palin seems to have lost some of her luster. Since Sept. 13, Palin's unfavorables have climbed from 30 percent to 36 percent. Meanwhile, her favorables have slipped from 52 percent to 48 percent. That's a three-day net swing of -10 points, and it leaves her in the Sept. 15 Diageo/Hotline tracking poll tied for the smallest favorability split (+12)** of any of the Final Four. Over the course of a single weekend, in other words, Palin went from being the most popular White House hopeful to the least."...

Hi,
This is actually where 3 US solders are convicted of murder, most brutal. In order to conduct these kinds of acts, they had to be a part of things I've only read bits about over the last couple of years. Things like death squads. 

There are too many stories of the acts being condoned by field commanders in Iraq, and, where did these guys get their ideas?  Have they been in Iraq too long?  4 other soldiers are charged with conspiracy in this.

"3 US soldiers charged with murder in Iraqi deaths "
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080917/ap_on_re_eu/eu_iraq_soldiers_charged

"FRANKFURT, Germany - Three American soldiers were charged with murder Wednesday in the deaths of four Iraqis who were bound, blindfolded, shot in the head and dumped in a Baghdad canal last year."...

Hi,
Hey, maybe they should check this chick out.

Cheers -
Mark

"Palin linked electoral success to prayer of Kenyan witchhunter"
http://timesonline.typepad.com/uselections/2008/09/palin-linked-el.html

"The pastor whose prayer Sarah Palin says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells."...
------

"What is the Wasilla Assemblies of God Trying to Hide for Palin?"
Link

"The Wasilla Assembly of God was Sarah Palin’s main church for decades.
It’s the church that she grew up in, and she still visits the church
several times a year, even though she’s busy as Governor."...

..."The following are the sermons from 2005, when Sarah Palin was in
weekly attendance at the Wasilla Assembly of God church, that were on the
church’s web site right up until the time when Sarah Palin’s candidacy
for the Vice President was announced."...

These military moves are too much.  Ok, now its Russia, moving ships to
the coast of Venezuela.  Along with nukes of various kinds, and nuke
bombers.  They will be having exercises with the Venezuelan and Cuban
navies.

There's a lot of historical contextualizing in this article, and in that
sense I really like the read.  And yes, I think the Russians make good
chess players.  The US goes after the states on Russia's border, and the
old game comes out - they can be in our backyard, too.

"Peter Goodspeed: Putin defies U.S. with nuclear naval challenge in Venezuela "
Link

How will countries break down in World War III?  That would be Bush's
war, since he's simply the most maniacal.  Is seems that the US, UK and
Israel would start against Iran, Syria and Lebanon, although possibly
Pakistan first, since we're having exchanges there, and then Iran.  At
the very least, covert support would come from Russia on their side (and from China it wouldn't surprise me).  Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey
all seem to be able to roll right into this one as well.  Last I checked,
there are masses of Israeli special forces in Turkey, and alot of Turkish
troops (like 150,000).  Turkey is on the border of Iran.

I think that the US and Israel together represents a huge attack
capability, but there's a good deal of opposition as well.  Frankly, I
think US interests are not well served with an actual war with Iran. A suggested by a Russian paper (earlier), the US strategy may have also
suffered from the loss in South Ossetia, where the US may have wanted to
base aircraft for Iranian strikes, across the Black Sea.

- Mark

Hi,
You know, our federal government has already given $800B in bailout money, and that means the taxpayer, and now Bush is asking for another $700B from congress (and from the American taxpayer), so that the feds can "buy bad mortgage-related assets".

"Bush team, Congress negotiate $700B bailout"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080920/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown

Since congress has incurred $10T in debt since Bush showed up, and I'm not sure how much currency has been printed, we can just watch as many trillions go down the tubes, until our dollars are back in Ok shape again.  Maybe $15T, and the dollar will be happy again.  Yippee!

Historically, we go to the federal reserve, which is a privately owned bank, and ask them for loans.  They print the money, and loan it to the US, and charge 4 cents on every dollar for printing.  They then charge interest to the US on that loan.  The American taxpayer pays for the whole thing.  Between the federal reserve, the treasury, and the presidency, the US dollar is virtually overseen in its entirety, and I think they knew we would be footing the bill for it.

So what this all boils down to, is that these guys run up this huge tab, and now it has to be paid for, and we're being asked to foot the bill.  And this is just the beginning. :-(  We're now seeing a global economic collapse.

Democrats.com wants to fire Bush and put in Nancy Pelosi.
http://www.democrats.com/resign
Unfortunately, I really don't like Nancy Pelosi. That just strikes me more like a changing of the guard.  Soon enough, Pelosi will be gone. (sinister laugh)  Soon, they will all be gone! HA HA HA HA HAAAAA

(wishful thinking)

On a brighter note, many of Cheney's records will be held, instead of being locked away or destroyed. Cheney has been trying to say they can't get his records, because he's "not in the executive branch".  We'll see.
"Judge orders Cheney to preserve records"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080920/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_lawsuit

Happy Halloween -
Mark

Hi,
Well, UN sanctions against Iran continue to press down, but Russia has verbalized support for Iran...

"Russia opposes new UN sanctions against Iran"
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m47383&s1=h1

And there's back-and-forth with deployments.  Russia has moved 10 warships to the Syrian coast as part of deals between the two, not far from Israel (whoopsie), and NATO is fortifying its presence in Georgia.  A Russian NATO envoy has suggested that the US may want to use Georgia as a staging ground for an attack on Iran.  Always getting those two diplomatic cents in.  Battle-related problems with Pakistan continue (Waziristan), and they don't look stable.  A building bombed in Pakistan may be reported/alleged as a CIA base of operations; we'll see.

"Rogozin: U.S. could use Georgia as bridgehead to attack Iran"
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080917/116887622.html

"NATO plans rapid-reaction force to counter Russian aggression -2"
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080920/116990592.html

"Russian warships in Syrian waters"
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=69983&sectionid=351020602

Cheers -
Mark