The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 7/5/2004

(updated every Monday at some point during the day)

Mirror (in case geocities is wacky or, in case of trouble in New York, check it for messages): http://129.79.148.33/vidiotcontact/

"I have come to the conclusion
that one useless man is called
a disgrace. That two are called
a law firm. And that three or
more are called a Congress."

--John Adams' character
in the movie "1776"

Well, Independence Day came and went. Pretty quiet. Didn't see a lot of flags hanging, didn't see a lot of fireworks, (except for the Macy's fireworks and those I just ignored.) If you actually read the Declaration of Independence, you'll get depressed. This country has fallen into such disgrace. The men who sacrificed and risked their lives for that document were of the monied class, yes, but they had much to lose from our separation from England.

Imagine if our Congress decided that GW should be impeached and released of his duties because of his and his administration's lies and thievery, and that in response, GW had the army ready to sweep into the Capitol building and arrest everyone in sight. What would that be like? Would any of us support our representatives -- call them, tell them that what they're doing is brave, orchestrate a giant work stoppage, or go to DC and rally in the streets in support of Congress despite the obvious risks? Or would we sit on our butts and watch it on CNN? Would we read about it over coffee and say "Hmmm. That's interesting?" Or worse, would we cower in our homes, believing the network spin. Believing that their incredulity and disapproval reflected that of the entire nation? I would hope we'd unite, but expect we wouldn't. The ignorance of the American people, as a whole, is boundless.

Update on my browser hijacking. (Here's the fixed picture link, BTW) Now, the government has come out and told us to stop using Internet Explorer altogether. Too late for me.

Site of the week: Claim vs. Fact

Trek site of the week: Gene Roddenberry's pantheism

Diabetes news of the week: Glucose testing with no blood letting.

Gift idea of the week: Farting Bush Doll

Another site of the week: Revealing major coverups.

Anti-Hummer site of the week: FUH2.com

Flash of the week: Justice is Duck Blind.

Right-wing news site: BushCountry.org (scary)

With regards to journalism...

Excerpt: All journalists are cowards. Hitchens knows it, I know it, everybody in this business knows it. If there were any justice at all, every last goddamn one of us would be lowered, head-first, into a wood-chipper. Over Arizona. Shoot a nice red mist over the whole state, make it arable for a year or two. A year's worth of fava beans and endive for the children of Bangladesh: I dare anyone in our business to say that that wouldn't represent a better use of our rotting bodies than the actual fruits of our labor.

This quote is regarding the possibility of a draft. The article is a denial of the possibility. But there was one interesting little line, right at the top:

Excerpt: Ignore all those Internet rumors: Despite the U.S. military's desperate need for more troops, there's no chance that the Bush administration or Congress will resurrect the draft, short of a new Pearl Harbor.

"A new Pearl Harbor" Hmmmmm. Now where have I heard THAT before (she says, stroking her imaginary van dyke.) Oh, silly me. Now I remember.

Excerpt: Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and industrial policy will shape the pace and content of transformation as much as the requirements of current missions.

I think if we can get everyone talking about the possibility that the Bushies are holding onto bin Laden for an October surprise, then when it happens, it'll be seen as the political maneuver that it is.

Excerpt: In a speech to business leaders in India, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., gave credence to a rumor that the U.S. has captured Osama bin Laden and for political reasons is waiting for the right moment to reveal it, according to the Indo-Asian News Service.

I can just see Dick Cheney now, reading through all the documents, changing all of the n's to q's.

Excerpt: The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has concluded Osama bin Laden's terror network had long-running contacts with Iran.

Meanwhile, the bogus dossier regarding Iraq and the alleged purchase of uranium is getting more coverage.

Excerpt: It was the SISMI [(Italian) Military Intelligence and Security Service] that came into contact, between October and November 2001, with an African dimplomat who was selling forged documents (the six pages reproduced on these pages) about a trade in "500 tonnes of pure uranium per annum, for delivery in two installments," between Niger and Iraq.

And he's STILL saying that the Iraq war has made the U .S. and the world safer. (I want what HE'S smoking)

Excerpt: Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday the Bush administration's war on terrorism had brought "decisive and relentless action" against extremists and said the world and America were safer because of it.

And now he's out there saying Saddam had something to do with the '93 WTC bombing!

Excerpt: Speaking in New Orleans on Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney drew direct connection between Iraq and al Qaida's efforts to destroy the World Trade Center, noting that one of the key operatives in the first attack on the Twin Towers was granted sanctuary by Saddam Hussein.

Now, I'm in the middle of Richard Clark's book and he says that the '93 bombing is more likely an early al Qaeda effort. Who are YOU going to believe? Clark or Cheney?

Nobody likes Cheney. The fact that he got booed at a Yankee game made me laugh.

Excerpt: Cheney, who visited both clubhouses after batting practice, watched part of the game from the box of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and part from a first-row seat next to the Yankees dugout, where he sat between New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Cheney was booed when he was shown on the right-field videoboard during the seventh-inning stretch.

Here's a story that will not get reported: We sent a bunch of terrorists back to Saudi Arabia to get one Canadian and a few other westerners out of jail there.

Excerpt:In return for the release of Sampson and other westerners held in Riyadh, the Americans agreed to send five Saudi terror suspects they had captured back to their homeland, the New York Times reported Sunday.

And who says the Bush family and the House of Saud aren't tight?

So they handed over Iraq. So they're ready for democracy...or not.

Excerpt: President Bush said today that coalition forces in Iraq would support a possible decision by the new Iraqi leadership to declare martial law to deal with escalating violence and terror attacks.

And Saddam's on trial, though. according to Robert Fisk, reports of the trial are being vigorously censored for the American public.

Excerpt: A team of US military officers acted as censors over all coverage of the hearings of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen on Thursday, destroying videotape of Saddam in chains and deleting the entire recorded legal submissions of 11 senior members of his former regime.

I agree with this guy. Nothing changes.

Excerpt: After June 30 it will be the US embassy that will play this role and John Negroponte, a tried and tested colonial official, who watched benignly as the death squads created mayhem in Central America, will be the de facto ruler of Iraq. The former CIA agent, Ayad Allawi, who worked as a low-leval police spy for the Saddam regime and was responsible for handing over the names of numerous dissidents, will be the new "Prime Minister". How can even the most naive camp-follower of the American empire regard this operation as a transfer of sovereignty?

Even the your average Iraqi knows the score.

Excerpt: According to BBC News, the word on the streets is the new Iraqi leader, 'Prime Minister Iyad Allawi,' is being equally mistrusted by everyone in Iraq and they think he is a CIA man.

Why don't these guys read any history.

Excerpt: In Iraq we don't just read history at school - we carry it within ourselves. It's no wonder, then, that we view what is happening in Iraq now of "liberation-mandate-nominal sovereignty" as a replay of what took place in the 1920s and afterwards.

Oh, and did you notice how quickly Bremer high-tailed it out of Iraq? I wonder why.

Excerpt: Just days before he is due to leave Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority administrator Paul Bremer is facing new accusations that he is hindering, rather than helping, the oil-for-food investigation.

So I guess it's time for another war.

Excerpt: The United States said Tuesday Iran continues to hide its ambitions to make nuclear weapons.

Or maybe it'll be Korea.

Excerpt: In an exercise codenamed Operation Summer Pulse 04, it is expected to arrange for an unprecedented seven aircraft carrier strike groups (CSGs) to rendezvous in waters a safe distance away from the Chinese coastline - but still within striking distance - after mid-July.

(The article says it's a show of force to China, but we all know better, don't we?)

What is the most notable thing about Moore's movie? The fact the GW sat there for all that time reading a book for the kiddies? Or the fact that those charged with protecting him, the secret service, did nothing to whisk him off to safety?

Excerpt: If the events of 9-11 were really a surprise to the United States Government, then there is no way that the Secret Service could know there wasn't a hijacked or stolen plane headed towards Booker Elementary School that very second.

Wow. I believe the Justice Department has a group of people who's job it is to come up with new and inventive ways to withhold information.

Excerpt: The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Justice Department's database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.

Howard Stern made a big announcement this week. He's back on in the markets that Clear Channel removed him from.

Excerpt: THE HOWARD STERN SHOW, radio's most popular morning program, will launch in nine Infinity Broadcasting markets across the country, it was announced today by Joel Hollander, President and Chief Operating Officer, Infinity. This announcement marks his return to markets where he has been off the air since February 26.

And then, almost immediately, the FCC starts going after his network. (CBS owns Viacom)

Excerpt: CBS could face a fine of $550,000 for airing Janet Jackson's breast-baring performance during the Super Bowl, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

And next they'll go after Stern himself.

Excerpt: The next bomb to drop in Howard Stern's war with the Federal Communications Commission is the $1.5 million fine the agency is expected to propose against the 18 Infinity Broadcasting Corp. stations that have been airing his show. The fine will cover the same broadcast that helped to push former Stern syndicator Clear Channel Communications Inc. into a $1.75 million settlement with the FCC.

They fear Stern and they should

Excerpt: Love him or hate him, there's no doubt that Howard Stern and his 8 million viewers will have an effect this November. In fact, one of Bush's worst miscalculations may've been to sic his FCC on Stern and his rabid band of listeners.

So, let's go after FOX!

Excerpt: Fox News Promo gone wrong!.  They blur out the breast but show the penis and penetration!  Call the FCC and file an indecency complaint! 

There's a little itty bitty problem with BUSH using religious groups to enhance his campaign.

Excerpt: But tax experts said the campaign is walking a fine line between permissible activity by individuals and impermissible activity by congregations.

Can't see Moore's movie because there's no theatre near you showing it?

Excerpt:The president of a company that owns movie theaters in Iowa and Nebraska is refusing to show director Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Then you have Moore's permission to download it.

Excerpt: Controversial film-maker Michael Moore has welcomed the appearance on the internet of pirated copies of his anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 and claimed he is happy for anybody to download it free of charge. The activist, author and director told the Sunday Herald that, as long as pirated copies of his film were not being sold, he had no problem with it being downloaded.

Planning something, are they?

Excerpt: The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.

I mean, all of a sudden, these signs are cropping up in Brooklyn and the other boroughs.

Excerpt: I am a law enforcement officer who resides in Brooklyn, New York. I work the midnight tour on the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge (the longest span bridge in the USA) and happened to notice some street sign (below) that just appeared out of nowhere. Mind you this is Brooklyn, New York City and several people have asked me about these signs. They read as follows "COASTAL EVACUATION ROUTE, TO EVACUATION CENTER, PROSPECT PARK SOUTH" (Prospect Park happens to be the largest park in Brooklyn, upon which the Battle of Brooklyn was fought during The Revolutionary War).

Also, if something does happen and they blame Zarqawi, I'm not so sure I'd believe it.

Excerpt: If Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader credited with the beheading deaths of Nick Berg and Kim Sun-Il, did not exist it would be necessary for the United States to invent him. That may well be what the CIA has done.

Aww hell, who am I kidding. I wouldn't believe anything if ANYTHING happened. Even if some sort of a bizarre tsunami thing hit the EAST coast of the U.S. I'd think GW and his craven bunch of lunatics would've had something to do with it.

Hey, remember the internet rumor about FEMA being in NYC on 9/10/2001? Well, funny thing. Turns out the rumor is true. According to Giuliani...

Excerpt: "... the reason Pier 92 was selected as a command center was because on the next day, on September 12, Pier 92 was going to have a drill, it had hundreds of people here, from FEMA, from the Federal Government, from the State, from the State Emergency Management Office, and they were getting ready for a drill for biochemical attack. So that was gonna be the place they were going to have the drill. The equipment was already there, so we were able to establish a command center there, within three days, that was two and a half to three times bigger than the command center that we had lost at 7 World Trade Center. And it was from there that the rest of the search and rescue effort was completed."

He took a whack at the Endangered Species Act.

Excerpt: "Instead of taking the Endangered Species Act head on, the administration is working to destroy the effectiveness of it through executive rule changes," said Brian Nowicki, a conservation biologist at the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which promotes species conservation. "They can't just attack it outright, so they try to stop it out of the spotlight."

You may not have noticed, but interest rates went up this week.

Excerpt:The Federal Reserve boosted a key short-term interest rate by a one-quarter percentage point Wednesday, its first rate increase in four years, in an attempt to keep the economy and inflation on an even keel.

Ending a 25-year era.

Excerpt: Through three recessions, two long booms and one of the biggest bubbles in stockmarket history, interest rates have generally been falling since 1980. Their great decline - to a short-term rate of 1 per cent, down from 20 per cent at the peak - has helped change the economy's rules, making credit cards the centrepiece of American wallets and allowing millions of families to buy their first homes.

It's gonna start hurting.

Excerpt: With the Federal Reserve about to raise interest rates for the first time in four years, Joyce Diffenderfer is beginning to wonder how she and her husband, Curtis, will deflect the growing cost of their $16,000 in credit card debt.

A "perfect storm" for the real estate bubble perhaps?

Excerpt: Rising consumer debt, rising interest rates, inflation, low job and wage growth and many other factors are swirling together to form a housing slowdown. But there a few other factors that are adding to the winds that could create the perfect storm - the largest housing recession in modern history.

And the jobs situation is just not good.

Excerpt: Something has plainly broken down in the American job creation machine. The supply of new jobs has been nowhere near sufficient to keep up with the supply of new workers—not for the past three years and not for the past 10 months. I don't claim to have a good explanation. Productivity growth, globalization, outsourcing, and widespread excess capacity probably have something to do with it.

Wondered how the government pays for all of its crap?

Excerpt: Investors benefit from understanding the federal budget, credit policies and covert intervention that drive markets -- often overriding fundamental economics. How has the US governmental apparatus become so powerful in the marketplace and what does it mean to the health of our economy? How unstable is the mortgage bubble and where are the opportunities for investors if the bubble bursts?

Kinda' puts this article into perspective, doesn't it?

Excerpt:U.S. officials in charge of the Development Fund for Iraq drained all but $900 million from the $20 billion fund by late last month in what a watchdog group has called an "11th-hour splurge."

And now you understand why the insurgence are bombing their own pipelines. They're trying to keep the money out of American hands.

Excerpt: Saboteurs attacked the oil pipeline linking Iraq's northern and southern fields on Sunday, a day after they hit another pipeline that cut exports by half, officials and witnesses said

See? Paying attention can be informative!

Ahhh. Those famous GOP Family Values.

Excerpt: With thousands of Republicans set to invade the city this summer, high-priced escorts and strippers are preparing for one grand old party.

Another cow with BSE?

Excerpt: A second cow in the US has produced an initial positive result for BSE. US officials are saying it is “very likely” the cow will turn out to be negative. However, in most countries, the test used is wrong about a positive result only about once in a thousand times.

And more are expected.

Excerpt: The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday a cow that initially tested positive for mad cow disease has come back negative on follow-up testing, but a food industry consultant told United Press International he estimates there could be more than 100 cases of the deadly disorder in the country's herds.

And more examinations are expected.

Excerpt: The Agriculture Department's inspector general has significantly expanded its probe into the agency's handling of mad cow disease, agreeing to examine the USDA's unannounced decision last year to relax restrictions on trade in Canadian beef.

And why would they want to not release some documents regarding a meat packing plant? Something to hide perhaps? Like the animals may have been strung up and processed while still alive?

Excerpt: The lawsuit also accuses the attorney general's office and the Washington State Patrol of showing favoritism toward the plant, drafting a plan to protect the company and dispense of the investigation as soon as possible, and misusing the public records law to cover up the alleged favoritism.

Here's a law making it's way through Congress. Seems they want to charge non-impaired pot smokers with "drugged driving". Yup. If you toke on one weekend and drive THE NEXT WEEKEND, you could be charged if you take the piss test.

Excerpt: Legislation weaving its way through the US Congress demands all 50 states pass laws granting police the power to drug test drivers and arrest anyone found to have "any detectable amount of a controlled substance ... present in the person's body, as measured in the person's blood, urine, saliva, or other bodily substance." Though the expressed purpose of the law is to target and remove drug-impaired drivers from US roadways, the proposal would do nothing of the sort.

Now say you're not doing anything wrong, but your license plate is tagged in the database as belonging to an anti-war person, or something along those lines. They could pull you over, ask for your pee and then arrest you. All perfectly legal. (Scared yet? I am and I don't even smoke pot anymore.) Oh, and then, they could declare you an enemy combatant (Remember -- we have a WAR on drugs.) and poof! your gone.

Excerpt: How can he do that? Because the definition of what "enemy combatant" actually means is LEGALLY so broad that it means ANYONE THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO PUT AWAY!! So here we are, with nine black robed illuminists that have DESTROYED THE CONSTITUTION, and YET ALMOST NO ONE IS SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

(Hey, I'm not crazy with the article's references to illuminists, but the gist of the article isn't too far flung.)

Did you know there's a pending house bill that reinforces the secrecy clause in the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act?

Excerpt: Now some lawmakers in the US House of Representatives are considering a bill that would designate concrete penalties for people who refuse to comply with NSL requests for information or who tell anyone that federal agents requested personal information about their clients.

Meanwhile, the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, Part Deux, is rearing it's ugly head once again.

Excerpt: Piece by piece, the provisions that created such an uproar when leaked 18 months ago are now finding their way into other legislation. The first blow came last December, when an unrelated last-minute rider was inserted into the Intelligence Authorization Act, the annual bill that authorizes spending for covert agencies. The rider vastly expanded PATRIOT's provisions allowing the government to search and seize, without warrants, records of businesses suspected of terrorist connections, by renaming virtually any transaction in society a business. It was signed into law the day Saddam was captured.

Nawwww. Really. We don't need a draft. We still have plenty of reserves to deploy.

Excerpt: The U.S. Army is planning an involuntary mobilization of thousands of reserve troops to maintain adequate force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials said  Monday. The move -- involving the seldom-tapped Individual Ready Reserve -- represents the latest evidence of the strain being placed on the U.S. military, particularly the Army, by operations in those two countries.

And despite denials by Repuglicans...

Excerpt:The Pentagon is forcing thousands of discharged soldiers back into the military, but that does not mean the United States needs to reinstate the draft, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday.

...there is a Universal Service Act of 2003 sitting in Congress.

Excerpt: Lauren Beecham, a paralegal studying for her law degree in NY, majored in world history and says Americans don't fully appreciate the danger behind this type of legislation. "This government thinks they can press free citizens into involuntary servitude for 20-30 hours per week in support of security for the Motherland. Americans don't understand how clever the communists are in their quest for global domination because they don't study history. Community service - especially forced community service- is rooted in communist doctrine." Ms. Beecham went on to state that this legislation would not withstand a Thirteenth Amendment challenge to the U.S. Constitution.

If you think this couldn't be used against us, think again. It may seem benign...

Excerpt: Tokyo-based Takara Co. says its "Dream Workshop" stand -- shaped like an oversized cellular phone dock and about 14 inches tall -- can be programmed to help sleepers choose what to dream.

Eww. A frog crawled out from between her legs. Ewww.

Excerpt:The Iranian daily Etemaad says the creature is believed to have grown from larva to an adult frog inside her body.

More speculation regarding weird structures on Mars like glass tunnels.

Excerpt: In this effort we will attempt to assess the validity of imaging data relating to the purported entrance to the "Martian Glass Tunnel System" which was posted on Johnny Danger's Dangerous Mars Site. As other credible researchers have speculated profusely on the nature of these "tunnel like\tubular anomalies" we will not reiterate their notions or add to the confusion with additional conjecture (however, some degree of speculation is inevitable due to the subject matter).

And a dome on Mars.

Excerpt: I did some enhancement on that anomalous dome like object on Mars. Make certain you look at this in full size. It may help to try rotating and flipping the picture based upon the pixel arrangement of your computer screen.

And more water on Mars.

Excerpt: Spirit has discovered hematite, an iron mineral that is usually formed in water. It is abundant at Opportunity's site, but not seen before on the other side of the planet. Opportunity, meanwhile, has extended its evidence of water further back in time, through possible past cycles of wet and dry climate.

A 4,000-year-old UFO in the Grand Canyon?

Excerpt: A team of experts called in to examine strange debris at the bottom of the Grand Canyon discovered the wreckage of a UFO that crashed a mind boggling 4,000 years ago!
 

Previous rant

At the very least, point your CNN-loving friends to my links page. Just getting started in reading alternate news sites gets people thinking. I have one friend who was very happy-go-lucky, thinking ol' Greta was telling the whole truth until I opened up his eyes a bit. Now, he's all depressed. He'll get over it. You gotta' get depressed before you get angry and you gotta' get angry before you can accomplish anything. We're all in mourning. We have to move through the steps. But we gotta' hurry it up.

Read. Inform. Spread the word. Even if it means your friends avoid you for awhile. If they really love you, they'll start to listen.

"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385): A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.

(Tom Ridge has practically said he'd do away with this act.)

{back}

These sites are good at culling stories from a multitude of media sites:

buzzflash.com
unknownnews.net

Here are some excellant blogs:

Bartcop
Daily Kos
Atrios
Tacitus
Josh Marshall
DNC: Kicking Ass
Two Glasses
Billmon
Semi-Daily Journal
The Wonkette

Link exchange:

Ilia Dreams Blog
Iraq War Blog
BushVote.com

These blogs will be covering the primaries and elections:

Salon.com's War Room
The Campaign Desk
FactCheck.org

media-bias exposed:

dailyhowler.com
mediawhoresonline.com

these are good left-wing journalism sites:

onlinejournal.com
thenation.com
inthesetimes.com
tompaine.com
commondreams.org
truthout.com
guerrillanews.com

a little more to the left:

wsws.org
indymedia.org

conspiratorial:

whatreallyhappened.com
almartinraw.com

HIGHLY entertaining:

surfingtheapocalypse.com

really good "Alternate Thinking" site:

goroadachi.com/etemenanki/

and for godsakes, stay away
from FOX NEWS,  MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
watch the BBC news
or ITN news instead.

if you must succumb to reading a newspaper: 

www.guardian.co.uk 

or any other paper in another fucking country. All of our newspapers are owned by the same idiots that own the TV stations so all of the news is all the same CRAP.