The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 8/9/2004

(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/

Here's what bothered me about last week's "Staged Terror Alert": First it was all "Booga booga, this is new information" then it was "hey wait a minute, this info is four years old" Then, Howard Dean had the audacity to say what a lot of use were thinking, that it was politically motivated. Then they said that it was old mixed with new and they basically outed their source. Now, this source was one of the few "inside al Qaeda" guys that we actually had. But to prove some point, for some political reason (hmmmm, when have they done that before) they outed this guy Khan and screwed up a lot of investigations. That's why the UK had to arrest those guys when they did. Otherwise, the guys would've scattered like cockroaches. But the case against them isn't as solid as it would've been had they not outed Khan. One UK guy has already walked.

Here's my take on it: Yes they found old info on these buildings being cased. Yes they found new info on the fact that these buildings are being cased. But I DON'T BELIEVE that they had any specific dates. (And the only date I've heard thus far was early September. So why have everyone acting like headless chickens now?) I DON'T BELIEVE that they knew that on August 2,3 and 4, those buildings were under more of a threat than they had been in the past. Hell, bush even sent Pickles to the Citicorp building in the middle of the "threat." (Talk about cognitive dissonance.) What SHOULD'VE been done was that the security should've been beefed up. Surveillance should've been beefed up. And maybe they could've caught some people. Some sleeper people. But NOOOooooo, they had to scream wolf AGAIN. And for no other reason than to get people talking about terror instead of Kerry.

To quote Mike Malloy: "Have I said lately how much I really hate these guys?"

Movie Trailer of the Week: Team America

Best website name of the Week: SweetJesusIHateBillOreilly.com

Rock God of the Week: Bruce Springsteen

Ammo to counter the Right-Winger in your life: The campaign against Teresa.

Ebay Sale of the Week: The shirt off my back

Update note: I doubt I'll get around to an update next week. I'll be having a house guest and if any of you know anyone who lives in New York, we may love our house guests as people, but we are thoroughly unamused by them as house guests.

Wolfowitz, the neocon from hell, has a girlfriend. (Yes. I know that's stunning. But it gets better!) His girlfriend is an Arab feminist!

Excerpt: His closest companion is a middle-age Arab feminist whose views on instilling democracy in her native Middle East have helped bolster his resolve. Shaha Ali Riza is a senior World Bank official who was born in Tunis and grew up in Saudi Arabia.

And the abuse of eminent domain took a BIG HIT this week in Michigan.

Excerpt: Pacific Legal Foundation today praised the Michigan Supreme Court for its unanimous decision to overrule its 20-year old precedent that allowed government to condemn private citizensí homes and give them to private companies. The new decision, which has nationwide implications for redevelopment agencies in every state, restricts the use of eminent domain only to taking property for the use of the public, not for the use of private corporations.

Well, I guess they can't go after Kerry's senate bill passing record anymore.

Excerpt: I'm waiting on the transcript, but a moment ago Donna Brazille killed the "John Kerry was an indistinguished as a Senator" meme.

Bush comes out against legacy admissions to colleges.

Excerpt; President Bush, who followed his father and grandfather to Yale University despite an undistinguished academic record, said yesterday that colleges should get rid of "legacy" admission preferences that favor sons and daughters of alumni.

Cheney is saying that the high gas prices are the fault of democrats because the democrats didn't back his energy policy.

Excerpt: Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that rising consumption and decreasing domestic production have led to high gasoline prices but also blamed his Democratic opponents and their opposition to the Bush administration's energy policies.

Gee, it has NOTHING to do with the fact that we're running out of oil, does it Dick? (I love that his name is Dick, don't you?) With oil prices climbing, this is not a comforting thought.

Excerpt: The president of oil producers' cartel Opec has said oil prices are at "crazy" levels, but that Opec nations are powerless to cool the market. "There is no more supply," said Opec president Purnomo Yusgiantoro after oil prices hit a fresh peak following warnings of an attack on the US.

Jeesh. Oh, and explain this to me. How can Halliburton be found guilty of fraud during Cheney's tenure as CEO and NOT have Cheney held accountable for it?

Excerpt: Halliburton Co. will pay $7.5 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission probe that it failed to disclose a change in its accounting procedures in 1998 when the oil services conglomerate was run by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Billmon tries to explain it, but I don't think he thinks Cheney should get off scott free either. (Good read)

Excerpt: Halliburton's former CEO, however, apparently is the SEC's version of Lord Voldamort - "He Who Must Not Be Named." Cheney shows up in neither the complaint nor the cease and desist order. Neither does Cheney's deputy, the firm's current CEO, David Lesar - most recently seen waging PR warfare in defense of Halliburton's Iraq rackets.

Here's a great explanation of how and why Nader is lying to all of his supporters.

Excerpt: Specifically, Nader has gone to great lengths to exploit the lack of knowledge most Americans have about how other democracies around the world work, and thus deceive people about both the history and present reality of our electoral system and the role of third parties in it.

Back in January, Chalabi was sitting behind Pickles at the State of the Union Address. Now he's hiding out in Iran and there's a warrant out for his arrest in Iraq.

Excerpt: Specific accusations made by Judge Zuhair al-Maliki include counterfeiting and financial irregularities.

The republicans can't find a black republican in Illinois to run against the almighty Obama, so they drag Alan Keyes in from Maryland.

Excerpt: Alan Keyes, the conservative Maryland political commentator whom Illinois Republicans turned to after weeks of searching for a replacement Senate candidate, agreed Sunday to run against a rising Democratic star who has only grown stronger amid GOP scandal and disarray.

Here's a quote by Keyes regarding Hillary coming to New York.

Excerpt: "I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton’s willingness go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent people there, so I certainly wouldn't imitate it."

Gee. The GOP has such a knack for picking credible candidates.

Excerpt:Republican leaders in Washington state were happy to have a contender for state auditor when they accepted Will Baker's last-minute offer to challenge a popular Democrat.
They didn't worry too much about who he was or how he spent his time - until they realized a considerable amount of his time was spent in jail.

The Moonies have been arming North Korea.

Excerpt: Jane's Defense Weekly is reporting this week that Kim Jong-Il, unstable North Korean dictator (I wrote about him in the British Guardian) may be able to target California with sea-launched missiles. His know-how, Reuters relates, comes from 12 ex-Soviet submarines that fell into his hands. They came with their original launch tubes and stabilizing gear intact. Where does Kim get those wonderful toys? Funny story: According to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents, they were furnished by Reverend Moon.

Want to know why the media is a bunch of group thinkers? Read this.

Excerpt: "As the pressure built on the administration and their case got shakier and shakier, there was obviously a lot greater stress, and there was some shouting that was done at us over the telephone," Hoyt says. Some of those calls came from well-known names in high places, Bureau Chief John Walcott adds, declining to drop any names.

Here's the best explanation of the bounce that Kerry got after the DNC that I've read. He did get a bounce, a big bounce, when you take into consideration how polarized we all are and how few votes are up for grabs.

Excerpt: Last week, Kerry was able to woo 4 of the 17 "up for grab voters" - or 1 in 4 "up for grab voters." (And if you believe that only 10 percent of voters were "up for grabs," then Kerry won over 4 out of 10 voters as his convention bounce.) Using either figure - 1/4 or 4/10 - that's pretty darn good, and just as good if not better than Clinton did with his one-in-four "massive" bump.

Ashcroft, in his quest to use the constitution of the United States as toilet paper, is telling libraries to destroy all publications having to do with forfeiture statutes.

Excerpt: The Department of Justice has called for these five these public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.

And so much for the republican's "State's Right supercedes all" credo.

Excerpt: The U.S. Justice Department on Monday will appeal a San Francisco federal judge's ruling that a 2003 law banning late-term abortions was unconstitutionally broad, court documents show.

And I doubt he'll explain his double standard with regards to the Sandy Berger incident.

Excerpt: A top House Democrat called on Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday to explain why the Justice Department was letting federal officials cooperate in a Congressional inquiry into the case of Samuel R. Berger despite a current criminal investigation.

Attacking Kerry's military record is just stupid, especially when Bush's military records, under closer scrutiny, shows that he was most definitely AWOL.

Excerpt: A four-month investigation conducted by a Philadelphia researcher and independently confirmed by RAW STORY finally proves that President George W. Bush did not successfully complete his service with the Texas Air National Guard.

Reagan's defense secretary confirms that Bush was AWOL.

Excerpt: Lawrence J. Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics under Ronald Reagan from 1981-1985, confirmed RAW STORY’s legal analysis of President Bush’s Guard Service in a telephone call Friday afternoon.

Here is how Bush may respond to the allegations.

Excerpt: Based on previous statements the President has made, we can anticipate his rebuttal, and have therefore provided a response based on his records.

Besides, because they've attacked Kerry's record, now they've pissed off McCain.

Excerpt: Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.

And how can the "Swift boat guys against Kerry" possibly hide their connection to Bush? Answer: They can't.

Excerpt: In 2000, Spaeth participated in the most subterranean episode of the Republican primary contest when a shadowy group billed as "Republicans for Clean Air" produced television ads falsely attacking the environmental record of Sen. John McCain in California, New York and Ohio. While the identity of those funding the supposedly "independent" ads was carefully hidden, reporters soon learned that Republicans for Clean Air was simply Sam Wyly -- a big Bush contributor and beneficiary of Bush administration decisions in Texas -- and his brother, Charles, another Bush "Pioneer" contributor.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a gosh darned minute. Halliburton overcharges the U.S. BILLIONS, BILLIONS are missing from the Iraq fund possibly due to all of the subcontracting,

Excerpt:In Iraq, $8.8 billion is MIA. Serious dough even for the big spenders in Washington, D.C.

the Pentagon is missing TRILLIONS and now they want to subcontract the entire Defense Budget?!

Excerpt:Despite scandals over human-rights abuses and war profiteering, private military contractors are expanding their presence overseas, and may even be involved in helping to draft the next US defense budget.

OK. Every now and then, I read something on the other side...so you don't have to. This was a gem though. This is truly the rantings of a religio-crazed lunatic. Regarding the Kerry/Edwards ticket:

Excerpt: That’s exactly what we are afraid of, they want to turn America into a socialist society where everyone who agrees with them is free except of course anyone who does not agree with them. A new society where God has no place because these self-righteous anti-Christ’s have removed every vestige of the Christian faith, and replaced it with a large government bureaucracy, where they set themselves up as the ruling class. This was the case in the old Soviet Union, communism was a failure then, and it is now also.

And I'm not talking about 9/11 (though, that's still being debated).

Excerpt: Of course, this information raises new questions: Why were the fighter jets sent from that particular base which was relatively distant, from the location of the hijacked airlines? But even these should have been able to reach the Pentagon and the second World Trade Center plane before they hit.

No, I'm talking about the fact that he knew he was lying about Iraq's WMDs.

Excerpt: Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned before the war that its Iraq claims were weak

Censorship of the press

Excerpt: “It appears that he was arrested for saying something in a broadcast interview that the US occupation authorities did not like,” Ahmad said.

The Death Penalty

Excerpt:Iraq's government reluctantly reinstated the death penalty for crimes including murder, kidnapping and drug running on Sunday, saying the move was a necessity and would last until stability was restored.

Iraq is beginning to look like George Bush's wet dream.

Uh, did you know they're missing an assload of nukes from the Ukraine?

Excerpt: When Marchuk became defence minister in June 2003 he ordered two inventories that indicated US$170m of military stock was probably missing. These results were so shocking that Marchuk ordered a new team of investigators to conduct an additional check using different methods. They uncovered that additional equipment, worth $20m, was missing.

And more reason to not sleep at night: They seem to be arrest a lot of Middle Eastern men sneaking over the border in Arizona from Mexico.

Excerpt: The report last week from the small Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper is jarring. A “flood of middle-eastern males” has been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona, according to the paper, and this recent “flood” is actually part of an increasing trend of “OTMs,” (“other than Mexicans”) entering the country illegally somewhat east of the Chiricahua Mountains.

Any terrorist that figures this out will send the entire world back into the dark ages.

Excerpt: Chechen terrorists affiliated with the Al Qaeda network are capable of using world satellites to stage terror attacks, French counter-terrorism judge Jean-Loui Bruguiere has said in an interview with the U.S. New Yorker magazine.

And here's another bad idea that the terrorists could use.

Excerpt: The U.S. government plans to ship weapons-grade plutonium from disassembled Russian nuclear arms from the United States to France for reprocessing, but the vessels will not be escorted by warships, according to U.S. Energy Department documents obtained by Kyodo News on Thursday.

This only gives conspiracy theorists more reason to be conspiratorial. Regarding those cell phone calls made from the planes on 9/11, seems that at the time, it wasn't really possible.

Excerpt: Before this new "Pico cell," it was nigh on impossible to make a call from a passenger aircraft in flight. Connection is impossible at altitudes over 8000 feet or speeds in excess of 230 mph.

Now Bush wants to raise the debt ceiling.

Excerpt: Even if Treasury takes steps to juggle accounts to stay just under the limit to avoid defaulting on the debt, "we can finance government operations no longer than mid-to-late November," Snow wrote. The government has performed such maneuvers in the past.

There were more layoffs last month than when Reagan was president.

Excerpt: In the government's latest survey of how frequently workers are permanently dismissed from their jobs, the layoff rate reached 8.7 percent of all adult jobholders, or 11.4 million men and women age 20 or older. That is nearly equal to the 9 percent rate for the 1981-1983 period, which included the steepest contraction in the American economy since the Great Depression.

Consumer spending is WAY down.

Excerpt: In the headlines this morning, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that June consumer spending saw its steepest drop since September 2001.

And I thought George Schultz was a smart man.

Excerpt: In any case, by now a third piece of the record appears clear: the recession President Clinton left behind has turned into prosperity under George W. Bush.

Whaaa??

(Billmon tries to explain some of the numbers here. And keep on eye on George over at urbansurvival.com for updates on this critical week for the market.)

I don't eat meat anymore, but I'll never forget how delicious Unagi was. Soon, it will be just a memory for many.

Excerpt; The eel population has undergone a 30-year decline all over the world, and no one can put a finger on the cause. David Sommerstein of North Country Public Radio reports on how the decline is affecting fishermen on Lake Ontario, who depend upon the eels for a living.

And lake fish isn't good for you any more.

Excerpt:Fish from lakes and reservoirs sampled by federal researchers were contaminated with mercury, and most exceeded federal exposure limits for young children and women of childbearing age, a study by an environmental advocacy coalition said Tuesday.

Although, according to Hannity, mercury is no problem at all.

Excerpt:After listening to a description of the health risks of mercury to pregnant women and their children by environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of the Waterkeeper Alliance and vice president of Riverkeeper, FOX News Channel host Sean Hannity dismissed the subject as "silly" despite governmental evidence of the prevalence and seriousness of the problem.

And anyone who buys their meat in pre-made patties is completely out of their mind and probably wouldn't noticed if mad cow hit them.

Excerpt: A meat processing plant has recalled 497,000 pounds of beef feared contaminated with E. coli bacteria and distributed to Sam's Club stores in 10 states.

Oh for heaven's sake. Law for the cosmos.

Excerpt: "Outer space is a province of all mankind," says Sylvia Ospina, a member of the board of directors at the International Institute of Space Law. "There is not, and should not be, any privatization of outer space. It is a common thing that should belong to all."

Uh. How does something like this happen, really.

Excerpt: Polish police are looking for a 400-tonne steel bridge, reported to have been stolen from a warehouse in the Baltic port city of Gdansk.

No comment.

Excerpt: Sexual contacts with aliens occur frequently

 

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
rawstory.com

Here are some excellant blogs:

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

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.