The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 5/31/2004

(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/

A moment of silence for all those who've died in this stupid war started by this stupid man and his stupid cronies.

OK.

So, I was watching This Week with George S. yesterday and Perle was on. Honestly, I don't know why they don't sew this guy's mouth shut. It seems like he's always spouting off, saying something bizarre. Anyway, the NYT (fresh off their lame mea culpa where NOBODY (read: Judith Miller) got fired), printed a little something about how Perle and Woolsey marched in to Condi's office to complain about the administration's treatment of Chalabi. A very public display of angst I'd say. Also, it has since been reported that contractors from DynCorp were part of the very televised and overly violent raid on Chalabi's headquarters. (Keep in mind, DynCorp is part of the BFEE. They donate heavily to the republicans and they have been accused of human rights abuses. They fit right in.) Then on the George S. Show, Perle said that perhaps the administration's distancing itself from Chalabi may make Chalabi more credible in the eyes of the Iraqis. Sound like a psyop perhaps? Sound like they're trying to convince us that Chalabi is no longer welcome by the administration? Well, it should. I mean, if they really wanted him out, they should've just kidnapped him and delivered him to Jordan. (Remember, Chalabi has an outstanding conviction in Jordan for bank fraud.) Also his INC is a creation of the Rendon group, a company known for its perception management techniques. I would even go so far as to say that the announcement of Allawi being chosen as the Iraq premier, and the fact that the administration claims to have been caught "off-guard" with the announcement, in conjunction with the fact that Allawi was the guy responsible for that "45-minute" claim in the lead-up to the war means that he too is part of the plan to control the future Iraqi government. Mostly because A) there's NO WAY an insider like Allawi is a surprise to anybody, and B)he's a pawn and a puppet. If their scheme works, the Iraqi people fall in behind Chalabi. If it doesn't work, Allawi is still there and their feigning surprise at his appointment only helps with his street cred.

Then again, I could be typing out my ass.

Oh, and just FYI, the latest broohaha over the Nick Berg tape, the fact that there may be a digital watermark of some sort that ties it to other film taken at the prison might be just a lot of silliness. I find it hard to believe that something that was super compressed for the web would have enough digital info left in it to detect something as subtle as a digital watermark. I mean, have you ever seen a super-compressed JPG? It's pretty lousy. The tape's probably a fake anyway, for plenty of reasons, but we shouldn't let ourselves sound stupid about it.

Site of the Week: Axis of Eve

Billboard of the Week: In our name

Anticipated Book of the Year: The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty by Kitty Kelley

Here's a story that I've yet to hear on mainstream broadcast (though, honestly, I could've missed it. I don't pay attention to mainstream broadcast that much.) But this is huge, I think. Time magazine has a story that basically proves that Dick Cheney has a say in the awarding of contracts to Halliburton.

Excerpt:The e-mail says Feith approved arrangements for the contract "contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w VP's [Vice President's] office." Three days later, the Army Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton the contract, without seeking other bids. TIME located the e-mail among documents provided by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group.

That's huge because he's repeatedly said otherwise.

One of the many lies.

The only way to get GW out of the White House is if the GOP gets involved.

Excerpt: It was Barry Goldwater, the revered conservative, who convinced Nixon that he must resign or face certain conviction by the Senate — and perhaps jail. Goldwater delivered his message in person, at the White House, accompanied by Republican congressional leaders.

Not only historically is this correct but let's face it, our democratic leadership is a bunch of pussies.

The prison torture scandal continues. Sanchez, the top American general over there, recently refused to appear on Iraqi TV and radio to counter the accusations of abuse at the prisons.

Excerpt: The top American general in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, rejected a recommendation in January that the military make a public Arabic-language radio or television address to the Iraqi people to confront accusations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the former head of the military police at the prison said in an interview on Sunday.

Gee, I wonder why.

And they've released hundreds of prisoners. One has to wonder that if the torture had remained unknown, would these people still be in custody?

Excerpt:The U.S. military freed more than 600 detainees Friday from Abu Ghraib prison, the largest release since officials announced their intention to cut the population in half and send people home to their families.

And did you know Wolfowitz visited the prison? Could be why he's been so quiet lately.

Excerpt: One of my readers forwarded me a link to the March edition of The Utah Sheriff, a quarterly newsletter for the Utah Sheriffs' Association. On page 6 of the newsletter, this photograph appears depicting Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz touring the Abu Ghraib prison with Lane McCotter, Gary DeLand and BG Janis Karpinski. (The fifth guy in the back looks to me like NYT reporter Eric Schmitt, but it could also be a security guy; I've only met Mr. Schmitt once at a Toyota dealership in Alexandria two years ago.) The caption from the photo reads ""Lane McCotter briefing Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, on a tour of the death house at Abu Ghraib Prison, south of Baghdad."

Hrmph. Perhaps we should all post a copy of the Geneva Commandments in our yards.

Excerpt: TEN of the COMMANDMENTS of the Geneva Convention! Who can Argue with these?! Okay, so nutty hardcore wrong wingers can, but it won't do them any good, because NORMAL EVERYDAY American Citizens will shout them DOWN.

But it's not as if the prison torture thing is scary enough. I just read about how Bush has a history of such things wherever he rules. Like in Texas.

Excerpt: The incident occurred in a 1996 raid at the Brazoria County Detention Center in Texas. Guards searching the facility were videotaped mistreating prisoners. The images have many of the same elements of the Abu Ghraib pictures — prisoners lying on the floor, being dragged and menaced by dogs.
It might now be just a historical footnote, except the lawyer who represented two of the prison guards accused of attacking the inmates, Guy Womack, is now representing Spc. Charles Graner, the prison guard accused of mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Here's a little story that's not making a lot of news over here. Remember when Shell Oil made the news about its accounting fiasco?

Excerpt: Shell was embroiled yesterday in Britain's biggest corporate scandal for almost 20 years after it admitted a three-year plan to deceive its shareholders.

Well since then, they've had to downgrade their futures for the -- get this - FOURTH time.

Excerpt: This brings the total of reserves restated since the start of 2004 to 4.47bn barrels, and means the group's replacement ratio last year was 63 per cent.

Ahh, in this land of the free, our freedom to express through art will always be there...or will it.

Excerpt: Bill Nevins, a New Mexico high school teacher and personal friend, was fired last year and classes in poetry and the poetry club at Rio Rancho High School were permanently terminated. It had nothing to do with obscenity, but it had everything to do with extremist politics.

Maybe not.

Excerpt: After displaying a painting of U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners, a San Francisco gallery owner bears a painful reminder of the nation's unresolved anguish over the incidents at Abu Ghraib -- a black eye and bloodied brow delivered by an unknown assailant who apparently objected to the art work.

Just how do things get so fucked up? Money that was meant for businesses affected by 9/11 ends up in the pockets of big developers in mid-town Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Excerpt: But two years later, city records show that much of the money, dubbed Liberty Bonds, has gone to developers of prime real estate in midtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and to builders of luxury housing.

You know, I'm getting real tired, and I mean REAL tired of Ridge tossing out these friggin' warnings just when Bush needs some distraction.

Excerpt: Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday that new information on a terrorist threat against the United States ``talks about an attack'' but said there is no need to raise the national alert level.

(At least I'm not the only one questioning the timing anymore.

Excerpt: But some intelligence officials, terrorism experts - and to some extent even Mr. Ashcroft's own F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III - offered a more tempered assessment, saying, "For the next few weeks we have reason to believe there is a heightened threat to the U.S. interests around the world.'' And some opponents of President Bush, including police and firefighter union leaders aligned with Senator John Kerry, the expected Democratic presidential candidate, said the timing of the announcement appeared intended in part to distract attention from Mr. Bush's sagging poll numbers and problems in Iraq.

and that was in the THIRD paragraph of a New York Times article.)

And I'm getting even MORE tired of our media just tossing this news out there without doing any real research. For instance, that famous list of 7 or so people to be "on the lookout for"? Well, did any of our illustrious journalists do any research as to who they were? No? Really? Big surprise. Guess what? Some of them are already in custody.

Excerpt: At least two of the terrorists identified by John Ashcroft as part of an 'Al-Qaeda cell' that is waiting to attack America this summer are already in jail.

Siddiqui for one...

Excerpt: According to the PTI, Siddiqui was arrested in Karachi recently after returning from an overseas trip last month. The service quoted reports in the Boston Globe and Oklahama (TV) News Channel's Web site.

I'm telling you. It won't be long before the Administration is going to come out with a way to block our access to foreign sources of news. They may have control over our howler monkeys but they surely don't have any control over the monkeys overseas.

Excerpt:The Bush Administration’s love of all things that pollute is about to take it’s toll on the radio spectrum as the FCC is poised to open the floodgates of broadband transmission via existing power lines. And although I, as a shortwave radio listener, am fearful of losing my access to foreign broadcasts, the ramifications of broadband-over-powerline extend into many other areas of the radio spectrum and communications industries.

(Next, they'll come after the blogs.)

At the end of the day, they would like nothing more than a nice little red-alert to lock down the country for full control.

Excerpt: Residents would be advised to stay away from gathering places, such as sporting events, and listen to the radio or television for instructions. They should be prepared to leave if necessary, but should remain in their homes or offices until they are instructed to leave, McIntyre said.

And they could do it too. Go here to see a list of Executive Orders that I got off of the Letters page at whatreallyhappened.com.

He's such an embarrassment.

Excerpt:Two rehearsals for his prime-time speech were not enough to keep U.S. President George W. Bush from mangling the name of the Abu Ghraib prison that brought shame to the U.S. mission in Iraq.

But the REAL president, Al Gore, can speak clearly and concisely.

Excerpt: How dare the incompetent and willful members of this Bush/Cheney Administration humiliate our nation and our people in the eyes of the world and in the conscience of our own people. How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace. How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein's torture prison.

I went to that speech. I nearly wept. When I heard Andrea Mitchell on Meet the Whore yesterday say that Gore is hurting Kerry and that he should shut up, I wanted to reach through the TV screen and slap her over-lifted face.

I'm going to continue to hit hard on the meat issue until I start reading reports that the meat industry is going out of business. This guy has it figured out.

Excerpt: This is a powerful letter the Mad Cow Killer has written. And I love the way he starts it out: "Dave Louthan here. I'm the guy that killed that mad cow." Reading this letter of Dave's I felt a decision happening somewhere inside: no more beef for me. It's a no-brainer really, but it sure took me long enough to get here.

So, don't eat it. Any of it. EVER.

Excerpt: Prions, the misfolded proteins that are widely believed to cause brain-wasting diseases, have been found in sheep muscle, scientists announced yesterday - the first time they have been discovered in animal flesh that many humans normally eat.

Or pork either.

Excerpt: The decision to render high-risk cow into swine feed is extremely dangerous. Swine may be infected and asymptomatic for some time. Some research indicates swine that do not show physical signs of the prion disease Do show TSE infecton in some research tests.

Not that eating organic is any better. Though, the Agriculture department recently reversed an order weakening the organic rules that had been requested by corporate interests.

Excerpt:The Agriculture Department is rescinding new organic food guidelines that allowed limited use of pesticides and antibiotics, which had prompted criticism from some consumer groups and organic farmers.

I'm not too excited by this sudden change of heart though. What will probably happen is the rules will be weakened in other ways at another time when nobody is paying attention. That's what they do.

What would be the best a terror attack anyone could muster? I'd venture to say a bioweapon of some sort would be used. Think about it. What's more terrifying than something you can't see or smell? The administration could declare martial law and you'd be more than happy to be stuck in your home. They're hinting at just such a thing.

Excerpt: The source said authorities were concerned terrorists could possess and use a chemical, biological or radiological weapon that could cause much more damage and casualties than a conventional bomb.

And remember, all those bioweapon scientists are dead now.

Excerpt: I am not a visionary, but, I do recognize the situation at hand. The deaths of world-renowned scientists in the field of infectious diseases is a warning that the last days are here. By connecting the dots, so to speak, with regard to each scientists specialized field, I believe we can conclude a major bioweapon is in the process of development and will soon be unleased upon the world.

Anthrax isn't such a good one to use though because it's not that easy to get and not that easy to pass on. But Ebola on the other hand is a bug we can all be afraid of.

Excerpt:A Russian scientist at a former Soviet biological weapons laboratory in Siberia has died after accidentally sticking herself with a needle laced with ebola, the deadly virus for which there is no vaccine or treatment, the lab's parent Russian center announced over the weekend.

And lest we forget that, in addition to the usual woes in the Sudan, there's been an ebola-like disease outbreak there.

Excerpt: World Health Organization experts are investigating an Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever in southern Sudan that has killed 15 people, a WHO official said Thursday.

Meanwhile, here in NYC...

Excerpt: A vicious skin infection resistant to all but the most powerful antibiotics has jumped out of New York City hospitals and onto the streets.

OK, so I saw the "Day After Tomorrow" film. It didn't entirely suck. Really. Best thing for me was that I know Manhattan so well that watching the special effects bury it under water and snow was pretty cool. Though, the science wasn't totally off, it was just a little, ummm, exaggerated is all.

Excerpt: The stratosphere will become the troposphere when all three laws of thermodynamics are repealed. Hailstones can't reach bowling-ball size because their growth is limited by gravity. Hurricanes can't hit Belfast because the intervening island of Ireland would destroy them.

But seriously. The ice that is breaking off the glaciers is definitely mucking with the salinity in the oceans which, in turn, affects the currents. Is that great enough to cause an ice age? Probably not but who knows. More than likely that just causes some wild weather patterns and that's it. Some say that it's the peak of human hubris to assume that we have any effect on the planet. The planet gets colder. The planet gets warmer. It's been doing this for millennia, with and without us, mostly without us. Could it just be the cycle of the sun?

Excerpt: More activity since 1940 than in previous 1150 years, combined.

Could be. Our contribution to the climate might very well be minimal. HOWEVER, that doesn't negate our contribution to the balance of the ecosystems and the filth we create. We're VERY bad in those regards. Warming is happening. Are we responsible? Maybe not. But maybe we are and there's so much OTHER damage that we're causing that we might as well do whatever it is we can to stop doing all of it. And if the climate is shifting, we should be planning for it now. Food will be an issue. It may already be.

Excerpt: As a result, since the turn of the millennium, the amount of grain held in the world's stockpiles has been falling. At the end of the 2003 harvest, the amount of wheat, corn, rice and other grains had fallen to about 280 million tonnes. In 1999, it was more than 500 million.

Venus clouds might harbor life?

Excerpt: But microbes could survive and reproduce, experts say, floating in the thick, cloudy atmosphere, protected by a sunscreen of sulphur compounds.

I'm sorry, but I love this stuff.

Excerpt: Right! We were told to stay away - we were given that edict by the aliens - they said, "You will NOT come back here - and ... i'm not sure exactly which particular Apollo series it was and we said, "Look! We've got all these Saturn 5's - it will be hard to keep that from the public," and they said "Okay! - one or two more and 'that's it!" Apollo 17 was the lsat one and the NASA excuse was , "We don't have any more funding and we can't do it and they have - still had 3 remaining Saturn 5's fueled and ready to go and they were 18, 19, and 20.

And this stuff.

Excerpt: A supposed intercept of a U.S. military SSB radio transmission on 26 January of this year referred to a mysterious "countdown" to an unnamed event which (by the countdown) will occur around June 19 or 20 of this year. In the past few weeks, however, naval units  worldwide have been putting to sea in unusual numbers, sufficient to cause us to revisit the original message to assess movements and adopt a watch mode going forward into the June 19-20 date area.

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.