|
The
Vidiot's
weekly blog:
What
pissed me off this week? 6/6/2004
(updated
every Monday at some point during the day)
...'cause
I'm angry and my friends are sick of listening to me...
Cost
of the War in Iraq
Remember
these faces.
Free
stuff can be found here.
Mirror
(in case geocities is wacky or, in case of trouble in
New York, check it for messages): http://129.79.148.33/vidiotcontact/
St. Reagan has finally passed
away. (FYI: He
was no saint.)Good timing though, huh? I mean, what with all the shit
hitting the fan these days. Like the whole Wilsongate thing is really
heating up. You may have heard the GW has already consulted
an outside lawyer. (Not necessarily because Gonzales has
given him bad advice in the past) According to this
article by John Dean, it certainly makes it look like GW
knew about the leak and he's trying to cover his ass. On top of that,
Shadow
President Cheney has consulted
an outside lawyer about the case as well. (He'll probably have to
hire a different lawyer for the Nigerian
bribery case and another lawyer for the Halliburton
procurement case and still another for the Prison
Torture case however.) Then there's the whole Tenet-resigns
thing, Tenet's 2nd in command resigns thing, and the whole "Who
the hell told Chalibi that we cracked the Iranian code" thing.
Jeesh. Makes one think. I bet that initially, they were going to trot
out Osama's corpse sometime in October. But since Michael
Moore's film is now
going to be released on 6/25 (meaning DVD and video advertising will
start in October), Osama may have to be trotted out at the end of June
instead.
Article
of the Week: "With
Trembling Fingers"
Transport
of the Week: Motopenis
(porn warning)
Photo of
the week: Broome
St. iPod ad.
Gift Idea
of the Week: Punch-a-Bush
Doll
Political
Site of the Week: Comparing
the Candidates
Quote
of the Week: Asked about George W. Bush in a press conference,
he replied that the US president was a pendejo, translated literally as
a "pubic hair" and colloquially as a "coward". Funnily
enough, Chávez's word failed to make its way into the final communiqué.
Saudi?
I didn't mention the Saudi
Attack last week because I hadn't read enough about it. I was unsure what
the hell it was all about. Now, I'm reading stuff about how it was all
sort of staged.
Excerpt: I was
just watching CNN International and they admitted that the Saudi attack
looked like a 'conspiracy of collusion' between the Saudi government
and the 'terrorist group' - commenting that the 'terrorists' were wearing
military uniforms and they were allowed to escape.
That article links to this
article:
Excerpt: Saudi
security forces allowed some kidnappers in the bloody weekend attack
on a residential compound to flee because they threatened to blow
up the building, according to reports.
It seems fishy to me. I can't
put my finger on it. But let's just look at who
benefits, shall we?
Excerpt: The May
29-30 raid on a compound housing oil company employees in al-Khobar,
Saudi Arabia, by forces opposed to the Saudi monarchy, is sparking criticism
of the royal government and speculation by the big-business media and
politicians in the United States about its vulnerability to further
“terrorist” attacks. The events provide a new opening for
Washington to work with the most pro-American elements of the monarchy
toward boosting the U.S. military presence in the country and ensuring
the long-term domination of Saudi oil by U.S. finance capital.
I mean, why not just go after
the oil infrastructure?
Excerpt: The main
reason for worry is the so-called “terror premium”. Oil
traders report that fears of terrorist attacks that might disrupt Middle-Eastern
oil exports may account for as much as $8 of the current per-barrel
price. That may be because what was once unthinkable now seems possible,
perhaps even inevitable: a major terrorist attack, or series of attacks,
on oil facilities within Saudi Arabia.
Maybe there's a reason the
US won't
hand over control of the oil to the Iraqis.
Excerpt: The latest
Iraqi attempts to recover control of the country's oil revenues from
the United States appear to have hit a dead end with
a special delegation being rebuffed in its bid to secure UN
help.
On top of that, the US has
demanded
that Russia remove it's bases from Georgia.
Excerpt:All Russian
bases should be removed from Georgia, Associated Press quoted US Secretary
of State Colin Powell as saying Tuesday. The statement came after Powell
completed talks with Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili.
(Just in case you'd forgotten,
Georgia holds the pipeline from the Caspian basin.)
Underreported
stories of the week Here's
one I bet you hadn't heard.
Excerpt: In a stunning
move last week, the Bush administration announced it was awarding a
new, multimillion-dollar contract to a private company currently being
investigated for abuse at the now-infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
And here's
another one.
Excerpt: In an
amusing case of life imitating art (we use the term loosely here), Bush
administration officials stalled the release of a Web site on abrupt
climate change that had been developed by a team at NOAA's paleoclimate
program to coincide with the release of the film, according to insiders
who worked on the project. The site had been developed to make years
of paleoclimate research on abrupt climate shifts accessible to "The
Day After Tomorrow" viewers to help them make sense of the fact
and fiction behind the movie's misleading science.
Hiding
something, Rumsfeld? Why
would Rumsfeld want to control access to documents
in the Boeing deal?
Exxcerpt: Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has sharply limited the information he
is willing to let Congress see on a controversial defense contract that
is the focus of multiple investigations.
Followups
It WAS
an assassination attempt. I told you so.
Excerpt: North
Korea's state security agency has determined that April's massive train
blast was a botched effort to kill North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il,
a South Korean newspaper reported.
I just couldn't figure out
why we were in Bosnia, and now
I know.
Excerpt: Macedonia’s
A-1 TV reported yesterday that two major oil deposits have been discovered
in Bosnia. While oil exploration there dates back over one hundred years,
little results have emerged until now. The Balkan wars of the 1990’s
put a temporary halt to modern efforts, many say.
Yeah,
right. Wait.
Who thinks that there's actually
any credibility with the iraqis for the interim government?
Excerpt: The sight
of the Americans trying to bully the Governing Council into accepting
their choice is threatening to destroy the interim government's credibility
in the eyes of Iraqis. The US is already facing widespread accusations
that the handover is cosmetic, and designed so that President Bush can
claim the occupation is over ahead of the American presidential election
in November.
Well, that's "sovereignty"
for you.
Excerpt: Iraq's
new interim government will have no veto over future military operations
by American-led forces after the U.S.-British occupation formally ends
on June 30, Secretary of State Colin Powell said.
Busted!
This
is classic. What is it about assholes anyway? Why do they feel a need
to record their assholishness?
Excerpt: The tapes,
from Enron's West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported
years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders deliberately
drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.
Floriduh
The media? Doing
it's job? Was that a monkey I just saw flying out my butt?
Excerpt: CNN sued
Florida's elections office Wednesday to get access to a state list with
names of possible felons who may need to be deleted from voter rolls.
The state uses the list to provide names of possible felons to county
elections officials, who must review them to determine if individuals
should be removed from the rolls. The list is of interest to journalists
because of the potential for mistakes.
I
don't get it. How
the hell can Nader get
matching funds when he can't even get on the ballot in Oregon and
Texas? Will some journalist out there pleeeeeeze do their job and follow
the money already?
Excerpt:The independent
president campaign of Ralph Nader has qualified for matching government
money, the Federal Election Commission said Friday.
Then again, Bush can't get
on the ballot in Illinois.
Excerpt; President
Bush is still not on the ballot in Illinois because the General Assembly
has failed to correct a snafu in state law -- increasing the chance
the federal courts will have to step in.
Of
course they will. This
isn't news. It's Standard Operating Procedure.
Excerpt: After
trying to curb class-action suits for years, Republicans finally have
enough support to ram legislation through the Senate to limit what they
call an overabundance of frivolous cases against American businesses.
Police
State explained This
explains a lot actually.
Excerpt: A US man
has been rejected in his bid to become a police officer for scoring
too high on an intelligence test.
Something
bad? I tried
to get my republican friend who works on Wall St. (Yes, I have one of
those kinds of friends. Actually, she's a doll with a heart of gold. She's
just been involved with the stock market for so long that she's a free
market gal through and through. That, and she's a baptist from Virginia.
There's no hope for her politically.) to read this
article for me but I think she's tired of me sending her crazy market
stuff. So you're going to have to decide for yourself if the Fed is up
to something evil.
Excerpt: One can
draw no other conclusion except that the Fed is acting irresponsibly
in its managing the money supply, in fulfilling its duty to "maintain
a stable currency." I reject the notion that the Fed is acting
irresponsibly. No, something is up, bigger than we have ever seen in
the history of the United States.
But they are
cheapening the money so, the article above might be onto something.
Excerpt: As of
the end of March, inflation was running at almost 4 percent per year.
From every indication at the supermarket or the gas pump, the rate of
inflation has accelerated since then. Where and when it will stop is
anybody’s guess. Nor is 4 percent a small figure when you recall
that this is a compounding percentage. During the last 10 years, a period
when inflation has been "tamed" or "under control"
or "negligible," the cost of what you could have bought for
$100 in 1993 has risen to $130.10.
And
this guy seemed disturbed.
Excerpt; Former
Maryland State Senator Tim Ferguson is warning "the Federal Reserve
is planning to destroy the U.S. economy by printing the U.S. dollar
in exponentially riskier quantities until it blows off the charts and
crashes, and by easing credit and rates until the average individual
and corporate debt loads are so enormous that the resulting massive
distortions in the economy suddenly bring on an economic heart attack,
leaving no possibility of a short or even medium-term recovery."
And this
one discusses the article as well.
Excerpt: Axis powers
are engaged in a race against time, as the US economy is close to exhaustion
and implosion, despite the veneer of a "recovery". They need
to "get the job done and fast" while it remains an economic
possibility. The UK economy is insignificant compared to that of the
US and, in any case, is a debt-riddled service economy.
I regurgitate, you decide.
They're
coming to take him away hee hee. This
article caught my eye.
Excerpt: Mental
illnesses including anxiety disorders and depression are common and
undertreated in many countries, both developed and developing, with
the highest rate found in the United States, according to a study of
14 countries.
Mostly because I had just read
this
article.
Excerpt: President
George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings
has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express
growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.
Made
a funny Ok,
this
just made me laugh.
Excerpt: Saying
that BushCo has a myopic vision for the world may appear all too generous.
Myopia, without the benefit of periphery, at least peers ahead as far
as the eye can see. But proctoscopy is limited by endless untidy collision
with either anus or rectum, depending on the clumsy insertion of the
instrument.
And this
made me chuckle.
Excerpt: Crawford
may be the heart of Bush country, but the town's mayor says John Kerry
is the best choice for president.
And this
is almost to hypocritcal to be funny.
Excerpt: President
Bush's national security adviser on Monday criticized Arabic-language
broadcaster Al-Jazeera for "purely inaccurate" reporting,
suggesting the Qatar-based satellite station was presenting a biased
account of developments in the Middle East.
Are
you with me yet? Have
you stopped eating meat yet? Think tuna
is better?
Excerpt: Documents
recently obtained in our lawsuit against the Commerce Department would
appear to show that the Bush Administration is playing politics in its
attempt to weaken the popular Dolphin Safe label.
Or salmon?
Excerpt: Anti-salmon
farm campaigners fear that Scotland could be facing a foot-and-mouth-style
epidemic after the discovery of a deadly wasting disease among stocks
at more than 70 per cent of fish farms.
Or venison?
Excerpt: The research
confirms long-held theories that CWD can be indirectly spread through
environmental sources, in addition to direct interactions between infected
and healthy mule deer.
Classic
Krugman Krugman
nails
Greenspan.
Excerpt; Either
way, Greenspan did something remarkable. After becoming a symbol of
America's economic turnaround in the 90's, and anointing himself the
nation's high priest of fiscal probity, he lent crucial aid and comfort
to the most fiscally irresponsible administration in history. In the
end, that will be his most important legacy.
Chavez
still fighting Just
because all has been quiet on the Venezuelan front doesn't
mean that there's nothing going on there.
Excerpt: The United
States is using a quasi-governmental organization created during the
Reagan years and funded largely by Congress to pump about a million
dollars a year into groups opposed to Venezuela President Hugo Chávez,
according to officials in Venezuela and a Venezuelan-American attorney.
News
of the Weird What
the hell is this
thing?
Excerpt: About
the size of a fox, but with short brown hair and a long cat-like tail,
it looked more like an animal in a National Geographic spread out of
Africa than any critter native to the woods of central North Carolina.
Ducks
have accents?
Excerpt: To the
untutored ear it might just sound like a load of quacking, but British
researchers have discovered that the country's ducks, much like its
people, have distinct regional accents.
Previous
rant
What do we
do about all of this crap? I have no idea. Part of me wants to start teach-ins
at my local pub. Just go to the bar, rant and rave and inform the idiots
who still think Dan Rather is telling them the truth. Another part of me
wants to organize a voter observation program to insure that this moron
isn't in the White House all the way to 2008. I sincerely believe that if
we protected the voting rights of the underprivileged that any Democrat
could SWEEP any election. And we'd have to start with the Florida Election
for Governor THIS FALL (like these
guys!.) I don't think Democrats are the answer. But they are at least a
start.
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}
|