The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 6/14/2004

(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/

Ugh. Too much Reagan this week. Jeeze. It was endless AND costly. All these nice things they said about him. I mean, I know the guy died an all, but some of the stuff was out-right lies. Not to mention the whole slew of bad stuff that Reagan was responsible for. And God Forbid anyone dared to slander St. Reagan. This DJ and this school teacher dared to not toe the line. Results? They're in trouble.

I should've written an obit for the guy. That would've been some truth-telling. But since I didn't, the only obit that got it right was Greg Palast's. (My favorite parsing of the funeral can be found in the 6/12 entry here. It's a whole Schwarzenegger is going to take over thing.)

You know, if you surf around the net and look at the really really freaky New World Order stuff, you'll see that some people actually believe that the NWO will somehow usurp all religions and replace it with a religion devoted to Princess Diana. (Really! I shit you not! It's totally bizarre.) Anyway, after the week we just had worshipping and glorifying St. Reagan, I think they're rethinking their choice of deity.

Oh, and another thing. The reason the update is so late is because of the Brooklyn DMV.

3 hours for two minutes at the window. 'Nuff said.

Quiz of the Week: Just How Bizarre Have Things Become?

How-To site of the Week: Faking UFO pictures

Hamster Blog of the Week: Barachito

Great Idea I'll never do: Kill your television

Site of the week: Howard Stern's Anti-Bush website.

Interesting. The Reagan thing was quite the distraction. But if you sifted through the news, all sorts of things were happening. The prison torture thing is going to get a lot worse for the administration.

Excerpt: Is the Abu Ghraib scandal about to break wide open? John Abizaid, the CENTCOM commander, is planning to appoint a 4-star general to head up the Army's investigation:

And there's another memo

Excerpt: Jess Bravin reports in Monday's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) about a classified legal memorandum prepared by the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel that appears designed to find every legal workaround possible to justify coercive interrogation and torture at Guantanamo Bay.

(Read up on some of the authors of the torture memo here and here.)

Did you see Bush at his press conference last week? I mean, when asked "Is torture ever justified?" he said

Excerpt: "I'm going to say it one more time. Maybe I can be more clear. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort you. We're a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at these laws. And that might provide comfort for you. And those were the instructions from me to the government."

In lieu of the fact that he had the law parsed into a pretzel, well, kinda' puts what he said into perspective, doesn't it.

He's had to change his story a bit.

Excerpt: The revelations have now forced the President to backtrack from his previous denials of culpability, with the White House yesterday admitting for the first time that Bush did, in fact, "set broad guidelines"3 for interrogation in Iraq - a tacit admission that Bush himself "opened the door"4 to the torture tactics in the first place.

Especially now since it looks like Sanchez knew about the torture.

Excerpt: There is more proof that the torture at Abu Ghraib was not the work of just a few "bad apples," and the evidence clearly implicates the top military officer in Iraq.  According to a British newspaper, additional information coming out this week will go further up the chain of command and implicate officials "at the top of the Bush administration."

And did you see Ashcroft in front of Congress? Now THAT was entertainment.

Excerpt: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, testifying before a congressional committee, refused to release or discuss memoranda that news reports say offered justification for torturing suspected terrorists. Two Democratic senators said Ashcroft's stance may constitute contempt of Congress, a federal crime.

With all this bad news, it's time for another staged beheading!

Excerpt: Video shows what it claims to be the murder of US national Robert Jacob in the Saudi capital. The footage is attributed to an al-Qaeda terror cell which claimed responsibility for the killing.

So, here's a whole new spin on the Tenet resignation that I hadn't thought of. When the front company that Valerie Plame worked through was revealed, it put the kibosh on about 30 years of covert work. The Bushies, in their effort to politically damage a whistleblower, also destroyed an information infrastructure that is desperately needed and damn near impossible to recreate. That pissed the CIA off and now there's a coup being staged to bring down the Bushies. Hence Tenet's resignation.

Excerpt: Former officials of the Executive Branch are, however, free to testify if they are no longer holding a government office when subpoenaed or when the charges are brought.

We're in for another debacle in Florida this November. The state elections chief just resigned.

Excerpt: Florida's elections chief, who just last month ignited controversy by pushing for a new purge of voters identified as felons ineligible to vote, abruptly resigned from his job Monday.

And the purge list? Boy, they're looking for anything to keep it under wraps.

Excerpt: A single word in the Florida Constitution could be enough to block Cable News Network and journalists across the state from investigating a controversial list of 47,000 suspected felons on the state voter rolls.

No matter though. Seems the machines are flawed and they probably won't do a damn thing about them.

Excerpt: Touchscreen voting machines in 11 counties have a software flaw that could make manual recounts impossible in November's presidential election, state officials said.

The TIA is alive and well.

Excerpt: Despite Congressional action cutting funding, and the resignation of the program’s controversial director, retired admiral John Poindexter, DARPA’s TIA program is alive and well and prying into the personal business of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “When Congress cut the funding, the Pentagon – with administration approval – simply moved the program into a ‘black bag’ account,” says a security consultant who worked on the DARPA project.  “Black bag programs don’t require Congressional approval and are exempt from traditional oversight.”

And here's how high gas prices effect our cost of living.

Excerpt; Nationwide, the increased energy costs means it will take $800 million more to bring in this year's crop than it did in 2003, according to projections from the American Farm Bureau. The 2003 tally was $2.6 billion higher than the cost to harvest the 2002 crop, again because of higher energy prices, said Troy Bredenkamp, who monitors fuel and energy for the Washington, D.C.-based organization.

The more and more I read, the more scared I become of GW Bush. Even the Pope is wary of him.

Excerpt: According to freelance journalist Wayne Madsden, "George W Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs and his constant references to 'evil doers,' in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations--the anti-Christ."

And now there's a book about Bush's mental illness.

Excerpt: In the book, to be released Tuesday, Justin A. Frank, a clinical professor at George Washington University Medical Center, claims President Bush exhibits "sadistic tendencies" and suffers from "character pathology," including "grandiosity" and "megalomania" -- viewing himself, America and God as interchangeable. Frank told us yesterday that his opinions are based on publicly available materials, adding, "I've never met the president or any members of his family."

Though, I wouldn't totally trust a diagnosis by a shrink who hadn't met with the patient.

I guess since Moore's film will be released,

Excerpt:As you may have heard by now, we finally have a distributor in America for "Fahrenheit 9/11." Actually, two of them! Lions Gate Films and IFC Films have agreed to aggressively distribute "Fahrenheit 9/11" in theaters all across the country beginning three weeks from today on Friday, June 25th.

they've had to come out and say that yes, they let the Saudi's fly on 9/13.

Excerpt: For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose. But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details.

Though they're trying to kill the movie. They've given it an R rating. God forbid the kids should have anything other than state-sanctioned info crammed into it.

Excerpt: "It is sadly very possible that many fifteen and sixteen years olds will be asked and recruited to serve in Iraq in the next couple of years," said Michael Moore in a statement. "If they are old enough to be recruited and capable of being in combat and risking their lives, they certainly deserve the right to see what is going on in Iraq."

Also, the attack machine is kicking in with a website targeting movie theaters that have agreed to show the movie. The website is called moveamericaforward.org. Initially, when you did a whois on the site, the registrant came up as Russo Marsh & Rogers. Who is Russo Marsh & Rogers? Well its a PR firm headed by Russo, who as you might recall, was an advisor to the Recall Davis Committee.

Excerpt: More now on the California recall controversy.
Republican political strategist Sal Russo serves as an adviser to the Recall Gray Davis Committee. Last year, Russo managed Bill Simon's unsuccessful bid against Davis. But things have changed considerably since then.

(The whois registry has since been updated. The clumsy way it was handled is indicative of the mind set of the idiots trying to kill the movie, isn't it?)

So if you go to this page on the moveamericaforward website, you'll find a list of contacts that they recommend you send a note to, chastising them for showing the film. (Here's the entire list from my email that I sent, just for simplicity's sake.) I suggest you do otherwise and COMMEND them for their courage and to ignore the right-wingers. Be brief. And if you're so inclined, feel free to contact the PR agency directly!

The report was wrong! Holy shit, can they get any dumber? I mean, nobody could believe the report said that terrorism had gone down. They looked into it and lo and behold, terrorism has gone up.

Excerpt: The State Department is scrambling to revise its annual report on global terrorism to acknowledge that it understated the number of deadly attacks in 2003, amid charges that the document is inaccurate and was politically manipulated by the Bush administration.

(Here's a brief discussion of the report and here's Joe Conason's take on it.)

Congress did something I agree with.

Excerpt: A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee defied the Bush administration on Wednesday and slashed funds to study a new generation of deep-earth penetrating nuclear weapons and so-called low-yield nuclear weapons.

Are you still eating meat?

Excerpt: British scientists have detected a previously unknown brain condition, which caused paralysis and death in a young cow, in a potential new blow to an industry badly hit by mad cow disease.

And worse.

Excerpt: Two directors of a Belgian meat wholesaler have been arrested after dog meat was found in hot dogs around Europe.

ewwww.

For-profit hospitals are more expensive.

Excerpt: U.S. hospitals owned by investors with the aim of making money are less cost-efficient than nonprofits, Canadian researchers said on Monday.

More women in politics means more humane policies.

Excerpt: And all of us may be paying a price for the lack of parity for women in positions of power. Time and again, researchers have found that the more women in government, the more humane the policies – from allocation of scarce resources to provision of government safeguards.

George Bush! Put back that wall!

Excerpt: House Republican leaders have tacked on to a major jobs bill a provision that would give religious leaders more freedom to engage in partisan politics without endangering the tax-exempt status of their churches.

Not to mention the "so help me God" thing stays in the pledge.

Excerpt: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed millions of schoolchildren to keep affirming loyalty to one nation "under God" but dodged the underlying question of whether the Pledge of Allegiance is an unconstitutional blending of church and state.

Nostradamus was a plagiarist?

Excerpt: A new form of allegation has now occurred, which is different from the previous ones. Sceptics have often stated that Nostradamus did not have any visionary powers. Some have stated that Nostradamus would sit alone at night in secret study, and that he used the methods of the 4th century neo-Platonist Iamblichus. In this, a bowl of water was used into which the seer gazed until the water became cloudy and pictures of the future were revealed... A reprint of Iamblichus’ book De Mysteriis Egyptorum was published at Lyons in 1547 and almost certainly read by Nostradamus... At the same time, the sceptics believe that many authors, like John Hogue, have done a rather poor job in trying to explain the verses, often opting for fire and brimstone and always trying to re-interpret them to make them fit with important events, in an attempt to impress the reader with the accuracy of Nostradamus’ prophetic powers.

Fucking and Puke Germany.

Pterosaurs are still alive?

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.