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ABBREVIATIONS FOR SITES I OFTEN STEAL NEWS ITEMS FROM:

u = Progressive Review's Undernews

PUBLIC AFFAIRS/HISTORY READING:
(r) = re-reading

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The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers -- and What They Expect in Return

Arrogant Capital

Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism & Toxic Warfare

The Velvet Coup: The Constitution, the Supreme Court and the Decline of American Democracy

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of the Free Press

Amazon Light

Just consider what current events will sound like two thousand years from now -- the greatest nation on Earth bombing some of the smallest and weakest for no clear reasons, people starving in parts of the world while farmers are paid not to plant crops in others, technophiles sitting at home playing electronic golf rahter than the real thing, and police forces ordered to arrest people who simply desire to ingest a psychoactive weed. People of that era will also likely laugh it all off as fantastic myths...

It is time for those who desire true freedom to exert themselves -- to fight back against the forces who desire domination through fear and disunity.

This does not have to involve violence. It can be done in small, simple ways, like not financing that new Sport Utility Vehicle, cutting up all but one credit card, not opting for a second mortgage, turning off that TV sitcom for a good book, asking questions and speaking out in church or synagogue, attending school board and city council meetings, voting for the candidate who has the least money, learning about the Fully Informed Jury movement and using it when called -- in general, taking responsibility for one's own actions. Despite the omnipresent advertising for the Lotto -- legalized government gambling -- there is no free lunch. Giving up one's individual power for the hope of comfort and security has proven to lead only to tyranny.

from Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs

You had to take those pieces of paper with you when you went shopping, though by the time I was nine or ten most people used plastic cards. . .It seems so primitive, totemistic even, like cowry shells. I must have used that kind of money myself, a little, before everything went on the Compubank.

I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.

It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.

Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.

I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.

. . . Things continued on in that state of suspended animation for weeks, although some things did happen. Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful. They said that new elections would be held, but that it would take some time to prepare for them. The thing to do, they said, was to continue on as usual.

from The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

By the time Oscar reached the outskirts of Washington, DC, The Louisiana air base had benn placed under siege.

The base's electrical power supply had long since been cut off for lack of payment. The aircraft had no fuel. The desperate federal troops were bartering stolen equipment for food and booze. Desertion was rampant. The air base commander had released a sobbing video confession and had shot himself.

Green Huey had lost patience with the long-festering scandal. He was moving in for the kill. Attacking and seizing an federal air base with his loyal state militia would have been entirely too blatant and straightforward. Instead the rogue Governor employed proxy guerrillas.

Huey had won the favor of nomad prole groups by providing them with safe havens. He allowed them to squat in Louisiana's many federally declared contamination zones. These forgotten landscapes were tainted with petrochemical effluent and hormone-warping pesticides, and were hence officially unfit for human settlement. The prole hordes had different opinions on that subject.

Proles cheerfully grouped in any locale where conventional authority had grown weak. Whenever the net-based proles were not constantly harassed by the authorities, they coalesced and grew ambitious. Though easily scattered by focused crackdowns, they regrouped as swiftly as a horde of gnats. With their reaping machines and bio-breweries, they could live off the land at the very base of the food chain. They had no stake in the established order, and they cherished a canny street-level knowledge of society's infrastructural weaknesses. They made expensive enemies. . .

Louisiana's ecologically blighted areas were ideal for proles. The disaster zones were also impromptu wildlife sanctuaries, since wild animals found chemical fouling much easier to survive than the presence of human beings. After decades of wild subtropical growth, Louisiana's toxic dumps were as impenetrable as Sherwood Forest.

from Distraction by Bruce Sterling

and s-integrator

Friday, August 29, 2003

Accusing your opponents of exactly what you're doing file

Interesting how a judiciary which maintains the separation of church and state is "unelected, non-accountable, arrogant, [and] imperialistic" in the mind of a Christian commentator who undoubtedly supports shrubco and the Iraq invasion

They're "determined to shove their beliefs down our throats," radio host James Dobson rants.

3:14 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Cross into the ~~brainwashed sex zombie training center~~ blue

DoD confirms history of widespread sex crimes at Air Force Academy

2:02 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, August 28, 2003

It's THEIR fault! They LIED! WAHHH!

Sneaky Arabs to blame for US invasion of Iraq [drudge]

They're actually depending on lie detectors to start wars.

Jesus.

Did Cheney insist on getting US intel to parrot this ridiculous bullshit to rewrite the now obvious fact that shrubco planned this years ago?

You bet.

9:32 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

CIA wants to hire Jennifer Garner (Alias) as their college infomercial spokeperson

9:25 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

BBC

War on "leftist groups" in Peru killed over 40,000 mostly indigenous paople.

The Road to Argentina: IMF warns US on budget deficit.

9:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

From nest egg to roulette wheel

IBM ruling may persuade companies to abandon pension plans for 401(k)s

8:32 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Judge severely limits Navy's use of ELF

Aside from the whale issue, this is a very good thing. I have a bad feeling about this technology.

1:23 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

The Royal Scam

Will the issue of below-living-wage work even be mentioned in the '04 campaign? [u]
Fully 30 million Americans -- one in four U.S. workers -- earn $8.70 an hour or less, a rate that works out to $18,100 a year, which is the current official poverty level in the United States for a family of four. These low-wage jobs usually lack health care, child care, pensions and vacation benefits. Their working conditions are often grueling, dangerous, even humiliating.

At the same time, more and more middle-class jobs are taking on many of these same characteristics, losing the security and benefits once taken for granted. [emphasis added]
This excellent article describes 4 myths which have obscured this pervasive and oppressive stituation.

2:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Torture routine in Israel [u]
...illegal measures taken against suspects include sleep deprivation, threats and humiliation, exposure to extreme cold or heat and isolation in inhumane confinement.

Of the 48 detainees who gave statements to the committee's lawyers during the first four months of the year, 58% claimed they had been victimized by direct violence; 52% complained of sleep deprivation; and 90% said their hands had been tied behind their backs for prolonged periods.

The report denounces what it regards as a moral decline in Israel and consistent violation of democratic norms, calling on the government to comply fully with international laws prohibiting torture and inhumane treatment of suspects.

1:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Hidden data in Word files can be very revealing [u]
There is a function in many versions of Microsoft Office programs, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, that means that fragments of data (which Microsoft refers to as metadata) from other files you deleted or were working on at the same time could be hidden in any document you save.

This could be embarrassing for any home workers whose colleagues find out that they have been applying for jobs while working at home or being less than complimentary about their co-workers.

[...]

Analysis of hidden information in the so-called Iraq "dodgy dossier" showed, among other things, the names of the four civil servants who worked on it.

Downing Street press office head Alastair Campbell had to explain who these people were to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee investigating the genesis of the plagiarised document.
There are links to utilities that show "metadata" in Word files at the BBC page linked above.

1:38 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Disclosure Project's Stephen Greer has warned about the fear the aliens scam which has been running for decades and one of whose goals -- the militarization of space -- is fast becoming a reality
One scenario for disclosure is that the UFO and Extraterrestrial subject is acknowledged in a way which is scientific and hopeful. Excessive secrecy which lacks executive branch and congressional oversight is ended. Humanity begins to entertain open contact with other civilizations, with peaceful engagement as the goal. Technologies which are currently suppressed are allowed to be disseminated: Pollution ends. An economy of abundance and social justice is firmly established. Global environmental destruction and mind-numbing world poverty become a faint memory. Zero-point based energy devices transform the world. Electro-gravitic devices permit above ground travel without paving over the world's precious fertile farm land. As an ET once told Colonel Philip Corso, "Its a new world, if you can take it...". This is the disclosure which we are working for.

But the disclosure envisioned above could have happened in 1950. It did not - Why? For such a disclosure would lead to the total transformation of the status quo. Centralized energy systems would be obsolete. Oil would be useful only for lubricants and synthetics. The geo-political order of today would be a thing forgotten: Every country and people on Earth would have such a high degree of progress and advancement that all nations would have a seat at the global table. Power would need to be shared. Peaceful acknowledgment of life from elsewhere would make the Earth seem like the very small, organic homeland which it is. The vast trillion dollar global military - industrial sector would be reigned in. And a universal spirituality might dawn...

But remember, there are hugely powerful interests who dread this scenario.� For them, it is the end of the world as they know it. The end of centralized, elite power. The end of a controlled geo-political order which today leaves nearly 90% of the people of Earth barely one step out of the stone age. And they do not wish to share the power they wield.

[...]

Over the past 40 years, UFOlogy, as it is called, combined with a mighty media machine, has increasingly demonized ETs via fearsome movies like "Independence Day", and pseudo-science that presents alien kidnappings and abuse as a fact (in some circles) of modern life. That some humans have had contact with ETs I have no doubt; that the real ET contact has been subsumed in an ocean of hoaxed accounts I am certain.

That is, real ET events are seldom reported out to the public. The Machine ensures that the hoaxed, frightening and intrinsically xenophobic accounts are the ones seen and read by millions. This mental conditioning to fear ET has been subtly reinforced for decades, in preparation for future deceptions. Deceptions that will make 9/11 look trivial.

I write this now because I have recently been contacted by several highly placed media and intelligence sources that have made it clear to me that hoaxed events and story-lines are imminent that will attempt to further ramp up the fear machine regarding UFOs and ETs. After all, to have an enemy, you must make the people hate and fear a person, a group of people, or in this case an entire category of beings.

To be clear: the maniacal covert programs controlling UFO secrecy, ARVs and related technologies - including those technologies that can simulate ET events, ET abductions and the like - plan to hijack Disclosure, spin it into the fire of fear, and roll out events that will eventually present ETs as a new enemy. Do not be deceived.
I think the story is a lot more complicated than this, but that fear is being used to try to create a police state in the US and elsewhere is undeniable since 9/11. The recent film Signs is another example of this trend.

And that technologies that threaten the plutocrats have been suppressed or slowly leaked to the research labs is also obvious (check out Philip Corso's The Day After Roswell).

12:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, August 25, 2003

GAO: Cheney "stymied" energy meetings probe
White House officials argued that the GAO had overstepped its bounds and forcing them to turn over the records would hamper their ability to get "unvarnished" expert advice.
What "unvarnished" bullshit.

8:32 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, August 24, 2003

A toast to Eva Joly

I was listening to a recent Kristina Borjesson interview on Black Op Radio (Show #129) and she mentioned the Elf-Aquitaine case brought by the fearless Norwegian-born French judge Eva Joly
While the Tapie investigation made Eva Joly an instant celebrity, it was with the case of Elf-Aquitaine, the gigantic state-owned oil firm, that she plunged most deeply into the inner sanctum of France's elite. Elf, it was alleged, had been used as an all-purpose cash cow by successive governments, amassing a slush fund of hundreds of millions of pounds to be passed out as bribes, sweeteners and kickbacks. Allegedly, "royalties" went to African leaders for drilling rights; commissions were paid to acquire desirable industrial properties and sweetheart loans were granted to undeserving companies.

The most infamous instance concerned the 1991 sale to Taiwan of six modern frigates built by the French defence firm Thomson-CSF. The contract was worth more than �1 billion, but the deal conflicted with French government policy towards mainland China. The sale was cancelled, then reversed. The warships were delivered.

It was alleged that more than �170 million in bribes had been paid to revive the deal, and that Thomson had borrowed Elf's network of agents to get the job done.
Borjesson said that Joly had discovered that Elf had supplied arms and whatever to some African countries with an eye to monopolizing future oil properties, and was under 24-hour protection because of death threats.

She won the Transparency Int'l Integrity award in 2001 and recently attempted to publish a book in France about the case which was consored "because of the trial" which is currently in progress.

Her unit's money ran out before she could complete her research, and she's now advising the Norwegian government, having retired her judgeship.
She says Elf's practices are not uncommon in France's large arms, aeronautical and oil businesses, which make a mockery of France's claims to be a champion of Third World development. Via its international companies, she says, France props up all manner of hideous regimes. "Everyone knew what was going on at Elf, which was an indication that it was not considered unusual," she says.

"I think that the real lesson has not been taken from the Elf case, or from any of the other important corruption cases we have had. There is an assumption that this is the problem of three men who plundered their company. I think it's quite different. I think it's a problem with the system."

The initial enthusiasm for the magistrates who investigated political and financial scandals in France during the 1990s has evaporated and the magistrates themselves have been attacked by politicians and the French press. "They attack us for exhausting them and destroying France's reputation for honesty," says Joly.

She says that the extent to which politicians took Elf money will probably never be known as the trail, and her unit's funding, ran dry before she could get to that. And, given that every party was on the take, there is almost no political will to see such an investigation succeed.

"Latin countries, including France, are more tolerant of corruption," she shrugs. "But in France the attitude is just to re-elect the people who are guilty."

Funny how you never heard about this uplifting story of standing up to corruption at the highest levels in the media here, isn't it?

Then again we wouldn't want any judges looking into oil companies, political parties and corruption here, now would we?

That's one reason why shrubco wants to handpick judges very carefully.

11:44 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

shrubco record on legislation to modernize the energy grid [u]
In June of 2001, Bush opposed and the congressional GOP voted down legislation to provide $350 million worth of loans to modernize the nation's power grid because of known weaknesses in reliability and capacity.

2:19 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

On the Iraqis' attempting to draft a constitution

"Hey, why don't we send them ours? It worked well for us for
over two hundred years . . . and we're not using it anymore."

Wow, a Jay Leno joke I would've laughed at.

Talk about singularities... [Undernews]

2:09 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Progressive Review's googled cliché watch

1. Smart growth - 191,000
2. Metrosexual - 87,700
3. American empire - 80,500
4. Fair and balanced - 48,000
5. Cultural creative - 2,950
6. Obesity crisis - 1,370

1:54 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Selected search referrals
Colorado Law on adult wearing only a diapers outside
staph charging
clockwork orange. does the system need to be overthrown
"drink their own breast milk"
bagel+factory+guatemala
free lunch lbj take a leak
wifi "antarctic"
international police iraq dyncorp shipping dates
cowry shell bras
"town house" reno ashtray
union eliminate bathroom breaks adult diapers
lead music sheet israel new breed christian integrity music free
powerpoint presentation on how credit cards came into existence in us
shania twain drummer goggles
Articles of the newspapers in Venezuela that present strong grammatic
pin down and torture smaller opponents
syndicates of gynecologist in Lebanon
I was the only listing on Yahoo for that last one.

As Duke Atreiades once said, "It makes me very proud."

Even though I don't have the slightest idea why someone would be searching for such a thing. A Lebanese mafia of roving gynecologists?

12:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Gas shortage in AZ points to lack of local refinery, and how Americans want it both ways: fossil fuel and nuclear plants that no one wants in their backyard, but that increasing consumption and no real initiative behind alternate energy sources are putting there anyway

Vegas is as vulnerable as Phoenix, since they import all their gas too.

8:50 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The bewildering variety of groups opposed to US occupation

Without more Arab speakers and a LOT more sensitivity to Iraqi cultural mores, the effort to quell unrest in Iraq is obviously doomed.

With those changes -- very unlikely with the notoriously ham-fisted and clueless (if not violent and oppressive) attitude of shrubco anyway -- it would just be tremendously difficult.

8:38 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Deepening quagmire file:

Desperate US officials turn to Saddam's spies to "identify resistance"
While not disclosing how they check the operatives, U.S. officials said they believed some agents remained "fairly untainted" by Hussein's government. But they said they recognized the potential pitfalls in relying on an instrument loathed by most Iraqis and renowned across the Arab world for its casual use of torture, fear, intimidation, rape and imprisonment.

"We have to be very careful in how we vet them, in how we go through their backgrounds," the senior American official said. "We don't want to put a cancer right in the middle of this."

[...]

...many Iraqis, both former operatives and U.S.-allied officials, are dismissive of the U.S. ability to run intelligence inside the country. They say U.S. officials lack the means to recruit effective networks and are overwhelmed with information of dubious quality.

"There's a difference between how we perceive things and how they react," said one council member. "There's no quick response to intelligence. The Americans have huge quantities of it, most of it nonsense. They have no means of distinguishing."

8:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Mass poisoning becoming a trend in China?

Poor food prep is often to blame in the summer, but cases of intentional poisoning are rising.

Also -- scientists may have found the culprit in frighteningly common occurrence of mysterious nerve disease on Guam: flying fox guano.

8:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

REVIEWS

from Sassafrass (9/23/02)
"Unconventional viewpoints at 'charging the canvas'

Opinions that will ruffle feathers, from someone who clearly knows their way around information and the blogosphere."

Blog of the Day
1/18/02

WEEKLY QUOTE

In the eyes of posterity it will inevitably seem that, in safeguarding our freedom, we destroyed it; that the vast clandestine apparatus we built up to probe our enemies' resources and intentions only served in the end to confuse our own purposes; that the practice of deceiving others for the good of the state led infallibly to our deceiving ourselves; and that the vast army of intelligence personnel built up to execute these purposes were soon caught up in the web of their own sick fantasies, with disastrous consequences to them and us.

-- Malcolm Muggeridge

Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

-- Mark Twain

NOT IN OUR NAME
(link to list against Iraq War)

CULTURE LINK

Philip K. Dick

DEEPER NEWS LINK

PR Watch

charging the canvas

The Link Section