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Silent Coup: The Removal of a President - Len Colodny & Robert Gettlin

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STOP TERRORISM

ABBREVIATIONS FOR SITES I OFTEN STEAL NEWS ITEMS FROM:

og = J Orlin Grabbe
u = Progressive Review's Undernews
a = Antiwar

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Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia

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

Saturday, November 02, 2002

The International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ) is running a series this month on the "new business of war" [u]
Private military companies -- a recently coined euphemism for mercenaries -- are just one face of the increasing trend of the privatization of war, the investigation found. A small group of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations and, sometimes, criminal syndicates in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East have profited from this business of war.

Arms dealers have profited from a massive unregulated sell off of low price surplus armaments into the most fragile, conflict-ridden states and failed states. The weapons, mostly from state-owned Eastern European factories, have found their way to Angola, Sudan, Ethiopia, Colombia, Congo-Brazzaville, Sri Lanka, Burundi and Afghanistan -- where conflicts have led to the deaths of up to 10 million people during the past decade.

The investigation profiles arms dealers like Victor Bout and Leonid Minin, both of whom were born in the Soviet Union and, after its breakup, became involved in the profitable trade in arms to Africa. Bout, a Russian pilot, allegedly supplied arms to the Taliban, and was dubbed "the Merchant of Death" for supplying weapons to a series of African conflicts. Minin, a Ukrainian, was charged with supplying weapons that fueled a bloody war in Sierra Leone. Both have been accused of having ties to international criminal syndicates by various international authorities.
Not sure how "new" this is, but valuable anyway.

11:58 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Indiana cop gives a teen 5 bucks to get zapped by his Taser [u]

11:46 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

An interdisciplinary study claims that the health of Native Americans had been deteriorating for centuries before Columbus [u]

Apparently nomads were healthier, but agriculture and cities brought poorer health to many. The drop accelerated 1000 years before Columbus.

Not decisive findings, but interesting.

11:39 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

This story's over a week old, but I have to note it: John Allen Muhammad may have been exposed to chemical agents as a Gulf War vet and -- like McVeigh and the nursing student in Tucson -- forms part of a "small but significant" minority of vets who "become homicidal" [u]

See the post below on the Ft Bragg wife-killings as well.

11:20 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"I was set up by evil"

The story of Dr Larry C Ford: family man, brilliant gynecologist, entrepreneur -- and fan of The Turner Diaries, possible murder conspirator and collaborator in the apartheid South African government's secret biochem program, Project Coast
On the morning of Feb. 28, 2000, a man in a black hood ran up to Patrick Riley in front of his office, shot him flush in the face and fled.

The bullet missed his brain, and Mr. Riley, a biotechnology entrepreneur, survived. But two days later, his business partner, a doctor named Larry C. Ford, killed himself with a shotgun after learning he was suspected of being the mastermind behind the shooting.

That is where the story probably would have ended -- a lurid but ultimately local piece of intrigue played out in the sun-splashed Orange County sprawl -- had it not been for the phone calls that within hours began coming in to the police. Dr. Ford, the callers said, had left something behind: a cache of weapons and anthrax.

The local elementary school was closed. Forty-two families were evacuated from their homes in Dr. Ford's affluent neighborhood. Then police and federal investigators began to unearth evidence that Larry Ford had another life -- that he was not just a brilliant, if somewhat geeky, gynecologist who hoped to develop a device to protect women from AIDS.

Buried next to his swimming pool they found canisters containing machine guns and C-4 plastic explosives. In refrigerators at his home and office, next to the salad dressing and employee lunches, were 266 bottles and vials of pathogens -- among them salmonella, cholera, botulism and typhoid. The deadly poison ricin was stored, with a blowgun and darts, in a plastic bag in the family room. A compartment under the floorboards held medical files on 83 women.
Who needs Islamic terrorists? We grow 'em plenty weird right here at home.

A Mormon too, natch. This story -- which has more dead ends than Tangiers -- is perfect fodder for a book or a movie.

7:36 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Scientists under thumb of DrugGuild

New study shows BigPharma has virtually complete control over how researchers do their research, whether they have access to all the findings and whether or not the results are published [stratiawire]

I need to take a pill.

3:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, November 01, 2002

Biff Baker

Scanning my visitors, I found that someone from the DoD found my site or came to it through a reference to an article on Biff Baker's blowing the whistle on budget-bloat at the Pentagon re the Missile Defense program. He was fired soon after.

Now he's running for Congress on the Libertarian ticket. He still supports the Missile Defense Program, and I'm not sure I'd vote for him, but it's kind of nice to see someone go the distance even after being pilloried by the Military and their Contracting Racketeers.

Whom Bush just can't give enough money to now, right?

7:59 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Mondale won't fly on campaign trail [drudge]

It's at the bottom of the article, leaving you hanging there kind of queasily.

7:43 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

A bad idea whose time has come

Another article on water privatization, which is up to 40% in Europe and 15% here in the US

Water access should be a human right, wherever it's available at all.

11:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ballot initiatives are getting fewer, more expensive -- and more progressive

11:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Once again, the Shadow of the Dark Lords

Corporatocracy makes its move at Shanghai ICANN conference
Under the new system, board seats will be appointed by business and technical groups, and a special nominating committee that will include some public representatives.

It also gives a greater role to national governments.

The changes have angered critics of Icann. They say the reforms are aimed at getting rid of dissenting board members who argue the group is out of touch with internet users.
On the heels of that story below about the ISPs and consumption-based usage, we're getting to know where the Big Dog Sits.

9:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

91,000 Florida voters that couldn't vote in '00 (and would likely have given the election to Gore) still can't vote
...even though the list has been widely condemned -- the company that created it admits probable errors -- the same voter scrub list, with more than 94,000 names on it, is still in operation in Florida. Moreover, DBT Online, which generated the disastrously flawed list, reports that if it followed strict criteria to eliminate those errors, roughly 3,000 names would remain -- and a whopping 91,000 people would have their voting rights restored.

Eventually the list will be fixed, state officials have promised, in accordance with a settlement with the NAACP in its civil rights suit against Florida following the 2000 election. But not until the beginning of next year -- and after Jeb Bush's reelection bid is long
Full story only available to salon subscribers. Eventually it will be up at Greg's site at link above.

2:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, October 31, 2002

De Eagle and Da Bear

US-Russian cooperation in Afghan War deeper than admitted -- and complicates shrub's Iraq Fantasy

Long-in-the-tooth empires bump and grind a last dance.

11:19 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The New York Times suddenly (and only implicitly) acknowledges the real size of the D.C. anti-war protest [This Modern World]

As Dan says in his post, it took years for the Vietnam demonstrations to reach this level.

9:14 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Carte blanche for black ops

"[U]ncoordinated and uncontrolled" Pentagon covert ops team (Intelligence Support Activity or "ISA") to be "supersized" as the more powerful -- and perhaps even less accountable -- Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group, (P2OG) to "launch secret operations aimed at 'stimulating reactions' among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction -- that is, for instance, prodding terrorist cells into action and exposing themselves to 'quick-response' attacks by U.S. forces.

Such tactics would hold 'states/sub-state actors accountable' and 'signal to harboring states that their sovereignty will be at risk,' the briefing paper declares." [stratiawire] [see LA Times username and password at left]

9:35 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Army plays down vets' spousal homicides, claims no relation to anti-malarial drug
An Army study in 1994 concluded that spouse abuse resulting in severe physical violence was three times as high among soldiers as among civilians. But Defense Department officials cite a substantial drop in military cases since programs to curb spouse abuse were implemented in the mid-1990s.

The report on the Fort Bragg killings concludes that the Army needs to do a better job of identifying soldiers in trouble and linking them with programs to deal with stress and family violence.

Since the Fort Bragg killings, the Army has taken steps to address shortcomings. A new rule requires that a soldier returning early from Afghanistan to deal with a family crisis must be met by a counselor at the airport.

[...]

The Army has concluded that many troubled soldiers shun counseling out of fear that seeking help would be seen as a sign of instability and hurt their military careers.

9:16 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tucson spree killer sent local newspaper publisher "explanatory package"
"I understand that I have committed homicide and that I have broken the laws of our society," he wrote. "I will save the taxpayers money and take care of the problem."

The letter was accompanied by a packet that included his nursing license, college transcripts, military evaluations, recommendations from employers and two birthday cards - one religious, one crude.

9:07 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Avoid the US"

Canada issues a travel advisory due to American racial profiling
Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan are the countries listed in the U.S. National Security Entry Exit Registration System introduced on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The system authorizes the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to photograph, fingerprint and monitor the arrival and departure of visitors born in or citizens of those nations.

The Canadian travel advisory notes that people from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen "could also attract special attention from American immigration and security authorities."

"In these circumstances, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade advises Canadians who were born in the above countries or who may be citizens of these countries to consider carefully whether they should attempt to enter the United States for any reason, including transit to or from third countries," the advisory said.

8:51 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

International observers -- including reps of Russia and Albania -- will monitor the Florida election next week [a]
The joke, during the endless presidential election recounts in Florida two years ago, was that Russia and Albania would send poll monitors to help the United States with its unexpected bump on the road to democracy. Now, the joke has become reality.

[...]

Certainly, the Russians and Albanians know a thing or two about flawed, rigged or fraudulent elections. After receiving a decade of lectures from Western democracies about overhauling their own systems, they also have a good idea how to overcome them. It remains to be seen whether Florida isn't too tough a nut to crack, even for them.

8:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The BrandAmerica videos hit the screens in Indonesia

"We are Happy Muslims living here in America! No prejudice here! Soccer Moms and Lawyers, we're all Happy and Free and Still Very Religious here! America Loves Muslims, yes!"

I'm sure all the young Muslims radicalized by the Iraq War will See the Light and Embrace the Vision after seeing them.

I hear they've stopped watching the news on Air Force One; I guess those rumors of dusted blunts & Victory Kool-Aid are true. . .

12:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

It'll be interesting if the longshoreman dispute mutates into a clash between Workers Demands and The President Getting His (increasingly unpopular) War On

7:21 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

This is why I don't bother with NPR news anymore

Still like "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", which I listen to online without ads.

2:24 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wellstone

xymphora wonders when "government by murder" will stop in America
What is most annoying about current American politics is the left's continued insistance that their opponents are regular human beings with different political views. Of course, most people who call themselves 'conservatives' are such normal people. The problem is that the leaders of the right in American politics are out-and-out psychopathic thugs, and the left is getting consistently hammered by failure to realize this and act accordingly.

2:06 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Boondocks rules

10:18 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Anti-war solidarity at 8°F below (wind chill -41°F): McMurdo Station in Antarctica reprazents

10:10 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Counterpunch review of War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War on Iraq by Milan Rai [cursor]
The case against Saddam boils down to the following allegations: Iraq is in league with al-Qaeda; Iraq is re- building it's chemical and biological weapons capability; Iraq is close to developing a nuclear bomb or radiological weapon; Iraq is exporting weapons of mass destruction to other nations or terrorist groups. Most of these allegations are accepted as fact by the US press, but Rai proves there's precious little substance to the charges. Instead, he cleaves through the indictment of Iraq with a Chomsky-like precision.

The book is far from an exculpation of Saddam and his coterie of Baathist thugs. It is a defense of the Iraqi people and an evisceration of those, in Saddam's regime and in the Bush cabinet, who would further victimize the people of Iraq for self-indulgent geo-political purposes.

2:41 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Complete Control

Corporate oligarchs plan to kill P2P and other high bandwidth uses of the net by employing consumption-based bandwidth-usage pricing -- even though cable access automatically adjusts for high usage without cost to the provider [cursor]
When you consider the fact that the largest American telecommunications firms are often part of the same mega-corporation with music, video or movie-producing entertainment divisions -- such as AOL-Time Warner -- you can see how an industry-regulated Internet would handily end music and movie industry worries about Napster-like file swapping by people who don't want to pay industry-monopolized retail prices for content.

Thus, the strategic and technically feasible solutions embodied by companies such as Ellacoya is obviously why Goldman-Sachs was keen to invest in the firm -- as it offers the actual means to monetize the net and turn around the revenue-poor broadband sector.

According to Ellacoya's technical datasheet, operators can create "up to 51,000 unique policies that can be combined to generate limitless numbers of subscriber policies." Such rules, they explain, can either permit, deny, priority queues, address lock, rate limit or redirect access. The same technology also poses new concerns over privacy, since Ellacoya's technology "collects usage statistics for subscribers and applications, capturing service events, session details, and byte counts.... Operators can 'stamp' the subscribers identity on all records."

[...]

Of course, these calculations are utterly self-serving, ignoring the fact that the net was developed with tax dollars and has been an incubator for an array of innovations that extend far beyond creating new profit centers for big media companies. The envisioned control structures will inhibit robust Internet use by early broadband adopters, and discourage development of new high-speed applications such as Internet-based telephone and video-on-demand, thus slowing overall broadband growth.

Worse, this business model will erect high economic and technical barriers to entry for non-commercial and public interest uses of the high-speed Internet, threatening civic discourse, artistic expression and non-profit communications. In moving to implement this highly centralized vision for broadband, the cable industry does not simply ignore the democratic and competitive history of the Internet -- it is actively hostile to it.

2:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

A Latin American interzone of lawlessness and corruption provides cover for terrorist groups [Schism Matrix Oct 28]
The tri-border region -- formed by the cities of Puerto Igauzu, Argentina; Foz do Iguazu Brazil; and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay -- has a reputation for lawlessness and an historical presence of terrorist elements. For decades the region has been home to various smugglers, terrorists, drug traffickers, arms dealers, and organized crime figures from Russia, Japan, China, and Nigeria, among other countries. Terrorists from the Middle East have also been found in the area, particularly from Lebanon and Syria.
This article hews to the line that there's a firm line between say, US/British intelligence, and groups like al-Qaeda and Hezbollah not to mention money launderers and arms dealers, which limits it's credibility.

Naturally I also wonder about the overlap with Nazi expatriates like Paul Schafer and their interests and experiments in the area. A lot of loose change floating around down there, very uh clean change. . . Who knows where it would lead if traced.

5:21 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Some very heavy undertones to this item on Cheney being invited not to attend the Wellstone funeral

Especially for those of us not completely convinced it was an accident.

4:57 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

A good point I haven't seen made anywhere else

Feedback from yesterday's Undernews:
GEORGE, TAKOMA PARK, MD - In the civil rights actions of the fifties and sixties, the "left" pressed for federal intervention to restrain state depredations against civil and political rights. But when the actions were over, the left didn't step back to maintain a critical eye on federal power. Now, as a result, we find that too many calling themselves "left" or "progressive" tend to think of the federal government as the answer to all problems, overlooking the legitimacy and need for as much localized decision-making as possible. The "new right," for its part -- and among them I include the Bush dynasty and their followers -- cannot really attack the "left" for this, however, because it has ALSO decided that the federal government is the first and foremost answer to all problems. Despite Bush's talk about "states' rights," his administration is devoted to making as many decisions as it can grasp at the highest levels, using federal institutions and laws to shift wealth and resources on a national scale, far beyond what even the most powerful Since a large segment of the "left" and "right" are in fundamental agreement on a certain scope of institutional competence, other "left" and "right" activists and movements are marginalized, moving us toward a centralized, statist government.
This is something I've realized having moved to the West from Jersey: there's much less trust that what the federal government does is good for citizens here (though 9/11 shifted things into a suspension of skepticism for the last year). I used to have the typical Northeasterner's naive belief that without the federal government's reining in of reactionary local and state bodies politic, they'd still be hanging blacks in the South and so forth. There's truth to that, but -- though I was never very trusting of government at any level -- I'm far more skeptical of federal power than I used to be.

And of course, now the reactionaries are in charge in Washington -- with the 9/11-stunned and -numbed support of the majority. Though the last couple months have seen skepticism raise it's ugly little head repeatedly, the tone has shifted dramatically. And I feel a little slow because Clinton administration set this up in some ways, giving the CIA official power it never had before, caving to the corporatocracy every chance he got, etc.

I have a feeling there's information to be revealed that will precipitate a reaction to the political/corporate power structure in this country unprecedented in scope and effect. Starting next year, the cracks in the dam will become hard for anyone to ignore. Then maybe we'll be up to the responsibility of installing something approaching real democracy in this country.

4:36 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Moscow prosecutor claims 45 hostages killed in theater by bullets

Russian health authorities quickly deny this, restating only 2 did.

4:36 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

It's a gas gas gas:

Of course the US backs the Russian gas attack -- we're developing our own new bio-chem arsenal

Partners in treaty-breaching. You can't help but think there's an international, official and unofficial movement afoot to provoke terror, limit citizen's rights and create a suffocating atmosphere of repression and oppression. Nationalist governments, very wealthy financier provocateurs, subterranean groups "sanctioned" by "spiritually-inspired" holy war/apocalyptic dogma, organized crime and other sick puppies who have various kinds of stakes in dragging the world down into their vortex of fear & doom in an orgy of fascist provocations and demented "purifying" acts.

Strange Ecstasies and Viral Dementia and The Great Humming Numbness, a decade before the end of the Great Cycle.

4:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Resistance builds in Israel to Sharon's agenda [a]
The Israeli government has been brought close to collapse by the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, warning his Labour coalition partners that he will expel them from the cabinet if they carry out their threat to vote against next year's budget in the Knesset tomorrow.

Labour has said it will stand firm on its demand for nearly �100m of the sum allocated to Jewish settlements in the occupied territories to be diverted to the poor, the elderly and single-parent families.

4:00 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Looks like we're back up. . .

BlogStudio and my 2 blogs were down most of yesterday, sorry.

Clusterposts:

I have had the sense for a while that if the Iraq War or whatever War goes forward, with the US taking unilateral action or not, there will be problems with our weapons
American weapons systems don't work. Remember we've lost 53 helicopters, and they haven't had to shoot one missile. And therein is the second problem. We have ordinance that doesn't work, bombs that don't explode, mines that either don't explode or explode prematurely, Cruise and Tomahawk missiles only 38% of which can hit their targets. The other glaring problem is that the US continues to purchase weapons systems that don't work in exchange for which defense contractors give enormous amounts of money to the Republican Party.

3:58 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, October 28, 2002

Press Freedoms Index

How countries measure up in terms of press freedom

The US is 17th, below Costa Rica. Canada is 5th, the highest outside northern Europe. Israel scored lower (92) than the Palestinian Authority (82), unsurprisingly. China and North Korea came in last.

7:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Single scientist" theory on anthrax attack doubted by experts

While it would be difficult to figure out exactly why at this point, the FBI appears to have been motivated by some parallel agenda in this case, and they havn't done much to convince us otherwise.

Of course with the way the Flight 800 investigation was manipulated and covered up, why would we believe them anyway?

11:06 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

White House begins actively undermining whistle-blower protections [u]

2:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sniper's military record from UPI

Decorated Gulf War vet, superb marksman, and "a combat engineer, a broad field encompassing mine laying, removal, demolition and combat construction. He was also a metal worker and a water transport specialist." There's more detail at the link.

According to Undernews, UPI was the only media outlet to outline all this, citing the contrasting example of the Washington Post:
"He was a mediocre soldier who was once convicted of striking a sergeant in the head, and he wasn't "anything special" as a marksman, according to a former platoon leader.
Playing down the US military training angle, while the "Muslim" angle gets exaggerated. . .

2:18 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Leftist" Lula wins presidency with 60% in Brazil

This will be interesting to follow.

1:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, October 27, 2002

Investors greedily grab shares of AOLTimeWarner after $200mil "accounting mistake" revealed
"The market's starting to slough off the bad news and that's good," said Will Muggia, who helps manage $3 billion for Westfield Capital Management. "In the middle of a bear market people think the worst. But the bear market is largely over. Now you've got cheaper valuations and the bad news that was so unknown is now known."

Investors are more willing to pardon companies now, in part because some financial shenanigans are already factored into share prices: Tyco International TYC.N had already lost three-quarters of its value this year before it restated results on Thursday. Shares of the conglomerate shot up 11.1 percent after the announcement.

Also, chief executives have been forced to sign off on financial results and many of those suspected of cooking books have left their companies. In addition, measures taken by companies and federal regulators have reassured Wall Street.

"We're near the end of discovering corporate malfeasance or fraud," said Jeffrey Lindsey, head of large cap growth investing for State Street Research, which manages $46 billion. "There's actually a sigh of relief that maybe this is the end of it." [my emphasis]

Oh really?

It seems this kind of corruption is just fine with Americans now -- which means stock volatility will be rising even higher, and uncertainty as well. This is a bad sign.

Anyone who thinks this won't happen again without drastic changes in how corporations are regulated is seriously deluded.

11:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

This'll really boost Russian tourism

I can't believe the Russians would use a gas that killed and hospitalized so many people

There was no alternative that would be less lethal? With all the research into crowd-controlling and -dispersing weapons developed over the last decades? I realize they wanted to disable the terrorists before they set off explosives, but this doesn't wash with me.

I'm not taking it on faith that these were Chechens, either. Not that I'd be surprised if they were.

10:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Just for the record:

Washington: 100,000 protesters against war in largest protest since Vietnam

10:40 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Deep Black Lies looks like an interesting site to explore for info on international secret dealings [questions, questions]

2:46 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Bush Knew file:

Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11

This is an article summarizing a 7000-word screed in the print edition of The Observer (UK)
'Osama was chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long-contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan ... [because] the administration is convinced that Americans are so simple-minded that they can deal with no scenario more complex than the venerable, lone, crazed killer (this time with zombie helpers) who does evil just for the fun of it 'cause he hates us because we're rich 'n free 'n he's not.' Vidal also attacks the American media's failure to discuss 11 September and its consequences: 'Apparently, "conspiracy stuff" is now shorthand for unspeakable truth.'
After reading Colin Campbell's assessment of Central Asia's now disappointing prospects -- and the new focus on oil-rich Iraq -- these arguments are starting to seem like old news, even if still considered wacky and seditious in many Americans' minds (if you believe the media anyway. . .)

Still, it's nice to have a voice beyond blogistan and a few lone wolves throwing vital questions around the mainstream media. In England anyway -- you wouldn't see an article like this in the Times or the Post.

1:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

That's one of the great things about living in America: moral superiority is so damned cheap.

-- James Crumley

This country is going so far to the right you won't be able to recognize it.

-- John Mitchell, 1973

Those who think history has left us helpless should recall the abolitionist of 1830, the feminist of 1870, the labor organizer of 1890, or the gay or lesbian writer of 1910. They, like us, did not get to choose their time in history but they, like us, did get to choose what they did with it.

-- Sam Smith

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

They tell us it's about race, and we believe them. And they call it a "democracy," and we nod our heads, so pleased with ourselves. We blame the Socias [gangsters], we occasionally sneer at the Paulsons [latest crop of craven pols] but we always vote for the Sterling Mulkerns [good old boys]. And in occasional moments of quasi-lucidity, we wonder why the Mulkerns of this world don't respect us. They don't respect us because we are their molested children. They fuck us morning, noon, and night, but as long as they tuck us in with a kiss, as long as they whisper into our ears, "Daddy loves you, Daddy will take care of you," we close our eyes and go to sleep, trading our bodies, our souls, for the comforting veneers of "civilization" and "security," the false idols of our twentieth century wet dream. And it's our reliance on that dream that the Mulkerns, the Paulsons, the Socias, the Phils, the Heroes of this world depend upon. That's their dark knowledge. That's how they win.

-- Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War

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

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

charging the canvas

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