MARY CHENEY: "MY BABY IS A GIFT FROM GOD."

wArSHINtuHn--Which God, Mary? Ialdabaoth? Belial? Krishna? The Flying Spaghetti Monster? Leviathan? Zeus? Bob Dobbs? YHWH? HWHY? Cthuluoid-beings from another dimension? Pistis-Sophia? Saklas? Apollo? The god of vent worms? Ahram? I'm not attacking you because you're ostensibly a woman, and that you're gay. I'm attacking you because you're a gay woman who's pregnant who attacks gays, women and the poor. Idiots in the gay community will pathetically attempt to defend you--as a matter of fact, they already have--and humiliate themselves, accomplishing nothing. These morons are used to this, and they are the pariahs of the pariahs. The screw-ups. Your people. Self-destructive, fat-headed idiots who happen to be gay. I believe you worked for Coors, their beer sucks. Huh, I guess you do belong-together after all. Good night, Gracie. Polemics, it's what I do.

AL FRANKEN ANNOUNCES 2008 SENATE BID: WHERE'S TOM DAVIS?

THE BLOGOSPHERE--This is exciting, but I say it with some measured-restraint. Franken has been a good foil culturally for the rightward-trend over the last 20+ years, but he's also been pretty partisan in some of his comments and writings. Still, he's the guy who wrote the Nixon-sketch with Tom Davis on-LSD ("You're lucky Abe, at least they shot YOU.") for SNL in the 70s. I'd take him over a Republican any day, and so there it is. He's got a great chance of winning, as Minnesota isn't a rock-solid stronghold for the GOP (what state is right-now?), so I wish him the best-of-luck. He's qualified, and his humor will be needed. I'm hoping he quietly belittles his opponents who stand in-the-way of this nation having a future, regardless of their party. Still, where's Tom?

PLAME SMOKING GUN: WHY ISN'T THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA COVERING THIS EVIDENCE IN THE LIBBY TRIAL?

THE BLOGOSPHERE--Nobody in the press is covering government exhibit 532 (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013107Z.shtml), but it points to direct-involvement in the Plame case by President George W. Bush. It's appearing he did in-fact order the smear-campaign and outing of Valerie Plame, a former CIA-operative, and wife of former diplomat Joe Wilson. Bush has denied any involvement or prior-knowledge of the attacks on the Wilsons. Now the "he did it" game of pointing comes, bringing-to-mind episodes of The Three Stooges (Curly-era, soitenly the best one). "I know you are, but what am I?", will likely be the President's and Vice President's defense strategy, but someone ordered this pizza. It appears from this document that it was President Bush.

This letter confirms a number of Libby's assertions that he wasn't leading-the-charge on them. It also appears that the President was willing to sacrifice Libby to save Karl Rove. A bad-move on Cheney's part that he wrote all it in his longhand. Be prepared for desperate actions by the Bush administration--criminals are profoundly dangerous when they're cornered. The push into Iran has a tinge of rebellion to it. It's safe to say that George W. Bush has murdered the myth of the rugged individual and "winning" in the American lexicon. Rove, the man of many-chins (yet no-chins), is in-trouble. Bigger trouble than a kid caught with his hand in a cookie-jar. Somehow, I think we'll get those same, lame-excuses.

I found this document at a blog which claims to be by Patrick Fitzgerald, but does it matter if it really is? An interesting aspect of the memo is the tone. It's not very cocksure, and sounds pretty desperate. Mark my words: the last-time anyone created this much confusion in government was the rise of NSDAP in 1933 Germany. They might just outdo them yet. The parallel is that it's fine that you're able to seize-power, but disastrous when you are incapable of rule on any plane. This is what makes them revolutionaries, not just their radical ideology that will not outlive them. Why? Because the assholes cannot spell "ridiculous." That's it, no other reason.

Merry Fitzmas (BOO-YAH!): http://patrickjfitzgerald.blogspot.com/

THE TRACTOR AND THE VIOLIN: BUSH ROUTS PRESS WITH TRACTOR IN ILLINOIS

PEORIA, ILLINOIS--Mr. Haney wasn't there to sell him some spare-parts from China, but Vice President Bush was in Illinois yesterday touting how great the economy is (for a few), the need for more free trade agreements (that undermine American jobs and wages--pass), and then proceeded to drive a Caterpillar tractor around a field of his own rhetoric:

The president was mostly preaching to the converted. Caterpillar was carefully chosen by the White House to put Bush's policies in the best possible light. The company's exports to Chile and Australia have shot up following free trade agreements negotiated by the Bush administration. And China, which negotiated a trade deal with President Bill Clinton, is now Caterpillar's fifth- largest export market. (IHT, 01.31.2007)

A few of the press were gored, one having his head crushed, his brains spilling-out in classic Peckinpah-fashion (slow-motion). Seeing blood, the President leaped from the tractor beating his chest, and began lapping-up the blood. "Mmmm-good!", he exclaimed in an archetypal Andy Griffith move that even the late Don Knotts could feel it. Businessweek reported this observation from Illinois:

"Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, wondered whether Bush might be trying to duck debate over the Iraq war by plugging his economic programs." (Businessweek, 01.30.2007)

But nobody cared that members of the press were killed, and it was agreed that they made better fertilizer in-death than in-life. At long-last, they were useful to society. Funny, very-few stories covered the tractor incident in any detail. Curious. I guess he's mad at the press, though he really shouldn't, he has them, even now. Journalism: best to get a job at Caterpillar.


Newsgeek Bloggo:
http://www.talk.newsweek.com/default.asp?item=464251

International Herald Times: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/31/news/prexy.php

Bidness Weak: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MVRLEG6.htm

GONZALES TO TURN OVER ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE DOCUMENTS TODAY: ARE THEY RELEVANT AND COMPLETE? ARE THEY GENUINE?

"It's never been the case where we said we would never provide the access." --Attorney General Alberto Gonzalers lying to the press again today. (AP, 1.31.2007)

Washington D.C.--No longer displaying his usual arrogance before Congress, ostensible Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is turning-over what are purported to be key-documents of the program. Are they everything we need to know? Doubtful. The papers are being forwarded to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the two highest-ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The documents won't be made public (much to the chagrin of the ACLU), but we can rest-assured that Senator Leahy will have a lot to say about their contents, as will Arlen Specter. But will they give an accurate overview of the program? This isn't likely based on past-actions by the Bush administration--even recent ones.

But will it be dueling banjo time on the hill? Specter's ears are more jug-like, so I guess we know which character he is from Deliverance... The question will be interpretation, with a radically-divergent viewpoint based on the threats caused to the GOP by the Bush administration. Gonzales has claimed that Bush administration has never attempted to withhold the information, a patent lie:

"The records will be given to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and the panel's top Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) who two weeks ago lambasted Gonzales for refusing to turn over documents that even the FISA Court's presiding judge had no objection to releasing." (AP, 01.31.2007)

And so, there it is. Even the foot-dragging Arlen Specter is calling Gonzales and the Bush administration liars. This would be accurate, and taking them at their word isn't going to work. Expect some stunning revelations that could shake the very foundations of our political culture, just as they did with Watergate--only worse. The good thing is, we know about this program, and sunlight is the best disinfectant.

AP: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/domestic_spying

TAKE THAT, AMERICA! BUSH USURPS CONGRESSIONAL ROLE IN AREAS OF REGULATING FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY

"The Constitution makes Congress a coequal branch of government. It's time we start acting like it."
--Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis.)


WASHINGTON D.C.--Attempting to raze as much of civil society as he can before his final plunge, George W. Bush signed an Executive order (EO 12866) that grants him more powers over how the Departments of government function, and who they report to. It's much like a scorched earth policy for a retreating army--do as much damage as possible before they get you. This is the role of Congress in the Constitution, but since when has that document that's "just a piece of paper" gotten in the way of the Bush administration? Just a piece of paper? Only Congress can make the social contract a reality here, and they seem reluctant.

It has taken constant-hammering from the internet and numerous other corners for them to act against the Bush administration's encroachments, and attempts at nullifying the Constitutional tradition of "coequal-branches."It seems that the Presidential Oath of Office is no more, at least when one swears one the Bible before God that they "will defend and protect the Constitution of the United States of America." It also seems that Mr. Bush lies before God a lot, and that even his few-remaining supporters and minions are beginning to see him for what he really is: a pathological liar and a criminal with absolutely no-scruples whatsoever, completely beholden to corporate interests. He can be assured of a massive response from Congress that will be bipartisan, he has (once again) thrown-down the gauntlet, and crossed the Rubicon.

What Executive order 12866 does is allow political appointees to control and regulate Federal agencies that cover health, education, welfare, labor relations (Even OSHA, Nixon's creation), the environment (the EPA, Nixon's creation), and even civil liberties:

The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats. (NYT, 01.30.2007)

This is in-keeping with neocon ideology--a revolutionary one--towards disruption and a shrinking of the government in providing crucial regulations on business, providing for the common good, as well as protections for whistleblowers. Basically everything a government and a society are for, the Bush administration and their allies attack. This is nothing-less than an affront directed-at the American public and the new Congress. Its contempt for democracy is open and unvarnished. It is meant as an insult, outside of its operative-goals. But what it all does is at the crux of the Bush administration: eradicating all roads towards accountability for business and the Executive branch.

Naturally, the United States Chamber of Commerce loves it.Congress has yet to respond to this one, and they had better do it immediately. Essentially, Bush is saying, "Do something about it." I have to believe he's becoming both bored and restive that Congress won't put up a fight, it almost seems he's begging them to stop him. The problem is, they're too-scared to take the gambler's risks that the Bush administration has taken, and will continue to take. It has served them well, especially in a political-context where their opponents lack the resolve and fanaticism, a stunning-parallel to conservative German leadership during the Weimar period in Germany.

Par-the-course, the "rules of the marketplace" (excepting themselves and their backers) must be applied to public agencies under EO 12866. Some of this is a submerged-conflict over a past-appointee, Susan Dudley for the Director of the Office Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The new Executive order resembles Dudley's extremist-views, and she is expected to be installed while Congress is in-recess as John Bolton was as Bush's "diplomat" to the UN:

Public Citizen, a District nonprofit group that monitors regulation, charged that Dudley will use a market-failure standard to create economic barriers to protecting the public. Under the Bush executive order, regulators also now will have to estimate the total costs and benefits of planned rules. And the process will be overseen in each agency by a political appointee, another provision that public interest groups oppose. (Washington Post, 01.29.2007)

This isn't new, however, and just another attempt at expanding the powers of the Executive in the neocon universe of the "unitary Executive." So far, the usurpations have been successful. It remains-to-be-seen if they will endure beyond the Bush administration. Noting our recent track-record, it's likely they will. All of this is literally uncharted-territory, and new experiences are likely to drag Americans from the safety of their couches and televisions into the emerging-order. Antipathy and apathy for politics doesn't solve the problem of politics, only deferring major social-problems for later. Eventually, things explode. The explosions are here, and regardless of the outcome, America will be forever changed.

It is quite possible that George W. Bush is dragging us into the 21st Century, kicking-and-screaming, into uncharted territory that will smash currently ossified social-structures through the confusion and disorder he leaves-behind. OMB Watch has this to say:

Through amending the regulatory process, the President is institutionalizing an anti-regulatory approach by using a market failure criterion in place of actually identifying threats to public health and safety. It diminishes standards Congress may have required agencies to use, such as the best control technology, by elevating a new market failure standard that Congress never required. This standard has been advocated by Susan Dudley, Bush's current nominee as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). (OMB, 01.18.2007)

Technically-speaking, we aren't at war (just a social one). Congress hasn't declared war since WWII, yet the Bush administration has demanded war powers, and much more. We can assume that much of the impetus behind expanding Executive power comes from Vice President Cheney, not Bush. This administration has been enabled by politicos on both-sides of the aisle, and the apathy of political elites for democratic principles, traditions, and institutions. This has been fertile ground for the neocons, and their backers' hold on the mainstream media through ownership has also served them well. Past deregulation of the FCC have enabled this march towards concentrated Executive power as well. Making the Fairness Doctrine law at the FCC would be a major-step towards remedying this distortion.

The confrontation is coming, but will Congress have the will to do what needs doing to save American democracy? Only if they're pushed by the president and the public, it seems. They should be explaining their reluctance. In case you didn't know it, corporations (and the other multinationals of foreign-origin) are in the White House, and they're removing most all of the regulatory-functions of government. They have never had such direct-access to the levers of governmental power, and we let them do it. This is a governance of brigands--no governance at all. Welcome to the Libertarian utopia. Sucks, don't it? Conservative ideology is practically dead.


The New York Times on the New Executive Order: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/washington/30rules.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ei=5094&en=f7bdc9f4cbb28c31&hp&ex=1170133200&partner=homepage

AP: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6381354,00.html

Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901818.html

OMB: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ , and: http://www.ombwatch.org/

OMB Watch Article on EO 12866: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3685/1/132?TopicID=3

SOUTH BEND'S HOMELESS MURDERS: DEFINITELY A SERIAL KILLER

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA--A source close to the investigation has told this blog that detectives do indeed feel they are dealing with a serial killer. The four men were murdered by repeated blows to the head. Two were deposited in a vault above the underpass at the old Studebaker plant, and the other two (found days-later) in a maintenance tunnel. A homeless man was electrocuted in the same network of tunnels within the last three-years. Otherwise, the investigators are being hush-hush as they should be. A serial killer is roaming the streets of South Bend, murdering four men within a two-week period. That makes it national. This is especially peculiar since South Bend has the best-rated homeless shelter in all of the continental United States. More later.

WHY HILLARY CLINTON MUST LOSE

She's no different than George W. Bush and his administration in her views on our role in the world. She voted for the war in Iraq, and has yet to say "I made a mistake", with this vote. This weekend in Iowa, she had the temerity to say, "If I knew then what I know now, I would not have voted for the war." Well, you had good reason to tell the president "no" back then, and it's time you paid for that decision by not running for the office you "misjudged" (a lie). Great, you'd do it differently, but that's not how history works, and it was obvious to all but the most ignorant that there was no case for war in late-2002. You knew better, Senator Clinton, and you're going to pay-the-price.

It was obvious Bush was lying about the intelligence behind the claims of WMDs in Iraq, and it was obvious they were pushing anyone who got-in-the-way aside, and brutally.Clinton believes in the overarching-goals of PNAC and the neocons in the White House. This is why she wants troops shifted to Afghanistan--she wants those permanent military bases pointing-into Central Asia, with a cozy-proximity to strategic pipelines and oil fields. And besides that, how good can a candidate be when the media is pushing them so much? It becomes obvious we are having a candidate foisted on us, not someone who has emerged from we the people, but a mandated candidate. This has nothing to do with democracy whatsoever.The mainstream media adores Hillary Clinton as a candidate--reason enough to reject her.

Today, we have CNN begging-the-question of "whether the President is getting unfair media coverage." Get real, he's been given a blank-check by the press since 2000, and now they're finally beginning to do their jobs thanks to the internet and plummeting-circulation (people tire at paying to be lied-to). Hillary Clinton offers no substantial alternative to the administration of George W. Bush, or even her husband's laughable "neoliberalism" (the flipside of neoconservatism, neither adhering to any belief but serving certain narrow interests). Hillary is a joke on YOU. I don't really care if feminists think having ANY woman in the Oval Office is "good", they're wrong (and sexist).

This old gray mare is the wrong horse to bet on, and all she'll end up doing is a vanity campaign that throws-off the vote of truly worthy candidates. She is not one of them. All she has to offer is the cold, dead hand of an inhuman political culture that worships power and the dumbshow. It appears she is not alone, but at least we're seeing one of those wonderful historical-moments that illuminate who these lapdogs are, and what constitutes their "technique." We can thank George W. Bush for this, in his blessed incompetence. He's given much of the game away in a time when American power is declining globally, even accelerating it. I'm enjoying this part of the ride, but the best is yet-to-come as he takes as many of this political generation down with him.

THIS WEEKEND'S PROTESTS IN WASHINGTON D.C. AND WHY THEY DON'T MATTER

WASHINGTON D.C.--With over 60% of the public against the war, it doesn't accomplish anything tangible except making people feel better. Protests used to have a more important function before the days of the internet: they were a means of sharing and trading-information amongst activists. This is still possible, but with the ease of submitting petitions, the informative-role of the blogosphere, the economy and speed of emailing, text-message devices and cell phones, this function has been usurped in a profound way by the new technologies. The personal has become political in a profound new way. Individual action has fused with collective action in a new way that almost beggars description.

This isn't to say that strategically-planned and directed demonstrations (coordinated via-the-internet) aren't useful--take the anti-globalization movement's speed and effectiveness in disrupting previously obscure economic summits. These folks get it along with groups like FARC and the Chiapan revolt: the internet is crucial in getting your side of the story out there, as well as a means of rallying-support and resources for your cause.

Information is crucial in this game, and while nothing replaces the immediacy of the face-to-face, many working-class Americans (most everyone) cannot afford the money or the time to attend something like the march on Washington yesterday. We don't have the mobility we had 30+ years-ago because of the ever-increasing demands of the workplace. The people who went to Washington either had the means, or had to make sacrifices to attend--I repeat, the majority of Americans don't have this mobility.

This is what makes the internet crucial, as ideas and opinions (contributing to a "ferment of ideas") can be easily-exchanged and debated without some of the barriers (niceties) of the one-on-one, or group-discussions. But, at least some of feel better after a demonstration. Try having to organize them under death-threats, I have. It's not 1991 anymore, and demonstrations don't have the same-effect, the edge, or the same powerful symbolism under different conditions. Again, the game has changed, and past-assertions are out. The internet cannot be taken-for-granted, it is at least as revolutionary as the invention of the printing-press in the late-1400s, possibly more. To miss this is to miss what is right in-front of your face. You know, that high-flown naivete only capable amongst the comfortable and privileged.


01.30.2007: Keep your identity politics out of our movement, you morons. It's great that you "feel better", but it's an illusory-sensation. How about doing something substantial like myself and millions of others? Some of you looked stupid on C-SPAN, and thank God hardly anyone watches it. This time, I'm grateful the coverage was minimal, there were a good number of people there (provocateurs?) who didn't represent the public mood in a dignified manner. And the yelling? What is that going to say to people outside of these movements?

This isn't a game or a social club, so go heckle at a rock concert somewhere. This is the adult playground, and people can get hurt by our pettiness. Protests just aren't crucial. They're necessary, but they aren't the whole deal. Patient work and endless civil-agitation is what we need more of, and a realization that a lot of the work to do is here on the internet. Getting together feels good, I know, but start cementing-ties with people, stop copping-out on each other. We have to make as many solid social-networks as we can. Yes, go make a friend, a real friend, and try to reach-out to those who were once Republicans and conservatives. They are out there, and they want to be Americans again.

THE ECONOMIST: BUSH IS DONE

The Economist is an excellent publication on business-trends and geopolitics, and one of the better sources of what is actually going-on. Here's a link to their analysis of the State of the Union address this week, as well as the state of the Bush administration. As I've been stating here, the analysis tends towards the GOP deciding-on survival over loyalty to the president. Now it appears there will be subpoenas for more standing members of the administration in the Libby trial.

The Economist on the Bush State of the Union address: http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8597040

TEAPOT USED TO POISON ALEXANDER LITVINENKO FOUND AT MILLENNIUM HOTEL

LONDON--It appears that Scotland Yard is very near to closing this case. The teapot had been used several-times since November 1st of 2006, an embarrassing fact to investigators. Russia still maintains innocence and that she will not allow the extradition of any suspects, though she might if they're of no use to Putin. They might not have use for one Andrei Lugovoi, a Russian businessman with a past:

Mr Lugovoi, 41, a former bodyguard with the KGB, was one of several people interviewed by detectives from Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command in Moscow last month. The Yard is declining to comment on the case and details of the alleged evidence against Mr Lugovoi remain unclear. (Guardian, 01.26.2007)

The UK are claiming the right to try him, and it appears the Russians might be willing if the British government hands-over exiled oligarch, Boris Berezovsky. There seem to be hints that this one might be ending soon. None would be more surprised than I if this is worked-out amicably.

ABC: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/01/it_was_in_the_t.html

The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1999128,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

RUSSIAN NATIONAL CAUGHT BY GEORGIAN AUTHORITIES SELLING NUCLEAR MATERIALS: A PATTERN RELATED TO LITVINENKO AND ENERGY DEPENDENCE?

GEORGIA (THE NATION)--This is a strange story, though not as strange as the Litvinenko affair. Georgian internal-security trapped an unnamed Russian national selling what they say appears to be a few-grams ("3.5 ounces") of enriched uranium-235, a paltry-sum that couldn't achieve a chain-reaction anytime soon. My feeling is that there is some connection here between this incident and the Litvinenko hit. Are the Russians correct when they say that the West is trying to smear them in the world press? It doesn't seem out-of-the-question. The bust happened several months-ago--so why reveal it now?

Is it in-retaliation for the tensions between Georgia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Russia over the Russian natural gas pipeline and Gazprom's price-hikes? Inquiring about the West's role in all of this is valid, but it's likely we are seeing the outlines of a propaganda campaign against Russia emerging. It sure feels like the Cold War again. The fact that the EU would be affected by a cutoff of natural gas (particularly Germany, the EU's most-prominent economic player) suggests that there could be significant interest from Western intelligence in all of this, if not complicity.

It could well be that Georgian pols have instructed their intelligence community to release this at this particular moment (or with urgings from NATO). It's a hard-call. Nonetheless, a game of energy-dependency is being played on the world stage, and in multiple-sectors of the "global economy." This time, the West isn't in their former position of predominance, but there are tangible reasons for the Russia-Georgia standoff in late-2006. Western manipulations in the region (and probably the biggest-part of why we're in Iraq--to control energy-dependence in the region):

The corridor is a key part of US policy in the Caspian to end Russia's dominance over export pipelines and discourage investment in routes across Iran... Julia Nanay, a senior director at PFC Energy, said: "The start up of the gas pipeline, which will eventually carry gas to western markets, coming so soon after commissioning of the oil pipeline is a milestone in US-backed plans to diversify energy export routes out of the Caspian." (Financial Times, 12.14.2006)

Russia is openly attempting to reintegrate Belarus, the Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Georgia back into the traditional Russian empire, one of the certainties here. The other certainty is that American and British petroleum multinationals are working to push things in the opposite-direction, working at usurping this energy monopoly on natural gas and oil from the Kremlin. Neither American, or continental European policy-makers want a strong and energy independent Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine--or even Iran and Iraq.

Quite-the-opposite: they want to continue isolating the break-away republics, eventually controlling Russia in some form for her resources and cheap-labor. The West has had this goal for several-hundred years. And where is part of the pipeline going through? Turkey. Somehow, I think they'll get that EU membership whether they torture dissidents or not. The new Baku-Erzerum oil pipeline (my name for it) ends in Eastern Turkey, originating in Azerbaijan, the second of its kind to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline it runs-parallel to.

A Western infrastructure that will bypass Russia's monopoly is being rapidly-constructed. It is possible that all these killings of dissidents is a low-intensity war between exiled-oligarchs (potentially backed by the CIA and MI5) and the Kremlin, with a dash of organized crime and some loose-cannons for kicks. But why kill critics of the Putin regime? To make him look bad, obviously--yet, isn't there already plenty of ammunition? And in the context of all this, the Russian Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline exploded in one-section, on the Russian-side:

Explosions in southern Russia on Sunday morning severed the country's natural gas pipelines to Georgia, swiftly plunging Russia's neighbor into heat and electricity shortages and causing a diplomatic flare-up between the nations. Two more explosions hours later severed one of Russia's main electricity cables to Georgia, deepening the electricity shortage even as the gas supply in Georgia dwindled. Russia supplies Georgia with all of its natural gas. (Pravda, 01.23.2007)

The attack occurred on Sunday in North Ossetia in the Caucasus, and they're still repairing-them (should be up tonight). Meanwhile, Azerbaijan is providing the natural gas without missing-a-beat. Putin has called on FSB-reinforcements to guard Caucus energy and pipeline facilities. Georgian politicians are blaming the Kremlin for the explosions. Curious-timing, this "revelation" about the smuggling of uranium-235, very curious. Is there a smear-campaign going on against the Kremlin in the Western press? It sure looks like it.


AP: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070126/D8MSLBAG1.html

FT Coverage of 12/2006 Tensions Between Georgia and Russia:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/92fee430-8ae2-11db-8940-0000779e2340.html
http://www.mfa.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=85&info_id=2868

RIA Novosti on Mozdok-Tblisi Pipeline Attack:
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060124/43152549.html
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060123/43141338.html

Pravda: http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/382/16782_gas.html

Energy Information Administration on the Caspian Sea Region:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspgase.html

SOME FINAL WORDS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

wArSHINtUHn--Lots of tongue-darting and...shit, nothing. His "plan" for "energy independence" keeps us hooked on oil. Boy, what a shock there. And what a shock that he didn't bother to mention his ongoing-failure in New Orleans. He cannot do anything right. What if a tornado hit your back twenty? If clownboy is in-office, you're screwed because he's alienated the bureaucracy, gummed-up the process with his crony-appointees whose suits wear them, and then Iraq: Lt. General Petraeus, the man who has to expedite President Cheney's troop-escalation, says the situation in Iraq is "dire." He just won't admit that he's wrong and that it's ending. But that's what criminals do. They try to keep buying-time, even when it's obviously over. They'll try to drag-things-out irrationally because all they know is that they don't want to be grabbed.

It's OK with me if the Federal Marshals bruise them a tad, maybe even a couple of black-eyes. That's fine. He never painted a good portrait of leadership, and now even the rednecks have realized it in their collective beer and meth-soaked stupors. But the GOP decided to strike-back at the Middle Class and migrant workers by voting-against raising the minimum-wage (the GOP claims they want "tax-breaks for small-businesses", which means the rich ones only). They still don't seem to be realizing how much the context has changed in America. The midterms weren't simply about Iraq, but about a desire to see the Federal government serving the common good, and cleaning-house of all these GOP (and Democratic) crooks. We're going to be watching from here on in, and the worm is turning.

01.25.2007 PS: OK, this is really the last comment! Did anyone notice his big F-U to Congress when he announced an ADDITIONAL 5,000 Marines to the 20,000-strong troop-escalation? I did. It's like saying, "Nobody can take this administration down but ME! Nobody can do it faster!" So he does have a sense of humor, you got me.

DEATH OF A SPOOK: E. HOWARD HUNT DEAD

Miami, Florida--The man who coordinated the break-in at the Watergate Hotel into Democratic campaigning offices (and many other "black bag" jobs, like the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg's shrink's office) on June 17th, 1972 is dead at 88. He was also involved in the CIA operations into Guatemala in 1954, and the botched Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, amongst others. He also wrote shitty spy-novels, as many disgraced CIA-operatives do upon their "retirement" (they never retire--unless they're killed).

JFK assassination researchers have pointed-out that Hunt could be one of the "tramps" at Dealey Plaza on November 22nd, 1963. I have seen the photographic evidence, and there is a case for it. Bye-bye shill, you had to declare bankruptcy in 1997 due to fines accrued from the Watergate break-in. Good-riddance to you. He has a new book coming-out in April--fortunately, he won't be able to profit from it now. What a C.R.E.E.P. What a traitor. Hunt is the man on-the-left in the photo.

It was Johnson: http://itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/

AP Obit: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_re_us/obit_e__howard_hunt

Hunt's Recent Revelations About the JFK Assassination and More:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Convicted_Watergate_plumber_claims_LBJ_may_0114.html

NY Post--"Hunt Blames LBJ for JFK Hit" (01.14.2007):
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01142007/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm

1990s Interview with Hunt:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-18/hunt1.html

A Good Bio on Hunt: http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/E._Howard_Hunt

State of the Union address: Why Bother?

wArSHINtUhN--Last night was the official end of the Bush administration. I watched two minutes, then had to complete my viewing of Mario Bava's "Rabid Dogs", probably Quentin Tarantino's favorite movie this week. I also drank some booze and had a buzz on. Looking at the summaries, I didn't miss anything at all. He once again referred to the Democratic Party as "The Democrat Party" (wow, what a burn!) as most right-wing shills & Fox News talking-necks do--big deal. Words don't work anymore--damn the idiots it worked on.  

Yes, you're so stupid for supporting this President, it's staggering. Best-remedy: exercise your Second Amendment rights and shoot yourselves for still supporting this individual and his administration. Evolution failed in your case, which is why you're "agin' it." 

You are not a man, and neither is he. If you're a woman, even worse. You are alone. Oh yeah, and he never mentioned New Orleans, one of his other many failures to do anything as President. I doubt most Americans watched at all. Reading is fun.

MORE ON BUSH'S APPROVAL-RATINGS: CBS RANKS IT AT "28%" YESTERDAY

CBSOSPHERE--They must be worried about their lousy-ratings with Katie Couric at-the-helm. This is an easy conclusion to come-to, considering they've been towing the Bush administration's line since 2000. Yes, what the public thinks matters--they can stop-watching your stupid programming and lies, which literally takes no-effort. Monday, you released your study on Bush's approval-ratings, and they're substantially-lower than everyone else's. A serious dialog on why should commence, we need a standard here. What are the actual numbers? It's all about perception, or the shaping of it. I personally believe that 28% is being far-too-generous, and that the President's approval-ratings are significantly-lower. But I'm biased. ;0)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/22/opinion/polls/main2384943.shtml

REPO MAN DIRECTOR ALEX COX FINISHES SHOOTING NEW WESTERN!

ALEXCOX.COM--Please check Alex Cox's site. The forum is down for-the-moment, but he's finished another western!! It's called "Searchers 2.0." And has a good number of his past- collborators (Sy Richardson!) in the film. It was shot on digital video using Sony Z-1 Digital Video Cameras. Man, why did they stop making the Z-1?! It was perfect for small-filmmakers. As a doctor, this troubles me. ;0) Cox is one of my favorite filmmakers--Repo Man, Sid & Nancy, Straight to Hell, and even Walker. I love them all, and you must check his "Revengers Tragedy" (2003), it's incredible!! One of the best living-directors we have, and a real bargain.

www.alexcox.com

What Really Happened to Azaria Chamberlain? by Bernie Pattison

Ed.--I'd like to introduce you to my first submission from a nice lady in Australia who cares about threatened minorities. Like the West Memphis 3, the case of Lindy Chamberlain and the disappearance of her baby into the outback of Australia is troubling. Lindy and her husband were members of the Seventh Day Adventist church down under, a group that is somewhat reviled by many Australians. Simply by being "different", they came under intense-scrutiny and suspicion based on these fears and bigotries. As a result, in both cases, a fair trial was an afterthought.

Here then, is an observation on the case of the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, and the harassment her family endured in-the-aftermath. Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin were likely arrested because they looked "weird" and stood-out. This can be a liability when social hysteria has hit a community...
If anyone had thought to ask the traditional owners of the Uluru-Kata Tjita National Park, the Pitjinjara Yankajara people, known locally as the Anangu, what happened to the small baby girl that disappeared from her family’s tent on a freezing night in August 1980, the Anangu would have been able to tell them. But no one asked them. The Anangu would have told them of the dingoes that lived in the area, outnumbering the human mammals by three to one. They would have told them of these wild dogs that would approach even at the camp fire and look for small human mammals unattended and smelling of warm mother’s milk.
But no one bothered to ask them.

On the night that Azaria Chamberlian was taken by a dingo they did however ask a well known black-tracker to track the dingo that had the baby in its mouth. Nipper, the black-tracker, found the tracks of a big dingo carrying a bundle and followed the tracks to where the bundle was laid in the sand leaving the imprint of woven cloth and followed them again to where the animal picked up the bundle to carry it off across a bitumen road, only to lose them at that spot.

Some short time earlier the baby’s mother Lindy had gone to the family’s tent upon being told by her husband Pastor Michael Chamberlain of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and others at the camp site that they had heard a baby cry. The baby had just been fed and put down to sleep in a small crib in the tent. As Lindy approached the tent opening she saw a large glossy well-fed dingo with a bundle in its mouth coming from the tent. The dingo was totally unafraid of her and pushed past her in the darkness. Not daring to imagine that the bundle the dingo carried was her baby she rushed into the tent where she had a few moments before lain her 10 weeks old baby Azaria and settled her small sons, Reagan and Aidan and found the baby’s small crib empty. By the pale light that shone in to the tent she could see a spray of blood on Reagan’s sleeping bag. She screamed to the others at the camp site that a dingo had taken her baby and she rushed out into the darkness where she saw the animal again, but still could not see clearly what it held in its mouth.

The hunt was on, but according to later advice from the traditional owners and rangers of the area, the baby would have been dead before it left the tent, from shock and loss of arterial blood. Michael Chamberlain soon realised the impossibility of finding their child in the blackness of a desert night and appealed to his wife to accept God’s will, that He had taken their child. We who have no gods do not know how people can be so trusting of the gods in which they believe. But trusting they were ,on that night and for all the dreadful nights that lay ahead, and by all accounts Lindy is still. As the family stopped by a roadside petrol stand on the drive home to Alice Springs a few days later, they were approached by a group of aborigines coming from a hunt. They immediately sympathised with Lindy and told her they knew a dingo had taken her baby. How they could have known this hundreds of miles from the site of the attack and without communication with other aborigines no one has been able to determine, but in the way of the aboriginal people who have lived there for millennia, they knew.

Uluru, formerly known by Europeans as Ayer’s Rock is a monolith that sits majestically in the Uluru-KataTjita National Park in the dead red centre of Australia. Over 500 millions years ago it was thrust up from the bottom of the sea, bringing with it Tjukurpa the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is the force that brought life to the structure that was Australia and still is today. Tjukurpa is the force of the Dreamtime and native Australians still live by its precepts and laws. It is not a concept that Europeans understand or believe in. But the native people talk to the spirits of their land and the spirits of the great rock Uluru and know things we could not possibly know.

A coroner’s inquest on the disappearance of the baby a few months later found that it had indeed been taken by a dingo but that there had been human intervention. This was decided because of a photograph taken by the police of the baby’s jumpsuit found concertinaed in the sand and rubbish near a dingo lair. The policeman laid the jumpsuit out neatly for the picture and thus the legend was born…. ‘there’s no way a dingo could perfectly separate the jumpsuit from the baby and place it down so neatly’. When Northern Territory authorities realised the panic in the community about the loss of a tourist’s baby to a dingo, they prepared themselves for a fight. Serious loss of revenue to the Territory would result from a drop in the number of tourists.
Police were ordered to investigate further. In pubs around the country and at backyard barbeques people began to question how a dingo could have lifted a 10 week old baby in its jaws and carried it off. They had not seen dingoes lift small mammals like hares and wallabies and trot with them for miles. Aided by slanderous gossip about the Chamberlains, and somehow annoyed by the stoic behaviour of Lindy which they determined to be ‘brazenness,’ public feeling turned firmly against the couple. There was talk of the tiny black dress Lindy had made for Azaria with red ribbons and bows and tiny red bootees. Surely only someone who delved into the occult would dress their very young baby in this way.

There was a false claim that the baby’s name Azaria from the Old Testament meant ‘Sacrifice in the Wilderness’ when in reality it meant ‘Aided by God’. The sleeping bag which had the blood spray of the sleeping baby on it was lost after police raided the Chamberlain house so there was a denial by authorities that there had been blood spray in the tent. The Chamberlains were said to be Satan worshippers and the church to which they belonged was called a Satanic cult. Someone I knew told me Lindy was the sister of a woman who was convicted of murder in Queensland a few years before.

Not true
After another inquest which found that the baby had been murdered, Lindy was charged with murdering Azaria. Her husband was charged with being an accessory after the murder. At her trial in 1981-1982 the prosecution claimed that she had cut the baby’s throat with scissors in the front seat of the car. The baby’s arterial blood had sprayed underneath the dashboard, and this was supposedly proven by laboratory tests. It was suggested that the tiny body was stuffed in a camera bag and later disposed of. Lindy claimed that the cut marks in and around the neck of the jumpsuit were made by sharp incisors of a dingo.

But an expert from London who had never seen a dingo claimed they were scissor marks. Lindy always maintained that the baby was wearing a matinee jacket the night she disappeared but the prosecution said she was lying about the jacket because of the claimed scissor marks.

In 1982 Alice Lynn Chamberlain was found guilty in a Darwin court of murdering her baby Azaria and putting the body in a camera bag and somehow disposing of it in the desert. She was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Her husband Michael was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. Lindy was sent to Darwin’s Berrimah prison for women where the authorities were under strict instructions to make life as hard as possible for her. But they did not count on Lindy’s strength, and the assistance of the many aboriginal women imprisoned with her.
As a vegetarian in a prison without consideration of her diet she almost suffered malnutrition. In November 1982 Lindy gave birth to her 4th child, another girl she and Michael called Kahlia who was immediately taken from her for fear of its life. An appeal made on Lindy’s behalf by her lawyers failed as did another appeal to the High Court. In November 1985 a book was published by Australian author John Bryson about the plight of the Chamberlains which asserted that there had been a miscarriage of justice. However the Northern Territory Government was not convinced and later that month they turned down an appeal for Lindy’s early release. The Chamberlains continued to deny their guilt and fortunately there were many people in Australia, mostly in the Labor Party who believed her.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church did what they could to help and public opinion began to swing in favour of Lindy. When certain facts of the trial became public, people began to ask how could she have been convicted when there was no evidence, no motive, and no opportunity to have carried out the crime she was convicted for.

Certain evidence at the trial was so wrong that lawyers demanded a retrial. A technician working for the Northern Territory Forensic Department who had said that foetal arterial blood had been spattered under the dashboard of the Chamberlain’s car was proven wrong when a letter from the company that manufactured the car claimed that the spatter of drops was actually sound deadener. He gave the specific details of the reaction it would have had to the specific tests which were carried out inadequately and thus deemed to be the baby’s blood. The letter was not read in court at Lindy’s trial.

The doctor in England who said the cuts in the jumpsuit were from scissors was found to have given evidence for the prosecution in another case that was decidedly inaccurate and incorrect. The judge should have thrown the case out of court but preferred to go with public opinion.

In 1986 a tourist from England was found dead at an area near the rocks where the baby’s jumpsuit, singlet and nappy had been found. As police searched the area for any evidence as to whether it was suicide or murder, they found Azaria’s matinee jacket…..the one that the prosecution had claimed did not exist and the one that Lindy claimed to have put on her baby after she fed her on that terrible night. The Northern Territory Government had no other option but to release Lindy immediately.


But there was to be no rest for the Chamberlains...
The Northern Territory Government in May 1986 held a Judicial Enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Azaria Chamberlain and the convictions of her mother and father. They found insubstantial evidence for them to have gone to trial, but a further inquest in 1995 decided that the cause of the baby’s death could not be determined. This was a blow to the Chamberlains and they fought the government of the Territory for the right to have their baby declared taken by a dingo. Until this is done the family members do not feel that the case is over. There were a few things about this whole event that made me sit up and take notice apart from the flagrant miscarriage of justice...

Lindy told the police during her first interview after the loss of her baby that she had seen a large glossy dingo atop the Fertility Cave earlier in the day and that she had the feeling that it was ‘casing’ her baby. The dingo that Lindy saw leaving her tent with a bundle in its mouth was identical to the large and glossy dingo she had earlier seen at the Fertility Cave. One of the rangers at the campsite owned a half-tame dingo which was well-fed and glossy with the same red streaks which Lindy described seeing on the first dingo and it was shot by the ranger when the baby was taken.

The wild dingoes of Uluru-Kata Tjita National Park were scrawny creatures, with rough and unkempt fur. When the jumpsuit was found near the Fertility Cave where Lindy had seen that first dingo, the Northern Territory made the decision to blow up and obliterate all the dingo lairs in the vicinity of the park, probably hundreds of square miles. The blacktracker Nipper who had tracked the dingo from the Chamberlain tent that fateful night in August, was not allowed to testify at the couple’s trial as Northern Territory authorities claimed he was a drunk. He was however asked by the same authorities to testify on behalf of the prosecution in another trial a short time later. The tourist whose body was found in the same area, thus enabling the finding of the matinee jacket, had indeed committed suicide.

Have we Australians learned anything from this grave miscarriage of justice against a woman who was stoic and calm and devoted to her religion? I don’t think so. I still talk to people in important academic jobs who assert that Lindy killed and ate her baby because she was starved by her religion for meat. People are becoming aware though that dingoes kill people and particularly small helpless people as there have been deaths caused by dingoes in the last few years and attempted abduction by dingoes of some small children.

I have always known about animals and the scent of mother’s milk. When my first baby was about 2 weeks old I found the cat from next door had somehow come in an open window 20 feet from the ground and was sitting on my baby’s tiny chest, inhaling the sweet and evocative odour of breast milk emanating from her sleeping body. Had I not arrived in time my baby girl would have been suffocated by the weight of the cat on her chest. Would I have been convicted of killing my baby? It happens.

Bernie Pattison

LT. GEN. JOHN PETRAEUS: "SITUATION IN IRAQ IS DIRE"

Nuff said. Watch the clown show end. Watch President Cheney fall. And, OH! What a fall it will be. Dumpty's horses and men will never put him together again. Not the press, not the corporations, and not the twisted rich. Not the Generals, not the troops--nobody will save this administration from itself. And that's OK. Nuff said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_33

MARY CHENEY'S WASHPO PIECE TO HILLARY CLINTON: "RETREAT WON'T HELP AT THE POLLS"

Mary: and neither does eating-pussy, or having a baby by artificial-insemination and then hiding-it from the press. Or having daddy hand-you a crony job in the Federal government. Or...

GEORGE W. BUSH IS HAVING A STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, AND YOU'RE ALL INVITED!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

BUSH HEALTH PLAN DEAD-ON-ARRIVAL

"Under the guise of tax breaks, the president is pursuing a policy designed to destroy the employer-based health care system through which 160 million people receive coverage."

--Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), (AP,01.22.2007)


WASHINGTON D.C.--Nobody on the House Ways and Means Committee even wants to touch it. It redefines any money that an employer pays-into employee health plans "taxable-income." How exactly is that going to encourage employers to pay for any of their employees' plans? Like everything he's ever proposed, it sucks, and it won't work. Correct, neocons: government doesn't work...with you in-charge. Welcome to the world of the lame-duck Presidency, and you've earned it, schmuck. You're political polonium, the village idiot. Nobody wants to touch you because you're already dead politically. Done.

It appears the President really doesn't understand that it's no-longer the immediate aftermath of 9/11 anymore. Meanwhile, the GOP in Congress are revolting--not in the usual way--against Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq. CBS is attributing the President's plummeting approval-ratings to the escalation. Even Sen. John Warner, a significant ally of the Bush administration, has begun voicing-opposition to the President's direction in Iraq. Still, no binding-legislation has been forthcoming in Congress. It's time to decide for the decider.

The AP story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070122/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_health_taxes

33% or 36% APPROVAL RATING FOR BUSH: "WHAT'S IT GOING TO BE THEN, EH?"

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA--Nice. We have two numbers again, one (33%) claiming it's the all-time low for Bush. And funny, other polls had George W. Bush's approval-rating at a low of 29% last-year. Yes, last-year. Don't trust the polls, it's lower--much-lower. Today, we have an ABC/Washington Post poll saying "33%", while CNN is reporting an AP/Ipsos poll that says "36%". So, what's it going to be? Which is correct? Is there a bias inherent in the assessment and reporting? Do the media outlets take-turns on who has the higher approval-rating to allay suspicion? What a crock. He's hated by virtually everyone. Since most of these polls have an error-margin of +/-3%, we should be asking CNN and Fox News why they round-up. I think we all know why. Nevertheless, he's in the toilet. It's Nixon time, drink-up.


ABC/Washpo Poll: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/PollVault/story?id=2811599&page=1

We Love You--We DON'T Love You (Backdated to Fall of 2005):
http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm

MORE ON THE SENATE JUDICIARY HEARINGS OF AG ALBERTO GONZALES: PROTESTER COVERAGE

WASHINGTON D.C.--I was watching all of the C-SPAN coverage of the Thursday hearings by the Judiciary Committee into the Bush administration's warrantless wiretaps, and hadn't heard anything about the protesters (4-or-5 of them, maybe more) at the end of the hearings. Amazingly, they were not arrested or led-out by Capitol Hill security! They got pretty-loud, but only once the hearings were officially over. One of the protesters was an older-man in an orange top, and another man around his age had a makeshift-sign made from a newspaper with something about Guantanamo. That seemed to comprise what most of their comments were about, and illegal-rendition. Interesting how most coverage omitted Leahy's comments on restoring Habeus Corpus, or the protesters. A curious omission for the overall-presentation of the hearings.

Most of their comments were directed-at Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after a brief off-mike exchange with Sen. Patrick Leahy, chair of the committee. Interesting. Leahy was impressive: he pledged restoring Habeus Corpus (traditional in English common law, and American law from 1215--Magna Carta. Interestingly, H. Ross Perot has one of the several-copies that were made at the time of Magna Carta, dispensed to the nobility). It's unclear how much enthusiasm his peers have for doing-so, but his appointment to the chair of the committee says he likely has the support. It's strange how little alarm and prioritization there is on the damage done to Habeus Corpus. Gonzales made the assertion that the Constitution doesn't insure the right to Habeus Corpus, something that Leahy told him he was remiss on.

25 AMERICAN SOLDIERS DIED IN IRAQ TODAY

BAGHDAD/KARBALA--13 were from the helicopter-crash, the rest were combat casualties, or actual deaths. Expect things to worsen, and expect the President to continue to ignore the public-will. I'll be watching the hearings! It's fun to watch people who fear banality being forced to wallow in it. How many Iraqis died today? It must have been a couple-hundred. That's criminal, that' s insane. This makes Vietnam look meaningful. At least they had some actual framework, like the "domino theory." Yes, it was wrong--but what did the Bush administration have? "WMDs". "Mushroom clouds."

Then it was "to spread democracy", and-on-and-on. I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know by saying "it was about the money." Of course it was, but then why do some of us always fall for it? Pavlov's dogs never drooled so much, as some of the public did when war seemed likely. But, to the credit of many Americans, the Bush administration had a hard-time selling the war initially. It was the GOP-majority and the press who were instrumental in all this (and all-but-a-handful of Democrats opposed it). The New York Times held-back information on several stories that were damaging to the neocons in the White House. Fortunately, a few of them are going to be under-oath in the Libby trial.

AP:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070121/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


PS: Yes, I have had to update the number of dead in the byline two-times now.

LITVINENKO BREAKTHROUGH: SCOTLAND YARD IDENTIFIES KILLER NAMED 'VLADISLAV'

LONDON--Scotland Yard has announced the identification of close circuit footage of the poisoner of ex-FSB Colonel Alexander Litvinenko today. It appears that the image-quality will be adequate in identifying the individual, who "is described as being tall and powerfully built, in his early thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features." (axisglobe.com, 01.20.2007) The footage comes from security cameras at Heathrow airport, and were recorded on November 1st of 2006, and match Litvinenko's description of a man he met at the Millennium Hotel in London that day. The Yard has no plans of revealing the images to the press for wide-release. Yes, I'm sure the name is an alias, he could be anybody. But he is definitely a contract-killer, and Scotland Yard has his real name. It's too-early to tell where this all leads.

The Original Source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-255637700.html

Context:
http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1200

AN OPEN-LETTER TO JOE DONNELLY II...

2nd District, Northern Indiana--

Dear Joe,


Here's a suggestion regarding "illegal-immigrants" (meaning mostly Mexican ones): let's naturalize everyone who is already here to get them paying-taxes. Also, let's encourage them to form and join unions. Yes, unions. We should have legislation that mandates that all them have unionized workplaces since they're in a vulnerable-position. Then, bad-employers who hire them illegally--and pay them exploitative-wages--can't undermine the jobs and the pay of immigrant-workers or even naturalized ones. Besides, we can use the taxes, we have a major deficit to pay-down, and this would help.

With higher-wages, the Federal government can afford those social programs most of us need, and pay for this worthless war (and the future rebuilding of Iraq, since it's our mess). We can also use the funds to pay for investigations into war-profiteering and all the sundry crimes of the Bush administration, because it's going to be costly. But again, let's think about those poor Mexican-immigrants, you could use their votes in the future--hell, they are the future of American politics. To neglect them displays a poor-sense of politics, never mind sound leadership. Unfortunately, you've been screwing-up in this area. Stop listening to your advisors so much, you're going to have to develop your own political intuitions to be an effective leader.


On the war in Iraq: Vote to defund it, period. No excuses.

On Global Warming: get the new-technologies to come to Indiana.


yours-in-Christ, Matt Janovic

HEY CONGRESS: DEFUND THE GODDAMNED WAR NOW!

WASHINGTON D.C.--What the hell are you all waiting-for? It's over, the war is lost. It was lost in 2003, and it's lost now. Defund the goddamned war. We voted for you to do this, and we're getting impatient. 13 soldiers died today in a helicopter-crash. Thousands are dying merely because we are in Iraq--get us out NOW. Not later, not six-months from now, but IMMEDIATELY. Quit approving money for this boondoggle as you so recklessly have, this is over. You're busted, we know some of you still somehow support this worthless war that has only undermined our security. You did it for your war-profiteering backers. More of you are going to be washed out-of-office in the next elections for this...unless you stop this now, and change your direction and start listening to the public. The alternative is not going to be pretty. Imagine a groundswell that would make the 1960s look quaint, and not all of its going to be nonviolent either. Just a warning, and there won't be enough troops or private security to quell it.

WHAT ABOUT HABEUS CORPUS?

WASHINGTON D.C.--Speaker Pelosi, it's your responsibility to challenge this section of the Military Commissions Act. Habeus Corpus has been a tradition for over 700-years. It works. We need to know why we've been dragged-to-jail, this is our birthright. Get on with it now, not later.

OH, DEMON ALCOHOL: BOB NEY GETS 30 MONTHS IN THE PEN

"I will continue to take full responsibility, accept the consequences and battle the demons of addiction that are within me."
--Bob Ney at today's sentencing. (AP, 01.19.2007)


Washington D.C.--Corrupt former Ohio congressman Bob Ney was sentenced to 30 months in a Federal pen at Morgantown, West Virginia by U.S. District Judge Ellen SegalHuvelle. The sentence was harsher than the prosecution or the defense had wagered. Judge Huvelle noted:

The sentence was harsher than recommended by prosecutors or Ney's lawyers, Huvelle said, because Ney had violated the trust place on him as a public official. "Both your constituents and the public trusted you to represent them honestly," she said. Ney apologized to his family and constituents during a brief speech to the judge. (AP, 01.19.2007)

This is pretty hard to disagree with, but Ney's still taking the "devil made me do it" defense--it wasn't the gall, it was demon alcohol. It wasn't his greed, or that he was a lowly-criminal behind his expensive suits and seersuckers--it was demon alcohol. It wasn't the fact that Mark Foley was a calculated pedophile who tried to get-away-with-it for years-and-years--it was demon alcohol.

This has happened before with the GOP, many-many times. We know "the decider" has had an alcohol problem, and probably still does. YET, White House Press Sec. Tony Snow remarked that Ney "isn't a reflection of the Republican party." Well, yeah, except he is, and so is the President, Vice President--hell, even Rumsfeld had a battle with the booze. Space literally doesn't permit this author from listing all the examples, but the President will suffice. We might be finding-out more details of his early-1970s DUI arrest soon.

Why do they drink so much? Nerves? Not getting any leg? Fear of exposure on other crimes and corruption? Ney's doctor said that his drinking worsened in 2001.

OK, the events of September 11th, 2001 could have contributed to this, but wasn't it really the GOP's moment of glory? They will never have those approval-ratings in twenty-years. Ney has past business-ties to Saudi Arabia (a security company). Did he have an insight into 9/11 that others didn't? He was Tom Delay's assistant. Surely, he had a bird's eye view of a lot. Considering the ongoing criminality under the GOP majority, he might have had good-reason to drink, and heavily. His nerves couldn't take it, he just wasn't the sociopath that many of his peers were (and are).

Why? Why, when the GOP had the White House and one House of Congress? The next-year, they had both Houses, and even the Supreme Court. What drove Bob Ney to drink more during this period? Was it knowledge of extraordinary crimes committed by the White House? It had to have been a knowledge of a multitude of things that the public still doesn't know. He was coping-with an external-pressure.

So what was it? It must be major. Do a google search, and you will find another oddity: many of the article headlines fail to mention Ney's party affiliation, while some articles don't mention it at all. This has occurred before, during the elections regarding Lieberman, and the scandal surrounding Mark Foley. The reasons for this kind of behavior should be clear. It was the booze, but they'll carry him back to Old Virginny regardless.

Verdict Please:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_go_co/ney_corruption

Bloomberg:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=afqAImMOqAP0&refer=us

How it All Began:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1121052scanlon1.html

FIRST 100 HOURS COMPLETED IN 42 HOURS, 15 MINUTES

WASHINGTON D.C.--Top that, GOP. You can't. Why? Because you're inherently-obstructionist. You have nothing to offer but fear and a stab in-the-back to the public, especially economically. That's because you're in-the-pocky of big business, and the public has finally begun to figure-it-out again--just as they did during the Progressive Era and the Great Depression. You had all-three branches of government, and you couldn't accomplish this in two, four, or even six-years. You could be given 100, and you couldn't turn-out a good anything. You're losers, so get with the program.

You did nada for the public and the common good. You had your chance for 12 full-years, and all you did was wreck the economy, get us into a war that undermines all of our security, and countless criminal-acts that would make Julius Caesar blush with shame. You rolled-back our civil liberties. This is ending, your agenda is over. Expect more spanking in 2008, 2010, and-on. We're going to keep kicking-you when you're down here on the internet-- forever. The ride is over, time to pay the piper. And yes, goddammit, it took a strong woman to begin draining that swamp.

SENATE GRILLS, BROASTS & BAKES AG ALBERTO GONZALES: MEXICAN-STANDOFF

A Sergio Leone film--He's a desperado alright. He's also a former dirty appointee-judge, now a criminal Attorney General. You know, a normal one. How about making the AG's office one that's elected? What Gonzales isn't is a good-person, or even a real Mexican. He is a liar and a criminal who has been caught, and he looks-the-part. The Senate is making it crystal-clear that they're going to keep-pushing up his ass with a microscope. Today reminded me of all those endings of the Leone/Eastwood westerns--the climax in the circle, the coliseum, the primal standoff. The moment of truth. "Warrants? We don't need no stinking warrants!" Wrong. Go time.

We're beginning to see that truth emerge ever-so-gradually (but surely) as these criminals begin the sweating-stage. We already know they broke-the-law, it's just a matter of what to slap the Bush administration with. Also, their fellow obstructors of justice from the former GOP-majority should be investigated and subpoenaed. What to choose? So many choices, it's staggering. Better not try to get them on treason--it's the hardest to prove, just as impeachment's criteria are incredibly difficult. You choose lesser-crimes, and hit them on criminal-charges.

The cases of Andrew Johnson and Aaron Burr illustrate that charges of impeachment and treason aren't going to stick. It would be a statistical-error if they were convicted. Bush is hoping all the dirty-judges he appointed will save him, and they probably will on some charges. The problem is the amount, the tonnage. Watch the dirty-judges he appointed in the Supreme Court too, and remember that Scalia basically gave us the Bush administration. Political and economic elites don't prosecute each other very often. Call it class-loyalty, call it what you want, but they rarely do. That would mean accountability from legal-precedents, a "bad thing." But, good for the public.

Next comes the pissing, then shitting-stages. He's done. There was never a valid-pretext to violate the law under the inflated-threat that they painted after 9/11. The great thing is, we're going to find-out if little Texas judge Alberto Gonzales helped George W. Bush hide his DUI-arrest from the early-1970s when he had to do jury-duty a couple decades later. If he had served on it, he would have had to reveal this fact, and it's possible Gonzales pulled some strings to get him out of it. Watch the entire root-system get exposed and pulled, it's coming. An entire-administration is disintegrating. The arrests are coming, and so are some suicides. They're in more-trouble than anyone ever has in the history of the United States since Aaron Burr. They wish they were Aaron Burr. At least he got to shoot-and-kill Alexander Hamilton (thanks Aaron). It's the 200th anniversary of the Burr trial, a time to revisit it. Please do so.


The Trial of Aaron Burr: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/burr/burraccount.html

CNN: "KUM-BI-YAH" FACTOR

CNNOSPHERE--No, that image isn't Truman Capote, it's Anderson Cooper, and he's not a journalist, he is the moron-baby of Gloria Vanderbilt. Cooper is a joke, a male bimbo. Read this transcript excerpt to understand why. The event was the Nazi Pope's intrusion into-Turkey (a country with a 1% of 1% Christian-slice of a population of 70 million):

Cooper: For someone expecting sort of a -- a Pope John Paul II kind of visit, with -- with hundreds of thousands of people, this is not that kind of trip. It's almost more of a diplomatic trip.

Aslan: It's not really that -- this pope's M.O., really. Look, you know, yesterday, we were talking about the fact that, let's not -- let's not think that this pope's message is going to change, but perhaps what will change is the way he delivers that message. Today was a perfect example of that. I think that he's going to continue to push for a very robust dialogue with the Muslim world. He's going to continue to push for a resurgence and revival of -- of -- of Christianity throughout Europe. But I think, now that he recognizes how important it is for him to watch how he says things, you're going to see a much more conciliatory, much more measured response from him. [Ed.-Pope Benedict was the head of the Office of the Inquisition for over 20 years. It now has a friendlier-name.]

...Cooper: But, you know, I mean, dialogue, that's one of those diplomatic words. What does it actually mean? This pope has very strong beliefs about -- about Christianity, about Islam, about violence within Islam. What does a dialogue really look like?

Gallagher: It's a big point for the pope. In fact, he's talked about it before, that he thinks dialogue has to include straight talk, the hard questions.

Cooper: This is not everyone holding hands, singing kumbaya [my emphasis].

Gallagher: That's right. ...

Exactly what does any of this have to do with journalism? I don't care what they "think" or were handed by their boss, that isn't journalism. "Just the facts" is journalism, not this blurring of commentary and coverage pioneered by...CNN, not Fox News.

This is analysis, fine, but why go there at all? It's misleading, and suggests these talking-necks are actually doing investigative journalism. All a journalist is supposed to be doing is reporting the facts, not editorializing. But, far-worse than this, CNN took-up Cooper's "kumbiyah" aside--they're running-with-it as a catchphrase now!

Today, they were talking-about whether Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki was "singing Kumbiyah (the proper spelling)" with the Bush administration, or the "Kumbiyah factor." Right, is Al-Maliki singing the same song? Instead, we get these stupid catchphrases. CNN can shove it. And thanks-again, Anderson, for reporting rumors and hearsay amidst the misery of the people who were stuck at the Superdome in New Orleans. It helped the Bush administration demonize the victims of our neglect. Fuck you CNN, and fuck you Anderson Cooper.

While I'm at it: fuck you Ted Turner, you dumb asshole. You are Charles Foster Kane, you moron. Give one billion to the UN, goddammit, that's what you promised. Idiot.

The Original Irritant:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0611/28/acd.01.html