Let Freedom Ka-ching

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Ooo Ooo I Gotta Question

When the US empire collapses economically and militarily - as the direst predict - who is gonna fund and protect little ol' Israel?

Situation Normal AFU

Regarding the B-52 bomber which was mistakenly loaded with 5 or 6 nuclear warheads and flew from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The incident was immediately used in the "left's" fear factoring, i.e. a nuke may be on its way to Iran!

From Larry Johnson : "Well, if you buy the nonsense reported in the Washington Post, I have a bridge to sell you. According to Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus, the snafu involving missing nukes was just a bad mistake. They write:

A simple error in a missile storage room led to missteps at every turn, as ground crews failed to notice the warheads, and as security teams and flight crew members failed to provide adequate oversight and check the cargo thoroughly. An elaborate nuclear safeguard system, nurtured during the Cold War and infused with rigorous accounting and command procedures, was utterly debased, the investigation’s early results show.

JOHNSON: Sorry boys and girls, but that is nonsense. You do not walk into an ammo/weapons bunker and sort thru a bunch a cruise missiles like a college freshman searching their laundry basket in the dark for a pair of matching socks.

-----Johnson, another former CIA (he bounced around the company for 4 long years), ex-spurt guvmint man, "prolific analyst", and current CEO/ co-founder of an international business-consulting firm – whose hobbies include writing easy reading prose for the simpleminded masses. Another sheep herder for the "sorry boys and girls." Johnson's blog No Quarter is an old military term which means "no mercy" – and he deserves none.

Johnson is also alleged classmate and co-worker of Valerie Plame – you remember, "The Outing"? - that alarming, earth shaking, tipping point, constitutional crisis inducing, crossroads of pointless phonyass distraction that was to bring down BushCo? Ooyah!

You would never sleep again if you knew a fraction of Big Daddy government's mistakes. Putting a few nukes on the wrong flight is "snafu." (Snafu: situation normal, all fucked up.) The US lost 11 nuclear bombs in "accidents" during the Cold War that were never recovered, and the Soviet Union supposedly lost 50. That's just the ones Big Daddy lets us know about.

Fact is, accidentally launching, firing, detonating, theft, misplaced, or lost nukes is common enough that the military has a term for it – "broken arrow".

JOHNSON: One main question remains unanswered? Why are such weapons being taken to Barksdale, Louisiana, which is the jump off base for Middle East ops?

Ooooo, aaaah, he is so jump off spyish. I've never seen so many spies "out" themselves as they have in the past 6 years. Damn near every hemorrhoidal analyst who ever trudged into Langley to push pencils is/was a self-promoted "former" ops spy, and jumping like fleas on a dog's butt - to write about it.

Targeting White Folks

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried ...

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

The Automated Targeting System has been used to screen passengers since the mid-1990s, but the collection of data for it has been greatly expanded and automated since 2002, according to former DHS officials.

"In spite of broad public outcry, the substance and most of the details of the program remain the same – including its most objectionable elements," said the ACLU in its comments to DHS. "The Department of Homeland Security must curb the excesses of ATS and end its continuing and illegal efforts to categorize innocent travelers as security risks based on computer analysis. If DHS is unwilling to act Congress should take further action to end ATS and protect the privacy of travelers."

------Basically, this is "profiling", however, it's profiling predominantly white folks who drive, fly, and cruise abroad. As someone once commented on KAB though – there are times we have to look beyond Black issues, oh wait – profiling innocent folks is a white issue now …

The ATS program is not new, just improved. I've been flagged for decades crossing borders. The feds may not have known the book in my bag, athough sometimes they did, but they knew pretty much everything else. Sometimes they waved me through customs, sometimes they took notes and checked every crack and cranny. I know in the 1980s other countries forwarded information to the US government and vice versa.

I suppose whites, most whom have never understood racial injustice, will fully understand social class injustice. Innocent traveler? Not unless your class, connections, and affluence purchase a proper number on the security risk-o-meter. Remember, the #1 motive behind government is REVENUE, and those privileged traveler cards will cost you.

While government pretends to be concerned with protecting you and activists act as if the government targets innocents – in truth it's the ruling class preparing to collect more revenue through sorting the sheep by social class - and to catch lower class intruders who venture into the ruling class markets of illegal drugs, money laundering, arms dealing, sex trade, etc.

In a quirk sort of way, the road the US is on could eventually find a more equitable society. As automation information is somewhat colorblind, the day may come when Black America will not have to think about race on a daily basis, will not have bestselling exspurts questioning Black IQ, will not feel out of place in certain stores, neighborhoods, or businesses - in my own lifetime I've witnessed the slow and steady move to categorize all Americans by economic class more than race.

I taught my children the most important color in America i$ green, for regardless of skin pigment, people will fawn and flatter if they perceive you as having a little money, a name, or connections. Usually, a little affluence buys rank, rights, and respect, whether deserved or not.

I feel sympathy for white folks - simply being white doesn't get you as far as it used to. And, not only profiling, but other social injustices are going to whiten up, i.e. the prison industry.

Looting Dem Bones

Your hedge fund bones connected to your house bubble bones
Dem bones dem bones dem dry bones
Your housing bones connected to your interest rate bones
Dem bones dem bones dem dry bones
The bubble bones connected to the rich folks bones.

In previous post below I stated "Even if the bubble bursts, never fear. The Wall Street boys, always in search of big money, will find a way to turn bubbles into a lot of loot, or is that loot a lot of bubbles?"

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Wilbur L. Ross Jr., who became a billionaire by investing in bankrupt steel companies, offered to pay at least $435 million for a unit of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. and said he plans to "get into all aspects of the mortgage industry."

"We feel that the mortgage industry is a very fundamental industry to America," Ross said today in an interview. "We felt the key starting place would be servicing."

Ross, 69, compared the state of the mortgage industry to the opportunities he saw in steel and auto parts five years ago. Starting in 2002, Ross bought four bankrupt steel companies and merged them to create North America's second-largest steel producer. He sold the company, International Steel Group Inc., to Indian billionaire Lakshimi Mittal for $4.7 billion three years later. Ross also has invested in coal and textiles.

Last year, Ross received $685 million in funding from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to pursue larger buyouts of bankrupt companies.

Those High-End Boots On Your Neck

GUANAJUATO, Mexico — A bootmaker to world leaders, including President Bush and Vicente Fox, is in a Colorado jail, charged with money laundering and conspiring to illegally smuggle the skins of protected animals into the United States to provide exotic footwear for high-end clients.

The arrest of Martin Villegas — and Mexico's raid of a warehouse filled with hundreds of cowboy boots and belts made from endangered species — has raised questions about how much Fox knew of the scheme and whether the former Mexican president purchased illegal boots himself.

Before Fox left office in December, Villegas created a special brand of cowboy boot named after him, which was manufactured in Mexico's shoemaking capital, Leon, in Fox's home state of Guanajuato.

The Mexican bootmaker also produced footwear for Fox's bodyguards, Cabinet members, relatives and friends — including Bush, a fellow lover of ranchwear who accepted a pair of ostrich-skin cowboy boots as a gift during a visit to Fox's ranch in 2001.

Fox, in Rome for his election as co-president of an association of center-right parties from around the world, was under fire this week from Mexican media speculating not only about the boots, but the source of his post-presidential wealth.

Real News

If Ya Can't Beat 'Em or Join 'Em – Dance

Recapping the News

Another manufactured moment - Andrew Meyer's rude rant toward John Fhony Kerry portrayed as some sort of watershed moment in American history. Another progressive bumper sticker declaring "the police state is here!" Such a State has always been policed for some folks … back of the bus be gettin' more and more crowded.

The "left" version of swiftboaters declares General Petraeus' wears phony medals. A heads up to the phony DailyKos and his sucklings for this watershed moment.

Cindy supports Moveon. Cindy says : "Anyone who is concerned with the rapid slide to fascism should be supporting MoveOn in this battle. Anyone who cares about democracy over Democrats (or Rethugs) should join me in supporting MoveOn in this particular struggle and in bringing MoveOn more fully to the table with the peace movement. Thanks MoveOn for speaking for the majority of Americans … "

Oh good grief heifer, you should move on, move on, move on, move on, and maybe a real movement will move up. (Did I repeat move on enough times?)

The "left" lovingly icon-ized Jimmah Carter, (because he politically correctly disses Israel/Aipac), Jimmah is to the "left" what Ronnie Reagan is to the "right." Never mind that both men are/were old fools; poli-ticks who benefited from service to the status quo. Both honorary Knights of the Queen, who seems to award knight-hood to famous hoods more often than a high-price whore changes underwear.

The media, and I guess some Americans, care deeply about how America's ruling class treats Iran's ruling class and will make news of whether Ahmadinejad is to visit ground zero or not visit ground zero as being a matter of importance. (Meanwhile, Boy Bush jerks in the bathroom with an Ahmad centerfold.)

Jena, Louisiana white folks, true to crackerism in denial, cut down and uprooted their hanging tree - they'd rather kill it if they have to share it.

Per Jesse Jackson - is Obama "acting like he's white" for not showing more support for the Jena 6? No, Obama be actin' ruling class.

The Chinese evacuate millions ahead of typhoon; shame on the US and Louisiana for drowning theirs.

Dan Rather pretends there used to be ethics in American newsrooms. What a hoot, coming from a Texas man who's career was made on promoting liars and lies of the Kennedy assassination. Dan, like a dog, returns to his own vomit (with a lawsuit).

France "the world should "prepare for the worst" over Iran, adding that "the worst is war"and Russia antes up 2 bits to raise the sheople fear level with "the world should prepare for war with the Islamic state."

In other news – OJ is a loser with a cokehead girlfriend, missing white girl Maddie's parents don't look like child killers therefore must be innocent, Larry Birkhead is gay (that one was obvious), the blonde Hollywood hoes are rehabbing and/or out of town this week, and the Pope snubbed Condileezie Rice – but whadda expect from a boy nazi, head of the world's largest pedophile ring.

PS – Expect the next prez to be another Republican. Why? I dunno - maybe subconsciously sheople prefer wickedness in their face (Rep) rather than behind their back (Dem).

Amiss and Andy

When I first saw the video of Andrew Meyer being tazed at a John Kerry event I thought something amiss here, smells phony, phony, phony. The event happened one afternoon and by early morning dozens and dozens of "amateur" videos of the incident were on youtube. (First clue that Andy is not of sound mind is he attended a John Kerry event.)

Meyer has a penchant for catching practical jokes on video and posting on his own website. Stupid white boy of the Generation Nexters, "look at me" the "fun generation", aiding and abetting the numbing and dumbing of America. Meyer may not have planned on being tazed but he knew he was catching himself on tape pretending to be politically aware in a face-off with a famous person. Asking if Kerry was a member of a secret society (Skull and Bones) Andy has great investigative journalism potential.

Meyer's staged prank gets air time and misdirected outrage. It's tryanny, it's dictatorship they cry. No, it's just another spoiled white boy, aspiring wannabee, creating his 15 minutes.

It's enough to make some people think the attention seeking "bro" should experience Giuliani's gestapo at the end of a plunger. Or, if the Jena 6 can face 20 years for attempted murder with a tennis shoe – lets charge Andy, just for look-at-me fun, with conspiracy and attempting to incite a riot and let him sit in jail for awhile, with a sleepy court appointed lawyer and no funds; while thousands experiencing genuine injustice across the nation go unnoticed.

Give 'im Enough Rope

Chavez Threatens to Take Over Schools

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to take over any private schools refusing to submit to the oversight of his socialist government, a move some Venezuelans fear will impose leftist ideology in the classroom.

All Venezuelan schools, both public and private, must submit to state inspectors enforcing the new educational system. Those that refuse will be closed and nationalized, Chavez said.

A new curriculum will be phased in during this school year, and new textbooks are being developed to help educate "the new citizen," added Chavez's brother and education minister Adan Chavez in their televised ceremony on the first day of classes.

Just what the curriculum will include and how it will be applied to all Venezuelan schools and universities remains unclear.

But one college-level syllabus obtained by The Associated Press shows some premedical students already have a recommended reading list including Karl Marx's "Das Kapital" and Fidel Castro's speeches, alongside traditional subjects like biology and chemistry.

"We must train socially minded people to help the community, and that's why the revolution's socialist program is being implemented," said Zulay Campos, a member of a Bolivarian State Academic Commission that evaluates compliance with academic guidelines.

"If they attack us because we're indoctrinating, well yes, we're doing it, because those capitalist ideas that our young people have — and that have done so much damage to our people — must be eliminated," Campos said.

----Shucks Bubba, it worked for Stalin.

Numbers, Again

From Altered net, Iraq Death Toll Rivals Rwanda Genocide, Cambodian Killing Fields

I know the goal is to ratchet up the hate on Bush and CheneyCo but throwing numbers out there and spinning as wildly as the rightwingers spin their material doesn't impress me.

Alterednet: "According to a new study, 1.2 million Iraqis have met violent deaths since the 2003 invasion, the highest estimate of war-related fatalities yet. The study was done by the British polling firm ORB, which conducted face-to-face interviews with a sample of over 1,700 Iraqi adults in 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces."

I questioned the numbers previously (below By Way of Numbers). This newest interpretation puts the violent deaths at 1.2 million, or 732 dead per day since the war began in 2003. Not only do I find that toll questionable but I would ask is there a number that would have been acceptable to Americans?

Would 500,000 deaths be acceptable, 300,000, 200,000? Were the estimated 3000-5000 deaths during the Panama invasion, Just Cause, do-able because it was only 4 figures? Were the 100,000 dead in Bosnia not a "killing field"?

Is a poll of 1700 Iraqi adults representative of all Iraqis? Are we assured the poll takers did not influence the responses? Is the US still paying compensation to Iraqi victims of violence and if so would this create false claims? How many deaths result from US troops and how many from personal vendettas, crime, etc.? Regardless, these numbers are arrived at by extrapolation, conjectural information, spinning.

The above article puts an outrageous spin on small arms ammo.

Altered net: " [One news report] noted that the Army estimated it would need 1.5 billion small arms rounds per year, which was three times the amount produced just three years earlier. In another, it was noted by the Associated Press that soldiers were shooting bullets faster than they could be produced by the manufacturer. 1.5 billion rounds per year … more bullets fired than can be manufactured. Given that the estimated number of active insurgents in Iraq has never exceeded 30,000 -- and is usually given as less than 20,000 -- that leaves a lot of deadly lead flying around. Everyone agrees that the U.S. soldier is the best-trained fighter on earth, so it's somewhat bizarre that war supporters believe their shots rarely hit anybody."

Hmmm, lemme see, 1.5 billion per year ammo would be around 9100 bullets per soldier. Now, factor in that many troops are on bases, support personnel, not infantry, and may not shoot at anything other than on the firing range for practice. Do the writers mean "rounds" as in bullets only, or "rounds" for any small arms inlcuding pistols, rifles, grenades, mortars, i.e. are they including mortar shells and grenades in the ammo or is it all "bullets"? Also, does this 1.5 billion "bullets" per year include the ammo expended in training the Iraqi Police Service (IPS) and the National Police (NP)?

Last, but not the least - if you take the time to read through the .pdf file the Altered net author links to you'll see such statements as this:

Representative Weldon identifies an increase in the training requirement for small arms which was instituted by the former Army Chief of Staff after September 11, 2001. The new training requirement jumped up to 1.1 billion rounds per year. This is up from about 440 million rounds. Additionally, the training requirements do not just apply to the forces in the United States, but also to those deploying to the Central Command theater. All forces arriving in Kuwait are firing weapons as they go through a vigorous Joint Reception, Staging, and Onward Integration (JRSOI) process.

The file also notes a yearly production of 1.55 rounds per year - but this figure is to include training, inventory stock, and war use. The .pdf file's solution, of course, is/was to provide more funding, bigger and better contracts, to defense contractors.

(Thank you Curt "Able Danger" Weldon.)

The file also points to a 65 percent reduction in small arms ammunition funding between 1992-2002, you know the peace and prosperity years of Clinton. But those dates and percents would be an underfunding spin for the compassionate conservatives to write.

For What It's Worth

Empty wards in Baghdad hospital offer hope.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A row of beds lies empty in the emergency ward of Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital. The morgue, which once overflowed with corpses, is barely a quarter full.

Doctors at the hospital, a barometer of bloodshed in the Iraqi capital, say there has been a sharp fall in victims of violence admitted during a seven-month security campaign.

Last month the fall was particularly dramatic, with 70 percent fewer bodies and half the number of wounded brought in compared to July, hospital director Haqi Ismail said.

"The major incidents, like explosions and car bombs, sometimes reached six or seven a day. Now it's more like one or two a week," he told Reuters.

The relative calm at the Yarmouk hospital lends weight to U.S. and Iraqi government assertions that a security campaign launched around Baghdad in February has achieved results.

In one emergency ward at the hospital, in a Sunni Muslim district of west Baghdad which has suffered disproportionately from sectarian conflict, just two patients were being treated. Neither showed signs of serious injury.

At the hospital morgue, only two of the eight refrigerated rooms contain bodies, many of them dating to violence weeks ago.

Bloodstained floors in the empty sections were the only reminder of days when the morgue was so flooded with victims of bombings and shootings that the bodies overflowed, laid out on the ground outside.

"In the last month there's been a really noticeable reduction," said surgeon Ali Adel. "Now most of the cases that come to us are ... random gunfire and accidents."

Rock the Cradle

Fox censors Sally Field’s anti-war speech at Emmy’s.

At tonight’s Emmy Awards show, the audience cheered Sally Field’s acceptance speech, which recognized the mothers of U.S. troops. “Surely this [award] belongs to all the mothers of the world,” she stated. “May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. Especially to the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait. Wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm’s way, and from war. I am proud to be one of those women.”

Field then continued, “If mothers ruled the world, there would be no –” But the Fox Emmycast cut off her sound and pointed the camera away from the stage, silencing the rest of her sentence: “god-damned wars in the first place.”

-------If mothers ruled, the world would be just as bloody. Maggie Thatcher, Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, and historical females, among many, such as Isabella of Spain, Olga of Russia, Catherine the Great, China's Dowager Empress Tz'u-his ….

Shame on Sally. A dumb, headline seeking, pandering old woman from fantasy land spouting 16 words in a false cliché.

Shinola

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The General

The military experts and combat hardened boots from Moveon kicked General Petraeus with a NYT ad this week, for performing his duty to BushCo.

"General Petraeus or General Betray Us." Or so the ad goes. Nice of the trustworthy old NY rush-to-war Times to allegedly give Moveon an advertising discount – must be all that guilt for herding the sheep into war from the git-go.

Click, spin, flip-flop drop - the NYT is playing the other side of the song on the Wurlitzer.

Poor General. After a lustrous career serving in Somalia, Bosnia, Kuwait, and Willie Clinton's invasion of Haiti – he becomes a "traitor." To be touted as the white Colin Powell – lying for Bush. Does that mean Petraeus is a whigger?

The question put to Petraeus, which so much of the media chomped on, was from John Warner. Paraphrased – "have our efforts in Iraq made the US safer?" The General responded with "I don't know."

Well, there ya go Bubba. Proof. Proof we're not safer. Proof the war was not all about, you know, o-i-l.

Bubba, was you idiot enough to believe this War was to keep us safe? Well, okay, I suppose if soon to retire Senator Warner was idiot enough to think it ….so can you.

By the way, was that 17 minute followup speech from Bush the Beady Reptile Eyes really Bush or his look-a-like? This Bush seemed so focused. Wish I had some of whatever he's on.

Honestly Bubba, my instincts felt Petraeus was as honest as he could be given he had brasses to cover while in a room full of professional pandering congressional career liars.

But the most disgusting thing to come from this "attack ad" - is dirty old man chester-molester look-a-like Giuliani, getting his name in print by defending the General. Now there's a lying climbing creep if I ever saw one.

Not the Only Show In Town

A former ABC News consultant fired last year because he couldn’t authenticate academic credentials is at the center of a new dispute over apparently faked interviews with Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Gates and others.

The consultant, Alexis Debat, quit the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank, on Wednesday after Obama’s representatives claimed an interview with the senator appearing under Debat’s byline in the French magazine Politique Internationale never took place. The interview quoted the Democratic presidential candidate as saying the Iraq war was “a defeat for America.”

:) Gosh, I hate knowing everything. (See below.)

How To Get Your Name in Print

Rev. Yearwood Attacked and Beaten in Halls of Congress by Police.

Sheehan, Nine Other Protesters Are Arrested.

Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan and nine other protesters were arrested in a House office building yesterday outside the room where Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker were testifying before Congress.

Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, was among the first to be arrested. She was taken into custody shortly after noon and charged with disorderly conduct, Capitol Police said, because she shouted during the hearing.

Christy Anne Miller, Sheehan's sister, was also charged with disorderly conduct after allegedly shouting in the hallway.

Others arrested included Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, who was charged with unlawful conduct after allegedly shouting during the hearing, and the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., of the D.C.-based Hip Hop Caucus, who allegedly refused to move back after jumping in front of a line of people waiting to get inside the room.

Rev. Yearwood said as he was being released from the hospital to be taken to central booking, “The officers decided I was not going to get in Gen. Petreaus’ hearing when they saw my button, which says ‘I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ.’”

------Breaks my heart - this whole scenario looks staged by Yearwood, Sheehan, and the Code Pinkers. I saw no beating. I saw no police brutality here. Where the Yearwood video begins it's impossible to tell if he had been in line all morning or not. A couple of accomplices, not in line, appeared to have walked up and entered the room.

From the video I'm not sure the police even noticed his button. It appears the ladies with the pink T-shirts that said "Troops Home Now" and "Generals Lie and Children Die" were allowed in the room as they were brought out later, so why would Yearwood's lapel pin bother the cops?

This bunch seems to be more interested in their 15 minutes than building a movement for serious change in American politics.

And if you think Medea Benjamin is the real thing ya need critical thinking skills; she's been riding high on foundation funds for years (Ford, Soros, MacArthur, Barbra Streisand Foundation, Rubin Foundation, and others).

They're not activists, they're actors; apparently it pays well.

Favorites In Our House

Slog & Surge

Regarding the ABC News, the BBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK Iraq poll.

From ThinkProgress:

Overall conditions:
39 percent say “their lives are going well,” down from 71 percent in Nov. 2005.
23 percent say things will be better in a year, one-third of the Nov. 2005 level.
23 percent report “effective reconstruction efforts in their local area,” down 10 points since March.

On the U.S. presence:
79 percent oppose the presence of coalition forces, unchanged since winter.
63 percent say it was wrong for the U.S. to have invaded Iraq, up from 52 percent in March and 39 percent in Feb. 2004.
47 percent now favor “immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces,” a 12-point rise since March.

Statements from the original .pdf file of the poll:

"In a better result for the United States, fewer now blame U.S. or coalition forces directly for the violence occurring in Iraq – 19 percent, down from 31 percent six months ago; as many (21 percent) blame al Qaeda. (Eight percent blame George W. Bush personally.)

If the United States is unpopular, others fare no better. Seventy-nine percent of Iraqis believe Iran is actively engaged in encouraging sectarian violence in Iraq, up eight points; majorities also suspect Saudi Arabia and Syria of fomenting violence."

-----'Scuse me, but – if fewer Iraqis now blame the US forces for the violence, down from 31 percent to 19 percent, and a majority of Iraqi, 79 percent, believe Iran, Saudi, and Syria are fomenting violence in Iraq – what do Iraqis think will happen when the US pulls an immediate withdrawal?

No End in Sight

The Hills Have Eyes

LOGAN, W.Va. — A woman was sexually abused, beaten and humiliated while being held captive in a home for at least a week, sheriff's officials said Monday after making six arrests and calling the FBI to investigate it as a possible hate crime.

Those arrested, including a mother and son and a mother and daughter, are white. The victim, a Charleston woman who was being treated at a hospital Monday, is black.

"The things that were done to this woman are just indescribable," Logan County sheriff's Sgt. Sonya Porter said.

Deputies found the 23-year-old victim Saturday after going to the home in Big Creek, about 35 miles southwest of Charleston, to investigate an anonymous tip. One of the suspects, Frankie Brewster, was sitting on the front porch and told deputies she was alone, but moments later the victim limped toward the door, her arms outstretched, saying "help me," the sheriff's department said in a news release.

Besides being sexually assaulted, the victim was stabbed four times in the left leg and beaten, Porter said. Both of her eyes were black and blue. Deputies said the woman's wounds were inflicted at least a week ago.

During her capture, the victim was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from the toilet, according to the criminal complaint filed in magistrate court. The woman also was choked with a cable cord and her hair cut, it alleges.

One of those arrested, Karen Burton, is accused of cutting the woman's ankle with a knife. She used the N-word in telling the woman she was victimized because she is black, according to the criminal complaint.

Deputies say the woman was also doused with hot water while being sexually assaulted.

"We have called the feds," Chief Deputy V.K. Dingess with the Logan County Sheriff's Department said Monday. "They may pick this up as a hate crime."

Medi-millionaires

Audit Cites Overpaid Medicare Insurers.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 — Private insurance companies participating in Medicare have been allowed to keep tens of millions of dollars that should have gone to consumers, and the Bush administration did not properly audit the companies or try to recover money paid in error, Congressional investigators say in a new report.

The investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the money could have been used to reduce premiums or provide additional benefits to older Americans.

Under federal law, Medicare officials are supposed to audit the financial records of at least one-third of the insurance companies each year. But the investigators said the Bush administration had fallen far short of that goal and had never met the “statutory requirement.”

Indeed, they said, the proportion of companies audited by Medicare declined steadily — to 14 percent in 2006 from 24 percent in 2001 — despite a steady growth in Medicare payments to the plans. Those payments now total $75 billion a year, about one-fifth of all Medicare spending.

Juke and Ben E. King

The Mighty Wurlitzer

Bin's latest release.

----In the 1950s Frank Wisner proudly referred to the CIA's worldwide propaganda machine as "the mighty Wurlitzer."

BIN FAKED plays a little something for America's "left" and "right" :

"…despite America being the greatest economic power and possessing the most powerful and up-to-date military arsenal as well; and despite it spending on this war and its army more than the entire world spends on its armies; and despite it being the being the major state influencing the policies of the world, as if it has a monopoly on the unjust right of veto; despite all of this, 19 young men were able - by the grace of Allah, the Most High - to change the direction of its compass."

"…campaign being waged against us for a long time now by your politicians and many of your writers by way of your media, especially Hollywood, for the purpose of misrepresenting Islam and its adherents to drive you away from the true religion."

"…the vast majority. of you (Americans) want it (the war) stopped. Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven’t made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there, which has led to the vast majority of you being afflicted with disappointment."

"…your information media, during the first years of the war, lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the colonialist empires."

"…when Kennedy took over the presidency and deviated from the general line of policy drawn up for the White House and wanted to stop this unjust war, that angered the owners of the major corporations who were benefiting from its continuation."

"…backtracking of Bush on his insistence on not giving the United Nations expanded ­ jurisdiction in Iraq is an implicit admission of his loss and defeat there."

"… Bush speeches … echoing of the words of neoconservatives like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Richard Pearle, the latter having said previously that the Americans have no choice in front of them other than to continue the war."

"…the manufacturing of public opinion is Noam Chomsky, who spoke sober words of advice prior to the war, but the leader of Texas doesn’t like those who give advice."

"The capitalist system seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations under the label of "globalization" in order to protect democracy."

"…because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and begun to search for an alternative, and that this alternative is Islam."

On US troops in Iraq : "It is severer than what the slaves used to suffer at your hands centuries ago, and it is as if some of them have gone from one slavery to another slavery more severe and harmful, even if it be in the fancy dress of the Defense Department’s financial enticements."

---- What a crock'o'shit, more jingle than jihad - memes, mantras, sound bytes, and rhetoric, drawn directly from the sewers of American politics.

It wouldn't surprise if ya told me the above release was written in collaboration with Pearle and Chomsky, consulting with a mujahideen "asset" from the "does this sound real?" section.

Wake Up Everybody

Muckers

I'm not sure if the American "left" or "opposition", is intentionally mindmucking facts or if they really are this stupid. I posed this question to myself after reading yet another scolding from the "left", Big Oil in Iraq: "World Class Racketeering."

(For starters, all big business (and government) is "racketeering," racketeering defined as extortion. Or do you pay taxes to the city, county, state, and federal level because you love them? Do you pay big premiums on home, car, health, and life insurance because you love paying, or because you fear not paying, or by law you have to pay them? Do you pump your kids full of mercury vaccinations because you love them or because you have to? Does your local copshop protect and serve you, or write tickets for quota and harass the lower class neighborhoods?)

The above article from a "left" blogazine states : "Those who want to hold Iraqis "accountable" with a series of benchmarks that are important to Washington fail to understand what those benchmarks are about to begin with."

Well, like it or not, Iraqis are "accountable." Accountable in that, after defeat, a good deal of their future is in their own hands.

Fortunately, the Anglo hoards have not slaughtered en masse or enslaved the natives. Fortunately this time the Anglo crusaders have not dropped atomic "fat man" and "little boy." Fortunately, the conquistadors have not planted a flag and claimed it all for the crown.

And, like it or not, those benchmarks are important not just to Washington, but to Joe Schmoe and Abid Mahmud.

Blogazine : "… Iraq is being pressured to pass the hydrocarbon laws at a time when we don't even know, for example, what regions will even exist that might lay claim to a portion of the oil revenues."

Okay, the law proposes federalized control over oil/gas resources and sharing revenue proportionately with each province according to population size. As in California receives more federal funds than Rhode Island. The regions in Iraq are simple : north, central, south, Kurds, Sunni, Shia. Why pretend this is more complicated? Only a bullshitter would confuse the situation by suggesting new regions might exist in the future and therefore no agreements can be made today.

Blogazine : "It's not like there's any need to rush to pass the law for Iraq to produce oil. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven reserves in 80 fields (20 of which are currently in production). If it were to build up to a capacity of 10 bbd production, it wouldn't have to discover any new reserves for at least ten years.

What?! No rush?? If not revenues from oil production then do tell where and what monies are coming in to fill the Iraqi government coffers? All that oil wealth could be going into infrastructure and programs for the Iraqi people and this clown says no rush? And child, 10 years passes very quickly.

Then there's the usual poll citing " …. Michigan poll ... found that even before the framework draft was introduced, 76 percent of Iraqis believe the U.S. invaded Iraq to control its oil." Michigan has a large Arab/Muslim population, but yes, US invaded for the oil. And your point is? Can you undo what has been done, or just gripe?

Should Anglo/US oil giants concede to Saudi Aramco, Putin Gazprom, CNPC China, NIOC Iran, King Hugo's PDVSA, Brazil’s Petrobras or Petronas of Malaysia? In case you haven't noticed - those giants are the only alternative to US/Anglo Oil Giants.

That's not how it works folks. As despicable as BushCo and the war is – you don't die and spend and bleed and then lick the shitty end of the stick.

It's business. Iraq can write a mutually good deal with Big Oil because they have what Big Oil wants – oil and lots of it, and Big Oil has what Iraq wants – the investment to make it happen.

Another claim the "left" makes against Anglo oil racketeers in Iraq are the PSAs. Profit/production sharing agreements. The last I read the Iraq PSA with Big Oil was a 20 year contract. A good deal. A little googling shows African nations with small oil reserves are signed into PSA deals, i.e. Libya, Angola, Nigeria, and some nations for 40 year contracts. PSAs are signed for exploration blocks and production all over all the time. I don't hear the left shouting about the racketeering deals Big Oil makes with corrupt African regimes.

Nor do I hear the left listing other options the people of Iraq have (or Americans). What would the "left" suggest?

Kick the US out and hope Russia and China roll into town with a better deal? Suggest that regional rescuers such as Saudi/Iran will offer world class deals that Iraq can't refuse? Or maybe Iraq can just go it alone? Put their oil up as collateral and borrow megabucks from the IMF/World Bank to invest and get their fields up and pumping revenues. And of course, so the "left" feels good about themselves - let UN troops "keep the peace."

Gallop Poll

If this list isn't enough to put out a spark of hope I don't know what will.

Most Admired Man, Dec. 11-14, 2006 Gallup Poll
1. George W. Bush
2. Bill Clinton
3. Jimmy Carter
4. Barack Obama
5. (Reverend) Billy Graham
6. Colin Powell
7. Pope Benedict XVI
8. Nelson Mandela
9. George H.W. Bush
10. Bill Gates

Most Admired Woman
1. Hillary Rodham Clinton
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Condoleezza Rice
4. Laura Bush
5. Margaret Thatcher
6. Angelina Jolie
7. Nancy Pelosi
8. Madeleine Albright
9. Barbara Bush
10. Maya Angelou

Soft-Soap

The progressive "left" incessantly beating drums of "the neocons planned attack on Iran." From no-name bloggers to high profile award winning journalists with credientials, from wrinkled pols like Ron and Dennis, seemingly oddballs, one from each side of the aisle. Why such bleating?

Because fear draws a following from that cloddish faction of Americans who are aroused by fear, who enjoy life in a constant state of apprehension, and who will not or cannot analyze and evaluate information.

The "left" presents slick docudrama, mags and blogs of warning warning warning, as if the only agenda in their heart is to be of public service. But it sells, and it manipulates folks to vote Democrat or third party; it's a nudge to those symbol-minded folks who want to believe voting makes a difference in the overall grand scheme. Only you can prevent more war. Give Bubba on the left a sense of power and pride so he can say he stopped mass murder, he made a difference; he saved the world, he voted for (picked) the right team.

It's leading the sheep to vote, not revolt – to perpetuate the myth that voting is power, it's your voice Bubba, being heard. Just as they claimed the last election "overwhelmingly" beat back the neocons/republicans and sent Democrats to congress. Hahaha, good one. You spoke Bubba – and were heard. Hahahaha. The MSM ran so quick and so repetitively with the "Dems sweep elections" headlines that it had to be fool's talk masqueraded as news.

What's the Senate makeup now? Ummm, 51 and 49? Oh yea, republicans took quite a senatorial thumping. Hahahaha, yessirree Bubba, the voters spoke and made an "astonishing turnaround" in the halls of power. The House is 233 dems to 202 republicans, brought to ya by a huge, huge asswhomping voter turnout of 36 percent. How many old Craigs and Foleys did ya send this time? How many perk & pork barrel pols this time? The best and the brightest of the deviant, huh Bubba?

Simple math of why the US will not strike Iran:

1. Iran has over 1 million troops in its army, air force, and navy and the capacity to mobilize another 11 million.

2. Iran's weaponry is in good shape and up to date – unlike Saddam's rusting caches filling with sand and no replacement parts over 12 years of Anglo sanctions.

3. Iran has positive business and diplomatic ties with China, Russia, and India. US/Euro will think long and hard before challenging these giants to a world war pissing contest. Besides, the Western Anglo world has outsourced most of its manufacturing and many service jobs to China and India - disruption in business is reason enough not to attack Iran.

4. The US knows if they strike Iran millions of Iranian troops will slaughter American troops next door in Iraq. The Anglo ruling class knows, as dull-witted as Joe Mericans may be he will appropriately blame American policy makers; this type of slaughter would prompt Joes to finally rise from couches and keyboards and hang politicians from lampposts, most likely with the aid and backing of every military grunt in uniform.

Unlike the "right" which blatantly uses the terrorists are gonna getcha type fear, the "left" peddles fear of what-ifs - what the opposition party might do. Peddles foreboding, peddles dreadful predictions – it's the soft-soap blarney progressives use to herd the unwashed masses.

(Note: It's a man's world. ;) If we're headed for world war and massive reduction in population, the men gods will let a woman take the fall, i.e. Hillary.)

Yours Forever, Hugo

Chavez says he could govern until 2027.

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he could continue governing until 2027 if voters do away with re-election limits because he needs more time in office to establish a socialist economic model in Venezuela.

He has previously said he could stay on as president until 2021 if his proposed constitutional reforms - which among other changes would eliminate presidential term limits, letting him run as many more times as he wants - are approved.

"I need more time in the presidency to finish this. We are only beginning," he said on his weekly radio and television program, "Maybe until 2020 or 2027. I'd be old if I'm still alive."

His proposals would also extend presidential terms from six to seven years, and empower neighborhood-based assemblies called "communal councils."

-----Hahahahahaha. It never fails - a little power is intoxicating. Does Chavez have to be so obvious about it? Hasn't he learned the real power is to rule from behind the scenes? Oh wait, hmmm, maybe Hugo is not the real power in Venezuela.

Question - Even with constitutional reform to eliminate term limits - what makes Hugo think he will win every election for the next 20 years? And in every Latin American country I've seen - "communal councils" quickly become nothing more than servants reporting to the State on anyone with even a hint of discontent with national leaders.

Chavez is so Somoza, but trying to appear Sandinista-ish.

The Decider Goes to Anbar

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush arrived in Iraq on Monday for a surprise visit along with his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the White House said in a call from Air Force One. Bush landed at al-Asad Air Force base, west of Baghdad in Anbar province, the White House said as the president's plane touched down.

----Bush makes Iraq stopover en route to the APEC meeting, which Laura could not attend due to a pinched nerve, a medical condition known as "George, if you take that homely heifer I ain't going".

As you know, Condi accompanies Bush for the purpose of giving George permission for potty breaks, to check his shirt buttons are done properly, and to answer Dubya's adlib pressing questions such as "are there Blacks in Brazil", or in this case, are there Arabs in Iraq.

No word yet if Dubya thinks this trip could be THE trip that makes him a dead martyr for the ruling class "cause."

Also, no details from the psychobabble experts, on whether Dubya's penchant for coarse-faced hardass female helpmates comes from an infantile fixation upon anal-erotic and S&M stimulation, instilled by the misfortune of having Brawny Babs of the Beautiful Mind for a momma.

Political Carnies

Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran.

THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military had concluded: “Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.” It was, he added, a “very legitimate strategic calculus”.

President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late”.

One Washington source said the “temperature was rising” inside the administration. Bush was “sending a message to a number of audiences”, he said � to the Iranians and to members of the United Nations security council who are trying to weaken a tough third resolution on sanctions against Iran for flouting a UN ban on uranium enrichment.

------Step right up, folks, step right up. Ya ain't gotta knock’em off. Just tip 'em flat. One flattened country of choice. One win’s all it takes. Biggest purr-izes on the midway. Who’s up next? Step right up. Getcha your fear ratcheted up, right here. It's legitimate strategic calculus … win a big 'un for the little lady. Temperatures are a rising. Nukular holocaust, massive strikes, take 'em out in – 3 days.

Twelve, read 'em folks, 12 paragraphs of chills, fear, despair - step right up. It's free. Spectacular rides and mirrored mazes brought to you by the best freak tanks in the world to scare just about everyone with shocks and awes. Step right up folks.

However, paragraph 13 does say :

"Debat believes the Pentagon’s plans for military action involve the use of so much force that they are unlikely to be used and would seriously stretch resources in Afghanistan and Iraq."

No shit Sherlock Debat.

Jena 6

Mychal Bell, the first teen to be convicted in the "Jena 6" case in Jena, La., will have a hearing on Tuesday.

At that time, his lawyers will either prevail on motions to set aside the verdict, or Bell will be sentenced on charges of second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy in connection with a high school fight.

In that event, the 17-year-old faces up to 22 years in prison.

Bell is one of a group of defendants who have come to be known as the "Jena 6." All of the defendants are black high school students accused of beating up a white classmate after a series of racial incidents at a high school in the small Louisiana town.

The trouble started when black students exercised their right to sit under a shade tree traditionally used by white students. In response, white students hung three "nooses" from the tree. That act -- a throwback to the days when blacks were lynched for exercising their civil rights -- was portrayed by school officials as a "silly prank," and the white students got in-school suspensions.

But, while the misconduct by white students was handled as a prank, and an attack against a black student at a private party resulted in one of the attackers being charged with a misdemeanor, school officials and the LaSalle Parish District Attorney have brought out a hammer against the black students involved in the school fight.

----The good ol' boys of Louisiana.

Charles C. Foti, Jr.
Attorney General
1885 North 3rd Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
P.O. Box 94005 Baton Rouge, LA 70804

executive@ag.state.la.us