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9/24/2004

Ibis Tek Mounts Machine Guns and Grenade Launchers to SUVs! :.

For the soccer mom with everything! Must see video!

Jobs? Affordable housing? Healthcare? Education?

How about SUVs with machine guns?

I never thought the collapse of society would be pleasant, but I always knew it would be weird and absurd:

The Viper ushers in a new generation of mobile protection and reconnaissance vehicle, built to meet the rapid deployment requirements of today's security forces. The Cobra and Viper Security Vehicles provide a stealth platform able to respond with decisive fire power. Whether you are protecting a head-of-state, engaged in peace-keeping, or involved in low-intensity conflict, the Cobra and Viper Security Vehicles should be part of your team.

Research Credit: TR



Excellent Bush Speech Remix :.

"We will embrace tyranny and death as a cause and a creed. We can be summed up in one word: evil."

Fantastic!

Research Credit: TR


9/23/2004

Forbes List Has Most Billionaires Ever :.

I applied for a crappy receptionist job, just for shits and giggles more than anything else. I thought you guys would get a nice laugh from this, whether I got the job or not. I just got a response back today. Boy, it's a good thing I got nearly straight A's in college and shelled out the big bucks for that private university education! HAHAHA! I think USC should use this letter for recruitment materials!

Dear Mr. XXXXXXXX:

Thank you for applying for the receptionist position in the Department of
Education.

We have screened the pool of applicants and have selected for interview
candidates whose experience and skills most closely match the required
skills, abilities, and qualifications for this position. Unfortunately, you
were not included in this group to be interviewed.

I wish you much success in future career endeavors.

Sincerely,

Cheryl XXXXX
Assistant to the Chair
Department of Education
University of XX, XXXXXX
XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXX
XXXXXX, XX XXXXX-XXXX
ph: (XXX) XXX-XXXX
fx: (XXX) XXX-XXXX
But, things have never looked brighter, because...

It looks like the U.S. billionaire's club isn't quite as exclusive as it once was. There are now 313 billionaires in the country, the largest number ever and a huge jump over the 262 counted last year, according to Forbes magazine, which Thursday released its annual ranking of the 400 richest Americans.

The combined net worth of the 400 rose $45 billion and reached $1 trillion this year for the first time since 2000, before the dot-com bust wiped out billions of dollars in wealth.

The biggest billionaire of all was again Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, whose $48 billion in estimated wealth was up $2 billion from 2003. Gates was again followed by investor Warren Buffett with $41 billion, the list's biggest dollar gainer with a $5 billion increase, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who held the No. 3 spot although his net worth fell $2 billion to $20 billion.



Oil Back at $49 :.

Overhead resistance is $49.40:

Oil prices reversed course and jumped as high as $49 a barrel in New York Thursday, despite signs the U.S. government may release crude from the nation's strategic reserve after Hurricane Ivan sliced into supplies.



Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Could Imperil the Nation's Entire Financial System :.

Washington Post:

Yesterday's disclosure that government regulators have raised safety and soundness questions about mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae has given new ammunition to critics of the company and its sister firm, Freddie Mac.

Such critics, who recently have included Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, worry that the firms have grown so big so fast that if they get into financial trouble, they could imperil the nation's entire financial system.



UC Regents Lose Control of Nuclear Weapons Program :.

Teller - also known as Dr. Strangelove - went on to promote a grandiose U.S. nuclear weapons program for decades at the nuclear weapons labs: Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos. The program remained under a no-bid University of California management contract for 61 years.

In a stealth takeover by the Carlyle Group, facilitated by five admirals, the management contract will be transferred next year to the University of Texas, where the military and the Carlyle Group will have control. A new "ramping up" of the nuclear weapons program is underway, with program funding at the highest level ever - even higher than during the Cold War – extending nuclear weapons into outer space, into the very atmosphere that makes life on earth possible, and with no “real” enemy in sight.



October Surprise? Is an Attack Imminent? :.

I'm surprised that They haven't done another one already! This is from Cryptome:

>>>>> >>> Paula Martinez 9/22/2004 7:44:54 AM >>>
>
>> At the meeting of the Southern District of the Anti-Terrorism Advisory
>> Council (ATAC) that was held yesterday in Houston, US Attorney Michael
>> Shelby, informed the group that a terrorist attack of 09/11/01
>> proportions was going to be carried out on US soil within the next 6
>> weeks.
>>
>> Mr. Shelby stated that on 09/13/04, US Attorney General John Ashcroft,
>> had a conference call with all 93 US Attorneys, an event which is
>> extremely rare. The US Attorneys were informed that without a doubt, an
>> attack was going to be perpetrated in the US within the next 6 weeks,
>> prior to the elections. Mr. Shelby urgently requested that all law
>> enforcement be aware of any situation that may be out of the ordinary
>> and report the activity immediately. Mr. Shelby also requested that we
>> get the word out to patrol officers and detectives to talk to their
>> informants and report anything odd or remotely suspicious. Mr. Shelby
>> ended this warning by saying that unless we get a bit of "luck" and the
>> attack can be detected and prevented, that another attack of 9/11 scale
>> will be carried out.
>>
>> Please disseminate to all of your law enforcement contacts ASAP.



SEC Investigates Fannie Mae :.

Fannie Mae can't go down. It can't. Why? Because, it just can't:

Regulators have found serious accounting problems at mortgage giant Fannie Mae, prompting an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed Wednesday.

In at least one instance, the regulators found, it appeared that the government-sponsored company put off some accounting for expenses to a future reporting period to meet earnings targets that brought bonuses for executives.


9/22/2004

Iraq Crisis: Emergency Military Funds Utilized :.

Could it be any worse? Just wait until later this Fall:

The Pentagon has begun tapping into its $25 billion emergency fund for the Iraq war to prepare for a major troop rotation and intense fighting this fall, administration officials said on Tuesday, despite the White House's initial insistence that it had enough money.

The Pentagon has already used more than $2 billion from what the White House dubbed its "contingency reserve" fund for Iraq. The money is being used to ramp up production of armored Humvees to support the troop rotation, as well as to buy body armor and bolster fuel supplies, the officials told Reuters.

The decision to use the $25 billion in Iraq reserves underscores concern within the administration about the rise in anti-American violence in Iraq.

The decision follows last week's announcement that President George W. Bush plans to divert nearly $3.5 billion from Iraqi water, power and other reconstruction projects to improve security.



Wind Carries GM Pollen Record Distances :.

...This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a...

Pollen from a genetically modified grass has blown on the wind and pollinated other grasses up to 21 kilometres away, says a new study. This distance is "much further than previously measured", say the authors, and is thought to be a record for any GM pollen.



IMF Sees Danger of House Price Crash :.

This article is politely and calmly telling you to run for your life:

Lofty house prices in many rich countries are in danger of a correction as central banks raise interest rates to check inflation, a fall that could ripple through the global economy, the IMF says.

Home values, adjusted for inflation, have surged by more than 50 percent since 1997 in Ireland, Britain, Spain, Australia, the Netherlands, and Sweden, the Washington-based International Monetary Fund wrote in a report to be included in its semi-annual World Economic Outlook.

While there is no actual global market, the fortunes of housing markets in different countries have become increasingly linked, the fund said on Wednesday.

"Just as the current upswing in house prices has largely been a global phenomenon, any downturn is also likely to be highly synchronised across countries, with corresponding implications for the world economy," said the report by Marco Terrones, a senior IMF economist.

"Even an orderly correction would clearly weaken growth in the countries in which it occurred ... an abrupt price correction could have significantly more serious adverse effects," the report said.



Britain on the Brink :.

Anytime I think the U.S. is f*cked, all I need to do is think about Britain:

WORK for all in a booming economy, huge sums being pumped into health and education, a better deal for mums, longer holidays.

It's tempting to think Britons have never had it so good - if you listen to the government.

But, according to a series of studies published yesterday, that confidence may be masking a looming financial disaster.

Four million homeowners stand on the brink of a crisis, fearful that an interest rate rise of just £40 a month will tip them over the edge. With rising gas bills and water rates, too, millions are struggling to pay their way.

And for 1.2million people who overstretched themselves when buying homes at the height of the boom, the news is worse: just £20 a month more on their mortgage will force a drastic change of lifestyle.


According to Purely Mortgages, seven million Britons are more worried now about an interest rate rise than at any other time in the past year.



Government Portrays Homeschoolers as Terrorists :.

Do you get it yet?

In an federally funded exercise to prepare emergency responders for a terrorist attack, a Michigan county concocted a scenario in which public-school children were threated by a fictitious radical group that believes everyone should be homeschooled.

The made-up group was called Wackos Against Schools and Education.

The exercise in Muskegon, Mich., yesterday simulated a situation in which a bomb on board a bus full of children knocks the vehicle on its side and fills the passenger compartment with smoke.

Dan Stout, director of Muskegon County Emergency Services, told WorldNetDaily the choice of the fictitious group certainly was not meant to offend homeschoolers.



Public Schools no Place for Teachers' Kids :.

More than 25 percent of public school teachers in Washington and Baltimore send their children to private schools, a new study reports.

Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools.

In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools.


9/21/2004

''Big Brother Is Watching You, and You Don't Have the Faintest Idea" :.

How many people to these pigs have to rob at gunpoint just to cover the costs associated with flying that helicopter?

From 1,000 feet up in the air, flying in a sleek, black million-dollar helicopter, it just couldn't be any better.

Until you look down onto Interstate 65 inbound.

The morning commute is in full swing. The interstate is uncomfortably, but characteristically, packed. A black truck is on the tail of a red car. They're going more than 70 mph in a construction zone with a speed limit of 45. The truck driver doesn't ease off, tailgating until he decides to switch and pass from the middle lane. And then he's off tailgating someone else.

This misbehavior in the morning, playing itself out dozens, maybe hundreds of times each day, isn't going unnoticed.

''Big Brother is watching you, and you don't have the faintest idea,'' Metro police Sgt. Terry Wills said as he commanded the chopper over the highway, keeping up with the oblivious speeding trucker.

The sergeant is one of five police officers who fly over Nashville's roads each day, eyeing the speeders, tailgaters, and illegal median-cruisers (you know who you are) from on high.



Re-Enlist or Be Sent to Iraq :.

Take your pick, soldier:

Soldiers from a Fort Carson combat unit say they have been issued an ultimatum - re-enlist for three more years or be transferred to other units expected to deploy to Iraq.

Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were presented with that message and a re-enlistment form in a series of assemblies last Thursday, said two soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity.



40% of Army Reservists Fail to Report to Fort Jackson :.

HAHA! I bet the draft planned for next year will go over really well!

Only about 60 percent of reservists ordered to report to Fort Jackson have reported so far, Army officials said.

As of Tuesday, 186 of the 309 members of the Individual Ready Reserve ordered to report to the Columbia base had arrived, said Lt. Col. Burton L. Masters, spokesman for the Army's Human Resources Command.

"We're not surprised by those numbers at all," Masters said.

Most of those who have not reported are seeking exemptions from active duty or delays in reporting, he said.

Those who have not reported or applied for a delay or exemption will be considered deserters if they do not show up within seven days of the date they were told to report for duty, Masters said.

"We are going to go the extra mile to work with people," he said. "But if they don't report, the Army will track them down."



Reaping From the Wild Wind :.

A 77-acre property may have fertile soil, a stocked creek and wooded glen, but an increasingly important question is, "How much wind does it get?"

The rise in demand for clean electricity has created a parallel need for accurate data describing a location's wind-energy potential. Supercomputers running complex algorithms are now providing unprecedented detail about wind patterns in small areas in a matter of weeks.

During the past five years, the amount of wind energy produced in the United States has increased at an average rate of 28 percent, according to Kathy Belyeu, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association. Belyeu said commercial wind turbines will produce 16.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2004, or enough power for 1.6 million U.S. households.

New modeling software means wind-farm developers no longer have to wait a year to find out the wind-energy potential of their property, according to Lee Alnes, vice president of marketing for wind-analysis firm WindLogics.



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20!

Thanks MW!


9/20/2004

The Cryptogon Documentary Project

I want to make a documentary on a subject that is near and dear (or at least familiar) to most Cryptogon readers. You can probably guess the topic... but if you can't, I'm not telling what it is just yet.

You might be asking: "What does Kevin know about filmmaking!?"

HAHA! Do you mean to say that I've never mentioned career plan 8d? Yes, friends, long ago, I wanted to be a cinematographer. After dropping out of one film school (and being rejected twice by another), and working on several student films and other crap projects for some coked out lunatics, I finally decided that I wanted nothing to do with "that" industry. Let it suffice to say that I moved on to career plan 8e, which was... What was it? Nevermind.

Flash forward to today. There's a lot that needs to be said about a subject that isn't getting much coverage. I know that writing a book is the LAST thing that a concerned individual should do in an attempt to generate interest in an issue...any issue! A film is a much better way to go about it.

And, no, don't think I've suddenly been swept over by a wave of optimism or hope that the present system can be reformed. I haven't. This thing is coming down. There is no doubt about it. I would, however, enjoy seeing a film like the one I want to make. Since I don't see anyone else doing it, why shouldn't I?

With the success of documentary filmmakers such as Michael Moore, Alex Jones, Morgan Spurlock, Mark Achbar/Jennifer Abbott and Greg Spotts, maybe there's a chance that people will take a look at a Cryptogon-themed film.

Oh yeah, do any of you happen to have access to a 3-chip miniDV video camera, a couple of mics and a solid tripod that I could borrow? * grin * * wink * Thanks!

I'm not worried too much about editing the raw video, since computers have TOTALLY revolutionized that entire process. I've been playing with a fancy Final Cut Pro rig at the Apple store lately. Sweet Jesus, that thing is editing Nirvana. (Baaaaaah, when I was a boy, we edited film with a splicer and tape!) That Final Cut Pro thing makes the old days of film editing, and even analog video deck editing, seem barbaric! And I thought Lucasfilm's EditDroid was a big deal back in the 1980s!!! Well, since there's no money in the budget for a Mac system (actually, there's no budget at all), I'll have to make do with something on Windows. I'll probably use Adobe Premiere Pro, because they seem to have done a decent job of knocking off Apple's Final Cut Pro.

I plan on selling the DVD for $12 and allowing people to copy it for noncommercial and/or educational use. Obviously, anyone who contributes to this project will receive mention in the credits (or not, if you wish to remain anonymous).



Liberation: Microwave Gun to be Used by U.S. Troops on Iraqis :.

Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting.

The non-lethal weapons, which use high-powered electromagnetic beams, will be fitted to vehicles already in Iraq, which will allow the system to be introduced as early as next year.



Classic Guerrilla War Forming in Iraq :.

Good article with lots to keep in mind:

"Guerrilla warfare is the most underrated and the most successful form of warfare in human history," says Ivan Eland, a specialist on national security at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. "It is a defensive type of war against a foreign invader. If the guerrillas don't lose, they win. The objective is to wait out your opponent until he goes home."

Even if the insurgents dwindle to a handful of terrorists, their impact on security and stability in Iraq could far outweigh their numbers. RAND's Hoffman points out that just 20-30 members of the Baader Meinhof Gang terrorized the former West Germany for two decades; 50-75 Red Brigadists did the same in Italy; and some 200-400 IRA gunmen and bombers required the prolonged deployment of tens of thousands of British troops in Northern Ireland.



Ireland Is Most Profitable Tax Haven for U.S. Firms :.

Ireland is the most profitable country in the world for US corporations, a detailed analysis of global tax havens has found, writes Sean O'Driscoll in New York

The analysis, in the influential US tax journal Tax Notes, found that profits made by US companies in Ireland doubled from 1999 to 2002, while profits in most of the rest of Europe plunged. While Luxembourg showed greater profitability rates for US corporations, Ireland has a much larger "real economy" and produced the greatest profitability.

The report found a huge shift in the movement of capital towards tax havens.



The Greenest House on the Block :.

I hate to say it, but outlaw builders have been firing it up in the hills of Oregon (and nevermind Idaho) for decades. I guess it's nice that this type of dwelling is finally being blessed by the authorities:

The Rose House is the smallest project Clark Brockman has worked on, and he also considers it the most exciting.

The unassuming little house on Northeast Ainsworth Street is just 800 square feet, but it incorporates technologies that thrill architects like Brockman. From its staggered-stud frame to its solar water heating system, the Rose House is the first home in Portland to create more electricity than it uses.

Brockman hopes that the Rose House will serve as a laboratory experiment, a demonstration piece and, most important, a regular house that builders will want to replicate and people will want to live in.

This house underlines so much of what I believe in philosophically," he says as he crouches in a crawl space to show off a series of ducts designed to capture waste heat. "We’re doing so much more here, with less."

The Rose House, designed by SERA Architects Inc. and built by Coho Construction Services Inc., is one of 20 buildings that will be showcased Saturday in Portland’s third annual "Build It Green" home tour. The tour will demonstrate the latest in eco-roofs, renewable resources, daylighting techniques and other green building techniques.


9/19/2004

Britain to Cut Troop Levels in Iraq :.

The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt.

The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.

The news came amid another day of mayhem in Iraq, which saw a suicide bomber kill at least 23 people and injure 53 in the northern city of Kirkuk. The victims were queueing to join Iraq's National Guard.



Japan Shuts Unit of Citibank, Citing Violations :.

Absolutely incredible!

In one of the severest penalties ever imposed on a bank in Japan, regulators on Friday ordered Citigroup to close its Japanese private banking operations because of serious violations of the country's banking laws.

The Financial Services Agency ordered Citibank to shut the four branches in Japan where it offers private banking services to wealthy customers after the agency discovered a string of violations and improprieties over the last three years. The actions cited included failing to put in effect measures to prevent money laundering, overcharging customers for financial derivative products and making loans that helped clients carry out a variety of improper deals, regulators said.




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:. Reading

Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms.

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.

The Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing
Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.

Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd In Silent Theft, David Bollier argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs, software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often, however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps give away our assets. Amazingly, the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed because we have lost our ability to see the commons.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.

When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends.

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener This expansion of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables, with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock, the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other topics.