Gene Chapman: Death and Taxes :.

Anyone who takes a close look at the Federal Reserve and the IRS will soon determine that the Federal Income Tax amounts to extortion and massive fraud. Indeed, if you get into it, you will find some amazing things! I don't wish to get into any debates or arguments about this. I pay my taxes/extortion! At this time, I'm not willing to make a lifestyle out of fighting the IRS. Besides, I hardly have any income, so the point is practically mute for me.

Gene Chapman, however, is willing to die for this issue. He is attempting to get the IRS to demonstrate where the income tax liability is in the law. (They won't do it, because they can't.) How is he going about this? Chapman has been on a hunger strike since April 15th. He's sitting across the street from the IRS' Austin Regional Center and the U.S. Treasury Building at Parker Lane and Woodward Street in south Austin, Texas.

Listen to Joe Banister, ex-IRS agent. He spoke with Lee Klein on KFI 640am last Sunday night. KFI is a massive talk radio station in Los Angeles. Millions of people listen to this station. This interview is 67 minutes long. Make sure you listen all the way through because the call-in section is hilarious. Most of the callers don't pay their income taxes. I'm hosting this audio interview locally for a limited time. Don't expect it to stay here. Save it for yourself if you want to keep it.

If you want to see the full ratf-ing potential of the IRS, check into the plight of Irwin Schiff. The court ordered a temporary restraining order barring him from selling his book titled "The Federal Mafia" and from lecturing!!!! Listen to the RealAudio on his site. It is shocking. Remember, they're not after him for his personal tax practices, THEY ARE AFTER HIM FOR PUBLISHING A BOOK!

Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 6:56 AM

Police Get Power to Check Prints On the Spot :.

The only thing that has prevented the rise of an overt tyranny in the U.S. has been the egregious inefficiency of the executive branch of government at all levels. The most chilling thing I can imagine is the empowerment of the depraved cop consciousness with information technology. Well, I don't have to imagine these things. It's all happening:

Portland police may soon be asking for more than a license when making a traffic stop, but also requesting a motorist to stick out a thumb and forefinger.

Next month, more than a dozen officers will carry handheld devices on the street that will allow them to instantly verify a person's identity by analyzing their fingerprints.

The Portland Police Bureau was awarded a $250,000 federal COPS grant to equip each of its five precincts with a device and distribute another 10 to investigative officers in the detective, gang enforcement, drugs and vice, and tactical operations divisions.

The Minnesota-based Identix manufactures the technology, which captures fingerprints at the scene and remotely transmits them to a database. The Portland police will run the prints against the FBI's automated fingerprint database, and a database of seven Western states, known as the Western Identification Network.

If there is a match, the system returns the person's name, date of birth and mug shot directly to the officer's handheld terminal, the size of a Palm Pilot. Then the officer can check the person's criminal history and search for any outstanding warrants.
posted by Kevin at 5:52 AM

Legislative Attempt to Equate Homeschooling with Child Abuse :.

If you are refusing to go along with the show, this thing, this Leviathan, WILL eventually come knocking on your door. Wow! It's very fortunate for everyone involved that I don't have kids. I wonder how many guys they would send in an attempt to take away my un-vaccinated, social security numberless, homeschooled, sniper qualified, organic gardening freak spawn? As I said, it's a good thing that I don't have kids:

Proposed legislation that would have equated truancy with child abuse in California raised suspicions among homeschool advocates it represented a fresh attack on home-based education.

The legislation, titled SB 950, would have added "habitual truancy" to the definition of child abuse by amending the Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300. According to the language of the bill, it called for children who have up to five unexcused absences from public school to be immediately taken from their family and put into the juvenile court system. Parents would no longer have been given the opportunity to make their case to school district officials.
posted by Kevin at 5:46 AM

U.S. Marine: Soldier or Psychopathic Killer or Both? :.

Maybe it's just tribalism:

Covarrubias, a 20-year Marine veteran, said he found the soldier inside a nearby home with the grenade launcher by his side. Covarrubias said he ordered the man to stop and forced him to turn around.

"I went behind him and shot him in the back of the head. Twice," Covarrubias told the Review-Journal.

He said he also shot the man's partner, who tried to escape. He showed what he said were the men's ID cards.

"I'm not vindictive, and I might get in trouble for telling you this, but I take it very personally when you do that to my family," Covarrubias said. "The Marines are my family."

Wow. I'm glad so many of these maniacs become cops after they leave the military. I feel safer already!
posted by Kevin at 5:42 AM

Liberation: Photos of Highway Slaughter At Taji :. (CAUTION: Extremely gruesome.)

From Rense.com:

Here are the images I promised of what happened very close to where I was as a human shield at the time. These photographs were taken 2 days after the Americans came through Taji (Baghdad main food silos), where we were, blasting everything in their sight, including civilians, civilian busses; I was there, I witnessed the murder.
posted by Kevin at 5:39 AM

Thinking About Becoming a Vegetarian? :.

I'm not a vegetarian, but there are many undeniable reasons to become one. Here are a couple:

Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on 1 acre of land: 20,000
Pounds of beef that can be produced on 1 acre of land: 165
Historic cause of demise of many great civilizations: Topsoil depletion
Percentage of original U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75
Amount of U.S. cropland lost each year to soil erosion: 4,000,000 acres, the size of Connecticut
Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly associated with livestock raising: 85
Production of excrement by total U.S. human population: 12,000 pounds/second
Production of excrement by U.S. livestock: 250,000 pounds/second
Number of U.S. medical schools: 125
Number of U.S. medical schools with required course in nutrition: 30
Training in nutrition received during 4 years of medical school by average U.S. physician: 2.5 hours
Percentage of U.S. mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99%
Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8%

Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 5:38 AM

Work

I took a job at a grocery store that doesn't sell "national brands." The manager looked over my application and noticed my college background and computer experience. She asked, "Do you understand the type of work required for the position you're applying for? We're talking about bagging groceries and stocking shelves."

I said, "I no longer have the stomach for any job requiring work in an office. Besides, there just aren't a lot of other options out there."

"I see," She glanced at my application again, "But I want to be sure you realize that this job involves some pretty mindless work."

"Oh, I totally understand. It may be mindless, but it's honest. There is no swindling involved. People need food. You sell good food at a decent price. It's pretty basic."

I started yesterday. They gave me shirts and a boxcutter, but I don't have a nametag yet. It seemed a bit surreal that all of the years of study, preparation and test taking nonsense has landed me nowhere, feeling lucky to be gathering grocery carts in a parking lot and stocking shelves with cans, bottles and other packages.

More: Encountering Other Smart, Poor People

One of my first duties was helping a woman out to her car with her stuff. She drove a small Toyota with an Amnesty International sticker on the bumper. I struck up some small talk about Amnesty. She opened her trunk and it was full of paintings. I asked if it was ok to place the heavy groceries (wine) on the paintings.

"Oh yeah, that's just a bunch of shit."

They seemed like nice paintings, from what I could see. It turns out that she was an artist who teaches elementary, high school and college classes to survive.

"It fucking sucks," she said. "Is your store hiring? I'm sick of teaching." She had a Master's degree in Art.

After work, I decided to go to a small cafe-type place that's open 24 hours. The woman working there noticed my work shirt and asked about my new job and if the pay was any good. I told her that my manager was kind enough to start me at a slightly higher wage than normal because of my college background and other experience. But slightly more than nothing, is, well, not much.

She chuckled, "I got a Master's degree in mechanical engineering when I lived in Russia. My boss here didn't seem too interested in that." Shocked and amazed, I asked if she was ever able to find engineering work outside of Russia.

"No. Never."

Now she serves coffee, doughnuts and sandwiches to cops, homeless people and freaks like myself all through the night.

More: Jobless and Hopeless, Many Quit the Labor Force :. (NY Times, free subscription required)

Worn down by job searches that have stretched on for months, demoralized by disappointing offers or outright rejections, some unemployed people have simply stopped the search.

As the nation enters a third year of difficult economic times, these unemployed � from factory workers to investment bankers � have dropped out of the labor force and entered the invisible ranks of people not counted in the unemployment rate.

Some are going back to school or getting new job training. Others have chosen to stay home with young children or aging parents and to rely on their spouse's salary, at least for now. Still others are plainly waiting: living on their government benefits and hoping that the economy will get better in a while.

More: As Companies Reduce Costs, Pay Is Falling Top to Bottom :. (NY Times, free subscription required)

After more than two years of canceling investments in new equipment and laying off workers, many companies are turning to the pay of remaining employees as they try to stay profitable during an economic slowdown. The weak labor market, which has lost more than two million jobs in the last two years, is allowing them to restrain pay without fear of losing workers, executives say.
posted by Kevin at 3:07 PM

WMD not the Motivation for U.S. Invasion of Iraq :.

I didn't expect admissions like this to begin slipping out so fast. With what we know about the inconsistencies with the official story of 9/11, what are we to make of the U.S. regime's claims that "democracy" was the motivation for illegally invading a sovereign state in order to steal its natural resources? With "democracy" like that, who needs tyranny?

To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war � a global show of American power and democracy.

Officials inside government and advisers outside told ABCNEWS the administration emphasized the danger of Saddam's weapons to gain the legal justification for war from the United Nations and to stress the danger at home to Americans.

"We were not lying," said one official. "But it was just a matter of emphasis."

Officials now say they may not find hundreds of tons of mustard and nerve agents and maybe not thousands of liters of anthrax and other toxins. But U.S. forces will find some, they say. On Thursday, President Bush raised the possibility for the first time that any such Iraqi weapons were destroyed before or during the war.

If weapons of mass destruction were not the primary reason for war, what was? Here's the answer officials and advisers gave ABCNEWS.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks changed everything, including the Bush administration's thinking about the Middle East � and not just Saddam Hussein.

Research Credit: www.compulsive.org
posted by Kevin at 10:27 AM

Man Arrested for Barking at Dog :.

Have you ever heard of those relocation services that assist people with picking a new place to live? I wonder if any of them have search categories for Fewest Cops or Cities with a Low Incidence of Mad Pig Disease:

When a Palo Alto police dog barked at Richard Dillon, the Menlo Park man barked back.

Dillon's actions didn't amuse Palo Alto police, who cited him on a misdemeanor charge of taunting a police dog. On Tuesday, Dillon pleaded not guilty in Santa Clara County court.

Now Dillon hopes to go to trial, because he thinks the charge is "ridiculous," said his attorney, Donald Tasto.

More: Ex-LA Police Officer Sentenced to Prison for On-Duty Rapes

More: Police Chief Kills Self, Hurts Wife
posted by Kevin at 7:45 AM

Free State Project Makes National News :.

The Free State Project might sound good at first, but be careful. Individual freedom, rah rah rah! But Libertarians also want corporations to operate without having to conform to any laws at all. So, if corporation X decides to dump mercury and cyanide into a river, fine. What laws do Libertarians advocate against such behavior? * Can you hear the crickets chirping and pins dropping? *

I've been poking around the Free State Project site lately---someone involuntarily added me to their listserv months ago---and I don't quite know what to make of the movement. Minarchy (a system with minimal laws) seems to be the goal, which is admirable, but I would hope that the laws that do exist are concerned with maximizing individual freedom while minimizing corporate freedom. One might think that this type of analysis is a bit like splitting hairs, considering the nightmarish state of affairs at the moment. Wouldn't anything approaching what the Free State Project advocates be better than what we're living under now?

Not necessarily!

Things can get worse, and that should be kept in mind when examining something like the Free State Project. A choice between living under a corporate warlord or living under a government warlord is not a choice. And since we know that the warlord instinct comes out, no matter what system is in operation, the laws that are allowed to exist must address the tendency toward oligarchy, plutocracy, autocracy, etc. Specifically, the nature of corporate power must be dealt with, or these guys will wind up creating a playground for evil. Indeed, the movement just might contain anarcho capitalists who are seeking to create a corporate-anything-goes zone.

Jason Sorens, the guy who started the FSP, has a PhD in Political Science from Yale. Sorens flings a great deal of rhetoric that sounds good at first, but parse it closely and look what falls out onto the floor:

Free States would attract labor and capital from inefficient interventionist states, creating constituencies for free trade and capital mobility and encouraging interventionist states to slim down. Free States would thus have a positive long-run impact on free trade and economic globalization (which is by all means to be distinguished from political "globalism").

That is from a Sorens essay entitled, "The Foreign-Policy Implications of a Free State."

Sorens' wife, Mary, had this to say on her website:

"I am working on a ten-month bank merger project, and Jason will be finished with his Ph.D. this May."

Hmm. Bank mergers. That's interesting. And then out comes the Bible:

"Christianity has come a long way in my life - through difficult childhood days, exhilarating youth, and everyday adulthood. It's been there through a major depression, and now I find it on the other side. As my life continues, I know now more than ever what it is to have a faith and love for Jesus. It's the kind of faith I would never shove down anyone's throat (though I may have in past years). But if you want to know, it means everything to me."

There is lots of talk of Jesus and praying and Christianity on her site. I have nothing against Christians, as long as they're not hypocrites. Just keep in mind, the most dangerous and powerful maniacs (Bush, Ashcroft, et al) talk a lot about Jesus, praying and Christianity. I don't think the majority of FSP members have any intention of creating a Crypto Jesus Freak Corporate Paradise. All I'm saying is: Keep your eyes on the ball, gentlemen. The guy behind the Free State Project has a PhD from Yale, likes the idea of economic globalization and is married to a woman involved with bank mergers. She also freely references Jesus and Christianity...

Exercise extreme caution:

Limited-government advocates have their eyes on Idaho. Or Montana. Or New Hampshire.

All are among 10 lightly populated states known for small-government politics that could end up being a Libertarian utopia.

A movement called the Free State Project has registered some 3,100 people who would help choose a "candidate" state and move there in hopes of canceling laws against drugs, prostitution, guns and other individual liberties, while privatizing current state functions such as schools.
posted by Kevin at 4:51 AM

Criticizing Israel: Not Allowed :.

Israel, one of the worst violators of human rights on the planet, receives more foreign aid from U.S. taxpayers than any other state:

A new law being proposed by Republican senators will serve prohibit criticism of Israel on American college campuses.

The police-state-style "thought control" legislation is to be introduced by third-ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate, conservative Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

His so-called "ideological diversity" legislation suggests cutting federal funding for American colleges and universities if those institutions are found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel, which Santorum considers to be an act of "anti-Semitism."

Under the bill to be introduced by Santorum, the federal funding formula under Title IX of the Higher Education Act will include "ideological diversity" as well as sexual equality in education as a perquisite for federal funding, reveals Michael Collins Piper of the American Free Press on April 21.
posted by Kevin at 4:28 AM

BMW Looking at Naudin's BingoFuel Reactor

I recently proposed an idea for a Photovoltaic BingoFuel Hybrid Car (a car that runs on water and sunlight). Today, someone at BMW (possibly in Munich or Frankfurt) typed "Bingo fuel Naudin" into Google.de and found my site because of the references to Naudin's work. Here is the hit:

Thu Apr 24 03 at 12:58:56 AM N cryptogon.com Go : www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Bingo+fuel+Naudin&meta= 192.109.190.88 vproxy01.bmwgroup.com Mozilla/4.72[de]C-CCK-MCD(WinNT;U) 1024x768 16 M colors

Now, why should we note that someone at BMW is interested in Naudin's work? As you may or may not know, BMW is probably the world's leading organization when it comes to hydrogen fueled vehicles. BMW's hydrogen powered prototypes are extremely advanced and perform as well as their gasoline based equivalents. Can the BMW production-ready prototypes run on BingoFuel (also known as Aquafuel�, Aqualene�, Magnegas�, TrueFuel�, and Carbo-hydrogen�)?

My guess is: Probably.

Why run on BingoFuel rather than pure hydrogen?

The BingoFuel process produces more hydrogen per unit of energy input than standard electrolysis. This may not be correct. At this stage, I think it would be more correct to say that the BingoFuel process produces more useable fuel per unit of energy input than standard electrolysis. Also, it might be easier to store pressurized BingoFuel than pure hydrogen. Hydrogen is extremely difficult to store.
posted by Kevin at 9:09 AM

DNA Samples from Everyone! :.

Everyone should be DNA fingerprinted to help tackle crime and enhance personal security, the British inventor of the modern forensic technique suggested Wednesday.

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, of the department of genetics at the University of Leicester, said existing criminal DNA databases were too small to catch criminal suspects.

"At the moment, we have a criminal DNA database of about 2 million profiles in the U.K.," he told reporters as scientists met at Britain's top scientific body, the Royal Society, to celebrate the discovery of DNA 50 years ago.

"The real problem in a typical crime is that even if you get DNA from a crime scene, you can't pick up a suspect because they don't have a record, so one possibility is to extend the database to include the entire population."

Jeffreys said he would feel "very uncomfortable" if such a database were run by the police.
posted by Kevin at 8:05 AM

Nuclear Weapons and Taxpayer Rape :.

Hey, nobody said nuclear armageddon was cheap!

Los Alamos' current grapefruit-sized plutonium core, weighing 3 to 4 kilograms, took $350 million to make. Another $1.2 billion will be needed between now and 2007 to test that one and manufacture the rest of the Los Alamos pits that will be made in the next four years.
posted by Kevin at 8:00 AM

Left to Die with a Robot :.

Pretty soon, a robot named Wakamaru may become a fixture in the homes of elderly Japanese who have no one else to look after them.

The robot, which recently wheeled around to greet guests at the Embedded Systems Conference, is still in development. But it has the potential to replace a human caretaker in Japan where robotic technology is embraced and the graying of the population has left many young people wondering who will care for their parents.

also...

At $8,300, Wakamaru would be considered a steal in a country increasingly saddled by health-care costs and social security payments, Tilton said.

"For a permanent robot that doesn�t have to be replaced and doesn't require wages, that is pretty cheap," he said.

"Obviously, if this completely replaces human companionship, that would be sad," Tilton added. "But maybe that is a step up from television that keeps a lot of Americans company."
posted by Kevin at 7:49 AM

Anyone Going to Be in New Haven, Connecticut on May 24th? :.

Why not drop by the Tomb and meet the new members of The Order of Death?

If tradition holds, last Thursday, the 10th of April was tap night at the secret society at Yale University.

Barbara Bush, daughter of President George W Bush is currently a junior at Yale and would be considered a legacy tap. She would follow her father, grandfather and great-grandfather as a member of the exclusive and secretive club. There are also many other uncles and cousins that are members. She would be the first female member from the Bush clan, at least that we know about. Bones is in a "dark" period and doesn't release its membership list to the public and stopped the practice of announcing its members in the school's annual in 1971. Females became members in 1991 after a confrontation that had older members locking-out the offending parties from the almost 150 year-old clubhouse, affectionately known as the "Tomb."

So, inquiring minds wish to know; did Barbara Bush get "tapped" and accept a membership in America's most powerful secret society?

And if tradition continues to hold, there will be a "social" on Thursday, May 24th, 2003 at the Tomb for the 15 new members to get acquainted. Members only are invited. And the guest list is on a need-to-know basis.
posted by Kevin at 6:57 PM

The One Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune :.

People who smoke crack shouldn't criticize their dealers:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, recently cut the remaining funding for a $2.125 million Penn research project designed to investigate and perfect a new and more secure computer operating system.

The project began in August 2001 and was terminated last week. Project manager Theo de Raadt, an independent programmer unaffiliated with the University, claimed that the project was canceled because he was vocal about his political views.

"I made some anti-war comments in the Toronto Globe and Mail about two and a half weeks ago," de Raadt said. Penn Computer Science Professor and operating system openBSD researcher Jonathan "Smith "called me [a few days later] and told me to shut up and not talk about things like that."

Four days after de Raadt says he was told to keep quiet about his political opinions, funding for the project was cut.

Smith did not return calls for comment.

De Raadt was reasonably certain that his comments led to the funding cuts, and he was shocked by Smith's statements.

"A tenured professor was telling me not to exercise my freedom of speech," he told The Associated Press last week.
posted by Kevin at 9:34 AM

Thermal Depolymerization: You Better Be Sitting Down for This One :.

Make sure to read this incredible article all the way through to the bottom of the page! Read it carefully. Note the recurring themes: petroleum paradigm firmly in force, no shift to clean fuels, elites control all means of production, technology allows oil companies to generate new revenue streams from their toxic waste, etc. etc. And the same types of benevolent folks who brought the world to the brink of oblivion---commodity traders, former CIA directors, venture capitalists, etc.---will now be saving us with this great new technology.

What exactly is the technology? Well, they parked that first large scale plant right next to a slaughterhouse. Somehow, I knew it was coming down to this. I just knew it. Somewhere, deep down, unconsciously, in my cells, I knew this was where it was all headed:

If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water.

Just so we're clear: Guys like Dick Cheney are now in control of a technology that is capable of rendering human beings into petroleum products. * PAUSE *

Let that sink in.

You may think I'm kidding. You may think I've gone totally off my rocker and that this is all a joke. Let's try it again:

Guys like Bush, who's grandfather was involved with the financing of Adolf Hitler, are now in control of a technology that is capable of rendering human beings into petroleum products.

"Oh, but that would never happen," you say to yourself. Oh no. These guys care so much about all of us. The same guys that just liberated untold numbers of people in Iraq and who lock up over 2 million Americans? The same people funding research into autonomous, self aware terminator robots, nanotechnology and freakish genetics experiments? Would those guys ever consider rendering humans for fuel?

Ein Volk. Ein Reich. Ein Fuhrer. Ein Gas.

If any of the Presidential candidates use that, I want some kickbacks!

I'll conclude this lovely entry with one more pleasant thought:

Man is building the machines in His image. At least they won't have to worry about a fuel source when they decide to turn on us. In a nanosecond of AI clarity, the calculations could be completed. Production rates, schedules, quotas, yields. The machines probably won't think twice about the intangibles, like loss of life and devastation. I mean, why would they? Their Creator never seemed to bother Himself too much with those issues.
posted by Kevin at 9:17 AM

Council on Foreign Relations Drivel :.

For those of you who don't know, the Council on Foreign Relations is the public fa�ade of the political and economic elites who run THE show. I used to read the CFR rag Foreign Affairs regularly, as part of my indoctrination at a major university. Of course, by "rag" I mean that Foreign Affairs is the most respected and influential journal of International Relations in academic, government and policy formulation circles. Needless to say, I stopped parsing Foreign Affairs' nonsense long ago, but it's good to revisit how totally ridiculous things are in officialdom every once in a while.

The following was sent in by TR:

I was in a masochistic frame of mind so I decided to read "The Rise of Ethics in Foreign Policy: Reaching a Values Consensus" in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.

From the article: "Humanitarian intervention, meanwhile, is perhaps the most dramatic example of the new power of morality in international affairs. The notion that states could invade the sovereign territory of other states to stop massive bloodshed (call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or whatever) was inconceivable until the 1990s."

Translation: The American public was not gullible enough before the 1990s for the U.S. to use "Humanitarian Intervention" as the pretext for imperialistic aggression. What a coincidence that in the early 1990s the Soviet Union collapsed and with it the excuse for "massive bloodshed."

From the article: "The UN approved interventions in Bosnia and Somalia. Nato took military action in Kosovo. And the Organization of American States blessed the U.S.-led intervention in Haiti. What is more, the international community was quite prepared to intervene militarily in Rwanda had the Clinton administration not prevented it. Just think of it: states endorsing the principle that morality trumps sovereignty."

"Just think of it:" Clinton sending cruise missiles to blow up an aspirin factory with untold civilian casualties on a hunch that it "might" be producing chemical weapons, when a few years earlier, the U.S. was shipping chemical weapons to Iraq. I guess "Morality trumps sovereignty" only when national leaders aren't playing with a full deck.

From the article: "But leaders around the world understand today that they cannot take American money, beg American protection, and consistently escape the acknowledgment of American values."

I suppose the "American values" the authors are referring to justify the murder of civilians with bulldozers and the launching of missile strikes into urban areas. That must be why Israel, the state that receives the most U.S. foreign aid, "cannot take American money, beg American protection, and consistently escape the acknowledgment of American values."

We have passed from an era in which ideals were always flatly opposed to self-interests into an era in which tension remains between the two, but the stark juxtaposition of the past has largely subsided. Now, ideals and self-interests are both generally considered necessary ingredients of the national interest. For all the old and new policy problems this entails, Americans and most of the world are better off.

Herald the dawn of the new era! The U.S. is now able to justify its atrocities and imperialistic aggression by claiming the moral high-ground. The people have finally been duped beyond all ability to think critically about their own government. The swindle is complete!

More: Operation JUST BECAUSE We Say So

This is Kevin writing again, by the way.

Back in 1995, I wrote a paper on Operation Just Cause, the illegal, unilateral invasion of Panama by the U.S. Rather than post the entire paper (it's a tedious read, even for freaks), I'll post just a couple of tidbits from my research on that project. Note the similarities between Just Cause and Iraqi Freedom:

Questions of ethics, morality, justice and related normative principals, likewise, will be part of the calculation. In a more benign international environment, where no state can threaten the survival of the U.S., these normative considerations will become important policy determinants. In light of this, the following guidelines are proposed: One, in addition to countering a threat to an identifiable interest, the use of force should foster some larger normative purpose. Two, the state or group against which military for is directed must be seen as acting outside the bounds of acceptable international behavior. Three, the use of force has to conform to the legal principals of proportionality and discrimination. Four, following military action, the U.S. must implement a post-conflict policy that contributes to a positive consolidation of the situation, promoting stability and development.

Source: Shultz, Richard, H., Jr., "The Post-Conflict Use of Military Forces: Lessons from Panama, 1989-91," The Journal of Strategic Studies, V. 16, #2, June 1993, p. 145.

From the conclusion of my paper:

The U.S. had to devise a way to depict to the world that its unilateral, full-scale invasion of the sovereign state of Panama was something other than the final, violent stage of the familiar self-help philosophy of a superpower. Indeed, the U.S. was faced with the daunting task of having to convince much of the world that its action was not overtly illegal under international law. The legality issue, however, was sidestepped by the U.S. Instead, overtures declaring high moral principals, amounting to little more than rhetoric for newspaper headlines, were substituted in lieu of a genuine legal basis for intervention in Panama.

Sound familiar? Substitute "Panama" with "Iraq" and, *poof* there you have it.
posted by Kevin at 5:36 AM

Biodiesel Article in New York Times :. (requires free registration)

"I wouldn't do this to a $30,000 car unless I was confident that it would work."

With that, John Lin, owner of a Los Angeles fast-food franchise, opened the door of an opulent white Ford Excursion.

Powered by a seven-liter turbo-diesel engine that delivers just 13 miles a gallon, this oversize S.U.V. seemed the quintessential environmentalist's target. Yet soon, Mr. Lin will be paying less to fuel it than he would pay if he owned a Toyota Prius, which supplements gasoline with electricity. As an added benefit, he will sharply reduce the pollution.

More: Greasel Conversions

Research Credit: TL
posted by Kevin at 8:30 AM

Photovoltaic BingoFuel Hybrid Car

Establishment science is a byproduct of dominant political and economic interests. (Some people don't like to hear that.) So, what kind of energy systems will emerge under a political and economic order that has been controlled, at least for the last 100 years, by corrupt oil money? Wide adoption of viable alternative energy systems would completely subvert the dominant paradigm (the U.S. imposed global economic and political order) and depose long established elites.

The only way that any paradigm breaking technologies will emerge is if we (average people) build them ourselves. This work must be carried out by the non experts among us, the laymen and the backyard tinkerers because the alleged "scientists" are too busy maintaining the status quo on the road to oblivion.

To wit:

I recently came up with an idea that might allow for the creation of a vehicle that burns no non renewable hydrocarbons (gasoline) and in fact runs on solar power and water.

"Whuuuh?" you ask. Forget about what "CAN'T" happen for a few minutes and keep reading!

!WARNING! I have done NO research on actually building this prototype. In fact, I have no experience at all with high voltage electrical systems, generators, explosive gasses or internal combustion engines. Actually attempting to execute the following ideas may be very dangerous.

And if I had the money, I'd be out right now trying to do this. ;)

Let's get down to it:

Hybrid gasoline-electric cars use both conventional gas burning and electrical engines. If you want to know more about how hybrid cars work, see howstuffworks.com for an excellent summary. Hopefully, someone out there has a pioneering spirit, a full workshop and access to, and ability to modify, a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight.

In my opinion, the primary problem with hybrid gas-electric cars is that THEY STILL BURN GASOLINE. My idea is primarily concerned with eliminating the need to use any gasoline at all (or any other filthy, proprietary fuel) in a vehicle that is, for all intents and purposes, extremely well engineered and efficient.

The question then becomes: What type of fuel would the vehicle's internal combustion engine burn?

Behold, JL Naudin's Bingo Fuel Reactor.

Passing current through carbon electrodes immersed in ORDINARY TAP WATER produces gas that can power conventional internal combustion engines. See Naudin's incredible demonstration in which he powers a 5 kilowatt Honda generator directly with the gas from his BingoFuel Reactor. Ok, class, pay attention: Look at the specification for the type of fuel required to run that Honda generator. It's supposed to run on automotive unleaded gasoline (minimum 86 pump octane). Yep, that's the same automotive unleaded gasoline that you put in your car, or in those Honda and Toyota hybrids.

Obviously, to get that gas out of the water, current must be passed through the carbon electrical array.

To all of you people out there shaking your heads, mumbling, "This is 11th grade chemistry class electrolysis, this takes too much power," stick with me.

Look at what Naudin says about the BingoFuel system vs. electrolysis:

It is interesting to notice that in this test of a 1 cell BingoFuel Reactor, the current used is 81.6 Amperes (see Test#1). With a same value of current used in a 1 cell electrolyser the volume of the of H2 is 36 liters per hour (at 20�C). There is 46% of H2 in the synthetic gas generated by the BingoFuel Reactor, so it produces about 83 liters per hour of H2. The BingoFuel Reactor produces 2.3 times more H2 gas than a common electrolyser.

The fuel mixture produced by the BingoFuel Reactor is about 1080 liters per hour, a common 1 cell electrolyser produces about 54 liters per hour (at 20�C) of mixture of H2 and O2, so the BingoFuel Reactor produces 20 times more of fuel mixture than a common electrolyser.

WOW!

So where is the electricity going to come from to make the lovely explosive gas to burn in the internal combustion engine!?

The BingoFuel system in my theoretical car would be powered by the battery bank (stock or modified) in the vehicle. And don't forget all of that top facing real estate on the vehicle itself, just begging to be covered with a photovoltaic (solar cell) skin! I think one could easily expect to get 150-200 watts out of a well integrated solar skin on a vehicle in full sunlight. (Gross guesstimate.) While this isn't enough power to run the electric engine on the vehicle by any stretch, it would definitely make a great re-charge system for the on-board battery array.

Additionally, if the vehicle was parked in direct sunlight and the batteries were completely full, the solar power could be easily re-directed to the BingoFuel Reactor to generate immediately useable gas for the internal combustion engine. Of course, this would require some type of BingoFuel tank and compressor system which may add more weight, etc. and become a dangerous explosive hazard. Perhaps the existing automobile grade tanks for compressed natural gas might provide inspiration for the design of a safe BingoFuel tank.

The vehicle should also be equipped with a conventional electric car recharge coupler so owners may plug the vehicle into public utility or home based solar electric systems for a complete recharge.

Would the hybrid's gas engine run unmodified on BingoFuel like the Honda generator? Now that's probably the most interesting question of them all at this stage. If that was the case, I think the next questions revolve around engineering particulars and the potential range that the vehicle might have. The range issue would depend on several factors that would require experimentation. Perhaps there is someone out there with enough of an engineering background to infer some guesstimates based on Naudin's preliminary data. Note also that commercial versions of Naudin's system exist under brand names such as Aquafuel�, Aqualene�, Magnegas�, TrueFuel�, Carbo-hydrogen�....

The technology to make this car real exists NOW. TODAY. A presentable prototype of the photovoltaic BingoFuel hybrid car could probably be built from off the shelf components and a modified hybrid gas-electric car. Could it be done for $100,000? Probably. Could it be done for much less? Maybe. While seamless integration of the photovoltaic skin into the vehicle's paneling system would require extensive engineering, flexible solar panels might serve well for proof of concept and rapid prototypes (or personal vehicle modifications).

The proof of concept might be possible for next to nothing. At the minimum, someone needs to build a BingoFuel system, connect that thing to a small automobile or motorcycle engine and fire it up! Any high school in the U.S. has the ability to do this! Physics club, meet the boys and girls in the auto shop.

I like this idea because, once the details are worked out, this is within reach of individuals. If there are any people reading this who want to fund research into this idea, I know folks who could carry out the engineering. If someone takes this idea and somehow makes millions, I don't care! I don't want anything from it (even though I am dirt poor). Just do it! Try it, at least. You see, it doesn't matter if someone tries to lock this down, anyone could whip up their own version! Perhaps conversion kits or services could make the process of de-gassing hybrids extremely easy. Maybe people will build entirely new and clean cars. Who knows!? This is a rare optimistic moment on Cryptogon, so let me bask in it! You know, they always say that things seem darkest just before the light. Well, look at that ball of plasma in Naudin's BingoFuel reactor!

How does the prospect of never paying for gasoline again grab ya? Think of the costs this way:

Gasoline-electric hybrid car: $20,000
Roll your own BingoFuel system: $1,000
Solar panels: $1,000
Being able to see the look on Cheney's face as you zoom past his Secret Organ Bank in your car that requires no gasoline?

Priceless.

If you want to start a revolution, this is the way to do it. A vehicle like this would do more to threaten the Dark Armies of Cheney, et al. than just about anything else that I can think of. De-funding these guys is the only way to defeat them. Marching in the streets won't accomplish anything. And anyone who tries to go the violent route against this system will instantly join the ranks of Al Quaeda. The folks at home watching TV will beg for the cops and military to save them from the terrorists. But what would the Them do if we just stopped showing up to the gas station? Think about it. And then start tinkering.

If there is anyone in Southern California who would like to work on this and needs an extra set of hands, I would be happy to help out in any way I can.

More: Naudin's BingoFuel Reactor and Honda Generator Runs Closed Loop! :.

This is incredible:

Closed loop test procedure :
The gasoline fuel tank has been removed during this test.

1) The BFR is powered with the power grid,
2) the 5hp engine is started with the gaz produced with the BFR,
3) the BFR is quickly disconnected from the power grid and connected to the output of the power generator...

The plasma energy is lower during the closed loop operation than with the power grid energy. The power is just enough to maintain the self-running. The engine is only able to run about 2 minutes because of the carbon rods consumption and manual tuning requirement. A new version of the BingoFuel Reactor is under development, this version ( v2.0 ) will be able to run for a long time without tuning and adjustment...

The loop is closed : while the 5 hp engine is powered with the gas produced by BingoFuel Reactor, the BFR is powered by the power generator...

More: New Hybrids for 2004 :.

On Wednesday, Ford and Toyota announced new fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles that also reduce the amount of harmful pollutants.

At the 2003 New York International Automobile Show, hybrid car pioneer Toyota introduced an upgrade of the Prius hybrid while Ford introduced an SUV that even Greens may tolerate.

Hybrid cars complement an internal combustion engine with an electric motor that is used at lower speeds and to help with acceleration. By turning off the engine when stopped and relying instead on a battery-powered motor, hybrid cars can substantially increase fuel-efficiency.
posted by Kevin at 6:52 AM

The Toppling Of Saddam Statue: An Eyewitness Report :.

Rent-A-Crowd:

Well, there certainly was some jubilation, but I certainly wouldn't go along with that presented by television. The one that I've seen a lot of since I've been back is the toppling of the statue of Saddam and I can hardly believe it was the same one that I saw, because it happened at only about 300m from where I was and it was a very small crowd. The rest of the square was almost empty, and when we inquired as to where the crowd came from, it was from Saddam City. In other words, it was a rent-a-crowd. Now, that piece of television has been played over and over again, but I've seen nothing of the pieces of television, for example, what happened in Mosul the other day, where the Americans opened fire on a crowd killing 10 and injuring 100 when it became anti-American. So I think the scenes of jubilation have to be balanced against the other side of the picture.

More: Statue Toppling a Scripted U.S. PSYOP? :.

April 6th: Iraqi National Congress founder, Ahmed Chalabi is flown into the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah by the Pentagon. Chalabi, along with 700 fighters of his "Free Iraqi Forces" are airlifted aboard four massive C17 military transport planes. Chalabi and the INC are Washington favorites to head the new Iraqi government. A photograph is taken of Chalabi and members of his Free Iraqi Forces militia as they arrive in Nasiriyah.

April 9th: One of the "most memorable images of the war" is created when U.S. troops pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Fardus Square. Oddly enough... a photograph is taken of a man who bears an uncanny resemblance to one of Chalabi's militia members... he is near Fardus Square to greet the Marines. How many members of the pro-American Free Iraqi Forces were in and around Fardus Square as the statue of Saddam came tumbling down?

The up close action video of the statue being destroyed is broadcast around the world as proof of a massive uprising. Still photos grabbed off of Reuters show a long-shot view of Fardus Square... it's empty save for the U.S. Marines, the International Press, and a small handful of Iraqis. There are no more than 200 people in the square at best. The Marines have the square sealed off and guarded by tanks. A U.S. mechanized vehicle is used to pull the statue of Saddam from it's base. The entire event is being hailed as an equivalent of the Berlin Wall falling... but even a quick glance of the long-shot photo shows something more akin to a carefully constructed media event tailored for the television cameras.
posted by Kevin at 4:27 AM

Israel to Use Flechette Shells :.

Israel's Supreme Court has given the army the green light to use controversial flechette tanks shells which spray thousands of darts over hundreds of metres, ripping apart anyone in the killing zone.

Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli advocacy group, said the use of such shells was in contravention of the Geneva Convention covering the rules of warfare and should be banned.
posted by Kevin at 4:24 AM

Business as Usual

TR sent in the following:

In a secret closed door deal, which "angered" members of Congress, Bechtel was awarded $680 million dollars to accomplish the saintly, humanitarian endeavor of rebuilding the country we just destroyed. Of course, that huge contract is a drop in the bucket compared to Halliburton's $7 billion dollar deal. Welcome to the USSR, comrade! [Reference to the former Soviet Union's ridiculous and corrupt command economy.]

http://money.cnn.com/2003/04/17/news/companies/war_bechtel/index.htm

American Airlines PHBs give themselves raises and bonuses while employees take pay cuts to prevent the airline from going bankrupt.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/04/18/news/companies/amr_friday/index.htm

Hmmm, Bechtel gets a $680 million contract and two U.S. Army sergeants trip over $650 million in cash in Iraq?! I don't even want to think about this too much. My head hurts.
posted by Kevin at 12:38 AM

Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq :.

Was there ever any doubt about this!? HA! The story seems to indicate that the new Iraqi government will have an option on whether or not the U.S. gets to stay. HAHA! That's a good one:

The United States is planning a long-term military relationship with the emerging government of Iraq (news - web sites), one that would grant the Pentagon (news - web sites) access to military bases and project American influence into the heart of the unsettled region, senior Bush administration officials say.

American military officials, in interviews this week, spoke of maintaining perhaps four bases in Iraq that could be used in the future: one at the international airport just outside Baghdad; another at Tallil, near Nasiriya in the south; the third at an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert, along the old oil pipeline that runs to Jordan; and the last at the Bashur air field in the Kurdish north.
posted by Kevin at 11:13 PM

650 Million U.S. Dollars Found in Iraq :.

That is a lot of cash. If that cash is real, it probably represents one of the single largest stockpiles of paper U.S. currency anywhere. I would LOVE to know the real story behind this one:

Quite a find by two Army sergeants in Iraq.

The Los Angeles Times says they stumbled across US cash -- mountains of it -- in a Baghdad neighborhood where senior Baath party and Republican Guard officials once lived.

Searches have turned up an estimated 650 (m) million dollars.

The U.S. is going to drastically alter the look of its paper currency starting by the end of this year. Making the new currency (NexGen) different colors will allow the U.S. government to invalidate all of the older "green" money at its whim. People sitting on, oh, I don't know, several hundred million dollars in illicit cash will have a difficult time trying to convert it into the new and improved rainbow stuff:

In keeping with their strategy of maintaining the security of Federal Reserve notes by enhancing the design of U.S. currency every seven to ten years, the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (Bureau) and the Federal Reserve Board today announced plans to release the next generation of redesigned notes, with improved security features to deter counterfeiting.

The new design, referred to as NexGen, affects the $100, $50, and $20 notes. Circulation of the NexGen series could begin as early as fall 2003 with the introduction of the redesigned $20 note. The $100 and $50 notes will follow in twelve to eighteen months. Consistent with past design changes, the NexGen notes will remain the same size and use similar portraits and historical images to maintain an American appearance. The NexGen designs will include the introduction of subtle background colors. While color is not in itself a security feature, the use of color provides the opportunity to add additional features that could assist in deterring counterfeiting. The introduction of additional colors will also help consumers to identify the different denominations.

More: L.A. Times story. The link will probably die soon, but it's a rather incredible read, espcially if you're poor. Search the L.A. Times for:

Soldiers Stumble on Outrageous Fortune by David Zucchino on 4/19/03.
posted by Kevin at 10:51 PM

Liberation: U.S. Troops Open Fire on Iraqi Crowds :.

Community leaders in Mosul appealed for calm yesterday after US forces became involved in a lethal firefight in the city centre for the second day running.

Doctors at Mosul's emergency hospital said at least three people were killed and 12 injured, including two children, after US troops responded to what a military spokesmen described as "aimed fire".

On Tuesday 10 people were killed and at least 16 wounded in a similar incident.
posted by Kevin at 12:54 AM

Liberation: Bush's Cultural Aides Quit in Disgust :.

Two senior cultural advisers to President Bush have resigned in fury at the US military's failure to prevent the looting of antiquities from Baghdad's national museum.
The resignations of Martin Sullivan, chairman of the president's advisory committee on cultural property, and Gary Vikan, a committee member, became public yesterday as the FBI announced it had dispat-ched agents to Iraq to help try to recover the stolen artefacts.

"It didn't have to happen. In a pre-emptive war that's the kind of thing you should have planned for," said Mr Sullivan, who has chaired the panel for eight years.

Mr Vikan, director of Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery, referring to 80,000 tablets in the Baghdad museum's collection, said: "If we understood the value of Sumerian cuneiform tablets to our past, as we do with oil getting us somewhere in our cars, I don't think this would have happened."
posted by Kevin at 12:41 AM

Greer Comes Clean :.

I must admit: I was hopeful when Steven Greer declared that he had located, "what appears to be a suitable energy device that could replace fossil fuels." TR, a long time Cryptogon contributor, said, "Bullshit." That was back in January. Well, after waiting all these months, it appears that TR was right. HA! I guess there's always something when it comes to THE device.

I don't feel mad at Greer. I feel sorry for him. To have floated that BS on nationally syndicated radio and then to come up this far short... What would the guy have to gain from doing something like that? I suppose it's possible that his organization was targeted for discreditation from the beginning. If that was the case, the ratf*ckers did a great job. In any event, I'll continue to monitor the situation:

As all of you know, SEAS identified a promising over unity technology in January of this year, and subsequently negotiated an agreement to acquire the technology. Since then, previously undisclosed business interests of the inventor have surfaced and have stopped the acquisition process. For this reason, to date we have not been able to acquire the device for further testing or reproduce its performance. We have been negotiating for 6 weeks to resolve the issues raised by these other interests, a process that has involved parties in three countries.

At this point we do not know if or when the inventor will fulfill his obligations to SEAS under the original agreement. We will let you know as soon as the technology has been submitted to us for further development and verification and the results of that process are known.
posted by Kevin at 2:44 PM

White House Seeks to Expand DNA Database :.

It's starting to get really ugly, but just wait. We haven't seen anything yet:

DNA profiles from juvenile offenders and from adults who have been arrested but not convicted would be added to the FBI's national DNA database under a Bush administration proposal.

Genetic samples from juvenile offenders... like the 12-year-old who was arrested for stomping in rain puddles?
posted by Kevin at 3:58 AM

Terrorism Sponsored by Britain :.

There is little stamina in the political establishment for what are increasingly dubbed "these old cases". Blair, whose greatest achievement may be peace in Northern Ireland, will dissemble the inevitable case for a public inquiry. His crusade against state-sponsored terrorism does not, it seems, extend to our own islands. If he refuses to be bold, he will staunch our society's opportunity to know itself and change itself.
posted by Kevin at 3:46 AM

U.S. Shuts Off Oil Supply to Syria :.

The importance of oil, which Rumsfeld says belongs to the Iraqi people, was clear again Monday when the U.S. Central Command formally announced that the U.S.-led coalition had taken the last Iraqi oil field.

"The intention is to Americanize the Iraqi oil operation completely and put it under the control of the U.S.-run administration in Iraq," said Michael Klare, a world security studies professor at Hampshire College.

"The U.S. will decide how that oil will be marketed," he told the Star last night.

"And the decision to cut off oil to Syria was just the first realization that they have taken that control."

The last few days of hostile language over Syria � buttressed by yesterday's oil pipeline shutdown � has raised the tension level internationally, and particularly in the Middle East.

At a briefing for foreign reporters yesterday, an Egyptian journalist asked Powell "who's next?" in the region, and whether the "U.S. has a plan to spread a set of values at gunpoint."

"There is no list," said Powell. "There is no war plan right now ... to go attack someone else, either for the purpose of overthrowing their leadership or for the purpose of imposing democratic values."
posted by Kevin at 3:24 AM

Biodiesel :.

MH wrote in to say that he doesn't buy gasoline. He buys biodiesel, "from some hippies in Ukiah, CA." Right on MH! I'd never heard of biodiesel before. It's fascinating:

Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
posted by Kevin at 3:13 AM

2004: Vote Skull and Bones for President :.

I kept stumbling across Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry's "regime change" comments and how he is now "under fire" from the Republicans. That's an interesting bit of theater because John Kerry is a member of Skull and Bones, just like George W. Bush! Not only are they both members, but they were inducted within two years of each other, Kerry in 1966 and Bush in 1968.

Behold, the theater of the free:

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry came under fire from top congressional Republicans for saying the United States, like Iraq, needs a regime change. Kerry would not back down.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the statement by the Massachusetts senator called into question Kerry's fitness to be the nation's chief executive.

"Free and open discourse is one thing, but petty, partisan insults launched solely for personal political gain are highly inappropriate at a time when American men and women are in harm's way," Frist said in a statement Thursday.

In a speech Wednesday in Peterborough, N.H., Kerry said President Bush so alienated allies prior to the U.S.-led war against Iraq that only a new president can rebuild damaged relationships with other countries.

"What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States," Kerry said.

When you're through living in the bullshit dream world of Republican vs. Democrat, you come to the same realization that Carroll Quigley did when he wrote, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time:

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

Election Day 2004??? Yawn. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
posted by Kevin at 4:15 AM

Playstation 3 Will Employ Supercomputing Architecture :.

I sent this story to a friend of mine who does artificial intelligence research at a large university. This was his response:

Biotechnology? Parallel computing? Maybe the next Playstation will be based on Quantum Computing? Some people are tough to please. This is hilarious since lately I've been playing Backgammon on my Pentium III. Yep, a 3,000 year old game on a 5 year old computer. It runs great! What I can't understand is how spawn could be pacified a hundred years ago by a couple of wood playing pieces and now they need more computing power than the NSA?
posted by Kevin at 3:55 AM

A Note on Work

Unfortunately, I have to get a job. If I disappear, don't worry. It just means I'm too tired to maintain the site. If anyone knows of a way to survive that doesn't involve the support of evil, please let me know. I think I may have found something to do that is relatively innocuous, but it's completely devoid of anything thoughtful or interesting. Apparently, anything that involves thinking that pays money directly supports evil, or requires one to be in the presence of/take orders from perpetrators of evil. I guess when one views most organizations as corrupt, it puts one in quite a bind when it comes down to trying to survive. So, if you're through being a victim of evil, and you're unwilling to victimize others with evil, what's left to do? Well, that's where the rubber meets the road, I guess.

If you make a living doing something that doesn't support evil, please let me know. I'd be curious to learn more about it. Is there anyone out there who doesn't buy gasoline? Anyone living totally off grid? If so, I'd really like to hear from you.
posted by Kevin at 3:08 AM

Reading

Information Liberation by Brian Martin. (full text)

Anyone considering college (or anyone in college who smells a rat) must read Chapter 7: The Politics of Research.

Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy by Robert Michels. (full text)
posted by Kevin at 2:36 AM

12-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Stomping in Puddles :.

Formal education is nothing more than indoctrination by government and/or other similarly corrupt institutions. Your children's brains are being ground up and reconstituted into a single non-thinking mob consciousness. Oh yeah, make sure you pay your taxes so pigs like the one who arrested this child can stay on the job long enough to apply for a private pig job at Dyn Corp:

In Inverness, Florida, a 12-year-old boy was cuffed, arrested, and taken in a patrol car to jail where he was held for two hours. His crime? You aren't going to believe it! Kyle Fredrikson was walking back to class from lunch when Deputy Tim Langer saw the boy "purposely stomping in the water" after being told numerous times by school personnel to stay with the group and out of the rain.
posted by Kevin at 2:00 AM

Next Stop Enroute to Oblivion: Belfast, Ireland :.

When I was watching Bush in Belfast, I was thinking, I'd be willing to bet he wouldn't be able to point to where he is on a map of the world right now. Well, I may not have been too far off. And, oh yes, nice one, Ari. What will you do for your next act?

Announcing President Bush's trip here, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer accidentally said last week that Bush would be visiting Dublin. ''I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'' he quickly apologized, saying the trip was really to Belfast. ''I was not a geography major.''

Yesterday, White House staff members made another faux pas: Official credentials and schedules for the trip declared in bold letters that it is ''the Trip of the President to Belfast, Ireland.'' Belfast is in Northern Ireland, and is part of the United Kingdom. The distinction has been the root of strife in the region for decades.
posted by Kevin at 6:06 AM

Cisco Training Afghan Network Engineers :.

Now that Pipelinistan (Afghanistan) has been made safe for overt and covert plunder, computer networks must be created to assist the swindlers in their diabolical endeavors. So, with U.S. corporations chomping at the bit to pilfer Afghanistan's natural gas and petroleum and with the CIA ramping up opium production to record levels, it's finally time for Afghanistan to move into the digital age.

Oh yeah, and don't forget the IT outsourcing opportunities! Increasingly, corporations are hiring Indians for IT positions and firing their American and European employees. Yes, friends, the race to the bottom is really picking up speed. Forget those pesky and expensive Indians. Now your IT department can profit from the Women's Lib Movement...Afghan Style! Afghan women are so free now that the evil Taliban are gone! Well, they're not totally free, but for five to ten dollars per day, they're a damn good bargain:

On Tuesday, Nabila became one of the first 17 Afghans trained in their own country to earn industry standard certificates in computer networking skills and part of what her government hoped would be a growing talent pool of badly needed information technology specialists.

More than two decades of war have meant Afghanistan was largely bypassed by the IT and Internet revolution.

A U.N.-supervised programme largely funded by computer giant Cisco Systems aims to create a core of specialists to take the country into the digital age.

It is also seen as a means to boost opportunities for women in what remains, despite the demise of the Taliban, a heavily male dominated society.

Of the 17 students who received certificates from the university's Cisco Networking Academy on Tuesday, six were women. It aims to train 200 students by the year-end.

Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 12:21 AM

Walmart Dungeon :.

The daily work shift at the Qin Shi Factory is 12 to 14 hours, seven days a week, 30 days a month. At the end of the day the workers return �home� to a cramped dorm room sharing metal bunk beds with 16 other people. At most, workers are allowed outside of the factory for just one and one half hours a day. Otherwise they are locked in.

Working up to 98 hours a week, it is not easy to find the time to go out. But the workers have another fear as well. Before entering the Qin Shi factory, management confiscates the identification documents of each worker. When someone goes outside, the company also takes away their factory I.D. tag, leaving them with no identification at all. If you are stopped by the local security police you could be detained and deported back to your rural province as an illegal migrant.

When you need to use the bathroom the company again confiscates your factory I.D. and monitors the time you spend. If you are away from your workstation for more than eight minutes you will receive a severe fine.

Average wage - 3 cents an hour! Highest wage 10 cents an hour, 46% of the workers earn nothing at all and in fact owe the company money.

Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 11:10 PM

Syria: The U.S. Propaganda Remix Available Now :.

US President George W Bush has warned Syria against harbouring fugitives from Saddam Hussein's ousted regime in Iraq.

America, he said, expected Iraq's western neighbour to "co-operate" with the US-led coalition and he added that he believed Syria possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD)- the charge against Iraq which sparked the war there.

"We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," the president said, speaking to press on the White House lawn.

A senior Syrian diplomat went on US TV on Sunday to deny his country was either producing WMD or assisting Iraqi fugitives and terrorists.
posted by Kevin at 3:22 PM

Stoned on Television :.

This is the most shocking article I have read in a VERY long time. Please think long and hard about exposing yourself and or your children to the most ubiquitous drug of them all: Television. This article is almost too much to handle; definite red pill material. This isn't the standard, "Kill your television 'cuz it just spews crap" type of argument. This article discusses the psychological and physiological responses that occur when someone uses television. An absolute, without a doubt, must read:

As one might expect, people who were watching TV when we beeped them reported feeling relaxed and passive. The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation, as measured by alpha brain-wave production, during viewing than during reading.

What is more surprising is that the sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off, but the feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continue. Survey participants commonly reflect that television has somehow absorbed or sucked out their energy, leaving them depleted. They say they have more difficulty concentrating after viewing than before. In contrast, they rarely indicate such difficulty after reading. After playing sports or engaging in hobbies, people report improvements in mood. After watching TV, people's moods are about the same or worse than before.

Within moments of sitting or lying down and pushing the "power" button, viewers report feeling more relaxed. Because the relaxation occurs quickly, people are conditioned to associate viewing with rest and lack of tension. The association is positively reinforced because viewers remain relaxed throughout viewing, and it is negatively reinforced via the stress and dysphoric rumination that occurs once the screen goes blank again.

Habit-forming drugs work in similar ways. A tranquilizer that leaves the body rapidly is much more likely to cause dependence than one that leaves the body slowly, precisely because the user is more aware that the drug's effects are wearing off. Similarly, viewers' vague learned sense that they will feel less relaxed if they stop viewing may be a significant factor in not turning the set off. Viewing begets more viewing.
posted by Kevin at 12:58 AM

Iran and Syria Are Next :.

Emboldened by the U.S. military's apparent quick rout of Iraqi forces, conservative hawks in America are setting their sights on regime change in Iran and Syria.
"It's time to bring down the other terror masters," Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute wrote on Monday -- two days before U.S. troops swept into the heart of Baghdad -- in a piece entitled "Syria and Iran Must Get Their Turn."

"Iran, at least, offers Americans the possibility of a memorable victory, because the Iranian people openly loath the regime, and will enthusiastically combat it, if only the United States supports them in their just struggle," he added. "Syria cannot stand alone against a successful democratic revolution that topples tyrannical regimes in Kabul, Tehran and Iraq."
posted by Kevin at 11:31 PM

Ahhh, Liberty: Now Turn in Your Guns :.

Gun amnesty launched in Basra:

An "amnesty pit" has been created close to one British compound in the city in the hope residents will dump their guns.

Captain Cliff Dare, of 3 Commando Brigade Engineer Group, said: "An amnesty is essential.

"Iraq has a culture of weapons. There are a lot of them around, most held quite legally.

"If we want to give the new Iraq a chance these weapons have to be taken out of circulation."
posted by Kevin at 11:24 PM

Googlewashing: The Second Superpower :.

The Internet contains billions of pages of information. Most people, however, including me, use a single search engine to access those billions of pages of information. Google.

Google is emerging as the only game in town when it comes to search engines. The obvious danger is that a choke point may emerge to certain types of information. I have personally experienced Google weirdness. They refused to run paid advertising for Cryptogon due to content.

While Google simply censored my site, the Googlewashing incident documented here is much more sinister. The "Second Superpower" stunt ammounts to nothing less than outright Orwellian ratf*cking. While lots of people fawn over how great Google is, I would be very cautious about putting all of our search engine eggs in one basket. (Before I get a thousand emails wondering if I know about www.google-watch.org, yes, thanks I do.)

From the Register:

This year marks the 100th anniversary of George Orwell's birth, and the writer who best explained the power of language on politics would be amazed what can be done with the Internet.

On February 17 a front page news analysis in the New York Times bylined by Patrick Tyler described the global anti-war protests as the emergence of "the second superpower".

Tyler wrote: "...the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion."

This potent phrase spread rapidly.

Anti-war campaigners, peace groups and NGOs took to describing the global popular protest as "the second superpower" [Greenpeace release]. And in less than a month, the phrase was being used by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. [Financial Times - reg req'd].

And a week ago, a Google search for the phrase would have shown the vigorous propagation of this 'meme'.

Rub out the word
Then came this. Entitled The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head, by James F Moore, it was accompanied by a brand new blog.

The details need not detain us for very long, because the consequences of this piece are much more important than its anodyne contents.

It's a plea for net users to organize themselves as a "superpower", and represents a class of techno-utopian literature that John Perry Barlow has been promoting - the same sappy stuff, but not as well written - for the past ten years.

Only note how this example is sprinkled with trigger words for progressives, liberals and NPR listeners. It concludes - if you can find your way through this mound of feel-good styrofoam peanuts - "we do not have to create a world where differences are resolved by war. It is not our destiny to live in a world of destruction, tedium, and tragedy. We will create a world of peace".

In common with the genre, there's no social or political context, although the author offers a single specific instruction that is very jarring in the surrounding blandness: we must co-operate with The World Bank. Huh?

It's politics with the politics taken out: in short, it's "revolution lite".

Update: Google Just Googlewashed the Register! :.

Google has made its own statement on the 'Googlewash': by making The Register story that coined the phrase disappear from its search results.

Not all the search results, mark you, but a very specific one. When you search for the word "Googlewash" (as at 9pm Pacific Time last night) around a hundred results are returned by default. Our story, which is where the word was coined, isn't among them.

We found it, eventually, but it was very difficult.
posted by Kevin at 5:30 PM

Hide and Seek...and then Bomb/Liberate? :.

Where are those pesky Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? You're going to love this. Maybe they were shipped to other Axis of Evil states! HAHAHA! Can you see the cracked lightbulb above Rumsfeld's head?

Rumsfeld, asked today about the level of concern within the Bush administration over the existence of WMD in Iraq, replied: "You bet we're concerned about it."

He said: "The nexus between terrorist states with weapons of mass destruction, in this case chemical and biological and nuclear technologies and knowledge, and terrorists groups, networks, is a critical link."

The possibility that "some of those materials could leave the country and (get into) the hands of terrorist networks would be a very unhappy prospect," he said.
posted by Kevin at 5:10 AM

FBI Counter Intelligence Agent Does Double Duty :.

A retired FBI agent who allegedly had an affair with a suspected Chinese double agent while he was in charge of the FBI's Chinese counterintelligence operation in California is under arrest, charged with gross negligence, federal officials said. [Let that sink in for a few moments, and then read it again.]

The former agent, identified as James Smith, allegedly had a sexual relationship with Katrina Leung, a Republican Party activist in California, officials said. Smith, 59, who retired from his job in the bureau's Los Angeles office in 2000, had been in charge of the office's China counterintelligence squad and was Leung's primary "handler" in her work for the United States, law enforcement officials said.

And Now: Making the Patriot Act Permanent
posted by Kevin at 4:59 AM

Carlyle Group Heads for Lisbon :.

Top of the meeting�s agenda is expected to be the company�s involvement in the rebuilding of Baghdad�s infrastructure after the cessation of current hostilities. Along with several other US companies, the Carlyle Group is expected to be awarded a billion dollar contract by the US Government to help in the redevelopment of airfields and urban areas destroyed by Coalition aerial bombardments.

The Group is managed by a team of former US Government personnel including its president Frank Carlucci, former deputy director of the CIA before becoming Defence Secretary. His deputy is James Baker II, who was Secretary of State under George Bush senior. Several high profile former politicians are employed to represent the company overseas, among them John Major, former British Prime Minister, along with George Bush senior, one time CIA director before becoming US President.

The financial assets of the Saudi Binladen Corporation (SBC) are also managed by the Carlyle Group. The SBC is headed up by members of Osama bin Laden�s family, who played a principle role in helping George W. Bush win petroleum concessions from Bahrain when he was head of the Texan oil company, Harken Energy Corporation - a deal that was to make the Bush family millions of dollars. Salem, Osama bin Laden�s brother, was represented on Harken�s board of directors by his American agent, James R. Bath.
posted by Kevin at 4:06 AM

Thank You for Not Breeding :.

The majestic stork, dropping little bundles of oblivion all over the land:

Grieg's Morning (Pier Gynt) plays over a classically animated stork carrying a bundle in its bill. As it sails over a peaceful natural setting of trees, rivers, and wildlife, another stork appears, then another and another. The formation of storks drops a bundle on the unsuspecting landscape: it explodes like a bomb, leaving not a crater, but a tract home and SUV. More storks assemble into warplane formations, and dropping bundles turn forests into cookie-cutter housing developments. We pull out to a growing flock of storks from above, over a satellite image of a sprawling city. From outer space the Earth grows redder and hotter, until a final explosion reduces the planet to a cute smiling baby head.
posted by Kevin at 6:13 PM

Making the Patriot Act Permanent :.

Congressional Republicans, working with the Bush administration, are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping anti-terrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said Tuesday.

The move is likely to touch off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans.

The landmark legislation expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects. When it passed in October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005 unless Congress reauthorizes them.
posted by Kevin at 4:14 PM

Blood Splattered Camera


posted by Kevin at 5:39 AM

Good Chomsky Interview :.

Definite red pill material:

The trial run is to try and establish what the U.S. calls a "new norm" in international relations. The new norm is "preventive war" (notice that new norms are established only by the United States). So, for example, when India invaded East Pakistan to terminate horrendous massacres, it did not establish a new norm of humanitarian intervention, because India is the wrong country, and besides, the U.S. was strenuously opposed to that action.

This is not pre-emptive war; there is a crucial difference. Pre-emptive war has a meaning, it means that, for example, if planes are flying across the Atlantic to bomb the United States, the United States is permitted to shoot them down even before they bomb and may be permitted to attack the air bases from which they came. Pre-emptive war is a response to ongoing or imminent attack.

The doctrine of preventive war is totally different; it holds that the United States - alone, since nobody else has this right - has the right to attack any country that it claims to be a potential challenge to it. So if the United States claims, on whatever grounds, that someone may sometime threaten it, then it can attack them.

The doctrine of preventive war was announced explicitly in the National Strategy Report last September. It sent shudders around the world, including through the U.S. establishment, where, I might say, opposition to the war is unusually high. The National Strategy Report said, in effect, that the U.S. will rule the world by force, which is the dimension - the only dimension - in which it is supreme. Furthermore, it will do so for the indefinite future, because if any potential challenge arises to U.S. domination, the U.S. will destroy it before it becomes a challenge.
posted by Kevin at 5:57 PM

Editorial Note

I'm only posting the most off-the-rails stories at this point. I need to spend more time NOT working on this site. Anyway, if you don't get it by this point, you never will.
posted by Kevin at 5:09 AM

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome :.

You guys may or may not have noticed that I haven't posted a single story on the SARS thing. From day one, it reeked of a scam, but I didn't have much to go on besides the standard puke put out by the usual suspects. I thought I'd wait for Leonard Horowitz to sound off, because, while he may sound like a lunatic to the uninitiated, I think the guy is dead on. I didn't have to wait long:

This spreading scourge of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome stretching from Asia to North America has all the earmarks of a novel social experiment in population manipulation aimed to culture the mass mind for the arrival of "the Big One"-a biological agent that will facilitate decimation of approximately a third to half of the world's population, in keeping with current official population reduction objectives.

Naturally you would be disinclined to believe the above sentence. Open-mindedness in this domain threatens exposure to a "Twilight Zone" of knowledge in which reality is far stranger than fiction. Your first instinct, therefore, might be to close this page in favor of the next SARS site that promises more of the standard treatments broadcast on every official news page and government report on this subject. But, if you choose to have your worldview shattered by considering the little known truths surrounding Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, then continue reading....
posted by Kevin at 5:06 AM

Israel: U.S. Peace Activist Shot in the Face :.

An American peace activist volunteering as a human shield in the West Bank was seriously wounded on Saturday when Israeli troops allegedly opened fire on him.

Brian Avery, 24, from Albuquerque, N.M., heard shots fired and came out of his apartment building in Jenin to investigate just as an armored personnel carrier rounded a corner, said Tobias Karlsson, a fellow activist from Sweden.

Avery and Karlsson are members of the Palestinian-backed group International Solidarity Movement. Members of the group often insert themselves between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers to try to stop Israeli military operations.

"We had our hands up and we were wearing vests that clearly identified us as international workers when they began firing,'' Karlsson said. "Brian was shot in the face, and it looks like he was hit by a heavy caliber bullet because of the extent of the wound.''

Flashback: The Murder of Rachel Corrie
posted by Kevin at 4:18 AM

U.S. Prisons, Jails Now Hold Two Million Inmates :.

Attention corporate executives: Fire those pesky employees making minimum wage or more and lease a prisoner for three bucks per day! Behold: The Prison Industrial Complex:

With the federal government leading the way, the number of inmates in American prisons topped 2 million for the first time, the Justice Department reports.
posted by Kevin at 4:05 AM

Police Attack California Anti War Protestors :.

"Non-lethal" bullets routinely kill people:

Police opened fire with non-lethal bullets at an anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland Monday morning, injuring several longshoremen standing nearby.

Police were trying to clear protesters from an entrance to the docks when they opened fire and the longshoremen apparently were caught in the line of fire.

Six longshoremen were treated by paramedics and at least one was expected to be taken to a hospital. It was unclear if any of the protesters was injured.

"I was standing as far back as I could," said longshoreman Kevin Wilson. "It was very scary. All of that force wasn't necessary."

More: Indymedia Coverage (Graphic injury images)
posted by Kevin at 3:18 AM

Code Red Would Trigger a Virtual Lockdown :.

Planes could be grounded, trains could stop running, and bridges and tunnels could be closed. U.S. borders might be sealed off, and roadblocks might be set up on interstates and other major highways.

The United States is prepared to go into lockdown mode if the government should raise the nation's terror alert to Code Red, the highest threat level for terrorism. Code Red means there is a severe risk of terrorist attack, or that an attack is imminent or may already be under way.
posted by Kevin at 1:46 AM

U.S. Now in Possession of "Superbase" :.

The U.S. now controls a strategic jumping-off point to the rest of the region. I love how they mention how useful the long runways will be for bringing in humanitarian aid. HA. This is the gateway to the rest of what's left to conquer beyond Iraq. All your base Superbase are belong to us U.S.:

For the U.S.-led forces on Baghdad's doorstep, Saddam International Airport is potentially a massive military base for bringing in weapons and troops and channeling aid to the Iraqi people.

It also has a second 8,000-foot runway, once used by Iraqi fighter jets, that could help speed the flying in of supplies.

More: What's Next? U.S. Set Sights on Iran, North Korea :.

Jeeeez! It's coming fast and furious now. I know I've been talking about this for months, but as it starts to actually unfold, I have to admit, I'm afraid that we're witnessing the opening shots of World War III. If this thing spreads beyond Iraq, put a fork in it, ladies and gentlemen, it's done:

The Bush administration has pledged to end the nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea after concluding its campaign against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

Administration officials said the White House sees the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea as the next imminent threats.

"In the aftermath of Iraq, dealing with the Iranian nuclear weapons program will be of equal importance as dealing with the North Korean nuclear weapons program," Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton said. "This is going to be a substantial challenge."

More: Ex-CIA Director: U.S. Faces 'World War IV :.

Well, it's World War IV, not III. World War III was the Cold War:

Former CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years.

In the address to a group of college students, Woolsey described the Cold War as the third world war and said "This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War."

Research Credit: AL
posted by Kevin at 12:48 AM

Russian Navy Posturing Around Events in Iraq :.

Russia is likely to send its navy to the Arabian Sea near the Gulf region where the United States is leading a war against Iraq, which Moscow had fought to avert, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Wednesday.
posted by Kevin at 12:24 AM

Watch Syria :.

I hate to say I told you so:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday he believed Syria had ignored U.S. warnings and was still providing supplies to Iraq.

"We have seen that Syria is continuing to conduct itself the way it was prior to the time I said what I said," Rumsfeld told a news conference.
posted by Kevin at 7:06 PM

Watch Iran :.

I hate to say I told you so:

Iran's senior leadership decided last month to send irregular paramilitary units across their border with Iraq to harass American soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to U.S. intelligence reports.

On March 24, a U.S. intelligence agency issued a "spot report" to a wide range of senior U.S. officials detailing conversations in a meeting of the Islamic Republic's top leadership in the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Council. The council, which is working on Iran's post-conflict strategy, includes Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.

"This confirmed all of our suspicions that the Iranians are not our friends and not for peace in the region. They are in fact for a piece of the region," one U.S. intelligence official told United Press International.

I have a couple of questions: Is the U.S. for peace in the region, or a piece of the region? If an unhinged dry drunk like George W Bush said you were a part of n Axis of Evil, and then unleashed an unprovoked invasion of your neighbor, what would you do? Hmmm. If I was running Iran, I'd probably seek nuclear weapons immediately.
posted by Kevin at 6:59 PM

Maniacs in Pentagon and Their Conflicts of Interest :.

Former Pentagon assistant secretary Richard Perle has been assailed for possible conflicts between his business interests and chairmanship of a Pentagon advisory board, but other panel members have potential conflicts, too.

Mr. Perle has been criticized in recent days following disclosure that he sought defense-related consulting business while heading the Defense Policy Board, which advises the defense secretary on a range of policy and strategic issues. But business interests of at least nine of his colleagues also overlap with their board service.

Former Central Intelligence Agency chief James Woolsey is a senior executive at consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which received $688 million in Pentagon contracts in 2002. He also is one of three principals in a venture-capital firm that has been soliciting investment in homeland-security-related firms. Mr. Woolsey insists none of the companies he is affiliated with has ever been discussed at a board meeting, and that he does no lobbying. He said he was unaware of Mr. Perle's personal financial interests and wouldn't comment on them.

Another panel member, retired Adm. David Jeremiah, sits on boards -- one of them advisory -- of five corporations that received more than $10 billion in Pentagon contracts in 2002, according to a forthcoming report from the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington watchdog group. Retired Air Force Gen. Ronald Fogleman sits on the board of five defense firms that received more than a billion dollars in defense contracts in 2002. Adm. Jeremiah and Gen. Fogleman didn't return calls requesting comment.
posted by Kevin at 6:47 PM

Welcome to the Ari Fleischer Show

The propaganda is getting shrill. It sounds something like this: Our precious troops. Everyone cares so much about the troops. We love our troops! Look! We undertake high risk missions with combined special forces and diversionary tactics to save our troops! Don't you want to join up!? Come on down to the recruiter's office. Look. It's fun. See! If you get into trouble while you're having all that fun killin' and runnin' around in the Army of One, people who care about you will save your ass and give you some Freedom Fries.

I usually make a point of NOT watching Ari Fleischer's bullshit sessions, but I happened to catch yesterday's. Oh my. Who is more deserving of a public face slapping, Ari Fleischer, or the timid whores who parrot his pap for newspapers, magazines and television?

Take a look at what Chief Propagandist, Ari Fleischer had to say about the rescue of U.S. Army PFC, Jessica Lynch:

It's exactly what the military is so good at. And this is why the President expresses gratitude to the members of the Armed Forces who carried out this rescue raid. Rescuing a POW is the heart and soul of America's military. That shows how much they care about all of those who serve our country, to make certain that no one is left behind.

Well, Ari, if rescuing POWs is the heart and soul of America's military, why is this the first time an organized rescue of a POW has been attempted since World War II?

The raid this week that freed Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital after 10 days of captivity may be the first successful planned raid by U.S. forces to free an American prisoner of war since World War II, authorities on POWs and military history said.

U.S. commandos who swoop in during the dead of night to pluck an American POW from behind enemy lines and then fly away to safety are a staple of pulp fiction and "Rambo" movies, but it rarely happens like that in real life.

Additionally, Ari, since you assure us that no one is ever left behind, do you have any comments on the fate of Scott Speicher?

Navy flier Scott Speicher, whose plane was shot down on the first night of the first Gulf War, is still alive in Iraq, Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday.

Citing classified intelligence reports, Nelson said an unidentified Iraqi defector has told American investigators that Speicher was driven from his crash site to a point near an Iraqi hospital. Speicher, a captain from Jacksonville, Fla., was first classified as killed in action, then missing, and has lately been reclassified as a prisoner of war, Nelson said.

"It is almost inexcusable, the mistakes that our Defense Department made when he was shot down," Nelson said at a meeting with Democratic state legislators.

Oh yes, Mr. Fleischer, everyone cares so much about our troops. When the beloved troops came home from the first Persian Gulf War, with debilitating and deadly conditions caused by chemical, biological and depleted urnaium weapons, the Department of Defense told them they were imaging things. "Suck it up, soldier! We care so much about you!" Well, as it turns out, 26% of our beloved troops from that war are now officially classified as disabled:

One in four of U.S. service personnel who participated in the nine-month Operation Desert Storm is now officially classified as "disabled," according to Department of Veterans Affairs figures obtained by FedBuzz.

The percentage of Gulf War veterans granted disabled status -- 26 percent -- is now higher than for any modern U.S. combat experience and is two and one half times the disability rate from the 10-year-long Vietnam War, according to VA sources.

How much does the military care about Ronda Wilson, and others who were transformed into invalids from the military's anthrax vaccinations?

Wilson, who four years ago was in superb health and in charge of one of the most potent weapons in the US armoury, can barely drive a car. She has lost a third of her body weight and suffers such agonising cramps every day that she is forced to curl up in a foetal position for hours at a time. She has stiff joints, chronic fatigue, anaemia, difficulty with simple sums, memory loss, blackouts, permanent abdominal pain and, according to her medical report, "loss of cognitive function".

Oh yeah, Wilson and others like her have been kicked out of the Army and left to rot. Can you feel the level of concern for our troops?

Once they're down, kick 'em, but wave flags to show you care:

"Jingoism and flag waving isn't my idea of patriotism. 'Support the Troops' rings hollow when compared to a $14.6 billion budget cut in veterans programs," Curmano said. "Health care, education, disability and, ironically, burial payments are being cut at a time when we are not just producing more vets but are producing more disabled vets."

Now that I've shown how much everyone "cares" about members of the U.S. military, I hope you can see the point of Ari Fleischer's words from yesterday. The men and women of the U.S. military are superfluous cannon fodder; they are totally expendable. Why? Because a new crop of poor and ignorant 18-year-olds is born every day. And in case you haven't noticed: It's harvest time.
posted by Kevin at 6:15 PM

Jessica Lynch: A 19-Year-Old Girl in Iraq :.

Take a good long look at what we have become. Jessica Lynch wanted to become a teacher, but the town she's from in West Virginia is so economically depressed, she thought the only way out was with the U.S. military. The Army of One: Yes, where you too can become a killer and a rape and torture victim all at once! Of course, nobody is saying she was raped and tortured, but what kind of treatment do you think the Iraqis would give the female members of the invading military forces? If this is such an American triumph, as the media is trying to spin it, why do I feel sick to my stomach?

Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah.

"She was fighting to the death," the official said. "She did not want to be taken alive."

More: Parents Deny She was Shot, Stabbed :.

The father of rescued POW Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch said Thursday she was in great spirits following her first surgery and said she had not been shot or stabbed during her ordeal.

"We have heard and seen reports that she had multiple gunshot wounds and a knife stabbing. The doctor has not seen any of this," Gregory Lynch Sr. said. "There's no entry (wounds) whatsoever."
posted by Kevin at 3:50 PM

Oregon Law Would Jail War Protesters as Terrorists :.

An Oregon anti-terrorism bill would jail street-blocking protesters for at least 25 years in a thinly veiled effort to discourage anti-war demonstrations, critics say.

The bill has met strong opposition but lawmakers still expect a debate on the definition of terrorism and the value of free speech before a vote by the state senate judiciary committee, whose Chairman, Republican Senator John Minnis, wrote the proposed legislation.

Dubbed Senate Bill 742, it identifies a terrorist as a person who "plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt" business, transportation, schools, government, or free assembly.
posted by Kevin at 11:43 AM

Liberation?

posted by Kevin at 2:49 PM

There Were Dozens of Smashed Corpses :.

The U.S. also dropped cluster bombs on the city. The unexploded bomblets resemble the food packets that have been handed out elsewhere:

In the farming town of Hilla south of the capital, the local hospital director said 33 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in a bombing raid on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross described the "horror" at the hospital and said: "There were dozens of smashed corpses."

An AFP reporter saw what appeared to be the mini-weapons from cluster bombs, equipped with small parachutes, covering a large area in the town, which lies 80 kilometres south of Baghdad.
posted by Kevin at 1:32 PM

Shorting the Dow

I just tried to short the Dow 30 using the Diamond ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). I logged into my trading account and quickly pulled the trigger. The machine said, "You cannot short sell DIA today."

"WHAT THE #@*%?"

I immediately called my brokerage and spoke with a trader. He checked it out. Turns out, the firm ran out of shares to lend to people to sell short.

I said, "You're telling me that I can't short this pig because so many other traders have already shorted it!?"

"That is correct, sir."

BAAA HAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Man, that's what I call confidence in this bullcrap, whipsaw, fakeout rally!
posted by Kevin at 12:42 PM

Baghdad: Deadly Market Blast Caused by Raytheon Weapon :.

The explosion in a Baghdad market which killed more than 60 people last Friday was indeed caused by a cruise missile and not an Iraqi anti-aircraft rocket as the US has suggested.

A metal fragment found at the scene by British journalist Robert Fisk carried various markings, including "MFR 96214 09". This, our reader pointed out in an email, is a manufacturer's identification number known as a "cage code".

Cage codes can be looked up on the internet (www.gidm.dlis.dla.mil), and keying in the number 96214 traces the fragment back to a plant in McKinney, Texas, owned by the Raytheon Company.

More: Tomahawk Missile Production Speeding Up :.

Make sure you pay your taxes on time:

Defense contractor Raytheon Corp. said it is talking with the Navy about stepping up production of a new Tomahawk cruise missile as the war in Iraq depletes supplies of the current model.

Raytheon could accelerate production of the Tactical Tomahawks from 38 to 50 per month if funding becomes available, spokeswoman Jennifer Allen said Wednesday.

The Navy has said it plans to spend as much as $2 billion for 1,353 of the weapons, which are scheduled to become operational in the summer of 2004. That date could be brought forward.
posted by Kevin at 12:13 PM

Straw: UK Will Not Attack Syria or Iran :.

You Brits should have thought twice before making a deal with the devil:

Britain would have "nothing whatever" to do with military action against Syria or Iran, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, signalled today.

Mr Straw's comments will be seen as an attempt to ensure that speculation about an Anglo-American attack on the two countries is quashed ahead of his meeting with EU foreign ministers tomorrow.

The US president, George Bush, has previously identified Iran as part of the so-called "axis of evil", while America's defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, recently accused Syria of supplying military equipment to Iraq and threatened to hold it to account for its actions.
posted by Kevin at 9:38 AM

Russian Military Intelligence Reports on Iraq War? :.

Over pitchers of beer and a discussion on the world situation, Cryptogon reader and contributor DG told me about a site called www.aeronautics.ru. If the information presented on this site is real, something extremely weird is happening. And if I think it's weird, believe me, it's weird.

The site is run by a Russian guy who goes by the alias Venik. He is posting information about the war in Iraq that he claims is originating from inside Russian Military Intelligence (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye, or GRU). Before even reading any of the messages, I thought to myself, "Why would the GRU be feeding this guy information that could compromise their sources and methods?" It didn't seem to make much sense to me.

I read a section on Venik's site called Answering Some Questions. Apparently, I wasn't the only reader wondering about the potential motivation of the GRU. Venik writes:

Naturally, most people are wondering where these Russian military intelligence do reports come from and why does the GRU allow such materials to be published. My answer to both questions is: I don't know. [sic]

Ok, fine. I read all of the reports. In my guesstimation, I would have to say that I don't buy it, not all of it, anyway. Why? The materials make constant references to electronic interceptions of U.S. military communications traffic. In the March 22, 2003 update, the story indicates that communications from General Franks himself were intercepted. I am not, by any means, an expert in military communication systems, but a few common sense points should be mentioned.

The U.S. military has access to THE most sophisticated and secure communications systems on the planet. First of all, these systems use several methods to reduce potentially compromising emanations. Spread spectrum, line of site, and satellite links make the task of simply gathering the signals difficult to begin with. Now, take a look at this page, which catalogs many military grade communications systems. Notice how they make a point of mentioning communications security (COMSEC) and encryption capabilities. And this is just some of the stuff that is publicly mentioned. Who knows what the U.S. is actually using out there???

So, if we are to believe Venik's source, we would have to assume that the Russian signals intelligence crews are deployed all over Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar, and in sufficient numbers to be able to gather very elusive communications data. And then we have to assume that they are routinely capable of breaking whatever encryption systems are being employed to secure to the communications.

Forget about trying to get at potential reasons as to why GRU would be releasing this information publicly. I think the question of "Could they even do it?" is simply too much to overcome in this case.

So, if I don't think it's real, why post it? Well, I thought the material was very interesting, regardless of the origin. And I suppose there is a small chance that it could be real.

I know of a particular Cryptogon reader who used to design military communication systems. If that someone (you know who you are) would like to make a few comments on the feasibility of intercepting and decrypting both strategic and tactical U.S. military communications, I'm sure others would be interested in your insights. If doing so violates any of your security obligations, don't even bother mentioning this. I'll get the point by your silence.

In addition to the person I mentioned above, the visitor/s from Harris Corporation might have some interesting information to contribute on this subject.

Update: Feasibility of Intercepting U.S. Military Communications

I just got word from someone I know who has expert knowledge of the systems in question. That person said that I was correct in my analysis. There is no way that the GRU could be doing what is described in Venik's reports.
posted by Kevin at 11:19 PM