Good bits from here and there:
The US has already changed rules so that they do not even need evidence of a crime to hold detainees at Camp X-Ray. I think flouting the Geneva conventions is idiotic and wrong. There should be protections for people captured during military operations.
Two prisoners who protested at their uncertain fate by refusing to eat for 30 days were force-fed 2,000 calories a day through nasal feeding tubes for 10 days.
They were returned to the prison cells but still are not eating and probably will be taken back to the hospital in a few days for more forced feeding.
A few interesting things:
.mil friends of the day:
22 Apr, Mon, 12:54:31 WCS2-PENT.NIPR.MIL Netscape 3 Other
22 Apr, Mon, 12:54:31 WCS2-PENT-2.NIPR.MIL MSIE 5 Windows NT
How do they hit at same time with two different operating systems?
lyrics by Woody Guthrie
The only way we can ever beat
these crooked politician men
Is to run the money changers out of the temple
And put the Carpenter in
O It’s Jesus Christ for president
God above our king
With a job and a pension for young and old
We will make hallelujah ring
Every year we waste enough
to feed the ones who starve
We build our civilization up
and we shoot it down with wars
But with the Carpenter on the seat
away up in the capital town
The USA would be on the way prosperity bound!
Some links from Antiwar.com:
The Observer had a good article on the OBVIOUS link to the Bush administration and the Venezuelan coup. Not just link, but senior staff of the Bush administration directed the coup! It has been mentioned many times before, but it should be emphasized that many of the people behind this in the US government took part in the shadiness during Iran-Contra and the dirty tricks of the Reagan-Bush years. Don’t let them sweep this under the rug. It’s criminal. Bush and everyone involved ought to be tried for war crimes in a military tribunal, and if convicted, sentenced to capital punishment in Texas. As far as I’m concerned the Bush administration has the blood of Venezuelans on its hands. They are nothing but thugs, racketeers, and worst of all, traitors to democracy.
One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave a nod to the attempted Venezuelan coup, has a conviction for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair. …
Now officials at the Organisation of American States and other diplomatic sources, talking to The Observer, assert that the US administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it to be destined for success. …
The visits by Venezuelans plotting a coup, including Carmona himself, began, say sources, ’several months ago’, and continued until weeks before the putsch last weekend. The visitors were received at the White House by the man President George Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America, Otto Reich.
Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American who, under Reagan, ran the Office for Public Diplomacy. It reported in theory to the State Department, but Reich was shown by congressional investigations to report directly to Reagan’s National Security Aide, Colonel Oliver North, in the White House. …
On the day Carmona claimed power, Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office. He said the removal of Chavez was not a rupture of democra tic rule, as he had resigned and was ‘responsible for his fate’. He said the US would support the Carmona government.
But the crucial figure around the coup was Abrams, who operates in the White House as senior director of the National Security Council for ‘democracy, human rights and international opera tions’. He was a leading theoretician of the school known as ‘Hemispherism’, which put a priority on combating Marxism in the Americas.
It led to the coup in Chile in 1973, and the sponsorship of regimes and death squads that followed it in Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and elsewhere. During the Contras’ rampage in Nicaragua, he worked directly to North.
Congressional investigations found Abrams had harvested illegal funding for the rebellion. Convicted for withholding information from the inquiry, he was pardoned by George Bush senior.
Here’s a good Chomsky interview on 4/8/02 regarding the situation in the mideast and Israel. You can list to it in Real Audio here.
I haven’t seen anything on this except in The Irish Times article:
The US Embassy in Caracas had no immediate reaction to the allegations.
Meanwhile US President George Bush said today that Mr Chavez should learn from the turmoil that led to his brief ouster last week and take steps to address it.
Eager to make an example of alleged terrorists the Bush administration is designing a ‘new legal doctrine’ where they would be able to try terrorist suspects in a military tribunal without any evidence!
From the NY Times article:
“It could be enough to show that they were part of a group and furthered its aims,” this official said.
“They would be shown,” the official said, “to be a part of a group that did things like killing civilians and noncombatants, attacked targets with no military value or took or killed hostages” � the traditional roster of war crimes. “Also engaging in torture,” the official said.
The US is guilty of killing civilians and noncombatants, attacked targets with no military value or took or killed hostages in Afghanistan. Who will make an example of them?
From NY Times:
The military said the crash, which killed 10 members of the military, appeared to be an accident caused by bad weather. But it is certain to serve as a setback in the government’s efforts to reorganize a splintered armed forces, whose military high commanders withdrew support for President Hugo Ch�vez during antigovernment protests a little more than a week ago.
These men who were killed were supporters of Chavez. Frankly, I don’t believe in coincidence. By the way, the author of this article, Juan Forero, has been exposed for his corruption and lies on Narconews.com.
Something fishy is going on at Harvard. Half of all grades are A and A-minus, and nearly all Harvard seniors are graduating with honors.
A Harvard education, while expensive and a badge of the elite, doesn’t seem to mean much in reality.
Barry Crimmins has been saying some very funny, quotable things lately.
The biggest question now facing the CIA concerning Venezuela is how to recork champagne.
Message from Venezuela to Bush: This Ain’t Florida, Gringo!
Bush hasn’t failed this badly since the last time he took a breathalizer.
It’s nice to see it didn’t take long for the CIA to make good use of its unchecked power and unlimited budget.
Just because Jenin resembles Dresden in 1945 doesn’t mean we should leap to any conclusions.
Osama bin Laden remains on the loose, as well as the Anthrax murderer(s) but the Court-appointed Bush Administration can take heart in the fact that Canada has been taught a lesson it won’t soon forget.
I am thankful for the work of investigative journalist Wayne Madsen. I thought I’d post some links to some of his articles available on the web.
I shouldn’t have started a precedent by noting these things, but I did. I had 2 .mil visitors from the DoD this morning. Could be spiders or something, but how should I know. No, referral links.
19 Apr, Fri, 01:46:17 BELVOIR-SUN2.IERN.DISA.MIL Netscape 3 Other
19 Apr, Fri, 01:46:29 WCS2-BELVOIR.NIPR.MIL Netscape 3 Other
DISA.MIL is from Defense Information Systems Agency and I’m assuming they’re in Ft. Belvoir, VA.
From the folks at cleancampaigns.org: Remember to vote ‘yes’ on Proposition 1: Austin Fair Elections Act (for austinites only) Election Date: Saturday May 4th, 2002 Early Voting starts April 17th. The measure will provide campaign financing for local candidates for less than a nickel a week per voter..which is around $2.60 or so a year. Not a bad idea. I first heard about this when I went to a show benefitting the Austin Green Party.
From Charley Reese’s syndicated column:
Yeah, Bush is an idiot and a disgrace.
George sent me a good link today regarding reports of members of Al-Qaida and Hezbollah operating inside Ecuador. Wow, what a surprise the US would suggest something like that. Of course, it’s complete bullshit. If I knew Hezbollah worked for the US I might believe it. In this case, consider the source, Richard “the killer” Armitage. Richard Armitage, one of the many vermin currently infesting the highest levels of government, is most famously known for illegally selling missiles to Iranian terrorists during the Iran-Contra scandal. Maybe he does have a nose for where terrorists are hiding. He has, after all, done business with them in the past. Illegal arms sales are not his only sin. He was investigated by President Reagan’s Commission on Organized Crime (1984) for alleged links to gambling and prostitution.
The real reason islamic terrorists have suddenly been discovered in Ecuador has to do with the Ecuadorans lack of enthusiasm for Bush’s ‘war on terror’. They have balked at the US using airfields in Ecuador to prosecute ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’. If this keeps up you can expect a change in government in Ecuador.
“Bringing all these people who are so associated with a polarised ideological crusade that committed human rights abuses threatens to rekindle that partisanship,” said Reed Brody, legal director of Human Rights Watch in New York. “What is very unfortunate is that history has revealed American complicity in serious atrocities in the 1980s and, in effect, all these nominations may serve to rewrite history and rehabilitate a very unfortunate period of our history.”
Mahmoud’s meetings on two separate missions with the Taliban were reported as a “failure.” Yet this “failure” to extradite Osama was part of Washington’s design, providing a pretext for a military intervention which was already in the pipeline. If Osama had been extradited, the main justification for waging a war “against international terrorism” would no longer hold. And the evidence suggests that this war had been planned well in advance of September 11, in response to broad strategic and economic objectives.
It’s not often worth mentioning, but I do like to wonder aloud about page hits from .gov and .mil hosts. I’m always curious what sort of information people in the military or the government are looking for even if it’s just Donald Rumsfeld mp3s.
Today our we got a hit from fw1.icpphil.navy.mil, but they just wanted information on the government ‘piracy’ sting, Operation Piratez. That host, as far as I can tell, is a proxy for the Inventory Control Point in Philadelphia which provides program and supply support for the weapons systems of the US Navy.
Does the creation of a military command with civil authority mark a step towards martial law? Rumsfeld says “Trust me.”
“Some in the past have worried that creation of a command that covered the United States of America could be inward-looking; nothing could be further from the truth,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon (news - web sites) news conference.
“The creation of NorthCom means that we now have the command assigned to defend the American people where they live and work and it will be functioning in a supporting role to civil authorities as occasions arise,” he said.
Is all the adbusters-style campaigning against McDonald’s working? Mad-cow disease fears? Or, are people worried about that ass-spreading diseases that comes from eating fatty foods? Whatever it is McDonald’s is posting its 6th straight earnings decline.
From the Guardian: Greg Palast weighs in on the lies and distortions passed off as journalism about the Chavez coup:
What neither Bush nor the papers told you is that Chavez’s real crime was to pass two laws through Venezuela’s national assembly. The first ordered big plantation owners to turn over untilled land to the landless. The second nearly doubled, from roughly 16% to 30%, royalties paid for extracting Venezuela’s oil. Venezuela was once the largest exporter of oil to the USA, bigger than Saudi Arabia. This explains Chavez’s unpopularity - at least within that key constituency, the American petroleum industry.
There remains the charge that, in the words of the New York Times, “Chavez ordered soldiers to fire on a crowd [of protesters].” This bloody smear, sans evidence, stained every Western paper, including Britain’s newest lefty, the Mirror. Yet I could easily reach eyewitnesses without ties to any faction who said the shooting began from a roadway overpass controlled by the anti-Chavez Metropolitan Police, and the first to fall were pro-Chavez demonstrators.
Related links:
The same message was echoed on Saturday by the US ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS), Roger Noriega, at an emergency meeting in Washington.
One OAS diplomat said: “We were in that room for 14 hours, and for most of that 14 hours, Noriega was pushing the line that it was Chavez that had created the problem.”
The OAS denounced the coup attempt, as did all Venezuela’s neighbours. Washington, however, acknowledged the new government. “A transitional civilian government has been installed,” Mr Fleischer said on Saturday. “This government has promised early elections.”
Some of the key participants in US meetings with Venezuelan figures in the run-up to the coup were veterans of Reagan-era “dirty tricks” operations. Mr Pardo-Maurer served as the chief of staff to the Nicaraguan contras’ representative in Washington between 1986 and 1989.
Mr Reich was the head of the office of public diplomacy in the state department, which was later found to have been involved in covert pro-contra propaganda.
Military visitor of the day:
17 Apr, Wed, 07:39:24 WCS3.NORFOLK.NIPR.MIL Netscape 3 Other
According to this site “NIPR hosts are most likely fat, secure proxies for all DoD access. This implies that there need not nessisarily be surveilance going on (might be guy simply interested in the contents of my page).”
From what I could gather WCS3.NORFOLK.NIPR.MIL is either most likely from Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Atlantic (NCTAMS LANT) or DOD Regional Command Center in Columbus, Ohio. By the way, I forgot to announce that someone else will be adding posts to LNS. You can see his debut right below this entry. It should be very interesting as he and I agree on a lot of things, but disagree on a lot of other things. He is completely wrong in those cases, of course. :p
As the controversy surrounding the Venezuelan situation and the Bush Administration�s associations to it continues to be prevalent on these pages (complete with impish glee at the sheer incompetence and buffoonery displayed in the spin coming out of the White House) it is important not to lose track of the far more serious and potentially catastrophic events occurring on the other side of the globe. Namely Israel�s determination to eliminate what it perceives as threats to its way of life and the implications this has for the rest of the world.
Of potential concern is Israel�s impression (in many ways rightly so) of itself as a �David� surrounded by �Goliaths�. Israel has a relatively small population compared to it neighbors. Neighbors that are as openly aggressive towards Israel as Israel is about defending itself. However, the moral implications of actions that Israel has undertaken in recent days is not nearly as worrisome as the potential for a Muslim/Arabic large-scale military reaction to the situation forcing Israel to engage in the use of its Enhanced Radiation Weapons, more commonly know as neutron bombs.
Israel has demonstrated in the past that it is perfectly willing to use the threat (or implied threat) of such tactical nuclear devices not only to stave off perceived Arabic aggressions, but also to force the U.S. to supply it with advanced conventional weapons and weapons platforms with which to defend itself. As the Center for Defense Information points out:
� Israel’s nuclear weapons are an outgrowth of its sense of being besieged and the corresponding doctrine that arises from this psychology. Israeli military strategy has long focused on preemptive conventional capabilities and the ability to carry the battle away from Israeli territory and its population centers. Given the delays inherent in mobilizing a largely reservist Army, the country relies heavily upon its Air Force to stem the tide of battle and supply breathing room. Thus, as the analyst Geoffrey Kemp notes, any threat that undermines the superiority of the air force also calls into question the Israeli concept of deterrence. Arab advances in missile technology, air defenses, and chemical weapons seem to offer just such a threat. Thus, nuclear weapons are seen as a hedge against conventional attack as well as a deterrent against weapons of mass destruction.�
Of course as the editorialists on Kuro5hin have indicated this is not an immediate threat, but rather one that could present itself quite rapidly were the U.S. to suddenly break off relations with Israel or force any peace process that might compromise Israel�s sense of security.
What is often overlooked, however, is the potential for a cascade effect similar to the one that led to World War II should the Israeli-Palestinian conflict expand further and Israel become decided that it must engage in the use of the aforementioned arsenal of WMD�s. An action that would likely cause great pressure to be placed on Pakistan to assist its Arabic neighbors by utilizing it�s nuclear capabilities which would in turn bring India into the foray against Pakistan and cause possible chemical and nuclear (if they have managed to acquire it by now) attacks from Iraq. This would pose a sufficiently large problem to necessitate the near entirety of U.S. and other UN Forces to become involved in the situation which in turn allows various opportunistic powerful countries such as China to take advantage of the situation (for example putting Taiwan back under the yoke by force) and for other �powder keg� regions such as Korea to explode into conflict as UN forces are not (currently) capable of fighting more than one large scale conflict at a time.
My good friend, George, sent me a great link today about a film-maker who was in Caracas during the failed US-backed coup against Hugo Chavez. He describes how the private business media attempted to influence and manipulate the situation with meticulously planned propaganda. The aim was to legitimize the coup leaders and to delegitimize Chavez. Most members of the elite understand how much of power rests in perception and when you can alter perception you can create ‘legitimacy’. This is exactly what took place in Venezuela last week.
As Wayne Madsen reported, the US government provided signal jamming capabilities from inside Colombia and off the coast of Venezuela. This is most likely why the signal was cut.
“The television continued to broadcast a steady diet of soap operas, saying nothing about the huge mobilisation, which was now making a deafening racket outside. Then came the news that Chavez had been freed and was taking a helicopter to Miraflores. The crowds went wild. The presidential guard made a tunnel from the palace gates to a helicopter pad across the street. The sound of choppers buzzing overhead.
In other Chavez coup news, the US has caved-in to international outrage and has begun to admit more and more details of their support for the coup against Chavez. The US acknowledged that Iran-Contra criminal and convicted propagandist, Otto Reich, was in contact with the leaders of the failed coup attempt. Reich, who is Bush’s secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs, telephoned the ‘interim’ president, Carmona, to offer advice and words of caution on Friday. Reich, who is rabidly anti-Castro, shared an interest in overthrowing Chavez because of his policy of detente with Cuba. Pentagon spokesman, Victoria Clarke, further admitted that “the chief of the Venezuelan military high command, Gen. Lucas Romero Rinc�n, met recently with Rogelio Pardo-Maurer, a Pentagon official responsible for Latin America. She did not provide details of the meeting, or say whether intelligence was shared.”
As I said, Reich is a convicted propagandist and he showed his true colors clearly in libelous statements directed toward Chavez:
Mr. Reich, who declined to be interviewed today, offered no evidence for his assertion, the official said.
He is clearly trying to poison the well for Chavez. Most of the people killed were actually Chavez supporters. I challenge Reich to produce evidence of this pack of lies. Make no mistake about Otto Reich. He is a snake. Under his watch the US government planted false domestic propaganda in American newspapers often writing fake letters to the editor among other things. Read more about his crimes at the National Security Archive.
Italians showed the power of the general strike when millions of Italian workers staged the biggest strike in decades. They are protesting new proposed rules by the pro-business premier, Silvio Berlusconi. From the NY Times:
The government insists the reforms are necessary to make the Italian economy more competitive and attract foreign investment. The unions say the reforms will cost dearly in hard-won job security, widen the gap between rich and poor and undermine Italy’s social stability.
One day there will be the resurrection of American labor.
Some stuff I’ve come across today as I pored over the day’s news.
Branding the US attacks on Afghanistan as “fighting terrorism with terrorism", he demanded an end to “the slaughter of innocents"; holding up photographs of children killed in the American bombing attacks, he said their deaths had “no justification, just as the attacks in New York did not, either.” In response, the Bush administration temporarily withdrew its ambassador.
Being very friendly with Fidel Castro and selling oil to Cuba at discount rates. …
The United States has endeavored to topple numerous governments for a whole lot less.
The ‘newspaper of record’, the NY Times, reported today that high-level Bush administration officials had met several times in recent months with the leaders of the failed coup against Hugo Chavez. The Bush administration admitted today that they did meet with the coup leaders and agreed with them that Chavez should be removed, tacitly providing the go ahead for the coup d’etat.
The disclosures come as rights advocates, Latin American diplomats and others accuse the administration of having turned a blind eye to coup plotting activities, or even encouraged the people who temporarily removed Mr. Ch�vez. Such actions would place the United States at odds with its fellow members of the Organization of American States, whose charter condemns the overthrow of democratically elected governments.
In the immediate aftermath of the ouster, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, suggested that the administration was pleased that Mr. Ch�vez was gone. “The government suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people,” Mr. Fleischer said, which “led very quickly to a combustible situation in which Ch�vez resigned.”
According to an article in The Washington Post, The Bush administration has been cleaning up the speech transcripts of their lead buffoon, GW, editing out gaffes and presidential bloopers. While this might seem like a minor issue it amounts to a falsification of official records of historical importance. In Bush’s case this is almost forgivable since he is such an obvious moron, but this practice has been extended even to comments made my White House Spokesman, Ari Fleischer. Laste September, “when White House press secretary Ari Fleischer warned that Americans “need to watch what they say.” The phrase did not at first appear in the White House transcript.” The White House transcripts have even cut out heckling, boos, and laughter while preserving cheers and applause. Is there any doubt that the Bush administration has some serious problems with honesty and respect for the democratic process?
More behind the scenes business with the US trying to plan an invasion of Iraq. This would be junior’s Gulf War 2.
US returns to bad old ways in Venezuela by Wayne Madsen in Washington DC and Richard M. Bennett
The one important thing to be learnt from the Venezuelan coup is that the United States has not changed its view that only Governments acceptable to Washington can be allowed to survive in Latin America and that like it or not, the United States will undermine and help overthrow even legally elected administrations if it so chooses. This became obvious when Pentagon sources gleefully revealed that the United States provided critical military and intelligence support to the Venezuelan military coup against President Hugo Chavez on Friday 12th April.
Contrary to statements made by the Bush administration and the US government, the Venezuela coup was planned in advance and was aided by US intelligence. The Bush administration must be nostalgic for the days when they could assassinate and depose elected governments with impunity. It turns out according to inside sources that the US provided military and intelligence support: (Source: Narconews, Three Days that Shook the Media.)
We presume the increase in personnel - or individuals posing as personnel at the MIL GROUP - was not due to a sudden desire by Washington to sell more arms to the Chavez government.
Former National Security Agency officer Wayne Madsen, writing with Richard M. Bennett, reveal that the U.S. participation in the failed coup attempt was not only financial, but military. Reporting from the National Press Building in Washington, they have just blown the roof off of U.S. government denials of involvement in the coup with this Intelligence Report:
From eastern Colombia, CIA and US contract military personnel, ostensibly used for counter-narcotics operations, stood by to provide logistics support for the leading members of the coup. Their activities were centred at the Marandua airfield and along the border with Venezuela. Patrol aircraft operating from the US Forward Operating Location (FOL) in Manta, Ecuador also provided intelligence support for the military move against Chavez. Additional USN vessels on a training exercise in the Outer Range of the US Navy’s Southern Puerto Rican Operating Area also stood by in the event the coup against Chavez faltered, thus requiring a military evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela. The ships included the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and the destroyers USS Barry, Laboon, Mahan, and Arthur W. Radford. Some of the latter vessels reportedly had NSA Direct Support Units aboard to provide additional signals intelligence support to US Special Operations and intelligence personnel deployed on the ground in close co-operation with the Venezuelan Army and along the Colombian side of the border.
Does this mean that part of Plan Colombia involves aiding groups against Chavez? This is outrageous. The media in the US has given the false impression that the coup was an impromptu event. The evidence suggests an operation planned well in advance with the aid of the United States which has an obvious stake in the outcome. According to vheadline a colorful presidential sash had been ordered from Spain for the interim president, Carmona.
Executive Vice President Diosdado Cabello has shown the newly-discovered trophy to a small group of journalists and says �it clearly shows that the coup had been planned and there was nothing spontaneous about it.�
Cabello reveals that an investigation into the April 11 killings will be undertaken … that he was meant to be the first victim … �we’re searching for TV footage from other angles other than the Televen shots of Bolivarian armed groups firing from the bridge.�
I was looking over at c-span.org seeing what would be on Washington Journal in the morning when I got off work, and I saw a link to a segment where they had talked to the creator of the website, thelastamericanwarriors.com, for a few minutes. Evidently, they review websites every saturday or so. Anyway, it’s really a great site. Lots of video and other resources. I spent a few hours watching clips from a documentary on the Kennedy Assassination. There were also some great video clips from the Guerrilla News Network. Stop by and check it out.
Great piece by the BBC’s Tom Gibb:
But after his removal, the White House reaction appeared remarkably different - with officials clearly pleased at the result.
Far from condemning the ouster of a democratically-elected president, US officials blamed the crisis on President Chavez himself - accusing him of ordering supporters to open fire on anti-government demonstrators.
The US-supported coup against Hugo Chavez backfired and now the US looks like a deceitful liar. Bush himself repeated the lies that Chavez had resigned. The statements around the world repeating that Chavez had resigned, despite any evidence, were craven attempts to pass on the necessary legitimacy to the corporate junta which had hoped to rule. It is disgusting that the US took such measures to support a coup against a democratically elected official and played a part offering succor and vocal support to the coup.
In an article today the Bush administration chided from atop their moral high ground that Chavez should respect democracy and constitutional process. HUH? They are the ones who supported oil executive, Pedro Carmona as the new dictator of Venezuela. The first thing Carmona did was dissolve the government and the constitution. Even if Chavez had really resigned his vice-president should have taken over. The Bush administration is simply trying to save face in what is shaping up to be a huge embarrassment for them since they had made it abundantly clear that they had no problems with an extraconstitutional seizure of power.
Bush also repeated the half-truths about the demonstrations, implying that the protests were simply a peaceful expression by Venezuelans opposed to Chavez’s policies: Chavez “suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people. … It led very quickly to a combustible situation in which Chavez resigned.'’ The truth is the protests were arranged and controlled by the corporate interests which led the coup. The private media in Venezuela actively attempted to control and manipulate information. Eye-witnesses reported that the corporate media in Venezuela urged people to hit the streets to protest and also tried to give the impression that Chavez had resigned after having ordered soldiers to fire on civilians. There is no evidence of any of this. Even once people hit the streets again to protest Chavez’s ouster the media downplayed the numbers and aired almost no footage of it. This differs greatly from how they charged the previous protests.
You can expect some heads to roll despite the talk of reconciliation. If I played some part in the coup I would hit the road. Condoleezza Rice, clearly attempting to protect the Bush Amdimistration’s friends among the corporate junta, admonished Chavez that “This is no time for a witch hunt. This is a time for national reconciliation in Venezuela.'’
Related links:
Narconews has been doing a great job of covering the Chavez coup. Actually, Narconews is a great resource for information on the Drug War and on Central South America in general. Definitely check them out. Here are some good links I’ve snatched off their site:
Hugo Ch�vez, who has won a new mandate at the July elections, has engaged in a series of sweeping reforms since his triumphant election as president of Venezuela in 1998: Congress has been dissolved and a new constitution approved. But despite a spectacular increase in oil revenue, he has failed to remedy serious economic and social problems, and observers wonder if his current populism may not degenerate into despotism.
by GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
Night was falling as Carlos Andr�s P�rez got off the plane from Davos in Switzerland. He was surprised to see that General Fernando Ochoa Antich, his minister of defence, had come to meet him. “What is the matter,” P�rez asked, intrigued. Antich was so persuasive and reassuring that the president did not drive to the Miraflores palace, in the centre of Caracas, but to his residence at La Casona. He was dropping off to sleep when Antich woke him with a phonecall to tell him that a military uprising had started in the Maracay region. He had only just reached the Miraflores palace when the first artillery salvoes were heard.
That was on 4 February 1992. Colonel Hugo Ch�vez Fr�as, who has an almost religious obsession with historic dates, directed the revolt from improvised headquarters in La Planicie museum. P�rez realised that his only hope was to rally popular support and went to the television studios to speak to the nation. Two hours later the coup was over. Ch�vez surrendered, but on condition that he too might speak to the people.
The young Creole colonel, with his paratrooper’s red beret and admirable gift for public speaking, took full responsibility for the movement. His broadcast speech was a political master stroke. He spent two years in prison before being amnestied by President Rafael Caldera. However, many of his supporters - and opponents - realised that his speech, at a moment of defeat, was the start of an electoral campaign that would ultimately make him president of the republic.
The Isrealis have been busy hiding the bodies of the 400-500 people they killed in their recent attempts at mass murder. Many bodies buried in mass graves and carried off in trucks. You didn’t see nothing.
The plans of the IMF and corporate interests are not going as planned in Venezuela. Despite statements by the presiding military junta to the contrary there has been no evidence that Chavez resigned. His daughter reported talking to him over the telephone and he told her he had been imprisoned and had not resigned. No formal letter of resignation has been made public. Despite all the evidence of a violent extraconstitutional military coup the Bush administration is standing behind the planned military dictatorship.
This is the biggest story going on right now, but it really isn’t getting that much attention. Venezuela is the 3rd largest supplier of oil to the United States! There is nothing the US would like more than to have a ‘friendly’ government there, dictatorship or not. CNN is reporting on the pro-Chavez protests that are going on right now. The ‘interim’ government has postponed the swearing-in of the US-supported business puppet, Carmona, due to huge street protests:
“We don’t recognize de facto juntas,” Garcia said. He said Chavez’s Vice President Diosdado Cabello should be named interim president and that elections should be held within one month.
Venezuelan TV and many radio stations did not carry his comments, and have not reported on Saturday’s disturbances.
Notice how the media lines up behind the business dictatorship even in Venezuela.
Mexican President Vicente Fox said his country would not recognize Venezuela’s new government until new elections are held, and the leaders of Argentina and Paraguay called the new government illegitimate. Leaders of the 19-nation Rio Group of Latin American countries condemned “the interruption of constitutional order” in Venezuela.
Since Chavez’s ouster, police and soldiers have arrested some members of his government and hunted groups of his supporters thought to have been given weapons before Chavez fell.
Pro-Chavez protests were reported in at least 20 neighborhoods of Caracas, as well as the cities of Los Teques, Guarenas, Maracay and Coro. “We want to see Chavez. The Venezuelan people don’t buy it that he has resigned,” said Maria Brito, 36, who lives in the Catia slum.
Earlier Saturday, Carmona – who has promised elections within a year – dissolved the Chavez-controlled Congress, Supreme Court, attorney general’s and comptroller’s offices, and declared a 1999 Constitution sponsored by Chavez null and void.
This is the “Constitution that now provides guarantees for indigenous rights and women’s rights, free health care and education up to the university level. To reduce corruption Chavez has restructured the judicial and legislative branches. The government serves breakfast and lunch to schoolchildren year round and enrollment has increased by over a million students.” Later the new dictatorship met with their friends in the US and EU.
Thousands of Cubans demonstrated Saturday in Havana to protest Chavez’s removal. Cuba’s government condemned the harassment and called on the United Nations to investigate the overthrow of Chavez
Earlier Saturday, Carmona and newly appointed Foreign Minister Jose Rodriguez Iturbe met with the ambassadors of the United States and Spain, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Officials did not immediately give any details of the talks.
In a case of birds of a feather flocking together, the Bush administration has applauded the coup of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. As Steve from Ethel the Blog points out, Chavez’s real sins are what led the US to support the coup:
So, he’s popular and he works to help the poor majority of his nation. That’s the whole problem. We can’t have someone providing a bad example like that. The current thief in the Whitehouse, Senor Bush, got up on his high horse and intoned, “This man was elected by the people. We respect democracy in our country, and we hope he respects the democratic institutions within his country.” Okay, what does that have to do with him being overthrown by the military? His deposal was not the product of democracy! Bush, obviously, is unclear on the subject.
Despite what has been reported by most of the media, Chavez never resigned. He is at this moment, in prison by the hands of the military junta which the US has expressly and loudly supported. Venezuela is now being ruled by a prominent businessman and by the leaders of the coup.
“This is a classic coup,” said Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the Caracas newspaper Tal Cual and a strident critic of Mr. Ch�vez who nonetheless is concerned about the changeover in power. “There no letter of resignation for Ch�vez. We do not see it anywhere.”
The Bush administration has as little respect for the Venezuelan constitution as it has for our own Constitution.
With all this crap with the US and the ‘war against terror’, and with the ludicrous foreign policy of the US it might be worth reading ‘War is a Racket’ by General Smedley Butler once more.
We must take the profit out of war.
We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.
We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.
It’s finally happened. The democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez has been overthrown by the military. The IMF and the US have been very outspoken about the fact that they would financially support a ‘transitional’ government once Chavez has been removed. The US has already been busy grooming his replacement, Alfredo Pe�a, the Mayor of Caracas. In December Pena visited the State Department and the World Bank in Washington. Chavez has been on the Evil Empire’s bad side for a while “for not allowing drug-surveillance flights over Venezuela, being opposed to plan Colombia and working with OPEC.” Basically, Chavez has been acting like the leader of his country instead of as a cabana boy for the US.
This is exactly the same strategy they used with Chile when the US Government helped in the coup there and with the assassination of Salvadore Allende. Be proud of your corrupt government, a supporter of assassination and dictatorship. Money and oil take precedence over freedom and democracy for the United States. My thoughts go out to the Venezuelan people tonight.
The US is building air bases around Iraq in advance of their plans for invasion. Why doesn’t the US declare war any more? War language is invoked, but it is never formally declared. I don’t get it.
I’ve been reading Witness to a Century by George Seldes (at the time of the writing 97–he lived to be 104!). It’s an amazing and inspirational book. I was able to finally locate a copy at Half-Price. George Seldes is an amazing journalist. He led early campaigns against press censorship by government and business interests. He exposed the dangers of tobacco in the 1940’s and the anti-labor, illegal strikebreaking activities of the American Legion. In the 1930’s the American Legion broke more strikes than the national guard! It’s also no coincidence that the American Legion was created and financed by prominent businessmen. The best thing about reading George Seldes is that he inspires a feeling of optimism and a desire to get out and change things yourself.
This has been a pretty good week for news, what with the Bloomberg/NORML thing and now this article:
Washington � A digital-copyright bill introduced in the U.S. Senate last month has inspired howls of protest from consumers and high-tech firms who say it could slow technological advances and dictate how consumers listen to music or watch videos at home.
Well connected lobbyists and everyday users alike have flooded Congress with faxes and e-mail over the past several weeks to lodge complaints against the bill, which would prevent new computers, CD players and other consumer-electronics devices from playing unauthorized movies, music and other digital media files.
Sen. Ernest Hollings’ bill is backed by media firms such as The Walt Disney Co. These companies fear fast Internet connections and an array of digital devices such as MP3 players and CD burners will encourage consumers to seek free copies of hit singles and new movies.
CIA and American government lament proliferation of spy satellites. They’re not complaining for nothing. I’m sure they’re doing it to get more money for new corporate/military projects. Lo and behold here’s the pitch later in the article:
“The more information an adversary has, the more vulnerable we are,” he said. “We have to think about jamming and other capabilities at the appropriate times.”
Both the United States and the former Soviet Union worked on weapons that would bring down spy satellites in the event of a major war. But interest in those technologies has waned.
James also said he worries that the United States is losing its edge in building the best satellites. New restrictions on exports of satellite components, while slowing the transfer of sophisticated technology, have also caused U.S. manufacturers to close, he said. These rules were enacted after an investigation into the Clinton administration’s decision to let two U.S. aerospace companies export satellites to be launched atop Chinese rockets.
So, look for more public funds squandered developing ‘jamming’ technology or other advanced satellite technologies. It should be of no surprise to anyone that one of Mac Thornberry’s largest campaign contributors is Lockheed-Martin. They have a plant in nearby Fort Worth. If the government and the military decide to throw some money around for satellites Lockheed-Martin will benefit big time. Lockheed-Martin has already benefitted directly from the ‘war against terror’. Not only has their stock increased by 50% since September 11, but they have also secured huge, lucrative government contracts since then which could be worth more than 200 billion dollars! That’s $200,000,000,000.00 and that’s only counting their contract for the ‘joint strike fighter’. This is corporate welfare at its best.
When I read the part about bringing satellites down I wondered why interest has waned in that strategy? Maybe the reason is that satellites are extremely vulnerable to attack and the US would be the biggest loser if it started attacking satellites. The US would be absolutely crippled without satellite communication. I’m also guessing that the tools for bringing down satellites would be fairly easy to develop ie. coherent energy weapons like lasers or directed emp weaponry. That could open up a whole new kettle of worms.
From National Resources Defense Council:
Confidential Papers Show Exxon Hand in White House Move to Oust Top Scientist from International Global Warming Panel
Oil Company Memo Calls for Dr. Watson’s Dismissal; Administration Obliges
WASHINGTON (April 3, 2002) – The Bush administration this week moved to oust a top scientific official targeted by ExxonMobil in a confidential memo to the White House. Bold language in the ExxonMobil papers released today by NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council) reflects a brazen, behind-the-scenes effort by the oil company and other energy giants to disrupt the principal international science assessment program on global warming.
Send an email to Mayor Bloomberg and get a free button from NORML. On the hemp front, Alex White Plume, who lives on a reservation in South Dakota, defies the DEA and keeps planting hemp. They come by around harvest time and bring their weedwhackers. He keeps on planting it. It costs him about fourteen dollars for the hemp seed.
From NY Post article. This is great though it’s obvious Bloomberg didn’t mean to aid with decriminalization efforts. Good for NORML:
“Great. I’m thrilled,” Bloomberg quipped sarcastically yesterday when asked about the ad after a joint press conference with the Fire Department.
Bloomberg bluntly admitted to New York magazine in April 2001 he had smoked marijuana in the past - and definitely inhaled.
“You bet I did, and I enjoyed it,” Bloomberg said at the time.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws plans to plaster the ads throughout the city, urging the NYPD to stop locking up pot smokers.
“I’m not thrilled they’re using my name,” Bloomberg said yesterday. “I suppose it’s that First Amendment that gets in the way of me stopping it.”
Yeah, damn pesky First Ammendment. What a fucker.
Bookstore Cannot Be Forced to Divulge Buyers, Court Says from NY Times Article:
In a unanimous decision, the state’s highest court found that both the First Amendment and the Colorado Constitution “protect an individual’s fundamental right to purchase books anonymously, free from governmental interference.”
Finally some good news!
Peter Fried and colleagues report that light and former use of marijuana does not appear to have a long-term effect on intelligence, while heavy use appears to be detrimental.
Fried and colleagues followed 70 subjects in the Ottawa Prenatal Prospective Study, and compared intelligence quotient (IQ) scores of subjects at 9�12 years of age (before initiation of marijuana use) with their scores at 17-20 years. The authors grouped subjects as nonusers (n= 37), light users (less than 5 joints per week, n=9), former users of marijuana (no marijuana use in at least 3 months, n=9) or heavy users.
The authors found that among heavy users (more than 5 joints per week, n=15) IQ scores decreased by 4.1 points on average, while gains in IQ scores were seen among light users (mean 5.8 points), former users (mean 3.5 points), and nonusers (mean 2.6).
The authors state that while there was a significant decline in IQ scores, the scores of the subjects � at a mean of 109.1 � were still above average at the young adult assessment (mean 105.1). They add that if preteen IQ had not been assessed, the subjects would have appeared to be functioning normally. The authors suggest further investigation into the cognitive consequences of both current and previous marijuana use, particularly since the popularity of the drug has been increasing over the last 4 years.
Looking at this site it appears that most prominent Republicans were too good to serve their country in the military. That goes for our asshole-in-chief. Hypocrite assholes.
From MSNBC:
Economists have known for a long time that it pays to be tall. Multiple studies have found that an extra inch of height can be worth an extra $1,000 a year or so in wages, after controlling for education and experience. If you�re 6 feet tall, you probably earn about $6,000 more than the equally qualified 5-foot-6-inch shrimp down the hall.
Israeli soldiers celebrated the recent revenge attacks against civilians with a couples-only dance. An estimated 100 Palestinians were killed by the Israelis. Many of them died bleeding to death because Palestinian ambulances were barred from entering the refugee camps.
(Note: These soldiers aren’t really dancing. )
StreamBox VCR can be used to download Real Audio/Video streams. It’s a great program, but unfortunately the company got sued by Real and had to take it down. You can still find it on the net in a few dark corners, but I have a link to it in the forums.
(Note: I fucking lost my previous version of this entry while I was working on it) Secretary of State, Colin Powell, found time in his busy schedule to stop by the annual meeting of the Trilateral Commission to give a private off-the-record talk.
However, several members who attended the secretary’s speech declined to provide specifics of Powell’s remarks. …
In the commission’s 29-year-history, such discussions have remained closed to the public and all remarks made by speakers are off-the-record
So, essentially a bunch of unelected, unaccountable elitists get to meet privately with a senior member of our ‘elected’ government and we don’t get the privilege of knowing what exactly they’re discussing.
While I was at the Trilateral Commission’s official website I noticed that the former North American Chairman is Paul A. Volker. This is the same Paul A. Volker who is currently trying to help Arthur Andersen with their criminal problems having been caught cooking the books for Enron. Paul A. Volker, in addition to being a trilateralist, is also a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Does that seem a little improper? You didn’t hear nothing, bub! Keep moving!
The Trilateral Commission has an interesting story behind it.
Rockefeller’s idea for establishing the commission emerged after he had read a book entitled Between Two Ages written by an Establishment scholar, Prof. Zbigniew Brzezinski of Columbia University.
In his book Brzezinski proposed a vast alliance between North America, Western Europe and Japan. According to Brzezinski, changes in the modern world required it.
“Resist as it might,” Brzezinski wrote elsewhere, “the American system is compelled gradually to accommodate itself to this emerging international context, with the U.S. government called upon to negotiate, to guarantee, and, to some extent, to protect the various arrangements that have been contrived even by private business.”
In other words, it was necessary for the international upper class to band together to protect its interests, and to ensure, in the developed nations, that political leaders were brought to power who would ensure that the global financial interests (of the Rockefellers and the other ruling elites) would be protected over those of the hoi polloi.
I’ve been toying with the idea of offering downloads for members of LNS. I would most likely make them available on the forums. What would you like to see? Video, documentaries, music, books? It couldn’t be anything too big since I’d have to upload it to the server and besides I wouldn’t want to max out my bandwith. But, the fact is I don’t come close to using the allotted 15gb of traffic I’m allowed at this time. Some good things to download could be clips of shows like the Adventures of Pete and Pete or other hard to find programs. Nothing too huge, but maybe clips from a few different things.
Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal a few days ago. You can watch the entire thing here in Real Audio. I’ll try to download the whole file soon.
From Public Citizen:
Enron�s Failure in Water Ventures Highlights Dangers of Privatization to Consumers, Taxpayers
WASHINGTON, D.C. � Enron Corp.�s failed venture into the water business, which was marked by financial problems, complaints of poor service and allegations of political corruption, should serve as a warning to consumers and policymakers about the dangers of privatizing public water systems and resources, according to a Public Citizen report released today.
The report � Liquid Assets: Enron�s Dip Into Water Business Highlights Pitfalls of Privatization � draws lessons from the troubled history of Azurix Inc., a subsidiary created by Enron in 1998 to own and manage water and wastewater systems, provide water-related servicesand manage water assets. Click here to view a copy of the report on the Web.
“Companies like Enron sing a siren�s song about privatization of water resources and systems, but there is no evidence that private companies can provide better, less-expensive service to consumers and plenty of evidence that suggests otherwise,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen�s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. “Local and state governments should be extremely wary of entrusting such an essential human need as water to corporations that simply want to turn a profit.”
The Declaration of Independence is an amazing document. Since the American government has travelled down this dangerous path it becomes all the more important for us to take the words of the Declaration to heart. It is our duty to change a corrupt system, or if necessary, to overthrow it.
The FCC has mandated that all new cell phones be equipped with GPS locators. Ostensibly, this is to help law enforcement find people in emergencies, but this could easily be used by law enforcement agencies like the FBI to pinpoint and monitor the movements of individuals electronically without their knowledge. The FBI or any other agency from the federal level to the local level could potentially track the movements of individuals for months at a time. Essentially, this would be the same as having a chip implanted as most people with cell phones carry them on them at all times.
In other news, the FCC is trying to ram digital television down consumers’ throats. You can thank that choad, Michael Powell, and Eisner’s toady, Fritz Hollings. It is likely that when all television becomes digital that broadcasters may restrict viewers from recording programs without their consent. Do not buy a digital television. In fact, you might be better off turning off your television entirely. The only thing I usually watch is Washington Journal on C-SPAN.
Another good anti-war site from the right-libertarian side: Americans Against World Empire
A Pop Quiz on the Middle East by Charley Reese of the Orlando Sentinel
Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty and bars international inspections?
A: Israel.
This article from the Atlantic Monthly in 1987 was so good I wanted to reprint it here in case it ever went away. Props to Ethel the Blog for pointing me to it.
IN THE WINTER of 401 B.C. a tired and defeated army of Greek mercenaries was slowly making its way home from Mesopotamia, after failing to topple the Persian king Artaxerxes II. Crossing the Taurus Mountains, in what is today southeastern Turkey, the mercenaries were set upon by bands of Carduchi, a fierce race of bowmen, who caused more harm to the Greeks in seven days of hit-and-run raids than had the Persians during the entire Mesopotamian campaign. An account of the harrowing retreat was provided by Xenophon, one of the Greek commanding officers. Xenophon wrote that the Carduchi lived in the mountains and were nor subject to outside authority: “Indeed, a royal army of a hundred and twenty thousand had once invaded their country, and not a man of them had got back….”
Not all that much has changed in 2,400 years. The Carduchi may well have been what we now call Kurds, an Indo-European people, speaking a language akin to Persian, who first occupied the Zagros and Taurus ranges in the second millennium B.C. The Kurds are among history’s greatest warriors: Saladin, the Muslim general who repossessed Jerusalem and much of the Holy Land from the Crusaders, was a Kurd. Their bows and slings have long since been replaced by Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Perched on isolated slopes, amid oak and mountain ash, Kurdish guerrillas known as pesh mergas ("those who are prepared to die") have in recent years wiped out whole units of Turkish and Iraqi soldiers and Iranian revolutionary guards. True to their past, the Kurds are a law unto themselves.
Desperate for ‘allies’ and toadies to support its planned invasion of Iraq the United States has apparently sweetened the deal by offering Iraq’s northern oilfields to Turkey.
Dan Plesch reveals that, in return for supporting a new Gulf war, Turkey could get Iraqi oilfields
Many countries have spoken out against the Bush administration’s plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein, but it would be a mistake to suppose that they will in fact cause trouble if the bombs start to fall. Washington has a long record of bringing its allies into line.
Take Turkey. Its prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, continues to oppose publicly the idea of attacking Iraq. But there is every reason to believe that the US has already offered control of Iraq’s northern oilfields to Turkey in return for its support in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is what informed sources in Washington tell me; and it is confirmed by press reports of what Richard Perle, an influential adviser in the Bush administration, said while he was in Ankara with the vice-president, Dick Cheney.
The oil-rich Mosul area has been disputed since the collapse of the Ottoman empire at the end of the First World War. The British drew the maps and invented the states that exist today. Turkey disputed the British decision to give the Mosul province to the new Kingdom of Iraq, but finally accepted it in a treaty signed in 1926.
The Palestinians say Mohammed Salah was executed. The Israelis say he was a would-be suicide bomber. Who knows where the truth lies, but the photos are fucked up.
A coup attempt against the American puppet, Hamid Karzai, has apparently been foiled. I would be very scared if I were this guy. One of his ministers has already been assassinated and his government has a tenuous grip on power in Afghanistan. In reality, the US has secured only Kabul for the interim government. A tiny little chunk out of a large country. Thousands of American and British troops are required for his government to even hold on to this tiny perch. Karzai like all the other traitors (inlcuding Khalizad) to his country was once on the payroll of oil giant Unocal. He is also a wholly owned creature of the CIA. The Afghans seem to be a very independent people. I would not assume they would put up with an American stooge for too long.
From Al Martin RAW:
Now even US postage stamps will project the supremacy of American Imperial 
Power into the world. The new 57-cent stamp shows an eagle, which is an exact copy of the symbol of the Waffen SS, which in turn was taken from the Imperial Praetorian eagle of Ancient Rome. This is one of the first in a new series of postage stamps being released by the US Post Office to commemorate the New Age of State Power.
According to the Moh’s color chart, the color of the stamp used to be called Nordic or Aryan Blue – before the war. After the war, when those words became politically incorrect, the name of the blue was changed to the more neutral-sounding Icelandic Blue.
The stamp portrays an eagle resting on triple-perched pediments. It�s a beautifully executed design, if one wants to portray State Power. This eagle is man�s most ancient and recognizable symbol of State Power. The seven pediments on the eagle�s chevron shaped breastplate represent the seven hills of Rome. The three Ionic columned perch represents Order, Discipline and Obedience, which was the pledge undertaken by the Obsidian Order.
Any philatelist would recognize this eagle and any numismatist, who collects Third Reich or Caesarian coins, would also know it. This iconography is not original with the Third Reich, of course, since they borrowed it from the ancient Romans.
According to this article the Bush Administration is planning on attacking Iraq this summer between July and September. No doubt near September to capitalize on the emotionalism tied up with the destruction of the World Trade Center. Imagine every red-blooded Joe Six-Pack getting tears in their eyes as we drop bombs onto hospitals and power plants. “That’s for 9-11, you ragheads! The giant has awoken!”
The real goal is to assassinate Saddam Hussein despite the talk of this being another offensive in the ‘war against terror’.
If this doesn’t work, the diplomats and sources said, the United States would launch stage two of the military campaign. This would involve heavy air attacks on Iraqi military installations. Stage three calls for a ground attack.
Why does Saddam Hussein need to be assassinated? Why can’t he be arrested and brought to trial? In a great column by former CIA insider Al Martin he explains the reasons for this:
The truth is that the United States wanted Saddam to remain in power because there was only one shot to take Saddam out. He had to be liquidated. He couldn’t be captured even though he was under indictment in the United States for a variety of charges and also under indictment in the World Court. But the United States couldn’t afford to have Saddam a prisoner and thus be able to talk about his relationship with the Reagan-Bush Regime.
Lying is a way of life for these people. Everything they say is suspect. If Saddam Hussein somehow aided ‘terrorists’ and Bush/Reagan aided Hussein, doesn’t that make them terrorists too? If Osama bin Laden is a terrorist and Reagan-Bush aided bin Laden doesnt that make them terrorists? This might be a good time to check out the Bush family timeline.
Another .mil visitor today: 03 Apr, Wed, 07:01:35 msproxy.transcom.mil Netscape 4 Windows 2000 This time they came through a proxy via a google search on that information I posted on the Templar pardon. Strange.
Deficits are back thanks to our fearless leader. To keep from defaulting on the national debt (which has never happened in American history!) the Bush gang is raiding federal employee retirement accounts. Sounds like Enronomics to me. Of course, the Clinton gang did the same thing in 1995. Where’s Matt Dillon when you need him?
What possible explanation can be used to justify this? Even according to the prosecution Lindh had nothing to do with the death of CIA spook, Johnny Spann. Everything about this whole situation reeks of scapegoating. The US is eager to have something to show for all the fireworks and made-for-tv crap when in reality they have done really nothing. Bombing third-world civilians doesn’t really qualify as a war in my opinion.
A 21 year old man played Everquest minutes before he committed suicide. Now his mom and her lawyers are trying to sue the publisher, Sony, and says online games should come with warning labels. I feel bad that the guy was addicted and depressed, but this is ridiculous.
Warning labels are exactly what Jack Thompson, a Miami attorney and vocal critic of the entertainment industry, wants to result from a lawsuit he plans to file against Sony Online Entertainment for Elizabeth Woolley.
“We’re trying to whack them with a verdict significantly large so that they, out of fiscal self-interest, will put warning labels on,” he said. “We’re trying to get them to act responsibly. They know this is an addictive game.”
“I am sure we are going to find things akin to the tobacco industry memos where they say nicotine is addictive,” he said. “There is a possibility of a class-action lawsuit.”
Antiwar.com had a slew of great links today, as usual:
Our beloved Google has some competition in the search business. It’s called Teoma. We’ll see. Here’s a story about it at SFGate.com. It couldn’t find my name anywhere on the internet so I’m not impressed yet although according to that article the more advanced search capabilities won’t be unveiled until tomorrow at 5pm eastern.
Why in God’s name are the Democrats on their knees to help Hollywood pass draconian copyright laws? I know Big Media gives them lots of money, but they could try to make it look a little less like blatant quid pro quo. Email, fax, and call your elected officials and make sure they oppose the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act. I may be forced to vote Republican this year. I’m becoming one of those hard-to-pin-down swing voters. Well, at least Patrick Leahy is opposing this bill. Vermont has the most interesting senators, Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords. In the house they have the only socialist, Bernie Sanders.
Related:
Well, maybe not ever, but it is funny. I’m glad to see the people at Google have a sense of humor.
Good article on copy-protection standards and copying ‘copy-protected’ CD’s. Rally round the Jolly Roger.
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