August 31, 2004
Republican Exploiting-911 Convention Issue Watch: John McCain
Number of times the speaker mentioned
budget deficit: 0
social security: 0
civil liberties: 0
healthcare: 0
war in general/war on terror/terrorism: 7
9/11: 5
Saddam Hussein: 5
Bin Laden: 0
Guantanamo Judge Refuses to Pretend Trials Are Legal
~"Burying the lead"...
Bin Laden's 'guard' first to face naval base hearing by Marian Wilkinson, Telegraph (Filed: 25/08/2004) in the 6th paragraph...
Asked by the defence whether he believed the orders establishing the military commission were lawful, Col Brownback paused, and to the surprise of some observers, said: "I choose not to answer that question at this time."
Asked again by the military prosecutor, Commander Scott Lang, Col Brownback replied that he had "a duty to comply" with any order, even if it was "questionable".
Hamdan is the first of four detainees to face the commission this week for pre-trial hearings...Hamdan has been detained at Guantanamo for almost three years since he was captured in Afghanistan. His defence counsel says he was a low-level driver for bin Laden. Prosecutors say he was not only a bin Laden bodyguard but delivered weapons and other supplies to al-Qa'eda.
Security is tight around the court building but observers from the American Bar Association, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been allowed into the hearings.
Hamdan's lawyer argued that the court was unconstitutional and violated the Geneva Conventions.
Before entering the hearing, Cdr Swift issued a statement saying: "The current military commission flatly violates not only the United States constitution but the very laws of war the administration claims to be upholding."
Hamdan had told his lawyer in an affadavit: "I have not been permitted to see the sun or hear other people outside.
"I am alone except for a guard. One month is like a year here. I have considered pleading guilty to get out of here."
The hearing continues.
story
~God bless America and God bless the good men and women of the US Armed Forces. It's difficult for them to scale down their operations to fit inside an ordinary court of law.
Childish Things: Davis & Davis
"Darkly humorous art photographs that question the innocence of childhood."
more selected photos from "Childish Things"
The Sexual Socialization of Today's Teen
In today’s culture, a near omnipresent media plays more of a role in the socialization of children than ever before. As the values and standards of pornography and the sex industry become mainstreamed, these are the images and ideals that our teens draw from as they come to understand what it means to be men and women and how they should treat themselves and each other. Socially acceptable and socially desirable behaviors have been redefined, particularly in the realm of sexuality. There are many facets of teen culture that reflect these changes.
Some of the most obvious demonstrations of the sexual socialization of today’s teens can be found in their closets. Clothing is an important part of teen culture. It serves as a means of self-expression or a sign of affiliation with a particular social group or set of values, functioning as a social marker.
And what is it that teens hope to be socially marked as? They want to be ‘hot’, according to Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at npd.com, of the NPD Group, which is a Port Washington, N.Y.-based sales and marketing research company, reported Terri Goldberg for MSNBC on August 9, 2004.
Who is it that determines what is ‘hot’? Cohen tells us that the media is the primary influence upon youth in defining that elusive quality. Teens and preteens are expected to spend $884 million of their own money to achieve this goal, according to the results of a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retailers Federation..."
more of the article via: obscenity crimes.org
~Well researched article for parents who seemingly provided everything for their teenagers except compassion, empathy, self-reliance and self-esteem. For people who wake-up one day and realize their values can't compete with those of the free-market. Ironically the people often disturbed by these revelations are those who diligently work for and profit from the corporate mind-set that doesn't find anything wrong with advertising using and targeting children.
Child Self-Pornography
Child pornography-related offenses comprise one area of the law that is bound to grow as the Internet becomes ever more omnipresent....
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: State police have charged a 15-year-old Latrobe girl with child pornography for taking photos of herself and posting them on the Internet.
Police said the girl, whose identity they withheld, photographed herself in various states of undress and performing a variety of sexual acts. She then sent the photos to people she met in chat rooms. * * * She has been charged with sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography...
blog-post w/links to relevant articles, etc,
August 30, 2004
Jonathan's Space Report
The Space Report ("JSR") is issued about twice a month. It describes all space launches, including both piloted missions and automated satellites. Back issues are available online. To receive the JSR each week by direct email, send a message to...
link
Camera Phones Test Corporate Security
''Camera phones in the workplace create issues of privacy for employees and of protecting the proprietary secrets of employers,'' lawyer Vincent Alfieri said.
Vendors sold an estimated 8 million camera phones in the United States last year and will sell 23 million this year, according to Strategy Analytics of Newton, Mass...
''Cell phones are obviously ubiquitous...now most new models come with cameras built in and have Internet capabilities. It's a technology that can be problematic for employers.''
In business, some bans are prompted by the fear that trade secrets can be swiped, or that an employee might snap an unwanted picture of a co-worker. Samsung, for example, which makes camera phones, recently got a lot of attention for barring them at some manufacturing sites in its effort to protect against industrial espionage.
story
Some Notes on the NYC Protests
...the Strategic Importance of...
[excerpt]
WE ARE WINNING: THE PEOPLE REJECT BUSH IN NYC AND AROUND THE WORLD
A popular resistance to the war and domestic repression will energize tens of millions alienated from any political action, and will let people under threat of American cruise missiles and F-16s know that we do not consent. We are not "good Germans" doing the leaders' business. We are a free people whether the government gives us permission or not. If we have to choose between the warmongers and the world: we choose the world. Our audience is small town America, the city we live in and the rest of the world. The conservatives are a tiny minority and the liberals defeated.
We believe another world is possible and we're going to show it tomorrow. We will not allow police to suppress the will of the people. We are marching and the world will know. With their help, we can win.
See you in the streets.
more
~If wishes were horses....we'ld all be neck deep in horse shit.
I shouldn't be cynical. Anything that doesn't charge admission, takes people away from their tubes and has them walking should be wildly encouraged no matter how pointless.
~From someone who was there...
"Back from the protest march in front of the Republican Convention
Headquarters, along with a quarter million protesters yelling "Liar!
Liar!" in front of Madison Square Garden.
I see the CNN news report on it saying "thousands of protesters" were marching, and focusing entirely on a little fire and some smoke that was a few blocks away from the marchers. Our radio news commentators we listened to on our headphones spent the three hours we were in the march snearing at the marchers, making fun of them, saying "they seem to be purposely going slow along the march in order to attract more attention," and similar lies and put-downs.
Ah, American democracy!
Still, this is just a year and a half after the start of the Iraqi war, and it was an inspiring protest march; after a year and a half of Vietnam, there were few sizeable protests..."
via: psychohistory list @ topica
See also: About 200 Arrested in Anti-Bush Protest
New York police reported arresting around 200 people during a day of protest against President George W Bush on the eve of the Republican national convention.
"Most of the arrests were for disorderly conduct and occurred away from the march itself," city police commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters.
AFP reporters said the throng exceeded 100,000 with New York's Seventh Avenue jammed for more than 20 city blocks and more people streaming into the procession well into the afternoon.
~At that rate by Friday the NYPD should have around 1,400 protestors in custody. Will the Yankess let the police use Yankee Stadium?
From the Scotsman: 100,000 March Against Bush in Manhattan
The overwhelming theme was against the president. "Elect a madman, you get madness," read one banner. "Let’s solve the real intelligence gap," said another, beside a picture of Mr Bush with a red line through him.
Police have warned they have the capacity to make 1,000 arrests each day of the convention, and have already tested their apparatus of plastic handcuffs and makeshift cells (Saturday night)on cyclists who ended a mass ride around Manhattan with a sit-down protest.
Arrests started when one officer was hit with spaghetti. Police then started loading cyclists into specially prepared arrest buses, and piled confiscated bikes on to a lorry. By the end of the evening, 264 had been charged with breach of the peace.
Officers are also taking photographs of the demonstrators - a strategy intended, they say, to protect police against accusations of brutality. Helicopters were also hovering over protesters yesterday.
Inside the convention arena, a collection of Wall Street banks have got together to provide shelter for the delegates who do not want to stray into the activist-laden streets of the city.
Laying on a steady flow of champagne-charged receptions designed to run around the clock, any vaguely senior Republican involved in regulating banks has found a soirée in their honour.
The late-night parties are followed by breakfast seminars held at a selection of Manhattan’s swankiest venues.
Some 5,000 Republican delegates arrived in New York yesterday, greeted by volunteers carrying "welcome" placards.
~Swanky soirees. "Buddy can you spare a dime?"
List of Major Protests Planned During the RNC
1st Amendment Center
1st Amendment topics
~There's something here for anyone to speak freely about. Some image-related topics also.
GOP Delegates Meet With Anti-Bush Signs
Bright blue tarps, painted with glaring yellow letters, are going up on dozens of rooftops in Brooklyn, under the flight paths into busy New York airports. Thousands of delegates and convention guests peering down at the city might see messages like "No more years" and "Re-defeat Bush."
story
August 29, 2004
If you get this kind of information from the news...
... it's really no surprise the majority of people can't find their way around on a map.
The First Cut is the Deepest
The world's most pierced woman, Elaine Davidson from Brazil, a resident in the Scottish city of Edinburgh, poses for a photographer during the 6th Ti-Tattoo Convention in Lugano, Switzerland, late Friday, Aug. 27, 2004. Davidson claims to have upwards of 1,900 piercings, and has an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. (AP Photo/Keystone, TiPress/Samuel Golay)
BIRTHDATE: 30 April 1974
BIRTHPLACE: SaoPaulo, Brasil
BUST: 36"
WAIST: 24"
HIPS: 35"
HEIGHT: 5' 4 1/2"
WEIGHT:107 lbs
AMBITIONS: To be happy with whatever I do -- but singing & acting would be a dream come true!
TURN-ONS: Being touched on the lower back, good kissers, well-planned romantic evenings!
TURNOFFS: Hairy backs -- especially on men! Guys who whistle or say "Hey babe!" when you walk by.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURE: I have a mole that's seldom seen. And I'm not telling where.
STYLE: I'm free-spirited, funny, seemingly shy but secretly confident.
ELAINE's SECRET: I like to wear garter belts and satin & lace bras under jeans and sweatshirts!
SEX SCENE: Anywhere you might get caught! A golf course, the back porch, an elevator. . . .
After the Siege, a City of Ruins, Its Dead Rotting
The interesting thing about this piece inthe NYT is the following: Even though they try to portray the damage done, in the end they're way too excited about their own war machinery:
"For every shot they took, American troops returned scores or hundreds. For every mortar round the guerrillas lobbed, the gunners at the Marine base here responded with a 100-pound artillery shell. The insurgents had donkey carts loaded with rocket-propelled grenades, the Americans 70-ton tanks that can survive direct hits from mortars and grenades. The American advantage was especially large at night, when night-vision goggles allowed troops to see in the dark."
This is more or less exactly the style of the German WWII news programme "Wochenschau", in its reports about awesome German firepower that would overwhelm any enemy. And "For every shot they took, American troops returned scores or hundreds" is vintage Joseph Goebbels if you replace the "American" with "German".
And this is cute:
"Overwhelming American firepower has caused nearly all of the structural damage, although it is unclear whether guerrillas or American troops are responsible for more civilian casualties. Unlike the guerrillas, American troops generally appeared to make an effort not to fire at random, but when fired upon they responded with overwhelming force. They joke that they are living bait, luring guerrillas out of their holes to be killed."
It's cute because reports from the field indicate that US troops do fire at random when under stress, and it's also cute because it's the ago-old game of blaming the enemy for civilian deaths. It's basically more propaganda than real news.
So when was it that these not-so-well disguised reports of Rambo behaviour became mainstream again? I guess that's the biggest damage done by conservatives: Now, it's not bad any longer to do the Rambo. Meanwhile, millions of dead Vietnamese people are rotating in their graves.
August 28, 2004
Israeli Historian Documents 24 Cases of Mass Murder by Zionists
Q. Benny Morris, for decades you have been researching the dark side of Zionism. You are an expert on the atrocities of 1948. In the end, do you in effect justify all this? Are you an advocate of the transfer of 1948?
"There is no justification for acts of rape. There is no justification for acts of massacre. Those are war crimes. But in certain conditions, expulsion is not a war crime. I don't think that the expulsions of 1948 were war crimes. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. You have to dirty your hands."
article
~What, you thought "Holy Land" and "Chosen People" bestowed saintliness?
The FBI's Pre-Emptive Interrogations Of "Possible" Demonstrators: Chilling Political Speech
The FBI, no longer content with working to maintain order at political events, is now preemptively identifying and interrogating ("interviewing") possible demonstrators. It has summarized this strategy in a memo.
To make matters worse, the Department of Justice blessed the FBI strategy in its own memo - suggesting that no First Amendment concerns are raised by the interrogations.
As I will explain in this column, however, the truth is quite to the contrary: The strategy, as outlined in the memo, is a serious threat to free speech.
article by Bob Barr
~If the FBI's busy intimidating old hippies does it mean there are no terrorist threats? If they've the time and resources to quash legal dissent have all their 'anthrax' and 'Al Qaeda' leads dried up? Whew! What a relief! The crazy anthrax-mailing scientist was acting alone and isn't part of an organized gang and the only crazy Arabs who are plotting against us must be outside the USA, nowhere near these FBI agents.
Picturing Revenge
Go ahead, make my day: Revenge feels, oh, so good
"In (an) experiment, volunteers participated in a game of exchanging money back and forth.
The study combined an economic experiment with a brain scan — an example of the emerging field of "neuro-economics."
If one player made a selfish choice instead of a mutually beneficial one, the other could penalize him. The majority of the players chose to impose the penalty even when it cost some of their own money.
Using positron emission tomography (PET), the researchers determined that deciding to impose this penalty activated a "reward" region of the brain, the dorsal striatum, involved in anticipating enjoyment or satisfaction, whether from cocaine or seeing a pretty face.
The study concludes, "When people punish others who are deceitful, the reward centre of the brain is engaged even if the action yields no apparent benefit."
The researchers also found that the fantasy of revenge is immensely satisfying: "The activation in the dorsal striatum reflects the anticipated satisfaction from punishing defectors" — or, it appears, from seeing them suffer.
As (Stanford University psychology professor Brian) Knutson notes in his commentary, ("Sweet Revenge?" published in Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science)the Swiss researchers "appear to have captured this complex emotional dynamic of schadenfreude with a PET camera."
Also, Knutson explains, "There is a complex emotional dynamic when somebody wrongs us or people we love."
And the response isn't always logical..."
article thanks jason
~We humans are pastry bags filled with emotions.
It's reflective of I-don't-know-what that the world's leaders can never come right out and say that specific acts of terrorism may be acts of revenge. Especially odd when, according to the above story, all humans seem to be hard-wired for revenge and get actual jolts of pleasure from it. After googling the word 'revenge' I've learned that terrorists and journalists often cite revenge as a motive but those speaking for governments never(?) use the term to describe the attack. Nor do governments use the word revenge to describe aggressive actions they might take towards individuals, groups or other states. Not only must states have a monopoly on violence they must control the descriptions of violence?
In run-up to Republican convention: 24-hour surveillance of protest organizers
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has dispatched hundreds of cops around the country to put some 56 people under 24-hour surveillance in advance of the Republican National Convention (RNC). The convention, to be held at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, opens Monday, August 30.
According to a report issued by WABC News in New York City, the subjects of this spying operation have been identified as “primary anarchists” by the NYPD. They are each being watched by teams of five detectives plus one supervisor, according to the television news report.
The surveillance teams are being sent as far away as California, North Carolina, Washington DC and Boston. Their assignment is to tail the targeted protest organizers and follow them on their trips to New York.
Another group of 20 police officers have been masquerading as anarchist protesters as part of a deep undercover operation. They “have been meeting with, traveling with, and secretly reporting on the activists’ plans” for nearly two years, WABC reported.
story
~There's always room in the budget for 'red squads': a great American police tradition. It would be laughable (if costly) if these boys could stay satisfied with watching and listening and following and skulking but when they do all that and still nothing much illegal is happening they often enjoy another great police tradition that involves helping things along.
UK: Sleepwalking into a Surveillance Society
In an interview with the Times newspaper the UK Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, warns...
"My anxiety is that we don’t sleepwalk into a surveillance society where much more information is collected about people, accessible to far more people shared across many more boundaries than British society would feel comfortable with...”
"Some of my counterparts in Eastern Europe, in Spain, have experienced in the last century what can happen when government gets too powerful and has too much information on citizens...
“I don’t think people have woken up to what lies behind this. It enables the Government of the day to build up quite a comprehensive picture about many of your activities. My job is to make sure no more information is collected than necessary for any particular purpose.” Although he does not oppose the idea of identity cards, insisting that he cannot be “for or against”, he is critical of the Government’s failure to spell out in a draft Bill the cards’ exact purpose. He says: “The Government has changed its line over the last two or three years as to what the card is intended for. You have to have clarity. Is it for the fight against terrorism? Is it to promote immigration control? Is it to provide access to public benefit and services? Various other reasons have been put forward... I don’t think that is acceptable.”
article
~Quaint. It's unfortunate that in the States not enough lawmakers can make political hay out of privacy issues
Pixel
Former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky celebrates the pixel's 50th birthday
[excerpt]
So pixel plural and singular knits fixed vision
To pics in flux: either a seeming motion
Or the seeming stillness of a billion dancing dots
Choreographed like the tapestry's grid of knots
Dyed rose, blue, green in a map of subtle shades,
Soft edges melting precisely to depict the gods
Venus and Mars in the high-res Bayeux hanging:
Sex & Violence and Woman & Man: banging
Not for Broadcast
This year's best political ads are online.
Political ads are boring. That is, at least the ones you see on television. This year, it's easy to find funny, smart ads online that creatively praise and belittle the presidential candidates. The interest groups and 527 organizations that make the best commercials typically don't have the money to put their spots on TV, though. So, unless you're an insomniac who lives in a swing state, you probably haven't seen this year's best political spots.
article w/links
August 27, 2004
Public Power in the Age of Empire
Ordinary Americans have been manipulated into imagining they are a people under siege whose sole refuge and protector is their government. If it isn't the Communists, it's al-Qaeda. If it isn't Cuba. it's Nicaragua. As a result, this, the most powerful nation in the world - with its unmatchable arsenal of weapons, its history of having waged and sponsored endless wars, and the only nation in history to have actually used nuclear bombs - is peopled by a terrified citizenry, jumping at shadows. A people bonded to the state not by social services, or public health care, or employment guarantees, but by fear.
article via: conscientious
~Mmmm...now that's irony.
And if someone would put this in a song:
"We have to use our experience, our imagination, and our art to interrogate the instruments of that state that ensure that "normality" remains what it is: cruel, unjust, unacceptable. We have to expose the policies and processes that make ordinary things - food, water, shelter and dignity - such a distant dream for ordinary people. Real pre-emptive strike is to understand that wars are the end result of flawed and unjust peace." ...I would sing it everyday, as a call to prayer, as a lover's serenade, as a lullabye.
Dirty Tricks Patrician Style
Who would have believed that George Bush, with all the trouble over his National Guard service, could get John Kerry in hot water for his combat duty and medals in Vietnam? Well, anyone who saw what George Bush did to former POW John McCain in the 2000 primaries, which was even more outrageous.
story thanks Joerg
~Whenever I read about dirty tricksters in government I can't help but think about David Icke's implausible Reptilian Agenda.
Celebrity Observes: Guantanamo's Torture Regime a Shameful Disgrace
"I have also just finished reading the 115-page document Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay compiled by Birnberg Pierce & Partners, lawyers for the three British citizens released from Guantanamo Bay without charge in March. Their accounts of detention are horrifyingly similar to the conditions in Goli Otok. In both cases, the denial of a trial, and a specified date of release added to the physical torture the three endured.
Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed were captured in northern Afghanistan in November 2001. All three state that they were physically tortured in Sherbagan, Kandahar, before being consigned to the psychological and physical hell of Guantanamo Bay. In March this year they were sent back to England and released without charges.
Asif and Shafiq say they were interrogated by an SAS officer in Kandahar before they were flown to Guantanamo. Rhuhel states that he was questioned in Kandahar by MI5 and separately by someone from the Foreign Office. He was in a terrible state from prolonged sleep deprivation, starvation and dehydration. The MI5 officer told him he would be sent home if he agreed to "admit to everything" that was put to him. "I just said ’OK’ to everything they said to me. I agreed with everything, whether it was true or not. I just wanted to get out of there." During their two years of incarceration in Guantanamo M15 officers and a representative of the British embassy in Washington made six or seven visits/interrogations. All three men made complaints about the conditions under which they were being held; and about the interrogations by US military intelligence and other US agencies. The British intelligence services and the Foreign Office appear therefore to be complicit in the conditions of psychological and physical torture in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay."
article
~She has a right to her observations.
Isn't it ironic that the two nations that claim responsibility for the defeat of world communism are complicit in torture indistinguishable from what was practiced by those totalitarian regimes?
The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm
Life Magazine's photo essay on possible birth defects stemming from Gulf War service.
~No purple hearts for these soldiers.
Talk Show Host Kicked in the Head
story
~I haven't a clue who this is, and I'm not really sure why it's funny. Enjoy.
August 26, 2004
Olympic Committee Furious Over Bush Ads
The ads use words and images to invoke the Athens Games.
One says "This Olympics ... there will be two more free nations" in a clear reference to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The ads air on MSNBC, CNBC and other NBC cable networks during their Olympic programming.
(International Olympic Committee marketing head Gerhard) Heiberg said that having seen the ad, "We would like to see it changed a little."
Other officials are less reticent.
"The arrogance of the US administration is quite amazing. To hijack the Olympics name ... it is difficult to put it into words," said one senior IOC member.
There was further anger here when there were suggestions that President Bush would come to the Olympics if Iraq had won their semi-final soccer match against Paraguay on Tuesday.
It was seen by many IOC members as another move by the US president to exploit the Olympics in his campaign against his Democratic rival John Kerry.
story
Sistani Calls for March on Najaf
The most venerated Shia cleric in Iraq made a sudden intervention in the Najaf crisis yesterday by returning to the country and calling on his supporters to march to the embattled holy city.
American Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic, asked if the US military would suspend operations following Ayatollah Sistani's return, said: "The Iraqi leadership is leading this effort. We will follow whatever course of action the Iraqi leadership decides."
Some 500 Iraqi troops and 2,000 US marines have been deployed to the area around the shrine.
story / also
~True believers versus shock and awe troops of the new world order? (Now there's a story we all understand.)
Will "Operation Enduring Freedom" ultimately be co-opted by non-violent resistance based on the practices of Gandi and Martin Luther King?
Can America's media report on non-violent demonstrations in Iraq? Are periodic reports of Iraqi violence necessary to justify military operations?
How long will the media allow the US Military to define the enemies of Iraq?
What No Bowling?
France's Nicolas Touzaint comes over a jump as he rides Galen De Sauvagere in the jumping portion of the three-day event competition at the Markopoulo Equestrian Center near Athens during the 2004 Olympics Games, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
~ Croquet? Tiddlywinks? Poker?
Which Sports Are Olympic Worthy?
How not to deal with this Michael Moore moment...
"A Texas state official and Vietnam veteran, Jerry Patterson, said someone from the Bush campaign contacted him this morning and asked him if he would travel to the ranch, welcome Cleland to Texas and accept the former senator's letter to Bush.
"'I tried to accept that letter and he would not give it to me," said Patterson. "He would not face me. He kept rolling away from me. He's quite mobile.'" (story)
You gotta give it to the right-wing: They stick to their positions. They're not going to learn how to deal with these cheap Michael-Moore-type stunts. Instead, they rather make an ass out of themselves. Very classy.
Prisoner Abuse Report: Much of the Abuse Didn't Happen at Abu Ghraib
"One point that the papers fly by—and which, in fairness, the report itself might gloss over: Much of the recorded abuse didn't happen at Abu Ghraib. The report found 300 overall cases under investigation—three times what the military has previously acknowledged—in Iraq, Gitmo, and Afghanistan. The NYT raises this issue, albeit in the 16th paragraph. A Red Cross report, which made news a few months ago, said officers "confirmed that it was part of the military intelligence process to use inhumane and degrading treatment, including physical and psychological coercion." The Post did a detailed piece at the time: "MISTREATMENT OF DETAINEES WENT BEYOND GUARDS' ABUSE."
article [6th paragraph]
~thanks Devin.
"I'm too old for this shit."
(actual quote of the guy after his shoulder got damaged while lifting a weight)
Gangs of America by Ted Nace
"Gangs of America describes the expansion of corporate legal empowerment onto the global stage through international agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which boosted the legal powers of corporations to the level of sovereign nations. The book pays special attention to recent events, including campaign finance reform, the financial scandals of 2002, and the growing movement to redefine the corporation and limit corporate power."
link to more intro. [download the book for free]
~Next month's Spitting-Book Klub selection.
Texas Fishing Photo Gallery
link to 150+photos
~Fishing is one of the few remaining outdoor activiites in which the consumption of alcohol is socially acceptable, if not required.
These photos suggest that the story of 'beauty and the beast' may be more than a romance; all but requiring that we viewers ask, "which one's ' beauty'"?
August 25, 2004
Company Won't Share Siegfried & Roy Video
The U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to obtain video of the show through two recent subpoenas but Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment would not hand over the footage, a USDA source familiar with the case said...
USDA spokesman Jim Rogers said Tuesday from Washington D.C., that the probe into the tiger attack remains open and confirmed that the show is under investigation for possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act...
story
~Roy wasn't on the USDA's list of approved tiger feed?
Thatcher's Son Arrested in Coup Plot
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- South African police arrested Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, early Wednesday on allegations he was involved in a plot to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, police said.
story
~The Brits can show the Americans [how not to pull off] a 'dirty trick' or two.
I hope the press and the courts understand that Mr.Thatcher was motivated solely by his desire to bring the freedoms of British Constitutional Monarchy to all nations of the world, and not by potential profits from oil.
Boot Camp for Talent Competition
The young women were selected as finalists from 400 who auditioned at George R. Brown Convention Center on Aug. 14 for Project Popstar, a talent search by Knowles' Music World/Sanctuary record label, 104 KRBE radio station, Pepsi and the city of Houston to create a new female singing group. The Popstar experience is being videotaped by VT2 studios in Houston.
Knowles' two-week boot camp provides the finalists with rigorous vocal and dance training to prepare them for the final competition. Five contestants then will be selected to become part of a new female singing group.
Each weeknight, they work with vocal coaches Tom McKinney and Charles Dotson on their harmonies and with choreographer Herman Charles III on their dance moves. But the weekend break from training has proved to be too much time off.
"I can tell they have lost focus," Knowles says. "They are new at this. They aren't in a place where they know how to go from fun to focus. They are stuck....
story
~Did you ever want something so much you could almost taste it?
War on Terror Factoid
Q: How much do terror-alerts cost?
Ans: (New Jersey Attorney General Peter C.) "Harvey said terror alerts in the past have cost the state between $250,000 and $350,000 per day, mainly in police overtime, and that measures for the convention are also likely to be costly.
"The sad truth is that New Jersey did not get a dime for the Republican National Convention," Harvey said.
The Federal Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return calls seeking comment on Harvey's assertion."
story [scroll down to end]
~Get out your calculators. From March 2002, when Terror Alerts were instituted, through May 2003 there were 79 days of "Orange" (heightened) Alert to which I'm guessing Mr.Harvey's referring. Add another 30 Orange Alert till now?
Multiply $250,000. X 109. Divide that total by New Jersey's population: 2003 (est.) 8,638,396. And you have a very rough estimate of total Orange Alert costs per-person. Take that number and multiply it by USA's (est) population: 290,809,777. minus the 8.6 million New Jerseyians and there you are. Of course no one can put a price-tag on freedom.
Semper Sensitive
From a handout that accompanies a weeklong course on Iraq’s customs and history given to U.S. Marines as part of their training. The course, devised by the Marine Corps Division Schools, was introduced last September with the intention of improving relations between Iraqis and U.S. forces.
Excerpt:
Physical contact
Touching among same sex is not considered homosexual. Good friends often hold hands as a sign of friendship.
They keep no distance between individuals, even when sitting.
If you move back they will just close the distance again.
Gestures
To signal a vehicle to stop, place arm in front of you, palm down, and then move entire arm up and down. If you simply face the palm toward a person, it means hello, not stop, as in America.
“That’s enough, thank you”—patting heart a few times.
The thumbs-up used to be obscene, but children are accepting it and using it. They also know the thumbs-down.
The okay sign that Americans make is considered bad. It is an evil eye.
more examples via: Harper's Weekly
Ever wondered why "synchronized swimming" is olympic?
(beats me, too)
Radio Personality Joe Frank
profile ~Big fun.
For example: "When endowed with profound religious feeling, your skin becomes transparent and your blood begins to turn a thin watery hue until the light of the sun streaming in the window passes entirely through you. At last, having evolved into pure spiritual energy, nothing remains of your existence but a small pile of dirty underwear, damp socks, rumpled garments, a driver's license, credit cards and perhaps a small nail clipper."
- Joe Frank -
So where does the buck stop?
"There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels."
August 24, 2004
The Political Brain
As The (NY) Times reported not long ago, a team of U.C.L.A. researchers analyzed the neural activity of Republicans and Democrats as they viewed a series of images from campaign ads. And the early data suggested that the most salient predictor of a ''Democrat brain'' was amygdala activity responding to certain images of violence: either the Bush ads that featured shots of a smoldering ground zero or the famous ''Daisy'' ad from Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 campaign that ends with a mushroom cloud. Such brain activity indicates a kind of gut response, operating below the level of conscious control.
Could the U.C.L.A. researchers be creating the political science of the future?
article by Steven Johnson ; register/signin: unknown/unknown
~21st century phrenology?
When in sci/fi dystopian mode I sometimes imagine that within institutions Americans form social groups primarily based on the sort of trauma they've suffered or identify with: not income, race, ethnicity or attractiveness.
There's the 'incest club: sibling, paternal and maternal branches; the beaten not raped club (mostly men); the 'raised by strangers' republicans; the raised by stoner/pill-popper/alcoholic/single mother democrats and republicans; the screaming perfectionist father/mother club; the death-in-the-family-from-violence/disease/accident club; the us-against-the-world-24/7/365 club etc.
Could trauma unconsciously organize people into super families, 'coincidence crowds'?
CNN outfoxes Fox
Looks like Fox got a serious competitor in this year's journalistic race to the extreme right.
Google Image Search/ inurl:leepotts.com/
[The Eyes Have It @]
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[Betacorpo] @
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Wounded by Friendly Fire
"A group of veterans financed by Republicans from Texas and close to President George Bush are airing ads calling him a liar for the claims he has made about his service and suggesting that he did not come by his military medals honestly. Their case is shoddy, given that none of the Swift-boat Veterans for Truth were with Kerry at the time and their claims have been refuted by those who were. Their motivation is shabby, as most of them are piqued by the fact that Kerry returned home to campaign against the war. All of which makes the fact that their attacks have had such a huge impact that much more revealing. [...]
"There are three things we can learn from this. First, there is no level to which Republicans will not stoop to besmirch a character, belittle an issue or befuddle the electorate. Second, there is no level to which the Democrats will not stoop to attempt to neutralize these attacks. And third, that the Republicans will always win in this race to the bottom because so much less is expected of them and, when it comes to muck-slinging, they have no qualms about getting their hands dirty. [...]
"But if the method of attack by Republicans is underhand, the issue they have chosen for this attack is understandable. For it was Kerry, not Bush, who placed his military service center stage in this election campaign. The logic of doing so was clear enough. Clips of Kerry striding through the delta carrying a gun while his band of brothers (those who served with him) offered testimony of his heroics, served as a double whammy. They established Kerry in the public mind as a strong leader in wartime while providing a contrast with Bush, who stayed at home. [...]
"Kerry is not only running for president, but in flight from a history he knows only too well. When he returned from Vietnam he testified before the Senate foreign relations committee that American troops had 'raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to genitals and turned up the power, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians [and] razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ganghis Khan.' Just a few reasons why that beacon has burned so dimly for so long, and why Americans deserve a better choice." full text
August 23, 2004
"The Thrilll of Competition..."
Italy's Alexandra Araujo (L) exposes Kazakhstan's Tatyana Gubina's breast as they fight for position during their women's preliminary water polo match at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games @ via: aberrant news
~"Exposes" = Photo-caption expurgation?
Depleted Uranium: Dirty Bombs, Dirty Missiles, Dirty Bullets
This week the American Free Press dropped a “dirty bomb” on the Pentagon by reporting that eight out of 20 men who served in one unit in the 2003 U.S. military offensive in Iraq now have malignancies. That means that 40 percent of the soldiers in that unit have developed malignancies in just 16 months.
Since these soldiers were exposed to vaccines and depleted uranium (DU) only, this is strong evidence for researchers and scientists working on this issue, that DU is the definitive cause of Gulf War Syndrome. Vaccines are not known to cause cancer. ...in this war soldiers were not exposed to chemicals, pesticides, bioagents or other suspect causes this time to confuse the issue.
This powerful new evidence is blowing holes in the cover-up perpetrated by the Pentagon and three presidential administrations ever since DU was first used in 1991 in the Persian Gulf War...
article
~No purple heart medals for these soldiers?
caption/ article
Bobby Fischer Photo Gallery
~Bobby Fischer: World Chess Champion; and persecuted(?)...
Friday, August 20, 2004 at 05:00 JST
TOKYO — U.S. claims that detained former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was traveling on a revoked passport are legally baseless and a contravention of U.S. passport rules, Fischer's lawyer said Thursday.
"The U.S. government has admitted during court proceedings that it had not informed Fischer that his passport had been revoked until July 14, the day after his detention at Narita airport," Masako Suzuki told reporters. Citing U.S. passport rules, Suzuki said "there is no legal justification" for revoking the passport. Under the rules, the government must first inform the passport holder of revocation for the revocation process to start." (Kyodo News)... anti-American anti-Semite.
~Maybe if the press stopped calling him Bobby he would get a grip on reality? He's the genius version without the drug-abuse excuse of Courtney Love or most grown-up child-actors.
For the hell-of-it, compare and contrast the above photos with for example the AP's Athens 2004 gallery. The reason the "Mental Olympics" draws so few contestants and fans?
August 22, 2004
Google Image Search: inurl:jmcolberg
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US Doctors Tied to Prison Abuse
LONDON—U.S. military doctors and medics at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were "complicit" in the torture of Iraqi detainees and faked death certificates to try and cover up homicides, says a report in a top British medical journal.
The scathing analysis in The Lancet puts the spotlight on the role of medical professionals in a torture scandal that has so far focused on the abuse committed by U.S. soldiers.
In an interview, Miles (University of Minnesota professor Steven Miles) said he decided to investigate the role of doctors in the torture scandal because of a nagging question: "Why were the doctors quiet? Why didn't the medical profession blow the whistle?'"
story
~Iatrogenic fatalities?
August 21, 2004
Hispanic Contestants Brave Reality TV for Green Card
The show (“Gana la Verde,”..."Win the Green") has had hundreds of contestants willing to eat burritos crammed with live worms, jump off speeding trucks, or wash windows on a skyscraper in exchange for free legal help with their green card or visa cases. Many of the shows stunts feature a Mexican theme. There is no guarantee they will receive a green card and spokespeople from the immigration department have chastised the show for offering false hope to people because cases are decided according to laws. The show which began this summer in Los Angeles has received high ratings. Southern California is home to approximately two million immigrants and many more who are here illegally and trying to stay in the country...
story / For more see this blog entry at El Oso and El Moreno.
Iraqi Footballers Fury at Bush
Iraq's successful Olympic football team has launched an outspoken attack on US President George W Bush.
Midfielder Salih Sadir said the team - which won its group stage in Greece - was angry it had been used in Mr Bush's re-election campaign ads.
One accused the US leader of committing "many crimes", and another said he would be fighting US troops if not for Athens.
Their comments were made in a US Sports Illustrated magazine interview.
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," said the Iraqi player.
"He can find another way to advertise himself."
He called for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. "We don't wish for the presence of the Americans in our country. We want them to go away."
Another star player, 22-year-old Ahmed Manajid, asked: "How will [Mr Bush] meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes."
story
~"I would like to thank God and by the way tell the Americans to get-the-fuck-out of our country."(?!) I think I prefer my sports champions to be more like Chico Escuela ("Football has been very very good to me.")
Jason/Atomgrid sees portents in the above story:
"Hasn't everybody appeared in a Bush campaign ad at this point in time? I'm not so much surprised as to what appears in a Bush ad as I'm am to the _frequency_ of his ads in the past two weeks. Obviously, he's burning through his ad cash because after the GOP Convention he's got US$75-million, but he comes off as frantic."
August 20, 2004
Oprah's Jury Verdict: It's Another World
"It's a huge reality check," said Winfrey after the verdict. "There's a whole other world going on out there ... when your life intersects with others in this way, it is forever changed. I heard this would be a jury of one. We were a jury of 12 and we came to the decision that the defendant was guilty."
I had problems looking at the graphic evidence. I'm not a person who watches murder shows. If there's a gun involved and it's in a movie, I turn away. I make a choice not to go to violent films. I make a choice not to watch violence on television or read about it," she said.
The $17.20 daily paycheck for jurors was a far cry from Winfrey's usual income as the queen of daytime talk that has helped make her a billionaire.
Lorraine Coleman, the mother of the murderer, believes it made a difference to the verdict.
"It wasn't a fair trial," she said. "They focused on Oprah instead of my son. I don't watch her show anyway. I watch Montel. And Maury."
story / also here
~I've seen the light. I've been inspired. From now on I'm not doing anything I haven't seen a celebrity do in real life. No act is too lowly, banal, inconvenient or a waste of time if a celebrity has taken time away from performing to do it first.
Jumping out of an airplane? Papa Bush did it on his last birthday. Waiting for stamps at the Post Office? I've read Warren Beatty did that once. Jody Foster stopped making movies to go to school! Ernest Hemingway shot a rhino. Cary Grant took LSD. Princess Di binged and purged. Cleaning the toilet? I've no reports of celebrities ever doing that. etc. etc. Celebrities will be my Living Patron Saints. Sanctifying the mundane, purifying the puerile, anointing by their example the most trivial activities (in the above: the guilt or innocence of a man facing life imprisonment) with significance above and beyond what they've ever meant before.
Anything celebrities consent to do in the real world (and of course on tv and in the movies) are the only things worth doing.
Virginia Battles Statutory Rape
The state health department in Virginia has engaged in a campaign against statutory rape. A billboard stands above I95 asking: "Isn't she a little young? Sex with a minor. Don't go there." A web site on this is getting thousands of hits.
The department has created coasters, matchbooks and other items with anti-statutory rape messages for bars and restaurants which are frequented by young men. $85,000 of federal funds were used for this campaign which other states want to replicate.
Statistics show that 70% of the children born to 14 and 15 year old females have fathers who are approximately 18 years of age. Grace Sparks of Planned Parenthood says: "If she starts at 11 or 12, her partner is more likely to be a decade or older."
story
~[Riddle this] If this ad campaign's successful and it spreads to other states, where will future strippers and hookers come from?
[Clue] "Grace Sparks, president of Planned Parenthood-Virginia, said studies show that the younger girls start having sex, the older their partners tend to be."
E-mail your answers to: uselesseater [at-use the symbol] msn.com
The Conscience of Joe Darby
He hasn't done any interviews or made any statements since it happened, hasn't talked publicly about what he saw in Abu Ghraib prison or what made him turn in those pictures on that January night in Iraq. All we know is that he did turn them in and that everything changed because of it. The rest is speculation. He's been under a gag order for three months.
He wouldn't mind talking, actually; he wants you to know the truth. The desire to tell the truth was how he got into this thing in the first place. He was the guy who stood up to evil when everyone else fell silent, the guy who put himself on the line when nobody else would...
article by Wil S. Hylton. via: conscientious
~Being a human being ain't getting any easier, Homelanders.
Iraq Defense Minister Insists Iraqi Forces Will Storm Shrine
~Part of this story originally appeared late Tuesday:
... Defence Minister Hazim al-Shaalan said an assault was imminent.
"They have a chance. In the next few hours they have to surrender themselves and their weapons," Shaalan said in the city after meeting local officials. "We are in the process of completing all our military preparations... We will teach them a lesson they will never forget," he said.
American marines and soldiers have been doing the bulk of the fighting in Najaf, but Shaalan said Iraqi forces had been training to storm the shrine complex and could complete such an operation within hours.
"It will be Iraqis who enter the shrine... there will be no American role in this, except giving air protection and protecting some roads leading to the shrine. But the entry (of the shrine) will be 100 percent Iraqi," Shaalan told Al Arabiya, a pan-Arab television channel, in Najaf.
story
~The wording of the warning above and the realization that the US Military was "protecting some roads leading to the shrine" reminded me of the Siege of Waco.
Do you think only Iraqis will be allowed to storm the shrine? It's a huge building with lots of areas for the bad guys to hide?
US Atrocities In Najaf
If the US body counts from Najaf are accurate, at least 500 of the Iraqi fighters have been killed, and thousands more wounded, in a week of bitter fighting to drive Sadr’s Mahdi Army militiamen from their defensive positions in the cemetery to the west of the Imam Ali Mosque—one of the most sacred of Shiite Muslim shrines.
Describing the conduct of the US forces, a Marine spokesman told the Associated Press on August 11 that they had “pretty much just been patrolling and flying helicopters all over the place, and when we see something bad, we blow it up.”
No estimate is being given by the US attackers of civilian casualties, but given the massive firepower being thrown against urban centers—including the Shiite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad and other southern Iraqi cities besides Najaf—they must number in the thousands.
Earlier this week (August 13) ,the US military told tens of thousands of Najaf residents their homes were a “military zone” and ordered them to evacuate. Thousands chose to defy the invaders, or were prevented from leaving by the fighting raging all around them.
Electricity, water and medical services have ceased to function in the city of 600,000...
The US media has failed to take note of the bitter irony in the American military laying waste to the religious and cultural center of Iraq’s Shiite population. The “no-fly zone” enforced by the US over southern Iraq from 1991 until last year’s invasion was justified as a measure to protect the Shiite population from repression by Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime. The US invasion was propagated as an act of “liberation” of the oppressed Shiites.
Now the American “liberators” are unleashing the most savage repression the Shiites have suffered since 1991...
story
~Ignore the socialist firebrand rhetoric. Earler this week another story about Najaf reminded me of the Waco Siege. Except this place in Iraq is in the center of a city, at a historic religious shrine, as opposed to a cult's compound on the outskirts of town, and here there's no mention of the need to use tanks to protect the women and children being held. Also no one in the media has named this event "The Siege at Najaf" or has bothered to count the days or profiled the people inside.
As I remember the Waco Siege didn't end all that well for a number of individuals and families. Peace was restored, the forces of law & order (the good guys) were victorious and a number of local and federal law-enforcement officials had their careers secured, yet some people still question if the women & children inside the Waco compound needed to be saved from a fate worst than death. Thank God, questions like that will not be asked when our military's through with Najaf.
August 19, 2004
Protest Peacefully, Get Discounts in NYC
NEW YORK - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg thinks he's found a way to pin down rowdy protesters at the Republican National Convention - by offering them a powder-blue button that labels them "Peaceful Political Activists."
In a bid to tame potentially disruptive protests, Bloomberg and tourism officials Tuesday offered a unique package of discounts on hotels, restaurants, plays - even cut-rate entry to the Museum of Sex - to the best-behaved demonstrators.
There are also discounts to plays, including "Naked Boys Singing," which features full frontal nudity and show tunes.
In exchange for the package, the protesters must promise to obey city laws and regulations and pick up their blue pledge pin, Bloomberg said at a news conference at NYC & Co., the city's tourism bureau.
He acknowledged, however, that compliance was voluntary.
"We can't stop an anarchist from getting a button," the mayor said when asked if the pins could guarantee good behavior. "I don't know how many anarchists will want to wear this button?. But they still would get the discounts as long as they have the button."
story
~Isn't it ironic that the discounts the Mayor is offering are the same ones promoted since shortly after 9/11?
Will a blue buttom guarantee protection from tear-gas? Arrest? A police beating?
Olympic Ceremony
A Centaur throws a lance during the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Friday, Aug. 13, 2004.(AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
Olympic Ceremony
A woman with a glowing "pregnant" stomach participates as part of the show at the opening ceremony of the 2004 summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, Frida, Aug 13, 2004.(AP Photo/Tom Hanson)
Robert Scheer's Summer Olympic Blog
(Indianapolis) Star photographer Robert Scheer is writing a daily online diary during the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
"In the arenas, the Americans are a loud, patriotic bunch, but out on the streets, you never see them. So, when I covered the bike races this past weekend, I made it a point to listen for American accents. I made pictures of a few, and even after showing them my USA Today Olympic credentials, they didn't want to talk, hesitated to give their names. Very paranoid, and a little sad really."
link
~Cyberjournalist links to more journalists' blogs from the Olympics through here.
Strange but I can't find any of Robert Scheer's Olympic photographs, you know, the ones he writes about? The Indianapolis Star features an impressive AP Athens 2004 flash gallery but there were no photos by Robert Scheer there either.
After some Googling, Robert Scheer's Olympic photos are being published by USA Today, not his newspaper the Indianapolis Star. Makes perfect sense.
The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11
~For example:
That Jonathan Bush’s Riggs Bank has been found guilty of laundering terrorist funds and fined a US-record $25 million must embarrass his nephew George, but it's still no justification for leaping to paranoid conclusions.
That George Bush's brother Marvin sat on the board of the Kuwaiti-owned company which provided electronic security to the World Trade Centre, Dulles Airport and United Airlines means nothing more than you must admit those Bush boys have done alright for themselves.
That George Bush found success as a businessman only after the investment of Osama’s brother Salem and reputed al Qaeda financier Khalid bin Mahfouz is just one of those things - one of those crazy things.
link to more cited coincidences
~At least we know the Bushites on 9/12 just didn't pull the name "Al Qaeda" out of their asses.
Army Images
[caption; link to 836kb version]
~Army Image search results: family / boy / girl / food / water / shelter / school / toy
home page for 689 Army Images
~Searching mother, father, sister, brother, child might be another way to human-size this collection of images.
August 18, 2004
The Damage Done
"The men in these photographs are soldiers who were wounded in Iraq. Two of them were wounded in firefights. One was delivering ice. Another walked off into the desert on a bathroom break and stepped on a mine. One was wounded while blowing up a munitions dump. Two of the soldiers who look the least damaged are blind, far more damaged than the camera can record..."
photo essay via: conscientious
~Last evening while channel surfing, avoiding commercials on "Sex in the City", I watched one of those cable-news celebrities ask General Schwartzkopf, the hero of the Gulf War, if the American people were "aware of the 6,500 casualties" inflicted on American troops in Iraq "during this engagement". The General replied something like he was sure the American people were aware of the brave sacrifices... and we all hope for a speedy conclusion that's fair to all sides.
I got the feeling that both men weren't thinking about what they were saying. Perhaps empathy creates unpleasant sensations for them or focus groups have proven empathy's not watchable? The actresses on Sex in the City were more involved in their fictional situations then these two men talking about real-life tragedies. During that commercial break I gained a new respect for acting as an acquired skill and a better understanding of the limits of celebrity. Hero generals and celebrity reporters might be as inarticulate as the next guy or gal when attempting to describe the effects of explosive metal and plastic, disease and accident on individuals sent in service to a cause (which they now, more than any of us will ever, realize was) greater then their own well being. Add what one might imagine the families of the injured and dead are facing now and into the future and you have a question that might take more than a general, an award winning reporter and 20 seconds to answer.
Sensor Synergy
Today, a human almost always reviews this battlefield information. Realizing the full potential of the constellation will require direct “machine-to-machine” information exchange. The “machines” are the sensors that produce information and command and control systems that process it.
These real-time machine conversations can quickly enable BMC2 to turn the vast amounts of information that C2ISR sensors produce into “knowledge” about the battlespace. Machine-to-machine exchanges can also speed the flow of information from sensor to decider, to shooter, and even directly from sensor to weapon. Because machines communicate faster and without “human error,” these exchanges will increase both the accuracy and velocity of combat...
press release
~I wonder how this can be adapted for personal use? I imagine there's dictators, drug lords, CEOs, celebrities and politicians who wouldn't think twice about employing a system much like this to guard their homes. As soon as state assemblies and insurance companies approve its use in urban as well as rural areas, of course.
Leaflet Drop: The Paper Landscapes of War
Leaflets were first deployed as a tactical weapon of war by the Germans during World War I to announce their imminent descent upon Paris. From that time forward, paper has rained from the skies during nearly every war (including the Cold War) to persuade the enemy to abandon its position. More recently, a storm of text inundated landscapes in Iraq, where millions of leaflets were routinely dropped by the United States military both prior to and during the war to demoralize soldiers and civilian workers. According to the Guardian, one leaflet warns Iraqis that by repairing damaged communication infrastructure: “‘you are risking your life,’” because “‘the cables are tools used to suppress the Iraqi people by Saddam and his regime, they are targeted for destruction.’” The leaflets, which blanket the ground to ensure easy visibility, create a literal terrain of propaganda: an environment that destabilizes by surrounding the adversary...
article w/illus. by Jennifer Gabrys
Jon-Erik Beckjord, BA (honors -Tulane),MBA (UC Berk.)
is a managment consultant and also an investigtor of anomalous phenomena world-wide, spirit photographer, an adventurer, traveller, lecturer and author. There is a tremendous amount of info, photos, evidence in these sites linked below, and how can Beckjord have done this? He used his MBA skills, Mensa traits, & photographic skills, to go out and go after these mysteries full time, working only to get the next airline ticket, while others decided to raise kids, become middle-managers, watch TV, join Little League, and get early heart attacks. Your webmaster avoided that, is broke, but he has had a glimpse of the mysterious, and it has been worth it. Adventure! Now he shares it with you, and several books will be made from these sites. Letterman, Leno, and Good Morning America all approve, he's been on em all, and more. Now take a look.
August 17, 2004
Americans Prove to be World Class Whiners
South Africa? Puerto Rico? They didn't win — U.S. simply beat itself.
story
~From which Jason/Atomgrid sagaciously surmises:
"At every Olympics there's always a couple of countries that have something ideological at stake and they typically get their noses rubbed in it. The first example that springs to mind is Hitler stripping Jesse Owens of his medal at the 1936 Berlin games, but at a jaw session I was reminded of the Black Power salute during an medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico City games.
The long version is, thanks to our never-ending deluded state that we're the world's _only_ remaining superpower combined with Bush 43's "yer either with us or aginst us" foreign policy we're in the position that every time a country scores a victory against us it's _perceived_ as chipping away at our national collective psyche. The short version is, we're getting our noses rubbed in it.
In America, we throw money at problems and I didn't see the same level of "proud sponsor" advertising during TV commercial breaks over the past two-years so, without having seen the math, my first guess would be the US teams were underfunded which in turned resulted in our athletes being undertrained. But never let national pride get in the way of corporate tax cuts resulting in record corporate profits."
~Usually when I (Cieciel) watch athletes explain themselves on tv, I'm reminded of Garrett Morris' "Chico Escuela" a recurring character on the old Saturday Night Live:
"Chico, to what do you attribute your phenomenal success since joining the NY Mets?
[Chico]: "Well Mr. Murray, I hit the ball, I catch the ball, I throw the ball."
A Nation of Paedophiles
If sex with children is so wicked, why are we relaxed about under-age pregnancy?
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that fear and hatred of paedophilia exists in exact proportion to the licentiousness that creates the conditions in which it is most likely to occur. When mobs stone paedophiles in police vans, therefore, they are expressing anger not at the monster inside, but at their debased and degraded way of life which they know perfectly well to be wrong. I know prisoners who would beat imprisoned paedophiles to a pulp if they had the chance. Yet they have often themselves fathered children whom they have then abandoned to the mercies of serial stepfathers...
article By Theodore Dalrymple. via: gus
~My favorite example of this kind of hypocrisy is the media's use of the term "teenage prostitute".
Text Messages for Critical Masses
Known as TxtMob, the new service from the Institute for Applied Autonomy was unveiled last month at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. There, TxtMob allowed more than 260 subscribers to automatically blast text messages to the mobile phones of every other subscriber.
"There were ... a number of interesting uses that the system got put to" at the DNC, said John Henry, TxtMob's developer. "Police did arrest one protester, and there were not a lot of people around. Someone saw it happen, (sent a TxtMob message), and a hundred of that kid's friends were on the scene in minutes ... to make sure" the police acted correctly.
Now, thanks to the largely successful word-of-mouth rollout of TxtMob at the DNC, Henry is planning to take it to New York for the Republican National Convention later this month. There, because of the far larger protests expected and the resulting police force that will be gathered to control them, Henry imagines the service will get a much tougher workout...
article w/links to TxtMob etc.
Juvenile Sexual Homicide
(slide 22)
Fantasy as a motivational model
for sexual homicide
• Five causative factors:
1. Impaired early attachments
2. Early psychological trauma
3. Patterned responses to generate fantasy
4. A violent fantasy life
5. A “feedback filter” that nourishes repetitive
thinking patterns
[David Mirich, Ph. D. Licensed Psychologist]
link to pdf slides 1-39. (it's readable at 50%)
~It looks so simple, (like instructions from IKEA), it makes me wonder how any child (or adult) with these traits can evade detection and intervention.
Blind Ducks In Borneo
"Usually the characters created by Walt Disney impinge upon us only in certain predictable places and contexts: comics, television, the shopping mall, or—if we go there—the Disneylands and Disneyworlds of California, Florida, France, and Japan. It was unexpected, therefore, to find these characters displayed, like some improbable heraldry, on modest, respectable cottages in towns along the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo..."
article by Judith MacDougall and David MacDougall
register/signin: stubbornson/stubbornson ; in quick search box type: blind ducks in borneo click search; on next page click eyeglasses next to underlined blind ducks in borneo; on next page scroll down on right under html and click open full text.
~Jason/Atomgrid observes in the photos illustrated this article:
"I guess the key detail that jumps out at me is that Daisy and whichever nephew (Huey, Dewey, or Louie?) are in the style of Carl Barks, so the source material was most likely a comic book rather than an animated short."
Marines Using Sensors to Catch Smugglers Entering Texas
SENSOR PLATOON “SEES” THEM COMING
The Marines from the 4th Sensor Control and Management Platoon (SCAMP) are looking for a place to implant an assortment of sensors to help the U.S. Border Patrol stamp out drug smuggling.
4th SCAMP is in Texas as part of Joint Task Force Six (JTF-6), a Department of Defense command that offers operational, training, and intelligence support to domestic law enforcement agencies...
Sensors are implanted in strings of three to five and are placed in paths drug smugglers are known to frequent and also in a few unexpected places.
All the sensors are monitored on a laptop computer equipped with special software that allows SCAMP Marines to monitor up to 504 separate sensors.
Once a sensor is activated, a SCAMP Marine plots where the activation occurred and waits for more activity.
When they see possible activity, SCAMP Marines then relay the information to Border Patrol dispatchers, who send an available unit to the area.
4th SCAMP is using several different types of sensors for their mission, including infrared intrusion detectors (IRID) and magnetic intrusion detectors (MAGID).
“The equipment we have makes spotting bad guys easy,” said Thayer. “IRIDs let us see any heat a subject lets off, making him stand out from his surroundings, especially at night. MAGIDs let us detect vehicles. They’re very strong. We’ve found a person by the eyelets in their boots.”
press release
~"Them" and "bad guys": can there be any doubts about the value of this task force?
August 16, 2004
Sex, Lies & Terrorism
How did Golan Cipel become New Jersey's 'anti-terrorism' czar?
by Justin Raimondo
"The self-"outing" of New Jersey Governor James McGreeveyand his involvement with Golan Cipel, described as a 30-something Israeli "poet," soon degenerated into one of those the-personal-is-the-political soap operas Americans seem to revel in. After hearing McGreeveys now famous "I am a gay American" speech, some gushed that this put him right up there with rising Democratic star Obama Barack. Gay rights groups were quick to hail McGreeveyfor spilling his guts to the nation..."
article
~See also the blog entry the "Golan Cipal Trail":
"Golan Cipel, has a long history of being moved around.
Timeline:
2000: McGreevey and Cipel meet in Israel, when the governor of NJ was touring, and where Cipel served as spokesman for the city of Rishon Le Zion.
2000: Hired by Democratic State Committee, and that organization paid $1100 for Cipel's INS paperwork.
2000: hired by controvesial developer Charles Kushner.
Kushner's influence also ties him to one of McGreevey's earliest scandals. He signed the papers Israeli citizen Golan Cipel needed to work in the United States, and gave him a $30,000 a year marketing job.
February 2002: Hired as NJ's top homeland security advisor by McGreevey. Salary was astounding $100K+.
Resignation: Aug 13...
link to more cited Cipal facts, w/ readers comments...
~For example:
Posted by: Scott of Slant Point (24.239.157.200) on August 14, 2004 09:59 AM
"my problem is that is was so fricking obvious. someone had to know. His driver, his security, his wife. And no one thought of national security.
The Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel and Verazanno Bridge connect my home to NJ. And the gov was thinking about the Hershey Highway."
~My take on this is if the local free press and Republican opposition kept mum when this governor put a foreign-national boy-toy into a high-paying Homeland Security job without so much as a peep to their readers or constituents, what sort of appointment would've caused the press and the Republicans to blow the whistle, to publically start asking questions? If this is an example of business-as-usual hiring practices by a governor, nothing that hasn't been done before, only spiced-up by allegations of gay improprieties, what are governors in other states up to? Do a few have harems or brothels on their states' payrolls? Colombian drug smugglers in charge of state highways and transportation? Pedophiles running Childrens' Services?
Fun in the Great Outdoors/ Fun With Photoshop
~One morning before dawn I drove sixty miles from the city and saw this. Fog had changed fields of soybeans to lakes and trees to islands. For a moment I thought about Hokusai or someone like him, ages ago on the other side of the world, looking at a similar scene of morning mist on summer fields. He could've been looking at soybeans? I'm sure he didn't drive.
Hokusai or someone like him could never do this or this to his views. Then again, like not needing to drive, he probably wouldn't have any reason to.
Shia Backlash Wrecks US Strategy
When troopers of the US 101st Airborne Division first entered the Iraqi city of Najaf 17 months ago, they were greeted by huge and welcoming crowds chanting "Die Saddam, die".
This weekend, the same streets are littered with the debris from over a week?s sustained and bloody combat. Empty shell cases and burnt-out vehicles have replaced the flowers and flags of welcome.
The first six months of 2004 saw little improvement in the living conditions in the huge Shia slums of Baghdad or in the impoverished towns of southern Iraq, so when radical clerics allied to Sadr started to ramp up their anti-US rhetoric they found a receptive audience.
Demands for rapid political change to ensure the Shia received their rightful say in the future of Iraq and an equitable slice of its wealth began to multiply...
article
~It's nothing that strategic bombings, sniper killings, a few more days of siege, mass arrests, mass interrogations, assassinations and a thousand more Iraqi dead can't eventually morph into something less than an insurgent uprising and more like Palestinian-style terrorism. All Americans know terrorists are evil. Insurgents on the other hand, sound like doctors.
Sensor "Memory" System
Unlike all other infrastructure-embedded sensors, which reset following the disaster, the distributed cable sensors under development at UMR (University of Missouri-Rolla) could “memorize” the most severe damage that occurred during a prior catastrophic event, allowing for an immediate assessment of the structure’s performance and integrity.
...The current practice requires sending an engineer inspector to every bridge along the emergency vehicle route to get into the striking area to rescue people. In the future, you could use a hand-held piece of equipment to detect whether there’s damage or not. We can detect the location and severity of damage areas within two inches.”
press release
~I wonder if they'll ever have sensors like these for athletes? So they or their coaches can know in an instant if they're 'broken'.