The Federal Reserve is still fighting to keep its secrets from Congress, but cracks are showing

The Fed is starting to feel the heat! Keep the pressure on, Congresscritters. Looks like the House is united in demanding a real, independent audit. Now we've got to get the Senate on board.

More here.

We're all gonna die: Why we need a soft landing

Things look grim. I'm sure we're not out of the woods yet -- there's a long way to go before we hit rock bottom.

You can probably guess my reaction to the bailout: SCAM!!

So, our plan is to give the people who fucked the economy billions of dollars with no real plan to get it back? Brilliant! How could that not work?

The assholes basically just got us to pay them for ripping us off. Quite the smooth move on their part. 

But you know, it's basically rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic at this point. I don't think $700 billion (actually, with all the pork it's closer to $850 billion) will make a lick of difference. The problem is much deeper than that; it has to do with the way we create and regulate money, at the fundamental level. Basically, we need to return to the gold standard, eliminate fractional reserve lending and dissolve the Federal Reserve.

This will make for some bumpy transitions, as a nation used to 5% growth every year realizes that maybe 0.2% is more appropriate. Of course, the 5% growth stat is illusionary. You have to grow by 5% every year just to stay ahead of inflation. If you want to actually make money you need an even higher rate -- which leads to risky investments. Wall Street wants ever-better numbers and the strain of achieving them has led many an executive to make risky, negligent or downright stupid investments. We need fiscal sanity! It may be boring, and less people will be able to make a living moving electronic numbers around, but it will bring stable beneficence to the majority of the world.

Problem: How to get there from here. 

Step one: Reach rock bottom.

We're well on our way there. I'm afraid nothing will change without suffering because there's no motivation otherwise. It's a sad truth. The problem is that we're speeding too fast towards rock bottom. We may hit it with the impact of a dinosaur falling off a thousand-foot cliff. That would basically end our civilization as we know it.


We need a soft landing. But how to get it? The fat-ass rich people stole the golden parachutes, but in a world where money is worthless paper what help will those parachutes be?

There's no way out of this one, folks. We're all gonna die unless somebody has been planning ahead with an altruistic and audacious plan to save us from our high-velocity trajectory straight into the ground.

We can't look to the people in charge to save us -- they're the ones who got us into this mess. So I guess we don't have many options. Who has a plan? Who has the resources to make it work? Who among us is bold enough to listen?

We are fast approaching the Rubicon.

935 Lies in 24 months, eh? So, uh.... when do the impeachment hearings start?

So yeah, I know this isn't a big shocker to anybody with a functioning brain stem, but the Bush administration systematically lied its way into the Iraq War. A new study by the Center For Public Integrity has analyzed the public statements of administration officials in the run-up to the war and come up with 935 lies in a two-year span.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.

Everybody makes mistakes. Accidents happen and people do stupid things... but 935 mistakes? No fucking way.

So Many Lies, So Little Time
This was an organized campaign of deception. It was a fraud perpetrated on the American people and, most especially, on the people of Iraq.

935 LIES! That's 1.28 lies per day for 24 months straight by my calculations.

Take a look at the chart below (click for a larger version). You can see that the lies are concentrated around the pre-war and immediate post-invasion period. The peak lying period was the February before the invasion (which began on March 19, 2003). This was no accident.


This is not just a bunch of anonymous interns leaking statements to the press. The study concentrated on just 8 top officials:

President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).

The study can only look at public statements, so we have no way of counting the many lies whispered into the ears of journalists. It's interesting that Karl Rove was not included in this study, but he's more of a behind-the-scenes operator. Also missing are gobs of military men, mid-level staffers, the whole pundit class on TV and many more folks who are not directly connected to the administration. These 935 lies are just a drop in the bucket, but they all originate from very high-ranking officials.

The Impeachment Fantasy
So now that we've got a study in the mainstream press clearly delineating the fact that George W. Bush made at least 260 false statements in just 24 months, that means the impeachment hearings are just around the corner, right?

Wrong.

The Democrats will wag their fingers and cluck their tongues and do.... nothing. The Republicans have long since sold their souls, but it's the Democrats' betrayal that really hurts America. We need a true opposition party more than ever, but we don't have one.

If you've been reading this blog you probably know by now how Washington really works. Democracy, hearings, investigations, intelligence estimates, blah, blah, blah. It's all just for show. The real power resides behind the scenes. The oligarchy, the establishment, the powers that be -- whatever you want to call them -- have decided that there will be no impeachment hearings. So there won't be.

I don't know what else to tell you. "Write your congressperson"? Fat lotta good that will do, but it doesn't hurt to keep the pressure on.

The Oligarchs' Dilemma
Just try not get too depressed. Yes, American "democracy" makes Pakistan look like an oasis of liberty, but it's not all bad. I've got a feeling that there are some people in the establishment who want to change things. No doubt they're biding their time, waiting for things to fall into place. But we don't have much time. I don't think the Bush team plans to leave office, 'cause if they do they'll have to leave the country, too. Even the oligarchy can't stop a limited investigation into the Bush regime by any successive Democratic administration. They have to continue the illusion of democracy, even if it hurts them in the short term. And that could mean a war crimes tribunal for Bush and crew.

Cheney knows this so it's more likely that there will be another terrorist attack before or shortly after the elections (before inaugeration). Bush will declare martial law, lock down the nation, suspend the constitution and retain power "temporarily" until the emergency has passed. Of course, just like in Musharraf's Pakistan, the emergency will never pass.

If there are any oligarchs still loyal to the constitution, they will have to move quickly. There's a very small window (less than a year now) to execute their counter-coup. Bush will move to arrest the constitutional loyalists on trumped-up charges. Impeachment is the only remedy. We'll need to take to the streets and camp out in every single senator's office and demand justice.

If and when it does happen we'll have to be ready. We need to stand up for democracy, no matter what the cost. The future of America hangs in the balance.

Sherlock would know

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Sherlock Holmes, was found of saying,

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

And now, I will quote a DK diary that pretty much says it all:

There have been several recommended diaries about the call by House Judiciary committee members Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin and Luis Gutierrez for the committee to actually begin hearings on the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

But don't you find it curious that there's been literally no traditional media coverage of it? Three Members of Congress, all on the Judiciary Committee, call outright for impeachment hearings, and no one reports it? [emphasis mine]

The three even wrote an op-ed together explaining their reasoning and offered it to the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. No one has yet agreed to run it.

Isn't that interesting, in and of itself? I mean, say what you want about impeachment, but when three members of the Judiciary Committee sign on to a positive call for it, that's worth a little news blurb, don't you think?

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this out. The word "conspiracy" gets tossed around a lot these days, but only for mockery in the mainstream press. Now we know why.

The whole establishment is committed. Between 9/11, Iraq, warrantless wiretapping and torture, they're in this together. Big Media, Big Business and Big Brother are partners in this debacle; they sink or swim together.

There will be no help from the media on this one. We're on our own.

St. Thomas' decision to ban Desmond Tutu from campus smacks of cowardice

The intellectual cowards over at the head office of the St. Thomas University adminstration should be ashamed. They have shown themselves to be contemptible weaklings without the guts or the will to hear viewpoints they may disagree with. And this institution is supposed to be a vanguard of academic freedom? For shame.

What am I talking about? I'm referring to St. Thomas' recent decision to withhold an invitation to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

St. Thomas never invited Tutu to speak, but declined to approve an invitation as part of the PeaceJam, an event the school has hosted for the past four years. PeaceJam officials have now arranged to have the South African archbishop and activist speak at its April event, which will be held at Metropolitan State University.

St. Thomas officials said that local Jewish leaders they consulted felt that Tutu had made remarks offensive to the Jewish people in a 2002 speech about Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.

Columbia University just made St. Thomas look like a bunch of backwater bush-league pussies. Nobody likes Ahmadinejad; that's not the point. The point is the free exchange of ideas. If you don't like what somebody says you don't try to censor them, you use your freedom of speech to elucidate your opposition to said ideas. The president of Columbia, Lee Bollinger, may have been a dick to Ahmadinejad, but at least he let the motherfucker speak. St. Thomas' president, the Rev. Dennis Dease, won't even let a fellow man of the cloth on campus. What a fucking pussy.

His lame-ass excuse "Teh Joos don't like one speech he made dis one time!" is full of shit. What he means is "Some extreme-rightwing Zionist oppressor Jews don't want nobody talking shit about the way they fuck over A-rabs in Palestine." There, fixed it for you, Dease. (You can suck dees nuts)

In fact, Dease has been getting a lot of mail from Jewish groups saying, "Let this guy speak! We're not anti-free speech! Why'd you listen to those assholes?!" [[ I'm paraphrasing in case you haven't noticed ]]

So, you might be wondering what crazy-ass shit this Tutu guy was spewing that pissed off the hard-right fascist/zionist types. Well, he said the most offensive thing you can possibly say to a warmonger: "Peace is possible."

Israeli Jew, Palestinian Arab can live amicably side by side in a secure peace. And, as Cannon Ateek kept underscoring, a secure peace built on justice and equity. These two peoples are God’s chosen and beloved, looking in their face back to a common ancestor Abraham and confessing belief in the one creator God of salaam and shalom.

Oh man, that is some whack shit! Who let this guy in here?

Then he reveals his true hatred for teh Joos:

I give thanks for all that I have received as a Christian from the teachings of God’s people the Jews. When we were opposing the vicious system of apartheid, which claimed that what invested people with worth was a biological irrelevance – skin color – we turned to the Jewish Torah, which asserted that what gave people their infinite worth was the fact that they were created in the image of God.

He calls teh Joos "God's people." We're clearly dealing with a loose cannon here, folks.

Seriously, that's what the whole speech is like. He criticizes the occupation of Palestinian lands, but he clearly has problems with the Israeli government, not the Jewish people.

I with many other Nobel Peace Laureates. I, after taking counsel with the then Bishop of Jerusalem, am a member of the Board of the Shimon Peres peace center in Tel Aviv. I am a patron of the Holocaust center in Capetown. I believe that Israel has a right to secure borders, internationally recognized, in a land assured of territorial integrity and with acknowledged sovereignty as an independent country. That the Arab nations made a bad mistake in refusing to recognize the existence of sovereign and in pledging to work for her destruction. It was a short sighted policy that led to Israel’s nervousness, her high state of alert and military preparedness to guarantee her continued existence. This was understandable. What was no so understandable, what was not justifiable was what Israel did to another people to guarantee her existence. I have been very deeply distressed in all my visits to the Holy Land, how so much of what was taking place there reminded me so much of what used to happen to us Blacks in Apartheid South Africa.

This guy sees echoes of Apartheid in Israel. He was there. He expresses viewpoints not too far from middle-of-the-road Democrats in America. When did expressing disagreement with a foreign government become a censorable offense? Oh that's right; when you're a boot-licking fascist who wants to kiss the ass of future dictator George Bush. I guess Dease thinks he can become the Tsar of Education under a future King George. (Or whatever. Maybe he's just a fucking idiot, I don't know.)

The scary thing here is not the shoddy treatment of a Nobel laureate. He'll speak on another campus, one not controlled by Nazis. He'll be fine. No, the scary thing here is how incredibly fucking normal, sane and mainstream his ideas are. If this is how a Nobel laureate is treated by The Powers That Be, how are the rest of the us going to be treated when the other jackboot falls and we're under martial law? Tutu's beliefs are almost exactly in line with mainstream Democrats, Independents and even many Republicans. The main difference is that he's an archbishop, an Apatheid survivor and a international icon.

Where the fuck does that leave the rest of us?

Dear God, Cheney plans to nuke Iran

The buzz has been growing over the last few weeks. The Bush Regime, led by Count Cheney, have been inching closer and closer to attacking Iran.

Now we hear about nukes being "accidentally" flown across the country:

A B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for more than three hours across several states last week, prompting an Air Force investigation and the firing of one commander, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

How does an organization like the Air Force manage to "mistakenly" get ahold of nukes and fly them around the country? Somehow I think the only accident was letting the public find out about it.

The military has extremely stringent rules regarding the handling of nuclear weapons and you can't just send a junior officer over to the weapons depot and have him sign for a nuke. This goes up the chain a long way, and now it's being spun as a mistake. Bullshit.

The story gets weirder. The plane was flying from North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana:

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can’t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Is the Bush Regime moving the nukes into place for a strike on Iran? That certainly seems to be a possibility. It would be totally fucking insane, but that's not outside the MO of this regime. Keep your eyes peeled, kids. Uncle Cheney is gonna have a surprise in store for you.

Was Pat Tillman eliminated to silence a powerful anti-war voice?

It's looking more and more like Pat Tillman was murdered -- executed if you will. The incredible revelations were revealed in a new AP story that doesn't draw any conclusions, but whose fresh details paint a picture of an Army-wide cover-up and an execution-style assassination. From Yahoo:

Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors — whose names were blacked out — said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

10 yards away? How do you fuck up so badly that you manage to put 3 bullets -- in a tight grouping -- in the head of a fellow Ranger? It doesn't seem very likely, especially when there was zero evidence of enemy fire. That means that they were not in the fog of war and the confusion that follows from it.

It's also worth noting that the Tillman story has changed several times. First, he was killed by enemy fire. Then he was killed by friendly-fire. Now it seems the "friendly" might have been aiming right at him.

Who would want Tillman dead, and why? Prison Planet has some theories:

The evidence points directly to it and the motivation is clear - Tillman abandoned a lucrative career in pro-football immediately after 9/11 because he felt a rampaging patriotic urge to defend his country, and became a poster child for the war on terror as a result. But when he discovered that the invasion of Iraq was based on a mountain of lies and deceit and had nothing to do with defending America, he became infuriated and was ready to return home to become an anti-war hero.

As far back as March 2003, immediately after the invasion, Tillman famously told his comrade Spc. Russell Baer, "You know, this war is so fucking illegal," and urged his entire platoon to vote against Bush in the 2004 election. Far from the gung-ho gruff stereotype attributed to him, Tillman was actually a fiercely intellectual man with the courage of his convictions firmly in place.

Tillman had even begun to arrange meetings with anti-war icons like Noam Chomsky upon his return to America before his death cut short any aspirations of becoming a focal point for anti-war sentiment.

This is the last thing the Bush/Cheney administration needed. Could they have possibly given the order to assassinate Tillman and then cover it up?

Former presidential candidate Wesley Clark said he thought the orders to whack Tillman must've come from the very top. Tillman could've become an anti-war voice much more resonant among men and conservatives than Cindy Sheehan. He represented a threat precisely because of his service, his life story and his fierce, questioning intelligence. The latest (and most pathetic) propaganda seems designed to paint Pat as an atheist to undermine America's trust in him:

But the latest documents give a different account from a chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.

The chaplain said that O'Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman's side, "crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."

If there was no enemy fire, why were they on the ground? How do we know this account wasn't completely fabricated? I think Congress needs to talk to the doctors and investigators who attempted to pursue the homicide angle, but were stymied.

How come all of these anti-war people tend to die mysteriously?

Dick Cheney involved with Hookergate?

Wayne Madsen is reporting that Dick Cheney is a possible client of the DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey's "escort service" -- which translates in my mind as "high-priced hookers."

The individual, who is definitely "newsworthy," reportedly engaged the services of Palfrey's escort firm while he was the CEO and maintained a residence off Chain Bridge Road in the Ballantrae neighborhood in McLean, Virginia, a few blocks from the headquarters of the CIA."

WMR has confirmed with extremely knowledgeable CIA and Pentagon sources that the former CEO who is on Deborah Jeane Palfrey's list is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during the time of his liaisons with the Pamela Martin & Associates escort firm. Palfrey's phone invoices extend back to 1996 and include calls to and from Cheney.

Madsen's confirmation appears to rest partially on the fact that Cheney had a residence in the Ballantrae neighborhood. I have independently confirmed that Cheney did in fact have a house in that neighborhood starting in 2000.

For example, on Jan. 12, 2000, Vice President Richard B. Cheney bought a property for $1.35 million on Chain Bridge Road, one of the top-end streets in McLean — one of the richest parts of Fairfax County, which is one of the richest counties in the United States.

Watch the corporate media bury this story at the bottom of the Potomac.

5-23-07 UPDATE: The story gets weirder. Palfrey's lawyer has issued a non-non-confirmation leading Roll Call writer Emily Heil to say that "Cheney isn't not on the list." What that means is unclear, but I'll keep an eye on this story. Wayne Madsen, for his part, stands by his reporting and has a new update with additional details on how the 20/20 story was killed by Disney-owned ABC execs, apparently under pressure from the White House.

Like I said, we need blow jobs to sink the Bush administration. Apparently starting a war on false premises is A-OK with the American public. Sex is a different story.

Apologize to Al Sharpton for your sins!!

Are you white? Are you somewhat sympathetic to Don Imus and his situation? Have you ever said an offensive word? Well, it's time to apologize to Al Sharpton.*

Now that Imus has been fired this little witch-hunt is apparently over. Is anybody else scratching their head, wondering what this little kerfuffle was all about? Obviously, Imus is a moron and used some shitty language, but I have trouble believing the Rutgers basketball team is really crying themselves to sleep at night. Who the fuck cares what he thinks/says?

Despite the thin-skinned temperance of the basketball players, I can at least understand why they are upset and demanding an apology (and groveling, 30 lashes, some ass-kissing and a book deal), but what I'm confused about is why Imus needs to apologize to Al Sharpton? ... I thought Jesse Jackson was the emperor of black people.

Man, South Park totally called this one. Yes, Imus is a fucking moron (as is Micheal Richards), but this whole scenario seems like a media-generated distraction. I mean, Alberto Gonzales lied to Congress and he still has a job. George Bush lied to Congress, America and the world to lead us into war and he still has a job. WTF?

I think our priorities are pretty fucked up in this country. Whatever happened to "sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me"? Apparently, the Rutgers basketball team does not subscribe to this philosophy. Meanwhile, Bush's words led directly to broken bones, shattered skulls, crushed vertebrae, lacerated flesh and all the other attendant injuries related to dying in a fraudulent war over oil. But is the media whipping up a shitstorm over that? Incredibly, no. They are not as fawning as before, but they still treat him with unaccountable respect. He deserves to hang like Saddam, but the MSM is still treating his polices and speeches deferentially. The media could easily launch into a witch-hunt to bring down this administration. It has just demonstrated it has the power, in the case of Imus, despite Imus having the support of 63% of Americans. Bush, meanwhile, has the support of only 30%. That's quite a disparity. Can somebody explain to me how this could happen? Certainly Bush didn't call anybody a "nappy-headed ho" but he did lie to us repeatedly in order to lead us into war, a war that has left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, along with 3,000+ American soldiers. Near as I can tell Imus has not killed anybody. What gives?

Does it make me a cynic if I believe this witch-hunt was manufactured by the media to provide a well-timed distraction at a point in time when the Bush regime is increasingly on the run? Or does it make me a realist?
__________

*Apology not necessary if you are black and/or a rapper. If you are a rapper, you can call any woman a "ho" and it's okay. Snoop said so.**

** I can't believe I agree with Michelle Malkin on something. I feel so dirty. I'd better go apologize to Al Sharpton.

Secret servers allow White House to conduct its dirty work away from prying eyes in Congress

Between the deepening U.S. Attorney firings scandal, the war in Iraq and the other myriad scandals closing around the Bush Regime it's tempting to consider the possibility that they will soon collapse under the weight of their own lies. Perhaps that sentiment is premature, but as two shocking new revelations show, the Bush Regime is very close to being swept away.

First, Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman take a look at how Ohio is struggling to come to grips with election fraud.

In a bold move "to restore trust to elections in Ohio," Ohio's newly-elected Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has requested the resignation of all four members of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. The two Democrats and two Republicans were formally asked to resign by the close of business on March 21. Cuyahoga County includes the heavily Democratic city of Cleveland. Brunner is a Democrat who was elected to be Ohio's Secretary of State in November, 2006.

Felony convictions have also resulted in 18-month prison sentences for two employees of the Cuyahoga BOE as a result of what the county prosecutor in the case calls the "rigging" of the outcome in the recount following the 2004 presidential election. Further problems surfaced in the conduct of Cuyahoga County's May, 2006 primary, in the wake of which Michel Vu, Executive Director of the county's Board of Elections recently resigned. [emphasis mine]

Check out the whole article for a glimpse into what might be the story of the century. If we can prove Ohio was stolen that will make the Bush regime instantly illegitimate in the eyes of most citizens (fascists will continue to support him) and grease the wheels of impeachment. We're already getting convictions, but we need to keep going. I doubt Maiden and Dreamer (seriously, those are their names) are the masterminds of this particular project. I think a proper investigation will reveal that this goes all the way to the top.

A second story takes a look into the mysterious GWB43.com domain.

It appears that the Bush/Cheney team has been using an alternate email system in a bid to keep potentially incriminating emails off the official White House system. Presumably, they're worried about those emails being subpoenaed (which is what's happening in the Gonzales case).

Interestingly, according to the National Journal (reported in the WaPo), Karl Rove "does 'about 95 percent' of his e-mailing using his RNC-based account."

This is a violation of so many rules I can't even count them all. A number of them are technical: Many are wondering if gwb43.com as secure as the White House's communications system. I don't know, but I suspect it is robust enough (does somebody want to hack them and test this theory?) in order to keep those emails well hidden.

Far more insidious is the way this server can be used to hide incriminating evidence in the event of an investigation (there's only, what -- a million investigations going on?). It also violates the Presidential Records Act, which requires all official communications be saved. The White House was specifically ordered to save all email communications by Henry Waxman's Oversight Committee.

Think back to the recent scandals involving Jack Abramoff and Scooter Libby. Did the investigators in those cases have full access? Did they even know about the alternate email system? Most likely they did not since this is just coming up now.

Many key people in the Bush regime deny even using email. At all. Is that even possible in today's business/technology climate? Bush, I can understand being too stupid to operate a computer, but Condi Rice? Alberto Gonzales also claims not to use email (how convenient). Same with Rumsfeld. How the hell do they communicate on a day to day basis? Write something down and walk it over there? Make a staffer run to the Pentagon and back? If these people have BlackBerries they're using email; that's the whole point of a BlackBerry.

I just have a hard time believing these people don't use email in the course of business. I mean, GW promised to bring a corporate culture to the presidency (I saw that as a threat, but some people apparently thought that was a good idea), and his regime was terribly effective for several years. They did all of this with several key folks swearing off email?! If I told my boss I didn't want to use email he'd tell me to stop using Quaaludes. That's like saying, "Oh sorry. I don't ride in cars; I only use horse and buggies. Don't worry, I'll catch up. Of course, I don't use phones either, so I'll have to send up a smoke signal to catch a ride." Maybe I missed something, but I don't remember there being very many Amish captains of industry. Too many Quaaludes perhaps?

Something fishy is going on here... What horrors lurk within the secret email system available only to Bush cronies? Where's a hacker when you need one?

Israeli ambassador found naked in the street wearing BDSM gear

This is one of those stories that can't be made unfunny. I know I said I was boycotting the BBC (I found this via Reddit), but their write-up is too funny to pass up.

Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.

Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.

Gagged, bound, disoriented and nearly-naked? Sounds like he was negotiating with the Bush administration!

Authorities said they were unable to find the donkey.

A foreign ministry official described Ambassador Tzuriel Refael's behaviour as an unprecedented embarrassment.

The incident, which happened two weeks ago, has renewed calls for a radical overhaul of the way Israel appoints and promotes its diplomats.

Indeed, Israel has changed the process for initiating new ambassadors. No longer will they be gagged with a rubber ball and forced to dress up like the gimp. Nope! No more drunken orgies or visits to the dominatrix for spanking and discipline. Part of Israel's culture is fading they conform to international norms. The hazing process will now involve papercuts and titty-twisters like most other countries.

Mental note: watch out for those El Salvadoran dominatrices. They really go the extra mile.

Cheney's Handwritten Notes Implicate El Presidente Bush in Plame/CIA Leak Affair

The two biggest criminals in this country are both implicated in the Plame affair. As Scooter Libby's trial progresses and things look worse and worse for Cheney's ex-right-hand-man his defense team is casting blame in every direction... including toward "the top."

Last week, Libby's attorney Theodore Wells made a stunning pronouncement during opening statements of Libby's trial. He claimed that the White House had made Libby a scapegoat for the leak to protect Karl Rove - Bush's political adviser and "right-hand man."

"Mr. Libby, you will learn, went to the vice president of the United States and met with the vice president in private. Mr. Libby said to the vice president, 'I think the White House ... is trying to set me up. People in the White House want me to be a scapegoat,'" said Wells.

Cheney's notes seem to help bolster Wells's defense strategy. Libby's defense team first discussed the notes - written by Cheney in September 2003 for White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan - during opening statements last week. Wells said Cheney had written "not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of incompetence of others": a reference to Libby being asked to deal with the media and vociferously rebut Wilson's allegations that the Bush administration knowingly "twisted" intelligence to win support for the war in Iraq.

However, when Cheney wrote the notes, he had originally written "this Pres." instead of "that was.

The "meat grinder" is generally taken to mean "the DC press corps". So, after re-inserting "this Pres" into Cheney's note it reads: "not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy this Pres. asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others."

It's not surprising that strategy concerning the Plame affair would be discussed at the highest levels. But Bush has been denying all along that he knew anything about the leak.

When Cheney testifies will he throw Libby under the bus like Addington? I can't wait to find out. What happens when the top two liars in the country are implicated in a scandal, tied to an illegal war that's been used to justify illegal wiretapping? Well, if Republicans are in charge: Nothing. However, I have a smidgen of hope that the Democrats will pursue impeachment. They'd better hurry up about it because I keep hearing more and more noise about starting a war with Iran. It sounds like the preparations for a joint U.S./Israeli strike are almost complete.

UCLA student tasered 4 times for not having ID in the campus library

Fascism is on the rise in California as campus security felt obliged to taser a student at least 4 times for not having his ID in the library. He was on the ground for at least 3 of those tasers, and he is not accused of acting violently. Here's a quick recap from the campus newspaper:

At around 11:30 p.m., CSOs asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check. The student did not exit the building immediately.

The CSOs left, returning minutes later, and police officers arrived to escort the student out. By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.

The student began to yell "get off me," repeating himself several times.

It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in pain. The student also told the officers he had a medical condition.

It's at about this point that the video you're about to watch begins. The audio is loud and painful to listen to as the student is shocked repeatedly. This video is disturbing to anyone who values freedom. You have been warned!



The video doesn't have the best camerawork, that's for sure. But you can get an impression of what happened from it.

A follow-up story in the student newspaper makes clear that the student was handcuffed for at least one (probably more) of the taser shocks. The story also offers some information about the use of tasers:

But according to a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in 2001, a charge of three to five seconds can result in immobilization for five to 15 minutes, which would mean that Tabatabainejad could have been physically unable to stand when the officers demanded that he do so.

"It is a real mistake to treat a Taser as some benign thing that painlessly brings people under control," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

"The Taser can be incredibly violent and result in death," Eliasberg said.

According to an ACLU report, 148 people in the United States and Canada have died as a result of the use of Tasers since 1999.

My main question is this: How do the campus security officers' actions protect anybody? During this huge commotion that followed their illegal tasering, anything could've happened in that library. Women could've been raped in the bathroom. Laptops could've been stolen. It could have sparked a riot. So, how do their actions help anything?

It seems to me that these were just a bunch of thugs trying to assert and protect their authority, which is clearly more important to them than human rights or the students' constitutional liberties.

I am simply disgusted with the actions of the campus security team. First, they caused a scene that didn't need to happen by laying hands on the exiting student. Second, they tasered the hell out of him when there was no need to. With several officers present and no violent actions on the part of the student there was simply no reason to taser him. Being loud in a library is not a taser-able offense. Third, they tasered him again and again and again as he was lying helpless on the ground! That is absolutely unacceptable.

I can think of no other word but "fascism" to express my feelings about the actions of the officers in this video. Certainly, "abuse of authority" and "police brutality" come to mind, but they don't really sum up the mindset of the officers fully.

The mindset is the scariest thing. It seems to be that "authority must be obeyed at all times, no matter what." That is not consistent with the student's constitutionally protected rights, which place his inalienable rights far above any sort of convenience achieved by granting limited authority to officers of the peace. I'm sure it would be much more convenient to give police officers unlimited power to use and abuse as they saw fit, but such an arrangement is totally incompatible with the concepts of freedom and liberty for which our forefathers fought and died. Freedom is far more important than being quiet in a library or being cooperative with police.

I hope that these "cops" will be fired and arrested for their gross breach of this student's constitutional rights, not to mention sued for monetary compensation to make up for the excruciating physical pain he must've experienced (those screams will stick with me longer than I might wish).

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. All over the country police are acting with impunity as they violate citizens' rights and trample over civil liberties. I've covered some of these including when Miami police shot peaceful protesters with rubber bullets and then laughed and joked about it, or when cops beat and arrested a man trying to get a form to report police brutality. Also disturbing is a video of cops using vicious chokeholds on peaceful protesters.

How can we bring sanity back to our government? Who will protect us from the police? Well, the answer is: No one! We must protect ourselves, and each other. If you witness police brutality, be sure to report it, and capture it on tape if you can. Of course, be careful that you don't get beaten when you try to file that report.

O.J. Simpson reveals how he would've butchered his wife

You can't make shit like this up:

The two-part television interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox, the TV network said Tuesday.

"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."

Not only is he a murderer, he's also a publicity hound.

Normally I'd insert something snarky and sarcastic here, but is there really any need? I mean, this pretty much says it all, doesn't it? He's had 10+ years to think about it, and now he's going to tell us how he would rather have done it, given what he knows now. Well, that's just great.

Perhaps he can take on the Kennedy assassinations next. Hell, why not do a reality TV show:

"It's O.J. Simpson in... How I Would've Murdered Those People: The Most Famous Murders in History, Seen Through the Eyes of a Calculating Psychopath. This week O.J. tells us how he would've whacked JonBenet Ramsey!"

Look for it on Fox.

Ted Haggard, religious guy, turns out to be a total fucking hypocrite

Surprise, surprise.


Haggard, seen here trying to strangle God, was one of the nation's leading religious nutjobs. He was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (representing 30 million people) until it turned out he was having gay sex with a male hooker while snorting meth. Haggard initially claimed that he had bought the meth with no intention of using it, to which millions of meth addicts replied, "Riiiiiiight, buddy. Suuuure."

Well, now he has been fired. And he's even resigned from his own New Life Church in Colorado. What, do the Evangelicals have a little rule about gay sex or something?

It doesn't matter to me that he's as gay as a spring parade. What bothers me is that Ted Haggard has preached against homosexuality for years, saying it was a sin, and taking a firm stand against gay marriage... meanwhile he was getting his balls licked by some male prostitute named Mike Jones once a month.

Haggard's sickening hypocrisy was actually what got the better of him. His fuck-buddy-for-hire ratted him out because he grew tired of getting Ted off one day and watching him preach about the evils of homosexuality the next.

Now Haggard has admitted, "I am a deceiver and a liar." Well, I for one am refreshed by his honesty (about being a liar). Most religious scumbags lie continually and refuse to admit that they are deceptive sacks of shit, so it's nice to hear Ted come to grips with his problem. (The problem: being a liar. Who gives a fuck if he's as gay as Gore Vidal?) Of course, once you admit that you're a liar you can never really be trusted again. So that kind of sucks for him. He went from "trusted religious leader" to "lying, drug-abusing fag" in one week. Tough week.

So, here's a question for y'all: When are you gonna stop believing these self-righteous assholes? They continually turn out to be fuckheads and hypocrites. They always attack the same people (gays, women, minorities) in order to gain power for themselves. When are y'all gonna wake up and figure this scam out? I guess it's as old as humanity and there's a sucker born every minute, but I still have hope that people will figure out that their religious leaders (especially the ones at the top) are far more immoral than the people they accuse of immorality.

That doesn't mean you can't believe in God or have a community of believers. But you have to be aware that the most ambitious and most charismatic people are also the ones most likely to be in league with the devil, as it were. To a person driven to succeed at any cost a few lies on the way to the top are well worth the price. And maybe that's okay in business (is it?), but that's an extremely toxic outlook in the religious sphere. A few lies are NOT okay. In fact your whole job is to tell the truth!

I would suggest that the "sheep" in Ted's flock learn how to read and pick up a Bible for themselves rather than letting sick men like Haggard interpret it for you. Make up your own mind about the purpose of life on Earth. Nobody knows for sure, so you can't just abdicate your responsibilty and throw your trust in men like Ted and expect it to be okay. The only way to be sure is to cut your own path.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I don't think Ted "Gay Druggy" Haggard is correct about homosexuals. Although he obviously knows more about gay sex and the Bible than me, I still think my limited knowledge is sufficient to come to a better conclusion on the issue. Personally, I don't remember Jesus saying, "Love your neighbor...unless he's a fag." Nope, I'm pretty sure Jesus told us to love everyone...and leave the judging to the guy upstairs.

Did Hastert take heroin-money bribes?

Sibel Edmonds and Daniel Ellsberg say it's worth looking into:

The major effect of that is that terrorist gangs are taking a cut of this, including Al Qaeda, which essentially taxes this traffic as it goes through the various lands where each 'band' pays a percentage as they hand it off. In other words, the US is in effect, endorsing - well, 'endorsing' is too strong a word - 'permitting', definitely permitting, or 'not acting against,' a heroin trade - which not only corrupts our cities and our city politics, AND our congress, as Sibel makes very specific - but is financing the terrorist organization that constitutes a genuine threat to us. And this seems to be a fact that is accepted by our top leaders, according to Sibel, for various geopolitical reasons, and for corrupt reasons as well. Sometimes things are simpler than they might appear - and they involve envelopes of cash. Sibel says that suitcases of cash have been delivered to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, at his home, near Chicago, from Turkish sources, knowing that a lot of that is drug money.

There's more.

Our government in action! In case you were wondering where they find time to be this corrupt, it's because they don't really do any work as RollingStone makes clear in their latest article on the corrupt congress.

Throw the bums out!

Some pages have received threats related to the Foley case

Is somebody trying to tell them not to speak out?

Congressional pages involved in the Foley sex messages scandal are receiving threats via emails, Representative Rodney Alexander (R-LA) told CNN today.

We need to have an investigation of the threats as well as protect the safety of these pages. They could lead us much deeper down the rabbithole and they should not be punished for speaking out.

Meanwhile, it looks like the Republican leadership are all turning on each other in a desperate scramble to save their own asses. And it's looking more and more like everybody except me knew about parts of this case months or even years ago.

Oh, and now Foley says he was molested by a clergyman and that he's gay...and a drunk. And he's been sold into sexual slavery in Uganda. Okay, not that last bit, but Foley is trying his best to make himself into the victim here. I don't think that's going to work. Keep trying, though.

I'm mostly concerned about the pages. We need to protect them and guard against any threats making them clam up. The only way we can get to the bottom of this and protect future pages is if everybody speaks out about what they know. The FBI needs to run a competent and thorough investigation and we need to make sure they don't try to cover for those in power. Keep the pressure on!

Mel Gibson's Drunk Driving Simulator -- This game is pretty fun!

//[[Yanked!!]]\

Sorry, I didn't realize the sound on this game was so annoying until I got home and started wondering what the hell that noise coming out of my computer was.

Anyway, it's still a good game, just turn the sound off after your first time through. Here's a link directly to the game.

The Sexy, Sexy Skeletons in Mark Foley's Closet -- Denny Hastert's Nightmare

Holy shit, this Foley business is exploding. It looks really bad for the Republicans. The leadership of the GOP is in shambles. People are breaking ranks and speaking to the press to cover their own asses and the media is lapping it up. The leadership itself has tried to present a united front, but they seem to be taking a "duck and cover" approach to the storm. We'll see if that works.

This is serious business. It is a serious breach of trust and a serious problem for a Republican party that has been trying to shake the "Culture of Corruption" tag that the Democrats have hung around their heads.

The blogs have been going nuts, of course. Glenn Greenwald in particular has had thorough and consistant coverage. He's been all over this thing.

Hastert's first interview since this scandal began is here, with CNN. He really just seems exhausted, beaten, and even resigned. He dismissively shrugs off the reporter's incredulous question as to how he could simply forget reports from Rep. Reynolds that a 53-year-old Congressman was sending inappropriate emails to a 16-year-old page, and speculates that perhaps he forget about it because Reynolds mentioned it in passing along with a half-dozen or dozen other "campaign" items. This story really can't end unless and until Hastert resigns.

The audio is really bad in that link above, and it's not synched with the video. But the point is that Dennis Hastert is toast. He's done. He had knowledge and he did nothing with it. There doesn't seem to be any sort of "intervention" where Hastert might've wisely sat Foley down and told him, "Hey, dumbshit, quit hitting on the fucking pages, already, eh?" That might've happened, but it hasn't come out yet. Denying any knowledge of the crime is a normal fallback for any politician (look at Condi Rice using that exact tactic to deflect culpability for the 9/11 attacks), but this time it might get Hastert burned since there are others close to him on record as saying that he was informed.

Of course, the neocons have wiggled out of tight spots before, a hundred times. But this might be their undoing. And yes, they look incompetent here, but they knew exactly what they were doing. Every powerful person has their favorite perks of the job, and Mark Foley's was that he liked the endless stream of underage boys that he could hit on and do god-knows-what-else to. He could just as easily have been a high school gym teacher. Who knows what Hastert likes. Whisky? Hookers? Cocaine? All 3 at once? It doesn't matter. These guys all look out for each other and they know when they have to look the other way. If Foley likes boys and Hastert likes hookers and Cheney likes skull fucking the corpses from his recent hunting expeditions, that's just fine and dandy within the ruling elite.

But stories like this aren't supposed to leak into the mainstream. And if they do, they are supposed to be buried quickly. So watch out for any attempts to do so (which will actually take the form of a deafening silence), and raise hell if you see it. I have no doubt that Hastert would have liked to cover this thing up way before the media caught wind of it. He should've put the kibosh on it long ago and now it's come around to bite him in the ass. He'll have to pay the piper.

Quite frankly, I suspect we've only scratched the surface of this one. The way that Foley resigned his seat -- not decided to quit his re-election campaign, not said he would work out the remainder of his term -- tells me that there may be more skeletons hidden in his closet. Possibly cute 15 year old skeletons with stories to tell. We shall see (but most likely we won't, whether they exist or not). I don't want to speculate (okay, yes I do), but I'm guessing that this goes waaaay deeper than "overly-friendly" notes to underage pages. I think we have to watch for something much worse. I can only subscribe Foley's quick exit (at the very beginning of the media frenzy) to a guilty conscience.

What horror lurks in Foley's closet?

Rep. Mark Foley (Republican) resigns after emails reveal him hitting on a 16 year old male congressional page

I mean, like, ewwwww!!

This guy is creepy, man. He's 52 years old and he's sending fairly explicit messages to teenaged pages. Pages, as you probably know, work for congresspeople in a sort of intern/gopher role. This particular page did not actually work for Foley, but they struck up a friendship. The page started getting freaked out after he gave his email address to Foley and ended up receiving some pretty sick emails. Raw Story has the emails if you want to check them out.

Foley has long marketed himself as a protector of children from sexual predation. In 2003, he became an outspoken critic of a summer nudist camp for children. An amendment by Foley to change federal sex offender laws became part of the Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act of 2006.

Yeah, Foley loves children. He really, really looooooves children.

Like I said: Eww...

Rolling Stone and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. return with another look at election fraud

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has uncovered a bombshell in Chris Hood, former Diebold employee, who claims that he personally patched dozens of Diebold electronic voting machines with an unauthorized patch:

Then, one muggy day in mid-August, Hood was surprised to see the president of Diebold's election unit, Bob Urosevich, arrive in Georgia from his headquarters in Texas. With the primaries looming, Urosevich was personally distributing a "patch," a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program. "We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Hood says. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done."

Georgia law mandates that any change made in voting machines be certified by the state. But thanks to Cox's agreement with Diebold, the company was essentially allowed to certify itself. "It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state," Hood told me. "We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level."

According to Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties - the state's largest Democratic strongholds. To avoid detection, Hood and others on his team entered warehouses early in the morning. "We went in at 7:30 a.m. and were out by 11," Hood says. "There was a universal key to unlock the machines, and it's easy to get access. The machines in the warehouses were unlocked. We had control of everything. The state gave us the keys to the castle, so to speak, and they stayed out of our way." Hood personally patched fifty-six machines and witnessed the patch being applied to more than 1,200 others.

Gee, that's not suspicious or anything, is it?

Earlier in the article Hood says that the company was able to operate with unusual freedom since Georgia essentially privatized the election by giving Diebold (the highest bidder) the keys to the kingdom in order to get everything ready in a short timeframe.

Hood says it was "common knowledge" within the company that Diebold also illegally installed uncertified software in machines used in the 2004 presidential primaries - a charge the company denies. Disturbed to see the promise of electronic machines subverted by private companies, Hood left the election consulting business and became a whistle-blower. "What I saw," he says, "was basically a corporate takeover of our voting system."

How do we know we live in a democracy anymore? What proof do any of us have that the system is fair? Certainly, articles like this one don't inspire any faith in me, and I'd bet that that's the case for many folks out there.

So what should we do? Attack the messenger? Cross our fingers? Trust in Big Business?

None of those solutions are acceptable to me. I work with computers; I know what they can do. Hacking an election is trivial for Diebold. There's no receipt or evidence left behind for a manual recount. Once the election is stolen, it's gone for good. No recount is possible.

We need an open source solution, subject to rigid testing and public oversight if we're going to use electionic ballots. Personally, I'm not convinced of the need for an electronic system. But if we do go with e-voting we need to stay away from "blackbox" voting. They call it blackbox because anything could be going on in there. You have no way of knowing if the person you just voted for actually received your vote. It's far too uncertain. I prefer paper ballots for this reason.

The article goes on to deal with the ironically-named Help America Vote Act (HAVA) which actually does more to help Corporate America choose our representatives for us:

The primary author and steward of HAVA was Rep. Bob Ney, the GOP chairman of the powerful U.S. House Administration Committee. Ney had close ties to the now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose firm received at least $275,000 from Diebold to lobby for its touch-screen machines. Ney's former chief of staff, David DiStefano, also worked as a registered lobbyist for Diebold, receiving at least $180,000 from the firm to lobby for HAVA and "other election reform issues." Ney - who accepted campaign contributions from DiStefano and counted Diebold's then-CEO O'Dell among his constituents - made sure that HAVA strongly favored the use of the company's machines.

Ney also made sure that Diebold and other companies would not be required to equip their machines with printers to provide paper records that could be verified by voters. In a clever twist, HAVA effectively pressures every precinct to provide at least one voting device that has no paper trail - supposedly so that vision-impaired citizens can vote in secrecy.

This is dirty, dirty business. It won't be easy for Americans to believe that our (illegitimately elected, as it turns out) representatives and business leaders would be so evil to steal elections again and again, but America has a lot of waking up to do. "It can't happen here" seems to be our mantra.

But it can. And it has.

Pentagon: Able Danger unit couldn't stop 9/11... because we wouldn't let them

The Pentagon has finished investigating itself, and it finds itself.... not guilty!!! Yayyy!! What a triumph of democracy and accountability. [/sarcasm]

Let's have Congressman Curt Weldon talk about that:

FBI forced to triple fraud squads to keep up with rampant corruption on Capitol Hill

Title pretty much says it all. Here's the scoop:

There is so much political corruption on Capitol Hill that the FBI has had to triple the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers, the Daily News has learned.

For decades, only one squad in Washington handled corruption cases because the crimes were seen as local offenses handled by FBI field offices in lawmakers' home districts.

But in recent years, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and other abuses of power and privilege have prompted the FBI to assign 37 agents full-time to three new squads in an office near Capitol Hill.

FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus told The News yesterday that he wants to detail even more agents to the Washington field office for a fourth corruption squad because so much wrongdoing is being uncovered.

My advice for the FBI: Keep up the pace. We're gonna need a lot more agents if we want to get all of it. But I fear that the FBI lacks the political will to push too far, especially if the trail of corruption reaches too high up the chain of command. We need squeaky-clean corridors of power, but right now they're covered in filth and decay. Does the FBI have the strength to arrest all of the perpetrators, not just the ones who get hung out to dry by their masters?

Really, if we wanted to stop corruption we'd have to arrest everybody in Washington except the janitors and the maids.

Rigorous Intuition breaks the JonBenet case wide open

Sometimes I wonder why I even blog. Rigorous Intuition is so fuckin' good that it makes all other blogs out there look like crap. Still, I ramble on.

As usual, Jeff Wells has some great insights into the crime and some new information that I'd never heard before. If you're interested in the disturbing truth and the horrifying implications, head on over to Rigorous Intution.

Jeff also found this excellent resource for the investigtation. Here's a sampling:

In his August 6, 1998 resignation letter, Boulder Detective Steve Thomas openly accused then police chief Tom Koby and other officials of sabotaging the case: "During the investigation detectives would discover, collect, and bring evidence to the district attorney's office, only to have it summarily dismissed or rationalized as insignificant. The most elementary of investigative efforts, such as obtaining telephone and credit card records, were met without support, search warrants denied. The significant opinions of national experts were casually dismissed or ignored by the district attorney's office, even the experienced FBI were waved aside." Thomas was ordered not to question certain witnesses, "and all but dissuaded from pursuing particular investigative efforts. Polygraphs were acceptable for some subjects, but others seemed immune from such requests. Innocent people were not "cleared", publicly or otherwise, even when it was unmistakably the right thing to do, as reputations and lives were destroyed. Some in the district attorney's office, to this day, pursue weak, defenseless, and innocent people in shameless tactics that one couldn't believe more bizarre if it were made up."

The more I look into this case, the more it seems like a child-sex ring was involved, and that the investigation was headed off because some powerful people were involved. John Mark Karr's "confession" seems more suspect by the minute. What's he playing at?

Certainly, he's not innocent. He is a pedophile. But is he really guilty of this particular crime? Maybe he was part of the child-sex ring. Maybe he's just a convenient patsy.

The more I look into this case, the more things look bad for the Ramseys. It almost seems like they offered their daughter up as a sacrifice to the rich and powerful in order to gain more status for themselves. I hope that's not the case, but she was found in their own home. What kind of Christmas party was that?

NSA wiretapping program deemed unconstitutional by federal judge!

Yes! Best news I've heard all day! Think Progress has the scoop:

Fox News reports a federal district court in Detroit has ruled that the Bush administration’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

Hell yeah!! I wonder what the neocons' next move will be. The judge has issued an injunction (pdf) (I'm glad to see James Bamford is one of the plaintiffs).

Only problem is: How will we ever know for sure that they've stopped the program? We didn't know when they started it -- it was revealed only recently. What mechanism do we have for ensuring that the NSA doesn't simply change the name of the program and ignore the judge's order?

The NSA is a rogue agency. We need Congress to crack it wide open and see what it's been hiding all these years.

JonBenet Ramsey's murderer finally caught

I shouldn't even defoul this blog with such news, but here ya go:

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, John Mark Karr said that he contacted JonBenet's mother, Patsy, before she died of cancer in June to express his remorse for the killing.

"I conveyed to her many things, among them that I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet," Karr said as U.S. and Thai authorities escorted him from his Bangkok hotel, where he spent over an hour packing his belongings.

Karr said it was his understanding that Patsy Ramsey read letters that he sent to her. He said JonBenet's death was "an accident."

"It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much and that her death was unintentional," said Karr, who sweated and stuttered occasionally as he spoke in a quiet voice.

Karr, 41, was arrested Wednesday, halfway around the world from Boulder, Colo., where JonBenet's body was found beaten and strangled in her parent's basement on Dec. 26, 1996.

This guy sounds like a sick fucker. He says he loved her -- is that why he drugged, raped and murdered her?

Well, at least this fucking psychopath was finally caught. I can only imagine what the pedophile was doing in Bangkok. Let's hope he didn't "love" any children over there, but that seems a little unlikely.

Does this mean the parents are not guilty?

Well, no. They turned their daughter into a prepubescent pinup, which is what attracted this psycho in the first place. While I don't think they should be jailed, I think they have to look at their own motivations for the whole beauty pageant illusion they draped her in. How much of it was a selfish desire to have the cutest daughter in the world? I'm sure JonBenet loved the attention, but parents are supposed to look out for their kids, not parade them around like a hunk of meat before the lecherous eyes of a million perverts.

Oh, and they should be chained upside-down in a hideous dungeon for naming their daughter "JonBenet." I mean c'mon! Could you be any more pretentious?! Ack!!

Ultimately, though, the crime rests on the shoulders of John Mark Karr. What a fucking tragedy.

UPDATE: Karr was probably a patsy. RigInt has blown this wide open.

Oh man, this blog has had less activity than Terri Schiavo's frontal lobe!

Oh, sorry. That was cold. But is anybody else here sick to death of the whole Schiavo bruhaha? Talk about over exposed.

A kid here in Minnesota shoots up his school, killing 10, and the media hardly blinks. Dear Leader didn't mention that for days, but he flew back from his perma-vacation in Crawford to sign a bill pissing on federalism in order to score some political points from Terri's parents' suffering. Good job, Georgie! We now know that you're a complete tool! Oh wait, we already knew that. Well, still, it's good to know that a vegetative white woman rates above 10 dead Native Americans in his book.

Let's face facts: Terri Schiavo has been dead for 15 years, her body just hasn't gotten the memo. I think her quality of life has diminished severely, unless her old hobbies included drooling and bed sores. I guess it's possible that the fiendish doctors have been lying and she's actually dancing the Watusi every night, but I just don't see what they'd have to gain. You'd think they'd want to keep her alive as long as possible. Talk about the ideal patient - she hasn't complained about anything yet!

You'd think there would be a better way to let her go to "the clearing at the end of the path" than starvation, though. I think a lethal injection would be more humane, but then again she's a fucking vegetable and wouldn't know the difference if we decided to kill her with a spoon. I guess the starvation thing gives her one more chance to prove she's conscious. If they find her over by the vending machine, trying to get some Fritos, then we'll know we shouldn't've pulled the plug.

Make no mistake - her husband, Michael, sounds like an asshole. Not exactly Prince Charming, but he's probably right about her not wanting to "live" like this. And her parents seem really desperate and sad. They've had 15 years to come to grips with this and they still haven't accepted it. Come on, people. Doctors aren't perfect and they're often wrong, but if she was gonna recover, she should've done so by now. Just think - if she woke up, she'd think it was 1992 or something. She died a beautiful woman and now she's an old shell of herself. If she woke up she'd probably try to kill herself! Wouldn't that be ironic.

It seems strange to me that the Republicans can't seem to realize that she's been dead for 15 years. I guess they looked at her vacant stare and her rigid posture and assumed that she was one of them. Much of the Republican party seems to be the walking dead. They're so much like zombies it's frightening. They don't think - they just react - to perceived threats, which is basically anything and everything. They're so afraid of everything. How come all these old & religious people are so afraid of dying? You'd think people like the Pope would be in a hurry to go and be with God, But you'd be wrong....they know that they've spit on God throughout their lives. They know that they haven't really loved all of God's children (which includes me and other people who dare to thumb their noses at the Republican agenda). They know that they've exploited God to make themselves more powerful.

Not that the Democrats are any better. They've resorted to their old ways with this Schiavo case. They see that the Republicans are keyed up about something and they immediately make themselves scarce. They voted for the Schiavo bill, just like they voted for the Iraq War. They didn't agree with it. but they're so fucking scared of the political consequences that they ran away and licked their pussies. Not exactly inspiring; I'm glad I'm not a Democrat or I'd run away too - out of shame.

The Democrats are so pathetic and weak that they remind me of Ross Perot's old runningmate, Admiral Stockdale. Remember that dude? He was so confused and befuddled that you had to wonder if he'd just recently awoken from a coma. The Democrats are now stealing all his best lines: "Where am I? What am I doing here? Where are my pants?"

The Republicans stole the Democrats' pants long ago and the Democrats are too weak to ask for them back. The de-pantsing of the Democrats would be funnier if they weren't our sole opposition party. If the Democrats die because of their weakness?.... Oh well. Out with the old and in with the new. That's the way of life. It ends....and springs up somewhere else. Don't worry about Terri - her soul is indestructable. I'd be more worried about the neocons running lose in American government. More on that next time.