Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Only In America. Jesus And Moses Go To Wal-Mart

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Instead of Spiderman or Bratz dolls, children in the US could soon be clutching a talking Jesus toy, a bearded Moses or a muscle-bound figure of Goliath.

From the middle of August, Wal-Mart, the biggest toy retailer in the US, will for the first time stock a full line of faith-based toys.......

"If you go in a toy aisle in any major retailer, you will see toys and dolls that promote and glorify evil, destruction, lying, cheating.




"In the girls' aisle where the dolls would be, you see dolls that are promoting promiscuity to very young girls. Dolls will have very revealing clothes on, G-string underwear."




What his company offers instead is "something faith-based that is not only fun to play with but also is solidifying a person's spiritual wherewithal and their spiritual journey", he said. more

It's A Funny Old World: Atlanta Edition

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Boy oh boy those boys down Atlanta way sure like to shoot people. These two are numbered among eleven homicides in a week.


Two underpaid employees at an East Point car dealership had been hounding their boss for a raise. Instead, the boss gave them each a bullet to the head, police said.

Fed up with the two workers' frequent salary demands, owner Rolandas Milinavicius — who was in dire financial straits — apparently snapped Thursday morning and allegedly shot both of them to death inside the business. more

Suffer The Atheists Not

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A short film from Scrotumville Oklahoma charting the persecution of a sixteen year old high school girl.

This scene taken from a pre/mid/end game prayer session is, as a European, so totally alien to me and my culture.

h/t Barefootbum




It's a funny old world, watch these fifteen hundred Filipino prisoners boogy to Thriller or Radio Gaga.
Beats a poke in the eye with a sharp shank.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Bill Kristol Is Fucking Insane

It wasn't my intention to write about Kristol, I only went back to this piece of insane drivel to highlight the title header for a quote, but the whole thing deserves to be read.

I don't know who is the crazier, Kristol or those that allow him column inches to write such fucking nonsense.

The original intended article is below this.


Why Bush Will Be A Winner
By William Kristol
Washington Post

I suppose I'll merely expose myself to harmless ridicule if I make the following assertion: George W Bush's presidency will probably be a successful one.........


What about terrorism? Apart from Iraq, there has
**been less of it, here and abroad**, than many experts predicted on Sept. 12, 2001. So Bush and Vice President Cheney probably are doing some important things right. ***The war in Afghanistan has gone reasonably well***.......

......Not necessarily. First of all, we would have to compare the situation in Iraq now, with all its difficulties and all the administration's mistakes, with what it would be if we hadn't gone in.
Saddam Hussein would be alive and in power and, I dare say, victorious, with the United States (and the United Nations) by now having backed off sanctions and the no-fly zone.

He might well have
restarted his nuclear program, and his connections with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups would be intact or revived and even strengthened. more


**The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last year,**
Source, would you believe, Washington Post.


***We Are Failing In Afghanistan.*** Guardian .

~ ~ ~

Humanitarian Plight Of Iraqis Is Dire.


A new report by Oxfam says that the continuing failure to provide even the most basic services to many Iraqis will not only cause continuing suffering, but "serve to further destabilise the country".



Oxfam are unable to work on the ground in Iraq in the way that they would elsewhere, but working with the NGO Co-ordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI), their new survey finds "eight million people in need of emergency aid". more

Free Birth Control For California

It's true I tell ye.

Birth control is to be used on pigeons in California in an effort to combat the "unmanageable" mess their increasing numbers are causing.

Animal rights groups support using the contraceptive in preference to other methods such as gates which give electric shocks and poisoning. more

No Evidence Of Wrongdoing: Padilla

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No kidding.

IT WAS a terrorist trial that seemed to have everything - including a CIA agent testifying in disguise and a mysterious reference to a female donkey. But the long-awaited court appearance of Jose Padilla, a US citizen once known as America’s “dirty bomber”, has turned out to be missing a crucial ingredient - evidence that he actually did anything wrong.

More than two months after federal prosecutors first stood up in a Miami courtroom and depicted Padilla as a would-be jihadist (holy warrior) who with two codefendants was conspiring to “murder, kidnap and maim”, the case has become a potential embarrassment to US security officials. The Times

Poodle Boy Is Such A Little Whore

There are questions emerging over Tony Blair's appointment as the Quartet's [the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia] Middle East envoy.


The uncertainties start with funding, who is paying the bills for the former British prime minister's new job as special representative for the diplomatic grouping?







This is a hugely sensitive position. It is also a position that Blair had his eyes on for some time. more
It would be nice to think this deal might bring some stability to the country if not the area in general.


A REMARKABLE political pact appeared to have been struck last night, with reports that Pakistan's most prominent opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, had agreed to a power-sharing role with the country's beleaguered military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf.

The accord -- which will allow General Musharraf another five years as president and Ms Bhutto, who is now living in exile, a chance for a third term as prime minister -- was "signed and sealed" at a secret face-to-face weekend meeting in Abu Dhabi, it was reported. more

Made In Iran. Of Course Where Else?

I won't write the spoiler, just read the last paragraph on page two.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants used a heat-seeking, surface-to-air missile to attack a Western aircraft over Afghanistan for the first time last week, coalition military sources say.

The attack with a weapon thought to have been smuggled across the border with Iran represents a worrisome increase in the capability of the militants that Western commanders had long feared.

The sources said the Taliban attempted to bring down an American C-130 Hercules airplane flying over the southwestern province of Nimroz on July 22.

The crew reported that a missile system locked on to their aircraft and that a missile was fired. more






The beginning of the end for Russia in Afghanistan was the arming and training (CIA) of the Taliban in the use of stinger missiles.
Once the Taliban had been supplied and trained in the use of heavy mortars by the CIA the Russians were forced to abandon their ground campaign and took to the air with massive helicopter force, the rest is history.

America, do as I say not as I do.

Paramilitary Police Forces Are The Norm



Which nobody can deny. Six minute video.

Clive James: Writers, Envy, And JK Rowling

The inimitable old rascal writes:

If asked whether I suffer from the condition commonly known as JK Rowling Envy, I can't say no.

Like any other writer who is not JK Rowling, I can't say no because my teeth are so tightly gritted in a smile of good sportsmanship that tiny fragments of enamel are given off into the atmosphere, and if I opened my mouth any further a long howl of anguish would be released, tapering into a convulsive whimper, punctuated with deliriously mumbled statistics. 325 million copies. 65 languages. A thousand million dollars. A million billion roubles. Gazillion fantabulon megayen... more


No Extension For Detention Without Charge

A cross-party committee of MPs and peers has opposed government plans to detain terror suspects without charge beyond 28 days.


A report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) concludes that there is not enough evidence to justify extending the detention time.




The decision is a setback to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plans to double detention to 56 days......
Mr Dismore described the process as "offensive both to the basic principles of natural justice as we know it and to British ideas of fair play". more






Hear hear old chap, kind of puts five years in Gitmo in perspective.

World Owes US a Debt, Says Brown

Hardly the words to get yourself re-elected, but let's never forget Brown has his dirty hands all over the Iraq war, he owns it just as much as poodle boy.

The world owes a debt to the United States for its leadership in the fight against international terrorism, Gordon Brown has said.

The prime minister described the link with the US as the UK's "most important bilateral relationship" ahead of his first talks with President George Bush...........


BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Brown was "walking a tightrope" in his dealings with America.

He needed to reassure Mr Bush of his commitment to the Atlantic relationship as well as convince British voters that links between the US and the UK would be different to those maintained by former prime minister Tony Blair, our correspondent said. more


For what it's worth I have never been impressed with Nick Robinson's viewpoint, I would be more inclined to look to the Times for a better analysis.


Behind the scenes, however, American officials are picking up what they believe are signals that a change of British policy on Iraq is imminent.

McDonald, a senior diplomat who formerly ran the Iraq desk at the Foreign Office, was in Washington this month to prepare for the summit. He asked a select group of US foreign policy experts what they believed the effect would be of a British pull-out from Iraq.

“The general feeling was that he was doing the groundwork for a Brown conversation,” said a source. Most of the experts felt it was a question of when, not if, Britain would leave.

“The view is Britain feels it can’t fight two wars, and Afghanistan is more worth fighting for,” added the source. Yesterday a British soldier was killed during a rocket attack in Afghanistan, bringing to 67 the number of British fatalities there. more

Second Place Finish For Montoya At The Brickyard

Nice one Monty

Montoya shines in Brickyard debut

By Diego Mejia Monday, July 30th 2007, 02:41 GMT

Juan Pablo Montoya scored his best oval result in NASCAR on Sunday, coming second to Tony Stewart in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, his eighth race at Indy but his first in a stock car at the 2.5-mile oval.

The Colombian started the race from the front row beside teammate Reed Sorenson, ran comfortably in the top five for most of the distance, and closed on the leaders in the last few laps, overtaking Jeff Gordon with 18 laps remaining and taking second from Kevin Harvick with only three laps to go.

"At the start of it I was just happy to run and stay in the top-five and try to maybe make the car better," Montoya said.

"We did a little bit of tyre pressure and track bar changes. We put a hell of a lot of track bar in the car today and couldn't get it to free up. The only time it was free was when I stopped when it was under green."

Montoya was lucky to survive a puncture on his left front when he was just about to pit for the last time under green on lap 128. Although he lost a couple of spots due to the tyre blowing up, he was able to get those positions back on the track.

The former Indy 500 winner was hoping his rivals would pit when the last caution flag of the day came out with 23 laps remaining. He was planning to stay on the track if the leaders pitted, but in the end none of them did.

"They told me 'If everybody pits we're going to stay out.' And I said 'Yeah, but to be honest, the 20 (Stewart's car) is too fast. Even if he pits he's still going to come out and beat us.' And they stayed out but I don't think anybody had anything for Tony today."

Montoya was excited to be able to overtake while battling at the front, something he said he had been unable to do before.

"It's exciting. I tell you, I'm happy. It's the first actual race that I could pass. Normally I get to like 12th and you start to try to get runs on people and you can't and today it was something. I could really go at it."

The Colombian admitted that the nature of the track, which has little banking and four 90-degree corners instead of two of 180 degrees, might have helped him to be quick all weekend.

"The track, to learn, is pretty simple," he said. "I found it pretty simple when I came here the first time. It's a very different oval but it's a mixture of an oval and a road course. I like it.

"It's funny because I was telling my crew chief most of the times when we have problems is just past the center of a normal oval corner and here, just past the center, you're out of the corner. I think it worked pretty good."

Montoya's second place in the race has moved him up two places in the championship and has him now 200 points away from the 12th place in the standings. He was 304 off before this weekend, which makes him think that making the Chase is still possible.

"I tell you the truth, if you could get this type of finish for the next three races then you have a chance," he said.

"If you go next weekend and you have an average weekend then you're out. It doesn't mean that we're going to give up. I think we're going to go more forward to try to get wins than get into the Chase."

Montoya will be testing this week at VIR with the Car of Tomorrow in preparation for the second and last road-course event of the year for the Nextel Cup, which takes place in two weeks at Watkins Glen. He won his first Cup race in a road-course last month at Sonoma, California.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Caring Conservative Migrant Law Ruled Unconstitutional

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A federal judge in the United States has ruled as unconstitutional a tough anti-illegal immigration law in the town of Hazleton in Pennsylvania.

Judge James Munley said the law denied rights granted to everyone in the US, whether legally resident or not.

Businesses employing illegal workers would have had their trading licences suspended, while landlords renting to undocumented immigrants faced fines.

The ruling could affect several similar laws awaiting approval across the US. more

Bent Cops: FBI Edition



A federal judge in Boston has ordered the US government to pay out more than $100m (£50m) in the case of four wrongly convicted men.

The four were convicted in 1965 of the murder of gangster Edward Teddy Deegan.

They spent decades in prison after the FBI withheld evidence of their innocence. Two died in jail. more

NASA In The News

A panel reviewing health issues at Nasa has found that US astronauts have been allowed to fly while intoxicated at least twice, an aviation magazine says.

The panel also found heavy alcohol use within the 12-hour "bottle to throttle" ban for flight crew, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology. more

Video

Beyond Belief: Rapture Ready by Max Blumenthal



Once a flood, pray excuse the analogy, someone comes up with the goods, that were it not on film, it would be beyond belief, stunningly beyond belief.

Blogger Max Blumenthal has come up with such goods in the form of a short film entitled, Rapture Ready: The Unauthorised Christians United for Israel Tour.

I will let Blumenthal give his own introduction, but the film is an absolutely must watch. I should and would write further if I were not truly lost for words after witnessing the goings on in this asylum.

Truly, Only In America.



On July 16, I attended Christians United for Israel's annual Washington-Israel Summit. Founded by San Antonio-based megachurch pastor John Hagee, CUFI has added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby. Hagee and his minions have forged close ties with the Bush White House and members of Congress from Sen. Joseph Lieberman to Sen. John McCain. In its call for a unilateral military attack on Iran and the expansion of Israeli territory, CUFI has found unwavering encouragement from traditional pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and elements of the Israeli government.

But CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers - Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. - must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation. Over a dozen CUFI members eagerly revealed to me their excitement at the prospect of Armageddon occurring tomorrow. Among the rapture ready was Republican Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. None of this seemed to matter to Lieberman, who delivered a long sermon hailing Hagee as nothing less than a modern-day Moses. Lieberman went on to describe Hagee's flock as "even greater than the multitude Moses commanded."

Throughout CUFI's Israel Summit, videographer Thomas Shomaker and I were hounded by PR agents seeking to prevent us from interviewing attendees about the End Times. The conference, we were told, was about "one message" - evangelical Christians supporting Israel. We were instructed to only interview CUFI leaders capable of sticking to the talking point that their support for Israel has, as Hagee declared, "nothing to do with the End Times." But I was forbidden from asking Hagee about statements he made in his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," that appeared to blame Jews for their own persecution. After doing just that during a press conference, I was removed from the conference by off-duty DC cops summoned by members of Hagee's family.

I have covered the Christian right intensely for over four years. During this time, I attended dozens of Christian right conferences, regularly monitored movement publications and radio shows, and interviewed scores of its key leaders. I have never witnessed any spectacle as politically extreme, outrageous, or bizarre as the one Christians United for Israel produced last week in Washington. See for yourself. Max Blumenthal

Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour from huffpost on Vimeo.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Jihadists Might Get You Before You Board The Plane

UK Commons select committee warn of potential danger at airport queues, seems logical, just wander in with your bomb in a rucksack/suitcase, and there are trolleys at your disposal if it's too heavy to carry.

Heightened security checks at airports could create a potential new target for terrorists, MPs have warned.

A report by the Commons transport select committee said queues of hundreds of passengers in cramped spaces could become a security hazard.

The committee recommended that reducing queues at security and speeding up check-in times should be a priority.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said baggage security rules introduced last August met "a very real threat". more


Wanker in the graphic.

He's the angry, irate, face of Islamic fury; the poster child of Muslim protests. They are calling him the 'Rage Boy'. A Kashmiri protester who turns up at almost every major demonstration to express Islamist anger about real and perceived slights and has become photographers' favourite, is now a blog darling......

"Rage Boy" has now become such a cult figure that he's even attracted the attention of Christopher Hitchens, the iconoclastic British columnist, notorious for skewering Mother Teresa among others.

Would Be Jihadist Got Cold Feet. Five Jailed

This is how it goes in Britain.

Five young British Muslim men have been jailed for downloaded and sharing masses of extremist material. During their trial they argued that they were not terrorists but intellectually curious. But what evidence convinced the jury they had gone too far?

When Mohammed Irfan Raja quietly walked out of his family home in Ilford, east London, on 24 February 2006, he had dreams of becoming known for something more than the 18-year-old schoolboy he then was.



But today, as the 19-year-old and four men from Bradford University begin jail sentences, his name becomes just another associated with the jihadi extremism of radicalised young British Muslim men. more

The Decider: Bill Maher



Maher's HBO show split into eight bite sized chunks.
You can pick up the rest after watching part one.





Who's the blonde? I haven't a clue.

Bent Cops: Another Shabby Tale Of Injustice

Floyd Brown can't tell time.

He struggles to name the North Carolina mental institution where he has lived a third of his life, locked up without a trial.


And he doesn't understand anything about DNA evidence - the kind that might have freed him before his mother died, before his hair started to gray.

But for 14 years, Brown - who has been diagnosed as mentally retarded - has remained clear about one thing: that he didn't kill Katherine Lynch.

"I ain't got nothing to do with Miss Katherine. I ain't a killer. I ain't hurt nobody. I ain't a hurter," the 43-year-old says from Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh.

Brown says he didn't know Lynch. No witnesses placed him near the house where she was killed in 1993. No physical evidence ties him to the scene.

A wooden stick sheriff's deputies say was used to beat the 80-year-old woman to death bore a bloody palm print. An early test failed to match that print with Brown's. More-sophisticated testing could have revealed the identity of her killer if the stick had been harvested for skin cells and tested for DNA.

But the stick is gone - lost or destroyed, unaccountably, in an investigation handled by two detectives later found guilty of shaking down criminal suspects in exchange for not pressing charges in unrelated cases.

"If it's not there, it's not there," testified Anson County Sheriff Tommy Allen, who said he didn't investigate what his deputies did with the weapon and 22 other key pieces of missing evidence.



And from here the story heads in an inevitable direction, downhill. From the "confession" to the total lack of evidence to trying to teach Brown by rote enough "facts" so that he could be declared competent to stand trial.


And he takes competency classes designed to prepare him for court. As part of that program, he has memorized short sentences about the role of a judge, for example, and the right to "due progress."

By 2003, Brown had been locked up for 10 years. As the state prepared to close Dix, a psychologist there found that he could recite enough legal factoids that she declared him competent to stand trial.


Just how sordid can a tale get? And then we have the cracker, when I read shite like this all I want to do is scream.

"I wouldn't have no reason to pick up the walking stick and take it with me. I wouldn't have no reason to do anything like that," he says. "I'm an elder in my church, and I'm a Christian guy. I don't have any reason to lie about this case. I don't think it's fair to bring in what's happened to me or Detective Hutchinson to try to get somebody off a case." more
h/t TL



I have written previously about good Christian cops.


Two Atlanta police officers made a second appearance in court today to plead guilty to felonies in the fatal shooting of a 92-year-old woman in her home

Officers Gregg Junnier and Jason R. Smith made their second stop Wednesday afternoon to plead guilty to violating the civil rights of Kathryn Johnston by killing her during a botched drug raid at her home Nov. 21. 2006.

Before the hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Julie Carnes the two officers sat side-by-side on a bench. Junnier stared ahead while Smith read silently from a Bible opened to the book of John.

When I read shite like that it burns me.

Junnier, who has retired, was charged with three counts of felony murder, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation, two counts of burglary and one each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and making a false statement.

Yes so very Christian of him, and who knows how many innocents are banged up due to planted or bent evidence. What a goddamn hypocrite. more

Bugger Me! Boy Buggery Boss Talks Evolution

It would appear the CEO of the Buggery Club is more worried where the planet is headed than where it came from.

It's a pity he isn't concerned enough that the earth might be better off if she had a few less mouths to feed.



The pontiff, speaking as he was concluding his holiday in northern Italy, also said that while there is much scientific proof to support evolution, the theory could not exclude a role by God.......



Benedict also said the human race must listen to “the voice of the Earth” or risk destroying its very existence. more .

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Child Abuse: Apples And Pears




The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office has charged a 46-year-old woman with contributing to the deprivation of a minor for allowing her teenage daughter to live with a 29-year-old man.

I wouldn't normally bring your attention to this story, but what with having just posted the photo of the porky kid in McDonalds it brings the question to the fore, just what is child abuse.

It's an apples and pears comparison undoubtedly, but I can't help but feel that one momma is going to get nailed to a cross for letting her fifteen year old daughter (going on twenty five?) live with a bloke and all the other mommas who let their kids come into real harms way by letting their kids stuff themselves with junk until they look like the kid in the photo is construed as acceptable behaviour. more

McConalds Bring Back Supersize Soda


Remember Supersize sodas? They’re back, except this time the chain is trying a new name. Meet the “Hugo,” a 42-ounce drink now available for as little as 89 cents in some markets. A Hugo soda contains about 410 calories.

McDonald’s might as well have called it the Tubbo.





Making matters worse, Hugo ads are available in several languages, making sure that minorities — who are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic — are aware of the budget beverage. more .

Another Republican Treading The Rehab Path

Ravenel, a Republican, had been considered a rising political star before his indictment was announced June 19.

It's getting caught with that half kilo of Charlie that does tend to put a halt to ascension.

Prosecutors have said Ravenel shared the cocaine with his friends and did not sell the drug. He spent 30 days in a rehabilitation program in Arizona before returning to South Carolina on Sunday.

I'll go along with that, it's the way of the world, I don't suppose it will stop Ravenel being nailed to a cross though. more .

Sex Ed. Ignorance Is Bliss. Christine O'Donnell

Stroll on.

Fox News on Monday invited former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders and a young conservative pro-abstinence pundit, Christine O'Donnell, to discuss Barack Obama's recent suggestion that age-appropriate sex education should begin in kindergarten.

"We have a sexually unhealthy society," began Elders, but O'Donnell quickly cut her off, saying with a broad grin, "And that is wonderful. ... It's called modesty. more .

Vendor Arrested For 'Impeach Him' Buttons


"Tomorrow Belongs To Me"

(CBS News)
KENSINGTON, Md. A 74-year-old retired mathematician who sells anti-Bush buttons at a Maryland farmers' market has become a symbol of free speech to some people. Others say Alan McConnell is a nuisance.

McConnell was at the market in Kensington as usual yesterday, selling buttons that say "Impeach Him" He has sold the $1 buttons for months; he told The Washington Post he uses the money earned to pay for "Impeach Them Both" yard signs.

Town officials had previously warned McConnell about peddling his political wares at the market (he is accused of being "aggressive" in his pitch), and had cited him for selling merchandise without a proper permit. more .
h/t C&L

Vets File Class Action Suit Against Goverment

Speaks for itself really.

HUNDREDS of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have filed a class-action lawsuit against the US government for providing them with deficient medical and financial support.

They accused the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of violating the constitutional rights of war veterans who have to face a bureaucratic nightmare that leaves claims pending for up to 10 years. more .

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

EuroPervs And Heads, Travelling To America? Mmmmm




Well kiddywinks you don't need me to tell you that America is full of pious piety and sanctimonious sanctimony all wrapped up in cant and hypocrisy, no you don't need me to tell ye that at all.

You might however need me to tell you that those little dark secrets that you keep tying to forget, and hope others already have, well my little pervs and bad boys and girls in general, your little peccadilloes and skeletons in the cupboard are about to come dancing out to be shared with those stalwart defenders of public morality, the US Department of Homeland Security.

I just thought I'd mention it, might save you a wasted journey, and perhaps an embarrassing one at that.

Highly sensitive information about the religious beliefs, political opinions and even the sex life of Britons travelling to the United States is to be made available to US authorities when the European Commission agrees to a new system of checking passengers. more .

National Emergencies Act: Executive Order

National Emergencies Act: Executive Order. subtitled
You Are Fucked But You Don't Know It. (yet)


If you read nothing else today then read this. Read this and the Executive Order at the end of the article in it's entirety. Scary? scary doesn't come close.


Only last week we saw a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore ask the Whitehouse (Cheney) what plans were in effect for operating the Goverment in the event of a national emergency, and we also heard the Whitehouse reply, "Go fuck yourself."
If that in itself doesn't assail the olfactory epithelium with the scent of rattus norvegicus then nothing will.




But the cracker is that which is writ below.

The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of "certain persons" who oppose the US led war in Iraq:

"I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act.


The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement. It is intended to "blocking property" of US citizens and organizations actively involved in the peace movement. It allows the Department of Defense to interfere in financial affairs and instruct the Treasury to "block the property" and/or confiscate/ freeze the assets of "Certain Persons" involved in antiwar activities. It targets those "Certain Persons" in America, including civil society organizatioins, who oppose the Bush Administration's "peace and stability" program in Iraq, characterized, in plain English, by an illegal occupation and the continued killing of innocent civilians.



The Executive Order also targets those "Certain Persons" who are "undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction", or who, again in plain English, are opposed to the confiscation and privatization of Iraq's oil resources, on behalf of the Anglo-American oil giants. More .