#3 TELL-A-VISION

Every once in a while it is necessary to review the past in order to keep up with the concept of, 'history repeating itself.' by ~@~

We had another one of 'those' meetings and it was suggested I play a 'little catch-up' and let everyone know what was/is going on, so here goes...

Grateful Dead

One of the main topics of discussion was my recent attitude changes, so let's start with that.

A few months ago I noticed a Grateful Dead 24/7 channel appear on satellite radio and TV. If one has Sirius Satellite Radio, it is on channel 32 or on DishNetwork, channel 6032.

Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 32 - Grateful Dead - DishNetwork channel 6032
http://www.sirius.com/gratefuldeadradio

For those who do not know, I am a long time Grateful Dead fan and very fond of the band.

(fwiw) I used to help Bobby Petersen unload the truck during the early days and would have a 'cold one' with him and Pigpen from time to time.

I should probably mention Ron's father worked downstairs from me at Stanford, Bobby wrote one of my most favorite 'Dead songs, "Unbroken Chain", and we would hang out in Mexico together, over the years, before his death.

To get to the point, when Jerry passed away, I had a hard time listening to the band because I would get all emotional and tear up.

I was finally able to get over most of this by listening to "Might as Well..., The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead", over and over, but could not get into my tapes, because, for lack of better words, it was still too painful.

The selections presented on the Sirius 24/7 Grateful Dead channel have allowed me to overcome the tears, for the most part, and to retain the best of show memories without emotional breakdown.

Grateful Dead Story - Egypt 1978

by Paul Krassner

In 1978, when I got fired from Hustler, Ken Kesey had invited me to come to Egypt with the Merry Prankster, where the Grateful Dead would be playing at the pyramids. Now, Cairo was buzzing with pedestrians--some barefoot, others wearing platform shoes from the Third World Dumping Ground Bazaar. Automobiles were busy trafficking in anarchy, and taxicab drivers hailed you. Donkeys were pulling carts, bicyclists were avoiding goats, and kids were playing soccer on dirt roads in front of stores selling gold souvenirs.

The same merchants who were suspicious that Israel's Six Day War had been a convenient way of testing U.S. weapons would gladly sell you a bomb casing which had been engraved with hieroglyphics and was now an umbrella stand for your foyer. And the same tourists who swatted away beggars trying to sell simulated scarabs for pennies were quite willing to pay a few bucks for a glass of 7-Up.

Suddenly an incongruous quartet of semi-trailer trucks invaded the rhythm of the city. They were bearing sound equipment lent by the Who to the Dead. Kesey's Day-Glo sneakers were peeking out from under his galabea--a long skirt-like piece of clothing worn by Egyptian men. We each chose our own fabric. Kesey described rock impresario Bill Graham's fabric as "the wallpaper on the upper rooms in the old Fillmore." I had a resistance to buying a galabea but I stood reluctantly on the measuring table.

"Okay," I said, "I'll get one to wear here in Egypt, but I'm definitely not gonna walk down Castro Street with it on."

So there we were, the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Deadheads, a roving gang of professional weirdos in tie-dye T-shirts, foreigners in our own country yet serving now as unofficial good will ambasadors while, simultaneously, Jimmy Carter was bringing Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin together at Camp David. But we had our own agenda--to make the Sphinx smile.

This trip was a personal vision of the Dead's manager, Richard Loren, who had been to Egypt five times. He had read the Koran thoroughly and had built this musical pilgrimage from the bottom up, just the way the Pyramids themselves were originally constructed, with a foundation held together by a combination of sweat, manure and dedication.

Bob Weir looked up at the Great Pyramid and cried out, "What is it!"

Actually, it was the place for locals to go on a cheap date. The Pyramids were surrounded by moats of discarded bottlecaps. The Dead were scheduled to play on three successive nights at an open-air theater in front of the Pyramids, with the Sphinx looking on. A bootleg tape of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis doing filthy schtick was being used for a preliminary sound check. Later, an American general would complain to stage manager Steve Parish that the decadence of a rock'n'roll band performing here was a sacrilege to five thousand years of history.

"Listen," Parish said, "I lost two brothers in 'Nam, and I don't wanna hear this crap."

The general retreated in the face of those imaginary brothers. But there were a couple of real injured veterans. Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann had fallen off a horse and broken his arm. The horse was unscathed but recommended that Kreutzmann be shot. However, he would still be playing with the band, using one drumstick. Or, as an Arabian fortune cookie might point out, "In the land of the limbless, a one-armed drummer is king."

Basketball star and faithful Deadhead Bill Walton's buttocks had been used as a pincushion by the Portland Traiblazers so that he could continue to perform on court even though the bones of his foot were being shattered with pain he coudn't feel. Having been injected with painkilling drugs to hide the greed rather than heal the injury, he now had to walk around with crutches and one foot in a cast under his extra-long galabea. Maybe Kreutzmann and Walton could team up and enter the half-upside-down sack-race event.

The proceeds of the three concerts would go to the Department of Antiquities and Madame Sadat's Faith and Hope Society, a charity for handicapped children. The official program had an Arabic translation of Grateful Dead biographies. An air of incredible excitement permeated the first night. Never had the Dead been so inspired. Backstage, Jerry Garcia was passing along final instructions to the band.

"Remember," he said, "play in tune."

The music began with Egyptian oudist Hamza el-Din, backed up by a group tapping out ancient rhythms on their 14-inch-diameter tars--pizza-like drums--sooned joined by Mickey Hart, a human butterfly with drumsticks, then Garcia ambled on with a gentle guitar riff, then Kreutzmann, then Phil Lesh, Donna, Keith, and as the Dead meshed with the percussion ensemble, basking in total respect of each other, Bob Weir segued into the opening chords of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away."

"Did you see that?" Kesey said. "The Sphinx's jaw just dropped!"

Sound engineers John Cutler and Dan Healy had attempted to wire the Pyramid for a special echo effect. They set up an FM transmitter on top of the Sphinx, a battery-operated receiver on top of the Great Pyramid, and ran cable around two sides and into the King's Chamber where the acoustics were most favorable. But it didn't work. One theory was that the permission of the gods had not been sought, but Cutler blamed it on tourists who had trampled on the cables.

"I'm a total realist," he said. "I don't believe in any magic or supernatural power ascribed to the Pyramids. I know it's an unpopular attitude around here, but I paid no attention to Pyramid power. Maybe next year."

I had heard that the sound of the universe was D-flat, so that's the note I chanted while sitting in the tub-like sarcophagus at the center of gravity in the Great Pyramid after having ingested liquid LSD that a Prankster had smuggled into Egypt in a plastic Visine bottle. It was only as I breathed in deeply before each extended Om that I was forced to ponder the mystery of those who urinate there.

Outside, I interviewed a camel named R2D2 after the Star Wars character.

Q. What's your theory on who goes in there to urinate?
A. I don't know. And what's more, I don't gve a dung.

Q. Why are you so bitter?
A. Well, if you must know, my testicles still hurt. My master squeezed my scrotum between a pair of bricks.

Q. Jeez, what a terrible accident.
A. Accident, my hump! He did it on purpose so that in my painful response I would skwoosh up enough water to last for twenty days. The lazy bastard!

Q. Wow, I guess it's not easy being a camel.
A. You ain't kidding, pal. These Pyramids may represent the cradle of civilization to you, but to me they are simply reminders of 5,000 years of oppression.

Q. Things haven't improved much for you, huh?
A. We have always been the victims of human chauvinism. Did you know that the first interuterine birth control devices were used in camels? My great-grandmother had pebbles put into her uterus to prevent her from getting pregnant on long journeys.

Q. Well, at least it wasn't permanent sterilization. I mean you're here, right?
A. Yeah, and I have the freedom to piss wherever I want.

Q. Except inside the Pyramid.
A. Listen, you seem like an okay guy, so I'll answer your question. It ain't sacrilegious visitors who take a leak inside the dead king's temple, it's just jaded guides. Hey, you wanna go for a ride now?

Q. Sure, why not?
A. [Singing] I'll never be your beast of burden....

Every morning, my Prankster roommate, George Walker, climbed to the top of the Pyramid. He was in training. It would be his honor to plant a Grateful Dead flag on top of the Great Pyramid. He attached it to a wooden pole at the peak of the pyramid where the stone block that should've been the final piece was missing. It was a thrill to see that flag waving in the breeze. Athough the skull-and-lightning-bolt image was now an international symbol, the Dead remained a purely American band--they had performed at benefits for the San Francisco Diggers, the Black Panther Party, the anti-Vietnam-war movement--and so now the planting of this flag was our Iwo Jima.

* * * * *

There was something especially magical about the third concert on Saturday. I had a strong feeling that I was involved in a lesson. It was as though the secret of the Dead would finally be revealed to me, if only I paid proper attention. Kesey had arranged for a full eclipse of the moon, and Egyptian kids were running through the streets shaking tin cans filled with rocks in order to bring it back.

"It's okay," I assured them, "the Grateful Dead will bring back the moon."

And, sure enough, a rousing rendition of "Ramble On Rose" would accomplish that feat. The moon returned just as the marijuana cookie that Bill Graham gave me started blending in with the other drugs. Graham no longer wore two wristwatches, one for each coast. He now wore one wristwatch with two faces.

There was a slight problem with an amplifier, but a sound engineer said that it was "getting there."

"Getting there ain't good enough," Jerry Garcia replied. "It's gotta fuckin' be there."

His sense of perfectionism was matched by his sense of absurdity.

Between songs, I said to him, "I'm from the Jewish Defense League, and we demand equal time. Never again!" Garcia looked puzzled, so I added, "Well, maybe sometimes?"

He shrugged and said, "Once in a while."

This was a totally outrageous event. The line between incongruity and appropriateness had disappeared along with the moon. The music was so powerful that the only way to go was ecstatic. That night, when the Dead played "Fire On the Mountain," I danced my ass off with all the others on that outdoor stage as if I had no choice.

"You know," Bill Graham confessed, "this is the first time I ever danced in public."

"Me too," I said.

That was the lesson.

The next day, a dozen of us had a farewell party on a felucca--an ancient, roundish boat, a kind of covered wagon that floats along the river. Garcia was carrying his attache case, just in case he suddenly got any new song ideas. There were three guides who came with our rented felucca: an old man whose skin was like corrugated leather; a younger man who was his assistant; and a kid whose job was to light the "hubbly-bubbly"--a giant water pipe which used hot coals to keep the hashish burning.

We were all completely zonked out of our minds in the middle of the Nile. The Egyptians kept us dizzy on hash and we in turn gave them acid. The old man mumbled something--our translator explained, "He says he's seeing strange things"--and he gave me the handle of the rudder to steer, which I managed to do in my stoned stupor. The felluca was now the vehicle of our cultural exchange.

My psyche had become a study in paradox on this trip. While I was still unwinding from my experience at Hustler, I was simultaneously adapting to Egyptian consciousness, where a woman had to be clothed from head to foot with a chador so that only her eyes were showing. The mere sight of her flesh was officially barred because it could create anxiety and excitement in a man. A woman was not permitted to worship with men because her presence would serve as a distraction from Allah.

Although I had never driven a car by choice, if I were a Moslem woman, I wouldn't even be permitted to learn. I would be allowed to walk, but it would have to be several feet behind a man. While the men in my family were enjoying a hearty meal in the dining room, my place would remain--literally--in the kitchen. I would not be allowed to vote, let alone run for office. If I wanted to go shopping, I would not only have to be accompanied by a man who would make the purchase, but I would also have to keep my gaze down because eye contact might upset the shopkeeper.

The women in our group were indpendent, though. I went to a hashish parlor with Mountain Girl and Goldie Rush, and the men there stared in disbelief because this was usually an exclusively male stronghold. Nikki Scully decided to walk around the streets of Cairo wearing chador. She said that the non-verbal message she kept getting from her eye contact with Egyptian women was: We are one! We are one! We are one! Of course, she might well have been projecting her own feminist attitude.

Coincidentally, Ruth Carter Stapleton was visiting Egypt. She had been conducting prayer meetings and inner healing sessions. When Washington Post reporter Rudy Maxa told her I was in Cairo, she asked him to invite me to meet with her.

"After all," she said, "mine is supposed to be a ministry of reconciliation, isn't it?"

But when Maxa wrote in the Post, "Only the inability to determine Krassner's whereabouts saved him from a dose of inner healing at the base of the Pyramids that afternoon," he had no idea that I'd been tripping on acid and chanting inside the Pyramid that same afternoon.

On the return flight from Egypt, many of us ate whatever dope was left, and we had an extremely pleasant trip. I joined the Mile High Club, making love with Mobilia Growlight in the airplane bathroom.

"This," said Mobilia, "is really flying United."

Back in the States, I wrote to Ruth Carter Stapleton, expressing my surprise that she wanted to meet me inasmuch as she had previously asked Larry Flynt to fire me. She phoned in response to my letter.

"I want to apologize," she said. "I had been advised that you were not the correct individual to change the image of Hustler, but I shouldn't have judged you before I met you. I don't usually judge people before I meet them."

"Well, if you were a true Christian," I teased, "you wouldn't judge me even after we had met."

She laughed graciously. Then we talked about the blatant contrast between Hustler and Egypt.

"I went from one extreme to the other," I told her. "It was like getting out of a hot sauna and jumping into the freezing snow."

"How do you mean that?"

"Well, I had gone from showing pink to wearing chador."

More information on Paul Krassner is located at:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Scrapbook/Paul_Krassner.html

"Without love in the dream, It will never come true."
J. Garcia / R. Hunter

Bush's War

This subject is a 'sore spot' with me because it wastes too much time and too many lives.

For over thirty-five (35) years I have worked with the Birthday Party's Nobody for President campaign to encourage people to vote and put None of the Above on voter ballots.

http://www.nobodyforpresident.org/

I can not think of an easier start (None of the Above) on giving the United States back to the people, but activists can not seem to grasp this 'first step' solution and ignore it.

Another simple thing would be to abolish the office of President and hire a ribbon cutter. Let Congress run the country and consider how much money that would save!

Betrayed by Corporate Media

Dahbud covered this with four generalized articles and a punch line:

Supreme Court to democracy: Drop dead

With a single rash, partisan act, the high court has tainted the Bush presidency, besmirched its own reputation and soiled our nation's proudest legacy.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Gary Kamiya
Dec. 14, 2000 | Tuesday, Dec. 12, is a day that will live in American infamy long after the tainted election of George W. Bush has faded from memory. With their rash, divisive decision to dispense with the risky and inconvenient workings of democracy and simply award the presidency to their fellow Republican, five right-wing justices dragged the Supreme Court down to perhaps its most ignominious point since the Dred Scott decision. [Continue Reading] Was located at: archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/14/bush/index.html

Origin of "The Plan"

by Dahbud Mensch 322

When President Ronald Reagan was shot and laying on the operating table, General Alexander Haig said, "I am in control here.", giving the impression a military coup of the United States had occurred.

Since then, I have been trying to figure out what really happened and here is what I came up with, so far. It started with General Douglas MacArthur and this quote gives the background:

"There is a tradition in American government that the military is subordinate to the civilian leaders. Generals do not make statements about policy without first clearing them with their superiors. But MacArthur, used to ruling in Japan, ignored the chain of command, and began writing letters about what the United States should do in Korea. He sent a letter to the Veterans of Foreign Wars saying that Formosa would be a fine place to launch an aggressive campaign against China. After the Chinese entered the war -- something MacArthur had assured Truman would never happen -- MacArthur wrote to Speaker of the House Joe Martin saying the United States could only win by an all-out war, and this meant bombing the Manchurian bases. So Harry Truman fired him, and evoked a firestorm of criticism from conservatives who believed Truman to be soft on communism. But there is no question that Truman was absolutely correct. Whether his overall policy was right or wrong, the American Constitution commits control of foreign policy to the president and not to the military. As Truman explained, avoidance of World War III while containing aggression was a difficult line to walk, but that was the policy the United States had decided upon. No soldier, not even a five-star general, could unilaterally challenge that policy without disturbing an essential element of democratic government." [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/theplan.html

The Project for the New American Century

January 26, 1998

The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.

The policy of "containment" of Saddam Hussein has been steadily eroding over the past several months. As recent events have demonstrated, we can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections. Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction, therefore, has substantially diminished. Even if full inspections were eventually to resume, which now seems highly unlikely, experience has shown that it is difficult if not impossible to monitor Iraq's chemical and biological weapons production. The lengthy period during which the inspectors will have been unable to enter many Iraqi facilities has made it even less likely that they will be able to uncover all of Saddam's secrets. As a result, in the not-too-distant future we will be unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/pnac26jan1998letter.html

Controlling the News

In-House Memos on Television News Presentations

(June 15) We are going to be running into serious problems with the growing resistance movements in Iraq. GIs are being killed and wounded, convoys ambushed and worst of all scenarios are coming true: The Iraqi oil is being interdicted before it can be shipped out of the country. Casualties cannot be concealed but can be minimized. No clips of dead or injured US personnel... pipeline fires can be shown but voice over should stress that technicians (from Haliburton, of course) are putting out these as quickly as possible. Damage is to be minimal... the nature of the attackers... these are a handful of diehard Saddam supporters... who are being successfully tracked down and neutralized by ever-vigilant and prepared US troops. Show pictures of captured (not dead) Iraqis. Be careful to vet the shots so as not to include any captives that appear to have been beaten...

(June 16) ... Pentagon sources now claim that it will be impossible to bring law and order to Iraq within a year and heavy US military presence must be in place to do this. An order is being prepared to exclude all foreign media, especially British and French, from guerrilla areas. The reason given is that they might be kidnapped but in reality, foreign press might take pictures that are not advisable to be seen in the US. ... the most severe methods of interdiction are currently being indicated including setting up detention camps, curfews, the issuance of ID cards, the closing of mosques, the detention of religious leaders and the sealing of the borders with Syria and Iran...

(June 18) Now it appears that the faked (call them ‘inaccurate') reports about Saddam's purchase of enriched uranium will not go away. The White House hopes that Muslim terrorists will commit some atrocity, preferably in the United States, so as to deflect rising negative attitudes on the part of the electorate... although no one has said it, such an attack(s) would not be surprising. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/newscontrol.html

ReThinking 9/11

You Can Lead A Horse To Water, But You Can Not Make the Horse Drink

by Dahbud Mensch

Nobody cares Republicans spent 55 million of your tax dollars to discover if Monica swallowed and 3 million on the 9/11 Commission.

Nobody cares about Florida, Katherine Harris, the Supreme Court and the 2000 Presidential Election.

Nobody cares about President Bush's military record.

Nobody cares about Bush Family dealings and past association with the Nazi Party.

Nobody cares about IRAN/CONTRA.

Nobody cares about the Bush Administration's inability to find a traitor in the White House, who revealed Wilson's wife, but were able to supply photos of 9/11 hijackers within hours of the mass murder.

Nobody cares about who ordered the Air Force to stand down on 9/11.

Nobody cares about where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are and that Saddam was not involved in 9/11.

Nobody cares about their children dying in an illegal war and an upcoming draft.

Nobody cares about six corporations owning most media and that General Electric, who owns NBC, is one of the largest exporters of WMD on the planet.

Nobody cares about Bush making the planet unsafe and creating a never ending world of terror.

Nobody cares about Israeli and Christian extremists who hate their lives because they believe they are with sin and want to murder the rest of the world in God's name.

Nobody cares about who belongs to Skull & Bones.

Nobody cares about Chemtrails.

Nobody cares about children left behind by a budget that supports war and destroys education.

Nobody cares "The War/Rape/Torture President" disgraced Flag and Country.

Nobody knows who did the Anthrax Attacks.

Nobody knows the truth about a lying Republican Bush Neocon Administration and dimwitted Democrats who took us into an illegal war, murdered tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, and caused gas prices to 'skyrocket'; when Nobody knows the truth about sleazy Texas oilmen.

Nobody wants to subpoena God to find out whose side she is REALLY on. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/rethinking911.html

Underground

Underground culture, or just underground, is a term to describe various alternative cultures which either consider themselves different to the mainstream of society and culture, or are considered so by others. The word underground is used because there is a history of resistance movements under harsh regimes where the term underground was employed to refer to the necessary secrecy of the resisters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_culture

A Maze of Twisty Little Passages

There are 3,333 pages located at FlyingSnail.com and Nobody Cares!

Lake County Blues Allstars - Monday, October 8th, 7-10 PM - Blue Wing Saloon - Upper Lake, Ca.

Summer Of Love Legend Mike Wilhelm and Lake County Blues Allstars featuring Jim Williams and Jon Hopkins were an early crowd favorite on Thursday night. Their set included Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain" and B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby."

Hopkins, the "Barrister of Bass," did a fine rendition of Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man," playing bass and harmonica simultaneously.

A female vocalist named Neon guested on "The Thrill is Gone" and "I'm Tore Down." When not singing she worked the crowd admirably and did great percussion work.

Jim Williams put the great Mike Wilhelm's career in perspective by mentioning that Wilhelm was Jerry Garcia's favorite guitar player. Wilhelm interjected that he was playing though an amp that he bought from Garcia. (On a side note, both Mike Wilhelm and Betty Mae Fikes were pictured in recent issues of Rolling Stone Magazine.)

Wilhelm displayed great virtuosity and chops in his note selection during his solos. The band closed with "Red House' and "Further On Up The Road" to a great ovation by the crowd. Great set!

Written by Thurman Watts, Wednesday, 25 July 2007
http://lakeconews.com/content/view/1301/558/

Lake County Blues Allstars - Saw Shop Gallery Bistro
Thursday, October 11th, 7 pm - Kelseyville, Ca.

Attention Span

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Attention span is the amount of time a person can concentrate on a single activity. The ability to focus one's mental or other efforts on an object is generally considered to be of prime importance to the achievement of goals. People usually have a longer attention span when they are doing something that they enjoy.

In a study of 2,600 children ages 1 to 3 published in 2004, a team of researchers from University of Washington found that early exposure to television may have a negative impact on attention span. It has also been suggested that internet browsing can have a similar effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_span

Turning into digital goldfish

BBC News Friday, 22 February, 2002

If you are spending too much time on the internet and are concerned that it is affecting your concentration, you are not alone.

The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds - the same as a goldfish.

"Our attention span gets affected by the way we do things," says Ted Selker, an expert in the online equivalent of body language at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

"If we spend our time flitting from one thing to another on the web, we can get into a habit of not concentrating," he told the BBC programme Go Digital.

Quickly bored

With literally millions of websites at our fingertips, the attention span of the average web surfer is measured in seconds.

"When I'm on the internet, my attention span is shorter for each thing because there are so many things to choose from," said one American web browser.

Click here to tell us if you find the web too much of a distraction

"So instead of focusing on one thing and getting the most out of it, I find myself getting bored quickly because I know there are so many more things out there to go to."

It seems that web surfers show a maddening unwillingness to stay put on any one website.

Sticky sites

Ever on the lookout for engaging content, most online viewers spend less than 60 seconds at an average site.

This is a challenge to commercial websites which are desperate to attract readers and keep them there.

"People talk about this in terms of stickiness," explains psychiatrist Pam Briggs, of Nottingham University in the UK.

"If a website has stickiness, it will keep your attention glued to that site rather than let you click on another one as your competitor is just one click away."

Other digital distractions, like e-mail or instant messaging, are also vying for our attention.

"E-mails are very seductive," says Pam Briggs. "You can't leave them alone when your computer beeps to tell you have a new message, even though you are working on quite an important task."

Stay focused

And if all this was not enough, quickie movie breaks are a growing distraction. On Shortspan.com, the shortest film is 12 seconds long, while the longest is three and a half minutes.

Shortspan.com's founder, Beth Hall, has seen the popularity of these shorts skyrocket over the past 10 years.

"Primarily our audience is folks that already knew about Shortspan or are interested in movies and search for the word on the web. We also get lots of folks on their coffee break at work."

If you find you are spending all night on the web, unaware of time melting away, experts have some advice for you.

"Give yourself a question, give yourself a goal, write it down. Follow that goal, know why you're surfing," says Ted Selker.

"Because if you don't know why you are doing it, you are going to be pushed around by the most exciting words in a never ending sea of information."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1834682.stm

Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children

by Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD, David L. DiGiuseppe, MSc, Carolyn A. McCarty, PhD - PEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 4 April 2004, pp. 708-713

Objective. Cross-sectional research has suggested that television viewing may be associated with decreased attention spans in children. However, longitudinal data of early television exposure and subsequent attentional problems have been lacking. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that early television exposure (at ages 1 and 3) is associated with attentional problems at age 7.

Methods. We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a representative longitudinal data set. Our main outcome was the hyperactivity subscale of the Behavioral Problems Index determined on all participants at age 7. Children who were ≥1.2 standard deviations above the mean were classified as having attentional problems. Our main predictor was hours of television watched daily at ages 1 and 3 years.

Results. Data were available for 1278 children at age 1 and 1345 children at age 3. Ten percent of children had attentional problems at age 7. In a logistic regression model, hours of television viewed per day at both ages 1 and 3 was associated with attentional problems at age 7 (1.09 [1.03–1.15] and 1.09 [1.02–1.16]), respectively.

Conclusions. Early television exposure is associated with attentional problems at age 7. Efforts to limit television viewing in early childhood may be warranted, and additional research is needed.

Key Words: ADHD • television • attentional problems • prevention

Abbreviations: ADHD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder • NLSY, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth • BPI, Behavioral Problems Index • SD, standard deviation • CES-D, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/4/708

Short attention span linked to TV

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

The more television infants and toddlers watch, the more likely they are to have trouble paying attention and concentrating during their early school years, a study reports Monday.

Although there has been other research on how many hours of TV very young kids watch, this is the first study on how early viewing might affect attention span.

Young children often are mesmerized by the TV screen, says study leader Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. The possible link between watching TV and attention problems is of great concern because so many infants and toddlers are frequent viewers, he says.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for children younger than 2 and no more than two hours of high-quality programming for older kids. Many children watch much more TV.

Christakis used a government database to see how much TV 1- to 3-year-old children watched, as reported by their mothers, and then related that to their scores on a behavior checklist showing attention problems at age 7. His report on about 1,300 kids is in Pediatrics.

Frequent TV viewers in early childhood were most likely to score in the highest 10% for concentration problems, impulsiveness and restlessness. Scoring within that 10% doesn't mean a child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but many would have it, and the others could face major learning problems, Christakis says.

Every added hour of watching TV increased a child's odds of having attention problems by about 10%. Kids watching about three hours a day were 30% more likely to have attention trouble than those viewing no TV. The researchers accounted for many factors beside television that might predict problems concentrating, but the TV-attention link remained.

In the first few years, human brains undergo "huge and very swift development," says Elizabeth Sowell, a UCLA neuropsychologist. Animal studies show that stimulating environments can change young brains. The rapid-fire stimulation of TV might do the same.

The change isn't necessarily bad, Los Angeles media psychologist Stuart Fischoff says. As media exposure grows, "these kids could be expressing 'the new brain.' They could be an advance guard that suggests we may need new ways of teaching children exposed to a lot of media stimulation."

But some experts are concerned. "This should be a wake-up call that we need to take a closer look at how early media use affects children," says Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "We know hardly anything about it."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-05-tv-bottomstrip_x.htm

Frequent TV watching shortens kids' attention spans

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

Psychologists and media experts are concerned, but not surprised, by a landmark study suggesting that frequent TV watching by infants and toddlers may shorten their attention span by age 7.

The research, in today's Pediatrics, finds that the more television very young kids watch, the more likely they are to have trouble concentrating and to become impulsive and restless.

Human brains change rapidly in early life, says UCLA neuropsychologist Elizabeth Sowell, and animal research shows that stimulation can "rewire" the brain.

Things happen fast on the TV screen, so kids' brains may come to expect this pace, "making it harder to concentrate if there's less stimulation," says study leader Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

Also, TV may replace activities, such as reading, that could help children learn to concentrate, Sowell says.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is genetic, but past studies suggest the environment also plays a key role, Christakis says. How different environments might promote ADHD "has barely been touched by systematic research," writes Vail, Co., educational psychologist Jane Healy in a commentary accompanying the Pediatrics report. But TV exposure in young kids is growing, she says.

Although most studies haven't considered TV watching by very young children, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey last year found that about 2 out of 5 children under age 2 watch television every day, and a quarter of them have TVs in their own rooms, says Vicky Rideout of the foundation.

Also, a soaring number of young kids watch DVDs or videos, some thought to be educational, but others as fast-paced as TV, Rideout says. And more TV shows, such as Teletubbies and Boobah, are geared for children under 3.

Meanwhile, even veteran teachers with superb child-managing skills are reporting "more kids that are off-the-wall. ... It started about 10 years ago," says Susan Ratterree, a 25-year school psychologist supervisor in suburban New Orleans. Awareness of ADHD is increasing teacher reports of attention problems, "but the kids are changing, too," she says.

Educators may need to change their methods to keep the attention of stimulation-saturated children, says Los Angeles media psychologist Stuart Fischoff. "Rather than seeing these kids as pathological, maybe we should see them as adaptive, pointing the way to how our society is evolving. Brains may be changing, and we don't know if it's going to be bad or not."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-04-05-tv-kids-attention-usat_x.htm

Dreamstreets

Dreamstreets
NO LONGER SCHEDULED AT THIS TIME
WVUD - Wednesday Mornings
11-11:30 AM Eastern -- 8-8:30 AM Pacific
Listen On-line at: http://www.wvud.org/listen_online.htm with Even Steven

Boptime

Boptime
WVUD - Saturday Mornings
6-10 AM Eastern -- 3-7 AM Pacific
Listen On-line at: http://www.wvud.org/listen_online.htm with Even Steven

Scoop Nisker on Nobody for President, 1980
NobodyForPresident.org - digg

Nobody says, "Eliminate the office of President, hire a ribbon cutter, and let Congress run the Country. It will save billions of wasted tax dollars that could have been used to improve Health and Education for the people."

Country Joe McDonald [home] did the second Nobody for President song at Union Square, San Francisco, 1980 (The FLASH video is located here or Nobody's FLASH video page).

Jim Maxwell & The Sundown Band sing Nobody for President - MP3

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/NobodyForPresident.mp3

Jim Maxwell - vocal, guitar, Roy Marden - guitar, vocals, Jerry Shebeski - drums, Joe Jedrlinic - bass guitar, Craig Grant - vocals, percussion, David Peel - vocals, percussion, Joanna D'ascoli - vocals, Sherwin Winnick - mix consultant, Recorded at Dreamland Studios, N.Y., Mixed at Sundown Recording, L.I., N.Y., Special Thanks: Andrea Katz, Cover Design: Harry Wasserman, Promotion: Michael Luckman. [More Details Located At]:

http://www.nobodyforpresident.org/nobodysongs.html

Welcome to Tian Gong
Oneness between the Sacred Universe and Humans and Universal Unity

http://tiangong.org/en/ - via Wavy Gravy - http://wavygravy.net/

Page update at Rainbow Puddle, check it out! http://RainbowPuddle.com/

So much for eye witness reporting

Seeing Is Believing ???
If you look at the images from your seat in front of the computer,
Mr. Angry is on the left, and Ms.Calm is on the right.
Get up from your seat, and move back 12 feet. [Tnx Joe]

Autumn Leaves

If Life Has Become Hell in a Bucket, Learn How to Enjoy the Ride

While an apathetic population gorges itself with mood elevators, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills, to numb out a (sic) Neoconed imposed New World Order, we return to our original page intentions: ART and ENTERTAINMENT, with a reminder to "Ignore Alien Orders" and "Question Authority". by ~@~

Thanks to Ralph, we ask that you watch the following video, titled:

PaintJam by Dan Donn

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=3193

Thanks to Fred, we ask that you watch the following video titled:

General Elevator - Episode 1
The series premiere of National Banana's moving medical drama. - Time: 03:58

http://www.nationalbanana.com/

What your sofa says about you

by Susan Redman
October 19, 2007

Take this quiz to find out if your taste in interior design makes you a minimalist or a maven.

Imagine you have the kind of financial good health that will allow you to surround yourself with your favourite decor and objets d'art. Does your decorating taste run to British colonial or global eclectic? Or are you more of a minimalist or retro fan? Whether you are ultimately classed a Style Maven or an Empire Builder, this 10-question quiz will discover what your design tastes and preferences say about you. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/house--home/what-your-sofa-says-about-you

Hasta la Vista HBO
Building 7
Real Time with Bill Maher Is Not The Sopranos

Subject: Attempt to cancel Politically Incorrect
From: Arianna Huffington
Date: Monday, September 24, 2001
To: undisclosed-recipients

Friends,

As you will see from today's column, we need your help if we are to stop ABC from canceling "Politically Incorrect." A small group of zealots have intentionally distorted comments made by Bill Maher, and succeeded in putting the show's future in jeopardy. If you agree that we can simultaneously rally around the flag and allow dissent and free speech to flourish, please log on to www4.PetitionOnline.com / promaher / petition.html and sign the petition.

Also, if you know anybody in the ABC or Disney hierarchy, please give them a call. This is not just about one show -- it's about avoiding the first step on a really dangerous slippery slope. Thank you so much.

Arianna

Part of many pages covering this subject on FlyingSnail.com:

Snip of FlyingSnail.com, October 8, 2001

One thing Bill does not understand is a lot of people he now regards as "Crazy," were the same people who stood by him, when he was fired by ABC.

Since I am just another Nobody, rather than a celebrity who gets buggered by Ann Coulter, the only power I have is an ability to cancel HBO.

And just in case your Attention Span is sputtering:

Maher’s Final Half Hour, Why PI should go.

By Jonah Goldberg
September 28, 2001 2:30 PM

Bill Maher, host of ABC's Politically Incorrect, is under attack. Sears and Federal Express pulled their sponsorships of the show. Viewers are angry. Several affiliates have dropped him. His show is teetering on the brink of cancellation, all because he said that the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center weren't cowards. Rather, he said, "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly."

Now, I'm torn. On the one hand, Maher is not entirely wrong, though his comments were poorly timed and mean-spirited. The Clinton policy of risk-free symbolic strikes against Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden was hardly gutsy.

On the other hand, Politically Incorrect deserves to be canceled more than any show not currently on the WB. Maher, his producers and fans have long contended that the show makes a valuable contribution by inviting apathetic Americans into the "national conversation." Of course, it's a mystery to me why any American who can't be bothered to pay attention to politics unless Pamela Anderson is discussing it should be welcome in that conversation.

I'm embarrassed to admit I've been on Politically Incorrect a few times but will never again. Still, I think I've identified the two basic problems with the show: the concept and the host.

Politically Incorrect is one of the last icons of the 1990s conflation of celebrity and politics: George magazine, Murphy Brown, "policy summits" at the White House for the likes of Billy Crystal and Richard Dreyfuss, "serious" speeches by Barbra Streisand.

The result of this phenomenon was a profoundly cynical approach to important questions. It said that fame, as opposed to serious work, intelligence or experience, was the best criterion for determining who has a legitimate opinion.

For example, in every issue of George, the editors asked a Hollywood star what they would do if they were president. The first thing Melanie Griffith would do is pass a law saying "no one should make more than $1 billion a year." Such stuff may offer valuable insight into how Melanie Griffith thinks — on the odd chance someone finds value in such things — but in a discussion of public policy, this is as helpful as cricket chirping.

Similarly, the idea behind Politically Incorrect is to get a bunch of pretty people together and have them argue with politicians and other political professionals (journalists, activists, etc.).

Of course, the real aim of the show is to make fun of conservatives while sounding "politically incorrect." As Maher told Playboy in 1997, "Ninety percent of show-business people are nutty liberals." So the liberal seats are filled with lefty comedians, movie stars, and rappers. This leaves the conservative seats to mockable right-wingers. Worse, not only does the audience root for the celebrities, but the host and producers do too.

Which gets us to the second problem with the show. Bill Maher is anything but an impartial host. He sucks up to Hollywood liberals because A) he needs to get them back on the show, B) he usually agrees with them, and C) they tend to be wildly ignorant.

Maher calls himself a libertarian, but the fact is he's a libertine socialist; he favors guilt-free promiscuity and legal drugs, but everything else is eligible for a government takeover. Remember: Libertarians are for as little government as possible, particularly in the economic and regulatory realm. Maher supported Ralph Nader for president and has said he favors a government takeover of the electoral system. To call himself a libertarian is like a Vishnu worshipper calling himself Catholic.

But that's Maher's approach to everything: Getting hung up on what his guests deride as mere "labels" or "details" is just stupid in a world where the opinions of supermodels matter a great deal.

It should be no surprise that columnist Arianna Huffington has come to Maher's aid. Recall that in the last election cycle, the one-time Gingrich conservative rightly ridiculed the notion that Donald Trump was qualified to run for president but in the same breath she became the cheerleader for a Warren Beatty candidacy. By my calculations, that's a full 720-degree spin of hypocrisy.

Anyway, Huffington has written a letter, column, whatever (again, labels, shmabels) asking people to petition ABC not to "censor" Politically Incorrect. Huffington warns that the First Amendment might be the first victim of the terrorist assault if Politically Incorrect is dropped. Never mind that the First Amendment, which deals only with government censorship, has nothing to do with this (sigh, more labels).

The truth is that Politically Incorrect lasted longer than it deserved. And, in the wake of the Sept. 11 murders, Maher's style of cynical mocking, sophomoric sex-talk, and knee-jerk America-bashing was destined to die on the vine no matter what, because it's inappropriate, dated and boring just like the title of the show.

Does he really deserve to be canned because of this specific remark? Probably not, but why get caught up in the details?

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDc2MjM2ZTFkODAyYWE0OGJkNzc2NDliNmIzYjVkZGU=

Snip of THE RAW STORY, October 9, 2007
'9/11 Truthers' flip the bird at Bill Maher

by Jason Rhyne
Published: Tuesday October 9, 2007

Photo: Jan Hoyer

After being broadly denounced as "crazy people" by HBO's sharp-tongued Bill Maher, some members of the so-called 9/11 Truth movement -- a group convinced that US government accounts of the Sept. 11 tragedies do not fully explain the events of that day -- decided to give Maher a taste of his own caustic medicine.

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Bill_Maher_Thinks_911_Truthers_should_0915.html

In a new video making its rounds on the internet, one band of miffed Los Angeles-based "Truthers" borrows the graphics, theme music and trademark bite of Maher's popular "New Rules" segment to push back at the comedian's charges that conspiracy theorists are lunatics. "Crazy people are defined by acting crazy," activist Stewart Howe says in the clip, sitting alongside a Maher-esque video window depicting Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in a straight jacket. "9/11 Truthers," he continues, "are defined by a patriotic quest for the truth."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoJJIYWMZlY

http://www.wearechangela.org/home/news.php

"I love Bill Maher, but he's wrong about 9/11 Truth," Katy Kurtzman, who also appears in the video, told RAW STORY. "We wanted to give it back to him the way he gives it out, which is 'I'm smarter than you and I'm gonna make fun of you about it.'"

"We had no idea it was going to go as viral as it has," she said of the project, which is the subject of more than 35,000 hits to date on YouTube and has received widespread postings on websites skeptical of the official 9/11 story.

http://www.youtube.com/Kurtzman, "but it's also a cheerleading thing for 9/11 Truth."

In the Sept. 14 episode of his program, Real Time, Maher had been characteristically barbed:

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/watch?v=BoJJIYWMZlY

"It's a response to Bill Maher," said

new_rules/20070914.html

"Crazy people who still think the government brought down the Twin Towers in a controlled explosion," the comedian jabbed, "have to stop pretending that I'm the one who's being naive."

"How big a lunatic do you have to be to watch two giant airliners packed with jet fuel slam into buildings on live TV, igniting a massive inferno that burned for two hours, and then think 'well, if you believe that was the cause," he continued, adding that people should "stop asking me to raise this ridiculous topic on the show and start asking your doctor if Paxil is right for you."

But Bruno Bruhwiler, who edited the green screen video response to those charges, says Maher wasn't being fair to the greater 9/11 Truth movement.

"Sure you have to take some of it with a grain of salt," he said of particularly outlandish conspiracy theories that the majority of the group doesn't stand by, "but in general, a picture emerges."

"It was upsetting because he was dissing the 9/11 Truthers, but he wasn't having any on his show," Bruhwiler continued. "Which is odd, because it's a debate show."

So the Truthers invented their own equal time response opportunity.

"New rule: buildings do not collapse into the path of most resistance at anything close to freefall speed," Kurtzman counters on video, referring to claims by some that only a controlled demolition would allow for such a fast collapse by the Twin Towers. "Go back to kindergarten and play with blocks until you figure that out," she tells Maher, aping the host's finger-wagging delivery.

Kurtzman also raised questions about the collapse of the World Trade Center's building seven, which fell despite not being struck by a plane.

"Two airplanes can't slam into two buildings and knock down three," she says, punctuating the point by flipping Maher off.

Stewart Howe, Kurtzman's co-star in the clip, says in the video that Sept. 11 was part of an orchestrated plan that fulfilled a host of Bush administration goals.

"They wanted to go to war with Afghanistan and Iraq. They got it. They wanted to make billions of dollars for their corporate friends. They got it," Howe says, adding that widely accepted explanation of the events of 9/11 helped increase executive power and convinced Maher himself to "parrot the official story."

"Didn't they manage to accomplish all of this? Absolutely they did," he continues, adding that "it doesn't look like incompetence to me Bill, it looks to me like 'mission accomplished."

"Bill Maher is doing what most of the mainstream media is doing. All they can really do is attack the messenger," Howe told RAW STORY. "If they allow it to become a rational debate, they'll lose every time. It's just not debatable."

Although the video format didn't allow the group to delve into the swirl of 9/11 facts and figures they say supports their case -- they point to an online documentary called "9/11 Mysteries" and a number of websites as representative of their views -- it did give them a chance to stick up for themselves.

http://www.ae911truth.org/

http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/

"We thought, let's just have fun and slam back," said Howe.

And if Bill Maher ever decides to change his mind about what happened?

"In the hopeful event that you rise to the occasion and take the red pill as opposed to more Zoloft," Kurtzman says, "get back to us because we won't hold a grudge."

"That," she says, "would be crazy."

Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/911_Truthers_not_taking_Maher_slams_1009.html

9/11 Coincidences (Part Eighteen)
Thanks to: Ponderosa Pine

NEW RULZ?:
We CANCELLED HBO because Real Time is not The Sopranos.

40th Anniversary - Summer of Love Celebration, Longshoremen's Hall, Saturday, October 27, 2007, 8 PM
I AM GETTING IT, ARE YOU? Festival
Longshoremen's Hall
100 North Point Street, S.F., CA 94133
Between Taylor and Mason
Saturday, October 27, 2007, 8 PM
[READ BELOW HISTORICAL FLASHBACK]

Promoting Early Stage HIV Testing and De-Stigmatizing the Disease AIDS.

$35 festival admission, FREE for the first 100 + adult San Francisco residents pledging to be HIV TESTED, and $25 thereafter for all pledging HIV testing.

To Overcome HIV/AIDS "Hope and Beyond" Supports U.S. CDC position that all between the ages 13 and 64 yrs have the opportunity to be voluntarily HIV Tested.

http://hopeandbeyond.org/ - http://www.myspace.com/summerofloveinternational

Historical Flashback: A Tribute to Dr. Strange

A Trbute to Dr. Strange, October 16, 1965 Poster

In October 1965, a small commune called the Family Dog threw an unusual dance at Longshoreman's Hall, starring a rock band called the Charlatans that had played the previous summer at the Red Dog Saloon, a restored silver rush dance hall in Virginia City, Nev. The second-billed group, which had an even weirder name, Jefferson Airplane, was making its first appearance outside the Marina District nightclub it had opened the month before. The third act on the bill, the Great Society, featured a former model from Palo Alto named Grace Slick.

More than a thousand people turned up for the dance. Hair flowing over their collars, the revelers were dressed cheerfully in colorful discards plucked from thrift stores. Many were on LSD, as were many of the musicians. Virtually everyone who attended "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," as the dance was called, seemed to have the same thought about the gathering: "I didn't know there were this many of us."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/20/MNG2NPUD1C1.DTL&type=printable

The other development that helped form the Haight's early temperament took place at a Western-style dance hall, the Red Dog Saloon, in the ghost town of Virginia City, Nevada. In June 1965, a San Francisco band, the Charlatans, took up residency at the saloon. Their easygoing attitude and meandering performances--as they played sometimes under LSD's influence for an audience also sometimes under LSD's influence--set another model for psychedelic gatherings, one less tense and sardonic than Kesey's.

In San Francisco in October 1965, some Red Dog veterans, now calling themselves the Family Dog, staged an evening of bands and dancing at the Longshoremen's Hall; billed as 'A Tribute to Dr. Strange,' it featured the Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society. The event spontaneously fused the lenient spirit of the Acid Tests with the Red Dog's focus on dancing and proved a pivotal occasion in the psychedelic scene's history. Over the next two years, San Francisco dance ballrooms--primarily the Avalon and the Fillmore--became not merely a central metaphor for Haight-Ashbury's reinvention of community but also a fundamental enactment of it.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15255158/san_francisco_the_start_of_the_revolution

Event: First Rock Dance Concert. Saturday, October 16, 1965.

Short Note: Produced by the Family Dog at the Longshoreman's Hall.

Long Note: The first rock dance concert ever held took place under the sponsorship of the Family Dog at the octagonal meeting hall of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union near Fishermen's Wharf. It was billed as "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," and featured the Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans, the Great Society, and ?the Marbles [who later metamorphized into the Loading Zone]. A light show was operated by Bill Ham.

http://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com/2005/07/hey-yall-you-know-i-hate-to-call-this.html

Family Dog collective dance and concert, a tribute to Dr. Strange, at Longshoremen's Hall with The Jefferson Airplane and the Charlatans, and the Great Society. Russ "The Moose" Syracuse of KYA was master of ceremonies.

http://www.diggers.org/chrono_notes.htm

Comet brightens to naked-eye brilliance

Posted: Fri, Oct 26, 2007, 8:19 AM ET (1219 GMT)

An obscure comet has surprised astronomers by suddenly brightening to naked-eye visibility this week. Comet 17P/Holmes has been a dim magnitude 17 object, visible only with large telescopes, but since Tuesday the object has brightened by roughly a factor of a million, to about magnitude 3, making it visible to the naked eye in rural and some suburban locations. The comet, located in the direction of the constellation Pegasus, lacks a tail but does have a fuzzy appearance created by coma of gas and dust surrounding it. Comet Holmes is about 365 million km from the Sun and 245 million km from the Earth. Scientists suspect that some sort of outburst of gas and dust caused the comet to brighten, but don't know what triggered it and how long the comet will remain bright.

Source: http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/3954

Boxers and Briefs from Dahbud Mensch

Dot hiding under a rug - Didn't someone say, "Give Peace A Chance"?
by Dahbud Mensch

Population pressure takes Earth to its limits

State of Heallth (of Earth) image from The Sydney Morning Herald

Marian Wilkinson, Environment Editor
October 26, 2007

THE most authoritative scientific report on the planet's health has found water, land, air, plants, animals and fish stocks are all in "inexorable decline" as 2007 became the first year in human history when most of the world's population lived in cities.

The United Nations' Global Environment Outlook-4 report, released in New York, reveals a scale of unprecedented ecological damage, with more than 2 million people possibly dying prematurely of air pollution and close to 2 billion likely to suffer absolute water scarcity by 2025.

Put bluntly, the report warns that the 6.75 billion world population, "has reached a stage where the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available".

And it says climate change, the collapse of fish stocks and the extinction of species "may threaten humanity's very survival".

Launching the report, the head of the UN's Environment Program, Achim Steiner, warned that, "without an accelerated effort to reform the way we collectively do business on planet earth, we will shortly be in trouble, if indeed we are not already".

One of the most disturbing findings is that environmental exposures are now causing almost one quarter of all diseases including respiratory disease, cancers, and emerging animal-to-human disease transfer.

Pressure on the global water supply has also become a serious threat to human development as the demand for irrigated crops soars. The report estimates that only one in 10 of the world's major rivers reaches the sea all year round because of upstream irrigation demands.

Each person's "environmental footprint" has on average grown to 22 hectares of the planet but the report estimates the "biological carrying capacity" is somewhere between 15 and 16 hectares per person.

Critically, fish stocks, a key protein source for several billion people, are in crisis. About 30 per cent of global fish stocks are classed as "collapsed" and 40 per cent are described as "over-exploited".

The exploitation of land for agriculture has hugely increased as populations increase and living standards rise. A hectare of land that once produced 1.8 tonnes of crops in 1987 now produces 2.5 tonnes. But that rise in productivity has been made possible by a greater use of fertilisers and water leading to land degradation and pollution.

"The food security of two-thirds of the world's people depends on fertilisers, especially nitrogen," the report says. In turn, the nutrients running off farmland are increasingly causing algal blooms. In the Gulf of Mexico and the Baltic Sea these have created huge "dead zones" without oxygen.

The report estimates that all species, including animals and plants, are becoming extinct at rates 100 times faster than those shown from the past in fossil records. The main causes include land clearing for agriculture, over-exploitation and pollution. Of the major species assessed, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are threatened with extinction.

Genetic diversity is also shrinking as just 14 animal species account for 90 per cent of all livestock production and 30 crops dominate global agriculture. But overwhelmingly, the report finds that climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions poses the gravest danger to the future of the planet. The authors note "a remarkable lack of urgency" in tackling human-induced global warming and, in a criticism of the Australia and the US, it notes that "several highly-emitting countries have refused to ratify the global climate change treaty, the Kyoto Protocol".

Significantly, Mr Steiner said last night be believed the governments were "finally turning the corner" on dealing with climate change.

"The momentum on climate change in 2007 is nothing short of breathtaking", he said. "It is time to find the same sense of urgency on biodiversity and degradation, on fisheries and freshwater".

Mr Steiner noted important progress in some areas, cuts in air pollution in Europe and cuts to overfishing in the Pacific. And he stressed that the authors of the report insist that its objective "is not to present a dark and gloomy scenario but an urgent call for action".

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Winners Don't Do Drugs

From: the Reluctant Democrat
Posted by: Michael Tiffany
Friday, October 26, 2007

How exactly are we supposed to win the War on Drugs if everybody in America is taking them? The average American is taking 10 different drugs. Every year 3 billion prescriptions are written and filled in America. Given a population of 300 million, that works out to 10 prescriptions per person per year.

It takes a lot of nerve to wonder why healthcare is so expensive when apparently everyone in America is so desperately unhealthy. WTF people? Eat right, exercise, quit smoking, is that f*cking simple enough, you tubby dipsh*ts? The healthier we all are the less expensive healthcare will cost – both to the individual and society as a whole. As an added benefit, healthier people need to take (ta-da!) fewer drugs. The worst drug of them all – insulin – can be avoided almost altogether with the first two suggestions I made: eat right and exercise.

And for the people that eat right and exercise and still get insulin-dependent diabetes? They're actually sick. I'm all in favor of people who are truly sick getting the drugs and care they need. But some indolent slob laying on the couch stuffing their face all day? Why walk to the corner store, that really is just down at the corner, when driving is so much lazier? "That foot wouldn't'a rotted if you'd gotten some blood flowin' through there. But that woulda meant walkin', wouldn't it?" Please, cry me some insulin-flavored tears ya bastard.

Furthermore, accept the fact that everybody dies. "Old age happens if you live long enough." Your 90 year-old granny in a coma on life-support is not going to get better. Pull the damned plug already and quit flogging her. And come on, a drug that slows Alzheimer's? Slows? As in, "Let's prolong the horror show 'til the Grim Reaper gets here, I guess he's just stuck in traffic?" F*ck that. That's just selling false hope, and that's as wrong as it is despicable. Give me a drug that reverses or prevents Alzheimer's and I'll be the first one on the bandwagon. But one that just slows it down? Having seen it up close and personal, I know what a bad idea that is.

If we really want to win the War on Drugs we should stop taking them. That would be a terrific first step. That way we could concentrate on the people that are truly sick through no fault of their own, rather than wasting time and scarce medical resources on people whose only 'disease' is a mindset that embraces their 'victimhood' as an 'empowering' justification for compulsive eating which is an expression of their resilient 'survivorship.' Quick, someone muzzle Oprah and stick her on a treadmill before she creates any more fatties.

Source: http://www.reluctantdemocrat.com/2007/10/winners-dont-do-drugs.html - digg

Addendum: Stoned Out of Their Minds

by Fly_On_The_Wall

Worldwide sales of prescription drugs exceed $300 billion yearly with tranquillizers, sleeping pills, antidepressants and other Central Nervous System drugs accounting for an estimated $76 billion in sales.

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/dahstoned.html

Martin Rowson cartoon on, Brown Raising the Bar on Civil Liberties
Martin Rowson

Brown promises to raise the bar on civil liberties

Protest curbs to be reviewed and greater protection for investigative journalism

by Michael White
Friday October 26, 2007
The Guardian

Gordon Brown yesterday moved to polish his credentials as a thinking liberal when he announced an ambitious series of "liberty test" reviews designed to strengthen individual freedoms against arbitrary powers of the state.

He promised to "raise the bar" of liberty on press freedom, privacy from official intrusion at home and in data banks.

In a speech in Cambridge last night, justice secretary Jack Straw expanded on Mr Brown's commitment to a British "bill of rights and responsibilities" to enhance the Human Rights Act rather than replace it, as the Conservatives propose. [Continue Reading at]:

Source: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,,2199665,00.html

I Was a Pain Ray Guinea Pig

By Sharon Weinberger

Today, I broke my cardinal rule of defense reporting: never be a test subject for a supposedly "nonlethal" weapon. I adopted this rule some time back at a trade show, when I saw somebody pick up a dazzling laser from a booth and point it as his own face at close range. Basically, untrained people are prone to do stupid stuff around nonlethal weapons and I'm really fond of my central field of vision, so why take the risk?

But today, the military offered the second opportunity ever for reporters to be blasted by the Active Denial System, a millimeter wave beam weapon designed to heat up the very tippy top layer of skin. Considering that they've blasted the thing some 10,000 plus times, and at several hundred people, I thought, "Oh why not?" The demonstration was held today at Quantico in Virginia, where a couple dozen reporters -- along with military personnel -- volunteered for a demo. [Continue Reading and Watch Video at]:

Source: http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/the-active-can-.html

Nobody says, THROW THE BUMS OUT of Washington, D.C

Presidential approval 24%, Congressional approval 11%, Cheney wants to nuke Iran and Nobody wants to throw the Bums Out!

Most of our current government is guilty of murder, breaking International Law, and other atrocities over an illegal Neocon forged Iraq war.

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and recently released documents show Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, et. al. were planning to strike Iraq the moment they took office in 2000.

Based on other released information and because of Rice's attempt to cover-up the August 6, 2001 PDB, which stated bin Laden was planning an air attack on the U.S., is it possible they 'allowed 9/11 to happen'?

Why else would the Air Force stand down while a newly Supreme Court appointed Commander-in-Chief read children stories to kids as the UNITED STATES WAS UNDER ATTACK? Did he know something in advance?

Neocons, with Cheney as their Leader, George Bush as their Puppet, Democrats & Republicans as their Bitches, and Corporate Media as their Ho punished U.S. citizens for their blunders and failures by establishing a Neocon Fascist document titled The Patriot Act, and Nobody, except evil Neocons, read it before it was passed... and that is worse than killing Kenny ...you bastards!

The Patriot Act Is Not About Terrorism,
It Is About Control of United States Citizens.

No mercy in Ashcroft's brand of justice
[Broken Link. Was: http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=8129&TagID=2-]

Attorney General John Ashcroft doesn't have enough to do, hunting down terrorists. With the help of a rollover Congress, he now has a new and bigger club to go after federal judges who impose lighter sentences in criminal cases than he would like.

As a faithful lord high executioner of the administration's much touted "compassionate conservatism," Ashcroft wants to clamp down on those judges.

ashcroft

Target: 'Narco-Terror'
[Broken Link. Was: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WorldNewsTonight/victory_act030820.html]

ABCNEWS.com has obtained a draft of the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003, or VICTORY Act, which could be introduced to Congress this fall, and which appears to have been prepared by the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

ashcroft as a dark lord

Provisions in the draft would:

Raise the threshold for rejecting illegal wiretaps. The draft reads: "A court may not grant a motion to suppress the contents of a wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, unless the court finds that the violation of this chapter involved bad faith by law enforcement."

cartoon on wire taps

Extend subpoena powers by giving giving law enforcement the authority to issue non-judicial subpoenas which require a person suspected of involvement in money laundering to turn over financial records and appear in a prosecutor's office to answer questions.

cartoon of civil rights being eaten by government

Extend the power of the attorney general to issue so-called administrative "sneak-and-peak" subpoenas to drug cases. These subpoenas allow law enforcement to gather evidence from wire communication, financial records or other sources before the subject of the search is notified.

cartoon of delivery services snooping

Allow law enforcement to seek a court order to require the "provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service" or a financial institution to delay notifying a customer that their records had been subpoenaed.

cartoon of ashcroft trying to blow up civil rights

"This bill would treat drug possession as a 'terrorist offense' and drug dealers as 'narco-terrorist kingpins,' " the aide argued. "To say that terrorist groups use a small percentage of the drug trafficking in the United States to finance terrorism may be a fair point, but this bill would allow the government to prosecute most drug cases as terrorism cases."

cartoon of two people trying to sleep with a bug eye looking at them

Concluded the aide: "It really seems to be more about a political agenda to jail drug users than a serious attempt to stop terrorists."

cartoon of war on terror people tearing up a house trying to find evidence and not finding it...then they start looking for drugs (the house is torn up).

John Ashcroft's Patriot Act Summer Tour
http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=15519

by Mark Fiore (Flash format)

a cartoon of what a terrorist looks like and it appears to be our own government

Ashcroft's Little Secret
[Broken Link. Was: http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8723]

cartoon ashcroft breaking the liberty bell

Quite simply, Ashcroft's campaign and leadership PAC broke the law by giving and receiving a contribution that exceeded the federal contribution limit by at least 10 times and possibly by more than 200 times, and by failing to disclose the contribution in the first place.

Ministers of Satan ?

U.S. HACKERS CRACK al-QAEDA COMPUTERS

But security leak blows internet spying operation

by Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 15 Oct 2007

Details are emerging of security leaks at the White House which have shut down an internet spying operation that had successfully cracked al-Qaeda's computers.

Government-registered computers began downloading the video within 20 minutes, and dozens of government computers went onto the website for copies over the next three hours.

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," Rita Katz, Site's founder, told the Washington Post. "The US government was responsible for the leak of this document."

The Site Institute was set up in the wake of the 11 September attacks and is a not-for-profit organization that is widely respected in the intelligence community. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2201175/white-house-leak-harms

Finally, from the HUMMM... and BLOOD IS THICKER Departments:

CHENEY, OBAMA ARE 'COUSINS'

by Anne Davies
Herald Correspondent in Washington, October 17, 2007

THERE'S an old saying you can pick your friends but not your relatives.

But how must Democrat candidate and outspoken critic of the Iraq war, Barack Obama, feel about being related to its chief architect, Vice-President Dick Cheney?

The news that the two men share a distant ancestor took off in Washington after Mr Cheney's wife, Lynne casually dropped the bombshell into a chatty afternoon interview about her new book, Blue Skies, No Fences.

In an interview on Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Cheney was asked about how she felt about Mrs Clinton as the first woman president. In what appeared to be a non sequitur, Mrs Cheney revealed that in the course of researching Mr Cheney's family tree, she had discovered a common ancestor eight generations ago.

"I thought I should admit this fact because perhaps it means I am not totally objective about Mrs Clinton," Mrs Cheney joked.

"Think about this," Mrs Cheney said. "This is such an amazing American story that one ancestor, a man that came to Maryland, could be responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied paths as Dick's and Barack Obama's."

Reacting to the news, Senator Obama's campaign spokesman Bill Burton told CNN's Dana Bash with tongue in cheek, "Obviously, Dick Cheney is sort of the black sheep of the family."

In fact Senator Obama enjoys blood ties to the two top figures in the administration: President Bush and Mr Cheney. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cheney-obama-are-cousins/2007/10/18/1192300841165.html

Who Will Stand Up For Campus Free Speech?

Posted by John Leo, October 23, 2007

Troy Scheffler, a graduate student at Hamline University in Minnesota, thinks that the Virginia Tech massacre might have been avoided if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons. After e-mailing this opinion to the university president, he was suspended and ordered to undergo "mental health evaluation" before being allowed to return to school.

Punishment for expressing an opinion is not unusual on the modern campus. Neither is the lack of protest among faculty and students for the kind of treatment Scheffler got. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which is defending the student, reports that it has failed to find a single Hamline student or faculty member who has spoken out in favor of Scheffler's right to free speech. [Continue reading at]:

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2007/10/who_will_stand_up_for_campus_f.html - digg

No War, No Warming Disrupts Capitol Hill

by Ted Glick

It’s day 50, 25 days on water-only, followed by 25 days on fruit and veggie juices and miso broth, with vitamin and protein supplements.

I got a big test yesterday of how I’m doing on this liquids-only regimen. I was up early in the morning and down to the U.S. Capitol by 6:30 a.m. to get prepared for our No War, No Warming action. I was intensely involved in the for-sure “action” phase of the event from about 7:45 to 9:30, at which point I was arrested and taken off to jail with 60 other sisters and brothers. We spent about six-seven hours in a Capital Police facility, a garage, sitting all together on hard metal chairs while processing went on. Almost all of us were released by late afternoon. [Continue reading at]:

http://oct27.org/node/898 - digg

US-Iraqi contract 'in disarray'

A $1.2bn (£590m) contract for training Iraqi police was so badly managed that auditors do not know how the money was spent, the US state department says.

The programme was run by a private US company, DynCorp. It insists there has been no intentional fraud.

Auditors have stopped trying to audit the programme because all the documents are in disarray and the government is trying to retrieve some of the money.

Training Iraqis to take over security is a key part of US strategy.

Correspondents say this case is the latest to highlight problems linked to private companies being awarded lucrative government contracts in Iraq. [Continue reading at]:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7057629.stm

Probe says May poll failed voters

Scotland's voters were "treated as an afterthought" in the planning and organisation of the May elections, say experts who reviewed the count fiasco.

The results process was besieged by delays and saw some 140,000 ballot papers rejected. [Continue reading at]:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7057818.stm

While a Neocon Bush Administration, Republicans, and Democrats Rape and Pillage the American Dream,

Diesel costs more than £1 a litre

Average diesel prices have risen above £1 a litre to a record high as the cost of crude oil continues to forge higher. [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7052504.stm

Oil prices touch above $90 level

Oil prices have broken through $90 a barrel for the first time, lifted by the low dollar and ongoing concerns over tensions in eastern Turkey. [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7052071.stm

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

Fact or Conspiracy

Bush Republicans and Democrats Stole Summer Vacation?

Bush Mission Accomplished BU SHELL where the gas price sign asks for an arm, leg, or first born

"There's no denying that this is an oil administration, you can't talk about the career of any George Bush -- father or son -- without talking about oil." - Peter Eisner

Sunken Ship named USS GEORGE W. BUSH

Are you better off than you were 7 years ago?

The above link provides an interesting series of charts showing how Americans are NOT better off...

[snip]

Ted Rall Cartoon (2001)

Ted Rall Cartoon "I can see clearly now the pain is gone"

[snip]

Tax cuts were devoured by rising fuel prices
and funneled to BIG OIL; leaving one to ask,

The United States of Oil by Damien Cave, Nov. 19, 2001

The Bush administration's ties to oil and gas are as deep as an offshore well. President George W. Bush's family has been running oil companies since 1950. Vice President Dick Cheney spent the late '90s as CEO of Halliburton, the world's largest oil services company. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice sat on the board of Chevron, which graced a tanker with her name. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans was the CEO of Tom Brown Inc. -- a natural gas company with fields in Texas, Colorado and Wyoming -- for more than a decade.

The links don't end with personnel. The bin Laden family and other members of Saudi Arabia's oil-wealthy elite have contributed mightily to several Bush family ventures, even as the American energy industry helped put Bush in office. Of the top 10 lifetime contributors to George W.'s war chests, six either come from the oil business or have ties to it, according the Center for Public Integrity.

"There's no denying that this is an oil administration," says Peter Eisner, managing director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group that conducted the study of Bush's campaign finances. "You can't talk about the career of any George Bush -- father or son -- without talking about oil." [Continue Reading At (mid Page)]:

Who Is Making A Fortune on Oil & Gas ?

The Bush family is making a fortune on oil and gas.

Source: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/dahgasprices.html

"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State." Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels

Bush Quips He Might Stay in Power
(Threat Level Plays Along)

By Kevin Poulsen

At a press briefing this morning that touched on issues like the White House's extrajudicial wiretapping program and torture policies, the president was asked a question about Vladimir Putin's plan to hold on to power when his term as Russian president runs out.

Reporter: Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there ...

Bush: I've been planning that myself.

Ahahahahaha. That's funny. It's a great comedian who can give voice to what everyone else is just thinking.

Despite the president's occasional contempt for the law, THREAT LEVEL doesn't believe that he's going to declare a state of emergency and cancel the 2008 election. But in July, we filed some FOIA requests anyway. We asked five Justice Department offices for documents produced or revised after August 2001 "addressing the feasibility, advisability or lawfulness of deferring, rescheduling or canceling a U.S. national election."

The Office of Legal Counsel responded in nine days: It has no documents fitting that description. This is the office specifically tasked with advising the president on legal matters, and which infamously belched out a memo sanctioning torture in 2002.

This was, by the way, the fastest FOIA response I've ever gotten -- the speed suggesting the proposition was so ludicrous that it demanded swift repudiation. (Or that the office wanted to dispose of the FOIA before the White House went and asked for election postponement options). The Office of the Attorney General responded late last month (.pdf), also reporting no records found. Ditto the Office of the Associate Attorney General.

Only two offices haven't given the all-clear: The Office of the Deputy Attorney General is still looking into it. The National Security Division says it can't even estimate when I might get a response, because there are 14 unrelated FOIA requests ahead of mine.

That means I'll probably hear back sometime in late 2009, by which time Bush won't even be in office any more. Unless he is. Ahahahahaha. Just kidding.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/bush-quip-might.html

Reports: CIA chief investigating IG
By Katherine Shrader

[snip] Helgerson has been highly critical of the CIA. In a report in August, for example, he concluded that Tenet and other senior leaders never developed a comprehensive plan to stop al-Qaida and missed crucial opportunities to thwart two hijackers in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks. The agency recently declassified portions of the embarrassing findings under congressional orders. [snip] [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071012/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_inspector_general

[Ed. Note: I call bullshit on 'CIA criticisms' because we believe evil Neocons and a Republican Bush Administration are trying to cover their less than honorable, murderous 'tracks', and here is why:

Remember Condi's "historical" statements about 9/11?

I would move heaven and earth to protect my husb... errr.. President Bush!

by Balz

BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

If Rice knew there was going to be an attack on the United States 'using planes', and it was part of a discussion she had with Bush and other Republican Neocons, in Crawford, on August 6th, a month before 9/11,

HOW COME THEY DID NOT WARN U.S. CITIZENS ?

[If one searches around, it would appear a lot of people got pre-warnings; some were players, some were not.]

WHO ORDERED THE AIR FORCE TO 'STAND DOWN' ?

[Somebody flew a small aircraft into the White House, in order to kill Clinton. Shortly after this, a 'bunch' of new rules were incorporated into the system that would prevent future attempts of extremists flying aircraft into national monuments. (iirc) A 5 minute or less Air Force scramble to any given national monument was established. Allow me to refresh your memory:

CRASH AT THE WHITE HOUSE: THE OVERVIEW;
Unimpeded, Intruder Crashes Plane Into White House

By MAUREEN DOWD,
Published: September 13, 1994

Shortly before 2 A.M. today, a small red-and-white plane flew low over 17th Street in the heart of the capital's downtown, banked left in a U-turn near the Washington Monument, and headed straight toward the President's bedroom in the White House.

No one tried to stop it. [Click to continue reading]]

The 9/11 You Were Never Told About - Part 1

by Joe Vialls, January 2002

According to the mainstream media, at about 2300 hrs on 11 September 1994, Frank Eugene Corder stole a single-engine Cessna 150L plane from an airport north of Baltimore, then headed south to Washington, flying over the National Zoological Park and down to the Mall, probably using the Washington Monument as a beacon. As he neared the famed obelisk, he banked a tight U-turn over the Ellipse, came in low over the White House South Lawn, clipped a hedge, skidded across the green lawn that girds the South Portico and crashed into a wall two stories below the presidential bedroom.

Unfortunately, there are huge problems with this glib media account of what was, in reality, the first known deliberate air attack on a major building in America. Corder had no obvious motive for the crime, and although his wife had died some weeks before from cancer, Frank was getting on with life as best he could. He was building a small kit aircraft of his own at the same airport the Cessna 150L was stolen from, and frequently worked alone at night on his pet project, making him the perfect target of opportunity for anyone needing a pilot, dead or alive.

Immediately after the crash, intelligence sources concurred that the flight was most probably flown as a “Proof of Concept”, designed to thoroughly test Washington’s air defenses and expose possible flaws. If the Cessna 150L managed to strike the White House wall directly, the concept would be considered proven, perhaps paving the way for later attacks using heavier aircraft loaded with munitions. In this respect the flight was a complete success.

Although Corder’s badly mangled body was recovered from the wreckage, there was no forensic way of establishing whether he had died in the crash itself, or several hours earlier. No one witnessed Frank Corder board or steal the Cessna in Maryland, and at no time did he make radio contact with the control tower or anyone else. Frank Corder behaved in all respects like a ghost, and he may well have been dead before the Cessna left the ground in Maryland. How? By use of remote control. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.geocities.com/roboplanes/cessna.html

Somebody, 'with power', had to order the Air Force to stand down on 9/11. (Is it worthwhile mentioning Cheney was Secretary of Defense from March 1989 to January 1993, had the contacts/connections, and Maureen's article is from September 1994 ?)

WHY DID THE (sic) COMANDER IN CHIEF CONTINUE READING A CHILDREN'S BOOK, FOR ALMOST 20 MINUTES, KNOWING THE UNITED STATES WAS UNDER AIR ATTACK ON 9/11?

WHAT DID BUSH KNOW, AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT ? - ((ioo) THIS SHOULD BE EXPLAINED PUBLICALLY ON TV, UNDER OATH, WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF TRUTH SERUM AND OTHER TRUTH REVEALING DRUGS.)

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/condis911lies.html

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/rethinking911.html]

Coulter and Scalia to Synagogue: Jews Are Safer with Christians in Charge
by Thom Hartmann

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) called on media to stop inviting Ann Coulter as a guest commentator and strongly condemned her comments that Jews should be "perfected" by accepting the New Testament and that America would be better off if Judaism were "thrown away" and all Americans were Christian.

"While Ann Coulter has freedom of speech, news outlets should exercise their freedom to use better judgment," said NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "Just as media outlets don't invite those who believe that Martians walk the earth to frequently comment on science stories, it's time they stop inviting Ann Coulter to comment on politics."

Media Matters for America has a complete transcript of Coulter's comments -- and video -- available here. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_thom_har_071012_ann_coulter_and_just.htm

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

Justice Antonin Scalia in Duck Season Flash Animation by Mark Fiore

Do Not Believe A Word of This
[from Dahbud's August 2007 Archive]

J. Edgar Hoover's "D-list", Spying on United States Citizens since February 2001, and Neocon Control of United States by Deception

by Fly_On_The_Wall

I feel it is time to tell a story, or "Tell-A-Vision" as ~@~ calls it, and if you are worried about loosing your denial, please do not believe any of the following words.

In almost every situation there is a foundation and on that foundation, everything else is built.

A strong foundation will provide greater support, and at this point, ~@~ would add, "The best foundations are foundations built on truth."

Origin of the Plan

Let us assume Dahbud hit on something in his, "Origin of the Plan" page

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/theplan.html

and that General Douglas MacArthur, Republican House Minority leader Joe Martin of Massachusetts, Republican California Representative Richard M. Nixon, and Republican Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy were all 'tight' friends, "vowing vengeance [on Democrats], no matter how long it takes." It is worthwhile to mention all of these men had another friend and his name was J. Edgar Hoover.

It is important, as stated at the bottom of the above page, that Gen. Tommy Franks said in an interview with the lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado that if another terrorist attack occurs in the United States "the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government".

I am also amused at how it goes from Bush I (Bush I and Bush II are members of Skull & Bones)

"The Skull & Bones members believe in the idea of "constructive chaos." By keeping their true policy intentions secret, by constantly sending out mixed signals on all critical policy issues, they consciously seek to sow confusion among both their nominal "friends" and "enemies" alike."

to:: The Project for the New American Century's 1998 letter to President Clinton, and it is at this point we enter the world of denial make believe.

In military/government work there was always talk, in very quiet circles, about ''those'' who did not have (Being extremely polite) the best intentions for the United States and lacked basic human integrity.

When I was younger, and in the military, I asked how this could have happen, and it was explained to me, as a "foot in the door effort that gained rank," and "the reason why it existed was because it was small, did not represent a threat [At that time.], and was hard to remove."

If given enough time 'most things' are revealed and I almost fell off my chair when I heard who was going to run a clandestine group in the Pentagon; the one you may know as "The Office of Special Plans".

But that is not what I wanted to talk about. What I want to talk about is how Neocons ended up with a copy of J. Edgar Hoover's "D list" and some other less known files containing photographs and movies.

For the 'Duh challenged', Hoover used information mentioned on the "D list" to bribe people. The photographs and movies compromise a large number of people, who, in some cases were 'set up'; as in, drugging people and filming them doing things that would destroy them and their families. One of the more interesting films shows two young Texans arriving at an infamous East Coast airport, picking up a kilo or two of cocaine, and flying back to Texas for a party (If one finds this hard to believe, ask the FBI.)

On the above linked [The Plan] page, it appears there are 'those' committed to the alleged "Plan" and this attitude appears as part of the Neocon letter to Clinton.

Spying on United States Citizens

Spying on United States citizens started the moment Bush took over office [Approximately February 2001.] and it is interesting to remember spying ONLY surfaced when it was discovered the government was doing surveillance on a group of peaceful Christian Quakers.

The sad truth is, this was another Rove-A-Dope and diversion from truth. The reason spying was instituted was because Corporate Media portrayed George Bush as an idiot and buffoon during his first six months in office; leading up to the inside job, known as 9/11... and if you think this is still foolish to believe, I refer you to the article, "Operation Pearl" by Professor A.K. Dewdney, August 2003, where, at the bottom, in his "core requirements" he states a minimum of 36 people were needed to pull off 9/11 as an INSIDE JOB:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/pearl.html

The first group of people who were spied on were politicians, their staff and associations. The second group were reporters and media personalities, in both talent and executive levels, their staff, and associations.

Associations include individuals outside of work and usually obtained from home phones or personal cell phones and based on a "ten tier" (Ten people most called outside work, followed by ten people of each of the original ten or a 'circle of 100'.).

With accumulated profiles (on 'all' these individuals) control was easy (We know who you buy your coke from, we know the porn sites you visit, we know which massage parlors you visit, we have pictures of what you did or did not do in the bedroom.) and reflects how this information can be abused. [If you are not quite sure what is being suggested, ask yourself why would reporters, so easily, roll over for Rove; et. al., and run false and/or misleading stories having the ability to control public thought and opinion; (Remembering: At one time, 82-87% of the United States people thought missiles could hit U.S. from Iraq; along with other W.M.D.)?]

Ali Baba: On the 40 Thieves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Baba_and_the_Forty_Thieves

My experience is, every boy in my generation, plus or minus ten years, surrounding me, read "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (I am older than Bush).

One of the stories points out how a very small group of thieves can take out an extremely large, guarded, caravan by hiding in the sand and 'offing' the last member of the caravan and replacing him with a thief, until the entire caravan is in their control. Sounds like what is happening currently in Iraq, doesn't it?

On top of this story, there is the fact there has been war in Iraq between two groups for over fourteen hundred years and Bush is going to change that overnight? = not a chance in the world; that is, unless he blows up the entire region [There is a massive fleet of U.S. ships currently in the Persian Gulf with more than enough fire power to blow up Asia, Middle East, and part of Europe.]... current headlines suggest Bush is setting up HIS WAR to last, at least, another fifty years. If you don't think a DRAFT will manifest 'down the road' then you have not been paying attention.

"Dry Drunk" Syndrome

Dry drunk is a term used, often disparagingly, by members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and by substance abuse counselors who subscribe to the AA theory of alcoholism to describe the recovering alcoholic who is no longer drinking but whose thought processes are considered to continue to be distorted by the thought patterns of addiction.

George Bush says he talks with GOD and personally, I wish everyone would Google "Dry Drunk Syndrome" and at least look at a greater possibility.

Addiction, Brain Damage and the President
"Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush
by KATHERINE van WORMER

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/Balzac/20060501balz.html

Addiction, Brain Damage and the President
"Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush
by KATHERINE van WORMER
CounterPunch - October 11, 2002

O'Neill's Revelations and the Mind of Bush
Dry Drunk Confirmed
by KATHERINE van WORMER
CounterPunch - January 22, 2003

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/Balzac/20061221balz.html

It is at this point I have to ask, "Can Neocons Really Be That Stupid?" and the answer that returns is Yes, because of Greed; followed by, 'Neocons will do anything to remain free of War Crimes and keep out of jail, and so will Republicans and Democrats'.

It is important to bring HONESTY back into government and remove those who would destroy the United States Government and replace it with a Corporatist 4th Reich.

Dahbud covers most of the above information in the following articles listed on the left side of this page:

They/Them - Neocon Letter - Understand 9/11 - Every Time You Kill - Rethinking 9/11

Source: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/200708dahbud.html

What Is the Truth?
by Balzac

Mr. Bush says Quakers and People Who Hand Out Peanut-Butter Sandwiches Are "cold-blooded killers who will kill on a moment's notice."

QUAKER TERRORISTS

The first accounts of DOMESTIC SPYING surfaced when Corporate Media reported:

Is the Pentagon spying on Americans?
Secret database obtained by NBC News tracks suspicious' domestic groups.

By Lisa Myers, Douglas Pasternak, Rich Gardella and the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 6:18 p.m. ET Dec. 14, 2005

WASHINGTON - A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.

A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a “threat” and one of more than 1,500 “suspicious incidents” across the country over a recent 10-month period.

“This peaceful, educationally oriented group being a threat is incredible,” says Evy Grachow, a member of the Florida group called The Truth Project.

Continue reading at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/

PEANUT-BUTTER and JELLY TERRORISTS

The Other Big Brother
The Pentagon has its own domestic spying program. Even its leaders say the outfit may have gone too far.
By Michael Isikoff, Newsweek

Jan. 30, 2006 issue - The demonstration seemed harmless enough. Late on a June afternoon in 2004, a motley group of about 10 peace activists showed up outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton, the giant military contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. They were there to protest the corporation's supposed "war profiteering." The demonstrators wore papier-mache masks and handed out free peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to Halliburton employees as they left work. The idea, according to organizer Scott Parkin, was to call attention to allegations that the company was overcharging on a food contract for troops in Iraq. "It was tongue-in-street political theater," Parkin says.

But that's not how the Pentagon saw it. To U.S. Army analysts at the top-secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the peanut-butter protest was regarded as a potential threat to national security.

Continue reading at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965509/site/newsweek/

Bush Authorized Domestic Spying - Post-9/11 Order Bypassed Special Court
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005; Page A01

President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night. Continue reading at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121600021.html

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Ed.

Q Mr. President, with this program, though, what can you say to those members of the public that are worried about violations of their privacy?

THE PRESIDENT: Ed, I can say that if somebody from al Qaeda is calling you, we'd like to know why. In the meantime, this program is conscious of people's civil liberties, as am I. This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America. And I repeat, limited. And it's limited to calls from outside the United States to calls within the United States. But they are of known -- numbers of known al Qaeda members or affiliates. I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy is thinking. And that's what we're doing.

We're at war with a bunch of cold-blooded killers who will kill on a moment's notice. And I have a responsibility, obviously, to act within the law, which I am doing. It's a program that's been reviewed constantly by Justice Department officials, a program to which the Congress has been briefed, and a program that is, in my judgment, necessary to win this war and to protect the American people. Continue reading at:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060101.html

By the pResident's own words, QUAKERS and PEOPLE WHO HAND OUT PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICHES are "cold-blooded killers who will kill on a moment's notice".

What I would like to know is how do we defend ourselves from these new "evil doers" or is this another REPUBLICAN LIE like WMD ?

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/Balzac/20060307balz.html

The two YouTube pieces: EXPOSED: Bush Planned on Invading Iraq Before 9/11-Part 1 and 2 - digg it - Plus: [More information on John O'Neill] have been 'permalinked' at:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/rethinking911.html

Time 'Trippin' with the BBC
Nobody says it is all planned out in advance.

BBC Monday 15 October

BBC Tuesday 16 October and Wednesday 17 October

BBC Thursday 18 October and Friday 19 October

BBC Saturday 20 October and Sunday 21 October

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7041272.stm

New Evidence that the Official Story about 9/11 is Indefensible
by David Ray Griffin

Early in 2007, Interlink Books published my Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory. The stimulus for my writing this book was the appearance in August 2006--just before the fifth anniversary of 9/11--of four publications intended to bolster the official account by debunking the alternative view, according to which 9/11 was an inside job. The most explicit and well-known of these publications was a book by Popular Mechanics entitled Debunking 9/11 Myths.

My book's introduction and conclusion dealt with the irresponsible way the press, including the left-leaning press, has dealt with this issue. One of their failings, I showed, was simply to accept the official reports -- especially The 9/11 Commission Report and the report on the World Trade Center put out by the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) -- as neutral, scientific reports. They thereby ignored the fact that the 9/11 Commission was run by Philip Zelikow, who was virtually a member of the US. Bush administration, and that NIST is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce and hence of the Bush administration (which has distorted science for political purposes to an unprecedented extent).

The book's four chapters then demonstrated that none of the documents of August 2006 actually served to debunk the claims of the 9/11 truth movement. The first two chapters dealt with two documents--including a new book by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission -- that tried, by creating a completely new story, to debunk the claim that the U.S. military's failure to intercept four hijacked airliners could have occurred only if there had been a stand-down order. I argued that this new story was too inherently implausible, as well as too contradictory of previous statements by the military, to be worthy of belief. [Continue Reading At]:

http://rinf.com/alt-news/911-truth/new-evidence-that-the-official-sto...-911-is-indefensible/1449/

Steve Bell

We Have Ways of Making You Cooperate With Illegal NSA Wiretaps
by Steven Reynolds

Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio has been found guilty of insider trading. But he wasn't allowed to defend himself at trial using information he poossessed at the time of his trades concerning secret NSA projects. He didn't get the contracts, as it turns out, after telling the NSA that one of the projects was illegal. [Continue Reading At]:

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2007/10/12/we-have-ways-of-making-you-cooperate-with-illegal-nsa-wiretaps/ - digg

For the, "They Wouldn't Do That, Challenged"

Operation Northwoods
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

A History Of US Secret Human Experimentation

http://www.rense.com/general36/history.htm

Is bush homosexual?

I am gay myself and was one of the early pioneers in gay lib in Western Canada, so I don't fault Bush for being gay. Further I don't fault Bush for being into S&M. There is no shame in either sexual preference were it not for six things:

1. Some of Bush's partners were non-consenting. He likes to hurt other people.

2. Some of Bush's sex objects were children. I have no evidence Bush raped children personally, but he ordered others to do it and provide video tapes.

3. Bush denies lies about who he is while pretending to be Puritanical Christian.

4. Bush works to deny the civil rights of gay people. He campaigned for a constitutional amendment to formally make gays second class citizens without the right to a marriage licence like every one else has.

5. Jeff Gannon, Bush's pet shill "reporter" is a gay prostitute and anti-gay propagandist.

6. Bush has given his unqualified boyfriends cushy, overpaid government jobs.

If you are gay, you have to refine your gaydar to guess who is gay and who is not. [Continue Reading At]:

http://novos.wordpress.com/ - digg

[Ed. Note: The above site has some great pictures and we would like to add this movie to 'the collection': READ MY LIPS originally appeared at: http://www.atmo.se/readmylips (non-working link) and mirrored at:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/images/readmylips_blush.mov ]

Scandal Among the Televangelists! Oh My!
by Steven Reynolds

We've got a televangelism scandal in the heartland! It's got lavish spending, political hijinks, and even some hints about S-E-X! Woohoo! The Religious Right just keeps on giving, this time at Oral Roberts University. [Continue Reading At]:

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2007/10/11/scandal-among-the-televangelists-oh-my/ - digg

[Ed. Note: Additional Information:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/ministersofsatan.html

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/rpubsbad.html ]

List Of Amazing Bush Stories

This reads like a sad history lesson of the past (almost) eight years of the Bush Administration. We couldn't believe we'd forgotten many of them. He should write a book...visit his website, and you'll get a spiffy up-to-date look at the recent and sad history of the United States. Vote accordingly...here are some of Hugh's List of Bush Scandals highlights...

Walter Reed outpatient treatment, Firing of US attorneys, Plamegate, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and saber rattling [Continue Reading At]:

http://arkansastonight.com/2007/10/list-of-amazing-bush-stories.html - digg

Whither the impeachment movement?
by Carol Wolman

Many in the impeachment movement are suffering from burnout. It's been a long haul these past 6 1/2 years, and we're all tired, impoverished by Bushonomics, discouraged by the endless war and rumors of war. Yet we can't stop fighting for truth and justice; the stakes are too high. The very future of life on the planet hangs in the balance. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_carol_wo_071011_whither_the_impeachm.htm - digg

Bush, a serial loser
by John Maniche

President Bush is admitting his failures to protect the American people as he has sworn to do twice, awarding lawlessness with prize and letting US become anarchy country which is invaded by the third world poor, uneducated and unprofessional people. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.surftheinfo.com/spip.php?page=article&article=17&lang=en - digg

This Is John Galt Speaking

This being the 50th anniversary of the publication of "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, I simply cannot resist the temptation to post my favorite excerpt from the novel. This is from Section 3, Chapter 7, entitled "This is John Galt Speaking." It is a radio address by the President of the United States, Mr. Thompson, which is then interrupted by dissident John Galt. Enough chatter from me. On to the excerpt.

"For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt? This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who has deprived you of victims and thus has destroyed your world, and if you wish to know why you are perishing--you who dread knowledge--I am the man who will now tell you." [Continue Reading At]:

http://ifaq.us/node/38 - digg

US considered poisons for assassinations
by Robert Burns

WASHINGTON - In one of the longest-held secrets of the Cold War, the U.S. Army explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate "important individuals" such as military or civilian leaders, according to newly declassified documents obtained by The Associated Press. [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/assassination_weapon

The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back

If you have a legitimate grievance with a company that they're not helping you solve, here are 15 hand-picked articles of ours that will be your blueprint to kicking ass. They're arranged in 3 escalating tiers, depending on how far you want-to/have-to take it. If you're ready to stop getting mad and start getting results, check out the posts inside... [Continue Reading At]:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/unscrewed/the-ultimate-consumerist-guide-to-fighting-back-308361.php - digg

Cleaning up after Bush
by Eddie Smith

Bush sounded great in the 2000 debates, and even I wanted to vote for him. But, being 14, I didn't, nor did a plurality of Americans. He won, but, as time passed, the promises of that election were broken and the mistakes became clearer. Like W is so fond of saying in Texas: "Fool me once ... a fool ... he can't get fooled again."

But we voted to give him a second chance - at least the Diebold machines did. I defied my principles a little, voting for the lesser of two evils. [Continue Reading At]:

http://media.www.thedmonline.com/..../Cleaning.Up.After.Bush-3018211.shtml - digg

[Real] Republican Party,

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, [Respected] General, Retired - The Military [Corporate Media] Industrial Complex

[Bush's Republican Neocon] Hypocrite Party,

...or Dishonest Larry's "Nasty Boy" Club ?

A Flash Trip Down Evil Corporate Media Lane
http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/media-101.2.html

Costs of outfitting soldiers spiral up

By PAULINE JELINEK, Tue Oct 2, 8:51 PM ET

WASHINGTON - As official Washington argues over the spiraling price of the war in Iraq, consider this: Outfitting a soldier for battle costs a hundred times more now than it did in World War II. It was $170 then, is about $17,500 now and could be an estimated $28,000 to $60,000 by the middle of the next decade. [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071003/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/arming_for_war

Scientists see comets, sun interact

Posted: Tue, Oct 2, 2007, 7:03 AM ET (1103 GMT)

A solar storm ripped away one comet's tail while another comet slowed down the solar wind far from the Sun, astronomers said on Monday. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/3925

Mishandling of Germs on Rise at US Labs

By LARRY MARGASAK

WASHINGTON (AP) -- American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing as more labs do the work. [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/M/MISHANDLING_GERMS

Britain planning to pull 1000 troops out of Iraq

THE British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has announced a doubling of the British troop withdrawal from Iraq to bring 1000 soldiers home by the end of the year. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/britain-planning-to-pull-1000-troops-out-of-iraq/

Ex-US ambassador to UN attacks withdrawal of troops by Brown

by Patrick Wintour, political editor
Monday October 1, 2007
The Guardian

[Ed. Note: As of early this morning (1 Oct.), this information was not listed by 'major' U.S. Corporate Media.]

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN [Ed: and Evil Neocon], yesterday attacked Gordon Brown for planning an effective withdrawal from Iraq and claimed the Foreign Office had repeatedly given up its negotiating red lines on Iran, allowing Tehran priceless time to assemble nuclear weapons.

Billed as a Washington hawk, his presence in Blackpool at a crowded fringe meeting suggests a hardening of the Conservatives' foreign policy position after years in which the Blair-Bush relationship had frozen out the Conservatives. [Continue Reading At]:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,2180778,00.html

President Failure

If you harbor terrorists, you are terrorists. (Applause.) If you train or arm a terrorist, you are a terrorist. (Applause.) If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist, and you will be held accountable by the United States and our friends. (Applause.) - George W. Bush - Nov. 21, 2001

By his own words and Blackwater USA's actions, George W. Bush is harboring, training, feeding, arming, and funding Terrorists.

Congressional report blames Blackwater for battle of Falluja

A US congressional investigation today said the private security firm Blackwater triggered one of the bloodiest battles in the Iraq war when it sent an unprepared team of security guards into the insurgent stronghold of Falluja.

The four security guards were killed in the city and images of their mutilated and charred bodies broadcast around the world.

The month-long US response in March and April 2004 saw the deaths of 36 US service personnel, 200 insurgents and an estimated 600 civilians, according to the report. It is widely viewed as a turning point in the Iraq war.

Blackwater is also under state department investigation for a Baghdad shoot-out on September 16 involving its guards that left 11 Iraqis dead. The New York Times today published a report citing Bush administration officials that said Blackwater was involved in a far higher rate of shootings than other security firms.

The House of Representatives oversight and government reform committee report comes less than a week before Erik Prince, a former Navy Seal and Blackwater's founder, is due to testify before it. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2178935,00.html

This article says, "Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S. designated terrorist organization" and if that is too many words, Blackwater USA is arming terrorists and Republican president, George W. Bush is funding them with help from dimwitted Democrats.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_go_co/us_blackwater_probe

How Will The Government Stop Smart People From Rising Up Against It?

The Uprising - Cartoon Picture

http://www.overcompensating.com/ - digg it

FACT CHECK: "Phony Soldiers" and Limbaugh's Revisionist History

Washington, DC - As the controversy over Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comments continues to grow, Media Matters for America would like to highlight the falsehoods that Limbaugh, America's top conservative talk-radio host, has used to claim that he was taken out of context. [Continue Reading At]:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710020011 - digg it

The Internet: Our Last Hope for a Free Press

by Mark Klempner

I consider the Internet to be one of the world's great wonders. And also America's last hope for a free press. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-klempner/the-internet-our-last-ho_b_66720.html - digg it

Topless anti-war protest near White House

Five women and one man from the group Breasts not Bombs staged the event in Lafayette Park across from the White House. And it wasn't the bombs that were on display. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.koin.com/Global/story.asp?s=7145574 - digg it

RIGHTS: Native Peoples Score Historic Political Victory

By Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 13 (IPS) - After 22 years of long and cumbersome negotiations, leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous people have won a powerful symbolic victory in their fight for recognition of the right to self-determination and control over their land and resources. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39258

Gathering 'Storm' Superworm Poses Grave Threat to PC Nets

by Bruce Schneier

The Storm worm first appeared at the beginning of the year, hiding in e-mail attachments with the subject line: "230 dead as storm batters Europe." Those who opened the attachment became infected, their computers joining an ever-growing botnet. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2007/10/securitymatters_1004

The Anarchist Library
Liberty - Mother, not Daughter of Order

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, (1722-1803) U.S. Founding Father and Public Enemy #1 [Continue Reading At]:

http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/ - digg it

Real Life Mario Super Mushroom

http://www.geekstir.com/pictures/real-life-mario-super-mushroom/ - digg it

Doctor accuses TV journalist of fake sting op

by Amandeep Shukla

New Delhi, October 03 The Ghaziabad Police is investigating television reporter Jamshed Khan after charges surfaced that he had staged a fake sting operation on a doctor who was shown willing to amputate limbs of beggars for money.

Khan was in news a week ago when he was presented by defense counsels of Vikas and Vishal Yadav who are being investigated for the murder of Nitish Katara. Their lawyers had produced Khan in court to discredit the officer investigating the Yadavs, Anil Somania, after another sting operation by Khan "exposed" that Somania was ready to kill a criminal in a fake encounter.

Jamshed Khan is employed by the Dedicated Investigators Guild (DIG), an independent news agency, and the sting was telecast by the channel CNN-IBN between July 29 to August 3 last year. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Doctor-accuses-TV-journalist-of-fake-sting-op/224245/

Mods and Rockers Festival: Skidoo

by Paul Krassner

Writer Paul Krassner shares his recollections about the 1968 acid-comedy film Skidoo directed by Otto Preminger. The movie has its first 35mm screening in Los Angeles in over 25 years on Saturday July 14 at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood.

Timothy Leary had a certain sense of pride about the prominent people he and his associates had introduced to the psychedelic revolution. He once told me the names of some of the folks whose lives had been changed by taking LSD. Among them: director Otto Preminger, actor Cary Grant, conservative think-tanker Herman Kahn, Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson, Time magazine publishers Henry and Clare Booth Luce.

"But," Leary told me, "I consider Otto Preminger one of our failures."

I first met Preminger in 1960 when I interviewed him about censorship for Playboy. He had defied Hollywood's official seal of approval by refusing to change the script for The Moon Is Blue. He wouldn't take out the dreaded word "virgin."

At the end of our taped interview, he asked, "Ven you tronscripe dis, vill you fix up my Henglish?"

"Oh, sure," I replied quickly. "Of course."

"Vy? Vot's drong viz my Henglish?"

I saw himr again in 1967. He was making a film titled Skidoo, starring Jackie Gleason as a retired organized crime figure. Preminger told me he had originally intended the role for Frank Sinatra. I was hanging around with friends from the Hog Farm commune, who were extras in the movie (and who, two years later, would be preparing free breakfast outdoors for 400,000 hungry humans at the Woodstock festival).

Anyway, Skidoo was pro-acid propaganda thinly disguised as a comedy adventure. However, LSD was not the reason that the FBI was annoyed with the film. Rather, according to Gleason's FBI files, they objected to one scene in the script where a file cabinet is stolen from an FBI building. Gleason was later approved as a special FBI contact in the entertainment business.

One of the characters in Skidoo was a Mafia chieftain named God. Screenwriter Bill Cannon had suggested Groucho Marx for the part. Preminger said it wasn't a good idea, but since they were already shooting, and that particular character was needed on the set in three days, Groucho got the job. During one scene, Preminger was screaming instructions at him.

Groucho yelled back, "Are you drunk?"

When Skidoo was released in 1968, Tim Leary saw it, and he cheerfully admitted, "I was fooled by Otto Preminger. He's much hipper than me."

Skidoo is not available on tape or DVD, but it has a certain cult following that reminds me of a secret in a coffee table book--PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary Lives--compiled by Frank Warren. It consists entirely of photos of actual postcards, each revealing a personal secret of the anonymous sender that has never been told to anybody. They're hysterical and horrific, bizarre and cathartic, poignant and shocking.

The particular postcard I have in mind reads: "I've created over a dozen T-shirts with quotes and photos from obscure films in hopes that someone will recognize them and be the true-blue best friend that I've always dreamed of." Who knows, maybe Skidoo is one of those obscure films, and the T-shirt has a quote from a prisoner who's been dosed with LSD--"I don't have to rape anybody any more"--with a photo of Groucho Marx playing God.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-krassner/mods-and-rockers-festival_b_55269.html

Amnesty lists execution horrors

by Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday October 4, 2007
The Guardian

The use of lethal injections in the US has led to at least nine bungled executions, including one in which the prisoner took 69 minutes to die and another in which the condemned man complained five times: "It don't work," a report by Amnesty International says today.

The report contains a catalogue of botched executions dating from 2000, when lethal injection was adopted by 37 of the 38 US states with the death penalty. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2182952,00.html

VOTEVETS.ORG: REPRESENTING THE VOICE OF THE TROOPS

Did you get the memo? President Bush's failed strategy in Iraq has led to a stronger al Qaeda that is plotting the next 9/11. Our own intelligence says they are rebuilding and strongest in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not Iraq. Our troops get it. Every year, more and more troops disapprove of how the war in Iraq has been handled, with strong majorities saying President Bush's handling of the war has been a failure, and saying there is not a military solution for Iraq. VoteVets.org is the only Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans organization that accurately mirrors the message troops are sending. We speak like the troops, because we are the troops. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.votevets.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=334&Itemid=106 - digg it

PETITION NATIONAL HOLIDAY - FOR NATIVE AMERICANS

TRANSFORM COLUMBUS DAY

The Transform Columbus Day Alliance actively rejects the celebration of Christopher Columbus and his legacy of domination, oppression, and colonialism.

Fighting Terrorism Since 1492

Protesters remain at power plant

Five Greenpeace campaigners have spent the night on top of a chimney at a Kent power station to protest against plans for a new coal-fired plant. [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7035028.stm

From cocaine to plutonium: mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste
by Tom Kington

Authorities in Italy are investigating a mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste and trying to make plutonium. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2186654,00.html

Cocaine galore! Villagers live it up on profits from 'white lobster'
by Rory Carroll

Washed-up bales of drugs bring millions of dollars to poor fishing communities - Audio slideshow: Rory Carroll and Susan Schulman meet the fishermen angling for the catch with a difference [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2186573,00.html

Rock legends back Radiohead plan
by Ian Youngs

Radiohead's plan to let fans choose how much to pay for their new album has won support from two British indie legends. [Continue Reading At]:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7034320.stm

Is History Cyclical or Linear?
by Rit Nosotro

Some believe that history is cyclical. Basically this means that our past is just a specific pattern of cycles. There is nothing new to see yesterday or tomorrow, because history repeats itself in a cycle. Other people believe that history is linear. This means that our history has its beginning and it will have an end. There are no patterns or repetitions though they may appear to exist every once in awhile. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw01cyclicalhistorylinear.htm - digg

Chris Matthews on The Daily Show: "This Is The Worst Interview I've Ever Had In My Life!"
by Rachel Sklar

We're getting into a bit of a Chris Matthews habit, we admit it, but how are we supposed to resist when he insists on wearing his special pink tie? That's what he wore to last night's guest spot on "The Daily Show," where he chatted with John about his new book,"Life's A Campaign. Jon, as it turns out, is not a fan of the book's central conceit: That you should treat your life and the people in it as though you were running for office. Jon called it a "self-hurt book" but clarified to Matthews that "I'm not trashing your book, I'm trashing your philosophy of life." [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/03/chris-matthews-on-the-dai_n_66912.html - digg