David, you ARE being facetious, right? The best talent the WH possesses is their ability to white wash, they are positively perfect at it. Did that report mention that the main reason the whole response was botched is because we were too busy and too broke from wreaking destruction down on Iraq?

No real finger pointing as I would expect from this Mis-Administration, the very same one that sat on their hands on 9/11. The chimpy gang is more apt to help themselves instead of helping others, as is apparent with the port deal. Lord help us if the Big One hits California.

David:

A Houstonian of near 30 years, I am familiar with the type of diseasters tropical storms (Alicai, Allison come to mind immediately) can bring upon flatish cities, inlcuding New Orleans.

Bush's Nat'l Response Plan of 2003 was drawn up to respond to UNusual calamities, like 9/11, or WMD-type attacks where no prior National or even State-level plans existed.

No matter what the collective failures of the responses to Katrina were, we should NOT ever overlook the fact that regionally, be it the earthquake-prone Left Coast or flood-prone Gulf Coast area, LOCAL and STATE must be the FIRST and SECOND responsible parties simply from past experiences.

How can we expect the Feds to plan for ALL predicatable and seasonal calamities stretching from Alaska, Hawaii and the contiguous 48 states? Come on, the Feds are only supposed to be the backstop to `typical' diseasters. New Orleans was made UNtypical because of the failures of the FIRST & SECOND lines of preparations.

I contend that New Orleans and Louisianna ought to be the whipping boys and learn from this fiasco. I applaud Bush for "the buck stops here" and taking some blame; like the good people should (such as Mr. Whittington on getting shot though he was the least culpable party).

Homeland Security Want RFID People & Vehicle Tracking

unobserver.com | February 24 2006

"Call it Big Brother on steroids," say privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, co-authors of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for beefed up RFID technology that can read government-issued documents from up to 25 feet away, pinpoint pedestrians on street corners, and glean the identity of people whizzing by in cars at 55 miles per hour.

DHS is seeking RFID devices that "can be sensed remotely, passively, and automatically....The device must be readable under all kinds of indoor and outdoor conditions... and while carried by pedestrians or vehicle occupant."
DHS has set "several high-level goals" for the reading of RFID "tokens" carried by travellers, including:

- The solution must...identify the exact location of the read such as a specific pedestrian or vehicle lane in which the token is read.

- The solution presented must sense the remote data capture technology carried by a pedestrian traveller at distances up to 25 ft.

- The solution presented must sense all tokens carried by travelers seated in a single automobile, truck, or bus at a distance up to 25 ft. while moving at speeds up to 55 mph.

- For bus traffic, the solution must sense up to 55 tokens.

- For a successful read, the traveller should not have to hold or present the token in any special way to enable the reading of the token's information. The goal is for the reader to sense a token carried on a traveler's person or anywhere in a vehicle.
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Gee, don't you feel safer already?!

Did anyone hear this this morning? Colin Powell and John Bolton were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I almost spit my coffee out, then I laughed until tears were rolling down my cheeks. I thought, "wait till the Cornbloggers hear THAT!"

Folks, if there was ever any doubt that we are doomed, you'd better believe it now. We all might as well turn into sheeple and just enjoy what lives we have because nothing is ever going to change. What I've learned since the infamous Supreme Court decision is that mankind is basically evil. I see it now in every facet of life. There is nothing that isn't fucked up, unfair and mean going on. None of our keyboard activism means a thing because the black hats are in charge everywhere. There is no Messiah for this country, or for any other. Evil men will always prevail just like they always have.

Now I'll make another cup of coffee and go read my Detroit Free Press for whatever that's worth.

Dear Miss Jeanne:

I see that the happy fella on this blog has brought up my name, so I will tell you something about responsibility that the Bush Administration does not understand. They think they can bumfuzzle all you folks into oblivion, into total apathy and confusion. Hell, they are trying to keep me confused!

One of my daughters wondered out loud how long it's going to be before the true story comes out about the drinking and hunting. I don't know who Steve Martin is, but my daughter tells this story from Mr. Martin's comedy routine about a drug user:

"I used to smoke marijuana," he says. "But I'll tell you something: I would only smoke it in the late evening. Oh, occasionally the early evening, but usually the late evening. Or the mid-evening. Just the early evening, mid-evening and late evening. Occasionally, early afternoon, early mid-afternoon, or perhaps the late-mid-afternoon. Oh, sometimes the early-mid-late-early morning ... But never at dusk. Never at dusk!"

Well, that's about the size of it about drinking and hunting, too.

OK then what was FEMA created for if not to respond to disasters? Is FEMA rendered unnecessary due to the States having primary responsibility for disaster response? While the States need to be the FIRST responders, most do not have the equipment or manpower to do it all. In cases of EXTREME disaster such as Katrina, the LACK of ANY response by FEMA equates to the general lack of concern by ANYONE in the current administration, PERIOD!

Pentagon-Controlled Iraqi National Guard Implicated in Samarra Mosque Bombing

Kurt Nimmo | February 23 2006

...Since it is unreasonable to expect Baghdad hotel-bound corporate media hacks to report anything beyond what is read from a Pentagon script inside the Green Zone, most Americans remain unaware of details implicating the Iraqi National Guard in the bombing. According to reports appearing on the humanitarian Iraqi League organization's Iraqi Rabita website and translated into English by the Iraqi blogger Baghdad Dweller, at least two witnesses saw unusual activities by the ING [Iraqi National Guard] in the area around the mosque. Two mosque guards reported four men in ING uniforms had blindfolded them and planted explosives. A second witness, Muhammad al-Samarrai, the owner of an internet cafe in the area, was told to stay in his store and not leave the area. From 11 pm until 6:30 am, ten minutes before two bombs were detonated, the area surrounding the mosque was patrolled by joint forces of Iraqi ING and Americans, according to al-Samarrai.

In addition to apparently facilitating the mosque bombing, Iraqi National Guard troops provided assistance to more than a dozen masked Shia gunmen attacking the Sunni al-Quds mosque in western Baghdad in the wake of the Samarra attack, according to the Times Online. In addition, gunmen arrived [at the Maakel prison in Basra] in a fleet of cars and showed documents which claimed that they were from the Interior Ministry and lynched at least eleven Sunni inmates, among them at least two Egyptians.
Of course, two eye witnesses should not be considered conclusive evidence the Pentagon puppet Iraqi National Guard is behind the mosque bombings in Samarra. However, when added to the wealth of evidence from various sources detailing the existence of a Anglo-American counterinsurgency program in Iraq (including the now largely forgotten and never referenced by the corporate media story of two British covert operatives caught red-handed in terrorist behavior last September) the incident should at least stir a modicum of suspicion.
------------
Was it you micki who asked why these mosques weren't secured? Turns out they WERE!

Carol, you're starting to sound just like me! I don't think people are basically evil, just uneducated, which allows all this shit to keep happening.

the report somehow managed to miss the missteps that occurred at the White House

wow maybe the katrina report was ghostwritten by the 911 commission

nobel peace prizes for powell and bolton?
ha - they should demand a medal of freedom!

DEN, if you really want to know why FEMA was created, check this out.

FEMA - The Secret Government
By Harry V. Martin with research assistance from David Caul Copyright FreeAmerica and Harry V. Martin, 1995

FEMA had one original concept when it was created, to assure the survivability of the United States government in the event of a nuclear attack on this nation. It was also provided with the task of being a federal coordinating body during times of domestic disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. Its awesome powers grow under the tutelage of people like Lt. Col. Oliver North and General Richard Secord, the architects on the Iran-Contra scandal and the looting of America's savings and loan institutions. FEMA has even been given control of the State Defense Forces, a rag-tag, often considered neo-Nazi, civilian army that will substitute for the National Guard, if the Guard is called to duty overseas.
-----------
The Executive orders behind this entity are freakin scary!

Carol, that is something to laugh about!

Oh, well, the Nobel nominating process has been bastardized just like everything else. While I think that the final selection of the peace prize winner is usually someone who deserves the honor, I think many of the nominations are bullshit PR maneuvers. The nominations are supposed to be kept secret (sure!); some years up to 199 people have been nominated! Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Benito Mussolini are some of the infamous nominess -- now, we can add John Bolton and Colin Powell to the "infamous list."

" I applaud Bush for "the buck stops here" and taking some blame; like the good people should (such as Mr. Whittington on getting shot though he was the least culpable party)."

In the spirit of Happy's most recent post, I TOO would like to take "some" responsibility for missteps, mistakes, bad decisions, deceit and outright abrogation of responsibility including 1) pre-war WMD intelligence in Iraq, the $300 nillion wasted, 2500 american and 100,000 iraqi lives 2) the incredibly irresponsible appointment of Michael Brown to FEMA, 3) Michael Brown's incompetence 4) the UAE port deal - even though I didn't "know" about it 5) planting forged national guard documents at CBS before the 2004 election 6) pearl harbor 7) and shooting Mr. Whittington in the face - sorry, I was drunk and that cute blond ambassador kept smiling at me.

We can put a sign on Bush's desk just like President Truman: "Some" of the bucks stop right here.

Was it you micki who asked why these mosques weren't secured? Turns out they WERE!

Yes, it was me. Hmmmmmm.

Saladin, I agree with you all the time when you get truly pessimistic because that's exactly where I've been for ages now. Nothing is going to change. Evil men have it covered at every possible spot to keep us ignorant and uneducated, poor and sick. Outsourcing, can't get an education, no pensions, low pay. There's still slavery. We are all the slaves now. It's just not called slavery because of the wage, but slavery it be. The future is pretty bleak if you're not born to wealth.

NORWAY wants it's own oil bourse
with euros of course

only 24 more shopping days until the proposed iranian oil bourse!

Two very interesting paragraphs from the FEMA article. How many people actually know about this stuff?
------------

FEMA's enormous powers can be triggered easily. In any form of domestic or foreign problem, perceived and not always actual, emergency powers can be enacted. The President of the United States now has broader powers to declare martial law, which activates FEMA's extraordinary powers. Martial law can be declared during time of increased tension overseas, economic problems within the United States, such as a depression, civil unrest, such as demonstrations or scenes like the Los Angeles riots, and in a drug crisis. These Presidential powers have increased with successive Crime Bills, particularly the 1991 and 1993 Crime Bills, which increase the power to suspend the rights guaranteed under the Constitution and to seize property of those suspected of being drug dealers, to individuals who participate in a public protest or demonstration. Under emergency plans already in existence, the power exists to suspend the Constitution and turn over the reigns of government to FEMA and appointing military commanders to run state and local governments. FEMA then would have the right to order the detention of anyone whom there is reasonable ground to believe...will engage in, or probably conspire with others to engage in acts of espionage or sabotage. The plan also authorized the establishment of concentration camps for detaining the accused, but no trial.

Three times since 1984, FEMA stood on the threshold of taking control of the nation. Once under President Reagan in 1984, and twice under President Bush in 1990 and 1992. But under those three scenarios, there was not a sufficient crisis to warrant risking martial law. Most experts on the subject of FEMA and Martial Law insisted that a crisis has to appear dangerous enough for the people of the United States before they would tolerate or accept complete government takeover. The typical crisis needed would be threat of imminent nuclear war, rioting in several U.S. cites simultaneously, a series of national disasters that affect widespread danger to the populous, massive terrorist attacks, a depression in which tens of millions are unemployed and without financial resources, or a major environmental disaster.

The plan called for the deputation of U.S. military and National Guard units so that they could legally be used for domestic law enforcement. These units would be assigned to conduct sweeps and take into custody an estimated 400,000 undocumented Central American immigrants in the United States. The immigrants would be interned at 10 detention centers to be set up at military bases throughout the country.
------------
This was written in 1995, and what was that contract that was recently awarded to KBR? This sounds sickeningly familiar.

Ports: All 'Bout a Dealer Named Bout
A Russian arms merchant funnels money, guns, and dope through the United Arab Emirates

The UAE is not only the center of financial dealings in the Persian Gulf, it is switching central for dope and arms dealing. The dope comes out of Afghanistan into the UAE where tax monies are collected and used to buy arms, which were sent back in for the Taliban. Some of this money is thought to have helped finance the 9-11 attacks. A money trail is set forth in the government's filings in the Moussaoui case.

Long at the center of this operation is the mysterious Russian arms dealer, Victor Bout. The U.N. has accused Bout of providing arms to brutal regimes in Sierra Leone,Angola and to Charles Taylor in Liberia. The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C. research organization that operates a network of foreign correspondents, published a report on Bout in January 2002, citing Belgian intelligence documents from before the 9-11 attacks it had obtained. These documents reportedly show Bout earned $50 million in profits from selling weapons to the Taliban after they came to power in the late 1990s. The Center states, "Another European intelligence source independently verified the sales, and intelligence documents from an African country in which Bout operates?obtained by the Center?claim that Bout ran guns for the Taliban 'on behalf of the Pakistan government.'

Sal, I do not believe in the "Martial Law" threat and heres why. With the crony appointments by this mis- administration they have reached an even higher level of incompetance. Hell they sent truckloads of ice for Katrina disaster aid all over the country instead of were it belonged. The trailers meant to house disaster victims are sitting in a field in Arkansas at a cost of millions to taxpayers. FEMA boogers up everything they touch!It is reasonable to assume they would not be able to handle martial law any better than the rest of the stuff they screw up. More unneeded fear. No worries, the major corporate interests in this country have to much to lose to sacrifice their profit margin for a government takeover. Its about the MONEY! and keeping the little people like us in a constant state of fear, while they reap more and more profit.

Sal, I forgot one thing, as long as our troops are bogged down in Iraq with just about every bit of military equipment over there with them, they are too weak to conduct as massive military operation here.

DEN, it seems FEMA only screws up when they are expected to actually HELP people! They aren't good at it because that isn't what they were created to do. Isn't it an unlikely coincidence that KBR is building the very detention centers that artice written in 1995 mentions? I think it has gone beyond money now. If that's all they cared about we would not be in this economic nightmare. It will get worse, and Martial Law is a very real possibility. You have to scramble some eggs to make an omelet!

That's where the Blackwater goon squads come in. Our troops may be engaged elsewhere, but there are plenty of foreign mercenaries for hire, and they were on the scene in NO after Katrina. Don't underestimate the nature of this evil, they may be completely inept as far as providing help, but when it comes to bringing out the jackboots I think they will suddenly become incredibly efficient.

#3 Happy

I have to agree with Saladin in #1. First and foremost the war in Iraq caused the Katrina disaster response to be totally inadequate due to lack of National Guard manpower and eqipment to deal with the flooding. Yes the state and local governments should be primarily responsible in the initial responses. But just as with Fema being dismantled and fed to Homelanad Security, funds to the local and state governments have been cut, remember? As with all else, Bush and co. do not bother to stay informed. They put out orders not to be informed. That's their mo. Bush, the CEO president, cannot abide his vactions being interrupted as do the higher ups in the administration. Brown's wining during the congressional investigation was just that, wining. You do remember the memos that were sent to him about conditions in the Superdome, and the response was, Brown was at dinner and couldn't be bothered. Brown proclaimed to Ted Kopppel he didn't know anything about the Convention Center. Say what? Last, but not least, the condition of the levees was well known at FEMA since 2001. With a possible category 5 hurricane heading towards New Orleans, how can anyone be surprised or not anticipate the levees would break when they were only built to withstand a category 3 hurricane. Part of my family lives in New Orleans and my brother-in-law is the Number 2 man at the port. (You should hear what he has to say about the Dubai takeover.) The federal government knew way ahead of time what Katrina or any hurricane like it were capable of and funds were still cut because of the need to fund the needless, wasteful war in Iraq. This country has sacrificed everything to this Iraq war. For what? To create a new breeding ground for terrorists and kill off many tens of thousands of people.
Developement and Bush's environmental policies destroyed the wetlands around the New Orleans soup bowl, something that could have soaked up some of the flood water. Global warming? Don't get me started as to its contribution to the fury of Katrina's storm.

I forgot to add my shock at the nomination of Powell and Bolton. When you think of either one, you don't think of them as men of peace. Has the world become so awful we can't find prominent men or women of peace anymore? I think not.

Carey, that is even more proof that FEMA is not in the business of helping people!

Carey, I posted last year that bush and blair were actually being considered for the Nobel Peace prize. That's when I realized that we were so far down the rabbit hole there was no coming back.

Sal, spose we could speculate about this issue for a long time. Best to excercise your right to bear arms, and if the jackboots do start coming up your driveway, take out as many as you can. I would not give up without a fight and neither would many others. Mad Max for real. I refuse to become a victim of fear!

This corrupt regime in the WH only cares about having enough money for war and servicing the debt.

That's it.

DEN, that is exactly what my husband says! You two would get along great. I am not posting these things to inspire fear, just awareness. I would rather know all the possibilities I can and be as prepared as possible then be faced with an emergency with no contingency plans. My theory about all this NSA spying is that it will inspire fear, so much in fact that people will be too afraid to even speak out in opposition, dreading that knock on the door from the DHS. I say, scream it from the rooftops, they can't investigate and arrest everyone.

George Bush, Protector of Arab Rights?
Suddenly, Dubya's 'War on Terra' takes back seat in Dubai Ports deal

by Molly Ivins

a "dippy" idea....

The only servicing of the debt they are doing is increasing it!

Title: UAE Terminal Takeover Extends To 21 Ports : Far More Than 6 Widely Reported
Source: www.upi.com
URL Source: http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerroris ... ?StoryID=20060223-051657-4981r
Published: Feb 24, 2006
Author: By PAMELA HESS

UAE Terminal Takeover Extends To 21 Ports

By PAMELA HESS UPI Pentagon Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A United Arab Emirates government-owned company is poised to take over port terminal operations in 21 American ports, far more than the six widely reported.

The Bush administration has approved the takeover of British-owned Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to DP World, a deal set to go forward March 2 unless Congress intervenes.

P&O is the parent company of P&O Ports North America, which leases terminals for the import and export and loading and unloading and security of cargo in 21 ports, 11 on the East Coast, ranging from Portland, Maine to Miami, Florida, and 10 on the Gulf Coast, from Gulfport, Miss., to Corpus Christi, Texas, according to the company's Web site.
--------------

Saladin, you said, "I don't think people are basically evil, just uneducated." That doesn't make any sense to me because all the people in charge of everything are educated people. Evil, educated people. That's why we're doomed.

Carol, I wasn't referring to those in charge, I was referring to the employers, "we the people!"

""But if Christ hadn't delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn't want to be a human being.

I'd just as soon be a rattlesnake."

-Kurt Vonnegut

FEMA flood maps are gonna make people angrier than they are now...

Many folks in New Orleans want to save their neighborhoods and are doing what they can on a piecemeal basis to resurrect their homes and keep the bulldozers at bay. Many agree that the footprint of N.O. will have to change because of some of the low-lying areas, but....

I predict there is going to be hell to pay when the new FEMA flood maps are released (maybe by this summer). The maps determine how high homes must be built to be eligible for federal flood insurance. If the homes are not built high enough, the owners don't qualify for mortgages or insurance. The "powers that be" will make sure the maps favor the corporate interests. This will prove to be one "legal" way of displacing people from their homes.

It's gonna be a hot time in New Orleans this summer! I hate those greedy fuckers.

In the interest of fairness here is a much overlooked article about port takeovers during the clinton years. This is not a pretty picture, especially for advocates of gun control.

It Didn't Start With Loral; The Clinton National Security Fire Sale

OYSTER BAY -- The revelation that the Clinton administration may have traded U.S. national security for campaign cash from China exploded like a Long March rocket just two weeks ago. Johnny Chung's confession to investigators that some of the money he donated to help re-elect Bill Clinton came directly from the People's Liberation Army finally set off mainstream media smoke alarms. On the Sunday chat shows, the topic is picking up steam - and has even managed to supplant Monica-gate as the biggest bulb on the Clinton scandalabra.

COSCO's Beachhead

While he was not too busy helping the Chinese build up their arsenal abroad, Mr. Clinton took time to do what he could for Chinese state business interests at home. The transfer of the Long Beach, California naval station to the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) is by now notorious. But what wasn't widely reported last year was the degree to which the Clinton White House leaned on local Long Beach office holders to pave the way for COSCO's beachhead on American soil. Here's how The New York Times described the intense White House lobbying for that deal:

During a tough battle last year ('96) over how a closed Navy base in Long Beach, Calif., would be used, a Clinton administration official made what several people involved describe as highly unusual telephone calls to push for construction there of a container terminal that would be leased to a shipping company owned by the Chinese Government .... There was no evidence that there was anything improper about the calls, but several officials who received them said it was highly unusual for the White House to intervene on behalf of one side in a local battle like this one, especially when the intervention benefited the cause of a private company .... Several of those officials said the White House pressure had been unprecedented.

Although the Times quoted Long Beach officials who were primarily concerned with the historic preservation of their port, others were more troubled by the tenant. Just months before Bill Clinton enlisted in the battle of Long Beach on the Chinese side, BATF and Customs agents intercepted contraband shipped on a COSCO container ship docked up the coastline in Oakland. The state owned Chinese ship was being used by the state run arms company to smuggle machine guns to American street gangs.

Still, priorities are priorities. And the priority here for Bill Clinton may have had something to do with the fact that the ubiquitous and generous Mr. Chung was linked to COSCO through Hongye Zheng, a senior COSCO advisor who accompanied Chung to the White House for a Clinton radio address. "Assault Weapons" for U.S.
-----------
I maintain that these politicians are greedy traitors on a mission to wreck this country.

Evil, educated, greedy bastards are trying like hell to make the internet just for the rich, too.

Civil war in Iraq equals monumental failure for Bush

Deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, military professionals privately admit what the Bush Administration publicly fails to recognize - the United States veers dangerously on the precipice of its worst wartime embarrassment since Vietnam as Iraq plunges into an irreversible civil war.

"The civil war has started and the U.S. planners had better get used to it," says retired Marine and military affairs expert H. Thomas Hayden, now a writer for Military.Com. "Shiites have always planned to align themselves with Iran but the Pentagon dominated planners in the Administration have never understood the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite and the great religious gulf between them that has existed for almost a thousand years."

Jeremy Bowen, Middle East editor for the British Broadcasting Corporation, agrees.

"The destruction of the al-Askari shrine takes the danger of a civil war in Iraq to a new level," Bowen says. "It has produced bigger protests than the killing of humans."
Pentagon professionals have long warned President Bush that if civil war erupts in Iraq the U.S. will have to admit failure in its efforts to create a stable, democratic government. As he has with most warnings from those who fight wars for a living, Bush ignored the advice.

"The issue hangs on the next few days. Either the gates of hell open onto a civil war or the Shi'ites will take more power with the excuse that Sunni leaders are unable to rein in increasing terrorist activity," says Hazim al-Naimi, a political science professor at Mustansiriya University. "Only the U.S. military is preventing war in some areas. In cities like Mosul, the police would be thrown out in days if the U.S. military left. There would be ethnic cleansing."

While American military officials publicly follow the Bush administration's lead in painting a rosier picture than really exists in Iraq, my Pentagon sources tell me the military pros are in private revolt against the White House and say the U.S. faces a "humiliating defeat."

"We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."

Even worse, those who take a realistic view of what is happening in Iraq see the U.S. effort there as a massive failure.

"The United States has not been very helpful," says Thabit Abdullah, a Baghdad native and associate professor of history at York University in Toronto. "I must tell you that I was one of those who rejoiced at the overthrow of the dictatorship, though I was like the majority of Iraqis, extremely suspicious of U.S. intentions. I believe that the U.S. has missed one opportunity after another to play a positive role: the lack of effective security, the Abu Ghraib scandals, the joke that is the reconstruction -- one disaster after another."
Still, the Bush Administration claims the situation is not as bad as it is.

State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli claims "significant progress has been made toward building a democratic government."

"There are some savage and unprincipled elements out there that are going to stop at nothing, including attacking one of Shi'a Islam's holiest shrines to promote the kind of unrest that the great majority of Iraqis have clearly demonstrated they don't want to see," he said. "I don't call that civil war, I call that attempts to undermine understanding and an emerging compact among Iraqi society for a peaceful political future."

But look beyond the administration's talking points and you find the sad truth that the country that claims to be the greatest military power on earth cannot stop these "savage and unprincipled elements" from plunging Iraq into the kind of civil war that will force the U.S. to either hunker down in Iraq for a Vietnam-style, prolonged conflict or withdraw from the region in humiliating defeat.

Either choice is a monumental failure.

*****end of clip*****

Doug is on point (as always). Consider the fact that the "news" from Iraq has been sanitized and conditioned before we ever hear it.

How badly do you think things really are? Two or ten times as bad as "reported?"

capt

On the "Katrina" report - does anybody believe the PhaseII would be any different?

Whitewash is their specialty after all is done and said.

Just a thought.

capt

I read an article saying that insurance companies might start making more people pay for flood insurance. Like people who don't need it, don't live near a body of water. There is nothing near our house that could flood us out. If we ever get hit with having to have flood insurance you'll be sure to hear about it!

Carol, I'd like to see the rationale for making me pay for flood insurance! I live at 6000 ft. and the closest body of water is the Crowley Lake resevoir 15 miles up the hill. I suppose they could say it might overflow and cascade down Sherwin grade, haha!

High quality, three-chip digital video reveals the previously unseen reverse angle to televised coverage of the Twin Towers and Seven World Trade collapsing and a lot more. This is the only known unedited footage that contains a clear, real-time audio track of the many disturbing events that took place during the WTC destruction.

google video

COSCO - the shipping and shipping container company -

Not to be confused with: COSTCO

If you do not buy flood insurance you will not be covered in the event that you are flooded?

I do not see the issue?

It is true if you live in a highrise or in a flood plain on a mountain or at the shore.

Please extrapolate?

capt

guerrilla news

By by Matthew Cardinale
Republished from Atlanta Progressive News via InfoShop.org
Our government, at minimum, spied on vegans with signs, a protest medic, and the G8 Summit.
(APN) ATLANTA –†The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia released new documents on Pentagon spying on peaceful protesters, in a downtown press conference today at the Martin Luther King Federal Building. The documents are respondent to their Freedom of Information Act requests to several federal, state, and local agencies, regarding the Pentagon spying which occurred against local peace activists here in Georgia.

We've taken it on behalf of ourselves to get to the bottom of this, Gerry Weber, 41, Legal Director for the ACLU Foundation of Georgia, said. We have compiled a report on the spying we've seen so far. Protesters have been spied upon, videotaped, and infiltrated. The government had no legal justification for this spying. We've only seen the tip of the iceberg.

As first reported in APN, the Pentagon has repeatedly spied upon concerned Peace moms in Atlanta as well other peace protesters. NBC released pages of a Pentagon spying database late last year. The dots connected locally to a series of protests by the GPJC and Leave My Child Alone anti-recruitment campaign.

The protests that we have evidence of spying of, are all peace groups, those who oppose the Administration's policies, Weber responded to a press question from APN. We have not heard of a case where a pro-war group was spied upon.

Three categories of documents were released. It is now clear the government has spied on (1) vegans with signs, (2) a protest medic, and (3) the protest actions around the G8 Summit.
-----------
What is up with spying on vegans? Are people who don't eat animal products considered a threat to national security nowadays?

Yeah, we could be making all this stuff up

Frankly, I don't give a damn what the naysayers think. I've served my country more than once to preserve democracy and try and make this nation a better place to live. I've worked within the political system in Washington and tried to change it for the better from the inside. While others talked about change, I worked with real lovers of America to make it happen. While others talked about doing, we did.

Others talk about truth as if it were some divine providence of a political party or philosophical organization. Truth is non-partisan. It crosses party lines and follows no philosophical path.

We piss off partisans from both sides because we follow the truth wherever it leads. We don't give a damn who gets mad or who gets exposed. We don't apply different rules to different parties and all are held to the same standards.

We don't play favorites. Never have, never will. And we don't have to make this stuff up. The truth is far more interesting, even if the partisans don't want to believe it.

*****end of clip*****

This is what I like best about Doug. He was called a right-wing nutcase by partisans on the left when Clinton was in office. He has never pulled any punches and always told the truth. That is a value I can respect.

capt

YOU WILL EAT MEAT OR YOU ARE NOT AN AMERICAN!

Makes about as much sense as anything else these days. Politics really stinks - living on this side of the looking glass. Thank goodness everything is not politics.

capt

Capt wrote:

>If you think you can tell a women what she can and cannot do with HER body, by all means do so

And if only one body were involved, I would agree with you 100%, but for some reason I was taught differently in Biology 101. Abortion kills a unique human being, stops a beating heart. Forgive me for caring.

Bob

FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked

FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes, the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new FBI records that it said detail the extent of the activity.

The documents, disclosed as part of a lawsuit that challenges FBI treatment of groups that planned demonstrations at last year's political conventions, show the bureau has opened a preliminary terrorism investigation into People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the well-known animal rights group based in Norfolk.

*****end of clip*****

Funny the FBI lists PETA and other animal rights groups as potential domestic threats - NOW VEGANS?

Yet we all know there are neo-nazis, white supremacists, freeman (type groups) and none of those are of any concern.

The world is wacky. What is the thing about animal groups and vegans? Then the chimera human/hybrid comments from Bunnypants? This is really too effin weird.

I get an odd gut feeling about this.

capt

MORRISSEY QUIZZED BY FBI

Singer MORRISSEY was quizzed by the FBI and British intelligence after speaking out against the American and British governments.

[...]

"My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies. You can't really speak your mind and if you do you're investigated." - Morrissey

***********************

Maybe there is a conspiracy against vegans.

911 and the Society of the Spectacle

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." ~ Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

Excerpted from: Why Should Anyone Worry About Whose Communications Bush and Cheney Are Intercepting, If It Helps To Find Terrorists?
By JOHN W. DEAN

One Reason Americans Should Worry: Data Mining Makes Mistakes

The details of the NSA surveillance program remain cloaked in secrecy. None of the experts with whom I spoke had any knowledge of its operations, other than what has been leaked, principally to New York Times reporter James Risen. In his book, State of War: the Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration - a fascinating and alarming read because it reveals ongoing incompetence within the intelligence community - Risen himself provides some details.

"The NSA is now eavesdropping on as many as five hundred people in the United States at any given time," Risen writes, "and it potentially has access to phone calls and e-mails of millions more." He adds that "NSA is now tapping into the heart of the nation's telephone network through direct access to key telecommunications switches that carry many of America's daily phone calls and e-mail messages."

Experts believe the way NSA is handling such masses of digital traffic is probably by what is called "data mining" - the use of computer algorithms to search automatically through massive amounts of data.

They also believe that the greatest threat that such non-human snooping has for the average American is that it frequently produces false positives. This is a point that was made by Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, during the ACLU's panel discussion.

Data mining's search tools, according to experts, are not particularly accurate at flushing out terrorists. Indeed, such electronic sleuthing frequently makes mistakes in who it tags as targets.

The government may claim data mining is accurate - but Americans ought to be wary: Even greater claims of accuracy are typically made for fingerprint identification, and that has already gone grievously wrong in one notorious war on terror example.

Fingerprints on a bag holding detonators involved in the 2004 Madrid subway terror attacks were supposedly linked to Portland, Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield. As a result, Mayfield - also suspicious in authority's eyes because he'd converted to his wife's religion, Islam - found himself in solitary confinement for two weeks as a "material witness." But in the end, the FBI was wrong; the prints weren't his.

More.

*************************

Still, even omnivores must be wary of carnivore. To get into the red meat of the issue. sorry.

Hi Everybody,

My apologies for the long post, but it came to my email box, and I don't know how one would link that. It covers just about all of the important points and puts the whole Iran/Iraq/Oil thing in a nutshell, and is recommended only for those who are interested in the truth. Enjoy!

The agreement with OPEC in the 1970s to price oil in dollars has provided tremendous artificial strength to the dollar as the preeminent reserve
currency. This has created a universal demand for the dollar, and soaks up the huge number of new dollars generated each year. Last year alone M3
increased over $700 billion.
The artificial demand for our dollar, along with our military might, places us in the unique position to "rule" the world without productive
work or savings, and without limits on consumer spending or deficits. The problem is, it can't last.
Price inflation is raising its ugly head, and the NASDAQ bubble--generated by easy money-- has burst. The housing bubble likewise created
is deflating. Gold prices have doubled, and federal spending is out of sight with zero political will to rein it in. The trade deficit last year was over $728 billion. A $2 trillion war is raging, and plans are being laid to expand the war into Iran and possibly Syria. The only restraining force will be the world's rejection of the dollar. It's bound to come and create conditions worse than 1979-1980, which required 21% interest rates to correct. But everything possible will be done to protect the dollar in the meantime. We have a shared interest with those who hold our dollars to keep the whole charade going.
Greenspan, in his first speech after leaving the Fed, said that gold prices were up because of concern about terrorism, and not because of
monetary concerns or because he created too many dollars during his tenure. Gold has to be discredited and the dollar propped up. Even when
the dollar comes under serious attack by market forces, the central banks and the IMF surely will do everything conceivable to soak up the dollars
in hope of restoring stability. Eventually they will fail.
Most importantly, the dollar/oil relationship has to be maintained to keep the dollar as a preeminent currency. Any attack on this relationship will be forcefully challenged-as it already has been.
In November 2000 Saddam Hussein demanded Euros for his oil. His arrogance was a threat to the dollar; his lack of any military might was never a
threat. At the first cabinet meeting with the new administration in 2001, as reported by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, the major topic was how we
would get rid of Saddam Hussein-- though there was no evidence whatsoever he posed a threat to us. This deep concern for Saddam Hussein surprised
and shocked O'Neill.
It now is common knowledge that the immediate reaction of the administration after 9/11 revolved around how they could connect Saddam
Hussein to the attacks, to justify an invasion and overthrow of his government. Even with no evidence of any connection to 9/11, or evidence
of weapons of mass destruction, public and congressional support was generated through distortions and flat out misrepresentation of the facts to justify overthrowing Saddam Hussein.
There was no public talk of removing Saddam Hussein because of his attack on the integrity of the dollar as a reserve currency by selling oil in
Euros. Many believe this was the real reason for our obsession with Iraq. I doubt it was the only reason, but it may well have played a significant
role in our motivation to wage war. Within a very short period after the military victory, all Iraqi oil sales were carried out in dollars. The
Euro was abandoned.
In 2001, Venezuela's ambassador to Russia spoke of Venezuela switching to the Euro for all their oil sales. Within a year there was a coup attempt
against Chavez, reportedly with assistance from our CIA.
After these attempts to nudge the Euro toward replacing the dollar as the world's reserve currency were met with resistance, the sharp fall of the dollar against the Euro was reversed. These events may well have played a significant role in maintaining dollar dominance.
It's become clear the U.S. administration was sympathetic to those who plotted the overthrow of Chavez, and was embarrassed by its failure. The
fact that Chavez was democratically elected had little influence on which side we supported.

Now, a new attempt is being made against the petrodollar system. Iran, another member of the "axis of evil," has announced her plans to initiate an oil bourse in March of this year. Guess what, the oil sales will be priced Euros, not dollars.
Most Americans forget how our policies have systematically and needlessly antagonized the Iranians over the years. In 1953 the CIA helped overthrow a democratically elected president, Mohammed Mossadeqh, and install the authoritarian Shah, who was friendly to the U.S. The Iranians were still fuming over this when the hostages were seized in 1979. Our alliance with Saddam Hussein in his invasion of Iran in the early 1980s did not help matters, and obviously did not do much for our relationship with Saddam
Hussein. The administration announcement in 2001 that Iran was part of the axis of evil didn't do much to improve the diplomatic relationship between our two countries. Recent threats over nuclear power, while ignoring the fact that they are surrounded by countries with nuclear weapons, doesn't seem to register with those who continue to provoke Iran. With what most Muslims perceive as our war against Islam, and this recent history,
there's little wonder why Iran might choose to harm America by undermining the dollar. Iran, like Iraq, has zero capability to attack us. But that didn't stop us from turning Saddam Hussein into a modern day Hitler ready to take over the world. Now Iran, especially since she's made plans for pricing oil in Euros, has been on the receiving end of a propaganda war not unlike that waged against Iraq before our invasion.
It's not likely that maintaining dollar supremacy was the only motivating factor for the war against Iraq, nor for agitating against Iran. Though the real reasons for going to war are complex, we now know the reasons given before the war started, like the presence of weapons of mass
destruction and Saddam Hussein's connection to 9/11, were false. The dollar's importance is obvious, but this does not diminish the influence
of the distinct plans laid out years ago by the neo-conservatives to remake the Middle East. Israel's influence, as well as that of the
Christian Zionists, likewise played a role in prosecuting this war. Protecting "our" oil supplies has influenced our Middle East policy for
decades.
But the truth is that paying the bills for this aggressive intervention is impossible the old fashioned way, with more taxes, more savings, and more production by the American people. Much of the expense of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 was shouldered by many of our willing allies. That's not so today. Now, more than ever, the dollar hegemony-- it's dominance as the world reserve currency-- is required to finance our huge war expenditures. This $2 trillion never-ending war must be paid for, one way or another.
Dollar hegemony provides the vehicle to do just that.
For the most part the true victims aren't aware of how they pay the bills. The license to create money out of thin air allows the bills to be paid
through price inflation. American citizens, as well as average citizens of Japan, China, and other countries suffer from price inflation, which
represents the "tax" that pays the bills for our military adventures. That is until the fraud is discovered, and the foreign producers decide not to take dollars nor hold them very long in payment for their goods. Everything possible is done to prevent the fraud of the monetary system
from being exposed to the masses who suffer from it. If oil markets replace dollars with Euros, it would in time curtail our ability to
continue to print, without restraint, the world's reserve currency.
It is an unbelievable benefit to us to import valuable goods and export depreciating dollars. The exporting countries have become addicted to our purchases for their economic growth. This dependency makes them allies in continuing the fraud, and their participation keeps the dollar's value artificially high. If this system were workable long term, American citizens would never have to work again. We too could enjoy "bread and
circuses" just as the Romans did, but their gold finally ran out and the inability of Rome to continue to plunder conquered nations brought an end to her empire.
The same thing will happen to us if we don't change our ways. Though we don't occupy foreign countries to directly plunder, we nevertheless have spread our troops across 130 nations of the world. Our intense effort to spread our power in the oil-rich Middle East is not a coincidence. But
unlike the old days, we don't declare direct ownership of the natural resources-- we just insist that we can buy what we want and pay for it
with our paper money. Any country that challenges our authority does so at great risk.
Once again Congress has bought into the war propaganda against Iran, just as it did against Iraq. Arguments are now made for attacking Iran
economically, and militarily if necessary. These arguments are all based on the same false reasons given for the ill-fated and costly occupation of
Iraq.
Our whole economic system depends on continuing the current monetary arrangement, which means recycling the dollar is crucial. Currently, we
borrow over $700 billion every year from our gracious benefactors, who work hard and take our paper for their goods. Then we borrow all the money we need to secure the empire (DOD budget $450 billion) plus more. The military might we enjoy becomes the "backing" of our currency. There are no other countries that can challenge our military superiority, and therefore they have little choice but to accept the dollars we declare are today's "gold." This is why countries that challenge the system-- like Iraq, Iran and Venezuela-- become targets of our plans for regime change.
Ironically, dollar superiority depends on our strong military, and our strong military depends on the dollar. As long as foreign recipients take
our dollars for real goods and are willing to finance our extravagant consumption and militarism, the status quo will continue regardless of how huge our foreign debt and current account deficit become.
But real threats come from our political adversaries who are incapable of confronting us militarily, yet are not bashful about confronting us economically. That's why we see the new challenge from Iran being taken so seriously. The urgent arguments about Iran posing a military threat to the security of the United States are no more plausible than the false charges
levied against Iraq. Yet there is no effort to resist this march to confrontation by those who grandstand for political reasons against the
Iraq war.
It seems that the people and Congress are easily persuaded by the jingoism of the preemptive war promoters. It's only after the cost in human life
and dollars are tallied up that the people object to unwise militarism.
The strange thing is that the failure in Iraq is now apparent to a large majority of American people, yet they and Congress are acquiescing to the call for a needless and dangerous confrontation with Iran.
But then again, our failure to find Osama bin Laden and destroy his network did not dissuade us from taking on the Iraqis in a war totally
unrelated to 9/11.
Concern for pricing oil only in dollars helps explain our willingness to drop everything and teach Saddam Hussein a lesson for his defiance in
demanding Euros for oil.
And once again there's this urgent call for sanctions and threats of force against Iran at the precise time Iran is opening a new oil exchange with all transactions in Euros.
Using force to compel people to accept money without real value can only work in the short run. It ultimately leads to economic dislocation, both domestic and international, and always ends with a price to be paid.
The economic law that honest exchange demands only things of real value as currency cannot be repealed. The chaos that one day will ensue from our 35-year experiment with worldwide fiat money will require a return to money of real value. We will know that day is approaching when oil-producing countries demand gold, or its equivalent, for their oil rather than dollars or Euros. The sooner the better.

Regards,

Congressman Ron Paul
for The Daily Reckoning

Robb, what a coincidence, that came in MY mailbox too!
James, the article you linked makes some good points, but if a real plane didn't hit the towers, where'd the engine in the street come from?

United Arab Emirates Donated At Least $1M To Bush Library
POSTED: 7:37 am CST February 24, 2006

HOUSTON -- A sheik from the United Arab Emirates contributed at least $1 million to the Bush Library Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station.

The UAE owns Dubai Ports World, which is taking operations from London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which operates six U.S. ports.

A political uproar has ensued over the deal, which the White House approved without congressional oversight. Dubai Ports World offered Thursday night to delay part of the takeover to give the Bush administration more time to convince lawmakers the deal poses no security risks.

The donations were made in the early 1990s for the library, which houses the papers of former President George Bush, the current president's father.

[...]The hundreds of large donors include longtime Bush associates, including Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials as well as business titans -- such as Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay -- and big Republican donors.

Other Arab donors include the state of Kuwait, the Bandar bin Sultan family, the Sultanate of Oman, King Hassan II of Morocco and the amir of Qatar. The former Korean prime minister and China also gave tens of thousands of dollars to the library.

**********************

Would that be where they put all the papers that the Wush disallowed release of as one of his first acts upon usurping the throne?

Evangelical pro-Israel group to lobby

A new evangelical group is planning a pro-Israel lobbying bid in Washington on July 18-19.

Christians United for Israel, led by the Rev. John Hagee, was formed earlier this month. The executive committee includes prominent evangelists the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer and the Rev. George Morrison, who founded the Christian group Promise Keepers.

The group is planning to establish chapters in all 50 states. The Israeli Embassy in Washington welcomed the news.

"American Christians are key allies and important supporters of Israel based on our common values and heritage, and we welcome their efforts to strengthen ties between the United States and Israel," ambassador Daniel Ayalon said in a statement to JTA.

*****end of clip*****

Wowser! That is a list of names that strikes me as the religious PNAC. Just what DC needs - a bigger lobbying effort, more money, more spies, more corruption, more Kkkristo-fascist influence.

capt

The Arabs donate to bush and the Chinese donate to clinton. They are all bought and paid for. This is how the free market operates in bizarro world!

Then there's this:

New York Times, with same facts, changes Iraq conflict from 'civil war' to having 'endangered future'
RAW STORY
Published: February 24, 2006

The New York Times declared on its website early Friday in a headline that the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, had warned to U.S. was on the "precipice of full-scale civil war." Their headline? "U.S. Envoy in Baghdad Says Iraq Is on Brink of Civil War."

Within an hour and without explanation, the Times yanked the headline in favor of "U.S. Envoy Says Sectarian Violence Threatens Iraq's Future."

*********************************

And some still call it the "War Between the States."

From: Smirking Chimp

Mark Drolette: 'Well, I was wondering whose government it was'

Even a blind Bush produces a kernel of truth once in a while.

While trying to defend the selling off of yet another piece of what little remains of America -- the port operations deal with the United Arab Emirates -- George W. said:

"The more people learn about the transaction that has been scrutinized and approved by my government, the more they'll be comforted that our ports will be secure" (Associated Press, Ted Bridis, 02/23/06).

Didja catch the error? Of course you did, because, unlike Dubya, you know a thing or two about how our system works. You know, like checks and balances, laws, that sort of thing.

He said "my" government.

Oops -- his bad. What he really meant to say, of course, was "Dick and Daddy's government."
------------
I missed that little slip!

What do you expect from the NYT's?

Nothing from the NYT's surprises me - WaPo too.

I cannot take them seriously.

capt

But wait, there's more:

Data mining program continues after lawmakers order it closed
RAW STORY
Published: February 24, 2006

A controversial intelligence data mining program, which was closed by lawmakers over privacy concerns two years ago, has continued to receive funding and remained in operation under different code names in different agencies, according to today's National Journal.

************************

This administration has as much respect for Congress as Reagan had for the Boland Amendment.

Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

Robert, when was the last time congress deserved respect? Not in the past 5 years, that's for sure.

Arthur Jensen: The world is a business, Mr. Beale; it has been since man crawled out of the slime. Our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality - one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock - all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Howard Beale: Why me?

Arthur Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

Howard Beale: I have seen the face of God.

Arthur Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

Arthur Jensen: It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. THAT is the natural order of things today. THAT is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And YOU WILL ATONE. Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America, and democracy. There is no America; there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

Arthur Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it. Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations; there are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems; one vast, interwoven, interacting, multivaried, multinational dominion of dollars.

Congress's decision to pull TIA's funding in late 2003 "caused a significant amount of uncertainty for all of us about the future of our work," Hicks executive Brian Sharkey wrote in an e-mail to subcontractors at the time. "Fortunately," Sharkey continued, "a new sponsor has come forward that will enable us to continue much of our previous work." Sources confirm that this new sponsor was ARDA. Along with the new sponsor came a new name. "We will be describing this new effort as 'Basketball,' " Sharkey wrote, apparently giving no explanation of the name's significance. Another e-mail from a Hicks employee, Marc Swedenburg, reminded the company's staff that "TIA has been terminated and should be referenced in that fashion."

Sharkey played a key role in TIA's birth, when he and a close friend, retired Navy Vice Adm. John Poindexter, President Reagan's national security adviser, brought the idea to Defense officials shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The men had teamed earlier on intelligence-technology programs for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which agreed to host TIA and hired Poindexter to run it in 2002. In August 2003, Poindexter was forced to resign as TIA chief amid howls that his central role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s made him unfit to run a sensitive intelligence program.

It's unclear whether work on Basketball continues. Sharkey didn't respond to an interview request, and Poindexter said he had no comment about former TIA programs. But a publicly available Defense Department document, detailing various "cooperative agreements and other transactions" conducted in fiscal 2004, shows that Basketball was fully funded at least until the end of that year (September 2004). The document shows that the system was being tested at a research center jointly run by ARDA and SAIC Corp., a major defense and intelligence contractor that is the sole owner of Hicks & Associates. The document describes Basketball as a "closed-loop, end-to-end prototype system for early warning and decision-making," exactly the same language used in contract documents for the TIA prototype system when it was awarded to Hicks in 2002. An SAIC spokesman declined to comment for this story.

[...]

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and FBI Director Robert Mueller whether it was "correct that when [TIA] was closed, that several ... projects were moved to various intelligence agencies.... I and others on this panel led the effort to close [TIA]; we want to know if Mr. Poindexter's programs are going on somewhere else."

Negroponte and Mueller said they didn't know. But Negroponte's deputy, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who until recently was director of the NSA, said, "I'd like to answer in closed session." Asked for comment, Wyden's spokeswoman referred to his hearing statements.

The NSA is now at the center of a political firestorm over President Bush's program to eavesdrop on the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who the agency believes are connected to terrorists abroad. While the documents on the TIA programs don't show that their tools are used in the domestic eavesdropping, and knowledgeable sources wouldn't discuss the matter, the TIA programs were designed specifically to develop the kind of "early-warning system" that the president said the NSA is running.

[...]

ARDA now is undergoing some changes of its own. The outfit is being taken out of the NSA, placed under the control of Negroponte's office, and given a new name. It will be called the "Disruptive Technology Office," a reference to a term of art describing any new invention that suddenly, and often dramatically, replaces established procedures. Officials with the intelligence director's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

****************************

Death Squad enabler John Negroponte. Battalion 316. Deja Vu, all over again.

Network 1976

(30 years ago)

Glad he didn't say Euro's that would have been too prescient.

HA!

capt

Gather up your Gold, your Guns & Get Gas
Richard Daughty
...the angriest guy in economics

Listen up, the Mogambo rants!

on the WorldNewsTrust.org site we read "The Laboratoire europ?en d'Anticipation Politique Europe 2020 (LEAP/E2020) now estimates to over 80% the probability that the week of March 20-26, 2006 will be the beginning of the most significant political crisis the world has known since the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, together with an economic and financial crisis of a scope comparable with that of 1929." I re-read and re-read and re-read that part about it being "comparable" to 1929, which is the year that the stock market crashed and ushered in the Great Depression. But there is, so these guys say, only an 80% chance of that, which is the exact odds my wife figured of our marriage lasting less than a week. They are obviously not interested in my matrimonial problems, and blithely continue "This last week of March 2006 will be the turning-point of a number of critical developments, resulting in an acceleration of all the factors leading to a major crisis, disregarding any American or Israeli military intervention against Iran. In case such an intervention is conducted, the probability of a major crisis to start rises up to 100%."

Of course, I could not let it pass without a snide and sneering comment that the Treasury Department of the United States has now, illegally, put us $64 billion dollars farther in debt, in just a couple of weeks, than is authorized by law! As aghast as that makes me, I can only imagine with horror what foreign creditors make of this terrifying development, now that the damned Treasury Department has proved to the world that laws mean nothing to it, nor to the executive branch, nor to the legislative branch, who all sit there watching and doing nothing.

Addison Wiggin at the DailyReckoning.com site thinks about that for a minute, and innocently asks "But you have to ask yourself, how much faith would you put in an I.O.U. from a friend who has sinking job prospects, soaring credit card bills, a double mortgage, a chronic gambling problem and - it turns out - a bad habit of lying about how much money he has in the first place?" I thought he was talking about The Mogambo there for a minute, especially about that "sinking job prospects" thing.

So I asked, "What do you mean about 'sinking job prospects', Addison?" He answered, "If you use the real statistics to calculate unemployment, the way we used to calculate it back in 1980, the real unemployment rate is a much more devastating 12.5%." Yow!

The good news, they say (but they are wrong) is that consumer spending went up, even if nobody is working, by 2.3% in January. How to explain it? Well, it could be that consumers are still spending those gift cards they received for Christmas, I suppose. Or they may be out spending money because they are getting raises and bonuses I haven't heard about, and never hear about, because every time I go in and ask for a raise, they say "What? Are you still working here?" and then I scram, hoping to leave well-enough alone. And it's worked out very well all these years, except for, you know, the raise thing.

Or it could be that that consumers are spending by cutting back on other things. For instance, Tom Dyson, writing for DailyWealth.com, reports that taxi drivers, by dint of their conversing with so many passengers in their cabs, have a good idea of what is really happening. One driver told Mr. Dyson that he thinks "The economy is bad at the moment." Mr. Dyson sums up the cabby's assessment as "Business is hard. No one goes out anymore."

The driver also has friends in the restaurant business, and "They are struggling to make ends meet. It used to be easy, but nobody's spending anymore."

Then again, it may be (and I think it is) that consumer spending went up not because consumers are actually buying MORE stuff, but that the stuff they ARE buying merely costs more, which it is. Remember, the report says only that consumers spent more, not that they bought more stuff!
-----------
This is how the media lies and tricks people into believing that all is right in America.

Saladin,

In some ways, we have the Congress we deserve, as Americans allow themselves to be mislead by the nose by the McMedia, and corporate/banking interests.

In other ways, there is the Congress of individuals of varying strengths and weaknesses, some of whom have been known on occaision to take bold and courageous stands, sometimes few and far between, but still.

Then, there is the Congress of Platonic Ideal - representing the majority opinion, but limited by the protection of liberty for the minorty, and the constitutional limits on government power.

I'm sure there could be further definitions.

Hey everything is alright when:

And finally: Georgia lawmakers turn their attention to the critical issue of designating an official state dirt

You cannot make this stuff up!

capt

Robert, didn't Menchen say something along the lines of your first statement? ;-)

Looks like Bob is looking for a fight and capt isn't taking the bait.

Saving Democracy

From section 4 of Bill Moyers Speech:

I have painted a bleak picture of democracy today. I believe it is a true picture. But it is not a hopeless picture. Something can be done about it. Organized people have always had to take on organized money. If they had not, blacks would still be three-fifths of a person, women wouldn’t have the vote, workers couldn’t organize, and children would still be working in the mines. Our democracy today is more real and more inclusive than existed in the days of the Founders because time and again, the people have organized themselves to insist that America become "a more perfect union."

It is time to fight again. These people in Washington have no right to be doing what they are doing. It’s not their government, it’s your government. They work for you. They’re public employees – and if they let us down and sell us out, they should be fired. That goes for the lowliest bureaucrat in town to the senior leaders of Congress on up to the President of the United States.

They would have you believe this is just "a lobbying scandal." They would have you think that if they pass a few nominal reforms, put a little more distance between the politician and the lobbyist, you will think everything is okay and they can go back to business as usual.

*****end of clip*****

A great speech.

capt

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." ~ H. L. Mencken

(Kind of goes with)

"If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever." ~ George Orwell (1903 - 1950), 1984

From Wayne Madsen Reports:

NSA's spying on this editor must entail some surprises for the White House. Although they and their right-wing minions consider this site "fringe" and "conspiratorial," they must be surprised at the number of calls and e-mails received by this editor from such "mainstream media" outlets as the New York Times, CBS News, CNN, Boston Globe, Salon, Knight-Ridder Tribune, and yes, even Rupert Murdoch's British flagship publication, The Times of London. Why does a "fringe" web publisher deserve the high-level attention of the Bush administration and its law-violating intelligence officials? Perhaps its because the Bush administration has damaged the U.S. intelligence infrastructure to the point where this web site is now a primary steam vent for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials who've had enough of the neo-cons and their GOP enablers.

Thanks Capt, I knew I recognized that sentiment! So, what is the official Georgia state dirt?

Carol

Thanks for confirming what I posted many days ago about Bolton being nominated for Nobel Peace prize. Your Cornnut buddies went ballistic when I posted this and said I was full of crap, making this up, etc.

Thanks again for confirming that I am always right and Cornnuts are always wrong (even with all those time consuming links).

I find it rather amusing reading comments that the Nobel Peace prize is rigged, etc., but when talking about Jimmy Carters Nobel prize everyone here is singing a different tune. Just goes to show that you can't believe anything a Cornnut says.

And in 2003, Georgia prosecuted an anti-fornication case.

Or were you asking about the Red Clay story....

Captain, you said, "If you do not buy flood insurance you will not be covered in the event that you are flooded? I do not see the issue?

It is true if you live in a highrise or in a flood plain on a mountain or at the shore.

Please extrapolate?

I'm afraid you'll have to extrapolate because I don't know what you're missing.

My point is that insurance companies will start charging everyone for flood insurance just to make more money.

Well, David, Minnie McCoy knew that when the levee breaks, the flood's gonna come - waaay back in 1927. At least she was smart enough to leave Algiers for Memphis before it happened. Blame evil bushie all you want - there's hardly a thing you can do until the wind subsides and the water dries up. Not even super clinton could fight a cat four/five, clown.

Protests planned against media war coverage
RAW STORY
Published: February 24, 2006

MediaChannel.org, a New York-based media watchdog nonprofit, along with United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of U.S. peace groups, will stage nationwide protests Mar. 21 to protest what they view as "media complicity" in abetting the Bush Administration's Iraq War.

"Perhaps a chapter was lost on the way to the printer."

The dog ate it.

Sorry I couldn't resist.

I thought flood insurance was a rider on a homeowners policy.

I did not know they could make you buy a rider.

I am a renter so I was just wondering.

No biggie.

capt

And we wonder why healthcare costs soar and we get less for our dough??? The "cost/benefit" ratio mentioned at the end of this story says it ALL

US urged to return Egyptian mask

Egypt has asked an art museum in the US to return a 3,000-year-old funerary mask it claims disappeared from the capital's Egyptian Museum decades ago.

The piece, known as the mask of Ka Nefer Nefer, is said to date back to the 19th Dynasty, 1307-1196BC.

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said the mask was discovered in 1952 in the pyramid at Saqqara, near Cairo.

It is thought to have been smuggled abroad before being bought by Missouri's St Louis Art Museum in 1998.

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I might be missing something (as usual) but if it is Egyptian it should belong to Egypt.

capt

The Dirty Little Secret behind the UAE Port Security Scandal
By David Sirota
Working for Change

Politicians and the media are loudly decrying the Bush administration's proposal to turn over port security to a firm owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - a country with ties to terrorists. They are talking tough about national security - but almost no one is talking about what may have fueled the administration's decision to push forward with this deal: the desire to move forward Big Money's "free" trade agenda.

How much does "free" trade have to do with this? How about a lot. The Bush administration is in the middle of a two-year push to ink a corporate-backed "free" trade accord with the UAE. At the end of 2004, in fact, it was Bush Trade Representative Robert Zoellick who proudly boasted of his trip to the UAE to begin negotiating the trade accord. Rejecting this port security deal might have set back that trade pact. Accepting the port security deal - regardless of the security consequences - likely greases the wheels for the pact. That's probably why instead of backing off the deal, President Bush - supposedly Mr. Tough on National Secuirty - took the extraordinary step of threatening to use the first veto of his entire presidency to protect the UAE's interests. Because he knows protecting those interetsts - regardless of the security implications for America - is integral to the "free" trade agenda all of his corporate supporters are demanding.

The Inter Press Service highlights exactly what's at stake, quoting a conservative activists who admits that this is all about trade:

"The United States' trade relationship with the UAE is the third largest in the Middle East, after Israel and Saudi Arabia. The two nations are engaged in bilateral free talks that would liberalise trade between the two countries and would, in theory at least, allow companies to own and operate businesses in both nations. 'There are legitimate security questions to be asked but it would be a mistake and really an insult to one of our leading trading partners in that region to reject this commercial transaction out of hand,' said Daniel T. Griswold, who directs the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank."

Look, we've seen this before. Just last year, Congress approved a US taxpayer-funded loan by the Bush administration to a British company to help build nuclear technology in Communist China. Despite major security concerns raised - and a legislative effort to block the loan - Congress's "free traders" (many of whom talk so tough on security) made sure the loan went through so as to preserve the US-China free trade relationship that is allowing lawmakers' corporate campaign contributors export so many US jobs.

There is no better proof that our government takes its orders from corporate interests than these kinds of moves. That's what this UAE deal is all about - the mixture of the right-wing's goal of privatizing all government services (even post 9/11 port security!) with the political Establishment's desire to make sure Tom-Friedman-style "free" trade orthodoxy supersedes everything. This is where the culture of corruption meets national security policy - and, more specifically, where the unbridled corruption of on-the-take politicians are weakening America's security.

The fact that no politicians and almost no media wants to even explore this simple fact is telling. Here we have a major US security scandal with the same country we are simultaneously negotiating a free trade pact with, and no one in Washington is saying a thing. The silence tells you all you need to know about a political/media establishment that is so totally owned by Big Money interests they won't even talk about what's potentially at the heart of a burgeoning national security scandal.

*********************************

Sorry about the whole of the article, but what was there to cut?

THE PARADIGM SHIFT IS HERE, OR, EVERYBODY MUST BE STONED

If we can get through the end of next month without serious economic havoc (say, the whole planet blowing up, or a full-tilt outbreak of the bird flu pandemic in Arkansas) it might be safe to dig a few of those rat-holed Maple Leafs, Morgan dollars and Krugerrands out of that backyard coffee can and trade them out for Fednotes at your local pawnbroker or coin-dealer.

But in the middle of a paradigm shift, things move very rapidly, so don’¥ go reaching for the shovel just yet. Barely had we begun digesting this United Arab Emirates port deal and the terrible bombing of that mosque and near-certain civil war in Iraq when Capitol Hill Blue’≥ Doug Thompson yesterday unearthed a Secret Service account that Dick Cheney was drunk as a skunk when he shot his lawyer-buddy on that South Texas quail hunt weekend before last. Being liquored-up when you’≤e handling a gun is never a good idea, but when you’≤e hunting in that condition it’≥ a felony in Texas. Doug’≥ stories usually show up a week or two later in Time or Newsweek, officially vetted by the MSM. Our faithful correspondent Fred Reed grabbed a jug of cheap red wine (Padre Kino) and slunk off to a corner in Mexico to try to make some sense of it all. The wine didn’¥ help. He wonders if psilocybin might level the playing-field of White House insanity, put things in perspective.

Forget digesting or recovering from a day of cheap red; we were beginning to stagger like a first-round boxer after a right hook from Ali when word arrived from Chris Laird that the Yen-carry trade was about to unwind. Being unsophisticated silver slugs from Wallace, Idaho, we didn’¥ know there was such a thing as a Yen-carry trade, but it’≥ been working like this. The Bank of Japan has been charging zero interest on loans for the past 10 years to try to revive the economy. So guys were going to Japan, borrowing Yen for no interest, converting those Yen to dollars, and lending them to us by buying U.S. Treasury notes paying 3 percent interest, or wholesale home mortgages paying a little more. Nice mark-up, if you can get it. Except that the party is about to end, because three quarters of economic growth in Japan will cause its central bank to start raising the borrowing rate.

More HERE

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A good piece.

capt

As time goes on I become more and more suspicious of our psychos in the White House. Nothing stops a psycho except fear of the removal of the object they crave. This congress doesn't know how to say no. The psycho gets more and more greedy as the