Some links for all: Kind of casually tossed together. if you can find the thread, you get a cookie!

Spooky stuff from Michigan: Shuttered private prison could hold immigrants

Meanwhile the Ron Paul revolution continues! Minnesota Monitor:: Ron Paul confirms plan for "big rally" at RNC

In other states, Paul supporters collided with party establishments, a pattern continued here in Minnesota:

Hillary Clinton’s suicidal gamble with race poison | Andrew Sullivan. Smart stuff,

GOP State convention in Minnesota: i have to admit that i went looking around local GOP blgos on this

YouTube - Michael Brodkorb embraces fascism at GOP Convention

Republican view! MN GOP State Convention Wrap-Up: If had to describe the entire convention in one word, it would be "clusterf**k".

Ouch. In other states, it got messy too: Maine GOP 'blackballs' Ron Paul supporters, Hawaii Reporter: Hawaii Republican Convention Was Lowest Point in Party's Recent History, Idaho Republicans In Disarray, McCain gets slate as Paul's fans fume in Georgia,

Minnesota State Convention had the best possible outcome - Ron Paul Forums

Interesting to read Joe Repya's blog The Eagle's Nest Blog about Republican Disasters - "Get Over It?" and The Minnesota GOP is Hemorrhaging and Minnesota GOP - Delusional in Rochester?

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Meanwhile, elsewhere....

Good to the last drip: Minneapolis to spend $180,000 to market its (wait for this) tap water | Twin Cities Daily Planet

Speculating in the oil market inflates prices! Oil price profiteering to be curbed at ICE Futures Europe and Nymex - Telegraph:

Two of the world’s largest energy exchanges have forced traders to deposit significantly more money when investing to curb volatility in energy markets and drive out speculators.

The exchanges and related clearing houses have found themselves at the centre of the growing storm over claims that speculators have been behind the recent rise in oil prices to record levels.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and ICE Futures Europe in London, the former International Petroleum Exchange, have now tripled “margin calls” for some contracts.

They hope the increased margin calls will reduce volatility and force out some of the more speculative players.

witnesstoacrime.com: vote fraud in Ohio 2004 elections explained! With a lot of sample chapters: witnesstoacrime.com. Time for some webpage title attributes tho...

Meanwhile in Miami the Game continues! Miami News, 7 Fox Miami - 2 Miami officers charged in FBI corruption probe

The August Review - The Global Elite: Who are they? from an institute that studies... the global elite! Did they know that the Bilderberg Group is meeting about now??

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Some more of that fun NAFTA superhighway stuff! Those bad kids on the Internet disagree with the good kids: Libs in Denial: NAU, NAFTA Superhighway, and the Coming Feudalism. Not saying that I buy what they're selling, exactly. But you gotta keep it all in consideration...

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Raft of campaign bits: CNN- Jimmy Carter says unity ticket would be ‘worst mistake'

Will Obama Stand Up to the War Party?- by Justin Raimondo

Many Blacks Find Hope and Joy in an Unexpected Breakthrough - NYT

Tech/energy stuff: From One Rat to Another / How one man went from living the urban rat race to living like a desert rat

Slashdot: McAfee Picks the Most Dangerous TLDs and McCain Supports Warrantless Domestic Surveillance

teh lolz: The Knight Shift: WARGAMES and the Great Hacking Scare of 1983

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Some stuff from huffpost: Soldiers Discuss Using "Drop Weapons" To Cover Up Killing Innocent Iraqi Civilians, King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein: The Future of the Middle East, James Zogby: Obama at AIPAC: Some Doubts Eased, Others Created, Jane Hamsher: Clinton To Obama: If You Don't Want Me, You're Gonna Have To Tell Me, Hilary Rosen: I Am Not a Bargaining Chip, I Am a Dem. Chez Pazienza: Hack Journalism.

Jerry and Joe Long: Clintons To Form Third Party - (satire)

Learn-more-about-Jack-Shepard! THe only fugitive in Italy trying to beat Norm Coleman!

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Jesse Ventura tries his hand to offer False flag terrorism warning updates: TwinCities IMC: Ventura and Fetzer 9/11 Interview-- Special Bulletin , and earlier: LoneStarIcon.com: MAYDAY ALERT! — Terror Drills Could Go Live! and earlier: US/BP Terror Drills -- Ron Paul's Texas City

The New Order: When reading is a crime | The Register. Oh dear.... don't go to cryptome.org... Download A Book Get Arrested, Call For Terror Attacks - No Problem! and also Gingrich quips Bush should have allowed some 'reminder' attacks

Prisonplanet: Memo To Corporate Media: Anyone Can Dress Up As An Arab Terrorist & Fake An Al-Qaeda Tape: includes stuff about the dubious IntelCenter, which somehow is the only place that modern infowar terrorists send their videos anymore. (And for some reason, the official watermark stamps of IntelCenter and Al-qaeda's media "brand" appear to have the same video compression settings, which suggests that they were stamped on together... I think that "Adam Gadahn" is probably fake, and a lazy one at that.

As we have exhaustively documented, Intelcenter is an offshoot of IDEFENSE, which was staffed by a senior military psy-op intelligence officer Jim Melnick, who has worked directly for Donald Rumsfeld. The organization released the "laughing hijackers" tape and claimed it was an Al-Qaeda video, despite the fact that the footage was obtained by a "security agency" at a 2000 Bin Laden speech.

More: IntelCenter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and also Researcher's Analysis of al Qaeda Images Reveals Surprises -- UPDATED | Threat Level from Wired.com. Strongly recommended.

Nice. Any why not: Suppressed Oliver North Confrontation Video Footage Released

George Soros: Balkans cocaine trafficking sponsored by OSI-promoted local Albanian warlord types? Sure, who cares... WayneMadsenReport.com:

June 3, 2008 -- Soros' destabilization of the Balkans: Creating a haven for drug trafficking

George Soros, the multi-billionaire funder of progressive causes, has made no secret of his desire for drug legalization. The wish has made Soros a darling for not only progressives but libertarians as well. However, according to FBI sources, Soros' support for the destabilization of the Balkans, particularly the cause of Kosovo's independence, has enabled drug trafficking in the region to increase exponentially. FBI intercepts of Turkish and Albanian intercepts have shown collusion between certain Western "pro-democracy" non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Kosovo drug trade.

Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI) and his stewardship of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty helped elevate, with the help of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader Hashim Thaci from terrorist thug and drug and arms smuggler to Prime Minister of an independent Kosovo. Kosovo, along with Israel and Greek Cyprus, now plays host to organized criminal syndicates from around the world, particularly elements of the Russian-Israeli mafia and its affiliates.

Independent Kosovo now serves as an important hub for the distribution of heroin from Afghanistan and cocaine from Colombia (mostly via Guinea-Bissau in West Africa). Afghanistan and Colombia are both surrogates of the United States and examples of the marquis "democratization" pushed by OSI and Freedom House and the International Crisis Group, other contrivances funded by Soros. The Albanian government, also enmeshed in drug smuggling, provides important diplomatic and political cover for the Kosovo criminal syndicates.

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John Zogby: The End of Boomerism as We Know It. Not a moment too soon.

Not recommended reading, except for people that want to get in trouble! Solving 9-11: THE FLORIDA CONNECTION Part 2: Olmert's Secret Visit and Israeli False Flag Operations in Florida By Christopher Bollyn . I definitely disagree with a lot of this guy's claims, however the "Israeli art student" 9/11 thing is definitely not fully explained. Much more carefully done research last year from a different Chris: Christopher Ketcham: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?

Neocon shell front shut down, still collecting big cash from government: Policy Forum Dead, Too?

Gen. William Odom, who gained notice by turning against the war in Iraq, expired at age 75. Sorry to hear: William Odom, RIP.

That's all for now - have a good one!

For some reason, it feels important to me to make sure this is on the site. It is also kind of a gratuitously large list anyway. But it's a lot of people. A good networking opportunity. etc.

Webmaster techie note: Actually, since this item is all one big name drop, it will get a ton of hits from Google, I'd wager. A good example of a 'long tail' post, in SEO-speak.

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Clinton Campaign Announces Minnesota Steering Committee

Clinton Campaign Announces Minnesota Steering Committee

The Clinton campaign today announced its Minnesota Steering Committee, made up of community leaders from across the state who will mobilize grassroots support for Hillary leading up to Minnesota’s February 5th primary.

"Hillary Clinton has the ability to deliver the change America needs, from providing universal health care to ending the war in Iraq to moving us toward energy independence," said former Vice President Walter Mondale.

"Minnesotans know Hillary Clinton has the strength and experience to lead this nation from her first day in the White House," said Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.

"For 35 years Hillary’s been fighting for children and families and working to expand opportunity for all Americans," said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher. "She is uniquely qualified to be President in these challenging times."

"I have seen Hillary's ability and intellect up close, and she is the best prepared to be President," said former Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton.

HILLARY’S MINNESOTA STEERING COMMITTEE:

Melanie Benjamin, Chief Executive, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
Brian Bergson, Veteran; Saint Paul
State Rep. Karla Bigham, Cottage Grove
Jay Benanov, St. Paul City Councilman
Donald Bungum, Veteran; Lindstrom
Susan Burns, Attorney; St. Paul
Margie Cady, Veteran; Winona
Paul Cassidy, Director of Government Relations, Leonard, Street and Deinard
Tarryl Clark, Assistant Senate Majority Leader; St. Cloud
Claudia Cody, Latino Community Activist; Becker
Chris Coleman, Mayor; St. Paul
Mark Dayton, Former U.S. Senator; Minneapolis
Tom Dooher, President; Education Minnesota
Captain Lou Ellingson; Veteran; Eden Prairie
Matt Entenza, Former House Minority Leader; St. Paul
Tom Foley, Former St. Paul County Attorney
Betty Folliard, Former State Representative, Golden Valley
Susan Gaertner, Ramsey County Attorney
Keesha Gaskins, Executive Director, Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus, Minneapolis
Alan Weinblatt, Weinblatt & Gaylord; St. Paul
Curtis Ghylin, Veteran; Sauk Rapids
Chris Gillette, Military Retiree, U.S. Army Chemical Corps; Roseville
Lisa Goodman, Minneapolis City Council Member; Minneapolis
Joan Anderson Growe, Former Minnesota Secretary of State; National Vice President, Strategic Business, Minneapolis
State Sen. Linda Higgins, Minneapolis
Richard Hoium, Veteran; Minneapolis
Jaimie Holmes, Veteran; Inver Grove Heights
Alan Hooker, Minneapolis Public Library Board Trustee; DFL Stonewall Dems, Minneapolis
Koryne Horbal, Former United Nations Ambassador, Columbia Heights
Hubert "Buck" Humphrey, IV, DNC Member, Plymouth
Mohamed Jibrell, Somali Community Leader, St. Paul
Larry Johnson, Veteran; Golden Valley
Ember Reichgott Junge, Former State Senate Assistant Majority Leader; Minneapolis
Margaret Anderson Kelliher, House Speaker; Minneapolis
Colleen Landkamer, President of NACo, Blue Earth County Commissioner, Mankato
Elsa Leven, Community Activist, Saint Paul
Mark F. Lindsay, Executive, UnitedHealth Group; Wayzata
Andrew Luger, Attorney, and Ellen Goldberg Luger, Edina
Paul Maccabee, President, The Maccabee Group, St. Paul
Paula Maccabee, Attorney, Former St. Paul City Council Member
Mary Jo McGuire, Former State Representative; Falcon Heights
Peter McLaughlin, Hennepin County Commissioner
Richard McNary, Veteran; Eagan
Walter Mondale, Former Vice President, Minneapolis
Tom Mullon, Veterans; Saint Paul
Kathleen Murphy, Women's Rights Activist, St. Paul
John C. Neese, Veteran; Fergus Falls
Vance Opperman, Business Leader; Minneapolis
State Senator Sandy Pappas, St. Paul
State Rep. Sandra Peterson, New Hope
Mari Pokornowski, Co-Chair DFL Platform Committee, Cokato
Cheryl Poling, Democratic Activist, Eden Prairie
Phillip Qualy, Legislative Director, United Transportation Union
Lois Quam, Business Leader; St. Paul
Amy K. Rotenberg, Communications Consultant; Minneapolis
Mark Rotenberg, University of Minnesota General Counsel; Minneapolis
Gary Schiff, Minneapolis City Council Member; Minneapolis
Elliot Seide, Executive Director, AFSCME Council 5
State Rep. Nora Slawik, Maplewood
Jill Sletten, Democratic Activist; St. Paul
Michelle Sommers, Political Director, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005
Rick Stafford, DNC Member, Chair of the DNC's LGBT Caucus, Minneapolis
Lisa Stager, Minnesota IAMAW; Minneapolis
David Stanton, Veteran; New Brighton
Jackie Stevenson, DNC Member; Minnetonka
Tammy Tesky, Community Activist; St. Paul
State Rep. Paul Thissen, Minneapolis
Megan Thomas, former Stonewall DFL, St. Paul
Dave Thune, St. Paul City Council Member; St. Paul
Susan Thune, Registered Nurse; St. Paul
Ruth Usem, Community Activist, Minneapolis
Russell Warren, Veteran; Mounds View
Lynn Wilson, Party Activist; Nurse; Rochester
Colonel Nat Wisser, Military Retiree; Saint Paul
John Wodele, MN Campaign Director for the 1992 Clinton Campaign; Vadnais Heights

Coming Soon: CaucusTime: DEEZ MOINEZ! The Video spectacular!

First we will release a teaser, then several fuller videos. Including The General Narrative, a Ron Paul special, and a Hillary special. Yea!

We have just gotten back to Mpls in the wee hours. The Iowa trip was an interesting one.... the situation strange. The people, cold. The media, not coming back soon.

Massive rallies, cold scenes, media people. Pols. Really eager staffers. Security theater from Clinton's henchmen.

The plan to send out videos from the road fell apart. We got one out from the cafe, but we've had problems with the video formats and want to clean them up first.

We have seen all of the Dem candidates except Gravel and Kucinich and i think we have some level of video of each.

We used the latest in underpowered pocket video systems to record everything insane we could. This really freed up creative opportunities to place visual artifacts over everything and everyone.

After we sleep off the driving, there will be much furious video productions for the Interwebs! Our Ron Paul War on Drugs video has already passed 1200 viewers in 12 hours!!

We went demanding nothing (some of us). We achieved everything!

A kind of Zen.

A lot of stuff piled up on my computer over the last couple weeks. So here it is in a highly messy, condensed and frankly ugly fashion. Also I have to say, my Ecto is having a little trouble making clean links. This post is one of the more badly formatted ones I think I've ever made. *bow*

The war on drugs has been lost. Unless it was all fake to begin with... Hmmm: Smartest drug story of the year: Rolling Stone on the war on drugs. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine and Rolling Stone: How America Lost the War on Drugs.

On a related note: blow your mind with the rotating naked chick 3D mindfuck brain trick! The Right Brain vs Left Brain. More here.

ArmsControlWonk: Curveball! The Book!

Another great moment in Italian politics via Infowars: Ex-Italian President: Intel Agencies Know 9/11 An Inside Job, Man who set up Operation Gladio tells Italy's largest newspaper attacks were run by CIA, Mossad. On the other hand, these are machiavellians: tell the people what they want to hear?

"[Bin Laden supposedly confessed] to the Qaeda September [attack] to the two towers in New York [claiming to be] the author of the attack of the 11, while all the [intelligence services] of America and Europe ... now know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the CIA American and the Mossad with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part ... in Iraq [and] Afghanistan."

Ah well. Also on Infowars: Yeah the North American Union exists. A classic: Texas To Track Emergency Evacuees Using RFID. w0w.

Wars to Watch Out For- by Justin Raimondo: 2008 will bring us an abundant crop of overseas crises. and What Antiwar Activists Have to Be Thankful For- by Justin Raimondo.

Mark Baard's Parallel Normal is a new one: World food supply will be rooted in India’s troubled soil. Apparently: "Watching those who watch the watchers: I am a technology reporter tracking the work of conspiracy and esoteric researchers, with an emphasis on brain-chipping, psyops, alternate realities and the apparatus of globalism." Sounds like a good idea there. Nifty site really.

Liberty Dollars wiped out. Take that, alternate currency! Federal Reserve again rules supreme in money printing department!!!1!

BBC: Lifespan link to depression drug.

Shit! Virtual furniture theft leads to real bust.

Why not? knowledgedrivenrevolution.com. Has the latest stuff on Information Warfare without Limits (PSYOPS for the American Consumer Brain). And Information Warfare Using Aggressive Psychological Operations .

More about the surfer dude with the new theory of reality: Penniless Surfer Devises Intriguing Cosmological Theory of Everything. BBC: 248-dimension maths puzzle solved, Upon further review, surfer's new Theory of Everything may be deficient.

The latest from the metal masters: Puscifer by Tool's Maynard James Keenan.

Packet Forgery By ISPs: A Report on the Comcast Affair | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Net neutrality to get new life in Congress | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

EFF study confirms Comcast's BitTorrent interference. Comcast Sued for Blocking P2P Sites - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Comcast Using Malicious Hacker Technique Against Own Customers, New Report Says | Threat Level from Wired.com

Pakistan! NPQ: ANTI-AMERICAN ISLAMIC NATIONALISM IS BEHIND PAKISTAN CRISIS. A SMART REVIEW! Sic Semper Tyrannis 2007: Pakistan Was a Bad Idea. The Pakistani Democracy Chimera : NO QUARTER.

The Drone and the Falafel Watchlist : NO QUARTER

Amazon.com: What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics: Books: Andras Szanto,Orville Schell

FCC: The Winds Blow and Blow and Blow … : NO QUARTER.

Another Meaningless Taser Death: Police Use Of Stun Guns Out Of Control at Infowars.

SPECIAL REPORT: Turning The Police State Apparatus Against Dissenters At infowars.

These Days, Everyone Dares Call Everything Treason. More about the "Internet Radicalization" Crush the Meddling Kids Act.

Today's economic crisis: More than "Sheets" Hitting the Fan. Yep. Taki's Top Drawer: Was it oil all along?

Economic Expert Says Global Crash Imminent via Infowars. Internet under attack.

Always good to look at Cryptogon: Subprime Mortgage Crisis: U.S. Takes Page from Banana Republic Playbook :

We should know better by now. We should know that They’re just not going to let the thing go off the rails and crash in a single, violent event. The purpose of the American Corporate State is to externalize the costs of unthinkable plunder onto the backs of people who are mostly too tired, dumb and angry to understand anything that’s happening to them. Americans, in general, are content to flush more of their children’s futures down the gurgler and thank Christ for their big screen TVs. Anyone who’s not behind the plan to save the criminal gangs on Wall Street must be with Bin Laden.

Al Martin Raw: Iran contra conspirator who keeps it real, with totally incomprehensible options trading. Amazing conspiracy book too: "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider." See also: Recession – Inflation – Deflation – Depression – Stagflation - Global Collapse…?

The Bernanke Fed: Following the ‘Economic Collapse’ Script

(9-24-07) This is the long and broad view of what Bernanke is doing with the Fed. He is simply inheriting and following the script, as it were, from the Greenspan Fed. The Greenspan Fed has been roundly criticized for reducing interest rates, thus creating a lot of cheap money, which has fueled speculative bubbles worldwide. Then there are the reasons why nobody applauds him because it’s an area that no one dares talk about…

To defend himself, Greenspan says that he was simply lowering rates to prevent the onset of a recession in 2001 and 2002. On the surface, it makes sense to say that, because clearly the economy was headed to recession by the end of 2001.

The recession was being driven by two factors. One of those factors gets overlooked because it’s not politically convenient – the collapse in the speculative bubble in equities beginning in March of 2000, which was a long unwinding process into the autumn of 2002, wherein equity prices fell consistently, combined with the installation of a fiscally reckless regime – i.e., a Bush Cheney Regime – and the reinstitution of Bushonomics, which we refer to as Bushonomics II, which had the effect of depleting all of the $158-billion fiscal surplus that the Bush Cheney Regime inherited from its fiscally prudent predecessor.

On the day the Bush Cheney Regime came to power (January 20, 2001), it inherited from its successor a $158-billion federal surplus. It had all of that surplus diminished, and indeed generated a deficit, by the end of its first year in power, which is part and parcel, as we’ve pointed out before, of Bushonomics.

So what are the differences between the terms referred to as recession and inflation? Inflation and inflationary periods invariably precede recessions.

The economic boom/bust cycle – that the United States has always had and will always have as long as it follows Smithsonian capitalism – has effectively been turned on its ear by the Bush Cheney Regime. How? Through cheap money and easy liquidity -- by creating a series of speculative bubbles in asset prices whose intent is more political than economic, from the regime’s point of view.......

America's Back Is About To Break | The Agonist

A Conservative View of Iran - by Philip Giraldi. This is pre-NIE news.

Giuliani's Culture of Corruption- by Justin Raimondo. Hooey-liani’s Best Bud Needs Our Help ($$$) : NO QUARTER.

Peter Hitchens definitely wrote a good one about North Korea: Prisoners in Camp Kim. WOW.

Philip Giraldi: The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act - Politics on The Huffington Post

Group claiming 2004 Ohio election fraud asks Dann to investigate

A little time with BradBlog, a good spot for voter suppression and miscellaneous whistleblower scandals: The BRAD BLOG : Chairman Waxman Asks Attorney General to Intercede in White House Obstruction in CIA Leak Case. The BRAD BLOG : 'Daily Voting News' For November 25 and 26, 2007

More about BradBlog and Sibel Edmonds below.

Think Progress » Bob Woodward Still Has Never Heard Of The Voter Suppression Tactic ‘Caging’

Old news: the GOP and Nazi affairs, operation paperclip and so forth. The Bush family and its work via Harriman Brothers to monetize the cash end of the economic alignments known as "the merger of state and corporate power." Siege Heil: The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus and the Destabilization of California.

Snotr : The ultimate place for great videos!

Old news from 2005: Why AIPAC Indictment Is Bad News for Rove. And also the stuff about Strategic Communication, per today's earlier post about the Orwellian Centers of Excellence: Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream. - By Sharon Weinberger - Slate Magazine.

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak is the HQ for this stuff.

We are going to list a few nice links for the case: Sibel Edmonds in Let Sibel Edmonds Speak: What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care?

"Essentially, there is only one investigation – a very big one, an all-inclusive one... But I can tell you there are a lot of people involved, a lot of ranking officials, and a lot of illegal activities that include multi-billion-dollar drug-smuggling operations, black-market nuclear sales to terrorists and unsavory regimes, you name it... You can start from the AIPAC angle. You can start from the Plame case. You can start from my case. They all end up going to the same place, and they revolve around the same nucleus of people."

That is the good stuff, folks. Here we go:

Wot Is It Good 4: Sibel Edmonds: America's Watergate

Wot Is It Good 4: Sibel, Giraldi, American Conservative Mag

The BRAD BLOG : EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Ellsberg Says Sibel Edmonds Case 'Far More Explosive Than Pentagon Papers'

The BRAD BLOG : What The Heck is the Sibel Edmonds Case Anyway? And Why Should You Care About It?

Daily Kos: State of the Nation on Sibel Edmonds Case: the untellable story of AIPAC which I posted here earlier, but this has a hearty 300+ comments of buzz too.

Wot Is It Good 4: David Swanson and Sibel

Stress » An Open Letter to Chris Matthews

Liberty Coalition & National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

Revaluing the Dollar | The Agonist

Ritalin proven defective: Drug Pushers Don't Care If Their Drugs Are Good For You Either | The Agonist

Related: The Immorality of Moral People | The Agonist.

Doing internet media? Lessons from Steve Outing's Enthusiast Group. and Specialized journalism, a partisan press, online journalism students and cheap laptops: More stuff to argue about.

Joe Klein is one of those lame mainstream media pundits. He told everyone that the new FISA bill would stop the mean ol' wiretapping. But he lied and won't correct himself. TIME is sticking with their man, and it's another fabulous lesson in shitty mainstream media affairs for Blog World. Glenn Greenwald on Salon. Center for Citizen Media: On Klein’s Errors, Time’s Semi-Stonewall and the Net’s Power. Everything that is rancid and corrupt with modern journalism: The Nutshell. Nicely done Mr. Greenwald.

Tom Toles cartoon on Obama smears. Jon Swift: Journalism 101.

The latest Bin Laden tape (if real) dissected by Michael Scheuer: Asia Times Online: Bin Laden talks of victory, not defeat

What Do Conservatives Spend Their Time Thinking About? | The Agonist. Answer: gay stuff. exclusively.

Well kids that was about 2 or 3 weeks worth of nifty links. I'm not too happy it's such an ugly post, but mainly I just wanted to float all those weird fragments of Un Reality to spice your day.

Coming soon: a truly crazy little project. :-)

There is no doubt that this is somehow related to an unprecedented number of categories!! Haha!

No doubt about that! You can purchase a linked slice of one freakin awesome image map. Most assuredly, if you follow all the links on this page, you will surely find the Ultimate Truth until the Black Helicopters come and take you away!!

Visit conpix.thegatekeepers.biz today, and find out the secrets which only the awesome wall of links may tell you!! They gots a blog too!

The thrown election in Florida: the official Greg Palast report from British television: This got suppressed.

Ollie North and FEMA: Pretty short. A nice secret session in the Senate when they start grilling Ollie on the big takeover scheme, part of it dubbed "Sledgehammer", involving suspending the Constitution. Bonus: listen for the "Miami newspapers" and guys in big sunglasses telling everyone to skip the subject.

Hey all right: Conspiracy of Silence, a fuzzy yet impressively deep old conspiracy video, going into that GOP pedophile backstory known as the Franklin scandal. This GOP kingpin out in Middle America ran some kind of child-abusing ring out of his Savings & Loan. The connections run right to the top. This, obviously, never made it onto American TV. Surely, nothing related to the Mark Foley scandal and everything else here.....

Now the latest: Ron Paul letting those shady cats at the Federal Reserve know what the hell is going on: they are printing tons of money, and the cost of living is out of hand. Our money is worth less than freaggin' Loonies.

These Canadians are getting out of hand. I wonder if it's all the BC buds? Jesus Julian!!

Oh what the hell, here's the whole Trailer Park Boys movie:

Dentist who met 9/11 Hijackers in Shreveport poisoned: Shreveport, yes it's all coming together now.

Here's a video from a new site, LiveLeak.com. Looks good! War with Iran already started! Sam Gardiner's a pretty interesting observer of military affairs: a while ago he documented dozens of cases of military propaganda in the media.

That's all for now!

I put the computer to sleep after I got back late last night, and then it suddenly spun the fans up to maximum and totally locked out. I had way too much shit running, as usual, but I am not impressed with the recent deterioration in the G5's stability. I know there are anomalies in the directory structure on my main HD and I ought to just wipe it and install OS X fresh again, but obviously that's a big hassle.

Anyway I got a mountain of links still sitting around, so let's get into them quickly.

Senator Feingold wants Habeas Corpus hearings. The crappy moral relativism of the Beltway dwellers can't handle Feingold: all principles are just "playing politics." This piece illustrates all kinds of things about how the media makes real issues into cardboard cutouts, using the Feingold Censure situation as an example. ABC's Halperin has the exact same problem.

Fair enough: the Newt World Order: Chunky fascism for mediocre wonks.

Some bizarre entity called Vigil consisting of retired spies and other such cats are roaming about the internet trying to entrap terror cells. PrisonPlanet thinks it's sketchy.

KGB Spy blah blah: No shortage of speculations on this one, from Prisonplanet to others. Just use your google and basically don't believe anything because everything about this reeks of information warfare. MOSNews says he blamed the Kremlin. OK.

Florida 13th district sketchballs: In Katherine "Novak" Harris' old district in the Sarasota area, the Democrat running for Congress narrowly lost, but an improbably high number of people in Sarasota County did not record votes in that race, and hundreds of voters complained that the touchscreen machines were bad. A major investigation of the machines, conducted by the County government under scrutiny, has already shown that they are extremely unreliable and undervoted a lot. This is a huge opportunity to expose these shady machines.

Haaretz finds Syria an improbable assassin of Pierre Gemayel:

The accusation leveled at the Syrians by Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, the hints by Prime Minister Fuad Siniora urging the establishment of an international tribunal to try Hariri's killers, and statements by anti-Syrian elements in Lebanon, put Syria at the top of the list of suspects in Tuesday's assassination of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

However pure political and diplomatic logic makes it difficult to see Damascus behind the assassination. The day Gemayel was killed, Syria chalked up one of its most significant diplomatic achievements since its defeat in Lebanon in April 2005: the renewal of full diplomatic relations with Iraq.

Syria is also on the way to achieving a semi-official stamp of approval from Washington as able to calm things down in Iraq. Syria could have been on the verge of an important political success in Lebanon - the possible fall of Fuad Siniora's government, which would mean Syria could increase the power of its supporters in the government by means of the Hezbollah ultimatum. If that came about, the international tribunal on the murder of Rafik Hariri would be delayed, or at least be of a sort convenient for the Syrians.

Check out the Israeli Peace Now and their West Bank settlement and outpost reports. For example Hill 777. See also a speech at the Rabin memorial this year. More on Peace Now's work exposing the theft of Palestinian privately owned land for West Bank settlements.

FoxNews Financial Guy: We End the War "By Bombing Tehran, Not by Getting it so Some Iraqi Woman Doesn't Have to Wear a Burqa Anymore":

You could send in 100,000 troops as long as we're treating them like sacrificial lambs, Neil. And we've asked these troops to win a war without bombing a [inaudible], you know, without hitting a mosque. Everything we've done has been to, you know, boost our image on the, you know, Muslim street. That's not why we went to war in the first place.

The market wants us to end the insurgency and the war. You do that by bombing Tehran, not by getting it so some Iraqi woman doesn't have to wear a burqa anymore.

We haven't put fear in the hearts of militant Islam. That's why we went to war. To win the war against militant Islam.

Murderous psychos. Anyway. Also before the war started they didn't have to wear burqas. Hm.

When will Israel attack Iran??! Israeli PM Olmert is in a pretty confusing spot right now, making both dove and hawk noises: Iraq war was good for Israel: Olmert. The ironically named 'Rootless Cosmopolitan' Tony Karon looks critically and realistically at how Israeli domestic politics could force a war between the U.S. and Iran soon. This article is yet another example of how Jewish folks have plenty of articulate criticisms of the Israeli establishment that are never voiced on American cable TV:

But the most dangerous element of the equation, I believe, is the hysteria being cultivated by the Israelis. Hersh mentions that Israel is telling the U.S. they have human intelligence on Iran developing trigger devices for a nuclear bomb, but U.S. intelligence is unable to verify these claims. More worrying, however, is the public campaign being waged by Israeli leaders. Olmert warns American Jewish leader that Israel has come to a “pivotal moment” at which its survival depends on confronting Iran. Bibi Netanyahu (the Newt Gingrich of Israeli politics; a discredited crank who manages to grab headlines only by uttering alarmist rubbish) warns darkly that its 1938 all over again. (Memo to Mark Foley: You ought to try this, it could be a surefire route to political rehabilitation…)

This fevered scaremongering is all about Israeli domestic politics, as Aluf Benn explains.

Karon had a good article in TIME about how Iraq's Violence Spins Beyond Anyone's Control. This also connects to the wise words from one Dr. Leon Hadar of CATO: When will Israel attack Iran?

And... finally. According to most press reports, the Baker-Hamilton Commission is going to issue a report before the end of the year which will recommend U.S. engagement with Iran and perhaps the re-start of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (meaning more U.S. pressure on Israel).

So... when you take all the above items into consideration I would say that Israel has a "window of opprtunity" of about two months to attack Iran's nuclear sites. Such an attack will certainly be good news for the neocons and their allies, since it would sabotage any possible U.S. efforts to engage Iran and to end the Iraq mess. An Israeli attack will also probably ignite a U.S. confrontation with Iran.

Baker vs. Olmert = AIPAC vs. realists? Yeah things are complicated in the mideast, and we may have a situation where Israel's leadership are at loggerheads with James Baker, simply because detente between Syria, Iran and the U.S. over Iraq will result in more political pressure on Israel. Kurt Nimmo on this situation. AIPAC-style establishment rightwingers have disliked Baker since he has been very anti-West Bank settlement especially during the first Bush Administration. Nimmo:

On the subject of Greater Israel, a topic near and dear to the Israeli government and their neocon helpers, Baker induces dread. As the Jerusalem Post notes, back in 1989, Baker told AIPAC that “now is the time to lay aside once and for all the unrealistic vision of a Greater Israel. Israeli interests in the West Bank and Gaza, security and otherwise, can be accommodated in a settlement based on [UN Security Council] Resolution 242. Forswear annexation; stop settlement activity; allow schools to reopen; reach out to the Palestinian as neighbors who deserve political rights.”

No doubt AIPAC members were sent reeling.

....It should be obvious Israel’s Mossad engineered the assassination of Pierre Gemayel in Lebanon as a response to the Baker Boys and the emerging recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. It was, in effect, a stone thrown to kill two birds—one, to sully Syria and thus make any accommodation proposed by Baker and Hamilton untenable and second to ratchet up ethnic and religious animosity in Lebanon, a process well underway in the wake of Pierre Gemayel’s timely murder.

Nimmo also observes another neocon, the ex-Larouchite Joshua Muravchik demanding Iran's decimation. Also he notes Michael Ledeen says everyone against the neo-cons is an antisemite.

However, for Ledeen, the problem is “our leaders may be so demoralized that we could just surrender in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the realists and the antisemites desire. But that would only delay the reckoning, and ensure that the war will be far bloodier.”

Too bad so many Jews think neocons are idiots.

Random: I looked a bit at "Zionism in the Age of the Dictators," a 1983 book reviewing connections between dictatorships and Zionist political movements, including the hardline Stern Gang. One of those awkward things. Also looking back at the Lebanon war, it's worth looking at How Washington Goaded Israel into War. This was from back in August, but relevant still as dumb hawks keep circling.

Speaking of mean, dumb hawks, Daniel Pipes says:

Iraq's plight is neither a coalition responsibility nor a particular danger to the West.... Civil war in Iraq, in short, would be a humanitarian tragedy but not a strategic one.

What a racist - including an ugly cartoon. Anyway.

Bizarre comparison of Vietnam == Iraq - forgetting the whole implanted French Catholic thing, from a Marine Corps University prof. Did the US foment more sectarian violence in Iraq intentionally? Conspiratorials think that sectarian violence was the goal. US fights Sadr: where does that fit into this?

Syria is wild card in dueling meetings on Iraq. Al Jazeera English gets a positive review on Antiwar.com but American cable providers decline to hook up audiences.

WaPo: Civil war could ripple outward: NEARBY NATIONS DREADING IRAQ'S DISINTEGRATION.

Random Russian 9/11 conspiracy: one of those conspiracy theories about 9/11 is that Uday Hussein and Vladimir Putin had 9/11 foreknowledge, and there were reports in late summer 2001 in the Russian establishment paper Pravda that an economic attack in the U.S. was expected to be staged by some mysterious international group with "trillions" in assets. Ok whatever. Stuff on that here and here. Also New World Order Blah Blah Blah.

Infowars: "As Long As You're Not Doing Anything Wrong, You Have Nothing To Worry About".

Antiwar people such as Antiwar.com have a healthy skepticism of the Democratic agenda. See their blog for latest and throw em a few bucks to keep the agenda going. In their view, there is still an interventionist core in the Democratic Party that still wants to run amok over Iran and everything else, and the neo-cons are quietly changing their colors to get into the Democratic influence game. People like Antiwar.com's leading lights try to be nonpartisan and strictly anti-interventionist. But they see Democratic Leadership Council corporatist "centrists" as always trying to flank the Republicans with ignorant-hawk buzzword politics on the Right.

With blatherings from Will Marshall and his ilk to consider, they have a damn good point:

(1) Make it clear it repudiates the rejectionist claim that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish State and condemns terrorism against Israel just as it does terrorism against any other state. Europeans in particular have long advanced an implicit and unique exception for anti-Israeli terrorists on grounds that they have a "right to resistance" against Israeli occupation of territories obtained since 1967. But both Hamas and Hezbollah are operating from territories Israeli has unilaterally abandoned; and both explicitly reject Israel's existence within boundaries established in the Israeli War of Independence in 1948. This is about Israeli sovereignty, not Israeli occupations, and terrorist acts against Israel should be opposed just as strongly as terrorist acts against, say, France.

[Yes of course Israel 'abandoned' the West Bank. Durr...]

Basically the DLC types have been trying for years to match think-tank Hawk buzzwords ("clear hold build," "drain swamps", "defeat jihadism" etc) because they think that any alternative beyond the loose parameters of the neocon Project for a New American Century cannot possibly win elections. Which looked electorally true until this year, in part because they never even tried anything new after September 11. And you will never ever hear the DLC suggest that West Bank settlements are bad for America. Ah, delicious moral clarity.

Still, I think Antiwar folks give the Dems too little credit right now. All the newly elected members of Congress are perfectly aware how horribly this war has gone, and that will color their perspective on interventions permanently, regardless of hawkish posturing on the parts of Pelosi, Rep. Jane Harmon and others.

The true antiwar folks, who are not just "leftists", (that is naive pigeonholing), well, they are not going to put up with a bunch more BS and fake-intelligence fueled wars for empire, no matter which party is involved. "National Security" has been a good frame for Republicans until now, but with this election it's totally feasible for a new alternative National Security frame to get put together. Basically we need a real progressive yet hands-off foreign policy that stabilizes the world, not radicalizes it.

The Antiwar people need to get real with a platform that delivers the goods. Then they need to get the core of the Democratic Party to get on board with a platform that delivers prosperity, hard power and soft power to the American people in one sweet package. In time for 2008.

This WaPo guy named Mallaby thinks Dems should act like Republicans. Clever.

With Gates coming into Defense it is high time to look at Iran-Contra, Revisited.

Few bits from DailyKos: A pledge for reasonable policies from Michael Moore. A brief summary of why Iranians are pissed with the United States. Virtually no Americans know about Mossadeq, yet are still pissed about the Hostage Crisis. Everyone needs to get some history.

Centrists are willing to sell out their political parties. Or not. Do they prefer narrow legislative divisions? I don't know, I think this diary entry leaps at unjustified conclusions. I like maps.

NRCC Robo Calls swing an election with shady tactics?

Ok that's all for now... Hope there's enough material today to mull on. Thanks to all for sticking with us through a pretty spare time on the site.

First of all: Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes was the Dude, hands down. We are poorer without his clever style and incisive work. Thanks for all the stories, Ed.

Senate Democrats Decide on Party Leaders November 14, 2006, Filed at 1:21 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats picked two women for senior posts Tuesday and appointed former U.S. Capitol police chief Terrance Gainer as sergeant at arms. Their choice as majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid, said a top priority is getting a new secretary of defense confirmed.

.....The Capitol, meanwhile, buzzed with the energy of House members-to-be and senators-in-waiting attending freshman orientation.

More than 50 incoming House freshmen spent the day in meetings focused not on big legislative items or the Iraq war but rather on office logistics and ethics -- a key issue after a season of scandal that had, at least in part, led to the election of the new members.

In the Senate, a 10-person freshman class of eight Democrats, one Republican and Democratic-leaning independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont also began orientation.

Democratic Sen.-elect Jon Tester of Montana looked a little overwhelmed on his first day.

''It hasn't soaked in yet,'' he said. ''Maybe it will never soak in.''

The Capitol police weren't quite ready for Tester, a farmer with a throwback flat top haircut and fingers missing on his left hand from an old accident with a meat grinder. They asked him to empty his pockets for inspection.

''Just like at the airport, you put it all through?'' Tester asked.

The officer nodded, then recognized the newcomer and waved him through.

The Talking Head Brigades are totally convinced that a giant swath of newly elected Democrats are "social conservatives", despite the relative lack of evidence. Virginia's Senator-elect Jim Webb is the best example of someone who must be socially conservative, since he was Navy Secretary. They haven't really talked about how concerned Webb is with "economic justice," a phrase that just doesn't really appear in the DLC Centrist handbook.

More realistically, the fresh Democrats are decidedly skeptical of 'free trade' that has crushed manufacturing in places like Ohio – this was a major theme of Ohio Senator-elect Sherrod Brown's campaign platform. We are seeing plenty of evidence that the media is totally convinced this election marks some kind of concrete Centrist Block that now dominates America. Aside from Joe Lieberman's implied threat to bolt the Dems and give the Senate to Republicans, this labeling doesn't wash with the kinds of folks now going to DC.

Maybe gun control. Which was a ridiculous issue to dwell on at this late date, but now basically that's the symbolic marker signifying Senator-elect Jon Tester of Montana as a 'social conservative.' I would say it's more to do with the fact that there are about seven times as many guns as people in Montana.

(A small reflection on the history between Webb and this Gates cat coming into Defense. Will there be 'real' confirmation hearings for SecDef or just softballs?)

The perfect example of this new media narrative of 2006 == Super Centrism is the cover of TIME magazine this week, compared with the November 1994 cover when Newt Gingrich and the gang stomped in (more on the contrast). "Why the center is the new place to be" says good old weathervane Joe Klein, who never met a waffle he didn't like. Oddly, Klein did not exactly stick to this:

Yes, many of the winners tended to be moderates, but that's because this was an election, especially on the House side, waged in moderate districts. In some cases, realism meant supporting the more liberal candidate. In Ohio, Reid and Schumer made a stark decision to force the attractive if inexperienced Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett out of the race and to support Congressman Sherrod Brown, a feisty paleoliberal whose vehement protectionism matched well with Ohio's economic despearation...The common denominator wasn't liberalism or moderation but the ability to win.

OK, fair enough. Would have been nice if the magazine cover reflected that. But I lack the patience to read the whole article. Although I did shake Klein's hand in Iowa once. There was also a story about Keith Ellison in TIME, and refers to Trocadero's as "trendy." Kind of funny to hear TIME describing the Warehouse district at all, but sort of exciting.

The victory party for Minnesota's first African-American congressman, Keith Ellison, took place at a trendy nightclub in Minneapolis's downtown warehouse district. Down the block from a glitzy sex shop, Trocaderos is the kind of place where both gays and straights look to get picked up, either at the bar or on the dance floor. But on this occasion, the floor was packed with enthusiastic supporters of Ellison, who also happens to be the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress.

Not the kind of place where any self-respecting Muslim would normally be found. But on this occasion, drably dressed, bearded Muslim men rubbed shoulders with stylish women in revealing outfits, the latter drinking plenty of alcohol. Meanwhile, Muslim women wearing long, shapeless dresses and head-scarves stood around in small groups. I spoke with an elderly, bespectacled imam from Somalia who wore a large woolen shawl over his shoulders and a colorful, pointed cap, embroidered with ancient-looking but unfamiliar shapes and symbols. His limited knowledge of English did not prevent him from repeating the words "peace, peace, peace" over and over again to me.

The reason for this curious gathering is not hard to figure out. Muslim Americans in Minnesota and throughout the nation have been forging a coalition with liberals on issues like those articulated by Congressman-elect Ellison — universal health insurance, tougher environmental regulation, opposition to the Patriot Act and an immediate end to the war in Iraq.

......And now, Muslims from places like Pakistan or Egypt, who might in the past have avoided politics, see the need for allies and guides through the unfamiliar American political landscape. No wonder the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other nationally prominent blacks journeyed to Minnesota to campaign with Keith Ellison.

Still, immigrant Muslims remain devout social conservatives. And in Minneapolis in the days leading up to the celebration Tuesday night, one could hear many of them trying to reconcile their support for Ellison and other liberals on Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor ticket with their unrelenting opposition to abortion and especially homosexuality. It is clearly not easy for them to do so, but as one Muslim American leader born in Afghanistan put it, "the majority of Muslims weigh the alternatives" — and vote against President Bush and the Republicans.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether this coalition will last. But if their anger at the Bush Administration and its policies is any guide, then Muslim Americans — immigrant and African American alike — will not soon break with their new-found liberal allies. In the meantime, many non-Muslim Americans will be troubled by these developments and find in them further evidence of the widespread sentiment that Muslim Americans are not being straight with their fellow citizens, that they are hypocrites. Perhaps they are. But then non-Muslims ought to recognize that "hypocrisy" of the sort on view in Minneapolis last week is akin to the tolerance on which our pluralistic society depends. In fact, just such behavior demonstrates that Muslims are beginning to learn what we all must do to get along in America.

For that matter, we in Minnesota ought to explain to the rest of the world, especially the Middle East, that Ellison was elected from a district with the help and support of the large and established Jewish community in St. Louis Park. I suspect that Conventional Wisdom between Morocco and Qatar would be shocked to learn that those West Metro Jewish folks would select a Muslim to represent them in DC. It makes me proud to be an American.

Sibel Edmonds: Going to happen or not? I am wondering about whether such Deep Politics as the true nature of the Sibel Edmonds scandal will be exposed next year. We had almost forgotten that in October 2002, Sibel Edmonds was featured with Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes, and you can get the video clips in 4 parts: 1 2 3 4. The story mostly focuses on the incompetence of the guys in the FBI translation unit, rather than all the Turkish espionage stuff. But still interesting. Keep an eye on the Sibel Edmonds blogspot site by Lukery in case something happens. We are still going to put a special page together on the case, but not right now..... Basically I am hoping that some Congressperson with security clearance reads Sibel's secret (buried) testimony to the 9/11 Commission into the Congressional record.

Shady voting machines in Sarasota, Florida steal a Congressional race?? In the Florida congressional district formerly held by the 2000 Debacle High Witch Katherine Harris, there were serious errors with electronic voting machines. I am jacking this post from TPMmuckraker cause it's got the goods.

Update: In FL-13, Court Battle Begins As Counting Continues By Paul Kiel - November 14, 2006, 12:56 PM

Lawyers for Democratic House candidate Christine Jennings threw down the gauntlet yesterday, asking a state court to secure electronic voting machines and data used in the election.

The move would preserve the equipment in Florida's Sarasota County for scrutiny by Jennings' legal team. A hearing on the suit is scheduled for this afternoon.

It's just the first step of what is likely to be a litigious aftermath to a close and ugly election (thanks in part to the NRCC's rampant robo calling in the district). The state began a recount and audit of the election yesterday. Once the audit and second recount is completed and the results certified on November 20th, the Jennings campaign has ten days to contest the results of the election if they still show Jennings down. Before the recounting began, she was down 386 votes.

The fight will center around the district's Sarasota County, where the electronic machines did not register a vote in the Congressional race for 18,000 voters (13%) -- what's called an "undervote." That's compared to only 2.53% of voters who did not vote in the race via absentee ballots.

A study by the local paper, The Herald Tribune, found that one in three of Sarasota election officials "had general complaints from voters about having trouble getting votes to record" on the electronic machines for the Congressional race. Since 53% of voters in Sarasota County picked Jennings over the Republican Vern Buchanan, those missed votes would likely have put Jennings in front.

Kendall Coffey, a lawyer for the Jennings campaign, told me yesterday that any court challenge of the results is likely to focus on problems with the electronic machines. He said that the campaign has a wealth of "compelling testimony" from "sources that you simply can't discredit" who had trouble registering a vote for Jennings in the county. That challenge would likely come later in the month, if the recount still shows Jennings down and the state's audit does not turn up any problems. So stay tuned.

13,000 viruses on one Windows PC: A guy uncovers a giant nest of viruses. Nasty.

The Misc file: The end of education arbitrage - IE the link between property values and education funding is cracking. An ugly prospect to behold, especially from here in Minnesota where schools are not as much of a disaster as other states.

Kelley's Iran adventure: The proprietor of one of my favorite sites Agonist.org went to Iran over the election and had an interesting time. He blogged it on the San Antonio paper's site. The one about Zoroastrians was pretty cool:

Two primary impulses drove me towards Yazd. First, I wanted to see the architecture of this old Silk Road city, to walk in Marco Polo's footsteps and see what he saw. My second goal was to see, interact and talk with the last large community of Zoroastrians in Iran (and the world). The major Ateshkah (Fire Temple) of Yazd lies in the Southeast part of town. Here, surrounded by a low-rise brick wall, gardens and reflecting pool (which I was sadly unable to get a good photo from) burns a flame, which the High Priest of the Temple told us, "has been burning for one thousand four hundred years."

"First," he said, his 84-year old voice trembling, "this fire came from the fire temple at Naqsh-i-Rustam where our great Iranian kings are laid to rest."

"Then," he continued, "to Yazd province it went to Agadeh. After that it went to Ardekan and finally found its way here," he told us.

The High Priest, pointing at the furuhad (the winged symbol of Zoroaster, which some say was the first depiction of an angel) atop the building, recited the three main tenets of the Zoroastrian faith. "Each row of feathers has a meaning in our faith, equaling the three central ideas of Zoroastrianism: The first row implores us to think well. The second instructs us to act well. The third and final row compels us to talk well, never to lie. To lie, or to go against any of this commands, is to give in to evil, or Ahriman."

"What," I wondered, "was Iran like 1,500 years ago? Before the Arabs arrived? When fire temples were the center of worship and activity in every city?

"Were the high priests," I thought to myself, as the flames flickered wildly behind the thick observation glass, "as rigid in their interpretation of Zoroastrianism as they are today of Islam?"

The late history of the Sassanians points towards a high priesthood with a firm, if brittle, grip on Mediaval Persian society. It was the era of Magians supremacy, and their faith was rigid. They persecuted Christians and other sects, even the Jews, but they saved their most heated attacks for the Manicheans. Kartir, the high priest to the Sassanian king even found a place on a relief next to his king, at Naqsh-i-Rashjab, about two kilometers from Naqsh-i-Rustam.

I thought about the past and couldn't help but to wonder if there is a tenuous connection between Iran's extremist past and its extremist present? One would think it were possible. But today the Zoroastrians are not only tolerated, but celebrated to a great degree for they are Iran's original "People of the Book.'

Later that afternoon father and I went to see a "Tower a Silence.' The tower lies on top of a small barren hill on the south side of town. It's like a bug round brick well, with a diameter of approximately 50 meters. The high priests would take the body of the deceased up to the tower and lay it out for the vultures to pick clean. The Zoroastrians believe that burying the body is to pollute the earth and cremation is strictly forbidden, as the body will pollute the sacred fire. It is said that if the vultures pick the left side of the face off first the deceased goes immediately to heaven. If it is the right the deceased spends a hundred years in purgatory.

Well there you go. Zoroastrianism is pretty much a sweet and mystic Old Time religion. Anyhow...

Homeless Philadelphia guys tricked into deceiving Maryland black folks about Republican Steele: In a disgusting episode, campaign workers for some shadowy Republican-linked organization provided flyers that claimed two top Republican candidates were actually Democrats, as seen here and here. A homeless guy is furious he was paid to lie to people, and didn't even get back home to Philly to vote in time.

All hail Rahm Emanuel: Still a divisive figure, Rep. Emanuel, the leader of the DCCC, selected some Dems over others in primary races, and now has been credited as the guy that won everything. This is an exaggeration. Emanuel has been criticized for not supporting Clint Curtis, the programmer who was allegedly hired by Congressman Tom Feeney to reprogram voting machines. Curtis ran for Congress in order to raise awareness of this, but he did not get a red cent from the DCCC. Likewise, abandoned a 9/11 Truth candidate whose name I can't remember. Emanuel delivered the goods, but he also set restrictions on the ideological parameters of Democratic campaigns, although in important aspects he broadened the limits beyond idiot DLC-consultant style "centrism". This bears further examination.

Judith Miller against Blogger first amendment freedom: From the mouth of the woman who brought Iraqi Aluminum Tube fantasies into the NY Times via Chalabi's henchmen, bloggers just report rumors way too much:

"I'm worried about bloggers," she said. "(A post) starts as a rumor and within 24 hours it's repeated as fact."

While she advocates a federal shield law to protect mainstream journalists from divulging their sources, she doesn't favor extending that to bloggers who don't follow the standards and ethnics [I assume this should be ethics] of the journalism industry.

Still, she wouldn't restrict a blogger's right to publish online. She said some bloggers have been invaluable in uncovering government flaws.

"I'm glad to welcome them as long as they agree to the standards," she said.

Heinous. (via Atrios). Cram your standards in an aluminum tube and smoke it with your "defector" friends.

That's all for this post. Another coming down the pike in a little bit.