A Carlin routine pilfered from the excellent JuanCole.com

' I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation. For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. I'll give you an example of that.

There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap.

In the first world war, that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves.

That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! Battle fatigue.

Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called operational exhaustion. Hey, we're up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car.

Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called post-traumatic stress disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder.

I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it shell shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha.'

*******

A whole barrage of things to click around on. I am not sure whether there is any order to this chaos, but it should lead you to some interesting areas.

Antiwar.com and its many commentators:

Don't Wait for World War III- by Justin Raimondo

Truthdig - Reports - The Nuclear Expert Who Never Was

Zionism's Dead End - by Jonathan Cook

Antiwar.com Blog · GOP Rep. Gilchrest on Iran Sanctions Bill

Antiwar.com Blog · Greenwald Challenges Obama and Olbermann

Remaking the Middle East - by Philip Giraldi

Change We Can Believe In? - by Charles Peña

Can the Air Force Be Reformed? - by Ivan Eland

Turning the Recurring Joke of a New European Defense Policy into Reality - by Doug Bandow

Return of the Reds - by Nebojsa Malic

The Media Did Fail Us - by Alan Bock

The Supreme Court Gets One Right - by David R. Henderson

The US and China:<br /> Unsettling Similarities - by Sascha Matuszak

Meanwhile, Keith Olbermann pivots on a dime to support the Telecom Orwellian Bailout, which I think technically makes it a DoubleThink Double Bank shot:

Keith Olbermann's reply and Obama's secret plan to protect the rule of law - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Keith Olbermann: Then and now - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Some new tasty docs on WTC7 came out. However I will warn you that one of the docs has a Word Macro in it, which might be a virus or something: If you dare: Index of /WTC7Report

Leaked NIST Docs: "Unusual" Event Before Collapse Of WTC 7

9/11 First Responder Heard WTC 7 Demolition Countdown

YouTube - The Third Tower 1/2

YouTube - World Exclusive: WTC7 Survivor Barry Jennings Account

Ray McGovern on the Alex Jones show warns of "false flag attack" and possible nuclear strikes on Iran | 911blogger.com

shocked! Shocked at all this heroin, i tell you!

AmericanDrugWar's blog | 911blogger.com

Shocked! Shocked, I tell you! Afghanistan drug trade hits $4 billion a year | theage.com.au

YouTube - The Post-9/11 Afghan Heroin Explosion

The military-industrial-congressional-complex: Report Shows Lawmakers Heavily Invested in War

More miscellany:

Daily Kos: The neuroscience of false beliefs

Firedoglake » Fed’s Credibility “Below Zero”

MI5 spy quits over scandal | Herald Sun

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - Military operation launched in Khyber Agency

Talking Points Memo | Pentagon: Taliban a resilient force in Afghanistan

Further evidence that Capitol Hill Democrats are dragging their feet: TPM | Conyers Finally Subpoenas DOJ For Documents

Bloggingheads.tv - diavlogs featuring Firedoglake lady Hamsher and Libertarian prez. candidate Bob Barr!

Ruthless Reviews.Com: Where Pornographers Debate Nihilists About Pop Culture

TPMMuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Sen. Norm Coleman Rents Cheap Crash Pad From Political Pal

Le Téléprésident: Sarkozy tightens his grip over French state TV | World news | The Guardian

American Buddha Online Library and Western Cultural Bazaar (American Buddhism)

YouTube - DoZo

Some notes on the doomed media industry:Source is Romanesko, who knows what's up! Poynter Online - Romenesko

Firedoglake » Max Frankel’s Ghost

reduction in force - a set on Flickr <- MUST SEE!

Is Lara Logan being smeared for her criticism of Iraq war coverage | Philly | 06/26/2008

Alhurra Paid Former White House Aides, Washington Journalists - ProPublica

Alhurra, ProPublica, Media Ethics and Me - David Corn

globeandmail.com: I killed Tim Russert (on Wikipedia)

Poynter Online - Forums Sam Zell's comments on CNBC

Recovering Journalist: Death of Almost 1,000 Cuts

Etaoin Shrdlu: Time is the fire in which we burn

Ed Asner Reintroduces "Lou Grant" and Talks Mary Richards, The Media & More (Fancast: Inside TV)

New AP Stylebook Cuts the 'Malarkey,' Brings in the 'WMD'

The Courant To Make Deep Cuts, 'Reinvent' Paper -- Courant.com
New-Media Focus Splits Associated Press Members - WSJ.com

They're brill on Fleet St. - The Boston Globe
Poynter Online - Forums Hartford Courant details staff, content cuts

Bloggers: Big Media Is Watching

Non-profit Groups Financing Independent Journalism | Online NewsHour | June 24, 2008 | PBS
Intern or Die

Meet the make-believe strategists of TV - Politico.com
To Our Readers - washingtonpost.com
techPresident – Open Systems, Closed Systems and Trauma in the Press
The Beachwood Reporter The [Tuesday] Papers
Awkward Questions for...Arianna Huffington - Media Blog - Jeff Bercovici - Mixed Media - Portfolio.com
At Google, Slow Growth in News Site - NYTimes.comNieman Watchdog > Commentary > I.F. Stone's lessons for Internet journalism
The Official Website of I.F. Stone
I. Lewis Libby Trial - The Washington Back Channel - Max Frankel - New York Times

Firedoglake » FDL Book Salon Welcomes Myra MacPherson: All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone
Dan Froomkin - Washington Journalism on Trial - washingtonpost.com
Firedoglake » Access Journalism  read more »

With George Carlin' s passing, it's probably a relevant time to revisit what you might call his writer parallel, Hunter Thompson. Fortunately there's a new documentary coming out! See this trailer!

Here's the IMDB entry. Check out the RottenTomatoes reviews for more: currently getting 83%.

If you want to see the weird 1970s documentary "Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood," which followed HST and Ralph Steadman around for a while, check it out here. Thompson gets pissed off with the kinda-fanboy treatment he gets from the Brit producer...

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Some other bits: Hunter Thompson was working on WTC collapse story before mysterious sudden death, warned he'd be 'suicided'and The Murder Of Hunter S. Thompson. A bit unlikely, but could it ever be out of the question? (then again, shouldn't Nixon have had Howard Hunt do it earlier?)
And Thompson thought 9/11 was something like an inside job:

Mick O'Regan: Could I take you back to September 11th. What I'd really like to know is your reactions. And I know you said you were writing a sports column for ESPN when the planes hit the towers, but could I get you to tell that story of when you found out about it and what you were doing and what your reaction was?

Hunter S. Thompson: I had in fact just finished a sports column for ESPN. Here it is: "It was just after dawn in Woody Creek, Colorado when the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday morning. And as usual I was writing about sports. But not for long. Football suddenly seemed irrelevant compared to the scenes of destruction and other devastation coming out of New York on TV."

Mick O'Regan: You went on to say in that article, which I have in front of me, that "even ESPN was broadcasting war news. It was the worst disaster in the history of the United States." Do you think that the event completely transformed the way in which Americans see themselves and their own vulnerability?

Hunter S. Thompson: No, the event by itself wouldn't have done that. But it was the way the Administration was able to use that event. Even use it as a springboard for everything they wanted to do. And that might tell you something. I remember when I was writing that column you sort of wonder when something like that happens, Well who stands to benefit? Who had the opportunity and the motive? You just kind of look at these basic things, and I don?t know if I want to go into this on worldwide radio here, but ...

Mick O'Regan: You may as well.

Hunter S. Thompson: All right. Well I saw that the US government was going to benefit, and the White House people, the republican administration to take the mind of the public off of the crashing economy. Now you want to keep in mind that every time a person named Bush gets into office, the nation goes into a drastic recession they call it.

Mick O'Regan: It seems a very long bow to me, but are you sort of suggesting that this worked in the favour of the Bush Administration?

Hunter S. Thompson: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I have spent enough time on the inside of, well in the White House and you know, campaigns and I've known enough people who do these things, think this way, to know that the public version of the news or whatever event, is never really what happened.

And also his comments about 9/11 immediately thereafter. Apparently a part of this will be quoted in the documentary...

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now -- with somebody -- and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. Osama bin Laden may be a primitive "figurehead" -- or even dead, for all we know -- but whoever put those All-American jet planes loaded with All-American fuel into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did it with chilling precision and accuracy. The second one was a dead-on bullseye. Straight into the middle of the skyscraper.

Nothing -- even George Bush's $350 billion "Star Wars" missile defense system -- could have prevented Tuesday's attack, and it cost next to nothing to pull off. Fewer than 20 unarmed Suicide soldiers from some apparently primitive country somewhere on the other side of the world took out the World Trade Center and half the Pentagon with three quick and costless strikes on one day. The efficiency of it was terrifying.

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed -- for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

Good luck. He is in for a profoundly difficult job -- armed as he is with no credible Military Intelligence, no witnesses and only the ghost of Bin Laden to blame for the tragedy.

OK. It is 24 hours later now, and we are not getting much information about the Five Ws of this thing.

The numbers out of the Pentagon are baffling, as if Military Censorship has already been imposed on the media. It is ominous. The only news on TV comes from weeping victims and ignorant speculators.

The lid is on. Loose Lips Sink Ships. Don't say anything that might give aid to The Enemy.

Actually I'm impressed. The list of articles of impeachment are well-chosen, and all very well-documented. Huzzah! Right now we're following it on C-SPAN, getting read aloud!

Even includes the PSYOPS of the war propaganda campaign - and the 9/11 coverup. Not bad at all!

Download it here: as a PDF

Rep. Kucinich calls for Bush impeachment | Reuters

All the supporting documents: Congressman Dennis Kucinich

What a nice list of articles: thanks to these guys: Krazy Kuncinich Offers Articles of Impeachment on GW Bush (With Text of Impeachment Articles) Updated with Video

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Article XX
Imprisoning Children

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

******

Duly noted. It was important to get this on the record, even if the mainstream Dems don't care. It's all very well cited and certainly worthy of any politician to stand on.

In any case, you could campaign against all of these articles, in talking-point form. They're quite well-worded, and I have to hand it to the clever wordsmiths that put this beast together.

Unfortunately, in our system of government the actual impeachment system is a mess - and there's really very little way for the legislative branch to chip away at patently awful leaders.

On the other hand, the DFL-controlled Minnesota Senate blocked Lt. Gov. Molnau's confirmation as Transportation Commissioner. So you've got a bit more chutzpah around these parts.

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?

********

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??

*******

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...

******

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

*******

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!

*******

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.

******

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!

Reuters: Impact of 9/11 terror attacks evident in dreams Feb 19, 2008 10:31am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A comparative analysis of dream images suggests how deeply the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks impacted Americans' emotions, researchers report.

Everyone experienced some sort of trauma, or at least emotional arousal by these events, Dr. Ernest Hartmann told Reuters Health. "We found, surprisingly, even dreams could pick this up," said Hartmann, of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hartmann and colleagues assessed the dreams of 11 men and 33 women living outside of Manhattan when the attacks occurred. The participants, who ranged in age from 22 to 70 years, had been recording their dreams for years, and none had relatives or friends who died in the attacks, the investigators note in the journal Sleep.

According to the results, post-9/11 dreams showed more intense images, which is "very consistent with findings in people who have experienced trauma of various kinds," Hartmann said in a statement. "The idea is that that we all experienced at least some trauma on 9/11."

The dreams after 9/11, however, did not contain more images of airplanes or tall buildings. Actually, none of the recorded dreams involved airplanes flying into towers or anything remotely close to that, even though all subjects had seen these images on TV. Hartmann suggests this is because a dream is a creation, not a replay. Dreams make new connections that integrate new material into existing memory, he said. [more on it]

I am cooped up with a cold. I have very little productive to do right now, it's Saturday and I am fidgety. Therefore it is time to listen to some techno and post links like a good little February recluse.

How the spooks took over the news: In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale, Monday, 11 February 2008

On the morning of 9 February 2004, The New York Times carried an exclusive and alarming story. The paper's Baghdad correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported that US officials had obtained a 17-page letter, believed to have been written by the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi to the "inner circle" of al-Qa'ida's leadership, urging them to accept that the best way to beat US forces in Iraq was effectively to start a civil war.

The letter argued that al-Qa'ida, which is a Sunni network, should attack the Shia population of Iraq: "It is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us. If we succeed in dragging them into a sectarian war, this will awaken the sleepy Sunnis."......

...There is very good reason to believe that that letter was a fake – and a significant one because there is equally good reason to believe that it was one product among many from a new machinery of propaganda which has been created by the United States and its allies since the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.

The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. I've spent the last two years researching a book about falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.

The "Zarqawi letter" which made it on to the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into news media.

This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to work without effective oversight; and also by a new and essentially benign structure of "strategic communications" which was originally designed by doves in the Pentagon and Nato who wanted to use subtle and non-violent tactics to deal with Islamist terrorism but whose efforts are poorly regulated and badly supervised with the result that some of its practitioners are breaking loose and engaging in the black arts of propaganda.

.......Some of this comes from freelance political agitators. It was an Iranian opposition group, for example, which was behind the story that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was jailing people for texting each other jokes about him. And notoriously it was Iraqi exiles who supplied the global media with a dirty stream of disinformation about Saddam Hussein.

But clearly a great deal of this carries the fingerprints of officialdom. The Pentagon has now designated "information operations" as its fifth "core competency" alongside land, sea, air and special forces. Since October 2006, every brigade, division and corps in the US military has had its own "psyop" element producing output for local media. This military activity is linked to the State Department's campaign of "public diplomacy" which includes funding radio stations and news websites. In Britain, the Directorate of Targeting and Information Operations in the Ministry of Defence works with specialists from 15 UK psyops, based at the Defence Intelligence and Security School at Chicksands in Bedfordshire.

I have definitely been on top of the Zarqawi PSYOPS case. K thx.

Here's a spooky tale. There are other aspects to this. In fact, Lockheed Martin is developing a kind of RFID control regime for I-35 as we speak.

An Iraq vet told me that this map reminded him of the Iraq supply line...

This story kind of appears to hinge on Peter Dale Scott, who is an old-school decoder of evil establishment conspiracies: Peter Dale Scott: Poetry and Political Writings and also Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps by PD Scott, Feb 2006

Rule by fear or rule by law? Lewis Seiler,Dan Hamburg Monday, February 4, 2008

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."

Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people?

Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a century, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to "a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through Congress just before the 2006 midterm elections, allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on a list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and noncitizens alike.

Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), to ensure "continuity of government" in the event of what the document vaguely calls a "catastrophic emergency." Should the president determine that such an emergency has occurred, he and he alone is empowered to do whatever he deems necessary to ensure "continuity of government." This could include everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Congress has yet to hold a single hearing on NSPD-51.

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way to expand the domestic "war on terror." Her Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission to "examine and report upon the facts and causes" of so-called violent radicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations on combatting it.

According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun, Rep. Harman and her colleagues from both sides of the aisle believe the country faces a native brand of terrorism, and needs a commission with sweeping investigative power to combat it.

A clue as to where Harman's commission might be aiming is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who "engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights" as terrorists. Other groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abortion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, environmentalists, peace demonstrators, Second Amendment rights supporters ... the list goes on and on. According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center holds the names of roughly 775,000 "terror suspects" with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.

What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens?

The Constitution does not allow the executive to have unchecked power under any circumstances. The people must not allow the president to use the war on terrorism to rule by fear instead of by law......

Don't say yaz wasn't warned!! Of course Alex Jones on it: Former Congressman Warns Of Martial Law Camps In America.

Windows Vista is a terrible prospect: flag.blackened.net/ati/zine/10thingsIHateAboutVista.txt

This week in peak oil | mnblue not bad!

Economic Crash: teh Latest Lols: Gold is up around $925/ounce now. hah. Business Spectator - Twelve steps to meltdown.

The Alternative Information Center - Economy of the Occupation 10: Cheap Wars - Very important!!

Housing vs. voting.

German Banks crashing!!! Worst Financial Crisis since 1931? German State-Owned Banks on Verge of Collapse - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Buffett Sees Poetic Justice in Banks Woes - New York Times

Cloud EV for all your electric car needs!

For your daily secrets: Cryptome.org of course! Brits shaft their own spies. What's up with undersea internet cables? Spies' Battleground Turns Virtual:

The intelligence community has begun contemplating how to use Second Life and other such communities as platforms for cyber weapons that could be used against terrorists or enemies, intelligence officials said.

Because the Terrorists will get depressed when they get booted, etc. AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops. Old news. (AIPAC on Sourcewatch)

OpenMute looks cool. And so does Mute. Cool stuff about Russian urban design conflict.

The Jericho TV series - season 2: It's trucking along, I hope the show makes it. In next week's episode, a virus epidemic crosses the Mississippi into the western martial-law fragment of the United States, and threatens to kill Jericho unless they can get the vaccine from some evil corporation. Meanwhile the Ravenwood Mercenaries have arrived to abuse the townsfolk yet again.... Watch it online, now the writers are getting paid!

Verizon tells the man to screw off and they won't sniff their customers.

Black Hat : Black Hat Briefings and Training for your hacker needs! LayerOne 2007 - Adam Laurie - RFIDiots explains RFID hacking!

Time for dirty laundry! Obama on Rezko deal: It was a mistake :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

There is some kind of thing getting floated about the Obama/Rashid Khalidi connection. This is goofy stuff, but there is some rightwing stuff along these lines, @ NRO , Commentary (the arch-retreat of grouches). More from Larry Johnson, whom I disagreed with (see comments)

Creepy Princess Di thing: Butler "Did Deal" With Queen To Hide Diana Murder Facts, secret video is located here!

Willie Nelson: I'd Rather Have an Electric Chair Named After Me Than a Toll Road. Willie Nelson Joins the 9/11 Conspiracy!! In a good way. He thought it all looked like bullshit especially WTC7. Tehlols. Willie Nelson Questions 9/11 Official Story On National TV. Willie Nelson questions Sept. 11 on local talk radio show - KVUE. FOXNews.com - Willie Nelson: I Question Official Sept. 11 Story. No More Partying For Willie Nelson : GAC. Nelson: Impeach Bush, "Throw The Bastards Out"

I got linked off this blog i thinks: looks cool: Fierce Planet

More from the life of trolls: We're in your docks, kidnapping your flightmaster - WOW Insider related to this great story: The Great Goon Squad Flightmaster Caper - wired

Welcome to free Kosovo and its American Military Masters! I got linked off a blog in Portugal run by one Antonia Maria Cerveira Pinto O António Maria. Pretty awesome. He was noting how Kosovo is dominated by the U.S., and here is teh gigantic and very geopolitically key Camp Bondsteel.

Breakaway Role Model: Separatist Movements Seek Inspiration in Kosovo - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE. Naturally the Romanian/Hungarian separatists have torches.

Techie Drupal bits: Drupal newsletter for February - recommended for the curious! Drupal Dojo is sweet. Not bad, guys. Integrate w/ Google Apps.

The dumbing of America.

Well that's about it guys. Have a great weekend!

Dear Dan,

Some times 'the back of the room' starts only the third row back...

Indeed, tonight PBS gave us a documentary on Nader, that pariah of exclusion himself, and elucidated clearly how much support he has had, and lost, and retained, due to his own earnestness. And he's in the second row. Maybe.

I'm all for fact-based communities, and those whom while not necessarily waiting for such clarity of hindsight still admirably toe the tinfoil hat line of discretion most carefully. There is then the rest. Discretion and restraint are admirable qualities but do dampen much reasonable public discourse when taken even the slightest bit beyond their due. The tin foil hat line and the nominal line define between them a broad segment in my view.

I appreciate this site. I just discovered it thanks to your comment on the agonist, and have hardly backread through it all, but have whiffread enough to know it fills a specific bill for me; neither repelled or attracted by issues with magnitudes of audacity or circuitous complexities, or bullhorning simplistic adrenalin-charged dogmas of kneejerk reactionary bellicosity, but rather exercising the freedoms of exploration and discovery in open-eyed fashion for it's own sake. I appreciate this site because if I'm somehow utterly clueless and totally wrong then at least I am fairly sure at least I'll be allowed the above concession. *koff*

I respect all the places I've blogged and posted, but for me, a writing environment is a large factor, and each makes their own difference.

I am here then, with my own words and views, spewed through my own take on your venue as it is (and grows).

Hi.

--

As tagged:
With regard to my views on drugs, see http://zuma.vip.warped.com/z/ which encompasses south america and beyond (as most issues, in my view, are not disconnected topical entities).
With regard to my view on dissent, see my comments to LJ's original agonist post on the homegrown terrorism prevention act.
With regard to 9-11, the third topic I tagged this post with when I began, there are no urls of my own to proffer; I haven't said jack yet about it. It's one of those things one needn't to directly. I've posted links to '9-11 Mysteries', and Loose Change, et al, and one says much in doing simply that, and there's little to add; -I like the effectiveness of the simplicity of the title '9-11 Mysteries'...

--

'Freedoms of exploration and discovery in open-eyed fashion' I said. Information, like numbers, is an intrinsic thing. Innate to reality and fundamental to our view, the truth of things is ever approximated at, but it has it's own ironclad testimony of itself in the very next moment: like the butterfly effect, what actually has occurred is what everything that followed was predicated upon. A butterfly flapping it's wings in Chicago may very well affect the weather in China, and it is a trifle difficult to reverse-engineer China's weather to discern some particular butterfly in Chicago, but the chain of cause and effect between the two are still existent to be known...
...Light leaves the planet every day, I like to say, taking with it an external record... etc...
Disinformation is something else entirely. Deliberate disinformation is rampant these days, and more despicable than ever. Sites like Media Matters have begun to take great heat for their efforts.
The levels of BS have exponentially increased so much that we are far from where I'd even begin to speak to the public at large with any comfort level -I am after all, an aging hippie artist, quite homesick in this futureless blot of a future, and quite to the left of the left of those on the left -and yet with that given, I can hardly afford to wait things out and say nothing...
I can speak freely, reasonably here (civilly of course -all the nominal norms of discretion) and that means everything to me.

Even if this is my only post ever here, I am glad for the opportunity to have said what little I have (and in under 9,000 words at that, mind you).

I adamantly believe there are no secrets, and that which is hidden shall be known to be hidden. I have said these 2 things over and over and over.

Personally, that's why I draw (& write); to uncover my own unknown.
I like to know what I'm editing...

regards,
John Farwell
OKC, OK

http://zuma.livejournal.com
http://gigabyte_jones.livejournal.com
http://agonist.org/diary/zuma
http://zuma.vip.warped.com

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. :-)

Boston artist Nick Rodrigues developed a cell phone box that you wear. Pretty awesome. Video here. Old news apparently, but sweet. The auto-loader harness that pops it onto your back is nice. Here is another booth made of fabric, not quite as nifty a construction.

[via technabob and notcot]

On the other hand, it turns out that the Feds are tracking you via your cellphone without a warrant. Interestingly, such stuff seemed to be among the deep tinfoil hattery of one whats his face....

On an unrelated subject, outside.in is the new thing in geo-blogging, as in Minneapolis. Storming the News Gatekeepers was pretty funny, but i guess it proves i'm not 31337 enough, because i found Outside.in via the Washington "lame" Post.

Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request - washingtonpost.com:

Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request

Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 23, 2007; Page A01

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Such requests run counter to the Justice Department's internal recommendation that federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas. The requests and orders are sealed at the government's request, so it is difficult to know how often the orders are issued or denied.

The issue is taking on greater relevance as wireless carriers are racing to offer sleek services that allow cellphone users to know with the touch of a button where their friends or families are. The companies are hoping to recoup investments they have made to meet a federal mandate to provide enhanced 911 (E911) location tracking. Sprint Nextel, for instance, boasts that its "loopt" service even sends an alert when a friend is near, "putting an end to missed connections in the mall, at the movies or around town."

With Verizon's Chaperone service, parents can set up a "geofence" around, say, a few city blocks and receive an automatic text message if their child, holding the cellphone, travels outside that area.

"Most people don't realize it, but they're carrying a tracking device in their pocket," said Kevin Bankston of the privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Cellphones can reveal very precise information about your location, and yet legal protections are very much up in the air."

SHIT! Cell phones are essentially spies in your pocket. And now cops don't need a warrant to use them. | The Agonist

At this point I have to hand it to the so-called Tinfoil Hat crowd, but I can't remember if it was Stew Webb or Tom Flocco. One of these guys is hawking damper bags that can suppress all signal from the NSA scheme that's listening to your mic. For bonus points, here are some random paranoia links of the classic style, sure to entertain the Reynolds Wrap fans. So here are some fun links

Stew Webb. I don't know what happened to Flocco? Tom Flocco.com and his IN BRIEF ARCHIVE

PROFITS OF DEATH--INSIDER TRADING AND 9-11. Acxiom Had Data on 11 of 19 Hijackers

Killtown: Is Barbara Olson still alive? from Killtown, a 9/11 blogger who's keeping it so real that he/she got kicked off practically every big 9/11 blog. Stay black bro!

I seriously have to roll my eyes at how the supposedly open-minded conspiracy crowd has already decided what goes. I mean it could have been holograms and space lasers. Not really very likely, but is it that much less likely than other widely accepted conspiracy theories? I find it funny that they are drawing up these rules against poor Killtown:

Killtown: Banned at AboveTopSecret, public execution style, Killtown: Banned at 911Blogger, Harassment of 9/11 Truth Activists | 911Blogger.com related. www.letsrollforums.com :: View topic - Drone 767 fired missile a split sec B 4 hitting South Tower, Killtown: Banned at Loose Change forum, Killtown's: WTC Crash Videos.

After watching Loose Change: Final Cut in a packed theater, I have to say that sideshow fights like this are a perfect example of everyone missing the forest for the trees. The forum admins should fuckin' chill out a little. Killtown appears to have parsed out all kinds of weird video anomalies. Those deserve their own examination, without bias. Could fake videos ordered up from the Mysterious Cheney Bunker have painted stuff onto America's networks? Sure, why not? See my ramble bits: Internet Radicalization Thought Crimes, Centers of Orwellian Excellence & Strategic Communication Laboratories: What Modules are in the OpCentre?

I almost forgot to add the piece de resistance: Killtown's website got put up alongside 'Al Qaeda' websites as examples of evil internet radicalization. KEEPING IT REAL. Definitely. The Alex Jones Krew noted: House Subcommittee Presentation Equates 9/11 Truth With Terrorism, and here:

To paraphrase Chomsky or HS Thompson or something: You're not really fighting the system till you're on the RAND Corporation's shit list!

I saw Loose Change a week ago at the Riverview Theater and I was definitely impressed: they took out the dumber stuff about 9/11, and replaced idle speculation about media clips with quality interviews. The graphics are great, the music is good, (although I liked some of the old music more), and overall it was a much stronger film than Loose Change 2.

This is