Hello Judge Alito, Goodbye Mother Earth

A sad day for water, air, earth, and the biosphere's most endangered beings.

The Lorax said, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."

Back into my Lerkim beneath the smog-smuggered skies. Apparently everyone cares more about their fucking SUVs than the air they breathe.

Pardon my pessimism, but this is a dark, dark day.

Al Qaeda Detainee's Mysterious Release

So why does the U.S. government release an alleged al Qaeda bodyguard from Guantanamo -- a man once called a "key operative" -- while keeping poor Afghanistan dirt farmers in isolation?

Hosanna Church Coverup Continues

While I'm sorting out the information I've been receiving from locals, and waiting for the trials to begin, I am getting a picture of the tiny Louisiana community that seems like something ripped from a David Lynch film.

For instance, this recent anonymous comment (which echoes what several other sources have told me):

There are individuals from the Prosecutor's office, several in position within the local court system, obviously in the Sheriff's Dept but also in most of the other local departments including the FBI in New Orleans who are connected with this issue. Fact is, it is generally known and kept under "covers" that if anyone is/was born & raised in this area of Louisianna that - that person as well was abused sexually by several family members, family friends, etc... including same sex, and as well abused others within their reach - siblings, neighbor kids, cousins. It is simply known and accepted as acceptable. NO ONE IN THIS AREA WANTS ANY INFORMATION REGARDING THIS CASE TO GET OUT BECAUSE EVERY LAST PERSON INVOLVED IN INVESTIGATING, IF FROM THIS AREA, IS EQUALLY GUILTY AND MOST PROBABLY HAS HAD PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND POSSIBLY CONNECTIONS WITH THIS VERY CASE THEMSELVES. WHETHER HELPING COVER UP AND KEEP THEIR "LOVERS" SAFE FROM HARM OR SIMPLY COVERING THEIR OWN BACK SIDES.

Why aren't the bigger networks, reporting agencies, etc....biting at this - I just don't get it - do they get shut down or do they not see the bigger picture?

Very good questions. If there is even the slightest bit of truth to these assertions, this case may be a bona fide instance of multi-generational ritual and sexual cult activity -- something considered by the mainstream to be the paranoid delusions of vehment fundamentalists and witch-hunting social workers.

While it is certainly true that "satanic panic" exists, and that many people have had their lives desroyed by baseless witch hunts and false allegations, it only takes one case to prove that it's not all a myth. As Karl Popper stated, it only takes one white crow to prove that all crows are not black...

See the index for more coverage of this case.

Quote for the Day

“So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him. … And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.”

George W. Bush, March 13, 2002

Chris Matthews reads my blog!

Okay, maybe not.

But precisely as I predicted in yesterday's analysis of the latest "bin Laden" audiotape, the wingnuts are using OBL-supplied Bush talking points to pillory the Left.

Matthews: I mean he sounds like an over the top Michael Moore here, if not a Michael Moore.

Crooks and Liars has the video.

Decoding the latest "bin Laden" tape

Ah, yes, another low-quality tape from bin Laden's secret cave complex.

Pardon my skepticism.

Why is it that every message from the man works to confirm Bush's talking points, I wonder?

For instance:

The war against America and its allies will not be confined to Iraq. Iraq has become a magnet for attracting and training talented fighters.

What "OBL" is saying is that Al Qaeda is the major enemy fighting the U.S. in Iraq. While it is true that there are elements of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the purported statement subtly refutes the fact that most of the fighters in Iraq are insurgents fighting the occupation of their country. "OBL" therefore reinforces Bush's continous equating of Iraqi insurgents and Al Qaeda.

Another interesting statement:

But I plan to speak about the repeated errors your President Bush has committed in comments on the results of your polls that show an overwhelming majority of you want the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. But he (Bush) has opposed this wish and said that withdrawing troops sends the wrong message to opponents, that it is better to fight them (bin Laden's followers) on their land than their fighting us (Americans) on our land.

and:

Your president is misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq. If your desire for peace, stability and reconciliation was true, here we have given you the answer to your call."

Bush's mantra of late has been that supporters of withdrawal are aiding the enemy, and that opposition to the war plays into the hands of terrorists. How convenient that this tape will now be used to support that absurd notion. I can already hear wingnut radio hosts -- "Didn't you hear what bin Laden said? You pinko peaceniks are playing right into his hands!"

Anyone who opposes the war is doing bin Laden's bidding.

It's too fucking convenient. And, with all the scandals and legal problems the Bush Cult is dealing with, a good dose of fear about an impending attack is just what they need. Remember -- they rule by cultivating fear.

Natural Mystic

Happy birthday, Albert.

My favorite quote from this Wired News article (LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug?):

"When you study natural science and the miracles of creation, if you don't turn into a mystic you are not a natural scientist."

--Albert Hofman, 100 year-old discoverer of LSD

MLK

"I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

A "little noticed provision of the Patriot Act..."

This is a must read.

I will say that again.

This is a must read.

Having been confined to one of those "free speech" pens at several demonstrations, this "little noticed" provision of the Patriot Act takes dissent even further and effectively criminalizes it.

The word fascism gets thrown about a lot these days, but this is the definition of fascism, in bold, all caps, in red, underlined, and surrounded by hideous blinking html tags.

Sub Rosa Magazine

Sub Rosa, a magazine produced by the staff at the excellent Daily Grail site, is well worth downloading. It's beautifully designed and chock full of provocative brain candy.

And it's free.

Apologies for lack of posts

My apologies for the recent decline of the number of posts here, but I'm hell-bent on completing my novel and have had much less time to compose articles. I'll continue to post daily, but it will be mostly links to other material and less of my own analysis.

For those who are following the Hosanna Church story, I'm trying to get details about the upcoming trials. Any information would be greatly appreciated -- you know how to contact me.

Author explores CIA connections to torture tactics (Jan 9, 2006)

An excerpt from what sounds like an important book:

"The origins of the Abu Ghraib scandal and the Guantanamo controversy can be traced very directly to the 1950s, when the Central Intelligence Agency launched a massive mind-control project that discovered psychological torture. This proved an unheralded scientific breakthrough, indeed, the first real revolution in five centuries in the cruel science of pain," McCoy says.

And:

"That photo indicated that this abuse was not the work of 'recycled hillbillies' on the 'night shift' at Abu Ghraib. It was instead the product of a half-century of history that reached back to the darkest recesses of the Cold War and decisions that extended all the way to the highest levels in Washington," he says.

Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home on leave

An excerpt:

Good soldiers follow orders and hundreds of American military men and women returned to the United States on holiday leave this month with orders to sell the Iraq war to a skeptical public.

The program, coordinated through a Pentagon operation dubbed “Operation Homefront,” ordered military personnel to give interviews to their hometown newspapers, television stations and other media outlets and praise the American war effort in Iraq.

And:

But soldiers who are home and don’t have to return to Iraq tell a different story.

“I've just been focused on trying to get the rest of these guys home,” says Sgt. Major Floyd Dubose of Jackson, MS, who returned home after 11 months in Iraq with the Mississippi Army National Guard's 155th Combat Brigade.

And the Army is cracking down on soldiers who go on the record opposing the war.

Specialist Leonard Clark, a National Guardsman, was demoted to private and fined $1,640 for posting anti-war statements on an Internet blog. Clark wrote entries describing the company's commander as a "glory seeker" and the battalion sergeant major an "inhuman monster". His last entry before the blog was shut down told how his fellow soldiers were becoming increasingly opposed to the US operation in Iraq.

“The message is clear,” says one reservist who is home for the holidays but has to return and asked not to be identified. “If you want to get out of this man’s Army with an honorable (discharge) and full benefits you better not tell the truth about what is happening in-country.”

But Sgt. Johnathan Wilson, a reservist, got his honorable discharge after he returned home earlier this month and he’s not afraid to talk on the record.

“Iraq is a classic FUBAR,” he says. “The country is out of control and we can’t stop it. Anybody who tries to sell a good news story about the war is blowing it out his ass. We don’t win and eventually we will leave the country in a worse shape than it was when we invaded.”

Microsoft censors bloggers who criticize Chinese government

Yet another reason to buy a Mac (or a Linux box or whatever non-M$ machine floats your boat).

Full story.