Leary v. Gibson

Christ, this is funny. Sorry, I mean, Jesus, this is funny. No, wait, um, I mean "Jews have started all the"--no, wait....

Happy Katrinaversary!

Hey, kidz! Here's an old, cruelly funny Suspect Device comic. Since the Rising Tide conference is next weekend and the Katrinaversary is the week after that, it seemed appropriate. Silly clown! Turn that frown upside down!

Let's Go Deadwood

Rarely is there a movie that reveals the open secret of the world (Syriana was such a film); rarer still is the television show that does--unless it's on HBO. Think the Sopranos is revealing? Try Deadwood. It's the first show that examines the construction of an entire society from scratch, and as with the Sopranos, is free of the veneer of civilized society that we routinely bullshit ourselves with (cf. civility between Congress and the press, the FCC and a certain wardrobe malfunction).

The third and final season tells the tale of late 19th Century Gilded Age America: the rise of corporate power and the channeling of that power into the state. In other words, the sequel to which we're living through now (welcome back!) on a global scale, complete with imperial conquest in the service of neo-mercantilism and the suppression of labor (the Old Deal?). And what's the fulcrum on which much of this power turns? Why, your friend and mine, the rigged election. As the smoldering robberbaron George Heart tells a sycophantic politician:

Elections do not inconvenience me. They ratify my will or I neuter them.

Stick that in your peace pipe and smoke it.

SUPER HAPPY BONUS: Rome is shooting its second season. That would be, er, the third HBO show that dramatically plays out how the real world works. Turns out the reviled Mr. Chomsky was right when he said, "Same shit, different show."

Chávez Catches CIA Agents?

As noted previously, I'm not happy about having to point out repeatedly that dictators, tyrants and general third-world sons of bitches routinely speak the unvarnished truth about the United States and its imperial ambitions. Are they hypocrites? Sure, they are. But then so is every member of the Bush™ cabal. Not even Hassan Nasrallah lies as often or as shamelessly as Il Duce.

With that disclaimer in mind, it turns out that the government of Venezuela's democratically elected president Hugo Chávez (versus, say, out unelected one) claims they've caught four CIA spies and tossed them back to our imperial shores. Now I'm sure The Washington Press Corpse Zombie Army will laugh it off, if they bother to report it, but it's worth noting that none--and I mean none--of our favorite toy third-world dictators from the Cold War rogues' gallery were merely paranoid. The CIA really was plotting against them. That includes Mao, Castro, Diem, Allende (okay, not a dictator) et al. Plenty more we overthrew and replaced with people far worse, then taught their intelligence and security services how to torture their citizens, using exactly the same methods that some soldiers, needing to "blow off steam" in Baghdad, used on prisoners throughout the GWO(S)T theater.

While Chávez is claiming to've caught the CIA red-handed (they did, after all, try to overthrow him a few years ago), Raul Castro is busy putting the Cuban military on alert in anticipation of a US attack. That wouldn't surprise me either.

Question is, what is our beloved CIA up to when they're not busying rendering goatherders to be boiled alive in Uzbekistan and abducting innocent German citizens?

The Washington Press Corpse Zombie Army Reports on Lebanon

An academic media analyst from Cairo was subjected to American cable newsfotainment during his vacation during the War on Lebanon. Read his impressions here.

Those Pesky Weapons Experts:Fun with Assassination Science

Official accounts of suspicious deaths would be easier to maintain if it weren't for that pesky gadfly, science. Unfortunately, in virtually every case, it's science that upends the government's claims, making it all the more necessary for intelligence and security services to bury the gullible news media in bullshit propaganda. That's been the case in the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK, Yitzhak Rabin and the attempted assassination of Yuschenko as well as the successful state murders of Princess Diana et al. and WMD expert David Kelly. (If you want the skinny on all these but the last, read the thoroughly researched book The Assassination Business, which also notes that assassinations are usually accompanied by a high degree of farce.)

As with the death of Diana's driver Henri Paul, who remarkably was called a "drunk" even though he didn't drink and appeared sober on security tapes, David Kelly, whose investigations promised to embarrass the UK government, allegedly went to a park late at night and overdosed on pills. Unfortunately, he took far less than the amount required to kill him. Once again, pesky science undermines government claims of "suicide." If, like me, you thought the story was mighty fishy when first reported, it now "stinketh, for [it] hath been dead four days."

Juden Raus!

I thought I was pessimistic about the November elections and the future of our dying nation, but Crossing the Rubicon author Michael Ruppert, who first gained attention by revealing that the CIA was smuggling cocaine to fund covert operations in Central America, is already gone. He left in secret with a suitcase, a backpack, a laptop and eight grand. Now he's in Caracas, living in an actual progressive democracy (I'm sure Chávez has plenty of faults, but he gives a shit about the electorate). On June 25, Ruppert's From the Wilderness offices were ransacked. It was the final straw. Fearing for his life, he left his house, his furniture, his clothing and his extensive library. We wish him well. And hope that we don't have to follow him.

Wow

Um, I'm no fan of cops, but this guy is a saint.

Our King Speaks

realitique™ has obtained a copy of Bush's response to Jude Anna Diggs Taylor's ruling on the illegality of warrantless wiretapping:

Fear, fear, terror, terror, 9/11," President Bush said. "The judge's decision fear, fear, 9/11, pro-terrorist Democrats, if we get hit again, fear, fear," the president continued, "foiled bomb plot, terrorist surveillance program, Democrats hate America, fear, terror," concluding, "fear, fear, Authorization to Use Military Force, fear, terror, 9/11." When asked by reporters why the president disagrees with the judge's opinion, he stated, "Judicial activism, fear, terror, 9/11."

Omnipresent Pepperdine law professor and part-time authoritarian theocratic anti-constitutional power-worshipper Douglas Kmiec agreed with the president, stating on NPR's Some Things Gingerly Considered and Occasionally Reported with Beltway Spin, "War, war, unitary executive, war, terror, 9/11."

UPDATE: King George reminded us that "...last week, working with, uh, people in Great Britain, we disrupted a plot. People tryin' to come and kill...uh...kill people. This country of [mine] is at war. Uh, and we must give the people who're, uh, whose responsibility it is to protect this country [i.e. Great Britain, which is "over there"] the tools necessary to protect this country in a time of war [i.e. wiretapping implemented with warrants issued by the UK Home Office]."

Okay. I get it. We need to ensure that the UK, which "foiled" the "plot" of terrorists who had no operational plan, no passports and no working prototype for a hand-cream and rootbeer bomb, issues warrants to wiretap its own residents and citizens. Fortunately, the UK saw fit to do this. But Judge Taylor's decision makes it difficult for us to spy on people in other countries--no, wait, we could do that with impunity, via Eschelon. I mean, to spy on our own residents and citizens without the warrants required by FISA and the Fourth Amendment, which we could obtain anyway from the rubber-stamp FISA court within 72 hours or, in the case of war, a lot more time than that. Right.

So, can you just retire to your faux ranch and let the Brits "protect" us from the plots they engineer so they can publicly "foil" them?

Kinda makes the olden days of "Persian Gulf," "Stay the course," "little shaver," "Don't wanna be a one-termer" seem like the golden-hued salad days, don't it?

The WaPo Editorial Board Joins Ann Coulter in Her Own Ass

Man. Don't ever piss off Glenn Greenwald:

Only "partisan hysterics" say that the President broke the law. Serious people -- who appreciate the weighty issues of terrorism which confront the President -- politely say that the program "is at least in considerable tension with federal law" and that it rests on "ever-more uncertain legal ground." What matters is not ensuring that there are consequences for the President's deliberate law-breaking when spying on Americans without judicial approval, but instead, that we "provide firmer legal footing for such surveillance."

Let me take this opportunity to inform the overtly fascist, idiotic, Wall-Street-Journal-Ed-Board-stupid, non-reportorial, earthshattering-story-suppressing, useless rag of a non-paper that isn't worth wiping your ass with that they're a bunch of Cheney-sucking, Bush-fellating, Abu-Gonzalez-ball-licking, frightened, conscienceless, witless, authority-worshipping Republican butt puppets. Oh, and they're a gang of CIA-controlled Bushbotic flag-worshipping Drano-drinkers who lack even the rudimentary remains of Terri Schiavo's rotting cerebral cortex.

How's that for some blogofascistic, hysterical, below-the-Beltway hate speech? Motherfucker.

Turkey and Iran Fight Kurdistan

From the Not Reported in the US Dept.: Apparently, Turkey and Iran are attacking Kurdistan. No big deal.

Your Shiny New Police State

Oh, fuck. The evildoers (i.e. Republicans) are proposing a bill to toss out the 22nd amendment. If, like me, you don't know what that is, it's the one that limits the president to two stolen terms.

Funny, there's this clause that addresses, oh, I dunno, recent elections:

...no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

Hm. "Acted as President" notwithstanding, seems like Mr. Bush, who's such a loser he couldn't even be elected once, should've been shitcanned in 2004.

BONUS: Neil Young kicks Bush's ass.

I Dig Anna

Thank god:

"It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly when his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights," [Judge Anna Diggs Taylor] wrote. "The three separate branches of government were developed as a check and balance for one another."

That's Detroit, muthafucka.

This is tangential but worth noting: If--and that's a big if--the GOP doesn't steal the 2006 elections, we'll have lots of handsome black men heading up various committees, including son of god John Conyers, who, like daughter of god Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, is also based in Detroit (muthafucka).

Help the Congressional Black Caucus here.

Contact Judge Taylor here:
Phone: 313 234 5105
Email: http://www.mied.uscourts.gov/_contactus/contactus2.htm
Spread love, people. (Via Mike Molloy.)

A Little Lebanon

Before your TV stops telling you to feel sorry for poor, defenseless Israel, let me just say this.

HIZBULLAH ISN'T A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.

At least, they haven't been for a while. Why? Because they don't act like terrorists. And if you point out that, while defending Lebanon against annihilation, they shot rockets willy nilly and killed civilians (they didn't target them because the rockets didn't have guidance systems), please recall that Israel blew entire neighborhoods to pieces, knowing that there were no rocket launchers present. The United States kept the "smart weapons" coming and fully supported the slaughter of Lebanese women and children. So if Hizbullah is a "terrorist organization," Israel and the United States are "terrorist states" who are far more dangerous to the world than Hizbullah or any nation in the Middle East ever has been or will be. That includes Syria and Iran.

Lots of libruls defended John Murtha when his citation of an international poll was misattributed to him--as they should have. But what got lost in the vitriolic "debate," is that even if he had declared that the United States was the greatest threat to world peace, it would've been true. If you disagree, feel free to offer examples.

Who "won" the War on Lebanon? Israel, Hizbullah, the US, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, etc. Who lost? Practically every citizen of both countries. 1300 at least. Just wait till you don't see the burnt, maimed families of Iran warming Bush and Olmert's cold, cold hearts.

UPDATE: The new Middle East correspondent for The Daily Show: "Hizbullah may be a ragtag bunch of undereducated Islamic extremists but at least they're not FEMA." Please, Hizbullah, consider relocating....

A Little Nasty Fun

No, not that kind of nasty fun (unfortunately) but fun nonetheless. Sam Harris, the shamelessly atheistic author of The End of Faith, demolishes the mindlessly pro-god book by the head of the genome project, proving that even some scientists can be stone-cold stupid.

DISCLAIMER: Lest I get comments on this, no, I don't think theists are stupid, I just think the author of The Language of God is. I hope to god other theists have a better grasp on logic than this guy.

Another Staged Photo!!!!!!!!!

Wingnuts are hyperventilating this morning over another (alleged) staged photo. "Yeah, whatever," I hear you say. "Last time the guy boosted the contrast, which any decent photographer would do," I hear you continue. "Too bad he got carried away and added more smoke, making the bombed buildings look a little more bombed." Well, this time, somebody put a sign on a car! Oh, shit! Ray Robinson, uber blogger unt photography expert, got the goods on this dog. He's noticed that another picture of the same car taken on the same day doesn't have the sign! [Applause.] Now, see, I'm a photographer and, unlike Malkin and Power Whine, I know what I'm talking about. I even guessed that that Pulitzer-winning photo of a Baghdad street execution was taken from approximately 50 yards away with a telephoto lens (I was off by 5 yards). In this case, yes, the sign was probably added to "inflame Islamic passions." Or, you know, as a memorial--something many New Orleans residents did after Katrina, to, uh, memorialize their ruined homes. (Can anybody read the verses on the sign?)

There are two possibilities:

1. There were two photographers, and somebody put a sign on the car during the interim between which the two photographs were taken
2. A photographer showed up and somebody said, "Hey, dude, lemme put a sign on that car!"

Hm. Let's see.... Oh, yeah, the photographers are credited in the photos' captions. What do they say? Oh, yeah, the photo with the sign was taken by the Greek-sounding Lefteris Pitarakis of AP. The second was taken by non-Hizbullah-sounding Eric Gaillard of Reuters. As the intrepid Ray Robinson notes:

So this photographer had to know this was a set up most likely by Hizbollah and took the photo for the symbolism it would invoke. And AP was happy to publish this propaganda for hizbollah.

Well, um, no, Ray. Not only is there no evidence for that, but there's no evidence for that. Oh, yeah, and there's no evidence that Pitarakis--the photographer with the obviously Lebanese name!--is connected with Hizbullah. One last note from this photographer: The first picture looks like an unstaged snapshot. That's what happens when people aren't posing and you catch them off-guard. That's why the guy in the background to the right is looking at the camera and the guy nearest the camera, leaning on the car, isn't. Any decent photographer would've included the people and the sign. It's a good picture.

The second picture is probably posed (we'd know for sure if he was looking at the lens). If you can't tell that, you are so clueless that even Neal Boortz would be amazed you make more than minimum wage.

Ray, you're what the DSM IV terms a "fucktard." Learn to think. Oh, right, you're conservablogger. Never mind.

Macaca

What's stymied me about this whole George Allen affair is that the man is an elected politician. Meaning that it's hard to believe that he would be stupid enough to use a racial slur for the man videotaping him for his opponent. That's a level of stupid that even Pat Robertson (who's not stupid, but nuts) hasn't attained. That's a type of stupid that would require Allen to leave on his Klan kostume while talking to reporters. Is he a racist? Oh, probably. I don't know. Until today, my best guess was that, given that the slur is European and his mom is of French-Algerian extraction, he probably heard it growing up and, being too ignorant to know what a mohawk is, got confused and did his best George Bush Language School imitation. Now Allen's staff says they'd been calling the guy "macaca" as an insult combining "mohawk" with "shit" and that Allen overheard it on the bus or something. Okay, I can buy that (metonymically, "mohawk" is a lindy hop from "mo'caca"). I can even tentatively believe it because it's still an insult and his useless PR people wouldn't've offered that explanation till things were so bad (say, now) that they had to. Anyway, fuck you, George Allen. I hope you lose. Last time I saw you, you were on the 700 Club and you really are that stupid--not just nuts.

Get Your Ward On

Juvenile has some, er, suspect advice for that fat FEMA check you prolly already spent, but the video's great. Revolution. Damn straight, bra. If you want to see the Ninth Ward, watch the video. (Via Raw Story.)

I Smell a Rat

A couple of years ago, when I still lived in Irish Channel, my cat caught a rat in my bedroom and killed it in my living room. She didn't eat it (don't cats eat rats?), maybe because I'd spoiled her with Little Friskies and the poor rat (I heard it scream) didn't taste so good. Revolted and unsure what to do, I picked it up by the tail--it was surprisingly heavy--and flung it in the street. I meant to put it in the garbage later, but a car got to it first. It lay in the street for weeks, stinking up the neighborhood. A coward, I didn't mention it to my kvetching neighbors.

Why that little anecdote? Because the fetid rat, flattened and sinking into the asphalt, stank for a surprisingly long time. Kind of like Greg Palast's BBC report on the stolen 2000 election--the one that killed our proto-democracy, paving the way for our shiny new police state. Five years later, I still smell that rat. Europe and the UK smelled it years ago and, thanks to Palast, watched America die. Palast fed 60 Minutes the story here, but guess what? CBS killed it.

Funny how American "journalism" works. What little many Americans know of the scam they learned from the evil terrorist-lover Michael Moore's Farenheit 911. Of course, America's fake, state-fellating national media howled at the outrageous lies in the movie--most of which turned out to be true.

So hop into the Wayback Machine, dearest readers, and watch the original BBC Newsnight report that Our Dear Leader and his news lackeys didn't (and don't) want you to see.

You can help keep non-Americans well-informed by contributing to the Palast Investigative Fund here.

Before We Forget

You know that curiously timed "foiled" UK terror plot? the one the Preznit pushed UK law enforcement (note to conservatrons: not the UK armed forces) to make public before all the evidence was in? Well, given Bush™'s penchant for changing terror colors only when it distracts fearful Americans from bad WH news, you may suspect that there's more to the latest fear-mongering than meets the eye.

There is. Former Reagan-era NSA official Wayne Madsen's got the skinny.

And if you read this rag regularly and follow the links, you already know that there's a heap of evidence connecting Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (who helped manufacture "foil" the UK plot) with the Taliban (their creation), Al Qaeda (our creation) and the CIA (who created and still funds the ISI). Canadian economist Michael Chossudovsky retells the sordid tale.

UPDATE: Sully doesn't buy the "foiled" plot either. Now that's saying something.