#3 TELL-A-VISION

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Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less [George W. Bush] would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th [Honorable Republican] President of the United States, Respected General

Brokedown Coffee

Brokedown Coffee Brokedown Coffee banner

Fare you well, my crystals, fare you well my peculated grind...

Brokedown Coffee is a brief view of my experience with coffee and contains the coffee formula I have used since 1971, at home and United State Cafe.

If you have a problem viewing the page, turn JavaScript off in your browser preferences (It is broken in some browsers), or use Firefox, the free browser mentioned on the left side of this page.

http://www.flyingsnail.com/brokedowncoffee/index.html

New Jam Loop

New: Bluz Ate My Song - Created with 'stock' GarageBand and M-Audio Oxygen 8 MIDI Keyboard Controller. I have been using this piece as a loop to exercise my fingers on guitar and piano.

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/BluzAteMySong.mp3

Source: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/index.html

Ecospot: Grand Prize Winner: Sky is Falling

I made this PSA to make people think about how much crap we pump into the air. I wanted to use a creative, simple metaphor so everyone can understand how much harm we're doing to the atmosphere and environment. - dmartist9

http://current.com/items/87610321_ecospot_grand_prize_winner_sky_is_falling

World authors on climate change

Coinciding with the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,

http://www.ipcc.ch/

the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper asked writers from around the world for their perspectives. Read how global warming has effected lives in from Bombay to the high Alps, from The Netherlands to Nigeria and beyond. We present stories by Hans Maarten van den Brink, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Romesh Gunesekera, Kiran Nagarkar, Leo Tuor, Ibrahim al-Koni and more...

Seas of stone
The publication of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has kicked off a heavy debate which - as EU's the recent climate protection plans show - is affecting political decision-making. The NZZ feuilleton asked writers from far and wide to report on climate change from a personal point of view. The series begins with Swiss author Leo Tuor, who has felt the effects of the Earth's warming right up to his belly button. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1354.html

Underwater
Continuing with the series, originally published in the NZZ, of first-hand accounts of climate change by international writers, Hans Maarten van den Brink talks of arks and dykes and watersport and the Dutch obsession with the sea. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1355.html

Black Christmas
In the NZZ's climate change series, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells how Christmas changed in 2006, with choking heat and clammy bedsheets. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1370.html

Rain
Continuing the NZZ's climate change series, Sri Lankan author Romesh Gunesekera tells how everything is perfect for the model farmer with a mathematical mind. Until the rain messes up his calculations. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1358.html

From Bombay with smog
In a new sequel of the NZZ's climate change series, Kiran Nagarkar affords a lung-clogging view from Bombay, where this winter the smog was a block of dirty concrete that started a couple of metres from where you stood and stretched all the way to the sky. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1357.html

Meteorologists versus shamans
Continuing the NZZ's series of first-hand accounts of climate change by international writers, siberian-born Juri Rytcheu picks fun at polar meteorologists and admits he wouldn't mind it getting a bit warmer. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1392.html

Grapes from Greenland
Continuing the NZZ's series of first-hand accounts of climate change by international writers, Danish author Jorn Riel tells of his psychedelic visions for the future of the Arctic. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1394.html

Feasting on the mother's corpse
In the eyes of most cultures, from time immemorial, the earth has never been just a planet. It is a holy entity, and it is a sin to defile it. Says Ibrahim al-Koni, anyone who does so puts himself and all of us at risk. read more:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1406.html

Source: signalandsight.com World authors on climate change

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1395.html

VFP E-BULLETIN

IVAW Kicks Off Winter Soldier Campaign

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War are reigniting a historic Vietnam War investigation called the Winter Soldier Campaign. In 1971, members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit, Michigan to testify about Vietnam.

The courage of those 125+ veterans speaking out has sparked today's veterans to do the same. March 13 - 15, 2008, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will be gathering in Washington D.C, along with Iraqi and Afghani survivors, to share their stories about the atrocities happening in today's conflicts.

If you are a have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you can participate in the Winter Soldier Campaign of 2008.

http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldiersubmittestimony

Others can support IVAW's actions by signing the statement of support.

http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldierstatmentofsupport

Veterans For Peace - http://www.veteransforpeace.org/

Anderson Springs Community Alliance

Preserving our natural resources & quality of life

This website is devoted to preservation of Anderson Springs' diverse natural resources & special quality of life, as well as the creation of Public awareness about numerous significant environmental impacts affecting the community due to ongoing geothermal development.

Please Visit: http://www.andersonsprings.org/

A rural teacher with global reach

Greg Craven of Monmouth, Ore., shot a low-tech video on climate change that is attracting a major online audience.

By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the December 20, 2007 edition

Monmouth, Ore. - Greg Craven is flat out. The fifth-period physics class he teaches is about to start, and there's still lesson planning to do. But at his cluttered desk over by the window, he's e-mailing last-minute changes to his guest column scheduled to run tomorrow in The Oregonian newspaper. And a producer from National Public Radio in New York has called about setting up an interview.

You could say this all illustrates chaos theory, he observes – searching for underlying order in things that seem random. Which relates to global climate change, as Earth heats up from a multitude of causes. Which relates to why this young high school science teacher in rural Oregon is juggling so many things on a wintery gray afternoon at Central High School here in Monmouth.

It all started last spring. Mr. Craven posted a nine-minute, 33-second clip on YouTube, the video-sharing website featuring everything from "stupid pet tricks" to presidential candidates pandering to voters.

Called "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See," it attempted to explain the reality and risk of what he says is "likely to be the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced."

The video is low-tech – just a guy in a purple T-shirt standing at a whiteboard drawing a simple diagram to illustrate his point: The best available science shows us headed toward a global-warming disaster unless we take urgent steps to prevent it.

Craven also produced a follow-up YouTube clip, which takes into account criticisms he received, called "How It All Ends." Together the videos have "gone viral." They've rocketed around the Internet, spawning postings elsewhere and the creation of special websites by those impressed with his work. So far, the videos have attracted more than 4 million views, a query from a book agent, and a call this week from ABC's "Good Morning America" TV show.

The work also has received kudos from experts who've seen it.

"It's amusing, and transmits the idea of risk management very effectively," says Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences at Princeton University in New Jersey and a lead author of this year's reports by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "About two-thirds of the way through, he takes off his neutral cap and decides to advocate for the 'let's act' side," Dr. Oppenheimer says. "After that, the pitch is a little more traditional, but no less effective."

Bud Ward, editor of The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media, says Craven's work "sets an exceptional example of effective communications on a complex subject."

The Oregon Science Teach--ers Association, which recently named Craven its "Outstanding Teacher of the Year," calls his main video "a very well thought out discussion of climate change."

After Craven made "How It All Ends," he spent six weeks fueled by pizza and energy drinks producing an "expanded package" of 44 YouTube videos delving into climate issues in more detail – such things as "the mechanics of global climate change," "scare tactics," and "why there is still debate." He had to break it up, because YouTube videos can't exceed 10 minutes in length. The project finally totaled out at six-plus hours of videos and 108 pages of script, amounting to nearly 70,000 words.

It was all a little rough on the family.

"He would work at home when we were asleep and at school when we were awake," says his wife, Jodi Coleman, who taught grade school for eight years before becoming a full-time mom. "We just didn't see much of him, and I tried to keep the kids out of his hair."

The productions are simple and plain-spoken. Craven talks rapidly into his home computer, occasionally trading comments with his "foil" – himself wearing funny hats and occasionally firing off tabletop pyrotechnics of the type he uses in class.

The first video received several thousand comments – many of them dismissive or critical, some of them scary and threatening. And though he cites such highly regarded sources as the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (but not the IPCC, which itself is controversial), many climate-change skeptics remain unswayed by his arguments.

Climate-change skeptic Warren Meyer, a Phoenix businessman whose blog includes many detailed postings and videos on climate change, calls Craven's video "a clever kind of sleight of hand," particularly regarding the likely economic costs of major government policies.

"He argues that one buys car insurance without actually knowing if he is going to crash his car or how much such a crash might cost," Mr. Meyer says. "I would retort, 'Yes, but you wouldn't pay $35,000 for car insurance if you only had a $30,000 car.' Costs matter a lot, as does the magnitude of risk."

Thomas Demelo, a junior in Craven's chemistry class, is not totally convinced by his teacher's arguments about global warming. "It really did get me to think about it, though," he says. Thomas, who's been taught by Craven since freshman year, calls him "a really good teacher who likes what he's teaching and gets the class involved."

Alicia Brown, a senior in Craven's physics class, likes his emphasis on critical thinking, as well as his ability to get students excited about the subjects he teaches.

"He's made a history and English nerd like me like math and science," she says.

So far, the 44 additional videos have not taken off like "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See" and "How It All Ends."

"That's the nature of a nonlinear system," Craven says with a hint of disappointment. "But I get a number of contacts a day, and that keeps me going. People have said I've changed their behavior.... People have made websites and discussion forums."

He realizes it's all a bit quixotic.

"My mission in this is to change the culture," Craven says, "so that a policymaker can't turn around without somebody saying 'Hey! What are you doing about climate change?' We need significant changes in the basis of our modern society, which is cheap, easily accessible fossil fuels."

His efforts have become a bit bewildering and sometimes exhausting. "It's been hard to think I'm not delusional.... I need to get back to being a husband and a daddy," he says, speaking of Jodi and their young daughters, Katie and Alex.

But something keeps pushing him forward.

"This line from a Dave Matthews song – 'Did I do all that I could?' – kept running through my head," he says. "If this doesn't save the world, it at least allows me some moral absolution. It allows me to know that my daughters will forgive me because I did the best I could."

Nobody for President - None of the Above on Voter Ballots

The 'Nobody Knows' US election

By Justin Webb
BBC North America editor

This is the first US presidential election since 1928 in which neither the president nor the vice-president is standing in the primaries, seeking re-election.

It is the Nobody Knows election. Nobody knows which candidates will end up representing the two main parties, nobody knows exactly when the parties will choose them, and nobody knows which issues will decide the eventual contest.

We are looking at two elections, each with its own dynamic, the nomination battle - the primaries and caucuses - and the general election itself.

The landscape often changes dramatically during the course of the battle.

John Kerry was not the Democratic frontrunner before the Iowa caucus in 2004. George W Bush was nearly derailed by the New Hampshire primary in 2000.

Two candidates bashing each other can allow a third to slip through and capture the affection of the voters.

The first hurdle

And the voters enjoy their power.

A recent poll suggested half of them in New Hampshire are not intending to make up their minds until the week before the contest on 8 January.

Both Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton have been waging national campaigns which might blow up in their faces.

Rudy Giuliani has remained true-(ish) to his previously held conviction that abortion should be reasonably widely available to American women. This might hurt him among conservative voters in rural Iowa, but it is close to the view of most Americans as expressed in national polls.

Hillary Clinton has voted in favour of sanctions on Iran demanded by the White House. Among her party's left wing anti-war supporters in the early primary states this caused dismay, but in the wider population it is probably the position the majority would back.

What would happen if either or both candidates came unstuck in Iowa and New Hampshire?

The traditional view is that they would crash and burn - like Howard Dean in 2004 - and we would hardly remember their names by the summer.

But these candidates might be different; they have national recognition, national campaign staff and national funds.

So Mr Giuliani could perhaps brush off early losses and focus on Florida which comes at the end of January and which he should win.

A third candidate?

Hillary Clinton could do the same and focus on Super Tuesday in the first week of February where New York, New Jersey, and California will be among the big states she will expect to win.

There is also less time this year between Iowa and Super Tuesday - less time for momentum to be built for an Iowa winner or lost for a loser.

The candidates from each of the main parties are likely to be anointed after Super Tuesday or within a month or so of that contest.

So by March it is very likely that a Democrat and a Republican will have emerged.

It is also possible, particularly if large segments of the middle ground in US politics are unhappy (say, with a choice between John Edwards and Mike Huckabee) that the Mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg, might step in.

Mr Bloomberg does not need to raise any money. He could spend $1bn (£500m) on the campaign and not miss it.

Although he was technically a Republican until recently, his gut sympathies are with the Democrats and he would attract large numbers of centre-left voters.

He is a serious politician (do not think Ross Perot) and he will only stand if he could win.

Iraq and the economy

His entry - perhaps as late as March - would focus on technical competence, leadership skills, and business acumen, allied with social awareness and concern.

It would be the ultimate "throw out the party hacks" candidacy and there is no doubt that polling in recent months suggests it strikes a chord with large numbers of Americans.

As for the issues in the second contest, the general election in November, Iraq is plainly important but is it necessarily damaging for the Republicans?

Might an Iraq narrative emerge that makes "staying the course" look statesmanlike and wise?

The economy likewise, is plainly an issue, but will it be in catastrophic shape by next November or will it be powering ahead, with house prices on the up again and the market panic of recent times a distant memory?

More than is normal in presidential politics, nobody knows.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7147993.stm

Double D saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you should see it. == Thanks Double D

Operation FALCON: Police state America in real time

by Stephen Lendman
Wednesday, 26 December 2007

Mike Whitney won a 2008 Project Censored Award for his February 2007 article titled "Operation FALCON and the Looming Police State." In it, he reported that the Bush administration "carried out three massive sweeps in the last two years, rolling up more than 30,000 minor crooks and criminals" that he calls a "blueprint for removing dissidents and political rivals" reminiscent of Nazi Germany or any other repressive police state.

Operation FALCON stands for "Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally" and came out of the Bush Justice Department and right-wing think tanks "where fantasies of autocratic government have a long history" and are now playing out in real time. The scheme centralizes power in Washington and uses resources of local authorities for its own purposes.

Whitney traces its short history starting in the week of April 4-10, 2005, when over 10,000 criminal suspects were arrested in "the largest criminal sweep in the nation's history" in a "single initiative." Its aim was "quantity," not "quality," but Whitney asked why did the feds get involved in local police work and suggested something more sinister was involved "than just ensuring public safety." His answer: "to enhance the powers of the ‘unitary' executive" by giving Washington power over local law enforcement. And that makes perfect sense for an administration obsessed with wanting unchallengeable control.

Operation FALCON II followed a week later, April 17-23, and swept up another 9,037 "alleged fugitives." The final FALCON III came Oct. 22-28, 2006, with 10,773 more arrests. Each sweep was the same and concentrated on alleged criminal types.

The sweeps are so far out of character for a federal operation that clearly another motive was involved. Further, no one arrested was charged with a terrorist-related crime, and that alone looks fishy. Whitney thought so and called FALCON "new drills for a new world order" that's waging permanent war, defies the law, ignores checks and balances, condones torture, repeals habeas and illegally spies on everyone. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.sfbayview.com/News/Main/Operation_FALCON_Police_state_America_in_real_time.html

Thanks to V at Code Pink for the lead.

Remembering Political Promises

The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State. Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels

Wondering If Your Vote Will Count and Be Counted?

Grand Theft America
Flash Animation by Eric Blumrich
EricBlumrich.com
Music by: The Shootas

If we don't have a clear vision of the military, if we don't stop extending our troops all around the world and nation building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road, and I'm going to prevent that. - October 3, 2000 - George W. Bush, Liar

Bush Should Live Up to 2000 Pledge

By Terry M. Neal
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 18, 2005; 8:04 AM

During the year and a half that I covered George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, I must have heard his stump speech a thousand times. The lines changed little over the months, and the ending almost never changed -- Bush would raise his hand, as if taking an oath, and promise to restore honor and dignity to the White House.

He also vowed to restore civility to the poisonous atmosphere of the nation's capital, declaring at a GOP fundraiser in April 2000 that "it's time to clean up the toxic environment in Washington, D.C."

A few months later, Bush told voters at a campaign event in Pittsburgh that his administration would "ask not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves."

The latter comment in particular was a not-so-subtle slap at the legalistic parsing of words of both President Clinton, who parried with prosecutors over the meaning of the word "is," and Vice President Al Gore, who twisted himself into a pretzel with legalisms about raising money at a Buddhist temple during the 1996 presidential campaign.

Bush's speech resonated with many voters, and the themes of honesty and integrity helped propel him to the White House in one of the closest [rigged] elections in decades.

Today, the president's White House and party are mired in scandal, and Washington waits breathlessly to see whether special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the reporters, will indict any prominent West Wing staff members.

Political strategist Karl Rove, aka "Bush's Brain," and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, are believed to be possible targets in the investigation. An indictment of either man would be a serious blow to the administration, but what many observers are watching is how President Bush will respond.

After all, back in June 2004 the president said he'd fire anyone involved in the leak of Plame's name. But Bush seemed to lower the standard this summer -- when it became clear that Rove and Libby did in fact have conversations with reporters about Plame -- saying only that if someone "committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."

Given the opportunity on Monday to reassure the public that he meant all of those things he said back in 2000 during the campaign and specifically what he said in June 2004 about the Plame scandal, the president punted.

"There's a serious investigation," Bush said when asked by reporters during a White House photo-op with the Bulgarian prime minister. "I'm not going to prejudge the outcome of the investigation."

But Bush wasn't being asked by the press to "prejudge" the outcome. He was, essentially, being asked to define his standard of propriety. Does someone have to be indicted and convicted of a specific crime in the Plame case to deserve dismissal from Bush's staff? Or does a person merely have to have engaged in questionable, or possibly unethical, behavior?

The investigation into the Plame leak raises plenty of questions that the president may eventually be forced to answer. Among the biggest is what exactly have Rove and Libby told Bush about their roles in the leak?

Murray Waas raised just this question in a National Journal story earlier this month, writing:

"White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove personally assured President Bush in the early fall of 2003 that he had not disclosed to anyone in the press that Valerie Plame, the wife of an administration critic, was a CIA employee, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the accounts that both Rove and Bush independently provided to federal prosecutors.

"During the same conversation in the White House two years ago -- occurring just days after the Justice Department launched a criminal probe into the unmasking of Plame as a covert agency operative -- Rove also assured the president that he had not leaked any information to the media in an effort to discredit Plame's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson. Rove also did not tell the president about his July 2003 a phone call with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, a conversation that touched on the issue of Wilson and Plame."

If reports such as those are true, Rove clearly misled the president about his role. And to make matters worse, the White House wittingly or unwittingly played along, in the form of White House spokesman Scott McClellan's denials two years ago that anyone in the administration had anything to do with the Plame leak.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN SAYS, WHITE HOUSE TOLD HIM TO LIE TO 'THE PEOPLE'

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. There was one problem. It was not true. I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration "were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself. "

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/

There was a time when Bush's strength was the public's belief in his character and leadership. A CBS News poll earlier this month found that only 45 percent of people believe Bush has "strong qualities of leadership" (compared with 52 percent who don't).

At this point, we don't know if Rove or Libby or anyone else at the White House committed a crime. But given the president's past insistence that his administration would restore honor and dignity to our government, it's fair to ask how hard will Bush work to get to the truth? Will he confront Rove and Libby? Will he ask Vice President Cheney if he had any knowledge of what his top aide was doing or whether he played any role at all in the leak?

Bush's handling of the Plame issue could be a defining issue for him, as he seeks to get his presidency back on track.

If Rove, Libby or anyone else is indicted, the president should at minimum suspend that person without pay pending the outcome of the case. But even if no one is indicted, Bush should fulfill his promise to restore honor and integrity to the White House by assuring the public that strict legality is not the only standard he seeks to uphold.

Bush will have to resist his penchant for secrecy and loyalty and launch an aggressive internal investigation, pledging complete transparency -- with a full public accounting released at the end of that investigation.

Will the president send the message that he is serious about what he promised at that campaign event in Pittsburgh five years ago? Or will he suggest it all depends on what the meaning of "what is right" is?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101800410.html

BlackMustache.com

If a president is willing to lie about the most basic governmental and political facts, civic debate becomes impossible, and the public becomes incapable of informed judgment. Because of the great weight that any president's words have with the public, the president of the United States must not be a liar. - Tony (I wonder what I was smoking when I said that) Blankley

The Scooter Libby verdict is inextricably linked to Iraq: his lies were an attempt to cover up the disingenuous case for war. - Sidney Blumenthal

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sidney_blumenthal/2007/03/scooter_libby_1.html

Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? - Barbara Bush, 3/18/2003

Support for Political Assassination?

If you harbor a terrorist, if you support a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists - George W. Bush

U.S. Officials See Waste in Billions Sent to Pakistan

By DAVID ROHDE, CARLOTTA GALL, ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: December 24, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/world/asia/24military.html?ref=us

Satire and Speculation

by Paul Krassner

A few years ago, in my last album, right after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, I talked about how furious Senators and congressmen were, looking at such photos as a prisoner forced to wear women’s panties on his head and a naked prisoner with a dog collar attached to a leash held by a woman who is pointing at the man’s penis and laughing. Why were those legislators sputtering with such rage? Because THEY have to pay EXTRA for those services.

Now, I asked Sam Leff--given his background as an anthropologist studying and writing about the hidden rituals of American sadomasochism--for his take on the CIA’s cover-up of torture videos.

“I have been watching with fascinated horror,” he said, “as America's S/M patterns of culture have emerged into the open in the Abu Ghraib/Gitmo Bush administration. I’ve been flashing on some clear images of the fratboy reality underlying the White House torture tape controversy.

“Picture this. Bush and Karl Rove sitting around a big plasma screen (drinking beer?) and laughing their asses off watching helpless prisoners drowning under a waterboard, or naked getting cigarette burns, or maybe having analgesic balm applied to their genitals.

“Once the existence of the tapes became known, their cover story is that they were having a big discussion about whether or not to keep or destroy the torture tapes. Like that old pervert, J. Edgar Hoover, the reality is they were getting off looking at them as sadistic porn--over and over. Perhaps sharing them with the ‘frat brothers’ of their inner circle.”

Indeed, in November 2005, Garry Trudeau was queried by Editor & Publisher about his Doonesbury strip the previous Sunday which had George Bush defending the branding of Yale University fraternity initiates with a red-hot coat-hanger in 1967, and Trudeau replied that it was “Totally fact based. Bush’s comment in panel seven is a direct quote.” He was referring to the collegiate Bush saying, “Insignificant! There’s no scarring mark physically or mentally!”

Some pledges told the Yale Daily News that their branding was preceded by a physical beating. Said one: “By that time, my body was so numb [from the beatings] that the iron felt good, like a match was being held close to my body.” Bush, who was president of the fraternity, said that the resulting wound was “only a cigarette burn.” Or maybe enhanced pledging technique.

Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness - Declaration of Independence

SKIDOO
January 4th - TCM
Turner Classic Movies
11:00 PM Pacific Time

Subject: Otto Preminger's "Skidoo" will air on TCM on January 4th.
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:35:44 EST
From: BsarlesWire
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Otto Preminger's "Skidoo" will air on TCM on January 4th. See The Great One drop acid and Groucho blow a doobie.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Skidoo is a 1968 comedy film starring Jackie Gleason and Groucho Marx, directed by Otto Preminger, and released by Paramount Pictures, with storyline by Doran William Cannon.

The movie featured a cast of mostly stars and veteran character actors, including Carol Channing, Cesar Romero, Frankie Avalon, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, George Raft, Richard Kiel, Arnold Stang, Frank Gorshin, Mickey Rooney, Slim Pickens, Stacy King, newcomers John Phillip Law, Alexandra Hay, Donyale Luna and Austin Pendleton, Groucho in his final movie role, and a score (arranged and conducted by George Tipton) by singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, who also appeared briefly in the movie. It was an "acid comedy", with elements of free love and the hippie movement, and satires of technology, anti-technology, modern times and creature comforts.

The story is about a retired mobster, Tony Banks (Gleason), now settled with wife Flo (Channing) and daughter Darlene (Hay), who worries about his daughter's new hippie boyfriend Stash (Law), and his own paternity of Darlene. Romero and Avalon appear as two mob bosses, Hechy and Angie, who bring Tony the news that "God" (Marx) wants him to carry out one last job; murder his old pal " Blue Chips" Packard (Rooney), before he can testify before the US Senate's Crime Commission. Tony refuses, but upon finding his friend Harry (Stang) shot through the head, goes along with God's wishes, and is sent to the new, high-tech island prison where Packard is being held, infiltrating as a convict.

In his absence, Flo invites Stash and his friends to stay at their house, to beat a vagrancy charge. She visits Angie (as does Darlene, looking for her in turn) to persuade him to either cancel the job, or take her to God (who's living without a country, on a yacht in international waters) so she can ask personally. Angie won't take FloÃ¢Â€Â” but he will take Darlene, who nonetheless insists on bringing Stash along. God takes a liking to Darlene, as does God's mistress Elizabeth (Luna) to Stash, but both are frustrated in their pursuit.

One of Tony's cellmates turns out to be a draft dodger called Fred the Professor (Pendleton); an electronics wizard who has renounced technology, but still rigs a television set to allow Banks to communicate with Packard between cells. Banks realises he can't kill his old friend, and thus will probably never leave the prison. He writes his wife with the news, on stationery borrowed from Fred, and ignores Fred's pleas not to lick the envelope. When he does, he discovers the hard way that all the stationery is soaked with LSD... enough to send the whole prison on a hard trip. Fred guides Tony through the resulting acid experience, helping him come to terms with his worries about Darlene and his past, and plotting their escape.

Darlene and Stash spend the night aboard God's yacht, with Stash getting word back to Flo and his friends about their location, and a coded plea for help. As the hippies mount a rescue, Tony and Fred build a makeshift balloon from discarded freezer bags and garbage cans, dump the whole supply of stationery into the prison's lunch, and fly out of the prison as everyone below begins to freak out.

As it happens, both the hippies (led by Flo, who sings the title number as they storm the yacht) and the balloon arrive at God's hideaway at the same time. As they hunt him down, God abandons ship. Tony and Flo borrow a cabin on the yacht and renew their relationship, while Angie marries Elizabeth, and Stash and Darlene take their own hippie vows. God and Fred sail off together to pursue a simpler life.

Before anyone can leave their seat, Preminger's voice calls out "Stop!" and beckons the audience to stay for the credits, sung by Nilsson with asides ("How was your popcorn?").

TCM - Turner Classic Movies: http://www.tcm.com/index.jsp
Wikipedia - Skidoo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skidoo_%28film%29

India's Tata Motors Ltd unveiled the world's cheapest car, the Nano at $2,500
Photo source: http://www.gulfnews.com/images/08/01/10/10_bz_tata_ap_4.jpg

World's cheapest car unveiled in India

Agencies: Published: January 10, 2008, 13:25

New Delhi: India’s India's Tata Motors Ltd unveiled the world's cheapest car on Thursday, bringing car ownership closer to millions of consumers.

The four-seater Nano will have a dealer price of 100,000 rupees ($2,500), and will go on sale later this year. It costs less than half of India's cheapest car, the Maruti 800.

"Let me assure you and our critics the car we have designed will meet all safety norms and all foreign environmental criteria," Chairman Ratan Tata said at the unveiling.

The car has a rear-wheel drive, an all-aluminium body, a 623cc engine, a multi-point fuel injection system. It has a roomy passenger compartment with generous legroom.

"It's a dream come true," Ashok Singh, a constable with the Delhi Police. "I look forward to buying that car. My wife will be really happy."

Tata said the car would have a rear-mounted engine and travel 20 kilometres per litre of petrol. It would be offered in a basic model and two deluxe variants.

Tata said it would focus on the home market for up to three years before considering exporting the Nano to countries in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Source: http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Automobiles/10180877.html

Asses of Evil

Steve Bell cartoon - George Bush's visit to Israel
Steve Bell

Bush fails to gain concessions on settlements from Olmert

Little progress made since Annapolis peace talks
Security forces on alert during president's visit

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
Thursday January 10, 2008
The Guardian

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, last night refused to rule out further settlement building in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, highlighting the deep gulf between Israel and the Palestinians that confronts George Bush on his first visit to Israel and the West Bank as president. [continue reading at]:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2238158,00.html

Screen shot Google 200801.12 - US: Iranian bombs rise in Iraq

Bushie Rove'r Publicans Behind Extended Writers Strike
by fly_on_the_wall

The following is based on an insider rumor circulating around Washington, D.C. and should be made public, in case it is true.

The rumor is, the Bush Administration, led by Karl Rove and certain corporate media executives are responsible for the extended writers strike, because it takes the heat off current events, like elections leading up to the 2008 Presidential race, and despicable acts committed by a murderous Bush Administration.

Apparently, due to high television ratings of fake news shows like "The/A Daily Show" and "The Colbert/Col_bert Report", and hard hitting real news reporting on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Corporate Media Executives jumped on the 'Rove'r bandwagon' to repress FUN and HUMOR for U.S. citizens. Anybody believe in Impeachment... maybe starting with Pelosi, and working up?

Crazy Man At Work
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Bush Says: Iran threatens world security
Monday, January 14, 2008
Bush Urges Unity Against Iran

Google News screen shot 200801.13 Lying Bush says, Iran threatens world security. .

WMD Was A Lie

Dangerous Lame Dry Drunk Duck
...and Lying Lame Duck Failure Has A Year Left

Value Your Child's Future? Please Look Up and Research:

DRY DRUNK SYNDROM

Taj Mahal, India

guruji beta

New - India Search Engine
http://guruji.com

About Guruji

India, known for being the spiritual Guru of the world, is now seeking to become the technology Guru with Indians spearheading the IT revolution. With Guruji.com, a totally indigenous product, we aspire to become a world-class search engine and showcase the "Indian" content to the world.

Guruji, a respectful way to call one's teacher, is the person one seeks help from in times of need. Likewise, Guruji.com is built to help provide easy access to information in every walk of life.

Guruji.com is the first crawler based search engine for India and India related content. Our proprietary algorithm automatically identifies India related content on the web and organizes it in such a way that you get the most relevant results fast. Our team of young, dynamic and passionate engineers from India's premier institutes like the IITs,IISc and other top engineering colleges, is working arduously to make this product better each day.

A local page with a few pictures from India:
http://www.flyingsnail.com/Scrapbook/page009.html

Steve Bell cartoon - We must confront this Filipino Monkey before it's too late!
Steve Bell

General NBC Electric,
A Skilled Killing Machine

General Electric is one of the largest exporters of weapons of mass destruction on the planet Earth.

Corporations who profit from War should NOT be allowed to own Corporate Media.

Columbia Journalism Review
Who Owns What

General Electric is one of the largest exporters of weapons of mass destruction on the planet, has problems with honesty, profits from war, and should not be allowed to own 'any' public media.

Click HERE to see what General Electric Owns

Click HERE to view General Electric's Corporate Timeline

Click HERE to view (PDF) of how General Electric stole Nikola Tesla's Patent Rights

1985 General Electric [profits from war and exports WMD] buys NBC

1995 Westinghouse Electric [profits from war and exports WMD] buys CBS

1996 CBS buys Infinity radio broadcasting

1997 CBS buys American Radio Systems

1999 NBC takes 32% of Paxson Communications Corporation

1999 CBS buys King World Productions

1999 Infinity [GE/NBC] buys Outdoor Systems billboard group

1999 Viacom ["holding the public airwaves hostage"] buys CBS

PermaLink: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/corporatemediatoolofevil.html

Did General Electric/Microsoft/NBC Joe Scarborough Murder Lori Klausutis?

Don Imus [ex-MSNBC Implied Racist] asked you why you aren't in Congress. You said, that you had sex with the intern and then you had to kill her. Then you laughed and replied, "Yeah, well, what are you gonna do?" [Read the rest at Project for the Old American Century listed below]

A Death in the Congressman's Office

Does Anybody in the Press Care About Lori Klausutis?

A young female employee of one of Florida's Congressmen had died unexpectedly in the Congressman's office. There were no witnesses to her death and the cause of death was not apparent. Klausutis' boss, Joe Scarborough had recently resigned from Congress prematurely and unexpectedly, amid rumors about his marital fidelity and soon after a divorce. He had also abruptly resigned as publisher of the Independent Florida Sun, claiming that resigning from Congress and as publisher was necessary to spend more time with his sons.

Source: http://oldamericancentury.org/lori_klausutis.htm

Alternative: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/firejoescarborough.html

If You Boycotted the Debate, Didn't Watch, Or Didn't Care About What Any Candidate Was Going to Say...
by Kevin Gosztola

This is a small collection of comments from across the web responding to the media exclusion committed by NBC tonight.

(This is not an article endorsing or not endorsing Dennis. It is mainly to shed more light on NBC’s recent achievement, the exclusion of Dennis Kucinich from another debate.)

I was reading some of the comments or responses to Dennis Kucinich’s exclusion posted all over the Internet and decided that some of these definitely deserve posting so that they can be read. I have chosen to expand the discussion and include some other viewpoints so I can continue a dialogue on media exclusion that is not limited to what I have to say.

I think you will find this nation can hope for a bit better than what the current leaders in America have to offer if some of these people commenting step up and become the leaders we vote for. A few of them properly highlighted how they miss the League of Women Voters. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kevin_go_080115_if_you_boycotted_the.htm

Galactic Fart
Headed Towards A Neighborhood Near You
by Balz

Gas cloud to collide with Milky Way

A massive cloud of gas is on a collision course with the Milky Way galaxy and will trigger a new round of star formation when it arrives, astronomers reported last week. The cloud, called Smith's Cloud, is 11,000 light-years long and 2,500 light-years wide, and is on a path that will collide with our galaxy in 20 to 40 million years, according to research by NRAO astronomers. That collision will trigger a round of star formation, much of it supergiant stars that will live for only a few million years before going supernova. The region of the collision is about 90 degrees ahead of the Sun in the plane of the galaxy.

Pictures and related links: http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/4050

Wondering If Your Vote Will Count and Be Counted?

Image source: http://www.tomflocco.com/banner/Rushmore08.gif

New Hampshire vote fraud evidence elicits calls for recount
by Tom Flocco

New York—January 12, 2008—TomFlocco.com—Evidence of vote fraud in Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary has inflamed the internet with reports that disparities exist between swapped precinct percentages regarding Diebold electronic optical scanning machines versus hand-counted ballots involving presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Curiously—with percentages so perfect as if someone was attempting to entrap the perpetrators—Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton received 91,717 votes or 52.95% in precincts using Diebold Accuvote optical scan electronic voting machines and 20,889 votes or 47.05% of ballots from precincts using hand-counted votes.

Democratic Senator Barack Obama received the same 52.95% or 23,509 votes in hand-counted precincts and the same 47.05% or 81,495 votes in precincts using Diebold optical scanning tabulators, both according to analysts at the Election Defense Alliance (EDA) who used results from the New Hampshire Secretary of State website, raising questions as to how the percentage swap occurred.

More importantly, CNN, MSNBC, FOX and the three television networks all had scores of election analysts and exit poll reporters watching New Hampshire ballot returns like hawks, yet all failed to report the above anomaly to New Hampshire voters.

There is also evidence that at least one cable television network may have already known about vote count and percentage anomalies given the manner in which coverage was affected according to one authority with strong U.S. intelligence connections. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/NewHampshireVoteFraud.htm

[200801.09 from fly_on_the_wall: Anybody find it interesting (in New Hampshire) Neocon choices won? Many years ago Rove was asked about elections and he said 'he went to work about an hour or so before polls closed'.

My understanding of what he said was, 'near the closing of the polls, we change the vote by a small margin, in our favor, and if anybody complains, we'll call them, SORE LOSER. It works every time!]

Silvestro the cat & the New Hampshire election

From: Ecological Options Network
Date: January 8, 2008 1:31:58 AM EST
Subject: Hackable New Hampshire A YouTube video from Black Box Voting that you won't soon forget.

THE CAT THAT CONTROLS NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION PROGRAMMING

John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has exclusive programming contracts for ALL New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote in the primary. And as to Super Tuesday and beyond: Silvestro also has the programming contracts for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

Silvestro IS the New Hampshire chain of custody in New England -- Or at least, a very large component in it.

Last fall, with the help of citizens like you, Black Box Voting began working on "Chain of Custody" projects, in which we identified some of the areas of concern that might affect many jurisdictions at once. First on the list for the Northeast U.S. is LHS Associates, a vendor with inside access to every memory card, as well as to the chips containing the "brain" of the Diebold optical scan machines.

RARE VIDEO FOOTAGE

In an unusual confluence of available video, we obtained footage of Silvestro grappling with Harri Hursti, the master hacker who had his way with the Diebold optical scans in Leon County, Florida in the famous exploit that was showcased in the film Hacking Democracy.

The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Because the voting machine locations tend to be urban, this represents about 81 percent of the New Hampshire voters.

The video shows Harri Hursti testifying on Sept. 19 before the New Hampshire legislature, attempting to explain significant vulnerabilities requiring urgent mitigations; throughout his testimony, Silvestro inserted his own comments, opinions, misstatements and speculations.

VOTING MACHINE CHECKUP

One area of disagreement between Hursti and Silvestro was the amount of expertise needed to exploit the Diebold 1.94w optical scan system. Silvestro claimed (in a strange contortion of reasoning) that he doesn't hire very skilled programmers, implying that this makes New Hampshire elections more secure.

Hursti pointed out that hiring programmers with a lack of knowledge is generally not considered a security feature, and also that an average high schooler can learn to exploit the system in two days to two weeks.

WE THINK IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG

Black Box Voting purchased a Diebold optical scan with 1.94w firmware, and chose a computer repair shop out of the phone book, took it in, grabbed the first available technician. It took him less than 10 minutes to zero in on the memory card as a point of critical vulnerability -- and oh my, did he point out some other intersting things!

NEW HAMPSHIRE HASN'T UPGRADED SYSTEM SECURITY

Silvestro tries to claim that the security problems have been fixed in newer editions. Whether or not they have been, it's a moot point in New Hampshire where the upgrade is not made unless the Ballot Law Commission meets, and they have not met for ages.

Silvestro then points to extraordinary measures taken by other states to enact special procedural safeguards, but of course none of those were implemented in New Hampshire either, because the Ballot Law Commission has not bothered to meet since March 2006.

IN FACT, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED MITIGATIONS FOR KNOWN RISKS

Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.

LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.

CONTROL OVER THE "BRAINS" OF THE MACHINE: ACCESS TO THE CHIP

Since LHS maintains the machines, repairs the machines, and replaces the machines -- often on Election Day -- when they malfunction, they have intimate access to the chips, sockets, ports, communications devices and other electronic components.

Silvestro stated that the chip has "read only memory" and cannot be reprogrammed without frying it under ultraviolet light overnight.

Hursti never had a chance to examine the hardware, nor have most of the recent university studies had access. But our friendly neighborhood computer repair guy differed with Silvestro on the point of plug & play reprogramming of the guts of the machine.

After I push the button to send this message out to the media and the citizenry, I'll work on getting a short YouTube video of the Accuvote checkup by our local computer repairman. And before you say, "But wait! He's not a world class expert!" -- That's just the point.

Our local computer repairman may hit or miss on some of his analyses. You'll all be able to try your hand at second guessing him as soon as the next video is up. But if he hits even one of his ideas for how to exploit the machine to steal votes, that's all it takes. From someone who is not, certainly, a world class hacker or even a hacker at all.

I'll post the link to that in a follow up here:

http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/71200.html?1199744175,

and invite you techs to weigh in.

Please feel free to distribute, reprint or excerpt, with link to Black Box Voting and the video link above.

Bev Harris
Black Box Voting
http://www.blackboxvoting.org

Grand Theft America
Flash Animation by Eric Blumrich
EricBlumrich.com
Music by: The Shootas

Remnant of Paradise Continued by ~@~

The End of the InterTubes

Most folks, who 'actually know me' (these are old non-working addresses):

cspang@mit~ai.arpa
ccs.cspang@mit~oz.arpa
bliv.~cas~@mit~oz.arpa
l5!cas@lll~crg.arpa
cas@su~shasta.arpa
cas%umunhum@su~csli.arpa
{sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!cas
cas@toad.com
[snip]
~@~

(to list a few under that 'handle'), have heard I've been preparing, for years, to "drop out" of the Internet; however, very few know why, and that is what this story is about.

Down the road, there is going to be a battle over control of the Internet. Although I feel qualified to help, I'm not playing, and here is the reason why, on two levels.

Level One: History leans towards the rich, not the creative.

A lot of alleged facts about the birth and growth of microcomputer technology in the United States are based on omission. [Continue Reading At]:

PermaLink: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Scrapbook/page012.html

Remnant of Paradise Continued by ~@~

Reneging On My Refusal to Buy Intel

This page is out of order, but needs to be placed here now, because I am about to go back on my word, but not by choice. Later, this section will be moved into its 'proper place' within Remnant of Paradise. ~@~

I am one of 'those folks' who get excited about MacWorld; usually held in San Francisco, during the month of January.

Leading up to MacWorld there is speculation on what Steve will present for Apple and this year I have an opinion that I have been trying to get out since Apple moved to the Intel processor.

I personally believe one of the best computer equipment producers was Digital Equipment Corporation, believe DEC had some of the best software and hardware engineers on the planet, and cut my '2nd teeth' on PDP 8s and 10s.

Although I can not prove this, I feel Steve was aware of DEC, what happened to it, and who ended up owning certain Digital processor designs (Intel). I also believe DEC was about to topple Intel, at that time, due to a processor constructed by Samsung, for DEC, at one third the cost of the original processor, and that it ran circles around anything Intel could produce. Ask Linus!

I got the feeling Steve reminded Intel they were sitting on something futuristic, in regard to processor technology, and the next thing I hear is, Apple is switching to the Intel processor.

Here is something that gives a little credibility to this story from May 13, 1997:

Digital Equipment Corporation sues Intel Corporation for violating microprocessor architecture patents

... Lawsuit ma

#3 TELL-A-VISION

Brokedown Coffee

New Jam Loop

Ecospot: Grand Prize Winner: Sky is Falling

World authors on climate change

VFP E-BULLETIN

Anderson Springs Community Alliance

A rural teacher with global reach

Nobody for President - None of the Above on Voter Ballots

Operation FALCON: Police state America in real time

Remembering Political Promises

Columbia Journalism Review Who Owns What

Remnant of Paradise Continued by ~@~

Remnant of Paradise Continued by ~@~

Columbia Journalism Review
Who Owns What