wiretap lies

Chris Floyd writes: "What a difference a year makes -- or is it an election? Back in 2004, George W. Bush was caught on camera explaining very carefully that the government always requires a court order when "chasing down terrorists." Trying to sell the Patriot Act -- which he wanted renewed but which was coming under increasing fire from all sides of the political spectrum -- Bush was very clear that "a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way." By that, he meant thatneither the Patriot Act nor its ostensible cause -- the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- changed the absolute legal requirement for the government to get a court order before ordering wiretaps against suspected terrorists."

'it's just a goddamned piece of paper'

from capital hill blue: GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the [Patriot] act could further alienate conservatives...

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

And, to the Bush Administration, the Constitution of the United States is little more than toilet paper stained from all the shit that this group of power-mad despots have dumped on the freedoms that “goddamned piece of paper” used to guarantee.

10 big questions

Jarrett Murphy of the Village Voice writes:
1. Where was the "National Command Authority"?
2. Who gave the order to try to shoot the planes down?
3. What exactly were all those firefighters doing in the towers?
4. Did anyone think the towers would collapse?
5. Why was Giuliani's command bunker at ground zero?
6. Why did 7 WTC fall?
7. How did the twin towers fall?
8. How dangerous was—and is—the air at ground zero?
9. What exactly did Zacarias Moussaoui plan to do?
10. What's on those blanked-out pages?

another war

Eric Alterman, author of "When Presidents Lie," writes: We know now...that after the famed Gulf of Tonkin "incident" on Aug. 4, 1964 - in which North Vietnam allegedly attacked two American destroyers - NSC officials doctored the evidence to support President Lyndon Johnson's false charge in a speech to the nation that night of "open aggression on the high seas against the United States of America." In fact, no real evidence for those attacks has ever been found.

Here is 60 Minutes Producer Don Hewitt discussing the fake Gulf of Tonkin incident.

buying nothing on black friday

Jack Kuenzie of WISTV writes: Buy Nothing Day began more than a decade ago, and was the work of Adbusters , an anti- consumerism group. The organization wants shoppers on the Friday after Thanksgiving to step back and make a small choice not to shop..."It's symbolic. It's meant to focus Americans more on what we should be focused on...We always talk a good game about values, but we don't put them into practice."

set PHASR's on stun

Will Knight of NewScientist.com writes: The US government has unveiled a "non-lethal" laser rifle designed to dazzle enemy personnel without causing them permanent harm...the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHASR) rifle was developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, US, and two prototypes have been delivered to military bases in Texas and Virginia for further testing.

just because you're paranoid...

from boston globe: [IBM] filed a patent application in 2001 which contemplates using this wireless snooping technology to track people as they roam through "shopping malls, airports, train stations, bus stations, elevators, trains, airplanes, rest rooms, sports arenas, libraries, theaters, museums, etc." ...And it's not just IBM. A host of other companies are looking at ways to embed surveillance chips into practically everything we purchase - and even into our bodies.

this toilet earth

David Goldenberg of Gelf writes: "Yes, the note is real. And yes, the president really wrote it. “It was shot at a pretty good distance,” Wilking tells Gelf. “I had no idea what was on the paper.”

Until, that is, the editors at Reuters enlarged it.

pledge of defiance

"The court concludes that it is bound by the Ninth Circuit's previous determination that the school district's policy with regard to the pledge is an unconstitutional violation of the children's right to be free from a coercive requirement to affirm God," Judge Lawrence Karlton wrote.

gasuicide

gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide. petrolcide. gasuicide.

preemptive strike

"well now what happened is, one of our base commanders, he had a sort of, well he went a little funny in the head. you know. just a little... funny. and uh, he went and did a silly thing. well, I'll tell you what he did, he ordered his planes... to attack your country."
- dr. strangelove

ah, mutually assured destruction.

electronic behavior control system

dead propagandist edward bernays called it the "engineering of consent." i like the term partipulation. participating in your own manipulation. it's happening right now. you're soaking in it.