spies like US

from alternet: More evidence that the U.S. government is justifying surveillance of political dissidence under the guise of monitoring "terrorism"...

from ny daily news: The NYPD is installing 505 surveillance cameras around the city... that could track hundreds of thousands of people and cars a day...

from rochester-citynews: You're being taped --- and it's happening so unobtrusively that you're probably not aware of it. What's more, it's legal, and it's only the beginning.

from asbury park press: "If you're doing the right thing, then there is no cause for concern."

sheen & heard

everybody's talking about him, but no one hear's a word he's saying...

so for the past several days the charlie sheen interview has been gaining steam or 'going viral.' in an amazing move, cnn actually covered the story. so that meant that the other news stations would have to cover it. and, of course, most love to use the c-word. but at least people are talking & questioning: cnn, raw story, allhiphop, himalayan times, wonkette, new york magazine, etc. or just check google news yourself...

one of the guests on the cnn/sheen segment was webster tarpley. in his book, "synthetic terror," tarpley writes that:

"The entire controversy about conspiracy theory is a diversion, and is generally conducted in such a way as to lead away from the facts on the table. Charges of conspiracy theory represent in their own way a form of ideological terrorism, and grow out of the intellectual climate of cold war McCarthyite witch-hunts."

v for voices

more and more people in prominent positions are speaking out against this culture of war. people like charlie sheen, carlos santana, maria bello & paul haggis are doing interviews, throwing concerts & attending rallies. but it's going to take more than celebrities to change things. it's up to people like us. it's our job to be watchdogs.

speaking of watching... after going to the portland protests on sunday, we went to see the comic-turned-movie v for vendetta. and then last night we watched the war at home, a documentary about the decade of vietnam protests centered in madison, wisconsin.

but it's going to take more than watching stuff to change things...

weird science

from livescience: Republicans are happier than Democrats. People who worship frequently are happier than those who don't. The rich are happier than the poor. Whites and Hispanics are happier than blacks. Married people are happier than the unmarried.


plus: rfid tags!, insect cyborgs! & the big bang!

'freedom' at clinton st. theater

it was standing room only on sunday at the clinton street theater for an advanced screening of america: from freedom to fascism. the crowd stretched around the block for a movie that exposes the lies foisted upon the american public in the form of income tax & the federal reserve. the screening was sponsored by we the people.

see my previous post here. read more here & here.

'butcher of the balkans'

from my way news: Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, the so-called "butcher of the Balkans" being tried for war crimes after orchestrating a decade of bloodshed that killed 250,000 people and broke up his country, was found dead Saturday in his prison cell. He was 64.

winter of our discontent

from associated press: More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism...
(read poll results here and brace yourself for what desperate people will do to stay in power.)

from herald sun: The US military prison at Abu Ghraib, Saddam Hussein's torture centre that became a symbol of shame for the American occupation of Iraq, is to close within months.

from the register: RFID has been steaming ahead in the US, with the combined weight of Walmart and the Pentagon forcing a broad spectrum of vendors and suppliers to pick up the technology.

from slate: why coppola's wiretap classic still bugs us

from aol news: faith hill calls katrina cleanup "bull$#it"

they're coming to take me away, haha

a few months ago we found out that halliburton would be building "temporary detention facilities" here in the land of the free. they will, at least, be used in the case of an "immigration emergency." others say they will be for used as forced labor camps US dissidents. and now we see the borderwars heating back up. this is called operation: endgame.

from freedom...

aaron russo has won grammys, golden globes, tonys & emmys. he used to promote the dead, the who, janis & jefferson airplane. he even produced trading places. now he has a new documentary feature called america: from freedom to fascism. the film's website calls it "an expose of the Internal Revenue Service, and proves conclusively there is no law requiring an American citizen to pay a direct unapportioned Tax on their labor."

watch the trailer here.

patriot? it's all an act.

i just can't wait to see what happens next...

from associated press: The House renewed the USA Patriot Act in a cliffhanger vote Tuesday night, extending a centerpiece of the war on terrorism at President Bush's urging after months of political combat over the balance between privacy rights and the pursuit of potential terrorists.

Bush, forced by filibuster to accept new curbs on law enforcement investigations, is expected to sign the legislation before 16 provisions of the 2001 law expire on Friday.

news on the march

from wikinews:
iraq war increases likelihood of terrorism, says bbc poll

from ny daily news:
are we ready for 'terrorist' movies?

from tennessean:
surveillance = safety

from alternet:
"we, you know, bring up subjects."

bush on trial

from newsday: A mock war crimes trial of President George W. Bush at a Parsippany high school continued Friday, despite criticism from people across the nation who heard about the classroom exercise from a prominent Web site and talk-radio programs.

more bush secrecy...

from star-telegram: Intelligence officials will meet with the county's top archivist early next week to discuss the withdrawal of historical documents from the National Archives' public shelves, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein said Friday.

He said he requested the meeting following disclosure last month of a program in which thousands of documents, previously declassified, were being removed from public access. Historians protested the practice, saying they had access to many of the documents in past years...

The New York Times, which disclosed the reclassification program last month, reported that archivists have said the agencies involved include the Central Intelligence Agency, the Air Force and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

snorer in the court

from world net daily: According to the Associated Press, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg snoozed during oral arguments today over political redistricting in Texas.

"The subject matter was extremely technical," notes AP writer Gina Holland, "and near the end of the argument Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dozed in her chair."

During a report by Megyn Kendall of Fox News, an artist's sketch of the hearing was aired with Ginsburg's head using the bench as a pillow.

There was no word if there was any audible snoring echoing through the esteemed chamber, but the sleep session was noticed by Bader's colleagues who made a snap judgment to let their associate continue her slumber.

oregon senator unveils 'net neutrality'

from information week: Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Thursday unveiled a bill that would prohibit telephone and cable companies from charging others businesses for faster delivery of content to consumers over the Internet.

The bill to ensure so-called 'Net neutrality' would also prohibit network operators from favoring content over others, such as their own video services over those of Internet companies.

In unveiling the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, Wyden said in a statement that allowing cable and telephone companies to create a two-tiered system for distributing content over their networks would "have a chilling effect on small mom and pop businesses that can't afford the priority lane, leaving these smaller businesses no hope of competing against the Wal-Marts of the world."

patriot act renewed by senate

sen. wyden of oregon and sen. byrd of west virginia are 2 of the only 10 senators who voted against the renewal of the patriot act...

from the new york times: Senators voting against the bill today, besides Mr. Feingold and Mr. Jeffords, were Akaka of Hawaii, Bingaman of New Mexico, Byrd of West Virginia, Harkin of Iowa, Leahy of Vermont, Levin of Michigan, Murray of Washington and Wyden of Oregon.

The ACLU expressed deep disappointment with today's vote. "The Patriot Act contains too many intrusive powers that lack meaningful checks and balances... debate is far from over: secret record searches must be reformed so they are focused on suspected foreign terrorists and not used to invade the private records of ordinary Americans. Congress can, and must, take steps to fix the Patriot Act to keep America both safe and free."

the most dangerous film of the year

from chud: It'’s shocking that a film like V For Vendetta, in which the hero can be described in no other terms but terrorist, has been made by a major movie studio, which is itself a part of a major, world-dominating corporation...
Sure, this film is about a fictional fascist state that denies its people basic liberties and makes them live in fear, and sure it'’s set in the London of the future, but there'’s no hiding the fact that the film'’s timeline is one that begins today.

tim robbins' patriot act

from alternet: In his newest production by Los Angeles' Actors' Gang ensemble, a corrosive play based on George Orwell's novel "1984"... Big Brother is here and torture is us.

The Actors' Gang show differs markedly from previous Orwell adaptations in that Sullivan and Robbins focus on the book within the novel, written by Big Brother's enemy No. 1, Goldstein, who argues that capitalism uses continual warfare as a means of economic exploitation and control.

simpsons 'trump' 1st amendment

from bbc: Americans know more about The Simpsons than the 1st Amendment, an opinion poll says. Only 1 in 4 could name more than 1 of the 5 freedoms it upholds but more than half could name at least 2 members of the cartoon family. About 1 in 5 thought the right to own a pet was 1 of the freedoms.