august clearinghouse

'noble' is good, not grand

brainwashing the hero-worshiping society

warren buffett sees silver lining in market chaos

bbc drops fictional terror attack to avoid offending muslims

suspicious man seen before virginia tech massacre

US army to launch new video game

book tells of philharmonic's nazi ties

robert fisk: even i question the 'truth' about 9/11

comcast is starting the tiered internet... whether we like it or not

the drugging of our children

china bans buddhist monks from reincarnating

eugenics moves to the twenty-first century

motorcycle escort killed in bush motorcade

questions on city’s role in demolition near 9/11 site

'we are change' confronts mayor bloomberg

dc gay activist pushes jfk assassination theory

if you were a terrorist, how would you attack?

US turns U2 spy planes on itself, raising specter of broader surveillance

the covert war against buffy sainte-marie

romney jokes about cheating in iowa poll, dodging questions

cfr stacks the deck with both democrat & republican presidential candidates

is it time to rein in aipac?

federal id plan raises privacy concerns

public 'deliberately misled' over de menezes shooting

de palma's 'redacted' stuns venice

from reuters: A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.

"Redacted", by U.S. director Brian De Palma, is one of at least eight American films on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months and the first of two movies on the conflict screening in Venice's main competition.

Inspired by one of the most serious crimes committed by American soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.

De Palma, 66, whose "Casualties of War" in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film's images, all based on real material he found on the Internet.

"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening.

"The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said.

'read a book, read a book, read a mutha#@%*in book'

from hiphopdx: Even with changes in programming, BET can't escape media and public criticism.

This time, the target is the animated short devoted to literacy, "Read a Book".

Recently, two of the nation's largest newspapers, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times covered the video, which has been accused of playing up to the most vile racial stereotypes about African Americans.

"Introduced on July 20, 'Read a Book,' seems to flaunt every negative stereotype in the African-American community," The New York Times article says of the video.

Representatives from BET responded, calling the video satire.

"It's meant to be very satirical, and in a real way kind of mimics and mocks the current state of hip-hop and hip-hop videos," Denys Cowan, senior vice president of animation for BET said of the piece...

Lines such as "read a book, read a book read a mutha fuckin book… not a sports page, not a magazine, but a book nigga, a fuckin book nigga," dominate the song.

Parenting, the value of buying land over material items, and good hygiene are also touched on.

But not everyone is laughing.

While the song has been lauded by many in the Hip Hop community, the new millennium Thought Police are hot on the trail of BET and "Read a Book".

dutch royals caught revising wikipedia

from ap: A Dutch royal couple acknowledges altering a Wikipedia entry about a 2003 scandal that forced the prince to renounce his claim to the throne.

Prince Johan Friso, son of the reigning Queen Beatrix, and Princess Mabel of Oranje-Nassau are the latest to be embarrassed in a spate of discoveries of vanity changes to Wikipedia entries. Such self-serving amendments are frowned upon in the Web encyclopedia that "anyone can edit."

The original scandal broke in 2003 when Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende refused to support the prince's marriage to the princess, then known as Mabel Wisse Smit.

The prime minister said he objected because she had given him "incomplete and incorrect information" about a romantic liaison she once had with a druglord. Wisse Smit later conceded knowing the drug dealer but denied any sexual relationship.

With government approval of the marriage withheld, the prince had to choose between Wisse Smit and his place as second in line to the throne. They married in 2004.

On Jan. 8, 2006, someone using a computer at Huis ten Bosch, the royal palace in The Hague, altered the Wikipedia entry on Wisse Smit that had said she "gave misleading and false information" to Balkenende. The new entry removed the words "and false."

Wikipedia shows the time and IP address — the numerical identifier of each computer on the Internet — of edits made by someone who doesn't sign on with a user name.

After the connection between the 2006 edit and the palace recently circulated in the Dutch media, Friso and Mabel acknowledged they were the revisionists.

"They both made the changes together in order to make the entry match the letter which they sent to the prime minister (explaining why they misled him) in 2003," spokesman Chris Breedveld said Thursday. The couple feel that due to repeated mistakes in the media, an "incorrect version of events has arisen," he said.

Similar self-interested Wikipedia edits have popped up for years in government and business. The finds accelerated this month after a U.S. graduate student developed an online "Wikiscanner" to more easily track the sources.

listen to an interview with virgil griffith, the creator of wikiscanner, on the alex jones show from august 30, 2007.

east coast monarchy

i'm on the hot east coast for a little while, so blogging may be sparse at best...
sorry for the interruption. but you can always stay up to date with the good folks at blacklisted news.

the dream is still alive

from desert peace: Forty four years today a demonstration took place in Washington DC.... a demonstration that literally shook the foundations of the system... a demonstration of people against racism led by the greatest of the great: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The speech that he gave that day is only second in fame to the one given by President Lincoln in Gettysburg 100 years or so earlier. A speech that today is still remembered by those who heard it and one that will continue to be heard by millions. The speech can be heard in it's entirety in the following video. The words are as valid today as they were 44 years ago.

florida troops deploy to nation's capital

from wesh: Members of the 1st Battalion 265 Air Defense Artillery have mobilized and are on a plane headed first to Ft. Bliss, then for federal active duty in the capital region.

The troops will be deployed for a year.

"It's going to be all right It's OK if he helps people and everything, and it's his job. He’s got to do it. He just got to do it," Jessica Ward said, whose father is being deployed.

Jessica speaks for many when she talks about her father's deployment.

Michael Ward and company are leaving for a year, and that weighs heavy on families.

The 265th is part of Operation Noble Eagle.

They are ordered by the president to the nation's capital, where they will operate high-tech weapons systems against any potential air threat.

Yolanda McCormack is relieved husband Charles isn't headed to Iraq, but there is always a risk.

"Doesn't mean he won't be in the line of fire in Washington, D.C., but it does give me a little comfort," Yolanda McCormack said, whose husband is being deployed.

Families may get one or two opportunities to see loved ones during this year-long deployment, but it’s not encouraged. Though the solders are staying in the states, they are on serious business.

Staff Sgt. James Todd said duty at home is just as important as the mission overseas.

market crash forecast suggests new 9/11

from paul joseph watson: A mystery trader risks losing around $1 billion dollars after placing 245,000 put options on the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50 index, leading many analysts to speculate that a stock market crash preceded by a new 9/11 style catastrophe could take place within the next month.

The anonymous trader only stands to make money if the market crashes by a third to a half before September 21st, which is when the put options expire. A put option is a financial contract between two parties, the buyer and the writer (seller) of the option, in which the buyer stands to benefit only if the price of the asset falls.

"The sales are being referred to by market traders as 'bin Laden trades' because only an event on the scale of 9-11 could make these short-sell options valuable," reports financial blogger Marc Parent. Dow Jones Financial News first reported on the story.

The trader stands to make around $2 billion from their investment should an event trigger a market crash before the third week in September.

Such a cataclysmic jolt could only happen as a result of two factors, China dumping its vast dollar reserves in reaction to the sub-prime mortgage collapse, which it has threatened to do, or a massive terror attack on the same scale or larger than 9/11.


9/11 itself was foreshadowed by unprecedented put options that were placed on United and American Airlines. Though the Securities and Exchange Commission refused to reveal who placed the options, private researchers traced the investments back to the Deutsche Bank owned Banker’s Trust, which was formerly headed by then Executive Director of the CIA, Buzzy Krongard.

Put options on Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, two of the World Trade Center's most prominent occupants, also spiked in the days before 9/11.

News of the suspicious trades is dovetailed by the comments of Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers yesterday, who told ABC News that the risk of a recession in the U.S. was greater that at any time since 9/11.

retired general: al qaeda 'attack is coming'

from raw story: NBC News asked military analyst General Barry McCaffrey about recent statements by intelligence officials that another al Qaeda attack is on its way.

McCaffrey said the warnings should be considered credible, even if Osama bin Laden probably "has gone to ground." He suggested at the same time that it would be a good idea to kill bin Laden using "remote controlled vehicles" and not attempt to capture him, adding, "Thank God for the CIA's persistence."

"In the short run, you know, we're doing quite well," McCaffrey concluded. "An awful lot of these al-Qaeda people are dead or behind bars. ... You've got people like the New York Police Department and domestic law enforcement hyper-alert. ... But the attack's coming."

The following video is from NBC's Today Show, broadcast on August 27.

jewish group plans to sue youtube for anti-israel videos

from haaretz: Germany's Central Council of Jews is considering a criminal complaint against YouTube for allowing videos that promote racial hatred and glorify war, it was reported Sunday.

Such action makes the video-sharing website liable to charges of incitement to racial hatred, the council's vice president, Salomon Korn, told the German television program Report Mainz.

"I expect the prosecutor's office, other relevant authorities and, if necessary, the German government to take action against this," Korn was quoted as saying in the program due to be aired Monday.

Program researchers said it was possible to watch videos on YouTube of an anti-Semitic film released by the Nazis during World War II called Jud Suess.

Outlawed videos of the neo-Nazi groups Kommando Freisler and Landser were also available on the Web site, the television programme broadcast by Germany's ARD network said.

outrage at 500,000 dna database mistakes

from telegraph: Civil liberties campaigners and MPs have raised doubts about the national DNA database after the Home Office confirmed it contained more than 500,000 false or wrongly recorded names.

Suspects arrested over any imprisonable offence, including rape and murder, can have their DNA held even if they are not charged or are acquitted.

The database, the biggest in the world, contains about four million names.

But it has been dogged by problems. Statistics released by the Home Office show it contains around 550,000 files with wrong or misspelt names.

Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat frontbencher, told The Daily Telegraph that she wanted a full parliamentary inquiry into the "shocking" number of errors.

"What lies behind these statistics? Is it the police just accept the 'say-so' of those whose DNA they are taking and don't check their names and addresses?" she said.

"While the use of DNA can obviously be vital in solving crimes, anything that raises questions about the credibility of the base is not acceptable."

alberto 'torture' gonzales resigns

from raw story: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday, ending months of calls that he would step down from the Justice Department over his role in the dismissal of federal prosecutors and role in expanding the power to spy on Americans.

In a news conference Monday morning, Gonzales did not address the reasons for his resignation, and he refused to answer reporters' shouted questions.

"Even my worst days at Attorney General have been better than my father's best days," said Gonzales, whose parents immigrated to Texas from Mexico before he was born.

Gonzales told President Bush of the resignation Friday and met with the president at his Crawford, Texas, ranch over the weekend, according to the New York Times, which first reported Gonzales's resignation Monday.

Gonzales will leave office Sept. 17, he said...

Former Sen. John Edwards was the first Democratic presidential candidate to weigh in on the news of Gonzales' resignation, which broke early Monday morning.

"Better late than never," Edwards said in a prepared statement released by his campaign.

go here for more video

american airlines: 9/11 didn't happen

from daily kos: WikiScanner discovered that American Airlines changed their Wikipedia entry to state that Flights 11 and 77 never flew on 9/11.

Original entry was:

Two American Airlines aircraft were hijacked and crashed during the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack: American Airlines Flight 77 (a Boeing 757) and American Airlines Flight 11 (a Boeing 767).

New entry is:

Two American Airlines aircraft were hijacked and crashed during the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack: Flight 77 (a Boeing 757) and Flight 11 (a Boeing 767). Although these flights were daily departures before and a month after September 11, 2001. Neither flight 11 nor 77 were scheduled on September 11, 2001. The records kept by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (www.bts.gov/gis/) do not list either flight that day.

A Google search of the IP address that made the change - 144.9.8.21 - is located at American Airlines.

Why the change American airlines? Did the flights actually operate or did we just imagine all of that? ...

Go to their website www.aa.com to tell them what you think.

update: american airlines visits media monarchy
i love it when corporations come & read stories about themselves...

chinese officials predicted 9/11 attacks

from dna india: Imagine someone predicting the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in the US two years before the terror strike!

Such a forecast was part of an analysis of the weaknesses of the American military system by two Chinese military planners, who also identified Osama bin Laden as one of the likely perpetrators of a possible attack.

The officials, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, who were in service at that time, made the forecast in the book "Unrestricted Warfare" written in 1999, which has now beenpublished in India, several years after being translated into English for the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other US national security departments.

The officials, who were then senior colonels, said:

"Actually, with the next century having still not yet arrived, the American military has already encountered trouble from insufficient frequency bandwidth brought on by the above-mentioned types of enemies.

Whether it be the intrusion of hackers, a major explosion at the World Trade Center, or a bombing attack by Osama bin Laden, all of these greatly exceed the frequency bandwidths understood by the American military.

The American military is naturally inadequately prepared to deal with this type of enemy psychologically, in terms of measures and especially as regards military thinking and the methods of operation derived from this."

The US was an area of major focus in the book, which proposed tactics for developing countries like China and measures to compensate for their military inferiority vis-a-vis America in a possible hi-tech war.

hillary takes flak for mixing politics & terror

from ny daily news: Fellow democrats blasted Hillary Clinton yesterday for speculating about the political fallout of a potential terrorist attack before the 2008 election, accusing her of exploiting voters' fears to bolster her campaign.

"Frankly, I find it tasteless to discuss the political implications when talking about a potential terrorist attack on the United States," Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, said in a statement.

Sen. John Edwards, campaigning in New Hampshire, said, "If we're talking about America being attacked the last thing we should do is be engaged in political calculation." A presidential candidate should "focus on what's good for America, not politics, and what needs to be done to keep this country safe," he said.

During a stop in New Hampshire Thursday, Clinton suggested she was best poised to handle the unexpected, including a terrorist attack.

"It's a horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?' But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the world," she said.

"So I think I'm the best of the Democrats to deal with that as well," she concluded.

outside the box #115

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on august 16, 2007.

from alex ansary: Alex goes over some brief updates on Noble Resolve 7-02 and Peace Mission 2007 in the first part of the show. The rest of the program features author Dr. Jerome Corsi to discuss the recent SPP meeting in Canada and the North American Union.

cnn hosts shocked when republican guest picks ron paul

from raw story: Rick Sanchez and Kiran Chetry appear not to expect the answer they got from a Republican college student on a special "College Week" edition of CNN's American Morning.

Laura Elizabeth Morales, a Republican and a junior at the University of Texas appears with Rachel Moore, Democrat and a senior at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania.

On being asked who she thinks the GOP candidate will be for the 2008 Presidential election, Morales puts her support behind Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

"I really think he's a sound traditional conservative," says Morales. "I really think he really sticks to the Constitution, and really stands for what conservatives believe in."

A surprised Sanchez asks: "What are you trying to say?"

aaron russo has passed away

Aaron Russo, producer of America: From Freedom to Fascism has passed away this morning, August 24th, 2007. A great American Hero and patriot. God Bless you Aaron! He fought his battle with cancer long enough to inspire and educate countless people to learn the truth about the globalist agenda...



from reason: Aaron Russo died today of cancer. Russo sought (but did not win, after coming in first on the first two ballots) the 2004 Libertarian Party presidential nomination. He was writer and director of the controversial, conspiratorial movie America: From Freedom to Fascism, aiming at the income tax system and the Federal Reserve.

Details at Steve Gordon's blog.

IMDB results detailing Russo's career as a Hollywood film producer.

My account of the 2004 LP convention and Russo's efforts there.

media monarchy episode039

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode039 - august 24, 2007 download/stream/subscribe

media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pacific/1pm eastern and can also be heard on the revere radio network every monday at 2pm pacific/5pm eastern...

plus, you can always get podcasts of previous episodes thanks to radio4all.net

US 'friendly fire' kills 3 uk soldiers

from bbc: Three British troops have been killed in Afghanistan by so-called friendly fire, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The MoD said the soldiers, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, were killed at around 1830 local time (1500 BST) on Thursday.

It is understood the soldiers died when US fighter planes, called to support ground troops, dropped a bomb near their patrol in Helmand province.

Two other soldiers were also injured. Next of kin have been informed.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said he was "very saddened" by the death of "three brave men who were tragically killed in what is believed to be a friendly fire incident".

He said such incidents were "rare" and it would be thoroughly investigated.

"We will look at this incident very carefully and make sure the families, who are uppermost in our thoughts, know exactly what happened to their loved ones," he said.

news on the march

chatter about west coast 'incident' at all time high
from wayne madsen report: Chatter picked up by WMR's sources in the nation's capital and in California point to unusual events that could be a prelude to a 9/11-like false flag "incident" during the Labor Day weekend, possibly one focused on the San Francisco Bay Area.

The FBI in Seattle, as well as the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WJAC), have asked for the public's help in identifying two men spotted aboard Washington state ferries exhibiting unusual behavior. A number of ferry passengers have reported the two men showing strange behavior.

ron paul wins five straw polls
from crimes & corruption: Whether it's Washington, Alabama, New Hampshire, or South Carolina, the message is the same: We want our freedom, our rights, our money, and our country back, and we're willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Thousands are driving from all over their states to show support resulting in straw poll victories for Ron Paul with percentages as high as 81%. Dr. Paul has placed in a total of 16 straw polls now, tying him with Romney and thrusting him far beyond Giuliani in terms of visible support, and not a word about the trend can be heard from the mainstream media.

taliban commander: bin laden 'extremely healthy & active'
from raw story: A top Taliban commander said Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is alive and well, according to US-based analysts monitoring extremist publications.

"All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active," the commander Mansour Dadullah said in a video interview, according to a transcript of the video's English subtitled translation, released Tuesday by the analyst IntelCenter.

pentagon to suspend anti-terror database
from ap: The Pentagon said Tuesday that it will shut down an anti-terror database that has been criticized for improperly storing information on peace activists and others whose actions posed no threat.

It will be closed on Sept. 17 and information collected subsequently on potential terror or security threats to Defense Department facilities or personnel will be sent by Pentagon officials to an FBI database known as Guardian, according to Army Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman.

daily show: 'america to the rescue'
from raw story: Jon Stewart offered a Daily Show-style history of American arms policy in the Middle East on Wednesday's program. "Obviously, the Iraq War is very complicated," he began. "It's another reason why Barack Obama's foreign policy inexperience is going to be an important issue in this campaign. You can't have a newbie overthrowing the delicate balance that we have engineered and maintained in this complex region."

air force manual outlines how to aid insurgencies

from raw story: The Air Force is ready to aid insurgencies.

According to a lengthy new Air Force document, which outlines US strategies for "Irregular Warfare," military resources will sometimes be needed to help insurgencies in foreign countries.

The 103-page document (1.03mb PDF), published earlier this month, takes lessons from the last six years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan to outline Air Force policies in "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations." Secrecy News first reported on the document.

falling equipment hits 2 at wtc building

from ap: Part of the scaffolding surrounding a condemned skyscraper at the World Trade Center site fell... injuring two firefighters, fire officials said. It was the same building where two other firefighters died in a blaze last week.

The demolition work on the former Deutsche Bank skyscraper had been suspended after Saturday's fire, but workers on Thursday were still busy removing toxic debris from its remaining 26 stories.

Shortly before 2 p.m., the two firefighters were hit by the falling material.

Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon said scaffolding fell from the side of the building facing the World Trade Center site, leaving the two firefighters hospitalized in stable condition, one with a head injury. Initial reports that some construction workers also were injured could not immediately be confirmed.

City officials gave a different scenario, saying that a piece of equipment, not collapsing scaffolding, fell from a high floor of the building and through a sidewalk shed, injuring the firefighters who were standing beneath it.

Fire marshals have been at the partially demolished building this week investigating the cause of the fire.

obscure company is behind 9/11 demolition work
from new york times: The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, hired last year for the dangerous and complex job of demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, where two firefighters died last Saturday, has apparently never done any work like it. Indeed, Galt does not seem to have done much of anything since it was incorporated in 1983.

Public and private records give no indication of how many employees it has, what its volume of business is or who its clients are. There are almost no accounts of any projects it has undertaken on any scale, apart from 130 Liberty Street. Court records are largely silent. Some leading construction executives in the city say they have never even heard of it.

That may not be as surprising as it seems. John Galt, it appears, is not much more than a corporate entity meant to accommodate the people and companies actually doing the demolition job at the emotionally charged and environmentally hazardous site at the edge of ground zero.

skeptic's corner

A so-called “9/11 truth activist” sets up in PDX as the anniversary of the terror attacks approaches.
from willamette week: Portland International Airport’s main terminal may not leap to mind as a likely place to encounter organized 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

Even less likely is the notion that U.S. airport administrators or even - gasp! - airport security wouldn’t oppose efforts to convince PDX’s estimated 38,000 daily air travelers that the government has falsely presented the events behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

But on the eve of 9/11’s sixth anniversary, local “9/11 truth activist” David Morrison has proven these assumptions wrong. (Doubters of 9/11 dislike the term “conspiracy theorists,” saying it conjures images of Oliver Stone movies, UFOs and black helicopters.)

Morrison applied for—and got—a permit this month from the Port of Portland to locate his “coverup” table in the airport’s busy thoroughfare separating gates A, B and C on one side from gates D and E.

For eight hours Aug. 7 he handed out documentary DVDs, including the increasingly popular 9/11 Mysteries, a 90-minute film from 2006 that focuses on the science behind the demolition of the World Trade Center towers.

And he distributed fact sheets and press releases from organizations such as Scholars for 9/11 Truth and a collection of media source lists. All the materials reject the findings of the official 9/11 Commission reports issued in 2004.

The public has been “largely kept ignorant of both the conspiracy arguments and the growing number of public officials behind them,” says Morrison, a 56-year-old rare-book dealer, juvenile diabetes fundraiser and self-described “concerned citizen.”

Airport officials, Morrison and several 9/11 “truth” organizations say they believe Morrison’s table is the first debunking 9/11 at any airport in the nation. (Morrison plans to set up the table again by mid-September.)

The permit issued to Morrison was a “free speech” permit (PDF) - one of about 150 such permits issued annually by the Port of Portland for groups ranging from religious organizations to those conducting surveys. The permit, which is free, was good for one week and is renewable indefinitely.

Morrison says there were surprises even as he was setting up to distribute materials demanding a new investigation into 9/11. The materials suggest the attacks were an inside job by government and business interests as a pretext to invade Iraq.

“I expected hassles and a lot of hostility from some passengers and, possibly, from security personnel who, I thought, were just plain wedded to the official report,” Morrison says. "When I arrived... two uniformed airport security officers approached me and asked me to show my permit. Expecting some resistance, I thought to myself, Here it comes.

"But as the officers looked at my materials, one of them pointed to one of the DVDs and said to the other officer, ‘This is the one I was telling you about - you have to see it,’” he recalls. “The two even came back a little later and asked for duplicate copies to give to friends.… We chatted about it. They were great."

Morrison was also surprised he had obtained permission in the first place to raise one of the most sensitive of all U.S. national security issues in a major U.S. airport.

He expected his belief “that the biggest attack ever on U.S. soil was actually a government-directed inside job would be rejected as too controversial, especially within the broad parameters of the Patriot Act.”

But Port of Portland spokesman Steve Johnson says the Port can only impose “time, place and manner restrictions” on what’s distributed in the airport.

The Port "may not regulate content, except in extraordinary circumstances not applicable in Mr. Morrison’s case," Johnson says.

Morrison describes getting the permit as “easier than choosing a flavor at Ben & Jerry’s.”

Johnson says the Port got no comments from passengers about the table but that one airline employee said the materials were “offensive.”

A number of passengers refused the material, said Morrison, "not because they disagreed, but because they were already so pissed off at Bush they simply couldn’t take any more."

And why did Morrison choose the airport to break the cycle of what he calls "public apathy and ignorance to credible questions raised by credible people about 9/11?"

"I thought PDX would be good because it’s a concentration of a cross section of people," Morrison says. "Perhaps most interesting were my discussions with self-described ‘liberals’ who told me they are always open to alternative politics but just don’t buy into a 9/11 government conspiracy theory—they said it’s too much for them to believe.

"Most of them said, though, they never heard of the specifics behind the objections until now," Morrison adds. "A few told me they’d watch the DVDs in flight."

David Morrison says his main goal is to elicit some critical thinking and "open people’s minds so they will examine the evidence about the truth of 9/11."

"This bunch [the Bush administration] has lied to us about everything, how can anyone believe their story about 9/11?" Morrison says. "Many people are aware there is a 9/11 truth movement, but few know much about the overwhelming evidence that virtually confirms an inside job."

Morrison wields a huge list of critics who question the 9/11 Commission’s official version of what happened, including dozens of top government and military officials, scientists, pilots, academics and others not normally associated with “fringe” political conspiracy theories. These include former Cabinet secretaries in the Bush administration, a former FBI director, FBI and CIA intelligence officers deeply involved in the 9/11 investigation—even a former assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan.

For Morrison, it all "strongly indicates that the official version of 9/11 commission report is, at best, filled with errors and omissions that merit further investigation and suggests a possible coverup."

"A good half hour with the material will raise a lot of eyebrows," Morrison says. He says the best place to start is the website 911truth.org.

iPod generation struggling to read & write

from daily mail: School-leavers are experts in using iPods and the Internet but often cannot add up or follow basic instructions, business leaders have claimed.

They said literacy and numeracy standards are so low that some young recruits need remedial lessons.

The warning from the Confederation of British Industry casts a shadow over the release on Thursday of what are expected to be record GCSE results.

A survey for the business group showed that 52 per cent of bosses think youngsters struggle to communicate and 50 per cent say they cannot do simple sums.

police accused of using provocateurs at summit

from canadian press: Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que.

Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.

A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.

The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.

Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.

Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.

Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.

Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually undercover police officers.

"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.

The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.

Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.

Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.

"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested... How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.

"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents... and they were caught red-handed."

Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an excuse to use some of their "toys," such as tear gas and rubber bullets.

"To a certain extent it's self-fulfilling logic. You provide police with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two."

Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing agents provocateurs.

"I cannot answer your question because I don't have the information," said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.

former cia officer: US to attack iran within 6 months

from raw story: Fox News asked former CIA field officer Bob Baer on Tuesday whether the US is "gearing up for a military strike on Iran." Baer has written a column for Time indicating that Washington officials expect an attack within the next six months.

"I've taken an informal poll inside the government," Baer told Fox. "The feeling is we will hit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." His Time column also suggested that "as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities."

Baer explained that what his sources anticipate is "not exactly a war." He said the administration is convinced "that the Iranians are interfering in Iraq and the rest of the Gulf" but that "if there is an attack on Iran it would be very quick, it would be a warning."

"We won't see American troops cross the border... If this is going to happen, it's going to happen very quickly and it's going to surprise a lot of people," said Baer. "I hope I'm wrong frankly, but we're going to see."

The following video is from Fox's America's Newsroom, broadcast on August 21.

cia didn’t do enough to stop 9/11

from new york times: Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, just released a public summary of the agency’s internal post-mortem on its performance before the Sept. 11 attacks.

In a news release paired with the document, the C.I.A. chief explained that he preferred to keep the document secret, urging “that we keep our focus on the present and the future.” But Congress ordered him last month to release the document as part of the approval of several 9/11 commission recommendations.

The inspector general’s report is titled “CIA Accountability With Respect to the 9/11 Attacks.” This paragraph, on the second page, appears to be the bottom line — no officers broke the law or faced formal review, but some work was rated as below “satisfactory”:

The full report, which can be downloaded from the agency’s web site here , details the less-than-satisfactory moments. The full story from The Times is here.

history channel's 9/11 special is straw man hit piece

Documentary set up bias straw man arguments, ignored key evidence, afforded debunkers overwhelming majority of time - so-called "experts" Popular Mechanics are on the same corporate payroll as the History Channel itself, which is owned by Disney, GE and Hearst Publishing

from paul joseph watson: Initial reaction to last night's two hour History Channel Special on the 9/11 truth movement was vehement and conclusive - the show was nothing more than another biased hit piece that manufactured straw man arguments, ignored key evidence, and afforded debunkers to talk at length while ridiculing any other viewpoints.

According to viewers who were unfortunate to have to sit through 120 minutes of yellow journalism, the program was very similar to a previous BBC hit piece - an outright smear attempt that abandoned any pretense of neutrality early on and sought to vigorously attack so-called conspiracy theories.

Though producers of the show promised Alex Jones directly that the documentary was not going to be a hit piece, according to viewers it was replete with distortion and deception, all delivered in the kind of condescending tone we have become used to from the establishment media.

related: the history channel's 9/11 documentary & leahy's subpoena

biofuels switch a mistake, say researchers

from guardian: Increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels, according to the first comprehensive analysis of emissions from biofuels.

Biofuels - petrol and diesel extracted from plants - are presented as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels because the crops absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow.

The study warns that forests must not be cleared to make way for biofuel crops. Clearing forests produces an immediate release of carbon gases into the atmosphere, accompanied by a loss of habitats, wildlife and livelihoods, the researchers said.

Britain is committed to substituting 10% of its transport fuel with biofuels under Europewide plans to slash carbon emissions by 2020.

"Biofuel policy is rushing ahead without understanding the implications," said Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust, a conservation charity. "It is a mistake in climate change terms to use biofuels."

pentagon's new drug weapons

from wired: They’ve got Skunk, they’ve got Special K, they’ve got Angel Dust, they’ve got Aceeeeed... and they’ve also got a whole pharmacy of extra special stuff that they’re not going to tell anyone about. They’re heavily armed, and the law can’t touch them. Because they’re the Pentagon’s own nonlethal chemical weapons developers.

While the CIA and military drug experiments of the 50s and 60s might be written off as just a phase they were going through, a new report from the Bradford Nonlethal Weapons Research Project shows that the interest in psychoactive substances has continued right up until the present day. It’s called ‘Off the Rocker’ and ‘On the Floor’: The Continued Development of Biochemical Incapacitating Weapons ...

In fact, it looks like the military are all set to start deploying a new generation of – well, as the report points out, they carefully avoid calling them chemical weapons. The preferred terms are nonlethal techniques, riot control agents, or, more commonly, calmatives.

How’s that? Calmative originally meant something quite specific, but researchers at the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center have started using their own definition:

A calmative agent can be defined as an antipersonnel chemical that leaves the victim awake and mobile but without the will or ability to meet military objectives or carry out criminal activity.

the 'bush-as-dictator' meme

rooney: imagine a queen bush ruling for 55 years
from raw story: In his weekly commentary of 60 Minutes this week, Andy Rooney considered the practical and superficial differences between the US and British governments.

Beginning with a call for a new presidential election now -- "four years is a long time," he says -- Rooney observes that Great Britain, unlike the US, has a mechanism for removing its Prime Minister if Parliament disagrees with him.

"No one can say how many votes President Bush would get if we did have another election tomorrow. For all we know he might win in a landslide. I don't think so but he might," Rooney said.

The British also have a Queen who "does a lot of the dirty work for her prime minister," Rooney observes.

"Elizabeth has been Queen of England for 55 years now. Imagine having Bush as president for 55 years," Rooney muses.

"Maybe we should get ourselves a Queen, though. I bet President Bush would like to have one," Rooney said. "For one thing, he has to waste so much time every day, posing for pictures. A queen in the White House could do all this ceremonial stuff for him."

Rooney also says US taxpayers should pay for the president's wardrobe because "he wouldn't have to have so many suits if he weren't president."

"The president dresses a lot more casually at his ranch in Texas, always looks like a cowboy," Rooney says. "Of course a lot of people wish President Bush would go to Texas, put on his cowboy clothes and stay there."

The following video is from CBS's 60 Minutes, broadcast on August 19.


think tank calls for bush to be dictator for life
from rogue government: Family Security Matters a neo-conservative based think tank has published an article advocating that George W. Bush should be a dictator for life. The organization has since taken the article down, but is still viewable via this cached link:

Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy: By Philip Atkinson

The article written by Philip Atkinson states that Bush would fail his country by becoming an ex-President or can achieve greatness by becoming President-for-Life Bush in order to bring sense to Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Atkinson is bluntly advocating that Bush should become dictator for life with these outrageously anti-American statements.

petraeus to testify before senate on september 11

from thinkprogress: The much-anticipated Senate testimony of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, regarding the situation on the ground in Iraq has now been scheduled for September 11th. Petraeus’ testimony will accompany a September 15 status report from the White House that is expected to be a key moment in the debate over American involvement in Iraq.

The timing of Petraeus’ testimony was first revealed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) this morning in a conference call with conservative bloggers. According to the National Review’s Jim Geraghty, McCain said he had “been told” Petraeus would testify on the 11th: "The calendar I’ve been told is that Petraues testify 11th. We’re off September 13 and 14 for Rosh Hoshannah. The Senate debate will begin September 18th."