episode104b of media monarchy closes down the bar & closes out the year with a visit from the ghost of new year's past: oregon governor declares martial law + christmas chaos, media memes & predictive programming, music by loretta lynn & eartha kitt and tons more (for tiny tim)...
from wikipedia: [Oswald] West was a fervent prohibitionist. He believed so strongly in the idea that he once declared martial law on New Year's Eve 1913 in order to shut down liquor-selling establishments in the town of Copperfield, Oregon. He then dispatched National Guard troops, chaperoned by his own personal secretary Fern Hobbs on January 2, 1914 to enforce the order and shut down the saloons. The move made headlines across the country. When his "invasion" of the small town in Baker County failed to garner local support he sought, (but failed) to void the town's incorporation citing that it was "in the hands of a lawless element." He also once declared that he wanted to "shoot a bartender." ... Bend Mayor George Palmer Putnam criticized West in a New York Times interview shortly after the Copperfield affair. Putnam asserted that the Governor's theatrical methods, and his inordinate attention to the affairs of local communities, detracted from the governance and national image of the state as a whole.
from bbc: America's CIA has found a novel way to gain information from fickle Afghan warlords - supplying sex-enhancing drug Viagra, a US media report says. The Washington Post said it was one of a number of enticements being used. In one case, a 60-year-old warlord with four wives was given four pills and four days later detailed Taleban movements in return for more. "Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people," the Post quoted one agent as saying. "Whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra."
from independent: With Europe, and the world, pitching headlong into a deep recession, the "Greek Syndrome", as one French official calls it, was already being monitored with great care across the European Union. The attempt to politicise and link the disputes across EU frontiers may prove to be a random act of self-dramatisation by an isolated group on the Greek far left. But it does draw attention to the similarities – and many differences – between the simultaneous outbreaks of unrest in three EU countries. Thousands of young Greeks have been rioting on and off for almost two weeks. They are protesting against the chaotic, and often corrupt, social and political system of a country still torn between European "modernity" and a muddled Balkan past. They can be said, in that sense, to be truly revolting. 
from danger room: A new $2-million citizen surveillance system installed along the Tex-Mex border has yielded just one crime bust after about 6 weeks in operation - 3 suspects who were allegedly caught hauling 540 pounds of marijuana over the border after someone spotted them online, according to the Houston Chronicle. The expensive system of 13 closed-circuit cameras placed along the Rio Grande - which is billed as a "virtual stakeout" for "virtual deputies" - involves images from the cameras that are streamed online. Members of the public are invited to serve as "virtual deputies" by watching the images and reporting any suspicious activity they see. Although authorities wouldn't provide any details about the arrest, saying they didn't want to give information that would reveal the location of the surveillance camera that spotted the suspects, it's presumed that the arrest was the result of a citizen report.
from raw story: Joe Biden would not directly answer a question about whether or not top-ranking members of the Bush administration should be prosecuted for abuse at prisons around the world. Interviewed by ABC News' George Stephanopolous, Biden said he was "not ruling it in and not ruling it out."
from afp: President-elect Barack Obama has tapped retired Navy admiral Dennis Blair as his intelligence czar, US media reported Saturday. Unnamed government officials familiar with the selection process confirmed the choice to the Los Angeles Times... If confirmed as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Blair would face ticking international time bombs inherited from the administration of President George W. Bush, including two wars, secret CIA prisons overseas and domestic wiretapping.
from david icke: I am writing this in the last days of 2008 as I watch with dismay as vast numbers of people across the world, including many who should know better, have been duped by the mind-game called Operation Obama. Even people with some understanding of the conspiracy have said things like: 'Well, at least he's not Bush' and 'Well, at least it's great to see such a new spirit of hope'. No, he's not Bush - he's potentially far more dangerous; and what is the use of a spirit of 'hope' if it's based on a lie? In fact, what use is 'hope' at all? Obama's wife, Michelle, who I wouldn't trust to tell me the date in a calendar factory, said that 'everything begins and ends with hope'. Utter nonsense. Hope is a meaningless emotion because its fruits are always in the future and, by definition, never in the NOW. Hope is like riding a carousel horse; no matter how fast you go you never get closer to the one in front. The idea, however, is to persuade you to stay on the horse, despite the evitable disappointment, in the 'hope' that things will change. But they don't because the very system is designed to prevent it.
from dpa: Former action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger has not satiated his political ambitions by serving as California governor. The Austrian-born superstar revealed in an interview on 60 Minutes late Sunday night that he would 'absolutely' like to be United States president if the Constitution could be changed to allow foreign-born Americans to run for the White House. 'Well, you're a man of no small ambition. If the Constitution was changed, you'd like to be president, wouldn't you?' 60 Minutes journalist Scott Pelley asked. 'Yeah, absolutely,' Schwarzenegger replied. 'I think that I am always a person that looks for the next big goal. And I love challenges. 'I always set goals that are so high, that are almost impossible to achieve. Because then, you're always hungry for climbing and climbing. Because it's always interesting. The climb is always interesting. When you get there you just have to pick another goal.' For now, it would be impossible for him to become president. Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria and became a US citizen in 1983, is not a 'natural born citizen' of the US, as required by the Constitution.
from albany democrat herald: A year ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced it had demonstrated that a new way to pay for roads - via a mileage tax and satellite technology - could work.
According to the policies he has outlined online, Kulongoski proposes to continue the work of the special task force that came up with and tested the idea of a mileage tax to replace the gas tax.
from paul joseph watson: Veteran investor Jim Rogers warns that the policies of central banks and politicians are turning what would have been a recession into a new great depression, and that Barack Obama’s taxation agenda will only make the problem much worse. Speaking to Bloomberg News, Rogers said that the crisis would at least be the worst since the second world war and that “it could well be” as bad as the great depression. “1929 was the stock market bubble which popped, we were going into a recession and then the politicians around the world starting making horrendous mistakes which turned it into a depression, it would have been just a normal recession otherwise but the American politicians and the European politicians - everyone got in on the act and that seems to be happening this time too,” said Rogers.
from reuters: Political scientist Samuel Huntington, whose controversial book "The Clash of Civilizations" predicted conflict between the West and the Islamic world, has died at age 81, Harvard University said on Saturday. Huntington, who taught for 58 years at Harvard before retiring in 2007, died Wednesday at a nursing facility in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, the university said on its website.
Despite criticism his thesis was simplistic or in the words of Middle East scholar Edward Said promoted the idea of "West versus the rest," Huntington told Islamica magazine in 2007, "My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states."
from washington post: Neither the title nor the subject matter prepares you for the pure fun of "Frost/Nixon." Ron Howard's movie is based on Peter Morgan's play, which was based on the 1977 television interviews between British journalist David Frost and the disgraced former president Richard Nixon. You expect something dry, historical and probably contrived. But you get a delicious contest of wits, brilliant acting and a surprisingly gripping narrative - no less dramatic even though the results are a foregone conclusion.
from fcw: The Homeland Security Department might soon start searching the Internet for blogs and message boards that terrorists are using to plan attacks in the United States, USA Today reports. Researchers say terrorists are increasingly using the Internet to plan operations and spread propaganda, according to a DHS statement. The newspaper reports that the department is looking for companies that can help it find relevant information online.
from kurt nimmo: The Armed Forces Press Service has initiated a propaganda campaign designed to convince the American people that deploying the 3rd Infantry Division in the United States in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is a good thing. The propaganda piece appeared on the Hinesville, Georgia, Coastal Courier’s website on December 26. “The first active-duty unit dedicated to supporting U.S. civilian authorities in the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack recently wrapped up three days of intensive training its members hope they never have to apply in real life,” Donna Miles reports for the Armed Forces Press Service. “Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team got hands-on training in skills they would depend on to provide humanitarian support during a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident, known here as a CBRNE.” In order to portray the military as humanitarian saviors, the Armed Forces Press Service included a photo of a soldier wielding the “jaws of life” during an exercise that included “buddie teams” recently returned from Iraq’s Anbar province removing mannequins from the rubble of a collapsed building.
from fcw: The Homeland Security Department will soon begin collecting digital fingerprints and photographs from lawful permanent residents of the United States and people seeking to enter the country on an immigration visa or as refugees. The biometric data will be collected from additional groups of those persons when they enter the U.S. starting Jan. 18 as part of DHS’ U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT), officials said Dec. 18. In a statement, DHS officials called the expansion a “positive step forward in a process designed to further improve public safety and national security while ensuring the integrity of the immigration system.”
from danger room: Somebody drop a satellite-guided bomb on my head. I'm not sure if I can take another note of Max Impact, the Air Force's official nu metal band. Or their press releases, which were clearly written by a member of The Onion's editorial staff... By the way, Max Impact is one of seven official Air Force musical ensembles. And that doesn't count "Tops in Blue," the service's singin', swingin', family-friendly, Vegas-style review.
from reuters: Israeli warplanes and helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 205 people in the bloodiest one-day death toll in 60 years of conflict with the Palestinians. Militants in the Gaza Strip, who have launched dozens of rocket attacks against Israel since a truce expired just over a week ago, fired more salvoes that killed one Israeli man and wounded several others. Both sides said they were ready to stage wider assaults, threatening to plunge the region into a crisis that could leave stalled talks over Palestinian statehood in tatters.