ron paul places 5th in iowa straw poll

from raw story: Saturday's vote was long-shot candidate Ron Paul's chance to show his anti-war and libertarian views had resonance beyond his committed core of online supporters.

Paul's campaign made a concerted push for support in the weeks leading up to this weeks vote, through extra visits to the state from the candidate, and a cavalcade of television, radio and newspaper advertisements. Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsin, who attended the straw poll in Ames, Iowa, said Paul's supporters "won the visibility wars," and bloggers at National Review Online's The Corner noted the large number of anti-war Republicans who had come to support the Texas congressman.

"The Ron Paul 'Peace Train' nearly drowned me out!!!" talk show host Laura Ingrham wrote at the Corner. "They emerged this afternoon from the corn fields, pumped up and ready to wage 'peace' in Iraq and throughout the world."

Paul managed to quadruple his level of support in Saturday's non-binding, non-scientific straw poll with 9 percent of the delegates in Ames backing him, compared to about 2 percent of Iowa Republicans who have told pollsters Paul is their choice. That put him in fifth place among the Republicans competing, but Paul's campaign is encouraged by the result...

1. Mitt Romney 4,516 31.6%
2. Mike Huckabee 2,587 18.1%
3. Sam Brownback 2,192 15.3%
4. Tom Tancredo 1,960 13.7%
5. Ron Paul 1,305 9.1%
6. Tommy Thompson 1,039 7.3%
7. Fred Thompson 203 1.4%
8. Rudy Giuliani* 183 1.3%
9. Duncan Hunter 174 1.2%
10. John McCain* 101 0.7%
11. John Cox 41 0.3%
*Did not attend

A Paul supporter circulated a flyer around Iowa and online encouraging those backing Paul to accept Romney's free bus rides to the straw poll. Paul's campaign denied any connection to the flyer.

Other Paul supporters - who also were unaffiliated with the campaign - failed in their push to block the vote based on concerns over insecurities in the Diebold machines on which Republicans cast their votes, the Associated Press reported. The Paul supporters took their case to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, after being blocked by a lower court, but the appeals panel also refused to join an injunction against the vote, an attorney for the Iowa GOP, Matt McDermott, told the AP.

The announcement of poll results was delayed because of a voting machine malfunction; about 4,500 ballots had to be re-run, Marc Ambinder reported on his blog at The Atlantic online. The Des Moines Register reported that the day's high humidity caused some ballots to stick together, necessitating the recounting.

and this is the email message from the ron paul campaign...

August 12, 2007

On behalf of Dr. Ron Paul and his wife Carol, and the Ron Paul 2008 campaign staff, I thank our supporters and volunteers in Iowa and throughout the country for the strong showing in the Iowa straw poll. We are pleased and encouraged by the results.

We have the three ingredients for success:
1. The message: freedom, peace and prosperity.
2. The man: Ron Paul.
3. You.

Our campaign has begun.

Kent Snyder
Chairman, Ron Paul 2008
http://www.ronpaul2008.com

9/11 workers outraged by new rudy claim

from aftermath news/newsday: Rudy Giuliani drew outrage and indignation from Sept. 11 first-responders yesterday by saying he spent as much time - or more - exposed to the site’s dangers as workers who dug through the debris for the missing and the dead.

Speaking to reporters at a Cincinnati Reds ballgame he caught between fund-raisers, the GOP front-runner said he helped 9/11 families and defended himself against critics of how he managed the attack’s aftermath.

“This is not a mayor or a governor or a President who’s sitting in an ivory tower,” Giuliani said. “I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.”

police state surveillance: made in china

in china, a high-tech plan to track people
from new york times: At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity.

Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.

Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.

a chinese tycoon, inspired to create police technology
from new york times: Behind Shenzhen’s aggressive introduction of new police technologies is an unusual computer software company that has won some of the initial government contracts, China Public Security Technology, and the wealthy tycoon who runs it, Lin Jiang Huai.

China Public Security is traded in the United States on the obscure over-the-counter bulletin board market, but has a market capitalization of $185.3 million. It is preparing to seek a Nasdaq listing next year, Mr. Lin said.

Mr. Lin, 38, who holds more than $100 million worth of China Public Security stock, said that he dreamed as a boy of becoming a police officer to fight crime and defend the helpless. A powerfully built amateur weightlifter who is also a devout Buddhist, he made his first fortune as a manufacturer of an important component for DVD players.

Mr. Lin said the success of American technology during the invasion of Iraq inspired him to acquire the predecessor company for China Public Security and turn it to police work.

“I really felt strongly that the police would absolutely benefit from such technology,” he said. “Bush helped me get my vision.”

Mr. Lin bought an obscure e-commerce business here three years ago and changed its business focus. He then did a so-called reverse merger, in which he bought a tiny Florida printing company with sparsely traded stock, renamed it China Public Security, and turned the software business here into a subsidiary of the American company.

Helping Chinese police agencies has been profitable for China Public Security and its investors. The company estimated in May that it would earn an after-tax profit of $12.5 million on sales of $27 million this year. Two hedge funds that bought stakes have more than doubled their money since investing in early February.

paul camp may catch romney’s bus

from new york times: Ron Paul’s supporters are actively encouraging Iowa voters to take advantage of Mitt Romney’s offers of free transportation to the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on Saturday and then, once they are there, to vote for Mr. Paul.

“Some say if Mitt is willing to bus Iowans to Ames for the straw poll, they should take him up on his offer!” says a flier in Iowa and on the Internet in advance of the straw poll for the Republican presidential candidates. The flier says that after riding the Romney bus to Ames, and allowing the Romney campaign to pay one’s $35 entry fee, Iowans should then carefully weigh their options and “they may decide to vote for Ron Paul.”

The flier is topped with a banner that says “2008 Ron Paul News,” but Jesse Benton, a campaign spokesman, said it was the handiwork of independent supporters over whom the campaign had no control. “We can’t tell our supporters what to do or not do,” Mr. Benton said, adding that the campaign did not want to get “entangled” with federal finance regulations involving potential in-kind contributions.

media monarchy episode037

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode037 - august 10, 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 4pm pacific/7pm eastern...

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

'eve of destruction'

from metafilter: Barry McGuire performing the classic folk rock ballad, "Eve of Destruction," on Hullabaloo in 1965. Sadly, it seems as appropriate today as it did back then.

daily kos: cia engineered controlled opposition?

from kurt nimmo: Is it possible Markos Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga, leader of the “Kossaks,” that is to say followers and fawners of the Daily Kos, is a CIA operative?

Francis Holland, posting on the My Left Wing messageboard, details Moulitsas’ relationship with the CIA:

“Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, owner of the DailyKos website, now admits that he spent six months in the employ of the US Central Intelligence Agency in 2001,” writes Holland. “In a one-hour interview on June 2, 2006 interview at the Commonwealth Club, Moulitsas, also known as ‘Kos,’ admitted that he was a CIA employee and would have ‘no problem working for them’ in the present.”

china & russia begin massive 'anti-terror military drill'

from moscow news: China, Russia and four central Asian nations began a joint anti-terror military drill in a remote Muslim-dominated Chinese region on Thursday, state press reported.

The exercise involves a total of 6,000 troops and 36 aircraft from the six nations.

Dubbed "Peace Mission 2007," the drill among the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is being held in China's far northwest Xinjiang region for two days.

Chiefs of staff from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan held strategic negotiations in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, at the start of the drill, Xinhua said.

The exercises move on to Russia on Saturday and end on August 17, when President Vladimir Putin and other leaders of the organisation are due to attend.

cia report on 9/11 due by labor day

from total411/the hill: The CIA has been ordered to release by Labor Day a declassified summary of an internal report on the agency’s performance prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, possibly shedding light on whether senior officials made fundamental lapses in judgment.

Under the 9/11 bill that President Bush signed into law Friday, the agency must release a public summary within 30 days of the law’s enactment, along with a classified annex for Congress that explains the report’s redactions.

CIA spokesman George Little told The Hill in an e-mail Monday that the agency “will, of course, comply with the law.”

Until now, the CIA had refused to disclose any part of the report since its former inspector general (IG), John Helgerson, completed the final draft more than two years ago. The 9/11 bill, which addresses most of the 9/11 Commission’s unfulfilled recommendations, is the first successful legislation to mandate a declassified summary.

According to previous media accounts, the IG report is more hard-hitting about the CIA’s internal failings than the 9/11 Commission’s 2004 account, and points fingers at specific senior individuals at the agency. Those reportedly include former CIA Director George Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James Pavitt, and former CIA Counterterrorism Center Chief Cofer Black. All have left the agency.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Intelligence panel, told The Hill shortly before the bill’s signing that “No one has come even close to giving a good national security argument as to why the public should be denied access to this information.”

Wyden long had pushed for this and other transparency provisions, including declassification of the intelligence budget total and a more defined role for the independent Pubic Interest Declassification Board, both of which also were codified by the 9/11 legislation. He and other Intelligence panel members have seen the classified CIA report, but are barred by committee rules from discussing its content.

“All I can say is that it’s an extraordinarily important, independent assessment, written with a specific purpose to learn how we can improve our security,” he said.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who has backed Wyden and Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) on this issue, said he hoped that the bill’s passage sends “a sufficient signal” to the CIA.

“Everyone else has taken their lumps, and this should have been declassified a long time ago,” Bond said.

Congress ordered the report in late 2002, and Helgerson completed the bulk of the work in 2003 and 2004, when Tenet was still CIA director. Following Tenet’s resignation in July 2004, his successor, Porter Goss, reportedly stalled an internal distribution of the report’s draft and asked Helgerson to make changes before it was sent to Congress.

In August 2005, the congressional intelligence committees received the report as well as responses from the officials cited in the text. Two months later, however, Goss declined to follow the report’s recommendation that the CIA convene “accountability boards” or reprimand specific individuals, according to media reports.

Tenet, Pavitt and Black did not return calls from The Hill asking for comment. But when Tenet appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last May, he charged that there are “many pieces of this report that many of us felt were terribly flawed.”

Questions remain as to how much the CIA will declassify. The agency held lengthy negotiations with Congress over the 2003 release of the congressional 9/11 inquiry report and the 2004 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee on prewar intelligence, both of which contained substantial redactions.

When the Senate Intelligence panel released in September 2006 two further chapters of its prewar intelligence inquiry, Wyden argued that too much had been redacted. “Parts of these reports read like a dictionary with the definitions cut out,” he said at the time in a press release.

Wyden asked the Public Interest Declassification Board, which reviews classification procedures and disputes, to take up the matter. The board said it would defer until it received clarification on whether it could launch a review ordered solely by Congress. The 9/11 bill stipulated that the panel did indeed have that authority.

boeing teams with 5 airlines in 9/11 lawsuit against cia & fbi

from ny1: Five airlines and airline-maker Boeing have filed 9/11-related lawsuits in Manhattan Federal Court against the CIA and the FBI.

The airlines say they need the agents' testimony to defend themselves against lawsuits which say they were to blame for the 9/11 attacks.

Forty-one cases were filed on behalf of 42 victims, because some of them decided to sue the airlines rather than accept payouts from the September 11th Victim's Compensation Fund.

The first trials are scheduled to begin next month.

US & mexico near deal to up war on drugs

yeah, i can hear the 'deal' now...

USA: ok, you guys keep bringing us drugs through our wide open border.

MEX: and then you guys arrest the border guards that try to stop us.

USA: hell, we'll even arrest our own citizens for doing the drugs we bring in!

ALL: Hahahahaahhahaahhahahahaa! What a scam!

from raw story: The US government is closing in on a deal with Mexico to launch a major fight against the violent drug cartels there, a report said Wednesday.

Negotiators on both sides are close to agreeing a US aid package for Mexico which would include telephone-tapping equipment and radars to track traffickers as they ship the drugs, the Washington Post reported, citing US lawmakers and Mexican authorities.

Mexico is a major hub for trafficking drugs, including Colombian cocaine, to the United States. It has been plagued by violence involving the cartels which has left thousands dead in the past year, including dozens of police.

nuke weapons lab reports another major security breach

from raw story: A government watchdog group warns that New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the nation's nuclear weapons design laboratories, has again experienced a security failure of 'the most serious' level.

"An incident involving the unauthorized release of classified data via email occurred last week at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)," reported a press release Monday from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). "The incident...is rated among 'the most serious threats to national security.'"

However, POGO also noted that the lab had attempted to change the classification of the security breach in order to minimize it.

"In an attempt to minimize the problem, the breach was downgraded to a less severe category of IMI-4," the group stated. "After another review, however, it was elevated back to IMI-1."

A so-called 'IMI-1,' or Impact Measurement Index-1 incident can include loss or theft of a nuclear device, components or weapon data; intrusions, hackings, or break-ins into Energy Department computer systems containing secret information; or acts or attempts of terrorist actions.

In spite of the high rating of the breach, a LANL spokesman who talked to the Santa Fe New Mexican attempted to further downplay the incident.

“We did have a lab employee who made a mistake and inadvertently allowed sensitive information to get on our yellow network, which is password protected,” Kevin Roark told the paper's Andy Lenderman "It’s for lab employees only. It is not accessible to the outside world. However, sensitive information should not reside on the yellow network."

In its release, POGO listed 12 security incidents at Los Alamos since nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee was falsely accused of leaking nuclear secrets to the Chinese military. In one late 2006 incident, a LANL employee who was arrested on suspicion of dealing methamphetamines was found to have sensitive information from the lab in his home.

"LANL has been fined, lab officials have been fired, and the lab was even closed for a number of months so that it could get its act together," POGO Senior Investigator Peter Stockton said in a statement. "It’s clear that it just can’t."

POGO's full statement can be read at this link.

flashbacks: nuclear agency head dismissed for lapses & lab confirms classifies materials found

kos faithful line up behind clinton

from kurt nimmo: It is quite the spectacle, witnessing the Bilderberger Queen, Hillary Clinton, and the CFR habitué, John Edwards, sucking up to Markos Moulitsas and the “liberal” bloggers, an easily hoodwinked gaggle the possible selectees will bamboozle next year...

News for Yahoos would have us believe... “Clinton is viewed skeptically by the blogging community, mainly for her history of hawkish views on Iraq. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, founder of Daily Kos and spiritual leader of the convention, said Clinton still might be able to mitigate her problems.”

Mr. Moulitsas, however, gave no clue how Clinton would “mitigate” the ruling class who, after all, own her, same as they owned and ran her husband. “We may decide she’s not our first choice, but she’s not a bad choice,” said the blogger.

In other words, Moulitsas, a former Republican, now a “progressive,” will persuade his loyal followers to vote for Hillary. Of course, only the seriously blinkered can’t see that next time around, in the perennially rigged game of “mainstream” political musical chairs, a Democrat will be selected to “serve” as our president. Moulitsas will lead the lib blogosphere dog and pony show and demonstrate the efficacy of the internet in cheerleading and grandstanding Bilderberger and CFR candidates.

“Plunging headlong into the Internet era, all seven candidates fought for the support of the powerful and polarizing liberal blogosphere by promising universal health care, aggressive government spending and dramatic change from the Bush era,” News for Yahoos proclaims.

How effortlessly these libs are fooled. Of course, there will be no “universal health care,” as our rulers are not interested in the health and welfare of commoners, who are considered by and large expendable, if not useless eaters...

In short, our “netroots” future will look pretty much like the recent past, only worse, although the lib bloggers will feel a whole lot better with the Bilderberger Queen in there, even if they have reservations, as they always do and then go out and vote as told. Libs may stand up and boo Hillary, as they did at the Yearly Kos Convention’s Presidential Leadership Forum in Chicago over the weekend, but when push comes to shove the “progressives” will vote for Clinton, never mind she is virtually indistinguishable from the neocons, as she is in the pocket of AIPAC—as are all of the Dem selectees—and wants to starve Iran into submission, if not bomb it outright, and proffers a “centrist” stance on Iraq, that is to say she will keep the troops there killing locals for the indeterminable future.

Finally, as the following video demonstrates, Clinton will continue the reprehensible tradition of selling Washington to multinational corporations like a well-worn call girl at a set rate. It will be business as usual, thanks to the operator Moulitsas and his trained lib monkeys who embarrassingly show off their split personalities, at one moment booing Hillary and the next accepting her as the next selected president of the United States.

foot & mouth virus released from government lab

Case mirrors 2001 outbreak, could signal new wave of agri-terrorism against farming community



Update: Russian news agency ITAR-TASS is reporting that the release of the virus came after an "international drill" last month that was held at Pirbright Laboratory, in which live virus was used. Real attacks are always shadowed by drills to provide culpable deniability.

from paul joseph watson: The strain of foot and mouth disease that has put Britain on high alert has been identified as originating from a government laboratory which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company, mirroring the deadly outbreak of 2001 and potentially signaling a new wave of agri-terrorism intended to cripple the farming community.

New Prime Minister Gordon Brown has chaired two Cobra emergency meetings and farmers nationwide have been ordered to halt movements of all livestock in response to the situation after after foot-and-mouth was confirmed at Wolford farm, near Guildford, on Friday night.

As was the case in 2001, when a vial of foot and mouth virus that was "stolen" from a government bio-weapons laboratory caused untold misery for thousands of farmers and devastated the industry, the origin of the latest outbreak traces directly back to a government research facility. The BBC reports:

The strain in infected cattle is identical to that used for vaccines at the Institute for Animal Health at Pirbright, three miles from the farm,...

The strain was used in a vaccine batch manufactured on 16 July by a private pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health.

The firm shares Pirbright with the government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH), which conducts research into foot-and-mouth and where the strain is also present.

Merial Animal Health is an American pharmaceutical company that manufactures foot and mouth vaccines containing live virus and is already being blamed as "responsible for the foot and mouth outbreak in Britain" by some newspapers.

Whether the culprits are the pharmaceutical company or the government research lab, serious questions need to be asked about why routine levels of bio-security were not followed and how the virus managed to escape. Press speculation that the virus became airborne and got out through the air ducts doesn't comport with the basic composition of vaccines and how they would normally be stored.

For those who doubt the veracity of a British government plot to once again eviscerate the livelihoods of farmers (routinely the biggest power block opposing the Labour government) in an act of agri-terrorism, they should carefully consider what happened in 2001. The Sunday Express reported that the foot and mouth virus was released deliberately out of Porton Down bio-weapons facility and could have possibly been the source of the outbreak two months later.

The disease spread like wildfire throughout the country as many accused the government of not doing nearly enough to contain it and the spring of 2001 in England was characterized by apocalyptic images of burning pyres dotted all over the countryside as over four million animals were slaughtered.

Coupled with reports of the government making inquiries to timber merchants and sign makers (before closing public footpaths), it is inconceivable that an animal rights activist, as we are led to believe, could have penetrated a level 4 bio-weapons facility that also houses anthrax and ebola and is protected by armed guards of the Ministry of Defence Police and the Military Provost Guard Service. The individual who stole the vial must have had full security clearance to enter the facility. Why would an animal rights activist release a virus that would kill four million animals?

Patricia Doyle, PhD also reported that Foot and Mouth exercises were being run by the British government immediately before the outbreak was made public.

Experts are saying that the current outbreak is likely to be localized and we can only hope it remains this way, because Brown won't hesitate to turn huge swathes of the country into quarantine zones as a dry run for martial law just as his predecessor Tony Blair did six years ago.

cheney determined to strike in US

today marks he sixth anniversary of that fabled august 6th pdb, 'bin laden determined to strike in US.' so in honor of this occasion, here is an important warning...

from webster tarpley: A few days ago, a group of lawyers from western Massachusetts met with the local congressman, Democrat John Olver. Their request was that Olver take part in the urgent effort to impeach Bush and Cheney. Olver responded by saying that he had no intention of doing anything to support impeachment. He went further, offering the information that the United States would soon attack Iran, and that these hostilities would be followed by the imposition of a martial law regime here.

According to reports in the British press, the Cheney war party has gained the upper hand in the secret councils of the Bush White House, pushing aside the purported hesitations of Miss Rice, Secretary Gates, and the NATO allies to chart a direct course towards war with Iran:

'The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.... A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo." at a meeting of the White House, Pentagon and state department last month, Mr Cheney expressed frustration at the lack of progress and Mr Bush sided with him. "The balance has tilted. There is cause for concern," the source said this week. "Cheney has limited capital left, but if he wanted to use all his capital on this one issue, he could still have an impact," said Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.' ("Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran" Guardian, July 16, 2007.)

Deluded supporters of the Democratic Party may soon have to throw away their pathetic countdown clocks, those self-consoling little devices that remind them of how much time remains until noon on January 20, 2009, the moment when it is thought that Bush will finally leave office. These countdown clocks make no provision for the Cheney doctrine, which calls for a new super 9/11 with weapons of mass destruction in the US, to be used as the pretext for a nuclear attack on Iran and for martial law at home. Those who think the Republicans cannot hold the White House in 2008 have forgotten that neocons always prefer a coup d'etat to an election. As Cheney told Bob Schieffer of CBS's Face the Nation on April 15, 2007:

"The greatest threat now is 'a 9/11' occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and box cutters, but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities."

Pelosi and Reid need to toss out their fatuous countdown clocks, and get out their impeachment stopwatches fast.

190,000 US guns given to iraqis remain unaccounted for

from raw story: A new GAO report shows that about 190,000 guns, given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005 during training, have gone missing, the Washington Post reports.

The forces were being trained by present-day commander Gen. David H. Petraeus when the weapons were distributed; according to the GAO, proper procedure was not followed, and the weapons have not been properly tracked. The Pentagon isn't disputing the report.

Officials concede that it is likely that these weapons, bought with American taxpayer money, are being used against US forces.

news on the march

nsa, dod, & fbi seek hackers as allies
from the age: US federal agents are reaching out to computer hackers for help fighting crime and terrorism as a tug-of-war between privacy and public safety continues on the Internet.

The National Security Agency (NSA), the Department of Defense and the FBI were among the spy, military and police agencies represented at DefCon, an international gathering of hackers in Las Vegas.

china bans crude birth control slogans
from ap: China's top family planning agency has cracked down on crude and insensitive slogans used by rural authorities to enforce the country's strict population limits, state media said Sunday.

Slogans such as 'Raise fewer babies but more piggies,' and 'One more baby means one more tomb,' have been forbidden and a list of 190 acceptable slogans issued by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Such slogans are often found painted on roadside buildings in rural areas.

karzai sees no gains in bin laden hunt
from ap: In the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the United States and its allies have essentially gotten nowhere lately, Karzai said.

"We are not closer, we are not further away from it," Karzai said in an interview with CNN's "Late Edition," which aired Sunday. "We are where we were a few years ago."

Karzai ruled out that bin Laden was in Afghanistan, but otherwise said he didn't know where the leader of the al-Qaida terror network was likely to be hiding.

Bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is believed to be living in the tribal border region of Pakistan. His ability to avoid capture remains a major source of frustration for U.S.-led forces and a political sore spot for Bush.


colbert 'hopes to join' illuminati depopulation plan
from jones report: Stephen Colbert made heavy reference to the Illuminati and their plan to depopulate the world, noting that he too can make strange hand signs and wants to be recruited... Colbert brings up the Illuminati in conjunction with Benjamin Fulford, a former Forbes magazine writer, who alleges that the Illuminati network seeks to use race-specific biological weapons to decrease Asian populations to 500,000,000...

Fulford gave an exclusive six hour interview to the Jeff Rense Show on the subject, which can be found here.

ron paul & the republican debate

another republican debate & another ron paul victory... hopefully, you had the chance to head over to drudge & abc and cast your vote for the only candidate that can beat hillary clinton... ron paul!

(and just think, only 3 months ago ron paul placed 3rd in a drudge poll...)

















from reuters: Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, in criticizing the Bush administration's emphasis on expanding democracy, went back more than 80 years to quote President Woodrow Wilson and his "making the world safe for democracy."

from boston herald: Republican presidential contenders sparred over abortion on Sunday while generally agreeing the United States must remain is n Iraq to help win the war on terror.

"Just come home," dissented Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the lone advocate of a quick troop withdrawal on a presidential campaign debate stage. He said there had never been a good reason to go to war in the first place.

"Has he forgotten about 9/11?" interjected former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

from des moines register: U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who has attracted a loyal Internet following, has been the Republican candidate field's most outspoken war critic.

"We went there illegally. We did not declare war. It's lasting way too long," Paul told the Drake University and ABC-TV audiences. "We ought to just come home."

from abc news: Texas Rep. Ron Paul had harsher words for the administration, saying that Cheney is more powerful than Bush and that he would support an amendment to define the Vice President's duties.

All but two of Republican presidential candidates oppose a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

Responding to a video question asking the candidates to clarify their strategies for ending the war in Iraq, congressman Ron Paul came out swinging in support of immediate withdrawal.

"We went in illegally and we ought to just come home," Paul charged from the podium to scattered audience cheers.

Paul is co-author, alongside Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, offered a House resolution to begin immediate withdrawal.

from monsters & critics: GOP candidate Ron Paul latest news shows that in a Matt Drudge (Drudge Report) initiated poll of which GOP presidential hopeful won the debate in Iowa, the leader with 45% of the vote was, Ron Paul. (that sentence is a grammatical nightmare...)

Dr. Paul, an East Texas Doctor and congressman, has quietly stepped into the Howard Dean and Ross Perot slot of the upcoming election, and signs of his support seem to be growing based on the latest numbers cited on CNN today.

US financing former insurgents in iraq

from washington post: Inside a brightly lit room, the walls adorned with memorials to 23 dead American soldiers, Lt. Col. Robert Balcavage stared at the three Sunni tribal leaders he wanted to recruit.

Their fighters had battled U.S. troops. Balcavage suspected they might have attacked some of his own men. The trio accused another sheik of having links to the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. That sheik, four days earlier, had promised the U.S. military to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq and protect a strategic road.

"Who do you trust? Who do you not trust?" said Balcavage... An hour later, he signed up some of America's newest allies.

U.S. commanders are offering large sums to enlist, at breakneck pace, their former enemies, handing them broad security powers in a risky effort to tame this fractious area south of Baghdad in Babil province and, literally, buy time for national reconciliation.

American generals insist they are not creating militias... But in a land of sectarian fault lines and shifting tribal loyalties, the strategy raises concerns about the long-term implications of empowering groups that steadfastly oppose the Shiite-led government.

azzam the operative has a new video

from ap: An American member of al-Qaida threatened foreign diplomats and embassies across the Islamic world in a new video Sunday, saying they would targeted as "spy dens."

The 1 hour, 17 minute video also featured a computer-animated recreation of a March 2006 suicide attack that killed U.S. diplomat David Foy in Karachi, Pakistan, and testimony from a man who claimed to be the bomber.

"We shall continue to target you, at home and abroad, just as you target us, at home and abroad, and these spy dens and military command and control centers from which you plotted your aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq," said Adam Gadahn, a Californian also known as Azzan al-Amriki.

big brother goes to the beach

from worcester telegram: At the beach of the future, high tide will meet high-tech.

Visitors will wear wristbands that automatically debit their bank accounts or credit cards to pay for beach access, food and parking. Garbage cans will send e-mail to cleanup crews when they’re ready to be emptied.

And people won’t even think about trying to sneak in: Beach checkers could scan the sands with handheld devices and instantly know who didn’t pay.


This southern New Jersey city plans to deliver a variety of public services and Internet access using radio-frequency identification chips and Wi-Fi wireless technology. The $3 million project is expected to be finished by next summer.

senate passes bush-backed spy bill

from reuters: The Democratic-led U.S. Senate, amid warnings of further attacks on the United States, approved a bill on Friday that would allow President George W. Bush to maintain his controversial domestic spying program.

On a vote of 60-28, the Senate sent the measure to the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives for consideration as early as Saturday as lawmakers push to begin a month-long recess.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said earlier he needed the legislation "in order to protect the nation from attacks that are being planned today to inflict mass casualties on the United States."

democrats scrambling to expand eavesdropping
from nytimes: Under pressure from President Bush, Democratic leaders in Congress are scrambling to pass legislation this week to expand the government’s electronic wiretapping powers.

Democratic leaders have expressed a new willingness to work with the White House to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some purely foreign telephone calls and e-mail. Such a step now requires court approval.

It would be the first change in the law since the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants became public in December 2005.

outside the box #112

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on august 2, 2007.

from alex ansary: Alex discusses the importance of understanding history and how it relates to our current reality. Some of the top stories include Chinese/Russian Wargames, robotic UAV drones that are armed with missiles, and biochips that are being recommended for soldiers.

ron paul wins freedomworks straw poll

from business wire: FreedomWorks officially closed its Republican Presidential Straw Poll early this morning after 16,371 limited government conservatives cast their votes over 3 days of polling. Texas Representative Ron Paul won by a wide margin with 56 percent of the vote.

Senator Fred Thompson snatched the second place position, with Duncan Hunter taking third. The FreedomWorks Straw Poll provides the most complete view of the limited government movement heading into the Iowa Straw Poll on August 11th. For complete results, visit freedomworks.org/strawpoll

FreedomWorks launched this Straw Poll to gauge the opinions of the economic conservative community... Voters had a choice of one of the eleven current and likely future candidates in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008.

The FreedomWorks GOP Straw Poll was engineered to allow for only one vote per e-mail address, and all email addresses had to be validated to count in the poll, making it one of the most accurate online polls.

media monarchy episode036

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode036 - august 3, 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 4pm pacific/7pm eastern...

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

ron paul remains longshot for gop nomination

(this is a pretty fair piece by the ap. what's interesting is that they have to try and keep reminding us that he's an 'underdog,' he can't win. is the MSM trying to convince us or themselves? you'll notice they don't have to keep telling us that hunter, tancredo or thompson are 'longshots'...)

from ap/yahoo: Ron Paul may be the political butterfly of the 2008 presidential campaign. An obscure congressman from Southeast Texas for most of his political career, Paul has metamorphosed into the favorite of those looking for a candidate outside the political mainstream...

As comedian Stephen Colbert put it when Paul appeared in June on his mock right-wing talk show, "You are an enigma wrapped in a riddle nestled in a sesame seed bun of mystery."

ron paul on civil liberties

from ron paul 2008: This is Day 2 of our YouChoose '08 Spotlight week. Throughout this week we will be featuring a new video every day of presidential candidate Ron Paul talking about different issues. Please submit your questions, comments or your positions on the issues by posting your video comments on our video pages...

Watch presidential candidate Ron Paul at the ABC Debate on August 5th

noble resolve & the day called x

from willamette week: Portland's easily agitated are in full letter-writing mode over two Homeland Security Department exercises coming to town, dubbed "Top Off” and "Noble Resolve.”

In letters to Mayor Tom Potter, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, other elected officials, and us, the (very) concerned citizens link the disaster drills to a recent presidential directive that would give the executive new powers during a “catastrophic emergency,” as defined by the Commander Guy.

One Indymedia poster called it “the equivalent of Hitler's Article 48,” and said Noble Resolve “is too dangerous to allow in Oregon.”

“It’s looking more and more like a perfect storm of terror, treason and totalitarianism,” the open letter went on. “Drills like these have a history of going live.”

Really? I’ll bet anyone 50 American dollars that martial law won’t “go live” in Portland during this year's drills.

Don’t get me wrong: Bush’s rule-by-decree style is deeply troubling. The Homeland Security exercises aren’t. At least, they’re not the end of the world—just a practice run for it.

Paranoia is the new black.


from cbs/archive: Narrated by Glenn Ford, this extraordinary CBS Television film shows how civil defence operations would help minimize casualties in a typical city - Portland, Oregon.

'an attack is not taking place' 'this is not an assault'

this day in history: iraq invades kuwait

from wikipedia: The Invasion of Kuwait, also known as the Iraq-Kuwait War, was a major conflict between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait which resulted in the 7 month long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait[4] which subsequently led to direct military intervention by United States-led forces (see Gulf War).

The invasion started on August 2, 1990 and within two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or escaped to neighboring Saudi Arabia.

here is a quick video from the history channel... and don't forget about april glaspie and the US's permission to invade kuwait.

israeli terror expert: US terror attack '90 days at most'

from fox: Counterterrorism expert Juval Aviv spoke with FOX Fan Central about what Americans can do to protect themselves in case of a terror attack.

Fox: Do you believe another terrorist attack is likely on American soil?

Aviv: I predict, based primarily on information that is floating in Europe and the Middle East, that an event is imminent and around the corner here in the United States. It could happen as soon as tomorrow, or it could happen in the next few months. Ninety days at the most...

Fox: What more do you think the government can do to protect the public?

Aviv: Number one, and this is the beef I’ve had with Homeland Security for the last four years, is educating the public on how to deal with those types of events. There’s no education. We’re raising the color code alert and that means nothing to anyone. Whether it’s green, yellow, pink, no one ever educated the public how to identify suspicious items or people. In Israel, so many of them [terrorists] have been apprehended just because people have phoned in. We don’t have that training on campuses, schools or kindergarten.

In Israel, it’s very popular right now [amongst terrorists] to put one device to explode and time another one for five minutes later when it’s all calm, people are getting up and the rescue teams have responded. You need to know all those things and think about those things. The government must pursue that. Law enforcement will never have enough people on the street to detect things. We don’t have that kind of manpower. That’s why the government must enlist the public.

Juval Aviv is a former Israeli Counterterrorism Intelligence Officer and President and CEO of Interfor, Inc. Mr. Aviv has also served as a special consultant to the U.S. Congress on issues of terrorism and security and is the author of “Staying Safe: The Complete Guide to Protecting Yourself, Your Family, and Your Business.”

here is juval aviv, again on fox, promoting his book in may 2007...

world stocks in meltdown over US economy fears

from afp: European and Asian stock markets sank on Wednesday, mirroring losses the previous day in New York, on mounting fears that weakness in the US housing sector could infect the world economy.

However, the major European stock markets wiped out some of their losses of earlier in the day, amid a mixed opening on Wall Street...

The yen meanwhile hit a four-month high against the dollar and oil passed an all-time peak in New York as investors exited risky investments and turned to safe-havens, dealers said.

Across the Atlantic US shares traded mixed in morning deals in a choppy session following the prior day's selloff as investors worried about contagion from credit problems linked to the ailing US housing sector...

"There is this worry now that the ease with which lending has taken place and the ease with which there has been access to borrowing to finance the global economy is being unwound."