text:
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
That's it. That's the last straw.
I haven't heard back on my questions to the people at tblog, but if they bump me for being "objectionable" (according to their rules and regs), I'll come back to Blogger.
Until then....see you at http://mquinn02.tblog.com/ if you come along.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Resistance building
...Most of those who have not reported are seeking exemptions from active duty or delays in reporting, he said.
Those who have not reported or applied for a delay or exemption will be considered deserters if they do not show up within seven days of the date they were told to report for duty, Masters said.
"We are going to go the extra mile to work with people," he said. "But if they don't report, the Army will track them down."
...The Army said 5,600 individual reservists were being recalled to active duty; 4,500 were to report to Fort Jackson.
Remember that old 60's saying? "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"
Who's behind who's behind 9/11?
Stanley Hilton was a senior advisor to Sen Bob Dole (R) and has personally known Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz for decades. This courageous man has risked his professional reputation, and possibly his life, to get this information out to people.
The following is from his latest visit to Alex Jones' radio show.
..."This (9/11) was all planned. This was a government-ordered operation. Bush personally signed the order. He personally authorized the attacks. He is guilty of treason and mass murder." --Stanley Hilton
Alex Jones interview of Stanley Hilton, attorney for 911 taxpayers' lawsuit.
He even has a lawsuit against Bush for 9/11.
..We are suing them under the Constitution for violating Americans' rights, as well as under the federal Fraudulent Claims Act, for presenting a fraudulent claim to Congress to justify the bogus Iraq boondoggle war, for political gains. And also, under the RICO statute, under the Racketeering Corrupt Organization Act, for being a corrupt entity. And I've been harassed personally by the chief judge of the federal court who is instructing me personally to drop this suit, threatened to kick me off the court, after 30 years on the court. I've been harassed by the FBI. My staff has been harassed and threatened. My office has been broken into and this is the kind of government we are dealing with.
...Our case is alleging that Bush and his puppets Rice and Cheney and Mueller and Rumsfeld and so forth, Tenet, were all involved not only in aiding and abetting and allowing 9/11 to happen but in actually ordering it to happen. Bush personally ordered it to happen. We have some very incriminating documents as well as eye-witnesses, that Bush personally ordered this event to happen in order to gain political advantage, to pursue a bogus political agenda on behalf of the neocons and their deluded thinking in the Middle East. I also wanted to point out that, just quickly, I went to school with some of these neocons. At the University of Chicago, in the late 60s with Wolfowitz and Feith and several of the others and so I know these people personally. And we used to talk about this stuff all of the time. And I did my senior thesis on this very subject - how to turn the U.S. into a presidential dictatorship by manufacturing a bogus Pearl Harbor event. So, technically this has been in the planning at least 35 years.
AJ: That's right. They were all Straussian followers of a Nazi-like professor. And now they are setting it up here in America. Stanley, I know you deposed a lot of people and you've got your $7 million dollar lawsuit with hundreds of the victim's families involved.
SH: 7 billion, 7 billion
Go ahead on, Stan.
Mr. Hilton says that the reason Bush acted so nonchalant at the Florida elementary school was that he thought this was another rehearsal. I don't know about that. I just think it's because he knew about it in advance. But maybe he did think it was a rehearsal. At any rate, it's a recorded fact that NORAD was running dress rehearsals for a possible hijacked airliner attack the very day the planes hit the towers. At least that's what they say they were doing, offering up some excuses for why they didn't scramble jets to bring down the hijacked planes.
Hilton also offers a reason for Bush's early snafu about seeing the first plane hit the towers when in fact there was no video of that. He says that was because of rehearsal footage from no less than 35 drills in the two months prior to 9/11 and the way Bush had been rehearsed to respond. He claims that even some NORAD employees thought at first the actual event was another drill.
Lots more on 9/11, the possibility of Bush involvement in orchestrating it, and other information is collected on my webpage here.
....but hey, read what you want....you will anyway.
Horse('s ass) Race 2004
Ann Telnaes
Tom Toles
Cat Stevens: Terrorist
And, besides, now we have the terrorist police collecting anyone whose beliefs are considered objectionable, whether they commit any terrorist act or not. Welcome to the new police state.
Federal officials say a plane bound for Washington from London was diverted to Maine because passenger Yusuf Islam -- formerly known as pop singer Cat Stevens -- showed up on the U.S. watch list.
The flight had already taken off when the match was made between the passenger and the watch list. That's according to the Transportation Security Administration.
The plane was met by federal agents at Maine's Bangor International Airport, where sources say Islam was questioned by the FBI and Immigration officials.
...Islam is a peace activist who has criticized the war in Iraq.
He has also criticized terrorist acts by Muslims, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the deadly school seizure early this month in Beslan, Russia.
...A Homeland Security spokesman says Islam will be put on the first available flight out the country.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy identified the passenger as Islam. "He was interviewed and denied admission to the United States on national security grounds,'' Murphy said.
Feel safer now that Cat Stevens has been captured?
Longer boats are comin' to win us
Hold on to the shore
They'll be takin' the key from the door
The Weekly Spin
A few of those in today's Spin:
A former farm lobbyist will become California's top pesticide regulator, despite complaints from environmentalists. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Mary-Ann Warmerdam, who worked for the California Farm Bureau Federation from 1981 to 2001, to head the state's Department of Pesticide. Warmerdam currently is a lobbyist for Pacific Gas & Electric. The Los Angeles Times reports that in August nine environmental groups wrote Schwarenegger questioning the appointment to top pesticide regulator of someone who worked two decades for "an organization that has a long tradition in California of fighting efforts to protect public health and the environment from pesticide use."
Of course, this is nothing new. It's common practice. Check out the EPA some time.
If you've been reading YWA for any length of time, you know how little stock I put in the polls. Here's one reason why...
"Something has methodologically gone awry when polls are swinging about this wildly," writes David Price, about presidential campaign polling. "We Americans simply don't answer our phones like we used to." Because of caller ID and cell phones, "those profiled as being most prone to answering phone surveys tend to be: (more) White, (more) older, and (more) male." The Wall Street Journal reports that how likely (as opposed to registered) voters are identified may also skew results. "Those models tend to [tilt to] a little older, a little more white, a little more affluent and a little more Republican voters," said GOP pollster Bill McInturff.
SOURCE: CounterPunch, September 20, 2004
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's PR firm, Creative Response Concepts, "used right-wing blogs and news sites to turn a CBS report casting doubt on President George W. Bush's National Guard service into a potential black eye for both the network and the Democrats." CRC client Cybercast News Service "called typographical experts, got them on the record that these papers were fishy, and posted a story"; "immediately" contacted Matt Drudge; and worked with the Media Research Center "to push the story into the mainstream press." The Los Angeles Times reports that the first forgery charge "did not come from an expert in typography," but from "an Atlanta lawyer with strong ties to conservative Republican causes."
I suppose it's possible that the Rove Machine took a page from the Chalabi affair and actually passed the documents to CBS themselves, and then sat back and watched, knowing they would discredit the whole affair. Nothing is out of bounds for Rove. Just saying. And it's kind of funny that the Swift Boat Veterans have been clearly connected to the Bush campaign, while rabidly trying to connect the CBS memo fiasco to the Kerry campaign. Just saying. And how they knew to so very, very quickly get some typewriter experts on the case - to zero in on that aspect of it immediately. Juuuuust saying.
"The U.S. government is soliciting proposals for an 'aggressive' and comprehensive PR and advertising push in Iraq to convey military and diplomatic goals to Iraqis and gain their support." The contract will be with the Multi National Corps-Iraq; British PR firm Bell Pottinger did similar work for MNC-I's predecessor, the Coalition Provisional Authority. The campaign will include "outreach to various segments of Iraqi society" and setting up a "Rebuttal Cell," to "immediately and effectively" challenge "reports that unfairly target the Coalition or Coalition interests." The PR plan contrasts with news of a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that "spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq."
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), September 16, 2004
Now that is exactly where American self-centered ignorance comes into play. They think that Iraqis, who are being bombed from U.S. planes and mowed down by U.S. helicopter gunships on a daily basis, are susceptible to PR campaigns, just like Americans who watch way too much TV. We just have to get the word out that bombing them is good for them. Then they'll support it. No wonder we're "losing".
But, it works well here. Therefore...
George Bush "has succeeded in making more Americans see the war in Iraq as part of the broader war on terrorism," reports the Wall Street Journal. Republican pollster Bill McInturff agrees: "The Bush campaign has worked hard, really hard, for months, to make terrorism and security the issue of the election, and as usual, they've done it with enormous discipline." The plan, says McInturff, is "moving people off of stuff that's disadvantageous to Bush." Kerry could undercut Bush's backing by offering a different approach to Iraq, but, says McInturff, "so far the Kerry answer to that is not compelling."
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
TV reality.
Last night I had the TV on (a fairly rare event), and there were two advertisements that really caught my attention (in an incredulous kind of way).
The TV drama Law & Order is advertising its opening season show as being "ripped from today's headlines". The story is going to have something to do with POWs and Arabs, and photographs that are - yes, Abu Ghraib type torture scenes.
If we got nothing else from Abu Ghraib, we got TV entertainment.
And, then, the real bizarro moment was a local TV commercial for Columbia Car Classics. I wasn't really watching it, so I can't give you the precise script, but it was a typical car sales commercial, complete with bargain info to the effect that they are running certain deals (so much money off for whatever reasons), and they actually pasted up a photo of bin Laden with some big sale numbers, saying something like getting the full price taken off any vehicle if you bring him in to trade!. But, if you can't find bin Laden, then you can still take off whatever amount from the price of a vehicle for some other deal they're offering.
Good lord.
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Rapture Ready
The site has a handy page to answer your questions if you are one of the unfortunate who get left behind, which I expect will cover everyone reading this blog.
I realize this web page will be addressing two audiences: those of you who read this page before the rapture and those of you who read it after the rapture. My focus here will be on those who have found this page after the rapture of the Church. For anyone reading this material before the pre-trib rapture, I highly recommend that you ponder the negative consequences of being left behind and seriously consider committing your life to Jesus if you have not done so already.
And by the following passage, which is written to be read post-Rapture, I would say we are already there. (Well, aside from the seeming to be "the most benevolent leader who has ever held office" part.) We must have missed the mass ascension somehow. Check around to see if 144,000 people recently went missing without a "natural" cause.
Just wars
Bob links to an article to relieve you of your last shred of illusion about why we go to war.
...Article I (1) called for a "free-market economy", and article II (1) for privatisation of all government-owned assets. At the time, the rump Yugoslavia - then not a member of the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO or European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - was the last economy in central-southern Europe to be uncolonised by western capital.
...In the 1999 Nato bombing campaign, it was state-owned companies - rather than military sites - that were specifically targeted by the world's richest nations. Nato only destroyed 14 tanks, but 372 industrial facilities were hit - including the Zastava car plant at Kragujevac, leaving hundreds of thousands jobless. Not one foreign or privately owned factory was bombed.
Beheadings and negotiations - Part II
In his effort to claim he is the strongest candidate on national security, President Bush has lately been speaking a lot about how he is doing everything possible to track down terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the man thought to be responsible for escalating attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq. But according to NBC News, it was Bush who in 2002 and 2003 rejected three plans to strike and neutralize Zarqawi because he believed a successful strike would undermine the public case for targeting Saddam Hussein.
As NBC News reported, "Long before the war, the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself - but never pulled the trigger." In June 2002, the Pentagon drafted plans to attack a camp Zarqawi was at with cruise missiles and airstrikes. The plan was killed by the White House. Four months later, as Zarqawi planned to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe, the Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, yet "the White House again killed it." In January 2003, the Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the White House killed it.
According to NBC, "Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi's operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam."
Zarqawi is thought to be at least indirectly responsible for hundreds of U.S. casualties. Just yesterday, Zarqawi's terrorist group beheaded an American civilian in Baghdad.
Source: Daily Mislead
Beheadings and negotiations
After the beheading of a captured American, pleas are going forth to the kidnappers for mercy on behalf of two others being threatened, and to Tony Blair to negotiate the release of the British hostage.
Please. What is it now?
The "terrorists" were demanding the release of all female prisoners in Iraqi coalition prisons in Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr in exchange for the lives of the three hostages. What are the female prisoners but hostages?
What are the thousands and thousands of civilians who are killed in "precision" airstrikes but murdered hostages?
We can't negotiate with terrorists. Bullfuck. We are terrorists. And we don't even ask for reasonable deals. Give us control of your land, your oil, and your livelihood, or we'll kill thousands of your children, your wives, your mothers and fathers.
Oh, you think that's a little overblown? Okay, I'll bring it down to where you can see it. Turn over your rebels and terrorists, and we'll quit bombing your cities.
Sound like a reasonable request to you? How about this - American citizens in Chicago: turn over your drug dealers and mafiosi, and we'll let you live. Otherwise, we'll have to bomb some of those houses where we believe they're hiding out. Too bad about the innocents living nearby.
We're holding entire Iraqi cities hostage, and our blood boils when they take a few hostages (who are only there trying to rebuild and help those ungrateful ragheads), notably without torturing them (unlike any number of the female hostages we hold in Abu Ghraib), and cut off a head.
And get a load of apparently crack-smoking Derr Rumsfiend at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri...
Absolutely thrilled to go to Afghanistan or Iraq I imagine. Wolfowitz is, I know.
RUMSFELD: Thank you. We did lose lives during major combat operation. Major combat operation is just that—it involved the air and the land and the sea and it was opposing organized armies and elements of the Iraqi armed forces. That ended and major combat ended and what we have been in since that period has been an insurgency. And the reason it's tough and the reason we're losing lives is because an insurgency is an ugly business. It's a tough business and our forces are doing a terrific job over there. It is a tough job. And the reason that it's tough is because you have foreign terrorists coming the county, you have former regime elements that were part of the Baathist party and the regimes of Saddam Hussein, and you have criminals they are paying to do this.
Do you think that satisfied the questioning soldier?
Look on the bright side. Saddam was worse than us when it came to torture. The rate of U.S. forces injuries in Iraq is rising faster than the rate of U.S. deaths. And more of them than us are getting killed providing security.
RUMSFELD: I've heard that concern. I don't know quite where it comes from. We're focusing a good deal of attention on Afghanistan and we've got a wonderful group of men and women in uniform there. We've got civilian leadership there and the ambassador and his team—the country team. They have successfully selected a president, they are in the process now of having a nationwide election for president and they have a constitution. In the election the United Nations is helping to administer it they were hoping to have, as I recall, 4 or 5 or 6 million people register to vote. There are now, something like 10 and half million the last time I looked, of which 41 percent are women, which of course in that country is most unusual. There continues to [be] periodic Al-Qaeda and Taliban attacks along particularly the Pakistan border. The country is not fully pacified but it is — it's economy is booming. Refugees have come back from all over the world to that country; the[y're] voting with their feet and they want to be there. The government is functioning and the NATO countries have agreed to take over first, the international assistant security force in Kabul and more recently, some of the provincial reconstruction teams in the northern portion of Afghanistan. And things are going very well.
Indeed. Very well.
Protesters Attack Soldiers in Afghanistan
Afghan aid workers flee Herat
Karzai sacks Herat governor
2 American soldiers, some militants killed in Afghanistan fighting
Violence continues to escalate in Afghanistan ahead of elections
US Probing Alleged Abuse of Afghans
US, Britain to increase troops in Afghanistan
RUMSFELD: No, I'm not aware of it. I know that when he wrote a couple of articles for some magazine that we put a team of about 4 or 5 people...to find if anyone could find any scrap of truth in anything that he had written and we were unable to do so.
QUESTION: Are you saying the book is false?
RUMSFELD: I haven't seen the book. You just heard me answer the question. I have not seen the book. I'm not aware of these allegations. I'm saying that — you should listen very carefully — when there was an article, I think, in the New Yorker that he wrote we had a team of people go out and see if they could find any proof in it. We were unable to validate anything in that article. But I have not seen the book, maybe somebody else has.
Soldiers aren't supposed to ask those kinds of questions. Makes Demon Rumsfiend testy. No weekend leave for that guy.
Totally mad.
Don't DeLay
Come November, we need to show Kenny Hulshof the door.
For those of you in other areas, you can check here to see if your representative is on the ethics committee. (Yes, I know. Congressional ethics. Oxymoron.) And in Kenny-boy Hulshof's case, it's like having the fox guarding the henhouse.
Your Representative, Kenny Hulshof, is facing a moment of truth. Hulshof sits on the House Ethics Committee, which meets tomorrow, Wednesday, September 22nd, to decide whether to investigate Tom DeLay, the House Republican Leader, for corruption.
DeLay is already facing a possible indictment in Texas, and an Ethics Committee investigation could force him to resign his leadership post. It would be a huge victory for fairness.
But Hulshof has received $14,000 from a PAC controlled by DeLay. That, combined with partisanship, could make it hard for Hulshof, a Republican, to do the right thing.
Unless we all demand it. Please call him right now:
Representative Kenny Hulshof
Phone: 202-225-2956
Make sure his staffers know you're a constituent. Then tell them:
"We need an outside counsel to investigate Rep. Tom DeLay."
Please let us know you're calling, at:
Few people are as central to right-wing control in Washington as Tom DeLay. He's right up there with Bush, Cheney, and Karl Rove. Nicknamed "The Hammer" for his ruthless style, DeLay's in charge of ramming the right wing's agenda through Congress.
DeLay was the mastermind behind last year's outrageous redistricting in Texas; he refuses to allow a vote in the House on limiting media consolidation, because it will win; and when other Congresspeople question Bush's war policy, he accuses them of undermining our troops and surrendering to terrorists. DeLay has literally locked House Democrats out of negotiations on major bills like Medicare, and held votes open for hours so arms can be twisted with threats and bribe offers -- and that's according to fellow Republicans. [1]
Right now, we have a chance stop him. In Texas, DeLay's immersed in a campaign finance scandal that could get him indicted. And on Capitol Hill, he's facing the first formal ethics complaint in seven
years. [2]
The problem is, four of the Ethics Committee's five Republican members, including Rep. Hulshof, have received campaign money from DeLay. [3]
We've got to demand an outside counsel to investigate charges that DeLay:
- Funneled illegal corporate contributions to GOP candidates for
the Texas legislature, through the RNC and a group called TRMPAC.
- Improperly involved a federal agency in partisan politics, by
asking the Federal Aviation Administration to track down Texas
- Illegally solicited a $25,000 campaign contribution from Westar
Energy Corporation, in exchange for supporting legislation that
would benefit the company.
- Solicited $50,000 from Enron for the Texas redistricting effort,
described below. [4]
Representative Hulshof is one of just 10 Representatives in the country, and just 5 crucial Republicans, who will decide whether or not DeLay is investigated.
Please call him now:
Representative Kenny Hulshof
Phone: 202-225-2956
Tell him:
"We need an outside counsel to investigate Rep. Tom DeLay."
Please let us know you're calling, at:
Last summer, DeLay forced an unprecedented mid-term redrawing of the map defining Texas' Congressional districts, likely moving five Democratic House seats into the Republican column this fall.
The story's a bit complex, but here's the basic outline:
1. Every 10 years, after the census, House district maps are redrawn.
Texas' legislature did this in 2001, completing the job.
2. DeLay raised massive sums of money for Republicans running for the
Texas state legislature. Some of this money was apparently from
corporate sources, illegal under Texas law.
3. Benefiting from this money, Republicans took over the Texas state
legislature in 2002.
4. On DeLay's instruction, the state legislature redrew the map of
federal House districts, to replace the one made after the census.
A new map without a new census was unprecedented, and totally
un-democratic. The new map was drawn to favor Republicans, and it
disenfranchised 1.4 million African-American and Latino voters.
5. A few principled Democrats still in the state legislature refused
to convene, in an attempt to prevent a vote adopting DeLay's map.
6. DeLay had these legislators threatened with arrest, so they left
the state. MoveOn members raised a million dollars to help them,
while DeLay called in the FAA to track them down.
7. Ultimately, one of the Democrats buckled and went home, enabling
the state legislature to convene and approve DeLay's map.
8. DeLay's map goes into effect this fall, and Republicans are
expected to pick up 5 House seats now held by Democrats, cementing
DeLay's hold on power. Unless we stop him.
DeLay's strong-arm tactics are a reminder that the right wing will do anything to gain and keep control, regardless of the cost to our democracy.
It's a pattern we've seen again and again -- in impeachment, the 2000 election, and in the 2003 special election for governor in California. All these events shared the common thread of Republicans overturning legitimate elections by any means at their disposal.
It's time to fight back.
Please call Rep. Hulshof now, and demand that the Ethics Committee appoint an outside counsel to investigate Rep. Tom DeLay:
Representative Kenny Hulshof
Phone: 202-225-2956
Thank you, for all you do.
- Carrie, Joan, Lee, Marika, Noah, Peter, and Wes
The MoveOn.org Team
September 21st, 2004
P.S. Yesterday's New York Times called for an outside counsel to investigate DeLay:
The House's Fear of Tom DeLay
NY Times
These editorials have also called for an outside counsel:
Miami Herald: Unethical ethics panel
Miami Herald
(registration required)
Austin American-Statesman: Outside investigation of ethics charge warranted
Austin American-Statesman
(registration required)
[1] A bribe was attempted while the Medicare bill was held open:
Chicago Suntimes
[2] The official summary of the formal complaint against DeLay:
MoveOn pdf
[3] AP: Four on Ethics Panel Accepted Delay Money
[4] Houston Chronicle: DeLay's national committee documents Enron donation
Houston Chronicle
These articles also detail DeLay's fundraising abuses:
Washington Post: DeLay's Corporate Fundraising Investigated
Washington Post
Dallas Morning News: As DeLay raises cash, critics raise questions
MoveOn (registration required)
The most secretive government in American history
Homeland Security
Secrecy is contagious – and scandalous. The Washington Post reports that nearly 600 times in recent years a judicial committee acting in private has stripped information from reports intended to alert the public to conflicts of interest involving federal judges.
Silencing the soldiers
A blogger with the pen name CBFTW, stationed near Mosul with the First Battallion, 23rd Regiment, says he began his My War Web log to help combat boredom. "I'm just writing about my experiences," the soldier says. "I'm pretty much putting my diary on the Internet -- that's all it is."
CBFTW says he has avoided describing sensitive information, such as U.S. weapons capabilities, weaknesses and scheduling. But earlier this month, CBFTW was lectured by commanders about violating operational security. Two other popular blogs run by soldiers have been shut down recently.
On secrecy itself
I have become a nuisance on this issue – if not a fanatic -- because I grew up in the South, where for so long truth tellers were driven from the pulpit, the classroom, and the newsroom; it took a bloody civil war to drive home the truth of slavery, and still it took another hundred of years of cruel segregation and oppression before the people freed by that war finally achieved equal rights under the law. Not only did I grow up in the South, which had paid such a high price for denial, but I served in the Johnson White House during the early escalation of the Vietnam War. We circled the wagons and grew intolerant of news that did not confirm to the official view of reality, with tragic consequences for America and Vietnam.
...The Project for Excellence in Journalism, reporting on the front pages of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, on the ABC, CBS, and NBC Nightly news programs, and on Time and Newsweek, showed that from l977 to l997 the number of stories about government dropped from one in three to one in five, while the number of stories about celebrities rose from one in every fifty stories to one in every fourteen.
What difference does it make? Well, its government that can pick our pockets, slap us into jail, run a highway through our back yard, or send us to war. Knowing what government does is "the news we need to keep our freedoms."
A dying breed
Here's an excerpt from Moyers' 9/11 2004 speech to the Society of Professional Journalists.
According to this narrative, Jesus will return to earth only when certain conditions are met: when Israel has been established as a state; when Israel then occupies the rest of its "biblical lands;" when the third temple has been rebuilt on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques; and, then, when legions of the Antichrist attack Israel. This will trigger a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon during which all the Jews who have not converted will be burned. Then the Messiah returns to earth. The Rapture occurs once the big battle begins. True believers" will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts and frogs during the several years of tribulation which follow.
I'm not making this up. We're reported on these people for our weekly broadcast on PBS, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you that they feel called to help bring the Rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why they have staged confrontations at the old temple site in Jerusalem. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the 9th chapter of the Book of Revelations where four angels "which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released "to slay the third part of men.'
...One estimate puts these people at about l5% of the electorate. Most are likely to vote Republican; they are part of the core of George W. Bush's base support. He knows who they are and what they want. When the President asked Ariel Sharon to pull his tanks out of Jenin in 2002, over one hundred thousand angry Christian fundamentalists barraged the White House with emails and Mr. Bush never mentioned the matter again. Not coincidentally, the administration recently put itself solidly behind Ariel Sharon's expansions of settlements on the West Banks. In George Monbiot's analysis, the President stands to lose fewer votes by encouraging Israeli expansion into the West Bank than he stands to lose by restraining it. "He would be mad to listen to these people, but he would also be mad not to." No wonder Karl Rove walks around the West Wing whistling "Onward Christian Soldiers." He knows how many votes he is likely to get from these pious folk who believe that the Rapture Index now stands at 144 --- just one point below the critical threshold at which point the prophecy is fulfilled, the whole thing blows, the sky is filled with floating naked bodies, and the true believers wind up at the right hand of God. With no regret for those left behind.
I know, I know: You think I am bonkers. You think Ann Coulter is right to aim her bony knee at my groin and that O'Reilly should get a Peabody for barfing all over me for saying there's more to American politics than meets the Foxy eye. But this is just the point: Journalists who try to tell these stories, connect these dots, and examine these links are demeaned, disparaged, and dismissed. This is the very kind of story that illustrates the challenge journalists face in a world driven by ideologies that are stoutly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. Ideologues – religious, political, or editorial ideologues – embrace a world view that cannot be changed because they admit no evidence to the contrary.
Read Bill's speech (pdf). There's much more to it than the Rapture Index. There always is. He's one of a kind.
And I say, bring on the Rapture. The sooner they go, the better.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
The horse('s ass) race
...The whole world has watched the collusion of the "opposition" over the past few years. There is little sympathy left for a party that tries to spin its own spinelessness into a role as the Bush regime's first victim rather than its most willing collaborator - it's a kind of like Austria after the Anschluss. The left would deeply like to believe that Kerry can continue on his current course, with a wink and a nod, and then somehow govern from a mandate on which he never campaigned. The more likely outcome, of course, is that he will lose.
...Now, with the current regime on the ropes in virtually every field of endeavour, Kerry is like a boxer with nothing to grab hold of. It's hard to hold Bush accountable for the international crime of an illegal war you supported, especially when you insist on continuing to defend one of the worst ideas in human history. As far as Bush's domestic agenda is concerned, the waters are again deliberately muddied when they needn't be... Trade policy has impoverished workers and fattened corporate pockets in a murderous race to the bottom spurred on by both parties. And the bipartisan addiction to war that drains every available penny from any other priority... must I go on?
...[T]here appears to be a bright future in jailing troublemakers. The Republican National Committee's rehearsal with "Guantanomo on the Hudson", where the RNC apparently leased a contaminated Pier 57 which was subsequently used by the NYPD as a holding pen, bodes ill for the rest of us... As American apartheid mutates and assumes new forms, those who refuse to recognize it risk becoming its victims as surely as those bystanders caught up in the orange netting by New York's finest.
...And so it goes. The worst administration in US history is poised to avoid the drubbing any real popular democracy would hand it, while the dust swirls and the press pack pounces on tit-for-tat allegations about America's last great imperial failure.
...The American political elites just can't seem to get their minds around a crisis of this proportion. It's almost as if the unspoken horror unfolding in Iraq is so beyond the pale that gentlemen prefer to fight about smaller things... It is a frightening and sobering reality that Americans are almost completely clueless as to how isolated we are. If it's not on TV, of course, then it doesn't exist, regardless of what the rest of the world sees. This dangerous self-delusion is partnered with another: that ridding the top echelons of government of the proto-fascist junta now in power will somehow unswirl the chocolate from the milk.
More from Daniel Patrick Welch...
We don't negotiate with terrorists
The United States has lifted its remaining sanctions on Libya, paving the way for more than $1 billion of compensation to be paid to the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims.
The move has been largely welcomed by those British families who lost loved ones on Pan Am Flight 103.
Libya had threatened to withdraw the offer of compensation if the embargo was not lifted by tomorrow.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Presidental Auction 2004
Yet the race for the Presidency remains neck-and-neck in most polls with Bush ahead in some and only slightly behind in others. If the trend continues, the Dems will be sitting around on the day after election scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong.
In part, the answer can be found in a war that ended 30 years ago and wounds that should have healed by now but haven't.
But the real answer can be found in three words:
John Forbes Kerry.
...Bush is a flawed President but he has the luxury of running against an equally-flawed opponent. Both men are products of wealth and privilege. Neither had to work very hard to get where they are today and both owe their present place in life to a family member who cleared the way (Bush owes his daddy, Kerry a rich wife). Both are shameless opportunists who will exploit anything, including death and human tragedy, to further their political ambitions.
Neither is honest. Both have been caught in a number of lies and neither, when caught, has had the guts to stand up and say "hey, I was wrong."
Sadly, both are running for President and neither is qualified or up to the job.
If this is the best we can do then we, as a nation, are in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Over a cliff, and no one noticed until it's probably too late.
Monday, September 20, 2004
Presidential Auction 2004
Sir Ivor Roberts...was quoted as telling an annual Anglo-Italian gathering in Tuscany: "If anyone is ready to celebrate the eventual re-election of Bush, it's al Qaeda."
Hope he enjoyed his job while he had it.
American reported beheaded
We might hold women and children hostage indefinitely in prisons and torture them, but we don't negotiate with terrorists.
Iran: to invade or not to invade
"The war games were unsuccessful at preventing the conflict from escalating," an unnamed air force source told the magazine in its latest issue.
I don't get it. Why didn't they just rig the games to guarantee a win, like they did when they war gamed an Iraqi invasion?
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
South Korea with nukes?
This revelation comes when the Bush administration's neocon hawks are clamouring for war against Iran over its unproven nuclear weapons program. These are the same hawks who raised a hue and cry over Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
South Korea's six-year-old program was far ahead of Iran's; various deceptions were used to conceal it from UN inspectors. North Korea, to no surprise, has been crowing over this embarrassing revelation, claiming its nuclear program has been justified.
I don't think it's going to embarrass the Bushcons. They obviously can't be embarrassed.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
A real mother for ya
Maybe what she can do with her time is try to put back together the gory jigsaw puzzle that is now her son's corpse. See, Seth Dvorin died trying to defuse a homemade bomb, which went off and ripped through his body, sending pieces of it in several different directions. There's a good chance his hands were torn into dozens of bits. There's a good chance the bomb was packed with metal shards, nails, what have you, each of which that went through him would have taken a piece of him with it before it landed on the ground. Seth's father, Richard, has also taken it upon himself to protest, in a letter to President Bush. Perhaps his 25 year-old widow has protested, too. But it is his mother who has made the most public outcry, to another mother, about the deaths of children.
During the "Dirty War" in Argentina, from 1976-1983, a military junta disappeared tens of thousands of so-called "rebels" and others. Every week, on Thursday afternoons, since 1977, in the Plaza de Mayo, the main square of Buenos Aires, a group of mothers have appeared to demand answers on what has happened to their children. In often silent protest, the very presence of these women, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, creates a living memorial, a way for the disappered to never be forgotten. Some of the members themselves were disappeared, but their numbers grew to thousands, an empowering moment in the early 1980s when the people themselves were blatantly disempowered. And many of the mothers did learn what happened to their children (although thousands remain unaccounted for). And the junta fell, but the mothers remain.
Perhaps it's time, perhaps it's time, again, at last, in this nation, for Sue Niederer to be another Rosa Parks, for movements of mothers to come together and not allow their children to be disappeared into the vast abyss of memory where all soldiers seem to have been told they die for good and noble causes, where all parents are supposed to be proud of the sacrifice.
Let's do mothers and fathers. Can we do that?
But yeah, I guess around the world it seems to be the mothers who wrest change from brutality and death, dope dealers and goon squads.
I saw a bumper sticker yesterday - Vote: It's up to the women.
Young Rethuglicans
...The office was closed Thursday because of Hurricane Ivan. The building's owner found the damage Thursday morning when he checked on the building, said Lexi Thompson, state director of the National Coordinated Campaign.
...The remnants of a small fire fueled with John Kerry/John Edwards campaign signs remained on the front steps of the headquarters at 310 Buchanan St. in downtown Lafayette on Thursday morning.
A mixture of ash from the fire and what appeared to be motor oil was used to smear "4+ GWB" across the front windows and "W" on the headquarters' door.
GOPunks and the KKK - indistinguishable.
Did you catch the Young Republican stomping on the protester?
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Bush to pull troops out of Iraq?
Josh Marshall comments:
For those with their hands over their eyes, there's the president's slogans on the hustings. For those who see that what the president is saying makes no sense but yet really prefer not to vote for John Kerry, there's this leak which tells them with a wink that the president realizes his policy has failed and will pull the plug very soon.
Update: Iraq
It was the second fatal attack on a cleric belonging to the influential Association of Muslim Scholars in less than 24 hours, the group said.
...The Association of Muslim Scholars is a conservative group that has worked for the release of foreign hostages. It strongly opposes the US presence in Iraq.
Well, that's the kiss of death, isn't it?
Juan Cole takes apart John McCain's demand to launch increased offensives now to pave the way for elections in Iraq, rather than after the November "election" here, as is planned by the administration (since there will undoubtedly be increased U.S. soldier deaths which would not bode well for the Bloody Asshat's support).
...What does McCain think the election would look like, with Ramadi, Fallujah and other Sunni cities reduced to rubble? Does he think the sullen Sunni Arabs will actually just jump on a US bandwagon in the wake of such brutality? Does he have any idea of the sheer number of feuds that will have been incurred with the Sunni tribes?
...It seems almost certain that most candidates for high office in Iraq will run against the US. I.e., their platform will probably include a promise to get US troops out of the country ASAP. Others will boycott the elections. The number of such boycotters, and the number of those running against the US, would be even greater in the wake of a bloody and indiscriminate US campaign against the townspeople of al-Anbar.
And, of course, the incredible devastation of Falluja continues...
Cole has another excellent post, the contents of a letter he sent to a commenter who objected to Cole's "anti-militarism". Read the whole thing, but I want to comment on the conclusion:
And, it is precisely by injuring these religious feelings that the US hastens the day when the Iraqi public comes out into the streets in the hundreds of thousands and begins the revolution for Iraqi independence.
Because of the instability of the BushCons and their Christian/Zionist bent, I am inclined to believe that some of what is taken for stupidity is more appropriately termed insanity, and that the situation in Iraq is not for them so much a blunder as it is a bonus for speeding up the Apocalypse. No matter what Bush says out of one side of his mouth about Islam not being the target (terrorists are), the other side of his mouth spouts biblical apocalyptic diatribe, crusades, and God's working through him.
The fact is we're in trouble, we're in deep trouble in Iraq.
---Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, September 20, 2004.
....but hey, be what you want....you will anyway.
Black eye for CBS
An official network statement is expected soon, perhaps as early as today, sources within the network say.
The statement comes after many "second-guessing" meetings within the network and a stormy meeting with news anchor Dan Rather over the weekend on whether or not to apologize to President Bush over the story which said he received special favors while serving in the Guard and avoided punishment for disobeying a direct order.
Rather went to Texas late last week to tape an interview with Bill Burkett, the former national guard official believed to be the souce for the memos. Burkett refused multiple requests for an interview as did both Rather and CBS News President Andrew Heyward.
What's worse, Burkett is the alleged eye-witness to the destruction of Bush's guard records when he was running for Texas governor. His credibility is totally shot now.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Update 1:15 pm: The admission of using faked documents has been downgraded to a statement that CBS can't prove the authenticity of the documents.
An interview with Burkett is supposed to air tonight.
Tom Toles
Tough Guy Allawi
Maybe he was angry when he allegedly shot those prisoners in the head as soon as he was installed as president.
This time, he was pissed about that al-Douri capture bungle.
An hour or more is taken up with body searches and sniffing by dogs, while U.S. soldiers man turreted machine guns. A boxlike infrared imaging device can detect the body heat of anybody approaching through a neighboring playground. The final security ring is manned by CIA-trained guards from Iraqi Kurdistan.
This is the man who has been chosen to lead Iraq to the haven of a democratic future, but he is sealed off about as completely as he could be from ordinary Iraqis, in the virtual certainty that insurgents will kill him if they ever get a clear shot.
Sounds like
Sunday, September 19, 2004
The Plame case is still being investigated
But after that, they didn't follow up with her for months to find out what the answer was. And when they did finally follow up with her, it was mainly because one agent was passing the matter on to someone else.
To this day they've never made contact with the guy who tried to sell Burba the documents.
Now, on the surface you might say, 'Well, maybe she's just refused to name her source. And maybe she's the only one who knows who the guys is. So what can they do?'
But that excuse falls apart pretty quickly.
Here's why. Read on...
New York Times reporter Judith Miller (of phony Chalabi information fame), has been ordered to testify to the grand jury after her motion to quash a subpoena in the outing of Valerie Plame investigation was denied.
And hey, the Federal offense of outing an undercover CIA agent, putting the nation's security at risk, possibly getting people killed, destroying a line to the hunt for WMDs in terrorist hands, etc., isn't such a big deal. It's not important. As Josh says in his article, the FBI doesn't want to know any more about it.
But, hey, wouldn't it make a great TV show?
At least one person in Hollywood has been paying attention to the scandal as well. And, stripped of its nasty political implications, is pitching it as a lighthearted drama at FOX and its sister studio, 20th Century Fox TV.
It's nice to know somebody takes serious things seriously.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Is it just me?
Russia's terrorist boogeyman is a lot like our terrorist boogeyman (the previously reported dead, previously reported one-legged, ever elusive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi).
...Basayev, 39, who lost a leg five years ago while fleeing Russian forces through a minefield in 1999, has been helped by the vast sympathy he enjoys from many Chechens, a people who have resisted Russian domination for centuries and are furious over widespread human rights abuses by Russian troops in the Caucasus republic, experts say.
Who says human cloning has not been perfected?
And speaking of Asshats....
We won't mention that our military kills at the whim of a hat - an asshat.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Spinning Winning
The Lying Asshat Cabal must be right about things getting better in Iraq. The Brits are pulling out some troops!
...While numbers are still being finalised,
the size of the deployment once the rotation is completed is likely to be "substantially less" than at present, the Observer said, quoting military sources in Iraq and London.
...The Observer's report contradicted one in Saturday's edition of The Times which said Britain was considering whether to send "a few extra troops" to Iraq ahead of the elections taking place in January.
....hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Which it pleases me to do
Don't nobody bring me no bad news
'Cause I wake up already negative
And I've wired up my fuse
So don't nobody bring me no bad news
...If you're gonna bring me something
Bring me something I can use
But don't you bring me no bad news
from The Wiz
rumored to be taken from the mind of George WTF Bush
okay, I'm starting that rumor
Sunday morning comin' down
The literature shows a Bible with the word "BANNED" across it and a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word "ALLOWED." The mailing tells West Virginians to "vote Republican to protect our families" and defeat the "liberal agenda."
I remember when I was a kid and John Kennedy was running for president. The big scare then was that if he got elected, we'd be forced to be Catholic.
And, sadly, people bought that, too. Probably a lot of people in West Virginia.
The larger point here is that somebody is finally playing to the real reason there are Bush supporters amongst those who don't have large stock portfolios.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
It's always more fun in the vision stage
As you see, the idea of a new home for YWA led to the idea of a new paint job, and that led to a great deal of time consumed, which could have been spent blogging the all important campaign news. Mea culpa.
I'm still not finished. I'm having trouble with the padding in the sidebar column - I can't figure out how to code it, and I don't know how to code for a narrower body. I'd like to code a date on each post, but haven't figured that one out yet either. Blogger code. Browser variability. And a pea brain.
Maybe I'll try a little more tomorrow.
But don't anybody tell Jim I'm wasting time on superficial endeavors.
Do you think we read YWA for its form and layout and colors? Please.No?
....hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
The fan and the shit are too close together
This does not look good. And I have a feeling that there could be some serious civil unrest if Washington thinks they're going to reinstate the draft, when even the soldiers who are already enlisted are trying to get out.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
House hunting
At any rate, I'm testing tblog. I got a free account there, and set up YWA with the same information it has here - a little different look. I think it will work out okay. Posting and publishing seems to be easy enough. Some things are better with Blogger, and some things are better with tblog. But tblog is actually working and publishing like it should (and like Blogger should and used to).
The only hang-up will be if I get a negative response from my e-mail to the folks at tblog. Their conditions for having an account there state:
Blogs that are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, libelous, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable may not be hosted on tblog.
Conceivably, YWA could be "objectionable". There's something about complaints and possible removals. Since I'd hate to have to tone down my diatribes, and I'd hate to get all set up at a new home and then get kicked out, I've asked them to check YWA's content and let me know if that's a risk.
Hopefully, I'll hear from them soon.
After reading some of their comments, it looks like they have their fair share of problems as well. Maybe if I decide to use it, I'll try it for a while and see how it goes.
I'm sorry to have to jerk you around. For the time being, don't change your bookmark for YWA. I'm still here at Blogger's blogspot.
But, in the meantime, I've published a post at the new home. Go and take a look and let me know what you think.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Time for a cool change
At any rate, you know nothing is happening in the world aside from the American presidential mudfight. So go out and enjoy yourself today.
If you need a little reminder, here's Alternet:
The United States is "losing" in Iraq, literally losing territory and population to the other side. Careful readers of the leading newspapers may know this, but I doubt most voters do. How could they, given the martial self-congratulations of the President and relative restraint from his opponent?
Okay, later.
If there's one thing in my life that's missing
It's the time that I spend alone
Sailing on the cool and bright clear water
It's kind of a special feeling
When you're out on the sea alone
Staring at the full moon, like a lover
I was born in the sign of water
And it's there that I feel my best
The albatross and the whales they are my brothers
There's lots of those friendly people
And they're showing me ways to go
And I never want to lose their inspiration
Time for a cool change
I know that it's time for a cool change
Now that my life is so prearranged
I know that it's time for a cool change
- Little River Band
Friday, September 17, 2004
Repuglican compassion
She pressed on, refused to leave and eventually police removed her from the firehouse rally.
The first lady finished her speech, praising the administration's achievements in the war on terror and the economy.
Rabid. Automatons. And what on earth is Pickled Bush? Not a shred of compassion for a woman whose unbearable pain and sorrow is shared by other parents like her because of the administration's "achievements". The rabid beasts will simply drown her out, stamp her out.
I remember my grandmother standing silently in front of her TV when news of the American soldiers killed in Viet Nam would come alive with photos on NBC. I remember her vividly, because she always stood silently with tears welling in her eyes.
I don't think I did then, but I know now what she was feeling.
Humanity is at a very low point. Some point below human. Although I don't know what that could possibly be.
And I ran across this:
Anyone can play BlogShares for free, and ownership of a blog is not a requirement to participate. You need simply to register to receive a virtual $500 to start investing. Blog owners also receive 1000 shares of stock in their blog. Each individual uses the simulation for different purposes: you can use BlogShares to find new blogs to read, to show your appreciation by buying or gifting shares and, of course, to accrue as much capital as possible.
I found it when I Googled "You Will Anyway". Here's the page that came up. You can pretend buy stocks in You Will Anyway and other blogs, if that's your idea of fun.
I have no idea how YWA got there in the first place.
I'm currently selling at $1.55 if I read this thing right. Valued at $8,400+.
Again, if I read this thing right. Incoming links have a value and outgoing links do. Whatever. I have absolutely noooooooooo experience with stocks, and not a clue how it works. So now you know why I'm looking for a free blog host.
More airstrikes on Falluja
...The airstrike destroyed three buildings inside the "terrorist compound," according to CPIC.
Hours later, U.S. forces conducted another airstrike on Zarqawi targets in Falluja.
The Coalition Press Information Center reported that interim Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi authorized the attack on a "terrorist compound" located in the south-central part of Falluja, which took place at about 2:45 a.m. Friday (6:45 p.m. Thursday ET).
There was no immediate word on casualties in the second strike.
Airstrike after airstrike after airstrike. Just another day in the continuing razing of a city that dared to piss off the Madmen of Pennsylvania Avenue. I wonder how much of Falluja is left.
And immediately after, suicide bomb blast rocks Baghdad.
An earlier report of the precision airstrikes (that's what we always call them):
...The American military has limited its attacks to airstrikes. U.S. forces on Monday patrolled the outskirts of the city. Using loudspeakers, U.S. troops called on a local militant Islamic leader to "come out and fight."
Standing on the outskirts calling like idiots and bullies, while your air force bombs the city to holy hell. I bet those are some proud Marines.
"The conditions here are miserable - an ambulance was bombed, three houses destroyed and men and women killed," the hospital's director, Rafayi Hayad al-Esawi, told Al-Jazeera television by telephone in a report posted on the satellite station's Web site. "The American Army has no morals." Witnesses told The AP that American warplanes repeatedly swooped low over the city and that artillery units deployed on the outskirts of the city also opened fire. The explosions started at sunrise and continued for several hours. The military statement said the attack occurred at 6:07 Monday morning. One explosion went off in a marketplace in Falluja as the first vendors began to set up their stalls, wounding several people and shattering windows, witnesses told the news agency.
You can't strike anything in a city precisely from the air. It's disgusting that they continue to claim precision strikes against militants. There is nothing left here for America but shame.
And death.
America, get out.
Google doesn't even have mention of the "pounding" that Falluja is taking today on their News headlines page. You have to enter a search to see it.
Bob Goodsell offers a link to the excellent Bob Harris: Our savage numbness
Previous Falluja posts
A new report says Saddam had no WMD, but he had "clear intent". Which do you think will be the focus of the GOP?
American reconstruction in Iraq:


text:
1. Get a cocky computer support guy to hack into your computer when you're out of your office and destroy all of your files.
2. Have IT try to retrieve the files and fail miserably.
3. Send the drive to a file recovery service and have them retrieve only non indexed and corrupt files.
ta-dah! That's how, back in 2009, I ended up with a lot of corrupt files. Once I got over the disaster, I started to see the beauty of the glitch, which is basically the valiant attempt of the file format to do its job even amid failure (if file formats wrote Shakespearian tragedies, they would be filled with the brilliant gore of rainbow hued breakdown).
The purist glitch is like a found object. You just take it from the wild like Duchamp stealing a urinal and calling it art. I love the pure, dada corruption of a found glitch, like this:
That's pure, unadulterated glitch.
Then, if you're not too much of a purist, you can intervene to varying degrees. Like the following, where the only thing I changed was to put it in black and white (while leaving the snowy noise with its natural flecks of color):
Here's another almost-natural glitched image of an old typewriter ad. The only thing I changed was a slight change in the tint of the bands of color (there was more of a lilac in the original, but I didn't like it):
Getting a glitch in the wild is like getting that "decisive moment" in street photography, but with more serendipity (cloaked in disaster).
But there's no reason not to make something out of that corrupt file. So, sometimes I'll add in another photo, usually in black and white. I'll play around with blending modes ("multiply" is always a good place to start) and then start messing with curves, masks, and such. The photo at the top of this post is a combo of two photos that in Photoshop layers looks like this:
The combo creates little moments such as the parallel between the watchful dad (top left) looking at the kid and the heroic god slaying the snake. dark, i know. Then, there are the parallel arms of the statue and the other kid whose small arm is just below the statue's. Can you spot the Yankee's logo hovering in the white netherworld of that vertical line piercing the left third of the photo?
Working with glitch is nothing new. In fact, I've cycled back around to it out of nostalgia. After glitch art went from underground to mainstream I think it's settled down more into the zone where it has less baggage and can be played with without being caught up in pure trendiness.
Until I exhaust and tame all of my naturally corrupted files, I will keep adding new glitch (and noise) art to my online gallery for sale. I'm all about unpretentious pricing (I'll explain why in a future post), so feel free to buy something to add epic digital tragedy to your walls (glitch art looks especially good printed on metal).

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I am delighted you want to check out my personal website, however
please talk to my agents about commissions as they handle all of that for me.
I look forward to working with you.
Bjoern von Schlippe is illustrator and self-proclaimed "Kartonist". He illustrates for many years and very successful in the field of storyboards and layouts, because he quickly captures any theme and task. And for his work as a free artist, he has developed his unique technique of three-dimensional objects- "Kartonagen".
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text: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. on Sept. 27. Jae C. Hong/AP hide caption toggle caption Jae C. Hong/AP Opinion Political Junkie The New Christie Minstrels October 3, 2011 President Obama is seen as more vulnerable than ever, but some Republicans are still not satisfied with their choices for 2012. N.J. Gov. Chris Christie is the subject of the latest draft effort, but his mixed record won't please everyone in the party. The New Christie Minstrels Toggle more options Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/140895575/140937524" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">


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Claim compensation for your AJS flight delay or cancellation!
Flight delays happen, but that doesn't mean you have to accept them. You may be entitled to as much as 600€ in compensation if your flight from or to Abreojos Airport AJS has been delayed, canceled or overbooked within the last three years. Claim Compensation Now >
Abreojos Airport is one of the Mexico Airports located in Abreojos. Abreojos Airport's IATA code is AJS.
At Airportia you can find Abreojos Airport Weather


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text:
Meyer lemons are sweeter than other lemon varieties and they have a thinner skin with a rounded fruit. The skin is smooth and vibrantly yellow and can be used in a variety of sweet and savoury dishes. I am a real lemon lover and can eat them on their own or as a hot drink with water and a big dollop of manuka honey. Filled with vitamin C, lemons are also great for alkalising your body.
I got this dessert idea when I was watching Jamie's 30-minute meals the other day. I'm a huge fan of Jamie, as I'm sure many of you are as well. I think what he's been doing in the world of food, especially with kids and school lunches, is just something so inspirational. I also think his food philosophy and approach to cooking is very down to earth and sensible and makes him easy to love and admire.
This dessert is easy to adapt to a gluten-free or dairy-free diet. You could use rolled rice or coconut flakes and replace the yoghurt with silken tofu or dairy-free yoghurt. You could even use oranges instead of Meyer lemons and sweeten the yoghurt with maple syrup or raw honey. This had a perfect sweetness for my taste and it was a delicious treat on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
2. Place the rolled oats, spelt, almonds, cacao nibs, vanilla sugar and cinnamon in a large frying pan and toast for a few minutes or until browned. (Be careful not to burn it!)
3. Pour the mixture into a bowl of a food processor and ground until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the dates and the coconut oil and continue to ground until the mixture starts to come together. Spoon the mixture into serving glasses or jars and flatten the bottom. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. Flavour the drained yoghurt with the zest and the juice of Meyer lemons (or oranges), vanilla and honey. Spoon the mixture on top of the chilled bases (which should have hardened in the fridge). Serve with extra grated lemon zest and fresh mint.


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Jerry Morse | The Morse Company, Janesville, WI Realtors® | 608-436-4900
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The Morse Company
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cozy look
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YappyLifestyle needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 150 designs submitted by 30 freelance designers.
The logo- heroes too. The web site- heroestoo.com. Buy our products and you become "heroes too". We donate our profit to environmental causes.
heroes too
Save Planet Earth (one of several)
Desired Color Scheme:
Leave this to the designer
Desired Style:
Simple modern
Accepted File Formats:
Standard Web Formats (.jpg, .gif or .png); Vector Formats (.eps, .pdf or .ai); Layered Formats (.psd or .tiff)
We are looking for a simple, elegant design that is easily recognised on the products, across all mediums (web, fax header, brochures, business cards etc). The logo will also incorporate a tagline, one of which is - "Save Planet Earth" The logo needs to be simple but elegant. We will leave color considerations up to you as the professional designer.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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'Word of Mouth' Taste-Tests Reverse-Engineered KFC Recipe
"A single bite of the homemade KFC is enough. It's like biting into a dew-fresh ripe peach after eating a canned one. It's obviously the same thing but an order of magnitude better."
Earlier in the week, the news splashed that a Long Island, New York, man claimed he had reverse-engineered the KFC's 11 herbs and spices. The secret recipe that Ron Douglas unlocked depends heavily on Accent, a commercial MSG-based flavoring.
Everyone blogged about the discovery, but did anyone try it? At least one blog we read did.
In England, Tim Hayward (above) of the Guardian's Word of Mouth went for it. But he went one better, asking Word of Mouth readers to help him come up with a version that didn't use MSG. He then taste-tested the Colonel's bird, the Ron Douglas mix, and the reader-sourced version:
Cooking from scratch enables us to do two things that the Colonel can't: use great chicken and drain the grease more efficiently. This gave us a real head start, and the results were stunning. A single bite of the homemade KFC is enough. It's like biting into a dew-fresh ripe peach after eating a canned one. It's obviously the same thing but an order of magnitude better. As before, none of the flavours predominated enough to be identifiable but, having made up the mix from scratch, we now know the secret. Herbs and spices be damned, that staggering, mouthfilling, umami facepunch of a flavour is down to the two tablespoonfuls of MSG.
GFC, our own mix, was very, very good. Nice flavours, well chosen and matched. It's refined, elegant and I'd proudly serve it at a family picnic. An elegant Southern church lady would gladly remove a cotton glove to pick up an MSG-free GFC drumstick. She would compliment us on our British reserve, our eccentric quirkiness and our general pluck, but as far as stimulating the senses goes, she'd politely opine, "why, it's like comparing iced tea and crystal meth".
Has anyone else out there jumped on the Ron Douglas recipe and tried it at home? I'd be curious to hear what your results were. [via MetaFilter]
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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FireWire is the best-known brand name for the 1394 standard, which is also known as i.Link. The technology is used as a
On Thursday, the 1394 Trade Association announced the S3200 electrical specification for FireWire. The specification builds upon the existing IEEE 1394b standard by boosting the maximum speed from 800 megabits per second to 3.2Gbps. Importantly, S3200 can use the cables and connectors already in use for FireWire 800 products, the association claimed.
"The S3200 standard will sustain the position of IEEE 1394 as the absolute performance leader in multipurpose I/O ports for consumer applications in computer and CE devices," the 1394 Trade Association's executive director, James Snider, said in a statement. "There is a very clear migration path from 800Mbps to 3.2Gbps, with no need for modifications to the standard and no requirement for new cables or connectors."
The association hopes to have the S3200 specification ratified by early February, and has used the speed boost to position FireWire as an alternative to other recent interfacing technologies.
The association's statement claimed the development of S3200 meant users would see no advantage from eSATA, a competing connectivity standard that is starting to appear on hard drives and PCs alike. The association said that eSATA is not faster, nor can it provide electrical power to devices as FireWire can. S3200 is also much faster than USB 2.0 and can provide more power to devices than USB 2.0.
The association also said that FireWire would soon be able to operate over cable television coaxial cables, and said S3200 would make the standard fast enough to move uncompressed
FireWire is, according to the association, "the only separable interface today that can record HD programs in their full digital quality while also meeting the content protection requirements of copyright holders."
David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.


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25 Aug 19 Coadyby Fr. Coady21st Sunday in Ordinary TimeDate: 8/26/19Click to Listen
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Black cohosh (Actea racemosa) is an herb native to North America that is becoming more widely used in the United States for health purposes, primarily for menopause-related symptoms. Dr. Bei Jiang and colleagues at Columbia University, the City University of New York, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently analyzed the chemical components of 11 black cohosh products available in the United States. They found that four contained an Asian species of black cohosh-which is cheaper and easier for producers to find—either alone or in combination with North American black cohosh. Compared with the species cultivated in North America, the Asian variety has different chemical properties, is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat different conditions, and may have different effects on the body. The remaining seven products contained only North American black cohosh, but with different proportions of the main chemical components.
The researchers concluded that the varying chemical makeup of black cohosh products may produce different health effects, and that methods are needed to ensure their quality and ingredients. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, May 3, 20061.
Journal Publication Date: May 3, 2006
1 Editor's note: A recent review of data by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Britain found that liver problems could result from taking black cohosh. The problems were rare, but potentially serious. The MHRA will now require that labels on black cohosh products in Britain carry an updated safety warning. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry May 3, 2006.
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IFT delivers the latest research and breaking news on product development and ingredient innovations that have the potential to transform product and process development. You'll discover breakthrough advancements, leading-edge science, and technical resources. Expand and share your knowledge of such topics as food additives, nanotechnology, encapsulation, nonthermal processing, sodium reduction, sweetener blends, and more.
IFT members have access to year-round opportunities to participate in discussions, share insights and learn from other colleagues through an online group devoted to this topic.
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Fall 2019 Final grades for the semester must be entered in the grade roster by 1:00 p.m. on Friday, December 27, 2019.
Grade entry system will become available when Final Class Rosters/Grade Sheets are posted to the web approximately two weeks prior to the end of the semester, and will remain available until 1:00 p.m., the Wednesday after final exams.
It is critical that grades be submitted by the deadline to avoid delays in the awarding of degrees to graduating students, and to support timely processing and notification to students regarding their academic standing and financial aid academic progress.
Grade Change forms are available at the academic department offices and at the Office of the Registrar.
Grades submitted by the deadline will become available to student usually the next day and possibly sooner depending upon the successful completion of systems processing to load them to the students' records.
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Reporting "I" (Incomplete) Grades
The granting of an "I" is restricted to students doing satisfactory work in the class who, because of extenuating circumstances, are unable to complete the work of the course.
"I" grades given at the end of the Fall semester must be completed prior to July 1, or they will change to an "F" grade. "I" grades given at the end of the Spring semester must be completed prior to December 1, or they will change to an "F" grade. "I" grades given at the end of the Summer session must be completed by February 1, or they will change to an "F" grade.
"I" grades given at the end of Fall semester must be completed prior to June 1, or they will change to an "F" grade. "I" grades given at the end of Spring semester or Summer session must be completed prior to January 1, or they will change to an "F" grade.
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Educational records of students are considered confidential. Faculty cannot post grades in a manner which could identify the student to others (e.g., name, student number, or any other personally identifiable data) unless the prior written consent of the student has been secured.
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Did You Know?
2013 marks the 60th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's structure and the 30th anniversary of the invention of PCR. Details on upcoming webinars and events, promotions, and more here.
The GlobalFiler™ STR Kit combines reduced amplification time with maximum data recovery power. Watch the video!
Maximizing Data Quality
Direct PCR Amplification of Buccal Samples of the NUCLEIC CARD COLOR With the AmpFℓSTR Identifiler Direct PCR Amplification Kit
In forensic investigations, buccal swab samples are some of the most challenging samples to process in terms of reproducibility and success rate when DNA is amplified for STR profiling in direct mode. Together with Copan 4N6FLOQSwabs™, the NUCLEIC-CARD™ COLOR and the AmpFℓSTR Identifiler Direct PCR Amplification kit demonstrated to be a consistent and successful processing tool for direct profiling of buccal cell samples.
Evaluation of Ambient Shipping Conditions for CE Buffers on Genetic Analyzers in an HID Laboratory
Life Technologies has been systematically evaluating novel ways to minimize the environmental impact of shipping refrigerated and frozen products. One way to achieve this is to ship our products at temperatures consistent with their demonstrated stability.
Definition of D19S433 in Life Technologies HID STR Products
Some customers have noted discrepancies in the nomenclature used for D19S433 allele designation when using Life Technologies HID STR kits when compared to other references such as the Short Tandem Repeat DNA Internet DataBase. We would like to clarify the nomenclature used for D19S433 in Life Technologies HID STR products.


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0 Members and 1 Lonely Barbarian are spying on this topic.
The long ones are very intiminating to me. I do much better with subs that are are only a scroll or two in length. Once I have to scroll scroll scroll I hit a mental barrier. Once I set time aside I love them, but I often don't feel I have the time to sit and read them online. Printing would work very well for me, however I don't see myself doing it.I might try readability though. I tend to read going to bed so that might be a good time to roll through a few and vote/comment the next day.
I don't like multi-page type sites that force you to roll through multiple pages to read the article either. They do have things like this that would split up a long page automatically and could be turned on and off: http://www.script-tutorials.com/demos/79/index.htmlNot sure I like that either though.
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ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - New York state lawmakers are considering amendments to the state's sweeping new gun control law, including repealing a ban on magazines that hold more than seven bullets, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday, describing most of the changes as technical.
The law, passed January 15, a month after the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school, also requires gun owners to register most guns with the state and requires universal background checks.
The first gun control law passed in the United States following the December 14 mass shooting that killed 20 school children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, the measure has drawn fierce criticism from pro-gun groups and some lawmakers.
Cuomo and legislators have been discussing "technical corrections" to the law, the governor told a news conference.
A provision banning magazines that hold more than seven bullets beginning April 15 would likely be repealed, as magazines generally hold 10 bullets.
"There is no such thing as a seven-bullet magazine," Cuomo said.
Under the proposal, gun owners would be barred from loading more than seven bullets at a time, he said, unless they are at a shooting range or participating in a competition.
Some lawmakers and law enforcement officials have called for amendments exempting active and retired police officers from the law. Cuomo did not specify what other amendments were being considered but said any changes would be "technical corrections."
"I am not open to any substantive changes to the law, period," he said.
Cuomo also responded to complaints that the law was passed in haste with no public input, leading to errors and oversights. That criticism is at the heart of a pending lawsuit in which a non-profit group, We the People of New York, Inc, claims the law is invalid because the legislature bypassed the mandatory three-day waiting period to vote on bills.
"The gun bill was worked on for weeks and weeks and weeks," Cuomo said.
Colorado on Wednesday became the second state to enact restrictions after the Newtown shooting when Governor John Hickenlooper signed legislation that will expand background checks and ban magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.
At least three lawsuits have been filed against New York's new law. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association, is also planning to file suit, according to the group's president.
Editing by Daniel Trotta and Dan Grebler


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If panic attacks have been causing you problems, or you are worried about panic disorder, then we can help you today. Many people have received help from our free panic attacks course, which you can complete online, or have delivered to you by email.
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If you've been looking for help with your panic attacks, you may have come across all sorts of confusing and contradictory ideas on the Internet, and maybe even from healthpractitioners or therapists.
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To discover what you can do to help yourself now, take our free course. If you can take 15 minutes or so now to go through it, then great. Otherwise, you might like to consider receiving it by email to get the most out of it or even purchasing our audio program.
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Cutting edge information and hypnotic deep relaxation and suggestion removes the fear of the unknown, 'cools down' the over-aroused system and de-conditions previous panic situations. You can read about it here.
The information and resources on this site should start improving your panic attacks or panic disorder immediately, and can even get rid of them for good.


text: New York—Fees remain the dominant form of agency compensation, according to the "Trends in Agency Compensation Survey" released Monday by the Association of National Advertisers and search consultant R3:JLB. The report was based on an online survey of 98 client-side marketers conducted in the first quarter. It found that 81% of responsdents used some form of fee-based model to compensate their agency partners. Labor-based fees, used by 65%, are the leading fee-based format, up from 46% in 2010. The survey found that 61% of respondents used performance incentives, up from 46% in 2010. Also, 82% said they use a procurement team to review agency compensation, up from 56% in 2010.


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Democrats' immigration gambit
Hill Democrats and immigration reform advocates are almost certain they'll have to resort to a rare procedural move to try to force a vote on an overhaul this year.
The tricky part is deciding when to pull the trigger.
Story Continued Below
Though aides say no decision has been made, House Democratic leaders are strategizing on when to deploy what's known as a discharge petition, which would have to garner a majority of lawmakers' signatures to force immigration legislation onto the House floor for a vote.
Advocates of the gambit are aiming to increase the pressure on Republicans who have so far resisted moving on reform this year. But the pro-reform coalition is split over the timing of the discharge effort — with some urging lawmakers to take it up immediately and others advising them to hold off.
( PHOTOS: An immigration naturalization ceremony)
One thing is certain, however: House Democrats won't try to advance the Senate's comprehensive immigration overhaul. Their version essentially mirrors the Senate bill with a pathway to citizenship for the nation's undocumented immigrants, but the House Democratic bid scales back the Senate's border-security provisions.
"I think it's likely to happen," a Democratic leadership aide said of the discharge petition effort. "I think people just want to make sure the groups are in the right place."
Even if they do forge ahead, there is no illusion among Democrats that such an effort would succeed. A discharge petition needs 218 signatures — the majority of the full House — to succeed. If all 199 sitting Democrats sign on — far from guaranteed — that means petition backers have the herculean task of swaying 19 Republicans to join their effort.
But success of a discharge petition isn't the only goal.
( PHOTOS: Immigration reform rally on the National Mall)
Democrats and advocates are banking on the tactic creating yet another way for lawmakers, activists and voters to compel Republicans to act — particularly those more amenable to immigration reform. One source close to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who endorsed the strategy recently, laid out his thinking: Put enough pressure on key House Republicans that they turn to their own leadership to urge them to move on immigration — even if a discharge petition fails to get the appropriate number of signatures. Schumer is hoping for a discharge effort sometime before May.
"Ultimately, a discharge petition may not be the tool that causes the Republican leadership to let the majority vote, but it increases the pressure, which is what we need," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said.
The discharge petition option has been on lawmakers' and immigration advocates' minds ever since the Democratic-led Senate passed a comprehensive reform bill with 68 votes last June. But most people felt the maneuver was premature and wanted to give House Republicans some space to craft principles and release legislation.
But Schumer threw a curve ball into that plan when earlier this month he urged House Democrats to circulate a petition, saying that a "minority faction has scared Republicans" out of forging ahead on reform.
Fellow Gang of Eight member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is highly doubtful such a maneuver would succeed.
( Also on POLITICO: Dems to push discharge petition)
"I won't call it a stunt, but it certainly is a nonstarter," he said.
The House GOP leadership did introduce broad "principles" for an overhaul earlier this year, but Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has largely hit the brakes, decrying how "difficult" it would be to pass any immigration bill this year.
Only three House Republicans have co-sponsored a comprehensive House Democratic immigration bill that is largely the Senate's version, minus controversial border-security provisions that have turned off border-state Democrats. And for a Republican to sign a discharge petition circulated by the Democrats in the minority would be a significant public rebuke of Boehner and his leadership team.
For now, though, advocates are divided on when to proceed with the pressure tactic.
Angela Kelley, the vice president of immigration policy for the Center for American Progress, speculated that something could come perhaps after key primary filing deadlines pass. She said the time for a discharge petition wasn't yet ripe.


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This gorgeous 9 carat white gold Perfect Fit bridal set is emblazoned with diamonds in an elegant pear shape double halo formation around stunning centre diamonds. More round cut diamonds are set in the wedding band, to give the perfect amount of sparkle. Perfect Fit bridal sets ensure that both of your rings will set together perfectly. This bridal set has a total diamond weight of 1/3 carat.
Normally available in sizes I to SExclusive to H.Samuel
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