Crashing Wave

For Best Effect:
1. Slide "speed" button to far right.
2. Hit "Pause"
3. Re-Set the "position" slider to far left.

Crashing Wave: Animated Graffiti

Who is Sarah Palin and Does McCain have Good Judgement?

For a change I'm in total agreement with No. 3 Democrat Rahm Emanuel when he said, in reaction to McCain's choice for running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:

On his 72nd birthday, is this really the one-heartbeat-away he wants to put in the White House? ... What does this say about his judgment?

And you could almost visualize the jaw drop on analyst Ron Fournier, of the the Associated Press, which led him to write:

A governor for just 20 months, she was two-term mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 6,500 where the biggest issue is controlling growth and the biggest civic worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod dog-mushing race.

Every politician has some skeleton's in their closet. Palin's is fresh, according to Fournier:

She has an ethical issue as well. Alaska lawmakers are investigating whether Palin abused her power in firing a public safety commissioner. Lawmakers say they want to know whether Palin was mad at the commissioner for not firing an Alaska state trooper who went through a messy divorce and ongoing child custody battles with Palin's sister.

This Just In:

The pick earned McCain praise Friday from evangelicals and other social conservatives who have been skeptical of him. "Conservatives will be thrilled with this pick," said Greg Mueller, a conservative GOP strategist.... Maybe.

Palin, the darling of the social conservatives, has another fresh skeleton in her closet, from the perspective of the social conservatives, Palin's seventeen year old, unwed daughter is five-months pregnant. Of course, this doesn't bother me, but I'm not a social conservative.

Nice headline with which to start off the GOP convention: "Palin says daughter, 17, is pregnant"

Ya gotta wonder if McCain knew this was coming (apparently he knew)? If not, there could be some future trust issues between McCain and Palin. If he did know, then he better start playing up the, "Hey. Palin's just like a lot of other families out there where this sorta thing happens..." Except she has health insurance.

Maybe they're going after the sympathy-vote. And you thought the Democrat convention was a soap opera.

More: Fact-Check Article. Some examples:

+ McCain: "She's been governor of our largest state."

FACTS: Big? Yes, but mostly wilderness. Alaska is ranked 47th by population.

+ McCain: "She's been in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply."

FACTS: She's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state.

Sources:

Associated Press, Analysis: Palin's age, inexperience rival Obama's, Ron Fournier, August 29, 2008.

Associated Press,
Palin says daughter, 17, is pregnant, September 1, 2008.

Veterans' Three-Point Strategy Presented to Obama Campaign

Below is a press release from the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). We all need to contact Obama's Veterans' Liaison, Phil Carter, to show our support for the IVAW's three-point strategy outlined in the press release.

CONTACT OBAMA: Select "Policy Issue" from the menu of topics. Write: "To Phil Carter, Veterans' Liaison" in the first line. Then urge Phil Carter to formally recognize the IVAW in an advisory capacity to the Obama Campaign, beginning with a dialogue on the IVAW Three Points of Unity.

IVAW Press Release:

DENVER - August 28 - Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) led a non-violent march of 8,000 allies, including members of Rage Against the Machine, to the front entrance of the Pepsi Center. There they delivered a letter containing their three points of unity to the Obama campaign's veteran staff. IVAW's three points of unity are:

1. Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq
2. Full benefits and healthcare for returning veterans
3. Reparations to the Iraqi people

IVAW is calling on Senator Obama to allow an IVAW representative to read the letter to the delegates.

Senator Obama's veterans' liaison, Phil Carter, told IVAW that they could expect a response from the Senator's campaign staff regarding their request. IVAW plans to hold Senator Obama's campaign team to their word.

*IVAW members Jared Hood, Jeff Key and Josh Earle are available for comment:

Jared Hood, who lives here in Denver, served as a specialist in the Colorado Army National Guard from 2004-2007. During that time he served in Camp Navistar, Kuwait and Vilseck, Germany.

Josh Earl served as a Military Police Specialist in Iraq from 2003-2004 with the Denver-based 220th Military Police Company of the Colorado Army National Guard.

Jeff Key, a former Marine Corp lance corporal, served in Iraq in 2003. Mr. Key currently performs his one-man show, The Eyes of Babylon, which tells his story as a Marine in Iraq, in theaters across the country. He was also one of the IVAW members to speak with Obama's veterans' liaison on Aug. 27.

CONTACT: Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW)
Clarissa Singleton, media2@ivaw.org,
215-241-7123

DemocracyNow! Coverage Part 1

DemocracyNow! Coverage Part 2

Maggie Martin Speaks @ Winter Soldier Hearing

Susan Eisenhower's Speech

Until recently, President Eisenhower's grand daughter Susan was a registered Republican. She spoke during prime time on the closing night of the Democratic convention. She gave a great speech and you could tell she really meant it.

Susan Eisenhower's Speech at 2008 Dem Convention (Transcript)

Wikipedia on Susan Eisenhower

The other speech that struck a chord, despite getting off to a wooden start, came from a typical American named Barney Smith. Political consultants should take note of the crowd-response to what will be a memorable one-liner of the convention when he said "I want a president who cares more about Barney Smith than Smith Barney."

Maryland Elections Board Confronted with Leaked Diebold Report

The election oversight organization "Velvet Revolution" has posted an article entitled:

"Diebold Coverup-Stephen Spoonamore Confronts MD Board of Elections With Unredacted SAIC Report"

Full Article

Highlights:

Computer security expert, and Republican, Stephen Spoonamore obtained a 197-page report and confronted the Maryland Board of Elections with it at a public meeting. He told them that if he were handed such a report in the private sector, he would “shut down the system and open a fraud investigation.”

Spoonamore, with a concealed microphone, talked with the MD elections officials. One of the officials told him that the leaked report was “a security risk.” Following the meeting, Spoonamore was contacted by law enforcement officials who demanded to know how he got the report.

Velvet Revolution has this all in a video posted on YouTube.



The 197-page SAIC report prepared for the State of Maryland was entitled: "Risk Assessment Report: Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting System and Processing." According to the video, the report was so sensitive that election commission officials only saw redacted versions and had to sign confidentiality agreements. There is another report, perhaps the 32-page version, entitled "State of Maryland Electronic Voting System Security" presented to the Maryland Department of Budget and Management, Annapolis, Maryland, September 17, 2003.

Why do we have private companies, cloaked by business-confidentiality, making our voting machines and counting our votes?

Sources:

Velvet Revolution

Presidential Candidates: What a Let Down

OK. It's true. Obama has told us that it's up to the people to demand change. So, we better start making noise.

The President is a tool of which ever elite faction gains control. When I say "elite" I mean the wealthy and powerful, not intellectuals who ponder big issues.

LibHom recently tallied a sickening number of examples of Obama selling out. They're sickening, because that's the way your stomach will feel when you read them.

I was reminded of the recent interviews I've heard with Andrew Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Rightly, Bacevich holds both parties accountable for the pending demise of the country:

There’s a lot in the book that tries to hold the Bush administration accountable for recent events, but I would not for a second want to suggest that the crisis in which we find ourselves today ought to be laid simply at the foot of the Bush administration or the Republican Party, because it’s been a long time coming.

[both political parties,] over the last twenty years or so, [have had] an increasing willingness to use military force to cause the world to look the way we want it to look. And I think that that expression of American exceptionalism is one that’s not only utterly false, but is greatly at odds with own interests as a country.

However, it's not at odds with the goals of transnational corporations that make windfall profits from "opening foreign markets." In short, both Republicans and Democrats have used military force to prop up unpopular dictators so that the natural resources and labor of foreign countries can be exploited. They take advantage of the grains of truth in "fighting communism" and now "the war on terrorism," to bully their way into massive profits for a few people, including pay-offs to the political elite in both parties.

It's a scam that no-one has exposed better than Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler in his essay "War is a Racket."

A sample:

I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force--the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was part of a racket all the time. Now I am sure of it. -- S. D. Butler

Sources:

Democracy Now, "The Limits of Power: Andrew Bacevich on the End of American Exceptionalism", August 20, 2008.

Is al-Maliki Part of an October Surprise Whisper Campaign?

One has to wonder if Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and his aides, are staging a propaganda campaign in coordination with Bush and the Republican Party. Calls for troop withdrawals sound fishy to me.

Think of it. Al-Maliki and his aides leak the following message, "We want ALL US troops out by 2011." The Bush administration pretends to be somewhat dismayed. But what is the effect?

If the voting public is led to believe that ALL US troops will be out of Iraq by 2011, regardless of who is elected president, then the Iraq War is no longer a presidential campaign issue. Who benefits? McCain.

Of course, come 2011, with McCain as president, or even Obama, "facts on the ground" change and US troops remain in Iraq. Hello. Am I being too cynical?

Don't put it past Cheney and Rove to engineer this al-Maliki whisper campaign as part of an October Surprise.
Sources:

How to Clean Mac Hard Drive

Is your mac running slow? Seeing that color pin wheel too often? Want to "clean up" your computer? Here's one way to do it using a free software called OnyX.

• Determine your Operating System: Click on the blue apple in the upper left, then click "About this Mac." At the top it will likely say "Mac OS X" and below it a version number, which you should write down. (If you have an old Mac it might say something about Version 9).
  
  
• Download and Install OnyX: You can find it at http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/download.html You'll need to install the version that matches your operating system. [more details on downloading & installing software.]

Using OnyX: These are instructions I got from a discussion board. They worked for me. In particular, this process seemed to resolve a problem of very slow rendering with Final Cut Pro video editing software.

• Using OynX: The OnyX software has slight variations depending on the mac Operating system you have. I'm using OS X Version 4 (Tiger).
  
  For OS X version 4, I was prompted to do the following, which I did:
  
  
• check SMART status
  
  
• Verify Startup Disk
  
  As general advice, I ran the following steps without changing the default items that were selected.
  
  
• Check System Preferences: Under Unix Utilities, run plutil, which checks system preference files to ensure none are corrupted. Hopefully it will run and say "OK".
  
  
• Clear Caches: Under Cleaning run the program with the defaults. if you select other items, e.g., cookies, you'll delete auto passwords to sites you visit.
  
  For some versions of OnyX, depending on your operating system, you might need to reboot your computer and restart Onyx.
  
  
• Maintenance Scripts: Under Maintenance, run "verify permissions." Then, run the maintenance scripts. Then, run a "complete optimization."

Now you're done with OnyX.

Here's some more checks you can do following the use of OnyX:

Load "disk utility" software from the applications>utilities folder. Under first aid, verify the disk. If it's OK, great.

If it finds any issues, then reboot your computer from the OS X CD, holding the C key down. From the menu bar, start disk utility. Under first aid, repair the disk (you can't repair a disk the hard drive you booted from).

Thankfully, I've not had to do the latter, but would try it if necessary.

I hope this is helpful and not harmful. You can always Google the various terms used above to gain a better understanding of them.

Sources:

Discussion Thread from which I got this advice.

McCain "Experience" does not equal "Competence"

Recent analysis suggests that McCain's campaign helped give Georgia a false sense of US support for their initial attack on South Osetia. McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randall Scheunemann, is said to still be a registered lobbyist for Georgia. Combined with State Department Secretary claims that the US will "fight" for Georgia, the McCain presidential campaign posture and bellicose rhetoric helped nudge Georgia into it's aggressive action.

Now what? Some want to argue, as if they are more clever than most, that "This little crisis in Georgia is designed to pin Russia down so the US can take action in Iran without Russian interference." Perhaps it is. But more likely, it is further evidence of how things can begin to unravel when incompetent, arrogant militarists, like Bush and McCain, are given power. It should give pause when we hear historians reference the similarity between this little crisis and the little crisis in Sarajevo that unraveled into World War I.

It seems that McCain's campaign has unwittingly played a role in the unraveling that is taking place in the Caucuses. That's a major foreign affairs blunder to which McCain has contributed. It is ever more clear that McCain's claimed "foreign policy experience" isn't the same thing as "foreign policy competence."

Read More on McCain and Scheunemann's ties to Georgia

Sources:

McClatchy News Service, Top McCain adviser lobbied for nation of Georgia, August 8, 2008.

Target the Insider Democrats

Here is one perspective on why the Democrat Party leadership is giving George W. Bush a pass on his numerous crimes, and a strategy for doing something about it.

1. A small number of Democrats, in key leadership positions, were privy to classified briefings prior to the Iraq war. They were also informed, in advance, of Bush's warrantless domestic spying program and a number of other constitutional abuses.

2. Many of these abuses are felony crimes, which can be prosecuted outside of the congressional impeachment process. [See footnote on Vincent Bugliosi, author of "The Prosecution of George Bush for Murder."]

3. As witnesses with advanced knowledge, these insider Democrats might be legally liable for "tacit approval" of the Bush administration's crimes. Short of that, this hand full of Democrats are at risk to potential career-ending shame if the details of the Bush administration crimes get out.

4. Most of these same Democrat party leaders continue to control the Congressional agenda, including whether or not the Bush administration will be investigated. Most famously, one of them, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, says no, "Impeachment is off the table."

5. The logic suggests that this small number of insider Democrats might be the blocking investigation of Bush due to fear of their own implication if the details were to come out.

6. If this small number of insider Democrats are blocking the investigation, then their removal from power would greatly increase the prospect of learning the details of Bush's crimes.

7. This suggests a political strategy. All of these Democrat insiders should be targeted for removal from office; it's a small group, therefore, the possibility of succeeding in their removal is within reason.

8. Cindy Shehan is an example of this strategy playing out. She is running against Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

9. Targets for removal include:
Jane Harmon (D-CA) the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee,
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee,
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Minority Leader
Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader

Notes:

As an aside, Vincent Bugliosi has laid out a solid case that Bush, Rice and Cheney (maybe even Rove) are likely guilty of capital murder. The mock cross examination of Bush, who has to take the stand or looks guilty, is perhaps the best part of the book. Imagine the prosecutor's line of questioning leading Bush down a dangerous verbal path from which there is no escape... high pitched courtroom drama.

Text Message Price Gouging

T-Moble, ATT and Verizon have increased the cost for texting to twenty-cents a message. Not too long ago text messages were free. Prices have doubled in two years (100% increase). Free Press reports that

There have been no additional costs [to the phone corporations] that would necessitate a price hike.

At the new price, texting is at least four times more expensive for the customer than the cost to transmit data from the Hubble telescope.

We're facing a 7,314% mark-up; serious price gouging. The actual cost to the cell phone corporations is 0.015 cents per kilobyte compared to 109.71 cents per kilobyte charged to customers (or about a dollar and ten cents $1.10. A 7,314% differential).

If the same price mark-up used for texting was used for downloading a 4 Meg song, it would cost the user almost $6,000.

Feeling a little pissed off at the cell phone corporations? You'll be even more pissed when you learn that the phone corporations are charging for otherwise unused transmission capacity. Free Press explains it this way:

[T]he cost to carriers to transmit text messages is next to nothing [about two one-hundredths of a penny per kilobyte noted above, 0.015 cents]. Here's why. When a cell phone is on, it is constantly connected to a cell phone tower as it waits for a call or data. The cell phone and tower send little data packets to one another to keep in touch. These packets hold 160 characters. That's why a text message can carry only 160 characters of text, because they hitch a ride on these data packets. So, compared to the cost of transmitting e-mail or downloading data that need their own bandwidth, the cost of text messaging is exorbitant.

"Exorbitant" is a nice way of saying "price gouging."

So what can be done about it? In case you haven't noticed, a small number of huge corporations dominate the telecom industry. This near-monopoly situation is known as an oligopoly, and price-setting by oligopolies can be illegal.

For example, in the 1950s American tire companies took turns each year being the first to release their price list. The others would follow by releasing their lists with prices that were... Ta Dah! the SAME! They got busted.

More recently, Oligopoly Watch reported:

Five major chemical companies were caught colluding on prices once again. A cartel made up of American-based firms Dow and DuPont, Germany's Bayer, Italy's Eni, and Japan's Tosoh was convicted of fixing prices for chloroprene. Chloroprene is a kind of synthetic latex rubber is used in such products as hoses, transmission belts, condoms and shoes.

The European commission fined the companies over $300 million for the cartel, which reportedly operated from 1992 to 2003. The participants allegedly met together to discuss prices on a regular basis.

But, as noted above, they don't even have to meet together to violate prohibitions on price-fixing.

You and your friends can make a difference. Contact the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and ask them to "investigate price-fixing on text messages among cell phone companies."

CONTACT the FCC Do it today. You'll feel better and together we might get text message prices down to less than a penny a message.

Sources:

Free Press, Media Minutes for July 18, 2008 (Audio and links to all sources), e.g., Spoiled Techie

European Gendarmerie Force: EU Police State

According to a Wikipedia[1] entry:

"The European Gendarmerie Force or EGF was launched by an agreement between five members of the European Union: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. Its purpose was the creation of a European intervention force, which would have militarised police (aka a gendarmerie) functions and be specialized in crisis management. More countries will be allowed to join in the future."

Sounds like the Euro-elite know that the party is coming to an end, and they're getting ready for the coming debacle.

"The EGF is based in Vicenza, in northeastern Italy, and has a core of 800-900 members ready to deploy within 30 days. This includes elements from the French Gendarmerie, the Italian Carabinieri, the Portuguese National Republican Guard, the Dutch Royal Marechaussee and the Spanish Civil Guard. An additional 2,300 reinforcements will be available in standby."

Sources:

[1] The powers-that-be have done a good job of undermining the credibility of Wikipedia by seizing on the fact that, true enough, not everything posted to Wikipedia is fact-checked. But isn't it convenient for them to dismiss what otherwise is an excellent starting point for free investigation?

There was a Eurogendfor website: http://www.eurogendfor.eu but it doesn't seem to work at the time I write this post.

CIA forged letter's Influence on Domestic Opinion

We are facing a When in times of human events moment. The present Bush administration form of government has become destructive of deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. It is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

Many actions of the Bush administration are designed to be nearly irreversible, such as the appointment of partisan operatives to the judicial bench, driving the treasury into debt as a means of weakening federal agencies that protect the environment and the rights of the common people, shifting that money and power to transnational corporations that steer the Bush administration from the shadows. The Congress is similarly captured by the influence of the consolidated wealth, leaving them impotent to reverse course.

Reversing course is no light and transient cause. Our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are threatened by increasing evidence of a tightening police state in which corporate power is used by a small group of people who enter and exit the government at will to secure largess for themselves and their adherents. This intertwining of corporate and executive branch power, used to consolidate ever more power, is a hallmark of fascism; fascism isn't an "ism." It doesn't push a doctrine. It does anything necessary to grab power, even if that means pretending to promote a doctrine.

The situation is reaching a tipping point, evidenced by the revelations of Ron Suskind that the Bush administration ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to forge a letter linking Iraq to 9/11 and the CIA's compliance. The CIA, restricted to foreign affairs, crossed a bright line when the forged Habbush letter was used to influence domestic opinion. Will the people of the United States simply accept this blatant abuse of power that was targeted at them? The Declaration of Independence says:

all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

It also says,
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Yes. We are living one of those When in times of human events moments.

INVESTIGATE Suskind's Revelations

I've urged my senators and representative make a statement on the revelations of Ron Suskind's book regarding the CIA forging of a letter used to influence domestic public opinion on the Iraq war. Please do the same now... go directly to the bottom and click on the contact information.

.... or procrastinate and read on.

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism

It is gravely illegal for the US foreign intelligence agency (CIA) to conduct a domestic propaganda operation. Suskind presents multiple on-the-record testimonials that say George Tenant got a stinky assignment from Vice President Cheney's office to forge a letter implicating Iraq in 9/11 and WMD. One source is Rob Richer, former head of CIA’s Near East Division, and former deputy chief of clandestine operations. Richer points to Vice President Cheney's office as the source of the assignment. Richer puts it to words in the following transcript of a taped interview with Suskind. Speaking of CIA Director George Tenet with whom he discussed this assignment, Richer says:

But now--he may have hinted--just by the way he said it, it would have--cause almost all that stuff came from one place only: Scooter Libby and the shop around the vice president.

But he [Tenet] didn't say that specifically. I would naturally--I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president.

Rob Richer is not alone in speaking on the record. John Maguire, the former deputy chief of Iraq Operations Group with the CIA is adding to the body of evidence. These two men are not light-weights.

Vice President Cheney's connection is corroborated by the American Conservative newspaper, which accepts the fabricated CIA letter as a given and adds some color to the unfolding revelations. They report that the idea originated in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, headed by neo-con Douglas Feith. This office was exposed by Robert Dreyfuss in The Lie Factory reported in Mother Jones magazine, and shown to be a direct pipeline
to Vice President Cheney's office. We're just now hearing of another lie from that machine.

The letter that is at the center of these revelations was faked to appear to have been written by Tahir Jalil Habbush, Iraq's head of intelligence. Habbush left Iraq and made contact with US and British intelligence to inform them that Iraq had no WMD, even though the reports to the UN inspectors left some doubt. That doubt was left intentionally. Habbush told the US and Britain that Hussien feared revealing his military weakness to Iran than he feared the US, which explains Hussein's "irrational" behavior.

Unfortunately for everyone affected by the Iraq war, Habbush's story-line, though possibly true, didn't fit the Bush story-line on going to war with Iraq. So Bush side-lined Habbush by paying him $5 million to go live quietly in Jordan.

Habbush never had anything to do with the letter; the CIA fabricated it on its own. It was backdated to July 1, 2001, and referenced the three points Cheney was repeating on Sunday talks shows: 9/11's Mohamed Atta trained in Iraq, Iraq tried to buy yellow cake uranium, biological and chemical weapons. According to Suskind, within intelligence circles, the inclusion of all three of Cheney talking points in a forgery is viewed as a particularly amateurish aspect of the letter forgery, which itself is viewed as "amateur hour".

Suskind explains,

Maguire talks, in the book—and there’s a quote, people who read it—he’s, “I wish George [Tenet] had more experience in actual operations, like some CIA directors, because he could have told his bosses in the White House, ‘This is a bad idea. Habbush is never going to sign it. We don’t think this is such a good plan.’” But Tenet doesn’t push back. And as he said, “That’s one thing,” Maguire says, “we blame George about.”

I could go on, but buy and read Suskind's "The Way of the World," and demand accountability.

Contact Congress: Cut 'n Paste the following into their e-mail forms:

I urge you to make a statement on the revelations of Ron Suskind's book about the CIA fabrication of a letter used to influence domestic public opinion on the Iraq war. If proven, this would be a grave violation of federal law designed to protect our democracy.

INVESTIGATIONS - In your statement on this matter please consider calling for investigations by the House, Senate and Justice Department.

DECLASSIFICATIONS - You should also urge a rapid review of CIA documents for declassification. Many documents are highly likely to have no national security relevance, but rather are classified to hide embarrassment.

THE MEDIA - Call 4th estate, the free press, to help expedite the laborious investigation process by coming forward with information.

I look forward to hearing from you on this.

CONTACT US SENATE

CONTACT US HOUSE

CLICK to Vote for Yahoo! Buzz

Sources:

PART 1:
The Way of the World: Ron Suskind on How the Bush Admin Deliberately Faked an Iraq-al-Qaeda Connection and Undermined Diplomacy, Democracy in Pakistan and Iran. "Democracy Now" August 13, 2008.

PART 2:
After Ron Suskind Reveals Bush Admin Ordered Iraq-9/11 Fakery, House Judiciary Chair John Conyers Opens Congressional Probe. "Democracy Now" August 14, 2008.

Raw Story

How to Download and Install Mac Software

This is a very limited "How to" on downloading, installing and running software from the internet.

In general, be careful about downloading software from websites you might not have reason to trust. Once you're ready to go, these tips might be of help.

• When you click the "download" button, a box will typically open giving you the option to save the file to your computer. The file is usually a compressed version of an installation package. If given the option to select a directory, I usually save it to my "Desk top." This makes it easier to find.
  
  Try to note the name of the file being downloaded to help finding it later.
  
  
• After the download is complete, find the installation package (hopefully on your desktop). If you have trouble finding it, it might have an extension .zip or .dmg. If you wrote the file name down, you can search for using the magnifying glass (spotlight), usually in the upper right of your screen (type .dmg or .zip or the filename).
  
  Tip: Open your Finder, Go to desktop, and you might see the new file. You can sort the files by date.
  
  Tip: F11 moves all of your open software aside so that you can see your desktop.
  
  
• Once found, Double-click and follow the instructions. In some cases the first file you clock on will simply unpack/unzip another "installation" file, either on your desktop or in a pop-up box. You'll then need to double-click this installation file. Follow the instructions, which usually ask you to agree to the conditions of the licensing agreement (sorry, we live in a corporatized world).
  
  
• After it says "Installation Complete," or something like that, you are sometimes given the option of starting the program. Other times, it simply finishes. Then what? How do you run the program?
  
  
• Running the new software: Sometimes, the new software creates an Icon on your desktop. Other times, you'll need to use Finder, click on "Applications" and try to find a file with an appropriate name and the extension .app The application file might also be stored within a folder.
  
  
• Finally, if this is a program you will use a lot, you can drag and drop the .app file to your "dashboard," the list of programs often located at the bottom of the screen.
  
  

When in times of human events...

We are facing a "When in times of human events" moment. The present current "form of government" has "become destructive" of "deriving [its] just powers from the consent of the governed". In cases like this, which are not light and transient causes, "It is the right of the people to alter or abolish it." Alter significantly we must.

Many actions of the Bush administration are intentionally designed to be nearly irreversible. Consider the appointment of partisan operatives to the judicial bench, driving the treasury into debt as a means of weakening federal agencies that protect the environment and the rights of the common people, shifting our national treasure and power to transnational corporations that are in alliance with the Bush administration. The Congress is similarly captured by the influence of the consolidated wealth leaving them impotent to reverse course.

Our nation has become corrupted by an small elite class of people, some operatives and some are simply lucky relatives going along for the ride, probably oblivious to the crimes being committed as they live in luxury, traveling freely and enjoying all the best that money can buy. They do this in the face of a failing empire, which can no longer hold the index finger high and say "USA, We're #1".

The following rankings are evidence of US decline in the world:

• Number 37 on the Healthcare Quality Index (World Health Organization).
  
• Number 32 in infant mortality rate (Save the Children).
  
• Both of which are a result is number 29 on life expectancy.
  
• Number 9 on Adult Literacy Scale (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)).
  
• Number 12 on student reading ability (OECD).
  
• Number 48 on the Journalistic Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Boarders).
  
• Number 17 on women's rights (World Economic Forum).
  
• Number 13 on a quality of life survey by Economist magazine.
  
• Number 45 on the Environmental Sustainability Index (Yale and Columbia universities).
  

Reversing this corrupt course is no light and transient cause. Our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are threatened by increasing evidence of a tightening police state. Consolidated corporate power, including the mass media, is used by a small group of people who enter and exit the government at will to secure largess for themselves and their adherents. This intertwining of corporate and unitary executive power, used to consolidate ever more power, is a hallmark of fascism; Actually, fascism isn't an "ism." It doesn't push a doctrine. It does anything necessary to expand its power, even if that means pretending to promote a doctrine. Fascism is by its nature corrupt.

The situation is reaching a tipping point, evidenced by the revelations of Ron Suskind that the Bush administration ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to forge a letter linking Iraq to 9/11 and the CIA's compliance. The CIA crossed a bright legal line when it used the forged Habbush letter to influence domestic opinion; the CIA is strictly limited to foreign intelligence matters. This restriction is a keystone to the freedoms of democracy we hold so dear.

Will the people of the United States simply accept this blatant abuse of power, which was intentionally targeted at them by the Bush administration? The Declaration of Independence says:

all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

It also says,
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Yes. We are living one of those When in times of human events moments.

Sources:

Statistics on American rankings are from page 244 of "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder," Vincent Bugliosi, Vangaurd Press, 2008.

Bush's Attempt to Stack the Federal Court with OperativesS

The US Attorney Firing Scandal is back in the news (Read: the Election Fraud and Federal Judge-Stacking Courts Scandals). Most of the news is about who knew what and when, and focuses on the firings and the cover. Little is said about the underlying motives.

The Deeper Attorney Firings Plot is about high-level election rigging and attempts to stack the courts with political operatives. (It's easier to become a federal judge if you have the "credentials" of being a US Attorney.)

The key example of this was Rove's man Timothy Griffin who was briefly installed to replace US Attorney Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Ark. Griffin is a key Bush operative, involved in voter-role purging via caging lists and the 2000 Florida operation. Griffin is now the focus of inquiries about Bush's attempt to use an obscure provision of the USA PATRIOT Act to permanently install Griffin as an interim U.S. attorney without being confirmed by the Senate.

Murray Waas reports:

One senior Bush administration official told me that White House staffers talk about their "nightmare scenario" in which any one of the three currently internal DOJ probes "spins out of control" and leads to the appointment of a special prosecutor with broad authority.

Let the nightmare begin.

Sources:

Huffington Post, U.S. Attorney Scandal Probe Enters White House Circle, Murray Waas, August 7, 2008.

Thanks for the lead to the article from LibHom's Blog.

New Meaning to "Police State"

Local police are adopting increasingly militarized attitudes and techniques.

Assuming the societal need for police, one could acknowledge the need for police to be on balance with organized crime in terms of weapons, communications, etc. The key word is balance.

Today however, as a result of 9/11 overreach, many local police departments have adopted unbalanced methods of fulfilling their missions. For the past several years they have had a homeland security feeding frenzy buying vast amounts of new hardware (armored vehicles, helicopters, non-lethal weapons, riot gear, and surveillance tools) and attending more federal training sessions. The later serve to torque them up, infusing them with desire to use all of the new special tactics they have learned. They are inculcated into the deep dark stealth world of security in which everything is a potential threat and everyone is a potential enemy. They naturally feel like a member in a small elite group, and in some ways above the law, because they are a small elite group and they think they are the law, when in reality they are just supposed to enforce the laws in a fair and balance way.

The latest example in post-9/11 testosterone driven police state overkill comes from the small town of Berwyn Heights in Prince George's County, Maryland. The mayor's wife was the innocent victim of identity theft in which a drug ring was using her as an unsuspecting shipping address in order to transfer marijuana.

The Prince George's County police conducted a raid on the small town mayor's house killing the mayor's two pet dogs, hand cuffing his mother in law on the floor and roughing them all up.

Berwyn Heights mayor Cheye Calvo called on the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate the raid and other similar actions by Prince George's law enforcement. He said officers burst into his house without knocking or announcing themselves, in violation of the warrant they had.

Article and Video Interview of Calvo Family

Sources:

Baltimore Sun, Prince George's raid prompts call for probe , August 8, 2008.

Premier Diebold Election Solutions

As you might have heard, the corrupt Diebold Corporation, exposed with documentary evidence by an office worker in a California legal firm, has spun off its election machine unit. It now goes under the name Primier Election Solutions. That is, Diebold equals Premier Elections.

Put another way....


For more information on Diebold voting machines, now made under the name Premier Election Solutions, see the contact information below.

1-800-433-8683
info@premierelections.com

Sources:

Premier Election Solutions.

Paris Hilton Rebuts John McCain in YouTube "Campaign Add"

Surprizingly good delivery from Paris (only about 30 Sec.) The remainder is Kieth Olbermann and clips that make McCain look like.... John McCain.

GIs miss own weddings, baby's first words during long Iraq tour

Today we read a Yahoo! news headline

GIs miss own weddings, baby's first words during long Iraq tour

So, we can expect to be told, by the TVs, and the Bush administration, and McCain-backers, that "the surge has worked" and we are on the verge of "success" in Iraq. They will argue that the sacrifices identified in the Yahoo! News headline were worth the victory. If it takes self-delusion to get us out of Iraq, I suppose I can go along with it for a while. But really...

Success? Fewer deaths per month is "success?" The ethnic cleansing has played itself out, as over 2 million Iraqis have left the country and walls now divide newly created ethnic fifdoms that depend on local militias for security. Was this part of the plan? Is this part of the "success"? Is buying off and arming Sunnis, who were involved in the Shia ethnic cleansing, an honorable "success"? Many don't believe this "stability" will hold, given that it was effectively created by the US with pay checks and short-term interests that can change in the future.

It's as if a bee (Hussein) was buzzing around in someone's house and the US came in, without permission, to get the bee. The homeowner was glad about that in the beginning.

Then, in it's initial shock and awe, US soldiers destroyed the living room... smashed TV, chairs turned over with broken legs, stuffing torn out of cushions, walls bashed in, windows broken, reading materials and unopened mail burned. Meanwhile, the bee buzzed off into another room. Then, room by room, the US inflicts similar destruction.

Eventually the home owner intervenes to demand a say in how the US is going after the bee. The owner wants to be informed of US attacks, so at least nobody will get hurt as US soldiers, led by George W. Bush, continue to hammer away trying to get that bee.

Finally, they smash the bee! Success!

The children in the house have black eyes, swollen lips, missing teeth, worse than any bee sting. Many of the family heirlooms are completely ruined. The homeowner's spouse has left and filed for divorce. The homeowner no longer has a job and is in debt and has late bill payments, and a credit record in shambles. Success?

The soldiers lament missing their weddings and baby's first words. But the bee is dead! Was the sacrifice worth it? Is this really "success"?

The king has no clothes. Less violence in Iraq will never be "success" or "victory." US policy and actions have destroyed the society once called Iraq. Many of its antiquities and public records have been ruined. It's economic independence has been subjugated by the US in order to rid it of Hussein? Of course not. If getting rid of Hussein was the goal, the US would be gone by now.

If stability or control in the region was the goal, the US has certainly made a mess of that, tilting the balance of power toward Iran. I could go on, but the notion of "success" or "victory" in Iraq is impossible given the horrible destruction inflicted on generations by the war. We got nothing in return... the end of violence is NOT a victory, despite what McCain or the mass media pundits say. The king has no clothes when it comes to victory in Iraq.

Sources:

GIs miss own weddings, baby's first words during long Iraq tour

Christina Applegate: Get well, Stay Well

Christina Applegate, famous as the ditzy cutie on Marred with Children, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is 36-years old. Her mother apparently battled cancer too.

From what little I pick up of pop culture, I hear she's a gifted actor and intelligent, informed person. She defies convention and speaks her mind about social issues, even when it isn't popular to do so.

Count me as one who hopes she gets well and stays healthy for many decades to come.

Donate to the American Cancer Society. Sometimes criticized for being one of the largest non-profit organizations. They are also criticized for using some of their funds to promote general access to medical care. I consider the latter goal worthy, and related to the larger mission of dealing with cancer; until we have a "cure," or can prevent cancer, early screening remains a key to successful treatment, and access to medical care is key to early screening and treatment.