The New Bailout Plan

Now this is more like it!

The War on Muslims Comes to America

Muslim Children Gassed at Dayton Mosque After "Obsession" DVD Hits Ohio

One of the more disgusting and disturbing stories I've seen lately.

Bailout Fails House Vote, Dow Down 777 Points at End of the Day

Wow, interesting times, interesting times. Although the House Republicans can't seem to admit it*, I think the vote failed due to negative pressure from constituents. Lots of Dems didn't vote for the bailout either. Democracy in action!

I don't like the bailout, by any means, but my various stock holdings are taking a friggin' beating.

*they are blaming it on mean, nasty Nancy Pelosi.

Quite Possibly the Single Most Incriminating Photo Relevant to No Plane Hitting the South Tower

From one of the NIST WTC investigation NCSTAR publications
(i.e. NISTNCSTAR1-5A_chap_1-8):

(click to enlarge)

Here's the official story:

(click to enlarge)

Look at this-- there are damaged columns totally blocking where the plane supposedly went in-- both on the left-hand and right-hand side of the main hole! It's insane.

(click to enlarge)

UPDATE: Clearly, a higher resolution version of this hole photo would be wonderful to have. Apparently, "Chris Sorensen" had this photo up on is website, according to this cache-- but the photo isn't even there in the cached version. I tried the Wayback machine, but they had nada. Curious, however, as NIST says this is a frame from a photo, and "Chris Sorensen", who appears to be a professional photographer, talks about a photo. Yeah, I'm, sure there is an "innocent explanation" for all this-- though, this is all too typical of the usual crap I get when I try to track down some 9/11 evidence.

One thing that WOULD be worth doing is to do a FOIA request from NIST for a high resolution version of this image. There is no sane reason they could deny such a request-- unless they know how damning the image is and refuse it on those grounds.

Cutting-Edge Crowd Control: the New Pain-Inducing Weapon "Silent Guardian"

Looks like it would be a handy torture device too:

Silent Guardian is making waves in defence circles. Built by the U.S. firm Raytheon, it is part of its "Directed Energy Solutions" programme.

What it amounts to is a way of making people run away, very fast, without killing or even permanently harming them.

That is what the company says, anyway. The reality may turn out to be more horrific.

I tested a table-top demonstration model, but here's how it works in the field.

A square transmitter as big as a plasma TV screen is mounted on the back of a Jeep.

When turned on, it emits an invisible, focused beam of radiation - similar to the microwaves in a domestic cooker - that are tuned to a precise frequency to stimulate human nerve endings.

It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile.

Because the beam penetrates skin only to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, it cannot, says Raytheon, cause visible, permanent injury.

But anyone in the beam's path will feel, over their entire body, the agonising sensation I've just felt on my fingertip. The prospect doesn't bear thinking about.

This thing is totally creepy.

Interestingly, the name "Silent Guardian" is very reminiscent of the name of some of those NORAD wargames being run on 9/11-- Vigilant Guardian, Northern Guardian, Global Guardian.

Financial Crisis a Scam by the Investment Banks?

Wouldn't surprise me at all, particularly given Paulson's connections:

"I suspect that part of what we're seeing in the freezing up of lending markets is strategic behavior on the part of big financial players who stand to benefit from the bailout," said David K. Levine, an economist at Washington University in St. Louis, who studies liquidity constraints and game theory.

I also wonder if the whole deal is also a secret ploy by Bush to screw over McCain-- I'm a bit suspicious the way Bush has embraced this scheme that will so obviously put McCain in such a difficult position.

UPDATE: Here's an alternative view-- that things are much worse than they are letting on.

Don't Talk About the War

I actually was surprised to see polls showing that Obama handily "won" the debate. Particularly if you watched the news commentators, you really wouldn't know why this was the case. And my sense was that Mccain actually righted himself-- he seemed on his game, after a very shaky week, and Obama never really took out McCain, despite having many chances.

On the other hand, Obama went toe to toe with the "foreign policy expert" McCain and came away looking just fine, thank you. So in that sense, it was a win for Obama.

But thinking about it this morning, there is another reason that people think Obama won: the Iraq war is deeply unpopular, and Obama expressed people's frustrations on the war pretty well. Clearly one of Obama's strongest moments was when he went after McCain-- saying how wrong he was about the war from the beginning, saying Mccain knew where the WMD were, etc.

The media STILL don't like to talk about how unpopular war is, in general, but especially the Iraq war. The mainstream media obviously has a strong pro-war bias. If they aren't intel agents or psychopaths, they must be brainwashed idiots.

But the people, deep down, know the Iraq war was a disaster, and at least Obama was willing to express some of that. Of course, Obama is still deeply worrisome in his strident support of the official 9/11 fairytale and talk of going after "al Qaeda". But clearly, Obama is a lesser of two evils compared to the right-wing paranoid McCain-- who never met a war he didn't support.

By the way-- check out what Obama SHOULD have said.

United Airlines Is Still Searching for Flight 93 Passengers!

From the sitemeter log:

Domain Name ual.com (Commercial)
IP Address XXX.XX.XXX# (United Airlines)
ISP United Airlines
Location
Continent : North America
Country : United States (Facts)
State : Illinois
City : Schaumburg
Lat/Long : 42.0463, -88.1169 (Map)
Language English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; InfoPath.1)
Javascript version 1.3
(snip)
Referring URL http://www.google.co...m flight 93&aq=f&oq=
Search Engine: google.com
Search Words: bodies recovered from flight 93
Visit Entry Page http://covertoperati...lysis-of-flight.html
Visit Exit Page http://covertoperati...lysis-of-flight.html
Out Click
Time Zone UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time Sep 26 2008 4:42:05 am

Palin and Orwell

The mind reels:

Couric: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend 700 billion dollars helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas, and groceries, allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy rather than helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

Palin: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation, the bailout is a part of that.

Jack Cafferty is not amused.

Neither is Andrew Sullivan:

It is simply impossible for any sane and reasonable person to vote for John McCain when this fool and liar and utterly unqualified person could take over at any moment. I stand by my statement that this Palin decision disqualifies John McCain outright from being president of the United States. Until she is removed from the ticket, no sane conservative can vote for this farce.

UPDATE: More dirt on Palin here-- she's pretty fucked up, I have to say. But this random Palin interview answer generator is quite funny.

Thought of the Day

The current turmoil in Washington and the wide distrust of the Bush administration represents an important opening for some group to start a resurgence of 9/11 truth (and reconciliation).

Chinese Fake Rocket Launch in News Report

BEIJING - A news story describing a successful launch of China's long-awaited space mission and including detailed dialogue between astronauts launched on the Internet Thursday, hours before the rocket had even left the ground.

The country's official news agency Xinhua posted the article on its Web site Thursday, and remained there for much of the day before it was taken down.

A staffer from the Xinhuanet.com Web site who answered the phone Thursday said the posting of the article was a "technical error" by a technician. The staffer refused to give his name as is common among Chinese officials.

The Shenzhou 7 mission, which will feature China's first-ever spacewalk, is set to launch Thursday from Jiuquan in northwestern China between 9:07 a.m. EDT and 10:27 p.m. EDT.

The arcticle [sic], dated two days from now on Sept. 27, vividly described the rocket in flight, complete with a sharply detailed dialogue between the three astronauts.

Too funny! But of course, it's simply ludicrous to say that the US would EVER do this sort of chicanery.

"Pakistan Observer" Article on 9/11 Subscribes to TV Fakery

Did any Planes ever strike the Towers? The researchers after detailed study and analysis have come to a conclusion that no planes ever struck the WTC towers. What was shown by BBC and CNN on TV on 9/11 was a doctored film prepared in a studio. With the technological advancement it is a child’s play. A comparison between the films actually prepared on the site and those transmitted by BBC and CNN can be seen on the website. It was shown on TV that the nose of a plane that struck the tower penetrated through the concrete structure come out on the other side of the tower in tact an impossibility. While a film was shown on the TV and the Towers did actually collapse, there is no eye witness of any planes striking the Towers. The evidence of eye-witnesses was suppressed under the orchestra of ‘Attacks on America’.

Our CEO President

At another point in the meeting, President Bush chimed in, "If money isn't loosened, this sucker could go down" -- and by sucker he meant economy.

WORST

PRESIDENT

EVER

The Great Palin Experiment

When I first heard the news, I thought McCain picking Palin was a losing choice. Then for a while it looked like it might work to energize the campaign. But now, it is clear-- she's a disaster:
Watch CBS Videos Online

I guess the only thing Palin is still good for is to excite the religious fundies who seem to control several key voting machine companies, and she may give them reason to fix the vote. But now in general, McCain and Palin are both blowing it so badly, I'm not sure the election will even be close enough to fix without it being too obvious.

UPDATE: So, McCain did nothing constructive at the big White House meeting. And apparently, when Barney Frank brought up MCain with Republicans, they winced.

I'm really not clear how anyone but a complete ignoramus or complete psychopath could vote for McCain-Palin.

Martial Law 101?

Why is a U.S. Army brigade being assigned to the "Homeland"?

Oh, not to worry! They just want to HELP people! Nothing sinister at all about the deployment of an active combat Brigade to the US!

My take: I doubt that martial law is imminent, but it sure looks like the US military is getting troops trained for/accustomed to that eventuality.

Collapse My Ass: Tower Top Explodes Falling in Midair

Screenshots from this video.

Here, the debris cloud is being pulled down by gravity, more or less normally:

Here, check out on the lower left hand side, the explosions jutting out horizontally to the left:


Note, there are also a number of upwards vertically jutting dust clouds-- more signs of explosions.

"Bush and Candidates to Meet on Bailout: Sense of Urgency From White House"

No doubt! Unless Bush cancels the presidential elections, he's running out of time to screw over the American people any more than he already has.

Just wondering-- has there ever been an American president who has used fear tactics to govern any more than the Bush administration?

Another Important Plane Crash, by the PTB

No Plane Vaporization, but did a Million Dollars of Hush Money “Disappear”?

by The Anonymous Physicist

Here is another plane crash whereby the plane did not "vaporize"--only perhaps some of its contents. This is an important crash for conspiracy experts. This involved the death of Dorothy Hunt, Eduardo Howard Hunt’s wife, and also a CIA agent-- who was “negotiating” with the White House for her husband. Also killed with her was CBS reporter Michele Clark to whom Mrs. Hunt was spilling the beans on Watergate and the Kennedy Assassination.

The flight crashed in Chicago after starting in Washington D.C. It was United Flight 533 (naturally). Here is a photo of the crash scene-- no vaporization here.

But eyewitnesses said the official story was a lie, and that the plane exploded before hitting any trees or anything else. Eyewitnesses said firemen were barred from the scene for some time by Federal Marshals who immediately swooped down on the crash site. Supposedly some $10,000 was recovered from Mrs. Hunt’s handbag, while others have said she was carrying vastly larger hush money (which “disappeared” with the aid of the Marshals) for her husband, who was blackmailing Nixon, holding their JFK Assassination involvement over him.

Nixon, within 24 hours, appointed old crony, Egil Krogh, as Undersecretary of Transportation. He thus oversaw the FAA and NTSB “investigations” of the crash. For more on this you can read Sherman Skolnick’s piece. (Also read Harrison Livingstone's books on the Kennedy Assassination.) Skolnick reveals that CBS ordered Ms. Clark’s body to be immediately cremated against the family’s wishes. Thus she may have been killed on the ground by the Marshalls, else there would be no need for this.

The mortician himself would soon be murdered, a crime which remains “unsolved.”

Eduardo Howard Hunt served nearly three years in jail for his involvement in the Watergate break-in. To be more precise it was 33 months (naturally).

Warning-- New Email Scam!

Dear Sir--

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully,
Minister of Treasury Paulson

Pictures from a Real Plane Crash

The 1978 PSA182 crash in San Diego, caused by a midair collision with a Cessna.

And something we've never seen for any 9/11 plane-- the hanger where they collected the parts and tried to reconstruct the plane:


Don't give me the line that they didn't do this for 9/11 because they knew exactly what happened to the planes. They knew exactly what happened to PSA182 as well-- and they still tried to reassemble it.

This picture of the plane coming down is stunning:

Handy Index of Articles on WTC Nuclear Demolition

Here.

Former Goldman-Sachs CEO Paulson's Financial Plan Big Boost to Goldman-Sachs

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

One might think the friggin' Bloomberg article would mention Paulson's former job. Grr.

Strange "Potholes" Found in Ground Zero Bedrock

The official explanation is remnants from the Ice Age, 20,000 years ago. But could it have had something to do with the nuclear demolition that went on at Ground Zero?

These holes don't seem to be where the original twin towers were, as indicated in the graphic in the article. These particular holes seem to be where WTC4 was-- where they are supposed to be putting up a new tower (tower 4). Nonetheless, one wonders what other surprises they have found deep in the ground at Ground Zero and aren't telling us, or what other things they may find yet.

US Senate Gives Funding Booost to "DEW"

The Senate has embraced last year's Defense Science Board conclusion that directed-energy weapons -- such as high-, medium- and low-power lasers -- hold great potential and should be developed as soon as possible.

In the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill, which was approved Wednesday, the Senate included additional funds for laser programs and a provision requiring Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to accelerate work that would make directed-energy weapons operational in the near future.

Low-power lasers known as "dazzlers" are being used in Iraq, mounted on M-4 rifles, "to warn or temporarily incapacitate individuals," according to the Defense Science Board's report. Army, Special Forces and more recently Marine units are using them to warn or deter drivers approaching checkpoints and to "defuse potential escalation of force incidents," according to the report.

Marines were given approval to use a green laser whose beam can temporarily reduce a person's vision when aimed from a distance of 1,000 yards, according to the report. These "laser optical incapacitation devices" were being procured on a case-by-case basis.

Laser use remains controversial because a protocol of the Geneva Conventions bans their use in combat when they are designed to cause permanent blindness.

Pretty weak stuff compared to the Wood-Reynolds magic steel dustification beam!!!

Sums It Up

Apropos of the "Authorization for Use of Financial Force Resolution":

When the Wise Men of Washington Go on TV to Say They Have to Take Drastic Action to Protect the American People

I know we're screwed:

Henry Paulson ... sounded on the verge of panic ... but that didn't stop him from repeating the following talking points, which he spewed out again on all the shows:

The mission now is "protecting the American people." He repeated that hoary bromide at least five times by my count. (This exact same line was also repeated by John Boehner several times on another show. Nothing as simple and direct was said, at least that I heard, by a Democrat.)

Paulson wants a "clean" bill. Translated, that means no limits on executive compensation, no slowing of mortgage foreclosures, no accountability.

You'll be happy to know that this is not a sinkhole like the Bush/Iraq war, because he - Paulson - is going to buy bad debt that will later be sold to make money. How this magic trick would be accomplished, more specifically, how much money would be made, was not mentioned. Correction - the subjects of mechanisms and money to be made were deliberately, if crudely, avoided.

John Boehner repeated at least three times that this is a time to rise above partisanship. (Translated: this is a time to try to tightly wrap this crisis around the Democrats' throats by blaming the current Congress.)

Where the Fruits of 9/11 Have Brought Us: Last Stand for Democracy America

The people must speak out against this last horrible act of treachery* from the Bush administration:

The Bush family, in the form of Prescott Bush, has tried a more aggressive coup before in order to install fascism in this country. This treasonous plot was called "the Business Plot," because the high-level plotters - including Prescott Bush - were Wall Street men who openly supported fascism.

It seems this time around, the Bush family is trying the more subtle approach to open bloodshed: first create a crisis, then under the guise of addressing that crisis, overthrow democracy. Yes, it does sound terribly conspiracy-theory-esque when explained just this way. But what else does one call a criminal conspiracy to destroy Congressional powers permanently, alter Judicial powers permanently, and steal public funds?

As I see it now, we have but two options and I have long alluded to hoping against hope that one of these options would not be the only one left to a peaceful people. The first and frankly most preferable option is for Congress to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against the members of this latest Business Plot.

No time needs to be wasted on hearings as we already now have in writing, formally as presented to Congress, the intentions of this administration to nullify Congressional powers permanently, to alter Judicial powers permanently, and to openly steal public funds using as blackmail the total collapse of the US economy if these powers are not handed over. You do see how this is blackmail, do you not? You do see how this is a manufactured crisis precisely designed to be used as blackmail, do you not?

The other option, the one I have long prayed we would never need to even consider, is a total revolution. But, If Congress won't act in its own self-defense, in the defense of democracy, in defense of us - the people who have elected them to protect us from this very danger - then what is left for us to do? I don't want to see it come down to this, but I fear that it will. Put your party politics aside right now. We are in a crisis so dangerous that should these people succeed in their coup, your party affiliation will no longer matter, your American flag will be a nice collectible item of something that once was, and your version of God will be worshiped in secrecy because your freedoms will be owned by the few.

You are no longer Republicans, Democrats, or any shade of voter. You do not live in a swing state or a solid colored state. You are simply this: an American. That is the only side that matters. So call your members of Congress and demand, no, declare that unless they do their duty to the Constitution and to us, we will move to the streets - not because we want to, but because our founding fathers demanded this duty of each and every citizen in the face of such a domestic enemy. Demand - as is your right - that this bill be voted against and demand - as is your right - that the people plotting this treachery be held to account. We are either a nation of laws or we are no longer a democracy. Pick a side, because there won't be another time, another moment, another chance to be a patriot.

*Specifically, the proposed bill brought to Congress to deal with the "financial crisis":

Section 2:

(a) Authority to Purchase.--The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.

(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:

(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;

(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;

(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;

(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and

(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.

I would guess that this has to be one of the biggest peacetime transfers of power from Congress to the Administration in history. (Anyone know?). Certainly one of the most concise.

The Treasury Secretary can buy broadly defined assets, on any terms he wants, he can hire anyone he wants to do it and can appoint private sector companies as financial deputies of the US government. And he can write whatever regulation he thinks are needed.

I understand that they wanted freedom to respond and an ability to move quickly, but to designate the Treasury Secretary full power to oversee the, uh, Treasury Secretary's decisions seems unusual. Especially given that Congress only gets a report twice a year:

Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.

This graph really stands out:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Whoa.

So, for the next three months, and then an additional six months after that, the Treasury Secretary can do anything he deems appropriate without anybody anywhere looking it over.

That seems like an awful lot of absolute power. Am I wrong? Is this typical bureaucratic langauge? Or is this as strange as it seems?

The key two paragraphs are, of course:

The Secretary's authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

and

Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.

The Naomi Klein theory here-- this is all about eventually killing government-run social services: Social Security, etc.

Clearly, all very outrageous. The only good thing is that there seems to be massive public displeasure with the plan already.

No End of Conspiracy Theories About What the Bush-Cheney Administration Is Doing in this Financial Crisis

It's funny how when it comes to money, people can believe the worst.

I guess it's the killing that people have a hard time believing could be done by our leaders. Sure, they might steal our money, send us to war on false pretenses, fail to deliver aid when our city is flooded, kill lots of innocent foreigners -- but INTENTIONALLY KILL US-- GOOD AMERICANS?

NAH, it's just impossible.

Right?

2005 GAO Survey of NYC Found Dozens of "Unexpected" Hot Spots

"The helicopters picked up sources of low-level radiation from expected places, like granite statues and medical isotopes at hospitals, but it also found dozens of other sources of unexpected radioactivity, the GAO report found."

Unexpected radioactivity, eh?

I wonder where that could have come from?

I wonder...

I wonder...

Once Again, Democratic Congressional Leaders Cowed by Administration Officials Warning of Scary Things

Are they really so naive?

Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: September 19, 2008

WASHINGTON — It was a room full of people who rarely hold their tongues. But as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first.

Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill, and they were gathered around a conference table in the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“When you listened to him describe it you gulped," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.

Palin: Promoter of Animal Cruelty

More fun with Palin here:

That's some classic conservative gobbledygook.

New Picture of WTC5 Plane Part, New Questions

This is from the Study of 911.com image gallery:

It's basically the same part as seen in this "famous" picture:

There is an odd difference in the fuselage section, if you compare the two pics-- the left hand side of it, which is more torn up, and has some colored paint. The left hand side in the lower piece seems more contiguous than in the top picture, where it is clearly torn away more. The left part of the debris in the lower pic does have some peculiar coloring, almost as if the image was manipulated, for whatever reason. And the angle of the lettered/numbered part is clearly different between pics, as if someone was moving the part.

But what is more interesting, perhaps, is that we can now see that the debris has some painted letters/numbers on it. The only place this could have come from then is the rear part of the fuselage, where the plane number is painted as seen in the picture of the intact plane below. Interestingly, you can almost imagine seeing the N and part of a 6 on the fuselage fragment, which would fit the tail number for flight 175-- N612UA (picture below).

But I think what is most curious about this is that a fragment of this part of the fuselage is very unlikely to be part of the plane emerging out of the front of WTC2 (which is the only way this piece could have landed on WTC5). So much more of the plane would be in front of this section and far more likely to come out the front of WTC2 before this piece. The idea that this single section of plane was deposited here when the tower collapsed is too far-fetched to be a serious possibility.

This fuselage piece is actually quite reminiscent of the famous fuselage fragment found on the Pentagon lawn-- a fragment that could have only come from the front part of the plane. The problem is that the only way the fuselage part could have gotten there was being blown backwards-- past much of the rest of the plane.

So just like this aft section of fuselage being found on the exit side of WTC2, and the forward part of fuselage being found blown behind the entry side of the Pentagon hole, we have plane debris that once again makes little sense. Making it likely to be planted.

In Some Ways, You Gotta Love Ron Paul

"I Could Never Endorse Somebody Who Thinks It's Funny To Say Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran"

USG 70 Trillion in Debt

That is 70,000,000,000,000 dollars.

Holy crap, we're farked.


Meanwhile, the US seems to be turning into a socialist banana republic-- with government ownership of much of the banking system.

And the cost to taxpayers for the recent bailouts?

A cool one trillion dollars.

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild Calls Barack Obama an Elitist, Supports Multi-Millionaire McCain Instead

You just can't make this shit up.

She sounds like a true idiot, actually in the interview. Too much inbreeding, I would imagine.

You Might Not Even Know It Anymore, But Lots of People Are Still Dying in Iraq

Including American soldiers.

And no doubt, there is lots of nasty business being done there--

But as investigative reporter Max Fuller has pointed out in his detailed examination of information buried in reams of mainstream news stories and public Pentagon documents, the vast majority of atrocities then attributed to "rogue" Shiite and Sunni militias were in fact the work of government-controlled commandos and "special forces," trained by Americans, "advised" by Americans and run largely by former CIA assets. As Fuller puts it: "If there are militias in the Ministry of Interior, you can be sure that they are militias that stand to attention whenever a U.S. colonel enters the room."

...With the Anglo-American coalition so deeply embedded in dirty war – infiltrating terrorist groups, "stimulating" them into action," protecting "crown jewel" double-agents no matter what the cost, "riding with the bad boys," greenlighting the "Salvador Option" – it is simply impossible to determine the genuine origin of almost any particular terrorist outrage or death squad atrocity in Iraq. All of these operations take place in the shadow world, where terrorists are sometimes government operatives and vice versa, and where security agencies and terrorist groups interpenetrate in murky thickets of collusion and duplicity.

Even the US Senate Is Highly Skeptical of the FBI's Anhtrax Case

This might get interesting at some point. Clearly, Pat Leahy knows something more than he's letting on.

-------------------------

By the way-- today is Constitution Day. Happy Birthday to the Constitution!

Also, speaking of the constitution, Russ Feingold is doing some good work trying to preserve some sense of what a constitutional government means.

Somewhat related-- there is a group called "Election Protection" that will be doing important work to help preserve voting rights in the upcoming election.

Government Bailouts

Isn't this ultimately just another example of the rich screwing over the ordinary people?

Serious Right-Wing Versus Leftist Conflict in Bolivia

Typically, the US is supporting the right-wing elite, who have control of paramilitary groups, against the popular and indigenous populist government.

Major bloodshed on 9/11:

September 11, the 35th anniversary of the coup against Allende, was the bloodiest day in the escalating conflict. In the Media Luna department of Pando, a para-military band with machine guns attacked the Indian community of El Porvenir, near the departmental capital of El Cobija, resulting in the death of at least 28 people. In a separate action, three policemen were kidnapped. The Red Ponchos, an official militia reserve unit of Indians loyal to Evo Morales, mobilized its forces to help the indigenous communities organize their self defense.

Palin and Bush Both Big Believers in Not Blinking

And in other news, Palin fired a state-worker apparently because he was being too tough in going after child-molesters.

And oh, fuckin-a-- if you needed any more evidence Palin is a religious nutjob (and that Alaska is a very strange place): she credits witch-hunter with help in gaining public office.

But, on the other hand, here is a very different take on the whole Palin phenomenon-- involving an oil company conspiracy.

Another Key 9/11 Witness Dead: Barry Jennings

Barry Jennings, a whistle-blower and critical witness to nasty business at WTC7 is dead at 53.

More on Jennings and his "33 year career" can be read here.

Cheney Claimed Saddam Had Mini-Nukes!

"Cheney ... had ... a borrowed hideaway office in the Capitol building," Gellman explained. "He brings Armey in ... and he lays out a big stack of papers and says, 'Let me explain to you what's really going on. ... Saddam is much more dangerous than we want to tell the public.'"

"He told Armey two things that he's never said in public and that are not true," Gellman continued. "He said that Saddam personally, and his family, had direct ties with al Qaeda. And he said that Iraq was making substantial progress towards a miniature nuclear weapon."

According to Gellman's book, Cheney told Armey that Iraq would soon have "packages that could be moved even by ground personnel" and "a delivery system in their relationship with organizations such as al Qaeda." These claims, writes Gellman, "crossed so far beyond the known universe of fact that they were simply without foundation."

Although Cheney's mini-nuke fabrication has not previously been revealed, Cheney did state somewhat cryptically in a September 2002 interview with Tim Russert, "That’s why it’s so important for us when we do identify the kind of threat that we see emerging now in Iraq, when we do see the capabilities of that regime and the way Saddam Hussein has operated over the years that we have to give serious consideration to how we’re going to address it before he can launch an attack, not wait until after he’s launched an attack."

Too much. I wonder if Cheney also thought Saddam used his mini-nukes on the WTC.

I guess this would all be kind of funny, if it weren't for all those dead Iraqis... and all the other human trauma the Iraq war caused.

Great Compilation of South Tower Demolition Clips

Lots of crazy stuff going on here, for those with sharp eyes:

McCain Advisor Phil Gramm Directly Behind Financial Deregulation

That's a real maverick connection we can rely on, my friends.

What maverickyness!


UPDATE: McCain proposes 9/11 commission to look into financial meltdown. Ironic that.

"We need to set up a 9/11 Commission in order to get to the bottom of this and get it fixed and act to clean up this corruption," he said.

Is this all really due to "corruption"? I though deregulation was the Republican way of doing business!

Biggest Plunge Since 2001

First they nuked the WTC

Now the financial system...

The Disgusting Sham of Killing Terrorists

The Americans picked an inauspicious day to open a new front in the war on terror. It was 4am on the third day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the villagers of Angoor Adda, a small Pakistani mountain town near the Afghan border, were lighting their stoves for breakfast before a long day of fasting.

Two US helicopters supported by a AC130 Spectre gunship landed close to the shrine of a local saint. Out jumped about three dozen heavily armed marines and Navy Seals from a crack unit called Detachment One. As they emerged from the churning dust onto the rock-strewn hills, they made for a terrifying sight in their night-vision goggles.

Within minutes the commandos had surrounded the mudwalled compound of Payo Jan Wazir, a 50-year-old woodcutter and cattle-herd. They believed an Al-Qaeda leader was hiding inside.

According to villagers, the troops burst in, guns blazing, killing Payo Jan, six children, two women and a male relation. Among the dead were a three-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, they said.

The gunfire brought neighbours running out of their homes. As people headed towards Payo Jan’s house to see what had caused the commotion, the commandos opened fire, killing 10 more villagers.

The Americans fanned out, conducting house-to-house searches, before jumping back into the gunships and off into the sky. Stunned villagers were left to carry away the bodies left in the street.

The first known American ground assault inside Pakistan had left 20 people dead. US officials claimed they were suspected Al-Qaeda fighters; the Pakistan government said they were innocent civilians.

What is not in doubt is that the attack provoked outrage in a country supposed to be America’s ally, which eight days ago completed its transition to democracy with the election as president of Asif Ali Zardari, widower of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto.

It's really hard to imagine this ending in any good way.

And yeah, I'm also reminded of Vietnam and Cambodia like this guy.

...and the idea (from the Times article) that this is all about Bush making a last gasp attempt to catch bin Laden as an October surprise-- sounds like bull to me. Sounds more like Bush making another serious problem to hand off to his successor.

Financial Armageddon?

Should be an exciting Monday on Wall Street.

But not to worry-- I'm sure this will be spun as excellent news for McCain and the Republicans!

UPDATE:

S.&P. 500

1,192.69
–4.71%
–59.00

Dow

10,917.51
–4.42%
–504.48

Nasdaq

2,179.91

–3.60%
–81.36

FBI: Mail-Sorting Machinery Crushed the Anthrax Into Micron-Sized Particles

Our tax dollars at work.

Hmmm... the WTC towers were pulverized into micron-sized particles. Could it be? A giant mail-sorter destroyed the WTC???????

Top Ten Scary Things About McCain/Palin

10. Palin charging women for rape kits when she was Mayor of Wasilla
9. Palin wanting to ban books from the public library as city councilwoman
8. pathological lying by both McCain and Palin on the campaign trail
7. Palin not seeming to understand the consequences of the US going to war with Russia
6. McCain's unstable personality; questionable activities as a POW; cluelessness about economics
5. McCain using the campaign services of the same people who slimed him in 2000
4. McCain's long track record of war mongering
3. the fact that a significant percentage of Americans are willing to vote for a Republican ticket this year, after 8 years of Bush-Cheney
2. McCain's advisor Randy Scheunemann (founder of Orion Strategies)
1. the significant chance of armageddon if McCain/Palin get into the executive branch

I Gotta Say the Thought of McCain-Palin Winning the Election

is depressing the fucking hell out of me.

Not that everything would be fixed if Obama wins, but if McCain gets away with all the shit he and Palin have been putting out, and the Repugs steal another election, I just feel as if there is absolutely no hope left for this country.

Feel free to convince me otherwise.

Bush War Crimes Conference Today

Clearly a bunch of howling moonbats gone over the edge from Bush derangement syndrome.

FBI Off the Leash

Oh, just lovely:

The Justice Department will unveil changes to FBI ground rules today that would put much more power into the hands of line agents pursuing leads on national security, foreign intelligence and even ordinary criminal cases.

The overhaul, the most substantial revision to FBI operating instructions in years, also would ease some reporting requirements between agents, their supervisors and federal prosecutors in what authorities call a critical effort to improve information gathering and detect terrorist threats.

The changes would give the FBI's more than 12,000 agents the ability at a much earlier stage to conduct physical surveillance, solicit informants and interview friends of people they are investigating without the approval of a bureau supervisor. Such techniques are currently available only after FBI agents have opened an investigation and developed a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or that a threat to national security is developing.

(snip)

"It is an extraordinarily broad grant of power to an agency that has not proven it uses its power in an appropriate manner," said Michael German, policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union.

The revised rules largely eliminate the requirement that FBI agents file reports to their supervisors on early-stage investigations, in favor of audits at bureau field offices by lawyers in the Justice Department's National Security Division.

(snip)

One of the areas still under discussion, according to a senior Justice Department official, is the standard for the FBI's rare involvement in responding to civil disorder. Under the current standards, FBI involvement requires the approval of the attorney general and can last for only 30 days.

The new approach would relax some of those requirements and would expand the investigative techniques that agents could use to include deploying informants. FBI agents monitoring large-scale demonstrations that they believe could turn dangerous also would have new power to use those techniques.

Policy guidance for FBI agents and informants who work as "undisclosed participants" in organizations is still being written, the officials said yesterday.

Yeah, like they are going to tighten things up for agents infiltrating groups that the govt considers a threat (which seems to be anyone who doesn't support war). Basically, it looks like we are back to the pre-Watergate days when the FBI was truly out-of-control.

Trouble Brewing in South America

The presence of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers in Venezuela is a "warning" to the U.S., President Hugo Chavez said yesterday, as Washington said it was monitoring the deployment. "It's a warning. Russia is with us. ... We are strategic allies. It is a message to the empire. Venezuela is no longer poor and alone," Mr. Chavez said. The Venezuelan president had announced Wednesday that two Russian bombers were in Venezuela for "training flights" and that he would be piloting one of the jets himself.

Meanwhile, in solidarity with the populists in Bolivia, Chavez has withdrawn the Venezuela ambassador from the US and is expelling the US ambassador from Venezuela.

The Fix Is In

"A prominent Washington lobbyist who has worked for every Republican president since Richard Nixon has been tapped by the McCain campaign to conduct a study in preparation for the presidential transition..."

Sounds like word came in that they are going to fix the election for McCain-- I guess McCain showed himself to the PTB to be sleazy enough to be president for them.

McCain a Very Early Proponent for Attacking Iraq After 9/11

Now THERE are some "national security" credentials we can believe in, my friends.

(By the way, have any two words become more obscene in politics than "national security"? As far as I can tell, it simply means you are willing to murder innocent foreigners with no real provocation. It's basically a euphemism that the psychopaths use to justify their evil.)

Steel-Shredding Dust Clouds

Check out the upper block of the tower tipping, disappearing into the dust cloud-- and then at the very end, some chewed-up remains of the upper tower chunk briefly emerge as if gasping for air before sinking back down again.

Unbelievable.

A HUGE 30 story section of the tower passes through a debris cloud then part of it emerges-- a few sections of steel outer columns from what looks to be the upper east facade of the tower (the side facing the camera). The entire top surface of the tower-- the top deck-- has disappeared! It has been completely sheared away from the side facade and has completely vanished.

Words fail to fully describe this event. But what I can say for sure is that this is no collapse!

The fact that this destruction is happening in midair, in the middle of a massive dust cloud cloud, can only mean there are internal explosives ripping the structure apart, pushing part of it back UP.

NIST, NIST, NIST. I wonder how you live with yourselves.

Seven Years of Official Bullshit on 9/11

What a long, strange trip it's been.


Real plane!


Not nuclear demolition!


And, now once again we can bomb women and little kids in far away countries. Our president will whitewash it because we are fighting "terrists", and some evil fucks will even try to lie about the carnage we have caused.

Even better, now we can again spend untold trillions of dollars on our mighty military-- to defeat a bullshit enemy, an enemy that even if it really existed can't even be beaten with military force.

Got to hand it to the 9/11 perps, and to all the shills who have worked so hard for us to get to this point -- the point where everyone knows that 9/11 was an inside job, but everyone is completely powerless to do anything meaningful about it.

Awesome jobs, guys. You must be so proud.

UPDATE: Kucinich calls for a 9/11 truth and reconciliation commission. It would be a good start, IF it ever happened.

McCain/Palin-- a Clear and Present Danger to the Country

McCain's new ad shows a smiling Obama and claims he wants to teach sex education to kindergarteners. The ad badly distorts what Obama's actual bill did.

The innuendo here is pretty clear, and this is about as sleazy as you can get.

John McCain-- what an honorable guy.

Josh Marshall sums it up:

But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let's stopped being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We've got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished her self by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They've both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office. Democrats owe it to the country to make clear who these people are. No apologies or excuses. If Democrats can say at the end of this campaign that they made clear exactly how and why these two are unfit for high office they can be satisfied they served their country.

This is of course all conventional politics -- but it's still hard to overstate how dangerous McCain/Palin could be for the country. They are easily worse than Bush/Cheney-- more reckless and just as dishonest-- if not more. They could easily bring the country crashing down economically and worse. One might argue that that outcome would be a good thing, as it could shake up "the powers that be" and bring a new type of honest politics that is so badly needed. On the other hand, it could also result in extremely miserable lives for all of us, that end up strengthening the hold of "the powers that be" over us.

UPDATE: If this is what generates news, we are so so so screwed: "Lipstick comments color presidential campaign". Greenwald does due diligence in dissecting this particular example of right-wing bullshit and how it permeates into the regular news.

Also, Andrew Sullivan has a good piece about what McCain has sunk to.

NIST's WTC7 Collapse Model: Another Shit Sandwich

Of course! This is EXACTLY what WTC7 looked like when it went down!



(Tip to 911blogger.)

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about 9/11 Cell Phone Calls

but were afraid to ask-- by David Ray Griffin.

The article starts out extremely tediously, critiquing the critique of someone named Andrew Kornkven, but the second half is worth a read.

Ultimately, it's hard to disagree with his conclusions:

1) Reported cell phone calls were central to the creation of the claim that the airliners had been hijacked.
(2) The FBI had actively participated in the creation of this claim.
(3) The FBI, a few years later, renounced its endorsement of high-altitude cell phone calls and thereby had to make changes in its reports about several of the alleged calls---changes that are most obvious with respect to the alleged calls from Tom Burnett and Amy Sweeney.
(4) These changes constitute an implicit admission by the FBI that its original claims about cell phone calls from the planes were false.
(5) This admission should lead us to conclude that the whole story about phone calls was an elaborate fabrication.

The Secret Surge: US Reins In the Terror Leaders They Sponsored in Iraq

Woodward also revealed during the interview that the “secret behind the success of the surge” was not the U.S. troop build-up but a “breakthrough” in “secret operational capabilities that have been developed by the military to locate, target and kill leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq, insurgent leaders, renegade militia leaders.” Woodward would not provide any further details of the secret plan.

Translation: they KNEW who these guys were because they were our guys from the beginning, and now it was politically convenient that they be taken out.

Bush: Iraqis Not Grateful Enough for the US Fucking Over Their Country

Last night on 60 Minutes, host Scott Pelley interviewed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to discuss his new book “The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008.” Pelley noted that one part of the story Woodward tells is President Bush’s “frustration with the attitude of the Iraqi people”:

WOODWARD: He has a meeting at the Pentagon with a bunch of experts and he just said, ‘I don’t understand that the Iraqis are not appreciative of what we’ve done for them,’ namely liberated them.

PELLEY: But tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed in the invasion and through the occupation. He didn’t understand why they might be a little ungrateful about what had occurred to them?

WOODWARD: His beacon is liberation. He thinks we’ve done this magnificent thing for them. I think he still holds to that position.

Either Bush is in such a bubble, he has no clue what has happened in Iraq, or he is such a psychopath that he thinks over a hundred thousand Iraqis dying and the country being ravaged is a "good thing".

Defeating The British/American Gestapo Regime, Lessons From History, Part 3

by the Anonymous Physicist

The Rosenstrasse [Rose Street] Protest is a little known episode that took place, during the German Nazi era, in Berlin in 1943. There is an excellent book written by Nathan Stoltzfus (read here), entitled “Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany.” It should be read by everyone who lives in a terrorist/fascist state, like the USA, and the U.K. Several thousand of the few remaining Jews in Berlin were rounded up, and had begun to be sent via railroad to extermination camps. Many of these rounded up were Jewish German men who were married to “Aryan” German women. Word spread among these German housewives, and they began to protest at the building where many of their husbands were being kept, as they were being “processed.” These women also protested at a nearby street that housed the SS headquarters. The SS then set up machine guns, in the street near them, and pointed them at these brave women, and told them if they did not leave immediately, they would be gunned down. The women did not flinch. They came day after day, round the clock, until Goebbels ordered their interred husbands released. In fact, some men were even taken off the trains to the death camps, and brought back! Such was the apparent fear of an uprising of German citizens, by the Nazi regime. The Nazi regime’s fear of a repeat protest by the German housewives, was such that a good number of these Jewish men survived the War and the Holocaust. They comprised much of the total of the few Berlin Jews who did survive. This was kept as secret as possible by the Nazis who publicly celebrated a lie-- that Berlin had become Juden-Frei.

Clearly it shows that when the Nazi regime faced good people who were willing to suffer and die for what they believed in, and for other human beings, the “all-powerful” regime cringed and backed down. It may have helped the Hausfrauens revolt, that they had no leader, per se. The history of American “politics” is that the American Gestapo regime murders any leaders who they fear will lead effective revolts, and emplaces stooges beholden to the regime. Each person must take responsibility, as each German Housewife did, and become her/his own leader. Americans make the mistake of waiting for someone else, or for some leader to lead a revolt. Note also that the German Housewives did not allow defeatist attitudes to hinder them. They did not say to themselves, “Oh, how can I (we) do anything against such a powerful and ruthless foe?” They simply acted, without concern for their own safety and without hesitation, as there was no time.

Of course, the Rosenstrasse Protest indicates that when a person’s love for another person is intense enough, they will risk their lives, and not back down, even when their mass-murdering government points loaded machine guns at them. Their love for their husbands overcame, first the Nazi brainwashing that their husbands were untermenschen [subhumans] (while most Germans did not resist this brainwashing); and secondly their love overcame any fear of protesting, and even of dying while trying to get their husbands freed. At some level, they must have felt that life was not worth living, without their loved ones. And they must have felt that they could not live with themselves, UNLESS they risked their lives to try to get them back.

Lesson. Your love for your fellow Man/Woman, and for yourself, will help you overcome any fear in combating the British/American Gestapo Regime. We must realize that we cannot live with ourselves unless we take steps to rid the world of a regime that, in fact, put the Nazis in power, and can be construed as “Hitler with nukes and ICBMs”. And my Ultimate Truths anonymous-physicist.blogspot.com series makes clear they plan to kill virtually all of us anyway. We must all act as if our loved ones HAVE ALREADY BEEN TAKEN TO ROSENSTRASSE FOR “SPECIAL TREATMENT.” We must all have the courage of these German Housewives. If they had such courage, so can all of us.

Part I of this series, the Hugh Thompson Vietnam story is here.

Part II of this series, the Venezualan protest for the return of Chavez is here.

The Incredible Power of One Outspoken "Liberal" on Cable News

It's funny how much concern Keith Olbermann generates. Meanwhile, not once does this article note how conservative viewpoints dominate cable news. In fact, the word "conservative" can't even be found once in the article.

The mainstream media are a sick joke. Really, it's basically a criminal syndicate.

WTC7 Went Down as Fast as a 32 Story Tower Taken Down Via Controlled Demlition

A rather striking finding.

Airborne Tactical Laser-- the New Napalm?

The weapon is unlikely to kill anyone, but is capable of producing severe burns from long-range.

Sucks to be Owning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Stock Right Now

US govt moves to takes over both of the giant loan corporations. Stock holders will lose heavily, likely the CEOs will get away just fine.

Self-Defeating Democrats

Why must they ALWAYS refer to McCain as an honorable man and a war hero, when the first is simply not true, and the second is a stretch at best?

McCain has repeatedly lied, has shifted his positions with the wind, has been a unrelenting hawk, has essentially called Obama a traitor, and is a self-admitted war criminal for his bombing of the North Vietnamese.

How is any of this honorable? Why would the Democrats repeatedly use this term for McCain, when it doesn't even help them?

It's not that I think the Democrats are the best thing for the country, but I can't even imagine how bad a McCain presidency would be.

I knew Bush would be bad, and he was WORSE than I expected. President McCain-- with a good chance of Palin getting to be president based on McCains' age-- is simply frightful on so many fronts.

And the Democrats seem completely ineffective in painting these dangers.

But of course beyond the conventional politics, there is deep politics and beyond that, that 9/11 was an inside job and the "ultimate truths". There seems to be little doubt that on a deeper level, the Democrats are driven by the same ugly, homicidal forces as the Republicans. The Dems are perhaps under a little less sway than these forces, but one senses in the last few years these forces becoming stronger and stronger, and the Dems giving in more and more.

Nonetheless, it is disturbing in the extreme to see the Dems offering such fake opposition in this election. Disturbing for both the near term pain the election of McCain would mean, and disturbing for the ultimate pain that may be coming all too soon.

The upshot is that once again, while my tendency is to say FUCK the Dems, my other tendency is that the Dems offer our best hope from saving ourselves from the worst. And absent a major shake-up in the political/media order, I can't see any third party as a real option.

Kenny Johannemann, Key WTC Bombing/Hanging Skin Witness, Rest in Peace

Sad story.



The hanging skin description fits a nuclear blast.

Fuckin' A!!! Plane Cut Out of 2nd Hit Shot in RNC 9/11 Tribute!

Check out 40 seconds in-- the only video shown of the 2nd hit:


It's the Scott Myers' shot:


Check out the little magic twinkle sound they put in as the building blows up.

Freaky!

Demolition Experts Question 9/11

Nice.

The McCain Campaign

Really amusingly lame. The only reason he has a chance is because he is running against a black guy, and because Rethugs have better chances of rigging the election.

By rights, this election shouldn't even be close. My guess is that Obama will pull away soon with quite a significant lead, but no doubt the media will always keep the numbers close enough so if there are any voting shenanigans, then it won't be so blatantly obvious.

By the way-- I still can't decide who creeps me out more, Cindy McCain or Sarah Palin.


Oh man-- this is too funny not to post:

Family Values!

This is seriously one of the most freaky things I've seen in politics:

Levi Johnston (L) is greeted by Republican presidential candidate John McCain as his girlfriend Bristol Palin (C) looks on after they arrived to attend the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, September 3, 2008. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (C) poses for photographers next to his running mate, vice presidential candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R), her husband Todd (2nd R), their daughter Bristol (2nd L) and Bristol's boyfriend Levi Johnston at the airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota September 3, 2008. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

To be sure, the most pressing issue about Sarah Palin is her actual allegiance to the USA, given her ties to the AK Independence Party. And the apparently criminal firings she was involved with. But for sheer theater, this is amazing stuff.

UPDATE: I am kind of wondering why Palin or her husband weren't carrying their infant with Down's syndrome, if they are going to get all family on us...

Project Plowshare-- "Major Part of the Radioactivity Swallowed Up In the Rubble"

Fascism Flashback: Waco

Some wild details in this clip:

Fascists on the March

I have yet to see one video of protesters doing anything but acting/marching peacefully. There supposedly were a few people doing some vandalizing, but I haven't even seen pictures or videos of the damage (nothing obvious comes up on searches).

Importantly, there clearly is nothing that could seriously be called rioting-- nothing to warrant this display of force.

The Republican convention, which began Monday, has been designated a "national special security event," which means the Secret Service is responsible for planning and implementing security.

But the primary responsibility for street-level security falls to local police agencies. St. Paul received $50 million in federal grant money to pay for additional security.

The St. Paul Police Department estimated it would require $34 million to pay 3,500 extra officers. The remaining money is for training and equipment, the department said.

Numerous federal agencies are helping provide security, including the FBI, Federal Protective Service, Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration.

Interesting LInks

YouTomb-- a place to find banned YouTube videos. You can search for videos, for instance, for "world trade center".


TinWiki-- a wikipedia of sorts for conspiracy matters. The 9/11 section is a bit weak, but I guess it is a fairly new site. This article on Linda Kennedy is certainly interesting, particularly what she says about the legal system.