Oil execs refuse to testify at Senate hearing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials from six major oil companies have refused to testify this week at a Senate hearing looking into whether oil industry mergers in recent years have made gasoline more expensive at the pump.


With oil companies reporting record profits from higher energy prices, consumer groups have complained that mergers in the industry have stifled competition.

Exxon Mobil said on Monday it earned $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year and $36.1 billion for all of 2005 -- bigger than the economies of 125 countries.
yeah who really fookun cares? they really invested like almost all of it in new refineries and infrastructure and goodwill toward men...........
fuckin gougers

In the history of structural engineering, steel-frame high-rise buildings have never been brought down due to fires

Experts Claim Official 9/11 Story is a Hoax


Scholars for 9/11 Truth call for verification and publication by an international consortium.

Duluth, MN (PRWEB) January 30, 2006 -- A group of distinguished experts and scholars, including Robert M. Bowman, James H. Fetzer, Wayne Madsen, John McMurtry, Morgan Reynolds, and Andreas von Buelow, have concluded that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11.

They have joined with others in common cause as members of "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" (S9/11T), because they are convinced, based on their own research, that the administration has been deceiving the nation about critical events in New York and Washington, D.C.

These experts suggest these events may have been orchestrated by elements within the administration to manipulate Americans into supporting policies at home and abroad they would never have condoned absent "another Pearl Harbor."

They believe that this White House is incapable of investigating itself and hope the possibility that Congress might hold an unaccountable administration accountable is not merely naive or wishful thinking.
link hoax

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday _ $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year

Exxon Sees Record Profits for Any U.S. Co.
DALLAS

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday _ $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year _ as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose nearly 3 percent in morning trading.

The company's earnings amounted to $1.71 per share for the October- December quarter, up 27 percent from $8.42 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the year ago quarter. The result topped the then-record quarterly profit of $9.92 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter of 2005.


For the full year, net income surged to $5.71 per share from $3.89 per share in 2004. Annual revenue grew to $371 billion from $298.04 billion.
To put that into perspective, Exxon's revenue for the year exceeded Saudi Arabia's estimated 2005 gross domestic product of $340.5 billion, according to statistics maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency.
money slick

U.S. IN TECHNICAL DEFAULT

In a shocking development, the Treasury Department website is openly stating that as of January 24, 2006 our national debt stood at $8,185.3 billion and on January 26th at $8,190.5 billion.

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

Yet the US national debt ‘ceiling’, the maximum amount of debt the US government may hold at any one time, stands at $8,184 billion – a full $5.5 billion less. Although called upon by John Snow, Congress has not yet passed an expansion of the debt ceiling and so the US government is now operating in technical default.

You may recall that when last the debt ceiling was approached in the months surrounding the 2004 elections, the Treasury department furiously employed every accounting trick in the book (and then some) to avoid breaching the limit. They even went so far as to take the unprecedented step of borrowing $14 billion from the Federal Financing Bank to cover up the shortfall.

But they never breached the ceiling.

On January 24th they breached it brazenly and openly and with nary an accompanying explanation. Neither have any lawmakers have broached this indelicate subject.

I suppose we could write this off as merely an unsurprising development from a government that no longer bothers to even appear to be adhering to rules, laws and procedures, let alone actually doing so.

But the silence is all the more troubling because there is an unprecedented level of government borrowing on the books for 1Q06 with next 2 weeks (Feb 1st to Feb 9th) an especially busy period of time. An ambitious ~$70-$80b in Treasury paper will hit the market.

The federal government does not have the legal authority to borrow above the statutory debt limit, which raises the prospect of emergency congressional action to avoid a full-fledged default.

Congress will probably attach a rider to a “must-pass” defense appropriation bill and ironically title it “The Fiscal Responsibility Amendment of 2006”. And if they do, $50 says they do it very late on Friday night.

Since the debt ceiling has been raised 50 times over the past 40 years, hoping for some rational debate on the matter would be an extravagant indulgence. Time spent wishing pigs could fly would offer a far better potential return.

Another odd facet of this story is the deafening silence from the financial press (and I use that term loosely) regarding this matter. Leaving aside the issue of a technical default, one wonders why questions aren’t being asked about the rate of debt accumulation and whether it’s sustainable.

The last debt-ceiling adjustment was $800 billion and was passed in November 2004. Now, on January 24th 2006, it is entirely gone. $800 billion in only 16 months for an average of $50B a month.

Factoring out the plundering of excess social security contributions, the US government borrowed $52B in 3Q05, $96B in 4Q05 and expects to borrow $171B in 1Q06. A trend nearly as mind-boggling as the soon to be discontinued M3 series.

Why do I even bother to pen such distressing factoids?

Because in all my time studying economics I have determined only one thing; there’s no free lunch. Pay now or pay later but pay we will.

Or, more accurately, we hope that our kids will, and not stiff us for the bill. But if they did, who could blame them?

I, for one, would not be shocked.debt link

cans down

Reason for suspension? Failure....

Both of them have connections to the CIA.

James R. Bath

An old friend of Bush Sr. and one of his earliest financial backers. Both of them have connections to the CIA. In 1976, the same year that Bush was director of the CIA, Bath began assisting the CIA in a liason role with Saudi Arabia. Also in that year he was appointed by Salem bin Laden to represent his business interests in Houston. There is suspicion, although no proof, that Bath helped funnel Saudi funds to US business interests and covert operations.

Details of his business relationships came to light when he came under litigation from a former parter, Bill White. The case was investiated by the Houston Chronicle:

JERRY URBAN, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, JUNE 4, 1992: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network -- known as FinCEN -- and the FBI are reviewing accusations that entrepreneur James R. Bath guided money to Houston from Saudi investors who wanted to influence US policy under the Reagan and Bush administrations, sources close to the investigations say . . . The federal review stems in part from court documents obtained through litigation by Bill White, a former real estate business associate of Bath . . . White became entangled in a series of lawsuits and countersuits with Bath, who for some six years has prevailed in the courts. . . . In sworn depositions, Bath said he represented four prominent Saudis as a trustee and that he would use his name on their investments. In return, he said, he would receive a 5 percent interest in their deals. Tax documents and personal financial records show that Bath personally had a 5 percent interest in Arbusto '79 Ltd., and Arbusto '80 Ltd., limited partnerships controlled by George W. Bush, President Bush's eldest son. Arbusto means 'bush' in Spanish. Bath invested $ 50,000 in the limited partnerships, according to the documents. There is no available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi interests. George W. Bush's company, Bush Exploration Co., general partner in the limited partnerships, went through several mergers, eventually evolving into Harken Energy Corp., a suburban Dallas-based company . . . Bush said that to his knowledge, Bath's investment was from personal funds, and no Saudi money was invested in Arbusto. Bath, 55, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, declined to comment for the record. Spokesmen for FinCEN and the FBI also declined to comment. According to a 1976 trust agreement, drawn shortly after Bush was appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Saudi Sheik Salem M. Binladen appointed Bath as his business representative in Houston. Binladen, along with his brothers, owns Binladen Brothers Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East. According to White, Bath told him that he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role with Saudi Arabia since 1976. Bath has previously denied having worked for the CIA . . . Bath received a 5 percent interest in the companies that own and operate Houston Gulf Airport after purchasing it on behalf of Binladen in 1977. After the death of Salem bin Laden in 1988, Bath represented Khalid bin Mafouz, who had taken over the bin Laden interests. The two also formed a partnership with Gaith Pharaon, who was the frontman for BCCI in Houston.

President Bush and the bin Laden family have been connected through dubious business deals since 1977,

Bush & Bin Laden - George W. Bush Had Ties to Billionaire bin Laden Brood

The unexplained death of Salem, Osama bin Laden's oldest brother, in 1988, brought to an abrupt end a long and intriguing relationship between President Bush and the head of the bin Laden family fortune.

By Roger Miller

The world now associates the bin Laden name with Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect be hind the terror atrocities of Sept. 11. As President George W. Bush leads an intense international manhunt for Osama, few Americans realize that Osama's eldest brother, Salem, was one of Bush's first business partners.

A photograph from 1971 has surfaced and been printed in English papers showing Osama, age 14, and his brother Salem, age 19, enjoying a summer holiday at the Astoria Hotel in Falun, Sweden. Christina Akerblad, the hotel owner, told the Daily Mail, "They were beautiful boys, so elegantly dressed. Everybody loved them."

Osama embraced Islamic fundamentalism and is now the world's most wanted man. "Salem went on to become a business partner of the man who is leading the hunt for his brother," the Daily Mail's Peter Allen said. "In the 1970s, he and George W. Bush were founders of the Arbusto Energy oil company in Mr. Bush's home state of Texas."

President Bush and the bin Laden family have been connected through dubious business deals since 1977, when Salem, the head of the bin Laden family business, one of the biggest construction companies in the world, invested in Bush's start-up oil company, Arbusto Energy, Inc.

James R. Bath, a friend and neighbor, was used to funnel money from Osama bin Laden's brother, Salem bin Laden, to set up George W. Bush in the oil business, according to The Wall Street Journal and other reputable sources. american terrorist link

respect for human rights and protection of legitimate civilian authorities.

believe it those mother fuckers have no respect for human rights. just check out the wedding bombings around the middle east. honest they thought al-fucking-quiada was there as dj's

Pentagon Can Now Fund Foreign Militaries
Defense Secretary Pushed for New Powers to Better Deal With Emergencies

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 29, 2006; Page A10

Congress has granted unusual authority for the Pentagon to spend as much as $200 million of its own budget to aid foreign militaries, a break with the traditional practice of channeling foreign military assistance through the State Department.

The move, included in a little-noticed provision of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act passed last month, marks a legislative victory for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who pushed hard for the new powers to deal with emergency situations.

But it has drawn warnings from foreign policy specialists inside and outside the government, who say it could lead to growth of a separate military assistance effort not subject to the same constraints applied to foreign aid programs that are administered by the State Department. Such constraints are meant to ensure that aid recipients meet certain standards, including respect for human rights and protection of legitimate civilian authorities.

"It's important that diplomats remain the ones to make the decisions about U.S. foreign assistance," said George Withers, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America and a former staff member on the House Armed Services Committee. "They can ensure such decisions are taken in the broader context of U.S. foreign policy."linked to no human feelings

Guatemalan UN troops killed in Congo arrive home

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Eight metal coffins draped in blue U.N. flags arrived in Guatemala on Saturday, carrying the bodies of troops killed in Congo in an operation that raised questions about peacekeeping operations.

The "Kaibil" special forces troops died on Monday in a clash with rebels from neighboring Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, while on a reconnaissance mission in easterncoffinlink

ABC's Woodruff, Cameraman Injured in Iraq

these lives are no more or no less than the lives already killed or maimed around the globe by the imperilistas. the attention will non the less be drawn to the plight of the barbarity of wars of the neo-cons as they strive to reshape the planet in pnacs image.


By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured Sunday in an attack and explosion while reporting from Iraq.


The two journalists were traveling with U.S. and Iraqi troops near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, when an improvised explosive device went off, ABC News President David Westin said. Both suffered serious head injuries and were taken into surgery at a U.S. military hospital in the area, the network said.

Both Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were wearing body armor and helmets, the network said. The two had been embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and were traveling with an Iraqi Army unit.

The Iraqi mechanized vehicle they were riding in is considered more dangerous than U.S. vehicles. ABC said the two were traveling that way to get the perspective of the Iraqi military.

Officials at U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad confirmed that the ABC News team was involved in an attack but declined to provide further details to The Associated Press. An official military statement was expected to be issued later Sunday.
linkIED

No one is saying they are dirty. But neither can they be considered objective

Abramoff Scandal Threatens GOP
But Media Runs Interference
By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

On January 3, GOP Super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s plead guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges, agreeing to cooperate in a federal corruption probe that could implicate dozens of lawmakers and their staffs. Time magazine soon reported that 13 FBI field offices across the country were working on the case, “with two dozen agents assigned to it full time and roughly the same number working part time. ‘We are going to chase down every lead,’ Chris Swecker, head of the FBI’s criminal division, told Time.”
That day, as part of MSNBC’s breaking coverage, Hardball’s Chris Matthews said, “I’m not sure it’s partisan. I’m not sure that people are going to see him as part of any Republican culture of corruption. I think [Rep. Randy] Duke Cunningham [R-CA] also was sort of a lone wolf in that department. I think we’re gonna see this case, basically––What’s the right word? ––It’s gonna be kept to itself. It’s not going to be part of a larger story of Washington this year, I think.”briberylink

Fewer people consider Bush to be honest and trustworthy now than did a year ago,

link: Reality v. Beltway Fantasy

Could reporters and timid Democrats who think that it’s still 2002 and the country is awash in blind reverence for George Bush please take note of the following facts, and -- on every significant issue, from the Alito filibuster to Iraq withdraw to the NSA scandal -- adjust your thinking and tactics accordingly: From Thursday's CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll:
A majority of Americans are more likely to vote for a candidate in November's congressional elections who opposes President Bush, and 58 percent consider his second term a failure so far, according to a poll released Thursday. . . .

Fewer people consider Bush to be honest and trustworthy now than did a year ago, and 53 percent said they believe his administration deliberately misled the public about Iraq's purported weapons program before the U.S. invasion in 2003, the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found . . . ..

Fifty-eight percent of those polled said Bush's second term has been a failure so far, while 38 percent said they consider it a success. A smaller number -- 52 percent -- consider his entire presidency a failure to date, with 46 percent calling it successful. . . . But 51 percent of those polled said they were more likely to vote for a candidate in congressional elections who opposes Bush, while 40 percent said they were likely to vote for a candidate who backs the president.

Defunct Riggs bank snares the Pinochets

Pinochet's daughter returns to face Chile charges
Sat Jan 28, 2006 1:58 PM ET

By Pav Jordan

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - The eldest daughter of former dictator Augusto Pinochet was taken into custody on Saturday upon her return to Chile after seeking asylum in the United States to avoid tax charges.

A federal judge greeted a tired Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, 60, as she arrived from Buenos Aires, where she made a brief stopover after being sent back from Washington late Friday.

"Ms. Lucia, how nice that you've arrived, please come with me so that I can arraign you," Judge Carlos Cerda, who is handling the tax case against the Pinochet family, told her as she came off the plane.

Pinochet Hiriart, dressed in a light pink shirt and cream pants, was then taken to a detention center in downtown Santiago where she will be held until a decision is made on bail.

"She was read her rights," Alejandro Tisely, a top police official, told reporters. "Later she will meet with Judge Cerda."

She had fled Chile for neighboring Argentina by car on January 22, a day before her mother and four siblings were arrested on charges of tax evasion and fraud. They have since been released on bail.

She then flew to Washington, where she was detained at Dulles International Airport on Wednesday and requested political asylum.

Pinochet Hiriart withdrew her asylum request on Friday, and U.S. officials ordered her to return to Argentina -- the last country she was in before she arrived in Washington.

"There was so much being said about me in Chile that I preferred to come and show my face and clear the air," Pinochet Hiriart said when she was asked why she withdrew her asylum request.

Pinochet Hiriart has been charged in Chile with tax fraud related to about $1 million in undeclared taxes and falsification of documents in a widening tax evasion and fraud investigation involving the Pinochet family.

The accounts came to light after a U.S. Senate investigation of banking irregularities at the now-defunct Riggs Bank, based in Washington.linkfrauds

above and from the left no shirt

Chikungunya is Swahili for "that which bends up"

An epidemic of a crippling and incurable mosquito-borne disease has continued to spread throughout the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, with thousands of new cases reported.

Only in the last week more than 5,600 new cases were reported, taking the total number of people infected by "chikungunya" to 22,167 on the French-ruled island since the beginning of the epidemic last March, said Gilles Brucker, director of a government health monitoring institute on Thursday.

"We should expect that the number of cases will pass 30,000," Brucker said.

Chikungunya is Swahili for "that which bends up" and refers to the stooped posture of those afflicted by the non-fatal disease for which there is no known vaccine or cure.linksquito

the doublewide dream continues!

today we and i do mean we did a family project of adding glassboard to the kitchen to further the american double wide dream. bringing the look and feel of trailer americana into our rambler home. the dairy land milkhouse wall covering is now installed at casa del rosco.................

US diplomat flees Venezuela rather than face charges of CIA espionage

Prensa Latina: The naval attache of the US Embassy in Venezuela, John Correa, has left the country after his participation in an espionage case involving several Venezuelan low-ranking officers was revealed.

When he realized the espionage network had been discovered, Correa organized the escape of several of the officers involved to Miami, and then he fled when Venezuelan authorities called him up for a meeting, according to a report on Friday's VEA newspaper.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel confirmed some low-ranking officers were leaking top secret information to the Pentagon through Correa who, making use of his diplomat status, recruited the Venezuelan officers for US intelligence services.

Quoting reliable sources, VEA daily indicated the leaked information dealt with kinds of weapons and operating capacity of Venezuelan naval units, as well as classified information of the armed forces.

It was also disclosed that Correa was member of the Central Intelligence Agency with the highest rank in Venezuela, and was linked to the April 2002 coup ... he incited insubordination among Venezuelan officers in public incidents at the Altamira Plaza as well.

US Diplomat Spy Flees Venezuela

9/10/01 : ON THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION

1) The Northern Alliance Leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud , is buried - paving the way for installation of an oil company company executive , Hamid Karzai. The likey perps : British intelligence and Pakistan’s ISI 2) The head of Pakistani intelligence arrives in Washington on this day , after wiring 100k to Mohamed Atta. An asset of British intelligence , Omar Saeed Sheikh, facilitates the transaction. 3) Sir David Manning ,Tony Blair’s top foreign policy advisor, meets with Deputy Sec. of State , Rich Armitage in Washington - the latter a recipient of Pakistan’s highest civilian honour. 4) Tom Kenney arrives in NYC late in the evening of 9/10/11. He tells Dan Rather on live TV that his FEMA crew were in the city for an emergency disaster preparedness drill to be conducted the following morning. FEMA denies this claiming that Kenney is mistaken . FEMA insists that the crew arrived in resonse to the events of 9/11. Mayor Rudoph Guliani , testifying before the 9/11 Commission, sided with Kenney’s version of events 5 ) Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs issues a terror alert to it’s employees and clients on this day . Clients and executives worldwide are admonished to avoid close proximity to tall buildings. 6) NSC advisor Condoleezza Rice decides that she will call former SF Mayor Willie Brown to urge him to cancel his flight to NYC scheduled for the following morning. 7) Attorney General John Ashcroft continues his practice of flying on private chartered jets ,citing unspecified "security concerns" 8) Top Pentagon civilian leaders suddenly cancel their flights scheduled for the mornong of 9/11/01. 9) Detailed plans for the invasion of Afghanistan arrives on the desk of US President George W. Bush on 9/10/01. 10 ) Executives working at the Twin Towers Complex begin to arrive in Omaha , Nebraska . The following morning they will attend a charity breakfast and participate in a golf tournament sponsored by billionaire investor Warren Buffet. The location for this event is Offut Air Force Base . The president of the United states would arrive at Offut AFB hours later. 11) Operatives of Mossad receive word that tommorrow is "D-Day". The following morning they will video the World Trade Centre as planes crash into the two gigantic buildings - much to their glee. 12 ) Open interest in put option soar for stocks in reinsurance companies and large air carriers. Many of these trades are handled through the private investment banking division of Alex Brown/ Deutschbank in Germany. The head of that division resigns days later. 13 ) The former head of the counterintelligence division of the FBI, John O’Neill , is preparing for his first day of work at his new job , head of security for the World Trade Centre complex. His first day on the job would tragically be his last day on earth. 14 ) One of the largest war games in history is assembling within shouting distance of Afghanistan. The deployment of 22,000 British troops is that nation’s largest deployment since World War 2. 15) The final preparations for another emergency disaster preparedness drill are taking place at the Defence Dept. Some crazy idea about an airplane striking the Pentagon . As the drill commences ,a real plane strikes the Pentagon, leaving drill participants in total quandry - not knowing whether they are reacting to a simulated "disaster" or the real deal. The Navy Captain (Res. ) who helped prepare these disaster drills is the lead pilot of the plane that actually crashed into the Pentagon. That part of the Pentagon where these drills are planned is the location where the plane exact it’s fatal toll on passengers and employees of the Defence Dept.terror link

glassboard in our milkhouse

Today is the big day, a family project. We are installing the frp panels ma bought a few weeks ago in the uncovered areas of our horrendous kitchen. These panels are used in commercial applications to fend off water molds dirty conditions. To wash a bazzilion times and not wear out. Plus they are durable to dings bangs and kapows. An added benefit will be the easy clean up when my head finally explodes. I have pictures of some before and will compare and contrast when I'm done, if I ever get done.........

Video: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

From 1971 to 1981 John Perkins worked as a chief economist for Chas. T. Main, a Massachusetts-based international strategic consulting firm. During this time Mr. Perkins said his job was to trick developing countries into taking enormous loans from the World Bank in order to construct or repair their domestic infrastructure. These loans were given with the understanding that these countries would then use those loans to pay U.S. corporations to complete these constructing and engineering projects. The author writes that when these developing countries were eventually unable to pay off these sizable debts, the United States, World Bank, or IMF would step in and control the country's security arrangements and budgetary structure.

link here to video c-span book talk

Its profit of $14.1 billion for the full year was also a record for Chevron.

Big Oil Keeps Chugging With Chevron's Record Quarter
Chevron Fourth-Quarter Earnings Rise 20 Percent to Company Record of $4.14 Billion

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writer


SAN RAMON, Calif. Jan 27, 2006 — Chevron Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit climbed 20 percent to $4.14 billion, a company record that continued the most prosperous stretch in its 126-year history as the oil company capitalizes on high fuel prices that are squeezing consumers and ruffling politicians.

Its profit of $14.1 billion for the full year was also a record for Chevron. It now has posted record annual profits in each of the last two years, earning a combined $27.4 billion.

The San Ramon, Calif.-based company's earnings for 2005's final quarter, released Friday, represented the most it has made in any three-month period since its inception in 1879. The performance edged the $4.13 billion earned during the second quarter of 2004 the early stages of a two-year boom.linkgouge

'Yes, the president has this authority.'

yes you are correct these excelent writers don't need this schmo posting and adding to the mix. the couple people that wander by on accident may not have heard of mister floyd or his excelent prose so f.o. to you blogophobe assholes..........


Global Eye

Fever Dream

By Chris Floyd
Published: January 27, 2006

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2006 -- Heralding a "bold new era of unity and reform" in Washington, President George W. Bush quelled a series of controversies over the limits of executive power today by signing a sweeping new measure, the Extending the Boundaries of Legality Act (EBOLA), in a gala ceremony at the White House.

The measure, passed overwhelmingly by Congress last week, acknowledges "the inherent authority of the commander in chief to take all necessary measures to preserve the security of the United States without fear of penalty or undue constraint by existing statutes, judicial rulings, foreign jurisdictions or international treaties." This immunized authority is to be exercised "at the discretion of the president" and can be "devolved upon any and all designated agents, public and private, of the executive." The act also relieves the president of the "onerous and inefficient bureaucratic requirement" of informing Congress of his actions.
Global Eye link for rest of piece

"The target suffered a terminal illness before a firing squad in Baghdad." -- CIA officer testifying to US Senate hearing, after bloody CIA aided Ba'th Party coup overthrew Iraqi Prime Minister Abdel Kassem, 1963"

Brian quit today

Brian quit today to go to work for the company with greener grasses.
our companies grass isn't as green as it used to be for him. That and the promises of 10 minute commutes to work, his brother works for same company and more than likely a bounty to be split by both brothers. I can't begrudge him any of these things, but I'm questioning my abilities as a handler or leader of men when a defection right under my nose happens. I take this defection as an affront not only to our company which I hold in high regard, but moreso to myself. My shortcomings when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Being a loud overbearing type I defiantly grate on more than a few personalities along my way each day.
I take my resposibilties as a job boss personally. I take each action our companies men on site do as a reflection of what I want to see in the product. What I think our company expects to have as a representation of their product. To that end if my men aren't performing to a standard that I deem worthy of our companies reputation, well let me just say the whole fookun building probably notices immediately. I'm also rather deaf in one ear and can sorta hear out of the other, so I'm a tad vociferous as a norm. Another personality trait not for the weak kneed on site. There are numerous noises being generated from every fookun angle on a construction site so that exacerbates the situation more.
but really I'm a truly sentimental soft type wrapped in a extremely gruff exterior so as to not let any true gently kindhearted soft emotions cloud my persona in public. There was a time when I was new to supervisory position that I thought I needed everyone to like me to get along with everyone. But as time went along I found that people just want to take advantage of you more and more. Get their piece without reciprocation ever, a "dryfuck" as it were. And I came to a stark realization that I'm not going to let people I'm supposed to be leading get over on me anymore. I can compromise, I can apologies I can make things work. But gawd damnit you fuck me over even close I'm not with you ever again. I can be Cordial fake friendly but gawd damnit I'm watching my back for you trying to cocksucker me.
so yeah a defensive bastard is me and if you can't take it call the office...........

http://www.raymitheminx.blogspot.com/

bush and baddenoff

Maybe they have a different constitution over at the NSA

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”


this from Keith Olbermann via crooks and liars:

video

"We can have a democratic society or we can have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both." -- Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice from 1916-1939"

"If war aims are stated which seem to be solely concerned with Anglo-American imperialism, they will offer little to people in the rest of the world. The interests of other peoples should be stressed. This would have a better propaganda effect." -- Private memo from The Council of Foreign Relations to the US State Department, 1941"

STATE OF PRESIDENTIAL CREDIBILITY

A Review of Distortions and Misrepresentations By President George W. Bush
In Previous State of the Union Addresses

VIDEO: The State of Presidential Credibility »

On January 31, President Bush will deliver his fifth State of the Union Address since becoming President. A review of his previous State of the Union addresses demonstrates that Bush often includes lofty, promising rhetoric but falls short on his pledges.

For example, this year, according to news reports, President Bush will “will attempt to shift focus from the polarizing war in Iraq to a more popular domestic priority: taming health care costs.” But President Bush has pledged to tame health care costs in all his previous SOTUs. Meanwhile, the cost of health care continues to skyrocket.

We’ve documented this pattern in a video. Watch it:video

We’ve also created a comprehensive document that catalogues the distortions, misrepresentations and broken promises in Bush’s four previous SOTUs. Download it here.pdf

"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment,"

Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst

The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress.

"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an administration source said.

Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Administration sources said the charges are expected to include false reports to Congress as well as Mr. Bush's authorization of the National Security Agency to engage in electronic surveillance inside the United States without a court warrant. This included the monitoring of overseas telephone calls and e-mail traffic to and from people living in the United States without requisite permission from a secret court.


Sources said the probe to determine whether the president violated the law will include Republicans, but that they may not be aware they could be helping to lay the groundwork for a Democratic impeachment campaign against Mr. Bush.


"Our arithmetic shows that a majority of the committee could vote against the president," the source said. "If we work hard, there could be a tie."
link

nobody ever expects them to tell the truth

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005:
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees … Now we’re having to deal with it, and will.”

– President Bush on Good Morning America

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people,"

Mr. Bush told U.S. Air Force Academy football team members

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile,"
national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said

Malaysia naked squats condemned

A Malaysian inquiry has called on the police to stop forcing some suspects to strip and perform naked squats.

The inquiry, ordered after a video emerged of a naked woman doing squats in a Malaysian police station, said the practice infringed human rights.

Complaints by Chinese tourists of similar treatment sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing.

The video caused outrage across Malaysia when it surfaced late last year.

It shows a naked woman being forced to squat repeatedly while holding her ears, as a female officer stands in front of her.
linksquats

The wife of Chile's former military ruler Augusto Pinochet has been arrested on charges of tax evasion.

Pinochet wife held in fraud case

Lucia Hiriart was held with four of the couple's five children.

Their arrests are part of a wider investigation into foreign bank accounts held by Gen Pinochet, who has already been charged with tax fraud.

The courts have stripped Gen Pinochet, 90, of his legal immunity in this case, as well as in a number of human rights cases stemming from his 1973-1990 rule.

Investigating Judge Carlos Cerda ordered the arrest of Pinochet's wife and her four children on charges of filing "maliciously incomplete" tax declarations related to millions of dollars, judicial sources said.

An appeals court is due to decide whether or not to grant them bail later this week.

If found guilty, they all face prison sentences.

Gen Pinochet was charged last November with evading taxes on an estimated $27m he had allegedly hid in foreign accounts.

Gen Pinochet led a 1973 coup and stayed in power for 17 years.link

Rove: President Bush believes if Al Qaeda is calling somebody in America,

the recipiants should use caller id and not answer when rove-quiada rings you up.

the american should answer and ask if he gets a slurpie with his order

the caller shouldn't pretend he's j ji
jim
jimm
jimmy
s s
s t
s t e w
s t e w a
s t e w a r
s t e w a r t
making al-quida call back because it thinks it has the wrong number

the american should try to sell al-quida some amway products as long as he's got usami on the line

go ahead add your own.....i fookun dare ya

We Are The Enemy

Because the country is at war, the Justice Department memo argues, the president has the authority to “conduct warrantless surveillance of enemy forces.”
The NSA activities “are primarily an exercise of the President’s authority as Commander in Chief during an armed conflict that Congress expressly has authorized the President to pursue,” it argues. “The NSA activities, moreover, have been undertaken specifically to prevent a renewed attack at the hands of an enemy that has already inflicted the single deadliest foreign attack in the Nation’s history.”


Bush administration report defends spying, unconstrained executive powers
By Joe Kay
23 January 2006

The Bush administration is responding to revelations of illegal government spying by mounting a campaign to defend its actions, employing the same arguments that have been used to justify a massive expansion of executive powers on a number of different fronts. Far from retreating in the face of media reports of the secret National Security Agency (NSA) program to spy on US citizens, the administration has declared that it cannot be constrained in carrying out these actions.

The existence of the NSA program was first revealed last month in an article in the New York Times. It was reported at the time that the Bush administration had authorized the NSA to spy on some communications entering or leaving the United States. It has since become clear that the spying agency has gained access to vast databases of telephone calls and e-mails, most of which have nothing to do with Al Qaeda, but include communications made by ordinary Americans. During the past several months, there have also been numerous revelations of spying on American citizens because of their antiwar activity.


slink

neuschweinstein

Some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained.

Rumsfeld tours Lithuania's KGB Museum, a torture site during the Stalin era, in October 2005







does it surprise anyone that several government agencies watch spy and store information on citizens that gather in groups of two or more?
if I remember right there is a rumor of aformer stasi official helping to form domestic spying operations here in America, the land the sheeple think is free. The abandon with which the rights regime overruns safeguards put in place from previous abuses attests to the fact that the citizens of the united states don't really care what is slowly being done to them, if they did these things would interupt the desperate housewives and american idol shows.........24 anyone? fookun morans





The Other Big Brother
The Pentagon has its own domestic spying program. Even its leaders say the outfit may have gone too far.

By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

Jan. 30, 2006 issue - The demonstration seemed harmless enough. Late on a June afternoon in 2004, a motley group of about 10 peace activists showed up outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton, the giant military contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. They were there to protest the corporation's supposed "war profiteering." The demonstrators wore papier-mache masks and handed out free peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to Halliburton employees as they left work. The idea, according to organizer Scott Parkin, was to call attention to allegations that the company was overcharging on a food contract for troops in Iraq. "It was tongue-in-street political theater," Parkin says.

But that's not how the Pentagon saw it. To U.S. Army analysts at the top-secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the peanut-butter protest was regarded as a potential threat to national security. Created three years ago by the Defense Department, CIFA's role is "force protection"—tracking threats and terrorist plots against military installations and personnel inside the United States. In May 2003, Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy Defense secretary, authorized a fact-gathering operation code-named TALON—short for Threat and Local Observation Notice—that would collect "raw information" about "suspicious incidents." The data would be fed to CIFA to help the Pentagon's "terrorism threat warning process," according to an internal Pentagon memo.

A Defense document shows that Army analysts wrote a report on the Halliburton protest and stored it in CIFA's database. It's not clear why the Pentagon considered the protest worthy of attention—although organizer Parkin had previously been arrested while demonstrating at ExxonMobil headquarters (the charges were dropped). But there are now questions about whether CIFA exceeded its authority and conducted unauthorized spying on innocent people and organizations. A Pentagon memo obtained by NEWSWEEK shows that the deputy Defense secretary now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained. The number of reports with names of U.S. persons could be in the thousands, says a senior Pentagon official who asked not be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.link

Kenny totally gave Raymi a pearl necklace.

It seems to me that it is written in English first, and then translated into Arabic.

JIM LEHRER: So the danger here then -- if I hear you both correctly -- is that he could inspire a group that doesn't answer to him, but reacts to inspirational words from him, is that what you are suggesting?

PAUL PILLAR: Right.

MAMOUN FANDY: Right, but this particular tape is not terribly inspiring, just looking at the language of it. This is the first tape of bin Laden that has no single verse from the Koran. It does not have the flowery language of Arabic.

It seems to me that it is written in English first, and then translated into Arabic. It is very western style of tape. It is not very characteristic of bin Laden, at least it tells me that the non-Arabic speaking within the al-Qaida network are taking over the organization --

JIM LEHRER: You mean he didn't write this is what you are suggesting?

MAMOUN FANDY: The Arabic speakers in al-Qaida, the parts that are coming from the Arab world, are losing to the non-Arabic speaker, so it's really becoming more of a South Asian organization, rather than an Arab organization.

JIM LEHRER: Do you read it the same?

PAUL PILLAR: -- which may reflect his physical situation somewhere along that frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan where possibly his immediate entourage -- his staff, if you will are Urdu speakers or Pashtu speakers, rather than Arabic speakers, or at least part of them are.

link

the plants most likely to close are in St. Louis, Mo.; St. Paul, Minn.; Atlanta, and Cuautitlan, Mexico

ford to close plants soon

FORD EXPECTED TO CLOSE WIXOM

January 21, 2006

BY SARAH A. WEBSTER

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Ford Motor Co. is expected to announce Monday that it will close the Wixom Assembly Plant as part of its anxiously awaited Way Forward plan -- a wide-ranging effort that will close plants, lay off tens of thousands of workers and detail the automaker's strategy for the future.

The Dearborn-based automaker has publicly refused to comment on which plants it might close, causing worries to mount in cities where Ford cars, trucks and auto parts are built.

But on Friday two Ford officials with knowledge of the plan, who did not want to be identified, said it now calls for Wixom's closure. Although they said the plan has been finalized, changes are possible until Ford Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Ford makes the announcement at 10:30 a.m. Monday.

no terrorist attack, no matter how massive, could destroy the American republic. This can only be done from the inside -

click for link
Pre-October Non-Surprise: The Goon Show of Bush and Bin Laden

Friday, 20 January 2006

Let's see now: President dropping in the polls; impeachment talk over illegal wiretaps gaining traction; majority of Americans now supporting withdrawal from Iraq; Abramoff scandal reaching into the White House; big push starting for war with Iran; the Bush gang reduced to defending their crime, deception and despotism with a last, threadbare card, the "terrorist threat".....

Why, yes, I think it's about time for a guest shot from Osama!

And so the deadly symbiosis between that dynamic, death-peddling duo, Bush and bin Laden, goes on. And as usual, the timing -- even the wording -- of the terrorist's bloviation falls, with eerie perfection, into lock-step with Bush's political needs. As noted above, the only way Bush can justify his now-open establishment of a de facto dictatorship -- arbitrary rule by "the unitary executive" -- is by the constant, hysterical invocation of a terrorist threat. To meet this threat, to preserve "our way of life," says Bush, we must shred all of our inherent liberties, our inalienable rights, our constitutional freedoms, our centuries-old system of checks and balances; we must give all power to the Leader, who will protect the only thing that matters: our skin.

“Art, Espionage and Cover Ups,”

Michael Fortier received a 12 year sentence in the okc boondogle for not alerting authorities to a potential bomb plot. Why not the STATE SPONSORED TERRORISTS FROM ISRAEL? The Israeli art students a.k.a. mossade? They had been either tailing the alleged highjackers or actually running the op.
this here is a very long article but well worth the read and discussion. If you happen by it maybe a copy to a local drive and a printed hard copy, just in case it disappears from the internets.

Carl Cameron with Fox News was the first major reporter to break this story, in a four-part series that aired in December 2001. In the series, Cameron gives several examples of Israeli espionage activities in America. In his first report, Cameron focuses on the Israeli surveillance of the Arab hijackers. Cameron reported, “There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9/11 attacks, but investigators suspect that the Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it.”


“According to the FBI list, the Arab terrorist and suspect cells lived in the same neighborhoods as the Israeli cells in Irving, Texas and Hollywood and Miami, Florida from Dec. 2000 to April 2001. In the case of Irving, the Israeli cell used a rental mailbox in a shopping center just one block away from an Arab suspect’s apartment. In Hollywood, the terrorists, including lead hijacker Mohammad Atta, the Egyptian who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, used a rental mailbox drop two blocks from an apartment rented by an Israeli ‘art student’ team leader.”

Cameron’s reporting appears in part to be based upon a secret FBI document that shows the “tie-ins” between the Israeli spies and the Arab hijackers. The fact that a secret FBI document exists is also evident in the Die Zeit article, “Next Door to Mohammed Atta.” Die Zeit, a German paper, based their article on information obtained from the French intelligence agency. The FBI apparently shared their report on Mossad activity with the French. The following portions of the article “Next Door to Mohammed Atta,’ closely parallels Carl Cameron’s unaired report.

"we would consider an outsized military buildup in Venezuela,"

U.S.: Venezuela Overspending on Military

By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer

Friday, January 20, 2006

(01-20) 12:56 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Venezuela is planning a "buying spree" for military equipment that goes beyond the country's legitimate needs, the State Department said Friday.

In recent days, the United States has sought to block proposed sales of military planes and other equipment to Venezuela by Spain and Brazil.

The transactions are part of what "we would consider an outsized military buildup in Venezuela," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

He also noted that the government of President Hugo Chavez has decided to activate its reserves and to create a million-person militia.

On Thursday in Brasilia, Chavez called the U.S. objections to the Brazil deal absurd and said Brazil will try to persuade the United States to allow it. At stake are 20 planes costing $200 million. The deal was worked out with Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, or Embraer.

The United States has the authority to block the sale because some of the planes' technology is American-made. Embraer President Mauricio Botelho said Friday the company is working on changes that could make the sale acceptable to Washington.

Botelho said the plane would be used to combat drugs and arms trafficking and not "for acts of war."

Last week, Chavez blasted a U.S. attempt to block Spain from selling Venezuela 12 military planes with American parts, calling it proof of Washington's "imperialism."

In response, McCormack said at the time the United States is concerned that the proposed sale "could contribute to destabilization in Latin America."

The United States has made that view clear to the Spanish, Venezuelan and other governments in Latin America," McCormack said.

The proposed Spanish transaction involves armed maritime patrol seacraft and some airplanes.

Sam is pissed it can't get the sale shifted to state run companies like Boeing and Lockheed-martin, (or whatever fake fucking name they use now)and don't even bother telling me they aint state run, they are state sponsored munitions makers with most of congress in on the fucking charade.

Clinton has been savaged by the Republican Right plantation

January 20, 2006 SPECIAL EVENING EDITION -- New York Senator Hillary Clinton has been savaged by the Republican Right for stating that the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is treating the body like a plantation. Hillary happens to be spot on. On Martin Luther King's birthday, Clinton told an African-American audience at a New York King tribute, ". . . when you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation. And you know what I'm talking about." Tomorrow morning at 11:00 am, the United Daughters of the Confederacy will host a birthday ceremony for Robert E. Lee in Statuary Hall in the Capitol Building. Confederate flags will be in abundance in the same hall where a statue of the late civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks will soon be displayed. Congressional insiders report that the official congressional sponsor of the Confederate event in House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who received $59,000 from slush funds connected to convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff in return for his sponsorship. In addition, Federal Claims Court Judge Richard Bender Abell is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the event.
link

Franklin said, he sometimes took classified information home to stay up to speed.

Ex-Pentagon man gets 12 years in AIPAC case

By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent in Washington and AP


WASHINGTON - Former Pentagon analyst Larry A. Franklin was sentenced Friday to a 12 years and seven months imprisonment for passing classified information to former American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists.

Franklin was also found guilty of sharing classified information with Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon. He was also fined $10,000.

In sentencing Franklin, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said the facts of the case led him to believe that Franklin was motivated primarily by a desire to help the United States, not harm it.


Franklin, 59, had worked with top Pentagon officials, including former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith, and is an expert on Iraq and Iran.

Franklin pleaded guilty in October in a plea bargain, and will testify in the trial of former AIPAC lobbyists Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman slated to start in April 2005. Franklin's sentence could be then further reduced because of his cooperation with the government.

Rosen and Weissman, who are facing charges of disclosing confidential information to Israel, were fired from AIPAC in 2004.

The judge said that Franklin believed the National Security Council was insufficiently concerned with the threat posed by an unspecified Middle Eastern nation. Franklin thought leaking information might eventually persuade the Security Council to take more serious action, he said.

While the Middle Eastern country was not named in the court record, sources and the facts of the case point to Iran.

Ellis said he viewed Franklin's case differently than a case involving information leaked to the Soviets at height of the Cold War.

"But not different to the extent of excuse. Not at all," Ellis said.

Franklin at one time worked for Feith, then the Pentagon's No. 3 official, on issues involving the Middle East. During a court appearance last year, Franklin said he would occasionally be questioned directly by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former top Pentagon official Paul Wolfowitz on policy issues.

As a result, Franklin said, he sometimes took classified information home to stay up to speed. One of the charges to which he pleaded guilty was unlawful retention of classified national defense information.

Franklin admitted that he met periodically with Rosen and Weissman between 2002 and 2004 and discussed classified information, including information about potential attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.

Rosen and Weissman would subsequently share what they learned with reporters and Israeli officials.

Rosen was a top lobbyist for Washington-based AIPAC for more than 20 years, and Weissman was the organization's top Iran expert. AIPAC fired them in April and says it has cooperated with the investigation.

Prosecution attorneys said Friday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia they would consider releasing the court from federal sentencing guidelines once Franklin completes his cooperation in the case against Rosen and Weissman.

Franklin asked that he be allowed to serve his sentence at a minimum security prison near his home.

Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon said in reaction "this is an internal American affair. Israel had no connection to the trial and, of course, to its outcome.
Franklin pleaded guilty in October in a plea bargain, and will testify in the trial of former AIPAC lobbyists Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman slated to start in April 2005. Franklin's sentence could be then further reduced because of his cooperation with the government.

we want lunch

{rude^boyee} so there I was minding my own biddness
{rude^boyee} it snowed twice this week
{rude^boyee} lil bits light fluffy snow
{rude^boyee} but about 3-4 inch accumulation
{rude^boyee} I ask one kid as he sat eating my food, "hey will you shovel the driveways"?
{rude^boyee} he says when I'm done eating
{rude^boyee} now be mindful these drive ways are not quarter mile long
{rude^boyee} no real heavy banked up shit at the ends either
{rude^boyee} no heart attack involved'
{rude^boyee} I retire
{rude^boyee} I wake up at 4:00 am to get my ass the gypsum mines
{rude^boyee} there is a note scrawled
{rude^boyee} yes scrawled
{rude^boyee} I can scan it and post it if they didn't burn it
{rude^boyee} the note reads
{rude^boyee} I need lunch money
{rude^boyee} nick
{rude^boyee} rosco opens the back door looks out to see the cleanly shoveled areas
{rude^boyee} but wait
{rude^boyee} they are not cleaned of snow
{rude^boyee} I open the front door at least expecting that the mothers drive was done
{rude^boyee} nope
{rude^boyee} sidewalks?
{rude^boyee} nope
{rude^boyee} nadda
{rude^boyee} zip
{rude^boyee} bubkis
{rude^boyee} and responds to the note
{rude^boyee} what you can't shovel the snow?
{rude^boyee} no i can't buy you lunch
{rude^boyee} and lunch money aint no 5 dollars either dewds
{rude^boyee} i write checks for lunch that are in the 50 dollar range every few weeks
{rude^boyee} and not for both the lil ingrate sunsabitches
{rude^boyee} just one
{rude^boyee} aight
{rude^boyee} flash forward
{rude^boyee} its now 4:00 pm
{rude^boyee} i just got home from
{rude^boyee} work
{rude^boyee} yes work
{rude^boyee} are my drive ways cleaned?
{rude^boyee} is the walk been cleared?
{rude^boyee} no
{rude^boyee} and no
{rude^boyee} there is a part two
{rude^boyee} be back soon
{Cerberus} a part two!
{rude^boyee} yes
{rude^boyee} stay tuned

i'm not a raymi stalker, honest

With reports of over 200 contacts between convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Bush White House,

January 19, 2006 -- With reports of over 200 contacts between convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Bush White House, there is also renewed interest in what "neighbor" Abramoff was referring to in his July 28, 2003 letter, written on Greenberg Traurig LLP stationery, to Gabon's President Omar Bongo concerning a proposed visit to the White House by the oil-rich African dictator. Abramoff was paid $9 million by Bongo for arranging the visit. Abramoff is no stranger to representing African dictators. His clients have included the late Zaire (Congo) strongman Mobutu Sese Seko and Angola's assassinated rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. Indicted White House aide David Safavian, an Abramoff associate, also represented Bongo.

In his letter to Bongo, Abramoff states:

"I have been cautiously working to obtain a visit for the President . . . to see President Bush, the Congress and policy and opinion makers in the United States. As you know, we were, in advance of the war in Iraq, able to secure a tentative date for this meeting, however, the war cancelled all such scheduled visits, with the exception of the critical US war allies.

Since the time of the war, we have been discussing a rescheduling of the meeting.

Our firm was approached by a neighboring nation which also desired such a meeting, and indeed much more than a meeting. Of course, our firm's main strength is not in just setting up meetings, but in changing and impacting US policy, so to the neighbor, the meeting is important, but merely the tip of the iceberg.

The neighbor has offered to put up the resources which are necessary to not only secure a meeting, but more importantly, to commence a policy effort in Washington which could impact America's Africa policy in limited ways. These resources are substantial and would be used to build a support network for the neighbor which would enable the decision makers to move the neighbor up on the priority list. . . .

I suggested that I visit Gabon after my trip to Scotland in mid August, but that in order for me to preserve this and be able to turn down the neighbor's offer, we had to commence the representation, even in small part, perhaps ten percent . . . . Please bear in mind that the neighbor's proposal was to pay the entire amount up front."

According to informed sources in Washington, the "neighbor" referred to by Abramoff was oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, run by brutal dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. In March 2004, South African and Zimbabwean forces foiled a coup attempt by British and South African mercenaries against Obiang. Later, Mark Thatcher, the son of Margaret Thatcher, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the coup in a South African court. Abramoff has close links to friends and associates of Margaret Thatcher, having helped arrange meetings between her and GOP officials. It was revealed that senior British, Spanish, and American defense and intelligence officials, including Bush administration officials Michael Westphal and Theresa Whelan, were involved in the coup plot. Amid rumors that Washington wanted Obiang out of power, Obiang wanted to make a pitch for friendlier contacts with the Bush administration. Hence, the outreach to Abramoff. But Obiang also had close financial links to the now-defunct Riggs Bank, a bank for which George W. Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, served as a senior official over a number of years.

Shortly before the March 2004 coup attempt, Obiang was abruptly told to close his Riggs account during a visit to the bank in Washington and Obiang's Riggs' account manager Simon Kareri was subsequently fired by the bank and his computer and files were seized at his home by FBI agents. It was discovered that Riggs and Obiang were involved in an Obiang-run slush fund called Abayak SA that received and paid out large sums of cash for various "services."



Obiang at a Sept. 24, 2003 reception at Tavern on the Green in Manhattan hosted by top U.S. businessmen, including officials of Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, and Halliburton.

Jonathan Bush ran a New Haven, Connecticut-based Riggs subsidiary called J. Bush & Co., a money management firm that later morphed into Riggs Investment Management Company (RIMCO). Federal investigators discovered that Riggs set up phony and deceptive accounts and dummy corporations in off-shore locations like the Bahamas. Riggs was caught up in the Russian Mafia money laundering scandal through its stake in a Channel Islands company called Valmet. That scandal involved jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Bank of New York scandal involving key Russian Mafia figures tied to various Abramoff business dealings, including gambling casinos and Internet gambling. In May 2005, after Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev were convicted of tax evasion and fraud by a Russian court and sentenced to nine years in prison, George W. Bush immediately came to the defense of these Russian Mafia kingpins. LINK TO waynemadsenreport.com

this just "taint" right or the rights taint?

come on this is just plain funny and thank you crooks and liars for hosting the clip

Video-WMP

Any right you surrender to it is surrendered for good.

Nixon was forced out partly because of his abusive behavior towards the laws of this once great land. And war or not who is going to let our country deteriorate into an abyss of this kings Bush's making, you?

ZAHN: But would the U.S. government have a reason...

HITCHENS: Warrantless wiretapping -- warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional.

And can I just say that your reporter was exactly right when he said that, until this was outed, the administration had no comment. You and I are not supposed to be having this conversation. We're not supposed to know that this is even a controversy. Well, now we do. And now the administration has changed its tone.

It doesn't say it's treason to be talking about it. It is going to have hearings in Congress next month, as it should have already, and it's going to face a lawsuit.

ZAHN: All right.

HITCHENS: And the courts will hear it.

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: Good.

ZAHN: Chris, what's your reaction to what the White House is saying about this lawsuit? For starters, they say it is frivolous, that it will do nothing to enhance the civil rights of Americans, and that the Justice Department says your case is without merit...

HITCHENS: Well...

ZAHN: ... period.

HITCHENS: Well, frivolous, none of us are. I don't think our worst enemies would say that of us.

We're filing in the Eastern District of Michigan, which is the district, which in 1972, ruled that warrantless wiretapping of Americans was unconstitutional. And the Supreme Court eventually upheld that. It is called the Keith case. It did a lot of damage to the horrific Richard Nixon.

And, remember, when you think of that name, any power you give now to any government or administration or any right you surrender to it is surrendered for good. All future administrations can use that power any way they like. Is it no good to say, we're only using it to stop attacks, when they used to say, we're not doing it at all.

(CROSSTALK)

HITCHENS: What are they ashamed of?

ZAHN: Christopher, is there any instance where you would support domestic spying or unauthorized wiretaps in this war on terror?

HITCHENS: Well, you ask me domestic spying and all unauthorized wiretaps, that's tough.

Let me put it like this. There are people I can think of easily within the United States who the president should be impeached if he wasn't wiretapping. If you feel that you're on to someone or some group like that, you can wiretap them for 72 hours and still go to a judge and still ask for an authorization. It's still legal to do that.

ZAHN: Sure.

HITCHENS: That's pretty wide, I would say.

And, therefore, if you feel to that extent, I'm ready to sleep at night. But you notice that those who support this policy, which they kept secret from us until recently, now say, well, actually, we don't really like the original act at all. We -- we don't like the FISA that guarantees this or the courts that it sets up.

Well, in that case, they must go to Congress and ask for it to be changed. They can't act as if it's a law, but they don't have to obey it.

ZAHN: Well, we have got to leave it there tonight. We will be following your suit with a great deal of interest.

Christopher Hitchens, thank you.

HITCHENS: Frivolous, though, it is not. Thank you.

ZAHN: All right. Appreciate your time this evening.

The SA-7 GRAIL (Strela-2) man-portable, shoulder-fired, low-altitude SAM

SA-7 GRAIL
9K32M Strela-2
HN-5 (Hongying 5) China
Anza MKI - Pakistan
Ayn as Saqr - Egypt

The SA-7 GRAIL (Strela-2) man-portable, shoulder-fired, low-altitude SAM system is similar to the US Army REDEYE, with a high explsive warhead and passive infrared homing guidance. The HN-5 ( Hong Nu = Red Cherry ) is an improved Chinese version with upgraded capabilities. The SA-7 was the first generation of Soviet man portable surface-to-air missiles. Although classed as "fire and forget" types, the missiles were easily overcome by solar heat and, when used in hilly terrain, by heat from the ground.

The SA-7 seeker is fitted with a filter to reduce the effectiveness of decoying flares and to block IR emissions. The system consists of the missile (9K32 & 9K32M), a reloadable gripstock (9P54 & 9P54M), and a thermal battery (9B17). An identification friend or foe (IFF) system can be fitted to the operators helmet. Further, a supplementary early warning system consisting of a passive RF antenna and headphones can be used to provide early cue about the approach and rough direction of an enemy aircraft. Although the SA-7 is limited in range, speed, and altitude, it forces enemy pilots to fly above minimum radar limitations which results in detection and vulnerability to regimental and divisional air defense systems.

The SA-7a (9K32 Strela-2) was introduced for service in 1968, but was soon replaced by the SA-7b (9K32M Strela-2M) which became the most common production model. The SA-7b, differs from the SA-7a primarily by using a boosted propellant charge to increase range and speed. The SA-7a had a slant range of 3.6 km and a kill zone between 15 and 1500 meters in altitude, with a speed of about 430 meters per second (Mach 1.4). The SA-7b has a slant range of about 4.2 km, a ceiling of about 2300 meters, and a speed of about 500 meters per second (Mach 1.75). Both the SA-7a and SA-7b are tail-chase missile systems, and its effectiveness depends on its ability to lock onto the heat source of low-flying fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft targets.

A Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched by anti-American insurgents

invested in a training program? hmm I say hmmmm why claim it was a Russian made missile? When I see this report I immediately think Russia being hounded from Afghanistan by shoulder fired missiles supplied by the united states to the muhajadeen. Sorry but that's my simple mind at work. What is this probably made up crap story supposed to invoke when broadcast?
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched by anti-American insurgents brought down a US military helicopter that crashed in
Iraq on Monday, US television reported, citing unnamed
Pentagon officials.

The ABC News network said the shootdown represented "a troubling new development" because there are hundreds and possibly thousands of SA-7 missiles that remain unaccounted for in Iraq.

The AH-64 Apache went down north of Baghdad, killing its two crew members and becoming the third US helicopter to be shot down in 10 days.

According to the report, the weapons had been part of
Saddam Hussein's arsenal, much of which was looted after the invasion.

But until now, insurgents had never successfully used them against an American aircraft.

"It could be just a lucky shot," General John Keane, the Army's acting chief of staff, told ABC News. "Or it could be that they have invested in a training program and they now have some qualified operators and that'll be more of a threat than it has been in the past."

Apache helicopters are designed to be able to survive attacks by missiles like the SA-7, but the military is investigating why the chopper targeted in Monday's attack did not, the report said
linkski

Augustine volcano

At 9:05 AM, January 18, 2006, AVO changed the color code at Augustine volcano to ORANGE.For complete details, please see the Augustine activity page.
For more Augustine images, please visit Augustine imageslinkiepooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"We would resuscitate him," then execute him.

can someone explain this to me? i'm as slow witted as any othger brainwashed fookun american. but i just can't get my mind right on this one concerning the state execution of a convicted murderer in california yesterday. i fear (yes fear) my head will explode soon people keep talkin shit like that in my direction.

Death row elder needed 2 injections
Last words: 'Hoka hey, it's a good day to die'

Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Posted: 4:45 p.m. EST (21:45 GMT)


SAN QUENTIN, California (AP) -- In the end, California's oldest condemned inmate did not seem quite as feeble as his attorneys made him out to be in their efforts to save his life.

With the help of four big prison guards, Clarence Ray Allen shuffled from his wheelchair to a gurney inside San Quentin's death chamber early Tuesday, a day after his 76th birthday.

Though legally blind, Allen raised his head to search among execution witnesses for relatives he had invited.

"Hoka hey, it's a good day to die," Allen said in a nod to his Choctaw Indian heritage. "Thank you very much, I love you all. Goodbye."

Having suffered a heart attack back in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor.

"At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon. "We would resuscitate him," then execute him.

But the barrel-chested prisoner's heart was strong to the end: Doctors had to administer a second shot of potassium chloride to stop it.
link

"I Have A Dream"

by Martin Luther King, Jr,
mp3
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Specter: If Bush Broke The Law With Warrantless Spying, Impeachment Is A Remedy

Today on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) — who plans to hold hearings on Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program — upped the ante. He said that if it is determined that Bush broke the law, both impeachment and criminal prosecution are legitimate remedies:

STEPHANOPOULOS: There was a lot of talk about that at the Alito hearings, and listening closely to you I certainly seem to take away that you believe the president does not have the right, does not have the inherent power under the Constitution to circumvent a constitutional law, and as far as you are concerned, the FISA law is constitutional, isn’t it?

SPECTER: Well, I started off by saying that he didn’t have the authority under the resolution authorizing the use of force. The president has to follow the Constitution. Where you have a law which is constitutional, like Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, there still may be collateral different powers in the president under wartime circumstances.

That’s a very knotty question that I’m not prepared to answer on a Sunday soundbite. But I do believe that it ought to be thoroughly examined. And when we were on the Patriot Act and found the disclosure of the surveillance, I immediately said the Judiciary Committee would hold hearings, and I talked to the attorney general, and we’re going to explore it in depth, George. You can count on that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, if the president did break the law or circumvent the law, what’s the remedy?

SPECTER: Well, the remedy could be a variety of things. A president — and I’m not suggesting remotely that there’s any basis, but you’re asking, really, theory, what’s the remedy? Impeachment is a remedy. After impeachment, you could have a criminal prosecution, but the principal remedy, George, under our society is to pay a political price.

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service concluded “that the administration’s justification for the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments.”

Next GOP Scandal May Snare House Appropriations Chair

Posted by Jon Jan. 15, 2006, 2:08 pm

Corruption eruption: Last month, a potential bombshell story concerning the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee went largely unnoticed in the traditional media. On Dec. 23 — yes, Christmas Eve “Eve” — the San Diego Union-Tribune published a story alleging that Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has been engaged in Abramoff-Dukester style scratch-backing with a powerful K Street lobbyist:

From powerful positions on the House Appropriations Committee, California Rep. Jerry Lewis has greenlighted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for clients of one of his closest friends, lobbyist and former state Congressman Bill Lowery.

Meanwhile, Lowery, the partners at his firm and their clients have donated 37 percent of the $1.3 million that Lewis’ political action committee received in the past six years.

The story made headlines again last week when Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against Rep. Lewis, citing the newspaper story and alleging that:

[At] least one staffer has moved back and forth between Rep. Lewis’s and Lowery’s offices: Jeffrey Shockey left Rep. Lewis’s employ in 1999 after which he joined Lowery’s lobbying firm. He remained with the firm until 2005, when he left to return to work for Rep. Lewis. When he left, Lowery’s firm hired Shockey’s wife, Alexandra, to represent some of her husband’s old clients, with the result that on behalf of her husband’s former partners, she now lobbies staffers who work for her husband.

Doling out $480,000 to get hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts sounds like a very good deal. The question is, is it legal?

"There is no known link or demonstrated link or any other kind of link at this point between the people here and any terror cell,"

where the ones detained israeli nationals? hmmmmmmmmmm come on abc tells true now where they "art students"? maybe the messican parliment bombers? you skeer mongers suck my ass, soon you will all be correct in your assesment of terrorist behind every lamp post. right after you pearl harbour this country again for effect. and charge forward with the lockdown.


ABC nightly news mentions Midland in terrorism story
Ryan Myers
Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram
01/13/2006

By Ryan Myers

Staff Writer

In a story Thursday about a potential link between terrorism and purchases of disposable cell phones, ABC Nightly News mentioned the purchase of a large quantity of cell phones in December from a Midland Wall-Mart.

According to Bill Vanderland, agent in charge of Midland's FBI office, no laws were broken when a group of men attempted to purchase a large number of cell phones from the Wal-Mart in the 200 block of Interstate 20 Dec. 18.

However, FBI agents responded to the incident at the request of the Midland Police Department, which was alerted to the attempted purchase by Wal-Mart employees.

Several members of the group were detained, Vanderland said, when authorities discovered they did not possess necessary immigration documents.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ultimately charged one man for an immigration violation, Vanderland said, and two others were released after producing appropriate documents.

ABC's Thursday story also asserted a link between a suspected terrorist cell and the men attempting to purchase cell phones in Midland.

According to an MPD incident report quoted in an ABC online report paralleling Thursday's televised Nightly News story, "it was discovered that members of the group were linked to suspected terrorist cells stationed within the Metroplex."

However Vanderland said Thursday after the ABC report aired that assertions of a connection between a terror cell and the men who attempted to purchase cell phones from a Midland Wal-Mart were invalid.

"There is no known link or demonstrated link or any other kind of link at this point between the people here and any terror cell," he said.

ABC's online report did note, "ABC News has been unable to corroborate the information in the police report."


©MyWestTexas.com 2006