Iraqis no longer living in fear

Iraqi hospitals are war’s new ‘killing fields’

A few days into his recovery at the facility, armed Shiite Muslim militiamen dragged the 43-year-old Sunni mason down the hallway floor, snapping intravenous needles and a breathing tube out of his body, and later riddled his body with bullets, family members said.
...
"We would prefer now to die instead of going to the hospitals," said Abu Nasr, 25, a Sunni cousin of Saud and former security guard from al-Madaan, a Baghdad suburb. "I will never go back to one. Never. The hospitals have become killing fields."

Pretty Fucked Up

And of course, news of a bombing doesn't really stand out since it happens just about every day, but here are some of the bombings du jour.

Dozens killed in new Iraq attacks

The bombing at the Shurja market killed 24 people and injured 35, police said. Other blasts and shootings left at least 14 dead in the Iraqi capital, while in Hilla, a bomb killed 12 men queuing to join the police. The Baghdad blasts come amid a joint US-Iraqi security clampdown that officials insist is working. The top US general in Iraq, George Casey, said on Wednesday he could see Iraqi forces taking on responsibility for the country's security within 12 to 18 months, with "very little" coalition support.

Isn't that what they said 12-18 months ago?

So what are the Iraqi military forces up to? Oh yeah, participating in sectarian violence.

Iraqi minister cancels truce with Shiite militia

Fighting erupted in Diwaniyah on Sunday between Iraqi army troops and the Mahdi Army militia.

Officials reported that 23 soldiers, 50 militants and eight civilians were killed before local officials could negotiate a ceasefire.

Visiting the city Wednesday, Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed denounced the truce under which the army agreed to pull out of residential areas, and rejected the idea of concessions to the gunmen.

Sunni vs. Shia in the hospitals and in the streets. Arabs fleeing to Kurdistan. Dozens killed everyday by bombs and executions. But the Iraqis don't live in fear. Oh, and it's definitely not a civil war.

Listen & Do

Check this out from God is for Suckers.

Listen & Do

It's a scanned in coloring book from 1954.

It's pretty disturbing.

My favorites:


Yes, give your money back to Jesus. BTW, Jesus looks a little bit like Pat Robertson these days, so just send it all to him lest he smite thee.


Uh huh.



So sorry. Your god can't help you. Heard of Jesus?


Yes, Jesus gives us money. And suburbs and Abercrombie & Fitch and Shoney's.


He will show the boys and girls his what?

Boy, do we need something like this now, with kids these days.

National Geographic Channel - Cog in the Scare Machine

This channel has been airing a lot of "inside" specials, like Inside 9/11, Inside the US Secret Service, Inside the Pentagon, and the most ominous Triple Cross: bin Laden's Spy in America.

Add this to CNN's special whose name I forgot and don't care to look up, where they blast a picture of bin Laden on the screen with the words "KNOW YOUR ENEMY." They even go so far as to kind of slowly zoom in on the pic.

Now, if that's not propaganda, I don't know what is. I mean, it's about as close to Emmanuel Goldstein that you can get. Know your enemy, indeed. The Brotherhood, The Base, what's the difference?

So when people come forward to explain that what you see on the TV screen isn't the whole truth or may even be quite fabricated, you're not surprised. And if you are surprised, then, well, you deserve pity.

TRIPLE CROSS: Nat Geo Channel's Whitewash of the Ali Mohamed Story

Over Christmas I wrote a 12 page ten-act treatment outlining the two key parts of the Ali Mohammed story...

That part of my research was presented in the Nat Geo documentary that aired on Monday.

But that was only half of my story. The other half was the astonishing saga of how the two bin Laden "offices of origin" -- the FBI's New York Office (NYO) and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the SDNY, allowed Mohamed to operate with impunity for years. How key special agents in the bin Laden Squad (I-49) like Jack Cloonan desperately played catch-up as Mohamed planned the Embassy bombings. How John Zent, Ali's west coast control agent was totally outgunned by him, getting caught up as a material witness in a grisly triple homicide in Fresno in 1992 when he should have been riding herd over the al Qaeda sleeper. How it was Zent who vouched for Ali and got him released from Canadian custody in 1993 - allowing him the freedom to help plan the Blackhawk Down operation and the Embassy bombing plot.

My most astonishing, findings involved Patrick Fitzgerald, the former head of Organized Crime and Terrorism in the SDNY, who had allowed Ali to remain free as early as 1994 even though he named him as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Day of Terror case. Another of my key findings was that Fitzgerald buried probative evidence of an al Qaeda New York cell in 1996.

So they didn't want to make it seem like this Ali Mohamed (can't these people come up with some more names?) was connected with our government, or that people in our government knew that he was a double agent, if you can even call him that. That would get people mistrusting the government and maybe folks will start asking all the wrong questions.

But really, why should I believe any part of this show or any part of this column by a man who says they left all the juicy stuff out?

Tell me, what should I believe and why.

The debate of the century (so far)

THIS IS WHAT WE NEED

We need televized debates among world leaders. Instead of pussy-ass press conferences where everyone tries to act diplomatically (you know, talking about "that pig" or giving shoulder massages), world leaders should hold regular debates with one another on various topics. They could either stay on one topic or, in the case of leaders of two countries that are in dispute, go crazy.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the US and UK of abusing their "special privileges" and said a debate would let both sides air their views uncensored. The White House called his suggestion a "diversion" from global concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.

Uh oh, it looks like Bush is cutting and running from any debate with Mahmoud. What's he got to fear? I mean, surely they'll let him wear the little box under his suit again.

Beatbox beeeotch!

Debunking Debunking 9/11 Myths

I just listened to the Popular Mechanics podcast about their book "Debunking 9/11 Myths."

Here it is in mp3 format.

I really expected some serious debunking and was planning on their relieving some of my paranoia and suspicion. Alas, that was not to be. With the exception of certain parts of their explanation of why the buildings fell, it was all crap. Maybe you can try to count the number of strawman arguments made. I tried to count the number of obfuscations too. Couldn't keep up.

An example: They kept referring to the confusion of the FAA and NORAD on 9/11 and saying, "See, real life is complicated. It's not like the movies. The conspiracy theorists are just naive and they think things work like the movies." This was probably the worst strawman/muddied argument in the mix, and there were plenty.

Well, that's totally ridiculous. One of the central pillars of the main conspiracy theories is that a high concentration of war games and simulations were planned on the day of 9/11 in order to confuse air traffic controllers and the air defense system. There were phantom blips all over the place. Fighters were diverted to Alaska and elsewhere. Some people were participating in one simulation over here and others were participating in another simulation over there. Vigilant Guardian, Global Guardian, Northern Vigilance, and others, were going on, all on the same day, all on 9/11/01. These operations diverted resources as well as confused people. Let's not even mention that Donald Rumsfeld changed procedure in July, 2001 so that only he could order a shootdown (well I just did). Now the pilots are distracted while commanders on the ground are powerless. Anyway, you see why the Popular Mechanics people are disingenuous to say that confusion on the part of NORAD and the FAA discredits conspiracy theories because a confused air defense system is a central pillar of the theories.

Now, why didn't they say that some of these operations aren't that big of a secret and that terrorists could find out what the operations are and when they are carried out and pick that day? That seems like a sensible answer. But they didn't pick that answer. They chose to build up strawmen and muddy the issue, which to me, destroys their credibility and makes me wonder.

The entire last third of the program is dedicated to a pop psychology discussion about why people believe kooky things (like dishonesty on the part of govt officials, or that greedy people can do sneaky and dastardly things, no way, right?) Total shit. In the middle of all their, "we are just presenting facts" BS, they sure presented a lot of opinions. The whole last third was pretty much an opinionated commentary on the psychology of paranoid weirdos. This is not the way to convince intelligent people sitting on the fence. It sure won't convert any of those "paranoid weirdos."

I will commend them for calling out one of the big sore spots of the main conspiracy theories, explosives being used to demolish the buildings. I hate this one. With the exception of their LAME explanation of why building 7 fell, they did OK (just OK) on this one.

1. Explosives are not needed to bring down a building built like WTC 1 and 2 were. They were quite unique designs. Once the central columns were damaged, stress had to be redistributed. When load bearing structures eventually gave way, there was catastrophic failure.

2. Demolishing the buildings are totally unnecessary. If indeed "they" used the terrorist attacks to justify plunderous war, hijacking planes and flying them into buildings is more than enough. The people who cried out for war with the Taliban and Al Qeada (most Americans) would be crying just the same even if the buildings had never fallen.

3. Cui bono? Nobody. Max Silverstein collecting insurance? No. It's not like someone cuts him a check for $7 billion and he rides off in an armored car with the loot. I'd really like for someone to explain in detail how anyone benefitted from the destruction of WTC 1-7. I just don't see it.

Again, the fall of WTC 7 is still a mystery to me and these guys on thishere podcast sure didn't enlighten me nor did they clear anything up for me.

Give this thing a listen. Maybe even tell me what you think.

PS - I doubt anyone cares, but the reason I haven't posted here in a while is that I'm really busy. Plus, this shit gets old quick. No one ever told me that. I wonder how some people do it for so long (o yeah, they get paid).

Stretching the imagination - ALL media is anti-Israel

Man, Little Gruesome Fascists never disappoint. (C&P links.)

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22119_Leading_BBC_Reporter_Caught_Lying&only

This links to another blog where they really catch her in the act (not).

http://drinkingfromhome.blogspot.com/2006/08/orla-update-causing-stir.html

It's sad really. I mean read that stuff. Where do the two reporters contradict each other really?

The woman said that it was hard to find entirely intact buildings in the town itself. The man said that in the town itself there was wholesale destruction. He said that the SUBURBS were "virtually" untouched.

Then they try to make it seem like they were taking different camera angles to make the place seem "more destroyed" than it was. I'm sorry but both those angles make it look pretty bad. The place is wasted.


Don't these people have better things to do?

Why use rubber bullets when you can use missiles?

This was a protest in Gaza broken up by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters.

Now the caption over the video on the You Tube page says that the protest was nonviolent. That's a matter of debate, but it's really irrelevant. Since when should missiles fired from Apache helicopters be used to disperse crowds? It could have been a full on riot, but missiles?

The greatest country on Earth

Check out this video of police firing rubber bullets at a woman's back. They then proceed to fire rubber bullets into a perfectly peaceful crowd.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/15228898.htm

Click on the video under the picture.

Also, don't miss the video of the cops cheering and laughing at the fact that someone shot her square in the face with a rubber bullet.

Israel pulls a Khomeini

But this time it's not an embassy. It's a military barracks.

350 Lebanese soldiers and police detained

Israeli troops detained about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police in Marjayoun after capturing the town on Thursday, Lebanon's interior minister said. The Israeli military said nobody was taken prisoner.

Lebanon's Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat told The Associated Press that Israeli troops entered the garrison in Marjayoun Thursday afternoon "and asked to share it with Lebanese troops there."

"The troops refused and said they would leave, but the Israeli did not let them," he said.

Fatfat said the head of the joint army-police force, Brig. Adnan Daoud, was among those detained. "We consider them to be captives," he added.

Uh, if they can't leave, they're prisoners.

Tell me again how this is all about Hezbollah.

Meanwhile

The war in Lebanon and the liquid terror scare seems to have effectively drawn people's attention away from Iraq. But life hasn't changed there at all.

Attack outside Shia mosque kills 35

A suicide bomber today killed at least 35 people in an attack outside Iraq's most revered Shia mosque.

The bomber blew himself up while being patted down by policemen near the Imam Ali mosque in the holy city of Najaf, home to the tomb of Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law.
...
"Before I reached the checkpoint, only a few meters from the shrine, I heard a huge explosion. Something hit me on the head and I fell. I couldn't hear for a while but I saw bodies and human flesh everywhere," Mr Hassan, 51, told the Associated Press from his hospital bed.

And those Iranians are spinning on their axid of evil, ready to embrace terror in all its forms.

Iran Condemns Blast in Najaf

"Such barbaric acts carried out on the eve of the birthday anniversary of Imam Ali - the first Imam of Shiites -- (PBUH) are meant to hurt the spirit and feelings of the world Muslims, Shiites in particular, undermine Iraqi government, weaken national unity in that country and sow discord among the Muslim Shiites and Sunnites," Asefi said according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

He also said that confrontation and campaign against terrorism requires a realistic approach, "and since war, threat and bloodshed have become institutionalized traits of the terrorists and some belligerent governments, the only way to put an end to this undesirable and annoying situation passes through the reinvigoration of the legal-security role of the international community and the United Nations.

There you have it. Iran is a terrorist rogue state. You can really tell because of their support for action from the UN, a known terrorist organization.

SO, what's happening in "The Other Iraq?"

Gunmen storm Kurdish offices in southern Iraq

Gunmen angered by criticism of a Shi'ite cleric ransacked offices of President Jalal Talabani's Kurdish party in southern Iraq on Friday, while hundreds in Basra took to the streets in protest.

Have you seen the Other Iraq?

It's spectacular.

It's peaceful.

Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Where democracy has been practiced for over a decade. It's not a dream.
It's the other Iraq.

Well, we can't have that, now can we? So, of course, gunmen are sent to make sure that there is no peace in any part of Iraq. We can't have free speech. We must behead all those who insult Islam. Boy, it's a good thing we invaded. Now Iraqis don't have to live in fear.

They hate us for our fluids.

"I can no longer sit back and allow Islamist infiltration, Islamist indoctrination, Islamist subversion and the international Islamist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."



Yes, we have fallen under the evil Islamofascist plot to deprive us of our fluids.





"God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural fluids."

The Wicker Man

I'm sure my bro Wendell over at Clown's Death Rattle might appreciate this.

They're releasing a new version on The Wicker Man.

Not to be confused with the original 1973 version.

I pray that this will be good. But I'm sorry that's it's another in a long line of remakes.

Can't they come up with original scripts that don't suck ass?

We'll see.

Update: I just saw a commercial on TV that made it look terrible. It looks really formulaic and Hollywood style. BOOOO.

What a sense of humor

You know, you really have to have a great sense of humor to make fun of the misery of others.

There have been so many instances where I see the PWCTC (people who call themselves conservatives) laugh and make merry about pain and suffering. Whether it's torturing a cat, a dinosaur (seen it), or some slob in a foreign prison, nothing brings glee to these people like pain and suffering.

So check out this post at The Jawa Report. Hilarious, isn't it?

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184259.php

(Ok, the sugartits one is pretty funny. uh, and the Jew Terminators.)

Check out the photoshopped Vietnam pictures, especially, though.

I mean, look at this one! They put that bust of Hillary in with an injured Lebanese man.

Hoo man, that made you spew milk out of your nose, right?

More weirdness.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/08/insanely_obsessive_u.html

That one's spooky. Now anyone can make a lifelike image of aynone doing anything.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/08/scientist_analyzes_t.html

http://blog.tenderbutton.com/?p=187

This one's pretty good. This guy needs a life.

What a completely bizarre blog

Left & Right.

So it appears to be a bunch of posts of seemingly random shit interspersed with pro-war messages. Scroll through the page quickly to get the full effect.

Funny Post by Tom Tomorrow

Worst. Ad. Placement. Ever.

from This Modern World


Funny? Sure. Irony always wins. It even beats fart jokes.

Less oil? GOOD!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060807/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_field_shutdown

Alaska - BP said Monday it discovered corrosion so severe that it will have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the huge Prudhoe Bay oil field — work that could shut down the nation's single biggest source of domestic crude for months and drive gasoline prices even higher.

I say, great! The less carbon that's being pumped out of the ground, the less will be burned and pumped into our atmosphere, the more incentive people have to conserve.

Democrats want to make an issue about this. They want people to be pissed off and demand lower gas prices, while somehow also demanding that we curb carbon emissions. You can't have it both ways, people.

Now, there is a problem when tax incentives and subsidies for alternative power sources are killed and when electric cars and plug-in hybrids are stymied by the auto/oil lobby in our government. If you are using less gas, but being impeded from using something else, then the economy suffers. The people have to take some things into their own hands.

Check out:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/16/tech/main781291.shtml

Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away.

Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.
...
Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.
...
"The value of plug-in hybrids is they can dramatically reduce gasoline usage for the first few miles every day," Gremban said. "The average for people's usage of a car is somewhere around 30 to 40 miles per day. During that kind of driving, the plug-in hybrid can make a dramatic difference."
...
Energy CS has converted two Priuses to get up to 230 mpg by using powerful lithium ion batteries. It is forming a new company, EDrive Systems, that will convert hybrids to plug-ins for about $12,000 starting next year, company vice president Greg Hanssen said.

University of California engineering professor Andy Frank built a plug-in hybrid from the ground up in 1972 and has since built seven others, one of which gets up to 250 mpg. They were converted from non-hybrids, including a Ford Taurus and Chevrolet Suburban.
...
Instead, Frank said, automakers promise hydrogen-powered vehicles hailed by President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, even though hydrogen's backers acknowledge the cars won't be widely available for years and would require a vast infrastructure of new fueling stations.

"They'd rather work on something that won't be in their lifetime, and that's this hydrogen economy stuff," Frank said. "They pick this kind of target to get the public off their back, essentially."

And that's exactly right. You hear about "The Hydrogen Economy" but where's the hydrogen going to come from? At first from natural gas. The carbon still is released into the atmosphere as CO2. Why not build natural gas cars? (I'm not suggesting it really. Im just pointing out that it's all bullshit.) They have buses that run on it. You don't mine or drill for hydrogen, you have to make hydrogen, and it takes energy to reduce it to the molecular form. Where's that energy going to come from? Anyway, just remember that the Hydrogen Economy is a billion dollar ruse. It's meant to distract people for a decade while fuel emissions standards stagnate.

Meanwhile, less oil is coming out of the ground. The motivations may be 'sinister' and profit driven, but I don't care. Just keep that crap in the ground and out of the atmosphere.

"If we leave, all the attacks would stop because we’d be gone."

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/15209806.htm

Local officials had assured Graves, the top U.S. commander in the area, that Hit was “going through a period of peace and quiet.”

But just as Graves reached the edge of town, the road in front of his Humvee exploded in a cloud of dust and debris. An insurgent hiding in a nearby palm grove had detonated two buried artillery rounds, narrowly missing him.
...
Residents are quick to argue that the American presence incites those attacks, and they blame the U.S. military rather than insurgents for turning their town into a combat zone. The Americans should pull out, they say, and let them solve their own problems.

Oh, but that would be cutting and running. We can't have that.

And you read it right. When the troops weren't in the area: peace and quite. The troops roll in: attacks on the troops. To Rumsfeld, I guess that means there are still terrorists in the area and we have to do house to house raids to confiscate all the easily replaced weapons.The Iraqi people, who we 'liberated' and are free to determine the course of their own country want us out. What are we waiting for?

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.

But the Iraqis are free now and they have nothing to fear, right Specialist Wilkins?

http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=894100

BAGHDAD, Aug 6 (KUNA) -- Iraqi police said on Sunday it found 13 dead bodies in different parts of Baghdad during the past 24 hours.

Speaking to KUNA, a police source said the unidentified bodies included the corpse of a female.

In addition, four truck drivers were killed by terrorists in Al-Eshaqi 100 kilometers to the north of Baghdad.

Also, the person in-charge of the US and Iraqi armies supplies in Al-Huwaijah was killed, said as military source.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4098384.html

Fighting erupted early Monday in a Shiite militia stronghold of Baghdad, and a suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners at a funeral in Saddam Hussein's hometown, killing 10 people and injuring 22.

And how do you like that headline?

Our troops redeployment is long overdue. We'll never be able to entirely stop attacks on our troops. We'll never be able, as a military force, to stop the sectarian killings and kidnappings. There's nothing more our armed forces can do in Iraq (besides build permanent bases, eh?)

We can still help the Iraqis in strategic areas, like the oil fields, but we'd have to do it with Iraq's interests put first. Unfortunately, the interests of the Iraqi people are not the primary concern of our government and surely not the primary motivation for the prolonged occupation.

Bush wants control of the National Guard

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5996977,00.html

The nation's governors are closing ranks in opposition to a proposal in Congress that would let the president take control of the National Guard in emergencies without consent of governors.

The measure would remove the currently required consent of governors for the federalization of the Guard, which is shared between the individual states and the federal government.

It's just getting worse and worse. These power grabs are incomprehensibly arrogant. They're getting ready for the next inside operation and the president will have full authority to use martial law and to use the National Guard to enforce it.

Why aren't we propping up the Lebanese Army?

I was watching CNN a few minutes ago and one of the correspondents was referring to the dominance of Hezbollah being a result of the Lebanese Army being so weak. Well, then why aren't we propping them up? By we, I mean those countries that have an interest in Lebanon being a functioning democracy and not a bombed out hell hole. If Hezbollah was such a grave concern, then why aren't we shipping munitions and military aid to Lebanon instead of bombs to Israel? Sure, maybe they can't afford them right now, but call it aid. Ship it to them on credit or as a donation. It's either in our interests to support Lebanon's government and national armed forces or it's not.

I just really hate seeing these lame justifications for what's going on.

This was an aggressive action taken out by Israel, which is escalating and no one can do a thing about it. Except maybe to prop up the Lebanese armed forces. But then that wouldn't allow Syria and Iran to slip into the fray (which they are not stuid enough to do).

Civilian targets not Kosher

Via: Prison Planet

Israeli pilots 'deliberately miss' targets

At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed civilian targets in Lebanon as disquiet grows in the military about flawed intelligence, The Observer has learnt. Sources say the pilots were worried that targets had been wrongly identified as Hizbollah facilities.
...
As one well-connected Israeli expert put it: 'If we have such good information in Lebanon, how come we still don't know the hideout of missiles and launchers?... If we don't know the location of their weapons, why should we know which house is a Hizbollah house?'
...
Yonatan Shapiro, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a 'refusenik' letter in 2004, said he had spoken with Israeli F-16 pilots in recent days and learnt that some had aborted missions because of concerns about the reliability of intelligence information. According to Shapiro, some pilots justified aborting missions out of 'common sense' and in the context of the Israeli Defence Force's moral code of conduct, which says every effort should be made to avoiding harming civilians.

I say kudos and huzzah to these pilots. Some would say that these pilots are cowards, but I say that this defiance of orders in this case is an example of bravery. It appears that Israeli intelligence is trying to play the odds and figure that if half the sites they hit are actually Hezbollah, then these bombing raids are successful. I think the pilots that actually have to drop the bombs and fire the missiles into buildings housing civilians, who are seeking shelter from those very bombs, see it a different way. Good for them. Would that ever happen in the US military? I don't know, but I doubt it.

It also makes me wonder if some of these attacks on houses and cars are not some sort of personal vendetta killing. The house may not be Hezbollah, but that of a political or business rival of some Israeli higher ups.

The rocket attacks fromHezbollah must stop. They could be stopped by bombs that also kill children, but they could also be stopped by a cease fire. Is that permanent? No. Would a Condi Rice solution, her so-called 'sustainable cease fire' be permanent or actually sustainable? Don't be ridiculous. But a cease fire in any case stops the violence now. Thankfully, some Israeli pilots realize that bombing 'random' Lebanese houses isn't the solution.

(and also check out this great Mark Fiore animation.)

The Money Masters

I urge all 4-5 people that actually read this blog to watch this documentary.

You can buy it here from their website.

http://www.themoneymasters.com/

It's also on Google Video, pretty much in full.
There are three parts about 2 hours long a piece.

The Money Masters.

If you have ever wondered "why" about war as well as economic booms and depressions, this movie explains it all.

If you wonder what are the real root causes of the war in Iraq and the constant strife in the middle east, this movie will explain it to you.

After watching this movie you will be able to listen through the language of the nightly news when people talk about interest rates, income taxes, and epsecially when you hear the words recession and boom. Those last two words are effects of the Federal Reserve pulling the economic strings of the country. You have noticed that the President and Congress always huddle in anticipation of the Fed to annouce interest rates. Of course, neither of those policial bodies has any real control over that. It's a private decision made by a private company.

Sure the president appoints the chairman of the Fed, but do you ever think that any US president would appoint someone who would attempt to reform the Fed or even restrict its power? No way. They wouldn't live to the next election.

Blunt Objects

I think Transformation was supposed to turn the US Military from a blunt object into a precision instrument. With our weapons systems and tactics being implemented by Israel, it appears Israel is taking a crack at it, too. Ah, but even if you tech-up your weapons and tactics, the military and war are stil blunt objects if you wield them unwisely.

Israel's bombs cut off Beirut.

After bombing the last land routes into Beirut, and effectively cutting off the Lebanese capital from relief supplies, Israel issued a statement saying the attacks were designed to thwart Syrian attempts to arm Hezbollah.

As the US military did in Iraq, The Israeli military tries to accompish it's military goals against geurillas and in the end turns the capitol of a country into a hellhole.

The War Tapes

I just came back from seeing The War Tapes at the Belcourt Theater.

It's a compilation of footage taken from camcorders given to members of a company in the New Hampshire National Guard deployed to Iraq.

Present was one of the film makers, Specialist Brandon Wilkins, there to answer questions at the end of the screening. It was totally amazing. His demeanor and his answers to questions seemed to have little to do with what we just watched. I got to ask him two questions. I wanted to ask him many more. I was one of the first to get to ask a question. At the beginning of the film, one of the "cast members" and photographers, Michael Moriarty, said that 9/11 caused him to want to be deployed to Iraq. He specifically said that he wanted to be deployed to Iraq because of 9/11. He said because of 9/11, he wanted to be deployed for war, but only if he could go to Iraq.

The question I asked was, "At the beginning of the film, Mike Moriarty said that he wanted to be deployed to Iraq because of 9/11. Do you think this means that he believed that Iraq or Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11?"

The answer was that he just wanted to be part of the military action.

I asked, "Just any military action? He just wanted to go to war somewhere?"

The answer was that he wanted to be part of the overall action.

Well, um, he specifically said Iraq. And he specifically said because of 9/11.

At the end of the film Mike Moriarty was singing a different tune. He kept repeating the "O" word, oil. He also made it very clear, repeatedly, that he never wanted to go back. It was someone else's turn.

Anyway, there were other questions, and it seemed that Specialist Wilkins was there to toe the party line on Iraq and not to seriously answer serious questions. When asked if he thinks that America is safer because of the war, his answer was that it obviously was. Saddam was a bad guy. He repeated the mantra that Iraq is now free and the people don't have to live in fear. That's when my hand shot up and I had to ask him another question.

I asked, "You say that the Iraqis don't have to live in fear anymore, but what about the sectarian violence, the semi-civil war? Don't people have to live in fear of being killed over any number of things?" People could be blown up at any minute in a market place. They are targeted for execution for trying to work in the Iraqi Police or the Iraqi National Guard. Dozens of people at a time are lined up and executed with their hands behind their back. This stuff happens all the time in Iraq. And this guy is trying to tell us that these people don't live in fear? I couldn't believe it.

One guy could. When I asked my first question, this guy in the seat in front of me turned around and said, "You'e got to be kidding." I just looked at him, super pissed, and said, "That's exactly what he said in the movie." Then after my second question he turned around to me and said, "Oh, come on." I looked at him and just said, "Death Squads, dude."

I tried to keep my questions apolitical, and I think they were. Others, not so much.

Some guy started bringing up all the liberal media and CNN. The one that took the cake, though, was Chris Lugo. He stood up wearing a dirty grey t-shirt stretched across his huge belly, with his huge ratty beard and dreadlocks and identified himself. "I'm Chris Lugo, the Green Party candidate for Senate in Tennessee." He then proceeded to ask a question that was so ridiculous and not-so-well thought out that even Wilkins couldn't take him seriously. I can't even remember what it was.

This was truly depressing to me.

Is this all there is? This is the only antiwar candidate we can muster? A college dropout who loves his hairdresser for starting his dreads for him? My girlfriend said that maybe she should run since this guy can. I said that she'd likely get more votes.

In the end, I say GO SEE THIS MOVIE. I think everyone should see this. It's quite real. The soldiers constantly complain about KBR/Halliburton. They are shot at A LOT. Crazy stuff was happening all the time in Iraq. Most of the shots of Iraq were actually quite depressing.

Everyone should also see the Discovery Channel's series "Off to War," which chronicled the lives of members of the Arkansas National Guard, most of whom said they got a raw deal. They said that going to war in a foreign country is not what they signed up for. It really wasn't. That was another question I wanted to ask. None of these men ever mentioned the fact that they were in the National Guard and they were being deployed to a foreign country. They never gave their opinion on that in The War Tapes.

My take home message is to go see this film and try to make sure you go to a screening where someone is there to answer questions. Hopefully, it won't be someone so "on message."

Much better

Last week I had a post where I attempted to parody the situation in Israel and Lebanon by setting it here in the US.

Well, someone in the LA Times did it so much better (of course).

Thanks to Freeway Blogger.



(yeah, I stole it, so what?)

Scary crap.

Koreas exchange fire along DMZ

The 'right' has their own conspiracy theories

The blog, EU Referendum, is claiming that Lebanese are staging photographs where different men carry around the same dead children in order to gain more sympathy.

See:
We need to know the truth.
and
The Green helmet mystery continues.

It may be true, it may not be. I certainly don't know, but don't you think this is really reaching? I mean, it's still a bunch of dead kids. It's still little lifeless toddlers and kindergarteners that won't go to school anymore.

For some real fun on this let's take a trip to Little Gruesome Fascists, I mean little green footballs.

No linky, only texty:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21884_Wire_Services_Defend_Staged_Photos

some comments:
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ploome hineni 8/1/2006 02:06PM PDT
..I am absolutely thrilled


NY Nana 8/1/2006 02:10PM PDT
And watch, over the next few weeks, how they will obfuscate, and never really admit they are lying through their teeth, and just continuing their policy of veiled and now more and more blatant Jew hate, using Israel as their excuse.


goodbye_natalie 8/1/2006 02:13PM PDT
In doing a little research, it appears to me that all of Lebanon and Palestine should be considered Israel as dictated by law unless you are a Canaanite, a Hittite, a Hivite, a Perizzite, a Girgashite, an Amorite, or a Jebusite.

And if you are a a Canaanite, a Hittite, a Hivite, a Perizzite, a Girgashite, an Amorite, or a Jebusite, you can file your complaint with God. The same one that rejected your first complaint 3,200 years ago.

So, the way I see it, Lebanon and Palestine are internal matters of Israeli law and none of the rest of the world's business.

Carry on Israel...


scaramouche 8/1/2006 02:15PM PDT

The Islamo-Nazis are like violin prodigies, and the media are their well-tuned Stadivarius.


Ward Cleaver 8/1/2006 02:17PM PDT
#38 goodbye_natalie

Amen to that, brother. I've been thinking lately they should just keep Lebanon. Who needs Gaza and the West Bank, when you've got Lebanon?


RedWhiteAndJew 8/1/2006 02:23PM PDT
What a suprisy-prize-prize. The soulless ghouls of HezzBolus know that pictures of dead children will tear at the heart strings of the non-muslim world. They and their ilk have no such sensitivity, but they can sure play us.

(Well, some of us, anyway...)

Excerpt from HezzBolus playbook

Remember, always suffocate the children to be presented as victims of the Zionist entity or Great Satan before allowing the lapdog media to film them. Ensure that any members of the lapdog media who do photograph or film such preparations become tragic victims of the "massacre" as well.

I don't know what motivates western media's willing participation, but I suspect institutional and personal anti-Semitism, not to mention a hefty dose of general self-loathing, are high up on the ingredient list.


sms111 8/1/2006 02:28PM PDT
CNN denied they wsere in cahoots with Saddam. Reuters, you're next.


gameface 8/1/2006 02:46PM PDT
Israel is the canary in the mine. We must crush Iran and Syria now.


fireangel 8/1/2006 02:51PM PDT
The dead baby pictures were very distressing mainly because the poor tyke was being shown off like some sort of effing trophy. Poor little thing paraded around so ghouls could take it's pictures. Where were the mothers of those children?

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

The mothers are probably dead. Bad dead baby. Where's your dead mother?

I'll grant them that there is a high chance that the photos are in some way staged. You indeed have people staging it as if they had just removed the body just in time to be photographed. You don't see any other bodies in these particular photos being hauled around except the children's.

But guess what. Again, I must iterate, they are still dead children. They were clearly killed by airstrikes. It's still a tragedy.

The Little Gruesome Fascists don't seem to care about all that.


(Now for a REALLY ludicrous conspiracy theory see:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/184069.php )

Could this happen today? Nah.

This is the 60th anniversary of what is known as "The Battle of Athens."

No, I've never heard of it either.

60 years ago, vets took up arms in Tenn.

Harold Powers was only 20 when he watched a frightening sight unfold here 60 years ago: Battle-hardened World War II veterans in a shootout with armed sheriff's deputies.

The so-called "Battle of Athens" began Aug. 1, 1946, when veterans opened fire on the local jail to stop corrupt local officials from stealing an election.
...

Felix Harrod, 84, was a 25-year-old poll watcher at the courthouse during the shootout and said it was common for incumbents in the county about 45 miles northeast of Chattanooga to take ballot boxes to the jail and stuff them with pre-marked ballots.

That was a practice the former soldiers hoped to stop. They offered an all-ex-GI, nonpartisan ticket that promised a fraud-free election and reform. Their rallying cry: "Why fight overseas for freedom and come home and be denied the right to have your ballot counted?"

The shooting continued until the pre-dawn of Aug. 2 when the former soldiers tossed dynamite at the jail, prompting deputies and a sheriff candidate holed up with ballot boxes to surrender.

The uprising left one man with a bullet wound and sent a deputy to prison.

Now, I rarely condone any sort of violence and thankfully no one was seriously wounded or killed in this incident. But, think about it. In this situation, or any situation where those in power attempt to remain in power through theft, it's really an act of force on the part of the one stealing the election. Government is a method of force, and supposedly in a Deomcracy, those with the power to use force on the people are given that power by consent of the people upon which the force will be used. If the power of force is taken by force, and done so by the law, what other recourse is there?

In Mexico, those that voted for the 'left' candidate, Obrador, have taken to the streets (claiming election fruad). Will this accomplish anything? Will it bring them 'justice'? Maybe so, maybe not. Or, as in McMinn County, TN in 1946, is the system so thoroughly corrupted that the only way to achieve achieve 'democracy' is by force (a tad oxymoronic, eh?)

Imagine if what happened 60 years ago happened today. What would it look like? How would the authorities respond and how would it be portrayed in the news?

I can imagine cable news channels declaring it an insurgency or some sort of terrorist act. Those fighting for 'justice' and 'democracy' would be labelled criminals and vigilanties (technically they would be.) The SWAT teams would roll out, along with the FBI and the ATF, and we'd likely have a nice Waco style BBQ. Then we'd get right back to business as usual. The stuffed ballot incumbent would go back to his office and carry on applying the force of government onto citizens without their consent, just like everywhere else.

Mel gets hell

You all know the Mel Gibson story.

And he's rightly catching hell for these kinds of slurs.

Now, what if Mel had been yelling, "Muslims cause all the wars in the world!"
"There's a Muslim conspiracy to take over the world!"

Would he be blackballed? Would newscasters be saying that this was a career-ending move?

I think he'd be lauded as a hero by Fox News. I think all the right wing blogs would have banners praising his name. They say these very things all the time.

I also don't think he'd be blackballed by Hollywood.

Makes you wonder.

Political instability in Cuba? Good.

John Aravosis has done it again. The man is entirely detached from reality.

His spin on the Castro situation, handing over power to his brother while he undergoes surgery, is that this is a case of political instability under Bush's watch.

Look, I'm certainly no fan of Dubya, and that's a vast understatement. But, when people go around making stupid connections between him and things that he really has no control over, it's a total credibility destroyer.

He's done it so many times that I thought he couldn't top himself, but this post takes the cake.

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

Fidel Castro temporarily cedes power to brother while undergoing surgery
by John in DC - 8/01/2006 08:28:00 AM

Great, more foreign instability on Bush's watch.

Comments (54) | Permanent Link |

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

You'd think he of all people would be happy that Fidel is fading away. I'm surprised he didn't call for invasion while Fidel was incapacitated. So some civilians would die. Lots of them support Castro, right?

Jeez, and to somehow spin this as political instability under Bush is just hallucinatory.

Political stability in Cuba under Castro is a bad thing. It's been 'policitally stable' for almost 50 years and it's been a nightmare. If there was blogging and an Amurkablog during the fall of the Soviet Union, Johnny A-list's post would have read:
"Oh, great. Just more political instability under Reagan and Bush."

Let's not forget about the political instability in Lebanon that he's cheering on.
Well, maybe he doesn't like that idea and he's just into dead babies.

I wonder what he'd say if there were a democratic revolution in China.