The World Without Us

I'll let you know if I think it's a bad thing. So far, (5 CDs into the 10 CD audio-book) I'm rooting for nature to re-take and possibly heal this planet. Humans are pretty destructive critters and they have been for a few million years

connectin' the dots

Arabs shocked by Obama speech
Arab leaders have reacted with anger and disbelief to an intensely pro-Israeli speech delivered by Barack Obama, the US Democratic presumptive presidential nominee.

That is American politics. They're shocked? They're leaders?

Israeli Minister Sees Attacking Iran Unavoidable
Posted on Jun 6, 2008

Pentagon pushes out top Air Force civilian, officer
Gates: Leaders failed on nuclear mission
By Aamer Madhani | Washington Bureau

My opinion? Oh, thanks for asking. Good soldiers falling on their swords for a nasty, vicious, clueless, arrogant administration who, from all appearances are attempting to hasten Armageddon.

Blackwater opens San Diego training center

Blackwater supporter attempting to intimidate protesters in San Diego last year. He looks like an old school fat ass chief. The kind of brainwashed meathead that I love to hate. Stubborn, stupid, and vicious. Probably divorced, or with a third world mail-order bride who meekly does his bidding without questioning and has never been encouraged to become independent of his stupid fat ass. Wonder if he knew about a contract that had already been signed ?


Blackwater opens San Diego training center
By ALLISON HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A new counterterrorism training facility operated by military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide echoed with the grunts of Navy sailors, a day after a federal judge ordered the city to let classes begin.

The 24 trainees batted and punched each other Thursday as they learned basic strike tactics in a corner of the 61,000-square-foot converted warehouse in an industrial area near the U.S.-Mexico border.

For the next three weeks, they'll practice shooting inside a 25-yard indoor firing range and learn to wear sidearms safely while wriggling through ship hatches and up narrow ladders installed in white metal cargo containers stacked along one wall of the building to simulate a ship. Trainers from Blackwater will quiz them on distinguishing small boats carrying cargo from those carrying bombs.

The company sued last month because city officials refused to issue final occupancy documents without a vote by the planning commission, after building inspectors had already signed off on the necessary permits. Blackwater said it faced a Navy contract deadline and accused the city of caving to political pressure.



The company has been targeted by anti-war activists and Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who opposed its proposed training camp for law enforcement in a remote mountain community east of San Diego. That project was dropped after firing ranges failed to satisfy noise restrictions, but Filner and others have raised concerns that Blackwater is simply seeking a foothold near the border that could serve as a base for providing private migrant or drug interdiction services to federal agencies.

Blackwater insists the warehouse was built to provide the Navy's "ship reaction force basic" training course as part of a $400 million contract. The program is part of an initiative to train sailors in counterterrorist defense tactics after the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in a Yemeni port.

"This facility supports our oldest customer," said company Vice President Brian Bonfiglio, referring to the military.

Blackwater trains sailors from East Coast bases at its headquarters in Moyock, N.C., where it offers an advanced course using model ships floating in a private lake. It developed the California warehouse to offer the introductory program to sailors from San Diego, Guam, Japan and other Pacific bases.

Bonfiglio acknowledged that Blackwater would gladly host other agencies, including the Border Patrol or Coast Guard, at the warehouse, located in an unmarked building within sight of the border fence and the Tijuana airport control tower beyond.

"If we had a bunch of Border Patrol vehicles parked outside, they'd accuse us of trying to take over the border," he said, only half-joking. "But I'd open up our doors to any law enforcement that needed training, if I could do it."

The company has been expanding its domestic law enforcement training business, opening an 80-acre police training center in Mount Carroll, Ill., in 2007 to complement its 7,000-acre complex in North Carolina.

At the same time, Blackwater, the largest private security firm in Iraq, has come under increased scrutiny for its work abroad. Its guards are under investigation by a federal grand jury in Washington for their involvement in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians. The company is also under investigation for possible weapons smuggling, allegations Blackwater denies.

Weapons smuggling? Like, you know, taking over Khashoggi's trade?

Democratic activist Raymond Lutz said those inquiries can't be ignored when it comes to Blackwater's domestic operations.

"To put training in the hands of private profiteers means that you're giving up your ability to oversee what they're doing and when you give it up you lose control," Lutz said. "Why doesn't the Navy train its own people?"

Bonfiglio said his five trainers offer students a depth of counterterrorism experience the Navy couldn't match without pulling its own experts from other duties.

"What we do overseas needs to be separated from what we do in the United States," he said. "Here we put all of our effort into developing training facilities that are unmatched."

The pride of the facility is the mock warship area, where shipping containers are outfitted with red lights to simulate an onboard emergency and speakers blare clanking background noise during exercises.

On Thursday, workers were reinforcing a maze of wooden walls appended to the cargo containers at the request of city inspectors, who are still reviewing Blackwater's application to use the simulated ship area under an amusement-park ride permit, Bonfiglio said.

City lawyers said the company misled inspectors by applying for permits piecemeal and under the names of affiliated companies instead of making a single application to open a training center with firearms. District Court Judge Marilyn Huff ruled Wednesday that the company did not need to seek special approval because the area is already zoned for vocational school use.

The city has not said whether it will appeal.
2008-06-06 09:00:13 GMT


What won't be on TV in San Diego tonight.

Does the Constitution Permit Government to Favor Religion over Nonreligion? Justice Scalia Says Yes

Thus, there is literally nothing in the Constitution’s text to support a distinction between monotheistic and other faiths, while there is strong textual support for the principle that government may not favor religion over nonreligion. That ought to be more than enough to commend the principle to Justice Scalia, who is a self-described textualist.


McCain Wins? We're McFucked
Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 12 Feb 2008

The bureaucratic behemoth DoD and your tax dollars

Let's see how the fuckers are spending your money today.


Tomgram: William Astore, Militarizing Your Cyberspace
posted June 05, 2008 10:49 am

...it's now proposing a massive $30 billion cyberspace boondoggle, as retired Air Force Lt. Col. William Astore writes below, that will, theoretically, provide the Air Force with the ability to fry any computer on Earth...

Attention Geeks and HackersUncle Sam's Cyber Force Wants You!
By William J. Astore

... Part of the Air Force's new "above all" vision of full-spectrum dominance, America's emerging cyber force has control fantasies that would impress George Orwell. Working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Department of Homeland Security, and other governmental agencies, the Air Force's stated goal is to gain access to, and control over, any and all networked computers, anywhere on Earth, at a proposed cost to you, the American taxpayer, of $30 billion over the first five years...


Judge allows Blackwater to open San Diego center
By ALLISON HOFFMAN – 15 hours ago

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday ordered the city to allow military contractor Blackwater Worldwide to begin using a new counterterrorism training center in a warehouse outfitted with an indoor firing range.

District Judge Marilyn Huff ruled that the company would suffer irreparable harm if it could not begin holding classes there for Navy sailors.

Frankly, I'm wondering who this judge, or her husband is playing golf with? So tell me again how judges interpret the law to benefit the people they are paid to serve?

Oh. My. God

I am appalled by this woman. As an older white woman who did support Hillary, I can say with all honesty that I WILL vote for Obama. Bitch just clinched it for me.

The MoJo Interview: John Cusack

Interview: The former Lloyd Dobler banters with MoJo editor Clara Jeffery about his movie War, Inc., her inner 16-year-old, and what it's like to still be Gen X's favorite antihero heartthrob.

By Clara Jeffery

May 28, 2008


Hmmmm, ya think we'll ever get to see War Inc. in San Diego?

Bwaaaa Ha ha hahahahahah.

When Cusack was making his teeny-bop weirdo/hero movies I was working in the bowels of the already vast, overblown, overpaid military-industrial-complex. I wasn't overpaid, hell the outsourcing was outsourced. No security clearance. Shit jobs. Shit pay. No piss test needed. I was cute. Somebody would slide their card for me if I needed to go somewhere.

Now you don't get past the lobby without fingerprints, palm scans, eye scans, voice activation or some other nifty security measure. Not to mention the ubiquitous cameras.

Some shit never changes, though:

Indefensible Spending
Posted on Jun 1, 2008
The Joint Strike Fighter program is expected to cost taxpayers $300 billion. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, who penned an infamous Defense Department memo, is seen above hawking the plane.
By Robert Scheer
This Op-Ed was originally published in The Los Angeles

Compare and Contrast

From the ruins, Chinese begin to rebuild lives
6/2/2008
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
...Reconstruction has started, even as the communist government attempts to feed and shelter about 5 million people left homeless by the massive disaster...

Earthquake relief lifts the foundering reputation of the ‘people’s premier’
June 02, 2008 Scotland's award-winning independent newspaper
...Western nations praised China for its fast and effective help to earthquake victims, and its willingness to accept international aid. China's efforts looked especially good compared with the slowness and secrecy after the devastating cyclone in neighbouring Burma.

Gordon Brown last week said the response of Wen and other Chinese leaders in Sichuan was "nothing short of magnificent". Some US commentators have also pointed out the relatively sluggish response of George W Bush to Hurricane Katrina in 2005....


FEMA’s Deadline to Close Trailer Parks Leaves Many Hopeless
By Anna Boyd
12:53, June 2nd 2008
...“I’m under more stress now than in the hurricane. They don't even do me the courtesy of responding. It's just, ‘When are you going to leave? When are you going to leave?’ They don't seem to care where we end up,” Ghulam Nasim, 79, a retired doctor who packed his things, but remained in his trailer said, according to the LA Times. And like him are many other residents who lack alternatives....