Swidarski speaks

It seems like so long ago, the night of the last Presidential election, with the excitement and anticipation. Before I went to sleep that night I spent some time checking "unscientific" online polls. I copied and pasted these into e-mails, sure that when I woke up on November 3rd, that John Kerry would be the new President. And boy, did we need a new President.
Well, to my dismay, we didn't get anything new. We got more of the same. I was furious, but not surprised. I remember sending out a barrage of e-mails, later on in that week, with something like, "I told you so, they rigged it and they want to make this country just like Brazil." You know what Brazil is like? A few stinking, filthy rich people driving around in bullet-proof SUVs and living in gated and guarded compounds, and the majority of the people barely surviving. Massive amounts of homeless children, driven to prostitution, and who knows what else.

I'll bet you're wondering where the hell I'm going with this aren't you?

Cue the Twilight Zone music, OK?

Diebold got started in it's voting machine business in Brazil.

Ok then

Politics: Fallout From the Dubai Debacle

...One is an Israeli high-tech company that is paying $225 million to purchase Sourcefire, a Maryland software firm that sells firewall protection. Its customers include the Pentagon. Another Dubai firm, Dubai International Capital,...

Ok then. This should be investigated. We really should thank our lucky stars for people like Dennis Kucinich and Sibel_Edmonds

Letter to Preznit Poseur

Preznit Poseur was sent a letter by a real pilot recently. The real pilot returned his wings and bars. Among other things, the real pilot had this to say:

"As a citizen, a patriot, a parent and grandparent, a lawyer and law teacher I am left with such a feeling of loss and helplessness. I think of myself as a good American and I ask myself what can I do when I see the face of evil? Illegal and immoral war, torture and confinement for life without trial have never been part of our Constitutional tradition. But my vote has become meaningless because I live in a safe district drawn by your political party. My congressman is unresponsive to my concerns because his time is filled with lobbyists' largess. Protests are limited to your "free speech zones", out of sight of the parade. Even speaking openly is to risk being labeled un-American, pro-terrorist or anti-troops. And I am a disciplined pacifist, so any violent act is out of the question. "

here's the rest of the letter

Dubai port deal and repercussions

U.S. military brass lobbied for UAE port deal
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, March 10, 2006
ABU DHABI — The American military in the Gulf until yesterday promoted the United Arab Emirates in its attempt to operate major ports in the United States.
Over the past week, officers from U.S. Central Command and the Coast Guard were authorized to brief Congress on the UAE's record of handling and securing port calls by U.S. Navy ships.

Dubai and Demagoguery
March 10, 2006
by Justin Raimondo
antiwar.com
The Huffington-Hastert united front against doing business with Arabs

Dubai threat to hit back
Friday March 10, 2006
By Roxana Tiron
Dubai is threatening retaliation against American strategic and commercial interests if Washington blocks its $6.8 billion takeover of operations at several U.S. ports.

Oh boy, what a mess. We may not like shit like this:

http://travel.state.gov/family/abduction/country/country_532.html
CUSTODY DISPUTES: When child custody disputes arise between parents, custody decisions are based on Islamic (Shari''a) law. Non-UAE nationals resident in the UAE, whether married to a UAE or non-UAE citizen, may file custody cases in the UAE. Non-residents of the UAE may also file custody cases in the UAE, but may need to authorize a UAE resident and/or a lawyer practicing in the UAE to act on their behalf for the duration of the case. Non-Muslims are also permitted to file cases in the UAE family courts, under Shari''a law.

But being the energy swine that we are, no thanks to vehicle manufacturers and suburban home developers mucking around in every city government in the US, we need the UAE.
United Arab Emirates
Energy Information Administration
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is important to world energy markets because it contains 98 billion barrels, or nearly 10 percent, of the world's proven oil reserves. The UAE also holds the%

Enron stuff

Lawyer for Skilling Spars With Fastow
By Thomas S. Mulligan
The Los Angeles Times
Wednesday 08 March 2006

Houston - The Enron trial turned into a slugfest today as former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew S. Fastow traded verbal shots with the chief defense lawyer for Fastow's former boss, Jeffrey K. Skilling.

I want her
in the courtroom.

If you have to ask, you'll never know

NYSE goes public after 214 years
Last Updated Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:37:46 EST

UPDATE 2-Grasso sees future in private equity, banking
Wed Mar 8, 2006 1:27 PM ET

How Grasso Earned It
by Dan Ackman
09.11.03, 10:22 AM ET

Calif. GOP Halts Voter Registration Plan
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
(AP) - SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.-The California Republican Party suspended its practice of paying people who sign up GOP voters while prosecutors investigate whether some registrations are improper.
Oh look, more Republican corruption. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...whah?

The Coming Resource Wars
Michael T. Klare
March 07, 2006

Don't ask me how all these seemingly unrelated articles got stuck in this post. If you have to ask, you'll never know. Just be glad you don't live in MY head, eh?

I'm almost done with this book:

SNL: Natalie Portman Digital Short

US Aid to Israel Feeding the Cuckoo
CounterPunch
November 16, 2002
by PAUL de ROOIJ

http://www.stop-us-military-aid-to-israel.net/

U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact

from Project Censored 2004

Reasons to Oppose US Aid to Israel

Except for the SNL skit, this information is widely disseminated in Israel's neighborhood, along with lots of hatred spewed during church services on Fridays. It keeps the sheeple focused on the "West", the immoral, evil "West" and not focused on the failings of the governments of countries with predominantly Islamic inhabitants.


Pigs At The Trough
U.S. Politicians Line Up To Prostitute Themselves For AIPAC
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is holding its annual policy conference this week. Speakers today include House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Fmr. Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and, via satellite, the chairman of Israel's Labor Party, Amir Peretz.3/6/2006: WASHINGTON, DC: 40 min.

Saudi Arabia

Between tradition and demands for change
Saudi Arabia: reality check

This is a long piece, and I found it interesting. I've never been to Saudi Arabia, so I can only hope that it is balanced in it's praise and criticism of the Kingdom.

That said, I personally still harbor resentment that we have been told over and over again that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and those investigations seem to have gone nowhere. I also think it is cruel to force someone to be covered from head to toe in black in a place that reaches 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer.

Looks like to me, that SA is still exporting terrorists. This is a very short dispatch, with one very interesting sentence in it.

Arrested Saudi suspect in Iraq is psychotic, says KSA

I found this PBS special fascinating.

Frontline: House of Saud

I don't know who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. I do know that whoever is responsible for them is wealthy and powerful enough to escape punishment.

Walmart and emergency contraception

Wal-Mart to carry Plan B contraception
Retailer's pharmacies currently only carry the product in 2 states -- Illinois and Massachusetts -- as mandated by law.

...The company said it will maintain its conscientious objection policy, which lets employees who don't feel comfortable dispensing a prescription to refer customers to another pharmacist or pharmacy.

Nuclear weapons and oil and dollars

I'm slurping down my first cup of coffee this morning,and what do I find interesting?

From India:
IAEA says no evidence of Iranian n-weapons plan

From Lebanon:
...The euros-for-oil story is just one of many motives that people have proposed to explain the Bush Administration’s attack on Iraq, given that Saddam had neither terrorist ties nor weapons of mass destruction, but it fails to convince.
The rapidly deteriorating financial position of the United States probably does explain the Federal Reserve’s announcement that on March 24 it will stop publishing data on the M3 money supply, which tracks how many US dollars are held by foreigners...
Iran, oil and euros: The war scenario


From Canada:
Mainline: Geostrategy Feeds America's Oil Addiction

Video
Blowing the N-whistle : Depleted uranium: How dangerous is it?

Video
Why Has Our Military Refused to Show This Training Video To Our Troops Now Serving In Iraq?

And why do I find foreign sources of news interesting? Gee, think it might be because some of our newz sucks?

Anyone who still trusts the Bush Administration needs to have their IQ checked to make sure it's in the triple digits.

More on Bush Crime Family

Senator Feinstein's War Profiteering

...Feinstein, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee as well as the Select Committee on Intelligence, is reaping the benefits of her husband's investments. The Democratic royal family recently purchased a $16.5 million mansion in the flush Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. It's a disgusting display of war profiteering, and just like Cheney, the leading Democrat should be called out for her offense...

I don't know why, but I'm feeling particularly anti-chutzpah this morning. Maybe it's because I expect more from Democrats. Maybe it's because I'm disgusted with the military-industrial-congressional complex. Let me qualify that: I'm disgusted that so many Americans are dependent on the bloated military budget for their livelihood. Finding out just what percentage of the American public that actually is dependent on this system has been a frustrating experience for me.

I believe that any system dependent on destruction is doomed to fail.

Curiosities

One hour and twenty-one minutes, fifty seconds.
Dedicated to the lives we lost on 9-11

This man had had an interesting career. I remember watching him go through the whole cartoon version in a NOVA episode. Some interesting letters followed.

He designed the WTC complex

..Current Projects
Mr. Robertson is currently working with I.M. Pei on the Museum for Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, and the Macao Science Center in Macao, China. He is also working with Kohn Pedersen Fox on the Shanghai World Financial Center...

(Can you hear it? Unt you vill be revarded for your cooperation een zees matter)

Go ahead, call me a conspiracy theorist. It would be one of the nicer things I've been called.

Chimp in Charge

You still think that corporate puppet in charge won the 2004 election fairly? I have two words for you: FUCK YOU. And here's more for you: Pull your head out of your ass, and shut the fuck up because I don't want shit spewed all over me about how dumb Americans are. Let me say it again, FUCK YOU. Do your homework and quit bashing average Americans. I've had it with that noise.

Whistleblower Hero is Threatened with Prison for Exposing Diebold
Lyn Davis Lear 02.27.06

And San Diego's Registrar Of Voters was thrilled at the re-certification of un-certifiable voting machines because it means he won't have to go to jail.

Someone accessed 40 Palm Beach County voting machines Nov 2004
2-23-06:

The internal logs of at least 40 Sequoia touch-screen voting machines reveal that votes were time and date-stamped as cast two weeks before the election, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Black Box Voting successfully sued former Palm Beach County (FL) Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore to get the audit records for the 2004 presidential election.

After investing over $7,000 and waiting nine months for the records, Black Box Voting discovered that the voting machine logs contained approximately 100,000 errors. According to voting machine assignment logs, Palm Beach County used 4,313 machines in the Nov. 2004 election. During election day, 1,475 voting system calibrations were performed while the polls were open, providing documentation to substantiate reports from citizens indicating the wrong candidate was selected when they tried to vote.

Another disturbing find was several dozen voting machines with votes for the Nov. 2, 2004 election cast on dates like Oct. 16, 15, 19, 13, 25, 28 2004 and one tape dated in 2010. These machines did not contain any votes date-stamped on Nov. 2, 2004.

You can find the complete set of raw voting machine event logs for Palm Beach County here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/6628.html
Note that some items were not provided to us and are omitted from the logs.

The logs rule out the possibility that these were Logic & Accuracy (L&A) test results, and verified that these results did appear in the final totals. In addition to the date discrepancies, most had incorrect polling times, with votes appearing throughout the wee hours of the night. These machines were L&A tested, and the L&A test activities appeared in the logs with the correct date and time.

According to the voting machine assignment log, these machines were not assigned to early voting locations. The number of votes on each machine also corresponds with the numbers typical of polling place machines rather than early voting.

Many of these machines showed unexplained log activity after the L&A test but before Election Day. In addition, many more machines without date anomalies showed this log activity, which revealed someone powering up the machine, opening the program, then powering it down again. In one instance, the date discrepancy appeared when someone accessed the machine two minutes after the L&A test was completed.

Voting machines are computers, and computers have batteries that can cause date and time discrepancies, but it does not appear that these particular discrepancies could have been caused by battery problems.

The evidence indicates that someone accessed the computers after the L&A and before the election, and that this access caused a change in the machine's reporting functions, at least for date and time. Such access would take a high degree of inside access. It is not known whether any other changes were introduced into the voting machines at this time. As learned in the Hursti experiments, it is possible for an insider to access the machines and leave no trace, but sometimes a hasty or clumsy access (such as forgetting to enter a correct date/time value when altering a record) will leave telltale tracks.

For another example of time discrepancies, see the Volusia County poll tapes

Approximately 4,000 votes were cast on these machines. The vote pattern and activity pattern appears to be identical to typical patterns found on Election Day -- All votes on the discrepant machines were spread over a 12-hour period, the length of time the Florida polls are open.

A member of the Palm Beach County electronic voting technical committee asked for the names of the technicians for Palm Beach who had access to the machines during that time, but the IT person, Jeff Darter, remained silent and never answered the question.

The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Arthur Anderson, said that his staff had looked into the problem and that the votes were normal, it's just that the dates somehow changed.

Other anomalies
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/6627.html (Anomaly info)

• "Card Stuck" erroroccurredd at least 70,000 times.

The logs show that these cards were placed in the machine (which normally "swallows" the card like old-fashioned ATM machines, holding the card inside until thevoting activitiess are complete, then ejecting it). The logs show that the card was authenticated, indicating that the machine believed the card was valid and had retrieved the appropriate ballot. Just before the vote was cast, the "card stuck" error appeared.

According to Michelle Shafer, who is now the spokesperson for Sequoia Voting Systems, a card stuck error stuck error appears "any time an activation card makes contact with the activator in the electronic voting unit and comes back out. This happens for the following reasons:

• A voter does not push the card all the way in so it comes back out
• A voter inserts the card again after having already used it to vote once...
• A voter inserts the card backwards
• The card actually gets stuck in the machine (not typicalpreviously Sequoiaquioa rep attributed the card stuck error to jiggling the card while it is inserted, however that doesn't seem to hold up since it would take a pair of tweezers and considerable manual dexterity to jiggle it.

As to putting the card in backwards or upside down, the message that normally appears is probably the "invalid card insertion" message. Because of the high number of these errors, and because no reports were produced indicating that any voters had reported the card popping out while they were trying to vote, Black Box Voting recommended to Palm Beach that testing should be done to replicate the error, making sure that the explanation holds water and that there is no adverse impact on the vote.

A member of the Committee asked whether a testing day could be set up, but Jeff Darter again sat silent, and despite some prodding, no such testing appears to be on the horizon.

• AC Power Off Incidents Any of us who use computers know that it is not a good idea to yank the power from your machine while you are entering mission-critical data, especially without a backup. (The Palm Beach voting machines lack voter verified paper trails.)

Dozens of voting machines were turned off during the middle of the election while the polls were open. Machine # 6359 in precinct 1036 was powered down 128 times during the election.

Other power-related issues included "Main Battery not charging" and "backup battery too low".

• "Unknown event" messages

A handful of machines showed "unknown event" messages, apparently of different kinds. This is an interesting error message, since the FEC guidelines frown on undefined exceptions. What is the point of having an error message if you don't reveal anything about what the error is?

Machine number 5875 in Precinct 1077 showed two different "unknown errors," listing them as "unknown error 219" and "unknown error 220."

• auto-act election info bad and "auto-acveryrite ver fail" messages also show up in the logs, with the "election info bad" message appearing hundreds of times.

• Card encryption bad and Card read fail errors also appeared, with the encryption error message the more frequent of the two.

• Polls closed and results report messages would be expected to appear on every voting machine at the end of the voting cycle, but these revealed problems with poll worker training and procedures at the administrative/training level. Some logs reported one report printed, some two, three, four or five, and several not only had no results tape printed but showed no closing of the polls. (Closing the polls tells the voting machine not to accept any more votes).

• Simulation not sim task was a message that offered no ready explanation, and another that left us wondering was the "Maint Official AT Report" error. Call a maintenance official? Maintain an official AT report?

• SyErr 23: RC/AT Verify
and Sys Err 31: Vote Not Rec 1 imply a system error of some type, at least one of which would affect the vote.

• EEPROM failure
Now this is a message you don't want to see on a voting machine. It happened a couple dozen times. It is somewhat akin to seeing a "hard disk failure" message on your computer -- not a good thing at all if you are in the process of entering critical time-sensitive data.

The logs indicate that poll workers used significantly different operating procedures from one place to another. One of the least desirable actions some poll workers were taking was to perform multiple calibrations on the machines during the day, every few hours.

Hundreds of records were simply missing, not provided at all, making it impossible to complete a formal audit.

After meeting with the authorities to determine protocols about releasing the detailed report, Black Box Voting plans to publish a detail report giving full log details on the 40 machines accessed by an insider.

Sequoia machines - locations

Sequoia touch-screens are also used in Pinellas County (FL), Riverside, San Bernardino andcountiesClara countis (CA), New Mexico, New Jersey, and formerly in Snohomish County (WA).

A sampling of Palm Beach precincts with votes appearing on wrong date/time

Precinct 3066 machine #8438 counted Oct. 15
Precinct 3068 machine #8490 Counted Oct. 28
Precinct 3086 machine #8316 counted Oct 14
Precinct 2132 machine #7441 counted Oct. 15
Precinct 6006 machine #7914 counted Oct. 14
Precinct 6018 machine #7877 counted Oct. 14
Precinct 4068 machine #8997 counted Oct. 16
Precinct 5142 machine #9724 counted Oct 18
Precinct 2072 machine #6848 counted Oct. 15
Precinct 4140 machine #9289 counted Oct. 17
Precinct 4084 machine #8101 counted Oct. 17

PERMISSION TO REPRINT GRANTED, WITH LINK TO http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

Bev Harris
Board Administrator
Username: Admin

Post Number: 3750
Registered: 12-2004

Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?)
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 07:15 am:

Port Deal

David Sirota covered this on the 23rd and 24th.

Pen and Sword has some interesting information also.

And totally unrelated, but something that has bothered me about the abortion ban in South Dakota. Just watching some of these people in their absolute belief that all abortions should be banned makes me sick. The only explanation that I could fathom about their attitude is that they are just insulated from certain realities. Here is a reality from Zimbabwe that may never enter their minds, and is not likely to show up in their neighborhoods any time soon. Yes, I know that this is not Zimbabwe, but I also wonder how many of these absolutist types would adopt babies, once they managed to shove their religious bullshit down everyone else's throats, by making it law.

And since I'm in total gross out mode, here's another icky:

Four Indicted in N.Y. Human Tissue Thefts
By TOM HAYS Associated Press Writer

CorpWatch�:�Ports of Profit

CorpWatch�:�Ports of Profit
Dubai Does Brisk War Businessby Pratap Chatterjee, Special
to CorpWatchFebruary 24th, 2006

And more on UAE # 1

And more on UAE # 2

Suicide bombers attack Saudi oil facility

Reports of explosion at key Saudi oil facility pushes oil price over $62
By Finfacts Team
Feb 24, 2006, 14:04
Reports of explosion at key Saudi oil facility pushes oil price over $62

Anybody else smell a rat here? This follows very quickly on the heels of the horrible Shiite mosque bombing in Iraq. You know the one right before this:Sunni Party Quits Iraq Government Talks After Mosque Bombing


Why the hell did we step into a sectarian problem that has been brewing since around 680 ?

Oh, yeah, gas and oil.

Oil Prices Soar After Saudi Explosion
Associated Press
Update 7: 02.24.2006, 09:02 AM


Going just swimmingly, that attempt to stabilize the area of the world where our energy sources are, isn't it? I have a question for men, since I don't know a whole lot of women who want to do this when they grow up: Who the fuck benefits when shit gets blown up?

And...um...looks like it's 21 instead of 6 ports, hmmmm....
"The security of port terminal operations is a key concern. More than 7 million cargo containers come through 361 American ports annually, half of the containers through New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif. Only a small percentage are physically searched and just 37 percent currently screened for radiation, an indication of an attempt to smuggle in nuclear material that could be used for a "dirty bomb."

Why only 37% are screened? bananas, kitty litter and toilets

but maybe it's not so bad, after all...

"Since the terrorist attacks, it has cut ties with the Taliban, frozen just over $1 million in alleged terrorist funding, and given the United States key military basing and over-flight rights. At any given time, there are 77,000 U.S. service members on leave in the United Arab Emirates, according to the Pentagon. "...
UAE terminal takeover extends to 21 ports
By PAMELA HESS
UPI Pentagon Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI)

What happens next?

What happens on March 2nd has me very nervous. Will the port transaction go through? Will Iran start selling it's oil in Euros?
Bourse and Petrodollar Wars
Iran Oil Feb 15, 2006
Bahman Aghai Diba PhD International Law
Persian Journal
bourse (definition)



Things I found iteresting today:

Iran was not referred to the Security Council for Noncompliance
By Mike Whitney
The public should not be worried about Iran, rather, it should
be concerned about the implications of allowing one nation to
arbitrarily repeal internationally-accepted treaties and dictate
how the world will be run.


Sudan rejects UN troops for Darfur
By Opheera McDoom 1 hour, 51 minutes ago
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan rejects U.S.-backed efforts to have U.N. peacekeeping troops take over from African Union troops in the country's troubled Darfur region, Foreign Minister Lam Akol said on Wednesday.


Ex-Malaysia PM: Abramoff Was Paid $1.2M
By PAULINE JASUDASON Associated Press Writer
(AP) - KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia-Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said disgraced U.S. lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to organize a meeting between him and President Bush in 2002, but denied the money came from the Malaysian government.

Interview with Robert Baer, ex-CIA, author of See no Evil, which Syriana was loosly based on.
Seeing Only Evil

Dubai Ports

DUBAI FIRM TIED TO WHITE HOUSE
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com
The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House. One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port. Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.
The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and who was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration...

Uh yeah, like I said
Happy Valentines Day from Homeland Security Sold, to the highest bidder

Treasury Secretary John Snow last week informed Congress that he would begin borrowing from the federal employees’ retirement fund to avoid exceeding the nation’s statutory debt limit of $8.184 trillion
GOP, once noisy over debt limit hikes, zips its lip on this one

Repukes, what you gonna do?

Bush Shrugs Off Objections to Port Deal-
WASHINGTON - Brushing aside objections from Republicans and Democrats alike,
President Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates. He pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement

Stop the voting machine fraud

BOWEN ON SECRETARY OF STATE’S DECISION TO RE-CERTIFY DIEBOLD MACHINES FOR USE IN CALIFORNIA
California Political Desk
February 17, 2006



State OKs flawed voting machines
Article Last Updated: 02/20/2006 3:48 AM PST


'Daily Voting News' - Top 5 Stories from the Past Week! Bradblog.

Black Box Voting homework
This is a very important news post, with national implications because -- with YOUR help: you must send five specific e-mails -- today's miscarriage of democracy will give you the first good shot at subpoena-induced sworn testimony from voting machine makers and testing labs. Vendors and voting machine examiners: Enjoy the reprieve that McPherson just handed you, because the American citizenry -- with the help of some California senators -- is about to make sure it stops right now.
Citizens: Instructions are provided in this article.
Black Box Voting homework
Posted on Friday, February 17, 2006 - 05:40 pm:

okee dokee smokee

Democrats plan bill to block Dubai port deal
Reuters/ABC
Feb 17, 2006 — By Jeremy Pelofsky and Caroline Drees


Dubai Ports World seeks 6.5 bln usd loan to fund P&O acquisition
AFX News Limited
02.19.2006, 03:24 AM

White House defends ports takeover stance
FT.com
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
Published: February 19 2006 19:20 Last updated: February 19 2006 19:20

Holy Crap

15 dead in Nigeria as protesters attack Christians
Updated Sat. Feb. 18 2006 4:55 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

9 foreign oil workers seized in Nigeria
OSMOND CHIDI
Associated Press
Posted on Sat, Feb. 18, 2006

Seminar on Suicide Bombings Held in Iran
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago
TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian group that claims its members are dedicated to becoming suicide bombers warned the United States and Britain on Saturday that they will strike coalition military bases in Iraq if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked

This is getting tedious, but fubar over at Needlenose has done more homework than I'm willing to again and again and and again .

Musica

This is how I feel today.





Maybe music will help

Always on the Run - Lenny Kravitz
St Elmo's Fire - Michael Franks
Thing Called Love - Bonnie Raitt
Buffalo River Home - John Hiatt
Have a Heart - Bonnie Raitt
Satellites - Rickie Lee Jones
Change It - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Tell Somebody - Rickie Lee Jones
Ghost Train - Rickie Lee Jones
(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone - Aretha Franklin

Tell Somebody (Repeal The Patriot Acts Now) Lyrics (c 2003)
Not long ago it was alright
There were no bad dreams that kept me up at night
It was not brother against brother
Mother against mother
So tell somebody,You've got to tell somebody
Tell somebody what happened in the USA
Now they want us to just get in line
Behind a president
When you know they spent milions of dollars
Condemning and accusing
The last one from the other side
Tell somebody, tell somebody
Tell somebody What's happening in the USA?
Tell somebody, tell somebody
Tell somebody
What happened in the USA
Tell somebody, tell somebody, tell somebody...
I want to know how far you will go
To protect our right of free speech?
Because it only took a moment
Before it faded out of reach...
Oh, tell somebody, tell sombody right now
Tell somebody
What happened in the USA?
I wanna read about it in the news
I wanna hear about it on tv, yeah
What happened in the USA?
When they ask you
What happened in the USA?
Tell somebody.
They'll wanna know, oh people
The depth of our democracy
Is only as good as the voices of protest she protects
Voices of protest - rise!

Better, anyway.... but later I find this:
Baaaaahhh No Shame

I find this amusing

Housing Construction Soars in January--

Looks good, right?
The American dream of home ownership. Built by Americans, right?
Um...no

Well, we're energy independent, so that's all American, right?
Uh, nope

LNG, What is that?
http://timrileylaw.com/LNG_film.htm (scroll down)

Well, the reason we have been so successful as a country is because we are the bread basket of the world, we have plenty of water for agriculture and we build new homes where the water is, right?

Oooops, look at Arizona's water level now

But there's government tax incentives for developers to build energy and water conserving devices, in the new homes right?

http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20010806_energy.htm

..Home builders and contractors also get a shot at tax relief under the new energy bill. When they install energy-efficient heating and cooling systems in a new home they're constructing, they may be able to qualify for up to a $2,000 credit per home, beginning next January 1. The systems will need to pass energy-rating or local certification muster....

Uh... yeah, they're gonna jump through a whole bunch of hoops to get a $2,000 tax credit on a $500,000 home. Pffffffft.


But if you already own a home and you make the improvements, the value of your home goes up, right?

Pffffffft

I don't think so

Iraqi Port Weathers Danish Storm

by Lotte Folke Kaarsholm, Charlotte Aagaard and Osama Al-Habahbeh,
Special to CorpWatch
January 31st, 2006

Shipping Giant Maersk, Denmark's largest company, had positioned itself well for that advantage. Starting in August 2002, Maersk's giant container ships had delivered a third of all U.S. military equipment to the region, in preparation for the invasion of Iraq.

Baghdad Embassy Bonanza
Kuwait Company’s Secret Contract & Low-Wage Labor
by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch
February 12th, 2006

All this and more Abu Ghraib pictures. How long are the Iraqi's supposed to take this shit? Think the Muslim rage is really about cartoons?
I don't think so.
Think the MSM really thinks that Cheney's hunting accident is all that important?
I don't think so
Think the wars are really about whatever crap they are trying to feed us this week?.
I don't think so

Liberal Media

Oh really?



Happy Valentines Day from Homeland Security ...

P&O shareholders back $6.8bn Dubai Ports World bid Posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Dubai

..Dubai and Singapore had wrestled for control of P&O's key container ports in Asia, Europe and the Americas, following a three-year boom in shipping on the back of growth in Chinese demand, expanding trade and a global economic recovery...

Wonder if they'll be able to unload imams that are a pain in the ass to those in power there?? No wait, they already did that in Denmark

Democracy in America

This isn't a democracy, it's a fucking joke .

Wake up America, we been Played .

Selling the forests

Government wants to sell thousands of acres of National Forest land.

...listing 309,421 acres in more than 30 states

...The land sales are part of President Bush's new budget proposal, which seeks to pare the federal deficit....

....Forest Service officials say the sales are targeted to raise $800 million over the next five years

Gee, here's a thought, quit running up the deficit on wars, and a disgustingly bloated military budget, that does not benefit the active duty troops or the retired veterans, and quit subsidizing things like AK Sen Ted Steven's bridge to nowhere , and you may not have to sell the forests.

By the way, Bush, where are you and your war criminals going to hide after all the forests are clear cut?

Hiiiiiiiiiii skippy!

And skippy fans, welcome, come on in, have a look see, talk to me, agree or disagree, it's still a free country, right?

Mohammed Cartoons stoke the fire

Make no mistake, this is a political tool being used by leaders in Western Countries and leaders in the Middle East. It is being fueled by two very flammable sources---gas and oil This is economic, not religious. By leaders I mean business leaders, financiers and their purchased politicians. Including religious leaders in the West AND the Middle East. If you can't extrapolate that from only today's top world headlines, I can't help you.

But, if you happen to wander over to Google News and take a look, hum part of a song to yourself.

Come on everybody (to the tune of Old MacDonald's Farm, ok?)

Ok, I'm more angry than creative, so I'll simplify it and only go for the chorus line:

With a pipeline here
and a pipeline there
here a pipe, there a pipe, everywhere a pipe-line
eeeh-eye-eeeh-eye-oh .....



You know, when I started out 4 1/2 years ago, to become more informed about the real world & how it functions, you know, what life is like outside the US (well, I've always been curious about that) and what could possibly have motivated those "terrists", I really didn't know how much anger it would provoke in me, towards the sacred cow of capitalism, and the parasites who flourish inside that bloody sacred cow. I didn't know that I would be enraged at my government's hidden (from most of us, anyway) actions. I didn't know that I was living in an unsustainable, false, Pollyanna, Mickey Mouse, don't-look-beyond-next-quarter's-earnings kind of place. My world has changed. So has the real world.

Muslims say Western media hypocritical on cartoons

The western press never criticizes the precious Jews, right?
Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria
"...Don Krausz, chairman of Johannesburg's Holocaust survivors association, arrived in South Africa a year after the war, having survived Hitler's camps at Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen when much of his extended family did not. "The Nationalists had a strongly anti-semitic platform before 1948. The Afrikaans press was viciously anti-Jewish, much like Der Stürmer in Germany under Hitler. The Jew felt himself very much threatened by the Afrikaner. The Afrikaner supported Hitler," he says. "My wife comes from Potchefstroom [in what was then the Transvaal]. Every Jewish shop in that town was blown up by the Grey Shirts. In the communities that were predominantly Afrikaans, the Jews were absolutely victimised. Now the same crowd comes to power in 1948. The Jew was a very frightened person. There were cabinet ministers who openly supported the Nazis..."
(and yet)
...By the 1980s, Israel and South Africa echoed each other in justifying the domination of other peoples. Both said that their own peoples faced annihilation from external forces - in South Africa by black African governments and communism; in Israel, by Arab states and Islam. But each eventually faced popular uprisings - Soweto in 1976, the Palestinian intifada in 1987 - that were internal, spontaneous and radically altered the nature of the conflicts. "

But Hey, there was never any Nazi support in the Middle East, right?
bwwwaa haaaa haaaaa

Here is the insane leader of Iran's answer to the cartoon problem:
Iranian paper says it will hold contest for cartoons on the Holocaust

Hate to tell you Islamofascists this, but nobody's gonna care except maybe some whacked out militant Orthodox Jews, and most people who know about their ridiculous antics don't have time for them either. If you can read this you obviously have some grasp on the English language. Get your English dictionary and look up the word "secular". That would be us. It means separation of church and state, or in your case, separation of mosque and state. Then look up the word "obtuse", and try "arrogant" , "rigid" "intolerant". You see, you need to get your head around the fact that we don't obey Islamic law, and most of us don't need to understand it. I didn't even know that it was against Islamic law to make pictures of Mohammed the Prophet until last week. Religious extremism of any stripe sucks. To hell with anyone who wants to shove their religious bullshit down my throat, I'm not having it.