:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 2.27.2004 ::

FBI charges activists for leftist political views

From AlternativeTentacles.com:
This is an update on the case of Harjit Gill and Robert Brooks, two activists from Northern California, were arrested right before a Jello Biafra spoken word show in Chico by federal agents.

Hargit writes "I'm being charged with 2 counts of lieing to a federal officer, one count lieing to a federal grand jury. All are related to left-wing political activism... (sic)" They were indicted by a Grand Jury and are going to trial in the next few months. There is a maximum of 15 years prison time for the 3 charges. Tony Serra, the lawyer who won $4 million from the FBI on behalf of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, has agreed to represent them.

For more information or to send donations to help cover legal fees, please contact Harjit Gill at:

44 Galaxy Ave, Oroville, CA 95966

harjit@equalvision.net

posted by me

:: 5:44:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Greg Palast and Ann Coulter walk into a bar..." ::

From AlternativeTentacles.com:
... the bartender says, what is this, "Dennis Miller Live"?
Ace reporter and AT recording artist Greg Palast will be on CNBC's "Dennis Miller Show" on 2/24/04 and 2/25/04 (two separate shows). The show airs 9pm (eastern standard) and is repeated at midnight and 4am. The 2/25 show will be with the conservative fembot columnist Ann Coulter, so expect some sparks to fly!

Here's Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) take on the Dennis Miller show.

posted by me

:: 8:32:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Bushwhacked Nation update ::

From MoveOn.org:
Censure Bush for Misleading Us

In an attempt to evade responsibility for the misleading statements that pushed the nation into war, Bush has announced plans to form an independent inquiry to look into what went wrong. An inquiry would serve the Bush administration well: it would envelop the issue in a fog of uncertainty, deflect blame onto the intelligence services, and delay any political damage until 2005, after the upcoming election.

But the facts need no clarification. Despite repeated warnings from the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, President Bush and his administration hyped and distorted the threat that Iraq posed. And now that reality is setting in, the President wants to pin the blame on someone else. We can't let him.

Congress has the power to censure the President -- to formally reprimand him for betraying the nation's trust. If ever there was a time for this, it's now.

Consider joining their call on Congress to censure President Bush.

posted by me

:: 8:52:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Mmmmmmmmmm... money [drool] ::

From MSN:
'Simpsons' to hit big screen
By Kat Giantis

Woo-hoo! In the most eagerly anticipated TV-to-film animated adaptation since "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie," "The Simpsons" are heading to the big screen, reports Variety. Details are still, er, sketchy, with no info on when Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, little Maggie, and the rest of Springfield's colorful population will make their celluloid debut or what the storyline will involve.

D'oh!

"This is our idea of how to whip up enthusiasm for an idea that hasn't been formed yet," "Simpsons" overlord James L. Brooks deadpanned in a statement.

"We've got a very good and interesting idea, and it's different from the show," Mike Reiss, a writer for the long-running Fox series, dished to DVDFanatic.com. "You know, it's like the 'South Park' movie where it's just a bigger, longer, amplified version of the show."

While Homer might believe that "trying is the first step towards failure," we have high hopes for the project, which a Fox exec cautions is still "in the very early stages" of development. Variety says creator Matt Groening is involved, as are veteran scribes George Meyer, Al Jean, David Mirkin, and Mike Scully.

Don't worry if you miss the movie when it comes out. We figure "The Simpsons: The Movie: The Novel" by Norman Mailer (who also penned the "Itchy and Scratchy" novelization) won't be far behind.

posted by me

:: 8:32:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Privacy Is in the House" ::

From Wired News:
The House is considering a bill that would require government agencies to explain how citizens' privacy might be affected by new regulations. After years of erosion, privacy may again be in fashion in D.C. By Ryan Singel.

posted by me

:: 10:42:00 AM [+] ::
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Kahn Job: Bush Spiked Probe of Pakistan?s Dr. Strangelove, BBC reported in 2001

Submitted in an e-mail from Greg Palast:

On November 7, 2001, BBC TV and the Guardian of London reported that the Bush Administration thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Kahn who this week confessed selling atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran.

The Bush Administration has expressed shock at the disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to the British News Team sources', Bush did not know of these facts because, shortly after his inauguration, his National Security Agency defectively stymied the probe of Kahn Research Laboratories. CIA and other agents could not investigate the spread of Islamic Bombs through Pakistan because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia.

Greg Palast and David Pallister received a California State University Project Censored Award for this expose based on the story broadcast by Palast on BBC Television Newsnight.

According to both sources and documents obtained by the BBC, the Bush Administration Spike of the investigation of Dr. Kahn's Lab followed from a wider policy of protecting key Saudi Arabians including the Bin Laden Family.

Noam Chomsky, who read the story on page one of the Times of India, has wondered, "Why wasn't this all over US papers?"

To learn why, read the following excerpt from the 2003 edition of Palast's book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy @ www.GregPalast.com

posted by me

:: 5:42:00 PM [+] ::
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:: He doesn't like it! Hey Mikey! ::

From MichaelMoore.com:
Tuesday, January 27th, 2004
You Say Deserter, I Say More Dessert... by Michael Moore

Friends,
I would like to apologize for referring to George W. Bush as a "deserter." What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants. In fact, he shot a man in Tucson "just to watch him die."

Actually, what I meant to say up in New Hampshire last week was that "We're going to have Bush for dessert come November!" I'm always mixing up "dessert" and "desert" -- I'm sure many of you have that problem.

Well, well, well. As George W. would say, "It's time to smoke ‘em out of their hole!" Thanks to my "humorous" introduction of Wesley Clark 10 days ago in New Hampshire -- and the lughead way the no-sense-of-humor media has covered it -- there were 15 million hits this weekend on my website. Everyone who visited the site got to read the truth about Bush not showing up for National Guard duty.

The weird thing about all this is that during my routine I never went into any details about Bush skipping out while in the Guard (it's not like it's the biggest issue on my mind or facing America these days!) I was just attempting my best impersonation of that announcer guy for the World Wrestling Federation, asking the cheering crowd if they would like to see a smackdown ("debate") which I called "The Generaaal Versus The Deserterrrr!!" (You can watch it here -- hardly anyone in the media has shown this clip because viewers would suddenly see the context of my comments.)

When the press heard me use that word "deserter," though, the bells and whistles went off, for this was one of those stories they knew they had ignored -- and now it was rearing its ugly, truthful head on a very public stage. Without a single other word from me other than the d-word, they immediately got so defensive that it looked to many viewers like they—the press—maybe had something to hide. After all, when I called Bush a deserter, how did they know I wasn't referring to how he has deserted the 43 million Americans who have no health coverage? Why didn't they assume I was talking about how Bush is a deserter because he has deserted the working people of this country (who have lost 3 million jobs since he's taken office)? Why wasn't it obvious to them that I was pointing out how Bush had deserted our constitution and Bill of Rights as he tries to limit freedom of speech and privacy rights for law-abiding citizens?

Instead, they have created the brouhaha over Bush's military record, often without telling their audience what the exact charges are. It seems all they want to do is to get Clark or me -- or you -- to shut up. "We have never investigated this and so we want you to apologize for bringing it up!" Ha ha ha.

Well, I'm glad they have gone nuts over it. Because here we have a Commander in Chief --who just took off while in uniform to go work for some Republican friend of his dad's -- now sending our kids over to Iraq to die while billions are promised to Halliburton and the oil companies. Twenty percent of them are National Guard and Reserves (and that number is expected to double during the year). They have been kept in Iraq much longer than promised, and they have not been given the proper protection. They are sitting ducks.

What if any of them chose to do what Bush did back in the early 70s -- just not show up? I've seen Republican defenders of Bush this week say, “Yeah, but he made up the time later.” So, can today's National Guardsmen do the same thing -- just say, when called up to go to Iraq, "Um, I'm not going to show up, I'll make up the time later!"? Can you imagine what would happen? Of course, none of them are the son of a Congressman, like young Lt. Bush was back in 1972.

Today, MoveOn.org has put together its response to this issue, and I would love to reprint it here. It lays out all the facts about Bush and the remaining unanswered questions about where he went for many, many months:

Here are what appear to be the known facts, laid out recently in considerable detail and documentation by retired pilot and Air National Guard First Lt. Robert A. Rogers, and in a 2003 book, “The Lies of George W. Bush,” by David Corn.

1. George W. Bush graduated from Yale in 1968 when the war in Vietnam was at its most deadly and the military draft was in effect. Like many of his social class and age, he sought to enter the National Guard, which made Vietnam service unlikely, and fulfill his military obligation. Competition for slots was intense; there was a long waiting list. Bush took the Air Force officer and pilot qualification tests on Jan. 17, 1968, and scored the lowest allowed passing grade on the pilot aptitude portion.

2. He, nevertheless, was sworn in on May 27, 1968, for a six-year commitment. After a few weeks of basic training, Bush received an appointment as a second lieutenant – a rank usually reserved for those completing four years of ROTC or 18 months active duty service. Bush then went to flight school and trained on the F-102 interceptor fighter jet. Fighter pilots were in great demand in Vietnam at the time, but Bush wound up serving as a “weekend warrior” in Houston, where his father’s congressional district was centered.

A Houston Chronicle story published in 1994, quoted in Corn’s book, has Bush saying: “I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes.”

3. Sometime after May 1971, young Lt. Bush stopped participating regularly in Guard activities. According to Texas Air National Guard records, he had fewer than the required flight duty days and was short of the minimum service owed the Guard. Records indicate that Bush never flew after May 1972, despite his expensive training and even though he still owed the National Guard two more years.

4. On May 24, 1972, Bush asked to be transferred to an inactive reserve unit in Alabama, where he also would be working on a Republican senate candidate’s campaign. The request was denied. For months, Bush apparently put in no time at all in Guard service. In August 1972, Bush was grounded -- suspended from flying duties -- for failing to submit to an annual physical exam. (Why wouldn't he take this exam from a doctor?)

5. During his 2000 presidential campaign, Bush’s staff said he recalled doing duty in Alabama and then returning to Houston for still more duty. But the commander of the Montgomery, AL, unit where Bush said he served told the Boston Globe that he had no recollection of Bush – son of a congressman – ever reporting, nor are there records, as there should be, supporting Bush’s claim. Asked at a press conference in Alabama on June 23, 2000 what duties he had performed as a Guardsman in that state, Bush said he could not recall, “but I was there.”

6. In May, June and July, 1973, Bush suddenly started participating in Guard activities back in Houston again – pulling 36 days at Ellington Air Base in that short period. On Oct. 1, 1973, eight months short of his six-year service obligation and scheduled discharge, Bush apparently was discharged with honors from the Texas Air National Guard (eight months short of his six-year commitment). He then went to Harvard Business School.

Documents supporting these reports, released under Freedom of Information Act requests, appear along with Rogers’ article on the web at http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=154.

In the absence of full disclosure by the President or his supporters, only the President and perhaps a few family or other close associates know the whole truth. And they’re not talking.

Bush was apparently absent without official leave from his assigned military service for as little as seven months (New York Times) or as much as 17 months (Boston Globe) during a time when 500,000 American troops were fighting the Vietnam War. The Army defines a “deserter” -- also known as a DFR, for “dropped from rolls” – as one who is AWOL 31 days or more: www-ari.army.mil/pdf/s51.pdf.

Well, there you have it. Someone got some special treatment. And now that special someone believes he has the right to conduct a war -- using other not-so-special people's lives.

My friends, I always call it like I see it. I don't pussyfoot around. Sometimes the truth is hard to take. The media conglomerates are too afraid to take this on. I understand. But I'm not. That's my job. And I'll continue to do it.

And when I'm wrong, like the thing about Bush pooping his pants, I'll say so.

Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

posted by me

:: 12:21:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Pentagon Kills LifeLog Project" ::

From Wired News:
The experiment designed to record absolutely everything a person sees, reads, buys or does in daily life is dead. But relieved civil libertarians remain wary, worried that the government may perform data-mining projects elsewhere. By Noah Shachtman.

posted by me

:: 2:53:00 PM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird:

Can't Possibly Be True
Americans continue to be divided over the wisdom of "zero tolerance" laws that require heavy punishment even for slight, technical violations, especially as applied to public school students. In December, for example, the Bossier Parish, La., school board voted to uphold the year-long expulsion of a 10th-grade girl for "drug" possession, specifically an Advil tablet. And in January, a Rio Rancho, N.M., middle school student was drug-suspended for five days for possession of a Gas-X tablet. (National media attention eventually caused both school districts to lessen the penalties.) [Shreveport Times, 1-10-04, 12-5-03] [KOB-TV-AP, 1- 10-04]

In December, New Hampshire's state drug abuse and prevention program was turned down for a $17 million grant on the sole ground, said the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, that its application was typed with smaller margins than permitted. The federal agency did not give the state an opportunity to correct the formatting, even though the victims of the rejection were not the grant-writers but drug-addicted patients. [Boston Globe-AP, 12-21-03]

Update
News of the Weird reported in 2002 that Armin Meiwes, 41, had been arrested for killing and eating a 42-year-old man in Kassel, Germany, but presented videotaped evidence that the murder was consensual (which would still be a crime in Germany but with a lighter sentence). Prosecutors have since learned that the "international cannibal community" may include hundreds of men who communicate on the Internet, including several who visited Meiwes to discuss becoming his dinner but who changed their minds (and were permitted to leave). Among Meiwes' e-mail exchanges (revealed at his trial, which is ongoing), a potential victim wrote, of the symbiotic nature of their proposed relationship: "Hey, we seem to have discovered a market niche." Meiwes: "We could solve the problem of overpopulation and famine at a (single) stroke." [The Times of London, 1-7-04; The Age (Melbourne), 1-15-04]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 12:51:00 AM [+] ::
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