Archive for January, 2009
Yes We Can Arrest Bush
Activists who have spent years protesting President Bush admit their chances are slim of seeing Bush or any members of his administration face legal recourse for what they say are “crimes against humanity.”
Several activists hoped to squeeze out a few parting shots against the outgoing president in the run-up to President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday. Demonstrators are trying to organize final shows of force in the last hours before Obama becomes president.
But several planned anti-Bush events along Obama’s whistle-stop train tour failed to pan out over the weekend.
On Monday, a group called AfterDowningStreet.org was scheduled to hurl footwear at the White House, an apparent slap at the president reminiscent of a recent press conference in Iraq. Other anti-war groups were set to gather at the Pentagon on the same day.
On Tuesday, a coalition of activist groups will hold an event called “Yes We Can Arrest Bush,” co-opting…
If You Commit a Felony, Don’t Google It or You’ll Go to Jail
Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo: Lee Harbert was a San Francisco-based investment banker with a history of DUIs. On Jan. 11, 2005, he killed 55-year-old Gurdeep Kaur in a hit-and-run with his Jaguar. Google got him convicted.
Harbert claimed he thought he’d hit a deer, which meant he wouldn’t have needed to stop and help the person he mowed down, and police had originally said they were looking for a burgundy Jag, while his was black, so he had no idea what he’d done.
But, when police searched his computer, they found Google searches from a couple days after the accident like, “auto parts, auto dealers out-of-state; auto glass, Las Vegas; auto glass reporting requirements to law enforcement, auto theft,” according to the prosecutor. The coup de grace? He searched for “hit-and-run,” which he followed to a page about the hit-and-run he committed.
The judge sentenced Harbert to three years (that’s it?). Harbert appealed, and…
The Beauty Of Urban Decay
Robert Bowen and Smashing Magazine Editorial Team:
The city is a fantastic source of beauty and inspiration, with all the glitz and glamour glistening beneath the city lights. But there is another side of the city altogether, one rife with its own kind of allure.
Across the tracks, away from the dazzle of downtown, lies a darker imagination, this one looking to grunge-ridden, dilapidated architecture for inspiration. There is a beauty that pervades this kind of urban decay and captured wonderfully through a photographer’s well-trained eye. These industrial city scenes are wonderfully dark and offer a glimpse of the weathered face beneath the city facade.
In this inspirational installment, we take a tour and show the charm of a more neglected and worn side of the city. We showcase the beauty of urban decay, a series of photos of this eroded elegance that photographers have captured brilliantly.
These gorgeously grungy images have a haunting…
The Future of Web Surfing? Meet the ‘CrunchPad’
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch: It’s time for an update on the progress we’ve made on the low cost touch screen tablet that I first wrote about in July 2008 when I asked for a dead simple touch screen web tablet that boots right to the browser. Here’s our first post on the tablet, which we’re now calling the CrunchPad internally.
The idea is to get a new type of device into people’s hands for as cheap as possible (we were aiming for $200, it looks like $299 is more realistic). It fits perfectly on your lap while you are sitting in front of the TV, so you can look up stuff on Wikipedia or IMDB as you channel surf. It plays Flash video flawlessly so you can watch movies and TV shows on Hulu or Joost or wherever. Or listen to music on MySpace Music. Or use TokBox to have a video…
Whistleblowers’ Evidence of NASA UFO Fraud Might Kill UK Hacker Case
Jeff Peckman; Evidence that U.S. space agency NASA has defrauded U.S. taxpayers for billions of dollars could scrap NASA’s case against UK hacker Gary McKinnon. Credible witnesses have claimed that NASA has altered or destroyed its photos containing images of UFOs. This could become a legal and public relations nightmare for NASA.
The space agency is attempting to prosecute McKinnon for hacking into NASA computer files. McKinnon has stated that he saw UFO-related files in NASA’s computers. But NASA has denied any “cover-up”.
NASA’s claim of innocence faces a serious challenge. Some of the whistleblowers are former NASA employees and contractors with inside knowledge of NASA’s operation. If NASA’s destruction of public property is confirmed, the alleged cost of McKinnon’s hacking would be insignificant compared to NASA’s annual funding of more than $17 billion. Even worse, NASA’s year 2000 mission statement boasted that it is “ethical and honest” in all that they…
Paul Laffoley, UFOs, and the Third Secret of Fatima
Today the New Democratic presidential administration is now ready to reveal to the world exactly what the extraterrestrials have in mind for the Earth which is an all out war with Earth. This will have the effect of uniting all the peoples of the World. What the extraterrestrials have in mind and this current information constitutes the third secret of Fatima.
Michael Ruppert on Civil Unrest in America and Abroad
What we pray for are more frequent and stronger signals that ears are open to any who might have some real answers … namely the Peak Oil/Sustainability movement.
In the meantime… In looking at how civil unrest will unfold in the United States it has become pretty apparent that martial law, as we understand it will not be marked by either large numbers of troops/police in the streets or the oh-so-beloved concentration camp myths of the Far Right. The reason I have made this statement consistently for at least nine years is the same in both cases: lack of resources. There are not enough troops and there is also not enough money, food and manpower to put millions of Americans in expensive concentration camps … AND feed them. …
I am one of the few fools to have read all of both the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, I mean…
Did Hollywood Help Americans Elect A Black President?
MANOHLA DARGIS and A.O. SCOTT, NY Times: Barack Obama’s victory in November demonstrated, to the surprise of many Americans and much of the world, that we were ready to see a black man as president. Of course, we had seen several black presidents already, not in the real White House but in the virtual America of movies and television.
The presidencies of James Earl Jones in The Man, Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, Chris Rock in Head of State and Dennis Haysbert in 24 helped us imagine Mr. Obama’s transformative breakthrough before it occurred. In a modest way, they also hastened its arrival.
Make no mistake: Hollywood’s historic refusal to embrace black artists and its insistence on racist caricatures and stereotypes linger to this day. Yet in the past 50 years — or, to be precise, in the 47 years since Mr. Obama was born — black men in the movies have traveled from…
Iraqi Guards Said to Throw Party for Shoe Thrower
KIM GAMEL: The Iraqi journalist jailed since throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush got a visit from his brother Friday and a birthday party from his guards as he turned 30.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who has gained cult status for his bizarre protest, is in good shape but has been denied access to his lawyer, relatives said after his brother Maitham visited him for two hours in his detention cell in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.
Al-Zeidi has been in custody since the Dec. 14 outburst at Bush’s joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Thousands demonstrated for al-Zeidi’s release and hailed his gesture.
Wealthy Men Give Women More Orgasms
Jonathan Leake: Scientists have found that the pleasure women get from making love is directly linked to the size of their partner’s bank balance.
They found that the wealthier a man is, the more frequently his partner has orgasms.
“Women’s orgasm frequency increases with the income of their partner,” said Dr Thomas Pollet, the Newcastle University psychologist behind the research.
He believes the phenomenon is an “evolutionary adaptation” that is hard-wired into women, driving them to select men on the basis of their perceived quality.
The study is certain to prove controversial, suggesting that women are inherently programmed to be gold-diggers.
Al Qaeda Does Not Exist! (Updated)
This is the Prologue to the new documentary from The Corbett Report, Al Qaeda Doesn’t Exist. This documentary interrogates the notion that Osama Bin Laden single-handedly runs the pervasive Al Qaeda terrorist network by examining its inception, its links to Western intelligence, the double agents and fictitious characters that populate its ranks, and the fraudulent ways the Al Qaeda myth is propagated in the controlled corporate media. The documentary also offers ways that citizens can become involved in helping to spread understanding about the true government-sponsored terror paradigm.
Part One of the Al Qaeda Doesn’t Exist documentary from The Corbett Report, dealing with the founding and funding of what we know as Al Qaeda. This installment of the documentary goes into Zbigniew Brzezinski, Operation Cyclone, the ISI-CIA-MAK-US government funding circle and CIA connections to Osama Bin Laden. For more information about this documentary, including a bibliography of works cited, please visit…
Rep. Ron Paul: Strengthening or Weakening the Economy?
The economic situation continues to deteriorate this week as past and future bailouts were discussed on Capitol Hill. The debate was over the accountability of already disbursed TARP money, and on whether or not to release remaining funds. Banks that had already been bailed out before are looking for more money to fill the black holes that are their balance sheets, warning that they are simply too big to fail. However, whatever ‘devastating’ consequences these banks are dreaming up and pushing on Capitol Hill regarding their own collapse will be nothing compared to the collapse of our currency if we keep debasing it through these foolish bailouts. It should be that they are too big to bailout. The world will not come to an end without this or that bank. The most troubling thing to me is this rhetoric that only government can save the economy, and must act. This…
Conyers Questions Iraq ‘Forgery’
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has asked current and former White House aides and ex-CIA officials to respond to questions about an alleged scheme to create a bogus letter in late 2003 linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.
In sending the interview requests Wednesday, Conyers is following up on a disputed story in journalist Ron Suskind’s new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, which includes an account of how the mysterious letter originated.
The book cites statements from former CIA associate deputy director of operations Rob Richer and John Maguire, the former chief of the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group/Near East Division, as indicating that the White House ordered the CIA to produce the bogus letter to retroactively justify the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Richer and Maguire gave Suskind on-the-record interviews, which the author recorded, discussing the reasons the letter…
The Afghan Scam
The untold story of why the U.S. is bound to fail in Afghanistan by Ann Jones:
The first of 20,000 to 30,000 additional U.S. troops are scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan next month to re-win the war George W. Bush neglected to finish in his eagerness to start another one. However, “winning” the military campaign against the Taliban is the lesser half of the story.
Going into Afghanistan, the Bush administration called for a political campaign to reconstruct the country and thereby establish the authority of a stable, democratic Afghan central government. It was understood that the two campaigns — military and political/economic — had to go forward together; the success of each depended on the other. But the vision of a reconstructed, peaceful, stable, democratically governed Afghanistan faded fast. Most Afghans now believe that it was nothing but a cover story for the Bush administration’s real goal — to set up…
Gaza Conflict: Who Is A Civilian?
Heather Sharp |BBC News, Jerusalem: The bloodied children are clearly civilians; men killed as they launch rockets are undisputedly not. But what about the 40 or so young Hamas police recruits on parade who died in the first wave of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza?
And weapons caches are clearly military sites — but what about the interior ministry, hit in a strike that killed two medical workers; or the money changer’s office, destroyed last week injuring a boy living on the floor above?
As the death toll mounts in Gaza, the thorny question is arising of who and what can be considered a legitimate military target in a territory effectively governed by a group that many in the international community consider a terrorist organisation.
This is also the group that won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 and a year later consolidated its control by force.
So while it was behind a…
D.C. Declares a ‘Prostitution Free Zone’ for Inauguration
You’re reading it right: portions of downtown have been declared a “Prostitution Free Zone” for the Inaugural celebration period. The best part?
It has an expiration date, as though at all other times, hookers have free reign over downtown Washington — hey, at least the MPD is honest.
Truth be told, this isn’t the first time the MPD has declared a PFZ.
You can read about how the law works here, but the basic idea is that it allows police officers to issue fines of $300 to a group of two or more persons found congregating in a public space or property within the PFZ for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or prostitution-related offenses.
Still, these signs are sure to look mighty funny to most people walking through the area on their way to the Inauguration on Tuesday.
Obama Inaugural Betting
What are the odds that Obama’s inaugural speech will include the word “banana”? According to the Swedish gambling site Betsson, the answer is 1,000-to-1. You can put down money on that outcome, or on the possibility of Obama accidentally cursing, or mentioning the German chancellor “Angela Merkel” (an event given 1,000-to-1 odds) or using various other terms (”Axis of Evil,” Spanish Prime Minister “José Luis Rodríquez-Zapatero”).
Putting down some cold hard cash would make watching the inauguration ceremony that much more riveting. Oh, but it’s virtually guaranteed that Obama will use the word “change” (1.03-to-1) and “United States” (1.01-to-1). Online bet-placers have also decided that Obama is more likely to say “puppy” than “Martin Luther King.”
Today, January 19, 2009, Is The Most Depressing Day In History
If you woke up feeling blue today then the chances are you are not alone. For Monday, January 19, 2009 is going to be the most depressing day in history, according to experts.
Cold weather, fading Christmas memories and broken New Year resolutions mean this period is usually miserable, but the effects of the economic downturn makes this year worse than ever.
Millions will feel so glum they will decide to stay in bed and up to a quarter of workers are expected to call in sick, research suggests. Psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall has devised a mathematical formula that pinpoints today as Blue Monday.
He says there are six depressive factors which will come together including the winter weather, Christmas credit card bills and abandoned New Year’s resolutions. Fears over job security, mounting debt and the house price collapse make this year the toughest yet.
Monday is regarded as the worst day of the…
Pedestrians, Take the Space You Deserve
Designed in 1975 by Austian civil engineer Hermann Knoflacher, the Gehzeug, or walkmobile, balances the scales by granting pedestrians the same amount of space as a motorist. It points out the preferential treatment given to cars, or simply allows you to “go for a walk in traffic.” The walkmobile has been tested in cities from Austria to Thailand. It’s now on display in an exhibition at Montreal’s Canadian Centre for Architecture.
