The Road of Bones

Every time I hit the road, I am just burned up when I pass a gas station. This $3.00 a gallon nonsense has to stop. And considering the windfall profits companies like Exxon Mobile are making, one would think that our Congress would do something to help out the average joe. But alas, they seem to live in a different world.

Some days, I can hardly make it back from work because I'm running on frickin' empty. Its sad.

Well, today one of my favorite news aggregators, The Raw Story, posted an article about oil and gas company lobbyists, and who gets the lion's share of their dollars. Check it out ...

Republicans, incumbents receive large majority of oil lobby cash

Republican incumbents are far more likely than their colleagues in Congress to receive oil company money, RAW STORY has found.

Eighty four percent of the $8.6 million oil and gas companies have contributed to the 2006 elections has gone to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

According to data compiled by the Center, the top 20 recipients of oil money in Congress are all Republicans.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX,) tops the list with $159,611 in oil company contributions this cycle. Rick Santorum (R-PA), whose campaign coffers made waves on the blogosphere yesterday, comes in at number 2, trailing Hutchison by nearly $40,000. At the bottom of the top 20 list is Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who pulled in just $48,500 from the industry.

The rest of the story is here.

Full money-trail rundown is here.

Make you wonder what Senator Hutchison is thinking, doesn't it?

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Hold your fury for a minute. I'll explain that headline. Endure some quotes, just briefly.

"I tried marijuana once. I did not inhale."
-- William J. Clinton

"Yes. In Vietnam."
-- John Kerry when asked if he had ever smoked marijuana.

"I think hard drugs are disgusting. But I must say, marijuana is pretty lightweight."
-- Linda McCartney

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?"
-- Willie Nelson

"Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could."
-- William F. Buckley, Jr.

"Marijuana is the finest anti-nausea medication known to science, and our leaders have lied about this consistently. [Arresting people for] medical marijuana is the most hideous example of government interference in the private lives of individuals. It's an outrage within an outrage within an outrage."
-- Peter McWilliams

"I now have absolute proof that smoking even one marijuana cigarette is equal in brain damage to being on Bikini Island during an H-bomb blast."
-- Ronald Reagan

And now, the news ...

Marijuana does not raise lung cancer risk
From FOX News, May 24, 2006

People who smoke marijuana do not appear to be at increased risk for developing lung cancer, new research suggests.

While a clear increase in cancer risk was seen among cigarette smokers in the study, no such association was seen for regular cannabis users.

Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers.

The findings surprised the study’s researchers, who expected to see an increase in cancer among people who smoked marijuana regularly in their youth.

“We know that there are as many or more carcinogens and co-carcinogens in marijuana smoke as in cigarettes,” researcher Donald Tashkin, MD, of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine tells WebMD. “But we did not find any evidence for an increase in cancer risk for even heavy marijuana smoking.” Carcinogens are substances that cause cancer.

[SNIP ...]

The heaviest marijuana users in the study had smoked more than 22,000 joints, while moderately heavy smokers had smoked between 11,000 and 22,000 joints.

While two-pack-a-day or more cigarette smokers were found to have a 20-fold increase in lung cancer risk, no elevation in risk was seen for even the very heaviest marijuana smokers.

The more tobacco a person smoked, the greater their risk of developing lung cancer and other cancers of the head and neck. But people who smoked more marijuana were not at increased risk compared with people who smoked less and people who didn’t smoke at all.

[SNIP ...]

[E]xperts say it might have something to do with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is a chemical found in marijuana smoke.

Cellular studies and even some studies in animal models suggest that THC has antitumor properties, either by encouraging the death of genetically damaged cells that can become cancerous or by restricting the development of the blood supply that feeds tumors, Tashkin tells WebMD.

In a review of the research published last fall, University of Colorado molecular biologist Robert Melamede, PhD, concluded that the THC in cannabis seems to lessen the tumor-promoting properties of marijuana smoke.

The nicotine in tobacco has been shown to inhibit the destruction of cancer-causing cells, Melamede tells WebMD. THC does not appear to do this and may even do the opposite.

More here.

I stress caution. Don't go and buy a bag of dope, alright? Don't break the law. Seriously. DO NOT BREAK THE LAW.

But between you and I, this news is amazing. I can't see any reason why we shouldn't make this a Schedule Two substance and open up additional research in the U.S. And give it to those who need it, not those who just want to have fun on the weekends. Our dying patients are crying out for our compassion. It is the only reasonable thing to do. Legalize Medical Marijuana. And stop jailing kids for small posession already. Please? Make it a lesser crime. Prohibition does more harm than pot its self. It is time to be a little more reasonable when it comes to our drug policy.

That's all I've got to say about that.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

You know about the debate over Net Neutrality, right? (Click the link for a brief education.)

Today, the inventor of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, has come forward cautioning the U.S. over its push to topple Net Neutrality.

From The BBC ...

Web inventor warns of 'dark' net

Tim Berners-Lee was knighted in the UK for his invention

The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said.

Recent attempts in the US to try to charge for different levels of online access web were not "part of the internet model," he said in Edinburgh.

He warned that if the US decided to go ahead with a two-tier internet, the network would enter "a dark period".

Sir Tim was speaking at the start of a conference on the future of the web.

"What's very important from my point of view is that there is one web," he said.

"Anyone that tries to chop it into two will find that their piece looks very boring."

An equal net

The British scientist developed the web in 1989 as an academic tool to allow scientists to share data. Since then it has exploded into every area of life.

However, as it has grown, there have been increasingly diverse opinions on how it should evolve.

The World Wide Web Consortium, of which Sir Tim is the director, believes in an open model.

This is based on the concept of network neutrality, where everyone has the same level of access to the web and that all data moving around the web is treated equally.

This view is backed by companies like Microsoft and Google, who have called for legislation to be introduced to guarantee net neutrality.

The first steps towards this were taken last week when members of the US House of Representatives introduced a net neutrality bill.

More here.

Now that you know, you should sign the Save the Internet petition. While you're there, tell your Federal Representatives what you expect. We must not allow the telecoms to dominate the people's lines of communication.

It is an affront to our very democracy, and they know it.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Looks like we're not alone in this boat.

As though the savage attacks on protesters in Miami in 2003 and in New York City in 2004 were not enough ... Now the trend has spread to the U.K. Great.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

So, they can fiercely guard their constitutional rights, but not ours? This is sickening.

From The Associated Press ...

Hastert demands FBI return documents

WASHINGTON - House Speaker [Republican] Dennis Hastert demanded Wednesday that the FBI surrender documents it seized and remove agents involved in the weekend raid of Rep. William Jefferson's office, under what lawmakers of both parties said were unconstitutional circumstances.

"We think those materials ought to be returned," Hastert said, adding that the FBI agents involved "ought to be frozen out of that (case) just for the sake of the constitutional aspects of it."

The Saturday night search of Jefferson's office on Capitol Hill brought Democrats and Republicans together in rare election-year accord, with both parties protesting agency conduct they said violated the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine.

Democrats, meanwhile, sought to get Jefferson to resign his seat on the House's most prestigious panel.

"In the interest of upholding the high ethical standard of the House Democratic Caucus, I am writing to request your immediate resignation from the Ways and Means Committee," wrote House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in the one-sentence correspondence.

More here.

Don't you think this is all a little too ironic?

HEY CONGRESS, HOW ABOUT STICKING UP FOR US ONE IN A WHILE?

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Now isn't this an unusual turn of events.

A Congressional Democrat gets busted for taking $100,000 from FBI narcs, and hardcore Republicans in the media start screaming and shouting about how corruption isn't a partisan issue (and they're right, for once).

Then, House and Senate Republican leadership gets all uptight about the Justice Department enforcing the laws against the Congress. You'd think they would be laughing about this, crowing all the way to Hannity & Colmes. Nope.

From this morning's Washington Post ...

Republican leaders, who previously sought to focus attention on the Jefferson case as a counterpoint to their party's own ethical scandals, said they are disturbed by the raid. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said that he is "very concerned" about the incident and that Senate and House counsels will review it.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed alarm at the raid. "The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important Constitutional issues that go well beyond the specifics of this case," he said in a lengthy statement released last night.

"Insofar as I am aware, since the founding of our Republic 219 years ago, the Justice Department has never found it necessary to do what it did Saturday night, crossing this Separation of Powers line, in order to successfully prosecute corruption by Members of Congress," he said. "Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years."

Even House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] seemed nervous.

"[M]embers of Congress must obey the law and cooperate fully with any criminal investigation," [she said]. [But] "Justice Department investigations must be conducted in accordance with Constitutional protections and historical precedent."

Yet Hastert and Frist, along with all the House and Senate Republicans tug the line on the destruction of OUR freedoms. OUR liberties. OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. Of course I'm talking about spying. And what did the Justice Department do with the crook if not spy on him, then raid his office to make the bust?

A little further on in the article, we find these passages ...

Legal experts were divided on the legality and propriety of the FBI's raid, but many said that it could raise serious evidentiary problems for prosecutors at trial. In scores of cases of alleged congressional wrongdoing, federal prosecutors and FBI agents have most commonly sought to issue subpoenas for documents rather than conducting an impromptu raid on congressional property, experts said.

At issue is the "speech or debate" clause of the Constitution -- language intended to shield lawmakers from intimidation by the executive branch. Historically, courts have interpreted the clause broadly, legal experts said.

Uh-huh.

And what about the Patriot Act provision granting powers of the Judiciary to the Executive in the form of "National Security Letters"? If I'm not mistaken (and I'm not), the NSL's are little more than an Executive Branch warrant, usurped from our courts. Only the target of the letter is not informed. They take your information. They tap your computer. They listen to your phone calls and archive them in the world's largest database. And SCREW the Fourth Amendment.

Yet they bitch and moan when the heat is on them?

HACK-OCRACY! Damn the incumbents.

Then again, what if this were all Bush's doing? What if the Justice Department (headed by Alberto "Torture Memos" Gonzales) was acting on behalf of the Executive in an attempt to create an aura of corruption around Democrats to score points leading up to the midterms? Well, Rep., Jefferson took the money and joked about how they'll never find out. Dumbass. He only proves what I've been saying for all too long: Corruption is not a partisan issue.

Abramoff, on the other hand, is. He's a Republican. And he corrupted other Republicans. But that is beside the point.

I'll be the first to admit, I am not familliar with the law cited by TWP, so there very well could be some constitutional concerns. But I promise you, their little quibbles are nothing compared to the loss of liberty we, the people, face today. The solution, just as it was with Nixon's spying programs, is impeachment.

The constitution is in serious jepardy. What are you going to do about it?

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

They're circling the waggons now. Just like I predicted in a column from November of last year. I cited this quote by Bush as Texas Governor ...

"Victory means an exit stragety, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is," said Bush referring to American troop deployment in Bosnia on Clinton's orders.

And today, MSNBC repots the White House has given up hope for "Victory" in Iraq. But according to Bush's definition, getting out means victory. Of course, he sort of swept that under the rug, "flip-flopping" as he so frequently does.

From MSNBC ...

May 22, 2006 - An old word is gaining new currency in Washington: containment. You may be hearing a lot more of it as the Bush administration hunkers down for its final two years. Containment of Iraq’s low-level civil war, which shows every sign of persisting for years despite the new government inaugurated this week. Containment of Iran’s nuclear power, which may lead to a missile defense system in Europe. Containment of the Islamism revived by Hamas and Hizbullah, by the Sunni suicide bombers in Iraq, as well as by the “Shiite Crescent”—as Jordan’s King Abdullah once called it—running from Iran through Southern Iraq and into the Gulf.

And to answer that pressing question, NO, they haven't gotten smart about their blood-drenched policies. They're just putting on a different face to appease the New American Demographic.

Nah-nah-na-na, nah-nah-na-na, hey-hey-hey ... Good-byeeee.

Midterm elections are only six months away!

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Looks like the 9/11 Truth movement is growing much faster than I thought! The majority now believes we need a NEW INVESTIGATION. Hell yes we do. Check this out ...

Zogby poll on 9/11 ...

1) Iraq - do Americans think the Bush administration exploited 9/11 to attack Iraq? (44% do, 44% don't); 2) Cover up - did the government and its 9/11 Commission conceal or refuse to investigate evidence that contradicts their official story? (only 48% said no); 3) the collapse of WTC 7, which was not even mentioned by the 9/11 Commission and has seldom been reported in the media---had respondents been aware of this collapse and, if so, did they think it should be investigated (only 52% had known about it, but over 70% of this group believe it should have been investigated); 4) new investigation of official complicity - do respondents think we need one? (only 48% said no); and 5) mass media - how do people rate its performance, including its coverage of alternative 9/11 theories, unanswered questions and inquiry issues? (43% rate it positively, 55% negatively).

From 9/11Truth.org ...

Poll results indicate 42% believe there has indeed been a cover up (with 10% unsure) and 45% think "Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success" (with 8% unsure). The poll of American residents was conducted from Friday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 16, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.9.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This guy is a True Patriot. Read what he has to say ...

The Administration That Won't Stop Lying
By Paul Craig Roberts

[SNIP ...]

The war has already cost 20,000 American casualties (dead and wounded) and hundreds of billions of dollars, which have had to be borrowed from foreigners, and is projected to have a total cost in excess of one trillion dollars.

This is a horrendous commitment. What is its purpose?

We have never been told. Everything the Bush Regime has said has been a lie. There were no weapons of mass destruction, and this was known prior to the orchestrated invasion. As the leaked top-secret British Cabinet memo, "the Downing Street memo," makes completely clear, the Bush regime falsified the intelligence to justify its invasion of Iraq.

There was no Iraqi connection to al Qaeda, a sworn enemy of the secular Hussein regime.

The most recent excuse – building democracy – is also a lie. It is perfectly clear that what the Bush Regime has done is to bring the three Iraqi factions to the brink of civil war, while constructing a massive US fortification in the guise of an embassy and permanent military bases.

The Republican Party has been reduced to one principle – its own power. It protects the Bush Regime from accountability and covers up its lies and misdeeds. Under the myths and lies that enshroud 9/11, the Democrats have collapsed as an opposition party.

More here.

And for you Partisans who scream Democrat or Republican at every turn, Paul Craig Roberts was President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. A lifelong Republican.

Talk about damaging.

Get 'em, Paul!

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Watch this. And Hold Your Breath.



More and more of this footage keeps coming out on the web. The Truth just keeps stacking up against the conspiracy theory that fires resulting from the airliner crashes caused the WTC towers to collapse.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Awesome.

Jeremy Pikser is a rock & roll Demi-God.

We've got to get these Illegal Executives out of our country! NO AMNESTY!

Read it. Now.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The Webster Retort
By Stephen Webster
Investigative Reporter
Publication date: May 26, 2006
For: The News Connection, The Lone Star Iconoclast

Drinking from a Blackwater trough

Image from Common Dreams by photographer David Adame, taken as police attacked a group of peaceful protesters in Miami on November 20, 2003.

When corporate power and state interests converge -- when the private sector discovers a way to vote its self access to the people's treasury and usurp its military power -- democracy breaks down. Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy during World War II, knew this type of governance well. He once said that the first stage of fascism would be better known as corporatism: a perfect merger of corporate and state power.

Ted Koppel, in a recent New York Times editorial, called for the formation of a number of private, corporate armies. Formerly a power only held by the state, and the public if you count militias, is now being undertaken by our corporations to be used to further their own interests.

"Just as the all-volunteer military relieved the government of much of the political pressure that had accompanied the draft, so a rent-a-force, harnessing the privilege of every putative warrior to hire himself out for more than he could ever make in the direct service of Uncle Sam, might relieve us of an array of current political pressures," says Koppel.

"So, what about the inevitable next step a defensive military force paid for directly by the corporations that would most benefit from its protection?" he continues. "If, for example, an insurrection in Nigeria threatens that nation's ability to export oil (and it does), why not have Chevron or Exxon Mobil underwrite the dispatch of a battalion or two of mercenaries?"

He arrives at a frightening conclusion: "The United States may not be about to subcontract out the actual fighting in the war on terrorism, but the growing role of security companies on behalf of a wide range of corporate interests is a harbinger of things to come."

Immediately, one private army-for-hire in particular comes to mind: The Blackwater Group.

Formed in 1997 by an ex-Navy S.E.A.L., The Blackwater Group began as a training center for our nation's SWAT police forces, then moved up the rope a notch or two when it started dealing high-tech weaponry to police, and training them how to use it. One example of this is the ultrasonic weaponry employed by the New York Police Department during the 2004 Republican National Convention protest. These weapons are also used in Iraq to disperse crowds. They are known as "less lethal," and have developed a reputation for shattering eardrums. But there is so much more than just that.

Blackwater scored with all the right people when they sent forces into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Unbound by that pesky Posse Comitatus law (which Bush argued against), Blackwater imposed a strange brew of corporate-style law enforcement and state-sponsored pseudo-martial law, placing their mercs in front of homes owned by the rich, and sending teams into the projects to confiscate weapons and “keep the peace.” Some say most of the reports of gunfire can be tracked back to these guys, but all the chatter is little more than hearsay. (Purely speculative: wouldn’t it make sense if it was just a practice-run for a larger operation, and the government’s lack of intervention afterward was intentional; perhaps allowing or encouraging this type of corporate criminality? After all, there are still thousands missing after the storm. We may never know.)

Since then they've been getting no-bid contract after no-bid contract providing support and security for corporate interests in Iraq and Afghanistan. Present-day Blackwater maintains a ‘for hire to the highest bidder’ mantra. They are conflict-neutral. They are American Hessians.

Now, a major figure in the media has come out in support of this. What types of rules govern a military beyond the oversight of our oversight-phobic government? And what will become of our military when the hardened, four-tours in Iraq, career soldiers realize that their fortunes will not be made in service to their country? What could happen to our police and National Guard if this mentality really gains momentum?

Perhaps Koppel is right when he says this is "a harbinger of things to come." Imagine, a decade from now, America having disbanded the National Guard and police. Corporations bid on city, state and federal law enforcement contracts, and neighborhoods are split into sections, each controlled by one group or another. It would be the perfect merger of state and corporate interests. And it makes a sort of twisted, economic sense. Hey, smoke some pot and you’ll answer to the Phillip-Morris peacekeepers. Jaywalk and you'll be picked up by some GMC mercs. And God forbid you try to evade the public security cameras on every street corner. Fujifilm's eye in the sky (another RNC 2004 protest holdover) will make sure Motorola’s boys in black swoop down on you in no time. And we’ll all get wonderful tax cuts! Hooray!

I'm just hypothesizing. No Need to Panic, right? But considering the revolutionary changes we've seen over the last decade -- let alone the last five years -- I think it is important to be one step ahead of the fascists. Well, perhaps fascism is too strong a word for this stage in the game. But I find it hard to dismiss subversive evil as a ‘prank’ of Beelzebub.

Should major disaster strike again, as it surely will, you can count on hearing more and more about The Blackwater Group. And not much of it will be good. Keep an open mind here, my friends and readers. We're looking at a double-edged sword. But in my small amount of life experience, the wielder of such a weapon always ends up injured.

Stephen Webster is an Investigative Reporter with The News Connection, Staff Writer with George W. Bush’s hometown weekly The Lone Star Iconoclast, and a former Contributor to The Dallas Morning News’ Science & Technology section. For more of Webster’s musings, visit GonzoMuckraker.BlogSpot.com.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

From Voice of America news ...

U.S. authorities have shot and killed the driver of a vehicle at an entry point along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The shooting occurred Thursday near the busy San Ysidro Port of Entry, which links the northern Mexican city of Tijuana with the southern California city of San Diego.

Border security officials are reported to have been following the vehicle on suspicion that illegal immigrants were being smuggled into the United States. At least four people in the vehicle were detained after the shooting.

Authorities shut down the border crossing for several hours after the shooting, causing a huge traffic jam.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Sunday, May 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Because no party has a strangle-hold on morality.

Corrupt bastards. Click the link above. Make sure you're sitting down.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Sunday, May 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Minutemen speak at Republican Women’s Club
By Stephen Webster
Investigative Reporter
For: The Lone Star Iconoclast, May 23, 2006 edition; Peace Journalism Magazine
Shortened, censored version published by The News Connection on May 19, 2006.

“We should get some of them crazy Florida ‘gaters’ an’ put ‘em in the river,” said an old, wrinkled woman. She reached up to her overlaid, curly, gray bowl-cut and goosed it with the base of her right palm. “That way, when them Mexicans come runnin’ across the border, they’ll git eat’n up. And it’ll be good ‘cause our boys in the patrol’ll be able to see ‘em an’ hear ‘em. Heh-heh. They’ll just run up on ‘em and put one b’tween they eyes real easy.”

“Yeaap,” said the old woman’s equally old and wrinkled husband, his mostly-hairless chrome dome dotted with liver spots and cancers. “Gett’um,” he concluded in a guttural tone. The crowd laughed and clapped and rolled their heads. Women with makeup so thick their faces looked like mannequins hee-hawed and stomped their feet; elder, burly-looking husbands sitting in the corners of the Republicans Women’s Club, snickered and held their heads down slightly, keeping at eye-level with each other. The day’s speaker, Brian Burns – a member of the Texas Minuteman Project – smiled and looked down. A much more cordial and well-spoken man, he seemed uneasy with this type of speak, but joined in the chorus of laughter nonetheless.

On Wednesday, May 17, the Denton County Republican Women’s Club met at Golden Corral in Denton to hear a guest speaker from the Texas Minuteman Project. Burns, who owns a home inspection company in Dallas, is a member of this group of vigilantes who have taken it upon themselves to patrol the Texas/Mexico border in search of Mexican citizens attempting to cross illegally.

Photo by Stephen Webster
Brian Burns, a member of the Texas Minuteman Project, spoke at the Republican Women's Club of Denton County on Wednesday, May 17, 2006.

“However, everyone,” said Burns. “You should know that Golden Corral is one of the top employers in the U.S. for hiring illegal aliens and Mexicans.” Several of the organizers frowned and glanced around the room nervously. “And you can find out the others by going to ‘www.wehirealiens.com.’ Okay? Everyone get that address?”

Roughly 25 party faithful were in attendance, including Denton County’s new District Attorney Paul Johnson. Diane Edmondson, the party’s chairwoman for the region, introduced Burns to the group, calling him ‘a hero’ and ‘a brave and honorable man.’

“The President and our Senators are ignoring us, ladies and gentlemen!” said Edmondson. “Bush is a phony and a liar if he thinks he can just send a few National Guard people down there for a year. He’s in bed with Vicente Fox. Now look, I don’t really think you came to hear me speak, so take a listen to our guest today. He’s a Texas Minuteman and has spent lots of time on the border. Please welcome Brian Burns.”

The audience applauded. One man whistled.

Burns introduced himself by giving the audience a brief history of his professional career. Though presently the owner of Burns Home Inspections, LLC, he spent six years prior as an Air Medic pilot for Children’s Medical Center. “I first got interested in this problem with the Mexicans when I was making flights over El Paso,” said Burns. “We started picking up pregnant illegals who had just crossed the border that day and wanted to have their children in the county hospital – which is paid for, for free.”

Several present gasped, shaking their heads and covering their mouths in disbelief.

“One trip costs us about five-grand in the aircraft I flew. Five thousand going there and five thousand going back. So, about ten grand. But that is just for the flight. Then, it is about seven to ten thousand for the birth. So, we’re talking anywhere between ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars … ah, every time they come across. Yeah. Got my interest.”

On the tables in the banquet room, the group had laid pamphlets and business cards with contact names and phone numbers for various Texas Minutemen “officers.” There were several pamphlets lying around. One, titled “Common Sense on Mass Immigration,” depicts the New York City skyline shrouded in clouds, three bright rays of light shining down. Under the rays of light, the clouds are burned away, revealing where the twin towers once stood, remembered in this image draped in American flags.

A single-sheet flyer the group was circulating reads, “Don’t give up the fight against guest worker/amnesty legislation!” It lists eight bullet points, most one sentence or less, that it calls “strong evidence,” but provides no substantiation or reference. Evidence such as, “In a shocking [revelation], the Senate’s ‘immigration reform plan’ would: Let an estimated 103 million immigrants into the U.S. over the next 20 years – that’s over one-third of the current population of the United States. Grant immediate amnesty for 10 million illegal aliens … Open the door for nearly four times as many permanent worker visas as are now issued” … and “[p]rovide for the largest expansion of the welfare state ever and cost the American taxpayer $46 billion per year. … [H]alf of all adult illegal immigrants in the U.S. have less than a high-school education. In addition, recent immigrants have high levels of our-of-wedlock childbearing, which increases welfare costs and poverty.”

“You know what,” said Burns. “Every single time Bush opens his mouth about immigration, I swear to you, border traffic, people coming in illegally, it increases by about 25 percent.” Again, the audience seemed shocked. Riveted, even. Several men stood together, shaking their heads and holding their plates. They walked out and headed back for the buffet. They returned with apple pie and ice cream.

“I am very upset with the fact that he said … He, he wants to please everybody,” continued Burns. “He wants to look at Vicente Fox and say, ‘I’m not being bad!’ But then he wants to turn to the American people and say, ‘Oh, ah, I’m being tough on illegal immigration. Bush can’t have it both ways. His plan is completely watered down. If you talk to any military man and you tell him, ‘You can’t carry any weapons, and you can’t enforce the law,’ they’re gonna be extremely frustrated.”

Burns’ conclusions? “We need military intervention. They need to go in there and do what they do. They need to be keeping our laws. These are foreign nationals coming in our country … This has no conflict with Posse Commitatus. Everyone knows that Posse Commitatus says the military cannot act in a role of law enforcement. And they’re not. They’re not turning around and arresting American citizens. They would be turned around, facing Mexico. Faxing the national border. There should be no excuses for this!”

“What we need is a bio-metric social security card,” concluded Burns. “We need a national database and a new type of social security card with a finger print, the number, your photograph and a smart chip inside.”

This reporter raised his hand, as other had prior, to ask a question.

“Yes sir?” said Burns.

“You’re talking about a National I.D. card? That is exactly what Tom Ridge proposed a few years ago. A new type of ‘social security.’”

“Ah, no. No it isn’t,” said Burns. “That’s … That’s something totally different. I’m not even gonna touch that one.”

I shrugged and Burns continued on.

“Some say we have to deport all of them and raid the workplaces and punish the employers. I don’t know that is possible. There are others that actually want to give American citizenship to these people for free. Well … I don’t think so. But nobody ever mentions the other solution: attrition. Ya see, if you just cut off our social services to them over night, that would do the trick. If you stopped educating their kids, stopped providing free health care of any kind, if you stopped letting them go to work … You’d just about solve the problem overnight. If they can’t work they can’t eat. And if they can’t eat, they’ll probably just leave.”

“Here here!” shouted the old woman with the bowl-cut. “Burns for president!” Several in the audience chuckled.

Walking out of the meeting, a woman named Cindy Lou flagged this reporter down and asked to go on the record. “Hey, you with media? I wanna talk to you. I’m Cindy. Hi. I live in Denton County,” she said. “Sort of between Sanger and Denton. So it’s the county. Just say Denton County, okay?”

Cindy Lou boasted that she is one of “the original Minutemen,” and explained that she had quit two jobs to join the Arizona Minutemen on the border for 97 days. “I only saw a few of them commin’ across, you know? They’re sneaky. But I called I.C.E. [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] on ‘em. I love taking credit for that. I call I.C.E. on every illegal ‘Messy-can’ I can.” She laughed, apparently amused by her rhyme.

“I think these Mexicans should be considered felons and deported,” she insisted. “I think the best way to get the wall built and secure our nation better is to make the deportees, prior to being deported … they should make them prisoners for a while, and put them in prison labor camps. Put the prisoners in tents, like Sheriff [inaudible] does in, um … um … Arizona. Like he does. Put the prisoners in tents, in the desert, and make them work for their food. I think all them Mexicans should be deported, but prior to being deported, they should be put in prison camps in the desert so they can build the wall for us. That way they can pay for their food and their way … their crimes against OUR Homeland.”

A brown-skinned man wearing a Golden Corral apron and torn, dirty, white baseball cap took a seat about five feet behind her, leaning over a plate of food. He glanced up at her several times, paying special attention when she said the words “Mexican” or “illegal.” He said nothing, choosing to continue eating instead.

“Yeah, and once we deport them, if they come back they need to be held a lot longer so they get it,” continued Cindy Lou. “We’ll make ‘em clean up the landscape. We have hundreds and hundreds of miles of beautiful desert that has nothing but dirty clothing, trash, toiletries … I’ve seen big piles of plastic bottles full of urine. It is disgusting. Make the ‘Messy-cans’ clean up their piss!”

I chuckled and said, “You know, truckers … American truckers … they do that thing with the urine in the bottle, too. They call ‘em ‘Trucker Bombs.’ Ever see that?”

She laughed uncomfortably. “Yeah. It’s gross. These Mexicans are everywhere. I can’t believe it.” She seemed to miss the point.

“It’s like a dog that shits on the carpet,” she said with a snort. “Before you pick up the shit, you take the dog and put his nose in it and give ‘em a few swats on the behind. You gotta tell ‘em ‘NO!’ and stick they nose in it. Look, if they are coming over to love America and be Americans, why would they trash our land? Would I come in to your country and shit on your back porch? No. Why would you do that to us?”

The Golden Corral employee was drinking from a translucent red cup. When Cindy Lou said this he slammed it down on the table, soda splashing out onto his hand and plate. He collected his things hurriedly and stood up. As he walked away, he turned and cast a dagger gaze at her over his right shoulder. She didn’t notice.

“You mean an illegal immigrant did that on your back porch?” I asked.

“Well … no, but you know what I mean,” she replied, again laughing. She reached out and touched my right arm with two fingers, as though she had known me for more than a few moments.

“They should be jailed,” she said. “They should be kep’ in tents, under guard with automatic rifles, they should be used to build the wall and if they come back again, then they need to get out there and clean up their trash. I couldn’t be happier that Halliburton is building these camps already. But I don’t think they’ll enforce it. Bush is strong on talk. He loves to talk like he’s a big, strong man and tough on crime, when he’s not. He is obviously in bed … with … you know, ah, their president. Fox. He’s just trying to make Fox happy. He’s in bed with Mexico. Bush is selling out America.”

Before walking away, she made sure to plug her blog, leaning into this reporter’s recorder. “I do the blog regularly,” she said. “All the time, actually. There’s lots of good information there. I blog at h-t-t-p, um … forward-slash. Or is it backward? I don’t know about these things, uh … Anyway, its ‘goonface.blogspot.com’ right? Check it out. I think you’ll like it.”

On Cindy Lou’s blog, titled “Un-American ‘Goonage,’” one can find a host of photographs of demonstrators from the last couple months of civil action among the Latino community. Some shots depict protesters, most of them white-skinned Americans, as “people [that] SUPPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS!” Others show convicted criminals of Latino descent. One such post shows a man who killed a police officer. The caption reads, “That’s right! Illegals doing the job Americans won’t do!” The blog’s introductory paragraph claims, “the faces you see on this page, only a mother could love,” and goes on to assert that the Mexicans plan to “take over America” and that “using violence isn’t a problem with their agendas.”

In spite of Cindy Lou’s claims, no arrests were made in Dallas on April 9, when over 500,000 people marched. No arrests were made at Dallas city hall on May 1, when 15,000 showed up for the May Day Boycott. And no arrests were made in Washington D.C., when over a million men, women and children of all colors marched in solidarity with the new civil rights movement.

“You better believe I call I.C.E. every time I see one of them. Every time,” said Cindy Lou.

“But how can you tell who is a citizen and who isn’t?” I asked.

“Well … I …” She paused, seemingly frustrated by the question. “I, uh, I have video footage of their arrests from the border and at the Home Depot, you know, where they like, go and get together and look for illegal work. And I’ve seen it happen when I didn’t call I.C.E., but I recorded the arrests anyway. I got it on tape and sent it to Congressman Burgess. At least he says stuff and stands up for us against the ‘Messy-cans,’ but he sure doesn’t do much about it. It’s almost like they’re just gonna let ‘em overrun us. We should just surrender Texas to Mexico today and be done with it. Hell, I won’t be here when it happens. Fuck that.”

===============================

Image below is posted here so I can link to it from another site ...

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Oh. My. God!

The link above is to a story of a man who's genitals were torn off by his bi-polar wife. One night the poor guy was just chilling out in bed, having made a habit of getting under the covers around 8 every night. He wakes up to find his wife of all people, tearing his junk up. It got so bad, she actually ripped two parts right off his body. I dare not speculate what two parts.

I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones. I was with a bi-polar girl for almost two years. She only attacked me a few times (four), when she'd get all drunk and pilled up on xanax and perscription speed. But the worst that happened to me was being bitten, slapped, scratched and knocked in the back of the head with a big-ass statue. Then she'd buy a bunch of stuff and pretend everything was okay. It was never okay, but I was dumb enough to let her keep living on my dime.

I thought I had it bad. Now I feel very fortunate.

And should that certain bi-polar person be reading this ... GO FU*K YOURSELF. (Sorry, folks. Venting. You understand, right?)

At least I've still got my junk, unlike this other poor soul.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Khaled el-Masri's case against the CIA has been thrown out of court by a judge more concerned with what he called "State Secrets" than our own system of justice.

Who is Khaled el-Masri? Details here.

He's a German citizen who was born in Lebanon. He was kidnapped by the CIA and flown, via "extrodinary rendition" (secret flights) to somewhere in Eastern Europe. There, he was tortured and abused for weeks by agents of Bush's insane little secret police force. Come to find out, el-Marsi had nothing to offer the agents because he was just some guy they pulled out of an airport. They grabbed him for reasons unknown. But his name certainly sounds like, you know, one of the darkies. So, sure, grab him. No problem.

Or so they thought.

After he was released, he sued George Tenent and the CIA for the abuse he suffered. It has now been thrown out of court by Judge TS Ellis, who said in his verdict statement:

"[The result reached here] is in no way an adjudication of, or comment on, the merit or lack of merit of Mr el-Masri's complaint ... Further, it is also important that nothing in this ruling should be taken as a sign of judicial approval or disapproval of rendition programmes. ... In times of war, our country, chiefly through the executive branch, must often take exceptional steps to thwart the enemy."

Catch his drift?

What he's saying should send a chill down your spine.

If some kind of whacked-out crack-fiend kidnapped you, tortured you, beat you, and held you prisoner for months, if not years, in America, and you managed to get away ... That person might very well be put to death.

However, if you work for the CIA, you can abduct, maim and torture, so long as it is done in countries that allow such behavior. And the best part of it all -- your victims don't have to be guilty of ANYTHING! Such was the case of Mr. el-Marsi.

There are over 500,000 names on the "terrorist watch list." Doesn't this make you want to stay away from airports?

That's right. You could be one of the darkies as well. Even if you skin is white as paper.

This is insanity.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Here is a perfect example of how out of touch the Republican Congress is with what you are going through ...

Yesterday, on the floor of the House of Representatives, Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert (leader of the House GOP) was all worked up about the new Bush tax cuts. Sure, it makes sense to double the budget, go to war, then cut taxes. Maybe it'll all just "trickle down," like Reagan said.

Anyway ... most liberals claim that the tax cuts favor the rich. And they do. There is a typical, canned GOP response to this allegation. Normally, it sounds something like, "Oh well, they pay more taxes so they get more back. You hardly pay any taxes." And when you make the argument, "there needs to be a higher tax on those who can afford it," your typical Republican't will act like they're backed into a corner and start talking about "Marxism" and "Socialism," and perhaps even call you "unAmerican." (It happened to me just two days ago.)

Anyway, Hastert couldn't even manage that kind of broken logic. He went as far as to claim, get this ...

"Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two children, you don't pay any taxes. So you probably, if you don't pay any taxes, you are not going to get a very big tax cut."

VIDEO HERE

If you are one of the lucky ones who simply pays no taxes, please email me. I'd like to write a story about you, because you are the smartest person in the world.

In the mean time, I can hardly afford gas. I'm just glad I don't own a home.

These guys are completely detached from the people. They do not care about you. They do not care about your children. They are not Pro Life and they are NOT REPRESENTING YOUR INTERESTS.

Had enough yet? Election day is November 7, 2006. Mark it down.

More here.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Unspoken injustice; your neighbor the sex offender

By Stephen Webster
Investigative Reporter

1st in a Series

Did you know that in Denton County alone there are over 70 convicted sex offenders – men and women who assaulted children under the age of 12 – who never served a jail sentence? The sum total of the county’s offenders comes to 176; only 12 are currently in jail. In Flower Mound, one of North Texas’ most beautiful, sought-after villas, 13 such individuals are presently living unmolested. And in Highland Village , a cornerstone of family and conservative values, five more lurk. Dallas County is worse: there, 843 convicted sex criminals are free to live, work and play. The State of Texas only requires these individuals to register their home address; the same action asked of law-abiding citizens seeking to obtain a drivers license.

According to the National Center for Sex Offender Management, nearly half of all convicted child molesters are arrested for committing other violent crimes within half a decade of their first conviction. Perhaps more shockingly, the Higher Education Act of 1998 explicitly stipulates that any convicted drug offender over the age of 18 is to be barred from receiving a Pell Grant for one year, whereas no prohibition has been established for convicted sex offenders, or any other breed of criminal for that matter. This country incarcerates more of its population than any nation on Earth, yet somehow cannot manage to find room in its prisons for the offenders that do the most damage.

But the problem is much more widespread that just that. Ernie Allen, President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, claims that somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 convicted sex offenders have completely absconded from the government’s not-so watchful eye. Worse, the Department of Justice has determined that a child is sexually assaulted somewhere in America every four minutes. Ultimately, the leniency being given to convicted sexual predators is not somewhere far away, in another city or state. It is endemic to America ’s system of justice. Because of this, these individuals are currently living in your neighborhood, working in your office, and prowling your streets.

How can this be?

That is the question Christopher Largen has been asking since he was 21 years old. A Denton resident and repeat victim of childhood sexual assault, Largen is the founder of a new activist group called “Building B.L.O.C.K. – Better Lives for Our Communities and Children.” Largen, who taglines himself as an “internationally published novelist, journalist, screenwriter, public speaker and social activist,” took several hours to speak with The News Connection to detail how he perceives this problem, and what he believes can be done to fix it.

Photo by Stephen Webster

Christopher Largen, one of Building Block's founding members, is a community activist, published author and life-long journalist who is attempting to raise awareness of this unspoken injustice.

“Breaking the silence about the abuse is critical component number one,” said Largen. “That is the main priority of Building B.L.O.C.K. There can be no healing [for the victims] unless they break their silence. These perpetrators thrive on silence, and the system of injustice that allows these perpetrators to go free thrives on silence and the societal disconnect. I believe that we as a people are going through a collective dissociation ourselves.”

“Most people think that it is not a big deal because it didn’t happen to them directly,” continued Largen. “But it has now happened to so many people in this culture that if it didn’t happen to you, you know someone who is a victim. The fact that we could allow our public policies to become so skewed and diverted, I think is indicative of the fact that this is not considered dinner conversation in this country. This is not a pleasant topic, but it must be discussed. It has been at that point for some time now, but for some reason most people simply will not speak out.

Over the next several months, TNC will be running a series of investigative reports detailing the widespread leniency being dolled out to sex criminals, and the cycle of abuse that turns their victims into tomorrow’s offenders. There are several judges in Denton County who have records of giving these criminals probation, even after repeat offenses and multiple convictions. Furthermore, during our own research we noticed that dockets detailing the trials of several area sex criminals have simply vanished from the court’s archives.

TNC’s Editorial Board feels as though it is morally treasonable to the American public to remain neutral and objective on matters of such dire importance. It is because of this that TNC has taken up the cause of breaking our community’s silence on this unspoken injustice. We will be joining with Building B.L.O.C.K. to raise community awareness of this important topic, and we encourage our community to write in and get involved with this cumulative effort to shine a light on a most painful topic.

For more information on Building B.L.O.C.K., visit www.building-block.org.

Further reading:

http://www.familywatchdog.us

http://www.sexcriminals.com

http://www.flower-mound.com/police/police_sx.php

http://www.cityofdenton.com/pages/dpdregoffenders.cfm

http://www.highlandvillage.org/highland/hvpd/hvpd_sexoffenders.htm

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, May 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

... I figured I might revive the whole 9/11 discussion with a video.

This link leads to a five-minute clip of a New Yorker who stood near the base of the towers as they came tumbling down. What he says is harrowing, and very, very frightening. Watch it and develop your own conclusions.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, May 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Wow. Is this really the America I live in? This cannot be legal. No way. This sounds more like something that Afganistan will be dealing with in a decade ... Not America! Not the land of the Free!

This is micro-Fascism at play. Study it. Learn it. Know it well. The macro-forces have already laid seige to our federal government.

From CBS ...

Town cracks down on unwed couples
Black Jack, MO., to evict unmarried couples with children from homes

The city council in Black Jack, Mo., has rejected a measure allowing unmarried couples with multiple children to live together. The mayor said those who fall into that category could soon face eviction.

Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving were denied an occupancy permit after moving into a home in this St. Louis suburb because they have three children and are not married.

The town's planning and zoning commission proposed a change in the law, but the measure was rejected Tuesday by the city council in a 5-3 vote.

"I'm just shocked," Shelltrack said. "I really thought this would all be over, and we could go on with our lives."

Mayor Norman McCourt said starting Wednesday the city will begin trying to evict groups who do not fit into Black Jack’s definition of family, reports CBS affiliate KMOV-TV in St. Louis.

More here ...

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, May 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

According to a new study out of Israel, certain chemical compounds in marijuana may in fact lower your risk of diabetes by more than 50 percent. From my author/journalist friend Chris Largen ...
====================

In an astounding study published in the March 2006 issue of the journal Autoimmunity, investigators at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem report that injections of 5 mg per day of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD (cannabidiol - a naturally occurring component of marijuana) significantly reduced the prevalence of diabetes in mice from an incidence of 86 percent in non-treated controls to an incidence of only 30 percent, a reduction of more than half.

In a separate experiment, investigators report that control mice all developed diabetes at a median of 17 weeks (range 15-20 weeks) while a majority (60 percent) of CBD-treated mice remained diabetes-free at 26 weeks.

As in cases of autoimmune and/or neurologic diseases such as MS, Alzheimer's, etc., these preliminary findings point to the potential of marijuana components to modify the course of disease rather than simply provide symptomatic relief.

Hmmm... Bet you won't hear a word about this in the "mainstream" American press. Whether our leaders are merely inept or deeply corrupt makes no difference to me, when objective science is being squelched and patients are threatened with prison. Looks like Galileo landed himself in a prison cell, all over again, while officials at DEA and NIDA continue to lie about the medical value of marijuana. They wear Inquisitor caps and deny people access to solid research that could save the life of someone you love. All in the name of the almighty pharmaceutical profits.

For those of you who prefer medical terminology, see the [link to the study, above], for more details. I received this from my friend and fellow writer Paul Armentano, and I know one of the participating research doctors in this study, so I can vouch for the veracity of the report.

Your Iconoclast,

Christopher Largen
www.waronjunk.com
www.building-block.org

Cannabidiol lowers incidence of diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice.

Authors: Weiss, L.1;Zeira, M.1;Reich, S.1;Har-Noy, M.1;Mechoulam, R.2;Slavin, S.1;Gallily, R.3

Source: Autoimmunity, Volume 39, Number 2, March 2006, pp. 143-151(9)

Affiliations: 1: Hadassah University Hospital, Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cancer Immunotherapy, POB 12000, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel 2: Hebrew University Medical Faculty, Department of Medical Chemistry and Natural Products, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel 3: Hebrew University Medical Faculty, Department of Immunology, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, May 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This morning from Reuters ...

Former Bush campaign official sentenced to prison
By Jason Szep

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A senior official in U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election campaign was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in suppressing votes in a key U.S. Senate race, a scandal that Democrats charge may involve the White House.

James Tobin, 45, one of three Republican campaign operatives convicted in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in a 2002 election, was convicted in December of two telephone harassment charges.

Prosecutors had asked for a two-year sentence.

U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe described the crime as "extremely serious" and a threat to the U.S. political tradition of free and fair elections.

"People in your position need to know they cannot do these things and if they do the consequences are very, very serious," he said in handing down a sentence harsher than the six months home detention and community service sought by Tobin's lawyer.

Democrats want an investigation into 22 telephone calls made by Tobin and New Hampshire Republican Party officials to the White House on November 5 and 6, 2002, and say they believe national Republican officials may be involved in the scheme.

"I don't consider this sentencing to be the end of the matter. I consider this to be one more step in the process of uncovering exactly who knew about this," said Kathleen Sullivan, the New Hampshire Democratic Party chair.

"There are still unanswered questions," she said.

More ...

A head's up to my North Texas hometeam -- if you think this is appalling, you should read about The Mighty Texas Strike Force that worked in Ohio for the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign. A certain well-known somebody in Denton County headed up that team. Any guesses as to who? Think real hard ...

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, May 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

If you're a follower of polls, then you'll recognize this newly updated political map of the U.S.

Only three states with a majority in support of Bush remain. And they are ...



Map from MyDD. More info there.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Happy new poll day, everyone.

According to new released from "SurveyUSA," Mr. 29 percent (Bush, nationwide) has just hit another major turning point - only three states remain with a majority in support of him. And Texas is not one of them!

Wow. Anyone have suggestions as to what kind of wine I need to buy for this evening?

Bush is at 42 percent approval in Texas, his adopted home state. The state where he was handed his political career. The state that was DUMB enough to put him in the launch pad aimed right at the White House.

Let's spell that out.

F-o-u-r-t-y T-w-o P-e-r-c-e-n-t.

The only states that retain a majority -- Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. The momentum has turned. America, in a state of quiet revolution, is a beautiful thing.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I think Bush has been reading Fascism for Dummies. Be afraid. Be very afraid. This is how the free press dies. This is how a great democracy collapses from within. You feeling me?

More on the FBI spying on ABC News Investigative Reporters on ABC's blog The Blotter ...

FBI Acknowledges: Journalists phone records are fair game
May 15, 2006 7:18 PM
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations.

"It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration," said a senior federal official.

The acknowledgement followed our blotter item that ABC News reporters had been warned by a federal source that the government knew who we were calling.

The official said our blotter item was wrong to suggest that ABC News phone calls were being "tracked."

"Think of it more as backtracking," said a senior federal official.

But FBI officials did not deny that phone records of ABC News, the New York Times and the Washington Post had been sought as part of a investigation of leaks at the CIA.

In a statement, the FBI press office said its leak investigations begin with the examination of government phone records.

"The FBI will take logical investigative steps to determine if a criminal act was committed by a government employee by the unauthorized release of classified information," the statement said.

Officials say that means that phone records of reporters will be sought if government records are not sufficient.

Officials say the FBI makes extensive use of a new provision of the Patriot Act which allows agents to seek information with what are called National Security Letters (NSL).

The NSLs are a version of an administrative subpoena and are not signed by a judge. Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I have finally come to admit what I'd always dreaded: Stephen Colbert was right! Damn you, Colbert! Why must you be so accurate? How many more must die before the masses believe your warnings about these awful creatures? How many more?!? I don't hate you because you're beautiful ... I HATE YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE RIGHT!

From this morning's CNN ...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Bears killed and devoured a monkey in front of horrified visitors at a Dutch zoo, officials and witnesses said.

Visitors reported that the grisly scene began as several bears chased the monkey, a macaque, onto a wooden structure at Beekse Bergen Safari Park.

They said a bear tried unsuccessfully to shake the monkey loose, ignoring attempts by keepers to distract it. The bear then climbed up and grabbed the monkey, mauling it to death and bringing it to its concrete den, where three bears ate it.

The park confirmed the killing. "The habitats here in the safari park are arranged in such a way that one animal almost never kills another, but they are and remain wild animals," it said in a statement.

More here.

People, when are we going to stop this insanity?! Please, join with me in signing this petition. Together, we can rid our world of these horrible bears.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

My friends over at The Lone Star Iconoclast are running a bit of a MySpace blog game called "Where'd Bush's underpants go?"

This is going to be classic.

Join in on the fun.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Bird, bird, bird ... bird is the werd.

Uploading this image for humor and linking to from elsewhere. Mwah.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Gotta love the hate mail. Here's one from a guy who loved a series of articles I wrote, but then called me an idiot. Something tells me he didn't know that one with politics such as myself would hold the cognitive ability to understand our broken appraisal system. I'm sure he never glanced at the by-line. Oh well.
========================

You guys made it seem like high crimes and treason were being committed there for a while, and then nothing, back to PTA and church picnics. Were you wrong? Were you sued? Granted, that last story by that Webster idiot did nothing for the credibility of your newspaper, but it certainly sounded like there should have been an official investigation. They're still hosing people up there. They want to raise my appraisal 18K this year, and when I look around my neighborhood, I see places with unassessed pools, place that have had no significant change, or even decreases over the past five years... Did you guys decide that tax appraisals were no long relevant?

joe bemrich
flower mound

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Okay, now this has just gone WAY too far. We're dealing with a new Secret Police on the level we've not yet imagined. And this is the final straw.

I hope more people start waking up to this. Uncle Sam is spying on journalists to prevent patriotic Americans from talking about the crimes of their government. From ABC's blog, The Blotter ...

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to have upset CIA officials. The CIA asked for an FBI investigation of leaks of classified information following those reports.

People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.

Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.

The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.

A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide valuable clues for leak investigators.

Yikes.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Anyone catch Saturday Night Live last week? I didn't, because I just had my cable cut off. (Advertising - brain junk food - has been making my head hurt lately.) But, I just watched this clip of "President" Al Gore giving a state of the nation, lampooning himself and President Bush. Very funny. It is worth a click.

Check it out.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

A good summary can be found here.

The link will take you to a YouTube video (about 5 minutes) on the subject.

Do it before it is too late.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Eyewitness reports coming out of Florida claim that during Bush's recent visit to the state, Secret Service men hung out of the windows of cars in the President's motorcade and pointed assault rifles at bystanders.

From Kos ...

Narrative re: Bush's visit to SCC on May 9, 2006 from Barbara Nicholson

We stood with about 50 others on rte 674 and when the motorcade came by there was assault rifle OUT the window pointing at ALL of us and the cars all looked like I remember seeing in the Hitler motorcades in the movies when I was a child, all boxy and black and one had the Pres seal and American flag on the sides. It was absolutely chilling! I worked the inner city for 15 years with gangs and even with kids and families of the Bloods and Crips and have never had an assault rifle pointed my way. In my 75 years I have seen many Pres motorcades and shook many pres hands and seen many pres elects and their entourage but never anything like this with the motorcycles, big black cars and rifles were just the very last straw. It wasn't the rifle that was scary it was knowing that this madman is so insecure and scared and psychotic that this is how he must travel. AARRRRRGH! USA, Banana Republic for sure. Then to know our tax money paid for this photo op and for the fundraising luncheon at the Renaissance Club is truly the icing on the cake which will kill us all. Very depressing to say the least.

From an intern for Congressional candidate John Russell (FL-5):
Here is my full story, with everything correct. As you know I am interning with John Russell, a candidate in District 5 running against Ginny Brown-Waite. We went to the protest to make sure bush heard about the problems with Medicare Part D. As the President drove by John was delivering his message to the President, who was looking at us out the window. I don't remember if it was before or after the President's car, but inside on of the black suv's was a man holding, what looked to be, an automatic rifle out the window. It was pointed at the protesters. I am glad to hear that the people on the other side of the street saw this too. Those of us on the corner I was on couldn't believe that this had occurred, and John proceeded to tell President Bush as he got out of the motorcade, 'how dare you point a weapon at civil protesters' among other things. It was a very interesting day for me, being the first time I have ever seen the President, and the first time I have been directly threatened by the President. hopefully this helps in lining up the stories. Please send this out to everyone, and keep the talk growing. I want to know if this is standard operating procedure for the Bush motorcade, or a one time thing.

~Nic Zateslo
Intern for John Russell, Candidate for Congress District 5

And from Kossack boofdah:
Mary, Nic, and I were there as well; and yes, it went down exactly as Barbara and John have said below. I don't think I've ever felt such a sense of foreboding in my life as when I saw that automatic rifle pointed at us, peaceful protesters.

At the time September 11th happened, I worked at a military base near where I used to live before we moved to FL. Immediately after 9/11, our base was at Threatcon D, meaning that the military personnel guarding our base had to be armed. Yeah, I saw sharp-shooters and automatic rifles; but I took some kind of comfort in the notion that these measures were meant for the "bad guys."

On Tuesday, the message that the sniper hanging out the window with his automatic weapon had for us was that we peacefully-protesting Americans were the "bad guys." And that thought alone gave me the chills.

Quite frankly, Your Faithful Muckraker is at a complete loss for words.

I'm not even sure I believe it. But, these people are putting their names and reputations on the line. One eye witness is an intern for a Congressional campaign.

I would go balistic, though, if I got a photo of this. I want to see the slime who pointed a gun at these people. If this really happened, we are in a world of shit. I don't know what has happened to my country anymore. I just ... I don't know.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Given recent news, I thought this might be appropriate to re-post. I made this photo illustration a while back after I was regaled by my Congressman at how wonderful Bush's spying program is. Well, it isn't, and people are pissed off. Americans do not take so well to the creation of a privatized KGB.

Stay the F ... hell ... out of my computer. Stay off my Godda ... darn ... phone. And for the love of FREEDOM its self, keep out of my garbage you ba ... male children unloved by your parents.

Hmph.

Perhaps this will be an effective tool. Click the enlarge.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This went up on my blog a while back ... I think it was late April. But since it did not go to publication until today, I decided to build on what I had and include some more info, including source links. It is this week's Retort. Enjoy.

The Webster Retort
By Stephen Webster
Investigative Reporter
For: The News Connection, May 12, 2006

An Open Letter to Congressman Michael C. Burgess

Dear Congressman Burgess,

As you probably know, your constituents are going through a tough time. Gas prices have reached an insane level, and it only looks to get worse as the summer hums along. Likewise, energy prices are soaring, and the rolling blackouts will only continue while market deregulation is up for grabs this November. Arguably the largest voting block in this state, our Latino brothers and sisters, are getting fed up with the Republican rhetoric about how they are criminals, even if many did nothing wrong at all. Likewise, we have completely neglected our borders in this, a very unstable time.

Our workers - MY friends - who toil away hours upon hours, have lost their overtime pay protections, and you helped that happen. Our military reservists and National Guard members, nearly 40 percent of whom do not have health care, really needed that expansion of TRICARE, but you did not see fit to give it to them. And what was with that vote to cut federal student aid by $12.6 BILLION? One of my own siblings was thrown off the Pell Grant fund because of that. Not to make things personal, but family is family.

Looking over your list of contributors, one cannot help but wonder what it is like to enjoy the support of today’s Reigning Oligarchs. Corporations like TXU, AT&T, Pfizer and General Electric are not your constituents, nor do they represent the interests of any of those who reside in your district. Despite this, your War Chest is full of their dollars; your votes, seemingly directed by their financial interests. Perhaps that is why you have accepted nearly $60,000 from big drug industry interests since you began your political career. One only has to look at who you were most swayed by when it comes to the debate over Internet Neutrality: you supported the telecom giants in their effort to set up toll booths across our lines of communication. It is the People’s Internet, Congressman. Remember that. Should this bill pass the Senate, and our digital first amendment lies in pieces, we will be angry. Very angry. Rest assured.

Touting “Conservative Values” will get you only so far. Big talk requires bold action, yet you voted for the Bush Budget, which authorized the accumulation of the most debt in the history of all this nation’s presidents, combined. With the passage of this deceptive bill, we, the citizens, are responsible for paying in excess of $30,000 per person. And then, to top it all off, Bush altered the bill, adding more pork-barrel spending to it, AFTER it passed Congress. He signed it into law without the approval of your governing body. You do know that is a violation of the Constitution, right? Every sixth grader knows the process of how a bill becomes a law. You have remained silent despite this illegal action; a direct violation of everything this nation stands for. That is inexcusable.

You voted for President Bush’s “Medicare Part D” program, which caused over a dozen Governors in this nation to announce medical emergencies because so many people were unable to get their prescriptions. You do know that drug company lobbyists were the unnamed authors of that legislation, right? Should we assume that is why Pfizer gave you all that money? So they can keep hurting our seniors, then throw them a bone in the form of a “savings plan”? Artificially inflate the prices enough, and even a small break seems like relief. Our own Governor, Rick Perry - who I am not so fond of - did the right thing and sued the federal government over this treachery. But you just think it is the greatest thing since flan, or so it seems.

Did you know that Pfizer tested unapproved drugs on African children with brain infections? Read: 1996, Nigerian Government report, as relayed by The Washington Post on May 7, 2006. Or will you go along with that dying groupthink that the media is simply out to knock Republicans? Don’t believe the “Liberal Media,” they say. A nice tagline, sure, but you cannot govern while wearing blinders. Perhaps that is why it seems that reality simply does not play a role in your agenda. Many unsuspecting, helpless, innocent children died because of this criminal activity. But your colleagues are okay with letting them write our laws? And you voted for it? I’m almost at a loss, Congressman. Almost.

Certainly you are aware of the ethics rules surrounding donations to congressional campaigns. One time contributions of up to, but not exceeding, $1,000 are allowable. Why then, did you give Tom DeLay’s Congressional Committee not one, but two $2,000 donations? And then, ON THE SAME DAY, you kicked in an extra $5,000 for Tom DeLay’s “Legal Defense Trust.” I ask who, but a fellow Republican congressman, would trust Tom DeLay? Not saying a law was broken – that is up to the Justice Department to decide. But it sure doesn’t look good. Neither does that $1,000 donation you accepted from the now-jailed former Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. At least you picked up that $55,956 from the oil and gas industry, and that $15,000 from DeLay's "ARMPAC". I hope the money helped. It is nice to see good friends sharing so Liberally.

Don’t you know that DeLay lobbied on behalf of the child labor trade and the sex trade in theU.S. territory of Saipan? Don’t you know that his two former aids are close associates with Jack Abramoff? Your vote against strengthening U.S. House ethics rules in order to save DeLay’s seat of power will not be one that we, your constituents, will think upon with any kindness.

But let’s get to the core issues here, Doctor. Those who normally support you, in our beautiful corner of North Texas , are Christian. Those who mainline Republicans have duped through gay marriage prohibition and “sexy cheerleader” legislation now sit conflicted by the horrible war that you so adamantly support; their fiscal conservative impulses forgotten in your votes.

It is hard, really, to call abortion murder in a medical building, when you fail to do or say anything about the bombing of Iraqi children; or the use of Depleted Uranium that mutates Iraqi (and soon, American) newborns into terrifying effigies of nature run afoul; or the use of White Phosphorus, a chemical weapon, against the city of Falluja. And for the sake of common decency, let’s not go into detail on the unspeakable, homoerotic mechanisms of torture ordered by Bush’s Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfield. Oh, then there is that spying on millions of law-abiding Americans thing. And the lack of response to the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina. I could go on and on. Pro-Life, this Congress is not.

Why do you continue to be a rubber stamp for this immorality and incompetence? What happened to Conservative Republicans? Was that “family values’ platform really just a sham? Like a wolf in sheep's clothing. I must wonder, where did our free thinkers go? What happened to Representative democracy? Why did you melt it down to make jewlery for your corporate backers? Say it ain't so, Mikey! Say it ain't so!

Please forgive me if I’m mistaken, but Christians follow the teachings of Christ, right? So, bear with me for a moment while I recall what many consider Christ at his most political. Let us dig up a few key passages from The Sermon on the Mount, shall we? Allow me to paraphrase from the New King James version …

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."

"You shall not commit murder. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. You cannot serve God and wealth. In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the law of the prophets. Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell – and great was its fall.”

Be aware, Congressman. The rainy season has only just begun.

Sincerely,

A Studious Constituent

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Gingrich. Newt Gingrich.

He will not defend the 'indefensible.' Looks like the Conservative bailout is under way.

Last year, in August, I claimed that one year from then, it may be in Republicans' best interests to support impeaching Bush. And now, today, on Fox News of all places, the leader of 1994's Republican Revolution has come out gunz ablaze.

Transcript courtesy of Think Progress ...

COLMES: Then he said when it came out a little while ago that there was some wiretapping he said it only applies to international communications. And now we're finding something else. So it just seems we’re not getting a consistent story here, are we?

GINGRICH: No. You're not.

COLMES: Why not?

GINGRICH: Look, I'm not-Alan, I’m not going to defend the indefensible. The Bush administration has an obligation to level with the American people. And I'm prepared to defend a very aggressive anti-terrorist campaign, and I'm prepared to defend the idea that the government ought to know who’s making the calls, as long as that information is only used against terrorists, and as long as the Congress knows that it’s underway.

But I don’t think the way they've handled this can be defended by reasonable people. It is sloppy. It is contradictory, and frankly for normal Americans, it makes no sense to listen to these three totally different explanations.

But the bailout is so much worse than just Gingrich. More from Think Progress ...

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): “I am concerned about what I read with regard to NSA databases of phone calls.”

Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH): “While I support aggressively tracking al-Qaida, the administration needs to answer some tough questions about the protection of our civil liberties.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “The idea of collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers, how does that fit into following the enemy?”

Yeouch! It must suck to be Bush right now.

Come on, guys. You know what has to be done. Work with us and we'll work with you. We can restore our great democracy, but we've got to get this dishonest, murderous son of a bitch out of the White House. That's it. That's all there is to it.

We can make it happen. And we'll do it with or without the coming Republican minority this November.

The rainy season has just begun.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Not sure how I feel about this. Border protection is important, and it is a Federal issue. The state of Texas has paid an awful lot to do something that is technically not their job. Still ... I'm conflicted.

Pentagon Considers Sending Troops to Border
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has begun drawing up plans to send troops and equipment to the U.S. border with Mexico, where hundreds of thousands of migrants enter the country illegally each year, a defense official said on Friday.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discussed border issues at the Pentagon with his Mexican counterpart, Defense Minister Gen. Gerardo Clemente Ricardo Vega. Mexico and the United States share a 2,000-mile border.

"The U.S. and Mexican governments continue to work together to control the border and collaborate on these important efforts," said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.

"This cooperation includes limited U.S. assistance with training, equipping and funding Mexico security forces so that they can better meet our shared challenges in protecting the border," he said.

Immigration has emerged as one of the top political issues of 2006. President George W. Bush will address the nation on immigration reform on Monday as the Senate renews debate on a bill to tighten border security and give an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a way to legalize their status.

More here.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

A bit of inconvienent truth, in the form of Hip Hop. Courtesy of the mighty Immortal Technique.

Brace yourself, fools.

YouTube video plays after the click.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

In 1971, the State of California attempted to prosecute a man named Paul Robert Cohen for wearing a jacket that read, "FUCK THE DRAFT." His case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The court denied the state's request to prosecute. It was a triumph for the Freedom of Speech, and a defining moment of the peace movement. For more details, click here.

Days ago, a young man in Florida was arrested for holding up a sign that read, "FUCK BUSH!"

This is the video of that arrest. (I would have posted the actual video, but YouTube tends to destory my blogger template. Just click and it'll play.)

We must not allow such abuse of our Constitutional rights.

Please pass this on.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Gotta love drunken monkeys. Maybe they could teach me some Kung Fu.

From The Discovery Channel ...

Drunk Monkeys mirror people
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

May 9, 2006—Monkeys drink more alcohol when housed alone, and some like to end a long day in the lab with a boozy cocktail, according to a new analysis of alcohol consumption among members of a rhesus macaque social group.

These and other observed behaviors strongly correspond with human patterns of alcohol use. Researchers attribute a predisposition to alcohol abuse in some monkeys and people to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

In the study subjects, "blood alcohol levels often exceeded the .08 percent level, which is the legal limit for most states in the U.S.," said Scott Chen, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the National Institutes of Health Animal Center in Maryland.

The study, recently published in the journal Methods, also found that booze affects monkeys much the same way it affects people.

"It was not unusual to see some of the monkeys stumble and fall, sway, and vomit," Chen added. "In a few of our heavy drinkers, they would drink until they fell asleep."

That's it. I want to get drunk with a monkey. I bet I could drink an ape of the same weight under the table any day.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This is awesome. I wish I could have written this story. I'd even go as far as calling it downright inspiring. Check it out!

From this morning's Scottsman ...

German 'Robin Hoods' give poor a taste of the high life
By Allan Hall
In Berlin

A GANG of anarchist Robin Hood-style thieves, who dress as superheroes and steal expensive food from exclusive restaurants and delicatessens to give to the poor, are being hunted by police in the German city of Hamburg.

The gang members seemingly take delight in injecting humour into their raids, which rely on sheer numbers and the confusion caused by their presence. After they plundered Kobe beef fillets, champagne and smoked salmon from a gourmet store on the exclusive Elbastrasse, they presented the cashier with a bouquet of flowers before making their getaway.

The latest robbery is part of a pattern over the past several months, suggesting that the thieves deliberately set out to highlight what they perceive as the inequality inherent in German society.

However, the authorities do not agree. Bodo Franz, a police spokesman, said: "They get off feeling they are just like Robin Hood. There are about 30 in the group. But whatever their motives, they are thieves, plain and simple."

Carsten Sievers, the manager of a luxury supermarket in the wealthy Blankenese area of Hamburg, recently watched the robbers run off with trolleys full of expensive foodstuffs, including Kobe beef which, at more than £100 a pound, is always on their illicit shopping list.

In another recent swoop, the gang emptied a groaning buffet table in a top restaurant into sacks, while one of their number held up a sign saying. "The fat years are over" - the title of a hit film currently doing the rounds in Germany.

In internet statements, the gang have made a point of saying their booty is distributed to Hartz IV recipients - the poorest of Germany's long-term unemployed. The benefit is named after the disgraced Volkswagen personnel director Peter Hartz who, before he lost his job with the car-maker in a prostitutes-and-bribes scandal, devised the new means-testing which is loathed and derided by society's most economically challenged.

When the gang robbed the gourmet store in April - triggering a massive police investigation that cost £20,000 in taxpayers' money without an arrest being made - they left a note behind saying: "Without the abilities of the superheroes to help them, it would be impossible for ordinary people to survive in the city of the millionaires."

Police say they are concentrating their investigation on a loose collective of anarchists and malcontents called "Hamburg in Vain", to which they believe the superheroes belong. But they admit there is a certain panache and skill about their robberies.

The gang are also behind black market cinema tickets which they distribute free to the poor, and they have printed leaflets telling passengers how to dodge ticket inspectors on the city's underground and buses.

Mr Franz said: "They try to make crime fun but are politically motivated."

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Harr-de-harr-harr. We all knew it was coming. Bush hits another new low: 29 percent.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Americans have a bleaker view of the country’s direction than at any time in more than two decades.”

Sad, but true. Two more percentage points and he'll have finally reached Nixion's lowest points. They must be in panic mode at the White House.

Time to start thinking about resignation, Mr. Bush. It is going to get really ugly once the Democratic Congress comes in next January. It will happen, too.

Oh, and for Christ's Sake -- WHY ARE AMERICAN BATTLESHIPS HEADED TOWARD IRAN? That is not going to fly! We don't need another unnecessary war!

We'll have to impeach him and remove him from office, I swear to God. I don't want to see America forced to take down its own (un)elected leader, but we've got to do what we've got to do. That is all there is to it.

Looks like calling for impeachment isn't so "extreme" anymore. Your Faithful Muckraker is now in the MainStream. Mahalo.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, May 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

So ... great ...

They know who you called. They know what you said. They know.

They know.

Millions upon millions of Americans are being spied on, and it has all been made possible through the complicity of our telecom giants: AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. The usual motley crew.

From this morning's USA Today ...

NSA has massive database of American's phone calls
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

More here.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, May 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Good news this morning.

The former head of the National Security Agency, Bobby Ray Inman, has come out with guns blazing, aimed right at Bush and his unconstitutional spying program. From Wired Magazine ...

NEW YORK -- Former National Security Agency director Bobby Ray Inman lashed out at the Bush administration Monday night over its continued use of warrantless domestic wiretaps, making him one of the highest-ranking former intelligence officials to criticize the program in public, analysts say.

"This activity is not authorized," Inman said, as part of a panel discussion on eavesdropping that was sponsored by The New York Public Library. The Bush administration "need(s) to get away from the idea that they can continue doing it."

More here.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 10, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I've lost myself in a cornucopia of video game delights.

A little background on your Muckraker ...

I used to edit a little site called Binary Culture. I used to be obsessed with video games. I still have a short attention span, no mistake about that, but I'm not able to spend so much time or money on interactive entertainment anymore. Such is the working life. So being a professional isn't all that fun when you get down to it.

For the last few years, each summer I have found myself in Los Angeles for the Entertainment Electronics Exposition, otherwise known as E3.

E3 is going on right now. Tomorrow, the show floor at the LA Convention Center opens to the industry -- about 25,000 slobbering, drooling gamefreaks and professionals. Man, it is a crazy week if you're there. And obviously, I'm not there.

But I'm not here either. I've been distracted by the damn web streams over at GameSpot. I am particularly fascinated with Nintendo this year, and I'll certainly be in line to buy their next video game system, Wii (pronounced "We").

It packs a motion sensitive controller that lets you interact with your games in a way never before imagined. People who have never played games before will pick this thing up -- it sort of looks like a TV remote -- and find themselves instantly addicted.

I just saw a trailer of a game called "Red Steel" that made me all giddy inside. I'm a 23 year old man. Am I still allowed to say that? "Giddy." Anyhow, check this out: go to GameSpot's videos page and click on "Red Steel Official Trailer One." You'll see.

Anyway, I'm a nerd. Just stopping in to explain why there will be few updates today. I get out of work at 3:30, then I'm headed to city council at 7. Should be interesting, in a community news sort of way.

Peace in the Middle East.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 09, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

As if accepting convicted felons into the military weren't bad enough!

Why exactly would we want these people shoulder-to-shoulder with our guys?

Life or death, people. Life or death. And overwhelmingly, we seem to be picking death. It makes no sense.

Today from The Oregonian ...

An Army of one wrong recruit
Autism - The signing of a disabled Portland man despite warnings reflects problems nationally for military enlistment
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Michelle Roberts
The Oregonian

Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from Marshall High School in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there -- silent.

Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Jared is polite but won't talk to people unless they address him first. It's hard for him to make friends. He lives in his own private world.

Jared didn't know there was a war raging in Iraq until his parents told him last fall -- shortly after a military recruiter stopped him outside a Southeast Portland strip mall and complimented him on his black Converse All Stars.

"When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, 'Well, that isn't going to happen,' " said Paul Guinther, Jared's father. "I told my wife not to worry about it. They're not going to take anybody in the service who's autistic."

But they did. Last month, Jared came home with papers showing that he not only had enlisted, but also had signed up for the Army's most dangerous job: cavalry scout. He is scheduled to leave for basic training Aug. 16.

Officials are now investigating whether recruiters at the U.S. Army Recruiting Station in Southeast Portland improperly concealed Jared's disability, which should have made him ineligible for service.

Jared's story illustrates a growing national problem as the military faces increasing pressure to hit recruiting targets during an unpopular war.

Tracking by the Pentagon shows that complaints about recruiting improprieties are on pace to approach record highs set in 2003 and 2004. The active Army and the Reserve missed recruiting targets last year, and reports of recruiting abuses continue from across the country.

A family in Ohio reported that its mentally ill son was signed up, despite rules banning such enlistments and the fact that records about his illness were readily available.

In Houston, a recruiter warned a potential enlistee that if he backed out of a meeting he would be arrested.

And in Colorado, a high school student working undercover told recruiters he had dropped out and had a drug problem. The recruiter told the boy to fake a diploma and buy a product to help him beat a drug test.

Violations such as these forced the Army to halt recruiting for a day last May so recruiters could be retrained and reminded of the job's ethical requirements.

More here ...

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I'm almost speechless this morning.

According to The Washington Post, when asked what the "high point" of his presidency has been, Bush told a German newspaper reporter ...

"I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound perch in my lake."

The thing is, a 7.5 pound freshwater perch is a new world record catch. The largest perch on record is only 4 pounds, three ounces.

You've read correctly, my friends. Bush lied about a fish.

Makes you wonder what else he's not telling the truth about, doesn't it?

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Pfizer's SHAME.

Pfizer faulted over drug trials in Nigeria
Report cites use of unproven drug on African children in mid 90's
MSNBC
The Washington Post

A panel of Nigerian medical experts has concluded that Pfizer Inc. violated international law during a 1996 epidemic by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital.

That finding is detailed in a lengthy Nigerian government report that has remained unreleased for five years, despite inquiries from the children's attorneys and from the media. The Washington Post recently obtained a copy of the confidential report, which is attracting congressional interest. It was provided by a source who asked to remain anonymous because of personal safety concerns.

The report concludes that Pfizer never obtained authorization from the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug to nearly 100 children and infants. Pfizer selected the patients at a field hospital in the city of Kano, where the children had been taken to be treated for an often deadly strain of meningitis. At the time, Doctors Without Borders was dispensing approved antibiotics at the hospital.

Accused of ‘exploitating the ignorant’
Pfizer's experiment was "an illegal trial of an unregistered drug," the Nigerian panel concluded, and a "clear case of exploitation of the ignorant."

The test came to public attention in December 2000, when The Post published the results of a year-long investigation into overseas pharmaceutical testing. The news was met in Nigeria with street demonstrations, lawsuits and demands for reform.

Pfizer contended that its researchers traveled to Kano with a purely philanthropic motive, to help fight the epidemic, which ultimately killed more than 15,000 Africans. The committee rejected that explanation, pointing out that Pfizer physicians completed their trial and left while "the epidemic was still raging."

More here.

Sick, isn't it?

To my Congressional District 26 hometeam ... Pfizer is a BIG FAN of Congressman Michael C. Burgess.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Check out this photo, taken from an event last week ...


Now, see The Associated Press photo of that same event ...


Cute, aren't they?

A little perspective can make all the difference in the world.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Ah, finally, some common sense from the judiciary on Bush's spying programs.

Judge calls 'Net wiretap rules 'gobbledygook'
The Associated Press
May 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - A U.S. appeals court panel challenged the Bush administration Friday over new rules making it easier for the police and the FBI to wiretap phone calls made over the Internet. One judge told the government that its courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook" and suggested its lawyer return to his office and "have a big chuckle."

The skepticism expressed so openly toward the government's case during a hearing in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia emboldened a broad group of civil liberties and education groups, which argued that the government improperly applied telephone-era rules to Internet services.

"Your argument makes no sense," Judge Harry Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. "When you go back to the office, have a big chuckle. I'm not missing this. This is ridiculous."

At another point in the hearing, Edwards told the lawyer his arguments were "gobbledygook" and "nonsense."

The court's decision is expected within several months.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This is just insanity at its most dangerous, I tell you.

Bush says fight against terror is "World War III"
WASHINGTON (AFP)

U.S. President George W. Bush said the September 11 revolt of passengers against their hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first blow of "World War III."

In an interview with the financial news network CNBC, Bush said he had yet to see the recently released film of the uprising, a dramatic portrayal of events on the United Airlines plane before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

But he said he agreed with the description of David Beamer, whose son Todd died in the crash, who in a Wall Street Journal commentary last month called it "our first successful counter-attack in our homeland in this new global war -- World War III".

Bush said: "I believe that. I believe that it was the first counter-attack to World War III."

Okay ... so, when do we move from protecting ourselves from terrorists to outright threatening the world with an all-encompassing war?

I am honestly frightened by my government. Please don't let this come true.

Its up to us, you know, to stop this.

Its up to us.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 08, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, May 04, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

With reverance to the Gonzo Godfather, I give you the greatest scene from Where the Buffalo Roam, starring Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson.

Mahalo.



We shall march on a road of bones.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

BEST. NEWS. EVER. (Or, at least in the last six years.)

Hearing vowed on Bush's powers
Senator questions bypassing of laws
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | May 3, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing the White House of a ''very blatant encroachment" on congressional authority, said yesterday he will hold an oversight hearing into President Bush's assertion that he has the power to bypass more than 750 laws enacted over the past five years.

''There is some need for some oversight by Congress to assert its authority here," Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said in an interview. ''What's the point of having a statute if . . . the president can cherry-pick what he likes and what he doesn't like?"

Specter said he plans to hold the hearing in June. He said he intends to call administration officials to explain and defend the president's claims of authority, as well to invite constitutional scholars to testify on whether Bush has overstepped the boundaries of his power.

More here, via The Boston Globe.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Greetings, all. This Webster Retort is a doozy.

This week, I wrote about Depleted Uranium. The text of the print version is below. But I warn you -- DO NOT CLICK THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM UNLESS YOU ARE SITTING.

Prepare yourself for this one. It is intense. But the truth shall be told, and the people WILL know. That much, and ONLY that much, is certain.
==============================

The Webster Retort
By Stephen Webster
Investigative Reporter
Publication date: Never
Publication: N/A (censored)

The Horrible, Horrible, Horrible, Horrible Truth

“Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

-- Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam” by Monika Jenson-Stevenson and William Stevenson.

I’m sure that many of you remember the scourge of the Vietnam era, otherwise known as Agent Orange. This defoliant was sprayed from the air onto Vietnam’s jungle canopy, literally rotting plant matter in mere hours. It had a dark side, though. Many of our own soldiers and innocent Vietnamese civilians were exposed to this chemical weapon, and America has been dealing with the repercussions ever since. It caused widespread cancer, mutated births, and diseases not previously known to science, not to mention diabetes, chronic skin rashes and other life long health problems.

The case can be argued, successfully, that over 1,000,000 people have fallen ill or died as a direct or indirect result of Agent Orange exposure. The U.S. military has discontinued its use of this weapon under the rules of the Geneva Convention, an international treaty that, per the U.S. Constitution its self, carries just as much weight as any law created by our Congress. Well, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfield don’t really like the Geneva Convention. But you knew that.

From the brutal, homoerotic machinations of torture ordered by our Secretary of Defense to the use of White Phosphorus, an internationally banned chemical weapon that literally melts human skin, these guys are simply tearing the treaty to shreds, and taking hundreds of thousands of lives with them. Sick, isn’t it? It gets so much worse.

Depleted Uranium. Do you know what it is? You should.

DU is the Trojan horse of the nuclear age. DU is a radioactive heavy metal, obtained by the refinement of uranium in atomic energy plants. When used in military-grade munitions, it is utterly devastating. It is, quite literally, the most powerful weapon America has in its arsenal … Next to, of course, the A-bomb it’s self. By the U.S. Government’s own measuring stick, it is a weapon of mass destruction. But for some reason, that doesn’t matter to these people.

Make no mistake; I have the utmost respect for our men in uniform. I have no right or intent to criticize them, for they possess a bravery that I do not. They are on the front lines, breathing this stuff and coming home sick, only to be denied VA benefits and proper health care.

DU is in our tank rounds, our missiles, and bullets. It is the best of the best – a superior weapon for a superior fighting force. It has been used since the first Gulf War back in 1991. Today, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 518,739 “Gulf era veterans” are on medical disability. Fourteen years later, the ugly truth has reared its head, blowing the lid off a cover-up perpetrated by three – yes, three – administrations.

DU is a death sentence, for you, me, your children, our men in women in Iraq, and Iraq’s forgotten civilians. It eradicates, exterminates and utterly devastates any living human, as well as their children, and their children’s children. Clouds of toxic radiation that billowed up from Iraq after the perverse “Shock and Awe” campaign have been detected as far away as London. And now, our boys are coming home with malignancies. In fact, over 1,000,000 people have been exposed to DU since 1991. Its effects, in photographic form, are the most horrifying atrocity I have ever seen.

I encourage you to visit TheNewsConnection.com [censored] and click on this week’s column, at the bottom-right of the front page. There I have posted a link to a series of photographs taken of innocent Iraqi newborns whose parents were poisoned by DU. Their unending pain and suffering will chill your soul. Their tiny, warped, mutated bodies will make you seriously reconsider your world view. But I warn you, it is not for the weak of mind, heart or stomach.

Get the facts about DU before your own son or daughter comes home bearing its signature; before your beautiful grandchild is born a terrifying effigy of nature run afoul. Know the truth of what these so-called “leaders” have done, not just to Iraq, not just to our troops, but to the world as we know it. Remember the “Gulf War babies”?

There’s a million more on the way.

Be mad. Be very, very, very mad. And for the love of everything sacred, hold these people accountable in November! This is NOT a partisan issue.

==============================

Here is the link I was talking about. Again, do not click it unless you are fully prepared. A friend of mine made a poster out of these images and took it to the protests in Crawford. When Cindy Sheehan saw it, she literally screamed and stumbled backwards. Most sane people will react in the same manor. It is not a pretty sight.

Further reading ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/issues/uranium/
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/uranium/index.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uranium/
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/depleted_uranium.html

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Back when the Iraq war was just a terrible nightmare - and not yet reality - the American public was completely flooded in propaganda. The not-so-free press played megaphone to Bush and his cronies, thereby greasing the slip-n-slide to all-out war.

So, do you remember when they said ...

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

A MySpace friend of mine, Christopher Largen of Denton, Texas, has this to say about Mexico's new drug laws ...

Though criticized, Mexico's recent decision allowing citizens to possess small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use is a more sensible, focused allocation of resources in a bloody war that is tearing their nation and causing widespread violence against civilians, reporters and police officers to spill across our borders. This new policy will allow Mexican officials to target supply, and will prevent thousands of nonviolent users from being further devastated by unnecessary incarceration. This approach is perhaps not as radical as it sounds to many Americans, considering that Mexican judges already possessed the legal ability to exercise discretion when sentencing users.

Opponents of Mexico's innovative approach will undoubtedly express horror at the potential increase in substance abuse. However, I don't know too many Americans who would run out and try heroin if it were legalized tomorrow, and international precedents set in other nations that have decriminalized illicit substances indicate that a short-term increase in substance use (stemming from the publicly-perceived novelty of a new legalized drug) will dissipate within a few years, with use rates decreasing to levels lower than those seen under prohibition policies. For example, the Netherlands has maintained lower marijuana use rates than the United States, in spite of their defacto legalization of the substance.

However, Mexico's new policy is no panacea. It fails to address the vast amounts of money being made in the illicit market, or the corruption those profits breed. The kingpins of the illicit drug-supply network are ruthless. They don't fear imprisonment, or even death (if they feared either, they likely wouldn't be kingpins). Their bottom line is money and power; they are addicted to both. There is perhaps only one way to undermine the influence of the cartellians - eliminate 95% of their financial gain by forcing their product into a regulated, legal marketplace that can monitor and control production and distribution, where licensure, quality assurance and age-restriction standards are strictly enforced, and criminal justice resources are expended for maximum impact on public safety, working to keep streets safe from sexual predators, murderers, thieves - and violent cartellians.

Your Iconoclast,

Chris Largen
Founder of Building BLOCK (Better Laws for Our Communities and Kids)
www.Building-Block.org
Co-author of Prescription Pot (New Horizon Press, 2003)
Author of Junk (ENC Press, 2005)

Yep. He hit the nail on the head. Check out his book, War on Junk. It is a parody of our drug war, about a society that decides to have a war on fast food. Good stuff.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

A comprehensive list. Worth reading.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

My lawyer brother-in-law sent this to me yesterday. A well-reasoned retort to my 9/11 columns. Check it out ...

Stephen,

Just perused your 9/11 musings on the gonzo blog. Ellen informed me that you had written on the topic after I relayed what a co-worker had told me about "Loose Change."

I'm not an expert in engineering or fires, but I found a few things that contradict what my esteemed colleague (fellow FedEx knuckledragger) said was proported in "lax coinage" and also in your article.

Check out: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=112003. According to that site only one-third of the Edificio Windsor (32 floors) was destroyed by the fire (started by a cigarette) yet part of the building did collapse and firefighters had to abandon the building due to the risk of collpase of the structure.

In addition (although the site above does not specify), the design of Torre WIndsor and the WTC are vastly different - here's how.

The WTC incorporated a prefabricated steel lattice (the ugly looking vertical lines on the outside) with concrete slabs on steel truss joists and a central core (no interior columns), see http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/World_Trade_Center.html. The building in Madrid utilized a more traditional steel framework, i.e., steel columns throughout the entire structure. .

The planes that hit the towers were not 747s, but 767 and 757 (smaller). Although there were several 707, 767, and 757 configurations manufactured (with varying weights) there is not much difference in dimensions or fuel capacity. One could certainly conclude that they were similar in size to the 707 by the unfortunate occurrence of 9/11.

Why? The WTC did withstand the impact of the aircraft, just as the engineer had projected it would, i.e., the building did not fall over as a result of being hit by the planes.

However, if the fire in the Madrid tower (with no external fuel source) was hot enough to cause a partial collapse, is it unreasonable to believe that the combination of fire (with lots of external propellant) and the structural damage caused by the impact to not only the outer steel lattice but also the inner core, would not diminish the structural integrity of the building?

Note, one source cited in "Lookin' for the 911 truth" (at bellaciao.org) is an assistant "professor" at Clemson, Judy Wood. More impressive than the fact that she has a PhD, she is a member of the Society of Experimental Mechanics, the International Association for Dental Research, and the Academy of Dental Materials, (WTF?)
see http://www.ces.clemson.edu/me/mefaculty/pdfs/Wood1.pdf.

Contrary to Dr. Jones' billiard ball comparison, the collapse is an example of an INELASTIC COLLISON (like a moving car hitting a parked car, the parked car does not absorb all the energy, but moves in the direction the car that hit it was travelling immediately), which controverts her calculations.

The photos she posted (to support her theory) indicate her lack of expertise, e.g., you can see large chunks falling from the upper floors, i.e., falling debris is visible ahead of the demolition wave. The banter regarding the dust is particularly amusing.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

This is HILARIOUS.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Its anyone's guess.

The LA Times is reporting that Mexican President Fox will sign a bill into law that legalizes possession of small quantities of all drugs. The law will make Mexico the most relaxed country when it comes to drug law enforcement. Pot, coke, LSD, shrooms, peyote, eX ... its all good, as long as you are over the age of 18 and are holding less than the legal limit. More here.

I think this law is a double-edged sword. On one side, you have the commitment to fighting smuggling and a return of power to cops and judges. The sellers are in the crosshairs now, and they know it. When the cops are totally focused on all the little guys far away from the source, the jails fill quickly and prices go up, making the real hardcore addicts desperate. The black market is what generates crime. The new law will focus on treatment programs instead of jail for the addicts.

That is a good thing, I think. They are sick and need medical and psychological help, not a concrete cell. However, for a few years, drug use is going to go WAY up in Mexico. It is likely to cause a sort of artificial panic in the states. The "narco-tourism" business will become a big industry for them. But as long as it can be controlled and regulated, theoretically violent crime would go down. It is observable in other nations with lax drug laws.

It will help the Mexican economy through tourism dollars. Quite a few Americans go to Holland for their hash bars, and their society has actually benefited because of it. Furthermore, after a few years of increased use in the country, the ratio of people who've used drugs to those who do not actually went down to levels lower than in the U.S. What does that say to you?

The forbidden fruit appeal is real. Making it illegal actually increases the demand. Strange how human-kind works like that.

But, in the end, it is anyone's guess as to how this law will affect not only the Mexican society, but Mexican-American relations. I'm sure the state reps in border zones will start ringing the fear bells. This is probably that "last straw" that will tip the scales toward the infamous "border wall." That is going to be super-duper expensive. But, if you can scare people enough with fallacious logic, it is likely to go through. Especially if Perry wins in Texas this November.

I'd like to put this out there: we should take a wait and see attitude. Protect our border, sure, but let's find out if this actually works. Before the decade is out, we could see a much improved Mexico because of this. Or, it could go the other way ... Especially if the cops are as corrupt as I've read. We'll see.

In the mean time, I'll vote for any politician who emphasizes treatment programs over jail for American addicts. It is time to stop the bleeding, and we need doctors, not jailers, to do that.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

So, I was at the civil rights march (that's what it has been officially labeled by the organizers) in Dallas yesterday. While it was not nearly as big as the march on April 9 (over 500,000 people attended), it was still a big turnout. This reporter would estimate a total of 8-10,000 people came to rally at the foot of Dallas City Hall. Of course, I have not read other estimations of the turnout, so my accuracy remains to be seen.

Overall, it was a more intimate setting where a lot more people spent time sitting in the shade and putting on creative demonstrations. There were dancers adorned in Aztec-influenced costumes, marchers beating drums, and even a few budding musicians recording a music video about democracy. Good backdrop for the topic, I'd say. Once the big demonstration began at 4:30 p.m., all the marchers got together and said the pledge of allegiance, sang "America the Beautiful" in English, then pulled out their mobile phones to call the White House. The man speaking was very excited when he got a busy signal.

(I tried calling the number a couple times after that and managed to get through to the switchboard. The offices had closed an hour earlier.)

I took quite a few photos, but we'll save that for the update on Thursday. In the mean time, I'm posting the one pic that I think really sort-of encapsulated the whole event. This guy's garb was priceless. Check it out ...

I spoke with several people from Lewisville, all citizens there to support the movement. I'll have a story for you on Thursday. It will be another TNC website exclusive.

I'm under deadline right now, so that's all for a bit. Have a good day.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, May 02, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Just got the 'okay' from Bob to join the march. I'm going to Dallas at noon.

See you in the streets.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 01, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Its on, my friends. It has already begun.

If you are joining the The Great American Boycott ...

Wear a white shirt.

Don't buy ANYTHING.

Carry an American flag.

Bring a backpack full of water/food. Most businesses will be closed during the march.

Find where people are gathering near you. If you live near a major city, you are close to a march.

If you live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, go to the offices of Senator John Cornyn in Dallas (link is to a Google Map) by NOON. Don't expect to find parking anywhere near there, however. If today is anything like the mid-April protest, it'll be impossible to get parking within five miles of the church. I spent an hour looking for a spot, and finally my car over-heated and I had to push it up to the curb in front of The Dallas Morning News building.

More info here and here.

I will hopefully get out of work today to join the marchers in Dallas. I worked Saturday and Sunday just so I could get ahead for the week and be in a position where I could miss half a day today and not make the paper suffer. We'll see what Bob has planned for me. But, as soon as he arrives, I'm going to talk to him about it.

And I'm fortunate. Most people going didn't even bother. They are in great risk of losing their jobs more often than not, and they live from paycheck to paycheck. I wish I could reflect their bravery through myself, but I am in a similar economic situation, and possibly treading on thin ice. I must be loyal and ask permission. But, I think he'll say yes.

Viva la BOYCOTT! See you in the streets, my bothers and sisters.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, May 01, 2006 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post