The Road of Bones

Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts, insists that today's terror alert in Boston is "not funny".

But honestly, its about the funniest thing to ever happen in the history of America.

I damn near fell out of my chair laughing, right in the middle of my newsroom.

Today, the city of Boston was terrorized by the Mooninites: the sarcastic, vulgar little buggers from Cartoon Network's most excellent show Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Ever seen it? I suppose if you're a member of Boston's law enforcement establishment, the answer would be no. So to all you Boston cops and Fatherland (oops!), I mean, Homeland Security agents, check out this little video clip. I'll let the moon people do the introductions for me ...



So, that's pretty dope, right? You may or may not have found that funny.

This, however, is indisputably HILARIOUS ...

Because of these little Mooninite droppings discovered around the city, Father ... Er ... Homeland Security closed down Interstate 93 - a major thoroughfare in and out of the city - a bridge between Boston and Cambridge, as well as a portion of the Charles River.

You can read all about it right here.

That is, if you're not too busy laughing your moon rocks off.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

For real.

From The Raw Story ...

At "The Gaggle," Newsweek reporter Holly Bailey writes that the president clambered into the driver's seat of Caterpillar's giant D10 tractor. "I would suggest moving back...I'm about to crank this sucker up," she reports him saying.

But as White House staff started to move the press corps back, the situation became more chaotic. Bailey writes that "the tractor lurched forward" and White House staff "too were forced to scramble for safety. "Get out of the way!" a news photographer yelled. "I think he might run us over!"

Bush chuckled about the incident, and referenced driving the tractor during his speech, saying "I'm impressed by a culture of excellence and accomplishment that is the spirit of Caterpillar. I also appreciate the chance to drive a D10. If you've never driven a D10 -- (laughter) -- it's a cool experience. (Laughter)," according to the White House website.

Bailey looked less fondly upon Bush's test drive of the D-10. "Yeah, almost as much fun as seeing your life flash before your eyes," she wrote in response to the president's remark about his "cool experience."

That's an awesome quote ...

"I'm impressed by a culture of excellence and accomplishment that is the spirit of Caterpillar."

A word to wise beltway reporters: don't go hunting with Cheney. Don't stand near Bush if he is piloting something.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Disturbing news from UK's The Guardian ...

Inquest told of 'rogue' US attack on British convoy
Wednesday January 31, 2007

A group of British soldiers yesterday described their frantic attempts to stop an attack on their convoy by "rogue" US warplanes that left one dead and four injured.

[...]

Yesterday his colleagues told the court that the "friendly fire" incident had happened on a clear day as they patrolled an area about 30 miles north-west of Basra.

Staff Corporal Ashley Bell said there had been a flash as the first attack started. He had immediately radioed forward air control with the "Stop, stop, stop" instruction but had been told the planes were being flown by "rogue US pilots".

"[The controller] could not contact the US pilots because they had switched frequencies and were talking to each other."

Soldiers in the five-vehicle convoy released smoke canisters to identify them to friendly pilots. The smoke was visible as one of the planes returned at low level and attacked a second time.

[...]

The Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner, Andrew Walker, said the gunner was suffering from a large leg wound. L/Cpl Finney, then a trooper with just one year's experience, pulled him out of the burning vehicle and gave him medical treatment.

As he did so, he was aware that a type of smoke used by coalition forces to indicate a friendly fire incident had been released. "I was still with my gunner on the floor at this point, and the plane came back into view to start its second run."

[...]

Despite requests by the coroner and the British government, the pilots of the US planes that shot Corporal Hull have never been publicly named and will not attend the inquest.

And some people still say that Pat Tillman's death was as cut-and-dry as our government claims.

Hm.

Somehow I doubt that.

Labels: friendly fire, Iraq

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

NY Times: Bush signs landmark executive order increasing power over federal agencies

From ... The Raw Story

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, January 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, January 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

This guy is the front runner for the Republican nomination to run for the presidency in 2008. But what is the "Real" McCain?

You might be asking yourself that very question after watching this video.

And we thought John Kerry was a waffler ...

Labels: 2008, McCain

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, January 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

How to: Manipulate the national media in 20 easy steps!

So easy, even a Vice President could do it!

Labels: Big Media, Cheney, Libby

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, January 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Karl Rove


subpoenaed,


will testify


under oath


in Scooter


Libby perjury


trial


(Much Rejoicing)

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, January 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Richard Pearle, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, seems to think that U.S. Marines will be headed into Iran in the very near future.

That's bad. Real bad. World-Freaking-War-III bad.

In lighter news, a friend of mine is bored at work. So he injected his various creative jams, jellies and juices into this little tidbit that might help you swallow the news of an impending world war ...

Let's hope Pearle is wrong.

I'm not about to go die in Bush's war on everyone.

Labels: Iran, WWIII

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, January 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

My favorite (living) columnist is in a life or death struggle with breast cancer. If you do not know who Molly Ivins is, shame on you!

Read this right now, before you go any further into this post.

Got it? Okay. Good. Now you understand why I am so upset over this.

From Editor & Publisher ...

AUSTIN | Almost three weeks ago, Molly Ivins wrote that she would dedicate every single one of her syndicated columns from now on to the issue of stopping the war in Iraq -- until it ended. But she has managed to finish only one more column since.

The gravely ill Texas columnist has been hospitalized again this week in her ongoing battle with breast cancer.

Her assistant Betsy Moon says she may be able to go home Monday. She adds that those close to Ivins are "not sure what's going to happen, but she's very sick.'"

The 62-year-old columnist had taken an earlier break from her syndicated column, but resumed writing earlier this month.

Last October she had suggested this headline to an E&P interviewer: "Molly Ivins Still Not Dead."

To health, safety, and a speedy recovery. My thoughts are with you, Molly. Come back to us soon.

We need you now more than ever.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, January 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Tomorrow is a national day of action to end the occupation in Iraq.

United for Peace, a coalition group of over 1,500 smaller peace and justice organizations, is staging a march on Washington D.C., planned to last two full days. Details are here.

Likewise, they have called for a national day of action and solidarity with those marching on D.C. So, that means my friends in the Dallas metro area should find themselves at one of the following locations ...

Denton
North Texas Blvd. & Interstate 35E (map)
9 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Hosted by Peace Action Denton

Dallas
Dealey Plaza, at the corner of Elm and Houston St. (map)
1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Hosted by Dallas Rally.

See you in the streets.

Labels: Peace, Protest

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Friday, January 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Because he certainly looked and sounded a hell of a lot more Presidential than Bush.

Is this what a future President looks like?



I certainly hope so ...

Labels: Democrats, Webb

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 24, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Its the showdown of the CENTURY!!! The Hairy-Carey of Mayberry! Its ... Andy Griffith versus the USA Patriot Act!



And you didn't even have to pay of a subscription to HBO.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 24, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Alberto Gonzales, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this afternoon, said the following:

"The Constitution

does not say that

every citizen has the

right to habeas corpus."

Yeah. He really said that. Honest To God.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, January 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

OH! MY! GOD!!!

The Pentagon has set new rules for "terrorism detainees" that - and I quote - "allow terrorism suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsay evidence and some coerced testimony."

Jose Padilla was an American citizen, and he was innocent. But for three years they tortured him, though were forced to eventually set him free.

Imagine how happy they must be, that now, with our wonderful new, completely "legal" rules, we won't be hearing any more stories about people like Jose Padilla.

Why?

Because someone told someone about someone else doing something that their cousin saw a few months ago.

Hearsay evidence. Its a bitch.

Labels: Fascism, Pentagon

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, January 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Thursday, January 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Why am I not surprised? From the Associated Press ...

WASHINGTON - Fighter jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the Pentagon.

In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush has branded part of an "axis of evil."

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say those parts did make it to Iran.

Sensitive military surplus items are supposed to be demilitarized or "de-milled" — rendered useless for military purposes — or, if auctioned, sold only to buyers who promise to obey U.S. arms embargoes, export controls and other laws.

Yet the surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.

"Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America's Warfighters," the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself "the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property."

Federal investigators are increasingly anxious that Iran is within easy reach of a top priority on its shopping list: parts for the precious fleet of F-14 "Tomcat" fighter jets the United States let Iran buy in the 1970s when it was an ally.

In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense Department's surplus division. Customs agents confiscated them and returned them to the Pentagon, which sold them again — customs evidence tags still attached — to another buyer, a suspected broker for Iran.

Remember, that one time, when we sold all those Weapons of Mass Destruction to Iraq? And then we told their dictator to 'Go Ahead' and gas the Kurds?

If Ronald Reagen were alive, I'd ask him why we did that. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't we end up going to war or something over there like, a couple times?

Oh yeah. Right.

Oh. Wait.

*GULP*

I suppose this means we're going to war with Iran now ...

Labels: Iran, Pentagon

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

If this is true, the implications are extreme.

To readers of Newsweek, he is known simply as ...

To Iraqis, he is the sword of the Shia, feared by Sunnis and praised by the vast majority.

He leads the largest and most deadly militia in Iraq.

And now, there is talk that he may have been one of the masked men who hung Saddam.

If you have watched the Saddam hanging video and listen closely, you will note that the men in the gallows begin chanting "Moqtada! Moqtada! Moqtada!"

A Sunni website is now alleging that al-Sadr was one of the executioners. They provide the following photos ...

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, January 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

The King Center has a web page detailing a 1999 trial in Memphis, Tennessee in which new evidence related to Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination was heard by an independent jury.

At the bottom of the page, Dr. King's family makes the following statements ...

1. We initially requested that a comprehensive investigation be conducted by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, independent of the government, because we do not believe that, in such a politically-sensitive matter, the government is capable of investigating itself.

2. The type of independent investigation we sought was denied by the federal government. But in our view, it was carried out, in a Memphis courtroom, during a month-long trial by a jury of 12 American citizens who had no interest other than ascertaining the truth. (Kings v. Jowers)

3. After hearing and reviewing the extensive testimony and evidence, which had never before been tested under oath in a court of law, it took the Memphis jury only 1½ hours to find that a conspiracy to kill Dr. King did exist. Most significantly, this conspiracy involved agents of the governments of the City of Memphis, the state of Tennessee and the United States of America. The overwhelming weight of the evidence also indicated that James Earl Ray was not the triggerman and, in fact, was an unknowing patsy.

4. We stand by that verdict and have no doubt that the truth about this terrible event has finally been revealed.

5. We urge all interested Americans to read the transcript of the trial on the King Center website and consider the evidence, so they can form their own unbiased conclusions.

It is and has been since 1999, the position of the King family that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated as part of a government conspiracy reaching into our federal halls of power.

Here is an interview with William Pepper, the King family's attorney in the assassination conspiracy trial. He won the case, and convinced the jury of a government conspiracy to kill Dr. King. The video is 2 hours and 17 minutes long.

One must wonder why this did not cause a major flap in the American media when the trial was ongoing, or when these statements were released. I definitely encourage readers of this blog to read the trial transcript.

Okay, I know. It isn't MLK-Day anymore. I'll get off the tangent. On to other bloggings.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Tuesday, January 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

A thought for today ...

They said one to another,
Behold. Here cometh the dreamer ...

Let us slay him.

And we shall see what becomes of his dreams.

-- Genesis 37:19-20
Tombstone inscription,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, we mark the birthday of a national hero and icon for the centuries. Let us dwell on the Dream of Dr. King. Let us remember what his life meant, and how his legacy has affected our generation. Let his message of nonviolence permiate our thoughts and modify our actions.

Recall, if you will, when Dr. King's wife, Coretta, passed away.

Four presidents, including George W. Bush, attended her funal. It was marked as a national day of mourning.

The most notable speech given that day was by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, who served with Dr. King during the old civil rights movement.

Dr. Lowery stood before the most powerful men in the world and channeled the spirit of Dr. King, speaking these immortal words ...

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor!"

Watch it:



And never forget. The Dream is not dead.

The Dream will never die.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, January 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Today, let us remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

His words are just as important now, for the new civil rights and peace movements, as they were then, during the old civil rights and peace movements. And make no mistake, my friends and enemies, those movements are still very much alive today.



He had a dream. And though he may have perished, that dream lives on.

Let us never forget it.

Labels: Civil Rights, Peace

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Monday, January 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Remember when Bush Sr. said this?

"Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power — America in an Arab land — with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."

I do. But apparently his son does not.

Power to the Peace-Industrial Complex.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Hey peace people,

If you don't want this war turning into a full-scale repeat of Vietnam (getting closer every day), I expect you to be in Dallas on Thursday for the Shut Down Guantanamo/Peace Surge demonstration.

Check it ...

More info is available on Code Pink Dallas.

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

But he's not listening. From The Chicago Tribune ...

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

I think it is safe to say, we all remember this:


It has been six years since Sept. 11, and we're just now, FINALLY getting around to implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. That is downright shameful. Congressman Burgess and his buddies did a great job of making sure we moved backwards while GOP had the reigns.

But this is just absurd.


Sixty-eight of his colleagues recognized that, and split ranks to vote with the Democrats, who supported the bill unanimously. It would seem to make sense, right?

Why then, in God's name, did Congressman Burgess vote against House Resolution 1, implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act?

(I ALMOST hate to stoop so low as to use the English language in the same ways it was used against myself and other "Liberals" over the past six years, but I'll do it just this one time to get it out of my system.)


Gee, Congressman. One might think that you and your party wants another major attack like 9/11. After all, your party was never so powerful as it was on the morning of September 12. You're kinda thinkin', maybe its time to dip into that well a little more? Maybe we should play a game of patty-cake with the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act?

Reaaaaal good one there, Chief. Thanks a lot.

How funny. The very first bill passed by the new Congress deals with enhancing our security AND protecting our privacy, yet you vote against it ... But still support mass warrantless wiretaps? (A felony, you know.)

Shameful. Utterly pathetic. This isn't go along to get along anymore, Mikey. Shape up, vote right, and we just might keep you around. But keep on sucking at the teat of partisanship and you're going to get snuffed out; if not by a Democrat, then by Mr. Tan Parker. He's gunnin' for you, and his best pal and largest financial backer, former House Speaker Dick Armey, isn't exactly a fan.

(An aside - And after seeing this, neither are any of your constituents in favor of fiscal responsibility.)

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Okay, I'm back.


Yes, I know, it is only January 10. And I did say I'd be back January 31. But something has come up and I need to rant about it. See above post (in just a few minutes).

Posted by The Gonzo Muckraker at Wednesday, January 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments