Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Elections & Voting
Ohio's Diebold debacle: New machines call election results into
question
By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
Online Journal Guest Writers
Nov 25, 2005

Massive Election Day irregularities are emerging in reports from all
over Ohio after the introduction of Diebold's electronic voting in
nearly half of the Buckeye State's counties. A recently released
report by the non-partisan General Accountability Office warned of
such problems with electronic voting machines.

E-voting Machine Disasters

Prior to the 2005 election, electronic voting machines from Diebold
and other Republican voting machine manufacturers were newly
installed in 41 of Ohio's 88 counties. The Dayton Daily News
reported that in Montgomery County, for example, "Some machines
began registering votes for the wrong item when voters touched the
screen correctly. Those machines had lost their calibration during
shipping or installation and had to be recalibrated. . . ."

Steve Harsman, the drector of the Montgomery County Board of
Elections (BOE), told the Daily News that the recalibration could be
done on site, but poll workers had never performed the task before.

The city of Carlisle, Ohio, announced on November 22 that it is
contesting the results of the November 8 general election as a
result of Montgomery County vote counting problems. Carlisle Mayor
Jerry Ellender told the Middletown Journal that the count on the
city's continuing $3.8 million replacement fire levy is
invalid "since they are not sure if Carlisle voters received the
right ballots on the new electronic voting machines."

Harsman, according to the Journal, said, "poll workers incorrectly
encoded voter cards that are used to bring up the ballots on the
electronic machines in precincts in Germantown and Carlisle."

At least 225 votes were registered for the fire levy in precincts
with only 148 registered voters, according to the Journal. In
addition, 187 voting machine memory cards were lost for most of
election night in Montgomery County, according to the Dayton Daily
News.

In Lucas County, election results appeared more than 13 hours after
the close of polls. The Toledo Blade cited "'frightened' poll
workers," intimidated by the new "touch-screen voting machines."

The Blade found that despite an $87,568 federal grant to the Lucas
County Board of Elections for "voter education and poll worker
training . . ." only $1,718.65 was spent from the grant.

The Blade also reported that 10 days after the 2005
election, "Fourteen touch-screen voting machines have sat unattended
in the central hallway at the University of Toledo Scott Park
Campus." The GAO report warned that touch-screen machines are easily
hacked and should be kept secure at all times.

In Miami County, the Board of Elections fired the deputy director,
Diane Miley, following a 20-minute closed-door session reviewing the
November 8, 2005, general election.

The Free Press had reported that in the 2004 presidential election,
Miami County was cited in the seminal Moss v. Bush election
challenge case. The county was specifically cited for an early
morning influx of 19,000 additional votes, mostly for Bush, after
100 percent of the vote had been reported.

The AP reported additional irregularities in the 2005 election in
Ohio. In Wood County, election results were not posted until 6:23
a.m., after poll workers at four polling places accidentally
selected the wrong option on voting machines preventing the machine
memory cards from being automatically uploaded, according to the
Board of Elections Deputy Director Debbie Hazard.

In five counties -- Brown, Crawford, Jackson, Jefferson and Marion --
  using Diebold machines, there were problems with the counting of
absentee ballots as a result of "the width of the ballot," the AP
reported.

In Scioto County, the vote count was not finished until 4:30 a.m.
Board of Elections Director Steve Mowery informed the Portsmouth
Daily Times that, as a result of machines undergoing insufficient
testing and absentee problems, things went "poorly."

Many counties used "roving employees" assigned to pick up memory
cards from voting machines. In Lucas County, these "rovers"
traveled "to multiple locations before delivering the cards to the
election office at Governmental Center." The polls closed at 7:30
p.m. but, "The final memory cards were delivered to the Board of
Elections office just before midnight," according to WTOL Channel 11
News, Toledo.

Toledo's WTOL Channel 11 News posed the simple question: "Did the
delay in returning memory cards to the election office open the door
to possible vote fraud?"

Amidst these massive glitches, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth
Blackwell, who personally negotiated the deal for the Diebold
machines that he called the "best in the nation," insisted through
his spokesperson Carlo LaParo that "The new touch-screen systems
went well."

Odd Results for Election Reform Initiatives

The Reform Ohio Now (RON) campaign saw polls throughout the state
showing two of its four election reform issues to be passing easily.
Both the Columbus Dispatch and University of Akron Bliss Institute
polls predicted victories for Issue 2 and Issue 3, only to see them
go down to sudden and statistically unexplainable defeat. Issue 2
allowed for early voting in Ohio and Issue 3 reduced the amount of
money an individual can give a candidate from $10,000 to $2,000.
Both were predicted to pass with 59 percent and 61 percent of the
vote, respectively.

The Bliss Institute of Applied Politics' survey was completed on
October 20 at the University of Akron Survey Research Center, and
found that Issue 2 seemed likely to win approval with more than
three-fifths of likely voters.

The Dispatch mail-in poll was completed on Thursday Nov. 3, just
prior to Election Day. The Dispatch poll is so accurate, that at
least two academic studies have been published about it in the
Public Opinion Quarterly (POQ). The first paper documents that the
Dispatch poll between 1980-1984 was far more accurate than telephone
polling. The study showed the Dispatch error rate at only 1.6
percentage points versus phone error rates of 5 percent. A companion
study published in POQ in 2000 dealt specifically with the question
of statewide referenda. A quote from the study: "The average error
for the Dispatch forecast of these referenda was 5.4 percentage
points, compared to 7.2 percentage points for the telephone surveys."

The academic study concluded that the Dispatch's mail survey
outperformed telephone surveys for both referenda and candidate's
races.

The fact that the Dispatch was nearly 30 points off in predicting
the "YES" vote on Issue 3 should raise concerns.

Dispatch Associate Publisher Mike Curtin shrugged off the worst
polling performance since the infamous Literary Digest predicted
that Alf Landon would beat FDR in 1936. In an email obtained by the
Free Press, Curtin told California voting rights activist Sheri
Myers, "There is no evidence of any irregularities in Ohio's 2005
voting results." Curtin, according to election attorney Cliff
Arnebeck, had also dismissed anyone who raises issues about Ohio's
2004 presidential election results as "conspiracy theorists."

Curtin co-authored the scholarly papers on the Dispatch's legendary
polling accuracy. Editorially, the Dispatch has not endorsed a
Democratic presidential candidate since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

Curtin pleaded with the voting rights activists, "Please don't buy
into the conspiracy theories without any shred of evidence." Curtin
did not deal with the specifics about how the polling, which he was
so proud of, was up to 40 points off on certain issues for the first
time ever. In another email explaining the unprecedented Dispatch
polling debacle, Dispatch Editor Darrel Rowland told a Tribune Media
Services columnist that, "I also can't imagine voting technology is
to blame, when both Democrats and Republicans are involved in every
crucial step of the way."

Under oath testimony at public hearings sponsored by the Free Press
after the 2004 presidential election revealed that election workers
admit that they have little or no knowledge of how e-voting
technology works and are totally reliant on private vendors for vote
counting inside the "black box." Ohio's other major newspapers
routinely suggest what Rowland "can't imagine."

Rowland did note that despite the Dispatch's recent embracing of its
unprecedented incompetence at polling that, "Over the years we have
found that the people who return our mail poll are likely voters --
the holy grail in political polls. Our track record in gauging
public opinion in this state regarded as a national political
bellwether is unparalleled.

Don McTigue, the attorney for RON, told the Free Press that
Blackwell had issued a ruling barring RON volunteers from the county
vote counting rooms on election eve. McTigue and the RON volunteers
had filled out a request form to view the counting 11 days prior to
Election Day, but Blackwell had added a new form to verify which
group was representing the issues. This new form was not filled out,
McTigue admits.

Matt Damschroder, the Franklin County Board of Elections director,
allowed the RON observers in anyway, despite their being barred from
the vote counting rooms in other counties.

This is the second straight election in which the polling
organizations were spectacularly wrong in Ohio. In the 2004
election, the media consortium exit polls, as well as the Harris and
Zogby polls, all declared Kerry the winner on Election Day.

Democracy in Jeopardy

One of the first times electronic voting machines were used, in the
1988 New Hampshire presidential primary, former CIA director George
Herbert Walker Bush pulled off a stunning and unpredicted upset. The
last poll before that primary showed Senator Bob Dole winning with 8
percentage points. Bush won by 9 points, a startling 17-point shift.
Bush's e-voting victory allowed him to claim the White House and
paved the way for his son to become the United States' chief
executive.

Diebold electronic voting machines use non-transparent, proprietary
software to count the votes. Diebold's CEO Wally O'Dell is one of
President Bush's major donors and fundraisers.

Election Day news coverage from the 41 counties that adopted Diebold
touch-screen machines makes it clear that poll worker ignorance
about how to use the high-tech equipment and machine glitches were
widespread problems in 2005. Diebold technicians in many areas were
key in producing the final vote results.

Use of e-voting machines has resulted in two elections with
improbable results in Ohio, with potentially catastrophic outcomes
for American democracy -- especially if they are ignored.

Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of HOW THE GOP
STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, available at
www.freepress.org, and, with Steve Rosenfeld, of WHAT HAPPENED IN
OHIO, to be published this spring by The New Press.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The movie, the media, and the conservative politics of Philip
Anschutz
Bill Berkowitz
MediaTransparency.org
December 2, 2005

"Greediest executive in America" teams up with Walt Disney Pictures
for film about Christ's "resurrection"

On December 9, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe," a $200 million dollar film adapted from C.S. Lewis'
children's book of the same title, will open on several thousand
screens across the country. If it performs well at the box office,
Disney and conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz -- whose company
co-produced the movie -- could have a "Lord of the Rings"/"Harry
Potter"-type franchise on its hands, as six other Narnia-related
titles are waiting in the wings.

"The Chronicles" -- which many have called the most eagerly
anticipated film of the holiday season -- is a joint production of
Walt Disney Pictures and Anchutz's Walden Media, his "family
friendly" entertainment company.

For Disney, it is all about the money; Anschutz, however, has other
things on his mind. The release of "The Chronicles of Narnia" will
likely usher in another skirmish in America's ongoing culture wars;
fought out at cineplexes around the country as well as on the 24/7
cable news networks. As long as it does not get out of hand, it
surely will advance Anschutz's conservative Christian agenda.

While it is unlikely the movie will spark as huge a dust-up as "The
Passion of the Christ" -- actor/director Mel Gibson's ultra-violent
portrayal of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ -- Lewis'
book has "a frankly religious element," New York Times reporter
Charles McGrath wrote in the November 13 edition of the Times
Magazine. The book contains "not just an undercurrent of all-
purpose, feel-good religiosity but a rigorous substratum of no-
nonsense, orthodox Christianity. If you read between the lines --
and sometimes right there in them -- these stories are all about
death and resurrection, salvation and damnation."

Disney's partner, Walden Media is owned by Philip Anschutz, an oil
magnate, media mogul, the owner of the Regal Entertainment Group
(website) -- the largest motion picture exhibitor in the world (it
operates nearly 20 percent of all indoor screens in the US) -- and a
growing force in Hollywood. While Anschutz certainly does not want
the negative publicity attached to his new movie, he would benefit
greatly if it became the 2005 version of Gibson's blockbuster.

In the late winter of 2004, "The Passion of the Christ"
embodied "buzz." Fundamentalist Christian leaders, privy to a series
of pre-release private showings arranged by Gibson, fully embraced
the film. Local churches gave away thousands of tickets to
parishioners. Jewish organizations, worried that the movie
emphasized Jews as the killers of Christ, voiced concern that film
would cause an uptick in anti-Semitic violence.

At the Vatican, a sermon by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, said that
the film deserved to be criticized if it "spread the belief that all
Jews were responsible for Christ's death." However, "if it restricts
itself to showing an influential group of Jews' were to blame, then
it could not."

In the end, there was no rash of anti-Semitic incidents. "The
Passion" was credited with reviving a moribund box office in taking
in more than $370 million in the United States and $200-plus million
overseas. It currently ranks in the top 10 of all-time "Box Office
Blockbusters."

In early November, the Christian Post reported that "several
influential Christian organizations" including Dr. James Dobson's
Focus on the Family, "have endorsed and promoted" the movie. Abram
Brook, editorial writer for Leadership Magazine, pointed out
that, "the marketing machine for the big C.S. Lewis Narnia movie is
just getting cranked up." Brook voiced his concern that Disney may
be using Christians merely to promote its film: "There is a
ponderable difference between supporting a movie about the
Crucifixion that had input from a broad range of Christian scholars,
and endorsing a film that will be seen by some as Christian
allegory, or, eventually, nice movies that have vague Judeo-
Christian underpinnings."

In the run-up to the premiere, 'Narnia Sneak Peek' events have been
held in churches around the country, the Christian Post
reported: "At the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
members of the 20,000-plus congregation viewed exclusive clips,
received free gift bags full of outreach material, and were treated
to a special live performance by Steven Curtis Chapman. In addition,
C.S. Lewis' stepson and co-producer of the film, Doug Gresham;
Walden Media President and film's visionary Michael Flaherty; and
other Narnia filmmakers discussed the making of the movie."

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that, "the Los Angeles
County Probation Department [had] put together" a series of "Narnia"-
related events "for its juvenile centers." "In addition to reading
the book, exercises included making crumpets in cooking class and
recreating the movie sets in construction class. The grand finale:
seeing the movie after it comes out on Dec. 9."

Pre-release marketing efforts have reached out "to a panoply of
special-interest groups, from the Coast Guard Youth Academy to
Ronald McDonald House, wooing them with invitations to glitzy
presentations on the studio lot and lavishing them with posters,
snow globes and other promotional gear."

Walden and Disney claim that, "they have sent out 'Narnia' materials
to every elementary and middle school in America. That includes
posters, educational guides and more than 90,000 copies of the
novel. The guides include suggested lesson plans for teachers on
topics ranging from the Blitz to the art of writing music lyrics."

Taking steps to avoid potential controversy, Disney -- the company
that made, but refused to release, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"
last year -- "is hedging its bets and has, for example, already
issued two separate soundtrack albums, one featuring Christian music
and musicians [playing music inspired by the film] and another with
pop and rock tunes," the New York Times' McGrath reported. EMI
Christian Music Group released its album in early October to promote
the film.

Covering all its bases, Disney signed a deal with America Online
Inc., a unit of Time Warner Inc., to promote the movie across the
AOL network, including Moviefone.com and AOL Music and Television.
According to TechWebNews, the deal "include[d] the movie's new
theatrical trailer, which debuted on AOL's Moviefone" in late
October, and "AOL plans to offer fans the first look at behind-the-
scenes video features, extended footage from the movie, an extensive
production gallery, interactive character guides and more."

Anschutz in Hollywood

Anschutz has already made his mark in Hollywood. "No one seems
better positioned to move Hollywood right than Anschutz ...whose
Anschutz Film Group oversees two studios: Walden Media and Bristol
Bay Productions," Bruce C. Anderson wrote in a long piece
called "Conservatives in Hollywood?!" in the Autumn 2005 edition of
City Journal, a quarterly magazine of urban affairs published by the
conservative New York City-based think tank, the Manhattan Institute
(website):

Owner of everything from oil fields to railroads to newspapers, and
a major contributor to conservative causes, Anschutz decided not
long ago to begin a career as a twenty-first-century Louis B. Mayer.
His agenda: producing humanistic, family-oriented films. 'We expect
them to be entertaining, but also to be life affirming and to carry
a moral message,' he told a Hillsdale College audience last year.
Anschutz sees a golden market opportunity in such movies. 'Hollywood
as an industry can at times be insular and doesn't at times
understand the market very well,' he explained. But he also 'saw a
chance with this move to attempt some small improvement in the
culture.'

Like an old-time film mogul, Anschutz has nailed down the
distribution side. His Regal Entertainment is the nation's largest
movie-theater chain, with about 18 percent of all U.S. indoor
screens. He keeps a firm hand on the creative process. 'Many things
happen between the time you hatch an idea for a movie and the time
that it gets to theaters -- and most of them are bad," he told his
Hillsdale listeners. 'So you need to control the type of writers you
have, the type of directors you get, the type of actors you employ,
and the type of editors that work on the final product.'

Anschutz demanded, for instance, that director Taylor Hackford
revise the 2004 Ray Charles biopic, Ray, toning down the film's
focus on the performer's drug problems and sexual exploits. After
initially threatening to quit, Hackford came around to Anschutz's
more family-oriented vision. The resulting movie is an honest --
there's no effort to whitewash the drugs and womanizing -- but
ultimately inspiring narrative of Charles's successful perseverance
against the great odds of his own blindness and moral flaws and
society's racism. The movie -- funded entirely by Anschutz, after
every major studio had rejected it -- garnered six Oscar
nominations, winning two, including Best Actor for Jamie Foxx,
riveting in the title role.

Anschutz is off to a gangbuster start, and not just because of Ray.
This year's bittersweet Because of Winn-Dixie, based on the
children's novel by Kate DiCamillo, tells the story of ten-year-old
Opal (newcomer Annasophia Robb) and her preacher father (Jeff
Daniels), who've just moved to a lower-middle-class Florida town as
the movie opens. Opal's mother, hating being a preacher's wife, had
abandoned the family several years earlier. The film unsentimentally
captures the pain and loneliness that divorce causes children to
feel. Portraying both small-town America and the Baptist faith with
unpretentious sympathy, Winn-Dixie made back most of its modest $14
million production budget on its opening weekend and is currently
one of the top-selling DVDs in the country.

Anschutz's most ambitious effort yet is the forthcoming $150 million
adaptation of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe, a Walden Media--Disney co-production
opening in December -- the first in what Anschutz hopes is a long-
running franchise. The Narnia books -- an extended allegory of
Christ's resurrection--have sold 120 million copies worldwide, 'more
than either Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings,' Anschutz notes,
suggesting the eye-popping box-office potential. Walden will work
closely with Christian organizations to market the film.

'Family-Friendly' philanthropy?

Between 1995 and 2000, according to OpenSecrets.org, the website of
the Center for Responsive Politics, the Anschutz Corporation, and
assorted members of the Anschutz family, donated nearly $700,000 to
the GOP and its candidates.

Last November, Anschutz was ranked number 33 on Business Week's 50
Most Generous Philanthropists List. In addition to a gift of more
than $50 million to the University of Colorado Hospital to build the
Outpatient Pavilion and the Cancer Pavilion, over the years,
Anschutz-related entities have helped bankroll a number of
ultraconservative political organizations, including:

Colorado for Family Values (CFV) -- the organization behind
Amendment 2, Colorado's notorious anti-gay constitutional amendment
approved by the voters in 1992 and later overturned by the US
Supreme Court.

The New York-based Institute for American Values (website), which
campaigns for marriage and against single parenting;

Enough is Enough (website), whose President and Chair of its Board
of Directors is Donna Rice Hughes (the major figure in the sex
scandal that ended the 1987 campaign of Gary Hart, in the Democratic
presidential primary). Enough is Enough claims that it is "Lighting
the way to protect children and families from the dangers of illegal
Internet pornography and sexual predators."

Morality in the Media (website), established in 1962 "to combat
obscenity and uphold decency standards in the media."
Anschutz's name also came up last spring when the National Committee
for Responsive Philanthropy gave a report to House staff that called
for legislation barring people under investigation for, or accused
or convicted of, corporate crimes from serving on boards of private
foundations.

Up from Kansas

Philip Anschutz was born in Kansas in 1939. His father, according to
Wikipedia, "was a land investor who invested in ranches in Colorado,
Utah, and Wyoming, and eventually went into the oil-drilling
business." Anschutz graduated from the University of Kansas and
moved to Denver, Colorado, where in 1965, he started The Anschutz
Corporation, and began operations in the oil business. According to
a bio published at HoratioAlger.com -- the website of The Horatio
Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, "by 1976 he owned oil
fields in Montana, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming. He also bought
uranium and coalmines, and cattle ranches."

Later in the decade, Anschutz "put his knowledge of new seismic
technology to work on prospective lands in northern Utah. His
instincts paid off in one of the largest oil discoveries since
Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. He sold a large part of his find to Mobil Oil,
and promptly began further diversification out of the oil business
into other businesses."

He also heads Clarity Media Group, owns the San Francisco Examiner --
  a shadow of its former self -- purchased in 2004, and a free
tabloid in the nation's capital called the Washington Examiner. In
early February, a posting at Think Progress, a project of the
American Progress Action Fund, pointed out that the "new tabloid has
a decidedly right-wing slant to its editorial page, with
conservative opinion pieces like "Social Security robs future to pay
for past" and "Abortion isn't a game, so stop playing." In mid-
October, the company announced plans to launch the Baltimore
Examiner in the spring. (Clarity has trademarked the Examiner name
in 69 cities.)

According to NewsMax.com, a conservative online news service,
Anschutz "may be poised to create a publishing tsunami with the
purchase of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain," the second largest
newspaper publishing company in the U.S., which owns 32 dailies
including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald and Kansas City
Star.

When Anschutz "was negotiating the purchase of London's Millennium
Dome, the BBC dubbed him a "corporate vulture," Nathan Callahan
reported in the OC Weekly on May 2, 2003. According to Callahan,
Anschutz is "part owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles
Kings and the Staples Center. The Union Pacific Corp.; the Forest
Oil Corp.; Celine Dion's Las Vegas production company; a dozen
professional ice-hockey teams; and more than 335,000 acres of
agricultural land in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas are also part of
the Anschutz portfolio."

Anschutz is also the founder of the telecom company Qwest
Communications International Inc. According to the OC Weekly's
Callahan, "Early in 2000, the fiber-optics giant encouraged
employees to keep their retirement savings in company stock even as
senior executives were bailing out, selling shares worth hundreds of
millions of dollars. According to SEC filings, Anschutz unloaded 6.1
million shares during that period. Qwest peaked at $64 per share.
Six months later, the same share was valued at $1.95. During that
time, Anschutz netted $213.5 million in profit" Anschutz "was
branded the greediest executive in America by Fortune magazine ...
topping a list that included ... Gary Winnick, founder of Global
Crossing."

Qwest eventually reached a settlement that required a $4.4 million
payout to charity.

Anschutz, who Wikipedia points out, "is known to be extremely
guarded about giving personal information out to the press,"
also "owns one of the best collections of Western art ever
assembled."

"We expect them [movies] to be entertaining, but also to be life
affirming and to carry a moral message," Philip Anschutz told an
audience at the conservative Christian Hillsdale College last year.
While "Hollywood as an industry can at times be insular and doesn't
at times understand the market very well," he also "saw a chance
with this move to attempt some small improvement in the culture."

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

http://www.wingtv.net/thornarticles/gorightly.html

Review: The Beast of Adam Gorightly
by Victor Thorn

    Once again, Adam Gorightly has shown himself to be the hippest,
most in-tune writer on the scene today. Following on the heels of
The Shadow Over Santa Susana (the best book ever written about
Charles Manson), The Prankster and the Conspiracy (JFK assassination
paranoia at its finest), and Death Cults, this self-
described `crackpot historian' has hit another home-run with a
collection of his most inspired writings from the past twelve years.
In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that if I were ever exiled on
a remote island for the rest of my life and could only take the
books of ten authors with me, one of them would definitely be Adam
Gorightly.

Why, you may wonder? The answer is simple: whenever one peruses
Gorightly's material, it's like reading the work of a hundred
different writers at the same time. That's because Gorightly is so
eclectic in his tastes, and so varied in his subject matter, that
you end-up sampling a cross-section of information that is so vast
it covers the entire spectrum of what we call the underground press
and/or alternative media. The result is a cornucopia of high-
weirdness, true crime, conspiracy politics, rock n' roll, the
counter-culture, literature, cinema, mind control, and the occult
(and that's just for starters).

Thus, his books about Manson and Kerry Thornley go so far beyond
their central subjects that they become a cavalcade of esoteric
history, pop culture, and bizarre hidden associations that strangely
inter-connect everything together. But as is characteristic of any
quality writer, Gorightly's tie-ins not only attempt to solve the
puzzles at hand, but also open up entirely new doors with even more
questions and mysteries. In this sense, a reader can run the gamut
on any number of topics, see them in an entirely new light, then
ultimately realize that instead of reaching the end of the rainbow,
they're once again plunged back down another rabbit hole filled with
even more labyrinth-like turns, transformations, oddities, and
symbolic synchronicities.

In his latest collection, the above analysis certainly holds true,
for we are quickly offered the story of Dock Ellis, a former major
league baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates who, after
dropping a hit of LSD, threw a no-hitter! There are also chapters on
the great Jack Kerouac, the Satan-rock n' roll connection,
preeminent political researcher Jim Keith, the evil Bush crime
family, Montauk, and material reminiscent of Donna Kossy's
fabulously entertaining book Kooks.

My favorite section, though (and this may surprise the author), was
his overview of Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut,
starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Of course anyone who has ever
wandered into the conspiracy research field recognized that
something much deeper was going on with this flick than what met the
eye, and to his credit Gorightly expertly hammers home the links
between Monarch sex slave programming, the CIA's MK-ULTRA, multiple
personality disorder, and secret societies. Quite an intriguing
piece of writing if I do say so!

I could go on and on, but here's my advice: take a trip to that cool
little island where Adam Gorightly resides and get a load of what
he's laying down. But be careful and proceed with caution, for once
you've entered his Dr. Moreau-like realm of high-discordia, you
might not be able to (or want to) find your way back out.

*****

World Terrorism & Security
posted November 23, 2005

British paper: Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera
White House calls allegation 'outlandish,' editors in Britain
threatened with jail if they publish leaked memo.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

A leaked memo in Britain has once again caused an uproar. This time,
the British government has acted to prevent any further publication.

The Times of London reports that the attorney general of Britain has
warned British papers that they will be prosecuted under the
Official Secrets Act if they publish details of a conversation
between Tony Blair and George Bush in which Mr. Bush is alleged to
have suggested bombing Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite TV channel
based in Qatar.

Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney-General, informed ... editors including
that of The Times that "publication of a document that has been
unlawfully disclosed by a Crown servant could be in breach of
Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act."

The Guardian reports that this is the first time the British
government has threatened to use the Official Secrets Act to prevent
publication of the details of a leaked document. "Though it has
obtained court injunctions against newspapers, the government has
never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked
documents, including highly sensitive ones about the run-up to the
invasion of Iraq."

On Tuesday, the British paper the Daily Mirror published the details
of a government memo, marked Top Secret, that recorded a
conversation between Bush and Mr. Blair that took place in the White
House last April 16. The Daily Mirror's editor said he informed
Downing Street that he was going to print details of the memo, but
was not told at the time to stop. That order did not come until the
day after the first story appeared in the paper.

The Evening Standard reports that the unnamed sources who leaked the
memo to the Mirror say it records "Bush suggesting that he might
order the bombing of Al-Jazeera's studios in Qatar."

And it allegedly details how Blair argued against an attack on the
station's buildings in the business district of Doha, the capital
city of Qatar, which is a key ally of the West in the Persian Gulf.

Al-Jazeera had sparked the anger of the US administration by
broadcasting video messages from Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and
leaders of the insurgency in Iraq, as well as showing footage of the
bodies of US servicemen and Iraqi civilians killed in fighting.

The Associated Press reports that the two unnamed sources cited by
the Mirror story had different impressions of Bush's alleged remarks.

One source, said to be in the government, was quoted as saying that
the alleged threat was "humorous, not serious," but the newspaper
quoted another source as saying that "Bush was deadly serious, as
was Blair."

BBC world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds also believes that
Bush's comments were in jest.

"An attack on al-Jazeera would also have been an attack on Qatar,
where the US military has its Middle East headquarters. So the
possibility has to be considered that Bush was in fact making some
kind of joke and that this was not a serious proposition."

The Blair government did not deny the report, citing legal action
against two people believed to have leaked the memo and saying it
never comments on leaked documents. AP reports that David Keogh, a
Cabinet Office civil servant, and Leo O'Connor, who worked as a
researcher in the office of Tony Clarke, a former member of
Parliament, would appear in court next week to face charges under
the Official Secrets Act in relation to the memo.

Mr. Clarke returned the five-page transcript to Blair's office.

The Washington Post, however, said that White House spokesman Scott
McClellan told the Associated Press in an e-mail, "We are not
interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable
with a response." The Post also quotes a senior diplomat in
Washington who said the Bush remark as recounted in the
newspaper "sounds like one of the president's one-liners that is
meant as a joke." But, the diplomat said, "it was foolish for
someone to write it down, and now it will be a story for days."

The Post also reports:

A former senior U.S. intelligence official said that it was clear
the White House saw al-Jazeera as a problem, but that although the
CIA's clandestine service came up with plans to counteract it, such
as planting people on its staff, it never received permission to
proceed. "Bombing in Qatar was never contemplated," the former
official said.

For its part, Al Jazeera released a statement Tuesday night saying
that it was trying to verify the Mirror's story about the memo, and
it called on Blair's office to "clear up the issue."

"If the report is correct, then this would be both shocking and
worrisome not only to al-Jazeera but to media organizations across
the world," the statement said. "It would cast serious doubts in
regard to the US administration's version of previous incidents
involving Al Jazeera's journalists and offices."

In April 2003, an Al Jazeera journalist died when its Baghdad office
was struck during a US bombing campaign. In November 2001, Al
Jazeera's office in Kabul, Afghanistan, was destroyed by a US
missile, although no staff were in the office at the time. US
officials said they believed the target was a "terrorist" site and
did not know it was Al Jazeera's office.
The US government has said each of the above incidents was
unintentional. The Evening Standard reports that former defense
minister Peter Kilfoyle – a leading Labour opponent of the Iraq war –
  called for the leaked document to be made public.
"I believe that Downing Street ought to publish this memo in the
interests of transparency, given that much of the detail appears to
be in the public domain," he told the Press Association.
"I think they ought to clarify what exactly happened on this
occasion. If it was the case that President Bush wanted to bomb al-
Jazeera in what is after all a friendly country, it speaks volumes
and it raises questions about subsequent attacks that took place on
the press that wasn't embedded with coalition forces."

CNN reports that during the 1999 air campaign over Kosovo, "US
warplanes targeted Yugoslavia's state television network. NATO
officials argued it was a legitimate target as the propaganda arm of
the Yugoslav government." The Chinese embassy in Belgrade was also
hit during the same air campaign, which killed three Chinese
journalists. NATO later said the bombing was due to faulty
intelligence given to it by allies.

*****

Thursday, December 1, 2005
50 Years Ago Today... From Michael Moore

Friends,

I just thought we should all pause for a moment today to remember
the simple act of courage, defiance and dignity committed by Rosa
Parks when she refused to move to the back of the bus because the
law said she had the wrong skin color. The greatest moments in
history, the ones that have truly mattered and have taken us to a
better place, are made up of scores of these singular acts by
ordinary, everyday people who could no longer tolerate the crap and
the nonsense of those in charge.

Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army
recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who
refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we
continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection
but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of
righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not
easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is
afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity.

Rosa Parks may have been alone on that bus at the moment of her
arrest but she wasn't alone for long. The old order was shaken, the
world was upended and, as a people, we were given a chance for a bit
of redemption.

Perhaps the best way to celebrate this most important day in
American history is to ask yourself what it is that you can do today
to make a difference. What risk can you take to move the ball
forward? What is that one thing you've been wanting to say to your
co-workers or classmates that you've been afraid to say -- but in
your heart of hearts you know needs to be said? Why wait another day
to say it or do it?

There is probably no better way to honor Rosa Parks -- and yourself -
- than for you to put a stop to an injustice you see, not allowing
it to continue for one more second. Do something. Then send me an
email (contributions@...) and tell all of us what you
did (I'll post as many as I can).

Fifty years later, the bus we're on could use a few more people
simply saying, "No. I'm sorry. I've had enough. I'm not going to
take it anymore."

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com

*****

Sabbath, Sex Pistols on Rock's Rolls By Josh Grossberg
Mon Nov 28, 2005
E! Online

After repeatedly being dissed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
Ozzy Osbourne famously demanded that Black Sabbath be removed from
consideration for the "totally irrelevant" institution.

Good thing no one was paying attention. The seminal metal mavens, on
their seventh ballot, finally got the nod Monday and will be one of
five acts saying "Hello, Cleveland!" in 2006.

Joining Sabbath in the Class of 2006 are the Sex Pistols, Blondie,
Lynyrd Skynyrd and jazz great Miles Davis.

They will be feted at the Rock Hall's 21st annual induction ceremony
that will be held, per tradition, at New York's famed Waldorf
Astoria Hotel on Mar. 13.

Osbourne and his "War Pigs" comrades--Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and
Bill Ward--formed in 1969 and first appeared on the ballot in 1997
(artists become eligible after at least 25 years have passed since
their first album was released). But their repeated rejections
became a running joke as voters opted for the tamer likes of Billy
Joel, Percy Sledge, Bob Seger and the Righteous Brothers over the
bat-chomping, Satan-touting Sabbath.

That led an embittered Osbourne to cry uncle in 1999. "Just take our
name off the list. Save the ink," he groused to the cadre of
artists, producers, journalists and historians who vote. "Forget
about us."

Osbourne had no immediate comment Monday on the turn of events. But
based on influence alone, his band deserved enshrinement, having
inspired generations of head bangers, including Metallica and
Megadeth. Sabbath successfully reunited in 2000 for its first tour
in over 20 years.

Putting Sabbath and the Sex Pistols (another long passed over band)
on the stage together should make for a rollicking evening.

Though they lasted only two years, the British rabble-rousers
recorded the indelible punk anthems "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God
Save the Queen" on their lone album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's
the Sex Pistols, and set the standard for self-destructive rock 'n'
roll behavior thanks to frontman Johnny Rotten and the late Sid
Vicious. Other band members included Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Glen
Matlock.

Injecting some pop into the proceedings will be Blondie. Led by
Debbie Harry, the new wave rockers topped the charts in the
late '70s and early '80s with such hits as "Heart of Glass," "One
Way or Another," "Call Me" and "The Hardest Part" and were one of
the first acts to combine rock with rap, roots, salsa, funk, disco
and reggae. Aside from Harry, the members to be enshrined include
Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison, Frank Infante, Chris Stein
and Gary Valentine.

The induction will likely take a poignant turn when Lynyrd Skynyrd
takes the stage. The Dixie rockers lost several members of their
original lineup, including principal singer-songwriter Ronnie Van
Zant, in a 1977 plane crash. But their hits--"Freebird," "Sweet Home
Alabama," "Gimme Three Steps"--remain staples of classic rock and
inspired everyone from ZZ Top to Bo Bice. In addition to Van Zant,
Skynyrd's roster over the years included Bob Burns, Allen Collins,
Steve Gaines, Ed King, Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle, Gary Rossington
and Leon Wilkeson.

Easily the most curious selection on the ballot is Davis. The jazz
icon, who died in 1991, was recognized for his profound influence on
rock music, including hard-charging horn work on A Tribute to Jack
Johnson and the psychedelic experimentation on Bitch's Brew, both
released in 1970. Davis' six-decade career pushed the boundaries of
jazz and fused soul, funk, hip-hop and rock.

Receiving the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation's Lifetime
Achievement Award in the Non-Performer category will be Herb Alpert
and Jerry Moss. They cofounded A&M Records in Los Angeles in 1962
and built up a roster of artists that included the Police, Joe
Jackson, the Neville Brothers, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Captain
Beefheart and John Hiatt.

The Sideman category will be announced at a later date.

Those not making the cut this year include A&M alum Cat Stevens (now
known as Yusuf Islam), Chic, the Dave Clark Five, the J. Geils Band,
John Mellencamp, the Patti Smith Group, the Paul Butterfield Band,
the Sir Douglas Quintet and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five,
which would have been the first rap act inducted.

*****

L.A. hospitals send patients to skid row

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Three Los Angeles hospitals say that
they often send homeless patients to the city's skid row when they
are released.

The Los Angeles Times reports that hospital officials say that they
have few choices because most services for the homeless and indigent
are concentrated downtown. They also claim that no patients are
released until they are in condition to fend for themselves.

Police and some shelters described seeing people who clearly still
needed medical treatment.

Scott Johnson of Union Rescue Mission said that in 11 recent cases
homeless men were sent there by taxi or ambulance without anyone
calling first to make sure a bed was available. Three of the men
were unable to say what hospital had discharged them.

Los Angeles Police Captain Andy Smith said that in one case a man
strapped to a gurney was sent by ambulance to the rescue mission.

*****

November 28, 2005

Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in
Cuba, and the Murder of JFK
by Lamar Waldron, with Thom Hartmann

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Certainly, when it comes to speculation about what information the
U.S. government has kept from its citizens, the Warren Commission --
and the John F. Kennedy assassination -- is the granddaddy of
examples of how we are kept in the dark.

BuzzFlash isn't a great follower of Kennedy assassination conspiracy
theories, because there are so many. This is precisely because the
goal of the Warren Commission -- like the goal of the 9/11
Commission -- was to make sure that nothing was revealed that might
cause domestic or international shock waves.

BuzzFlash doesn't profess to know the true tale of who was behind
the Kennedy assassination. But, many of the conspiracy theories are
more believable than the Warren Commission report, which bent facts
like pretzels in order to "conclude" that Oswald was an isolated,
rogue assassin. In fact, it is extremely difficult to fathom --
given the available information and logic -- that Oswald acted
entirely on his own volition.

The problem presented when you have a tradition of an elitist
government that keeps the truth from the public is that it is very
difficult to ferret out what really happened -- because much of the
information that you need to come to a plausible conclusion has been
destroyed, classified or purposefully shunted aside.

That is why "Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan
for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK" breaks new ground in the
effort to understand why JFK was assassinated. Co-authored by Thom
Hartmann, one of BuzzFlash's favorite colleagues, and Lamar Waldron,
a veteran researcher -- this 912-page book was 17 years in the
making. Hartmann and Waldron took advantage of belatedly
declassified CIA and other government documents to carefully
document their theory, along with extensive interviews with
individuals close to the Kennedys and the CIA.

You don't have to agree with the conclusion of "Ultimate Sacrifice"
to value it as a skilled, thoroughly researched contribution to the
library of Kennedy conspiracy theories. It is an extremely important
book because it relies on detail and the accumulation of facts,
rather than mere speculation.

For some, the notion that the mafia alone was behind the
assassination of JFK will be hard to fathom. Yet, Hartmann and
Waldron lay out a trail of support for their hypothesis that is
entirely persuasive. They reveal for the first time that Robert
Kennedy was spearheading plans for a December 1963 coup in Cuba,
code named "AMWORLD" -- and that JFK was the target of two prior
planned assassination attempts. Three mafia chieftains, headed by
Carlos Marcello, were furious with the Kennedys for RFK's relentless
pursuit of the mob. The assassination of JFK was the ultimate hit.
Jack Ruby, a mob foot soldier, made sure that Oswald didn't
implicate anyone else by finishing him off with a gun.

You'll have to read the book to understand how the authors contend
that the truth about the assassination was covered up due to the
world crisis that the revelation of the "AMWORLD" Cuban coup might
cause. But, given the groundbreaking research of Hartmann and
Waldron, "Ultimate Sacrifice" is much more than a garden variety
Kennedy conspiracy theory.

No one will ever be able to definitively prove who had JFK killed,
but after reading "Ultimate Sacrifice," if you had to place a bet,
you would probably put your money down on the Hartmann-Waldron
theory getting pretty darn close to the truth. Not that we are
betting people.

Personally, we've always thought the argument of whether or not
there were one or two gunmen has been a bit of a distraction. We
just accept as a given that Oswald was a patsy. The real question is
who planned the assassination of JFK, however it was carried
out. "Ultimate Sacrifice" offers an entirely credible theory in
answer to that question.

Perhaps it is best to close our BuzzFlash comments with an excerpt
from a Publishers Weekly review: "How well do the authors make their
case? With a relentless accumulation of detail, a very thorough
knowledge of every political and forensic detail and the broad
perspective of historians rather than assassination theorists...no
future historian of that tormented period in American history will
be able to ignore their very convincing presentation."

*****

New Deal Keeps N.Y. Punk Venue CBGB Open
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 8, 2005

The legendary punk venue CBGB, known as the launching pad for
influential bands such as the Ramones and Talking Heads, announced
an agreement with its landlord Wednesday to keep the club's doors
open through October 2006, when it must move.

CBGB's lease expired in August, with the landlord announcing it
wanted the club out after a five-year fight. But Mayor Michael
Bloomberg's office helped reach an agreement that avoided a court
battle with the Bowery Residents Committee, a homeless advocacy
group that owns the lease on the property.

"It's been little stipulations, back and forth — we agreed, we
didn't agree," said Hilly Kristal, the grizzled owner who opened
CBGB in 1973. "We finally got to a point where we agreed with each
other."

BRC executive Muzzy Rosenblatt said the agreement would let his
group "concentrate on helping the needy and homeless of New York
City."

The BRC is a nonprofit that houses 250 people above the club, and
CBGB is its lone commercial tenant.

The new agreement boosts the rent at the world-renowned rock club to
a near-market price of $35,000 a month — up from the old deal's
$19,000. It requires Kristal to leave the dingy space by Oct. 31,
2006.

Kristal said he's already looking for a new location in lower
Manhattan and also is considering opening a branch in Las Vegas.

"Things are different all the time — look at the '70s, the '80s,
the '90s," Kristal said. "The most important thing is we're keeping
the integrity of CBGB's. It won't be exactly the same, but it will
have the same ingredients."
___
On the Net:

CBGB: http://www.cbgb.com/

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Autumn Book Reviews: Part II
by

Jaye Beldo
Netnous@...

In this Issue:

Beyond 2012
Catastrophe or Ecstasy:
A Complete Guide to End-of-Time Predictions
by Geoff Stray

UFOs, PSI and Spiritual Evolution
by Christopher Humphrey Ph.D.


The Lucid Dreaming Kit
by
Bradley Thompson

*****

Greetings Friends,

    Here is the last of my autumnal offerings in the book review
department.
I'll be sending out my Top Ten list for 2005 in a few days.   Once
again,
please support independent publishers and their authors
this 'holiday' season
by buying books-as-gifts for your friends and family.

Warm Regards,

Jaye Beldo
*****

Beyond 2012
Catastrophe or Ecstasy:
A Complete Guide to End-of-Time Predictions
by
Geoff Stray

  After the let down of countless apocalyptical hopefuls in regards
to the
fulfillment of  prophecies in 2000 A.D., many are now  training their
predictive crosshairs on a cosmic event only a few years away:
December 21,
2012.  According to the Mayans, this is a most significant date
indeed as we
then align with the 'galactic center' and all hell or heaven
supposedly will
break loose. Time itself may very well collapse, along with corrupt
power
structures found within governments, media conglomerates, trans-
national
corporations and monotheistic institutions to boot.   The date has
certainly
captured the imagination of  New Agers, astrologers, clairvoyants,
entheo-nauts, occultists and even a few cutting edge cosmologists
such as John
Major Jenkins, author of Mayan Cosmogenesis.  Yet, with the
dismaying array of
catastrophic and retributive possibilities at hand, we are still
left with a
pervading sense of uncertainty as to what exactly will
happen.

   In Beyond 2012  Catastrophe or Ecstasy: A complete Guide to End-of-
Time
Predictions,  a rather dizzying smorgasbord of  2012 scenarios that
may greet
us on the winter solstice of that year is offered.  Fortunately, the
author
doesn't fear monger in his response to the advanced waves coming in
from
galactic central.  He pretty much allows the reader sufficient head
space to
contemplate the myriads of potential outcomes at hand.  Culled
mostly from web
sites, the writings of well known authors such as Graham Hancock,
Andrew
Collins and others, Stray has spent over twenty years in compiling
the plethora
of information on 2012 mythologies found in his copious book.  Hopi
fifth world
prophecies, the supposed Dogon/Sirius connection and other
indigenous takes on
the coming event are included along with more contemporary
inventions such as
Terrence McKenna's intriguing and brilliant Time Wave Zero.  McKenna
speculated
that the I-Ching really functioned as a kind of lunar calendar and
ran the
hexagrams through a series of mathematical processes to come up
with 'time
waves' to show the cycles involved.  I found Stray's description of
the
procedure McKenna used to develop his unique software program quite
lucid and
easy to understand. Time Wave Zero is probably the most
sophisticated and user
friendly approach to the 2012 mystery in this reviewers opinion and
I certainly
recommend that readers delve further into McKenna's divinatory opus
via Beyond
2012.

    Also within this profuse end time encyclopedia are highly dubious
spin
artists attempting to veil the true import of 2012 , whether it is a
retributive dimensional shift into a kind of detergent ecstasy or
all out
calamity which conflagrates the planet and humanity as well. One
eminent con
artist in particular is the pseudo-scholar Zecharia Sitchin whose
suspect
mis-interpretations of Sumerian cuneiform writings has been justly
exposed by
one Michael S. Heisner on his website: www.sitchiniswrong.com    In
this
reviewers opinion, Sitchin gets more page space in Beyond 2012 than
he really
deserves.  Yet considering how well his books sell and the obvious
need of many
people to believe in elliptically scoundrel planets such as
Nibiru/Planet X and
humans -as- Annunaki- manufactured- slaves, this is certainly quite
understandable.   I'm also wary of the much hyped crop circle
phenomena which
many interpret as sublime, extraterrestrial artistry, hinting at
the 'positive'
  transformations to come.  According to Brian Desborough, author of
They Cast
No Shadows and Blueprint for a Better World, most crop circles
should be avoided
at all costs as many have actually proved to be radioactive, causing
people who
have been foolish enough to perform rituals in them, sleep in them
or even just
to visit them on an afternoon outing to develop long term illnesses
such as
leukemia (see pgs. 361-63 in They Cast No Shadows for more
information).  I
suggest to the reader who may not be aware of the various
disinformation agents
in prophet's clothing to use their own intuitions and common sense
as a form of
guidance instead of impulsively subscribing to any of the belief
systems
offered up in Beyond 2012.

    Perhaps 2012, if we survive whatever emergence and/or collapse
that is
surely to come, will function as a kind of nexus, rather than an
omega point,
integrating the past, present and future into a much awaited eternal
now that
somehow resonates with the core essence of the galactic center,
either
literally, symbolically or both.  At this point, it is rather
difficult to
ascertain however considering the myriads of predictions at hand.
Geoff
Stray's Beyond 2012 at least can be used as a kind of useful field
guide to
orient us in the right direction, if we approach it with an open
mind and much
discretion as well.


Available at:

www.vitalsignpublishing.co.uk


©2005-Jaye Beldo

*****

UFOs, PSI and Spiritual Evolution
by
Christopher Humphrey Ph.D.


    Many enthusiasts of interstellar travel tend to neglect the
actual mechanics
involved, especially when the distances covered are measured in
light years.
It would take something like 16,000 years just to get to our 'near
by' neighbor
of Alpha Centauri at 4.3 light years distance, using present day
technology.  A
neutrino physicist proved, through his extensive calculations, that
it would
take all of the energy that our sun has ever produced or will
produce just to
reach  the 'Warp One' that the Star Trek Enterprise is depicted as
accelerating
to in the over rated TV series. While faster than light travel is a
possibility, it certainly puts into question the use of physical
vehicles as a means to
achieve it.  Author Christopher Humphrey has given a considerable
amount of
thought to such problems and offers some unique alternatives which
may help to
bridge the obvious distance gap: space travel via our spiritual
bodies.  He
additionally posits that only 'spiritually advanced' beings would be
capable of
instantaneous travel over the span of light years.

     While I found much of what he says quite engaging, relevant and
timely,
considering the pervasion of UFO disinformation that we are
bombarded with at
present, Humphrey tends to habitually drop a chosen subject matter
before it is
sufficiently developed and goes off on these flighty, pardon the pun,
digressions which are interesting nonetheless, but tend to weaken
any cohesive
argument that would bolster his overall theories of non-physical
travel through
space.  (I'm noticing this tendency quite a bit these days in many
other
authors as well and may well be indicative of the effects of
computers and other
electronic mediums on our overall attention spans).  As an example,
the author
posits that de Broglie waves are a probable medium for PSI abilities
especially
in regards to Uri Geller's spoon bending and clock stopping
abilities.  But
Humphrey then fails to provide any kind of substantial metaphorical
analogy
enabling a reader not well versed in the physics involved to grasp
specifically
what he is saying.  If Humphrey could provide some kind of imagistic
parallel
to the de Broglie wave carrier medium phenomena , it would make it
much easier for
the reader to not only understand but also to intuitively use the
waves
themselves and actualize any nascent PSI abilities that they may
have
within them.  He also digresses from a compelling description of the
work of
the historian Arnold Toynbee in a similar way.  After a brief
summation of
Toynbee's work involving pattern recognition within various
historical epochs,
the author drops the matter altogether and takes a completely
unrelated tack,
leaving the reader hanging in some never land of indeterminacy.  In
addition,
some of the conclusions the author makes during his frequent
diversionary
flights are rather embarrassing.  Here is one example:

"Incidentally, the main problem with Yoga, Buddhism and Hinduism is
that they
only want to escape the wheel of reincarnation and make no attempt
to raise the
level of their civilization.  That is why Yogis never went to the
stars.  In
India, they know about reincarnation, but only use that knowledge to
justify
the Caste system."  Pg. 82

    Humphrey obviously has not studied any of these spiritual paths in
sufficient enough depth or breadth and resorts to gross
generalizations such as cited
above.  Yogis had and have intimate knowledge of the stars, other
planets and
galaxies which is encoded in such works as the Vedas, indicating
some form of
superluminal travel to these distant locales.  One scholar even
showed that the
measurements from the earth to the sun described in one ancient
sacred text
from India were uncannily accurate in comparison with more recent
measurements using
modern scientific equipment. Humphrey has obviously has not read the
works of
such luminaries as Nityananda or Meher Baba who totally disdained
the caste
system and would often work directly with the untouchable caste,
providing them
with shelter, food , clothes and hospitals as well.  Nor has he
looked into the
social and political gains made by many Buddhist activists along the
way.  It
is also sorely evident that the author has not even considered the
possibility
of interstellar travel via Vimana craft which are described in
detail in such
works as the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

    I do believe that Humphrey has some truly valuable information
and is
concerned about such oppressive vectors as CSICOPS,
Reductionist/Materialist
Science in regards to their deliberately inhibiting the realization
of
interstellar travel via our spiritual bodies.  He cites the works of
individuals who are making valuable contributions to enhancing our
spiritual
awareness such as Ian Stevenson, author of the book 20 Cases
Suggestive of
Reincarnation and others as well.  However, I would have given this
book a much
higher approval rating if something like an actual editor had gone
through it
and deleted much of the repetitious information and revised it into
something
more flowing, concise and cohesive.

©2005-Jaye Beldo

*****

The Lucid Dreaming Kit
by

Bradley Thompson


    The ability to maintain awareness of a dream while dreaming seems
to be
considered difficult if not impossible by many people.  How often do
we take
conscious action within a dream and steer it to a more favorable
outcome?  Not
very often.  The Lucid Dreaming Kit improves our chances of
realizing lucidity
in dreams using a fairly simple procedure.  On one CD in the kit are
instructions on how to proceed for a period of seven days in order
to achieve
maintain awareness during the sleep cycle.  Using a digital watch
with a an
alarm setting on it, one is instructed to set it to beep at various
intervals
during designated nights .  These'interruptions'  some how  provoke
us to
maintain consciousness during sleep and help us subliminally
anticipate a
coming dream without waking up and losing contact with it.

    I particularly liked the accompanying audio CD which the author
recommends
to play just prior to sleep.  The subliminally encoded, eighty minute
soundtrack enabled me to achieve a lucid dream state on the very
first night
that I used it.  Frankly, I was rather surprised because I've rarely
had
fully lucid dreams where I was in complete control from beginning to
end.
I've always had the assumption that one had to actually struggle for
years to
achieve thie lucid state.

   In the dream, I found myself within a DNA molecule.  When I
instantly became
aware that I was dreaming, I then took direct action and started
repairing
damaged telomeres, restoring the DNA to its original twenty two
strands,
marveling at the codon poetry that played out before me.  I would
float from
location to location in this marvelously illuminated DNA coil and
could choose
where to go and what to do.  I then realized, within the dream, that
the DNA
'molecule' I was in, was really of universal dimensions, spanning
vast
distances of interstellar space. It was more like an infinite helix,
I
realized, when I further investigated and started traveling through
it.
Needless to say, I was most reluctant to have the dream end and woke
up with a
feeling that I had achieved something rather significant.

     The experience was both refreshing and rather amazing as well.
It did
something peculiarly benign to my waking state consciousness
throughout the
following day, as if there was some kind of deeper connection and
resonance
with environments within and without me.  I realized that repairing
the
universal DNA helped with making these deep connections and I
actually
physically felt better.

   Included with the Lucid Dreaming Kit are a Lucid Dreaming screen
saver for
your computer, a PDF file which contains the day by day instructions
the author
recommends to follow in order to increase the chances of having a
lucid dream
and a dream log.  (I recently received information from the Lucid
Dreaming Kit
creator that there is now a version of the audio CD that is eight
hours long).
The ease of use as well as the immediate effect the CDs had on my
dream life
has given me sufficient indication that Thompson's method does work
effectively.
I've tried other methods in the past to achieve lucid dreams such as
Tibetan
Dream Yoga but nothing so far has given me the quick results that
the Lucid
Dreaming Kit has. Check it out!

Available at:

www.lucid-dreaming-kit.com

©2005-Jaye Beldo
*****
Jaye Beldo writes for Associated Content, Central Sun Journal, Deep
Fried Rice,
Gnostic Liberation Front, The Parisian, The Sorel Lawncaster Gazette
and many
other high profile publications.  He can be reached at:
Netnous@...

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com


It's A Mall World After All

Critics love to hate shopping centers as symbols of all that is
wrong with American culture. But as they go global, they are
stimulating economic growth —throughout the developing world.
By Mac Margolis
Newsweek International

Dec. 5, 2005 issue - When the Los Angeles firm Altoon + Porter
Architects set out to design a shopping arcade in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, a few years ago, it faced a delicate mission: to raise a
glitzy pleasure dome full of Western temptations in the maw of
fundamentalist Islam. Not that the Saudis were consumer innocents;
King Khalid airport in Riyadh fairly hums with wealthy Arabs bound
for the lavish shops of Paris and London. But the trick was to lure
women buyers—the royalty of retail—who are not allowed to shed their
veils in public. "Women can't be expected to buy anything if they
can't try it on," says architect Ronald Altoon, managing partner of
the firm. So Altoon + Porter came up with an ecumenical solution:
the Kingdom Centre, a three-story glass-and-steel Xanadu of retail
with an entire floor—Women's Kingdom—devoted exclusively to female
customers. "We took the veil off the women and put it on the
building," says Altoon.

The modest proposal paid off. In Women's Kingdom, Saudi women can
shop, schmooze, dine or even loll about at the spa without upsetting
the sheiks or subverting Sharia, the country's strict Islamic laws.
Normally the third level of any mall is a dud, but it's become the
most profitable floor in the whole arcade. The Kingdom Centre may
not be revolutionary; no one is burning veils at the food court.
Still, it represents a small but meaningful freedom for Saudi women.
And its success points to the irrepressible global appetite for
consumer culture, as well as to the growing role that the right to
shop plays in fostering democratization and development.

It's been more than two decades since John B. Hightower, the
director of New York City's South Street Seaport Museum, a
combination cultural center and shopping arcade, brazenly declared
that "shopping is the chief cultural activity of the United States."
Since then, it has also become one of America's chief exports:
shopping malls, once a peculiarly American symbol of convenience and
excess, now dot the global landscape from Santiago to St. Petersburg
and Manila to Mumbai. In 1999, India boasted only three malls. Now
there are 45, and the number is expected to rise to 300 by 2010. The
pint-size Arab Emirate of Dubai, sometimes known as the Oz of malls,
clocked 88.5 million mall visitors last year; nearly 180 million
Brazilians mob shopping arcades every month—almost as many as in the
United States. Where elephants and giraffes once gamboled along the
Mombasa road leading into Nairobi, the African mall rat is now a far
more common sight, with four gleaming new malls to scavenge in at
the Kenyan capital and three more in the works. And no one can keep
pace with China, where foreign investors are scrambling to get a
piece of a real-estate boom driven in part by mall mania. "The same
energy and dynamism that the shopping industry brought to North
America 30, 40 years ago is now reaching overseas," says Michael
Kercheval, head of the International Council of Shopping Centers, an
industry trade association and advisory group. "Now it's reached the
global masses."

Indeed, the planet appears deep in the grip of the retail version of
an arms race. For years, the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada,
with 20,000 parking spaces, an ice-skating rink, a miniature-golf
course and four submarines (more than in the Canadian Navy) on
display, had reigned as the grandest in the world. Last October it
was overtaken by the $1.3 billion Golden Resources Shopping Center
in northwest Beijing, with 20,000 employees and nearly twice the
floor space of the Pentagon. Developers in Dubai are breaking ground
on not one but two malls they claim will be even bigger, one of
which boasts a man-made, five-run ski slope. Yet all these have been
eclipsed by the behemoth South China Mall, which opened its doors in
the factory city of Dongguan this year. By the end of the decade,
China is likely to have at least seven of the world's 10 largest
malls—many of them equipped with hotels, on the theory that no one
can possibly see everything in a single day.

To those who malign malls as the epitome of all that is wrong with
American culture, their spread is like a pestilenceupon the land.
Dissident scholars churn out one dystopian tract—"One Nation Under
Goods," "The Call of the Mall"—after another. Critics despair of
whole nations willing to cash in their once vibrant downtowns and
street markets for a wasteland of jerry-built nowhere, epic traffic
jams and marquees ablaze with fatuous English names (Phoenix High
Street, Palm Springs Life Plaza and Bairong World Trade Center Phase
II). To some, this is an assault on democracy itself. "Shopping
malls are great for dictatorships," says Emil Pocock, a professor of
American studies at Eastern Connecticut State University, who takes
students on field trips to malls to study consumer society. "What
better way to control folks than to put them under a dome and in
enclosed doors?" The "malling of America," in the words of author
and famous mall-basher William Kowinski, has become the malling of
the world.

As it turns out, that may not be such a bad thing. Rather than
presage or hasten the decline of the traditional downtown, as many
critics fear, the rise of the mall is actually serving as a catalyst
for growth, especially in developing nations. In China, the booming
retail sector has sucked in a fortune in venture capital and spawned
dozens of joint ventures with international investors looking to
snap up Chinese urban properties. In late July, the Simon Property
Group, a major U.S. developer, teamed up with Morgan Stanley and a
government-owned Chinese company to launch up to a dozen major
retail centers throughout China over the next few years. Malls are a
leading force in driving India's $330 billion retailing industry,
which already accounts for a third of national GDP and recently
overtook Russia's. Similarly, a burst of consumer spending in the
Philippines—thanks to overseas nationals who send between $6 billion
and $7 billion back every year—has fueled a real-estate boom, led by
megamalls.

Most developing-world malls are integrated in the heart of the inner
cities instead of strewn like beached whales along arid
superhighways. "In China, 80 percent of shoppers walk to the mall,"
says Kercheval of the ICSC. In some megacities, including New Delhi,
Nairobi and Rio, urban sprawl has flung customers into outlying
neighborhoods, many of which spring up around brand-new shopping
centers. That means malls are no longer catering just to the
elite. "We used to talk exclusively about A-class shoppers," says
Kercheval. "Now we are seeing the arrival of B-, C- and D-class
customers. The developing-world mall is becoming more democratic."

In many places, malls are welcome havens of safety and security. In
Rio, where teenagers (especially young men) are the main victims of
street crime, parents breathe easier when they know their kids are
at play in the mall, some of which deploy 100 or more private
police. "Safety is one of our biggest selling points," says Paulo
Malzoni Filho, president of the Brazilian Association of Shopping
Centers. "When I enter into one of these malls, it feels like I have
landed in a foreign country," says Parag Mehta, a regular at the
Inorbit mall in the busy northern Mumbai suburb of Malad.

And as malls break new ground around the world, the one-size-fits-
all business model created in North American suburbia is giving way
to regionalized versions. Malls may conjure up the specter of a
flood of U.S. brands and burgers, but in reality, local palates and
preferences often prevail. On a recent evening in Beijing's Golden
Resources Shopping Center, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Papa John's
were nearly deserted, while the Korean restaurant just around the
corner was packed. Chile has long welcomed foreign investors, yet
the leading retailers at malls in Santiago are two local chains,
Falabella and Almacenes Paris. In San Salvador, capital of El
Salvador, the Gallerias shopping arcade houses a Roman Catholic
church that holds mass twice a day—an intriguing metaphysical twist
on the concept of the anchor store. In many developing countries,
malls have attracted banks, art galleries, museums, car-rental
agencies and even government services such as passport offices and
motor-vehicle departments, becoming de facto villages instead of
just shopping centers.

For residents of the developing world, malls increasingly serve as
surrogate civic centers, encouraging social values that go beyond
conspicuous spending. China is home to some 168 million smokers, but
they are not allowed to partake at the smoke-free malls. That's not
the only environmental plus; many Chinese malls are equipped with a
soft-switching system that stabilizes the electrical current and
conserves energy. In the Middle East, arcades such as Riyadh's
Kingdom Centre are among the few public spaces where women can
gather, gab or just walk about alone in public. "Malls are not just
places to shop, they are places to imagine," says Xia Yeliang, a
professor at Beijing University's School of Economics. "They bring
communities together that might not otherwise encounter one another
and create new communities."

For some societies, malls even offer a communal respite from the
past. In Warsaw, where World War II demolished most of the historic
shopping district—and dreary chockablock communist-era architecture
finished the job—one of the most revered public spaces around is the
local mall. "For decades Poles dressed up for Sunday mass," says
Grzegorz Makowski, a sociologist at Warsaw University and expert on
consumer culture. "Now they dress for a visit to the shopping mall."

Still, for some critics, no amount of social or economic development
can hide the fact that all modern malls are at heart temples of
rampant consumerism. Jan Gehl, a leading Danish champion of urban
renaissance and a professor of architecture at the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts in Copenhagen, likes to show his students pictures of
malls around the world and ask them where each one is located. Many
look so indistinguishable that they can't tell. (Only now are some
clues beginning to appear.) Even Victor Gruen, the Viennese Jewish
emigre who fled Hitler's Europe and created the first indoor-
shopping arcade in the Minneapolis suburbs in the 1950s, eventually
grew disgusted by the soulless concrete-box-with-parking
monstrosities rendered in his name. "I refuse to pay alimony to
these bastards of development," he growled during a 1978 speech in
London, fleeing back to Europe. By then there was no escape; malls
were already marching on the Old World.

Half a century on, some of the resistance to malls speaks more to
nostalgia for an illusory past than a rejection of the present.
Ancient Turkey certainly had its bazaar rats. And what is the
contemporary shopping center if not a souk with a cineplex? "Maybe
the mall is just a modern and more comfortable version of what has
always been," says Stephen Marshall of the Young Foundation, a
London think tank. "It's quite possible the ancients would have seen
our malls have seen our malls with all that technology as terrific
places."

Certainly mall developers seem to have learned from their early
excesses. Instead of garish bunkers with blind walls and plastic
rain forests, newer malls boast sculpture gardens, murals,
belvederes and gentle lighting. Lush creepers, great ferns, cacti
and feathery palms tumble down the interior of the Fashion Mall, a
boutique arcade, in Rio de Janeiro. The Kingdom Centre in Riyadh won
an international design award in 2003. And while "big" may still be
beautiful in mallworld, more and more developers are launching
arcades built to modest scale, deliberately emulating yesterday's
main streets or the Old World piazzas they replaced. This may not be
the much-vaunted consumer's arcadia the mallmeisters had always
hoped for, but global malls seem oddly to come closer to the bold
democratic ideal than the originals ever did. And when it rains,
everybody stays dry.

With Sudip Mazumdar in New Delhi, Sumeet Chatterjee in Mumbai,
Quindlen Krovatin in Beijing, Joanna Kowalska-Iszkowska in Warsaw,
William Underhill in London and Alexandra Polier in Nairobi

Brazilian Genocide

Wed, 14 Dec 2005
Andre Cramblit
andrekar@...

BRAZIL: TOP OFFICIALS ACCUSED OF GENOCIDE OF INDIANS

A former state governor and a former top policeman are among the accused
in Brazil's first ever investigation into the genocide of an uncontacted
Indian tribe.

Twenty-nine people are being detained in Operation Rio Pardo, the
investigation into the genocide of the uncontacted Rio Pardo Indians. In
the last decade, the Indians' land has been invaded by land grabbers and
logging companies.

Brazilian TV showed in November the first known images of the Indians.
No-one outside the tribe knows who they are or what language they speak.

The government's Indian affairs department, FUNAI, has found camps
inside the territory with land measuring equipment, and bombs and
ammunition to intimidate the Indians. The invaders admit to finding
thirty hurriedly abandoned Indian shelters.

The former governor of Mato Grosso state, Wilmar Peres de Farias, and
former elite police commander Roberto de Almeida Gil are among the
public figures implicated in the affair.

Speaking from the city of Cuiabá, public prosecutor Mario Lucio Avelar
told Survival he believed there were sufficient grounds to prosecute for
genocide. According to the UN, the crime of genocide can mean,
'Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part'.

Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'It's shocking that in the
twenty-first century, with so many of Brazil's tribes gone forever,
those remaining are still in danger of genocide. Brazil must take
immediate action to recognise and protect the land of the Rio Pardo
Indians, before it is too late.'

For more information call Miriam Ross on +44 20 7687 8734 or email
<mailto:mr@...>mr@...


To read this press release online visit
<http://survival-international.org/news.php?id=1258>http://survival-internationa\
l.org/news.php?id=1258

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                         No War!   No Nukes!   Impeach!   SOS!

WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION  -- Ethiopian Proverb

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

World Socialist Web Site
www.wsws.org

Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize speech: a brave artist speaks the truth
about US imperialism
By Barry Grey
9 December 2005

British playwright Harold Pinter, this year's Nobel laureate for
literature, delivered a passionate, truthful and courageous
acceptance speech to the Swedish Academy on Wednesday. The renowned
author of such plays as The Homecoming and The Caretaker, Pinter has
spoken out tirelessly and powerfully against the war in Iraq and the
depredations of American imperialism in the Balkans, Central America
and elsewhere that preceded it.

He utilized his acceptance speech to extend and develop that
struggle, giving a blistering critique of the entire course of US
foreign policy in the period since World War II, and indicting
Britain for its role as Washington's junior partner and accomplice.
Mincing no words, Pinter called Bush and Blair war criminals, and
made an impassioned call for mass political resistance to militarism
and war.

The 75-year-old playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor and antiwar
activist gave his address in the form of a videotape, made in
Britain and shown on screens to the assemblage in Stockholm. Pinter
was recently treated for cancer of the esophagus and remains in
fragile health. On the advice of his physicians, he refrained from
making the trip to Sweden.

He appeared on tape sitting in a wheelchair, with a rug over his
knees. His voice was hoarse, but, according to published accounts,
no less commanding for that.

Pinter's address, entitled "Art, Truth and Politics," was refreshing
and even liberating in its honesty and bluntness about the
catastrophic impact of US subversion, violence and aggression over
many decades and in many parts of the world. Even sections of the
establishment press in both Britain and the United States, such as
the Guardian and the New York Times, which have fully participated
in the dissemination of lies and the coverup of crimes associated
with US foreign policy, were obliged to register in some measure the
powerful impact of Pinter's words.

Pinter prefaced a discussion of his body of dramatic work and his
approach to art with the following observation:

"In 1958 I wrote the following: `There are no hard distinctions
between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true
and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false;
it can be both true and false.'

"I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply
to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by
them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is
true? What is false?"

Pinter proceeded to give some insight into the complex and elusive
process by which he composed his dramas, making clear that his
primary concern was the utilization of language, plot and character
to discover important human and social truths.

Concerning the relationship between art, language and truth he
said: "So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a
quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under
you, the author, at any time.

"But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. It
cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced,
right there, on the spot."

This theme of the responsibility to seek and present the truth was
the connecting link between his remarks on drama and his remarks on
history and politics. He said: "Political language, as used by
politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the
majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are
interested not in truth but in power and the maintenance of that
power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in
ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth
of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry
of lies, upon which we feed."

He continued: "As every single person here knows, the justification
for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly
dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could
be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We
were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq
had a relationship with Al Qaeda and shared responsibility for the
atrocity in New York of September 11, 2001. We were assured that
this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened
the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not
true."

Pinter then moved to a discussion of US foreign policy since the end
of the Second World War. "Everyone knows what happened in the Soviet
Union and throughout Eastern Europe during the post-war period: the
systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless
suppression of independent thought. All this has been fully
documented and verified.

"But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same period
have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let
alone acknowledged, let alone recognized as crimes at all....
Although constrained, to a certain extent, by the existence of the
Soviet Union, the United States' actions throughout the world made
it clear that it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it
liked."

Pinter then spoke of Washington's record of international
subversion: "In the main, it has preferred what it has described
as `low intensity conflict.' Low intensity conflict means that
thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on
them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the
country, that you establish a malignant growth and watch the
gangrene bloom. When the populace has been subdued—or beaten to
death—the same thing—and your own friends, the military and the
great corporations, sit comfortably in power, you go before the
camera and say that democracy has prevailed. This was commonplace in
US foreign policy in the years to which I refer."

He then went on to describe the mass murder and destruction wreaked
by the US-backed Contra terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s. "I
should remind you," he said, "that at the time President Reagan made
the following statement: `The Contras are the moral equivalent of
our Founding Fathers.'"

Pinter elaborated on the US role in Nicaragua and Central America as
a whole. Noting the social achievements of the left-nationalist
Sandanista regime that overthrew the US-backed dictator Samoza in
1979—the abolition of the death penalty, land reform, gains in
literacy and public education, free health care—he said:

"The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist
subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example
was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of
social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the
standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and
national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same
questions and do the same things. There was of course at that time
fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador....

"President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a `totalitarian
dungeon.' This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by
the British government, as accurate and fair comment... The
totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and
Guatemala. The United States had brought down the democratically
elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that
over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military
dictatorships....

"The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government.
It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless
economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit
of the Nicaraguan people. They were exhausted and poverty stricken
once again. The casinos moved back into the country. Free health and
free education were over. Big business returned with a
vengeance. `Democracy' had prevailed.

"But this `policy' was by no means restricted to Central America. It
was conducted throughout the world. It was never-ending. And it is
as if it never happened.

"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every
right-wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the
Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil,
Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador,
and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon
Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven."
[Editor's note: There are other countries that could be added to
Pinter's list, including Argentina, Iran and Pakistan].

Moving on to the US establishment's well-honed and sophisticated
propaganda methods, Pinter said: "Language is actually employed to
keep thought at bay. The words `the American people' provide a truly
voluptuous cushion of reassurance... This does not apply of course
to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2
million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which
extends across the US."

Pinter continued: "The United States no longer bothers about low
intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or
even devious. It puts its cards on the table without fear or favour.
It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations,
international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent
and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging
behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.

"What has happened to our moral sensibility?... Look at Guantanamo
Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three
years, with no legal representation or due process, technically
detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained
in defiance of the Geneva Convention...

"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state
terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of
international law... A formidable assertion of military force
responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands
of innocent people.

"We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium,
innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to
the Iraqi people and call it `bringing freedom and democracy to the
Middle East.'

"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be
described as a mass murdered and war criminal? One hundred thousand?
More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that
Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court
of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the
International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American
soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush
has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has
ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We
can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is
Number 10, Downing Street, London....

"The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported
to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's
way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their
lives."

Summing up, Pinter said: "I have said earlier that the United States
is now totally frank about putting its cards on the table. That is
the case. Its official declared policy is now defined as `Full
spectrum dominance.' That is not my term, it is theirs. `Full
spectrum dominance' means control of land, sea, air space and all
attendant resources...

"Many thousands, if not millions, of people in the United States
itself are demonstrably sickened, shamed and angered by their
government's actions, but as things stand they are not a coherent
political force—yet. But the anxiety, uncertainty and fear which we
can see growing daily in the United States is unlikely to diminish...

"I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching,
unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to
define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial
obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.

"If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we
have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us—the dignity
of man."

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Pathbreaking Comedian Richard Pryor Dies
By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer
12-10-2005

Richard Pryor, the caustic yet perceptive actor-comedian who lived
dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off, died Saturday.
He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. of a heart attack after being taken
to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his
business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with
multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

"He did not suffer, he went quickly and at the end there was a smile
on his face," his wife, Jennifer Pryor, said. "I'm honored now that
I have an opportunity to protect and continue his legacy because
he's a very, very, very amazing man and he opened doors to so many
people."

Pryor's audacious style influenced an array of stand-up artists,
including Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and Damon Wayans, as well as
Robin Williams, David Letterman and others.

He was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed
comics in the business, but he gained a wide following for his
expletive-filled but universal and frequently personal insights into
modern life and race relations.

A series of hit comedies in the '70s and '80s, as well as filmed
versions of his concert performances, turned him into one of the
highest paid stars in Hollywood. He was also one of the first black
performers to have enough leverage to cut his own Hollywood deals.
In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia
Pictures.

His films included "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Jo Jo Dancer,
Your Life is Calling," and "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip."

Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once
joking as the host of the 1977 Academy Awards that Harry Belafonte
and Sidney Poitier were the only black members of the Academy.

Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm
uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I
can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that."

In 1980, he nearly lost his life when he suffered severe burns over
50 percent of his body while freebasing cocaine at his home. An
admitted "junkie" at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from
the burns and much longer from drug and alcohol dependence.

He battled multiple sclerosis throughout the '90s.

In his last movie, the 1991 bomb "Another You," Pryor's poor health
was clearly evident. Pryor made a comeback attempt the following
year, returning to standup comedy in clubs and on television while
looking thin and frail, and with noticeable speech and movement
difficulties.

In 1995, he played an embittered multiple sclerosis patient in an
episode of the television series "Chicago Hope." The role earned him
an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a drama series.

"To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what
they were talking about," he said. "And the doctor said `Don't
worry, in three months you'll know.'

"So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I
couldn't get up. ... Your muscles trick you; they did me."

While Pryor's material sounds modest when compared with some of
today's raunchier comedians, it was startling material when first
introduced. He never apologized for it.

Pryor was fired by one hotel in Las Vegas for "obscenities" directed
at the audience. In 1970, tired of compromising his act, he quit in
the middle of another Vegas stage show with the words, "What the
(blank) am I doing here?" The audience was left staring at an empty
stage.

He didn't tone things down after he became famous. In his 1977 NBC
television series "The Richard Pryor Show," he threatened to cancel
his contract with the network. NBC's censors objected to a skit in
which Pryor appeared naked save for a flesh-colored loincloth to
suggest he was emasculated.

In his later years, Pryor mellowed considerably, and his film roles
looked more like easy paychecks than artistic endeavors. His robust
work gave way to torpid efforts like "Harlem Nights," "Brewster's
Millions" and "Hear No Evil, See No Evil."

"I didn't think `Brewster's Millions' was good to begin with," Pryor
once said. "I'm sorry, but they offered us the money. I was a pig, I
got greedy."

"I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the
worst," he said in 1995. "In other words, I had a life."

Recognition came in 1998 from an unlikely source: The John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington gave Pryor the
first Mark Twain Prize for humor. He said in a statement that he was
proud that, "like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to
lessen people's hatred."

Born in 1940, to a Peoria, Ill., construction worker, Pryor grew up
in a brothel his grandmother ran. His first professional performance
came at age 7, when he played drums at a night club.

Following high school and two years of Army service, he launched his
performing career. He played bars throughout the United States,
honing his comedy skills.

By the mid-'60s, he was appearing in Las Vegas clubs and on the
television shows of Ed Sullivan, Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson.

His first film role came with a small part in 1967's "The Busy
Body." He made his starring debut as Diana Ross' piano man in
1972's "Lady Sings the Blues."

Pryor also wrote scripts for the television series "Sanford and
Son," "The Flip Wilson Show" and two specials for Lily Tomlin. He
collaborated with Mel Brooks on the script for the movie "Blazing
Saddles."

Later in his career, Pryor used his films as therapy. "Jo Jo Dancer,
Your Life is Calling," was an autobiographical account of a popular
comedian re-examining his life while lying delirious in a hospital
burn ward. Pryor directed, co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the
film.

"I'm glad I did `Jo Jo,'" Pryor once said. "It helped me get rid of
a lot of stuff."

Pryor also had legal problems over the years. In 1974, he was
sentenced to three years' probation for failing to file federal
income tax returns. In 1978, he allegedly fired shots and rammed his
car into a vehicle occupied by two of his wife's friends.

Even in poor health, his comedy was vital. At a 1992 performance, he
asked the room, "Is there a doctor in the audience?" All he got was
nervous laughter. "No, I'm serious. I want to know if there's a
doctor here."

A hand finally went up.

"Doctor," Pryor said, "I need to know one thing. What the (blank) is
MS?"

Pryor was married six times, most recently to Flynn. The two had a
son, Steven. His other children included son Richard and daughters
Elizabeth, Rain and Renee.

Daughter Rain became an actress. In an interview in 2005, she told
the Philadelphia Inquirer that her father always "put his life right
out there for you to look at. I took that approach because I saw how
well audiences respond to it. I try to make you laugh at life."

*****

World Socialist Web Site
www.wsws.org

Miami airplane shooting: Washington's "war on terrorism" comes home
By Bill Van Auken
9 December 2005

The most chilling aspect of the brutal state killing of Rigoberto
Alpizar, the 44-year-old Costa Rican immigrant gunned down while
fleeing an American Airlines Boeing 757 in Miami Wednesday, is the
utter absence of any statement of remorse by government officials.

Rather than publicly acknowledge that a horror and a tragedy had
resulted from the use of lethal force against an unarmed and
innocent man, spokesmen for the Bush administration and various
state agencies praised those who killed him and virtually celebrated
the spilling of blood on American soil in the so-called "global war
on terrorism."

The initial facts that have emerged from the shooting are appalling.
Alpizar, a US citizen who left his native country 20 years ago, was
returning with his wife from South America, where they had
participated in missionary work with her uncle, a Michigan dentist
who provides free treatment to the poor.

As the two were boarding a connecting flight in Miami bound for
Orlando, Florida, Alpizar became extremely agitated, bolted up the
aisle and tried to flee the aircraft. It was then that he was
confronted by two undercover air marshals.

Passengers said that his wife was running after him shouting, "My
husband is sick, my husband is sick." Others heard her pleading,
saying that he was bipolar and had not taken his medicine. She told
them that it was her fault for persuading him to get on the plane.

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, affects an
estimated 2 million American adults. It is characterized by severe
mood swings that can include provocative or aggressive behavior.

Alpizar's wife of 20 years, Anne Buechner, is a project director
with the Council on Quality and Leadership, a not-for-profit agency
that assists people with disabilities and mental illness.

Alpizar fled the aircraft after being confronted by the plainclothes
marshals. It was then that passengers heard five or six shots fired.
A spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, Dave Adams, told
the press that Alpizar had "run up and down the aisle yelling, `I
have a bomb in my bag,'" CNN reported. Passengers interviewed,
however, said that they didn't hear him say anything.

After the shooting, the marshals claimed that Alpizar had told them
that he had a bomb and that they shot him after he failed to obey
orders to put the bag down and appeared to reach into it. Given the
unsupported claim by the spokesman about Alpizar yelling he had a
bomb, this version of events is also suspect.

The only thing that is clear is that a man suffering from mental
illness acted in an agitated fashion and was shot to death while
fleeing.

What happened next was a police response that was far more berserk
than anything that the slain passenger had done. Police and federal
agents stormed onto the plane and ordered every passenger to put
their hands on their heads and not to move.

John McAlhany, a Florida construction worker on the plane, told the
Miami Herald that other passengers were "treated roughly" by the
cops.

"They put a gun to the back of my head and said, `Put you hands on
the seat,'" he said. "That was more scary than anything else."

McAlhany continued: "I don't know if they shot an innocent man or
not. I don't think he was armed or had a bomb. I think he had a
mental illness. I don't think they really had to shoot him."

After being held on the plane at gunpoint for an hour, the other
passengers were ordered off—again with their hands on their heads.
They were then held at the airport for questioning, the last of them
released nine hours after the incident.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agents blew up Alpizar's luggage on the
tarmac, confirming that he was carrying no bomb or other weapon. All
of the other passengers' bags were searched using explosive-sniffing
dogs.

In Costa Rica, the slain man's 72-year-old father said that his
relatives were stunned by the killing. "I cannot believe what has
happened to my son," Carlos Alpizar Fonseca told the San Jose daily
Nación. "I cannot get over the fact that they gunned my son down
like a criminal."

Neighbors of Alpizar in the town of Maitland, Florida were equally
shocked by the killing. They described him as friendly and helpful,
having never shown signs of volatile behavior. Louis Gunther, who
said he was looking after the couple's home while they were in South
America, said, "Everybody is talking about a guy I know nothing
about."

The fatal shooting has shed some light on the secret air marshal
program initiated in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks. While the number of such marshals, their procedures and
even their names are all classified information, there are
reportedly between 3,000 and 4,000 currently riding undercover on
American passenger planes. It is now clear that they have been given
shoot-to-kill orders.

Even if the marshals' account is taken at its face value, the sudden
lethal response to Alpizar's actions is at best questionable. First,
his bag had been inspected three times before he boarded the plane—
once before boarding in Ecuador, once in clearing customs and a
third time before boarding the connecting flight in Miami. The odds
of getting a bomb on board were minuscule. Second, he was shot after
leaving the plane.

David Laird, the former security director of Northwest Airlines and
head of an aviation security consulting firm, called the decision to
shoot the passenger "a terrible call." In an interview with UPI, he
pointed out that if he indeed had had a bomb, the shooting could
have caused him to trigger it.

No such questions, nor the slightest indication of regret, however,
were forthcoming from Washington. Instead, the fatal shooting was
hailed as a success.

"They did an outstanding job," Adams, the marshals service spokesmen
said of the two agents who shot an innocent man to death.

"Their training showed they made the right decision, though there
turned out to be no bomb in the bag," Department of Homeland
Security spokesman Brian Doyle told the media.

Asked about the shooting at a White House press conference Thursday,
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan declared: "...the air marshals that
were on this flight appear to have acted consistent with the
extensive training that they have received, and that's important to
note. And so we are appreciative of all that our air marshals do day
in and day out in terms of trying to protect the American people."

The most enthusiastic response, however came from Congressman John
Mica, a Florida Republican whose district office is located in
Maitland, the same town where Rigoberto Alpizar lived.

"This shows that the program has worked beyond our expectations,"
the Congressman said of the slaying. Mica is chairman of the House
transportation subcommittee on aviation.

Asked on CNN television news whether the marshals shouldn't be able
to distinguish someone suffering from mental illness from a
terrorist—as many of Alpizar's fellow passengers did— Mica replied
contemptuously, "Air marshals don't have time for counseling."

Mica is typical of the right-wing element that dominates in
Washington. Earlier this year, he delivered a speech declaring the
treatment of detainees at Guantánamo "too good for the bastards" and
dismissing the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib by declaring, "I
saw worse things at fraternity houses in college than what our
troops were involved in."

Summing up his attitude to the gunning down of a mentally ill
airplane passenger—one of his own constituents—Mica declared, "This
should send a message to a terrorist or anyone else who is
considering disrupting an aircraft with a threat."

Official Washington's celebration of the fatal shooting of an
innocent man fleeing a commercial airliner, however, sends another
message entirely. It is a message of a brutal society, increasingly
indifferent to human life, and prepared to inflict the methods of
Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and Fallujah on its own citizens.

What those like Mica and the Bush White House welcome in this
bloodletting is that the "war on terror" has come home. They see in
the killing of Rigoberto Alpizar an act that will serve to
intimidate the public at large and an affirmation of the unfettered
powers of the state and its security forces to act as judge, jury
and executioner.

*****

System v. The System
By Anthony Lappé, Guerrilla News Network
Posted on December 10, 2005

In the spring of 2003, as the nation slouched towards the mother of
all strategic blunders in Iraq, I was working as a producer for
Fuse, a new rival to MTV. The mood in the country was ugly. Clear
Channel, the conglomerate which owns 1,700 radio stations, had
issued a banned song list which included John Lennon's Imagine.
Dixie Chicks CDs were being burned in large patriotic pyres.

One of the only mainstream bands to put it on the line was the
eclectic metal band System of a Down, whose hit song Boom rang out:

Boom, boom, boom, boom,
Every time you drop the bomb,
You kill the God your child has born.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.

The band produced an unapologetic antiwar music video for Boom with
Michael Moore, who at the time was finishing up Fahrenheit 9/11.
Shot at the massive antiwar protests held around the world in
February 2003, the video inter-cut protesters decrying the looming
invasion with scenes of death and destruction. It was a well-
produced, stirringly populist video for a popular song. But MTV and
Fuse refused to play it. A Fuse executive told me that the network
declined to play the video because the U.S. Army was a major sponsor
of the channel -- the people in ad sales didn't want to piss off the
generals.

Despite everything I know about how this screwed up country works, I
was stunned. It was eerie to see how one middle manager in ad sales
could so casually squelch such important dissent at such a critical
time in our nation's history. The scariest part is the military
didn't have to lift a finger.

The video eventually got on the air, but only after the war had
started. The experience didn't stop the band from continuing to
speak out. As Serj Tankian, System's lead singer, recently told me
in an interview for Air America Radio, "Nothing's made us think
about muzzling ourselves. We say and do whatever is in our hearts."

Today, System is hotter than ever. In 2004, they recorded two albums
Mezmerize and Hypnotize. Mezmerize was released in the United States
and Europe in May and quickly exploded to the top of the charts, the
group's second consecutive number one debut.

The second part of the two-CD set, Hypnotize, was released last
month. Reviews have been mixed. Rolling Stone wrote "There is no
getting around it: System of a Down nearly made the no-contest hard-
rock album of 2005. Instead, they have released a double album,
Mezmerize/Hypnotize, in six-month chunks--two separate records that
each fall shy of pulverizing perfection and appear to be
conceptually bound by little more than speed, fuzz and nonstop
bile." Nevertheless, the album hit number one last week on the
Billboard charts.

Hypnotize continues the band's assault on the Bush administration
and consumer culture. In Attack, Tankian sings: "For today we will
take the body parts... put 'em up on the wall and bring the dark
thereafter." The song concludes, "We're the prophetic generation of
bottled water, bottled water/ Causing populations to die, to die, to
die."

As the war rages in Iraq and the administration's approval ratings
drop to close to 30%, dissent is no longer a dirty word. But war
isn't the band's only political stand. In fact, there's an issue
that cut cuts even closer to home. All members of System of a Down
are of Armenian descent and have been pushing for years for the U.S.
Congress to issue a statement condemning the Turkish slaughter of
1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923.

The soft-spoken Tankian told me, "Whoever is living in the diaspora
outside of Armenia their only reason for living is having a survivor
grandfather, as is my case, as is the case with the other guys in
the band. We all grew up hearing the stories. So this is important
for their memories for them. Right before I left LA, I promised my
grandfather, who is 97, that I'd get ahold of Dennis Hastert and
talk to him about it."

Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is the speaker of the House and chair of
the influential International Relations Committee. In September, the
committee overwhelmingly approved legislation recognizing the
Armenian Genocide, despite objections from both Turkey and the Bush
Administration. Even though the genocide came at the hands of the
now defunct Ottoman Empire, successive Turkish governments have
steadfastly denied the killings were anything other than the
legitimate squashing of an ethnic rebellion in a time of war.

Despite his previous public support for the measure in 2000, Rep.
Hastert has twice prevented the Armenian Genocide legislation from
coming to a full vote in the House. Most assume the speaker is
simply following the lead of the White House, which doesn't want to
make already strained U.S.-Turkey relations any worse.

But there's other, more insidious, theories. Sibel Edmonds, a former
FBI translator, has alleged that Rep. Hastert may have received tens
of thousands of dollars of secret payments from Turkish officials in
exchange for political favors and information. Edmonds told Vanity
Fair magazine that she gave confidential testimony about the
payments to congressional staffers, the Inspector General and
members of the 9/11 Commission. Edmonds says that she heard of the
payments while listening to FBI wiretaps of Turkish officials who
were under surveillance by the FBI.

Rep. Hastert had denied the charges.

Tankian is undaunted in keeping his promise to his grandfather.
While in Chicago for a tour date, he led a protest with the band and
several hundred supporters in front of Hastert's district offices
(watch video of the protest here). When I asked Tankian why he
thought it was proving so difficult to get a seemingly straight-
forward recognition of a historical fact passed through Congress, he
replied, "We have the same enemies of a lot of good and just causes.
We have the military industrial complex, the Bush administration and
a lot of corporate interests who have aligned themselves to a key
NATO ally that they sell a lot of weapons and products to. They
don't want it to come out -- these are the apologists for Turkey's
Armenian genocide."

For more about System of a Down see www.systemofadown.com and
www.soadfans.com. For more info about Tankian's political
activities, see Axis of Justice, the non-profit organization he
started with Audioslave's Tom Morello.

Anthony Lappé is the Executive Editor of GNN.tv, the web site for
the Guerrilla News Network. He is the co-author of their book True
Lies (Plume) and the producer of their award-winning Iraq
documentary, BattleGround: 21 Days on the Empire's Edge. He is a
regular guest host on Air America Radio. He also maintains a blog
called The Bunker.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The End of Democracy in Ohio?
By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Free Press
Posted on December 12, 2005

A law that will make democracy all but moot in Ohio is about to pass
the state legislature and to be signed by its Republican governor.
Despite massive corruption scandals besieging the Ohio GOP, any hope
that the Democratic party could win this most crucial swing state in
future presidential elections, or carry its pivotal U.S. Senate seat
in 2006, are about to end.

House Bill 3 has already passed the Ohio House of Representatives
and is about to be approved by the Republican-dominated Senate,
probably before the holiday recess. Republicans dominate the Ohio
legislature thanks to a heavily gerrymandered crazy quilt of rigged
districts, and to a moribund Ohio Democratic party. The GOP-drafted
HB3 is designed to all but obliterate any possible future Democratic
revival. Opposition from the Ohio Democratic Party, where it exists
at all, is diffuse and ineffectual.

HB3's most publicized provision will require positive identification
before casting a vote. But it also opens voter registration
activists to partisan prosecution, exempts electronic voting
machines from public scrutiny, quintuples the cost of citizen-
requested statewide recounts and makes it illegal to challenge a
presidential vote count or, indeed, any federal election result in
Ohio. When added to the recently passed HB1, which allows campaign
financing to be dominated by the wealthy and by corporations, and
along with a Rovian wish list of GOP attacks on the ballot box,
democracy in Ohio could be all but over.

The GOP is ramming similar bills through state legislatures around
the U.S., starting with Georgia and Indiana. The ID requirements in
particular have provoked widespread opposition from newspapers such
as the New York Times. The Times, among others, argues that the ID
requirements and the costs associated with them, constitute an
unconstitutional discriminatory poll tax.

But despite significant court challenges, the Republicans are
forcing changes in long-standing election laws that have allowed
citizens to vote based on their signature alone. Across the U.S.,
GOP Jim Crow laws will eliminate millions of Democratic voters from
the registration rolls. In swing states like Ohio, such ballots are
almost certain to be crucial.

The proposed Ohio law will demand a valid photo ID or a utility
bill, a bank statement, a paycheck or a government document with a
current address. Thousands of Ohio citizens who are elderly,
homeless, unemployed or who do not drive will be effectively
disenfranchised. Many citizens, for example, rent apartments where
the utilities are paid by landlords. In such cases, the number of
people living in utilities-included apartment rentals could actually
determine an election.

During the 2004 presidential election, Ohio's Republican Secretary
of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, also issued statewide threats
against ex-felons and people whose names resembled those of ex-
felons. Thousands of such threats were delivered to registered
voters who were never convicted of anything, or who were eligible to
vote after being released from prison. In 2004 a "Mighty Texas
Strike Force" came to Columbus with a specific mandate to threaten
ex-felons with arrest if they dared to vote.

It is legal for ex-felons in Ohio to vote, even if they are in half-
way houses or on parole. But HB3's identification requirement,
combined with the confusion Blackwell has introduced into the
process, will intimidate such Ohioans from voting in 2006 and beyond.

HB3 will also reduce voter rolls by ordering county boards of
elections to send cards to registered voters every two years. If a
card comes back as undelivered, the voter must rely on a provisional
ballot. But tens of thousands of provisional ballots were
arbitrarily discarded in 2004, and some 16,000 are known to remain
uncounted to this day.

HB3 also imposes severe restrictions on voter registration drives.
It allows the state attorney-general and local prosecutors wide
powers to prosecute vaguely defined charges of fraud against those
working to sign up voters. The restrictions are clearly meant to
chill the kind of Democratic registration drives that brought
hundreds of thousands of new voters to the polls in 2004 (even
though many were turned away in Democratic wards due to a lack of
voting machines).

Those electronic machines will also be exempted from recounts by
random sampling, even in close, disputed elections like those of
2000 and 2004.

In 2004, scores of Ohio voters reported, under oath, that they had
pressed John Kerry's name on touchscreen machines, only to see
George W. Bush's name light up. A board of elections technician in
Mahoning County (Youngstown) has admitted that at least 18 machines
there suffered such problems. Sworn testimony in Columbus indicates
that votes for Kerry faded off the screen on touchscreen machines
there. Other charges of mis-programming, re-programming,
recalibrating, mishandling and manipulation of electronic voting
software, hardware and memory cards have since arisen throughout
Ohio 2004.

For the 2005 election, some 41 additional Ohio counties (of 88) were
switched to Diebold touchscreen machines. Despite polls showing
overwhelming voter approval, two electoral reform issues went down
improbable defeat. Issue Two, meant to make voting easier, and Issue
Three, on campaign finance reform, were shown by highly reliable
Columbus Dispatch polls to be passing handily.

The Dispatch was within 0.5% on Issue One, a bond issue, and has
rarely been significantly wrong in its many decades of Ohio polling.
Even opponents of Issues Two and Three conceded that they were
highly likely to pass.

On the Sunday before the Tuesday 2005 election, the Dispatch
predicted Issue Two would pass by a vote of 59% to 33%, with about
8% undecided. But Tuesday's official vote count showed Issue Two
failing with just 36.5% in favor and 63.5% opposed. For that to have
happened, the Dispatch had to have been wrong on Issue Two's support
by more than 20 points. Nearly half those who said they would
support Issue Two would have had to vote against it, along with all
the undecideds.

The numbers on Issue Three are equally startling. The Dispatch
showed it winning with 61%, to just 25% opposed and some 14%
undecided. Instead just 33% of the votes were counted in its favor,
with 67% opposed, an almost inconceivable weekend turnaround.

No other numbers were comparable on November 8, 2005, or elsewhere
in the recent history of Dispatch polling. The startling outcome has
thus raised even more suspicion and doubt about the use of
electronic voting and tabulating machines in Ohio, which account for
virtually 100% of the state's vote count.

The federal General Accountability Office (GAO) has recently issued
a major report confirming that tampering with and manipulating such
machines can be easily done by a very small number of people.
Charges are widespread that this is precisely what gave George W.
Bush Ohio's electoral votes, and thus the presidency, in 2004, not
to mention the suspicious referenda outcomes in 2005.

HB3 will make it virtually impossible for any challenge to be
mounted involving any votes cast or counted on electronic machines
or tabulators -- meaning virtually every vote cast in Ohio.

Indeed, HB3 will raise the cost of mounting a recount from $10 per
precinct to $50 per precinct. In 2004, Secretary of State Blackwell
forced citizen groups to raise private funds for a recount, which he
proceeded to sabotage. The process, which became a futile electronic
charade, cost donors committed to democracy more than $100,000.
Three partial, meaningless faux recounts resulted. To date more than
100,000 votes cast in Ohio remain uncounted, including some 93,000
easily-read machine-rejected ballots. .

During the 2004 election process Blackwell, manipulated the number
of precincts in Ohio, and issued inaccurate information about their
location and boundaries, making a meaningful precise number hard to
come by. But with more than 10,000 precincts still in existence, HB3
would make funding an attempt at another recount in 2006 or 2008
cost more than $500,000.

Such an effort might also result in official retaliation. In 2004,
Blackwell and Ohio Attorney-General Jim Petro -- both of whom are
now Republican candidates for governor -- tried to impose stiff
financial sanctions against attorneys who filed a legal challenge to
the seating of the Ohio electors who gave George W. Bush the
presidency. The Ohio Supreme Court disallowed the sanctions after
the challenge was withdrawn. But HB3 would make such a federal
election challenge illegal altogether.

With the electoral process in Ohio all but disemboweled, those
hoping for a change of party in upcoming state and national
elections are probably kidding themselves.

The 2004 election in the Buckeye state was riddled with deception,
fraud, intimidation, manipulation and outright theft, all of which
were essential to the triumph of George W. Bush. In 2005, four
electoral reform ballot initiatives were allegedly defeated despite
huge poll margins showing the almost certain passage of two of them.
The most credible explanation for their defeat lies in electronic
manipulation of voting machines, tabulators and memory cards which
the GAO confirms have no credible security safeguards.

With campaign finance, voter registration, electronic voting, public
recounts, district gerrymandering and overall electoral
administration now firmly in the pocket of the GOP, and with
Democratic opposition that is virtually non-existent on the issue of
vote fraud and election manipulation, there is little reason to
believe the Republican grip on Ohio will be loosened at any point in
the near future.

In traditional terms, the scandal-ridden Ohio GOP would appear to be
more vulnerable than ever. Governor Robert Taft has become the only
Ohio governor to be convicted of a crime while in office. With an
astonishing 7% approval rating, he has been compared to Homer
Simpson by the state's leading Republican newspaper. Republican US
Senator Mike DeWine appears highly vulnerable. The GOP has never won
the White House without winning the Buckeye State.

But HB3 will solidify the GOP's iron grip on the electronic voting
process and all that surrounds it. Unless they break that grip,
Democrats who believe they can carry any part of Ohio in 2006 or
2008 are kidding themselves.

When it comes to 2008, can you say "Jeb Bush"?

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers
By A Global Exchange Report
Posted on December 12, 2005

Corporations carry out some of the most horrific human rights abuses
of modern times, but it is increasingly difficult to hold them to
account. Economic globalization and the rise of transnational
corporate power have created a favorable climate for corporate human
rights abusers, which are governed principally by the codes of
supply and demand and show genuine loyalty only to their
stockholders.

Several of the companies below are being sued under the Alien Tort
Claims Act, a law that allows citizens of any nationality to sue in
US federal courts for violations of international rights or
treaties. When corporations act like criminals, we have the right
and the power to stop them, holding leaders and multinational
corporations alike to the accords they have signed. Around the world-
-in Venezuela, Argentina, India, and right here in the United States-
-citizens are stepping up to create democracy and hold corporations
accountable to international law.

Caterpillar

For years, the Caterpillar Company has provided Israel with the
bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes. Despite worldwide
condemnation, Caterpillar has refused to end its corporate
participation house demolition by cutting off sales of specially
modified D9 and D10 bulldozers to the Israeli military.

In a letter to Caterpillar CEO James Owens, The Office of the UN
High Commissioner on Human Rights said: "allowing the delivery of
your ... bulldozers to the Israeli army ... in the certain knowledge
that they are being used for such action, might involve complicity
or acceptance on the part of your company to actual and potential
violations of human rights..."

Peace activist Rachel Corrie was killed by a Caterpillar D-9,
military bulldozer in 2003. She was run over while attempting to
block the destruction a family's home in Gaza. Her family filed suit
against Caterpillar in March 2005 charging that Caterpillar
knowingly sold machines used to violate human rights. Since Corrie's
death at least three more Palestinians have been killed in their
homes by Israeli bulldozer demolitions.

Chevron

The petrochemical company Chevron is guilty of some of the worst
environmental and human rights abuses in the world. From 1964 to
1992, Texaco (which transferred operations to Chevron after being
bought out in 2001) unleashed a toxic "Rainforest Chernobyl" in
Ecuador by leaving over 600 unlined oil pits in pristine northern
Amazon rainforest and dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic production
water into rivers used for bathing water. Llocal communities have
suffered severe health effects, including cancer, skin lesions,
birth defects, and spontaneous abortions.

Chevron is also responsible for the violent repression of peaceful
opposition to oil extraction. In Nigeria, Chevron has hired private
military personnel to open fire on peaceful protestors who oppose
oil extraction in the Niger Delta.

Additionally Chevron is responsible for widespread health problems
in Richmond, California, where one of Chevron's largest refineries
is located. Processing 350,000 barrels of oil a day, the Richmond
refinery produces oil flares and toxic waste in the Richmond area.
As a result, local residents suffer from high rates of lupus, skin
rashes, rheumatic fever, liver problems, kidney problems, tumors,
cancer, asthma, and eye problems.

The Unocal Corporation, which recently became a subsidiary of
Chevron, is an oil and gas company based in California with
operations around the world. In December 2004, the company settled a
lawsuit filed by 15 Burmese villagers, in which the villagers
alleged Unocal's complicity in a range of human rights violations in
Burma, including rape, summary execution, torture, forced labor and
forced migration.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Company is perhaps the most widely recognized corporate
symbol on the planet. The company also leads in the abuse of
workers' rights, assassinations, water privatization, and worker
discrimination. Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders from Coca-
Cola bottling plants in Colombia were killed after protesting the
company's labor practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola workers who
have joined or considered joining the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL
have been kidnapped, tortured, and detained by paramilitaries who
are hired to intimidate workers to prevent them from unionizing.

In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by privatizing the
country's water resources. In Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola
extracted 1.5 million liters of deep well water, which they bottled
and sold under the names Dasani and BonAqua. The groundwater was
severely depleted, affecting thousands of communities with water
shortages and destroying agricultural activity. As a result, the
remaining water became contaminated with high chloride and bacteria
levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and stomach aches in the
local population.

Coca-Cola is also one of the most discriminatory employers in the
world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American employees in the
U.S. sued the company for race-based disparities in pay and
promotions.

Dow Chemical

Dow Chemical has been destroying lives and poisoning the planet for
decades. The company is best known for the ravages and health
disaster for millions of Vietnamese and U.S. Veterans caused by its
lethal Vietnam War defoliant, Agent Orange. Dow also developed and
perfected Napalm, a brutal chemical weapon that burned many
innocents to death in Vietnam and other wars. In 1988, Dow provided
pesticides to Saddam Hussein despite warnings that they could be
used to produce chemical weapons.

In 2001, Dow inherited the toxic legacy of the worst peacetime
chemical disaster in history when it acquired Union Carbide
Corporation (UCC) and its outstanding liabilities in Bhopal, India.
On Dec. 3, 1984, a chemical leak from a UCC pesticide plant in
Bhopal gassed thousands of people to death and left more than
150,000 disabled or dying. Dow still refuses to address its
liabilities in Bhopal.

Dow Chemical's impact is felt globally from its Midland, Michigan
headquarters to New Plymouth, New Zealand. In Midland, Dow has been
producing chlorinated chemicals and burning and burying its waste
including chemicals that make up Agent Orange. In New Plymouth,
500,000 gallons of Agent Orange were produced and thousands of tons
of dioxin-laced waste was dumped in agricultural fields.

DynCorp

Private security contractors have become the fastest-growing sector
of the global economy during the last decade--a $100-billion-a-year,
nearly unregulated industry. DynCorp, one of the providers of these
mercenary services, demonstrates the industry's power and potential
to abuse human rights. While guarding Afghan statesmen and African
oil fields, training Iraqi police forces, eradicating Colombian coca
plants, and protecting business interests in hurricane-devastated
New Orleans, these hired guns bolster the security of governments
and organizations at the expense of many people's human rights.

DynCorp's fumigation of coca crops along the Colombian-Ecuadorian
border led Ecuadorian peasants to sue DynCorp in 2001. Plaintiffs
argued that DynCorp knew--or should have known--that the herbicides
were highly toxic.

In 2001, a mechanic with DynCorp blew the whistle on DynCorp
employees in Bosnia for rape and trading girls as young as 12 into
sex slavery. According to a lawsuit filed by the
mechanic, "employees and supervisors were engaging in perverse,
illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons,
women, [and] forged passports." DynCorp fired the whistleblower and
transferred the employees accused of sex trading out of the country,
eventually firing some. None were prosecuted.

Ford Motor Company

Among automakers, Ford Motor Company is the worst. Every year since
1999, the US Environmental Protection Agency has ranked Ford cars,
trucks and SUVs as having the worst overall fuel economy of any
American automaker. Ford's current car and truck fleet has a lower
average fuel efficiency than the original Ford Model-T.

Ford is also in last place when it comes to vehicle greenhouse gas
emissions. According to a recent report by the Union of Concerned
Scientists, Ford has "the absolute worst heat-trapping gas emissions
performance of all the Big Six automakers."

Despite the company's recent greenwashing PR campaign, its record
has actually worsened. According to Ford's own sustainability
report, between 2003 and 2004, the company's US fleet-wide fuel
economy decreased and its CO2 emissions went up. Ford has also
lobbied against lawmakers' efforts to increase fuel economy
standards at the national level and is also involved in a lawsuit
against California's fuel economy standards.

KBR (Kellogg, Brown and Root): A Subsidiary of Halliburton
Corporation

KBR is a private company that provides military support services.
Notorious for its questionable bookkeeping, dishonest billing
practices with US taxpayer dollars and no-bid contracts, KBR has
violated human rights on the U.S. dollar.

KBR's dubious accounting in Iraq came to light in December 2003 when
Pentagon auditors questioned possible overcharges for imported
gasoline. In June 2005, a previously secret Pentagon audit
criticized $1.4 billion in "questioned" and "unsupported"
expenditures. In 2002 the company paid $2 million to settle a
Justice Department lawsuit that accused KBR of inflating contract
prices at Fort Ord, California.

Many third-country national (TCN) laborers have been hired by KBR
to "rebuild" Iraq. Generally hailing from impoverished Asian
countries, they have unexpectedly become part of the largest
civilian workforce ever hired in support of a U.S. war. Once abroad,
the workers find themselves with few protections and uncertain legal
status. TCNs often sleep in crowded trailers and wait outside in
scorching heat for food rations. Many lack adequate medical care and
put in hard labor seven days a week, 10 hours or more a day.

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is the world's largest military contractor.
Providing satellites, planes, missiles and other lethal high-tech
items to the Pentagon keeps the profits rolling in. Since 2000, the
year Bush was elected, the company's stock value has tripled.

As the Center for Corporate Policy (www.corporatepolicy.org) notes,
it is no coincidence that Lockheed VP Bruce Jackson--who helped
draft the Republican foreign policy platform in 2000--is a key
player at the Project for a New American Century, the intellectual
incubator of the Iraq war.

Lockheed Martin is not the only defense contractor that goes behind
the scenes to influence public policy, but it is one of the worst.
Stephen J. Hadley, who now has Condoleeza Rice's old job as
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, was
formerly a partner in a DC law firm representing Lockheed Martin. He
is only one of the beneficiaries of the so-called revolving door
between the military industries and the "civilian" national security
apparatus. These war profiteers have a profound and illegitimate
influence on our country's international policy decisions.

Monsanto

Monsanto is, by far, the largest producer of genetically engineered
seeds in the world, dominating 70% to 100% of the market for crops
such as soy, cotton, wheat and corn.

Monsanto is the world's leading producer of the herbicide
glyphosate, marketed as Roundup. Roundup is sold to small farmers as
a pesticide, yet harms crops in the long run as the toxins
accumulate in the soil. Plants eventually become infertile, forcing
farmers to purchase genetically modified Roundup Ready Seed, a seed
that resists the herbicide. This creates a cycle of dependency on
Monsanto for both the weed killer and the only seed that can resist
it. Both products are patented, and sold at inflated prices.
Exposure to the pesticide is documented to cause cancers, skin
disorders, spontaneous abortions, premature births, and damage to
the gastrointestinal and nervous systems.

According to the India Committee of the Netherlands and the
International Labor Rights Fund, Monsanto also employs child labor.
In India, an estimated 12,375 children work in cottonseed production
for farmers paid by Indian and multinational seed companies,
including Monsanto.

Nestle USA

The problem of illegal and forced child labor is rampant in the
chocolate industry, because more than 40% of the world's cocoa
supply comes from the Ivory Coast, a country that the US State
Department estimates had approximately 109,000 child laborers
working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms. In 2001, Save the
Children Canada reported that 15,000 children between 9 and 12 years
old, many from impoverished Mali, had been tricked or sold into
slavery on West African cocoa farms, many for just $30 each.

Nestle, the third largest buyer of cocoa from the Ivory Coast, is
well aware of the tragically unjust labor practices taking place on
the farms with which it continues to do business. Nestle and other
chocolate manufacturers agreed to end the use of abusive and forced
child labor on cocoa farms by July 1, 2005, but they failed to do so.

Nestle is also notorious for its aggressive marketing of infant
formula in poor countries in the 1980s. Because of this practice,
Nestle is still one of the most boycotted corporations in the world,
and its infant formula is still controversial. In Italy in 2005,
police seized more than two million liters of Nestle infant formula
that was contaminated with the chemical isopropylthioxanthone (ITX).

Additionally, violations of labor rights are reported from Nestle
factories in numerous countries. In Colombia, Nestle replaced the
entire factory staff with lower-wage workers and did not renew the
collective employment contract.

Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International (a.k.a. The Altria
Group Inc.)

Among tobacco companies, Philip Morris is notorious. Now called
Altria, it is the world's largest and most profitable cigarette
corporation and maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament, Basic
and many other brands of cigarettes.

Documents uncovered in a lawsuit filed against the tobacco industry
by the state of Minnesota showed that Philip Morris and other
leading tobacco corporations knew very well of the dangers of
tobacco products and the addictiveness of nicotine. To this day,
Philip Morris deceives consumers about the harm of its products by
offering light, mild and low-tar cigarettes that give consumers the
illusion these brands are "healthier" than traditional cigarettes.

Although the company says it doesn't want kids to smoke, it spends
millions of dollars every day marketing and promoting cigarettes to
youth. Overseas, it has even hired underage "Marlboro girls" to
distribute free cigarettes to other children and sponsored concerts
where cigarettes were handed out to minors.

As anti-tobacco campaigns and government regulations are slowing
tobacco use in Western countries, Philip Morris has aggressively
moved into developing country markets, where smoking and smoking-
related deaths are on the rise. Preliminary numbers released by the
World Health Organization predict global deaths due to smoking-
related illnesses will nearly double by 2020, with more than three-
quarters of those deaths in the developing world.

Pfizer

Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world; it is
also one of the worst abusers of the human right of universal access
to HIV/AIDS medicine.

In addition to Viagra, Zoloft, Zithromax and Norvasc, Pfizer
produces the drug fluconazole (an antifungal used by AIDS patients)
under the name Diflucan, and sells it at inflated prices most poor
people cannot afford. The company refuses to grant generic licenses
of fluconazole to governments in countries like Brazil, South
Africa, or Dominican Republic, where patients are forced to pay $20
per weekly pill, though the average national wage is only $120 per
month.

Pfizer also values shareholder profits over safety standards. In
Europe in 2005, it withdrew from scientific studies of a new class
of AIDS drugs called CCR5 inhibitors, choosing instead to rush its
own untested CCR5 inhibitor onto the European market without full
information about the drug's side effects.

Suez-Lyonnaise Des Eaux (SLDE)

The privatization of water has had a disastrous impact on the human
right to clean water, and the French company Suez is the worst
perpetrator of this abuse. The company's billions of dollars in
profit come at the expense of poor people living in countries where
thousands lack access to potable water, and, because of private
water contracts, are also facing skyrocketing water prices.

Suez goes by many names around the world--Ondeo, SITA and others--to
mask its worldwide net of controversial activities. In Manila,
Philippines, after seven years of water privatization under a Suez
company (Maynilad Water) contract, studies showed that water rates
increased in some neighborhoods by 400 to 700 percent. These studies
also showed that the negligence of the company resulted in cholera
and gastroenteritis outbreaks that killed six people and severely
sickened 725 in Manila's Tondo district.

In Bolivia, a Suez company (Aguas de Illimani) left 200,000 people
without access to water and caused a revolt when it tried to charge
between $335 and $445 to connect a private home to the water supply.
Countless people were unable to afford this charge in a country
whose yearly per capita GDP is $915.

Unfortunately, the IMF and World Bank are playing a key role in
pushing water privatization all over the world. Many countries have
been required to open up their water supply to private companies as
a condition for receiving IMF loans, and the World Bank has approved
millions of dollars in loans for the privatization of water systems.

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is the biggest corporation in the world. It owns 5,100
stores worldwide and employs 1.3 million workers in the United
States and 400,000 abroad, as well as millions more in the factories
of its suppliers.

Many people have heard of the way that Wal-Mart steamrolls its way
into every possible town, destroying local supermarkets and
countless small businesses. We have also heard about Wal-Mart's long
track record of worker abuse, from forced overtime to sex
discrimination to illegal child labor to relentless union busting.
Wal-Mart also notoriously fails to provide health insurance to over
half of its employees, who are then left to rely on themselves or
taxpayers, who provide for a portion of their healthcare needs
through government Medicaid.

Less well known is the fact that Wal-Mart maintains its low price
level by allowing substandard labor conditions at the overseas
factories producing most of its goods. The company continually
demands lower prices from its suppliers, who, in turn, make more
outrageous and abusive demands on their workers in order to meet Wal-
Mart's requirements.

In September 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a
lawsuit on behalf of Wal-Mart supplier sweatshop workers in China,
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Swaziland. The workers were
denied minimum wages, forced to work overtime without compensation,
and were denied legally mandated health care. Other worker rights
violations that have been found in foreign factories that produce
goods for Wal-Mart include locked bathrooms, starvation wages,
pregnancy tests, denial of access to health care, and workers being
fired and blacklisted if they try to defend their rights.

Visit Global Exchange to read the full report of the Most Wanted
Corporate Human Rights Violators of 2005, and find out how to
connect with groups that are doing something about corporate abuses.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The 'Retreat and Defeat' Dems
By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real
Posted on December 14, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/29552/

For once the Republican attack machine has described the Democratic
Party perfectly: retreat and defeat. It's what Democrats are all
about now. I'm not talking about the Democrats' position (if they
had one) on Bush's fool's errand of a war in Iraq. I'm talking about
how Democrats have flatly refused to stand and fight the war here at
home, the war for America's own democracy.

Democrats remind me of the that group of kids in every grammar
school whose members were not smart enough to be dorks nor tough
enough to be knuckle-dragging jocks. They are stuck in a social
vacuum of sorts. Every now and then one of them gets some backbone
and declares he's "gonna show those jocks." To which his frustrated
friends eagerly egg him on. So he tosses an insult or rock at the
school thugs, who of course immediately counter attack. His friends
desert him leaving him screaming, "it was an accident, honest. I
didn't mean it." After which the thugs would beat the crap out of
him anyway.

Asked about recent comments where Dean trashed Republicans as "evil"
and said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay belongs in jail, Biden told
ABC's This Week: "He doesn't speak for me with that kind of rhetoric
and I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats."

And...

Responding to Dean's initial remark, Edwards said Dean "is not the
spokesman for the party."Dean is 'a voice. I don't agree with it,"

That's today's Democrats. John Murtha, one of the few truly tough
guys in the party, stood up and said right out loud -- "get out of
Iraq, now." I'm sure Murtha didn't wake up that morning and decide
to hold a news conference. He almost certainly ran his idea by
fellow party members. And, from what I hear, they replied, "Sure
John, go ahead. We're right behind you."

When Murtha stepped forward, alone, and fired off that rock,
Republicans did what Republicans do best, they attacked. Poor John
turned to rally his troops, but they were long gone. Many were
clustered for cover around CNN microphones, declaring as loudly as
they could, "Murtha? He's not with me," and "Hardly know the guy,"
and "Sure, John's a brave American. No one questions that. But he
doesn't speak for me or most other Democrats on this one."

Hillary Clinton said she respects Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., the
Vietnam veteran and hawkish ex-Marine who last week called for an
immediate troop pullout. But she added: "I think that would cause
more problems for us in America."

Oh you pack of quisling cowards. Run away! Run Away! Retreat and
defeat.

This is why Dems never win anymore. And why Americans lose and lose
and lose again. We lose jobs, we lose medical care, we lose sons and
daughters. Because the when the other side starts shooting Democrats
hoist the white flag of surrender and political cowardice. Instead
of rallying around defensible positions and yelling "Bring em on!
Pass the ammunition," they whimper, "Waffles, damn it! We need more
waffles up here. They're killing us with our own words. Pass the
friggin waffles!"

Their own party chairman, Howard Dean, is the latest Dem to be left
bleeding in no-man's land by his own troops. Dean opened fire on the
Bush administration last week, pointing out -- correctly -- that
even though President Bush keeps using the term "Victory in Iraq,"
there can be no American victory in Iraq.

Dean's statement is demonstrably true and nothing Dems should run
from. Any victory in Iraq will have to be an Iraqi victory. Because
if we declare it an American victory that's just an open invitation
to young Arabs worldwide to wage neverending Jihad in Iraq to prove
us wrong. Just ask the Israelis how "victory" works in that part of
the world. An American "victory" means, "Mission Never Accomplished."

Dean's statement was also correct based on the demographic reality
Bush so carelessly refers to as "Iraq." When Bush says we
are "bringing democracy to Iraq," he's flat wrong. What he is really
trying to do is get three tribes, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, who
hate one another's guts, to live together peacefully under one civil
roof. Forget about it. It will never happen. Not in Bush's lifetime,
not in his grand kids lifetimes. The best hope for everyone involved
is the creation of three autonomous regions whose people agree that
killing each other -- as much fun as it may be -- is simply bad for
business.

Republican thugs also attacked Dean for saying that U.S. troops
were "terrorizing Iraqi women and children in their own homes."
Using the word "terror," was trespassing. "Terror," you see, is
apparently now a branded policy trademark of the GOP. They own it
and they decide what's terror and what's something else. Anyway,
everyone knows that only swarthy people who blow things and
themselves up terrorize, not American troops. But, wait, I've seen
TV coverage showing American troops breaking into Iraqi homes in the
dead of night and lining Iraqi women and their children against a
wall. They sure as hell looked terrorized to me.

What Dean said was completely defensible by hard facts and video
tape. (Why didn't the DNC immediately put one of those videos up on
the their web site asking the question: "Do these Iraqi women and
children look terrorized to you?" )

Dean was simply pointing out the obvious: that such raids, if
necessary, should be carried out by Iraqi troops, not Americans. And
that all we were doing scaring the hell out of Iraqi kids is sowing
the seeds of anti-Americanism into a whole new generation of Iraqi
kids.

So Dean bravely scrambled out of the trench and engaged the enemy at
their most vulnerable places. Then he heard the thunder of his
troops feet behind him. Dean turned to find himself alone. Not only
did his troops run for cover but they fragged their chairman for
good measure, just as they did Murtha earlier. Because those who
stand and fight make the rest of them look like what they are,
connivers and cowards.

What kind of party is this? What kind of men and women run from the
fight they signed up to wage? When we voted for them they pledged to
stand and fight for what's right, liberty and the American way.
Instead they have done little but collaborate, triangulate and
masturbate.

Murtha was right. The job of American soldiers in Iraq is done. They
should leave.

And Dean was right. We can't win an American victory in Iraq. (It
isn't even clear that an Iraqi victory is possible in Iraq.)

Any first-year college student could debate those positions
convincingly. Data, facts, video tape, testimony supporting those
positions is piled up all over Washington like cord wood. It's not
exactly like we're asking Democrats to enter the battle unarmed.

Dean and Murtha have handed their party an opportunity to circled
their wagons around a strong alternative to the administration's
failed polices. The party could have -- and should have -- done just
that, refined those positions into a coherent, clear and defensible
policy, and gone to battle. Instead they tripped all over themselves
in retreating into defeat, a refuge from which they can snipe at
Republicans without exposing themselves to the political dangers of
open combat.

Murtha and Dean are the Democratic Party's ideological bookends.
Between them bracket the full scope of party ideology. Dean is
liberal and Murtha conservative. Murtha is pro-military. Dean is
anti-war. Between the two men's positions are all the ingredients
needed to cook up a coherent and strong Democrat alternative to the
GOP's "stay the course," policy in Iraq.

Look how easy it is:


Tell the Iraqis they have six months to get their political and
military act together.
In six months all US combat troops will move to the Iraqi borders to
provide better border security than we have in the US.
In six months the only US military assistance Iraqis can expect is
close air support, supplies and free advice.
One year later all American troops leave Iraq.

Is that so complicated? But it means Democrats digging their heels
in ... drawing a line in the political sand and daring the
Republicans to cross it and engage them in open combat on the facts
right out there where everyone can watch in public square.

But so far Democrats look even less keen for combat than the scared
looking Iraqis we're trying to train. Like the "new Iraqi army"
Democrats run for cover at the first hint of trouble. And, if one of
their own does or says something that gets him whacked by Republican
thugs, well, no one is gonna drag him to safety. After all, he was
asking for it talking like that.

So it's more of the same. More retreat, more defeat.

Democrats do come out of their foxholes for the Sundays TV talk
shows where they can take pot shots at the enemy from behind Tim
Russert et al. So there they were this Sunday, blathering away about
how wrong-headed Bush's Iraqi policies are. But when asked what
Democrats would do, what their plan was, they ran behind the skirts
of their minority status. Peaking out from behind those skirts they
bravely declared, "Well, we're not in charge. It's not our
responsibility to come up with solutions. Republicans are in charge,
it's their responsibility."

Come on, Democrats. Would you folks agree on defensible positions
and stand and fight? Stand and fight, damn it. Do you understand how
important it is to this country that you do that and do it now?

You've already wasted five years, during which you've waffled,
wavered, wimped, whined and withdrew from battle. And look what it's
gotten us? The federal treasury is empty, the nation is treading in
a rising sea of red ink, most of the world no longer believes a word
that comes out of Washington -- and neither do a growing number of
Americans. And, worse of all, once again in my lifetime American
kids are dying thousands of miles from their homes for reasons that
don't add up.

And you can lay all this on George W., either. You Democrats wimped
out on us and let it happen, all of it. Worse, many of you didn't
just let it happen, you lent a hand - hands now permanently stained
with blood. (Even Lady Macbeth regretfully accepted her complicity.)

So, what's it gonna take to get some backbone in you folks and get
you out of your foxholes? If asked to describe the Democrat Party
right now I think an alarming number of registered Dems would say
it's become a nest of connivers and cowards. (You say it's not so.
Fine, make my day. Try convincing me that's not true. I dare you. I
double-dare you.)

Here's an idea. Begin by publicly admonishing the collaborators
among you? Remember how mad you all got at Zell Miller when he spoke
at the Republican convention? How about shelling out some of that
righteous indignation now on Joe Liberman?

I don't know. I think I just waste my breath when I talk to
Democrats like this. But I do believe that slapping around the
collaborators, quislings and cowards in their own party would
certainly change the "risk/benefit" equation. Suddenly wimping out
in the midst of political hand-to-hand combat would no longer be
entirely risk free. It would be a way of laying down a marker to
party cowards, "Here's your choice, stand with us and risk a GOP
bullet in the chest or run and risk a Democrat bullet in the back.
Your choice."

But so far the only Democrat commandos with the stomach and backbone
for a fight appear to be John Murtha, Howard Dean and Russ Fiengold.
(Hillary Clinton's been too busy getting P.R. photos taken of her
making nice to soldiers and wrapping herself in Old Glory to fight.
And the Democrats' general in the Senate, Harry Reid, a man with all
the charisma of a undertaker -- looks like he'd need one himself if
he ever got too excited about anything. Smiling Joe Biden would
stand and fight, but he's been away having his teeth whitened for
the '08 campaign.)

So it's fools to the right of us, clowns to the left, and me, stuck
in the middle with you.

Republicans won't change course because that would mean admitting
they've just killed thousands of people for all the wrong reasons.
And the Democrats refuse to put forth an unambiguous alternative
because they are scared. That's right, scared. Imagine that. One of
two parties responsible for running the most powerful nation on
earth, scared. Afraid of honest, thoughtful, progressive positions
and policies. Afraid to put them in black and white and then stand
at the ramparts and fight for them.

Instead Democrats stick to what has become their new comfort zone,
defeat. Retreat and defeat.

Maybe we need to start training a new political army. Nothing less
important than our own democracy depends on it. Because I don't know
about you, but I'm tired of losing.

I'm ready for a fight.

Stephen Pizzo is the author of numerous books, including "Inside
Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans," which was
nominated for a Pulitzer.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The Abramoff primer
Geov Parrish - WorkingForChange.com

12.12.05 - The ever-widening scandal surrounding Republican super-
lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatens to take down at least a half-dozen
Congressmen in 2006, more of their aides, Executive Branch
employees, and untold numbers of other members of the Republican
Beltway hierarchy. At least four dozen lawmakers from both parties
are documented as having taken actions favorable to Abramoff clients
around the time they received large donations from Abramoff and/or
his clients. It's a sordid tale of Washington corruption, and of
crony capitalism at its worst, and it is so dizzyingly complex that
few media outlets and even fewer members of the public have yet
appreciated just how thoroughly it indicts not just Republican
leadership, but the entire bipartisan way of crafting public policy
that masquerades as 21st century American democracy.

Abramoff figures in at least four separate, interrelated scandals:

1) He and partner Adam Kidan have been indicted on wire fraud and
conspiracy charges involving the 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos, a
Florida gambling boat venture;
2) He funneled money into the PAC run by House Majority Whip Rep.
Tom DeLay that has led to Texas charges against DeLay for illegally
laundering campaign donations;
3) He and partner Michael Scanlon are suspected of defrauding and
vastly overbilling Native American tribes and other clients with
gaming interests; and
4) He and Scanlon are also suspected of bribing and offering gifts
and spousal jobs to Congresspeople and Executive Branch officials in
exchange for actions favorable to their clients.

Appallingly, it's hard to tell with many of Abramoff's activities
whether they are crimes, D.C. business as usual, or both. Here,
then, compiled from the Washington Post and other sources, is a
summary in alphabetical order of 25 of the key players involved, how
they relate to each other, and what they're suspected of. It's
rather long and exhaustive (of what we know so far), but then, the
indictments will be far longer. Read it, keep it as a scorecard, and
weep for democracy.

JACK ABRAMOFF: Former chair in the early '80s of the College
Republicans (his campaign manager was future anti-tax guru Grover
Norquist), and close friend of Karl Rove. Introduced to Republican
Texas Rep. Tom DeLay by conservative Jewish activist Rabbi Daniel
Lapin in the early '90s, Abramoff helped win DeLay's election as
majority whip in 1994, a campaign which cemented the bond between
the two. The relationship between Abramoff and DeLay is now the
target of investigations by the House of Representatives, the
Senate, the Justice Department, and a federal grand jury. During the
Bush administration Abramoff became the most influential lobbyist in
the country; in 2004 he was a Bush "Pioneer," raising over $100,000
for Dubya's reelection.

Abramoff, 46, was indicted along with partner Adam Kidan in August
2005 by a Florida grand jury on wire fraud and conspiracy charges in
a Florida gambling boat venture, SunCruz Casinos. Prosecutors say
the purchase by the two of a fleet of casino gambling ships in 2000
for $147.5 million involved a fake wire transfer of $23 million and
the falsification of loan documents. For the purchase, Abramoff
listed Tony Rudy, then a DeLay aide, and Californian Republican Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher as personal references. Abramoff faces up to five
years in prison for each of six counts and the forced return of $60
million lost by a casino investor.

Abramoff worked for the D.C. lobbying office of the law firm Preston
Gates Ellis from 1994 to 2001, and while there worked with Michael
Scanlon and William Jarrell (both former DeLay aides), future
General Services Administration head David Safavian, and former
Christian Coalition boss Ralph Reed, then a Preston Gates
contractor. Abramoff arranged for at least 85 Congressmen and aides
to take trips in the late '90s to the Northern Mariannas Islands, a
Preston Gates client, while attempting to win exemption from minimum
wage laws and other legislation favorable to the sweatshops there.
Among the visitors was DeLay; two DeLay aides' trips were also
allegedly illegally paid for. Between 1994 and 2001, the Northern
Mariannas paid $6.7 million to Preston Gates for lobbying services,
of which an auditor later determined $3.1 million was paid without a
lawful contract. Rabbi Daniel Lapin's brother, David, who once ran a
D.C. area Jewish academy established by Abramoff, had a $1.2 million
no-bid Northern Marianas government contract, arranged by Abramoff
during his Preston Gates days, to conduct ethics-in-government
programs. But near as anyone in the Marianas can determine today,
David Lapin failed to provide any services. Abramoff was also the
target of a 2002 grand jury probe in Guam, involving influence
peddling in a case involving court reform. A day after a subpoena
was issued, the federal prosecutor in the case was demoted by
President Bush, and the inquiry stalled.

In 2001, Abramoff was lured (along with some of his clients) with
his $175,000 a month retainer to the Miami lobbying firm Greenberg
Traurig LLC. After he joined Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff and Scanlon
(who left Preston Gates Ellis to start his own consulting service)
agreed to join forces and concentrate on Native American casino
tribes. Overall, Abramoff and Scanlon collected a staggering $66
million in fees from tribal interests, with another $16 million
going directly to Greenberg Traurig.

Investigators are now looking at whether tribes were defrauded of
some of that $82 million. Abramoff allegedly arranged for more than
$4 million of Preston Gates Ellis Native American client funds to be
funneled into antigambling campaigns run by Reed from 1999 to 2003.
In one case involving funds from an Indian casino client, as much as
$1.3 million may have been used to launch a campaign. At least some
of the Preston Gates money was allegedly laundered through an anti-
tax group of Abramoff's old friend Norquist, Americans for Tax
Reform. The point was for Abramoff's Native American casino clients
to pay for campaigns that would shut out potential competition from
state lotteries or new casinos.

Abramoff arranged for the hiring of several Congressional wives,
including Christine DeLay, wife of the Majority Whip. (Christine
DeLay took four years to research the favorite charity of each
member of Congress, for which she was paid $115,000. Nice work if
you can get it.) Abramoff frequently used his D.C. charity, Capital
Athletic Foundation, as a pass-through organization to run lobbying
efforts and to pay for expenses, including retaining the services of
a firm owned by Republican California Rep. John Doolittle's wife
Julie, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc. Abramoff is also
accused of misusing his charity to fund activities like an Israeli
sniper school on the West Bank.

Abramoff also allegedly misused a conservative D.C. think tank whose
board he served on, the National Center for Public Policy Research.
The group was allegedly used to launder $50,000 to pay for a May
2000 trip by DeLay, his wife, Rudy, and another DeLay aide to
Scotland. Two months later, DeLay helped kill an antigambling bill,
the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, opposed by Abramoff clients.
In 2002 the Choctaw tribe, a client of Abramoff's, donated $1
million to the center and in 2003 Greenberg Traurig gave $1.5
million in "grants" that originated from an Abramoff client. In
2003, the National Center paid $1.275 million for consulting
services to Kaygold, an LLC controlled by Abramoff.

Former Preston Gates colleague David Safavian, who had been
appointed by Bush as head of the General Services Administration,
was arrested in September 2005 and charged with lying and
obstruction of justice in conjunction with an investigation into
Abramoff's seeking of favors from Safavian while he attempted to buy
land from the federal government. Abramoff is also being
investigated for having illegally paid for three Scotland golf trips
and trips to Moscow and London for DeLay, and a 2002 Scotland trip
for then-DeLay aide Tony Rudy, Safavian, Noruist, and Republican
Ohio Rep. Robert Ney.

Over the years, Abramoff showered members of Congress with
donations, trips, gifts, and fundraising events, often as quid pro
quo for favorable legislative action. At least four dozen lawmakers
from both parties are documented as having taken actions favorable
to Abramoff clients around the time they received large donations
from Abramoff and/or his clients.

Here are some of the players in Abramoff's world:

EDWARD AYOOB: Former veteran legislative aide to Senate Minority
Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, hired as a lobbyist by Abramoff. Reid,
who undertook several actions favorable to Abramoff's clients,
ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations
from 2001 to 2004. Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at
the offices of Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig.

EDWIN BUCKHAM: Former chief of staff and "an old family friend" of
House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay, involved, along with former
DeLay aide Mike Scanlon, in a 1999 effort by Abramoff to allegedly
dangle U.S. tax dollars to influence an election for the speaker of
the legislature in the Northern Mariannas Islands. Along with former
DeLay aide Tony Rudy, ran the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy
Group, which accepted a number of clients from Abramoff and paid
Christine DeLay, wife of the Majority Whip, $115,000 for work from
1998 to 2002 to determine the favorite charity of every member of
Congress.

SEN. CONRAD BURNS: Republican Senator from Montana. As a member of
the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and chair of an
appropriations subcommittee that controlled spending for the
Interior Department, Burns and his staff met Abramoff's lobbying
team at least eight times in early 2001 and collected $12,000 in
donations. Burns then voted against a bill that would have ended
a "guest worker" program in the Northern Mariannas Islands' garment
industry; in 1999, he had voted in favor of an identical bill. The
Mariannas, a U.S. trust territory in the Pacific, are notorious as
the home of numerous sweatshops importing foreign, virtually slave
labor that produces products with a "Made in U.S.A." label. Abramoff
and future assistant Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella had both
lobbied for the Mariannas when working at the lobbying law firm
Preston Gates Ellis until 2001.

In addition, two Burns aides accepted an Abramoff-arranged trip to
the Super Bowl in Tampa in early 2001, and a Burns aide went to work
for Abramoff as an appropriations aide. In June 2001, Burns
supported a bill that urged the Interior Department to rescind a
requirement that the Mariannas provide matching funds for a federal
program subsidizing local construction projects. Burns also wrote a
letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs backing a $3 million Indian
school building program sought by Abramoff's tribal clients, and
helped arrange for Congress to provide money for it.

Overall, Abramoff steered $137,000 to Burns' political action
committee (PAC). Abramoff, partner Michael Scanlon, former DeLay
aide William Jarrell, and former General Services Administration
head David Safavian all once worked for Preston Gates Ellis, the law
firm representing the Mariannas.

REP. TOM DELAY: Houston-area Republican Representative, longtime
friend of Abramoff, and former House Majority Whip before a campaign
financing indictment forced him to at least temporarily resign his
post in 2005. Abramoff helped win DeLay's election as majority whip
in 1994, a campaign which cemented the bond between the two. DeLay
was admonished by the House of Representatives for three separate
ethics violations in 2004; his solution was to appoint a new, pliant
stooge to head the House Ethics Committee, Washington state Rep. Doc
Hastings, a recipient of donations from DeLay's PACs and from
Abramoff. DeLay's PACs are under investigation by U.S. and Texas
prosecutors; more than 30 PAC-related indictments have already been
issued in Texas.

A former DeLay aide, Michael Scanlon, went on to become Abramoff's
business partner and has now pled guilty to helping defraud
Abramoff's tribal clients and is cooperating in the investigation.
Scanlon and former DeLay chief of staff Ed Buckham were involved in
a 1999 effort by Abramoff to allegedly dangle U.S. tax dollars to
influence an election for the speaker of the legislature in the
Northern Mariannas Islands. A few months later, DeLay was on a House
committee that approved $150,000 in Northern Marianas funding.

DeLay was one of at least 85 Congressmen and aides given late '90s
trips to the Northern Mariannas while Abramoff was trying to win
exemption from minimum wage laws and other legislation favorable to
the sweatshops there. Two DeLay aides' trips were allegedly
illegally paid for. Another former aide, ex-deputy chief of staff
William Jarrell, joined Abramoff at Preston Gates Ellis. DeLay aides
also accepted a trip from Abramoff to the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa,
along with aides to Sen. Conrad Burns. And in May 2000, DeLay, his
wife, aide Tony Rudy, and another DeLay aide took a trip to Scotland
sponsored by the conservative D.C. think tank the National Center
for Public Policy Research, one day after two Abramoff clients each
donated $25,000 to the group. At about the same time, a Virginia
consulting firm registered to Rudy's wife Lisa received money
apparently laundered from a $25,000 donation received by a charity
of Abramoff and DeLay friend Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Toward Tradition.
Two months later, DeLay helped kill an antigambling bill, the
Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, opposed by the two Abramoff
clients, the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians and eLottery.

The National Center for Public Policy Research was used again by
Abramoff; in 2002 the Choctaw tribe, a client of Abramoff's, donated
$1 million to the center and in 2003 Greenberg Traurig gave $1.5
million in "grants" that originated from an Abramoff client. In
2003, the National Center paid $1.275 million for consulting
services to Kaygold, an LLC controlled by Abramoff. At the time,
Abramoff also was on the board of the center.

Abramoff is also under investigation for providing illegal perks to
DeLay such as skyboxes for local D.C. hockey and football games and
trips to Moscow, London, and, on three occasions, golfing vacations
to Scotland. DeLay's wife Christine was hired for $115,000 by a
lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group, that received client
referrals from Abramoff. The firm, run by former DeLay aides Edwin
Burkham and Rudy, employed Christine DeLay from 1998 until 2002 to
compile a list of the favorite charities of every member of
Congress.

As of 2000, Abramoff had funneled at least $50,000 in campaign
donations to DeLay. Abramoff has since continued his hefty donations
to DeLay, including money for Texans for a Republican Majority, now
being investigated by Texas authorities in conjunction with the
campaign donation probe.

REP. JOHN DOOLITTLE: Republican Representative from suburban
Sacramento, under investigation for possible bribery charges.
Doolittle's former chief of staff, Kevin Ring, went to work with
Abramoff. Doolittle's wife, Julie, owned a consulting firm, Sierra
Dominion Financial Solutions Inc., that was hired by Abramoff and
his firm to do fundraising for a charity he founded, Capital
Athletic Foundation, at about the time Doolittle undertook
legislative actions favorable to Abramoff's clients. Last year,
Sierra Dominion received a subpoena from the grand jury
investigating Abramoff.

SEN. BYRON DORGAN: Democratic Senator from North Dakota, ranking
Democrat on the Indian Affairs Committee. Abramoff's firm, Greenberg
Traurig, hosted a 2001 fundraising skybox for Durgan at a hockey
game. In March 2002, Abramoff instructed the Louisiana Coushatta
Indians to give $5,000 to Dorgan's PAC weeks after the Dorgan
solicited support for a school funding program the tribe wanted to
use. The check was one of about five dozen the Coushatta sent to
various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at Abramoff's
instruction. In 2003, Dorgan pushed Congress to approve legislative
language urging government regulators to decide whether the Mashpee
Wampanoag tribe, an Abramoff client, deserved federal recognition.
Dorgan also signed a letter to the Interior Department urging the
continuation of a program that had the federal government and tribes
sharing the cost of building tribal schools, a program pushed by
Abramoff's clients.

ITALLIA FEDERICI: Mutual friend of and conduit between Abramoff and
Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles. Federici worked for a
Republican environmental group, Republicans for Environmental
Advocacy, founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Abramoff had
Federici seek inside information and help from Griles, such as the
federal recognition of one of Abramoff's clients, the Mashpee
Wampanoag, and the squelching of a proposed casino from the Jena
band of Chocaw that would compete with another client. At least 33
lawmakers who wrote letters to Norton opposing the Jena casino
received, in total, more than $830,000 in Abramoff-related donations
from 2001 to 2004. Between 2000 and 2003, Abramoff poured over
$500,000 into Federici's group in his efforts to lobby Griles
through her.

TIMOTHY FLANAGAN: In October 2005, the Bush White House withdrew the
embattled nomination of Flanagan as Deputy Attorney General under
Alberto Gonzales, in large part because of Flanagan's past dealings
with Abramoff. As the lobbyist with Tyco Inc. (an Abramoff client)
who worked with Abramoff, Flanagan testified that Abramoff's firm,
Greenberg Traurig, promised to repay three-quarters of a $2 million
fee that Tyco paid at Abramoff's direction to Grassroots
Interactive, a firm owned by Ed Miller, who would become Maryland
Republican governor Robert Ehrlich's deputy chief of staff. Ehrlich
has received campaign contributions from Abramoff.

STEVEN GRILES: Former Deputy Interior Secretary. Abramoff sought
improper help from Griles for tribal clients, including the Mashpee
Wampanoag, and in return offered him a job. Abramoff had Griles
friend Itallia Federici seek inside information and help from
Griles, such as the federal recognition of one of Abramoff's
clients, the Mashpee Wampanoag, and the squelching of a proposed
casino from the Jena band of Choctaw that would compete with another
client. In turn, Abramoff used Griles to seek meetings with and
favorable action from Interior Secretary Gale Norton on behalf of
Abramoff's clients. Federici's nonprofit, Republicans for
Environmental Advocacy, was founded by Norton.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT: Northern Illinois Republican, House Majority
Leader. Held a fundraiser at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant in
D.C. in June 2003 that collected at least $21,500 for Hastert's Keep
Our Majority PAC from Abramoff's firm and tribal clients. A week
later, Hastert wrote Interior Secretary Gale Norton to urge her to
reject a casino of the Jena band of Choctaw that would have competed
with an Abramoff client.

REP. DOC HASTINGS: Republican Representative from Eastern
Washington, Chairman of the House Ethics Committee. Hastings has
refused to allow the Ethics Committee to investigate any of the
charges involving Abramoff and House members –- or any other of the
ethics scandals plaguing the House of Representatives, for that
matter -– since the Republican leadership appointed him to replace a
more assertive chairman in February 2005. Hastings, naturally, has
received campaign contributions from both Abramoff and from
Americans for a Republican Majority, a PAC of former House Majority
Whip Rep. Tom DeLay.

ADAM KIDAN: Met Jack Abramoff in his College Republican days.
Attended an exclusive party in House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay's
office on Inauguration Day 2001 in Washington. The former owner of a
Dial-a-Mattress franchise in D.C., Kidan was Abramoff's partner in a
$147.5 million purchase in 2000 of a casino gambling boat company in
Florida, SunCruz Casinos. Prosecutors say the purchase involved a
fake wire transfer of $23 million and the falsification of loan
documents. Both Kidan and Abramoff have been indicted on charges of
wire fraud and conspiracy. Kidan is said to be near a plea
agreement.

The previous owner of SunCruz, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, was killed
in a gangland-style murder in Fort Lauderdale in February 2001.
Three men -- Anthony Moscatiello, Anthony Ferrari, and James
Fiorillo -- were charged in November 2005 in the Boulis killing.
Kidan had hired Moscatiello and Ferrari to provide catering and
surveillance services to SunCruz. Moscatiello, identified by
authorities as a former bookkeeper for the Gambino crime family,
asserted after his arrest that Ferrari had admitted to him that he
and another man killed Boulis after getting a call from Kidan.

RABBI DANIEL LAPIN: South African immigrant, conservative Seattle
talk radio commentator, and co-chair of the American Alliance of
Jews and Christians (whose board members include Jerry Falwell and
Pat Robertson). Once Abramoff's next door neighbor. Lapin introduced
Abramoff to Rep. Tom DeLay in the early 90's. Also a close friend of
former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed. DeLay and Abramoff have
both been board members of Lapin's charity, Toward Tradition.
Abramoff, a founder of the group, at one point proposed using Toward
Tradition as a pass-through for tribal money he was funneling from
Preston Gates Ellis to campaigns being run by Ralph Reed against
antigambling measures, before discovering that Toward Tradition
didn't have the appropriate IRS status.

Lapin was also on the payroll of Abramoff's D.C. charity, Capital
Athletic Foundation, as one of four people earning a collective
$20,000 a month. Capital Athletic is under investigation for hiring
a consulting firm owned by the wife of California Rep. John
Doolittle in exchange for favorable legislative action by Doolittle.
In 2000, Lapin's religious charity received a $25,000 donation from
an online gambling company, eLottery, a lobbying client of Abramoff
and Preston Gates Ellis. That money was then allegedly used to pay a
Virginia consulting firm, Liberty Consulting, registered to Lisa
Rudy, the wife of DeLay's deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy. At that
time Rudy had been instrumental in scuttling an antigambling bill,
the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, that eLottery and Abramoff
wanted killed.

Abramoff also funneled a lucrative $1.2 million no-bid Northern
Marianas Islands government contract to Lapin's brother, Los Angeles
businessman Rabbi David Lapin, to conduct ethics-in-government
programs there. But near as anyone in the Marianas can determine
today, David Lapin failed to provide any services.

ED MILLER: Deputy chief of staff for Republican Maryland governor
Robert Ehrlich, a recipient of Abramoff campaign donations. Miller
formerly ran the firm Grassroots Interactive; in 2003, his firm was
the recipient of $2 million from Abramoff in fees improperly
diverted from Tyco Inc. and their chief lobbyist, Timothy Flanagan.
Flanagan would later be the Bush administration's choice to become
deputy Attorney General under Alberto Gonzales; his nomination would
fail because of his ties to Abramoff.

REP. ROBERT NEY: Republican Representative from Southeast Ohio,
Chairman of the House Administration Committee. Under investigation,
along with his former chief of staff, Neil Volz, for possible
bribery charges involving Abramoff in October 2000. Ney intervened
in the purchase by Abramoff and Adam Kidan of a Florida casino
gambling company, Suncruz Casinos; at the request of Abramoff
associate Michael Scanlon, Ney twice inserted comments in the
Congressional Record, first castigating the reputation of SunCruz's
then-owner, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, during contentious purchase
negotiations, and later praising Kidan's new management.

Ney also took an allegedly illegal 2002 golfing trip to Scotland
paid for by Abramoff. (General Services Administration head David
Safavian, anti-tax guru Grover Norquist, and former Chrisian
Coalition head Ralph Reed were on the same trip.) Ney then provided
help to two Texas tribal clients of Abramoff that wanted permission
to open casinos. In one case in December 2002, Ney sought help from
another unidentified House member for one of the tribes. Ney also
allegedly met with a member of a California tribe doing business
with Abramoff and agreed to help pass tax legislation affecting the
tribe.

GROVER NORQUIST: Guru of the anti-tax, neo-con movement, best known
for his desire to reduce government to the size where it can be
drowned in a bathtub. Norquist met Abramoff through the College
Republicans in the early '80s; he managed Abramoff's successful
campaign to become chair of that group. Norquist co-authored Newt
Gingrich's 1994 "Contract with America," and gained influence as a
close ally of Gingrich. He worked with Abramoff to lobby for the
Northern Mariannas Islands sweatshops.

Ralph Reed and Norquist are implicated in the questionable funneling
by Abramoff of more than $4 million of Preston Gates Ellis Native
American client funds to back antigambling campaigns run by Reed
from 1999 to 2003. In one case involving funds from an Indian casino
client, as much as $1.3 million in client funds may have been used
to launch a campaign. At least some of the Preston Gates money was
allegedly laundered through Norquist's anti-tax group, Americans for
Tax Reform, which took a cut. The point was for Abramoff's Native
American casino clients to pay for campaigns that would shut out
potential competition from state lotteries or new casinos. Americans
for Tax Reform also laundered Reed money from Abramoff client
eLottery to help defeat the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in
2000.

Norquist accompanied Abramoff, Ralph Reed, General Services
Administration head David Safavian, and Ohio Rep. Robert Ney on a
2002 golf trip to Scotland in which Abramoff allegedly illegally
picked up the costs for Ney and for Safavian, a former Norquist
business partner in the firm Janus Merritt Strategies. Norquist
raised big bucks for the 2004 Bush re-election. He also chairs the
Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, established to build monuments to
Reagan; fellow board members include former House Majority Whip Rep.
Tom DeLay, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Bush political
advisor Karl Rove, and Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

PATRICK PIZZELLA: 2001 Bush appointee as assistant Secretary of
Labor, was a member of Abramoff's legal team lobbying for sweatshops
in the Northern Mariannas Islands when both were at Preston Gates
Ellis. (Yes, that's right, Bush appointed a former sweatshop
lobbyist to the Department of Labor.) Worked for Abramoff to help
eLottery stop the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in 2000.

REP. RICHARD POMBO: Republican Congressman from a district east of
the San Francisco Bay Area. Pombo has received at least $40,000 from
Abramoff and tribal members of the Mashpee Wampanoag, an Abramoff
client. Pombo chairs the Committee on Resources that oversees the
Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In
2004, Pombo pushed a bill through his committee that would have
helped the tribe receive federal benefits and advance its struggle
for federal recognition. Federal recognition, by granting a tribe
sovereignty, gives it the jurisdiction to open a casino, which many
of Abramoff's tribal clients have done.

RALPH REED: Former Christian Coalition golden boy, former chairman
of the College Republicans (where he succeeded Jack Abramoff), high-
ranking Bush re-election official, and current candidate for
Lieutenant Governor of Georgia. Reed is also a former consultant for
Preston Gates Ellis, Abramoff's employer from 1994 to 2001.

In 2000, received money from Abramoff client eLottery to help kill
an antigambling bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibiion Act; some of
the money was routed through Grover Norquist's anti-tax group,
Americans for Tax Reform. Reed and Norquist are implicated in the
questionable funneling by Abramoff of more than $4 million of
Preston Gates Ellis Native American client funds to back
antigambling campaigns run by Reed from 1999 to 2003. In one case
involving funds from an Indian casino client, as much as $1.3
million in client funds may have been used to launch a campaign. At
least some of the Preston Gates money was again allegedly laundered
through Americans for Tax Reform. The point was for Abramoff's
Native American casino clients to pay for campaigns that would shut
out potential competition from state lotteries or new casinos. Reed
was also on the 2002 Scotland golf trip with Norquist, David
Safavian, and Rep. Robert Ney, allegedly illegally paid for by
Abramoff.

SEN. HARRY REID: Nevada Democrat, Senate Minority Leader. Sent a
letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton in March 2002 to urge her
to reject a casino of the Jena band of Choctaw that would have
competed with an Abramoff client. The next day, the Coushatta Tribe
of Louisiana issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political
group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second Abramoff tribe also
sent $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than
$66,000 in Abramoff-related donations from 2001 to 2004. Abramoff
also hired as a lobbyist a former Reid legislative aide, Edward
Ayoob. Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at the offices of
Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig.

TONY RUDY: Deputy chief of staff to former House Majority Whip Rep.
Tom DeLay. Investigators are looking into whether Rudy aided
Abramoff's clients while working for DeLay. Rudy was instrumental in
killing a 2000 antigambling bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibition
Act, opposed by Abramoff client eLottery. At about the same time, a
Virginia consulting firm registered to Rudy's wife Lisa, Liberty
Consulting, received payments from Abramoff clients and associates,
and received eLotery money apparently laundered from a $25,000
donation received by Toward Tradition, a charity of Abramoff and
DeLay associate Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

That summer, Rudy traveled on two luxury trips with Abramoff,
including one with DeLay, DeLay's wife Christine, and another DeLay
aide to Scotland partly paid for by eLottery through an
intermediary. The other trip was to Pebble Beach, California, on s
corporate jet belonging to SunCruz Casinos, the Florida casino
gambling boat company Abramoff and partner Adam Kidan were then
negotiating to buy. Rudy was listed as a personal reference by
Abramoff in that purchase, a purchase for which Abramoff and Kidan
have now been indicted on wire fraud and conspiracy charges.

Rudy left DeLay's office in 2001 to work for Abramoff. Later, along
with former DeLay aide Edwin Burkham, he ran the lobbying firm
Alexander Strategy Group, which accepted a number of clients from
Abramoff and paid Christine DeLay, wife of the Majority Whip,
$115,000 from 1998 to 2002 to determine the favorite charity of
every member of Congress.

DAVID SAFAVIAN: Bush appointee; as the chief of staff of the General
Services Administration, he was in the lucrative position of being
the chief procurement officer for the federal government. The Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee held up Safavian's nomination for
more than a year, in part because of lawmakers' concerns about his
lobbying work for two men later accused of links to suspected
terrorist organizations.

Safavian resigned when he was arrested in September 2005 and charged
with three counts of making false statements and obstruction of
justice in connection with an investigation into Abramoff's attempts
to buy land from the federal government. Along with DeLay aide Tony
Rudy, former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, anti-tax guru
Grover Norquist, and Rep. Robert Ney, Safavian took a 2002 golfing
trip to Scotland allegedly illegally paid for by Abramoff; he is
accused of lying to investigators by denying that, at the time,
Abramoff was seeking to do business with the GSA. Safavian is yet
another former employee of Preston Gates Ellis; while with that law
firm, he shared wih Abramoff as a client the Mississippi band of
Choctaw Indians. Safavian went on to found Janus Merritt Strategies
with Norquist.

MICHAEL SCANLON: Scanlon, 35, is a former press secretary to Rep.
Tom DeLay and business partner of Jack Abramoff. He has reached a
plea bargain with federal prosecutors and is thought likely to
testify against Abramoff and other former colleagues, breaking the
scandal wide open. In particular, Scanlon may be able to specify
which Congresspeople specifically agreed to trade actions favorable
to Abramoff and Scanlon's clients for donations, gifts, and trips.

Scanlon left DeLay's office to join Abramoff at the lobbying firm
Preston Gates Ellis;; he was involved, along with former DeLay chief
of staff Ed Buckham, in a 1999 effort by Abramoff to allegedly
dangle U.S. tax dollars to influence an election for the speaker of
the legislature in the Northern Mariannas Islands. In 2001, he left
Preston Gates Ellis to start his own consulting service, and joined
forces with Abramoff (who had also left Preston Gates Ellis, for
Greenberg Traurig) to focus on tribal casino interests. Between the
two firms, it is estimated the pair collected some $82 million in
highly inflated fees from tribal clients. The pair allegedly
defrauded their clients; Abramoff would refer clients to Scanlon
without telling them that Scanlon was kicking back a percentage of
the fees to Abramoff. The pair would then allegedly use some of the
proceeds to bribe members of Congress.

NEIL VOLZ: Former chief of staff for Ohio Rep. Robert Ney; both are
now under investigation for possible bribery charges in connection
with Ney's efforts to help Abramoff and Adam Kidam buy SunCruz
Casinos, a Florida gambling boat venture, in 2000.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com


Gang Founder Claimed Innocence Until the End
By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 13, 2005

Stanley Tookie Williams maintained his innocence right up until his
death, even when an admission of guilt may have spared him execution.

Even after the courts and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a
flurry of Williams' last-ditch appeals before his execution early
Tuesday, his supporters vowed to prove his innocence.

Williams, the Crips gang co-founder whose case stirred a national
debate about capital punishment versus the possibility of
redemption, was executed Tuesday morning for killing four people in
1979.

Williams, 51, died at 12:35 a.m. Officials at San Quentin State
Prison seemed to have trouble injecting the lethal mixture into his
muscular arm. As they struggled to find a vein, Williams looked up
repeatedly and appeared frustrated, shaking his head at supporters
and other witnesses.

"You doing that right?" it sounded as if he asked one of the men
with a needle.

After he was declared dead, his supporters shouted in unison: "The
state of California just killed an innocent man," as they walked out
of the chamber.

Lora Owens, stepmother of one of the four people Williams was
convicted of killing witnessed the execution. "I believe it was a
just punishment long overdue," she told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Williams' case became one of the nation's biggest death-row cause
celebres in decades, with Hollywood stars and capital punishment
foes arguing that Williams' sentence should be commuted to life in
prison because he had made amends by writing children's books about
the dangers of gangs and violence.

His execution also drew fierce criticism in Europe, where
politicians in Schwarzenegger's native Austria called for his name
to be removed from a sports stadium in his hometown.

"Schwarzenegger has a lot of muscles, but apparently not much
heart," said Julien Dray, spokesman for the Socialist Party in
France, where the death penalty was abolished in 1981.

Williams became the 12th person executed in California since
lawmakers reinstated the death penalty in 1977.

In the days leading up to the execution, state and federal courts
refused to reopen his case. Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
denied Williams' request for clemency, suggesting that his supposed
change of heart was not genuine because he had not shown any real
remorse for the killings committed by the Crips.

"Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a
hollow promise?" Schwarzenegger wrote. "Without an apology and
atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no
redemption."

Schwarzenegger said the evidence of Williams' guilt was "strong and
compelling." Witnesses at Williams' trial said he boasted about the
killings, saying: "You should have heard the way he sounded when I
shot him."

Williams was condemned in 1981 for gunning down convenience store
clerk Albert Owens, 26, at a 7-Eleven in Whittier and killing Yen-I
Yang, 76, Tsai-Shai Chen Yang, 63, and the couple's daughter Yu-Chin
Yang Lin, 43, at the Los Angeles motel they owned. Williams claimed
he was innocent.

Williams was led into the death chamber at midnight, shackled and
handcuffed. He declined to give a formal final statement.

He seemed frustrated by the length of time it took officials to
insert the intravenous lines in his arms. He repeatedly looked up,
shaking his head at supporters, reporters and other witnesses whom
officials did not identify.

In all, it took nearly a half-hour to prepare Williams for
execution. It took much less time to die; he appeared to stop
breathing just moments after a prison official read the death
warrant and said, "The execution shall now proceed."

Williams was described as "complacent, quiet and thoughtful," by
Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton in the hours
before the execution. He declined to have a last meal as he waited
in the holding cell, drinking milk instead. Prison officials said he
spent his last hours reading mail, watching television and visiting
with his lawyers and friends.

After watching her longtime friend die, Barbara Becnel told the
crowd of hundreds gathered outside prison gates that she would prove
Williams' innocence and that Schwarzenegger was a "cold-blooded
murderer."

She said Williams "was brave and strong and he was everything we
believed him to be."

Singer Joan Baez, M A S H actor Mike Farrell and the Rev. Jesse
Jackson were among the celebrities who protested the execution.

"Tonight is planned, efficient, calculated, antiseptic, cold-blooded
murder and I think everyone who is here is here to try to enlist the
morality and soul of this country," said Baez, who sang "Swing Low,
Sweet Chariot" on a small plywood stage set up just outside the
gates.

A contingent of 40 people who had walked the approximately 25 miles
from San Francisco held signs calling for an end to "state-sponsored
murder." But others, including Debbie Lynch, 52, of Milpitas, said
they wanted to honor the victims.

"If he admitted to it, the governor might have had a reason to spare
his life," Lynch said.

Among the celebrities who took up Williams' cause were Jamie Foxx,
who played the gang leader in a cable movie about Williams; rapper
Snoop Dogg, himself a former Crip; Sister Helen Prejean, the nun
depicted in "Dead Man Walking"; and Bianca Jagger. During Williams'
24 years on death row, a Swiss legislator, college professors and
others nominated him for the Nobel Prizes in peace and literature.

Williams founded the Crips gang with a friend in 1971 and managed
stay out of trouble for years despite his claims that he was a drug-
fueled thug who robbed, beat and shot at people.

Authorities say the gang is responsible for hundreds of deaths, many
of them in battles with the rival Bloods for turf and control of the
drug trade.

Whatever luck Williams found on the streets avoiding the law ended
in 1979 after four people were killed in a pair of armed robberies
that were connected to him and his pump-action shotgun.

Williams never wavered from his claim of innocence and said he
refused to confess to crimes he did not commit, even if doing so
would save his life. He said he redeemed himself while in prison and
apologized for starting the Crips.

"There is no part of me that existed then that exists now," Williams
said recently during several hours of interviews with The Associated
Press. He said that while he wanted to live and continue his work
with children, he was prepared to die.

"I haven't had a lot of joy in my life. But in here," he says,
pointing to his heart, "I'm happy. I am peaceful in here. I am
joyful in here."

*****

World Socialist Web Site
WSWS.org

Three months after the Katrina disaster: New Orleans left for dead
By Kate Randall
14 December 2005

An editorial last Sunday in the New York Times, headlined "Death of
an American City," begins, "We are about to lose New Orleans." It
goes on to state that "the moment is upon us when a major American
city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to
visit like a museum."

Adding that this major American city "is in complete shambles"—and
that the government plan for reconstruction is "a rudderless ship"—
the Times states what is, in fact, a brutal reality.

The Times makes the correct point that without reassurances that the
failed levee system will be reconstructed to protect the city
against future deadly storms, residents and business owners will not
be willing to make a commitment to return and rebuild their city and
their lives. In fact, authorities have done nothing to provide any
such guarantee, an ominous indication that New Orleans is being
abandoned and left to die.

Some 100 days after Hurricane Katrina hit land on August 29, at
least 80 percent of New Orleans residents have not returned. The
city's infrastructure is in ruins. Only 50 percent of homes still
standing have gas service. Best estimates are that only half have
electricity. City buses are operating at 10 percent.

Before the Katrina disaster, 55,000 students attended 116 public
schools in New Orleans. Today, just one has reopened. While five
more schools are scheduled to open this month, only 4,000 students
are registered for them. When Tulane University reopens January 17
it will be with 230 fewer faculty, as the prestigious institution
copes with lost revenues and budget cuts totaling about $100 million.

Thousands of hurricane evacuees remain scattered across the US. Some
40,000 families are still living in trailers. Where trailers are
desperately needed by returning Louisiana residents trying to
rebuild their homes and their lives, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency has provided only 8,780, according to FEMA's own
figures. In another demonstration of bureaucratic ineptitude and
indifference, thousands of available trailers stored nearby have not
been delivered, the supplier awaiting payment from FEMA.

In devastated working class neighborhoods, like New Orleans' Ninth
Ward and nearby St. Bernard Parish, those who have returned face
environmental hazards from toxic waste, spotty utility coverage and
a lack of temporary housing. "Why couldn't they put some mobile
trailers right there where people could live at?" asked Upper Ninth
Ward resident Alvin Cambric, interviewed by the NewStandard.
Cambric's situation is typical. He is currently living in the front
room of his storm-ravaged house, with no electricity, surviving on
donated canned food.

Families continue to find bodies of loved ones left to rot in the
hurricane's wake.

A three-month hurricane-related deferment of mortgage payments ended
on December 1. Some homeowners, many of whom cannot move back
because their houses are severely damaged or have no electricity,
are still living in hotels. The Louisiana Office of Financial
Institutions has received hundreds of complaints that lenders are
demanding homeowners make as many as four payments at once or face
foreclosure.

A federal judge ruled Monday that FEMA must continue to pay for
temporary housing in hotels, granting a last-minute reprieve for the
estimated 41,000 evacuees still living in these accommodations in 47
states. There is no concrete plan for what will happen after the new
February 7 deadline passes.

The permanent dispersal of hundreds of thousands of New Orleans
residents across the country is not merely the result of
indifference and incompetence. It facilitates a policy of downsizing
the city and purging it, in particular, of its poorest residents.

Addressing the nation from New Orleans in mid-September, two weeks
after Katrina hit, President Bush pledged not only to rebuild the
city, but to build it "higher and better." These promises have now
been exposed for the hollow lies they always were.

As the World Socialist Web Site wrote at the time, the real content
of this public relations speech was "a series of signals to Wall
Street and corporate America that not even the destruction of a
major city will alter the very policies that produced the debacle."

While the official death toll for Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama and Georgia stands at 1,323, the real count will never be
known. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children lists
more than 1,000 children still missing in the aftermath of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a harrowing figure.

In New Orleans, only the French Quarter and the city's tourist areas
have seen the beginnings of a revival. Even if one accepts the
official unemployment figures of 15 percent in the metropolitan
area, this still means a net loss of over 220,000 jobs. Only fast
food restaurants and the hotel industry have seen any real signs of
growth.

No federally funded program is in place to provide jobs or
compensation for the hundreds of thousands who have lost their
livelihoods and the ability to provide for their families. The
jobless and displaced have been left to struggle on their own under
conditions where the government itself was culpable not only for
inadequate flood protection, but the utter failure to provide timely
rescue and relief operations. There is no discussion of a public
works program, which could create sorely needed jobs as well as
rebuild the region's ravaged infrastructure.

What is being demonstrated in the most tragic human terms is the
inability of the capitalist profit system to provide even the basic
prerequisites for civilized life in a major American city struggling
in the aftershock of a hurricane catastrophe. There will no shift in
basic social policy in response to the Katrina tragedy, even as it
has become increasingly clear that proper planning and allocation of
funds could have prevented the levees bursting in the first place.

While private contractors, not a few of them Bush cronies, are
reaping the benefits of the "rebuilding" effort—and the most
affluent neighborhoods and businesses begin to get back on their
feet—for the mass of working people whose lives have been
devastated, no significant assistance will be forthcoming. Their
neighborhoods will not be restored to anything resembling their
former condition, if they are rebuilt at all. Simply put, it is
not "cost effective"—so tough luck!

As the Times editorial points out, the cost of rebuilding the New
Orleans levees, drainage canals and other defenses against a
Category 5 hurricane would likely be in excess of $32 billion. While
is it widely accepted that without such protections a future
hurricane catastrophe is all but assured, there has been no
clamoring from any section of the political establishment—Republican
or Democrat—for this money to be allocated.

Instead, in the wake of Katrina, Congress is pushing through major
cuts in federal programs for the poor combined with new tax cuts for
the rich. Just before Thanksgiving, the House of Representatives
approved $51 billion in budget cuts that will slash funds for
programs like Medicare, food stamps and farm subsidies. Last week,
it approved $95 billion in tax cuts, including a two-year extension
of Bush's 2001 tax cut for stock dividends and capital gains—a
provision that will overwhelmingly benefit the richest 10 percent of
the population.

The price tag for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to
increase, exceeding $300 billion. A government that has dragged the
country into an illegal war—at a cost of nearly 2,150 American lives
and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives—continues to spend billions a
month to crush Iraqi resistance to the US occupation, while the
population of the Gulf Coast region is left to rot at the mercy of
the "magic" of the capitalist market.

The abandonment of New Orleans means the death of a city that has
made a unique cultural contribution to American life, particularly
in the field of music. The birthplace of jazz has from its earliest
days been a vibrant blend of cultures—French, Spanish, Caribbean,
African. But this means next to nothing to the money-mad US ruling
elite.

Some 100 years ago San Francisco was rebuilt from the rubble of the
great earthquake. Thirty-five years prior to that, Chicago was
resurrected after the catastrophic fire of 1871. But in the twenty-
first century, the decay and parasitism of American capitalism are
such that no similar effort is to be made to save New Orleans.

*****

Iran's Ahmadinejad says Holocaust a myth
Wed Dec 14, 2005
By Christian Oliver

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on
Wednesday that the Holocaust was a myth, triggering a fresh wave of
international condemnation.

Last week Ahmadinejad first aired his doubts on the veracity of the
Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed by the Nazis. His
comments drew a rebuke from the U.N. Security Council.

"They have fabricated a legend under the name 'Massacre of the
Jews', and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and
the prophets themselves," he told a crowd in the southeastern city
of Zahedan on Wednesday.

The speech was broadcast live on state television.

European countries called the remarks unacceptable and said they
could undermine plans for talks with Tehran on its controversial
nuclear program.

Israel said the comments showed Iran's "rogue regime" was acting
outside acceptable international norms.

Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who was elected
president in June, in October called Israel a "tumor" which must
be "wiped off the map", provoking a diplomatic storm and stoking up
fears about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran says its
nuclear program is only for generating electricity.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Holocaust
remarks could weigh on European Union efforts to resolve the dispute
over Iran's nuclear program.

"The recent remarks by the Iranian president ... are certainly
shocking and unacceptable," he told reporters. "I cannot deny that
they may weigh on our bilateral relations and naturally also on the
chances for the negotiations on (Iran's) so-called nuclear dossier."

Iran's hardline press largely rallied round the president's first
Holocaust remarks but the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's
leading reformist party, printed a critical statement in the liberal
Sharq daily on Wednesday.

"Provocation ... and starting this sort of talk, which benefits
neither Iranians nor oppressed Palestinians, will only increase
consensus on supporting the (Israeli) regime and will unify the
approach against Iran," it said.

SEEKING DIPLOMATIC CLOUT

Israel's foreign ministry said Ahmadinejad's comments on Wednesday
showed "a warped understanding".

"The combination of extremist ideology, a warped understanding of
reality and nuclear weapons is a combination that no-one in the
international community can accept," said spokesman Mark Regev.

European Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin also described the
remarks as "completely unacceptable".

"Such interventions will do nothing to rebuild confidence in Iran's
intentions," she said.

Commentators have said that Ahmadinejad sees himself as a popular,
pan-Islamic leader in the mold of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the
aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Tehran-based political analyst Mahmoud Alinejad said the president
perhaps feels his speeches were winning Iran diplomatic clout.

"There is a perception, based on past experience that only when Iran
threatens and pushes does the West back off," he said.

Ahmadinejad accused the Israeli government and its allies of
hypocrisy and reiterated his view that Israel should be moved
from "dear Palestine" to Europe, America or Canada.

"If your civilization consists of unjust acts, oppression and
poverty for the majority of the globe to provide your own people
welfare, then we shout at the top of our voices that we hate your
frail civilization," he added.

This was greeted by rapturous cries of "God is the Greatest" from
the crowd.

(Additional reporting Matt Spetalnick in Jerusalem, Paul Hughes in
Tehran, Sebastian Alison in Brussels and Markus Krah in Berlin)

*****

AZStarnet.com
Published: 12.13.2005
Let's give the holidays back to the pagans
My opinion Andrew M. Greeley

A long time ago, a very wise teen told me she thought it was a shame
Christmas came during the holidays. She had a point.

I've often thought that the ancient church made a mistake when it
tried to convert the Roman feast of the Saturnalia (or Lupercalia as
it was also called) into the celebration of the birthday of Jesus.
It didn't quite work.

In Britain, for example, from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"
to Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales," there is not the
slightest mention of Jesus.

When I watch folks pummel one another as they fight their way toward
Wal-Mart's bargains, I'm not sure all that much is left of Bethlehem
and the Holy Family and the angels and the shepherds and the magi —
nor of the love for one another that Christmas should sustain.

Neither do the frantic and frenetic efforts to accomplish the
required shopping and the ill tempers and sensitive egos of the
feast day itself render much honor to the Light of the World.

So maybe we should move the birthday of Jesus out of the holidays
and celebrate it with the Festival of the Magi on Jan. 6 as did the
Greeks in the church of long ago. Then we solve the problem of what
to say this time of the year. Having given the holidays back to the
pagans, we could wish one another a "Festive Lupercalia" or even
a "Fertile Saturnalia."

The tree could revert to its old pagan title of the Tannenbaum, the
sacred fir tree of the Teutonic tribes, the passionate tree that
unites heaven and Earth in love and brings down the warm spring
rains necessary for life to continue on this planet.

Crypto Christians could content themselves with the secret that the
birth of Jesus did unite Earth and heaven and that the lights
represent the Light of the World and the fruits (ornaments on the
tree) represent ourselves, the spiritual offspring of the love
between Earth and heaven.

As long as we keep that a secret, neither the secularists (who don't
like religion at this time of the year) nor the "Christians" (who
would think fertility symbols to be obscene idolatry) will mind at
all.

The current president, a Christian, could hardly mind. A born-again
Christian he might be, yet his holiday card is totally irreligious.

The Madonna Christmas stamp would have to go, however. It almost
disappeared during the Clinton administration when a bureaucrat at
the Postal Service decided it was not politically correct.

The (Jewish) mother of Jesus and her (Jewish) child survived on a
stamp only because of direct presidential intervention.

I can't be serious, you say? Well, no. Nonetheless, I find the
controversy about Christmas and the holidays unedifying and creepy.

The sneaky tricks of the politically correct to remove Christ from
the holidays are doomed to failure. There are many more evangelical
Christmas shoppers and voters than there are secularists.

Logically, Christmas is a politically incorrect festival that causes
embarrassment to those Americans who are not Christian (though not
to Islamic shoppers because for them Jesus is the greatest of the
prophets before Muhammad and his birthday deserves to be
celebrated). But Christmas is an intricate element in American
culture and cannot be extirpated.

The last such attempt was made by the New England Puritans who
forbade it by law.

School attendance on Dec. 25 was required in Massachusetts until the
1880s, and Thanksgiving was designated the late autumn festival to
replace the popish idolatry of Christmas.

The papists responded, as they usually do, by enthusiastically
celebrating both feasts.

The gift exchange at Christmas — however often blighted by human
weakness — represents the intense love that should flourish this
time of the year. The darkness-turning-into-light spirit of the
season would be best reflected by respect for the traditions of
others, majority and minority.

Those of us who know what all the symbols mean will keep our secrets
to ourselves.

The Rev. Andrew M. Greeley, a Catholic priest, teaches at the
University of Chicago and the University of Arizona. Contact him at
agreel@....

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

World Socialist Web Site
WSWS.org

WSWS : News & Analysis : North America

Thousands protest outside San Quentin
Worldwide outrage over execution of Stanley Tookie Williams
By Bill Van Auken
14 December 2005

The execution of Stanley Tookie Williams just after midnight Tuesday
morning was met with a mass demonstration outside the gates of
California's San Quentin prison and outrage and revulsion all over
the world.

What transpired in the death chamber underscored the grotesque and
barbaric essence of the state killing. Drawing blood as they
repeatedly poked needles into Williams' arm, the executioners spent
12 minutes trying to find a vein to deliver the drugs that induce
asphyxiation and cardiac arrest. Williams shook his head, grimaced
and asked angrily, "You guys doing that right?"

The entire procedure, which took over 35 minutes, clearly
constituted the "cruel and unusual punishment" that is barred by the
US Constitution.

Among the witnesses to the execution in San Quentin's converted gas
chamber were three friends of Williams, who waited until the co-
founder of Los Angeles' Crips gang was pronounced dead, and then
shouted in unison, "The state of California just killed an innocent
man."

Williams had been imprisoned for 25 years, half of his life. He had
renounced gang violence and written books and spoken out in an
attempt to dissuade youth from following the path that he had taken.
He helped negotiate a series of gang truces and his life was made
the subject of a TV movie entitled "Redemption," starring Jamie
Foxx. His anti-gang crusade led to his nomination five times for a
Nobel Peace Prize.

Williams maintained until his death that he had not committed the
1979 robbery-murders for which he was sentenced to die.

In a statement explaining his decision to refuse clemency,
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger placed emphasis on
Williams' refusal to give up his claim of innocence. "Without an
apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there
can be no redemption," the governor declared.

One of those who witnessed the execution was Barbara Becnel, who co-
authored Williams' anti-gang books. She denounced Schwarzenegger as
a "cold-blooded murderer" and said that Williams' supporters would
continue working to establish his innocence, and would fight to oust
the Republican governor from office.

Outside the prison walls, a crowd estimated at over 3,000 gathered
to protest the state killing. Demonstrators carried candles and
signs denouncing capital punishment. A small group of right-wingers,
egged on by "shock-jock" radio announcers, tried to disrupt the
protest, but were pushed out by the crowd. The growing size of the
demonstration led the police to close the exit to San Quentin from
Highway 101 as the execution time approached.

The popular anger over Schwarzenegger's decision to put Williams to
death found expression, albeit muted, in editorials published by
both of California's biggest daily newspapers that condemned the
execution and the continued practice of capital punishment in the
state. Governor Schwarzenegger, the Los Angeles Times declared,
should have granted clemency not only to Williams, but also to
Donald Beardslee, who was put to death last January with far less
public attention. "A civilized society doesn't kill for retribution
and should certainly not continue doing so when it's become clear
that the judicial system's margin of error is unacceptably high."

The newspaper pointed out that 647 more prisoners are on
California's death row, and that one of them, Clarence Ray Allen,
who is 75 years old, blind and confined to a wheelchair, is
scheduled to be executed January 17.

The San Francisco Chronicle recalled an earlier statement by
Austrian-born Schwarzenegger that he was torn by a conflict over the
death penalty between his "Austrian brain and the American brain."
Schwarzenegger noted that capital punishment was an "absolute no-no"
in his country of birth.

"Perhaps his immersion in American culture has anesthetized him to
concerns about the margin of error in this nation's justice system,"
the Chronicle stated. It suggested that Schwarzenegger could have
delayed the execution until the California Assembly considered a
bill next month that would impose a moratorium on capital
punishment. "But it's not American to wait," the editorial
concluded. "Regrettably, Schwarzenegger allowed the execution to
proceed."

The governor's statement about his "Austrian brain" is disingenuous.
The Austrian tradition that he imbibed before immigrating to America
was that of his father, a Nazi storm trooper and fervent supporter
of a regime that carried state killing to historically unprecedented
levels.

In Austria, the rest of Europe and around the globe,
Schwarzenegger's action drew bitter condemnation.

Leaders of Austria's Green Party called for the government to strip
Schwarzenegger of his Austrian citizenship. "Whoever, out of
political calculation, allows the death of a person rehabilitated in
such an exemplary manner has rejected the basic values of Austrian
society," said the party's leader, Peter Pilz.

In Graz, the town where Schwarzenegger was born, there were calls
for removing the California governor's name from the local stadium
and renaming it the "Stanley Tookie Williams Stadium."

In France, the leader of the Socialist Party, Julien Dray, denounced
the execution, declaring that Schwarzenegger, a former body-builder,
had "a lot of muscle, but apparently not much heart."

In Italy, the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, declared it a "sad
day" and said the city would pay homage to Williams the next time a
victory is registered in the fight against the death penalty. Since
1999, the city has lit up the Coliseum, the ancient site of
executions and deadly gladiator spectacles, every time a government
commutes a death sentence or abolishes capital punishment. "I hope
there will be such an occasion soon," Veltroni said. "When it
happens, we will do it with a special thought for Tookie."

On the eve of the execution, as the American courts and
Schwarzenegger denied all of Williams' appeals, the European
Parliament in Strasbourg condemned the US as the only "democratic"
state that makes "widespread use" of the death penalty. The
parliament called on the US and 75 other countries that still have
capital punishment to end the practice.

"Most unfortunately, in the US, the 1,000th execution was carried
out," said Joseph Borrell, the president of the parliament. "That it
almost coincided with Human Rights day makes this fact particularly
poignant."

The Times of India published an editorial Tuesday entitled "Hang the
Noose," calling attention to the more than 1,000 Americans who have
been put to death since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976
and pointing out that during that same period it has been
established that 122 death row prisoners were falsely convicted.

In a hypocritical and unusually lengthy statement issued 12 hours
before Williams was put to death, Governor Schwarzenegger dismissed
claims that Williams had changed his life in prison as "hollow,"
while arguing that continued gang violence in Los Angeles proved
that Williams' crusade against gangs did not bear consideration.

California political insiders, however, acknowledged that the
decision was based on cynical calculations concerning the governor's
electoral future. "The only people who would have been happy with
clemency were people who likely wouldn't support him anyway," said
Dan Schnur, a long-time Republican political strategist. In the wake
of his recent special election defeat and after appointing Democrat
Susan Kennedy as his chief of staff two weeks ago, the governor saw
putting Williams to death as an easy means of solidifying support
among his party's right-wing base.

This is hardly an innovation on his part. No California governor has
granted a condemned prisoner a reprieve since Ronald Reagan spared a
mentally retarded man in 1967. Williams is the twelfth person put to
death by the state since it reinstated capital punishment in 1977.
He is the third death row inmate denied clemency by Schwarzenegger.

One section of the governor's five-page explanation of his decision
has drawn particular notice. He cited the dedication in Williams'
book Life in Prison, which, Schwarzenegger said, "casts significant
doubt on his personal redemption."

The dedication was to "Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Malcolm X,
Assata Shakur, Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, Ramona Africa, John Africa,
Leonard Peltier, Dhoruba Al-Mujahid, George Jackson, Mumia Abu-Jamal
and countless other men, women and youths who have had to endure the
hellish oppression of living behind bars."

Schwarzenegger declared that most of these individuals "have violent
pasts and some have been convicted of committing heinous murders,
including the killing of law enforcement."

In point of fact, two of them—Geronimo Pratt and Dhoruba Al-Mujahid—
were freed after decades in prison after it was established that
they were framed up by police because of their membership in the
Black Panther Party. Most of the others have consistently proclaimed
their innocence, winning wide support based upon evidence of police
and prosecutorial misconduct. As for Mandela, who was imprisoned for
27 years by the apartheid regime of South Africa before becoming the
country's first black president, Schwarzenegger felt no need to make
any distinction between him and his description of "violent"
and "heinous" criminals.

The most curious section of the statement, however, dealt with
George Jackson, whose inclusion in the dedication, the governor
said, "defies reason and is a significant indicator that Williams is
not reformed and that he still sees violence and lawlessness as a
legitimate means to address societal problems."

A footnote attached to Schwarzenegger's statement asserts the
following: "Jackson was charged with the murder of a San Quentin
correctional officer. In 1970, when Jackson was out to court in
Marin County on the murder case, his brother stormed the courtroom
with a machine gun, and along with Jackson and two other inmates,
took a judge, the prosecutor and three others hostage in an escape
attempt. The prosecutor was paralyzed from a police bullet, and the
judge was killed by a close-range blast to his head when the shotgun
taped to his throat was fired by one of Jackson's accomplices."

This account is a complete fabrication and a gross distortion of
what happened to George Jackson, who became radicalized in prison in
the 1960s. He had been convicted for driving a getaway car in a
theft that netted $71 from a gas station and was sentenced to one
year-to-life. He spoke out against the brutal conditions inside
California's jails and developed a large following, both inside and
outside the prison system.

While in Soledad Prison, he joined the Black Panther Party and wrote
two books, Blood in My Eye and Soledad Brother, both of which became
bestsellers. Prison officials described him as a "dangerous
freewheeling convict leader who must be isolated because of his
impact on the prison population."

He was not charged with the murder of a San Quentin prison guard.
Rather he, together with two other inmates, was charged with the
death of a guard at Soledad following the killing of three black
prisoners by correction officers. Jackson and the two other inmates
became known as the Soledad Brothers and was the subject of a broad
defense campaign headed by Angela Davis, then a professor at the
University of California, who was witch-hunted by Governor Ronald
Reagan for her membership in the Communist Party.

Contrary to Schwarzenegger's statement, George Jackson was not even
in the Marin County court on the day of the shootout, August, 7,
1970, when an unrelated case involving a San Quentin inmate was
being heard. Jackson's brother, Jonathan, did not "storm" the
courtroom with a machine gun, but walked in with a bag carrying
pistols and a sawed-off shotgun. He armed the inmate on trial and
two others called as witnesses and took the judge, prosecutor and
three jurors hostage in a bid to free his brother.

They loaded the hostages into a county van and left the courthouse,
only to be cut down by a hail of gunfire from cops and San Quentin
guards. Jonathan Jackson, Judge Haley and two of the inmates died.
Only one, Ruchell Magee, survived and remains in prison to this day.

George Jackson was shot and killed by prison guards in the yard at
San Quentin on August 21, 1971, three days before he was to go on
trial for the killing of the Soledad guard. Prison officials claimed
that he was involved in an escape attempt and had obtained a gun
from his attorney, Stephen Bingham. Other prisoners, however, said
that there was no gun or escape attempt. The killing of Jackson
sparked prison revolts in California and contributed to the uprising
at Attica prison in New York a few weeks later.

Bingham was acquitted in 1984 of charges related to Jackson's
alleged escape attempt.

Also acquitted in the trial over the Soledad Prison guard's death
were the two surviving Soledad Brothers—Fleeta Drumgo and John
Clutchette—raising the obvious implication that Jackson was
responsible for no crime outside of being poor, having participated
in a bungled robbery of $71 and then becoming a political activist.

The gross errors in Schwarzenegger's statement give the lie to his
claim to have carefully considered the facts in Williams' case. More
fundamentally, they underscore the indifference to human life
inherent in the entire legal process in capital punishment cases. It
is not the facts that matter, but rather cynical political appeals
to the basest and most reactionary political instincts.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The 25 Dumbest Quotes of 2005
From Daniel Kurtzman,Your Guide to Political Humor.
PoliticalHumor.About.com

25 Mind-Numbingly Stupid Quotes by Various Idiots

25) "I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you
can't play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it's called." --
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, urging President Bush to make
public Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers's White House records,
Oct. 5, 2005 (Source) (Read more stupid Dean quotes)

24) "If I would do another 'Terminator' movie I would have
Terminator travel back in time and tell Arnold not to have a special
election." --California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, after all four
of his ballot initiatives were roundly defeated in the special
election he called, Nov. 10, 2005 (Source) (Read more stupid
Schwarzenegger quotes)

23) "Get some devastation in the back." --Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist, to a staff photographer as he posed for a photo op while
visiting tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka, Jan. 6, 2005 (Source)

22) "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work." --President
Bush, after being thwarted by locked doors when he tried to exit a
news conference in Beijing in the face of hostile questioning from
reporters, Nov. 20, 2005 (Source) (Read more about Bush's door
gaffe)

21) "I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my
business to do intelligent work." --Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, asked to estimate the number of Iraqi insurgents while
testifying before Congress, Feb. 16, 2005 (Source) (Read more
Rumsfeldisms)

20) "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the
insurgency." --Vice President Dick Cheney, on the Iraq insurgency,
June 20, 2005 (Source) (Read more stupid Cheney quotes

19) "You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids
at child care or wherever and get home and still manage to sandwich
in an eight-hour vote? Well Republicans, I guess can do that.
Because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their
lives." --Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, speaking at the
Campaign for America's Future annual gathering, June 3, 2005 (Source)

18) "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime,
you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every
black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." --
Bill Bennett, former Education Secretary and author of "The Book of
Virtues," Sept. 28, 2005 (Source)

17) "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination,
but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we
really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than
starting a war." --Pat Robertson, calling for the assassination of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Aug. 22, 2005 (Source) (Read more
stupid Pat Robertson Quotes)

16) "If Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to
do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in
America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow
up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.'" –FOX News Channel's Bill O'Reilly,
after San Francisco voted to ban military recruiters from city
schools, Nov. 8, 2005 (Source) (Read more stupid Bill O'Reilly
quotes)

15) "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I
spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office. She
certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." --Sen. Bill Frist,
diagnosing Terri Schiavo's condition during a speech on the Senate
floor, March 17, 2005 [The autopsy later revealed she was blind.]
(Source)

14) "You simply get chills every time you see these poor
individuals...many of these people, almost all of them that we see
are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots
of questions for people who are watching this story unfold." --CNN's
Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans' hurricane evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005
(Source)

13) "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I
am a fashion god… Anything specific I need to do or tweak? Do you
know of anyone who dog-sits? … Can I quit now? Can I come home? …
I'm trapped now, please rescue me." --Ex-FEMA Director Michael
Brown, in various emails to colleagues and friends in the immediate
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (Source) (Read more about Brownie's
idiotic emails)

12) "If one person criticizes [the local authorities' relief
efforts] or says one more thing, including the president of the
United States, he will hear from me. One more word about it after
this show airs, and I…I might likely have to punch him, literally." -
-Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), "This Week with George Stephanopoulous,"
Sept. 4, 2005 (Source)

11) "I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?" --
President Bush, in a note to to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
during a U.N. Security Council meeting, September 14, 2005 (Source)
(Read more about Bush's potty break)

10) "You are the best governor ever." --Supreme Court nominee
Harriet Miers, writing to Texas Gov. George Bush in 1997 on his 51st
birthday, adding that she found him "cool" and that he and his wife,
Laura, were "the greatest" and telling him: "Keep up the great work.
Texas is blessed." (Source)

9) "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over
and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of
catapult the propaganda." --George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24,
2005 (Source (Listen to audio clip)

8) "Well, I think that's bullsh*t and I hate that. Just let it go." -
-Commentator Bob Novak to James Carville, before storming off the
set at CNN, Aug. 4, 2005 (Source) (Read more about Novak's freakout)

7) "I'm proud of George. He's learned a lot about ranching since
that first year when he tried to milk the horse. What's worse, it
was a male horse." --First Lady Laura Bush, at the White House
Correspondents dinner, April 30, 2005 (Source) (Read more of Laura
Bush's comedy routine)

6) "You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that
is fantastic that you're doing that." --President Bush, to a
divorced mother of three in Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005 (Source)
(Listen to audio clip)

5) "Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans,
virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going
relatively well." --FEMA Director Michael Brown, Sept. 1, 2005
(Source)

4) "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." --President Bush, to
FEMA director Michael Brown, while touring hurricane-ravaged
Mississippi, Sept. 2, 2005 (Source) (Listen to audio clip)

3) "What didn't go right?" --President Bush, as quoted by House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, after she urged him to fire FEMA
Director Michael Brown "because of all that went wrong, of all that
didn't go right" in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, Sept. 6,
2005 (Source)

2) "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?" --House
Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX), to three young hurricane evacuees
from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 9, 2005 (Source)

1) "What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to
stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And
so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were
underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well
for them." --Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane
evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005 (Source)

Heard another dumb quote? Email it to politicalhumor.guide@...

*****

Strange Celeb Happenings in 2005
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer
Mon Dec 19, 2005

Thank goodness we remembered to TiVo 2005. If it wasn't stored in
our mental hard drive, we wouldn't have believed what went on in La-
La land this year.

To think we thought Brad and Jen were the ideal couple! That Tom
Cruise was normal! That Nick and Jessica and were in it for love —
not publicity! And that Michael Jackson might have been guilty!

This year opened our eyes all right — although we probably wished we
had kept them shut:

BRAD THE CAD: Maybe he thought they were on a break. That's the only
good explanation Brad Pitt could have for breaking poor Jennifer
Aniston's heart by hooking up with his "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" vixen,
Angelina Jolie. While Brad's perfect rep was blemished by the
affair, it was hard to hate on Angelina — her adopting half the
third world and all. Why didn't Elizabeth Taylor think of this
tactic when she stole Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds?

NOW ON DVD: Just when they were getting to be one of Hollywood's
veteran couples with three years' tenure, Jessica Simpson and Nick
Lachey called it quits — appropriately enough, a few hours before
Turkey day. But "Newlyweds" was so over anyway. "Nick and Jessica:
Divorce Court" will be much more fun (especially when Jessica's
lawyer needs to explain that annoying legal term: A-L-I-M-O-N-Y).

CRUISE WOOS KATIE: Even the "mid-life crisis" excuse can't explain
Cruise's eye-popping behavior: his couch-jumping "Oprah" antics; the
proclamation of love for cutie Katie Holmes and ensuing engagement
after two minutes of dating; their suck-face appearances on red
carpets; his tangling with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show ... next
time, instead of jumping on a couch, Cruise should consider laying
on one.

FEUD OF THE YEAR, PART I: Hell hath no fury like a postpartum mom
questioned about her right to self-medicate. And Cruise (already on
shaky ground after the whole couch thing) drew Brooke Shields' ire
when he chastised her for taking pills to deal with debilitating
depression following the birth of her first child. For the pregnant
Holmes' sake, let's hope her delirium over Cruise is strong enough
to last through shrieking cries, 2 a.m. feedings, diaper emergencies
and the terrible twos.

FEUD OF THE YEAR, PART II: Though the rap world has plenty of
felons, apparently G-Unit's clique is only big enough for one bullet-
scarred gangsta rapper: 50 Cent knocked the Game from his crew after
Game had the audacity to express an opinion other than 50's.
Scuffles and gunshots followed before the two publicly made up.
Unfortunately for Game, beef only boosts 50's career — not the guy's
on the other end.

THEY LIKED MIKE: For those who doubt the magic of Michael Jackson:
over the course of his child molestation trial he showed up to court
in pajamas, got caught with a mountain of porn, his DEFENSE
witnesses admitted to childhood sleepovers with an adult Jackson —
and he was still acquitted. The outcome might have been drastically
different had he had shown up to court in tighty-whiteys.

GROOVE OVER: Oh no you didn't! "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"
author Terry McMillan almost snapped her neck while unleashing a
head-shaking, eye-rolling fury after finding out the boy-toy husband
that she met on a Jamaican vacation was secretly gay. She took him
to court to make sure the pre-nup was enforced. Let's hope she
remembers all this when she vacations on Fire Island next year.

YO, SON, PEEP THE JAIL REMIX: Lil' Kim, Beanie Sigel and Cassidy
were among the high-profile rappers who were behind bars as their
albums were released. Don't they know that you can't do Patron-and-
Porsche videos from a cellblock?

PARTY CRASHER OF THE YEAR: Suge Knight wasn't on the invite list for
Kanye West's pre-MTV Awards bash, and after what happened, we know
why: Knight cleared the party when a gunshot pierced his leg (some
say it was from his own weapon). Come to think of it, wasn't Suge
Knight at last year's chair-throwing Vibe awards? And wasn't he in
the same car when Tupac was killed? Are we sure he wasn't at the
grassy knoll in Dallas?

CODEPENDENCY: Now we know why Nick and Jessica didn't last — they
were sober. The reality show "Being Bobby Brown" gave us a
distasteful yet riveting look at Brown's 13-year marriage to Whitney
Houston. "Crack is Wack" Whitney looked more jittery than M.J. on
trial, and acted so bizarre we actually had sympathy for Brown for
putting up with her.

FALSEST RUMOR OF THE YEAR: Just when we were anxiously awaiting that
tender mother-daughter reunion on "Oprah," Janet Jackson shot down a
claim that she secretly had a daughter some 20 years ago.

TRUEST RUMOR OF THE YEAR: Given that most top models are basically
required to have a gaunt frame and glazed eyes, maybe Kate Moss was
just getting ready for work when she was caught snorting coke by a
British tabloid.

THIS VIDEO IS NOT EVIDENCE: Since it seems he'll never go to trial
on those pesky child porn charges, R. Kelly had plenty of time to
craft the year's wackiest, best video: "Trapped in the Closet, Parts
1-5" (which soon became Parts 6-12, with another 10 apparently on
the way). In the soap-opera of a song, we're treated to cheating
spouses, down-low husbands, an ex-con named 'Twon and a well-endowed
midget. Even "Laguna Beach" couldn't compete with all that action.

BOYS TO MEN: Britney Spears grew up this year with the birth of her
son, Sean. Now if only her hubby would do the same — Kevin Federline
is still smoking around poor Brit. As far as that fledgling rap
career, given the frightful track leaked on the Internet, K-Fed
shouldn't give up his day job. Wait — he doesn't have one.

*****

Top 10 Celebrity Scandals of '05
ETOnline.com

MICHAEL JACKSON: THE VERDICT - After a long trial that featured the
gloved one dancing on top of his SUV for his fans, then subsequently
showing up to court in his pajamas after experiencing stress-related
maladies, the world watched with baited breath in June as the
verdict was read in the Jackson child molestation trial. After seven
days of deliberations, the singer was found not guilty by the jury
on all ten counts against him, including seven counts of lewd and
lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 and two counts of
administering an intoxicating agent to a child to commit the alleged
molestation. Upon the announcement of the verdict, Jackson's ex-
wife, DEBBIE ROWE, released a statement to ET saying, "I would never
have married a pedophile and the system works!" Rowe is currently
undergoing a custody battle with Jackson for the two children she
had while they were married.

ROBERT BLAKE'S MURDER CASE ENDS - Much like the O.J. SIMPSON trial
redux, ROBERT BLAKE's courtroom odyssey took many by surprise when
he was found not guilty of murdering his wife, BONNIE LEE BAKLEY, in
March. In 2001, Bakley was shot and killed while she waited in
Blake's car near an L.A. restaurant where they had just dined.
Prosecutors in the criminal trial alleged that Blake "whacked"
Bakley because she tricked him into marriage and was fighting for
custody of their infant daughter, ROSIE. In November, a civil trial
found the "Baretta" star to be liable in the death of Bakley, and he
was ordered to pay $30 million in damages to her four children. The
72-year-old actor did not comment on the verdict.

MARTHA'S PRISON PONCHO - For five months beginning in October 2004,
the multi-hyphenate entrepreneur was imprisoned at the Alderson
prison for women in West Virginia, aka "Camp Cupcake," for lying to
investigators about her sale of ImClone stock. There, she scrubbed
floors, raked leaves, cleaned offices and made the most of her
situation, as only Martha can do, by concocting microwave recipes,
gardening, making crafts, doing yoga and exercising. In March,
Martha emerged from incarceration, showing off an attractive poncho
that a fellow Alderson prison inmate crocheted for her, and rich
with deals including two new TV shows -- the daytime "Martha"
and "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." Under house arrest at her
Connecticut home for another five months, Martha was forced to wear
her infamous security ankle bracelet for an extra three weeks 'til
the end of August after she violated the terms of her house arrest.

PAULA ABDUL'S 'IDOL' CONTROVERSY - In August, "American Idol" judge
Paula Abdul was vindicated after a three-month investigation was
launched to determine the validity of charges made by a
former "Idol" contestant, COREY CLARK, that Abdul and he had an
affair, affecting the course of the competition. FremantleMedia,
N.A., Inc., Fox Broadcasting Company and 19 Entertainment released a
statement saying, "We have determined based on the findings of this
thorough and detailed inquiry, that there is insufficient evidence
that the communications between Corey Clark and Ms. Abdul in any way
aided his performance. Further, we are confident that none of these
communications had any impact on the competition." Abdul also issued
a statement, saying, "I'm grateful this ordeal is over, and I'm so
looking forward to getting back to the job I love. Once again, I
thank my fans from throughout the world for their undying love and
support."

RUSSEL CROWE'S PHONE TOSS - While promoting 'Cinderella Man' in New
York in June, Crowe became frustrated with a malfunctioning phone in
his hotel room while trying to call his wife overseas. When
concierge NESTOR ESTRADA allegedly did not remedy the situation, an
altercation ensued and Crowe threw the phone, reportedly hitting
Estrada in the face. Crowe was arrested by New York's finest, and
later publicly apologized to Estrada on the "Late Show with David
Letterman," saying it was "possibly the most shameful situation that
I've ever gotten myself in my life." In November, the Oscar winner
braved the paparazzi at a Manhattan court and pleaded guilty to
third-degree assault -- a misdemeanor -- after admitting he threw
the phone. The judge sentenced Crowe to a conditional discharge,
meaning he cannot get arrested for one year, and the actor was also
ordered to pay a small court surcharge.

LINDSAY LOHAN'S DRIVING RECORD - Those race-car driving lessons for
her summer flick, 'Herbie: Fully Loaded,' must have helped her
behind the wheel, but the teen queen's driving record looks more
like a smash-up derby than the Indy 500. The paparazzi seem to be
the blame for Lindsay's spotty record, however, as the 19-year-old
starlet spent a good amount of time trying to flee photographers. In
June, a paparazzo reportedly intentionally struck her Mercedes in
L.A. in pursuit of a photo, and was arrested on assault charges. In
October Lindsay collided with another van in front of the trendy Ivy
restaurant in Beverly Hills -- in front of the paparazzi and an ET
producer -- forcing her airbags to deploy. The man driving the van
was taken to a hospital and Lindsay and her female passenger were
also taken away in an ambulance for treatment of minor injuries.
Back in August 2004, Lindsay was also involved in an alleged head-on
collision in Studio City.

KATE MOSS COCAINE SCANDAL - Supermodel Moss was dropped by various
companies in September after a newspaper published stills from a
video allegedly showing her snorting cocaine at a recording studio.
The 31-year-old British beauty released a statement of apology
saying, "I take full responsibility for my actions ... I also accept
that there are various personal issues that I need to address and
have started taking the difficult, yet necessary, steps to resolve
them. I want to apologize to all of the people I have let down
because of my behavior which has reflected badly on my family,
friends, co-workers, business associates and others." In late
October, Moss checked out of rehab and only weeks later completed
her first modeling assignment since the scandal for Italian designer
ROBERTO CAVALLI. Said Cavalli, "Kate looks absolutely fantastic. She
is back working and doing what she does best and, like usual, she
was really professional."

NANNYGATE: SIENNA & JUDE - At the end of his biggest year
professionally, capped with an engagement to his beautiful 'Alfie'
co-star, actor JUDE LAW's world crumbled when his children's nanny,
DAISY WRIGHT, tattled to a London paper about their alleged affair.
In a statement, Jude said, "Following the reports in today's papers,
I just want to say I am deeply ashamed and upset that I've hurt
Sienna and the people most close to us. I want to publicly apologize
to Sienna and our respective families for the pain that I have
caused. There is no defense for my actions which I sincerely
regret." Sienna reportedly broke off their engagement and stopped
wearing her ring, but Jude seemed adamant on working out their
problems and in November accompanied Sienna to the Hollywood
premiere of 'Casanova,' where she told ET that things between them
were "incredibly close; we're working things out, so it's good."

PARIS AND PARIS SPLIT - On October 1, ET confirmed that "It" girl
and socialite PARIS HILTON called it quits with her Greek shipping
heir PARIS LATSIS after a five-month engagement, despite that
headline-making, reported $5 million engagement ring. Hilton was
said to be the one to end the relationship, telling Us Weekly, "I'm
sad to announce that I've called off my engagement. Over the last
couple months I've realized that this is the right decision for me.
We hope to remain the best of friends and I'll always love him."
Latsis responded in a statement, "I don't know what the future may
hold, but I respect her decision and appreciate the very kind and
generous manner in which she is handling her very difficult
decision. This was the best experience of my life and I will always
be grateful for it." KATHY HILTON cleared up the details exclusively
for ET, explaining that her daughter really loves Latsis, but
because of her daughter's very busy career, it would only be fitting
that her spouse also have a job and career too. Furthermore, she
said that Paris takes marriage very seriously and does not want to
make a mistake, citing Paris' grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary
as an example to emulate.

BRAD & JEN: THE SPLIT & THE AFTERMATH - It was the split that
shocked Hollywood and the world. In January, Tinseltown's golden
couple confirmed speculation that they were going their separate
ways with a statement: "We would like to announce that after seven
years together we have decided to formally separate ... for those
who follow these sorts of things, we would like to explain that our
separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by
the tabloid media. This decision is the result of much thoughtful
consideration. We happily remain committed and caring friends with
great love and admiration for one another. We ask in advance for
your kindness and sensitivity in the coming months." After the
split, Brad was photographed with his 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' co-star,
ANGELINA JOLIE, in various locations ranging from Malibu to Africa
with Angelina's two children, MADDOX and ZAHARA, in tow. Meanwhile,
Jen dodged persistent tabloid rumors that she was dating VINCE
VAUGHN, her co-star in the upcoming comedy 'The Break Up,' and then
in late November, Brad and Angelina stepped out together at The
Muhammad Ali Center's Grand Opening Gala in Louisville, KY, marking
the couple's first official public outing. Brad and Jen's divorce
became effective in October.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante Dies in Prison
By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer
12-19-2005

Mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, the powerful Mafioso who
avoided jail for decades by wandering the streets in a ratty
bathrobe and slippers, feigning mental illness, died Monday in
prison. He was 77.

The head of the Genovese crime family, who had suffered from heart
disease, died at the federal prison in Springfield, Mo., said prison
spokesman Al Quintero. It was the same place where rival mob boss
John Gotti died of cancer in 2002 at age 61.

Gigante's death also was confirmed by Christine Monaco, a
spokeswoman for the FBI, the organization that worked for years to
put him behind bars.

Dubbed the "Oddfather" for his bizarre behavior, Gigante had scored
a lengthy string of victories over prosecutors, but it ended with a
July 1997 racketeering conviction. He was sentenced to 12 years in
prison.

After a quarter-century of public craziness, he finally admitted his
insanity ruse at an April 2003 federal hearing in which he calmly
pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. That brought him another
three-year sentence.

At that hearing, he chatted amiably with his son, shook hands with
defense lawyers and said "God bless you" to U.S. District Judge I.
Leo Glasser.

For the man described by The New York Times Magazine as "the last
great Mafioso of the century," his admission was the final act in a
50-year career linking the era of old-time gangsters and the modern-
day Mafia of Gotti.

At the height of his power, Gigante's empire stretched from Little
Italy to the docks of Miami. Mob experts called him a traditional
boss who settled issues by whatever means — verbal or violent — were
required.

Denying he was a gangster, Gigante would wander the streets of the
Greenwich Village neighborhood in nightclothes, muttering
incoherently. Relatives, including a brother was who a Roman
Catholic priest, insisted Gigante suffered from paranoid
schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Authorities charged it was a brazen act to avoid the law — although
it wasn't until 1997 that a jury agreed. The trial was a spectacle,
with Gigante in a wheelchair, mumbling silently, seemingly oblivious
to the proceedings. His lawyers claimed they could not communicate
with him in any "meaningful way."

None of that swayed jurors, who convicted Gigante of racketeering,
extortion and plotting the murder — never carried out — of ex-mob
associate Peter Savino.

Born in the Bronx in 1928, one of five sons of Italian immigrant
parents, Gigante became a small-time boxer and drifted into the
crime family founded in 1931 by legendary gangster Charles "Lucky"
Luciano.

In 1957, Gigante was the hitman in a botched attempt to assassinate
then-boss Frank Costello. After refusing to name his attacker in
court, the shaken Costello retired, making Gigante's patron, Vito
Genovese, kingpin of the family that still bears his name.

Over time, Gigante, a stocky figure with a pugilist's face and 1940s
pompadour, proved better at beating the law than Gotti, the so-
called "Teflon Don" who won two acquittals before tapes and
turncoats sent him to prison for life.

Before 1997, Gigante had served only a five-year heroin rap in 1959.

*****

Socialist Candidate Leads Bolivia Voting
By FIONA SMITH, Associated Press Writer
12-18-2005

Bolivia's Socialist presidential candidate Evo Morales, who has
promised to become Washington's "nightmare," held an unexpectedly
strong lead over his conservative rival in Sunday's election,
according to two independent exit polls.

The wide margin means Morales, a coca farmer who has said he will
end a U.S.-backed anti-drug campaign aimed at eradicating the crop
used to make cocaine, will likely be declared president in January.

"If (the U.S.) wants relations, welcome," Morales said after voting,
holding a news conference where piles of coca leaves were spread
atop a Bolivian flag. "But no to a relationship of submission."

Morales had 45 percent of the vote and former President Jorge
Quiroga had 33 percent in an Equipso Mori poll. A second poll by the
private Ipsos Captura organization showed Morales with a slightly
narrower lead of 44.5 percent to 34 percent for Quiroga. Minor
candidates were getting the rest.

If Morales fails to win more than 50 percent of the popular vote,
Bolivia's newly elected congress must decide the presidency — a
parliamentary process that would involve some coalition building and
likely be a moderating influence on Morales.

Officials reported that voting went peacefully as the polls closed.
Official returns were expected to arrive hours later.

There were some accusations of voters being fraudulently turned away
at polls in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, but national electoral court
spokesman Salvador Romero said there had been no confirmed
irregularities, and that the people turned away apparently had not
voted in last year's municipal elections, as required by law.

The winner starts a five-year term on Jan. 22 as Bolivia's fourth
president since August 2002.

Morales, 46, has promised to reverse years of sometimes violent U.S.-
backed efforts to eradicate coca fields. Bolivia is the world's
third-largest grower of coca, a plant that has traditional, legal
uses among the country's Indians but also is used to make cocaine.

At his news conference, Morales said he wanted "bilateral relations
so we can look for solutions and accords."

The Aymara Indian street activist also referred to his status as a
symbol for many of Bolivia's long-downtrodden Indians, a majority in
this country of 8.5 million people.

"I am the candidate of those despised in Bolivian history, the
candidate of the most disdained, discriminated against," he said
after working through a crowd of admirers — some of whom rushed
forward to kiss him — before voting at a decrepit basketball court
in the village school.

He compared the struggle of his Movement Toward Socialism party to
those of Indian leaders who fought Spanish conquerers, as well as to
the independence hero Simon Bolivar and socialist icon Che Guevara.

Voting later in the capital of La Paz, Quiroga, 45, said he would
respect the decision of lawmakers and hoped that the congressional
process would not lead to the sort of crippling street protests
Morales had led in the past.

Without mentioning Morales by name, Quiroga added: "What one has to
avoid is that one of the sides tries to air its differences through
aggression, through sticks and stones. That is not the way we do
things. We advance with proposals, with ideas and programs."

Quiroga served as president from 2001 to 2002 after then-President
Hugo Banzer fell ill. He has said he would sell Bolivia's vast
natural gas reserves at higher prices and improve infrastructure,
education and health care.

In the event of a second round, the newly elected congress will
choose the president between the top two vote-getters in mid-January.

In the five presidential elections since 1985, congress has passed
over the first place candidate twice. Parties usually bargain to get
the votes needed to win — a factor that could make a kingmaker of
the centrist third-place candidate, Samuel Doria Medina. He has said
he would support the first-place candidate if he wins by at least 5
percentage points.

Hundreds of international monitors, including a group from the
Organization of American States, made it one of the mostly closely
watched elections in the country's history, and Sunday's voting was
conducted under heavy police guard.

Bolivians also were deciding their vice president, all 27 Senate
seats, 130 House seats and all nine governorships.

Many Indians blame the country's free-market policies for enriching
white elite at the expense of the majority poor.

Morales counts Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez among
his friends, along with leftists in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay
who have gained power at the ballot box this decade.

The winner will succeed caretaker President Eduardo Rodriguez, a
Supreme Court justice appointed by Congress on June 8, two days
after street protests ended the 18-month administration of Carlos
Mesa.
___
Associated Press Writer Bill Cormier in La Paz contributed to this
report.

*****

Iran's President Bans Western Music
By NASSER KARIMI
Dec 19, 2005

- Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned Western music
from Iran's radio and TV stations, reviving one of the harshest
cultural decrees from the early days of 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Songs such as George Michael's "Careless Whisper," Eric
Clapton's "Rush" and the Eagles' "Hotel California" have regularly
accompanied Iranian broadcasts, as do tunes by saxophonist Kenny G.

But the official IRAN Persian daily reported Monday that
Ahmadinejad, as head of Iran's Supreme Cultural Revolutionary
Council, ordered the enactment of an October ruling by the council
to ban Western music.

"Blocking indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of
Iran Broadcasting is required," according to a statement on the
council's official Web site.

Ahmadinejad's order means the IRIB must execute the decree and
prepare a report on its implementation within six months, according
to the newspaper.

"This is terrible," said Iranian guitarist Babak Riahipour, whose
music was played occasionally on state radio and TV. "The decision
shows a lack of knowledge and experience."

Music was outlawed as un-Islamic by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini soon
after the revolution. But as the fervor of the revolution started to
fade, light classical music was allowed on radio and television.
Some public concerts reappeared in the late 1980s.

Western music, films and clothing are widely available in Iran, and
hip-hop can be heard on Tehran's streets, blaring from car speakers
or from music shops. Bootleg videos and DVDs of films banned by the
state are widely available in the black market.

Following eight years of reformist-led rule in Iran, Ahmadinejad won
office in August on a platform of reverting to ultraconservative
principles promoted by the revolution.

Since then, Ahmadinejad has jettisoned Iran's moderation in foreign
policy and pursued a purge in the government, replacing pragmatic
veterans with former military commanders and inexperienced religious
hard-liners.

He also has issued stinging criticisms of Israel, called for the
Jewish state to be "wiped off the map" and described the Nazi
Holocaust as a "myth."

International concerns are high over Iran's nuclear program, with
the United States accusing Tehran of pursuing an atomic weapons
program. Iran denies the claims.

During his presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad also promised to
confront what he called the Western cultural invasion and promote
Islamic values.

The latest media ban also includes censorship of content of films.

"Supervision of content from films, TV series and their voice-overs
is emphasized in order to support spiritual cinema and to eliminate
trite and violence," the council said in a statement on its Web site
explaining its October ruling.

The council has also issued a ban on foreign movies that
promote "arrogant powers," an apparent reference to the United
States.

*****

Have yourself a merry I.F. Stone Day
By Mickey Z.
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Dec 19, 2005

"Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be
believed." --I.F. Stone

December 24 is I.F. Stone's birthday (he would have been 98). His
journalistic example is about as good a reason as any to celebrate.

Born Isidor Feinstein, the incomparable I.F. Stone served as an
editor at The Nation and worked for several other papers before
founding his own journal in 1953 . . . with $3,000 borrowed from a
friend and a 5,300-name subscription list inherited from a handful
of defunct lefty publications. I.F. Stone's Weekly reached a
circulation of 70,000 by the 1960s and Stone was widely praised --
even by his enemies -- for his investigative skills and his ability
to see through the hype.

Victor Navasky of The Nation wrote that "Izzy" was "right about
McCarthyism, right about the war in Vietnam (he was one of the first
to raise questions about the authenticity of the Gulf of Tonkin
incident), right about the Democrats' repeated failure to live up to
their own principles, right about what he called, long before the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, the 'Pax Americana.'"

"I. F. Stone was the modern Tom Paine -- as independent and
incorruptible as they come," said Ralph Nader. "Notwithstanding poor
eyesight and bad ears, he managed to see more and hear more than
other journalists because he was curious and fresh with the capacity
for both discovery and outrage every new day."

Without high-placed sources or invitations to the big press
conferences, Stone scooped the big name reporters time and time
again. He scoured public documents, studied the transcripts of
congressional committee hearings, and searched the large newspapers
for inspiration. Stone once told David Halberstam that the
Washington Post was an exciting paper to read, "because you never
know on what page you would find a page-one story."

"What Stone never talked about was the effect he had on many
reporters who, often without attribution, 'lunched off' his scoops,"
said Nader. "He taught them courage and insistence without ever
meeting them . . . while others in his profession cowered, he stood
tall to challenge the abusers of power no matter where they came
from -- right, middle or left."

In an attempt to explain why he risked his career and ventured out
on his own to create the Weekly, Stone explained: "To give a little
comfort to the oppressed, to write the truth exactly as I saw it, to
make no compromises other than those of quality imposed by [my] own
inadequacies, to be free to follow no master other than my own
compulsions, to live up to my idealized image of what a true
newspaperman should be, and still be able to make a living for my
family--what more could a man ask?"

Excerpted from "50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know:
Reclaiming American Patriotism" (Disinformation Books) by Mickey Z.
For more info, please visit: http://www.mickeyz.net. Mickey Z. is
the author of five books, most recently "50 American Revolutions
You're Not Supposed to Know: Reclaiming American Patriotism"
(Disinformation Books).

*****

Beck, the Scientologist
By Jesse Jarnow, PopMatters
Posted on December 19, 2005

The relentlessly chirpy Scientologist who administers my Mark Super
VII Quantum E-meter stress test in the Times Square subway station
isn't familiar with Beck's music.

"Let me ask Matt," she offers. "He's younger than me." She calls
over a bright-eyed twenty-something who's just finished evaluating
the internal electrical stress balance of a commuter.

Matt admits he listens to the iconic popster, whose semi-recent
admission of being a Scientologist has come down particularly hard
in some quarters. Conspiracy theories (Clem Bastow's Stylus feature)
and well-sourced treatises (Arnie Lerma's The Secret Life of Beck
Hansen: A Guide for the Professional Journalist) abound -- both
underscored with fundamental bewilderment.

With good reason, too. Distinct from an actor like, say, Tom Cruise,
whose work rests at the center of a network of screenwriters,
directors, and ensembles, Beck's success rests on the idea that his
music is self-expression. When that self is, apparently, taken by
something as bizarre as Scientology, it might seem a wee bit
troubling.

"His music goes in a lot of different directions," Matt tells me,
assessing the impact of Scientology on Beck's albums. "If you were
familiar with [Ron] Hubbard's Dianetics, you might be able to
say, 'Oh, yeah, I can see that.' Especially when it's about, you
know, freedom."

The way Matt emphasizes the last word makes me uncomfortable.
Apparently freedom" is an ambiguous Scientologist buzzword having
something to do with the "bridge to total freedom," the name of
their organization's official publication.

"It's especially hard for those of us whose method of appreciating
Dylan over the years has been to identify 100 percent with most
everything he says and feels," Paul Williams wrote upon the former
Mr. Zimmerman's 1979 conversion to evangelical Christianity.
Similarly, Beck fans who held Beck's knowing surrealism to be the
paradigm of cool might be having a hard time swallowing this
Scientology development.

According to lore, Scientologists -- at least the ones who've paid
enough to attend the requisite seminars (as Beck likely has) --
believe in "body Thetans," malignant atavistic spirits who cluster
parasitically around humans as a result of nuclear explosions
triggered by Xenu, a space tyrant who reigned 75 million years ago.

Now, I'm not sure if Beck himself believes that, but I certainly
don't. Allegedly, the 36-year-old singer converted to Scientology
after breaking up with a longtime girlfriend, an event that also
supposedly prompted him to record 2002's morose Sea Change.

But in truth, this conversion was merely the return of a prodigal
son. Raised by Scientologist parents, educated through eighth grade
at a Scientologist school, and taking over a dozen Scientologist
courses throughout his pre-"Loser" teen years, Beck has never been
far from the fold.

As Lerma puts it, the real question is "When was Beck not a
Scientologist?" So if this is truly the case and you already like
Beck's music, then it does a body no good in getting upset about his
beliefs now. Scientology has been there all along, just below Beck's
surface, and ultimately shouldn't be that surprising. As Matt
reminds me, "his music isn't straightforward."

Just as Beck's catalog can equally accommodate Brazilian-influenced
space-cowboy mourners, neon electronic party pastiches, novelty
singles, and surrealistic hip-hop, Beck's background can logically
sustain the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard side-by-side with a Fluxist
grandfather (Al Hansen), a punk bohemian mother (Bibbe Hansen), a
Hollywood string-arranger father (David Campbell), and a childhood
in the cultural melting pot of greater Los Angeles. It's almost …
American. And it is most certainly Californian.

"Some people," Williams wrote about Dylan's born-again
Christianity, "see this as a threateningly anti-intellectual move
from someone they've always related to on an intense intellectual
level."

Likewise, skepticism toward what Hubbard himself deemed a "space
opera" seems perfectly logical. But imagine you were a kid with an
imagination as churning and fertile as Beck's. Just as violently
weird, transcendent Christian imagery of thorned crowns and plagues
of frogs and locusts has inspired musicians, from the ghostly
mountain crooners of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
(a big influence on Beck) through contemporary indie wunderkind
Sufjan Stevens, Scientology's symbols might seep into an
impressionable lad's head in unpredictable ways.

What's more, as a faith that is comparatively new, there isn't much
precedent for Dianetics-influenced musicians. Being a critically
successful Scientologist might make Beck even more idiosyncratic.
And isn't that why we value Beck to begin with?

"You've heard of Chick Corea?" the chirpy female Scientologist asks,
waving a copy of Dianetics with a quote from the fusion pianist on
the back.

Well, yes. Yes, I have. Corea has devoted concept albums to
Hubbard's work (mostly Hubbard's pre-Scientology sci-fi novels, such
as 2004's To the Stars, based on Hubbard's 1950 novel), and often
speaks of the impact of Dianetics on his music.

And yes, plenty of musicians are Scientologists: Isaac Hayes, and,
um, former Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan and, er, Lisa Marie
Presley. (And, as my editor reminds me: "Don't forget Van Morrison,
for a few crappy 1980s albums, anyway.")

But with the possible exception of Corea, there aren't many
Scientologist musicians in the evangelical sense - ones who make
music to express their beliefs. There are no Staples Singers or
Dixie Hummingbirds or Johnny Cashes of Scientology.

As Wikipedia points out, Scientology is the rare spiritual belief
that does not include the concept of the ecstatic in its practices.
This, on some levels, is worrisome. Critics have long accused Beck
of excessive detachment, but if he's actively trading in a worldview
that stresses order over mysticism, what could that mean for his
music?

"He's got a very thoughtful side," Matt says. "He's not like 'Woo-
hoo! Scientology!" He laughs, raising his hands in the air.

Though Beck has defended his beliefs, he is not at all like the
gospel Dylan who, for a time, refused to perform his secular
material.

"Scientology has reinforced certain things that were really
constructive and good," Beck said in March, in one of his rare
public statements on the topic. "Things that were important to me in
terms of my family, friends, being creatively awake and pushing
forward with music."

There's no reason not to believe that Scientology, with its self-
help overtones, has aided Beck personally. Taken metaphorically, the
notion of spiritual parasites seems no more or less useful than a
man who once turned water to wine. It's ultimately no different than
any belief system, religious or secular, that has ever given a
musician an intellectual framework needed to create -- be it the
rigorous minimalism of Arnold Schönberg's 12-tone music, or the
trans-global politics behind M.I.A.'s Arular (the brilliant party
album many hoped Beck would make).

If one wants to criticize Beck, it shouldn't be because he's a
Scientologist -- although the rumor that he fired his band
(including brilliant collaborator/guitarist Smokey Hormel) for the
sole purpose of replacing them with an all-Scientologist posse is a
bit distressing.

No, one should be critical of Beck only if his music becomes
mediocre. And, after this year's Guero, many have made a case for
just that.

"One wonders whether Mr. Hansen's heart is in the proceedings,"
opined Rob Mitchum in Pitchfork. "Many of the songs appear to be
little more than weak echoes of their similar predecessors."

It might be noted, however, that one can assemble a far more
adventurous album by making a playlist of the remixes by the likes
of Dizzee Rascal, Boards of Canada, and Paza that were released
concurrently with Guero. (Many of which have mysteriously been left
off the recently issued remix disc, Guerolito).

Still, blaming Beck's regressions on Scientology (as Stylus does)
seems about as absurd as crediting L. Ron Hubbard for "Where It's
At." One could just as easily blame marriage or fatherhood, both of
which have become part of Beck's life in the past several years. And
those kinds of changes are something we've been dealing with for a
long time, Xenu notwithstanding. Or one could blame nothing at all
except Beck's artistic instincts, which always have been, and will
hopefully continue to be, an entity unique and special. Nobody's
fault but his own, and all that.

In the end, I beat the E-meter. I answer the perpetually smiling
Scientologist's prodding questions -- about what stresses me out --
honestly. But no matter how much she tweaks the unlabeled dials, the
needle simply won't jump. I am, it seems, too mellow for Scientology.

She smiles half-heartedly -- as if I'm just a loser, baby -- and
tries to sell me a copy of Dianetics anyway. "No thanks," I
mumble. "Um, my roommate already has a copy, thanks," and shuffle
off towards my train.

Jesse Jarnow blogs at wunderkammern27.com.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

What the "Left Behind" series really means
By Joe Bageant
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Dec 19, 2005

"Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm
opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all
of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing
was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself
again." -- From Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

"The best thing about the Left Behind books is the way the non-
Christians get their guts pulled out by God." -- 15-year-old
fundamentalist fan of the Left Behind series

That is the sophisticated language and appeal of America's all-time
best selling adult novels celebrating the ethnic cleansing of non-
Christians at the hands of Christ. If a Muslim were to write an
Islamic version of the last book in the Left Behind series, Glorious
Appearing, and publish it across the Middle East, Americans would go
berserk.

Yet tens of millions of Christians eagerly await and celebrate an
End Time when everyone who disagrees with them will be murdered in
ways that make Islamic beheading look like a bridal shower. Jesus --
who apparently has a much nastier streak than we have been led to
believe -- merely speaks and "the bodies of the enemy are ripped
wide open down the middle." In the book Christians have to drive
carefully to avoid "hitting splayed and filleted corpses of men and
women and horses," even as the riders' tongues are melting in their
mouths and they are being wide-open gutted by God's own hand, the
poor damned horses are getting the same treatment. Sort of a
divinely inspired version of "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on."

This may be some of the bloodiest hate fiction ever published, but
it is also what tens of millions of Americans believe is God's will.
It is approximately what everyone in the congregation sitting around
me last Sunday at my brother's church believes. Or some version of
it. How can anyone acquire and hold such notions? Answer: The same
way you got yours and I got mine. Conditioning. From family and
school and society, but from within a different American caste than
the one in which you were raised. And from things stamped deep in
childhood -- such as coming home terrified to an empty house.

One September day when I was in the third grade I got off the school
bus and walked up the red dust powdered lane to my house only to
find no one there. The smudgy white front door of the old frame
house stood open. My footsteps on the unpainted gray porch creaked
in the fall stillness. With increasing panic, I went through every
room, and then ran around the outside crying and sobbing in the grip
of the most horrific loneliness and terror. I believed with all my
heart that The Rapture had come and that all my family had been
taken up to heaven leaving me alone on earth to face God's terrible
wrath. As it turned out they were at the neighbor's house scarcely
300 yards down the road, and returned in a few minutes. But it took
me hours to calm down. I dreamed about it for years afterward.

Since then I have spoken to others raised in fundamentalist families
who had the same childhood experience of coming home and thinking
everyone had been "raptured up." The Rapture -- the time when God
takes up all saved Christians before he lets loose slaughter,
pestilence and torture upon the earth -- is very real to people in
whom its glorious and grisly promise was instilled and cultivated
from birth.

Even those who escape fundamentalism agree its marks are permanent.
We may no longer believe in being raptured up, but the grim
fundamentalist architecture of the soul stands in the background of
our days. There is an apocalyptic starkness that remains somewhere
inside us, one that tinges all of our feelings and thoughts of
higher matters. Especially about death, oh beautiful and terrible
death, for naked eternity is more real to us than to you secular
humanists. I get mail from hundreds of folks like me, the different
ones who fled and became lawyers and teachers and therapists and car
mechanics, dope dealers and stockbrokers and waitresses. And every
one of them has felt that thing we understand between us, that
skulls piled clear to heaven redemption through absolute self-
worthlessness and you ain't shit in the eyes of God so go bleed to
death in some dark corner stab in the heart at those very moments
when we should have been most proud of ourselves. Self-hate. That
thing that makes us sabotage our own inner happiness when we are
most free and operating as self-realizing individuals.

This kind of Christianity is a black thing. It is a blood religion
that willingly gives up sons to America's campaigns in the Holy
Land, hoping they will bring on the much-anticipated war between
good and evil in the Middle East that will hasten the End Times.
Bring Jesus back to Earth.

Whatever the case, tens of millions of American fundamentalists,
despite their claims otherwise, read and absorb the all-time best
selling Left Behind book series as prophesy and fact. How could they
possibly not after being conditioned all their lives to accept the
End Times as the ultimate reality? We are talking about a group of
Americans 20 percent of whose children graduate from high school
identifying H20 as a cable channel. Children who, like their parents
and grandparents, come from that roughly half of all Americans who
can approximately read, but are dysfunctional literates to the
extent they cannot grasp any textual abstraction or overall thematic
content.

Most of my family and their church friends (mainly the women) have
read at least some of the Left Behind series and if pressed they
will claim they understand that it is fiction. But anyone who has
heard fundies around the kitchen table discussing the books knows
the claim is pure bullshit. "Well, they do get an awful lot of stuff
exactly right," they admit. Beyond that, most fundamentalists
delight in seeing their beliefs as "persecuted Christians" become
best sellers "under the guise of fiction," as the Pentecostal
assistant who used to work with me put it. "They show the triumph of
the righteous over those who persecute us for our faith in God."

Fer cryin' out loud, Christianity is scarcely a persecuted belief
system in this country, or in need of a guise to protect itself.
Year after year some 60 percent of Americans surveyed say they
believe the Book of Revelation will come true and about 40 percent
believe it will come true in their lifetimes. This from the 50
percent of Americans who, according to statistics, seldom if ever
buy a book.

Fetishizing of the End Times as a spectacular gore-fest visited upon
the unbelievers is nothing new. But the sheer number of people
gleefully enjoying the spectacle of their own blackest magical
thinking made manifest by mass media is new. Or at least the media
aspect is new. It reinforces the major appeal of these beliefs, the
appeal being (to restate the obvious) that they get to pass judgment
on everyone who disagrees with them, and then watch God kick the
living snot out of them. It doesn't get any better than that.

All my life I have seen these people and there are no more or less
of them proportionately than before. It is simply that, A) they have
built their own massive media, and B) educated middle class folks
are noticing them now because they vote and a major political party
is willing to violate the church-state boundary to get their votes.
They have always been out here and always in about the same
percentages. Think about that. It took me a while to accept it too.
But George W. Bush learned the significance of this while
campaigning for his daddy's friend back when he was supposed to be
at his National Guard meetings. Come George's turn to play poker for
the presidency in that quadrennial rich man's game we call
elections, Sparky knew what cards to play. The effete John Kerry had
not a clue. Still doesn't. Neither did you. Right? Don't feel bad. I
even knew the great unwashed tribes of the faithful were out here,
wrote spooky and panicked articles about it before the elections and
still underestimated the capability of the death-obsessed Christian
right.

Lookie here. If you think I'm overcounting, think one more time
about those Left Behind books which have sold over 65 million copies
at this writing. Sold to people who do not even like or buy books.
Gore Vidal and Susan Sontag never wrote anything that sold 65
million. That lead-footed prose and numbing predictability that
Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye grind out in the Left Behind series
might not even be called writing. But whatever it is, at least 65
million folks that our nation failed to educate find deep meaning
and solace in it. LaHaye has also sold 120 million non-fiction
books, which makes him the most successful Christian writer since
the Bible.

Sales figures aside, it is entirely possible that the Left Behind
series is as important in our time and cultural context as was, say,
Harriet Beecher's Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in its time, wherein
Lincoln called it "the little book that started the big war." The
truth is that LaHaye is among the most influential religious writers
America ever produced and is the most powerful fundamentalist in
America today. He is the founder and first president of the eerily
secretive Council for National Policy, which brings together leading
evangelicals and other conservatives with right-wing billionaires
willing to pay for a conservative religious revolution. He is far
more influential than Billy Graham or Pat Robertson and was the man
who inspired Jerry Falwell to launch the Moral Majority. He gave
millions of dollars to Falwell's Liberty University. He's the man
without whom Ronald Reagan would never have become governor of
California and the man who grilled George W. Bush, then wiped the
cocaine off George's nose and gave him the official Christian fundie
stamp of approval. He created the American Coalition for Traditional
Values that has mobilized evangelical voters, putting
neoconservative wackjobs into political offices across the nation.
In short, he is the Godfather of Soul, fundie style. When the man
lays it down, his peeps doo dey duty.

Scratch LaHaye and you'll find an honest-to-god surviving John
Bircher. In the 1960s when LaHaye was a young up-and-coming Baptist
preacher fresh out of Bob Jones University, he lectured on behalf of
Republican Robert Welch's John Birch Society. We are talking about a
man who believed Dwight Eisenhower was an agent of the Communist
Party taking orders from his brother, Milt Eisenhower. Along the way
LaHaye extended his paranoid list of villains to include secular
humanists who "are Satan's agents hiding behind the Constitution."
And the only way to destroy them is to destroy their cover.

I have asked preachers about the Left Behind books. They all claim
to have reservations about them. Fundie preachers are snarky about
any beliefs that do not precisely mirror their own, and no two ever
agree completely. They publicly find fault with the apocalyptic Left
Behind books even as they privately enjoy the books' popularity.
Most say the series overestimates the number of people going to
heaven. Which figures, given that their stock and trade is the
divine exclusivity of a club called "The Saved." No sense in ruining
the brand by franchising it too cheaply.

Same goes for television as for the Christian pop-lit.
Fundamentalists delighted in the NBC series Revelations. Admittedly
it was a bullshit job from network people who had not the slightest
understanding of the subject, but could smell more money the closer
they got to it. They were right. Xian fundies sucked it up. Coolly
as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, the fundies I know
denied they enjoyed Revelations at all because the producers "got
some things wrong," (as if it were possible to be wrong regarding
dire predictions made centuries ago by superstitious mystic fanatics
about something that never came to pass.) They say the main thing
wrong was having Christ return as a little child. Most hardcore
fundies preferred their vision of a Rambo Jesus arriving to beat the
fuck out of everybody who ever disagreed with Him or them --
sinners' eyeballs turning to putrid jelly, blood flowing everywhere,
etc. (In Revelations Jesus arrives on horseback wearing a blood
soaked robe.)

These media products are more than harmless American Christian
kitsch culture or just more American religious swill. Swill it may
be, but it is also dangerous propaganda and the writers know damned
well that propaganda value. Just as the propaganda value of
associating Jewish people with rats in Nazi Germany helped the
German populace accept persecution of the Jews, the Left Behind
books foster a morality that excuses horrors done to "non-
believers." Forget about sanity and reason. Christian fundamentalist
media promotes a hermetic worldview cut off from reason. From the
standpoint of those who consume such media messages, it is not so
much propaganda as it is an abundant offering so complete as to be a
parallel bizarro world of its own. It gives answers to questions not
even asked.

It is a world in which the Secretary General of the United Nations
is the anti-Christ (Left Behind) and the "Clinton Crime Family"
deals in cocaine and is linked to the Gambino family (Joshua
Project, and other sources.) It is one in which abortion doctors are
microwaving and eating fetuses, according to testimony given by anti-
abortionists before a Kansas House subcommittee (WorldNetDaily, of
course) and where crowds of good folks get teary-eyed as Rev. Pat
Evans of the NASCAR "Racing for Jesus Ministries" rumbles onto the
track. Evangelical NASCAR? Yup. What ABC called
America's "unapologetically evangelical sport." I can see you, dear
reader, running and holding your head and screaming at the thought.
Yet it's true. At Bristol and Talladega the earth is shaking for
Jaaaayzus! Now that we have Evangelical NASCAR, what, I ask you, can
ever go wrong?
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"To be saved is to fall into the ludicrous and satanic flippancy of
false piety, kitsch." -- Trappist monk Thomas Merton

Forty years later Merton is still right. Like most American
liberals, not to mention all of Europe and the rest of the world, I
learned through education to write the U.S. born-again literature
off as kitsch religion, merely bad theology in an unholy marriage to
bad writing. Another product of the American Jesus industry. If we
liberals can name it, assign it to some appropriately vulgar and
sentimental corner of our degraded culture, and then remain tolerant
of it, then we feel have dealt with the damned thing. After all, it
is the comparative worldview of the teeming red state masses. But
there is certain arrogance in such pop cultural erudition and thin
worldliness, isn't there? In itself, our attitude is too flip.

It took coming home to a born again red state to realize how
cultural documents such as Left Behind or the movies Revelations and
Passion of the Christ do great harm, and at a critical time when we
are facing economic upheaval, fighting illegal wars and suffering
deep religious antipathies across the planet. "Aw", my liberal New
York and West Coast friends tell me, "That is overstating the case.
The Democrats will eventually be back in power." We cannot afford to
wait a few more years and see. No matter if the Dems actually can be
elected back into powerlessness, they will have needed at least some
of these people's votes to get there. Next election we will find out
if it is possible to be elected without the fundamentalist
Christians.

So far the Democratic political elite, who only take their thumb out
of their ass to change thumbs, has not been able to stop the
religious right's relentless push. And I think it is because, at
least from where I sit right now, the Democratic establishment has
not offered, much less delivered, and is incapable of delivering
what my people really need -- decent educations so they will not be
prey to three thousand year old superstitions. The Left has yet to
demand for all Americans a genuine absolutely free education, an
opportunity to enjoy a life of the mind, or to even know such a
thing exists. Hell, you got yours and I got mine, right? So
screw 'em. We progressives have failed. We were always and still are
our brother's keeper and now the throwaway Americans, the ugly
little dickhead at the car wash and the truck driver and the guy who
delivers the bottled water to our offices, are coming to get our
asses, even though they aren't quite sure why. My Random House
editor told me not to get on a soapbox about this, but I cannot help
it. (Sorry, Rachel)

I am not trying to be smart-assed, but to indicate the fear of what
is unfolding around me as a person living in the belly of the beast.
The reality gap between fundamentalist and urban liberals is
unfathomable. Liberal observers watching from a safe distance in New
York or San Francisco conclude it is pure stupidity that caused
millions of Americans to continue support of the Bush junta in the
face of overwhelming evidence of lies, deceit and contempt for the
Constitution, even as the fat cats raided their retirements and
picked their pockets at every turn. Others think it is just plain
meanness that attracted them to Bush. And so do I sometimes, because
stupidity (the Jesus stockcar entries should be proof enough) and
meanness are surely part of the attraction to a certain type of
conservative, that poisonous toad Karl Rove being their chief deity
of meanness for meanness sake.

There remains one nagging problem. Despite their masochistic voting
patterns, fundamentalists are very ordinary and normal Americans.
People who often as not go out of their way to help others and
endorse most American values. So how do we reconcile the warmth and
good nature of these hardworking citizens with the repressive
politics, intolerance, nationalism and war-making they support? Why
do such ordinary people do such awful things? The Germans have been
wrestling with that one for 60 years, and 60 more years from now
they still will have not solved the riddle in any meaningful way for
the rest of the world. Barring ecological and cultural collapse,
historians will say America suffered under the same sort of
extraordinary delusion, a national hallucination of God and empire
and exceptionalism. The thing about a hallucination -- and take it
from a person who has enjoyed many fine ones on various chemicals
and herbs -- is that it is a convincing reality in its time. Try
talking to a fundamentalist about politics and God for an hour. You
will see the spell that holds sway. Let us be thankful for pro
sports or we would have nothing whatsoever to talk about on those
rare occasions when a fundamentalist and a liberal ever bother to
speak to one another.

Allow me to get down to the nub of this and say what urban liberals
cannot allow themselves to say out loud: "Christian majority or not,
the readers of such apocalyptic books as the Left Behind series are
some pretty damned dumb motherfuckers caught up in their own black,
vindictive fantasy." There. I said it for you. Let us proceed.

Beyond that, there is a more mundane aspect of the success of the
Left Behind books. It is fair to say that Left Behind readers are
happy to discover a pop-lit phenomenon that they can participate in
at all -- popular literature that doesn't conflict with their
insulated and armor plated world view. At last they have something
else to read besides Guideposts and Reader's Digest, both of which
pass as highbrow lit in most fundamentalist households. Aw, come on.
You know it is the truth the same as I do. If you go into the homes
of most fundamentalists, you will not find many books at all, much
less books that contain real ideas. Now they have the Left Behind
series, the huge sales of which, as they see it, validate their
beliefs. I know I am painting with a mighty wide brush, but so what?
It's by and large true. Considering that by no means do all
fundamentalists believe in The Rapture, and that the whole Rapture
thing is a cult within a larger cult, the popularity of the Left
Behind series says something about the sheer scale of apocalyptic
Christianity in the American heartland today. Do the readers believe
the books? Again, I would say most do. Here are a couple of typical
reader testimonials for the books:

"This series of books is the best I have ever read. I have looked
long and hard to find a resource that put scripture into easy to
read, and understand format. Many people I know get frustrated when
they try to read scripture because they have trouble understanding
the language. Now after reading these books I have a better
understanding of where I stand at this moment."

"I started reading the Left Behind series in 2000 with the first
book in paperback. . . . I read it and was impressed with how well
written it was and have read or own every book. In impact, it has
gotten me closer to God than where I was before. . . . I grew up in
church, but was always afraid of what was supposed to happen at the
end times. I was afraid of the Book of Revelation, because the
thought of all of the evil that had to be fought terrified me. While
reading the Left Behind series, I followed along with my Bible, and
I am so excited that I am understanding and learning more than I
ever have. I am no longer afraid of the fight against evil, because
I know that I am on the side of the greatest and most powerful
force. Thank you for getting me started on this path of learning."

These people may not be your neighbors or friends, but they are
ordinary and typical Americans. If you the reader are a college-
educated middle class person, then folks like those above outnumber
you roughly three to one in this country. If that is not reason
enough to drink, then I don't know what is. No matter what happens
in the next election, we are going to be dealing for a long time to
come with millions of voters who think Left Behind is great
literature, spiritual guidance and a political primer all in one.

Do we really think that cartload of bloated hacks called the
Democratic Party knows what to do about this? Do you really think
Howard Dean has a clue about how to deal with this entire class of
Americans? Hardly. And besides, even if the Dems can get elected
again and restored to the impotency they have come to represent,
they will have needed these people's votes to get there. Or they
simply will not get there. So let's not expect the Democratic
political elite to save us from watching the fundie takeover
attempts escalate in the future (In which case, assuming my book
makes some real dough, I will be watching from abroad, thank you.)

Essentially it comes down to the fact that a very large portion of
Americans are crazier than shithouse rats and are being led by a
gang of pathological misfits, most of whom are preachers and
politicians. We are not talking about simple religious faith here.
There is a world of difference between having religious faith and
being a born-again zealot who believes in his heart that he is
thumping Darwinian demons out of classrooms and that Ted Kennedy is
the anti-Christ. Trading down to the Democratic party of the pussies
really will not save us. It will just buy a little time. But we have
whipped the hell out of this dead horse before, haven't we? Forgive
me.

Meanwhile, we are left to contemplate communication with these
folks, people whose leaders deliver unfathomable pronouncements such
as the following one regarding family finances and the national
economy from a Christian radio broadcast.

The mystery of the harlot of Jerusalem is solved, people! Praise the
Lord! Deuteronomy 15:6 says plain as the nose on your face that "For
the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt
lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt
reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee."
Therefore, the harlot is NOT the gentile nations! "The harlot
controls and rules over the gentile nations, sitting on them." Rev
17:1. "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven
vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew
unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many
waters": Rev 17:15. "And he saith unto me, The waters which thou
sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues." NOW IS THAT NOT PROOF ENOUGH?

Get that?

Me neither.

But what the hell. It makes sense to millions of voting Americans.
So do I hear a great big Amen out there?

AMEN!

I get reminders of fundamentalism's dark magical thinking every day.
And it is always the little unexpected ones that slap me hardest
with the reality that these people are in the grip of their mass
delusion 24 hours a day. A couple of weeks ago I loaned my brother
my old truck until he could get his engine rebuilt. A week later he
retuned it with much sincere thanks and a smile. On the vent window
of my truck is a 4-inch decal, a silhouette of two square dancers
(my father-in-law, who gave me the truck, was a square dancer.) When
I climbed into it the next day I noticed that the square dancers
were covered over both inside and outside the glass with two layers
of duct tape. After all, we cannot be riding around in trucks with
demonic emblems blasting out invisible rays of Satan's "Power of the
air," can we?

Copyright © 2005 Joe Bageant

Joe Bageant is the author of a forthcoming book from Random House
Crown tentatively titled "DRINK, PRAY, FIGHT AND FUCK: Dispatches
from America's Class Wars," due out next year. A complete archive of
his online work may be found at www.joebageant.com. He may be
contacted at joebageant@....

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Telling the truth in the Realm of Lies: How Ernst Zundel could walk
free and destroy the European Union
By Michael James
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Dec 19, 2005

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Those struggling to come to terms with
Germany's absurd "holocaust denial" laws must first understand that
they really have nothing to do with the alleged Jewish holocaust and
the affirmation or refutation thereof. If that were the case, there
would be no reason to use them, since the truth, being self-evident
and requiring neither proof nor vast armies of supporting lawyers
and judges, would stand on its own merits and win the day.

These statutes, which also require that a defendant charged with
such "crimes" be represented by a lawyer who is expressly forbidden
under the same punitive laws from introducing in court evidence that
would support his client's arguments, fly in the face of basic human
intelligence and make a mockery of the rule of law in the so-called
age of reason. Ostensibly designed to protect a controversial and
fiercely contested post-war narrative written against the backdrop
of contrary findings established by the Red Cross and British and
American occupation tribunals, these ridiculous impositions on
intellectual inquiry and the resultant show trial of the historian
and patriot Ernst Zundel are now, despite an almost total nationwide
media blackout, having the effect of exciting the curiosity of
younger Germans who simply refuse to be told what to think without
the benefit of a free and open public debate.

Ironically, Ernst Zundel has never denied that thousands or possibly
millions of European non-ethnic Jews, together with communists,
Gypsies and others out of favour with the regime, were persecuted
and murdered by the fascist state. His contention that the
mysteriously magic, sacred occult number of six million is simply
untenable is supported not only by Jewish academics such as Norman
Finkelstein, it has been confirmed, albeit without fanfare, by the
German government itself. The dramatic downward revision of the
number of European non-ethnic Jews alleged to have died at Auschwitz
and other detention centres is a case in point. I am mightily
impressed by government statistics: 6 million minus 2 million still
makes 6 million. Now, who could argue with that kind of logic and
not go to jail?

If statistics can be trained to sing "Puppet on a String" while
leaping through rings of fire, why the hysteria and the recent
police-state crackdown on professors of history, journalists and
biographers? Such actions, unprecedented in any society that likes
to think of itself as progressive, liberal, democratic and free, are
in themselves clear evidence of blind panic and fear at the highest
levels of government and among the elite who own and control the
German and European mass media; for what is at stake here is surely
more than the alleged infringement of an eccentric statute: it is
the very existence of the Federal Republic itself and the despised
European Union which its long-suffering taxpayers are forced to
subsidise.

The cult of the Jewish holocaust is fundamental to Germany's
officially imposed state religion: legalistic, political Zionism,
propagated daily in the mass media and reinforced by a legion of
judicious bureaucrats and self-obsessed politicians. Whether Social
Democrat or "Christian" Democrat, neo-Marxist or neo-liberal, the
government of the day is dutifully trained to look first to Tel Aviv
for its legitimacy. It is instructive to note that, at least once a
year, the incumbent German president or chancellor must stand in
front of the Knesset in Israel and, with quivering lower lip and a
freshly peeled onion, throw his best Elizabeth Taylor act and read
from the same worn script stapled together with exhausted and
sometimes ludicrously inappropriate diplomatic cliches.

This perennial ritual is always embarrassing, obsequious and
viciously humiliating to behold. Nonetheless, the German government
at least acknowledges publicly that it is wealthy, globalist
Israelis and their glove-puppets in the City of London who control
Germany, not the German people. And those who control Germany
control the dark, towering superstructure of the despised and hated
European Union.

In the eyes of this grubby little Mafia of international criminals,
which includes the uppermost doyens of the British and American
elites, the German people, already saddled with an unpopular
currency and wealth-destroying surcharges that only serve to pay the
extortionate rates of interest imposed on the nation's spiralling
budget deficit, are easy roadkill on the brave new highway to EU
expansionism, globalisation and "world governance": naive, trusting
and good for only work, taxes and blood-money.

The holocaust denial laws were introduced as a social experiment to
see how far ordinary people could be pushed to accept outlandish
Catch-22 legislation, with the proviso that such laws would be
adopted into the main body of EU statutes in a process of creeping,
scarcely articulated gradualism. They will eventually apply to
England, Scotland and Wales, despite the opposition of the
Freemasonic British-Israel movement, an occult order patronised by
royalty that believes Caucasian British people to be the only real
descendants of the biblical ethnic Jews. Political and economic
Zionism will then become the state ideology of the emerging European
Soviet and play a role commensurate to that of the former communist
Soviet Union under the auspices of the Bolshevik Politburo, which
was in turn dominated by European non-ethnic "Jews" who supervised
the murder of 13-17 million Russian Christians, patriots, Cossacks
and other "undesirables". It remains the holocaust that dare not
speak its name.

Strange things happen to people who understand this clandestine
agenda and seek to expose it. Christian patriots in public life, men
such as the late Juergen Moellemann, who are brave enough to voice
their criticism of the state of Israel and its unremitting
warmongering and continuing genocide of the Palestinian people in
the illegally occupied territories, have a strange habit of
committing suicide without due cause or of leaving this world in
bizarre accidents that defy forensic science. Then their reputations
are trashed by means of scurrilous innuendos disseminated in a
series of unsubstantiated newspaper revelations that cease once the
damage has been caused.

I'm sure my readers in the United States and in England can think of
many more fine men and women who have had their careers destroyed or
their lives snuffed-out for just one brave, defiant act of courage:
telling the truth in the Realm of Lies. Telling the truth, because
the moment you kiss the whip of their cruel deceptions or go along
to get along, comfortably partitioned from the outside world in the
warmth of your living room, you are no longer free, but a slave by
default, a slave by choice. Telling the truth, because it's the
right thing to do. Telling the truth, because there's no other way
to live.

Whoever hates genuine patriots and men of integrity, hates them with
a vengeance and a bloodthirsty viciousness that goes well beyond the
pathological and borders on the Satanic. The message is clear. If
you love your country, your family and the cultural values that
nourish and sustain the vitality and sovereignty of the society in
which you live, you are a target. If you oppose laws that penalise
free speech, you are a de facto enemy of the European Union. If you
believe that citizens should have the right to discuss their history
in a free and open debate and allow all sides to bring their
evidence to the table in a grown-up analysis of the facts, you are a
threat to the emerging European Soviet and a heretic in the church
of Zionist orthodoxy. And that, my friends, is what these holocaust
denial laws are all about.

So now that we have the enemy, the master manipulators behind the
European Union, firmly in our sights, with which questions should we
pull the trigger? Would it not be true to say that if even one of
the signatories of the founding Treaty of Rome represented an
unconstitutional government, then the entire European project would
be illegal, having no substance in international and local law?
Having spent many months studying the German constitution and the
framework governing its relations with the rest of Europe, the
United States and the United Nations, I can now reveal an amazing
little secret that the Zionists and architects of the European Union
don't want you to know.

The modern Federal Republic of Germany is illegal. It does not exist
in real constitutional terms. It isn't even recognised by
international institutions as the legitimate nation state of Germany.

On 5 June 1945, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
(SHAEF) accepted Germany's declaration of defeat and quickly moved
to recognise the legitimacy of the Zweite Deutsche Reich (Second
German Reich), which had been illegally displaced by Hitler's Third
Reich. The SHAEF laws underpinned a treaty between the occupation
authorities and the Second German Reich, in which the latter was
invested with full administrative rights and governmental
sovereignty throughout most of Berlin and in all of the German
states. A parallel state, founded by ambitious lawyers and Zionist
activists and still known as the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD),
competed with the Second German Reich for legitimacy but officially
lost its right to grant citizenship and issue passports in 1954,
just as was the case with East Germany (DDR) thirty-six years later.
Technically, any German with a passport issued by the BRD is now
stateless -- around 70 million of them.

Following the collapse of the DDR, a treaty known as the "2 Plus 4"
confirmed that only the Second German Reich, now led by
Reichskanzler (Prime Minister) Dr Wolfgang Gerhard Guenter Ebel,
represented the legitimate German State. In July 1990, US Secretary
of State James Baker confirmed in writing to German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl that the BRD had come to the end of its lifetime and
should be dissolved. From that moment on, the United Nations
destroyed all of its stationery and placards that carried the
words "Federal Republic of Germany" or BRD and replaced them with
use of the broader term "Germany" in lieu of the anticipated "German
Reich". Almost everyone in diplomatic circles around the world
expected the re-emergent German Reich to take over where the BRD had
left off. Yet the government in Bonn, and later in Berlin, continued
and still continues to act and behave as if nothing really happened -
- a sort of disembodied ghost that has no idea that its corpse
disintegrated many years ago.

Despite this highly unusual situation, the Second German Reich
continues to issue its own passports and driving licences. Over the
last two or three years there has been a sharp increase in the
number of motorists who have been acquitted for speeding or parking
offences, simply on the strength of their having produced a German
Reich driving licence. The illegal German government in Berlin is so
worried about the publicity, it has leaned heavily on newspapers not
to report on such matters and it has instructed judges to dismiss
cases where a defendant is likely to prove that his citizenship of
the German Reich permits him not to recognise the BRD and its courts
as legitimate administrative constructs. They are horrified at the
publicity each of these cases brings. Quite clearly, the Zionist
German elite and their fellow conspirators in Brussels and Tel Aviv
and in every major bank and insurance company in the western
hemisphere are terrified lest the people come to know the truth, for
it would presage the unravelling not only of a dogma reinforced by
secular excommunication, but of two major administrative constructs
built on lies and subterfuge: the Federal Republic of Germany and
the European Union.

The very real fact of the matter is this: Not one of the judges
responsible for the arraignment, prosecution and imprisonment of
Ernst Zundel is a legal officeholder under true constitutional
German law. They are fakes. They are entitled to practise federal
law no more and no less than a teenage student flipping hamburgers
at McDonald's.

Mr Zundel has every right to instruct his lawyers to submit a
deposition to the state attorney, outlining in clear language his
decision not to recognise the writ of the court on the grounds that
it has never had the constitutional authority to try domestic or
foreign citizens, ceased to exist as a constitutionally validated
regulator of citizenship in 1954 and became absolutely and
irrevocably illegal on the same day that the already
unconstitutional Federal Republic of Germany (formerly West Germany,
BRD) merged with the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, DDR),
automatically reverting to its true constitutional status as the
Second German Reich under the legitimate Chancellorship of Dr
Wolfgang Gerhard Guenter Ebel.

Zundel may also wish to point out that United Nations protocols
still define Germany as "the enemy state". That's because no peace
treaty was ever ratified between the Second German Reich and the
occupation authorities. The United Nations, by its own admission,
thus recognises the Federal Republic for what it was always meant to
be: nothing more than a temporary holding operation for the central
banks and private banking cartels until a competent body
representing the Second German Reich would be in a position to
conclude a peace deal. The BRD was never granted the constitutional
instruments necessary to conclude a peace treaty, and as long as it
pretends to exist, Germany is still considered to be an occupied
nation at war with the "international community".

On 31 July 1973, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal
Constitutional Court) was forced to concede the following ruling in
regard to an upcoming treaty between the BRD and the communist
DDR: "It remains the case that the German Reich survived the
collapse of 1945 and did not cease to exist, neither through
capitulation nor the exercise of foreign power in Germany on the
part of the allies; it possesses today, as it always has, legal and
judicial sovereignty, although as a State it is lacking in
organisation. The BRD is not the legal successor of the German
Reich."

Please allow me to restate the ruling handed down by the Federal
Republic's own Supreme Constitutional Court in 1973. It deserves to
be written large and draped from every official building, monument
and highway bridge in Germany: THE BRD IS NOT THE LEGAL SUCCESSOR OF
THE GERMAN REICH.

And here's the really nice part.

Since the Second German Reich is not liable for the banking debts
accrued by the BRD or for any legislation enacted by the BRD,
including obligations attendant to every EEC and EU treaty signed
by "government" representatives of the BRD since 25 March 1957, the
German people, if only they would pay attention, are being offered a
clean slate to start over: free of debt, free of the United Nations,
free of the European Union, free of extortionate "reparations" to
Israel and free of repressive Zionist legislation that makes every
man, woman and child a criminal-in-waiting. All they have to do is
learn about the fraudulent nature of the state in which they live
and issue an immediate Cease and Desist Order requiring the
expeditious stand-down of the illegal Berlin government. Incredible
though that may sound, it really is just that simple.

Happily, more and more Germans are coming to learn about their true
constitutional rights and are renouncing citizenship of the
fictitious BRD in ever greater numbers. Year on year, the offices of
the Second German Reich are increasingly inundated with applications
for Reich passports and driving licences. With passports selling for
100 euros apiece, some are being deliberately scammed by online
pretenders. The Zionists will make sure that those stories are given
the widest publicity in the press with the intention of discrediting
by association Dr Wolfgang Gerhard Guenter Ebel and the living
reality of the Second German Reich. But their mischief is driving
curious minds to learn more about their secret, hidden history and
the wealth of opportunities that awaits them and their children
should they decide to bail out of the New World Order and its
globalist nightmare.

A much better world is possible, and the more the Zionists move
against us, the more they will eventually lose. They are their own
worst enemies. Their holocaust laws are making ordinary people gasp
in shock and disbelief: "What are the authorities afraid of? What
are they trying to hide? What sort of a country puts a man on trial
for his scientific review of statistics and recorded history and
then denies him a lawyer who can provide the evidence that's been in
the public domain for years?" The Zionists have been caught
wallowing in their own arrogance, and the backlash is building.

A frail old man is sitting in a prison cell all alone. In the eyes
of God he has committed no crime, yet those who hate him call him a
Nazi and a holocaust denier simply because he made the "mistake" of
translating his love of country and the German people into a
passionate search for the truth. When his supporters quote from the
New Testament and admonish, in the words of Jesus, those who hide in
the dark "for fear of the Jews," they are labelled as anti-Semites
and Hitlerites, which, by implication, would make God a Nazi. In
Canada and Scandinavia, Zionist lawyers and their allies in
government and big business have very nearly criminalised the New
Testament as "hate literature". In August 2000, two Zionist lawyers
in Germany almost succeeded in winning an injunction against
publishers of the Bible in an attempt to redact the words of Jesus
because they regarded them as "anti-Semitic". Family Minister
Christian Bergmann eventually rejected their application to have the
Bible banned or placed on the "dangerous books" list.

Yet millions of Christians send cash, guns and moral support to the
Zionist state of Israel each year because their ministers,
influenced by the heretical Scofield Bible, tell them that Jesus and
his followers do not represent the true Israel. They believe that
Jesus' sacrifice was insufficient, making him a failed Messiah, and
that he must return only to rescue a few million European non-
ethnic "Jews" whose forefathers were neither of Hebrew descent nor
ever lived in the Middle East, but hailed from Asia, converting en
masse to Judaism in AD 740 for purely financial and strategic
reasons.

Many Christians are slowly waking up to this diabolical, Satanic
deception and are beginning to see that it was secular, political
Zionism that tricked them into believing these lies and distortions,
finally listening to our beloved Brother Judah: real ethnic Jews who
read the Torah daily and lament each and every hour that the God-
forbidden state of Israel exists. They are learning the truth about
all the Zionist wars and acts of terror that have wracked our little
planet over the last century, from the 1916 blackmail of the British
establishment and the audaciously premature claim that King Wilhelm
of Germany had secretly murdered six million Jews before 1914 to the
financing of Hitler's rise to power through banks in Wall Street and
the City of London, from the complicity of the Zionist Party of
Germany in the persecution of their own kind to the Israeli false
flag attack on the USS liberty, from the Lavon Affair and the
bombing of the King David Hotel in 1948 to the possible involvement
of Mossad and their ad hoc "Urban Moving Company" in steering the
horrific events of September 11, 2001.

These Zionists have the cleverest minds, the best weaponry and all
the money they need. They own the banks, the media, the telecoms,
the Christian church and the film industry. They own governments and
treasuries and have their hands on all the important levers of
power. They retain all the best lawyers and judges, and what they
cannot win in any of the courts they own they settle with an
assassin's bullet. They make who they please and break those who
displease. They are the hidden hand in every act of terror. They are
ruthless and vicious and their evil and mischief know no bounds.

But they have neither God in their hearts nor the truth on their
lips, and therein lies their undoing.

Open the door to your prison cell, Mr Zundel, and walk away a free
man. There is nothing and nobody to keep you there.

Michael James is a British freelance journalist and translator,
resident in Germany for over 13 years and patiently awaiting the
sound of Zionist jackboots and the inevitable knock on the door at
midnight.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904

Vote to see results

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Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?   *
117366 responses
Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and
more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
85%
No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing
approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
5%
No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just
be a political lynching.
8%
I don't know.
2%

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                         No War!   No Nukes!   Impeach!   SOS!

WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION  -- Ethiopian Proverb

Please send far and wide ...
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/12/18/f1.bz.publisher.1218.p1.php?section\
=business

Battle For A War Story: Soldiers association sues independent publisher over
Vietnam book
BY KAREN MCCOWAN
The Register-Guard
Published: Sunday, December 18, 2005

WALTERVILLE - A tiny publishing house here is in the cross-hairs of a
$700,000 lawsuit backed by the Special Forces Association, a fraternal
organization
for current and former U.S. military special operatives.
On the one side are Kris Millegan's Trine Day Press and one of its authors,
retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel Marvin, who have been targeted in the
case. On the other are seven men who served with Marvin in Vietnam during 1966
and 1967.

They contend that Marvin's book "Expendable Elite: One Soldier's Journey Into
Covert Warfare," provided a "false, libelous, defamatory, embarrassing and
humiliating" account of their activities at An Phu near the Cambodian border.
They seek $100,000 each in general, special and punitive damages.

Millegan said the case already has racked up nearly $50,000 in legal
expenses, and it could bankrupt his small press, which has published just eight
books
and sold a total of 40,000 copies since its creation four years ago.

But he declined to agree to the men's demand that he reissue the book as a
work of fiction. He stands by Marvin's account, saying that some of the
defendants verified it on tape at Marvin's request after he sent them early
drafts in
1988.

``I have audio tapes from the people who are now suing me, not only
confirming Col. Marvin's story, but saying he could use their names,'' Millegan
said.

His willingness to challenge the lawsuit has won admiration from other small,
independent publishers, said Teresa Kao, owner of Our Town Publishing in
Portland and former president of the Northwest Association of Book Publishers.

``Small publishers typically can't afford to carry liability insurance," Kao
said. "If someone decides to sue you, there just isn't money for this sort of
thing.

``Too often you see people say, `I'll take this book off the market if you'll
make this lawsuit go away,' " Kao said. "But Kris sees this really as a kind
of quest. He is just going ahead with it because he believes it needs to be
done.''

A South Carolina U.S. District Court jury began hearing the case on Halloween
day, but a mistrial was declared two days later after one of the plaintiffs'
attorneys suffered a medical emergency.

Judge David Norton has scheduled a new trial to begin Jan. 23.

In their opening statement, the plaintiff's attorneys, Ben and Bobby Deaver,
acknowledged the audio tapes, but say their clients thought they were being
asked to "vet" a work of fiction.

At particular issue are Marvin's contention that he was assigned to
assassinate Cambodian Crown Prince Norodum Sihanouk; that he commanded some of
the men
in an operation that involved firing into neutral Cambodia (which the
plaintiffs say would have been a violation of international law); and that the
men
supported Marvin's refusal of a direct order to leave An Phu (which they contend
would have constituted mutiny). In Marvin's account, the defiance was to
protect their partners in the mission, a local militant Buddhist sect.

``Tame'' by comparison

"Expendable Elite" is hardly the most outrageous book in Trine Day's list.

"It's tame compared to a lot of the stuff I publish," Millegan said.

Consider "Sinister Forces," which ties the Salem witch trials, the Manson
murders, the CIA and the Kennedy assassinations to a Satanic plot. Or "Fleshing
Out Skull and Bones," which links the Yale secret society - whose members
include President Bush and Sen. John Kerry - to world-wide drug smuggling.

Before the first trial was aborted, Millegan acknowledged under questioning
by the plaintiff's attorneys that he had published "Expendable Elite" only
after it had been rejected by more than 100 other publishers.
They also elicited testimony that he believes a CIA "Operation Mockingbird"
had infiltrated the U.S. news media and publishing houses to prevent would-be
whistle blowers from alerting the public.

In court, Ben Deaver presented a very different picture of the An Phu
activities of clients William B. Tuttle Jr., Raymond J. Johnson, George H.
Kuchen,
John E. Strait, Richard Sirois, William Menkins and James A. Taylor than that of
the book.

He described the outpost as a "pacified area" where the men did civil affairs
work building schools, infrastructure and providing medical treatment.

Why then, did some of them send affirmative written or tape recorded feedback
to Marvin's manuscript?
They respected him as a former commander, Bobby Deaver told the jury in his
opening statement. ``And then, because they thought this was a novel, a couple
of them said, `Yeah, you can use my name if you want to.' "

The Deavers also submitted a deposition from Tuttle, Marvin's former superior
officer, now too medically fragile to testify in court. In it, Tuttle denies
the covert operation Marvin describes, saying, ``I didn't even have authority
to authorize anything like that.''

It's not surprising he would say that, Marvin testified in reply. When he
accepted the mission, he said, he was told the Air Force would deny knowledge of
it. Marvin said he only broke his own promised silence because his conscience
bothered him after a religious conversion.

``In 1984, I came to know the Lord as my personal savior,'' he said. ``And
that day is the day I started writing this book. Because I no longer feared the
company sending somebody like me, a trained assassin, to kill me for telling
the truth.''

Fighting over the truth
In some respects, the clean-cut, born-again Christian Air Force veteran is an
odd bedfellow for Millegan, a pony-tailed "old hippie" and one-time guitarist
with the band ``Powertrain.''

Millegan operates out of an old farmhouse and barn not far from the
Walterville store.

He considers, researches and edits the manuscripts while outside contractors
handle design, copy editing, printing and distribution.

He works in an attic office stuffed to the rafters with books about U.S.
history, military operations and spy agencies.

He displays old photographs that appear to verify his story of growing up in
Fairfax, Va., and Indonesia while his father served as CIA branch chief for
Southeast Asia.

``Dad didn't tell us about it then,'' he said. ``But he told me in 1969, when
I was 19, that the Vietnam War wasn't about fighting communism, but about
protecting access to drugs, and that these secret societies were behind it all.
I
thought he was nuts, that this was his way of having a `drug talk' with me.''

Millegan began to seriously examine his father's claim, however, after
hearing revisionist historian D.F. Fleming talk about the origins of the Cold
War.
He began his own research into allegations of CIA and Skull and Bones Society
involvement with drug-running.

By the 1990s, he had decided to make a mission of exposing secret societies
and agencies.
"Their secrecy and our Republic don't mix," he said.

With this lawsuit, however, he's having to put his money where his mouth is.
After two profitable years, legal expenses have pushed Trine Day into the red,
he said. Fortunately, he isn't literally betting the farm where he lives with
his wife and children: The property is owned by members of her family.

Kao, the Portland publisher, said she believes the Special Forces Association
simply wants to "cut off the flow of information."

"They've intimidated much bigger fish," she said. "The message is, don't mess
with them, or they'll go after you."

Indeed, in its first letter to Millegan threatening legal action in August
2003, the Special Forces Association referred him to Time/Warner or CNN, should
he doubt the group's "resolve when the truthfulness of U.S. Special Forces
combat operations is at stake."

The letter referred to the association's swift and vociferous response to a
1998 CNN/Time magazine report alleging that the U.S. military used nerve gas to
kill American defectors in Laos in another Vietnam-era mission known as
Operation Tailwind.

The group's protests and those of Pentagon officials led the television
station and magazine to retract the story and fire the reporters and producers
involved.

Roger Simmons, who represented fired, award-winning, CNN producer April
Oliver, charged last month that the network caved to pressure that it would lose
crucial access to Pentagon officials unless it disavowed the story, and that no
one has yet proved in court that the story was false.

``So far, the only court decision that's looked at that case has exonerated
their reporting,'' he said.
In its official retraction, CNN said the original report came from personnel
involved in the Tailwind Operation, but that a subsequent independent
investigation led by media attorney Floyd Abrams concluded that the story
``cannot be
supported.''

In the "Expendable Elite" lawsuit, even the judge seemed to expect that there
would soon be a court decision about the truth or falsehood of the story.

While discussing a new trial after declaring the mistrial last month, Norton
noted that neither Marvin nor Trine Day have deep enough pockets to pay the
damages sought by the Special Forces Association plaintiffs.

``If you got a verdict, they've got no money,'' Norton told Deaver after
declaring the mistrial last month.

``So looks like to me we're trying this case over who's telling the truth.''

=====
http://www.expendableelite.com/lawsuit1/index.html
Lt. Colonel Marvin-TrineDay Legal Defense Fund
Dear Friends and believers in the right to publish the TRUTH: We Need You!!
We Are Two Against the Special Forces Association and we are literally
Fighting For Our Survival!!

Harassment lawsuit threatens to bankrupt small publisher and silence a
citizen's First Amendment Rights.

We owe our attorneys approximately $30,000 for what they have done thus far,
we are close to bankruptcy, have paid them approx. $35,000 to date and
anticipate another $60 - $100 thousand to finish litigation. The Special Forces
Association wants Marvin's book off the market and want to ruin Marvin &
TrineDay
financially so that they may no longer author or publish the truth about covert
operations.

Please Help Us!! We are just regular folk, already stretched thin.


72 Year-Old Lt. Col. "Dangerous Dan" Marvin and TrineDay, an Oregon
publishing house, are defending themselves in a costly legal battle to exercise
their
first amendment rights that began in Federal District Court in Charleston, SC
on October 31, 2005. On Wednesday, November 2, a mistrial was declared. The
plaintiffs lead attorney bizarrely disappeared from the courthouse the day
before
and admitted himself to a local hospital. The trial is rescheduled for
January 2006. On trial is Col. Marvin and his book, Expendable Elite – One
Soldier’
s Journey Into Covert Warfare: a Vietnam wartime story of his experience
commanding an independent Special Forces operation in 1966 in the district of An
Phu among the Hoa Haos (Wha Hows), a militant Buddhist sect. The book was
written in 1988 and published in 2003 by TrineDay.
The Special Forces Association (SFA), a fraternal organization of active and
retired operatives has tried to brashly influence these legal proceedings. The
SFA has bankrolled the plaintiff's action, supplying lawyers, and apparently
even advancing expense money to the plaintiffs. The SFA has a history of
"steamrolling" other historical revelations. Any one who reads this book will
know
they are laying down a smoke screen, hoping to convince a jury that what they
say is true and that the book is a lie. But the book is true, based on
personal recollections, government documents and third parties and by
corroboration
by certain of the plaintiffs themselves who now try to disavow the truth. The
book was well researched by the publisher and of course sets forth the true
accounts of Col. Marvin. This lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to keep
secret what the public should know.

You can help us as we fight for the survival of the truth by writing a check
to our "Marvin/TrineDay Defense Fund", and mailing it to P.O. Box 577,
Walterville, Oregon 97489 or by donating through either PayPal, the Amazon Honor
system.You can also help by buying a book or two, and/or by placing a link to
this
page on your website. Our store website was severely hacked (which has
disrupted our sales) but we have in its place a pay pal version. Priority USPS
3-
Day shipping has been added to the price of the books.

You may also order a signed book direct from the author, donate or ask any
questions
Call Kris at 1-800-556-2012 or Dangerous Dan at 315-655-3053. Signed books
are available at either source.

Thank-you. And may God bless you and yours.

Kris Millegan LTC Daniel Marvin
TrineDay Retired Green Beret & author of Expendable Elite

You may donate to our Legal Defense Fund through PayPal here,

OR, through the
Amazon Honor System,

Please help us survive these attacks so they can continue to get this
important information out to those who seek it.
Send checks or money orders to:
Marvin-TrineDay Legal Defense Fund
P.O. Box 577
Walterville,OR 97489
Make your checks or money orders payable to Marvin-TrineDay Legal Defense
Fund. Thank-you!!!
We sincerely appreciate your help in this effort,
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Marvin, U.S. Army Special Forces (Retired), Author,

and
Robert A. (Kris) Millegan, Publisher, TrineDay Press

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Hot off the heels of winning two recent awards ("The Sexiest
Conspiracy Theorist of the Last Quarter Century" by US Magazine
and "The Cheapest Damn Tipper I Ever Saw" by a waitress named Trixie
at the Route 66 Diner in Needles, California), Adam has just
garnered another award,"The Most Eclectic Writer of the Year" from
the fine folks at WingTV as part of their 2005 Alternative Media-
Patriot Movement Awards.

For a complete listing of all the awards, go here:

http://www.wingtv.net/thornarticles/2005awards.html

Peace. Out.

If you want to be removed from the list, you can unsubscribe at
www.mansonmythos.com.

*****

Potential Jessica Alba Stalkers News Update:

http://www.hollywoodrag.com/index.php?/weblog/jessica_alba_shops_for_
lingerie

*****

Media: Hurricane Katrina Top Story of 2005
Dec 21, 2005
By DAVID CRARY

NEW YORK (AP) - The onslaught of Gulf Coast hurricanes, notably
Katrina and the deadly flooding which devastated New Orleans, was
overwhelmingly picked by U.S. editors and news directors as the top
story of 2005 in The Associated Press' annual vote.

The hurricanes received 242 first-place votes out of 288 ballots
cast. No other story received more than 18 first-place votes.

The death of Pope John Paul II, and the election of Joseph Ratzinger
to succeed him as Pope Benedict XVI, was the No. 2 pick, followed by
the situation in Iraq, where news of violence and politics vied
almost equally for attention throughout the year.

Iraq was voted the top story in 2002 and 2003, and was runner-up in
2004 to the U.S. election in which President Bush won a second term.

Here are 2005's top 10 stories, as voted by AP members:

1. HURRICANE KATRINA: Days in advance, America knew it was coming.
But even though Hurricane Katrina weakened slightly from its
frightening Category 5 strength, its impact was stunning. It killed
more than 1,300 people in five states, ravaged the Mississippi Gulf
Coast and set off flooding that submerged 80 percent of New Orleans,
forcing the largest urban dislocation in U.S. history. Hurricanes
Wilma and Rita also inflicted severe damage.

2: PAPAL TRANSITION: John Paul II's death marked the passing of the
first non-Italian pope in 455 years and ended a 26-year pontificate,
third-longest in history. In a remarkable show of affection, many
millions attended services worldwide on the day of his funeral.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, expected to continue a
conservative doctrinal approach, became the new pope and promptly
waived the normal waiting period so John Paul could swiftly be
considered for sainthood.

3: IRAQ: As in 2004, news from Iraq ranged from the grim, including
a devastating wave of suicide bombings, to the promising - Iraqis
voting for new leaders and thrashing out differences on a new
constitution. The U.S. military death toll surpassed 2,000, and
President Bush estimated the Iraqi toll at 30,000, but he insisted
U.S. forces would stay until Iraqi troops could contain insurgents
on their own.

4: SUPREME COURT: Not since 1994 had a Supreme Court seat become
vacant. Suddenly there were two openings due to Sandra Day
O'Connor's retirement and Chief Justice William Rehnquist's death.
John Roberts was smoothly confirmed to succeed Rehnquist, but
President Bush's next nominee, Harriet Miers, had to bow out amid
conservative complaints. The right liked the next choice, Samuel
Alito, but he could face tough Democratic opposition at confirmation
hearings in January.

5: OIL PRICES: Crude oil prices hit an all-time peak of almost $71 a
barrel in August before subsiding. Costly gasoline prompted some
motorists to rethink their driving habits; the beleaguered U.S.
airline industry had to spend $9 billion more on jet fuel in 2005
than in 2004.

6: LONDON BOMBINGS: Attacks on three rush-hour subway trains and a
bus killed 56 people on July 7, including four bombers with ties to
Islamic militants. Authorities said three of the alleged bombers
were born in Britain to immigrant parents from Pakistan; the fourth
was from Jamaica.

7: ASIAN QUAKE: A massive earthquake near the Pakistan-India border
killed more than 87,000, and left more than 3 million homeless.
Worried relief officials appealed for more emergency aid as winter
arrived in the stricken region.

8: TERRI SCHIAVO: A family feud escalated into a wrenching national
debate as the husband of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo struggled and
finally succeeded in getting clearance to remove the feeding tube
that had kept her alive for 15 years. President Bush, Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush and members of Congress joined Terri Schiavo's parents in
efforts to have the tube reinserted before she died.

9: CIA LEAK: Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby,
was indicted and several prominent journalists were entangled in
complex offshoots as a special prosecutor investigated the Bush
administration's leaking of Valerie Plame's CIA status to the news
media in 2003. Plame's husband, a former U.S. diplomat, had accused
the administration of manipulating prewar intelligence on Iraq.

10: BUSH'S STRUGGLES: Multiple factors, including public doubts
about Iraq, a flawed response to Hurricane Katrina and a failed
Supreme Court nomination, drove President Bush's national approval
ratings below 40 percent, the lowest of his presidency.

Just missing out on the Top 10 was the start of toppled Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein's trial on charges of mass murder and torture.

Voters in the AP survey were invited to write in their own
suggestions of top stories. Three cited the auto industry's woes,
including layoffs at General Motors, and one suggested the
revelation that former FBI official Mark Felt was the Watergate
source "Deep Throat."

Mark Bowden, editor of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, offered a
general observation on his ballot.

"The world was wracked with pain in 2005, enduring a parade of
natural disasters," he wrote. "And, of course some of the pain was
self-inflicted - war, terrorism, rebellion, violence, crime, drug
abuse, business fraud. ... There is never a slow day in the news
business."

*****

Fact Checking the Feds in Airport Shooting
Two air marshals gunned down an American citizen last week in Miami,
and the press swallowed the government's now-flawed explanation of
a "bomb threat" hook, line, and sinker.
By James Bovard
EditorAndPublisher.com

(December 12, 2005) -- In the weeks after the Hurricane Katrina
debacle, many media commentators gushed about how the Fourth Estate
had finally rediscovered its courage in exposing government
debacles. However, the reports of spinal recovery were premature.

Two air marshals gunned down an American citizen last week in Miami
and most of the establishment media seemingly couldn't care less.
Immediately after 44-year-old Rigoberto Alpizar died on Dec. 7 in a
hail of bullets from two air marshals, Dave Adams, a spokesman for
the Federal Air Marshal Service, told CNN that Alpizar had
shouted "I have a bomb in my bag" as he ran up and down the aisle of
the plane as it sat on the runway. This was the version of events
that the vast majority of the media repeated unquestioningly in the
first days after the killing.

However, online articles on Dec. 8 by Time.com and CNN.com contained
quotes from passengers debunking the feds' story. The Orlando
Sentinel reported on Dec. 9: "Seven passengers interviewed by the
Orlando Sentinel -- seated in both the front and rear of the main
passenger cabin -- said Alpizar was silent as he ran past them on
his way to the exit." No passenger the Sentinel spoke to offered any
account akin to what the feds claimed.

It is not yet clear exactly what happened on Dec. 7 at the Miami
airport. But the primary justification the feds offered for using
deadly force did not survive even two full news cycles.

Regardless, the conservative press rushed to exonerate. Investors
Business Daily, in a Dec. 9 editorial, hailed the marshals'
action: "The Miami incident lets all Americans know -- and puts
would-be terrorists on notice -- that we are able and willing to use
lethal force to kill someone viewed as a potential threat." The
Washington Times derided any "second-guessing" and drew the happy
moral to the story: "Mr. Alpizar's death is a reminder of how
seriously the marshals treat airline security. We should all take
due notice."

But other publications also raced to take the government's word. A
Washington Post editorial on December 9 proclaimed, "There is, at
this stage, no reason to doubt the official account of the slaying
Wednesday of Rigoberto Alpizar by federal air marshals in Miami."
The Post editorial was reprinted in numerous papers the following
day. Apparently, the official account had instantaneously become
sacrosanct.

The Boston Herald on Dec. 10 used the killing to slap down anyone
who would grouse about TSA checkpoint delays: "The shooting of a
passenger on an American Airlines flight bound for Orlando is a
reminder to passengers harping on frustrating lines at security
checkpoints, that aviation security is a deadly serious business."
The Herald did see one risk from the killing: "Members of Congress
ought not use the excuse of the Miami incident to stick their noses
into a layer of security that is clearly the most effective defense
we have against future hijackings." But oversight has been an
unnatural act for members of Congress since at least 9/11, so the
Herald has little to fear.

Newspaper editorial writers were hell-bent on promulgating the
government version of events. The Louisville Courier-Journal
announced in a Dec. 10 editorial: "The passenger, Rigoberto Alpizar,
a naturalized American citizen said to be suffering from bipolar
disorder, shouted that he had a bomb and ran from a plane." The
crucial medical problem in this case was not Alpizar's bipolar
disorder but the pervasive attention deficits among American
editorial writers.

A Memphis Commercial Appeal editorial on Dec. 12 explained the
marshals' dilemma: "A youngish [44 years old?] male bolts from his
seat in the rear of the plane and sprints toward the cockpit,
yelling that he has a bomb." This is an interesting hypothetical but
the only people who report that Alpizar claimed he had a bomb are
spokesmen for federal agencies. Regardless of how many passengers
directly contradict this key claim, the feds' version of the killing
is correct because the government said so.

The Daily Oklahoman, on Dec. 12, asked, "when Alpizar became
agitated and began running down the aisle of the airplane, claiming
he had a bomb in his bag, what were marshals to think?" The
Oklahoman assured its readers that "We're not about to second guess"
the marshals. Or to fact check the feds.

The Brahmins at PBS NewsHour announced in an online article on Dec.
12: "No serious questions have been raised about the actions of the
air marshals who killed the passenger last week." Apparently, it is
not serious if federal officials apparently make false claims in a
case in which an American citizen is killed.

A Dec. 13 Pittsburgh Post Gazette editorial relied on a slightly
different quote to buttress the killing: "According to law
enforcement officials, Alpizar 'uttered threatening words that
included a sentence to the effect that he had a bomb." It is a long
ways from someone running up and down aisle shouting about having a
bomb to using threatening words to the effect that he had a bomb.
What sort of sentence includes threatening words "to the effect"
that one has a bomb -- but apparently does not include the word
bomb? Alpizar was not an English professor giving a lecture on
deconstructionism at the time he was shot. The feds may be
backtracking -- and newspaper editorial writers are rolling out the
red carpet for every step.

The Post-Gazette concluded: "But by all initial accounts, the
marshals did their job." Except for the accounts of the passengers
on the plane who said they never heard Alpizar mention a bomb. But
mere private citizens don't count, since they do not provide
exclusive access and hot tips to newspaper writers and editors.

Some editorials called for an independent investigation of the
shooting. This is a triumph of hope over experience, given how such
investigations over the past 15 years almost always whitewashed
federal action. Perhaps some truth will seep out as a result of
jurisdictional conflicts between the Federal Air Marshal Service and
the FBI or Miami police. If the media continue acting like the cop
on South Park -- "Nothing to see here, folks, just move along," the
odds of any such revelation go from slim to none.

Perhaps if Alpizar had regularly attended Georgetown dinner parties,
the media would show more curiosity about his fate. In the old days,
Americans were taught that the media would serve as a check and a
balance on government powers. The same media docility that helped
the Bush administration sell the war in Iraq is still there, now
serving Leviathan on the homefront.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
James Bovard (letters@...) is the author of the
forthcoming "Attention Deficit Democracy" (Palgrave, January
2006), "Terrorism & Tyranny" (Palgrave, 2003), and seven other
books.

*****

A Year Without 'Made In China'
By Sara Bongiorni
The Christian Science Monitor
12-21-5

BATON ROUGE, LA. - Last year, two days after Christmas, we kicked
China out of the house. Not the country obviously, but bits of
plastic, metal, and wood stamped with the words "Made in China." We
kept what we already had, but stopped bringing any more in.

The banishment was no fault of China's. It had coated our lives with
a cheerful veneer of toys, gadgets, and $10 children's shoes.
Sometimes I worried about jobs sent overseas or nasty reports about
human rights abuses, but price trumped virtue at our house. We
couldn't resist what China was selling.

But on that dark Monday last year, a creeping unease washed over me
as I sat on the sofa and surveyed the gloomy wreckage of the
holiday. It wasn't until then that I noticed an irrefutable fact:
China was taking over the place.

It stared back at me from the empty screen of the television. I
spied it in the pile of tennis shoes by the door. It glowed in the
lights on the Christmas tree and watched me in the eyes of a doll
splayed on the floor. I slipped off the couch and did a quick
inventory, sorting gifts into two stacks: China and non-China. The
count came to China, 25, the world, 14. Christmas, I realized, had
become a holiday made by the Chinese. Suddenly I'd had enough. I
wanted China out.

Through tricks and persuasion I got my husband on board, and on Jan.
1 we launched a yearlong household embargo on Chinese imports. The
idea wasn't to punish China, which would never feel the pinprick of
our protest. And we didn't fool ourselves into thinking we'd bring
back a single job to unplugged company towns in Ohio and Georgia. We
pushed China out of our lives because we wanted to measure how far
it had pushed in. We wanted to know what it would take in time,
money, and aggravation to kick our China habit.

We hit the first rut in the road when I discovered our son's toes
pressing against the ends of his tennis shoes. I wore myself out
hunting for new ones. After two weeks I broke down and spent $60 on
sneakers from Italy. I felt sick over the money; it seemed decadent
for a pair of children's shoes. I got used to the feeling. Weeks
later I shelled out $60 for Texas-made shoes for our toddler
daughter.

We got hung up on lots of little things. I drove to half a dozen
grocery stores in search of candles for my husband's birthday cake,
eventually settling on a box of dusty leftovers I found in the
kitchen. The junk drawer has been stuck shut since January. My
husband found the part to fix it at Home Depot but left it on the
shelf when he spotted the telltale "Made in China."

Mini crises erupted when our blender and television broke down. The
television sputtered back to life without intervention, but it was a
long, hot summer without smoothies. We killed four mice with old-
fashioned snapping traps because the catch-and-release ones we
prefer are made in China. Last summer at the beach my husband wore a
pair of mismatched flip-flops my mother found in her garage. He'd
run out of options at the drug store.

Navigating the toy aisle has been a wilting affair. In the spring,
our 4-year-old son launched a countercampaign in support of "China
things." He's been a good sport, but he's weary of Danish-made
Legos, the only sure bet for birthday gifts for his friends. One
morning in October he fell apart during a trip to Target when he
developed a sudden lust for an electric purple pumpkin.

"It's too long without China," he wailed. He kept at me all day.

The next morning I drove him back so he could use his birthday money
to buy the pumpkin for himself. I kept my fingers off the bills as
he passed them to the checker.

My husband bemoans the Christmas gifts he can't buy because they
were made in China. He plans to sew sleeping bags for the children
himself. He can build wooden boats and guitars, but I fear he will
meet his match with thread and needle.

"How hard can it be?" he scoffed.

The funny thing about China's ascent is that we, as a nation, could
shut the whole thing down in a week. Jump-start a "Just Say No to
Chinese Products Week," and the empire will collapse amid the chaos
of overloaded cargo ships in Long Beach harbor. I doubt we could
pull it off. Americans may be famously patriotic, but look closely,
and you'll see who makes the flag magnets on their car bumpers.
These days China delivers every major holiday, Fourth of July
included.

I don't know what we will do after Dec. 31 when our family's embargo
comes to its official end. China-free living has been a hassle. I
have discovered for myself that China doesn't control every aspect
of our daily lives, but if you take a close look at the underside of
boxes in the toy department, I promise it will give you pause.

Our son knows where he stands on the matter. In the bathtub one
evening he told me how happy he was that "the China season" was
coming soon.

"When we can buy China things again, let's never stop," he said.

After a year without China, I can tell you this: You can still live
without it, but it's getting trickier and costlier by the day. And a
decade from now I may not be brave enough to try it again.

*****

Posted: Tue., Dec. 20, 2005
Fox News hails more Ailes
News topper remains at net for $6 mil
By MICHAEL LEARMONTH
Variety.com

Christmas came early Tuesday for Fox News toppertopper Roger Ailes,
who received a massive pay package for his expanded domain at News
Corp.

Ailes, 65, reupped to the tune of $6 million per year for the next
five years, but he may earn as much as double that if certain
earnings targets are met, according to a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.

He will also receive a one-time grant of 333,333 shares of News
Corp. stock, which vest in five annual installments.

As part of his deal, Ailes will serve not only as chairman and CEO
of the News Channel, which he helped found in 1996, but also as
chairman-CEO of the Fox Business Channel, a spinoff in development
that could launch as early as next spring.

Deal also reflects Ailes' promotion to chairman of Fox Television
StationsFox Television Stations Group, 20th Century Fox
Television20th Century Fox Television and editor-in-chief of
FoxNews.com.

News Corp. topper Rupert Murdoch gave Ailes the reins of News
Corp.'s 35 stations and its TV syndication business in August after
Lachlan Murdoch, his eldest son and the company's deputy chief
operating officer, quit his post and moved to Australia.

Deal locks up another key figure in the News Corp. executive suite,
one who built Fox News Channel from an also-ran to one of the
conglomconglom's most profitable units.

News Corp.'s highest-paid exec is prexyprexy-COO Peter CherninPeter
Chernin, who signed a five-year pactpact in 2004 for an $8.3 million
annual salary. Chernin earned an $18.9 million bonus last year.

Murdoch, who earned $4.8 million with a $18.9 million bonus in 2005,
controls News Corp. through a family trust that holds a 29% voting
stake.

Ailes' deal includes a car and driver and use of a corporate jet for
business and "security services."

Date in print: Wed., Dec. 21, 2005, Los Angeles

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Douglas J. De Clue
ddeclue@...
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Listening in without a warrant isn't just impolite, it's a felony.

Unfortunately there are no direct criminal sanctions for violating
the 4th Amendment.  The FISA Act has some serious teeth however that
we need to use.  Please write your Congressman, your Senators and
your newspaper  and all your friends and let them know:

Listening in without a warrant isn't just impolite, it's a felony.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sec_50_00001809--
--000-.html

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (USC Title 50 Chapter 36
Subchapter 1) specifically prohibits the government from doing what
the President has secretly ordered and it is a serious felony with
major penalties.

The penalties are severe, up to 5 years and $10,000 per count.  The
President has admitted to reauthorizing this violation of the law 30
separate times and thousands of phone calls have been intercepted.

The President has publically confessed to this felony on national
television.  He ordered government agencies to engage in spying on
thousands of American citizens without a warrant when the Congress
made specific provisions in law to cover all circumstances, even
emergency situations so that the gov't could listen in for up to 72
hours before obtaining a warrant, plenty of time to find and
convince a judge.

There is no excuse for this action, yet the President has done so
anyways.

That the President has colluded with others to do so, also makes
this a conspiracy subject to fine and imprisonment up to 5 years per
count under USC TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 19 § 371.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000371-
---000-.html

That he has chosen to hide it from the public, the Congress, law
enforcement agencies, and the Courts through secret findings and
secret orders may also be a case for obstruction of justice under
USC TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 73 § 1512 paragraph (b).

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20
_73.html

The time has come for Prosecutor Fitzgerald to step forward and
finally take the gloves off.

It is time for the Congress to convene impeachment hearings.

FISA Act:

USC Title 50 Chapter 36 Subchapter 1

§ 1809. Criminal sanctions

Release date: 2005-03-17

(a) Prohibited activities A person is guilty of an offense if he
intentionally—

(1) engages in electronic surveillance under color of law except as
authorized by statute; or

(2) discloses or uses information obtained under color of law by
electronic surveillance, knowing or having reason to know that the
information was obtained through electronic surveillance not
authorized by statute.

(b) Defense

It is a defense to a prosecution under subsection (a) of this
section that the defendant was a law enforcement or investigative
officer engaged in the course of his official duties and the
electronic surveillance was authorized by and conducted pursuant to
a search warrant or court order of a court of competent
jurisdiction.

(c) Penalties An offense described in this section is punishable by
a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than
five years, or both.

(d) Federal jurisdiction There is Federal jurisdiction over an
offense under this section if the person committing the offense was
an officer or employee of the United States at the time the offense
was committed.

USC TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 19 § 371

§ 371. Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States

If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against
the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency
thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such
persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five
years, or both.

If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of
the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such
conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such
misdemeanor.

TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 73 § 1512

§ 1512. Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant

b)

(1) influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in

     an official proceeding;

(2) cause or induce any person to--

(A) withhold testimony, or withhold a record, document, or other
object, from an official proceeding;

(B) alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with intent to
impair the object's integrity or availability for use in an official
proceeding;

(C) evade legal process summoning that person to appear as a
witness, or to produce a record, document, or other object, in an
official proceeding; or

(D) be absent from an official proceeding to which such person has
been summoned by legal process; or

(3) hinder, delay, or prevent the communication to a law enforcement
officer or judge of the United States of information relating to the
commission or possible commission of a Federal offense or a
violation of conditions of probation, parole, or release pending
judicial proceedings.

***

Bush's Snoopgate
     By Jonathan Alter
     Newsweek
     Monday 19 December 2005

The president was so desperate to kill the New York Times's
eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to
the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national
security.

Bush says he had "legal authority" to permit the National Security
Agency to listen in on American citizens without a warrant.

     Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex,
corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus
liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President
Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate - he made it seem as if those
who didn't agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda -
  but it will not work. We're seeing clearly now that Bush thought
9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no
doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

     No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not
publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on
American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the
administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on December
6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive
editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk
them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the
meeting, but one can only imagine the president's desperation.

     The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise
national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference. His
comparison to the damaging pre-9/11 revelation of Osama bin Laden's
use of a satellite phone, which caused bin Laden to change tactics,
is fallacious; any Americans with ties to Muslim extremists - in
fact, all American Muslims, period - have long since suspected that
the U.S. government might be listening in to their conversations.
Bush claimed that "the fact that we are discussing this program is
helping the enemy." But there is simply no evidence, or even
reasonable presumption, that this is so. And rather than the leaking
being a "shameful act," it was the work of a patriot inside the
government who was trying to stop a presidential power grab.

     No, Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this
important story - which the paper had already inexplicably held for
a year - because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker.
He insists he had "legal authority derived from the Constitution and
congressional resolution authorizing force." But the Constitution
explicitly requires the president to obey the law. And the post 9/11
congressional resolution authorizing "all necessary force" in
fighting terrorism was made in clear reference to military
intervention. It did not scrap the Constitution and allow the
president to do whatever he pleased in any area in the name of
fighting terrorism.

     What is especially perplexing about this story is that the 1978
law set up a special court to approve eavesdropping in hours, even
minutes, if necessary. In fact, the law allows the government to
eavesdrop on its own, then retroactively justify it to the court,
essentially obtaining a warrant after the fact. Since 1979, the FISA
court has approved tens of thousands of eavesdropping requests and
rejected only four. There was no indication the existing system was
slow - as the president seemed to claim in his press conference - or
in any way required extra-constitutional action.

     This will all play out eventually in congressional committees
and in the United States Supreme Court. If the Democrats regain
control of Congress, there may even be articles of impeachment
introduced. Similar abuse of power was part of the impeachment
charge brought against Richard Nixon in 1974.

     In the meantime, it is unlikely that Bush will echo President
Kennedy in 1961. After JFK managed to tone down a New York Times
story by Tad Szulc on the Bay of Pigs invasion, he confided to Times
editor Turner Catledge that he wished the paper had printed the
whole story because it might have spared him such a stunning defeat
in Cuba.

     This time, the president knew publication would cause him great
embarrassment and trouble for the rest of his presidency. It was for
that reason - and less out of genuine concern about national
security - that George W. Bush tried so hard to kill the New York
Times story.

***

Bush's Enemies List. Why Did Bush Commit an Illegal, Impachable Act
When All His Lawyers Had to Do Was Walk Into a Secret Court?
A Buzzflash.com News Analysis
12-20-5

Okay, so here's the real deal.

In the wake of the Nixon abuses of our Constitution, our liberties
and our privacy, Congress (in 1978) set up a secret court that the
Executive Branch must -- by law -- go to if it is seeking wiretaps
or surveillance of foreigners or Americans "suspected" of terrorism
or espionage.

This is the law.

It was passed by Congress to prevent the kind of abuse that the Bush
Administration is guilty of. This law is called the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

This secret court (the last we knew it was headed by GOP hack
partisan federal judge David Sentelle -- who got Poindexter and
North off the hook and put Kenneth Starr on the job -- but that may
have changed) has never been known to deny a government request for
wiretapping, surveillance or searches.

So, if the secret court always approves the White House requests for
wiretapping, surveillance and searches, why did the White House get
its approval in some cases (with a dramatic increase of court
approved spying under Bush) but not others?

Why did the Bush Administration need to engage in the illegal spying
of American citizens in hundreds if not thousands of cases if the
court so acquiescently approved of its requests?

We know that Bush fashions himself a dictator who can create the law
as he sees fit. But why go to the trouble and potential legal and
political problems if all his administration had to do was go to the
secret court, which, we repeat, always approves the White House
requests? And no one's known of a leak coming out of this secret
court.

Ah, there's the rub.

The answer is that the White House didn't go through the legal
process on these specific cases and, instead, committed a grossly
illegal violation of the U.S. Constitution and a Congressional law
specifically designed to protect such executive branch abuses for
one reason -- and that reason likely has to do with who was under
surveillance, who was being wiretapped and who was being illegally
searched.

In short, if the American public were to see the list of hundreds --
and perhaps thousands of people according to the New York Times --
the Bush Administration violated the law to spy on, we might see
names akin to Nixon's "enemies list." Only in this case, it would be
Bush's "enemies list."

Why, we might see names like Joe and Valerie Wilson, or Richard
Clarke, or Cindy Sheehan, among others. The White House wouldn't
want even a secret court to know that it was spying on political
enemies. This was exactly why the FISA law was passed. To prevent
just such illegal political spying by the White House.

Yesterday, the New York Times (which suddenly has awakened from a
decades long slumber) also reported that the FBI was spying on
domestic advocacy groups -- and let's just say that they weren't
groups complaining that "liberals are conducting a war on
Christmas." They were groups that are at odds with the Bush agenda,
expressing their viewpoints -- as is their Constitutional right --
under the American Constitution.

So what we have here is a White House that is using illegal actions
to spy on American citizens who the same White House considers not a
threat to the United States, but a political threat to their one-
party, dictatorial rule.

That, dear readers, is tyranny.

It is why there was an American Revolution against King George.

It is why the Democrats would be enabling treason if they reach
any "compromise" on the UnPatriot Act.

No one can anymore have an excuse for putting blinders on.

Bush has failed in his "war on terrorism." It is only a political
tool for him, not a national security goal. He uses it as a cudgel
of fear to cow wobbly, weak kneed Democrats into submission. But,
meanwhile, we are less safe as Americans because of Bush's
incompetent leadership -- and he is conducting a war on our
Constitution and decent at the same time. That is the war that
really interests him.

Those who would sacrifice our liberties and our freedoms can be
terrorists or they can be people in the White House.

Both are a threat to our democracy.

Right now, the Bush Administration is the one who is dismantling our
Constitution, spying on us, invading our privacy, denying us our
liberty, and acting illegally.

If the Democrats don't push back with passion, courage and
conviction, we are doomed to live under the yoke of tyranny.

It will take dedicated patriots to save us.

This is not about business as usual. This is about law breakers and
preserving the legacy of the American Revolution.

This is about letting the terrorists win by allowing an
administration to do their work of undermining democracy for them.

This is about justice.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Bush and Cheney are saying that the briefings that HIll leaders got
on his domestic spying operation demostrate how respectful they are
of oversight, checks and balances, advise & consent -- you know, the
kind of freedom stuff we're fighting for in Iraq.

But take a look at this letter, just released by Senator Jay
Rockefeller, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee (via
Josh Marshall).

He wrote it to Cheney in 2003, after he learned about the
wiretapping-without-FISA-court-approval maneuver. It's handwritten --
  because no one in the meeting could tell anyone else about it, not
even a typist. Rockefeller told Cheney he could not endorse the
program. He said he was keeping a sealed copy of the letter -- for a
moment just like this.

Doubtless Republican Pat Roberts, the Kansas toady who chairs the
Senate Intelligence Committee, got with the Bush program; after all,
he's the one who's stopped the investigation of Administration
misuse of pre-war intelligence for nearly two years, until Harry
Reid forced the Senate into private session.

Bush says we should trust him, because he swore an oath of office.
If his briefings of Congress on domestic spying are an example of
what he thinks it means to submit to oversight, maybe this will
stiffen the spine of some Democrats enough for them now to tell the
White House what advise and consent really means -- and the matter
of Sam Alito provides an awfully appropriate opportunity to do that.

***

A Time to Impeach
By Doug Ireland, Direland
Posted on December 20, 2005
http://www.alternet.org

When the U.S. Senate last Friday refused to renew the liberticidal
Patriot Act -- with its provisions for spying on Americans' use of
libraries and the Internet, among other Constitution-shredding
provisions of that iniquitous law -- it was in part because that
morning's New York Times had revealed how Bush and his White House
had committed a major crime.

By ordering the National Security Agency -- the N.S.A, so secretive
that in Washington its initials are said to stand for "No Such
Agency" -- to wiretap and eavesdrop on thousands of American
citizens without a court order, Bush committed actions specifically
forbidden by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Passed in 1978 after the Senate's Church Committee documented in
detail the Nixon administration's widespread use of U.S.
intelligence agencies to spy on the anti-Vietnam war movement and
other political dissidents, FISA "expressly made it a crime for
government officials 'acting under color of law' to engage in
electronic eavesdropping 'other than pursuant to statute.'", as the
director of the Center for National Security Studies, Kate Martin,
told the Washington Post this past weekend.

And the FISA statute required authorization of the secret Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court to make such domestic spying legal.
Bush and his NSA sought no such authorization before invading
American citizens' right to privacy -- a blatant flouting of the law
that made both wavering Democrats and libertarian Republicans mad
enough to vote against extending the hideous Patriot Act, which
thankfully will now expire at the end of the year.

Bush not only acknowledged, and defended, this illegal eavesdropping
in a Saturday radio address, he went further in a Monday morning
press conference, saying he'd "suggested" it. But as Wisconsin
Democratic Senator Russ Feingold -- who, together with conservative
Idaho Republican Larry Craig, led the filibuster that defeated the
Patriot Act's renewal -- said this weekend, "This is not how our
democratic system of government works--the president does not get to
pick and choose which laws he wants to follow."

But Bush had plenty of bipartisan help from Democratic co-
conspirators in keeping knowledge of this illegal spying from
reaching the American public. It began in November 2001, in the wake
of 9/11, and -- from the very first briefing for Congressional
leaders by Dick Cheney until today -- Democrats on the Senate and
House Intelligence Committees were told about it. Those witting and
complicit in hiding the crime included Democratic Senator John D.
Rockefeller IV, former chairman and later ranking member of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, and House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi, former ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee.
They knew it was a crime -- Rockefeller, for example, warned the
administration against it -- and yet did not make it public. They
were frightened by polls showing security hysteria at its height.

Worse, the New York Times itself was part of the coverup. When it
broke its scoop last Friday, the Times in its article admitted
that, "After meeting with senior administration officials to hear
their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to
conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration
officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted."

In other words, the Times sat on its story until after the 2004
presidential elections, when American voters might have been able to
stop this criminal conduct by voting out the criminal. Not content
with employing Judith Miller as the megaphone for relaying the Bush
administration's lies about Saddam's having weapons of mass
destruction, the Times again proved its servility to power by not
telling its readers it knew of criminal spying on them for an entire
year, until the election cycle was long past. Yet this aspect of the
Times' story has gone unremarked in the mass media.

Bush's excuses for the illegal eavesdropping are indeed risible. The
Times didn't mention it, but of 19,000 requests for eavesdropping
the Federal Intelligence Security Court has received from the
Executive Branch since 1979, only five have ever been refused. Bush
claimed again on Monday that this flagrant flouting of the FISA law
was necessary because fighting "terrorists" needed to be
done "quickly." Yet, as the Times reported, the secret court can
grant approval for wiretaps "within hours."

And the excuse Bush offered Monday morning that this illegal
subversion of FISA was necessary to prevent 9/11-style terrorism is
equally laughable. As the ACLU pointed out in a study of FISA two
years ago, "Although the Patriot Act was rushed into law just weeks
after 9/11, Congress's later investigation into the attacks did not
find that the former limits on FISA powers had contributed to the
government's failure to prevent the attacks."

A Zogby poll released Nov. 4 showed that, when asked if they agreed
that, "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons
for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him
accountable through impeachment," Americans answered yes by 53
percent to 42 percent. It is therefore not simply extremist raving
to suggest that impeachment of George Bush should be put on the
table.

Remember that, in the impeachment of Richard Nixon, Article 2 of the
three Articles of Impeachment dealt with illegal wiretapping of
Americans. It said that Nixon committed a crime "by directing or
authorizing [intelligence] agencies or personnel to conduct or
continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for
purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or
any other lawful function of his office."

There was no national security justification for Bush's illegal NSA
wiretaps -- which could easily have been instituted by following the
FISA law's provisions -- and, instead of being related
to "enforcement of laws," Bush's eavesdropping was indisputably in
contravention of the law of the land.

And when a president commits a crime in violation of his oath of
office swearing to uphold the law, it is time to impeach.

Doug Ireland writes the blog, Direland.

"We make the selection with a focus on the impact someone has had on
the lives of others. There is no doubt that this person has had a most
positive influence on the democracy he has championed throughout his
political career."

http://tvnewslies.org/html/2005_person_of_the_year.html

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2005
     By Norman Solomon
     t r u t h o u t | Perspective
     Tuesday 20 December 2005

     More than a dozen years ago, I joined with Jeff Cohen (founder
of the media watch group FAIR) to establish the P.U.-litzer Prizes.
Ever since then, the annual awards have given recognition to the
stinkiest media performances of the year.

     It is regrettable that only a few journalists can win a P.U.-
litzer. In 2005, a large volume of strong competitors made the
selection process very difficult.

     And now, the fourteenth annual P.U.-litzer Prizes, for the
foulest media performances of 2005:

     "First Do Some Harm" Award - Radio reporter Michael Linder

     Linder, a correspondent for KNX Radio in Los Angeles, was a
media observer at the December 13 execution of Stanley Tookie
Williams by lethal injection. In a report that aired on a national
NPR newscast, Linder said: "The first hint that it would be a
difficult medical procedure came as they tried to insert the needle
into his right arm." Medical procedure? During his brief report,
Linder used the phrase twice as he described the execution. George
Orwell's ears must have been burning.

     Self-Praise Stealth Prize - William Kristol and Charles
Krauthammer

     Effusive with praise for George W. Bush's second inaugural
address on January 20, Kristol told Fox News viewers that they'd
just watched "a very eloquent speech ... one of the most powerful
speeches, one of the most impressive speeches, I think I've seen an
American president give." Appearing on the same network, Krauthammer
was no less enthusiastic as he likened Bush to John F. Kennedy and
called the speech "revolutionary." But neither pundit mentioned that
they'd been advisers who helped to write the speech.

     Put Them in Chains Award - Bill O'Reilly

     "You must know the difference between dissent from the Iraq war
and the war on terror and undermining it," O'Reilly told his
national audience on June 20. "And any American that undermines that
war, with our soldiers in the field, or undermines the war on
terror, with 3,000 dead on 9/11, is a traitor. Everybody got it?
Dissent, fine; undermining, you're a traitor. Got it? So, all those
clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them
immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and
just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining
everything and they don't care, couldn't care less."

     Mickey Mouse Journalism Prize - Correspondent Mike Barz and ABC

     During a September 12 report that aired on ABC's "Good Morning
America," Barz explained: "Based on all the smiles on all the faces
of the children ... it looks like the magic of Disney is taking hold
in China." It was a very upbeat report about a new Disney-owned
theme park - on a TV network owned by Disney.

     Outsourced to the Pentagon Award - New York Times reporter
Judith Miller

     In October, after pressure built for Miller to explain her pre-
war reliance on dubious sources while frequently reporting that
Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction, she agreed
to be interviewed by the Times. The newspaper's October 16 edition
quoted her as saying: "WMD - I got it totally wrong. The analysts,
the experts and the journalists who covered them - we were all
wrong. If your sources are wrong, you are wrong." But easily
available sources were not "all wrong." Many experts - including
weapons inspectors Mohamed ElBaradei, Hans Blix and Scott Ritter -
rebutted key White House claims about WMDs month after month before
the invasion.

     All the President's Man Prize - Bob Woodward

     During a November 21 appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," the
famous Washington Post journalist struggled to explain why - for
more than two years - he didn't disclose that a government official
told him the wife of Bush war-policy critic Joe Wilson was
undercover CIA employee Valerie Plame. Even after the Plame leaks
turned into a big scandal rocking the Bush administration, Woodward
failed to tell any Post editor about his own involvement - though he
may have been the first journalist to receive one of those leaks.
What's more, in TV and radio appearances, he disparaged the
investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

     Prime Slime News Award - Nancy Grace and CNN Headline News

     Since debuting in late February, the hour-long nightly "Nancy
Grace" program has broken new ground with salacious prime-time
programming on a so-called news channel. Promoted as "one of TV's
most experienced and passionate legal analysts ... drawing on her
unique perspective as a former violent crimes prosecutor and as a
crime victim herself," the host has taken prime-time "news" to new
cesspools of prurience and exploitation of human suffering. "This is
no script, no made-for-TV drama, it's the real thing," Grace
promises, "real people with real stories." On a typical evening, the
show led with these stories: "Tonight, breaking news. Human bones,
human teeth - police come across a gruesome scene at a Wisconsin car
salvage yard, where they say it looks like somebody may have burned
a body.... Plus, a husband in court today for spiking his wife's
Gatorade with anti-freeze, enough to kill her."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
     Norman Solomon is the author of the new book War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. For information,
go to: WarMadeEasy.com.

*****

World Socialist Web Site
WSWS.org

Time names super-rich trio as 2005 "Persons of the Year"
By Kate Randall
22 December 2005

The past year witnessed a number of horrific human tragedies. As
2005 began, South Asia was reeling from the powerful tsunami that
struck December 26, 2004, washing away the lives of hundreds of
thousands in a matter of minutes and ravaging an entire region of
the globe.

On August 29, Hurricane Katrina hit the US Gulf Coast. Up to a
million people were displaced, their lives uprooted and their
communities destroyed. The official death toll of 1,323 does not
begin to capture the dimensions of the catastrophe. Almost four
months later, families are scattered, tens of thousands remain
without permanent housing and more than a thousand children are
still listed as missing.

Then on October 8, a massive earthquake hit northern Pakistan and
Indian-controlled Kashmir, resulting in upwards of 80,000 confirmed
casualties and leaving hundreds of thousands of refugees as the
frigid winter months approached.

The victims of these tragedies were overwhelmingly poor, the vast
majority still suffering to this day due in large part to the lack
of preparation and allocation of adequate resources combined with
the indifference of government authorities. Millions of ordinary
people around the world looked on in horror, responding with an
outpouring of sympathy and compassion for those affected. Many
volunteered their time or made personal donations to relief agencies.

Taking the year's events into account, one struggles to come to
grips with Time's seemingly bizarre naming on Monday of two
multibillionaires—Bill and Melinda Gates—and one multimillionaire—
U2's Bono—as their 2005 Persons of the Year for their altruistic
work. In a year dominated by an endless string of natural disasters,
which laid bare in their wake vast social inequalities and misery,
the actions of these three massively wealthy individuals have had a
negligible impact.

Time magazine's annual selection of its Man, Woman or Persons of the
Year is not necessarily based on popularity. Past choices have
included Adolf Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939, 1942), Richard
Nixon (1971, 1972) and George Bush (2004). But the magazine's choice
is said to be based on people who have "made a difference" in the
course of the year—for better or for worse.

For 2005, Time writes that the Gateses and Bono have been
selected "for being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics
and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope
strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow." In reality, the
primary reason they have been selected is because of their immense
personal fortunes. From the viewpoint of the editorial offices of
the mass media in America, wealth and power dazzle and impress, and
should be duly acknowledged. It matters not that these Persons of
the Year travel in an orbit thoroughly disconnected from the lives
of the overwhelming majority of the world's population.

For Time's editors, equally important as their wealth is the way
these three have gone about their philanthropic missions. Everything
they do reinforces the notion that the capitalist free-market system
can be manipulated for the charitable good. The super-rich can do
good deeds through private charity—or by squeezing out token funds
from the governments of the world's richest nations—and at the end
of the day, the class divide between the haves and the have-nots
remains in place.

Just how much money are we talking about? Bill Gates's fortune is
estimated at a staggering $46.5 billion. To put this into
perspective, the Microsoft head's net worth is almost 1 million
times the annual salary of a working family earning $50,000. The
Gates couple and their three children live in a $100 million home.
When they travel to far-flung regions of the globe on their charity
missions for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they do so on
their private jet, and check in to luxury suites at the most
exclusive hotels before making their way to meet with "the people."

The Gates Foundation has a $29 billion endowment. This year, the
Gateses gave about $500,000 to the Grand Challenges in Global
Health, one of the charity initiatives applauded by Time. But again,
from the standpoint of their vast wealth, this is only about 1
percent of the Gateses' net worth.

While Bono is a small-fry in comparison, Time notes that it's not
unusual for the U2 front-man to spend "several thousand dollars at a
restaurant for a nice Pinot Noir." He owns a penthouse in Manhattan,
a villa in the South of France and another home in Dublin.

His band has made $1.1 billion through record sales and concert
appearances, and is ranked by some as the 10th richest band in
history. Aside from his music-related business, Bono is a named
partner in a $2 billion private equity firm.

Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, also produce the Edun clothing line—
selling $175 jeans and other high-priced garments made from organic
materials at stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue. This designer
clothing is produced by workers at so-called "fair-trade" factories
the couple has set up in Africa. Bono makes a point of noting that
this is not charity work, but rather a business concern
representing "a different kind of label consciousness."

Perhaps the most insidious side of Bono's philanthropic work,
however, is his enthusiasm for hobnobbing with just about any
politician who will listen. In 2002, he embarked on a 10-day African
tour with the Bush administration's treasury secretary at the time,
Paul O'Neill, lending credence to the concept that the US
would "open its wallet" to the masses of Africa. (See "Bono and
O'Neill's African tour: low farce against a backdrop of human
tragedy")

He recently lunched with George W. Bush at the White House. Meeting
with the leader of the capitalist nation whose economic policies are
responsible for the enslavement and poverty of millions in Africa,
Bono heaped praise on the miserly $15 billion the Bush
administration has pledged to combat AIDS in Africa through the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), funds linked to
the administration's Christian-right agenda. Bono reportedly takes
to quoting the Scriptures during such visits.

Bono played a leading role at the Live 8 events last July in
Scotland. Along with Bob Geldof and a coalition of non-governmental
organizations and church groups constituting the "Make Poverty
History" campaign, Bono prostrated himself before Bush, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and the other assembled G8 leaders as part
of the "Live 8" concert events. (See " `Live 8'—a political fraud on
behalf of imperialism")

At the affair, Bono made the remarkable comment that if "Bush in his
second term is as bold in his commitments to Africa as he was in the
first term, he indeed deserves a place in history in turning the
fate of that continent around." In fact, the $40 billion pledged by
the G8 in debt forgiveness to African nations over 10 years must be
offset by a corresponding cut in aid to the poor countries. Those
nations must also pledge to "boost private sector development" and
eliminate all "impediments to private investment, both domestic and
foreign."

By playing it safe in its selection of Bono and the Gateses, Time
also sidestepped one of the year's biggest stories: the deepening
debacle in Iraq. The grim milestone of 2,000 US soldiers killed in
the war and occupation was passed in October. Opposition to the Bush
administration's policies—both in Iraq and at home—intensified. One
mother, Cindy Sheehan—who lost her son to this war—galvanized this
antiwar sentiment. From the viewpoint of people who make a
difference, and provoked controversy, she would have made a more apt
choice.

If a collective selection were to be made, what about 2,157 US
soldiers who have been killed to date in Afghanistan and Iraq; or
the Iraqi people, who have been subjugated to colonial oppression,
with tens of thousands killed as a result?

As it is, Time's selection of Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates is in
keeping with the US media's glorification of wealth and the status
quo. It is a barometer of what passes today for mass public opinion,
but which is foreign to the lives not only of American working
people, but of mass of the world's population that is untouched by
the charity work of this super-rich trio. The message being
propagated by Time? Big business is compatible with compassion.

This conformist and opportunist outlook was summed up by Bono in
remarks quoted by Time in their "Persons of the Year" issue.
Standing on the balcony of his Manhattan apartment overlooking
Central Park, Bono commented, "You know what my least favorite John
Lennon song is? `Imagine.' At the root of it is some rigorous
thinking about the way things could be, but people have stolen the
idea and made it an anthem for wishful thinking. I'm against wishful
thinking. I hate it."

*****

On civil liberties myopia: Bush didn't start the war on the Bill of
Rights
By Joshua Frank and Merlin Chowkwanyun
Online Journal Contributing Writers
Dec 23, 2005

So when did the assault on Americans' civil liberties get kick-
started? The current liberal establishment seems to deem 9/11 the
chief catalyst. Many of the most influential members of the liberal
club imply that drastic incursions on Americans' civil liberties
only began after 9/11, while the Clinton administration represented
a civil liberties paradise.

Take John Kerry partisan drone and stand-up comedian Margaret Cho,
who at a MoveOn.org benefit, railed: "I mean, I'm afraid of
terrorism, but I'm more afraid of the Patriot Act," even though her
candidate of choice not only voted for the legislation but authored
many of its components.

Or how about Albert Gore, who in 2003 exclaimed: "They have taken us
much farther down the road toward an intrusive, Big Brother-style
government -- toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his
book '1984' -- than anyone ever thought would be possible in the
United States of America."

With such a sour musk in the air, it is unsurprising that hysteria
reigned supreme over how much George W. Bush's administration was to
blame for the police conduct at the Republican National Convention
last summer, where more than a thousand protestors were detained for
up to 50 hours prior to being released. This infringement was indeed
awful -- but hardly unique to the Bush years alone.

In early 2002, more than 20 FBI agents raided the home of Southern
California African-American anarchist Sherman Austin's mother and
seized her son's computers, which he used to run a political
website. Austin was later charged and sentenced to a year in prison
for "distribution" of information about making or using explosives
with the "intent" that the information "be used for, or in
furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of
violence."

Austin did not author the information, which was housed on a section
of the site he allocated to a teenager who then proceeded to upload
the instructions. The obscure federal statute used against Austin,
and which carried many implications for free speech, hit the books
long before Bush in the late 1990s with the legislative shepherding
of Dianne Feinstein, Democrat. Liberal sedatives like the American
Prospect and The Nation wrote absolutely nothing about Austin's case.

During the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, for
example, police arrested Ruckus Society founder John Sellers for
walking down the street. At the 2000 Democratic National Convention
in LA, police brutality easily exceeded anything seen at the New
York City Republican National Convention, where an outdoor Rage
Against the Machine concert came to an abrupt end when riot police
fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protestors and many non-
participating bystanders.

Going back a bit further to 1999, during the WTO protests in
Seattle, riot police beat up marchers and sprayed tear gas and shot
rubber bullets indiscriminately. Several downtown areas were locked
out to protesters, as well as public parks, where individuals could
not even wear anti-WTO paraphernalia.

As Jeffrey St. Clair wrote in Five Days That Shook the World: "Tear
gas canisters were unloaded and then five or six of them were fired
into the crowd. One of the protesters nearest the cops was a young,
petite woman. She rose up, obviously disoriented from the gas, and a
Seattle policeman, crouched less than 10 feet away, shot her in the
knee with a rubber bullet. She fell to the pavement, grabbing her
leg and screaming in pain. Then, moments later, one of her comrades,
maddened by the unprovoked attack, charged the police line, Kamikaze-
style. Two cops beat him to the ground with their batons, hitting
him at least 20 times."

At the regional level, a May Day 2001 march in Long Beach,
California, ended similarly, with many activists having to enter the
emergency room because of wounds inflicted by police officers, some
of which left rubber bullets lodged under skins. May Day protesters
amassing in Portland, Oregon, in 2000 experienced similar acts when
police violently corralled activists, forcing them to retreat for
fear of being stampeded by mounted police horses.

Then there's the racist and institutionalized police state that
existed throughout the 1980s but really took new hold during the
1990s with the Clinton-era spike in the so-called "War on Drugs"
activity, which has led to record incarceration of African-
Americans, Latinos, and women. Fraternities have long existed in
major metropolitan police departments, wherein members ascend the
ranks for beatings, flouting guidelines, and planting evidence. When
one individual instance of this was exposed, as happened when police
officers in LA's Ramparts district were found to have planted drug
evidence, commentators preferred to describe it as a slight blight
on an otherwise functioning system, whereas it actually represented
an extremity of the norm.

Racist profiling, harassment of black and Latino youth under the
guise of "anti-gang" activity, and no-knock SWAT raids on the homes
of non-whites supposedly in possession of drugs or illegal weapons,
increased dramatically under Bill Clinton. And how about the latest
admission from President Bush that his government has been
eavesdropping on US citizens? Under Clinton the National Security
Agency tapped millions of private phone calls placed by Americans
under a super secret program called Echelon.

In fact, what we are seeing today is a logical continuation of a
foundation laid during the Clinton era. The anti-Bushites forget
that the USAPATRIOT Act amended a series of existing laws, most
notably the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act,
which increased the number of capital crimes and severely curtailed
right of appeal such that death penalty defendants only have six
months to a year for preparing an appeal. Because of lax enforcement
of the Freedom of Information Act and comparable state statutes,
many defendants do not even receive necessary documents in time and
are consequentially in danger of execution without a fair and
thorough appeal.

Although Michael Moore, hero of the liberal establishment and
uninformed "activists" who view Bush bashing as social glue, claims
to have read the USAPATRIOT Act in his film Fahrenheit 9/11, the two
cases he cites in the film's segment on the USAPATRIOT Act have
absolutely nothing to do with the legislation. Local law
enforcement's infiltration of activist groups (Moore's first case)
and law enforcement's questioning of the politically outspoken (case
two) occurred during the 1990s, particularly after the WTO protests.

For foreigners and immigrants on American soil as well as the
Guantanomo prisoners, both egregiously skipped over in Moore's
movie, post-9/11 legal changes have resulted in sweeping rights to
detain, torture and harass. But this is not something that entirely
rests with Bush Jr.

In actuality, the Democrats ushered in the legislation that made
this possible, with Russ Feingold the only Senator to oppose the
USAPATRIOT Act (but just happened to cross over and confirm John
Ashcroft as attorney general).

The Democrats hardly have made it an issue since, and instead have
gone ahead and condoned the appointment of Bush's "torture memos"
guru, Alberto Gonzales, to replace John Ashcroft as attorney
general. Democrat Patrick Leahy gushed: "I like him." Were the
Democrats actually to wage a fight beyond the current rhetorical
ruses, holding up Gonzales's confirmation for an extra week, they
might have actually forced the Republicans to propose someone other
than this brute.

In short, ascribing all the civil liberties problems of this country
to one date, September 11, 2001, and one administration, George W.
Bush's, the liberal establishment has avoided any unpleasant
analysis of our systemic civil liberties problems that might point
back in its members' direction. Sure it is wonderful the USAPATRIOT
Act reauthorization is meeting some opposition in the Senate, but
let's not forget who supported the egregious bit of legislation in
the first place.

If we only blame Bush, we're only getting it half right.

Joshua Frank is the author of "Left Out!: How Liberals Helped
Reelect George W. Bush." He is also the editor of the radical news
blog, BrickBurner.org. He can be reached at brickburner@....

Merlin Chowkwanyun is a doctoral candidate at the University of
Pennsylvania.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Did a Woman Serve as Pope in the Ninth Century?
ABCNews.com
Myth has it that Pope Joan impersonated a man to lead the Catholic
Church but the jig was up when she gave birth.

(Dec. 29) -- In a medieval mystery of the Catholic Church lies
evidence of a woman pope, with clues buried in ancient parchment,
artwork and writings, even in tarot cards and a bizarre chair once
used in a Vatican ritual.

Was there a Pope Joan -- a woman with nerve enough to disguise
herself as a man and serve as pope for more than two years in the
ninth century? It is one of the world's oldest mysteries. Her story
first appeared in histories written by medieval monks, but today the
Catholic Church dismisses it.

"Ninety percent of me thinks there was a Pope Joan," says Mary
Malone, a former nun who wrote a history of women and Christianity.

Donna Cross, a novelist who spent seven years researching the time
period, says the historical evidence is there. "I would say it's the
weight of evidence -- over 500 chronicle accounts of her existence."

Escaping a Brutal Life

Life was often short and brutal for women living in A.D. 800.

"No woman would have been allowed to appear on the streets in
public," says Malone. "That named you as a prostitute immediately.
Women were confined to their homes."

In the town of Mainz, Germany, where it is thought the girl who
might have became Pope Joan grew up, most people lived in mud huts.
The average life span was only 30 or 40 years.

But English missionaries were bringing Christianity to Germany, and
they created a monastery called Fulda, which became a center of
education, books and conversation for travelers -- but it was only
for boys.

In his "History of Emperors and Popes," a monk named Martin Polonus
who was a close adviser to the pope wrote about a young woman from
Mainz who learned Greek and Latin and became "proficient in a
diversity of branches of knowledge."

Cross and other historians say a girl studying at the monastery
would have no choice but to disguise herself as a boy. But how was
it possible to keep the secret?

"First of all, you might want to remember that clerical robes are
very body-disguising," says Cross. "Also, in the ninth century,
personal hygiene was nonexistent. Nobody bathed. They washed their
hands, their face, their feet, but they didn't bathe."

Also, clergy members were required to be clean shaven, and
malnutrition made most men and women physically gaunt.

Polonus wrote that this woman was "led to Athens dressed in the
clothes of a man by a certain lover of hers." Then, according to the
500 accounts, the woman made her way to Rome.

In the ninth century, Rome and the Vatican were nothing like today's
solemn and civilized center of culture and faith. Then the center of
the Christian faith was home to bawdy monks, scheming cardinals,
cross-dressing saints, intrigue, melodrama, corruption and violence.

"Popes ... killed each other off, hammered each other to death,"
says Mary Malone, the former nun. "There were 12-year-old popes ...
we have knowledge of a 5-year-old archbishop. ... It was a very odd
time in history."

That also means it would have been a time of opportunity for someone
with ambition and nerve. The chronicles say that's how Joan, known
as John Anglicus, or English John, became secretary to a curia, a
cardinal, and then, as Polonus writes, "the choice of all for pope"
in the year A.D. 855.

Clues in Art

If you travel to Italy and ask questions about Pope Joan, many
people will direct you toward the clues embedded in art, literature
and architecture.

The Renaissance poet Giovanni Boccaccio, best known for writing "The
Decameron," also wrote a book on "100 Famous Women." No. 51 is Pope
Joan.

Rare book dealers in Rome pull ancient tarot cards from their
shelves. The card for hidden knowledge is "La Papessa" -- the Female
Pope.

  ''Popes ... killed each other off, hammered each other to death.
There were 12-year-old popes... we have knowledge of a 5-year-old
archbishop... It was a very odd time in history.''

-- Mary Malone, a former nun who wrote a history of women and
Christianity, on ninth century Rome and the Vatican

Travel north to Siena to the Duomo, where inside the cathedral is a
gallery of terra-cotta busts depicting 170 popes, in no particular
order. In the 17th century, Cardinal Baronuis, the Vatican
librarian, wrote that one of the faces was a female -- Joan the
Female Pope.

Baronius also wrote that the pope at the time decreed that the
statue be destroyed, but some say the local archbishop didn't want a
good statue go to waste.

"The statue was transformed," believes Cross. "I mean, literally, it
was scraped off, her name and written on top of Pope Zachary."

At the Basilica in St. Peter's Square are carvings by Bernini, one
of the most famous artists of the 17th century. Among the carvings
are eight images of a woman wearing a papal crown, and the images
seem to tell the story of a woman giving birth and a baby being born.

Medieval manuscripts tell a similar tale: Two-and-a-half years into
her reign, Pope Joan was in the midst of a papal procession, a three-
mile trip to the Church of the Lateran in Rome, when suddenly at a
crossroads, she felt sharp pains in her stomach.

She was having contractions, the stories say. The unthinkable
happened -- the pope was having a baby.

"And then, shock and horror," says Malone. "And then the story gets
very confused, because some of the records say she was killed and
her child was killed right on the spot. Other records say she was
sent to a convent and that her son grew up and later became bishop
of Ostia."

Stories vary -- some say the crowd stoned her to death, others say
she was dragged from the tail of a horse -- but in most accounts,
Pope Joan perished that day.

In the decades that followed, the intersection was called the Vicus
Papissa -- the Street of the Female Pope -- and for more than 100
years, popes would take a detour to avoid the shameful intersection.

Polonus writes: "The Lord Pope always turns aside from the
street ... because of the abhorrence of the event."

Or Just an Urban Legend?

The modern Catholic Church and many scholars dismiss the story of
Pope Joan as a sort of Dark Ages urban legend.

Valerie Hotchkiss, a professor of medieval studies at Southern
Methodist University in Texas, says that the story of Pope Joan was
actually added to Martin Polonus' manuscript after he died.

"So he didn't write it, but it was put in very soon after his death,
like around 1280 to 1290," says Hotchkiss. "And everyone picks it up
from Martin Polonus."

Medieval monks were like copy machines, say some scholars, simply
replicating mistakes into the historical record.

"And they're picking it up from each other and changing it and
embellishing it," Hotchkiss says.

Monsignor Charles Burns, the former head of the Vatican secret
archives, says the story intrigued people in the Middle Ages just as
it intrigues people today. "This was almost like an Agatha
Christie," he says, referring to the classic mystery writer.

Burns says there is no evidence and no documentation in the secret
archives that Pope Joan existed, no relic of Pope John Anglicus
anywhere.

And disbelievers can explain away the other clues. The Bernini
sculptures were modeled after the niece of the pope; the Vicus
Papissa was named for a woman who lived in the area.

Powerful, Dangerous Women

Yet even those who laugh at the story of the female pope agree that
the story opens a window on the history of women and sex in the
Catholic Church. Women were at one time a potent and threatening
force in the medieval church.

Many scholars say there were many women martyrs in that era, women
who were tortured for their religious beliefs. And there were women
who became saints while cross-dressing as monks.

St. Eugenia, for example, became a monk while disguised as a boy,
and was so convincing she was brought to court on charges of
fathering a local woman's child. She finally proved her innocence
only by baring her breasts in public.

"There are over 30 saints' lives in which women dress as men for a
variety of reasons, and with a variety of outcomes," says Hotchkiss,
who has written about these "transvestite nuns."

Perhaps most threatening to the church were two groups of women
known as beguines and mystics, who claimed they could bypass the
church hierarchy and communicate directly with God.

"And they really terrified the church because they went around
saying things like 'My real name is God,'" says Malone. "And so
mysticism, then, gave these women ... an access to God that was
parallel to the church."

These powerful women could have inspired a so-called crackdown by
the church after A.D. 1000, consolidating its ranks and reaffirming
the rules on celibacy among its priests, a requirement that's still
controversial today.

One school of thought says the story of Pope Joan was invented as a
cautionary tale. The lesson to women: Don't even think about
reaching for power or you will end up like her -- exposed and
humiliated.

Another school argues that it was the fear of female power that led
the church to essentially expunge Pope Joan from history.

But how do historians explain the enormous purple marble chair on
which popes once sat as they were crowned. The chair has a strange
opening, something like a toilet seat, reportedly used to
check "testiculos habet" -- or whether the pope had testicles.

David Dawson Vasquez, the director of Catholic University of
America's Rome program, says that the Vatican was just using the
most impressive chair it had.

"Because it's elaborate, it's purple. It was the most expensive
marble of Roman times, and so it was only used for the emperor,"
Vasquez says. "The hole is there because it was used by the imperial
Romans, perhaps as a toilet, perhaps as a birthing chair. It doesn't
matter if there's a hole there, because you can still sit there and
be crowned."

Others say it was a symbol of the pope giving birth to the mother
church. Either way, newly minted Protestants in the 1500s had a
field day making fun of the chair, and so it was hidden from view.

And so the last relic in the tale of Pope Joan is withdrawn. But
Pope Joan lives on in some other place, in the shadows of a Dark
Ages legend that is terrifying to some and inspiring to others.


Dec. 29, 2005

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The Morality of 'Munich'
By Jordan Elgrably, AlterNet
Posted on December 24, 2005

In 1972, Black September, a wing of Arafat's Al Fatah movement
kidnapped and then killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team
during the Munich games. This set in motion a series of reprisals by
the Israelis, including targeted assassinations of Palestinians, and
continuing acts of terrorism by militant groups against Israeli,
European and American targets. Today we are no closer to an end to
the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem,
nor to a lasting peace agreement that addresses equally the needs of
both Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

Now comes "Munich," a Hollywood feature film, co-written by
playwright Tony Kushner and screenwriter Eric Roth, and directed by
Steven Spielberg. Even before the film's release, neo-conservative
critics have attacked what they perceive as a liberal bias in the
film's portrayal of Palestinian terrorists and their would-be
Israeli assassins.

Never having considered Spielberg a political filmmaker, I went to
an early screening of "Munich" with low expectations, surprised that
he would even tackle the subject. Yet the story that unfolded proved
to be an incisive argument against the use of violence, under any
circumstances, as a means to achieve political objectives. While the
Munich attack brought the Palestinian struggle into millions of
homes around the world and as such put the decades-old conflict on
the map, it also embroiled Israeli intelligence services in black
operations to assassinate its enemies wherever they might be found.
Palestinian terrorism created an image problem for the Palestinian
people, whose best interests I would argue were, and still are
betrayed by savage acts of violence against Israeli civilians.

And by engaging Black September and other terrorist groups on their
own violent terms, Israel betrayed its declared values as a Western-
style democracy that eschewed the death penalty in 1954 for ordinary
crimes (and only exercised the death penalty once, for Adolf
Eichmann's "extraordinary" crimes, in 1962).

Like Hany Abu-Assad's recent film "Paradise Now," which humanizes
two would-be Palestinian suicide bombers from Nablus, "Munich" is as
much an argument about the futility of violence to resolve conflict
as it is a cogent historical drama. It is shot in a gritty
documentary style and may remind some filmgoers of the early work of
European director Costas-Gavras, his political thriller "Z" in
particular.

In fact, "Munich" is the work of a mature filmmaker -- one who does
not appear beholden to popular American Jewish opinion that Israel
is always the underdog. The film depicts Palestinian and other Arab
characters as human beings, and it chronicles the change of heart
that Israeli agents experience as they go about their clandestine
mission to assassinate those the Israeli state identified as
responsible for the Munich operation.

At the start of the film, five undercover agents based in Europe,
led by Avner Kauffman (Eric Bana), believe themselves on a mission
for just vengeance. But it is not long before Bana and the others
begin questioning the sanctity of their assignment. The bloody acts
of revenge haunt Kauffman, and though he says that he is becoming
numb to murder, the truth is that he gradually breaks down,
succumbing to paranoia and fear. Meanwhile, for every act of
vengeance wreaked by the Israelis, the Palestinians respond with
further terrorist attacks. "Munich" makes it clear in the film's
closing frame that this cycle of violence continues to the present
day.

And where are we? The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no closer to a
solution: The military occupation of Palestinian territories is in
its 38th year; the settlement movement continues apace; and all the
international peace initiatives have failed. The one dependable
reality of the conflict -- Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli
targeted assassinations -- is utterly bankrupt. Nothing remains but
for the Palestinians to seek justice with a nonviolent revolution
for peace, in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, and for the Israeli
people to follow new leaders who can devise political rather than
military solutions. Perhaps the recently elected Amir Peretz, who
now helms the Labor Party, can lead the way. "I see the occupation
as an immoral act," Peretz has said. "I want to end the occupation
not because of Palestinian pressure, but because I see it as an
Israeli interest."

The actors of "Munich" perform with the intensity of an ensemble
cast. Chief among them are Australians Eric Bana, who convincingly
does both an Israeli and a German accent, and Geoffrey Rush, who
plays Kauffman's black ops boss. The other four assassins are
performed by an international cast of British, Irish, French and
German actors, including Daniel Craig, who has been tapped to be the
next James Bond, and Mathieu Kassovitz, who appeared opposite Audrey
Tautou in "Amelie" and directed the hit drama "La Haine" ("Hate").
Omar Metwally, meanwhile, turns in a strong performance as Ali, a
young Palestinian militant, and the other Arab character actors
chosen for this film turn in subdued, thoughtful performances. There
are also a number of Israeli actors who stand out, including Ayelet
Zurer as Kauffman's pregnant young wife, Gila Almagor as his mother,
and Ami Weinberg as General Zamir. In fact, there are few Americans
in "Munich," and most of them are behind the camera.

Unsurprisingly, "Munich" has already engendered a legion of
detractors even before going into wide release. It matters not. Well
into his career, after having been lionized by Hollywood, with a
litany of awards too long to list, Steven Spielberg has finally made
his masterpiece.

Jordan Elgrably is artistic director of the Levantine Cultural
Center in Los Angeles.

*****

'They' Destroyed New Orleans
By Kenneth Cooper, AlterNet
Posted on December 24, 2005

My little cousin, Kenneth, sits across from me smoking a cigarette
in the driver's seat of his car. Like everyone else in my family, he
lost everything when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Now he sits
in my driveway on a Saturday night in LaPlace trying to understand
why.

"Them people blew them levees," he says, looking at me, puffing on
his cigarette. "They wanted to save the white people Uptown, but
they ain't know it was gonna be this bad."

I just look at him when he says this. He's sincere, not a trace of
doubt in his voice. Some people might call him crazy for believing a
theory like that. But truth is, he's not alone, far from it. Last
month I went to Arlington and visited some of my in-laws, who
evacuated there. When the subject of Katrina and the levees came up,
all of them went to talking the exact same way.

"That's how they do us."

"They ain't want us there in the first place."

"So you know they don't want us back."

"And they wonder why people down there runnin' up in stores."

I sat on the couch that night and listened to them go at it for
about an hour. None of them seemed unreasonable. None of them seemed
crazy. Everybody just seemed pissed off. Their homes were gone,
their jobs too. Somebody had to be responsible. But when it got down
to figuring out who, the only one any of them could agree on
was "they."

"They" have existed in New Orleans for years, generations really,
all the way back to 1965 when Hurricane Betsy hit the city and those
same levees along the Industrial Canal collapsed. Back then, the
lower Ninth Ward flooded just like it did during Katrina. Eight feet
of water poured into the neighborhood and covered the eaves of most
one-story houses. The people, most of them poor and black, climbed
onto their rooftops and waited for help. And even though Betsy's
storm surge wasn't as strong as Katrina's, and even though the water
didn't sit as long, the horror stories afterwards were still about
the same.

"I remember seeing dead bodies tied to telephone poles, floating in
the water," a co-worker of mine named Horace once told me. Horace
was 16 when Betsy hit. He waited out the storm and the water in the
lower Ninth Ward on the second floor of his uncle's house. He
remembered having to beg his uncle not to try to swim across the
street to save one of their neighbors who was trapped in her attic.
His uncle didn't. The neighbor eventually drowned in that attic.

When it was all over, Betsy killed at least 60 people in Louisiana,
a small number compared to Katrina, but when the people of the lower
Ninth Ward found out their neighborhood took the brunt of the hit
because a levee collapsed, the controversy started. For them the
levee failing wasn't an accident. It was a sacrifice, another
example of white people looking out for themselves. It was in this
environment that "they" first appeared and became a part of New
Orleans folklore.

"We could hear 'em that night," Horace said, "blowing the levees.
They knew if they didn't, the water was gonna get to the French
Quarter or to the white people uptown. And they didn't want that."

Hearing my cousin echo those same words tonight, I can see that
after Katrina, the folklore shows no signs of dying. Washington Post
columnist Eugene Robinson would seem to agree.

"I was stunned in New Orleans," he told NBC's Meet The Press, "at
how many black New Orleanians would tell me with real conviction
that somehow the levee breaks had been engineered. These are not
wild-eyed people," he said. "These are reasonable, sober people who
really believe that."

Louis Farrakhan even claims he has proof. According to Newsmax.com,
Farrakhan said that Mayor Ray Nagin told him about a 25-foot crater
that exists under the Industrial Canal levee. Proof enough for
Farrakhan that the levees were blown up to get black people out of
New Orleans.

"They know what they doing," my cousin looks over to me and
says. "They trying to run us out the city to get our land."

The land has always been a part of the folklore. For years the
leaders of New Orleans have been approving plans to tear down the
city's housing projects, which are mostly occupied by black people,
and replace them with expensive condominiums. Uptown, the St. Thomas
was the first to go. The Desire, in the Ninth Ward, soon followed.
Now, on the Westbank, most of the Fisher has been demolished. And
the other four seemed on their way out before Katrina even came. The
result of all this is that a large part of the black community is
being split up and shipped off to other areas. And as with the cases
of the St. Thomas and Desire, when black people see white people
moving in and taking over their part of town, conspiracy theories
inevitably arise.

"You ever think that they might have blown the levees to make sure
we had a city to come back to?" I ask my cousin. "I mean, who's to
say that the water wouldn't have gone up to the river and damaged
those levees."

"If that was the case," he says, "they woulda dropped us food and
not starved us outside the Convention Center. They wouldn't a drew
their guns on people trying to make it to the West Bank if it was
about the city."

"Well then who's they?" I turn and ask him.

At first he doesn't say anything. He just stares.

"Is it Nagin? Is it Blanco? Harry Lee? Who?"

When he does respond the answer is straightforward and plain: "The
government," he says.

All across the city, the government, mainly because of FEMA, is
developing an even worse reputation than it had before. One Sunday
night I stayed up and listened to the Big 870, our local news and
talk radio station. A caller called in complaining about New Orleans
East, one of the hardest-hit areas in the city and another section
where black people make up the majority. The caller wanted to know
why other areas were getting more attention than his. He wanted to
know where his blue roof was and why New Orleans East was one of the
last places to have the water turned back on.

"In Lakeview," he said, "you could trip over a construction worker.
But out here you don't see a soul. All we got is police harassing
us."

After he hung up, a lady from Lakeview, the upscale neighborhood
along the 17th Street Canal, called in. She wanted to know the same
thing about where she lived. She wanted to know why the government
was trying to run them out of their neighborhood. She cited the same
lack of blue roofs as her main evidence of a governmental conspiracy
to demolish their houses and take over Lakeview.

"I tell you, Vince," she said, talking to Vince Marinello, the host
of the show, "we got rain coming in and ruining the second floors of
our property. There's no one around here doing anything for us. All
of their attention is focused on the Ninth Ward. They have
completely forgot about Lakeview."

I sat there and listened for most of the night. The calls kept
coming through from both blacks and whites -- frustration with FEMA,
people claiming insurance companies were trying to rip them off, a
lack of Red Cross presence, and even down to a Mexican takeover.
Because of their large presence as construction workers, some people
believe that after they finish gutting out our houses, the Mexicans
will invest their money and take over the city.

"They're just everywhere," one caller called in and said. "And they
don't even bother to speak English."

The message on the radio that night was clear. Confusion is growing
all over the city. And with it, "they" seem to be expanding. "They"
have even gained official names like FEMA, the Government, Mexicans.

Maybe "they" are the cause of all the confusion, like my cousin and
the callers believe. Or maybe there's so much confusion because
people are looking for somebody to blame. Or maybe my neighbor Dan
had it right when he said, "Everybody's life is just changing so
fast. And people are just doing their best to understand it."

Kenneth Cooper is a student at the University of New Orleans. This
is his first published article.

*****

Spying and Lying
By Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation
Posted on December 21, 2005

"This shocking revelation ought to send a chill down the spine of
every American."
-- Senator Russell Feingold, December 17, 2005

As reported by the New York Times on Friday, "Months after the
September 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the
National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on Americans and others
inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist
activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for
domestic spying."

A senior intelligence officer says Bush personally and repeatedly
gave the NSA permission for these taps -- more than three dozen
times since October 2001. Each time, the White House counsel and the
Attorney General -- whose job it is to guard and defend our civil
liberties and freedoms -- certified the lawfulness of the program.
(It is useful here to note "The Yoo Factor": The domestic spying
program was justified by a "classified legal opinion" written by
former Justice Department official John Yoo, the same official who
wrote a memo arguing that interrogation techniques only constitute
torture if they are "equivalent in intensity to...organ failure,
impairment of bodily function or even death.")

Illegally spying on Americans is chilling -- even for this
Administration. Moreover, as Kate Martin, director of the Center for
National Security Studies, told the Times, "the secret order may
amount to the president authorizing criminal activity." Some
officials at the NSA agree. According to the Times, "Some agency
officials wanted nothing to do with the program, apparently fearful
of participating in an illegal operation." Others were "worried that
the program might come under scrutiny by Congressional or criminal
investigators if Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, was
elected President."

It's always a fight to find out what the government doesn't want us
to know, and this Administration and its footsoldiers have used
every means available to undermine journalists' ability to exercise
their First Amendment function of holding power accountable. But
compounding the Administration's double-dealing, the media has been
largely complicit in the face of White House mendacity. David Sirota
puts it more bluntly in a recent entry from his blog: "We are
watching the media being used as a tool of state power in overriding
the very laws that are supposed to confine state power and protect
American citizens."

Consider this: the New York Times says it "delayed publication" of
the NSA spying story for a year. The paper says it acceded to White
House arguments that publishing the article "could jeopardize
continuing investigations and alert would-be-terrorists that they
might be under scrutiny."

Despite Administration demands though, it was reported in
yesterday's Washington Post that the decision by Times editor Bill
Keller to withhold the article caused friction within the Times'
Washington bureau, according to people close to the paper. Some
reporters and editors in New York and in the paper's DC bureau had
apparently pushed for earlier publication.

In an explanatory statement, Keller issued the excuse
that, "Officials also assured senior editors of the Times that a
variety of legal checks had been imposed that satisfied everyone
involved that the program raised no legal questions."

This from a paper, which as First Amendment lawyer Martin Garbus
pointed out in a letter to the editor "rejected similar arguments
when it courageously published the Pentagon Papers over the
government's false objections that it would endanger our foreign
policy as well as the lives of individuals." The Times, Garbus went
on to argue, "owes its readers more. The Bush Administration's
record for truthfulness is not such that one should rely on its
often meaningless and vague assertions."

Readers and citizens deserve to know why the New York Times
capitulated to the White House's request. It is true that Friday's
revelations of this previously unknown, illegal domestic spying
program helped stop the Patriot Act reauthorization. But what if the
Times had published its story before the election? And what other
stories have been held up due to Administration cajoling, pressure,
threats and intimidation?

The question of how this Administration threatens the workings of a
free press, a cornerstone of democracy, remains a central one. Every
week brings new evidence of White House attempts to delegitimize the
press's role as a watchdog of government abuse, an effective counter
to virtually unchecked executive power.

Last month, for example, the Washington Post published Dana Priest's
extraordinary report about the CIA's network of prisons in Eastern
Europe for suspected terrorists. Priest's reporting helped push
passage of a ban on the metastasizing use of torture. But, as with
the New York Times, the Post acknowledged that it had acceded to
government requests to withhold the names of the countries in which
the black site prisons exist.

How many other cases are there of news outlets choosing to honor
government requests for secrecy over the journalistic duty of
informing the public about government abuse and wrongdoing?

Never has the need for an independent press been greater. Never has
the need to know what is being done in our name been greater. As
Bill Moyers said in an important speech delivered on the 20th
anniversary of the National Security Archive, a dedicated band of
truth-tellers, "...There has been nothing in our time like the Bush
Administration's obsession with secrecy." Moyers added. "It's an old
story: the greater the secrecy, the deeper the corruption."

Federation of American Scientists secrecy specialist Steven
Aftergood bluntly says, "an even more aggressive form of government
information control has gone unenumerated and often unrecognized in
the Bush era, as government agencies have restricted access to
unclassified information in libraries, archives, websites and
official databases." This practice, Aftergood adds, "also accords
neatly with the Bush Administration's preference for unchecked
executive authority."

"Information is the oxygen of democracy," Aftergood rightly insists.
This Administration is trying to cut off the supply. Journalists and
media organizations must find a way to restore their role as
effective watchdogs, as checks on an executive run amok.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor of The Nation.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years
Dan Tynan, special to PC World, and PC World Staff
Sat Dec 24, 2005

We're living in the golden age of the gadget. Don't believe it?
Check your pockets. Odds are you're carrying a portable music
player, an electronic organizer, a keychain-size storage device, a
digital camera, or a cell phone that combines some or all of these
functions. And you'd probably be hard-pressed to live without them.

At PC World, we'd be lost without these things. We don't merely test
and write about digital gear, we live and breathe the stuff. In
honor of this raging gizmo infatuation, we polled our editors and
asked them to name the top 50 gadgets of the last 50 years. The
rules? The devices had to be relatively small (no cars or big-screen
TVs, for example), and we considered only those items whose digital
descendants are covered in PC World (cameras, yes; blenders, no). We
rated each gadget on its usefulness, design, degree of innovation,
and influence on subsequent gadgets, as well as the ineffable
quality we called the "cool factor." Then we tallied the results.

After a lot of Web surfing, spreadsheet wrangling, and some near
fistfights, we emerged with the following list. Some items in our
Top 50 are innovative devices that appeared briefly and then were
quickly consigned to museums and future appearances on eBay, but
whose influence spread widely. Others are products we use every day--
or wish we could.

With the holidays in full swing, and as folks shop for the right
gear to give their loved ones, join us as we visit with the ghosts
of gadgets past and present.

1. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)

Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)Portable music players are so cheap and
ubiquitous today that it's hard to remember when they were luxury
items, widely coveted and often stolen. But when the blue and silver
Walkman debuted in 1979, no one had ever seen anything quite like
it. The $200 player virtually invented the concept of "personal
electronics."

The first Walkman (also branded as the Stowaway, the Soundabout, and
the Freestyle before the current name stuck) featured a cassette
player and the world's first lightweight headphones. Apparently
fearful that consumers would consider the Walkman too antisocial,
Sony built the first units with two headphone jacks so you could
share music with a friend. The company later dropped this feature.
Now, more than 25 years and some 330 million units later, nobody
wonders why you're walking down the street with headphones on. Learn
more in Sony's history of the Walkman. PCW photo by Rick Rizner;
Walkman courtesy of Melissa Perenson.

2. Apple iPod (2001)

Apple iPod (2001)If the Walkman is the aging king of portable media
players, Apple's iPod is prince regent. It rules the realm of
digital music like no other device: According to the NPD Group, more
than eight out of ten portable players sold at retail by mid-2005
were iPods. Yet when the $399 iPod first appeared in October 2001,
it was nothing special. It featured a 5GB hard drive and a
mechanical scroll wheel, but worked only with Macs. A second model
released the following July offered a 20GB hard drive, a pressure-
sensitive touch wheel, and a Windows-compatible version. But the
third-generation player, which appeared in April 2003, proved the
charm: A 40GB drive, built-in compatibility with Windows and Mac,
support for USB connections, and a host of other small improvements
made it wildly popular, despite its relatively high price and poor
battery life. Now the fifth-generation iPod threatens to do the same
thing for a new breed of portable video players. The iPod is dead;
long live the iPod. Read more in Dennis Lloyd's Brief History of the
iPod. PCW photo by Rick Rizner; iPod courtesy of Michael Kubecka.

3. (Tie) ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (1999)

ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (1999)The appearance of the first
ReplayTV and TiVo models--the pioneering Gemini of digital video
recording--in the number three spot on our list may be a measure of
how much we all hate TV commercials. The concept is simple: Digitize
the TV signal and stream it to an internal hard drive, so the user
can pause, rewind, fast-forward, or record programs at will. For the
first time, users flummoxed by their VCRs (#29) could record an
entire season of shows with a few clicks of the remote. And yes, it
may be cheating to count these two products as one, but they
appeared at virtually the same time, and each brought different yet
important strengths to the DVR table. TiVo undoubtedly won the brand-
recognition competition: When Janet Jackson suffered her
infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl, thousands of
viewers "TiVo'd it"--over and over and over. ReplayTV, on the other
hand, was more aggressive with commercial-skipping and networking
features. In any event, the success of these products may be their
undoing, as digital video recorders become a standard feature of
cable and satellite set-top boxes. Eric W. Lund has more than you'd
probably want to know about earlier models of both. PCW photo by
Rick Rizner.

4. PalmPilot 1000 (1996)

PalmPilot 1000 (1996)The PalmPilot 1000 was everything the Apple
Newton MessagePad (#28) wanted to be: a "personal data assistant"
small enough to fit in your shirt pocket, with enough flash RAM
(128KB) to hold a then-impressive 500 names and addresses. The
handwriting recognition actually worked (once you mastered the
arcane Graffiti software), and best of all, you could sync your data
with a PC or Mac desktop application. The brilliance of the Palm
concept was its recognition that people wanted a supplement to their
computers, not a substitute. Subsequent models grew smaller and more
powerful, but were basically refinements to the original PalmPilot's
elegant simplicity. PCW photo by Rick Rizner.

5. Sony CDP-101 (1982)

Sony CDP-101The first commercial compact disc player signaled a
technological sea change that ultimately caused millions of music
lovers to ditch their turntables. The boxy CDP-101 wasn't especially
sleek, and at $900 it was priced for audiophiles, but it ushered in
the age of digital sound--no more hisses, scratches, pops, or skips.
Now, with SuperAudio CD and DVD-Audio offering vastly superior
sound, and MP3 downloads dominating music sales, CD players may
eventually join turntables and 8-track machines (#46) as relics of
our audio past. But they will sure have sounded good while they
lasted. For more, read a contemporary review of the CDP-101. Photo
courtesy of Pavek Museum of Broadcasting.

6. Motorola StarTAC (1996)

Motorola StarTAC (1996)The StarTAC was the first mobile phone to
establish that design matters as much as functionality, leading to
today's profusion of stylish cell phones--most notably the Motorola
Razr (#12). No phone of its era was more portable than the StarTAC:
You could clip the 3.1-ounce unit to your belt and go anywhere,
which made carrying a cell phone a lot more appealing. The StarTAC
let you plug in a second battery to extend your talk time, and was
the first phone to sport the vibrate option used in Motorola pagers
(#13). Another plus: As the first clamshell-style phone, it looked a
little like the communicators from Star Trek. Beam us up, Scotty.
Photo courtesy of the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center and
Prismark Partners.

7. Atari Video Computer System (1977)

Atari Video Computer System (1977)Later known as the Atari 2600, the
VCS brought video games out of the arcade and into America's living
rooms. It was a snap to set up: Just plug the clunky-looking box
into your TV set and grab the joystick. The Atari 2600 was the first
successful console to use game cartridges, which allowed consumers
to play multiple games on the same system and created a huge market
for crude-looking but addictive titles such as Space Invaders and
Pac Man. The Atari's games may not have looked much like Grand Theft
Auto, but its influence can be felt in today's Xboxes, PlayStations,
and GameCubes. AtariAge has more details. Pong, anyone? PCW photo by
Rick Rizner; Atari VCS courtesy of Mike Mika.

8. Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (1972)

Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (1972)The SX-70 was a thing of beauty.
Just point, shoot, and watch the image develop before your eyes.
When you're done, fold up the 7-by-4-inch unit and stick it in your
bag. It was the first Polaroid to automatically eject the snapshot
and produce images, without making you wait 60 seconds and peel off
the outer wrapper of the film. The SX-70 combined simplicity with
immediacy, making it the direct forebear of today's low-end digital
cameras. More than 30 years later, its design still turns heads, and
some fans still use it. PCW photo by Rick Rizner; camera courtesy of
Adolph Gasser Photography, San Francisco.

9. M-Systems DiskOnKey (2000)

M-Systems DiskOnKey (2000)For 20 years people had been predicting
the death of the floppy, but it took a gadget the size of your thumb
to actually sound the death knell. With 8MB to 32MB of flash memory
at its introduction in November 2000, the DiskOnKey was easier to
use than a diskette, and was the first device of its type that
didn't need drivers for your PC. You just plugged it into a USB
port, copied files to it, and popped it back into your pocket.
Suddenly, moving big files from one computer to another was no
longer a hassle. PCW photo by Rick Rizner.

10. Regency TR-1 (1954)

Regency TR-1 (1954)The Regency took radio out of the parlor and put
it in your pocket. Jointly produced by Texas Instruments and TV
accessory manufacturer IDEA, the TR-1 was the first consumer device
to employ transistors. The $50 item didn't sell well--Sony did much
better with a similar product a couple of years later--but it
inspired a host of imitators, which in turn helped popularize a then-
obscure genre of music known as rock and roll. If not for transistor
radio, nobody would have been dancin' in the streets. For more
information, see the mini-history of the transistor radio. PCW photo
by Rick Rizner.

11. Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)
Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)Sure, the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast
were fun machines, but Sony's PlayStation 2 bought gaming to whole
new level. Thanks to its 128-bit "Emotion Engine" CPU and Graphics
Synthesizer, the PS2 introduced a dramatically new form of realism,
setting the standard for other systems such as Microsoft's Xbox and
Nintendo's GameCube. (See PC World's original review.) The PS2 also
had things you wouldn't expect from a game console, such as the
ability to play DVD movies. Despite a $300 price tag (twice that of
competing systems), it quickly became the console of choice, and not
just for gamers: In 2003 the US National Center for Supercomputing
Applications used 70 PS2s to build a supercomputer capable of half a
trillion operations per second. That's one hot gaming system. Photo
courtesy of Sony Electronics.

12. Motorola Razr V3 (2004)
Motorola Razr V3 (2004)When PC Worldfirst wrote about the $500 Razr
V3, we called it flat-out fabulous. The impressively slim and
ultrasexy clamshell-style V3 sported a brushed aluminum casing, a
color screen on the outside, and a strikingly bright 2.2-inch color
LCD on the inside. The Razr V3 also included a 640-by-480-resolution
camera with a 4X digital zoom, had MPEG-4 video playback capability,
and was Bluetooth-enabled. It was so cool, you could almost see
people drooling with desire when one came into the office. A great
marriage of functionality and design. Photo courtesy of Motorola.

13. Motorola PageWriter (1996)
Motorola PageWriter (1996)Before anyone could sign on to AOL Instant
Messenger on a T-Mobile Sidekick, before the first SMS message was
ever sent from a cell phone, and before a BlackBerry was even a
twinkle in anyone's eye, Motorola gave early adopters a taste of the
future: the ability to send, as well as receive, text messages on a
wireless device. The PageWriter--which looked like a thicker version
of Motorola's then-current one-way text pagers--sported a flip-top
design that, when opened, revealed a QWERTY keypad as well as a four-
line backlit monochrome LCD screen. Far ahead of its time, it was
eventually superceded by less costly mobile messaging options. Photo
courtesy of Motorola.

14. BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)
BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)Canadian firm Research in
Motion didn't invent e-mail, wireless data networks, the handheld,
or the QWERTY keyboard. But with the little BlackBerry, along with
server software that made e-mail appear on it without any effort
from the recipient, RIM put it all together in a way that even
nontechie executives could appreciate--and thereby opened the eyes
of corporate America to the potential of wireless communications. So
addictive that some call them CrackBerries, RIM's ubiquitous e-mail
communicators--especially their high-res displays and small yet
serviceable thumb keyboards--have forever changed the design
aesthetic for personal digital assistants, while their approach to e-
mail has become the standard by which all connected handhelds are
measured. To learn more about BlackBerry on the Web, visit the
International BlackBerry User Group. Photo courtesy of Research In
Motion.

15. Phonemate Model 400 (1971)
Phonemate Model 400 (1971)In 1971, PhoneMate introduced one of the
first commercially viable answering machines, the Model 400. The
$300 unit had a wooden case, weighed more than 8 pounds, and was
larger than a major-city phone book, according to Steve Knuth, a
retired company executive. You could record about 20 short messages
on an internal reel-to-reel tape. Users also could listen to
messages in private, via an earphone akin to those supplied with
transistor radios. Since people hated to talk into machines in the
1970s, Phonemate used to joke that only those who stood to make
money from the phone call would buy the Model 400, mostly
businesses. For more information, see the history of answering
machines. (The Phonemate 400 is shown in the photo; the gadget that
allowed remote message access came later.) Photo by Brad Bargman.

16. Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (1978)
Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (1978)A whole generation of kids
learned to spell on this cheery orange device with alphabet keys and
a hardy handle. Speak & Spell contained a single-chip speech
synthesizer--novel for the time--and a robotic voice that encouraged
children to spell more than 200 common words. The $50 Speak & Spell
effectively cut the cord on that era's pull-string and tape-recorder
speaking toys. The game of Hangman was a boon for kids during long
car trips--and the bane of at least some parents forced to listen to
it. It's more lovingly described on this dedicated page. Photo
courtesy of Texas Instruments.

17. Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)
Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)Math classes were never the same after
the introduction of TI's handheld calculators in the early 1970s.
The $150 SR-10 debuted in 1973 and was the first affordable handheld
to calculate reciprocals, square roots, and other slide-rule
functions. The $170 SR-50 followed in 1974, adding trigonometric
functions and a very cool 14-character LED display. The devices
became so ubiquitous that math whizzes at the time were identified
by the simple sobriquet "TIs." This TI site can tell you more about
Texas Instruments calculators. Photo courtesy of the Vintage
Calculators Web Museum.

18. Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (1998)
Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (1998)The Nano it ain't, but Diamond's
Multimedia Rio PMP 300 started the revolution that produced portable
music players such as Apple's iPod (#2). This first portable MP3
player ran on a single AA battery and packed a whopping 32MB of
storage--enough for about a half hour of music encoded in the MP3
compression format. Read PC World's original review. Photo courtesy
of The Adrenaline Vault.

19. Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (1995)
Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (1995)Thank Sony for introducing digital
video editing to the desktop. Before it released the Handycam DCR-
VX1000, if you wanted to edit video on a PC you had to invest
thousands of dollars in an expansion card to digitize analog
footage. The DCR-VX1000 was the first camcorder to capture in the
mini-DV format, and the first with a FireWire port for transferring
digital video to a PC. The DCR-VX1000 cost nearly $4000, but it
offered dramatically better video quality, and less-expensive models
soon followed. For more, see Sony's history of the Handycam. Photo
courtesy of Sony Electronics.

20. Handspring Treo 600 (2003)
Handspring Treo 600 (2003)The quest for the perfect palmtop/phone
hybrid hit a new milestone with the Treo 600, released by upstart
Palm competitor Handspring (the company founded by Palm founders
Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky) before that company was itself
swallowed by Palm. Slim enough to fit in a pocket, yet wide enough
to hold a BlackBerry-esque QWERTY keyboard, the Treo quickly became
the It gadget of 2003-2004, eclipsed only by its own successor, the
Treo 650. Several fan sites exist, including Treonauts and
TreoCentral. And be sure to see PC World's original review. Photo
courtesy of Palm.

21. Zenith Space Command (1956)
The first widely used TV remote control had four buttons (power,
volume, channel up, channel down) but no batteries; press a button,
and a tiny hammer inside the remote would strike an aluminum rod,
transmitting an ultrahigh-frequency tone to control the set. The
Space Command ruled the living room for more than 25 years before
being replaced by remotes using infrared technology. And thus a
nation of couch potatoes was born. For more information, see
Zenith's remote control history page. Photo courtesy of Zenith.

22. Hamilton Pulsar (1972)
Hamilton Pulsar (1972)A wristwatch with no springs, gears, or hands?
In 1970, when venerable U.S. timepiece maker Hamilton announced the
Pulsar, the first solid-state watch, the concept was so
revolutionary that nobody seemed to care that its LED screen
actually displayed the time only when you pressed a button. The
first Pulsars were $2100, solid-gold jobs, but a steel model was
eventually available for a thriftier $275; everyone from Gerald Ford
to Roger Moore was a fan. Check out this dedicated site for more
information on Hamilton's breakthrough and its gaggle of imitators.
Photo courtesy of Hamilton Watches International.

23. Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)
Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)The marvel of this $15.95 camera was its
easy loading system. Kodak wanted to eliminate amateur errors and
make photography foolproof. To do this, the company put the film for
this camera--and its successors--into a plastic cartridge. The user
could pop the cartridge in and out, and not worry about exposing the
film to light or misaligning it so that it wouldn't advance. To
illuminate the subject, you placed a flashbulb in a little
compartment on the camera's top that popped open. The camera was
hugely popular: It is estimated that tens of millions of Instamatic-
type cameras were sold. Photo courtesy of The George Eastman House.

24. MITS Altair 8800 (1975)
It sported blinking lights and dipswitches, and you assembled it
yourself from a $397 kit sold by an Albuquerque mail-order company
that had formerly been in the model rocket business. The Altair was,
in other words, a gadget, but it was also the first popular home
computer. Not very useful at first, it soon inspired an entire
industry of upgrades, peripherals, and software--and prompted
computer geeks Bill Gates and Paul Allen to form a company to sell a
version of the BASIC programming language. (They called their
startup Micro-soft, later ditching the hyphen.) Also present at the
creation: MITS documentation manager David Bunnell, who went on to
found a bevy of successful computer magazines, including PC World.
The Computer Science Club at the University of California at Davis
has more information, including a photo of the MITS.

25. Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)In the early 1980s, when people
talked about "portable computers" they meant luggable monstrosities
like the 24-pound Osborne I. Then Radio Shack introduced the Model
100, the first popular notebook. Starting at $799, this 4.25-pound
featherweight boasted built-in word processing and other apps, and
its internal modem let road warriors get online at a zippy 300 bits
per second. More than 20 years later, the full-travel keyboard on
the TRS-80 is still pretty impressive. Like all other TRS-80s, the
Model 100 is lovingly documented at Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived,
and at this fan site. Photo by Ira Goldklang.

26. Nintendo Game Boy (1989)
Nintendo Game Boy (1989)In the old days, kids couldn't wait till
they were old enough to get their first two-wheeler. Now they yearn
for their first Game Boy. The original handheld, as shown at
CyberiaPC.com, featured a black-and-green LCD and a slot for
matchbook-size game cartridges. Later versions became smaller and
more powerful but maintained backward compatibility with the
original, so you could take your favorite games with you as you
grew. The Game Boy's lock on the handheld game market remained
virtually unchallenged--at least until the Sony PlayStation Portable
arrived this year. Photo courtesy of Nintendo.

27. Commodore 64 (1982)
Commodore 64 (1982)The best selling computer of all time still
appears to be the Commodore 64: Estimates of this PC's sales range
from 15 million to 22 million units. The first C64 cost $595 and
came with 64KB of RAM, a 6510 processor, 20KB of ROM with Microsoft
BASIC, 16-color graphics, and a 40-column screen. (How times have
changed!) It also was the first PC with an integrated sound
synthesizer chip, according to Ian Matthews of Commodore.ca. Photo
courtesy of the Computer History Museum.

28. Apple Newton MessagePad (1994)
The Newton PDA had the dubious distinction of being lampooned in
Doonesbury, thanks to its less-than-spectacular handwriting
recognition. At nearly 1 pound and costing $700, it was too big and
pricey for most users, but it paved the way for smaller, simpler
devices like the PalmPilot and the iPod. At the time, there was no
cooler gadget to be found. For more, see this description and photo
of the Newton.

29. Sony Betamax (1975)
Sony Betamax (1975)Few gadgets have had a bigger impact than the
first stand-alone video cassette recorder. Shortly after the Betamax
appeared, Sony was sued by the movie studios; in 1984 the U.S.
Supreme Court decided in Sony's favor, finding that beneficial uses
of the new technology (time-shifting TV programs) outweighed
potential harms (video piracy). (The version pictured here is the SL-
6300 from 1975, in a high-end wooden case.) The Betamax changed our
lives and helped spawn the $20 billion video rental industry, but it
couldn't compete with JVC's cheaper VHS devices and eventually
disappeared. Those who love and honor all things Beta, however, have
a place to gather. Photo courtesy of Sony Electronics.

30. Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)
Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)Sanyo was the first to bring a camera phone
stateside, although it wasn't the first to introduce such a device
to the world--that credit goes to Sharp, which released the J-SH04
in Japan in 2000. Sanyo's SCP-5300 took 640-by-480-resolution
snapshots, and according to PC World's first look, the clamshell
phone was easy to use. But the quality of the photos was mediocre,
and the only ways to get images off the phone were to send it to
another person's cell phone or e-mail address or to upload them to
Sprint PCS's Web site (the handset was available exclusively to
Sprint customers). But, hey, it's almost impossible to find a cell
phone without a camera these days. That's saying something. Photo by
Marc Simon.

31. iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002)
iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002)A robot that does
housework? Sign me up! With more than 2 million users, the Roomba is
considered by many to be the first commercially successful domestic
robot. The 14-inch-wide vacuum cleaner may look like an oversize
hockey puck, but its brilliant design lets it avoid obstacles while
sucking up every speck of dirt--including those dust bunnies
cowering under the couch. Photo courtesy of iRobot.

32. Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)The first mainstream optical
mouse earned its place on our list by eliminating one of computer
technology's most pervasive annoyances: the accumulation of gunk
inside a mechanical mouse. Optical mice actually existed long before
Microsoft's groundbreaking product, but they were expensive and
required special pads. The Intellimouse Explorer (and its
simultaneously introduced siblings, the Intellimouse Optical and the
Wheel Mouse Optical) brought gunk-free pointing devices to the great
unwashed masses and their great unwashed desks (and laps, and
armchairs, and many other places you'd never dream of using a
mechanical mouse). Read our original review. Photo courtesy of
Microsoft.

33. Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (1997)
Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (1997)The REX
redefined the notion of portable. This credit-card-size device was
powered by two watch batteries, measured just a quarter of an inch
thick, and was designed to fit into a notebook's PC Card slot. Its
design was simple--just a black-and-white, 160-by-98-resolution
screen, and five navigational buttons to access such functions as
calendar, contacts, and even memos. Although you couldn't enter data
into the first version (about $179 with cradle), the REX proved a
convenient portable companion. It was PC World's World Class Gadget
for 1998. Photo by Kevin Candland.

34. Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.0 (1998)
Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.0 (1998)A do-it-yourself
robotics system for the masses, Lego Mindstorms made building
machines more fun than should be allowed. An interactive community
helped promote different designs and creativity, so you were never
at a loss as to what to do with all of those Lego pieces and parts.
And one of the early expansion kits included a robotic R2-D2. (Sure,
it was just a wireframe, not a solid replica, but it could still
carry your Coca-Cola can.) Photo courtesy of the Lego Group.

35. Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)This early "portable" phone measured
more than a foot long, weighed close to 2 pounds, and cost a
whopping $3995. But with Motorola's DynaTAC 8000X--aka The Brick--
you could for the first time walk and talk without that dratted
cord. Generally considered the first mobile phone, the DynaTAC 8000X
had enough juice for an hour of talk time and enough memory to hold
30 numbers. And the device's Formica-style enclosure was the envy of
anything that Ma Bell had to offer. Photo courtesy of Motorola.

36. Iomega Zip Drive (1995)
Iomega Zip Drive (1995)This little blue external storage drive,
roughly the size of a paperback book, was an instant sensation,
giving average computer users their first taste of easy backup and
relatively rugged 100MB storage media. The only storage technology
ever mentioned by name on HBO's Sex and the City, the Zip Drive was
available for both Macs and PCs; the Mac version connected to the
SCSI port and the PC version hooked up via the parallel port. You
could see the disk through a clear window built into the top of the
drive, and it was always a pleasure to see the yellow LED light,
which meant everything was working well. However, if the drive
clicked too much (a phenomenon also known as the Click of Death),
you were in trouble. You still have one somewhere, don't you? Photo
courtesy of Iomega.

37. Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player
(1978)
Before the DVD, or even the CD-ROM, there was the laserdisc--the
first commercial optical video disc. Philips's Magnavox Magnavision
Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player was the first consumer
player for MCA's pioneering DiscoVision-format laserdiscs. Never
mind that the Model 8000 cost $749, and that its failure rate was
astronomical. The optical media age had arrived. Read about the
history of DiscoVision at the Blam Entertainment Group's DiscoVision
site.

38. Milton Bradley Simon (1978)
The Simon toy (not the BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator,
#41) began flashing its lights in 1978, at the height of Saturday
Night Fever disco-mania. Appropriately, Milton Bradley premiered its
memory game at one of the most famous discotheques of all time,
Studio 54 in New York. Trying to remember Simon's sequences of
lights (and blips) was a lot of fun--and frustrating. The game has
far outlasted the disco era: An updated version of Simon is still
sold today. Happily, the polyester leisure suit remains an
endangered species.

39. Play, Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (1996)
Before PCs came with composite video inputs, before TV-tuner cards
became de rigueur, before USB-connected video input devices became
ubiquitous, there was the Snappy Video Snapshot. Attached to your
PC's parallel port (and sticking out several inches), it supplied
standard video inputs, thereby allowing you to capture still digital
images from an analog video source. Snappy lovers may read more at
this dedicated page.

40. Connectix QuickCam (1994)
Connectix QuickCam (1994)How techie were you in the mid-1990s? Found
at your desk--typically astride a huge 17-inch CRT monitor--this
fist-size grey globe signified connectedness. You were part of the
QuickCam generation, embracing Internet video in its infancy,
sending short, choppy, and highly pixelated greyscale moving images
over (most likely) the office or college LAN. The QuickCam's image
quality left much to be desired, but its low price and unique design-
-a spheroid "eye" set in a pyramid-shaped base (which, despite
appearances, worked surprisingly well as a tripod substitute)--made
it a popular starter Webcam for video-crazy, pioneer digerati. Much
more advanced QuickCams are still available from the line's current
owner, Logitech. For more, read what one user had to say about it.
Photo courtesy of Rodger Carter, DigiCamHistory.com.

41. BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)
Not to be confused with the Milton Bradley game Simon (#38), the
Personal Communicator was the first mobile phone to include a built-
in PDA. Jointly marketed by IBM and BellSouth, the $900 Simon was a
combination phone, pager, calculator, address book, calendar, fax
machine, and wireless e-mail device--all wrapped up in a 20-ounce
package that looked and felt like a brick.

42. Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)
Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)The first portable two-
way radios introduced during World War II weighed up to 35 pounds
apiece, but the HT-220 weighed just 22 ounces--in part because it
was the first portable radio to use integrated circuits instead of
discrete transistors. Back then it was a favorite of the Secret
Service; today it enjoys a small but fiercely dedicated following of
radio geeks. Photo courtesy of Motorola.

43. Polaroid Swinger (1965)
Polaroid Swinger (1965)In the mid-1960s, no gift for teens and
preteens was cooler than the $20 Polaroid Swinger instant camera.
(Okay, it actually cost "nineteen dollars and ninety-five," as
immortalized in one of the catchiest ad jingles of the decade.) The
Swinger's big innovation was its pinchable focus button: When the
shot's focus was just right, the word "YES" lit up in the
viewfinder. Of course, the newbie photographers for whom the camera
was intended were likely to "focus" more on the "YES" than on the
actual composition of the shot. Photo courtesy of Polaroid.

44. Sony Aibo ERS-110 (1999)
Sony Aibo ERS-110 (1999)Sony's $1500 robotic pet, the ERS-110, was
cuter than your average mutt and a whole lot smarter. Advanced
artificial intelligence allowed it to learn from its environment, as
well as sit, stand, roll over, and act puppyish. Later "breeds"
recognized your voice commands and featured a built-in Webcam, so
you could hire Aibo to babysit the kids. Photo courtesy of Sony
Electronics.

45. Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)
Yes, it wasn't the first digital camera, but it was the first that
saved photos on a platform that every PC user knew and loved: the
ubiquitous 3.5-inch floppy. The FD5 provided a very easy--and
familiar--way to get images out of the camera and onto a PC. Storing
photos on floppies also meant that people could keep taking pictures
as long as they fed the camera more disks. Photographers could
easily share digital snapshots with family and friends because
everybody used floppies. Like many first-generation digital cameras,
the $599 Mavica was bulky and ugly, but its specs were up to snuff
(for the time): Image resolution topped out at 640 by 480 pixels
(which translates to 0.3 megapixel), and the camera had a sizable
2.5-inch LCD.

46. Learjet Stereo-8 (1965)
Learjet Stereo-8 (1965)They're the butt of jokes these days, but 8-
track tapes and decks changed car audio forever. The Stereo 8, which
first appeared as an option on Fords, had minimal controls and was
often mounted under the dashboard with ugly U-brackets, but
aesthetics weren't the point. With an 8-track in your car, you were
no longer at the mercy of local radio station playlists. That was a
very big deal at a time when only the largest cities had stations
that played what was then known as "album rock." And the sound! In
those days 8-tracks blew the doors off anything coming from a radio
station, despite their infamous fadeouts when the tracks switched.
The 8-track didn't last all that long, falling out of favor in the
early 1970s as smaller, more convenient cassette tapes (and later
CDs) came along. Photo courtesy of 8-Track Heaven.

47. Timex/Sinclair 1000 (1982)
Invented by British gadget king Clive Sinclair and marketed in the
United States by Timex (which knew a thing or two about affordable
gizmos), this everyman's computer sold for a rock-bottom $100. The
slab-shaped T/S 1000 was cheap in every sense of the word--it packed
a minuscule 1KB of RAM and had a barely usable flat keyboard. Even
so, it was a blockbuster, briefly: Timex shipped 600,000 of them,
many more were sold in other countries, and clones even appeared.
For an exhaustive look at the whole phenomenon, consult the Timex
Sinclair Showcase.

48. Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (1989)
Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (1989)It didn't quite fit into a shirt pocket,
and its non-QWERTY keyboard wasn't the most intuitive of input
devices. But long before the PalmPilot 1000 (#4) or even the Newton
MessagePad (#28), the first Sharp Wizard helped popularize the
concept of a small, lightweight electronic address book and
calendar, thereby becoming the granddaddy of the modern personal
digital assistant. Want to read more? The Open Directory Project has
a page full of Wizard links. Photo courtesy of Sharp.

49. Jakks Pacific TV Games (2002)
Jakks Pacific TV Games (2002)For decades, the Atari 2600's black
joystick has symbolized the raw spirit of early console video
gaming. How fitting, then, that the joystick itself evolved into an
entire videogame console in 2004, when a small toy company called
Jakks Pacific launched the phenomenally successful TV Games line.
The TV Games controller/game console hooks directly to standard
inputs on a television and runs off batteries. Atari TV Games was
the first version, bundling ten of the most popular classic Atari
games from the 1980s--Pong, Asteroids, Breakout, and more--in a
controller that looked just like the original Atari VCS (#7)
joystick.

50. Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (1990)
Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (1990)Years before the Pocket PC, there was
the Poqet PC. About the size of a videotape, the Poqet was pricey
($2000), but it ran off-the-shelf applications and could go for
weeks on two AA batteries. Highly praised during its brief life, the
Poqet vanished from the market after its manufacturer was acquired
by Fujitsu. As with seemingly every interesting computer of yore, it
still has its devotees, including Bryan Mason, proprietor of the
informative Poqet PC Web Site. Photo courtesy of the Obsolete
Computer Museum.


PC World's 50 Greatest Gadgets, by the Decade

Following is PC World's list of the 50 greatest tech gadgets of the
last 50 years, organized by decade (gadgets released the same year
are listed in alphabetical order). The number in parentheses at the
end of the entry is the product's ranking on the list. We created
the list after PC World editors submitted nominations. We then rated
the nominated gadgets for usefulness, design, degree of innovation,
influence on subsequent gadgets, and the "cool factor." (For more on
our 50 Greatest Gadgets project, see the full story.)

1950s 1954Regency TR-1 (10) 1956Zenith Space Command (21)

1960s 1963Kodak Instamatic 100 (23) 1965Learjet Stereo-8 (46),
Polaroid Swinger (43) 1969Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (42)

1970s 1971Phonemate Model 400 (15) 1972 Hamilton Pulsar (22),
Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (8) 1973 Texas Instruments SR-10 (17)
1975 MITS Altair 8800 (24), Sony Betamax (29) 1977 Atari Video
Computer System (7) 1978 Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision
Videodisc Player (37), Milton Bradley Simon (38), Texas Instruments
Speak & Spell (16) 1979 Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1)

1980s 1982 Commodore 64 (27), Sony CDP-101 (5), Timex/Sinclair 1000
(47) 1983 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (35), Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100
(25) 1989 Nintendo Game Boy (26), Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (48)

1990s 1990 Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (50) 1993 BellSouth/IBM Simon
Personal Communicator (41) 1994 Apple Newton MessagePad (28),
Connectix QuickCam (40) 1995 Iomega Zip Drive (36), Sony Handycam
DCR-VX1000 (19) 1996 Motorola PageWriter (13), Motorola StarTAC (6),
PalmPilot 1000 (4), Play, Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (39) 1997
Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (33), Sony Mavica MVC-
FD5 (45) 1998 BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (14), Diamond
Multimedia Rio PMP300 (18), Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention
System 1.0 (34) 1999 Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (32), ReplayTV
RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (3, tie), Sony Aibo ERS-110 (44)

2000s 2000 M-Systems DiskOnKey (9), Sony PlayStation 2 (11) 2001
Apple iPod (2) 2002iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (31), Jakks
Pacific TV Games (49), Sanyo SCP-5300 (30) 2003Handspring Treo 600
(20) 2004Motorola Razr V3 (12)

Contributing Editor Dan Tynan writes

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Video Game Sheds NFL License, Gets Violent
By NATHANIEL HERNANDEZ, Associated Press Writer
Sun Dec 25, 2005

In a gritty new video game about a fictional football league,
players cripple their opponents, gamble and use performance-
enhancing supplements.

"Blitz: The League" is able to feature the graphic violence and
adult themes not usually seen in sports video games because it was
produced without an NFL license and the restrictions that carries.

Developed by Chicago's Midway Games, "Blitz" is the first unlicensed
football title to hit store shelves since the NFL reach an exclusive
agreement a year ago with Electronic Arts Inc., makers of the
popular "Madden NFL" franchise. "Madden NFL" and the company's
edgier "NFL Street" series are both rated E for everyone.

"We decided that we wanted to make this a mature-rated game for
adults, and that opened up a whole lot of doors," said Mark Bilder,
executive producer for "Blitz."

Because the game is unlicensed, it can't feature markings of real
teams, NFL stadiums or images of NFL players. The star of this title
is New York Nightmare linebacker Quentin Sands, a fictional player
voiced by former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Bilder said "Blitz," which was released in October and has sold
350,000 units, fictionalizes real behavior that the NFL tries to
downplay, such as off-the-field fights and wild parties. Its release
came around the same time authorities in Minnesota launched an
investigation after allegations surfaced of misconduct during a boat
party attended by several Minnesota Vikings players.

Quarterback Daunte Culpepper and three other players were charged
Dec. 15 with three misdemeanors each for taking part in a party some
thought bawdy.

"It's further reinforcement that these things do happen," Bilder
said.

The NFL, though, says consumers are more interested in
an "authentic" experience in football video games than in fictional
shenanigans.

"We want to be associated with partners that portray the NFL in the
best light and (with games) based in true reality," NFL spokesman
Brian McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the league is not overly concerned with the negative
portrayal of football players in "Blitz."

"Our fans are sophisticated enough to know that the overwhelming
majority of players are excellent people both on and off the field,"
McCarthy said.

Consumers bought 8 million football video games last year,
generating $300 million in sales, said Michael Pachter, an analyst
with Wedbush Morgan Securities. About 6 million units were copies
of "Madden NFL."

Electronic Arts' five-year deal with the NFL gives gamers who want
to pit the Colts against the Eagles only one place to go until 2009.
The company also has exclusive deals with NASCAR, FIFA, the NCAA and
the PGA Tour.

Pachter said most fans would probably rather play a football game
that features the Dallas Cowboys than the Dallas Aztecs in "Blitz."

"The reason we play football (games) is because of the
identification with the players," Pachter said. "The reason we
update is because we care that Randy Moss isn't with the Vikings
anymore."

Previous versions of "Blitz" were developed with an NFL license and
featured over-the-top gameplay but no graphic violence or
questionable behavior off the field. Then, in 2003, Midway went to
the NFL with a proposal for a more untraditional approach.

"They wanted to move in a direction that we weren't comfortable with
for 2004. So, we mutually parted ways," McCarthy said. "That
direction was where they are evidently heading now."

Jordan Edelstein, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, said the company
does not consider "Blitz" a direct competitor.

"We kind of got our eye on a different ball," he said.

*****

Chris Rock's Show Says Santa Doesn't Exist
Thursday December 22, 2005
AP

Yes, Chris Rock, there is a Santa Claus. Parents with young children
who happened to watch "Everybody Hates Chris" in the past week had
some explaining to do when the character of Rock's brother suddenly
told his younger sister that Santa doesn't exist.

"Everybody knows there's no Santa Claus," Drew said to Tonya on the
UPN sitcom. "Come here, let me show you something. I'm taking you to
the toys ... Santa doesn't come down the chimney. We don't even have
a chimney. We have radiators."

Disillusioned, she stomps out of the room.

But wait. It gets worse.

Put on the spot, Tonya's dad Julius tells her the Easter bunny and
tooth fairy don't exist, either.

"Somebody better give me my teeth back," the girl fumes.

A blindsided UPN received "a handful" of complaints about the Santa
expose on its sitcom based loosely on comic Rock's life growing up
in Brooklyn, a spokeswoman said. This is a series whose use of the n-
word in its first episode passed with relatively little notice.

The Santa episode, titled "Everybody Hates Christmas," aired on Dec.
15 and was repeated on Monday.

"`Everybody Hates Chris' is a semi-autobiographical show," said Ali
LeRoi, its executive producer and co-creator. "We try to get humor
out of tough subject matters. It never occurred to me what a 6-year-
old would think about the subject of Santa."

Not, at least, until busted by his own 6-year-old son. LeRoi
admitted that his boy was upset when he saw the episode.

"My wife told him it was just a TV show and to ignore it," he
said. "It worked. He believes her. Kids trust their parents that
way."

There's no word on whether Rock knew his show could be a holiday
spoiler. His spokesman didn't return telephone and e-mail messages
for comment.

On the show, young Tonya becomes a lot more cynical. Her mother
explains that Santa Claus is a symbol and asks: "So you do
understand?"

"Yeah," the girl replies. "It's OK to lie."

*****

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20051228/SCANNERS/51229001

Chronic (What?!) Chles of Narnia rap
Jim Emerson / December 28, 2005
Parnell and Samberg on a movie date.

It's the biggest pop-cultural happening on "Saturday Night Live"
since Sinead O'Connor ripped up a picture of the pope: "Lazy Sunday"
(aka "The Chronic [What?!?!] Chles of Narnia Rap" video) has become
one of the most downloaded pieces on the Internet since... well,
since that trailer for "The Shining" from a few months back. Andy
Samberg and Chris Parnell make plans to get some cupcakes before
heading uptown for a matinee of "Narnia," sprinkling their rap with
other references to non-testosterone-driven movies like "The
Notebook" and "Ghost." (My favorite line: "I love those cupcakes
like McAdams loves Gosling!" I had to look it up even to know what
they were talking about, and I'm glad. I have too much other useless
celebrity crap in my head. Of course, now I have that, too, so
there's no reason to be glad anymore.)

The video -- already the funniest and most-quoted "SNL" piece since
the immortal "More Cowbell" sketch (how many more such "since"
comparisons can I make in this post? Just watch...) -- is a
collaboration between Parnell and "The Dudes," three LA-based
comedians (Samberg and childhood friends Jorma Taccone and Akiva
Schaffer), who, working together as "The Lonely Island," have made a
number of equally good homemade shorts (which can be seen at
www.thelonelyisland.com), that suggest they could be the next Bob
and David. (See, there I go again.) Jorm provided the beats, Kiv
directed, and they all wrote the "SNL Digital Short" together.
Fortunately, The Lonely Island did not have to break into three
smaller islands when Samberg landed a featured player role at "SNL"
in NY; the show soon, wisely, hired Schaffer and Taccone as writers.

I particularly like their "Just 2 Guyz" rap video (Parental Warning:
Links May Contain EXPLICIT Language And Probably Do); their Channel
101 Malibu-based parody series, "The 'Bu" (particularly Episode 1 in
3-D and Episode 8, which appears to be shot on the Universal
backlot -- look for familiar props from "Jaws" and "War of the
Worlds"); and "The Lonely Island" sitcom episode about the perils of
teeth-whitening addiction, "White Power."

But back to "The Chronic (What?!?!) Chles of Narnia" video (how do
you do that joke in print? -- you tell me): Another free association
(on the topic of cannabis references in children's entertainment)
reminds me of "The Altered State of Druggachusetts," the genius "Mr.
Show with Bob and David" sketch based on the hallucinogenic works of
puppetmeisters Sid and Marty Krofft ("H.R. Pufnstuf," "Liddsville" --
  notice any marijuana references in those titles?). Anyway, it's on
the third season DVD, and if you haven't seen it you really should
because it is funny.

***

SNL's Narnia Rap: "Lazy Sunday"
19 Dec 2005 by Paul Martin
Contributing sources: YouTube.com

SNL's Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg created a music video for the
Chronicles of Narnia. It's a rap, based on a couple of friends going
to see the film. It's a very funny video, and really relatively
clean. There's one instance of cursing, but it's bleeped out. The
video is called "Lazy Sunday" and features both Chris Parnell and
Andy Samberg. Here's a quick transcription of the lyrics:

Lazy Sunday,
Wake up in the late afternoon
Call Parnell just to see how he's doin'
Hello?
What up, Parn!
Yo Samberg, what's crackin'?
You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?
Narnia!
Man it's happ'nin'!
But first, my hunger pangs are stickin' like duct tape.
Let's hit up Magnolia and mack on some cupcakes.
No doubt, that bakery's got all the bomb frosting.
I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling.

Two! No, Six! No, Twelve! Baker's Dozen!
I told'ja that I'm crazy for these cupcakes, cousin!
Yo, where's the movie playin'?
Upper West Side, dude!
Let's hit up Yahoo Maps to find the dopest route.
I prefer Mapquest!
That's a good one too.
Google Maps is the best!
True that! Double true!
68th and Broadway.
Step on it, sucka!
What you wanna do Chris?
snack attack, mutha----!

The Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!
Yes, the Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!
We love that Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!
Pass that Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!

Yo, stop at the deli.
The theatre is overpriced!
You got that backpack
I'm going to pack it up nice.
We don't want security to get suspicious!
Mr. Pibbs and Red Vines equals crazy delicious.
Reach in my pocket and pull out some dough,
Girl acted like she never seen a $10 before!
It's all about the Hamiltons baby
Throw the snacks in a bag and I'm Ghost like Swayze.

Roll up to the theate
Ticket buying what we're handling,
You can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're dropping Hamiltons
Parked in our seats movie trivia's the illest!
"What Friends alum starred in films with Bruce Willis?"
We had the dope facts, it was scary:
Everyone stared in awe when we screamed Matthew Perry!
Then quiet in the theatre or it's gonna get tragic
We're about to be taken to a dream world of magic

In the Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!
Yes, the Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!
We love that Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!
Pass that Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia!

*****

Republicans to Poor "Freeze to Death"

Republicans in Congress cut home heating assistance funding to poor
Americans by around $200 million. Democrats were seeking $5 billion.
Republicans approved $2 billion.

Home heating costs are up around 40 percent to 70 percent over last
year depending on the type of heating used.

Oil companies have huge excess profits that could be taxed to fund
the program. Republicans in Congress have effectively blocked any
attempt to tax these excess oil industry profits to help poor
Americans from freezing to death.

Poor citizens do not give huge campaign contributions to Republican
politicians like oil industry executives and oil industry political
action committees. The poor tend to vote more Democratic than
Republican over economic issues. Freezing to death voters who might
support opposing political parties might be good politics but is
both un-American and un-Christian. The Republicans in Congress
should be kinder to their less fortunate American citizens and try
to follow the Christian admonishment to help the poor.

These same Republican politicians are supporting cuts in food
assistance and health care programs for poor Americans. The results
will eventually be the same for some fellow American citizens. They
will die earlier and have more unhealthy lives. Is this what America
should be doing this Christmas?

The Republican "War on the Poor" approach to government is
disgusting when contrasted with their strong push for tax cuts for
the very wealthiest of the wealthy. They find huge amounts of money
to fund tax breaks for giant corporations and no-bid contracts
awarded to politically connected companies.

The Republican Party has been relying on Christian voters to stay in
power while not following core Christian teaching about the
treatment of the poor. It is Christmas but the Republicans in
Congress seemed not to have read the Biblical tale of the Virgin
Mary told in Luke 1:56. Here are some important passages:

"1:48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for,
behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
1:49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is
his name.
1:50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to
generation.
1:51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the
proud in the imagination of their hearts.
1:52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them
of low degree.
1:53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he
hath sent empty away.

Republican efforts to cut the huge budget deficits created by their
tax policies, the unjustified Iraq War and the growing national
security state created after 9-11 should not be at the cost of the
lives or health of poor Americans. All citizens should contact their
representative in Congress and demand help for the poor from our
federal government this Christmas. We should ask ourselves "what
would Jesus do." This Christian believes that Christ would help
feed, cloth and keep warm the poor.

Written by Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio
http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail: P.O. Box 283,
Earleville, Maryland 21919. Email: midsouthcm@... . Phone: 443-
907-2367.

Feel free to publish at no charge without prior permission.

*****

Clock runs out on ABC's 'Monday Night Football'
By HAL BOCK, AP Sports Writer
December 25, 2005

From its inception, ABC's "Monday Night Football" was a risky
experiment that defied American sports tradition. From Howard
Cosell's pontification to Don Meredith's down-home songs to Dennis
Miller's arcane analogies, it dominated TV viewing in homes and bars
across the nation.

The broadcast was a hodgepodge of personalities and indelible
images, defining moments and follies, eye-popping on-the-field
performances and the kind of impromptu silliness that only sheer
boredom can create.

In short, it was exactly what ABC Sports boss Roone Arledge hoped it
would be.

It was theater.

Television sports reaches the end of one era and the beginning of
another Monday night when ABC signs off on its prime-time weeknight
coverage of the NFL for the final time and hands off to sister
network ESPN.

The 555th Monday night game on the network is itself of little
consequence: The dismal New York Jets play the New England Patriots,
who already are playoff bound but have no chance to improve their
position.

The series switches networks next season, when ESPN begins paying
$1.1 billion per year for Monday night rights in an eight-year deal.

"'Monday Night Football' is the premier property in sports
television," ESPN president George Bodenheimer said. "All the
players get up for it. All the teams watch. It's a national
showcase. To be able to transition it to ESPN is an honor."

There was no ESPN when ABC began its MNF run on Sept. 21, 1970, with
the Jets playing at Cleveland. It was the beginning of 36 seasons of
one of television's most valuable franchises, a compelling three
hours that became the longest running prime-time sports series in TV
history.

Municipal Stadium was jammed with 85,703 fans that first night as
ABC began a broadcasting odyssey with Keith Jackson doing play-by-
play and ex-quarterback Meredith sharing analysis and wisecracks
with Cosell. The three-man booth was new territory for sports
television. But then, so was this whole MNF adventure, the invention
of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and Arledge.

It was a bold step because, for the longest time, football in
America fit neatly into a three-day weekend. Friday night was
reserved for high school games. Saturday belonged to college
football. The NFL played on Sunday.

Rozelle wasn't about to lock the NFL into that pattern. The league
had experimented with occasional weeknight games and the
commissioner thought it was a perfect place to grow his product.
Similarly, Arledge believed sports was the perfect product for
television.

Rozelle needed a network partner and Arledge needed a foot in the
NFL door. With CBS and NBC locked into NFL games on Sundays, ABC was
the perfect fit for MNF. But it took some persuading.

Rozelle's trump card was syndication on the Hughes Sports Network.
On and off for two years, Rozelle and Arledge would meet for lunch,
usually at Manhattan's posh 21 Club, haggling over details. Arledge
felt he was always on the defensive, especially when Rozelle
mentioned Hughes.

"I had about as much clout as the Dalai Lama has dealing with the
Chinese army," he once said. "You know where the power was."

Arledge persuaded reluctant ABC higher-ups to sign off on the deal,
but then Rozelle almost pulled the rug out from under him.

"He said, 'Of course, you understand we have to offer it to CBS and
NBC first because of existing contracts,"' Arledge said. "I was
about to slit my throat."

The other two networks passed and the deal went to ABC for $8.5
million a year, a rights fee that ballooned over the life of the
partnership to $550 million a year, half of what ESPN will pay.

It was the start of something very big.

Arledge's plan was to use the up-close and personal approach he had
applied to ABC's coverage of the Olympics. There would be nine
cameras instead of the usual four or five. Producer Dennis Lewin was
there at the start and later moved to the NFL as head of
broadcasting.

"We approached every game as if it was the Super Bowl," Lewin said.

The selection of the announcing team was vital. The plan was to have
ex-NFL star Frank Gifford in the booth, but Gifford had a year
remaining on a contract at CBS and he recommended his pal, Meredith.
Arledge added the bombastic, often abrasive Cosell for analysis,
with Jackson doing play-by-play.

The interplay between the urbane Cosell and Meredith the country boy
made the broadcasts tingle with electricity. Cosell took to calling
Meredith "Dandy Don," and the quarterback would serenade blowout
games by singing, "Turn out the lights, the party's over."

Once, when the cameras zeroed in on stony-faced Minnesota coach Bud
Grant, Meredith changed his tune, singing, "You are my sunshine, my
only sunshine ..."

The first game included an electrifying 94-yard return of the second-
half kickoff by Cleveland's Homer Jones, played and replayed by
ABC's army of cameras, and a dramatic portrait of Jets quarterback
Joe Namath, shoulders slouched at game's end after an interception
that sealed the victory for the Browns.

It was must-see TV and the country responded. The first-year rating
was 18.5 with a 31 percent share of the viewing audience. When
Gifford replaced Jackson to do play-by-play the next year, the
rating went up to 20.8.

Rozelle and Arledge had a hit on their hands.

Much of the success had to do with Cosell. His nasal, New York tones
delivered a know-it-all message that often infuriated audiences.

"Howard made people listen," Lewin said. "He made people think and
he made people watch. You didn't always agree with Howard, but he
was never afraid to say what he thought."

Then there was Arledge's unique production.

"Roone felt it was important to personalize the athlete, to
transport the viewer from the couch to every part of the stadium,"
Gifford said. "Roone Arledge turned a football game into live
theater."

Gifford functioned as a traffic cop, an x's and o's football
fundamentalist, while Cosell and Meredith provided comic relief. It
worked famously, benefited by some terrific games and occasionally
interrupted by some dramatic news. It fell to Cosell on Dec. 8,
1980, to announce, in the middle of the broadcast, that Beatle John
Lennon had been shot and killed.

Some of the more memorable Monday night moments include:

-- Tony Dorsett setting a record with a 99-yard run from scrimmage
for Dallas against Minnesota on Jan. 3, 1983.

-- Green Bay defeating Washington 48-47 on Oct. 17, 1983, as the
teams combined for 1,025 yards of total offense in the highest-
scoring MNF game, a contest not decided until Mark Moseley missed a
potential game-winning 39-yard field goal with 3 seconds to play.

-- Miami ending Chicago's shot at an undefeated season, beating the
Bears 38-24 on Dec. 2, 1985, as alumni from the Dolphins' undefeated
1972 team cheered for their record to be protected. The game set an
MNF record with a 29.6 rating and 46 share.

-- Hall of Fame quarterbacks John Elway and Joe Montana facing off
in a dramatic duel won by Montana, who threw a TD pass with 8
seconds remaining to give Kansas City a 31-28 victory over Denver on
Oct. 17, 1994.

-- The Jets roaring from behind in the fourth quarter, scoring on
four straight possessions to wipe out a 30-7 Miami lead and then
again with 42 seconds left in regulation before winning in overtime
40-37 on a 40-yard field goal by John Hall on Oct. 23, 2000.

-- Brett Favre throwing for 399 yards and four touchdowns in Green
Bay's 41-7 victory over Oakland on Dec. 22, 2003, one day after the
sudden death of his father.

Over the years, the package changed. Meredith fled Cosell's
overbearing presence, joining NBC in 1974 before returning three
years later. Arledge moved to head ABC's news division in 1977.
Cosell departed in 1983 but not before taking a parting shot at the
NFL, calling it boring.

MNF always battled boring. ABC dressed its announcers in outrageous
canary yellow blazers for a while. When ratings began to dip, the
network tried different starting times and different broadcasters,
even hiring comedian Miller for two seasons. Some ex-players-turned-
announcers stayed longer than others. Fred Williamson never made it
out of the preseason in 1974. Gifford stuck around for 28 years.

There was a tawdry cross promotion involving Philadelphia wide
receiver Terrell Owens for ABC's "Desperate Housewives" series last
year that raised some eyebrows. The signature opening recently has
had country star Hank Williams Jr. singing, "Are you ready for some
football?"

Al Michaels took over play-by-play duties in 1986 and will follow
the series to ESPN next season, joined by ex-quarterback Joe
Theismann, who provided one of the more dramatic MNF moments in 1985
when his leg was broken on a sack by Lawrence Taylor.

Bodenheimer said ESPN will try to turn MNF into the kind of defining
event the program was in its early years.

"ESPN plans to create an immersive experience for the fans," he
said. "It will be a happening in each MNF city. We look to take the
best that ABC has done in 36 years and create a new era on ESPN."

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com


The Return of Total Information Awareness
Bush Asserts Dictatorial "Inherent" Powers
TedRall.com

NEW YORK -- Civil libertarians relaxed when, in September 2003,
Republicans bowed to public outcry and cancelled Total Information
Awareness. TIA was a covert "data mining" operation run out of the
Pentagon by creepy Iran-Contra figure John Poindexter. Bush
Administration marketing mavens had tried to dress up the
sinister "dataveillance" spook squad--first by changing TIA to
Terrorism Information Awareness, then to the Information Awareness
Office--to no avail. "But," wondered the Electronic Frontier
Foundation watchdog group a month after Congress cut its
funding, "is TIA truly dead?"

At the time I bet "no." Once a regime has revealed a predilection
for spying on its own people, the histories of East Germany and
Richard Nixon teach us, they never quit voluntarily. The cyclical
clicks that appeared on my phone line after 9/11 corroborated my
belief that federal spy agencies were using the War on Terrorism as
a pretext for harassing their real enemies: liberals and others who
criticized their policies. As did the phony Verizon employee tearing
out of my building's basement, leaving the phone switching box open,
when I demanded to see his identification. He drove away in an
unmarked van.

So I was barely surprised to hear the big news that Bush had ordered
the National Security Agency, FBI and CIA to tap the phones and
emails of such dangerously subversive radical Islamist anti-American
terrorist groups as Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, the American Indian Movement and the Catholic Workers,
without bothering to apply for a warrant. "The Catholic Workers
advocated peace with a Christian and semi-communistic ideology," an
agent wrote in an FBI dossier, a man sadly unaware of the passings
of J. Edgar Hoover and the Soviet Union.

Old joke: A suspect running away from a cop ducks down a long dark
alley. When the policeman's partner catches up he finds the first
cop walking around in circles under a bright streetlamp. "What are
you doing?" the second officer asks. "The guy ran into that
alley!" "I know," his colleague replies, "but looking for him out
here is a lot easier."

No wonder they haven't found Osama bin Laden. Tapping the ACLU's
phones is easier than traipsing through Pakistani Kashmir.

The return of brazen Nixon-style domestic eavesdropping --it
undoubtedly occurred under presidents from Ford to Clinton, though
on a smaller, more discreet scale--indicates that the White House is
flipping ahead to the next page in its Hitler playbook, the part
about exploiting a state of perpetual war to stifle internal dissent
on a vast scale. "As part of the program approved by President Bush
for domestic surveillance without warrants," the New York Times
reports, "the NSA has gained the cooperation of American
telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of
domestic and international communications." Maybe I should worry
about the real Verizon guy too.

But then, last week, Bush also claimed the right to spy within the
United States. Despite Congressional denials Bush said that the
resolution that authorized him to use force to go after the
perpetrators behind 9/11--which he used to invade Afghanistan--also
gave him the right to listen in on Greenpeace and infiltrate a PETA
seminar on veganism (yes, really). Attorney General and torture
aficionado Alberto R. Gonzales cited the president's "inherent power
as commander in chief."

Actually, as Peter Irons documents in his outstanding War Powers:
How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution, the Founding
Fathers never intended for the "commander in chief" to have any
powers beyond ordering troops to repel an invasion force. As
everyone understood in 1787, the title was strictly ceremonial. A
president can't declare war, much less violate our privacy, based on
his commander-in-chief "authority."

Officials of a democratic republic derive their power and authority
from law. As servants of the people, they can't do anything unless
it's specifically authorized by law or judicial interpretations
thereof. Only in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes may a legal
theory be created that imbues the leader, as the personal embodiment
of the state, with "inherent" powers. For example, the Nazi "führer
principle," in which the head of state was answerable to no one and
the legislative and judicial branches of governments were reduced to
rubber stamps, required Hitler to assign himself inherent powers.

Bush and Gonzales' interpretation of their roles is alien, un-
American. Do they understand our system of government? Or are they
trying to change it to something more "efficient"--something closer
to authoritarian state led by a strongman, or even outright fascism?

When I first read about Bush's domestic eavesdropping operation--
which he promises to continue--I did what any left-of-center Bush-
bashing cartoonist and columnist would do: I filed Freedom of
Information Act requests to force the FBI, CIA and NSA to cough up
whatever they've got on me. After all, if the feds are going after
Ancient Forest Rescue, it isn't a big stretch to surmise that they
might be interested in a guy who says that George W. Bush is
illegitimate, dumb as a rock and the head of a cabal of sociopathic
mass murderers who've done more to destroy the United States than
Osama. I'll let you know what, if anything, turns up.

Interesting tidbit: When I visited the NSA's official website, my
browser warned me that I was "about to enter a site that is not
secure." Ain't that the truth.

*****

Saturday, December 24, 2005
What Are We Waiting For? Christmas?
Bush Should Be Impeached NOW
By Gerald Rellick
http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com

"In all of this, George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to
his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government,
to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the
manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore,
George W. Bush, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and
removal from office."

Substitute the name Richard Nixon for George Bush and you have the
closing words of the three Articles of Impeachment from the House
Judiciary Committee against Richard Nixon in July 1974.

After more than 30 years I still find these words chilling. Today we
again face such somber judgment and must be prepared as a nation to
confront the reality that these same words apply to George W. Bush
and, like Richard Nixon, Bush's conduct as president "warrants
impeachment and trial and removal from office."

The three articles of impeachment cited Nixon for: (1) obstruction
of justice involving the investigation of the Watergate break-in;
(2) "knowingly misusing [his] executive power… [and] violating the
constitutional rights of citizens" by ordering illegal surveillances
of U.S. citizens, using the agencies of the IRS, FBI, CIA and Secret
Service to carry out such surveillances and other obstructions; and
(3) "willfully disobeying subpoenas" issued by the Judiciary
Committee.

Following the Judiciary Committee vote, Republican Senator Barry
Goldwater, in a now-famous visit to the White House, informed Nixon
that if a Senate trial went forward, Nixon could expect no more than
10 votes in his favor, and that he, Barry Goldwater, "would not be
one of them." Nixon resigned the presidency shortly thereafter,
avoiding
formal House impeachment.

With the recent revelations by the New York Times of George Bush's
domestic surveillance program without court-approved warrants, Bush
is seen to be in clear violation of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA), passed in 1978 specifically to prevent the
kind of illegal surveillances that occurred in the Nixon years.
However, the second article of impeachment against Nixon, directed
at illegal surveillance, added that Nixon misused federal
agencies "for purposes unrelated to national security…"

Perhaps seeing this as a loophole, Bush and his legal team initially
claimed that the president has the legal authority to contravene or
suspend certain laws in the interests of national security in his
role as commander in chief. This is clearly a specious argument and
raises the obvious question of which laws the president is obligated
to follow and which he is free to ignore. Bush's stance prompted one
Los Angeles Times letter writer to ask if Bush might suspend the
2008 elections if he felt it was "in the interests of national
security."

Most recently however, the White House backed off slightly from this
imperialist argument and stated in a formal letter to Congress on
December 22 that the September 2001 Congressional resolution, known
as the "Authorization to Use Military Force" gave the president the
authorization he needed for warrantless wiretaps. The resolution
authorizes "all necessary and appropriate force against those
nations, organizations or persons [the president] determines
planned, authorized, committed or aided" the attacks of Sept. 11.

Such a broad interpretation is clearly unwarranted. In an op-ed
column in the Washington Post the following day, former Senate
majority leader, Tom Daschle, states that President Bush got no such
authorization from Congress. In fact, says Daschle, just before this
resolution was about to be voted on, the White House attempted to
make one more change, to add the words "in the United States"
after "appropriate force." The request was rejected. Writes Daschle:

"This last-minute change would have given the president broad
authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas -- where we
all understood he wanted authority to act -- but right here in the
United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no
justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request
for additional authority."

Daschle adds that if the administration believed the resolution gave
Bush the legal authority to go around FISA to spy on U.S. citizens,
it would never have asked for the revision in language.

Bush's admission of domestic spying without FISA-mandated warrants
has led to a number of calls for his impeachment. This latest
manifestation of Bush illegality is easier to focus on because there
exists a specific law that prohibits it. However, it has become
clear over the last two years that a budding-form of dictatorial
power has been at the heart of the Bush presidency since its
beginning. Illegal spying on a "few thousand" Americans -- while
certainly not to be ignored – does not begin to compare in magnitude
to Bush's fraud in selling the Iraq war; and appropriately, some
calls for impeachment include this fraud perpetrated on Congress.
It's interesting that this latest revelation may just be the
proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back and opens the way for
a full investigation of the white House's actions in the post-9/11
period.

The most compelling truth remains that George W. Bush, along with
members of his cabinet and staff, misled and deceived Congress and
the American people about the true situation in Iraq and about their
own intentions. As a consequence of this deceit, they were able to
bully and trick Congress into giving Bush a green light to invade
Iraq, an action he subsequently took, with results now seen as so
utterly disastrous that they would have been incomprehensible to any
sane, intelligent person three years ago.

More than 2,000 of our men and women in uniform have been killed,
15,000 more wounded, and at least 30,000 Iraqis have been killed,
most of them civilians, including many women and children. Iraq's
infrastructure has been almost totally destroyed, its environment
grievously poisoned, billions of US tax dollars have vanished in the
depthless pit of death and destruction that has become Iraq today,
and Iraq borders on civil war. To add to this colossal debacle, U.S.
troops and CIA personnel were directed to disobey the Geneva
Convention on treatment of prisoners, setting the stage for torture
and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners in Iraq,
witnessed embarrassingly by the entire world in graphic detail when
the Abu Ghraib prison abuses became public. As a result the U.S. is
routinely mocked as a global pariah and a threat to world peace –
all thanks to one man, George W. Bush.

Bush's arrogant defense of his illegal spying activities is
reminiscent of Richard Nixon's statement during the period of his
impeachment hearings: "When the President does it, that means it's
not illegal." And like with Nixon, it forces a showdown with
Congress. As Jonathan Schell writes in The Nation:

"Members of Congress have no choice but to accept [Bush's] challenge…
If Congress accepts his usurpation of its legislative power, they
will be no Congress and might as well stop meeting. Either the
President must uphold the laws of the United States, which are
Congress's laws, or he must leave office."

It should be added that such a showdown must of necessity address
all of Bush's suspect activities following 9/11. The evidence for
illegal White House action is now compelling. For Congress to turn
away its head now would be an egregious failure of its
constitutional responsibilities. A bipartisan Congress faced up to
the challenge in 1974 when the laws of the land were being usurped
by a rogue president. They can do it again.

Gerald S. Rellick, Ph.D., worked in the defense sector of the
aerospace industry for 22 years. He now teaches in the California
Community College system. He can be reached at grellick@....

*****

Democratic Congressman Releases Potentially 'Lethal Document' That
Could Lead To Bush Impeachment Next Year

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mi) is tired of the Bush arrogance and
flaunting of federal law concerning the Iraq War and other matters.
Friday he released a document called "The Constitution in Crisis,"
seeking a Congrssional Resolution to again investigate Bush's
possible impeachment.

By Greg Szymanski
12-24-5

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mi) released a potentially lethal document
Friday, focusing on the numerous federal violations of the Bush
administration, including evidence of WMD intelligence cover-ups,
deception, manipulation, retribution and torture concerning the
Iraqi War.

The document, entitled "The Constitution in Crisis," finds more than
probable cause and substantial evidence for many federal law
violations by top administration officials, including the President
and Vice President, based on their blatant and arrogant abuse of
power.

"I have introduced a resolution creating a Select Committee with
subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush
Administration with regard to the Iraq war and report on possible
impeachable offenses, as well as Resolutions proposing both
President Bush and Vice-President Cheney should be censured by
Congress based on the uncontroverted evidence of their abuse of
power," said Rep. Conyers in a statement released this week
regarding action to be taken when Congress returns after the
Christmas break.

Besides specifically detailing the many Bush administration federal
violations concerning Iraq, Rep.. Conyers severely scolds and
attacks the administration for its "arrogance, hubris and
wrongheadedness," highlighting the dangers of a one party rule in
Congress and a lack of check and balances on President Bush who is
acting more like a dictator than a President of the people.

"It is important that we as a nation say "never again" to going to
war under false pretenses, and covering up official wrongdoing,"
added Rep. Conyers, who has been a strong advocate for getting to
the truth of allegations President Bush doctored intelligence
reports to justify an illegal Iraqi invasion.

In the lengthy report submitted to Congress and being distributed
widely across America for citizens signatures, Sen. Conyers said he
took this drastic action to "save the country" after President Bush
arrogantly refused to respond to a letter submitted by 122 members
of Congress and more than 500,000 Americans last July, asking him
whether information in the infamous Downing Street Memo, alleging
doctoring of WMD intelligence, was accurate.

Since Bush failed to acknowledge the letter, Conyers staff prepared
the legal document released this week, finding substantial evidence
that Bush and Cheney misled Congress and the American people
regarding decisions to go to war with Iraq, misstated and
manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for
entering into the war, mandated torture and cruel inhumane treatment
in the execution of the war, as well as permitted inappropriate
retaliation against critics of the administration.

In the Executive Summary of the document which will seek a
Resolution for Congress to seek impeachment, Rep. Conyers through
his legal staff added:

"There is prima facie case that these actions by the President, Vice
President and other members of the Bush administration violated a
number of federal laws, including committing a fraud against the
U.S.; making false statements to Congress; violating the War Powers
Resolution; misuse of government funds; violating international
treaties prohibiting torture; violating federal laws concerning
retaliating against witnesses and other individuals and violating
federal laws concerning leaking and other misuse of intelligence."

While the document raises charges meriting Bush's impeachment, it
notes that special investigative powers be established by
Congressional Resolution since the Republican controlled Legislative
and Executive branches has systematically and illegally blocked off
a fair and honest search for the truth, using its power to protect a
corrupt and out-of-control President and Vice President.

"As a result, we recommend that Congress establish a select
committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of
the Bush administration with regard to the Iraq War and report to
the Committee on the Judiciary on possible impeachable offenses,"
added Rep. Conyers.

For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com.

*****

Robalini's Note: Meanwhile, according to the Justice Department, the
issue isn't Shrub's blatant violation of the law, but that his
blatant violation of the law was revealed.  Most telling quote is
from White House spokesman Duffy: "The fact is that al-Qaida's
playbook is not printed on Page One and when America's is, it has
serious ramifications."  That's right, the illegal spying operation
is page one of the Bush Team (oh, excuse me, America's) playbook.

Justice Dept. Probing Domestic Spying Leak
By TONI LOCY, Associated Press Writer
12-30-2005

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of
classified information about President Bush's secret domestic spying
program.

The inquiry focuses on disclosures to The New York Times about
warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency
since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said.

The Times revealed the existence of the program two weeks ago in a
front-page story that acknowledged the news had been withheld from
publication for a year, partly at the request of the administration
and partly because the newspaper wanted more time to confirm various
aspects of the program.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Justice undertook the action
on its own, and the president was informed of it on Friday.

"The leaking of classified information is a serious issue. The fact
is that al-Qaida's playbook is not printed on Page One and when
America's is, it has serious ramifications," Duffy told reporters in
Crawford, Texas, where Bush was spending the holidays.

Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for The Times, said the paper will
not comment on the investigation.

Revelation of the secret spying program unleashed a firestorm of
criticism of the administration. Some critics accused the president
of breaking the law by authorizing intercepts of conversations —
without prior court approval or oversight — of people inside the
United States and abroad who had suspected ties to al-Qaida or its
affiliates.

The surveillance program, which Bush acknowledged authorizing,
bypassed a nearly 30-year-old secret court established to oversee
highly sensitive investigations involving espionage and terrorism.

Administration officials insisted that Bush has the power to conduct
the warrantless surveillance under the Constitution's war powers
provision. They also argued that Congress gave Bush the power to
conduct such a secret program when it authorized the use of military
force against terrorism in a resolution adopted within days of the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Justice Department's investigation was being initiated after the
agency received a request for the probe from the NSA.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been conducting a separate
leak investigation to determine who in the administration leaked CIA
operative Valerie Plame's name to the media in 2003.

Several reporters have been called to testify before a grand jury or
to give depositions. New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85
days in jail, refusing to reveal her source, before testifying in
the probe.

The administration's legal interpretation of the president's powers
allowed the government to avoid requirements under the 1978 Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act in conducting the warrantless
surveillance.

The act established procedures that an 11-member court used in 2004
to oversee nearly 1,800 government applications for secret
surveillance or searches of foreigners and U.S. citizens suspected
of terrorism or espionage.

Congressional leaders have said they were not briefed four years
ago, when the secret program began, as thoroughly as the
administration has since contended.

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said in an article printed
last week on the op-ed page of The Washington Post that Congress
explicitly denied a White House request for war-making authority in
the United States.

"This last-minute change would have given the president broad
authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas ... but
right here in the United States, potentially against American
citizens," Daschle wrote.

Daschle was Senate Democratic leader at the time of the 2001
terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. He is now a
fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington
think tank.

The administration formally defended its domestic spying program in
a letter to Congress last week, saying the nation's security
outweighs privacy concerns of individuals who are monitored.

In a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence
committees, the Justice Department said Bush authorized conducting
electronic surveillance without first obtaining a warrant in an
effort to thwart terrorist acts against the United States.

Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella
acknowledged "legitimate" privacy interests. But he said those
interests "must be balanced" against national security.

Please send as far and wide as possible.

Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

Katrina Is Voted Top Story of 2005
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
Thu Dec 22, 2005

The onslaught of Gulf Coast hurricanes, notably Katrina and the
deadly flooding which devastated New Orleans, was overwhelmingly
picked by U.S. editors and news directors as the top story of 2005
in The Associated Press' annual vote.

The hurricanes received 242 first-place votes out of 288 ballots
cast. No other story received more than 18 first-place votes.

The death of Pope John Paul II, and the election of Joseph Ratzinger
to succeed him as Pope Benedict XVI, was the No. 2 pick, followed by
the situation in Iraq, where news of violence and politics vied
almost equally for attention throughout the year.

Iraq was voted the top story in 2002 and 2003, and was runner-up in
2004 to the U.S. election in which President Bush won a second term.

Here are 2005's top 10 stories, as voted by AP members:

1. HURRICANE KATRINA: Days in advance, America knew it was coming.
But even though Hurricane Katrina weakened slightly from its
frightening Category 5 strength, its impact was stunning. It killed
more than 1,300 people in five states, ravaged the Mississippi Gulf
Coast and set off flooding that submerged 80 percent of New Orleans,
forcing the largest urban dislocation in U.S. history. Hurricanes
Wilma and Rita also inflicted severe damage.

2: PAPAL TRANSITION: John Paul II's death marked the passing of the
first non-Italian pope in 455 years and ended a 26-year pontificate,
third-longest in history. In a remarkable show of affection, many
millions attended services worldwide on the day of his funeral.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, expected to continue a
conservative doctrinal approach, became the new pope and promptly
waived the normal waiting period so John Paul could swiftly be
considered for sainthood.

3: IRAQ: As in 2004, news from Iraq ranged from the grim, including
a devastating wave of suicide bombings, to the promising — Iraqis
voting for new leaders and thrashing out differences on a new
constitution. The U.S. military death toll surpassed 2,000, and
President Bush estimated the Iraqi toll at 30,000, but he insisted
U.S. forces would stay until Iraqi troops could contain insurgents
on their own.

4: SUPREME COURT: Not since 1994 had a Supreme Court seat become
vacant. Suddenly there were two openings due to Sandra Day
O'Connor's retirement and Chief Justice William Rehnquist's death.
John Roberts was smoothly confirmed to succeed Rehnquist, but
President Bush's next nominee, Harriet Miers, had to bow out amid
conservative complaints. The right liked the next choice, Samuel
Alito, but he could face tough Democratic opposition at confirmation
hearings in January.

5: OIL PRICES: Crude oil prices hit an all-time peak of almost $71 a
barrel in August before subsiding. Costly gasoline prompted some
motorists to rethink their driving habits; the beleaguered U.S.
airline industry had to spend $9 billion more on jet fuel in 2005
than in 2004.

6: LONDON BOMBINGS: Attacks on three rush-hour subway trains and a
bus killed 56 people on July 7, including four bombers with ties to
Islamic militants. Authorities said three of the alleged bombers
were born in Britain to immigrant parents from Pakistan; the fourth
was from Jamaica.

7: ASIAN QUAKE: A massive earthquake near the Pakistan-India border
killed more than 87,000, and left more than 3 million homeless.
Worried relief officials appealed for more emergency aid as winter
arrived in the stricken region.

8: TERRI SCHIAVO: A family feud escalated into a wrenching national
debate as the husband of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo struggled and
finally succeeded in getting clearance to remove the feeding tube
that had kept her alive for 15 years. President Bush, Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush and members of Congress joined Terri Schiavo's parents in
efforts to have the tube reinserted before she died.

9: CIA LEAK: Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby,
was indicted and several prominent journalists were entangled in
complex offshoots as a special prosecutor investigated the Bush
administration's leaking of Valerie Plame's CIA status to the news
media in 2003. Plame's husband, a former U.S. diplomat, had accused
the administration of manipulating prewar intelligence on Iraq.

10: BUSH'S STRUGGLES: Multiple factors, including public doubts
about Iraq, a flawed response to Hurricane Katrina and a failed
Supreme Court nomination, drove President Bush's national approval
ratings below 40 percent, the lowest of his presidency.

Just missing out on the Top 10 was the start of toppled Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein's trial on charges of mass murder and torture.

Voters in the AP survey were invited to write in their own
suggestions of top stories. Three cited the auto industry's woes,
including layoffs at General Motors, and one suggested the
revelation that former FBI official Mark Felt was the Watergate
source "Deep Throat."

Mark Bowden, editor of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, offered a
general observation on his ballot.

"The world was wracked with pain in 2005, enduring a parade of
natural disasters," he wrote. "And, of course some of the pain was
self-inflicted — war, terrorism, rebellion, violence, crime, drug
abuse, business fraud. ... There is never a slow day in the news
business."

*****

Refugee, tsunami top US word of the year list
By Arthur Spiegelman
Thu Dec 15, 2005

Refugee was named word of the year on Thursday by a language
monitoring group that cited the political storm it created when used
to describe the hundreds of thousands in New Orleans who fled
Hurricane Katrina.

The nonprofit Global Language Monitor named refugee to top its
annual list. It was followed by tsunami, Katrina, pope
and "Chinglish," which describes the "new second language of
China." "Out of the Mainstream" was named phrase of the year
and "OK" the most universally used word.

Global Language Monitor head Paul JJ Payack said refugee, which was
used five times more often than other words to describe those made
homeless by Katrina, triggered a debate on race and political
correctness.

Civil Rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson said using the term to
describe the mostly poor and black citizens of New Orleans made
homeless by Katrina was "inaccurate, unfair and racist" and implied
that those using the term were prepared to "see them as other than
American."

President Bush opted to use "displaced citizens," saying that "the
people we're talking about are not refugees. They are Americans."
Several major newspapers dropped using the word and others said they
would use it cautiously.

Language expert William Safire said the word more often than not is
used to denote a person "who seeks refuge or asylum in a foreign
country to escape religious or political persecution," rather than a
person who simply seeks refuge from a storm.

Tsunami, from the Japanese word for harbor wave, placed second on
the list of words. Payack noted that few would have recognized the
word before the Christmas Day 2004 disaster in Southeast Asia.

Third was "Poppa/Papa/Pope" to mark the death of John Paul II,
followed by "Chinglish," "H5N1," the name for looming avian flu
pandemic, "recaille," a French word for riff-raff that officials
used to describe rioters in France. That was followed by Katrina
and "wiki," from the Hawaiian for "quick" and now embraced on the
Internet as a term for collaboration, as in the Web site Wikipedia.

Ninth was SMS, or "Short Message Service," to connote the more than
one trillion text messages in 2005, and 10th was "insurgent," which
Payack described as a politically neutral term used to describe
enemy combatants.

"Out of the Mainstream," used to describe the ideology of a
political opponent, was the phrase of year, followed by bird
flu/avian flu; politically correct, which Payack said has now
emerged as a worldwide phenomenon; and North/South divide, which
describes global "haves and have nots."

Also included are the phrase list are "string theory," the idea that
the universe is constructed of 11 pulsating planes of
existence; "jumping the couch," to denote losing emotional control
and made popular by Tom Cruise's encounter with a couch on the Oprah
television show; and "deferred success," a new way of describing
failure.

*****

Plummeting 2005 box office sparks Hollywood crisis
AFP
Tue Dec 27, 2005

Even a much-hyped giant gorilla, a geisha and a schoolboy magician
have not been able to create a happy ending at the US box office, as
Hollywood ends its most disappointing year in nearly two decades.

Plunging movie ticket sales, after a string of uninspiring remakes
and movie sequels coupled with an explosion of the DVD and video
game markets, are keeping audiences at home and have sent Hollywood
into a deep existential crisis.

"This industry is facing significant challenges," said Jack Kyser,
chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp,
a business support and research body.

Ticket sale revenues dropped five percent in the first 11 months of
2005 while the number of Americans going to the cinema fell by 6.2
percent compared with the same period in 2004, according to box
office trackers Exhibitor Relations Co Inc.

The result is Tinseltown's most disappointing box office performance
in 15 years as audiences, dazzled by their entertainment choices and
disappointed by the mediocre films on offer, turned away from the
cinema in droves.

Even the late November and December releases of blockbusters "Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "King Kong", "Chronicles of Narnia:
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" have
been unable to turn around the downward trend.

"It's not just a slump in box office, but also in sales of DVDs,"
Kyser told AFP. "This is mainly because of unattractive movies that
don't appeal to young male audiences, the cost of movie tickets,
parking (and) the shrinking window (between) a movie's theatrical
and DVD releases.

In addition, Hollywood faces a major external threat: runaway
production costs and the growing trend of movie producers to shoot
in places such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand to cash in on
much lower staff and production charges.

"Some studios are doing some moderate lay offs. LA's future is at
stake," Kyser said, demonstrating the depth of despair in the nine-
billion-dollar a year industry.

Industry movers are battling to isolate the true causes of the
slump, crossing their fingers that the big-budget money-spinners up
Hollywood's sleeve will help ease the pain.

"Is it the movies? Is it the ticket prices? Is it because home
theater and DVD?," pondered Exhibitor Relations Co's chief Paul
Dergarabedian."I think because all this is happening at the same
time, it is a combination of facts."

But he was optimistic for the future of the industry, saying that
when Hollywood does dish up a good film, audiences still go rushing
to see it.

"'Harry Potter' is showing that people still want to go to the
movies but still they need a good reason to go," Dergarabedian told
AFP.

The fourth film of JK Rowling's cult novels opened on November 18
and has raked in more than 250 million dollars, making it second
most successful film of 2005, behind "Star Wars: Episode III --
Revenge of the Sith".

"When a good movie strikes, people go to the theatres," said
Dergarabedian.

The last in the "Star Wars" series raked in a whopping 380 million
dollars in North American box office, "War of the Worlds," starring
Tom Cruise took 234 million, the comedy "Wedding Crashers" notched
up 208 million in ticket receipts and Tim Burton's "Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory" took 206 million.

But the successes were few and far between in 2005.

Ron Howard's 88-million-dollar biopic "Cinderella Man," starring
Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger, took only 61
million dollars, while Ridley Scott's crusade epic "Kingdom of
Heaven," which cost 130 million dollars to make, reaped only 47
million at the all-important domestic the box office.

Other fizzlers that did not recoup their budgets included the much-
touted sci-fi flop "The Island," which hauled in only 35 million
dollars, while Jamie Foxx's military drama "Stealth" bombed with a
US and Canadian haul of 31 million dollars. It quickly disappeared
from screens.

"Movie goers are very picky and they want the price of the ticket to
be worthwhile, the studios had to offer more," said Gitesh Pandya of
movie industry tracker Box Office Guru.

"There should be more creativity and new ideas, not just sequels and
remakes. Let's hope Hollywood listens to the audiences," he added.