Star Wars test set for Monday
The Pentagon is set to test a satellite on Monday that is part of a program being run by the "Missile Defense Agency". The launch will take place from the NASA Wallops Island Facility in Virginia.
Official news releases say, "The Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) mission involves launching a four-stage Minotaur I rocket carrying a satellite to collect scientific data that will be used to help with the development of future missile defense technology efforts."
First off we have to always remember that "missile defense" is a ruse. The Pentagon sticks the word "defense" on their Star Wars program so the American people, when they might hear the words in between reality TV shows, do not get alarmed. "Oh," the people will say, "I don't need to worry about this because they are protecting us from the bad guys. Honey hand me another bag of chips."
All of these programs are now basically testing space technologies that ultimately will allow the Pentagon to locate targets in space, to hone in on the targets, and then to develop the ability to close on targets and destroy them. Sold as defense, the ultimate goal is offense.
Official news releases say, "The Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) mission involves launching a four-stage Minotaur I rocket carrying a satellite to collect scientific data that will be used to help with the development of future missile defense technology efforts."
First off we have to always remember that "missile defense" is a ruse. The Pentagon sticks the word "defense" on their Star Wars program so the American people, when they might hear the words in between reality TV shows, do not get alarmed. "Oh," the people will say, "I don't need to worry about this because they are protecting us from the bad guys. Honey hand me another bag of chips."
All of these programs are now basically testing space technologies that ultimately will allow the Pentagon to locate targets in space, to hone in on the targets, and then to develop the ability to close on targets and destroy them. Sold as defense, the ultimate goal is offense.
Reflections on the VA Tech massacre
We received this correspondence from a Va Tech graduate. It is the text of a presentation given at a vigil a few days after the massacre.
It was quite a while ago when I graduated from Va Tech, but on the day of the massacre I found I could remember so much about it, and so clearly. My girlfriend lived in West AJ, and I took engineering classes at Norris Hall. As the details started coming out, I found myself picturing the scene, imagining which paths the shooter might have taken, which hallways and stairwells he walked down. I wondered how he was able to get all the way across campus. I wondered if any of my former professors were killed. I wondered how former classmates were dealing with it all.
It was quite a while ago when I graduated from Va Tech, but on the day of the massacre I found I could remember so much about it, and so clearly. My girlfriend lived in West AJ, and I took engineering classes at Norris Hall. As the details started coming out, I found myself picturing the scene, imagining which paths the shooter might have taken, which hallways and stairwells he walked down. I wondered how he was able to get all the way across campus. I wondered if any of my former professors were killed. I wondered how former classmates were dealing with it all.
The GOP's cyber election hit squad
Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush's re-election?
The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website – which gave the world the presidential election results – was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s firing of eight federal prosecutors.
Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote– from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves – must be added to the growing congressional investigations.
The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website – which gave the world the presidential election results – was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s firing of eight federal prosecutors.
Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote– from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves – must be added to the growing congressional investigations.
Rethinking American culture
American culture continues to spiral downward to an oblivion and the only way to stop it is through our love and concern. Much has occurred over the past few days and week. The shooting massacre at Virginia Tech jarred us into disbelief and renewed our concerns over domestic violence, gun control and man''s inhumanity to man.
It was just days ago that the nation was embroiled in the Don Imus ''nappy-headed ho'' controversy along with the ''bitch-ho'' culture that rappers and hip hop artists have cultivated over the past 20 plus years.
And it was only a few months ago that the ''F-word'' slur towards the gay community with Isaiah Washington and later with Tim Hardaway was fodder for the evening news. Meanwhile America continues to be engaged in a prolonged war over nothing as it desperately tries to force democracy and Western values onto a people who resent it.
It was just days ago that the nation was embroiled in the Don Imus ''nappy-headed ho'' controversy along with the ''bitch-ho'' culture that rappers and hip hop artists have cultivated over the past 20 plus years.
And it was only a few months ago that the ''F-word'' slur towards the gay community with Isaiah Washington and later with Tim Hardaway was fodder for the evening news. Meanwhile America continues to be engaged in a prolonged war over nothing as it desperately tries to force democracy and Western values onto a people who resent it.
Bowing down to our own violence
Many days after the mass killings at Virginia Tech, grisly stories
about the tragedy still dominated front pages and cable television. News
of carnage on a vastly larger scale -- the war in Iraq -- ebbs and flows.
The overall coverage of lethal violence, at home and far away, reflects
the chronic evasions of the American media
establishment.
In the world of U.S. mainline journalism, the boilerplate legitimacy of official American violence overseas is a routine assumption.
“The first task of the occupation remains the first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence,” George Will wrote on April 7, 2004, in the Washington Post. But three years later, his Newsweek column laments: “Vietnam produced an antiwar movement in America; Iraq has produced an antiwar America.”
Current polls and public discourse -- in spite of media inclinations to tamp down authentic anger at the war -- do reflect an “antiwar America” of sorts. So, why is the ghastly war effort continuing unabated? A big factor is the undue respect that’s reserved for American warriors in American society.
In the world of U.S. mainline journalism, the boilerplate legitimacy of official American violence overseas is a routine assumption.
“The first task of the occupation remains the first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence,” George Will wrote on April 7, 2004, in the Washington Post. But three years later, his Newsweek column laments: “Vietnam produced an antiwar movement in America; Iraq has produced an antiwar America.”
Current polls and public discourse -- in spite of media inclinations to tamp down authentic anger at the war -- do reflect an “antiwar America” of sorts. So, why is the ghastly war effort continuing unabated? A big factor is the undue respect that’s reserved for American warriors in American society.
This Earth Day, the need for corporate accountability is the Inconvenient Truth
The great green bandwagon that has come of age this Earth Day has been a very long time coming. With Rachel Carson's 1963 Silent Spring and Earth Day 1970 and the first arrests at the Seabrook Nuke in 1976 and the decades of writing and marching and organizing and fundraising, the landmarks to a growing green consciousness are epic.
The past fifty years have seen the rise of the movements for civil, gay, and women's rights; for an end to nuclear bomb testing and atomic power plants; for peace in Vietnam, central America and Iraq; for the right to open access and accurate vote counts in elections that cannot again be stolen, and much much more.
These national and global campaigns have been accompanied by never-ending battles at the grassroots, against Jim Crow, for equal housing, against local polluters, for paper ballots, and for an ever-growing range of vital causes that demand human attention if we are to retain our rights and dignity.
This on-going grassroots fervor is the essence of democracy, the lifeblood of our ability to survive and grow.
Today, another specific cause---this time the environment---has finally become fashionable.
The past fifty years have seen the rise of the movements for civil, gay, and women's rights; for an end to nuclear bomb testing and atomic power plants; for peace in Vietnam, central America and Iraq; for the right to open access and accurate vote counts in elections that cannot again be stolen, and much much more.
These national and global campaigns have been accompanied by never-ending battles at the grassroots, against Jim Crow, for equal housing, against local polluters, for paper ballots, and for an ever-growing range of vital causes that demand human attention if we are to retain our rights and dignity.
This on-going grassroots fervor is the essence of democracy, the lifeblood of our ability to survive and grow.
Today, another specific cause---this time the environment---has finally become fashionable.
USA: cornering the market on morality
“We have morality on our side….”
---William Blum
---William Blum
Ironic words flowing from the pen of a man who has devoted forty years of his life to hard-core dissent against the United States, the most moral nation in the history of civilization.
We are a nation founded upon bedrock principles of Christianity.
Would Christ not have approved of chattel slavery, the Native American genocide, and the millions of “savages” we have slaughtered to expand our borders and to maintain “Pax Americana?” Those who have died to sustain our peace and prosperity were but martyrs for a cause greater than themselves. In a sense, each one of them was a little Jesus.
Your Earth Day To-Do List!
The bad news: Global warming is real. The better news: there are real
ways you can help. In honor of Earth Day, here are five things you can do to make a cleaner planet and a better tomorrow. The best part is they are
low-cost or free -- but have a huge impact.
1. Reduce. Here's a bright idea: Swap out five standard light bulbs for energy-saving compact fluorescents. They use 25% less energy and last 10 times as long. Other ways to save: unplug unused appliances and take public transit. For more cool tips, go to the Natural Resources Defense Council website: Act for Change
2. Offset. Once you've done what you can to reduce your impact on the environment, offset the rest. Make a donation to reverse the greenhouse gases you produce. Go to CarbonFund.org: CarbonFund
1. Reduce. Here's a bright idea: Swap out five standard light bulbs for energy-saving compact fluorescents. They use 25% less energy and last 10 times as long. Other ways to save: unplug unused appliances and take public transit. For more cool tips, go to the Natural Resources Defense Council website: Act for Change
2. Offset. Once you've done what you can to reduce your impact on the environment, offset the rest. Make a donation to reverse the greenhouse gases you produce. Go to CarbonFund.org: CarbonFund
"I hope it's your family members that die" - US Representative Dana Rohrabacker
"I HOPE IT'S YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS THAT DIE" said US Representative Dana Rohrabacker to American citizens who questioned the Bush Administration’s unlawful extraordinary rendition policies.
Congressional hearings provide a deep insight into the inner spirit of our elected representatives-and sometimes, the insight is not pretty.
On April 17, we witnessed Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) unleash his unbridled anger onto members of the European Parliament’s committee on Human rights who were invited guests and witnesses in the House Foreign Affairs European subcommittee hearing. The European Parliamentary human rights committee had issued a report in January, 2007 sharply critical of the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program in which persons from all over the world were detained by either CIA or local police and then flown by CIA jet (torture taxi) to other countries where they were imprisoned (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Djibouti, Morocco, Yemen. The report was equally critical of European governments for allowing the unlawful flights to take place.
Congressional hearings provide a deep insight into the inner spirit of our elected representatives-and sometimes, the insight is not pretty.
On April 17, we witnessed Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) unleash his unbridled anger onto members of the European Parliament’s committee on Human rights who were invited guests and witnesses in the House Foreign Affairs European subcommittee hearing. The European Parliamentary human rights committee had issued a report in January, 2007 sharply critical of the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program in which persons from all over the world were detained by either CIA or local police and then flown by CIA jet (torture taxi) to other countries where they were imprisoned (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Djibouti, Morocco, Yemen. The report was equally critical of European governments for allowing the unlawful flights to take place.
The accomplices: Sundance George and Butch Reid and the Virginia Tech massacre
He had accomplices. Don't kid yourself: 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui didn't forge his two little pistols in his smithy shop.
He had a dealer, a guns-and-bullets pusher-man who put the heat in his hand, took the kid's money and pocketed it with a grin.
"Whether you are looking for a pistol for affordable training or simply the excitement of shooting, the P22 is the pistol for you!"
That's the ad on the Walther website for the student-reaper, a Walther .22.
Not that Walther, or its fellow murder-maker, Glock, which crafted the other Weapon of Student Mass Destruction, the Glock 9mm, kept all of the killer kid's money. The gun makers religiously tithe a portion of their grim reapings to their friends in Washington.
This report isn't about gun control legislation or the right to bear arms or any of that sideways crap. This is about a group of co-conspirators who dropped two killing devices into the hands of someone who shouldn't have had access to a plastic spoon.
He had a dealer, a guns-and-bullets pusher-man who put the heat in his hand, took the kid's money and pocketed it with a grin.
"Whether you are looking for a pistol for affordable training or simply the excitement of shooting, the P22 is the pistol for you!"
That's the ad on the Walther website for the student-reaper, a Walther .22.
Not that Walther, or its fellow murder-maker, Glock, which crafted the other Weapon of Student Mass Destruction, the Glock 9mm, kept all of the killer kid's money. The gun makers religiously tithe a portion of their grim reapings to their friends in Washington.
This report isn't about gun control legislation or the right to bear arms or any of that sideways crap. This is about a group of co-conspirators who dropped two killing devices into the hands of someone who shouldn't have had access to a plastic spoon.