In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

From Washington Post:

The overhaul touches on several sensitive areas. It would allow, for example, agents to interview people in the United States about foreign intelligence cases without warrants or prior approval of their supervisors. It also would rewrite 1976 guidelines established after Nixon-era abuses that restrict the FBI’s authority to intervene in times of civil disorder and to infiltrate opposition groups.

Pack your bags…

REPOST:

Greg Palast, Author of Armed Madhouse, on How Rove May Have Already Stolen the 2008 Election
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 05/17/2007 - 4:06pm. Interviews
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW
People ask me: Are they going to steal the 2008 election? No, they’ve already stolen the 2008 election. We still have a chance of swiping it back, but the reason I’ve expanded and put out the new edition of Armed Madhouse is to tell you how they will steal in 2008, and what to do about it. That’s one of the main new things. Plus a special chapter on New Orleans and my bust down there.
– Greg Palast
* * *
You might say, since the 2000 election, BuzzFlash and Greg Palast have shared many a foxhole in the fight for democracy. He’s a workaholic, like we are — and he doesn’t flinch one iota in investigating the powers that be.
One of the things that makes Palast such an incredible asset is that he is in the I.F. Stone tradition of his doing thorough research. As much as he’s built up a Sam Spade sleuthing persona, it is grounded in his ability to shift through large piles of documents and data that most modern reporters would just look at and cry, "No way, I’ve got to meet someone for a daquiri."
Mainstream jounalism in D.C. is built on the "easy story," as in the one that is handed to you by the Executive Branch. Actually, Palast doesn’t work in D.C. much at all. He is out traveling around the country — and world — doing actual investigations into what is really going on.

The Nerd Handbook

A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.

Here’s the video from the arrest. Looks like there’s a bunch of officers who just want to test out their expensive new gear, including the CamelBak ThermoBak 2L, with a closed cell insulation design and a neoprene tube cover keeps that keeps your water cool or warm for hours. Your choice. It really helps keep you going.

From DemocracyNow:

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected
journalists in the United States. She has received journalism’s top
honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery
and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a
transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation’s leading
independent news outlet.

Obviously, somebody gave these people just a little too much federal money to play with. I’m buying shares in CamelBak, but they gotta fix their stupid flash website.

Next time you have a marijuana grow operation in a federal park, you’ll definitely want to include a turtle and or tortoise deterrent system. From WUSA news:

You might call him a pint-sized crime fighter. A box turtle equipped
with GPS helps police nab a suspect growing marijuana in Rock Creek
Park.

Just south of the DC/Maryland line, a turtle wearing a GPS device for research purposes makes an amazing discovery.

"The
ranger in charge of the program discovered the turtle in the middle of
a marijuana field," Sgt. Robert Lachance of the U.S. Park Police says.

Cindy Gossage who’s been walking the trails for years isn’t surprised.

"I come back here to walk my dogs, and I’ve found several different marijuana fields back here."

Growing marijuana on U.S. park land is never a good idea, and it’s illegal. So U.S. Park Police set up surveillance.

Sgt. Lachance says, "We soon discovered we had a culprit who was actively working the field."

Police
say that culprit is 19 year old Isiah Johnson of Chevy Chase. He’s now
in custody and will be extradited back DC to face drug charges.

A turtle. With GPS. Amazing. Maybe next Isiah will remember to always have a guard on duty.

John McCain apparently hasn’t seen a map of Eastern Europe in the past 15 years, as he’s referred twice this week to a nonexistant country there. From iDNES.CZ:

Republikánský kandidát na amerického prezidenta John McCain dvakrát
během dvou dnů hovořil o České republice jako o Československu. Chyba
může podle amerických médií zpochybnit jeho tvrzení, že je v
zahraničních otázkách zkušenější než jeho demokratický oponent Barack
Obama.

Yeah, I don’t speak Czech, but in english that probably means something like:

Republican candidate for U.S. President John McCain twice within two days, talked
about the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia. Error maybe, according to
U.S. media questioned its claim that it is experienced in foreign
affairs than his Democratic opponent Barack Obama.

So it all started when I asked Rene a simple trivia question…    (the following is "paraphrased" — as in: 1. not word for word but very close to the original dialogue; or 2. in this, and in most cases, it means, "I forgot to save the conversation via gaim or gmail.")

Liz: "Which TV alien icon embodied the phrase, "I kill me!" ?

Rene: "That’s easy - Alf."

Liz: "Wow, uh, good job. I’m rather impressed."

Rene: "Dude, that’s like asking, "What TV icon was a talking horse?"

Liz: "WTF? What the F*uck are you talking about?"           (Asterix included for sensitive individuals)

Rene: "Mr. Ed, dude! Duh! I’m ashamed of you."

Liz: "Uh… I’m going to go ask my best friend and my mom…"

…6 minutes later…

Liz: "Nat has never heard of Mr. Ed, but my mother’s favorite show was Mr. Ed."

Upon receiving this mark of shame, I decided to embark on a quest to uncover this alleged talking beast and the secret of its satanic intelligence. Lo and behold the name "Mr. Ed" appears instantly in a google search, but upon searching google’s video I was able to find only one 8 minute clip from an episode entitled "Payroll Savings Plan". 

In a state of shock and awe I stumbled through an 8 minute circus of animal exploitation and bad acting in a well orchestrated attempt to sell U.S. government bond savings. Worst 8 minute commercial EVER. I have no idea what the rest of the show was like because this single horse-fed commercial is the only clip I could spot longer than 54 seconds.

Do horses talk?

No.

Do some horses sell savings bonds?

Apparently Yes.

~~ Take a look at this y’all… and tell me that horse didn’t totally sell you on the savings a U.S. bond guarantees…~~

That’s right. According to the counterterrorism blog:

For the record: there is no indication whatsoever that Al-Qaida’s
As-Sahab Media Foundation is preparing to release anything in the next
24 hours. There has been no notification posted on the usual channels,
there are no glitzy advertisements, and there is no credible electronic
chatter, period. Rather, the intel community appears to have (once
again) fallen victim to poorly researched open source news reporting.
In recent days, several fringe media organizations have published
stories about a video recording posted by anonymous Al-Qaida miscreants
on extremist Internet chat forums. The video consisted of a remarkably
amateurish mash-up of Discovery Channel documentaries, widely published
sermons by radical clerics, and stolen propaganda footage. While it is
perhaps true that the video offered subtle encouragement for nuclear
attacks on the United States, it featured no original content and could
have been clumsily strung together with little more than two VCRs. The
video was meandering, boring, and difficult to follow–and it certainly
was not the product of Al-Qaida.

I win.

From ABC News via the Drudge Report:

Intelligence and law enforcement sources tell ABC News they are expecting al Qaeda supporters will post a new video on the Internet in the next 24 hours, calling for what one source said is "jihadists to use biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West."

A completely vague, undefined threat from anonymous sources relating to a ridiculous trifecta of Weapons of Mass Destruction™ that will be released in video format in the next day. I’m sure it’s already on rapidshare.

"There have been several reports that al Qaeda will release a new message calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told ABC News in an e-mail.

Who is this group, al Qaeda anyways? How come they just looove killing innocent people so much? I understand that there were terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington DC, and London, but nobody has ever conclusively proven or implied to have proven that any of them were committed by a rag-tag band of oil billionaire fundamentalist muslims called ‘al Qaeda.’

"Although there have been similar messages in the past, the FBI and [Department of Homeland Security] have no intelligence of any specific plot or indication of a threat to the U.S.," the e-mail said. "The FBI and U.S. intelligence community will review the message for any intelligence value."

Again, we have no intelligence of any credible threat to the United States. So what the in the hell are we paying for? Who in the world did the email come from? Why is there never any conclusive evidence of anything when these are released?

Well, I’m officially enraged. The US is now a known torturer of Chinese citizens. China, you need to do your own damned dirty work.

ABC NEWS Reports:

Buried in a Department of Justice report released Tuesday are new
allegations about a 2002 arrangement between the United States and
China, which allowed Chinese intelligence to visit Guantanamo and
interrogate Chinese Uighurs held there.

According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General
Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China’s
ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur
detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced
to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese
interrogators.

Susan Manning, a lawyer who represents several Uighurs still
held at Guantanamo, said Tuesday the allegations are all too familiar.

U.S. personnel "are engaging in abusive tactics on behalf of
the Chinese," she said Tuesday. When Uighur detainees refused to talk
to Chinese interrogators in 2002, U.S. military personnel put them in
solitary confinement as punishment, she said.

We need to close Guantamino Bay as soon as possible and hold our elected officials responsible for theses acts of terrorism and gross violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

You may have heard that this guy George W. Bush was elected president. That’s basically been a giant lie. You may have even heard he got reelected. This is also an untruth.

In reality, George Bush is a devoted and perverted time traveller who has been sent to go back in time become elected president, and only do the most inane and incompetent looking political scandles possible for a president to still not be impeached for some reason. He basically goes into the future to screw everything up just right, so you never noticed he was on his ranch all summer. For the lolz. He also owns a hypnoquantummer. The House and the Senate are completely unaware of this, so please take two hours a day to hand write all of your congress-people.

Also, near the end of his time travelling adventures Bush does, in fact, impregnate one of his own ancestors, and he is, in fact, his own grandpa. And more.

Anyways, you’ll probably appreciate this gem from the guardian highlighting his latest time-sploits. I’m about to break Godwins Law. And I just lost the game. That’s what I call appeasement to Nazi’s:

George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a
director and shareholder of companies that profited from their
involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

The
Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the
US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director
was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

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VIDEO BONUS ROUND

The Asus EeePC 900 will be realeased May 12, and will cost $549 in the US.