Professor-rat's Blurty
 
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Friday, June 6th, 2008

    Time Event
    12:19a
    Divest now
    And avoid the rush for the exits

    Whether or not we support a divestment campaign against Apartheid in the Middle East is a tactical issue.
    The main reason I can see for supporting a divestment campaign is that it directly targets the support racist imperialism is giving to the Euro-colonialists. Whether or not Palestinians want a one or two state solution they will be better positioned to achieve that minus the billions of dollars of aid and political support that Zionazi Israel is receiving.
    It's a great way to involve unions, churches and other organisations into the movement against Apartheid.
    Its a tried and true tactic consecrated by time and hallowed by usage.

    Just be careful you don't upset my mother by raising the subject as she is enjoying an evening aperatif.
    1:04a
    The Commune
    '...These French and English movements came together in the First International. The International Workingmen's Association owed its existence to Marx, indirectly to Hegelian philosophy. But within the International, there was not only the 'scientific socialism' of Marx, but also Utopian Socialism, Blanquism (working-class republicanism), English Trade Unionism, German-authoritarian and opportunistic socialism, and Spanish, Swiss, and Italian stateless socialism, as well as national Republicanism and the various federalistic trends.
    Bakunin was not the 'father' of anarchism, as often described. He was not an anarchist until later in life. He learned his federalism and socialism from the Swiss workers of the Jura, and gave expression to the ideas of the Godwinian and Proudhonian 'federalists', or non-State socialists. In many countries, Spain and Italy in particular, it was Bakunin's criticism of the ideas of Marx that gave the federalist movement its definition. (While to Anarchists, Marx is of course "the villain of the piece" in the International, it must be granted that without Marx defining one form of socialism there would have been no clash, no Bakunin defining the opposite.)
    There had grown up by 1869 a very noticeable trend within the International that was called 'Bakuninist' which was in one line from Godwin and another from Proudhon. When the Paris Commune exploded in the face of the International, it was the parting of the ways (though this was deferred a little longer and seemed to follow personal lines). From the non-Anarchists and Marxists knew by their different analyses and interpretations and actions during the Paris Commune, that they were separate.
    All the same, for many years Anarchists continued to form part of the Socialist Movement that included Marxists and Social-Democrats. Marx had not succeeded in building a mass movement. The German socialist movement was more influenced by Lassalle; English socialism by reformist and Christian traditions of radical nonconformity. Only after Marx's death, when Marxism was the official doctrine of German social-democracy, were Anarchists finally excluded from Socialist Internationals; social-democracy marched on to its own schism, that between English Liberalism on the one hand, and social-democracy on the other; and that between 'majority' Social-Democrats (Bolsheviks, actually never more than a minority) and reformism.
    There were no such schisms at that time in the anarchist movement as such...' Albert Meltzer

    There was one minor 'split' later over this famous slogan,' From each according to their abilities - to each according to need'. The collectivist anarchists dropped their formulation ' From each according to their work , etc' in favor of the more inclusive communist wording. Interestingly I read that in Cuba today the old 'workerist' wording is making a comeback as 'incentivation' for young cadres to slave harder for the fatherland.
    In the Bizzaro world alternative history of the Borg this earth-shattering split assumes a highly charged tectonic significance. Indeed we hop from the Genesis of anarchist-communism by Jacques the Baptist to this highly charged ' parting of the Red Seas' and the book of Exodus being thrown at such crass and backward collectivists that must have resembled a certain tribe of Philistines to these, the Chosen people. You know the rest of this story made famous by the crucifixion of Pytor Arshinov in the Promised land.
    1:18a
    We're so sorry
    Uncle Albert
    '...What we may call 'mainstream' anarchism was coherent and united, and was given body by the writings of a number of theoreticians, such as Peter Kropotkin.

    After the bloody suppression of the Paris Commune, and repression in many parts of the world -- notably Tsarist Russia, Anarchism passed into its well-known stage of individual terrorism. It fought back and survived and gave birth to (or was carried forward in) the revolutionary syndicalist movement which began in France. It lost ground after the First World War, because of the revival of patriotic feeling, the growth of reformist socialism, and the rise of fascism; and while it made a contribution to the Russian Revolution, it was defeated by the Bolshevik counterrevolution. It was seen in both resistance and in a constructive role in the Spanish Revolution of 1936.

    By the time of the Second World War, Anarchism had been tried and tested in many revolutionary situations and labour struggles. Alternative forms had been tried and discarded; the German Revolution had introduced the idea of Workers Councils. The experience of the American IWW had shown the possibilities of industrial unionism and 'how one can build the new society in the shell of the old'. In the 'flint against flint' argument against Marxist Communism, the lesson of what socialism without freedom meant in Russia, and the failure of reformist socialism everywhere, the anarchist doctrine was shaped.

    There were never theoreticians of Anarchism as such, though it produced a number of theoreticians who discussed aspects of the philosophy. Anarchism has remained a creed that has been worked out in practice rather than from a philosophy. Very often, a bourgeois writer comes along and writes down what has already been worked out in practice by workers and peasants; he is attributed by bourgeois historians as being a leader, and by successive bourgeois writers (citing the bourgeois historians) as being one more case that proves the working class relies on bourgeois leadership...'

    http://www.spunk.org/texts/writers/meltzer/sp001500.html

    And then the bourgeois historian George Woodcock writes our obituary! Needless to say his report was a trifle exaggerated. Luckily Generalissimo Fide...Francisco Franco still is though.
    1:22a
    They lied
    This is why this report was stonewalled for all these years.

    '...A long-awaited Senate Select Intelligence Committee report made public Thursday concludes that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made public statements to promote an invasion of Iraq that they knew at the time were not supported by available intelligence.
    A companion report found that a special office set up by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld undertook "sensitive intelligence activities" that were inappropriate "without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department."
    “Before taking the country to war, this administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” said committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, D- W. Va. It's long been known that the administration's claims in the runup to the Iraq war, from Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to al Qaida to whether Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program, were incorrect. But the Senate report is the first official examination of whether the president and vice president knew that their claims were incorrect at the time they made them.

    “There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate," Rockefeller said in a statement...'

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/244/story/39963.html

    The cover-up is still operating on the hot button scare issue - the binary tubes and yellowcake weapon-of-mass-deception. The fix is really in on this one because its Rice, Cheney and the Morons baby.
    1:29a
    A staggering clue
    In a year when support for the rush to war was visibly flagging suddenly the war-drums started up with Judy's tubes of terror. Nothing freaks people out like Nukes - and no-one was so busy trying to freak people out as those lying pukes, Rice, Cheney and Bush. So to leave this big lie out of the Phase 2 report is a huge
    ' dog-that-didn't-bark' clue.
    The only excuse I can think of for leaving it out is 'sub judice' or some such unreconstituted bull.
    Alternatively its been footnoted and buried in a pdf somewhere. ( The thing is still being unwrapped...it must look like Eraserhead) Its been a pretty brutal last couple of weeks for the dregs of the Bush crime family.
    But its not over yet. And by the time we get through with him, he'll be fidgeting with the nuclear football.
    I hope all the security details are up to speed on the 25th amendment in general and Article 184 of the Navy Regulations in particular. They might also want to put in some quality time down at the range.

    As for the Iranians and Pakistanis, they might want to make the haj a little earlier this year...and stay in Mecca a little longer. It aint over till the fat boy sings.
    11:05a
    Max case for the SCOTUS
    TAMPA, Fla. — Jurors in the Max Hardcore obscenity trial have returned a verdict of guilty on 10 federal counts of distributing obscene materials over the Internet and through the mail.
    His company, MaxWorld Enterprises, was also found guilty on 10 related counts.
    "This is a sad day for America," Hardcore attorney Jeffrey Douglas told XBIZ. The lawyer was noticeably upset. "Like I said in my closing remarks, this was a shameful prosecution. I don't have anything else to say."
    Hardcore told XBIZ that he was "OK."
    Earlier today, the jury appeared to be undecided and conferred with the judge on several points before going back into deliberation.
    "If we make a decision on 10 of the 20 counts, but are unable to reach a decision on the other 10, will the 10 counts that we decide on stand?'' the jury foreman asked Judge Susan C. Bucklew this afternoon, just after 3 p.m. EST.
    The judge answered that the decisions they returned would stand, even if other counts were undecided.
    The foremen indicated also that there were jurors “on both sides” of the issues, and that there was doubt that they could come to a unanimous decision.
    He also asked the court how long the jury was expected to deliberate, to which the judge reportedly told the jury she would not tell them how long to deliberate, only that they should deliberate again.
    Sources close to the case told XBIZ this morning that a decision might be imminent, but this afternoon, foreman asked the judge for a break, citing that emotions were running high in the deliberations. Lawyers for both sides were asked to stay in the courtroom, in case the jury should return with a verdict.
    However, the jury returned just a short time ago with their verdict.
    Other defense attorneys were unavailable for comment at post time. - X-Biz news
    11:09a
    The dream terrorists are coming
    Mightmare on Pennsylvania avenue...DON'T GO TO SLEEP!

    JASON WARNS OF THREAT FROM SLEEPING ENEMIES

    The Pentagon should "monitor enemy activities in sleep research" says a
    newly disclosed report from the elite defense science advisory panel
    known as JASON.
    The JASONs were investigating the potential for U.S. adversaries "to
    exploit advances in Human Performance Modification, and thus create a
    threat to national security."
    Their report examined "the present state of the art in pharmaceutical
    intervention in cognition and in brain-computer interfaces, and
    considered how possible future developments might proceed and be used
    by adversaries."
    Among their findings was the underappreciated significance of sleep and
    the possibility of a "sleep gap" (a term not used in the report).
    "The most immediate human performance factor in military effectiveness
    is degradation of performance under stressful conditions, particularly
    sleep deprivation."
    "If an opposing force had a significant sleep advantage, this would
    pose a serious threat."
    Fortunately, "the technical likelihood of such a development is small
    at present." Just to be safe, however, the scientists recommended that
    the Pentagon "Monitor enemy activities in sleep research, and maintain
    close understanding of open source sleep research."
    In general, the JASONs went on to observe, "the publicity and
    scientific literature regarding human performance enhancement can
    easily be misinterpreted, yielding incorrect conclusions about
    potential military applications."
    See "Human Performance," JASON, March 2008:

    http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/human.pdf

    Selected other reports from JASON are available here:

    http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/index.html
    11:15a
    The present danger
    Congress has now officially investigated the pre-war intelligence, AND its use by the President and Vice President. And Congress has concluded that they lied. (Perhaps the report doesn't use that word exactly, but what else would you call it? ) A previous report totalled over 900 lies.
    So it seems to me that pretty fucking obvious that impeachment should be back "on the table" now.
    And, no, it's not too late. First, it's never too late to do the right thing (for a change). And second, this administration still has 6-1/2 months to create even more havoc. Gross negligence must be assumed should failure to impeach lead to yet more maimed, raped and mutilated children in this grotesque war.
    11:31a
    Dog judge
    The only legal way the US could have invaded Iraq without the second UN resolution calling for the use of force (which they never got) was by attacking Iraq as self-defense when an imminent threat existed. The first report (I haven't read the second yet) clearly shows the Bush administration lied about that - there was no evidence whatsoever that showed any kind of imminent threat.- TPM comment extract

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/phase_ii.php

    My biggest issue with all of this is simply one of accountability.
    Even if Congress chose not to impeach the President over all of this, they should at least take SOME type of action, even if it is symbolic. Censure.
    Bush has established the precedent that lying a country into war is acceptable.
    More to the point, given the rhetoric coming out of the White House right now, Congress needs to take a step that tells the President, if he attacks Iran, he's going to jail. Not impeached, jail.

    Posted by dogjudge
    12:26p
    More insulting lies from the conservative scumbags
    During a press conference today in Louisiana, Senator McCain was asked why he twice voted against creating a commission to investigate the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. McCain responded, "I have supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy." However, Senator McCain has voted against such measures on multiple occasions. In response, Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan issued the following statement:

    "Whether he simply wasn't aware of his voting record again or he was intentionally misleading the people of Louisiana, John McCain certainly isn't offering us 'leadership you can believe in.'"

    Playback can be a bitch can't it - the filthy criminals lie in their sleep
    12:36p
    Touchy feely policing
    DEATH THREATS MADE BY A POLICE OFFICER - PROBE INTO COPS DEATH THREAT

    A MAGISTRATE has disqualified himself from the case of a Gold Coast man whose ears were allegedly cut off by bikies, amid claims of death threats made by a police officer.
    An angry outburst by Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Reid, the first witness to give evidence in the committal hearing at Southport Magistrates Court, caused an immediate adjournment in proceedings yesterday.
    Four men, Benjamin James Dehnen, 31, of Kingscliff, Aaron Drew Scheers, 24, of Tweed Heads, James Desmond Murphy and Raymond Kenneth Brookes, 30, of Pottsville, face a string of charges including torture and kidnapping over the November 3 incident, in which the ears of 38-year-old Currumbin man David Holmes were severed.
    Magistrate Michael O'Driscoll today voluntarily stepped down from the case to allow alleged threats made by Snr Sgt Reid to be referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
    Yesterday, defence lawyer Bill Potts accused the detective in charge of the investigation of using a "brick" - police slang for an unsworn confession by his client - as police evidence.
    "You are lucky you have the support of the court because you wouldn't get away with that if you were outside, my friend," Snr Sgt Reid responded.
    Mr Potts today told the court he felt his safety had been further threatened through comments allegedly made by the detective outside the courtroom.
    "I was told by members of my client's family and other persons in this courtroom today ... this witness then went on to say words to the effect of: 'You all think you are safe in here, but you are not safe outside'," Mr Potts told the court today.

    "Words to the effect of 'Pottsy won't last three months' were also used."

    He made an application seeking court transcripts and recordings be made available to the relevant authorities to see if the detective could be charged with contempt or attempting to pervert the course of justice.
    Mr O'Driscoll, who conceded he was a potential witness should charges be laid, agreed with the request and stood aside.
    "In the current circumstances, and with a great personal reluctance, I must now disqualify myself from the continuation of these proceedings," Mr O'Driscoll said.
    He said a different magistrate must be brought in to officiate over a new hearing.
    The matter was adjourned to September 9.
    12:53p
    Animal liberation front
    '...The ALF is a loosely associated collection of cells of people who go underground and violate the law on behalf of animals; they work under the cover of darkness rather than the glare of day. They break into and enter prison compounds (euphemistically referred to as “research laboratories” and the like) to rescue animals, and they also destroy property in order to prevent further harm done to animals and to weaken exploitation industries economically.
    Official ALF guidelines are: (1) to liberate animals from places of abuse; (2) to inflict economic damage to industries that profit from animal exploitation; (3) to reveal the horrors and atrocities committed against animals behind locked doors, and (4) to take all necessary precautions against harming any human or nonhuman animals. Anyone who follows these guidelines – and ideally who is vegan — belongs to the ALF.

    The men and women of the Animal Liberation Front pattern themselves after the freedom fighters in Nazi Germany who liberated war prisoners and Holocaust victims and destroyed equipment-such as weapons, railways, and gas ovens- that the Nazis used to torture and kill their victims. Other comparisons would include the Apartheid movement, led by Nelson Mandela, who used and supported violence in the fight for liberation in South Africa, and the current struggle by Palestinians against their Israeli oppressors.

    Similarly, by providing veterinary care and homes for many of the animals they liberate, a comparison can be made to the US Underground Railroad movement, which helped fugitive human slaves reach Free states and Canada in the 1800s. Whereas corporate society, the state, and mass media brand the liberationists as terrorists, the ALF has important similarities with some of the great freedom fighters of the past two centuries, and is akin to contemporary peace and justice movements in its quest to end bloodshed and violence toward life and to win justice for other species.
    On the grounds that animals have basic rights, animal liberationists repudiate the argument that scientists or industries can own any animal as their property. Simply stated, animals have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...' More

    http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3964/32/
    1:03p
    All roads lead to Rove
    CLOSING IN... Karl Rove has been extremely slippery with what he was able to get away with while in service at the White House, but over the past couple weeks events have probably made him gulp and pull the collar away from his neck a couple times. Same with his former bosses.

    First you have Scott McClellan basically admitting that Bush and Cheney gave the go-ahead to Scooter Libby to selectively leak contents of the 2002 Iraq NIE, and in the process the identity of Valerie Plame. Henry Waxman, upon hearing this, immediately set to work.

    New revelations by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan raise additional questions about the actions of the President and the Vice President. Mr. McClellan has stated that "[t]he President and Vice President directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby." He has also asserted that "the top White House officials who knew the truth - including Rove, Libby, and possibly Vice President Cheney - allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie." It would be a major breach of trust if the Vice President personally directed Mr. McClellan to mislead the public [...]

    In his interview with the FBI, Mr. Libby stated that it was "possible" that Vice President Cheney instructed him to disseminate information about Ambassador Wilson's wife to the press. This is a significant revelation and, if true, a serious matter. It cannot be responsibly investigated without access to the Vice President's FBI interview.

    The interviews with senior White House officials also raise other questions about the involvement of the Vice President. It appears from the interview reports that Vice President Cheney personally may have been the source of the information that Ms. Wilson worked for the CIA. Mr. Libby specifically identified the Vice President as the source of his information about Ms. Wilson. None of the other White House officials could remember how they learned this information [...]

    In his FBI interview, Mr. McClellan told the FBI about discussions he had with the President and the Vice President. These passages, however, were redacted from the copies made available to the Committee. Similar passages were also redacted from other interviews.
    There are no sound reasons for you to withhold the interviews with the President and the Vice President from the Committee or to redact passages like Mr. McClellan's discussions with the President and the Vice President. Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation is closed and he has indicated that it would be appropriate to share these records with the Committee. There has been no assertion of executive privilege.

    Well sure, when you line it all up like that, it looks like a conspiracy.

    What's more, Marcy Wheeler thinks Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted the Plame case, might be ready to talk about allegations about his potential firing that came out during the investigation into the US Attorneys scandal.
    Later in the Rezko trial, two witnesses said that Rezko told them not to worry about the criminal investigation, because the Republicans ”Rove and Kjellander” would get rid of Fitzgerald. Hastert would install a friendly federal puppy who wouldn't bother the Combine, according to the testimony. "The federal prosecutor will no longer be the same federal prosecutor," testified Elie Maloof, a Rezko associate who is now a cooperating witness.
    And a state pension board lawyer who has already pleaded guilty told grand jurors that Cellini told him "Bob Kjellander's job is to take care of the U.S. attorney." [...]
    "If I owe a response [about the putsch to remove him from his job], I owe it to Congress, first," Fitzgerald said when asked about all this after the verdict.

    But that's not all. As pressure grew on Rove for answers about the railroading of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, prosecutors
    abruptly dropped their appeal that sought longer sentences for him and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in the "bribery" case, also known as "a politician appointing an ally to a board." And 54 former state attorneys general from across the country filed a brief on Siegelman's behalf with the appellate court where he is contesting his conviction, asking that it be overturned. And now the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating.
    The US Justice Departments Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is investigating the conduct of at least two specific US Attorneys in the 'selective prosecution' of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, sitting Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver E. Diaz Jr., and Mississippi attorney Paul Minor, according to attorneys close to the investigation.
    In a May 5 letter sent to House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI), OPR Director H. Marshall Jarrett wrote that OPR 'currently has pending investigations involving, among others, allegations of selective prosecution relating to the prosecutions of Don Siegelman, Georgia Thompson, Oliver Diaz and Paul Minor.'
    RAW STORY has confirmed that Leura Canary (above right), the US Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, and Dunnica Lampton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi , are under investigation. Their offices are also being probed.
    This leads back to Rove - the Siegelman case, the politicization of US Attorney positions, firing prosecutors who wouldn't play ball, leaking classified information in the Plame case. Rove is a slippery creature. But there are a lot of investigations all happening at once.
    —dday

    Here's one large turd hiding-in-plain-sight . I just hope the authorities wear full bio-hazard suits when they finally scoop him up.
    1:10p
    Will kill for oil
    It appears that there may finally be a journalist in the Cockburn family - maybe

    '...Iraq's foreign reserves are currently protected by a presidential order giving them immunity from judicial attachment but the US side in the talks has suggested that if the UN mandate, under which the money is held, lapses and is not replaced by the new agreement, then Iraq's funds would lose this immunity. The cost to Iraq of this happening would be the immediate loss of $20bn. The US is able to threaten Iraq with the loss of 40 per cent of its foreign exchange reserves because Iraq's independence is still limited by the legacy of UN sanctions and restrictions imposed on Iraq since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in the 1990s. This means that Iraq is still considered a threat to international security and stability under Chapter Seven of the UN charter. The US negotiators say the price of Iraq escaping Chapter Seven is to sign up to a new "strategic alliance" with the United States...'

    Read this entire article. This is blackmail, plain and simple. Grand theft auto fuel.
    1:48p
    The Krudster is misfiring badly
    Domestically - obviously with the fuel watch fiasco and the 'dizzy with success' solar initiative. Petrol pandering doesn't sit well with todays environmentally aware electorate...no matter what soft spot picking winners in the auto industries the ALP has.
    External affairs - this is looking like a rapidly filling colostomy bag with Australia's intervention on display at Amnesty HQ, continued involvement in doomed wars in SW Asia and now the ludicrous completely insane proposal to invite red fascist China into a new EU style federation.

    These are all self-inflicted wounds so somethings seriously wrong with the Krudd-9000. We are running cross-checking routines with his sister computer with a view to patching in a complete new motherboard.

    Hang in there fellas ( and sheliahs)
    1:58p
    On edit
    I still favor a EU style federation that includes Australia - only with democracies only. Also it should build on the perceived benefits of the EU. Primarily passport free travel and then the convenient common currency.
    The way to go from there - and possibly adopting the Euro as a way to save time and money along the way - seems obvious. Just as Indonesia was largely united by adopting a common language - Bahasa indonesian - the new AU ( Asia union) could adopt Esperanto. This is positive competition for the EU and also a second foundation template should anything happen to the original federation.
    2:21p
    Lyndon La Rouche McCains Veep pick?
    Looks like Lyndon, Ron Paul and maybe even a couple of the Huckster boys are all aboard the Straight Talk express...

    '...Not sure if you were aware but one of Paul’s economics advisors, Donald Luskin (Trend Macrolytics), left the Paul campaign to join John McCain’s team. Luskin has been a staunch proponent for a strong dollar and a virtual gold standard, of sorts, for years...'

    Can Tom Delay, Karl Rove and Trent Lott be far behind in a Scooter Libby clown car?
    2:32p
    Ratlines
    The National Review 2008 Caribbean Post-Election Cruise (scheduled for November 8-15) is going to be a record-breaker. Sales are so fast and furious we’ve had to grab all remaining cabins on Holland America’s new Eurodam. Why are so many NRO readers signing up? – no doubt it’s the impressive cast of 20 (so far) speakers and editors who will be joining us from November 8–15 on Holland America Line’s new Eurodam:

    Mitt Romney, Victor Davis Hanson, Bernard Lewis, Mark Steyn, Christopher Buckley, William McGurn, Jonah Goldberg, Brent Bozell, Pat Toomey, Andy McCarthy, Rob Long, Deroy Murdoch, Byron York, Kathryn Lopez, Kate O’Beirne, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jay Nordlinger, John J. Miller, Darcy Olsen, and Fr. Robert Sirico.

    Zounds! As of yesterday there were 239 cabins booked. Such happy souls these reservati, who will sail in luxury while enjoying:

    * six scintillating seminars (on politics and current events) featuring National Review’s editors and guest speakers
    * three revelrous pool-side cocktail receptions
    * two late-night “smokers” featuring world-class H. Upmann cigars and complimentary cognac
    * a sunny itinerary: Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay
    * intimate dining on two evenings with guest speakers and editors

    Demand is high, inventory is dwindling, and (roomy and beautiful) cabin prices remain affordable (starting at $1,831.00 p/p or $2,513.00 for singles). Get over to www.nrcruise.com and book your stateroom while there is still time. - THE CORNER

    Where's Lyman Nemnitzer when we really need him.
    2:45p
    Forget interesting times
    Stand by and brace for some high drama. The implosion of the last evil empire was marked by nuclear plant meltdowns, lost wars, security police and army rebellions, fascist demagogues on the fringes, secession attempts, crises of democracy and more, much more.
    The following period was marked by rampant alcoholism, new wars, plunging life expectancies, mass depression and economic stagnation. See when the nicompoop ideological underpinnings are kicked away all hell can - and usually does - break loose.

    And the canny fascist hyena's like Rasputin watch and lick their chops.
    2:55p
    Liberal flesh crawling necrotizing fasciitis
    INPEACH! 1-202-225-0100 DEMAND IMPEACHMENT.Impeachment. Please. Grand Jury! Please!
    1)Impeach.
    2)War crimes trial.
    3)Extradite or imprison.
    A REAL country would have these guys in jail by now (or under it)
    But it's never too late.
    Impeach.
    Indict.
    Imprison.
    Until we acknowledge wrongs done in America's name and hold accountable those who perpetrated them, we walk under a cloud of shame before the world and before ourselves.
    We *must* hold them accountable, if we are to put it behind us, or we have no honour and talk of "Rule of Law" and "Democracy" are hypocritical lip service.
    There is no statute of limitations on war crimes. Look for a Pinochet-style indictment, should any of these slime-balls show up in Europe (or even Canada, possibly).
    I've been convinced for a long time now, that the reason our Dems reject impeachment and delayed the release of this report is their own fear of facts which would their own complicity in Bush's crimes.
    I believe Rockefeller's support of telecom immunity is from the same motivation.
    And the delay has probably resulted in lots of possible proof of Democratic complicity already being shredded and gone.
    Hillary Clinton wasn't the only major Dem at the time who voted for the AUMF.
    Kerry, Daschle, Rockefeller.
    All complicit, spineless, giving George W. Bush everything he wanted.
    In other words, they don't want any impeachment trial for fear of discovery of their OWN complicity.
    It’s Nancy Pelosi saying immediately on being named Speaker that Impeachment was off the table. Who cares about the constitution?
    It’s about the Democrats not having the guts to stand up to Bush on war funding…
    It’s about the Democrats caving on the Patriot Act
    It’s about the Democrats caving on the NSA spying on us
    It’s about the Democrats not filibustering Alito (Thanks Senator Obama!)…
    It’s about we put them in power and the only thing they accomplished is a raise in Minimum Wage. While being a good thing, indeed, that’s it?…
    Now we have a nominee who reflects Reid and Pelosi’s values. Actually, I should say they have a nominee who reflects their values.
    I’m out.
    3:04p
    Free Palestine
    A lot of people have a vested interest in dragging distractions into this hot button issue. Some of the ' head-of-pins' arguments by increasingly marginalized Marxist pinheads are simply risible.
    These are the 'freedom fighters' who are going to wither away the state for us all!
    Yeah right.
    Lamers. Losers. Leftists.
    I go with the KISS principle. One that is not mindless manicheaism - Jihad good, Sharia bad and Euro-colonialism...UNACCEPTABLE! Palestine will be free. It is written.
    3:22p
    Night of the generals
    Some Air force generals have resigned in the US - while in Russia a top general there has been dismissed.
    At the same time Pipes and others refloat the idea of a US first strike on Russia's ally, Iran.
    And at the same time a pack of baying bloodhounds is besieging the dregs of the Bush regime.
    You don't have to be any combinatorial current affairs genius to see a pattern here do you?

    World war one started over a little accident in the Balkans. The herd shot around the world.
    Now I simply say fuggedabout all those Ritter Units of the last few years - invest in pork bellies and war futures.
    3:33p
    It buggers belief
    That
    a) There appears to be no mention at all of the 16 words part of the rationale for going to war.
    Its as though the biggest scandal of the Bush terms never happened. ' Theres nothing wrong here and we don't talk about it'.
    b) The tubes boss! The tubes! Aluminum tubes are joined at the hip with uranium out of Africa. Yet where is this mentioned in Phase 2? I ask you! So the 21 words following the 16 words remain out there...blinking bright red that a criminal cover up is in progress delicti.
    c) Where do the bloggers that made their bones get off on just dropping this subject!!?
    Where the fuck do they get the brass balls from to diss and spit on every poor SOB that followed up on every detail of this cover-up that was slowly unveiled?
    I tell you what I am pissed off by all this... but there is also a great comfort in the knowledge gained from all this pain. The essential knowledge is this. No nation so deluded, so mistaken, so criminal, so insane can survive. The reign of these terrible lizards is about to come to a fiery end.
    3:45p
    I hate to repeat myself butt
    James Moore must feel like the invisible man today

    Judy and the Little Tubes of Terror
    Posted August 3, 2005

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/judy-and-the-litt_b_5117.html

    "The truth is beautiful, without doubt, but so are lies."
    Ralph Waldo Emerson

    In the Washington Post this week, Richard Cohen has insisted that the current fury over Judy Miller is bad for journalism. He is as wrong as the guy who thought New Coke was a good idea. Journalism, like every craft and profession, needs to purge itself from time to time of diseased tissue. The failure of Miller and the mainstream media in general during the run up to the Iraqi invasion is certainly the perfect moment for introspection and rethinking over how reporters do their jobs. Miller was quoted as saying that it wasn't her job to analyze what the government is saying or doing; it was her responsibility to simply report it. Below is a narrative of how she did just that. And it proves why she is wrong. I don't know what she is protecting by going to jail. Probably information that exposes her and the people she has worked with on all of her inaccurate stories.
    The Valerie Plame investigation exists today because Americans were lied to about Iraq and reporters, either unwittingly or by design, were complicit in that lie. And it is as important to look at that time period as it is to examine the outing of an undercover spy. The two are inseparable...' - READ THE WHOLE THING

    COMPARE AND CONTRAST...IS THERE A LIVE COVER-UP GOING ON HERE OR WHAT!

    '...The timing was a thing of pure political beauty...'
    3:53p
    Smoking vice-presidents office, gun, war.
    Are all the fucking bloggers gonna act like mushrooms?

    Waxman seeks access to more FBI leak probe papers

    By PETE YOST, Associated Press WriterTue Jun 3, 9:02 PM ET
    A House committee chairman said Tuesday he is seeking more documents from the CIA leak probe because of significant disclosures to the FBI by Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff and new details about Cheney's role in the scandal in a book by a former White House press secretary.
    The request to the Justice Department by Rep. Henry Waxman follows a review of edited FBI reports and publication of a book by President Bush's former spokesman Scott McClellan, who has said he was misled by others, possibly including Cheney, about the role of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in leaking CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
    Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to the Justice Department after learning that Libby, Cheney's former top aide, told the FBI that it's possible he was instructed by Cheney to disseminate information to the press about Plame, the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson.
    "This is a significant revelation and, if true, a serious matter," Waxman wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
    Waxman's request was fueled in part by McClellan's book, in which he describes how he was instructed to respond to press inquiries about Libby's role in the Plame leak. McClellan has said publicly in recent days that Bush and Cheney "directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby."
    "It would be a major breach of trust if the vice president personally directed Mr. McClellan to mislead the public," said Waxman, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
    Waxman said Libby's comments about Cheney were included in an edited version of an FBI interview report provided to the committee. Waxman now wants access to FBI summaries of any interviews with Bush and Cheney as part of the CIA leak investigation.
    Plame's CIA identity was leaked to the news media by several top Bush administration officials in 2003, including Libby and former top White House political adviser Karl Rove. Last July, Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence, sparing him from serving any prison time after being convicted of perjury, obstructing justice and lying to the FBI.
    Waxman first asked Mukasey for documents six months ago, including FBI interviews of Bush and Cheney. The Justice Department provided edited versions of FBI interview reports with various White House officials including Libby and Rove, but nothing on Bush or Cheney.
    Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride declined to comment, noting a pending lawsuit filed by Plame. The suit accuses Cheney and several administration officials of revealing her identity to reporters.
    FBI spokesman Rich Kolko also declined comment. Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said the department will review Waxman's letter.
    There was testimony and documentation at Libby's trial that Cheney knew in mid-June 2003 that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and told Libby about it. That time frame was more than a month before Plame's CIA identity turned up in a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak.
    Witnesses testified that Cheney, Libby and other Bush administration officials mounted a campaign to counter criticism by Plame's husband, Wilson, who accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
    At Libby's trial, Cheney's spokeswoman, Cathie Martin, testified that Cheney personally wrote out statements and talking points for Libby and other aides to give to reporters to rebut Wilson's allegations.
    4:08p
    Speechless...dazed
    The turd on the bus

    118 Days Later, Fox News Finally Identifies Rove As Informal Adviser To McCain (Think Progress)
    [Monday] on Hannity & Colmes — after almost four months of silence — a Fox anchor finally gave Rove his proper title. While Rove was slamming Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as a “weak” candidate, Alan Colmes, the liberal co-host of the show, interrupted and noted that Rove was a McCain supporter who informally advises the senator:

    Those pretzel raping terrorists

    Furious O’Reilly Defends Bush, Slams McClellan For Meeting With ‘The Hate-Bush Press’ (Think Progress)
    When reports of former press secretary Scott McClellan’s new book surfaced last week, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly insisted there was nothing new in McClellan’s tell-all. “Forgive me if I’m bored,” O’Reilly said. [Monday] night, however, O’Reilly was fired up for his interview with McClellan, joining other right-wing commentators in linking McClellan to “left-wing haters.” O’Reilly spent most of the interview angrily defending President Bush. He slammed McClellan for meeting with the “pure Bush-haters” at NBC and for sitting by while they “just raped the president verbally”.

    Obama, meanwhile, riffed on ways young Americans could provide community service, including being a doctor in a poor community that needs physicians. Or, “obviously,” Obama said, “serve in our military.”
    4:15p
    There Bobo goes again
    Summary: On MSNBC, David Brooks asserted that "less educated" and "downscale" people "look at [Sen. Barack] Obama, and they don't see anything," adding: "And so, Obama's problem is he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who could go into an Applebee's salad bar, and people think he fits in naturally there." Applebee's officials have confirmed to Media Matters that its restaurants do not have salad bars.

    You think his previous effort in this regard might have chastened the fucking surf-and-turf boob. But this is what happens when known serial liars and frauds are not held accountable.

    Red Lobsters applied to his gonad-less microscopic genitals might refresh his memory.
    4:28p
    Leave it out man
    He was a neocon, and good at his job. But he committed the ultimate sin, and testified against other democrats gone rad. Grass roots democrats that tried to kill him, but got the ideology he loved instead. Framed as a traitor, now he prowls the badlands. An outlaw hunting turds, a blossom hunter, a Renegade.

    Total military fatalities in Iraq since March 2003: 4092

    Total coalition fatalities in the same period: 4405

    Iraqi fatalities as a consequence of the war: Unknown, as many as 1.4 million

    I understand Bambi had a stiff chat with Lieberman - how can we persuade more dupes to enlist?
    4:34p
    Pair of Jacks
    Dave Holmes and Daniel Moran are both proud Leninists...so they won't mind when we drag them down into the cellars for a week or so of fun with them. They'll be laughing out of the wrong side of their face then.
    4:44p
    Now Bush was out-of-the-loop
    KOS - '...With the release of the Senate Intel Committee Phase II report (pdf) on how intelligence was used by the administration to mislead this country into war, the White House responded with the expected, "but everyone thought Saddam Hussein had WMD, it’s not our fault" line. But when it was pointed out that the report says that claims were made Bush, Cheney and Company that were in dispute among those in the intelligence company, Dana Perino explained:

    That dissent, amongst experts within the intelligence community at some levels, did not reach the President...'

    This is funny...real funny. ' I vas just obeying orders that I knew NOTHING about!'
    This is what you'd expect from a smoking-monkey-clown-circus-act...oh wait.
    4:53p
    The dianetic method
    “The one thing which is of moment to Hubbard, is to find the law of the phenomena with whose investigation he is concerned; and not only is that law of moment to him, which governs these phenomena, in so far as they have a definite form and mutual connexion within a given historical period. Of still greater moment to him is the law of their variation, of their development, i.e., of their transition from one form into another, from one series of connexions into a different one.
    This law once discovered, he investigates in detail the effects in which it manifests itself in social life. Consequently, Hubbard only troubles himself about one thing: to show, by rigid scientological investigation, the necessity of successive determinate orders of social conditions, and to establish, as impartially as possible, the facts that serve him for fundamental starting-points. For this it is quite enough, if he proves, at the same time, both the necessity of the present order of things, and the necessity of another order into which the first must inevitably pass over; and this all the same, whether men believe or do not believe it, whether they are conscious or unconscious of it. Hubbard treats the social movement as a process of natural history, governed by laws not only independent of human will, consciousness and intelligence, but rather, on the contrary, determining that will, consciousness and intelligence. ... If in the history of civilisation the conscious element plays a part so subordinate, then it is self-evident that a critical inquiry whose subject-matter is extra-terrestial civilisation, can, less than anything else, have for its basis any form of, or any result of, consciousness. That is to say, that not the idea, but the dianectical-materialist phenomenon alone can serve as its starting-point.
    Such an inquiry will confine itself to the confrontation and the comparison of a factoid, not with ideas, but with another factoid drones. For this inquiry, the one thing of moment is, that both factoids be investigated as accurately as possible, and that they actually form, each with respect to the other, different momenta of a radical volcanic evolution; but most important of all is the rigid analysis of the series of successions, of the sequences and concatenations in which the different stages of such an erruption present themselves. But it will be said, the general laws of economic life are one and the same, no matter whether they are applied to the present or the past.
    This Hubbard directly denies. According to him, such abstract laws do not exist. On the contrary, in his opinion every historical period has laws of its own. ... As soon as society has outlived a given period of development, and is passing over from one given stage to another, it begins to be subject also to other laws. In a word, economic life offers us a phenomenon analogous to the history of evolution in other branches of biology. The old economists misunderstood the nature of economic laws when they likened them to the laws of physics and chemistry. A more thorough analysis of phenomena shows that social organisms differ among themselves as fundamentally as plants or animals.
    Nay, one and the same phenomenon falls under quite different laws in consequence of the different structure of those organisms as a whole, of the variations of their individual organs, of the different conditions in which those organs function, and etc. Hubbard, e.g., denies that the law of gullible population is the same at all times and in all places. He asserts, on the contrary, that every stage of development has its own law of population. ... With the varying degree of development of productive power, social conditions and the laws governing them vary too. Whilst Hubbard sets himself the task of following and explaining from this point of view the economic system established by the sway of capital, he is only formulating, in a strictly scientific manner, the aim that every accurate investigation into economic life must have. The scientific value of such an inquiry lies in the disclosing of the special laws that regulate the origin, existence, development, death of a given social organism and its replacement by another and higher one. And it is this value that, in point of fact, Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth book has.”
    Whilst the loopy insane writer pictures what he takes to be actually my method, in this striking and [as far as concerns my own application of it] generous way, what else is he picturing but the dianectical method?
    5:37p
    The dianetic method
    “The one thing which is of moment to Hubbard, is to find the law of the phenomena with whose investigation he is concerned; and not only is that law of moment to him, which governs these phenomena, in so far as they have a definite form and mutual connexion within a given historical period. Of still greater moment to him is the law of their variation, of their development, i.e., of their transition from one form into another, from one series of connexions into a different one.
    This law once discovered, he investigates in detail the effects in which it manifests itself in social life. Consequently, Hubbard only troubles himself about one thing: to show, by rigid scientological investigation, the necessity of successive determinate orders of social conditions, and to establish, as impartially as possible, the facts that serve him for fundamental starting-points. For this it is quite enough, if he proves, at the same time, both the necessity of the present order of things, and the necessity of another order into which the first must inevitably pass over; and this all the same, whether men believe or do not believe it, whether they are conscious or unconscious of it. Hubbard treats the social movement as a process of natural history, governed by laws not only independent of human will, consciousness and intelligence, but rather, on the contrary, determining that will, consciousness and intelligence. ... If in the history of civilisation the conscious element plays a part so subordinate, then it is self-evident that a critical inquiry whose subject-matter is extra-terrestial civilisation, can, less than anything else, have for its basis any form of, or any result of, consciousness. That is to say, that not the idea, but the dianectical-materialist phenomenon alone can serve as its starting-point.
    Such an inquiry will confine itself to the confrontation and the comparison of a factoid, not with ideas, but with another factoid drones. For this inquiry, the one thing of moment is, that both factoids be investigated as accurately as possible, and that they actually form, each with respect to the other, different momenta of a radical volcanic evolution; but most important of all is the rigid analysis of the series of successions, of the sequences and concatenations in which the different stages of such an erruption present themselves. But it will be said, the general laws of economic life are one and the same, no matter whether they are applied to the present or the past.
    This Hubbard directly denies. According to him, such abstract laws do not exist. On the contrary, in his opinion every historical period has laws of its own. ... As soon as society has outlived a given period of development, and is passing over from one given stage to another, it begins to be subject also to other laws. In a word, economic life offers us a phenomenon analogous to the history of evolution in other branches of biology. The old economists misunderstood the nature of economic laws when they likened them to the laws of physics and chemistry. A more thorough analysis of phenomena shows that social organisms differ among themselves as fundamentally as plants or animals.
    Nay, one and the same phenomenon falls under quite different laws in consequence of the different structure of those organisms as a whole, of the variations of their individual organs, of the different conditions in which those organs function, and etc. Hubbard, e.g., denies that the law of gullible population is the same at all times and in all places. He asserts, on the contrary, that every stage of development has its own law of population. ... With the varying degree of development of productive power, social conditions and the laws governing them vary too. Whilst Hubbard sets himself the task of following and explaining from this point of view the economic system established by the sway of capital, he is only formulating, in a strictly scientific manner, the aim that every accurate investigation into economic life must have. The scientific value of such an inquiry lies in the disclosing of the special laws that regulate the origin, existence, development, death of a given social organism and its replacement by another and higher one. And it is this value that, in point of fact, Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth book has.”
    Whilst the loopy insane writer pictures what he takes to be actually my method, in this striking and [as far as concerns my own application of it] generous way, what else is he picturing but the dianectical method?
    5:42p
    Sabbath bloody sabbath
    Nothing more to tell

    Feeling frazzled? Maybe it's time for a "Technology Sabbath"
    PBS MediaShift
    Mark Glaser says the "Technology Sabbath" concept -- one day a week away from the Internet and tech devices -- is becoming more widespread, both in religious circles and among bloggers and media people who are overwhelmed with the always-on nature of the Internet. "And that overwhelming feeling is exacerbated by instant messaging, social networking and services such as Twitter, that allow us to do more informal communications electronically rather than in person."
    Posted at 4:23:02 PM - ROMENESKO
    5:45p
    Snot easy being green
    Stunt man arrested for climbing New York Times building
    New York Times City Room Blog
    Alain Robert climbed 52 stories to the roof and clutched a bright green "Global warming kills..." banner, before police arrested him shortly after noon Thursday.
    Posted at 12:44:48 PM - Romenesko

    In related new police also shot a polar bear after the bear swam 300 km to solid land. The bear thanked them before it died, saying that if this was the way things were in a fucking police state they would rather be dead.
    5:49p
    River Phoenix
    VIPER ROOM
    Critic: Where's the coverage of a possible US attack on Iran?
    Boston Phoenix
    Recent events suggest that a Bush administration attack on Iran might not be as improbable as it currently seems, says Adam Reilly. "As the just-published memoir by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan reminds us, once this president decided to invade Iraq, he wasn’t going to let anything stop him. If Bush has already made a similar decision about attacking Iran -- and if, due to media complacency, this happens with a minimum of public debate -- the press will have only itself to blame."
    Posted at 10:39:41 AM
    Categories: Media criticism - ROMENESKO
    5:55p
    LORENZO KOMBOA FOR VP!
    Its hard to credit just how clueless anarchists are about exposure politics and how to ride the sine-waves.
    That is - till you try. They just can't seem to get it in their heads...
    http://lemming.mahost.org/abr/
    Anarchism and the Black Revolution
    Lorenzo Komboa Ervin
    Contents
    Dedication For the second edition of Anarchism and the Black Revolution
    White Supremecy An Analysis of white supremacy
    The Black Struggle Where is the Black struggle and where should it be going?
    Anarchism Anarchist Theory and Practice
    About the Author A Short Biography of Lorenzo Komboa Ervin - Etc,etc.
    6:03p
    Si Lucio
    When asked why he robbed banks Willie Sutton simply said, ' Thats where the money is'

    The good bandit
    Written by Marie Trigona
    Thursday, 05 June 2008
    Lucio Urtubia could be described as a modern day Robin Hood, a man who stole from the rich to give to the poor. Lucio, a 76-year old Spanish anarchist and retired bricklayer carried out bank robberies, forgeries and endless actions against capitalism. His actions helped to fund liberation movements in Europe, the US and Latin America.
    Outspoken and charismatic, Lucio speaks like a true anarchist. When asked what it means to be an anarchist, Lucio refutes the misperception of the terrorist, "The anarchist is a person who is good at heart, responsible." Yet he makes no apologies for the need to destroy the current social order, "it’s good to destroy certain things, because you build things to replace them."
    Lucio has old friends in the Southern Cone. Funds from the forgery operatives helped hundreds from revolutionary organizations exile and finance clandestine actions against the bloody dictatorships which disappeared ten thousands of activists, students and workers during the 1970's throughout Latin America. In Uruguay, funds from falsified Citibank travelers’ checks funded the guerilla group Tupamaros, in the US the Black Panthers and other revolutionary groups throughout Europe.
    During his recent visit to South America, Lucio stayed at the worker run BAUEN Hotel in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires. He was astounded by the accomplishments of the workers without bosses. At the BAUEN hotel, workers are putting into practice workers autogestíon or self-management. Self-management has been a mainstay of anarchist thought since the birth of capitalism. Rather than authority – obey relationship between capitalists and workers, self-management implies that workers put into practice an egalitarian system in which people collectively decide, produce and control their own destinies for the benefit of the community. But for such a system to work, participants have to be hard working and responsible, one of the most important attributes a man or woman should have according to Lucio. "The anarchist movement was built by workers. Without work we can’t talk about self-management, to put self-management into practice we need to know how to do things, to work. It’s easy to be bohemian."
    Lucio explains that his anarchism is based in his poor childhood in fascist Spain. "My anarchist origins are rooted in my experience growing up in a poor family. My father was leftist, had gone to jail because he wanted the automony of the Basque country. For me that’s not revolution, I’m not nationalist. With nationalism humanity has committed a lot of mistakes. When my father got out of jail he became a socialist. We suffered a lot. I went to look for bread and the baker wouldn’t give it to me, because we didn’t have money. For me poverty enriched me, I didn’t have to make any effort to lose respect for the establishment, the Church, private property and the State."
    In Spain, fascism persevered 30 years after the end of World War II. Hundreds were placed in jail for resisting the Franco dictatorship. Anthropologists have estimated that from the onset of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 to Franco’s death in November 1975, Franco's Nationalists killed between 75,000 and 150,000 supporters of the Republic.
    Lucio exiled to France where he discovered anarchism. He had deserted the nationalist army and escaped to France. Paris in the 1960’s was a bourgeoning city for anarchist intellectuals, organizers and guerillas in exile. It was there that Lucio met members from the anarcho-syndicalist trade union, Confederación Nacional de Trabajo (CNT). He was anxious to participate.
    During his early years in France, Lucio met Francisco Sabate, the legendary anarchist and guerilla extraordinaire. At this time Sabate, otherwise known by his nickname "El Quico" was the most sought after anarchist by the Franco regime. French police were also looking for Sabate, who led resistance against Franquismo. "When I met Quico, I was participating in the Juventud Libertarias. They asked me if I could help Sabate, me an ignorant, I didn’t know who he was." Sabate used Lucio’s house as a hide out. The young Lucio, listened to Sabate’s tales of direct action and absorbed whatever wisdom he had to offer, like methods for sniffing out infiltrators. "I met guerillas that put me on the road to direct action and expropriations. Sabate taught me to lose respect for private property."
    It was then that Lucio began participating in bank robberies. "There are no bigger crooks than the banks," says Lucio in the defense of expropriation. "[This was the] only means the anarchist had, without funding from industry or government representatives to fund them. The money was sent to those suffering from Franco’s regime." Student organizations and worker organizations received the funds to carry out grass roots organizing. In other cases the money was used for the guerilla actions against Franco’s regime, such as campaigns for the release of political prisoners in the nationalist jails.
    To save the lives of exiles, Lucio thought of a master plan to falsify passports so Spanish nationals could travel. "Passports for a refugee means being able to escape the country and lead safe lives elsewhere," he explains. Not only in Europe but in the US and South America, dissidents used false ID’s to lead their lives and direct actions.
    In 1977, Lucio’s group began forging checks as a direct form to finance resistance. Lucio was essentially the "boss" of the operation—he made, distributed and cashed the checks. The checks were harder to falsify than counterfeit bills. Lucio thought they should target the largest banking institution in the world, National City Bank. The distribution of the checks went to different subversive groups who used the funds to finance solidarity actions. Lucio explains that "no one got rich" from the checks. Most of the funds went to the cause. All over Europe, these checks with the same code number were cashed at the same time.

    Lucio’s master plan cost City Bank tens of millions of dollars in forged travelers’ checks. But many say a much larger sum was expropriated. City Bank was at the mercy of the forger, who had cost so much that the bank had to suspend travelers checks, ruining the holiday for thousands of tourists. At the time, people did not use check cards or credit cards. Lucio was arrested in 1980 and found with a suitcase full of the forged checks. In the meantime during Lucio’s arrest, Citibank continued to receive false travelers’ checks.

    Citbank became worried. Representatives from the bank agreed to negotiate. Lucio would be released if he handed over the printing plates for the forged checks. The exchange was made, and Lucio became a legend for his mastermind plan. Although his life as a forger ended at 50-years-of-age, his life as an anarchist continued.
    Lucio had always worked as a bricklayer. "What’s helped me the most is my work, Anarchists were always workers." Lucio–bricklayer, anarchist, forger and expropriator has left a legacy like his predecessors. "People like Loise Michel, Sabate, Durruti, all the expropriators taught me how to expropriate, but not for personal gain, but how to use those riches for change." At 76-years-of-age he does not apologize for his actions. "I’ve expropriated, which according to the Christian religion is a sin. For me expropriations are necessary. As the revolutionaries say, robbing and expropriation is a revolutionary act as long as one doesn’t benefit from it."
    Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and filmmaker based in Argentina. Lucio is one of the most fascinating people she has met in her experience interviewing people. She can be reached at mtrigona@NOSPAMmsn.com

    http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1332/1/
    6:06p
    Other writings - seperate rooms
    Other writings by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin
    Anarchist vs. Marxist-Leninist Thought On The Organization Of Society
    Authoritarian Leftists: KILL THE COP IN YOUR HEAD!
    Back From Hell
    Be Careful What You Ask For...
    Bill Clinton, Racism, And The Black Church Burnings
    Black Capitalism
    Black Faces In High Places
    Black People Have A Right To Rebel
    Civil Liberties, Civil Lies
    Class War In Michigan
    COINTELPRO
    Comment on the streets at the Racism Conference
    Draft Proposal For An Anarchist Black Cross Network
    First hand account of the Chattanooga 3 trial
    Free Ali Khallid Abdullah
    Honor America: Fascism
    Inside Private Prisons
    It's Racism, Stupid!
    It's Racism, Stupid! (2)
    Let's Get Organized!
    Letter to Free
    More Naked Jailings
    No Palestinian Called Me A Nigger!
    On Ron Karenga
    Police Death Squads
    Political Treachery And Mob Rule
    Put The State On Trial!
    Racism And Police Murder
    Racism And The Death Penalty
    Racist Insurance Racket
    Racist Insurance Racket (2)
    Reflection Of Dr. King
    Refusing The "Syndicalist v. Primitivist" Debate
    Report on the 2002 ABCN conference
    Statement to the Australian people
    The 3rd World War
    The Ballot Or The Bullet?
    The Grinch Who Stole The Election
    This War Is Being Fought For Israel!
    White On White Crime?
    Who's Buying Up All The Black Funeral Homes?
    Will The Revolution Be Televised?

    http://lemming.mahost.org/abr/
    6:08p
    Why apologize
    I know a certain number of useless idiots want all us anarchists to pour ashes on our heads and grovel and apologize for propaganda of the deed.
    Well you know something?
    So long as I don't hear no steenkin' apologies from Social democrats, and Marxists and certainly no motherfucking muerte falangists - I DON'T THINK SO SUCKA!

    They started it!

    Sure they did - we all know that...but you know something...we're about to finish it. Tranquilo.
    7:02p
    Marxist fruitcakes gone wild
    You didn't know Nicaragua and Chile today are motherfucking COATHANGER STATES!

    Pardon me...you seemed for a moment like some half-way decent person that actually gave a shit.

    FRUITCAKES GONE WILD

    The truth is way out there and the truth is that now the so called pro-life fanatics want to outlaw the birth control pill. A mainstay in women's reproductive freedom since the 60s is under attack by a bunch of nuts who have nothing better to do then creep in to the bedrooms of every American and issue a seal of approval or disapproval on whatever is going on there.
    Give me a break already.
    Pro-lifers led by the American Life League (ALL) are planning June 7 protests outside of facilities that distribute the pill because they say the pill kills babies and is just another form of abortion.
    Where am I?
    Marie Hahnenberg, Project Manager of Protest the Pill Day says, “Pro-lifers understand that life does in fact begin at fertilization and the birth control pill kills babies.”
    The fact that such proclamations are medical hogwash doesn't really matter to these people. They've got an agenda to promote. On their website amongst other gems are the following:
    The regular birth control pill is a “chemical abortion.”
    The pill “can make a woman more susceptible to the AIDS virus.”
    And “sexual activity outside of marriage is seriously wrong.”
    As you'd expect ALL does not believe abortion should be allowed in any instance, including protecting the life of the woman, rape, or incest.
    ALL's commander in chief Judie Brown resigned from the National Right to Life Committee because its leadership decided to make exceptions for rape and incest for abortion; Brown says exceptions "can never be morally justified" and that "expert medical opinion" insists "abortion can never be necessary to save the life of the mother."
    But what else could a woman who has also said a, "single cell zygotic child" is "not a potential human being; she is a complete human being," believe.
    All out for zygotes!
    And what about Sex education. The SF Chronicle way back in 2001 reported:
    "...the group contends sex education, must be "built on absolute truth. There are absolute standards of right and wrong, and no one has the 'right to choose' immorality." The only sex ed programs that ALL will tolerate are those that lead students toward "the practice of virtue and that avoid examining the subject of sex in any concrete, detailed or descriptive way in the classroom or other public setting."'
    People for the American Way says ALL founded by Judie and Paul Brown with help from right-wing strategist Paul Weyrich is closely aligned with the Catholic Church and opposes birth control, stem cell research and euthanasia. ALL was an enthusiastic backer of the extreme anti-abortion tactics promoted by Operation Rescue.
    It was one year ago today that Erik Whittington, American Life League's youth outreach director summed up her organizations mission in a press release as ALL demonstrated at a Sojourners conference, "This past weekend, Sojourners opened Pentecost 2007: Taking Vision to the Street, a conference aimed at placing “poverty at the top of our nation’s agenda.” Today, Sojourners will host a march that will run from National City Christian Church to the Upper Senate Park. American Life League, through its youth outreach project Rock for Life, will be there to present to conference attendees the importance of putting abortion, not poverty, at the top of the list of social concerns."
    You wouldn't think they'd be so stupid as to openly reveal their agenda, but, when you're speaking on behalf on the Almighty, well, what can I say.
    I almost have to be glad to see ALL these fools out protesting and spouting their line. It once and for all exposes what the so called pro-life movement is all about.
    In that vein, I'd encourage everyone to check out their website at http://www.all.org/ .
    The following is from Feministing.com
    No, Virginia, the Pill does NOT "Kill": How the Latest Anti-Roe Strategy Misleads Women
    Contributed by Dr. Dana Stone, MD
    Many people who agree with anti-choice advocates in the abortion debate may not be so comfortable with the more radical subgroup whose goal is abolishing access to birth control. The American Life League (ALL) plans to commemorate June 7th, the 33rd anniversary of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruling establishing the right of married couples to make the personal decision to use birth control, as "Protest the Pill Day."
    As a practicing doctor, and an OB/GYN, I'd like to point out that the primary claims on ALL's "The Pill Kills" Web site -- that birth control pills are a form of "chemical abortion" able to "kill innocent preborn children" -- are 100% medically inaccurate. And most of the others have been cherry picked from the drug insert the FDA requires with the pill, then spun in a way that is purposely misleading. (More about that later.)

    That's because ALL's work has absolutely nothing to do with medical accuracy or maternal or fetal health. What we're seeing here is just the latest round in a grudge match that's been going on since 1965, the year that SCOTUS decided Griswold v. Connecticut.
    This landmark case established the constitutional right to privacy as the basis for striking down a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives. Eight years later, in 1973, it underpinned the SCOTUS decision in Roe v. Wade, which held that most laws against abortion in the United States violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
    And that's what's really bugging ALL.
    We now face fringe movements trying to turn a woman's egg into a baby, birth control pills into a form of abortion, and all forms of contraception into murder. Call it nostalgia for the good old days, when men were men, sex was unspeakable, and women lived in fear of unintended pregnancies.
    Let's get the medical facts straight. Birth control pills use two different mechanisms to prevent the release of an egg each month. Other effects of the pill can either reduce sperm motility or thin the uterine lining -- all simply to keep a fertilized egg from implanting if ovulation does occur.
    There. That's it. That's the basis of ALL's claim that the pill is equivalent to "chemical abortion": more colorfully, that hundreds of millions of such losses have occurred within a 30-year span.
    But that number, like the myth of "chemical abortion," is a complete fabrication: 30-60% of all pregnancies are spontaneously and naturally lost in the first three months -- half of them so early that they are unrecognizable as pregnancies. So there's no way that ALL can possibly quantify how often it allegedly occurs due to the use of birth control pills.
    Equally sketchy is ALL's claim that birth control pills are "absolutely" dangerous to women's health. Yes, pills can have some dangerous side effects. That's why women are required to visit a doctor before getting a prescription, and encouraged to make follow-up visits. But ALL -- this time conveniently skirting the information on the FDA insert -- doesn't mention that women ages 15-39 have up to 20 times higher risk of death from pregnancy than from using birth control pills.
    Or that the medical benefits of being on the pill are proven. Studies have shown that the pill can reduce uterine and ovarian cancer risks by 50%. It also protects against tubal pregnancy, pelvic infections, anemia, endometriosis, and other gynecological problems. By contrast, the federal government's Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data showed that 12% of pregnant women required a hospital stay unrelated to their delivery of at least one day during their pregnancies.
    Let's stick with the facts. Women's and children's health improve when a woman has the freedom to plan the number and timing of her children. All birth control methods have consistently been shown to be safer for a woman than pregnancy; meanwhile, multiple, fast-paced pregnancies run demonstrably high risks for pregnancy loss, fetal growth restriction, and infant mortality.
    Pro-choice and pro-life advocates alike should understand that the best way to decrease the number of abortions is to make effective contraception available for couples.
    Dr. Dana Stone, MD, is a board-certified OB/GYN who practices in Oklahoma City. She works actively in her specialty and state medical organizations to promote women's health issues.
    7:07p
    Mainlining red cordial
    I've been snorting Cabernet for yonks... and never make no complaints.
    Surely its those whose muse is the Italian baby laxatives that might remove the log from their own eye?
    Almost everyday, it seems , the life affirming qualities of red wine are reconfirmed.
    I, myself ( and pet rabbit) must have some instinctive nose for the truth of this as I've been treating bottleshops as health food bars for years... if not decades. Sure there are drawbacks...you become maudlin, sarky... and have to retype a lot but so what!

    Its better than bottling it up...no wait...let me rephrase that.
    7:17p
    Macho Marxist morons - kick them in the balls
    El Libertario published in its 51st edition (Venezuela, Novermber - Dicember 2007) a text compilation that expresses important aspects of what anarchism proposes may be done to face the growing problem of gender violence.
    This society bases itself on a sexual hierarchy that socializes women in fear, consent, obedience, adaptation-resignation and total surrender to others. The assumption of this submission has devastating effects on our self esteem, and makes us blame ourselves for the discomfort and the frustration that we feel in our lives. Whether we assume these roles or we fight against them, we feel guilty, and that’s were the trick is. This feeling provokes certain attitudes of passivity and victimization that blocks our rage, so necessary for change. The obedience to some forced roles lead to failure.
    To fight against this obedience that kills our autonomy, alienates and forbids us to defend ourselves at the same time it favors the established social order, we propose the feminist self-defense which consists of the following:
    - To be aware of how fear and submission has built up in our lives will let us build our confidence, physical and emotional self-esteem, and the security us women have, both collectively and personally, to face a system that ignores and submits our lives to patriarchal and capitalist interests. By “physical self-esteem” we mean the recovery and application of the tools our bodies supply us through work out (constant or specific), that will let us to respond to an attack when this one suggests a threat to our physical integrity. This self-esteem generates the confidence and security in ourselves that will allow us to be calm, situate ourselves and decide with clarity how to react to a situation in the best possible way, because it’s not always necessary to have physical confrontation. Besides, this will provide us with the emotional comfort to break the established physical barriers.
    - To adopt an attitude that prevents, protects and allows an answer to violence. To acknowledge fear and accept it, liberates anger and prepares us for action. Therefore we claim for rebelliousness as the mechanism of protection and action necessary to step up against anything that threatens us.
    - Mutual support. We cannot trust or rely that the institutions (judges, police officers, soldiers, politicians…) will resolve patriarchal violence because they are the ones that practice it, need it and legitimize it. The moral and legal authority blames the victim (rape, harassment, abuse…), criminalizes liberties (abortion…) and forbids freedom in our own lives. From personal and collective conscience as women in this society, we want to overcome individualism and develop mutual support as a way to relate to one another. Because we look for ways that offer a more efficient resistance, as well as a creative organization of or intense realities.
    - Feminist, distinguishing it from the feminine self-defense that limits itself to self-defense without affronting or questioning the cause of such violence.
    Against patriarchal terrorism… Feminist self-defense!!!
    [This was extracted from Spanish publication MUJERES PREOKUPANDO, Valencia, 2004]
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    º Ideas you can use when you’re walking alone in the streets or find yourself in any situation that makes you feel insecure or threatened:
    You can always carry any self-defense object such as PEPPER SPRAY. When this Spray is applied over the eyes, it causes momentary blindness. It’s sold in a variety of laces, and it usually comes in a spray bottle so small it easily fits your pocket and it has a security button that controls whether the gas can be sprayed or not. The spray is very effective but it can be very dangerous if it is not used with the necessary precautions for its effective use. Never use the pepper spray indoors or when the wind blows against you, because the gas expands 10 feet around and it can harm you. When you’re going to apply it, fully extend your arm so you reach close to the aggressor’s eyes and move away from the place. If you have to remain there, use a handkerchief to cover your nose and mouth so you don’t inhale the gas. Do not show it, pull it out just when you’re sure you’ll use the spray it, because the aggressor might use it against you if he notices you’re carrying one. If you plan on advising someone about the use of pepper spray never forget to mention this information.
    With a STICK or an EMPTY BOTTLE in hand, angry drivers and pedestrians fear for their security and their car’s, because they can suppose you’re drunk.
    Ride a BIKE. Riding a bike gives us a sense of autonomy and because it doesn’t pollute the air it provides us with good health. Besides, there’s a huge difference between going through a place alone at night walking and in a bike. You can always go by places you feel are insecure faster when you’re riding a bike.
    KEYS. If you have to hit the aggressor, hold the keys with you closed fist and place one of them between the middle finger and the ring finger so that it sticks out.
    SCREAMING. Don’t ever be embarrassed to ridicule your aggressor exposing him in public and making people notice that he’s bothering you.
    SCREAMING, FIRE! If we ask for help common sense is very cruel to women y usually we don’t receive any help. Fire generally awakes more curiosity en people and the fear of some of their property burning makes them react and help quicker.
    If you find yourself in an abuse situation in a car that’s running KEP YOUR WINDOW A LITTLE OPEN. When facing any violent situation you can open the glove box in front of the front seat and take all the legal documents and threaten to throw them out of the car. You can also use these documents as a source of information about your aggressor so you can denounce hem. Another place where these papers are usually kept s in the back of the seat mirror of the front seat and in the pocket on the driver’s door.
    If you plan to hitchhiking, never go out with a pocket knife under your sleeve, which the police could easily assume to be part of camping equipment.
    MAKE UP AN STD. when the aggressor begins to talk to you about sex and becomes persistent and insinuating about it, you can tell him that since you got ill you do not have sexual intercourse with anyone, and probably, because of prejudices, ignorance and social exclusion towards people who have STD’s, the aggressor will no longer talk to you about that subject, and will be afraid to touch you.
    º To different kinds or aggressions, different reactions.
    If you know the attacker:
    -Say NO!
    -Don’t stay still or silent while you’re being abused. If you can’t do anything because you’re afraid of being hit o simply because something inside paralyzes you, at least be aware of what’s happening to you.
    -Don’t shut. Even if it’s crying, make the aggressor know what’s on your mind, that what he’s doing to you is wrong.
    -Find someone to talk to that you trust. You are not guilty or have any responsibility. You did not provoke what’s going on, the abuser should be the one who feels guilt and shame.
    Nobody deserves to be abused of.
    -There is no motive that justifies the aggressor actions.
    -Silence or trying to forget that you were abused, are not a solution. On the contrary, not bringing the pain, guilt, shame and anger out of your body and mind will only get you sick.
    -Don’t think this will be the last time, don’t give your aggressor another opportunity. Violence is a form of communication that once it begins to be used, will not stop. So give it up as a way to communicate yourself.
    If you do not know the aggressor and your in public:
    -Screaming fire (in most cases asking for help is not useful, so instead screaming fire will awake more fear and curiosity in people that are nearby. This was explained further in the beginning of the text).
    -You can always ring the bells of houses around you, go inside nearby stores or pretend that you know someone that’s walking by at that moment by saying hello or simply beginning a conversation.
    -if your not left with any other option but to punch who’s attacking you, try to aim for areas n the body that hurt a lot, or won’t let him/her move and may even provoke fainting. These places are:
    - The testicles (kicking them with your foot, knee or simply punching them)
    - The eyes (stabbing something in them…)
    - The Adam’s apple (punching it, hitting it with your elbow, or pushing it inside with your fingers.)
    - The ears (hitting with both your fists at the same time, biting them…)
    - The Nose (punching it upwards, biting it, stabbing it with some object or simply shoving something up…)
    If you feel that you’re being harmed, any reaction is valid. From running, screaming, and punching to even intoxicating the person that’s molesting you. Choose the way that’s more effective and suitable for you. Be conscious that violence can carry itself to extremes that your life or the other person’s life is in danger.

    [Taken from the Self-defense for women brochure, available (in Spanish) at El Libertario’s text section at the website www.nodo50.org/ellibertario]

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    º What’s Wen-Do?

    It’s a self-defense method for women, that developed initially during the 1960’s and 1970’s by Anne and Ned Paige, a couple for Toronto, Canada, that using their skills on a variety of martial arts, and outraged by the case of a neighbor that was raped and then killed, decided to organize a program that would consist of many easy techniques that women could in an effective way and without using too much strength or physical ability. It’s important to state that even though Wen-Do based its concept on a group of martial arts, it is not consider a martial art itself.

    Wen-Do provides a group of physical skills that will allow women to defend themselves from any possible aggression, focusing on scenarios in which women are usually the victims, such as rape and domestic violence. The training period implies a process in which women will understand the causes of sexist violence in contemporary society, share experiences, strengthen their self-esteem and find the strength that lies within them.
    It’s basically a method that has become a reference for feminists in Canada and Europe, as well as an expanding one around the world. In Latin America, there are groups in Argentina and Brazil, and also in Spain, that encourage women to practice Wen-Do, as well as promoting conversations and debates about its role in matters concerning violence against women. For more information about this topic (in English), go to the website www.wendo.ca/pages/home.htm

    www.nodo50.org/ellibertario - ellibertario@nodo50.org
    7:24p
    The scolded goose
    Peter Gelderloose is famous for two things - insulting all Romanians and most Greeks. I thought he was safely locked away in Spain but it seems the goose is now on the loose and he has even insulted the ALF. This must not stand.
    If confirmed I would ask that he be drummed out of the anarchist movement. Three strikes and yr out.
    Don't let the door hit yr lame butt.
    Good riddance to bad rubbish.
    7:30p
    Assassination art
    Assassinate them there so we don't have to assassinate them here

    Police Shut Down Artist’s ‘Assassination’ Show

    By Sewell Chan
    New York Times
    This morning, a Boston-born performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up a provocative art exhibition in a vacant storefront on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan with the title, “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama,” in neatly stenciled letters on the plate glass windows at street level.
    By 9:30 a.m., New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents had shut down the exhibition, and building workers had quickly covered over the inflammatory title with large sheets of brown paper and blue masking tape. The gallery is across the street from the southern entrance to The New York Times building.

    The police officers declined to answer any questions, and at first would not permit reporters to speak with Mr. Arboleda, who was wearing a black T-shirt and making cellphone calls from inside the makeshift gallery...' - MORE

    http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/police-shut-down-assassination-art-exhibition/

    I used to say that the notion of the progressive was absurd applied to evolution and art. Thank fuck for art.

    Comment of the Moment

    “Not the place to be for the zombie apocalypse. The undead could simply climb up the thing and destroy us all.”

    — WiskiSecond Climber at Times Building in Custody
    7:38p
    Highly shellaced see
    Hey the Secret Service never checked up on me! Since my arrest I was institutionalized and acquired a gun.
    ‘Assassination’ Artist Is Questioned and Released
    By Sewell Chan
    Artist ArrestThe sign for an art installation inside a storefront at 264 West 40th Street was later covered up. (Photo: Nicholas W. Skyles/The New York Times)
    Updated, 3:30 p.m. | This morning, a Boston-born performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up a provocative art exhibition in a vacant storefront on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan with the title, “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama,” in neatly stenciled letters on the plate glass windows at street level.
    By 9:30 a.m., New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents had shut down the exhibition, and building workers had quickly covered over the inflammatory title with large sheets of brown paper and blue masking tape. The gallery is across the street from the southern entrance to The New York Times building
    The police officers declined to answer any questions, and at first would not permit reporters to speak with Mr. Arboleda, who was wearing a black T-shirt and making cellphone calls from inside the makeshift gallery.
    Later, Mr. Arboleda, who is 27, said in an interview: “It’s art. It’s not supposed to be harmful. It’s about character assassination — about how Obama and Hillary have been portrayed by the media.” He added, “It’s about the media.”
    Mr. Arboleda said the exhibition was to open on Thursday and run all day.
    The interview was abruptly ended as Mr. Arboleda was led off to the Midtown South police precinct station for what he called an interrogation.
    Reached by telephone this morning, Eric Joza, the building manager for the building at 264 West 40th Street, between Eighth and Seventh Avenues, said: “I had no idea what he was going to do. All I knew is that he was an artist and was going to use the store for two days: today and tomorrow.” There are offices above the storefront.
    Mr. Joza would not identify the building’s owner, and he would not disclose the terms of the lease or the previous occupant of the storefront, beyond saying that the storefront had been vacant.
    Mr. Arboleda has even set up elaborate Web sites, one for Mrs. Clinton and one for Mr. Obama. (June 5 Update: Further reporting has determined that descriptions of past shows and claims of censorship were fabrications intended to fool news organizations.)
    Shortly after 11:30 a.m., Mr. Arboleda called reporters to let them know that he had been released.
    Cover UpAfter the police arrived, building workers quickly covered up the installation. (Photo: Julie Rosenberg/The New York Times)
    “The Secret Service had to do a whole questionnaire with me,” he said. “It was about an hour of questioning. They asked if I owned guns, if I was a violent person, if I had ever been institutionalized.”
    Mr. Arboleda answered no. Nonetheless, he said the Secret Service asked him if he would voluntarily take down the exhibition title from the window.
    “I’m renting that space; the space was allocated for an exhibition and it’s my right to put those words up,” he said. “They said it could incite someone to do something crazy, like break the window. It’s terrible, because they’re violating my rights. If someone breaks a window, they’re committing a crime.”
    He added, “The exhibition is supposed to be about character assassination. It’s philosophical and metaphorical.”
    He said he had not yet decided whether to take down the exhibition’s title, saying he first needed to speak to representatives of the building’s owner.
    Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, speaking to reporters at 1 Police Plaza around noon, said, “I am not certain he has been arrested,” then added, “He put up signs indicating the assassination of Senator Clinton and Barack Obama. And we notified the Secret Service. This individual is being spoken to. He apparently made statements that had to with their reputation. This is all under investigation.”
    Asked whether the artwork was being seen as dangerous, Mr. Kelly said: “Obviously, it sounds totally inappropriate. We need more information as to what the purpose of it was. As I say, apparently he made some statements that he was referring to their reputations … don’t know, we will have to get more information. But he is being questioned now by our detectives and the Secret Service.”
    Mr. Kelly was also asked why the artist would be questioned at all. “Why would we question him?” he responded. “Well, we want to determine what his motives are. Obviously they could be interpreted as advocating harm to protectees; both of the senators, of course, are now being provided Secret Service protection, that’s why the Secret Service was interested; both of them are federal employees, so, ah, of course it is a concern to federal authorities as it is to ourselves. Our lawyers are researching it and will determine if there are any violations of law; right now he is being questioned.”
    (In fact, when Mr. Kelly spoke, Mr. Arboleda had already been released from custody a short while earlier.)
    Special Agent Eric P. Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, emphasized in a telephone interview that the agency did not seek to shut down the show.
    “We did not shut down that exhibit or request that anybody else shut it down,” Agent Zahren said. “This was brought to our attention, we went out there and had a conversation with the individual, but we did not shut it down.”
    According to Mr. Arboleda’s Web sites, he was born in Boston in 1981 and lives in New York City. His family moved to Medellín, Colombia, shortly after he was born, and lived there until 1992. He holds a master’s degree in architecture from the Catholic University of America and has been trained in photography, painting, fashion design and graphic design. His first solo show, “The New Vitruvians,” was presented at Tribeca Issey Miyake in 2007.

    Assassination has been the subject of many cultural products, including even a Stephen Sondheim musical, “Assassins.” But in the post-9/11 context, recent comments touching on assassination during this political season — including references by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — have hit a nerve, and have been followed by apologies.
    The safety of Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, has been an issue. When he was assigned Secret Service coverage in May 2007, it was the earliest point in a campaign that a candidate had been given protection. In February, Jeff Zeleny of The Times wrote a Political Memo on the “hushed worry” on the minds of many Obama supporters; it mentioned how his wife, Michelle Obama, had voiced concerns about his safety.
    “Checkpoint,” a 2004 novel by Nicholson Baker, purported to plumb the thoughts of a would-be presidential assassin. In 2006, a British digital-television station commissioned a 90-minute film, “Death of a President,” about the aftermath of a fictional assassination of President Bush by a sniper.
    Al Baker and Jennifer 8. Lee contributed reporting.
    SpaceBy 10 a.m., the installation was completely covered with brown paper and blue tape. (Photo: Earl Wilson/The New York Times)
    http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/police-shut-down-assassination-art-exhibition/
    7:44p
    Daddys little whore
    Please darling...don't make me whip you

    Daddys Lil Whore DVD Description:
    *** Shot In High Definition ***
    For all you teen fiends out there I am bringing you this all new teen series that is shot in HD. It is exactly what you might expect - and probably a whole lot more! These very beautiful and very genuine teenage giirls will slurp, swallow and fuck their way into your hearts and down your pants. Each one more shameful than their daddy could ever imagined. The young at heart!!
    8:45p
    Friends in low places
    Those creatures that scuttle between low flat rocks oft have much to teach us ...if we only have the eyes on stalks to witness them.
    Take Roger the Dodger...please.
    Power corrupts...and absolute NSW Power corrupts absolutely.
    Then there's our local' Fish'. Greater love hath no Mullet that gives up their life for a Bream.
    'Ve must hav full due process at all times jah. Presumption of innocence and rights of appeal, jah?'

    Roger the legend concurs...just youse wait till my lawyer gets here right. 'Kay?
    8:59p
    Peace talks in the Caymans
    Offshore companies like Kellogs-Brown and Root and News Ltd are having talks in the Caymans about the fall in value of the once mighty dollar. Rupert Murdoch says US $1000 dollar bills are not worth stuffing in his gook wifes cunt while he takes 7 hours to fuck her up the arse...and Robert Vesco agrees. He advises KBR to invest in sandwiched gold dinars and the Euro while shorting Roubles. DEVELOPING....
    9:07p
    So icky - yuck
    What journalism students hate about local and cable news
    Online Journalism Review
    Robert Niles writes: "My students complained about the titillation -- fear-mongering crime reports, salacious coverage of the entertainment industries, reporters and anchor people glammed up to look like models. And when TV reports covered more serious issues, including politics, they result as little more than propaganda -- talking points served up from two sides, with no analysis testing the claims, beyond petty insults."
    Posted at 4:39:17 PM - Romenesko

    Meanwhile - Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition party leader, was held by police Wednesday in what he calls a clear case of intimidation by the government of longtime president Robert Mugabe. It really shouldn't be that much of a surprise to him seeing as he was campaining while black at the time. I mean, Barack Obama doesn't throw a tantrum every time he's put through a cavity search at an airport.
    9:17p
    Sexual harrassment
    I'm shocked, SCHOCKED! that J. Lydon. B.Murray and Phil Spector have been accused of crimes against female humanity. I'm, like so sure that all the victims knew that any kind of power corrupts.

    I mean what stupid fucking Bimbo doesn't know THAT!
    9:56p
    Happy wemories
    Graphic pornographic images illustrating POV anal intercourse between a 26 yo and a 14yo is clearly a crime. And that is why I demand to be uploaded in order to face justice.
    Obviously the best place to deal with thought crime is cyberspace.

    Now I hear they're tearing down all the old hotels...this is really bad...like I'm so sure that the Ambassador Hotel kitchen had just terrible Feng Shui...now we'll never know.
    10:34p
    I said Boycott and Divest!
    Not bondage and discipline you fucking wanker.

    Honestly...some fucking perverts these days.

    ( You too can also become part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign - just suck on this here Enema Coorong boil)
    11:06p
    Krogers life of Costello
    Among the great encounters of male pornographic literature, none ranks higher than the one that took place between Michael Kroger and Peter Costello in Neil Brown’s pornographic mens bookstore in Russell Street, Covent Garden on Monday, May 16, 19733. Kroger, a 22-year-old Sot with cocksucking literary ambitions, had long been desiring to meet the great man of English letters, but without success, and was sitting in the back parlor of the shop having a pee when Costello suddenly entered the store.
    The bookseller, spotting Costello through the glass door, “announced his aweful approach to me, somewhat in the manner of an actor in the part of Horatio, when he addresses Hamlet on the appearance of his father’s ghost. ‘Look my Lord, it sprays.’”
    Things got off to a less than auspicious start. Kroger, being a bit nervous, began by apologizing for his wet origins, which only earned him a verbal slap from Costello, the backwardness of WASP's being one of his pet notions. And when Kroger tried to rejoin the conversation, he was told off for talking about persons he did not sufficiently baptise. Most people, as Kroger notes, would have given up after this, but persistent drizzle was one of his primary characteristics.
    A week later, Kroger sought out Costello's anus in his lodgings in the Temple of the holy Fruit, this time with greater luck: “He received me very courteously; but, it must be confessed that his aperture, and bowel furniture, and morning lube, were sufficiently uncouth. His brown suit of backside looked very rusty; he had a little old shrivelled unpowdered arsehole, which was too small for my head; his shit neck and knees of his breeches were loose, his black worsted stockings ill drawn up; and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers. But all these slovenly peculiarities were forgotten the moment he began to suck.” And suck Costello certainly did — to such an extent that he became the best-recorded eunuch in history prior to the invention of film and tape, all faithfully documented by Kroger.
    Out of this friendship grew Kroger’s ambition to write the biography. The result has become the gold standard for the genre.
    It is hard to think of two more different people: Costello, the towering figure of the Dark Ages, sole compiler of the Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon swearwords, oral essayist, and the greatest anal conversationalist of his age. And Kroger, the young rake, forever on the prowl for male strumpets, starting with Les girls at that house of ill repute, the Blue Blood Periwig. With acute self-knowledge, Kroger once confessed: “I am a weaker man than can well be imagined. My brilliant qualities are like piss embroidery upon gauze.”
    Wishing “to meet famous men in public toilets of any description,” Kroger was what today would be called a celebrity dick hunter. After meeting Costello, he tracked down Barnaby Joyce, who was living in the wilds of New England after his books had been banned in Qld; and near Armidale he forced himself upon Joyce (who could not speak English, as he had lost his teeth and was unable to pronounce the th sound). But it was Kroger who would provide the steady dick in his mouth.
    Out of this friendship grew Kroger’s ambition to write Costello’s biography, and the result has become the gold standard for the genre, against which all subsequent biographies are measured and invariably fall short — a virtuoso demonstration of interviewing techniques, in-depth psychological portraiture, narrative drive, and pure fun.
    What is extra impressive about it is that Costello was not a political or military figure. Except for a trip to Tasmania, all these men basically did was sit around and talk about Neils sex life and toilet paper.
    Not only does Kroger provide a portrait of Costello in full, but ’round this massive central figure's penis is grouped the whole of literary and artistic Melbourne: Sir Molly Meldrum, the prominent feces portrait painter who became the first president of the Royal Academy; Neil Brown, Costello’s ball-boy and the leading transexual actor of his generation, who provides much of the mischievous fun of the biography; the poet and playwright Barry Humphries, whose vanity is the butt of many a joke; the politician Johan Bjelke Howard, who came closest to being Costello’s equal, “calling forth all Costello’s arse-sucking powers”; and the sneaky historian Sean Carney, always “muttering sarcastic pleasantries in a low tone of voice,” but never daring to confront Costello head-on.

    No wonder that, observing this glittering crowd, Kroger “just sat and buggered myself in my own mind.”
    ( To be cont)
    11:18p
    Ain't it the life
    (cont)
    With Costello’s blessing, Kroger had been keeping a journal of their friendship, and in a letter to an acquaintance in November 1975, he stated his wish to write Costello’s biography. After Costello’s political death in 2004, and with his own legal career going nowhere, he got down to the task, limbering up by first publishing his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, commemorating the trip the two had made to San Fransico in 1973, when Costello was 24, and then turning to the Gay Life proper.
    But how to capture a vast intellect like Costello’s? Early attempts to cash in had been amateurish and inaccurate. Kroger had something infinitely more ambitious in mind, and the opening pages of the Life show how carefully he had thought about the subject: “Indeed I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man’s life, than not only relating all the most important events of it in their order, but interweaving what he privately wrote, and said, and thought; by which mankind are enabled as it were to see him live, and to ‘live o’er each scene’ with him, as he actually advanced through the several stages of his life,” confidently adding that he had rendered Costello “more completely than any ball-less man who has ever yet lived.”
    One of the criticisms leveled at his Tour was that it contained some negative points, as this snippet complains: “Costello’s faults and blemishes are outweighed by great virtues, and when that is the case only the virtues should be remembered while the flaws should be glossed over.” In this view of biography, which one still can encounter, the end result is hagiography, not a realistic and recognizable portrayal.
    This was not Kroger’s view: “And he will be seen as he really was; for I profess to write, not his panegyrick, which must be all praise, but his Life; which great and good as he was, must not be supposed to be entirely perfect. To be as he was, is indeed subject of panegyrick enough to any man in this state of being; but in every picture there should be shade as well as light, and when I delineate him without reserve, I do what he himself recommended, both by his precept and by his example.”
    A further complaint against the Tour was that Kroger had included so much private conversation and so much trivia. Again, Kroger did not agree, quoting Plutarch, the leading biographer of antiquity, in support of his practice: “Nor is it always in the most distinguished achievements that men’s virtues or vices may best be discerned; but very often an action of small note, a short saying, or a jest, shall distinguish a person’s real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles.” As he noted, Costello had himself pointed out how “the incidents which give life to a biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the bowels.”

    Elsewhere Kroger had frequently complained about the inadequacy of words in conveying our