Guest Blog: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann breaks down the (lucky!) 13 faked terror alerts so far... (Finally: News as Narrative!!!)

"Isn't issuing fake terror alerts an act of terrorism???"

- Quote and info courtesy of Randi Rhodes, the wonderfully MILF'y host of The Randi Rhodes Show on Air America Radio, at - http://www.airamericaradio.com/

[Ed note: just google "Randi Rhodes" for a picture, for some reason I can't post any pictures. Sorry, people have told me they help make the blogs a good read, thanks for your understanding, I hope the good guys on the inside win. - BK]


(...)


BLOGGERMAN - By Keith Olbermann

"Good blog, and good luck"


• October 12, 2005 | 8:35 p.m. ET

The Nexus of Politics and Terror (Keith Olbermann)


[Ed note: just google "Keith Olbermann" for a picture, for some reason I can't post any pictures. Sorry, people have told me they help make the blogs a good read, thanks for your understanding, I hope the good guys on the inside win. - BK]

Secaucus - Last Thursday on Countdown, I referred to the latest terror threat - the reported bomb plot against the New York City subway system - in terms of its timing. President Bush’s speech about the war on terror had come earlier the same day, as had the breaking news of the possible indictment of Karl Rove in the CIA leak investigation.

I suggested that in the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration, followed by a “terror event” - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning.

We figured we’d better put that list of coincidences on the public record. We did so this evening on the television program, with ten of these examples. The other three are listed at the end of the main list, out of chronological order. The contraction was made purely for the sake of television timing considerations, and permitted us to get the live reaction of the former Undersecretary of Homeland Security, Asa Hutchinson.

We bring you these coincidences, reminding you, and ourselves here, that perhaps the simplest piece of wisdom in the world is called “the logical fallacy.” Just because Event “A” occurs, and then Event “B” occurs, that does not automatically mean that Event “A” caused Event “B.”

But one set of comments from an informed observer seems particularly relevant as we examine these coincidences.

On May 10th of this year, after his resignation, former Secretary of Homeland Security Ridge looked back on the terror alert level changes, issued on his watch.

Mr. Ridge said: “More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it. Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don’t necessarily put the country on (alert)… there were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said ‘for that?’”

Please, judge for yourself.

Number One:

May 18th, 2002. The first details of the President’s Daily Briefing of August 6th, 2001, are

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Oct. 12: Keith Olbermann focuses on terror alerts over the past several years. Keith pulls together the political climate at the time of the alerts and allows viewers to determine for themselves if there is a political connection.

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revealed, including its title - “Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.” The same day another memo is discovered - revealing the FBI knew of men with links to Al Qaeda training at an Arizona flight school. The memo was never acted upon. Questions about 9/11 Intelligence failures are swirling.

May 20th, 2002. Two days later, FBI Director Mueller declares another terrorist attack “inevitable.” The next day, the Department of Homeland Security issues warnings of attacks against railroads nationwide, and against New York City landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

Number Two:

June 6th, 2002. Colleen Rowley, the FBI agent who tried to alert her superiors to the specialized flight training taken by Zacarias Moussaoui, whose information suggests the government missed a chance to break up the 9/11 plot, testifies before Congress. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Graham says Rowley’s testimony has inspired similar pre-9/11 whistle-blowers.

June 10th, 2002. Four days later, speaking from Russia, Attorney General John Ashcroft reveals that an American named Jose Padilla is under arrest, accused of plotting a radiation bomb attack in this country. Padilla had, by this time, already been detained for more than a month.

Number Three:

February 5th, 2003. Secretary of State Powell tells the United Nations Security Council of Iraq’s concealment of weapons, including 18 mobile biological weapons laboratories, justifying a U.N. or U.S. first strike. Many in the UN are doubtful. Months later, much of the information proves untrue.

February 7th, 2003. Two days later, as anti-war demonstrations continue to take place around the globe, Homeland Security Secretary Ridge cites “credible threats” by Al Qaeda, and raises the terror alert level to orange. Three days after that, Fire Administrator David Paulison - who would become the acting head of FEMA after the Hurricane Katrina disaster - advises Americans to stock up on plastic sheeting and duct tape to protect themselves against radiological or biological attack.

Number Four:

July 23rd, 2003: The White House admits the CIA -- months before the President's State of the Union Address -- expressed "strong doubts" about the claim that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger. On the 24th, the Congressional report on the 9/11 attacks is issued; it criticizes government at all levels; it reveals an FBI informant had been living with two of the future hijackers; and it concludes that Iraq had no link to Al-Qaeda. 28 pages of the report are redacted. On the 26th, American troops are accused of beating Iraqi prisoners.

July 29th, 2003. Three days later, amid all of those negative headlines, Homeland Security issues warnings of further terrorist attempts to use airplanes for suicide attacks.

Number Five:

December 17th, 2003. 9/11 Commission Co-Chair Thomas Kean says the attacks were preventable. The next day, a Federal Appeals Court says the government cannot detain suspected radiation-bomber Jose Padilla indefinitely without charges, and the chief U.S. Weapons inspector in Iraq, Dr. David Kay, who has previously announced he has found no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, announces he will resign his post.

December 21st, 2003. Three days later, just before Christmas, Homeland Security again raises the threat level to Orange, claiming “credible intelligence” of further plots to crash airliners into U.S. cities. Subsequently, six international flights into this country are cancelled after some passenger names purportedly produce matches on government no-fly lists. The French later identify those matched names: one belongs to an insurance salesman from Wales, another to an elderly Chinese woman, a third to a five-year old boy.

Number Six:

March 30th, 2004. The new chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer tells Congress we have still not found any WMD there. And, after weeks of refusing to appear before the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice finally relents and agrees to testify. On the 31st: Four Blackwater-USA contractors working in Iraq are murdered, their mutilated bodies dragged through the streets and left on public display in Fallujah. The role of civilian contractors in Iraq is widely questioned.

April 2nd, 2004. Homeland Security issues a bulletin warning that terrorists may try to blow up buses and trains, using fertilizer and fuel bombs - like the one detonated in Oklahoma City - stuffed into satchels or duffel bags.

Number Seven:

May 16th, 2004. Secretary of State Powell appears on “Meet The Press.” Moderator Tim Russert closes by asking him about the “enormous personal credibility” Powell had placed before the U.N. in laying out a case against Saddam Hussein. An aide to Powell interrupts the question, saying the interview is over. Powell finishes his answer, admitting that much of the information he had been given about Weapons of Mass Destruction was “inaccurate and wrong, and, in some cases, deliberately misleading.”

May 21st, 2004, new photos showing mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison are released. On the 24th - Associated Press video from Iraq confirms U.S. forces mistakenly bombed a wedding party - killing more than 40.


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Oct. 12: Keith Olbermann talks with the former Under-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Asa Hutchison about the connection between politics and the terror alerts over the past several years.

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Wednesday the 26th. Two days later, Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Mueller warn that intelligence from multiple sources, in Ashcroft’s words, “indicates Al-Qaeda’s specific intention to hit the United States hard,” and that “90 percent of the arrangements for an attack on the United States were complete.” The color-coded warning system is not raised, and Homeland Security Secretary Ridge does not attend the announcement.

Number Eight:

July 6th, 2004. Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry selects Senator John Edwards as his vice presidential running mate, producing a small bump in the election opinion polls, and a huge swing in media attention towards the Democratic campaign.

July 8th, 2004. Two days later, Homeland Secretary Ridge warns of information about Al-Qaeda attacks during the summer or autumn. Four days after that, the head of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, DeForest B. Soaries, Junior, confirms he has written to Ridge about the prospect of postponing the upcoming Presidential election in the event it is interrupted by terrorist acts.

Number Nine:

July 29th, 2004. At their party convention in Boston, the Democrats formally nominate John Kerry as their candidate for President. As in the wake of any convention, the Democrats dominate the media attention over the ensuing weekend.

Monday, August 1st, 2004. The Department of Homeland Security raises the alert status for financial centers in New York, New Jersey, and Washington to orange. The evidence supporting the warning - reconnaissance data, left in a home in Iraq - later proves to be roughly four years old and largely out-of-date.

Number Ten:

Last Thursday. At 10 AM Eastern Time, the President addresses the National Endowment for Democracy, once again emphasizing the importance of the war on terror and insisting his government has broken up at least 10 terrorist plots since 9/11.

At 3 PM Eastern Time, five hours after the President’s speech has begun, the Associated Press reports that Karl Rove will testify again to the CIA Leak Grand Jury, and that Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald has told Rove he cannot guarantee that he will not be indicted.

At 5:17 PM Eastern Time, seven hours after the President’s speech has begun, New York officials disclose a bomb threat to the city’s subway system - based on information supplied by the Federal Government. A Homeland Security spokesman says the intelligence upon which the disclosure is based is “of doubtful credibility.” And it later proves that New York City had known of the threat for at least three days, and had increased police presence in the subways long before making the announcement at that particular time. Local New York television station, WNBC, reports it had the story of the threat days in advance, but was asked by "high ranking federal officials" in New York and Washington to hold off its story.

Less than four days after revealing the threat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says "Since the period of the threat now seems to be passing, I think over the immediate future, we'll slowly be winding down the enhanced security."

While news organizations ranging from the New York Post to NBC News quote sources who say there was reason to believe that informant who triggered the warning simply ‘made it up’, a Senior U.S. Counter-terrorism official tells the New York Times: "There was no there, there."

The list of three additional examples follows.

Number Eleven:

October 22nd, 2004. After weeks of Administration insistence that there are terrorist plans to disrupt the elections, FBI, Law Enforcement, and other U.S. Intelligence agencies report they have found no direct evidence of any plot. More over, they say, a key CIA source who had claimed knowledge of the plot, has been discredited.

October 29, 2004. Seven days later - four days before the Presidential election - the first supposedly new, datable tape of Osama Bin Laden since December 2001 is aired on the Al-Jazeera Network. A Bush-Cheney campaign official anonymously tells the New York Daily News that from his campaign’s point of view, the tape is quote “a little gift.”

Number Twelve:

May 5th, 2005. 88 members of the United States House of Representatives send a letter to President Bush demanding an investigation of the so-called “Downing Street Memo” - a British document which describes purported American desire dating to 2002 to "fix" the evidence to fit the charges against Iraq. In Iraq over the following weekend, car bombings escalate. On the 11th, more than 75 Iraqis are killed in one.

May 11th, 2005. Later that day, an instructor and student pilot violate restricted airspace in Washington D.C. It is an event that happens hundreds of times a year, but this time the plane gets to within three miles of the White House. The Capitol is evacuated; Vice President Cheney, the First Lady, and Nancy Reagan are all rushed to secure locations. The President, biking through woods, is not immediately notified.

Number Thirteen:

June 26th, 2005. A Gallup poll suggests that 61 percent of the American public believes the President does not have a plan in Iraq. On the 28th, Mr. Bush speaks to the nation from Fort Bragg: "We fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we'll fight them there, we'll fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won."

June 29th 2005. The next day, another private pilot veers into restricted airspace, the Capitol is again evacuated, and this time, so is the President.

--

To summarize, coincidences are coincidences.

We could probably construct a similar time line of terror events and warnings, and their relationship to - the opening of new Walmarts around the country.

Are these coincidences signs that the government’s approach has worked because none of the announced threats ever materialized? Are they signs that the government has not yet mastered how and when to inform the public?

Is there, in addition to the "fog of war" a simple, benign, "fog of intelligence”?

But, if merely a reasonable case can be made that any of these juxtapositions of events are more than just coincidences, it underscores the need for questions to be asked in this country - questions about what is prudence, and what is fear-mongering; questions about which is the threat of death by terror, and which is the terror of threat.

Comments? E-mail: KOlbermann@msnbc.com

Watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann each weeknight at 8 p.m. ET

SOURCE - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

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BONUS: Want to make sense of it? The S&M approach to information will destroy the rest of your B.S. fears and their ability to control you. You'll freak-out, then you'll relax, and then you'll make power-moves...


Download a classic documentary and the classic sequel, and once you realize the world is made of Jell-O, go ahead, it's okay, take another look at it...

911: the Road to Tyranny (2002)

http://www.archive.org/details/911theRoadtoTyranny


Martial Law 9/11: Rise Of The Police State (2005)

http://www.archive.org/details/MartialLaw911

The Mainstream Media Is Finally Flipping The Script (In case they don't, remember, this is just another shitty sequel... )

Bush has no horses or cattle on his "ranch", and can't use the saddle Mexican President Vincente Fox gave him because he's actually afraid to ride horses.

Pussy.

SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/Bush/phony_Texan.htm


His "ranch" was only bought in the run-up to his Presidency in order to shake his Yale/Harvard blue-blood rich-kid jerk-off image. The sale closed the day his daddy's friends on the Supreme Court gave him the 2000 election in a 5 - 4 vote that was (apparently) never to be repeated for it's value as a precedent is useless: a one-time "Get Out of Democracy FREE!" card.

Even his neighbors think he's a joke.

Pussy.

SOURCE - http://news.neilrogers.com/news/articles/2005083002.html


And he may be drinking again.

I know... he's a "born-again Christian". But... he's also a "born-into-it Cultist", and how he reconciles Jesus Christ and The Order of Death must be interesting. This doesn't surprise me at all with his puppet-strings fraying from all the spin-doctoring, and really, I don't care to disbelieve charges against him unless I hear proof to back 'em up.

He ain't worth making excuses for.

Pussy.

SOURCE - http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/09/is-bush-drinking-again.html


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In the mainstream media, any nods to the value of history for context are seen as biased - as if they don't reveal the biggest political rap-sheets of all time.

So, I guess it's up to us. We have to remember that every single time they say something they are lying.

Every. Single. Time.


(...)

Allison Barber, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, goes through preparations for a video teleconference between President Bush and troops from the U.S. 42nd Infantry Division on duty in Tikrit, Iraq, from the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Yahoo! News

Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer 45 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."

Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote and efforts to train Iraqi troops.

As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit — the birthplace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said.

A brief rehearsal ensued.

"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.

"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.

And so it went.

"If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?" Barber asked.

"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.

"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit — the hometown — and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.

Before he took questions, Bush thanked the soldiers for serving and reassured them that the U.S. would not pull out of Iraq until the mission was complete.

"So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total victory," Bush said.

The president told them twice that the American people were behind them.

"You've got tremendous support here at home," Bush said.

Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the public now say the Iraq war was a mistake.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday's event was coordinated with the Defense Department but that the troops were expressing their own thoughts. With satellite feeds, coordination often is needed to overcome technological challenges, such as delays, he said.

"I think all they were doing was talking to the troops and letting them know what to expect," he said, adding that the president wanted to talk with troops on the ground who have firsthand knowledge about the situation.

The soldiers all gave Bush an upbeat view of the situation.

The president also got praise from the Iraqi soldier who was part of the chat.

"Thank you very much for everything," he gushed. "I like you."

On preparations for the vote, 1st Lt. Gregg Murphy of Tennessee said: "Sir, we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make this thing a success. ... Back in January, when we were preparing for that election, we had to lead the way. We set up the coordination, we made the plan. We're really happy to see, during the preparation for this one, sir, they're doing everything."

On the training of Iraqi security forces, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo from Scotia, N.Y., said to Bush: "I can tell you over the past 10 months, we've seen a tremendous increase in the capabilities and the confidences of our Iraqi security force partners. ... Over the next month, we anticipate seeing at least one-third of those Iraqi forces conducting independent operations."

Lombardo told the president that she was in New York City on Nov. 11, 2001, when Bush attended an event recognizing soldiers for their recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. She said the troops began the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and were proud to continue it in Iraq.

"I thought you looked familiar," Bush said, and then joked: "I probably look familiar to you, too."

Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.

"If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

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RECOMMEND THIS STORY

SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051014/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq


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BONUS: Is this a good or bad thing? Do we have a discussion? Do we have a choice?

Infowars.com

Tagged From Day One

Wireless Healthcare | October 13, 2005

Crittenton Hospital Medical Centre, has activated two high-tech systems that will improve the safety and care of patients as well as information access for visitors with the assistance of CareTech Solutions, a Michigan-based provider of information technology and healthcare information management (HIM) solutions for hospitals and health systems.

In the hospital's pediatrics and mother-baby units, an advanced system has been implemented for ensuring the safety of babies, helping to ensure that a baby is matched with its own mother when brought to a room from the nursery and that only authorized individuals move a baby through the units.

Called the "Hugs and Kisses" infant protection system, manufactured by VeriChip, this tracking technology involves a tiny RFID (radio-frequency identification) radio transmitter that is placed on the baby's ankle. With a wireless system in place throughout the area, "Hugs" polls the baby's monitor every seven seconds to determine the exact location of the infant in relation to an electronic floor plan that is observed by hospital staff.

The "Kisses" mother/infant matching system technology utilizes the RFID device on the baby and a small quarter sized tag on the mother that are bound together at the baby's birth. This system prevents the risk of mother/baby mismatch by playing a lullaby when the mother and baby are within arms reach to confirm a match. The "Hugs and Kisses" systems also support multiple births.

Moreover, both systems help prevent abduction of an infant, a problem resulting in more than 100 abductions from healthcare facilities in the past 22 years. If a baby is held more than ten seconds outside a door, or if a baby passes through a door without having been released, an alert sounds in the unit to warn nurses. The monitoring system is removed from the mother and baby when they are discharged.

While "Hugs and Kisses" is designed to provide constantly updated information on each baby's location and proper matching with its mother, another system implemented at Crittenton by CareTech is helping visitors remain updated on information from the World Wide Web. All areas of the hospital now provide wireless access to the Internet. Visitors and families in public areas and in patient rooms can go online via their laptops to keep others up to date on a patient's progress through email, to stay in touch with news developments, to retrieve medical and other information from online sites and to use the Internet for a full range of resources. This fall, Internet kiosks will be installed in public areas of the hospital for additional convenience.

Additionally, cell phone use will be permitted in certain areas of the hospital, allowing family and friends to remain in contact with one another. "Our top priorities at Crittenton are safety, comfort and communication for patients and their families," said Crittenton Hospital Medical Center President and Chief Executive Officer Lynn Orfgen. "We feel the security and peace of mind afforded us by CareTech's adaptation of VeriChip's technology for Crittenton, along with the information access now available through our wall-to-wall wireless access, will provide an exceptional level of comfort among all who stay, visit and work here."

CareTech is known widely for the innovative solutions it develops and/or implements for healthcare systems across the country, ranging from advanced networking technology to forward-looking electronic medical records that help to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care.

"Crittenton is offering a new standard of care through its adoption of this RFID technology and other wireless applications," said CareTech President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Giordano. "The board and management of Crittenton should be commended for embracing technology to its fullest in advancing the well-being and comfort of its patients."

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/bb/rfid_hospitals_infants_hugs_and_kisses.htm


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BONUS: "Where do you find the most important mass-media American news? On the BBC of-course-of-course!!!"

Infowars.com

US setting up new spying agency

BBC | October 14, 2005

The US has announced the creation of a new intelligence agency led by the CIA to co-ordinate all American overseas spying activities.

The National Clandestine Service (NCS) will oversee all human espionage operations - meaning spying by people rather than by technical means.

The move is the latest in the post-9/11 reforms of US intelligence agencies.

Analysts say the NCS restores some authority to the CIA after it lost overall control of US intelligence.

'Expression of confidence'

The chief of the new service will supervise the CIA's espionage operations and co-ordinate all overseas spying, including those of the FBI and the Pentagon.

The director of the new agency, whose identity will remain secret and is simply known as "Jose", will report directly to the head of the CIA, Porter Goss.

"This is another positive step in building an intelligence community that is more unified, co-ordinated and effective," National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said.

Setting up the NCS was one of more than 70 recommendations made by a commission on weapons of mass destruction in March, which was highly critical of the US' intelligence capabilities.

As part of reforms following the 11 September 2001 attacks, the CIA lost overall control of US intelligence to the newly created National Director of Intelligence.

Mr Goss said the new service represents "an expression of confidence in the CIA" from President George Bush and Mr Negroponte.

"No agency has greater skill and experience in this difficult, complex, and utterly vital discipline of intelligence," Mr Goss said

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/bb/cia_new_spying_agency_ncs.htm


(...)


P.S. This movie is pretty good, but this idea is really, really, really, really, really, really bad...


[Ed note: mentally insert a neat collage from the Brad Pitt and Robert Redford movie "Spy Game" here, because I can't. Thanks.]

Another Day, Another Holler...

Holler If Ya Hear Me...


"Ah yeah...

Uhh...
Uhh...

Holler If Ya Hear Me...

Yeah...

Here we go,
Turn it up,
Let's start,
From block ta block,
We're snatchin' hearts,
And jackin' marks!
And tha punk police, can't fade me,
And maybe,
We can have peace, someday, 'G',
But right now, I got my mind, set-up,
Lookin down tha barrell, of my 9,
Get up!
Cause it's time to make tha pay back phat,
To my brothers on tha block,
Better stay strapped, black!
And accept no substitutes,
I bring truth to tha youth,
Tear tha roof, off tha ol' school!

Oh no,
I won't turn tha other cheek,
In case ya can't see us-
While we burn the other week!
Now we gotta make it smash,
Blast!
How long will it last?
'Til tha po' get mo' cash?
Until then-
Raise up!
Tell my young black males to-
Blaze up!
Lifes a mess, don't stress,
Test,
I'm givin'-
But be careful, that ya livin', blessed!
Much love, to my brothers in tha pen:
See ya, when I free ya,
If not, when they shut me in!
Once again, we goin' all out strapped,
Keep ya hands on ya gat,
Now ya boys watch ya back,
Cause in tha alleys out in Cali, I'm'a tell ya,
Mess with tha best, and tha vest couldn't help ya,

Scream, if ya feel me?
See it clearly?
You' too near me?

Holler If Ya Hear Me!!!


[Chorus]

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)


Pump ya fists like this,
Hollar if ya hear me:
Pump-pump if ya pissed!
To tha sell-outs, livin' it up,
One way or another you'll be givin it up!
I guess, cause I'm black born,
I'm supposed to say, "Peace"?
Sing songs?
And get capped on?
But it's time for tha new plan, BAM!
I'll be singin' like a one man, Klan!
Here we go,
Turn it up,
Don't stop,
To my homies on tha block,
Gettin' dropped, by cops,
I'm still around, for ya,
Keepin' my sound-
Underground, for ya!
And I'm'a throw a change-up,
Quayle, you'll wish you never brought my name up!
Now my homies in tha backstreets,
Tha blackstreets,
They feel me-
When they rollin' in they phat jeeps!
This ain't just a rap song,
A black song,
Tellin all my brothers get they strap on,

And look for me, in tha struggle...
Hustlin' 'til other brotha's bubble...

Holler If Ya Hear Me!!!


[Chorus]

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)


Will I quit? Will I quit?
They claim that I'm violent:
But still I kick!
Representin',
Never give up, on a good thing,
Wouldn't stop it if we could-
It's a hood thing!
And now I'm like a major threat,
'Cause I remind you,
Of the things,
You were made,
To forget!
Bring tha noise,
To all my boyz,
Know tha real,
From tha bustas, and the decoys!
And if ya hustle like a real 'G',
Pump ya fists if ya feel me,
Holler If Ya Hear Me!
Learn to survive, in tha nine-tre,
I make rhyme pay:
I would make crime pay!
Whatever it takes, to make a stand,
Cause nobody else'll give a damn!
So we live, like caged beasts,
Waitin' for tha day, that we can rage, free,

Steal me, 'til they kill me...
I love it when they fear me...

Holler If Ya Hear Me...


[Chorus]

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)

Holler If Ya Hear Me!
(Tellin' you to hear it, the rebel!)"


- 2Pac, "Holler If Ya Hear Me"

(...)

Infowars.com

Pentagon Plans to Beef Up Domestic Rapid-Response Forces

Washington Post | October 13, 2005

By Ann Scott Tyson

The U.S. military is planning a more rapid, robust role for active-duty forces in responding to catastrophic disasters or terrorist attacks, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday, describing the demand for large-scale military resources in such cases as "inevitable."

Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, stressed, however, that the expanded active-duty military response would be limited to rare, mass calamities or attacks in which thousands of lives were at risk -- such as a category 4 hurricane, or a terrorist strike involving chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Federal troops might also play a role in enforcing a quarantine in the case of a pandemic outbreak of avian flu or other disease, McHale said, although initially that job would fall to National Guard forces under the command of state governors.

"We are looking at a wide range of contingencies potentially involving Title 10 forces [federal troops] if a pandemic outbreak of a biological threat were to occur," said McHale.

In contrast, the Pentagon does not intend to take the lead in responding to the dozens of "major disasters" such as floods declared every year, McHale said. And even in catastrophic events, the Pentagon's goal would be to provide a rapid, early response and then to quickly transfer responsibilities to civilian authorities, he said.

The planning for an expanded Pentagon role in domestic catastrophes comes amid escalating demands on U.S. forces, which today not only are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan but are also carrying out disaster-relief missions in Pakistan, Guatemala, and domestically along the Gulf Coast.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, at a conference with Central American defense ministers in Florida, yesterday advocated closer military cooperation as a way to better address threats from terrorists and drug traffickers, as well as natural disasters.

The Pentagon is drafting recommendations for improving the military's response to devastating attacks or disasters as part of a government-wide review of "lessons learned" from Hurricane Katrina.

"It is almost inevitable that the Department of Defense will play a very substantial role in providing resources, equipment, command and control, and other capabilities in response to a catastrophic event," McHale said. Only the Pentagon can "marshal such resources and deploy them as quickly . . . during a time in which thousands of American lives may be at risk."

One major focus will involve identifying a larger active-duty force that will be organized and trained to respond immediately -- along with the National Guard -- to a domestic crisis, McHale said. Advance planning between the active-duty personnel and the Guard is vital -- in contrast to the cooperation that he said unfolded during Katrina "on the fly" -- albeit by "superb leaders."

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/military/pentagon_plans_beef_domestic_forces.htm







BONUS: And if you feel like talkin' shit about homie, check this first, and then don't...

Tupacumentary: Living How You Want To Live

By BLACK KRISHNA
November 28, 2003

http://shumans.com/guest/tupacumentary/

Rights-Wing Republicans vs. Reich-Wing Republicans: Who's Right?

Download a movie to Save The World:

http://www.archive.org/details/MartialLaw911

(...)


Silence is deadly.

Silence is medley.


(...)


It's been a minute now since "Bush's Reichstag Fire" (John Buchanan), and we're still silent, humbly humming platitudes in hegemenous harmony while wasting away intellectually and spiritually at The Big Lie we're living.

That's cool, and really, maybe it's best if everything was blown up.

Actually, according to some fools of thought, that's what God wants.

In fact...

Some of those fools are in charge.


(...)


"Look in his eyes, its all lies!
The stars and stripes, have been swiped,
Washed out and wiped,
And replaced with his own face:
Mosh now or die!
If I get sniped tonight, you’ll know why:
‘Cause I told you to fight..."

- Eminem, "Mosh"


(...)


It's more important than anything else to note the necessarily-slow incremental march of evil, the smooth ease with which they change how we think so we're not overly alarmed, and how the excuses we make for evil normalizes it.

"Evil" you say?

"Evil" I say.

We've got people we wouldn't let run our local PTA Meeting in charge of the world right now, those who's lust for power apparently qualifies them for the job, and those who's incompetence in "leading" us to a better world has grown to willfully epidemic proportions.

We've got to take what's important back, take what's in-style back, take what's reality back from the perversion pimped on TV.

I ain't the first to say it, but I'm afraid I may be among the last.

People seem to want wholesale change to come easy, and in deference to that, it's a fairly simple solution.

Hell, even Apple Computers jacked it for a minute a minute ago.

"Think Different."

And that's it really.

Plain and simple.


(...)


Half of it is what happens to you, and the other half is how you deal with it.


(...)


There are bad actions, and worse reactions.

3000 people were killed on 9/11.

Bad actions.

300 million Americans are about to live in a police state.

Worse reactions.

3 billion people still live on less than $2 a day.

Worse inactions.

How does one approach a problem like this and keep their sanity?

It's not that hard:

Keep your sanity.


(...)


Everything is practice, and everything is the game.

Each action builds on itself in the continuum of time and space, and each action can lead to building a stronger prototype for tomorrow.

Or a weaker one.

It's not an "active" process; there's not enough people who want to be "active" to ensure that can work. It's a "passive" process, and focusing on "passive" responses ensures we keep our heads about us. Then we need to use the simple tools of fools passed down through generations to deal with localized solutions, starting from the "self", to the "other", to the "community", to the "world".

Getting all worked up over something rarely leads to the best and most inclusive answers, and tunnel-vision can be alienating.


(...)


I ran into a cute lil' Greenpeace Girl on the street a while back, and as we were debating tactics, a shiny silver Mercedes drove by.

I asked her: "Is that a nice car?"

She defiantly answered: "No! I'd rather have a bike!"

I looked at her like: "Bitch are you crazy???"

(I didn't say that, but did say she was "wrong".)

I mean c'mon.

How is she going to reach across the damnable demarcations drawn by the demonizing daily-news devils to prove she ain't crazy?

To prove "they" ain't crazy?

To relate to "normal" people who don't recognize "her"?

To relate to "normal" people who recognize "nice" stuff?

Sure, when I'm "ridin' on 24's" I usually mean my bike, but I know my buddy's tricked-out $100,000 Denali that feels like you're riding around in a giant love-seat on a gyroscope is "nice". Just like I know that $50,000 spinning G-Unit chain chock full of carats'n'carats of crushed-canaries is "nice". Just like I know anything that cost a fortune and "blings" right is "nice".

Even Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest golfer in the world, still has to play the ball where it lands.

We're here, we've got "nice" stuff, the question is can we keep it.


(...)


Watching the news the other night I was stunned by their suggested response to skyrocketing gas prices, as the blow-dried bimbo blurted out:

"Finally! You can do something about it!"

You can carpool.

That's it?

That's the big-ass revelation?

That was why they followed a lady around for a day?

We're being undersold our own unrealized potential, and that of those who are working a thousand times harder and smarter on solutions than we're not allowed to recognize or ever see.

This makes us think they're not driven by a passion for the truth.

This makes us think they don't exist.


(...)


Here, they exist...

Group Internal memos show oil companies limited refineries to drive up prices

RAW STORY| 12 Oct 2005

http://www.infowars.com/articles/economy/oil_internal_memos_limited_refineries_drive_prices.htm


(...)


Fuck the corporate media.

Fuck all of 'em.

I ain't going out like that, and I can't take what it's doing to all of us.

I don't blame the journalists, they've gotta be tearing their hair out right now assuming they haven't bought into their own Poo-Poo Infallibility.

I understand the game, and if in 6 months I'm not where I want to be as an artist and writer, I'll simply renounce everything I've done and go mainstream.

Fuck it.

If you ask "why?", I'll say because I want to.

If you say "I like his old stuff better, man, he used to be hardcore!", I'll say fine, you can play or read my old shit, I left a tonne of it for ya.

But as for right here and right now and the right reaction to the world going to hell, if my pants-sag while I brag I don't give two-shits about getting played by the next man: it ain't happening.

Your self-worth is defined by yourself, and without that you're nothing.

Your "nice" stuff helps, but it's just icing on the caker.


(...)


"The things you own end up owning you."

- Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, "Fight Club"


(...)


Of course, when the $4 trillion military-industrial-complex infrastructure comes marching through your hood, well... that may change...


(...)


[Ed note: keep in mind he's still a Republican Congressman who has to be careful about what he says, so while he's probably pulling-off a bit, he's still thankfully and appropriately completely scared shitless...]


(...)

Infowars.com

Republican Congressman Slams Bush On Gun Confiscation

Ron Paul says avian flu martial law provisions are designed to destroy 2nd Amendment, Posse Comitatus

Infowars Network | October 12 2005
By Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones

Congressman Ron Paul has accused the Bush administration of attempting to set in motion a militarized police state in America by enacting gun confiscation martial law provisions in the event of an avian flu pandemic. Paul also slammed as delusional and dangerous plans to invade Iran, Syria, North Korea and China.

Ron Paul represents the 14th Congressional district of Texas. He also serves on the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, and the International Relations committee.

Paul appeared on the Alex Jones show yesterday and raised some interesting points about the possibility of imminent indictments of top Bush administration figures.

"I think there's a lot more excitement coming and it's not going to be good for the Republicans," stated Paul.

"The things that I hear have to do with Karl Rove and Abramoff and that's much much worse than anybody would believe and it involves DeLay as well."

"And that type of an indictment will be much more serious than the indictment of shifting campaign funds around.....there's some political infighting which could make that really interesting."

On the subject of the police state, Paul stated, "If we don't change our ways we will go the way of Rome and I see that as rather sad.....the worst things happen when you get the so-called Republican conservatives in charge from Nixon on down, big government flourishes under Republicans."

"It's really hard to believe it's happening right in front of us. Whether it's the torture or the process of denying habeas corpus to an American citizen."

"I think the arrogance of power that they have where they themselves are like Communists....in the sense that they decide what is right. The Communist Party said that they decided what was right or wrong, it wasn't a higher source."

Paul responded to President Bush's announcement last week that he would order the use of military assets to police America in the event of an avian flu outbreak.

"To me it's so strange that the President can make these proposals and it's even plausible. When he talks about martial law dealing with some epidemic that might come later on and having forced quarantines, doing away with Posse Comitatus in order to deal with natural disasters, and hardly anybody says anything. People must be scared to death."

Paul, himself a medical doctor, agreed that the bird flu threat was empty fearmongering.

"I believe it is the President hyping this and Rumsfeld, but it has to be in combination with the people being fearful enough that they will accept the man on the white horse. My first reaction going from my political and medical background is that it's way overly hyped and to think that they have gone this far with it, without a single case in the whole country and they're willing to change the law and turn it into a military state? That is unbelievable! They're determined to have martial law."

Paul opined that the martial law provisions now being promoted by the Bush administration were a direct response to people's unwillingness to relinquish their firearms, as was seen in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

"I think they're concerned about the remnant, the remnant of those individuals who don't buy into stuff and think that they should take care of themselves on their own, that they should have their own guns and their own provisions and they don't want to depend on the government at all and I think that is a threat to those who want to hold power. They don't want any resistance to their authoritarian rule."

Paul opined that the government was on a delusional power trip that threatened the country.

"These guys are ready to start a war with Iran, Syria, North Korea or China. They can't possibly do that, it's so insane, we don't have the money, we don't have the troops, we probably don't even have the ammunition."

"But, if they are truly delusional they just might do something that's totally irrational."

Paul expressed his hope that finally some conservatives are waking up to the fact that the Bush administration is a trojan horse, especially after arch-liberal Harriet Miers was chosen by Bush to supposedly move the Supreme Court to the right, even though her record is atrocious and she has been involved in the past covering up for the Bush crime family's activities.

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

Prison Planet.tv members will be able to listen to the entire interview later today. Click here to subscribe and peruse the great benefits of becoming an exclusive member


REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/ron_paul_slams_bush_gun_con.htm








BONUS: "Boo!" (Made ya cry... made ya sigh...)


Infowars.com

New York subway threat was a hoax, security sources admit

London Guardian | October 12, 2005

By Jamie Wilson

The alleged terror threat that sparked a big security alert on New York's trains and subway last week turned out to be a hoax concocted by an unreliable US informant in Iraq, it emerged yesterday.

Uniformed and undercover police descended on the city's subway system on Friday after what was described as a "specific threat" that a terror cell was planning to explode bombs concealed in pushchairs, suitcases and rucksacks. At one point a section of Penn Station was sealed off as security staff wearing chemical hazard suits investigated a "soupy green substance" found in a Pepsi bottle. It turned out be a cleaning substance.

But security sources yesterday told CNN that an informant in Iraq had admitted giving false information. Law enforcement officials said last week that the person who passed along the New York tip also gave information which led to the arrests of three al-Qaida suspects in Musayyib, south of Baghdad, said to have links to the alleged plot.

But yesterday government sources said the three men had been interviewed and two underwent lie detector tests showing they knew nothing about such a plan.

From the beginning some federal officials questioned the credibility of the plot, describing it as "specific yet non-credible". Some officials privately criticised the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, for overreacting to the alert, which came the day after George Bush claimed 10 big al-Qaida attacks had been thwarted since September 11 2001.

Law enforcement officials also told the New York Times yesterday that the investigation in Iraq had found no evidence that a plot was in motion or being actively contemplated. The officials said after taking the three men into custody last week they found no fake passports, no travel documents, no viable travel route to New York, and no apparent contact with people in New York. They said the informant had been right eight of the 15 times he gave information to his Defence Intelligence Agency handlers. He was right about information in Iraq and wrong mostly about actions elsewhere. "The process is not a clean one here. Ever," one official told the newspaper.

Mr Bloomberg said the extraordinary measures put in place last week, including police on every train, would be relaxed, but that the city would continue many of the safeguards it has taken to protect since the London bombings in July

Related Articles:

NYC Subway "Plot": Just Another Fake Terror Alert

Crying "wolf" in a crowded subway

Commuters face searches on Big Apple Subways after threat

Officials: NYC Terror Plot Uncorroborated

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/nyc_subway_terror_plot_admit_hoax.htm





BONUS: There's a war going in in corporate America, we've got good people on the inside, let's give them a hand...


Infowars.com

Poll: Americans Want Bush Impeached

Daily Kos | 12 Oct 2005
By David Swanson

Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq

By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

David Swanson's diary :: ::

The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on October 6-9.

The poll found that 50% agreed with the statement:

"If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him."

44% disagreed, and 6% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 3.1% margin of error.

Among those who felt strongly either way, 39% strongly agreed, while 30% strongly disagreed.

"The results of this poll are truly astonishing," said AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik. "Bush's record-low approval ratings tell just half of the story, which is how much Americans oppose Bush's policies on Iraq and other issues. But this poll tells the other half of the story - that a solid plurality of Americans want Congress to consider removing Bush from the White House."

Impeachment Supported by Majorities of Many Groups

Responses varied by political party affiliation: 72% of Democrats favored impeachment, compared to 56% of Independents and 20% of Republicans.

Responses also varied by age and income. Solid majorities of those under age 55 (54%), as well as those with household incomes below $50,000 (57%), support impeachment.

Majorities favored impeachment in the Northeast (53%), West (51%), and even the South (50%).

Support for Impeachment Surged Since June

The Ipsos poll shows a dramatic transformation in support for Bush's impeachment since late June. (This is only the second poll that has asked Americans about their support for impeaching Bush in 2005, despite his record-low approval ratings.) The Zogby poll conducted June 27-29 of 905 likely voters found that 42% agreed and 50% disagreed with a statement virtually identical to the one used by Ipsos Public Affairs. (see footnote below)



Ipsos 10/8-9
Zogby 6/27-29
Net Change

Support Impeachment
50%
42%
+8%

Oppose Impeachment
44%
50%
+6%

Impeachment Margin
+6%
-8%
+14%

After the June poll, pollster John Zogby told the Washington Post that support for impeachment "was much higher than I expected." At the time, impeachment supporters trailed opponents by 8%. Now supporters outnumber opponents by 6%, a remarkable shift of 14%.

Support for Clinton Impeachment Was Much Lower

In August and September of 1998, 16 major polls asked about impeaching President Clinton (http://democrats.com/clinton-impeachment-polls). Only 36% supported hearings to consider impeachment, and only 26% supported actual impeachment and removal. Even so, the impeachment debate dominated the news for months, and the Republican Congress impeached Clinton despite overwhelming public opposition.

Impeachment Support is Closely Related to Belief that Bush Lied about Iraq

Both the Ipsos and Zogby polls asked about support for impeachment if Bush lied about the reasons for war, rather than asking simply about support for impeachment. Pollsters predict that asking simply about impeachment without any context would produce a large number of "I don't know" responses. However, this may understate the percentage of Americans who favor Bush's impeachment for other reasons, such as his slow response to Hurricane Katrina, his policy on torture, soaring gasoline prices, or other concerns.

Other polls show a majority of U.S. adults believe that Bush did in fact lie about the reasons for war. A June 23-26 ABC/Washington Post poll found 52% of Americans believe the Bush administration "deliberately misled the public before the war," and 57% say the Bush administration "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons."

Support for the war has dropped significantly since June, which suggests that the percentage of Americans who believe Bush lied about the war has increased.

Passion for Impeachment is Major Unreported Story

The strong support for impeachment found in this poll is especially surprising because the views of impeachment supporters are entirely absent from the broadcast and print media, and can only be found on the Internet and in street protests, including the large anti-war rally in Washington on September 24.

The lack of coverage of impeachment support is due in part to the fact that not a single Democrat in Congress has called for impeachment, despite considerable grassroots activism by groups like Democrats.com (http://democrats.com/impeach).

"We will, no doubt, see an increase in activism following this poll," said David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org. "But will we see an increase in media coverage? The media are waiting for action in Congress. Apparently it's easier to find and interview one of the 535 members of Congress than it is to locate a representative of the half of the country that wants the President impeached if he lied about the war. The media already accepts that Bush did lie about the war. We know this because so many editors and pundits told us that the Downing Street Memo was 'old news.' What we need now is journalism befitting a democracy, journalism that goes out and asks people what they really think about their government, especially George Bush."

The passion of impeachment supporters is directly responsible for the new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet. After the Zogby poll in June, activists led by Democrats.com urged all of the major polling organizations to include an impeachment question in their upcoming polls. But none of the polling organizations were willing to do so for free, so on September 30, AfterDowningStreet.org posted a request for donations to fund paid polls (http://afterdowningstreet.org/polling). As of October 10, 330 individuals had contributed $8,919 in small donations averaging $27 each.

AfterDowningStreet.org has commissioned a second poll which is expected soon, and will continue to urge all polling organizations to include the impeachment question in their regular polls. If they do not, AfterDowningStreet.org will continue to commission regular impeachment polls.

Footnotes:

1. AfterDowningStreet.org is a rapidly growing coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups that was created on May 26, 2005, following the publication of the Downing Street Memos in London's Sunday Times on May 1. The coalition is urging Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.

2.Here are the complete tables from the Ipsos Public Affairs poll, plus the definitions of regions used by Ipsos and the U.S. Census Bureau.

3. Zogby asked: "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him through impeachment."

4. Pollsters have offered various reasons for refusing to poll on impeachment. For example, Gallup said it would do so "if, and when, there is some discussion of that possibility by congressional leaders, and/or if commentators begin discussing it in the news media.

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/poll_bush_americans_want_impeached.htm





BONUS: Sorry to burst your bubble, but 1,001 Americans with the time to answer a telephone survey ain't gonna cut it...


Yahoo! News

US mulls federal troops for bird flu quarantine

By Will Dunham 39 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is looking at the possibility of using federal troops to enforce a quarantine in the event of an outbreak of pandemic bird flu in the United States, a senior official said on Wednesday.

President George W. Bush said last week he would consider using the military to "effect a quarantine" in response to any outbreak of avian influenza, but provided few details.

Bush at the time also suggested he might place National Guard troops, normally commanded by state governors, under federal control as part of the government's response to the "catastrophe" of such a flu pandemic.

Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said quarantine law historically has been under the primary jurisdiction of states, not the federal government.

"And my expectation is that any quarantine measures that would be put in place would likely involve a substantial employment of the National Guard, probably under command and control of the governor of an affected state," McHale told a group of reporters.

"However, we are looking at a wide range of contingencies, potentially involving Title 10 forces (federal troops) if a pandemic outbreak of a biological threat were to occur," McHale added.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed or forced the destruction of tens of millions of birds and infected more than 100 people, killing at least 60 in four Asian nations since late 2003.

Experts fear that the virus, known to pass to humans from birds, could mutate and start to spread easily from person to person, potentially killing millions worldwide. Experts have questioned America's preparedness.

McHale said he believed there would be a clearer understanding within a few weeks of the military role in response to pandemic bird flu as part of a broader federal response. Pentagon officials were meeting on Wednesday to discuss the department's role in a flu pandemic.

LEGAL BARRIERS

One issue that could face the U.S. government in the event of an outbreak is whether or how to cordon off parts of the country to prevent the disease from spreading.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, enacted during the post-Civil War reconstruction period, prohibits federal military personnel from taking part in law-enforcement within the United States. But a president can waive the law in an emergency.

National Guard troops under the command of state governors are permitted to perform law enforcement duties, but would not be permitted to do so if they were put under federal control.

McHale noted that the military has been used only under extraordinary circumstances for domestic law enforcement and restoring civil order.

While not specifically referring to enforcing a quarantine, McHale said the Pentagon has active-duty federal military units on alert and deployable at the direction of the president "to deal with occurrences of massive civil disturbance." He did not identify the units.

On the topic of possible domestic attack involving biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, McHale said the government needs "a more robust civilian capability" to respond so the country is not exclusively dependent on the military.

McHale said the Pentagon is working to help make the Department of Homeland Security better able to make strategic plans for natural disasters or domestic attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. The department's Federal Emergency Management Agency was strongly criticized for its slow response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster on the U.S. Gulf Coast in August.

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051012/ts_nm/birdflu_usa_pentagon_dc_1;_ylt=AlaM0JGuW2OVzMnUld6tZ7WTvyIi;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl





BONUS: Calming Contextualizing Quotes...


"My first reaction going from my political and medical background is that it's way overly hyped and to think that they have gone this far with it, without a single case in the whole country and they're willing to change the law and turn it into a military state? That is unbelievable! They're determined to have martial law."

- Congressman Ron Paul, (R) Texas


The H5N1 avian influenza virus has killed or forced the destruction of tens of millions of birds and infected more than 100 people, killing at least 60 in four Asian nations since late 2003.

- Yahoo News! - Reuters story above

Lies, damned lies, and heuristics...

4 entries found for heuristic.

heu·ris·tic Audio pronunciation of "heuristic" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (hy-rstk)
adj.

1. Of or relating to a usually speculative formulation serving as a guide in the investigation or solution of a problem: “The historian discovers the past by the judicious use of such a heuristic device as the ‘ideal type’” (Karl J. Weintraub).

2. Of or constituting an educational method in which learning takes place through discoveries that result from investigations made by the student.

3. Computer Science. Relating to or using a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate solution of several found by alternative methods is selected at successive stages of a program for use in the next step of the program.


n.

1. A heuristic method or process.

2. heuristics (used with a sing. verb) The study and application of heuristic methods and processes.


[From Greek heuriskein, to find.]heu·risti·cal·ly adv.

[Download Now or Buy the Book]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

heuristic

adj : of or relating to or using a general formulation that serves to guide investigation [ant: algorithmic] n : a commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem [syn: heuristic rule, heuristic program]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

heuristic



1. A rule of thumb, simplification, or educated
guess that reduces or limits the search for solutions in
domains that are difficult and poorly understood. Unlike
algorithms, heuristics do not guarantee optimal, or even
feasible, solutions and are often used with no theoretical
guarantee.

2. approximation algorithm.

(2001-04-12)

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2005 Denis Howe

heuristic

heuristic: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary

Source: On-line Medical Dictionary, © 1997-98 Academic Medical Publishing & CancerWEB

Perform a new search, or try your search for "heuristic" at:

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* HighBeam Research - 32 million documents from leading publications
* Merriam-Webster - Search for definitions
* Reference.com - Web Search powered by Google
* Thesaurus.com - Search for synonyms and antonyms

SOURCE - http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=heuristic


(...)

Yahoo! News

Al-Qaida No. 2: Get Set to Fill Iraq Void

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - In a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, al-Qaida's No. 2 leader said the United States "ran and left their agents" in Vietnam and the jihadists must have a plan ready to fill the void if the Americans suddenly leave Iraq.

"Things may develop faster than we imagine," Ayman al-Zawahri wrote in a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam — and how they ran and left their agents — is noteworthy. ... We must be ready starting now."

Senior U.S. military commanders have said that Iraqi security forces are improving significantly and some U.S. forces could return home early next year. Yet skeptics have raised concerns about whether such statements simply let the insurgency know how long they must wait for the U.S. to leave.

In a letter taking up 13 typed pages in its English translation, al-Zawahri also recommended a four-stage expansion of the war that would take the fighting to neighboring Muslim countries.

"It has always been my belief that the victory of Islam will never take place until a Muslim state is established ... in the heart of the Islamic world," al-Zawahri wrote.

The letter laid out his long-term plan: expel the Americans from Iraq, establish an Islamic authority and take the war to Iraq's secular neighbors, including Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

The final stage, al-Zawahri wrote, would be a clash with Israel, which he said was established to challenge "any new Islamic entity."

The letter is dated July 9, and was acquired during U.S. operations in Iraq. It was written in Arabic and translated by the U.S. government. The Pentagon briefed reporters last week on portions of the document, but the full text was not available until Tuesday.

In a statement, the National Intelligence Director's office said the letter "has not been edited in any way" and its contents were released only after it was clear no military or intelligence operations would be compromised.

House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said his committee is reviewing the letter, but he cautioned "against reading too much into a single source of intelligence."

In his letter, al-Zawahri, a Sunni, devoted significant attention to al-Zarqawi's attempts to start a civil war with the rival Muslim Shiite sect, the majority that now dominates the new Iraqi government. Ultimately, al-Zawahri concluded that violence, particularly against Shiite mosques, only raises questions among Muslims.

"This matter won't be acceptable to the Muslim populace however much you have tried to explain it, and aversion to this will continue," he wrote.

Al-Zawahri was also critical of the Taliban, which was toppled in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, because, he said, they did not have the representation of the Afghan people. He said students of the Taliban retreated to their tribes.

"Even the devout ones took the stance of spectator," al-Zawahri wrote.

Contrasting that, he saw fearlessness in battles waged in the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Al Qaim.

At times, the letter got personal. Al-Zawahri said he tasted the bitterness of America's brutality, noting that his "favorite wife's chest was crushed by a concrete ceiling" during an apparent U.S. attack. His daughter died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

To this day, he wrote, he did not know the location of their graves.

The letter then switches to the court of public opinion.

"More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media," he wrote. "We are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of our umma," or community of Muslims, he wrote.

The line is an apparent reference to a phrase — "hearts and minds" — often used by President Bush.

___

On the Net:

Read the full letter in English or Arabic on the national intelligence director's Web site: http://www.dni.gov/release_letter_101105.html

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051011/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_al_qaida







BONUS: Lies, damned lies, and vital statistics...


Innocent victims?

Naaah...

They can't be...

The U.S. Military torturing innocent victims?

At Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere?

For years at a time?

Naaah...

Fuck them ragheads...

They gotta be guilty if we torture them!

After all...

They're guilty until proven innocent.


(...)

Infowars.com

Prison guards 'enjoy torture'

SA | October 11, 2005

An Egyptian man released earlier this month from the United States detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says the "torture" he suffered in the military camp left him crippled in a wheelchair.

Sami al-Leithy, 49, said: "They used to grab me by the arms and hurl me on the floor, on my back. They took pleasure in torturing us."

He said: "I have suffered a fracture in my backbone because of this."

Leithy was held four years in the US-run jail at Guantanamo before his release and handover to the Egyptian authorities in early October.

Medical certificates

He said: "Before my detention I used to play football and I was in good health."

He showed medical certificates attesting to his present condition.

Leithy charged that his interrogators "used to point a harsh light at us during questioning and would beat anyone who tried to close his eyes".

He said: "They would ask our opinion on US policies and would hit violently those who were against it or push their heads down on the floor with their boots."

But, Leithy said he was never witness to alleged reports that guards at Guantanamo desecrated the Qur'an, Islam's holy book, saying he "rarely left his cell".

Inmates had three meals a day

According to him, cells in Guantanamo were categorised "A" to "D", with the best ones given to those who co-operated with the authorities.

Prisoners held in "A" cells had three meals a day, two blankets, a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap.

He said: "These perks diminished until they disappeared in the worst cells, the 'D'."

Speaking in classical Arabic rather than colloquial Egyptian, Leithy recalled how he left Egypt at the age of 19 to study in Pakistan, where his brother-in-law, a professor at the al-Azhar Islamic University was teaching.

He graduated in 1986 from the University of Islamabad and worked for 10 years in Pakistan. Unable to renew his passport at the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan, he headed for Kabul to seek a new one.

Prisoner tries to escape

He taught at the University of Kabul and was wounded in US bombardment of the city in 2001.

He was taken to hospital in the border town of Khosht and tried to escape after the city also came under US attack, but was arrested by the Pakistani army and handed to the Americans who in turn took him to Guantanamo.

He said: "In 2004 I was finally brought before a US military court ... During the hearing, they refused to remove the shackles I had on my wrists and my feet and told me I was arrested with 15 other Arabs for having considered to fight the American army."

In May he was finally told he was innocent, but kept in detention until his release in October.

Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abul Gheit said on Sunday that four Egyptians were still held in Guantanamo.

SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/gitmo_guards_enjoy_torture.htm

ORIGINAL SOURCE - http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1814276,00.html

My Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great-Grandfather...

First time I've looked into this in any detail.

I haven't really been into this stuff, and even thought I was a Madhavacharya Brahmin until a female family elder corrected an India travelogue I wrote, noting I'm actually a Vishwamitra Brahmin. Oops. Sorry Auntiejhi. I definitely remember the Gayatri Mantra though like Dad said I had to...

(It's now my "Get out of being a coconut free!" card. Never leave home without it.)

Anyway, we've all got roots, and the information here is courtesy of the good folks at IndiaYogi.com - namaste and shukriyajhi... :)


(...)


[Ed note: highlighted text and photos courtesy of IndianYogi.com]


(...)

Vishwamitra - The Friend of the World

Vishwamitra is, in mythic terms, one of the most important rishis of India. His influence is profound and permeates every cranny of the collective consciousness of the Hindus. Vishwamitra is that strange and rare phenomenon - the Hero who becomes an Enlightened Sage. He was a veritable tsunami of Will, storming the gates of heaven and wresting acknowledgement for his spiritual status. Vishwamitra is the highest point of spiritual realization, even the very gods are his inferior. He is also regarded as being not just Chiranjeevi (immortal) but eternal, outside the cycle of cosmic dissolution and creation.

Vishwamitra also as befits a rishi, which literally means "seer", gave to the world the most sacred of all Hindu mantras, the pinnacle called the Gayatri Mantra. His sympathy with the victims of entrenched prejudice, his disdain for convention, his all too human flaw of an explosive temper and above all his ability to recover from his mistakes have endeared him to his people and given him the name of "The Friend of the World." (Vishwa - world; Mitra - friend)

Very little from a historical point of view is known about Vishwamitra. He is traditionally acknowledged to be the rishi who set down the hymns of the third mandala of the Rig Veda, which includes the Gayatri Mantra. That should be enough, but he was obviously of so powerful a personality that the stories about him became plentiful and many ancient texts tried, in giving their versions of his life, to come to terms with this phenomenon. To begin with, he was not even from the Brahmin caste which normally produces sages and seers. He was a warrior, a Kshatriya, and for a long time his spiritual aspirations were regarded as pretentious as well as a cause for hilarity. It did not help that Vishwamitra had a talent for always putting his worst foot forward, and that his fatal flaw, his temper, was always leading him to making wild and extravagant gestures. These were spectacular explosions of spiritual power, but really accomplished sages and masters rightly regarded them as ego-display and refused to grant him his true status as a rishi. This was akin to a martial artist of the seventh or eighth level being told he does not deserve even the first black belt and Vishwamitra did not take kindly to being repressed like this.

At first nobody could have been less likely material for spiritual accomplishments. He was a normal sort of king, Gadhija by name, ruling over Kanya-kubja, content to be known as the toughest warrior of his time, so formidable that he never had to fight any wars. This left him lots of leisure, and he had over a hundred sons from his many wives. One fateful day his entourage wandered into the hermitage of the Brahma-rishi [highest stage of spiritual accomplishment] Vashistha and his world turned upside down. For the sage had a wish-fulfilling cow called Kamdhenu and using her powers he was able to entertain the royal party in a style that aroused the king's envy. When bribery and cajolement failed, Vishwamitra, like kings everywhere, decided to invoke royal prerogative and seize the animal. Vashistha was used to deference from the very gods, and his angry manifestation of powers soon vaporized the royal forces, including the sons of the king. This act led to a never resolved, implacable enmity between the two men. Vishwamitra came forward to do battle but he too was routed.

Vishwamitra was still enough of a warrior to think that he had lost because he did not have enough firepower. He went off to the Himalayas to perform severe penances and austerities - called tapasya - to win divine weapons from Shiva. This was his true métier, for nobody before or after has ever performed such tapasya, but the man was still operating on old mental patterns. An amused Shiva gave him the weapons, an act of great significance, for the sage would in later ages teach them to the incarnation of Vishnu called Rama. The angry king went back for round two against Vashistha and fared no better. Each and every one of his divine weapons was absorbed by Vashistha's meditation crutch. It was a revelation as to the limitations of material power. Now his entire being became absorbed by the thought that he had to rival Vashistha in spiritual stature.





His gigantic will was eminently suited to such endeavors. He also had a queen, unnamed in the texts, who was his genuine source of strength and of course was taken for granted nevertheless. She seems to have followed him from the palace to the hermitage and made his life less bitter and corrosive but we do not know who this extraordinary lady was. It was to her that he made a remarkable statement when frenziedly poring over texts written by his great rival. She wanted him to observe how brightly the moon was shining, whereupon he said, "But ten thousand times more brightly does the intellect of Vashistha shine". He could recognize genuine quality when he saw it, even if it was his enemy. He even had some more sons during this initial period of tapasya. His austerities were so powerful that it alarmed the gods and they decided he needed to be placated with some sort of recognition. In Hindu myth, powers developed by tapasya enable you to replace the ruling class in heaven with your own self, so this was a dangerous situation. Brahma, the creator god, granted him the rank of Raja-rishi, a royal sage. It was a brush-off and Vishwamitra was not foolish enough to fall for it.

At this point he pulled off one of his most celebrated exploits. A king called Trishanku wanted to ascend to heaven while still in the mortal body. Dissuasion by sages and gurus only made this desire into a monomania until some angry sages cursed him to become an outcaste. Vishwamitra, always on the side of aspirations to achievement, furious at this degradation of fellow royalty by pompous Brahmins, promised to get the king into heaven. He held a grand fire sacrifice which should have culminated in the gods granting this plea. When it was refused, he showed why he was called "The Tiger amongst Rishis", for he used his spiritual energies to hoist Trishanku into space and into the gates of a bewildered heaven. The angry gods hurled him back, but by now Vishwamitra had taken it personally and he froze the poor man in space and set about creating a new heaven and new constellations to go with it. Brahma as usual had to step in and promise Trishanku entry into heaven as well as the acceptance of the new stars in the sky! What else could they do? As a Raja-rishi, the sage had proved unstoppable. The gods were panic stricken at the thought of what he might do if he ever became a Brahma-rishi.

Vishwamitra did not accept this consolation prize supinely. He went in for even more arduous tapasya. His attitude was unbeatable. He would not ask for his due, he would over-perform to such an extent that he could not be denied. His spiritual power grew so rapidly that he was soon acknowledged as a rishi, the first non-Brahmin to ever break through the ranks of exclusivity. Completely unsatisfied with that he intensified his austerities to inhuman levels and the sheer power filling his being caused his body to emanate smoke that began to choke creation. (Hindu myth never settles for plausibility when hyperbole will do). When Brahma arrived to grant him the status of Maha-rishi - the Great Sage, an irascible Vishwamitra said in no uncertain terms that he was being cheated of his due - his status as a Brahma-rishi. The god explained that while he had gained supreme mastery over all other aspects of human existence his temper was still an independent life form. A wrathful Brahma-rishi was a contradiction in terms.

For once our hero took criticism gracefully and he conceded the point. He withdrew even further into the Himalayas and increased his quest. By now the king of the gods, Indra, was in open panic. Since the dawn of creation no such tapasya had been seen, and a logical reward to distract Vishwamitra from asking for Brahma-rishi status was to make him king of heaven. He pulled out that old standby of the gods, the supernatural beauty of the Apsaras, heavenly maidens who were as much weapons in the arsenal as rewards for good living. Menaka got the assignment of distracting the sage with her allurements and she succeeded for a while. This is by far the most popular myth in all India, rapidly ascending to the level of a working archetype. The seduction from the spiritual by the enticements of beauty form a theme that popular art never tires of, and in mild or raunchy variations it remains a staple sequence of films. It is the perfect encapsulation of the Indian dilemma, whether to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh or go for the spiritual brass ring. Vishwamitra is a popular hero precisely because he managed to achieve both aspects. That is what people would like to be possible, spiritual success but after you have your fun, and with no price to be paid for such dalliance. Even Saint Augustine used to pray in a similar vein, "Oh God, grant me chastity and continence - but not just yet!"





After a few years however Menaka gave birth to a daughter, Shakuntala, and the shocked rishi realized he had collaborated in being led astray. Menaka is unique in myth for having crossed the tiger and getting away unscathed. Shakuntala's son, Bharat, became the first emperor of India and the country is still named Bharat after him so Vishwamitra is one of the founding fathers so to speak. Many years later another Apsara, Rambha, was sent to replicate the distraction but this time the sage was not only alert, he cursed her to turn into stone for 10,000 years. After which, no more attempts at celestial seductions were made.

Vishwamitra made a final push for Brahma-rishi status, abandoning food altogether. By now his tapasya had become so formidable that creation was literally rocking on its foundations. Indra made a last attempt to provoke the astringent tiger. Just as Vishwamitra was about to break his fast he turned up as a beggar professing great hunger. The etiquette was to feed the guest and Vishwamitra did so and did not say a word even when the wily Indra ate up all that was available. The king of the gods acknowledged that Vishwamitra had achieved complete control of himself and, in sheer exhaustion more than anything else, they granted him the rank of Brahma- rishi. At this point, Vishwamitra insisted that his old rival Vashistha acknowledge him as a Brahma-rishi too, which the other sage was only too willing to do. Through sheer will and manifestation of ability he had forced the universe to acknowledge his spiritual primacy.

A Brahma-rishi is immortal so Vishwamitra turns up in every era of Indian myth. One of his less known acts was to prevent a human sacrifice. A young lad of accomplishments called Shunashepa was being sacrificed to rid the king of gout, and his parents were actively collaborating in this act because of the reward. The shock and trauma of being betrayed in this primary relationship caused Shunashepa to achieve enlightenment as he was freed of all limiting concepts like family and human relationships. He began to chant sacred hymns that had been revealed to him while still tied to the post. These hymns are part of the Rig Veda. Vishwamitra turned up at that opportune moment, instantly recognized the boy had become a rishi and put an end to all this superstitious ritual. He also adopted the boy as his own son, stating the parents had forfeited their claims with this brutality, the first recognition in the Indian mind that parents are not always perfect.

It is a greater achievement than it may seem, for the right of parents to dispose of their children as they deemed fit was a vital pillar of the social value system. Any suggestion to the contrary still causes great anxiety and powerful punitive backlashes so it was nothing short of a revolution when Vishwamitra untied the boy. He never cared about convention; his dedication was only to what was true. Once in a great famine, he ate some dog meat. Aghast protests were raised at such unseemly behavior from a Brahma-rishi but his answer was a classic of good sense. "First one must stay alive. Then one can philosophize." Brahma-rishis do not need to eat, being immortal; he deliberately performed this act of provocation to teach some people a lesson. Such flamboyantly independent thinking is a miracle in its own right in an India always bound by social codes and the people took warmly to this unusual rishi.

In an interesting episode the great Swami Vivekananda had a vision in 1899 wherein he saw Vishwamitra meditating in a river at the moment the Gayatri Mantra was revealed to him. As a consequence the meter of chanting the Gayatri was changed by the Swami to bring it into accordance with how he had heard Vishwamitra chant it. It is an intriguing footnote as to how the spirit of the Friend of the World still influences the spiritual climate.


- Rohit Arya


SOURCE - http://www.indiayogi.com/content/indsaints/vishwamitra.asp