shure meng, most of the logic for denying the value of investigative journalism outside of the mainstream media has been pretty shitty, and it doesn't stand upon examination. even the mainstream media knows that, and that's why they rarely discuss "conspiracy theory": it shows how shitty a job they're doing. when they do discuss it, like with the Bilderbergers, all of a sudden they (finally!!!) have to acknowledge that the people that actually bothered looking into it further - a novel thought in today's lazy press world of copy'n'pasting from wire services, actually found valuable information now desperately needed for any decent mainstream news stories at all.
duh.
but of course.
in fact, all good journalism is conspiracy theory confirmed, and all we seem to have today is bad journalism.
we all complain the media lies, and yet when someone breaks it down analytically we don't buy it.
yes we're acting like sheep.
yes this is baaaad...
of course, in today's "i have a right to my opinion!" world where people can proudly and defiantly proclaim their willful ignorance, and where the "right" to an opinion is stressed over improving it - a phenomenal Right-Wing media tactic that turns their flock into, well... sheep.
it's easy to simply make everything binary: they say this, the other side says that, they both have a point, that's that, okay what's next.
this lack of applied constructive criticism is part of the problem, and since the media doesn't do it for us, we've stopped too. i'm not saying they don't criticize, i'm saying that those criticisms are not nearly ACCURATE enough in a world where we've drafter the Geneva Conventions, and where we know the various causes and effects of war, pollution, corruption, etc., and our repetition of the same useless crap to try and sound smart is just dumbing us down...
i highly recommend you taking an incredibly enjoyable hour and spending it with Jon Stewart on C-SPAN, he brilliantly breaks down the paradigm in a variety of ways, i've seen it several times, and if you're a fan of the show i'm sure you'll be a fan of the mind behind it...
http://www.c-span.org/Search/basic.asp?BasicQueryText=jon+stewart&SortBy=date
(if the link doesn't work, just do a search on him at the CSPAN site, or go to chomskytorrents.org)
incidentally, the alex jones show won't play no mo'. i heard a minit 20 minits ago, and now the various streams are dead air - still streaming, but with no sounds.
[Ed note: the next day it was working, and he has a dozen streams'n'backup streams to compensate] the fact that the govt and much of the corporate media IGNORES him or shits on him is proof enough for me that he's on to something: criticism is one thing, sabotage and denial is another. there's tonnes of examples of this - including techies who've posted the details various back-end attacks, and rummy even said he the military was planning cyber-attacks on blogs and other sources of "disinformation" - and this from the guy who said: "we know saddam has WMD's... they're in tikrit, and north, south, east, west... everywhere!"
the echo-effect of the shoot-the-messenger mentality is keeping us from learning some very valuable information about the world. you may not like his NWO/Moloch/Illuminati angles, but as an aggregator of MAINSTREAM NEWS stories about our deteriorating world - which was what i first got into - his role as a check on fascism is priceless. no matter what you say about his other beliefs - some of which were totally validated by the mainstream news needing him to help cover Bilderberg - or they would never have heard about it - you can't call him a liar for copying and/or linking to a Chicago Tribune article that says Halliburton got a $400 million contract from FEMA to build detentions camps in the United States.
you. just. can't.
so. don't.
thanks.
bk
kool meng, sorry to start shit, and i'm glad you deaded it sensibly and compassionately.
(uh-oh, here i go again, no need to respond, to be perfectly honest, with all the constipated info back up in my brain and a relative silence about this stuff in various circles, every time i get to talk a little shit it's cathartic... :)
basically, after dickin' around and kickin' it with the homiez and my shortie perhaps a bit too much - i do lovez me fun and my chickie wuz da bomb, plus i'm constantly re-securing my tightest peeps to operate independently and risk losing a lot of friends, this fuckin' terror shit showed up, and it's scaring the shit out of me for completely different reasons than most.
it's an odd position to be in as someone who's watched the U.S. like a human zoo from the safe TV set that is Canada - and i've seen a shitload of stuff from across the spectrum of opinion, such as CNN using their "Situation Room" to justify "What must President Bush say in tonite's speech to make everything okay?" - and then telling us how to react positively to whatever garbage he'll temporarily sell us before it's proven a lie in a few weeks. having seen how fear panicked the animals into confusion, anger and finger-pointing while the most powerful institutions around them encouraged it, i'm worried about our great country and our collective response to this threat. whether it's real or imagined, i'd prefer (like most) that our response be sensible enough to preserve the good aspects of our society, and keep us moving forward.
so, i'm'a start some shit to get us thinkin' about more shit, i've been training for this for a while so it's no biggie, and it ain't like you won't know how i feel - i'm'a leave thousands of words and dozens of songs for ya!
besides, y'all know i gotta flip it up to keep me interested, and hell - i'm the only artist i know who's footnoted his career in advance... ;)
cheers,
bk
Peace by playin' a playa to win...
BK
_____________________
...
Black Krishna Brand
Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/
Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm
...
P.S. Watch "Loose Change - 2nd Edition" on Google Video!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5137581991288263801
P.P.S. Check this out too while you still can!
Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most. If the public doesn't speak up now, our elected officials will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
BONUS: Columbine vs. Columbine = Mainstreams Gettin' Crossed... 
Yahoo! News - TODAY
Columbine memorial ceremony draws hundreds
By ROBERT WELLER and CATHERINE TSAI,
Associated Press Writers Fri Jun 16, 7:44 PM ET
LITTLETON, Colo. - Seven years after the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, hundreds of people joined former President Clinton on Friday for the ceremonial groundbreaking of a memorial honoring the 13 people slain at Columbine High School.
"We're here because we love them. We're here to honor them. We're here to remember them, this day and every day hereafter," said Dawn Anna, the mother of slain student Lauren Townsend. "We're here as a family and as a community that's been through the darkest of days and is coming through to the light."
Clinton, who was here in 2004 for a similar fundraiser, drew cheers when he said he would donate $50,000 to the $1.5 million project. About $300,000 is still needed to pay for the monument to the 12 students and teacher shot to death by suicidal classmates Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.
"I am here today because millions of Americans were changed by Columbine. It was one of the darkest days Hillary and I had in the White House," Clinton said. "This memorial is not only so you don't forget the people you love, but through your lives you honor theirs."
Clinton gave his brief speech as a crowd estimated by organizers at about 2,000 people huddled under umbrellas through a light rainstorm. At times, speakers paused as thunder rolled across the suburban Denver park.
Anna read the victims' names and asked the crowd to remember April 20, 1999.
"Remember the love? Remember the unity? Not just in this community, but in the nation and throughout the world?" she asked. "Remember the horror? Remember how broken your heart felt, that emptiness, that hollow and helpless feeling, pain seared so deeply that it seemed it never wanted to go away?"
The memorial, she said, will always be a place to reflect how everyone's lives changed because of Columbine — and to better know those who were lost that day. The site is on Rebel Hill, about 500 yards from the school.
"This is kind of hallowed ground to us and to the students," said Gary Radtke, whose son was taught by Dave Sanders, the slain teacher. "This is where everybody came to grieve after the shootings. We've been waiting for seven years, after all the makeshift memorials, for a permanent one."
Construction was delayed because parents worked to raze the school library where most of the victims were killed. Then almost two years passed before everyone agreed on the memorial's scope and design.
The economic downturn following the Sept. 11 attacks forced the project to be scaled down from $2.5 million to $1.5 million.
The memorial will include a water fountain, an inner Ring of Remembrance and an outer Ring of Healing. There will be one station for each of the victims, and the words of those killed. Messages from their families will be engraved on the outer ring.
Among those in the crowd was Patricia Nielson, an art teacher who was wounded in the attack and huddled under a desk as the killers executed their classmates in the library.
Nielson said she was impressed Clinton has made two visits to Colorado to help.
"I think it will really help us heal," she said.
___
On the Net:
Columbine Memorial: http://www.columbinememorial.org
* Email Story
* IM Story
* Discuss
* Printable View
RECOMMEND THIS STORY
SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616/ap_on_re_us/columbine_memorial
FOX News / PrisonPlanet.com - YESTERDAY
Questions Linger for Columbine Parents
Fox News | April 20 2004
LITTLETON, Colo. — For nearly five years, unsettling details have trickled out from dusty file cabinets and evidence vaults about just how much authorities and others knew before Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold slaughtered 12 classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School.
Misplaced police reports, prophetic videos made by the killers at the school itself, a father's secret journal, a Web site and essay promising death — families of the victims say the warning signs were clear.
"How many times have we heard this was everything, only for something else to come out?" asked Dawn Anna, mother of murdered student Lauren Townsend (search). "The first time we heard that was back in 1999."
Some 30,000 documents in the case have been released over the years and 10,418 pieces of evidence ranging from a tooth fragment to propane tanks were put on public display this year.
Local authorities, the school district, a state commission and the Colorado attorney general have all investigated, but the question remains: Why didn't someone — a parent, a sheriff's deputy, a teacher, a fellow student — step in before the suicidal gunmen went on their rampage?
Victims' families have tried to get answers: Some sued the sheriff's department, the school district and the parents of the killers. They won damages, but a federal judge sealed many records.
At the heart of most questions is the Jefferson County (search) Sheriff's Office, which responded to the massacre and led the official investigation. Its track record is spotty at best.
After the shootings, sheriff's officials downplayed tips about Harris making death threats — even though they relied on them to get a search warrant for his home hours after the bloodshed.
Randy and Judy Brown, whose sons were threatened by Harris, made several attempts to get the sheriff's department to investigate.
The tips started in 1997, when one of the Browns' two sons gave a deputy a printout of a Web site in which Harris boasted of going on nighttime missions with Klebold, firing weapons and vandalizing property.
The Web site later included boasts by Harris and Klebold about building pipe bombs and referred to "ground zero."
The tip was forwarded to former sheriff's investigator John Hicks (search). A warrant was drafted to search the Harris home, but it was never executed. A report by Hicks was found tucked inside a training manual just six months ago, a stunning revelation that prompted new Sheriff Ted Mink to ask Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar to investigate.
Salazar said he found no negligence by the sheriff's department, though he found at least 15 instances of contact between law enforcement and one or both of the killers.
Other warning signs included violent videos made by Harris and Klebold for a class project and an essay by Klebold in another class describing a Columbine-like slaying of "preps." In one video project five months before the rampage, the two stalk through Columbine itself, offering hit man services to classmates tired of being bullied.
Harris and Klebold were arrested for a break-in a year before the attack, but parole officers were never told about the death threats tied to the teens. Both completed probation and were deemed to be likely candidates for success as adults.
"There was overwhelming evidence. Columbine should have been prevented," said Brian Rohrbough, whose son, Daniel, was one of the first to die. "We cannot turn back the hands of time, but we can put all this information out on the table. ... We can make this an example of what went wrong so that we can prevent it from happening again."
Most excruciating for some of those seeking answers is the fact that some information is being kept secret. The Harris and Klebold families were forced to give depositions to settle a lawsuit, but what they said remains sealed.
Joe Kechter, whose son, Matt, died at Columbine, said the lawsuit was settled because families were running out of money to fight the insurance companies whose homeowners' policies covered the Klebolds and Harrises.
"I hope some day the Klebolds and Harrises agree to get this information out so it can save other kids lives in the future," Kechter said. "I am doing this in respect of my son. I feel the police and the whole system let him down that day. I am not going to let him down."
The school district's investigation also remains confidential because officials say its release would violate attorney-client privilege. Salazar's investigation remains open, though family members don't expect big news from the new U.S. Senate candidate.
"I really don't think we are going to get any more answers," said Al Velasquez, whose son, Kyle, was among those killed.
SOURCE - http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2004/042004questionslinger.htm
The Boston Globe / Prison Planet.com - TODAY
N.Y. report denounces shock use at school
Scott Allen / Boston Globe | June 15 2006
New York education officials issued a scathing report yesterday on a Massachusetts school that punishes troubled and disabled students with electric shocks, finding that they can be shocked for simply nagging the teacher and that some are forced to wear shock devices in the bathtub or shower, posing an electrocution hazard.
The report, based in part on an inspection last month of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, portrayed a school in which most staff lack training to handle the students and seem more focused on punishing bad behavior than encouraging good acts.
The investigators said some forms of discipline, such as a device that delivers shocks at timed intervals, appear to violate federal safety regulations, and students live in an atmosphere of ``pervasive fears and anxieties."
The report, denounced by Rotenberg officials as biased, is expected to play a key role next Monday when education regulators in New York are scheduled to vote on whether to severely restrict the use of painful punishment on students from New York.
Two-thirds of Rotenberg's students are sent from New York. The inspectors said they had notified officials in Massachusetts and at the US Food and Drug Administration about possible violations of state and federal safety rules.
There have been increasing allegations of abuse at the Rotenberg Center in recent months.
They include several assertions that students have been badly burned by the shock devices, known as graduated electronic decelerators. The Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission has received 22 allegations of abuse at the school since January, including 12 that involve injuries. Rotenberg officials have steadfastly denied the charges, but commission officials say that at least two have been substantiated.
Yesterday, a lawyer for the school, Michael Flammia, said the New York report grossly distorts what goes on at the school, which is often used as a place of last resort for students with autism, mental retardation, or behavioral problems. School districts in several states, including Massachusetts, refer students to Rotenberg after other methods to control their behavior, such as hospitalization or drugs, have failed.
The school has about 250 students, about half of whom wear electric shock devices that teachers can activate around the clock.
``These findings are completely false. They are the product of a biased review team sent by the New York State Education Department for the specific purpose of making derogatory findings" about the center, said Flammia, who denied that students are forced to wear shock devices in the shower.
He also said that New York officials are mistaken in asserting that the school is violating FDA or Massachusetts rules.
Flammia noted that New York inspectors had given the Judge Rotenberg Center high marks for safety last September, but he believes they turned against the school after the publicity surrounding a lawsuit filed this spring by the mother of a New York student.
Some parents of Rotenberg students rallied behind the school, as they have in the past, saying that most people don't understand how serious their children's problems are. The school, which costs states and school districts more than $200,000 a year per student, helps students who have failed everywhere else, they say, and turns to shocks and other punishments only if less painful methods fail.
``This school has saved my daughter's life," said Marcia Shear of Long Island, whose 13-year-old daughter, Samantha, used to punch herself in the head so often that she detached both retinas.
After she received a few high-level shocks, Shear said, the self-abuse stopped. ``I am livid at these people and pieces of garbage who think they know what they're doing. Let them come and sit with my child and go through what I've gone through for 11 years."
The 26-page New York report intensified a debate over the Judge Rotenberg Center's methods that has gone on for much of its 35 years. The latest controversy began in March, when Evelyn Nicholson of Freeport, N.Y., went public with a charge that her son, Antwone, had been mistreated at the school, where he was shocked 79 times over 1 1/2 years. She initially consented to the procedure to curb her son's aggressive behavior, but said she changed her mind after Antwone became increasingly desperate to get away.
``There's no education in what's happening here," said Ken Mollins , a lawyer representing the Nicholson family, which is suing New York for $10 million. ``The head of this institution calls this therapy. I think this is more like a domestic torture chamber."
The New York inspectors found that more than two-thirds of the direct-care providers at the Rotenberg Center have completed only a high school education, which they said ``in many cases . . . is not sufficient to oversee the intensive treatment of children with challenging emotional and behavioral problems."
They also noted that only six of the 17 clinicians who oversee mental-health care at the school have a license in psychology.
The inspectors said the school appeared to violate FDA regulations in several ways, including a policy that allows the parents of students to administer shocks to students after only minimal training. The New York report also said that the school appears to violate Massachusetts regulations that allow painful punishments only for ``extraordinarily difficult or dangerous behavioral problems," noting that they witnessed one student who was threatened with a shock after sneezing in class. School officials said no shock had been given in this case.
Finally, the report raised concerns about students' nutrition because the Judge Rotenberg Center withholds food as a punishment. The report found that one New York student was in a program where he could be denied up to 25 percent of his normal food intake.
New York Deputy Education Commissioner Rebecca Cort said the report painted a much darker picture of the Rotenberg Center than last year's review, because the state took a more in-depth look, including a surprise inspection that showed the school's practices are a lot different from written treatment plans for students.
Rotenberg's Flammia said the school was never given a chance to review the report before it was made public and he said the school would demand a fair chance to respond. He warned that if New York students are denied access to the Rotenberg Center, the state could be sued by parents of children who hurt themselves as a result.
Supporters of a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature to ban the use of electric shocks on students said they hoped the New York report would give new momentum to their efforts to force the school to change its methods or close. A proposed ban was written into the state budget passed by the Senate, but the House of Representatives has not taken a position.
``It's troubling that it's necessary for New York officials to point out the violations of Massachusetts law taking place at this facility," said state Senator Brian Joyce, the Milton Democrat who has led the effort to ban electric shock.
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/ny_report_denouces_shock_use_at_school.htm
Oh yeah, and if you open a Notepad document and type in: bush hid the facts
in lower case letters, then save it, then try and open it, there's nothing but chinese character squares there. Check it out yourself, I know you've probably seen stuff like this before, but I didn't care, it's always kinda neat! :P
RAW Story / Infowars.com
Newly released emails suggest Army Corps lied about Cheney role in Halliburton contract
Avery Walker / Raw Story | June 16 2006
New documents obtained by a conservative watchdog group suggest that the US Army Corp of Engineers may have publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President's office in awarding a 2003 multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract to Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, RAW STORY has learned.
RAW STORY has obtained a copy of the emails, which were acquired by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act.
The newly released emails show the Army Corps attempting to deflect attention from Cheney's office by distributing talking points that would mask Cheney's purported role. The Corps could not immediately be reached for comment.
Among the 100 pages of newly-obtained documents is an 2003 email in which Army Corps official Carol Sanders writes, "Mr. Robert Andersen, Chief Counsel, USACE, participated in a 60 Minutes interview today in New York regarding the sole source award of the oil response contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root... [Andersen] was able to make many of the points we had planned."
Sanders subsequently provided sound bites from the interview, including, "There was no contact whatsoever (with the VP office)."
This directly contradicts another email uncovered by Judicial Watch in 2004.
That email, dated in March of 2003 was sent by an official of the Army Corps whose name was redacted. It stated, "We anticipate no issue (with the KBR deal) since the action has been coordinated w [sic] VP's office."
The Army had earlier refused to hand over the documents. U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina released them after the group sued, arguing that they were being improperly exempted from the Freedom of Information Act.
Noting Vice President Cheney's prior relationship to Halliburton, Judicial Watch had filed its original FOIA request to obtain documents pertaining to the lucrative no-bid contract.
The vice president's associations with Halliburton "raise concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest or favoritism," Judicial Watch argued, "particularly since the contract was awarded to KBR without a bidding process and because the contract was not announced to the public until after it was approved."
"The US district judicial court judge had to get personally involved and look at these documents in private before they could be released," a Judicial Watch employee told RAW STORY.
"And what the judge said when he saw them was, 'turn them over,'" the staffer added. "They were abusing the FOIA process -- embarrassment is not sufficient cause for exemption."
The Cheney contradiction is not the only cause for embarrassment in the documents.
One email, for example, includes a frank admission by an Army Corps of Engineer official: "I am copying you on this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will never happen."
*** READ THE NEWLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS HERE ***
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
- INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND -
SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/iraq/halliburton_army_lied_about_cheney_role_contracts.htm
