Damn You Microsoft

I have a very love/hate relationship with Microsoft these days.

-I've thoroughly enjoyed and had no problems with 64-Bit Vista on this new computer I built last year.

-But on the other side, their product design for the Xbox 360 sucks something fierce. It seems my Xbox loathes me, for it always seems to keel over and die at THE MOST INOPPORTUNE times. The first one I had croaked after only five months of having it. Mind you, I game quite a good deal, but not nearly as much as some gamers I know who truly put their xbox through the gauntlet. Not only did the first Xbox 360 kick the bucket after five months, but it died in THE MIDDLE of the Halo 3 Beta. The Beta was only for two weeks, and only about four or five days in, my 360 gives me the finger.

So I call up tech support, and luckily they had just released the news that they'd be extending the warranty for three years from purchase date and repairing red ring deaths at no charge. Awesome. Good news. Even better, when I put my repair order in, they sent me a nice box with styrofoam packing and a paid-shipping label to send it back. Score. So I send off my dead 360 and lo and behold, maybe a week and a half to two weeks later (turnaround time is quoted as 14-21 buisness days, so this was pretty good turnaround) I get a box in the mail, with what I could only presume was a refurbished 360. So instead of repairing mine they send a sorta-new one. I'm cool with that, it works good, all is well in the land of the gamer.

So awhile later a friend of mine gets the red ring, so he's getting his repaired and offers to buy mine from me so he can have one in the meantime and then have two when he gets his back, as he recently turned his girlfriend onto the world of Xbox poker. I'd been talking about upgrading to an elite console or maybe one of the Halo 3 Edition consoles, so I went about finding a well priced Halo 3 Edition on Ebay, buy it and sell him mine once my new one arrives. It ran a little louder than my old one, but it worked fine for the most part. After a few months a game might freeze on me, rather frustrating, but tolerable.

Then this Christmas I gave my girlfriend the complete band set for Rock Band 2 on Xbox 360. Drums, guitar, Mic, the whole Shebang. She was real big on Guitar Hero back in the day, and the last one I got her was on PS 2, so she hasn't really played in quite some time. It was perfect, she loved it, and together with our roommate we started our band and we said "Let there be ROCK". All was well.

All up until last night while we're calibrating the instruments getting ready for a pre-new year's party hopping jam session, and it locks up. So we turn the console off, restart, and try again, only to have it lock up on us again. At this point there was no hope. Every time I turned it off and on again, it gave me the red ringed middle finger. Alas, another one bites the dust. So I grab the trusty celly and call up tech support again. We go through the song and dance of registering my console and getting my info, and they inform me they'll be emailing me a shipping label to print out, but this time I get to find a box and pack it myself, then drop it in the mail. I guess this isn't so bad, because I won't have to wait to receive their box then turn around and wait for it to get back to them, but the one thing I'm concerned about is getting another Refurb back. I don't mind refurbs, doesn't bother me, so long as it works and it's warrantied, but now I've got a special Halo 3 edition console, they better send me another Halo 3 edition console back, or there's gonna be trouble in River City.

An interesting note though, we were at our first party last night, and one of the guests overheard what we were talking about, and rather surprisingly he says "Blame the manufacturer we contract to for the disc drives..." to which I give a quizzical look, only to learn he works for Microsoft. So whoever they contract with for the disc drives now, screw you buddy.

That is all for now, more to come later as we enter the new year, with many new problems to come. Stay tuned, for the revolution will not be televised.

-The Kirk

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Obama, or Clinton 2.0?

I got into a debate this last semester with my Ethics professor after some comments she made following the election. Here is the email that I wound up sending her when she asked for all of the articles to back up the things I was claiming, so I thought that I would share it here. It has just come to my attention that one of my close friends is apparently an Obama supporter, so we shall certainly have words when he arrives in town tomorrow.

Here are some links to news articles concerning Obama and some of his cabinet picks, specifically Rahm Emanuel.

Here's a TIMES article talking about Emanuel's appointment:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1857215,00.html?iid=digg_share
They conveniently leave out Emanuel's terrorist ties however.

Here's an article detailing Emanuel's link to the Zionist Terrorist Organization, the Irgun, which his father is a part of.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/obamas-first-appointment-is-son-of-zionist-terrorist.html

Here's an article talking about how the entry on wikipedia talking about his terrorist father was mysteriously deleted:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m48750&hd=&size=1&l=e

Here's another article, from ABC news, showing that Emanuel was on the board of Freddie Mack when all of the sour mortgage business went down
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6201900&page=1

Not to mention that his dad's still a bit of a racist:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=75425&sectionid=3510203

Now aside from Rahm, let's look at a few things on Obama also, just for kicks. How about ho he plans to accept funds from the UN 'Population Fund' that George Bush refused back in 2002, because the Population Fund supports China's policies of coercive abortions and sterilization under it's one child policy.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=16721

Aside from that, how about when he deviated from one of his speeches to talk about the 'civilian national defense force' that will be just as 'well funded' as the military. Maybe it's just my minor paranoia, but that sounds a lot like secret police, something most Socialist countries have done to very little success. Also, if it's to be as 'well funded' as the military, even after he cuts the DoD budget, if he adds another 'security force' that's getting the same sized budget, then that means larger amounts of Government spending, which will result in higher taxes. I thought he told people he'd be cutting taxes though...
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/obamas_civilian_national_secur.html

Then there's the fact that he, along with McCain, vigorously lobbied for the passage of the Bailout, something which the entire nation was against, but was passed anyways despite the will of the people. Altogether though, the bailout isn't going to cost us -just- 700 billion, but closer to 4 or 5 trillion now. http://www.infowars.net/articles/october2008/151008Bailout_figures.htm

Continuing on, we take a look at Obama's new oncoming energy policies, which he has said will likely "Bankrupt coal plants and cause energy prices to skyrocket". Is bankrupting coal plants and putting millions of American's out of work in a time where our unemployment rate continues to climb and our economy continues to fall really that god of an idea? Not to mention skyrocketing energy prices certainly won't help those that can barely pay the cost of energy now.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/11/03/obamas-energy-plan-bankupt-coal-power-plants-skyrocketing-electricity-rates/

Along those lines, Obama is very outspoken about his support of environmentalism and climate change, but his support of the subsidies for biofuels that goes to corn based ethanol suggests otherwise. Currently, ethanol made from sugar can from Brazil or from switchgrass from the American plains is proven to produce a higher ratio of energy to energy used to produce it, where as corn produces just under two units of energy for every unit of energy expended to produce it. The ratio for sugar cane on the other hand is eight to one. The subsidies funding corn based ethanol also raise the price of corn world wide, which has contributed to the 75% raise in food prices worldwide ( http://www.lvrj.com/news/29991399.html ). Currently the same bill that funds the biofuel subsidies imposes a high tariff on sugar cane, which produces more energy than corn based ethanol ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/us/politics/23ethanol.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin ).

Since the Democrats took control of the Congress and Senate back in 2005 with promises of repealing policies set forth by the Bush administration, nothing has been changed. They renewed the Patriot Act and have not reversed any of the controversial policies on wiretapping and spying on American Citizens, so why should we believe anything will be any different under Obama? Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that I am alive to witness history being made that we as a people have made it past our issues of color and voted a Black man as President, but that's where my excitement ends, because our two-party monopoly doesn't really give us many choices. When it all boils down to it, I think whoever said "Obama is Coca-Cola and McCain is Pepsi - at the end of the day you’re still drinking the same beverage." said it best.

When are we going to wake up to the fact that voting in the lesser of two evils is not a solution?

When are we going to realize that participating in a rigged system, where our vote means virtually nothing anyway because it is counted by a completely compromised and hackable voting machine, not only fails to address any of our problems, but actually compounds them because of our passive obedience in participating in the phony virtual reality presented to us as “democracy”?

I'll make one last point before wrapping up this short diatribe on why I am not overly thrilled with Obama's election. On the point of the second amendment, the people's fears of further crackdown on their right to bear arms is not entirely unfounded. Ontheissues.org, a website that was dedicated to clarifying where each candidate stood on the issues, gives a very detailed breakdown of where Obama stands on the second amendment ( http://www.ontheissues.org/domestic/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm ). In Illinois, he supported the sale and possession of not only assault weapons, but all weapons period. It was also his position in his home state that retired police officers are the only ones who should be allowed to carry concealed weapons. In an investigative piece written by Howard Nemerov ( http://www.amazon.com/Four-Hundred-Years-Gun-Control/dp/0981738222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212634673&sr=1-1 ) he presents a great deal of data which shows that recent disarmament of civilians in England and Australia has failed to make those countries any safer than they were before. He poses a very good question, after four hundred years of anti-gun legislation, why has nothing changed?

I look forward to your thoughts on the information presented here and openly welcome any rebuttal of the information in this email. Again, I am -not- steadfastly opposed tot he President Elect, I think a few things he has planned may be good, but overall I do not think he is worthy of the messianic complex that has been placed on him. ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1081348/Can-black-Jesus-escape-assassins-bullet.html ; http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2008/11/03/barack_obama_described_as_prophet_moses_by_bishop )




Tune in next time, for the Revolution will not be televised.

-The Kirk
Email me!

Rev. Wright and the Kansas City Shuffle

Lately the backing of Democratic hopeful Barrack Obama by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been a major focus in the media. Rev.Wright used to be Obama's pastor back in the day, and apparently he has been saying some things that are really easy to spin out of proportion in order to give Obama a black eye. According to Fox News (a station which needs to lose the whole 'Fair and Balanced' moniker) and other media outlets, Wright gave a speech in which he talked about former Ambassador to Iraq, Edward Peck, in an interview he did with Fox News shortly after September 11th. He quoted Peck, who in turn was quoting Malcolm X, when he said that 'America's chickens are coming home to roost', implying that our foreign policy was coming back to bite us in the ass.

He went on in his sermon to talk about how America was founded on violence and genocide, something that Martin Luther King had actually said a ways back before he was assassinated, but you didn't hear a lot of noise then. He uses examples of how we took the country from the Indians through terror and violence (which we did), how we took Africans away from their tribes and homeland and enslaved them in fear (which we did), and how our bombing in other countries has killed countless hundreds of thousands of civilians (which it has). The media was able to do a good job at spinning his sermon out of context, but they missed the part at the end where he preached about the importance of family and the need for social transformation. Then at the end he told the congregation he loved them, and had them tell eather other they loved one another. This guy sounds awful!

In one part of his sermon where he spoke about social transformation, he said:

"Maybe we need to declare war on AIDS. In five minutes the Congress found $40 billion to rebuild New York and the families that died in sudden death, do you think we can find the money to make medicine available for people who are dying a slow death? Maybe we need to declare war on the nation’s healthcare system that leaves the nation’s poor with no health coverage? Maybe we need to declare war on the mishandled educational system and provide quality education for everybody, every citizen, based on their ability to learn, not their ability to pay. This is a time for social transformation."

I don't know about you guys, but that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Imagine what we could do if we pulled our military back and simply protected ourselves, and threw hundreds of billions of dollars at fixing our infrastructure and improving our education system, instead of paying contractors to do a substandard job and allow them to overcharge for it. In any case, a lot of the controversy was over someone who stated that the Reverend had said "God Damn America" in his sermon, but if you go back and look at the sermon, he never said anything close to it.

But what about Pastor John Hagee or Reverend Rod Parsely? Has anyone heard of these two men? I doubt that you have, because their sermons don't talk about the struggle of the African American, or America's broken foreign policy. Instead, they preach about how "God created hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its homosexual sins".

Here are a few gems from wholesome Rod Parsely:

• Islam is an Anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world.
• America was founded in part with the intention to see this false religion (Islam) destroyed.
• Muhammad received revelations from 'demon spirits'.
• Planned parenthood is a racist nazi organization.
  

How's about John Hagee? Let's see:

• We need to start a first strike nuclear war against Iran along with Israel in order to start armageddon.
• Believes the head of the European Union is the Antichrist.
• Believes those that cannot/will not work, or are just plain poor, that you should starve.
• "Death is better than compromise. Forsake your family, and follow me." Sounds a little like radical Islam to me.
• The State Department has disobeyed God by trying to diplomatically end the fighting around Israel and that God will allow the terrorists to kill us because of this.

John McCain has come out and embraced both of these pastors and said that he is honored to have their support. So let me get this straight, the media crucifies Obama's connection to his old preacher because he talks bad about our foreign policy, but when the right wing Christian nominee's spiritual supporters go on about God sending a hurricane to punish New Orleans for being a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, or initiating a nuclear first strike on Iran for no good reason but to bring on Armageddon, we just sort of brush it under the rug and forget about it. We see Obama constantly jumping through hoops, one minute supporting Rev. Wright, the next condemning what the crazy old preacher has been saying lately. On the other hand, all McCain has to do is bring these two guys on stage as he tours the country and talk about how he's so blessed to have their backing.

It didn't go entirely unnoticed however, as one Catholic Interviewer confronted McCain about Hagee's comments, especially where he calls the Catholic church conspirators with Hitler to exterminate the Jews, is a great prostitute, and a cult. He takes the safe route and says he repudiates any antisemitic comments Hagee may have made, but that the pastor assured him that it was all taken out of context, and tells the interviewer that we should talk to Hagee about the comments, not him. Though as far as I know, no one has confronted him on the preachings of Rod Parsely. Will McCain be held accountable for these two looney tunes? Probably not.

Will Anyone Notice?

A new article on the Washington Post's blog following the presidential race just recently reported that John McCain exceeded the amount that candidates participating in the public campaign finance program can spend on their primary run.

So what does this mean? Well kids, the rundown goes like this: If a candidate is running low on funds and needs to get loans to continue their bid for the presidency, they'll often sign up for the Public Finance program, operated by the Federal Election Commission, which will then grant you free money to use for your campaign (I say free, but it's really -your- money).Part of the program then requires that you cannot spend more than $54 million on your bid for the primary.

Where does McCain fit into all of this? Last year when McCain was a virtual nobody in the early days of the republican primary race and his campaign was starved for funds, he signed up for the program. Once Super Tuesday rolled around and McCain started picking up some wins and people started actually donating to his campaign and he didn't quite need as much help from the public campaign finance program, he filed to be taken off the program so he could spend more. Unfortunately, since the FEC has four vacant spots right now they can't quite vote to grant his request, so technically he's still in the program, only now he's gone over his limit by about another $4.4 million.

Is anything going to happen to McCain? Will he be removed from the race for breaking the rules of the FEC and continuing to spend money on his campaign? Probably not, unless people like you do something about it. The democratic side of the house has started moving to file complaints over the matter, but who knows how far that will go. But what if millions of Americans began writing to the FEC demanding that the rules be enforced? What if the American people finally stood up and said "Hey! We're tired of this crap! He broke the rules, he's gotta pay!". I don't know about you folks, but I'm getting kind of tired of politicians breaking the rules and never being held accountable for it. The Revolution is coming, and it will not be televised.

Flogging Molly

Just wanted to write up a quick jaunt before hitting the hay. Went and saw Flogging Molly for the first time in so many years downtown tonight, and it was awesome as expected.

What was unexpectedly awesome were the opening bands. Normally, it's been my experience at smaller venue shows for awesome bands that aren't quite 'main stream' that the bands opening before them tend to peel the paint off the walls of the venue. Tonight was a different story altogether.

We arrived at the venue before as the first opener was going on, and as I waited in line at the merch table to get my Flogging Molly t-shirt, we heard some of their set. It sounded alright, nothing spectacular just yet, that is until I got my shirt and we went to go check them out. From the sound I could hear it was another Irish sounding folk/punk-rock band similar to Flogging Molly. What I didn't know was that it was a band from Japan. That's right, it was six or so Japanese guys on guitars/drums/tinwhistle/banjo, and a chick playing something else, think she had the accordion. I'm pretty sure their lyrics were in Japanese as well as what I could make out I couldn't quite understand, and his English between songs didn't sound very good, so I'm assuming the lyrics are Japanese. Yep, a Japanese punk band playing Irish folk punk rock songs in Japanese, something I'd have to say I never really expected to see. Their name was the Cherry Cokes, so check 'em out.

Following the Cherry Cokes was a smaller band by the name of the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, adequately named for its three members. They had a sound that was a mix of punk rock/blues/and folk music. One member on the drums, with the Rev's wife Breezy on the washboard/cymbal, and the Reverend on guitar/harmonica. The Reverend has a style of playing the guitar that reminds me of the movie Crossroads (no, not the Britney Spears movie, the good one), which if you haven't seen it you should go rent it right now. It was probably the best movie about the blues I'd seen till Black Snake Moan came along. To quote the Reverend "Our band don't have no bass player, cause my thumb plays bass." Coupling his thumb playing bass is the Reverend's deft use of a metal slide to make the neck of his guitar sing along with the rest of the band. I was quite impressed with their performance, enough so to break my cardinal rule of one t-shirt per show and made my way to their merch table for a t-shirt and a signed CD. I suggest checking them out immediately.

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Coming Soon: Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden

Check out the trailer for Morgan Spurlock's next documentary, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden:



In case you're not sure who Morgan Spurlock is, he's the guy that ate McDonald's three times a day for a month to prove that it will make you fat and destroy your health in "Super Size Me". Following the movie he got a deal for a TV show called "30 Days" in which he either put himself in someone's shoes for thirty days, or took someone and put them in the shoes of someone totally opposite them for thirty days. Episodes included a guy that had his job outsourced to India going to India and staying with a family that worked at a big call center, working in the call center right along with them; Morgan spending thirty days in the lockup; and a member of the Minuteman border watch group staying with a family of Mexican immigrants in California.

So far, I've liked everything I've seen from Morgan, so I'm looking forward to seeing this one when it comes out. From what I've heard they went crazy over it at Sundance, so it's got promise.

What do you think?

DoOmSdAy!!

It's called the 'Doomsday Legislation', also known by it's official title 'House Resolution 5'. It was passed on January 5th, 2005, and surprisingly has managed to stay out of the spotlight for quite some time.

If you google 'Doomsday Legislation' you'll get a number of news sites that reported on it in 2005, but most of them paint it in the light of merely being a contingency plan in the event that more than a hundred members of the house are killed in a 'terrorist attack' or some other such terrible catastrophe. It states that special elections must be held to replace the House members within 45 days of the event, which some argue should be quicker. However, this isn't the problem with the Doomsday Legislation. These articles paint the picture that the legislation is a good measure in the event of another September 11th style attack, that it would allow government to continue to run smoothly in the event a number of politicians are killed in the attack.

But there is another side to the measure that they do not like to talk about. Under the 'Doomsday Legislation', the House would not need the required 218 members present to pass legislation, but can instead pass legislation with however many show up.

“If the House should be without a quorum due to catastrophic circumstances, then . . . until there appear in the House a sufficient number of representatives to constitute a quorum among the whole number of the House, a quorum in the House shall be determined based upon the provisional number of the House; and . . . the provisional number of the House, as of the close of the call of the House . . . shall be the number of representatives responding to that call of the House.”

In layman's terms, this means that if for some reason only twelve congressmen show up when circumstances arise, including natural disaster, attack, contagion or terrorist attacks rendering representatives incapable of attending House proceedings. So say another plane is hijacked and the skies are shut down again. That would mean that if only fifty or so congress members are in Washington already, they can declare war in order to retaliate, or pass any legislation they want. Or say there's an outbreak of the bird flu or some other convenient contagion, whomever is on the hill that day can pass whatever they want regardless of number present.

Where is the countdown till we lose the last of the few Constitutional rights that they have not taken yet? Where is the outrage? Where is the call for change? Why are we still supporting Neocons such as Clinton and Romney?

The primaries are fast approaching folks. Are you registered? Do you know where to vote? Do you know if your primaries are Open or Closed? Do you know who you will vote for? We need change and we need it now more than ever before it is too late. Go here and click on your state to find out more information about the primaries.

Here are a couple of sites reporting on the 'Doomsday Legislation'. Notice the spin put on it to make it look like a necessary evil by two of the articles.

http://www.rense.com/general52/appr.htm
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/23/1082616331689.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/doomsday.html

In case you weren't aware...

Just in case you didn't know, here's a few things your government has done for you recently:

President Bush has signed executive orders giving him sole authority to impose martial law, and suspend habeus corpus. This gives him dictatorial power over the people without any checks or balances.

The Government can jail you for life without charges, without a trial, and without a lawyer.

Executive Order #10999 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation.

Executive Order #11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.

Executive Order #11921 Provides that the President can declare a state of emergency that is not defined, and congress cannot review the action for six months.

Senate Bill #1873 allows the government to vaccinate you with untested vaccines against your will.

The FDA says you do not have a right to know which foods have been genetically modified.

Congressman Sensenbrenner's bill (HR 1528) requires you to spy on your neighbors, including wearing a wire. Refusal would be punishable by a mandatory two year prison sentence.

And how about the wonderful freedom-protecting Patriot Act? The Patriot Act permits:

• Secret FBI and police searches of your home and office.
• Secret wiretaps on your phone, computer and/or internet activity.
• Secret investigations of your bank records, credit cards, and other financial records.
• Secret investigations of your library and book activities.
• Secret examination of your medical, travel, and business records.
• The freezing of funds and assets without prior notice or appeal.
• The creation of secret 'watch lists' that ban those named from air and other travel.

"The constitution is just a goddamn piece of paper." -George W. Bush Nov. 2005


Does this sound like the work of a Democratic Republic, run by the people and for the people? I don't think so...

A Nation of Sheep

From the onset I've tried to convince people that we had lost some of our most important rights as citizens the day the Patriot Act was signed into law, and we furthermore told the Administration that we would lie down in submission when there was no uproar to hinder it's resigning years later. People I talk to respond that it's good for the country, that it aids the government in defending us against 'terrorism'. I try to dissuade them of this and convince them that whether or not it helps the government track down and catch 'terrorists' before they have the chance to act, it is still in violation of the constitution. The Constitution is the very thing that made us great, a nation above all other nations, a nation of free people. In it it states that Congress shall pass no law that violates the rights given to us in that sacred document, and for over a hundred years no Congress has dared violate that rule. Until Now.

Maybe Judge Andrew Napolitano says it better than I can, giving a summary of his new book 'A Nation of Sheep' in a segment which surprisingly aired on the Fox News Network. Watch for yourself.

American's are 'Comical'

Here's a clip from CNN where they discuss a clip of Pres. Bush responding to questions on the latest summit he attended with the heads of state for Canada and Mexico. The question was put forth about the possibility of the meeting really being about the formation of a North American Union, a possibility that the President simply brushed off as 'comical'.



The thing that sickens me a little more than the President's remarks is the sad excuse for reporting by the journalists of CNN, if they can even call themselves journalists anymore. One of CNN's White House Correspondents, Suzanne Malveaux joined in calling the talk of a North American Union simply 'Conspiracy Theory in the Blogosphere'. She goes on to try and discredit the idea that a superhighway is being planned to run from the Mexican border to the Canada border. Don't think it's real? Tell that to the farmers and land owners in southern and western Texas who are on the verge of losing their property in the name of Imminent Domain. Malveaux even mentions the Canadian Prime Minister's comment on standardizing the jellybean (the reason we were given for the heads of states' latest summit meeting) as a viable and believable story. When she can explain to me how with all of our wonderful bureaucracy and useless 'departments', we don't have someone that is capable of standardizing the manufacture of the jellybean, and that it is a job left only to the President, maybe then I will give a little credit to any reporting done by CNN.

In case you were wondering...

...just what the problem with this country is, check out this article from motherjones.com:

IN 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined. Today, they’re worth $1.13 trillion—more than the GDP of Canada.

THERE’VE BEEN FEW new additions to the Forbes 400. The median household income has also stagnated—at around $44,000.

AMONG THE FORBES 400 who gave to a 2004 presidential campaign, 72% gave to Bush.

IN 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires, a 62% increase since 2002.

IN 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps, a 49% increase since 2000.

ONLY ESTATES worth more than $1.5 million are taxed. That’s less than 1% of all estates. Still, repealing the estate tax will cost the government at least $55 billion a year.

ONLY 3% OF STUDENTS at the top 146 colleges come from families in the bottom income quartile; only 10% come from the bottom half.

BUSH’S TAX CUTS GIVE a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722—or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids.

A 2-CHILD family earning $50,000 gets $2,050—or 1/5 the cost of public college for one kid.

THIS YEAR, Donald Trump will earn $1.5 million an hour to speak at Learning Annex seminars.

ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION, the federal minimum wage has fallen 42% since its peak in 1968.

IF THE $5.15 HOURLY minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO compensation since 1990, it would now stand at $23.03.

A MINIMUM WAGE employee who works 40 hours a week for 51 weeks a year goes home with $10,506 before taxes.

SUCH A WORKER would take 7,000 years to earn Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s yearly compensation.

ELLISON RECENTLY posed in Vanity Fair with his $300 million, 454-foot yacht, which he noted is “really only the size of a very large house.”

ONLY THE WEALTHIEST 20% of Americans spend more on entertainment than on health care.

THE $17,530 EARNED by the average Wal-Mart employee last year was $1,820 below the poverty line for a family of 4.

5 OF AMERICA’S 10 richest people are Wal-Mart heirs.

PUBLIC COMPANIES spend 10% of their earnings compensating their top 5 executives.

1,730 BOARD MEMBERS of the nation’s 1,000 leading companies sit on the boards of 4 or more other corporations—including half of Coca-Cola’s 14-person board.

THE BIDDER who won a round of golf with Tiger Woods for $30,100 at a 2004 Buick charity auction could deduct all but about $200.

TIGER MADE $87 million in 2005, all but $12 million from endorsements and appearance fees.

THE 5TH LEADING philanthropist last year was Boone Pickens, in part due to his $165 million gift to Oklahoma State University’s golf program.

WITHIN AN HOUR, OSU invested it in a hedge fund Pickens controls. Thanks to a Katrina relief provision, his “gift” was also 100% deductible.

LAST YEAR 250 COMPANIES gave top execs between $50,000 and $1 million worth of wholly personal flights on corporate jets.

THIS PERK is 66% more costly to companies whose CEO belongs to out-of-state golf clubs.

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT spends $500,000 on 8 security screeners who speed execs from a Wall Street helipad to American’s JFK terminal.

UNITED HAS CUT the pensions and salaries of most employees but promised 400 top executives 8% of the shares it expects to issue upon emerging from bankruptcy.

UNITED’S TOP 8 execs will also get a bonus of between 55% and 100% of their salaries.

IN 2002, “turnaround artist” Robert Miller dumped Bethlehem Steel’s pension obligation, allowing “vulture investor” Wilbur L. Ross to buy steel stock and sell it at a 1,000% profit.

IN 2005, DELPHI HIRED Miller for $4.5 million. After Ross said he might buy Delphi if its labor costs fell, Miller demanded wage cuts of up to 63% and dumped the pension obligation.

10 FORMER ENRON directors agreed to pay shareholders a $13 million settlement—which is 10% of what they made by dumping stock while lying about the company’s health.

POOR AMERICANS spend 1/4 of their income on residential energy costs.

EXXON’S 2005 PROFIT of $36.13 billion is more than the GDP of 2/3 of the world’s nations.

CEO PAY AMONG military contractors has tripled since 2001. For David Brooks, the CEO of bulletproof vest maker DHB, it’s risen 13,233%.

AT THE $10 MILLION bat mitzvah party Brooks threw his daughter last year, guests got $1,000 gift bags and listened to Aerosmith, Kenny G., Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, and 50 Cent—who reportedly sang, “Go shorty, it’s your bat mitzvah, we gonna party like it’s your bat mitzvah.”

FOR PERFORMING IN the Live 8 concerts to “make poverty history,” musicians each got gift bags worth up to $12,000.

OSCAR PERFORMERS and presenters collectively owe the IRS $1,250,000 on the gift bags they got at the 2006 Academy Awards ceremony.

A DOG FOOD COMPANY provided “pawdicures” and other spa treatments to pets of celebrities attending the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

ONE OF MADONNA’S recent freebies: $10,000 mink and diamond-tipped false eyelashes.

PARIS HILTON, who charges clubs $200,000 to appear for 20 minutes, stiffed Elton John’s AIDS benefit the $2,500-per-plate fee she owed.

ACCORDING TO Radar magazine, Owen Wilson was paid $100,000 to attend a Mercedes-Benz-sponsored Hamptons polo match. When other guests tried to speak with him, he reportedly said, “That’s not my job.”

-- Clara Jeffery (Ed.)

The Man Who Got Too Much Support

In the past we have seen some noteworthy Presidential candidates that turned out to be the dark horse in the end when they ran as independents and snagged just enough of the vote for the other guy to win. It was always clear who was going to stick around as the dark horse independent, but this time around it seems that the likely independent will more likely snag the Republican party nomination and be on the main ticket. At least, I certainly hope it turns out that way, because he's already got my vote.

Who am I speaking of? The congressman from Texas. The only candidate that mentions the constitution as part of how he will change the direction of our nation. The only candidate that has the guts to point out the real reason for September 11th and not hide behind the statement "The terrorists hate our freedom, war good, mmkay" as Giuliani does. That clown actually asked him to retract his statement at the debate in order to make himself look tough on terrorism. The only candidate still gaining in campaign contributions, and not only that, but all of his campaign funds are coming in small donations from regular hard working people, not large lump sums from corporations. Heck, he's already raised nearly another million in October alone, and we're no even halfway through the month. I am talking about Ron Paul.

Recently CNBC pulled the post-debate poll off of their website because Ron Paul was at around 75% of the vote, which obviously can't be accurate. They accused Paul's campaign workers and supporters of flooding the poll and 'hacking' the results. Even if that were true, it's amazing that the media reacts to normal people doing it, but not major corporations rigging presidential elections. They claimed that since his support in the online poll didn't match other polls conducted over the phone, it couldn't be trusted. How many of you have ever actually been polled over the phone? I know I haven't. I've had friends that worked for a polling company that sat around all day calling and polling people, and they say the only people they talked to were old retired people, because they're the only ones sitting around at home in the afternoon with a LAND LINE. Besides, in a telephone poll the polling company can pick who they call (even though they say it's random, how am I supposed to believe that on their word alone?). Whereas an online poll is open to everyone that wants to voice they're opinion. It's just too bad that when they voice an opinion the company doesn't like, they are forced to take down the poll and resort to slandering the candidate.

Out of Thirty-Five Straw Polls conducted at debates and other live functions, Ron Paul has placed first in Sixteen of them, and second in Six more. He dominates the online polls, and the youtube page dedicated to his videos receive over 4.5 million views from more than Thirty-Two thousand subscribers since March of this year. All I had to do to find that youtube page was type in 'Ron Paul' in the search and it was the first or second result.

I did the same search with Rudy's name and pulled up more videos slamming him and calling him on all of his crap without a loyal page in sight.

Hillary Clinton's channel was pretty low in the search as well underneath videos that were not in her favor. Even then her channel has struggled to get close to a million views since July of -2006-! It's been up nearly a year longer and still doesn't have a fourth of the viewings Paul's channel has garnered in little over six months.

Mitt Romeny's channel has been up since January of this year, two months longer than Paul's, and he has less views than Hillary at just under 800,000.

John McCain's channel has been up only a month longer than Paul's, yet he's only sitting at just under 500k views, not too mention a couple of not-so-nice videos before finding his channel in the search.

Fred Thompson only recently threw his hat into the ring, and his youtube channel has only been up since May of this year, so I guess it isn't too surprising only 57k people wanted to see one of his videos.

The only other Presidential candidate running to get onto the ticket for their party that has more views than Ron Paul is Barack Obama. His channel has been up since September of last year, and he sits at around 11 million views, but only has a third the number of subscribers as Paul.

After looking through three to four pages of search results on youtube I could not find one video that tried to shed a negative light on Ron Paul. Each of the other candidates, asides from perhaps Obama, had a handful on every page of search results. Why is this? Is it because there is no dirt on the congressman from Texas?

Check out this clip for yourself and get an idea of why Ron Paul is garnering so much support on the internet despite being purposefully ignored by the mass media.


And here's another video giving some more background on Ron Paul. Watch both of these and educate yourself, then go vote in the primary, then vote in the presidential election.


It is only going to be because of people like you, people that turn to the internet rather than just the mass media for their source of information, that will change history come the next Presidential Election. When Ron Paul wins the presidency it will show the corporate world they can no longer control the population through the spin of the mass media. The truth is out there, and because of the internet we can find it for ourselves after we deny the lies they feed us. It should say a good deal that of all the candidates, Ron Paul is likely the only one that has voted against attempting to regulate the internet.

You vote. You decide.

New Iraq Gov't Growing Cojones

The BBC recently reported that the Iraqi Interior Ministry had recently banned the private security firm known as Blackwater from the country after an incident with some of their personnel left eight or more innocent Iraqi civilians dead. Furthermore, the Iraqi government went on to say that they would be pursuing prosecution of the contractors involved in the incident. What's that? They're going to hold these private contractors accountable for their actions because they're tired of them running around doing whatever they want in their country? Is it because the State Department turns a blind eye to private contractors and doesn't hold them or their parent companies responsible for their actions? Shocking!

Of course, in true cover-your-own-ass fashion, a spokesman for Condi told the press that she wanted to

"ensure that everything was being done to avoid the loss of innocent life and to make sure this kind of incident never happened again.

She is also expected to telephone Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to reassure him that the US had launched its own investigation."

I've been telling people for a long time now that one of the reason's we're doing so badly in Iraq is because of these private contractors that are allowed to run free in the country and do things they're own way, often well outside the lines of the Geneva convention that the rest of the troops are required to adhere to. Perhaps thats why they are paid such ridiculous salaries and aren't held accountable, so that they can kill and torture those civilians that the US Military can't.

For a better look at the folly that are the private contractors in Iraq, check out a documentary called 'Iraq for Sale'. It's rather eye opening to say the least.

The Thirty Day Plan

The following is an article written by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. and was published in the March 1991 edition of 'The Free Market'. It may have been published and written sixteen years ago, but I think at by this time we're coming to the tipping point and this plan would go a long way to fixing a lot of the problems that plague this country.

Rockwell's Thirty-Day Plan

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

When Eastern Europe broke free in 1989, we all realized just how little thought had been given to the transition from socialism to capitalism. Mises had told us the collapse was coming, and we should have been prepared.

As America comes to resemble a command economy, we need a transition plan here too. Yuri Maltsev proposed a "One-Year Plan" for the U.S.S.R. We're not in that bad a shape (yet), so we could do it in 30 days.

DAY ONE: The federal income tax is abolished and April 15th is declared a national holiday. The 40% reduction in federal revenues is matched by a 40% cut in spending. The budget is still almost twice as big as Jimmy Carter's.

DAY TWO: All other federal taxes are abolished, including the corporate income tax, the capital gains tax, the gasoline tax, "sin" taxes, excise taxes, etc. Businesses boom, and the few legitimate federal functions are funded with an inexpensive head tax. People who choose not to vote need not pay it. (Note: this was a mainstream view in the 19th century.)

DAY THREE: The federal government sells all its land, freeing up tens of millions of acres for development, mining, farming, forestry, oil drilling, private parks, etc. The government uses the revenue to pay off the national debt and other liabilities.

DAY FOUR: The minimum wage is reduced to zero, creating jobs for ex-federal bureaucrats at their market wage. All pro-union laws and regulations are scrapped. The jobless rate falls dramatically.

DAY FIVE: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, like the rest of the Labor Department, is sent to that big hiring hall in the sky. Without detailed economic statistics, future economic planners will be blind and deaf.

DAY SIX: The Department of Commerce is abolished. Big business has to make its own way in the world, without subsidies and privileges at the expense of its competitors and customers.

DAY SEVEN: The plug is pulled on the Department of Energy. Oil and gas prices plummet.

DAY EIGHT: All regulatory agencies, from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the Federal Trade Commission, are deep-sixed. Competition is legalized.

DAY NINE: HUD is squashed like a bug. There's a building boom in cheap, private, apartments.

DAY TEN: The interstate highways reopen as private businesses. Road entrepreneurs price travel according to consumer demand. Using modern technology, drivers get bills once a month. Credit risks – and drunks and dangerous drivers – aren't allowed on the road. Non-drivers no longer subsidize car owners.

DAY ELEVEN: Government welfare is wiped out. Bums work or starve. The deserving poor find a cornucopia of private services designed to make them independent. Private charity explodes, as the American people, already the most generous in the world, find their incomes almost doubled, thanks to the tax cuts.

DAY TWELVE: The Federal Reserve closes its open-market operations and stops protecting the banking industry from competition. But banks can now engage in all the non-bank financial activities previously forbidden to them. The business cycle, which is caused by monetary expansion through the credit markets, is liquidated.

DAY THIRTEEN: Federal deposit insurance is scrapped. All insured deposits are redeemed from federal assets, which include the personal assets of high-level government employees. The threat of bank runs forces banks to keep 100% reserves for their demand deposits, and prudent reserves on all other accounts. There are no more inherently bankrupt banks propped up by the government, at taxpayer expense, and no more bail-outs.

DAY FOURTEEN: The shaky fiat dollar is defined in terms of gold, with the ratio determined by dividing the government's gold stock by all existing dollars on that day.

DAY FIFTEEN: The federal government sells National and Dulles airports to the highest bidder, and stops all subsidies to other socialist airports around the country. All constraints on airline prices and service cease. It costs more to fly during peak hours than off-peak, but overall, air travel drops in price.

DAY SIXTEEN: All government regulations that create and sustain cartels are abolished, including those for the post office, telephones, television, radio, and cable TV. Prices plummet, and a host of new and unforeseen services becomes available.

DAY SEVENTEEN: Centrally planned agriculture, as imposed by Hoover and Roosevelt, is repealed: there are no more subsidies, payments-in-kind, marketing orders, low-interest loans, etc. Farm prices drop. Entrepreneurial farmers get rich. Welfare farmers go into another line of work. The poor eat like kings.

DAY EIGHTEEN: The Justice Department shutters its anti-trust division. Companies, big and small, are free to merge – up, down, or sideways. Stockholders can buy any other company, or sell their stock to anyone else. Marginal producers can no longer battle their competitors with bureaucratic weapons.

DAY NINETEEN: The Department of Education flunks the constitutionality test, and is kicked out. Private charities set up remedial reading and writing programs for the former bureaucrats. Federally subsidized sex education and other anti-family programs go out of business. Local school districts become responsive to parents or close, pressured by a fast-growing private school sector (which many more parents can now afford).

DAY TWENTY: All federal monuments are sold, in some cases to non-profit groups based on the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association, which owns and runs George Washington's home. The VFW buys the Vietnam memorial. There is much bidding for the Jefferson and Washington monuments. Nobody wants FDR's, so it's torn down and the land sold to a farmer. (With the federal government cut back to its constitutional size, much of Washington reverts to productive uses like agriculture, as in late 18th century.)

DAY TWENTY-ONE: The computerized financial and political dossier maintained by the government on every American is erased. The public wanders through the federal offices to make sure, in a reprise of the East Berliners' visits to Stasi headquarters.

DAY TWENTY-TWO: Equal rights are granted to all Americans, even members of non-victim groups. There is no affirmative action, no quotas, no set-asides, no public accommodations laws. Private property and freedom of association are fully restored.

DAY TWENTY-THREE: The EPA is cleaned out, with all "clean air" and similar big-government laws repealed. Ten thousand lawyers leap from their balconies. Private property is established in air and water. Americans harmed by pollution are free to sue the polluters, who are no longer protected by the federal government.

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: Americans are given complete freedom of contract, restoring rationality to malpractice and product liability law.

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Government scrambles for more assets to sell (i.e., the National Zoo, also known as Washington, D.C.) to pay off the liabilities of the privatized Social Security system.

DAY TWENTY-SIX: Porno artists have to earn their own livings, as the National Endowment for the Arts tries to raise its budget through sidewalk painting sales.

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Foreign aid is outlawed as unconstitutional, unjust, and un-economic. Foreign politicians have to steal their own money. The World Bank, IMF, and United Nations close their super-luxurious doors.

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: The American people are given the unrestricted right to keep and bear arms.

DAY TWENTY-NINE: The Defense Department is reoriented towards defense. American troops come home from all around the world. We adopt a policy of armed neutrality, remembering the Founding Fathers' teaching that we could not have an empire abroad and a constitutional republic at home.

DAY THIRTY: All tariffs, quotas, and trade agreements are put through the shredder. Americans can trade with anyone in the world, without barriers or subsidies. Japanese car prices drop an immediate 25%.

In just 30 exhilarating days, we have established the outlines of free market. Radical? Maybe so. Me, I can't wait until Month Two.

A Small Aside on the Ten Commandments

An Excerpt from Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion

In his article, Eckstein brilliantly dissects the claim that the justice system is based on a short list of rules for late-Bronze-Age Israelites (i.e., the Ten Commandments). Here's a small taste:

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

The first problem is the version to be displayed. My own discussion will be largely based on the traditional King James Version. But there are currently well over a dozen other Protestant translations on the mass market, as well as several Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish translations. Should a state legislature choose one translation favored by just one segment of the Judeo-Christian tradition while excluding those favored by all the others?

Most public displays - including Justice Moore's version - are not the full Ten Commandments. They are abridgments of the originals - Reader's Digest versions - that exclude many of the thornier passages. The King James Version contains 334 words, but Moore has taken it upon himself to whittle them down to a mere 75.

The First Commandment begins, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt." An increasing number of Americans are Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Shintoists, Taoists, Confucians, adherents of Native American religions, animists, agnostics, and atheists - few of whom claim descent from the Israelite tribes who fled Egypt. Should a state government be in the business of declaring to all its citizens that they shall "have no other gods" above the God of the Israelites?

The Second Commandment forbids making any "graven," or carved, image - and bowing down to one. This warning also ignores the wide range of religious practice. Some Hindus bow before graven images of their gods, and some Catholics genuflect before graven images of their saints. The Vatican is filled with graven images of Christ, saints, and popes. Nor are most state governments innocent of this practice. In Michigan the capitol lawn holds at least six graven images - a stone eagle atop a war memorial, two stags on the state seal, a wolverine on an historical marker, two soldiers, and an imposing statue of the state's Civil War governor. Should these statues display a warning from the legislature that God forbids the making of graven images?

The Second Commandment also threatens to visit "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." Should a child visiting the capitol start to worry that she may be punished because decades ago a great grandfather she never knew may have hit his thumb with a hammer and impulsively used the name of the Lord in vain? Does any American law seek to punish children, let alone grandchildren and great-grandchildren, for the transgressions of their fathers?

If the founders used the Ten Commandments in drafting the federal Constitution, they did a masterful job of disguising that fact. Not one key word from the Commandments appears in the text. The only allusion to them is to the Second Commandment, and it is a decidedly negative one - an absolute rejection of "Corruption of Blood," the philosophy of punishing children for the crimes of their parents. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote, "It is the essence of the institutions of liberty that it be recognized that guilt is personal." Isn't such recognition a sounder foundation for our laws than the intergenerational vengeance propounded by the Second Commandment?

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

So none of these seven Commandments can be seen in any way as part of the "bedrock" of law today. Only three enjoin behavior for which most states currently punish people: the Sixth forbids killing, the Eighth forbids stealing, and the Ninth forbids bearing false witness. But these have been criminal offenses in many societies the world over that were quite innocent of the Ten Commandments. They were part of criminal law in ancient Babylon and Egypt centuries before the time of Moses. The Romans included them as early as the fifth century B.C.E., when they were still worshipping a whole stable of morally flawed gods, led by the lecherous Jupiter. Many indigenous peoples of North America, Africa, and the South Pacific islands had comparable taboos.

[NOTE: Eckstein's many footnotes/references are available in the printed version.]

A Look At The Candidates

So, who's your pick for Presidential Candidate for the next election? Do you even know who is running? Do you know anything about them? Do you even know there's a presidential election this year?

Anyways, on to the candidates.

Rudy Giuliani


Yeah, I lost track of how many times he's been married also (not too mention once to his cousin). Then there's the fact he's a crossdresser, that doesn't help much. What I can't understand is why the religious right is supporting Giuliani so much, when the man is Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay Marriage, Anti-Gun rights, and pretty much everything the religious right is against. Oh, but he will continue the 'War On Terror!!!'. One other thing before we move on, Giuliani's law firm is currentyl representing the Spanish company that will own and profit from the CanaMex Super highway the globalists want to build from Mexico to Canada as part of their move for a North American Union. That's right, he's fighting hard for our right to pay a foreign company to drive on the highway in our own country. Let's not forget how Rudy has been so successful in profiting off 9/11 by traveling around talking about it. Way to go Rudy!


John McCain

You know, I used to like McCain, cause he seemed like the one Republican that didn't stick to ridiculous legislation simply because that's what the party wants. But at this point, the guy is a better flip-flop than my shoes.


Mitt Romney

Check out this short video clip on Romeny's issues with Civil Liberties, because after all, he's the Republican Champion of Civil Liberties.



Wait...hold on a second...double Guantanamo? Planting bugs in churches and mosques? This guy should be the posterchild for BIG BROTHER, not civil liberties.

Fred Thompson

My liking of Fred Thompson ceases when I tell TiVo to delete the episode of Law and Order I just got done watching. Fred just recently announced he was going to be joining the race for President in '08, so let's take another look at good 'ole Fred:

In this video we see Fred being confronted in an Airport in Houston before he announced he'd be running for President. The woman asks Fred about his role as part of the Council on Foreign Relations and confronts him about the plans in progress for the forming of the North American Union. He does a decent job of spinning his involvement and outright denies knowing anything about it, though he does admit to being a member of conservative think-tanks.


Here we see Fred's great service as Senator to the American people who needed him:


Hillary Clinton

Where do I start with good ole Hillary? How about a video. Admittedly, there is a plug for Obama at the end of the clip, so don't take this as a sign of my affiliation with any party.


When you get a chance, check out this website on evidence of Hillary's Globalist Agenda.

Interesting Fact: Bill Clinton is the grandson of Winthrop Rockefeller, thus through marriage Hillary is tied to the Rockefeller's. It is also worth mentioning that prior to Bill's election into office, he had attended his final meetings with the Bilderberg group.

When you have some time, about 45 minutes, go on over to google video and watch this video. I'm not trying to push conspiracy theory or anything, but it presents a number of good arguments and facts, so watch it with an open mind. And please excuse the repetitive matrix soundtrack in the background.

Pat Tillman: What Really Happened?

There have not many very many soldiers thus far that the Government has chosen to use for positive PR for the war on "terrorism". Personally, I think my girlfriend has more chance of success in the war on snoring than the 'war on terrorism', but that's just one guy's opinion.

Remember when Jessica Lynch got captured when her supply convoy was ambushed, then later she was 'rescued' by U.S. Forces? The story they told painted a picture of a convoy being ambushed, and a young private heroically refusing to give up as she continued to fight until she was captured after sustaining bullet and stab wounds. Later we find out that this was all a lie. The humvee she was riding in was struck with an RPG, and although some in the vehicle were killed on impact, one of the soldiers died later in the Iraqi hospital that Lynch was also taken to, as six others were killed in the firefight that ensued.

The Iraqi doctors did all they could to treat her wounds, even to the point of removing shrapnel and performing surgery on her leg. The nurses were kind to her, soothed her, and even attempted to return her to U.S. Forces at one point. Some time later U.S. Forces created diversions around the city as a team went into the hospital, and without firing any shots found her, got her onto a stretcher, and airlifted her out of the town and later out of the country.

Here's the video of Lynch testifying before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who are also looking into the Pat Tillman case:


Here's a video of Tillman's brother testifying before the same committee:

Who was Pat Tillman?

He maintained an almost perfect grade point average, graduated Arizona State University in just three and a half years and won the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year honor in his senior year. He was a low draft pick into the NFL but quickly became a rising star. His rookie year for the Arizona Cardinals was sensational and it was no surprise to anybody following football that the then-mighty St. Louis Rams dangled a nine million dollar check at him. The shocker came when he turned the Rams' offer down out of loyalty to the Arizona Cardinals, something you rarely see anymore in professional sports.

Later, after 9/11, Tillman turned down the Cardinals' offer of 3.6 million for another year in order to enlist in the Army. From there he went on to join the ranks of the Army Rangers and headed off to Iraq to serve his country. He was, for a time, the pro-war poster child. To serve the idealogical needs of some, the patriotic image of Pat Tillman in his Army Ranger beret became the perfect recruitment tool and the new gold standard for the red-blooded, God-fearing American male.

Directly following his death, Tillman's family and the American public were told that he was killed by 'afghan rebels' on April 22, 2004. We don't yet know the reasoning behind the lies, but that's what was given to us when we wanted to know how he died. Maybe they were afraid that this coupled with the breaking news from Abu Gharib would severely cripple the support of the war. Later the Government changed their tune and said that he had been killed accidentally by 'friendly fire', but they still tried to shift the focus by playing up his bravery and sacrifice.

But wait! It gets better!


New evidence and testimony has come to light that paints a darker image than a mere 'friendly fire' accident. These new clues tell us that Pat Tillman may have actually been murdered by his fellow soldiers on purpose. The Associated Press reported:

"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors - whose names were blacked out - said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

And here's the latest according to the Associated Press:

(Instead of being in a Humvee in a valley firing up at Pat Tillman and his fellow soldiers on mountain, it turns out) the shooters were "close, close enough for me to recognize them, but they sure weren't 10 yards away. They were further than that. I've thought about this plenty of times. They wouldn't have been more than 50 yards away," said Spc. O'Neal who was closest to Tillman at the time of the shooting.

Another key issue raised in the transcripts involved never-before-mentioned snipers who were apparently there when the firing broke out, got out of their vehicle and walked alongside the convoy, cutting up the canyon firing.

O'Neal said Saturday that he knew there were snipers in the convoy that fired at them, but that he can't remember their names. Were they fired at by the snipers? "Not that I know of," O'Neal told the AP.

Will we ever really know what really happened to Pat Tillman, or why he was murdered by his fellow soldiers? Who knows...

The Government is Laughing in Your Face

A couple of things are going down right about now that people need to know about, but you won't hear on any mass media outlet.

The heads of state for Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. met a week or so ago in Canada to further discuss terms of their Security and Prosperity Partnership deal they are working on, otherwise known as the North American Union. They want to eliminate the borders and merge the three nations into a giant super state, with giant unsupervised highways running from border to border right through the middle of the U.S. Most people say "Thats ridiculous, they're not doing any of that", but fourteen states have now passed legislation opposing the super highways and the SPP. When asked about the recent meeting of the three heads of state in canada (which were met by large crowds of protesters and ended a few days early), each head of state came up with a different lie.

Canada's Prime Minister Harper said:

“The rules for jelly bean contents are different in Canada and the United States…. Is the sovereignty of Canada going to fall apart if we standardize the jelly bean? I don't think so.”

President Calderon of Mexico said the meeting was for “parameters for chocolates.”

Here's an excerpt from an article over at firesociety.com:

"Of course, President Bush took the opportunity to take pot shots at citizens like you and me who are questioning the SPP. He said he was “amused by some of the speculation” and dismissed it as “political scare tactics” centered on “conspiracy” theories. (Remember that the President used a similar approach in the amnesty debate, going to Mexico and chiding his fellow Americans for this lack of compassion toward Mexican "migrants")."- Steve Elliot

If that isn't bad enough, the recent deal that was made to allow mexican truckers to haul their loads into the U.S. instead of turning them over to American truckers at the border is going into effect and letting the trucks start to roll this weekend. That's right, the weekend we celebrate Labor Day, our right to work a decent job at a decent wage, they are going to allow mexican truckers to start usurping the backbone of our country: the trucking industry. On Labor Day itself no less. With the unemployment rate rising as the American Middle Class is fighting a losing battle against the rich upper class, the Government has the nerve to laugh in our face by mocking us on Labor Day with Government backed job outsourcing.

And if it weren't bad enough, it gets even better. These mexican truckers that are going to be coming into the states with their loads won't be required to take the Homeland Security class that was mandatory for all American truckers. Remember the two border agents that are in prison for doing their jobs a little too well? Well guess what, it turns out that in the trial we find out that the mexican drug smuggler they shot had a mexican commercial drivers license, and then he was caught a second time smuggling a truck full of dope across the border. But of course that's irrelevant to the case as it was dismissed and he was given a pass that lets him come and go as he pleases, courtesy of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton (which by the way you can sign the petition to have him removed as U. S. Attorney for the Western District of TX here).

So what were they really doing at the SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec? Recently it was released that the "North American Plan for Avian & Pandemic Influenza" was finalized, not the regulation of the jelly bean and chocolates. Here's the opening paragraph of a long article over at WorldNetDaily detailing this plan:

"The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America summit in Canada released a plan that establishes U.N. law along with regulations by the World Trade Organization and World Health Organization as supreme over U.S. law during a pandemic and sets the stage for militarizing the management of continental health emergencies." - WorldNetDaily

Yes, you read that right, this "North American Plan for Avian & Pandemic Influenza" gives the U.N. and the World Trade Organization full legal power over our country, effectively pronouncing the Constitution null and void if they so chose. And if that doesn't tickle your goat, how about this:

"At the same time, the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, has created a webpage dedicated to avian flu and has been running exercises in preparation for the possible use of U.S. military forces in a continental domestic emergency involving avian flu or pandemic influenza." - WorldNetDaily

Let's not also forget the recent executive directives Bush put out, effectively declaring himself supreme dictator in total control of the government in the event of a catastrophe, pandemic, etc. The guidelines put forth as to what qualifies for these conditions is left intentionally vague. I'm sure most of you are saying at this point "But how can he do these things without the approval of Congress and the Senate?". Well kids, that one's easy, he's doing it anyway, and not really telling the Congress anything about it.

Chew on that for a while.

Sweet Movie Trailer: I Am Legend

The New Will Smith movie has Smith playing Robert Neville, the last man alive. Based on the 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, Neville somehow survives a huge pandemic infection of a bacterium that seems to cause most of the well known symptoms of vampirism. Though it causes the infected to have an aversion to garlic, a craving for fresh blood, and seemingly invulnerable to bullets but not stakes or sunlight, they aren't quite your intelligent full fledged vampires from the cult classics. They're closer to the raging zombies of the 28 days/weeks later variety, only, y'know, vampires.



From what I've read, the book does a great job of painting a picture of anguish and despair as Neville works on boarding up and fortifying his home during the day, and hunting down the infected vampires by night. I don't care what anybody says about Will Smith, this movie looks like it's gonna be pure steak sauce: A-1 baby.


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I don't know if this is the way they're going to take the movie, but in the book Neville is the only one immune to the virus, but eventually he discovers he's not the only one alive. Neville happens across another class of folks that while still infected manage to keep the disease at bay for parts of the day. But, like you do, Neville goes about killing these folks along with the rest of the infected. Then one day they capture him and reveal what they are to him, making him realize that he had become the monster that terrified the living.

The Puppet Master!

For awhile now I've been reviewing instructional dance videos online to find that new dance move that would set me apart from the rest the next time I got into a dance off at the discotheque. I do believe I have found such a move, and it is called the puppet master. Here's a video so you all can join in!