spooky_nine

what's new in the news? well, it looks like that vile woman ann coulter has spouted off again, calling john edwards a faggot. oh, but when she said faggot, she didn't mean in the homosexual sense, she meant... wait, what?
also, in "Scary Government News", the navy has developed a ray gun that makes people vomit. yes, you heard that right. they're describing it as a "Star Trek hand-held Phaser Weapon set on 'Stun'" want better news? it has the ability to go through walls.
do you upload nudie pics to photobucket or flikr? well stop it! the government has drafted a proposal that would make websites keep track of who uploads what, in case police determine the content is illegal and want to investigate. so no more pictures of you bathing your daughters, or videos of you making LED-lighted advertisements to hang up around major cities.
but the united states doesn't have a monopoly on scary, civil liberties-trampling orwellianism (is that a word?). lo! france says it's now illegal for private citizens to film acts of violence. in an unflattering twist of fate, the council chose to publish its decision approving the law on the 16th anniversary of the Rodney King beatings. checks and balances? who needs 'em! you want something a little more 1984? china has blocked livejournal. are they worried about free speech? importing democracy? the influx of western ideas? or just really pissed off that some chinese kid is telling the world that parents just don't understand?

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: audrey start the revolution // anberlin

Republican calls for email and IM monitoring
ISPs would have to keep records of emails, IM and website visits

A bill introduced to the US House of Representatives would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely.

The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records.

"A crime is still a crime, whether it occurs on the street or on the internet," said Congressman Smith.

"In this age of increasing digital and technological sophistication, cyber-crimes and cyber-terrorism pose a serious threat to the US. Law enforcement and the private sector must be prepared to deal with these crimes."

The bill includes a separate clause that would force the owners of sexually explicit websites to include warning labels on their web pages, or face jail.

Also included is a 20-year "jail tariff" for anyone ordering child pornography that crosses state borders, with a $150,000 fine for the ISP that allowed the transaction to take place.

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Music: compliments // bloc party

Bill seeks jail terms for downloading porn

Manama: A Bahraini lawmaker is pushing for strict prison terms for people charged with downloading pornographic material off the internet, parliament sources told Gulf News yesterday.

The punishment is a part of a package of prison terms and fines suggested in a Bill presented by Council of Representatives member Abdullah Al Dossari.

"We have noted an alarming surge in cyber crimes resulting from impressive technological developments, but the perpetrators are not always punished. I am submitting this Bill to deter anyone who wants to steal money or disseminate destructive ideas or spread vice," Al Dossari said in the motion.

The MP suggested anyone who uses the internet to download, possess, host, publish or distribute pornographic material should be jailed for one year. In its drive to consolidate its status as the "telecommunications hub of the Gulf," the kingdom has made access to the internet easily available.

us americans, we don't know how good we have it.

( delicious trap )

Current Mood: lonely
Current Music: heretics and killers // protest the hero

High School to Test Students for Alcohol

PEQUANNOCK, N.J. (AP) -- High school kids who illegally go drinking over the weekend could still find themselves in trouble at school a few days later.

A New Jersey school district is adopting a new policy that allows officials to randomly test students. The test they'll use can detect alcohol as much as three days after its consumption.

When students test positive, their parents will be told. They'll also get counseling, but won't be kicked off teams or kept from after-school activities.

The school superintendent believes it'll keep students from giving in to peer pressure to drink.

Officials acknowledge the tests can produce false positives after using things like mouthwash and Balsamic vinegar. But they say a student generally has to have one or two drinks for the test to register.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey calls the tests an invasion of privacy.

think this will last? or will the aclu get this policy thrown out?

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: american jesus // bad religion

Rage Against His Bowling Shirts
A former moveon.org vol shows up wearing slogans deemed anti-American and is forced to move on from his bowling team and alley

"The man in the black shirt with large white letters that read "IMPEACH AND IMPRISON" stands out in the blue-collar bowling alley like someone shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
It's December 8, and the patrons of AMF Deer Valley Lanes know Jason Tunay and his inflammatory tee shirts well by now.
And some of them, at least, aren't one bit sorry he's been kicked off his team because of those shirts and the ruckus they've caused."

and:

"Tunay, 35, helped put his four-person team in first place and within striking distance of a $500-per-player prize to be awarded later this month.
Yet despite his strikes and spares, teammates and other bowlers have been pissed off at his choice in bowling shirts since the league season started in September.
Many of the patrons at Deer Valley Lanes are cops or military folks with the stereotypical right-leaning philosophies.
Tensions came to a head in mid-November when Tunay got into a loud argument with an elderly Army veteran who had criticized his Rage Against the Machine "Evil Empire" tee shirt.
The incident caused some of the Deer Valley Lanes bowlers to plan an informal "Patriot Night" on November 30, the same night Tunay's teammates decided to give him the boot.
At the request of one of the teammates, a manager at the Deer Valley Lanes put on a CD of patriotic songs like Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A."
The event was aimed squarely at Tunay.
"This was a form of patriotism that was like, 'We don't want your kind around here,'" says Cynthia Ribitzki, 26, one of Tunay's few supporters at the bowling alley."

Current Mood: insomina
Current Music: supermassive black hole // muse

9/11 Is Why He's The Worst President Ever
by Bob Cesca

"Looking back at the last five years, I can't help but to compare our recent history to a time travel movie in which the time-space continuum has skewed into an alternate reality and the events that should've happened after 9/11... simply never existed. In other words, September 11 should have initiated an era of peace and collective world unity. But through the president's incompetence, stubbornness, ambition and greed, the polar opposite has occurred."

also:

"Imagine if President Bush had been a better man and used 9/11 to appeal to the better angels of our nature.

What if he hadn't withdrawn much of his financial pledge to help the heroes of 9/11 with medical costs, and, now that they're no longer useful in photo ops, has allowed them to die slow, choking deaths mired in bankruptcy? What if the president had pledged as much money and support for the surviving first responders as he has for Halliburton and the Iraq War?

What if the president had kept his eye on Bin Laden rather than pulling out, leaving Afghanistan to flounder and Bin Laden to escape unharmed?

What if, like Lincoln (the president's unlikely roll model), the president had used 9/11 as a catalyst to inaugurate an era of renewed equality?

What if the president had preserved our liberties and worked in a bipartisan way in Washington, rather than chiseling away our rights and destroying the national unity that we felt on those days in September?

What if the president hadn't exploited 9/11 so flagrantly for politics and profit as to strip it of its deserved reverence?

What if, instead of a man who actually grins and smirks when discussing Iraq casualties, we had a president with the intellectual and oratory chops to make any of these "what ifs" a reality, because President Bush surely does not.

A better man usually aspires to positivity in the face of tragedy and brutality, but in the final analysis history will show that President Bush barely even tried."

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: invincible // muse

Gingrich raises alarm at event honoring those who stand up for freedom of speech

"MANCHESTER – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
Newt Gingrich
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.
"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994."

Current Mood: impotent anger, again
Current Music: curious // holly brook

Democrats win House, promise new direction link

Democrats win control of Senate, AP reports link

World reaction: Democratic win welcomed link

Rumsfeld quits as Democrats sweep U.S. election link

Bush names Gates to replace Rumsfeld link

South Dakota votes against ban of almost all abortions link

Gay marriage ban rejected in Arizona, approved in 7 other states link

Six States Boost Minimum Wage link

California voters rejected a ballot measure to tax state oil production and fund the development of alternative energy link

Current Mood: hungover
Current Music: holly brook

Army Recruiters Accused of Misleading Students to Get Them to Enlist

Nov. 3, 2006 — An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist.

ABC News and New York affiliate WABC equipped students with hidden video cameras before they visited 10 Army recruitment offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

"Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?" one student asks a recruiter.

"No, we're bringing people back," he replies.

"We're not at war. War ended a long time ago," another recruiter says.

Last year, the Army suspended recruiting nationwide to retrain recruiters following hundreds of allegations of improprieties.

see also Sexual Abuse By Military Recruiters More Than 100 Women Raped Or Assaulted By Recruiters In Past Year.

i would not put it past recruiters for any of the military branches to lie in order to get more kids signed up. i remember the army recruiters telling me i could wear my facial piercings during basic training. little lie, big lie.

Current Mood: amazed
Current Music: t.v. on in the other room

Army Times: "Time for Rumsfeld to Go"
By Andrew S. Ross
The San Francisco Chronicle
Friday 03 November 2006

An editorial scheduled to appear on Monday in Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times, calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The papers are sold to American servicemen and women. They are published by the Military Times Media Group, which is a subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc.
Here is the text of the editorial, an advance copy of which we received this afternoon.

Time for Rumsfeld to Go

"So long as our government requires the backing of an aroused and informed public opinion ... it is necessary to tell the hard bruising truth."

That statement was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Marguerite Higgins more than a half-century ago during the Korean War.

But until recently, the "hard bruising" truth about the Iraq war has been difficult to come by from leaders in Washington. One rosy reassurance after another has been handed down by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "mission accomplished," the insurgency is "in its last throes," and "back off," we know what we're doing, are a few choice examples.

Military leaders generally toed the line, although a few retired generals eventually spoke out from the safety of the sidelines, inciting criticism equally from anti-war types, who thought they should have spoken out while still in uniform, and pro-war foes, who thought the generals should have kept their critiques behind closed doors.

Now, however, a new chorus of criticism is beginning to resonate. Active-duty military leaders are starting to voice misgivings about the war's planning, execution and dimming prospects for success.

Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of US Central Command, told a Senate Armed Services Committee in September: "I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it ... and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war."

Last week, someone leaked to The New York Times a Central Command briefing slide showing an assessment that the civil conflict in Iraq now borders on "critical" and has been sliding toward "chaos" for most of the past year. The strategy in Iraq has been to train an Iraqi army and police force that could gradually take over for US troops in providing for the security of their new government and their nation.

But despite the best efforts of American trainers, the problem of molding a viciously sectarian population into anything resembling a force for national unity has become a losing proposition.

For two years, American sergeants, captains and majors training the Iraqis have told their bosses that Iraqi troops have no sense of national identity, are only in it for the money, don't show up for duty and cannot sustain themselves.

Meanwhile, colonels and generals have asked their bosses for more troops. Service chiefs have asked for more money.

And all along, Rumsfeld has assured us that things are well in hand.

Now, the president says he'll stick with Rumsfeld for the balance of his term in the White House.

This is a mistake.

It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads.

These officers have been loyal public promoters of a war policy many privately feared would fail. They have kept their counsel private, adhering to more than two centuries of American tradition of subordination of the military to civilian authority.

And although that tradition, and the officers' deep sense of honor, prevent them from saying this publicly, more and more of them believe it.

Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.

This is not about the midterm elections. Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth:

Donald Rumsfeld must go.

source
original

Current Mood: wondering why it took so long
Current Music: curious // holly brook

"Bush legalizes martial law -- what Constitution?

On Oct 17, George Bush quietly signed a bill allowing him to declare martial law. The Toward Freedom website summarizes it:

For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.

The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

It's easy to get scabbed over about the Bush White House's assault on the Bill of Rights, but every now and again, they rip loose with an attack so egregious, it rips the scab right off. Between the right-to-torture bill and this one, it's clear that Bush intends to bring back the pork-politics glory of the Cold War by reinventing the Soviet Union on American soil.

The elections are coming up in a matter of weeks. Vote America. Throw the traitors out. Install some leaders who love the Constitution more than the raging hard-on they get from settling political disagreements by imprisoning their opponents."

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: saturdays // holly brook

Bush's New Tack Steers Clear of 'Stay the Course'

"President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as 'stay the course.' A complete distortion, they say. 'That is not a stay-the-course policy,' White House press secretary Tony Snow declared yesterday.
Where would anyone have gotten that idea? Well, maybe from Bush.
But the White House is cutting and running from 'stay the course.' A phrase meant to connote steely resolve instead has become a symbol for being out of touch and rigid in the face of a war that seems to grow worse by the week, Republican strategists say. Democrats have now turned 'stay the course' into an attack line in campaign commercials, and the Bush team is busy explaining that 'stay the course' does not actually mean stay the course."

Current Mood: bemused, yet uneasy
Current Music: cellar door // holly brook

"Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages."

Also: Fox "accidentally" labels Foley a Dem.
Foley claims to have been molested ...
...or was it the booze?
Justice Dept. and FBI get off their asses.
Matt Drudge blames the pages.
Dennis Hastert won't quit even though he knew about it back in 2005.

Current Mood: amazed
Current Music: why do i keep counting // the killers

Marijuana initiative gets Idaho high court's go-ahead

"BOISE -- An initiative proposal that would allow residents to grow, sell and use marijuana within Sun Valley's city limits can move forward, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled.

Two years ago, Ryan Davidson turned in a sample petition on the marijuana initiative to Sun Valley city officials so it could be checked for the format required by the city's rules.

But instead of simply telling Davidson whether the paper, the number of signatures per page and other technical details of the petition were correct, the city rejected the petition altogether, saying it was contrary to state law and therefore outside the scope of the city's initiative process."

Current Mood: terrible insomnia
Current Music: stolen from some great writer // spitalfield

Exclusive: The Sexually Explicit Internet Messages That Led to Fla. Rep. Foley's Resignation

"Florida Rep. Mark Foley's resignation came just hours after ABC News questioned the congressman about a series of sexually explicit instant messages involving congressional pages, high school students who are under 18 years of age.
In Congress, Rep. Foley (R-FL) was part of the Republican leadership and the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children.
He crusaded for tough laws against those who used the Internet for sexual exploitation of children.
'They're sick people; they need mental health counseling,' Foley said.
But, according to several former congressional pages, the congressman used the Internet to engage in sexually explicit exchanges."

article has links to some incriminating aim conversations.

Current Mood: cynical
Current Music: nowhere fast // incubus

BeyondDelay.org
The 20 most corrupt members of Congress (and five to watch)

"Washington, DC – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its second annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress entitled Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch). This encyclopedic report on corruption in the 109th Congress documents the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules."

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA)

Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV)

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)

Rep. Roy Blount (R-MO) Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)

Rep. Kevin Calvert (R-CA) Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) Rep. John Sweeney(R-NY)

Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)

Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: suha // xiu xiu

NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional
Administration appeals; attorney general says 'program is lawful'

"(CNN) -- A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. government's domestic eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the Bush Administration disagrees with the ruling and has appealed.
'We also believe very strongly that the program is lawful,' he said in Washington, adding that the program is 'reviewed periodically' by lawyers to determine its effectiveness and ensure lawfulness."

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: paper wings // rise against

Is an armament sickening U.S. soldiers?
Veterans of Iraq wars battle Pentagon over depleted uranium

"Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq, his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil.
There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick."

Current Mood: upset
Current Music: none

Who's buying cell phone records online? Cops

"A congressional panel investigating the fraudulent acquisition and sale of mobile phone records by Internet Web firms has collected evidence that indicates law enforcement officials at the local, state and federal levels use the Internet-based services as an investigative short-cut, MSNBC.com has learned. At least one Web-based data seller has told Congress that the FBI is a client."

Current Mood: weary
Current Music: damien rice // cannonball

if you haven't already, read the downing street memo the downing Street "memo" is actually a document containing meeting minutes transcribed during the british prime minister's meeting on july 23, 2002 — a full eight months PRIOR to the invasion of iraq on march 20, 2003.
the memo details how the bush administration did not believe iraq was a greater threat than other nations; how intelligence was "fixed" to sell the case for war to the american people; and how the bush administration’s public assurances of "war as a last resort" were at odds with their privately stated intentions.
when asked, british officials "did not dispute the document's authenticity." and a senior american official has described it as "absolutely accurate." yet the bush administration continues to simultaneously sidestep the issue while attempting to cast doubt on the memo’s authenticity.

secret realities vs. public comments

why isn't this being reported on? why is the michael jackson trial getting more coverage than a document that proves the president of the united states lied to the american people, and started a war based on these lies?

why am i not sleeping?

I AM MOVING TO ANOTHER COUNTRY RIGHT THE FUCK NOW. WHO'S COMIN' WITH ME?!

are all my posts about news boring you?

i would've been fucked in high school

oh god i love freedom of speech, don't you?!

op-ed piece

oh dear god

election results for the lazy

seriously. what level of this government isn't corrupt?!

fallout?

via boingboing.net

war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is stregnth

(no subject)

good luck

these people are running our country. do you feel safe?

see anyone from your state?

(no subject)

please let this get picked up and reported on by mainstream news.

let's all shit on the constitution a little bit more

the downing street memo

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February 2011

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Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT)	Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA)
Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)	Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)	Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
Rep. Roy Blount (R-MO)	Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)
Rep. Kevin Calvert (R-CA)	Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)	Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)	Rep. John Sweeney(R-NY)
Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL)	Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)
Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)	Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)	Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)