Attended my first ballet. Backstage access courtesy of the Grand Countess. Here are the photos. As always feedback is good. Especially the negative kind.

Been doing a bit of research here in Garmisch. To what extent is the oocupation of Iraq facilitating the theft of Iraqii oil? Are millions of barrels of oil secretly moving through old pipelines daily?

Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq's Oil
Spark Political Fight Between Neocons and Big Oil: "PHILIP CARROLL: There were models everywhere from the total privatization to partial privatization, etc., etc. There were all sorts of ideas floated about the economy of Iraq and what ought to be done. I was very clear that there was to be no privatization of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved. End of statement.

GREG PALAST: Even some of those who plotted Saddam's overthrow complained that privatization plans added fuel to the insurgency, costing American, British, and Iraqi lives.

FALAH ALJIBURY: Insurgents and those who wanted to destabilize a new Iraq have used this as means of saying, �Look, you're losing your country. You�re losing your leadership. You're losing all of your resources to a bunch of wealthy people. A bunch of billionaires in the world want to take you over and make your life miserable.� And we saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, of course, built on -- built on the premise that privatization is coming.

GREG PALAST: So, how is the State Department going to douse the flames? Here in Houston, the oil capital of America, the industry wasn't too happy about what was going on. �News Night' discovered that big oil chieftains in Iraq demanded a new policy. The job fell to the Texas think tank, founded by Jim Baker, one-time secretary of State, whose law firm now represents George W. Bush, the government of Saudi Arabia, and Exxon Oil."

Debate rages on use of cervical cancer vaccine / While almost 100% effective, some contend use condones teen sex: "Groups working to reduce the toll of the cancer are eagerly awaiting the vaccine and want it to become part of the standard roster of shots that children, especially girls, receive just before puberty.
Because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted virus, many conservatives oppose making it mandatory, citing fears that it could send a subtle message condoning sexual activity before marriage. Several leading groups that promote abstinence are meeting this week to formulate official policies on the vaccine. "

You can relax about Miers: "And he commented that Miers' decision to become a Christian in her mid-30s was a turning point, both spiritually and politically.
'One evening she called me to her office,� Hecht recalled, �and said she was ready to make a commitment to accept Jesus Christ as her Savior and be born again.�
He walked down the hallway from his office to hers, and there amid the legal briefs and court papers, Miers and Hecht 'prayed and talked,' he said"

Propoganda 102: "CNN just showed a bit of the pre-interview clip. Rough transcript of Pentagon flunky addressing the troops:


The president's going to ask some questions and he may ask all 6 of them, all 3 of them. He might have such a great time talking to you. He might come up with some new questions. So what we want to be prepared for is to not stutter. If there's a question that the president comes up with that we haven't drilled through today I expect the microphone to go through to you Captain Kennedy."

propoganda milling 101:
"The event was technologically challenging and required organization and preparation. The soldiers were advised as to the issues they should expect to discuss, and decided among themselves who would speak to each issue as it may arise.

The service members were excited about the opportunity to speak with the President. No one intended to tell them what to think or how to express themselves; going through likely questions in advance was meant solely to help the troops feel at ease during an obviously unique experience."

One of the better emails, I have recieved:

"This test only has one question, but it's a very
> >important one. By giving an honest answer, you will
> >discover where you stand morally.

> > > The test features an unlikely, completely fictional
> >situation in which you will have to make a decision.
> >Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet
> >spontaneous.

> > > Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration
> >to each line.

> > > You are in Florida, Miami to be specific. There is
> >chaos all around caused by a hurricane with severe
> >flooding. This is a flood of biblical proportions. You
> >are a photo journalist working for a major newspaper,
> >and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster.
> >The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to
> >shoot career making photos. There are houses and
> >people swirling around you, some disappearing under
> >the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive
> >fury.

> > > Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water. He
> >is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down
> >with the debris. You move closer...
> > >
> > > somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realise
> >who it is.

> > > It's George W Bush!

> > > At the same time you notice that the raging waters
> >are about to take him under ... forever. You have two
> >options -

> > > you can save the life of G.W. Bush

> > > or

> > > you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning
> >photo, documenting the death of one of the worlds most
> >powerful men.

> > > So here's the question, and please give an honest
> >answer:

> > > Would you select high contrast colour film, or would
> >you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?"

Hullabaloo: "According to Gardiner, 'It was not bad intelligence' that lead to the quagmire in Iraq, 'It was an orchestrated effort [that] began before the war' that was designed to mislead the public and the world. Gardiner's research lead him to conclude that the US and Britain had conspired at the highest levels to plant 'stories of strategic influence' that were known to be false."

Lost a file?
"While we know that tire shops apply weights to the wheel in order to balance the tire, a comparable technology for unbalanced platters is unknown.
The only technology possibly capable of overcoming this problem is Magnetic Force Microscope (MFM) photography, since this technique does not require the platter to spin. However, MFM requires scanning the whole surface of the platter. The MFM moves from region to region, each region yielding a picture. This alone will take several months. Then all these pictures must be stitched together. A 20GB hard drive consists of 160,000,000,000 bits, probably 300,000,000,000 bits including overhead. Each bit is represented by a magnetic flux change. A picture displaying this flux change will probably use 100 bytes, thus inflating each bit by factor 1000. You will have to analyze the amount of 40 Tera byte of data. It is unknown if this technology is in use. It certainly is not 'commercially available and affordable' because a data recovery would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Shot some film you are not planning to make a buck with? Store it Internet Archive: Open Source Movies">here. Public views. Public reviews.

I told you so. I told you so. (Yes, I am talking to you Adam Flynn.)

Misinformation is this adminastration's well-worn tool for covering its bum in the fog of war. In this case the president's war of top concern: public relations.
KR Washington Bureau | 10/02/2005 | No evidence backs up reports of rescue helicopters being fired upon

"NEW ORLEANS - Among the rumors that spread as quickly as floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina, reports that gunmen were taking potshots at rescue helicopters stood out for their senselessness.


On Sept. 1, as patients sweltered in hospitals without power and thousands of people remained stranded on rooftops and in attics, crucial rescue efforts were delayed as word of such attacks spread.


But more than a month later, representatives from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Louisiana Air National Guard say they have yet to confirm a single incident of gunfire at helicopters.


Likewise, members of several rescue crews who were told to halt operations say there is no evidence they were under fire."

heads up via Eschaton

Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal - New York Times: "In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated 'covert propaganda' in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban."

Pharyngula::Tales of the X-Mice: how to regenerate

trash t.v bringing the world together...
"i'm flying off tomorrow! but i know everyone loves me, so you can still reach me at my present handphone number. *beams*

i'll miss the singapore idol finals, so i'll make my prediction now: it will be taufik! =D i guess all the angry olinda fans will try to get back at sylvester (the question is: is it syl or sly?) and his ahlianahbeng fans.

sylvester wasn't too bad yesterday, but he seriously can't make it as our representative. can you imagine him at world idol? the polish judge with his orreeebel accent will criticise sly's pronunciation etc. oh, the irony. =/"

World Scott The writing and photography of a guy trapsing through China, his first trip btw.

Buchanan Spit>: "Both parties bear moral responsibility for the mess we are in. The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Republicans for beating the drums for war on a country that did not threaten us. The Clinton-Kerry-Biden-Edwards Democrats for giving Bush a blank check to take us to war to remove the issue from the 2002 election. Indeed, Democrats are the more indictable. At least Bush-Cheney believed in the war."

i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all...

... and the rockets red glare gave proof through the night that the flag was still there...

wtf?

CBS News | CIA Flying Suspects To Torture? | March 6, 2005�23:38:02: "Craig Murray is the former British ambassador there. He told 60 Minutes that Uzbek citizens, captured in Afghanistan, were flown back to Taskent on the American plane.

'I know of two instances for certain of prisoners who were brought back in a small jet, and I believe it was happening on a reasonably regular basis,' says Murray.

Murray says the jet was operated by Premiere Executive Airlines.
He says in Uzbekistan, many prisoners are subject to torture techniques straight out of the Middle Ages: 'Techniques of drowning and suffocation, rape was used quite commonly, and also immersion of limbs in boiling liquid.'

Murray complained to his superiors that British intelligence was using information gleaned by torture. He was recalled by London four months ago and quit the foreign service.

Is there any reason to believe that the CIA knows that people are being tortured in these jails?

'The CIA definitely knows. I asked my deputy to go and speak to the CIA, and she came back and reported to me that she'd me with the CIA head of station, who told her that 'Yes, this material probably was obtained under torture, but the CIA didn't see that a problem.'' "

An official Iraqi audit said $1.27 billion allocated by the Defense Ministry for military procurement in 2005 was embezzled by officials and suppliers. In a report completed in May, the Board of Supreme Audit blamed the theft on U.S.-appointed senior Defense Ministry officials, including a former defense minister.

"Huge amounts of money have disappeared," Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi said. "In return we got nothing but scraps of metal. It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history."

Oh Germany!! Land of Order and Labelmakers!!
I miss you; I really do.
I miss eating bread that is made by a Baker
but Jew rhymes with do so I am going to stop this little diddy before
I give the wrong impression.

(transition)

But het here is some work from Granada.

In the land of stepford citizens. i am unable to watch the u.s. news without clutching my knees and rocking back and forth.
colin powell was just interveiwed by babrbara walters. i think at some point she should have just leaned over and whispered some perverted thing into his ear while her hand did something out of camera. it was a love fest.
substantiated reports of powel cursing hyped intel before he went before the UN and spewed lies, sweet lies were left unreferenced. instead he was allowed to lip the white house prbs without so much as a flinch from Media Whore Walters. He stated that he and the president were victims of a careless CIA and poor sourcing.
No mention of the fact that the White House had been so unsatisfied with the panty-waist stance the CIA took on Iraq, that Cheney had to create a new intel agency in the pentagon: the Defense Intelligenc Agecy, in order to get the wardrum he wanted. No mention of the fact that the bad sourcing was largely based upon characters Powell's State Department had considered untrustworthy. I am talking about Chalabi, of course. And the CIA had come to the same conclusion about Chalabi.
It would have been nice if Powell had mentioned that the Pentagon was the only agency that trusted the primary source for much of Powell's UN testimony. Why am I talking about this nonsense? Does anybody care anymore?

Before I become disgusted with the US politics' ability to drain me of otherwise useful energy, can I mention Screwball, another secret source, who happened to be Chalabi's convict brother-in-law and blah blah blah.

And now we return to Katrina coverage. A welcome respite. I love the way this hurricane is being covered. I watch every news broadcast beginning with the 9 a.m. then the noon, then the 4:30 p.m., then the 5:30 p.m. the the 10 p.m. and then Niteline. And you know what is so cool? I have not heard the word rape, and I have not had to look at one of the thousands of bodies that still float down the streets of New Orleans.

I was worried they might try to ruin my appetite for dessert with an honest historical depiction, but luckily FEMA has stopped allowing journalists to photograph dead people. Let us see if we can make a new sense of FEMA: Fascists, uh..., Everyone Must Admire. Sorry, it is late, I am doing my best here. Anyway, the memo, from FEMA outling the journalists' restrictions was headlined: Not Documenting The Blood On Our Hands. HA ha. I still got it...

On a somber note the news reported the federal indictment of two political action commitees for buying illegal election influence. Cool. They failed to mention, twice, atleast that Rep. Delay, Bushit friend and U.S. senator from Texas. founded and ran those PAC's.

Eschaton: "Take a moment to note what's happening here: these are the marks of repressive government, which mixes inefficiency with authoritarianism. The crew that couldn't get key aid on the scene last week is coming in in force now and taking as one of its key missions cutting public information about what's happening in the city.

This is a domestic, natural disaster. Absent specific cases where members of the press would interfere or get in the way of some particular clean up operation or perhaps demolition work there is simply no reason why credentialed members of the press should not be able to cover everything that is happening in that city. "

BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "Douglas Brinkley, the presidential historian who is also Thompson's official biographer, writes that a Feb. 16 note may be Thompson's final written words. It reads:
'No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun _ for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax _ This won't hurt.' "

Stuff from the past few months. Check this stuff out and leave comments. I desire honest feedback.

I am having a cup of coffee. A couple hours east people are pouring out of the buses that trickled to the Astrodome, one of the few lifelines pulling people out of the region. Just read about a mother who gave her child to a lady whose name she didn't even know. "I can't get on this bus, but you've got to try to save this child." I just ordered a chocolate-filled croissant. I love chocolate. An old dead woman is getting eaten by gutter rats. Bush assures me that we have a massive effort underway to continue getting food and water and ice to those who are in need. Why doesn't the liberal media ever report the good things. Surely their must be some white helicopter pilot that dodged the negroes' bullets as he rescued a small well-groomed terrier from a dirty part of town. My croissant is not even warm!!! Where is that damn barrista! Some reporters were told to not go to the New Orleans convention center unless they had their own guns. It seems well-armed civilians have taken control of that particular pool of feces and dying and dead. As the head of FEMA said this morning these people chose to stay there. So before you go and start feeling sorry for those people could you get me a spot of coffee. Black.

Watch your mouth, boy. Ain't no damned rascism. If them folks was white they'd be suffering just the same. Uncle Sam and Uncle Tom got things fixed up real good.

I guess my creative forces are dwindling because for the life of me, I can not imagine white people huddled, confused, deperate, hungry, wet, and dying and dead waiting for days for bread or bus while the world around them descends into a putrid anarchy. But them negroes is dif'rent. It's not US. It's THEM.

Eschaton: "That official told me they were able to take a couple of people out. One woman so desperate that she actually handed up her 2 month old baby and said take my child. I can't get on this bus, but you've got to try to save this child. She didn't even know the woman's name."

New York Daily News - Home - Hunger and rage: "As we walked past the Windsor Court hotel, we were stopped by a female state trooper. 'Y'all came over here without guns? Don't go there. Don't go there unless you have a machine gun around your neck. We pulled our troops out because the civilians have taken over. We don't have the manpower to deal with them,' she said."

BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "To make matters worse, the chief of the Louisiana State Police said he heard of numerous instances of New Orleans police officers _ many of whom from flooded areas _ turning in their badges.
'They indicated that they had lost everything and didn't feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives,' Col. Henry Whitehorn said. "

Officials Struggle to Reverse a Growing Sense of Anarchy - New York Times: "Another member of the bread truck party, Gloria Collins, 26, clutched her 6-month old son, Nakee Collins. She acknowledged that the truck she arrived on had been stolen.
'The police stopped us and said, 'I know it's not yours,' but he let us go,' she said. 'There were people shooting to protect their own boats. It's a survival thing.'"

"Scores of bodies covered with white sheets lay on the sidewalk outside one hospital because the morgue was jammed. Many of them were women in black gowns, as well as children and old men.
Sobbing relatives wandered amid the bodies, lifting the sheets to try to identify their kin. When they found them, they would shriek in grief, pound their chests or collapse to the ground, sobbing."

This is civil war.