The Sensitive Cynic: 05/01/2004

This just in... Dubya likes to fondle Saddam's rod. Who'd have guessed? Here's my diagnosis (channeling Dr. Freud): Symbolic emasculation of the family boogeyman ("He tried to kill my daddy!"), also serving as a trophy of George Jr.'s supremacy over George Sr. in manly, military, Saddam-stompin' prowess ("I got him and daddy didn't!").

Check out William "Father of Cyberpunk" Gibson's weblog, which lasted from January 31, 2003 to September 12, 2003, and may yet rise again.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Burket"
To: kelli.arena@turner.com
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2004 3:06 PM
Subject: speculation about al Qaeda

Hello, Kelli Arena.

In http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0405/27/wbr.01.html you said:

"there is some speculation that al Qaeda believes it has a better chance of winning in Iraq if John Kerry is in the White House."

Any truth to the rumor that the unattributed source of this speculation was Condoleeza "I'm-a-team-player-not-like-some- people-I-know-whose-initials-are-CP" Rice? If not, then who?

I know you'll want to clear this up because of your (and your employer's) commitment to the very highest standards of journalistic ethics and excellence in broadcasting.

Objectively yours,

Craig Burket

Under 30? (or remember being under 30?) Then join the March Across America, starting June 19 in San Francisco and June 26 in Boston, converging on Washington, D.C. on July 1. Organized by Mobilizing America's Youth. Participation can be "physical or virtual".

EFF.org: Tell Congress to sink the PIRATE Act:

"The bill would allow the government to file civil copyright lawsuits in addition to criminal prosecutions, dramatically lowering the burden of proof and adding to the thousands of suits already filed by record companies. It would also force the American public to pay the legal bills of foreign record companies like Bertelsmann, Vivendi Universal, EMI, and Sony. Meanwhile, not a penny from the lawsuits goes to the artists. "

What kind of sick, twisted things will you command your Subservient Chicken to do? Move over, Stanley Millgram! Just remember... Power Corrupts.

From TheNation.com: Orders to Torture:

"One revelation in particular should be sounding a constitutional emergency siren: The President has known for more than two years that his Administration has been pursuing policies that could qualify as war crimes under federal and international law. In a January 25, 2002, memo, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advised the President of 'the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act,' a federal statute. He advised Bush to invent a legal technicality--declaring detainees in the 'war on terror' to be outside the Geneva Conventions--which, he said, 'substantially reduces' the chance of prosecution. Gonzales went further, telling the President that the war on terrorism 'renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners'; he pooh-poohed concerns that abandoning the Geneva standards might endanger US troops.

Let's be clear about what this means: Gonzales was urging--and the President adopted as policy--an end run around federal laws. The War Crimes Act, passed by Congress in 1996, allows criminal prosecution of Americans for actions that violate the rights granted prisoners and civilians by the Geneva Conventions and for 'outrages upon personal dignity.' It is backed by the full range of federal penalties, up to and including the death penalty. "

Now there's a thought: maybe George W. Bush will go down in history as the first former (p)Resident to be executed for war crimes. At the very least, if the U.N. can issue an international arrest warrant for Indonesia's former military commander General Wiranto for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in East Timor five years ago, then why not for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld?

Common Cause: Join the Vote 2004 Task Force:

Common Cause is launching a Vote 2004 Task Force to monitor polling places where [e-voting] machines are being used, urge election officials to adopt a voter-verified paper trail policy, ensure that the voting machine manufacturers are held to higher standards of accountability and transparency, and promote national legislation to address the issue.

PFAW: Oppose the Haynes Nomination:

"It is appalling and unacceptable that President Bush continues to support the judicial nomination of the person largely responsible for the legal atmosphere that failed to prevent and may actually have helped produce the torture and mistreatment of detainees in Iraq. I, the undersigned, demand that President Bush withdraw the nomination of William Haynes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. If the President does not withdraw the Haynes nomination, I urge the US Senate to respect the rule of law and refuse to confirm William Haynes to a seat on the federal bench."

Filmmaker [John Fucile] Arrested, Acquitted For Selling His Own Movies [in NYC]

FBI ABDUCTS ARTIST [Steve Kurtz], SEIZES ART

The next time I'm in New York, I'm taking the "dirty tour" of United Nations headquarters.

How to interview a personality subself. We wonder what Marvin "Society of Mind" Minsky would think. It puts us in mind of the old Robin Williams standup comedy bit: "I'd like to talk to you now about a very serious subject: schizophrenia --- No you don't! --- Shut up and let him talk!"

Sorry, Diebold. Americans want to Count Every Vote. Sign the petition. It's slowly beginning to dawn on me just how serious this is. Unverifiable, hackable, no-paper-trail, no-log-file e-voting machines are the Bush/Cheney junta's secret weapon. Actually, it would be *any* incumbent politician's secret weapon -- a technology just too darn useful for them to resist. Watch for spin assuring us rabble that it's really perfectly reliable -- nothing to worry our little heads over.

Misleader.org: Stonewalling on Bin Laden/Saudi Flights After 9/11:

With questions swirling about who authorized allowing relatives of Osama bin Laden to fly out of the country immediately after 9/11, The Hill newspaper is reporting that President Bush is 'refusing to answer repeated requests by the September 11 commission' about the matter.

Last year, Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that, even as all foreign and domestic flights were grounded after 9/11, the bin Ladens and other wealthy Saudis were allowed to fly out of the United States. He said that 'the flights were well-known and it was coordinated within the government'.

Pythonline.com > Eric Idle presents... The FCC Song

"Here’s a little song I wrote the other day while I was out duck hunting with a judge… It’s a new song, it’s dedicated to the FCC and if they broadcast it, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars."

The feds want to know who’s been visiting the Web site of voting watchdog Bev Harris, and they’re likely to get what they want. So, everybody visit www.blackboxvoting.org, okay?

Be Careful Who You Tell What You Really Think of Bush. If there were any justice, Bush and bin Laden would be permanently sharing a cell. Along with Cheney, Saddam, Bill Clinton and Ariel Sharon. In Abu Ghraib.

Distribution-Based Option Pricing on Lattice Asset Dynamics Models (PDF), by Yuji Yamada and James A. Primbs

Boston Globe > Op-ed > Torture at Abu Ghraib followed CIA's manual

ConsumersUnion.org: Learn More About Mad Cow Disease. Must read if you're still eating beef.

From FreewayBlogger.com:

Cost of cardboard, paint, duct tape and wire:
Pennies.
Ten thousand commuters reading what you have to say:
Priceless.

Must read: Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis: Form and Content in Tonal Music, by Allen Forte and Steven Gilbert, W. W. Norton, 1982

The New Yorker: "THE GRAY ZONE", by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

"You Are a Marvel", by Pablo Casals

VOTE.COM: Do You Agree With Sen. Inhofe's Vent That He's "Outraged By The Outrage" Over Iraqi Prison Scandal? Why, no. He doesn't seem to get the concepts of due process, international law, human rights, or the fact that torture yields unreliable information.

Okay, I'll bite: VOTE.COM: do you approve of Massachusetts becoming the first state to legally allow same-sex marriages? Sure do. Makes me proud to be a 'chusan.

Tell your representative to demand a vote on overtime pay.

Tell Congress to eliminate all funds for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, aka the "bunker buster", aka "useable nukes".

Consumers Union: Tell the USDA to Prevent the Spread of Mad Cow Disease!

GreenpeaceUSA: Tell Bush and Ashcroft to Prosecute Illegal Loggers, Not Greenpeace

The Crimes at Abu Ghraib Are Not the Worst

Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq During Arrest, Internment and Interrogation, February 2004

U.S. Army Report on Iraqi Prisoner Abuse by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba

The Yes Men infiltrate the Heritage Foundation's annual Resource Bank meeting at the Renaissance hotel in Chicago, April 29-30, 2004.

JohnKerryIsADoucheBagButImVotingForHimAnyway.com Actually, since I live in Massachusetts, which is hard-core Kerry Country, I'm voting for Nader.

South Africa Sunday Times: Dog of war -- The girl from a redneck trailer park who embarrassed the world's superpower :

"Lawyers for some of the six soldiers facing court martial over alleged abuses, said that military intelligence officials had ordered the pictures for use in threatening detainees under interrogation."

robert-fisk.com: "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" -- a comprehensive list of links to sites posting evidence of U.S. war crimes committed in Iraq.

robert-fisk.com: 06 May 2004: Pictures of wounded men being shot censored by TV:

"As a wounded Iraqi crawls from beneath a burning truck, an American helicopter pilot tells his commander that one of three men has survived his night air attack. 'Someone wounded,' the pilot cries. Then he received the reply: 'Hit him, hit the truck and him.' As the helicopter's gun camera captures the scene on video, the pilot fires a 30mm gun at the wounded man, vaporising him in a second. "

What Dubya needs is a 12-step program. Or maybe he'll just fire Rumsfeld and then everything will be all better.

Must read: Agile Software Development with SCRUM, by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle

Amnesty International: Torture in Iraq not isolated -- independent investigations vital

Just Say No To New Nuclear Weapons and Missile Defense

Ill Texas Cow Killed Before It Was Tested:

A cow that showed a potential sign of a central nervous disorder was destroyed and sent to rendering before the U.S. Department of Agriculture could test it for disease, officials said Monday. The cow was taken to slaughter Wednesday at Lone Star Beef in San Angelo.

From Governor Schwarzenegger wants bobblehead dolls terminated:

"While Schwarzenegger's lawyers insist the former film star owns his name, likeness and all publicity rights, the bobblehead brothers contend he is a public political figure and therefore can no longer control his image."

Get 'em while they last!