As With Dreams

"The World little knows how many thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator and have been crushed in silence and secrecy of his own criticism."
--Michael Faraday (1791-1867) English scientist

Symbol Of Democracy

"That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flator labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
-- George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] (1903-1950) British author
Source: Orwell: The Authorized Biography, Michael Shelden, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), p. 328

Republicans & Republicrats: All For War

The Senate unanimously approved $70 billion more for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan Friday as part of a record Pentagon budget.

The bill, now on its way to the White House for President Bush's signature, totals $448 billion. It was passed by a 100-0 vote after minimal debate.

Full Article, SF Chronicle, September 29, 2006

__________________________

This should eliminate any delusion that there is a single U.S. Senator opposed to the war for control of Iraq's oil, that there are any who think there is something wrong with slaughtering people with brown skin as part of the expansion of the dying U.S. empire.

TLC

One Way Government Cons You To Support New Projects

From The Salina [Kansas] Journal's anonymous "Extension 333 comment line, September 29, 2006:

"The reason they patch the windows instead of fixing them at the old fairgrounds is they just patch them to make it look bad so people will think we need a new one."

_____________________

The comment is in reference to the County government's push to build a new $25 million exposition center which would mainly be used during the annual County fair for the 4H organization.

TLC

Salinans Will Sleep Better Tonight

The gangbangers, vandals, animal abusers, meth manufacturers, domestic violence perpetrators, will especially sleep better, knowing that the local cops are wasting their time playing Trivial Pursuit.

TLC
__________________________________

From KSAL Radio, Salina, Kansas, September 29, 2006:

A tip to police early Friday morning led to the arrest of a Kansas Wesleyan University student on possible felony drug charges.
According to Deputy Police Chief Mike Marshall, officers were sent to the 100 Block of West Kirwin to the report of someone smoking marijuana in a van. Marshall says that they found 21-year-old Nicholas Rowin in a brown van. Also in the van, officers found 12 baggies of marijuana along with drug paraphernilia including scales. Rowin was arrested and booked into the Saline County Jail on numerous charges that could include possession of marijuana with the intent to sell.

Had Enough--Of A Campaign Going Nowhere

Today's email from the Angelides campaign starts out (and continues in the same vein):

Since Arnold Schwarzenegger's White House ally, George W. Bush, committed us there over three years ago, America has been bogged down in the war in Iraq.

But just like you, Phil knows this war is wrong for our country. And that is why he has pledged to do everything in his power bring the California National Guard home from Iraq and to end this misguided war.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's response? Silence.

If that doesn't make it clear we need new leadership in California, I don't know what does.

___________________________

My email to the Angelides campaign:


If Angelides were running for the US Senate against war and colonial empire supporter Republicrat Feinstein, I'd be thrilled.

But short of having California secede from the union, the Governor of California can do damn little about Iraq.

So yes, I've had enough of a campaign that is doing nothing to invigorate its base as to issues he can actually do something substantive/meaningful about, enough of a campaign that is doing nothing to convert those inclined to vote for HerrGoobernator, doing nothing to reach across the political landscape.


As I pointed out in a recent Blog posting:

HerrGoobernator speaks to 10,000 people, most of whom are NOT part of his political base. Women and the Dalai Lama? They should be completely repelled by HerrGoobernator, and yet there he is, coming across as a decent human being reaching out across the political landscape, not wearing horns and nobody at the convention with the guts or political incorrectness to say otherwise. Meanwhile, Angelides is speaking to a paltry 200 people, in San Francisco, that, with or without enthusiasm, will mark Angelides' name come Election Day.

TLC

Talent

"I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
--Stephen Jay Gould

The Struggle

"The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and... the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression and obedience."
--Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice

North Coast Co-Op Board Of Directors Election

For those of you who are members of the North Coast Co-Op, of those on the official ballot, Lisa Butterfield is the obvious first choice. Her statement is on the official Co-Op Board Of Directors ballot (I couldn't find her statement on the Co-Op's website).

Paul Mollard is running as a write-in candidate, and looks to be every bit as good as Lisa. The more I shop at the Co-Op, the more troubled I am by all of the "conventional" (read: pesticide and chemical infested) products they carry. If you want conventional crap, go to Safeway, Murphy's, etc.. That's not what we look for at the Co-Op.

Neal Latt recently did a solid op-ed for the Humboldt Advocate about the Arkley/Co-Op connection. http://humboldtadvocate.com/articles.php?action=view&id=55 Uh, not quite what we're looking for in the
Co-Op, is it?

Here's Paul's email and contact information:


From: Paul Mollard, pmollard101@excite.com
Date: September 26, 2006

I appreciate the opportunity to tell you a bit about why I am running for the board and what I stand for.

I am a former Co-op employee of seven and a half years. During my time at the Co-op I was the grocery department head for the Eureka Store. During that time I made many connections within the natural foods industry and developed a retail eye that progressed with the changing industry. This progression as you know took the industry in some not so good directions, such as the corporate takeovers of many great, long time natural food producers and the watering down of organic standards to make room for industrial agriculture and production within those standards. On the positive side there has been an increasing demand for organic, non-toxic foods and an increased awareness for sustainable consumption.

My experience at the Co-op allowed me the opportunity to work within the Pacific Cooperative Grocers Association, which merged with National Cooperative Grocers Association. The great thing about this merger was that it allowed the Co-op to enter into a merger that ultimately helped to increase our member value while also allowing us to maintain our autonomy,which is one of the seven Cooperative principles. It also created a mechanism for a collaboration among fellow Co-op's to create a vision for the direction of the Co-op movement, a movement which will set us apart from the Whole Foods, Wild Oats and even the independent retailers. This progress is important for everyone to participate in, for reasons for which you are a member and motivate you to participate in Co-op elections.

As you know Co-ops are typically created for increased value for the members of the Coop who create it. Though our Co-op was not necessarily created to promote left-of-center ideals, it was created to conduct busines and acquire food stuffs for a better value without the motive for profit. I believe our Co-op at one time reflected more socialist principles versus capitalist principles but that a gradual move away from socially conscious principles has led to the Co-op's current identity crisis.

My experience working at the Co-op allowed me to observe this identity crisis very closely. I will use the Coca-Cola boycott issue as an example for explaining my point. Our employees, our members, and our Board of Directors are all divided on this issue. Many employees don't see the point in boycotting Coke, but some do, especially long-term employees. Most employees, however, choose to keep their opinion to themselves for fear of reprisal, for fear of falling out of favor, or because they are not informed on the issue enough to form an opinion. Our members simply don't get involved on important issues enough to send a clear message to our Board of Directors. We have a few, very vocal members, who I feel really do represent our core members, especially because they still see it important to be involved in this issue and particularly because it is an issue of social responsibilty based on our historic ideals. We have a majority of our membership who really are apathetic about the issue altogether. Then we have a few members who really do not think that the Co-op should be involved in making controversy about this decision at all, because they do not see it as a positive way to conduct business. This side of our membership unfortunately has the most influence on the top decision makers of Co-op merchandising policy and marketing strategies.

Our general manager and our Board of Directors have argued the point and decided that, if we boycott Coke, we would be acting in the interest of only a few vocal members. This argument is faulty. When we put it to a vote of our membership, an overwhelming number of participants supported a boycott. You may ask if I support a boycott. Yes, I do. I think, however, that it is important to keep considerations of boycotts within the context of already documented policies made by the Board, policies that are clearly in line with the Co-ops core values.

This is where I feel our Board of Directors betrayed our core membership and is only one instance of how it has been acting apart from the will of the membership for a long time. I am not leveling specific fault at our current Board though, because this problem has been endemic for a very long time. On the Coke issue, though, the Co-op had already made a formal statement about its stance on GMO's, and could boycott Coke solely on this issue alone. Instead, it chose to avoid controversy by not aligning itself with an already elusive international call to boycott of the heinous corporation (the Coca-Cola Corporation). I have other reasons why I personally support a Coca-Cola boycott in the Co-op, but my reasons would also lead to the removal of many other industrially produced foodstuffs.

In summary, I stand for a Board of Directors that will realign itself with a restated set of core values in closer alignment with its historic core values. I want a board that will hold the entire administration of the Co-op to those values. I want a board that creates and implements policies that increase its outreach for the purpose of education and raising awareness in our community. I want a board that is energetic about not replacing human health and the environment with corporate strategies merely for the sake of profit.

Feel free to forward this far and wide, much appreciated. Feel free to email me with questions.

--Paul Mollard

The 50's USSR Becomes Today's USA

Stalin didn't create a seamless terror state Dictator repressed nonexistent conspiracies
Say what you will about Joseph Stalin, but at least the man ran a top-notch crime control apparatus. Freed of the petty constraints of due process and human rights, the crack investigative team at the KGB ran down leads swiftly and diligently. When they found someone with information, they tortured him, quickly generating accurate information and keeping the authorities ahead of the curve. Stalin's Soviet Union had its problems: bad weather, economic deprivation, a certain absence of political freedom, etc. But the criminal justice system -- that was solid.

Well, no.

It wasn't like that at all. Pervasive surveillance, an absence of due process and widespread use of torture, shockingly enough, didn't create an effective law enforcement system. Instead, you got the madness of the Great Purge. Thousands upon thousands of supposed traitors and saboteurs were arrested and sent away to the gulag for, essentially, no reason at all. Rather than the Soviet security forces serving as a hyper-effective mechanism for rooting out a conspiracy, the utter absence of restraint on those forces led to mass repression of a conspiracy that didn't even exist.

Full Article, SF Chronicle, September 24, 2006--Well worth taking a few minutes to finish reading

Somebody Give Angelides A Clue

After wasting the reader's time with 18 paragraphs of "horserace", the SF Chronicle, September 27, 2006, finally gets to why the Angelides campaign looks to be going down in flames:


Release of the two polls came on what might be a typical day for the candidates on the campaign trail.

Schwarzenegger spent part of it, swarmed over by the media, at a women's conference in Long Beach that drew close to 10,000 people and speakers that included the Dalai Lama, homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson and news commentator Tim Russet.

Angelides spent Tuesday with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Assemblyman Mark Leno and a crowd of about 200 people at San Francisco State University where the candidate continued to slam Schwarzenegger for his support of President Bush and the war in Iraq and vowing to "do everything in my power to bring our state's National Guard troops home from Iraq.''

________________________________________________

HerrGoobernator speaks to 10,000 people, most of whom are NOT part of his political base. Women and the Dalai Lama? They should be completely repelled by HerrGoobernator, and yet there he is, coming across as a decent human being reaching out across the political landscape, not wearing horns and nobody at the convention with the guts or political incorrectness to say otherwise. Meanwhile, Angelides is speaking to a paltry 200 people, in San Francisco, that, with or without enthusiasm, will mark Angelides' name come Election Day.

Try emailing the Angelides campaign--they've never replied to any of the emails I've sent. Anybody running for third grade class president knows that you respond when a potential voter has a question or a comment because that presents an opportunity to energize or convert that voter. Apparently, the people running the Angelides campaign are people not smart enough to work for FEMA under the Bu$h Regime.

TLC

California For Sale

Out-of-state interests have poured more than $280 million into California political campaigns since 2001, and the November election will send that figure soaring.

While that number is dwarfed by the $1.4 billion California residents, unions and businesses have spent on candidates and ballot measures, it shows just how much state politicians depend on big contributions from beyond the borders...

Full Article, SF Chronicle, September 27, 2006


What this article fails to address is that out-of-state bribes, er, "spending", is not spread evenly across-the-board. Thus, out-of-state money is most likely focused disproportionately on certain key issues. To find the breakdown, to get a genuine understanding of the nature and scope of the problem, one will have to look elsewhere.

TLC

Welcome To China, North Carolina

Police Shot Protester in NC With a Taser; Six Arrested

In Charlotte North Carolina, six people were arrested on Saturday at the city's Human Rights Fest. Police shot one protester with a Taser stun gun. Another protester -- David Crane -- was hospitalized with broken ribs and a punctured lung. Protest organizers said four or five police officers held Crane down and beat him. The police attempted to shut down the gathering even though organizers had a permit. 700 people have already signed an online petition calling on the police to drop the charges filed against the arrested protesters. Organizers in Charlotte are planning to hold another rally on Saturday calling for the impeachment of President Bush.

Source: Democracy Now, September 26, 2006

The Irrelevant Taxpayer

UPDATE: Letter published, October 4, 2006. The Journal broke the first paragraph into two, but the letter otherwise was published intact.

TLC
____________________


The government of Saline County Kansas has launched a public relations campaign to convince the public that a new $25 million "Expo Center" needs to be built. An item in the Salina [Kansas] Journal of September 27, 2006, notes that:

"Schools for Fair Funding is a coalition of midsize districts that for several years has lobbied state lawmakers to increase school funding and funded a lawsuit with that same goal."


My letter to the Salina Journal:

Dear Editor:

Saline County is spending taxpayer money to promote the building of a new Expo Center in south Salina (which would hasten the death of the downtown area--the dying downtown then becoming another "cause" for more governmental expenditures). "Schools For Fair Funding" plans to spend funds raised from taxes to promote the increased spending of other taxpayer money.

It used to be that lobbying the government to raise taxes and perform more services was the role of the voting public. Now we have self-perpetuating government, with pressure for expansion of its role being bankrolled from within and from bribes, er, "campaign contributions". Apparently, the working class in this country, aside from actually paying the taxes, is, due to passivity, becoming increasingly superfluous.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Elections Cometh

"An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry."
--T.S. (Thomas Stearnes) Eliot (1888-1965) US writer

Outcomes

"There's two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery."
--Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) Italian-born US physicist

Unconscious

"An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only on partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, to ask questions and be skeptical. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy -- or worse."
--Bill Moyers - Speech to the National Conference for Media Reform on May 15, 2005

Humboldt County: Bow Down And Respect Us

The official Humboldt County "Claim For Damages" form states:


"The undersigned respectfully submits the following claim and information:"


Why is it a requirement that one be respectful toward an entity that has shown a lack of respect to the one injured?

Will the Claim be rejected if it is submitted with the same degree of contempt as was accorded the injured claimant by the government?

What if one just XXXes out the word "respectfully"?


And what of this larger-type shaded-box warning?

WARNING! IT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE TO FILE A FALSE CLAIM (Penal Code Section 72; Insurance Code Section 556)


How about evening things up, and making it a criminal offense for the government to deny a legitimate claim?

TLC

FreeSpeech TV Alert: Toxic Sludge Is Good For You

Toxic Sludge is Good For You
What we think of as independent, unbiased news and information really has its origins in the boardrooms of public relations companies.

Dates/Times. Be sure to pick your time zone

"Boondocks" Return Postponed

"The Boondocks," the comic strip about a black family living in the suburbs, will take a longer hiatus from the nation's newspapers than originally planned.

Full Story, SF Chronicle, September 25, 2006

____________

The good news is, "The Boondocks" will continue on the Cartoon Network. Some of those episodes are true gems.

TLC

Your Happy Government

"It also gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see how unaware the people around us are of what is really happening to them."
--Adolf Hitler

Experience

"In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy."
--Jean Paul Getty (1892 - 1976) American business executive

American Blackout: A Very Important Film For Our Times

View the Trailer, learn more, encourage your local movie theatre to carry this very important film:

Whatever you think you know about our election systems or Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, this film will make you question further why the news media fails to accurately inform the public. Directed by GNN's Ian Inaba, creator of Eminem's "Mosh" music video, American Blackout critically examines the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence voices of political dissent.

Many have heard of the alleged voting irregularities that occurred during the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Until now, these incidents have gone under- reported and are commonly written-off as insignificant rumors or unintentional mishaps resulting from an overburdened election system.

American Blackout chronicles the recurring patterns of voter disenfranchisement from Florida 2000 to Ohio 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Mckinney not only took an active role investigating these election debacles, but has found herself in the middle of her own after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Featuring: Congressional members John Conyers, John Lewis, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Bernie Sanders and jounalists Greg Palast and Bob Fitrakis.

Angelides: California National Guard Out Of Iraq

The Democratic candidate for governor of California said Sunday that if elected he would call immediately on President Bush to withdraw California National Guard troops from Iraq.

"I will do everything in my power, as governor, to bring our National Guard units home," Phil Angelides said.

Full Article, SF Chronicle, September 24, 2006


Not as good as calling on DerBu$hler to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq, but it's a definite start. And if the National Guard were pulled from Iraq, that would make either a Draft--or withdrawal of the rest of the
troops--inevitable.

TLC

The Polar Bear Attack Email

Some people seem to have nothing better to do than unthinkingly forward emails that add nothing to the quest for improvement.

Case in point: The email, with graphic pictures, that starts out:


Polar Bear Attack in the High Arctic
This is from up in the Yukon, this chap is lucky to be alive. The guy survived the bear attack. The bear jumped on him while he was sleeping in his tent and he managed to get it off of him and shoot it
One tough camper!

As Snopes' Urban Legends Reference Pages points out, at least one of the pictures doesn't match the story.


That little technicality aside, my response to the email:


So the person was a hunter, not a mere "camper". Looks like it was almost a fair hunt, for once.

What was the human hunting for? Survival? Or fun?

I don't recall anything in the Bible, or any other religious work, saying that animals were put on this planet for the killing pleasure of humans.

Given what humans have done to this planet, vs. what bears have done, I'm cheering for the bears.

If there is justice, the bear's extended family will avenge his loss.

The recently deceased bear just saw an idiot who needed his head examined, and the bear just thought he'd help. Some gratitude...

TLC

Avert Not

"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight." --Albert Schweitzer

Pessimism

"Pessimism never won any battle."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US President

Falling Gas Prices: The Corporate Media's Silent Complicity

Gasoline has dropped around seventy cents a gallon from where it was just a few months ago, with no significant change in the world market, and the supposed pipeline problem in Alaska--even after the "adjustment"--that theoretically adds to the supply problem.

Why is the corporate media--and, for that matter, the "alternative" media--not beating the public over the head about the blatant manipulation of oil prices? Manipulation that takes a good deal of the day-to-day edge off of public anger that might take the form of throwing out some of the Republicans and Republicrats?

The merger of the Fourth Estate and the Fifth Column in the U.S. continues...

TLC

Democracy Now: Giving The Republicrats Cover On Torture

Democracy Now (DN) continues to be part of the problem. Instead of pointing out point-blank what is actually going on, that DerBu$hler and his buddies in the Congressional Wing of the White Man's House did a little dance for public consumption that gave DerBu$hler everything he wanted, DN joins the dance by proclaiming, "Bush, GOP Senators Reach Prisoner Treatment Compromise".

Eventually, if one reads DN's transcript and reflects a bit, DN does make it clear that DerBu$hler will do as his regime has been doing all along. But why go along with the "Compromise" propaganda being promoted by Karl Rove & Company?

TLC

Research

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."
--Wernher von Braun (1912-1977)
German-American rocket expert

War On Iran In October?

Dave Lindorff, writing in The Nation, presents the case that DerBu$hler is planning to attack Iran in October, approximately October 21st. Well worth reading.

Is this a dangerous game of "chicken"? Lindorff discusses the differing viewpoints on that in some detail.

If it's a game of "chicken", would DerBu$hler accept anything less than complete surrender of Iran's oil fields?

Exactly what is it that DerBu$hler wants Iran to do, anyhow? The demands are somewhat vague--If it's just that Iran stop developing the capacity for nuclear weapons, what if Iran simply responded: "Ok"? After all, Iran has the capability to make quite a mess of things with "conventional" weapons, and with all of the other "goodies" that having the US on an I.V. oil drip can buy. It doesn't really *NEED* nukes.

TLC

Rovian Fervor Of The SF Chronicle

My latest letter to the San Francisco Chronicle:


Dear Editor:

Your headline declares, "Chavez's Anti-U.S. Fervor". Has Karl Rove enlisted your services?

Mr. Chevez's fervor is directed at the despots that have taken over the government of the U.S., which is certainly separate and distinct from the people of the U.S., with whom Mr. Chavez has great empathy.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Sane, Or No Sane

Saudi Prisoner at Guantanamo Reportedly Gone Insane

In news from Guantanamo, lawyers for a Saudi man are attempting to have their client removed from the prison because he has gone insane. The man has been held in solitary confinement for a year and reportedly is so mentally unbalanced that he considers insects his friends.

Source: Democracy Now, September 21, 2006
___________________________________

All that this man has gone through...and he still considers those who have tortured him to be his friends...amazing!

TLC

Thank You, Fundraising Court

From the website of KSAL Radio, Salina Kansas, September 21, 2006:

The Saline County Sheriff's Office is looking for a person who allegedly shot a dog in the head with a handgun Wednesday evening.

The 4-year-old dachshund is expected to recover. A bullet entered through the dogs left eye, and exited near its ear.

_________________________

So long as the Courts in this country continue to take animal abuse as just another way of raising funds, illustrated most recently by the absurd persecution of Tammy Grimes, sick individuals such as the one who shot that innocent dog will continue to engage in such conduct.

TLC

The Crosswinds Of Democracy

Bona-Fide Investigative Reporter Wayne Madsen hits it out of the park today:


Sep. 20, 2006 -- ANALYSIS -- As the neocons, the corporate news media, and the international banking class push the world towards more military showdowns in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and wherever else they can provoke a crisis, along with their ultimate goal -- a "Clash of Civilizations" -- there are some important crosswinds blowing around the world that may stop them dead in their tracks.

First, the pro-democracy military coup in Thailand should be examined outside the spin and puffery emanating from the editorial and production desks in New York and Washington, DC.

Yesterday, while Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a Rupert Murdoch- and Silvio Berlusconi-like corporate media and telecommunications baron, was preparing to rub shoulders with his fellow "coalition of the willing" war criminal George W. Bush at the UN General Assembly summit in New York, he was deposed in a pro-democracy and bloodless military coup at home. Although the neocon media tried to paint the coup as having some nefarious purposes (pointing out that the coup leader, Army Commander Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, is a Muslim), the coup's aim was to wrench Thailand's government away from the corruption, nepotism, and anti-constitutional government of Thaksin, his family, and his cronies. As far as the backing for the coup, it is well known that Gen. Sondhi maintains a close relationship with the King -- and the King is the supreme Buddhist leader of the nation. So much for the neocons trying to link the coup to Al Qaeda and their other bogeymen like Jemaah Islamiya, the group's Southeast Asian branch. But the neocon media are now painting the coup as a "dangerous" precedent -- because the generals did not accede to the "civil society" efforts to depose Thaksin. That is, of course, Council on Foreign Relations/global governance claptrap that often emanates from the "enlightened" limousine liberals -- the same bunch who have decided to support Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election in California.

As with all deposed dictators, Thaksin was forced to retreat into exile in gilded splendor, in his case in a suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and then to fashionable quarters in London. The Thai military, which was supported in their move by the Thai opposition, placed Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister under arrest. Thailand cleaned house in one of those rare moments when the military steps in to restore or bring about democracy. It has happened in Portugal, Spain, the former Soviet Union, Romania, Venezuela, Philippines, Sao Tome and Principe, and other nations. Nazi Germany serves as an example of the military attempting twice, but failing, to return the nation to sane leadership by ousting Hitler in 1942 and 1944. Marshal Pietro Badoglio's 1943 coup against Benito Mussolini serves as another example of the military ousting a tyrant.

Rioting broke out in Budapest after the transcript of comments, made by millionaire "Socialist" Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcasny after winning re-election in April, were leaked to the public. Candidly, Gyurcsany admitted that he and his government had been lying to the Hungarian people for the previous four years in order to ensure their re-election. Gyurcsany's comments could have been made in the Cabinet rooms of Bangkok, London, and Washington, DC by similarly corrupt and dishonest government officials. But these leaked out and gave the Hungarian people a rare dose of who and what is running their country, in fact, who and what are running much of the world. Gyurcsany's comments included the following:

". . . we have screwed up. Not a little but a lot. No country in Europe has screwed up as much as we have. We have obviously lied throughout the past 18 to 24 months. It was perfectly clear that what we were saying was not true... in the meantime we did not actually do anything for four years. Nothing . . . we lied morning, noon and night. I do not want to carry on with this . . . .the faith comes from the fact that I am creating history. Not for the history books, I do not give a shit about them. I do not at all care whether we or I personally will be in them. I do not at all care . . . the government's work is not constructed nicely, calmly or scrupulously. No. No. It is being prepared at a mad breakneck speed because we could not do it for a while in case it came to light, and now we have to do it so desperately that we are almost at the breaking point."

While it doubtful the Hungarian military will have to step in to oust Gyurcsany and his government of liars, the riots involving tens of thousands of people throughout the country threaten to topple his shameless lying regime, a government that puts the interests of the World Bank, European Central Bank, NATO, and the dictates from Washington before the interests of its people. And the Hungarian police are being criticized for not coming down harder on the rioters when they first hit the streets.

Then there is the declaration by millions of Mexicans that their candidate, former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, robbed of his election by a combination of U.S. and international banking class corruption and vote fraud, is the legitimate President of Mexico. Lopez Obrador's populist movement and rival presidency is buttressed by popular rebellions in Chiapas and Oaxaca states. The Washington right-wing candidate, Felipe Calderon, and his conservative forerunner Vicente Fox, are besieged in their own capital. The people of Mexico and Lopez Obrador are saying no to fraudulent elections and continued control by the international banks and neocon interests. Populist governments in Venezuela and Bolivia are saying no to the international bankers and multinational corporate leeches. But America does not have to look to Bangkok, Budapest, or Caracas to see a rising tide of progressive populism. It is occurring right to our south.

Which brings us to our current dilemma. George W. Bush has trampled on our Constitution, has been found to have authorized illegal surveillance of Americans in violation of the U.S. Constitution, and tortured those protected under U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions. Senators of Bush's own party now realize that Bush and his cronies may have committed war crimes and they are not eager for Bush to have the U.S. back out of its Geneva Convention treaty commitments. And then there is Iran. From all indications, Bush and his neocon war council are determined to go to war with Iran sooner rather than later. Current and retired senior military officers have reached their breaking points with the Bush administration over torture and another bloody war. They are also well aware that Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority war criminal Jerry Bremer presided over a cabal of Republican loyalists who enriched themselves and their families with lucrative salaries and contracts -- at the cost of the lives of hundreds of American servicemen and women and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

That Bush has violated the Constitution is not debatable. He has. But the GOP Congress has abdicated its responsibilities to hold Bush and his administration accountable for their illegal behavior. Level-headed Federal and state judges have tried to put the breaks on the Bush excesses, but the effects have been piecemeal. There is now fear that the Bush administration and its allies in state and local governments will manipulate the November 7 elections with their "election engineering" accomplished by Diebold and other corrupted electronic voting machines.

Bush's impaired mental state was painfully apparent to reporters who covered his press conference last Friday, an event in which Bush threw a virtual tempter tantrum to defend his torture policies and effort to disengage America from its legal commitments to upholding the Geneva Conventions. With all the evidence that Bush's mental state calls for the implementation of the 25th Amendment which calls for his replacement due to physical or mental inability to carry out his duties, the rubber stamp Congress refuses to act.

The response by loyal Americans to either a Bush war with Iran or another rigged election, or both, is clear. Every U.S. military officer swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including enemies occupying the Oval Office. And it may take temporarily suspending a very small part of the Constitution in order to save our Constitutional Republic from neocon tyranny and dictatorship.

The Thai military decided to suspend the entire Thai Constitution in an interim measure before a return to democratic rule. The U.S. military, in response to Bush's numerous violations of the U.S. Constitution and orders to engage in a potentially disastrous war with Iran, could merely step in and suspend Article I, Section 9; Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution to pave the way for a return to democratic rule. That Clause is the Bill of Attainder clause, which states, "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed." A Bill (or Writ) of Attainder is when a legislature (or another governing tribunal such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff) declares a person or group of persons guilty of a crime or crimes, and nullifies their constitutional rights, without benefit of a trial." In this case, the U.S. military could, under international law (and pursuant to a suspension of the Bill of Attainder clause in the U.S. Constitution), declare that Bush, Cheney, and other high level administration perpetrators have violated the Geneva Conventions and other U.S. treaties having the effect of law, and, without the benefit of a U.S. trial, hand them over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face justice. In other words, the Joint Chiefs of Staff could issue a Writ of Attainder against the guilty parties in the Bush administration. Afterwards, the Writ of Attainder clause of the U.S. Constitution could be restored to force. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures -- and the founders of the United States wanted it that way. We owe it to them and their great sacrifices to carry on the revolutionary spirit they bequeathed to us.

Combining the wishes of our Founders like Jefferson, Madison and Paine with the requirements of modern international law: Temporarily restore the Writ of Attainder for Bush and his criminal administration and then hand them over to The Hague for trial.

Advancing

"It's tough to get ahead when you waste your time getting even."
--Lou Holtz, Football Coach

Agendas Behind The Headlines

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an article back on August 16, 2006, with the headline, "'WTC' Casting Error Draws Flak From African-Americans". The article itself was reasonably balanced and informative. Unfortunately, I only learned of the article on September 18, 2006. and a Google News search turns up no other newspapers publishing the article. However, Google News only makes articles available for a limited amount of time, thus I do not know how many other newspapers--if any--it was published in.

My letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:


Dear Editor:

Use of the headline "'WTC' Casting Error Draws Flak From African-Americans" reflects poorly on your editorial judgment, and does a grave disservice to your readers.

It requires no great recitation of studies to point out the obvious, that many people do not have time to read every article in a publication, instead drawing much of their information from headlines.

Your headline first declares there was a "casting error". However, the only "error" was one of moral character. The producers of WTC chose to release their movie knowing that it contained a material falsification, altering reality to send a message more to their liking.

Next your headline asserts that the "error" "draws flak". The commonly understood definition of "flak" [flack] is, "excessive or abusive criticism".

Finally, your headline concludes with the claim that the "flak" is "from African-Americans". The clear and unequivocal message your are sending is that white Americans, Americans of Hispanic descent, Americans of Asian descent, Americans of Middle Eastern descent, Native Americans--indeed, all Americans except African-Americans--have no interest in the truth or in objecting to propaganda designed to marginalize a particular group of Americans.

It is often said that young African-Americans have few role models other than athletes and entertainers. However, it is advertising, and more importantly publications such as yours, that determines who is given the publicity prerequisite to a person having the opportunity to become a role model. Jason Thomas represents the best of America in any skin pigmentation, yet the mass media continues to focus on African-American athletes and entertainers, particularly when they can be shown in a negative light.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Angelides: The BotchInator

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:18:47

From: "Terry L. Clark"

Subject: Good Grief

To: Angelides 2006 Event Planning

I clicked on the Link you sent:

Click here to send a message to your friends: http://action.angelides.com/invitation/forward

which brought up the following:

Sorry, we could not find the file you requested.
Copyright 2006, GetActive Software, Inc.



And you're going to Govern the State of California???

TLC

Expectations

"It is reported that over 90% of what we worry about never happens. That means that our negative worries have about a 10% chance of being correct. If this is so, isn't it possible that being positive is more realistic than being negative? Think about your own life. I'll wager that most of what you worry about never happens. So are you being realistic when you worry all the time?"
--Susan Jeffers, in the book "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway"

Angelides: What's The Motivation?

There's an old Hollywood saying on acting, "What's the motivation?". That's the dilemma in California--What's the motivation for getting excited about Angelides in the gubenatorial election, other than he's not Herr Goobernator.

I tackled this before the June 6th Primary election, and do so again today in a Post over at Rolling Stone:

Angelides got, early on during the primary, the support of a frightening assortment of hacks and interests groups. He has all the charisma of Bill Gates. If he's not smart enough to hire a decent image consultant, speechwriter, or speaking coach, is he smart enough to be Governor?

The Angelides ads during the primary were largely attack Westly. Now they're focused on attacking HerrGoobernator. He gives no reason to vote FOR Angelides.

Angelides thinks we need to raise more revenue for the government. That certainly needs to be done. But as far as I've heard, he just wants to raise the tax rates--complete silence on the inequities of the current tax system, silence on the regressive nature of the California system, and silence on what loopholes should be taken away from special interests.

TLC

Dreams

"If your dream is big enough, the facts don't count."
--Don Ward

On Constitution Day: Talk of Impeachment and Rumors of War

Great article by Dave Lindorff discussing two major issues confronting our country:
1) If push comes to shove, for example a Supreme Court Order he doesn't like, will Bu$h ignore it in order to hold on to power; and 2) Will the US attack Iran in October, 2006?

NOTE: There is a separate article on Dave's website today, NOT copied/pasted below, discussing "What Are The Democrats Afraid Of?"

TLC
_______________________

Monday, September 18, 2006

On Constitution Day: Talk of Impeachment and Rumors of War

The talk on the the weekend of Sept. 16-17 at Camp Democracy in the shadow of the Washington Monument on the National Mall was of impeaching the president--and of looming war with Iran.

I spoke on the morning of Sept. 17, along with John Nichols of the Nation, David Green of Hofstra, former federal prosecutor and author Elizabeth de la Vega, and long time anti-war activist Marcus Raskin. Later, in the afternoon, a second group of people spoke on the same topic, including veteran former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Jennifer van Bergen (who first exposed Bush's secret "signing statements"), Michael Avery, president of the National Lawyers Guild, and former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY).

It was Holtzman who stole the show, with the former member of the House impeachment panel that drew up impeachment articles against Richard Nixon noting that one of those three articles was for spying on American citizens. Holtzman, who has a new book out on impeachment herself (The Impeachment of George W. Bush,), said that when she and the other's on that committee--Democrats and Republicans alike--unanimously voted out those articles, which led to Nixon's resignation from office, "I thought we had protected the Constitution for generations to come."

And yet, scarcely one generation later, the threat of presidential abuse of power is back, inclulding the same crime of illegal spying--this time more seriously than before.

Holtzmen observed that when Nixon was ordered by the Supreme Court to produce the tape recordings that the government had learned had been made in the Oval Office, after some hesitation, he agreed, and his fate was sealed. This time, she suggested ominously, Bush and his gang might decide to ignore orders from the Supreme Court.

That, everyone agrees, would be the moment when tyranny--the very thing that the Founding Fathers feared most, and that was their motive in including an impeachment clause in the Constitution--would be upon us.

As the NLG's Mike Avery noted, at that point, the only remaining recourses for the American People would be impeachment, or Thomas Jefferson's other remedy: "revolution."

Speaking of arms, Ray McGovern announced at the session the electrifying, if not wholly unexpected news that Naval officers had notified his organization of former intelligence officers aboutr secret orders that had gone out for a Naval battle group to set sail immediately for the Persian Gulf, with a planned ETA off the coast of Iran of Oct. 21--less than three weeks before Election Day. (McGovern, before he resigned in disgust during the Bush first term of office, had been in charge of threat assessment at the CIA.)

"It would appear," one well-connected Washington source informed me after hearing about the Naval maneuvers, "that the Bush administration's internal polling is telling them that they are in serious trouble in November and that they are getting desperate."

Maybe so. If Bush and his gang cannot get all their crimes retroactively approved by the current compliant Republican Congress, he and Cheney, fearing impeachment and war crimes prosecution, may have decided to go with a "Hail Mary" strategy--an aerial bombardment of Iran's nuclear facilities just before Election Day designed to rally Americans once more around the already abased and abused Flag.

This time, though, such a desperate, jingoistic strategy may not work. In fact, if such an act of unprovoked war leads Iran to unleash Shi'ia militias in Iraq against American forces, it will lead to an exponential increase in American casualties at a time that Americans are massively turning against that war.

The potential for an attack on Iran to become a new Tet is probably as great or greater than the likelihood of its rallying the public around an already widely discredited president and war.

Crucial in determining which way things would go is how Democrats respond to news of a new war in the offing. If they run true to form and start cheering for more war, they will have nailed the coffin shut on the Democratic Party as a functioning political organization. If they finally stand up against this abuse of American power and say no to yet another Bush war, the end to this nightmare could be in sight.

And which way the Democrats react will depend on what the American people do between now and any new Bush war.

As McGovern said darkly, "We have only seven weeks to act to stop this from happening."

Democracy Now: Propaganda Mouthpiece For The Catholic Church, Too

My email to Democracy Now, followed by the offending "news" item:

Good Grief!

The Pope apologized for the reactions his intentional remarks brought. The Pope did NOT apologize for the remarks themselves, did NOT say that his remarks were false or erroneous.

Has DN! become a propaganda mouthpiece for the Catholic Church?

TLC
___________________________________________________

Pope Apologizes Over Remarks on Islam
Pope Benedict has apologized for remarks about Islam that set off an angry and sometimes violent reaction world-wide. At a speech in Germany last week, Benedict suggested Islam is an inherently violent religion. He also called some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhhamed “evil and inhuman.” Demonstrators in several countries protested the Pope’s remarks. At least seven churches have been attacked in the West Bank while in Somalia an Italian nun has been killed in what are believed to be acts of retaliation.

UPDATE # 2: Drug Testing As A Condition Of Attending School

Bill Parkinson of the York Dispatch in Pennsylvania responded to my letter to the editor with a one-line response: "And the York, Pennsylvania, connection is???"

My response:


Hi Bill,

The connection with Pennsylvania is that when moves toward a totalitarian state are made, they do not occur everywhere at once. Rather, like a White House "Trial Balloon", they are introduced a little at a time, to see what the reaction is.

Are you old enough to remember when the police had to have probable cause to pull a person over? Now, under the pretext of stopping drunk drivers, we live in a country where the phrase, "let me see your papers" no longer brings back memories of Nazi Germany, but is now a reality in the USA where roadblocks are set up routinely, stopping every person coming through.

I have no doubt that children in Pennsylvania are force-fed the same drugs that children in Kansas and California are, under threat that if the parent does not allow the drugging, "social workers" will deem the parents "unfit" and take their child away--with the full backing of the "legal" system.

Ultimately, Novartis (Ritalin), McNeil (Concerta) and their ilk have better lobbyists than the street drug vendors. And yet, in the final analysis, there is not much difference between the substances being used.
Since your paper ran a wire service article on what is happening in El Dorado Kansas, that plants the seed for similar insanity in your schools.

If someone in your geographical area does a fraction of the job I have in connecting the proverbial dots, by all means print their letter over mine. But if someone alerted you to the fact that a child was about to get hit by a speeding train, would you ignore the warning merely because the person giving it did not live in York Pennsylvania? Or would you do the right thing and save the child from a most unfortunate fate?

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Detours

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing." --Dr. Denis Waitley, Speaker and Author

Those Who Truly Teach Are "Lemons"

The San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 2006, had an article supposedly about improving the quality of schools. It starts out:

Imagine a company president being ordered by the board of directors to hire any misfit who knocks on the door.

It's a crazy scenario -- but it's exactly the way many California school districts operate when an unsuccessful teacher is quietly edged out of a school. As long as the teacher agrees to leave voluntarily, union rules require the principal of any other school in the district with an opening to hire that teacher.

The practice, common in large and mid-size urban districts, is so reviled by principals that they've given it a derogatory name.

"It's called the Dance of the Lemons," said state Sen. Jack Scott, a Pasadena Democrat who wrote a bill to ban the practice in low-scoring schools and to limit it in others.

______________________

Finally, starting with the 16th paragraph of the article, does the truth come out:

The new law would no longer require principals in low-scoring schools to hire unwanted teachers. Like Balboa, these schools rank 1, 2, or 3 on the state's 10-point Academic Performance Index.

Principals in higher-scoring schools would have a window of time each year to hire whom they please -- beginning on April 15 and running through the summer.
______________________

My letter to the San Francisco Chronicle:


Dear Editor:

Your article, "Dance Of The Lemons", and the letters that comment on it, all seem to accept the premise that the goal of schools is to enable students to pass standardized tests.

Thus, the teacher that can inspire young minds to think creatively, to go beyond Newspeak, is considered a "lemon", while those that follow the path of pablum indoctrination laid down by the Bu$h Regime are the "educational" shining stars of the Fourth Reich.

The purge of intellectual activity in the public schools that began with expansion of standardized tests in the 1960's, furthered by Ritalin and other chemical toxins, and accelerated by No Standardized Test Left Behind, thus advances another goosestep thanks to the California legislature and HerrGoobernator.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Privilege

"I ask for the privilege of not being born ...not to be born until you can assure me of a home and a master to protect me, and a right to live as long as I am physically able to enjoy life...not to be born until my body is precious and men have ceased to exploit it because it is cheap and plentiful."
--Author Unknown

Heaven's Gate Hospices

Ah, the business of death is booming! Salina, Kansas, population around 50,000 including the suburbs, now has two hospices.

Once a person has run out of money to pay for drugs, or once the use of prescription drugs has taken its inevitable toll, the person no longer serves any useful purpose and gets kicked out the earthly door.

Were this latest hospice to be taking a truly "holistic" approach, they would be diligently looking to find holistic ways of healing the person, not just of putting them on the interdimensional plane.

TLC
_________________________________

From KSAL.com:


Hospice Care of Kansas recently opened an office in downtown Salina. Thursday they celebrated with a ribbon cutting and open house. Director of Patient Services, Kevin Putman, tells KSAL News they have been serving local patients for a couple of years now from the McPherson office, and recently decided to open a Salina office.

Putman says they want to offer the best care for people facing a terminal illness and their families. He says, "we have a holistic approach to end of life. We want to give quality care, and obviously for someone who has a terminal diagnosis that has a lot to do with the clinical piece, but we also know that if someone is emotionally not handling this well, or even spiritually, we want to address that too."

They currently have sixteen staff members including nurse case managers, home health aides, a social worker and a chaplain. The new office has been open about three months and they are already serving around thirty patients.

Fearless

"Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. Rather, it's the mastery of fear. It’s getting to the point where our fears do not stop us from daring to think new thoughts, try new things, take risks, fail, and start again. Fearlessness is all about getting up one more time than we fall down."
--Arianna Huffington, from her book, "On Becoming Fearless"

The Dearth Of Public Participation

The Salina [Kansas] Journal had an editorial, September 14, 2006, bemoaning the lack of public participation in meetings on "a formal strategic plan that will shape the course of local education. The irony: Only about three dozen people attended the meetings, and many of them were community leaders. Parents and the community at large were not well represented."

My letter to the editor:


Dear Editor:

I wholeheartedly agree that people should get more involved in the community, particularly with the educational system that is shaping future generations.

However, Scott Seirer's editorial ignores the primary reason people do not step forward: The well-founded perception that their voices will not be considered.

The closing of certain schools over the past several years is a glaring example. Most people in north Salina wanted Hawthorne elementary to stay open so that they could continue to have a community school. However, it is obvious the powers-that-be already made up their minds otherwise before "seeking" public input.

There was a similar disconnect when the fate of Roosevelt-Lincoln was being considered. Many wanted that school also to be refurbished, rather than abandoned in favor of an expensive new one. The central location of Roosevelt-Lincoln was a compelling reason to find ways to keep it open. But one center of money, and thus power, is east Salina, and those who call the shots wanted something closer to *their* neighborhood. And young students brought life, vitality, and interest to the dying downtown, which conflicted with the desire for downtown Salina to wither in favor of expansion to the south.

When decisions are repeatedly made in advance, with "public participation" sought only to give the illusion that it is a meaningful factor, people naturally get discouraged.

Silence feeds and rewards the plutocracy. It is only when people stand up and speak out that government will respond. Each person that comes forward despite the willful deafness of government encourages other citizens, and together, their voices will ultimately be heard, perhaps in the form of Regime Change at the ballot box.

And if the ballot boxes are replaced with touch-screen puppets, people must be prepared to stand even taller. For government is the one structure in our society that is subject to the will of the people, whether rich or poor. And that is what the elites, such as those who ignore the public at school board meetings, fear most.

Were Benjamin Franklin were today asked that famous question, "Well, Doctor, what have we got--a Republic or a Monarchy?" he would answer: "A Republic, if you can reclaim it".

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

UPDATE: Drug Testing As A Condition Of Attending School

The El Dorado Kansas School District's decision to impose extensive "illegal" drug testing has hit the wire services, so I sent my letter to the editor to many more papers challenging the fact that only certain drugs are tested for while so many others continue to be forced on students. See my previous Post on this issue.

TLC

Inevitability

"There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening."
--Marshall McLuhan

Battlefields

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
--Leo Tolstoy

Saving Those Who Walk On Twos And Fours

I received an email this evening from someone very active in animal rescue, which included a Link to a Delaware television news item about a young chow-chow who had been abandoned, in sad but easily cureable condition, in a trash dumpster.


My response:

A shining but sadly rare instance in which television can be a force for good, rather than a switchblade that slices and dices society.

Perhaps those on your list should watch the video, and keep it in mind the next time they find a local dog in need. I think it safe to assume that the dog in the video will have several offers of a good home, which probably would NOT be the case if her sad story were just emailed to people who have too many pets as it is.

Television, of course, is certainly not the only avenue when we come upon our fellow sentient beings in need--there are many other ways that should be explored, such as church groups, civic groups, social groups, schools, businesses, newspapers, and so on. So long as people continue to think they are "taking action" by emailing pictures and sad stories to you and leaving it at that, it is akin to putting one's finger in the Hoover Dam after it has already burst.

Somehow, we need to get people to thinking about alternative solutions, as well as "the big picture":

--Free spay/neuter facilities, with no income requirements, no requirement of an appointment made in advance--too many in "rescue" like to power trip by insisting that people barely existing on the margins schedule appointments in advance.

--Getting people outside of rescue to start coming to understand the fact that these cats and dogs, who are killed by the millions because they are "inconvenient", also live, love, breathe, hurt, and have all of the other feelings and emotions that humans do. Enlightenment, raising consciousness, whatever you want to call it. Because when we live in a society that dehumanizes and then kills sentient beings, we live in a society in which a Hitler can likewise dehumanize Jews, a George Wallace can dehumanize people of color, and a Karl Rove can dehumanize Muslims.

TLC

Plunging Street Prices Of A Drug Nation

The Independent UK had an article going on about the consequences of falling prices of "street drugs". My letter to the editor:


Dear Editor,

When I saw the headlines for your article on the plunging street prices of drugs, an "epidemic", and a "drug nation", I thought you might be covering the downfall of society resulting from the pharmaceutical drug cartel donating lavish bribes, er, “campaign contributions”, in order to get the government to create a nation of subsidized addicts.

When you manufacture a culture in which children are taught from birth that drugs are the answer to their physical and emotional problems, the move toward “street drugs” is perfectly natural and inevitable.

And BigPharma will be there to medicate the shattered lives with more drugs, thus perpetrating—and profiting exorbitantly from—that lesson.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Happy Birthday H.L.

H.L. Mencken, September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956


"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."

"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to prevailing superstition or taboo."

"It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause."

"Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

"The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression."

More Evidence Of Bombing Of The Twin Towers

From investigative reporter Wayne Madsen:

Sept. 12, 2006 -- According to sources who worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at Ground Zero on and after 911, residents of southern Manhattan and rescue and clean-up workers involved in the recovery operations at the site of the former World Trade Center are experiencing an unusually high rate of non-Hodgkin lymphoma -- a cancer that is common among individuals who have been exposed to extremely high levels of ionizing radiation, such as that from nuclear blasts and major nuclear reactor leaks. In addition to the respiratory problems among rescue workers at Ground Zero who breathed toxic "pulverized" concrete and other debris into their lungs, the radiation cancer is of extreme interest to researchers who suspect that the World Trade Center towers and Building 7 were brought down with the help of high energy releases. WMR spoke to a number of individuals who were at Ground Zero on 911 who are now experiencing symptoms resulting from severe damage to their immune systems -- a condition that is common among those exposed to high levels of radiation.

Sources close to FEMA in New York confirmed to WMR that the lymphoma cases are believed to be the result of a release of extremely high levels of radiation from a series of nuclear events on the morning of 911. They believe that explains the reason for the "pulverization" of concrete, molten metals, pyroclastic surges and fallout, and other anomalies resulting from the catastrophe. It was also pointed out that some vehicles parked on the west side of the World Trade Center were "fused" on the sides facing the towers -- the doors being melted into the body frames. Other cars parked nearby were not similarly affected. There is also evidence of explosions and fires on top of the Woolworth Building, three blocks away from the World Trade Center, during the attack on the towers.

FEMA officials from Washington, DC were quick to ban any unofficial photography in southern Manhattan in the weeks following 911. Any photographers who had not received prior permission from FEMA to be in southern Manhattan found their photographic and filming equipment confiscated by the government.

Slaves

"A slave is also a person who waits for someone else to set him free."
--Anon

The Best War Ever

Watch the video, explore the website: "The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, And The Mess In Iraq" by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

TLC

Governor McCarthyite

In true Joe McCarthy style, HerrGoobernator, caught on tape stereotyping people of Latin and African descent, has gone on the attack:

California Highway Patrol officials have opened a criminal investigation into "multiple" breaches and illegal downloads by outside hackers into the computers of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office, after an embarrassing private taped conversation was leaked last week to the Los Angeles Times, administration officials told The Chronicle.

Full Story, SF Chronicle, September 11, 2006


As is so typical of DerBu$hler's regime, when you get caught red-handed, go on the offensive so the lapdogs will follow the new scent you have laid.

TLC

The 9/11 Birdcage Liner

There was a full-page picture in one of this morning's papers of smoke bellowing from the mountain of copies of the U.S. Constitution being burned by the Bu$hies.

(Ok, maybe it was a picture of the Twin Towers. But my version is more accurate)

TLC

DB$ Breaking Propaganda

Subject: CBSnews.com Video Alert! Watch Live Coverage Of 9/11 Ceremonies
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 08:49:38 -0400
From: "CBSNews---Breaking_News"

The ceremonies to mark the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks are underway. Watch live coverage now.
Log on to www.cbsnews.com for details.

______________________________________

I wonder if DB$ is going to provide such coverage to any of the 9/11 Truth events...LOL!

TLC

9/11

"No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices."

"Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions."

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."


--Edward R. Murrow

Believers

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one."
--George Bernard Shaw

A Flicker Of DNC Courage

Thanks to Rolling Stone for providing a Link to an ad from the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Watching the clip, tho, you'll note that the mention of the ad being from the DNC is extremely brief and in rather small print. Has anyone seen the clip on TV? If it actually starts to run in major markets, and if the DNC origin of the clip is emphasized, THEN it would be the first hint of any courage among that group of Republicrats. At any rate, it's a great video that brings home the duplicity of the Bu$h Regime.

The next question is, what does the ad mean? Are we back to John Kerry, that if Democrats are put in power, they will be more effective in the War OF Terror, er, "War ON Terror"? It's one thing to point out that Bu$h is a treasonous liar, quite another to set forth why Democrats should be elected. Deja Vu all over again?

TLC

Governor Charlie McCarthy

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a/k/a HerrGoobernator, has caught on tape as stating: ""I mean Cuban, Puerto-Rican, they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it."
Full Article, SF Chronicle, September 8, 2006

My letter to the editor of various publications:


Dear Editor:

HerrGoobernator is sorry he said what he believes?

Unlike Mel Gibson, he can't claim that ventriloquistic liquor put false words in the dummy's mouth.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Preferences

"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery."
--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd U.S. President (1801-09)

The Sea

"I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it's because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it's because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea--whether it is to sail or to watch it--we are going back from whence we came."

President John F. Kennedy
Remarks in Newport at the Australian Ambassador's Dinner for the America's Cup Crews, September 14, 1962, Public Papers of the Presidents: 1962, p. 684.

CB$ Slims Credibility To Anorexic

Watching "Katie" chit-chat with Bush Buddy/Cheerleader Bob Schieffer last night, September 6, 2006, on the DB$ New$, unquestioningly accepting the enthusiastic stars-in-his-eyes "report", got the ol' blood boiling again, resulting in the following letter being sent to a variety of newspapers:


Dear Editor:

Edward R. Murrow. Walter Cronkite. Dan Rather. Bush Buddy Bob Schieffer. Katie Couric.

Turning the CBS Evening News to a kissing cousin of Entertainment Tonight wasn't enough--At least with Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart, what you saw was what you got as she read the daily fluff.

Now we have a fake newsreader delivering warmed-over drivel that Karl Rove objects to only because it rallies the wingnuts into even darker corners of the human soul, while moving CB$ even closer to Faux News.

"I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation. [U.S. Journalist] Heywood Broun once said, 'No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch.' I would like television to produce some itching pills rather than this endless outpouring of tranquilizers."--Edward R. Murrow

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Difficulty

"Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts."
--Edward R. Murrow

Mickey Mouse's Latest Sports Entertainment Yawner

Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 22:19:46 -0400
From: "ABC News"
Subject: Breaking News Wed., September 6, 2006

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:
FORMER TRIPLE OLYMPIC CHAMPION MARION JONES CLEARED OF DOPING AFTER SECOND SAMPLE TESTS NEGATIVE http://abcnews.go.com?CMP=EMC-1396

________________________

My email to ABC Snooze:

Isn't it about time that ABC, instead of boring people that are interested in bona-fide news with entertainment stories, set up a separate email list for the sports entertainment minded?

Or is distracting the public from important issues of our times the goal?

TLC

P.S.: Hey, as long as you're covering sports entertainment, what's the latest on Vince McMahon?

DB$ New$

CBS should change its name to DB$--"Duplicitous Bull$hit".

Let us go down memory lane:

Edward R. Murrow

Walter Cronkite

Dan Rather

(Bush Buddy) Bob Schieffer

Katie Couric

And to remove any nostalgic doubt whatsoever:

No, Katie Couric didn't suddenly lose 20 pounds. The incoming "CBS Evening News" anchor appears significantly thinner in a network promotional magazine photo thanks to digital airbrushing.

The original picture was snapped in May and was widely circulated to the media as an official photo of Couric.

Gil Schwartz, executive vice president of communications for CBS Corp., said Wednesday in a phone interview the photo alteration was done by someone in the CBS photo department who "got a little zealous."

But he dismissed any notion of heads rolling over the matter.


Full Article, SF Chronicle, August 30, 2006


TLC

Olbermann: "awful and cynical" Bush

Source, and Salon has the video:
http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/media/2006/09/06/olbermann/index.html

Olbermann: "awful and cynical" Bush

We awoke to many emails demanding that we post Keith Olbermann's latest comment, from last night's "Countdown." It follows last week's blast of Donald Rumsfeld with a follow-up against President Bush, and what Olbermann sees as Bush's outlandish attempt to equate a critical American media with al-Qaida propaganda. (We always get a head rush when Olbermann intones, "Make no mistake here. . . ")

Source, and Salon has the video:
http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/media/2006/09/06/olbermann/index.html

And Now, A Few Words From Der Reich Chancellor

In May 2002--months before he asked Congress for authority to attack Saddam-Bush bluntly revealed his ultimate game plan in a candid moment with two aides. When told that reporter Helen Thomas was questioning the need to oust Saddam by force, Bush snapped: "Did you tell her I intend to kick his sorry mother fucking ass all over the Mideast?"

From the book, "Hubris: The Inside Story Of Spin, Scandal And The Selling Of The Iraq War" by Michael Isikoff and David Corn


And NOTE that, at the time this statement was made, Our Fuhrer was publically stating that he hoped to avoid war.

TLC

Deer Hunter Update

See my previous Post on the deer hunter who, caught hunting on private farmland out of season, stabbed and left for dead the elderly farmer who caught him.

On September 5, 2006, the "hunter", Gene Bitler, was sentenced to serve five years and one month for attempted second degree murder, to be followed by a sentence of 34 months for misdemeanor charges including criminal hunting and contributing to the misconduct of his teenage boys, who were with him at the time the attack.

Full Article, Topeka Capital-Journal

That prompted a new letter to the editor:


Dear Editor:

Gene Bitler, who stabbed farmer Marvin Macy and left him to die, was convicted, among other things, of "criminal hunting". It's perfectly fine to kill, just do so while your government-issued killing permit is in effect.

Bitler was also convicted of contributing to the misconduct of his teenage boys. But in Kansas, teaching children to kill innocent deer is considered a normal, healthy activity.

Deer today, farmers tomorrow. How sad that so many cannot connect even rudimentary dots.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Acceptance

"That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false." --Paul Valery

Luck

"It's a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get."
--Arnold Palmer (1929~) American Golfer

Happy Labor Day

In celebration of Labor Day, a few words from Eugene Debs, American Labor Organizer, 1855 - 1926:


"When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other's throats, when we have stopped enslaving each other, we will stand together, hands clasped, and be friends. we will be comrades, we will be brothers, and we will begin the march to the grandest civilization the human race has ever known."


"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation."


"They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people."


"Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun."

Multiplicity Of Laws

"Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges." "(The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.)" --Cornelius Tacitus (55-117 A.D.) Source: Annales, 1st century A.D.

Rules

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers."
-- Ayn Rand(1905-1982) Author
Source: "Atlas Shrugged", Part II, Chapter 3

Drug Testing As A Condition Of Attending School

UPDATE: The story has now hit the wire services, so I sent my letter, below, to many more newspapers. You can access the AP version of the story at the SF Chronicle, which unlike cheapskate newspapers, makes their archives available for free.

TLC
____________________________________________________________

More face drug tests for school

Nearly every middle and high school student in the El Dorado school district will be tested for drug and alcohol use this year.

Any student in seventh grade or higher who wants to participate in extracurricular activities must agree to undergo a mandatory drug test. That includes students who play in the band, join the math club, attend a homecoming dance, take drivers education in the summer, participate in a spelling bee or park in the school parking lot.

It isn't unusual for districts to test athletes, and many districts will test students who are suspected of being under the influence of drugs.

El Dorado's new policy is different in that the district expanded what is considered an extracurricular activity.


Full Article, Wichita Eagle, September 3, 2006

_____________________________

My letter to the editor of the Wichita Eagle, El Dorado Times, and Salina Journal, with the Subject, "Stopping The *REAL* Drug Problem":


Dear Editor:

If the El Dorado School District were serious about stopping genuine drug abuse, it would put an immediate halt to any use by its students of Ritalin, Concerta, Effexor, and other toxins that students are forced to take lest the pharmaceutical drug cartel's "social worker" puppets place them in "foster care" where they face an unlimited imposition of mind-altering drugs.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

The Starfish

In Maine, they tell of an old man walking along the beach with his grandson. The boy picked up each starfish they passed and threw it back in the ocean. "If I left them here", said the boy, "they would dry up and die. I'm saving their lives."

The old man said, "But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish. What you're doing won't make any difference."

The boy looked at the starfish in his hand, threw it in the water, and answered: "It makes a difference to this one."


Adapted from Loren C. Eiseley's, The Star Thrower

Strippers For Schools

There was a wire service article about Las Vegas strippers raising funds to help schoolteachers with supplies, which prompted the following letter to the SF Chronicle:

Dear Editor:

Re. your article on Las Vegas strippers helping the schools:

Considering that whores voted for No Standardized Test Left Behind, flushing the futures of most children down the toilet in exchange for "campaign donations" and other kickbacks, it's refreshing to see that not all who work in the "adult services" industry are evil.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Mexico: NOT Marching In Bu$hstep

The Los Angeles Times had a particularly biased article, September 2, 2006, concerning protests by Mexico's elected legislators:

Leftists Block Fox's Final State of the Nation Address

MEXICO CITY — More than 150 shouting leftist legislators stormed the dais at a joint session of Congress on Friday to prevent President Vicente Fox from delivering his final State of the Nation speech, a bold protest that heightened the crisis surrounding Mexico's disputed presidential election.

_________________________

Doing a quick--not a comprehensive--Google News search, only the San Diego Union-Tribune took a similarly hostile tone. To their credit, it appears, for a refreshing change, that the corporate media is not swallowing the company line. The Washington Post's article, carried widely, is typical of the change.

Still, the LA Times piece, and that ran by the San Diego Union-Tribune, merited the following letter:


Dear Editor:

How dare those "leftists" interfere with Bu$h buddy Vicende Fox--what do they think Mexico is, a democracy? Don't Mexico's legislators know their place is to march in lockstep while doing the goosestep? They should take lessons from the US Congress, which knows how to properly kneel.

Sincerely,

Terry L. Clark

Noah's Ark Animal Rescue: Getting The Word Out

In addition to sending a letter to the editor of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Post your comments on their website as well since it does not appear they are printing many letters. While you're there, take a few minutes to read the comments that have already been Posted there.

TLC

Noah's Ark Animal Rescue: Another Way You Can Help

Contact them, send some funds--anything helps. Send encouragement, words of support. Spread the word. Their very informative website can be seen HERE.

As they point out:

Noah's Ark's policy has always been to save not only the adoptable pets but the harder to place or what some might call un-adoptable pets as well, and we have been criticized often for that policy--accused of "wasting funds" on pets that should be euthanized because they are elderly or have handicaps that make them harder to place--like Helena a 10 month old Jack Russell X that was injured and without treatment now has a permanent spinal cord injury that leaves her incontinent.

Helena is otherwise in perfect health but will most likely be in need of a diaper for the rest of her life ? but she plays and hops around like a jack rabbit unaware of her special need.

We can not decide her life is of lesser value.
We believe that all life has value.


Noah's Ark Animal Rescue
5710 East 7th Street
# 327
Long Beach, California 90803
562-439-1966
Info@NoahsArkAnimalRescue.com

Trumpets

"Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need - not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' - a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself."
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th U.S. President (1961-63)

Give The Finger To Tony Blair & The Bu$h League Times

Let everyone with a Blog publish the BLT's article that has been cut off from those with a British IP address.

Why did the BLT cut off access to those in Britain? The article shows that good old-fashioned police work, not a totalitarian state, still works quite well. Perhaps it is a test case to see how compliant the BLT and the citizens of Britain are. Another possibility is that it shows how the timing of the arrests was to protect Tony Blair and undermine Prince Charles.

TLC
_____________________________________

August 28, 2006
Department of Homeland Security, described the suspected plot as “getting really quite close to the execution stage.”

But British officials said the suspects still had a lot of work to do. Two of the suspects did not have passports, but had applied for expedited approval. One official said the people suspected of leading the plot were still recruiting and radicalizing would-be bombers.

While investigators found evidence on a computer memory stick indicating that one of the men had looked up airline schedules for flights from London to cities in the United States, the suspects had neither made reservations nor purchased plane tickets, a British official said. Some of their suspected bomb-making equipment was found five days after the arrests in a suitcase buried under leaves in the woods near High Wycombe, a town 30 miles northwest of London.

Another British official stressed that martyrdom videos were often made well in advance of an attack. In fact, two and a half weeks since the inquiry became public, British investigators have still not determined whether there was a target date for the attacks or how many planes were to be involved. They say the estimate of 10 planes was speculative and exaggerated.

In his first public statement after the arrests, Peter Clarke, chief of counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police, acknowledged that the police were still investigating the basics: “the number, destination and timing of the flights that might be attacked.”

A total of 25 people have been arrested in connection with the suspected plot. Twelve of them have been charged. Eight people were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and preparing acts of terrorism.
Three people were charged with failing to disclose information that could help prevent a terrorist act, and a 17-year-old male suspect was charged with possession of articles that could be used to prepare a terrorist act.
Eight people still in custody have not been charged. Five have been released. All the suspects arrested are British citizens ranging in age from 17 to 35.

Despite the charges, officials said they were still unsure of one critical question: whether any of the suspects was technically capable of assembling and detonating liquid explosives while airborne.

A chemist involved in that part of the inquiry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was sworn to confidentiality, said HMTD, which can be prepared by combining hydrogen peroxide with other chemicals, “in theory is dangerous,” but whether the suspects “had the brights to pull it off remains to be seen.”

While officials and experts familiar with the case say the investigation points to a serious and determined group of plotters, they add that questions about the immediacy and difficulty of the suspected bombing plot cast doubt on the accuracy of some of the public statements made at the time.

“In retrospect,’’ said Michael A. Sheehan, the former deputy commissioner of counterterrorism in the New York Police Department, “there may have been too much hyperventilating going on.”

Some of the suspects came to the attention of Scotland Yard more than a year ago, shortly after four suicide bombers attacked three subway trains and a double-decker bus in London on July 7, 2005, a coordinated attack that killed 56 people and wounded more than 700. The investigation was dubbed “Operation Overt.’’


The Police Are Tipped Off

The police were apparently tipped off by informers. One former British counterterrorism official, who was working for the government at the time, said several people living in Walthamstow, a working-class neighborhood in East London, alerted the police in July 2005 about the intentions of a small group of angry young Muslim men.

Walthamstow is best known for its faded greyhound track and the borough of Waltham Forest, where more than 17,000 Pakistani immigrants live in the largest Pakistani enclave in London.

Armed with the tips, MI5, Britain’s domestic security services, began an around-the-clock surveillance operation of a dozen young men living in Walthamstow — bugging their apartments, tapping their phones, monitoring their bank transactions, eavesdropping on their Internet traffic and e-mail messages, even watching where they traveled, shopped and took their laundry, according to senior British officials.

The initial focus of the investigation was not about possible terrorism aboard planes, but an effort to see whether there were any links between the dozen men and the July 7 subway bombers, or terrorist cells in Pakistan, the officials said.

The authorities quickly learned the identity of the man believed to have been the leader of the cell, the unemployed man in his mid-20’s, who traveled at least twice within the past year to Pakistan, where his activities are still being investigated.

Last June, a 22-year-old Walthamstow resident, who is among the suspects arrested Aug. 10, paid $260,000 cash for a second-floor apartment in a house on Forest Road, according to official property records. The authorities noticed that six men were regularly visiting the second-floor apartment that came to be known as the “bomb factory,” according to a British official and the person briefed about the case.

Two of the men, who were likely the bomb-makers, were conducting a series of experiments with chemicals, said the person briefed on the case.

MI5 agents secretly installed video and audio recording equipment inside the apartment, two senior British officials said. In a secret search conducted before the Aug. 10 raids, agents had discovered that the inside of batteries had been scooped out, and that it appeared several suspects were doing chemical experiments with a sports drink named Lucozade and syringes, the person with knowledge of the case said. Investigators have said they believe that the suspects intended to bring explosive chemicals aboard planes inside sports drink bottles.

In that apartment, according to a British official, one of the leaders and a man in his late 20’s met at least twice to discuss the suspected plot, as MI5 agents secretly watched and listened. On Aug. 9, just hours before the police raids occurred in 50 locations from East London to Birmingham, the two men met again to discuss the suspected plot and record a martyrdom video.

As one of the men read from a script before a videocamera, he recited a quotation from the Koran and ticked off his reasons for the “action that I am going to undertake,” according to the person briefed on the case. The man said he was seeking revenge for the foreign policy of the United States, and “their accomplices, the U.K. and the Jews.” The man said he wanted to show that the enemies of Islam would never win this “war.”

Beseeching other Muslims to join jihad, he justified the killing of innocent civilians in America and other Western countries because they supported the war against Muslims through their tax dollars. They were too busy enjoying their Western lifestyles to protest the policies, he added. Though British officials usually release little information about continuing investigations, Scotland Yard took the unusual step of disclosing some detailed information about the investigation last Monday, when the suspects were charged.


A Trove of Evidence

“There have been 69 searches,” Mr. Clarke, the chief antiterrorist police official from Scotland Yard, said Monday. “These have been in houses, flats and business premises, vehicles and open spaces.”

Investigators also seized more than 400 computers, 200 mobile phones and 8,000 items like memory sticks, CD’s and DVD’s. “The scale is immense,” Mr. Clarke said. “Inquiries will span the globe.”

He said those searches revealed a trove of evidence, and officials and others last week provided additional details.

Four of the law firms that are defending suspects declined to comment.

When police officers knocked down the door to the second-floor apartment on Forest Road, they found a plastic bin filled with liquid, batteries, nearly a dozen empty drink bottles, rubber gloves, digital scales and a disposable camera that was leaking liquid, the person with knowledge of the case said. The camera might have been a prototype for a device to smuggle chemicals on the plane.

In the pocket of one of the suspects, the police found the computer memory stick that showed he had looked up airline schedules for flights from London to the United States, a British official said. The man is said to have had a diary that included a list that the police interpreted as a step-by-step plan for an attack. The items included batteries and Lucozade bottles. It also included a reminder to select a date.

In the homes of a number of the suspects, the police found jihadist literature and DVD’s about “genocide” in Iraq and Palestine, according to British officials. In one house searched by the police in Walthamstow, the authorities found a copy of a book called “Defense of the Muslim Lands.”

A “last will and testament” for one of the accused was said to have been found at his brother’s home. Dated Sept. 24, 2005, the will concludes, “What should I worry when I die a Muslim, in the manner in which I am to die, I go to my death for the sake of my maker.” God, he added, can if he wants “bless limbs torn away!!!”


Looking for Global Ties

In addition, the British authorities are scouring the evidence for clues to whether there is a global dimension to the suspected plot, particularly the extent to which it was planned, financed or supported in Pakistan, and whether there is a connection to remnants of Al Qaeda. They are still trying to determine who provided the cash for the apartment and the computer equipment and telephones, officials said.

Several of the suspects had traveled to Pakistan within weeks of the arrests, according to an American counterterrorism official.

At a minimum, investigators say at least one of the suspects’ inspiration was drawn from Al Qaeda. One of the suspects’ “kill-as-they-kill” martyrdom video was taken from a November 2002 fatwa by Osama bin Laden.
British officials said many of the questions about the suspected plot remained unanswered because they were forced to make the arrests before Scotland Yard was ready.

The trigger was the arrest in Pakistan of Rashid Rauf, a 25-year-old British citizen with dual Pakistani citizenship, whom Pakistani investigators have described as a “key figure” in the plot.

In 2000, Mr. Rauf’s father founded Crescent Relief London, a charity that sent money to victims of last October’s earthquake in Pakistan. Several suspects met through their involvement in the charity, a friend of one of them said. Last week, Britain froze the charity’s bank accounts and opened an investigation into possible “terrorist abuse of charitable funds.” Leaders of the charity have denied the allegations.

Several senior British officials said the Pakistanis arrested Rashid Rauf without informing them first. The arrest surprised and frustrated investigators here who had wanted to monitor the suspects longer, primarily to gather more evidence and to determine whether they had identified all the people involved in the suspected plot.

But within hours of Mr. Rauf’s arrest on Aug. 9 in Pakistan, British officials heard from intelligence sources that someone connected to him had tried to contact some of the suspects in East London. The message was interpreted by investigators as a possible signal to move forward with the plot, officials said.

“The plotters received a very short message to ‘Go now,’ ” said Franco Frattini, the European Union’s security commissioner, who was briefed by the British home secretary, John Reid, in London. “I was convinced by British authorities that this message exists.”

A senior British official said the message from Pakistan was not that explicit. But, nonetheless, investigators here had to change their strategy quickly.

“The aim was to keep this operation going for much longer,” said a senior British security official who requested anonymity because of confidentiality rules. “It ended much sooner than we had hoped.”

From then on, the British government was driven by worst-case scenarios based on a minimum-risk strategy.
British investigators worried that word of Mr. Rauf’s arrest could push the London suspects to destroy evidence and to disperse, raising the possibility they would not be able to arrest them all. But investigators also could not rule out that there could be an unknown second cell that would try to carry out a similar plan, officials said.

Mr. Clarke, as the country’s top antiterrorism police official in London with authority over police decisions, ordered the arrests.

But it was left to Mr. Reid, who has been home secretary since May and is a former defense secretary, to decide at emergency meetings of police, national security and transport leaders, what else needed to be done. Mr. Reid and Mr. Clarke declined repeated requests for interviews.

Prime Minister Tony Blair was on vacation in Barbados, where he was said to have monitored events in London; Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott did not attend the meeting.

“While the arrests were unfolding, the Home Office raised Britain’s terror alert level to “critical,” as the police continued their raids of suspects’ homes and cars. All liquids were banned from carry-on bags, and some public officials in Britain and the United States said an attack appeared to be imminent. In addition to Mr. Stephenson’s remark that the attack would have been “mass murder on an unimaginable scale,” Mr. Reid said that attacks were “highly likely” and predicted that the loss of life would have been on an “unprecedented scale.”

Two weeks later, senior officials here characterized the remarks as unfortunate. As more information was analyzed and the British government decided that the attack was not imminent, Mr. Reid sought to calm the country by backing off from his dire predictions, while defending the decision to raise the alert level to its highest level as a precaution.

In lowering the threat level from critical to severe on Aug. 14, Mr. Reid acknowledged: “Threat level assessments are intelligence-led. It is not a process where scientific precision is possible. They involve judgments.”

Reporting for this article was contributed by William J. Broad from New York, Carlotta Gall from Pakistan, David Johnston and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.


Copyright 2006, The New York Times Company