Razing entire neighborhoods?

As reported by The Telegraph (US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive, June 12, 2009) about Flint, Michigan:

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens are homeless. But instead of allowing them to find shelter in abandoned buildings we destroy the buildings. The accepted excuse is safety and health concerns. Is facing the elements safer? Try that out one fine Michigan winter...

The Emerging Gitmo Model?

While much of the "torture debate" has emphasized the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" defined by the twisted legal framework of the Office of Legal Council memos, IRF teams in effect operate at Guantánamo as an extrajudicial terror squad that has regularly brutalized prisoners outside of the interrogation room, gang beating them, forcing their heads into toilets, breaking bones, gouging their eyes, squeezing their testicles, urinating on a prisoner's head, banging their heads on concrete floors and hog-tying them -- sometimes leaving prisoners tied in excruciating positions for hours on end.

Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama
Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet, May 15, 2009

Here's how your truly commented on this article in a private email:

Personally, I don't think even for a minute that this is about Gitmo, Al Qaeda, fighting terrorists, etc. as much as it is about developing and expanding totalitarian law enforcement and penal methods. Everybody and their brother knows that most of those people at Gitmo can be let go and nothing will change; at least, they can be treated with reasonable dignity and chances are they will be quite manageable. Give them their books, let them write letters home and receive letters, feed them three squares, and chances are there won't be any more problems than in any good ole' county jail.

Then what gives? What gives, I think, is that Gitmo is but a prototype, with a view of every police station and every county jail in the US of A being eventually gitmoized. And while they ain't there yet, not by a long shot, I can't help but say that some progress is apparantly being made in that direction.

Funny crimes of our times...

Boston Police said they made an unusual find after a drug raid Friday on a Roxbury apartment: counterfeit money.

Robert White, 50, was charged with possession of counterfeit money after police allegedly found 14 bogus $20 bills. He also faces a charge of knowingly being present where heroin is kept.

The money was funny: Boston man charged with possessing counterfeit money, The Boston Globe, Saturday, March 14, 2009

14 $20 bills is a grand total of $280. I don't know how well the counterfeiters knew their trade but it is entirely conceivable that they were at least good enough to make the bills look genuine to an untrained eye. And if Mr White was into counterfeiting himself I would guess the amount he would produce would likely exceed $280. So quite likely he is just being charged with not being a currency expert.

As for "knowingly being present where heroin is kept"... Doesn't that have somewhat of a ludicrous ring to it? I used to live in dormitories on campus, I knew there were drugs there... What was I supposed to do - sleep out in the cold?

And what if all that bad stuff was not off-limits?

In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, a distinction which continues through to the present. Last year, working with the Cato Institute, I went to that country in order to research the effects of the decriminalization law (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin) and to interview both Portuguese and EU drug policy officials and analysts (the central EU drug policy monitoring agency is, by coincidence, based in Lisbon). Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.

Glenn Greenwald, The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal, Saturday, March 14, 2009

By the way, here in the US no drug laws existed prior to 1913 if memory serves. And best I know it's not like everyone here just became a junkie. A nation of junkies would hardly have been as powerful as successful as the US at the time.

New US$1 design

Unfortunately, I don't know who the author is of this design as it came to me via email but I would be delighted to give that author credit should I find out who that is.
Boris Epstein

U.S. Army prepares to invade U.S.

The plans to implement martial law in America have been taking shape for decades, hidden behind "Continuity of Government" contingency planning. Now, with public outcry over the banker bailout bill at fever pitch, all of the pieces are in place for the U.S. Army to start policing American citizens.

For more information and analysis, please visit

http://www.corbettreport.com

YouTube link

$700 billion is nothing

Voters are rightly furious at the proposal to spend $700,000,000,000 that the government doesn't have to bail out Wall Street bankers who created the current economic crisis in the first place. But why then aren't we concerned about the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve is pumping into the system? Or the trillions missing from the Pentagon? Or the quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble.

For more news and economic analysis, visit:

http://www.corbettreport.com

YouTube link

Fellow Alaskans on Sarah Palin

On a more practical level, many people in Alaska, and particularly Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they’re afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently, the power elite are as mean as the winters.

“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”

“Once Palin became mayor,” he continued, “She became part of that inner circle.”

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”, Charley James, LA Progressive, September 5, 2008

This author has never been to Alaska and knows little about that state. But to him this sounds completely believable and that is, to put it mildly, disturbing.

No, no, they can't do that!

Speaking to a group of business and political leaders in Italy, Cheney faulted Russia for invading the former Soviet republic, killing civilians and displacing thousands of Georgians, and failing to abide by a ceasefire agreement from the European Union.

"This chain of aggressive moves and diplomatic reversals has only intensified the concern that many have about Russia's larger objectives," he said. "For brutality against a neighbor is simply the latest in a succession of troublesome and unhelpful actions by the Russian government."

Cheney bashes Russia for 'brutality' in Georgia, CNN, September 6, 2008

Some news is just hard to comment on... I mean, sure, war is brutal business. And by war I mean... well, invading Iraq in 2003, for instance. But even if the Russians acted as brutally in Georgia as Mr Cheney says - why would the Vice President for Torture have a problem with that?

Boston Premiere of “Zero – An Investigation Into 9-11”

Source: Boston 9/11 Truth

August 27, 2008

Boston911Truth.org proudly and respectfully presents the Boston Premiere of the new Italian film “ZERO - INCHIESTA SULL'11 SETTEMBRE” [“ZERO – AN INVESTIGATION INTO 9-11”].

“ZERO” will be exclusively screened at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington Center on Thursday September 11, 2008 at 7:00pm.
Tickets are $10 at the door, $9 in advance. Free Parking.

“ZERO”, featuring intellectual heavyweights Gore Vidal and Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, includes shocking new evidence exposing the truth of the 9-11-01 crimes!

“ZERO” was a sensation at the 2007 Rome Film Festival last Fall.

“ZERO” has one central thesis - that the official version of events surrounding the attacks on 9/11 can not be true. This new documentary explores the latest scientific evidence and reveals dramatic new witness testimony, directly conflicting with the US Government's account.

"What results is a sequence of contradictions, gaps and omissions of stunning gravity". (Italian daily newspaper Il Corriere de la Sera)

“The importance of this film can not be overstated, if its thesis is correct, the justification for declaring the war on terror is built on a series of outrageous lies.” -La Repubblica

“The bomb at the Festa del Cinema di Roma is called Zero. An incendiary documentary. The rhythm is breathtaking. The filmmakers entertain and inform with the same dramatic force”. -Il Messaggerro

You can read more about “ZERO” and view trailers at these links: “ZERO - INCHIESTA SULL'11 SETTEMBRE”.

Comment by Boris Epstein:

To learn more about "Zero" please also see the following:

9/11 Truth Debate at European Parliament, February 26

European Parliament Screening for Zero: An Investigation Into 9/11