Chomsky
There's a nice Chomsky interview HERE from Germany. Check it out. Topics include, propoganda model, why the Bush administration and the press hates democracy and more.
Friday, July 23, 2004
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Fear and Deja Vu on the Campaign trail 1972-2004
I just finished re-re-re-reading Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972. It's one of my favorite all time political books, really cutting through the bullshit and laying open that year's race with a clarity that is belied by Thompson's "crazy guy" public image. More than anything I think it should be required reading for everyone voting in this year's election.
Nothing. And I mean nothing has changed since 1972. It's the same shit, only this time, instead of getting the McGovern (the only comparison this year would be Kucinichor to a lesser degree Dean) we got Muskie (Kerry), the Old Party Hack that McGovern's candidacy, had he won, was supposed to signal the end of. See, in spite of recent argument to the contrary, the Democratic party has long had a problem with being afraid of what it is. It's the alternative to the Republican Party. At least on paper.
That means it's unabashedly liberal. It is concerned with people over profits. Change and radicalism over stagnancy and fearful conservatism. It hates big business. And if big labor becomes another form of big business it should hate big labor too. The Democratic Party, at least on paper is supposed to be captured by the term "democratic" which means, for the people.
John Kerry is Muskie. McGovern got his clock cleaned by Nixon not because he was a radical candidate but because he was perceived as going to the middle and because of the disastrous mistake that was picking Eagleton as his VP. He was choked off by his own indecision. If McGovern was running now, they would've played an audio cut of him clearing his throat or something until he was the laughing stock of the world. The thing that freaks me out is, in the past the candidates had to hang themselves. In '04 the media has demonstrated it can kill of candidates over nothing (Dean's WHoo-AAH) or by simply pretending they don't exist (Kucinich) It's like the very vehicles that McGovern used back in 72 are no longer available. And that's a shame.
because Kerry will probably lose too. For the same reason only from the opposite end. McGovern lost because he was perceived to be a maverick and then looked just like another politician by the way he handled Eagleton. As a result, no one came out to vote for him. Kerry's gonna have the same thing happen, only he IS just another politician and everybody knew it from the start. No one is gonna come out to vote for him. He's worthless. He stands for nothing. He might as well be a republican. Like Nixon, Bush is gonna lay low. If he wins re-election I would bet anyone (and give YOU odds) that Bush is going to be impeached by the end of his four years. If not, we ALL are gonna get what we deserve, an America that is little more than a shell. A Christian corporate hellhole with us as serfs.
If John Kerry wins. It'll just be a corporate hellhole. What a choice. What a bummer.
The more I think about it I'm just gonna vote NO this November. No to Bush. No to Kerry. Even No to Nader who's getting 10 percent of his funding from W's inner circle and still doesn't see that at this point he's working for the Republicans.
If you didn't understand the bulk of this particular entry, read the F&L '72. Like Orwell's 1984, it's the truth for today, written decades ago and it's proof that history goes in circles.
I just finished re-re-re-reading Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972. It's one of my favorite all time political books, really cutting through the bullshit and laying open that year's race with a clarity that is belied by Thompson's "crazy guy" public image. More than anything I think it should be required reading for everyone voting in this year's election.
Nothing. And I mean nothing has changed since 1972. It's the same shit, only this time, instead of getting the McGovern (the only comparison this year would be Kucinichor to a lesser degree Dean) we got Muskie (Kerry), the Old Party Hack that McGovern's candidacy, had he won, was supposed to signal the end of. See, in spite of recent argument to the contrary, the Democratic party has long had a problem with being afraid of what it is. It's the alternative to the Republican Party. At least on paper.
That means it's unabashedly liberal. It is concerned with people over profits. Change and radicalism over stagnancy and fearful conservatism. It hates big business. And if big labor becomes another form of big business it should hate big labor too. The Democratic Party, at least on paper is supposed to be captured by the term "democratic" which means, for the people.
John Kerry is Muskie. McGovern got his clock cleaned by Nixon not because he was a radical candidate but because he was perceived as going to the middle and because of the disastrous mistake that was picking Eagleton as his VP. He was choked off by his own indecision. If McGovern was running now, they would've played an audio cut of him clearing his throat or something until he was the laughing stock of the world. The thing that freaks me out is, in the past the candidates had to hang themselves. In '04 the media has demonstrated it can kill of candidates over nothing (Dean's WHoo-AAH) or by simply pretending they don't exist (Kucinich) It's like the very vehicles that McGovern used back in 72 are no longer available. And that's a shame.
because Kerry will probably lose too. For the same reason only from the opposite end. McGovern lost because he was perceived to be a maverick and then looked just like another politician by the way he handled Eagleton. As a result, no one came out to vote for him. Kerry's gonna have the same thing happen, only he IS just another politician and everybody knew it from the start. No one is gonna come out to vote for him. He's worthless. He stands for nothing. He might as well be a republican. Like Nixon, Bush is gonna lay low. If he wins re-election I would bet anyone (and give YOU odds) that Bush is going to be impeached by the end of his four years. If not, we ALL are gonna get what we deserve, an America that is little more than a shell. A Christian corporate hellhole with us as serfs.
If John Kerry wins. It'll just be a corporate hellhole. What a choice. What a bummer.
The more I think about it I'm just gonna vote NO this November. No to Bush. No to Kerry. Even No to Nader who's getting 10 percent of his funding from W's inner circle and still doesn't see that at this point he's working for the Republicans.
If you didn't understand the bulk of this particular entry, read the F&L '72. Like Orwell's 1984, it's the truth for today, written decades ago and it's proof that history goes in circles.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
“ALL GOOD GOES BAD”
William Hrdina
Commentary about the lot scene at the All-Good Music Festival 2004 at Marvin’s Mountaintop in Masontown, West Virginia.
July 9-11, 2004
I could write exclusively about all the positive aspects of the 8th Annual All Good Music Festival because there were a bunch. The grounds were beautiful- snuggled in the hills of West Virginia maybe 15 miles off the highway. The weather, infamously terrible for the past seven years, decided to cooperate and it didn’t rain until late Sunday night. The music was absolutely first-rate with Keller Williams, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Dark Star Orchestra, the Grey Boy All Stars, and a whole bunch more. There was a Family area right next to the stage where people with children could camp without having to drag their toddlers a half-mile back and forth to the venue. On Sunday afternoon, when it got hot, the organizers started selling water for a buck out of the concession stand- a rare show of kindness in our modern corporate wonderland. All in all, I would say the organizers at Walther Productions did an absolutely fantastic job.
But there’s another side to the story. Dark and violent vibes were coursing under our feet, unseen until they lashed out in a single act of violence so heinous it put a pall not only over the festival, but my entire summer.
In the midst of what was otherwise a very enjoyable festival I had the dubious distinction of being an eye-witness to a very nasty pistol-whipping; possibly a murder. I never got word if the kid who got hit died and I haven’t been able to find any mention of the incident in the papers. I hope he’s OK, but I worked in an ICU for 3 years and if the kid can still spell his name I admit I’d be surprised.
Before you get feeling too sorry for this guy, you should know; he brought the gun he was pistol-whipped with.
I was sitting on the side of the road, selling my sci-fi novel Portal when I saw six guys walking behind another guy who appeared to be completely alone. It was immediately clear from everyone’s body language the six guys were pissed at the one guy, and the one guy, hunched over and walking fast- certainly wasn’t presenting himself as aggressive in any way. My first reaction was “What are these assholes doing?” My sympathy was with the guy walking alone. Six against one isn’t a fair fight in anyone’s book.
Then I began to hear what the six guys were saying and my anger turned to confusion.
“What the fuck are you doing with that gun on the lot man?”
“No guns on lot.”
“Why you got a gun motherfucker?”
Around this time the kid was passed directly in front of me and I got a clear look into his pocket. There really was a gun there. The matte-black rubber handle stuck out just a little bit. I remember thinking at the time, “I wonder what on earth possessed this guy to bring a gun to a show?”
The kid with the gun looked really scared. He kept repeating, “Leave me alone. I just want to leave. I’m leaving.”
Around this same time the language of the 6 increasingly frantic guys started to get a great deal more threatening.
“Give up the gun asshole.”
“Give us the gun motherfucker or we’re gonna kick the shit out of you.”
That did it. I knew at that moment something really savage was about to go down. The worst thing you can do to an outnumbered guy with superior firepower is back him into a corner. In another testament to the fact this kid wasn’t about starting a confrontation- he tried to run when the threats of violence started. He didn’t make it far, the six guys chased him and before I could even turn around in my chair to see what was happening the 6 guys were kicking the hell out of the guy with the gun. It was like Rodney King with feet instead of batons.
I clearly remember one guy yelling, “Someone take his gun. Take his gun.” He couldn’t take the gun himself because he was busy: kicking this kid in the head.
By this point I wasn’t sure who I wanted to have the gun less, the kid, who was by himself; or these crazy-violent morons who seemed hell-bent on getting somebody shot in the name of not having weapons on the lot. The irony was lost on me at the time. I knew they should’ve done what I was trying to do in the midst of keeping a close eye on what was happening, they should’ve yelled for Security, or even been smarter and got security on the sly. Instead they had to be heroes in their own puny minds and do the one thing that almost guaranteed something bad would happen. In a lot of ways they were just reflecting our culture, aping George W. by overreacting to a perceived threat that didn’t really exist. I don’t know the kid who had the gun, but from his demeanor and the way everything went down, I really doubt that stupid gun ever would’ve seen the light of day if those 6 guys would’ve used their heads.
After about ten seconds of getting kicked the kid with the gun managed to get to his feet. His face was a mixture of anger, pain, and most clearly, pure animal terror. Predictably, he went into his pocket and pulled out the gun. What happened next really shocked me. In what would’ve been a neat trick under very different circumstances, the kid closest to the gun reached out and yanked it out of the other kid’s hand like he was stealing candy from a kid on Halloween. You almost expected the guy to yell, “Yoink!”
It could’ve been over then.
Instead, the new guy with the gun turned it around so that he was holding it by the cylinder. He reached back behind his head and took a full swing at the newly disarmed guy’s head. The gun made contact pretty much right between the kid’s eyes. There was a corresponding crack/thud of metal on bone and blood began to flow. The pistol whipped and the pistol whipper then ran off in opposite directions. The entire incident took maybe 25-30 seconds from start to finish.
One minute I was having a very nice time, the next I was just happy to be walking away without any bullet holes in my body. On the grand-scale of violence, what I saw at All Good wasn’t really that big a deal. After all, no one was actually shot, so things went a lot better than one could’ve reasonably expected. But that’s out in the world. I wasn’t out in the world. I was at a show.
“We are,” as Jamie Masefield of the Jazz Mandolin Project said on the second day, “…like a secret society. We come out to these places out in the hills and just do our thing and it’s the greatest thing in the world.”
He’s right. But, the problem is, the wrong sort of folks are starting to find out about the password into our post-modern version of the Masons. They’re getting in with words like, “molly” and “coke” instead of Icculus or Gamehenge. Music doesn’t have a thing to do with why the hard-drug dealers are at the shows. They’re at the show to make a lot of money and that’s it. Gang-style violence and bullshit is inevitably going to follow. Once the first shooting happens, and we are on a definitive curve in that direction, it’s gonna be too late. Frankly, I resent the fact I had to witness these morons and their bullshit. I don’t particularly feel sorry for the kid with the gun- he shouldn’t of been carrying it, and even though I think they’re total morons- I don’t particularly blame the kid’s who tried to take the gun away. If I was a complete imbecile I probably would’ve done the same thing.
I don’t know why the kid brought the gun in the first place any more than I know how the six kids who beat the shit out of him found out he had the thing. But I’ve thought about the entire incident a lot and I think I can make a pretty good guess.
First, reasons the kid wouldn’t use for bringing the gun. It wasn’t self defense. If it was in any way reasonable to think you’d need a gun at a show this single act of violence wouldn’t be so shocking. It wasn’t because the guy was some aggressive bad-ass who shot people for screwing up his order at the drive-through. Those sorts of people don’t need to be kicked in the face to spur them into pulling out their pistol, and besides, he tried to run away; that’s just not what a bad-ass guy does.
Maybe the kid had a violent past and carried a gun out of a deep seated sense of paranoia. Possible, but unlikely. The most coherent reason a guy like the one I saw would carry a gun, is because he was dealing either Molly- so called molecular MDMA, cocaine, or heroin. Most likely it was coke. Unlike pot or mushrooms, you can carry highly valuable amounts of the powder drugs in your shorts pocket. Because hard drug dealers generally work on a fronted basis, if the drugs get taken from you, someone’s gonna want their money. Thus, the gun.
If the kid was, in fact, a dealer, it would also give a likely reason how the 6 guys found out about the gun. Maybe they bought some weight and the kid accidentally showed the gun in the transaction. Maybe one of their buddies saw it under the same conditions and passed the word along.
Anyone who’s seen a few shows this summer has noticed the ridiculous increase in hard drugs on the lot. I think it’s important to point out I’m not talking about pot or the hallucinogenic. I’m talking about the narcotics and the bath-tub drugs. I’ve even seen and heard an increase in “pharmies.” Come on people, that’s Rush Limbaugh’s trip. You want to do the drugs he does?
Let me break it down for you:
Hard Drugs à Much Money
Much Money àDrug Dealers who don’t give a flying hoo-hoo about music coming to our shows
{[(Drug Dealers) + (Much Money)] + Large Market of buyers} à Pistol Whippings and mayhem
Pistol Whipping and Mayhem à The death of the scene and nothing but Christina Aguilera on the radio to listen to.
The solution?
Don’t buy your hard drugs at shows. If you have to do Coke, get it from your dealer at home. It’s that simple.
It’s like shopping at Wal-Mart. Sure it’s convenient, the prices may even be cheaper, but those benefits don’t come without a flip-side, and that flip-side is packing guns and acting like total morons. Most importantly, that flip-side couldn’t give a shit less about the music, and when that crucial ingredient is missing, you get the Dead at Deer Creek in ’95. You get the disaster that was Corporate Woodstock. And in spite of a nearly perfect effort by the organizers and musicians at All Good, you get pistol-whippings and fights.
We don’t need cops. We don’t need anal searches or John Ashcroft. This is a self-restraint issue. The Lot is sacred, I know I’m not alone in feeling that my church and my God are best expressed in the music I see at shows and the kindness and coolness I see from people in the lot. I don’t want to lose that to a bunch of strung out shitheads or the leeches who supply them.
I’m not the only one who sees the dark clouds on the horizon. In Trey’s “Why Phish is breaking up for good” interview with Charlie Rose the following exchange took place:
CHARLIE ROSE: What do you regret about what Phish was and what it became and what it is, and if you look from the beginning to this last concert that will come up...
TREY ANASTASIO: OK. Do you want my honest opinion about that? I think you do. I`ll tell you what I regret. What I regret is that -- I don`t regret it, but I feel like in the last couple of years it started to become an excuse for people to show up in a given town and party. And it never was that for such a long time.
Our scene thrives because of the music not because of the drugs. If you’re at a show to get loaded first and see a concert second, do me a favor- stay home. You can watch the DVD and I don’t have to get shot.
William Hrdina
Commentary about the lot scene at the All-Good Music Festival 2004 at Marvin’s Mountaintop in Masontown, West Virginia.
July 9-11, 2004
I could write exclusively about all the positive aspects of the 8th Annual All Good Music Festival because there were a bunch. The grounds were beautiful- snuggled in the hills of West Virginia maybe 15 miles off the highway. The weather, infamously terrible for the past seven years, decided to cooperate and it didn’t rain until late Sunday night. The music was absolutely first-rate with Keller Williams, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Dark Star Orchestra, the Grey Boy All Stars, and a whole bunch more. There was a Family area right next to the stage where people with children could camp without having to drag their toddlers a half-mile back and forth to the venue. On Sunday afternoon, when it got hot, the organizers started selling water for a buck out of the concession stand- a rare show of kindness in our modern corporate wonderland. All in all, I would say the organizers at Walther Productions did an absolutely fantastic job.
But there’s another side to the story. Dark and violent vibes were coursing under our feet, unseen until they lashed out in a single act of violence so heinous it put a pall not only over the festival, but my entire summer.
In the midst of what was otherwise a very enjoyable festival I had the dubious distinction of being an eye-witness to a very nasty pistol-whipping; possibly a murder. I never got word if the kid who got hit died and I haven’t been able to find any mention of the incident in the papers. I hope he’s OK, but I worked in an ICU for 3 years and if the kid can still spell his name I admit I’d be surprised.
Before you get feeling too sorry for this guy, you should know; he brought the gun he was pistol-whipped with.
I was sitting on the side of the road, selling my sci-fi novel Portal when I saw six guys walking behind another guy who appeared to be completely alone. It was immediately clear from everyone’s body language the six guys were pissed at the one guy, and the one guy, hunched over and walking fast- certainly wasn’t presenting himself as aggressive in any way. My first reaction was “What are these assholes doing?” My sympathy was with the guy walking alone. Six against one isn’t a fair fight in anyone’s book.
Then I began to hear what the six guys were saying and my anger turned to confusion.
“What the fuck are you doing with that gun on the lot man?”
“No guns on lot.”
“Why you got a gun motherfucker?”
Around this time the kid was passed directly in front of me and I got a clear look into his pocket. There really was a gun there. The matte-black rubber handle stuck out just a little bit. I remember thinking at the time, “I wonder what on earth possessed this guy to bring a gun to a show?”
The kid with the gun looked really scared. He kept repeating, “Leave me alone. I just want to leave. I’m leaving.”
Around this same time the language of the 6 increasingly frantic guys started to get a great deal more threatening.
“Give up the gun asshole.”
“Give us the gun motherfucker or we’re gonna kick the shit out of you.”
That did it. I knew at that moment something really savage was about to go down. The worst thing you can do to an outnumbered guy with superior firepower is back him into a corner. In another testament to the fact this kid wasn’t about starting a confrontation- he tried to run when the threats of violence started. He didn’t make it far, the six guys chased him and before I could even turn around in my chair to see what was happening the 6 guys were kicking the hell out of the guy with the gun. It was like Rodney King with feet instead of batons.
I clearly remember one guy yelling, “Someone take his gun. Take his gun.” He couldn’t take the gun himself because he was busy: kicking this kid in the head.
By this point I wasn’t sure who I wanted to have the gun less, the kid, who was by himself; or these crazy-violent morons who seemed hell-bent on getting somebody shot in the name of not having weapons on the lot. The irony was lost on me at the time. I knew they should’ve done what I was trying to do in the midst of keeping a close eye on what was happening, they should’ve yelled for Security, or even been smarter and got security on the sly. Instead they had to be heroes in their own puny minds and do the one thing that almost guaranteed something bad would happen. In a lot of ways they were just reflecting our culture, aping George W. by overreacting to a perceived threat that didn’t really exist. I don’t know the kid who had the gun, but from his demeanor and the way everything went down, I really doubt that stupid gun ever would’ve seen the light of day if those 6 guys would’ve used their heads.
After about ten seconds of getting kicked the kid with the gun managed to get to his feet. His face was a mixture of anger, pain, and most clearly, pure animal terror. Predictably, he went into his pocket and pulled out the gun. What happened next really shocked me. In what would’ve been a neat trick under very different circumstances, the kid closest to the gun reached out and yanked it out of the other kid’s hand like he was stealing candy from a kid on Halloween. You almost expected the guy to yell, “Yoink!”
It could’ve been over then.
Instead, the new guy with the gun turned it around so that he was holding it by the cylinder. He reached back behind his head and took a full swing at the newly disarmed guy’s head. The gun made contact pretty much right between the kid’s eyes. There was a corresponding crack/thud of metal on bone and blood began to flow. The pistol whipped and the pistol whipper then ran off in opposite directions. The entire incident took maybe 25-30 seconds from start to finish.
One minute I was having a very nice time, the next I was just happy to be walking away without any bullet holes in my body. On the grand-scale of violence, what I saw at All Good wasn’t really that big a deal. After all, no one was actually shot, so things went a lot better than one could’ve reasonably expected. But that’s out in the world. I wasn’t out in the world. I was at a show.
“We are,” as Jamie Masefield of the Jazz Mandolin Project said on the second day, “…like a secret society. We come out to these places out in the hills and just do our thing and it’s the greatest thing in the world.”
He’s right. But, the problem is, the wrong sort of folks are starting to find out about the password into our post-modern version of the Masons. They’re getting in with words like, “molly” and “coke” instead of Icculus or Gamehenge. Music doesn’t have a thing to do with why the hard-drug dealers are at the shows. They’re at the show to make a lot of money and that’s it. Gang-style violence and bullshit is inevitably going to follow. Once the first shooting happens, and we are on a definitive curve in that direction, it’s gonna be too late. Frankly, I resent the fact I had to witness these morons and their bullshit. I don’t particularly feel sorry for the kid with the gun- he shouldn’t of been carrying it, and even though I think they’re total morons- I don’t particularly blame the kid’s who tried to take the gun away. If I was a complete imbecile I probably would’ve done the same thing.
I don’t know why the kid brought the gun in the first place any more than I know how the six kids who beat the shit out of him found out he had the thing. But I’ve thought about the entire incident a lot and I think I can make a pretty good guess.
First, reasons the kid wouldn’t use for bringing the gun. It wasn’t self defense. If it was in any way reasonable to think you’d need a gun at a show this single act of violence wouldn’t be so shocking. It wasn’t because the guy was some aggressive bad-ass who shot people for screwing up his order at the drive-through. Those sorts of people don’t need to be kicked in the face to spur them into pulling out their pistol, and besides, he tried to run away; that’s just not what a bad-ass guy does.
Maybe the kid had a violent past and carried a gun out of a deep seated sense of paranoia. Possible, but unlikely. The most coherent reason a guy like the one I saw would carry a gun, is because he was dealing either Molly- so called molecular MDMA, cocaine, or heroin. Most likely it was coke. Unlike pot or mushrooms, you can carry highly valuable amounts of the powder drugs in your shorts pocket. Because hard drug dealers generally work on a fronted basis, if the drugs get taken from you, someone’s gonna want their money. Thus, the gun.
If the kid was, in fact, a dealer, it would also give a likely reason how the 6 guys found out about the gun. Maybe they bought some weight and the kid accidentally showed the gun in the transaction. Maybe one of their buddies saw it under the same conditions and passed the word along.
Anyone who’s seen a few shows this summer has noticed the ridiculous increase in hard drugs on the lot. I think it’s important to point out I’m not talking about pot or the hallucinogenic. I’m talking about the narcotics and the bath-tub drugs. I’ve even seen and heard an increase in “pharmies.” Come on people, that’s Rush Limbaugh’s trip. You want to do the drugs he does?
Let me break it down for you:
Hard Drugs à Much Money
Much Money àDrug Dealers who don’t give a flying hoo-hoo about music coming to our shows
{[(Drug Dealers) + (Much Money)] + Large Market of buyers} à Pistol Whippings and mayhem
Pistol Whipping and Mayhem à The death of the scene and nothing but Christina Aguilera on the radio to listen to.
The solution?
Don’t buy your hard drugs at shows. If you have to do Coke, get it from your dealer at home. It’s that simple.
It’s like shopping at Wal-Mart. Sure it’s convenient, the prices may even be cheaper, but those benefits don’t come without a flip-side, and that flip-side is packing guns and acting like total morons. Most importantly, that flip-side couldn’t give a shit less about the music, and when that crucial ingredient is missing, you get the Dead at Deer Creek in ’95. You get the disaster that was Corporate Woodstock. And in spite of a nearly perfect effort by the organizers and musicians at All Good, you get pistol-whippings and fights.
We don’t need cops. We don’t need anal searches or John Ashcroft. This is a self-restraint issue. The Lot is sacred, I know I’m not alone in feeling that my church and my God are best expressed in the music I see at shows and the kindness and coolness I see from people in the lot. I don’t want to lose that to a bunch of strung out shitheads or the leeches who supply them.
I’m not the only one who sees the dark clouds on the horizon. In Trey’s “Why Phish is breaking up for good” interview with Charlie Rose the following exchange took place:
CHARLIE ROSE: What do you regret about what Phish was and what it became and what it is, and if you look from the beginning to this last concert that will come up...
TREY ANASTASIO: OK. Do you want my honest opinion about that? I think you do. I`ll tell you what I regret. What I regret is that -- I don`t regret it, but I feel like in the last couple of years it started to become an excuse for people to show up in a given town and party. And it never was that for such a long time.
Our scene thrives because of the music not because of the drugs. If you’re at a show to get loaded first and see a concert second, do me a favor- stay home. You can watch the DVD and I don’t have to get shot.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Almost, but not quite
Just moved and got my internet reconnnected, but now I'm going back out of town to the ALL GOOD festival in West Virgnia. Should be a real good time. Until then, go see Farenheit 9/11. Then go see it again. Kerry's gonna lose though, as much as I hate to say it. And if he does win, it's gonna be because of F9/11, not becuase of Kerry who chose putter-ass Edwards as VP. Rove is going Edwards an ambulance chaser a million times. Plus, I'm signed up for Kerry's "newsletter" and all I get is anti-Bush stuff and endless begging for money. (2 to 1 in favor of money grubbing) I can't tell you anything about what KERRY is going to do. Which is nothing. I saw him giving a speech saying he was going to create jobs that paid as much as the ones that were sent to mexico. Kerry voted for the damn NAFTA bill. The WTO too, and Iraq, and the Patriot Act, and on and on. So screw him. I'll probably vote for the prick, but don't even try to make me feel good about it.
Just moved and got my internet reconnnected, but now I'm going back out of town to the ALL GOOD festival in West Virgnia. Should be a real good time. Until then, go see Farenheit 9/11. Then go see it again. Kerry's gonna lose though, as much as I hate to say it. And if he does win, it's gonna be because of F9/11, not becuase of Kerry who chose putter-ass Edwards as VP. Rove is going Edwards an ambulance chaser a million times. Plus, I'm signed up for Kerry's "newsletter" and all I get is anti-Bush stuff and endless begging for money. (2 to 1 in favor of money grubbing) I can't tell you anything about what KERRY is going to do. Which is nothing. I saw him giving a speech saying he was going to create jobs that paid as much as the ones that were sent to mexico. Kerry voted for the damn NAFTA bill. The WTO too, and Iraq, and the Patriot Act, and on and on. So screw him. I'll probably vote for the prick, but don't even try to make me feel good about it.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
PRESS BRIEFING BY LARRY SPEAKES
October 15, 1982
The Briefing Room
12:45pm EDT
Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement - the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague." (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don't.
MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President -
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any -
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping - MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no - (laughter) - no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.
Q: Didn't say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: It's too late.
From Prorev
Office of the Press Secretary
PRESS BRIEFING BY LARRY SPEAKES
October 15, 1982
The Briefing Room
12:45pm EDT
Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement - the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague." (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don't.
MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President -
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any -
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping - MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no - (laughter) - no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.
Q: Didn't say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: It's too late.
From Prorev
Sorry.
I know my blogging has been atrocious. I apologize. I'm pretty much going to be on the road for the rest of this month and I'm in no way rich enough to have some fancy wi-fi connection, so I'll be gone until July. Once I return to home, I will continue my ranting. In the meantime, go to Prorev and read Common Dreams everyday.
Also, I really want to thank all of the really good folks I've met out in the world, shows and music really are good for the soul.
Peace.
I know my blogging has been atrocious. I apologize. I'm pretty much going to be on the road for the rest of this month and I'm in no way rich enough to have some fancy wi-fi connection, so I'll be gone until July. Once I return to home, I will continue my ranting. In the meantime, go to Prorev and read Common Dreams everyday.
Also, I really want to thank all of the really good folks I've met out in the world, shows and music really are good for the soul.
Peace.
Friday, June 04, 2004
NEW BOOK JUST FINISHED
Sorry I've been silent all this time, but I've been concentrating on finishing the 1st draft of my newest (and 4th) novel, Ialtaboath. An accomplishment I just officially achieved a few minutes ago.
I'm really proud of it.
A brief summary:
It's the story of 2 archeologists Nina Adams and Elias Spade, who discover a Gnostic temple in the desert on the outskirts of Cairo and an ex-student of Elias named Harry Bonden who gets involved with a secret religious cult known as The Family. The cult leaders believe there is a great secret connected to the temple Nina and Elias discovered. A secret that challenges our most basic assumptions about God.
Its a rollicking and humorous adventure story that just happens to be about free will and the very nature of our existence.
Sorry I've been silent all this time, but I've been concentrating on finishing the 1st draft of my newest (and 4th) novel, Ialtaboath. An accomplishment I just officially achieved a few minutes ago.
I'm really proud of it.
A brief summary:
It's the story of 2 archeologists Nina Adams and Elias Spade, who discover a Gnostic temple in the desert on the outskirts of Cairo and an ex-student of Elias named Harry Bonden who gets involved with a secret religious cult known as The Family. The cult leaders believe there is a great secret connected to the temple Nina and Elias discovered. A secret that challenges our most basic assumptions about God.
Its a rollicking and humorous adventure story that just happens to be about free will and the very nature of our existence.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Bush Speech Writer
Yes now you too can write Bush's monosyllabic speechs and hear them too! Try it HERE
Yes now you too can write Bush's monosyllabic speechs and hear them too! Try it HERE
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
A Failed Presidency Summed Up in a Single Story
I openly admit I stole this whole cloth from www.dailykos.com which is a terrific blog. This story really kinda sums up what a fucking jerk-off Shrub really is. It's not really an important story, but it's really telling.
Here's the official story line from Crawford:
President Bush took a spill during a Saturday afternoon bike ride on his ranch, suffering bruises and cuts that were visible later on his face just two days before he was to deliver a major prime-time speech on his Iraq policy.
The president was nearing the end of a 17-mile ride on his mountain bike, accompanied by a Secret Service agent, a military aide and his personal physician, Richard Tubb, who treated him at the scene, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.
"It's been raining a lot and the topsoil is loose," Duffy said. "You know this president. He likes to go all-out. Suffice it to say he wasn't whistling show tunes."
So it's been raining a lot in Crawford, we are told. So here's the recent precipitation levels from Crawford:
May 22: 0"
May 21: 0"
May 20: 0"
May 19: 0"
May 18: 0"
May 17: 0"
May 16: 0"
May 15: 0"
May 14: 0.03"
May 13: 2.79"
May 12: 0"
May 11: 0.15"
May 10: 0"
May 9: 0"
May 13th saw some serious rain, but other than some sprinkles on the 14th, Crawford saw nothing but sun. In the last week alone, the temperature was in the high 80s the entire time.
So rain on the 13th and (barely) 14th was blamed for a Bush fall on the 22nd. As everything else, it wasn't Bush's fault. Nothing is Bush's fault.
Ever.
Liars.
I openly admit I stole this whole cloth from www.dailykos.com which is a terrific blog. This story really kinda sums up what a fucking jerk-off Shrub really is. It's not really an important story, but it's really telling.
Here's the official story line from Crawford:
President Bush took a spill during a Saturday afternoon bike ride on his ranch, suffering bruises and cuts that were visible later on his face just two days before he was to deliver a major prime-time speech on his Iraq policy.
The president was nearing the end of a 17-mile ride on his mountain bike, accompanied by a Secret Service agent, a military aide and his personal physician, Richard Tubb, who treated him at the scene, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.
"It's been raining a lot and the topsoil is loose," Duffy said. "You know this president. He likes to go all-out. Suffice it to say he wasn't whistling show tunes."
So it's been raining a lot in Crawford, we are told. So here's the recent precipitation levels from Crawford:
May 22: 0"
May 21: 0"
May 20: 0"
May 19: 0"
May 18: 0"
May 17: 0"
May 16: 0"
May 15: 0"
May 14: 0.03"
May 13: 2.79"
May 12: 0"
May 11: 0.15"
May 10: 0"
May 9: 0"
May 13th saw some serious rain, but other than some sprinkles on the 14th, Crawford saw nothing but sun. In the last week alone, the temperature was in the high 80s the entire time.
So rain on the 13th and (barely) 14th was blamed for a Bush fall on the 22nd. As everything else, it wasn't Bush's fault. Nothing is Bush's fault.
Ever.
Liars.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
A Much Better Theory
Alex Cockburn, writer for the excellent, counterpunch.org has written a very interesting article on his take of the Ahmed Chalabi reversal of fortune. His theory is, I have to admit, more than a tad bit more likely (not to mention plausible) than my own of yesterday. Read it here.
Alex Cockburn, writer for the excellent, counterpunch.org has written a very interesting article on his take of the Ahmed Chalabi reversal of fortune. His theory is, I have to admit, more than a tad bit more likely (not to mention plausible) than my own of yesterday. Read it here.
Congratulations!!!
I just wanted to send Michael Moore my congrats on winning the Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his new movie Farenheit 911! I can't goddamn wait to see it! The best news? Mike says he has every intention of making sure it comes out on DVD before the November Election. If Bushy isn't afraid, he should be.
I just wanted to send Michael Moore my congrats on winning the Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his new movie Farenheit 911! I can't goddamn wait to see it! The best news? Mike says he has every intention of making sure it comes out on DVD before the November Election. If Bushy isn't afraid, he should be.
Friday, May 21, 2004
The Mystery deepens.
The Chalabi web got a whole lot more complicated today. Now it's being (vastly under) reported that he was an agent for Iran, and may have been from the git go. So now comes the really big question. Is he really?
There seems to be two main possiblities to my cynical mind.
One, Chalabi really has put one over on the Rummy and the boys and really is a spy for Iran.
This is the more likely scenario.
Less likely, but still possible, they're doing this to start a war with Iran. This idea is a whole lot scarier and frankly I wouldn't put it past this particular group of thuggo murderers.
Chalabi goes home but finds that he hates it. There's no electricity, the phones don't work, and he needs a big mob of security around him to take a piss. So he agrees to be a fall guy to frame the Iranians and create the first building block in the argument to invade Iran. Again, highly unlikely, but possible, bone-chillingly possible.
The Chalabi web got a whole lot more complicated today. Now it's being (vastly under) reported that he was an agent for Iran, and may have been from the git go. So now comes the really big question. Is he really?
There seems to be two main possiblities to my cynical mind.
One, Chalabi really has put one over on the Rummy and the boys and really is a spy for Iran.
This is the more likely scenario.
Less likely, but still possible, they're doing this to start a war with Iran. This idea is a whole lot scarier and frankly I wouldn't put it past this particular group of thuggo murderers.
Chalabi goes home but finds that he hates it. There's no electricity, the phones don't work, and he needs a big mob of security around him to take a piss. So he agrees to be a fall guy to frame the Iranians and create the first building block in the argument to invade Iran. Again, highly unlikely, but possible, bone-chillingly possible.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Now we KNOW the wheels are coming off
In one of the strangest stories I've heard so far it seems that a joint Iraqi/US force entered Ahmed Chalabi's compound in Baghdad and grabbed a bunch of documents. Chalabi, for those who don't know, is a total scumbag who was the main "source" of fake information about Saddam's "WMD." He's been the guy the US has wanted to put in charge of Iraq since before the war started. He's Cheney and Rummy's guy. Which probably explains why Rummy sounded shocked and dismayed when he walked out of the congressional hearings and into questions about the raid. He stammered and ultimatly dodged the question. Chalabi claims it was the Iraqi faction of the Coalition Provisional Authority who was responsible. That's probably true, they know he's a crook. It's going to be interesting to see how much money we pay the bastard to forgive us.
In one of the strangest stories I've heard so far it seems that a joint Iraqi/US force entered Ahmed Chalabi's compound in Baghdad and grabbed a bunch of documents. Chalabi, for those who don't know, is a total scumbag who was the main "source" of fake information about Saddam's "WMD." He's been the guy the US has wanted to put in charge of Iraq since before the war started. He's Cheney and Rummy's guy. Which probably explains why Rummy sounded shocked and dismayed when he walked out of the congressional hearings and into questions about the raid. He stammered and ultimatly dodged the question. Chalabi claims it was the Iraqi faction of the Coalition Provisional Authority who was responsible. That's probably true, they know he's a crook. It's going to be interesting to see how much money we pay the bastard to forgive us.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
The Truth Begins to Trickle Out
Rummy Knew. Read the Seymour Hersh article here.
Not surprisingly the Pentagon is Pissed!
Rummy Knew. Read the Seymour Hersh article here.
Not surprisingly the Pentagon is Pissed!
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Important Article to Read!
Everyone should read this article by Robert Fisk. He's a reporter for the UK INdependent and is, in my opinion the man who most deeply reports what is happening in Iraq from the point of view of the Iraqis. This article, is about the torture and the way it has been done, not by dupes, but by pros. It pretty well reflects my opinion on the subject and it's nice to have a more reputable source to make my thoughts sound more, well, reputable.
Everyone should read this article by Robert Fisk. He's a reporter for the UK INdependent and is, in my opinion the man who most deeply reports what is happening in Iraq from the point of view of the Iraqis. This article, is about the torture and the way it has been done, not by dupes, but by pros. It pretty well reflects my opinion on the subject and it's nice to have a more reputable source to make my thoughts sound more, well, reputable.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
A few tidbits from the Taguba Report
What follows are direct cut/paste from the report.
(S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included
the following acts:
a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for
photographing;
d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several
days at a time;
e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;
f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being
photographed and videotaped;
g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and
attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;
i. (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly
raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;
j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a
female Soldier pose for a picture;
k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten
detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.
a. (U) Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;
b. (U) Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;
c. (U) Pouring cold water on naked detainees;
d. (U) Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;
e. (U) Threatening male detainees with rape;
f. (U) Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was
injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell;
g. (U) Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.
h. (U) Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats
of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.
When asked why the rules in 1A/1B were different than the rest of the wings, SGT
Davis stated: “The rest of the wings are regular prisoners and 1A/B are
Military Intelligence (MI) holds.” When asked why he did not inform his chain
of command about this abuse, SGT Davis stated: “ Because I assumed that if they
were doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone would
have said something. Also the wing belongs to MI and it appeared MI
personnel approved of the abuse.” SGT Davis also stated that he had heard MI
insinuate to the guards to abuse the inmates. When asked what MI said he stated:
“Loosen this guy up for us.” Make sure he has a bad night.” “Make sure he
gets the treatment.” He claimed these comments were made to CPL Granier and
SSG Frederick. Finally, SGT Davis stated that (sic): “the MI staffs to my
understanding have been giving Granier compliments on the way he has been
handling the MI holds. Example being statements like, “Good job, they’re
breaking down real fast. They answer every question. They’re giving out good
information, Finally, and Keep up the good work . Stuff like that.”
They made them do strange exercises by sliding on their stomach, jump up and down, throw water on them and made them some wet, called them all kinds of names such as “gays” do
they like to make love to guys, then they handcuffed their hands together and
their legs with shackles and started to stack them on top of each other by
insuring that the bottom guys penis will touch the guy on tops butt.”
(U) There is a general lack of knowledge, implementation, and emphasis of basic
legal, regulatory, doctrinal, and command requirements within the 800th MP Brigade
and its subordinate units. (Multiple witness statements in ANNEXES 45-91).
However, MG Fast, according to BG Karpinski, routinely denied the board’s recommendations to release detainees in this category who were no longer deemed a threat and clearly met the requirements for
release. According to BG Karpinski, the extremely slow and ineffective release
process has significantly contributed to the overcrowding of the facilities.
The Iraqi guards at Abu Ghraib BCCF) demonstrate questionable work ethics and
loyalties, and are a potentially dangerous contingent within the Hard-Site. These
guards have furnished the Iraqi criminal inmates with contraband, weapons, and
information. Additionally, they have facilitated the escape of at least one detainee.
The various detention facilities operated by the 800th MP Brigade have
routinely held persons brought to them by Other Government Agencies (OGAs)
without accounting for them, knowing their identities, or even the reason for their
detention.
----There is an extensive list of escapes and riots in several Iraqi prisons over the months, the most commonly mentioned extenuating circumstance is lack of adequate training/personell. The section ends with the following:
As I have previously indicated, this investigation determined that there was
virtually a complete lack of detailed SOPs at any of the detention facilities.
Moreover, despite the fact that there were numerous reported escapes at detention
facilities throughout Iraq (in excess of 35), AR 15-6 Investigations following these
escapes were simply forgotten or ignored by the Brigade Commander with no
dissemination to other facilities. After-Action Reports and Lessons Learned, if done
at all, remained at individual facilities and were not shared among other commanders
or soldiers throughout the Brigade. The Command never issued standard TTPs for
handling escape incidents.
Over time, the 800th MP Brigade clearly suffered
from personnel shortages through release from active duty (REFRAD) actions,
medical evacuation, and demobilization. In addition to being severely undermanned,
the quality of life for Soldiers assigned to Abu Ghraib (BCCF) was extremely poor.
There was no DFAC, PX, barbershop, or MWR facilities. There were numerous
mortar attacks, random rifle and RPG attacks, and a serious threat to Soldiers and
detainees in the facility. The prison complex was also severely overcrowded and the
Brigade lacked adequate resources and personnel to resolve serious logistical
problems.
------This is a super important sentence as to where the motivation for the soldier's actions came from:
"This effectively made an MI Officer, rather than an MP Officer, responsible for the MP units conducting
detainee operations at that facility." The soldiers weren't listening to their own bosses, instead they were following Military Intelligence Orders.
During the course of this investigation I conducted a lengthy interview with BG
Karpinski that lasted over four hours, and is included verbatim in the investigation
Annexes. BG Karpinski was extremely emotional during much of her testimony.
What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness
to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP
Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her
command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its
soldiers.
Also very important not to leave out:
Throughout the investigation, we observed many individual Soldiers and some
subordinate units under the 800th MP Brigade that overcame significant obstacles,
persevered in extremely poor conditions, and upheld the Army Values. We
discovered numerous examples of Soldiers and Sailors taking the initiative in the
absence of leadership and accomplishing their assigned tasks.
The individual Soldiers and Sailors that we observed and believe should be
favorably noted include:
a. (U) Master-at-Arms First Class William J. Kimbro, US Navy Dog Handler,
knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite
significant pressure from the MI personnel at Abu Ghraib.
b. (U) SPC Joseph M. Darby, 372nd MP Company discovered evidence of abuse
and turned it over to military law enforcement.
c. (U) 1LT David O. Sutton, 229th MP Company, took immediate action and
stopped an abuse, then reported the incident to the chain of command.
The above listed people are heroes and should be treated as such by the military, the media, and all of us.
Notice that no where is there a single mention of the mercenaries which all parties agree are also present within the Iraqi detention system.
What follows are direct cut/paste from the report.
(S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included
the following acts:
a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for
photographing;
d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several
days at a time;
e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;
f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being
photographed and videotaped;
g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and
attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;
i. (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly
raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;
j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a
female Soldier pose for a picture;
k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten
detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.
a. (U) Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;
b. (U) Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;
c. (U) Pouring cold water on naked detainees;
d. (U) Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;
e. (U) Threatening male detainees with rape;
f. (U) Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was
injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell;
g. (U) Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.
h. (U) Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats
of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.
When asked why the rules in 1A/1B were different than the rest of the wings, SGT
Davis stated: “The rest of the wings are regular prisoners and 1A/B are
Military Intelligence (MI) holds.” When asked why he did not inform his chain
of command about this abuse, SGT Davis stated: “ Because I assumed that if they
were doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone would
have said something. Also the wing belongs to MI and it appeared MI
personnel approved of the abuse.” SGT Davis also stated that he had heard MI
insinuate to the guards to abuse the inmates. When asked what MI said he stated:
“Loosen this guy up for us.” Make sure he has a bad night.” “Make sure he
gets the treatment.” He claimed these comments were made to CPL Granier and
SSG Frederick. Finally, SGT Davis stated that (sic): “the MI staffs to my
understanding have been giving Granier compliments on the way he has been
handling the MI holds. Example being statements like, “Good job, they’re
breaking down real fast. They answer every question. They’re giving out good
information, Finally, and Keep up the good work . Stuff like that.”
They made them do strange exercises by sliding on their stomach, jump up and down, throw water on them and made them some wet, called them all kinds of names such as “gays” do
they like to make love to guys, then they handcuffed their hands together and
their legs with shackles and started to stack them on top of each other by
insuring that the bottom guys penis will touch the guy on tops butt.”
(U) There is a general lack of knowledge, implementation, and emphasis of basic
legal, regulatory, doctrinal, and command requirements within the 800th MP Brigade
and its subordinate units. (Multiple witness statements in ANNEXES 45-91).
However, MG Fast, according to BG Karpinski, routinely denied the board’s recommendations to release detainees in this category who were no longer deemed a threat and clearly met the requirements for
release. According to BG Karpinski, the extremely slow and ineffective release
process has significantly contributed to the overcrowding of the facilities.
The Iraqi guards at Abu Ghraib BCCF) demonstrate questionable work ethics and
loyalties, and are a potentially dangerous contingent within the Hard-Site. These
guards have furnished the Iraqi criminal inmates with contraband, weapons, and
information. Additionally, they have facilitated the escape of at least one detainee.
The various detention facilities operated by the 800th MP Brigade have
routinely held persons brought to them by Other Government Agencies (OGAs)
without accounting for them, knowing their identities, or even the reason for their
detention.
----There is an extensive list of escapes and riots in several Iraqi prisons over the months, the most commonly mentioned extenuating circumstance is lack of adequate training/personell. The section ends with the following:
As I have previously indicated, this investigation determined that there was
virtually a complete lack of detailed SOPs at any of the detention facilities.
Moreover, despite the fact that there were numerous reported escapes at detention
facilities throughout Iraq (in excess of 35), AR 15-6 Investigations following these
escapes were simply forgotten or ignored by the Brigade Commander with no
dissemination to other facilities. After-Action Reports and Lessons Learned, if done
at all, remained at individual facilities and were not shared among other commanders
or soldiers throughout the Brigade. The Command never issued standard TTPs for
handling escape incidents.
Over time, the 800th MP Brigade clearly suffered
from personnel shortages through release from active duty (REFRAD) actions,
medical evacuation, and demobilization. In addition to being severely undermanned,
the quality of life for Soldiers assigned to Abu Ghraib (BCCF) was extremely poor.
There was no DFAC, PX, barbershop, or MWR facilities. There were numerous
mortar attacks, random rifle and RPG attacks, and a serious threat to Soldiers and
detainees in the facility. The prison complex was also severely overcrowded and the
Brigade lacked adequate resources and personnel to resolve serious logistical
problems.
------This is a super important sentence as to where the motivation for the soldier's actions came from:
"This effectively made an MI Officer, rather than an MP Officer, responsible for the MP units conducting
detainee operations at that facility." The soldiers weren't listening to their own bosses, instead they were following Military Intelligence Orders.
During the course of this investigation I conducted a lengthy interview with BG
Karpinski that lasted over four hours, and is included verbatim in the investigation
Annexes. BG Karpinski was extremely emotional during much of her testimony.
What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness
to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP
Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her
command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its
soldiers.
Also very important not to leave out:
Throughout the investigation, we observed many individual Soldiers and some
subordinate units under the 800th MP Brigade that overcame significant obstacles,
persevered in extremely poor conditions, and upheld the Army Values. We
discovered numerous examples of Soldiers and Sailors taking the initiative in the
absence of leadership and accomplishing their assigned tasks.
The individual Soldiers and Sailors that we observed and believe should be
favorably noted include:
a. (U) Master-at-Arms First Class William J. Kimbro, US Navy Dog Handler,
knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite
significant pressure from the MI personnel at Abu Ghraib.
b. (U) SPC Joseph M. Darby, 372nd MP Company discovered evidence of abuse
and turned it over to military law enforcement.
c. (U) 1LT David O. Sutton, 229th MP Company, took immediate action and
stopped an abuse, then reported the incident to the chain of command.
The above listed people are heroes and should be treated as such by the military, the media, and all of us.
Notice that no where is there a single mention of the mercenaries which all parties agree are also present within the Iraqi detention system.
The ACTUAL REPORT
For that small minority of people who like to read things first hand for themselves, here's the now infamous TAGUBA report which is the source of my consternation about the torture of Iraqi prisoners.
For that small minority of people who like to read things first hand for themselves, here's the now infamous TAGUBA report which is the source of my consternation about the torture of Iraqi prisoners.
So Many Things, So Little Time
I haven't written in a week because I've been at my Uncle's housesitting and he had no internet connection, but that doesn't mean the world stopped spinning. Far from it. Indeed, every time I think we've reached the height of our problems, something comes along that makes it worse. It's getting to the point that I'm starting to wonder if those rumors about Shrub trying to push us into "The Rapture" don't have something to them. I do know that those pictures of the torture of Iraqi prisoners, and the subsequent US reaction to them have done nothing but make the entire situation worse. I suppose we could nuke Fallujah or something, but that's the only way I can think of to make matters worse than they are.
Do me a favor, every time you hear phrases like "civilian contractors" and "private security forces," think one thing, "mercenaries." That's who they are. Hired killers from the US and more disturbingly, south america. That's right, remember all the "training" we did in the 80's (and to a lesser extent in the 90's) of "paramilitary" forces in places like Columbia and El Salvador? Training that led to some of the worst human rights violations in the southern hemisphere? Well, a lot of those folks are now in Iraq, doing what they do best, torturing and killing. IN fact, in terms of sheer troop numbers it goes, US military, UK military, Mercenaries. So much for a "coalition of the willing" yeah, willing to get paid. THe mercenaries make 100,000 a year plus, our troops, who we are supposed to be "supporting" make 30 at the outside. And ALL of the money is coming from the same place, our pockets. It's a sad state of affairs. Also, the mercenaries are in a grey zone as far as the law goes. They're not subject to US law, there is no Iraqi law, and they're not subject to military codes of conduct. According to the people they've arrested in connection with the torture, it was primarily the military Intelligence folks, and the Mercenaries that were "egging on" the despicable behavior. Oh, and since they are downplaying this as much as possible on the news, it should be stressed that the people in these prisons are NOT Iraqi soldiers. They are civilians, swept up in raids and middle of the night black bag jobs, often on little or no evidence of any wrong doing.
I heard Rush say that "this is war and war isn't pretty" in an attempt to justify or at the very least downplay the actions. Like that fat fuck knows what war is like, he's spent not a single minute in a uniform of any type. Neither has Hannity, or any of these other right wing nut jobs. The Pentagon's own report is said to describe the problem as systemic, no matter how much the Shrubsters say it was the act of a few bad apples.
Which brings us to the 25 billion dollars that's "for the troops." Let's save that money and bring them home. Besides, considering the disparity in pay scale between the troops and the mercenaries, most of the cash will make it into the coffers of the mercenary company's not the pockets of the regular military whose families are all too often on food stamps.
Oh and I wanted to repeat something I heard Jenine Garafalo (Sorry if I butchered the name) say on the Daily Show. "At this point, as much as I hate to say it, I consider a vote for Bush to be a character flaw." Amen. I mean how bad do they have to fuck up before you admit Bush is an incompetent ass who's done nothing but make us all LESS safe, not more.
I haven't written in a week because I've been at my Uncle's housesitting and he had no internet connection, but that doesn't mean the world stopped spinning. Far from it. Indeed, every time I think we've reached the height of our problems, something comes along that makes it worse. It's getting to the point that I'm starting to wonder if those rumors about Shrub trying to push us into "The Rapture" don't have something to them. I do know that those pictures of the torture of Iraqi prisoners, and the subsequent US reaction to them have done nothing but make the entire situation worse. I suppose we could nuke Fallujah or something, but that's the only way I can think of to make matters worse than they are.
Do me a favor, every time you hear phrases like "civilian contractors" and "private security forces," think one thing, "mercenaries." That's who they are. Hired killers from the US and more disturbingly, south america. That's right, remember all the "training" we did in the 80's (and to a lesser extent in the 90's) of "paramilitary" forces in places like Columbia and El Salvador? Training that led to some of the worst human rights violations in the southern hemisphere? Well, a lot of those folks are now in Iraq, doing what they do best, torturing and killing. IN fact, in terms of sheer troop numbers it goes, US military, UK military, Mercenaries. So much for a "coalition of the willing" yeah, willing to get paid. THe mercenaries make 100,000 a year plus, our troops, who we are supposed to be "supporting" make 30 at the outside. And ALL of the money is coming from the same place, our pockets. It's a sad state of affairs. Also, the mercenaries are in a grey zone as far as the law goes. They're not subject to US law, there is no Iraqi law, and they're not subject to military codes of conduct. According to the people they've arrested in connection with the torture, it was primarily the military Intelligence folks, and the Mercenaries that were "egging on" the despicable behavior. Oh, and since they are downplaying this as much as possible on the news, it should be stressed that the people in these prisons are NOT Iraqi soldiers. They are civilians, swept up in raids and middle of the night black bag jobs, often on little or no evidence of any wrong doing.
I heard Rush say that "this is war and war isn't pretty" in an attempt to justify or at the very least downplay the actions. Like that fat fuck knows what war is like, he's spent not a single minute in a uniform of any type. Neither has Hannity, or any of these other right wing nut jobs. The Pentagon's own report is said to describe the problem as systemic, no matter how much the Shrubsters say it was the act of a few bad apples.
Which brings us to the 25 billion dollars that's "for the troops." Let's save that money and bring them home. Besides, considering the disparity in pay scale between the troops and the mercenaries, most of the cash will make it into the coffers of the mercenary company's not the pockets of the regular military whose families are all too often on food stamps.
Oh and I wanted to repeat something I heard Jenine Garafalo (Sorry if I butchered the name) say on the Daily Show. "At this point, as much as I hate to say it, I consider a vote for Bush to be a character flaw." Amen. I mean how bad do they have to fuck up before you admit Bush is an incompetent ass who's done nothing but make us all LESS safe, not more.
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