Fascism demands a succession of wars, foreign conquests, and national threats to keep the nation in a state of fear, anxiety and patriotic hypertension. Those who disagree are branded ideological traitors.

Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it? From The Big Lie About 'Islamic Fascism'

However, there are plenty of modern fascists. But to find them, you have to go to North America and Europe. These neo-fascists advocate "preemptive attacks against all potential enemies," grabbing other nation’s resources, overthrowing uncooperative governments, military dominance of the world, hatred of Semites (Muslims in this case), adherence to biblical prophecies, hatred of all who fail to agree, intensified police controls, and curtailment of "liberal" political rights.

"I don't have a date, but I can see over the next 12 to 18 months the Iraqi security forces progressing to a point where they can take on the security responsibilities for the country with very little coalition support." - Gen. George W. Casey Jr

The light at the end of the tunnel aways seems to be 12 to 18 months away. General Casey, I would refer you to this site.

Meanwhile President Bush is about to launch a new PR campaign to sell the Iraq War to the American people. Sorry, sir, we are not buying. I would refer the President to this site.

If I don't get off this Lesbian Barbie kick I may have to rename this blog. Hmm...
Anyway these photos and more can be found here

Also, still more lesbian barbie porn at Shalimar's Page

Barbie.com: The Movie

Updated: More Barbie Lesbian Art thanks to Proceed at Your Own Risk

Yet more Barbie Lesbian Art and here

Lesbian Barbie Upsets Mattel

Update: Mattel may deny Barbie is a lesbian but I've got the goods on her here:

Not only is Barbie a lesbian but she is apparently kinky as well:



So face it Mattel:

Mike at Born at the Crest of the Empire directs us to this astonishing fact:

One year after Katrina, large areas of New Orleans remain virtually uninhabitable. Only $117 million in at least $25 billion in federal aid has reached the city, while federal investigators determined that roughly $2 billion in taxpayer money was wasted in no-bid contracts and disaster aid to people who did not need the help.

Incompetence in itself cannot explain this--only corruption on a massive scale. Untold billions have been diverted in both New Orleans and Iraq.

Professor Juan Cole directs us to this poll of the Iraqi people concerning the presence of American troops in their country:

91.7% of Iraqis oppose the presence of coalition troops in the country, up from 74.4% in 2004. 84.5% are "strongly opposed". Among Sunnis, opposition to the US presence went from 94.5% to 97.9% (97.2% "strongly opposed"). Among Shia, opposition to the US presence went from 81.2% to 94.6%, with "strongly opposed" going from 63.5% to 89.7%. Even among the Kurds, opposition went from 19.6% to 63.3%. In other words, it isn't just that Iraqis oppose the American presence - it's that their feelings are intense: only 7.2% "somewhat oppose" and 4.7% "somewhat support."

I don't think you could get 91.7% of American to agree with anything.

US News & World Report on the President of the United States:

Animal House in the West Wing

He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides, but forget about getting people to gas about that.

I knew a six year old like that once.

Update on Fart Boy:

In an interview yesterday, Bedard, who writes “Washington Whispers” for the weekly newsmagazine, also said he’s heard about Bush’s full-salute “Austin Greeting.” That’s when new aides come in for their “meet and greet.”

“Word is,” says Bedard, “he likes to gas a couple, and then bring the aide in and see what the kid’s face looks like.”

Naturally, the aide can’t accuse the President or grimace or hold his nose. This dilemma apparently drives the presidential funny bone wild.

"Many of the same 'disaster profiteers' and government agencies that mishandled the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq are responsible for the failure of 'reconstruction' of the Gulf Coast region. The Army Corps, Bechtel and Halliburton are using the very same 'contract vehicles' in the Gulf Coast as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are 'indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity' open-ended 'contingency' contracts that are being abused by the contractors on the Gulf Coast to squeeze out local companies. These are also 'cost-plus' contracts that allow them to collect a profit on everything they spend, which is an incentive to overspend."

The corporate profiteers in Iraq and New Orleans need to serve some prison time.

China Cracks Down on Strippers at Funerals

"Striptease used to be a common practice at funerals in Donghai's rural areas to allure viewers," it said. "Local villagers believe that the more people who attend the funeral, the more the dead person is honored."

What a wonderful custom! I want a stripper at my funeral.

August 22 - Apocalyptic Fantasies

Iran had said it would reply to Western concerns about its nuclear program on August 22, which is today. Bernard Lewis wrote in the Wall Street Journal on August 8 that this date might have some apocalyptic significance.

In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time--Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined. Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This was at first reported as "by the end of August," but Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement was more precise.

What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (cf Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.

According to DEBKAfile:

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that information rated “highly credible” has reached US undercover agencies of a secret report presented to Iran’s supreme ruler Ali Khamenei by Abdollah Shabhazi, one of the heads of the Supreme National Security Council. He claims to expose a mega-terror plot against Jerusalem scheduled for August 22, which aims at killing large numbers of Jews, Arabs and Christians.

Well, today is August 22 and Iran has given its response as promised:

Iran says ready for serious nuclear talks

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran handed over on Tuesday its formal response to a nuclear incentives offer from major powers and said it contained ideas that would allow serious talks about its standoff with the West to start immediately.

Those crazy Iranians! Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that the Bush administration is interested in serious negotiations with Iran.

Scientists Challenge Single-Bullet Theory

LIVERMORE - More than four decades after his death, John F. Kennedy's assassination remains the hottest cold case in U.S. history, and the clues continue to trickle in. Now Lawrence Livermore Laboratory scientists say a key piece of evidence supporting the lone gunman theory should be thrown out.

Mark Lane with Jane Fonda


MOHAMED Al Fayed - who has long alleged that the car crash deaths of his son Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana were part of a sinister plot to prevent the doomed lovers from marrying - has asked a prominent JFK conspiracy theorist to investigate the 1997 tragedy. Al Fayed flew author Mark Lane to London earlier this week and asked him to investigate what the billionaire owner of Harrods department store believes were "assassinations" of Dodi and Diana. Lane, whose book "Plausible Denial" argued that the CIA was involved in President Kennedy's murder, confirmed the meeting in a statement to Page Six. "I have met with Mr. Al Fayed and reviewed some of the evidence he has uncovered," he wrote. "My preliminary inquiry reveals that there are numerous and serious unanswered questions which I intend to pursue with my staff at Mr. Al Fayed's request."

Suppressed News draws our attention to this story:

Two Strange Deaths in European Wiretapping Scandal

The first death:

Just after noon on Friday, July 21, Adamo Bove -- head of security at Telecom Italia, the country's largest telecommunications firm -- told his wife he had some errands to run as he left their Naples apartment. Hours later, police found his car parked atop a freeway overpass. Bove's body lay on the pavement some 100 feet below.

Bove was a master at detecting hidden phone networks. Recently, at the direction of Milan prosecutors, he'd used mobile phone records to trace how a "Special Removal Unit" composed of CIA and SISMI (the Italian CIA) agents abducted Abu Omar, an Egyptian cleric, and flew him to Cairo where he was tortured. The Omar kidnapping and the alleged involvement of 26 CIA agents, whom prosecutors seek to arrest and extradite, electrified Italian media. U.S. media noted the story, then dropped it.

The second death:

About 16 months earlier, in March of 2005, Costas Tsalikidis, a 38-year-old software engineer for Vodaphone in Greece had just discovered a highly sophisticated bug embedded in the company's mobile network. The spyware eavesdropped on the prime minister's and other top officials' cell phone calls; it even monitored the car phone of Greece's secret service chief. Others bugged included civil rights activists, the head of Greece's "Stop the War" coalition, journalists and Arab businessmen based in Athens. All the wiretapping began about two months before the Olympics were hosted by Greece in August 2004, according to a subsequent investigation by the Greek authorities.

Tsalikidis, according to friends and family, was excited about his work and was looking forward to marrying his longtime girlfriend. But on March 9, 2005, his elderly mother found him hanging from a white rope tied to pipes outside of his apartment bathroom. His limp feet dangled a mere three inches above the floor. His death was ruled a suicide; he, like Adamo Bove, left no suicide note.

An interesting tidbit:

Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, BND, recently snooped on investigative journalists. According to parliamentary investigations, the spying may have been carried out using the United States's secretive Bad Aibling base in the Bavarian Alps, which houses the American global eavesdropping program dubbed Echelon.

Read the whole thing. Are there similar programs in this country? Count on it.

Our Fearless Leader

From The New York Times

“The insurgency has gotten worse by almost all measures, with insurgent attacks at historically high levels,” said a senior Defense Department official who agreed to discuss the issue only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for attribution. “The insurgency has more public support and is demonstrably more capable in numbers of people active and in its ability to direct violence than at any point in time.”

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.

Professor Juan Cole quotes Ray Close, a retired CIA analyst of Arab affairs:

"Despite vehement official assertions to the contrary, indications are increasing every day that the Bush Administration has already decided that conventional diplomacy will fail as a way to manage its confrontation with Iran, and that military action against the Teheran regime has therefore already reached the point of final countdown.

This bombastic and posturing style of “diplomacy” is going to lead inescapably to one or the other of the following results: 1. War with Iran (with negative consequences beyond anyone's ability to imagine); or 2. Another humiliating demonstration of impotence."

I'm hoping for option 2, but fear Bush will go with 1.

Patrick Buchanan on the Next War

With our War Party discredited by the failed policies it cheered on in Lebanon and Iraq, there will come a clamor that Bush must "go to the source" of all our difficulty – Iran. Only thus can the War Party redeem itself for having pushed us and Israel into two unnecessary and ruinous wars. And the drumbeat for war on Iran has already begun

Thanks to Lukery at Wot Is It Good 4 for drawing our attention to to a good song about Sibel Edmonds by a group called Gary Hood and the Last Show Ever which is #20 on this list of
songs

Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War

From Robert Parry, a real journalist.

Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from Israel’s faltering invasion of Lebanon, some Israeli officials are privately blaming President George W. Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the ill-conceived military adventure against the Hezbollah militia in south Lebanon.

As part of Bush’s determination to create a “new Middle East” – one that is more amenable to U.S. policies and desires – Bush even urged Israel to attack Syria, but the Olmert government refused to go that far, according to Israeli sources.

One source said some Israeli officials thought Bush’s attack-Syria idea was “nuts” since much of the world would have seen the bombing campaign as overt aggression.

The latest opinion poll shows President Bush's approval rating at 33%. It is interesting to compare that poll to this one, in which the public is asked to rate all the Presidents back to Roosevelt. Here are Bush's ratings:

31% - great
28% - average
40% -failure

Within the margin of error, about the same percentage think Bush is a great President as approve of his performance. First of all, of course, who are these people? Second, it appears that Bush's rating are unlikely to go much below a one-third approval rating, if about that percentage still class him as a "great" President. And third, who the hell are these people?

Was Jack Ruby a cross dresser? Enquiring minds want to know.

I just found out last night a friend who I've known for 17 years mother worked for Jack Ruby as a cigarette girl and told him Ruby was a cross dresser. Her real name was Rose McGee and later in life when I met her she owned a private club in DeSoto, Texas named the Armadilla VILLAGE.

(Emphasis added.)

General Wesley Clark:

"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan. I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned."

Deeply concerned. Yes, I am deeply concerned as well.

Treason is rampant in the country.

So says political velociraptor Ann Coulter. I am using an image of the Ann Coulter "action figure" rather than one of Ann herself in case you are having your lunch while reading this blog.

Retired colonel John Alexander of Los Alamos National Laboratories, Gordon Novel, and John's wife Victoria. (Photo from Saucer Smear )

Col. John Alexander is a retired military officer with unusual interests, including remote viewing and spoon bending. He is also an expert on non-lethal weapons , is allegedly a member of the MJ-12 "aviary" as the "Penguin, " and is said to have taught Neuro-Linguistic Programming to Al Gore. Gordon Novel, however, is probably more interesting. He has involved himself, over the years, in Jim Garrison's investigation into the JFK assassination, the Watergate affair, the John DeLorean affair,the Waco investigation, and the Michael Jackson case. He asked Michael Jackson why he didn't stop fooling around with kids. Jackson replied: "I didn't want to."

Greg Palast on BP

In one case, BP's CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert to break into the home of a whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, who had complained of conditions at the pipe's tanker facility. BP tapped his phone calls with a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear campaign against him. When caught, a US federal judge said BP's acts were "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."

From Suppressed News: FEMA's Prison Camps

There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.

Also see US Detention Camps - Built by Halliburton

"It is clear that the Bush administration is thinking seriously about martial law." - Peter Dale Scott

JFK Assassination Secrets for Sale in Latest EMail Scam

Wakefield, MA - infoZine - Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned computer users to be wary of an email claiming to come from a dying KGB agent offering to pass on secrets of the John F Kennedy assassination. Sophos believes that the spammed email campaign is an attempt to lure unsuspecting lovers of conspiracy theories into handing over cash and confidential information to internet scammers.

This one is for real however: Oswald's "Guide Book for Marines" Book for Sale on e-Bay. Starting bid $100,000. This was being sold by Carlos Bringuier, who was given this item by Lee Harvey Oswald personally.

CIA files on Project Star Gate

I find myself becoming increasingly skepical on psychic phenomena. Decades of research by parapsychologists have not amounted to much; that did not stop the U.S. Intelligence community from spending a good deal of time and money investigating "remote viewing" and other paranormal claims. Starstream Research has obtained some 80,000 pages of CIA documents, a small selection of which are available at the link above.

Back in 2005 I received a CD of images from Johann W. Rush. Mr. Rush was the camera man who filmed Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans as he passed out pro-Castro flyers. Rush seems to be quite conservative and believes that conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination had their origins in Soviet propaganda. In 1991 he went to the Soviet Embassy in Washington D.C. and inquired if they had any English translations of 1963 Tass or Soviet press reports. They referred him to the Library of Congress where he was given a roll of microfilm covering that period.

I have just begun to go through the news stories on the CD. I do not agree with Rush's interpretation. It seems to me that there is ample evidence that the Soviet's, first of all, genuinely believed that Kennedy was the victim of right-wing forces, and that, secondly, they were probably correct.

"Iraq is now caught in hell."

A grim view from American and Iraqi military men. We are going to hear over the months ahead that the Iraqi situation is very complicated, that there will be a blood bath if we leave, and that there is no easy way out.

Some will even suggest that we may need to send more troops to Iraq. American officials should remember the first rule of holes: when you are in a hole, stop digging.

PHYSICISTS IN JAPAN PLAN TO CREATE NEW UNIVERSE IN LAB

A radical new project could permit human beings to create a "baby universe" in a laboratory in Japan. While it sounds like a dangerous undertaking, the physicists involved believe that if the project is successful, the space-time around a tiny point within our universe will be distorted in such a way that it will begin to form a new superfluid space, and eventually break off, separate in all respects from our experience of space and time, causing no harm to the fabric of our universe.

"Causing no harm to the fabric of our universe." Trust us--we're scientists. Actually, this is cooler than human-animal hybrids.

This story reminds me of concerns that experiments using the Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider might inadvertantly destroy the universe.

Death of Democracy? Clint Curtis is a hero of mine--see my links. Clint has provided important evidence of election fraud and governmental and corporate corruption. Unfortunately, his efforts may have led to the murder of an official investigator, Raymond Lemme. Hustler is now covering the story.

Hustler Story on "Suicide" of Raymond Lemme

Background by Brad Friedman

The Ignorance of a President

A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”

The entire article is worth reading.

Sidney Blumenthal reports in Salon that the Neocons are providing NSA intelligence to Israel in an effort to provoke a wider war:

The neoconservatives are described as enthusiastic about the possibility of using NSA intelligence as a lever to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war.

We are not in World War Three yet but they are working for it with "enthusiasm."

Rice's diplomacy in the Middle East has erratically veered from initially calling on Israel for "restraint," to categorically opposing a cease-fire, to proposing terms for a cease-fire guaranteed to conflict with the European proposal, and thus to thwarting diplomacy, prolonging the time available for the Israeli offensive to achieve its stated aim of driving Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon. But the neocon scenario extends far beyond that objective to pushing Israel into a "cleansing war" with Syria and Iran, says the national security official, which somehow will redeem Bush's beleaguered policy in the entire region.

So a wider war will "somehow" redeem the Bush administration's policy. How is that, exactly? This is foreign policy based on wishful thinking and stupidity.

By using NSA intelligence to set an invisible tripwire, the Bush administration is laying the condition for regional conflagration with untold consequences -- from Pakistan to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Israel. Secretly devising a scheme that might thrust Israel into a ring of fire cannot be construed as a blunder. It is a deliberate, calculated and methodical plot.

Britain's outgoing Ambassador to Iraq William Patey:

"The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy."

Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East:

“I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I’ve seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war.”