betsy's blog

Bush administration widens domestic spy agency powers

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/fbi-a25.shtml

Bush administration widens domestic spy agency powers

By Naomi Spencer
25 August 2008

In recent weeks, Bush administration officials have introduced a number of provisions that substantially widen the powers of intelligence and law enforcement agencies to conduct spying and other operations within the US against American citizens.

Last week, several news outlets reported that the Justice Department had drafted new rules on intelligence gathering operations which it plans to ratify on October 1, the first day of the new fiscal year and one month before the November elections.

The Plane Truth Project REDUX - NYC, September 11, 2008

The final run for the Plane Truth Project, REDUX in the Summer of Truth (2008) series of the 11th of the month truth actions will be taking place on September 11, 2008 in NYC.

The plane will be taking off from west of Asbury Park, NJ and will fly an aerial 9/11 Truth banner from the Batter Seas, NY to the George Washington bridge and back.

The flight time has not been determined yet. The weather that day may affect it.

I would love any thoughts or ideas on what this final banner should say. (Limited to 45 characters, including spaces.)

I'd like to get the most bang for the buck here, while still being cognizant of the somber day this is for many still.

Currently my top choices are:

1. "RE-INVESTIGATE SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001"
2. "RE-INVESTIGATE SEPTEMBER 11 & ANTHRAX ATTACKS"
3. "SOS! VISIT PATRIOTS QUESTION 911.COM SOS!"
4. " NIST REPORT ON WTC7 IS BULLSHIT!"

Just kidding on the last one.

Thanks for any input.

Betsy
Summer of Truth, 2008

Conyers Questions Iraq 'Forgery' By Jason Leopold August 21, 2008

Conyers Questions Iraq 'Forgery'

By Jason Leopold
August 21, 2008

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has asked current and former White House aides and ex-CIA officials to respond to questions about an alleged scheme to create a bogus letter in late 2003 linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.

Musharraf, Not Bush, Follows Nixon By Ray McGovern August 20, 2008

Musharraf, Not Bush, Follows Nixon

By Ray McGovern
August 20, 2008

Most of the fawning corporate media (FCM) coverage of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation Monday was even more bereft of context than usual.

It was as if Musharraf looked out the window and said, “It’s a beautiful day. I think I’ll resign and go fishing.”

Thus the lead in Tuesday’s editorial in the New York Times, once known as the newspaper of record: “In the end, President Pervez Musharraf went, if not quietly, with remarkably little strife.”

Certain words seem to be automatically deleted from the computers of those writing for the Times. Atop the forbidden wordlist sits “impeachment.” And other FCM — the Washington Post, for example — generally follow that lead, still.

Very few newspapers carried the Associated Press item that put the real story up front; i.e., that Musharraf resigned “just days ahead of almost certain impeachment.” In other words, he pulled a Nixon.

August 18, 2008 Are you ready for nuclear war? By Paul Craig Roberts

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Are-you-ready-for-nuclear-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-080818-89.html
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August 18, 2008

Are you ready for nuclear war?

By Paul Craig Roberts

Pervez Musharraf, the puppet installed by the US to rule Pakistan in the interest of US hegemony, resigned August 18 to avoid impeachment. Karl Rove and the Diebold electronic voting machines were unable to control the result of the last election in Pakistan, the result of which gave Pakistanis a bigger voice in their government than America's.

It was obvious to anyone with any sense--which excludes the entire Bush Regime and almost all of the "foreign policy community"--that the illegal and gratuitous US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon civilians with US blessing, would result in the overthrow of America's Pakistani puppet.

The imbecilic Bush Regime ensured Musharraf's overthrow by pressuring their puppet to conduct military operations against tribesmen in Pakistani border areas, whose loyalties were to fellow Muslims and not to American hegemony.

Double Standards in the Global War on Terror: Anthrax Department

http://www.truthout.org/article/double-standards-global-war-terror

MONDAY 18 AUGUST 2008

Double Standards in the Global War on Terror: Anthrax Department

by: Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com

Oh, the spectacle of it all - and don't think I'm referring to those opening ceremonies in Beijing, where North Korean-style synchronization seemed to fuse with smiley-faced Walt Disney, or Michael Phelps's thrilling hunt for eight gold medals and Speedo's one million dollar "bonus," a modernized tribute to the ancient Greek tradition of amateurism in action. No, I'm thinking of the blitz of media coverage after Dr. Bruce Ivins, who worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, committed suicide by Tylenol on July 29 and the FBI promptly accused him of the anthrax attacks of September and October 2001.

Wag the Dog: How To Conceal Massive Economic Collapse By Ellen Brown

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20530.htm

Wag the Dog

How To Conceal Massive Economic Collapse

By Ellen Brown

“I’m in show business, why come to me?”
“War is show business, that’s why we’re here.”
– “Wag the Dog” (1997 film)

16/08/08 "ICH" --- Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just announced record losses, and so had most reporting corporations. Unemployment was mounting, the foreclosure crisis was deepening, state budgets were in shambles, and massive bailouts were everywhere. Investors had every reason to expect the dollar and the stock market to plummet, and gold and oil to shoot up. Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points, the dollar strengthened, and gold and oil were crushed. What happened?

Out Damn Blot: A Letter to Colin Powell By Ray McGovern August 15, 2008

The truth will set you free . . . maybe. But, better late than never.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/081508a.html

consortiumnews.com

Out Damn Blot: A Letter to Colin Powell

By Ray McGovern
August 15, 2008

Dear Colin,

You have said you regret the “blot” on your record caused by your parroting spurious intelligence at the U.N. to justify war on Iraq. On the chance you may not have noticed, I write to point out that you now have a unique opportunity to do some rehab on your reputation.

If you were blindsided, well, here’s an opportunity to try to wipe off some of the blot. There is no need for you to end up like Lady Macbeth, wandering around aimlessly muttering, Out damn spot…or blot.

It has always strained credulity, at least as far as I was concerned, to accept the notion that naiveté prevented you from seeing through the game Vice President Dick Cheney and then-CIA Director George Tenet were playing on Iraq.

In the guise of humanitarian aid, Bush dispatches US military forces to Georgia

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/bush-a14.shtml

World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
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WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Russia & the former USSR

In the guise of humanitarian aid
Bush dispatches US military forces to Georgia
By Barry Grey
14 August 2008

In a major escalation of the conflict with Russia over Georgia, President George W. Bush on Wednesday announced a “vigorous and ongoing” deployment of US military forces to its key ally in the Caucasus. Bush appeared in the White House Rose Garden for the second time in three days, this time flanked by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and announced the military buildup, casting it as a humanitarian relief operation.

How imperial rivalries stoked war in Georgia August 12, 2008

Can you say O-I-L? : )

http://socialistworker.org/2008/08/12/stoked-war-in-georgiaAnalysis: Lee Sustar

How imperial rivalries stoked war in Georgia
Lee Sustar looks at the roots of Russia's war on Georgia.

August 12, 2008 | Issue 678 [1]

ACCORDING to the Western media, the Russian military's bloody invasion of the former Soviet republic of Georgia is all about "Russian imperialism" and the "Cold War" mentality of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president-turned-prime minister and still the country's leading political figure.

Certainly, Russia's aim to dominate Georgia--which fell under Moscow's control in the late 18th century and was formally annexed in 1801--are imperial in nature. But it's revealing that after selling the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq as exercises in "promoting democracy," the corporate media is finally willing to characterize a great power's expansionist military moves as "imperialist."

The Anthrax Follies and the Bizarro Effect by Justin Raimondo

Excellent.

http://antiwar.com/print/?articleid=13270

The Anthrax Follies and the Bizarro Effect
The case against Bruce Ivins is pathetic

by Justin Raimondo
August 8, 2008

The release of the FBI's "evidence" against Bruce Ivins, the now-deceased Ft. Detrick scientist targeted by the FBI as the alleged culprit in the 2001 anthrax letters case, demonstrates either (1) the FBI is covering for the real culprits, or (2) what we are witnessing is a dramatic drop in the intelligence of the average FBI official – maybe it's something in the water.

In making the case for the latter, I offer as exhibit number-one the FBI's contention [.pdf file] that the origin of the return address on some of the anthrax-laden envelopes – "Greendale School" – was explained by Ivins' membership in the American Family Association, a group of Christian fundamentalists who often lobby and litigate on behalf of conservative causes:

The Pipeline War: Russian bear goes for West's jugular By Svetlana Skarbo and Jonathan Petre

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1043185/The-Pipeline-War-Russian-bear-goes-Wests-jugular.html

The Pipeline War: Russian bear goes for West's jugular
By Svetlana Skarbo and Jonathan Petre

Last updated at 1:00 PM on 10th August 2008

The war in Georgia escalated dangerously last night after Russian jets reportedly bombed a vital pipeline that supplies oil to the West.

After a day of heightening international tensions, Georgian leaders claimed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, had been attacked. But it is thought the bombs missed their target.

Their claims came after Russian jets struck deep into the territory of its tiny neighbour, killing civilians and ‘completely devastating’ the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, a staging post for oil and other energy supplies.

Reports last night also said that Russia had bombed the international airport in Tbilisi.

A bloodied woman lies injured in the ruins of an apartment block in Gori after another Russian air strike

The Plane Truth Project REDUX, August 10, 2008: Video

The Plane Truth Project REDUX, August 10th, 2008

Music by the Dave Matthews Band

From the album "Stand Up" . . .

EDIT: Corrected typo "S'tand" to "Stand"

The Plane Truth Project REDUX - August 11th Truth Action Moved to Sunday, August 10th

Here are the details for tomorrow's (Sunday, August 10th) New Jersey shore's 9/11 Truth aerial plane banner: (I believe it leaves from Sandy Hook about 11 a.m. . . . )
..................................................................................................................................................

Hi Betsy

Tomorrow's flight will be from the North – Sandy Hook to Cape May. It should be in Avalon around 1:15 pm. That is an estimated time.

Jill Dimond

HIGH EXPOSURE, INC.

Phone: 609-861-4111
Fax: 609-861-4100

Email: flybeaches@comcast.net

Website: www.usairads.com
........................................................................................................................................................

So if you're at the NJ shore tomorrow, look for it, and capture some good-quality video if you can. This is obviously not my forte, if anyone's been paying attention. : )

I've decided to continue and remain consistent with the same banner copy I've used before on July 4th and July 11th:

"SOS - WWW. PATRIOTS QUESTION 911.COM - SEMPER FI"

Betsy
Summer of Truth

Thursday, August 7, 2008 Massive US Naval Armada Heads For Iran

http://europebusines.blogspot.com/2008/08/massive-us-naval-armada-heads-for-iran.html

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Massive US Naval Armada Heads For Iran

Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area. The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force".

The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2) are now headed towards Iran along with the USS Ronald Reagon (CVN76) and its Carrier Strike Group Seven (CCSG-7) coming from Japan.

They are joining two existing USN battle groups in the Gulf area: the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) with its Carrier Strike Group Nine (CCSG-9); and the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) with its expeditionary strike group.

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