Another Better President Than Ours

Fancy that, without even graduating from Yale....

Terrorism

Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: ter·ror·ism
Pronunciation: 'ter-&r-"i-z&m
Function: noun
: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.



Main Entry: ter·ror·ism
Pronunciation: 'ter-&r-"i-z&m
Function: noun
: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.

THINK ABOUT IT!

David Attenborough - Two Questions

Are We Changing Planet Earth?


Can We Save Her?

Saturday Night Music Videos

Come into my lounge and I'll open the Vault for you.

Tonight get mellow with the blues featuring John Mayall.
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An Interesting Correlation

Here's an interesting comparison between the slave states and the 2004 election results.

(A special thanks to Curtis from can't see the forest.)

Playing in My Head

I woke up today with this playing in my head.

EMERGENCY ALERT!

PORTLAND TO BE NUKED TOMORROW?
SIX DEAD FROM MINOT AFB
SOLID CURTAIN DRILL ENDS TOMORROW

Freedom of Speech - Amerikan Style

In Florida:

(9/19/07 - 9:00 AM) I have chosen to remove the video of the Florida Student at the John Kerry lecture.
After further review and consideration I have come to the conclusion that the student brought on some of the police response by his actions. While I feel the police response was excessive, some of the student's actions did not work favorably for him.
Other reports have indicated that he is known as a prankster and such actions and reactions are nothing new to him.

Also Agent 99 has pointed out the vast differences between the press reactions to this incident in Florida which has been run on every network over and over and the violence against Reverend Yearwood which was virtually unseen.

(9/19/07 - 12:30 PM) OK, it's back - here is another look and analysis from the MSNBC show Hardball. This gives a better view of the actions at the rear of the room as well as some background leading up to the event. Clearly, once they had him on the ground there was no reason to taser him.

These Hardball videos also explore other means of free speech suppression by both the Republican and Democratic parties.

But then why didn't Reverend Yearwood's experience garner this much attention?

Part 1


Part 2

In Washington DC:

MORE

Pardon Me

...but I think WWIII is starting.

September 15th Antiwar Protest in D.C.

This past Saturday the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and the Iraq Veterans for Peace held a protest in Washington D.C. asking for an end to the war in Iraq and prevention of a war with Iran. Up to 100,000 people took part including a march from the White House to the Capitol Building where 5,000 to 6,000 people performed a Die-in on the steps of the Capitol.

Some of the scenes along the way:


From the Capitol lawn and die-in:


Cindy Sheehan Speaks:


Ramsey Clark Speaks:


Ralph Nader takes the Democrats to task:


AFL-CIO District President Fred Mason speaks:


Iraq War Veterans Arrested:

The Reason is Treason

Saturday Night Music Videos

Come into my lounge and I'll open the Vault for you.

Tonight Dr. John will be stopping by with a little Gris-gris!
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The Shock Doctrine

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Oops - I seem to have missed a birthday - so here is a belated wish - one week late.

Happy First Birthday to the Lair!

Saturday Nigh Music Videos

Come into my lounge and I'll open the Vault for you.

Tonight I will feature the music of David Gilmour.
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Bums Against Unlucky Fried Children

New National Security Threat: Putting Up Anti-War Posters

From an email issued today by ANSWER coalition:

Police suppress Sept. 15 anti-war press
conference across from White House

Three anti-war activists were arrested in front of the White House today after the U.S. Park Police moved to suppress a press conference called to protest the fines and threats against the ANSWER Coalition for putting up anti-war posters promoting the September 15 March and Die-In in Washington DC.

The arrested were Tina Richards, CEO of Grassroots America and mother of Iraq War Veteran Cloy Richards; Adam Kokesh, the Co-Chair Elect of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and member of Veterans for Peace; and Ian Thompson, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition.

The press conference became a chaotic scene as U.S. Park Police interrupted the event on the basis that there was no permit for a folding table that was used as a speaker’s stand for media microphones. As U.S. Park Police officers surrounded the group, an officer on horseback rode into the crowd to disperse the media and onlookers.

Tina Richards and Adam Kokesh had announced that they would put a September 15 March to Stop the War poster on a lamppost following the press conference. The ANSWER Coalition has been fined over $30,000 in the last three weeks in an unprecedented action aimed at suppressing the September 15 mobilization. The three were taken to the Central District Substation of the United States Park Police. They will later be transferred to a jail in which they will spend the night before being arraigned in U.S. Superior Court tomorrow afternoon.

Attorneys at the Partnership for Civil Justice have filed a Free Speech lawsuit to strike down the unconstitutional postering law. The ANSWER Coalition has refused to pay these illegal fines.

Momentum continues to build for the September 15 Mass March, which will be led by Iraq War Veterans and their family members. More than 100 cities are mobilizing to bring people by bus, van and car caravan. The September 15 March will culminate with a large scale Die-In/Funeral for U.S. servicemembers and Iraqis who have been killed in this criminal war of aggression.

For details, go to www.Sept15.org.

Bush's True Motive in Iraq

Keith lays it all out.

Engaged Ignoring

...is killing us all.

Saturday Night Music Videos

Come into my lounge and I'll open the Vault for you.

Tonight I will feature the music of Ben Harper.
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Of Ray Guns and Lung Sucking Bombs

Shortly after the opening of the Lair we looked into the Heat Ray Gun which has been developed for the Military. We took another look when it was certified safe for use.

Now it is shown that, not happy with just making peoples skin begin to cook, they in fact are looking for something more akin to the Death Rays of science fiction movies.

In an article in The Register we find the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking to develop new fiber optics to raise the power level to 300,000 watts or more, 1,500 times the power of conventional fiber optic lasers:

American arms giant Raytheon, working with the US forces and Sandia National Lab, told Wired magazine it has used a bundle of fibre lasers with a total strength of 20 kilowatts to explode mortar bombs very quickly in tests - so quickly that it might be possible to build a system that could shoot down enemy salvos in mid-air. Most raygun fanciers, though, reckon that 100kW is the minimum for a proper blaster cannon which would be fun to have.

Off-the-shelf combinable fibre laser amplifiers are currently limited to 200 watts each, according to DARPA: and it wants to push this up to 1kW to start with, then to 3KW in the next phase. That would mean a Raytheon/Sandia style bundle would scale up to 100kW or even 300kW, well into the proper-deathray range.

This weapon would join an array of high power laser ray guns currently under development for the US Army such as Northrop’s monster truck mounted high energy laser which is competing with Boeing’s Humvee mounted laser or the flying laser platform under development for the Pentagon.

Bomb Sucks Air From Lungs

In other developments the British Army has deployed shoulder-launched "light anti-structure munition” weapons in Afghanistan without reporting the deployment to Parliament.

These weapons are similar in function to the US Military’s Thermobaric bunker buster bombs and the bombs used by Russia to destroy the Chechen capital Grozny.

Thermobaric weapons first disperse an explosive chemical fog to fill a space and then ignite the explosive. First causing a high pressure wave followed a vacuum which sucks the air out of and collapses your lungs – if the initial pressure and heat didn’t kill you the deflated lungs and ruptured organs will.

British defense officials claim their weapon is different in that it doesn’t produce the heat factor. – How pleasant!

Raw Story reports:

According to the US Defense Intelligence Agency, which released a study on thermobaric weapons in 1993, "The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique--and unpleasant.... What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs.… If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents."

It seems there is a new push to not just kill, but do it in the most horrible manner:

A second DIA study said, "shock and pressure waves cause minimal damage to brain tissue... it is possible that victims of FAEs are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate."

"The effect of an FAE explosion within confined spaces is immense," said a CIA study of the weapons. "Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness."

Here is a demonstration of the effects of these types of weapons.