Al Gore: "Cigarettes Contribute To Global Warming"

GORE: CIGARETTE SMOKING 'SIGNIFICANT' CONTRIBUTOR TO GLOBAL WARMING
Fri Sep 29 2006 09:04:05 ET

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore warned hundreds of U.N. diplomats and staff on Thursday evening about the perils of climate change, claiming: Cigarette smoking is a "significant contributor to global warming!"

Gore, who was introduced by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the world faces a "full-scale climate emergency that threatens the future of civilization on earth."

Gore showed computer-generated projections of ocean water rushing in to submerge the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, parts of China, India and other nations, should ice shelves in Antarctica or Greenland melt and slip into the sea.

"The planet itself will do nicely, thank you very much what is at risk is human civilization," Gore said. After a series of Q& A with the audience, which had little to do with global warming and more about his political future, Annan bid "adios" to Gore.

Then, Gore had his staff opened a stack of cardboard boxes to begin selling his new book, "An Inconvenient Truth, The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It," $19.95, to the U.N. diplomats.

Developing...

Check with Drudge to see what more develops. I first heard it on Rush Limbaugh yesterday at lunch, and thought it was a parody at first. You know it's getting bad when the antics of the far left reach a level where actual events sound like a parody.
But seriously? Cigarettes? Oh come on !!! Flatulent livestock was questionable, but cigarettes?!? ROTFLMAO

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Democrats on Dumpsters

On The Unintended Humor Index, this has got to be a 7 or an 8.
Note the candidates on the dumpster, Phil Haire, Heath Shuler, John Snow, and Erskine Bowles. erskine Bowles? What's he running for?

Click here to see the photo I am unwilling to scale-down.

That is the Democratic Party Headquarters for Jackson County in the background.
I know this messed up my layout, so I'll take down the picture tonight, and leave a link in its place.

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Ann Coulter On Clinton Meltdown

Clinton shouted so many lies during his televised meltdown, only the World Wide Web can capture them all. These are just a few.

Clinton yelled at Wallace: "What did I do? What did I do? I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since."

This is so crazy it's worthy of an Air America caller. Clinton has consistently misrepresented the presidential directive about political assassinations. Clinton did not order bin Laden assassinated. He did not even lift the ban on intelligence agencies attempting to assassinate bin Laden.

What he did was lift the ban on political assassinations — provided that assassinating bin Laden was not the purpose of the mission. So if U.S. forces were engaged in an operation to capture bin Laden, but accidentally killed him, they would not be court-martialed.

Clinton said, "All the right-wingers who now say I didn't do enough said I did too much — same people." As proof, he cites his humiliating withdrawal from Somalia, claiming, "They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in 'Black Hawk down,' and I refused to do it."

He added, as if it mattered, "There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Osama bin Laden had anything to do with 'Black Hawk down.'"

In fact, what Republicans objected to was Clinton's transforming a U.N. mission in Somalia to prevent mass starvation into a much grander "nation-building" exercise — something the Democrats now hysterically support in Darfur and oppose in Iraq.

Democrats long to see American mothers weeping for their sons lost in a foreign war, but only if the mission serves absolutely no national security objectives of the United States. If we are building a democracy in a country while also making America safer — such as in Iraq — Democrats oppose it with every fiber of their being.

When Clinton's "nation-building" in Somalia led to the brutal killing of 18 Americans, some of whose corpses were then dragged through the streets, Clinton did what the Democrats are currently demanding we do in Iraq: He cut and ran.

Republicans didn't like that either, and it had nothing to do with whether it was al-Qaida we were running from. It could have been Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, al-Dawa or the Viet Cong. We ran, and the terrorists noticed.

Osama bin Laden told "ABC News" in 1998 that America's humiliating retreat from Somalia emboldened his jihadists: "The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat."

If this is the message that Clinton is hoping to telegraph to the American people, I hope the voters are listening.

Read the whole thing. One of the reasons Ann is hated so much, is that she makes her points with humor, which get under the skin of the target and festers.

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Thursday 9/28 Connect-The-Dots-Of-Jihad-Edition

Northeast Intelligence Network



Iraq : Baghdad 'Green Zone': WMD Strike Imminent?
Posted by Sean Osborne on 2006/9/27 10:57:11 ( )
-by Sean Osborne, Military Affairs Specialist
sean@homelandsecurityus.com

27 September 2006: According to an advisory I recieved this morning from retired AFOSI agent Paul 'Dave' Gaubatz:

"Iraqi citizens have reported our U.S. Troops & Coalition Forces will be the intended target of a major chemical/biological attack in the "Green Zone" 10 - 14 days from the November, 2006 U.S. Elections."

With the US election occuring on November 7, the stated 'window' of this of this WMD strike coincides precisely with the day following the end of Ramadan 2006 (24 October 2006) and the four subsequent days thereafter (25-28 October 2006).

Dave also stated.....read the rest.
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Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Gaza's Jihadia Salafiya Islamic outreach movement, which seeks to make secular Muslims more religious, called the pope a "puppet" for "that Crusader George Bush."

The Gaza imam said the only Christian-Muslim dialogue that is acceptable is one in which "all religions agree to convert to Islam."

"The call for so-called dialogue by this little racist pope is a Trojan horse with the main goal of reaching a new system in which the ideals [of Christianity] are a new ideology that will rule relations between nations and people. The dialogue he wants is dangerous," said Abu Saqer, speaking to WND from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

"The pope is the spiritual and religious wing of the Crusader ideology," Abu Saqer said. "He is totally coordinated with Bush.


Read the rest.
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Ahhh, the great and powerful Bush! You know, for an idiot and a moron, he sure is beating the Dhimmicrats and Terrorcrats awfully badly.

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Ramadan 2006. Burn, Rinse, Repeat.
by Dymphna


Well, it’s time for the month of Ramadan. A long period in Islam where one fasts, prays, and sets fire to things. Stones are saved for throwing at human beings alighting from trains.

Paul Belien is reporting on the lack of reporting by the mainstream press. Both events — the riots and the gaze avoidance by the elites of the criminal behavior of their immigrants — are a recipe for the perfect storm of dhimmitude in Europe. And, of course, what better place to start Ramadan in the EU than in its capitol, Brussels? How fitting is that?

Read more about the under-reported rioting in in Europe.
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One last thing...a jihadi strategist...

SURI: nizam, la Tanzim (system, not organization)
Here's a quick critique of jihadi strategist Abu Musab al-Suri's "The Call of Global Islamic Resistance" (widely circulated in Arabic, but there is not an english language translation available on the Web for me to link to). A good starting point for exploring this work is Andrew Black's (writing for Jamestown) comparison of al-Suri's work with that of William Lind in The Changing Face of War: Into the Fourth Generation. Andrew claims that al-Suri's work provides organizational improvements in fourth generation warfare (which are akin to what I am working on here on global guerrillas).

I disagree. Here's why. Al-Suri's slogan for his treatise -- "system, not organization" -- encapsulates his desire for extreme decentralized at the expense of organizational hierarchy. The objective of this desired decentralization is, obviously, to imbue the Salafi-jihad with vast improvements in survivability and innovation. While the objective is correct, al-Suri's call for decentralization doesn't work in practice within real-world conflicts and organizational structures.

Read the rest...
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Okay, another last thing....(which was actually the first thing I saw)
The only other place I could find the rioting in Europe was at Al Fin's. He provides a link to the Brussels Journal.

27 September 2006
Tis Ramadan, and the Non-Natives are Restless . . . .
For the third night in a row, Ramadan rioting has been the favoured activity of muslim immigrants in the capital of Europe, Brussels. The youths can apparently not imagine a more appropriate means of celebrating the holy month of Ramadan.
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What do I think of all this? Still processing...

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Niational Intelligence Estimate Declassified

Just as in The Revolutionary War, there are traitors within our borders who oppose us at every turn, and should suffer the same fate as Benedict Arnold. I doubt they would approach the gallows with the same dignity, as they would have to be dragged.

NIE Key Judgements

New York Sun. Printer-Friendly

The usual suspects, The Washington Post, and The New York Times printed the then classified information contained with the National Intelligence Estimate. Gimme five minutes alone with these guys, and they would never print classified information again... these panzies would hang up the phone on anyone offering to provide classified info. How? Trade Secret.

After reading the declassified portions, I don't see anything I didn't already know or have surmised, but then I probably spend 20 to 30 hours a week reading News and Analysis on World War IV, and, of course, the MilBlogs. I will quote a short section to illustrate:

Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement:
(1) Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leding to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness;

(2) the Iraq "jihad";

(3) the slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, and political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and

(4) pervasive anti-US sentiment among most Muslims

---all of which jihadists exploit.

When you go to the polls in November, remember that the Democrats refuse to face the World War we are in, and would cut and run on these b$#@tards, forcing us to play a very Dark Hand on the homefront.

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Pius Attacked for Not Confronting Evil,
Benedict Attacked for Confronting Evil

By Dennis Prager

Among the most heated debates of the last 40 years has been the debate over Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. What did he do when the greatest evil of his day engulfed Christian Europe? Was he "Hitler's Pope," as the name of a widely read book about him charged? Was he too reticent in speaking out against Nazism and the Nazi extermination of Europe's Jews? Was he perhaps even a Nazi sympathizer? Or was he in fact a great friend of Europe's Jews who did whatever he could to save tens of thousands of Jews, especially in Italy, opening up the doors of Church institutions to hide Jews?

It is not my aim here to offer an answer to that debate. But the attacks on Pope Benedict XVI may help shed new light on some of the motives for the attacks on Pius XII. It is true that we have always known that most, if not all, of Pius's critics were/are on the political/religious Left. But this no more discredited their critiques of Pius than the fact that the vast majority of Pius's defenders were on the political/religious Right discredited their defense.

But recently the critics have lost credibility. If the same people who attack Pope Pius XII for his silence regarding the greatest evil of his time are largely the same people who attack Pope Benedict XVI for confronting the greatest evil of his time, maybe it isn't a pope's confronting evil that concerns Pius's critics, but simply defaming the Church.

Read the rest.

Well, I'm right of center, and I've always thought the actions of Hitler's Pope were deplorable. I applaud the statements of this pope so far, and I am definately not Cathololic. Although, if Hitler's Pope had been confronted by Stalin, and he'd responded the same, the Left would have lionized him. I'm just sayin'....

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East Bound And Down

Fan Video Tribute to Battlestar Galactica with Jerry Reed song.

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Motivational Posters

I created three motivational posters for your consideration. They do not translate well on the blog, so I put them on my PhotoBucket Album.

Garbage


Legacy1


Intimidation

Make your own.

I hope you enjoy them, and will share your creations with me. Send them to thunderpigblog AT yahoo DOT com, and let me know in the comments if I can share them publicly, or link to where you have them stored on the internet.

Feel free to copy them to your own photo album or website, with the request you at least tell people who made 'em!

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Unhinged: Guilty Dog Barking Edition

Yip! Yip! Yip!




This man can never be allowed anywhere near the White House, even as a House Husband, as he was the first time around!

Seriously though, I expected him to scream, "Kaaaahhnnnn!!!!!!"


MOnday Morning Update

This is too good not to share. Jim Quinn just said that Clinton's Legacy was a hole in the ground in lower Manhattan. Ouch!!!

I think Clinton revealed many logical fallacies the far left uses, more later..gotta go to work.

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Preparation For The Battle of Ezekiel

Or, Putin Calls Russia Defender of Islamic World

The Baron has a link to an article you should read.

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Why World War IV Is Necessary

This is a struggle waged by evil men who are boundlessly hypocritical, who use airplanes and internet video to spread a worldview that promotes death, yet who could not in a hundred years create a society that could design and build those tools that they use with such despicable effect. Against these hypocrites, there are those who build tools and use them to feed humankind, share knowledge, and improve life on this planet, however imperfectly.

This is a struggle between evil men who burn schools, behead adolescents, torture teachers and forbid the education of women -- and those in our world who build schools and teach both men and women so that they can be doctors, lawyers, fathers and mothers fully capable of preparing their children to build a society of hope and prosperity.

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Security Watchtower has more.

Preach on, brother.

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Another Lefty Confesses

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A Totally Honest Liberal - Read It and Be Amazed

If you are interested in politics at all, read this following excerpt to its end. This is the most interesting political discussion I've heard in a long time. HH is Hugh Hewitt, father of the conservative political blogosphere and radio talk show host.



He is interviewing Thomas Edsall, who spent 25 years at the Washington Post, retiring this year from his post as senior political correspondent.



HH: A proposition. The reason talk radio exploded, followed by Fox News, followed by the center-right blogosphere, is that because folks like you have been the dominant voice in American media for a long time, and you’re a pretty thoroughgoing, Democratic favoring, agenda journalist for the left, and you’ve been the senior political reporter of the Washington Post for a very long time. And people didn’t trust your news product…not you, personally, but the accumulation of you: the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and they got sick and tired of being spoon fed liberal dross, and they went to the radio when an alternative product came along.

TE: To a certain degree, I agree with that.

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Read the rest here.

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How To Use A Sling

Here's a pretty cool video i found this morning. Gotta make one of these!!!




UPDATE: I have more...

I found the instructions on how to make that bad boy.



And this is the guy's blog. Add him to your favorites, I have!

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Heath Shuler, HRSE, and Back Taxes

Ouch.

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AP: Shuler-Linked Firm Pays Back Taxes

Saturday September 23, 2006 2:31 AM



By TIM WHITMIRE

Associated Press Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A real estate brokerage house associated with Democratic House candidate Heath Shuler belatedly paid over $69,000 in unpaid taxes Friday after The Associated Press raised questions with the campaign.

Shuler, a former star quarterback at the University of Tennessee, has a 20 percent stake in the Knoxville-based business, Heath Shuler Real Estate, which he founded with his brother, Benjie, in 1998. They sold it in 2003 to four men who formed HSRE and HSRE Properties but kept the football player's name.

A recent AP review of tax records in Knoxville and surrounding Knox County found the businesses had been chronically delinquent in paying their local taxes. The AP presented the information to the Shuler campaign this week.

Jason Rudd, a lawyer for Shuler in Jackson, Tenn., said he threatened the three principal owners - Robert Browder, Charlie Hicks and Jack Cornett - with legal action on Shuler's behalf if they did not pay the delinquent taxes immediately. Late Friday, Shuler's attorneys filed a lawsuit asking a judge to stop HSRE and HSRE Properties from using the name ``Heath Shuler.''

The complaint said the defendants have operated the business in a way that ``brings into question the reputation, ethics and/or morals of'' Shuler. Rudd said Friday he expects Shuler will give up his minority ownership stake, but needs to remain involved to ensure enforcement of a contract provision allowing him to remove his name.

Fred Sisk, chief deputy trustee for Knox County, confirmed Friday that HSRE and HSRE Properties had paid their county tax bills. A city spokesman, Randy Kenner, said just over $1,400 of the money owed the city was paid Thursday, but the later payment likely wouldn't show up until Monday.

Shuler is running for the House in western North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, seeking to unseat eight-term Republican Rep. Charles Taylor. The race is among those Democrats have high hopes of winning as they push to regain control of the House.

Rudd said Shuler, a former NFL quarterback, has not been involved in day-to-day management of the brokerage since 2003. But his name is prominently tied to the business throughout Knoxville, where Shuler played football in the early 1990s. The Heath Shuler Real Estate logo, seen throughout town on billboards and signs, features the distinctive orange-and-white checkerboard painted in the end zones of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium.

``I have been assured twice in the last six months that these past due taxes would be paid,'' Rudd wrote in an e-mail Thursday to Browder. ``HSREs ongoing refusal to operate its business in accordance with the law is causing extreme embarrassment to Heath.''

In an initial e-mail response to Rudd, Browder said the company did not have the money to pay its 2005 tax bills. However, he told Rudd late Friday morning that all overdue bills had been paid.

The AP review found:

- HSRE Properties had owed the City of Knoxville $38,896.89 in overdue property taxes and penalties for the 2004 and 2005 tax years for the company's 1.84-acre headquarters site in Knoxville. That debt was listed on a roster of delinquent tax payments issued earlier this month by the city.

- The city had been owed an additional $8,122.72 in tangible personal property taxes and penalties for tax years 2004 and 2005 on a pair of Heath Shuler Real Estate offices. Such taxes cover office equipment and other property owned by a business.

- HSRE Properties had owed the county $17,183.14 in unpaid 2005 property taxes, as well as $5,048.12 on overdue taxes on tangible personal property.

``Ninety-six percent of Knox County taxpayers paid their taxes on time last year,'' said Sisk, the Knox County tax official, before the taxes were paid. ``Some people just don't have the money to pay. For those people, you feel sorry. These people can pay, they just choose not to pay.''

In June, Rudd wrote to Browder and expressed Shuler's concerns ``about the business, and about the continued use of his name having an adverse affect on his reputation in the community.'' In that letter, a copy of which Rudd provided to the AP, Rudd said Shuler wanted to exercise his right to remove his name from the business.

But after receiving assurances that the problems were being dealt with and that the taxes would be paid, Rudd said, ``we kind of backed off to give them a chance'' to straighten things out.

The AP's review also uncovered two unresolved tax liens held by the state of Tennessee on now-dissolved Shuler-owned companies, Heath Shuler Real Estate Commercial and Heath Shuler Auctioning. Shuler created both companies in the late 1990s with the intention of using them for spin-offs from the main real estate business, but never did anything with them, Rudd said. They were administratively dissolved by the state of Tennessee after the companies failed to file annual reports.

However, because the state never received a 1999 corporate franchise and excise tax payment for the two companies, it eventually filed liens seeking the money in 2002, Rudd said. The liens total $883.65 each. Rudd said Shuler authorized him Thursday to pay those bills after the AP contacted the campaign.

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The Guardian.

Commentary

Heath, this is directed at you. Willingness to throw others under the bus, especially business partners is very revealing about your character. I don't believe this situation is entirely your fault, but your response is.

I am also interested in seeing how your supporters respond to this embarassing situation.

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Leditor in Mtn Xpress

Here is a Leditor (Letter to the Editor)published in The Mountain Xpress I have been made aware of in another forum. I thought it appropriate to post here and provide a link to the original source. You will have to scroll down to find the particular leditor in question.

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Oust those Democrats

Upon reading the recent, ridiculous defense letters about Rep. Susan Fisher, Democrat, N.C. House District 114, I had to respond.

Ms. Fisher was handpicked and placed on the House Ethics Committee by the most corrupt man in North Carolina, House Speaker Jim Black, who expected (and received) milquetoast, meaningless rules. It was important for Black to pick the committee to help cushion all the problems of his illustrious career of corruption. Her protective activities are indicative of the whole pay-to-play atmosphere at the legislature, controlled by Democrats for the past hundred years. I am continually appalled at the numbers of people who think she could possibly be effective as a legislator. She and her ilk are totally beholden to statewide corruption.

Contrary to one letter writer's mistaken claim, the District 114 challenger, retired Col. Mike Harrison, does indeed provide proven leadership, after 20-plus years in the U.S. military! His common sense and leadership skills are badly needed to overcome the dominant Democratic oppression that has corrupted our once-great state. How did Democrats ever get to be so corrupt in North Carolina? What about it, Larry Leake or Gordon Myers? Any answers from you guys?

Harrison supports equal ballot access for all worthy candidates from qualified parties. The Democrats are scared to embrace that inclusiveness and diversity. Why? Even though I am an unaffiliated independent, without the [opportunity] to vote for a Libertarian candidate in North Carolina, I will vote for the only sensible choice in this race! Maybe one day we can have fair elections in North Carolina, currently about the most difficult state for "other" candidates to obtain ballot access. Did you know it is easier to get on the ballot in Iraq than in North Carolina?

We need sweeping changes in Raleigh, and the incumbents are against the citizens! Please cast your N.C. House votes for Mike Harrison, Eric Gorny, R.L. Clark and Charles Thomas in your respective districts!

Please do not vote for any Democrats, as they keep us all oppressed!

– Fisher Caudle
Asheville

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I could not find the leditor that provoked this respone on the Mountain Express website. If anyone knows where to find it, leave a link or copy and paste the URL in the comments.

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John Batchelor on The Apology Jihad

Theme of Jihad

BY JOHN BATCHELOR
September 20, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/39997



Pope Benedict XVI, the "Panzer pope," has done the unusual in modern discourse: he has jumped into the war on terror with armored facts from six centuries ago that refute a deal of the appeasement from 21st-century Europeans and their American fellow travelers.

You will recall that Pope Benedict recently spoke, auf Deutsch, at Regensburg University, where he once enjoyed a professorship. The speech was dry, mechanical, unappetizing, a predictable German exercise in theology, with much attention to how reason and faith are compatible. In Calvinist seminary we used to call this a Roman disquisition on epistemology. Yet in the speech, the pope chose to illustrate what is not reasonable, what is not faithful, by arguing not surprisingly that violence is both unreasonable and faithless.

For an example the Pope could have chosen any number of incidents of war-making by church-anointed Christian kings and their modern elected pretenders — the Vatican's cooperation with Hitler and Mussolini comes to mind — but instead the pope reached back to the last days of the Byzantine Empire, not only to speak of jihad but also to box Mohammed's ears.

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Read The Whole Thing

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Second Clinton Global Summit Begins

Another Sign Of The Impending Acopalypse

President Clinton's second summit brings together government, business and nonprofit sectors to come up with tangible solutions to global problems.

Wait, it gets better!

It was expected to draw diverse voices such as Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, cyclist Lance Armstrong, CBS News anchor Katie Couric, actor Don Cheadle and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan..

ALL TOGETHER NOW!

Government is the problem, not the solution!

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Birds of a Feather

I think Hugo Chavez just tipped the balance in the Fall Elections back to the republicans, provided they don't do something stupid and mess it up.

Here is the text of the speech, swiped from Drudge, and a link to an article about the speech. This is something I will have to chew on before I can comment. I heard excerpts of it on Rush today, and on the top of the hour newscast, but that is it...I have printed it off and will read in tomorrow.

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PRESIDENT CHAVEZ DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
SEPTEMBER 20, 2006

"Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.]

"It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," [flips through the pages, which are numerous] "I will just leave it as a recommendation.

It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.

"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." [crosses himself]

"And it smells of sulfur still today."

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.

I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.

An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: "The Devil's Recipe."

As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything.

They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons.

What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy.

What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?

The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, "Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom."

Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.

The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up.

I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination.

The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace."

That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.

But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.

It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?

He spoke to the people of Lebanon. Many of you, he said, have seen how your homes and communities were caught in the crossfire. How cynical can you get? What a capacity to lie shamefacedly. The bombs in Beirut with millimetric precision?

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is crossfire? He's thinking of a western, when people would shoot from the hip and somebody would be caught in the crossfire.

This is imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal, the empire and Israel firing on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. That is what happened. And now we hear, "We're suffering because we see homes destroyed.'

The president of the United States came to talk to the peoples -- to the peoples of the world. He came to say -- I brought some documents with me, because this morning I was reading some statements, and I see that he talked to the people of Afghanistan, the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran. And he addressed all these peoples directly.

And you can wonder, just as the president of the United States addresses those peoples of the world, what would those peoples of the world tell him if they were given the floor? What would they have to say?

And I think I have some inkling of what the peoples of the south, the oppressed people think. They would say, "Yankee imperialist, go home." I think that is what those people would say if they were given the microphone and if they could speak with one voice to the American imperialists.

And that is why, Madam President, my colleagues, my friends, last year we came here to this same hall as we have been doing for the past eight years, and we said something that has now been confirmed -- fully, fully confirmed.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.

Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches, like Abel's (ph) yesterday, or President Mullah's (ph). Yes, it's good for that.

And there are a lot of speeches, and we've heard lots from the president of Sri Lanka, for instance, and the president of Chile.

But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.

Last year, Madam, we made four modest proposals that we felt to be crucially important. We have to assume the responsibility our heads of state, our ambassadors, our representatives, and we have to discuss it.

The first is expansion, and Mullah (ph) talked about this yesterday right here. The Security Council, both as it has permanent and non-permanent categories, (inaudible) developing countries and LDCs must be given access as new permanent members. That's step one.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts, transparent decisions.

Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.

Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.

Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations.

Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights violations have just worsened. That is the tremendous consequence of the collapse of the United Nations system and American hegemonistic pretensions.

Madam, Venezuela a few years ago decided to wage this battle within the United Nations by recognizing the United Nations, as members of it that we are, and lending it our voice, our thinking.

Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the planet.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.

Let's see. Well, there's been an open attack by the U.S. government, an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely elected to a post in the Security Council.

The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.

And I would like to thank all the countries that have kindly announced their support for Venezuela, even though the ballot is a secret one and there's no need to announce things.

But since the imperium has attacked, openly, they strengthened the convictions of many countries. And their support strengthens us.

Mercosur, as a bloc, has expressed its support, our brothers in Mercosur. Venezuela, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, is a full member of Mercosur.

And many other Latin American countries, CARICOM, Bolivia have expressed their support for Venezuela. The Arab League, the full Arab League has voiced its support. And I am immensely grateful to the Arab world, to our Arab brothers, our Caribbean brothers, the African Union. Almost all of Africa has expressed its support for Venezuela and countries such as Russia or China and many others.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I thank you all warmly on behalf of Venezuela, on behalf of our people, and on behalf of the truth, because Venezuela, with a seat on the Security Council, will be expressing not only Venezuela's thoughts, but it will also be the voice of all the peoples of the world, and we will defend dignity and truth.

Over and above all of this, Madam President, I think there are reasons to be optimistic. A poet would have said "helplessly optimistic," because over and above the wars and the bombs and the aggressive and the preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see that a new era is dawning.

As Sylvia Rodriguez (ph) says, the era is giving birth to a heart. There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now?

What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision.

We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.

Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier.

And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists.

And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner.

And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government.

And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to.

And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting for peace.

Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here today.

But these people who led that coup are here today in this country protected by the American government. And I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We mentioned Cuba. Yes, we were just there a few days ago. We just came from there happily.

And there you see another era born. The Summit of the 15, the Summit of the Nonaligned, adopted a historic resolution. This is the outcome document. Don't worry, I'm not going to read it.

But you have a whole set of resolutions here that were adopted after open debate in a transparent matter -- more than 50 heads of state. Havana was the capital of the south for a few weeks, and we have now launched, once again, the group of the nonaligned with new momentum.

And if there is anything I could ask all of you here, my companions, my brothers and sisters, it is to please lend your good will to lend momentum to the Nonaligned Movement for the birth of the new era, to prevent hegemony and prevent further advances of imperialism.

And as you know, Fidel Castro is the president of the nonaligned for the next three years, and we can trust him to lead the charge very efficiently.

Unfortunately they thought, "Oh, Fidel was going to die." But they're going to be disappointed because he didn't. And he's not only alive, he's back in his green fatigues, and he's now presiding the nonaligned.

So, my dear colleagues, Madam President, a new, strong movement has been born, a movement of the south. We are men and women of the south.

With this document, with these ideas, with these criticisms, I'm now closing my file. I'm taking the book with me. And, don't forget, I'm recommending it very warmly and very humbly to all of you.

CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United Nations.

And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.

You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.

May God bless us all. Good day to you.

(APPLAUSE)

END

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Hat Tip: Drudge Report Flash

Ottawa Citizen

Little Green Footballs, Read the post, then follow the comment thread.

No pistures today.

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Black Swans and Wild Skies

CATASTROPHIC BLACK SWANS

The arrival of global guerrillas -- small groups that can successfully fight wars against states -- is merely the first expression of a much larger trend line. The larger trend is a radical improvement in the productivity of warfare through the use of mechanisms outside of the control of the state. Since there have been no strides in eliminating the drivers of warfare at the small group level (in fact, just the opposite has happened) and our core systems remain hopelessly concentrated/interconnected, the use of this newly emergent productivity is inevitable.

If we follow this trend line, the path in development is clear. First, over the next decade, the size of the group necessary for global warfare will continue to decrease and decentralize (through a near term shift to systems disruption and open source organizational forms). Second, we will eventually reach a point when the weaponry available to these groups will enable them to initiate a catastrophic black swan (an event that is impossible to predict).

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Read the rest.

I am not all that sure an al-Qaeda nuke smuggled into a U.S. city would destroy our country, nor three or four. It would hurt us, for sure, but I believe that Katrina taught us that these things are survivable. The fabric of American Society will not be rent asunder.

Wild Skies

The clouds were spectacular yesterday, and I have an example for you below.

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Netroots Activist Launches Network

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From the Press Release:

"Western North Carolina News Network (WNCNN), created by local political organizer, Gordon D. Smith, is political satire presented as a cable news program in the vein of Steven Colbert's The Colbert Report and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. WNCNN will air weekly on Mondays on numerous internet sites including YouTube.com beginning on September 18, 2006. The series intends to highlight the shortcomings of Republican incumbent Congressman Charles H. Taylor through the use of satire, sarcasm, and visual humor.

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More at his blog, Scrutiny Hooligans.



Here is a taste of one one his clickable sidebar graphics, released for people to use on their websites to link to his anti-Taylor Video Campaign.

See the video yourself below:

What can Taylor supporters do in response?

Well, first off, watch the ad, and pay attention. This is the shape of things to come, due, in part to The McCain-Feingold Act, and in part to the increasing availability of technical means to the average citizen in America. The first reason is bad, the second is neutral, it is what you make of it.

I expect some of us to be inspired to respond to this in our own way.

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