The Assassination of Robert Kennedy, Part 5 (Final Part) - Sirhan Sirhan
......Van Praag's analysis reveals a total of thirteen shots that can be positively identified on the tape. It is possible that there were more, but the noise of the crowd following the shooting would rule out identification of them. Two pairs of shots, shots 3-4 and 7-8, come only 149 milliseconds and 122 milliseconds apart, respectively. To put this in perspective, the world record for quick shooting is 140 milliseconds between shots. That record was set using a competition grade firearm.....Already, with the identification of thirteen shots fired, we can see that it is not possible for Sirhan to be the sole shooter that night. From the data gleaned from the recording, it would appear that Sirhan fired eight shots and someone else fired five. The next question would be, does the count of thirteen shots make sense given the other evidence? It does.......
Techno-Fascism Watching Every Move You Make
Welcome to the Outer-Net
Surveillance of private calls and emails. Cameras documenting every move. No habeas corpus. Unimpeded entry into personal financial records. Voting machines changing election outcomes with the flick of a switch. Protest defined as terrorism. Many people hope that the loss of civil rights Americans have endured since the onslaughts mounted by Bush Administration II is a political reality that can be reversed through electoral will....
.....“Inverted totalitarianism,” as he calls it in his recent Democracy Incorporated, “lies in wielding total power without appearing to, without establishing concentration camps, or enforcing ideological uniformity, or forcibly suppressing dissident elements so long as they remain ineffectual.” To Wolin, such a form of political power makes the United States “the showcase of how democracy can be managed without appearing to be suppressed.”
"Editor's note: The Outer-Net is the total of combinded Corporate and Governmental databases, the Internet, and survailance systems into a relational real time dossier database, instanly available to Corporations or a Government . The term was coined in the 90's by Willy Bova."
Surveillance State
A final deal has been reached on a rewrite of electronic surveillance rules and will be announced Thursday, two congressional aides said............A knowledgeable friend comments, "It's worse than Nixon because it extends [the argument that if the president says it's legal, it's legal] to cover non-government, private actors. Nixon limited himself to government actors."
The ACLU declares the "Hoyer/Bush bill" unconstitutional. The group's Caroline Frederickson:
... "This bill allows for mass and untargeted surveillance of Americans’ communications. The court review is mere window-dressing – all the court would look at is the procedures for the year-long dragnet and not at the who, what and why of the spying. Even this superficial court review has a gaping loophole – ‘exigent’ circumstances can short cut even this perfunctory oversight since any delay in the onset of spying meets the test and by definition going to the court would cause at least a minimal pause. Worse yet, if the court denies an order for any reason, the government is allowed to continue surveillance throughout the appeals process, thereby rendering the role of the judiciary meaningless. In the end, there is no one to answer to; a court review without power is no court review at all.
The 2004 US Elections: The Mother of all Vote Frauds (Video)
Alex Pelosi's new film "Diary of a Political Tourist" catches a tipsy Congressman Peter King making a comment at a White House function before the election had been finished that, "It's already over. The Election's over. We Won." When Pelosi asks, "How do you know that?" King replies, "It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting."
On November 2, 2004 President Bush defied both public opinion and history to win the election
51 - 48.
How was this done? Simple...
Vote suppression/voter intimidation and deception. Shortages of voting locations and ballot forms. Foreign monitors barred from polls. Unmatched exit polls/actual results - actual results always skewed to Republicans. Masses of e-Voting "glitches". Computers lost votes. Presidential votes miscast on e-Voting machines throughout the US. More recorded votes than voters. Republicans gained 128.45% in Florida counties using optical scan voting machines while Democrats lost 21% - some districts showed gains of over 400% while one, Liberty County, gained over 700% for Republicans.Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns. Bush had 'incredible' vote tallies. 7% turnout reported in Cleveland precinct. In Cuyahoga County different towns had the exact same number of "extra" votes. And on, and on...
McCain to Kimmel: 'Knock off the old guy jokes' (Video)
McCain offered a line of self-deprecating humor, amiably noting that his son at the Naval Acadamy “is doing much better than I did when I was I was there” and describing himself as “a mediocre athlete in high school and at the Naval Academy.”
McCain also joked about “my first campaign, right after Coolidge,” explaining to Kimmel, “I noticed you were making a lot of comments about my age.” He then suggested that as president he might replace the White House bowling alley with “a lounge chair.” However, when Kimmel concluded the interview by inviting McCain to “come in and visit us some time,” McCain replied, “I’d love to. Knock off the old-guy jokes.”
CBS foreign correspondent: Watching US news would 'drive me nuts' (Video)
Chief CBS News foreign correspondent Lara Logan, who recently returned from Iraq, appeared on Tuesday’s Daily Show. “Do we know anything about what’s going on over there?” Jon Stewart asked. “I don’t think we really do have very much of an idea,” Logan replied. “We have all these armchair academics who go over for one visit. See Laura Bush saying, ‘This is my third time in Afghanistan.’ She doesn’t mention that she was only there for a few seconds.”
When McCain Drops Out?
When the Republicans choose their candidate on September 4th, there is a very real chance that they could throw the election into an unexpected chaos as they pull a genuine September Surprise.
I think there is every reason to believe John McCain won't be the nominee. Ok, let me say that again. McCain will not be the Republican candidate in November....
Full Metal McCain
Evening, June 3rd, in a muggy, dragonfly-beswarmed place called the Pontchartrain Center, just outside New Orleans. Half a continent away, amid yet another legacy-smashing fusillade of unsolicited invective from Bill Clinton, the excruciating Obama-Hillary mess is finally wrapping up, in a pair of anticlimactic primaries somewhere over the darkened plains of Montana and South Dakota. But here in the Big Easy, John McCain has chosen this moment to mount his first general-election attack against the Great Satanic Liberal Enemy — who, as luck would have it, turns out to be a Negro intellectual from Harvard who's never served in the military. And this is supposed to be a bad year for Republicans?
Some call Georgian Sam Nunn a good fit for Obama
When a newly elected Senator Barack Obama was staking out issues to champion in Congress, he sent word that he would like to meet with a former senator he had admired from afar: Sam Nunn of Georgia.
Nunn, who during a 24-year Senate career earned a reputation as the Democratic Party's foremost defense advocate while amassing a moderate voting record, met Obama at his office in February 2005. There, the two talked for hours about the issue on which Nunn has spent much of the last two decades: preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. The liberal freshman from Illinois and the national security specialist from rural Georgia immediately hit it off, according to interviews with confidants of the two men.
Huckabee: Demonizing Obama is a 'fatal mistake'
Former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee called Barack Obama's candidacy "a landmark achievement" Tuesday, and warned fellow Republicans not to demonize Obama. "Republicans will make a fundamental if not fatal mistake if they seek to win the election by demonizing Barack Obama," Huckabee told reporters in Tokyo, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.
SPECIAL REPORT FROM WMR; ANOTHER 9/11 WAITING TO HAPPEN?
Roland "Tony" Carnaby, the one-time CIA station chief for the Southeast Region slain by Houston police on April 29, was an advocate of increasing "HUMINT" resources in and around the sprawling Houston port complex, from Houston to Galveston. Houston is the largest port in the United States for foreign tonnage.
Carnaby had in his possession the morning of April 29 information that someone wanted and wanted badly enough to order the Houston police to treat the well-known former CIA clandestine agent and president of the local chapter of the Association for Intelligence Officers (AFIO) as a dangerous armed criminal. After an extensive investigation, WMR has learned that those who ordered the "hit" on Carnaby were part of a team, including smugglers tied to the Russian-Israeli mob, who were involved in terrorist planning activities in the greater Houston area.
Wiretaps "R" Us: Is the FBI Tracking Your Cellphone?
In this light, a disturbing report showcased Wednesday by Wired, highlights the grave dangers posed to individual rights and freedoms when secretive and largely unaccountable federal bureaucracies are handed nearly unlimited powers. Ryan Singel writes:
Does the FBI track cellphone users’ physical movements without a warrant? Does the Bureau store recordings of innocent Americans caught up in wiretaps in a searchable database? Does the FBI’s wiretap equipment store information like voicemail passwords and bank account numbers without legal authorization to do so? (”Secret Spy Court Repeatedly Questions FBI Wiretap Network,” Wired, June 11, 2008)
Secret Spy Court Repeatedly Questions FBI Wiretap Network
Does the FBI track cellphone users' physical movements without a warrant? Does the Bureau store recordings of innocent Americans caught up in wiretaps in a searchable database? Does the FBI's wiretap equipment store information like voicemail passwords and bank account numbers without legal authorization to do so?
That's what the nation's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court wanted to know, in a series of secret inquiries in 2005 and 2006 into the bureau's counterterrorism electronic surveillance efforts, revealed for the first time in newly declassified documents.
Wiretap Ruling Dies Slow Death As Congress Moves Towards
Telecom Amnesty
Somewhere on the hard drive of a judge from the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court there likely lives a file that's way more interesting than the tasteless, porn videos found on the personal website of the circuit's chief judge Alex Kozinski. Somewhere there's an opinion from three judges that rules whether or not citizens can sue AT&T for violations of federal wiretapping law, or whether the government's invocation of national security trumps the right to seek redress.
The Business of Intelligence Gathering
AMERICA is ruled by an “intelligence-industrial complex” whose allegiance is not to the taxpaying public but to a cabal of private-sector contractors that have disgraced our national image and potentially compromised our national security for the sake of making profits.
That is the central thesis of “Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing” by Tim Shorrock (Simon & Schuster, $27). Mr. Shorrock is an investigative journalist who has contributed to The Nation, Harper’s Magazine, Mother Jones, Salon and various newspapers. His writing here is closer in style to a corporate annual report than to a magazine feature, and he makes extensive use of secondary sources like other books. But his book is worth plowing through because of its disturbing overview of the intelligence community, also known as “the I.C.”
"Big Brother" Presidential Directive: "Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security"
The latest Big Brother police state measure emanating from the Bush administration, with virtually no press coverage, is NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) entitled Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security [Complete text of NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) in Annex below]NSPD is directed against US citizens.
It is adopted without public debate or congressional approval. Its relevant procedures have far-reaching implications. NSPD 59 goes far beyond the issue of biometric identification; it recommends the collection and storage of "associated biographic" information, meaning information on the private lives of US citizens, in minute detail, all of which will be "accomplished within the law":
Top Spook: Facebookers, Gamers May Be Unfit to Spy
Do you trade music with your pals? Use Facebook to keep in touch with far-away friends? Play World of Warcraft as a girl, when you're really a boy? Check your e-mail a little too often? Well, then, you may not be trustworthy enough to become a spy. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) -- which, in theory, oversees all of the country's intelligence services -- is looking to launch a series of research studies into "cyber-behavior."
Watching the Watchers
To say that the National Security Agency keeps a low profile is an understatement. If asked to describe the purpose and actions of the NSA, few citizens could generate a decent answer. This obscurity cannot plausibly be attributed to its size: with 60,000 employees and an annual budget of $6 billion, the NSA is larger than the CIA and the FBI combined. The surprising ability of America’s premier information collection agency to maintain its own anonymity is as impressive as it is frightening.
In Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping, 28-year-old Yale Law School student Patrick Radden Keefe attempts to draw back this veil of secrecy.
Sources: Telecom Immunity still on the table
White House and congressional negotiators have reached a tentative agreement on an anti-terror spy bill that would permit court dismissal of potentially billions of dollars in lawsuits against phone companies, sources familiar with the talks said on Friday.
Under the possible accord, a federal court could immunize a company by ruling it had been given written assurances that its participation in the U.S. government's warrantless domestic spying program was legal and authorized by President George W. Bush, one source said.
It was unclear what would happen with suits against the government. But the government could claim state secrets, arguing information needed to prosecute was confidential and that suits should thus be dropped, the source said.
Tom Brokaw Hosts Special Meet The Press, Honors Russert With
Empty Chair, Video Montage (VIDEO)
This morning, NBC News opened its iconic Meet The Press show with a moment of silence and with the set dressed in what amounts to a "missing man" formation, honoring the life of Meet the Press host, Tim Russert. Tom Brokaw hosted today's special edition of MTP, which included a montage of some of Russert's great interview moments.