Some things that happened in July...
Korean Central News Agency (DPRK): US-S.Korea Joint Military Exercises Flailed
Christian Science Monitor: Did Iran attack Japanese oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz?
As things heat up in the Yellow Sea and Strait of Hormuz, it may be wise to revisit this affair...
Secrecy News: 1968 Senate Sessions of Foreign relations Declassified
The transcripts include an extended inquiry into the official version of 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which led to the escalation of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and which became the object of increasing skepticism, inside and outside of government.
+
Sibel Edmonds examines the back round on recent events in Kyrgyzstan...
Boiling Frogs Post: Maksim Bakiyev: A Groomed Puppet Who Never Came to Be King
+
Tyrannis Britannia
BAE Systems: Taranis Combat Aircraft Thunders into view
Other developments in aviation...
BBC: Phantom Eye hydrogen-powered spy plane unveiled
Wired: Killer Drones Get Stealthy
+
Cocoa, Gold and Heroin keep the banking system afloat...
Telegraph:
Mystery trader buys all of Europe's cocoa
Secret gold swap has spooked the market
Pravda: Large U.S. Banks Laundered Money from Drug Trafficking
+
In police state news...
Wired: Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring
The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the 'invisible links' between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.”
Isn't that nifty. It is but one aspect of the only growth industry in the United States: surveil and secure....
Washington Post: A hidden world, growing beyond control
As the national security regime blossoms, meanwhile, state and local governments are hemorrhaging. A case in point: California...
Sacramento Bee: Schwarzenegger orders minimum wage for state workers
NBCBayArea: Suffer These Crimes in Oakland? Don't Call the Cops
But the cops will call on you...
East Bay Express: Oakland Police Search Without Warrants
L.A.Times: Raw-food raid highlights a hunger
+
A mostly unnoticed political scandal...
AP: Ex-Clinton fundraiser gets 12 years in prison
But one which demonstrates a certain continuity...
WhoWhatWhy: Hillary's Bush Connection
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Official pervs
Boston Globe: Pentagon workers tied to child porn
The DoD investigation document, courtesy of Cryptome...
Operation Flicker
Page 30 of the PDF summarizes and explains how such activity constitutes not merely criminal, but potentially treasonous violation...
1. This project was initiated based upon information and a request from the DCIS MidAtlantic Field Office regarding information received from Project Flicker, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) national undercover investigation into commercial child pornography websites.
2. Project Flicker identified over 5,000 individuals who subscribed to the commercial child pornography websites that were targeted by ICE. The names and identifying data on the individuals who subscribed to the commercial child pornography websites were checked against the Department of Defense (DoD) databases to identify those individuals who were associated with the DoD and subscribing to child pornography.
3. Child pornography is illegal and subscribers of commercial child pornography that are associated with the DoD put the DoD, the military and national security at risk by compromising computer systems, military instillations and security clearances to name a few. Additionally, it puts the Dor;> at risk of blackmail, bribery, and threats, especially since these individuals typically have access to military instillations.
+
Then there is the banality of official perversity. For this, we need look no farther than the TSA, truly the bottom of the barrel when it comes to federal employees...
St. Petersburg Times: Airport body scanners reveal all, but what about when it's your kid?
CBS2 LA: TSA Screener At LAX Accused Of Possessing Child Porn
News4 Jax: TSA Worker Molested 12-Year-Old
And it goes for the Canadian TSA as well...
Toronto Sun: Woman allegedly mocked during airport strip search
The DoD investigation document, courtesy of Cryptome...
Operation Flicker
Page 30 of the PDF summarizes and explains how such activity constitutes not merely criminal, but potentially treasonous violation...
1. This project was initiated based upon information and a request from the DCIS MidAtlantic Field Office regarding information received from Project Flicker, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) national undercover investigation into commercial child pornography websites.
2. Project Flicker identified over 5,000 individuals who subscribed to the commercial child pornography websites that were targeted by ICE. The names and identifying data on the individuals who subscribed to the commercial child pornography websites were checked against the Department of Defense (DoD) databases to identify those individuals who were associated with the DoD and subscribing to child pornography.
3. Child pornography is illegal and subscribers of commercial child pornography that are associated with the DoD put the DoD, the military and national security at risk by compromising computer systems, military instillations and security clearances to name a few. Additionally, it puts the Dor;> at risk of blackmail, bribery, and threats, especially since these individuals typically have access to military instillations.
+
Then there is the banality of official perversity. For this, we need look no farther than the TSA, truly the bottom of the barrel when it comes to federal employees...
St. Petersburg Times: Airport body scanners reveal all, but what about when it's your kid?
CBS2 LA: TSA Screener At LAX Accused Of Possessing Child Porn
News4 Jax: TSA Worker Molested 12-Year-Old
And it goes for the Canadian TSA as well...
Toronto Sun: Woman allegedly mocked during airport strip search
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Gulf of Mexico: Cauldron of Doom
Statements of Texas A & M oceanographer Dr. John Kessler, as reported in the press in late June following his expedition to the Gulf spill site, have been cause for some alarm...
Reuters: Methane in Gulf 'astonishingly high' - US scientist
"There is an incredible amount of methane in there"
AP: Vast Amounts of Methane in Gulf Spill Pose Threat
"This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history"
At the time of this draft, links to Kessler's Gulf methane study at Texas A & M are dead, but we snagged the following from Google's cache...
Oceanographer John Kessler analyzes methane levels from oil spill site
Preliminary results show concentrations at some points to be a million times higher than normal, researcher says John Kessler, a chemical oceanographer in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, is currently analyzing methane levels in water collected from seven miles to 500 meters from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead.
Preliminary results, he says, point to high concentrations of the gas. "Methane levels ranged from 10,000 to nearly 1 million times higher in some spots than normal concentration," Kessler said.
The 10-day cruise, which was funded by a National Science Foundation Rapid Response grant, returned June 21 with nearly 1 million data points gathered. Since that time, he and his colleagues have been analyzing the results in the shore-based lab at Texas A&M.
Ramifications are multifold, Kessler said. He called the site a natural laboratory in which to better assess the effect of methane on global climate change. Naturally occurring methane seeps have been linked to rapid climate change. For instance, an event occurring 55 million years ago may have caused one of these spikes, scientists believe. So the Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster may, at least, help scientists better understand and perhaps predict methane effects on global temperatures.
Results also indicate that oxygen levels at some deepwater sites were 30 percent lower, while other sites remained unaffected. "This presents a puzzle that we cannot resolve without further research," Kessler says.
In an interview with the Living on Earth radio show, Kessler added:
The ocean floor is just an absolutely enormous reservoir of methane. And there are implications that this reservoir has erupted its methane in the past, contributed this methane to the atmosphere in certain abrupt climate change events. This anthropogenic event that we are currently in the midst of, actually simulates one of those previous eruptions on how it is emitting its methane to the water so rapidly.
Reuters: Methane in Gulf 'astonishingly high' - US scientist
"There is an incredible amount of methane in there"
AP: Vast Amounts of Methane in Gulf Spill Pose Threat
"This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history"
At the time of this draft, links to Kessler's Gulf methane study at Texas A & M are dead, but we snagged the following from Google's cache...
Oceanographer John Kessler analyzes methane levels from oil spill site
Preliminary results show concentrations at some points to be a million times higher than normal, researcher says John Kessler, a chemical oceanographer in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, is currently analyzing methane levels in water collected from seven miles to 500 meters from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead.
Preliminary results, he says, point to high concentrations of the gas. "Methane levels ranged from 10,000 to nearly 1 million times higher in some spots than normal concentration," Kessler said.
The 10-day cruise, which was funded by a National Science Foundation Rapid Response grant, returned June 21 with nearly 1 million data points gathered. Since that time, he and his colleagues have been analyzing the results in the shore-based lab at Texas A&M.
Ramifications are multifold, Kessler said. He called the site a natural laboratory in which to better assess the effect of methane on global climate change. Naturally occurring methane seeps have been linked to rapid climate change. For instance, an event occurring 55 million years ago may have caused one of these spikes, scientists believe. So the Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster may, at least, help scientists better understand and perhaps predict methane effects on global temperatures.
Results also indicate that oxygen levels at some deepwater sites were 30 percent lower, while other sites remained unaffected. "This presents a puzzle that we cannot resolve without further research," Kessler says.
In an interview with the Living on Earth radio show, Kessler added:
The ocean floor is just an absolutely enormous reservoir of methane. And there are implications that this reservoir has erupted its methane in the past, contributed this methane to the atmosphere in certain abrupt climate change events. This anthropogenic event that we are currently in the midst of, actually simulates one of those previous eruptions on how it is emitting its methane to the water so rapidly.
Kessler doesn't specify which of the previous methane eruptions is currently being simulated, but the following article makes a few suggestions...
SalemNews: Doomsday: How BP Gulf Disaster May Have Triggered a 'World-Killing' Event
251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth. Experts agree that what is known as the Permian extinction event was the greatest mass extinction event in the history of the world.
55 million years later another methane bubble ruptured causing more mass extinctions during the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum...
Those subterranean seas of methane virtually reshaped the planet when they explosively blew from deep beneath the waters of what is today called the Gulf of Mexico.
Now, worried scientists are increasingly concerned the same series of catastrophic events that led to worldwide death back then may be happening again-and no known technology can stop it.
The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years.
Is this just journalistic hyperbole? The answer is likely yes, but only if in reference to the methane that has already been released. Of greater concern is the methane that could yet be released if the geological formations around the well head should collapse, and a giant methane bubble should arise...
Presently, BP is maintaining its recently installed cap on the leak, despite concerns that the plug could be increasing the seepage of the oil-methane mixture into the surrounding geological structures. Said Dr. Don Van Nieuwenhuise of the Professional Geosciences Program at the University of Houston on CNN Sunday...
One of the most serious situations would be is that if you have a leak very close to the well head and you could have a potential erosion of the substrate or the rocks around that well head that could cause it to collapse if the flow increased enough…
The tone of Coast Guard National Incident Commander Thad Allen's letter to BP's Robert Dudley last weekend suggests a heightened concern over this possibility...
Given the current observations from the test, including the detected seep a distance from the well and undetermined anomalies at the well head, monitoring of the seabed is of paramount importance during the test period. As a continued condition of the test, you are required to provide as a top priority access and coordination for the monitoring systems, which include seismic and sonar surface ships and subsea ROV and acoustic systems. When seeps are detected, you are directed to marshal resources, quickly investigate, and report findings to the government in no more than four hours. I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed.
An AP update on the story Sunday suggests that the situation underneath could be worsening, and that BP is not complying with the Allen's demands...
A federal official says scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane near BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico
Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that's been capped off for three days.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.
The official is familiar with the spill oversight but would not clarify what is seeping near the well. The official says BP is not complying with the government's demand for more monitoring.
For more on all this...
Phoenix Rising from the Gulf: PRESSURE at the Wellhead
OilDrum: BP's Deepwater Oil Spill - Bubble, Bubble Oil and Trouble
Meanwhile, the body count on the world wide wrath of methane increases...
Columbia Reports: Last bodies recovered from coal mine disaster
Friday, July 2, 2010
Robert Sea Byrd
The body of Senator Robert C. Byrd was memorialized in West Virginia on Friday, July 2nd.
WVPB: Senator Byrd's body returns to West Virginia
Here is our elegy...
As sea birds sink into the Gulf of Mexico,
The Senator Robert C. Byrd passed away 3AM Monday.
As the longest serving Senator in U.S. history perished,
Brown Pelicans were suffocated in red crude, on Queen Bess Island off the Louisiana coast...
Queen Bess...
It was Queen Elizabeth II's eighty-fourth birthday at the very hour,
3AM Greenwich Mean Time, April 21st, when
British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.*
Robert C. Byrd was the senior senator of West Virginia.
The Virginias were named after the Virgin Queen - Elizabeth I,
whose reign spanned 5 decades of the 16th Century,
and whose reign spawned the British Empire.
Her symbol was the mystical pelican,
a bird which pierces its own breast, bleeding to nourish her brood...
But, Lady GaGa was not allowed to let the blood flow...
in the presence of the Queen.**
+
Robert C. Byrd surpassed five decades in the U.S. Senate. He will be well remembered for his poetic soliloquies and rambling historical reveries on the Senate floor...
But not everyone is fond of his verse. Here are words attributed to the Senator, as remembered by Cathy O'Brien, one who claims she was Byrd's Project Monarch MKULTRA sex slave at the age of thirteen:
"Atlantis has long been the epicenter of alien activity. The path is so well worn that there are holes in the fabric of time and space whereby airplanes and ships, even people, timelessly seemingly disappear, transformed into another dimension alien to this world. Likewise, we (aliens) came in, entering through the mirror reflection in the hole in the fabric of space, the deep blue sea. Some of us entered the Earth's plane as whales and dolphins. And when we emerged from the sea, some of us came flying out. Or is that in? At any rate, we are here. Watch for the flying fish when you are out to see/sea. When you see one, you will know it is kin to me. A flying fish by any other name is a C. Byrd. A sea bird. Robert C. Byrd."***
* KRZog: The British Empire Answers the Tea Party of Boston Harbor, 1773
** Mirror 3am: Lady GaGa banned from doing suicide act in front of Queen
*** Cathy O'Brien with Mark Phillips. Trance Formation of America. Reality Marketing Inc. 1995. Pg. 122.
WVPB: Senator Byrd's body returns to West Virginia
Here is our elegy...
As sea birds sink into the Gulf of Mexico,
The Senator Robert C. Byrd passed away 3AM Monday.
As the longest serving Senator in U.S. history perished,
Brown Pelicans were suffocated in red crude, on Queen Bess Island off the Louisiana coast...
Queen Bess...
It was Queen Elizabeth II's eighty-fourth birthday at the very hour,
3AM Greenwich Mean Time, April 21st, when
British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.*
Robert C. Byrd was the senior senator of West Virginia.
The Virginias were named after the Virgin Queen - Elizabeth I,
whose reign spanned 5 decades of the 16th Century,
and whose reign spawned the British Empire.
Her symbol was the mystical pelican,
a bird which pierces its own breast, bleeding to nourish her brood...
But, Lady GaGa was not allowed to let the blood flow...
in the presence of the Queen.**
+
Robert C. Byrd surpassed five decades in the U.S. Senate. He will be well remembered for his poetic soliloquies and rambling historical reveries on the Senate floor...
But not everyone is fond of his verse. Here are words attributed to the Senator, as remembered by Cathy O'Brien, one who claims she was Byrd's Project Monarch MKULTRA sex slave at the age of thirteen:
"Atlantis has long been the epicenter of alien activity. The path is so well worn that there are holes in the fabric of time and space whereby airplanes and ships, even people, timelessly seemingly disappear, transformed into another dimension alien to this world. Likewise, we (aliens) came in, entering through the mirror reflection in the hole in the fabric of space, the deep blue sea. Some of us entered the Earth's plane as whales and dolphins. And when we emerged from the sea, some of us came flying out. Or is that in? At any rate, we are here. Watch for the flying fish when you are out to see/sea. When you see one, you will know it is kin to me. A flying fish by any other name is a C. Byrd. A sea bird. Robert C. Byrd."***
+
* KRZog: The British Empire Answers the Tea Party of Boston Harbor, 1773
** Mirror 3am: Lady GaGa banned from doing suicide act in front of Queen
*** Cathy O'Brien with Mark Phillips. Trance Formation of America. Reality Marketing Inc. 1995. Pg. 122.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
A few things that happened in June, 2010...
Bilderberg 2010
Now with its own website: Bilderbergmeetings.org
AFP: Global cabal pushes agenda before meeting in Sitges, Spain
+
As more darkness descends...
Glenn Greenwald: The U.S. wins the right to abduct innocent people with impunity
In practice...
PrisonPlanet: G20 Protesters Being Abducted, Bundled Into Unmarked Vans In Toronto
+
The mostly unreported war in Yemen...
Amnesty International: Images of missile and cluster munitions point to US role in fatal attack in Yemen
+
India vying to rule the heavens...
Cryptome: Space Weapons Should Be Part of Upcoming US-India Strategic Dialogue
+
A story that ran last year, but perhaps shedding some light on events this year...
Politico: Pentagon preps for economic warfare
For instance:
LaRouchePAC: BP Actions In Gulf Are An Act of War Against the United States
But the Gulf geyser isn't just another oil spill...
AP: Gulf oil full of methane, adding new concerns
+
While 'operation top kill' failed miserably on the well head in the Gulf, there is another top kill effort underway in Washington...
Lame Cherry: Oh that Joe Sestak
+
The most incomprehensible case of election fraud yet...
BradBlog: SC Dem Party Exec Board Upholds Nomination of Alvin Greene for U.S. Senate
+
There is something... shall we say, scripted about the WikiLeaks saga:
New Yorker: No Secrets - Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency
Raw Story: Daniel Ellsberg fears a US hit on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
Cryptome paints a less than rosy picture of Assange...
Assange is preparing to do a Fischer
But then there's this...
Independent: Iceland rewrites law to create haven for investigative reporting
+
The wild west days of the Internet are numbered...
Washington Times: FTC floats Drudge tax
Here is the FTC discussion draft on how to re-corral journalism
POTENTIAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TO SUPPORT
THE REINVENTION OF JOURNALISM
And if that doesn't work, just kill it:
TechWorld: Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel
+
File under culture wars:
MTV: Will Lady Gaga's Upcoming Tour Include Human Corpses? It Might ...
Nihilism from the 'paper of record'...
NYT: Should This Be The Last Generation?
A kinder, gentler (generationally delayed) genocide...
Huffington Post: Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality in Hamsters
Bilderberg 2010
Now with its own website: Bilderbergmeetings.org
AFP: Global cabal pushes agenda before meeting in Sitges, Spain
+
As more darkness descends...
Glenn Greenwald: The U.S. wins the right to abduct innocent people with impunity
In practice...
PrisonPlanet: G20 Protesters Being Abducted, Bundled Into Unmarked Vans In Toronto
+
The mostly unreported war in Yemen...
Amnesty International: Images of missile and cluster munitions point to US role in fatal attack in Yemen
+
India vying to rule the heavens...
Cryptome: Space Weapons Should Be Part of Upcoming US-India Strategic Dialogue
+
A story that ran last year, but perhaps shedding some light on events this year...
Politico: Pentagon preps for economic warfare
For instance:
LaRouchePAC: BP Actions In Gulf Are An Act of War Against the United States
But the Gulf geyser isn't just another oil spill...
AP: Gulf oil full of methane, adding new concerns
+
While 'operation top kill' failed miserably on the well head in the Gulf, there is another top kill effort underway in Washington...
Lame Cherry: Oh that Joe Sestak
+
The most incomprehensible case of election fraud yet...
BradBlog: SC Dem Party Exec Board Upholds Nomination of Alvin Greene for U.S. Senate
+
There is something... shall we say, scripted about the WikiLeaks saga:
New Yorker: No Secrets - Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency
Raw Story: Daniel Ellsberg fears a US hit on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
Cryptome paints a less than rosy picture of Assange...
Assange is preparing to do a Fischer
But then there's this...
Independent: Iceland rewrites law to create haven for investigative reporting
+
The wild west days of the Internet are numbered...
Washington Times: FTC floats Drudge tax
Here is the FTC discussion draft on how to re-corral journalism
POTENTIAL POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TO SUPPORT
THE REINVENTION OF JOURNALISM
And if that doesn't work, just kill it:
TechWorld: Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel
+
File under culture wars:
MTV: Will Lady Gaga's Upcoming Tour Include Human Corpses? It Might ...
Nihilism from the 'paper of record'...
NYT: Should This Be The Last Generation?
A kinder, gentler (generationally delayed) genocide...
Huffington Post: Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality in Hamsters
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
A gaggle of fellating fawns
Now that Helen Thomas is gone, we can very well describe the entire White House press corps in this way. They are worthless. They are spineless, supine sycophants. They would be performing a greater service to humanity if they were giving five dollar blow jobs in the Pentagon latrines... Or in Joe Biden's back yard...
Salon: Our hard-core adversarial press corps
Glenn Greenwald pictures quite the scene:
I have no doubt that [The Atlantic's Marc] Ambinder -- who promised that "later today, I'll lay out some thoughts about the ethics of all of this" -- is shortly going to explain to us how getting squirted in the face by Rahm (aside from being fun and deeply pleasurable for him) assists his intrepid journalistic endeavors by building relationships and cementing access (he also reported: "Note, too, that shortly after I shot this video, Emanuel sprayed me in the shirt with his Super Soaker. I have a picture of that, too").
This invites the perfect segue... But, call letters notwithstanding, we have promised to keep this site "softcore at best," so we invite the reader to open two image searches: 'xxx money shots' & 'sawyer blitzer couric gregory stephanopolis etc.' and combine appropriately.
+
Now, another party that took place the week previous on the White House lawn was the American Jewish Heritage Celebration Day, upon which Rabbi David Nesenhoff took the opportunity to ask Helen Thomas some questions...
Rabbilive: Helen Thomas Complete (original)
Thomas was the only reporter with a specifically assigned seat in the White House briefing room, which was appropriate since she was really the only reporter who deserved a seat. The daily briefings as broadcast on C-Span are generally uneventful, regurgitated pablum (especially the questions) until the press secretary calls on Helen. She was the one who got to the point. We had noted, at the time, that her question to President Obama during his first press conference - Helen's Question - was basically a trick question to try and get him to admit the verboten truth that Israel has nuclear weapons. Unsurprisingly he evaded the question since it simply isn't kosher to discuss Israel's nukes (in part because the U.S. clandestinely helped Israel acquire its nuclear arsenal; see Secrecy News: GAO Report on the 1965 NUMEC Affair Declassified). Thomas is of Lebanese descent; as such, she has never shown the same deference to Israel's interests as do her colleagues in the press corps. As her lines of questioning on the subject of Israel and the Palestinian question have been increasingly pointed in recent years, we would wouldn't be surprised if there were an AIPAC instigated campaign to "get Helen!"
And so the end result was sadly predictable...
CNN: White House correspondent Helen Thomas retires amid controversial comment
Meanwhile...
@ http://twitter.com/edhenrycnn - afternoon of June 5...
@WolfBlitzerCNN had sort of dried off @DanLothianCNN and I had her boys get him w/the water guns http://yfrog.com/28db0j 1,275,774,514,000.00 via Twitter for iPhone
.stay tuned for possible @WolfBlitzerCNN drenched pic ..
1,275,773,768,000.00 via web
.@WolfBlitzerCNN also lost water gun fight to Rahm ... but maybe he lost on purpose to butter up chief of staff for a POTUS interview ..
1,275,773,449,000.00 via web
.@ArdyB yes, change of clothes and all dry after water gun fights. My son & @DanLothianCNN 's son shot up ol' @WolfBlitzerCNN pretty bad ..
1,275,773,359,000.00 via web in reply to ArdyB
http://twitvid.com/B09AW - Video of VP Biden flying down a water slide -- exclusive!
3:59 PM Jun 5th via API
.Rahm was chasing Mrs Biden & she hid behind me so i got in his crosshairs -- now i know how Sestak felt http://yfrog.com/28dqlj
3:54 PM Jun 5th via Twitter for iPhone
.A little girl just hit VP in face with water. Secret Service hasnt detained her. Yet. http://yfrog.com/b9dy6j 3:42 PM Jun 5th via Twitter for iPhone
.Uh-oh now VP Biden's got a (water) gun -- the Secret Service appears to be laughing http://yfrog.com/09j3snj
3:40 PM Jun 5th via Twitter for iPhone
.Mrs Biden trying to shoot me and @savannahguthrie at "Biden Beach" party at the VP's mansion http://yfrog.com/evy9mj
Salon: Our hard-core adversarial press corps
Glenn Greenwald pictures quite the scene:
I have no doubt that [The Atlantic's Marc] Ambinder -- who promised that "later today, I'll lay out some thoughts about the ethics of all of this" -- is shortly going to explain to us how getting squirted in the face by Rahm (aside from being fun and deeply pleasurable for him) assists his intrepid journalistic endeavors by building relationships and cementing access (he also reported: "Note, too, that shortly after I shot this video, Emanuel sprayed me in the shirt with his Super Soaker. I have a picture of that, too").
This invites the perfect segue... But, call letters notwithstanding, we have promised to keep this site "softcore at best," so we invite the reader to open two image searches: 'xxx money shots' & 'sawyer blitzer couric gregory stephanopolis etc.' and combine appropriately.
+
Now, another party that took place the week previous on the White House lawn was the American Jewish Heritage Celebration Day, upon which Rabbi David Nesenhoff took the opportunity to ask Helen Thomas some questions...
Rabbilive: Helen Thomas Complete (original)
Thomas was the only reporter with a specifically assigned seat in the White House briefing room, which was appropriate since she was really the only reporter who deserved a seat. The daily briefings as broadcast on C-Span are generally uneventful, regurgitated pablum (especially the questions) until the press secretary calls on Helen. She was the one who got to the point. We had noted, at the time, that her question to President Obama during his first press conference - Helen's Question - was basically a trick question to try and get him to admit the verboten truth that Israel has nuclear weapons. Unsurprisingly he evaded the question since it simply isn't kosher to discuss Israel's nukes (in part because the U.S. clandestinely helped Israel acquire its nuclear arsenal; see Secrecy News: GAO Report on the 1965 NUMEC Affair Declassified). Thomas is of Lebanese descent; as such, she has never shown the same deference to Israel's interests as do her colleagues in the press corps. As her lines of questioning on the subject of Israel and the Palestinian question have been increasingly pointed in recent years, we would wouldn't be surprised if there were an AIPAC instigated campaign to "get Helen!"
And so the end result was sadly predictable...
CNN: White House correspondent Helen Thomas retires amid controversial comment
Meanwhile...
@ http://twitter.com/edhenrycnn - afternoon of June 5...
@WolfBlitzerCNN had sort of dried off @DanLothianCNN and I had her boys get him w/the water guns http://yfrog.com/28db0j 1,275,774,514,000.00 via Twitter for iPhone
.stay tuned for possible @WolfBlitzerCNN drenched pic ..
1,275,773,768,000.00 via web
.@WolfBlitzerCNN also lost water gun fight to Rahm ... but maybe he lost on purpose to butter up chief of staff for a POTUS interview ..
1,275,773,449,000.00 via web
.@ArdyB yes, change of clothes and all dry after water gun fights. My son & @DanLothianCNN 's son shot up ol' @WolfBlitzerCNN pretty bad ..
1,275,773,359,000.00 via web in reply to ArdyB
http://twitvid.com/B09AW - Video of VP Biden flying down a water slide -- exclusive!
3:59 PM Jun 5th via API
.Rahm was chasing Mrs Biden & she hid behind me so i got in his crosshairs -- now i know how Sestak felt http://yfrog.com/28dqlj
3:54 PM Jun 5th via Twitter for iPhone
.A little girl just hit VP in face with water. Secret Service hasnt detained her. Yet. http://yfrog.com/b9dy6j 3:42 PM Jun 5th via Twitter for iPhone
.Uh-oh now VP Biden's got a (water) gun -- the Secret Service appears to be laughing http://yfrog.com/09j3snj
3:40 PM Jun 5th via Twitter for iPhone
.Mrs Biden trying to shoot me and @savannahguthrie at "Biden Beach" party at the VP's mansion http://yfrog.com/evy9mj
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Wrath of the Methane God
While some are eager to blame capitalists...
World Socialist: A wave of mine disasters
The coincidence of so many mine and well disasters makes one wonder, what is going on beneath with the "god of methane" ("god" as place holder for a yet to be proven explanation)...
The world-wide rash of explosions began on April 5 with the Massey mine disaster in Montcoal West Virginia, leaving 29 dead. And only this week has the methane gas cleared up enough to allow investigators to enter...
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 2): Re-entry into West Virginia mine planned for today
Then came the big one in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 11 dead and the destruction of an ecosystem and regional economy...
BBC (April 20): Oil workers describe methane explosion on Gulf rig
And throughout the month of May...
Voice of Russia (May 9): [66 killed] in methane explosion in mine in the Kemerovo region
Channel News Asia (May 14): China coal mine gas blast kills 21
Al Jazeera (May 18): Blast traps miners in Turkey
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The "god of methane" is indeed something to fear...
Armaggeddon Online: Methane Explosion
At the ocean floor lies a sleeping monster, one that millions of years ago devastated the Earth, causing a mass-extinction, and today could be released again. It is silent, invisible and deadly, and contains double the energy of the entire world's fossil fuels combined. It is the frozen methane reserves at the bottom of the sea; capable of causing massive rises in global temperatures and igniting the atmosphere...
If a large proportion of the gas were released the effects would be devastating. If hundreds of thousands of trillions of tons were released into the atmosphere, the rate global warming would skyrocket. Methane is 20 times more powerful a gas at raising global temperatures than carbon dioxide, so a release of a vast quantity of gas would cause huge temperature rises around the world. If temperatures rose by the 13 degrees Fahrenheit they did during the last release, ice caps would start to melt flooding large areas of the Earth. Worse, the gas would be ignited by lightning, leaving huge fires over areas of land, with coastal areas at especially great risk of destruction. Many cities that escaped the rising sea levels would not be spared the fire.
So then, we should be extremely cautious when dealing with this substance, particularly in its hydrate form...
Gaurdian: Did Deepwater methane hydrates cause the BP Gulf explosion?
Bloomberg: Japan Mines `Flammable Ice,' Flirts With Environmental Disaster
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Finally, on another anomaly coming from the great beneath...
National Geographic: Electric Ash Found in Iceland Plume Miles From Volcano
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