DIE DEUTSCHEN:

In Kerry Verlieben, das Recht Verwirren, den Mut Verloren – von den Meisten ist Alles Klar…

 

 

 

Germany, a weasel for everybody to love (though some will say not a high-brow weasel with the particular tastes of France) seems to be burning its bridges by Bush with a backdoor endorsement of John Kerry. (Germany is expert, it turns out, in burned-out bridges). In an interview today with the Financial Times of London Germany’s Defense Minister Peter Struck, in a rush to be among Kerry’s most devoted of ”foreign leaders/poodles” seems to indicate Germany would be willing to lend a hand with a troop presence in Iraq given the right circumstances:

 

1.       The terrorists promise not to shoot at them.

2.       The U.S. chooses the Old World candidate John Kerry in November…or December…or January…

3.       Hollywood promises more oompa music in movie soundtracks

 

In the interview, Herr Struck said that Monsieur Kerry’s promise to convene an international conference on Iraq was a “very sensible proposal”. He then went on to say “Germany has taken on responsibilities in Iraq, including financial ones…”

 

Actually, I do believe we already know about those financial interests.

 

The German defense minister in the interview also sought to validate Germany’s input in the Iraq process by pointing out their help in training Iraqi troops and police while vacationing in the sunny UAE. Training them to do what, lose? It’s amazing Berlin can hear itself above the laughter.

 

Struck, between a rock and a hard place, then points to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer’s “contribution to stability in the (Middle East) region” between Israel and the Palestinians, which has clearly worked so well to bring about a new age of newly forged plowshares and integrated ice skating rinks all across the Bibleland.

 

For all of Germany’s criticism of the Afghani opium trade, there are certainly far more than just ein Stuck who seem to have become fully whisked away by the preternatural altered realities of something. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Stoffe über die Deutschen:

 

  

Aber jeder nicht And lest you cast out the baby with the Baath water, there are still many Germans who haven’t completely lost their marbles. Unfortunately outnumbered by socialists since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, Die Deutschen ohne Stimme, whose CDU Party Prime Ministers included Founder-Statesman Konrad Adenauer and Reagan-pal and friend to Freedom Helmut Kohl are anything but happy with the direction of their nation’s current foreign policy. In fact in a recent poll, one in five Germans would even go so far as re-erecting the Berlin Wall and sticking all of the suckling former East Germans back on the other side. Nevermind the fact many DDR (German Democratic Republic i.e. East Germany) Communist war criminals’ slates in 1990 were wiped clean for expediency – so they could remain politically relevant.

 

 

 

 

 

More:

 

A colorful web-scrapbook belonging to a man by the name of Manfred-Günter Boffo seems to be a bottomless pit of great historic photos, tales and eccentricities from the old DDR:

 

In German

 

In English (very broken English, but still worth your visit)

 

 

Blogbat Presents:

Dirty Secrets of History #589

 

Sozialismus:

The SDP (Gerhard Schröder’s) Party Motto

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

CAMPAIGN VIOLENCE REFORM PART II

 

 

 

GOP Answers Violent Attacks with Letter to Leftist Ringleaders

Calls for end to violence and “intimidating atmosphere abhorrent to our democratic process”

 

 

 

 

This is an update to what I posted last week:

 

“Brown Shirted Thugs Seem to Support Dictatorship in America

Ransack GOP Headquarters, assault and vandalize across the country”

 

But first let me pass along some useful information for anyone who witnesses or is the victim of political suppression. Bush-Cheney ’04 has set up a hotline to report violence, theft or any other tactic intended to prevent Americans from voicing support for a Republican candidate, working for a Republican campaign or voting on Election Day:

 

The hotline is, 1-888-303-7125, and begins operation as of 11:00 a.m. today.

 

In a forceful letter faxed this morning Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign Chairman Gov. Marc Racicot told AFL/CIO “head shot” John Sweeney, “We will hold you and your organization accountable for the actions of your members and urge you to immediately discontinue any coordinated protest efforts that result in damage to our facilities, or injury to people who may hold different political views than your members, but who share an equal right to be involved in the political process without suffering violence, intimidation and threats”

 

As you may remember back on 06 October, I posted regarding the rash of recent break-ins, violent takeovers, vandalism and suppression being perpetrated against Bush/Cheney and Republican offices and headquarters by hardline Leftist thugs around the country. One of the chief players it turns out was none other than the AFL/CIO and other Kerry campaign operatives.

 

At the time, I e-mailed Chris Lato, the communications director of the Wisconsin Republican Party about a break-in there. That’s when he let me know there had been further violence in Pennsylvania and even some arrests. When I visited the Pennsylvania GOP website I learned about even more violence: gunshots fired into a Knoxville Tennessee Bush/Cheney office, causing property damage.

 

Later that day I posted the press release of Pennsylvania Republican State Committee Chairman Alan Novak at the Free Republic. It didn’t take long for folks to begin calling and e-mailing their Republican representatives and leadership to get them to recognize this was a serious pattern and to do something about it. Other bloggers too front and center: Blogger Aft_Lizard posted several shocking photos of attacks from around the country. Many also promised to begin volunteering with the Bush/Cheney campaign et al both in an organized way and independently. In short, these attacks by the hardline Left only unified, strengthened and expanded the very cause they tried to silence. Just the same mistake hardline Leftist Erich Honecker made in East Germany during the late 1980’s when he tried to suppress the people bent on personal and political freedom. President Ronald W. Reagan knew what to do with him without firing a shot, we learned.

 

Following is the letter Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign Chairman Governor Marc Racicot faxed to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney this morning along with a photo of Swiney, er I mean Sweeney (No, that’s not Gorbachev Pictured below)

 

AFL-CIO President

 

 

Monday, October 11, 2004
Letter on Voter Intimidation to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

 

To:        Interested Parties
From:   Bush-Cheney ’04 Communications
Date:    10/11/04
Re:        Violence At Republican And Bush-
              Cheney ’04 Campaign Headquarters
              Across The Country

 

Letter To AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

 

Mr. John Sweeney
President
AFL-CIO
815 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20006
October 11, 2004

 

Dear Mr. Sweeney:

 

Over the past several weeks, acts of violence and vandalism have occurred at Republican and Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters across the country. In addition to the injuries, property damage and disruption associated with these acts, these events have created a threatening and intimidating atmosphere abhorrent to our democratic process.

 

On October 5th, according to news reports, witnesses, police reports and admissions of your members, the AFL-CIO, as part of a national strategy, protested at more than a dozen of our campaign and party headquarters across the country.  In many locations, the protestors attempted to enter, or entered, campaign or party facilities.  As one protestor said, “Actually, we’re storming into an office.”  In Orlando, Florida, injuries and damage were sustained. Protestors forced their way into the facility, fracturing the arm of one staffer, and vandalized the office.  In Michigan, protestors entered a headquarters and engaged in activities apparently intended to disrupt volunteers trying to make phone calls.

 

Protests by your organization come on the heels of several other incidents at Bush-Cheney ’04 offices around the country, including a break-in at our Seattle office where laptop computers were stolen from the Washington State Bush-Cheney ’04 executive director and the state Republican Party 72-hour director.  Just last night in Canton, Ohio, a Bush-Cheney ’04 staffer was forced to lock herself in an office while another break-in was in progress.  The facility was seriously damaged and property was stolen.  Additionally, gun shots have been fired into Bush-Cheney ’04 offices in West Virginia, Florida and Tennessee, windows broken in West Virginia and campaign staffers threatened. In Wisconsin, a supporter of the President had a swastika burned into his front yard simply because he had a Bush-Cheney ’04 lawn sign.  We urge your support in helping us ensure the safety of all individuals working on our campaign and others as we are making every effort to secure the safety of all participants in the political process.

 

I hope you will put an end to protest activities that have led to injuries, property damage, vandalism and voter intimidation.  We will hold you and your organization accountable for the actions of your members and urge you to immediately discontinue any coordinated protest efforts that result in damage to our facilities, or injury to people who may hold different political views than your members, but who share an equal right to be involved in the political process without suffering violence, intimidation and threats.

 

Respectfully,

 

Gov. Marc Racicot, Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign Chairman

 

 

 John Kerry (L-as always) with Union Thugs

 

Related:

 

Kerry was endorsed by the leadership of the AFL/CIO in February of this year.

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

Still today, attacks continue…

Bush’s Campaign Office in Spokane Burglarized, Vandalized

 

 

UPDATE II

12. OCTOBER 2004:

Fox News misses the mark: accepts Kerry camp claim of HQ break-ins against them also, but provides no proof. During Studio B a very sloppy report about campaign violence claimed both sides were to blame. Unfortunately, the facts simply don’t support this. The reporter took the Kerry assertions indubitanter. That report also downplayed the frequency and severity of break-ins at GOP offices and missed the point that such violence is interfering with the campaign’s ability to promote their candidate and as such is gravely serious since it ultimately is interfering with the potential outcome of an election.

 

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

 

CAMPAIGN VIOLENCE REFORM PART II

EXCLUSIVE

Cyber Terrorists Rock DMAT Servers, Cause “One of the Worst Attacks Ever Seen”

Attack used FEMA site to take offline “over 5 million” other sites in official act of “cyber terrorism” 

 

 

Millions of websites were reportedly brought down over an as-yet unspecified time-frame due to a security breach of FEMA’s DMAT servers, according to a recent and very reliable source where those servers were initially compromised. The site is said to have acted as the hijacked control center for numerous attacks across the web. According to my source, victims included multitudes of e-commerce and government sites. No one knows or is yet saying truly how deep the breach went. 

 

DMAT is the Disaster Medical Assistance Team for the United States Public Health Service and is part of the NDMS (National Disaster Medical System), which serves the Department of Defense, Department of veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services and FEMA.

 

According to their site, “DMATs were envisioned as being mobile, deployable teams which, under Federal auspices, manage large numbers of disaster casualties. The DMATs would be sponsored locally and become federalized assets during declared disasters (such as hurricanes, the attacks of 9/11 etc.) “ DMAT was on site giving assistance immediately following the attacks in 2001. DMAT’s work with the National Guard and are “routinely deployed to support Capitol events such as Inaugurations and State of the Union addresses.”

 

The DMAT site was reportedly targeted because of it’s unusually “high” level of security- a departure from typical cyber attacks. But then, this one appears to be like few, if any, seen before.

 

For a 36-hour period at some unspecified time before about two-weeks ago, more than 14,000 servers and 5 million sites were attacked and brought down by a coordinated attack launched from the compromised DMAT servers; the victims, largely e-commerce. 80% of Silicon Valley’s web presence was at one point off the map, according to that source within the investigation.

 

“Official act of terrorism” “Our site was used as the “gateway” to access many additional sights and servers, including federal ones, with catastrophic results. The source notes that they were “prohibited” from their e-mail accounts “in an effort to help stop the attack by limiting access to other systems” through such accounts. 

 

The source goes on to say that “while I am not yet at liberty to divulge the full details of this attack (or at least as many as are currently known to us), it has been declared by the top cyberspace security technologists in the country to be one of the worst attacks ever seen, and has officially been declared an act of terrorism,” those behind which have yet to be determined, the source said citing internal information.

 

Attacks ongoing “The federal government was/is heavily involved in both the efforts to stop the attack (which has been slowed significantly but not yet completely contained) and in the investigation as to its source.  It is thought that our site was targeted primarily because of it’s link to the federal websites and its additional security so they could prove a point.”

 

Since the investigation is on-going, he was not able to divulge any additional information. What will be interesting to know is how long had the DMAT severs been compromised before they were used in what sounds most like widespread DDoS (or distributed denial of service) attacks.

 

The hows and the Whens The fact is that a direct crack of the DMAT’s web server itself may not have been the means of getting into the system, rather a variety of endless other means, less-familiar to most, could have just as easily been the open door. Any of which could effect even what we would consider one of the more secure web servers. A few examples:

 

People sometimes e-mail the strangest things: such as passwords and usernames, dates of birth and other information that could allow an outsider to gain access to a server by spoofing the identity of a trusted person. Typically, e-mails are sent in plain text and visible to anyone on the internet as they make their journey to their final destination.

 

Users are still opening that spam too, which can contain viruses, worms and Trojan horses that allow outsiders to gain access to servers in an organization by opening up virtual back doors. In fact, often times a poorly configured or patched Microsoft Exchange e-mail server itself can be easily compromised and the source of many company headaches.

 

Other methods include using or manipulating someone on the “inside” to actively compromise security without even really knowing it. This is often the best strategy when security standards – and practices – are high at the IT-end, since users usually don’t think about cyber security when they’re not at their computers.

 

Low key up till now Indications are there is much more to come in this saga, which is partly why things were kept “under wraps” until this point, and still are greatly fairly low-key as far as any public statements from DMAT. It is as yet unclear whether any medical, employee or other confidential records could have been compromised. This of particular concern since individuals or specific strategies within the organization could be targeted by terrorists.

 

In every sense this should serve as a wake up call for everybody. We all need to take cyber security seriously both for ourselves and for our companies. When you download that little game at work or click on the link your buddy sent you in an e-mail to watch that funny cartoon, think twice. Chinese, North Korean and Islamofascists groups have promised significant cyber attacks and have been doing so on some level for the past couple of years. These people mean business and will stop at nothing to get past the guard at the gate.

 

The way our current internet is set up allows for a single user’s bad move at one computer to cause disaster for millions more. Until that changes, we’re likely in for a bumpy ride.

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

Government officials are apparently saying this one is a big deal, based on the quote I received that said “(the attack) has officially been declared an act of terrorism.” But some question I believe rather rightly that one man’s cyber terrorism is another man’s cyber-mischief.

 

What is needed is further information to help us understand that designation, in addition to a few more questions that need answered:

1. As a couple have accurately already pointed out: Why didn’t we notice all of the e-commerce sites going down at some point?

2. Specifically, what day and during which hours did this happen- and in what order?

3. What was the exact nature of the attacks on the outside web servers -the details on the type of the attack on the DMAT network would also be nice

4. Why, in specifics, is this that much different from other incidents like it

 

5. How long were the servers in question compromised

 

It is also important that the source of this information says they are “not yet at liberty to divulge the full details of this attack (or at least as many as are currently known to us)” but seems to hint that more information will become available.

 

There is also indication that up till now they have been trying to, as I mentioned, keep it a bit more low-key, “This was not publicized much as they were trying to keep the full extent under wraps (I’m sure there is much more that I do not know).”

 

Indeed, there is much that we all want to know. But it seems self-evident as I stated earlier what we are deeply in need of in this country is a revolution in IT security as a practice and as the basis for communications technology.

 

We still don’t know the specifics of what sort of attack was mounted against the outside web sites. The assumption that it was a DDoS attack was admittedly mine, but also seems the most logical interpretation of “At last count, over 14,000 servers were brought down, impacting and shutting down over 5 million websites, including over 80% of Silicone Valley in Los Angeles. For a 36 hour period, e-commerce was virtually at a standstill.” Now again, who’s been having difficulty accessing e-commerce sites? I haven’t either- and it is strange. Obviously those details need and will be ironed out at some point.

 

I’ve already tried to get back in contact with that source and will update this with whatever I can find out over the coming days.

 

 

 

 

Related cybernews:

 

Recently in the news the FBI raided Indymedia Servers in the US and the Britain earlier this month. In the raid, several hard drives were confiscated and much of the Indymedia web presence was curtailed.

 

Indymedia has been a popular spot for Babar Ahmad, a man recently arrested in London with Terrorist ties and who ran Azzam.com, one of the most popular Islamofascist sites on the web.

 

Azzam.com also reportedly used the services of ev1.net, a Houston Texas-based ISP and web provider, known among many in the tech world as a refuge for spammers and such. (for the purpose of full-discloser, I must mention here that I have worked at ev1, but left on good terms with lifetime perks).

 

Indymedia has been in trouble with Secret Service and other law enforcement in the past for playing for the other side, including divulging the names of two Swiss Intelligence officers.

 

What’s worse is that Teresa Heinz Kerry’s Tides Foundation in part helps support Indymedia, despite its tainted past.

 

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

EXCLUSIVE

AMAZING LITTLE CREATURES

**DEBATE EDITION** 

 

“I know a Kerry supporter- one of my neighbors is one. To tell you the truth, he’s kind of strange…”

 

Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words. At some point I am going to do some research into hardline Leftism and emotional dysfunction. But for now suffice it to compare and enjoy these two: the dynamics of politics on hardline Lefist youth…and everybody else.

 

We’ll start with “everybody else”.

 

First we have a group of seemingly well-adjusted normal-looking American kids you might see running around in your neighborhood, holding signs in support of the candidate they think will best protect their future. It’s difficult to see from here that Halliburton told them they would take away their puppies unless they held up those signs.

 

 

 

Next, in case you were wondering where Lurch left the rest of his family or if we were ever going to get to see all of them (you know they’ve been rattling around in the cellar since the NYC protests)- is a group of college kids trying to feel disillusionment. They’ll be sure to show Halliburton a thing or two. By the way, the fence means “please don’t feed”. 

 

 

 

 I think that’s the Humpback of Notre Dame there…

 

Kerry likes Notre Dame…because it’s in France.

 

To be continued…

 

 

AMAZING LITTLE CREATURES

**DEBATE EDITION** 

PLANET REALITY

 

 

 

A Crucial Turnabout in Ideas Needed in Debate Tonight

 

Bush needs to shut down Kerry’s fact-starved mantra about our holding the blame for poor international cooperation in Iraq. He can do it in two sentences:

 

We did not turn our back on the allies you speak of-

 

We were stabbed in the back by those allies. (i.e. France, Russia, Germany, China & Friends)

 

 

How badly were we stabbed in the back?

 

“Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry complains that President Bush pursued a unilateralist foreign policy that gave short shrift to the concerns of the United Nations and our allies when it came to taking military action against Saddam Hussein. But the mounting evidence of scandal that has been uncovered in the U.N. Oil For Food program suggests that there was never a serious possibility of getting Security Council support for military action because influential people in Russia and France were getting paid off by Saddam.” – The Washington Times

 

And that is just, as they say, the very tip of the ice burg.

 

 

The rest?

 

(This list will be updated periodically)

 

Axis of Oil: UN Oil-For-Food Scandal

Germany, Russia, France & China’s quid pro quo with Saddam – Deposing Saddam Was Against Their National Agendas

 

1,300 Oil Vouchers Begin to Tell Story

 

(Excerpt c/o the Free Republic)

“The immense scope of an Iraqi effort in the late 1990s to curry political support for ending an international trade embargo is reflected in a list of more than 1,300 oil “vouchers” that then-President Saddam Hussein gave to more than a hundred corporations, foreign officials and political parties stretching from North America to Asia, according to a report issued on Wednesday by the CIA’s Iraq Survey Group.

 

The vouchers, which provided selective rights to buy Iraqi oil at a discount and to resell it for a huge profit, were provided to both mainstream and opposition political parties in countries such as Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia; to oil companies in Turkey, Japan, Belgium, Italy, Canada and France; to an arms conglomerate in China; and to individuals in Switzerland, Jordan, the Netherlands, Russia, Malaysia and Burma, among others.

 

Each of the oil sales was approved by the United Nations, which was monitoring Iraqi oil transactions in an effort begun in 1996 — known as the oil-for-food program — to ensure that the resulting revenue was used for humanitarian projects. But Iraq saw the program differently, as a key part of a scheme to free itself from the impact of sanctions and, ultimately, to gain political support for their termination, according to the report.” – The Washington Post

 

 

New Axis of Evil?

U.S. officials say China, N. Korea behind Iran‘s missile program

 

More: Blogbat: Ten Days Before It Hit the Headlines

“At present, Russia and China have continued to sell advanced weapons systems to Kim Jong Il’s regime, despite U.S. concerns. U.S. Strategy.com reported in July that China was working with North Korea to bolster Iran‘s nuclear arms program by selling arms and providing advisors to the country. I would imagine it is fairly safe to say the Chinese and North Koreans would not be selling nuclear technology to anyone they thought would use it against them, so that means those weapons are most likely to be pointed in a direction North Korea approves of. Possibly where China has it’s missiles aimed too: The U.S. and her interests.”

 

France Pushes to Lift Arms-Embargo from China

Embargo put in place after the Tiananmen massacre

 

Russia Caught Sending Arms, Advisors to Saddam’s Iraq

Even after the shooting began

 

France Caught Sending Arms to Saddam’s Iraq

Also after the shooting began

 

Germany Exported Nuclear, Chemical and Other Technology to Iraq

Iraqi report could prove damaging to Germany

 

More: Germany’s Arms Exports Under Fire

“Germany is second only to France when it comes to arms exports from the European Union.” And Germany is playing both sides against the middle in what is becoming a global conflagration, beginning in the Middle East

 

German Suspected of Aiding Libya with Nuclear Arms

 

Germany to Trade Nuclear Technology with China

“EU Turns Blind Eye to Berlin-Beijing Nuclear Deal”

 

China and North Korean Relations “Tighter than Teeth & Gums”

Old expression of closeness, revived from Korean War days

 

Chinese Arms Deals Export Nuclear Terror

China‘s escalating arms sales to Pakistan in the 90’s

“Vice President Al Gore has a lot riding on Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s recent emergency trip to China. The cover story for her flight to Beijing has something vaguely to do with North Korea and South Korea, but her real predicament is the recent publicity surrounding China‘s escalating arms sales to Pakistan and other dangerous locations. If she can’t throw a blanket over Beijing‘s arms-smuggling between now and the election, Gore is in real trouble.”

 

 

Pakistan Supplies North Korea, Egypt, Libya with Nuclear Technology

 

Leftwing Source: Pakistan’s Help to Iran, Libya Hikes Nuke Peril

 

Libya – Part of the Nuclear Family, Spreading the Love

Connections with Egypt, Pakistan discovered

 

More: Blogbat: Three Days Before It Hit the Headlines

“So what interests me of late in Libya’s role in a possible future radiological attack somewhere? I have a few things to discuss here, since I still believe they are doing everything but playing straight with us. More insanity from Blogbat, you ask. Have I not read the news the past few months, that Libya gave up their nuclear program and even Blair is chummy with them now? Surely the world watched as they shipped out the last of their dismantled nuclear technology under watch of the IAEA, the UN and other fantastic organizations. Even the US got a look-see in the peephole. This Blogbat, he is crazy, I know, I know. So how about those Libyans? Now they clearly want to play nice, right? I don’t buy it. The truth may be only complicating in its digestion ante bellum. Suppose with me Libya the conduit- not ever the perpetrator- has decided to “came clean” for ignoble purposes. Now looking squeaky-clean before the world prior to some future “event” after covering up those nasty tracks left when said “dirty work” was undergoing. Simply put, let’s hypothesize that technology passed through its borders to be used against Allied targets in what would amount to a “nuke-tech-laundering” scheme.

 

Sometimes when we deal with governments we forget we are dealing with people. And I don’t recall hearing that Muammar al-Qaddafi was “Born Again” in a roadside conversion during any of his trips to Damascus. I’m not wagering any family heirlooms on that one. Conversely, I would probably be more inclined to bet the farm in the other direction. The argument in favor of Libya is that it has succumbed to pressure from the west. Maybe, and I hope so. Hopefully for our sakes however, we and our allies (such that they are) have despite all reports to the contrary, kept a keen intel eye on these particular Lilliputians.”

 

 

Syria, Iran Hatch Deal on Iraqi Nuke Scientists

  

China-al Qaeda Nexus

Arming Jihadists Post 9/11

 

More:

 

From the Left-leaning Christian Science Monitor

 

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers Plays Down CSM Reports

Myers says, “We’ve gotten pretty good support from China on the war on terrorism, and it would be hard for me to believe that they’d want to help al Qaeda,” the chairman said in a Pentagon media briefing.” Good thing China isn’t like Germany, playing both sides against the middle…

 

However CSM Countered the Same Day in a report, “Al Qaeda massing for new fight” that:

“In Kunar Province, Afghan intelligence sources say that their reports were compiled this week, after Afghan spies, pretending to be Islamic radicals, infiltrated the two Al Qaeda camps in Pakistan. The report concludes that China itself may be involved in supporting the camps, either by tacitly allowing Islamic radicals of the ethnic Uighur minority in China‘s western Xinjiang Province to cross into Pakistan to join Al Qaeda, or overtly offering to provide Al Qaeda with antiaircraft missiles.”

 

ABC Plays Down Official Connection, but Gives Info on Sino-Residence

 

AL QAEDA USING PRC INTELLIGENCE TO RAISE AND LAUNDER MONEY
DRUG PROFITS INVESTED IN STOCK MARKETS WITH COMMUNISTS’ HELP 

“Al Qaeda ‘is financing its worldwide terror operations by investing in blue-chip Australian stocks with the assistance of Beijing’s powerful Secret Intelligence Service’ (World Net Daily). The intelligence group from the People’s Republic is also involved in drug deals with Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group; which is the original source of the money.

Brain McAdam, a Canadian investigator who helped the FBI find thousands of Communist front organizations in North America, (see 8/20/03 Update) said of the money involved, ‘We are talking of billions of dollars.’ The fronts he found include “major players on Wall Street” (The News, Australia), and some ‘are linked to al-Qaeda through its investments.’

Also fingering Communist China is Xu Junping, a former PRC Colonel who ‘for five years oversaw all secret CSIS operations against the West,’ before defecting to the U.S. in 2000 (see 3/28/01 Update). Xu ‘has described Beijing meetings with Osama bin Laden in 2000, during which the investment plan was discussed.’

Communist China’s links to al Qaeda, while not very well known, go back to at least the 1990s, when the PRC paid up to $10 million for unexploded American cruise missiles the terrorist group recovered in Afghanistan. Communist China has also allowed a piece of Pakistan it controls to be an al Qaeda haven (see 10/24/01 and 8/14/02 Updates).”

 

 

 

10 OCTOBER UPDATE:

 

Wandering Mind blog has a supurb list of recent events surrounding the blossoming Sino-French connection straight out of the horse’s mouth. Click on the links below to visit his blog, where he has links to the below-headlined articles from hardly right-wing news outlets in China, India, the UK and elsewhere:

 

China, France sign 20 agreements

 

French president leads business push into China

 

Chirac says Iraq war was illegal

 

Chirac accused of ‘dishonour’ on Tiananmen

 

And he points to the Canadian factor. Could China’s huge trade contracts have influenced the countries policies? Of course to be fair, the US trades significantly with China as well. The political leanings of the rather strident anti-American Liberal Canadian government is of late however another matter. Check it out and decide for yourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

PLANET REALITY

AMAZING LITTLE CREATURES

 

Kerry Says Iraq to Become Another Lebanon?

Let’s have a history lesson

 

During a press conference this afternoon in Colorado, John Kerry said that because of Bush policies in Iraq, he anticipated having to deal with a “Lebanon” if he takes office in January. Lebanon of course has been embroiled in strife for well over 20 years now. Though what Kerry may have failed to mention is that Lebanon’s democratic Christian government collapsed when Israelis pulled out under UN pressure in the 1980’s, leaving only Syrian troops, Syrian- and Iranian-sponsored terrorist groups in charge. The result has been decades of bloodshed, chaos and poverty in what was once a prosperous and developing democracy.

 

“I don’t know what I’m going to find on January 20 the way the president’s going”, Kerry told reporters. “If the president just does more of the same every day and it continues to deteriorate, I may be handed Lebanon, figuratively speaking.”

 

The irony is that if the US were to follow Kerry’s lead- which is essentially to follow the lead of the UN (i.e. France, Germany, Russia, China and other Oil-For-Fooders), we would be pulling out of Iraq without completing the most fundamental anti-terrorist part of our mission, instead leaving the country in the hands of Syrian and Iranian terrorists invading from all points. That is, essentially another Lebanon.

 

Later in his speech Mr. Kerry argued he would support US generals in whatever decisions they needed to make with regard to troops in Iraq, but in an interview with Chris Matthews just last January 06 of this year, Kerry answered when asked if he was “one of the anti-war candidates” - “I am, yeah.”

 

I don’t really think Kerry is a flip-flopper. I think he thinks he is a master of dialectics. Nevertheless I’m sure most thinking people would agree delusions of clever deceit are not the same as flip-flopping even if the latter makes for great airplay. Kerry has always been anti-war, anti-American military (adjectival specification needed), essentially a genuine “carpe diem” anti-American. The only times he has pretended otherwise were when the public was watching and the spin-profit ratio had been diminished significantly such as during the first iteration of the Gulf War back in 1991 (to some extent), 9/11 and of course Mr. Saddam Part deux (to a greater extent). But trying to be a good politician by sounding hawkish isn’t even really one of his strong suits. To me, that is far worse than being a confused Senator from Massachusetts whose claim to fame is flip-flopping.

 

Relatively recently in its long history, Lebanon became the hotbed of terrorist activity sponsored by Syria and Iran precisely because the democracies of the world had pulled out when pressured by the agenda-driven UN. What happened next was the result of those Western democracies giving heed to the “global test”.

 

And what about the UN applying any pressure to Syria to leave the region? Well, it’s been 20-plus years and counting, and we’re still waiting. Yet, Spaceman-Spiff Kerry thinks that, by reason, this is not the fault of the terrorists who maim and kill and tear things up. Rather, Senator Kerry seems to say a strong, long-term stabilizing presence by the Free World creates Lebanons, not the retreat of such democracies or their failure to show up altogether.

 

If this is a war on terrorism, it would certainly seem judging by the participating players that Iraq is one of the places to be, Mr. Kerry.

 

 

Related:

Kerry Quotarama

 

Related Humor courtesy of CadetHappy.com:

Please check out this blog. He has many, many more where this came from

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

John Kerry in a replayed interview from late 2003 on Sean Hannity’s syndicated radio broadcast was rebroadcast tonight on Hannity & Colmes criticized then Democrat front-runner Howard the Dean for flip-flopping.

 

SH: You probably would be closer to the president’s position than Howard dean…

 

JK: Extraordinarily enough, Howard dean could not even bring himself to say we were better off without Saddam Hussein- I find that quite incredible.

 

SH: Why don’t you think you are doing better. You’re from Massachusetts, you’ve always done very well…why do you think you’re not doing better in the polls in NH…?

 

JK: Because I think the war was very confusing and very difficult for a lot of people. It was a very divisive issue for our party. And I think that uh made it very difficult.

 

SH: Do you think he’s gone just too far to the left is that the reason?

 

JK: I think his positions are unclear. I mean uh you know you can’t have multiple positions on Iraq and on the war.

 

JK: At the time that we voted, Howard Dean said that he supported a resolution that gave authority to go to war. He also said that there were weapons of mass destruction, and he said that uh that Saddam ought to be disarmed. And then a few months later he had a totally different position. If you’re gonna be president of the United States you have to have a clear position and you have to lead. I believe my position is clear and I led and I think it is the right position which is to disarm and stand up to Saddam Hussein but to do it the right way.

 

 

Thank you, Senator Kettle.

 

Note by the way, his admission of the Democrat party’s strong anti-war leanings. Those leanings, I’m sure would have no influence on the nomination of a war-time presidential candidate.

 

 

 

 

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AMAZING LITTLE CREATURES

CAMPAIGN VIOLENCE REFORM

 

Brown Shirted Thugs Seem to Support Dictatorship in America

Ransack GOP Headquarters, assault and vandalize across the country

 

As it seems, this segment (Planet Moronia) has begun the tradition of being a two-parter. This time however, we are leaving the debate of the debate in favor of the debate over whether the US should have free elections or only nominate and support candidates the most violent party approves of (like a quasi-dictatorship). I must preface this and say that I am willing to bet that most Democrats are horrified by these acts of violence aimed specifically against the volunteers of the Republican or any other political party in the United States. However, the Democrat leadership has thus far shown little interest in joining with other Americans in condemning it. 

 

 

Here’s the rundown:

 

Protestors whom we saw earlier this year protesting against Bush and against the Republicans’ right to speak “in public” in New York weren’t finished after Bush’s nomination.

 

Since then we have seen campaign volunteer intimidation, violence and theft across the country using a level of thuggery heretofore unprecedented in a land that depends on free elections between at least two parties to survive.

 

Just today and yesterday protesters stormed Republican Party campaign headquarters in West Allis, WI, Orlando and Miami FL and Westmorland County, PA.

 

I e-mailed Chris Lato, the communications director of the Wisconsin Republican Party about today’s break-in at their West Allis headquarters, where protesters belligerently stormed the offices with bullhorns, intimidating campaign operatives and committing acts of petty vandalism along the way. While he declined to say if charges had been pressed or were planned, he did say that charges had been filed and protesters were arrested in both the Orlando and Pennsylvania incidents. “It is my understanding that protestors were arrested after things turned violent in Florida and Pennsylvania.”

 

No news reports of the Pennsylvania headquarter assault could be found, however I did find a statement at the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania official website by Republican State Committee Chairman Alan Novak who called it “an outrage of the highest order. There is no place for violence, threats or disorderly conduct in campaigns,” exclaimed Novak. “With similar events happening across the nation, it is clear that some think this kind of action is condoned. I demand that Chairman Rooney (of the Pennsylvania DNC) call to a halt any and all threatening protests and that he urge affiliated third party groups to do the same.”

 

The statement also indicated that another assault had occurred in Tennessee when the local Bush-Cheney campaign office was fired upon, shattering several windows and causing property damage. It was too late in the evening to call contacts in the Davidson County Young Republicans for comment. Nor was there any word yet on their website about the incident.  

 

Firing weapons into Republican campaign headquarters is no laughing matter. It takes the threshold beyond petty vandalism and caustic fisticuffs. (And it’s not too smart a thing to begin since most NRA members are Republicans). All joking aside, this is serious business and we must defend our right to freely support the candidate of our choice. Democrats should be standing with Republicans on our side on this one. Instead, the only public statement I could find was in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer dated last Saturday by Washington State Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt over the three laptops that were taken earlier this month from Republican campaign offices in Bellevue Washington. The laptops were the only things taken in the offices, which belonged to top staff members. Unrelated businesses and offices in the same building were unmolested. In his comments, Berendt made light of the thefts and said his party was being falsly fingered in the fiasco, “I think Chris is mistaken. I think the Republican National Committee just packed up and left the state in the middle of the night and took all their equipment with them. They seem to have given up on having any chance of carrying this state.” The laptops may have contained highly confidential campaign and possibly volunteer and donor information. Information which could be used to commit fraud or even blackmail against RNC supporters.  

 

 

Here are just a few of the Ransacked Republican Regulars in the past month:

 

Huntington, WV – 1.September Shots fired into headquarters

And Again – Same location vandalized one week later

Medford, OR – September, October Vandalism and theft of personal signs, vehicles with bumper stickers etc.

Bellevue, WA – 1.October Three Laptops known to likely contain sensitive information stolen during Watergate-style break-in. Campaign rep says it happened in 2000 as well.

Orlando & Miami, FL – 5.October Protesters Storm campaign headquarters, threatening volunteers and committing vandalism

West Allis, WI – 6.October More of what happened in Florida

Westmorland County, PA – 6.October “a Democrat protest in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, turned threatening and potentially violent when a protestor stormed the Republican Victory Center shouting obscenities and intimidating young female volunteers,” according to the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee website.

Tennessee – 6.October More of what happened in West Virginia- shots fired through GOP office windows

 

Some of the more ridiculous: Saybrook Point, CT – 25 November 2003 “The GOP, they lie and cheat! The GOP, they steal our heat!” was chanted as protestors stormed a GOP fundraiser.

 

– 9.September 2000 Fire breaks out at the headquarters of the Monroe County Republican Party Committee in Bloomington, Indiana

 

Not to say Democrat hopeful John Kerry wants to be a dictator. But it would help if his campaign weren’t being so reticent to condemn the 1^st Amendment-suppressing activities of those Kerry supporters actively involved in these attacks. Similar to the Nazi brown shirts in the German 1920’s who rioted and crashed the political offices of their opposition during election years, the radical left Kerry-Gestapo has deployed their storm troopers to silence their constitutionally-protected legitimate major political opposition (and we know they only got worse once they actually gained power in the 1930′s). The only possible intended result of such a strategy of intimidation is to create a situation where one party runs unopposed, its opposition too afraid for life and limb to oppose it.

 

So where is Jimmy Carter on this one, folks? My bet is that just like the idiologically obsessed ACLU, he’s a bit selective.

 

 

Related:

 

Vigil Turns Hostile Toward Family Of Killed Soldier

 

A Gentle Tug of the Conscience: Pigtails of Justice and One Anti-Bush Heckler

 

They Hate Competition: Peaceful Conservative Protest Warrior Site Hacked

 

RNC Convention ’04: Terrorists, Traitors and Tea Toddlers

The Truth about Teresa’s Pet-Snake Protesters

 

 

 

UPDATE:

Freepers Have Posted a “Compilation of Dem Attacks” along with Photos Here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1237215/posts

 

UPDATE:

Blogger Aft_Lizard Has Now Posted Some More Links to Related Stories along with Photos.  Here:

http://aftlizard.blogspot.com/2004/10/original-site-brown-shirts-rearise.html

 

 

 

Aft_Lizard’s blog also found a local TV report about the shots fired at the Tennessee HQ, which occured in Knoxville:

http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=20241

 

Related Freeper Thread on the Knoxville Shooting:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1235838/posts

 

More reading:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1237534/posts?page=65

 

 

(MINI-)UPDATE:

 

Freeper  (post # 106) Says Ann Coulter Took a Top Dem to Task Earlier Tonight about the Attacks

According to one freeper, “Ann Coulter confronted the Democrat on Scarborough about it tonight and he snickered while he tried to deny any connection to the Democratic party — he did a terrible job of trying to deny complicity and you could tell Ann and Pat Buchanan both didn’t believe him.” Did anyone else see this exchange? No mention either who that “top dem” might have been. If indeed it did occur, it would be encouraging to see Coulter go after them, while also disturbing if the dems reacted as described in the Freeper post. Pubs need to pull out all the stops to give this trend of violence visibility in the press. According to the Scarborough site for the deeply curious, a transcript should be available later today here: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3719710/

 

USEFUL UPDATE:

 

Reports of violence at Republican offices can be made by contacting the Department of Justice. This is, I understand where pressure may also be applied for any possible RICO investigation that would look into DNC, AFL-CIO and other group collaboration in interference with the process of an election via voter and political suppression.

U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

E-mails to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General, may be sent to AskDOJ@usdoj.gov.

 

 

MAJOR UPDATE:

 

Republicans taking charge: Click here to see my post 11. October 2004

 

 

 

 

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CAMPAIGN VIOLENCE REFORM

PLANET MORONIA

 

Tint-Bias at the Veep Debate?

Who’s Lookin’ at Hue, Kid?

 

 

  

Unaltered VP Debate Stills from Last Night C/O MSNBC

 

I noticed this last night during the VP debate: something er, rather, peculiar in paradise. During the split-screen shots when it was most noticable, it appeared to me the tint on the Silk Pony (John Redwards) was red and youthful, while the tint on Cheney’s plump visage was well quite, ill and a ralphy green in its presentation. At first I thought it was me being Rather-shy until I saw the yellow timer lights side-by-side light up- and only one of them was yellow. While the middle light for Cheney unmistakably was yellow, the one before Edwards was as red as Christmas. So too, their skin hues. As I watched further I noticed that when Cheney was included in an Edwards wide-shot, he suddenly regained his health and vigor. Cheney’s chair also seemed to bear a grey chromatic warmer than that of the chair assigned the unfortunate task of holding Redwards’ derrière.

 

While there is no doubt the excuse might be it was that the shots were simply by different camaras that they happend to rush out and buy at Wal-Mart because the really expensive ones they normally use broke before the flight to Cleveland during an illegal profiling incident by airline security, I personally am left asking what the video guys were smoking in the control room. Aren’t they supposed to be “professionals”, able to wow us with their visual flutter?  

 

There are so many jokes here, I can hardly contain myself. I was going to lead with “Some off-color remarks, if you will about a visible difference between the candidates’ camera shots,” or “Truly in this show, the “Silk Pony” was a horse of a different color.” But I think it best to get right to the matter that may in fact be a bit more serious, albeit not altogether shocking considering the MSM.

 

Anyone know who ran the camera pool for this debate?

 

 

UPDATE

 

A couple excellent bloggers today kinda ribbed me a little and perhaps poked some fun about this post (see comments). In summary, Mishlei wonders where my observations on the content of the debate are. And Jeff of Beautiful Atrocities suggests all the bad air provided by Xanga servers has caused me to start chasing conspiracy theories similar to a certain Lefty blogger the rest of the sphere loves to hate. Naa. 

 

So I’m going to have a little bit more fun with this three-legged red-headed step-child :p. Now this was almost a serious endeavor- to find out why exactly there seemed to be an almost ubiquitous prattle about Cheney looking sick or tired or even near-death etc. -as I believe Brit Hume also commented last night, along with other pundits on Fox after the debate. One radio commentator today, Dallas KLIF’s Greg Knapp even went so far as to open his radio show with, “I was worried Cheney was going to drop dead last night”. Of course, there are many reasons why Greg Knapp is a local radio commentator aside from his looking like a gecko whether in Cheney’s or Redwards’ lighting. 

 

Here is how the ornithoid pursuit went down: Cheney sounded engaged and alive on the radio. Later however I was surprised to hear anything otherwise until I actually watched it. I must admit I began to draw the same conclusion as the above-mentioned TV commentators after seeing the debate myself later that night. That of course is when I saw how sickly pale the Vice President appeared. I thought it was perhaps that he was sickly pale until I noticed those discommodious timer-lights during a split-screen candidate shot. Silliness aside, these differences in appearance seem to have made a powerful impression on some level with the pundits (and perhaps the public’s) perception of the constitution of each of the debaters.

 

Now that said, we know it’s all academic since this debate is about a 3.2 on an importance scale of 10 and you probably will be admitting to yourselves this is the most interesting thing to have come out of the whole debate, aside from Cheney’s putting the “silk pony” back in its stall. All theories aside, this is the type of thing about which I rarely if ever post, but for the record I believe it’s worth noting, even for its 3.2 point value. Now if I said I knew with any certainty of fact that some libs decided to tweak Cheney’s hue to make it more like that of Chirac’s without having any insider information to that effect - that, would be almost to the level of leftwing lapblogs Andrew or Wonkette. I still maintain it is sloppy camera work and production work to have such dramatic differences in color that people would think the person on one camera looked sick- particularly during a political debate. But then I’m pretty type-A. In today’s climate I think it’s careless. 

 

Maybe it’s my own little pet jihad, but we all get at least one, don’t we?    

 

 

 

 

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PLANET MORONIA

BLOGSITE UPDATE

 

Blogbat Announces Move to New Cyber Digs

New Look, More to Come

 

I decided to make some minor changes to this blog, as those of you who are frequent flyers have noticed – though Xanga seems to have trouble with it, which to any of you should come as no surprise. The above new banner was obviously put through the Xanga blender when I uploaded it.

 

I don’t plan to spend much time trying to fix it however. The other news is that I will hopefully soon be departing from Xanga and its poor service and limited features and moving the fun and excitement to my own domain and a respected host, both of which have already been introduced to each other. I’m getting everything all ready to move in, in fact, which is where most of my “blog time” is going right now. There will also be a completely new look. More to come on that, along with the domain name and other good stuff as the date approaches.

 

 

 

UPDATE: Fixed the banner. It should show up properly now and suffice as a very modest teaser…

 

 

 

 

 

 

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BLOGSITE UPDATE

 

NOTES FROM THE GARDEN JOURNAL

 

Horse-Drawn Carriage-Makers of the World Unite…After Tea, Of Course

 

Truly elitism and out-moded haberdashery come in all shapes and sizes and usually come when a person or a group think they have whatever it is they do all wrapped up and figured out and as such have finally earned the right to be lazy and self-indulgent. And traditionally this balance is eventually upset when somebody comes along whom the old guard accuses of going off as half-cocked amatures, and shakes things up by outdoing and beating their elders at their own game. First comes denial of the upstart’s very existence, followed by a denial of the upstart’s credentials. After that we can usually witness the general denial of the upstart’s right to exist, ending with a denial the old guard was bested by that upstart, which usually happens as the former is being carried out the door.

 

So what do Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne and the Blogosphere have in common?

Well first off, both are upstarts doing something which only before had been the exclusive right of the most elite of “professionals” in their business. Yet both also have managed to show their sneering predecessors a thing or two about how things should be done, by doing it right.

 

When Dan Rather assumed he could pass off a story of questionable accuracy with forged documents coming from Texas anti-Bush partisans to boot, he thought he was safe as he had always been. So even today goes the hope of Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw. Then along comes this young pup of an outlet, its members doing their homework and getting it right and we find the old guard, the king as it were, all this time really did have no clothes.

 

So what did those media elites have to say when this upstart they had previously tried to ignore bested them? Nothing factual of course, just some drivel about some ambiguous cloud of legions of people using common sense out there gathering facts and doing their homework and that the American viewing public should for some reason fear them. But the only reason the American people would fear such a thing is by the fact they have become unused to fact-gathering and quite used to spin, which they fear by virtue of saturation.

 

And then you have today the historic event that won the Ansari X prize for the team at Scaled Composites, which created SpaceShipOne. When those in the know at NASA and the big aerospace industry assumed they could pass off creative mediocrity and pat each other on the back for it, they thought they were, well, as safe as they had always been. Then along comes this young pup of a group, its members doing their homework and getting it right and we find the old guard, the king as it were, all this time really did have no clothes.

 

And once again, it’s déjà vu all over again!

 

So just what on earth did those space-elites have to say when this, another fine example of an upstart which they had desperately tried to ignore bested them? Not a whole lot publicly. But when Mike Fincke, who is sharing a space station with fellow orbiter, cosmonaut Gennady Padalka found out about today’s crowning flight of SpaceShipOne, which took place on the forty seventh anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, he offered something that left some room for interpretation. According the Associated Press account, Fincke is quoted as saying, “’Fantastic’…adding that it was great to learn that for a while he and Padalka were not ‘the only ones off the planet.’” A seeming jab at the perceived amateurishness of Rutan’s space project? If so, it would seem to mirror perhaps that now waging war currently underway between the Old and New Media. This sense was further hinted at in the post-flight statement by Rutan during his news conference shortly before formally being awarded the Dallas-based Ansari family’s Ansari X Prize: “The big guys, the Boeings, the Lockheeds and the nay-saying people at Houston … I think they are looking at each other now and saying, `We’re screwed.’”

 

 

There is little doubt those “nay-sayers” will try to scare the American people with some drivel about some ambiguous cloud of forward-thinking pioneers using common sense and doing their homework and why Americans should hold doubts. But clearly in light of the past forty years, the only reason the American people would even be presently doubtful of such a thing as space travel is because they have become unused to anything else.

 

So what do Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne and the Blogosphere have in common? Both are upstarts, trading blows over something big in Texas with that famous “old guard”, both are taking their medium to its next leg in its journey and both show that the individual, free to think, free to dream and willing to work hard to make it all happen, always beats the fat cats, the ne’er-do-well’s who populate the slow-moving behemoths we call in this instance Big Media and Government Aerospace. And both have managed to show their sneering predecessors a thing or two about how things should be done, by doing it right. And of course the sneering predecessors still aren’t getting it. But I think there comes a point where some of the nay-sayers will look at each other and say, “we’re screwed”. At least they will have the credit for being smart enough to know when a gig is over and perhaps try to join their competition. The others – well some will always rather live out their days in delusion.

 

 

 

 

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NOTES FROM THE GARDEN JOURNAL