Iran off the Table: A Higher Power Hath Spoken

Well it seems the NeoCon wet dream of invading/attacking Iran has been called out of order by a higher power: the Trilateral Commission.

The Strangelovians are being brought to heel, victims of their own overreaching. The military is in near mutiny and domestic politics is in disarray, with AG AG in the cross-hairs.

The lack of posts here reflects this period of overt calm. The agenda is stalled, though clearly enormous infighting has been going on behind the scenes.

Finally, apparently, the grown-ups are back in charge, for now. This may well be the effective end of the Bush cabal; everything from here on in will be a rearguard action, trying to slink out of office without the Hague staring them in the face.

Who Says Bush CheneyHas No Plan B for Iraq?

Plan B:

NY Times: Mourning in Amerika

Yet another long NY Times editorial eulogy for the Bill of Rights.

This past Sunday's plangent laundry list of rising fascism offers so many major bullet-pointed assaults on the Constitution that revising the "Patriot" Act and closing Gitmo appear at the end as an afterthought.

To wit:

Restore Habeas Corpus
Ban Torture, Really
Close the C.I.A. Prisons
Account for ‘Ghost Prisoners’
Ban Extraordinary Rendition
Tighten the Definition of Combatant
Screen Prisoners Fairly and Effectively
Ban Tainted Evidence
Ban Secret Evidence
Better Define ‘Classified’ Evidence
Respect the Right to Counsel

Land of the free. Yeah, right. Tell me another.

Walter Reed: Karmic Payback

I hesitated to comment on the Walter Reed Veteran's Hospital scandal, as it is so obvious what this is all about.

The Cheney administration and Commander Codpiece couldn't give the time of day to the wounded and broken soldiers coming back from the Iraq/Afghanistan killing fields and are only interested in sending more to be killed and maimed in their insane global chess game.

Walter Reed Hospital, once a leading government facility, was privatized by the neocons and the contractors bled it for profit instead of carrying out even the most basic maintenance. The hospital is now, according to the WaPo, a "dank structure besieged by mold, leaks and rot."

There's a low-level war going on right now between the White House and the Pentagon, and I believe there's no coincidence that this story surfaced right now, in the run-up to the Iran war. This is sabotage, and I think the military was willing to take the hit on this one because they know the ultimate responsibility rests with the administration and they'd get tarred with the blame. Apparently there are still a lot of real patriots in our armed forces and they're making their stand now.

As for Cheney and his Cheerleader and the neocon court, they can fire all the Army Secretaries and scapegoat colonels they want, but that will not redeem their utter disregard for the most basic responsibility of government to care for sick and wounded soldiers--most barely beyond adolescence--that it has sent to fight and die for it.

The karmic payback: veterans groups are rightly outraged, weakening one of the few remaining pillars of popular support for the Bush regime.

Unconscionable.

NY Times: Loose Nukes Echo Chamber

The tempo of apocalyptic fear-mongering has kicked into overdrive: the MSM is literally awash with portentious articles of new terror attacks involving loose nukes.

Let's be very clear about this: the 9/11 drug is wearing off, the wheels are coming off that lie, and they're hustling "the next big thing" to market as fast as they can. These madmen are doubling down on terror, just as they're about to do the same with Iraq.

I can barely keep up with the sowing-the-ground articles, and I focus almost exclusively on the top tier NYT, WaPo & BBC--and THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING.

The NY Times' second "we're-gonna-get-nuked-soon" article this week, via the Huffington Post, behind the NYT firewall:

"Frank Rich: Experts Warn Al Qaeda "To Detonate Nuclear Device" In US, But Bush Punts on Threat."

In an op-ed in the New York Times, columnist Frank Rich argues that
over five years after the events of September 11, 2001, President George
W. Bush is still ignoring serious terrorist threats to the United
States. Faced with warnings from terrorism experts and a White House
seemingly more focused on Iraq, Rich begs readers to ask, "Haven't we
been here before?"

Yes Frank, on the same pages just this past Sunday in fact. And that's what really scares the Hell out of me.

Dept. of In-Your-Face Symbolism:McClown Shows Presidency Is a Joke

From today's WaPo:

McCain Joins Race for 2008

On "Late Show With David Letterman," senator says he is seeking the nomination for president.

They are laughing in our faces.

This has been carefully considered. McCain is a messenger, by launching his campaign on a late-night comedy show, he is telling us what a joke the Presidency really is. But then after Reagan and two terms of W, no one but a fool would think differently.

9/11 Pentagram Mystery Solved, and It's Slick

Some clever guys have done some compelling footwork and I think they've finally figured out what really went down at the Pentagon on 9/11.

Their conclusion: AA Flight 77 came in nearly head-on to the Pentagon, pulled up, and flew on towards Arlington, while the actual jet or missile that struck the building came in simultaneously from another angle, clipping the light poles and striking the facade.

Very smart work.

Check out their site and the video; it's raw and has absolutely zero production values, but the eyewitnesses--among them two Pentagon cops, no less--are obviously telling the truth. The other eyewitnesses were all on the highway, at bad angles--these guys were stationary, with excellent reference points for what they saw.

Compelling. Give the traitors on the other side of the Pentagram credit, that is one slick operation.

Owl Gods Redux

In a prior post on 9/11 and secret societies, I mentioned Bohemian Grove and Molloch, the ancient Babylonian owl god worshipped there. Though none of what follows is particularly new information, I wanted to expand on that prior post here.

The question why Presidents, CEOs, media moguls and financiers secretly gather to worship huge stone owl effigies in Redwood forests is obviously an interesting one, and quite revealing.

The owl, of course, can see in the dark, and thus is the perfect symbol for the Illuminati, that most secret of societies, which sees behind and in large part plans the apparently random events that form our "current events": carefully planned accidents, false-flag terrorist attacks, financial and political machinations that pop up in our MSM long after the fact--if at all.

The owl then is a symbol of hubris, of condescension--there is even a tiny one perched on the upper right corner of the front of the one-dollar bill--which of course sports the Illuminati/freemasonry pyramid with its all-seeing eye of Isis/Osiris on the verso, just above its inscription dedicated to a Latinate "new world order." And there's another one drawn in the roads surrounding the Capitol, which sits in its belly--the belly of the beast.

Neat little package, the dollar bill--all the conspiracies in a nutshell--and even better, you carry it in your pocket every day, totally in the dark about all its hidden symbolism. The dollar bill is a talisman, and these secret-society nutjobs think that it generates positive auguries for their plans and projects.

The current half-dozen posts give you some idea of their current projects--provoking war with Iran and dismantling American civil rights being foremost on the agenda--and I think that 2007 will be a critical year in American history. We are heading for a crisis of their making, and they have gambled enormously and dug themselves so deep into their occult-feathered nest of unprecedented lies, crimes and manipulations that it can only lead to horrific confrontation. You know, enough is enough. This sh*t has got to stop.

So fasten your seat-belts and stock up on duct tape, it's going to be one Hell of a bumpy year.

Paging Dr. Freud...

From Dan Froomkin in today's WaPo:

Sometimes it's the softball questions that can get the most telling responses

Here's the transcript of Cheney's interview on Friday with Greg Sheridan of the Australian.

"Q What's the highlight for you personally of being Vice President, your time in office?

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: What's the highlight? I'm going to have to think about that when I get out of office and I have time to do it. Clearly, our administration has been dominated by the events of 9/11 and the aftermath. That has clearly become front and center in terms of our concerns and we spend our time, how we spend our resources. And I think in terms of accomplishments, the fact that we've defeated all attempts to strike the United States again for the last five years doesn't mean we won't be hit tomorrow. They're still out there trying hard, but it has been over five years now."

Ask Cheney for a highlight of his six-plus years as vice president, and the only thing that comes to mind is 9/11.

Well, what a surprise that Cheney finds 9/11 his biggest accomplishment. About as big a surprise as W saying it was that fish he caught on his dude ranch.

For once neither of them lied.

P.S. Froomkin's post is entitled "The Ominous Omnipotent Omnipresent Cheney" and sits below this headline, which made me laugh out loud:

However, I am filled with foreboding at Cheney's sudden, global ubiquity. It is deeply disturbing that, as the administration once again ramps up the war propaganda, he has popped out of his bunker like it's Groundhog Day.

"American Liberty at the Precipice"

No, that headline's not mine, or scrawled by some paranoid, left-wing conspiracy nut, but rather heads today's lead NY Times editorial.

Click on the link, read the whole piece. Yes, this is the old Grey Lady shrieking of the present danger--the most establishment of establishment media.

Wake up, America.

Iran: They'd Rather Walk

From Sunday's Times of London, a report that an order to strike Iran could lead to the mass resignation of senior military commanders. The Times' reporters have identified at least four to five generals and admirals who would resign their commissions rather than carry out such orders.

The money quote:

A British defence source confirmed that there were deep misgivings inside the Pentagon about a military strike. “All the generals are perfectly clear that they don’t have the military capacity to take Iran on in any meaningful fashion. Nobody wants to do it and it would be a matter of conscience for them."

And the military's discontent goes all the way to the top:

General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said recently there was “zero chance” of a war with Iran. He played down claims by US intelligence that the Iranian government was responsible for supplying insurgents in Iraq, forcing Bush on the defensive...

Hillary Mann, the National Security Council’s main Iran expert until 2004, said Pace’s repudiation of the administration’s claims was a sign of grave discontent at the top.

“He is a very serious and a very loyal soldier,” she said. “It is extraordinary for him to have made these comments publicly, and it suggests there are serious problems between the White House, the National Security Council and the Pentagon.

The Cheney administration is destroying and dividing the US military. The generals are not about to walk the plank with these madmen. Apparently Duty, Honor, Country is still alive in our armed forces, and for this we must all be deeply thankful.

To think it has come to this.

You Have Been Warned: Loose Nukes & Dirty Bombs

From today's NY Times Magazine:

Former Senator Sam Nunn's nightmare scenario for our future. The lede:

By now we can too readily imagine the horror of terrorists exploding a nuclear weapon in a major American city: the gutted skyscrapers, the melted cars, the charred bodies.

Ok, you've got my attention, but I've read this sort of long, sober, but utterly hair-raising Sunday Times Mag "they"-could-nuke-NYC-or-Washington article just once too often. Here comes another, just at the moment we have three full carrier task forces within striking distance of Tehran.

Again, the operative word is terror.

Secret Is As Secret Does

An editorial from Monday's NY Times:

Monday 19 February 2007

A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration's behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law.

The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president's use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights.

The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order. Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any "other condition."

Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the nation's governors.

There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nation's governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.

No further comment needed, other than to note that that bipartisan bill has a snowball's chance in Hell of being enacted.

Just For Laughs

The lede of an article entitled "Is Cheney Next?" at ABC News:

Could a guilty verdict for a former aide bring further criminal scrutiny of Vice President Dick Cheney?

The "further" is what gets me ROTFL.

Imperium Americanum: History Repeating

Here we are deep in the last third of Gibbon.

Almost 45 years ago, Ceasar died in Dallas, the long knives replaced by a hail of bullets, with the devolution of honor being such that the conspirators hid behind contract killers bought from the mafia rather than looking their prince in the eye as they betrayed him and murdered their republic.

Wars and foreign intrigues followed, as the conspirators, now the rulers of empire, fed at the trough of money and power. In Rome, uneasy parents, witness to the unspeakable, soon enough gave way to sons and daughters who reveled in wealth and decadence.

The rich were never richer, the poor never more despised. The outward forms and structures were maintained, from familiarity and convenience, but all Romans knew that democracy had been supplanted by dictatorship, that Rome had sacrificed its soul to grasp at the delirious prize of world domination.

The pathetic spectacle of the current Senate's inability to pass a non-binding resolution censuring the conduct of the Iraq war should have been played out in togas.

The craven politics, posturing and rank hypocrisy of the past weeks' maneuverings have reached new lows even for Congress--a profoundly saddening and shameless display that reveals an institution that is impotent, dysfunctional and frankly irrelevant. The stink of rotten decadence hangs over the farce: Congress is defunct as a viable, let alone co-equal, branch of government.

Enter Nero, playing air guitar.

You Know You're In Trouble When...

This is truly scary.

Gary Wills, arch Old-Guard Conservative (with a capital C) and NY Times op-ed columnist, has seen the light about the American police state. When Wills raises the alarm, you know we're really in trouble.

Please read the entire article; it is more than worth your time.

I'll just post a few excerpts here, though I'd like to repost the entire essay:

When Abraham Lincoln took actions based on military considerations, he gave himself the proper title, “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” That title is rarely — more like never — heard today. It is just “commander in chief,” or even “commander in chief of the United States.” This reflects the increasing militarization of our politics. The citizenry at large is now thought of as under military discipline. In wartime, it is true, people submit to the national leadership more than in peacetime. The executive branch takes actions in secret, unaccountable to the electorate, to hide its moves from the enemy and protect national secrets. Constitutional shortcuts are taken “for the duration.” But those impositions are removed when normal life returns.

But we have not seen normal life in 66 years. The wartime discipline imposed in 1941 has never been lifted, and “the duration” has become the norm. World War II melded into the cold war, with greater secrecy than ever — more classified information, tougher security clearances. And now the cold war has modulated into the war on terrorism.

There has never been an executive branch more fetishistic about secrecy than the Bush-Cheney one. The secrecy has been used to throw a veil over detentions, “renditions,” suspension of the Geneva Conventions and of habeas corpus, torture and warrantless wiretaps. We hear again the refrain so common in the other wars — If you knew what we know, you would see how justified all our actions are.

But we can never know what they know. We do not have sufficient clearance.

The United States of America has been governed under a "State of Emergency" for over thirty years. Bet you didn't know that. But I bet you can guess what kind of powers that allows the executive.

Home of the free? Don't make me laugh--or cry.

A note on the photo: Yes, the badge is real. FEMA is a national police agency. Welcome to 1984 folks, just a few decades late, is all. (And by the way, the triangle in a circle above the eagle is, you guessed, it, an occult symbol.)

Chilling Prescience: Jim Garrison Speaks, 1967

Here I cede the floor to a remarkable man, whose words should not be lost.

Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison was District Attorney for New Orleans, and placed local businessman Clay Bertrand on trial for conspiracy in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He is the focus of Oliver Stone's film, JFK. From a Playboy interview in 1967:

PLAYBOY: Many of the professional critics of the Warren Commission appear to be prompted by political motives: Those on the left are anxious to prove Kennedy was murdered by a internal conspiracy within the establishment; and those on the right are eager to prove the assassination was an act of "the international Communist conspiracy." Where would you place yourself on the political spectrum--right, left or center?

JIM GARRISON: That's a question I've asked myself frequently, especially since this investigation started and I found myself in an incongruous and disillusioning battle with agencies of my own Government. I can't just sit down and add up my political beliefs like a mathematical sum, but I think, in balance, I'd turn up somewhere around the middle. Over the years, I guess I've developed a somewhat conservative attitude--in the traditional libertarian sense of conservatism, as opposed to the thumbscrew-and-rack conservatism of the paramilitary right--particularly in regard to the importance of the individual as opposed to the State and the individual's own responsibilities to humanity . . .

I was with the artillery supporting the division that took Dachau; I arrived there the day after it was taken, when bulldozers were making pyramids of human bodies outside the camp. What I saw there has haunted me ever since. Because the law is my profession, I've always wondered about the judges throughout Germany who sentenced men to jail for picking pockets at a time when their own government was jerking gold from the teeth of men murdered in gas chambers. I'm concerned about all of this because it isn't a German phenomenon; it's a human phenomenon. It can happen here, because there has been no change, there has been no progress and there has been no increase of understanding on the part of men for their fellow men.

What worries me deeply, and I have seen it exemplified in this case, is that we in America are in great danger of slowly eroding into a proto-fascist state. It will be a different kind of fascist state from the one the Germans evolved; theirs grew out of depression and promised bread and work, while ours, curiously enough, seems to be emerging from prosperity. But in the final analysis, it's based on power and on the inability to put human goals and human conscience above the dictates of the State. Its origins can be traced in the tremendous war machine we've built since 1945, the "military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower vainly warned us about, which now dominates every aspect of our life. The power of the states and the Congress has gradually been abandoned to the Executive Department, because of war conditions; and we've seen the creation of an arrogant, swollen bureaucratic complex totally unfettered by the checks and balances of the Constitution.

In a very real and terrifying sense, our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society. Of course, you can't spot this trend to fascism by casually looking around. You can't look for such familiar signs as the swastika, because they won't be there. We won't build Dachaus and Auschwitzes; the clever manipulation of the mass media is creating a concentration camp of the mind that promises to be far more effective in keeping the populace in line. We're not going to wake up one morning and suddenly find ourselves in gray uniforms goose-stepping off to work.

About the photo: Paramilitary police attacking lawful demonstrators protesting against the Free Trade Area of the Americas pact (FTAA) in November of 2003 in Miami.

But this isn't the test. The test is: What happens to the individual who dissents? In Nazi Germany, he was physically destroyed; here the internal process is more subtle, but the end results are the same. I've learned enough about the machinations of the CIA in the past year to know that this is no longer the internal dreamworld America I once believed in. The imperatives of the population explosion, which almost inevitably will lessen our belief in the sanctity of the individual human life, combined with the awesome power of the CIA and the defense establishment, seem destined to seal the fate of the America I knew as a child and bring us into a new Orwellian world where the citizen exists for the State and where raw power justifies any and every immoral act.

I've always had a kind of knee-jerk trust in my Government's basic integrity, whatever political blunders it may make. But I've come to realize that in Washington, deceiving and manipulating the public are viewed by some as the natural prerogatives of office. Huey Long once said, "Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism." I'm afraid, based on my own long experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security.

Dr. Evil: Rumsfeld, $2.3 Trillion and 9/11

Here's a staggering bit of recent history that should not be allowed to disappear down the memory hole: On September 10, 2001--yes, that is one day before 9/11--Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that, "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions."

I'll be brief here. A few obvious points:

What better way to hide such an outrageous revelation in plain sight than announcing it on the eve of 9/11? The result: Only one major news outlet, CBS News, reported the story. Yet more proof of the conspiracy, if any was needed.

All that money didn't just disappear, nor was it all siphoned off in corruption. This is the cost of our black-ops programs. That means, for the 10-year period of the accounting inquiry, that the Pentagon is spending half the amount in black programs that it does with those officially budgeted, currently some $450 billion per year. And this has been going on since Truman. Let your imagination run free with what they've developed with all that cash.

Also, all those F-22s and submarines and toilet seats don't cost the amounts the Pentagon attributes to them either. They're inflated by at least a quarter, if not by half, with that money also going into black-ops programs. This of course explains why those Humvees in Iraq aren't properly armored, among other things.

Finally, why isn't anyone paying attention? Why no outraged calls for oversight, no moves to reform this mess? Well I know why, just thought I'd play the naif to wrap it up.

Oh, and one last thing: now you know why that manifestly incompetent and sinister nutjob hung on so long.

Numerology IX XI

I've been thinking a lot about 9/11 recently, as prior posts attest, and a few things I've long noted, but haven't written about yet, are relevant here.

Thanks to Alex Jones, we know that every year, Bohemian Grove opens not with a barbecue, but with a mock-human sacrificial rite to a huge stone owl, i.e., Molloch. Bohemian Grove is where every President since Hoover has gone to hobnob with the US power elite during summer vacation, deep in the California Redwoods. (Actually, if they had their way it would indeed be a barbecue and I could drop the "mock"). Sacrificial rituals to Babylonian owl-gods: This is obviously no run-of-the-mill power junket like Davos, so just WTF is going on here?

First, a disturbing fraction of the people who run our world--and here I mean the few thousands who really run our world--are involved in secret societies, freemasonry, the ancient mystery schools, the occult, and Luciferianism.

I.e., they're not Christian, agnostic, or any mainstream religion for that matter, but rather have a disturbing propensity to intersect with death cults and the occult--those who worship the ancient Egyptian and Babylonian gods of Isis/Osiris, Molloch and the like, as well as Lucifer (the Light Bearer and God's rival, who is claimed to be revealed to 33rd degree and higher Freemasons and Bonesmen, which too many major Anglo-American politicians just happen to be--for example Bush father and son, and for equal time, John Kerry to boot).

All this by way of introduction: These people are not like you or me. And it's not because they're rich in the Hemingway sense. They believe in spiritualism and the occult, demons and the Devil, rite and ritual, astrology and numerology. Even if they do not, they accept and acquiesce to these perverted beliefs to gain entry to--and be beholden to--real power. They are privy to the ancient lore guarded by the secret societies, and are indoctrinated using ancient rituals and blood oaths.

We are deep into Twilight Zone territory here, and I just want you to know that I don't believe that these rites and beliefs are either sane or defensible, but nonetheless (these are secret societies, after all) there is more than enough disconcerting evidence to prove these people are involved in some remarkably unsettling practices.

Back to topic: numerology 9/11. My point is, these people believe that rites and rituals, special auguries and synchronicities--the invocation of spirits and demons--will assure their plans of success. Circles and pentagrams, signs and numbers, hidden talismans bring them power. Nancy Reagan was a dilettante in comparison.

So let's look at some weird coincidences about that oh-so-coincidence-filled day.

Why 9/11? Well yes, the obvious reference to 911 emergency telephone lines. But what is the numerological significance?

Nine: "The number 9 symbolizes the principle of a universal philosophy or consciousness." So far, rather neutral. But to occultists, "the number nine is the number of 'the earth under evil influences.'"

The day itself, the moment of action, is even more interesting:

Eleven is a higher octave of the number two and is considered to be a master number (the second being 22). 11 is considered the path of spiritual awareness and knowledge beyond the grasp of others. It carries psychic vibrations and has an equal balance of masculine and feminine properties. It is also related to open-mindedness, intuition, idealism, and visions. Because eleven contains many gifts such as psychic awareness and a keen sense of sensitivity, it also has negative effects such as treachery and betrayal from secret enemies.

Delightfully for the occultists among us, 911 is numerologically recursive: 9+1+1=11, leading us back to eleven. It's even better in Roman numerals: IX XI. And weren't the Twin Towers themselves the biggest "11" in the world?

Ok, now we're on to something. What else happened on September 11? Well, funny you should ask. On September 11, 1990--exactly 11 years to the day before 9/11, what a coincidence!--President George H.W. Bush gave his infamous "Towards a New World Order" speech. NWO? Tinfoil hat territory, I know. But here's what Papi Bush--that 1960s-era CIA agent and Bay-of-Pigs conspirator had to say, before a joint session of Congress, on the eve of the first Gulf War:

We stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective -- a New World Order -- can emerge: a new era -- freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony. A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor. Today that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we've known.

The motto of freemasonry is Ordo ab Chao, Order from Chaos. And what exactly did President Bush (Illuminatus and Bonesman) say? "The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective -- a New World Order -- can emerge." That sounds pretty much like Order from Chaos, doesn't it?

In fact, Bush pere was so enamored of this and other tinfoil-hat phrases (and he is certainly not alone) that he gave another speech, before the UN on October 1, 1999 during which he said, "The year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning the turn of the millennium...The United Nations can help bring about a new day...to press forward to cap an historic movement towards 'A New World Order.'"

And don't even get me started on what "cap" means.

Just so you don't think I'm Bush-obsessed, let's hear what Papi's new pal has to say. President Bill Clinton gave these remarks on 26 February 2006: "There's a new world struggling to be born," he says with a slightly evangelical smile. "Don't get caught up in the latest firestorm."

Is there an echo in here? Okay, enough. I'm not even going to touch "firestorm."

All true. Cross my heart and hope to die.

Know Your Corporate Puppets: Newly Updated Senate List

From Bob Geiger, the Senate backers (GOPers all) of a measure to entirely eliminate the Federal Minimum Wage:

* Alexander (R-TN)
* Allard (R-CO)
* Bennett (R-UT)
* Bond (R-MO)
* Brownback (R-KS)
* Bunning (R-KY)
* Burr (R-NC)
* Chambliss (R-GA)
* Coburn (R-OK)
* Cochran (R-MS)
* Cornyn (R-TX)
* Craig (R-ID)
* Crapo (R-ID)
* DeMint (R-SC)
* Ensign (R-NV)
* Enzi (R-WY)
* Graham (R-SC)
* Gregg (R-NH)
* Hagel (R-NE)
* Hatch (R-UT)
* Inhofe (R-OK)
* Isakson (R-GA)
* Kyl (R-AZ)
* Lott (R-MS)
* McCain (R-AZ)
* McConnell (R-KY)
* Sununu (R-NH)
* Thomas (R-WY)

White. Male. Republican. Over 50. Flag lapel pins. Southern. Corporate sellouts all.

Know your enemy.