Costs an arm and a leg

Now here's a solution for all you people who lose their credit cards and can't remember PIN numbers... Get a chip implanted in you and use you arm as payment method. Now, instead of stealing your wallet, thieves will saw off your arm. So much more practical, isn't it?

9/11 World tour

9/11 World Tour continues with hit after hit.

Once again a a wave or terror has hit a nation built on the rule of force perpetrated by 'suspects' of doubtful ability who do not claim responsibility for the attack who are all linked to SNOWBALL!!!... (oops, gotta get that animal farm outta my head) AL QAIDA!!!!

The Spanish production did not profit it's producers but the Uzbek one certainly did. Uzbekistan, on the northern borders of Iran and Afghanistan, hasn't done well since the death of it's Soviet father but it has learned a few things. In a place where communist architecture being preserved in it's purest forms it has built a police state Foucher would have gushed over. Cops stationed every 500 meters on all main streets. People 'seeing' microphones in everything from flower bud to their neighbors'' door knobs. Torture being 'administered' to cure such things as petty thieves' tight lips. Oh it's a wonderful place.

A state the US state department has been shy of funding... I mean 'aid'. Even as it thumps the human rights bible when ever China says peep it relunctantly hands over a few million to a nation it can't deny has one of the worst record on the planet. Burma they can crucify all they want. They don't need much funding to continue the good work. But Uzbekistan was on the verge of losing that 200M$ pat on the back before this little happening.
But two days after it's 'victimization' and getting back on it's 'War on Terror' (isn't war the definition of terror?) war horse, it being one of the proud members of Bush's co-allition, it has recovered this shot in the back... I mean arm. Message? Terror pays.
Look ahead to 9/11's upcoming tour hitting the Philippines, Columbia, Russia, Pakistan and maybe even Poland.

It's nice to take a little walk around the world once in a while.

While Carl Rove is spinning everything that twists in the USA the Russian Deputy State Duma Chairman threatens to anihilate Latvia on an interview on their own television network.

Zhirinovsky predicted terrorist attacks on Latvia and said, "Latvia will be destroyed. Empty space will be there. Absolutely nothing will remain from Latvia. Everybody will forget the words "Latvia" and "the Latvian language". There will be nothing in Latvia, forever. We will destroy everything. If you touch Russians and Russian schools. I assure you. Nothing will remain".

I guess that's what you could call that 'mad dog' diplomacy.

China weighs in.

The long booming Chinese economy is stressing global raw material production to a severe degree. It alone is now consuming 40% of the world's coal, 25% of our steel and nickel and 19% of our aluminum. Macquarie bank has stated that there is a shortfall of 30 million tonnes of steel. "We are now in unknown territory in the matter of prices". The prices of steel, copper, nickel, platinum and coal are at their highest since the 1973 oil crisis. And these costs are not due to political actions. They are simply the result of massive demand for diminishing offer.

The price of maritime freight has quadrupled. Under these stresses a mere shipping delay or train accident turns into a disaster. The world's shipping network is opperating on a 'just too late' basis.

The Chinese are not gluttons. They are simply hungry but, as always, there are just so many of them. Will these prices cause stresses to their belated development? Will they begin to seek military control of sources beyond their borders? Siberia is but a stone's throw north. If so Russia will be back to fighting it's traditional enemy, as opposed to those North American upstarts.

Will these prices strangle the tottering economies of the developed nations? Will it bolster those of producing nations such as mine? One thing is certain. This will only acercebate the amount and rate of ecological damage which we have long been very much worried about.

Ah... Finally it's time for the legends of cold war geopolitical grease to shine. Posthumously of course.

Yeah, the lore surrounding these guys is thick with drama. Marcos' hunt for a sunken WW2 Japanese submarine carrying gold to Berlin is a story you'll hear over cognac and cigars once the women and children have been spared (aka left to gossip and kiss in the bushes) in your south east asian diplo parties. 2 things about that one. The gold belongs, to this day and by all rights, to Japan and who ever might have found it probably wished he didn't.

But it's the wives that carry these trophies the best.

Their corruption and profligacy are the stuff of myth.

Mrs Marcos (nice shoes but bad teeth) ran for the presidency of the Philippines on a charity for the poor platform. Not a bad choice since that's where she got the cash for her 3000 pumps. The shooes the shooes... After this little tryst with politics she was charged with the usual gamut of corruption stuff. Bribery, fraud etc... She pleaded that she was not fit to stand trial. "Her eye is deteriorating" stated the fawning doctor. But I don't think it was glaucoma that was making her blind in the first place.

Mrs Ten Percent, the wife of Suharto, well Mrs Tien in fact, I don't know much about apart from the rumor that she took, you guessed it, 10% of every deal she put together. I guess she'd call it a commission.

Sese Seko didn't have a wife as such. Which is probably why his cancer was said to be caused by AIDS. Not much of a stretch when talking about the Congo.

But I've got to hand it to Mr Abacha. Between hanging dissidents the pumpers of hell's blood pleaded him not to he stole a cool 2-5 G$ (you can thank banking secrecy laws and the fact that these guys usually control the banks they stash their loot in for the half or twice estimates) in a mere 5 years. Quite a feat. Then again Nigeria has more Texas Tea then Jeb could ever shoot at. I guess this would be your case in point here. Doesn't really matter how dosh you drop on these Looter Kings they'll just take it as royalties on drilling rights or on their homespun anti communist dogma.

But what I love the most of these Looter Kings is that they all died in exile begging to be accepted anywhere at all. Actually I'm not sure Suharto is dead, but he will die, in exile. Sese Seko had a very had time finding some place to draw that terminal breath. Running around helter skelter until he was finally 'let' in by the King of Morocco. I don't know what the rent was but he didn't have to pay for it for more then a couple months.

Marcos got himself a nice little beach house on Hawaii. But I'm sure his wife's breath was hell enough to bare. At first they really thought they could get away with literally looting their nation's treasuries of these gifts from heaven. In the end they quite realized that their stink was nothing any 'respectable' country was willing to add to their putrifying national bouquet. Morocco couldn't care less. Remember that little fight with the King of Spain for spits of rock in the Gibraltar straights? Smoke and mirrors for his multi million dollar wedding party.

Breaking 9/11 news (from www.whatreallyhappened.com)

FBI translator, Sibel Edmonds, was offered a substantial raise and a full time job in order to not go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA.

Sometimes it's either laugh or gawk at how intellectually gimped some people can be.

Darn I was beat to the punch. But I think it's all good in the end. How can people change how gullible they are if they don't know it?

But then again I think that it all means that someone out there is a little fed up with the 'greenies'. I'm not, but if people go nuts over this at first sight they do need a wake up call.

I guess legalizing advertising prescription drugs is a clear sign of our forgetfulness of the nefarious character of the corporation. Before there were regulations quality, as in a product that won't kill you (like gin that doesn't include turpentine (for that extra kick) as an ingredient) was more of a choice then an matter of law.

"Who needs energy market regulations? We've been doing just fine for the past 80 years." Would say Ken Lay. I guess he hopes we've forgotten that the olny reason corporate energy producers have been playing nice guys is because of the straight jacket FDR strapped on them after the gleeful days following the 1929 crash. Why a straight jacket? Cause they're freaking nuts

Only 6% of drug advertising material is supported by evidence.

That toy, car makers, exercise machine makers exaggerate the benefits of their products, fine. But it when it comes to drugs, it's you and your body which pay the price of dishonesty and greed.

Oh Mah Gawd! Tom Clancy was raght!

What can I say? Life imitating art? I couldn't write something as far fetched if I was trying to. Or if I was trying to pass off as mentally ill. I don't see why they killed off their team... kinda weird. No survivors of a team of 100 agents which have had an escape plan since they got their assignments sounds a bit strange. On the other hand where did these billions end up, quite possibly the same that Uday and Qusay "drove off" with in the mad confusion of the fall of Daddy. At first I thought it was a finely organized companies of Russian mobtsers that cleaned out the museums of Babylon. Now it might very well be the work of American ones. Well maybe not quite so finely. To Americans Finesse is a brand of shampoo. But stealing art treasures does sound like someone we all know. Ya know, the guy with the Austrian salt mines and silly little mustache.

Ya know, when the poles paid 1 million marks (the highest amount paid for a single act if espionage) for the stolen enigma code is a matter of spook legend. Their cavalry charges couldn't have been able to do much against the blitzkrieg but they beat the Gestapo et al out of their most precious secret. When the USA kills off all it's men to loot pocket change and few pot shards ya really kinda to wonder how old Dick Cheney is. He probably sings the Mickey Mouse club song when he showers.
Pathetic. Purely pathetic.

Truth be told there isn't much about the American government that isn't. Being Canadian and a pretty talkative guy I've heard a lot of stories of exactly how pathetic the American army from is Canadian soldiers which have come in contact with them. Stories of American worried about a dressing down from their CO after they lost their weapon. I've heard it a few times. From assault weapons to artillery pieces. But this one takes the cake. In any real millitary lossing your weapon will land you in the brig. It's like beating up your wife in public, instant jail.

While advancing through Iraq a company of mechanized infantry received small arms fire from a house a few hundred yards away. The entire column stopped and deployed it's men. They took cover and awaited orders. Pinned down with their Bradley cannons, missiles and body armor by two Iraqi regulars shooting their AKs out of sheer panic they called for an air strike. It missed. While a company of mechanized infantry carrying the most firepower ever assembled in history on such a unit fell in consternation as to how to get rid of these freaked senseless Iraqis (who were probably entirely puzzled as to why they were still alive) a British observing officer walked up to the American captain while being besieged to take cover from entirely harmless small arms fire and asked what was happening. When told he asked an American soldier for his rocket launcher. Then simply, standing as straight as if he was greeting relatives at the airport he folded it out and destroyed the house in one shot. As seen on CNN.
Ever heard of the one where American soldiers when captured and tied to trees during exercises by Canadian soldiers started whining about it being against the rules. Yeah, apparently hostile action against the US Army is 'against the rules'. Truth be told i've heard stories of American soldiers whining alot. The again those are usually your regulars at the begining of wars though.

If they weren't so scary they would be the actions of a pariah state. At least North Korea has a respectable army. In fact they scare everyone. Even more, they are closet heroes to alot of South Koreans. It has something to do with not folding to American or Japanese demands.

USA tried to plant WMD's in Iraq -- and failed, says Pentagon whistleblower.

U.S. Harbored Terrorists to Bolster Its Case
This one is from Whatreallyhappened.com and the Moscow Times:

Citing U.S. military officials, NBC News reports that over many months last year, the Bush administration had several chances to take out the Zarqawi boys. But it declined, because "the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam."

In other words, the man that Colin Powell claimed was cooking up ricin to kill you with was kept alive by the White House just so Colin Powell could claim he was cooking up ricin to kill you with.

This is like the police letting criminals run wild to prove how much you need a police force.

Terrorist attack causes widespread fury.

My Lord! How could I have doubted you!

Nah... it's just a Lebanese millionaire living in Chelsea with not much left to do after he was arrested for playing silly buggers with a French black blood sucking companies.

To me it just sounds like more of those desperate half baked attempts by those soon to be ex-billionaires to find any way to refund those languishing accounts and lift those waning society smiles.

Yeah, Aristide is saying a lot of things. Many of them like his new found near neighbor, Nigeria and the C.A.R aren't far away after all, Chuck Taylor.
Mainly that he's the president in exile. That he's saying that he was abducted is entirely believable. He probably believed that those mobs of armed men gathering around his palace could be talked into letting him stay as president. Something the boys in red white and blue couldn't do when they told him they came to save his sorry ass. Something the USA seems to have been doing for a while with their banana republicans.

If there is a pattern it is that the USA is #1 in grasping half baked plans to protect 'vital national interests' such as bananas. In all it they turned out ok. Well, if you're looking for a nice place to go after ditching that deathly dull 'burbs life for piracy, drugs/guns/slave running (oh yeah slavery is in coming back big).

On the other hand...

Justice of for losers

.No millions without my billions.

Osama! We made the front page again! Didn't even lift a finger this time!

Warming Shwarming! I want my Cadillac street tank.


I guess i'll just stick to sports for the good news.

The plane intercepted in Zimbabwe with mercenaries thought to be hired to overthrow the leader of Equatorial Guinea came from a US military base.

Add this to Aristide saying he's been abducted from Haiti by US forces.... do we see a pattern here?

9/11's World Tour opens with smash hit.

Once again a nation has deemed the killing a it's citizens is well worth the sacrifice when it comes to holding the same people in prisons of terror.

The article says it all. The ETA have been reduced to smithereens (good thing) by French and Spanish police. Their last bombing attempt was foiled. The ETA usually warns of imminent attacks. And most absolutely crucial, absolutely paramout and in perfect parallel with the WTC bombings; the ETA, as with Al Qaida, did not claim this bombing. They are simply being blamed. When it comes to terrorist bombings not claiming an attack is a simple waste of effort and resources. The entire point of 'classical' terrorism is to bring attention to a cause. It is the single unifying factor of these movements. Not claiming an attack when it comes to these movements is nothing more then an act of insurrection. In this case the ETA does not have the resources to neither hold control over the territory claimed or take advantage of it's success. This having happened in Madrid makes this ridiculous as a premise to anyone, including the ETA. If it had been an act of insurrection it would have occurred, obviously, within the ETA's contested territory. If this had been in fact an ETA hit, especially of this size, they would have claimed the attack in every major news source they hold any credibility with. The leader of Batasuni, ETA's political faction, Arnaldo Otegi "does not think" the ETA caused this. Had he been at all aware of this, and if anyone would have it would be him, he would have a prepared press statement. I cannot see him as having been kept ignorant of such a coup. Had he not been it would show a massive falling out. Not the sign of a 'healthy' terrorist organization.

For bombings of this size and deadliness the Spanish police forces must have turned a blind eye to everything they were there to watch; the people, the places, the activity. The shear number of attacks means that, if they had been at all alert, something would have been said. At least citizens would have been warned. The ETA's deadliness bombing happened in 1987, 17 years ago, which it apologized for. When they were much stronger. It killed 21 in a supermarket in Barcelona. How can an organization crippled by the capture of a number of it's upper echelon be able to organize this kind of attack.

Not only this but this bombing occurred days before an extremely unpopular Prime Minister, a staunch Bush supporter, one of who's major campaign issues was how to control and suppress the ETA, was about to lose his seat as such.

Once again this is too much.

Have I lost my mind or did I die and wake up in Kafka's dreams?

Last week an Algerian refugee was arrested while seeking asylum in a church in Quebec city for attempting to secure Canadian citizenship for fellow refugees. Only to be remanded to American 'authorities' (not that they are not given the rights to exercise it, but i can't see what kind they can possibly hold) who will extradite him to Algeria. Where he will most possibly find himself in an impossible situation when attempting to appeal any of these decisions. Summary execution does render a lot of these questions moot.

Not only has easy going Quebec broken the last refuge of the innocent, as the court of law has obviously lost any such appeal, it has (this is the part making me question my state of being) are repeating the Harrar affair. Not quite verbatim as Harrar was 'apprehended' while in transit at JFK in New York on his way back home to Toronto. This time though this Muslim Algerian was hiding for his life in a Christian church in the country he came to save it only to be taken, can't say arrested really since no charges have been laid, to be handed over to a nation who has absolutely no right to impose it's law upon him as he is neither an American citizen, was in the USA and did he commit any crime within the territory of the USA, who will soon send him back to the land he fled to most probably face execution. In short... ,pardon me but, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!!!
Zola would be speechless.

Oh, never mind this new Prime Minister of ours is fighting a scandal where he approved 100s of millions to swing the vote in the 1995 Quebec referendum, and beyond. He's firing people left right and center. Most of which are now spitting acid all over his case. Obviously he's personally implicated as he was Minister of Finance at the time. And the most pathetic part is his defense: "I don't know anything. I was just the guy signing the cheques."
He's been talking about voluntary measures (the criminal charges suggested by the auditor general are obviously going too far for such things and embezzlement and fraud of millions by the government) and full disclosure, which is easy to do when you 'know nothing'. Obviously he doesn't. When he asked how much his company, Canadian Steamship Lines, received in contracts from the federal government he gave the figure of 163 000$, which was probably his salary as cabinet minister. It was in fact 163 000 000$. That was pretty much the first we heard of this guy as far as how much he knew of anything belonging to him. I swear to god he probably doesn't know the middle names of his children. And i wouldn't be surprised if he looked at his fingers when asked what 7% tax amounted to on 100$.

Yeah, Bush likes this guy too. When asked about the war on terror after moving into 24 Sussex the lumpy twat sez: "Chretien did nothing but fight the Americans over this. I'm here to show them how much we've done." I don't know if getting rid of habeas corpus was more of a suggestion then something we just did on our own but it's obviously something Mr Martin (don't repeat this but he's not our prime minister, he's a clone from planet X-ray who has come to eat your children. OK maybe not, but there's no way I'll accept him as PM.) is happy to show off to Dubya.

This is just too much. Much much farther then "this is not Canada". It's a lot more like "this is not democracy". But either way I don't think Paul Martin knows the difference anymore, or in the first place for that matter.

From Francois X:

ExxonMobil are a security threat greater then loose
nukes and deranged Arabs sez the CIA.

Aparently the millions will die for oil after all. Or
because rather. Let's all hope the CIA will be close
enough to be listened to when dropping the bad news.
Then again it didn't when it did about WMDs.

I guess that's what happens when you feed your wallet
on hell's blood (it's black, it burns and it comes
from the 'underworld'). Ya know turn into a character
from Devil's Advocate.