Bring in the Conspiracy theories…

Where the heck’s all the blood?

“…the CIA did it to take the heat off the Pentagon”–NBC reporter stated tonight prime time news, continuing, “…a story that will not die easily here in the Arab world”.

“No hay manera que el individuo en el video estaba vivo y su corazon funcionando cuando le estaban cortando la cabeza. En estos casos, el corazon impela sangre con gran presion, y se corta las arterias del pezqueso, hay una gran cantidad de sangre que salpica por todos lados. En mi opinion el video es un fraude.”

–Doctor Raul Castro Guevara

Oh, I find it very interesting, because out of the blue, there is a mention of al Qaeda on the U.S. government translation. It says: “Does al Qaeda need any further excuses?” Any speaker of the Arabic language is going to notice a difference between the word al Qaeda, which means “the base,” and al qaed, which means “the one sitting, doing nothing.”

My translation says: “Is there any excuse for the one who sits down and does nothing?” Basically they’re telling people, you have no excuse for not doing anything, for not acting and defending Islam and so forth. Whereas the U.S. government translation has this factual error, I’m sure it’s an honest mistake, but basically it sort of adds al Qaeda to the statement, which is not on the statement.

— CNN transcript, CNN SR. EDITOR FOR ARAB AFFAIRS Octavia Nasr

One of the clues the FBI and CIA is studying is the large gold ring Zarqawi is wearing on his right hand, giving off a glare several times during the six-minute tape.

There are the ingredients. Toss the salad whichever way you want to toss that salad.

Runninv over to the website “www.informationclearinghouse.info” over here, despite myself. (I really don’t have any interest in seeing the Al Qaeda beheading video, which I understood to be linked there.)

And…

Uh oh. My brainpan– she’s a’bending with images of the Department of Homeland Security running into dude’s house.

Or, more mundanely, The Bill Collectors. Whichever.

Looks like:

Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

Archive.org only brings us up to March of 2003, so I guess I hope somebody out there has mirrored this site… while we watch the google cache of the America-haters guide to the news fades away into oblivion…

… at least until dude pays his bills.

… or, if it’s the case, until the Department of Homeland Security relents… oh, wait. You can’t fight those guys, can you?

Hm…

I heard a Lyndon LaRouche commercial on Portland’s “Air America” station at, oh… about 4 am or thereabouts.

Apparently he wants to get us out of Iraq (through negotiations with Egypt and Iran and… other middle eastern countries), form a security zone of some sort (I suppose it’d be an exclusionary zone by default), and…

That way we can move our resources back to solving the real pressing problems: the looming global economic collapse.

This is the gist of the 30 seconds.

Regarding the global economic collapse: the Art Bells and Jeff Renses are always insisting that it’d be wise to buy your way into gold. (After the Y2K scare petered out… the sentiment continues unabetted.)

I assume that that is the sentiment of the LaRouchites as well… (consider that Jeff Rense is quite sympathetic toward LaRouche.)

The George Soroses of the world are currently betting against the dollar. (Europe would end American hegenomy through trade… and with a unified Euro.)

That, too, feeds into the Gold commonities market fervor.

It’s worth noting that Osama Bin Laden has endorsed Gold.

They didn’t have the guts to do it during the Cold War…

The measure would require special elections within 45 days of the House speaker confirming that a catastrophic event had left at last 100 of the 435 seats vacant. Language was added to ensure that military personnel stationed overseas would have their voting rights protected.

Still, in a gesture to Democrats and some in his own party who favor the constitutional approach, Sensenbrenner pledged that his committee would vote on a proposed constitutional amendment in the near future.

Comment from erstwhere… (2 points to whomever can figure out what “erstwhere” location it came from):

I posted these lines from THE HANDMAID’S TALE just a day or two ago, just before hearing of this “contingency plan”.

Quote
I guess that’s how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.
It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machin-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.
Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.
……..That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on…

The Lyndon LaRouche supporter asks me “What’s it going to take to open these people’s minds up and see the big picture?”

“Hm.” I stop walking, and turn to him. “You know, I’ve been wondering. What does LaRouche have against the British Royal Family?”

He paused. And provided me with the best details he could drudge up at short notice. They fund the (struggle to come up with the acronym… I offer up WTO for lack of anything better, which is rejected) WWF… no, not the World Wilflife Federation, and no not World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly Federation), but a 3rd world aid program that is purposefully destroying the world.

Or something to that effect.

And it all goes back to the Bankers… at which point, he needs to backpeddle and assure with self-awareness of what “Bankers” often seems to codifyingly signify, “This is where LaRouche detractors try to nail him, and misunderstand him.”

“You can email the man to find out more, you know.”

“Hm. Okay.”

There I bid a farewell… still not sure what Lyndon LaRouche has against the British Royal Family.

Hillary wants to be on the VP ticket so that she dispels the notion that the Clintons are sabotaging the campaign and so that she can also go out there and really be the star. She’d be the star because she’ll be the one bringing excitement to it. And, by the way, she’ll get all kinds of criticism and the Republicans will launch all they’ve got at her, and she’ll endure that. They know that they’re pretty confident Kerry is going to lose and if Kerry wins there’s always Fort Marcy Park. So they’re rolling the dice on this.

So says Rush Limbaugh, references being to Vince Foster.

I don’t know who has these notions that the Clintons are sabotaging the campaign, btw. Still, the Clintons may just have Kerry assassinated if it looks like he’s going to win…

… and that brings Hillary Clinton, the woman who’s not going to be the vice presidential pick but a lot on the right continue to insist will be…

… because they want her to be president. I don’t want Hillary Clinton to be president, but Rush Limbaugh and Dick Morris sure do.

On the other side, there are those who believe that Paul Wellstone was assassinated. A letter to the Progressive Magazine put it, While you were writing a fucking eulogy to Wellstone, Alternet and World Socialist Web was raising the issue of his possible assasination. As usual, you’re not too swift on what the public is concerned about.

Coast to Coast guest-host, Ian Punnett, (tangant factoid alert: he’s called “God-boy” by his detractors), did a show entertaining the possibilities.

Amusing. Sure Wellstone was assassinated. But he was assassinated by Clinton, to get the old hacks of the Council on Foreign Relations in power… (or, I suppose, Norm Coleman is a safe man for the power-elite). Hey! You have to go beyond raw party-line politics here… Michael Ruppert…:

The day after the crash I received a message from a former CIA operative who has proven extremely reliable in the past and who is personally familiar with these kinds of assassinations. The message read, “As I said earlier, having played ball (and still playing in some respects) with this current crop of reinvigorated old white men, these clowns are nobody to screw around with. There will be a few more strategic accidents. You can be certain of that.”

At any rate…

If John Kerry dies before the election, is the optimum term “Vince Fostered” or is “Wellstoned”? Does it depend on the circumstances?

Occasionally I have to ponder how these things travel around through cyberspace, and what bumpy speedbumps allow them to reach some people at some times, and other people at later times…

The last item that had me with this question came when I started noticing Biking Through Chernobyl seemingly everywhere. What high-volume website linked to that?

Which, I guess, is part of the question that meme project is trying to unravel.

Atrios linked this.

I’ve seen this before. Over a year ago. I think from the somewhat sketcy informationclearinghouse, which I read regularly.

Well… actually, I breeze over it, take a general tone of what disparate sources are saying, and read when something strikes me as relevant. Much as I breeze over, say, The Oregonian. Headline writers, take heed, as always.

I’m struck, though. Atrios never came across this before?

Beyond the creeping feeling of either incompetence or of misplaced priorities, which is blazened more from Condi Rice’s 2002 statement on the matter of planes as missiles…

the more conspiracy-minded (I do have the Alex Jones weblogs pieced together in a folder in my bloglines compendium) take it to mean… the government… did it.

Or, maybe even…, well, the Murdoch owned outlet had a headline designed to sell papers.

… one of the rare instances when a NY Post headline received more credence from the left than from the right (How do you think this headline went over under this dichometical rubric?

The bizarre Condi Rice quotation, “I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.” feeds into this shallow graveyard of conspiratorial bliss as much as it’d feed into the more subdued explanations…

Start with the question Why did Condi say that?

And the dots may get connected in a rather haphazard manner… Some dots that are off the screen get connected to dots that are dead center…

Alas,
Odd dots.

Alex Jones‘s matrix of websites directed us all to the liberal/left version of the Drudge Report…

I should probably stick the famous Tommy Franks quote on the sidebar, because (a) it is as fascinating as the quotes that are over there (Pope John Paul II’s and Benjamin Franklin’s.) …

“It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.”

Spain, of course, had the audacity to elect someone of a party still vaguely attached to its old socialist past in the wake of a terrorist strike. Which spurred the denziens from one of the “dark corners of the Internet” (paraphrasing Clinton from April of 1999) debating. And which had right-wing punditry with credentials from Broadcasting Schools blathering:

“If we are attacked before our election like Spain was, I am not so sure that we should go ahead with the election. We had better make plans now because it’s going to happen.” Sean Hannity.

And, of course, what usurpation of democracy would be complete without Rush Limbaugh weighing in? “Do [the terrorists] bide their time and wait, or do they try to replicate their success in Spain here in America before our election?” Limbaugh asked, before revealing how “titans of industry,” and “international business people (who do not outsource, by the way)” were “very, very, very concerned” that one true party forever rule the Fatherland.

“They all were seeking from me reassurance that the White House was safe this year, that John Kerry would not win,” Limbaugh said. “Who do you think the terrorists would rather have in office in this country — socialists like those in Spain as personified by John Kerry and his friends in the Democratic Party, or George W. Bush?”

(Note that Tom Tomorrow has noticed this line of reasoning:)

Flicking on toward the end of the article:

But before the Madrid bombings; before Richard Clarke’s revelations; before more whistleblowers peeked out from under the muck, David Rothkopf made everything oh-so-clear. Writing about the “military officers, policymakers, scientists, researchers and others who have studied [terrorism] for a long time,” he explained how the majority of experts he spoke to not only predicted that the pre-election assaults would “be greater than those of 9/11,” but that any act of terrorism would work in the President’s favor. “It was the sense of the group that such an attack was likely to generate additional support for President Bush,” he wrote.

Citing how “assaults before major votes have [traditionally] benefited candidates who were seen as tougher on terrorists,” Rothkopf catalogued events in Israel, Russia, Turkey and Sri Lanka before explaining the symbiotic relationship between terrorists and hardliners. “So why would [terrorists] want to help [hardliners] win?” he asked. “Perhaps because terrorists see the attacks as a win-win. They can lash out against their perceived enemies and empower the hard-liners, who in turn empower them as terrorists. How? Hard-liners strike back more broadly, making it easier for terrorists as they attempt to justify their causes and their methods.”

And this writer’s “money-shot”…

So, what the heck. If others can do it, I can, too. So I’ll go out on a limb a make a prediction of my own: If the truth continues to seep out about the way the Bush administration has failed us, suspending the election may be the only way Bush can win.
My darkest fear is that G.W.’s handlers believe this, too.

Welcome to “the dark corners of the Internet”, I guess… But notice something. The Alex Jones matrix of websites puts that quote in bold.

I understand why the Buzzflash submitter would come up with that. He’d be prone to a partisan, of the traditional “Democrat” / “Republican” variety, conspiracy theory. But, the Alex Jones weblogger should be able to see beyond this “matrix” and note that the denziens of power work beyond “G.W.’s handlers”.

Why would “they” cancel elections if John Kerry (remember: Skull and Bones) is lined up as George W’s replacement?

Though, he’s just reporting what’s out there. Maybe.

Please let me tell you,
They own our homes, they own our banks
We take out loans to buy them tanks
They own our children, they own our pets
The owned Elvis and Bernhard Goetz
They own our rugs and our flower pots
There ain’t nothin’ they haven’t got
They own the papers and the TV’s
The water works, record companies

Let me remind you,
They own the talk shows
They make the rules
They own Geraldo and Donahue
They own the state, they own the church
They pick the winners on Star Search
They own the Christians, they own the Jews
They own the Moslems, Mormons, too
They put the holes in our socks
They put that snake in my mail box

From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli
We are all tools of the conspiracy
From the littlest baby to the biggest V.I.P.
We are all tools of the conspiracy

Run to the window, they’re coming to get you
Hide in the basement, they’re coming to get you
Flee to the rooftop, they’re coming to get you
Don’t go outside, no don’t let them get you

Someone should tell you,
They own the CIA and the IRS
They tell us where to shop and how to dress
They own the workers, they own the boss
They know what’s in the secret sauce
They own the drugs, they own the narcs
We all know they own Dick Clark
They own it all, they own everything
They write the songs that make the whole world sing

From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli
We are all tools of the conspiracy
From the littlest baby to the biggest V.I.P.
We are all tools of the conspiracy

Dead Milkmen…

Back in the late 1990s, one of the major news periodicals — Newsweek, Time, US and World Report, (given my general reading of the three magazines, probably US&WR) — featured Portland State University as an example of a place with dysfunctional student elections, and negative student elections.

The elder statesman of the college newspaper, a student who fought in WWII, pointed out, perhaps a bit cynically, that it was perfect preparation for the reality of politics in the real world — no big deal.

Well, lo and behond, it’s now 2004. And the ASPSU elections at this particular college were canned, a day and a half into the three-day period of voting.

If the “Extra Edition” (all of 4 pages) were online, I’d link to the story… but alas, I’ll have to excerpt longhand:

The announcement sent shockwaves aross a crowded ASPSU office, which was filled with many candidates who cursed, cheered, or cried. “They just came down and dropped a nuclear bomb on this election,” said Election Committee Chair Aaron O’donnell. Amongst the crowd one name could be heard under the breath of many: Reina Abolofia. Samuels’ decision to terminate the elections revolved around the election committee’s decision not only to remove Abolofia as the campaign manager for the progressive slate and shut down a campaign web site, but also to bar her from even talking to fellow students about the election in an attempt to influence their vote. The committee came to the decision last week after they deemed campaigning materials that Abolofia made illegal.

The email response shocked the fallen campaigneer, who then sought the legal counsel of ACLU lawyer Michael Simon.

This, in and of itself, is all unimportant and of no concern to just about everyone. The only thing I can surmise is that this particular campaign was an unapologetically negative campaign, prone to hyperbole — and indeed framed their campaign as a run against the college President. Beyond that, I don’t know… maybe the PSU students can elect Kevin Shapiro to every position… (or for that matter, “Bud Man”.)

But get out your tinfoil hats, and if not actually secure it onto your head, then just sort of move it over your head.

In the land of conspiracy theories, this being the Alex Joneses of the world, we get the pondering question of what it would take to cancel elections.

Look to Russia, recently hit with a terrorist attack — a subway bombing from those fighting Chechnians. Timed for the elections… though, as Colin Powell would phrase in more diplomatic terms than I — Russia ain’t a democracy… the party and Putin owns the media, and the difference between the upcoming election and the old Soviet elections is that Putin is primed to get 85% of the vote instead of the old standard 99.997%.

Look to Spain. Terrorist attack just days before the election. The elections proceed apace.

Elections, per se, are not cancelled. The problem with conspiracy theorists is that they occasionally can’t get out of the party-box: history runs apace whomever is tenuably in power. Elections can’t and won’t be cancelled.

Spin over to the USA. Right-wing absurdities not withstanding, I hazard to guess how a terrorist strike would affect the elections. I suppose it would consolodate power to the powerful.

But one need not tread there — such thought is irresponsible and reckless, and entertaining only in a fantasy realm of dark contrivances. Throw aside the persistant rumours that Bin Laden is on ice, while we’re at it. The truth actually appears to be just as cynical: after a couple years of laxity in our mission of punching Al Qaeda out of the terrain in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, in favour of scratching our Iraqi itch, we’re recommitting troops… we’re starting a new offensive, which might just capture Osama in time for the election…

Meanwhile, looking the other way on Pakistan’s misdeeds and inventing a fiction as to how the “Nuclear Supermarket to the World” has handled their business. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. World Politics is run off of the power of Fictions. (Just as Student Body Politics, actually.)