I looked way up my chimney hole,
I even looked deep inside my toilet bowl.
They got away. - Bob Dylan
In 1917 the posthumous, final volume of Charles Taze Russell's Studies in the Scriptures appeared, entitled - promisingly - The Finished Mystery. The book was published without the blessing of the board of his Watchtower Society, and would become one of its curses. Because the final revelation from the founder of Jehovah's Witnesses included the breaking news that the Christian church would be destroyed in 1918 and the world would end in 1920. When neither happened, a new edition of the book was released with what-he-really-meant-to-say revisions to the text.
Russell's early years were influenced by Nelson Barbour, an evangelist who had prophesied that Jesus Christ was destined to return bodily to Earth in 1873. When he failed to appear, Barbour issued a revised due date of 1874. After that too passed he smartly announced that Christ had, indeed, returned, but invisibly.
And maybe Karl Rove really has been indicted, invisibly, and Bad Santa Patrick Fitzgerald is filling our stockings out of season, and Jason Leopold and TruthOut haven't been suckered or compromised as artfully this year as Tom Flocco was flamboyantly last year, when he was serving up increasingly fabulist accounts - his and Sherman Skolnick's poetry slam conspiracy theories - of the Grand Jury expanding the scope of its investigation to include 9/11 and the indictments of Bush and Cheney. (It would appear that Barbara Olson is soon to begin her second year in custody somewhere on the "Polish-Austrian" border. Where's the mainstream media?)
Fitzmas, if it ever comes, is a religious holiday, because those whose heads make fine dance floors for its sugar plum fairies live by the faith that Fitzgerald will serve up more than failed pornographer Scooter Libby. Fitzianity demands nothing from its adherents except patience and wants nothing more than their speculation. God forbid that they should do something.
And the sham promise of this slave religion is nothing more than a few yellow cards to offenders long after the game has already been called in their favour. What kind of basket is that to carry all the rotton eggs of this wrecking crew? If Rove ever is indicted, so what? The Bush-by-proxy Reagan White House saw the most indictments in US history, and yet it's remembered fondly as a late golden age. Of course, this Bush White House won't be remembered that way, but it no longer matter who remembers what anymore. After all, American politics isn't exactly a popularity contest.
Chomsky's critique of "conspiracy theory" - at least those which pertain to conspiracies that hold no interest for him, such as JFK's assassination - is that their focus is personalities rather than structures of society. That's so wrong it's almost backwards, particularly here. Either those with big hopes for Fitzgerald's efforts believe certain heads must roll to set America right again, or they're just looking for the therapeutic benefit of striking back. And personalities are all we can touch through institutional justice. The deep politics embedded in the structures of power are removed from discussion and correction, and will, if left alone - as they usually are - continually renew themselves. It can spare a few heads for a Fitzmas because it's not a real guillotine.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's The City of Lost Children opens with a young boy watching with wonder as Santa Claus climbs out of the fireplace, brushes soot from his coat and kindly offers him a toy. A sweet scene. But then the boy's gaze returns to the fireplace, as another Santa, and more behind, enter the room, and the charm suddenly becomes a horror.
Beware of Santas bearing gifts.
58 comments:
A few dozen Santas bearing the heads of e.g. the CFR is a horror that would have me dancing in the street ... Kropotkins in merry red suits, now that might inspire hope!
Another brilliant post.
Which came first: the Safari Club's penetration of the Department of Justice, or the constitutive class-based antimonies of institutional justice?
Living in the age of the multitude and slogging under the constant barrages of memetic warfare, it might seem that the defaming of Mr. Leopold is comparable to the demoralizing prospect of the Ukranian famine. Well here's the good news: this psyop is aimed at the heart of the blogosphere, completely internalized and insulated from any practical reality. it will be months before this incident is disinterred by some plucky authors and integrated into some discursive demarche about False-Memmory-of-Criminality-Syndrome.
To those who fetishize the trivial details of every indictment, surely the delay and denial of satisfaction affords some commensurate level of masochistic satisfaction.
clean your muskets and ready the cannon, for a new weapon in the war of the spectacle has been unveiled that will put to shame the banal legacy of Karl Rove's rummored fate. it is a 20 minute testamonial from a veteran Army Ranger, a modern day Stan Goff with his own atrocity stories...Not to be missed.
Confessions
So right Jeff !
They will keep serving us small fish on a side plate until we're loosing our appetite. And the waiters will smile knowingly to eachother, realizing with content that the cooks will be happy.. No one will be eating the main course again today !
As my handle says, let me play Devil's Advocate.
The real 9/11 conspiracy is not what really took place, it is that the entire US Government was warned, repeatedly, through several different sources, that it was going to take place. And they did nothing.
The real Iraq conspiracy is not the reason for the war, it is that the entire US Government was warned, repeatedly, through several different sources, that it was going to a disaster on every single level (political, military, economic, diplomatic, etc) you care to name. And still they pressed on.
I don't think there is a 'master plan' at work here, because I believe in Hanlon's Razor, which is a good way of explaining the current administration: they are dumb as bricks. They don't have a master plan for world domination, they just lurch from one disastrous decision to the next. The real tragedy -- and the real conspiracy -- is that these dummies were "elected" in the first place, then "re-elected" by people who are just as dumb as they are.
Don't be silly people: conspiracy is a very tough, demanding job. Nothing in what I have seen so far allows me to think that this administration has the guts, and the brains, to carry out a conspiracy. What they do have, in abundance, is a huge supply of stupid.
I'll finish with this Daoist proverb:
"Those who speak, don't know. Those who know, don't speak"
I have "spoken" enough, and thus revealed my ignorance. I'll just shut up now.
(It would appear that Barbara Olson is soon to begin her second year in custody somewhere on the "Polish-Austrian" border. Where's the mainstream media?)
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Barbara Olson is ALIVE?!?!
I'm not being sarcastic. I'm genuinely shocked.
I just discovered rigorous intuition this weekend and have been gorging my mind on your well-salted conspiracy theories. But I guess I missed the post on Barbara Olson not having been incinerated on Flight 77 along with 91 other unfortunate souls. (?!?!) A huge WTF to this info.
::blinks several times in continued shock and disbelief::
Anyway, now I get a chance to tell you what a great blog this is. It's like the National Enquirer but with more respect for facts, and like the news except with more respect for details-- and a sense of humor. The people who post also have unusually insightful comments to offer and the blog wouldn't be the same without them.
Barbara Olson is alive. . ???
I frequent FDL for the latest Plame news and analysis, which is pretty good for a site wholly uninterested in parapolitics; and a caution has been put forth by some commenters, though not prominently, that those insisting on hero-worshipping Fitz not lay down and wait for Fitzmas, but do something. This seems wise, considering it has lately dawned on me that perhaps Fitz is not interested in the underlying crime-I was denounced as a "concern troll" when I worried that he would, maybe for years on end, continue prosecuting the cover-up and not the crime, and questioning the point.
It seems to me that the need for satisfaction in this case would be ill-served by such a course of action. So much emotion has been invested in Fitz there and in other places, whatever he does will be justified to the nth degree and denial will prevail.
That said, I am still patiently awaiting Fitzmas. Hope springs eternal.
After all, justice, even in small doses, has it's rewards.
um, no, devil's advocate. my god how the incompentence meme's gained its tentacles.
anyway, i was once told bush, cheney, rove are all indicted. and that its hidden.
"Barbara Olson is alive. . ???"
No, not really. And Flocco's report, initially placing her capture on a non-existant border, seemed almost intended to torpedo what credibility he hadn't already squandered.
silly rabbit, Jeff was being snarky about Skoknick, who reported sometime last year that Barbara Olsen was spotted on the Turkey-Pakistan border, which is silly on it's face.
DA: If they're so incompetent, how come they ain't poor, powerless, or in prison?
sillyrabbit: jeff was being satirical about the Barbara Olson claim, and Poland and Austria do not share a border.
sofla said:
Why Jeff joked about Barbara Olsen's still being alive has been covered (Flocco reported her ARREST overseas, and I guess, Skolnick did as well). I'd put the odds of her being alive at least at 50%, even if these particular reports to that effect were planted and false facts added in to poison that well.
Why would she still be alive? Because a) probably she didn't make that all-important phone call that created the knife/box-cutter-wielding hijacker meme from a moving airliner, and b) probably the flight she was allegedly on was not the plane or whatever it was that hit the Pentagon.
Often, it is actually true things that are discounted and pre-emptively trashed by propaganda means (see "Fortunate Son").
Sorry, should have been Polish-Austrian border in my previous post. Don't know why I have Turkey and Pakistan on the brain.;)
yeah last week sortly after the pentagon images were released i did a bit of research on the passengers of the flight that crashed into the pentagon. i see barbara olsen, CNN conservative pundit..died..made phone call to husband about box cutters and terrorists. i wondered what might have happened to her. also, what happened to the little kids on that flight?
i dont know.
Maybe it's just my cynicism coming through, but I'm truly amazed at the faith many seem to have that the Fitzgerald investigations are going to accomplish anything more than another re-arranging of the deckchairs. It's just another affirmation that the system 'really does work after all', that will affect no substantive change to the deep structure at work here. I hope that I'm wrong, but I fear that I'm not.
Also, I disagree with Devil's Advocate on the Bush team being stupid (though, based on the handle, so may D.A.). Bush may not be the brightest bulb in the administration, but he's not as dimwitted as they'd like you to think.
If you look at it from the point-of-view of his REAL constituents, Big Money interests like Oil, Arms, Pharma etc, BushCo is doing a bang-up job. They've established a permanent military presence in the middle east (they didn't go in without an exit strategy because they were stupid, they did it because there was never any intention of leaving), established a permanent undercurrent of paranoia at home (frightened people are easy to control, and they tend to buy more crap they don’t need), given out massive tax breaks the super-rich, shredded the subversive parts of the constitution (civil liberties, balance of powers), subverted democracy at the federal level (or the illusion of it), and established what amounts to a police state. Of course, this is all very bad for the average human at the bottom of the organizational pyramid (most of us), but it's just fine and dandy for those at the top.
I suppose an argument could be made that, eventually, it's a self-defeating strategy, but it's hard to say 'I told you so', when your bound and gagged in an orange jumpsuit somewhere. Or dead.
Speaking of Orange Jumpsuites, check out this story from News of the Wierd:
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html
"The Litigious Society
Outsized Payoffs: (1) The family of an 8-year-old boy in Espanola, N.M., won an award of $221,000 in April, payment for a bad half-hour experience for the boy when he was improperly booked, outfitted in an orange jumpsuit, and jailed after throwing a tantrum in his principal's office. "
A little unnerved by the framing of this as an overreaction by the boys family, and not as the outrage of gitmo-ing an 8-year-old for throwing a tantrum, but I guess that's the direction we're headed....
Oh, and welcome back Jeff! Hope the rest has done you good. You were missed, though I did get a little more work done this past week....
Ok, I'll shut up for a while now.
Spot on, Jeff!
I've felt for the better part of the past year that the Fitzgerald meme was nothing more than a cleverly staged psyop to get the dolts to believe that the system still works and there still is rule of law in this country. This keeps people bent over while the fiat of our socialist dictator in DC is carried out with reckless abandon by con-gress.
The more time people waste hoping against hope that Fitzgerald will somehow bag the bad guys when they in fact OWN the judicial system outright, the less time any meaningful resistance to DC's tyranny can take root. That;s the whole point here: you're putting faith in a compromised government official instead of in yourselves to clean house as needed.
Arrggg... Can't help it... Must respond....
'Socialist Dictator' is a contradiction in terms. Sort of like 'Christian Capatalist'. ;-)
Or 'Capitalist' even...
Al Gore said the following while promoting a new global warming film:
"I even believe there is a chance that within the next two years, even (President) Bush and (Vice President) Dick Cheney will be forced to change their position on this crisis," he said. "One can only attempt to create one's own reality for so long. Reality proper has a way of insisting itself upon you."
Proper reality needs a new press agent.
The US is ringing its irony bell again......
....can you hear it?
DING
DING
DONG
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/22/warms22.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/22/ixnews.html
American defence officials have secretly requested a "prodigious quantity" of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements.
The Bush administration is said to want the deal because of worries that the next president could be a Democrat, possibly Hillary Clinton, who may abandon Afghanistan.
Evidently Putin missed this before he denounced "wolf-like America."
http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/world/10040911.html
In his annual State of the Union Address, Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at "wolf-like" America. In a veiled reference to Washington's approach to international affairs, he said "comrade wolf knows whom to eat. He eats without listening and he is clearly not going to listen to anyone". He also accused the Bush administration of hypocrisy over its criticism of Russia's poor human rights record. "Where is all this pathos about protecting human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests?"
Most observers interpreted Putin's strongest verbal attack at the US since the end of the Cold War as a response to earlier remarks by US Vice-President Dick Cheney. Cheney castigated Russia for its poor performance on human rights and for using its natural resources as a tool of "intimidation and blackmail".
Indeed, Cheney's remarks must have irritated the Russian leader. They are seen in Moscow as rude interference in Russia's internal affairs and an attempt to influence its oil policy. Given Washington's strong relations with the autocrats of Central Asia, they are also regarded as another evidence of its double standard approach to democracy and human rights. Yet, in the light of repeated US criticisms to the Russian leadership in recent months, Cheney's remarks cannot alone explain the rising tension between the two rivals of the Cold War.
& finally, what's up with Judith Miller? This is one hell of a memory lapse.
http://www.alternet.org/story/36388/
In 2001, an anonymous White House source leaked top-secret NSA intelligence to reporter Judith Miller that Al Qaida was planning a major attack on the United States. But the story never made it into the paper.
*************************************************
"Everyone in Washington was very spun-up in the CT world at that time. I think everybody knew that an attack was coming -- everyone who followed this. But you know you can only 'cry wolf' within a newspaper or, I imagine, within an intelligence agency, so many times before people start saying there he goes -- or there she goes -- again!
"Even that weekend, there was lot else going on. There was always a lot going on at the White House, so to a certain extent, there was that kind of 'cry wolf' problem. But I got the sense that part of the reason that I was being told of what was going on was that the people in counter-terrorism were trying to get the word to the president or the senior officials through the press, because they were not able to get listened to themselves.
"Sometimes, you wonder about why people tell you things and why people … we always wonder why people leak things, but that's a very common motivation in Washington. I remember once when I was a reporter in Egypt, and someone from the agency gave me very good material on terrorism and local Islamic groups.
"I said, 'Why are you doing this? Why are you giving this to me?' and he said, 'I just can't get my headquarters to pay attention to me, but I know that if it's from the New York Times, they're going to give it a good read and ask me questions about it.' And there's also this genuine concern about how, if only the president shared the sense of panic and concern that they did, more would be done to try and protect the country.
"This was a case wherein some serious preparations were made in terms of getting the message out and responding, because at the end of that week, there was a sigh of relief. As somebody metaphorically put it: 'They uncorked the White House champagne' that weekend because nothing had happened. We got through the weekend … nothing had happened.
"But I did manage to have a conversation with a source that weekend. The person told me that there was some concern about an intercept that had been picked up. The incident that had gotten everyone's attention was a conversation between two members of Al Qaida. And they had been talking to one another, supposedly expressing disappointment that the United States had not chosen to retaliate more seriously against what had happened to the Cole. And one Al Qaida operative was overheard saying to the other, 'Don't worry; we're planning something so big now that the U.S. will have to respond.'
"And I was obviously floored by that information. I thought it was a very good story: (1) the source was impeccable; (2) the information was specific, tying Al Qaida operatives to, at least, knowledge of the attack on the Cole; and (3) they were warning that something big was coming, to which the United States would have to respond. This struck me as a major page one-potential story.
This is somewhat off topic, from the video that pete refers to above:
"Our job over there is to strike fear in the hearts of Iraqis ... do whatever it takes to make them fear you. They told us that we were not there for them [Iraqis], that we had our own purpose ... whether it was women, children, whatever, if they weren't dead, we had to finish them off and drag their bodies out ... Most of them were just families, hiding down there but ... they were crying out, they thought we were there for them but ... some of them weren't wounded very bad but we had to kill them ... I feel like I lost a lot of myself."
This inarticulate but honest army ranger killed 200 people in Iraq.
After all, a Long War requires a devoted adversary ...
The most important point about Barbara Olson is that she is/was married to TED OLSON the lawyer who argued the case before the Supreme Court in 2000 that tipped the scales and made Bush president. She was a conservative pundit. A married couple more on the 'inside' of this unholy cabal couldn't be found. So convenient that it was she who made the contoversial "cell phone" call to her husband Ted from the "plane" that crashed into the Pentagon. Just one of those amazing coincidences, no doubt.
Looks like your Army Ranger confessional site has been disabled.
"American politics isn't exactly a popularity contest"
Not sure why you believe this, even if the popularity contest is a negative, Hobson's choice contest, it's still a popularity contest.
"And the sham promise of this slave religion is nothing more than a few yellow cards to offenders long after the game has already been called in their favour."
Perfect analogy, Jeff.
"The more I understand hope, the more I realize that all along it deserved to be in the box with the plagues, sorrow, and mischief; that it serves the needs of those in power as surely as belief in a distant heaven; that hope is really nothing more than a secular way of keeping us in line.
Hope is, in fact, a curse, a bane. I say this not only because of the lovely Buddhist saying "Hope and fear chase each other's tails," not only because hope leads us away from the present, away from who and where we are right now and toward some imaginary future state. I say this because of what hope is."
Beyond Hope
As you know, there isn't a Poland-Austria border on which Barbara Olson could have been caught. And there is no corroborating evidence for the story of her arrest, either. Sounds like a red herring.
Hundreds of Santas here:
http://www.santarchy.com/
OT:
Hey Syn Diesel, if you see this, I couldn't get your PM at san, undoubtedly it was regarding apples... please resend, this time try not to get booted before I can read it!
Can someone please hook me/us up with the Ranger confessions "fear is the mindkiller" also known as confessions of an Imperial stormtrooper, The Empire was always good to me,great benefits! On a more profound note the great white hope is back W Axl Rose will reveal all when Chinese Democracy is played backwards, keep vinyl alive brethren ! Also jeff are you aware of Gary Mackinnon a uk hacker who is in deep sheeit for seeking info on non terrestial officers! free energy etc? video/audio links on news/bbc.co.uk for all the woo wwoos.Godbless to you and yours
Does this sound familiar?
http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/marcel.htm
Marcel then proceeded to tell me an intriguing story about an incident that had happened some years ago, when he was scheduled to be in Washington, DC. To this day he doesn't know how the participants knew where he would be at that particular time. When he arrived at his motel, there was a message waiting for him on the phone in his room. It was from a man we'll call Mr. "X". He wanted to meet with Marcel the following day, at 1:PM in a certain room at the Capital building. Marcel felt uneasy, but agreed to go to the meeting. On arrival, he was ushered into the office of Mr. "X", who got right down to business. "X" wanted to talk to Marcel about Roswell, and he asked if Jess would be more comfortable "in a secure room." When Marcel explained that he wouldn't be saying anything he hadn't said before, "X" pressed the idea of the secure room, explaining, "Well, maybe I want to tell you something you don't already know."
Leaving the office, they proceeded to the secure room where no listening devices existed, in an area Jess described as "the dungeons of the Capital building." They sat at a table where Marcel noticed a book about Alien Abductions, UFO technology and Roswell. "X" tapped on the book with his finger and said outright, "This is not fiction." The mysterious government insider continued talking for a while and then asked Marcel if he knew where the material recovered from the Roswell ranch was being kept. Jess found the question curious and said, "No. Don't you?" "X"'s answer was as curious as the question, so Marcel responded with a inquiry of his own: "If extraterrestrial activity is real, and you guys know it, when is the government planning Official Disclosure of what really happened at Roswell?"
"If it was up to me," "X" said, "we'd be doing it now."
Following a story like that, I just had to ask Col. Marcel if he personally knew of other members of the government and military who also are anticipating a future moment when the representatives of the world's religions and leaders of nations will stand in the well of the United Nations and say, "We have an announcement to make. We are in contact with extraterrestrial intelligence."
Marcel grew silent for a moment, then looked at me and whispered, "Yes."
Jeff,
I think you should add a "sic" after the non-existent "Polish-Austrian" border to indicate that that's what Flocco initially reported (though he's since corrected himself).
Fitz was implicated in the Navy attack on TCA 800. Since the charges against Libby only go as far as lieing how can you get to treason? You don't. The cash cow at the end of this rainbow is the Marc Rich story.
As far as Bush goes, they don't need to be smart, they have PROMIS. I did have a dream recently and Bush was in it. I remember thinking that he is actually a very nice person. What I couldn't understand was why a slightly demented person kept jumping out at Bush and scareing the crap out of him. He had huge bags under his eyes in his live press conference today (Jeff turn on your date stamp..May 22, 2006) which raised the question "Is he having similar dreams?"..
Well, I feel like a very dumb bunny indeed. So much for making a first impression. . .
Didn't notice the geographical impossibility because I was too busy gaping in disbelief over the (fictitious) Susan Olson sighting. It's a good fiction because as someone mentioned, I had read elsewhere that she shouldn't've been able to telephone from the plane.
The Rove indictment leaves me feeling sort of blah. Sort of like the Moussaoui trial. What a joke. I was so heartened that the jury hadn't seen fit to execute a schitzophrenic man for his thoughtcrime. . .then I found out that only one person on the jury had either the heart or the brain to pull the curtain on that whole farce. Or in the smarmy propaganda of Replicant G. W. Bush, to do something Moussaoui "wasn't willing to do for innocent American citizens."
Last week one of my co-workers was glued to the news in her office. She had a headache, and thought hearing about Rove's indictment would help it go away. "I don't think it [an indictment] will change anything," she said, "but it would make me feel better."
No, these war crimnals are NOT dumb as bricks.
Everything is going pretty much exactly according to plan. Their only problem is making the rest of us think what is happening is not really happening.
And they haven't actually been doing too badly on that count either -- although it is getting harder these days.
Their main problem is not their lack of brain power, but what is left of American democracy.
(And as a former JW (as a child in the late 70s), I liked the Charles Taze Russell mention. They all but said the end would come in 1975 also ...)
Y'know Mr. Wells, I've come to believe that you've got your finger right on the throbbing pulse of something, I'm just not exactly sure what that is.
http://haltingpoint.blogspot.com/2006/05/morgellons-diseaseviral-marketing-for.html
In a recent Slashdot story concerning Morgellons Disease it has been suggested that the recent buzz about Morgellons Disease has all been part of a viral marketing ploy for the upcoming movie A Scanner Darkly which is based on the Phillip K. Dick book by the same name.
The Wikipedia entry linked above cites the evidence for this as follows:
* The website claims that a "national news broadcast" will occur in June or July. The release date for the film is July 7.
* Morgellons.org and Morgellonusa.com (currently down) are both registered by a proxy company and contain no contact info.
* The first Morgellon's article on Wikipedia was created in February as a link to one of the above websites.
By far the biggest piece of damning evidence though is what is uncovered by the Slashdot post mentioned above that contains an excert from the opening chapter of the original Phillip K. Dick novel, A Scanner Darkly.
Even though initial research did not uncover which ad agency or PR firm is working with Warner Bros. on this, I'd have to say when you connect the dots this makes a lot of sense. Something similar was done before King Kong was released which amounted to a lot of popular internet news sites carrying stories about giant apes right before the movie was released. There didn't seem to be much evidence of this but it was fairly obvious to most readers of these sites that it was one big viral campaign, since while the stories were real, having that many published in such a short amount of time during that particular time is just too many coincidences.
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2006/05/is_morgellons_a_mark.html
The comments page of the earlier article on the psychology of Morgellons mention that there are rumours that the whole thing is a viral marketing campaign for the upcoming Philip K. Dick movie A Scanner Darkly - it's a theory that PKD would have been pround of, but almost certainly untrue.
It wouldn't be the first time that the idea of a new form of parasite has been used for a marketing campaign, though.
The computer game Cold Fear was marketed by a seemingly genuine website that claimed that a new form of brain parasite had been discovered (with a cleverly doctored brain scan, reproduced on the right). The real purpose of the information was only revealed some weeks later.
If the same is true of Morgellons, however, the marketeers have managed to smuggle an article into a scientific journal and persuade at least one academic scientist to throw away his career for the sake of a quick buck.
Randy Wymore, a genuine professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Oklahoma State University, has made several public statements about his ongoing research into the condition. If it were found that he was fuelling interest into a fake disease purely for marketing purposes, he would be booted out of his profession faster than you could say 'free popcorn'.
Secondly, if it is a viral marketing campaign, it's not a very good one. The claimed symptoms of Morgellons are quite different from the Scanner Darkly scene where where Charles Freck and Jerry Fabin believe themselves to be infested with 'aphids' and are attempting to capture them in glass jars.
Nevertheless, delusional parasitosis is a link. Morgellons is claimed to be a manifestation of this psychotic syndrome, and the fictional scene is a fine description of how the clinical condition can present.
If you were going to create a covert marketing campaign though, you'd probably want a closer match, unless you only wanted to advertise to those with an interest in obscure psychopathology.
One of the best suggestions is that the rumours themselves are a marketing campaign, capitalising on the recent media interest.
Truly, this is a rumour worthy of PKD himself, a true connoisseur of conspiracy theories and mass media scepticism. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether we are living in Philip K. Dick's reality, or if he is living in ours.
Oh yeah, & one more thing, whatever that something is that you've got your finger on, it is most definitely beginning to make my head hurt.
Fuck man, we live in a world where religious groups are fiercely countering attacks made by a book of fiction & diseases may or may not be marketing campaigns for a f*cking Hollywood movie, presidents invent nuclear doomsday scenarios & weapons of mass distruction to justify slaughter, & on & on & on......
You are absolutely goddamn right....
This is magick....
Black hoodoo voodoo magick...
In the beginning was the word...
We are the word made flesh....
Since you're a writer, do you think you could intercede with the fiction gods , excuse me Fiction Gods, & get them to slip a nice '....and they lived happily ever after,' into this little horror story?
Just a thought.
Of course Fitzgerald is a sop, and seen as one by THEM ... but the fact that they still NEED a sop IS testimony to the fact that we have not yet lost all our liberties ... The difference between soft-fascism and the real thing is that it can go under the guise of something else .... For the Cheney's and the Bush's and, yes, the Clinton's to take their masks off and reveal that the ARE in fact the real thing would be a step to far .... To be unmasked is to be disempowered.
Everything you wrote about the fraud for God Jehovah's Witneses is correct.--Danny Haszard
Of course Fitzgerald is a sop, and seen as one by THEM ... but the fact that they still NEED a sop IS testimony to the fact that we have not yet lost all our liberties
Good point. I wonder when and if Rove is indicted, will he be able to resist turning to the cameras and crowing: "America, you lost!"
Richard-- you bring up some interesting themes re: reality and fiction bleeding into one another much like. . .a Philip K. Dick story! Infotainment, reality television, a "Governator" of California. It's increasingly hard to "keep it real" these days.
Maybe the world DID end in 1975, and this is some awful 'fake-world'.
Philipino man invents car that runs 100% on sea water.
http://www.mysticfamilycircus.com/Pages/Community/Projects/h2oh29MB.mov
Welcome back Jeff. Glad you don't stay off the air all summer like those other TV shows : ) Take it as a compliment. You mean to be entertaining as well as informative and insightful right?
I am thinking that Fitzmas will only bring lumps of coal for all of us. So the image of multiple Santas spilling out of the chimney does become rather frightful.
As for Santa's little elves (really goblins) being incompetent, I'd say they have hit all of their objectives. Just because we judge those objectives to be incompetence has nothing to do with it.
From that perspective, Fitzmas seems more like a day for the Grinch then "joy to all". Is McFitz, just a sop, a slow release? If those evil elves have driven microbiologists off the road and to unusual and mysterious suicides, and delivered anthrax as warnings to elected officials, then Fitz has more than the power of "the hero" protecting him.
As for why we hope upon hope, Americans seem to be very much of the persuasion that 9/11 needs more investigating, this just in:
Zogby Poll: Over 70 Million American Adults Support New 9/11 Investigation
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/5/prweb388743.htm
BTW Richard said... morgellons as buzz ploy for movie release .. ! How intriguing, how irresponsible ... wouldn't that be a criminal offense somehow though?
Drudge is linking to the first report of POSSIBLE human-to-human bird flu transmission.
http://raul.gnn.tv/blogs/15551/I_EAT_PIECES_OF_BIRD_FLU_LIKE_H5N1_FOR_BREAKFAST
looks like the "army ranger" who confessed to all the killing isn't quite up to snuff himself:
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/james-macbeths-damned-spots-credit-card-fraud/
his story was *so* easy to unravel that he's got to be a ploy to discredit would-be whistleblowers...
Here's another tidbit for the R.I.pley's Believe It Or Not show you have running here.
http://www.cbn.com/communitypublic/shake.asp
"Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 2000 pounds! How does he do it?
Where does Pat find the time and energy to host a daily, national TV show, head a world-wide ministry, develop visionary scholars, while traveling the globe as a statesman?
One of Pat's secrets to keeping his energy high and his vitality soaring is his age-defying protein shake. Pat developed a delicious, refreshing shake, filled with energy-producing nutrients.
Discover what kinds of natural ingredients make up Pat's protein shake by registering for your FREE booklet today! "
2000 lbs. huh?
Hmmmmmmmmm................
. . .[Phil] Busch thought he was going to be Robertson’s Jared. The Texas bodybuilder dreamed of inspiring millions of Robertson’s viewers to lose weight drinking the evangelist’s shake, just like Jared Fogle did for Subway sandwiches.
Busch says he lost 198 pounds in 15 months drinking Robertson’s concoction, leading to an on-camera interview with the Virginia Beach-based broadcaster on the daily TV show “The 700 Club” last month.
* * * * * * * * * *
Busch says Robertson played him for a sucker, using him to hype his product when it was a nonprofit venture and then dropping him like a hot, carb-filled potato when he went commercial. Robertson and [bodybuilder Dave] Hawk say they’ve been publicly maligned by Busch and have threatened legal action.
Shortly before the end of the Weight Loss Challenge, Busch said, his wife noticed a GNC store display promoting a new product. Robertson’s weight-loss shake had been turned into a powdered mix in a can: nine servings for $21.99.
In large type on the front of the can, the product is labeled “Pat’s Diet Shake.” In smaller type on the back, it is identified as “Dr. Pat Robertson’s Diet Shake.”
Robertson is not a medical doctor, but he does have a law degree , known formally as a juris doctor, from Yale Law School.
* * * * * * * * *
The commercialization of Robertson’s shake drew fire from the Trinity Foundation, a Dallas-based religious media watchdog organization. Trinity has been critical of past Robertson business ventures, such as his African gold and diamond mines [http://www.msmagazine.com/sept03/sizemore.asp]
and Kalo-Vita, a multi level marketing company that sold vitamins and cosmetics.
Ole Anthony, Trinity’s president, said Robertson improperly used his tax-exempt, nonprofit ministry to create a market for his shake.
“It wouldn’t exist unless it was promoted on the donor-paid-for airtime,” he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501806_pf.html
Interesting post & comments:
Barbara Olson... is/was married to TED OLSON, the lawyer who argued the case before the Supreme Court in 2000 that tipped the scales and made Bush president. She was a conservative pundit... convenient that it was she who made the contoversial "cell phone" call to her husband Ted from the "plane" that crashed into the Pentagon...
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I think you should add a "sic" after the non-existent "Polish-Austrian" border to indicate that that's what Flocco initially reported (though he's since corrected himself).
Good luck getting mister Wells to admit that he himself could be wrong, much less "suckered or compromised". The closest you'll get is something like:
"I'm sure you could find a lot of that. You know the Dylan line? "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
-R.I. 4/3/06
Ah, yes- simple "youthful indiscretion"... here's another Wells quote:
" 'investigators' like Skolnick and Tom Flocco seem little more than schlock artists now, serving product to the niche of paranoid entertainment by fabricating elaborate Black Iron Prisons in the air. It's poison to the legitimate inquiry of forbidden subjects..."
-R.I. 4/3/06
"Ligitimate inquiry" such as... Wells', I suppose? Wells knows that Skolnick had nothing to do with the "Satanic skinning" parody, or the supposed subsequent confirmation by Skolnick of the parody. But still he kicks Skolnick's wheelchair, repeating steadfastly that he did....
And hell, at least Skolnick actually worked the courts to help send criminals to jail through actual investigation. Jeff Wells researches... well, other peoples research. Kind of pathetic if you actually stop and think about it.
Rest in Peace, Skolnick. God knows you deserve it.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2006/240506femaplan.htmSecret FEMA Plan To Use Pastors as Pacifiers in Preparation For Martial Law
Nationwide initiative trains volunteers to teach congregations to "obey the government" during seizure of guns, property, forced inoculations and forced relocation supporting documents
A Pastor has come forward to blow the whistle on a nationwide FEMA program which is training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to "obey the government" in preparation for a declaration of martial law, property and firearm seizures, and forced relocation.
In March of this year the Pastor, who we shall refer to as Pastor Revere, was invited to attend a meeting of his local FEMA chapter which circulated around preparedness for a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural disaster or a nationally declared emergency.
The FEMA directors told the Pastors that attended that it was their job to help implement FEMA and Homeland Security directives in anticipation of any of these eventualities. The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their congregations Romans 13, the often taken out of context bible passage that was used by Hitler to hoodwink Christians into supporting him, in order to teach them to "obey the government" when martial law is declared.
It was related to the Pastors that quarantines, martial law and forced relocation were a problem for state authorities when enforcing federal mandates due to the "cowboy mentality" of citizens standing up for their property and second amendment rights as well as farmers defending their crops and livestock from seizure. It was stressed that the Pastors needed to preach subservience to the authorities ahead of time in preparation for the round-ups and to make it clear to the congregation that "this is for their own good."
We have received confirmation from other preachers and Pastors that this program is a nationwide initiative and a literal Soviet model whereby the churches are being systematically infiltrated by government volunteers and used as conduits for martial law training and conditioning. The Pastor was told that over 13,000 counties were already on board.
It falls under the umbrella of the NVOAD program which is training volunteers in a "Peer to Peer" program in a neighborhood setting.
Pastors were told that the would be backed up by law enforcement in controlling uncooperative individuals and that they would even lead SWAT teams in attempting to quell resistance.
"We get the the picture that we're going to be standing at the end of some farmer's lane while he's standing there with his double barrel, saying we have to confiscate your cows, your chickens, your firearms," said Pastor Revere.
The Pastor elaborated on how the directives were being smoke screened by an Orwellian alteration of their names.
"They're not using the term 'quarantine' - this is the term they're going to be using - it's called 'social distancing' don't you like that one," said the Pastor.
He also highlighted how detention camps had been renamed to give them a friendly warm veneer.
"Three months ago it was quarantine and relocation centers and now it's 'community centers' and these are going to be activated at the local schools," he said.
Pastor Revere outlined the plan to carry out mass vaccination and enforced drugging programs in times of crisis such as a bird flu outbreak.
"In the event of an outbreak or a bio-terrorist attack, there'd be a mass vaccination....they have a program nationwide 'Pills in People's Palm In 48 Hours'," said the Pastor who was told that Walmart had been designated as the central outlet of this procedure.
Pastor Revere said that many attendees believed in the necessity of the program and were completely unaware to the motivations behind its true purpose and were offered incentives to become volunteers such as preferential treatment and first access for themselves and their families to vaccines and food shipments in times of emergency.
Which roads to close off after martial law was declared had also already been mapped out.
The precedent for mass gun confiscation in times of real or manufactured emergency was set during Hurricane Katrina when police and national guard patrols forced homeowners even in areas unaffected by the hurricane to hand over their legally owned firearms at gunpoint as is detailed in the video below.We have highlighted previous training manuals issues by state and federal government bodies which identify whole swathes of the population as potential terrorists. A Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Law Enforcement pamphlet gives the public characteristics to identify terrorists that include buying baby formula, beer, wearing Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents like a drivers license and traveling with women or children.
A Virginia training manual used to help state employees recognize terrorists lists anti-government and property rights activists as terrorists and includes binoculars, video cameras, pads and notebooks in a compendium of terrorist tools. It was revealed that potential terrorists included, "defenders of the US Constitution against federal government and the UN, " and individuals who "make numerous references to the US Constitution." Lawyers everywhere cowered in fear at being shipped off to Gitmo.
In another twilight zone Nazi-like spectacle, Pastors were asked to make a pledge or an affirmation during the meeting to fulfil the roles ascribed to them by FEMA. They were given assurances that they would be covered by full compensation in the event of resisters injuring them during property seizures and round-ups.
Pastor Revere said the completion of the first stage of the program was slated for August 31st. At this point all the counties within the United States would be networked as part of the so-called disaster relief program.
It's the Network: The Nation's Most Reliable Wireless.
;)
http://www.iamthewitness.com
Barbara Olsen might be alive if that wasn't the plane that hit the Pentacle.
Somewhat, anyway.
For example, her heart might be in Washington, her lungs in China, her kidneys in Germany, and you get the idea.
It's doubtful they would want to leave loose ends like that walking around in one piece...
As far as Fitzmas goes? I don't believe in Fitzy Clause.
By the way, I posted today but for some reason Blogger isn't propagating it to the main page. Until then, you should be able to read it via its permanent link.
Jeff - The "pope" says you and your lovely Canadian wife need to get busy
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=7f2924e1-200b-463d-bf3b-a967cefab78c&k=46464
ha ha....Ratz commenting on "Godlessness"....pot meet kettle!
This is an uncharacteristiclally harsh and way-off-the-mark analysis by you, Jeff. To conflate Tom Flocco's conspiracy junk with Truthout's legitimate reporting is ludicrous. Your cynical ad hominem attack on Patrick Fitzgerald is unjustified. What in the world has gotten into you?
Anonymous said...
This is an uncharacteristiclally harsh and way-off-the-mark analysis by you, Jeff. To conflate Tom Flocco's conspiracy junk with Truthout's legitimate reporting is ludicrous. Your cynical ad hominem attack on Patrick Fitzgerald is unjustified. What in the world has gotten into you?
Jeff has taken the stand that there are certain aspects of the 911 people's theory that are being touted more than others, functioning as disinfo including the 'no planes' or 'pods' theories. Jeff also believes that showcasing the WTC towers' collapses as demolitions as evidence of conspiracy, is a distraction. Not clear if Jeff believes demolitions were demolitions. I do. But he has a point, that there is plenty of other more viable routes and evidence to demonstrate official conspiracy in 911.
Perhaps he feels that Truthout has been one those flogging these distractions. As for Barbara Olson being arrested in Europe, and at some border that doesn't exist ... what the hell else could that be?
...some border that doesn't exist...
Didn't that "poetry slammer" Flocco correct that? And surely with all the trash talking here about Tom's mis/dis-info we should at least see some proof of it included in the comments? -I know, I know... all that effort...
About Jeff kicking Sherm's wheelchair (lol!)- I know Skolnick's credibility was questioned because he didn't provide many clear references/sources for most of his stories, which really pisses people off.
But he did provide leads for all the cyber-slueths out here. And I guess he knew he wouldn't get sued for slander or defamation, if the hearings would tug on the loose string of the grand tapestry of lies.
From a thread on Jeff's board:
In 1973, Mr. Skolnick wrote a book, "The Secret History of Airplane Sabotage", a heavily documented book dealing, among other things, with the sabotaged plane crash December, 1972, in Chicago, one month after Nixon was re-elected President. Twelve Watergate figures died when the United Air Lines plane pancaked just short of Midway airport. Dead in the crash zone were Mrs. E. Howard Hunt, wife of the Watergate burglar and others linked to the Watergate Affair. She had in her possession over 2 million dollars in valuables obtained by blackmailing Nixon on his role in the 1963 political assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Skolnick's group "liberated" the entire unpublicized file of the National Transportation Safety Board, some 1300 pages of documented reports and pictures showing sabotage. Skolnick brought a suit against the NTSB contending sabotage cover-up. The NTSB re-opened their public hearings on the crash but continued to contend it was caused by "pilot error". Skolnick who was the star-witness at the re-opened hearings demanded that the NTSB panel disqualify themselves since most were financially tied to the airlines industry and that Rockefellers, owners of all three News Networks, and major owner of United Air Lines, wanted the matter censored...
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...the Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts... work in 1969, touched off the biggest judicial bribery scandal in U.S. history,the collapse of Illinois' highest court, the Illinois Supreme Court. As the head of his group, Skolnick directly accused the high court judges of bribery involving a banker who owned a bank right across the street from the high court's Chicago offices. Facing jail and on appeal to their court, the banker, the former Illinois Director of the Department of Revenue, Theodore J.Isaacs, won his criminal appeal by bribing most of the high court judges with stock in his nearby bank.
Outraged by Skolnick's direct confrontation with them, the high court judges demanded that Skolnick disclose to the high court judges how he and his associates went about investigating the high court. When Skolnick refused to disclose, the high court judges had Skolnick, a paraplegic invalid in a wheelchair, hauled off to prison for "contempt of court".
The imprisoning of Skolnick touched off a public commotion and the chief justice and an associate justice of the high court resigned, and a third accused high court judge suddenly died in the ruckus and Skolnick was vindicated.
Caught up in a further mess involving the same bank was the former Illinois Governor by 1969 he was a federal appeals Judge in Chicago. Skolnick accused that judge, Otto Kerner,jr., of bribery as well. Kerner held press conferences and on all the local media called Skolnick a "liar". Despite his denials, Federal Appeals Judge Kerner was prosecuted and sent to prison, the highest level sitting federal judge sent to prison in U.S. history...
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Skolnick and his associates were the only journalists to attend a federal appeals court hearing in Chicago in a case involving suppressed bank records of the Chicago branch of Italy's largest bank,Banca Nazionale Delavoro, owned in part by the Vatican. The suppressed records, ordered so by state and federal regulators involved the secret private joint business partner of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. After the hearing, in the back of the Federal Appeals Court, Skolnick interviewed two hearing participants who admitted to Skolnick that the suppressed bank records involved Saddam Hussein's private business partner, George Herbert Walker Bush, the then U.S. President. Sources had earlier informed Skolnick of that, and Skolnick, to be careful, asked the same question about that THREE times and each time, the answer was the same: Bush was the private business partner of Saddam Hussein in billions of dollars of oil-kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein by the weak sheikdoms in the Persian Gulf...
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