Thanks to John from Manitoba for sharing some articles and information about the Freedom Flotilla last week.
When I arrived home Friday evening and read his emails, I felt an immediate hope that the desperately needed aid would actually reach Gaza and for once there may be something news worthy to smile about...then I reached the email with a Haaretz report that Israel would attempt to block the humanitarian Flotilla before it reached Gaza. I had intended to post John's links and an update today about the Flotilla progress.
Never in my wildest nightmare would it have unfolded as did the horrific massacre of today.
It has always been completely unacceptable and outrageous that fisherman from Gaza working well within their coastal boundaries are harassed and fired up on indiscriminately and illegally by the IDF.
It has also always been completely unacceptable and outrageous, (besides a well known fact) that the IDF/Mossad assume no responsibility for murdering internationals at their discretion and recently bragged about the assassination of Al-Mabhouh, in Dubai.
Well, I am completely out of expletives. There is not enough hasbara or back peddling or excuses or the usual lies, lies lies to justify the cold blooded murder of approximately 16 - 19 international civilians in international waters, while delivering humanitarian aid.
Israel, your hubris will be your downfall...and the downward spiral has commenced.
Hubris: The definition states: extreme haughtiness or arrogance. Hubris often indicates being out of touch with reality and overestimating one's own competence or capabilities, especially for people in positions of power.
Yep, if the shoe fits....
Thanks to Corinne for providing the following continual updates and commentary:
http://witnessgaza.com/
Early VIDEO report from the ship in several languages, including english - "We are being attacked in international waters, completely illegally." http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Toronto Star: Canada’s Conservative government took a wait-and-see approach to news of Israel’s deadly storming of a humanitarian flotilla in international waters ... Harper spokesman: “Canada deeply regrets the loss of life and the injuries suffered ...”
http://www.thestar.com/news/
Ha'aretz: IDF claims flotilla activists tried to "lynch" them
http://www.haaretz.com/news/
Associated Press video repeats the "lynch" word - the passengers had "sharp metal items"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
The Toronto Star reports:
An Al-Jazeera reporter on one of the Turkish ships said the Israelis fired at the vessel before boarding it. The Israelis, who had declared they would not let the ships reach Gaza, said they only opened fire after being attacked by activists with sticks, knives and live fire from weapons seized from the Israeli commandos.
http://www.thestar.com/news/
Vancouver Sun: Israel says the troops returned fire after they were attacked with live rounds, knives and clubs, but the organizers of the Gaza blockade busting bid insist the soldiers started shooting the moment they hit the deck. "They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep," the Free Gaza Movement said.
http://www.vancouversun.com/
HERE'S THE COCK-AND-BULL EXPLANATION OF THE SOURCE OF THE GUNFIRE THE IDF SAID WAS DIRECTED AT THEM:
From CTV: The army said five soldiers were injured in the raid, including two who were shot with pistols seized from Israeli forces ...
Free Gaza spokesperson Greta Berlin said the Israeli soldiers were shooting as they boarded. ... "What they didn't know was there was a live camera onboard, you can see them coming off the ship and you can see them shooting," she said ... Following the altercation, the Israeli military shut down all satellite phones on board the ships and a group of embedded reporters were unable to communicate from the scene.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/
The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) says:Israeli commandos open fire after being attacked with axes & knives by Gaza flotilla "peace activists ... Unfortunately, this is becoming another PR nightmare for Israel, who we believe should have threatened these Hamas sympathizers all along. Let this be a message to any "peace activists" who try to aid and abet the enemies of the Jewish people and Israel.
http://www.thejidf.org/2010/
Winnpeg Free Press:
Elderly Holocaust survivor [Hedy Epstein] did not join Gaza flotilla, is safe in Cyprus ... The 85-year-old said she had hoped to join other activists aboard another ship, the Rachel Corrie, that was to attempt to reach Gaza later.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.
Guardian live coverage (including info about protests):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
More reports from:
http://english.aljazeera.net/
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Mohamed Harkat Final Hearing Dates
Due to scheduling conflicts with the Special Advocates and others, new FINAL (factual closing arguments) hearing dates are:
Monday, May 31st - Thursday, June 3rd,
2010 Supreme Court of Canada building,
301 Wellington Street, Ottawa East Courtroom
10 am
Open to public.
Come for an hour or more. Free to come in and out as you wish.
Show your support one last time !
The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee
Monday, 31 May 2010
ISRAEL: The Zionist State of HUBRIS
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Will the Real CSIS Agent Please Stand Up!
My apologies for going MIA.
I was up north on business and there was no WiFi to be had for love or money! It was like being a technical Gilligan - STRANDED beyond the professor's capabilities! Anyway, back now and will be posting regularly starting Monday evening. (told you this wasn't going to be pretty)
However, it was refreshing (and thoroughly hilarious) to arrive home and get back on line to discover an anonymous clown believes I'm a CSIS agent. Sorry, not possible - I'm missing the duplicity gene...and never was too good at keeping a secret. So, in my best Kids in the Hall mimicry "I'm crushing your head" anonymous clown's comments were deleted.
Thanks to Corinne for the following article...
Feds eyeing online forums
"The next time you post an opinion in an online forum or a Facebook group message board, don't be surprised if you get a rebuttal from a federal employee.
The government is looking for ways to monitor online chatter about political issues and correct what it perceives as misinformation."
Friday, 21 May 2010
The Oil Spill Plot Thickens
The estimated oil spill volumes in the gulf, from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, were approximately 2/3 of the 9 million Exxon Valdez spill of 1989. The Horizon spill is expected to eclipse that volume. Significantly. BP is voluminous in every aspect.
A little digging (OK, a little chicken scratching actually) turns up a significant volume of articles, publications and documents referring to BP's horrendous, historic record of environmental and saftey disasters.
Could this be why BP is threatening journalists, fudging the spill volume rate and denying access to scientists?
thanks to Ted for the following...
"Oil washes up on shore today, but journalists beware: If you are caught photographing, you will be arrested. CBS documents its encounter this morning." more
BP initially estimated that the wellhead was leaking 1,000 barrels (42,000 US gallons; 160,000 litres) a day. "John Amos, a geologist who has worked as a consultant with oil companies on measuring oil spills, said that figure is the "extremely low end" of their estimates, putting a more realistic figure at 20,000 barrels (840,000 US gallons; 3,200,000 litres) a day".
Adding to the spill controversy, BP elected to use a dispersant, in an attempt to "clean up", which contains propylene glycol, 2-butoxyethanol and a proprietary organic sulfonic acid salt.
"By May 15, 436,000 US gallons (1,650,000 l) of Corexit EC9500A and EC9527A had been released into the Gulf. These products are neither the least toxic, nor the most effective, among the dispersants approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, and they are banned from use on oil spills in the United Kingdom.
Twelve other products received better toxicity and effectiveness ratings, but BP says it chose to use Corexit because it was available the week of the rig explosion. Critics contend that the major oil companies stockpile Corexit because of their close business relationship with Nalco. By 20 May, BP had applied 600,000 US gallons (2,300,000 l) of Corexit on the surface and 55,000 US gallons (210,000 l) underwater." from Wikipedia.
And, it gets slicker...
"The Interior Department exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year. The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 – and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions, show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf."
BP, Transocean and Halliburton, partnered on this project, are all blaming one another. (A fine display of no honour amongst thieves.) Haliburton, previously implicated in the oil spill in the Timor Sea off Australia's coast in August 2009, was pouring the cement to cap the well, when the Horizon explosion occurred.
Incidentally, Halliburton was awarded a $568 million "No-Bid" contract with the Pentagon, sometime this month. (probably in a venue they are successful at, like plundering oil rich countries)
So to add it up...large corporations, which provide significant political donations, despite terrible safety and environmental track records are also accommodated with exclusive government contracts which indemnify them from abiding by established safety and environmental standards.
I recommend we ALL incorporate.
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Elvis Costello boycotts Apartheid Israel!
from Ron...
Elvis writes on his site "It is after considerable contemplation that I have lately arrived at the decision that I must withdraw from the two performances scheduled in Israel on the 30th of June and the 1st of July."
Musician Elvis Costello is a rock legend, having written and performed songs for 30 years across a great stylistic range. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him No. 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He is married to famous Canadian jazz musician Diana Krall.
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Um Liberals, you have Ig on your face!
At a recent leaders dinner in Toronto, Iggy argued "the Conservatives have no right to take credit for a recovering economy."
“Canada is better off today because of what Liberals did: 10 years of balanced budgets. Ten years of debt repayment . . . . And the best banking system in the world,” he said.
Well yes they did - by inflating EI premiums, creating a surplus of $54 billion and then using the funds to pay down the budget deficit. If you or I tried that it would be called embezzlement. There would be no applause, no pats on the back, no pass Go - collect 50 dollars and another term in office. It would be an indefinite reprieve from freedom in an orange jumpsuit and bunking with strangers who have scary one syllable names.
"It is the biggest theft in Canadian history." said Jack Layton.
And now it's easier for self employed people to get on the band wagon and pay in, all in the name of creating a "safety net".
"As a self-employed individual, your contribution to Canada's economy is important.
Everybody wins when you choose to enjoy the benefits of creative freedom, the challenge and the self-satisfaction that often comes with self-employment. Through the proposed legislation (the Act), you, as a self-employed Canadian, could choose to participate in the employment insurance (EI) program and become eligible for the same special benefits currently available to salaried employees." Ugh.
I wonder if the CRA have the same "recruitment writer" as the armed forces...sounds flowery and adventurous to me. There has never been a glimpse of rhetoric in any correspondence I have EVER received from the CRA. Never mind any implication that I should experience, let alone enjoy self satisfaction.
Although, I did derive great momentary satisfaction once asking a CRA collections agent, that happened to be ranting and raving at me, why she was so emotionally involved with my late payment on nominal tax bill. She hung up. Guess it wasn't in the hard ball tactics hand book.
Anyway, I believe, Iggy believes, we believe him. We are obviously all too dumb to remember $54 billion embezzled dollars.
Maybe the Libs are just pre-budgeting extra cash for facial wipes.
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
DON'T PANIC!
The lovely YaYa, (with the pink sweater), has been most generous and allowed me to step into her shoes.
THEY ARE ENORMOUS!
Sure, you're thinking, I know THAT!
So why didn't YOU step up to the plate? It is, after all, a big commitment. And then there's the shoes. Not certain I can see daylight from in here.
There is a great possibility I may have had a panic attack last night.
I may be out of my league, out of my depth and am most definitely out of my comfort zone, but am willing to take a leap out into the unknown because I cannot fathom this blog slipping away into obscurity.
Too many minds have been opened, enlightened or offered kinship during its run so far. There is a great need to build more open minds in these current times. No doot aboot it.
If knowledge is truly power, then knowledge combined with camaraderie should equal strength and freedom. And we also need more of that.
Perhaps that's the equation of a naive optimist.
We'll find out.
With a full time career, this transition is not going to be easy or seamless or probably very pretty. I need some extra support from the regular contributors, patience from the regular readers and a reasonable ramp up time from the skeptics (regular or otherwise).
There's a possibility that I may just be a caddy treading water until a full time dedicated individual is willing to continue with this blog in the fashion it truly deserves.
Thanks to everyone that emailed! Your support is appreciated very much. I'm still sorting out a few details, scheduling, reading through the articles and learning to maneuver about the blog. (the techie part behind the curtain)
Please stay tuned.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Hold everything!
DEAR READERS: A friend has kindly offered to take over management of the blog. She is hoping that this can be a team effort so please think about whether or not you'd like to be part of a blogging team by contributing occasional non-partisan content.
Here's the address to write to: yaya.canada8 - at - gmail - dot - com
Big thanks to Catharine for wanting to keep YYC alive!
Thursday, 13 May 2010
The Last Post
Yes, I'm hanging up my blog (more on that at the end of this post).
---------------------------------------------
The following has got to be the most naive - or agenda driven - article ever written:
Who’s Really to Blame for the BP Oil Spill? We Are.
The writer says we have to stop some things we're doing that involve petroleum. But certainly not everything - the writer also encourages using pen and paper to write a letter of protest:
Not to BP, mind you, they already know that they’re in trouble and if you ask me, probably don’t care anyway. Instead, write a letter to the other oil companies and put them on notice. Tell them how angry you are. Tell them if they so much as think of cutting corners on safety and you hear about it, you will boycott them until the end of time.Aside from the fact that a letter on paper involves the death of trees and that most pens are made of plastic, and that the making of ink is a chemical-industrial process, there's also the small matter of the postal service using oil and gas to transport mail.
But there's a much larger matter the article fails to address, which is that your taxes are being used to pay for the oil consumed by the manufacture, shipping and operation of massive numbers of combat vehicles and heavy weaponry currently wreaking havoc in foreign lands on the pretext of fighting terror.
Then there's the hugely exorbitant cost of transport back and forth of military personnel and equipment (How much does the Pentagon pay for a gallon of gas?), and the phenomenal amounts paid to the private contractors whose personnel and vehicles swarm all over Iraq and Afghanistan - and a number of other countries where America "intervenes" - providing high-priced but perfunctory security, combat mercenaries, maintenance services to the regular military, and local reconstruction.
Not to mention the cost of propane used in false flag terror events, of which we are going to see more as the West seeks to justify the expansion of its - let's call it "influence" in keeping with the newspeak of the NWO - abroad.
By the way, the failed economy has reportedly made it easier to find willing cannon fodder, and under Obama the use of expensive private contractors has tripled (video). If you think the "failed economy" just happened and wasn't manufactured, then I am sorry for the dearth in your powers of observation.
If, as the writer acknowledges, BP doesn't care what you think, why does he assume that other oil companies do? As long as there's a buck to be made, and competition increases, oil drilling will continue at a feverish pace that cuts safety corners.
As long as ape-like strutting, posturing, threatening, and drum beating continues - and yes, that includes Obama however slick his outward appearance as he engages in this primitive behaviour - there will always be a steady market for oil that will be paid for by you.
If you truly want to boycott big oil, follow the writer's suggestions, but turn off your TV as well, and don't pay your taxes. Also be prepared to spend time in jail for your efforts.
Otherwise, know that the agenda is moving forward and you need to start learning how to survive the outcome. As a very dear friend of mine said recently:
The only thing that could stop them is for them to fight amongst themselves or lose interest if things don't go to plan. For me now, I see the key as being adaptation and trying as much as possible to live under the radar.This is not a defeatist attitude; this is a survival technique. This is resistance by not playing the game. That's how bad things are, folks, and I've been saying it over and over, and frankly I'm tired of having to say it over and over in my reactions to current events.
Further indication that the writer may be supporting the global agenda is that he doesn't recommend discontinuing America's favourite pastime - recreational shopping for goods (they should be called "bads") nobody needs, all of which consume petroleum in their manufacture and shipping.
Neither does he exhort you to turn off your TV to avoid the deliberate power of suggestion that created and daily reinforces the compulsion to shop, to become alcohol dependent (conflating beer with sports and patriotism), to become fat and unhealthy, to indulge in unsatisfying and degrading promiscuity (it's no coincidence that almost all of our cuss words and our grossest insults are related to the sex act nowadays instead of to religious words as they used to be - your cuss words reveal your deepest inhibition) ...TV doesn't need to use subliminal messaging. Constant repetition of images that arouse basic urges such as appetite for food and/or sex (close ups of shiny, red female lips, for example), quickly and efficiently opens a direct pathway to the viewer's mind, and the seller's fondest dream becomes the average dupe's command. As easy as selling candy to a toddler.
It even sells TVs; who really needs several of them in one household?
The Internet is now being used like TV to sell sex (with the added advantage to the seller that they get your email address so you can be spammed). Take for example this co-opted video of the extremely popular David Icke (a quick way to gain a large audience) by a website called "The Master Secret" which exhorts males to "Master How Women Respond To You By Mastering Seduction Secrets." No doubt Obama attended that school.
Anyway, the writer of the article about BP closes by telling you to head down to the gulf and get involved in the cleanup ... while he goes for a feel-good ride on his bike.
He may be just another dupe, but in effect he's acting as an agent of the glorious New World Order.
Did I say I'm tired of repeating myself? Well, I mean it. And this is my last post.
Let it be known that:
My position on Israel is the same as it always was. Israel will do itself in by its own selfishness and its hatred of anything unlike itself.
The Christian Right will do likewise, after leaving the grossest devastation in their path. The "Down with ZOG" types reveal their anti-semitism by ignoring the agenda of the Christian Right. It's not just Jews pushing for control of our governments and the genocide of anyone who gets in the way of the final religious chapter, it's so-called Christians wanting to hasten the return of Jesus, which can't happen until all the Jews (atheist or not - is it a race or a religion? - descendents of Hebrews or not) have gone "home" and they own all of Palestine. Then the Jews can go to hell for all they care.
I have only one thing to say to the religious right. Jesus is not coming back to fix your world. Nobody's going to do that for you. And if "the Christ" appeared in human form, and not on a Tim Horton's wall, you wouldn't have the spirituality necessary to recognize it.
My message to Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, or whatever you were brainwashed into in infancy by your own parents - is that the majority of you world-wide will continue to act as agents of the New World Order because you believe what you read in the media and you continue to vote for political saviours rather than examining how you imperil yourselves and those you love with your tendency to follow the leader and obey "authority".
Gullible young people will continue to join the military, and they will be lauded as courageous heroes - while lacking the guts to fight on the home front for jobs and the freedoms that are continually slipping away. Some people would rather die than kill others; other people would rather kill than have to scrounge for a living.
They will voluntarily submit to brainwashing and rationalize that they are "helping" others, but if they survive at all, they will end up thoroughly corrupted, with massive amounts of blood on their hands, drug and alcohol addicted, and some of them will go on to abuse, rape and kill women in their own countries.
The gap between rich and poor will continue to grow as we return to a system of feudalism, but this time on a global basis. Truly honest people will struggle as never before with issues of morality - a word that, thanks to the prurient but repressed Christian Right has come to refer only to sexual habits, but which reveal its much, much deeper meaning when individual life-and-death survival becomes a daily pursuit.
People will either revert to animal behaviour or evolve into true human beings, depending on the choices they make right now, today.
No matter what happens in the news, it is just basically going to be more of the same thing. So, I'm moving on to a more positive way of life.
I'll leave the blog here for the foreseeable future as a resource, but when the visitor count drops to nothing, I will remove it.
Thanks to all those who have visited here and made such wonderful contributions. If you were really paying attention, and I think many of you were, then I'm sure you saw this coming as far back as a couple of years ago.
In fact, my spirit took a nose dive from which I never fully recovered when I learned that local anti-war activists were pumping for Obama because it would be so lovely to have a black president. I could no longer associate with people whose minds were so messed up - or just plain shallow - that they called themselves activists while actively supporting the status quo.
Anyway, I've done my best since then to make a clear statement, and now it's made, and I'm starting to bore myself. I don't want to be merely a reactor anymore; I want to do something, anything, creative.
I might start by setting up my sewing machine and altering some of my clothes (I've lost weight - yay!). Maybe I'll find a boyfriend, a healthy old guy with a brain in his head, who isn't a skirt chaser or a drunk, and who isn't just looking for a nursemaid in his old age.
Maybe I'll join a dance class. Maybe I'll learn how to be a Free(wo)man on the Land (videos). Maybe I'll get back to painting and music and reading books just for the love of it. Maybe there will be some meaningful volunteer work I can do to help out in my community.
But I will be quietly resisting the machine as well. No invasive government surveys, no chips, no flu shots .... Maybe one of these days I will land in jail and they'll tell lies about me in the media.
Adieu, farewell (video) - watch it, the laff will do you good.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Back to zero
This came from a reader who wishes to remain anonymous:
In the movie Fight Club there is a subplot of people planting bombs throughout the financial district - namely credit card companies and loans. At the end of the film the audience watches as two buildings (looking a lot like the twin towers) fall, pancaking into their foot prints. The reason given earlier in the film for this act is something like "all that information is gone - EVERYONE GETS SET BACK TO ZERO"YYC: That's also how Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead ends. At the end of the day, it's always left to the individual how to survive.
The people who carry out the act are a bunch of brainwashed drones who have only numbers, no name, and carry out all kinds of acts of vandalism against the mass consumerism in society at the orders of one man - a man who is suffering from schizophrenia in fact. They obey his alter ego who only reveals himself at the end of the film.
The man otherwise is nice, hardworking but completely depressed and numb and somewhat dissociated. He does try to stop the demolition from happening but at the end he fails - but he also "cures" his schizophrenia - he brings his personalities together and finds wholeness again. He stands in awe of his own work as the buildings come down.
Anyway, an act of terrorism - carried out by people who are tired of the rampant consumerism that has led to massive amounts of debt for crap people don't really need - sets everyone back to zero.
What happens when we hit zero? What happens when there is no more credit for sale? What happens when the banks finally fail for good? We all go back to zero (except the rich guys of course) and we start over again without money.
Talk about predictive programming.
On a similar note and speaking of "the rich guys" the following is from one of my sisters-in-law, who says: "This [video] is worth the time to watch…what we don't know about our history!"
The Empire of "The City" - World Superstate
An "unholy trinity": financial control over earth economy ... religion control ... and ... military control ...
Da choich
I always have a hard time typing the word "church". It always comes out "chruch" the first time. Rather appropriate, come to think of it.
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Thanks to John (Manitoba) who comments: "A very good article of the cover up still going on in the church."
Pedophiles and Popes: Doing the Vatican Shuffle
When Pope John Paul II was still living in Poland ... he claimed that ... the Polish pedophilia problem was nothing more than a Communist plot to smear the church.
YYC: Yeah, and I'm a conspiracy theorist.
In case you'd like to pray to that dearly departed pope, this is how his real name is pronounced. The current one has been asked to depart as well, but so far no dice, although some predict he will be forced to.
Also from John another good article about Marci McDonald's The Armageddon Factor written by the brightest ray at the Star, Antonia Zerbisias: Timing of book’s release downright divine
[It] coincides with parliamentary prayer breakfast
Ron has provided links to some of the goings-on of the types of people who graced Parliament Hill yesterday for the pray-in. Gold teeth from God, anyone? Step right up. (They look like ordinary amalgam to me, but maybe that's because I don't beeleeve.)
Charlatan Faytene Kryskow & Harper's Crazy Christian CaucusRelated: Backlash! Another Ezra Explosion
Watch here as Tory connected charlatan Faytene Kryskow describes how God gave this woman 17 Gold Teeth!
http://www.xpmedia.com/8JIYvXymKx0q
Watch here as Tory connected charlatan Faytene Kryskow describes how God called Barb on her cell phone!
http://www.xpmedia.com/0GZ1BkS8pwgu
[MP Ed Komarnicki poses in photo with Faytene]
http://www.edkom.ca/photo_winter05.html
He really does believe in free speech, you know. For himself, at least.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
No post is a good post?
Sorry folks, no post today. Real life has taken precedence. Please come back tomorrow.
Monday, 10 May 2010
Canuckland
Ash shut down European airports yesterday but amazingly didn't interfere with Harper's visit to Berlin the way it stopped him from attending the Polish president's funeral.
***
Thanks to Ron:
How Canada’s Christian right was built
From Stephen Harper's refusal to fund abortion as part of his G8 initiative to the outcry that forced the cancellation of Ontario's sex ed curriculum, the religious right is making its growing muscle felt on the political landscape. In a new book called [The Armageddon Factor] ...Re sex ed: I think Ontario wanted to start the kids off too young, but the Christian right is terribly sexually inhibited - in fact some opine that's what religious fundamentalism is all about - and they don't want the schools talking about it at all.
Re the book: I'm in line for it at the public library where it's on order. Buy it or borrow it, because you should read it. It's affecting your world whether you realize it or not.
Another good link from Ron: Bombs for Moms - the myth and the reality of Mother's Day.
***
More proof of the move toward the disintegration of Canada:
Landry: Need for Que. sovereignty ‘urgent’
He added it was time that immigrants were able to say "we are Quebeckers" rather than "I am Canadian".Remember the report that Quebec wants to limit access to English schools? At the same time, the Bloc is pushing for a third sovereignty referendum.
The whole idea of official bilingualism in Canada was so that French and English speakers could get services in their own first language - anywhere in Canada including Quebec. It don't work so well.
Too often I've been served by government employees whose first language is French and who lack the understanding of English nuance. When important business is being conducted, it's important to be fully understood.
In general human intercourse, however, language is simply a means to communicate, and has nothing to do with one's personal identity. If a French person asks me for directions on the street and speaks English as poorly as I speak French, somehow we manage to get along with our rudimentary knowledge of each other's language, because we are just people communicating in goodwill, not "identities".
If I lived in Quebec (or Spain or any other country), I would expect to have to master the language of the majority. Would I lose my identity by doing so? I hardly think so.
If this all about identity, then Quebec should get on with the business of separating, and they will find that their misplaced pride in a unique identity will not bring them the comfort they imagine.
Not being overly nationalistic I'm not necessarily averse to the breakup of Canada or even to a North American Union that will consist of "nation states", to which this Quebec business is a prelude. I just don't like lies and sneaky manipulation, and I don't trust the people who have set themselves up as "authorities".
Related: Sales Tax Pitch
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Ted (Newfoundland) writes:
The Canadian Forces are going to give Don Cherry a camouflaged hockey sweater. I hope it works and Don goes invisible, cuz bringing the Afghan war to Hockey Night in Canada has been just too over the top.YYC: Cherry is from my hometown. My ex-husband played street hockey with the Cherry boys. Boy, you never know what doofuses some kids will grow up to be, eh? (Number 1 in the list of doofus definitions is the best fit.)
Over the years we have seen on most American sporting events,the Military Color Gaurd present for the American National Anthem.Since Afghanistan we are seeing Canadian military present at hockey games.Just what is the message here.
Is it that war and hockey are battle zones and both are acceptable regardless of who gets killed or injured.Is it that if you join up and fight for the Canadian Forces and get injured you can be a guest on the ice at the singing of O Canada.
I admit I still watch the odd game during the regular season and the playoffs as much as I want.The big difference now is I do it without Don Cherry and mostly on TSN.
The Quintessential Don Cherry (video) Warning: Crude language
Novus ordo seclorum
... out of chaos.
(Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder said on Sunday the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted Times Square car bombing in New York. "We've now developed evidence ..."
Developed? Slip of the tongue? Sounds a lot like "manufactured".
The US wants it made clear that the Pakistani government is completely blameless, nor do they apparently suspect Pakistan's military and intelligence agency (ISI) which "continues to subvert the political and judicial systems in Pakistan" (HRW), where human rights is concerned, in spite of being (publicly) told by the US not to, and has been working in tandem with, and trained by, US Special Forces in "non-combat" activities.
A UN report accuses the ISI of being complicit in the death of Benazir Bhutto, and a Ministry of Defence think tank accuses them of being involved in the London 7/7 bombings. Given that Pakistan was considered a close ally in the fake "war on terror", can US intelligence be far from the scene?
No, the US is not accusing the Pakistan military of anything; they just want to create the impression that only they could clean out what they want everyone to believe is a nest of Taliban, "Al Qaeda", and what-have-you in northern Pakistan - which has also served the purpose of keeping a very lucrative war going in an effort to foment chaos in the region.
Out of chaos - the breakdown of societies, the disintegration of normal human existence, global domination by "white" society, and the ultimate redrawing of maps - comes the New World Order that Hitler began with willing tolerance from Britain and the US until he went rogue, and which George Bush Sr. articulated with full western approval.
Many Pakistanis are skeptical of the U.S. war on militancy, believing it is aimed at suppressing Muslims. Many also believe the United States wants to confiscate its nuclear weapons.
US Defence Sec. Robert Gates derides this as "conspiracy theory" - the typical response of someone short on facts and long on official propaganda.
"So let me say, definitively, that the United States does not covet a single inch of Pakistani soil ... and we have no desire to control Pakistan's nuclear weapons."If Gates says it, it must be true, right? But when looking for culprits one should consider who has the most money to throw around - the Pentagon - and who has the strongest motive - the US administration, who have reportedly been debating "how to expand the U.S. military's influence – and even a boots-on-the-ground presence – on Pakistani soil." (Dallas News)
Americans beware: "We are saying, 'Sorry, if there is a successful attack, we will have to act' " within Pakistan, a U.S. official said.
The slope gets slippier
Obama administration looks into modifying Miranda law in the age of terrorism
The latest "terror" event in New York is providing a multitude of rationales for increased interference abroad and fewer rights at home. Nice. Well at least Obama didn't run on "a kinder, gentler world" ticket like Bush Sr. And it's not his fault if the voters construed "change" to mean "good change".
See all Times Square entries.
Friday, 7 May 2010
The futility of petitions
Every so often I receive glowing emails from organizations eager to take credit for some change in government policy. They tell you: We won! Our email campaign was victorious - so now reward us with dollars. In fact, at my most cynical moments, I wonder if most online activism isn't just there to collect email addresses and money.
I once bought a T-Shirt to support a small anti-war group in Toronto, and the leader of that group gave my home address to his favourite local theatre group who used it in their fund raising - with nothing offered in return since I don't live in Toronto and can't attend their performances, they didn't say they were doing activist theatre, and they weren't selling T-Shirts. Once identified as a pushover always a target, I guess. I felt a bit used, to put it mildly.
An email I received today was from a Middle-East-Peace organization that took credit for the fact that Al Jazeera is now available in English in Canada. Like Mighty Mouse, their email campaign saved the day!
But I can tell you right now it was a satellite TV conglomerate that won that battle. It's always, always about money. Just try watching Al Jazeera without paying Bell, Videotron or Rogers. This guy, too, will make scads of money.
Let's hope they don't take away the YouTube Channel.
Mere one-time petitions and flash-in-the-pan email campaigns have little effect on the New World Order. Only unending persistence and the bulk of the population courageously refusing to comply with government edicts stand a chance of making any kind of dent at all.
But who will persistently refuse to pay the HST? And who will persistently refuse to be chipped like these Arizona university students?
Let's talk about Stephen Harper, a virtual despot who is coldly cynical about the overall intelligence of the citizenry and has perfected the art of stalling when things don't go his way. He can do it because of built-in procedural mechanisms that allow him to. Few, if any, of his policy changes are influenced by public opinion, regardless of what he says at election time.
Given time, unwanted demands wither and die on the vine as protesters drift away, become gradually inured to the current status quo, and are deliberately distracted by new, manufactured issues happily blown up and obfuscated by the media.
Provincial governments, too, have rules of procedure designed to forestall changes to policy. This article chronicles the dead-end journey of a provincial petition: Anti-HST petition won't change anything
Israel: Non-surprise of the year
Israel won't move on U.N. call for nuclear-free zone
Israel Michaeli of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission said in a radio interview ... "Our complaint is that people make this comparison between Iran and Israel, when there is absolutely nothing to connect the two" ...I don't know about you, but I'm taking this as an admission that Iran is not a threat.
Iran, an NPT signatory whose uranium enrichment has stirred Western fears of an illicit bomb project -- despite Tehran's denials -- spurns the Jewish state.So do these guys (see more photos here ):
Of course, typical of Obama, he can still look like Mr. Nice Guy by merely threatening Iran with sanctions (while Israel threatens to bomb). But how nice a guy can he be? We saw what sanctions did to ordinary Iraqis. From Smart Sanctions Still Kill:
... the mortality rate for children under five had more than doubled since 1990 from 56 to 131 deaths per 1,000. Some 32 percent of Iraqi children are chronically malnourished, and, according to one estimate, more than 1.5 million Iraqis have died because of the scarcity of medicine and food caused by the sanctions.Speaking of Israel, Bibi is coming to Ottawa on May 31. The PM says we have "cultural ties" with Israel. What he's really saying is, "They're not Muslims."
If there's a significant protest on the 31st, I'll do a photo report. The Ottawa movement is currently relatively weak, but maybe they'll bus people in from Montreal and Toronto. It's on a Monday, though ...
No Tits*, no Teeth
Top 10 choices for Canada’s national bird
Here's mine. ====>
I've never understood people who love royalty, flags and national symbols. To me they're just a bunch of vacant-eyed airheads, shoppers, sycophants, social climbers, bum kissers - preferring fake illusion to the real one.
Now they want to choose a national bird when all wildlife is in peril? Well gee, nobody wants to be hearing all the time about how corporations are destroying the earth and its inhabitants. That's too much of a downer. Let's have a beauty pageant for birds, oh joy!
Who is it that manipulates these flunkies at a time when Canada is polarized on so many issues? Do they seriously think a bird contest will unite us? Or is this just more Bread and Circuses, fuelled by compliant media, to distract us from the existence of the fed-up secessionists?
* A tit is a bird, silly, and it's not in the top 10.
Image borrowed from here.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Stolen mind
If you were a CIA mind control victim you might say something like this when police come to arrest you (because you think they're your friends and they've come to take you home):
"I've been expecting you. Are you NYPD or FBI?" Examiner
And if you were a mind control victim, people who knew you previously would say something like this:
"His personality had changed -- he had become more introverted"
or
"The Faisal with the beard that you see, he was not the old Faisal. He was like you, like me, handsome, liberal and an active person." NDTV
Related: The telltale keys
In the Facebook words of Stephen Harper ...
Stand up for Canada! Harper's Facebook link
Guergis fights effort to drop her as Tory candidate
The embattled MP says she is being treated unfairly by her party and will appeal its decision to drop her from the roster of candidates.
A commenter whose handle is "Steve" has come up with a brilliant suggestion as to what Guergis' next step ought to be:She needs to sit down with Tom Clark in an tell all interview and expose Harper for what he is, a terrible leader that is out to destroy a great nation. Tom get the interview now and save us.
Yeah, girlfriend. Be a true public servant. Take the advice of both Steves and Stand up for Canada!
Who is Tom Clark? Well, he talks a good expose; let's see if he walks one.
Time Square: Cooperation
... how it's accomplished.
Times Square bomb suspect still cooperating
The Pakistani-American accused of the New York Times Square car bomb plot has provided useful information ...
Fictitious tales of rape part of Khadr interrogation strategy
Known only in court as Interrogator One, the former U.S. soldier described in detail a fictitious story about “four big black guys” who raped an Afghan detainee in a U.S. prison as part of the interrogation tactics known as “fear up” or “fear of incarceration.”
Torture experts try to find your deepest fear and play on it. In the case of Faisal Shahzad, it was too easy. He has a wife and kids, and other family members in Pakistan.
Yeah, there are actually schools you can attend to learn these techniques. But you must leave your soul at the door.
Fashion Show: Obama in flipflips
Here's an interesting article from Robert F. Kennedy about how Damien 1 and Damien 2, Bush and Cheney, let the oil companies drill while at the same time letting them lower their safety standards:YYC: Apart from the Obama apologetics in the initial paragraph of that first article that tries to put the full blame on the Bush administration, both articles reveal the history of the overall amorality and deceit in the pursuit of oil.Bending over for Big Oil became the ideological posture of the Bush White House, and, under Cheney's cruel whip, the practice trickled down through the regulatory bureaucracy. The Minerals Management Service -- the poster child for "agency capture phenomena" -- hopped into bed with the regulated industry -- literally.This is criminal to say the least.
A 2009 investigation of the Minerals Management Service found that agency officials "frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives." Three reports by the Inspector General describe an open bazaar of payoffs, bribes and kickbacks spiced with scenes of female employees providing sexual favors to industry big wigs who in turn rewarded government workers with illegal contracts. In one incident reported by the Inspector General, agency employees got so drunk at a Shell sponsored golf event that they could not drive home and had to sleep in hotel rooms paid for by Shell.
But it gets worse. It's not BP's first time and already they are trying to bribe people to settle.
BP Oil Spill: 7 Secrets BP Doesn't Want You To Know (PHOTOS)The company offered settlements to coastal residents of no more than $5,000 if they give up their right to sue. This extends to out-of-work fisherman they've hired to help with the clean up. BP has since removed the language from the contract, once they were criticized for the move. They also initially attempted to downplay the seriousness of the the spill, saying the rig was leaking 1,000 barrels a day when in fact it was leaking five times as much.There are 8 segments to this story.
A link in a reader's comment on YYC's "Be glad you're not a turtle" puts the blame on Dick Cheney, which is fair enough because this goes back a long way but, as far as I can see, there has been no oil change under Obama, unless you count acquiring more of it.
In a pre-election (June 2008) speech in front of a "Change" sign in Florida, Obama promised to continue the moratorium on drilling off the coast of Florida (YouTube Video). In it he decried offshore drilling in general in favour of "clean" alternative forms of energy - but only because it wouldn't bring down prices, not because it was dangerous to the environment.Then, in March 2010, he called for expansion of offshore drilling to include the coast of Florida (CBS video).
At the same time (March 2010), we have this NY Times article stating that Obama had always supported offshore drilling, and showing that he has merely modified the original Bush proposal.
In a very cagey style the article says "no wells would be allowed within 125 miles of the Florida and Alabama coasts, making them invisible from shore" - which is exactly the same as saying that drilling will be allowed off Florida's coast, but sounds so much safer, eh? It carefullly does not mention Obama's June 2008 promise to Floridians that he would maintain the moratorium.
The CBS video (March 2010) confirms the boundary at 125 miles, while this CBS "flipflop" video (August 2008) says the drilling could be "as close as 50 miles". The video appears to be mildly critical of Obama, but it drops the hypnotic suggestion that "a poll" shows that Americans are in favour of offshore drilling. So the flipflop's a good thing, right?
Obama is definitely moving the old agenda forward, but cautiously in increments, and the media are covering his hiney all the way. An excuse will be found to expand into the north as well.
Ted is right; it is criminal.
Al Jazeera has a nice, short but clear, video explanation of the mechanics of the oil spill. And the Wall Street Journal has an article describing the lack of a safety feature.
Image borrowed from About.com
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Clean Sweep
Police raids reveal links to powerful Jamaican Shower Posse gang
On Tuesday morning, more than 1,000 police officers from forces across Ontario executed 105 search warrants in the GTA and Ottawa ...
Lock your doors. These bad boys will sneak up on you when you're in the shower and harangue you to wash behind your ears. They're very clean people. The guy in the photo scrubbed too hard and washed his whole face off.It's common knowledge that there is no war on drugs, so this is either one big cop-show or some Jamaicans were dealing without a permit.
Camera surveillance in NY City
Update #2 to Times Square: The telltale keys
See also: Update #1
NY bomb attempt reignites security camera debate
There are at least 4,000 cameras in New York ... including 83 cameras in Times Square ...And not one of them saw Shahzad, but did see a "white" man near the vehicle changing his shirt, yet he's not considered a suspect.
The jig is up. It's officially a false flag terror event, the cameras are just intended as an invasion of citizens' privacy, Mayor Bloomberg is complicit, and Shahzad is a scapegoat.
London ... has about 500,000 cameras ...
and they didn't show much about the so-called terrorists either.
Time Square update
Update to Times Square: The telltale keys
See also: Update #2
Times Square Bomb Suspect Waives Rapid Court Hearing
He "began cooperating" late Monday night.
This is very sad. What it says to me is that Shahzad is definitely a scapegoat who has been tortured into making recorded statements, and now is in no fit physical shape to be seen in court.
Although a US citizen with rights, days after the event he's accused of he still has no lawyer to speak on his behalf.
And what's mayor Bloomberg concerned about? Money!
Mr. Bloomberg told reporters that he would also make a case that New York needed a larger share of federal homeland security money.Is that what this is about? Money?
Stupid question? We all know that money is at the bottom of the wars and all the fearmongering. But specifically at the bottom of this particular incident? Was Bloomberg's election supported by security contractors? Was this a ruse for security contractors to get more money out of the government?
From Wikipedia:
Bloomberg believes that the September 11, 2001 attacks were not intended to be solitary events. When he assumed office, he set up a Counterterrorism Bureau which works along with the NYPD intelligence division to gather information about terrorism affecting New York worldwide. He believes that funding for Homeland Security by the federal government should be distributed by risk, where cities that are considered to have the highest threat for a terrorist attack would get the most money. Bloomberg is also a supporter of the USA PATRIOT Act.Of course, it's not fascism when the West does it.
They're Blackwater's troops!
Ted (Newfoundland) writes:
In a follow up to Ron's piece [They're not MY troops!] yesterday, this article over at Rabble could sure as hell add credibility to his words.
Here we have Erik Prince head of Blackwater, now called XE, praising Canadian troops, at least $6 million worth, while saying some other NATO countries should get out.
For Canada to be giving tax dollars to murderous scumbags like Prince and Blackwater/XE while cutting or stopping outright help for projects in Canada is just more slap in the face to Canadians."The National Defence Department has spent more than $6-million having its troops trained by the controversial Blackwater security company, whose own employees have been accused of needlessly killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, documents show."
Image borrowed from America at War.
Times Square: The telltale keys
Quoth the house keys "Find me, find me". *
They can't have it both ways. Either "Al Qaeda" is dangerous, or it is "incompetent".
Did you know that Shahzad's house keys were reportedly found in the bomb vehicle? Is that the hugest break for the investigators, or what? As I keep saying, what's to fear about "Al Qaeda" if they can't even properly pull off a terror event?
They even left a gun in Shahzad's car parked at the airport to prove he was the bad guy. Common sense tells you that anybody could have bought guns, cars, and manure in his name, so none of this is proof of anything at all.
Need more outlandish "news"? The Washington Post is decidely full of it:
U.S. tightens no-fly rules after suspect in failed Times Square attack succeeds in boarding plane
Until now, airlines have had 24 hours to check the list after they are notified that a name has been added to it through a special, expedited process that indicates a high level of potential risk. Starting Wednesday, they must check within two hours.That's quite a coinkydink, don't you think? Or is it? If the CIA and/or the Pentacon set this whole thing up, they'd want to show what responsible blokes they were by making sure their suspect was on the list, but then they'd choose an escape flight that was too early for the airlines to have checked the new additions. They wouldn't count on the FBI being alerted by loose-lipped house keys so early in the game.
Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old Pakistani-American arrested for Saturday's bombing attempt, was placed on the expedited no-fly list Monday morning. But he was able to purchase a one-way ticket to Pakistan shortly before the flight was scheduled to leave.
...
Control of the screening system is gradually being shifted from the airlines to the government.Quite. If the Pentacon/CIA are planning future false flag events, having the guv responsible for checking the list would be a decided boon.
...
US SPECIAL FORCES ARE "SECRETLY" TRAINING PAKISTANI MILITARY IN "NON-COMBAT" OPERATIONS.
Shahzad has admitted his involvement in the plot, authorities said, and told FBI agents he received bombmaking training in a region of Pakistan known as a militant hotbed. Shahzad, who became a U.S. citizen last year, is from a military family in Pakistan. He spent five months there before returning in February to his home in a leafy, quiet neighborhood of Shelton, Conn.Two interesting juxtaposed paragraphs, don't you think? The first one says that Shahzad admitted his guilt. It also reveals that the suspect came from a military family and received training in an unnamed camp in Pakistan. What's being suggested? That the Pakistan military is helping to bring down America?
Shahzad is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan soon, but officials postponed a scheduled appearance Tuesday amid reports that he was engaged in dialogue with federal agents.
Strange, since the New York times has reported that US special forces are heavily involved with Pakistan's military, training them in all sorts of covert operations. What kind of military training do they want us to believe Shahzad had on his last trip to Pakistan?
The second paragraph suggests that Shahzad was so strongly encouraged to admit his guilt he is now unfit to make a public appearance.
"[E]ngaged in dialogue" is by far the most creative newspeak yet for "tortured".
...
An all too familiar story:
... investigators do not yet know what factors may have triggered Shahzad's apparent transformation from a seemingly regular father and husband into a suspected terrorist.Yeah, what would make a sweet boy like this suddenly do unspeakable things? Either he lost his mind or somebody stole it from him - and hardly anyone doubts anymore that the CIA is just as capable (video) of stealing minds as "Al Qaeda" is, if not more so.
Or perhaps it was merely the bad luck of the draw, as it has been for many other innocent "middle-eastern" types being used as pawns in the fake "war on terror", detained on secret "evidence", being held up to the public as examples of what we are expected to fear so that the west can continue to slaughter Muslims and mess with our democratic freedoms unmolested by public opinion.
It's equally possible that the "white" man who changed from a dark shirt to a red one near the scene was the real (CIA) culprit, and therefore not a suspect, while Shahzad is merely a convenient patsy - as Oswald insisted he was and got shot dead for saying so.
...
Some people have bad luck and some have suspiciously good luck:
"Like the Christmas Day bomber, we were lucky that both of these folks were incompetent -- they couldn't trigger the explosives," said Sen. Christopher S. Bond (Mo.), the ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee.If "Al Qaeda" really is as dangerous as Bush and Obama have tried to convince us they are, then it can't possibly be they who are pulling these totally inept stunts.
...
Note the word "significant" in the following paragraph:
Multiple U.S. law enforcement officials said Shahzad had attracted no significant law enforcement attention before the attempted bombing. "He was not on the radar," one official said.What's actually being said is that Shahzad was on the radar, perhaps as a potential patsy. What is definitely being implied is that Homeland Security is brilliant in being able to identify the suspect so astoundingly quickly.
... Another key step was finding an e-mail from Shahzad to the car's seller. Although Shahzad used a fake name, he included a number from a disposable cellphone, which investigators used to determine his identity.What? The telltale house keys weren't enough? Does Homeland Security wear a belt and suspenders too? Again, common sense says that keys can be planted. Obviously they know that. They should also know that emails can be faked, and cellphones can be purchased by anybody with the cash to pay.
There will be much more garbage, "secret" info, and deliberate innuendo over the coming days. And in the end, this latest non-event will be no more real to the general public than a Hollywood spy flick and the nightmare it induces.
See also: Update #1 Update #2
Apologies to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and "The Telltale Heart".
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
They're not MY troops!
Ron writes:
F#ck the troops, they're just killers & torture enablersYYC: At the very least, bring them home and stop the killing.I'm fed up with "Good German" * Canadians repeating the propaganda phrase "Support Our Troops". By their own admission (General Hillier) our troops job is to kill people, which by job definition makes them killers. So why Canadians should reflexively support killers is beyond comprehension.
By the same immoral logic, "Good German" citizens of every nation on earth should support their killers, which would make Job One of so called nation states the killing of other killers by their killers.
And support our killers to kill who? Or do our "Good German" Canadians support the killing of anyone for whatever reason as long as it is done by a Canadian killer?
Personally I don't support capital punishment and I don't support "killing", not here and not abroad, by anyone whether they are a citizen of this nation state or of any other.
I DO support our teachers, our nurses, our doctors, our postal workers, our public employees, human rights activists, artists, musicians and the nice people at the corner cafe who make a darn good cup of coffee.
But I don't support killers. Never have, never will.
So F#ck the troops.
As I've always said, we'll never end war until people refuse to fight them, so it's hard to have sympathy for anyone who sees legalized slaughter as a way to make money, and are ready to swallow any rationale that will salve their conscience.
They're the troops of anybody willing to pay them. They're not MY troops, and they're not Ron's.
* The Good German Syndrome
Movie: The Good German
S-s-s-mack!
British PM candidate Nick Clegg: "I think, if Labour do come third in terms of the number of votes cast, then people would find it inexplicable that Gordon Brown himself could carry on as prime minister.
The Globe and Mail: Tories hold firm lead in polls ... Canadians still like them.
YYC: Harper polls at 35% with "a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points". That sounds like a mere third to me, and lest you think so also, the Globe eagerly assures that this is a good rating, and in fact would have been even better had the poll not been taken at Guergis time.
Oh well, at least we've learned a new term: "wedge politics". Harper's strongest talent is giving Iggy wedgies.
The Globe has a talent for kissing.
Related: British voter poll - May 4 - Labour 29%
Also: This is what Gordon Brown was hoping for when he found himself smack up against woman-in-the-street Gillian Duffy.
Times Square: Deep Dark Desires
Faisal Shahzad, Times Square bomb suspect, arrested on board plane for Dubai
Law enforcement officials say Shahzad bought the sport utility vehicle, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, used in the failed attack from a Connecticut man about three weeks ago and paid cash.It can probably be safely assumed that the original owner of the vehicle did not have a middle-eastern sounding name, and that he is "white" - so carefully has his identity been hidden, and so readily has his story been believed.
The vehicle identification number had been removed from the Pathfinder’s dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the owner of record, who told them he had sold the vehicle to a stranger.
He himself, of course, is not considered a suspect, just as the "white" man seen on camera changing from a dark shirt to a red one is not a suspect either. (See "Al Qaeda" flubs again)
He reportedly sold the car to "a stranger" who naturally would not have given his real name - so how did the investigators know the buyer's identity so quickly?
It seems the Obama administration has made up its mind, a la Bush on 9/11, that this has to be an "Al Qaeda" terror plot, however weak and inept, and therefore all other indications must be ignored.
A Taliban plot scenario would be viewed as negative optics, suggesting America lost the Afghanistan war, which was heavily sold as "fighting over there to save lives over here".
And they certainly don't want the impression created that this is "blowback" for what they've inflicted on the Afghan people, because the American people might try to prevent more of same by coming out massively against the war.
You have to wonder, though, why AQ used a low grade of manure, and didn't choose New Year's eve when they would have gotten the best bang for their buck? You'd almost think they didn't really want to kill Americans, but just make it seem as if they wanted to.
Well, certainly somebody wanted that.
Update: I heard on TV that Shahzad has confessed and said he acted alone. I wonder if that has anything to do with interrogation techniques and the fact that members of his family have been arrested in Pakistan.
