"Burnt by the Sun"

This is an artistic depiction of ball lightning. This rare type of lightning does sometimes hover motionless in front of a window. I saw this myself once. A ball of bright light the size of a person's head paused and hovered for a few moments like it was looking in the window and then zipped off.

In the Russian film Burnt by the Sun, ball lightning is an important symbol for the terror visited on millions of people during Stalin's purges. The film tells the story of a family's last day together before the father, a retired Soviet general, is arrested by the Soviet secret police.

This is a good synopsis of the tragic story, which is based on the true-life experiences of a Russian family.

The title of the film is based on a song that was popular in the USSR during the 1930s. Here are the lyrics of that song:

This is our last sunday
This is our last sunday, today we will part,
Today we will go our own ways, forever
This is our last sunday, so give it only to me
Look tenderly in my eyes for the eternal while.

Now it's not the time for excuses, everything has been said,
Today a richer and better than me came
And with you, stole my happiness.

I have a last wish, this one and only in many years.
Give me this last hope,
And then let the world collapse

You ask me what will I do and where will I go
Where should I go - do I know?
Today there's only one ending which is-
well, nevermind

One thing is important, you must be happy
and don't worry about me.
But before everything ends,
Before the fate will us part
Give me this one last hope

This is our last sunday....
Short sound clip of Ta ostatnia niedziela (WMA format) [Wikipedia]

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (11-20-06) reports that a former Russian spy, Alexandr Litvinenko has been poisoned in London:

"Litvinenko became violently ill just hours after meeting in early November with a man who purported to have information regarding the October 7 killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Doctors say the 43-year-old Litvinenko is suffering the effects of the toxin thallium, an ingredient in rat poison that attacks the nervous system and lungs....[other media reports say that he was poisoned with a radioactive material--polonium.]

Litvinenko, who defected to Britain six years ago, had angered the Kremlin in the past with allegations that his FSB superiors had ordered him to assassinate Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a longtime Kremlin foe.

He has since written a book accusing the security service of orchestrating a 1999 spate of apartment-block bombings in Moscow and other cities, which killed hundreds of people.

The Kremlin attributed the blasts to Chechen separatists and used them as a pretext for launching the second war in the North Caucasus republic.

Litvinenko also suggested the 2004 Beslan school siege may have been carried out on FSB orders.

In addition, he has alleged that Russian special services were behind the 2004 assassination in Qatar of former acting Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Two Russian intelligence officers were convicted by a Qatari court in Yandarbiyev's death.

The FSB has categorically denied any role in Yandarbiyev's killing and has rejected the rest of Litvinenko's claims as well....

Deputy Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov today dismissed allegations that Moscow was involved in the poisoning, calling such suggestions 'nonsense.' Sergei Ivanov, a spokesman for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), told AFP his country's secret services 'have not carried out poisonings or any form of assassination in a long time.'

London's metropolitan police have opened an investigation into the poisoning." [Full Text]

"The Final Problem" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1893)

"On May 4 every year an unusual pilgrimage takes place to the small, Alpine town of Meiringen. Members of Sherlock Holmes societies from all over the world descend on the quaint town in the Bernese Oberland to commemorate the "death" of the world's most famous fictional detective." [In the footsteps of Holmes and Watson]

“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed–the word is passed to the professor, the matter is organized and carried out."---Sherlock Holmes describing his nemesis, Professor Moriarty

"The Final Problem" is told by Sherlock Holmes' friend Dr. Watson. It is the story of Sherlock Holmes' death at the hand of the legendary criminal mastermind, Professor Moriarty.

Camden House has The Complete Sherlock Holmes. All the stories are beautifully illustrated by Sidney Paget, Richard Gutschmidt, Frank Wiles, Frederic Dorr Steele and other artists.
Hundreds of illustrations can be accessed here.

Some background and a synopsis of "The Final Problem" can be found here:

"Holmes has been tracking Moriarty and his agents for months, and is on the brink of snaring them all and delivering them to the dock. Moriarty is the nexus of a highly organized criminal force, and Holmes will consider it the crowning achievement of his career if only he can defeat Moriarty. Moriarty, of course, is out to thwart Holmes' plans and is well capable of doing so, for he is, as Holmes admits, the great detective's intellectual equal."
[Synopsis]

THE FINAL PROBLEM

IT IS with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherent and, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion, I have endeavoured to give some account of my strange experiences in his company...[full text]

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (1843)

Elegant Ebooks has the first edition of Charles Dicken's famous Christmas story A Christmas Carol with illustrations by John Leech.

MARLEY’S GHOST

Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. [the rest]

Happy Thanksgiving America!

Here are some pictures from the White House of turkeys being pardoned. This tradition seems to have begun with President Truman.

And some turkeys don't wait for a Presidential pardon but take matters into their own hands! Here is a home movie about one who did!

The Thanksgiving story is one of America's founding legends. Perhaps not all the mythology about the first Thanksgiving is historically true, but the values that the Thanksgiving story celebrates and enshrines are dear to most Americans.

I once read that Thanksgiving as we now celebrate it was promoted by the government as both a civic and religious holiday during the Great Depression to encourage the American people.

The story of how the Pilgrim colonists survived even more difficult times and how the Pilgrims and their Indian neighbors sat down to dinner together was meant to give Americans encouragement and faith in our future during the Depression. The story celebrates the value of coming together in spite of difficult times and great diversity. Thanksgiving celebrates faith and courage.

Here is a site that provides some historical information about the history of Thanksgiving in the Americas.

The History Channel is showing a movie called Desperate Crossing about the journey of the Pilgrims. Here is a short video clip about that film. The film is being shown on Sunday, November 19, and again on Thanksgiving, November 23. The History Channel also has a Thanksgiving site here.

I plan to post a number of encouraging perspectives on our holiday.

This year, my niece, whose ancestors have been in the Americas for 1000s of years, will be serving the family Thanksgiving dinner in her new home.

Some people want to disparage the Thanksgiving myth, but most of us will be encouraged our families and by our fellow Americans as we sit down to our dinners all over our land in spite of our different ethnic and religious heritages.

Our America is truly a big Thanksgiving table that welcomes everyone! That is no myth. That is today's great, if not always perfect, America!

The Little Rascals at Fox News Counting Coup!

Revolting Ward (1) was featured on Fox News last evening (11-17-06) as "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day."

When a stray Fox News hound materialized on Wardo's (2) lawn and identified himself, the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies (3) retorted, "Kiss my ass!"

Undeterred, the Fox News hound asked Wardo (4) if he was ever going to apologize for demeaning the 9-11 victims; and "Chutch" (5) turned tail, scampered into his hutch, and slammed the door.

As everyone knows, Wardo (6) disparaged the 9-11 victims as "little Eichmanns."

Like his defender the Maoist MIM, Wardo (7) is "capable of offending many people simultaneously, sometimes hundreds of millions of people potentially in a single sentence."

Revolting Ward (8) would never apologize for demeaning the 9-11 victims. In fact, mocking the murdered is what the tenured plagiarist does: Wardo (9) has made a career out of celebrating terrorists and demeaning their victims.

Piece of Work Cited

1. Professor Ward Churchill

2. Lord of the Smoke Rings

3. "Sometimes the 'duh' factor gets so loud. I really have to cite this to people who are capable of tying their shoes without instructions?"

4. ibid.

5. ibid.

6. ibid.

7. ibid.

8. ibid.

9. ibid.

Paperinik the Diabolical Avenger!

Credit

The Italian Disney comic artist who created Paperinik is Giovan Battista Carpi. You can read about Donald's alter ego at Wikipedia.

Donald's superhero alias "Paperinik" is a combination of the names "Diabolik," a fictional Italian villain, and "Paperino," Donald's Italian name.

Paperinik was created in 1969 after Italian children complained to the Italian publishers of Donald Duck comics that Donald was always a loser in their stories.

This is my first Bird Friday! And my first picture on my blog.

A Psychopath Writes a Book: "If I Did It" By O.J. Simpson

The Seattle Post Intelligencer (11-17-06) and many other newspapers and television news organizations are reporting that O.J. Simpson, who murdered his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1994, has written a book called If I Did It. The book is due out on November 30, 2006.

Simpson is also scheduled to do a two-part interview on Fox titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened" on November 27 and November 29.

The Washington Post (11-17-06) reports that If I Did It is being published by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins. Fox and Harper Collins are both owned by News Corp.

I am not going to watch this program or read this book. I think that book-writing murderers who have escaped justice should be shunned.

James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice, at Boston's Northeastern University, thinks that Simpson is "trying to get back some of the limelight...And this is the only way he can do it." [Seattle Post Intelligencer]

Judith Regan, Simpson's publisher, calls If I Did It Simpson's confession.

Regan says that "killers often confess first in hypothetical fashion before they come clean."

The Post Intelligencer reports:

"Saul Kassin, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said it is true that interrogators trying to coax confessions from suspects sometimes ask them to reconstruct crimes hypothetically...

W. Keith Campbell, a University of Georgia professor of psychology who has studied narcissism extensively, noted the attention Simpson got over the slayings was far from negative.

'He has a lot of supporters,' Campbell said. 'People were cheering him on the freeway. He's been away from that for a long while. It could be an opportunity to get some more of that.'"

Or it could just be that News Corp wants FOX to have a good sweeps month, so it is sponsoring this project. That's pretty cynical.

I sort of wonder if Judith Regan, who used to work for The National Enquirer, basically came up with this idea and perhaps even helped Simpson write his book.

On the one hand, publishing this book seems to be very mercenary and unscrupulous; on the other hand, Simpson reportedly comes very close to confessing to the double-murders. But we all know he did it.

Maoist MIM Defies Gravity: Escapes Earth's Atmosphere and Charts Unsteady Course Toward Planet Nibiru!

Here is the latest update on the literary misadventures of the Maoist MIM's "Security Minister," the blogosphere's indefatigable defender of C.U.'s tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies (1).

MIM's latest security updates can be found at the Department of MIMland Security, here.

Presently, MIM's security posture seems to be at about DEFCON 1 and may be plummeting into the negative numbers.

As everyone knows, the MIM's so-called "Security Minister," has recently been observed ranting insanely about FBI and CIA plots. I wrote about this lunatic in a post titled, "Maoist MIM Misplaces Meds!"

Sadly, Security Minister's mental health has deteriorated even further. In his 11-12-06 post, the now barking mad "Security Minister" [hereafter MIMster] is making open threats about stringing up some "racist CIA asswipe and five associates," starting tomorrow:

"Racist CIA asswipe and five associates (yep I added two) for six asses in one sling. They just need the cord cut to head for a proverbial hanging, taking less than 20 questions of discovery. It could start tomorrow. If we hear the word from the right persyn, that's what's going to happen. That's the short-run answer. Are we clear?"

As is often the case, the MIMster manages to work a certain tenured plagiarist (2) into his third-person plural hallucination:

"Inevitably there is an ad homonym or psychological attempt to trace the origin of any MIM writing. It's inevitable within pre-scientific society. MIM has disowned the theory of "origins" as leading to ad homonym and psychological thinking--pre-scientific method. In the Ward Churchill case, a bourgeois history scholar has called for his punishment in connection to the individual "origins" (as opposed to class or national origins) of bloodline thinking in First Nations.

While we do not mind noting origins sometimes especially in reading bourgeois history, ultimately it is not what we care about, because we are concerned about broad social forces--classes, nations and genders."

Security HAMster has what can only be charitably described as a terribly tenuous hold on his own identity and felonious fingers when it comes to the identities of others. There are times when he even seems to mistake his own lowly, obscure, and proletarian persona for that of the vainglorious buffoon Wardo! (3) On such occasions, Security HAMster is apt to boast self-importantly about his Chutch-like superpowers:

"Many people take offense at MIM's writing and that is good. MIM is a calculating set of writers that usually knows the numbers behind any social phenomena it talks about. And this makes us more effective in offending many people simultaneously, sometimes hundreds of millions of people potentially in a single sentence."

Wow! With amazing superpowers like that, is it any wonder that Security HAMster has escaped Earth's atmosphere and is blazing a trail toward Planet Nibiru?

1. Professor Ward Churchill
2. Lord of the Smoke Rings
3. Sometimes the 'duh' factor gets so loud. I really have to cite this to people who are capable of tying their shoes without instructions?

MI5 Chief Describes Terrorist threat to UK: "Real, Here, Deadly, and Enduring"

"Five years on from 9/11, where are we? Speaking in August, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch of the Metropolitan Police, described the threat to the UK from Al-Qaida-related terrorism as 'real, here, deadly and enduring'. Only last week the Home Secretary said the threat will be 'enduring — the struggle will be long and wide and deep.'---Eliza Manningham-Buller

The MI5 is the UK's domestic intelligence agency.

On November 9, 2006 Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director-General of MI5, gave a speech on the terrorist threat facing the UK. I have listed a few of her main points:

• We now know that the first Al-Qaida-related plot against the UK was the one we discovered and disrupted in November 2000 in Birmingham. A British citizen is currently serving a long prison sentence for plotting to detonate a large bomb in the UK. Let there be no doubt about this: the international terrorist threat to this country is not new. It began before Iraq, before Afghanistan, and before 9/11.
• What I can say is that today, my officers and the police are working to contend with some 200 groupings or networks, totalling over 1600 identified individuals (and there will be many we don’t know) who are actively engaged in plotting, or facilitating, terrorist acts here and overseas. The extremists are motivated by a sense of grievance and injustice driven by their interpretation of the history between the West and the Muslim world. This view is shared, in some degree, by a far wider constituency. If the opinion polls conducted in the UK since July 2005 are only broadly accurate, over 100,000 of our citizens consider that the July 2005 attacks in London were justified.
• More and more people are moving from passive sympathy towards active terrorism through being radicalised or indoctrinated by friends, families, in organised training events here and overseas, by images on television, through chat rooms and websites on the Internet.
• The propaganda machine is sophisticated and Al-Qaida itself says that 50% of its war is conducted through the media. In Iraq, attacks are regularly videoed and the footage downloaded onto the internet within 30 minutes. Virtual media teams then edit the result, translate it into English and many other languages, and package it for a worldwide audience. And, chillingly, we see the results here. Young teenagers are being groomed to be suicide bombers.
• Al-Qaida has developed an ideology which claims that Islam is under attack, and needs to be defended. This is a powerful narrative that weaves together conflicts from across the globe, presenting the West’s response to varied and complex issues, from long-standing disputes such as Israel/Palestine and Kashmir to more recent events as evidence of an across-the-board determination to undermine and humiliate Islam worldwide. Afghanistan, the Balkans, Chechnya, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Kashmir and Lebanon are regularly cited by those who advocate terrorist violence as illustrating what they allege is Western hostility to Islam.
• We also need to understand some of the differences between non-Western and Western life-styles; and not treat people with suspicion because of their religion, or indeed to confuse fundamentalism with terrorism. We must realise that there are significant differences between faiths and communities within our society, and most people, from whatever origin, condemn all acts of terror in the UK. [Full Text]

Self styled "Emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq" Taunts Rumsfeld for His "Retreat" and Calls America a "Crippled Duck"!

"I tell the lame duck [administration]: do not rush to escape as did your defense minister," Muhajir said, according to Reuters. "Stay on the battleground." LA Times

An organization called SITE (The Search for International Terrorist Entities) reports the highlights of an audiotaped speech attributed to the self-styled "Emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq," Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

The tape is called “There is No Judgment, but that of Allah."
The full text of the speech is available to subscribers.

I am trying to find a transcript of this speech.

SITE writes:

Muhajir speaks in the regard of recent events, including the establishment of the Islamic State, American elections in which the Democratic Party gained power within Congress, and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as the U.S. Secretary of Defense. These events, he believes, are portents of the victory of the Mujahideen, but on this he does not dwell. Rather, he speaks at greater length to the Mujahideen, specifically calling for the first time to those in Ansar al-Sunnah, the Islamic Army in Iraq, and the Mujahideen Army for their unity with the Islamic State, and continuity of jihad until they grab hold of the White House.

Muhajir observes the American people putting their foot “on the right path,” and executing wise judgment in the elections on Tuesday, November 7, realizing the “treachery” of U.S. President George W. Bush and his supporters of Israel. However, he questions if the politicians will fulfill their campaign promises to their constituents and “relieve the hearts of the mothers by bringing back their children from the teeth of the lions of the Land of Two Rivers”. He then taunts the U.S., calling the state a “crippled duck,” [probably from the expression "lame duck"] and asking them not to be as hasty in their retreat as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for the Mujahideen are not yet satisfied with the blood of the American soldier in Iraq; an Iraq where even an illiterate farmer, imbued with the doctrine of “No God, but Allah,” is capable of detonating an explosive device on a symbol of America. To President Bush directly, Muhajir claims that he was deceived by the Shi’ites of Iran to use American soldiers as a conduit to extend the Persian Empire, without firing one bullet or sacrificing one soldier of their own. [Full text]

Maoist MIM Misplaces Meds!

Chutch at Bat
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,
But there is no joy in MIMville—mighty Churchill has struck out.
by
Snapple

One organization that gives total support to the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies, Ward Churchill, is the Maoist organization called MIM.

Hot News has MIM's latest schizophrenic rants.

MIM's "Security Minister" is raving about media and FBI-inspired attacks on Ward Churchill in a (11-6-06) "Security Update" post called "Attention Colorado!"

"MIM is supporting the Ward Churchill camp and opposing the FBI camp and Colorado media. Among other things the federal attorney in Colorado has done nothing appropriately to protect Ward Churchill's civil rights. The Colorado media have very low credibility for us, even lower than in the rest of the country."

"Security Minister" sounds a bit like that comedian Borat lampooning a Maoist ideologue.

Lately, the MIM is sounding even more incoherent and paranoid than usual. [Some of MIM's peculiar views on mental illness can be found here, here, here, here, and elsewhere.]

In a post titled "Denial ain't a river in Egypt: Getting Amerikkkans to admit being spies" (11-10-06), the MIM reports:

"MIM is struggling with someone to admit he is a spy. We already know what he thinks about many issues and so we know there is a good chance he is still in denial. There are also several looking on who could learn a lesson. Of course, these spies get paid well to create problems that did not exist before and MIM has no Thought Reform camp that it can send these people to." [Full Text]

MIM's "Security Minister" raves more explicitly in his 11-4-06 Security Update about someone he characterizes as "CIA asswipe." Even though he is a Maoist, MIM's "Security Minister" threatens to unleash the FBI on "CIA asswipe":

"So you see CIA asswipe, it's going to become clear that you have selfish long-term interests in keeping alive a certain problem and making it look ongoing and inflamed, one that the FBI would like to see settled. Can I be any clearer than that? Yes and I will if I have to be. Oh yes, you better believe we are prepared to go to the mat as scrutiny of our Congress resolutions should reveal. Do you think we like not having Congresses? Do you think cell structure is traditional Leninism? We're going to clear this up as we see who does what now. People who are dragging on this conflict are going to gain MIM's first attention. Damn I hope you are smart enough to figure out that I have given you a generous offer. Obviously you are majorly psychologically occluded." [Full Text]

Here is a colorful passage from a really insane article by "Security Minister" (11-3-06) titled "Attention racist CIA lackey!" :

"[CIA] Lackey, this is your best chance to keep the range of hurt feelings to a limited few. And if anything happens to the MIM web page, people should google in the next few weeks for +"Security Minister," +"Maoist Internationalist Movement." This lackey better hope nothing happens to the Security Minister or select comrades, because if it does, the story is going to come out in more brutal form. Lackey's best hope is for the Security Minister to smooth out some edges and do 'damage control.'" [Full Text]

Here is another really insane article by "Security Minister" (11-9-06) titled "Attention racist CIA asswipe: Part II." Remarkably, MIM's Maoist Security Minister speculates about the possibility of forming a united front with the FBI in order to unleash the Feebs on the "CIA asswipe":

"We're going to find out in this little triangle who is lying. Racist CIA asswipe, you are the man in the middle, the man on the margin. It's where FBI and MIM see if they can put aside distrust just for one issue.

As you know, racist CIA asswipe, MIM already knows that you have a long history of causing problems for your own reasons. The unknown quantity for MIM is the FBI. MIM theorizes that if we make an example out of racist CIA asswipe, this issue will quickly simmer down internationally. No one will have to be guessing where this or that shit came from." [Full Text]

By now it should be obvious that "Security Minister" is issuing incoherent, and at times seemingly contradictory, ultimatums to the FBI and CIA. The immodest MIM may even be resorting to dubious undercover intrigues!

Check it out:

On November 6, "Security Minister" supports Churchill against the FBI. But on November 4 and 9, "Security Minister" calls for a united front with the FBI [!] in order to liquidate his CIA lackey/asswipe problem.

"Security Minister" must have all the other poor MIMsters tap dancing like the Rocketts! How else could they hope to toe the party line when the MIM keeps pulling the ideological rug out from under them so fast?

"Security Minister" is actually attempting to play-off the FBI against the CIA! Not a course of action Snapple would recommend.

At any moment I half expect the MIM's "Security Minister" to be unceremoniously denounced and unmasked as Nikolai Gogol's St. Petersburg spectre, the unjustly-oppressed lunatic, Akakii Akakievich Bashmashchkin. Perhaps someone stole MIM's overcoat, and he is blaming the CIA and FBI. Why couldn't MIM just come right out and say so? Why all the mystery?

But back to the antihero of our blog, the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies, Ward Churchill. The Legend of Pine Ridge has written about the MIM and Ward Churchill here, here, here, here, here, here, and elsewhere. Use the search feature on the site and type in MIM.

The Drunkablog notes that MIM has "a poem cycle dedicated to Ward Churchill's 1988 book on the feds' 'war' against AIM and the Black Panthers."

True enough, but Snapple has written a prophetic poem about MIM and Wardo! Hasn't anybody noticed?

I first discovered the MIM by doing a google search for Ward Churchill 118,000. This is the amount of the ransom asked for JonBenet Ramsey.

I had noticed a number of troubling connections between AIM ideology, AIM activists, and this unsolved murder; so I decided to see if the figure of 118,000 had any significance for Churchill.

The MIM article I found was a defense of Churchill. The figure of 118,000 was said to be the number of Iraqi children said to be in danger of dying due to the U.N. sanctions on Iraq. Dead children seemed to be related to Jonbenet:

"On December 23, 1991, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) editorial reported: 'The sanctions have indeed been choking Iraqis to death...118,000 children are at risk of death.'" [Full Text]

Sometimes it seems to me that the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies Ward Churchill persynally [MIM-spell] writes these defenses of himself for the MIM. This is only Snapple's opinion, of course. Still, Snapple has free speech. Sort of.

If Wardo can claim that FBI-backed death squads murdered 342 Indians on Pine Ridge Indian reservation, why can't Snapple can hold some controversial opinions about the tenured plagiarist's possible involvement in the JonBenet murder?

Plus, the JonBenet ransom note is plagiarized !

Bwaaahahahahahahahaha!

Venezuela: Where the Nuts Come From!

The Miami Herald (11-9-06) reports:

The Venezuelan government, to judge from recent events, officially regards Bush as a genocidal Nazi who arranged the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to justify aggression against other nations.

In a speech Tuesday, [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chávez criticized the decision of an Iraqi court to sentence former dictator Saddam Hussein to the death penalty. ''If sentencing is to be done,'' Chávez said, ``the first one to be given the most severe sentence this planet has to offer should be the president of the United States, if we're talking about genocidal presidents.''

RESOLUTION ON 9/11

His comments, which were fairly typical of his recent attacks on Bush, came shortly after the publication of a resolution by Venezuela's legislative National Assembly describing the 9/11 attacks as ''self-inflicted'' and after an exhibition at the Foreign Ministry building in Caracas in which Bush was portrayed as a Nazi storm trooper.

The resolution, which appeared in the official government gazette in mid-October, primarily criticized Washington's decision to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out.

But in its fourth paragraph, it calls on the U.S. Congress to ``demand that the government of President Bush explain the self-inflicted attack on the World Trade Center and its victims, the supposed aircraft that crashed into the Pentagon and the links between the bin Laden family and the Bush family.''

The resolution, drafted by the deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission, Carlos Escarrá, was passed unanimously by the 167-member assembly, all of them Chávez supporters after an opposition boycott of elections last December.

Both Chávez and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro have referred several times in the past to suspicions that the 9/11 attacks were planned by the Bush administration, and have called for an inquiry.

But this appears to be the first time that the term ''self-inflicted attack'' has been used without qualification.

Asked how the legislature had reached that conclusion, Escarrá said that ''evidence and testimonies'' had emerged in the United States and that ''for the rest of the world, there is no longer any question'' that 9/11 was not an al Qaeda attack. [Full text]

Saddam May Be Hanged in January

"Everyone is eager to have Saddam executed… It is important that we make these people supporting him feel there is no hope (that he will come back) so the killings and the bombings stop."--Iraqi MP Haider Al-Abadi

The Times (11-6-06) reports:

The former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will be hanged by the end of January, a senior member of Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa party predicted today as an around-the-clock curfew kept the lid on sectarian violence after the deposed dictator was sentenced to death.

"I don’t think it will drag on beyond January of next year," said MP Haider al-Abadi, who is a confidant to the Iraqi Prime Minister....

Iraqi law includes an automatic appeal for death and life sentences. A nine-judge appellate chamber will start to review Saddam’s case within 30 days.....

The high tribunal will forward its judicial ruling to the appellate chamber in the next ten days. Once the document is delivered, the prosecution and defence have 20 days to submit their arguments to the appeals judges.

When this month-long period ends, the appellate chamber will study the case, but it has no deadline for issuing a decision. If the judges decide to uphold the verdict, Saddam, al-Tikriti and al-Bandar will be hanged within 30 days....

"Everyone is eager to have Saddam executed… It is important that we make these people supporting him feel there is no hope (that he will come back) so the killings and the bombings stop."
[Full Text]

Hoekstra Hopes International Atomic Energy Agency Was Not Penetrated by Saddam's Regime

"If there is concern about Saddam’s nuclear program, there should be similar concern about potential connections between Saddam and al-Qaeda suggested in the documents.....

[M]y staff’s preliminary review of the documents in question suggests that at least some of them may be internal IAEA documents. There is a serious question of why and how the Iraqis obtained these documents in the first place. We need to explore that carefully – I certainly hope there will be no evidence that the IAEA had been penetrated by Saddam's regime."--Congressman Pete Hoekstra

Hoekstra Statement on DOCEX

"Yesterday’s article by the New York Times [probably this] highlights a number of important issues with respect to Iraq’s WMD programs, as well as the importance of the documents that have been recovered in Iraq," said U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "I am pleased that the document release program continues to stimulate public discussion of these issues.

"With respect to the possibility that documents may have been released that should not have been released, I have always been clear that the Director of National Intelligence should take whatever steps necessary to withhold sensitive documents. In fact, as of today the DNI had withheld 59 percent of the documents that it had reviewed, and has become more risk-averse over time. If the DNI believes that the documents that were released were in the safe 40 percent, imagine what the 60 percent being withheld must contain.

"That said, it is also important to emphasize that the IAEA, contrary to its assertions, never raised any concerns about this material with the United States Government before going to the press. Similarly, the DNI’s office has informed me that no agency of the U.S. Government had raised any issues about the potential or actual release of these documents before yesterday. If there were such problems, they would have been better addressed through the appropriate channels rather than the press.

"These documents also raise several additional issues of interest. First, it is extraordinary that the New York Times now acknowledges that the captured documents demonstrate that ‘[Saddam] Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.’ This only reinforces the value of these documents in understanding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Only 1 percent of the estimated 120 million pages of captured documents have been reviewed, and we must continue working to promptly understand these materials. If there is concern about Saddam’s nuclear program, there should be similar concern about potential connections between Saddam and al-Qaeda suggested in the documents.

"Second, my staff’s preliminary review of the documents in question suggests that at least some of them may be internal IAEA documents. There is a serious question of why and how the Iraqis obtained these documents in the first place. We need to explore that carefully – I certainly hope there will be no evidence that the IAEA had been penetrated by Saddam's regime.

"Finally, it is disappointing but not surprising that the New York Times would continue to participate in such blatant and transparent political ploys, including what I believe are improper efforts by the IAEA to interfere with U.S. domestic affairs. The sad reality is that the New York Times has done far more damage to U.S. national security by the disclosure of vital, classified, intelligence programs than is likely to be caused by the inadvertent disclosure of decades-old information that had already been in the hands of Saddam’s regime."

Saddam and Two Cohorts Sentenced to Death! (Ramsey Clark Ejected From the Courtroom!)

"Before the session began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the trial a travesty.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, 'Get out.'"

The Butcher of Baghdad has been sentenced to death by hanging. He can appeal the sentence. There are also more mass murders he can be tried for.

I'm glad Saddam has been sentenced to death. The tyrant who murdered and opressed his own people for decades got the justice he denied others.

This gangster corrupted journalists, businessmen, scholars, politicians, so-called "human rights activists," and the United Nations with his blood-money.

He trained and financed terrorists.

His agents may even have penetrated the IAEA.

Saddam will not be cutting checks for his minions any more.

And my congratulations to Chief Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman for telling the despicible Ramsey Clark where to go.

The AP reports (11-5-06):

Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced Sunday to death by hanging for war crimes in the 1982 killings of 148 people in the town of Dujail, as the former leader, trembling, shouted "God is great!"

As he, his half brother and another senior official in his regime were convicted and sentenced to hang, Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"

Some feared the verdicts could intensify Iraq's sectarian violence after a trial that stretched over nine months in 39 sessions and ended nearly 3 1/2 months ago. Clashes immediately broke out Sunday in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district, and a Sunni political leader condemned the court decision....

Before the session began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the trial a travesty.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out."

...He faces additional charges in a separate case over an alleged massacre of Kurdish civilians.

The guilty verdict for Saddam is expected to enrage hard-liners among Saddam's fellow Sunnis, who made up the bulk of the former ruling class. The country's majority Shiites, who were persecuted under the former leader but now largely control the government, will likely view the outcome as a cause of celebration.....

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a statement saying the verdicts "demonstrate the commitment of the Iraqi people to hold them (Saddam and his co-defendants) accountable."

"Although the Iraqis may face difficult days in the coming weeks, closing the book on Saddam and his regime is an opportunity to unite and build a better future," Khalilzad said. [Full text]

Verdict on Saddam Due at Any Time!

The news media is predicting that the verdict on Saddam Hussein may be announced within hours.

The Iraqi court may sentence Hussein and seven co-defendants to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.

The specific charge in this trial is the murder of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Saddam's judgement day is a black day for the tenured Plagiarist of Ethnic Studies, Ward Churchill. The American Indian Movement reportedly once accepted money from the Iraqi dictator's Baath Socialist Party.

Ward Churchill's own schismatic Colorado AIM has even written a ludicrous account of Saddam's financial sponsorship.

Poor Wardo! He had always dreamed that Americans would rise up and hang their politicians:

"[R]everies of malignant toads like Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and Jesse Helms squatting in the shadows of the gallows are simply too pleasant to be suppressed." [2003 Introduction to Churchill's book Acts of Rebellion; cited by Bruce Fein, "Professorship not a License" 2-15-05]

After 9-11, Ward Churchill seemed to be acting as the terrorists' spokesman and explained their terms for suspending attacks on "Amerikkka."

Wardo fantasized:

"Were the opportunity acted upon in some reasonably good faith fashion – a sufficiently large number of Americans rising up and doing whatever is necessary to force an immediate lifting of the sanctions on Iraq, for instance, or maybe hanging a few of America's abundant supply of major war criminals (Henry Kissinger comes quickly to mind, as do Madeline [sic, Madeleine] Albright, Colin Powell, Bill Clinton and George the Elder) – there is every reason to expect that military operations against the US on its domestic front would be immediately suspended."

On 3-25-05, Ward Churchill shared his fantasies with a San Francisco audience:

"I have these delightful visions which is what puts me to sleep at night of Madeleine Albright, Jesse Helms, and Henry Kissinger all in a nice neat little row with nooses around their necks and [audience applause]... And the current crop is amply entitled to the same destiny as far as I'm concerned. Do I think anybody's going to do it? Well, that's an interesting question. Who would be doing it? There's only one possible answer: you. We. Us."..." [audio]---Ward Churchill 3-25-05

Librarians Object to Vandalism of Ward Churchill's Book, but Don't Notice That Churchill Advocates Vandalism!

Although Ward Churchill supports vandalism against private property and even advocates terrorist murder, the librarians at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota are indignant because a patron tossed a copy of the tenured Plagiarist's book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, into the toilet.

The librarians are upset because someone violated a "social contract" when he vandalized Wardo's terrorist manifesto.

I agree that vandalism of public property is wrong; still, the outrage of librarians over such minor vandalism is ironic since Ward Churchill advocates destroying entire businesses and even the human lives.

The librarians turned a blind eye to Churchill's views on vandalism. They just said his book was "controversial"!

Churchill says that drawing a "line in the tactical sand" that embraces "property damage" but excludes murder is "arbitrary." [Ward Churchill cited in the forward of Steven Best’s Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals.]

Bulletin News reports:

Library today: Vandalism in the library

From UST Libraries

A custodian recently found a copy of Ward Churchill's On the Justice of Roosting Chickens in a toilet in the men's restroom of the Charles J. Keffer Library on the Minneapolis campus. The book had been taken from the library's New Books area and was dropped accidentally or intentionally in the toilet.

This book and its author are controversial, but anyone hoping to deny the community of the possibility of reading it will be disappointed – the library will replace the book as soon as possible. The UST libraries hold the freedom to read as one of our highest values. To quote from the American Library Association Freedom to Read statement: "We, as individuals devoted to reading and as librarians and publishers responsible for disseminating ideas, wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the freedom to read" (read the entire statement). [See full text of article here.]

Judge Phillips Turns Aside Ward Churchill's Bid for a Temporary Restraining Order Against the University of Colorado

The Rocky Mountain News (11-2-06) reports:

A Denver judge Wednesday refused to get involved in Ward Churchill's dispute with the University of Colorado.

Churchill sought a Denver District Court order forcing CU to pay $20,000 of his legal fees or halt his dismissal proceedings until payment is resolved.

But Denver District Judge Stephen Phillips ruled that a temporary restraining order isn't appropriate. If Churchill is wrongly fired or has to pay an attorney himself, these injuries can be compensated later, Phillips said.

The controversial ethnic studies professor is on paid leave while he appeals CU's decision to fire him. Churchill said the university is breaking its own rules by not paying him the $20,000. He and attorney David Lane quoted from a Faculty Senate policy published on a CU Web site that says the university "shall contribute" up to $20,000 in attorney's fees when a professor is going through termination proceedings.

But CU officials contend that the regents never accepted the policy. [Full text]

University of Colorado Regents Considering Criminal Background Checks for Tenure Candidates!

Paula Pant of the Colorado Daily (11-2-06) reports that the University of Colorado is considering doing criminal background checks on professors before granting them tenure.

Pant reports:

The tenure-granting process at CU could soon change.

The CU Board of Regents at meetings Wednesday and Thursday heard two presentations recommending improvements in the tenure processes and ways to implement those changes.

The recommendations include conducting criminal background checks on tenure candidates and clarifying the standards of the tenure-granting process.

The regents are expected to vote on the recommendations in December...

The regents' meeting coincided with the district court appearance of tenured CU ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill, who is under review for dismissal for research misconduct.

Critics have alleged that Churchill, who does not hold a doctorate degree, was too hastily awarded tenure. Some attribute Churchill's tenure to be partly based on his assertion that he is a Native American.