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Civil libertarians say the Bush administration may give the military scary new police powers in its secret planning for a bunker-based, post-disaster shadow government.

When the Washington Post revealed the existence of an American "shadow government," operating secretly in Tora Bora-style mountain bunkers over the six months since Sept. 11, it shocked even some congressional leaders, who learned about it March 1 from the Post, not the Bush administration.

Now civil libertarians on the left and right are raising new questions about the shadow government -- about its secrecy, its leadership, and the way it involves the military in domestic roles. In particular, plans to have the military assume domestic police functions in case of national emergency alarm some scholars and advocates, who believe the shadow government could be an early step on the way to martial law.

Pile O'Lynx

Some of us are far and away, far and wide. (Sounds like a Julie Andrews song..)
Here's a pile o'lynx sent in today.

Mind Control Operations at Stanford Research Institute | The Hive

New networks mimic the behavior of insects and bacteria

Emotions and Neurotechnology

Bluetooth + WiFi + GSM = Wanda

Kurt Nimmo's Another Day in the Empire

War Worms Inch Across Internet

NSA, Crypto AG, and the Iraq-Iran Conflict

How the spy sting on Iran story got out

George Herbert Walker Bush and the Iraq- Iran War

Entertainment - Some good stuff this week at NWD and Post Atomic

Social/Politico - Some good stuff this week at American Samizdat, The HIVE, Libertythink and Orlin Grabbe

This is the central site for the Not in My Name Music project , a collaboration of artists dedicated to forwarding a culture of resistance worldwide . As the United States and Britain push forward with an unjustified, unsanctioned war, we urge you to help us get these songs and graphics out to as many people as possible.

Attention DJs: For all DJs out there, please note the vocal acappella track to the right. It is Saul's vocal for the the Pledge of Resistance. Feel free to throw this into your mix whenever possible!

GNN, Center for Responsive Politics, March 21, 2003
A short list of big GOP contributors poised to rebuild Iraq.

The war has begun.

I'm utterly disgusted by Bush and the Rumsfeld Crony Machine and everything on down to those weaselly brown-nosers at NPR, formerly a place where you could get a fair amount of semi-balanced news in this godforsaken media snowjob of a navel-gazing Hamburglar nation.

I've protested and waved my signs (downloaded off of Anti-War.us like the one you see here), done "online activism," called my Congresspeople, circulated my petitions, written letters to the editors, and all that cheesy stuff that's preaching to the choir. How adorable. Does it do any fucking good? Probably not. I just don't know what to do instead.

Anyone have an opinion on whether we should just glide into the Silent Zombie Mode preferred by most Americans, leave the whole debate up to the transfixed Right Wing nutbars who let AM Radio talk shows tell them what to believe? Or some overexcited, self-important "anarchists" in black hoodies: closing down local bridges, throwing a rock at a local bookstore -- is this the way to effect real political change or is this masturbatory, violent bullshit? When evil assholes are in power (not that evil assholes aren't usually in power), what should one DO about it? Sit around going, "There isn't anything we can do about it. Please pass the Twinkies." ??

Seriously. What do we do about it? Like a good little ultra-entitled, middle class, educated, pretentious white girl, I'm getting out of the USA. Assuming I don't get nuked in some terrorist action at LAX on the way out, I'll talk to y'all when I get back. We'll solve the world's problems. No, really.

Peace out, maaaaan.

xoxo

tif

magdalen a t corporatecollapse.com

PS:
There's a nice rant on the STARE blog (formerly IncuBLOGula) by Dr.Menlo. Read it over yonder at Incunabula. Much less whiny than mine.

from Government Computer News
“Don’t be surprised if in the coming hours or days we go to Code Red,” Hart said this morning in Washington. “It is almost inevitable.” | Via The Hive

readers:
I've been asked to suspend my war blogging for awhile.

But I don't want let you down -- I'm chronicling the events of my war experiences, the same as I always have, and hope to come to agreement with CNN in the near future to make them available to you in some shape or form, perhaps on this site.

Greenhouse gases and tropospheric sulphate aerosols—the main human influences on climate—have been shown to have had a detectable effect on surface air temperature, the temperature of the free troposphere and stratosphere and ocean temperature. Nevertheless, the question remains as to whether human influence is detectable in any variable other than temperature.

More then one billion people in the world lack access to clean water,and things are getting worse. At the culmination of the United Nations International Year of Freshwater 2003, Nature reports on the global water crisis with a collection of news, features and interactive graphics.

Scientists arriving on the scene of a gamma-ray burst just moments after the explosion, have witnessed the death of a gigantic star and the birth of something monstrous in its place, quite possibly a brand new, spinning black hole.

In a unique form of opposition, some protesters at the Federal Building staged a "vomit in,'' by heaving on the sidewalks and plaza areas in the back and front of the building to show that the war in Iraq made them sick, according to a spokesman.

If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, yell really loud.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- The top National Security Council official in the war on terror resigned this week for what a NSC spokesman said were personal reasons, but intelligence sources say the move reflects concern that the looming war with Iraq is hurting the fight against terrorism. | Via The HIVE

Live coverage from SkyNews

A long list of War News resources on the web.

Lots of up to the minute updates going on at The Hive and American Samizdat right now.

The ground war phase of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has begun

Where is Raed? - A Iraqi going by the name of Salam Pax is blogging from Baghdad. This isn't some journalist from CNN - the guy lives there. It's compelling reading - Check it out before a smart e-bomb thingy takes out his Internet connection. -chiaroscuro

BBC Bloggers in Baghdad, Amman, Qatar, Northern Iraq and Washington report on War

WorldLink TV

BBC News 24 videostream

Automatically searching 7907 news sources every 5 minutes

Oceania is at war with Eurasia; citizens must force themselves to "remember" that they have always been at war with Eurasia, despite the fact that Oceania was allied with Eurasia only four years before.

Revolution is not an AOL Keyword*

Analysis: Field day of doom prophets | Via Post Atomic

RSS Headline Feeds down: Looks like several public RSS parsers are down (hmmmmm). In response to this, we have thrown together a PHP based- RSS/XML syndication parser, here on this site. We have included our own feed and a handy form at the bottom to check the headlines from your other favorite sites. Those of you who syndicate RSS feeds on your site are welcome to use this resource until the others return to normal.

Here it is, MTV Europe's special wartime schedule, in this internal memo. Reminds me of that clearchannel thing right after 9/11 (which, unlike this MTV memo, was only sent by a program director at one of Clearchannel's affiliates) | Via FC Speaking of Clear Channel...Media giant ClearChannel sponsoring pro-war rallies. Unbiased media? | Via BB

Believers, who are convinced the vault's location is revealed by codes in various places, say its contents have the power to bring a new and peaceful world order. They also say the vault and its contents were known to America's founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson.

"If we have to, we will surround this churchyard 24 hours a day with thousands of metaphysicians."

I remember when Gulf War One kicked off. We'd all been waiting for it for days. That night, I was down at the local all-night burger place, writing LAZARUS CHURCHYARD; working longhand in a notebook in those days, sketching out the pages so I didn't ask for anything impossible to draw in the scripts. Sammy, the owner, would tell my friends that I'd been in their until 4am, "making his little drawings and taking tablets with his Coke." The little TV was on in there, but he wasn't turning
down the radio or the bloody fruit machines.

I looked up, and the balloon went up and the cruise missiles banged off and we'd gotten our war on. I stood at the counter, watching a war start on TV, with a fruit-machinebackground of bingbingbingbing bloopbloop chakkachakkachakka you're a winner!

After about forty-five minutes, the initial bombardment paused, and I ran home. My housemate was waiting at the stairs. We both yelled at each other, "It's started!" Stayed up til dawn watching the first war to be fully televised.

Last night, I had the BBC News 24 videostream open on the right hand side of my screen while I wrote in the left, AOL open in the bottom quarter of the screen so I could trade email with Fraction and Peter Rose, both channel-surfing in the States. And we thought watching the first one on TV was creepy.

There's a webcam in Baghdad, but it's down.

The crump of bombing distorted out of my speakers, as I looked down on Baghdad at dawn through the BBC camera. They had a reporter on the phone in central Baghdad, and he couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice: I'm in the centre of the city and they're not bombing me. Anti-aircraft fire cracked over his voice.

Imagine being in one of those houses. With your family. You never got to dissent. This war's got nothing to do with you. You can hear the sound of the world's big dog scratching and booming outside your door, and you never did anything wrong but to be born there.

Regime change could have been effected twelve years ago and very few people would have argued the toss, the tangle of America's fickle affections aside. In a different phase of American geopolitical manipulation, Saddam Hussein was the lesser of two evils, and no-one wanted to see crazy Iran win a Middle East war. That Saddam is a little bastard is almost irrelevant now. The real needs of this war have little to do with Saddam being a basket case who shouldn't be allowed to run a bath, let alone a country. The instances where there were actual justification for going in, taking him and putting him in front of a court are long gone.

There were other ways. There were always other ways. And now we, able to dissent, made complicit by democracy, will wear the stink of a para-legal war of oil and Robespierrean guillotine politics for a long time. -- Warren Ellis

Where were you when the mass murder in Baghad began?

Let's not mince words. Let's not parrot their carefully crafted and mendacious wording; language is the unseen front. The US has begun the massacre of Iraqi civilians in order to overthrow their leader and steal their oil. Regime change, my ass--I'll take mine with merlot and truffles. Meanwhile, here in the States, our civilian safety has just gone down the storm pipes with a jet pack on. Now we need to worry about terrorist attacks and martial law. The US has crumpled the UN Charter and tossed it in the shredder. Now as I write this President-Select Shrub is on the radio lying his ass off--can he say anything at all that's true? He wouldn't know how to begin to tell the truth. He would attempt to describe the color of a fire truck and end up with spit on his chin. Fucking motherfucker--how dare you steal the US election, snub all forms of international law, declare war on affirmative action, cheap AIDS drugs, the US economy, safe sex, clean air and water, commit the US military to civilian massacre and still get up in front of the American people and lie your despicable ass off. Andy Rooney said last Sunday on 60 Minutes that Americans shouldn't hate their presidents. Andy Rooney is a senile fool. I hate mass murderers. I hate George W. Bush.

If Armageddon isn't reached soon I predict America will recover from the sociopathic rule of Boy King Bush. The world will recover. Hold on. Lick your wounds. Mourn the dead. Spread the word. But most of all plan to build a true world coalition which will never again let a lone dictator like George W. Bush slip through their collective fingers and threaten the world with unbelievable and murderous fundamentalist madness. I'm buying a world flag this weekend to hang on my wall to help with my hope, to help with my vision of an alernative global mythos. I will continue with my meagre web activity. I will continue to tell anyone who cares to listen in my own life (and to some who won't). We lost the battle to stop this mass murder but--Eris help us--we won't lose the war. Peace. Nonviolence. Love. These are the most powerful memes of all. Embrace them and fuck them. Shave your bush.

Keep fighting. I love you all.

This war is brought to you by ... | Via Orlin Grabbe

FBI and other federal officials in NJ outline Homeland [In]Security's "Red Alert" response: it will mean Martial Law.

If the nation escalates to "red alert," which is the highest in the color-coded readiness against terror, you will be assumed by authorities to be the enemy if you so much as venture outside your home, the state's anti-terror czar says.

i have not written to you in a long time because i did not feel like writing.
how have you been?
i have read about you here and there and i am worried about you.
i am nervous about saying this to you, world, but i think you are trying to commit suicide. you act that way.
are you ok? do you sleep well? what do you eat?
i worry about you.

on the other hand, i am fine. except for the fact that i am almost convinced that i am living through the morning of world war 3, that is. every day i write in my little notebook another sign, another message. sometimes i am reminded of a wonderful novel called "the remains of the day".

the euro has supplanted the dollar and i wonder what it will feel like to live in a second-world country. i think about things like that sometimes. i am waiting to discover what a leni reifenstahl film looks like in 2003. i am looking forward to being a professor of cultural artifact identification and literary theory at one of the world's great universities: the university of whitehorse. la universidad de patagonia. the university of alice springs. from one of these locations i will write great books: "Some Considerations of Narrative in the Works of Jackie Collins". "Spongebob Squarepants: How Candide Became a Vehicle for Ironic Discourse". Things like that.

Let me know how you are, world. i worry about you.

--humdog

There has been a parting of ways in a quest for an elevator to space.

The two founders of a Seattle company that received NASA funding to research the possibility of building such a structure have decided to pursue the dream separately, citing differences over how the enterprise should be financed.

Their company has been a leading proponent of a futuristic concept that would transport objects into space using a super-strong carbon ribbon stretching 62,000 miles from Earth's surface.

One of the men, Michael Laine, yesterday announced the formation of a new company, LiftPort Inc., which is working on ways to raise the estimated $7 billion to $10 billion in capital needed to develop a space elevator. Laine oversaw the business operations of the previous company, HighLift Systems Inc.

officials have confirmed. (UK offices were also bugged.)
The discovery of the telephone tapping systems was first reported on Wednesday by France's Le Figaro newspaper, which blamed the US.

The Justus Lipsius building, where the bugging devices were found, is a regular meeting place for EU ministers. It houses the secretariat of the EU Council of Ministers. The bloc's foreign ministers have been meeting there this week. The building also houses the offices of the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. | Via die puny humans

Collect 'em all

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The Bush doctrine: Iraq and beyond?

1992: The First Draft?

10march (Woot! This one has a forum/site)

8march

MountainSub

Sigh

BBC News Online charts developments hour-by-hour on the Iraq crisis as the diplomatic efforts to avert a war approach a deadline imposed by the United States and its allies. [All times GMT and approximate.] Yeah, as Dan Hon has said, "cough-blog-cough". heh.

Comic books impart common sense and critical thinking.

The fantastic feats of comic-book superheroes are useful for teaching physics, James Kakalios of the University of Minnesota told the American Physical Society meeting in Austin, Texas, last week.

Most students do not see the relevance of physics to their everyday lives. "We create these highly stylized problems involving projectile motion or throwing balls off cliffs that seem so divorced from reality," says Kakalios. MORE>>

First-person account of a solo journalist's life on the front lines of war.

I asked Fred when he this war would start. We have all given into its inevitability weeks ago. Be ready shortly after the President speaks, he told me. President Bush speaks tonight. There will be an ultimatum, we are told. Reporters here whisper in the corridors, afraid of losing a competitive edge. They fill their four wheel drives with petrol and pack them with bottled water. The days of feature stories are numbered. The only question: toward the fires or toward the glory. Or perhaps something worse.

An obscure Jewish sect in New York has been gripped in awe by what it believes to be a mystical visitation by a 20lb carp that was heard shouting in Hebrew, in what many Jews worldwide are hailing as a modern miracle.

According to two fish-cutters at the New Square Fish Market, the carp was about to be slaughtered and made into gefilte fish for Sabbath dinner when it suddenly began shouting apocalyptic warnings in Hebrew.

It said "Tzaruch shemirah" and "Hasof bah", which essentially means that 'everyone needs to account for themselves because the end is near.' | BWO Post-Atomic

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Security forces at Vandenberg Air Force Base may use "deadly force" against protesters if they infiltrate the military complex if a war starts, officials said.

Some anti-war activists plan to trespass onto base grounds in hopes of disturbing Vandenberg's mission and to vandalize sensitive equipment they contend helps guide the war effort.

Vandenberg officials revealed Friday that military security police may shoot to kill, if necessary, to protect base residents and machinery. The deadly force policy will not deter protesters, said one of the organizers of the planned trespassing.

I am on the phone with Robert Burrows, author of the recently published political novel Great American Parade. This book has sold only 400 copies nationwide, and Burrows seems flabbergasted to be hearing from me. The most prestigious newspaper to have shown any interest so far is the Daily Student at Indiana University.

I tell Burrows that if he is willing to submit to an interview, I am willing to review his book at length in The Washington Post. The only catch, I said, is that I am going to say that it is, in my professional judgment, the worst novel ever published in the English language.

Silence.

"My review will reach 2 million people," I said.

"Okay," he said.

I have said this before, and I'll say it again. I really love my job. MORE>>

Tomorrow

U.S. prepares daring invasion

Reuters AlertNet: Iraq - Snapshot of the Crisis - 1900 GMT

Reuters: Bush Says Monday 'A Moment of Truth' on Iraq Sun March 16, 2003 02:02 PM ET

BBC: Bush issues ultimatum on Iraq Sunday, 16 March, 2003, 19:00 GMT

UPI: Powell: No need for new U.N. resolution 3/16/2003 12:12 PM

Reuters AlertNet: Iraq paper says Blair, Bush plan "immoral" attack 16 Mar 2003 06:58

If you haven't heard of Mae Brussell you must have spent the last 20 years under a rock. Also see her heir apparent, Dave Emory. Just the thing to wile away a Sunday.

The state of New Mexico has passed a bill that affirms Constitutional liberties, no matter what the Feds say. The bill instructs state cops to refuse to cooperate in unconstitutional searches and wiretaps, to abstain from assisting the INS and to ignore TIPS snitches. Likewise, librarians are required to post signs warning patrons that the FBI could be snooping on their reading habits, and the state official in charge of homeland security is required to get twice-annual disclosure from the Feds about the names and dispositions of every victim of unconstitutional secret arrest, detainment and surveillance. GO NEW MEXICO! | Via BB

The FBI has a fleet of aircraft, some equipped with night surveillance and eavesdropping equipment, flying America's skies to track and collect intelligence from suspected terrorists.

The FBI will not provide exact figures on the planes and helicopters, but more than 80 are in the skies. There are several planes, known as "Nightstalkers," equipped with infrared devices that allow agents to track people and vehicles in the dark.

Other aircraft are outfitted with electronic surveillance equipment so agents can pursue listening devices placed in cars, in buildings and even along streets, or listen to cell phone calls. Still others fly photography missions, although officials would not describe precise capabilities. | Via Libertythink

Ulla (48), from Odense in Denmark, but currently living in Scotland, described how she went into a hangar at the Fife airbase and discovered the plane completely unguarded. She said: "I took my hammer to the nose-cone, the cockpit, the fuselage, the wings, the tailplane and other parts of the plane which it was safe to damage. I don't see it flying again. I then sat down and waited for the security people to arrive. When the police came everything was calm and relaxed." She is in good spirits and pleased that this particular aircraft will not be dropping bombs on innocent people in Iraq. [more]

How might you drag a good writer's work down to the level of a lesser scribe? Try the spell-check button.

A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software. MORE>>

MKzine, is a 64 page hard-copy magazine, that examines coercive mind control, invasive human experimentation, and other related abuses.
Disclaimer from their website: A word of caution for survivors of intensively systematic and coercive mind control: There are numerous triggers on this website, due to the intense subject matter. It is therefore recommended not to view it unless appropriate support measures are in place or if you have a thoroughly reintegrated personality.