Hepkitty's Litter Box

Peter King Watch: King on the 2004 Election

Thanks for that Congressman King. Really, thanks.

Links:
http://kingwatch.blogspot.com/
http://alterx.blogspot.com/
http://daveforamerica.com/index.php

911 Investigative Journalist Harassed And Beaten At His Home By Undercover Cops - Looking Glass News

I like many others have fallen for the occasional web based urban legend. but i gotta know, is this true? The only reason i ask, is that i haven't seen it either the MSM (OoooooOOOooo shocker!), but not in the other well traveled liberal/progessive news sites either.

I found it orginally here at Open your Minds Eye

And tracked it down through google to places like this:

http://www.unobserver.com/layout4.php?id=2540&blz=1
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=14602

I found this posted to a forum too:

I spoke with Christopher Bollyn's editor. Bollyn lives very close to my home, but we have never met.

Police report to Media can be obtained by calling 847-882-1818. Lt. Russo is taking media calls and will respond with faxed Police Media Report. Hoffman Estates Police claim Undercover Officers in Area for Gang Related reasons..LOL This area is one of the most Affluent areas in Hoffman Estates (Multi million Dollar Homes are a Stones Throw), average home sells for $350k + .

I have offered to interview and obtain affidavits from Mr. Bollyn's neighbors and will await for responses from Bollyn's Attorney or Editor.

Yours in Observing America as a Gulag,

P.H.

I may call this number tomorrow if i can find a fax machine other than the ones i have at work. I really don't need that kind of trouble in the office.

If anyone has anymore info, pass it along. If i'm a fool, i'm a fool, but if this is true, it needs coverage.

Night all

tomkitty

Bombs Aimed at G.I.’s in Iraq Are Increasing - New York Times

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.

“Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspect,” the expert said, “but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.”

So... remember when I was talking about Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein?

Now, think about this. It is clear that Iraq had no connection to 9/11. It is also clear (unless you watch fox news and don't know any better) that there were no WMD's in Iraq. So now we have to remove 'Bringing Democracy to the people of Iraq' from the list of ever changing reasons we went to war.... And this leaves us where exactly?

Are we really sure we wanna 'Stay the course'? at this point?

Alright. I'm off to bed. Thanks for stopping by and reading, and have a good week!

tomkitty

Scientists flock to test 'free energy' discovery

Excerpt-"Sean McCarthy says that no one was more sceptical than he when Steorn, his small hi-tech firm in Dublin, hit upon a way of generating clean, free and constant energy from the interaction of magnetic fields. 'It wasn't so much a Eureka moment as a get-back-in-there-and-check-your-instruments moment, although in far more colourful language,'"

Imagine- a free, clean, and constant source of energy that can power pretty much everything. No more oil companies, coal mines, nuclear power plants, Electric companies, $3.oo/gal. gas, hole in the ozone layer........

If this is true someone had better put a 24 hour armed guard detail on these scientists lest they incur the mob style wrath of the major energy companies.

To Mr. McCarthy and his collegues I say Kudos and big ups. If this technology proves to be all that it seems you have just officially changed the world forever. You have lessened the gap between rich and poor by lowering the cost to heat and cool homes, power cars and buses, and making it clean and cheap to power the plants that make just about everything thus lowering prices. You have almost single handedly solved the problem of global warmimg by providing a source of energy that produces no emissions or by products. You have destroyed every peaceful rationale for the need to enrich uranium. And I cannot wait to see what this does to the geopolitical landscape especially in the middle east. The implications are staggering! Congratulations!

And to the energy companies-While i know this is going to sting a bit if true, I want you to remember something-you already have a shitload of money. Enough that with wise investment (like investing in say, Mr. McCarthy's company) your great grandchildren will never know an honest days work. So sit back, relax, and enjoy your obsolecense. I will :)

CNN.com - FDA approves viruses as food additive - Aug 18, 2006

Look, I know the O'Reilly crowd is gonna pounce on me here, and call me 'Pro-Listeria' or something, but does this notion make anyone comfortable?

Intentionally adding a virus to lunch meat? Can't I just do my usual antibiotic shooter after every meal like everyone else? I typically will just finish off a good meal with some ciprofloxacin, and call it a day. isn't that good enough?

Seriously tho, WE HAVE TO STOP PLAYING GOD. We just aren't good at it, and i think the job might be taken.

tomkitty

I saw this link over at Crooks and Liars, and thought I would share.

I have found President Dwight D. Eisenhower to be one of the most insightful republican presidents of the 20th century. See? Even I can cross party lines from time to time. ;)

Have a great weekend all!

tomkitty

PS: Thanks to Raw Story for the link today! You especially Ron! Not quite accustomed to that kind of exposure, but thanks to everyone for the positive feedback. I got lucky really. Oh and thanks to News Hounds also! I had no clue a little screen capture of a slip up would start that sort of debate. :)

Or maybe a slip of the finger really?

Check out these images i just snapped of the CNN story on today's court decision that shot down the bush administration's illeagal wiretapping:

 
 

My my my... Wonder how that typo occured... Because you know, Fox and Snow really don't sound anything like each other. (Link for the uninitiated.)

I wonder how long it will take them to fix it. you can see the time in the corner of the bigger screen shot for reference. Its just interesting is all. More truth comes out accidentally than most people speak intentionally.

In other news, about time someone shot them down.

Check out this quote from the article:

The defendants "are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly utilizing the Terrorist Surveillance Program in any way, including, but not limited to, conducting warrantless wiretaps of telephone and Internet communications, in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Title III," she wrote.

She declared that the program "violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III."

Her ruling went on to say that "the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders."

How about that folks? A sitting president of the United States of America has, in fact, "undisputedly violated" the Fouth Amendment to the Constitution. (Among other violations of course, including violating everything America stands for really)

Can we impeach him now? huh? can we? can we?

Later

tomkitty

UPDATE: CNN corrected the error as of 6:03 my time. the story was posted at 5:36, which you can see in the screen capture, so about half an hour. Way to go CNN!

Saw this link to a new story from Seymour Hersh over at the New Yorker Magazine on Rawstory this morning, and just thought I would jot down a few notes.

Soooo.... This war wasn't in response to the kidnappings on July 12th, huh? Lets see a quote from the article:

According to a Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of both the Israeli and the U.S. governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah—and shared it with Bush Administration officials—well before the July 12th kidnappings. “It’s not that the Israelis had a trap that Hezbollah walked into,” he said, “but there was a strong feeling in the White House that sooner or later the Israelis were going to do it.”

Funny that. Shades of the Downing Street Memo again it seems. But to go on, the Isrealis, seeking a 'green light' from Washington, tried to sell the bombing to them (as if the bushies ever needed a good reason for a war, it hasn't stopped them yet). Quoth the article:

“The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits,” a U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel said. “Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.”."

A demo for Iran?? I think we have seen the 'demo', we have seen it in Iraq, and the demonstration has shown us massive civilian casualties, the deaths of many U.S. troops, strife and violence occuring in the local population, and increased regional hatred of America. Lets face it, the bombing campaign is easy, its the occupation where things seem to fall apart with these folks. Iran of course has an active nuclear program, which Iraq did not, so maybe they should have looked else where for their 'demo'.

Bush and his ilk are seemingly having delusions of WWII, with georgie dreaming that he is Winston Churchill (because he would never picture himself as that socialist Roosevelt I can assure you), but the longer this administration's involvement in the middle east continues, the more and more you can really see the parrellels to Vietnam. I am becoming more and more convinced that the hand of Henry Kissinger is here somewhere. A proxy action will make everything all better... oh Hank, will you ever learn?

Where does this end? Well, the Vietnam 'demo' says that this won't end for years. We will involve other parties, eventually a modern day Pol Pot perhaps (where do you think saddam hussien and osama bin laden came from?), or maybe similar devils, with the idea of advancing their ideology, while preventing the spread of others, and eventually, long after the bushies are gone, some other administration is going to have to make the decision to pullout completely, avoid admitting mistakes, and attempt to close the matter. meanwhile, every 9 year old in the middle east will know how to operate a machine gun, and osama bin laden will truly be the robin hood of the middle east, if this isn't already the case.

The Isrealis defending their border is fine by me, every country should have that right. Protecting their citizens is also fine, every country should take that as their responsibility to their people. But this collusion... this preemption... does it make anyone comfortable? Is it truly productive? Will it ensure 'peace and democracy' in the middle east? Is 'peace and democracy' truly the ultimate goal? Will it ensure the saftey and security of Isreal? or is this just another short sighted action, like the war in Iraq, bolstered by ideology, but in fact another part of a simple resouce war?

I suppose my thoughts are running a bit too deep for a Sunday afternoon, so i'm going to get back to work planning my bonfire for November 5th, and call it a day.

I hope that you all have enjoyed your respective weekends!

tomkitty

As usual the bush administration's answer to laws they don't agree with-rewrite them.

From the article-"The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.

Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.

The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking."

  

CNN.com - Reuters says Mideast photographer doctored shots - Aug 7, 2006

I'm going to break from the usual political ranting that goes on in this litter box, and move over to something that is more inline with my professional life: Photo Editing.

The owners of this blog are really good at editing images, and have been doing it for years. We can do it in our sleep at this point, I even had recurring dreams about changing images. Hepkitty teaches it professionally, I, Tomkitty, can do hundereds of image alterations in an hour. And you know what, when we change an image, you would never know.

I can put OJ Simpson on the grassy knoll, and you would believe it, even if only for the second it takes your brain to realize that OJ was too young to be there on that day.

This guy, Adnan Hajj of Reuters, did such a horrible job, i'm less shocked that a photographer for an international press syndicate did suc a thing, as I am more shocked that the after images were ever published!

In the industry, we call the problem 'Clone Marks'. look at the after image, and you will see the smoke has repeating areas that are the result of an almost barbaric use of the Clone tool (sometimes called the 'Rubber Stamp'). You can see where he tried to augment the smoke coming from the building on the left by making it darker and more defined, but what a way to screw it up.

Here is your first PhotoShop tip from the litter box. He used the Clone tool in a half-assed manner, in conjunction with the Burn tool (or more likely given his obvious lack of photo editing, a half-assed selection adjusted using Levels.. or even worse, the brightness/contract function in the Image menu... ewww). In this instance, I would have used just the Burn tool. (Its coupled with the Dodge and Spounge tools.) The Burn tool can gently darken selected areas or as a brush, either highlights, midtones, or shadows, in a more subtle way all on its own. If used propery, you can avoid the Clone tool altogether, and turn out a shockingly grim visage of war. Professionally undetectable!

Have a good night all, and keep praticing!

tomkitty

V for Vendetta

This is a really really good flick, and I insist that anyone reading this run out and buy, rent or borrow it right now.  This movie is well thought out, with fantasitic if sometimes disturbing imagery, and a plot that is a perfect allegory for the times we live in. This movie is based on an original graphic novel created by Alan Moore, and published by DC/Vertigo, and is just stunning. The main character, played by Hugo Weaving (AKA Agent Smith from the Matrix series of movies) is inspired by Guy Fawkes, and Mr. Weaving lends a certain power to the role that is truly inspiring.

This year, i'm am holding a November the 5th party in the Philadelphia region in honor of Guy Fawkes Night (commonly known in the UK as Bonfire Night), hopefully with a full bonfire and fireworks.  I invite all to attend, and for those of you in the scattered realms, please consider hosting a similar affair, and pass the word to all you know.

This will shortly follow Halloween, and preceed the November Elections which will be on the 7th, where hopefully, the current regime will get knocked back a bit. It is my intention to put a little fear of the people in the eyes of the government, remind them that we aren't stupid, are paying attention, and are going to take back this country. Please spread the word, and lets see how wide spread we can make this.

Also, don't forget to vote this November 7th. This is our chance to change things, and remind those in office that they are answerable to us for everything they do in our name, and we will let them know our displeasure by voting some out of the seats in the senate.

This affair i propose should be civil and fun.  Maybe a bit rowdy, but just another celebration, entirely open to the public.  I will post details as i gather resources between then and now.

Anyone intersted, please feel free to contact me at any point if you wish to help out with resources, a location idea, wish to host your own bonfire night, or would like to attend a bonfire.

Here are some related links if you are interested:

Official movie site - http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/
Entry in the Internet Movie Database - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/
Wiki Entry on the V for Vendetta comic book - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta
Wiki entry for Guy Fawkes - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes
Wiki Entry for Bonfire Night - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night

The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception,
A must read!!! Four Stars! Just keep your fingers crossed and your voting arm strong that this November will the the start of some change. The return of justice.