Kristen Coughlan

Letter to Santa

2008-12-03T04:36:33Z

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

This year I've been busy!

In April I gave change to a homeless guy (19 points). In January I bought porn for strikersa (-10 points). Last Sunday I donated bone marrow to compdinosaur in a life-saving procedure (300 points). In March catman451 and I donated clothes to the needy (11 points). In September I didn't flush (-1 points).

Overall, I've been nice (319 points). For Christmas I deserve a pony!

Sincerely,
rebel_lonedog

Christmas Tree

2008-12-03T04:27:06Z

Christmas Gift Toy & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

rebel_lonedog @ 2007-08-06T21:10:00

2007-08-07T01:12:37Z

I caught the flowers at Shannon's wedding :)

I had a lot of fun.

High Speed!

2007-07-28T23:27:00Z

On August 7, the house is getting High Speed internet. YAY!!!!!!

Lawsuit: Katrina Pets Executed

2007-06-12T16:13:22Z

Lawsuit: Katrina Pets Executed
Investigations, Two Criminal Indictments and a Lawsuit Put the Heat on St. Bernard Parish's Sheriff's Office
By JIM AVILA, ELIZABETH TRIBOLET and CHRIS FRANCESCANI
ABC News Law & Justice Unit
June 11, 2007 —

For nearly two years, pet owners from the low-lying Louisiana parish of St. Bernard have accused sheriff's deputies of having wantonly killed dozens of dogs they forced evacuees to leave behind during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, without regard to the dogs' size or the potential threat they might pose.

One owner said her family was forced at gunpoint to leave its dog behind. Another owner said residents became frantic when, they said, they overheard one deputy claim that "once everybody's gone, we're going to have target practice tonight." They claim in court papers that deputies were under " authorization...of their superiors and employers.

Two deputies have already been indicted by a grand jury in New Orleans on charges of felony, aggravated cruelty to animals. The Louisiana attorney general's office is investigating and this morning lawyers for a group of owners will file a comprehensive complaint in federal court in Louisiana seeking class action status for their clients.

More on this story tonight on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. EDT

For the first time, the St. Bernard Parish sheriff's office has acknowledged to ABC News' Law & Justice Unit that an internal investigation has been launched.

In an interview last week, Sal Gutierrez, who represents the sheriff's office, defended the department's handling of a clearly difficult evacuation. Gutierrez said the shells left behind in the schools did not necessarily come from the weapons issued to department deputies. He denied allegations that orders to kill the dogs came from superior officers, calling that claim "false." He said that if the investigation turned up any wrongdoing by deputies, the St. Bernard sheriff would take appropriate disciplinary action. If something false has been alleged in the lawsuit, he said he would consider countercharges of defamation of character. He said that he and the sheriff were animal lovers.

In December, the sheriff's office released a statement declaring that any actions taken had been done with "the utmost care, caution and belief of its necessity," according to the newspaper New Orleans City Business.

But Gutierrez told ABC News that until the internal investigation was complete, he could not adequately answer all the charges. "I can't tell you we don't have a renegade or two," Gutierrez told ABC News.

"If you're talking about a rabid dog roaming the streets trying to attack, that's understandable to try and find and euthanize a dog," said plaintiff attorney Randall Smith. But, he said later, "some of them were poodles, miniature dogs, tied up, most outrageous[ly] in schools, no way a threat to anybody."

One of the key pieces of evidence in the civil case is expected to be video footage shot by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Leeson Jr., who said he witnessed dogs being shot while filming in the area after Katrina for the Dallas Morning News.

"They shot the dog I was trying to help right in front of me," he told reporters at the time.

On his video, posted HERE on the newspaper's Web site, gunshots can clearly be heard.

Mike Minton, a former sergeant from the St. Bernard Parish sheriff's office, acknowledges shooting dogs but says it was done for humane reasons. Gutierrez told ABC News that Minton was "let go" from the department and was "no longer an employee." Minton, one of the two deputies indicted in December on animal cruelty charges, did not return a call from ABC for comment.

'Shooting Gallery'
"It was a massacre. It was a shooting gallery," said Mark Steinway, co-founder of the animal rescue group Posada Safe Haven. Steinway was among those who discovered the animals' bodies at three school evacuation centers, gathered evidence and urged the Louisiana State Attorney General's Office to launch an investigation.

"We documented as best we could as a crime scene," he said. "It was obvious [the dogs] had been chased around. There were so many rounds of ammunition and so many holes in the walls and so many random shots to body cavities and legs, areas where you know the animals were trying to get away from these guys."

Steinway described one harrowing discovery he made in the one of the parish schools that he said exemplified the wantonness with which the animals were killed.

"Somebody carefully tied up these two dogs in one of the rooms and shot them, and didn't even shoot them at close range in the head to put them out of their misery,'' he said. "They backed up and started shooting, with a shotgun started firing. Pellets all over the floor, bullet holes in the wall. It was a slaughter."

'Please Do Not Shoot Her"
Some of the pet owners who spoke with ABC News said they had waited until the last minute to evacuate for good reason. One woman's daughter had just had a major surgery. Another had a medical condition that prevented him from driving and an elderly father too weak to drive. The waters rose rapidly and communication was difficult at best. Many residents were rescued from their rooftops, their animals clinging to them.

On Aug. 28, 2005, with floodwaters roaring through St. Bernard Parish, officials announced St. Bernard's High School as a shelter of last resort, according to court papers obtained by ABC News.

Three days later, on Aug. 31, officials evacuated the high school shelters and took residents to the Algiers Point ferry landing. As residents were separated from their animals and moved out of the shelters, many desperately scrawled messages on the walls of the school rooms.

"There is 1(sic) very nice dog in there. Please do not shoot her. Her name is Angel," read one message. Another, with a name and phone number, read, "Call me please. I want my pets back."

"In this room are six adult dogs and four puppies. Please save them! Kit."

'Everybody, We're Under Water'
Plaintiff John Bozes said his black Labrador, Angel Girl, had saved his family's life. Floodwaters had reached the top of the door of his parish home, he told ABC News.

"I walked to the door right there, I go to put my hand on the knob to open it, she got between me and that door and nudged me back. When I looked back I saw water coming through the top of the door and I said, 'Oh boy, we're in trouble.'"

"Everybody, we're under water!" he hollered to his family, who climbed through the attic to reach the home's roof. They were evacuated to St. Bernard's High School, where he said they were told to evacuate without the pets.

"It was a mandatory evacuation -- we either go to jail or get shot, or we leave our pets behind."

Then, he said, he and other owners heard a deputy say, 'Man, once everybody's gone, we're going to have target practice tonight.'''

"There was so much commotion after that statement was made," he said. "We stood our ground and said, 'We're not leaving them.'"

"Next thing you know, we're either leaving & or you get shot."

Bozes' father, Paul, said he thought about Angel Girl all the time. "I hope I'm not wrong in saying this, but from the bottom of my heart -- if I see that boy or the man that shot her, they better have a lot of people around to keep me from hitting them."

"These are animals," John Bozes said, "but they have brains just like you and I. They have feelings like we have. & Tough animals, wonderful animals, lovable animals. And to have somebody shoot for no reason at all, I don't think no animal in that school would have hurt somebody, especially Angel. She was too lovable."

John Bozes and his sister were separated from their three dogs -- Angel Girl, a pit bull named Honey and a Husky mix named Bullet -- when they were evacuated. The dogs were taken to Beauregard Middle School and St. Bernard's Parish High School.

"Bullet, the Husky mix, was found dead in the corner of Beauregard Middle School," according to the complaint. "The cord from the Venetian blind on the nearest window had been tied to Bullet's collar. Angel Girl and Honey were found together, also in a corner. Angel Girl had been tethered to the Venetian blinds on a nearby window. Honey was not tied, but lay at Angel Girl's side."

'Threatened'
Plaintiff Joyce Stubbs was told she could not bring her dogs, Max and Lucky, with her when she was evacuated from Beauregard High School, so "she poured bottles of water and soft drinks into a large ice chest for her dogs to drink," according to court documents. "She also put out a lot of food where the dogs could readily access it."

"Stubbs and her children spent a long moment saying goodbye to her dogs. A Sheriff's deputy approached them and pointed a shotgun at her son's face and threatened to shoot him if they did not leave the dogs. He also pointed the shotgun at their small dog Lucky," the complaints reads.

'I Live With This Every Day'
Judy Migliore and her husband spent three days going from rooftop to rooftop with their daughters and their poodle, Gidget, which she said means "small" in Hawaiian. Migliore said they called the dog Gigi. When it was time to go, Migliore said she pleaded with a deputy to let her take the poodle.

"I begged. & I was crying. I said, 'Please, she'll never, never touch the ground. She'll stay in my arms the whole time.' He said, 'Ma'am, we can do it either nicely or not nicely,' and he said, 'I'm prepared to handcuff you.'

"I turned and looked at my husband and I said, 'I can't! I cannot leave her,' and the deputy I knew came up at that time and he said, 'Miss Judy, give her to me and I'll see what I can do.' I gave her to him because I couldn't and he turned and give her to the deputy and that was the last time we seen him," she said, referring to the deputy.

"I kept thinking & she going to be terrified that I wasn't holding her, she was going to be terrified of bad weather and other dogs because of big dogs. Pit bulls, Great Danes, huge dogs. & I knew she was going to be terrified. & And I kept thinking, 'I'm leaving her.'"

"I live with this every day in my thoughts and in my heart because she was our baby, and there's not a day goes by that I don't think of her."

Two weeks later, Migliore said, her brother-in-law went back to the school where they Gigi, but he was turned away. One daughter went online to animal rescue sites and another daughter visited shelters. They knew the poodle would be easy to identify. Gigi was pure white, with freshly clipped nails painted red and a brown collar with a St. Francis of Assisi medal around her neck.

On Oct. 9, according to the complaint, a rescue worker informed the family that Gidget had been found shot in the head .

Presented with some of the allegations made in court documents and to ABC News, Gutierrez, the attorney for the sheriff's department, said that he would like to depose the plaintiffs under oath.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3265151&page=1

New RR/SR Stories

2007-06-10T02:44:36Z

I had these stories on my computer for a while. I also updated my web site as well. I would have put them up earlier but I have been busy with my job and other projects. I also have tons of unfinished stories as well. I will try to finish them soon and post them.

SRS: Constellation - The Ghostly Threat
http://rebel_lonedog.tripod.com/srcon007.txt
Co-Authored by Robert Baer Jr., Maisy's body gets taken over by an alien ghost who plans to take over the ship.

SRS: Constellation - Jezzy's Appearance
http://rebel_lonedog.tripod.com/srcon009.txt
Co-Authored by Robert Baer Jr., Mystic reverses the love potion on Jezzy and Lionheart and erases their memories of their year together. Lionheart teleports her to the Constellation.

SRS: Constellation - Wer-Vil's Story
http://rebel_lonedog.tripod.com/srconwer.txt
Co-Authored by Robert Baer Jr., Wer-Vil tells his story about how he ened up in the Beta Quad.

Amos and Hannah - Dogs of Katrina
http://rebel_lonedog.tripod.com/amosruth.txt
Co-Authored by Robert Baer Jr.,Ruth tells Ben Maddog the story about how she was forced to be abandoned after Hurricane Katrina and how she met Amos and Hannah.

Saga of the Terrawolves - Kyle's Family
http://rebel_lonedog.tripod.com/terra004.txt
Co-Authored by Robert Baer Jr.Kyle parents meet Bailey's parents.

Space Rover Academy - One Year On
http://rebel_lonedog.tripod.com/srayear.txt
Co-Authored by Robert Baer Jr., A year after Constellation, friends and family of the crew remember the day they disappeared.

Story by Computer Dinosaur

SRS: Constellation - The Stone That Speaks
http://rebel_lonedog.tripod.com/srcon008.TXT
A story by Robert Baer Jr. Promise senses a being in trouble.

Review: Happy Feet

2006-11-20T06:38:06Z

I saw the movie Happy Feet on the weekend. I loved the story and the music. I bought the soundtrack after the movie. The late Steve Irwin did a voice in the movie as Trev the elephant seal. Hugh Jackman does a good Elvis sounding voice for his character. I love the song Boogie Wonderland. I thought the cutest scene in the movie is when Mumble hatches out of the egg.

rebel_lonedog @ 2006-11-12T19:09:00

2006-11-12T23:09:45Z

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

This year I've been busy!

Last month I got in line at the supermarket at the same time as someone else and I didn't yield (-8 points). Last Saturday I gave compdinosaur a life-saving blood transfusion (50 points). In July I bought porn for malrourkemutt (-10 points). Last Monday I bought porn for strikersa (10 points). In May I didn't flush (-1 points).

Overall, I've been nice (41 points). For Christmas I deserve a red Radio-Flyer wagon!

Sincerely,
rebel_lonedog

Buddy Has Died

2006-08-28T00:49:46Z

bud_rip
Originally uploaded by rebel_lonedog.

Buddy, a Golden Retriever/Shepherd cross, that inspired the characters Rebel (AKA LoneDog) and Bud has died two weeks ago of old age.

He was a great dog and he will be missed.

RIP Buddy

Alex Jones' Warning A CALL TO ACTION!

2006-08-13T04:33:40Z

Alex Jones' Warning A CALL TO ACTION!

Alex Jones predicted the 9/11 attacks stating "Osama Bin Laden would be blamed for flying planes into buildings including the WTC". He made this warning during the months of July and August of 2001;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtOFudmHG8
http://prisonplanet.tv/articles/august2004/082604alexwarned.htm

He is now stating for the fist time since 9/11, that all indicators suggest a massive terror attack is imminent, facilitated by corrupt rogue elements in western governments, possibly before October.

LISTEN TO THIS BROADCAST, THEN DO SOMETHING!

WE CAN STOP THIS!

WHAT YOU CAN DO;

*Spread this broadcast
*Freeway blog;
http://freewayblogger.com/
*Call into radio talk shows
*Stage peaceful protests

^ Those are things everyone can do! If your still convinced by the official 9/11 story, and so think this doesn't matter to you read this;

THE TOP 40 REASONS TO DOUBT THE OFFICIAL STORY OF SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001;http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041221155307646

Dr Martin Luther King Jr: A Time Comes When Silence Is Betrayal
http://www.911blogger.com/2006/04/time-comes-when-silence-is-betrayal.html

^ AND THEN DO SOMETHING!

There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it. Always." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Murphy's Technology Laws

2006-07-07T22:06:55Z

Murphy's Technology Law #1 -- You can never tell which way the train went by looking at the track.

Murphy's Technology Law #2 -- Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.

Murphy's Technology Law #3 -- Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand.

Murphy's Technology Law #4 -- If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Murphy's Technology Law #5 -- All great discoveries are made by mistake.

Murphy's Technology Law #6 -- Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.

Murphy's Technology Law #7 -- All's well that ends... period.

Murphy's Technology Law #8 -- A meeting is an event at which minutes are kept and hours are lost.

Murphy's Technology Law #9 -- The first myth of management is that it exists.

Murphy's Technology Law #10 -- A failure will not appear until a unit has passed final inspection.

Murphy's Technology Law #11 -- New systems generate new problems.

Murphy's Technology Law #12 -- Any given program, when running, is obsolete.

Murphy's Technology Law #13 -- A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make.

rebel_lonedog @ 2006-07-07T15:51:00

2006-07-07T19:53:32Z

"The Human race, you are such an intelligent lot. You are so susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit."- Doctor Who (Age of Steel)

Quote From Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

2006-07-03T01:59:37Z

Quite simply, the goal of terrorism is to create terror and fear. Fear undermines faith in the establishment. It weakens the enemy from within . . . causing unrest in the masses. Write this down. Terrorism is not an expression of rage. Terrorism is a political weapon. Remove a government's façade of infallibility, and you remove its people's faith." - Dan Brown (Angels and Demons, Chapter 45)

12 warning signs of fascism

2006-07-02T06:27:57Z

1)Exuberant Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic images, slogans and symbols - National flags are seen everywhere in public display. Territorial aggression is explained to be mere destiny -- an unbidden greatness thrust upon the nation by history.

It is this burden of unique responsibility that now raises the fascist state above all previous constraint, no longer bound by international obligations, treaties or law.

2) Enemies Identifed

This national cause is identified as unity against enemies - The people are rallied around a unifying patriotism directed against some common threat: communists, liberals, a racial, ethnic or religious minority, intellectuals, homosexuals, terrorists, etc.

The state's message is sometimes couched in an easily recognized religious theme. Amazingly, this language is used even when the full context of the teaching shows the meaning to be diametrically opposed. Any dissent is "siding with the enemy", and therefor treasonous.

3) Rights Disappear

Disdain for human and political rights - Fascist regimes foster an artificial climate of fear by intentionally amplifying stress and anxiety. Citizens naturally feel a strong need for security and are easily persuaded to ignore abuses in the name of safety. The few still willing to question are met with bullying and smear campaigns of intimidation.

Legislative bodies, if still in existence at all, are cowed into rubber-stamp submission with occasional ceremonial opposition. The judiciary tends to become activist in support of state views. The public often looks away, or even enthusiastically approves as rights are stripped away.

The concept of the individual inevitably yields ground, exchanged for the promised safety of the all-powerful state.

4) Secrecy Demanded

Obsession with secrecy and national security - The workings of government become increasingly hidden. Questioning of authority is discouraged at all levels of society. From office talk at the water cooler up through the entire apparatus of rule, guarded speech and secrecy become ends in themselves.

Troubling questions are muted and entire areas of scrutiny are placed out of bounds by simply invoking "national security".

5) Military Glorified

Supremacy of the military - The military establishment receives a disproportionate share of government resources, even as pressing domestic needs are neglected. Individual soldiers and military culture are glamorized and made constantly visible.

This provides both an object for public glorification, as well as sharp warning to possibly restless citizens that the power of the state stands close at hand, ready to use its great potential for violence.

6) Corporations Shielded

Corporate power is protected - Typically, a segment of the business elite plays a major role in bringing fascists to national leadership, often from an unsavory obscurity. This marriage of big money and raw violence is often considered by historians to be the hallmark and backbone of fascism.

As these business-government-military interests meld, the significant threat of organized labor is clearly recognized. Labor unions and their support organizations are either co-opted successfully or ruthlessly suppressed and eliminated as soon as possible.

7) Corruption Unchecked

Rampant cronyism and corruption - Fascist states maintain power through this relatively small group of associates, mutually appointing each other to interlocking and rotating positions in government, business and the military.

With this degree of control, they make full use of both official secrecy and the ready threat of state violence to insulate themselves from any meaningful criticism. They are not accountable and are shielded from scrutiny in a way unthinkable in a democratic society.

8) Media Controlled

Controlled mass media - Sometimes the media are controlled directly by clumsy government functionaries. At other times, sympathetic corporate media insiders shape the themes indirectly, and therefor more skillfully. Image regularly trumps content as the "news" is presented breathlessly and with flashy stage effects.

A practiced formula of tenacious repetition brings even the most absurd lie into acceptance over time. By design, the very language itself and the coloration employed will push alternate views "out of the mainstream".

The terms of any remaining debate are narrowly defined to the state's advantage, making it easy to marginalize a truly differing perspective. Censorship and "self-censorship", especially in wartime, is common.

9) Rampant Sexism

Rampant sexism - Governments of fascist states tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Traditional gender roles are made even more rigid and exaggerated. Condemnation of abortion and a virulent homophobia are commonly built into broad policy.

10) Intellectual Bullying

Disdain for intellectuals - Fascist society tends to create an environment of extreme hostility to critical thought in general, and to academics in particular.

Ideologically driven "science" is elevated and lavishly funded, while any expression not in line with the state view is at first ignored, then challenged, then ridiculed and finally stamped out.

It is not uncommon for academics to be pressured to attack the work of their insufficiently patriotic peers. Writings are censored; teachers are fired and arrested. Free artistic expression in new works is openly attacked, and existing works deemed unpatriotic are often publicly destroyed.

11) Police Militarized

Obsession with crime and punishment - Fascist society is often willing to overlook police abuses and forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. Long jail sentences for clearly political offenses, torture and then assassination are at first uncomfortably tolerated, and then start to pile up to become the norm.

Often a national police force is given virtually unlimited power to snoop through the civilian population. Networks of surveillance and informers are employed, both for actual intelligence gathering and also as a means to keep neighbors and co-workers isolated and mistrustful of each other.

12) Elections Stolen

Fraudulent elections - In the disordered time as fascists are rising to power, the electoral arena becomes increasingly confusing, corrupted, and manipulated.

There is rising public cynicism and distrust over what are widely believed to be phony elections manipulated by moneyed influence, obvious media bias, smear campaigns, ballot tampering, judicial interference, intimidation, or outright assassination of potential opposition. Fascists in power have been known to use this disorder as the rationale to delay elections indefinitely.

Source
http://mvp-seattle.com/pages/pageFascism.htm

What I was trying to show Marauader

2006-07-01T04:26:06Z

Here is a piece written by Steven E. Jones, a Physics Professor at Brigham Young University. He conducts research in nuclear fusion and solar energy.

Jones is Co-Chair of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization currently petitioning Congress for the release of evidence, including the almost 14,000 pictures and videos held by NIST of the World Trade Center site on 9/11/01. Jones is hoping for the release of this evidence for his controlled demolition hypothesis paper.

http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html

I saw this man on Tucker Carlson show on MSNBC. He was talking about the explosives used on WTC7. He tried to show footage of the WTC7 collapse but Tucker refused to show it.

BYU Professor Steven Jones on 'The Situation Room' - Video Download
http://www.911blogger.com/2005/11/byu-professor-steven-jones-on.html

Larry Silverstein and WTC 7
http://whatreallyhappened.com/cutter.html

Don't Buy While Seals Die: Boycott Canadian Seafood

2006-03-26T10:44:54Z

Why boycott Canadian seafood?

Seal hunting is an off-season activity conducted by fishers from Canada's East Coast. They earn a small fraction of their incomes from sealing—primarily from the sale of seal pelts to European fashion markets. But the vast majority of the sealers' incomes are from commercial fisheries. Canadian seafood exports to the United States contribute $3 billion annually to the Canadian economy—dwarfing the few million dollars provided by the seal hunt. The connection between the commercial fishing industry and the seal hunt in Canada gives consumers all over the world the power to end this cruel and brutal slaughter.

After hearing about the horrific treatment of seals at the hands of fishermen in Canada's annual seal hunt, many companies, chefs, and restaurants pledged to boycott some or all Canadian seafood until the hunt is finally ended. If one of them is in your town, stop by to say thank you.* If you don't see your favorite restaurants, chefs, or seafood-selling companies on this page, please talk to them and ask them to join the boycott. If you are a business that would like more information about how to become part of the boycott, please go to this page or contact the manager of the Protect Seal Campaign, Pat Ragan, at pragan@hsus.org or 301-258-3141.

If you work in a restaurant or for a business that sells seafood, you are in wonderful position to help convince the Canadian government to end the cruel commercial seal hunt. A boycott of Canadian seafood*—even a boycott of only a few Canadian seafood imports—will send the message to fishermen from Canada's East Coast that it isn't in their financial interest to kill seals in their off season.

More than 90% of sealers are from Newfoundland. Even in that province, sealing income accounts for less than 1% of Newfoundland’s gross domestic product and only 2% of the landed value of Newfoundland’s fishery. Individual fishermen derive a small fraction of their total incomes from sealing—the rest comes from commercial fishing.

More than 75% of Canadian seafood is exported to the United States, producing $3 billion annually for the Canadian economy. This figure dwarfs the few million dollars generated from the seal hunt. It is the connection between commercial fisheries and sealing in Canada that gives seafood professionals and consumers the leverage needed to convince the Canadian government and individual fishermen to stop the slaughter of seals. Any of the following actions will help us put an end to Canada’s commercial seal hunt for good.

View List of Businesses in the Boycott
http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/protect_seals/why_a_boycott_of_canadian_seafood/restaurants_who_support_boycott.html

For more information
http://www.hsus.org

Getting ready for New Year's By Red Green

2005-12-30T23:56:49Z

I want to talk to all the middle-aged guys out celebrating New Year's this year.

This may seem premature, but don't be fooled. It's never to soon to start thinking about the traditional midnight New Year's kiss. You don't want to screw it up again this year.

You only have to remember one thing - kiss your wife first. Excuses don't work. Like "I thought I was kissing you," or "I tried to, but someone else's lips got in the way," or worse still, "Come on, honey, it's New Year's. I'm supposed to have fun."

Now, in order to kiss your wife at midnight, you have to be able to find her. That means you need to stay relatively sober throughout the evening.

If you're too inebriated to see, you can't recognize your wife. Braille is not an option. And after you do find her, and you're kissing her like she's your own personal Beauty Queen, don't be simultaneously making eye contact with Miss Congeniality. A split focus at that crucial moment can lead to other splits - a split lip, a splitting headache, or even a splitting wife.

Don't use New Year's as an excuse to reconnect with ex-girlfriends. Should old acquaintance be forgot? Absolutely. Especially if she's attractive, and she's at the party, and she's carrying around pictures of a 12-year-old boy who looks exactly like you.

Stolen From Catman

2005-10-30T14:42:22Z

rebel_lonedog's Halloween party:

acerover dressed as a penguin.
amtek dressed as Tom Cruise.
bayson dressed as Kirsten Dunst riding a ferret, and it suited them disturbingly well.
catman451 dressed as a diplomat from Niger.
compdinosaur didn't even show up and doesn't get any candy.
darkon dressed as a wholesale mummy, and it suited them disturbingly well.
fluffypup dressed as a new member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Mighty Leader.
graybearperkins dressed as the Cardinal of Trimax.
hotrod_32 dressed as a third baseman for the Brewers.
huntry dressed as Hurricane Felipe, though it looked more like your uncle.
john1076 dressed as Tonya Harding.
katarina42 dressed as a component, and it suited them disturbingly well.
malrourkemutt gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as Robert Downey Jr..
marauderosu dressed as a bottle of Aiceckbas.
mauilovich dressed as Serena Williams, and it suited them disturbingly well.
olingsd dressed as the Vicount of Carthage.
punkfox dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley.
rallyrover dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Degenerate Wrath.
rrchaser dressed as a new superhero: Bee Condor.
rrmaxx dressed as the love child of Kofi Annan and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
rrvrtike dressed as a character from "Ed Wood".
shadow3397 dressed as Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek".
shamon_cornell dressed as Lyndon B. Johnson.
silabub dressed as Tiffani-AmberThiessen.
starvingartist3 dressed as John Madden's grandmother.
strikersa dressed as a Paxsonway employee.
timberwolfrr dressed as the Governor of New Jersey.
tinkerbell86ca dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Alicia.
vixdraw dressed as a entree.
vulpopup dressed as a halfback for the Jets.
warwolf dressed as LeAnn Rimes.
wolfhound_2023 dressed as Optimus Prime.
wolve dressed as a 1980's yuppie child.

Throw your own party at the Hallomeme!
Created with phpNonsense

The Gullibility Factor Test

2005-08-29T20:57:12Z

Your GF score is 76.
(Out of a range of 0 - 100, where 0 = mind slave, and 100 = free thinker.)

Free Thinker
Welcome to the top 5%. You're a true free thinker and a person who is well informed about the reality in which you live. Although you may have been easily manipulated earlier in life, you eventually gained lucidity and developed a healthy sense of skepticism that you now automatically apply to your observations and experiences. You are endlessly curious about human behavior and the nature of the universe, and you have one or more lifestyle habits that most people would consider odd or unusual. You are not only of very high intelligence, you are also extremely creative in one or more areas (music, art, software development, inventing, etc.)

If you were in The Matrix, you would have taken the red pill, completed the combat training, and started fighting (and beating) agents from day one.

Your architects: You have cast off reality distortions taught to you by your parents, schooling, corporate advertising and government propaganda. You create your own beliefs based on what serves you best, without much regard for what the rest of the crowd is doing. You are guided by your own internal code of ethics (which may or may not agree with politically-correct ethical codes) rather than any pre-set system of ethics (such as from any one religion).

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War of the Broadcasts

2005-08-08T22:17:24Z

War of the Broadcasts

By Kristen Coughlan

In the past, radio was a medium to get information across to the to the people of the world. It was the television of the past.

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air had a Halloween Special. Those who tuned in when the show began would of heard a disclaimer telling the audience that the following broadcast was live broadcast of an adaptation of H. G. Wells' classic novel The War of the Worlds. Two thirds of the listeners that night missed the disclaimer by channel surfing and they thought a series of what to be news broadcasts of an alien invasion real and the country was put in a panic.

Today, video is one of the biggest mediums to get information across. It can be used to entertain, teach, show current events, or to scare like radios did in the past. Video can be seen in movie theatres, television, the Internet, and some billboards. With the use of computers and other technology videos are getting better in the film and television industry every year.

Video is a good propaganda tool to keep the masses in fear. Mainstream news repeats over and over images of a terror event that happens in the world, what the "officials" say what happened at this event, and censors out what witnesses really saw. There will be reports about how to protect yourself and to tell you to tattle on your family or neighbours. Reports would say that the changes around you and new laws would protect you from the "terrorists". If a person wants to give another view of the situation or try to oppose the truth, they are demonized.

Most people seem to believe it what they see.

Censoring Video

Currently in television there is at least a few second delay on some live broadcasts to censor offensive language or actions. Depending what country you live in, movies and television are censored by beeping out offensive word or removing certain scenes.

BBC has been talking about putting delays in broadcast in events similar to 9/11 to censor out what is deemed too sensitive to the viewers. It would good to edit out such things as close ups of people jumping from the building which was filmed at 9/11. On the other hand, delaying video could hide such things as evidence.

One of the 9/11 videos has been altered. In the original footage of one of the aerial views of the burning towers of the World Trade Center, a plane or helicopter can be seen flying near the towers. In repeated broadcasts of this footage, the plane or helicopters is gone. You can see the original footage on some 9/11 films such as Alex Jone's 9/11: The Road to Tyranny.

Suppressing Video

Certain videos of terrorism events have been suppressed recently over the years. Most of people relied on what mainstream new had to says about the terror event and view recreations. Information would always change what happened.

In the case of the OKC Bombing of 1995, the FBI took the video footage from cameras that were pointed towards the area.

Washington has the most cameras watching over the city in the world. With in 15 minutes, FBI took the footage of every camera pointed at the Pentagon. Only a few frames of the plane hitting the Pentagon but some people argue that it was the plane or not. In my opinion, it looks like something an expert could of created in Photoshop using the smoke and fire added in on different layers. Plus the timestamp on the video is dated September 12.

The London Bombings can be another example. Police have taken the footage of the London Bombings of 7/7 and 7/21. There have been protests for this footage to be released. Some frames of the suspects have been shown but some photo experts have claimed that at least one of the bombers in one of the video frames released was super imposed into the image. Information kept changing from suicide bombers to timed devices and then back to suicide bombers.

The reason that that footage could be confiscated and not shown could be it can reveal evidence that the government doesn't want you to see. Putting a video in slow motion or looking frame by frame can reveal a lot.

In the case of the shooting of JFK, a lot of details can be revealed from videos from that day can be seen. One being the open windows on the parade route because the Secret Service are required to make sure those windows are closed. As the car turns the corner and it passes the “Grassy Knoll”, the car slows down and JFK appears to be choking before the final bullet takes his life. If you look on one of the JFK videos, show it down, and enhance one of the bushes, you would see what appears to be a man with a rifle.

In a World Trade Center video on 9/11, blast points can be seen going down the building as it is collapsing. WTC Building 7 showed a classic crimp that comes with a controlled implosion.

Faking an Attack

There was a movie called Wag The Dog. It was about the president of the United States created a fake war to distract the public from a sex scandal.

Hollywood has been shooting war and combat films for years with special effects getting better all the time. All there is to fake a war or an attack would be a sound stage, blue or green screen, or a large patch of land that is out of the public eye.

With special effect technicians, actors and reporters on the payroll in the area, the fake attack or war is filmed. Some of it is brought into a video editing house also on the payroll to be edited and other effects added.

Then the footage is given to all media outlets.

Video to Show The Truth

Video can be also used to show the truth that the "Truth Police" have been trying to suppress. Documentaries with evidence to support the information the person is trying to get across can be very powerful.

Only 1% of the people in America have an open mind and see what is really going on in the world and connect the dots. A person can copy a DVD or VHS and give it to some people and they give it to some people, the truth can spread fast to the people who what to listen.

Filming by the public is starting to be restricted. During the GOP convention of 2004 in New York City, many people have been threatened with arrest or arrested for taking pictures or filming the protests or being in certain areas.

In the future, video would be still used as propaganda tool like radio still is. It would be almost imposable that another radio or a television show to scare a nation like the War of the Worlds broadcast because disclaimers are required to play within the broadcast to remind the viewers/listeners if a broadcast is fictional or not.

Sources: Wikipedia, 9/11: The Road to Tyranny, Martial Law 9/11: Rise of the Police State, 9/11: The Great Illusion, Nostradamus: Beyond the Prophecies (the section talking about the Kennedys), Infowars.com

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Khalid Jarrar's Arrest in Iraq in his own words

2005-07-31T01:02:59Z

Khalid Jarrar's Arrest in Iraq in his own words

Source: http://www.sqlspace.com/my-nephews-arrest-in-his-own-words-i-dare-you-to-answer-vt14815.html

I found myself...
Sleeping in a grave-size space, defined by two walls touching both my head my and feet, and surrounded with human bodies touching me from both sides, in a way that hardly leaves any chance to move at all during the long… long night, in a 12 square meters room stuffed with 35 people trying to sleep, and to hold themselves together in order not to fight…
The whole thing started when I went to the university to pay my tuition fees, the thing is that the engineering campus is separated from the rest of the university with few kilometers, but for such administrative issues, students should go to the headquarter, and this is what I did. I entered the main campus and went to the financial department to pay money. I started the paperwork process, and then reached to a point where we needed the director’s signature to finish the paperwork, but she was in a meeting. So, the employee asked me to go and waste an hour inside the campus till the meeting is over, and I did.

What would you do in such a case? Go to the café? I tried, but was totally bored after less than 15 minutes, and then I don’t remember how an idea flashed in my head like a big light bulb: internet!
Of course, what is better than the internet to kill time?

I remembered there was an internet café inside the campus. I rarely came to this campus during the last five years. I think I came like three or four times only. Anyways, so I went to the internet café and did my regular tour: raed in the middle, riverbend, etc etc..and then I was bored again. I left the internet café heading towards the financial department again.

In my way, I was stopped by an old man, with a hateful face. “tfa`6al” he said (it means something like: “how can I help you?”) I was a bit surprised, I said “inta tfa`6al!” (meaning: “how can I help you?”) he said: where are you going? So I knew that he must be some kind of a security guy. I should have guessed from his tone, he sounds like a typical saddam-style security-man.
“to the financial department, to pay my tuition money” I said.
“where were you right now?”
“ in the internet café !”
“where is your ID?”
“at the campus entrance reception, with my mobile phone” (this is common now, in all governmental buildings you have to leave your mobile phone in the reception, you cant take it with you).

Please people; don’t be surprised because of all these questions. It used to be very common in “Saddam’s Iraq” and it’s very common in today’s Iraq.

Anyway, the old hateful man decided to escort me to make sure I was telling him the truth. Once we entered the financial office, the employees there talked to me spontaneously, so he knew I was there before and he left. I paid the money, took the receipt, and left. When I went back the campus entrance reception to take my mobile and leave, I found out that the mobiles’ closet was “mistakenly locked” as I was told. They were waiting for the guy that has the key. “He’ll be here in any moment” I was told.

I sat there waiting for my mobile phone to be freed. Then suddenly, after few minutes, someone came and asked “where is the detained guy?”

The other security guard pointed at me!!!

I was like: ehhhhh..sorry there is misunderstanding here, I am not detained, its only that the mobile phones closet is mistakenly locked!

“come with us, we have some questions please” they said, and I went with them, searching for answers inside my head…

They searched me very carefully; they took my shoes off and searched them, and even took my watch. They read every paper I had in my pockets, and asked me questions about my origin, nationality, and many other questions. Then they asked me to unlock my mobile phone so that they can check it out. At that particular point I had had enough, I said I wouldn’t unlock it except if it was in front of “the person” who is hiding somewhere in the campus, the one asking all these questions through messengers.

They didn’t like my response.

Another guy came after a while, and asked me: who did you contact on the internet?
“my mother and brothers” I said.
He didn’t look satisfied.
“keep him” he said.

Next thing I know, a very fat policeman entered the small room, asked me to face the wall, searched me again, took my money and glasses, put a bag on my head and handcuffs in my hand (I still have the marks on my hand till now). While my hands were behind my back and my head in a bag, he made me run for about a minute, till we reached a police van, where I was forced to get in. The car starting moving towards an unknown destination…

You don’t want to know the swearing and curses I heard all the way, but maybe you’ll want to know that no one beat me.

We reached a luxurious building, I could tell from the marble on the floor. The floor was the only thing I could see at that point through a very small space between the bag and my nose. Then I was led to a room after taking an elevator.

I was afraid to be taken to the torture rooms directly; I was praying to find someone to talk to, to explain to him that this all is nothing but a little silly mistake!

God answered my prayers.

Instead of being lead to some underground dungeon, I was taken to an air conditioned room with a lot of people. I could tell from their voices they were interrogating someone, I couldn’t see anything still, but they released my hands.

I understood that this person they were interrogating, (Sa’ib as I knew later, he was in the same cell with me), did a very awful thing. Sa’ib came to the ministry of interior, and went to the office of a high ranked officer, and tried to remind the officer of Sa`ib’s own father who served with this the officer long time ago, hoping to ask this officer for a favor. The Favor was to order the transferring of a friend of Sa`ib, a cop, to another governorate.

The officer didn’t remember sa’ib’s father, and refused to help him. Then he ordered his guards to take Sa’ib for interrogation!!!

Untill I left the jail, Sa’ib was still there!

They beat him a lot, “how dare you enter the office of an officer just like that?” they were telling him.

Back to the air-conditioned interrogation room, I was still facing the wall, my eyes were covered, and my brain working so fast, trying to see behind the darkness infront of my eyes.

Then it was my turn:))

“Finally!” I told myself!

They started by asking me: “What’s the connection between you and the London Bombs?” !!!
And I was like: “haaaaa???!!.”. I said: “London Bombs???! Nothing!”

BANG!!

A heavy hand landed on my neck, my brain was too busy to feel the pain, I felt my neck numbing for a while.

“SPEAAAK” he shouted.

“Turn around” he yelled.

I turned, facing the room now, but not seeing anything other than my nose and the shoes of the person who was interrogating me, standing so close.

“Why do you have a beard?” he asked.

“Because the prophet...” (I was trying to tell him that prophet Mohammad had one, and that I have one because I love to look like him...)

BANG

He slapped me on the face. It made a loud noise that the room became dead-silent for some seconds….

“May the prophet curse you” he shouted.

Again, my brain didn’t respond to the pain signals, I didn’t feel it.

For the next few hours, they asked me questions like “who are the other members of our terrorist cell, where does your fund come from? What operations did you have?”

“What do you have against Shia?”
I said: “nothing, my mother is Shia!”
He said” what do you have against Kurds? Why don’t you go blow yourself up and kill Kurds?”
I said: “Because God says in Quran…” (I was trying to tell him a part of Quran where God orders us not to kill any innocent soul) he interrupted me shouting, “We know Quran better than you”.
“My best friend is Kurdish!” I said.
“Of course he is, so that you can get information about Kurds from him, right?” he answered.

Nothing I said seemed to make sense to them. And nothing they said makes sense to anyone in the world.

Then finally I understood why I was there, after few hours. Security guards at the university had printed out all the websites I was reading while I was online there. They were accusing me of “reading terrorism sites” and “having communications with foreign terrorists”.
“Do you know what these pages are?”
I looked at them and figured out they were the comment section of Raed in the Middle!!
I opened the comments section while browsing in the university, read some comments, and didn’t even post anything. But these people don’t seem to know what the internet is, and they don’t speak English, so I was a major suspect of being an assistant of al Zarqawi maybe! Or that I have a terrorist group of my own, with foreign connections!

I was accused of terrorism, and sent to jail after they decided that I’m not helping myself because I am not helping them!!!
“Help you with what??!!”I asked “I am so willing to help you with anything you want, just tell me what exactly you want to know?”
“Tell us the name of the other members of your group, and where you get your fund from” then answered.
I entered the jail, and found people staring at me with curiosity, but with total silence.
“assalamo alaykom!” I said with a smile, and sat down on the ground, just like the others.
“alaykom assalam!” everyone said.
Then one of them couldn’t resist it anymore, so he asked: “why were you brought here?”
I told them my story, and they all looked very upset.
In the next few minutes, I learned about the stories of the other people that were there.
Then it suddenly hit me: “where are we? Do you know?” I asked curiously.
They all looked a bit afraid, I knew they had an answer but didn’t know whether they should trust me enough already to tell me or not, I have been there for a couple of minutes only.
Then someone whispered in my ears “istikhbarat il dakhliyya”, “but don’t tell anyone that we know”. Istikhbarat il Dakhliyya means the Mukhabarat, and that is the intelligence or the secret service police.
“Ohhh!!” I said “Do your families know you are here?”
They nodded with their heads: no.

There were around 35 people in that room, 4 of the arrested people in this floor were teenagers. I’ll tell you about some of their stories at the end of this post.

I made friends with almost everyone there that day, and then I slept, it was a long day, I was so worried about my family, how would I let them know that I wasn’t killed in a car bomb, or kidnapped? I’m sure they don’t expect that I ran away from the house to go party with my friends or join the circus!

Next day I was taken to interrogation again.

They asked me all the questions you can ask anyone, but they did it very fast. They took the name of my teachers, my friends, even my colleagues and the girls in my class. They asked me if I had ever had sex before, I said no. They didn’t believe me, they made fun of me and asked if I prefer men more, and I said no too.

Then they wanted me to write my “confession” finally, which is the paper that will go to the judge to decide my fate.

He asked: you are accused of attending terrorist sites (Did he say that they are sites that recruit young people for terrorism? I don’t remember) so what do you say?

I said, with my eyes covered: please write my answer “I deny that completely, I was practicing my democratic right of viewing people’s opinion about a certain topic on a site that people visit from all the countries around the world to give their opinions”
He said: what in the hell is that? Did I ask you to write me a composition? Answer my question Goddamn it! You are accused of visiting terrorist websites, what do you reply?
I repeated my answer, but I reformed it in a way that is less complicated for his simple brains to understand, they wrote something and made me sign on the paper.
I don’t know if any of them finished high school, they are uncivilized, they lack morality and education, the way they swear all the time and the words they say tells you what kind of people they are, I asked them about the things that were with me when I was arrested, they said that they have my mobile phone, and my IDs, but the fat policeman broke my glasses and stole some of my money, till now, they didn’t give me back my mobile phone or my IDs.

Since they don’t speak English, they didn’t even ask me one time about the content of the site, which my one and only crime was that I read.

The third day, I found a way to contact my family, “illegally”, to tell them that I am alive and that I am in the seventh floor of the ministry of interior affairs. By that time, my dad checked every hospital, police station and morgue in the city. He checked with the Iraqi army, the Iraqi militias, the US army, and even the ministry of interior which denied that I was there!

It was such a relief to know that my family knows where I was, I told them that I was very well, and that we eat well and sleep well and no one hurts us.

Eight days after I was arrested, I was sent to see the judge, in a court that is a bit far of the prison, when we reached the court they put cuffs on my legs too, and a chain that ties my cuffed hands with my body. I felt the humiliation to be treated like a criminal and sent to a court tied with all these chains. I cried for few seconds only, and held myself together before anyone noticed.

I was taken first to an interrogator who works for the court, where he re-wrote my confession in a way that makes it easier to be understood correctly. He said that the court will assign a public defender for my case. I asked him what did that mean and he replied “Nothing, just some formalities”. He asked me to sign the paper of my “confessions”, and then he called a big chubby man with cheap outfit. The strange man came from outside and signed on my paper: “The Lawyer I-Don’t-Know-What’s-His-Name”. Then after some waiting, I was taken to see the judge, finally.

The judge was a very elegant man in his 40s, sitting behind a fancy disk in his air-conditioned room, with a computer beside him and a cool mobile phone too, with guards outside and a secretary beside him.

He didn’t look at me in the beginning. He asked me while surfing the papers of my case: “What’s your case?”
I said: “I went to the university to pay the fees of…”
He interrupted me impatiently: “the website, tell me about the website”

I said: “It’s a forum, it’s a place where people discuss a topic written by the owner of a website. I visited it and I didn’t even post an opinion, I closed it and left the internet place, and then I was brought here.”

It seemed he was following me. He said: “Is it like chatting?”
I said: “Yes, your honor. This is more like a website than a chat room. You don’t have to sign in and be a part of what’s happening in the case of forums. I was just watching things there. For me, it was more like watch a TV with different channels; you go to a channel not knowing what will be there and without knowing the content. If you didn’t like the channel, you can change it”

He interrupted me: “ok ok I know I know.”

He had 37 translated papers of Raed’s Comments Section, that’s it, that’s my case. He asked me “What are these strange letters between the words here?” I said “Maybe the person who printed out the papers selected the wrong font, these strange characters appear when you pick the wrong encoding for the language”. He didn’t seem to be a computer expert, but at least he knows the basics.

He said “go, I will take the papers to read them at home, and will decide about them tomorrow”.

The chubby entered the room and sat on a chair in front of the judge. He was my “lawyer”, but he didn’t say a single word, not one single word. He only signed a paper that says that he is my lawyer.

I was taken back to the prison. That was my Wednesday.

On Thursday, the judge decided that I was innocent. He figured out that the papers were from a public forum, and he didn’t find any comments posted by me.
I wasn’t released till Saturday morning, after I was forced to sign a paper committing that I wouldn’t tell the families of the arrested people that they are arrested, and that I wouldn’t tell anyone about anything that happened while I was arrested or tell them what I saw inside the jail, and that I would report any case of breaking the law that I know about to the authorities (at this point I laughed and asked: even if someone drove his car through a red traffic light?), and that I wouldn’t visit terrorism websites.

I, of course, told all the families I could that their sons are arrested in the seventh floor of the ministry of interior in the hands of the Mukhabarat, and here I am telling you everything that happened with me, and I am planning to visit all kind of websites as much as I like as long as I want.

I was so lucky that I was taken to the Mokhabarat directly. Usually you have to go through a police station or a center of the national guards to get there, where the standard procedure of torturing is hanging people upside down and beating them with cables for hours, pinching their bodies with electrical drills, burning them with hot water, ripping out their finger nails, breaking bones, using acids on the wounds after whipping them, the dead bodies that are found in the dumpsters in Baghdad even had their eyes taken out of them, and a lot of these things happened with people that I know, or with people that were detained with the people that were with me in this jail, before they were brought here, and the list of torturing techniques is long, and you don’t want to hear them or know about them if you want to sleep at night.

In one of the floors in the same building, there is another prison, a bigger one called “The Palace of Hospitality” (doesn’t this remind you of 1984? The ministry of love and stuff?) Where recently a father and his son were arrested, and the son died at night because his rips were broken after they beat him, and then they spelled hot water on his body, he kept moaning of pain for the whole night, said Abo Ayid, who slept right beside him, and then he died. I’ll tell you more about Abu Ayid in the end.

The one thing in common between all the people that were there is that almost all of them were Sunnis. Interrogators told one of the prisoners during an interrogation session “you Sunnis are all terrorists” and during my interrogation, I heard a lot of racist remarks and questions. The Shia Iraqis who were there were mostly accused of non-terrorism crimes, like stealing, carjacking, etc…

If you were wondering how did we spend our time in jail… I’ll tell you.

We read Quran a lot, we prayed five times a day, we had three meals a day, and we praise God for long periods of time too. We sat all together talking and telling jokes and stories about our lives…

At night, while trying to sleep, I mostly was thinking of what I should write in my next post!

I always had the hope that I would leave that place, time goes really slow there, when I used to feel sad I would think of the nice places that I would go to when I leave, and all the other positive ideas that would keep me happy, I asked people: what is the first thing you want to do when you leave this place?
And we all sat thinking of the nice things we want to do… the things we want to eat, the places we want to visit; it was a hope-generating game.

My family played an important role to help me get out of the Mukhabarat’s jail faster than other people. Like any other corrupt system, you can get a better treatment by knowing the right people and giving the right “gifts”. My family didn’t pay anything to the judge because they believed I was innocent, they tried their best to get me a lawyer, but they couldn’t. I was freed because I was innocent, and I have the capabilities to defend myself in front of a judge.

The question is: what about the rest of Iraqis? The ones who don’t have the money or the power to leave places like that? The innocent people who were taken away from their families and loved ones and accused of false crimes? What happens to them? Who will stand for them? What about human rights? What about civil rights? What about humanity?
Here are just some of the people that were in the jail and their cases, as a sample to the cases. I hope that these people and all the other Iraqi prisoners will go back home safe. And I’ll work with my family to ask the US administration and the Iraqi authorities to improve the situation of the detention for the Iraqis. People should have the right to inform their families about their location, and they should have the right to appear in front of a judge very soon after being detained without being questioned and tortured, and they should have real lawyers in the court, they should at least know their charges!

Firas: a 26 years old light skinned guy, was walking in the street with grocery bags in his hands when a car attacked an American convoy, he ran away, in a normal reaction, so the police followed him and caught him, and beat him continuously for 7 hours with pipes while he was tied up to a chair, and when he didn’t confess of attacking the US troops or Iraqi police, his investigators wrote a report that he must have been trained in foreign terrorists camps to tolerate torturing, and sent him to this place, supposedly a place for more expert interrogators.

Mohammed: a very dull 23 year old dark skinned guy, works in a very poor traditional café in a very poor neighborhood, the owner of the café was high on drugs and reported that Mohammed killed 4 policemen and 4 national guards, Mohammed is hardly smart enough to form a sentence, he can read and write, but besides serving tea and coffee, don’t expect much of him. One minute with him and you will discover that he has a heart of a 6 year old child, he thinks that an imaginary bird comes to him everyday and tells him the news of his mother, the only family member he has. When they were interrogating him they asked him: “did you kill eight men?” He said “sayyidi ya 7aras wa6ani ya kharyan istor 3alena” hahahaJ (meaning: “me? I killed no national guard and no shit at all, don’t put me in trouble” which makes sense in English, but its extremely funny in Arabic and tells you that a person isn’t sane at all), since Mohammed is accused of killing eight men, we called him Mohammed the wolf, haha, and that was his nick name for the rest of the time, till I left, and God knows what will happen to him. All what it takes to put someone in jail is to call anonymously and claim that he is a terrorist, and that’s it, he will be tortured and put in jail for 45 days, so you, “the secret informer” can chose to come to the court during this period and swear that he is a terrorist, if so, that’s it, he will be legally accused of terrorism and might spend the rest of his life in jail, or he maybe executed, or maybe set free, its totally up to the judge to decide that, or maybe its up to the CIA, which I knew later that they occupy the floor that was above us in the building, where the orders come from.

Maysam And Nathom: two brothers, in their twenties, very poor, amazingly good looking, if there was an Arabic version of Hollywood, they would sure be Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

When I was in jail I cried twice, one of them was when Nathom came to the toilets from an interrogation session, and I was in the toilets at that time, and he started crying hard, he said that they beat him so much to the point that he had to say that his brother killed 300 people and stole many cars.

He came to the toilets while they started to torture his brother to make him confess of these crimes, I went back to the cell and cried for minutes, it was so unfair, so unfair.

That night we made jokes about it, and that since we all are supposed to be “terrorism experts” we knew that a sword can kill up to 50 people, so he must have used so many swords, or maybe he used chainsaw? How else would anyone kill 300 people with his own hands?

Yes, we made jokes about that, in prison, and when it’s such a silly situation, you learn to joke about it.

So the interrogator said: “so he killed 300 people?”
“yes sir” Nathom answered, and the interrogator writes the confession.
“and he stole an Opel Car?”
“yes sir”
“a yellow one?”
“yes sir”
And then the interrogator put down the pen and said “you son of a b****, it has been more that two years since the war and I never saw one yellow Opel car”
(And it’s true, for some reason all Opels in Iraq are grey, some are black or blue but it’s rare, but no yellow ones!) All of that interrogation happened while Nathom is hanging upside down, and being hit at the same time.

I left the jail and the two brothers where still there.

Abo kamal, and his nephews: a sheikh of a tribe, had an appointment with a friend to have dinner, and they agreed to meet in front of a well known police station in that area, so they waited there in their car, with the four hazard lights flashing, and the light inside the car turned on, on the side of the road right in front the police station waiting for their friend, and then some cops came out of the station, arrested them and accused them of killing a man, till I left, abo kamal and the others weren’t told the name of the person that was killed, how and when he was killed.

Abo ayid: you know that in our region we call people “abu something” and abu means “the father of” so for example my dad would be abu raed, cause raed is the oldest son, and if your oldest son is called james for example, you would be called abu james ok?
OkJ
Abu Ayid is a nick name that is used, rarely, to call someone that is married in long time but doesn’t have children, for any reason, cause its rude to call people with their names, calling them abu – is a formal and respecting way, so if you know someone that doesn’t have children you call him abo ayid, ok?
Ok!
Now abu ayid has been in prison for about three months, he was tortured a lot, his fingernails were taken out, his toes were broken, he was beaten so much, because someone thought that the name abo ayid sounds like a name of a terrorist, maybe a leader of a terrorist group, it SOUNDS like that, so they tortured him, and they are keeping him till he confesses and tells them about the other members in his group and their fund etc…

Kathom: a dark skinned man in his late 40s walking late at night passed by a governmental building while he was drunk. After a while, an explosion happened in that building, so the police picked him up walking not far of that building, and needless to say that they weren’t nice to him.
And so on, so many sad stories, sad because they are stupid, sad because they aren’t fair.
Whenever someone new arrives, I had this bad feeling in my stomach, its sick, and it keeps happening to other people everyday.
One of the guys there, Msaid, was so sad, he has been there for about 50 days, he never says a word, he never speaks to anyone, no one knows what he is accused of cause he wouldn’t talk, and I wouldn’t tell you about this if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, Msaid haven’t eat a bite since over 40 days, we all live in the same place and its easy to keep track of that, people there watch him and be him to eat every now and then, all they hear from him is: I don’t feel like eating.
Guys I haven’t lost my mind in jail, its true, and I saw it myself, Msaid drinks water only.
I really learned that yama fissign mazaleem!
Which is an Egyptian saying says that many of those in prison are really innocent.
I learned also the value of freedom, now just looking from the window or going out in the street is a lot of fun to me, I learned to appreciate freedom.
May God free everyone that is under such great injustice, and send them back home to their families and friends, about us, we will do what we can to make sure that happens, any kind of help that you can offer, any legal help or support from human right groups will be much appreciated and evaluated, we must do all we can to try to get some rights to those arrested, and being arrested in occupied Iraq, everyday.

Tasha Hiding

2005-07-17T18:58:24Z

Tasha Hiding
Originally uploaded by rebel_lonedog.

Here is my dog, Tasha hiding from another rain storm. Everytime it rains she gets scared and it is not just thunderstorms.

rebel_lonedog @ 2005-07-17T14:15:00

2005-07-17T18:45:30Z

I got myself a new laptop and I am working to move all my stuff from my PC to it. I'm still updating my Windows on it and stuff like that.

I went out on a day trip with my parents yesterday to Kingston. The Busker Fest was on that weekend and it was neat to see some of the acts. While in Kingston, I bought the new Harry Potter book.

Afterward we took the Ferry to Lake On the Mountain.

In a few weeks I will be in Calgary. I will get to see malrourkemutt again. I will meet marauderosu for the first time in person. I hope to find better work in Calgary because there is not much in Ontario.

I hope things go better than when I met bayson and rallyrover last year. That didn't go well. I am not good first impressions.

Lately I been doing Web Sites and Graphics for people. I just graduated Multimedia Design from Durham College last Month. I am also working as an admin on the popular political forum http://www.sqlspace.com/

Quote of the Day:

From the TV show Undergrads:

Kimmy: It's all just crazy!

Jesse: Maybe you should double your medication.

Kimmy (writes it done) I'll put that on my to-do list.

Sqlspace.com Member has family in Iraqi Jail

2005-07-15T15:18:22Z

July 14, 2005
Peter Lems
American Friends Service Committee
Philadelphia

We at Amigos Para la Paz in San Jose, Costa Rica, have just been informed that Khalid Jarrar, a twenty-three year old engineering student and peace activist working in conjunction with Friends, has been abducted from his university in Baghdad. His abduction occurred within the last fourty-eight hours and he was taken to Mokhabarat prison in Iraq. Although we have no further details, and the charges against him have not been stated, his father received a call from Khalid during the last twenty-four hours saying only, “I am alive.”

Khalid Jarrar has dedicated his life to helping Iraqi citizens who are victims of the war to receive medication. He has worked with Mèdicins Sans Frontiere, Friends and Iraqi doctors. Khalid describes himself stating, I am pro God, I am pro life, I am pro humanity, I am pro truth, We know him as a kind and gentle soul, and a devout religious Sunni who believes God sends him many brothers and sisters from various religions to work toward peace.

The urgency of Khalid´s situation prevents us from further elaborating the positive and powerful influence he has had on the human rights crisis in Iraq. We are calling on you to activate your local, national, and international networks to inform the press and government officials both of his abduction and undoubted innocence. Join us in working toward a peaceful resolution to Kahlid`s abduction. Free Khalid! Please let us know if you receive any information and please contact Friends in Amman and get back to us.

Sincerely,

Isabel Macdonald, Coordinator, Amigos Para la Paz
Christiane S Harrison, Volunteer

Khalid Jarrar was also a blogger that wrote about the things that were happening in Iraq. He is Christiane Harrison's nephew. CSH would post articles from his Blog in sqlspace.com. Currently, Khalid Jarrar has gone missing. His brother reports that he was detained by the Mukhabarat, a secret service agency run in Iraq by the CIA.

Get Updates here
http://www.sqlspace.com/sqlspace-member-has-family-in-iraqi-jail-vf99.html

Every 3 Seconds a Child Dies

2005-07-02T18:05:48Z

Every single day, 30,000 children die, needlessly, of extreme poverty.

On July 6th, we finally have the opportunity to stop that shameful statistic.

8 world leaders, gathered in Scotland for the G8 summit, will be presented with a workable plan to double aid, drop the debt and make the trade laws fair. If these 8 men agree, then we will become the generation that made poverty history.

But they'll only do it if enough people tell them to.

That's why we're staging LIVE 8. 10 concerts, 100 artists, a million spectators, 2 billion viewers, and 1 message... To get those 8 men, in that 1 room, to stop 30,000 children dying every single day of extreme poverty.

We don't want your money - we want you!

http://www.live8live.com/

Please post this in your blog.