St. Theodore - Patron Saint of Greens
The Washington Post says the Unabomber is back:

From Jail Cell, Unabomber Finds a Forum
Essay in Newsletter Pits Prison Rules vs. First Amendment Claims

... In an article published this spring by Green Anarchy, a radical environmental newsletter, Kaczynski calls on revolutionaries to "eliminate the entire techno-industrial system" by "hitting where it hurts" and disparages the activities of most radicals as "pointless."

The essay, which repeats Kaczynski's contention that modern society must be destroyed, has disturbed Unabomber survivors as well as prison officials, who are investigating whether the article violated rules that prohibit prisoners from publishing under their own names. Even the newsletter's editors objected to some of Kaczynski's views.

...

The Green Anarchy article is not Kaczynski's first published piece from prison, but it is the longest and the one most similar to his 1995 manifesto. In 1999, OFF! Magazine, produced by students at the State University of New York at Binghamton, published a "parable" by Kaczynski entitled "Ship of Fools," in which Kaczynski ridiculed the advocates of animal rights, gay rights and other leftist causes.

The fall 2001 issue of Green Anarchy -- whose slogan is "For the Destruction of Civilization . . . For Reconnection to Life!" -- published a letter from Kaczynski complaining that Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, Mexico, was insufficiently pure as a revolutionary because he advocates bringing water and electricity to peasants. Letters to the editor do not violate prison regulations.

...

In a rambling style, Kaczynski's "Green Anarchy" piece dismisses the tactics of anti-globalization and pro-environment militants who focus on "smashing up McDonald's or Starbucks" instead of working to "destroy . . . modern technology itself."

He says the "most promising target for political attack is the biotechnology industry," whose leaders should be encouraged to "get out of biotech."

Kaczynski repeatedly stresses in the treatise that he is not advocating violence or "illegal activity of any kind," but he also uses a number of violent analogies, including fistfights and vandalism against bulldozers.

"Just as in a fist-fight, you can't win by hitting at the fist," Kaczynski writes. "You have to go behind the fist and strike at the most sensitive and vital organs of the system. By legal means, of course, such as peaceful protests."

Kaczynski's article was accompanied by a note from the "Green Anarchy editorial collective" explaining that, while the group supports Kaczynski as "an anarchist political prisoner," it disagrees with his views on feminism and other "liberation struggles."

Elsewhere in the same issue, the newsletter lists Kaczynski as a "prisoner of war" along with others convicted of crimes that include murder and arson. The periodical describes the Unabomber's victims as "industrialist scum."

The article has a lot more about 1st Amendment issues, but I am less worried about whether a nutcase killer can publish his views than I am about the Green wackos that worship him. Check out Green Anarchy's website and the "Green Anarchy Tour 2002 : Destroying Civilization in this Stolen Land." All the usual Green suspects are there or in the wings. And violence is their byword.

Stunned by the Revelation!
The Boston Herald reveals that:

Senate Democrats, after railing last week against the rising tide of corporate abuses, Friday hopped aboard a fleet of company jets for a secret Nantucket weekend retreat with top party donors.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a leading Senate health-care reformer who this week will launch a major fight on prescription drug coverage, flew aboard health insurance giant AFLAC's company jet, an aide confirmed.

Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Bay State colleague Sen. John F. Kerry are among the 16 senators and 250 big-ticket contributors - mostly corporate executives and lobbyists - schmoozing at Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee events on the island.

...

The annual weekend - which includes tennis, golf, sailing, cocktails and lavish meals - provides wealthy donors with extraordinary personal access to lawmakers.

...

"Senator Kerry is helping to elect Democrats who will actually vote to curb corporate abuses instead of just talking about it," said Kerry spokeswoman Kelley Benander.


Just before departing Capitol Hill Friday, Senate Democrats voted to shut off debate on legislation cracking down on corporate accounting abuses.


Kerry hosted a Friday night dinner with his wife, Teresa Heinz, at their Brant Point mansion. Kennedy, who attended an issues briefing breakfast with top donors yesterday before heading to his family's Hyannisport compound, hosted an annual clambake.


Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) are among the Nantucket participants.


Some of America's largest corporations - Federal Express, Bell South Corp., Eli Lily and AFLAC - provided jets for the Nantucket getaway at a cost of nearly $50,000. Corporate executives and lobbyists were aboard.

I'm told there were once honest socialists. But I don't believe it.

There's Racism Everywhere!
Remember the Georgia crematory operator who was stacking the bodies instead of cremating them? The AP reports that

The operator of a crematory where investigators found hundreds of discarded corpses made his first public comments since the bodies were discovered, saying he was aware of the hostility he would face if he were released while awaiting trial.

"We live in the South and I'm a black man,"' Brent Marsh said Thursday, the day Cobb County Superior Court Judge James G. Bodiford set bond for him at $159,200. "A lot of people don't like me because I am me."

In February, more than 340 human remains were found on the grounds of the Marsh family's Tri-State Crematory at Noble, a small, northern Georgia town near the Tennessee border. Bodies were found in the woods, stacked in storage buildings, stuffed in burial vaults and buried in pits. So far, 167 bodies have been identified, most of them white.

Marsh is charged with 398 felony counts, including theft by deception and abuse of a body, for allegedly accepting money and never performing the cremations.

Marsh, who has been held since mid-February, was denied bond three times previously.

Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson testified that releasing Marsh could put him and innocent bystanders in danger from lingering community hostility.

Sorry Brent, but I don't think the race card is going to cover this one. Bzzzzzt - Game Over.

Giving the Pledge Drive New Meaning
NYC Public Radio fans ended up making a bigger contribution than they thought according to NY1:

Law enforcement officials revealed Thursday that a janitor at a New York City public radio station was arrested earlier this month for stealing credit card and personal check information from the station's donor rolls, then selling the data to a major identity-theft ring.

I love NPR, I really do. Nothing like listening to their blather in the morning to get your heart started. Of course for blood pressure enhancement, the unchallenged leader is WorldLink TV (on a home satellite dish near you). James Zogby's whining is very nearly the least offensive of the left wing propaganda they peddle.

It's Friday!
UK Makes "Moaning" Its National Sport

Woman changing while driving triggers wreck

Scary conditions for haunted house actors

Beer Train Takes the Strain Out of Commuting

Customers who book a seat on Fuji Kyuko's Friday night beer run can sit back and spend a two-hour trip being served as much locally brewed beer as they can drink.

...

However, beer-drinking passengers should take advantage of stops at stations along the route because the train has no toilets.

Businessman offers cave shelter from asteroid

Woman branded a hippo by internet date threatens to sue

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum
The Independent Online (South Africa) reports on the piracy problem off African shores:

Heavily armed pirates targeting cargo ships along the African coast - many of which have passed through Durban - are raking in billions of dollars in trade on the international black market.

In the first six months of this year, 28 cargo ships were attacked by gangs of sea pirates operating around Africa.

Last year, 97 ships were attacked on Africa's coastline - more than half of the vessels attacked throughout the world.

Most of these ships were attacked after either berthing in Durban or Richards Bay to deliver or collect cargo, such as oil, iron, steel and coal, worth millions of dollars.

...

Using state-of-the-art boats, helicopters and weapons, pirates storm ships at night and hold the crews hostage for ransom before stripping the vessels of their cargo and fleeing, sometimes leaving their victims dead.

By the numbers, it actually looks like the trend is slowing. Maybe it's those new African "democracies" coming of age, now that they have escaped colonialism. Oops, IOL also reports that Germans make Somali pirates walk the plank.

A German naval vessel patrolling the coast of Somalia as part of the war on terrorism helped rescue the Filipino crew of a ship captured by pirates, said media reports on Thursday.

Actually, they just ensured a peaceable end to the usual extortion negotiation, but it's the thought that counts.

Bubbaland
The Dallas Morning News relates the Sinkmeister's visit to the construction site for his presidential library in Little Rock:

"It's almost hard to visualize," Mr. Clinton said. "They [the contractors] have done a good job. I'm really impressed. It really is going to make a big difference to the community."

...

A 120-foot interactive timeline will show every date during the Clinton administration. Mr. Clinton told reporters that visitors will be able to click on a date and see what Mr. Clinton, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Vice President Al Gore were doing on any given day during the presidency.

The mind boggles. One can't help but wonder about the accuracy of the rendition. If they skip the juicy stuff, there won't be any content except Buddy's exercise schedule.

The library also will have a penthouse suite for Mr. Clinton. He said he plans to spend about a week each month in Little Rock once the library is finished.

"I hope in five years to be doing 100 percent foundation work," he said. "My plan is to spend a week on the road, a week in Little Rock and two weeks in New York." He said he would also spend time in Washington with his wife.

(snark) Almost blew it there, Bubba.

The library, Mr. Clinton said, will be a signature landmark in Arkansas. He said there would be a lot of "international activity" at the library.

Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Presidential Foundation, said that the library was expected to attract 300,000 visitors annually.

...

Mr. Rutherford said the library would draw most heavily from places within driving distance of Little Rock.

Said Mr. Clinton: "It's good for Little Rock ... good for America to have a facility like this in the heartland of the country."

Still full of more crap than a Christmas goose, eh Bubba?

Dog Bites Man
The BBC is reporting that:

Israel's deadly air strike on Gaza City was a war crime which falls within the jurisdiction of the world's new criminal court, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations says.

In a letter to the head of the UN Security Council, Nasser al-Kidwa said the killings of 15 Palestinians on Monday was the first war crime to have been committed since the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened on 1 July.

The only criminals are terrorist thugs like Shehada and al-Kidwa that try to shield themselves with the bodies of civilians.

Socialist Lobotomies
Notra Trulock has a nice discussion of Ronald Radosh's book, Commies, about the old/new left in the USA of which Radosh was, at one time, a member in good standing. Yes, Virginia, there really are Communists in the USA. I previously mentioned Radosh's article on the NY Times Continuing Love Affair With Communism which provides a flavor of the book, including Camp Kinderland, where NYC Communists sent their kids for the summer.

Trulock notes that:

Radosh observes that leftists spent most of their time putting out journals and newsletters. These journals and the leftist movement, in general, spawned several prominent players in the American media and, later on, a remarkable number of members of the Clinton administration. In his first term, Clinton intended to appoint Johnetta Cole as Secretary of Education. But she was soon identified as a leader of the Venceremos Brigades and a member of the U.S. Peace Council, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Soviet-run World Peace Council. Her most outspoken defender was Jesse Jackson, who claimed that the opposition to Cole's appointment came from "Jewish complaints." Clinton eventually backed away from nominating her. Another leftist star, Michael Lerner, became Hillary Clinton's guru during her "politics of meaning" phase.

One left-wing journal, In These Times, produced John B. Judis, now a senior editor of The New Republic, as well as Sidney Blumenthal, who became a Washington Post reporter. He later became Bill Clinton's chief hatchet man with the media. Another left-wing star, David Gelber was the staff director for the massive May Day 1971 anti-war march on Washington, before moving to network televison news. After a stint producing for Dan Rather, he ended up as Ed Bradley's senior producer at "60 Minutes."

And then there is Robert Scheer, contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times and The Nation, syndicated columnist, and senior lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication. Scheer's current bio omits some intriguing highlights, however. He visited Kim Il Sung's North Korean paradise and told Radosh, in a taped interview, that Kim had created a true path to socialism. Scheer's views were too much even for Pacifica radio, which refused to run the interview. Scheer later became Wen Ho Lee's staunchest defender.

I'm shocked! Truly shocked! Needless to say, the book did not get a good review in the Times. But the best part of the article is:

During a 1970s trip to the Havana General Psychiatric Hospital, a group of visiting American leftists were told that this hospital led the world in the percentage of its patients lobotomized. The leftists had already encountered "perfectly sane" homosexuals in the mental wards, because the Castro regime believed that homosexuality was a disease justifying commitment. Some leftists were horrified, and exclaimed that this "was exactly what we're working against at home." But another retorted, "We have to understand that there are differences between capitalist lobotomies and socialist lobotomies."

Aren't the little varmints a hoot!

Ted Rall the Super Stud
See Damian Penny for all the dirty details.

Teddy, it's a small dog that barks over its own bone.