Category: Evil

Genentech Chooses to Blind People for Profit

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Here is what is going on, Genentech makes two drugs, Avastin and Lucentis. The former is used to treat colon cancer, and the latter “wet” macular degeneration, one of the more common forms of blindness.

The drugs are very similar, but Avastin, when cut to a dosage for eye treatment, costs about $38.00/dose, as opposed to Lucentis, which wholesales for $1,950.00 a dose (no, I have not misplaced a decimal place.

So now Genentech is going to cut off pharmacists it believes are delivering the drug to ophthalmologists who use it in an off label application.

They claim that it’s safety concerns. Bullsh$#!

Jena 6 Defendant Ordered Back to Slammer

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The prosecutor (yes, the racist cracker who trumped this all up in the first place), and fellow traveller Judge J.P. Mauffrey that this entire mess is a parole violation.

I believe that the charge is “being an uppity n*****”. This is disgraceful, and Al Sharpton is right when he calls this “revenge”.

Disgraceful.

Unfortunately, under the Bush administration, there is no realistic chance of any of these folks being taken down for civil rights violations.

Bush Admin Compormised Intelligence Asset for Cheap PR

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SITE Intelligence Group, a small private security firm, got an advanced copy of an Osama bin Laden tape. They tipped the Bush Administration at 10:00am , on the condition that the information not be released in order to protect their sources and mentods.

By mid afternoon of September 7, the tape had been leaked to Fox News.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group’s communications network.

“Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless,” said Rita Katz, the firm’s 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE’s methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.

The precise source of the leak remains unknown. Government officials declined to be interviewed about the circumstances on the record, but they did not challenge Katz’s version of events. They also said the incident had no effect on U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts and did not diminish the government’s ability to anticipate attacks.

Except for the fact that private entities who come across this won’t share the information again, and that SITE’s operation has been more compromised than Brewster Jennings.

They burnt this company, and their intelligence methods, because the Bush administration wanted to get the lead on the news, or frighten Congress into doing what they wanted.

Evil.

What Jesse Wendel Said.

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Jesse Wendle of The Group News blog has this post on the Amry’s new “Pain Ray”. I read about it a while back, and filed it under, “Mildly interesting”, wait for a slow news day.

Boy, was I wrong. Jesse makes it clear what this is all about, and I, in my tech geekiness, missed the big picture:

This will be used to torture.

It isn’t up for debate. It isn’t open for question. No matter how many safeguards we put on their sale.

This will be used to torture. As the article goes on to say, quoting a goddamn Ph.D. biologist who specializes in how the brain perceives pain, “They are so obviously useful as torture instruments.“

….

There are worse things than dying. Being burned alive is one of them. Being burned alive over and over again and never being able to escape… Don’t talk to me about humane weapons which burn people without burning them till you’ve gone on a run with me and seen what teenager sisters look, feel, sound and smell like who’ve been burned to death but are still talking to each other because they just don’t fucking know they’re already dead.

This box is a torture device. It’s morally wrong and an abomination upon the face of the earth.

All emphasis is mine.

“I hate all Iranians”, Says the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defense Secretary Robert Gates

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This is scary.

I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs
By SIMON WALTERS

Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America’s stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush’s senior women officials: “I hate all Iranians.”

And she also accused Britain of “dismantling” the Anglo-US-led coalition in Iraq by pulling troops out of Basra too soon.

The all-party group of MPs say Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates, made the comments this month.

…..

The MPs say that at one point she said: “In any case, I hate all Iranians.”

Although it was an aside, it was not out of keeping with her general demeanour.

“She seemed more keen on saying she didn’t like Iranians than that the US had no plans to attack Iran,” said one MP. “She did say there were no plans for an attack but the tone did not fit the words.”

Another MP said: “I formed the impression that some in America are looking for an excuse to attack Iran. It was very alarming.”

…

The Pentagon denied Ms Cagan said she “hated” Iranians.

“She doesn’t speak that way,” said an official.

But when The Mail on Sunday spoke to four of the six MPs, three confirmed privately that she made the remark and one declined to comment. The other two could not be contacted.

She’s scary too:

Yikes!!!!

And no, this is not a photoshop job.

Did 911 Turn America into an Evil Vindictive Nation?

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The headline may seem to be a bit off relative to the story here, a school guard broke a girl’s arm for dropping a piece of cake in the cafeteria in Palmdale California(aka Lockheed-Martin central), but I believe that it is symptomatic of a change in attitude that Tom “The Mustache of Pomposity” Friedman describe succinctly when he said, “What does that mean? This: 9/11 has made us stupid.”

It’s done more than that. It has made us subservient to authority figures. What’s more, it has made authority figures willing to go to any length to enforce their will.

Here is the course of events:

  • A 16 year old girl spills some birthday cake in the cafeteria.
  • The guard orders her to clean it up.
  • When the girl tries to leave after the guard says she has not cleaned well enough, the guard assaults her, wrestles her to the ground, and breaks her wrist, while calling her nappy head!
  • The girl expelled, and then she is arrested for assault and littering.
  • The boy who got this all on his cell phone (see below) is assaulted and arrested, as is his sister, who was just standing around.
  • The mother comes to complain about her daughter’s treatment is charged for “assault” when she demands that the guard be fired, and she is charged with “assault” for “bumping” a principal or a guard.

    • Seriously, this sounds like the response of any petty dictator out there. We aren’t finding monks’ bodies in swamps, but this is intellectually similar to the Burmese crackdown.

    Not only should this guard have been fired, he should be in jail right now.

    When did worship of abusive authority figures become the cost of admission to our society?

    Have we fallen so far that all we have left is brutality and force?
    Links:
    Here, here, here, and here.

    Videos :

    Senator Ben Nelson (DINO-NE) Can Go Cheney Himself

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    Ben Nelson told the committee chair that he would vote to approve Hans von Spakovsky for the Federal Elections Commission, so he was passed to the senate for a full vote.

    “Clever Hans” is the Bush Administration’s minority voter suppression guru. Specifically:

    • attempted to intimidate Justice Department employees
    • stifle their appeals
    • single-handedly disenfranchise thousands of Arizonans
    • Overrode his staff to approve the Tom Delay redistricting.
    • Overrode his staff to approve the Georgia Poll Tax voter ID plan
    • Gave false testimony (later modified in written answers) to the committee about it

    More here and here.

    Blue Cross Calls a Miscarriage an “Elective Abortion” and Denies Claim

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    We need socialized medicine now, but first, lets kill all insurance executives.
    Here are the last few paras of the story from the Consumerist:

    On, Sep, 21 2007 I received a statement for BCBS that they were denying all of the claim. I called them and asked why they were denying the entire claim, and was told by Jane, “We do not cover ELECTIVE abortions. If you chose to terminate your pregnancy for non-health threatening reasons, BCBS will not cover it.” WTF!!!??? I asked her, “Are you saying that my records state that I had an ELECTIVE abortion, in an ER at 12 o’clock in the morning?” It was then, I think it clicked in Jane’s mind what she was dealing with and told me how sorry she was. I lost my cool and even started crying. I had a miscarriage not an abortion, and being treated in such a condescending way by BCBS really ticked me off. Thinking what an incredibly huge screw up, BCBS will be right on it trying to fix this, well you would be wrong. I was told to call the hospital and have them fax over my records stating I didn’t have an elective abortion. Who the heck can get an elective abortion in a busy ER at 12am, anyway?

    Mind you we have had Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City for less than three months, they have denied every claim we have submitted to them. EVERYONE! Even though all claims are clearly covered under our policy, is this the going to be the norm dealing with BCBS? Any help would be very much appreciated!

    -Tonya Gullino

    Sweet Spawn of Cthulhu!!!! It’s Real!!!!!!!

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    Chocolate with bacon?
    Tekeli-Li!!!!!! Tekeli-Li!!!!!!

    Bacon Exotic Candy Bar – New

    Applewood smoked bacon + Alder smoked salt + deep milk chocolate

    Deep milk chocolate coats your mouth and leads to the crunch of smoked bacon pieces. Surprise your mouth with the smoked salt and sweet milk chocolate combination.

    Crisp, buttery, compulsively irresistible bacon and milk chocolate combination has long been a favorite of mine. I started playing with this combination at the tender age of six while eating chocolate chip pancakes drenched in maple syrup. Beside my chocolate-laden cakes laid three strips of fried bacon, just barely touching a sweet pool of maple syrup. Just a bite of the bacon was too salty and yearned for the sweet kiss of chocolate syrup. In retrospect, perhaps this was a turning point, for on that plate something magical happened: the beginnings of a combination so ethereal and delicious that it would haunt my thoughts until I found the medium to express it–chocolate.
    –Katrina

    Shelf Life: 3 months
    Gluten free
    41% cacao, 3oz.

    This is just wrong.

    It Should Surprise No one that We Have a Claim of Torture Here

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    Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged “20th Hijacker” claims that his admissions were coerced.

    He has recanted his confession, and claimed beatings and other torture.

    You know the normal stuff for people detained by US forces:

    ….included being beaten, restrained for long periods in uncomfortable positions, threatened with dogs, exposed to loud music and freezing temperatures and stripped nude in front of female personnel…..

    When did the US become a nation of sadistic torturers anyway?

    BTW, this treatment is largely confirmed:

    The investigation led by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt confirmed, among other things, that al-Qahtani was forced to wear women’s underwear, was threatened with dogs, and kept in solitary confinement for 160 days. At one point, he was interrogated for 18-20 hours per day on 48 of 54 days.

    Schmidt concluded, however, that while the treatment was abusive it was within policy and not torture because he was not denied food, water or medical care, and interrogators did not inflict physical pain on him.

    Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt should spend the next 5-10 years under the confinement of the UN court in the Hague. Those who actually authorized this should be placed in a hole so deep that they never Ever see sunlight again.

    “We don’t torture”, my ass. Osama bin Laden has defeated us, and these pukes running Guantanamo and other US Gulags don’t even know that they are his most effective operatives.

    Iraq is Not their Catastrophe, Iraq is their Utopia

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    Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone cuts to the heart of the matter in their article, “The Great Iraq Swindle“.

    It is a must read expose of the corruption in the contracting in Iraq, but it answers a bigger question, why did the Neocons want to go there in the first place?

    Here is the money quote:

    Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam ­Hussein’s Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush’s war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity — to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they f%$# things up.

    And just maybe, reviewing this appalling history of invoicing orgies and million-dollar boondoggles, it’s not so far-fetched to think that this is the way someone up there would like things run all over — not just in Iraq but in Iowa, too, with the state police working for Corrections Corporation of America, and DHL with the contract to deliver every Christmas card. And why not? What the Bush administration has created in Iraq is a sort of paradise of perverted capitalism, where revenues are forcibly extracted from the customer by the state, and obscene profits are handed out not by the market but by an unaccountable government bureauc­racy. This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profit­eering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure — American men and women dying by the thousands, so that Karl Marx and Adam Smith can blow each other in a Middle Eastern glory hole.

    They could not do this in Afghanistan, there simply is not the money there, but Iraq, with its immense oil reserves served as the laboratory for their twisted vision of society.

    Simply put, it’s scarier than you think. Iraq is not their catastrophe, Iraq is their utopia

    In Which the Neocons Reveal what they REALLY Want

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    A number of blogs have come across an article by noted Neocon Philip Atkinson on a prominent Neocon web site which called for nuclear genocide in Iraq, and a military coup to make GW Bush president for life.

    I can think of no way of illustrating how un-American, angry, and plain bat$%#@ crazy these guys are than by printing his article in full:

    Exclusive: Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy
    Philip Atkinson

    Author: Philip Atkinson
    Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
    Date: August 3, 2007

    While democratic government is better than dictatorships and theocracies, it has its pitfalls. FSM Contributing Editor Philip Atkinson describes some of the difficulties facing President Bush today.


    Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy
    By Philip Atkinson

    President George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005 after being chosen by the majority of citizens in America to be president.

    Yet in 2007 he is generally despised, with many citizens of Western civilization expressing contempt for his person and his policies, sentiments which now abound on the Internet. This rage at President Bush is an inevitable result of the system of government demanded by the people, which is Democracy.

    The inadequacy of Democracy, rule by the majority, is undeniable, for it demands adopting ideas because they are popular, rather than because they are wise. This means that any man chosen to act as an agent of the people is placed in an invidious position: if he commits folly because it is popular, then he will be held responsible for the inevitable result. If he refuses to commit folly, then he will be detested by most citizens because he is frustrating their demands.

    When faced with the possible threat that the Iraqis might be amassing terrible weapons that could be used to slay millions of citizens of Western Civilization, President Bush took the only action prudence demanded and the electorate allowed: he conquered Iraq with an army.

    This dangerous and expensive act did destroy the Iraqi regime, but left an American army without any clear purpose in a hostile country and subject to attack. If the Army merely returns to its home, then the threat it ended would simply return.

    The wisest course would have been for President Bush to use his nuclear weapons to slaughter Iraqis until they complied with his demands, or until they were all dead. Then there would be little risk or expense and no American army would be left exposed. But if he did this, his cowardly electorate would have instantly ended his term of office, if not his freedom or his life.

    The simple truth that modern weapons now mean a nation must practice genocide or commit suicide. Israel provides the perfect example. If the Israelis do not raze Iran, the Iranians will fulfill their boast and wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Yet Israel is not popular, and so is denied permission to defend itself. In the same vein, President Bush cannot do what is necessary for the survival of Americans. He cannot use the nation’s powerful weapons. All he can do is try and discover a result that will be popular with Americans.

    As there appears to be no sensible result of the invasion of Iraq that will be popular with his countrymen other than retreat, President Bush is reviled; he has become another victim of Democracy.

    By elevating popular fancy over truth, Democracy is clearly an enemy of not just truth, but duty and justice, which makes it the worst form of government. President Bush must overcome not just the situation in Iraq, but democratic government.

    However, President Bush has a valuable historical example that he could choose to follow.

    When the ancient Roman general Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as consul (president) ended.

    Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome, thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.

    If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies.

    He could then follow Caesar’s example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court.

    President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming ex-president Bush or he can become President-for-Life Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.

    A Light Sabre to Make You Vomit

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    Well, it appears that Department of Homeland Security has come up with another means of enforcing tyrrany controlling unruly crowds, a vomit inducing strobe light.

    Enough to Make You Sick
    Its inventors call it the LED Incapacitator (L-E-D, as in light-emitting diode). Weapons buffs call it a nonlethal weapon. But test subjects who have buckled and reeled from its nauseating strobe call it other names—none printable.

    Maglite
    A later version of the LED Incapacitator, featuring a trimmer head.

    A flashlight designed to make you nauseatingly ill? What fiendish minds would invent such a tool? The minds of Bob Lieberman and Vladimir Rubtsov, president and senior scientist of Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., a small R&D company in Torrance, CA. Under a multiphase contract from the S&T Directorate’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Office, with technical direction from S&T program manager Gerald Kirwin, the two physicists are refining an ultra-bright, multicolored, pulsing “lightsaber” that’s more disorienting, dazzling, and dizzying—though a tad less dangerous—than disco. It’s enough to make you sick. And that, Lieberman says, is not always a bad thing.

    How does the LED Incapacitator incapacitate? By simultaneously overwhelming the subject both physiologically (temporarily blinding him) and psychophysically (disorienting him). A built-in rangefinder measures the distance to the nearest pair of eyeballs. Then, a “governor” sets the output and pulse train (a series of pulses and rests) to a level, frequency, and duration that are effective, but safe. The colors and pulses continuously change, leaving no time for the brain or eyes to adapt. After a few minutes, the effects wear off.

    The light could be used to make a bad guy turn away or shut his eyes, giving authorities enough time to tackle the suspect and apply the cuffs … all while sparing the lives of passersby, hostages, or airline passengers.

    An animated cross section shows how red, green, and blue LEDs are focused through an optical plate.

    “There are often confrontations at border crossings with suspected illegal aliens or drug runners,” Lieberman says. “You don’t want to hurt or kill them, just take them into custody. With this,” he smiles, “they don’t need to know English to comply.”

    Output and size can easily be scaled up to fit the need; immobilizing a mob, for instance, might call for a wide-angle “bazooka” version. Scaling down is more difficult. At 15 inches long by 4 inches wide, the current prototype is more transportable than portable. The next-generation weapon must be as short and svelte as a D-cell Maglite, designed to fit on a duty belt. “Phase 3 will be our shrink phase,” Lieberman says.

    This fall, in Phase 2, researchers at Pennsylvania State University will test the LED Incapacitator on volunteers at the school’s Institute of Nonlethal Defense Technology. Intelligent Optical Systems will use the test results to evaluate design features and tweak the strobe’s pattern and colors. “There’s one wavelength that gets everybody,” says Lieberman. “Vlad calls it the evil color.” Further tests are scheduled for the fall, and production could begin by December. By 2010, the LED Incapacitator could be in the hands of thousands of policemen, border agents, and National Guardsmen.

    Not to mention enterprising criminals, and private security companies…delightful.