False Charges Made Against Mr. Assange?* Updated Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Image licensed under Creative Commons by New Media Days

Updated Again Wednesday, September 1, 2010** (See below).

Updated: Sunday, August 22, 2010 & Monday, August 23, 2010*
False Charges Made Against Mr. Assange?  At least one other blogger suspects that is so.  See the link to the Swedish tabloid Expressen below;

http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.2105554/anhallan-mot-assange-havd

The Swedish tabloid 'Expressen' has reported that the rape charge(s) against Julian Assange have been dropped. See the link up top (if you can read Swedish). If not, here is a very rough translation of the brief and sketchy article below (Copyright 2010 Expressen) ~"Charge Argued Against Assange (or Dropped) - Chief Prosecuter Eva Finn has lifted the (charge) on/of Julian Assange. [But she still might feel that he is suspected of "rape".] But there is no longer any reason to put him into custody said Karin Rosander, Director/Public Prosecution. Chief Prosecutor Eva lifted a petition against Assange at 4:30 pm. So he does not need to surrender to the police. Suspicions of molestation against him have also been addressed, according to Karin Rosander, but they are not written off yet. 'Has the suspicion of rape been reclassified?' I cannot answer, was her response. This is the decision taken at this time. Karin Rosander says that as far as she knows, the police and prosecutors had no contact with Julian Assange. 'We have been unable to contact him', she said. City police in Stockholm would not comment on its investigation without referring to the prosecutor."   Fair Use of the translation is claimed for this posting.







At least one blogger (Zennie62, I think it was, pardon me if I got that wrong), believes it is part of a smear campaign against Julian Assange. As you probably know, Mr. Assange has recently been in the news for his release & posting of secret Afghanistan files (the 'Afghanistan War Diaries') on his website Wikileaks. If these events are indeed connected, look for this posting to suddenly and mysteriously disappear. And if that happens, very malignant and malicious forces may be at work here.






The somewhat defensive position of the Prosecution and the silence of the police would suggest that they may have been given false information in regards to any charges against Mr. Assange. However, it might NOT be helpful for Mr. Assange to make any public statements himself. It would be much better if his counsel were to make any statements. We abjectly apologize to all parties if this posting creates any further difficulty in their pursuit of this (legal?) matter.






But, it seems to us, that police and prosecutors drop serious charges like this quickly if they are found to be baseless and without witnesses - even though 2 women have apparently made this case against the man. No, we don't know the original bases for the charges and are pursuing further. This will take some time and we apologize for not having all the facts together at this time.
 
The rape charge/s, the molestation charge/s, the dropping of some or the same (against Julian Assange) and the publication of the Afghan War Diaries seem somehow related to each other by their proximity in time.  It is also very curious that this new scandal seems to be located in Stockholm *.

Just in today (Sunday, August 22, 2010) Wikileaks (?) has made the claim that the Pentagon may be behind the filing of the false rape charges against Julian Assange (**).
* And today, Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, we did a search of police reports on the Swedish Polis website.  We were unable to locate a copy of the report.  Many other reports are, however, available.  Why the apparent secrecy?  Also, we have contacted the Wikileaks people (USA) and asked if they could provide us with a copy of the report.  We have not heard from them, nor do we expect to.  They may be getting 1K+ emails a day...
 
FOM:**WikiRapes,  Sweden Reopens Wikileaks Founder Investigation (BBC News, Sept. 1, 2010), *Statement from the Swedish Prosecutor's Office & FAQs,  *Wikileaks Man Says Pentagon May Be Behind Rape Claims (Yahoo!News, Sunday, August 22, 2010),  Sweden Drops Accusation of Rape Against Founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange Rape Charge Reads of Smear and Snorting McChrystal

MLKvBeck828

Image licensed under Creative Commons by DonkeyHotey

Updated: Friday, August 20, 2010*

MLKvBeck828: When we left Twitter (yes, yes, we did! - we deactivated our account which makes it even more difficult to rejoin!), the one "trending topic" that we contributed to might have been the DC Rally planned by Glenn Beck (and his one follower?) for August 28, 2010 (Which is a Saturday, by the way...). The hashtag for the topic/event became the now-infamous #MLKvBeck828 topic.






It was unfortunate that this date was chosen by Mr. Beck and his one lone supporter (?) for the date of his rally as it coincides with the date of the late, great Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Yes, even though this is a link to the Wikipedia page we urge you to visit it for its great External Links to the YouTube National Archives records of the march itself.) Many tweeters - including ourselves, who view Mr. King as a prophet - saw this coincidence as an affront to the great man himself (Mr. King ~ not Mr. Beck) - perhaps even a racist affront.






Apropos to the times, we tweeted some suggestions for preparing for The Rally, as well as making preparations for the G20 Protests which were happening in Toronto at the time. Because some of our tweeps (Twitter friends) might still be planning to protest or counter-protest the 8/28 "event", we think some of the same preparations and precautions may be in order. We will present some of those below. Why? Well, for one thing, the event does coincide with the day of the March on Washington of '63 - we expect many Americans to be insulted and will show up to express their outrage perhaps.






You may need some of the following items if you are a protestor or counter-protestor:






1) Handcuff Key Please note: We do not approve, authorize nor endorse the use of these devices if you are under formal arrest by the police. Once arrested YOU ARE OUT OF THE GAME. However, the possession of the key does not imply resistance of arrest. You should make it clear that it is for your own personal protection. USE THE KEY ONLY IF YOU OR OTHERS ARE IN CLEAR OR IMMINENT PHYSICAL DANGER. Fair use of the key is constituted if you are taken against your will by unauthorized persons or personnel.






2) Nylon Tie Cutter Once again Please note: We do not approve, authorize nor endorse the use of these devices if you are under formal arrest by the police. Once arrested YOU ARE OUT OF THE GAME. However, the possession of the cutter does not imply resistance of arrest. You should make it clear that it is for your own personal protection. USE THE CUTTER ONLY IF YOU OR OTHERS ARE IN CLEAR OR IMMINENT PHYSICAL DANGER. Fair use of the cutter is constituted if you are taken against your will by unauthorized persons or personnel.






Remember: Resisting arrest is a crime.






3) Spyderco Knife Once again Please note: We do not approve, authorize nor endorse the use of these devices if you are under formal arrest by the police. Once arrested YOU ARE OUT OF THE GAME. However, the possession of the knife does not imply resistance of arrest. You should make it clear that it is for your own personal protection. USE THE KNIFE ONLY IF YOU OR OTHERS ARE IN CLEAR OR IMMINENT PHYSICAL DANGER. Fair use of the KNIFE is constituted if you are taken against your will by unauthorized persons or personnel.






IF ARRESTED YOU MUST BE FAIR TO THE POLICE AND AUTHORITIES BY ALERTING THEM TO THE PRESENCE OF A KNIFE OR OTHER POTENTIAL/ WEAPONS ON YOUR PERSON. IT IS YOUR DUTY TO DO SO. If you do not commit to this clause, you may be sanctioned by your internet community.






One other potential use for the Spyderco knife is that they have been reported for the use of cutting through seat belts. This tool is also a potential life saver for persons trapped in a vehicle in a dangerous and life threatening situation.






4) Copy of the United States Constitution. Oh, we don't know, we just think it might be handy to have ~ or provide you with something to read if you should be in jail...






5) Gas Mask This should be obvious. You will need it if the authorities decide they need to toss those canisters! It will be worth having one just to see Mssrs. Beck and Palin having to don theirs - if they have one....It should be comical if Sarah and Glenn have to fight over who gets to wear the gas mask! That should really give Becky something to cry about! Also, an old remedy for tear gas is to urinate (we know, gross) on a handkerchief or other piece of cloth or linen. This should then be placed against the mouth and nasal openings to prevent the effects of the tear gas.






Speaking of which, the Sarah Palin DIY mask might make a great fashion statement at the Rally! Go team!






6) The Family Jewels You should consider having a cup just in case something should strike you in the groin - by accident or not. You too ladies!






7) Body Armor Might come in really handy should things get really ugly...Serio, babe.






8) Head and Facial Protection If you decide to wear a Redskins helmet, just tell everybody without one that you're a really big fan! But, seriously, you shold consider wearing a helmet.






9) Tear Gas or Mace: Might be illegal to have this on your person. Not Recommended! But, if you are in a jam, and without police protection, these could be lifesavers!






10) Life Jacket Might come in handy if somebody decides to try and drown you in the reflecting pool...






11) Baton For police personnel only, but like (9), might come in handy in a pinch... NOT TO BE USED AS AN OFFENSIVE WEAPON. INFORM THE POLICE IF YOU HAVE ONE ON YOUR PERSON AND YOU ARE ARRESTED!






12) Portable Police Radio Might come in handy if you have to alert them to a dangerous situation! Might also come in handy if you need to stay in contact with your group! Of course, you should not forget your cell phone this day!






13) Identification: You might not want to forget it this day! Think about Arizona...






14) NO FIREARMS! None at all! Do not carry at the Rally! Forbidden!






15) Safety Glasses or goggles Might come in handy, too.






16) If we left anything out, you might want to consider the writings of Saul Alinsky or George Hayduke...or Hunter S. Thompson...






That all said, we hope you found the links informative or at least entertaining.






While we are still on the subject of Glenn Beck, you should catch the BookTV program about Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance by Alexander Zaitchik. We found Mr. Zaitchik to be humorously petulant - even prickly - while discussing his book. But, who can blame him? He said that he had spent about a year wallowing in the "works" of Mr. Beck. We got the sense from him that he considers Mr. Beck to be a truly alarming and dangerous individual. Which causes us to warn you even further to carry some protective gear (mentioned above) should you be daring enough (or foolhardy enough?) to visit the Rally on 8/28/2010. The Q&A session with Mr. Zaitchik was very good - those are usually a crashing bore if you catch the wrong BookTV program - if you know what we mean... If we recall correctly, one of Mr. Zaitchik's main arguments is that Mr. Beck does not need Fox News for the increase and spread of his empire. Despite all the vaunted advertising losses and evacuations from his program, he still has a $30 Million or so empire. Apparently, Mr. Zaitchik does not see this stopping anytime soon. You can find out more about Mr. Zaitchik at his website. You might be able to find more at AlterNet.org. (You might also want to see Mr. Zaitchik's commentary against Twitter). Despite Mr. Zaitchik's attitude about Twitter and his apparent discomfort on BookTV, we think he is an important and rational voice and you might do well to heed him and his thoughts.






Oh! And there's more Beck news, see the Mother Jones Front Cover story in the July+August 2010 issue "The Golden Fleece - They Trusted Glenn Beck to Protect Their Nest Eggs. He's Laughing All The Way To The Bank" (page 24).


Please note: This posting appears almost simultaneously in our sister publication The Anti-Zen Dictionary.

FOM: *ABC News Take on "The Rally"

Snorting McChrystal (or Snorting Rolling Stones)?

Landmines on Display in Afghanistan image licensed under Creative Commons by Carl Montgomery

Snorting McChrystal (or) Snorting Rolling Stones?

Updated: Saturday, August 21, 2010

OK, the whole media world is talking about the sucker coup of Wikileaks (Bravo for them!) and their revelatory Afghan War Diaries leak/s.

The leak took place on or about July 25, 2010.  And blame or responsibility has already been assigned to some, sorry to say, low-level US military personnel.  A-Hem!  Excuse us!  Did everybody miss something here?  Including The Daily Show and The Colbert Report?

What are we talking about?  Hellooooo....  Didn't the US/ISAF General in Charge of the Afghanistan Operations/War just get sent down the tubes about one month ago?  Speaking of tubes, is everybody in the media snorting "McChrystal" or some other finely powdered crystalline Class I narcotic?  (Sorry, we apologize for the drug/humor reference/s, we know it is in poor taste).

Why did everybody else miss this?  Does the world have ADHD?  Is Mr. Derp now running Fox News?

Not to mention, therefore, isn't this all a result of that sh*tty tirade reported by Rolling Stone just this summer/spring?  You be the judge.

What else is funky about this relationship?  We're not saying the general had anything to do with the leaks, but the events are pretty closely related in time.  A little too close.

And, when some top guy goes down for something - they sometimes like to leave behind a little 'Position Paper' on where their major activities stood prior to their departure?  Is this all starting to sound familiar?  Helloooo...

Does anybody remember Abu Ghraib and what happened to all the low-level torture clowns involved there - and then the commanding officer.  You do remember the sequence of events in that scandal, right?  Ahhh, we detect the odor of the same order of sequence here...

Not to mention, we did have a look at the reports that appear on the Wikileaks website.  No, we haven't had time to read all of them.  We're still sorting through the Pentagon Papers for G*d's Sakes!  But, it is starting to look like the Pakistan-Taliban-US$ connection might be a little overblown.  Only 4 known reports appear in the journal concerning finance from Pakistan or anywhere.  As far as "hits" (assassinations) go, those were probably in all likelihood funded by the Taliban (with money from Pakistan or from poppy money - its hard to say for sure...).  There were something like 48 reports on hits.

We have distilled some of the more "important" categories of reports from the Diaries and listed them below.  Approach with caution.  We did this in case Wikileaks runs out of funds (again) or gets mysteriously shut down and disappears...  Meanwhile, our list, enjoy...

Oh, and something else, nothing shows you are winning the war like the number of enemy surrenders.  Ahem, we have FOUR of them.  Oh, and reported Food Distributions and Counter-Terrorism attack numbers were also weak; 4 and 1.  ONE counter-terrorism attack?  That "War on Terror" is going really swell isn't it Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney?

(Oh, don't get us wrong - we love our troops and support those that do honorable service and some not so much, too).

Bit.ly link to this post: http://bit.ly/9Q0XzI

Number of Assassinations reported in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 48



http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/assassination_0.html






Number of Attacks reported in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 2283


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/attack_0.html



Number of Ambushes reported in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 538


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/ambush_0.html



Number of Counterterrorism Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 1


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/counter_terrorism_0.html



Number of Drug Operations Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 8


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/drug_operation_0.html



Number of (Enemy) Finance Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 4


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/finance_0.html



Number of Food Distributions Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 4


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/food_distribution_0.html



Number of IED Ambush Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 350


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/ied_ambush_0.html



Number of IED Explosions Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 7202


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/ied_explosion_0.html



Number of IED Found/Cleared Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 8581


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/ied_found_cleared_0.html



Number of Mines Found/Cleared Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 396


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/mine_found_cleared_0.html



Number of Mine Strikes Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 321


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/mine_strike_0.html



Number of Murder Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 100


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/murder_0.html



Number of Willing Recruitments detained Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 1


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/recruitment_willing__0.html



Number of Poisonings Reports (attempted) in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 1


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/poisoning_0.html



Number of Enemy Sabotage Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 6


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/sabotage_0.html



Number of Enemy/Unknown Surrenders Reports in Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries: 4


http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/afg/sort/category/surrendering_0.html



FOM: False Charges Made Against Mr. Assange?

A Plan for the Global Economic Recovery

The US Role in Haiti Food Riots Image licensed under Creative Commons by barrybar

Updated Again Wednesday, September 1, 2010:   ***
Updated Friday, July 30, 2010: With the economic report just received from the BBC today **, this blog posting seems worthy of a second review and a follow-up.  Check this site later for more updates if possible.

We have been gone for a little while and we hadn't posted anything! ~
Sorry if you have missed us, but we haven't heard much from you either.  Apart from having one of our 'tweets' read on the MSNBC Countdown Twitter Report of Friday, May 14, 2010 - we just haven't accomplished much.  We're not even certain if they still do the Twitter Report - anyway we have deleted our twitter account - it was @georgek1029.  Apologies if you were one of the 1500 or so that were following us.

Anyway!  Our Senior Editor had a bit of a vision the other night - he usually does when we conspire to hit him over the head with a blunt instrument.  It was like he could see this big fresh new book coming out.  He could even see the title and the cover; "A Plan for the Global Economic Recovery".  He could even see some very odd diagrams outlining steps and phases (not phrases) meant to outline just that.

The sad thing, we suppose, is that there appears to be no book nor plan with that title.  Sure, a lot of excellent books* have been recently written and published about the Global Economic Crisis of 2007 - 2010.  But nothing about a plan or a coordinated series of steps towards the Recovery.  (What's also "refreshing" to hear is that the Wikipedia has laid the blame on the US Financial Markets for the liquidity crisis which created the global collapse of the markets - scandalous but guilty!).

Notably, the Obama-Dodd Finanical Reform Act 2010 should/will address some of those shortcomings.  But, will it guide the  overall economy back to the boisterous health that some many of us need and want?  Yes, we're talking about you too, dedanna1029.  We know, we know, there are some problems with the bill ~ isn't that right Lawrence?

Thankfully, the 111th Congress of the US has finally agreed to extend long-term UE benefits - again.  Which seemed to be their bugbear - at least for most of the GOP - with whom some of us still have problems!  Sorry to say!  It's been said before, you don't turn off the fire hydrant when the house is burning down!  Of course, you may as well turn off the hydrant when the house has burnt down...sorry to say...

But that's not enough ~ we need real prosperity and soon.  It's probably one of the real true solutions to the current problems of unemployment.  Yes, plural, problems.  UE is not a problem in and of itself.  We need to become educated as to how it is a problem, how it got to be that way and to get us poor and medium-income folks back to making money again!  Forget rich!  People are too busy just scraping by to survive.  People don't want to be rich, they just need enough funds to pay the rent, utilities, finance the car, get medical treatment, pay their union dues, give gifts, buy postage...oh, and don't forget the grocery bill.

That is a BIG problem.  We haven't seen food riots here in the USA.  But, we have seen food security issues.  Our senior editor's sick elderly father recently experienced a food security issue - this is not a nice issue for our sick and elderly to have to deal with.  Even worse is the thought of having to go to their local market - and encountering a food riot in the process.  Shades of Glenn Beck - we must be starting to sound like that mad *******.  (Our google account provisions forbid us from expressing certain opinions here - and they are correct about that!  We must agree!).  By the way, you have got to see the latest "joke" Glenn Beck account on twitter at http://twitter.com/Glenn_Beck.

Hmmm, we seem to have wandered a bit from our original point.  Our senior editor has had some further "revelations" about "A Plan for the Global Economic Recovery".  These are some of his bullet points;

1) All systems are inequitable.

2) All economies are based on a "bubble market".

3) The inherent inequities of (1) help contribute to that bubble market of (2).

4) The crash of  (2) and the time to the next crash is inversely proportional to the inequities of (1).

To further highlight the "inequities of the system", see the LiveScience article "World Markets Mostly Controlled by Select Companies".  And the BookTV Program "Color Blind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politicis and the Retreat from Racial Inequity".  Both of these should shock you to your senses.

Well, that's about it for now.  Our "mad" senior editor is developing his new economic theories (Re; the book ~ unless somebody else is writing it) at the time being.  We will get back to you with further information.

Until then, these links may be of interest:

bit.ly link to this post: http://bit.ly/9hAgR7

**Updated Friday, July 30, 2010: US Annualized Economic Growth Rate Slows to 2.4% (BBC NEWS)

Acts of the 111th United States Congress (Wikipedia)

Public Laws for the 111th Congress (Library of Congress)

Types of Riots (Wikipedia)

Food Security (Wikipedia)

Further Reading ; External Links on Food Security (Wikipedia References ; Links)  

Let's Talk (Blog by dedanna1029)

*A Colossal Failure of Common Sense by Lawrence G. McDonald 

World Stocks Controlled by Select Companies (from LiveScience)

Color Blind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat of Racial Inequity (with author Tim Wise).

***(Updated Wednesday, September 1, 2010)  2010 Hiring Outlook from Industry Market Trends

The White Ale House or The White Public House

The White Ale House / The White Public House: The (unfortunate?) collision of The White House with Public House or Ale House. We know, we know, 'The Beer Summit', 'Beer Diplomacy', we believe we've heard it all too. And, we know 17th century humor doesn't translate well to our time.

References: Obama more bartender than mediator at beer summit, Hopes for 'positive lesson' from beer chat, Ale House or Public House, The White House, Barack Obama, Henry Louis Gates, Henry Louis Gates arrest.

Note: This posting also appears in our sister publication, The Anti-Zen Dictionary.