Deadly Afghan Spider Hitches Ride Home With U.K. Soldier, Kills Family Dog
Yikes! That headline sounds like the story line of Arachnophobia mixed with the narrative of Blowback.
Current events and commentary from a Southern perspective. The most powerful political forces of our time -- localism, secession, and confederalism -- vindicate the Southern Cause.
Yikes! That headline sounds like the story line of Arachnophobia mixed with the narrative of Blowback.
From the gaping maw of Al Gore:
Al Gore, who lost the closest election in national history to George Bush in 2000, chided criticism of Barack Obama’s short resume of experience by comparing it to the most famous man from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.
“A century and a half ago, when America faced our greatest trial, the end of one era gave birth to another,” Gore said as the sun was setting on the top seats of Invesco Field’s east stands.
“The candidate who emerged victorious in that election is now regarded by most historians as our greatest president.
“The experience Lincoln’s supporters value most in that race was his powerful ability to inspire hope in the future in a time of impasse,” Gore said, purposely alluding to current times.
“He was known chiefly as a clear thinker and a great orator, with a passion for justice and a determination to heal the deep divisions of our land.
“In 2008, once again, we find ourselves at the end of an era with a mandate from history to launch another new beginning.
“And once again we have a candidate whose experience perfectly matches an extraordinary moment of transition.”
Remember that "nation of laws" you learned about in Civics class? It's gone:
The traitors and war criminals who have taken over our government are dancing with joy this evening, and rightly so. Earlier today, a Federal Court of Appeals in Washington granted them legal immunity for every criminal action they have taken while in office.
The ruling, made by a panel of three judges in dismissing an appeal in the case of Valerie Plame, absolves government officials of individual accountability for any actions taken in an official capacity, regardless of whether those actions violated federal law or jeopardized national security. In effect, it legalizes treason, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
I just haven't been able to comprehend the hypnotic power Obama has over his followers. How can seemingly normal people slip into a trance by listening to nothing but empty words? I just couldn't get it.


Reason Online posts these disturbing and revealing quotes from the Democratic platform:
"We believe we must also be willing to consider using military force in circumstances beyond self defense in order to provide for the common security that underpins global stability-to support friends, participate in stability and reconstruction operations, or confront mass atrocities."
"We will defend democracy and stand up for the rule of law when it is under assault, such as Zimbabwe."
The headline states something we know to be true. Crime statistics do indeed verify that an influx of immigrants erodes community spirit, and results in more crime -- as the experience of Los Angeles, the poster child of uncontrolled immigration, reveals.
The studies of Professor Richard Florida have found more accepting, diverse and tolerant communities are also more economically successful and vibrant. ...
In a 2002 index, Seattle was rated in the top 10 on Florida's Creativity Index of large cities. How great that Washington prides itself on being diverse, open and accepting.
Hate incidents and crimes are on the rise in Washington. A recent violent attack in Belltown against two men who were perceived as gay and swastikas painted on hay bales in Marysville point this out. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League and other local and national experts also point to this disturbing trend.
Even in areas where there are clear legal protections, there is an upswing in hate incidents. In addition to the Belltown offense, another recent hate incident occurred in which 40 swastikas were painted on hay bales near Marysville. Swastikas are often used to attack the Jewish community and are a hateful reminder of Nazis and the Holocaust. It is unclear whether the wrongdoing was meant to attack a certain individual or an entire community. Either way, the sheer number of hay bales with swastikas suggests the action was probably one requiring more coordination than just the work of a bored teenager looking for summer fun.
The latest scoop from Denver:
The DNC has announced that former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards has been banned from making a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver for having an illicit affair and then lying about it.
In Edward's place, former President Bill Clinton will be speaking.

Wake up, America! We're on the brink of a financial meltdown. I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions.
"Local food" is only one of the efforts the League of the South supports, not only as an end in itself, but also as a means toward reviving political localism and self-government. It's the direct descendent of the Southern Agrarian movement, promoting local economies, stronger communities, and local traditions.
It's bad enough the US government uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize affirmative action mortgage lending practices, but now that the whole insane system is crashing all around us, we're being soaked again to prop up this monstrosity:
Relying in part on last month’s housing bill allowing the Federal Housing Authority to make some $300 billion available for refinancing existing home mortgages, Fannie and Freddie say they will attempt to raise additional capital privately and to take steps to slow loan defaults and home foreclosures.
But in an environment where it is now clear that the two companies are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, the potential liabilities of taxpayers will continue to balloon. Although Fannie claims to have tightened requirements for liar loans, it will keep buying them until year’s end. Stay tuned for more bad news.
The US continues to stumble and blunder its way down the path to disaster in Afghanistan, the other useless, senseless war. The killing of more than 90 Afghan civilians, now confirmed, has roused even the US puppet to bold action:
President Hamid Karzai dismissed an Afghan Army general and another officer Sunday for their parts in a commando operation in western Afghanistan that Afghan officials say killed more than 90 civilians.
The attack Friday, the officials said, killed mostly women and children and occurred when a joint patrol of Afghan Army commandos and U.S. embedded Special Forces trainers called in airstrikes on a compound in the village of Azizabad.
It is a disaster on every level. Physically, it inevitably kills far more civilians than enemies, enraging the population against us and driving them into the arms of our opponents. Mentally, it tells the insurgents we are cowards who only dare fight them from 20,000 feet in the air. Morally, it turns us into Goliath, a monster every real man has to fight.
A tribal elder from the region who helped bury the dead, Haji Tor Jan Noorzai, said people in the village were gathered in memory of a man who was anti-Taliban and was killed last year, and that tribal enemies of the family had given out false information.
"It is quite obvious: The Americans bombed the area due to wrong information," he said by telephone. "I am 100 percent confident that someone gave the information due to a tribal dispute. The Americans are foreigners, and they do not understand. These people they killed were enemies of the Taliban."

Much evidence points to racial prejudice as a factor that could be large enough to cost Obama the election. That warning is written all over last month's CBS/New York Times poll, which is worth examining in detail if you want a quick grasp of white America's curious sense of racial grievance.
If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth. His defeat would say that when handed a perfect opportunity to put the worst part of our history behind us, we chose not to. In this event, the world's judgment will be severe and inescapable: The United States had its day but, in the end, couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.
This can't be emphasized enough: Empire does not create prosperity; it consumes it. Neither does it create security; it breeds daily fear of disaster -- such as the type Bush & Co. have sparked in Europe:
The Americans were the first to announce preemptive nuclear attack as their permissible war doctrine. Now the Russians have announced the tactical use of nuclear weapons as their response to American smart weapons.
It is obvious that American foreign policy, with its goal of ringing Russia with US military bases, is leading directly to nuclear war. Every American needs to realize this fact. The US government’s insane hegemonic foreign policy is a direct threat to life on the planet.
Cheney's One Percent Doctrine applies at home, too:
For Erich Scherfen, being on a government terror watch list isn't just a matter of inconvenience. It could end his career. ..
In April, Colgan informed Scherfen that he was on a government list and would be suspended from his job. He was told he faced termination on September 1 unless he was able to clear his name.
They now had more important things to say
And when the car broke down
They started walking
Where were they going without ever knowing the way?
The children woke up
And they couldn't find 'em
They left before the sun came up that day
They just drove off
And left it all behind 'em
But where were they going without ever knowing the way?
I suppose these folks' intentions are good, but the simple truth is that a fence on the US-Mexican border is not going to stop the flow of illegals into this country. The financial incentives on both sides are just too attractive. And these days, money is all that matters, even if it's illusory and short term.

Let's point our lens at two new flashpoints in the world today, and slowly zoom out so we finally focus on the Big Picture. And, as the title suggests, the presumptive Democratic candidate will guide us. Sound like fun? C'mon!
Because Georgia is a U.S. friend, however, U.S. politicians, in a huff to heap blame on the resurgent Russian bear, forgot to mention that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili recklessly first invaded South Ossetia to try to reclaim one of the two regions, which both have had long-standing autonomy and populations who want it to stay that way. He did this in part because the U.S. had helped build up his military, leading him to overestimate U.S. backing in any crisis.
The United States and Poland signed a deal Wednesday to place a U.S. missile defense base just 115 miles from Russia — a move followed swiftly by a new warning from Moscow of a possible military response.
The arrogant folly of the architects of U.S. post-Cold War policy is today on display. By bringing three ex-Soviet republics into NATO, we have moved the U.S. red line for war from the Elbe almost to within artillery range of the old Leningrad.
Should America admit Ukraine into NATO, Yalta, vacation resort of the czars, will be a NATO port and Sevastopol, traditional home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, will become a naval base for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. This is altogether a bridge too far.
Time: You grew up a child of the world, and as you've said you have 'brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents.' How does it affect your view of America's place in the world, the idea of American exceptionalism?
Obama: If anything, it has reinforced my belief in American exceptionalism. One of the things that happens when you live overseas is you realize how special America is— our values, our ideals, our Constitution, our rule of law, the idea of equality and opportunity. Those are things that we often take for granted, and it's only when you get out of the country that you see the majority of the world doesn't enjoy those same privileges.
What I do think it also provides is a sense that the world really is smaller than we sometimes think, and that the aspirations of people around the world, although not always expressed in identical ways, really aren't all that different. People want work that supports their families. People want their children to do better than they are doing. They want some sense of security. And so when I approach foreign policy, I work from the basis that there are some universal hopes and dreams and fears that people carry with them.
Does anyone reading this remember when "diversity" replaced God as the ultimate object of veneration? Apparently, it has at the University of Georgia:
Rev. Renee DuBose is an active pastor and lifelong Christian with a master's degree in religious education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is also a lesbian.
"I believe I was born gay," DuBose said. "I believe with all my heart that God creates diversity; my being gay is a mark of God's diversity." DuBose is a pastor at Our Hope Metropolitan Community Church in Athens, which specializes in the spiritual needs of the gay community.
Rev. Renee DuBose, the pastor of Our Hope Metropolitan Community Church, poses in the Presbyterian Student Center. She seeks "to live as a progressive Christian by embracing the key values of diversity, justice and quality."
As satisfying as it was to see the grass roots war supporters reject McCain for his pro-amnesty stance, this latest opinion piece by author and commentator Orson Scott Card trumps even that delicious moment of I-told-you-so. Card is mad as hell at the triumph of the "gay" agenda -- so mad, he even preaches what would once be called sedition by his fellow war supporters:
Here's the irony: There is no branch of government with the authority to redefine marriage. Marriage is older than government. Its meaning is universal: It is the permanent or semipermanent bond between a man and a woman, establishing responsibilities between the couple and any children that ensue.
If property rights were utterly abolished, and you could own nothing, you would leave that society as quickly as possible -- or create a new society that agreed to respect each other's property rights and protected them from outsiders who would attempt to take away your property.
Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.
Talk about hypocrisy.
Reverends Mark Duke and Spicer made a call to action. Spicer said to celebrate and appreciate everyone’s culture.
“My heritage is a part of me,” he said. “I should be who I am, and you should be who you are. We should like each other for who we are.”
Duke spoke of acceptance for everyone.
“People should be tolerant for one another,” he said. “We should respect each other.”
The law center says there are 24 hate groups in Alabama.
“There is a hate group base in Selma,” Beirich said. “It is called the League of the South. They are a neo-confederate group that basically wants to return to a way of life pre-1865.”
Beirich said members of the group believe slavery is God ordained.
She told the horrified audience tips to help stop hate groups.
OK, I've switched to a new ISP, and should be able to get RebellionBlog email properly now.
California's been making a lot of noise lately about charting a different course than Uncle Sam (see here, for example). Her latest act of resistance should have some long-lasting, international repercussions:
The California Legislature today adopted a resolution aimed at preventing California health professionals from engaging in coercive interrogations of detainees at Guantánamo and other U.S. military prisons.
Senate Joint Resolution 19 instructs the state’s licensing boards to inform California doctors, psychologists and other health professionals of their obligations under national and international law relating to torture. The boards will warn the licensees that they may one day be subject to prosecution if they participate in interrogations that do not conform to international standards of treatment of prisoners.
Here's a great report on yet another movement to restore local sovereignty and put the brakes on a runaway Federal government:
Burt Cohen, 57, a former state senator, is leading a front in New Hampshire to secede from the U.S., and join with Maine, Vermont, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Gaspé Peninsula to create a new authority called New Acadia or Novacadia based on maps of a 1702 maritime union.
"This is a continuation of my politics," Cohen said. "I am interested in people taking part in decisions, and right now, it seems to me that fewer and fewer people have more concentrated wealth and power."
Oh, yeah, the mainstream press maintains strict professionalism and objectivity when it publishes the SPLC's press releases.

I think you're letting your own biases cloud your vision here, Mr. Rebellion.
The story you tried to smear as biased toward the Southern Poverty Law Center [Interview with the SPLC] is as fair and impartial as it could be. The quote from Mr. Potok was balanced by other quotes defending the accused. I suppose you'd only be satisfied if only the defenders of ethnic intimidation were heard from.
[Name withheld by request - permission granted to post email]
"Jack Levin, a sociology professor at Boston's Northeastern University who has written books on hate crimes, said he could see it coming.
In a 24-hour news culture, where blogs, talk radio and cable TV provide a steady torrent of negative stereotypes about illegal immigrants, Latinos are primed as potential victims, Levin said."
Dangerous times require dangerous leaders.
Poland and the United States on Thursday signed a deal for Poland to accept a missile interceptor base as part of a system the United States says is aimed at blocking attacks by rogue nations. Moscow, however, feels it is aimed at Russia's missile force.
"Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent," Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.
Russia has invaded a sovereign country, railed Bush. But did not the United States bomb Serbia for 78 days and invade to force it to surrender a province, Kosovo, to which Serbia had a far greater historic claim than Georgia had to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, both of which prefer Moscow to Tbilisi?
Is not Western hypocrisy astonishing?
Here's the shirt:

Outside court Thursday, Tommy Defoe, a former student, said, "They're trying to say the Confederate battle flag is offensive to others and it's not. They can't prove that it is, you know. I mean, it's my heritage. It makes me mad that they would say that about it."
Now, let's see -- the Bushies think it's vital that all US resources be used to safeguard Georgia's borders. As Bush said yesterday, "Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected."
Here's yet one more indication that the Bush-Cheney Neonuts are determined to spark Armageddon. From Global Research:
It is worth noting that the Kuwaiti government had activated emergency procedures based on the information pertaining to a major naval deployment in the Persian Gulf.
Based on the movement and location of USS carrier and expeditionary strike forces, the Bush administration has not decided to carry out a naval surge directed against Iran immediately following the conduct of the North Atlantic War Games,
The eventuality of a naval blockade directed against Iran is nonetheless being considered by the Pentagon. In fact, the naval blockade initiative is supported by a bill which was launched in the US Congress in late May. (See below for details).
We have checked the most recent information regarding the movements and location of the various USS Carrier and Expeditionary Strike Groups.
Paul Craig Roberts gives us an unnerving but insightful follow-up to The Caucasian Ultimatum. He warns that we're in the closest thing we've had to a nuclear showdown since the Cuban Missile crisis, only then, adults ran things in DC. Roberts, who served in the Reagan administration, knows the men in charge today well enough to know we should all be frightened -- very frightened:
Dick Cheney, the insane American Vice President telephoned Saakashvili to express US solidarity with Georgia in the conflict with Russia and declared: "Russian aggression must not go unanswered." Cheney's telephone call is like Great Britain's "guarantee" to Poland against Nazi Germany. Only a complete idiot would tell Saakashvili anything other than "to cease immediately." ...
The US military certainly has no resources for a war against Russia on top of lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a planned war with Iran.
Here's a pundit touching on what I wrote Tuesday in The Other Edwards Casualty. However, he doesn't go as far as I did when I argued the Edwards sex scandal metastory was a major milestone marking the end of Big Media. Instead, he claims what's been lost is the mainstream media's ability to define what is and what isn't a legitimate news story (he is, after all, a dead tree journalist). The writer even goes so far as to state that the story wasn't "real" until ABC news made it real. See what you think:
From the start, the Edwards scandal belonged entirely to the alternative and new media. The tabloid National Enquirer had done all the significant reporting on it – reporting that turns out to be largely correct. Bloggers and online commentators refused to let the story sputter into oblivion.
With that admission, the illusion that traditional print and broadcast news organizations can establish the limits of acceptable political journalism joined the passenger pigeon on the roster of extinct Americana.
This zinger from the Southern Avenger (who was that masked man?) needs to be circulated near and far:
But in reality the wagging finger of today's slave drivers has more to do with politically correct fashion than logic — Sharpton, Jackson, and company completely ignore the slavery that exists in modern Africa, yet they can't stop talking about an institution that's been long gone in America.
Things have gotten so absurd that even alleged symbols of slavery like the Confederate flag are considered so offensive that major retailers often refuse to stock merchandise featuring them. Meanwhile, these same stores gladly stock merchandise that very well may have been made by actual slaves.
Four white teens have been arrested and charged with the murder of an illegal Mexican immigrant in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania:
The Schuylkill County district attorney has charged Brandon Piekarsky, 16, and Colin Walsh, 17, as adults with murder and "ethnic intimidation," which covers hate crimes. Derrick Donchak, 18, has been charged with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Another 17-year-old faces the same charges in juvenile court. All have pleaded not guilty.
This pocket of blue-collar America, where big-band musicians Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey got their start, is spinning in the ugly vortex of the nation's racially charged war over illegal Immigration. Federal officials have launched an investigation into last month's murder to determine if it is part of a rising trend of anti-Latino hate crimes around the country.

"We are reaping what we, as a nation, have [sown]," said Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes nationwide.
In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.
Here's one report from the liberal American Prospect:
Christian Exodus, which was formed in 2004 (partly inspired by Lawrence v. Texas) and claims to have 1,500 members, hoped to move 50,000 Christians to South Carolina to enact a Christian government that would ban homosexuality and abortion, cease public school funding in favor of parents homeschooling their children, and protect all Christian religious displays in public. Furthermore, though the group claims to support racial equality in its statement of positions, it also seeks to repeal the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed rights to former slaves, and all laws or rulings associated with it (not to mention the group's work with far-right groups such as the neo-Confederate League of the South).
"Lincoln's determination received the hearty applause of powerful northern interests. Eastern manufacturers worried that they would lose Southern markets to European competitors because of the Confederacy's free-trade policy. Yanke