For those interested, here’s a letter I wrote that appeared in this week’s MDIslander (regrettably with the links deleted), as a followup to a piece by Moorhead Kennedy outlining the whole unseemly history of US/British/Russian nefarious involvement in Iraq:

-Matt _______________________________________________ HCCN mailing list HCCN@mainetalk.org http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/hccn_mainetalk.org

Sam Bergman

— On Sun, 10/16/11, Zenith Inc <wedelove@netzero.net> wrote:

From: Zenith Inc <wedelove@netzero.net>
Subject: [HCCN] Mystery Shopper Needed
To:
Date: Sunday, October 16, 2011, 4:12 PM

Dear Candidate,

We are actually looking for a Mystery Shopper who will be working for our company.

Working with us won’t affect your present job.

* EARN NO LESS THAN $250.00 USD

* NEED EXTRA INCOME!

* BECOME OUR [ MYSTERY SHOPPER]: Earn [ NO LESS THAN $250.00 ] PER VENTURE:

* IT IS VERY EASY AND VERY SIMPLE:

* NO APPLICATION FEES:     

Job Salary :  10% of check to conduct the Mystery Shopping

Start Date :  2 – 5 days after application is received.

Job Description :  We need mystery shoppers all over Canada,United States,South Americans.

***Our Major Secret Shopping is carried out on  Money Transfer Service & Major Stores.***

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IS TO CONTACT THE EMAIL BELOW,

wedelove@netzero.net

ENCLOSE YOUR:

FULL NAME:

FULL ADDRESS:

COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE:

PHONE NUMBER:

OCCUPATION:

SEX:

AGE:

Warm Regards,

Shawn Jones

Genral Manager,

Zenith Inc
5743074153

_______________________________________________
HCCN mailing list
HCCN@mainetalk.org
http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/hccn_mainetalk.org

Brave New Films usually does a good job, but here they just don’t connect the dots. This video spends all its time saying the DoD is in bed with the defense industry (this is news?) without substantively countering the industry claim (repeated over and over) that cutting defense spending will costs hundreds of thousands of jobs and raise unemployment 1%. The video closes with the phrase “job-killing defense spending,” without giving any of the good substantive evidence that defense spending is extremely inefficient in job creation. In the end, you’re left with simply a “they said / we say” sense of what the video was about, and a memory about “hundreds of thousands of jobs” and “increases in unemployment.”

Dick

_______________________________________________ HCCN mailing list HCCN@mainetalk.org http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/hccn_mainetalk.org

“Given the amount of evidence that OBL died in December, 2001 — end stage renal disease, necessity of frequent dialysis, increasing haggardness in videos (except for the famous November 2001 version that obviously wasn’t OBL), statements by the foremost OBL experts that the later vidos (and audios) were faked, and by CIA staff working on the OBL case at that time that “everyone knew he was dead,” a funeral announcement and obituary — this all takes on a truly surreal tone, which isn’t helped by the unnecessary “burial at sea,” which, like the removal of the steel from Ground Zero, constitutes destruction of evidence.”

A couple of years ago, David Ray Griffin put together a fascinating book, “Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive,” which covered all that evidence and more. To me, the question is, why is this happening now? Other than hearing about the government warning us that retaliation may be imminent, I can’t see a purpose. And given what I believe is a false assumption at the very root of all that is happening now, I don’t think we’re going to find out.

Dick

PS: I’m not sure how many people are aware of the fact that (a) bin Laden denied any involvement in 9/11 and consistently condemned it, and (b) the FBI does not list him as wanted for those “attacks” because, they have said clearly, they have no hard evidence to support a connection.

Larry Dansinger wrote, On 5/2/11 9:40 AM:

_______________________________________________ HCCN mailing list HCCN@mainetalk.org http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/hccn_mainetalk.org

http://civic.moveon.org/defend_ows/

(always a good idea to cut off these links after the “?” to eliminate tracking) and telling Mr. Bloomberg that my small-town police chief (white lie — it’s Bar Harbor, not my SWH hometown) has announced that he has no problem with the planned occupation in BH, because it’s well within the Constitutional rights of citizens.

So I called NYC and after LONG wait (due to high call volume — YEAH!) I got a very nice NYC operator, who said I could also register my objection at http://nyc.gov and clicking on “Contact the Mayor.”

It isn’t quite that easy, but I eventually found the form:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

It probably gives you a better chance to make your feelings (like small-town law-enforcement policies) known than going through MoveOn — though everything counts.

Dick

Sam wrote, On 10/13/11 3:53 PM:

_______________________________________________ HCCN mailing list HCCN@mainetalk.org http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/hccn_mainetalk.org

‘Sec. 248. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are provided for ‘Department of Commerce–National Telecommunications and Information Administration–Public Telecommunications Facilities, Planning and Construction’ at a rate for operations of ****** $0. ******** (emphasis added)

I called Snowe’s office (202-224-5344) and asked about her support for public broadcasting and was told (after a check) that she DOES support it, so I pointed out the connection between that and this.

Collins’ office (202-224-2523) said she had not made a statement on her feelings about public broadcasting, so I made sure they knew that Snowe had, and made sure the answerer got the details of HFRes48:248.

Call ‘em TODAY. Great way to start the day!

Matthew Baya wrote, On 3/15/11 8:40 AM:

_______________________________________________ HCCN mailing list HCCN@mainetalk.org http://mainetalk.org/mailman/listinfo/hccn_mainetalk.org

Information about event:  Find out about composting in a simplified fool-proof way.  Gain new knowledge about an old skill.  Learn to compost without ever turning the pile and so much more.  This event is open to the public.  The suggested donation is $10.00 or two cans of fish or meat – all proceeds to be donated to the Emmaus Center.