"Man oh man, 'Dr. Menlo.' Now there's an alternative blog. Kindness to animals, Seattle anarchists, nudism galore, SubGenius, anti-Bush black propaganda, jeez louise, Doc, that thing sure is happenin'." --Bruce Sterling, Schism Matrix
"Dr. Menlo is one smart guy, with a sharp eye for images sacred, profane, and in between. Sometimes the doctor riffs on them, sometimes he leaves you to connect the dots." -- Killing the Buddha
A private security firm managed by former Secret Service officers spied on myriad environmental organizations throughout the 1990s and the year 2000, thieving documents, trying to plant undercover operations and collecting phone records of members, according to a new report.
Documents obtained by James Ridgeway, a Mother Jones correspondent formerly with the Village Voice, reveals the contractor collected confidential internal records -- donor lists, financial statements -- even Social Security numbers, for public relations outfits and "corporations involved in environmental controversies."
Beckett Brown International also offered "intelligence" services to the Carlyle Group, the controversial DC-based investment company; "protective services" for the National Rifle Association; "crisis management" for the Gallo wine company and for Pirelli; "information collection" for Wal-Mart.
"Also listed as clients in BBI records," Ridgeway reveals: "Halliburton and Monsanto." [more]
. . . You wanna give me a fucking break here? George Bush murders a million goddamn Iraqi men, women and children - butchers them by lying to the world and steals their oil - and yet Eliot Spitzer has sex with a female and the press is INDIGNANT, INDIGNANT! His wife aside, Spitzer's was a victimless crime - and don't give me this transporting someone across state lines for illegal activities and prostitution is illegal bullshit - because those laws need to be banished back to puritanical New England where they came from! Oh yea, but it's not illegal in Nevada so . . . [Once, driving across the country from east to west, from Utah to Nevada I hadn't actually realized these two states were side by side and fantasized about all Nevadans lining up against their border and mooning Utah at once], fackin' American hypocrites. These goddamn ancient 'morality laws' need to go the way of the Texas sex toy ban. Why the fuck is there even a vice squad? What the fuck business is it of yours what my vices are if they don't hurt anybody? No, scratch, that - sex and drugs are not vices, one is natural and the latter can be good or very bad and if bad a health problem, to be sure. [Yes, I'm all for harm reduction just like the good fictional mayor of Vancouver, B.C. Dominic DaVinci - great show, eh?]
Spitzer did good work against Wall Street corruption and predatory lenders which are most certainly not victimless crimes. Spitzer, if you're out there, unshaven and sitting in front of your computer in your darkened, locked bedroom with your favorite drink in front of you, listen man: tell these assholes what you do with your cock is your own fucking business - you and your wife's, who you will make it up to - and now you will go back to work, after admitting that when you previously used the law against prostitution it was an act of ungodly hypocrisy which you will now vow to spend the rest of your days making up for. Can someone come up with a law to take these goddamn puritanical laws off the books, please? And maybe in what passes for 'moral instruction' in this country and/or media, the new definition of that which causes righteous indignation involves the bloody, premeditated murder of another human being (and if a million, that's really bad). In that turned around, messed up world, George Bush would have long ago faced public humilation and resignation, and Eliot Spitzer would still be battling the oversized windmills of big money, dirty money.
Wow, I can't believe I haven't seen this before now. As always, words fail at news like this. I was a huge fan of John Cieciel's work, and I never knew he had anything to do with News of the Weird. Long before there were a gazillion blogs highlighting weird news or Keith Olbermann doing his own Oddball spin, there was Chuck Sheperd's News of the Weird from 1988. Now almost every news program or news website capitalizes on some aspect of weird news. [Coincidentally, when I ran a college paper in Washington D.C. in the early nineties I wanted to run the News of the Weird, but they had an exclusive agreement with the DC City Paper which disallowed it.]
I was always proud to be on John's link list. Spitting Image was always one of the best little literate corners of the internet; John's work was fun and funny and influential and he will be missed.
A Big Salute to my Granddad on this Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Attack
This man is still alive and living in Florida and I am very proud of him. This article doesn't mention it, but he was actually in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked 66 years ago today. Hope to see you soon, Granddad! [handwritten beneath this article not captured by scan: April 21, 1942 Lexingon Leader (KY)]
