The Road of Bones

At a loss for words

2008-01-11T20:04:00.000-06:00

Break time

2007-12-31T00:19:00.000-06:00

I'm taking a break from the bloggings while I pursue other professional endeavors. I've found myself writing a LOT more lately, and coming home with no time or inclination to keep up this project.

But, I'll be back. That you can count on. I'm just not sure, at the moment, of when that will be. If you know me personally, you know what professional endeavors I'm talking about. And if not, feel free to send me a message here.

Thanks for reading. Keep the faith in 2008 and beyond. We'll kick these fascist pigs in the family jewels soon enough.

--The Gonzo Muckraker

Bhutto: bin Laden was murdered

2007-12-31T00:15:00.000-06:00

The war on terror is a fraud, and the recently-assassinated leader of the Pakistani People's Party knew it. Here's what she had to say about the nefarious Al-Kay-Duh chiefton (see: 2:20 into the video) ...

Speculation: her killing goes far deeper than Pakistan's army, or some "extremist group" hiding out in a cave.

We're in for a crazy 2008. Hold on tight, and keep asking questions.

What Really Happened?

2007-12-10T20:23:00.001-06:00

Got another story on the cover of the Iconoclast. Check it out ...

Thought for the day

2007-12-07T06:59:00.000-06:00

Edward Abbey, a great western writer, once said of patriotism ...

"I know my own nation the best. That's why I despise it the most. And I know and love my own people too, the swine. I'm a patriot. A dangerous man."

This passage was taken from "pages 58-59 of, "The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," by his widow, Anita.

Speaking of Anita Thompson and some gonzo writing, I interviewed her this week, and I'm working on a story about it for The Lone Star Iconoclast. Envy Magazine has also expressed an interest. We'll see how that pans out.

Iconoclast cover

2007-11-27T12:03:00.003-06:00

Looks like my report made the cover of Crawford's own Lone Star Iconoclast this week. I do so very much like that picture.

(I just wish they'd have saved that picture until next week's cover. I've got an in-depth interview with Jason Bermas coming up, and that would have been the perfect promo image. Ah well.)

Alberto "Torture Memos" Gonzales is welcomed at UF

2007-11-20T15:19:00.000-06:00

The University of Florida, where a student was tasered during a visit from John Kerry some months ago, recently played host to none other than Alberto "Torture Memos" Gonzales, President Bush's former lead counsel and a former Texas Supreme Court Justice. His welcome was a little less than warm.

What you don't see in that video is the demonstrators who actually made it up onto the stage dressed as orange-clad, hooded Guantanamo detainees. They were arrested and charged with disrupting a public event. Seems like a charge well worth the experience, to me.

Why in God's name would the University of Florida pay $40,000 for a speech by one of the most infamous, vilified characters in recent American history? I could see a right wing think tank doing that, but a public university? The man doesn't even believe habeas corpus to be a Constitutional right! Remember this?

Read: Article One, Section Nine, which states ...

"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

For aiding this President in the unlawful destruction of one of our most sacred rights, this man deserves to be hounded for years to come.

No sleep for the wicked.

Hillary Clinton repells flags?

2007-11-13T14:40:00.000-06:00

Watch this video ...

Did it look to you like those flags dove out of Clinton's way? Or were they perhaps repelled by some invisible force-field emanating from somewhere within her being?

I choose to take it as an omen.

Border patrol brutalizes American protesters

2007-11-13T08:27:00.000-06:00

A group of peaceful American protesters was brutally attacked by border patrol agents on Sunday. At the No Borders Camp in Calexico, California, where a group of nearly 500 activists had been camping on both the U.S./Mexico border (legally, as organized via the Internet), a collection of nearly 100 border patrol agents descended upon the protest wielding batons and firing pepper pellets.

The video of this assault on our Constitutional rights is appalling.

Three people were arrested for the crime of "Obstructing a Federal Agent," and are scheduled to be arraigned this morning. On the contrary -- they should be released, Immediately.

Whether you agree with them on the border issue or not, these sorts of things should never happen in the United States. We bleed to secure that freedom. And yet, it seems we shall have to bleed some more.

San Diego IndyMedi a has more.

Iraq vets being banned from Veterans Day parades!

2007-11-12T04:35:00.000-06:00

A disturbing trend cropping up in this year's Veterans Day celebrations from coast to coast: veterans organizations, specifically those promoting messages of peace, are being banned from celebrations of their bravery.

IVAW's Jason Lemieux, a Marine Corps veteran, puts it to the Long Beach city council in words both direct and elegant ...

If I were in that city council chambers, I'd have been dragged out by the police for causing a disturbance by applause.

George Washinton on parties and the preservation of liberty

2007-11-12T03:48:00.000-06:00

From George Washington's farewell address in 1796 ...

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
[...]
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.

We should be well served by such advice today.

This is called 'National Defense'

2007-11-12T03:18:00.001-06:00

In 1975, Joseph Heller, author of the timeless classic novel "Catch 22," describes what was bothering him most about the American government at the time. Interestingly, his words then are most pertinent today, and this little-known passage is perhaps the most biting, acerbic, sharp-witted critique of our shameless, unconstitutional policy of domestic spying I have ever had the pleasure of wrapping my head around.

Thank you Joseph Heller, for reminding us of what so many seem to have forgotten. Published by The New York Times, Heller titled this piece, "This is called 'National Defense'" ...

I was a little more perturbed than the next fellow, I’d say, when I learned shortly after his assassination that Martin Luther King’s telephones had been tapped and his living quarters bugged, and that the recorded tapes thus obtained were played many times for the private entertainment of various F.B.I. officials and certain journalists friendly to the F.B.I., who, chortling, all added ribald comments of their own to the personal conversations on which they were eavesdropping so shamelessly.

This tapping and bugging of Martin Luther King was carried out by salaried government employees, with the knowledge and consent of some very distinguished people in high public office, not one of whom, it seems, has yet been executed for this trespass, or even imprisoned, discharged, demoted, or censured. This is called national defense.

I wish that all these gentlemen who so gallantly stand for such national defense would begin tapping and bugging each other’s telephones and living quarters and spitting in each other’s soup, and stop interfering with such decent people as Socrates, Martin Luther King, Eugene V. Debs, Galileo, Jesus Christ, and me.

I never express this disapproval aloud, of course. I would not dare mention it at the office or to my closest friend of even whisper it to my wife in the intimacy of our bedroom, because these courageous guardians of our freedom and safety might be bugging me already and would then start spitting in mine. This is called internal security.

I met an F.B.I. man once at a quiet dinner party who had close-cropped hair and obsessive hostility toward pornography and people who smoked marijuana. He looked like an astronaut.

So did his wife.

Genius. Pure genius.

Cheney caught falsifying intelligence, again

2007-11-11T17:21:00.001-06:00

This just in ...

Two heroic former CIA agents have come out of the shadows to blow the whistle on the office of the Vice President. Cheney is again falsifying intelligence to support a policy of unmitigated war on a civilian populace; this time, Iran.

As the two agents claim, the VP has censored national intelligence estimates by stripping them of dissenting views regarding Iran's alleged arming of the Iraqi insurgency. This fixed intelligence stinks of 2003's push to invade the sovereign nation of Iraq, yet today the stakes are so much higher.

Lies, would be the term of the common tongue. But our Constitution would have another term for such an action ...

Treason.

Why is this man not on trial? It is truly amazing to me, that in my short time on this planet, our nation, once a democratic Republic, has transformed so dramatically into this mire of ineffectual litigators, silent justices, and a king by any other name.

If no action is taken to counter this treason, our Nation of Laws is surely lost.

Coup d'Etat by National Emergency

2007-11-11T17:14:00.000-06:00

Friends, I encourage you all to read this document, penned by William H. White, truly a patriot in every sense. He presents a frightening glimpse into what could transpire in the event of a presidentially-declared national emergency resulting from a "mass casualty event."

Under the legal framework the President has set up, which Congress has blindly allowed, suspension of our Constitution would be just the beginning.

Now, of course these events are the product of conjecture and the president's legal manueverings could certainly be explained through alternate means. But let it never be said that liberty has survived by blind faith. It is the product of intense skepticism and mistrust of government by the governed.

Liberty requires vigilance, and that vigilance begins with you. Read this, make a copy, and put it in a safe place. Preferably next to your Second Amendment stockade.

Chicago HS students threatened over protest

2007-11-10T14:13:00.000-06:00

Berwyn school district in Chicago, Ill. is getting taught a lesson by its students and their parents. When students staged a sit-in protest of the war in Iraq and the presence of military recruiters on the campus, the school flipped a nut and accused the group of "gross disobedience and mob activity."

The school board is trying to impose suspensions, and in some cases, expulsions, on students who participated in exercising their first amendment right. Ironically (or -- per my high school experience in Brenham, Texas -- as expected), students with high GPA's, or who participated in varsity-level sports, were given lesser punishments.

Now the parents are pissed, and picketing the school board along with their kids. As the district accepts money from the federal government for allowing Army recruiters access to the students to provide flesh-fodder for the death machine, people all around Chicago, and indeed all over the world, are taking note of this outright hypocrisy.

It just goes to show that a small group of determined people really can do something. Hopefully that something includes someone losing their job over this insult to the free people of the United States.

There's a video here.

Shrinks endorse prescription pot

2007-11-08T02:18:00.000-06:00

Forget what your parents and government told you about marijuana -- the American Psychiatric Association Assembly wants you to know that the feds have NO BUSINESS arresting cancer patients who smoke pot so they can eat.

One would think that sort of thing would be common sense. Yet our faithful government continues its war against our people by kicking in the doors of legal medicinal dispensaries in California, smacking around Parkinson's patients, and assailing our Constitutional rights.

Yesterday was a landmark accomplishment for the Marijuana Policy Project. The largest group of psychiatric professionals in the United States has endorsed the full, federal legalization of medical cannabis as a drug that is safe to be prescribed by doctors.

God Bless Them.

Bush: Now, Officially, the LEAST Liked President in U.S. History

2007-11-08T02:11:00.000-06:00

According to Gallup, Bush is now less popular than Nixon at his lowest slump in approval ratings. Bush's "Strongly Disapprove" rating is up over that of Johnson, the Democrat responsible for starting the Vietnam war.

Yet, for some reason, and for all his lies, infractions of law and piled up dead bodies, we can't manage to get our elected representatives to IMPEACH?

Congress deserves its low approval rating, almost as much as the murderous ScumBag we've got in the White House.

I'm down for the Revolution. Can't we just fire all of them and start over?

Paul's One Day Haul - $4.2 million

2007-11-06T11:13:00.001-06:00

WOW! The Los Angeles Times has the full story.

Iran's TOP SECRET weapons that we must destroy

2007-11-06T11:02:00.001-06:00

Yep, this country must surely be an imminent danger to the United States. I mean, just look at all these terrifying weapons!

Hold me. I'm so afraid.

The 2007 Texas Justice, Peace, and Freedom Conference

2007-11-05T18:36:00.000-06:00

Are you free?

I'm going to be attending this conference, set to be held in Addison later this month. Among the program's highlights are ...

Radio host David vonKleist, who will screen never-before-seen footage taken from INSIDE the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Sherry Jackson, former IRS agent who revolted when the agency refused to show her the law requiring Americans to pay an income tax.
Ted Gunderson, former head of the FBI's Los Angeles office, speaking about the inner-workings of America's secretive domestic intelligence force.
William Rodriguez, one of the many heroes of the 9/11 attacks on New York, speaking about his experience that fateful day.
April Gallop, survivor of the attack on the Pentagon, sharing what she witnessed in the moments after impact. Her testimony was completely removed from the 9/11 Commission Report and never broadcast by the media!
The Texas debut of Loose Change Final Cut, which is going to be distributed by none other than Dallas Mavericks owner Marc Cuban!

The whole thing costs $70 if you buy a single ticket, but the cost per ticket drops by $10 for every additional person you bring along. I'll be there, along with several fellow Iconoclastic writers.

I hope to see you there!

Ron Paul Revolution EXPLODES!

2007-11-05T15:15:00.000-06:00

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November.

It'll be the day a new record is set for single-day fundraising by a political candidate on the Internet. The current record of $3 million is held by John Kerry -- a sum raised AFTER the primary elections, in the push to dethrone G.W.B.

As I write this, the Ron Paul campaign's "moneybomb" efforts are paying gigantic dividends. The man is just minutes away from blowing past $3 million since the live graphs started running at 12:01 a.m., and its not even the end of the work day!

Be a part of history. Join the Ron Paul Revolution. Donate here.

Obama on Saturday Night Live

2007-11-04T16:00:00.000-06:00

If you missed Obama's surprise appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live, give it a watch, and note the subtle dig at Hillary Clinton. This is definitely one of the best pop-culture cameos by a Presidential candidate in a long, long time.

Countering the Bush lies

2007-11-04T15:26:00.000-06:00

This just in from the Miami Herald --

NO EVIDENCE OF IRANIAN NUCLEAR-WEAPONS PROGRAM, EXPERTS SAY

An excerpt ...

Despite President Bush's claims that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons that could trigger ''World War III,'' experts in and out of government say there's no conclusive evidence that Tehran has an active nuclear-weapons program.Even his own administration appears divided about the immediacy of the threat. While Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney speak of an Iranian weapons program as a fact, Bush's point man on Iran, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, has attempted to ratchet down the rhetoric.

It bears repeating, even in the wake of Dallas protesting Dick Cheney's visit to drum up support for a third war ...

DON'T ATTACK IRAN, YOU NITWITS!

Mark Stepnoski - NFL hero, drug law reformer, 9/11 Truther

2007-11-04T15:09:00.000-06:00

Mark Stepnoski, a former Dallas Cowboy and nominee to the NFL Hall of Fame (as well as the former head of the D/FW National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), has just come out in support of the 9/11 Truth Movement!

No, he's not one of those spastic kids who screams about how "Bush Did It"; he's a questioner, like myself, not pointing fingers, but asking the important questions. Read the final paragraphs of this interview for the whole skinny.

Here's an excerpt ...

We're being lied to. That's what bothers me the most. There's a lot of evidence in almost any area of the entire event, and you can bring up a lot of inconsistencies and unanswered questions just about the event itself. Two of the three steel-frame buildings that day collapsed due to fire, and that's never happened before, never in history. But that day it happened three times, including one building that didn't get hit by a plane. Building Number 7 didn't get hit by a plane and it went straight down in six and a half seconds. In the vast majority of U.S. cities that would have been the tallest building in the city. It had nothing but a couple of small fires on a couple of floors, but it fell down at free-fall speed in six and a half seconds. There are several engineers and architects who have made the argument that it was a controlled demolition because, again, there's never been a steel building collapse due to fire. So how can it happen three times in one day?

What can I say? The man's a Classic Iconoclast! And he's absolutely correct.

Yet ANOTHER gay Republican busted in bathroom sting

2007-11-04T10:29:00.000-06:00

Wow! Gay Republicans are just crawling out of the woodwork lately.

Mike Shallow, Republican candidate for Mayor in Daytona Beach, Florida got busted, along with nine other men (one of which was a high school athletics coach) while performing activities on each other in a Sears department store bathroom, on the second floor of its Daytona Beach mall outlet.

Seriously, a Sears? Here's the full story. No snarky comments this time. I'm just wondering how many more covers will be blown (*bah-dum-chi*) before the end of the year.