Justice Souter throws in the towel

By Jack Brummet
All This Is That Law and Justice Commentator


Click the Justice to enlarge - illustration by Jack Brummet

Supreme Court Justice David Souter is just about to announce his own bail-out plan. . I may be wrong, but I can't remember another Justice recently (ever?) who actually retired, other than Sandra Day O'Connor. Justices usually leave the court feet first. Don't they?

Justice Souter will retire at the end of the term in June. I was hoping the first retiree would be from the other wing of the court. The thing I've always loved about Souter was that following his 1990 appointment, by George Bush the Elder, he rapidly became one of the Court's staunch liberals. A good friend of mine was a law clerk for him before the appointment. I remember her saying "don't worry. You'll be surprised. So will George Bush."

The rumors circulating say that Souter has had it with Washington, and wants to get out while he can still actually enjoy retirement in New Hampshire.

It's been many (15?) years since a Democrat was even able to name a nominee. And this time. . .our President has a [growing] majority in the Senate. He could probably get Angela Davis confirmed if he put his mind to it.

The alleged/possible/trial balloon short list of replacements includes Elena Kagan (the solicitor general), and Sonia Sotomayor and Diana Pamela Wood--both appellate court judges.

This will be pretty sweet for BHO. . .he is getting his first court opening in the first few months of his Presidency. George W. Bush--thank God--had no openings until well into his second term,
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digital art: The First Lady

Click Mrs. O to enlarge

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digital art: The Grey

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Seattle's Hooverville in the 30's

Seattle's 1930's Hooverville actually looked fairly orderly, with something even approaching a street grid


click to enlarge - The Seattle Hooverville settlement sometime
in the '30s. The photograph is courtesy of the Washington State
Digital Archives.
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Celebrate! Sen. Arlen Specter extricates himself from The Hive--> The GOP begins to succumb to The Sickness

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Wow. This is, to quote John Sebastian at The Woodstock Festival, a "mindf***er of all mindf***ers." We DID know Specter's break with the Party in voting for BHO's budget was not just a break, but a massive, and perhaps irreparable breach. Arlen Specter! He's been a Republican longer than most Republicans have been alive!

It's no secret to political junkies that Specter is a close friend of the Vice President. Biden has cajoled Sen. Arlen Specter to jump to the Democratic Party for six years. In the last week, he talked to the heroic party-switcher no fewer than 15 times, officials close to Joe Biden told Fox News. Ever since Specter voted against his party, and for the massive Obama stimulus package, Biden seems to have been pressing his case.

A decade ago, Republicans had nine senators in the 11 states stretching up the Interstate 95 corridor north of the Capitol. Today, they have three senators from those states, and one, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, will retire in 2010.

"This has been a long time coming," said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity [cluck cluck cluck]. "He's been having this conversation with Specter for half a dozen years. They're close. You'd be hard-pressed to find a senator he's co-sponsored more bills with." The two are also Amtrak buddies, riding from D.C. to Biden's home in Wilmington, Del., and Specter's in Philadelphia. And they've served together forever on the Senate Judiciary Committee, often in concert, sometimes in opposition.

Yeah, they did split over the sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas with Specter taking the low road and endlessly hectoring Hill during her testimony and attempting (in the end, successfully, and shamefully) to derail her charges.

The White House official told Fox that "Biden views the stimulus vote as 'a clarifying event' for Specter, one where he decided to back Obama's economic approach and risk retribution from his party." When Specter was faced with a dogfight with a very well-funded conservative challenger, Republican Patrick Toomey, it was the last straw, and he joined The Good Fight.



Readers of All This Is That--when they do not immediately recoil and click away upon seeing an article on The Greys--are well aware of the Alien Lore regarding "cerebral eviction" practices, or, the "Alien Rejection Technique", first used by John Loengard as a method of ganglion removal for human hosts implanted by the Hive. During the final moments of an A. R.T., the human host usually coughs up the ganglion,which must locate a new host. . .or succumb. In this case, however, Senator Specter ejected himself from the diseased host and immediately jumped to a new, healthy, positive host, leaving the former host to the pathetic ministrations of Rush "Oxy" Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Bobby Jindal.

And, hey, Republicans. . .the tent is big! Come on Senator Olympia Snowe, Senator Susan Collins, Senators McCain and Lamar Alexander. We will welcome all of you actual and alleged centrists. Even you, Joe Lieberman, you sub-human, sawed-off P.O.S. . .come into the big tent! There's lots of room, and we have lots of work for everyone.
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digital art: Daveed and 'Mo

click to enlarge Daveed and 'Mo

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Does The Brown Sound Really Exist? Involuntary evacuation in the news

A fair amount has been written about the brown sound. Notably, one of the funniest South Park episodes, "Worldwide Recorder Concert," tells the story of Cartman learning how to make the sound and then unleashing it on his enemies (and others, including Kenny G [pictured above] and Yoko Ono) at a concert. You may have heard of the “brown noise” or “brown sound” – it is a very low-frequency sound (usually identified as a sound under 15 hz) that is said to cause those who hear it to suddenly lose control of their bowels.

You can see a clip from the South Park show here.

Jonathan Sterne writes in "The Brown Sound" that the sound is "an oscillation of sound that causes the bowels to loosen. The brown noise is believed to be ninety-two cents below the lowest octave of E flat.” “The brown noise was discovered by the French, and tested as a weapon during WWII. It is a 12-14hz sound wave that, when played loud enough, relaxes your sphincter, causing loss of bowel control.”

"On the lower end of our hearing, we almost never perceive a 20hz sound. Even before the vibration slows to 20 cycles a second (roughly an E-flat), we begin to feel the sound as vibration rather than just hearing it. Once the rate of vibration drops below 20hz, we can't hear it as sound at all; we only feel it as vibration. So when Cartman proudly announces that the brown noise is 92 cents below the lowest octave of E flat, he is saying that the brown noise is not a noise at all. It is subsonic vibration. In the second definition, the brown noise is somewhat lower, in the 12-14hz range, which would place the note somewhere between a G and an A, were an elephant or some other animal with better low-end perception than a human to inquire about the pitch. "

Military history is filled with stories of people attempting to create (and most importantly, deploy) the brown sound and other infrasonic weapons. The most common story says the Nazis experimented with pretty much every kind of imaginable weapon, and a brown noise generator was among a class of “sonic” weapons they devised. The plan was to use it in surprise attacks on both military and civilian targets. "On the battlefield, you could momentarily overtake your opponent – and since the brown noise is very low-frequency vibration, it could hypothetically travel through tanks and other hard-to-reach places, thereby temporarily disabling the enemy. It could also be useful for civilian attacks to weaken enemy morale – as a form of what the Nazis called “worldview warfare” and what Americans now call psychological warfare."

The Fortean Times quotes acoustician Jurgen Altman, who argued in a 1999 paper that acoustic weapons were basically impossible to construct: “I have found no hard evidence for vomiting or uncontrolled defecation, even at levels of 170 dB or more.” It takes so much power to generate a low, low sound that it is virtually impossible. . .and then no one is really sure earplugs would actually help...it's your bowels themselves that would be affected, and there really are no earplugs for your bowels. . . at least yet.
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digital art: Old Glory

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digital art: Warren Beatty

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Keith Olberman offers $1,000 a second to see Sean Hannity Waterboarded

Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show this week. Hannity asked Grodin if he'd ever accept a book from Hugo Chavez or listen to a speech by a "murdering dictator like Daniel Ortega."

Grodin's replied "I'd listen to anybody. I'm listening to you."

Grodin also asked Hannity if he was wearing mascara and if he plans to marry Ann Coulter.

Then, we get to the red meat of the show:

GRODIN: You're for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don't believe it's torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.
Obviously, this has to happen. For the troops, I mean! Not merely for my amusement!

Keith Olberman offered to pay $1,000 "for ever second he lasts while being waterboarded." I think we'd all pay something to see Sean Hannity waterboarded. . .especially if he cried like a baby, came out of it and recanted.


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The Two Bobs from Office Space Interview Sarah Palin

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Alien Lore No.152 - Astronaut Edgar Mitchell speaks up once again

Edgar Mitchell - "Cosmic Activist"

Once again, former Astronaut Edgar Mitchell this week reaffirmed his longstanding claim that there "is no doubt we are being visited."

Mitchell, who few on the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, said early this week that extraterrestrial life exists, and the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and foreign governments.
Mitchell spoke at the National Press Club following the X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms.

Mankind wonders if we're "alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone," Mitchell said.

"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

Mitchell, believe it or not, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which many UFO believers say is the site of a UFO crash (and along with the Mount Rainier sightings around the same time are the events that really triggered this while alien lore story. Mitchell says that people in his hometown "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities."

The resident of Roswell, Mitchell says, "didn't want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story."

Ten years ago, an admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash "were confirmed," but the admiral was then denied access when he "tried to get into the inner workings of that process." The admiral now denies the story.

"Those who are doubtful: Read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited," he said. "The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time."

A NASA spokesman, Michael Cabbage, denied the cover-up. "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover-up about alien life on this planet or anywhere else -- period."

"There is a third rail [in American politics, and that is the UFO question. It is many magnitudes more radioactive than Social Security ever dreamed to be," said Paradigm Research Group head Stepgen Basset.

Other All This Is that articles on Edgar Mitchell:
Alien Lore No. 135 - More on Edgar Mitchell's alien revelations - an interview with Moonwalker Dr Edgar Mitchell
Alien Lore No. 134 - Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up
Alien Lore No. 77: Celebrity sightings and thoughts on UFOs
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