Business owners and individuals were surprised to find their websites were down, on the morning of February 14, 2004. Their surprise turned to shock, when they learned that the hardware that had hosted their sites was now in the hands of the FBI.

It was on that Saturday, just after 8:30 in the morning, that the feds arrived at Creative Internet Techniques (CIT), a webhosting company located at 3982 Powell Road, in Powell, Ohio.

Shortly afterward, the company's servers were taken off line and all of their clients' sites dropped off the internet. The FBI spent the better part of the day rummaging through the data on the servers. Then, to the horror of the owners of the company, agents decided to seize the web servers, rendering the company powerless to provide service to their clients.

Here is the story, as they explain on their website, which they've somehow managed to revive.

"Dear Customers of FOONET/CIT:

"We regret to inform you that on Saturday February 14, 2004 at approximately 8:35 am EST, FOONET/CIT's data center in Columbus, Ohio temporarily ceased operations.

"Here are the facts of what occurred:

"The FBI executed a search warrant issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio regarding the IRC network that we host. According to the warrant, it appears that the Bureau is investigating whether someone hosted on our network hacked and attacked someone else.

"After several hours of attempting to track down, inspect and audit the terabytes of data that we host, the FBI determined that it was more efficient (from their point of view) to remove all of our servers and transport them to the FBI local laboratories for inspection. This was completed at 7:00 pm EST same day.

"The FBI has assured us that as soon as the data has been safely copied and inspected, the equipment will be promptly returned. Unfortunately, the FBI has not been able to tell us when they will be completed with their inspection.

"We have been told by the Special Agent in charge of the investigation that If you need access to your data you are asked to please contact the Bureau via email to rwhite3@leo.gov. Make sure to include in your email your name, mailing address, and telephone number with area code.

"Since we wish to focus 100% of our efforts on restoring services, we would appreciate it very much if you do not attempt to contact us directly. Please rest assured that we are doing everything possible to restore service to you as quickly as possible.

"To the many who have inquired, Paul and family are OK, although shaken by these events. They are at home and awaiting the blessed event of their new child's birth. We thank you for your good wishes and prayers.

"Please check back here often. Through this site, we will keep you informed of ongoing developments as we know them.

"Thanks again for your understanding."

This is an unbelievable story!

Assuming the facts are as they were given, the FBI has shut down this business for a crime that wasn't committed by the company. It probably wasn't committed by any of their clients, either.

For those of you who are not aware, DDoS stands for "Distributed Denial of Service". It is an attack that is launched by an individual using several compromised computers, usually from different parts of the country and even from around the world. Basically, it works something like this:

A would-be attacker gains control of a computer — whether it be a web server or a personal computer. Usually, this is done by sending a trojan horse virus through e-mail or some other way. When a machine is successfully infected, it is programmed by the trojan to report to a certain Internet Relay Chat (IRC) room to await instructions. Upon reporting, the attacker then uses a few keystrokes to tell his army of electronic soldiers what Internet Protocol (I.P. address) to "bomb" with packets of data. The attacker also enters the amount of packets each machine is to send.

The compromised machines then begin bombarding that particular I.P. number with data packets as fast as they can, and at the same time. Due to the excessive number of machines involved, and the speed with which they collectively are able to send the packets, the machine on the receiving end of the attack is overwhelmed. Having all of its bandwidth consumed by incoming data packets, it is no longer able to reply, and its services disappear from the internet.

Apparently, this is the scenario that the FBI said it was investigating in its warrant. However, it would seem to me that putting a company out of business — even temporarily — for nothing more than hosting an IRC network is more than a little extreme. IRC chat hosting is not illegal. It is commonplace on the web. Shutting a company down because theirs was misused by a third party is not only grossly unfair, but a highly dangerous precedent.

I would imagine that the company would have gladly cooperated in the investigation and apprehension of a suspect, had they been given the chance.

Instead, the FBI flashed a warrant, entered and shut down the whole operation, seizing the equipment.

Even if the company gets the equipment back, and assuming that it is not dismantled and damaged — both assumptions that I wouldn't be willing to make — the revenue that this incident has already cost this company in lost clientele is irreplaceable.

What the feds have done in this situation demonstrates an utter and complete disregard for the private property rights of citizens and their businesses. It is my hope that these business owners sue the agents involved, along with the pathetic judge who allowed this to happen. It is time these federal thugs be held accountable.

audio post about the Special Tactics and Rescue Team, a division of the Lansing Police Department.

As you listen to the audio, keep in mind that these officers are dressed in military green and camouflage.

A trip to the Lansing Police Department web site reveals the source of the funding for the S.T.A.R.T. team.

"The 1973 Crime Control Act enabled federal funding for police tactical units. The Lansing Police Department applied for and received such a grant, allowing the LPD tactical team to be formed. From the beginning, the team was given the designation as the 'Special Tactics and Rescue Team' (S.T.A.R.T.) The mission of the team is to save lives. Since the teams inception, that mission has never changed. It is accomplished by the application of specialized training, superior logistical support, and team member dedication. City residents, the Department, and team members are proud of the job START does on an ongoing basis. When the citizens of Lansing need help, they call the police. When the police need help, they call START."

That which the federal government funds, the federal government controls.

Regardless of where these officers are trained, you can be certain they are trained in accordance with federal guidelines. Otherwise, the federal money would not be dispersed.

Is this the militarization of a local police department? Is it happening in your community?

• For a transcript of the story, click here.

As the actors take the stage in the Presidential election show, it isn't too surprising to find that Democratic front-runner, John Kerry, has a skeleton in his closet. Well, at least a Skull and Bones.

The Harvard Crimson ran an article on February 18th of 1970, which featured an interview in which Kerry called for U.N. control of U.S. troops.

Quoting from the 1970 article about then Congressional candidate John Kerry:

"He supports a volunteer Army, 'if and only if we can create the controls for it. You're going to have to prepare for the possibility of a national emergency, however.' Kerry said that the United Nations should have control over most of our foreign military operations. 'I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.'

"On other issues, Kerry wants 'to almost eliminate CIA activity. The CIA is fighting its own war in Laos and nobody seems to care.' He also favors a negative income tax and keeping unemployment at a very low level, 'even if it means selective economic controls.'"

How could anyone believe there is a difference in candidates for President?

On the one hand, we have an incumbent who is commanding a war that is designed to crush any government in opposition to the U.N. globalists' agenda.

On the other hand, we have the Democratic "opposition", who in 1970 openly called for U.S. troops to be placed under the command of the United Nations.

The Crimson followed up recently, with a February 11, 2004 article about the 1970 interview in which it compares President Bush with Senator John Kerry.

"The increasingly likely matchup between Kerry and Bush has already prompted comparisons of the senator’s record in Vietnam and the president’s domestic service in the National Guard. And the two Yale graduates, both members of the secret society Skull and Bones, appeared set to square off in future months under the specter of the ongoing war in Iraq."

It sounds to me like the Illuminati have their men in place. Now, does it really matter which one of the two they choose?

audio post — MoveOn.org, a pro-Democrat website, has launched a brand-new media campaign. The ad is called called "Morning in America", and it addresses some important issues which will ring true to many Americans. However, the ad fails to deliver truth in several ways.

"It's morning in America, where George Bush's policies have left millions of Americans unable to meet the rising cost of healthcare."

Obviously, the health care crisis has been created for us, so that the solution of socialized medicine could become a reality. The policies that led to this crisis started long before George W. Bush was president and merely continued under his administration.

The "policies" that the Democrats at MoveOn.org would like to see implemented to enable Americans to "meet the rising cost of healthcare", are socialistic policies, which would further empower government and aggravate the existing crisis.

Socialism never solves any problems; it only manages them. It creates new, bigger problems, which in turn provides pretense for more socialism.

"It's morning in Iraq, where George Bush's war has already cost America over 500 lives, and more than one-hundred fifty billion dollars."

While the statements against the war have merit, the ad is misleading. While Bush is profiting from the war, it is NOT "Bush's war". It is the war of Communism upon the free world.

Bush is a puppet leader, following orders that are dictated to him by the Ruling Elite. Just as Bill Clinton was, just as every other president in our life time was, Bush is controlled by the Communists.

"It's morning on Mars, where George Bush wants to spend billions, instead of taking care of our problems here on Earth."

Again, the point is excellent about the extension of the space program and the associated costs at a time when Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and are struggling to feed themselves.

However, my question to the folks at MoveOn.org is, if you don't believe in Republican tax and spend practices, why don't you extend your criticism to Bush's proposal to increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts? That too, is an expensive government program that has delivered to us such wonderful masterpieces as Andres Serrano's crucifix submerged in a vat of urine that he called "Piss Christ".

It also has given us such glorious performances as radical leftist-feminist and prostitute Annie Sprinkle, who performed at New York's Kitchen Theatre, inviting audience members to inspect her vagina with a flashlight. And all of it was on the taxpayers' tab, thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts. As Sprinkle stated: "Tonight it's government-funded!"

Why don't you extend your criticism to Bush's recent plan to spend $1.5 billion on a new government program that would attempt to teach people how to be good spouses?

They won't advocate defunding the arts, or defunding abortion, because that would upset liberal socialists. They won't come out against the Bush "healthy marriage" plan, because that would upset the conservative socialists.

MoveOn.org may make a few good noises in their commercials, but the fact is that they are just another flavor of the same brand of socialist trash. And if a new day is ever to dawn in America, it will only be when we put socialism to bed forever.

Otherwise, instead enjoying "morning in America", we'll be mourning for America — the America we once knew.

House Majority Leader, Tom Delay has given all Americans a late Christmas present.

The Washington Post is reporting that the House of Representatives has scheduled the lightest legislative load in 40 years.

"Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has put aside 94 days for the House to be in session this year, compared with 135 days in 2000, the last presidential election year.

"'What it says to me is that the majority, together with the White House and the president, has neither any expectation nor interest in a highly productive session of Congress,' said Thomas E. Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution."

To be perfectly honest, I believe Congress has already done us enough damage. Frankly, I think we'd all be better off if they weren't in session. They certainly aren't doing their Constitutional duties. The more they are in session, the more our liberties are threatened.

Now, if we could only figure out how to get Bush and all of the spooks who control him to take some significant time off, then we could work on getting the judges to take extended breaks. Then maybe we'd at least slow down the erosion of our country. Any ideas?

From Wired.com

Six electronic voting machines used in two North Carolina counties lost 436 absentee ballot votes in the 2002 general election because of a software problem, raising increasing doubts about the accuracy and integrity of voting equipment in a presidential election year.

Election Systems & Software said problems with the firmware of its iVotronic touch-screen machines, used in a trial run, lost ballots in two North Carolina precincts during the state's early voting in 2002. ES&S, the largest U.S. maker of election equipment, is also the focus of attention into lost votes last month in Florida during a special election.

ES&S, Diebold Election Systems and other electronic voting-machine makers are coming under increasing scrutiny about the accuracy of their devices. The manufacturers claim their machines work fine and don't need auditing mechanisms -- like printers that would give voters receipts confirming their choices. But opponents are finding more and more anecdotal evidence of discrepancies and anomalies. In addition, more election officials and losing candidates are raising concerns as all U.S. counties move to replace mechanical devices with computer-controlled touch screens.

Our elections are being hijacked. And if this continues, we will lose control of our government at the state and local level.

The federal government is already out of control. But the state and local levels of government are our only in-roads to making a difference for the preservation of our rights.

Computerized voting will strip us of our rights, by making it really easy to manipulate local elections. It must be resisted!

From the New Order of the Barbarians, An Insider Spills the Beans:

"Anyhow, the new system would be brought in, if not by peaceful cooperation – everybody willingly yielding national sovereignty – then by bringing the nation to the brink of nuclear war. And everybody would be so fearful as hysteria is created by the possibility of nuclear war that there would be a strong public outcry to negotiate a public peace and people would willingly give up national sovereignty in order to achieve peace, and thereby this would bring in the New International Political System.

"This was stated and very impressive thing to hear then... 'If there were too many people in the right places who resisted this, there might be a need to use one or two – possibly more – nuclear weapons. As it was put this would be possibly needed to convince people that we mean business.'

"That was followed by the statement that, 'By the time one or two of those went off then everybody – even the most reluctant – would yield.'

"He said something about 'this negotiated peace would be very convincing,' as kind of in a framework or in a context that the whole thing was rehearsed but nobody would know it. People hearing about it would be convinced that it was a genuine negotiation between hostile enemies who finally had come to the realization that peace was better than war.

"In this context discussing war, and war is obsolete, a statement was made that there were some good things about war... one, you're going to die anyway, and people sometimes in war get a chance to display great courage and heroism and if they die they've died well and if they survive they get recognition. So that in any case, the hardships of war on soldiers are worth it because that's the reward they get out of their warring.

"Another justification expressed for war was, if you think of the many millions of casualties in WWI and WWII, well… suppose all those people had not died but had continued to live, then continued to have babies. There would be millions upon millions and we would already be overpopulated, so those two great wars served a benign purpose in delaying over-population."

From the Associated Press news wire:

Port Isabel, Texas-AP — For one small Texas town, today is a
bittersweet mix of grief and patriotism. That's after a ceremony
made Private David Cuervo a U-S citizen, one month after he was
killed in Iraq. Cuervo's mother says she's proud of her son's
sacrifice.

Mothers: Quit sending your babies to fight and die in a needless war! If you need reasons not to let them go, get them here.

If that isn't enough, here's more.

Having your children die, fighting to advance an agenda of world-wide totalitarianism is not something of which to be proud. You have the responsibility as parents to protect them. Whatever you have to do, don't let them go!

I'm not a pacifist. If the cause was just, and in the interest of the American people, then the fighting would be noble.

But American soldiers are being used as pawns in the war for a one world socialist government. And any deaths to further that cause, are senseless and garnished with shame.

"In defense of the World Order, U.S. Soldiers would have to kill and die. ... We are not going to achieve a new world order, without paying for it in blood, as well as in words and money." — July/August 1993 - Foreign Affairs article titled, "Back to the Womb" by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Sloppy accounting practices and a lack of accountability plague the United States Forest Service, according to an article in the Independent Record.

"While the Forest Service's recent accounting problems may have grabbed Montana's attention, difficulties with balancing their checkbook is nothing new for the federal agency.

"In fact, other than in the past two years, the Forest Service hasn't had a clean audit in the past decade. A report released last year by the General Accounting Office notes that historically, the Forest Service hasn't been able to provide Congress or the public 'with a clear understanding of what the Forest Service's 30,000 employees accomplish with the approximately $5 billion the agency receives every year.'

"And although the federal agency says it is taking significant steps toward resolving accountability problems, the GAO's office said the Forest Service has made 'little real progress' and remains years away from implementing a credible accounting system."

Is anyone surprised? These federal agencies do not have to worry about how the money is squandered. There's plenty more from where it came. There is always the deep pockets of the American taxpayer from which to draw. When it isn't your money, you aren't near as concerned about accountability.

Why do we even need these federal agencies? Do we need a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controlling 261 million acres of our land. That's 261,000,000 acres that neither you nor your children can ever live on, or use for any reason.

As long as these agencies exist, they will always increase their size and budget. For example, a quick trip to the BLM website yields the following headline: BLM Proposes $1.7 Billion for FY 2005 Budget To Enhance Multiple-Use Management through Conservation Partnerships.

It reads:

"To promote conservation partnerships that enhance its multiple-use management of the public lands, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today proposed a Fiscal Year 2005 budget of $1.7 billion. The BLM's FY 2005 budget proposal, which is a $53 million programmatic increase over the FY 2004 enacted level of funding, would provide increases of $4.8 million for the agency's resource-restoration Challenge Cost Share program and $3.2 million for its sage-grouse conservation and restoration efforts. The budget request also includes increases of $5.6 million for land acquisition and $4 million for monitoring the implementation of new land-use plans. The Bureau's 2005 budget proposal redirects $10.5 million for management of the more than 39,000 wild horses and burros that roam the public lands. Through a combination of new funds and redirected funds, the budget proposes an increase of $12 million to improve the health of forest lands in western Oregon." —Emphasis that of D.W.

Notice that the BLM isn't interested in just managing the land they currently control. No, they have to acquire more land. And they are using American tax dollars to buy the land from Americans who then have to pay for it's management, and are not allowed to use it. The more land the federal agencies buy, the less Americans have to own.

If there are any special areas of land that might need special protection, such as the Grand Canyon, that can be handled by state governments, legislatively. There would be local control, and the decision-makers would be accountable to the voters — not unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats.

The Independent Record notes that both the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service have had problems keeping track of money. The Forest Service has sent out several wrong bills to the state of Montana. Luckily, for residents there, the state has a review process which checks the bills and catches at least some of the errors.

Bob Harrington is a state forester. He says that the review of the federal agency's bills are necessary, due to routine overbilling.

"We do that (the reviews) because of the history, that every year there have been elements of those bills that were charges that were either mistakenly charged to the fire or weren't legitimate fire costs for us," Harrington said. "This year, I think that as the result of their new (computer) software, there were additional problems."

As long as the states will pay these federal bills, it is to the advantage of the agencies to keep the process "sloppy". And the difficult part of the equation is that these agencies are run by unelected bureaucrats who are not accountable. A lack of accountability equals a lack of concern.

And the people who ultimately are hurt are always the taxpayer. Because as far as federal agencies like the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service are concerned, taxpayer dollars grow on trees. And there are plenty of trees in the forest.

The Russian bear is waking from its long hibernation.

As the United States has targeted the globe purportedly looking for bogeymen, the "former" Soviet Union is set to conduct an all-out nuclear military exercise that is reminiscent of the Cold War, and will be overseen personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Associated Press reports that the exercises are "apparently aimed at demonstrating the revival of the nation's military might and come ahead of Russian elections in March."

Quoting:

"Kommersant said the maneuvers would involve Tu-160 strategic bombers test-firing cruise missiles over the northern Atlantic. Analysts describe such an exercise as an imitation of a nuclear attack on the United States. (Emphasis of D.W.)

"Other groups of bombers will fly over Russia's Arctic regions and test-fire missiles at a southern range near the Caspian Sea, the newspaper said.

"As part of the exercise, the military is planning to conduct several launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, including one from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, the Kommersant report said. ...

"Putin has repeatedly pledged to rebuild Russia's military might and restore pride to the demoralized service. When he ran for his first term in 2000, he flew as a second pilot in a fighter jet and later donned naval officer's garb on a visit to a nuclear submarine — images that played well with many voters who are nostalgic for Soviet global power and military prestige."

We are pretending that Russia is no longer a threat to the United States. We are told that Communism is dead in the "former" Soviet Union.

At the same time, we are funding Communist China, giving them the wealth to rebuild their military as they form partnerships with Russia.

On July 16, 2001, Russia and China signed a friendship treaty which encompassed five major areas of cooperation. According to the Heritage Foundation — which I do not endorse, but will cite as a source for the following — the five areas of the treaty entailed:

Joint action to offset U.S. hegemonism

Demarcation of the two countries' long-disputed 4,300 km border

Arms sales and technology transfers

Energy and raw materials supply

The rise of "militant Islam" in Central Asia

The last point will likely be the reason for the treaty, given for Western consumption.

Reaction to the treaty by the Bush Administration was an exercise in impotence, attempting to downplay the significance of the agreement. Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, writing in the Russian publication Pravda, quoted administration officials and Washington insiders' complacent reactions to the new partnership:

"Another unnamed White House official stated that although Russia and China have known each other since the 14th century, they have only been friends in the last 40 years, although exactly what the author of that statement intended is unclear, as so often these days in Washington.

"The reaction from Robert Suettinger, a supposed expert in Chinese matters, is equally surprising, both for its lack of content and its plain insolence. Speaking about 'old ways of thinking', he stated 'This shows us what is the classical Leninist thought v let's make a friendship pact. It shows that in both capitals there is still preference for this type of analysis.'

"Suettinger did not stop at this. 'Conventional common sense,' he continues, 'implies that we are more important to either one of them than they are for each other and that there is no reason for worry.' Finally, he stated that the notion of the USA being a unipolar hegemony is a 'myth'.

"Nicholas Lard, of the Brookings Institute, declares that 'Russia has become less and less important for China since the 1980s' and that the weakness in economic relations between the two countries 'will become greater and greater'."

Finally, Hinchey concluded:

"Reading these statements by top officials, supposedly some of the most responsible men in their country, one wonders whether the Bush administration has been struck by some form of collective madness. One has only to look at any list showing Russia and China's economic records in recent years to see that here are two of the world's most powerful nations, standing together. These statements by supposed experts demonstrate such a total degree of ignorance that one begins to wonder whether or not the USA is a serious country run by serious people.

"Such statements by Washington do nothing to dispel the notion that the US diplomacy under the administration of George W. Bush leaves much to be desired and does not bring to the USA the dignity which its people deserve."

This is the official Russian media essentially stating that our governmental leaders and their advisors are an insult to the dignity of the American people. However, Hinchey's assertion that the nose-thumbing by U.S. governmental leaders is the result of "ignorance" doesn't posses the ring of truth for this observer. Rather, I believe it is the demonstration of a much more ominous reality.

That Bush and all of the foreign policy experts who advise him could somehow be ignorant of the gravity of the Chinese-Russian threat, fails to operate in the realm of likelihood.

The partnership between Russia and China — and the revival of the Russian threat — are a serious crisis alone. When coupled with the numerous military base closures in the United States — and the global war on terror, which is creating a vacuum in the American defense — the crisis culminates to a catastrophe waiting to happen.

The war on terror is creating world-wide resentment against the United States, and threatens to alienate American allies.

Further complicating the situation, is the entanglement of the U.S. economy with that of communist China. Under international trade agreements, the United States has lost much of its industrial backbone to China and Mexico. The result has been a lower standard of living for the American people and huge American trade deficits.

Former Democratic Congressman James Trafficant commented on December 5, 2000 on the House floor:

"Mr. Speaker, America's trade deficit for September hit $35 billion for one month, $35 billion. America is heading for a $420 billion, 1-year trade deficit. Unbelievable! If this continues, America will have a crash that will make 1929 look like a fender-bender. What is even worse, China is now taking $100 billion of cash out of our economy, buying missiles, and pointing them at us. Beam us up, all of us! We must be stupid! Ronald Reagan almost destroyed Communism, and the Clinton administration has reinvented it, is now subsidizing it, and is now stabilizing it. I yield back any common sense left and any patriotism left in this Congress."

Mr. Trafficant gives Reagan more credit than he deserves. For it appears now that Communism was never really destroyed in Russia. But the bear was merely placed into hibernation, to be awakened at the proper moment.

And as Trafficant pointed out, the trade imbalance with Communist China is aiding that country in rebuilding its military infrastructure, as it and Russia are actively preparing for a war with the United States.

The darkest side to all of this is that a military engagement with China appears to be exactly what the Bush administration wants. That intent was spelled out in the Project For a New American Century (PNAC) report, written prior to the 2000 election for the soon-to-be Bush administration. In the report, China was one of several countries that was marked for "regime change". Obviously, there will be no U.S.-inspired regime change in China, without a war.

As the United States military continues to span the globe, overthrowing governments and killing innocent men, women, and children under the false pretense of fighting "terror", the chilling and inescapable suspicion at home is that we are being led into a third and final world war — a war that the U.S. cannot and will not win. A war that is designed to be lost. A war without merit, it's sole purpose being to usher in a new world order.

When and if that happens, the real losers will be anyone with breath left in their lungs. For death by far would be sweeter than living under world-wide Communism.