I have always maintained that studying the JFK assassination is crucial to understanding many of the subsequent “deep events” in American history. Everybody should have at least a “Top 5″ of JFK assassination books in their personal library. The subject of this review should be one of those “Top 5″. Author Joan Mellen’s
A Farewell To Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK’s Assassination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History is a truly epic read. It is not a book about Dealy Plaza, or photographic analysis, or ballistics tests, or anything of that nature.
A Farewell to Justice
is primarily about New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison’s investigation and court case that served as the basis for the 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK.

Mellen’s vast book makes Stone’s otherwise admirable film (even the extended 2003 Director’s Cut) seem like a mere highlights reel. After the usual Acknowledgements and Preface sections, we begin proceedings with a list of historical personages — a Cast of Characters — that runs SEVEN PAGES in length. Further complicating matters is the fact that many of the listed people used aliases (sometimes more than one), and this becomes apparent as you read through the book.

Garrison began his investigation after a March 1965 Esquire magazine article refuting the claims of the official Warren Commission Report had sparked his interest. He then spent the bulk of 1966 reading the entire Warren Report and other literature that called into question the government claims of Lee Harvey Oswald as lone assassin. Garrison began his investigation in earnest by October 1966.

The reader is taken through a thoroughly labyrinthine world of New Orleans politics, FBI and CIA surveillance of the Garrison probe, subpoened witnessess, lie detector tests, double agents, Cubans, cops, Bourbon Street characters, the homosexual underground, road trips to rural Louisiana, false leads, promising leads, sudden deaths, etc. ad infinitum. There is so much going on in Mellen’s account of the Garrison investigation that it is almost too much to absorb.

The footnotes are gigantic — nearly a quarter of the thickness of the book. Many of these footnotes are the usual article or government document citations, but others read as follows:
“p. 329, line 15: Boasberg confides in Jim McPherson: Interview with Jim McPherson, January 9, 2000.” It becomes obvious very quickly that Mellen spent a lot of time in the field in the late 90’s and early 00’s tracking down and interviewing many of those involved in Garrison’s ever widening probe of JFK’s death. In this way Mellen has supplemented Garrison’s work with efforts of her own. In some ways, this book is a sequel to Jim Garrison’s own account from 1988 On the Trail of the Assassins: My Investigation and Prosecution of the Murder of President Kennedy.

Numerous stories concerning the target of the Garrison investigation, New Orleans socialite and businessman Clay Shaw, turn up in the form of witness interviews taken at Garrison’s office. Often we are taken to marathon lunch sessions at New Orleans restaurants were Garrison liked to discuss things in a more informal setting, either with his staff or potential sources of information. A picture begins to come into view: Shaw is seen with the bizarro, bewigged, fake-eyebrowed, contract pilot David Ferrie. Shaw is spotted with Lee Harvey Oswald. The three are seen together. The three are seen together in the company of militant Cubans. Clay Shaw is spotted in the company of known homosexuals. Oswald is seen handing out communist leaflets on the streets of New Orleans. Then Oswald is seen in the company of ex-FBI man Guy Banister - a fervant anti-communist. And so the story rolls on . . .

A large portion of the text is given over to the investigation of Jim Garrison’s investigation by government plants and spooks. Infiltration by initially enlightening witnessess often turns into disinformation and confusion for Garrison’s staff. Honest witnessess are blackmailed or discredited. Key witnessess turn up dead. Even members of Garrison’s own staff quit or turn on him.

The actual trial is a relatively short portion of the book. The proceedings of the State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw finally concluded on March 1, 1969 with a “not guilty” verdict. The remainder of the book is a sort of post-trial Jim Garrison biography and general follow-up. Garrison never stopped discussing the JFK assassination. The finale of his life was a cameo appearrance in the Stone film JFK. Sadly, Garrison had begun to slip into dementia by the time the film was released and was unable to comment on it. Mellen’s book goes a long way towards vindicating both Garrison’s heroic efforts on behalf of the American people, and Oliver Stone’s excellent cinematic presentation of the same.

In addition to some new information on Lee Harvey Oswald we are also treated to a gigantic bombshell at the end of the book that I will not spoil. The information on a certain obscure person that Mellen uncovers is exclusive to this book as far as I know. If true, and it seems likely to be, it all but proves an U.S. intelligence connection to President Kennedy’s assassination.

A Farewell to Justice
is extremely tough reading and at times a tad boring. It’s like your brain is a machete and the pages of the book are a dense rain forest. But it is well worth the trek.

Published by Potomac Books, Inc. 2005, Paperback Edition 2007. 547 pages in length, also includes 32 pages of black and white photographs.

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The new Alex Jones documentary has been released and it’s . . . not bad. Those already familiar with the work of Austin, TX-based infowarrior Alex Jones will no doubt watch this new documentary no matter what I - or anybody else - has to say about it. And you should. Everybody should watch it, really.

The Obama Deception has many strengths. Among them are appearances from a diverse array of expert voices, a concise run through of recent events (economic collapse, bailouts, Obama’s ever-altering campaign promises), a solid history lesson on the oligarchical forces that rule us, and the usual positive encouragement to activism from Mr. Jones.

There are some weaknesses in this latest doc outing, as well. More on that later.

We hear quite extensively from author Webster G. Tarpley. He has already managed to write not one, but two books on Barak H. Obama. Tarpley offers his typically insightful post-Larouche analysis on the Wall St. finance capitalists that have become successful in getting a virtual stranglehold on the American political system. He mentions that Obama’s entire cabinet is filled with proxy men from Wall St. and the banking sector. No Big Labor, no auto industry people, nobody from any traditionally populist causes.

The famed economic forecaster Gerald Celente throws in street-tough advice about the continued economic slide we find ourselves in. Celente offers no sympathy for those who have been fooled by the Obama rhetoric, nor for anyone not now preparing for what he has called elsewhere “The Greatest Depression”. We best heed this sparkplug from New York’s advice.

The guy who really steals the show is beloved rap music icon KRS-ONE. He offers the most cogent, no bull****, straight-up, incisive metaphor on the Obama administration and American politics in general. I.E., if America were a fast food joint, you can complain to the cashier (court system), and even the manager (Supreme Court), but you’ll never get an audience with the franchise owner (Federal Reserve, good old boy networks, entrenched oligarchy, etc.). I always knew you where a smart dude Chris Parker. It is very telling to see such a radical (black) activist as KRS-ONE stating unequivocal doubt about the Obama administration. They’ve just “put a black face on the New World Order”, as he says.

How about some Ron Paul? Surely, he and Alex have a good enough relationship for at least one quick interview and comments section - yes? No. But, we do get his brother Wayne Paul at a anti-Federal Reserve rally. Mr. Wayne Paul offers us a quick history lesson on how the Federal Reserve essentially bankrupted the United States in twenty years time from 1914 to the 1930’s. Paul also mentions that we have been living under a state of emergency - still technically in place - since that time.

Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich shows up in a handful of C-SPAN clips, the most memorable being his grilling of Neil Kashkari during the bailout hearings last year. Kashkari looks like a stand-in for the resurrected evil pharoah from the Brendan Frasier Mummy movies, complete with piercing glare and glistening bald head. It’s very nice to see an unapologetic leftist like Kucinich get some presence in an Alex Jones documentary.

Professor Griff of rap icons Public Enemy, author and researcher George Humphrey, Alex himself, and others also contribute to the truth-telling in the Obama Deception.

The primary flaw of the Obama Deception is, however, the obvious fact that it is a rush job. Couldn’t have Alex & Co. waited until the summer to release the film? They could have included all the events of the First 100 Days of the new presidency. The rushed nature of the production results in the following omissions, errors, and general weaknesses:

1.) Virtually no mention of Obama’s strange biography. Webster Tarpley is sitting right there! He’s written two books on the guy - ask him some questions about Obama’s background, Alex!

2.) No mention whatsoever of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel’s deep ties to the state of Israel. Nor was there any mention of the Israeli lobby’s role in influencing some of Obama’s appointments.

3.) A few name-date sort of errors. The most prominent of which involves a quote from Barry Goldwater’s memoirs in which he voices opposition to the Trilateral Commission. The date given for the quote is 1964 - but the TC did not become active until 1973. But these sorts of errors are minor, and again, can be chalked up to the round-the-clock rush job that Alex Jones and his staff put into making the Obama Deception.

The bottom line: see it. But longtime AJ fans should not expect another Terrorstorm or Endgame. Perhaps there will be an expanded edition of The Obama Deception in the coming months that will fill in some of the gaps. That would be most welcome.

In front of the camera, the two pushed the button together in a symbolic effort to show they share a desire for improved relations. Full Story

The Associated Press would like Americans to believe that our representatives have no clue what they are doing.  Judging from comments on the various message forums Americans are gullibly buying the simplistic explanation that our State department supposedly doesn’t know how to translate the word “reset” into Russian.  Nonsense!  The Russian word peregruzka appears at the top of the button, spelled in latin letters. If this was meant to be a literal translation, why would the letters be in Latin?  The english translation for this word is “overload” and anyone that knows how to type a few letters into an online translation website can easily figrue that much out.  An english word appears below the button and that word is “reset”.  These words do very much make sense together: when something is overloaded (like a circuit), you reset it.

The question I pose to you, dear reader, is what exactly is “overloaded”?  Perhaps the earth’s population?  And if that is the inside joke, no wonder its so funny for everyone except the American media who sat confused while the rest of the convention yucked it up heartily.  Afterall the American media was also too blind to report on the fact that weaponized deadly flu was unleashed last week by Baxter International (an American Corporation with a former Marine General sitting on their Board of Directors) from one of their labs just west of the former Soviet Union, in the Czech Republic.  A dead ferret is all the difference between biological armageddon and just another day on planet earth.

So while the Masters of the Universe joke about pushing the red button the American public remains childishly naive about world affairs.  Come to think of it, that is pretty damn funny.