Mack White

And Now A Word from Art Acevedo

2009-09-18T15:45:00.007-05:00

We awoke to a loud noise this morning in Austin. It shook the very ground. At first I thought it was a thunderclap. I looked up into the sky. But no, the sky was clear.

Then I thought it might be an explosion, a terrorist attack or something. But no, it wasn’t that either.

What was it?

It was the sound of Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo stamping his little foot and saying he’s not going to take it anymore.

What's got his panties all in a tangle? Quoting from the Austin American-Statesman:

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo says he and some of his officers have been harassed, lied about and had their identities falsely used in online blogs and in reader comment sections on local media Internet sites.

They've had enough.

In a meeting this month with department brass, Acevedo and the group discussed how they think such posts erode public trust in the department and how they have been wrongly maligned.

They have since researched their legal options and decided that from now on, they might launch formal investigations into such posts, Acevedo said. He said investigators might seek search warrants or subpoenas from judges to learn the identities of the authors — he thinks some could be department employees — and possibly sue them for libel or file charges if investigators think a crime was committed.

"A lot of my people feel it is time to take these people on," Acevedo said. "They understand the damage to the organization, and quite frankly, when people are willfully misleading and lying, they are pretty much cowards anyway because they are doing so under the cloak of anonymity …"

The first thought that comes to my mind upon reading this is that the Austin Police Department does so good a job damaging its own reputation it needs no help from the public. I mean, why should anyone post an idiotic comment under Art Acevedo’s name when he makes enough idiotic comments on his own?

Here's another thing that concerns me ...

The Austin Police Department solves roughly 12% of all reported crimes. That's not so good, but it's better than zero percent, which is what it will be with the cops spending their time and resources tracking down people who write mean things about them.

Just for the record, I've never written anything anonymously in my life. All my criticisms of the cops, politicians, and what-have-you have been written and published under my own name.

But now I'm thinking that might not be such a good idea. It might even be dangerous. Cops are so crazy these days you never know what they might do—and Art Acevedo in particular is so sensitive ...

Why, if he were to read this blog, there’s no telling what he might do. He might even hit me with his purse.

I can't take the chance. Therefore, I'm signing this blog post as…

Your obedient public servant,
Art Acevedo

PsiOp Radio #87

2009-09-07T11:21:00.002-05:00

Click the above to hear (and watch!) last week's show. Thanks to our friend Floyd Anderson for posting the show with the great visuals.

SMiles Lewis and I took a break this week from the show to celebrate Labor Day, but we'll be back LIVE next Sunday, 7 pm Central, on American Freedom Radio ...

"He Didn't Break Nothin'" - Update on Taser Story

2009-06-09T19:26:00.004-05:00

Update on the Travis County Taser Story:

Sgt. Major Gary Griffin, Travis County Constable’s Office Precinct 3, applauded Deputy Chris Bieze's actions by saying he “didn't break nothin’.” (LINK)

You got that? Bieze didn't break nothin'. That's good. I'm glad he didn't break nothin'. We're all glad. Would've been too bad if he'd broke somethin'.

When Griffin said this, he was making the point that the woman should be glad Bieze used a Taser instead of a nightstick. People get hurt by nightsticks, you see, whereas it don't hurt people none at all hardly to get hit by a Taser, nor break nothin' neither.

It is revealed in the same story that Bieze is the Taser instructor for Precinct 3. Presumably, then, as the precinct’s resident authority on Tasers, he is aware of the potentially harmful effect of sending 50,000 volts of electricity into the neck of an elderly woman, to say nothing of the injury she might have suffered falling to the ground.

Yet he did it anyway!

You will recall that, earlier in the confrontation, Bieze shoved the woman—shoved her so hard it knocked her backwards a step or two, and could have easily knocked her down and broke somethin'. This was done for her safety, Bieze later said, to get her away from the traffic.

Which sounds dubious to me. Is this how you would have ushered an elderly woman away from traffic. Take the test below to compare your handling of the situation to the way Deputy Bieze handled it. It’s multiple choice, so it should be easy …

(1) You’re a cop. You’re trained to deal with the public. You pull over an elderly woman for speeding. She’s upset, refuses to sign the ticket. You order her out of the car. Once she’s out of the car, you realize you need to usher her away from the traffic for her safety. You have three choices. You can: (1) calmly explain why she needs to move and gently place your hand on her shoulder, (2) scream in her face and punch her violently in the shoulder, or (3) stick your thumb up your butt, waddle back to the squad car, and cram another donut into your fat swinish face.

(2) You’re a cop dealing with an upset elderly woman. You’ve just made the situation worse by screaming at her and shoving her. You’re also the precinct’s Taser instructor. You know that Tasering an elderly woman could cause cardiac arrest or that she could hurt herself and break somethin' in the fall. Faced with the dilemma of how to get her to comply with an order, you have four choices. You can: (1) Taser her anyway and hope you don’t break nothin’, (2) use your nightstick and hope you don’t break nothin’, (3) stop barking orders and try using the calm tone of voice one usually uses when dealing with agitated, elderly, or infirm persons, or (4) radio headquarters with your immediate resignation and get a job more suited to your abilities, such as shoveling shit at the dog pound.

(3) You’re a cop. You have just Tasered a 72-year-old grandmother. All the bad choices in your miserable, worthless, futile, pointless, rotten life have led up to this unfortunate moment. What can you do now to redeem yourself? You have three choices. You can: (1) render aid to the screaming injured woman who for all you know, might've broke somethin’ when she fell, (2) continue to bark orders and threaten her with more Taserings even though it is now impossible for her to move, or (3) take out your Taser, pull down your pants, and shoot yourself in the ass, you fucking idiot.

Roadside Torture: Official Policy of Travis Co. Sheriff's Department

2009-06-09T13:48:00.003-05:00

I defy anyone to watch this video and give me one good reason why Travis County Deputy Chris Bieze was justified in Tasering a 72-year-old grandmother during a traffic stop.

Yes, she was argumentative. Yes, she failed to comply with the officer's order. But does this justify use of the Taser?

Originally, Tasers were intended to be used by police only in situations where a gun might otherwise be used--that is, in situations where lives might be in danger. Rule of thumb: If a situation doesn't require a gun, it shouldn't require a Taser.

And yet, increasingly, police are using the Taser not in dangerous situations, but simply to enforce compliance.

In the video, the situation is under control at first. Then the woman refuses to sign the speeding ticket. This, of course, is her right.

Deputy Bieze then orders her out of the car. This is his right.

She argues with him, which may not be smart, but it is her right.

Bieze responds by screaming in her face and shoving her backwards. This is not his right.

Later, he will say he shoved her for her own safety, to get her out of the traffic. But it is quite apparent that the shove was not kindly meant.

You know the kind of shove. It is the same shove that has started many a bar fight—a hard shove, a bullying shove, ugly, vicious, violent, and mean, nothing nice about it.

And it escalates the situation, of course. The woman gets angrier. So angry that she gets in his face, saying, “You’re gonna’ push me? A 72-year-old woman?”

This, by the way, is her right. She has been physically assaulted by this "man," and is well within her rights to object, whether the bully who shoved her is in uniform or not.

A few minutes pass, during which time Bieze talks on his radio. She stands there quietly, arms folded. Bieze orders her to stand back. She continues to stand right where she is, arms folded. Again, not a good idea, but is it a threat to the officer’s safety? Of course not.

Bieze next tries to grab her arms in order to handcuff her. She pulls away. Again, not a good idea, but is it a threat? No, it is not. This isn't a 35-year-old, 200-pound maniac high on PCP. This is a 72-year-old woman pulling away, not attacking. Only the most pathetic, sissy-pants baby could feel threatened in this situation.

Bieze threatens her with the Taser. She dares him to try it. Again, not a good idea, but again, no credible threat to the officer's safety.

In short order, Bieze removes the Taser from his belt and zaps her—a great-grandmother, mind you—with enough electricity to send her flying backwards to the ground.

And then, while she’s lying there screaming, Bieze orders her once again to put her hands behind her back.

Now, perhaps, until now you've seen some justification for Bieze's actions. But where is the justification now? How is she still a threat? And how, exactly, is she going to obey the order while she is paralyzed with pain?

Between screams, she manages to choke out the words that she cannot comply with the order, and somehow—by a miracle of God, I guess—this maniac Bieze manages to get a grip on himself and decides to stop torturing her.

Which is a good thing, because a lot of cops don’t stop Tasering someone after they’re down. They’ll keep on and on Tasering three, four, five, six, a dozen, fifteen, twenty times, until they get tired of it, or the victim dies.

Is this the kind of society we want? A society that sanctions the roadside torture of elderly women for not following orders?

It's not the kind of society I want, but apparently it's what the Travis County Sheriff’s Department wants, because in the video a department spokesman actually defends Bieze’s actions.

This tells us all we need to know about the Travis County Sheriff's Department: roadside torture is official policy and everyone—even little old ladies—are fair game.

This does not make me feel safe. In fact, I think we would be safer without police if this how they serve and protect.

Sneak Preview: "Roadside Hell"

2009-06-03T19:38:00.008-05:00

A sneak preview of my latest story, "Roadside Hell," coming soon in Hotwire 3 from Fantagraphics ...

Best of PsiOp Radio: What a Police State Doesn't Look Like

2009-06-03T11:49:00.003-05:00

(Wow, looking at this video and the photo of me, I realize how huge I was last year in London when that picture was taken. Would you believe, I've lost nearly 50 pounds since then? It's true. Fifty pounds is a lot of hamburger meat to carry around. Suffice to say, I feel better and look better--and I owe it all to the No-Alcohol Diet. Which I recommend to anyone.)

Best of PsiOp Radio: Talking about Torture

2009-06-03T11:46:00.000-05:00

Return of the Son of the Bride of Blog Monster

2009-06-03T09:27:00.003-05:00

Just thought I’d step into the blog for a moment and open the windows, air the place out, sweep out some of the dust and cobwebs.

Wow, it’s been a while. Haven’t posted anything here since January

Is anyone still checking this blog? I know a few people are because they’ve written asking if my health issues are the reason for the state of suspended animation this blog has been in the past few months. The answer is yes, to some degree.

The phlebotomies don’t incapacitate me, but I do have less energy, therefore can’t do as much as before I started the treatment. So, with a big, new, full-color comic on the drawing board the past few months, something had to be set on the backburner and it was the blog, unfortunately.

However, over the last few months, I did manage to microblog on Twitter. But anything longer than 140 characters, no.

I also managed to carve out time from my schedule for PsiOp Radio on Sunday night—and a good thing. Listenership has increased and the show has gotten better and better. We’re carried on American Freedom Radio and enjoying our association with those fine folks.

If you can’t catch our show live, go to the archives. Also, you can hear “Best of PsiOp Radio” excerpts on YouTube now. I’ll post those here shortly.

Also, coming up soon on this blog will be a sneak preview of the big comix project that’s kept me so busy: “Roadside Hell.” It will be published in the next volume of Hotwire, due out later this summer, I think. I’ll find out the exact publication date and post it here.

Something else I did recently was sign up for Facebook. I was able to post a few things (mainly status reports about how god-awful hard I was working), but now have the time to have more fun with Facebook. Looking forward to it.

Also looking forward to my next project, which I’ll talk about later. I’ve made a commitment to myself, however, that I’m going to work at it on a more reasonable pace than I did this last project. No more all-nighters. No more nervous exhaustion—which I’m still feel a little, three days later. NOT FUN. Never again. I should be taking better care of myself than that, and will.

That’s all for now. I gotta' take my Vitamin B and ginseng tea. Will return shortly. This blog is BACK, baby …

Tonight Live: Psi-Op Radio

2009-01-11T16:55:00.002-06:00

Tonight, January 11, SMiles and I will host another live edition of PsiOp Radio ...

The show starts at 7 pm CST / 0100 UTC. You can listen on line via these networks:

Freedom Underground Radio

Anomaly Radio

Revere Radio

LIVE TONIGHT: Psi-Op Radio

2009-01-04T17:01:00.003-06:00

It's a big night for PsiOp Radio ...

Tonight, we start our new Sunday schedule. Instead of Tuesdays, we will now be doing the show on Sunday nights. Same time, 7-9 pm CST.

Also, tonight, we debut on Freedom Underground Radio. This great new network, born out of the ashes of We The People Radio Network, features a great line-up of hosts, including my good friend Jack Blood. Tonight, SMiles Lewis and I are proud to join them.

Our show will still be carried on Anomaly Radio and Revere Radio, bringing to three the number of networks where you can hear us live.

Remember, the show begins at 7 pm CST / 0100 UTC. I don't know for sure, but I think we will be able to take calls tonight. Here are the links where you can listen:

Freedom Underground Radio

Anomaly Radio

Revere Radio

The Coming Year: Panic or Paradise?

2009-01-02T18:47:00.012-06:00

Warm today in Central Texas … high blue skies … traffic humming outside on the highway … inside it’s quiet … the last round of holiday merry-making has ended … 2009 is two days old …

We start 2009 with the same war we had this time last year. We have a new president, but will he end the war? Expectations are low.

We also start 2009 with a financial crisis—the worst since the Great Depression, we are told, so bad we have not even begun to feel its effects. A complete collapse of the system, utter ruin, massive deprivation, panic, calamity, riots, martial law, concentration camps, genocide, all await us in the coming year.

Well, maybe it won’t be as bad as all that. I sure hope not …

Meanwhile, in my personal life, what a year it’s been—I retired from my day job, went to Europe, worked on various projects. So much happened. And continues to happen …

I started my treatment this week.

It happened in an oncology center in a big room with other patients, all sitting in recliners receiving their treatments.

My treatment is phlebotomy. Bloodletting, basically, only without the leeches. They take about a pint of blood. It takes ten minutes, then they give you some fruit juice and you wait ten minutes till they say you can go.

The woman next to me had cancer. So did most of the people, to judge by the hairless heads.

You count your blessings in a place like that …

And that's what it was for me, a blessing that this condition was caught before it was too late. Good thing I had that physical.

I didn’t want a physical. I didn’t feel sick and if there was something wrong I didn’t want to know about it.

But my wife insisted—get a physical, get a physical. Finally, I gave in, and you know the rest. It saved my life.

Whew—that was a close one …

Of course, most good things come with a price. In my case, it was Happy Hour.

I wasn't drinking immoderately, for the most part. A great many people drink at the same level I was drinking and never experience one negative consequence.

But for me, with a hereditary inability to process iron, drinking alcohol—which actively interferes with the breakdown of iron—doing this was, for me, a death-defying stunt.

And now, for my next act, I will drink a case of cyanide, play Russian roulette, kiss a cobra, and jump out a ten-story window …

Aw well. It’s all booze under the bridge now. What matters is, I’m alive. The weeks of uncertainty—waiting for the biopsy, waiting for the results, wondering, not knowing—are over, and the results are that I'm going to be okay. The New Year finds me with a new lease on life. My worst-case scenario did not happen …

And maybe the world will be okay too. Maybe the worst-case scenario for 2009 won't come to pass. Worst-case scenarios often don't.

Anyway, it doesn't help to worry about it, and with the same energy we use to worry and imagine the worst, we can also imagine the best and make it happen …

When I started writing this, it was sunny. Now the sun is setting. The second day of 2009 draws to a close. Time marches on.

Happy New Year …

A Look Inside My Scrapbooks, part one

2008-12-20T09:20:00.018-06:00

For the past decade I've been scrapbooking (as it's popularly called these days). I don't show my scrapbooks very often (they're mostly for my own amusement and inspiration), but today I thought I'd share a few pages with you.

We'll start with my first scrapbook, 200 pages in length, begun in April 1998. The cover is decorated with various stickers I found ...

In the first pages of this scrapbook I was inspired by William Burroughs, who used his scrapbooks to experiment with the cut-up method of writing. Here's a cut-up of mine, a combination of three news stories to create a news story in an alternate reality...

After a few pages I stopped doing cut-ups and began another kind of experiment, in which I pasted in pictures clipped from magazines, catalogs, and other ephemera, then free-associated a story from the images ...

Sometimes, while writing the story, I would also draw a picture. On this page you see my rendering of Popeye ...

Gradually, my scrapbook also became a sketchbook, in which I mixed drawings with collage work. Sometimes the drawings were later published. The drawing below, for instance, appears on the inside front cover of my comic book Villa of the Mysteries #3 ...

But most of the scrapbook drawings have not been published ...

On occasion, I've used published drawings in my collages. In the Manchurian Candidate collage below I used two panels from my story "This is MK-Ultra Baby" ...

I also use my scrapbooks to keep newspaper clippings that interest me. At the time of this first scrapbook, the upcoming millennium change and Y2K was much in the news, as were stories about the recent death of Princess Diana. I was particularly interested in the conspiratorial aspects and archetypal meaning of her demise ...

Roy Rogers, one of my childhood heroes, died that year ...

To be continued ...

My Journey

2008-12-19T07:42:00.006-06:00

I’ve begun a journey—a very important journey.

It is not the most important journey of my life, but it ranks very near the most important—that one being the journey that first brought me into this world.

This journey, you see, is a journey towards wellness. This is the one that will determine how much longer I will stay in this world.

I would like to stay awhile. The next world is better, I understand. But I am still attached to this one, and to certain people in it. Also, I have a few more things I’d like to do here before I leave.

So I have embarked on this journey …

A couple of months ago, I learned I have a potentially fatal disease: hereditary hemochromatosis, a disease that causes an excessive amount of iron in the blood. It is potentially fatal because too much iron can damage the body's organs, in particular the liver.

My liver has already suffered some damage, it seems. The damage has been exacerbated by my intake of alcohol, which further increases the amount of iron.

That’s two insults to the liver, as my doctor puts it. Two very rude insults: hemochromatosis and alcohol.

I’m in trouble …

Fortunately, the results of my biopsy were encouraging. I haven’t developed cirrhosis yet. But I’m close. Close enough that I have to take action now if I want to live.

And I want to live.

So, I’ve stopped drinking (this is week five of no alcohol), and in a couple of weeks I will begin my treatment, which will consist of regular phlebotomies to reduce the iron in my blood.

It will take several months to get my iron down to a normal level. After that, I will require a phlebotomy every three months for the rest of my life to keep it normal. But that's okay, because those phlebotomies will enable me to have a normal, healthy life—and a longer one.

Also, if I continue to avoid alcohol, it is possible my liver will repair itself in a few years.

That’s not a bad prognosis, but of course it’s only a prognosis. I have to actually follow through on the treatment—and continue avoiding alcohol—before I can truly say, "I dodged a bullet!"

I have to take the journey …

IT'S BACK: PsiOp Radio Tonight

2008-12-09T12:58:00.003-06:00

It's back! ... After several weeks' hiatus due to technical upgrades, PsiOp Radio is back. SMiles and I will start the all-new, live show tonight (12/9/08) at 7 pm CST / 0100 UTC. You can listen to us at either Anomaly Radio or Revere Radio.

Also, if you missed my appearance on Jack Blood's show yesterday, the mp3 can be downloaded here.

I'll Be Jack Blood's Guest Today on Deadline Live

2008-12-08T13:29:00.003-06:00

Today at 3 pm CST I’ll be Jack Blood’s guest on Deadline Live. Listen on line at Freedom Underground Radio.

Something New: MACK TV

2008-12-04T13:08:00.004-06:00

Now playing on MACK TV: Something for the holiday season: "A Gun for Christmas." If this doesn't make you cry, you are some kind of inhuman monster. CLICK HERE ...

Preview: On the Drawing Board

2008-12-02T14:28:00.003-06:00

Here's a preview of what's currently on my drawing board, the first panel of my latest comic story (title undecided) for the upcoming third volume of Hotwire. Stay tuned for more previews ...

Part Two: The Forgotten Conspiracy

2008-11-25T12:24:00.012-06:00

In this morning’s edition of the Austin American-Statesman, on page A2, the following correction appears:

A story on Sunday's Page B3 should not have implied that all government investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. The U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations in the late 1970s said it "believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." (LINK)

Again, my thanks to the American-Statesman for making this correction.

And now, a few final words on the subject ...

The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was no small investigation. It was a big deal in the Seventies. After all, this was the second government investigation of John Kennedy’s assassination, launched in response to a decade of public discontent over the Warren Commission Report. And when its findings were released, it confirmed what most of us suspected, that the assassination was a conspiracy.

Yet, today this investigation is largely forgotten ...

It is not taught in school (a 1999 study showed that high school textbooks barely deal with the basic facts of the assassination, let alone get into the complexities), and it is not mentioned in most news stories on the assassination.

Try a Google news search for “Warren Commission.” Now, try another for “House Select Committee on Assassinations.”

When I tried those searches earlier today, “Warren Commission” resulted in 3,118 news stories, while “House Select Committee on Assassinations” resulted in only 53 (one of the more prominent results being this morning's correction in the American-Statesman).

That is why I call the HSCA the Forgotten Investigation ...

How could such a thing happen? How could a congressional investigation into such an important matter fall so far down the Memory Hole?

It was, as I say, a big deal in the Seventies. The HSCA made headlines every day, it seemed, and when its findings were released, stating that the president’s death was probably the result of a conspiracy, the news resounded like a thunderclap across the land.

Yet, today, almost three decades later, the investigation is mentioned so little that it might as well have never happened.

How could this be?

Looking back on those times, the 1970s, when news about the HSCA was at fever pitch, I recall an incident, which at the time had no particular meaning for me, but which now I see was a portent of doom for the HSCA …

I was second shift supervisor in the printing office of a major Texas university. (I am not naming the university, as I have no wish to embarrass the guilty party, an otherwise nice guy. He might still be alive, and word travels on the Internet.)

My job involved the nightly supervision of the production of the university’s daily newspaper. I worked closely with the student staff, whose offices were across the hall from the printing office, and on Fridays would meet with them and their professors for a weekly critique of their performance and mine. If my proofreader missed a typo, for instance, I would hear about it and pass the criticism along to the proofreader. But, as this was a journalism class, more time was spent on the students’ performance. The professors would mark up copies of the previous week’s newspapers and go over the mistakes—mistakes of grammar, unsubstantiated statements, and so forth.

One day, the head of the department held up a copy of the paper, pointed to a big red X he had scrawled across the lead story, and in a shaking voice said, “This is unacceptable.”

The students glanced at one another in confusion, then leaned in to hear what was unacceptable about the story, a wire story that had been torn right off the AP teletype machine and reproduced in the student newspaper, as was the standard practice.

The story concerned acoustical tests that had been conducted by the HSCA in Dealey Plaza (using a Dallas police motorcycle officer’s Dictabelt recording of the gunshots for comparison). The results showed the strong likelihood of two gunmen.

“I was in the motorcade that day,” the professor said, curling his lips in disdain, “and I heard the shots myself. They were echoing all over the place, and that’s all they were—echoes bouncing off the buildings. It is outrageous to claim that those echoes were extra gunshots. Outrageous.”

“You were in the motorcade?” someone asked.

“Yes, in the press bus.”

The students were impressed. I, however, recalled a conversation I had overheard several years earlier between my father, a weekly newspaper publisher, and one of his friends, a reporter who had been in the motorcade.

His friend had complained that the press buses (there were actually two) were the worst possible places for a reporter to be because they were too far back to see anything. He also indicated it was not the best place to hear anything either.

Why this journalism professor, a man of some esteem in the profession, held a different opinion, I have no idea. And, in any case, what did his opinion matter? The HSCA's acoustical tests were still news. So what was the problem with the story?

The student editor said, “I don't get it. It’s just an AP story. All the papers are running it.”

“I don’t care,” snarled the professor. “The problem is, you made it the lead story.”

“But I’m not the only one. The Dallas—”

“I don’t care. Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.”

Was this man's attitude representative of a prevailing attitude towards the HSCA in the journalism profession? Does it have any bearing on anything outside that classroom, or anything going on today?

I don't know, but the scarcity with which the HSCA is mentioned in news articles today causes me to wonder.

The scarcity cannot be due to ignorance. True, the HSCA released its findings at a time when today's younger journalists had not yet been born, therefore they might be excused for their ignorance. But there are still a great many journalists working today—many of them in senior positions—who, like myself, are old enough to remember the HSCA. So, why do they not mention it?

It is not for lack of opportunity. Every year, on the anniversary of Kennedy's death, articles are written on the subject. They will mention the Warren Commission. They will mention the fact that there are conspiracy theories that 75% of the public believes for some reason. And they will mention Oliver Stone’s film JFK. But rarely will they mention the findings of the HSCA.

There is something else they will not mention: the recommendations of the HSCA.

Fortunately, the report is available in the National Archives, so you can read the recommendations yourself on line. They are in the summary:

IV. Recommendations for further investigation

A. The Department of Justice should contract for the examination of a film taken by Charles L. Bronson to determine its significance if any, to the assassination of President Kennedy.

B. The National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice of the Department of Justice and the National Science Foundation should make a study of the theory and application of the principles of acoustics to forensic questions, using the materials available in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a case study.

C. The Department of Justice should review the committee's findings and report in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and after completion of the recommended investigation enumerated in sections A and B, analyze whether further official investigation is warranted in either case. The Department of Justice should report its analyses to the Judiciary Committee.

There it is, in black and white. In 1979, the HSCA, after investigating the greatest crime in our nation’s history, sent its report to the Justice Department, with the recommendation that the department pursue the matter further. And the Justice Department has sat on the report ever since.

Now, there’s a scandal for you—a scandal the major media (which presumably thrives on big, sensational stories with “-gate” as the suffix) seems oddly reluctant to explore.

The HSCA report is not perfect. I do not agree with all its conclusions. The HSCA, for instance, concluded that Oswald fired on the president. I disagree; the best research indicates that Oswald was on a lower floor of the Schoolbook Depository during the shooting and that another man, possibly Mac Wallace, fired from the Depository, while another fired from the knoll.

Nor do I believe the conspiracy was limited to a handful of Cuban exiles and organized crime figures, as the HSCA concluded. I believe the conspiracy was much larger in scope, involving the CIA, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Yet, despite these differences of opinion, I still regard the HSCA as important. It was a start in the right direction, and when it was released, offered us the best hope that the full truth might be revealed and justice served.

This has not happened. Four presidential administrations have come and gone since the HSCA report was issued, and not one attorney general has seen fit to act on its recommendations. As a result, with each passing year, more witnesses, more key players in the conspiracy have died, making it likely that by the time the Justice Department gets around to doing its job, there will be no one left alive to prosecute.

Which of course is the best explanation for why the House Select Committee on Assassinations has become the forgotten investigation ...

In closing, here are two letters written by a White House insider who knew JFK better than most, his personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln. Click to enlarge ..

Another November 22nd

2008-11-22T13:30:00.013-06:00

The sun has risen over another November 22nd.

It is the 45th time the sun has risen over a November 22nd since November 22, 1963.

On that November 22nd, in 1963, I was one month away from my 11th birthday. Today, I am one month away from my 56th.

It has been a long journey from that November 22nd to this one …

On that one, I sat in my fifth-grade classroom listening to radio reports via the school intercom of what was happening nearby in Dallas.

This November 22nd finds me sitting at my computer, writing, and listening to an mp3 file of the same news reports I listened to 45 years ago, the live coverage from KLIF.

I listen to it a lot, not just on November 22, but on this day I always make a point of listening to it. You can listen to it, too.

The recording is raw, unedited. One moment you’re listening to the Chiffons singing “I Have a Boyfriend,” then the world changes.

God, it’s sad …

It’s been a long journey from that November 22nd to this one, for me and for all of us who remember that day.

Of course, we’re a minority now, those of us who remember. Our ranks are thinning. Most people alive today do not remember, cannot remember. They had not been born.

That’s how many times the sun has risen since November 22, 1963.

It’s useful to have experienced that day, to remember the moment you first heard Kennedy was shot, what you were doing, how you felt—to remember what the world was like when you woke up that morning, and how the world felt when you went to bed that night—but it’s not necessary for an understanding of the assassination.

No, all you have to do to understand the assassination is to read the research of Mark Lane, Jim Garrison, Anthony Summers, and so many others, read the findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, watch the documentaries, think, use your brain, and then compare all you've learned with the tripe generated by the likes of Gerald Posner and Vincent Bugliosi. Or, if you don’t have time to wade through their fact-omitting distortions, watch the latest mainstream documentary on the subject.

They produce one every year at this time. One of the major networks always puts out a documentary that purports to solve the “mystery” with some new “science.” This year it’s the Discovery Channel, and this time it’s “blood spatter” analysis. And guess what, blood spatter analysis proves the Warren Commission was right all along. Surprise, surprise.

What will it be next year, I wonder. Proving the Magic Bullet Theory with blood spatter analysis will be a hard act to follow.

Maybe they'll come up with a scientific technique to explain away all the witnesses who saw gunmen on the knoll, the Parkland Hospital doctors who saw wounds very different from the autopsy photos, the organized crime and intelligence connections of Ruby and Oswald, and all the rest.

But I digress …

I was saying that you don’t have to have personally experienced November 22, 1963, to understand the meaning of that day. All you have to have experienced is the cover-up, and whether you’re 55 or 15 you’ve experienced the cover-up.

You experience it every time the major media tells you Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. And if you don't believe me, study the subject yourself—really study it, don’t just scroll through John “Factoid” McAdams’ shabby little website and think you know it all—really study it, then you'll know: you’re being lied to …

The sun has risen over another November 22nd, and tonight it will set, the forty-fifth time it has done so since 1963.

On that November evening in 1963, a cold wind blasted across the North Texas prairie. I was in the yard kicking my football, forgetting for a time (as only a child could) the events of earlier that day.

Then I saw black clouds on the northern horizon and it grew so cold I had to go inside, where I watched television and saw Jackie in her blood-stained stockings stepping off the plane.

And outside, the sun set red against the black, and the wind picked up and the temperature fell, and later we froze in the stands and had to leave the game early, and all the flags were at half mast, and on the radio a hospital attendant talked about the president's blood on his hands, and it felt like a curse had fallen on the land.

Forty-five years ago, forty-five November 22nds ago, and so many lies …

A FEW LINKS …

More of my memories from 45 years ago:
Dealey Plaza and the Dream

My friend Brian Roper also grew up in the Dallas area in those days. Here are his memories:
November 22nd is Kennedy Day

An extensive archive:
Radio-TV Footage from November 22-25, 1963

A five-part on-line documentary:
Evidence of Revison

Update: Correction to appear in American-Statesman

2008-11-24T20:22:00.003-06:00

I was just informed by Debra Davis, State editor of the Austin American-Statesman, that a correction on the JFK story will appear in tomorrow morning's edition, Correction box, A2. Very commendable.

Update on American-Statesman/AP JFK Story

2008-11-24T15:14:00.004-06:00

The State editor of the Austin American-Statesman emailed me this morning to say the matter is being investigated. I am waiting to hear more.

U.S. Government Archives: Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives

An Open Letter to the Austin American-Statesman

2008-11-23T14:16:00.002-06:00

TO: Debra Davis, State Editor; Gary Susswein, Metro Editor

There is a serious error of fact in the Metro & State section of this morning’s print edition of the Austin American-Statesman.

The error appears in the story regarding the 45th anniversary of the JFK assassination. It does not appear in the original AP story by Andre Coe, nor does it appear in the on-line edition of the Statesman. It only appears in the Statesman’s print edition. That is why I am writing you.

The error may be found in the sixth paragraph, final sentence: “Government investigations have concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.”

As I discuss in my blog, the second government investigation, the one conducted in the late 1970s by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, concluded that President John F. Kennedy probably died as the result of a conspiracy.

For more details, please refer to the blog entry at http://mackwhite.blogspot.com/2008/11/forgotten-investigation.html .

The assassination of our 35th president is as serious a matter today as it was 45 years ago. It is, therefore, an equally serious matter when the news media fails to get its facts straight with regard to the matter.

As a long-time subscriber to the paper, past contributor, and citizen, I respectfully request a correction in the print edition of the American-Statesman. Your readers deserve the truth.

(Please note this is an open letter. I am reproducing it in a separate blog entry and will inform my readers when the requested correction is printed.)

Sincerely,

Mack White
www.MackWhite.com

The Forgotten Investigation

2008-11-23T11:31:00.006-06:00

This morning’s print edition of the Austin American-Statesman carries an Associated Press story about the 45th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy which contains the following sentence:

“Government investigations have concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.”

This sentence is inaccurate. Yes, the Warren Commission concluded Oswald acted alone, but the second government investigation—the House Select Committee on Assassinations—came to a very different conclusion. Quoting from the report:

“The Committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that president John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy ...” (LINK)

Curiously, the inaccurate sentence does not appear in the original AP story by Andre Coe (LINK), nor does it appear in the on-line edition of the American-Statesman (LINK). It only appears in the paper’s print edition.

Readers of the print edition are owed a correction of this error. Many readers may not be aware of the conclusions of the second (and, apparently, final) government investigation of Kennedy's death.

Journalists seem to be unaware of it as well.

"Nudist Nuns of Goat Island" Featured in Yale Anthology

2008-11-14T10:18:00.002-06:00

Just published: My comic story “The Nudist Nuns of Goat Island” (originally featured in Snake Eyes #2 way back in 1993) has just been reprinted in Volume 2 of An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories (Yale University Press, edited by Ivan Brunetti). In addition to my story, this fine, hardcover volume features ground-breaking work by more than 80 comics creators. It is highly entertaining, one of the best comic collections I've ever seen. It's available at all good bookstores everywhere and from Amazon at this link.

Happy Nightmares!

2008-10-31T16:55:00.002-05:00

A blast from Halloween past. Who out there remembers Gorgon?