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THANKS TO CONSIDERABLE SOUTHERN WINDS TODAY AS COULD REACH 45 MPH IN THE ODD GUST OR TWO, the Minnwissippi region couldn't be happier to see springtime arrive in dead earnest seriousness.

@ least Your Correspondent thinks so, considering where milder temperatures than recent days can be discerned along with the wind having a kindness as was not there yesterday, paraphrasing Shakespeare there for a moment.

In a related note, he'll be working tomorrow @ the house of Mein Innkeeper Friend raking lawn, so if you don't exactly notice an essay straight away, you will know why.

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TALK ABOUT GOOD CONCEPT, BUT NO SENSE--WITH SUBTLE OVERTURES TOWARDS CHEAP POLITICAL PLOY, and then some:

Your Correspondent hath it that Senator (and GOP Presidential candidate presumptive) John McCain (a/k/a The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang) is calling for a special tax holiday on Federal fuel taxes during the summer driving season; the better, in theory, to drive down fuel costs and "help taxpayers."

I say "good concept, but no sense" because such turns out to, in the end, translate into a significant shortfall in the Federal Highway Trust Fund, itself financed by the Federal gas tax ... which, in the end, only translates into further serious deferred maintenance on American highways and bridges which can only make our transportation problem worse. Has Sen. McCain considered that possibility, let alone look for ways to compensate for the ensuing Highway Trust Fund shortfall without "needlessly" raising taxes, consistent with prevailing conservative articles of faith?

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AND WITH NYMEX LIGHT SWEET CRUDE OIL FUTURES HITTING A NEW RECORD HIGH OF SOME $113/BBL., it seems rather ironic that the ongoing oil and natural gas discoveries in the Bakken field of extreme western North Dakota, extreme eastern Montana and into the Canadian province of Saskatchewan are making barely any dent into the oil markets.

Especially considering where, by some estimates, some 500 million barrels of recoverable crude oil may exist in the Bakken field ... and quite a quantity of cubic feet of natural gas, much of which is now flared off @ wellhead.

The problem, no doubt, being a lack of decent storage and pipeline facilities which would transport the Bakken field's production to terminals and refineries, many of which are shut down or otherwise producing @ reduced levels (perhaps deliberately, methinks, and then excused as being necessary "to stabilise market prices," with tax incentives likely coming into the bargain).

And yet again, there are several oil companies as make it a point of pride to avoid buying their crude from politically-unstable regions, notably Amerada Hess, Kerr-McGee, Marathon, Murphy Oil (Spur) and Sinclair; no doubt they might be especially interested in the Bakken fields as a new and viable source for American crude oil supplies consistent with their business practices.

Until and unless the news of the Bakken field's potential turns out causing indigestion in the crude-oil markets to the point where the price eventually falls below the $100/bbl. benchmark.

Come to think of it:

How do we know His Fraudulency's Great Within isn't secretly investing substantially in crude oil futures, hoping to make substantial windfall profits before he leaves office--yet unlikely to realise that developments in the Bakken fields could make things worse?

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THINGS WHICH SHOULDN'T HAPPEN (IN THEORY) TO GOOD CHRISTIANS, LET ALONE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS: His Fraudulency has let slip from his very lips over ABC Television the fact that he had authorised the use of torture as an interrogation tactic against real or suspected terror suspects.

Officially to be excused as "preemptive war," theoretically preventing further Notorious Terrorist Attacks while officially whipping up terror-related hysteria and paranoia "just to keep people scared"--reinforced, as required, with the obligatory dose of patriotism.

And which could wind up, with one fatal slip of the pen, being used against innocent and blameless Americans in ways that could rival the Nazi regime's reaction to the unsuccessful plot against Hitler on 20 July 1944--as in charging blood relatives of those who were actually involved with the assaination attempt with "complicity" and "disloyalty," subjected to the indignity of show trials in a hastily-arranged "people's court" as was a front for the actual back-room pronouncements of guilty which led, inevitably, to hanging from piano wire off abattoirs' hooks.

Which is enough to prompt this petition drive @ Democrats.com calling upon Congress to timely launch impeachment proceedings against His Fraudulency for explicitly authorising torture in violation of various international treaties and conventions to which the United States is signatory. Treaties which the "inside of the inside" of the Great Within want regarded as no better than toilet paper.

THE PEOPLE, UNITED,
WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!

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AND JUST HOW SURE ARE WE THAT IT'S NOT AMERICAN TROOPS AS ARE REALLY BEHIND the recent spate of "terrorist" bombs going off in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, blaming Iraqi militias for such in what could really be "false flag" campaigns to justify furthering the cause of ur-RAHOWA all along?

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OHHHH, THOSE FRENCH--or as Bill "No-Spin Zone" O'Reilly wants us to think, " the cheese eat the surrender monkey:"

The French National Assembly is now considering legislation as would make it an offense to "publicly incite extreme thinness," particularly so in the couture department; the better to prevent bad ideas (as in anorexia nervosa) being promoted in the impressionable.

WITH SUMMER APPROACHING, YOU MAY START TO NOTICE WHERE THE "WHAT'S ON" LISTINGS IN LOCAL AMUSEMENTS GUIDES ... the community bulletin boards of local supermarkets and convenience stores ... the announcements on local TV and radio stations ... even barroom gossip will make mention of something promoted as "European-American Cultural and Heritage Festivals."

The which are best avoided like the pox, reader, and for good reason:

Evidence from the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Centre, both of whom monitor racist, white-supremacist and other bigot groups, hath it that such "European-American Cultural and Heritage Festivals" are really sponsored by fronts for known and notorious racist and white-supremacist elements.

Worse yet, the racist message as underlies such "festivals" is kept discreet and subtle, usually by way of the literature tables selling racist and white-supremacist books, pamphlets, tracts and videos in rather discreet locations throughout the grounds.

And the various ethnic performance groups "invited" to appear are more than likely to have been tricked into appearing, unconscious of the real intent of such "festivals" being promotion of racism and bigotry or the real sponsors being racists and white-supremacists taking aims to avoid attracting unwelcome attention from especially "meddling bloggers" and the consumer-protection agencies.

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WITH THAT IN MIND, YOUR CORRESPONDENT WOULD LIKE TO ASK COMMUNITY-SERVICE DIRECTORS FOR RADIO AND TV STATIONS, and also such editing "what's on" listings for local newspapers and entertainment guides, to use caution when they receive listings requests for said "European-American Cultural and Heritage Festivals" throughout the coming summer season.

If need be, such may want to be declined in view of their being disguises for promoting sugar-coated racism and bigotry, and the involvement of weird and/or unwholesome elements of the community in sponsoring same.

Store managers may likewise want to use caution in posting flyers or posters for same on community message boards they may have; on the other hand, if consumers spot flyers for this class of propaganda stunt, such should be reported to management in view of their questionable nature and their potential for deception.

Local tourism-promotion agencies may also want to approach such with care, especially because such "festivals" could attract the wrong sort of tourists (as in neo-Nazi skinheads, "citizen militia" sympathisers and the seedier types of "white trash" as are all the more vulnerable to "patriotic" hatemongering messages).

Consumer-protection agencies may likewise want to be put on watch for the potential of deceptive or misleading advertising in furtherance of their promotion.

In any case, avoid these sham "European-American Cultural and Heritage Festivals" like the pox. They're really nothing more than subtle promotion of a racist agenda which could cause harm in especially the vulnerable, and then some.

Especially when the literature tables also have petition campaigns promoting racist or white-supremacist causes, the names so collected winding up on racist/white-supremacist mailing lists--and, in time, your winding up getting quasi-pornographic material which is best consigned to the recycle bin.

IT'S WELL KNOWN THAT ANTI-DEPRESSANT MEDICATIONS LIKE PROZAC, XANAX AND ELAVIL ARE RATHER EXPENSIVE in the long run, and can carry rather unpleasant side effects which @ times have been known to include notorious episodes of anti-social behaviour.

So, if the following "WaiWai" item per the Mainichi Daily News can be taken as credible, it seems Prozac and kin have met their match--and try telling that to the so-called "Church of Scientology," themselves known to be rather critical of medication-based psychotherapy:

Mount Fuji has been sacred in Japan since ancient times, but now Asahi Geino (4/3) says simply looking at a photo of the country's most famous mountain can possibly cure depression.

Health magazine Sokai's May edition makes the claim that simply looking at photos of Mount Fuji is enough to ease worries, stave off depression and lead to improvements in existing conditions.

Sokai contains a photo essay from Rocky Tanaka, Japan's most famous photographer of Mount Fuji who has been snapping away at the national symbol as a job for decades.

"When I take a photo of Mount Fuji, I'm not just taking a photo of a mountain, but trying to capture an image of beauty in the same way as Mount Fuji was depicted in the old ukiyo-e drawings," Tanaka tells Asahi Geino. "That's why some people who see my photos of Mount Fuji start to feel good or there's an improvement in the atmosphere of the room where they've seen them."

Dr. Toshiaki Goto, head of the Yachimata Child Clinic in Yachimata. Chiba Prefecture, doesn't discount the possibility that Mount Fuji could wash away the blues.

"I won't flatly deny the suggestion. In fact, speaking generally, I'd say that there probably are some positive effects. Looking at a photo of the morning sun rising over Mount Fuji is likely to emit adrenalin through the body, which sparks the sympathetic nerves and provides motivation," the physician tells the lowbrow weekly. "Seeing a photo of the afternoon sun near Mount Fuji is like to emit a substance in the body called acetylcholine, which stimulates the para-sympathetic nerves and leaves the viewer with a feeling of relaxation."

Goto says it's quite possible Tanaka's photos of Mount Fuji could have healing properties.

"Tanaka's photos of Mount Fuji have a greater energy about them than most other shots of the same mountain, so there is an increased possibility that they have therapeutic effects," Goto says. "But I think looking at the actual Mount Fuji would be much more beneficial than simply seeing a photo of it."

Not everyone in the medical profession is as quick to back up the claim that mountains, or in this case Fujisan, can move faith.

"As a physician, I don't think it's possible to say that merely looking at a photo of Mount Fuji will clear any health problems," Dr. Kazuo Sakai of the Stress Care Hibiya Clinic in Tokyo tells Asahi Geino. "But I won't deny the possibility completely, either."

Come to think of it, you have to wonder if an even more beneficial approach to depression involving Mt. Fuji might involve climbing Japan's most sacred and symbolic peak--never mind the climbing season being limited, for the most part, to July and August because of weather extremes.

As for a possible American equivalent to the Mt. Fuji cure, Your Correspondent has to wonder if H.H. Bennett's famous photograph "Leaping the Chasm @ Stand Rock" could be equally therapeutic:

Or, for that matter, enough to recharge the giggle glands faster than a bottle of Thomas Cola ("I can't rave enough,/You will love the stuff,/Unless you hate the taste of kerosene!") served as an eye-opener.

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AND SPEAKING OF STAND ROCK, FOLKSIES, for years the dog-jump routine there for the benefit of Upper Dells tour boat guests would be concluded with the dog clutching a sign reading THANK YOU.

And which has inspired Your Correspondent to imagine all manner of possibilities in the vein of fantasy for the dog's concluding number involving the likes of a banner reading:

• CHEW MAIL POUCH TOBACCO
• WALL DRUG OF SOUTH DAKOTA
• SEE 7 STATES FROM ROCK CITY
• SEE RUBY FALLS AT LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN

--or, for that matter, posters featuring the current "hot" cartoon or movie characters of the hour, which, in the current instance, would have to include:

• Scooby-Doo
• SpongeBob Squarepants
• Dora the Explorer/Go Diego Go!
• Blue's Clues
• Bratz
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Hannah Montana
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
• High School Musical
• Family Guy (in particular Stewie Griffin)
• Dragonball-Z
• Fairly OddParents
• Avatar
• The Cheetah Girls
• Lizzie McGuire

...well, you get the general idea. 

THE OTHER NIGHT, COMEDY CENTRAL'S "DAILY SHOW" FEATURED A RATHER CAUSTIC EXUGENESIS OF FOX NEWS PROLEFEED CHANNEL featuring "media analyst" Jon Oliver, which Fox deserves for once, revealing as it is of the depths of journalistic crudity and debauchery which can best be compared to the Nazi-era tabloid weekly Der Sturmer if anyone needs a standard of comparison.

The which is in two parts, of which this is part 1:

And this is Part 2:

I hope you're satisfied....

IN ITS NEVER-ENDING COMMITMENT TO PROVIDE ITS READERS WITH SERVICE, AND THEN SOME, The Exaggerator is pleased to announce that it's now offering FREE web-based e-mail that you can access anywhere you access the Information Stuporbahn!

Imagine--an e-mail address @exaggerator.zzn.com can be yours free, just by signing up right here. And once you've signed up, you can sign into your e-mail account every time you visit this weblog (another reason to think about making The Exaggerator a regular habit among your blog-reading adventures online)!

What's more: If you have a website or weblog yourself and want something for to attract traffic, ZapZone Network, which powers The Exaggerator's e-mail service, can do that. And what's more, it's free! Find out for yourself right here.

In any case, your patronage would be welcome and appreciated.

Just remember to use e-mail for good. Not for spam.

KUDOS TO RAWSTORY.COM FOR BRINGING YOUR CORRESPONDENT'S ATTENTION to the following item from the New York Sun as deserves some wholehearted popular support for once, the fact of this being an Election Year being irrelevant:

A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

On March 26, Richard Falk, Milbank professor of international law emeritus at Princeton University, was named by unanimous vote to a newly created position to report on human rights in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. While Mr. Falk's specialty is human rights and international law, since the attacks in 2001, he has devoted some of his time to challenging what he calls the "9-11 official version."

On March 24 in an interview with a radio host and former University of Wisconsin instructor, Kevin Barrett, Mr. Falk said, "It is possibly true that especially the neoconservatives thought there was a situation in the country and in the world where something had to happen to wake up the American people. Whether they are innocent about the contention that they made that something happen or not, I don't think we can answer definitively at this point. All we can say is there is a lot of grounds for suspicion, there should be an official investigation of the sort the 9/11 commission did not engage in and that the failure to do these things is cheating the American people and in some sense the people of the world of a greater confidence in what really happened than they presently possess."

Mr. Barrett, who is the co-founder of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, said in an interview yesterday of Mr. Falk, "I would put him on a list of scholars who are sympathetic to the 9/11 truth movement."

He added, "Unlike most public intellectuals today, he is both honest and very, very knowledgeable in that he understands the probable reality of 9/11. He understands that the evidence that it was a false flag operation is very strong."

The narrative that the attacks from 2001 were a "false flag" operation is a recurring theme in the literature challenging the consensus that 19 Al Qaeda hijackers flew commercial jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. False flag refers to espionage or covert actions taken by one government made to seem like the work of another. The false flag thesis has it that the Bush administration is somehow responsible for the September 11 attacks as a pretext for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mr. Falk yesterday did not return e-mails and phone calls asking for a comment. But in 2004 he wrote the foreword to the book "The New Pearl Harbor," by David Ray Griffin. Mr. Griffin has posited that such an inside job is the likely explanation for the attacks.

In the preface, Mr. Falk writes, "There have been questions raised here and there and allegations of official complicity made almost from the day of the attacks, especially in Europe, but no one until Griffin has had the patience, the fortitude, the courage, and the intelligence to put the pieces together in a single coherent account."

It's about time to expose 9/11 for what it really was all along--a "false flag" operation of His Fraudulency's Great Within, and especially so the "inside of the inside," designed to find ways to suspend the Constitution and invoke Unitary Executive Privilege, to use His Fraudulency's preferred dysphemistic code for dictatorial power.

So where's the outrage now? 

glitter-graphics.com

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD BY NOW THAT BAGGED UNSWEETENED PUFFED WHEAT AND PUFFED RICE CEREALS MADE BY MALT-O-MEAL and sold under not only the Malt-O-Meal name and stylee, but also under several private store-brand labels (details follow), have been contaminate with salmonella bacteria.

Which, under the right conditions, can only mean that your brekkie can be a rather unpleasant experience. As in making you sick.

In any case, the afflicted products are bagged unsweetened Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat cereals manufactured by The Malt-O-Meal Company with "best if used by" dates between 8 April 2008 and 18 March 2009, inclusive, sold in 6-oz. and 16-oz. bags under not only the Malt-O-Meal name and stylee, but also under these private label brands:

• Acme
• America's Choice
• Food Club
• Giant
• Hannaford
• Jewel
• Laura Lynn
• Pathmark
• Shaw's
• Shop-Rite
• Tops
• Weis Quality

(The compleat list of afflicted products, and the UPC codes involved, can be found @ www.malt-o-meal.com/recallinfo/ when you have time. If it turns out that you have any such, please return it to your store for full refund.

(And if you can't find any bags of the product in question, please understand that all such specimens have been removed from store shelves as a health and safety precaution.)

In the meantime ... how about some Carnation Instant Breakfast instead?

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NO DOUBT AS FAMILIAR AS THOSE BUMPER STICKERS FOR THE LIKES OF CERTAIN SHOOBIE TRAPS like Wall Drug Store, the Tommy Bartlett Show and Rock City--or are they?--are these ladies' bumper stickers you might find hilarious:

Bumper Stickers For Women -- powered by flowgo.com

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ANOTHER UNLIKELY BYPRODUCT OF THE UR-RAHOWA IN IRAQ IS THE USE OF FOREIGN GUEST WORKERS from other Muslim countries (Indonesia in particular) tricked into working there under false or misleading pretenses by employment agencies promising employment in Dubai or Bahrain as, say, domestics or construction labourers--only to wind up in the Khurdistani region of Iraq.

Your Correspondent understands where an Indonesian woman who was thus deceived is suing the employment agency she used for fraud and deception, claiming, among other things, that:

• she was tricked into paying thousands for job placements as were not as promised;
• she was paid in Iraqi dinars (and in notes, @ that) when her work was finished; and
• she was asked to pay US$2,500 for the "privilege" to return to Indonesia when she started complaining about working conditions and the ruses she wound up falling for.

Which can likely be expected of such among the American Lower Classes tricked into "resettlement" in Occupied Iraq under the guise of "social betterment."

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AND WHICH BRINGS UP DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE BARAK OBAMA'S REMARKS @ THE WEEKEND about working-class Americans somehow have lost touch with both major political parties for their not addressing the real issues facing the working classes, prompting same to consider distractionary issues like gun control, abortion, homosexuality and the ur-RAHOWA when it comes to how to cast their ballot.

Especially such resident in rural, small-town and otherwise low-income and socioeconomically-disadvantaged communities--which, it turns out, have perhaps some of the biggest and most loyal audience numbers for Fox Prolefeed and its perversion of the Fifth Estate on cable and satellite TV systems.

Something which Sen. Obama may want to ponder as a fact.