Do you ever wonder if you are really at some kind of futuristic amusement park?
The "ride" is over, you disconnect yourself from the machine.
Your friend asks "How was it?"
You answer "It was forty five years!"
You ask "How long was the ride?"
Your friend replies "About five minutes."
Whenever I get too serious, I just think:
"This is probably just a real good virtual reality ride."
"So why get all bent out of shape?"
Monday, February 28, 2011
Democracy in Iraq
How's that working out for you?
Security forces in Iraq detained nearly 300 people, mostly intellectuals such as lawyers, artists and journalists who were involved in demonstrations Friday.
Why detain intellectuals?
Could be an effort to intimidate and muzzle those who influence public opinion.
After their release on Saturday, journalist told of being handcuffed, beaten, blindfolded and threatened with death by Iraqi intelligence soldiers.
So, this is what American soldiers died for?
We (the U.S.) brought them torture, one million dead and "democracy" all because of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.
Speaking of democracy, I don't remember getting to vote on the invasion of Iraq.
Security forces in Iraq detained nearly 300 people, mostly intellectuals such as lawyers, artists and journalists who were involved in demonstrations Friday.
Why detain intellectuals?
Could be an effort to intimidate and muzzle those who influence public opinion.
After their release on Saturday, journalist told of being handcuffed, beaten, blindfolded and threatened with death by Iraqi intelligence soldiers.
So, this is what American soldiers died for?
We (the U.S.) brought them torture, one million dead and "democracy" all because of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.
Speaking of democracy, I don't remember getting to vote on the invasion of Iraq.
New Zealand Earthquake Spurs Giant Glacier Collapse
Christchurch temblor likely gave weakened glacier "last kick," expert says.
Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News
Published February 23, 2011
The New Zealand earthquake broke an iceberg the size of 20 football fields off the country's longest glacier.
A huge vertical slab calved off the front of the Tasman Glacier (see map) into Tasman Lake after the 6.3-magnitude quake had hit Tuesday afternoon. The temblor was centered about 125 miles (200 kilometers) away, near Christchurch (see map). (See pictures of the New Zealand earthquake's aftermath.)
The chunk is estimated to have been three-fourths of a mile (1,200 meters) long by 250 feet (75 meters) wide, scientists say.
The iceberg's collapse also kicked up 10-foot (3.5-meter) waves in Tasman Lake.
"We heard a large crack like a high-powered rifle," a U.S. tourist who had been on a glacier tour at the time told the New Zealand Herald.
Story Continues at nationalgeographic.com
Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News
Published February 23, 2011
The New Zealand earthquake broke an iceberg the size of 20 football fields off the country's longest glacier.
A huge vertical slab calved off the front of the Tasman Glacier (see map) into Tasman Lake after the 6.3-magnitude quake had hit Tuesday afternoon. The temblor was centered about 125 miles (200 kilometers) away, near Christchurch (see map). (See pictures of the New Zealand earthquake's aftermath.)
The chunk is estimated to have been three-fourths of a mile (1,200 meters) long by 250 feet (75 meters) wide, scientists say.
The iceberg's collapse also kicked up 10-foot (3.5-meter) waves in Tasman Lake.
"We heard a large crack like a high-powered rifle," a U.S. tourist who had been on a glacier tour at the time told the New Zealand Herald.
Story Continues at nationalgeographic.com
Sunday, February 27, 2011
'Magic mushrooms' ingredient may ease end-of-life anxiety
(Health.com)
By Anne Harding, Health.com
September 6, 2010 8:47 p.m. EDT
-- Terminally ill cancer patients struggling with anxiety may get some relief from a guided "trip" on the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, a new study suggests.
The study included 12 patients who took a small dose of psilocybin -- the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" -- while under the supervision of trained therapists. In a separate session, the participants took a placebo pill, which had little effect on their symptoms.
By contrast, one to three months after taking psilocybin the patients reported feeling less anxious and their overall mood had improved. By the six-month mark, the group's average score on a common scale used to measure depression had declined by 30 percent, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Can psychedelic drugs treat depression?
In follow-up interviews with the researchers, some patients said their experience with psilocybin gave them a new perspective on their illness and brought them closer to family and friends.
"We were pleased with the results," says the lead researcher, Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, in Torrance, Calif.
Notably, the psilocybin did not aggravate the patients' anxiety or provoke any other unwanted effects besides a slight increase in blood pressure and heart rate.
Health.com: 7 types of therapy that can help depression
Grob's findings are "important because he's showing that you can administer these compounds safely to cancer patients with anxiety," says Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore.
"They're not substances that should be used recreationally or casually, but nonetheless it appears that we can conduct research with these compounds safely," adds Griffiths, who was not involved in the study but has researched the therapeutic effects of psilocybin. (He and his colleagues are currently enrolling patients in a similar study that will use larger doses of the drug.)
Researchers investigating the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and other hallucinogens have been keen to demonstrate the safety of the drugs in clinical settings.
Health.com: Supplements for depression: what works
Psychiatrists and psychologists began exploring the effects of hallucinogens on the mood and anxiety of dying patients in the 1950s, but the research stopped abruptly when psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and other mind-altering drugs were outlawed in the 1970s.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a handful of small studies involving hallucinogens since the 1990s, but the field is still emerging.
Grob's study is the first of its kind in more than 35 years. It was funded by private foundations and the Heffter Research Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that has been a major sponsor of the second-generation hallucinogen research.
The patients in the study were all close to death (10 of the 12 have since died), and they had all diagnoses of anxiety or acute stress relating to their prognosis.
"We were really looking for people who were really struggling with the predicament that they found themselves in," Grob explains.
Health.com: What an anxiety disorder feels like
cnn.com
During the psilocybin sessions, which lasted six hours, the patients lay on a couch and listened to music through headphones.
Although they spoke only briefly to the therapists while under the influence of the drug, they continued to meet periodically with the research staff for six months to discuss their experience and to fill out questionnaires assessing their mood and anxiety levels.
"I think we've established good grounds for continuing the research," Grob says. "That's the goal right now, just to develop more studies."
Copyright Health Magazine 2010
By Anne Harding, Health.com
September 6, 2010 8:47 p.m. EDT
-- Terminally ill cancer patients struggling with anxiety may get some relief from a guided "trip" on the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, a new study suggests.
The study included 12 patients who took a small dose of psilocybin -- the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" -- while under the supervision of trained therapists. In a separate session, the participants took a placebo pill, which had little effect on their symptoms.
By contrast, one to three months after taking psilocybin the patients reported feeling less anxious and their overall mood had improved. By the six-month mark, the group's average score on a common scale used to measure depression had declined by 30 percent, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Can psychedelic drugs treat depression?
In follow-up interviews with the researchers, some patients said their experience with psilocybin gave them a new perspective on their illness and brought them closer to family and friends.
"We were pleased with the results," says the lead researcher, Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, in Torrance, Calif.
Notably, the psilocybin did not aggravate the patients' anxiety or provoke any other unwanted effects besides a slight increase in blood pressure and heart rate.
Health.com: 7 types of therapy that can help depression
Grob's findings are "important because he's showing that you can administer these compounds safely to cancer patients with anxiety," says Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore.
"They're not substances that should be used recreationally or casually, but nonetheless it appears that we can conduct research with these compounds safely," adds Griffiths, who was not involved in the study but has researched the therapeutic effects of psilocybin. (He and his colleagues are currently enrolling patients in a similar study that will use larger doses of the drug.)
Researchers investigating the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and other hallucinogens have been keen to demonstrate the safety of the drugs in clinical settings.
Health.com: Supplements for depression: what works
Psychiatrists and psychologists began exploring the effects of hallucinogens on the mood and anxiety of dying patients in the 1950s, but the research stopped abruptly when psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and other mind-altering drugs were outlawed in the 1970s.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a handful of small studies involving hallucinogens since the 1990s, but the field is still emerging.
Grob's study is the first of its kind in more than 35 years. It was funded by private foundations and the Heffter Research Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that has been a major sponsor of the second-generation hallucinogen research.
The patients in the study were all close to death (10 of the 12 have since died), and they had all diagnoses of anxiety or acute stress relating to their prognosis.
"We were really looking for people who were really struggling with the predicament that they found themselves in," Grob explains.
Health.com: What an anxiety disorder feels like
cnn.com
During the psilocybin sessions, which lasted six hours, the patients lay on a couch and listened to music through headphones.
Although they spoke only briefly to the therapists while under the influence of the drug, they continued to meet periodically with the research staff for six months to discuss their experience and to fill out questionnaires assessing their mood and anxiety levels.
"I think we've established good grounds for continuing the research," Grob says. "That's the goal right now, just to develop more studies."
Copyright Health Magazine 2010
There Should be Two Lines at the Airport
There should be two lines at the airport.
One for the people that don't mind going through scanners that may or may not cause cancer do to exposure to high amounts of radiation. The same line for people that don't mind being molested by TSA workers.
There should be a different line that uses the security that worked for many years, involving no radiation exposure to the individual and no molestation by TSA workers.
(P.S. for the mentally impaired, the lines would obviously lead to two different planes.)
The people could use something you don't here about much anymore, freedom of choice. The individual could decide for himself which line to go through.
Here is a related story.
One for the people that don't mind going through scanners that may or may not cause cancer do to exposure to high amounts of radiation. The same line for people that don't mind being molested by TSA workers.
There should be a different line that uses the security that worked for many years, involving no radiation exposure to the individual and no molestation by TSA workers.
(P.S. for the mentally impaired, the lines would obviously lead to two different planes.)
The people could use something you don't here about much anymore, freedom of choice. The individual could decide for himself which line to go through.
Here is a related story.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Saudi man charged with plotting terrorist attack
WASHINGTON (AP) ap.org — The FBI has arrested a 20-year-old Saudi student in Texas suspected of planning a terrorist attack using explosive chemicals. The FBI says his possible targets included the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush.
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, attending college near Lubbock, Texas, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Federal prosecutors say he had been researching online how to construct an improvised explosive device using several chemicals as ingredients.
Federal authorities say Aldawsari's diary indicated the young man had been plotting an attack for years and obtained a scholarship so he could come directly to the United State to carry out jihad.
Aldawsari is expected to appear in federal court in Lubbock on Friday morning.
***********************************************************************
Maybe I shouldn't think this way, but this story makes me wonder.
Remember when the Patriot Act extension was having trouble being passed by the house? bluebeerriver so-incredibly-predicable
Napolitano said that the threat from Al Qaeda cells and their allies - is increasingly coming from inside the country, ominously noting that another attack could come "with little or no warning."
"The terrorist threat to the homeland is in many ways at its most heightened state since 9/11,"
Since then, the Patriot Act was extended and now they can claim that provisions of it allowed them to stop this terrorist attack.
I can't help but wonder, if the Patriot Act had not passed, would they have allowed this guy to continue and let him blow up some stuff?
(I think they would.)
Then they could say
"See?"
"We told you, this is what happens when you don't pass unconstitutional legislation that violates the rights of every American citizen!"
Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, attending college near Lubbock, Texas, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Federal prosecutors say he had been researching online how to construct an improvised explosive device using several chemicals as ingredients.
Federal authorities say Aldawsari's diary indicated the young man had been plotting an attack for years and obtained a scholarship so he could come directly to the United State to carry out jihad.
Aldawsari is expected to appear in federal court in Lubbock on Friday morning.
***********************************************************************
Maybe I shouldn't think this way, but this story makes me wonder.
Remember when the Patriot Act extension was having trouble being passed by the house? bluebeerriver so-incredibly-predicable
Napolitano said that the threat from Al Qaeda cells and their allies - is increasingly coming from inside the country, ominously noting that another attack could come "with little or no warning."
"The terrorist threat to the homeland is in many ways at its most heightened state since 9/11,"
Since then, the Patriot Act was extended and now they can claim that provisions of it allowed them to stop this terrorist attack.
I can't help but wonder, if the Patriot Act had not passed, would they have allowed this guy to continue and let him blow up some stuff?
(I think they would.)
Then they could say
"See?"
"We told you, this is what happens when you don't pass unconstitutional legislation that violates the rights of every American citizen!"
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Riot Police
"They look so intimidating, like they're indestructible, then someone with a bottle and 50 cents worth of gas reminds us that they aren't."
Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators
By Michael Hastings
February 23, 2011 11:55 PM ET
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
The Runaway General: The Rolling Stone Profile of Stanley McChrystal That Changed History
The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as "information operations" at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation.
"My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave," says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. "I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line."
King David's War: How Gen. Petraeus Is Doubling Down on a Failed Strategy
The list of targeted visitors was long, according to interviews with members of the IO team and internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.
The incident offers an indication of just how desperate the U.S. command in Afghanistan is to spin American civilian leaders into supporting an increasingly unpopular war. According to the Defense Department’s own definition, psy-ops – the use of propaganda and psychological tactics to influence emotions and behaviors – are supposed to be used exclusively on "hostile foreign groups." Federal law forbids the military from practicing psy-ops on Americans, and each defense authorization bill comes with a "propaganda rider" that also prohibits such manipulation. "Everyone in the psy-ops, intel, and IO community knows you’re not supposed to target Americans," says a veteran member of another psy-ops team who has run operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It’s what you learn on day one."
Article Continues at rollingstone.com
Senator vows to reform the PATRIOT Act
By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 -- 10:37 pm
rawstory.com
A Democratic senator from Oregon said Tuesday that Congress must use the three month extension of the PATRIOT Act to amend the legislation so that it does not violate American's civil liberties.
"Americans deserve laws that strike the best possible balance between fighting terrorism ferociously and protecting the rights and freedoms of law-abiding American citizens," Senator Ron Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement.
Congress passed a bill last week that extended three controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act until May 27.
The bill is expected to be signed into law by President Barack Obama in the coming days.
"The Patriot Act does not strike that balance," he continued. "It was written and passed six weeks after the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history. Congress wisely included sunset dates for the Patriot Act’s most controversial provisions, so that they could be thoughtfully considered at a later time. After ten years, it is clearly time for that debate."
Last week, Sen. Wyden introduced a bill to narrow the PATRIOT Act's section 215 provision, which allows law enforcement to obtain "any tangible thing," including library and bookstore records.
Under the PATRIOT Act, that information can be obtained without demonstrating that the person whose records are sought is connected to terrorism in any way.
"Government agents should not be able to collect this sort of information on law abiding American citizens without showing that they have at least some connection to terrorism or other nefarious activities," Sen Wyden said.
Wyden's bill would force law enforcement to demonstrate that the records were in some way connected to terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities before gathering the information.
"Senator Wyden should be commended for his effort to narrow the Patriot Act’s reach," ACLU Legislative Counsel Michelle Richardson said. "Holding law enforcement accountable for how it uses its authority will not only help to protect Americans’ privacy, it will ultimately keep us safer. We hope the Senate will strongly consider this bill in the next three months as it moves forward with debate on Patriot Act."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has also recently sought to reform the PATRIOT Act by increasing judicial oversight of government surveillance powers.
"I support strengthening oversight while providing the intelligence community the certainty it needs to protect national security," Sen Leahy said. "The bill I hope we will consider before May 27 would give the intelligence community the certainty it needs by extending these expiring authorities while also strengthening congressional and judicial oversight."
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 -- 10:37 pm
rawstory.com
A Democratic senator from Oregon said Tuesday that Congress must use the three month extension of the PATRIOT Act to amend the legislation so that it does not violate American's civil liberties.
"Americans deserve laws that strike the best possible balance between fighting terrorism ferociously and protecting the rights and freedoms of law-abiding American citizens," Senator Ron Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement.
Congress passed a bill last week that extended three controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act until May 27.
The bill is expected to be signed into law by President Barack Obama in the coming days.
"The Patriot Act does not strike that balance," he continued. "It was written and passed six weeks after the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history. Congress wisely included sunset dates for the Patriot Act’s most controversial provisions, so that they could be thoughtfully considered at a later time. After ten years, it is clearly time for that debate."
Last week, Sen. Wyden introduced a bill to narrow the PATRIOT Act's section 215 provision, which allows law enforcement to obtain "any tangible thing," including library and bookstore records.
Under the PATRIOT Act, that information can be obtained without demonstrating that the person whose records are sought is connected to terrorism in any way.
"Government agents should not be able to collect this sort of information on law abiding American citizens without showing that they have at least some connection to terrorism or other nefarious activities," Sen Wyden said.
Wyden's bill would force law enforcement to demonstrate that the records were in some way connected to terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities before gathering the information.
"Senator Wyden should be commended for his effort to narrow the Patriot Act’s reach," ACLU Legislative Counsel Michelle Richardson said. "Holding law enforcement accountable for how it uses its authority will not only help to protect Americans’ privacy, it will ultimately keep us safer. We hope the Senate will strongly consider this bill in the next three months as it moves forward with debate on Patriot Act."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has also recently sought to reform the PATRIOT Act by increasing judicial oversight of government surveillance powers.
"I support strengthening oversight while providing the intelligence community the certainty it needs to protect national security," Sen Leahy said. "The bill I hope we will consider before May 27 would give the intelligence community the certainty it needs by extending these expiring authorities while also strengthening congressional and judicial oversight."
DEA to legalize marijuana only for ‘Big Pharma,’ NORML claims
By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 -- 8:33 pm
rawstory.com
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposal to reclassify the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana as a Schedule III substance would allow pharmaceutical companies to market the drug while still penalizing common recreational use, according to marijuana law reform advocates.
The main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is currently a Schedule I substance within the US Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive schedule with the greatest criminal penalties.
In November 2010, the DEA proposed reclassifying dronabinol, a synthetic THC, as a Schedule III substance, which would place it among substances such as hydrocodone and allow it to be dispensed with a written or oral prescription.
"The DEA's intent is to expand the federal government's schedule III listing to include pharmaceutical products containing naturally derived formations of THC while simultaneously maintain existing criminal prohibitions on the plant itself," Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), wrote at AlterNet.
With its proposal, the DEA is responding to the demands of large pharmaceutical companies, he claimed.
Marijuana plants and THC extracts would remain illegal under the proposal, but companies would be able to purchase THC from a government-licensed provider to develop pharmaceutical products.
"While the DEA's forthcoming regulatory change promises to stimulate the advent of legally available, natural THC therapeutic products... the change will offer no legal relief for those hundreds of thousands of Americans who believe that therapeutic relief is best obtained by use of the whole plant itself," Armentano added.
"Rather the DEA appears content to try to walk a political and semantic tightrope that alleges: 'pot is bad,' but 'pot-derived pharmaceuticals are good.'"
THC can help cancer patients regain their appetites and sense of taste, according to a study published on Wednesday.
"This is the first randomized controlled trial to show that THC makes food taste better and improves appetites for patients with advanced cancer, as well as helping them to sleep and to relax better," Dr. Wendy Wismer, associate professor at the University of Alberta, said. "Our findings are important, as there is no accepted treatment for chemosensory alterations experienced by cancer patients."
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to legalize the medical use of marijuana.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 -- 8:33 pm
rawstory.com
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposal to reclassify the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana as a Schedule III substance would allow pharmaceutical companies to market the drug while still penalizing common recreational use, according to marijuana law reform advocates.
The main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is currently a Schedule I substance within the US Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive schedule with the greatest criminal penalties.
In November 2010, the DEA proposed reclassifying dronabinol, a synthetic THC, as a Schedule III substance, which would place it among substances such as hydrocodone and allow it to be dispensed with a written or oral prescription.
"The DEA's intent is to expand the federal government's schedule III listing to include pharmaceutical products containing naturally derived formations of THC while simultaneously maintain existing criminal prohibitions on the plant itself," Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), wrote at AlterNet.
With its proposal, the DEA is responding to the demands of large pharmaceutical companies, he claimed.
Marijuana plants and THC extracts would remain illegal under the proposal, but companies would be able to purchase THC from a government-licensed provider to develop pharmaceutical products.
"While the DEA's forthcoming regulatory change promises to stimulate the advent of legally available, natural THC therapeutic products... the change will offer no legal relief for those hundreds of thousands of Americans who believe that therapeutic relief is best obtained by use of the whole plant itself," Armentano added.
"Rather the DEA appears content to try to walk a political and semantic tightrope that alleges: 'pot is bad,' but 'pot-derived pharmaceuticals are good.'"
THC can help cancer patients regain their appetites and sense of taste, according to a study published on Wednesday.
"This is the first randomized controlled trial to show that THC makes food taste better and improves appetites for patients with advanced cancer, as well as helping them to sleep and to relax better," Dr. Wendy Wismer, associate professor at the University of Alberta, said. "Our findings are important, as there is no accepted treatment for chemosensory alterations experienced by cancer patients."
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to legalize the medical use of marijuana.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Former CIA analyst accosted during Clinton speech about tolerating free expression
By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, February 17th, 2011 -- 10:45 am
rawstory.com
The official position of the US Secretary of State is that countries around the world should respect their citizens' rights to free speech, free expression and free assembly -- and that's precisely what Sec. Hillary Clinton said during a Tuesday speech at George Washington University.
Unfortunately, as she spoke, not 15 feet in front of her, a series of events unfolded that utterly undermined the message.
Former CIA agent Ray McGovern, an outspoken critic of US foreign policy, stood silently in the auditorium's center aisle, and turned his back on Clinton.
For his symbolic and otherwise non-disruptive protest, he was quickly accosted by security agents. As they struggled to pull him out of the room, a CNN news camera caught the tail end of the ordeal.
"SO THIS IS AMERICA?!? This is America? Who are you?" the 71-year-old McGovern shouted as he was hauled away.
He claims to have been "bloodied" and "bruised" (photo) by one man in uniform and an unnamed, plain-clothes security worker.
Clinton didn't even skip a beat.
This video is from CNN, broadcast Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011.
McGovern was being represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).
"It is the ultimate definition of lip service that Secretary of State Clinton would be trumpeting the U.S. government's supposed concerns for free speech rights and this man would be simultaneously brutalized and arrested for engaging in a peaceful act of dissent at her speech," a spokeswoman for the group said in a published statement.
US officials came under similar rhetorical fire in December, when they announced plans to host "World Press Freedom Day." The announcement was made on the same day that Sen. Joesph Lieberman (I-CT) declared that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be prosecuted for espionage over his role in the release of US diplomatic cables.
"When people die because we have hypocrites at the top of our government, that compels me to make a statement in whatever way I can," McGovern later told Rob Kall, who posted the remarks to Op Ed News. "It was not the theme of her speech that I was protesting. It was her war policies and support of Mubarak."
Thursday, February 17th, 2011 -- 10:45 am
rawstory.com
The official position of the US Secretary of State is that countries around the world should respect their citizens' rights to free speech, free expression and free assembly -- and that's precisely what Sec. Hillary Clinton said during a Tuesday speech at George Washington University.
Unfortunately, as she spoke, not 15 feet in front of her, a series of events unfolded that utterly undermined the message.
Former CIA agent Ray McGovern, an outspoken critic of US foreign policy, stood silently in the auditorium's center aisle, and turned his back on Clinton.
For his symbolic and otherwise non-disruptive protest, he was quickly accosted by security agents. As they struggled to pull him out of the room, a CNN news camera caught the tail end of the ordeal.
"SO THIS IS AMERICA?!? This is America? Who are you?" the 71-year-old McGovern shouted as he was hauled away.
He claims to have been "bloodied" and "bruised" (photo) by one man in uniform and an unnamed, plain-clothes security worker.
Clinton didn't even skip a beat.
This video is from CNN, broadcast Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011.
McGovern was being represented by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).
"It is the ultimate definition of lip service that Secretary of State Clinton would be trumpeting the U.S. government's supposed concerns for free speech rights and this man would be simultaneously brutalized and arrested for engaging in a peaceful act of dissent at her speech," a spokeswoman for the group said in a published statement.
US officials came under similar rhetorical fire in December, when they announced plans to host "World Press Freedom Day." The announcement was made on the same day that Sen. Joesph Lieberman (I-CT) declared that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be prosecuted for espionage over his role in the release of US diplomatic cables.
"When people die because we have hypocrites at the top of our government, that compels me to make a statement in whatever way I can," McGovern later told Rob Kall, who posted the remarks to Op Ed News. "It was not the theme of her speech that I was protesting. It was her war policies and support of Mubarak."
Fox Does it Again
Fox reverses poll results to portray public as anti-union
Posted on 02.23.11
rawstory.com
A new poll was released Wednesday showing the public strongly supports union bargaining rights by a two-to-one margin. The Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” program displayed and voiced the results of the poll backwards, in a way that depicts the public as strongly opposed to unions.
Could this be another “honest mistake” by the conservative network? Or something else?
This is how the poll results were displayed by Fox:
Posted on 02.23.11
rawstory.com
A new poll was released Wednesday showing the public strongly supports union bargaining rights by a two-to-one margin. The Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” program displayed and voiced the results of the poll backwards, in a way that depicts the public as strongly opposed to unions.
Could this be another “honest mistake” by the conservative network? Or something else?
This is how the poll results were displayed by Fox:
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Lindsey Says
I was listening to Lindsey Williams on the Alex Jones Show.
If he's right, oil is going to go up to $200 a barrel.
The U.S. Dollar will be dead by the end of 2012.
The turmoil in the middle East will be so bad that it will disrupt the flow of oil to the U.S.
Oil companies will finally start drilling the vast oil reserves in the U.S.
The dollar will get so weak that people won't be able to afford food even though it will be available.
If he's right, oil is going to go up to $200 a barrel.
The U.S. Dollar will be dead by the end of 2012.
The turmoil in the middle East will be so bad that it will disrupt the flow of oil to the U.S.
Oil companies will finally start drilling the vast oil reserves in the U.S.
The dollar will get so weak that people won't be able to afford food even though it will be available.
Libyan turmoil weighs on stocks as oil surges
Pan Pylas, AP Business Writer, On Tuesday February 22, 2011, 11:49 am
LONDON (AP) -- Mounting concerns over Libya's violent crisis weighed on stocks Tuesday and sent oil prices surging, while the earthquake in the New Zealand city of Christchurch pushed the country's currency sharply lower.
With deep rifts opening up in Moammar Gadhafi's regime, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown in the capital of Tripoli, investors are fretting over how the crisis will end and what the impact on the North African country's oil production will be.
Libya is the world's 18th largest oil producer, pumping out around 1.8 million barrels a day, or a little under 2 percent of global daily output. The OPEC country also sits atop the biggest oil reserves in the whole of Africa.
With so much uncertainty surrounding a large chunk of the world's daily oil production, market prices surged. Benchmark crude for March delivery was up $4.80 a barrel, or 5.6 percent, at $92.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, it had it had been even higher above $94 a barrel.
Article Continues at yahoo.com
LONDON (AP) -- Mounting concerns over Libya's violent crisis weighed on stocks Tuesday and sent oil prices surging, while the earthquake in the New Zealand city of Christchurch pushed the country's currency sharply lower.
With deep rifts opening up in Moammar Gadhafi's regime, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown in the capital of Tripoli, investors are fretting over how the crisis will end and what the impact on the North African country's oil production will be.
Libya is the world's 18th largest oil producer, pumping out around 1.8 million barrels a day, or a little under 2 percent of global daily output. The OPEC country also sits atop the biggest oil reserves in the whole of Africa.
With so much uncertainty surrounding a large chunk of the world's daily oil production, market prices surged. Benchmark crude for March delivery was up $4.80 a barrel, or 5.6 percent, at $92.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, it had it had been even higher above $94 a barrel.
Article Continues at yahoo.com
Monday, February 21, 2011
MONTANA GOVERNOR IS SITTING ON AN OIL MINE
John Crudele
Posted: 3:26 AM, May 29, 2008
nypost.com
HELENA, Mont. - Here's some very good news about oil that the manipulators on Wall Street don't want you to know: there could be as much as 40 billion barrels of crude lying untouched in eastern Montana.
That's billion with a "b" - as in a ball-breaking amount for those speculators who are purposely pushing oil higher for their own selfish reasons.
Who says? Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer does, adding that his state - with fewer than 1 million residents - would be thrilled to bail the US out of its current energy predicament.
While on a visit to Wyoming and Montana, I popped in on Schweitzer, the Democratic governor, who was more than happy to answer my questions about the rumors of huge oil deposits in the so-called Bakken area of his state.
Right now, the US Geological Service estimates that there are 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken region, which also reaches into North Dakota.
"They are always conservative," said Schweitzer, who greeted me in his office dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a string tie. "There will be more. It'll probably be more like 40 billion."
It's so much, in fact, that a discovery like that - or even hints of such a find - could ruin speculators' chances of getting the price of oil much higher than it already is.
In fact, just the knowledge of such big oil deposits - together with a drop off in fuel use because of the recession and the inevitable development of alternative energy sources - might cause gasoline prices to fall substantially in the future.
As it is today, Americans are being cheated on the price of oil. I've been writing about this for the past couple of years and now even a do-nothing Congress is getting concerned, although its ire is misplaced.
Wall Street speculators, aided by cheap money from the Federal Reserve and an ill-informed press, have kidnapped oil in much the same way that the Hunt brothers cornered the silver market in the 1970s.
The only difference is that the Hunt escapades didn't come close to ruining the country's economy. Congress is blaming the oil companies, which certainly are benefiting from the surge in oil prices. President Bush did his part by groveling to the Saudis for more oil - and was offered a token increase, but was essentially turned down.
But maybe if we start digging in Montana, we just might get our national dignity back - and even save our economy.
"We've been drilling out there for 70 years," said Schweitzer of the Bakken area. "People there like new oil production. In fact, the city of Sydney [the county seat] wants to build a refinery. Where else in America do you have a community that says, 'we want to build a refinery in our backyard?' "
Schweitzer, an agronomist with an advanced degree in soil science, has a picture on his office wall of his grandfather operating a one-man refinery.
If you let him - and I did - Schweitzer will explain how oil deposits come to be formed over millions of years. He also explains how the Bakken contains so-called oil shale, which means that the crude needs to be flushed out of tight rock formations.
With improved technology today and higher prices, this recovery method is now very feasible.
"And the nice thing," Schweitzer said, "is it's one drill hole per section." For you city slickers, a "section" is a huge 640 acres.
By comparison, Saudi Arabia has the largest known oil reserves at 260 billion barrels.
Posted: 3:26 AM, May 29, 2008
nypost.com
HELENA, Mont. - Here's some very good news about oil that the manipulators on Wall Street don't want you to know: there could be as much as 40 billion barrels of crude lying untouched in eastern Montana.
That's billion with a "b" - as in a ball-breaking amount for those speculators who are purposely pushing oil higher for their own selfish reasons.
Who says? Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer does, adding that his state - with fewer than 1 million residents - would be thrilled to bail the US out of its current energy predicament.
While on a visit to Wyoming and Montana, I popped in on Schweitzer, the Democratic governor, who was more than happy to answer my questions about the rumors of huge oil deposits in the so-called Bakken area of his state.
Right now, the US Geological Service estimates that there are 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Bakken region, which also reaches into North Dakota.
"They are always conservative," said Schweitzer, who greeted me in his office dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a string tie. "There will be more. It'll probably be more like 40 billion."
It's so much, in fact, that a discovery like that - or even hints of such a find - could ruin speculators' chances of getting the price of oil much higher than it already is.
In fact, just the knowledge of such big oil deposits - together with a drop off in fuel use because of the recession and the inevitable development of alternative energy sources - might cause gasoline prices to fall substantially in the future.
As it is today, Americans are being cheated on the price of oil. I've been writing about this for the past couple of years and now even a do-nothing Congress is getting concerned, although its ire is misplaced.
Wall Street speculators, aided by cheap money from the Federal Reserve and an ill-informed press, have kidnapped oil in much the same way that the Hunt brothers cornered the silver market in the 1970s.
The only difference is that the Hunt escapades didn't come close to ruining the country's economy. Congress is blaming the oil companies, which certainly are benefiting from the surge in oil prices. President Bush did his part by groveling to the Saudis for more oil - and was offered a token increase, but was essentially turned down.
But maybe if we start digging in Montana, we just might get our national dignity back - and even save our economy.
"We've been drilling out there for 70 years," said Schweitzer of the Bakken area. "People there like new oil production. In fact, the city of Sydney [the county seat] wants to build a refinery. Where else in America do you have a community that says, 'we want to build a refinery in our backyard?' "
Schweitzer, an agronomist with an advanced degree in soil science, has a picture on his office wall of his grandfather operating a one-man refinery.
If you let him - and I did - Schweitzer will explain how oil deposits come to be formed over millions of years. He also explains how the Bakken contains so-called oil shale, which means that the crude needs to be flushed out of tight rock formations.
With improved technology today and higher prices, this recovery method is now very feasible.
"And the nice thing," Schweitzer said, "is it's one drill hole per section." For you city slickers, a "section" is a huge 640 acres.
By comparison, Saudi Arabia has the largest known oil reserves at 260 billion barrels.
Heaven Sent
spiegel.de
The aurora borealis, or the northern lights, are seen in the sky above the village of Ersfjordbotn near Tromsø in northern Norway, early in the morning on Monday. Aurorae are caused by the interaction between energetic charged particles from the Sun and gas molecules in the upper atmosphere of the Earth, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) up. A stream of charged particles, called the solar wind, flows out into space continuously from the Sun at speeds of 400-500 kilometers per second. Upon reaching Earth, the charged particles are drawn by Earth's magnetic field to the poles, where they collide with gas molecules in the upper atmosphere, causing them to emit light.
The aurora borealis, or the northern lights, are seen in the sky above the village of Ersfjordbotn near Tromsø in northern Norway, early in the morning on Monday. Aurorae are caused by the interaction between energetic charged particles from the Sun and gas molecules in the upper atmosphere of the Earth, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) up. A stream of charged particles, called the solar wind, flows out into space continuously from the Sun at speeds of 400-500 kilometers per second. Upon reaching Earth, the charged particles are drawn by Earth's magnetic field to the poles, where they collide with gas molecules in the upper atmosphere, causing them to emit light.
Mexicans are now endangered by ethnic specific bio-weapons
by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
aztlan.net
Los Angeles, Alta California - May 20, 2009 - (ACN) Mexican President Felipe Calderon may have made a grave mistake in allowing the creation and foreign funding of the "Instituto Nacional Mexicano de Medicina Genetica" (INMEGEN) which recently completed the mapping of genetic markers in Mestizos and Indigenous ethnic groups in Mexico. The Mexican genetic map project was undertaken with minimum publicity and very little public input. The project took four years to complete and cost approximately 25 million dollars.
The project results were just announced on May 11 mostly through the former Minister of Health of Mexico Julio Frenk who is now collaborating with Harvard University in Massachusetts. Julio Frenk is a Mexican Jew with ties to Neocons at Harvard University. He was a controversial Minister of Health under President Vicente Fox and was criticized by the Catholic Church for his policies of reducing Mexico's population. Frenk was accused by the Archbishop of Mexico City Norberto Rivera Carrera of the mass distribution of the morning after pill to Indigenous women through government health clinics. Presidents Calderon and Fox are both members of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) which is a lot like the Republican Party in the USA.
Harvard University is one of many centers for research concerning ethnic or race specific biological weapons. These weapons target and kill only people with certain genetic markers such as those that the Mexican genome project identified in Mestizos and Indigenous groups (ie. Mexicas, Zapotecas etc.). In fact, the Harvard Neocon Steve Rosen is a significant participant in these efforts. Rosen is a Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard and is one of the authors of "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Project for a New American Century" which on page 60 says "... the art of warfare ... will be vastly different than it is today ... 'combat' likely will take place in new dimensions ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." Other contributors to "Rebuilding America's Defenses" were Neocons (Zionists) Paul Wolfowitz, Alvin Bernstein, Eliot Cohen, David Epstein, Abram Shulsky, Dov Zakheim, Aaron Friedberg and others.
Microbiologists have been warning about ethnic specific bio-weapons for many years now. In 1998 Dr Vivienne Nathanson, Chief of Health Policy Research of the British Medical Association, warned that certain countries had active research programs into ethnic specific biological weapons. That same year the London Times published a report that Israel was developing an ethnic specific bio-weapon to target Arabs(Palestinians) at its secret Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) located in Ness Ziona which is about 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. A scientist quoted in the report said, "They have succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people." The report was later affirmed by David Dedi Zucker, a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament).
In addition, in 2007 the Islamic Republic of Iran reported that the USA, in cahoots with Israel, was in the process of producing and testing ethnic specific bio-weapons. At an international conference, Iranian General Mir Feysal Bagherzadeh said that the US, in collaboration with the Zionist regime of Israel,were preparing for sinister biological warfare. General Bagherzadeh said, "... they are seeking to manufacture a weapon which could kill specific peoples in a limited geographical area." The General further pointed out that the move should be considered as a case of genocide, "because they intend to massacre specific peoples and ethnicities" with the help of this weapon. He said a number of US experts were conducting activities and research in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the same line. General Bagherzadeh also said, "... during a crash of a Thai plane, the US and Israeli experts were looking for the corpses of Iranian nationals in a bid to provide for their needed genes." The general added, "The US and Israel are seeking to manufacture a new generation of weapons in an effort to immunize themselves and annihilate other nations and peoples."
Today there are indications that the Swine Flu virus, A(H1N1), which has devastated Mexico was engineered in a laboratory. The virus is very similar to the Spanish Flu virus that killed millions in 1918. The Spanish Flu virus is also a type A(H1N1) with a few genetic differences. The 1918 Swine Flu virus genome has been sequenced by virologist Jeffery Taubenberger of the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) which makes it possible to now create a variety of A(H1N1) viruses with different characteristics.
It may be that the Neocons have now implemented their goal outlined in their manifesto "Rebuilding America's Defenses." That goal was stated very clearly on page 60 of the document and that was to implement "... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes..." Why have Mexicans been the only ones to die in large numbers in the current Swine Flu pandemic? The graphic below shows very clearly that even though the Swine Flu has now spread widely in North America, it has been primarily Mexicans that have died from the infection. Out of 117 deaths reported on May 6, 115 have been Mexicans. The other 2 were non-Mexicans whose health was already compromised.
Has the Pentagon and the Neocons implemented a test of an ethnic specific bio-weapon in Mexico with the unwitting cooperation of the Mexican government through the recently completed genome mapping of Mexicans and the Harvard University connection? Only time will tell. One thing for sure though, we must be more vigilant than ever if we are to survive as a people. Also, a sincere warning for all other peoples of the world; it may be us today but tomorrow it may be you!
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
aztlan.net
Los Angeles, Alta California - May 20, 2009 - (ACN) Mexican President Felipe Calderon may have made a grave mistake in allowing the creation and foreign funding of the "Instituto Nacional Mexicano de Medicina Genetica" (INMEGEN) which recently completed the mapping of genetic markers in Mestizos and Indigenous ethnic groups in Mexico. The Mexican genetic map project was undertaken with minimum publicity and very little public input. The project took four years to complete and cost approximately 25 million dollars.
The project results were just announced on May 11 mostly through the former Minister of Health of Mexico Julio Frenk who is now collaborating with Harvard University in Massachusetts. Julio Frenk is a Mexican Jew with ties to Neocons at Harvard University. He was a controversial Minister of Health under President Vicente Fox and was criticized by the Catholic Church for his policies of reducing Mexico's population. Frenk was accused by the Archbishop of Mexico City Norberto Rivera Carrera of the mass distribution of the morning after pill to Indigenous women through government health clinics. Presidents Calderon and Fox are both members of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) which is a lot like the Republican Party in the USA.
Harvard University is one of many centers for research concerning ethnic or race specific biological weapons. These weapons target and kill only people with certain genetic markers such as those that the Mexican genome project identified in Mestizos and Indigenous groups (ie. Mexicas, Zapotecas etc.). In fact, the Harvard Neocon Steve Rosen is a significant participant in these efforts. Rosen is a Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard and is one of the authors of "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Project for a New American Century" which on page 60 says "... the art of warfare ... will be vastly different than it is today ... 'combat' likely will take place in new dimensions ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." Other contributors to "Rebuilding America's Defenses" were Neocons (Zionists) Paul Wolfowitz, Alvin Bernstein, Eliot Cohen, David Epstein, Abram Shulsky, Dov Zakheim, Aaron Friedberg and others.
Microbiologists have been warning about ethnic specific bio-weapons for many years now. In 1998 Dr Vivienne Nathanson, Chief of Health Policy Research of the British Medical Association, warned that certain countries had active research programs into ethnic specific biological weapons. That same year the London Times published a report that Israel was developing an ethnic specific bio-weapon to target Arabs(Palestinians) at its secret Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) located in Ness Ziona which is about 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. A scientist quoted in the report said, "They have succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people." The report was later affirmed by David Dedi Zucker, a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament).
In addition, in 2007 the Islamic Republic of Iran reported that the USA, in cahoots with Israel, was in the process of producing and testing ethnic specific bio-weapons. At an international conference, Iranian General Mir Feysal Bagherzadeh said that the US, in collaboration with the Zionist regime of Israel,were preparing for sinister biological warfare. General Bagherzadeh said, "... they are seeking to manufacture a weapon which could kill specific peoples in a limited geographical area." The General further pointed out that the move should be considered as a case of genocide, "because they intend to massacre specific peoples and ethnicities" with the help of this weapon. He said a number of US experts were conducting activities and research in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the same line. General Bagherzadeh also said, "... during a crash of a Thai plane, the US and Israeli experts were looking for the corpses of Iranian nationals in a bid to provide for their needed genes." The general added, "The US and Israel are seeking to manufacture a new generation of weapons in an effort to immunize themselves and annihilate other nations and peoples."
Today there are indications that the Swine Flu virus, A(H1N1), which has devastated Mexico was engineered in a laboratory. The virus is very similar to the Spanish Flu virus that killed millions in 1918. The Spanish Flu virus is also a type A(H1N1) with a few genetic differences. The 1918 Swine Flu virus genome has been sequenced by virologist Jeffery Taubenberger of the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) which makes it possible to now create a variety of A(H1N1) viruses with different characteristics.
It may be that the Neocons have now implemented their goal outlined in their manifesto "Rebuilding America's Defenses." That goal was stated very clearly on page 60 of the document and that was to implement "... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes..." Why have Mexicans been the only ones to die in large numbers in the current Swine Flu pandemic? The graphic below shows very clearly that even though the Swine Flu has now spread widely in North America, it has been primarily Mexicans that have died from the infection. Out of 117 deaths reported on May 6, 115 have been Mexicans. The other 2 were non-Mexicans whose health was already compromised.
Has the Pentagon and the Neocons implemented a test of an ethnic specific bio-weapon in Mexico with the unwitting cooperation of the Mexican government through the recently completed genome mapping of Mexicans and the Harvard University connection? Only time will tell. One thing for sure though, we must be more vigilant than ever if we are to survive as a people. Also, a sincere warning for all other peoples of the world; it may be us today but tomorrow it may be you!
Steak, karaoke and Chinese beer
Published: 21 February, 2011, 15:43
The Chinese have ANTARKTIK beer!!! No seriously, this is something that I find quite fascinating and a bit disturbing at the same time. They have a “smooth and mild” beer called “Antarktik” that claims to be brewed with real water from Antarctica.
How do I know this? Well, while I was visiting the Chinese “Great Wall Station” just down the way they gave me some. They explained that each year they ship a certain amount of ice back to China and then use that water to brew a certain, limited quantity of this beer. It comes in a special can and everything. Now the station leader at Great Wall admits that he doesn’t see exactly how they brew as much beer as they do with the amount of ice that they ship back — in fact he goes as far as to say that the math just doesn’t add up — but the concept is simply intriguing. Their theory is that the brewery actually does use this Antarctic ice water to put into the beer, but only a drop or so in each can. This way they can claim it is made with real water from Antarctica, without being completely honest as to the quantity. What surprises me even more about this whole concept is the fact that I was able to try some… IN ANTARCTICA!
In essence, they have shipped the ice out, made the beer, and shipped the beer back. Maybe it is a sort of Chinese recycling program? If this beer is so special, why do they send any amount of this limited edition brew back down south, why not keep in on the market to create a demand for this rare item? Or maybe their ploy, all along, was to send some back so that visitors to the station could try it and then write about it, thus giving a boost to the entire Chinese Antarctic Expedition program. If this is in fact their plan they have succeeded, I have fallen victim and kudos to China for their master planning. I will say that I do have a couple of cans, and while I am not sure if I would be violating any international import/export or duty-free laws, I may be willing to part with them… for the right price!
Article continues rt.com
The Chinese have ANTARKTIK beer!!! No seriously, this is something that I find quite fascinating and a bit disturbing at the same time. They have a “smooth and mild” beer called “Antarktik” that claims to be brewed with real water from Antarctica.
How do I know this? Well, while I was visiting the Chinese “Great Wall Station” just down the way they gave me some. They explained that each year they ship a certain amount of ice back to China and then use that water to brew a certain, limited quantity of this beer. It comes in a special can and everything. Now the station leader at Great Wall admits that he doesn’t see exactly how they brew as much beer as they do with the amount of ice that they ship back — in fact he goes as far as to say that the math just doesn’t add up — but the concept is simply intriguing. Their theory is that the brewery actually does use this Antarctic ice water to put into the beer, but only a drop or so in each can. This way they can claim it is made with real water from Antarctica, without being completely honest as to the quantity. What surprises me even more about this whole concept is the fact that I was able to try some… IN ANTARCTICA!
In essence, they have shipped the ice out, made the beer, and shipped the beer back. Maybe it is a sort of Chinese recycling program? If this beer is so special, why do they send any amount of this limited edition brew back down south, why not keep in on the market to create a demand for this rare item? Or maybe their ploy, all along, was to send some back so that visitors to the station could try it and then write about it, thus giving a boost to the entire Chinese Antarctic Expedition program. If this is in fact their plan they have succeeded, I have fallen victim and kudos to China for their master planning. I will say that I do have a couple of cans, and while I am not sure if I would be violating any international import/export or duty-free laws, I may be willing to part with them… for the right price!
Article continues rt.com
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Trentadue discusses missing Murrah bombing video footage, more
By Andrew W. Griffin
Red Dirt Report, editor
Posted: February 18, 2011
reddirtreporter@gmail.com
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, whose brother Kenneth Trentadue was beaten to death in during an FBI interrogation in the days after the '95 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing, revealed new information about the case and the bombing during an interview today on The Alex Jones Show.
Trentadue explained to Jones and his audience that initially he looked into why his brother was killed at the Oklahoma City Federal Corrections Institute. And while he ultimately concluded it was due to a tragic case of mistaken identity - he looked like "bank bandit" Richard Lee Guthrie - his pursuit of the truth kept leading him to new information.
"Everything I did took me to Oklahoma City and the bombing," Trentadue said of his research.
Despite running into numerous roadblocks, no thanks to a less than transparent government, Trentadue sued the government for more information and learned that convicted bomber Terry Nichols had been told by the Feds in 2005 that he would be spared the death penalty if he agreed to certain things. This included Nichols taking responsibility for a warning call to the FBI prior to the bombing; his implication of his brother James Nichols in the conspiracy and thirdly to reveal where some explosives were that had been taken from a gun dealer in Arkansas named Roger Moore.
It turned out that Nichols had hidden the explosives in a crawl space in his home in Herington, Kansas. The FBI got the explosives and destroyed them three years later. It was revealed in the documents Trentadue received that fingerprints belonging to McVeigh, Nichols and two other individuals whose names were redacted.
Jones asked Trentadue, "What really happened at Oklahoma City?"
Trentadue replied that he thought it was "some kind of government operation" and said he wasn't sure if McVeigh "went rogue" or whether the bombing had been planned all along ... and that they knew in advance it was going to happen."
"There's so much evidence, it's totally ridiculous," Jones added.
Most interesting was that when Trentadue received copies of 26 tapes that were allegedly recording what was going on around the Murrah building on the morning of April 19, 1995. But what was curious, Trentadue said, was that the tapes all went blank between 8:54 a.m. and 9:02 a.m.. Of course this is critical because it would have shown McVeigh pulling up, possibly with other people, and detonating the Ryder truck bomb.
When he inquired with the federal government about the fact that all the tapes were blank for that period of time, he was told "all the tapes were being changed."
"I got all the tapes, except for the Murrah building," Trentadue said.
Jones noted that it is believed McVeigh was part of a black ops team and that he was ultimately set up to take the fall for the bombing that involved others.
For more on this story, note the KTOK AM 1000 story written by reporter Jerry Bohnen and posted at WeAreChange Utah's website.
Red Dirt Report, editor
Posted: February 18, 2011
reddirtreporter@gmail.com
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, whose brother Kenneth Trentadue was beaten to death in during an FBI interrogation in the days after the '95 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing, revealed new information about the case and the bombing during an interview today on The Alex Jones Show.
Trentadue explained to Jones and his audience that initially he looked into why his brother was killed at the Oklahoma City Federal Corrections Institute. And while he ultimately concluded it was due to a tragic case of mistaken identity - he looked like "bank bandit" Richard Lee Guthrie - his pursuit of the truth kept leading him to new information.
"Everything I did took me to Oklahoma City and the bombing," Trentadue said of his research.
Despite running into numerous roadblocks, no thanks to a less than transparent government, Trentadue sued the government for more information and learned that convicted bomber Terry Nichols had been told by the Feds in 2005 that he would be spared the death penalty if he agreed to certain things. This included Nichols taking responsibility for a warning call to the FBI prior to the bombing; his implication of his brother James Nichols in the conspiracy and thirdly to reveal where some explosives were that had been taken from a gun dealer in Arkansas named Roger Moore.
It turned out that Nichols had hidden the explosives in a crawl space in his home in Herington, Kansas. The FBI got the explosives and destroyed them three years later. It was revealed in the documents Trentadue received that fingerprints belonging to McVeigh, Nichols and two other individuals whose names were redacted.
Jones asked Trentadue, "What really happened at Oklahoma City?"
Trentadue replied that he thought it was "some kind of government operation" and said he wasn't sure if McVeigh "went rogue" or whether the bombing had been planned all along ... and that they knew in advance it was going to happen."
"There's so much evidence, it's totally ridiculous," Jones added.
Most interesting was that when Trentadue received copies of 26 tapes that were allegedly recording what was going on around the Murrah building on the morning of April 19, 1995. But what was curious, Trentadue said, was that the tapes all went blank between 8:54 a.m. and 9:02 a.m.. Of course this is critical because it would have shown McVeigh pulling up, possibly with other people, and detonating the Ryder truck bomb.
When he inquired with the federal government about the fact that all the tapes were blank for that period of time, he was told "all the tapes were being changed."
"I got all the tapes, except for the Murrah building," Trentadue said.
Jones noted that it is believed McVeigh was part of a black ops team and that he was ultimately set up to take the fall for the bombing that involved others.
For more on this story, note the KTOK AM 1000 story written by reporter Jerry Bohnen and posted at WeAreChange Utah's website.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Obama budget attacks poor, middle class Americans
rt.com
Published: 14 February, 2011, 20:18
After maintaining the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy, US President Barack Obama plans to cut programs which aid those most in need.
A new proposed budget the administration has put before congress calls for $1.1 trillion in deficit reductions over the next 10 years. The cuts largely target social programs, such as those designed to offer aid to students attending university, fund community organizations and assist working class families.
The plan however avoids addressing entitlement programs, for now, and does not touch US defense spending. It focuses on a mere 15% of US spending in discretionary programs that do not impact security or the military.
In addition to cuts to social programs, the White House said nearly a third of the reductions will be made up in tax increases and tax-break closures.
Some of the items on Obama’s chopping block include; cuts to Low-income heating assistance by half, Community Development Block Grants used to aid local governments are to be cut by around $300 million. In addition, the forestry service will be loose funds, farms will see a steep reduction in agricultural subsidies and the Environmental Protection Agency water treatment fund for local governments will be forced to cut back.
However, Republicans say the budget is still too high and argue more reductions are needed. They call for further cuts to health and education programs for low-income children, nutritional aid for women, infants and young children, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Republicans insisted they will demand further cuts from the administrations.
Overall, the proposal also calls for a five year freeze on other domestic spending. Even with Obama’s proposals it is projected the US deficit will set a new record, reaching $1.6 trillion this year alone.
Published: 14 February, 2011, 20:18
After maintaining the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy, US President Barack Obama plans to cut programs which aid those most in need.
A new proposed budget the administration has put before congress calls for $1.1 trillion in deficit reductions over the next 10 years. The cuts largely target social programs, such as those designed to offer aid to students attending university, fund community organizations and assist working class families.
The plan however avoids addressing entitlement programs, for now, and does not touch US defense spending. It focuses on a mere 15% of US spending in discretionary programs that do not impact security or the military.
In addition to cuts to social programs, the White House said nearly a third of the reductions will be made up in tax increases and tax-break closures.
Some of the items on Obama’s chopping block include; cuts to Low-income heating assistance by half, Community Development Block Grants used to aid local governments are to be cut by around $300 million. In addition, the forestry service will be loose funds, farms will see a steep reduction in agricultural subsidies and the Environmental Protection Agency water treatment fund for local governments will be forced to cut back.
However, Republicans say the budget is still too high and argue more reductions are needed. They call for further cuts to health and education programs for low-income children, nutritional aid for women, infants and young children, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Republicans insisted they will demand further cuts from the administrations.
Overall, the proposal also calls for a five year freeze on other domestic spending. Even with Obama’s proposals it is projected the US deficit will set a new record, reaching $1.6 trillion this year alone.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Nowata Oklahoma
Nowata, Oklahoma went from -31 degrees Fahrenheit on Feb 10, 2011 to +79 degrees Fahrenheit on Feb 17, 2011 - that's a 110 degree difference in just one week.
Those kind of temperature swings can kill you!
Those kind of temperature swings can kill you!
Twilight Zone Friday Morning
I woke up this morning to the alarm clock's warning, stretched and cried out in pain.
My left calf had a charlie-horse from hell. I pulled back on my toes to try to make it stop, my calf felt like a rock. My little dog was worried, I got up and made my way to the kitchen. I told my wife I had a charlie-horse.
She says "Is it in your left calf?"
I said "Yeah, how did you know?"
She says "I didn't know, but when the alarm went off this morning (She gets up before I do) I must have stretched and got a cramp in my left calf."
I was like "What is this, the twilight zone?"
Isn't that bizarre?
What are the odds?
I'm feeling a little uneasy about what the rest of this day has in store for me.
(Sometimes on Fridays I dress like the Lone Ranger)
(Not really but this pic was there when I looked up "Charlie-Horse Images)
My left calf had a charlie-horse from hell. I pulled back on my toes to try to make it stop, my calf felt like a rock. My little dog was worried, I got up and made my way to the kitchen. I told my wife I had a charlie-horse.
She says "Is it in your left calf?"
I said "Yeah, how did you know?"
She says "I didn't know, but when the alarm went off this morning (She gets up before I do) I must have stretched and got a cramp in my left calf."
I was like "What is this, the twilight zone?"
Isn't that bizarre?
What are the odds?
I'm feeling a little uneasy about what the rest of this day has in store for me.
(Sometimes on Fridays I dress like the Lone Ranger)
(Not really but this pic was there when I looked up "Charlie-Horse Images)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Betrayed! Tea Party Politicians Vote To Renew The Patriot Act As America Is Slowly Transformed Into A Big Brother Police State Worse Than George Orwell’s 1984
endoftheamericandream
February 17, 2011
For a moment, imagine that you are awakened one night by a heavily-armed team of federal agents dressed in all black breaking into your home. As you confront them, they hand you a piece of paper that says that your son has been identified as a “terrorist” and that they are there to take him away. They pull your son out of bed, they throw him on the floor and the use a taser on him repeatedly. Then they handcuff him and haul him away without telling you a thing about where they are taking him. Your son suddenly has no rights because the Patriot Act supersedes the U.S. Constitution. That’s right – because your son has been identified as a “terrorist” because of something that he has said on the Internet he no longer has any constitutional rights. Your underage son is held indefinitely and is subjected to “enhanced interrogation” because he has been identified as a “threat”. You are not able to get your son back for years even though it turns out that he is completely and totally innocent. If you think that such a thing cannot happen to you then you are a fool, because this kind of thing is happening over and over across the United States and it is all legal because of the Patriot Act.
America is rapidly turning into a horrible Big Brother police state and most of our politicians are fully supporting this transformation. In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives gave us quite a Valentine’s Day gift the other day when it voted to once again extend provisions of the Patriot Act that allow for domestic surveillance of American citizens, wire tapping of American citizens and warrantless searches of the homes of American citizens.
What was perhaps most disappointing was that a large number of “Tea Party politicians” cast votes in favor of renewing the Patriot Act provisions.
The majority of Americans were absolutely disgusted when the Bush administration instituted the Patriot Act and many other police state measures and they voted for Barack Obama hoping for something different.
Well, it turns out that Barack Obama has been even worse.
Have you been to an airport lately? Yeah, those “naked body scanners” and “enhanced pat-downs” are a lot of fun, aren’t they?
Many Americans voted for Tea Party candidates during the last election hoping that they would be willing to stand up for liberty and freedom.
Well, it turns out that many of them caved when it came time to vote on the extension of Patriot Act provisions.
So is there anyone out there that we can vote for that will stand up for liberty and freedom?
The truth is that this is not a conservative issue and it is not a liberal issue.
This is an American issue.
But doesn’t the Patriot Act keep us safe from terrorism?
No.
Just the other day Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, admitted that even with all of our “security measures” the chance that the U.S. will be hit a weapon of mass destruction is 100 percent….
“There’s a probability of 100 percent that a WMD event will happen.”
But even if the Patriot Act could keep us “safer”, is that any reason for us to live the rest of our lives as “cattle” in a Big Brother police state that is becoming more like George Orwell’s 1984 every single day?
Are we willing to forever renounce being “the land of the free and the home of the brave” just so that we can feel a bit more secure?
The truth is that the U.S. government is not really protecting us anyway. Our border with Mexico is wide open and millions of people have been pouring across it unchecked. It would be ridiculously easy for any potential “terrorists” to smuggle dangerous weapons into this country.
So please don’t try to tell me that the U.S. government is actually serious about national security. Until the U.S. government is willing to do something about the border they should not be asking the American people to give up a single ounce of liberty or freedom for the sake of “security”.
But instead of securing the border and doing other practical things that would actually keep this country safer, our government has become absolutely obsessed with watching us, tracking us, listening to us, “assessing” us and controlling us.
In the process, the America that we all once loved is rapidly being destroyed. Because of laws like the Patriot Act, our country now more closely resembles East Germany during the Cold War than the nation that our founding fathers originally established.
Government whistleblower Susan Lindauer, who has been arrested under the Patriot Act for protesting the Iraq war, recently authored an article in which she described why Americans should be much more frightened by the Patriot Act….
The American people are not nearly as frightened as they should be. Many Americans expect the Patriot Act to limit its surveillance to overseas communications. Yet while I was under indictment, Maryland State Police invoked the Patriot Act to wire tap activists tied to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an environmental group dedicated to wind power, solar energy and recycling. The DC Anti-War Network was targeted as a “white supremacist group.” Amnesty International and anti-death penalty activists got targeted for alleged “civil rights violations.”
Lindauer is speaking from experience when she talks about the Patriot Act. Just hope and pray that you never have to go through what she had to go through because of the Patriot Act….
I cannot forget. I cannot forget how I was subjected to secret charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony that denied my right to face my accusers or their accusations in open court, throughout five years of indictment. I cannot forget my imprisonment on a Texas military base for a year without a trial or evidentiary hearing.
I cannot forget how the FBI, the US Attorneys Office, the Bureau of Prisons and the main Justice office in Washington — independently and collectively verified my story— then falsified testimony to Chief Justice Michael Mukasey, denying our 9/11 warnings and my long-time status as a U.S. intelligence Asset, though my witnesses had aggressively confronted them. Apparently the Patriot Act allows the Justice Department to withhold corroborating evidence and testimony from the Court, if it is deemed “classified.”
I cannot forget threats of forcible drugging and indefinite detention up to 10 years, until I could be “cured” of believing what everybody wanted to deny— because it was damn inconvenient to politicians in Washington anxious to hold onto power.
At least there are a few members of Congress that attempted to oppose the renewal of the Patriot Act. For example, Senator Rand Paul recently explained why he opposes renewal of this freedom-killing law….
“The Senate yesterday proposed a three-year extension of the PATRIOT Act, a move that would not have allowed for any hearings, amendments, or debate. I objected to this deal. I realize that I might not have the votes to stop this bill, but we should at least discuss this in public as adults.
“We should have the opportunity to explain why the Constitution is being violated. We should talk about how we do not have to give up who we are in order to fight terrorism. It is not acceptable to willfully ignore the most basic provisions of our Constitution—in this case—the Fourth and First Amendments—in the name of ‘security.’”
Unfortunately, most of our other politicians have stood by and have done nothing to stop the horrific abuses that are taking place under this law. A good friend of ours, Charlie McGrath, recently lamented this fact in a recent video….
What in the world is happening to this country?
One of the worst things about all of this is that Christians are actually some of the strongest supporters of the Patriot Act.
The mainstream media has brainwashed many of them into believing that the Patriot Act is “conservative” and that it is going to keep us safe from terrorism. Somehow Christians have been duped into believing that the more power Barack Obama and his minions have to control our lives the safer we all are going to be.
But the truth is that laws like the Patriot Act are transforming this nation into a totalitarian regime. We are becoming more like North Korea, Communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany every single day.
As a Christian, I deeply oppose laws such as the Patriot Act. The Scriptures warn us of a time when a future world government will attempt to brutally dominate all the nations on the planet. Just read the book of Revelation some time.
Any law that takes our liberties and freedoms away is another step in the direction of totalitarianism. Every time another new law like the Patriot Act gets passed we get closer to the time when government completely dominates and controls every single aspect of our lives.
Christians should be loudly denouncing any attempt to strip our liberties and freedoms away. Christians should be loudly denouncing the destruction of our constitutional rights.
Transforming our government into a hardcore socialist police state and handing it all kinds of extreme “Big Brother” powers is not going to make us safer.
Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)
We were sold a pack of lies by the Bush administration and now the Obama administration is trying to cram even more lies down our throats.
Many of us had hoped that Tea Party politicians would be different and would stand up for our liberties and freedoms, but now we can clearly see that many of them will not.
In the past, Americans would ready George Orwell’s 1984 and would think that nothing like that could ever happen in the United States of America.
Well, it is happening in the United States of America.
Are you going to stand up and say anything about it?
February 17, 2011
For a moment, imagine that you are awakened one night by a heavily-armed team of federal agents dressed in all black breaking into your home. As you confront them, they hand you a piece of paper that says that your son has been identified as a “terrorist” and that they are there to take him away. They pull your son out of bed, they throw him on the floor and the use a taser on him repeatedly. Then they handcuff him and haul him away without telling you a thing about where they are taking him. Your son suddenly has no rights because the Patriot Act supersedes the U.S. Constitution. That’s right – because your son has been identified as a “terrorist” because of something that he has said on the Internet he no longer has any constitutional rights. Your underage son is held indefinitely and is subjected to “enhanced interrogation” because he has been identified as a “threat”. You are not able to get your son back for years even though it turns out that he is completely and totally innocent. If you think that such a thing cannot happen to you then you are a fool, because this kind of thing is happening over and over across the United States and it is all legal because of the Patriot Act.
America is rapidly turning into a horrible Big Brother police state and most of our politicians are fully supporting this transformation. In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives gave us quite a Valentine’s Day gift the other day when it voted to once again extend provisions of the Patriot Act that allow for domestic surveillance of American citizens, wire tapping of American citizens and warrantless searches of the homes of American citizens.
What was perhaps most disappointing was that a large number of “Tea Party politicians” cast votes in favor of renewing the Patriot Act provisions.
The majority of Americans were absolutely disgusted when the Bush administration instituted the Patriot Act and many other police state measures and they voted for Barack Obama hoping for something different.
Well, it turns out that Barack Obama has been even worse.
Have you been to an airport lately? Yeah, those “naked body scanners” and “enhanced pat-downs” are a lot of fun, aren’t they?
Many Americans voted for Tea Party candidates during the last election hoping that they would be willing to stand up for liberty and freedom.
Well, it turns out that many of them caved when it came time to vote on the extension of Patriot Act provisions.
So is there anyone out there that we can vote for that will stand up for liberty and freedom?
The truth is that this is not a conservative issue and it is not a liberal issue.
This is an American issue.
But doesn’t the Patriot Act keep us safe from terrorism?
No.
Just the other day Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, admitted that even with all of our “security measures” the chance that the U.S. will be hit a weapon of mass destruction is 100 percent….
“There’s a probability of 100 percent that a WMD event will happen.”
But even if the Patriot Act could keep us “safer”, is that any reason for us to live the rest of our lives as “cattle” in a Big Brother police state that is becoming more like George Orwell’s 1984 every single day?
Are we willing to forever renounce being “the land of the free and the home of the brave” just so that we can feel a bit more secure?
The truth is that the U.S. government is not really protecting us anyway. Our border with Mexico is wide open and millions of people have been pouring across it unchecked. It would be ridiculously easy for any potential “terrorists” to smuggle dangerous weapons into this country.
So please don’t try to tell me that the U.S. government is actually serious about national security. Until the U.S. government is willing to do something about the border they should not be asking the American people to give up a single ounce of liberty or freedom for the sake of “security”.
But instead of securing the border and doing other practical things that would actually keep this country safer, our government has become absolutely obsessed with watching us, tracking us, listening to us, “assessing” us and controlling us.
In the process, the America that we all once loved is rapidly being destroyed. Because of laws like the Patriot Act, our country now more closely resembles East Germany during the Cold War than the nation that our founding fathers originally established.
Government whistleblower Susan Lindauer, who has been arrested under the Patriot Act for protesting the Iraq war, recently authored an article in which she described why Americans should be much more frightened by the Patriot Act….
The American people are not nearly as frightened as they should be. Many Americans expect the Patriot Act to limit its surveillance to overseas communications. Yet while I was under indictment, Maryland State Police invoked the Patriot Act to wire tap activists tied to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an environmental group dedicated to wind power, solar energy and recycling. The DC Anti-War Network was targeted as a “white supremacist group.” Amnesty International and anti-death penalty activists got targeted for alleged “civil rights violations.”
Lindauer is speaking from experience when she talks about the Patriot Act. Just hope and pray that you never have to go through what she had to go through because of the Patriot Act….
I cannot forget. I cannot forget how I was subjected to secret charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony that denied my right to face my accusers or their accusations in open court, throughout five years of indictment. I cannot forget my imprisonment on a Texas military base for a year without a trial or evidentiary hearing.
I cannot forget how the FBI, the US Attorneys Office, the Bureau of Prisons and the main Justice office in Washington — independently and collectively verified my story— then falsified testimony to Chief Justice Michael Mukasey, denying our 9/11 warnings and my long-time status as a U.S. intelligence Asset, though my witnesses had aggressively confronted them. Apparently the Patriot Act allows the Justice Department to withhold corroborating evidence and testimony from the Court, if it is deemed “classified.”
I cannot forget threats of forcible drugging and indefinite detention up to 10 years, until I could be “cured” of believing what everybody wanted to deny— because it was damn inconvenient to politicians in Washington anxious to hold onto power.
At least there are a few members of Congress that attempted to oppose the renewal of the Patriot Act. For example, Senator Rand Paul recently explained why he opposes renewal of this freedom-killing law….
“The Senate yesterday proposed a three-year extension of the PATRIOT Act, a move that would not have allowed for any hearings, amendments, or debate. I objected to this deal. I realize that I might not have the votes to stop this bill, but we should at least discuss this in public as adults.
“We should have the opportunity to explain why the Constitution is being violated. We should talk about how we do not have to give up who we are in order to fight terrorism. It is not acceptable to willfully ignore the most basic provisions of our Constitution—in this case—the Fourth and First Amendments—in the name of ‘security.’”
Unfortunately, most of our other politicians have stood by and have done nothing to stop the horrific abuses that are taking place under this law. A good friend of ours, Charlie McGrath, recently lamented this fact in a recent video….
What in the world is happening to this country?
One of the worst things about all of this is that Christians are actually some of the strongest supporters of the Patriot Act.
The mainstream media has brainwashed many of them into believing that the Patriot Act is “conservative” and that it is going to keep us safe from terrorism. Somehow Christians have been duped into believing that the more power Barack Obama and his minions have to control our lives the safer we all are going to be.
But the truth is that laws like the Patriot Act are transforming this nation into a totalitarian regime. We are becoming more like North Korea, Communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany every single day.
As a Christian, I deeply oppose laws such as the Patriot Act. The Scriptures warn us of a time when a future world government will attempt to brutally dominate all the nations on the planet. Just read the book of Revelation some time.
Any law that takes our liberties and freedoms away is another step in the direction of totalitarianism. Every time another new law like the Patriot Act gets passed we get closer to the time when government completely dominates and controls every single aspect of our lives.
Christians should be loudly denouncing any attempt to strip our liberties and freedoms away. Christians should be loudly denouncing the destruction of our constitutional rights.
Transforming our government into a hardcore socialist police state and handing it all kinds of extreme “Big Brother” powers is not going to make us safer.
Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)
We were sold a pack of lies by the Bush administration and now the Obama administration is trying to cram even more lies down our throats.
Many of us had hoped that Tea Party politicians would be different and would stand up for our liberties and freedoms, but now we can clearly see that many of them will not.
In the past, Americans would ready George Orwell’s 1984 and would think that nothing like that could ever happen in the United States of America.
Well, it is happening in the United States of America.
Are you going to stand up and say anything about it?
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Fox News Caught In Shocking Dirty Tricks Stunt Against Ron Paul
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
February 16, 2011
infowars.com
In a shocking act of mass public deception, Fox News attempted to skew Ron Paul’s 2011 CPAC straw poll win by representing it with footage from the previous year’s CPAC event, at which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed the result, another example of the continuing dirty tricks campaign being waged against Paul by the establishment media.
Congressman Paul replicated his 2010 victory over Mitt Romney by defeating the former Governor of Massachusetts for a second consecutive year at the annual CPAC conference.
However, before anchor Bill Hemmer introduced a segment concerning the story, Fox News played a clip of the 2010 announcement of the poll results, during which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed Ron Paul’s victory, passing off last year’s footage as representative of this year’s event.
Hemmer then proceeded to state, “In the end he was the winner, probably not the reaction he was hoping for,” describing the reaction as “mixed applause and boos,” before directly asking Ron Paul if he knew who was booing him.
“Who was in the audience booing you, did you get a name, did you get an ID on those people?” asked Hemmer.
In reality, there were hardly any boos after Ron Paul was announced as the 2011 CPAC winner, the result was met with a massively positive reaction, only Fox News deemed it necessary to hide that fact from their viewers. The video clip above shows the real footage from the 2011 event, proving that Fox News had attempted to deceive Americans into thinking that Paul’s victory was unpopular, by deliberately using the wrong footage.
A separate We Are Change Oklahoma clip of the 2011 straw poll victory confirms that Paul’s win was met overwhelmingly by a loud chorus of cheers and applause.
This is the second time in the space of a week that Fox News has deliberately used dirty tricks to try and ostracize Ron Paul by discrediting the legitimacy of his potential candidacy for president.
A Fox News poll released earlier this week which asked who would make the best president included many of the potential candidates that Ron Paul trounced in the CPAC straw poll, yet the Congressman’s name was not even included in the survey.
Exemplifying again how the establishment consistently tries to derail Paul’s momentum by ignoring his very existence, obscure names like John Thune and Jon Huntsman were included in the Fox poll and yet Paul was omitted entirely.
While Fox News continues to act as an accommodating platform for the pied pipers of the hijacked tea party movement, people like Tea Party Caucus leader Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, real conservatives like Ron Paul and his son Senator Rand Paul are subject to dirty tricks and underhanded ploys.
Given the energetic power of his grass roots base, the establishment is scared to death of Ron Paul building any kind of momentum as the 2012 campaign race nears, which is why they have to resort to pulling stunts like this to hoax the American people into thinking that the message of liberty and freedom is unpopular, when in reality it is spreading like wildfire and would completely overrun the status quo if Ron Paul was allowed to communicate on a level playing field.
Prison Planet.com
February 16, 2011
infowars.com
In a shocking act of mass public deception, Fox News attempted to skew Ron Paul’s 2011 CPAC straw poll win by representing it with footage from the previous year’s CPAC event, at which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed the result, another example of the continuing dirty tricks campaign being waged against Paul by the establishment media.
Congressman Paul replicated his 2010 victory over Mitt Romney by defeating the former Governor of Massachusetts for a second consecutive year at the annual CPAC conference.
However, before anchor Bill Hemmer introduced a segment concerning the story, Fox News played a clip of the 2010 announcement of the poll results, during which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed Ron Paul’s victory, passing off last year’s footage as representative of this year’s event.
Hemmer then proceeded to state, “In the end he was the winner, probably not the reaction he was hoping for,” describing the reaction as “mixed applause and boos,” before directly asking Ron Paul if he knew who was booing him.
“Who was in the audience booing you, did you get a name, did you get an ID on those people?” asked Hemmer.
In reality, there were hardly any boos after Ron Paul was announced as the 2011 CPAC winner, the result was met with a massively positive reaction, only Fox News deemed it necessary to hide that fact from their viewers. The video clip above shows the real footage from the 2011 event, proving that Fox News had attempted to deceive Americans into thinking that Paul’s victory was unpopular, by deliberately using the wrong footage.
A separate We Are Change Oklahoma clip of the 2011 straw poll victory confirms that Paul’s win was met overwhelmingly by a loud chorus of cheers and applause.
This is the second time in the space of a week that Fox News has deliberately used dirty tricks to try and ostracize Ron Paul by discrediting the legitimacy of his potential candidacy for president.
A Fox News poll released earlier this week which asked who would make the best president included many of the potential candidates that Ron Paul trounced in the CPAC straw poll, yet the Congressman’s name was not even included in the survey.
Exemplifying again how the establishment consistently tries to derail Paul’s momentum by ignoring his very existence, obscure names like John Thune and Jon Huntsman were included in the Fox poll and yet Paul was omitted entirely.
While Fox News continues to act as an accommodating platform for the pied pipers of the hijacked tea party movement, people like Tea Party Caucus leader Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, real conservatives like Ron Paul and his son Senator Rand Paul are subject to dirty tricks and underhanded ploys.
Given the energetic power of his grass roots base, the establishment is scared to death of Ron Paul building any kind of momentum as the 2012 campaign race nears, which is why they have to resort to pulling stunts like this to hoax the American people into thinking that the message of liberty and freedom is unpopular, when in reality it is spreading like wildfire and would completely overrun the status quo if Ron Paul was allowed to communicate on a level playing field.
Harry Baals gets Scratched
Harry Baals gets rubbed as name of new government building
* February 9th, 2011 7:59 pm ET
examiner.com
A Fort Wayne government building is losing its chance to be named after one of the city’s most beloved mayors, Harry Baals.
In a recent online poll, people were asked to vote for the name of a new government building located in downtown Fort Wayne. Several names were submitted for consideration including: The Anthony Wayne Government Center, Eugene Johnson Memorial Center, Renaissance Square and of course, Harry Baals Government Center.
At the time of this writing, Harry Baals had the most votes, with 9,250 while the runner-up had 465 votes. According to the Journal Gazette, Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy said, "We love Fort Wayne, too," she said. "We're not going to make any decisions that look bad.” In other words, they are not going to choose the name that the citizens of Fort Wayne voted for.
Jim Baals is the great-nephew of Harry Baals and thinks that the name shouldn’t be a problem. I've lived with that name for 51 years now and I've gotten through it. I think everybody else can, too, “ said Baals.
Baals was the four-term Republican mayor of Fort Wayne from 1934-1947 and 1951-1954. Baals died from a kidney infection while serving his fourth term as mayor.
Government officials have frowned upon using his name due to the double entendre associated with it.
Voting will end on Friday at the website. http://www.feedbackfortwayne.org
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Harry Baals gets rubbed as name of new government building - National Strange News | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/strange-news-in-national/harry-baals-gets-rubbed-as-name-of-new-government-building?cid=parsely#parsely#ixzz1E8g9c6Zm
* February 9th, 2011 7:59 pm ET
examiner.com
A Fort Wayne government building is losing its chance to be named after one of the city’s most beloved mayors, Harry Baals.
In a recent online poll, people were asked to vote for the name of a new government building located in downtown Fort Wayne. Several names were submitted for consideration including: The Anthony Wayne Government Center, Eugene Johnson Memorial Center, Renaissance Square and of course, Harry Baals Government Center.
At the time of this writing, Harry Baals had the most votes, with 9,250 while the runner-up had 465 votes. According to the Journal Gazette, Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy said, "We love Fort Wayne, too," she said. "We're not going to make any decisions that look bad.” In other words, they are not going to choose the name that the citizens of Fort Wayne voted for.
Jim Baals is the great-nephew of Harry Baals and thinks that the name shouldn’t be a problem. I've lived with that name for 51 years now and I've gotten through it. I think everybody else can, too, “ said Baals.
Baals was the four-term Republican mayor of Fort Wayne from 1934-1947 and 1951-1954. Baals died from a kidney infection while serving his fourth term as mayor.
Government officials have frowned upon using his name due to the double entendre associated with it.
Voting will end on Friday at the website. http://www.feedbackfortwayne.org
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Harry Baals gets rubbed as name of new government building - National Strange News | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/strange-news-in-national/harry-baals-gets-rubbed-as-name-of-new-government-building?cid=parsely#parsely#ixzz1E8g9c6Zm
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sun erupts with mightiest solar flare in 4 years
Explosion hurls massive wave of charged particles into space, toward Earth
The solar storm sent a flash of radiation that hit Earth in a matter of minutes. Now a huge cloud of charged particles is headed our way. These coronal mass ejections, as they are called, typically take about 24 hours or more to arrive. They can spark spectacular displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, at high latitudes and sometimes even into the northern United States.
The mega flare, which registered as a Class X2.2 flare on the scale of solar flares, was the first class X flare to occur in the new solar cycle of activity, which began last year. The sun is now ramping up toward a solar maximum around 2013.
"It has been the largest flare since Dec. 6, 2006, so a long time coming," said Phil Chamberlin, deputy project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which observed the flare. "There were some clues that led us to believe the likelihood of moderate to large flares (M class or above) could occur, but we were all surprised when it actually happened to be a large X-class."
Class X flares are the strongest types of solar flares that can erupt from the sun. There are also two weaker categories: Class M flares, which are medium strength but still powerful, and Class C flares, which are the weakest storms from the sun.
Last night's X2.2 flare is the most powerful solar eruption of the sun's current weather cycle, called Solar Cycle 24. According to the website Spaceweather.com, which monitors space weather and skywatching events, the flare was the strongest of the last four years.
"It just means that Solar Cycle 24 is ramping up!" Chamberlin told Space.com. "This is the first of probably many more X-class flares to occur over the next 2 to 4 years as we reach the peak and then descend back down from solar cycle 24 maximum."
The Monday flare came on the heels of another, only slightly less powerful, class M6.6 flare on Sunday, Feb. 13. Both events erupted from the same area on the sun, called active region 1158.
"AR 1158 is in the southern hemisphere, which has been lagging the north in activity but now leads in big flares!" NASA scientists wrote on the Solar Dynamics Observatory website.
Yesterday's Class X flare erupted at 8:50 p.m. EST.
Such a flare can bathe the Earth in high doses of ultraviolet radiation and X-rays hurl a huge burst of solar wind in our direction. When this burst arrives at Earth, the electrons and protons from the solar wind come into contact with our planet's magnetic field, and stream toward the magnetic poles.
The disturbance can create a geomagnetic storm in Earth's magnetic field.
"Geomagnetic storms are possible when the CME arrives 36 to 48 hours hence," Spaceweather.com reported.
Space.com staff writer Denise Chow contributed to this report. You can follow Space.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.
The sun unleashed its strongest solar flare in four years Monday night, hurling a massive wave of charged particles from electrified gas into space and toward Earth.
The solar storm sent a flash of radiation that hit Earth in a matter of minutes. Now a huge cloud of charged particles is headed our way. These coronal mass ejections, as they are called, typically take about 24 hours or more to arrive. They can spark spectacular displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, at high latitudes and sometimes even into the northern United States.
The mega flare, which registered as a Class X2.2 flare on the scale of solar flares, was the first class X flare to occur in the new solar cycle of activity, which began last year. The sun is now ramping up toward a solar maximum around 2013.
"It has been the largest flare since Dec. 6, 2006, so a long time coming," said Phil Chamberlin, deputy project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which observed the flare. "There were some clues that led us to believe the likelihood of moderate to large flares (M class or above) could occur, but we were all surprised when it actually happened to be a large X-class."
Class X flares are the strongest types of solar flares that can erupt from the sun. There are also two weaker categories: Class M flares, which are medium strength but still powerful, and Class C flares, which are the weakest storms from the sun.
Last night's X2.2 flare is the most powerful solar eruption of the sun's current weather cycle, called Solar Cycle 24. According to the website Spaceweather.com, which monitors space weather and skywatching events, the flare was the strongest of the last four years.
"It just means that Solar Cycle 24 is ramping up!" Chamberlin told Space.com. "This is the first of probably many more X-class flares to occur over the next 2 to 4 years as we reach the peak and then descend back down from solar cycle 24 maximum."
The Monday flare came on the heels of another, only slightly less powerful, class M6.6 flare on Sunday, Feb. 13. Both events erupted from the same area on the sun, called active region 1158.
"AR 1158 is in the southern hemisphere, which has been lagging the north in activity but now leads in big flares!" NASA scientists wrote on the Solar Dynamics Observatory website.
Yesterday's Class X flare erupted at 8:50 p.m. EST.
Such a flare can bathe the Earth in high doses of ultraviolet radiation and X-rays hurl a huge burst of solar wind in our direction. When this burst arrives at Earth, the electrons and protons from the solar wind come into contact with our planet's magnetic field, and stream toward the magnetic poles.
The disturbance can create a geomagnetic storm in Earth's magnetic field.
"Geomagnetic storms are possible when the CME arrives 36 to 48 hours hence," Spaceweather.com reported.
Space.com staff writer Denise Chow contributed to this report. You can follow Space.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.
TSA Workers Admit To Stealing Huge Amounts Of Cash From Passengers
Homeland Security employs criminals and thugs to implement domestic police state
Steve Watson & Paul Joseph Watson
Prisonplanet.cominfowars.com
Feb 15, 2011
The revelation that TSA workers have admitted to stealing huge amounts of cash from passengers they singled out for enhanced security screening is far from an isolated incident, and underscores how armies of degenerates are being employed by the federal government to push around and dominate members of the public going about their daily business.
As reported in several mainstream media reports today, a TSA supervisor at the ironically titled Newark Liberty Airport has pleaded guilty in a federal court to multiple counts of theft, as well as admitting to taking bribes and kickbacks from another TSA worker to “look the other way”, while the agent he was supervising stole more money from travelers.
Michael Arato faces a maximum potential sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for stealing up to $700 per day from passengers for eight years.
Arato also allowed another worker to steal up to $30,000 in cash from traveller’s bags over a 13-month period, pocketing a share of the ill gotten gains himself. The court heard that the pair specifically targeted foreign travelers, mostly Indian women, who could not speak English and discussed how they should not feel bad about stealing from them because they were leaving the U.S. with “our money”.
Arato was caught pocketing money on surveillance cameras last October when airport authorities began investigating complaints from passengers that their money and valuables were missing after their bags had been searched by the TSA.
In one incident, Arato allegedly took a wad of cash and “gave the middle finger to the office security camera”.
Sentencing will be passed in the case on May 24.
This is just the latest example of how TSA workers are prone to criminal behavior. It is certainly not an isolated incident.
TSA workers have also been caught stealing laptop computers, stealing luggage with thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, sabotaging sensitive screening databases, and joking about planting drugs on travelers.
TSA agents are also prone to predatory crimes, particularly targeting women and children, emphasizing once again why they are attracted to jobs that allow them to sexually molest and ogle vulnerable members of society.
Aside from the hundreds of stories of exposing breasts and forcefully groping travelers, there have also been scores of these even more unsavoury cases.
“A TSA employee based at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport tried to kill himself after allegedly abducting a woman, sexually assaulting her then giving her a suicide note to deliver,” reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. last November.
49-year-old Randall Scott King kidnapped the woman after she had accompanied him from the airport. Whether or not King abused his power as a TSA officer to make the woman accompany him is still being investigated by police.
Back in March it emerged that TSA worker Sean Shanahan, who was employed at Boston Logan International Airport to pat down passengers, had been charged with multiple child sex crimes targeting an underage girl.
Similarly, 57-year-old Charles Henry Bennett, who worked at Orlando International Airport as a TSA screener, was arrested in connection with the molestation of a 6-year-old girl whom he planned to make his “sex slave”.
Working in airport security seems to attract perverts, rapists and pedophiles because it gives them legitimate cover through which to exercise their deviancy. Indeed, a prank caller who pretended to be a sex pervert phoned the TSA about applying for a job and was treated seriously by a TSA staffer.
Stories about TSA officials and other airport security workers abusing the use of naked body scanners have also become commonplace.
44-year-old Rolando Negrin beat his supervisor with a police baton after he had cracked jokes about Negrin’s small manhood when he walked through a naked scanner as part of a training exercise at Miami International Airport. The story underscored the fact that authorities had been lying all along about the claim that the scanners did not show sensitive details of genitalia.
Indian film star Shahrukh Khan told a BBC talk show that naked images of his body from the scanner were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London. Heathrow denied the claim but Khan himself never retracted the story, and had no apparent motive for making it up.
Heathrow authorities were unable to deny a later example of the scanners being abused, when it emerged that a Heathrow worker had perved over a naked image of a female colleague after she passed through one of the devices, before commenting, “I love those gigantic tits”.
Jo Margetson, 29, reported John Laker, 25, to the police after she had entered the x-ray machine by mistake and Laker took the image before making lewd comments.
The naked scanners are being manned by people like a TSA agent who flipped out and began screaming, “I am god, I’m in charge,” shortly after he got off duty at LAX earlier this year.
In addition to the gross violation of privacy that comes with the machines, such incidents have prompted lawmakers to introduce legislation that would see misuse of body scanner images punishable by prison sentences and/or $100, 000 fines.
Airport security staff workers are among the least trustworthy people to operate these machines. Such individuals are routinely caught abusing their authority for their own ego trip or sexual perversion.
The fact that the most deviant, perverted, megalomaniacal and criminally-minded dregs of society are attracted to TSA pat down jobs tells you everything you need to know about the nature of the Transportation Security Administration and how its role has nothing to do with preventing terrorism and everything to do with ritualizing the degradation and humiliation of the American people.
Steve Watson & Paul Joseph Watson
Prisonplanet.cominfowars.com
Feb 15, 2011
The revelation that TSA workers have admitted to stealing huge amounts of cash from passengers they singled out for enhanced security screening is far from an isolated incident, and underscores how armies of degenerates are being employed by the federal government to push around and dominate members of the public going about their daily business.
As reported in several mainstream media reports today, a TSA supervisor at the ironically titled Newark Liberty Airport has pleaded guilty in a federal court to multiple counts of theft, as well as admitting to taking bribes and kickbacks from another TSA worker to “look the other way”, while the agent he was supervising stole more money from travelers.
Michael Arato faces a maximum potential sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for stealing up to $700 per day from passengers for eight years.
Arato also allowed another worker to steal up to $30,000 in cash from traveller’s bags over a 13-month period, pocketing a share of the ill gotten gains himself. The court heard that the pair specifically targeted foreign travelers, mostly Indian women, who could not speak English and discussed how they should not feel bad about stealing from them because they were leaving the U.S. with “our money”.
Arato was caught pocketing money on surveillance cameras last October when airport authorities began investigating complaints from passengers that their money and valuables were missing after their bags had been searched by the TSA.
In one incident, Arato allegedly took a wad of cash and “gave the middle finger to the office security camera”.
Sentencing will be passed in the case on May 24.
This is just the latest example of how TSA workers are prone to criminal behavior. It is certainly not an isolated incident.
TSA workers have also been caught stealing laptop computers, stealing luggage with thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, sabotaging sensitive screening databases, and joking about planting drugs on travelers.
TSA agents are also prone to predatory crimes, particularly targeting women and children, emphasizing once again why they are attracted to jobs that allow them to sexually molest and ogle vulnerable members of society.
Aside from the hundreds of stories of exposing breasts and forcefully groping travelers, there have also been scores of these even more unsavoury cases.
“A TSA employee based at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport tried to kill himself after allegedly abducting a woman, sexually assaulting her then giving her a suicide note to deliver,” reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. last November.
49-year-old Randall Scott King kidnapped the woman after she had accompanied him from the airport. Whether or not King abused his power as a TSA officer to make the woman accompany him is still being investigated by police.
Back in March it emerged that TSA worker Sean Shanahan, who was employed at Boston Logan International Airport to pat down passengers, had been charged with multiple child sex crimes targeting an underage girl.
Similarly, 57-year-old Charles Henry Bennett, who worked at Orlando International Airport as a TSA screener, was arrested in connection with the molestation of a 6-year-old girl whom he planned to make his “sex slave”.
Working in airport security seems to attract perverts, rapists and pedophiles because it gives them legitimate cover through which to exercise their deviancy. Indeed, a prank caller who pretended to be a sex pervert phoned the TSA about applying for a job and was treated seriously by a TSA staffer.
Stories about TSA officials and other airport security workers abusing the use of naked body scanners have also become commonplace.
44-year-old Rolando Negrin beat his supervisor with a police baton after he had cracked jokes about Negrin’s small manhood when he walked through a naked scanner as part of a training exercise at Miami International Airport. The story underscored the fact that authorities had been lying all along about the claim that the scanners did not show sensitive details of genitalia.
Indian film star Shahrukh Khan told a BBC talk show that naked images of his body from the scanner were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London. Heathrow denied the claim but Khan himself never retracted the story, and had no apparent motive for making it up.
Heathrow authorities were unable to deny a later example of the scanners being abused, when it emerged that a Heathrow worker had perved over a naked image of a female colleague after she passed through one of the devices, before commenting, “I love those gigantic tits”.
Jo Margetson, 29, reported John Laker, 25, to the police after she had entered the x-ray machine by mistake and Laker took the image before making lewd comments.
The naked scanners are being manned by people like a TSA agent who flipped out and began screaming, “I am god, I’m in charge,” shortly after he got off duty at LAX earlier this year.
In addition to the gross violation of privacy that comes with the machines, such incidents have prompted lawmakers to introduce legislation that would see misuse of body scanner images punishable by prison sentences and/or $100, 000 fines.
Airport security staff workers are among the least trustworthy people to operate these machines. Such individuals are routinely caught abusing their authority for their own ego trip or sexual perversion.
The fact that the most deviant, perverted, megalomaniacal and criminally-minded dregs of society are attracted to TSA pat down jobs tells you everything you need to know about the nature of the Transportation Security Administration and how its role has nothing to do with preventing terrorism and everything to do with ritualizing the degradation and humiliation of the American people.
WeAreChange confronts Dick Cheney on 9/11 Standdown Order
Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
February 15, 2010
The testimony of Norman Mineta before the 9/11 Commission leaves compelling questions about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s actions on the day of 9/11. Then Transportation Secretary Mineta witnessed Cheney refuse to contradict an apparent standdown order as an aide warned of something incoming at the Pentagon. Cheney has given conflicting reports about what time he entered the PEOC bunker. Mineta later confirmed his suppressed 9/11 Commission testimony and refuted Cheney’s account of arriving later.
During the CPAC conference, WeAreChange.org confronted Cheney about these questions, which he refused to address.
“Hey Mr. Cheney, what did you do in the underground bunker on 9/11? Dick Cheney we know what you did on 9/11 with the standdown order. Norman Mineta testified against you on the 9/11 Commission report. What happened on 9/11?”
When he was being forced out, WeAreChange.org founder Luke Rudkowski calmly asked security not to push him; security backed off after asking him, ‘Are you being polite?’
Cheney dodged the continuing questions by exiting with his entourage into an elevator. As a woman started repeating “Thank you Mr. Cheney for all you’ve done,” Rudkowski interjected that he was a ‘terrorist.’ Certainly, the use of admittedly elevated terror alerts throughout the Bush administration to stoke the fear card and score political dominion alone is reason to justify this label. The implications of what really happened on 9/11, and in relation to Cheney’s apparent standdown order, is even more compelling. Notably, a change in the standard operating procedure for the chain of command during the event of a hijacked aircraft was changed in June 2001, including subjecting NORAD’s response to DoD approval
infowars.com
Infowars.com
February 15, 2010
The testimony of Norman Mineta before the 9/11 Commission leaves compelling questions about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s actions on the day of 9/11. Then Transportation Secretary Mineta witnessed Cheney refuse to contradict an apparent standdown order as an aide warned of something incoming at the Pentagon. Cheney has given conflicting reports about what time he entered the PEOC bunker. Mineta later confirmed his suppressed 9/11 Commission testimony and refuted Cheney’s account of arriving later.
During the CPAC conference, WeAreChange.org confronted Cheney about these questions, which he refused to address.
“Hey Mr. Cheney, what did you do in the underground bunker on 9/11? Dick Cheney we know what you did on 9/11 with the standdown order. Norman Mineta testified against you on the 9/11 Commission report. What happened on 9/11?”
When he was being forced out, WeAreChange.org founder Luke Rudkowski calmly asked security not to push him; security backed off after asking him, ‘Are you being polite?’
Cheney dodged the continuing questions by exiting with his entourage into an elevator. As a woman started repeating “Thank you Mr. Cheney for all you’ve done,” Rudkowski interjected that he was a ‘terrorist.’ Certainly, the use of admittedly elevated terror alerts throughout the Bush administration to stoke the fear card and score political dominion alone is reason to justify this label. The implications of what really happened on 9/11, and in relation to Cheney’s apparent standdown order, is even more compelling. Notably, a change in the standard operating procedure for the chain of command during the event of a hijacked aircraft was changed in June 2001, including subjecting NORAD’s response to DoD approval
infowars.com
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Tea Party declares war on military spending
Raymond Barrett
Guardian
February 13, 2011
The conservative movement in the United States is at war – with itself. The battle is over government spending, and for the first time in a generation, the knives are being sharpened for that most sacred cow of the Republican party: the $700bn – and rising – defence budget (pdf).
What had been a relatively low-grade domestic dispute between the Republican party establishment and the libertarian-minded Tea Party movement boiled over into the public arena during this week’s CPAC conference in Washington – an annual gathering of conservative political groups. Supporters of the newly-elected US Senator Rand Paul – a Tea Party favourite and son of the erstwhile libertarian and prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul – jeered and booed the former defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, as he was presented with a “defender of the constitution” award by former Vice-President Dick Cheney. Amid shouts of “Where’s Bin Laden?” Paul’s supporters staged a walkout during Rumsfeld’s acceptance speech for a prize that, for Republicans, is akin to the lifetime achievement award handed out each year at the Oscars.
And the reason for all this vitriol? It is not only leftwing liberals who see the 2003 invasion of Iraq as an illegal act: Rumsfeld – as a key proponent and architect of the war – is seen by some Tea Party supporters as a flagrant violator (rather than a defender) of their beloved constitution. Furthermore, the supporters of both Pauls, junior and senior, are avowedly non-interventionist in matters of foreign policy and decry the ubiquitous presence of US troops overseas, which Rumsfeld championed during his two terms as secretary of defense.
In his speech to the conference on Friday, Paul the elder was the only speaker to address the current crisis in Egypt and criticised successive US administrations for "propping up a puppet dictator", citing 30 years of uncritical support for Hosni Mubarak. Traditionally, Ron Paul's supporters (and the libertarian philosophy they espouse) have been dismissed as merely boisterous gadflies fluttering around the real heavyweight horsetrading for political power within the Republican party. The issues they champion range from the practical (passing a balanced budget amendment), to the fanciful (abolishing the Federal Reserve and reintroducing the gold standard); thus they have never been taken seriously by the Republican establishment.
But the rise of the Tea Party movement has changed the rules of the game, and given a more public forum to topics that were previously seen as off-limits to conservatives – such as drastically reducing the size of the US military and the propensity of successive White House administrations to deploy it overseas. While critics are quick to dismiss the Tea Party as merely the rabid right of the Republican party, many of its members reside to "the north" of the traditional "left-right" ideological divide; as such, this makes the race for the Republican party's 2012 presidential nomination extremely difficult to predict.
The CPAC conference is traditionally the venue where prospective Republican presidents attempt to woo the party faithful, and this year saw appearances from heavyweights such as Newt Gingrich (his theme tune, "Eye of the Tiger", greeted his appearance on stage) and a more sedate Mitt Romney, along with a somewhat bizarre cameo by Donald Trump.
These and other would-be commander-in-chiefs flexed their political muscles in front of their admirers by bashing a host of conservative bugbears including China, Europe, Iran, abortion, energy policy, Islamic fundamentalism, organic gardening and President Obama's healthcare programme. Yet few of the Republican party's leading lights offered serious solutions to addressing the looming $14tn national debt that is the overriding obsession of the Tea Party movement.
The Tea Party alone may not be big enough to unseat President Obama in 2012, but if its concerns are not addressed – including even the shibboleth of the defence budget – by the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls, it is certainly capable of tripping up any GOP hopefuls making a dash for the Oval Office.
Guardian
February 13, 2011
The conservative movement in the United States is at war – with itself. The battle is over government spending, and for the first time in a generation, the knives are being sharpened for that most sacred cow of the Republican party: the $700bn – and rising – defence budget (pdf).
What had been a relatively low-grade domestic dispute between the Republican party establishment and the libertarian-minded Tea Party movement boiled over into the public arena during this week’s CPAC conference in Washington – an annual gathering of conservative political groups. Supporters of the newly-elected US Senator Rand Paul – a Tea Party favourite and son of the erstwhile libertarian and prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul – jeered and booed the former defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, as he was presented with a “defender of the constitution” award by former Vice-President Dick Cheney. Amid shouts of “Where’s Bin Laden?” Paul’s supporters staged a walkout during Rumsfeld’s acceptance speech for a prize that, for Republicans, is akin to the lifetime achievement award handed out each year at the Oscars.
And the reason for all this vitriol? It is not only leftwing liberals who see the 2003 invasion of Iraq as an illegal act: Rumsfeld – as a key proponent and architect of the war – is seen by some Tea Party supporters as a flagrant violator (rather than a defender) of their beloved constitution. Furthermore, the supporters of both Pauls, junior and senior, are avowedly non-interventionist in matters of foreign policy and decry the ubiquitous presence of US troops overseas, which Rumsfeld championed during his two terms as secretary of defense.
In his speech to the conference on Friday, Paul the elder was the only speaker to address the current crisis in Egypt and criticised successive US administrations for "propping up a puppet dictator", citing 30 years of uncritical support for Hosni Mubarak. Traditionally, Ron Paul's supporters (and the libertarian philosophy they espouse) have been dismissed as merely boisterous gadflies fluttering around the real heavyweight horsetrading for political power within the Republican party. The issues they champion range from the practical (passing a balanced budget amendment), to the fanciful (abolishing the Federal Reserve and reintroducing the gold standard); thus they have never been taken seriously by the Republican establishment.
But the rise of the Tea Party movement has changed the rules of the game, and given a more public forum to topics that were previously seen as off-limits to conservatives – such as drastically reducing the size of the US military and the propensity of successive White House administrations to deploy it overseas. While critics are quick to dismiss the Tea Party as merely the rabid right of the Republican party, many of its members reside to "the north" of the traditional "left-right" ideological divide; as such, this makes the race for the Republican party's 2012 presidential nomination extremely difficult to predict.
The CPAC conference is traditionally the venue where prospective Republican presidents attempt to woo the party faithful, and this year saw appearances from heavyweights such as Newt Gingrich (his theme tune, "Eye of the Tiger", greeted his appearance on stage) and a more sedate Mitt Romney, along with a somewhat bizarre cameo by Donald Trump.
These and other would-be commander-in-chiefs flexed their political muscles in front of their admirers by bashing a host of conservative bugbears including China, Europe, Iran, abortion, energy policy, Islamic fundamentalism, organic gardening and President Obama's healthcare programme. Yet few of the Republican party's leading lights offered serious solutions to addressing the looming $14tn national debt that is the overriding obsession of the Tea Party movement.
The Tea Party alone may not be big enough to unseat President Obama in 2012, but if its concerns are not addressed – including even the shibboleth of the defence budget – by the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls, it is certainly capable of tripping up any GOP hopefuls making a dash for the Oval Office.
Why can’t the US legalize drugs? There’s ‘too much money in it,’ Clinton says
By Daniel Tencer
Monday, February 7th, 2011 -- 5:55 pm
rawstory.com
In what will likely be seen as something of a Freudian slip by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said recently in a Mexican news interview that the United States cannot legalize drugs as a means of fighting the black market because "there is just too much money in it."
Asked by Denise Maerker of Televisa what she thought of drug legalization, Clinton said it was unlikely to work.
"There is just too much money in it," Clinton said. "You can legalize small amounts for possession, but those who are making so much money selling, they have to be stopped. They can’t be given an even easier road to take, because they will then find it in their interest to addict even more young people."
The comments drew criticism from legalization advocates who argued her position was a misunderstanding of the situation.
"Clinton's response illustrates not only the intellectual bankruptcy of the prohibitionist position but the economic ignorance of a woman who would be president," Jacob Sullum argued at Reason.com.
Clinton evidently does not understand that there is so much money to be made by selling illegal drugs precisely because they are illegal. Prohibition not only enables traffickers to earn a "risk premium" that makes drug prices much higher than they would otherwise be; it delivers this highly lucrative business into the hands of criminals who, having no legal recourse, resolve disputes by spilling blood.
At the Drug War Chronicle, Scott Morgan called Clinton's argument "perfectly incoherent" and argued it flew in the face of economic theory.
I can't help but wonder what everyone on the left would say if this preposterous analysis came from Sarah Palin, rather than Hillary Clinton. It's the sort of profound nonsense that ought to get you skewered by Jon Stewart, yet our Secretary of State will almost certainly get a free pass on misunderstanding literally everything about the escalating violence below our border.
Clinton's interview focused mainly on Mexico's drug war, which was launched in 2006 by President Felipe Calderon and has cost an estimated 34,000 lives, including more than 1,000 minors.
The toll's severity prompted former Mexican President Vicente Fox to come out in favor of legalizing drugs as a way of taking the steam out of organized crime.
President Calderon has not gone as far himself, but did approve legislation decriminalizing possession of small amounts of most recreational drugs, and has called for a debate on new approaches to dealing with drugs.
Monday, February 7th, 2011 -- 5:55 pm
rawstory.com
In what will likely be seen as something of a Freudian slip by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said recently in a Mexican news interview that the United States cannot legalize drugs as a means of fighting the black market because "there is just too much money in it."
Asked by Denise Maerker of Televisa what she thought of drug legalization, Clinton said it was unlikely to work.
"There is just too much money in it," Clinton said. "You can legalize small amounts for possession, but those who are making so much money selling, they have to be stopped. They can’t be given an even easier road to take, because they will then find it in their interest to addict even more young people."
The comments drew criticism from legalization advocates who argued her position was a misunderstanding of the situation.
"Clinton's response illustrates not only the intellectual bankruptcy of the prohibitionist position but the economic ignorance of a woman who would be president," Jacob Sullum argued at Reason.com.
Clinton evidently does not understand that there is so much money to be made by selling illegal drugs precisely because they are illegal. Prohibition not only enables traffickers to earn a "risk premium" that makes drug prices much higher than they would otherwise be; it delivers this highly lucrative business into the hands of criminals who, having no legal recourse, resolve disputes by spilling blood.
At the Drug War Chronicle, Scott Morgan called Clinton's argument "perfectly incoherent" and argued it flew in the face of economic theory.
I can't help but wonder what everyone on the left would say if this preposterous analysis came from Sarah Palin, rather than Hillary Clinton. It's the sort of profound nonsense that ought to get you skewered by Jon Stewart, yet our Secretary of State will almost certainly get a free pass on misunderstanding literally everything about the escalating violence below our border.
Clinton's interview focused mainly on Mexico's drug war, which was launched in 2006 by President Felipe Calderon and has cost an estimated 34,000 lives, including more than 1,000 minors.
The toll's severity prompted former Mexican President Vicente Fox to come out in favor of legalizing drugs as a way of taking the steam out of organized crime.
President Calderon has not gone as far himself, but did approve legislation decriminalizing possession of small amounts of most recreational drugs, and has called for a debate on new approaches to dealing with drugs.
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