August 2009 Archives

Score for "Z"

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He pointed it out,  and boy, is he right:

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Eric-Holder-s-Conflict-of-by-Dana-Jill-Simpson-090807-200.html


August 7, 2009

Eric Holder's Conflict of Interest

By Dana Jill Simpson

For months, we have been trying to get to the bottom of why Eric Holder would not really investigate the cases of Mr. Siegelman and Mr. Scrushy,  Mr. Minor, the two other judges in Mississippi and Charles Walker. Well, I finally have the answer .  I got it from writing my Greg Craig article that was located on the Jason Leopold website Public record.

 I got a tip and I researched it. And boy, was I shocked at what I learned.  Seems Mr. Holder, before being selected Attorney General of the United States of America, worked for a firm called Covington and Burling.  The tip I got was that the firm had a very important client whose name was George W. Bush and they represented a very important organization I am sure ya'll all have heard of - the Republican National Committee.  I was in shock when I checked it and it was true.  My favorite research item I ran across is when they were protecting the RNC from having to turn over Karl Rove's emails that were run on the RNC Servers. It shocked me.  Plus I found it mighty interesting that AG Eric Holder never enlightened anyone about his conflict of coming from a big Washington DC law firm that represented the Republican National Committee and George W. Bush in the 2000 election contest.

 But then, it all made sense to me. He would have had to appoint a special A.G. to be over the Stevens case, over the Tobin case, and over the Kott case, and over the Abramoff/Feeney case. But if he just kept his mouth shut maybe just maybe no one would catch him dismissing all those cases. Which no one did until the tip came in.  It has long been reported that the expenses in those cases were picked up by the RNC.  That same RNC that paid A.G. Holder's law firm, that same law firm  then paid A.G. Holder over two million dollars last year.  Shame on A.G. Holder! He had an ethical duty to tell the citizens of America he had a conflict in investigating all these cases and all the torture cases. Instead, he tried to ignore it or hide it instead of doing the right thing and getting out of the cases. 

 Additionally, he has ignored to date all the Democrats in this country who are complaining and have proof that they were politically targeted by the RNC and Karl Rove. He has not done the right thing -  ask President Obama to appoint a special counsel, all along knowing he has a conflict because of his firm's representation of the RNC.  Since Holder has done all this, he should be immediately removed from this position of power. Innocent men are in jail and he has played games.  

The United States citizens should have the right to know when their A.G. has a conflict of interest;  the A.G. has a professional duty to tell them and take appropriate action. Mr Holder failed to do the right thing as A.G. He should be removed.   If you doubt me,  google Eric Holder and Covington and Burling.  Then google Covington and Burling and George W. Bush, and also google them and Karl Rove and RNC emails.  Shame on you, Holder!  You are caught! 


Author's Bio: Simpson is a country lawyer who resides in Rainsville, Alabama. She has appeared on 60 Minutes and Dan Abrams MSNBC. Stories were written in Time Magazine, Harpers Magazine, and the New York Times about her being a witness in the Don Siegelman case on corruption at the Justice Department. She is a political activist currently working on justice issues in America today.

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Yano I Think Ahead, Right?

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So, when we get to that 'policy' that defines childbearing rights, there's something to consider: women have *two* genetic heritages to pass on, while men have only one (their 'genes').

Women have also got Mitochondrial DNA to pass on.  They pass it on to all their children, but only their female children further 'passing it on'.

So when we get to the 'culling' we need to ensure that we keep copies of *all* the M-DNA, which could be lost if we aren't careful.

It's kinda like the 'heirloom' seed thing.  We don't want to lose any rootstock, but we *DEFINITELY* gotta lower the herd numbers so that herds of buffalo are still a viable option (gives new meaning to 'flyover', eh?).

It would be best if we could all get profiled so that we knew what we were working with (and paid special attention to ensuring survival of unique items).

Most people are thinking 'offensively' (how to maximize returns).

We need to think about how to minimize investments while retaining rate of return.

Unfortunately, this has a *nasty* side-effect.  The folks who have made their living off of the ponzi-scheme of malthusian-over-reproduction will lose their shirts (and won't go down w/o a fight, of course).

But yano, I am under *serious* water rationing right now, and the id-jits that run the place are discussing ways to *expand* it.

My civility degrades with the length of my showers and warmth thereof.

Classic Lizards

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Dallas, TX (in Dallas TX, 1986):

   

 Old Blevins (Austin, 2008):

   

 Jesus Loves Me, but He Can't Stand You (Austin, 2008):

 

Anahuac (Dallas, 1986):

 

August 28, 2009

(JTA) -- Desmond Tutu said that the Palestinians and the Arabs are paying "penance" for the Holocaust.

In an interview Thursday with Ha'aretz, Tutu, the South African archbishop who is visiting Israel this week as part of the group known as the Elders, said that the West was consumed with guilt because of the Holocaust, "as it should be."

He added, "But who pays the penance? The penance is being paid by the Arabs, by the Palestinians. I once met a German ambassador who said Germany is guilty of two wrongs. One was what they did to the Jews. And now the suffering of the Palestinians."

Israel is mistaken to think it can achieve security through force, he said.

"The lesson that Israel must learn from the Holocaust is that it can never get security through fences, walls and guns," Tutu said. Responding to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comments while visiting Germany this week that the lesson of the Holocaust is that the Jewish people must be able to defend themselves, Tutu said, "In South Africa, they tried to get security from the barrel of a gun. They never got it. They got security when the human rights of all were recognized and respected."

Known for his frequent and fierce criticism of Israel, Tutu has compared the suffering ot the Palestinians to what black South Africans endured under the apartheid government.

Any Questions?

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This is your racial breakdown:




This is your racial breakdown in jail:




And, this is why they're there:

 
Vaccine-Induced Disease Epidemic Outbreaks
The Engineering of 'Pandemics'
By A. True Ott, PhD, ND
 8-23-9
 
The year was 1921. America was entering a decade of robust prosperity. Later called "The Roaring Twenties", it was a time of unparalleled economic expansion. Debt money from Wall Street banks was plentiful and easy to obtain. The "Great War" was over.
 
America was flexing her industrial muscles. Factories were being built and expanded in every major city. Automobiles began rolling off Detroit assembly lines in record numbers. The stock market began making millionaires. People were HEALTHY and HAPPY  largely because the dreaded "world mystery disease" (which decades later became known as the "1918 Flu Pandemic") had disappeared. Two entire years had passed with no dreaded "mystery deaths" being reported. America had cause to celebrate, and celebrate they did!
 
As a matter of fact, the American Public in general was so optimistic and HAPPY in 1921, that relatively few people were unhealthy as well. For the first time in decades, hospital beds were empty. The fledgling American Medical Association, formed by John D. Rockefeller just a few years earlier, was worried. Business was sagging.
 
Profits from vaccines and drugs were spiraling. Something had to be done, and done immediately. False, faux epidemics of smallpox were created to solve the problem, and keep the Medical Mafia's cash registers ringing.
 
We know this dastardly plan actually happened, thanks to a citizen's WATCHDOG GROUP in Kansas City, Missouri named "The Advertiser's Protective Bureau", who filed, and successfully prosecuted criminal charges against the Missouri state chapter of the AMA  the Jackson Medical Society. The 'Protective Bureau's" official report of this cold-blooded plot reads as follows:
 
"In the Fall of 1921, the health of the city was unusually good, but slow for the doctors. So the Jackson Medical Society met and resolved to make an epidemic in the city. According to the minutes of this meeting: 'MOTION WAS MADE AND SECONDED, THAT A RECOMMENDATION BE MADE BY THE COMMITTEE, TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH, THAT AN EPIDEMIC OF SMALLPOX BE DECLARED IN THE CITY. (Investigation later revealed that there was NO SIGN OF AN EPIDEMIC at the time, in the city, or anywhere in the state or region!)
 
'It was moved and seconded that a day be set aside, termed VACCINATION DAY, on which physicians would be stationed at ALL SCHOOLS, clinics, public buildings and hospitals to vaccinate "free of charge". (Vaccinations are never "free". The taxpayers are always forced to pay for every one of the "free" vaccines.)
 
"IT IS FURTHER RECOMMENDED THAT WIDE PUBLICITY BE GIVEN, STATING THAT VACCINATION IS A PREVENTIVE OF SMALLPOX, AND URGING THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF VACCINATION FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN THE CITY."
 
The Protective Bureau proved in court that there WAS NO EPIDEMIC before the vaccinations!! The court records show that the Medical Society manufactured vast amounts of posters, fliers, newspaper stories and ads featuring horrific and lurid pictures of diseased children covered with massive smallpox sores and open wounds. Some pictures actually showed children's corpses covered with the same ugly sores. The PANIC-DRIVEN message was clear --- VACCINATE EVERYONE, or face a deadly public disease. There was a "sweeping epidemic" in the city; the disease was "highly contagious" and would "strike anyone who was not vaccinated" was the bill of goods sold! (Does this sound at all familiar today  88 years later??)
 
The Medical Mafia's propaganda blitz was successful, and over a million previously healthy and happy American citizens were hypnotized and terrorized into placing the vaccine toxins into their bloodstreams. All public school children in the region were vaccinated while at school! Parents who dared question the vaccination of their children were ostracized and publicly vilified.
 
THE COURT RECORD ON THIS CASE IS VERY CLEAR. In the weeks and months following the "mass vaccinations"  the area's hospital beds were filled to over-flowing with VACCINE-INDUCED SMALLPOX CASES!
 
Tens of thousands of people became ill, and many hundreds of innocents died, and many more were permanently crippled! Of course, THE NEWSPAPERS THEN TRUMPETED HOW WISE THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT WAS TO PROMOTE THE VACCINES  stating how much worse the death toll would have been without the vaccination campaign!! Untold MILLIONS OF DOLLARS of profit was generated by this massive "medical" fraud.
 
Thanks to the ADVERTISER'S PROTECTIVE BUREAU, however; the massive fraud was exposed and criminally prosecuted to a successful conviction. During the trial, three amazing facts were proven beyond any "reasonable doubt".
 
Fact 1: The poster and advertising pictures showing the diseased and dying children used so successfully by the "doctors", WERE NOT EVEN CASES OF LOCAL SMALLPOX CASES AS THEY WERE BILLED TO BE! The Protective Bureau documented that they were pictures of ENGLISH CHILDREN who were victims of "court-proven" cases of SMALLPOX VACCINE POISONING!! One of the pictures was of a 5-week-old baby named Mona Stevenson, of Humphrey Street, Burnley, England. A previously healthy and happy baby, Little Mona had been vaccinated for smallpox at 5 weeks of age. Four weeks later, her pox-ridden little body was placed in a tiny coffin and buried. The horrific photos of Little Mona and others in England had previously been published in British newspapers where details of the resulting CRIMINAL TRIALS were also given. The full details of the trials, as well as the pictures, were also included in a comprehensively large medical boot titled "THE HISTORY AND PATHOLOGY OF VACCINATION" by Edgar M Crookshank, MD  professor of Bacteriology at the ultra-elite Kings College, London England.
 
Fact 2: Vaccines containing LIVE VIRUSES, weakened (i.e. attenuated) or otherwise universally causes more diseases than the vaccine ever could prevent.
 
Fact 3: Vaccine-Induced-Disease (VID) is an extremely effective socio-economic tool. It has the potential to generate BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF WINDFALL PROFITS, while permanently changing the social structures of large groups of people.
 
While the Protective Bureau won the criminal court case the American People lost. The case should have made front-page headlines around the nation, showing the Modus Operandi of certain corrupt "medical practitioners". How, by means of fraud, treachery, and trickery, they made millions of dollars in windfall profits while thousands of innocent, trusting, and naïve Americans suffered and died. The entire sordid affair, with all its damning details, was kept out of the American Press. John D. Rockefeller's AMA, with its millions of dollars of influence  made sure of that!
 
Amazingly, even though thousands of people had died or become crippled by this managed manslaughter, the doctors involved were only given a light penalty in the form of a token fine. The medical establishment as a whole was not upset in the least by the exposure  and has continued on unabated perpetuating the same crimes against humanity  creating vaccine-induced-diseases while fleecing the people continually until this present day.
 
It is a proven (albeit little-known) fact, EPIDEMIC/PANDEMIC MANUFACTURING IS STANDARD PRACTICE with the world-wide "Medical Mafia" circles. In order to maximize profits and re-shape geographical regions, they often manufacture a false-flag "emergency". If there is an outbreak of mild seasonal virus, they call it an influenza pandemic, give it a fancy new name, and then actually CREATE THE PANDEMIC by means of mass vaccinations using ATTENUATED, or LIVE VIRUSES!! Remember the shocking words of the AMA's Dr. Simon Louis Katzoff who said: " DOCTORS LIVE BY DISEASE, SO THE PUBLIC CAN EXPECT THE SUPPLY OF DISEASE TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION."
 
OTHER DOCUMENTED CASES OF V.I.D.E.O.s (Vaccine Induced Disease Epidemic Outbreaks.)
 
Case 1: Following the lead of their colleagues in Kansas City, the exact same events occurred in Pittsburgh, PA under the direction of Pittsburgh's "Health Director", Dr. C.J. Voux in the autumn of 1924. As in Kansas City, a group of public watchdogs brought suit against Voux and his vaccine-promoters. As in Kansas City, the vaccine promoters were found guilty. The case documented that over 1,000,000 vaccine shots were "sold" to the residents of Pennsylvania, even though there had been ZERO documented cases of smallpox in the region. It was successfully proven that ONLY AFTER the million shots had been given, that a smallpox epidemic began.
 
This vaccine-induced, manmade "epidemic" resulted in 330 deaths and at least 1,680 cases of severe smallpox that caused permanent, crippling damage to the survivors. Moreover, it cost the city a total monetary loss of $3,069,616; although Dr. Voux and his accomplices had collected more than $10 million in hospital and related care revenues  they were not forced to pay for damages or reparations. As in the Kansas City trial, a small, insignificant fine was levied, and the case was not widely publicized.
 
Case 2: The initial batches of Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine produced thousands of cases of poliomyelitis in vaccinated individuals. (One such case was Franklin D. Roosevelt  who was stricken weeks after receiving a vaccine.) This was due to an unsafe amount of LIVE VIRUSES in the vaccine itself. Dr. Sabin then introduced his "improved" vaccine with "attenuated" or "weakened' live viruses in 1958, and the following year his vaccine was made to be compulsory (mandatory) in all school-age children in a number of states. As a result, polio increased a whopping 300% in these states. For example, Tennessee reported 119 polio cases in 1958, after "vaccination" this total increased to 386 cases in 1959, Ohio  17 cases in 1958, 52 cases in 1959, Connecticut 45 cases in 1958, 123 cases in 1959, and North Carolina: 78 cases in 1958 compared to 312 cases in 1959 AFTER forcing compulsory shots in school children. The modern record is equally damning. The ONLY cases of recorded polio in the modern era is immediately following vaccinations.
 
Poliomyelitis, you see, is a water-borne virus and is caused by drinking contaminated water.
 
During the early 60's, water-treatment facilities became standardized across America  small amounts of CHLORINATION effectively wiped out polio viruses. The conquering of polio had NOTHING TO DO with the vaccine needles and swallowing sugar cubes.

In fact, as author Ed Haslem documents so well in his book, "http://doctormarysmonkey.com/" Dr. Mary's Monkey, the Sabin vaccines were actually contaminated with mutated GREEN MONKEY VIRUSES (SV-40 viruses to be specific) which has caused untold millions of SOFT-TISSUE CANCERS and deaths worldwide. (The cancer "industry" has reaped BILLIONS of dollars from this "contamination" over the years, of course.) "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edikv0zbAlU" Dr. Maurice Hilleman has actually confessed as being a part of this very activity.
 
Case 3: Knowingly added to "hepatitis" vaccines, HIV viruses were inoculated into thousands of homosexual men and intravenous drug users in America's inner cities resulting in the "AIDS epidemic" in the 80's. Purposefully placed in SMALLPOX VACCINE SYRINGES, HIV was also introduced into African nations as a tool of ethnic cleansing and GENOCIDE. The covert development and weaponization of the HIV/AIDS virus and its monkey-virus origins, along with the amazing story of how the scientists involved are tied to President Kennedy's assassination is well documented in "http://doctormarysmonkey.com/" Dr. Mary's Monkey. The covert biological experimentation labs responsible for this mayhem are today consolidated into the NIH, the NAIDS, the National Cancer Institute, and Ft. Detrick, Maryland. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta became the centralized hub of pandemic and epidemic creations and propagation.
 
Case 4: The 1976 "Swine Flu" Fiasco and Fraud is perpetrated. A solitary soldier at Ft. Dix collapses and dies following a reaction to an "experimental" vaccine while completing an intense physical "forced march" exercise at Ft. Dix. Immediately, the CDC swings into action, declaring a nationwide SWINE FLU PANDEMIC is pending. Providentially, of course, the CDC just happens to have 200+MILLION DOSES of Swine Flu vaccine already stockpiled, prepared with ATTENUATED (live, yet weakened) viruses and experimental ADJUVANTS.
 
President Gerald Ford, (with proven ties to Big Pharma and Nixon's covert viral weapons labs  also a key member of the "Warren Commission's" obfuscation of the JFK murder) rolls up his sleeves on national TV and dutifully takes the vaccine. 40 million vaccines are given to naïve American human guinea pigs. A rash of auto-immune disorders (Guillan-Barre Syndrome GBS, and lupus) as well as a large number of deaths is immediately attributed to the vaccine, and the mass vaccination campaign is halted. (What happened to the other 140 million vaccines, one may ask?) In 1979, the television news magazine 60 Minutes did a documentary investigation on this travesty-for-money scandal. Against all odds and the threats of Big Pharma, the OBJECTIVELY FAIR 60 Minutes program aired ONE TIME. There was no follow-up story, No criminal indictments were ever issued. There was no MASS- MURDER-FOR-HIRE trial. As a result, America has largely forgotten the 1976 SWINE FLU SCANDAL! Click here for "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lcJt4jX1Vo" Part I of the 60 Minutes story; and "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4c9Is1T3z4" Part II.
 
Case 5: During the first Gulf War  Operation Desert Storm, an experimental anthrax vaccine was forcibly given to 140,000 rear-echelon support troops. This experimental vaccine included an oil-in-water adjuvant called squalene (aka MF-59 made by NOVARTIS). Despite voluminous studies showing dangerous toxicity factors conducted on "oil-in-water" adjuvants at such prestigious research labs as UCLA  the U.S. Military brass consented to the experimental injections. As a result, ALL 140,000 troops developed a condition subsequently named "Gulf War Syndrome". This sordid tale is explained in a very honest and credible book by "http://www.vaccine-a.com/" Gary Matsumoto, called, Vaccine-A.
 
ALL MODERN "PANDEMICS" ARE CAUSED BY VACCINE NEEDLES
 
As this author has repeatedly declared during many public radio interviews, the deadly 1918 Influenza Pandemic was the direct result of live-virus-contaminated Typhus Fever Vaccines mandatorily given to U.S. and Allied military personnel during World War I. During that era, viruses were not yet discovered and diseases were thought to be bacterial only. These deadly typhus fever vaccines were manufactured by John D. Rockefeller's research labs and Chinese pharma factories. The vaccine "seed stock" consisted of viruses harvested from human typhoid fever patients, cross-injected into swine herds to create increased "seed stock", and then injected into chicken and turkey eggs for further incubation of the pathogens. The final, harvested "vaccine material" then was injected into HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF HUMAN VEINS. The result was a massive 'pandemic' that claimed the lives of as many as 50 million people worldwide.
 
In 1918, the viral pandemic was an honest mistake  the result of a combination of a very bad vaccine and gross ignorance about viruses and the diseases they cause. However, the continued denial of these FACTS, and the subsequent REVERSE ENGINEERING OF THE KILLER VIRUS in Ft. Detrick labs (1997-2003) is inexcusable and constitutes a veritable crime against humanity.
 
Moreover, the ONLY WAY a modern "SWINE FLU PANDEMIC" can actually materialize is by injection of certain LIVE VIRUSES via vaccine needles. Make no mistake, the world is NOT experiencing a true pandemic explosion at this time  but it most assuredly WILL when and if the planned mass influenza vaccinations are completed worldwide.
 
THE DANGERS INHERENT IN "DUPLEX" VACCINES FROM DESIGNER VIRUSES
 
"Modern Medical Practitioners", including some well-meaning "osteopaths", would have the world believe the MYTH that vaccines containing attenuated (weakened) live viruses cannot cause the viral disease conditions they are targeting. This is a most dangerous misconception for the following SCIENTIFIC reasons.
 
Traditional "common" vaccines targeting measles, mumps and rubella for instance, contain small amounts of "attenuated" live viruses which have been "weakened" but not 100% killed outright. Research has shown that these weakened "live" viruses create a very mild form of the disease in the human that has been vaccinated, which in turn creates a cellular immunity from that pathogen. The science behind this is correct, and valid for the most part. To keep the targeted viral pathogen in a perpetually weakened state, specific amounts of formaldehyde and ether are typically added, and in some formulations, mercury in the form of thimerasol is added as a preservative to keep the egg albumin cells from decaying and dying prematurely. The established theory behind all of this 'vaccination' is the "protect the herd" theory which originated with Pasteur in the late 19th century. As in all vaccines, a certain small percentage of the herd will develop severe, 'full blown' disease states CAUSED by the attenuated viruses in the vaccine itself, and another percentage will exhibit side effects from the chemicals added to the vaccine  but if the vast majority of the herd is "protected" from the disease condition  the vaccine is approved and stamped "safe and effective".
 
Science has also proven that each viral pathogen has its own unique characteristics that produce its own set of symptoms in the human hosts. Thus, each viral pathogen has its own unique fingerprints of replication and reproduction as well. Each virus also has a different level of effectiveness in its attenuated (weakened) state.
 
Moreover, some viruses have shown the ability to "drift" and acquire additional genetic alterations over time. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE OF THE SO-CALLED "NOVEL" RECOMBINATION VIRUSES that have been "reverse engineered" in the world's weapons laboratories!
 
When the RNA of the virus is spliced with other viral genes, the resulting "Franken-virus" is very unpredictable. Studies conducted (yet currently unpublished) by Terrence Tumpey, Jeffrey Taubenberger, and others at the NIH and CDC show that these 'resurrected pandemic viruses' do not exhibit the NORMAL tendencies of traditional, NATURAL influenza viruses such as seasonal H3N2 human strains. They are best described as "Viral Wild Cards".
 
This is just one problem with the headlong, mad rush to vaccinate Americans with a series of reverse-engineered lab-created viruses, attenuated or otherwise, in an UNTESTED, UNTRIED, EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE that has not been subjected to LONG-TERM CLINICAL TRIALS TO DETERMINE THE LEVELS OF "DRIFT" or even ATTENUATED TENDENCIES OVER TIME.
 
To supposedly minimize this "safety" issue, the CDC is now recommending a DUPLEX vaccination, of all things. A "duplex" vaccination basically involves a two-shot series. The first shot consists of a VERY WEAK, HIGHLY ATTENUTATED dose of the live virus.

This is intended to create an initial immune response patterning the specific virus injected. Within a couple of weeks of the 1st shot, a BOOSTER SHOT is given. The booster shot has only lightly attenuated, or even FULL STRENGTH VIRUSES in the injection. This 2nd shot is then intended to create a full-strength immune system response in the human subject.
 
This is, at the very least, BAD SCIENCE and borders on insanity for self-evident and fairly obvious reasons. By their own admissions, the NIH scientists in their various writings have declared that the level of potency of these REVERSE ENGINEERED VIRUSES show abnormal, almost RANDOM tendencies in their attenuated states. Nobody really knows what will happen over time as the inevitable "genetic drifts" occur. It is a literal crap shoot. It is highly probable that even the HIGHLY ATTENUATED FRANKEN-VIRUSES can swiftly regain their FULL POTENCY even in the presence of ether and formaldehyde. (See Addendum Below) Secondly, the full-strength BOOSTER shot viruses could just as easily "DRIFT" into something much more deadly than the "original' recombinant virus that it is targeting.
 
I submit that the scientists responsible for this "pandemic" are not stupid. They have to know these facts as well as I do.
 
Therefore, I can only conclude that this entire affair is following the Modus Operandi of the medical elite since the 1920 engineered smallpox epidemics. It is all being ORCHESTRATED first and foremost for MONEY, and secondly, for social and geographical restructuring of the "human herd".
 
Also, it must be understood that this "Novel 2009 Influenza" is not easily nor readily transmissible between humans. (See published study in the addendum). If this report is accurate, how then did the "Pandemic" begin, and why the need for mass vaccinations at all?? Like the "study" shows, the only way the test ferrets could contract or transmit the 2009 "Novel Swine Flu" was by and through INOCULATION OF THE DISEASE!! Humanity demands an answer, and demands it NOW!!!
 
A.True Ott, Phd, ND
 
 
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
 
Those who are ignorant of the past, cannot be expected to remember it.
True Ott, PhD, ND
 
 
ADDENDUM ABSTRACTS FROM SELECTED FRANKEN-VIRUS STUDIES
 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11226311? ordinalpos=70&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pub med_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Feb. 27, 2001

Sequence of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus nonstructural gene (NS) segment and characterization of recombinant viruses bearing the 1918 NS genes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez? Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Basler%20CF%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Basler CF
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=% 22Reid%20AH%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Reid AH,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=% 22Dybing%20JK%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Dybing JK,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=% 22Janczewski%20TA%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Janczewski TA,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=% 22Fanning%20TG%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Fanning TG,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=% 22Zheng%20H%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Zheng H,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=% 22Salvatore%20M%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Salvatore M,
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Perdue ML,
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Swayne DE,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=% 22Garc%C3%ADa-Sastre%20A%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

García-Sastre A,
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Palese P,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez? Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Taubenberger%20JK%22%5BAuthor% 5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Discove ryPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

Tumpey TM.
Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Recent reports of mild to severe influenza-like illness in humans caused by a novel swine-origin 2009 A(H1N1) influenza virus underscore the need to better understand the pathogenesis and transmission of these viruses in mammals. In this study, selected 2009 A(H1N1) influenza isolates were assessed for their ability to cause disease in mice and ferrets and compared with a contemporary seasonal H1N1 virus for their ability to transmit to naïve ferrets through respiratory droplets. In contrast to seasonal influenza H1N1 virus, 2009 A(H1N1) influenza viruses caused increased morbidity, replicated to higher titers in lung tissue, and were recovered from the intestinal tract of intranasally inoculated ferrets. The 2009 A(H1N1) influenza viruses exhibited less efficient respiratory droplet transmission in ferrets in comparison with the highly transmissible phenotype of a seasonal H1N1 virus. Transmission of the 2009 A(H1N1) influenza viruses was further corroborated by characterizing the binding specificity of the viral hemagglutinin to the sialylated glycan receptors (in the human host) by use of dose-dependent direct receptor-binding and human lung tissue-binding assays.

The Beast Obama

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Now, you gotta give it to Phred Felps here, given that it's hard to keep this level of rhetoric up *this* long.

I still think Ragnarock & Roll was more accurate with Bush and QEII, but then, I'm biased.



When Zombies Attack!

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WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK!: MATHEMATICAL

MODELLING OF AN OUTBREAK OF ZOMBIE

INFECTION


Abstract


Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually

portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently,

we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie

movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and

their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the

model to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but

not infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the

effects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular,

impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which

eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the

doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all.

Teddy Kennedy

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Cost Jimmy Carter the election in 1980, and as a result, we got Ronnie Ray-Gun as president, setting the stage for our current disaster.

One can only go so far in lionizing the dead.

I *MISSED* IT???!!!???

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However did that happen?

$10.9M judgment against the hatemongers at Westboro Baptist Church.

But Jah makes up for keeping such entertainment from me.  To wit:



Of course, only the ideas that the major media decide to bring to the forefront, but we do debate them then.

Still, praying for the president to die is pretty fucked up.

Ayatollah You So

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Country's lawmakers ponder law to legalize drug possession outright

updated 12:30 p.m. PT, Tues., Aug 25, 2009

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's Supreme Court ruled out prison for small-scale pot possession on Tuesday, saying the government should go after major traffickers and provide treatment instead of jail for consumers of marijuana.

Ruling in a case involving several young men caught with marijuana cigarettes in their pockets, the judges struck down a law providing for up to two years in prison for possession of small amounts of narcotics.

Tuesday's decision doesn't legalize drug possession outright. But Argentina's Cabinet chief favors keeping drug addicts out of the justice system, and was waiting for the ruling before forwarding a proposed law to Congress.

The seven judges said they were unanimous in "declaring the unconstitutionality of prison for private consumption."

"Each individual adult is responsible for making decisions freely about their desired lifestyle without state interference," their ruling said. "Private conduct is allowed unless it constitutes a real danger or causes damage to property or the rights of others."

A swipe at Nixonian politics
Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez declared that the ruling brings an end to "the repressive politics invented by the Nixon administration" in the United States, and later adopted by Argentina's dictators, to imprison drug users as if they were major traffickers.

On the other hand, Argentina will insist that "those who sell trash to poison our children must be punished with all the power of the state," Fernandez said in an interview with radio Continental.

The ruling sets a precedent that goes beyond marijuana by striking down an article in Argentina's drug law that applies to people caught with personal use amounts of any narcotic.

The judges urged Argentina's government to "create government policies against illegal drug trafficking and adopt preventive health measures, with information and education against drug consumption directed at the most vulnerable groups."

President Cristina Fernandez has supported drug law changes, saying in July 2008 that "I don't like that an addict is condemned as if he were a criminal. The ones who need to be punished are those who sell the drug."

Her Cabinet chief said before the ruling that the proposed law would be ready by year's end. Details have not been made public, and it remains unclear, for example, whether addicts will be forced to get treatment or go to jail. Opponents say Argentina isn't ready to require treatment for all addicts, since the existing government centers have long waiting lists.


Results with 53 short comments
Total of 2,421 votes - click on the "Display Comments" bar below to sort comments

3.3%
No. Marijuana is harmful and decriminalization will lead to addiction and destructive behavior among users.
80 votes
94.5%
Yes. Marijuana is harmless and has legitimate medical uses. Plus, prohibition doesn't work.
2,288 votes
2.2%
Not sure. I can see both sides of this debate.
53 votes

"Our sons plundered for their organs"


AUTHOR:  Donald BOSTRÖM


You could call me a "matchmaker," said Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, from Brooklyn, USA, in a secret recording with an FBI-agent whom he believed to be a client. Ten days later, at the end of July this year, Rosenbaum was arrested and a vast, Sopranos-like, imbroglio of money-laundering and illegal organ-trade was revealed. Rosenbaum's matchmaking had nothing to do with romance. It was all about buying and selling kidneys from Israel on the black market. Rosenbaum says that he buys the kidneys for $10,000, from poor people. He then proceeds to sell the organs to desperate patients in the States for $160,000. The accusations have shaken the American transplantation business. If they are true it means that organ trafficking is documented for the first time in the US, experts tell the New Jersey Real-Time News.

Unga palestinska män kastar sten och glasflaskor mot israeli Young Palestinian men throwing stones and bottles at Israeli soldiers in Northern West Bank. It was in the area that Bilal Achmed Ghanan was shot dead and cut open at a hospital. Photo: Donald Boström

Bilal Achmed Ghanan, 19, sköts och fördes bort av israeliska Bilal Achmed Ghanan, 19, was shot and abducted by Israeli soldiers. THe body was returned with stitches running from the abdomen to the chin. Photo: Donald Boström

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum förs bort av FBI-agenter. Rosenbaum ska Levy Izhak Rosenbaum being taken away by FBI agents. Rosenbaum is suspected of acting as a human organ broker. Photo: AP

On the question of how many organs he has sold Rosenbaum replies: "Quite a lot. And I have never failed," he boasts. The business has been running for quite some time. Francis Delmonici, professor of transplant surgery at Harvard and member of the National Kidney Foundation's Board of Directors, tells the same newspaper that organ-trafficking, similar to the one reported from Israel, is carried out in other places of the world as well. 5-6,000 operations a year, about ten per cent of the world's kidney transplants are carried out illegally, according to Delmonici.

Countries suspected of these activities are Pakistan, the Philippines and China, where the organs are allegedly taken from executed prisoners. But Palestinians also harbor strong suspicions against Israel for seizing young men and having them serve as the country's organ reserve - a very serious accusation, with enough question marks to motivate the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to start an investigation about possible war crimes.

Israel has repeatedly been under fire for its unethical ways of dealing with organs and transplants. France was among the countries that ceased organ collaboration with Israel in the nineties. Jerusalem Post wrote that "the rest of the European countries are expected to follow France's example shortly."

Half of the kidneys transplanted to Israelis since the beginning of the 2000s have been bought illegally from Turkey, Eastern Europe or Latin America. Israeli health authorities have full knowledge of this business but do nothing to stop it. At a conference in 2003 it was shown that Israel is the only western country with a medical profession that doesn't condemn the illegal organ trade. The country takes no legal measures against doctors participating in the illegal business - on the contrary, chief medical officers of Israel's big hospitals are involved in most of the illegal transplants, according to Dagens Nyheter (December 5, 2003).

In the summer of 1992, Ehud Olmert, then minister of health, tried to address the issue of organ shortage by launching a big campaign aimed at having the Israeli public register for post mortem organ donation. Half a million pamphlets were spread in local newspapers. Ehud Olmert himself was the first person to sign up. A couple of weeks later the Jerusalem Post reported that the campaign was a success. No fewer than 35,000 people had signed up. Prior to the campaign it would have been 500 in a normal month. In the same article, however, Judy Siegel, the reporter, wrote that the gap between supply and demand was still large. 500 people were in line for a kidney transplant, but only 124 transplants could be performed. Of 45 people in need of a new liver, only three could be operated on in Israel.

While the campaign was running, young Palestinian men started to disappear from villages in the West Bank and Gaza. After five days Israeli soldiers would bring them back dead, with their bodies ripped open. 

Talk of the bodies terrified the population of the occupied territories. There were rumors of a dramatic increase of young men disappearing, with ensuing nightly funerals of autopsied bodies. 

I was in the area at the time, working on a book. On several occasions I was approached by UN staff concerned about the developments. The persons contacting me said that organ theft definitely occurred but that they were prevented from doing anything about it. On an assignment from a broadcasting network I then travelled around interviewing a great number of Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza - meeting parents who told of how their sons had been deprived of organs before being killed. One example that I encountered on this eerie trip was the young stone-thrower Bilal Achmed Ghanan.  

It was close to midnight when the motor roar from an Israeli military column sounded from the outskirts of Imatin, a small village in the northern parts of the West Bank. The two thousand inhabitants were awake. They were still, waiting, like silent shadows in the dark, some lying upon roofs, others hiding behind curtains, walls, or trees that provided protection during the curfew but still offered a full view toward what would become the grave for the first martyr of the village. The military had interrupted the electricity and the area was now a closed-off military zone - not even a cat could move outdoors without risking its life. The overpowering silence of the dark night was only interrupted by quiet sobbing. I don't remember if our shivering was due to the cold or to the tension. Five days earlier, on May 13, 1992, an Israeli special force had used the village's carpentry workshop for an ambush. The person they were assigned to put out of action was Bilal Achmed Ghanan, one of the stone-throwing Palestinian youngsters who made life difficult for the Israeli soldiers.

As one of the leading stone-throwers Bilal Ghanan had been wanted by the military for a couple of years. Together with other stone-throwing boys he hid in the Nablus mountains, with no roof over his head. Getting caught meant torture and death for these boys - they had to stay in the mountains at all costs.

On May 13 Bilal made an exception, when for some reason, he walked unprotected past the carpentry workshop. Not even Talal, his older brother, knows why he took this risk. Maybe the boys were out of food and needed to restock.

Everything went according to plan for the Israeli special force. The soldiers stubbed their cigarettes, put away their cans of Coca-Cola, and calmly aimed through the broken window. When Bilal was close enough they needed only to pull the triggers. The first shot hit him in the chest. According to villagers who witnessed the incident he was subsequently shot with one bullet in each leg. Two soldiers then ran down from the carpentry workshop and shot Bilal once in the stomach. Finally, they grabbed him by his feet and dragged him up the twenty stone steps of the workshop stair. Villagers say that people from both the UN and the Red Crescent were close by, heard the discharge and came to look for wounded people in need of care. Some arguing took place as to who should take care of the victim. Discussions ended with Israeli soldiers loading the badly wounded Bilal in a jeep and driving him to the outskirts of the village, where a military helicopter waited. The boy was flown to a destination unknown to his family. Five days later he came back, dead and wrapped in green hospital fabric.

A villager recognized Captain Yahya, the leader of the military column who had transported Bilal from the postmortem center Abu Kabir, outside of Tel Aviv, to the place for his final rest. "Captain Yahya is the worst of them all," the villager whispered in my ear. After Yahya had unloaded the body and changed the green fabric for a light cotton one, some male relatives of the victim were chosen by the soldiers to do the job of digging and mixing cement.

Together with the sharp noises from the shovels we could hear laughter from the soldiers who, as they waited to go home, exchanged some jokes. As Bilal was put in the grave his chest was uncovered. Suddenly it became clear to the few people present just what kind of abuse the boy had been exposed to. Bilal was not by far the first young Palestinian to be buried with a slit from his abdomen up to his chin.

The families in the West Bank and in Gaza felt that they knew exactly what had happened: "Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors," relatives of Khaled from Nablus told me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin and the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who had all disappeared for a number of days only to return at night, dead and autopsied.

"Why are they keeping the bodies for up to five days before they let us bury them? What happened to the bodies during that time? Why are they performing autopsy, against our will, when the cause of death is obvious? Why are the bodies returned at night? Why is it done with a military escort? Why is the area closed off during the funeral? Why is the electricity interrupted?" Nafe's uncle was upset and he had a lot of questions.

The relatives of the dead Palestinians no longer harbored any doubts as to the reasons for the killings, but the spokesperson for the Israeli army claimed that the allegations of organ theft were lies. All the Palestinian victims go through autopsy on a routine basis, he said. Bilal Achmed Ghanem was one of 133 Palestinians killed in various ways that year. According to the Palestinian statistics the causes of death were: shot in the street, explosion, tear gas, deliberately run over, hanged in prison, shot in school, killed at home etcetera. The 133 people killed were between four months to 88 years old. Only half of them, 69 victims, went through postmortem examination. The routine autopsy of killed Palestinians -  of which the army spokesperson was talking - has no bearing on the reality in the occupied territories. The questions remain.

We know that Israel has a great need for organs, that there is a vast and illegal trade of organs which has been running for many years now, that the authorities are aware of it and that doctors in managing positions at the big hospitals participate, as well as civil servants at various levels. We also know that young Palestinian men disappeared, that they were brought back after five days, at night, under tremendous secrecy, stitched back together after having been cut from abdomen to chin.

It's time to bring clarity to this macabre business, to shed light on what is going on and what has taken place in the territories occupied by Israel since the Intifada began.


Source: "Våra söner plundras på sina organ" (Aftonbladet Kultur)

Original article published on August 17, 2009.

About the author

URL of this article on Tlaxcala: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=8390&lg=en

I don't normally include the web readers in many personal items (not that they're not interesting, just not germane if you don't know me).

But these health things, they are *really* getting weird.  I started combining herbs when I got here to CA (and could legally use the most important medicinal herb).  I've been having some *incredible* results over the last two months with the latest mix.

I've been re-discovering layers of my body which just "weren't there" (and since they weren't, I didn't know).

It's very similar to last summers redefinition of the video standard, where my 'max colors' and 'max pixels' increased.  One of the notable items was when I got 'abs' (never had them before as I understand it now).

However, this morning's little oddity bears some mention in and of itself.

I'm in the shower, and I've got a stretch going I've never had going before (and since I'm all warm from the shower, it's going great), and I crack a bit of my upper back that I don't even recall a chiropractor hitting, and *WHAM*, it's like my fingers are on fire (serious pain, just like burning).

But *only* on the sides.  Back of the hand feels fine, palm of the hand feels fine, but the sides of each finger have now got a lot more sensation than I'm acclimatized to.

The effect now feels much more like chilblains.
Mexico decriminalizes small-scale drug possession

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday -- a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers.

Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico's corruption-prone police from extorting casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.

"This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty," said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general's office.

The new law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.

Espino del Castillo says, in practice, small users almost never did face charges anyway. Under the previous law, the possession of any amount of drugs was punishable by stiff jail sentences, but there was leeway for addicts caught with smaller amounts.

"We couldn't charge somebody who was in possession of a dose of a drug, there was no way ... because the person would claim they were an addict," he said.

Despite the provisions, police sometimes hauled in suspects and demanded bribes, threatening long jail sentences if people did not pay.

"The bad thing was that it was left up to the discretion of the detective, and it could open the door to corruption or extortion," Espino del Castillo said.

Anyone caught with drug amounts under the new personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory.

The maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams -- the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.

Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate drug addicts and casual users from the violent traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of more than 11,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.

But one expert saw potential for conflict under the new law.

Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said the new law posed "a serious contradiction" for the Calderon administration.

"If they decriminalize drugs it could lead the army, which has been given the task of combating this, to say 'What are we doing'?" he said.

Officials said the legal changes could help the government focus more on big-time traffickers.

Espino del Castillo said since Calderon took office, there have been over 15,000 police searches related to small-scale drug dealing or possession, with 95,000 people detained -- but only 12 to 15 percent of whom were ever charged with anything.


MARCH 2, 2005 | ISSUE 41•09

WASHINGTON, DC--Citizens spoke before Congress Monday in support of Tony's Law, a Senate measure that would require all marijuana-law offenders to inform their neighbors if they're holding.

ENLARGE IMAGETony's Law

If enacted, Tony's Law will require illegal-drug offenders to announce their status.

"Right now, countless Americans are living on the very same blocks as convicted illegal-drug users," said Sharon Logan of the Weed For Tony Coalition. "Without a federal mandate requiring full disclosure, how are unsuspecting residents supposed to find any decent weed?"

Designed to protect Americans from dry spells, Tony's Law was named after 19-year-old New Jersey resident Tony DiCenzo, who went nine months without getting high before discovering that he lived in the same apartment building as a reliable marijuana source.

"Can you imagine the shock and anger Tony must have felt when he found out that the guy on the second floor possessed the Schedule I federal controlled substance?" Logan said. "The offender could have invited poor Tony into his apartment to smoke some at any time. It's heartbreaking."

Tony's Law would create a national public registry of drug-law offenders' names, addresses, and pager numbers. Additionally, offenders charged with dealing marijuana would be required to either post signs or go door-to-door and let neighbors know when they're holding.

Privacy-rights groups oppose the legislation on the grounds that it violates the individual's right to a stash, but Austin, TX's James W. Clancy is one of many stoner-rights lawyers who traveled to Washington to rally in favor of the law's passage.

ENLARGE IMAGETony's Law Jump

A convicted drug user in Kenner, LA informs his neighbor that he has the number of a guy.

"Millions of Americans love to be high," Clancy said. "Unfortunately, their neighbors often keep them in the dark about what kind of shit is going around."

Clancy and other proponents of Tony's Law argued that the bill would result in increased domestic trade in consumer snack products and a heightened sense of community and well-being.

More powerful, perhaps, were the personal testimonials of hundreds of drug-drought victims, who stood before lawmakers to share their experiences with dope deprivation.

"As a parent, I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to finding weed," Minneapolis resident Kyle Berman said. "All my wife and I wanted to be able to do was get Tina and Tyler to bed, put on a movie, and smoke a joint. It wasn't until the police busted the guy across the street for growing marijuana that we realized how close we'd come to actually finding some pot. A whole set-up with lamps and everything was less than 50 feet from our living room. It sickens me to think about it."

Several lawmakers have spoken out in opposition to Tony's Law, largely due to what Rep. Chris Chocola (R-IN) called "complications stemming from the illegality of marijuana."

Nonetheless, the bill's many devoted supporters said they'll continue their fight.

"After nine months of hell, Tony eventually found a hook-up through the friend of a guy whose brother met someone at a former girlfriend's birthday party," activist Stephen Miller said. "In spite of the nightmare he was going through, Tony didn't give up...and neither will we."

The Federalist Papers

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By Joseph Menn in San Francisco, Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles and Kenneth Li in New York

Published: July 27 2009 01:01 | Last updated: July 27 2009 23:45

Apple is racing to offer a portable tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution.

The device is expected to be launched alongside new content deals, including some aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project. The touch-sensitive computer will have a screen that may be up to 10 inches diagonally.

It will connect to the internet like the iPod Touch - probably without phone capability but with access to the web, and to Apple's online stores for software and entertainment.

Apple is gambling that it can succeed where everyone else has flopped, including Microsoft, which tirelessly pushed a tablet-ready version of its Windows operating system as a personal favourite of founder Bill Gates.

The entertainment industry is hoping that Apple, which revolutionised the markets for music players and for phones, can do it again. "It's a portable entertainment device," said one entertainment executive. "It's going to be fabulous for watching movies."

Recording industry executives said Apple planned to use the larger screen to offer new services such as interactive booklets and liner notes that come along with purchases of entire music CDs.

While iTunes moved legal sales of digitised music into the mainstream, the digital take-up for full CDs has disappointed the industry. Consumers usually select just one or two tracks.

Book publishers have been in talks with Apple and are optimistic about being included in the computer, which could provide an alternative to Amazon's Kindle,Sony's Reader and a forthcoming device from Plastic Logic, recently allied withBarnes & Noble.

"It would be a colour, flat-panel TV to the old-fashioned, black and white TV of the Kindle," one publishing executive said.

Apple does not appear to have briefed film studios, but Hollywood executives said they would be willing to contribute more content than is now available over iTunes. Large video game publishers are also eager for the product and say they could quickly optimise existing games for a hardware display that shows off graphics-intensive content.

Since demand for tablet computers has been disappointing so far, Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has been pressing for compelling hardware functions.

Tim Cook, the chief operating officer last week ruled out competing directly withnetbooks at the lower end of the notebook PC market, which have made rapid gains in an otherwise shrinking market.

Instead, the new machine could cost between $600 and $1,000, according to Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner. "I think it will have a lot of the functionality of the iPod touch, but will be quite a bit bigger," he said.

Mr Reiner and others cautioned that Apple might not be able to get all of the components it needs in the right packaging by the end of the year, though Apple is aiming for September or October.

Additional reporting by Chris Nuttall in San Francisco and Chen Yu-ting in Taipei

Some years back, I worked pretty regularly with a woman named Geraldine who did a TV show in ABQ (I was her back-end production dept).  She came unglued over her daughter's divorce, and what she claimed was (and which seemed to me to be) 'kidnapping' of her granddaughter and shipment of same off to Texas (both were NM residents as parents together, but daddy left for Texas).

Now, given that NM is the state that actually brought this firestorm onto the Bush administration (by their firing of David Iglesias), it's unlikely that it's *rampant* in NM, but it might be the case (especially when making cross-state deals with Texans).

In any event, this was sent special delivery from Rob at OpEd News, and he titled it: "OpEdNews; The Most Important Article I've Written Since Starting OpEdNews.com."

I agree.  Here's the video referenced in it:




American Justice is At Risk. What Are You Doing About it?

by Rob Kall     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com





While the health reform debate is roaring, as it should be, with the yellow back dems, including Obama, in full spineless coward mode, except for a handful, there's another important situation that must be covered-- the failure of Obama and AG Holder to remove the Bush appointed toxic prosecuting attorneys-- the ones who have criminally engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. 

OpEdNews.com will be on a mission to set this wrong right-- and we hope you will help. If you are not already totally incensed by their failure to act, please watch, online, this 50 minute video by John McTiernan, director of Die Hard 1 and 3, Hunt for Red October and Predator. I NEVER recommend videos, but this one is sooo important. You will not regret watching it. 

The Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove

After you watch it, you will realize how big a deal it is that Obama and Holder have failed to act decisively. When Thomas Jefferson faced similar prospects he fired the attorneys, freed the wrongly prosecuted and imprisoned and began impeachment hearings. That is what must happen here, followed by prosecution and imprisonment of the attorneys, some who are now judges. JUDGES! This must not stand. As John McTiernan says, Americans must not reach a point where they fear the judicial system and that has happened to over 700 victims of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. 

Obama has said he invites being pushed. Well, we must work together to do this. He must look at the precedent set by Thomas Jefferson and rise to it, doing not less, but more, because to bring justice to those who died or whose lives and whose families' lives were destroyed by the monsters still in their jobs as prosecutors and judges, Obama, through Holder, must insist on investigations and prosecutions. 

Take one whistleblower, Dana Jill Simpson, whose house was burned down and who has been repeatedly threatened. When Karl Rove lied about his role in the Siegelman case, she wrote this article; My Response to the article "Closing in on Rove". There are over 700 victims, like her, who deserve justice.

Ironically, if these shameful bush initiated, GOP backed practices were brought to the public's attention, the right wingers who are now afflicting the Obama Health Reform efforts like swarms of gnats would be in retreat, doing all they could to clean up their image and distance themselves from these horrendous perpetrations. 

Meanwhile, Governor Don Siegelman still awaits sentencing and incarceration. How can Holder allow this to stand when he has released Alaska's senator Stevens who was clearly a red herring meant to distract from the otherwise massively partisan witch hunt Rove directed in his corruption of the DOJ?

The fact that the attorneys who perptretated such injustices are still at their jobs, still threatening people is insane. The Obama administration must be faced with a huge uproar, a massive demand from all corners of the media, from the blogosphere, that he fire the remaining attorneys immediately. 

Some argue that the Republicans, like Jeff Sessions, are holding back appointments of replacements. That is a pathetic argument. You don't leave a fox guarding the henhouse just because you haven't found a solid guard dog yet. You get rid of the fox. 

That still leaves Bush appointed judges who engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. They must be investigated, impeached or directly prosecuted. And they should be imprisoned.

There is plenty of evidence that there is a strong connection between the Federalist Society and these tainted attorneys and judges. Perhaps that's where the search should begin... starting with Holder. And if Holder doesn't start cleaning this Katrina-level catastrophy of justice very soon, he should be cast out. America deserves better.

You can play a role. Write to your local daily paper. Contact the DOJ. Conctact John Conyers, head of the House Judiciary Committee, contact Patrick Leahy, head of the Senate Judiciary committee. Write to Obama. Tell your local democratic leaders. Blog about it. Tell the mainstream media they should be covering this daily, that they should be counting down every day that Holder and Obama have failed to removed these rogue attorneys. Do it today.


 
On August 18th, the Israeli Ministry of Defense informed American activist Tristan Anderson's family and legal counsel that it considers his shooting during a nonviolent protest in the West Bank village of Nil'in, which left him critically injured, an "act of war," absolving the soldiers responsible from any liability under Israeli law. Anderson was shot directly in the forehead with a high-velocity tear gas canister by Israeli forces on March 13th, 2009, suffering several condensed fractures and necessitating several life-saving surgeries. To date, he remains unconscious at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv; his prospects for recovery are as of now unclear. 

According to Michael Sfard, "If a process by which unarmed civilian demonstration is classified by Israel as an 'act of war,' then clearly Israel admits that it is at war with civilians. International law identifies the incident as a clear case of human rights abuse. As such, Tristan and his family are undoubtedly entitled to justice and compensation. We will pursue this matter and take the government of Israel to court. In addition to filing a criminal complaint against the State of Israel for the shooting of their son, the Andersons have submitted a notice of intent to file a civil suit." 

Leah Tsemel, the civil suit attorney, stated, "This is another occasion where the Israeli government is alluding responsibility. The demonstrations that take place in Ni'lin and Bil'in are not acts of war. We will pursue, in Israeli courts and international courts if necessary, justice for the Anderson family." Several eyewitnesses have given testimony that Tristan was shot when he could not have been perceived as any threat to the forces in the area. He was shot from around 60 meters while standing with a few internationals and Palestinians, hours after the demonstration had dispersed from the construction site of the Wall.



Salsa

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So, I got a message from Troll about taste-testing salsa.  I got about a half-paragraph through and realized that they were tasting fru-fru salsa (chunky, fruity, and 'medium').

Now, 'medium' is fine if you are recording, or if you need psychic help.  In salsa, like in sex, however, 'medium' just isn't really enough.

So I thought, I'll share my recipe.  I liked it, and I was amazed to have figured it out (it was *so* easy--I just over imagined how *good* it was, and it wasn't, nothing not canned here).  So here's 'Chuys' salsa (as close as I can get, not like I stole it from them--just figured it out).

One big can of roasted tomatoes.
One large (not giant) can of pickled peppers (the kind w/onions, carrots in it).
one bunch fresh cilantro
Ground cumin
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Lime juice

Open the pickled peppers and put all in the food processor, removing the stems from the peppers in the process.  Pulse until evenly chopped into small bits.   Add the tomatoes and run for thirty seconds to a minute until evenly blended and no large chunks remain.

Put in a saucepan on the stove and bring to a simmer, mixing in spices to taste (chop the cilantro fine and add it after off heat).  Save the lime for last to adjust the acidity level.

Put in the fridge to cool.

Now, if you want, you can buy fresh organic tomatoes, and roast them yourself, and the quality of the product will only be mildly reduced.

If you buy fresh organic peppers and roast them, however, the quality of the results will be devastated.   The 'tart' aspect of the dish comes from the pickle juice.  Replacing it with lime makes it taste like candy.

Fresh Virii

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When one is asked by *anyone* about a current virus (current meaning 'infectious', and virus, of course, being of the computer variety), the simple answer is always 'I dunno'.

The 'current' virus is *always* obfuscated, yano?

Bleeding The Milk Blog

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Forget not, your presence.

Thích Quảng Ðức
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us


" Burning Monk - The Self-Immolation

On June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon, Vietnam.. Eye witness accounts state that Thich Quang Duc and at least two fellow monks arrived at the intersection by car, Thich Quang Duc got out of the car, assumed the traditional lotus position and the accompanying monks helped him pour gasoline over himself. He ignited the gasoline by lighting a match and burned to death in a matter of minutes. David Halberstam, a reporter for the New York Times covering the war in Vietnam, gave the following account: I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think.... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.

Thich Quang Duc had prepared himself for his self-immolation through several weeks of meditation and had explained his motivation in letters to members of his Buddhist community as well as to the government of South Vietnam in the weeks prior to his self-immolation. In these letters he described his desire to bring attention to the repressive policies of the Catholic Diem regime that controlled the South Vietnamese government at the time. Prior to the self-immolation, the South Vietnamese Buddhists had made the following requests to the Diem regime, asking it to: Lift its ban on flying the traditional Buddhist flag; Grant Buddhism the same rights as Catholicism; Stop detaining Buddhists; Give Buddhist monks and nuns the right to practice and spread their religion; and Pay fair compensations to the victim's families and punish those responsible for their deaths.

When these requests were not addressed by the Deim regime, Thich Quang Duc carried out his self-immolation. Following his death, Thich Quang Duc was cremated and legend has it that his heart would not burn. As a result, his heart is considered Holy and is in the custody of the Reserve Bank of Vietnam. "



United Airlines Song Background (short version)

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn't deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say "no" to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.


Um, song 2 is actually the item above.  Song 1 is here.


The whole saga is listed here.



Inspirational music

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We are going, heaven knows where we are going,
We'll know we're there.

We will get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

It will be hard we know
And the road will be muddy and rough,

But we'll get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

We are going, heaven knows where we are going,
We'll know we're there.

Told You.

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Yeah, they gotta keep this stuff illegal and unregulated, sure:

Marijuana growers sought in Calif. wildfire
30,000 plants found near blaze; Mexican drug cartel suspected
The Associated Press
updated 3:53 p.m. PT, Tues., Aug 18, 2009

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Investigators said Tuesday they believe marijuana growers with possible ties to Mexican drug cartels caused an 88,650-acre wildfire in northern Santa Barbara County, and there are many more pot farms hidden in remote areas around the nation.

"No pun intended, it's a growing problem," U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Russ Arthur said.

Arthur said an unspecified "cooking device" left at an encampment by suspected drug traffickers sparked the blaze on Aug. 8 that has scorched more than 137 square miles of brush and timber and briefly threatened two dozen ranches and homes.

About 30,000 marijuana plants and an AK-47 assault rifle were found near the origin of the blaze in a remote canyon in Los Padres National Forest, authorities said at a news conference. Arthur said the plants' quality is similar to marijuana linked to Mexican drug cartels, though he acknowledged the investigation into the link was ongoing.

"The type of location, the remoteness, the situation of the encampment, the type of plants, the quality ... it fits the same M.O. (modus operandi) as all the others we've worked," around the nation, Arthur said.

Crews make progress
Fire crews were making progress against the fire on Tuesday, and it was 75 percent contained.

Farther north, a blaze in the Santa Cruz Mountains was 80 percent surrounded. All but about 20 of some 2,200 evacuees had been allowed back home by Sunday. The fire has burned more than 7,100 acres, or about 11.2 square miles.

Some evacuation orders also have been lifted in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where a wildfire has charred more than 3,500 acres. The fire, which destroyed two homes when it first broke out Friday, was 30 percent contained.

The Santa Barbara County wildfire was the first in county history to have been caused by drug traffickers but such operations typically cause three to four smaller blazes in California each year, Arthur said.

Investigators said it's believed the number of clandestine marijuana farms in the United States is rising as international drug cartels turn to public lands.

"We have evidence that most of these types of marijuana grows are the work of drug organizations out of Mexico," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bob Brown said. "The profits that are earned through the sales of the marijuana grows are pumped back to the drug cartels and they use the money to fuel the violence south of the border."

'It's a growing problem'
Tens of thousands of marijuana plants have been seized in recent weeks as federal, state and local officials stage annual harvest-season sweeps for clandestine farms.

In Santa Barbara County alone, sheriff's investigators have recovered more than 225,000 pot plants in the past five months, Brown said.

In the Sierra Nevada, an ongoing search has resulted in dozens of prosecutions and the destruction of more than 400,000 marijuana plants.

The campsite associated with the fire was at the bottom of a canyon slope that was being used for pot production, authorities said. The 2- to 6-foot-tall plants were not burned in the fire but were later pulled up and destroyed by authorities.

Officials showed a photograph of the makeshift campsite where burnt cans and pots littered the ground. A propane tank also was found, authorities said.

As many as six people were believed to have been at the camp. No one has been arrested but some of those who fled the camp may still be in the forest, authorities said.

Some of the people staying at the encampment apparently returned several days after the fire began, authorities said.

Quick escape
There have been 100 arrests of suspected growers and traffickers in California this year, most of them involving Mexican nationals.

But Brown said no arrests have been made in Santa Barbara County. Most traffickers manage to flee at the first sign of trouble, he said.

"They can hear when we are coming," Brown said. "They are prepared for, and make an escape soon as they hear the helicopter."

Investigators believe there are many more marijuana crops still undiscovered. California is estimated to be the largest marijuana producer among some 15 producing states.

"We're not getting all of them," Brown said. "The reality is that we are seeing an increase in the numbers. That's cause for concern."

Although the wildfire appeared to be an accident, illicit marijuana production carries its own dangers. Authorities say growers sometimes set traps or use armed guards.

In Santa Barbara County, at least one slaying has been linked to pot production. Authorities accused four men of killing Adan Cervantes Ruiz, 23, who was shot and left wrapped in a sleeping bag along a highway near Los Olivos in September 2007. However, charges were dropped earlier this year because of insufficient evidence.

Authorities contend he was killed by men transporting packaged, processed marijuana from a farm south of Lompoc. A week later, authorities raided the fields, recovering about 93,000 plants. Five people were arrested, including Ruiz's brother. 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32466130/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/


Bet it Rings Like a Glock

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The word zoot is jazz slang meaning extravagant style--certainly an apt description for the Gibson USA SG Zoot Suit electric guitar. The radical design starts with a brand new body built with multiple birch wood laminate pieces (each one approximately .075" thick), each dyed with a different color then compressed and bonded together to form one solid block of wood. No paint is used. Each body is given two coats of satin nitrocellulose lacquer. 


April Fool on House, MD

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April Fool on House

Gee, I wish I could embed this one, but you gotta link to it.

Best Tag Line Lately ...

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Give a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, he'll be warm the rest of his life.

July 13, 2009

Cynthia McKinney, the Israeli Navy and $4 billion worth of natural gas off Gaza

by Ann Garrison

"The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves ... The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law," wrote Michel Chossudovsky on Jan. 8 in "War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza's Offshore Gas Fields."
On June 30, Israeli Naval gunships surrounded the "Spirit of Humanity," a Free Gaza movement boat traveling in international waters 60 miles off the coast of Israel, and arrested 21 activists, from 11 countries, including former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who had boarded the boat in Larnaca, Cyprus, with medical aid, toys and building supplies, for Gaza's besieged Palestinian population. They had hoped not only to deliver aid but also to challenge the illegal blockade imposed by the Israeli government on Gaza.

Upon her release and return, Cynthia McKinney spoke to WBAIX-New York from New York's JFK Airport, where she reported that the Israeli Navy had towed the "Spirit of Humanity," not directly to Port Ashdod but on a circuitous route, bypassing the Gaza Coast. This, she said, suggested that the Israeli Navy is engaged in activity that they do not want observed off the Gaza Strip, known to be the site of billions of dollars worth of natural gas reserves.

Barack Obama, in his speech proposing U.S. reconciliation with the Moslem world, in Cairo, on June 3, said nothing of the estimated $4 billion worth of natural gas off the coast of Gaza, nor of the oil and natural gas in Iraq, Iran or Sudan or the pipeline projects to move Central Asian oil and natural gas through through Afghanistan and other parts of Central Asia.

Here's former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on the Israeli Navy's circuitous route to shore, with the "Spirit of Humanity" in tow:

Israel has two oil and natural gas drilling platforms north of Gaza, which some believe they are using to slant drill into Gaza's natural gas reserves.

Here are links to more reporting and analysis:

Responding to this story at Examiner.com, where it was originally posted, "JT" wrote: "This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Natural gas has recently been discovered 50 miles off the coast of Haifa by a company named Noble Energy. The estimated find has just been upgraded to 6.3 trillion cubic feet and is valued at over $35 billion.

"Meanwhile, another company, Zion Oil and Gas, is drilling on land to 18,000-foot depths much like the off-shore natural gas discovery. Where there's gas, oil is not far behind. The finds could actually be geologically connected. If they find oil, this would mean energy independence for Israel and a geopolitical earthquake for the Middle East. Watch this one close. It could be history in the making."

San Francisco writer Ann Garrison is the energy policy examiner for Examiner.com, where this story first appeared. She also blogs at ColoredOpinions.blogspot.com and is the website writer-editor ofthepriceofuranium.com. She can be reached at anniegarrison@thepriceofuranium.com.


Records Demonstrate that the Secretary Has Hands-On Control of the Fund that Gave $6.5 Million to the Regime After the June 28 Coup


By Bill Conroy and Al Giordano
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

August 11, 2009

In recent days, Narco News has reported that, in the three months prior to the June 28 coup d'etat in Honduras, the US-funded Millennium Change Corporation (MCC) gave at least $11 million US dollars to private-sector contractors in Honduras and also that since the coup it has doled out another $6.5 million.

The latter revelation - that the money spigot has been left on even after the coup - comes in spite of claims by the State Department that it has placed non-humanitarian funding "on pause" pending a yet-unfinished review.

Narco News has further learned - based on a review documents available on the websites of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the US State Department - that Secretary Clinton, as chairman of the MCC board, is not just a figurehead in name only. She has played an extremely active role in governing and promoting the fund and its decisions.

An August 6 statement by MCC acting chief executive officer Darius Mans praises Clinton and President Obama for their balls-out support of MCC:

Now, well into a new administration and era, I am encouraged by the level of support MCC has been given by Congress and senior government leaders. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, chair of MCC's board, confirms, "President Obama supports the MCC, and the principle of greater accountability in our foreign assistance programs." The Secretary herself has referred to Millennium Challenge grants as a "very important part of our foreign policy. It is a new approach, and it's an approach that we think deserves support." Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew has said, "MCC is getting off the ground and making real progress.

Secretary Clinton's official "blog" at the State Department reveals that the June 10 meeting of MCC's board - just 18 days before the Honduras coup - was on the Secretary's schedule:

Here's what Hillary has on her plate for today, June 10th: 10:00 a.m. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board Meeting and Luncheon.

Last March, the previous MCC acting executive director Rodney Bent wrote:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton chaired her first MCC Board meeting this week. I was pleased to be part of this historic transition, and I welcomed Secretary Clinton's active participation at the meeting. Her presence and the presence of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other public and private sector Board members signal the importance of MCC's ongoing commitment to delivering change in the lives of the world's poor.

A recent move by the Clinton-led MCC board documents that the US-funded corporation has already discussed the cutting of funds to another Central American country, Nicaragua, based on criticism of its government, and that this was the topic of MCC's June 10 session, chaired by Secretary Clinton. The Christian Science Monitor reported:

LEÓN, NICARAGUA - US concerns over last year's questionable municipal elections in Nicaragua could be strong enough to cause leftist President Daniel Ortega, a cold-war nemesis of the US, to lose $64 million in development aid.

In a Wednesday meeting with the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an international development initiative started during the Bush administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will discuss whether to cancel the remaining portion of a $175 million compact awarded in 2006.

In December, the US government froze new aid after expressing serious concern about "the government of Nicaragua's manipulation of municipal elections and a broader pattern of actions inconsistent with the MCC eligibility criteria."

At the June 10 meeting, the MCC board approved partially terminating the agency's foreign-aid compact with Nicaragua -- resulting in some $62 million in U.S. foreign aid being withheld from that nation, which shares a border with Honduras. And in May o f this year, the Clinton-led MCC board approved the termination of the agency's compact with Madagascarin the wake of a coup in that nation. However, no such action has been taken by the MCCboard, to date, in the wake of the Honduran coup.

In the context of President Obama's statement last weekend that those who urge the US to take stronger action against the Honduras coup regime "think that it's appropriate for us to suddenly act in ways that in every other context they consider inappropriate," calling it "hypocrisy." The revelation that Clinton and MCC have already sanctioned the elected government of Nicaragua and its private sector in ways that it so far refuses to sanction the illegal coup regime of Honduras and its private backers has revealed one important fact: That Washington has already determined that "it's appropriate" to deny MCC funds to a country for lighter and more transient reasons than those that exist to sanction a coup regime in another.

Didn't a certain US President, last weekend, speak the word "hypocrisy" in the context of the US and the Honduras coup?

If "it's appropriate" to sanction Nicaragua for lesser reasons, why not apply the sanction of denying MCC funds to a criminal coup regime in Honduras that Washington claims it has "paused" giving money, but that it continues to fund?

America is not the internationally competitive land of small businesses that politicians love to tout

The Great Recession is allowing some widely held beliefs about the US economy - which were the source of much evangelism over the last few decades - to run up against a reality check. This is to be expected, since the United States has been the epicentre of the storm of policy blunders that caused the world recession.

This month my CEPR colleagues John Schmitt and Nathan Lane showed that the United States is not the nation of small businesses that it is regularly dressed up to be for electoral campaign speeches and editorials. If we look at what percentage of our overall labour force is self-employed, or what percentage of manufacturing workers or high-tech workers are employed in small businesses - well, the US ranks at or near the bottom among high-income countries.

As economist Paul Krugman noted after reading the study: "One more American myth bites the dust." Indeed it has. And as both the authors of the paper and Krugman note, there is a plausible explanation for the US's low score in the small business contest: our lack of national health insurance. There are enough risks associated with choosing to start a business over being an employee, but the Europeans don't have to worry that they will go bankrupt for lack of health insurance.

A number of other alleged advantages of America's "economic dynamism" are also mythical. Most people think that there is more economic mobility in America than in Europe. Guess again. We're also near the bottom of rich countries in this category, for example as measured by the percentage of low-income households that escape from this status each year.

The idea that the US is more "internationally competitive" has been without economic foundation for decades, as measured by the most obvious indicator: our trade deficit, which peaked at 6% of GDP in 2006. (It has fallen sharply from its peak during this recession but will rebound strongly when the economy recovers).

And of course the idea that our less regulated, more "market-friendly" financial system was more innovative and efficient - widely held by our leading experts and policy-makers such as Alan Greenspan, until recently - collapsed along with our $8tn housing bubble.

On the other hand, most Americans pay a high price for the institutional arrangements that bring us these mythical successes. We have the dubious honour of being the only "no-vacation nation", ie no legally required paid time off and of course some weeks fewer actual days off per year than our European counterparts enjoy. We have a broken healthcare system that costs about twice as much per capita as that of our peer nations and delivers worse outcomes, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality. We are near the top in terms of inequality among high-income countries and at the bottom for parental leave policies and paid sick days. The list is a long one.

Yet it was just two years ago that Nicholas Sarkozy successfully won the presidency of France by arguing that the French could not afford their welfare state and had to adopt a series of reforms that would make the French economy more "dynamic" like that of the US. These included tax cuts for the rich and labour law changes that would make it easier for employers to fire people.

Many French are now sorry they voted for this guy and very glad that they have more protection than most Americans have from the ravages of the recession. Of course they could also use a larger economic stimulus, but the fact that they don't have one is due to the neoliberal policies of their own government and those of the European Union, especially the European Central Bank.

There is another area where the comparison between the American and European model has serious implications for the future of the planet: climate change. "Old Europe" uses about half as much energy per capita as the US does. A big part of this difference is because Europeans, in recent decades, have taken much more of their productivity gains in the form of increased leisure time, rather than working the same (or longer) hours in order to consume more.

We estimated that the US would consume about 20% less energy if it had the work hours of the EU-15. This would have a significant impact on world carbon emissions. Furthermore, when the world economy recovers, there are a number of middle-income countries that will approach high-income status in the not-too-distant future (South Korea and Taiwan are already there). Whether they choose the American or the European model will have an even bigger impact on global climate change.

The major media in both Europe and the United States have played an important role, for decades, in helping politicians capitalise on economic mythology to push policy in economic and socially destructive directions on both sides of the Atlantic. It remains to be seen how much the Great Recession will influence the thinking and reporting of these influential institutions.

Sacred and Profane Love

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I was stricken with the similarities between the two.  If you aren't familiar, 'sacred' is naked, while 'profane' is clothed:


The thing that caught my attention was my nearly identical presentation of my 'perfect girl':


Yano, I think I met her.  More later...
Ever wonder what "ciao bella" sounded like?


At school, they always said, "chow bella".

The computer said, "see-ow vbay-la"

Naming Conventions

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Whenever you *do* something (assuming you're doing it with other people) you have to talk about what you are doing (yeah, "mmmm" and "ouch" count as 'talk').

Anyway, I'm playing this silly game called Ikariam, and I have to name the cities.  They can produce wine, marble, glass, or sulphur.  I chose a naming convention based on comedy:

Drunks, straight-men, lyric/uplifting, and dark, brooding, cynical.

So my first set is:

Wine: Aristopholis (city of Aristophenes, in Greek)

Marble: city of Alan Watts (in Japanese, of course)

Crystal: Village of Dante (in Russian, since they take that stuff *so* seriously)

Sulphur: Town of George Carlin (in Korean, since that was the only language that translated Carlin into their glyph set).


My second set:

Wine: Foster Brooks, Marble: Stephen Wright, Crystal: Lily Tomlin, Sulphur: Lenny Bruce.

I keep going back and forth on the languages.  Lenny Bruce I think might end up in Farsi (zoroaster, yano), Stephen Wright hopefully will be Vietnamese, and I'm still musing on the others.

HD Repost

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I posted it last year in 3x4, but 16x9 looks so much *fuller* (via Troll)

Gee, I'd always thought of 'sand painting' as a bit more static art form (before)

from norml.org

August 6, 2009 - Providence, RI, USA


Providence, RI: The moderate long-term use of marijuana is associated with a reduced risk of head and neck cancers, according to the results of a population-based case-control study published online by the journal Cancer Prevention Research.

Investigators at Rhode Island's Brown University, along with researchers at Boston University, Louisiana State University, and the University of Minnesota assessed the lifetime marijuana use habits of 434 cases (patients diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma from nine medical facilities) compared to 547 matched controls.

Authors reported, "After adjusting for potential confounders (including smoking and alcohol drinking), 10 to 20 years of marijuana use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma ... [as was] moderate weekly use."

Subjects who smoked marijuana and consumed alcohol and tobacco (two known high risk factors for head and neck cancers) also experienced a reduced risk of cancer, the study found.

"Our study suggests that moderate marijuana use is associated with reduced risk of HNSCC," investigators concluded. "This association was consistent across different measures of marijuana use (marijuana use status, duration, and frequency of use). ... Further, we observed that marijuana use modified the interaction between alcohol and cigarette smoking, resulting in a decreased HNSCC risk among moderate smokers and light drinkers, and attenuated risk among the heaviest smokers and drinkers. ... Despite our results being consistent with the point estimates from other studies, there remains a need for this inverse association to be confirmed by further work, especially in studies with large sample sizes."

A separate 2006 population case-control study also reported that lifetime use of cannabis was not positively associated with cancers of the lung or aerodigestive tract, and noted that certain moderate users of the drug experienced a reduced cancer risk compared to non-using controls.

By contrast, a study published earlier this week in the journal Cancer Epidemiology reports that even the moderate use of alcohol (six drinks or less per week) is associated with an elevated risk of various cancers - including stomach cancer, rectal cancer, and bladder cancer.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "A population-based case control study of marijuana use and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma," will appear in Cancer Prevention Research.

    updated: Aug 06, 2009

from drugwarrant.com

Most people know that the "drug czar" -- the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) -- is an advocate for the government position regarding the drug war. But not everyone knows that he and his office are mandated to tell lies as part of their Congressional authorization.

According to Title VII Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998: H11225:

Responsibilities. --The Director-- [...]

(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that--

  1. is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and
  2. has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration;

Now, let's take as a simple example, the issue of medical marijuana. If the government finds that marijuana Has "currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States" or "accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision," then by law, marijuana cannot remain in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, which would immediately legalize it for medical purposes.

But by law, the drug czar must oppose any attempt to legalize the use (in any form).

Therefore, despite the fact that there is extensive evidence of medical marijuana's safety and effectiveness (including the fact that even the federal government supplies it to patients), and clearly the drug czar would know about all this information, he is required by law to lie about it.

The job description also means that since he must oppose any attempt to legalize, he has no choice but declare that the drug war is working, that legalization would fail, etc., regardless of any... facts.

On April 2, 2003, Congressman Ron Paul wrote a letter to the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) asking for an investigation into ONDCP lobbying activities and their dissemination of "misleading information" (a polite euphemism for "lying")

The GAO responded (pdf):

Finally, apart from considerations of whether any particular law has been violated, you have asked whether the Deputy Director's letter disseminated misleading information in connection with statements relating to the debate over legalization of marijuana. [...]

ONDCP is specifically charged with the responsibility for "taking such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use" of certain controlled substances such as marijuana --- a responsibility which logically could include the making of advocacy statements in opposition to legalization efforts. The Deputy Director's statements about marijuana are thus within the statutory role assigned to ONDCP. Given this role, we do not see a need to examine the accuracy of the Deputy Director's individual statements in detail.

Translation: Since lying is in the job description of the ONDCP, there's no point in bothering to see whether they're telling the truth.

Keep in mind that this requirement to avoid the truth if it interferes with the mission of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is not limited to the current drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, or most recently, John Walters.

Unless the law changes, every future drug czar, even if appointed by a President who solidly supports reform measures, will be constrained by the same job description defined by Congress.

(One may also wonder, of course, if the nature of the job attracts the type of person who perversely enjoys the power of lying to the country.)

Turning this travesty around requires more than the right person for the job. The offending phrases must be struck from the authorizing language (or perhaps a future President will simply not bother to appoint a new czar).

Given the frequency that the drug czar is quoted in the press, either much of the media is not aware that he and his staff are required to lie, or they simply feel obligated to print what they say despite the falsehoods.

After all, don't all politicians lie some of the time? Yes, but who else is actually required to do so by law?


Lie (verb)
  1. : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
  2. : to create a false or misleading impression

The ONDCP staff lies all the time (and specific examples abound all over the web), but not all lies are mere simple statements. One of the most noxious lies (and a common type of lie used by drug warriors) is the intent to deceive through the use of conjoined statements. Here's an example of the last drug czar lying to me in an Ask the White House session.

Actually Pete, you've got the question exactly backwards. Marijuana is a much bigger part of the American addiction problem than most people [^] teens or adults [^] realize. There are now more teens going into treatment for marijuana dependency than for all other drugs combined.

Note the combination of the two sentences. Marijuana is a bigger addition problem than we realize -- there are more teens going into treatment... This is a specific intent to deceive, since the drug czar knows that the increase of teens in treatment for marijuana has nothing to do with addiction, and everything to do with an increase in governmental referrals. But by placing the two statements together, he attempts to convince me of the lie.

Here's another example of the conjoined statement lie:

But marijuana is far from "harmless" -- it is pernicious. Parents are often unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar.

Here's another common ONDCP example:

"Quite a few people think that smoking pot is less likely to cause cancer than a regular cigarette," reads the ad. "You may even have heard some parents say they'd rather their kid smoked a little pot than get hooked on cigarettes. Wrong, and wrong again," it continues. "One joint can deliver four times as much cancer-causing tar as one cigarette." According to ONDCP drug czar John Walters, the idea behind the ads is to "give parents some hard facts that they can use to have informed conversations with their kids about the negative consequences of marijuana. ..."
Sometimes they'll talk about "carcinogens." Same idea. The intent is to deceive -- to convince people that marijuana causes cancer -- something they know is not true, so they fall back on the deception. The lie.

New drug czar Gil Kerlikowske seems not to even bother trying to hide it. It's almost as though he doesn't care. Note his comments in California where the fact of marijuana's medicinal capability is quite fully accepted.

"Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said. [...]

"Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno ...

Prince of Darkness

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Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

by JEREMY SCAHILL

August 4, 2009

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

 

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

These allegations, and a series of other charges, are contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of perjury, filed late at night on August 3 in the Eastern District of Virginia as part of a seventy-page motion by lawyers for Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater for alleged war crimes and other misconduct. Susan Burke, a private attorney working in conjunction with the Center for Constitutional Rights, is suing Blackwater in five separate civil cases filed in the Washington, DC, area. They were recently consolidated before Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia for pretrial motions. Burke filed the August 3 motion in response to Blackwater's motion to dismiss the case. Blackwater asserts that Prince and the company are innocent of any wrongdoing and that they were professionally performing their duties on behalf of their employer, the US State Department.

The former employee, identified in the court documents as "John Doe #2," is a former member of Blackwater's management team, according to a source close to the case. Doe #2 alleges in a sworn declaration that, based on information provided to him by former colleagues, "it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct." John Doe #2 says he worked at Blackwater for four years; his identity is concealed in the sworn declaration because he "fear[s] violence against me in retaliation for submitting this Declaration." He also alleges, "On several occasions after my departure from Mr. Prince's employ, Mr. Prince's management has personally threatened me with death and violence."

In a separate sworn statement, the former US marine who worked for Blackwater in Iraq alleges that he has "learned from my Blackwater colleagues and former colleagues that one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information about Erik Prince and Blackwater have been killed in suspicious circumstances." Identified as "John Doe #1," he says he "joined Blackwater and deployed to Iraq to guard State Department and other American government personnel." It is not clear if Doe #1 is still working with the company as he states he is "scheduled to deploy in the immediate future to Iraq." Like Doe #2, he states that he fears "violence" against him for "submitting this Declaration." No further details on the alleged murder(s) are provided.

"Mr. Prince feared, and continues to fear, that the federal authorities will detect and prosecute his various criminal deeds," states Doe #2. "On more than one occasion, Mr. Prince and his top managers gave orders to destroy emails and other documents. Many incriminating videotapes, documents and emails have been shredded and destroyed."

The Nation cannot independently verify the identities of the two individuals, their roles at Blackwater or what motivated them to provide sworn testimony in these civil cases. Both individuals state that they have previously cooperated with federal prosecutors conducting a criminal inquiry into Blackwater.

"It's a pending investigation, so we cannot comment on any matters in front of a Grand Jury or if a Grand Jury even exists on these matters," John Roth, the spokesperson for the US Attorney's office in the District of Columbia, told The Nation. "It would be a crime if we did that." Asked specifically about whether there is a criminal investigation into Prince regarding the murder allegations and other charges, Roth said: "We would not be able to comment on what we are or are not doing in regards to any possible investigation involving an uncharged individual."

The Nation repeatedly attempted to contact spokespeople for Prince or his companies at numerous email addresses and telephone numbers. When a company representative was reached by phone and asked to comment, she said, "Unfortunately no one can help you in that area." The representative then said that she would pass along The Nation's request. As this article goes to press, no company representative has responded further to The Nation.

Doe #2 states in the declaration that he has also provided the information contained in his statement "in grand jury proceedings convened by the United States Department of Justice." Federal prosecutors convened a grand jury in the aftermath of the September 16, 2007, Nisour Square shootings in Baghdad, which left seventeen Iraqis dead. Five Blackwater employees are awaiting trial on several manslaughter charges and a sixth, Jeremy Ridgeway, has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and attempting to commit manslaughter and is cooperating with prosecutors. It is not clear whether Doe #2 testified in front of the Nisour Square grand jury or in front of a separate grand jury.

The two declarations are each five pages long and contain a series of devastating allegations concerning Erik Prince and his network of companies, which now operate under the banner of Xe Services LLC. Among those leveled by Doe #2 is that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe":

To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades.

Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Mr. Prince's executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to "lay Hajiis out on cardboard." Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game. Mr. Prince's employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for Iraqis and other Arabs, such as "ragheads" or "hajiis."

Among the additional allegations made by Doe #1 is that "Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq." He states that he personally witnessed weapons being "pulled out" from dog food bags. Doe #2 alleges that "Prince and his employees arranged for the weapons to be polywrapped and smuggled into Iraq on Mr. Prince's private planes, which operated under the name Presidential Airlines," adding that Prince "generated substantial revenues from participating in the illegal arms trade."

Doe #2 states: "Using his various companies, [Prince] procured and distributed various weapons, including unlawful weapons such as sawed off semi-automatic machine guns with silencers, through unlawful channels of distribution." Blackwater "was not abiding by the terms of the contract with the State Department and was deceiving the State Department," according to Doe #1.

This is not the first time an allegation has surfaced that Blackwater used dog food bags to smuggle weapons into Iraq. ABC News's Brian Ross reported in November 2008 that a "federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food." Another former Blackwater employee has also confirmed this information to The Nation.

Both individuals allege that Prince and Blackwater deployed individuals to Iraq who, in the words of Doe #1, "were not properly vetted and cleared by the State Department." Doe #2 adds that "Prince ignored the advice and pleas from certain employees, who sought to stop the unnecessary killing of innocent Iraqis." Doe #2 further states that some Blackwater officials overseas refused to deploy "unfit men" and sent them back to the US. Among the reasons cited by Doe #2 were "the men making statements about wanting to deploy to Iraq to 'kill ragheads' or achieve 'kills' or 'body counts,'" as well as "excessive drinking" and "steroid use." However, when the men returned to the US, according to Doe #2, "Prince and his executives would send them back to be deployed in Iraq with an express instruction to the concerned employees located overseas that they needed to 'stop costing the company money.'"

Doe #2 also says Prince "repeatedly ignored the assessments done by mental health professionals, and instead terminated those mental health professionals who were not willing to endorse deployments of unfit men." He says Prince and then-company president Gary Jackson "hid from Department of State the fact that they were deploying men to Iraq over the objections of mental health professionals and security professionals in the field," saying they "knew the men being deployed were not suitable candidates for carrying lethal weaponry, but did not care because deployments meant more money."

Doe #1 states that "Blackwater knew that certain of its personnel intentionally used excessive and unjustified deadly force, and in some instances used unauthorized weapons, to kill or seriously injure innocent Iraqi civilians." He concludes, "Blackwater did nothing to stop this misconduct." Doe #1 states that he "personally observed multiple incidents of Blackwater personnel intentionally using unnecessary, excessive and unjustified deadly force." He then cites several specific examples of Blackwater personnel firing at civilians, killing or "seriously" wounding them, and then failing to report the incidents to the State Department.

Doe #1 also alleges that "all of these incidents of excessive force were initially videotaped and voice recorded," but that "Immediately after the day concluded, we would watch the video in a session called a 'hot wash.' Immediately after the hotwashing, the video was erased to prevent anyone other than Blackwater personnel seeing what had actually occurred." Blackwater, he says, "did not provide the video to the State Department."

Doe #2 expands on the issue of unconventional weapons, alleging Prince "made available to his employees in Iraq various weapons not authorized by the United States contracting authorities, such as hand grenades and hand grenade launchers. Mr. Prince's employees repeatedly used this illegal weaponry in Iraq, unnecessarily killing scores of innocent Iraqis." Specifically, he alleges that Prince "obtained illegal ammunition from an American company called LeMas. This company sold ammunition designed to explode after penetrating within the human body. Mr. Prince's employees repeatedly used this illegal ammunition in Iraq to inflict maximum damage on Iraqis."

Blackwater has gone through an intricate rebranding process in the twelve years it has been in business, changing its name and logo several times. Prince also has created more than a dozen affiliate companies, some of which are registered offshore and whose operations are shrouded in secrecy. According to Doe #2, "Prince created and operated this web of companies in order to obscure wrongdoing, fraud and other crimes."

"For example, Mr. Prince transferred funds from one company (Blackwater) to another (Greystone) whenever necessary to avoid detection of his money laundering and tax evasion schemes." He added: "Mr. Prince contributed his personal wealth to fund the operations of the Prince companies whenever he deemed such funding necessary. Likewise, Mr. Prince took funds out of the Prince companies and placed the funds in his personal accounts at will."

Briefed on the substance of these allegations by The Nation, Congressman Dennis Kucinich replied, "If these allegations are true, Blackwater has been a criminal enterprise defrauding taxpayers and murdering innocent civilians." Kucinich is on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and has been investigating Prince and Blackwater since 2004.

"Blackwater is a law unto itself, both internationally and domestically. The question is why they operated with impunity. In addition to Blackwater, we should be questioning their patrons in the previous administration who funded and employed this organization. Blackwater wouldn't exist without federal patronage; these allegations should be thoroughly investigated," Kucinich said.

A hearing before Judge Ellis in the civil cases against Blackwater is scheduled for August 7.

Who is Ezra Nawi?

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Don't know the name yet?  You might.  Here's his 'offense' (he's yet to be tried for it).



He runs inside his half-bulldozed house to try to stop them from completing the job.

The sentiment in the area is captured beautifully on this video.

If you just put swastikas on the Israelis, and yellow stars-of-david on the Palestinians, it would look almost like some kind of WWII death-camp movie.

These Israeli soldiers are just creepy.  There's a bit too much enthusiasm for this 'soldiering' here.  

The likely 'offense' for the house itself is obvious in the video.  Israelis destroy all the Palestinian houses on the tops of hills.

Noah's Knack ...

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Transcript:

Noah Raford is an urban planner and the Director of Space Syntax Limited in North America. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in Sociospatial Analysis and Design, then received his masters at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focuses on the use of scenario planning and systems mapping to aid local governments in climate change management.

Jason Bradford (JB): I want to start by quoting from an email exchange that will become a major theme of this show. You wrote: "As I started getting more and more concerned about climate change and peak oil, I began to integrate these themes more explicitly in my projects. But I was surprised to find that even though almost everyone I was talking to was worried about it too, they would only say so in private. Why was this? Why do organizations like government tend to ignore the future consequences of their actions, even though they know they're digging themselves deeper into a ditch?"

This is a monster question, and one I personally struggle with. Why don't we start by having you tell us the story of how you got to this point, and where this is taking you in your research?

Noah Raford (NR): Perhaps it is the name (Noah), but I've always been interested in issues of rapid social change... how it happens, why it happens, and how to deal with it.

As a kid I used to spend hours reading my parent's old self-sufficiency books, like "One acre and security", "five acres and independence", the whole earth catalogue, etc. So I've always had this idea that things change, sometimes very fast, and that when they do it might be up to you to do something about it.


...


If the answer is yes, than you've got a clear goal for helping minimize your exposure to collapse and maximise your chances of success when it really kicks off.

This is the essence of what Boyd's called the OODA loop. Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. Observe what is really happening... match your mental models to the world. Don't get caught up in old beliefs and belief structure. Then orient yourself within it, relative to you goals, wants and desires. Then make a plan and do it. Then repeat. See what the results of your actions were. Observe them. Did it get the result you wanted or not? If not, re-orient, decide on a new course, and act.

Observe, orient, decide and act. That's the OODA loop, and it's what differentiates fast, agile, successful species from slow, rigid, dead ones. It's also what will help you survive collapse, whether it happens overnight, over a year, or over a decade.

To conclude, I offered a few take away message from my LSE presentation. These were: 1.Look around 2.Stay light 3.Experiment 4.Learn quickly 5.Stay smart 6.Keep your options open. A good bumper sticker summary of this might be: "minimize your exposure, maximise your resilience, pay attention, and dance!"

Of course there are an infinite number of ways to do this, but the point is to start doing it.

Annie Said...

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Don't drink the uranium

August 1, 9:12 PM

       Havasupai ceremony.  --©Brenda Norrell
 

On July 21, 2009, Obama Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a two year "time out" on new uranium mining claims on nearly a million acres of federal land near the Grand Canyon, in response, it seemed, to the protest of environmentalists, and, Native Americans, who still suffer cancers and other illnesses at rates many times higher than  the general population, consequent to uranium mining on or near tribal lands.  

Cause for celebration?  Not in the least.  Salazar's announcement is straight out of Orwell's 1984.  This two year "time out" is no time out at all, because new mining claims are not the issue.  More than 10,000 uranium claims have been staked on federal land immediately surrounding the Grand Canyon in the last three years.  According to Roger Clark, Air and Energy Director of the Grand Canyon Trust, if even 1% of these claims become mines, they could seriously contaminate both ground and surface water surrounding the Grand Canyon, which drains into the Colorado River and contributes to the drinking water of 30 million people in the LowerColorado River Basin, in Arizona, Colorado, and California. 

On the day that Salazar announced his faux time out, the Native Havasupai, who make their home at the base of the Grand Canyon's South Rim, began gathering to host a weekend teach-in and speak-out against uranium mining at Red Butte, a Havasupai sacred site they hope to defend from contamination and desecration by Denison Mines' plan to reopen its nearby Arizona One uranium mine.  Denison, a collaboration of Dennison Mines, Inc. and Uranium International, was then reported to be only one Arizona air quality permit away from reopening the mine closed 20 years ago.  

In November 2008, the Motley Fool stock adviser, in "A Fresh Jolt for Uranium," said that Denison's prospects, like those of other small players in uranium mining were benefiting from increased demand created by uranium mining giant Cameco's ongoing difficulty getting its jet bore uranium mine into operation at Cigar Lake, on Native Canadian land in northern Saskatchewan.  In October 2006, while Cameco's Cigar Lake mine was still under construction, a wall of water knocked it into Cigar Lake and adjacent waterways

The Fool also pointed out that uranium supplies from decomissioned nuclear warheads, a.k.a., "the bomb mine," are running out:

"As it stands, uranium usage routinely exceeds global mine production. We can tap decommissioned warheads and other stockpiles to fill the gap, but that won't last forever. The longer Cigar Lake is delayed, the faster we blow through above-ground supply. That would do wonders for the spot price of uranium."

On July 30th, 2009, nine days after Salazar's announcement, and, four days after the Havasupai concluded their protest, the Motley Fool named Denison as their favorite "penny stock" of the week, meaning, the cheap stock most likely to take off from a very low price. and, maybe even make you rich, on a very small investment:

''Uranium was recently at its lowest price level. With brent price increase, uranium and fossil fuels tend to follow the price increase,'' wrote CAPS investor jajege in June. ''New nuclear power plants are planned and will require more uranium production, especially after the stock of uranium from the nuclear weapons are running out.''

It's still a very risky stock, though, the Fool warned, but only because of its low capitalization of only $2.5 million, its heavy debt load of $100 million, and, the risky nature of mining ventures. 

Not because of Interior Secretary Salazar's ''time out,'' and, not because of environmentalist and native resistance, although, in November 2008, the Fool did warn of ''delays in permitting and other pesky problems'':

'None of these companies is immune to mining mishaps. Delays in permitting and other pesky problems have pushed back production schedules pretty much across the board. Still, the growth outlook is very favorable for Denison, which makes it the sort of stock you should own.'

In 2006, the Navajo Nation Tribal Council passed a ban on uranium mining, the first native claim to sovereignty, over natural resources of its kind.  Navajo environmentalists have been defending the ban, against enormous pressure, ever since.  At Red Butte, members of the Havasupai Tribe said that they hope to enact a ban as well. 

As with the Navajo ban, a fundamental question would then be whether uranium mining which endangers the water table well beyond the mining claim itself, violates a Havasupai ban, and/or, the environmental rights of wider communities, including the 30 million people of Arizona, Colorado, and California, who depend on the Colorado River's contribution to the drinking water in the Colorado River Basin.

Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) reported on the gathering at Red Butte, and Censored Newswriter/editor Brenda Norrell captured video: "Havasupai: Singing away uranium mining."


Gentle Readers

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As you who have read for some time (and all of you on the personal list) know; I've been beset with heath 'annoyances' (not problems, none of them *near* fatal, just bothersome), all my life.

I've been practicing the most peculiar behavior of late, and I think I'm going to write a book about it (if I live, of course).

I'm not really sure what it means, but I've been fasting, and taking my standard medical herbs, plus one "extra" herb, and this arthritis is literally *melting* away now.

Now, that's just *not* the way it's supposed to be.

And the chances are you've got this herb on your shelf in your pantry.

And I've been published repeatedly as saying I eat a lot of IODIZED salt (sodium chloride w/ iodine) and NuSalt (potassium chloride) as well as eating a lot of calcium supplements and vitamins since breaking a bone last year and fasting as much as I have (figuring healthy kidneys will dump any extra minerals not required).

And I eat extra niacin from time-to-time, too (gives quite a 'burn' to the others).

I eat a bunch of garlic,ginger, onion, cider vinegar, live cultured sour cream and yogurt (if I can get the unflavored).  I also eat the 'bitter herb' from the Bible (wormwood, artemisia absinthium), and culinary sage, as well as various other herbs ranging from Pau D'Arco to Burdock, from time to time (all rather esoteric, not likely to be in your pantry).

So, what would a 'cure' for arthritis that you've already *got* in your cupboard, but that you are just *ignorant* of be worth?

What's the price of freedom?

Hmm.

Still working on that marketing shit, yano?

Drop me a line if you've got ideas.
Book figure?  Caractacus Potts (Ian Fleming's inventor of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, and 'TootSweet', to name a few items).

Comic book character?  Dr. Manhattan  (runner-up, Tony Stark).  They are both 'out' as it were.

Graphic-novel character?  Floyd Farland, Citizen of the Future (email me for the link).

Song character?  "Long Haired Country Boy" (runner-up?  Aqualung).

Poem about people like me?  Dylan Thomas' "The Force that Through the Green Fuse" (runner up, Stevie Smith's, "Not waving, but Drowning."

Um, actually *physically* resemble (at this point, but it's really getting much better): The giant who sailed the boat that had spinal and breathing problems in "Time Bandits" (I *CAN* *BREATHE*!!!).

But in my mind, Robert De Niro in "Brazil" (in your mind, likely "Baron Munchausen").
But I did, yano?  Sometime back, in fact. I was reading this problem when I was reading about the *real* creation of the Grand Canyon, the Dakota Badlands, and the Snake River Gorge.

You see, they didn't form 'over millions of years' (it took about a week, as I understand it).

If you don't understand physics enough to know that seeing liquid water on the surface of ice is fucked up, think about ice cubes, and where they naturally sit in the glass.

Having water on top of ice means it's melting faster than it can sink.  That's *BAD*.

If you hear that the dam breaks, and you are on the east coast and less than 120' above sea level, head for 120' above sea level unless you like surfing.

Of course, us here on the west coast?  Well, we will get to see the 'San Joaquin Lagoon' (never did answer me when I told them, 'build the dyke now, get the Dutch in on it ASAP').


PICTURE GALLERY

Arctic Pics Reveal Cold Truth

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The Second Amendment

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Now, I've mentioned from time to time that Federalist #29 is quite clear on this point, but it bears repetition.

The point of the 'right to bear arms' has *nothing* to do with feeding one's family (hunting) or protection from intruders (self-defense).

The point of having a right to hold a gun in the presence of your politicians is to keep them honest.

Now, that said, turnabout is fair play.

Governments, as I understand this 'right' have no ability to own and operate *any* device that a private citizen cannot also own and operate.

So if I can't have my own nukes and nerve gas canisters, neither can they.

I bet the attitude in DC would be surprisingly different if they thought that random members of the DC population had that level of armaments. 

hometop

GreenStream

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Mentionables ...

It's been days since Israel broke the truce and started murdering Palestinians again.

Pres. Barack Obama
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(415) 393-0707

Sen. Barbara Boxer
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Mike Thompson
962-0933

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(916) 651-4002

Assm. Wesley Chesbro
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