in case you missed

From the Conscience of a Liberal...Paul Krugman

September 11, 2011, 8:41 AM
The Years of Shame
Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?

Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
Continue reading:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/the-years-of-shame/

...and exposing bullies for what they are--murderous, greedy b*******

PETITION: http://other98.com/i-stand-with-paul-krugman/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/12/140402819/rumsfeld-calls-...

Sam, too, was magnificent today on this topic.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Less Work, More Living
Working fewer hours could save our economy, save our sanity, and help save our planet.
by Juliet Schor

Millions of Americans have lost control over the basic rhythm of their daily lives. They work too much, eat too quickly, socialize too little, drive and sit in traffic for too many hours, don’t get enough sleep, and feel harried too much of the time. It’s a way of life that undermines basic sources of wealth and well-being—such as strong family and community ties, a deep sense of meaning, and physical health.

Imagining a world in which jobs take up much less of our time may seem utopian, especially now, when a scarcity mentality dominates the economic conversation. People who are employed often find it difficult to scale back their jobs. Costs of medical care, education, and child care are rising. It may be hard to find new sources of income when U.S. companies have been laying people off at a dizzying rate.

But fewer work hours for people with jobs is a key step toward solving the unemployment crisis—while giving Americans healthier lives. Fewer hours means more jobs are available to people who need them. Living on less pay usually means consuming less, making more of the things one needs at home, and living lighter, whether by design or by accident.

Today, driven both by necessity and the deliberate choice to live simply, more Americans are shifting toward fewer work hours. It’s a trend that, if done correctly, could get us out of our current economic crisis and away from unsustainable economic growth.
Continue reading:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/06-3

Sam is getting a handle on this TV show hosting gig. You go, guy!
http://majority.fm/2011/09/12/monday-september-12-2011/#more-2814

Sam clip.
And then CATZ from Alice.

Good way to start the week.

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/6239#comment-429519

[excerpt]

...

In 2004 a Bush aide (widely believed to be Karl Rove) chided a New York Times journalist for working in the "reality-based community", meaning people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality … That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do".
...
[end excerpt]

----------------------------------

And to study what you do behind the cover of Illusionism.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-09/13/content_13675335.htm

...and the US will veto it...why is that?

http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up10pg

[excerpt]

Spring 2001: Military and government documents are released that seek to legitimize the use of US military force in the pursuit of oil. One article advocates presidential subterfuge in the promotion of conflict and "explicitly urge[s] painting over the US's actual reasons for warfare as a necessity for mobilizing public support for a conflict." [Sydney Morning Herald, 12/26/02, more]

May 2001: US security chiefs reject Sudan's offer to turn over voluminous files about bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Sudan has made this offer repeatedly since 1995. [Guardian, 9/30/01, more]

May 2001: Secretary of State Powell gives $43 million in aid to the Taliban government. [Los Angeles Times, 5/22/01, CNN 5/17/01] This follows $113 million given in 2000. [State Dept. Fact Sheet, 12/11/01]

May 2001: The US introduces "Visa Express" program allowing any Saudi Arabian to obtain visas through their travel agent instead of appearing at a consulate in person. [US News and World Report, 12/12/01] Five hijackers use Visa Express to enter the US. [Congressional Intelligence Committee, 9/20/02]

May-Aug 2001: A number of the 9/11 hijackers make at least six trips to Las Vegas. These "fundamentalist" Muslims drink alcohol, frequent strip clubs, and smoke hashish. Some even have strippers perform lap dances for them. [San Francisco Chronicle, 10/4/01, Newsweek, 10/15/01]

June 13, 2001: Egyptian President Mubarak through his intelligence services warns the US that bin Laden's Islamic terrorist network is threatening to kill Bush and other G8 leaders at their July economic summit meeting in Italy. The terrorists plan to use a plane stuffed with explosives. [NY Times, 9/26/01]

[more at link]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UB6AsAcOpE

Uploaded by XpressNewsVideo on Sep 12, 2011

A San Francisco police officer walks to me and hits my camera for recording an officer handing out water bottles. Video by Erik Verduzco.

I've read a number of articles about Sept. 11 in newspapers the last few days, but none addresses any of the facts that don't represent the 'official' explanation that was born whole the day of the event.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up10pg

[excerpt]

Sept 20-23, 2001: "Five of the alleged hijackers have emerged, alive, innocent and astonished to see their names and photographs appearing on satellite television. ... The hijackers were using stolen identities, and investigators are studying the possibility that the entire suicide squad consisted of impostors." [quote from London Times, 9/20/01, see also BBC]. Yet these same individuals are later officially established as the 9/11 hijackers in the 2004 9/11 Commission Report. For more on this, click here.

Oct 2, 2001: The Patriot Act is introduced in Congress. The next day, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D) accuses the Bush administration of reneging on an agreement on this anti-terrorist bill. [Washington Post, 10/4/01] Anthrax letters are sent to Leahy and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D) on October 9. [CNN, 11/18/01]

Oct 10-11, 2001: After consulting with the FBI and CDC, Iowa State University in Ames destroys anthrax spores collected over seven decades. On Oct 25, the White House homeland security director confirms publicly the anthrax letters sent to Leahy and others contained the Ames strain. [New York Times, 11/9/01]

Nov 12, 2001—Mar 25, 2002: 13 renowned microbiologists mysteriously die over the span of less than five months. All but one are killed or murdered under unusual circumstances. Some are world leaders in developing weapons-grade biological plagues. Others are the best in figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of biological weapons. Still others are experts in the theory of bioterrorism. [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02] Nov 12: Benito Que, 52, an expert in infectious diseases—killed in carjacking, later deemed possible stroke. [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02] Nov. 16: Don Wiley, 57, one of the world's leading researchers of deadly viruses—body found in Mississippi River. [CNN, 12/22/01] Nov 21: Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, an expert in adapting germs and viruses for military use—stroke. [New York Times, 11/23/01] Dec 10: Dr. Robert Schwartz, 57, a leading researcher on DNA sequencing analysis—slain at home. [Washington Post, 12/12/01] Dec 14: Nguyen Van Set, 44, his research organization had just come to fame for discovering a virus which can be modified to affect smallpox—dies in an airlock in his lab. [Sydney Morning Herald, 12/12/01] Jan 2002: Ivan Glebov (bandit attack) and Alexi Brushlinski (killed in Moscow), both world-renowned members of the Russian Academy of Science. [Pravda, 2/9/02] Feb 9: Victor Korshunov, 56, head of the microbiology sub-faculty at the Russian State Medical University—killed by cranial injury. [Pravda, 2/9/02] Feb 11: Ian Langford, 40, one of Europe's leading experts on environmental risk—murdered in home. [London Times, 2/13/02] Feb 28 (2): Tanya Holzmayer, 46, helped create drugs that interfere with replication of the virus that causes AIDS, and Guyang Huang, 38, a brilliant scholar highly regarded in genetics—murder/suicide. [San Jose Mercury News, 2/28/02] Mar 24: David Wynn-Williams, 55, an astrobiologist with NASA Ames Research Center—killed while jogging. [London Times, 3/27/02] Mar 25: Steven Mostow, 63, an expert on the threat of bioterrorism—private plane crash. [KUSA TV/NBC, 3/26/02]

[more at link]

as seen ten years later--

[excerpt]

Sept 11, 2002: On the first anniversary of 9/11, New York Times writes, "One year later, the public knows less about the circumstances of 2,801 deaths at the foot of Manhattan in broad daylight than people in 1912 knew within weeks about the Titanic." The former police commissioner of Philadelphia says: "You can hardly point to a cataclysmic event in our history when a blue-ribbon panel did not set out to establish the facts and suggest reforms. That has not happened here." [New York Times, 9/11/02]

[end excerpt]

From--
http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up10pg

[excerpt]

1996 (A): FBI investigators are prevented from carrying out an investigation into two relatives of bin Laden. The FBI wanted to learn more about Abdullah bin Laden, "because of his relationship with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth [WAMY] - a suspected terrorist organization." Abdullah was the US director of WAMY and lived with his brother Omar in Falls Church, Virginia, a town just outside Washington. WAMY has its offices at 5613 Leesburg Pike. Remarkably, it is later determined that four of the 9/11 hijackers lived at 5913 Leesburg Pike at the same time the two bin Laden brothers were there. A high-placed intelligence official tells the Guardian: "there were always constraints on investigating the Saudis. There were particular investigations that were effectively killed." An unnamed US source says to the BBC, "There is a hidden agenda at the very highest levels of our government." [BBC Newsnight, 11/6/01, Guardian, 11/7/01]

1996 (B): An Israeli think tank publishes a paper entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm." The paper isn't much different from other Israeli right-wing papers at the time, except the authors: the lead writer is Richard Perle, now chairman of the Defense Policy Board in the US, and very influential with President Bush. Several of the other authors now hold key positions in Washington. The paper advises the new, right-wing Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu to make a complete break with the past by adopting a strategy "to engage every possible energy on rebuilding Zionism ..." The first step would be the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. A war with Iraq would destabilize the entire Middle East, allowing governments in Syria, Iran, Lebanon and other countries to be replaced. "Israel will not only contain its foes; it will transcend them," the paper concludes. [Guardian, 9/3/02, see the original paper here]

1996 (C): The Saudi Arabian government starts paying huge amounts of money to al-Qaeda, becoming its largest financial backer. They also give money to other extremist groups throughout Asia. This money vastly increases the capability of al-Qaeda. [New Yorker, 10/22/01] A legal team involved in a 9/11 lawsuit later claims they have a transcript made by French intelligence of a meeting of Saudi princes and business leaders in Paris this year in which the Saudis agree to continue sponsoring bin Laden's network. There is a similar follow up meeting two years later. [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8/16/02] Says one US official, "'96 is the key year... Bin Laden hooked up to all the bad guys - it's like the Grand Alliance - and had a capability for conducting large-scale operations." The Saudi regime, he says, had "gone to the dark side." Electronic intercepts by the NSA "depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country's religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it." US officials later privately complain "that the Bush Administration, like the Clinton Administration, is refusing to confront this reality, even in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks." [New Yorker, 10/22/01]

1996 (D): The CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center creates a special unit to focus specifically on bin Laden. About 10-15 individuals are assigned to the unit initially. This grows to about 35-40 by 9/11. [Newsweek, 10/1/01, Senate Intelligence Committee, 9/18/02]

...

October 1999: The CIA readies an operation to capture or kill bin Laden, secretly training and equipping approximately 60 commandos from the ISI. Pakistan supposedly agrees to this plan in return for the lifting of economic sanctions and more economic aid. The plan is ready to go by October, but it is aborted because on October 12, General Musharraf takes control of Pakistan in a coup. Musharraf refuses to continue the operation despite the promise of substantial rewards. [Washington Post, 10/3/01]

[more at this link for a 60-page timeline -- http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11timeline60pg ]

Back then even this guy didn't make the 'terraist watch list', but, today thousands of USAers are on the list -- including toddlers! Incredible.

[excerpt]

July 13, 2001: With the threat of a new terrorist attack on the rise, the CIA has agents reexamine records in the search for new leads. A CIA cable is rediscovered showing that Khallad bin Atash had attended the January 2000 meeting in Malaysia. The CIA official who finds it immediately e-mails the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center (CTC), saying bin Atash "is a major league killer who orchestrated the Cole attack and possibly the Africa bombings." Yet bin Atash is still not put on a terrorist watch list. [Congressional Intelligence Committee, 9/20/02]

[more at link -- http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11timeline60pg ]

Was there no one telling this core group around and in touch with the President and his entourage that air traffic had reported a suspected hijacking? When did the Presidential entourage find out NORAD had been notified of a hijack?

That consideration alone -- of a plane behaving erraticly and disengaged from its transsponder -- would wipe out any necessity for the impact of a second plane to indicate a real 'attack' event was occurring.

Compare this excerpt to the following excerpt--

http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11timeline60pg

[excerpt]
...

(8:40 A.M.) Boston Air Traffic Control supposedly notifies NORAD that Flight 11 has been hijacked. This is about 20 minutes after traffic control noticed the plane had its transponder beacon and radio turned off. [8:38, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:38, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 8:40, NORAD, 9/18/01, 8:40, AP, 8/19/02, 8:40, Newsday, 9/10/02] Such a delay in notification would be in strict violation of regulations.

8:43 A.M. NORAD is notified that Flight 175 has been hijacked. [8:43, NORAD, 9/18/01, 8:43, CNN, 9/17/01, 8:43, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 8:43, AP, 8/19/02, 8:43, Newsday, 9/10/02

...

[end excerpt]
--------------

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timelin...

[excerpt]

...

(Between 8:46 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Key Administration Officials Allegedly Think First Crash Is an Accident

...

The 9/11 Commission will later describe, “In the absence of information that the crash was anything other than an accident, the White House staff monitored the news as they went ahead with their regular schedules.” It will only be when they learn of the second tower being hit at 9:03 that “nearly everyone in the White House… immediately knew it was not an accident.” [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 35] ....

[end excerpt]

------------------------

Wasn't the White House situation room in touch with NORAD?

That video you posted on the last thread here
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/6235#comment-429507
-- the William Rodriguez talk about his personal experience of Sept. 11. I watched it. Thank you for posting that.

Never experienced as complete a presentation from him as this one. Extremely moving, caring and human.

Regarding technical/timing issues, he clearly indicates that there was somekindof explosion-like event in the depths of the North Tower WT building (in the vicinity where the maintenance service had its office), and that occurred at the North Tower BEFORE the impact of the first plane (Flight 11). He distinguishes the two events by the physical characteristics of each -- the movement of the floor, interspersed with initial fright responses by people in the room and then the second occurrence, the impact that occurred high above as the plane hit which made the building sway and caused the people in the room to run to a door jamb -- two separate occurrences and sensations and reactions by people.

No wonder his testimony was not part of the rushed-to-press-and-public bestselling book -- The 9/11 Commission Report! Such information would have worked to cast doubt on the 9/11 Big Illusion!

These instances of widespread loss of communications on 9/11 are news to me.

Makes me think of military zapping stuff with signal disrupters of some kind in James Bond movie fashion -- or even the purposefulactions of telecommunication companies maybe? (I wonder, if Congress hadn't passed that law with retro-active IMMUNITY for the telecom corporations -- would we have learned not only about domestic spying, but also, about domestic sabotage?)

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timelin...
[excerpt]

(After 8:46 a.m.) September 11, 2001: United Airlines Control Center Experiences Communication Problems for Two Hours

Ed Soliday. [Source: Ed Soliday]Those at United Airlines’ System Operations Control (SOC) center, near Chicago, have serious problems communicating with others outside their building, particularly using e-mail, for a period of about two hours. This is according to Ed Soliday, United Airlines’ vice president of safety and security, who is involved with the airline’s response to the terrorist attacks after arriving at the SOC at around 9:35 a.m. Soliday will tell the 9/11 Commission that, on this day, United Airlines “lost e-mail capability and some of their phone and cell service.” This, he will say, is “because everyone was on the phone trying to ‘call their best friend’ to talk about what was happening,” presumably meaning that the national telecommunications infrastructure has become overloaded due to increased traffic. Soliday will add, “For a couple of hours, trying to communicate out of the [SOC] building was impossible.” [9/11 Commission, 11/21/2003 ] Soliday apparently does not state the particular time period over which United Airlines experiences these communication problems. However, it appears they may begin around the time of the first attack, since, according to the 9/11 Commission, shortly before 9:00 a.m., a United dispatch manager is unable to reach top company officials because the airline’s pager system “was not working” (see (Shortly After 8:48 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 8/26/2004, pp. 21-22 ]

Entity Tags: United Airlines, Ed Soliday
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Flight UA 175, Flight UA 93

[end excerpt]

AND--

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timelin...

[excerpt]

(After 8:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Serious Communications Problems Experienced in Washington Area, Affect Key Government Officials

In the Washington, DC, area, members of the public, emergency responders, and government officials experience serious communications problems. Telephone and cell phone services around the capital remain unavailable to members of the public for most of the day. [Verton, 2003, pp. 149]
Particular problems are experienced around the Pentagon. Reportedly, cellular and landline telephone communications there are “virtually unreliable or inaccessible during the first few hours of the response,” after it is hit at 9:37 (see After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. C36]
Some senior government officials also experience communications difficulties:
CIA Director George Tenet has problems using his secure phone while heading from a Washington hotel back to CIA headquarters, located about eight miles outside Washington (see (8:55 a.m.-9:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Independent, 11/6/2002; Tenet, 2007, pp. 161-162]
Secretary of State Colin Powell has to take a seven-hour flight from Peru, to get back to the capital. He later complains that, during this flight, “because of the communications problems that existed during that day, I couldn’t talk to anybody in Washington” (see (12:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.) September 11, 2001). [ABC News, 9/11/2002]
Between the time of the second WTC attack and about 9:45 a.m., Vice President Dick Cheney, who is at the White House, has problems reaching Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert at the US Capitol by secure telephone (see (9:04 a.m.-9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Daily Herald (Arlington Heights), 9/11/2002; Hayes, 2007, pp. 336-337]
Even President Bush experiences difficulties communicating with Washington after leaving a school in Florida, and subsequently while flying on Air Force One (see (9:34 a.m.-11:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 9/10/2006]
A classified after-action report will later be produced, based on observations from a National Airborne Operations Center plane launched near Washington shortly before the time of the Pentagon attack (see (Shortly Before 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). According to one government official, the report indicates that the nation was “deaf, dumb, and blind” for much of the day. [Verton, 2003, pp. 150-151] Members of the public in New York City also experience communications problems throughout the day, particularly with cell phones (see (After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001).

Entity Tags: Colin Powell, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Dennis Hastert, George J. Tenet, George W. Bush
Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Pentagon

[end excerpt]

The Pentagon confirmed Monday that some U.S. troops are on the ground in Libya, according to Fox News.

That admission contradicts the Obama administration's repeated assertions at the outset of the Libyan military intervention that no U.S. forces would be deployed to the North African nation.

Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby told the news network that four unidentified service members are on the ground and working under the State Department to assist in the rebuilding of the American embassy there. The

U.S. embassy in Tripoli was significantly damaged in the intense fighting that came to a head two weeks ago with Muammar Qaddafi's ouster.

Exclusive: Libyan woman guided NATO bombs to Gaddafi targets

(Reuters) - The NATO bombing campaign which fatally weakened Muammar Gaddafi's rule had a secret asset: a 24-year-old Libyan woman who spent months spying on military facilities and passing on the details to the alliance.

The woman, operating under the codename Nomidia, used elaborate methods to evade capture -- constantly changing her location, using multiple mobile telephone SIM cards and hiding her activities from all but the closest members of her family.

Her biggest protection against arrest by Gaddafi's security forces though was her gender: as a young woman in Libya's conservative Muslim society, they did not suspect her.

Nor should it be forgotten that even Iran has told Syria that they should ease up on the crackdown...

Syria Mounts Deadly Raids As Russia Backs Regime

BEIRUT - Syrian troops mounted deadly new raids against dissent Monday as President Bashar Assad's embattled regime won key support from longtime ally Russia, which said a U.N. resolution on Syria must not contain sanctions.

The U.N. said Monday that the death toll has reached at least 2,600 from the government's violent crackdown on protests over the past six months.

Although the crackdown has brought widespread international condemnation, Assad's authoritarian regime has the support of Russia and China, permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with veto powers.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that Moscow believes any U.N. resolution on Syria must be aimed at both the government and the opposition.

Dianne Feinstein says campaign funds 'wiped out' in fraud case

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Monday that her campaign fund was "wiped out," making her campaign another alleged victim of a campaign treasurer accused of fraud.

Feinstein, a California Democrat, told Politico that the losses from her fund are likely to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not more than $1 million. “I was wiped out too, we don’t know how much,” she told the news site.

Kinde Durkee was arrested on a federal fraud charge this month. She is accused of taking thousands of dollars from the campaigns of various elected officials.

...

Several local officials, including U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, have said they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Los Angeles County Democratic Party reported that more than $200,000 had been taken from its fund.

This might explain some targetting errors...
new
Submitted by Nobody on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 9:52am.

Exclusive: Libyan woman guided NATO bombs to Gaddafi targets

(Reuters) - The NATO bombing campaign which fatally weakened Muammar Gaddafi's rule had a secret asset: a 24-year-old Libyan woman who spent months spying on military facilities and passing on the details to the alliance.

...

Her biggest protection against arrest by Gaddafi's security forces though was her gender: as a young woman in Libya's conservative Muslim society, they did not suspect her.

=======================================

I'll reserve judgement on this one for awhile. Sounds in a similar vein as the Jessica Lynch psy-ops, maybe.

Possibly at the same time President Obama kept on all of KKKarl Rove's federal prosecutors, he decided to keep on those who fabricated the Jessica Lynch stuff....Will Time tell?

Easing Stance, Iran Offers Inspectors ‘Supervision’ of Nuclear Program

WASHINGTON — Iran on Monday made its first counterproposal in two years to ease the confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, offering to allow international inspectors “full supervision” of the country’s nuclear activities for the next five years, but on the condition that the mounting sanctions against Iran are lifted.

The proposal came from Fereydoon Abbasi, the head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, who was designated by the United Nations in 2007 as a scientist involved in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities, and, as such, subject to a freeze on his assets and limitations on his travel. He narrowly escaped an assassination attempt last year.

Mr. Abbasi’s offer was vaguely worded. It was far from clear what he meant by “full supervision,” after several years in which Iran has refused to turn over documents to the International Atomic Energy Agency or allow interviews of its most important nuclear scientists. The government has also restricted where inspectors could travel.

Nonetheless, the overture is the first time since October 2009 that Iran has indicated a willingness to negotiate over the program, and one senior Obama administration official said the offer suggested “that the sanctions are wearing on the leadership.”

Republicanism As Religion

The Dish covered the remarkable web essay of Mike Lofgren, but I didn't comment myself because it so closely follows my own argument in "The Conservative Soul" and on this blog, that it felt somewhat superfluous. But I want to draw attention to the crux of the piece, because if we are to understand how the right became so unmoored from prudence, moderation and tradition and became so infatuated with recklessness, extremism and revolution, we need to understand how it happened.

It is, of course, as my shrink never fails to point out, multi-determined. But here is Lofgren's attempt at a Rosebud:

...

And the zealous never compromise. They don't even listen.

...

If you ask why I remain such a strong Obama supporter, it is because I see him as that rare individual able to withstand the zeal without becoming a zealot in response, and to overcome the recklessness of pure religious ideology with pragmatism, civility and reason. That's why they fear and loathe him. Not because his policies are not theirs'. But because his temperament is their nemesis. If he defeats them next year, they will break, because their beliefs are so brittle, but will then reform, along Huntsman-style lines. If they defeat him, I fear we will no longer be participating in a civil conversation, however fraught, but in a civil war.

Inside 9/11 - Who controlled the planes?

Submitted by bridge on Sun, 09/11/2011 - 9:42pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WC9KZ2Yy5g4

Inside 9/11 - Who controlled the planes? ?

V I D E O

Why made all four hijacked planes on 9/11 long detours? How did the hijackers know about "radar holes"? How could they conduct key hijacking events simultaneously all within 10 minutes? Who controlled the planes?

========================

REMOTE CONTROL technology sounds logical. In effect, this would turn the commercial planes into "drones"....and we know the War Profiteering Elite love drones.

"Inside 9/11 - Who controlled the planes?"

Dov Zakheim is the thread that you're searching for...

They have no desire to "know". That would concern 'facts' and discernment! They just need to be told what to "believe" in a tidy 'dogma'.

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-...

[excerpt]

The debt ceiling extension is not the only example of this sort of political terrorism. Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel - how prudent is that? - in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization.

Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care. This fact, which ought to be obvious, has nevertheless caused confusion among the professional pundit class, which is mostly still stuck in the Bob Dole era in terms of its orientation. For instance, Ezra Klein wrote of his puzzlement over the fact that while House Republicans essentially won the debt ceiling fight, enough of them were sufficiently dissatisfied that they might still scuttle the deal. Of course they might - the attitude of many freshman Republicans to national default was "bring it on!"

It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.

...

Undermining Americans' belief in their own institutions of self-government remains a prime GOP electoral strategy. But if this technique falls short of producing Karl Rove's dream of 30 years of unchallengeable one-party rule (as all such techniques always fall short of achieving the angry and embittered true believer's New Jerusalem), there are other even less savory techniques upon which to fall back. Ever since Republicans captured the majority in a number of state legislatures last November, they have systematically attempted to make it more difficult to vote: by onerous voter ID requirements (in Wisconsin, Republicans have legislated photo IDs while simultaneously shutting Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices in Democratic constituencies while at the same time lengthening the hours of operation of DMV offices in GOP constituencies); by narrowing registration periods; and by residency requirements that may disenfranchise university students.

This legislative assault is moving in a diametrically opposed direction to 200 years of American history, when the arrow of progress pointed toward more political participation by more citizens. Republicans are among the most shrill in self-righteously lecturing other countries about the wonders of democracy; exporting democracy (albeit at the barrel of a gun) to the Middle East was a signature policy of the Bush administration. But domestically, they don't want those people voting.

You can probably guess who those people are. Above all, anyone not likely to vote Republican....

[end excerpt]

The Climate Reality Project

Perhaps it might be a good idea to spend some money now to ameliorate the problem and cut their losses...What good is having money if you don't spend it?

Dangerous bacteria spreading in warming oceans

Vibrios bacteria can cause food poisoning, gastroenteritis, septicemia and cholera

BRUSSELS — Scientists say the warming of the world's oceans could harm human health and cost millions.

A paper to be released in Brussels this week says warmer seawater is fostering the proliferation of Vibrios bacteria, which cause food poisoning, gastroenteritis, septicemia and cholera.

The paper, a synthesis of more than 100 projects funding by the European Union since 1998, says "millions of euros in health costs may result from human consumption of contaminated seafood, ingestion of waterborne pathogens, and, to a lesser degree, though direct occupational or recreational exposure to marine diseases."

The paper was produced by Project CLAMER, a collaboration of 17 European marine institutes, which is holding a conference in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.

I gotta quit now. I need a break. Too many spooky shadow government types for me. Gotta get out of this internet rabbit hole.

But I am walking away with this half-perceived insight: A association of high-tech corporations could by now be totally in charge, and we're dreaming if we think our taxes go to true government instead of just governmental cover for the fascist overlords.

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=70&contentid=1222

[excerpt]

Pentagon Fraud Chief Dov Zakheim Goes to BoozAllen
by URI DOWBENKO

Rabbi Zakheim has left the Pentagon. Thank God.

After more than 20 years of presiding over more than $3 trillion worth of military fraud, Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim has left the building. He will join Booz Allen Hamilton through the traditional revolving door for government-corporate insiders.

A former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense from 1985-1987 and Pentagon Comptroller since 2001, Zakheim was responsible for mismanaging more than $400 billion annually, as Pentagon discredited audits have persisted year after year.

The Department of Defense has never received a clean financial audit.

As recently as the December 18, 2003 audit by GAO (General Accounting Office), the Pentagon's 'War on Iraq Scam' and other Information Technology (IT) Fraud yielded $1.6 billion in "losses," money "missing" and otherwise unaccounted for.

In an article from "Government Executive" magazine ("Bye Bye Budgeteer," May 2004) Zakheim admitted, "...we are in the business of fighting wars.

We are not in the business of balancing books."

Zakheim, an ordained rabbi, is leaving Pentagon finances in shambles with more than 5,000 different financial systems supposedly in place. That means 5,000 open-ended opportunities for fraud.

If his position was Chief Financial Officer of a major corporation, Zakheim would be charged with criminal conspiracy, negligence and thousands of counts of fraud. As it is, he is joining the so-called private sector.

After all, privatizing government fraud through the control of accounting and IT systems in federal agencies is the most lucrative scam in America.

The US, after all, is One Nation Under Fraud.

Ask Rabbi Zakheim. He can tell you how it's done.

[end excerpt]

That does have a ring to it....

Guess what type of product Dov Zakheims company makes and what it was making for years before 9/11...remote flight termination systems...

Ok, part of this story is older than the public portion of the internet so looking it up would require digging through old newspapers and such...

Back in the 70's hijacking was a big concern, so to answer this the flight computers (autopilots) were made inaccessible from on board the plane and could be overridden and programmed from the ground. It no longer mattered what you did to the pilots, the planes would be programmed to land themselves. This was fairly widespread knowledge back in the day, so much so that hijackings virtually stopped worldwide for decades. In fact, Lockerbie was evidence that they were trying new tactics in response...

Consider all the stories about pilots relying on autopilot so much that they get drunk while flying, fall asleep...etc etc...

For decades these planes have been able to take off and land without human intervention.

Thing is, it would only make things worse if everyone knew this.

Stuff for drones? Drones?

That word picture works, Sam.

Does that theory about radar holes by Dov make him an in-our-faces illusionist? -- indicating his expert knowledge can contribute to the truth about 9/11 but that truth is in no way self-incriminating -- because, afterall, he is the one pointing it out!

Go back and look at PNAC, it's members and their political connections.

This is a longer list than any I ever saw before.

I never knew Paul Weyrich was a PNACer.

And there's Dov Zakheim. Right next to Robert Zoellick (now head of World Bank?).

PNAC dreams do come true....

http://video.pbs.org/video/2117159594

Program: FRONTLINE
Episode: Top Secret America

FRONTLINE reveals 9/11's unprecedented yet largely invisible legacy: the creation of a vast maze of clandestine government and private agencies designed to hunt terrorists and prevent future attacks on the U.S.

Wait til you see the US map of said locations....

Our constitutional convention was an economy crisis solving tool?

It's not really cutting entitlements. It's just lowering the rate...? It's not really starvation; it's just reducing calories....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/zoellick-says-us-wont-move-to-dou...

Illusionism continues?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26453

[excerpt]

Consider this single conspiracy fact: energy-rich Libya is being overthrown and conquered by NATO, in attacks spearheaded by CIA, its allied intelligence branches, and Al-Qaeda.

Yes, Al-Qaeda. What happened to the “war on terrorism” fiction? Why is the arch-enemy, Al-Qaeda, working openly with NATO?

This, too, is 9/11’s bounty. It brings us to the conspiracy fact of historical record:

Islamic “terrorists”, including CIA asset and (and US ally in Kosovo) Osama bin Laden, have been in the continuous employ of western forces and the CIA since the Cold War---before, during, and since 9/11. Al-Qaeda and “Islamic terrorism” is an instrument of Anglo-American intelligence, propaganda, and geostrategy. Al-Qaeda has always been an American-made and CIA-sponsored brand.

[end excerpt]

Females, minorities top Obama picks for judges

He is the first president who hasn't selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is moving at a historic pace to try to diversify the nation's federal judiciary: Nearly three of every four people he has gotten confirmed to the federal bench are women or minorities. He is the first president who hasn't selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships.

More than 70 percent of Obama's confirmed judicial nominees during his first two years were "non-traditional," or nominees who were not white males. That far exceeds the percentages in the two-term administrations of Bill Clinton (48.1 percent) and George W. Bush (32.9 percent), according to Sheldon Goldman, author of the authoritative book "Picking Federal Judges."

"It is an absolutely remarkable diversity achievement," said Goldman, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who is only counting judges once, even if they fit more than one category.

...

Obama basically has until the end of this year to get as many of his judicial nominees confirmed as possible, because it is unlikely that a highly partisan Senate will confirm many judges with a presidential election looming in November 2012.

According to the Federal Judicial Center, there are 94 vacancies in the federal courts, with 55 nominees awaiting Senate action.

"Consider this single conspiracy fact: energy-rich Libya is being overthrown and conquered by NATO"

Except for the fact that the NATO countries already had contracts for the oil BEFORE the revolution.

How can someone claim a profit motive when they were already getting those profits?...

The author says something this ignorant and stupid, then expects anyone to read further?

...

Al Qaeda has been "shattered"...

Right-wingers have larger fear center in the brain

People with conservative views have a larger amygdala, a primitive part of the brain associated with fear, new research shows.

People with more liberal views, on the other hand, have a bigger anterior cingulated cortex, a region of the brain linked to decision-making.

Research led by Wellcome Trust senior research fellow Professor Geraint Rees uncovered the differences by giving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to ninety young adults who had reported their political attitudes on a scale from 'very conservative' to 'very liberal'.

People with liberal views tended to have more grey matter in the anterior cingulated cortex, a region of the brain involved in decision-making, particularly when conflicting information is being presented.

Ancient Humans Were Mixing It Up: Anatomically Modern Humans Interbred With More Archaic Hominin Forms While in Africa

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2011) — It is now widely accepted that the species Homo sapiens originated in Africa and eventually spread throughout the world. But did those early humans interbreed with more ancestral forms of the genus Homo, for example Homo erectus, the "upright walking man," Homo habilis, -- the "tool-using man" or Homo neanderthalensis, the first artists of cave-painting fame?

Direct studies of ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones suggest interbreeding did occur after anatomically modern humans had migrated from their evolutionary cradle in Africa to the cooler climates of Eurasia, but what had happened in Africa remained a mystery -- until now.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team led by Michael Hammer, an associate professor and research scientist with the the University of Arizona's Arizona Research Labs, provides evidence that anatomically modern humans were not so unique that they remained separate.

"We found evidence for hybridization between modern humans and archaic forms in Africa. It looks like our lineage has always exchanged genes with their more morphologically diverged neighbors," said Hammer, who also holds appointments in the UA's department ofecology and evolutionary biology, the school of anthropology, the BIO5 Institute and the Arizona Cancer Center.

...

"Then we asked ourselves what does the general pattern of variation look like in the DNA that we sequenced in those African populations, and we started to look at regions that looked unusual," Hammer said. "We discovered three different genetic regions fit the criteria for being archaic DNA still present in the genomes of sub-Saharan Africans. Interestingly, this signature was strongest in populations from central Africa."

Pretty amazing program. That just aired last week? Thank you very much for sharing this link. The high point really was those dots on the map of the continental USA!!!

Just seeing Cofer Black's face and attitude reminds me of a priest in an ancient priesthood 'protecting' a SECRET in the inner sanctum. The ancient priesthood used 'magic' and ritual to protect its piece of the action. Just the intelligence departments' tone and all their inner sanctum top secret stuff, and the name of this operation -- Greystone ?-- and the way this program frames it -- like media illusion super-imposed over the magic tricks of the spook-priesthood.

Despite all the interesting new data, the show still does not seem to acknowledge that the only reason for such a domestic surveillance structure is for control over the domestic population!

This show indicates that all this secret/covert stuff is for fighting terrorists, when it's obvious the Bush Cabal was only fabricating all its enemies, and doing slight of hand to cover its pipeline and oil grab and Central Asia take-over, PNAC disaster capitalism, geopolitik hegemony, and globalist agenda. In order for their alleged Saddam Hussein-al Qaeda connection to be proved false even by the US press and public, al Qaeda still needs to be preserved as an enemy independent of the US National Security Apparatus' financial support. At one point the narrator says the Afghanistan Taliban was defeated quickly. Huh? Seems more likely a show of force was made to wipe out those known to be undesireable to imperialist goals, establish clear intimidating channels using those sympathetic, and then pouring in the investment cash necessary for establishing the CIA's fav moneystream in Afghanistan -- illegal drugs.

The amount of USA wealth diverted from The People and the General Welfare to the secrecy spooks/DNI/NSA/DHS et al is unfathomable! Disgusting.

For me this show was a mixed bag of interesting new information presented while the program continued to validate the old magic tricks. An interesting experience for me, working to sort out what is being presented. Thanks again, Alice.

Egypt on alert after Israel embassy stormed in Cairo

Egypt has declared a state of alert as protesters remain on the streets of Cairo, following the storming of the Israeli embassy on Friday.

Security forces fired tear gas and drove armoured vehicles at protesters, who responded by throwing stones and petrol bombs. Hundreds were injured.

The protesters broke into the embassy building, entering consular offices and throwing out documents, officials said.

Hundreds of protesters remain near the embassy, burning tyres in the street, chanting slogans against Egypt's military rulers.

Advocacy Group (American Family Voices) Files Ethics Complaint Against Darrell Issa

This morning, the group American Family Voices filed a formal ethics complaint against Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, regarding the “symbiotic relationship” the congressman has established between his business interests and public responsibilities. Listing Issa’s many conflicts of interest, the letter, sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics, heavily cites a New York Times piece as well as original ThinkProgress investigations:

– The letter notes that Issa purchased millions of dollars worth of high-yield Goldman Sachs mutual funds at the same time the congressman pressured the Securities and Exchange Commission to drop a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs for allegedly defrauding investors.

– The letter highlights Peter Haller, a former Goldman Sachs VP, who went to work for Issa on the Oversight Committee and used his power to pressure bank regulators to ease new Dodd-Frank rules on banks like Goldman Sachs.

– The letter revisits a controversial earmark made by Issa near property he owns in Vista, California. As ThinkProgress first reported, the taxpayer project would have enhanced the value of several lucrative office buildings purchased by Issa.

if we all band together we can be scared and fearful together and eventually turn on each other.

Anti-abortion protesters target clinic’s landlord outside child’s Md. school

Antiabortion activists who have sought for months to shut down a Germantown clinic picketed its landlord outside a Montgomery County middle school where his daughter is a student, school and police officials said Monday.

A small group of protesters stood outside Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville on Thursday, holding signs and a banner, during back-to-school night, officials said.

The student’s father, who did not want to be named to protect the safety of his daughter, a sixth-grader at the school, said he saw the five protesters when he went to the school event.

Some held a large banner that showed his photo, his full name, his phone number and the words “Please STOP the Child Killing.” Others held posters showing aborted fetuses.

In Libya, war-tested women hope gains last

They helped start the revolution; now they're seeking a greater role in post-Gadhafi society

RIPOLI, Libya — Aisha Gdour, a school psychologist, smuggled bullets in her brown leather handbag. Fatima Bredan, a hairdresser, tended wounded rebels. Hweida Shibadi, a family lawyer, helped NATO find airstrike targets. And Amal Bashir, an art teacher, used a secret code to collect orders for munitions: Small-caliber rounds were called “pins,” larger rounds were “nails.” A “bottle of milk” meant a Kalashnikov.

In the Libyan rebels’ unlikely victory over Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, women did far more than send sons and husbands to the front. They hid fighters and cooked them meals. They sewed flags, collected money, contacted journalists. They ran guns and, in a few cases, used them. The six-month uprising against Colonel Qaddafi has propelled women in this traditional society into roles they never imagined. And now, though they already face obstacles to preserving their influence, many women never want to go back.

“Maybe I can be the new president or the mayor,” Ms. Gdour, 44, said Monday afternoon as she savored victory with other members of her rebel cell. They are three women who under the old government ran an underground charity that they transformed into a pipeline for rebel arms.

Elizabeth Warren Officially Launching Senate Campaign Against Scott Brown

Former White House financial reform adviser Elizabeth Warren will officially launch her campaign for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts on Wednesday, challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown.

“The pressures on middle class families are worse than ever, but it is the big corporations that get their way in Washington,” Warren said in a statement. “I want to change that. I will work my heart out to earn the trust of the people of Massachusetts.”

Warren has been exploring a run in recent weeks, and has been on a listening tour of the state.

Brown was elected to the Senate in a special election in January 2010, following the death of long-time Sen. Ted Kennedy, in a stunning upset against Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley. A recent survey showed Brown leading the lesser-known Warren by 44%-35%, but with the incumbent below the crucial 50% mark in a state that is expected to vote Democratic by a wide margin in the presidential race.

;) Tea Cheers Sederville LOLLOLLOL

{Happy Dance} :D

This appeared in Washington Post--

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/forty-americans-somalia-called-direct-thr...

Bizarre.

WHY Somalia?

Somalia, a country wracked by famine (which I consider to be possibly a result of micro-climate change caused by the Aswan Dam and maybe application of weather modification, and of course unfair financing), then further destabilized by President George H.W. Bush's efforts, and left struggling in every way -- and THIS is what Americans have to fear?

'Terror Threats'. Seems like it's very possible that half those secret corporate/quasi-government spook offices exposed in that Frontline program are busy-ing themselves creating psy-ops to scare us about terror terror terror.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/forty-americans-somalia-called-direct-thr...

[excerpt]

Americans in Somalia a 'Direct Threat' to U.S Security

In a speech last month when the Obama administration released their counterterrorism strategy, John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism said, "From the territory it controls in Somalia al-Shabab continues to call for strikes against the United States. As a result, we cannot and will not let down our guard."

Tuesday appearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for his confirmation hearing Matthew Olsen, the nominee to head the National Counterterrorism Center, was asked to list his view of top threats. "I would say that beyond Al-Qaeda's senior leadership in Pakistan, its presence in Yemen, probably the next most significant terrorist threat may emanate from the Al-Qaeda presence in Somalia."

Officials have been concerned about evidence that the Somalia group is forging an alliance with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group responsible for the failed 2009 Christmas day underwear bomb plot and the plan last fall to blow up U.S. cargo planes.

[end excerpt]

I think the imperialists have a peculiar grudge against any show of resilience by those they considered to have been already defeated -- like the Haitians and Somalians.

I've scanned the page at the link below, but don't see acknowledgement of several interesting things I've read or heard in lectures during the last year--
o The Horn of Africa (Ethiopa and what was separated off by British, French and Italian Imperialists into what is now Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti) was one of the sources of ancient Egyptian civilization.
o Ancient writing from this area -- theorized to be the oldest on Earth -- is yet to be figured out.
o Nascent Islam would not have survived without the support and participation of the people in this area. (It is my understanding that the individual Muhammed intended to be his first successor was from this area.)
o The peoples of this area were master traders/exporters/importers and travellers in this purpose.

Reading this squashed amount of information on this Wilkipedia page below--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia
--leaves one with at least the realization that you're reading about one of the OLDEST and MOST INVOLVED peoples and crossroads of civilization on Earth.

I think they've been treated with disrespect long enough, and now to characterize them as a hotbed of terrorists is propagandistic rubbish meant to fund more war-for-profit scenarios in the phony War on Terra.

[excerpt]

In antiquity, Somalia was an important centre for commerce with the rest of the ancient world,[15][16] and according to most scholars,[17][18] it is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt.[19][20] During the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuuraan State, the Sultanate of Adal, the Warsangali Sultanate and the Gobroon Dynasty. In the late nineteenth century, the British and Italians gained control of parts of the coast, and established British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland[21] In the interior, Muhammad Abdullah Hassan's Dervish State successfully repulsed the British Empire four times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region,[22] but the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 by British airpower.[23] Italy acquired full control of their parts of the region in 1927. This occupation lasted until 1941, when it was replaced by a British military administration. Northern Somalia would remain a protectorate, while southern Somalia became a trusteeship. 1960 saw the union of the two regions into the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government.[24] Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic. In 1991, Barre's government collapsed as the Somali Civil War broke out.

Since 1991, no central government has controlled the entirety of the country, despite several attempts to establish a unified central government.[25] The northwestern part of the country has been relatively stable under the self-declared, but unrecognized, sovereign state of Somaliland.[26] The self-governing region of Puntland covers the northeast of the country. It declares itself to be autonomous, but not independent from Somalia.[2] The Islamist Al-Shabaab controls a large part of the south of the country. Without a central government, Somalia's inhabitants subsequently reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either civil, Islamic, or customary law.[2] The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only parts of the capital and some territory in the centre of the nation, but has reestablished national institutions such as the Military of Somalia, and is working towards eventual national elections in 2012, when the interim government's mandate expires.[27][28] During the two decades of war and lack of government, Somalia has maintained an informal economy, based mainly on livestock, remittance/money transfer companies, and telecommunications.[2][29]

[end excerpt]

"WHY Somalia?"

Actually, it has more to do with Somali pirates and the geographical location of Somalia.

Just look at a map.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_ocean_clear_cutting/?r=act

Sign & Re-post. ;)

{now get more tea & I still have to re-read the posts (not browse ;) cuz gotta work/read ;}

Submitted by nora on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 1:11pm.

Submitted by Nobody on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 1:24pm.

"Consider this single conspiracy fact: energy-rich Libya is being overthrown and conquered by NATO"

Except for the fact that the NATO countries already had contracts for the oil BEFORE the revolution.

How can someone claim a profit motive when they were already getting those profits?...

The author says something this ignorant and stupid, then expects anyone to read further?

...
===================================

Slow down. One doesn't have to believe every scrap of war-victory propaganda right out of the gate, does one? Just like one didn't need to believe every particle of pro-war propaganda put out there before the NATO attack on Libya commenced.

Kadhafi had some plans -- a pan-African regional currency and banking system, setting an example of national food self-sufficiency, possibly nationalizing the oil infrastructure, governmental system model that embraced social-minded self-governance while preserving secular education and religious 'freedom' (that is in part, not a defined theocracy).

The way I see it, this was not acceptable to the corporatists/banksters, the imperialists, or the U.S.-based theocrats or the Islamic monarchists. That's a lotta enemies who desire to exploit forever. Oh, did I forget the racists, who never want to see non-Euro-'whites' show obvious measures of independence, success and creative problem-solving?

Tea Cheers, Nora

Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 9:36am.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_ocean_clear_cutting/?r=act

Sign & Re-post. ;)

==============================

Thank you very much, Ms_A!

Those oil contracts are public record as is Gaddafis human rights records.

If you could tell the difference between propaganda and reality, you wouldn't have anything to talk about ever.

You're sucking up an regurgitating Soviet propaganda while ignoring the fact that it was the Soviets that were Gaddafis arms supplier and it's their profits you defend.

No one had a problem with Gaddafi except for his own people.

But that's what happens when you imprison and disappear people that disagree with you.

I'm afraid that your point of view is all too often framed by your own sphincter.

Submitted by Nobody on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 9:34am.

"WHY Somalia?"

Actually, it has more to do with Somali pirates and the geographical location of Somalia.

Just look at a map.
==========================

It's been at a cross-roads forever. It's surmised the migration from Africa to populate the world crossed there.

Pirates??

Pirates were going to do what? Sail here and -- or did you not see that Frontline documentary above? Gearing up fear against Somalians sounds like silliness to me. Maybe even bizzaro racist psy-ops. Aren't there enough white supremacists in the USA to do such things? Oh nooooo; the fear-mongering racists want Americans to fear Somalians, to fear non-whites on the other side of the Planet. Egad.

Seems that the thinking of the imperialist warmongers goes like this: 'Now that Libya has been destabilized, there is a need for another target to demonize.'

no such this as being too ugly to get a date...

Submitted by Nobody on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 2:39pm.

Ancient Humans Were Mixing It Up: Anatomically Modern Humans Interbred With More Archaic Hominin Forms While in Africa

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2011) — It is now widely accepted that the species Homo sapiens originated in Africa and eventually spread throughout the world. But did those early humans interbreed with more ancestral forms of the genus Homo, for example Homo erectus, the "upright walking man," Homo habilis, -- the "tool-using man" or Homo neanderthalensis, the first artists of cave-painting fame?

Direct studies of ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones suggest interbreeding did occur after anatomically modern humans had migrated from their evolutionary cradle in Africa to the cooler climates of Eurasia, but what had happened in Africa remained a mystery -- until now.

...

============================

Nobody, how do you doublecheck a report like this?

You gotta DNA kit you use?

Is there going to be some doublechecking on this "research" to test the results? By whom?

I'm getting sensitized to the existence of "Scientific Racism" and want to see findings corroborated objectively before I accept them.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And, Nobody, who are you referring to as "...too ugly..."? Which party in the mix?

It's not "here" that people are worried about it's "there" but you're too constrained by your "imperialist warmonger" paradigm to be able to see that...Like I said. "framed by your sphincter".

Pay attention to the map and in particular the trade route that they're locking down.

Piracy in Somalia

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century.[1] Since 2005, many international organizations, including the International Maritime Organization and the World Food Programme, have expressed concern over the rise in acts of piracy.[2] [3] Piracy has impeded the delivery of shipments and increased shipping expenses, costing an estimated £10 billion a year in global trade.[4] According to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), a veritable industry of profiteers has also risen around the piracy. Insurance companies, in particular, have profited from the pirate attacks, as insurance premiums have increased significantly.[5]

"And, Nobody, who are you referring to as "...too ugly..."? Which party in the mix?"

It's an old saying, generally used to tease someone who thinks themselves too ugly to get a date.

example "no one will go out with me because I'm too homely...Oh bullshit, you're never too ugly to get a date...and then usually followed by your fat aunt Bessy, whom everyone loves dearly and her 9 kids as proof.

It speaks to the fact that when it comes to love, humans have a long, long history of reaching out.

If all you see when you look at humanity is goodness then it may be those rose colored glasses.

If all you see is evil, then it might be because of the shit stained glasses you wear instead.

Like I said, "framed by your own sphincter".

Armed pirates kidnap 23 sailors off West Africa, maritime officials say

Pirates raided tanker off coast of Benin, sailed to unknown location

LAGOS, Nigeria — Armed pirates raided a tanker off the West African coast and kidnapped 23 sailors Wednesday, sailing off with the vessel in waters increasingly at risk of piracy, an international monitoring group said.

The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy worldwide, said pirates boarded the tanker as it idled about 62 nautical miles from Benin's capital of Cotonou. Pirates struck as the Cyprus-flagged vessel tried to transfer its cargo of crude oil to a Norwegian-registered ship, said Cyrus Mody, a manager at the the bureau.

The pirates sailed off with the crew to an unknown location, Mody said.

Meanwhile, the same group of pirates attacked the Norwegian ship, though the crew was able to lock themselves into a strong room and wait for the attackers to leave, Mody said.

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has over the last eight months escalated from low-level armed robberies to hijackings, cargo thefts and large-scale robberies, according to the Denmark-based security firm Risk Intelligence. Last month, London-based Lloyd's Market Association, an umbrella group of insurers, listed Nigeria, neighboring Benin and nearby waters in the same risk category as Somalia, where two decades of war and anarchy have allowed piracy to flourish.

West African pirates also have been more willing to use violence, beating crew members and shooting and stabbing those who get in the way. Analysts believe many of the pirates come from Nigeria, where corrupt law enforcement allows criminality to thrive.

Submitted by Nobody on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 10:34am.

It's not "here" that people are worried about it's "there" but you're too constrained by your "imperialist warmonger" paradigm to be able to see that...Like I said. "framed by your sphincter".

....
=========================

That Frontline program claims the entire USA anti-terrorist infrastructure was working to protect Barack Obama on the day of his inauguration -- protecting him against Somali terrorists.

That that threat is getting traction on PBS this week (even though it never materialized, so was it even true?), at the same time all this press is coming out that we must fear Somalia like the item posted above, to me these are significant propaganda exposure to measure in the media.

Tell me, Nobody-- What would be the best way to end the pirate problem? A. Completely destabilize and squash Somalia using military force (as has been done in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya) or B. Put that same money into aid for the area and get the region out of its desperate straits?

A. is the usual choice, isn't it? -- Throw the money away on more military waste and destruction.

Submitted by Nobody on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 10:51am.

"And, Nobody, who are you referring to as "...too ugly..."? Which party in the mix?"

It's an old saying....

==========================

Now your spinning.

Don't get so dizzy you fall over, Nobody.

or FFS...

Do you realize that you've opposed B. multiple times already on this blog, painting it as just more "imperialist" motivated profiteering?

The buying up land and putting up farms and greenhouses ring any bells? The pumping of literally hundreds of billions of dollars into those countries, while at the same time trying to ease world hunger...and you opposed it.

If you could tell propaganda from reality you'd have nothing to talk about.

Problem is that you can't and you won't listen to anyone that can.

Uh-oh. Sounds like a page from the Obama/BP Gulf Oil Pollution Playbook.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/09/breaking-news-japanese-govs-trying-to...

On this morning’s NHK “Sunday Debate” program, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara stated, “Geiger counters costing between 40,000 and 50,000 yen ($500-600) provide patchy measurements. We have to try and stop citizens from taking their own radiation measurements.” It seems that he really doesn’t like the fact that citizens are taking their own radiation readings. Even if the figures are patchy, the measurements still tell us correctly whether the radiation level is high or low.

Kids in war have few to witness their expression...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/10/BA921L2H5J.D...

[excerpt]

SAN FRANCISCO -- An Oakland children's museum, citing pressure from the community, canceled a planned exhibit of artwork by Palestinian youth that depicted the Israeli assault during the 2008-09 Gaza conflict.

The Museum of Children's Art was scheduled to display the art from Sept. 24 to Nov. 13. The exhibit had been in the works for several months, with an opening reception to feature poetry and special art activities for children.

The drawings in the exhibit were created by children ranging in age from about 9 to 11 and included bombs dropping, tanks and people getting shot.

"They are pictures of what these children experienced. It's their experience," said Barbara Lubin, executive director of the Middle East Children's Alliance, which was organizing the exhibition.

Museum officials notified Lubin on Thursday that they were pulling the plug on what had become a controversial exhibit that was pulling the children's museum into the long-standing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

It had become a distraction to the main objective of bringing arts education to all children, said museum board member Randolph Bell.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/09/BA921L2H5J.D...

um...

My grandmother said that to me at one point when I was panicking over my first school dance...My wife tells the story of her father telling her the same thing when she was going through a chubby stage as a teenager...And I'm quite sure that almost everyone reading this will have a similiar story to tell.

Spin?

Not so much as your trying to imply that I'm a racist after you've plastered this blog with racist crap for a month.

While not realizing that neither branch of humanity would've looked all that attractive to modern standards...You did notice that the timeline on that interbreeding study goes back as far as 500,000 years right?

First you tried to say that I was just a bully, and then you tried to say that I was a sexist, and then you tried to bait me with racism, all the while demonstrating your own bullying behavior, your own sexism, and your own racism.

If you need a reason why I disagree with you, it's simple, it's because you're wrong. There are two ways to handle being wrong. You admit it and make corrections or you deny it and compound your error until you're so far disconnected from reality that you can no longer remember what that means.

You've taken the latter course, and as much as it pains me to see another human being fall into that trap, I don't really owe you any more tolerance than I've already given.

It's long passed the time you should take a long hard look in the mirror and try to undo some of the damage that you've done.

Submitted by Nobody on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:21am.

or FFS...

Do you realize that you've opposed B. multiple times already on this blog, painting it as just more "imperialist" motivated profiteering?

The buying up land and putting up farms and greenhouses ring any bells? The pumping of literally hundreds of billions of dollars into those countries, while at the same time trying to ease world hunger...and you opposed it.

...

==========================

How can you defend that as a solution? Buying up desperate peoples' land from under them and turning them into serfs or sending them fleeing into cities as you turn their agricultural lands into carbon copies of the polluting and failing western mono-agriculture model? Corporations going into the 'developing world' and buying up stuff is NOT a solution that serves anybody but the corporations. It's another form of exploitation as in imperialism. Those types don't do that if they aren't figuring out a way to profit.

There are ways to provide assistance that don't exploit.

Evidently, you've bought their propaganda hook, line and sinker, so we can just agree to disagree on this one.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/13/us-un-gaza-rights-idUSTRE78C59...

[excerpt]

(Reuters) - Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a U.N. body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate U.N. probe into Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.

The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year's raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.

A panel of five independent U.N. rights experts reporting to the U.N. Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in "flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law."

The four-year blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the enclave of fundamental rights, they said.

...

[end excerpt]

Submitted by Nobody on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:42am.
...

========================================

Nobody, it is YOU who introduced the concept of 'ugliness' to the discussion of human genetics.

What caused you to choose to use the word 'ugly' to distinguish what others consider as just 'different', or to add the idea of 'ugliness' to the process of human development? If you start to do something like that, are you saying no one can question you on it? Why?

When I asked about your introduction of the term 'ugly', your reply here--
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/6240#comment-429582
--certainly did not answer the question, but skirted it.

At most I'd expect a "sorry, bad choice of words for a discussion that can encompasses justifications for racial prejudice" -- but you seem to flip into rationalization and paranoia and claim all manner of fear-based stuff. Why?

"How can you defend that as a solution? Buying up desperate peoples' land from under them and turning them into serfs or sending them fleeing into cities as you turn their agricultural lands into carbon copies of the polluting and failing western mono-agriculture model?"

Ok, try this...We send money and food from governmental sources...Wait that's been tried and it always ends up in the hands of criminals that further exploit the people there.

You might not realize this but food production needs to be increased world wide or we're facing massive starvation and those lands are NOT producing enough food to feed the people there already. Do you understand the term "fallow land"?

Those farms and greenhouses also produce long term jobs as well as increase the availability and lowering the price of food in the region. The availability of jobs and nutrition increases the living standards across Africa, this higher living standard reduces population growth, violence and crime.

And you've also argued against a non polluting, co2 sequestering form of agriculture as well.

"Corporations going into the 'developing world' and buying up stuff is NOT a solution that serves anybody but the corporations. It's another form of exploitation as in imperialism. Those types don't do that if they aren't figuring out a way to profit."

So say's your pseudoreligious ideology but the facts prove otherwise.

I'd much rather have corporate money being spent to actually solve a human problem rather than sitting in a bank somewhere doing nothing. You'd rather see people starve than someone "profit" from feeding them? Seriously?

Not everyone on this planet is as evil as your fevered imagination...and some of them even have money.

Dare you try and suggest a solution of your own knowing full well that I'm going to shoot it so full of holes that it won't even cast a shadow?

"Nobody, it is YOU who introduced the concept of 'ugliness' to the discussion of human genetics."

You're never too ugly to get a date.

But obviously you can be too stupid.

I owe you no apologies.

I'm not exactly pretty and well I've done alright.

Don't try and spin me Nora, you just look stupider for the attempt.

FBI at home of former top aide to Gov. Walker

Madison - About a dozen law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, visited the home of a former top aide to Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday morning.

The home on Dunning St. on Madison's east side is listed in City of Madison property records as belonging to Cynthia A. Archer, the former deputy administration secretary to the Republican governor.

"We're doing a law enforcement action," one of the FBI agents told a reporter.

He didn't identify himself or provide further comment but confirmed that he and three others were with the FBI and that sheriff's deputies were also involved.

One of the agents had a large camera and two of them were wearing latex gloves. They spent time in the backyard and then went into the house. One also removed a large banker's box and put it in the truck of a car.

Dale Riechers, a neighbor, said one agent who interviewed him was from the FBI's Milwaukee office.

Neighbors said about a dozen law enforcement officers arrived sometime before 7 a.m. They left at around 10 a.m.

divide...both Cherokee and Freedmen...

Cherokee Indians: We are free to oust blacks

US government wants second-largest Indian tribe to recognize as citizens 2,800 descendants of slaves that were held by Cherokees

OKLAHOMA CITY — The nation's second-largest Indian tribe said on Tuesday that it would not be dictated to by the U.S. government over its move to banish 2,800 African Americans from its citizenship rolls.

"The Cherokee Nation will not be governed by the BIA," Joe Crittenden, the tribe's acting principal chief, said in a statement responding to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Crittenden, who leads the tribe until a new principal chief is elected, went on to complain about unnamed congressmen meddling in the tribe's self-governance.

The reaction follows a letter the tribe received on Monday from BIA Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk, who warned that the results of the September 24 Cherokee election for principal chief will not be recognized by the U.S. government if the ousted members, known to some as "Cherokee Freedmen," are not allowed to vote.

The dispute stems from the fact that some wealthy Cherokee owned black slaves who worked on their plantations in the South. By the 1830s, most of the tribe was forced to relocate to present-day Oklahoma, and many took their slaves with them. The so-called Freedmen are descendants of those slaves.

After the Civil War, in which the Cherokee fought for the South, a treaty was signed in 1866 guaranteeing tribal citizenship for the freed slaves.

THIRTY-TWO PLAINTIFFS FILE RICO ACTION AGAINST JPMORGAN CHASE BANK AND CHASE HOME FINANCE

“CHASE HOME FINANCE LLC (hereafter “CHF”) is and was at all times material hereto a foreign (non-Florida incorporated) corporation which engaged in a regular and systematic course of conduct in Florida including Palm Beach County, Florida and the other jurisdictions identified herein, which conduct included but was and is not limited to false claims of the acquisition of mortgage loans relating to real property; the institution of fraudulent threats of foreclosure and fraudulent foreclosure proceedings based on false and fraudulent misrepresentations; the fraudulent collection of monies allegedly owed on secured promissory notes as to mortgage loans through false and fraudulent misrepresentations; and the perpetration of frauds upon the Courts of the United States through false and fraudulent misrepresentations in connection with the filing of foreclosure actions and the prosecution of non-judicial foreclosure actions, which conduct, in the aggregate and in the manner executed, constituted a pattern of criminal activity.”

North Carolina News

(UPDATED) Senate passes anti-LGBT constitutional amendment; voters to decide in 2012 primaries

The Senate vote was 30-16, with 30 needed for passage. A second and final vote was taken immediately. The Governor can't veto a constitutional amendment, but the voters can — SB 514 sets the referendum for the first primary election of 2012, which is scheduled for May.

Click here for the vote: 30 Republicans out of 31 voted yes (Hartsell, an opponent, was absent). Zero Democrats voted yes.

There's a chance the primary could be postponed because of redistricting.

But whenever it's held, expect a no-holds-barred attack on gays by amendment supporters. This is not going to be a proud time for North Carolinians.

On the other hand, if North Carolina turns this thing down, we'll be the first state to do so — after 30 others passed it. Our image as a tolerant, even progressive place in on the line.

NASA unveils giant rocket design for future odysseys

$35 billion project would lead to world's most powerful launch vehicle

WASHINGTON — The design for NASA's newest behemoth of a rocket hearkens back to the giant workhorse liquid rockets that propelled men to the moon. But this time the destinations will be much farther and the rocket even more powerful.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and several members of Congress joined Wednesday in unveiling the Obama administration's much-delayed general plans for its rocket design, called the Space Launch System. It will begin unmanned test flights in six years, and carry astronauts in a capsule on top in a decade.

"This is a great day for NASA, I think, for NASA and the nation," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at a U.S. Senate news conference called to unveil the concept.

4 sons and then a daughter and I changed as many diapers as mom did...and I still produced 4 sons and a daughter...so HAH!

It does confirm the theory that low testosterone males are more aggressive as they'd need to be when protecting an infant...

That doesn't stop me from being amused when baby fumes have all the females around here complaining that their boobs hurt or laughing my ass off when 'grandma' started lactating...

I'm an evil bastard sure and I'm likely to get smacked for even mentioning it but they enjoy smacking me...so in the end I'm just making them happy...lol

Fathers Wired to Provide Offspring Care; Study Confirms That Testosterone Drops Steeply After Baby Arrives

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2011) — A new Northwestern University study provides compelling evidence that human males are biologically wired to care for their offspring, conclusively showing for the first time that fatherhood lowers a man's testosterone levels.

The effect is consistent with what is observed in many other species in which males help take care of dependent offspring. Testosterone boosts behaviors and other traits that help a male compete for a mate. After they succeed and become fathers, "mating-related" activities may conflict with the responsibilities of fatherhood, making it advantageous for the body to reduce production of the hormone.

"Humans are unusual among mammals in that our offspring are dependent upon older individuals for feeding and protection for more than a decade," said Christopher W. Kuzawa, co-author of the study and associate professor of anthropology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He also is a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern. "Raising human offspring is such an effort that it is cooperative by necessity, and our study shows that human fathers are biologically wired to help with the job."

Phone hacking: News International finds 'large caches' of documents

'Many tens of thousands' of items discovered by News of the World publisher that could contain evidence of phone hacking

The publisher of the News of the World has found "many tens of thousands" of new documents and emails that could contain evidence about the scale of phone hacking at the paper, it has emerged.

News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers' barrister Michael Silverleaf QC told the high court at a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday: "Two very large new caches of documents have been which the current management were unaware of."

NGN was ordered in the summer to search its internal email system for any evidence that mobile phones belonging to a list of public figures were targeted by the paper.

That search has not been completed, but some documents have already been retrieved, the high court heard. Referring to the emails that NGN has been searching through, Mr Justice Vos told the high court that "there is some important material in what has already been disclosed".

Issa declines investigation into News Corp. phone hacking

For a congressman who isn’t afraid to start up an investigation, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sure was cautious when the idea of probing into News Corporation was presented to him. The House Oversight committee chairman appeared on Fox News Tuesday evening and declined to investigate the Murdoch corporation. News Corp. is facing allegations of whether the company broke the Foreign Corrupt Practices Law and hacked into the phones of 9/11 victims.

Oversight committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and other members of his panel called on Issa to probe News Corp earlier in the week. But the California Republican seemed disinterested in fulfilling their hopes.

“This is being looked at by the Justice Department,” Issa said to anchor Bret Baier, who the congressman praised for asking the question about his employers. “This is being looked at by the Senate, and we’re keeping and eye on it. But at the same time, this is a story about a unit in another country. And we want to make sure we don’t enter the ground that is most inappropriate for us, which is we don’t start picking on media whether they’re the left or the right just because we can.”

Issa’s decision to “not pick on the media” contrasts with his to demand a retraction from the New York Times reporting on his conflict of interests in late August. And when interviewed last year by Think Progress, Issa stated that he trusts News. Corp because he “personally knows Rupert Murdoch.”

The GOP's Genius Plan to Beat Obama in 2012

If Pennsylvania Republicans and their buddies in other states execute a plan to change election rules, Obama has a one-way ticket to Losertown.

Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania are pushing a scheme that, if GOPers in other states follow their lead, could cause President Barack Obama to lose the 2012 election—not because of the vote count, but because of new rules. That's not all: there's no legal way for Democrats to stop them.

The problem for Obama, and the opportunity for Republicans, is the electoral college. Every political junkie knows that the presidential election isn't a truly national contest; it's a state-by-state fight, and each state is worth a number of electoral votes equal to the size of the state's congressional delegation. (The District of Columbia also gets three votes.) There are 538 electoral votes up for grabs; win 270, and you're the president.

Also read: The Koch brothers' secret war plan to take down Obama—plus a list of their million-dollar donors.Here's the rub, though: Each state gets to determine how its electoral votes are allocated. Currently, 48 states and DC use a winner-take-all system in which the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state gets all of its electoral votes. Under the Republican plan—which has been endorsed by top Republicans in both houses of the state's legislature, as well as the governor, Tom Corbett—Pennsylvania would change from this system to one where each congressional district gets its own electoral vote. (Two electoral votes—one for each of the state's two senators—would go to the statewide winner.)

...

Under the Republican plan, if the GOP presidential nominee carries the GOP-leaning districts but Obama carries the state, the GOP nominee would get 12 electoral votes out of Pennsylvania, but Obama would only get eight—six for winning the blue districts, and two (representing the state's two senators) for winning the state. Since Obama would lose 12 electoral votes relative to the winner-take-all baseline, this would have an effect equivalent to flipping a medium-sized winner-take-all state—say, Washington, which has 12 electoral votes—from blue to red.* And Republicans wouldn't even have to do any extra campaigning or spend any extra advertising dollars to do it.

Since Americans, rich or poor, never forget the Alamo, they got plenty to cheer about--

John Pilger
Hail to the true victors of Rupert's revolution
8 September 2011

On 13 September, one of the world's biggest arms fairs opens in London, backed by the British government. On 8 September, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a preview entitled "Middle East: A vast market for UK defence and security companies". The host was the Royal Bank of Scotland, a major investor in cluster bombs. According to Amnesty international, the victims of cluster bombs are 98 per cent civilians and 30 per cent children. The Royal Bank of Scotland has received £20 million in public money. The blurb for the bank's arms party reads: "The Middle East is one of the regions with the greatest number of opportunities for UK defence and security companies. Saudi Arabia... is the world's top defence importer, having spent $56bn in 2009... a very worthwhile region to target."

Such are the Cameron government's priorities following the great "humanitarian" victory in Libya. As Margaret Thatcher once declared: "Rejoice!" And as the bankers and arms merchants raise their glasses, let us not forget the heroic RAF pilots who made Libya ours again by incinerating countless "pro Gaddafi elements" in their homes and cots and clinics, and the unsung stalwarts of the British drone industry at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire who, before and after lunch, provide the information for drone targets so that Hellfire missiles can flatten homes and suck the air out of lungs, a specialty. And cheers to QuinetiQ's drone testing site at Aberporth and at UAV Engines Limited in Lichfield.

The west's humanitarian mission is not quite finished. Nearly six months after securing a UN resolution authorising "the [protection] of civilians and civilian-populated areas under the threat of attack", Nato is raining fragmentation bombs on civilian-populated Sirte and other "Gaddafi strongholds" where, says a Channel 4 News reporter, "until they cut off the head of the snake, Libyans will not feel safe". I quote that not so much for its Orwellian quality but as a model of journalism's role in justifying "our" bloodbaths in advance.

This is Rupert's Revolution, after all. Gone from the Murdoch press are pejorative "insurgents". The action in Libya, says The Times, is "a revolution... as revolutions used to be". That it is a coup by a gang of Muammar Gaddafi's ex cronies and spooks in collusion with Nato is hardly news. The self-appointed "rebel leader", Mustafa Abdul Jalil, was Gaddafi's feared justice minister. The CIA runs or bankrolls most of the rest, including America's old friends, the Mujadeen Islamists who spawned al-Qaeda.

They told journalists what they needed to know: that Gaddafi was about to commit "genocide", of which there was no evidence, unlike the abundant evidence of "rebel" massacres of black African workers falsely accused of being mercenaries. European bankers' secret transfer of the Central Bank of Libya from Tripoli to "rebel" Benghazi by European bankers in order to control the country's oil billions was an epic heist of little interest.

The entirely predictable indictment of Gaddafi before the "international court" at The Hague evokes the charade of the dying "Lockerbie bomber", Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, whose "heinous crime" has been deployed to promote the west's ambitions in Libya. In 2009, Al-Megrahi was sent back to Libya by the Scottish authorities not for compassionate reasons, as reported, but because his long-awaited appeal would have confirmed his innocence and described how he was framed by the Thatcher government, as the late Paul Foot's landmark expose revealed. As an antidote to the current propaganda, I urge you to read a forensic demolition of el-Melgrahi's "guilt" and its political meaning in Dispatches from the Dark Side: on torture and the death of justice (Verso) by the distinguished human rights lawyer, Gareth Peirce.

This is not to detract from Gaddafi's awful dictatorship, a "rendition" destination for MI6, we now learn. But his odium is unrelated to the rape of his country by imperial caricatures such as Nicholas Sarkozy, a Napoleonic Islamophobe whose intelligence services almost certainly set up the coup against Gaddafi. US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks disclose the west's panic over Gaddafi's refusal to hand over the greatest source of oil in Africa and his overtures to China and Russia.

Propaganda relies not only on Murdoch but on apparently respectable voices inducing historical amnesia. The Observer, which has yet to apologise for its catastrophic promotion of Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, is in thrall to the "honourable intervention" of Sarkozy and Cameron and their "humanitarian and emotional" motives. Its political columnist Andrew Rawnsley completes an impressive double. As Media Lens reminds us, in 2003, Rawnsley wrote of Iraq: "The death toll has been nothing like as high as had been widely feared." A million dead Iraqis later, Rawnsley insists that, in Libya "Britain got it right" and "the number of civilian casualties inflicted by the air strikes seems to have been mercifully light". Tell that to Libyans with loved ones obliterated by corporate-friendly Hellfires.

Nato attacked Libya to counter and manipulate a general Arab uprising that took the rulers of the world by surprise. Unlike his neighbours, Gaddafi had come to power by denying western control of his country's natural wealth. For this, he was never forgiven, and the opportunity for his demise was seized in the usual manner, as history shows. The American historian William Blum has kept the record. Since the second world war, the United States has crushed or subverted liberation movements in 20 countries, and attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, many of them democratic, and dropped bombs on 30 countries, and attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.

Rejoice
http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/hail-to-the-true-victors-of-rupert-s-...

"They told journalists what they needed to know: that Gaddafi was about to commit "genocide", of which there was no evidence, unlike the abundant evidence of "rebel" massacres of black African workers falsely accused of being mercenaries."

Gaddafis own words weren't good enough for you?

But a better question for all of you Gaddafi supporters is...

Why don't you seem to give a damn about the thousands of protesters dead in Syria from the government crackdown there?

Not a single peep...

Why is that?...

Oh ya...because Syria is backed by Russia just like Gaddafi...

Hypocrisy.

You pretend to give a shit about people but you don't really care unless it serves as vehicle for your hatred.

You pretend to be against war profiteering and yet here's a clear case where you're on the side of Russian arms customers...

...is the electoral college.

Really. That's his problem. And here I thought it was just all those fucking retards.

Or maybe it just all those, confused, pissed off poor people:

US poverty numbers hit record high
Census report shows 46 million people living below the American poverty line last year.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/09/2011913215553440501.h...

Actually, I'd say, the electoral college, is Obama's best hope to squeak through. Kerry didn't beat Bush numerically. But if he and the Dems had fought election fraud in Ohio, he'd have been president.
Anyway, obama doesn't give a flying fuck about reelection. He came in to finish the work of Clinton of destroying the New Deal, and to diffuse the desire of millions of American to end Reaganism. He's done his work.

Clinton did it right?...not Reagan or either of the Bushs...but Clinton and Obama is the problem.

Seriously?

I haven't heard that since Wardog used to hang here...

That's just fucked up.

Give 'em hell!

Why don't you seem to give a damn about the thousands of protesters dead in Syria from the government crackdown there?

http://www.johnpilger.com/contact

For myself, anyway, I'm just waiting for us and Israel, to spread democracy to both Syria and Iran.
How many dead Syrian protestors are there. Let's see, a million dead Iraqis in exchange for three thousand dead 9/11 victims. 300 to 1 that's ratio for justice, I guess. Or perhaps, it's 200 to 1: Our Libyan "allies" admit to 50,000 casualties (that's only 2.5 deaths times the 20,000 NATO sorties). Divide that number by the 250 some victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and it equals "closure."
Why rebuild Detroit, when there's so much money to made for Lockheed/Martin supporting freedom fighters and imposing the calculus of justice on the unrighteous?

You chose what to post and what not to...

Interesting math though...

How come you don't count those that Gaddafi disappeared for disagreeing with him?

But I see it's not really about who died and who did the killing or more importantly for what reason...

You don't actually give a shit about anything but your own little corner of the world...

Well why don't you take a trip down to Texas and ask the guy that spent the Clinton surplus on tax breaks for millionaires BEFORE he started the Iraq war?

Naw...your solution is to hire his long lost twin Rick Perry to punish america until they do what you want...

How long do you suppose they're gonna have to beat the horse before it can get up and run?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29126.htm

The September 11 Orgie

By Michael Parenti

September 14, 2011 - -For more than a week--and extending into September 12 and probably continuing a while longer-- the media have saturated the airwaves with 9/11 stories including sad tragic tales of friends of people who knew relatives who were lost or affected in some way by the terrible attacks of ten years ago. We kept hearing how we as a people and a nation "were never the same after 9/11." (So might as well go bomb Afghanistan for ten years and destroy Iraq and now Libya.)

Again and again we heard "What were you doing when you first heard the news?" "How did it make you feel to confront such a loss? "Do you still grieve for him or have you achieved closure?" "And what of that generation that was too young to remember 9/11? What are they thinking now?" and on and on, all day, all week.

The whole world is repeatedly expected to give sympathy and admiration to America the Great, the nation that sustained this tremendous 9/11 loss yet gathered itself together and met the enemy (whoever that might be). Overlooked in all this is the fact that other nations continue to experience equally horrible attacks, if not even more bloody and costly in lives than America's endlessly observed and mourned 9/11. And the US military is often the perpetrator.

Chile suffered a 9/11 of its own (literally September 11, 1973) when that country's democracy was smashed by a Chilean military trained, advised, directed, armed, and financed by the US Pentagon and CIA, with many thousands arrested, tortured, and executed over a period of years without stint. And there was the destruction of Yugoslavia by 78 days of US aerial attacks, economic sanctions, and US-financed secessionist wars. And now the thorough destruction of Iraq with over a million casualties, transforming it from the most prosperous country in the Middle East to one of the very poorest and most devastated in the world.

And what of the natural disasters: the tsunami that rocked Fukushima leaving over 20,000 dead or missing, with a nuclear disaster that some say is worse than Chernobyl--treated like just another disaster story. And earlier tsunamis and earthquakes and famines that have taken many thousands of lives in Southeast Asia, Haiti, Chile, and elsewhere. And what of Bhopal where a culpable, profiteering, criminally negligent Union Carbide corporation brought utter misery and death to hundreds of thousands of innocents.

As for our own 9/11, if the authorities really feel as deeply about it as they say, then why don't they launch an investigation of the whole tragedy (not that dog and pony 9/11 commission engineered by George W.) so that we might be able to answer some of the questions that still haunt. And while feeling the utmost compassion for our 9/11 losses, we need the US government and US media to show some awareness that we are not the only country on this planet, that there are other tragedies endured by other nations, often far worse than 9/11, often perpetrated by US imperialist authorities, the very same authorities that read mournful inspirational passages at Ground Zero.

Michael Parenti received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, in the United States and abroad.

More http://michaelparentiblog.blogspot.com

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29124.htm

Noam Chomsky: Looking Back on 9/11 a Decade Later

By Democracy Now!

"We should understand where atrocities come from. They don’t come from nowhere. And if we’re serious, we should try to do something about what is the basis for them."

Posted September 13, 2011

V i d e o

Noam Chomsky: Looking Back on 9/11 a Decade Later

By Democracy Now!

"We should understand where atrocities come from. They don’t come from nowhere. And if we’re serious, we should try to do something about what is the basis for them."

Posted September 13, 2011

TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: As we continue to mark the decade since the September 11th attacks in the United States, today we spend the hour with MIT professor, world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, Noam Chomsky.

In the months after 9/11, as the Bush administration attacked Afghanistan and geared up for the invasion of Iraq, Noam Chomsky released a small book that provided the definitive counter-narrative to the jingoism of the time. The book was called simply 9-11, a collected series of interviews Chomsky had given on the roots of the 9/11 attacks and his prescription for a just response. At a time when lawmakers from both sides of the aisle joined together to authorize endless war, Chomsky’s was the leading voice to call for a look in the mirror, for a rethinking of U.S. actions in the Middle East and across the globe. 9-11 went on to become a surprise bestseller.

Ten years later, Professor Chomsky has just released an updated version. It’s called 9-11: Was There an Alternative? "Was there an alternative?" refers to the U.S. assassination of Osama bin Laden and the continuity Chomsky sees between the Bush administration’s foreign policy and President Obama’s.

Today, we’ll speak with Noam Chomsky about the decade since 9/11, at a time when the U.S. is at war in several areas, at home in continued economic turmoil. Noam Chomsky has just returned from Iceland and Norway. He’s joining us from Boston, Massachussetts. And I’m joined here in New York for this interview by Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté, who covered the thwarted Gaza-bound aid flotilla in Greece.

Welcome, Aaron, joining me in this interview. It’s good to have you with us.

AARON MATÉ: Thanks, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: And thanks so much, Noam Chomsky, for being with us so soon after you’ve come back from your trip. Noam, why don’t we begin with this new book? You wrote 9-11 10 years ago, what become the definitive counter-narrative at the time. What did you feel was important to understand then, and now, with Was There an Alternative?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, as you mentioned, it wasn’t really a book, it was a collection of interviews, the ones that we were able to get transcripts for. Some of them we couldn’t.

There were a number of things that I thought had to be pointed out. By now, I think they’re hardly even controversial. But one was that the claim that the U.S. was being attacked because, as the president put it, they hate our freedoms was completely untenable. They hated our policy. In fact, it would be more accurate to say we hate their freedoms. There’s plenty of documentation about that, going back to the 1950s. Shortly after the president’s speech, the Pentagon had a study of this, and they concluded, yes, it’s not that they hate our freedoms, it’s they hate our policies.

And as I say, evidence about that is enormous, back to the '50s. So, for example, in 1958, President Eisenhower, in internal documents long since released, asked his—raised the question with his staff about why there's a campaign of hatred against us in the Arab world. He said, not from the governments, but from the people. And the National Security Council, major planning body, had just released a study on this in which they said that they concluded that there’s a perception in the Arab world that the United States supports harsh, oppressive dictatorships and that the U.S. blocks democracy and development and that we do it because we want to keep control over their energy resources. And it went on to say that this is fairly accurate, and that’s pretty much what we should be doing, as long as the populations are kept quiet.
.....

read more

===
Comment:

"Blah, blah, blah.

Here are two of our leading gatekeeper shills, Noam Chomsky and Amy Goodman, doing what they do best: cravenly propagating the official fairytales that 1) the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, 2) 9/11 was "blowback" for U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and 3) OBL was "killed" by U.S. Navy Seals in May of this year.

Are Chomsky and Goodman really that stupid and gullible? Whle they criticize, and rightly so, virtually all other lies spewed by the U.S. gov't, the 3 official fairytales above they swallow hook, line and sinker. Nauseating. "

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29114.htm

The Critics of 9/11 Truth: Do They Have A Case?

By Paul Craig Roberts

September 13, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- The short answer to the question in the title is no.

The 9/11 truth critics have nothing but ad hominem arguments.

Let’s examine the case against the truthers presented by Ted Rall, Ann Barnhardt, and Alexander Cockburn.

But first let’s define who the truthers are.

The Internet has made it possible for anyone to have a web site and to rant and speculate to their heart’s content. There are a large number of 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
Many on both sides of the issue are equally ignorant. Neither side has any shame about demonstrating ignorance.

Both sides of the issue have conspiracy theories. 9/11 was a conspiracy whether a person believes that it was an inside job or that a handful of Arabs outwitted the entire intelligence apparatus of the Western world and the operational response of NORAD and the US Air Force.

For one side to call the other conspiracy theorists is the pot calling the kettle black.

The question turns not on name-calling but on evidence.

The 9/11 Truth movement was not created by bloggers ranting on their web sites. It was created by professional architects and engineers some of whom are known for having designed steel high rise buildings. It was created by distinguished scientists, such as University of Copenhagen nano-Chemist Niels Harrit who has 60 scientific papers to his credit and physicist Steven Jones. It was created by US Air Force pilots and commercial airline pilots who are expert at flying airplanes. It was created by firefighters who were in the twin towers and who personally heard and experienced numerous explosions including explosions in the sub-basements. It was created by members of 9/11 families who desire to know how such an improbable event as 9/11 could possibly occur.

The professionals and the scientists are speaking from the basis of years of experience and expert knowledge. Moreover, the scientists are speaking from the basis of careful research into the evidence that exists. When an international research team of scientists spends 18 months studying the components in the dust from the towers and the fused pieces of concrete and steel, they know what they are doing. When they announce that they have definite evidence of incendiaries and explosives, you can bet your life that that have the evidence.

When a physicist proves that Building 7 (the stories not obscured by other buildings) fell at free fall speed and NIST has to acknowledge that he is correct, you can bet your life that the physicist is correct.

When fire department captains and clean-up teams report molten steel--and their testimony is backed up with photographs--in the debris of the ruins weeks and months after the buildings’ destruction, you can bet your life the molten steel was there. When the same authorities report pumping fire suppressants and huge quantities of water with no effect on the molten steel, you can bet your life that the temperature long after the buildings’ destruction remained extremely high, far higher than any building fire can reach.

When the architects, engineers, and scientists speak, they offer no theory of who is responsible for 9/11. They state that the known evidence supports neither the NIST reports nor the 9/11 Commission Report. They say that the explanation that the government has provided is demonstrably wrong and that an investigation is required if we are to discover the truth about the event. ...

read on

=== Here is a
Comment (Walter Ponthaus):

"Well put indeed, Dr. Roberts. There is, however, an additional, even more insidious category of 9/11 truth detractors: Unlike polemicists such as Rall, Barnhardt and Cockburn (who, as PCR writes, throw caution and care to the wind in their ad hominem attacks on 9/11 truthers and in their flagrant contempt for scientific evidence), this other category of 9/11 truth critics carefully cultivates an almost unshakable aura of intelligence, objectivity and rational analysis in their blogs, columns and broadcasts. I’m referring, of course, to self-proclaimed antiwar “progressives” such as Noam Chomsky, Patrick Cockburn (Alexander’s brother), Tom Engelhardt, Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Chris Hedges, Bob Herbert, Arianna Huffington, Karen Kwiatkowski, Jim Lobe, Michael Moore, Bill Moyers, Greg Palast, Nir Rosen, Jeremy Scahill and countless others, all of whom cravenly accept and propagate the official fairytales that Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda carried out the 9/11 attacks, and that OBL was “killed” by Navy Seals in May of this year. "

:)

Yippee!!

Now I have a little hope for the world... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBOMSj0uNmw&feature=related

Paul Craig Roberts on the 9/11 10th Anniversary - GRTV Feature Interview 002

---
Dr. Robert's interview and articles re 9/11 10 years ago - was brilliant. Gatekeepers like A. Cockburn et al stick with the status quo. His NIST nonsense is so silly .... there is nothing else to say. The rivers of molten steel (hardly produced by airplane fuel) has not been officially acknowledge although videos and pics exist.

So in what kind of culture/society do we live now? Do we still care about science? Is that sill iportant? And Morality, And Truth? Does Evidence still matter? Or do we live in the magic Harry Potter society, as Dr. Roberts suggests.

And What kind of economy do we have? (52:26).

Btw.Obama's Information tsar K. Sandstein (sp) even proposed to members of government to infiltrate the 9/11 truth movement (ca 33:27). So What is it they have to hide? I would suggest, follow the money. Rarely wrong.

===

NORA,
did you listen to Dr. Robert's interview?

Since I don't watch mainstream TV and radio I was wondering if the so-called liberal radio hosts you listen to report the same stuff Roberts does or do they prefer to play presstitudes and obey the information tsar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBOMSj0uNmw&feature=related

Paul Craig Roberts on the 9/11 10th Anniversary - GRTV Feature Interview 002

---
Dr. Robert's interview and articles re 9/11 10 years ago - was brilliant. Gatekeepers like A. Cockburn et al stick with the status quo. His NIST nonsense is so silly .... there is nothing else to say. The rivers of molten steel (hardly produced by airplane fuel) has not been officially acknowledge although videos and pics exist.

So in what kind of culture/society do we live now? Do we still care about science? Is that sill iportant? And Morality, And Truth? Does Evidence still matter? Or do we live in the magic Harry Potter society, as Dr. Roberts suggests.

And What kind of economy do we have? (52:26).

Btw.Obama's Information tsar K. Sandstein (sp) even proposed to members of government to infiltrate the 9/11 truth movement (ca 33:27). So What is it they have to hide? I would suggest, follow the money. Rarely wrong.

===

NORA,
did you listen to Dr. Robert's interview?

Since I don't watch mainstream TV and radio I was wondering if the so-called liberal radio hosts you listen to report the same stuff Roberts does or do they prefer to play presstitudes and obey the information tsar?

Submitted by bridge on Sun, 09/11/2011 - 9:42pm.

Bridge, radar holes and remote control very interesting
Submitted by nora on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 10:49am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WC9KZ2Yy5g4

----

Thank you. Nora :-))

I was thinking right away that this was a subject you might be interested in. Pretty fascinating, isn't it? I still have to read more about the remote control stuff. I thought, too, that was v. interesting.

The graphics were so well done - and the v. charming speaker with his German accent explained everything like no other :-) .... Bet he is a great looking fellow. lol

========

And the William Rodriguez speech was great and so emotional, too. He really was a hero on that day.

In the meantime I was wondering what he was doing because we hadn't heard anything about him. I am always worried that something might happen to him.

You know I still think of Barry (you know he worked in Building 7) who died after one or two days in the hospital. That was Heartbreaking.

How fortunate for so many people it was that Willie still had the fifth master key. Since the people responsible to do the "saving" of the residents of the WTD had disappeared. WR saved so many lives on his own. Then he was the last one to leave the building and survived under the rubble. Thanks goodness.Thank you, William Rodriguez.

Obama's Judge Problem
—By Nick Baumann| Fri Sep. 9, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

...On August 12, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the portion of the health care law that requires Americans to either purchase health insurance or pay a fine. The decision was 2-to-1, with Joel Dubina, whom George H.W. Bush nominated to the appeals court, and Frank Hull, a conservative Bill Clinton nominee, voting that the health insurance requirement is unconstitutional. Stanley Marcus, a judge who was originally appointed by Ronald Reagan but was elevated to the appeals court by Clinton, provided the lone dissenting vote.

Many legal experts (and several other courts, including the 4th and 6th Circuits) think the 11th Circuit panel was wrong, and argue the individual mandate is constitutional. But that's not the point: In an important sense, the 11th Circuit decision and future decisions like it are the Obama administration's own fault.

The 11th Circuit is a great example of the problem. There are supposed to be 12 active judges on the court, but only 10 of those spots are filled. The current roster contains one Gerald Ford appointee, one Reagan appointee, two Bush Sr. appointees, four Clinton appointees, one Bush Jr. appointee, and one Obama appointee.

Since Obama nominees can be safely assumed to support the individual mandate's constitutionality, it's clear that two more Obama-nominated judges would drastically increase the administration's odds of winning the health care case if it chooses to appeal the panel's decision to the full court. So why are those two slots empty? It's true that the GOP has caused unprecedented delays in approving judges. But that's not the problem here: The Obama administration hasn't even nominated anyone for the two vacancies on the 11th Circuit. One of the seats has been vacant since August 2010; the other has been open since February...

...Obama is now averaging 355 days—almost an entire year—from vacancy to nomination. Bush was averaging 281 days at a similar point in his presidency. In short, Obama has fallen farther behind—from 5 weeks slower, on average, than Bush in April 2010 to more than ten weeks slower than Bush's average today...
Read in its entirety:
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/obama-failure-judicial-nominations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJsEGgc5L2c

There are so many unanswered questions about the days 9/11, and instead of making up theories and speculating, we go to the horses mouth to get answers, sadly the response we get from these questions only invites more speculation about what happened on 9/11.

ask questions, demand answers, We Are Patriots, We Are Fearless because We Are Change

special special thanks to William Rodriguez http://www.william911.com/
and Eugene V for being there with me.

===
Unbelievable, how the police treat Luke. He asks questions billionaire Silverstein doesn't want to talk about. So they haul him out. Why is Silverstein there in the first place?

Free country? Free Speech?

Later on the tape William Rodriguez speaks with Luke. Nice to see him there.
Lets not forget, William Rodriguez was the last one to make it out of the WTC. He saved many many people. He was a hero who was even invited to the White House.
Then his story was not included in the final report of the 9/11 Commission.

I wish I had hope, too. Glad you feel good.

btw. if you want to watch a really nice film (animation)

I can recommend one: RIO

I liked it so much - I watched it 3 times. Everything is beautiful in this movie, the plot, the birds, the friends and other animals, the dialogues, the amazing colors. And RIO. 5. stars, of course.

THE BEAVER w. Mel Gibson
and Jodie Foster (she is also the director)

this film is so good, I can only give it 5 stars and hope you will both watch it, too.

xoxo

before I forget:
did you make the drawing of these beautiful red cats?

Loved it :-))

Minnesota Mom Calls On Bachmann To Condemn Anti-Gay Bullying With 130,000 Signatures
By Zack Ford
Sep 14, 2011

Since her son Justin’s suicide last year, Tammy Aaberg has been standing up against the anti-gay bullying that led him to take his own life. Justin was one of nine students in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District who committed suicide over just a few years, deaths that many attribute to the district’s “neutrality” policy. The rule was instituted in 1995 and prohibits teachers and staff from talking about LGBT people, which creates complications for bullying intervention. Most of the district is in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R) district, so tomorrow, Aaberg and CREDO Action will deliver 130,000 petition signatures calling on Bachmann to speak out against anti-gay bullying.
Read in its entirety:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/09/14/319057/minnesota-mom-calls-on-b...

...one is too many; and, a petition and signatures should not be necessary.

No, I didn't draw them...I draw that famous house with the chimney and curly puff of smoke... *lol* :)

The high road to high wages: Denmark's answer to the U.S. model
By Mike Alberti

Sept. 14, 2011 — In the last few decades, Denmark has succeeded in substantially reducing its reliance on low-wage work. The absence of low-paying jobs — a sharp contrast to the employment situation in the United States — is a source of pride among Danes: “Danes do not like to see other Danes struggling,” said Lars Andersen of the Economic Council of the Labour Movement, a union-affiliated think tank in Copenhagen. “We are very sensitive about that.”

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines a low-wage job as one that pays less than two-thirds of the median annual wage in a country. By this measure, about 8 percent of Danish workers are employed in a low-wage job. Researchers estimate the U.S. rate, by contrast, as being as high as 33 percent.

That difference has led some American economists to study the organization of the Danish labor market. John Schmitt, an economist at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, has been comparing the U.S. to Denmark and other European countries for years.

“What the Danish example proves is that there are two distinct ways to organize your labor market,” he said. “There is a low road,” which relies on low-wage labor, “and there is a high road.” Schmitt said that both methods of organization can power an economy, but they result in societies in which basic aspects of life are experienced very differently by their respective citizens.
Continue reading:
http://www.remappingdebate.org/article/high-road-high-wages-denmarks-ans...

Why the oligarchy and reThugs want to be rid of unions...

"What about McDonalds?"

A very high-profile example of social pressure being exerted by both employee and employer unions for the purpose of maintaining high labor standards occurred in the 1980s, when McDonald’s opened several franchises in Denmark but refused to sign a collective bargaining agreement with the union, the only fast-food chain to do so.

Unions demonstrated and called “solidarity strikes,” in which members of other unions were called upon to boycott the restaurants.

Additionally, the Danish employers’ association for the hotel and restaurant sector refused to let McDonald’s join the association until the company negotiated with the unions.

In 1989, McDonald’s relented, joined the employers’ association, and signed an agreement with the union. Rasmussen said that, while there have been some disputes over time, particularly about overtime pay, in general the collective agreements ensure that McDonald's workers are paid a living wage.

grim...it's all grim...nothing but cats and babies to live for anymore... :(

Michigan GOP Lawmaker: Public School Teachers "Are More Than Greedy"
—By Andy Kroll
Tue Sep. 13, 2011

A few weeks ago, I reported that Michigan Republicans were eyeing a radical proposal to privatize public school teachers. Under the plan, suggested by state Sen. Phil Pavlov, who chairs Michigan's Senate education committee, school districts would outsource teacher hiring to private contractors in an attempt to save money by cutting pension and health-care benefits. A Michigan Education Association (MEA) spokesman, Doug Pratt, called the idea "terrible" and "a type of union busting."

Now another Michigan lawmaker has doubled down on the GOP attack on public school teachers. In an interview with the Gongwer News Service, state Sen. Randy Richardville, the majority leader, slammed the MEA—the state's main teachers' union—as focused on "big-paid, high-honcho people." Then he claimed that teachers are "more than greedy," presumably for demanding health insurance, retirement benefits, and modest increases in their even more modest salaries. (The average teacher in Michigan made $54,088 a year in 2009, the highest in the nation.)
Continue reading:
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/michigan-republican-teacher-greedy-u...

The Average Salary of Michigan Legislators

Members of the Michigan legislature took a pay cut in January 2011, when the base salary will dropped from $79,650 to $71,685 and the expense allowance was reduced from $12,000 to $10,000.

...we take these two senators and drop them into a classroom for a school year.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 by Physicians for a National Health Program:

Number of Uninsured Climbs to Highest Figure Since Passage of Medicare, Medicaid
50 million uninsured shows urgency of enacting single-payer Medicare for all: national doctors group

Official estimates by the Census Bureau showing an increase of about 1 million in the number of Americans without health insurance in 2010 – to a 35-year high of 49.9 million persons, or 16.3 percent of the population, under the bureau’s revised calculation method – underscore the urgency of going beyond the Obama administration’s federal health law and swiftly implementing a single-payer, improved Medicare-for-all program, spokespersons for Physicians for a National Health Program said today.

"Tragically, we know that the new figures of uninsured mean a preventable annual death toll of about 50,000 people -- that's about one death every 10 minutes," said Dr. Garrett Adams, president of PNHP, a nationwide organization of 18,000 physicians.

Employment-based coverage continued to decline. The bureau said 55.3 percent of Americans were covered by employment-based plans in 2010, down from 56.1 percent in 2009. It was the eleventh consecutive year of decline, from 64.2 percent in 2000.

In Massachusetts, whose 2006 health reform is widely viewed as the model for the federal health law, 370,000 people remained uninsured in 2010, representing 5.6 percent of the population, a jump from 4.3 percent who were uninsured in 2009.
Continue reading:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/13-6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvs11bFRF8g&feature=youtu.be

Know Your Rights: Photographers

Taking photographs of things that are plainly visible from public spaces is a constitutional right – and that includes federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties. Unfortunately, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs from public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply. Learn more:
http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/know-your-rights-photographers

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/09/15/carville/in...

Democratic strategist and CNN pundit James Carville has written an article declaring Obama's political and policy approaches to be abject failures and advising several steps to correct course, such as: fire large numbers of his advisers, "make a case like a Democrat," and "Panic." At the end of his list of serious grievances against the White House, he includes this paragraph to make clear that he's still a Good Democrat and is offering the advice only because he wants to help the President win re-election:

As I watch the Republican debates, I realize that we are on the brink of a crazy person running our nation. I sit in front of the television and shudder at the thought of one of these creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans running my country.

Those first three adjectival accusations against the Republicans -- "creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing" -- are fair enough, but let's look at the last four:
...

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
President Obama’s Shameful Silence in the Face of Israel’s Murder of a Young American
by DAVE LINDORFF
Among the many shameful and cowardly things that President Barack Obama has and has not done, few can rival his complete unwillingness to express outrage at the Israeli military’s murder of a young American teen executed at close range during the Israeli Defense (sic) Force assault on the Turkish-flagged aid ship the Mavi Marmara in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea back on May 31, 2010.

Furkan Dogan, born in the US to Turkish parents, both legal residents of the U.S., and educated in the US, was a volunteer on the Mavi Marmara, the flag ship in a six boat aid flotilla that tried to sail with humanitarian aid from Turkey to the Israeli prison colony known as Gaza only to be stormed and captured and pirated to Israel.

When IDF forces boarded the ship from helicopters and speed boats they shot and killed nine people, one of them young Dogan.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/15/president-obama’s-shameful-silence-in-the-face-of-israel’s-murder-of-a-young-american/

Probably not. I'd guess the bombing of Tehran next October could be much more likely now, however.

Obama Team Blaming The Jews for Loss of Weiner House Seat Dems Held for 88 Years

It looks like Obama's political leadership team is going to try to spin the loss of Anthony Weiner's NY District 9 seat on Tuesday as a local anomaly primarily due to a large Jewish population.

Amazing, the different takes on the Democrats' loss of a District they'd held for almost a century (since the 1920s,) where the Democrats have a three to one registration advantage..........
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-Team-Blaming-The-Jew-by-Rob-Kall-...

Right now, I'd predict obama to lose every state east of California, west of New York and south of Maryland. Every state; including Illinois.

Iran names street after Rachel Corrie

Tehran pays tribute to US activist crushed to death by bulldozer while trying stop the demolition of Palestinian homes

Tehran city council has named a street after an American activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003, a local newspaper has reported.......

he decision marked the first time an Iranian street has been named after a US national since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the pro-west shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi.

Before the revolution, at least three high streets in the Iranian capital were named after former US presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, John F Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt.

Iran and the US have not had diplomatic ties since militant students occupied the US embassy in Tehran, holding American diplomats hostage for 444 days from 1979 to 1981.

There are a few streets in the city named after western nationals, including Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA who died on hunger strike in a British prison in 1981, and Edward Brown, a British Orientalist known for his work on Iranian history......
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/11/iran-street-rachel-corrie

Sept. 15: Palestine Rally at the United Nations

Palestinians everywhere are mobilizing to remind the world of their right to self-determination. In New York we are marching to the UN because the world’s attention is focused on the vote on Palestine scheduled to take place there.

For over six decades, the UN has approved numerous resolutions promising Palestinians their basic rights, none of which have been implemented. We come to the UN to demand: Sovereignty, Equality, and the Right of Return for Palestinians NOW!

Rally and March to the UN, Thursday, September 15th!
End All US Aid to Israel!
End the Occupation!
Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions!

4:30 pm: Gather at Times Square
5:30 pm: March to Grand Central and then over to the UN

For more information, email palestineun@gmail.com
Sponsored by the Palestine UN Solidarity Coalition........
http://al-awdany.org/2011/07/sept-15-palestine-rally-at-the-united-natio...

House Clears Bill Restricting N.L.R.B.

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to approve a G.O.P.-backed bill that would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board from continuing to pursue its effort to block Boeing from operating a new $750 million aircraft assembly line in South Carolina. The largely party-line vote was 238 to 186.

Republicans denounced the labor board’s case against Boeing, asserting that the board is overreaching its authority and should not be trying to tell companies where they can locate their operations. But many Democrats and their union allies condemned the legislation, asserting that the bill undercuts an independent federal agency and favors Boeing, a potent lobbying force and prominent political donor.

Under the bill, an unusual effort to halt a federal agency’s actions in a pending case, the labor board would be barred from seeking to have an employer shut, transfer or relocate employment or operations “under any circumstances.”

The bill, called “The Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act,” is expected to face an uphill battle in the Democratic-led Senate. In the House vote on Thursday, the partisan divide was clear: only 8 Democrats voted for the bill and only 7 Republicans voted against it.

down...

A familiar face emerges to lead Libya's new army

.....Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who defected from Gadhafi's army in 1987 and moved to the United States, where he lived in the Washington suburbs for decades before returning to Libya earlier this year.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/09/14/124143/a-familiar-face-emerges-to-...

Khalifa Belqasim Haftar (sometimes spelled Hifter, Hefter or Huftur) (Arabic: خليفة بالقاسم حفتر‎) is a senior military officer in Libya. In April 2011, he was reported as holding the rank of lieutenant general.

Formerly one of Muammar Gaddafi's army commanders in the Chadian–Libyan conflict, he fell out with the regime when Libya lost the war, and sought exile in the United States. Some sources have reported ties with the US Central Intelligence Agency.[1] After falling out with the Gaddafi regime, Haftar set up his own militia financed by the CIA, according to the 2001 book Manipulations africaines, published by Le Monde diplomatique. After entering the United States in the 1990s, Haftar took up residence in Vienna, Virginia, five miles outside of Langley, Virginia.[2]

In 2011 he returned to Libya to support the uprising. In March, a military spokesperson announced that Haftar had been appointed commander of the military, though the National Transitional Council denied this.[3] By April, Abdul Fatah Younis held the role of commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Omar al Hareri serving as Younis's Chief of Staff and Haftar took the third most senior position as the commander of ground forces with the rank of lieutenant general.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalifa_Belqasim_Haftar

Surprising, and somewhat disappointing, we didn't just stick a Conocco Phillips broad member in to run the new Democrat Libya.
No Taxation Without Representation.
What will it take to make obama grant Libya the statehood it deserves?

US Military Defoliants on Okinawa: Agent Orange
Thursday 15 September 2011
by: Jon Mitchell, The Asia-Pacific Journal | News Analysis

http://www.truthout.com/us-military-defoliants-okinawa-agent-orange/1315...

love that cat painting!

Troy Davis' Last Chance for Life

During last week's GOP presidential debate, Rick Perry doubled down on his support for the "ultimate justice." As the audience applauded Perry's high death-penalty record, the gunslinger said he'd "never struggled" with the idea that an innocent man may have died on his watch, despite clear evidence that at least one has. Throughout his 11 years in office, Perry has presided over 234 executions (and counting), more than any other governor since the nation's moratorium on capital punishment was lifted 35 years ago.

In 1976, the state of Georgia played a starring role in helping to break that moratorium with the landmark case Gregg v. Georgia. That explains, in part, how 42-year-old Troy Davis landed on the state's death row two decades ago for the murder of a Savannah police officer. His case has all the markings of the sort of executionary zeal that garnered applause last week: No physical evidence links him to the crime; most of the original trial's eyewitnesses have since recanted their testimony, accusing police of coercion; and several people insist that the man who tipped off the cops to Davis is the real killer. Yet despite the real doubts about his guilt, Davis has exhausted his appeals. Last week, for the fourth time in as many years, corrections officials scheduled him for execution. His new death date is September 21.

"He has one last chance," says Laura Moye, the director of Amnesty International USA's death penalty abolition campaign: Georgia's parole board, the state's sole clemency-granting authority, will take a final look at Davis' case on Monday. Beyond that, she says, "he doesn't seem to have any legal avenues open to him."

Gonna burn what's standing in the way

Rethugs unveil new campaign slogan--

If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

...however are gonna get fucked hard...take a deep breath.

Boehner's Funding From Coal Up 2,400%

The coal industry adores House Speaker John Boehner, now more than ever. From Tuesday's Wall Street Journal:

Donations from coal-industry interests account for more than 10% of the $12.5 million Mr. Boehner collected from Jan. 1 to June 30 for fundraising accounts he directly controls. Mr. Boehner's personal campaign account collected less than $200,000 from the coal industry during the entire 2009-10 election cycle.

That means the coal industry's now giving Boehner 24 times more the monthly contributions it gave him during 2009-10. Among Boehner's top current donors is one of the Koch brothers, William, who heads Oxbow Corporation—an energy conglomerate with coal, natural gas, steel, and petroleum operations worth $4 billion in annual sales. In general, the Journal reports, the coal industry has ramped up its political giving since Obama was elected president, more than doubling its 2008 contributions in the latest election cycle, with about 75 percent of donations going to Republicans.

A Boehner spokesman assured the Journal that coal-industry giving constitutes a small fraction of the $30 million or so the speaker has raised for the Republican Party this year. But even if Boehner doesn't find the coal industry's givings significant, the spike in coal-backed donations to the House leader hasn't gone unthanked, either, as the Journal points out, and as we've reported here before. Notably, since November 2010 the House has voted to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and approved a bill that would strip the EPA's authority to veto water permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers.

...

The swell in coal contributions to Boehner secures his place as the industry's number-two favorite recipient, according data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Oxbow spokesman Brad Goldstein wrapped up the industry's sentiment for the speaker unabashedly:

We are a big supporter of John Boehner. We think he's good for business...He looks out for business interests, and he wants to create more jobs for America, while this administration has been rather harsh on the industry.

Rick Perry Has Far More Financial Ties to Merck, Maker of HPV Vaccine, Than He Admits

Last night at the CNN Republican debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) was forced to defend his executive order to administer the vaccine Gardasil to young women in his state. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in particular said the effort was an example of “crony capitalism,” and that Perry was too cosy with the drug company poised to benefit from the decision. Perry dismissed the comment, stating: “The company was Merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them. I raised about $30 million. And if you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.”

Regardless of the debate over administering the vaccine, there is no doubt that Perry grossly misrepresented the influence of Merck in his administration. For one thing, Perry has actually accepted $29,500 from the company’s PAC, and the Republican Governor Association, under Perry’s watch, took in $350,000 from Merck since 2006. Moreover, Mike Toomey, an Austin lobbyist that represented Merck during the Gardasil decision, has promised to raise $55 million to back Perry’s presidential bid using an independent so-called SuperPAC.

HHS awards Affordable Care Act funds for organizations to become community health centers

WASHINGTON, Sep 15, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced awards totaling $10 million to aid 129 organizations across the country that would like to become community health centers. These funds, made available by the Affordable Care Act, support organizations' development as a future health center.

Health centers improve the health of the nation and assure access to quality primary health care services at more than 8,100 service delivery sites around the country. Health centers provide comprehensive, high-quality preventive and primary health care to patients regardless of their ability to pay; charges for services are set according to income.

"Supporting the development of new community health centers will help us meet the healthcare needs of millions while supporting local jobs and economic growth in communities nationwide," said Secretary Sebelius.

Community health centers are also an integral source of local employment and economic growth in many underserved and low-income communities. Since the beginning of 2009, health centers across the country have added more than 18,600 new full-time positions in many of the nation's most economically distressed communities. In 2010, they employed more than 131,000 staff and new funds, made available by HHS last week, will help create thousands more jobs nationwide.

U.S. urges citizens to leave Syria immediately

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday urged U.S. citizens to leave Syria immediately, saying the government's violent crackdown on peaceful protests had led to an uncertain and volatile situation.

"The U.S. Department of State urges U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available," the department said in a warning notice, adding future plans by U.S. citizens to travel to Syria should be deferred.

Obama Subverts Social Security

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“Obama has for the past two and a half years been in league with Republicans in falsely conflating Social Security and the federal debt.”

The Age of Obama has entered the Season of the Business-Dominated Committee, where the president maneuvered to trap us, in the first place. The Great Dissembler is urging the congressional deficit reduction “Super-Committee” to go beyond the $1.5 trillion budget cuts over ten years mandated during this summer’s debt ceiling fiasco. His allies and surrogates demand that the panel “go big” with reductions closer to the $4 billion called for by the committee’s accursed predecessor, the hand-picked budget deficit outfit imposed on the deliberative process by Obama during his second year to give “bi-partisan” sanction to the administration’s methodical subversion of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Back then, the Republicans were avoiding a frontal assault on Social Security, remembering George Bush’s first-term butt-whippin’ on the issue. It was up to Barack Obama to keep Social Security on the chopping block.

This time around, White House spokesman Jay Carney is encouraging the Super-Committee, made up of six House members and six Senators, to “overachieve” their mandate. The president says he favors at least $2 trillion in cuts by the late November deadline. Committee member Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), in synch with the White House, chants the “go big” mantra, while Republicans hang back, declining to call for larger cuts in fear that war spending might come under scrutiny. No problem; the top Democrat will carry the ball, for them.

“White House spokesman Jay Carney is encouraging the Super-Committee to ‘overachieve’ their mandate.”

The GOP can count on Obama to offer up Social Security on the alter of austerity, as he has done consistently since January, 2009, while still president-elect........

...Obama wants to be remembered as the president who brought the Republicans and the right wing of the Democratic Party into harmonious consensus – over the dead carcass of the New Deal. That’s what he means by “Go big!”
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obama-subverts-social-security

Republican Louie Gohmert Blasts American Jobs Act For Banning Unemployment Discrimination

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) is no fan of a proposal for the federal government to forbid employers from discriminating against the jobless based on their employment status.

"We're adding in this bill a new protected class called 'unemployed,'" Gohmert said on the floor of the House Tuesday. "I think this will help trial lawyers who are not having enough work. We heard from our friends across the aisle, 14 million people out of work -- that's 14 million new clients."

The American Jobs Act, submitted by President Obama to Congress this week, has a section that would prohibit employers from not hiring someone just because they are jobless.

According to the National Employment Law Project, Gohmert is incorrect: The proposal would not make employment status a protected class like race or sex. It simply bans hiring discrimination against the jobless, and is modeled off of legislation drafted by Democrats in Congress earlier this year.

Obama Plan Won't Include Changes to Social Security

President Barack Obama's new deficit-reduction proposal will leave out changes to Social Security, and may exclude any increase in the Medicare eligibility age, people familiar with the discussions said Wednesday.

"As the president has consistently said, he does not believe that Social Security is a driver of our near- and medium-term deficits," White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement.

Changing the inflation formula so Social Security benefits grow more slowly and raising the Medicare eligibility age were ideas Mr. Obama had been willing to accept this summer, when he was trying to strike a deficit-reduction deal with House

Desired outcome achieved in Libya...

Syrian situation to be resolved presently...

Be advised, you are now on standby...

Libya: Cameron and Sarkozy mobbed in Benghazi

Thousands of Libyans have turned out to cheer UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the eastern city of Benghazi. "It is great to be in free Libya," Mr Cameron said. "Col Gaddafi said he would hunt you down like rats, but you showed the courage of lions."

Mr Sarkozy plunged into the crowd, reaching across his bodyguards to shake the hands of waiting Libyans, many of them waving French flags. This is the first visit to Libya by Western leaders since ex-leader Col Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown last month.

NTC chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil thanked them for taking "brave positions" during the Libyan uprising. "They showed us political, economic and military support which helped the rebels establish a state, and we thank France and the UK for that," he said.

The two leaders are hugely popular in Libya, where common graffiti slogans include: "Merci Sarkozy!" and "Thank you Britain!"

Occupying Wall Street on September 17: Hacktivists, Anarchists, Students--and You?
Few groups taking part are more organized than US Day of Rage, which is organizing actions not just in NYC, but in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle as well.

...Few groups taking part are more organized, though, than US Day of Rage. Its founder, a sharp-featured, sharp-tongued IT strategist named Alexa O’Brien, insists that she’s “a normal sort of nobody.” She and her colleagues are prolific on Twitter, and their website features a range of resources, including nonviolent direct action manuals, a tactical plan for September 17, and an embedded YouTube video of the group’s official song, the theme from the 1970s show Free to Be… You and Me.

US Day of Rage also has a head start on answering the question that Adbusters posed in its initial call: “What is our one demand?” O’Brien launched her site back in March, while she was blogging about the Middle Eastern revolutions and the revelations coming out of WikiLeaks. On Twitter, she asked people what they thought was wrong with this country, and it all seemed to come down to one thing: the influence of big money in politics. This led naturally to the group’s slogan, a plan for radical campaign finance reform: “One citizen. One dollar. One vote.” Besides that, O’Brien refuses to label herself or the organization with any ideological stamp...

But September 17 isn’t just happening on Wall Street. For its part, US Day of Rage is organizing actions that day in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle as well. (Washington, DC will have to wait for the occupation of Freedom Plaza planned for October 6.) Meanwhile, Take the Square, a network that grew out of the Spanish May 15 movement, lists solidarity demonstrations across Spain, as well as in Italy, England, Canada, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Austria, the Netherlands, Israel, and France.
http://www.alternet.org/vision/152415/occupying_wall_street_on_september...

"Desired outcome achieved in Libya..."
Submitted by Nobody on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 4:09pm.

Libya: Cameron and Sarkozy mobbed in Benghazi

Kinda reminds of the liberation of Baghdad.
Actually, it reminds more of Sacagewea.
In any event, it reassuring to know that a coalition of the world's most powerful countries, after months of bombing, can still topple an obviously popular dictator of a third rate "nation."

Wikileaks: UN Declaration Raised US Fears Over Indigenous Land Rights, Sovereignty, Anti-Free Market Movements
By Gale Courey Toensing September 13, 2011

The U.S. feared that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) would help Indigenous Peoples assert their right of sovereignty over their lands and resources, according to cables released by the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks. The cables also reveal an almost obsessive preoccupation on the part of the federal government with Bolivia’s democratically elected President Evo Morales and the indigenous leaders who admire him and oppose laws opening Native territories to oil, mining and logging companies..........

...Another released cable, with the subject line “ ‘Evo Morales is Our President’: The Anti-System Project,” reveals the U.S. government’s deep-seated and almost obsessive fear of Bolivia’s popular indigenous leader. The cable was sent from the embassy in Lima, Peru, to the State Department on June 26, 2009. This cable also reveals the U.S. government’s fear and loathing of the growing trend toward socialism, which it characterized as “the anti-system movement,” in several South American countries including Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, and anxiety that it would undermine the U.S.-backed multinational corporate takeover of indigenous lands and resources, which the cable refers to as “the pro-growth model.”

Despite Peru’s recent “economic success,” the cable says, “anti-system radicals” could take “political advantage” of the “persistent endemic poverty and social inequality, the absence of state from large swaths of national territory, and clumsy, sometimes jarring public action when the state does intervene … to undermine Peru’s progress, weaken the government and lay the groundwork for a more systematic assault on the pro-growth model. Public and private statements by the diverse and not necessarily unified leaders of the anti-system movement paint a compelling portrait of their real aims, which can be summarized in the words of one Peruvian indigenous leader that ‘Evo Morales is our President.’ Foreign participation in this anti-system movement, including from Bolivia, is real but maybe not as central as some analysts maintain.”

The “jarring action” referred to a tragic encounter in early June, 2009, just weeks before the cable was written in which 23 police and at least 10 civilians in Bagua in the north of the Amazonas region died in clashes that had turned violent after months of protests by the indigenous Awajún people, also known as the Aguaruna, who had risen up against former President Alan Garcia’s policy of giving contracts to private companies for oil, mining and logging on their lands without prior consultation....
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/09/wikileaks-un-declarati...

"obviously popular dictator"

Go hit your head against something hard right now...You're obviously malfunctioning.

"phony R and D paradigm"

Actually, the same pattern exists in every culture...right vs left...because it's hardwired into our biology.

"Occupying Wall Street on September 17:"

While I agree on the tactic and target for the most part...It's kinda stupid to call it a day of rage when they've made damned sure that every law enforcement agency and their mothers knows when and where it's going to occur...

More of the same old shit and a distraction...but go...pretend to be doing something.

Groups must be able to disperse and reform at alternate locations on the fly...

Targeting Dissent

How little - yet how much - has changed in the last 40 years. The COINTELPRO papers sound distinctly 21st century as they detail the monitoring of perceived threats to "national security" by the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), Secret Service, and the military, as well as the intelligence bureaucracy's war on First Amendment protest activity.

The Church Committee investigation concluded in 1976 that the "unexpressed major premise of the programs was that a law enforcement agency has the duty to do whatever is necessary to combat perceived threats to the existing social and political order."

In addition to massive surveillance, assassinations and dirty tricks "by any means necessary" included the creation of NSA "watch lists" of Americans ranging "from members of radical political groups, to celebrities, to ordinary citizens involved in protests against their government," with names submitted by the FBI, Secret Service, military, CIA, and Defense Intelligence Agency. The secret lists, which included people whose activities "may result in civil disturbances or otherwise subvert the national security of the US," were used by the NSA to extract information of "intelligence value" from its stream of intercepted communications.

...strong storms in Williamsburg and along the Virginian shores.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/nws-reports-of-tornado-wind-damage-i...

Supporting The 'Scrap The Cap' Bill Helps Save Social Security

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., today introduced a bill that, if passed by Congress and signed by the president, would insure Social Security's solvency for the next 75 years—without having to cut a single person's benefit.

Sanders' solution is simple: gradually eliminate the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax, starting with people earning more than a quarter-million a year.

His "Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act" has the endorsement of some key senators, including Democratic Sens. Daniel Akaka, Patrick Leahy, Barbara Boxer, Claire McCaskill, Sheldon Whitehouse, Al Franken and Richard Blumenthal. In the House, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., introduced a companion bill.

"The most effective way to strengthen Social Security for the next 75 years is to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on income above $250,000," Sanders said in a prepared statement. "Right now, someone who earns $106,800 pays the same amount of money into Social Security as a billionaire. That makes no sense. The Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act will ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security without cutting benefits or raising taxes on the middle class."

Rich Cheats Handed Over $2.7 Billion in Taxes on Offshore Accounts

The rich pay taxes differently, apparently, than you and me. Today the IRS said that a total of 30,000 individuals have come forward in a voluntary disclosure program for tax cheats that already has yielded the IRS $2.7 billion from offshore bank accounts in places like Switzerland and Bermuda, according to reports from the AP and Bloomberg. And yet, as one tax attorney told Bloomberg, it's "still only a fraction of the people who have these accounts." The word "voluntarily" in the paragraph above maybe deserved some quotation marks, because the alternative to coming clean for a lot of these tax evaders is prosecution. The IRS has been cracking down on the wealthy who funnel money to offshore accounts as of late. "The results we’re seeing today were unthinkable just a few short years ago," IRS head honcho Douglas Shulman told the press today. "The world has clearly changed." But this may be it for the well-to-do willing to disclose. There had been two rounds of the program so far, and another tax attorney interviewed by Bloomberg doubts there will be a third one, given the moral hazard further rounds create. "It would be like catching a bus. You miss one and you wait for the next one," he said. Time to draw up the indictments.

Submitted by Nobody on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 1:24pm.

"Consider this single conspiracy fact: energy-rich Libya is being overthrown and conquered by NATO"

Except for the fact that the NATO countries already had contracts for the oil BEFORE the revolution.

How can someone claim a profit motive when they were already getting those profits?...

The author says something this ignorant and stupid, then expects anyone to read further?

...

Al Qaeda has been "shattered"...

==========================================

Shattered?

Did you check with Gen. Patraeus on that, Nobody? Because he and Senator Feinstein concur that they are still strong in Yemen! And Patraeus wants up to 2 years to continue to pursue them....

http://www.wavy.com/dpps/military/petraeus-clapper-al-qaida-still-there-...

=============================

I'll restate the theory I'm subscribing to on this: Al Qaeda is a covert creation of the British/USA/Mossad spooks, used for false flag operations (as in Kosovo, as in Libya). Seems likely then that the folks that are being killed by our government aren't Al Qaeda terrorists but rather insurgents or resisters to imperialism/occupation.

providence?...

Submitted by Nobody on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 9:59am.

Dianne Feinstein says campaign funds 'wiped out' in fraud case

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Monday that her campaign fund was "wiped out," making her campaign another alleged victim of a campaign treasurer accused of fraud.

Feinstein, a California Democrat, told Politico that the losses from her fund are likely to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not more than $1 million. “I was wiped out too, we don’t know how much,” she told the news site.

Kinde Durkee was arrested on a federal fraud charge this month. She is accused of taking thousands of dollars from the campaigns of various elected officials.

....

===================================================

Feinstein won't do without. (Surely steering military appropriations contract info her husband's way hardly hurt, too.) Here she is on two different "wealthiest" in Congress lists--

http://insidertrading.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=001580
http://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2010/guide/-49892-1.h...

[excerpt from second link]

10. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
$46.07 million

As always, the vast majority of Feinstein’s assets are wrapped up in her husband’s myriad investment accounts, though she shares in several large assets, including an investment in Carlton Hotel Properties worth $5 million to $25 million.

Her husband’s portfolio added one major asset in 2009, a November purchase of more than $1 million worth of stock in Amyris Biotechnologies. In addition, several of his accounts showed increased value in holdings of the property management and brokerage firm CB Richard Ellis Group. The family also has two condominiums worth more than $1 million, one in Hawaii and one near Lake Tahoe.

[end excerpt]

Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?
The country's achievements in education have other nations doing their homework
By LynNell Hancock

...Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. “We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”

It’s almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless. Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing. In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17. Ninety-seven percent of 6-year-olds attend public preschool, where children begin some academics. Schools provide food, medical care, counseling and taxi service if needed. Stu­dent health care is free...

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Suc...

That is so beautiful, brings tears to the eyes.

An amazing clip of David de Rothschild advocating GLOBAL GOVERNANCE (which, I take it, is Power Elite classspeak for Incremental New World Order) in the area of Climate Control--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtudNpL30BU&feature=related

---------------------------------------

Bridge, I've been busy lately, so haven't heard alot of the radio shows, and don't know how mild or wild they are as of late on that topic or any other....(Malloy, of course, has usually criticized the official 9/11 explanation by the Bush Crime Family.)

Bob Alexander piece...

http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/editorial/guest-commentary/20758-wh...

*

Banksters were speculating at our expense--

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/09/15/317330/leaked-cftc-oil-specula...

[excerpt]

...

Professor Michael Greenberger, a former CFTC official, told ThinkProgress that the “short” positions outlined by the document might cause confusion because in many cases banks act simply as intermediaries for their clients. Critics will note the net short positions and assume incorrectly that many of these players were simply betting on prices to go down, not up. Greenberger explained that if you look closer at the data, the trading shows banks and other speculators were actually pushing the price up:

GREENBERGER: When you look at it carefully, the speculative money has all been heavily weighted in the favor of buying in the direction of the price going up. […] They go in and buy long in the regular futures market, which sends a long signal to the market, that there’s a supply problem that really doesn’t exist. To keep their long bets in place, they have to do something called the “Goldman Roll,” which is these contracts don’t go on forever. They expire. So what they have to do is sell short to get out of the contract when the expiration takes place, then roll around and buy long again to keep the long bet on the books. So the long bets are predicated on intermediate short bets, that are canceled out within three or four days of each other.

Regardless of the actual trading strategies, the volume makes clear that not only were Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as pension and sovereign wealth funds, among the top participants in the oil speculation bubble, but so were politically connected hedge funds. Elliott Management, one of the top hedge funds revealed by the documents, is led by Paul Singer, a billionaire investor and a major donor to Karl Rove’s network of attack groups and to Republicans on the Financial Services Committee.

As we have discussed on this blog, “all the major oil companies (Shell, BP, Occidental, etc) operate like Wall Street investment banks and use their privileged position in the oil market to make speculative bets on the price of oil.”...

[end excerpt]

Ralph Nader: U.S. is a two party dictatorship

Ralph Nader appeared Thursday on Fox News to discuss a democratic primary he was organizing against President Barack Obama to “hold his feet to the fire.”

“The important thing here is if he’s not challenged from the progressive-liberal wing of his party, that elected him, it’ll be a very dull campaign, people will not be very enthusiastic, more and more people will stay home, it’s not good for him,” Nader said. “If he’s a good debater, if he knows his facts, he’ll want to be challenged because he’ll come out much sharper.”

When asked about the possibility of a third party candidate succeeding in the 2012 presidential election, Nader said it would be a hurdle for anyone who wasn’t a billionaire.

“It’s a two party dictatorship unless you’re worth billions of dollars.”

Watch video, via MoxNews.com, below:
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/09/ralph-nader-u-s-is-a-two-party...

("obviously popular dictator"
Gaddafi outlasted Saddam by months when faced with the onslaught of western Axis of Evil. Somebody liked him.)

Israel hails UK change over war crime arrests
Israel praises legislation limiting ability of citizens to detain visiting foreign politicians wanted for war crimes.

A UK law curtailing citizens' rights to seek the arrest of foreign politicians for alleged war crimes has taken effect, removing a thorn in British-Israeli relations.

Passed on Thursday, the law amends legislation which Israel had protested about, saying it exposed high-profile officials to the threat of arrest while visiting Britain.

Under the old law, private individuals could start criminal prosecutions, including for international war crimes, by applying to a magistrate for an arrest warrant.

Israel demanded changes to the law in late 2009 after reports that former foreign minister Tzipi Livni would have risked arrest on war crimes charges over Israel's 2008/09 war on Gaza, had she not cancelled a visit to London.

Livni's Kadima party said Britain's ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, had informed her of the change to the law.

A Kadima statement said Livni welcomed the decision, telling Gould: "I am happy that the arrest warrant against me opened the eyes of the British and will bring an end to the cynical use of the British legislation against commanders and soldiers in the IDF"......
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/09/2011915183629195237.htm...

U.S. tax-evasion probe leads to Israeli banks

he U.S. pursuit of offshore tax evaders is widening to include Israel, where U.S. authorities are scrutinizing three of Israel's largest banks over suspicions their Swiss outposts helped American clients evade taxes, people briefed on the matter said.

The banks under scrutiny by the U.S. Justice Department's criminal tax division are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi le-Israel BM and Mizrahi-Tefahot, the sources said.

The shift to Israel from Switzerland, for years the main focus of the Justice Department's campaign against offshore private banking secrecy, signals the broadening of a landmark probe by the agency that began in 2007 with UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank.

The shift also opens up a potential sore spot in the historically close relationship between the United States and Israel, a key diplomatic and military ally in the Middle East that is the biggest recipient of U.S. aid -- $3.1 billion last year.........
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/16/u-s-tax-evasion-probe-leads-to-isr...

How the world is haunted by the aftermath of 9/11
George Galloway

...From the other war-criminals, Tony Blair, Iain Duncan Smith, George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the Washington gang - regrets, or indictments, there are none.

Cold comfort for the nameless, faceless uncountable victims of the aftermath.

Interpol are looking for Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, a two-bit playboy in a desert backwater responsible, if he is, for the deaths of hundreds. But they continue to honour and protect those like Blair who swan around the world brazen and making millions.

Blair, the Middle-East "Peace Envoy", last week called for two new "Western" wars in the Middle East, in Syria and Iran....

...With his Goebbels, Alastair Campbell, trying to pull him away from me, thinking, as well he might, that I was going to tear his cheating heart right out of his body, Blair said that if he could he would invade "Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Syria..."

He waved the shrouds of the innocents from the twin towers in aid of his crusading zeal but, of course, he and his praying partner Bush (the two got down on their knees at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, on the day they secretly committed their countries to the forthcoming war - I know this from someone who was there) went on to kill hundreds of times more innocents than bin Laden ever dreamt of....
http://www.votegeorgegalloway.com/2011/09/how-world-is-haunted-by-afterm...

Former Senator Bob Graham Urges Obama to Reopen Investigation into Saudi Role in 9/11 Attacks
New information has emerged about the possible role of prominent Saudis in the 9/11 plot, and former Florida Senator Graham says it's big.

Former Florida governor and senator Bob Graham is calling on President Obama to reopen the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks after new information has emerged about the possible role of prominent Saudis in the 9/11 plot. According to recent news reports, a wealthy young Saudi couple fled their home in a gated community in Sarasota, Florida, just a week or so before Sept. 11, 2001, leaving behind three cars and nearly all of their possessions........
http://www.alternet.org/story/152436/former_senator_bob_graham_urges_oba...

"Nobody's greatest enemy refuses to shut up."

Drama much?

At this point in my life gravity is my biggest enemy, with time already done the dirty work.

Although it is true that the fat heads of self important drama queens are one of my favorite things to deflate...I wouldn't classify either you or Nader as 'the greatest' of anything let alone 'enemy'.

Be a hero, don't worship one.

U.S. tax-evasion probe leads to Israeli banks

While I'm not surprised, I'm also not really unhappy that this put's more pressure on Israel right now as Palestine makes a bid for statehood.

'Conventional wisdom' has dragged this 'conflict' on for too long.

you're right but you're also wrong...

It would take weeks to explain the nitty gritty of it and I just don't have the want to do it.

I'll shorten it though...

In every intelligence agency there are two sides...supposedly working towards the same ends...but two sides none the less.

So if you were to say...The CIA are bad guys...I'd say yes...If you were to say that the CIA were good guys...I'd say yes

...

What's inherently wrong with your viewpoint is that it doesn't take this into consideration. Pretty much everyone, is always, the bad guys.

You've really got to get passed the reductionist, over simplified version of the world if you ever imagine yourself actually understanding any of it.

...

"Al Qaeda" is just a name and anyone can use it and because of this someone will always be able to claim to be Al Qaeda, however there comes a point where an organization is no longer capable of functioning. The Knights Templar is an example of a once powerful name that is pretty much meaningless now days.

...

George Bush used Al Qaeda as the excuse to start two wars and diminish our civil liberties..."fear,fear,fear,fear!" but now that this administration is saying..."pffft...Al Qaeda is no big deal any longer...you don't need to fear"...You want to argue against that statement?

Really?

That's the problem with automatically being against everything...it keeps you from thinking things through.

Eel removed from man's bladder after entering penis during beauty spa
An erratic eel wriggled its way up a man's penis and into his bladder following an accident during an unorthodox beauty spa treatment in China.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/875317-eel-removed-from-mans-bladder-after-...

NO NO NO STOP!

WHY?

YOU DIDN"T NEED TO POST THAT REALLY?

WHY?

[SHUDDER]

.

.

Submitted by nora on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 10:35am.
new
Submitted by Nobody on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 3:30pm.

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Your post said it was shattered. Almost simultaneously Patraeus is saying it will take more years to defeat al Qaeda. The point about their al Qaeda invention is that it can be anything they want or need it to be at any moment.

[Just to make it clear: I have never claimed a massive conspiracy that includes everybody in government or everybody in any single government agency, but have tried to clarify that I believe there are extremely corrupt entities who have gained control of key power centers. The creation of the national security state itself after WWII and the resulting workings of the top secret intelligence structure of the CIA that allows for programs which even parties within the agency do not have ability to understand or track just looks ripe for abuse, imo. An enclave of key players (including the JP Morgan clan, the Harrimans, the Bushes, the Dulles brothers and others and the Nazis they rescued and brought to the States after WWII) fashioned a structure that allowed cover for hoodwinking the people of the USA as well as conducting worldwide hijinks via programs and ability to influence government policy. Currently the Air Force also seems mighty strange with its added religious indoctrination and stuff like missing/unaccounted for warhead(s?), was it? Anyways, too much power and money concentrated in these shadowy areas where the public can barely catch a glimpse of what is going on if at all -- these are ripe for corruption, imo. If it is possible for whole institutions to follow the corrupt few, I would expect that would be a matter for System Analysis theory or some such pursuit, wherein bureaucrats follow the path of least resistence or something. I know such analysis exists, but really don't know how it would apply to this issue of deep corruption within an institution.]

Friday, September 16,2011
The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities
by Frances Moore Lappé

Editor's Note from The Nation: Frances Moore Lappé's essay below kicks off The Nation's forum on the food movement. Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Eric Schlosser, and Michael Pollan have contributed replies.
 
For years I’ve been asked, “Since you wrote Diet for a Small Planet in 1971, have things gotten better or worse?” Hoping I don’t sound glib, my response is always the same: “Both.”
 
As food growers, sellers and eaters, we’re moving in two directions at once.
 
The number of hungry people has soared to nearly 1 billion, despite strong global harvests. And for even more people, sustenance has become a health hazard—with the US diet implicated in four out of our top ten deadly diseases. Power over soil, seeds and food sales is ever more tightly held, and farmland in the global South is being snatched away from indigenous people by speculators set to profit on climbing food prices. Just four companies control at least three-quarters of international grain trade; and in the United States, by 2000, just ten corporations—with boards totaling only 138 people—had come to account for half of US food and beverage sales. Conditions for American farmworkers remain so horrific that seven Florida growers have been convicted of slavery involving more than 1,000 workers. Life expectancy of US farmworkers is forty-nine years.
Continue reading:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/16-0

September 16, 2011
Wash. Teachers Maintain Strike Despite Judge Order
by Donna Gordon Blankinship

Rebecca Jimenez, a senior at Foss High School, said she was hoping the teachers would continue their strike.

"I think it's a good example to show. If you're going to do something, stick with it. Don't give up," she said.

UN Report Urges Countries to Take Action to Protect Human Right to Water
Statement by Shayda Naficy, senior organizer of Corporate Accountability International's International Water Campaign

WASHINGTON - September 16 - We commend the independent expert for her thorough review of the challenges to ensuring the human right to water and sanitation in the United States, and support her call for a national water and sanitation policy and plan of action. To fully realize and sustain the human right to water and sanitation, it is essential that the U.S. engage in a process of policy reform and harmonization to put human rights and marginalized groups first, address gaps in regulation and implementation, minimize inequality and de facto discrimination, protect water resources, and bolster data collection and rural water quality oversight. We support communities that have been impacted by corporate usurpation of water resources, including water bottling, and look to the U.S. government to ensure that these unjust and unsustainable practices are stopped.

,b>The report recognizes the need for adequate investment in planning and implementation, which in the U.S. includes a serious need for federal funding increases for infrastructure. Lack of adequate financing is a major contributing factor to U.S. water and sewer system failures. Since 1978, the portion of municipal sewer infrastructure funded by the federal government has declined dramatically from 78 percent to 3 percent. States and localities have been unable to fill this shortfall, leading to extensive deterioration of essential infrastructure. This steady cutback in federal funding has also forced utilities to raise rates dramatically, endangering the human right to water and sanitation especially for low income communities. For example, Washington, D.C. needs a $3.8 billion investment over the next ten years, and without adequate federal support, the city raised rates 17 percent in 2010. With nearly 18 percent of D.C. residents living in poverty in 2009, these escalating water rates could restrict people’s access to safe drinking water.

We are concerned that instead of prioritizing the human right to water and sanitation and dedicating needed federal funding, parts of the U.S. government are increasingly promoting “market solutions” such as “full cost pricing” in ways that undermine these human rights for the most marginalized. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now advocating for full cost pricing, backed by private corporations that stand to gain from higher water rates and reliance on ratepayers for investments. In the past, these aggressive rate increases have resulted in residents being unable to pay, and having their water cut off. This is a troubling trend that threatens the human right to water in both urban and rural communities and will exacerbate the de facto discrimination highlighted in the Rapporteur’s report.

Water privatization in the U.S. has too often led to human rights violations, and has consistently undermined democratic water governance, accountability, and transparency. While privatization and the right to water may not be theoretically mutually exclusive the Rapporteur’s report shows some examples of how the myriad forms of privatization have violated the human right to water through cutoffs, price hikes, contamination, corporate withholding of information or misleading the public, and failing to fulfil obligations. Additionally, these practices disproportionately impact low income communities and those with fixed incomes.

For example, in 2004, Aqua America took over the water and wastewater system in Neuse River Village, N.C. Within a year, Aqua America had cut off water service to more than half of the 130 households. Dozens of families were forced to fill jugs of water at their neighbours’ faucets for daily cleaning and cooking, use the nearby woods as a bathroom, and some were evicted from their homes. Many families were paying more for water than for rent.

In another case in Toms River, N.J., a federal and state investigation linked drinking water served by United Water Toms River, an investor owned water utility, to childhood cancer. The state later determined that United Water was also manipulating drinking water tests to conceal potential quality violations. These cases exemplify the broader problems with water privatization in the U.S. and the need for better regulation and government oversight.
Continue reading at the link or at Open Mic.

...this explains one of the reasons why the Teabaggers are against the United Nations. What tools!

"Your post said it was shattered. Almost simultaneously Patraeus is saying it will take more years to defeat al Qaeda."

Those terms aren't mutually exclusive. Shatter a glass and it still takes time to clean it up.

"The point about their al Qaeda invention is that it can be anything they want or need it to be at any moment."

And your point is lost, even under your construct, when "they" want Al Qaeda to NOT exist.

"[Just to make it clear: I have never claimed a massive conspiracy that includes everybody in government or everybody in any single government agency, but have tried to clarify that I believe there are extremely corrupt entities who have gained control of key power centers."

You say this after using the all inclusive "they" in the previous sentence and then contradict yourself in the same paragraph?

"The creation of the national security state itself after WWII and the resulting workings of the top secret intelligence structure of the CIA that allows for programs which even parties within the agency do not have ability to understand or track just looks ripe for abuse, imo."

I would agree with this if you included the proviso that intrigue and abuse of power has existed throughout human history and in every society.

" An enclave of key players (including the JP Morgan clan, the Harrimans, the Bushes, the Dulles brothers and others and the Nazis they rescued and brought to the States after WWII) fashioned a structure that allowed cover for hoodwinking the people of the USA as well as conducting worldwide hijinks via programs and ability to influence government policy."

Every interest here has an oppositional equivalent that uses the same avenues of power, whatever that power structure consists of at any given time. Because it's not immediately clear as to which side is the good guys and which are not, the tendency is to consider them all bad guys. This hampers the good guys and gives the bad guys the advantage.

For every black hat there is a white hat and if you only see black hats then you can not accurately analyze any given state of affairs or the motivations behind any given action.

"Currently the Air Force also seems mighty strange with its added religious indoctrination and stuff like missing/unaccounted for warhead(s?), was it?"

It's not a joke or dramatic device when I say that there are people that wish to see armegeddon, even if they have to create it themselves.

"Anyways, too much power and money concentrated in these shadowy areas where the public can barely catch a glimpse of what is going on if at all -- these are ripe for corruption, imo."

Even when things are done completely transparently and out in the open, the public doesn't understand what's going on. Do I need to point out where even when direct evidence has been produced that it's been discarded in favor of wild speculation and/or spin?

"If it is possible for whole institutions to follow the corrupt few, I would expect that would be a matter for System Analysis theory or some such pursuit, wherein bureaucrats follow the path of least resistence or something."

The people in every organization, at every level, well, they're people, and I've posted multiple studies on this very blog that have show that most people are wired as to go along to get along with the herd, so to speak. This effect is so strong that people will disbelieve their own eyes and memories if their peers contradict them.

"I know such analysis exists, but really don't know how it would apply to this issue of deep corruption within an institution.]"

The answer is the same as it's always been, keep the bad guys from running the game.

Climate-denying candidates make more Americans believe in global warming

According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, 83 percent of people now believe that climate change is happening. That's up from 75 percent last year. What's behind the change? Partly heat, and partly hot air.

Folks historically have a hard time differentiating weather and climate, so it's not a surprise that after a very hot and drought-riddled summer, more people believe in global warming. They're right, of course, but they may be right for the wrong reasons -- i.e. because it's been unusually hot in their locale, not because the climate's getting weird all over. But whatever. If this is a war of public opinion, and sometimes it seems that way, we'll take it.

But there may be a more interesting factor than weather at work. At least one political scientist says that GOP candidates may have helped cause the increase with their increasingly over-the-top blowhard denialism.

As Americans watch Republicans debate the issue, they are forced to mull over what they think about global warming, said Jon Krosnick, a political science professor at Stanford University. ...

"That is exactly the kind of situation that will provoke the public to think about the issue in a way that they haven't before," Krosnick said about news reports on the Republicans denying climate change science.

I love it. The irony is thicker than the sludge running through what used to be Texas' rivers

mean that they have to ruin it for everyone else...does it?

The Republican Weapon of Mass Cynicism

According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 77 percent of Americans say they “feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track” in this country. That’s the highest percentage since January, 2009.

No surprise. The economy is almost as rotten now as it was two years ago. And, yes, this poses a huge risk to President Obama’s reelection, as it does to congressional Democrats.

But the truly remarkable thing is how little faith Americans have in government to set things right. This cynicism poses an even bigger challenge to Obama and the Democrats – and perhaps to all of us.

When I worked in Robert Kennedy’s senate office in the summer of 1967, America also seemed off track. Our inner cities were burning. The Vietnam War was escalating.

Yet most Americans still held government in high regard. A whopping 66 percent of the public told pollsters that year that they trusted government to do the right thing all or most of the time.

Now 30 percent of Americans say they trust government to do the right thing.

http://blog.timesunion.com/rollerderby/apex-jump/4599/

by Flexi Wheeler

When we attended the Empire Skate Showdown tournament the other weekend we had an opportunity to watch a lot of bouts between other teams during the times we weren’t playing. On several occasions we witnessed players executing some pretty nifty maneuvers. I made a point of talking with one of our coaches, Roarshock (himself a fellow derby player and fellow engineered who will probably appreciate the physics reference), about what I saw and what I was hoping we could work on during practice and he was like “oh yeah, I am all over that!” Probably the coolest thing I observed, and something I’ve never really tried, is apex jumping. What’s that you ask??? Simply put, jumping the apex is getting around opposing blockers by jumping with both feet off the ground from point A to point B. Our derby track is oval and so there are several turns around which players can “cut across the track” without incurring any penalties. Well, as long as this maneuver is executed properly.
...

http://www.tvkim.com/watch/1332/kim-on-komand-netflix-tips-and-tricks

)

Weird, I just saw your post from yesterday and was thinking "hello" to you... Hellooooo..What's new? How are you and the Mrs and the doggers?

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/democracy-action-13-hollywood-florida-v...

;):(

InjusticeFacts

In every industry, except the pornography industry, women are paid less than men

What ho! Watch this trailer!

LIFE, INC.

For more information about Douglas Rushkoff's book, "LIFE INC. How The World Became A Corporation And How To Take It Back" check out
rushkoff.com and the LIFE INC. 9 min movie

In Life Inc., award-winning writer, documentary filmmaker, and scholar Douglas Rushkoff traces how corporations went from a convenient legal fiction to the dominant fact of contemporary life. Indeed as Rushkoff shows, most Americans have so willingly adopted the values of corporations that theyre no longer even aware of it.

Douglas Rushkoff is the author of ten books on media, technology, and society, including Cyberia, Media Virus, Coercion, Nothing Sacred, Get Back in the Box, and the novel Ecstasy Club. He made the PBS Frontline documentaries Merchants of Cool, The Persuaders, and the upcoming Digital Nation. He is the host of the WFMU radio show The MediaSquat, and he will be teaching the New School University this Fall.

NOW YER SUNDAY FUNNIES!!

Brick TeeVee's Tea Bagger Canard Special!
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/6242

Also at Blogger
http://filthy-rich.blogspot.com/2011/09/brick-teevees-tea-bagger-canard-...

We're up to 17 "followers" now! Tell yer Blogger friends!
Thanks for all the love from Sederville residents ellwort, gloryoski, alice and others for gettin' da word out!
Have a brick!

I found this cut of PG doing "Growing up". Enjoy!

>

Yeh N, makes me smile 2 ;)

How Come It Took This Country So Goddamn Long to Get One?

http://coreyrobin.com/2011/09/18/if-everybodys-working-for-the-weekend-h...

...
Remember the Federalist Papers you read in college? It wasn’t the presidency that Madison and Hamilton wanted to constrain (quite the opposite, in fact.) It was the Congress, especially the House, and behind the Congress the people acting in their collective capacity. That’s what the American system was set up primarily to check. As Madison put in Federalist 10, a large republic is better than a small one because

you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other….communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary.

So that’s the basic institutional design. And again, it affects ordinary citizens far more than it does presidents.
...

September 16, 2011
Ex-Publisher Sues L.A. Times for $13 Million
By Robert Kahn

(CN) - The former publisher of the Los Angeles Times Magazine claims The Tribune Co. fired and defamed him for objecting to the newspaper's decision to save money by stopping distribution of its Sunday magazine to low-income and minority neighborhoods, while charging them the same price as "the white affluent subscribers."
Continue Reading:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/09/16/39833.htm

http://www.youtube.com/education

...but can you get the President to read and act upon it? Or, is this a new form of a "Free Speech Zone?"

From The White House Blog
What the People Want to Know About We the People
Posted by Macon Phillips on September 15, 2011 at 03:16 PM EDT

Since the White House announced We the People, a new way for the public to petition the Obama Administration on a range of issues, we've been putting the final pieces in place, kicking the tires and getting ready for launch. We're excited, but it’s a little nerve-wracking, nonetheless. Why?

We're not quite sure what to expect.

We hope to see petitions with a broad range of viewpoints that challenge the Administration – on issues core to President Obama’s priority of creating jobs and restoring the American economy, as well as other topics we haven't publicly addressed in a while (and, yes, some that already have been).

Even with all the preparation and thought that's been put into it, we're going to learn a lot more from how the public uses We the People in the first few weeks. What we learn will almost certainly help us improve the platform’s content and functionality, and we may also find that we will need to raise the threshold for responses.

Even though we haven’t launched yet, we’re already seeing a number of questions and comments that are worth addressing (thanks in particular to Tim Bonnemann for gathering some). And as a reminder, we’re always keeping an eye on #WHWeb for feedback about the White House’s online program. Here are some of those questions and our responses:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/15/what-people-want-know-about-we...

"Never mistake activity for achievement."

http://derbyaccess.com/free-stream

London vs Montreal

6 point difference and just seconds left..in a time out now...FUN!

Montreal 135 and London 137

That was amazing!

At 2pm PST is the Eastern Final...Live at that link.

home that I called how often they have openings...

if your goal is to remove the "fear of the other" and get a bunch of dumbshits to realize that they're family. Israel and Palestine could shock the world and do the impossible, what no one ever believed could happen, they could unite.

Imagine how the world would be shamed by such courage. It would be an act that would ripple through the psyche of every man woman and child on this planet. It would change the world forever.

The end of Israel as we know it?

Israel now finds itself isolated like no other time in the past 35 years.

JERUSALEM — As summer ends, Israel has become regionally isolated like at no other time in the past 35 years.

Anxiety and alarm seem to define reactions in Jerusalem as Israel momentarily found itself abruptly without an ambassador stationed in the capital of any of its three regional allies: Jordan, Egypt and Turkey, the latter of which expelled the ambassador following Israel’s refusal to apologize for the flotilla raid in which Turkish citizens lost their lives.

Some observers view this moment as a Rubicon from which Israel will not be able to turn back.

ISRAEL: In Israel, even good news is bad news

Danny Rubinstein, former Arab affairs analyst for Ha’aretz and now a lecturer at Hebrew University, said Israel is paying the price for not having already reached an agreement with the Palestinians.

“If we continue on this path, Israel will turn into either a permanent occupying force or we’ll be a bi-national state,” he said. “Today I no longer see the possibility of dividing Israel into Palestine and Israel. Just look at the geographic and demographic reality.”

100 Things You Can Say To Irritate A Republican

Conservatives are so easy to anger these days. Even the most insignificant statement can set off their tempers. If you want to enrage a conservative, I suggest saying the following:

1. A Socialist wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
2. Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor, for free.
3. Joseph McCarthy was an un-American, witch hunting sissy.
4. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were traitors.
5. The South lost the Civil War, get over it.
6. The Founding Fathers were liberals.
7. Fascism is a right-wing trait.
8. Sarah Palinz is an ugly cow (said to conservative males).
9. The Earth is round.
10. Reagan raised taxes eleven times as President.
11. Reagan legalized abortion as Governor of California.
12. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.
13. Ronald Reagan supported gun control.
14. Global warming is real.
15. Republicans hate illegal immigrants, unless they need their lawns mowed or their houses cleaned.
16. The military is a government-run institution, so why do Republicans approve the defense budget?
17. The Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists.
18. Paying taxes is patriotic.
19. Republicans: Peddling the same failed economic policies since 1880.
20. The Republican Party began as a liberal party.
21. The Presidents’ full name is Barack Hussein Obama and he was born in the United States of America.
22. George W. Bushz held hands with the King of Saudi Arabia.
23. President Obamaz saved the American auto industry, while Republicans wanted to destroy it.
24. Hate is not a Christian virtue.
25. Jesus was a liberal.
26. Republicans spend MORE money than Democrats.
27. Tea parties are for little girls.
28. Public schools educate all children; private schools are for indoctrinating children.
29. The Constitution is the law, NOT the Bible.
30. Sharia law doesn’t exist in America.
31. The President is NOT a Muslim.
32. Corporations are NOT people. People are people.
33. Fox News isn’t real news, it’s just a racist, sexist, hateful, right-wing propaganda machine.
34. The Federal Reserve was a Republican idea.
35. Women are equal citizens who deserve equal rights.
36. Women control their own bodies.
37. Abortion is a relevant medical procedure, just ask Rick Santorumz.
38. Please use spell check.
39. It’s “pundit”, not “pundint”.
40. Social Security is solvent through 2038.
41. Health care is a right, not a product.
42. Roe v. Wade was a bipartisan ruling made by a conservative leaning Supreme Court.
43. G.O.P also stands for Gross Old Perverts.
44. The donkey shouldn’t be the Democratic mascot because Republicans are the real jackasses.
45. Barack Obamaz ordered the killing of Osama Bin Ladenz. It took him two and half years to do what Bush couldn’t do in eight.
46. Waterboarding IS torture.
47. 9/11 happened on George W. Bush’s watch, therefore he did NOT keep America safe.
48. Republicans invaded Iraq for oil, so Iraq should be allowed to invade Texas to get it back.
49. Separation of church and state is in the Constitution, it’s called the First Amendment.
50. Muslims are protected by the Constitution, just as much as Christians.

51. Barack Obama is the first African-American President, get over it.
52. The Oval Office is NOT a “whites only” office.
53. America is a nation of immigrants, therefore we are all anchor babies.
54. The white race isn’t disappearing, it’s evolving.
55. God is a particle.
56. Evolution is real.
57. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, not 6,000.
58. The Founding Fathers did not free the slaves.
59. The Revolution was NOT fought over slavery.
60. Paul Revere warned the Americans, NOT the British.
61. Federal law trumps state law.
62. The Civil War was about slavery, NOT state’s rights.
63. Corporations care more about profits than they do about people.
64. Getting out of a recession requires government spending.
65. Glenn Beckz is a nut-job.
66. Republicans: Paranoid since 1932.
67. Republicans don’t want to pay for your birth control, but they want you to pay for their Viagra.
68. Republicans actually NEED Viagra.
69. Fox News is owned by an Australian and has a Saudi prince as an investor.
70. Republicans complain about immigrants taking American jobs, then freely give American jobs to foreigners overseas.
71. Republicans hate communism, so why do they refer to themselves as red states?
72. Labor unions built this country.
73. Republicans hold America hostage as a political strategy; the temper tantrum throwing kind of political strategy.
74. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian.
75. When Republicans see black, they attack.
76. Inside every Republican is a Klansman or a Nazi waiting to bloom.
77. Republicans only care about children BEFORE they are born.
78. Republicans are hypocrites, they’re just too stupid to know it.
79. The Christian-Right boycotts movies that have violence, and then promotes guns and insurrection.
80. I think therefore I am NOT a Republican.
81. Republicans that oppose gay marriage are most likely in the closet themselves.
82. Churches should stay out of politics, or be taxed.
83. People are too poor to vote Republican.
84. Democrats think for themselves, Republicans form think tanks to do it for them.
85. Republicans hate education because they couldn’t hack it in school.
86. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and Republicans wallow in it.
87. A little socialism on the Left is better than a little fascism on the Right.
88. The current corporate tax rate is the lowest in 60 years, so stop whining about it being too high.
89. Republicans: Anti-Gay Marriage, Pro-Lesbian sex.
90. Republicans: Terrorizing the American people since 1981.
91. Republicans have their own terrorists, just look up Timothy McVeighz.
92. Republicans love outsourcing, just ask the Chinese Communists.
93. The Republican answer to the oil spill was to apologize to BP, a foreign oil company.
94. Democrats will be working hard to bring jobs to Americans, while the Republicans tea bag each other in the middle of the aisles.
95. Voter disenfranchisement is immoral and un-American, that’s why Republicans do it.
96. Republicans would let your house burn down unless you pay them to put it out.
97. Democrats want to take care of the sick. Republicans take their credit cards and then deny them medical attention.
98. Republicans say teachers are union thugs, then proceed to rape and mug the entire middle class on behalf of corporations.
99. Republicans think rape isn’t a crime, but miscarriages are.
100. Republicans are idiots and arguing with them is a waste of time!

Bottom line? If you want to anger a conservative, tell them the truth.

Rex C.
Is at the DMV. Two things come to mind. Do we really want our healthcare run by the government, and if you are thinking of seeing the movie Contagion see it before you go to the DMV.

7 people like this.

Erin James Oh that made me laugh out loud.
Friday at 9:17am • Like

Adrienne Louie why would anyone go to the dmv? hey rex
Friday at 9:59am • Like

Alice Van de Planeet Free to Die By PAUL KRUGMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/krugman-free-to-die.html?_r=2&...
Friday at 11:18am • Like

Alice Van de Planeet I don't know what the answer is...I just feel like this way is not it...
Friday at 11:44am • Like

Alice Van de Planeet My husband would be in a wheelchair right now if not for insurance...The government says "access to insurance"..that's not insurance...imo.
Friday at 11:45am • Like

Rex C. Alice there is a place for everything but total control by the government is NOT the answer..imho. We all need insurance but should be allowed to get it ourselves if we can. I don't put any weight in anything Krugman says, or any op-ed in the NYT for that matter.
Friday at 12:44pm • Like • 1 person

Rex C. Adrienne, someone stole the year sticker from my license plate.
Friday at 12:53pm • Like

Alice Van de Planeet Hi Rex! :) Yes. As I said, I don't know what the answer is, I just know that I could never have afforded two hip replacements for him without health insurance. And now that I do not have health insurance...well...I'm free to die...Insurance is kind of b.s. as it is...paying for things that might happen..it's just weird...
Friday at 1:13pm • Like

Rex C. I'm glad you had it when you needed it. :-)
That's why it's called "insurance" and personal responsibility.
Friday at 1:27pm • Like

Alice Van de Planeet Jesus always asked for insurance first...look it up, it's in the bible.
Friday at 1:35pm • Like

Rex C. Shelly I think you mean assurance. And we should always look to Jesus in all that we do.
Friday at 1:45pm • Like

Alice Van de Planeet Ok. We've heard each other. I appreciate the discussion...and when I think of you I think of us at my 11th birthday at Farrells...(you know they have a fb group now?)... Have a good one, Rex... xox
Friday at 1:52pm • Like

Rex C. I do remember and I am a fan of their page. They need to come back to the bay area. Oh the simpler times of our youth. Thanks Shelly. :-)
Friday at 1:53pm • Like

Adrienne Louie O man she had to add farrell's to the mix. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Friday at 3:06pm • Like

Chris P Heidenreich The DMV is real life for sure! Ridden the bus recently, the other best place to see real life
Friday at 3:47pm • Like

are conservative reps

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/4c9bf793-c75f-47b1-943e-f7550e30cea8.aspx

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez headed back to Cuba on Saturday night for a fourth phase of chemotherapy that he expects to be his last round of treatment for cancer.

Supporters saw off Chavez with songs and a prayer outside the presidential palace before he left for the airport along with Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was accompanying him to the island.

Chavez told the crowd that he is confident he is overcoming the illness.

“I’m sure that this week we will close the cycle of chemotherapy and we will be turning the page,” he told supporters, standing at the doors of the presidential palace.

“Chavez’s cancer is now part of this history,” he added, likening it to the short-lived coup he survived in 2002.

Chavez waved to the crowd wearing the red beret and fatigues from his years as an army paratroop commander.

He said he expected to undergo medical tests in Havana on Saturday night and then resume chemotherapy on Sunday.

Chavez said he and Morales both planned to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro.
...

http://vimeo.com/29217806

You can petition the President...

Submitted by CeeCee on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 12:28pm.

...but can you get the President to read and act upon it? Or, is this a new form of a "Free Speech Zone?"

From The White House Blog

...

==================================

My question would be -- If the White House does'nt like the petition I submit, will the names of the petioners be sent to the FBI, DHS, and CIA? Just wondering....

The number of night raids on civilian homes by international forces in Afghanistan has increased substantially, according to a study.

The Open Society Foundation found that although US forces had improved their practices, the five-fold increase in raids had caused a storm of protest.

The biggest grievance of the Afghan government against foreign forces is the civilian casualties they cause.

The foreign forces say the raids are a valuable weapon against the insurgents.

Despite the political pressure from Kabul, the number of people questioned in their homes in night raids has risen rapidly in the last two years, up five-fold between 2009 and 10 and increasing still further this year.
'Creates violence'

Researchers for the report from the Open Society Foundation assessed that in recent months there may have been 40 raids a night happening across Afghanistan.

They quote one Afghan as saying: "They claim to be against terrorists, but what they are doing is terrorism. It creates violence."

The raids are justified by international forces as a valuable tool in their fight against the Afghan insurgency, in gathering intelligence and arresting suspects.

The report found that international forces have improved their practices so that the Afghan government has more control and women are respected more.

But public recognition of these improvements has been overshadowed by mounting anger over the higher number of raids.

The report says that the increase in raids has provoked a backlash, marring Afghan relations with international partners and complicating long-term strategic discussions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14967254

What miracle would it take to get Israel to change its POLICY of breaking treaties, grabbing Palenstinian lands, and forcing apartheid on the nation -- especially now that 500,000 Israeli "settlers" occupy Palestinian land under that euphemism "settlements"?

Will this play out diplomaticly? I wonder. If this is seen by the Israeli Power Elite as a situation that corners them, then perhaps they'll also see it as a situation that is in need of a false flag operation to redirect attention. When cornered, the type of thuggish colonialist policymakers running the show in Israel could fashion some sort of 'event' that could provide the ILLUSION that Israel is the 'victim'. Israel is just as wrong in its policies now as it was when it first broke agreements with Palestine decades ago. Israel has already consistently ignored diplomatic attempts and instead called in more settlers.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/09/california-legislature-passes-bill-to-...

by Ellen Hodgson Brown / September 16th, 2011

AB 750, California’s bill to study the feasibility of establishing a state-owned bank that would receive deposits of state funds, has passed both houses of the legislature and is now on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown awaiting his signature.

It could be the governor’s chance to restore the state to its former glory. As noted in Time Magazine:

[I]n the 1950s and ‘60s, California was a liberal showcase. Governors Earl Warren and Pat Brown responded to the population growth of the postwar boom with a massive program of public infrastructure—the nation’s finest public college system, the freeway system and the state aqueduct that carries water from the well-watered north to the parched south.
...

Andrew Breitbart Incites Violence Against Liberals, Says Military Will Back The Tea Party Up

Tea Party favorite Andrew Breitbartz told a conservative audience in Massachusetts that conservatives outnumber liberals and have most of the guns. He also claimed that the military is ready to take action against liberals if violence ever erupted between liberals and conservatives.

“I’m under attack all the time. They call me gay, there are death threats… There are times where I’m not thinking as clearly as I should, and in those unclear moments, I always think to myself, ‘Fire the first shot.’ Bring it on. Because I know who’s on our side. They can only win a rhetorical and propaganda war. They cannot win. We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns… I’m not kidding. They talk a mean game, but they will not cross that line because they know what they’re dealing with.

Then he claimed that some senior military officials have personally assured him that they’ll join the right wing in a civil war.

The report:
http://gao.gov/products/GAO-11-920

With analysis--
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/09/vigilance-required-as-more-nuke.html

[excerpt]

a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on September 8, the US government claims that it cannot account for or track thousands of pounds of “highly-enriched uranium and separated plutonium.” While the initial report received little attention in the mainstream or even the independent media, this is a serious issue because this radioactive nuclear material is “weapons usable.” That is, it could be used to make a nuclear or, in the parlance of our times, a “dirty” bomb.

The history of this material can be traced all the way back to the Eisenhower administration when the US government sold 38,500 pounds of “fissile material” under the guise of assisting in the development of civilian nuclear energy programs. Of course, the conditions upon the sale of the material were that the purchasing nation had to keep it safe, could not use it for weapons, and the US had the option to take back the material.

Some of the material is reported to be held by our “allies” – France, Germany, and Japan....

[end excerpt]

appealing?

"Yesterday they called it coincidence;
today - it's synchronicity
but tomorrow they'll call it
- skill."

http://www.knowthelies.com/?q=node/5477

The TRUTH About Government Health Care... To be FORCED on EVERYONE!... WHAT YOU WERE NOT TOLD!

Obama's socialized health bill is another huge money grab! The language hidden inside this bill allows the GOVERNMENT to DECIDE WHEN THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO DIE. ~ MUST SEE Video

This is THEIR way to solve the SOCIAL SECURITY problem 'they' created... Social Security has been and will continue to be looted...

The government can save itself financially if people die rather than retire... Send this out far and wide! ~ SadInAmerica

The TRUTH About Government Health Care:

V I D E O

=====

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBaSP31Be8&feature=player_embedded

Know the TRUTH about the Government Health Care Bill H.R.3200 - Key Points

V I D E O

Update: Yes the healthcare bill HR3962 passed. Now it's up to us to do all we can to repeal it!! This video is based on HR3200 but it is very closely related to HR3962 with the exception that HR3962 is deemed to be worse yet. If we don't get this bill thrown in the trash where it belongs we can expect to see much if not all of what this video shows us. THE PDF.OF THE BILL HR3200 NOTED AT THE END OF THE VIDEO IS NO LONGER VALID. HERE IS THE UPDATED LINK TO THE PDF. http://candicemiller.house.gov/pdf/hr3200.pdf
I am well aware of the typeo in this video, I apologize but It's too late to fix it now.

Healthcare is only a powerful stepping stone to their government takeover plan. Open your eyes America, they don't care what "we the people" want or need, they simply want control.
Aug. 2009
Original Bill (Video) :This is a point by point description (A guide not the actual reading of the bill!) of the Government Healthcare plan taken from the ACTUAL proposed bill H.R.3200http://candicemiller.house.gov/pdf/hr3200.pdf
Though not opposed to healthcare reform most Americans do not want this KIND of reform which is a dangerous UN-AMERICAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL We want reform that makes sense and that is helpful for all not a destructive death warrant for the unborn and the elderly. We want government to stay out of our personal life decisions period. This is America !!

=====

The healthcare bill is passed. The absolutely scariest healthcare reform!
REPEAL!

AFAIR the congress didn't even read the bill before voting. How else could they have voted for it. Yet the talking heads (e.g. Bill Maher) week after week told his audience that we are now better off and that the "death panels" is a teabagger lie. How much $$$ does this guy make these days? And Senator Franken was proud about this Obamacare bill. Did he even read it?

This is the worse healthcare bill I have read (I only read the point by point description, not the whole bill. But that is certainly enough.

Obamacare is not even close to healthcare in Germany, UK, France .... It is something completely different. But since US citizens never had healthcare like the Germans or French, it was so much easier to bamboozle them.
This bill alone is so terrifying (the language hidden in the bill allows the government to decide when it is time for citizens to die... and this is just one terror point).

If the US citizens actually find out about this bill, they also might plan to leave the country like Bob Alexander did ("Why We Left The United States: Bob Alexander, Superbeans.com)

Malloy read this on his show
Submitted by nora on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 12:16pm.

http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/editorial/guest-commentary/20758-wh...

---
Nora,
thanks for posting this very interesting letter.

I don't know Bob Alexander. Who is he? Is he a journalist? I did visit his website.

Malloy really read the whole letter? Did he mention the country where BA decided to make his new home?
btw. I used to listen to Malloy's show during the early Air America years when his show followed the Sam Seder program. AFAIR he just had a baby and his wife was on the show, too.

The TV NewsLies.org site is also very interesting. Is Jesse Richards the webmaster there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG_N7h2J6Lo

German documentary with English subtitles (Unter Falscher Flagge 1/7)Ca 1.13.00)

====

NORA,

you have to see this -
this docu is excellent. I found it a couple days ago and highly recommend it. A Must Watch. The vid is in German but the subtitles are very good, the translation is well done. As mentioned below, the docu has high production value. A couple mistakes are mentioned in the last paragraph.

The film focuses on the inconsistencies in the official version and is filled with interviews with German 9/11 skeptics : politicians, journalists, historians, authors: Andreas von Bülow, Mathias Bröckers, Manfred Petrisch, Andreas Hauss, and Jochen Scholz. They are all excellent and the explanations are v. interesting. E.g. The airforce officer explains in detail why it is so unbelievable that the Norad defense planes weren't up in the air within 15. minutes. Civilians may have bought the official Norad story, he said, but nobody in the airforce would ever accept it. Esp.since the US defense planes went up perfectly ca. 60 times in the year before and again after 9/11.

btw. The all did a great job discussing the "19 highjackers" adding plenty false flag info.

---
This is the text below this video:

The German documentary, "Unter Falscher Flagge" has now been subtitled in English.

"The world has changed after September 11th. It's changed because we're no longer safe."

These words were used by the George W. Bush, elected President of the United States in 2000, to dictate the political direction for the 21st Century.

Whereas Americans launch attacks relatively quickly, first on Afghanistan and later on Iraq, using falsified evidence, doubts about the official version of the events of September 11th grows. The speculations that surfaced on the internet directly after the attacks were considered to be just wild conspiracy theories until this now. Yet the circumstantial evidence and even the substantial evidence itself paints a clear picture. The responsibility for the terrible attacks seems to lie not with Islamic Terrorists but with several high-ranking members of the military and administration of the U.S. Government.

This documentary focuses on the inconsistencies in the official version of the events as well as on the evidence which has been suppressed regarding September 11th. In addition, it answers the questions of why we still know nothing about it to this day and why we are being deceived -- also in european countries.

The film is filled with new interviews with German 9/11 skeptics Andreas von Bülow, Mathias Bröckers, Manfred Petrisch, Andreas Hauss, and Jochen Scholz. The film also briefly examines London's 7/7 and several possible False Flag incidents in post-9/11 Germany, (look around the 55:00 minute mark), some interesting new information to consider.

Slick, with interesting animated graphics and high production value, this is a good documentary. Two things that weren't 100% accurate, the documentary claims that Stratasec (Securacom) "belonged" to Marvin Bush. Technically, he was only one of the Directors. Also, the film mistakenly attributes ABC to General Electric ownership, but GE owns NBC. Disney owns ABC. The point is still valid however, the same people making millions from war profiteering are selling you war propaganda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFuwRGK9ZY

Jim Fetzer, Phil Jayhan, Larry McWilliams

Hollow towers and the 'B' thing

The radio show "The real Deal" ( I have never listened to it) and found it just a few days ago. Jim Fetzer is the host and Phil Jayhan and Larry McWilliams are the guests.

The story these two men tell is so amazing, and sometimes complicated, so I watched it twice until it made sense to me. V. Very interesting.

911 - Hollow Towers part 1 /3 (the upper ten floors were empty - AFAIR at least since March 2010). The ceilings were removed. Floors as well.
There are enough drawings and photos to show what was going on there.

Acc. to Jayhan and McWilliams the "art students" were responsible for the fallen bodies. That was their project they say.
Check the drawings.

-----
btw. the show was not over after Part 3 but I couldn't find another vid.

Hi, Bridge. Ever see this one?
Submitted by nora on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 12:35pm.

An amazing clip of David de Rothschild advocating GLOBAL GOVERNANCE (which, I take it, is Power Elite classspeak for Incremental New World Order) in the area of Climate Control--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtudNpL30BU&feature=related

-------

Nora,
I thought green fascist D. de Rothchild was advocating lowhanging fruit?
But which ones? Al Qaeda? :-)))

LOL I think you are right, Nora. I was just having a bit fun.
I didn't see this one, but that is just as well. You hear one Rothchild classspeak, you heard them all. Power = Carnage.

-----btw. Nora,
in case you have a problem with the German docu, let me know the vid and minutes. I will be more than happy to let you know what was said.

nightnight :-))

;}

http://www.livestream.com/newchannel/popoutplayer?channel=globalrevoluti...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mhQyuyELQ&feature=player_embedded

or maybe no one will ever know...

"An amazing clip of David de Rothschild advocating GLOBAL GOVERNANCE"

Or you could read it as an attempt to unite the worlds people and end war...

but you won't...You need chaos because you know that when the world unifies...You will be the outsider...and you fear it.

"The TRUTH About Government Health Care... Must Watch Video"

There's a reason why I call you bridge troll...

Why exactly do the words "government takeover" not cause cognitive dissonance in you?

Let's try it this way...The US government has a plan for governing the US...and this is wrong why?

Providing additional health care and lowering costs is wrong why?

WTF is wrong with you?

Take your tea party bullshit and go the fuck away please.

Michele Bachmann Targeted By California Gay Rights Activists With Madonna Flash Mob Dance Routine

on. ;D Just a Rad Dem thrilled FINALLY with President Obama. He is as most the Presidents where ~ primarily just another Humanist ~ who just recently WAS GIVEN A SPECIAL DOG from Sen Ted Kennedy
... yet now as good as most 'good' presidents were. ;D

;)

Submitted by nora on Mon, 09/19/2011 - 12:50am.
RE: Submitted by CeeCee on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 12:28pm.

...but can you get the President to read and act upon it? Or, is this a new form of a "Free Speech Zone?"

My question would be -- If the White House does'nt like the petition I submit, will the names of the petioners be sent to the FBI, DHS, and CIA? Just wondering....

...your (coll.) name would already be on file. Just depends on how big the jacket is and what's in it.

This, IMHO, is working within the system:

STEP #1
Create or Sign a Petition
Anyone 13 or older can create or sign a petition on WhiteHouse.gov asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country. To get started you’ll need to create an account and verify your email address. Start thinking about the issues that matter to you, what you would like the Obama Administration to do to address the important challenges facing our country, and who you’ll ask to join you.

STEP #2
Build Support and Gather Signatures
Creating or signing a petition is just the first step. It’s up to you to build support for a petition and gather even more signatures. Use email, Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth to tell your friends, family and coworkers about the petitions you care about.

STEP #3
The White House Reviews and Responds
If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the Administration and an official response will be issued. And we’ll make sure that the petition is sent to the appropriate policy makers in the Administration.

The initial threshold to get a response from the Administration is 5,000 signatures.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/wethepeople
_______________________________________________

But as has been my experience, it can be a take it or leave it proposition and frustrating, requiring constructive and persuasive persistence.

Is it good 4 U? ;)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/wethepeople
We the People, a new way for the public to petition the Obama Administration

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/15/what-people-want-know-about-we...

{I was dealing with your same post ~ just my computer has tooooo many windows open & dealing with thus PC SLOW ;D ;}
HAHAHA Great Minds CeeCee LOL ;)

CeeCee on Tue, 09/20/2011 - 10:19am.

;D IMHO President Obama is responding since he has been 'deluged' with e-mail for MOONS now since elected. The numbers have been growing as the years pass with places with petitions as * Care2 *.
These numerous months as you (and others here) probably know, there has been 'a zillion' locations and petitions e-addressed to the President and Congress pertaining to certain major issues. ;D

Human-wise I {yes me} am content ATT & very happy!
;D {... doesn't take much TeaHee ... now off to brew & exercise too. ;} *poof*

from the Howard Stern Show

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...

Then there is Alice's previous post ;)
Alice on Mon, 09/19/2011 - 8:15am.

http://www.livestream.com/newchannel/popoutplayer?channel=globalrevoluti...
»

***

"... You blew up the building?! "...Yeh, because you made a phone call ..."
;)

September 20, 2011
Warren takes lead on Brown

Elizabeth Warren has had an incredibly successful launch to her Senate campaign and actually leads Scott Brown now by a 46-44 margin, erasing what was a 15 point deficit the last time we polled the state in early June.

Warren's gone from 38% name recognition to 62% over the last three months and she's made a good first impression on pretty much everyone who's developed an opinion about her during that period of time. What was a 21/17 favorability rating in June is now 40/22- in other words she's increased the voters with a positive opinion of her by 19% while her negatives have risen only 5%.
Continue reading:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/09/warren-takes-lead-on-bro...

Sheriff: Warnings helped workers reach safety before Okla. gas rig blast; homes evacuated

A drilling rig contracted by Enid’s Continental Resources burns southeast of Watonga, Okla., Tuesday Sept. 20, 2011. Authorities in Blaine County say an oil rig that exploded near Watonga and forced the evacuation of several homes caused no injuries.
Read Article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/sheriff-warnings-helped-workers-r...

6 Dumb Arguments Against Taxing the Rich, Explained
Debunking the conservative case against making the rich pay their fair share
By Josh Harkinson
Mon Sep. 19, 2011

On Saturday, the Obama administration unveiled the "Buffett Rule [1]," a proposed tax on millionaires and billionaires named after celebrity investor Warren Buffett, who has long argued that the federal government should demand more of the wealthy. The millionaires tax is certain to become a major point of contention in the 2012 presidential campaign, and Republicans have wasted no time in heaping it with calumnies. Here are the six most popular conservative arguments against a progressive tax code, and why they're wrong:

It's class warfare!
Yeah right. Three decades of laissez-faire economic polices have allowed the rich to double their share of the national income while paying tax rates a fifth lower than before. The result, notes Kevin Drum, was "wage stagnation for everyone else, a massive financial collapse that ravaged the middle class, an enormous deficits that they'll be asked to pay off eventually." If the millionaires tax is the only blowback, the wealthy should count their blessings.
Continue reading here:
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=138171

...Today, on the Ed Schulz Show, with Mike Papantonio filling in, there was a distinction made between the rich who actually earned their fortunes being willing to pay their fair share in taxes and those who inherited, weren't.

Perhaps because those who accomplished their wealth know it was the result of their own efforts complemented by the contributions of many others directly and indirectly involved.

As for those who acquired their fortune by "being born that way," suspect, if they're sociopathic, or know, if they're honest at the very least with themselves, that if they had to rely on their own laurels, they'd have nothing or next to it and why they must resort to lying, cheating and stealing, and even elimination by any means necessary to maintain it.

The Most Important Liberal in America?
By Ari Melber

Is Jon Stewart the most influential liberal in America media?

This has been a popular claim for a while, since Stewart clearly has more political influence than most politicos. In fact, many of his most famous moments turned on his ability to stop joking and get serious. Like when he destroyed CNN's "Crossfire," scolding Tucker Carlson for hurting America, or when he led that large, un-ironic campaign rally last year to answer Glenn Beck, and, by extension, the Tea Party. Reporter Tom Junod proposes, in a provocative new 7,500-word Esquire article, that these somber forays into reality-based discourse have established Stewart as "the one indispensable figure of the cultural and political Left." But with great power, comes great disappointment.
Continue reading:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Most-Important-Liberal-by-Ari-Melbe...

...Maybe he is what he is--an intelligent, quick-witted entertainer with the ability to deliver timely and poignant political comedy.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Recalls Obama's Fall From Grace
By Chris Hedges
September 19, 2011

Barack Obama's politically expedient decision to betray and abandon his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, exposed his cowardice and moral bankruptcy. In that moment, playing the part of Judas, he surrendered the last shreds of his integrity. He became nothing more than a pawn of power, or as Cornel West says, "a black mascot for Wall Street." Obama, once the glitter of power fades, will have to grapple with the fact that he was a traitor not only to his pastor, the man who married him and Michelle, who baptized his children and who kept him spiritually and morally grounded, but to himself. Wright retains what is most precious in life and what Obama has squandered -- his soul.

The health of a nation is measured by how it treats its prophets. When these prophets are ignored and reviled; when they become figures of ridicule, when they are labeled by the chattering classes and power elite as fools, then there is no check left on moral decay and the degeneration of the state. Wright, who spent 36 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side, since the 2008 presidential campaign has endured slander and calumny and weathered character assassination, misinterpretation and abuse, and yet he doggedly continues Sunday after Sunday to thunder the word of God from pulpits across the country.

I grew up as a Christian. My father was a pastor. I graduated from a seminary. I can distinguish a Christian pastor from the slick imposters and charlatans, from T.D. Jakes to Joel Osteen. Wright preaches the radical and unsettling message of the Christian Gospel. He calls us to live the moral life. He knows that the measure of our lives as individuals and as a nation is reflected in how we treat our most vulnerable. And he knows on whose side he stands. Obama, who like Judas took his 30 pieces of silver and betrayed someone who loved him, withers into moral insignificance in Wright's presence.
Continue reading:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/The-Rev-Jeremiah-Wright-R-by-Chris-He...

Submitted by Nobody on Mon, 09/19/2011 - 3:48pm.

"An amazing clip of David de Rothschild advocating GLOBAL GOVERNANCE"

Or you could read it as an attempt to unite the worlds people and end war...

but you won't...You need chaos because you know that when the world unifies...You will be the outsider...and you fear it.

==============================================================
==============================================================

Nothing new about The Rich ruling the world, Nobody, if that is what you are getting at.

But these guys flaunt it and see nothing amiss with by-passing The People.

They are now going beyond the smoke-filled backrooms of the past -- which back then at least indicated they were capable of being shamed for skullduggery. But now they instead have fashioned this concept called "global governance" with which to display that they are unashamed to by-pass publicly-instituted channels and just make the necessary phone calls or whatever to influence public policy. Global Governance is their new method for unashamedly ruling the world as THEY please.

Unfortunately, their false reasoning assumes that being the predator class proves they are the most intelligent class on the Planet. But, no, I dispute this assumption. Being OBSCENELY RICH as a result of exploiting the system and The "Small" People (as the BP official called us last year) is not proof of the superior intelligence of the members of the "Superclass". It is only proof that their predatory and bullying nature has succeeded in helping them game the system to the detriment of the majority of humans, animals and ecologies on the Planet.

TAKE THAT, David de Rothschild! (I sense that at any point the Rothschild banking interest, and any other capitalist institution for that matter, could have revoked investment capital for denuding the Planet's forested areas or other harmful profit streams; they did not choose to redirect capital, and avoid Planetary destruction.)

---

The book below (which I scanned and spot read a while back and from which I posted some excerpts at this blog) did not seem critical of this Superclass. If I am remembering correctly, the author included insights from numerous interviews with Superclass individuals with whom he seemed impressed. The tone of the book was considerably a cheerleading/promotional tone imo.

========================================

Superclass : the global power elite and the world they are making / David Rothkopf.
by Rothkopf, David J. (David Jochanan), 1955-
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Description: xxii, 376 p. ; 24 cm.

Edition: 1st ed.

Contents: Introduction: The Power Elite on the Promenade 3 -- Chapter 1 Each One Is One in a Million: Meet the Superclass 23 -- Chapter 2 Ceteris Non Paribus: Inequality, Backlash, and the New Order 51 -- Chapter 3 Lessons of History: The Rise and Fall of Elites 77 -- Chapter 4 The Multinational Moment: When Finance and Business Became the Center of It All 111 -- Chapter 5 Globalists vs. Nationalists: Political Fault Line for a New Century 145 -- Chapter 6 The Age of Asymmetry: Decline of the Titans and the Rise of Shadow Warriors 190 -- Chapter 7 The Information Superclass: The Power of Ideas 221 -- Chapter 8 How to Become a Member of the Superclass: Myth, Reality, and the Psychopathology of Success 254 -- Chapter 9 The Future of the Superclass-And What It May Mean for the Rest of Us 296.

Holds: 0

Summary: Each of them is one in a million. They number six thousand on a planet of six billion. They run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international finance, the media, world religions, and, from the shadows, the world's most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They are the global superclass, and they are shaping the history of our time. Today's superclass has achieved unprecedented levels of wealth and power. They have globalized more rapidly than any other group. But do they have more in common with one another than with their own countrymen, as nationalist critics have argued? They control globalization more than anyone else. But has their influence fed the growing economic and social inequity that divides the world? What happens behind closeddoor meetings in Davos or aboard corporate jets at 41,000 feet? Conspiracy or collaboration? Deal-making or idle self-indulgence? What does the rise of Asia and Latin America mean for the conventional wisdom that shapes our destinies? Who sets the rules for a group that operates beyond national laws? Drawn from scores of exclusive interviews and extensive original reporting, Superclass answers all of these questions and more. It draws back the curtain on a privileged society that most of us know little about, even though it profoundly affects our everyday lives. It is the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. And it is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live.--From publisher description.

Tens of Thousands March Against Nuclear Power in Tokyo
by Malcolm Foster
September 19, 2011
Chanting "Sayonara nuclear power" and waving banners, tens of thousands of people marched in central Tokyo to call on Japan's government to abandon atomic energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Photograph:
An aerial view from Kyodo shows people attending an anti-nuclear rally at Meiji Park in Tokyo September 19, 2011. Some 60,000 protesters from across Japan including a Nobel-prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe, gathered in central Tokyo for an anti-nuclear rally on Monday, urging the Japanese government to cut reliance on atomic power.

The demonstration underscores how deeply a Japanese public long accustomed to nuclear power has been affected by the March 11 crisis, when a tsunami caused core meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex.
To view the photograph and to continue reading:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/19

Monday, September 19, 2011
The Wall Street Occupation: A Sleep-In Protest in the Shadow of Power
by Manny Jalonschi
Surrounded by the headquarters of some of the world’s most powerful financial players, over two thousand protesters converged on Wall Street this Saturday. By the end of the second day, those occupying Liberty Park, formerly known as Zuccotti Park on Broadway and Liberty St., had settled in, partially helped by pizza, hot chocolate and blankets paid for and delivered by their supporters in New York City and across the country.

The Wall Street occupation began on Sept. 17 after months of planning and encouragement by Adbusters, who originally called for the occupation in response to a corporate-controlled political system that is no longer serving the needs of the majority of its people. They were soon joined by the hacktivist organization Anonymous in calling for a general people’s assembly. While the meetings leading up to the protest focused on dozens of smaller goals, Saturday morning, in the dozen or so people’s assemblies that broke down in Zuccotti Park now renamed Liberty Square, the protesters identified their key goals as liberating America from the death-grip of finance and creating a sustainable, just future for every member of the country. Specifics ranged from a progressive tax system, ending the wars and creating universal healthcare to more localized solutions like supporting and participating in a variety of worker owned cooperatives.
Continue reading:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/19-6

Activists protest Wall Street Scams--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYaA-34c-vI

Diving, darting, grabbing their prey.

Pretty sad to see strong policemen act like this against young fellow citizens just because the wimpy suits on Wall Street snap their manicured fingers!

SHAME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuwtKXSsSY&feature=related

18,000 dead, over 40,000 wounded.

This article doesn't mention 9/11; that's just what I personally cannot shake about the insanity of the official rationale behind all this insane slaughter and destruction and destabilization.

We've now been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviets...

http://www.truth-out.org/killing-cranes-reporters-journey-through-three-...

[excerpt]

NATO forces have now occupied Afghanistan longer than the Soviets. In a war with objectives difficult, if not impossible, to define, Western military casualties have been swelling steadily since 2004, when the Taliban began to reemerge as a formidable force. By mid 2011, over twenty-five hundred American, British, French, German, Canadian, Italian, and other soldiers had been killed. More than half the injuries and deaths were not the result of direct combat. The insurgents have been inflicting increasing casualties by roadside bombs, booby traps, and other improvised explosive devices (or IEDs). In contrast, over eighteen thousand Afghans had lost their lives in less than a decade, at least half of them civilian. A further forty thousand, both military and civilian, have been wounded. While NATO analysts argue that current Afghan casualties are “modest” compared with the 1.5 million believed to have died during the Soviet-Afghan war, others point out that the current conflict could have been avoided had the West adopted a more realistic approach to Afghanistan during the early 2000s and not been obsessed by terrorism, narcotics, and other distracting factors—notably the war in Iraq.

...

[read more at link]

NOW who is saying a group does not have the "right to exist" as a nation???

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/19/israel-punishing-palestinian...

[excerpt]

US and European negotiators have urged Israel to refrain from taking punitive measures against Palestinians if they press ahead with their attempt to win recognition of their state at the United Nations.

The Israeli government is considering a range of retaliatory steps, including withholding customs revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the Oslo accords. Around 400m shekels (£69m) is forwarded to the PA each month.

Some Israeli ministers, including the extreme rightwing foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and the finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, are calling for the money to be withheld. But US and EU diplomats fear this could seriously destabilise the PA and even cause its collapse.

Dan Meridor, the deputy prime minister, who is believed to oppose such a move, said on Monday that no decisions had been taken by the Israeli cabinet. "I try not to use the language of threats," he told a conference in Jerusalem.

[read more at link]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFabLp-Jcbg&feature=related

Don't know what to make of it, Bridge. (Their theory about tossing bodies/dummies out of abandoned floors' windows is beyond my comprehension, and no one questions how -- if that were so -- how did the perpetrators get out before the collapse?)

Pretty strange. I mean, even if the 9/11 tragedy had never occurred, I'd say it is strange to give artists a couple of gutted floors in one of the World's most famous buildings.

But if there were an investigation, I'd get their photos and depositions.

From the website of the art group Gelitin--

http://www.gelitin.net/mambo/index.php?set_albumName=album03&option=com_...

And at Wikipedia--

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelitin

" I'd say it is strange to give artists a couple of gutted floors in one of the World's most famous buildings."

Not strange at all since all the internal leases were being allowed to run out and they were not being renewed. The towers would've been completely empty in another couple months.

Since the original bombing the towers owner had been losing money.

The thread you want to follow on this one is Larry Silverstein, the former owner that had the towers insured for more than they were worth.

"They are now going beyond the smoke-filled backrooms of the past -- which back then at least indicated they were capable of being shamed for skullduggery. But now they instead have fashioned this concept called "global governance" with which to display that they are unashamed to by-pass publicly-instituted channels and just make the necessary phone calls or whatever to influence public policy. Global Governance is their new method for unashamedly ruling the world as THEY please."

In other words, nothing has changed at all.

Let's dissect your catch phrase..."global governance"

Which part of that is bad exactly...the "global" or the "governance"?

"Global" requires a lot of cross border cooperation...otherwise known as 'peace' and "governance" is generally the expression of the combined will of the majority for good or bad.

"Unfortunately, their false reasoning assumes that being the predator class proves they are the most intelligent class on the Planet. But, no, I dispute this assumption. Being OBSCENELY RICH as a result of exploiting the system and The "Small" People (as the BP official called us last year) is not proof of the superior intelligence of the members of the "Superclass". It is only proof that their predatory and bullying nature has succeeded in helping them game the system to the detriment of the majority of humans, animals and ecologies on the Planet."

I love all your little catch phrases..."predator class"...really?...FFS

I've watched you over and over again try and illicit emotional responses with this sort of hackney, amatuer propagandist, meme forcing bullshit and I'm not only less than impressed, I'm actually embarassed for you, when you do it.

You're making the same cardinal mistake that you're presently accusing others of, that of assuming that you're actually smarter than your "audience", trust me, you're not even in the same ballpark as most of the people that read this blog, especially when it coms to 'nuance'.

Rule #1

You can't force memes.

Rule #2

The use of 'buzzwords' and 'over selling' get's you pegged as 'narc' in every culture and society on this planet.

Rule #3

If you don't immediately understand the first two rules on an instinctual level then you shouldn't even bother trying.

...

7 out of 10 humans are altruistic
3 out of 10 are self centered
9.999 out of 10 humans are social
.1 - .3 out of 10 humans are sociopathic
.1 - 1 out of 10 'rich' humans are sociopaths

The odds that you're going to find your all powerful evil overlords in that mix is pretty fucking slim.

...

Tony Bennett apologizes for 9/11 comments

The 85-year-old singer apologized for his comments made on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show Monday evening after the host asked him how he would deal with terrorists.

"Who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists, or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don't make a right," Bennett said. "They flew the plane in, but we caused it. We were bombing them, and they told us to stop."

On his Facebook page Tuesday afternoon, Bennett issued a statement of penitence...

"9/11 Families for a Secure America Foundation" director Ed Kowalski, told Newsday, "Tony should stick to singing songs rather than making an unintelligent statement about U.S. foreign policy."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/21/tony-bennett-apologizes-for-911-co...

A country so near collapse, it can't even tolerate criticism from a celebrity old enough to have fought in WWII.
Bachmann should revive her campaign with congressional hearings:
Are you now, or have you ever been, a fan of Tony Bennett?

Reality has a way of trumping propaganda or official silence:

Typhoon smashes into Japan, four already dead

...The storm was expected to travel northeast, possibly towards the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, where workers are still battling to control persistent radiation leaks.

"We have taken every possible measure against the typhoon" at Fukushima Daiichi, said Naoki Tsunoda, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the stricken power plant.

"We have tied down cables and hoses while fixing equipment so that radioactive materials will not spread (in violent winds)," he said, adding operations on the ground and at sea had been suspended.

He said workers had also fixed tarpaulin over spots in buildings where rain could enter...............
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/21/typhoon-smashes-into-japan-four-al...
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/09/20119217154335987...

Thank you for posting this.
It seems there are some causes not worthy of abandoning, however.
It's reassuring to see that the "new," radical working-class champion version of obama hasn't gone completely Commie--

US confirms upgrade to Taiwan's F-16 fighters
White House formally notifies US Congress of planned $5.3bn improvement, in move China calls "grave interference".
The Obama administration has formally notified the US Congress of plans for $5.3bn upgrade to Taiwan's US-built F-16s, a move China has termed "grave interference" in its internal affairs.

Taiwan's defence ministry said that an upgrade package for the island's aging F-16 A/B fighter jet fleet by the US will contribute to regional peace by improving Taiwanese capabilities in the face of a threat from China.

Zhang Zhijun, China's deputy foreign minister, however, voiced his country's "strong indignation and resolute opposition" to the deal, according to his ministry's website.

"No matter what the excuses and reasons, there can be no hiding that United States' announcement of plans to sell arms to Taiwan is grave interference in China's domestic affairs and sends a gravely mistaken signal to pro-Taiwan independence separatist forces," said Zhang....
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/09/20119211637366213...

Merkel's party 'loses Berlin state election'
Exit polls show German chancellor's governing coalition has suffered sixth defeat in state polls this year

....The technology-friendly Pirate Party made its debut in a German legislature, capturing 8.9 per cent of the vote.
Formed in 2006, the party was able to win widespread support from young Berliners.

It has expanded its platform from its original push from file sharing and data protection on the internet to include education and citizens rights.

"They [the Pirate party] even went to the regional airport in their underwear and bikinis to protest because they were unhappy with the security procedures there," said our correspondent.

"They are now represented in the state legislature."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/09/201191816124320676.html

Pro-Hacker Party Wins Parliament Seats in Berlin Elections

Issues of Internet freedom and political transparency are coming to the fore as a political party with philosophical ties to hacker collectives like Anonymous wins seats in the German capital's recent elections....

The Pirate Party's top political concerns primarily concern Internet freedoms and political transparency, which philosophically ties them to hacker collectives such as Anonymous and LulzSec. Both hacker groups have attacked corporations and Web sites who they see violate Internet ethics, with recent attacks on the Mexican government, Arizona police and Malaysia.

Issues like online privacy and data protection may seem narrow to an older, mainstream electorate, but for a younger generation deeply immersed in social networking and other aspects of technology, these have become relevant issues and may even escalate in importance as voting blocs grow to include younger generations.

It's not just Germany where issues concerning the Internet and technology have entered political discourse. The Pirate Party is an international organization, officially recognized by 17 national governments, including Russia, Australia, Morocco and most of South America...

For the German political upstarts, the hard work is just beginning. The pirates have promised to use online tools to increase what they call "liquid democracy," a form of political participation that expands beyond voting in elections. They also are broadening their platform beyond data privacy and censorship to include using the Internet as a tool to engage the electorate in the political and legislative process.
http://www.mobiledia.com/news/109105.html

...The nascent political party won 8.9 percent of the vote on Sunday's election in Berlin, far surpassing the "5 percent hurdle" to entering parliament, known as the Abgeordnetenhaus, as explained by national law.
Based on a core platform of patent law reform, privacy rights, transparency in government and free Internet access, the Pirate Party also promotes legalization of marijuana, a guaranteed basic income and free transport for all Berliners...
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/09/20/39930.htm

United States Pirate Party

State chapters have recently been formed in Washington, Massachusetts, and the Carolinas, and more established chapters in Oregon, Oklahoma, and New York are allying with other small political parties, ranging from Greens to Libertarians, to lower barriers that prevent smaller parties from getting on the ballot, such as the number of required signatures. Though no Pirate candidates have ever run for office, the Massachusetts state party hopes to present candidates for local and state positions in the next two years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pirate_Party

George Galloway
It is three years since the masters of the universe at Lehman Brothers went supernova.

The financial crisis unleashed then has morphed around the world and shows no sign of abating.

Indeed the normally news-light summer months brought a slew of shocking surveys revealing falling business confidence, plummeting employment and economic activity from the US, through to Europe to Japan.

Of the big zones of the world economy, only China showed a pulse. Now we stand on the brink of further round of chaos and collapse.

Talk of a double-dip or W-shaped recession is misplaced. We have had no recovery to speak of and instead have been locked into an L-shaped limbo for many months, shuffling towards another precipice.

The full scale of what lies in store is only beginning to register in the public consciousness. The riots last month were a foretaste of the social consequences of the slash-and-burn policies which Cameron, Osborne and Clegg are pursuing.

Look to Latin America, Africa and Asia at so many points over the last 30 years and you see the effects of structural adjustment programmes designed to hammer public spending and squeeze the public as a whole in order to meet the insatiable appetite of private bankers.

Put simply, people die - and more of them and younger.

And make no mistake - what is being imposed on Britain, Europe and elsewhere is a structural adjustment programme of that kind, not merely some unwelcome cuts that will be reversed after a few years of growth, for growth is the last thing that the austerity-mongers are talking about.

To see where all this is leading, look at Greece. In the business section of the news broadcasts the economic data flashes across the screen and talking heads refer to "bond yields," "haircuts," "rescheduling" and an alphabet soup of international agencies and the latest European financial initiatives.

Grey is the dismal science of economics. Blood red is the reality behind this blizzard of buzzwords.

Children returned to school in Greece last week. They are without textbooks - the education ministry does not have the money to print them - and soon many may be without teachers.

The troika of the IMF, European Union and European Central Bank which is enforcing the savagery flounced out of Athens a few weeks ago saying that Greece had not slashed enough.

The government swiftly announced the immediate sacking of 10,000 public-sector employees, with another 10,000 after, on top of the mass redundancies already underway.

Pay for many households - not the shipping magnates and business elite, of course - has fallen 20 per cent.

Now, in another panic move to secure October's tranche of loans to stave off bankruptcy, the Greek government is imposing a €2 billion tax on housing. It is simply going to add the charge to household electricity bills. Greece has a state-owned electricity company that will cut off anyone who doesn't pay the tithe. It is of course a supreme irony lost on the free marketeers that they are demanding that that enterprise is privatised and broken-up, which had it already happened would now deprive the government of income and revenue-raising power.

Such ironies are built in to this Greek tragedy because the entire play is in the theatre of the absurd.

The European elites seem surprised that by forcing Greece - and before it Ireland - to destroy large chunks of the economy, that the result has been a greater gap between government revenue and the amount it must spend, increasingly to the banks.

But you don't have to be an economics Nobel laureate to know that if the economy shrinks, then the amount paid in tax goes down while the amount paid in welfare - minimal in Greece - and in debt repayments - huge - tends to go up.

Yet this kind of austerity dogma, which tipped the world into the Great Depression of the 1930s, is now being inflicted on Greece and here too.

So obviously destructive are the results that doubts are expressed even among the partisans of capitalist globalisation.

So US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner recently complained that too many governments, in Europe in particular, have lost faith in what he called traditional fiscal tools to deal with a slump, which means state spending and investment to counter the failure of businesses and households to borrow and spend.

His words would be more credible if the Obama administration were boldly doing that. Instead we have the woefully inadequate so-called jobs package.

Some of it is for investment, which is more than can be said for any of Osborne's schemes, but most of it is to cut taxes on business.

These are the very businesses which, despite record low interest rates, are refusing to invest, expand and employ.

Instead they are stashing their money in the banks - about $2 trillion of it - from whence it ricochets from one commodity to another via gold, forex, oil, bets upon bets upon bets, and never finding its way into producing real things and employing real people.

I don't know if Obama will turn the corner and retain the presidency.

That matters of course, but we already have the frightening spectacle of a White House enthralled to the Tea Party vandals, the Texacutioners, the Bachmanns and Palins.

And so we have the further absurdity of endless summits and emergency meetings, each one hearing that the policies are driving the problems deeper and wider, and each sticking with the course, a little tinkering on the side - no U-turn, not one step back.

As what has already been called a depression threatens to gain a capital letter and become something akin to the Great Depression of the hungry '30s, so all the old filth is bubbling up from the sewer.

We've already had two decades of intensifying hostility to Muslims and to immigrants in Europe.

As the borders went higher around the continent, leaving desperate African migrants to be washed up on the tourist beaches of Tenerife, there was at least the faint consolation that they were coming down within Europe. Not now. Xenophobic nationalism is back within the EU itself.

It is not only the fascist and far-right populists who are promoting it.

So too are those who claim that only austerity can save us, that more power must be centralised in the unelected bureaucracies who roll up into Athens and demand ever harsher measures, countersigning government Bills and decisions in a way that marks a dangerous curtailment of democracy.

Remember the European anthem played at the launch of the euro over a decade ago? Schiller's stirring words, "All men shall be brothers," rang out to Beethoven's immortal chords.

Now the saviours of the euro talk of the Greeks and others in southern Europe as lazy, swindlers, irresponsible, not fit to run their own affairs.

This from big business such as German-based Siemens, whose contracts took the lion's share of the largesse heaped upon the Athens Olympics, the biggest single source of public debt in Greece which the Greek people are still paying for.

For this is the nasty little secret of the whole euro enterprise. I have never been with the "little Englanders" or the narrow nationalists who look with contempt at our neighbours on the continent.

What is not to like about the peoples from the Mediterranean to the Baltic? Who could be against the closer union of working people in a continent which bled two generations of their blood last century?

But that was the last thing on the mind of the European elites.

They didn't want an entity that would be responsive to the popular will, redistributive from the very rich to the poor, capable of balancing out production and consumption across the continent so that rational investment decisions of the kind that are sorely needed now could be made by a benevolent public authority big enough to face down the men behind the bond and currency markets.

They wanted to enforce the visibly failing free-market nostrums everywhere through a race to the bottom in which the most aggressive capitalists, mainly in the north of the continent, had a larger region to exploit.

Now it is crashing down. And it is the people - especially the most vulnerable and exploited - who are getting the blame.

The fact that there are new scapegoats - Europe's Muslim communities, African migrants - has not taken the heat off the old ones.

It must surely be the shrillest of alarms for anyone acquainted with 20th century history that Roma are being rounded up and expelled by public authorities, vilified by politicians and their camps burnt by racist thugs.

It's not only in Europe. The eviction of the traveller community at Dale Farm has been attended by an orgy of bigotry in the Daily Mail and elsewhere.

Not everyone has joined in, by any means. It was a ray of light to see the Irish traveller participant Paddy Doherty win Celebrity Big Brother, demonstrating that public bigotry is not so overwhelming.

But it is nothing short of sickening to read from Mencap and other charities that the press and politicians' lambasting of people on benefits is leading to rising levels of verbal and physical attacks on disabled people.

Those of us who count ourselves as on the left or progressive must set our face against all of this and at the same time embrace those who seek to come together and resist the economic onslaught, from protesters and occupiers in Greece to the unions in Britain who are standing up for dignity in retirement, not only for hard-pressed public servants but for the people as a whole.

And we must find ways to force some basic truths into the political sphere.

We cannot cut our way out of a slump. Ending recession means growth, and that means investment.

The state has printed vast amounts of money and is about to pump out more. It is sitting in the banks.

If the captains of industry won't change course and invest, then the state must - not through PFI schemes and other privateers' scams, which merely hand the assets and the profits to those who will put them to no productive use. But through state enterprises, well run, responsive to the people, building homes, employing people, bringing hope and banishing the breeding grounds of hate.

It is not an easy task. The political class seem inured despite the dawning reality, just as they did at the beginning of the 1930s.

But if the left does not make that case now, how will that ever change?
http://www.votegeorgegalloway.com/2011/09/greeks-beware-of-eu-gifts.html

The last refuge of Obamaphiles is that no matter how many times the First Black President double-crosses us by cutting Medicare and Medicaid, no matter how completely be betrays his voters us by ignoring black unemployment, by deporting one million Latinos, by protecting the banksters responsible for the foreclosure crisis and by invading, bombing, occupying and subverting even more countries than the Cheney-Bush regime, his white supremacist tea party opponents are far worse. But what if Democrat Barack and the Republican tea partyers are just playing different positions on the same team?

Barack Obama VS Those Craaaazy Republicans: Is He the Lesser Evil, or the More Effective Evil?

“The corporate politician's job is to deliver those voters, those constituencies to their campaign contributors, so they can enact the policies their financiers desire.”

The corporate moguls who run the US empire and its political processes are not fools. So when the Republican party deliberately pushes forward certifiable clowns like Michelle Bachman, Richard Perry, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum as its presidential contenders, we can be certain that matters are not quite what they seem. These pandering lunatics are only inmates of the asylum, which is run by the corporate entities that fund the careers of Democratic and Republic politicians alike --- the energy and insurance industries, corporate media and real estate, military contractors, and of course, Wall Street....
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/barack-obama-vs-those-craaaazy-...

"Jeez, Nobody"

I'm too old, too tired and too impatient.

This is the 11th hour and when I close my eyes for the last time I want to know that there will be a tomorrow that is unlike yesterday.

Ya...Except that it hasn't actually happened and it hasn't happened that way.

You have to ask yourself at some point, which is more important?, how you feel the world is or how the world actually is.

Reality matters.

The Conservative Obsession with Gibson Guitars, Small Businesses’ Real Needs, and the Cost of Illegal Logging
By Alyssa Rosenberg
Sep 20, 2011 at 4:06 pm

After Gibson Guitars was raided by federal regulators for the second time this year, the company’s chief executive, Henry Juszkiewicz, parlayed the company’s legal troubles into a publicity windfall, casting himself as a victim of overregulation and overzealous enforcement of import laws. And he became a Republican celebrity when Rep. Marsha Blackburn brought Juszkiewicz as her plus-one to President Obama’s jobs speech. But environmental advocates say that fears about what the law that Gibson fell afoul of, the Lacey Act, mean for American consumers are overblown, and suggest the Republican rush to embrace Gibson isn’t the best way to show support for American small business owners. “No one is coming to take your Les Paul guitar,” said Andrea Johnson, the Forest Campaign director for the non-profit Environmental Investigation Agency on a conference call. “Companies can and are complying with this law.”
Continue reading:
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/09/20/323623/does-conservative-obse...

...as a commenter wrote: 'the Right's philosophy of "use it until we've used it up"'

Gallup: Health Reform Has Already Extended Coverage To 1 Million 18-25 Year Olds
By Igor Volsky
Sep 21, 2011 at 9:00 am

In another sign that the Affordable Care Act is already lowering uninsured rates, a new Gallup survey finds that the share of adults 18-25 without health insurance has fallen from 28 percent to 24.2 percent. The numbers are one of the few bright spots in the current trend of increasing uninsured rates — driven by the poor economy — and speak to the success of the new health law, which requires insurers to extend dependent coverage to young adults until they turn 26. The provision went into effect last fall, but most companies implemented the measure at the beginning of January:

Census figures show nearly 35 million people are in the 18-25 age group, so Gallup’s 4 percentage-point drop would translate to an increase of roughly 1 million or more getting health insurance.

The Gallup findings are in line with other reports. A survey of employers this summer by Mercer, the benefits consulting firm, found a 2 percentage-point increase in health plan enrollment as a result of extending coverage to workers’ young adult children. Young adults are generally inexpensive to cover. Some companies have spread the extra premiums among their workforces.

Before the health care law passed, many employers automatically cut off dependents upon graduation from college or high school. Repealing Obama’s law, as Republicans seek to do, would eliminate the requirement for companies to provide extended coverage for young adults.
Continue reading:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/09/21/324415/gallup-health-reform-h...

Congressional Millionaires To Weigh Obama's Proposed 'Buffett Rule'
By Michael Beckel
September 20, 2011

President Barack Obama's plan for a new minimum tax rate for people who earn more than $1 million a year will likely affect some of the people who will have a say on whether the rule becomes law.

Namely: Congress...

...according to the Center's research, 244 current members of Congress were millionaires in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. That figure includes 138 Republicans and 106 Democrats.
See the Top 20 List and read in its entirety:
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/09/congressional-millionaires-buffe...

...and Congress has been waging war on US: the middle class, the working class, the poor, and sitting pretty - "to the victor belong the spoils."

Join the Nobel Peace Laureates in Opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline! Sign the petition, please

Nine Nobel Peace Laureates -- including the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu -- have called on President Obama to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry dirty tar sands oil from Canada’s Boreal forest to refineries in Texas. The pipeline will drive more destruction of songbird habitat, fuel global warming, and threaten drinking water for millions of Americans. The U.S. State Department is rushing towards approval of this fiasco. Please join the Nobel Laureates by sending a message to President Obama, urging him to stop the pipeline before it’s too late.

Your message will be sent to:
President Barack Obama

Message subject:
Stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

How Change Is Going to Come in the Food System
Monday 19 September 2011
by: Michael Pollan

There are two ways to interpret the very different approaches of the president and the first lady to the food issue. A cynical interpretation would be that the administration has decided to deploy the first lady to pay lip service to reform while continuing business as usual. But a more charitable interpretation would be that President Obama has determined there is not yet enough political support to take on the hard work of food system reform, and the best thing to do in the meantime is for the first lady to build a broad constituency for change by speaking out about the importance of food.

If this is the president’s reading of the situation, it may well be right. So far, at least, the food movement has only a small handful of allies in Congress: Tom Harkin, Jon Tester and Kirsten Gillibrand in the Senate; Earl Blumenauer and Jim McGovern in the House. The Congressional committees in charge of agricultural policies remain dominated by farm-state legislators openly hostile to reform, and until big-state and urban legislators decide it is worth their while to serve on those committees, little of value is likely to emerge from them. Whatever its cost to public health and the environment, cheap food has become a pillar of the modern economy that few in government dare to question...If change comes, it will come from other places: from the grassroots and, paradoxically, from powerful interests that stand to gain from it.

The most promising food activism is taking place at the grassroots: local policy initiatives are popping up in municipalities across the country, alongside urban agriculture ventures in underserved areas and farm-to-school programs. Changing the way America feeds itself has become the galvanizing issue for a generation now coming of age. (A new FoodCorps, launched in August as part of AmeriCorps, received nearly 1,300 applications for fifty slots.) Out of these local efforts will come local leaders who will recognize the power of food politics. Some of these leaders will run for office on these issues, and some of them will win.

It’s worth remembering that it took decades before the campaign against the tobacco industry could point to any concrete accomplishments. By the 1930s, the scientific case against smoking had been made, yet it wasn’t until 1964 that the surgeon general was willing to declare smoking a threat to health, and another two decades after that before the industry’s seemingly unshakable hold on Congress finally crumbled. By this standard, the food movement is making swift progress.

But there is a second lesson the food movement can take away from the antismoking campaign. When change depends on overcoming the influence of an entrenched power, it helps to have another powerful interest in your corner—an interest that stands to gain from reform. In the case of the tobacco industry, that turned out to be the states, which found themselves on the hook (largely because of Medicaid) for the soaring costs of smoking-related illnesses. So, under economic duress, states and territories joined to file suit against the tobacco companies to recover some of those costs, and eventually they prevailed.

The food movement will find such allies, especially now that Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has put the government on the hook for the soaring costs of treating chronic illnesses—most of which are preventable and linked to diet. No longer allowed to cherry-pick the patients they’re willing to cover, or to toss overboard people with chronic diseases, the insurance industry will soon find itself on the hook for the cost of the American diet too. It’s no accident that support for measures such as taxing soda is strongest in places like Massachusetts, where the solvency of the state and its insurance industry depends on figuring out how to reduce the rates of Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

The food movement is about to gain a powerful new partner, an industry that is beginning to recognize that it, too, has a compelling interest in issues like taxing soda, school lunch reform and even the farm bill. Indeed, as soon as the healthcare industry begins to focus on the fact that the government is subsidizing precisely the sort of meal for which the industry (and the government) will have to pick up the long-term tab, eloquent advocates of food system reform will suddenly appear in the unlikeliest places—like the agriculture committees of Congress.

None of this should surprise us. For the past forty years, food reform activists like Frances Moore Lappé have been saying that the American way of growing and eating food is “unsustainable.” That objection is not rooted in mere preference or aesthetics, but rather in the inescapable realities of biology. Continuing to eat in a way that undermines health, soil, energy resources and social justice cannot be sustained without eventually leading to a breakdown. Back in the 1970s it was impossible to say exactly where that breakdown would first be felt. Would it be the environment or the healthcare system that would buckle first? Now we know. We simply can’t afford the healthcare costs incurred by the current system of cheap food—which is why, sooner or later, we will find the political will to change it.
Read in its entirety:
http://www.truth-out.org/how-change-going-come-food-system/1316437939

...looks like a chess game.

Nader Says Postal Service Financial Problems Manufactured, Time to Stop Closing Post Offices

Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader Calls the U.S. Postal Service's Financial Problems a Manufactured Crisis

Calls on Congress to Take Quick, Easy Action to Prevent Further Service Cuts, Post Office Closings, and Job Cuts

In a letter to Senator Joseph Lieberman and Congressman Darrell Issa, Mr. Nader proposed simple solutions to fix the U.S. Postal Service's financial hole. Mr. Nader noted, however, that the financial "crisis" facing the USPS was completely manufactured.

Mr. Nader identified several drains on the U.S. Postal Service's financial resources, including a Congressional mandate that the USPS prefund its future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years by 2016 and $82 billion in overpayments that the USPS has made to federal pension systems which have yet to be refunded.

Mr. Nader points out that the $103.7 billion prefunding mandate is something that, "no other government or private corporation is required to do and is an incredibly unreasonable burden." He continues by revealing that without this onerous prepayment provision, "the USPS would not have a net deficiency of nearly $20 billion, but instead be in the black by at least $1.5 billion."

Mr. Nader ended by calling on Congress to take action that would have a minimal impact on the patrons of the USPS and prevent further post office closings, deterioration of service, or job cuts.

Mr. Nader ended with a simple reminder to "Remember Ben Franklin's vision"

Click here for a full copy of the letter.
http://nader.org/uploads/USPS-ltr.pdf

Who got a fairer trial: Troy Davis or Bin Laden?

September 22nd,1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states free as of Jan. 1, 1863.

Michelle Alexander: More Black Men in Prison Than Were Enslaved in 1850

“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” Alexander, an Ohio State law professor, recently told listeners at the Pasadena Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/prison_system_holds_more_black_me...

An international team of scientists has recorded neutrino particles traveling faster than the speed of light, a spokesman for the researchers said on Thursday -- in what could be a challenge to one of the fundamental rules of physics.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/us-science-light-idUSTRE78L4FH...

Vast reserves of shale gas revealed in UK

Huge natural gas field in north-west England revealed, but environmentalists alarmed at controversial fracking method
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/21/gas-field-blackpool-dalla...

-American Justice.
Submitted by ghettodefender on Thu, 09/22/2011 - 2:57pm.

Who got a fairer trial: Troy Davis or Bin Laden?-

By Dave Zirin

...At another sold-out football game in Lincoln last Saturday, an ad for the TransCanada Keystone oil pipeline played on the stadium's HuskerVision Jumbotron. The ad came at the end of a slickly produced highlights video lauding the Huskers 1978 Big 8 Championship squad. At the end, came the notice that the video was "brought to you by The Husker Pipeline.” Tens of thousands of fans proceeded to swallow their beer, put down their food and boo. It was actually more than booing. It was more like loudly seething. I don't think the Oklahoma Sooners ever produced a reaction like this....

In Nebraska, anger from every side of the political spectrum has built against this project poised to snake its way through the state. The reasons are very understandable. In the words of journalist Brian L. Horejsi, it will “rip a 50 to 150 foot physical and ecological trough through public and private property and run roughshod over the legal right of thousands of public and private land owners to object to forced entry of their property.” The cascade of Cornhusker boos were certainly enough for the University. On Wednesday the school announced that it was ending sponsorship ties with TransCanada and the Stadium would no longer blare their slickly produced ads...

Heather Kangas, who was one of the thousand arrested at the White House said to me, "The Cornhuskers letting go of their TransCanada sponsorship proves that Nebraskans are leaders in fighting the Keystone XL pipeline and that university students there are not just football fans but are active members of a community that will not allow themselves or their university to be won over by TransCanada's expansive PR campaign. This decision should make it more difficult for Obama to approve this because young people clearly are opposed to a dangerous pipeline carrying toxic tar sands through their state."...
http://www.edgeofsports.com/2011-09-19-650/index.html

are going to tweet the debates...

http://www.witstream.com/#tweetthepress

TheBosha
A great way to achieve smaller government would be to cut out Republicans. #tweetthepress

"Particles recorded moving faster than light"

Reaching the stars just became a greater possibility.

Well except for the part where we've got to survive this century...

TheBosha
A great way to achieve smaller government would be to cut out Republicans. #tweetthepress

*** ***

Sounds Good To Me.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/two_heads_of_one_political_monster_2...

Sep 22, 2011
By David Sirota

...
So the next time you tune into a cable TV pundit-a-thon or a talk-radio screamfest that tells you how “divided” American politics is, and how one party is so much more honorable than the other, remember Colorado and all the other examples like it before you head down the rabbit hole of election-year delusion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-0923-speed-of-light-20110923,...

;)

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/how-elephants-coul...

Mind-reading technology reconstructs videos from brain

It sounds like science fiction: while volunteers watched movie clips, a scanner watched their brains. And from their brain activity, a computer made rough reconstructions of what they viewed.

Scientists reported that result Thursday in the US and speculated such an approach might be able to reveal dreams and hallucinations someday.

In the future, it might help stroke victims or others who have no other way to communicate, said Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the paper.

He believes such a technique could eventually reconstruct a dream or other made-up mental movie well enough to be recognisable. But the experiment dealt with scenes being viewed through the eyes at the time of scanning, and it's not clear how much of the approach would apply to scenes generated by the brain instead, he said.

Political Preferences Play Different Role in Dating, Mating

ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2011) — Online daters are reluctant to use partisan politics to attract a potential mate, according to new research co-authored by Brown political scientist Rose McDermott. The study, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, shows that singles are more likely to admit they are overweight on their online dating profiles than to say they are politically liberal or conservative.

...

"Because we know that long-term mates are more politically similar than random attachment might predict, we were interested to see how people seeking a mate end up with people who share their political values," said McDermott. "This is particularly important because political ideology appears to be in part heritable, and so mates pass their ideology on to their children."

U.S. Civil War Took Bigger Toll Than Previously Estimated, New Analysis Suggests

ScienceDaily (Sep. 22, 2011) — The Civil War -- already considered the deadliest conflict in American history -- in fact took a toll far more severe than previously estimated. That's what a new analysis of census data by Binghamton University historian J. David Hacker reveals.

Hacker says the war's dead numbered about 750,000, an estimate that's 20 percent higher than the commonly cited figure of 620,000. His findings will be published in December in the journal Civil War History.

"The traditional estimate has become iconic," Hacker says. "It's been quoted for the last hundred years or more. If you go with that total for a minute -- 620,000 -- the number of men dying in the Civil War is more than in all other American wars from the American Revolution through the Korean War combined. And consider that the American population in 1860 was about 31 million people, about one-tenth the size it is today. If the war were fought today, the number of deaths would total 6.2 million."

Submitted by Nobody on Fri, 09/23/2011 - 4:49am.
U.S. Civil War Took Bigger Toll Than Previously Estimated, New Analysis Suggests

...the death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan, the debate cheers for executions and the consequences for no healthcare coverage, American blood lust is stronger than ever. We have not evolved, IMHO, since the civil war.

Moving beyond 'blame the teacher'
The problem with schools isn't teachers; it's a management system that pushes them aside.
By Saul Rubinstein, Charles Heckscher and Paul Adler
September 16, 2011

Most of the current efforts to improve public education begin with the flawed assumption that the basic problem is teacher performance. This "blame the teacher" attitude has led to an emphasis on standardized tests, narrow teacher evaluation criteria, merit pay, erosion of tenure, privatization, vouchers and charter schools. The primary goal of these measures has been greater teacher accountability — as if the weaknesses of public education were due to an invasion of our classrooms by uncaring and incompetent teachers. That is the premise of the documentary, "Waiting for Superman," and of the attacks on teachers and their unions by politicians across the country.

We see distressing parallels between this approach to quality in education and the approaches that failed so badly in U.S. manufacturing. Recall the reaction of domestic manufacturers in the 1970s as Japanese competitors began to take market share: Many managers and an army of experts blamed American workers. They denounced workers' "blue-collar blues," lackadaisical attitudes and union job protections as the chief impediments to higher quality, productivity and competitiveness.

It took nearly two decades for manufacturers to realize that this diagnosis was deeply flawed and that the recommendations that flowed from it were leading U.S. industry further into decline. Recall the success of Japanese-run auto transplants operating in this country during the 1980s: They reached world-class quality levels with a U.S. workforce, in some cases a unionized workforce, while domestic auto companies continued to blame American workers and saw their quality levels stagnate.

Noticing the discrepancy, a growing number of manufacturers turned to the teachings of the quality guru W. Edwards Deming. Deming argued that U.S. industry's failure was not in its workers but in the system they labored under...Much of the current wave of school reform is informed by the same management myths that almost destroyed U.S. manufacturing. Instead of seeing teachers as key contributors to system improvement efforts, reformers are focused on making teachers more replaceable. Instead of involving teachers and their unions in collaborative reform, they are being pushed aside as impediments to top-down decision-making. Instead of bringing teachers together to help each other become more effective professionals, district administrators are resorting to simplistic quantified individual performance measures. In reality, schools are collaborative, not individual, enterprises, so teaching quality and school performance depend above all on whether the institutional systems support teachers' efforts.

Saul Rubinstein and Charles Heckscher are professors at Rutgers University and co-directors of the Center for Organizational Learning and Transformation; Paul Adler is a professor at the Marshall School of Business at USC. The Rutgers study referred to is available at http://smlr.rutgers.edu/collaborating-school-reform.
Read oped in its entirety:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-adler-teachers-2011...

-Submitted by Nobody on Fri, 09/23/2011 - 4:15am.

Mind-reading technology reconstructs videos from brain -

Perspective, Persistence and Patience

Submitted by CeeCee on Thu, 09/22/2011 - 12:08am.

How Change Is Going to Come in the Food System
Monday 19 September 2011
by: Michael Pollan
....
==============================================

Very interestig.

But, it looks to me that there is not the time for this longterm switch over away from the current unhealthy, even toxic, mechanized-chemical-GMO agribussiness model of subsidized mono-cropping technology.

I think the current economic collapse and stolen headlines (on whatever topic -- such as, what the current Washington administration is doing in foreign policy, or such as who is on Dancing with the Stars...) have been redirecting USAers' away from what happens right here on their local croplands -- like the most rapid soil depletion in the history of humankind, like water contamination from toxic agchemicals, like destruction of natural eco-systems, and so on. The system is not only unsustainable but may be close to collapse if the bee situation is any indicator.

Do we have the luxury of time on this one? I don't think so.

Submitted by Nobody on Wed, 09/21/2011 - 8:19am.
....

============================

Nobody said:
>>Let's dissect your catch phrase..."global governance"<<

Reply: This is NOT 'my' catch phrase. In the video above, David de Rothschild used the term. And in the book I mentioned above, "Superclass", the author documents the use of the term by 'insiders' of the Power Elite who make clear their intent to practice same.

---

Nobody said:
>>I love all your little catch phrases..."predator class"...really?...FFS<<

Reply: Come now, Nobody. "Love"? You don't even like me let alone anything I post. Sheesh. Don't start getting hypocritical. Also, you state your opinions in your posts. Are you saying you refuse me the same? I see a group of people who EXPLOIT other animals, other people and the biosphere for their personal gain and I consider them as a group to be a predator class. If you want to disagree, do that, and preferably with some valid points to make about it. Otherwise, it just sounds to me that you are actually standing in DEFENSE of the exploiters and slavers of this world and trying to shut up anyone who points out their anti-social/anti-Planet behavior.

Nobody said:
>>I've watched you over and over again try and illicit emotional responses with this sort of hackney, amatuer propagandist, meme forcing bullshit and I'm not only less than impressed, I'm actually embarassed for you, when you do it.<<

Reply:
After tussling with you these past months, I can say that your words sound like an intimate description of yourself and your own motivations, Nobody. Just my opinion.

Nobody said:
>>You're making the same cardinal mistake that you're presently accusing others of, that of assuming that you're actually smarter than your "audience", trust me, you're not even in the same ballpark as most of the people that read this blog, especially when it coms to 'nuance'.<<

Reply:
Accusing? I didn't intend to accuse. It feels like observation to me; obsservation from my perspective. I make no claims that my opinion is any better than anyone elses'. You, Nobody, have claimed that as YOUR DOMAIN. Sheesh. I have made clear in other posts that I am a learner discovering a lot of things new to me; I enjoy sharing what I am discovering, and appreciate when others point me on to additional avenues of information and insight. I'm not the last word in anything, and don't claim to be. (I don't know if there are many topics in which a 'last word' is even possible.)

Nobody said:
>>Rule #1

You can't force memes.

Rule #2

The use of 'buzzwords' and 'over selling' get's you pegged as 'narc' in every culture and society on this planet.

Rule #3

If you don't immediately understand the first two rules on an instinctual level then you shouldn't even bother trying.<<

Reply:
Why do you jump out of your skin when others use words descriptively? I'm not pulling the idea of the existence of a predatory types out of thin air. I read the book "Snakes in Suits", and the authors acknowledged that the nature of the Corporate Culture rewards unrelenting and ruthless competition for profit above other human characteristics as an encouragement and reward milieu for possibly anti-social types. I even heard Hartmann mention he suspects many CEOs' "skills" are actually sociopathic traits. If anyone is trying to "force" anything here, Nobody, you are -- with another one of your attempts to mischaracterize me.

Nobody said:
>>7 out of 10 humans are altruistic
3 out of 10 are self centered
9.999 out of 10 humans are social
.1 - .3 out of 10 humans are sociopathic
.1 - 1 out of 10 'rich' humans are sociopaths<<

Reply:
This conclusion (even without a REFERENCE, which I would appreciate seeing) I do not feel is incorrect (although, again, if you are saying these are specific measurements, I would like to see the reference). For years I have been moved by something I read in a book about Gandhi; Gandhi said something to the effect that most people are peace-loving and seek harmony and if that were not so, chaos would be our common/constant state rather than the contrived situations forced upon populations (I assumed he could be meaning conscription into military for wars conceived by a few, or societal rivalries devised by those outsiders who wish to divide and conquer, and so on); thus his reasoning that nonviolence was the primary means by which the majority of the populace could be moved to participate in action for change and justice.

Nobody said:
>>The odds that you're going to find your all powerful evil overlords in that mix is pretty fucking slim.<<

Reply:
Once again, I point out that it is my view that the capitalist/corporatist values like profit-motive/winner-take-all has encouraged/caused the congregation of sociopaths and conscience-compromised/deficient at the top of our current power flowchart. So I disagree with you; I think the chances are much better that there are plenty of this group up top. (How soon you forget the selection of empathy-scarce and conscience-lacking individuals congregated in the G.W.Bush Administration ....)

Speaking of predation -- when government's primary goal is revenue/money-making and justice is forgotten, it fails to serve The People.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/35/3592.asp

[excerpt]

...

Massachusetts: Supreme Court Approves Charging Innocent Ticket Recipients
Innocent drivers can be charged $75 to fight a traffic ticket, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled.

Motorists issued a traffic ticket in Massachusetts will have to pay money to the state whether or not they committed the alleged crime. According to a state supreme court ruling handed down yesterday, fees are to be imposed even on those found completely innocent. The high court saw no injustice in collecting $70 from Ralph C. Sullivan after he successfully fought a $100 ticket for failure to stay within a marked lane.

Bay State drivers given speeding tickets and other moving violations have twenty days either to pay up or make a non-refundable $20 payment to appeal to a clerk-magistrate. After that, further challenge to a district court judge can be had for a non-refundable payment of $50. Sullivan argued that motorists were being forced to pay "fees" not assessed on other types of violations, including drug possession. He argued this was a violation of the Constitution's Equal Protection clause, but the high court justices found this to be reasonable.

"We conclude that there is a rational basis for requiring those cited for a noncriminal motor vehicle infraction alone to pay a filing fee and not requiring a filing fee for those contesting other types of civil violations," Justice Ralph D. Gants wrote for the court. "Where the legislature provides greater process that imposes greater demands on the resources of the District Court, it is rational for the legislature to impose filing fees, waivable where a litigant is indigent, to offset part of the additional cost of these judicial proceedings."

The court insisted that allowing a hearing before a clerk-magistrate instead of an assistant clerk, as well as allowing a de novo hearing before a judge constituted benefits that justified the cost. Last year, the fees for the clerk-magistrate hearings generated $3,678,620 in revenue for the courts. Although Sullivan raised the issue of due process during oral argument, the court would not rule on the merits of that issue.

"I am disappointed that the SJC did not consider my due process argument," Sullivan told TheNewspaper. "I suppose that some other driver who gets charged with a moving violation will need to consider doing that. At least this decision will give them a blueprint for a focused due process argument."

Sullivan, an attorney, is not planning on further appeal to the US Supreme Court.

"While the decision did not go my way, I am safe in the knowledge that I gave it my best shot," Sullivan said. "I took on this case because I felt that it was the right thing to do."

Source: Salem Police Department v. Sullivan (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 9/21/2011)

[end excerpt]

Been passing them along. Thanks.

$75 billion domestic price tag alone...LaTimes report--

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-911-homeland-money-...

[excerpt]

A decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, federal and state governments are spending about $75 billion a year on domestic security, setting up sophisticated radio networks, upgrading emergency medical response equipment, installing surveillance cameras and bombproof walls, and outfitting airport screeners to detect an ever-evolving list of mobile explosives.

But how effective has that 10-year spending spree been?

"The number of people worldwide who are killed by Muslim-type terrorists, Al Qaeda wannabes, is maybe a few hundred outside of war zones. It's basically the same number of people who die drowning in the bathtub each year," said John Mueller, an Ohio State University professor who has written extensively about the balance between threat and expenditures in fighting terrorism.

"So if your chance of being killed by a terrorist in the United States is 1 in 3.5 million, the question is, how much do you want to spend to get that down to 1 in 4.5 million?" he said.

One effect is certain: Homeland Security spending has been a pump-primer for local governments starved by the recession, and has dramatically improved emergency response networks across the country.

An entire industry has sprung up to sell an array of products, including high-tech motion sensors and fully outfitted emergency operations trailers. The market is expected to grow to $31 billion by 2014.

Like the military-industrial complex that became a permanent and powerful part of the American landscape during the Cold War, the vast network of Homeland Security spyware, concrete barricades and high-tech identity screening is here to stay. The Department of Homeland Security, a collection of agencies ranging from border control to airport security sewn quickly together after Sept. 11, is the third-largest Cabinet department and — with almost no lawmaker willing to render the U.S. less prepared for a terrorist attack — one of those least to fall victim to budget cuts.

[read more at link]

When a person is diagnosed with cancer, that person's health freedoms are restricted instantly.

The cancer industry complex is scrutinized in the documentary "Cut, Poison, Burn". See it online today--

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/09/19/cut-poison...

Conquered again! {sorry: re nora on Sat, 09/24/2011 - 4:09am.}

I haven't started to read, but ya may never see me when I do. Tres 'KEWL' ;) Submitted by CeeCee on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 12:05pm.

Thursday, September 22, 2011
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Brokers Release of US Hikers from Iran
BY EVA GOLINGER

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has confirmed the release of Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer was in large part due to the request and mediation efforts of President Chavez

...VENEZUELA’S ROLE

While the US government failed to facilitate in anyway the release of the three US hikers, Venezuela played a key role. Soon after the initial detention of the hikers, an informal request was made to President Hugo Chavez to intervene on behalf of the three US citizens, based on Venezuela’s close ties with Iran. Chavez, who formerly and successfully mediated the release of several hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2007-2008, including several US citizens, agreed to get involved.

Over the past year and a half, Venezuela has played a key role in mediating and negotiating the release of Bauer and Fattal. Pleas were also made directly to President Chavez requesting his involvement in the release of the hikers by US author Noam Chomsky and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, along with Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn and other allies of Venezuela.

While Chavez made the request to release Bauer and Fattal directly to President Ahmadinejad, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry dealt with the details of the mediation process for their liberation.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement a day after the release on Thursday, September 22, confirming the important role Venezuelan President Chavez played in the release of Bauer and Fattal.

“The statement said that after the completion of the judicial processing, the Islamic Republic of Iran released the other two on bail again due to Islamic kindness and affection and in order to show respect for the mediation efforts made by several world leaders, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and top authorities of several friendly states like Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Omani King Sultan Qaboos as well as a number of religious figures, who have all requested their freedom”, reported FNA....
http://www.chavezcode.com/2011/09/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez.html

Maher, Moore defend Tony Bennett’s 9/11 comments

...n reaction to panel guest John Avlon saying “he was offended” by Bennett’s statements and labeling them “bulls–t,” Moore came in to vehemently defend the 85 year old crooner.

“I’m not offended by what he said,” Moore said. “I think it was a brave thing to say, because what he was saying was much more complex. He wasn’t blaming and saying, ‘We’re responsible for our people getting killed.’”

“He’s just trying to say that past policies were such that we don’t get to go around the world and behave whatever way we want to behave and expect like something may not happen. If you have a pitbull in your neighbor’s backyard, and you go over and keep kicking that pitbulll and then that pitbull bites you, you don’t say ‘I don’t know why that pitbull bit me.’ Because you’ve been kicking the dog.”

When former congresswoman Jane Harman disagreed with Moore and called Bennett’s comments “careless,” Maher came in to back Moore.

“Nobody is saying that those specific people who died had it coming,” the Real Time host said. “No one is saying that. That’s how it becomes interpreted. What we’re saying is that the United States has almost half a million troops in over 150 countries around the world. That is an empire. If you want to have an empire, and this country by its acquiescence of that fact certainly does, if you want to have that big a footprint, yes, there is going to be some kind of blowback.”

Later on, Rage Against The Machine man Tom Morello shared his thoughts, mentioning how his band’s songs were backlisted from radio stations in the aftermath of 9/11...
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/09/maher-moore-defend-tony-bennet...

(September 24th, 1969 A trial began for the "Chicago Eight," who were accused of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven

"Nobody's blog governance regarding 'global governance'"

You know, stomping your feet and snidely proclaiming "you're not the boss of me" every time someone tries to correct you isn't exactly conducive to "learning", which you claim as your raison d'être on this blog.

Nobody said:
>>Let's dissect your catch phrase..."global governance"<<

"Reply: This is NOT 'my' catch phrase. In the video above, David de Rothschild used the term. And in the book I mentioned above, "Superclass", the author documents the use of the term by 'insiders' of the Power Elite who make clear their intent to practice same."

You used the phrase and whether or not it originated with you, it's your responsibility once you post it. Now, I ask you again "what exactly is wrong with the concept of "global governance"? Explain it in your own words if possible, please.

As an aside, you do know that the one that invented the whole Rothchild conspiracy was none other than Lyndon LaRouche, right? Ya know, the patron saint of 'psyops' and right wing batshittery...

Nobody said:
>>I love all your little catch phrases..."predator class"...really?...FFS<<

"Reply: Come now, Nobody. "Love"? You don't even like me let alone anything I post. Sheesh."

That's that 'nuance' thing that I was talking about. Was the sarcasm in my statement that difficult for you to read?...Really?...FFS.

"Don't start getting hypocritical. Also, you state your opinions in your posts. Are you saying you refuse me the same?"

Not at all, I'm saying that your opinion, besides being wrong, is poorly presented, poorly framed and poorly disguised right wing batshittery.

"I see a group of people who EXPLOIT other animals, other people and the biosphere for their personal gain and I consider them as a group to be a predator class."

Because there is no such thing as 'rich liberals' or 'wealthy leftists'? You can't be a good person and have money too? Don't you find it a bit odd to be against people spending their money to try and make the world a better place?

"If you want to disagree, do that, and preferably with some valid points to make about it."

Oh, I will and you'll hate every minute of it. I make my points rather frequently actually, and you've the habit of never acknowledging them and continuing to argue as if they never happened at all.

"Otherwise, it just sounds to me that you are actually standing in DEFENSE of the exploiters and slavers of this world and trying to shut up anyone who points out their anti-social/anti-Planet behavior."

The "I know you are but what am I?, defense"...Really?

Do I really need to point out the "anti-social/anti-planet" consequences of 90% of what you've already posted and signed your name to again?...Really?

Nobody said:
>>I've watched you over and over again try and illicit emotional responses with this sort of hackney, amatuer propagandist, meme forcing bullshit and I'm not only less than impressed, I'm actually embarassed for you, when you do it.<<

Reply:
"After tussling with you these past months, I can say that your words sound like an intimate description of yourself and your own motivations, Nobody. Just my opinion."

"I know you are, but what am I?" part deux.

Nobody said:
>>You're making the same cardinal mistake that you're presently accusing others of, that of assuming that you're actually smarter than your "audience", trust me, you're not even in the same ballpark as most of the people that read this blog, especially when it coms to 'nuance'.<<

Reply:
"Accusing? I didn't intend to accuse. It feels like observation to me; obsservation from my perspective."

It's "observation" up until you attempt to transmit whatever theory you've derived from your observations. If I for instance 'observe' that Nora is less than bright, it's quite a bit different than saying "Nora, is less than bright", which is by nature an accusation that "Nora" (that's you) "is" (defining the following as an actuality) "less than bright".

"I make no claims that my opinion is any better than anyone elses'. You, Nobody, have claimed that as YOUR DOMAIN. Sheesh."

LOL, your months long arguments with half a dozen other people on this blog besides me would contradict that statement rather forcefully.

One of us is honest about being opinionated and the other wishes to portray herself as something that she's not.

"I have made clear in other posts that I am a learner discovering a lot of things new to me; I enjoy sharing what I am discovering, and appreciate when others point me on to additional avenues of information and insight."

You've made it even clearer by your actions that the above statement is completely and utterly bullshit.

"I'm not the last word in anything, and don't claim to be. (I don't know if there are many topics in which a 'last word' is even possible.)"

Actions speak a lot louder than words.

Nobody said:
>>Rule #1

You can't force memes.

Rule #2

The use of 'buzzwords' and 'over selling' get's you pegged as 'narc' in every culture and society on this planet.

Rule #3

If you don't immediately understand the first two rules on an instinctual level then you shouldn't even bother trying.<<

Reply:
"Why do you jump out of your skin when others use words descriptively?"

Why don't you realize how over the top your language choices are?

"I'm not pulling the idea of the existence of a predatory types out of thin air. I read the book "Snakes in Suits", and the authors acknowledged that the nature of the Corporate Culture rewards unrelenting and ruthless competition for profit above other human characteristics as an encouragement and reward milieu for possibly anti-social types. I even heard Hartmann mention he suspects many CEOs' "skills" are actually sociopathic traits."

Hence the statistic that unlike the general population, the breakdown in corporate culture is 10% sociopaths. My problem isn't with the idea that corporations promote sociopaths, I just don't disagree with that, but the same is also true of law enforcement and the fire dept. or for that matter any area of human endeavor that has high risk.

My problem was your attempt to define a whole "class" of people as predatory and then to further define them as sociopaths. The fact is that even sociopaths more often than not do good for others because it's in their self interest to do so.

Did you know that sociopaths are also more likely to be right wing? The less intelligent ones, more prone to missing subtle social cues and overplay their hands in an attempt to 'fit in'.

I've known a lot of sociopaths in my life, both rich and poor. For that matter the atypical teenage male IS a sociopath. The smart ones can be reasoned with but the dumb ones remain entirely clueless, no matter how much effort you put in.

They just never understand that everyone else is not exactle like them.

"If anyone is trying to "force" anything here, Nobody, you are -- with another one of your attempts to mischaracterize me."

Whoosh! right over your head and thank you for proving my point once again.

Nobody said:
>>7 out of 10 humans are altruistic
3 out of 10 are self centered
9.999 out of 10 humans are social
.1 - .3 out of 10 humans are sociopathic
.1 - 1 out of 10 'rich' humans are sociopaths<<

Reply:
"This conclusion (even without a REFERENCE, which I would appreciate seeing) I do not feel is incorrect (although, again, if you are saying these are specific measurements, I would like to see the reference)."

The terms you'd be looking for are 'altruism gene frequency'
This is a simple inversion of the prior statistic.
Put any two humans at opposite ends of an empty field and they will walk towards each other.
Here you'd want to look up 'sociopath frequency' or 'percentage'
You can easly find reference to 'sociopathic frequency corporate'

You're lucky I take the time to answer the sheer volume of crap that you post at all, you can do your own homework.

'For years I have been moved by something I read in a book about Gandhi; Gandhi said something to the effect that most people are peace-loving and seek harmony and if that were not so, chaos would be our common/constant state rather than the contrived situations forced upon populations (I assumed he could be meaning conscription into military for wars conceived by a few, or societal rivalries devised by those outsiders who wish to divide and conquer, and so on); thus his reasoning that nonviolence was the primary means by which the majority of the populace could be moved to participate in action for change and justice."

When Ghandi says it then it's pure genius but when I do you ask for references?

I've argued with you it seems like a hundred times now that humanity is by in large good, that the nature of humanity was good. It's you that has so often taken the contrary position.

What Ghandi is saying there is that if humanity were as many persist in painting them, evil, warlike, selfish, greedy, that we would not be able to have any form of society at all, but that is not what we see.

Ghandis "contrived situations" are not the particulars that you assume but is just another way of saying "societies" and by using the term "contrived" he intimates that societies are a creation and can thusly be changed. The rest is a reiteration that violence begets violence.

In my own version of the "contrived situation", I use the terminolgy of the maze determining the actions of the rat more than the rat. The situations that we're placed in have an awful lot to do with the choices that we make.

Put anyone in a situation where they will have to kill to survive and the mostly likely outcome is that they will kill. Put someone in a situation where they have to steal to survive and they will most likely steal.

Teach someone to fear the other and...Isolate someone from reality through social distancing and...Feed them a diet of misinformation and...Constantly wave the flag that humanity itself is dark and menacing and...Stand at the bully pulpit and proclaim that it's ok to hate poor people and...

Or you can change the rules of the game and put people in situations where they can do good and they will do good.

This is the problem I have with you more often than not...You fail to consider the possible effects or consequences of the ideas that you promote, just because they 'sound' good.

Nobody said:
>>The odds that you're going to find your all powerful evil overlords in that mix is pretty fucking slim.<<

Reply:
"Once again, I point out that it is my view that the capitalist/corporatist values like profit-motive/winner-take-all has encouraged/caused the congregation of sociopaths and conscience-compromised/deficient at the top of our current power flowchart. So I disagree with you; I think the chances are much better that there are plenty of this group up top. (How soon you forget the selection of empathy-scarce and conscience-lacking individuals congregated in the G.W.Bush Administration ....)"

Once again, you wish to portray some section of humanity as being intrinsically evil and an enemy to be feared and hated.

Yes, there are more sociopaths at the top of the ladder than the general population, instead of 1 out of 100 it's 1 out of 10...

In your selection of enemies you're still going to hit 9 'innocents'.

The problem with the wealthy isn't that they're all out to get us, it's they no longer know us. They live in bubbles that center around their work and others in their financial bracket. Dunbars number applies.

If they hear of us at all it's through the MSM and it's decidely right wing narrative that the poor aren't really poor or that they're just lazy.

Another problem is that their view of humanity is colored by the higher frequency of sociopaths in their circles...They've been lied to and had people try and take advantage of them a lot and tend to be very cautious.

But the actual problem is...convincing these same people to spend their wealth rather than hoard it. Even though most of them don't really care about money as anything more than a way of keeping score in a game, they're still cautious of anyone telling them to spend it.

I don't think that your attempt to dehumanize them by painting them all as sociopaths is very constructive in this regard.

If you really want to do some good, find a way to get this message through that bubble. They will respond.

TRY SHORTER POSTS FOR A CHANGE...IF EVEN JUST FOR CLARITYS SAKE.

Yo Sam! Time for a new thread?
Great interviews with Cliff Schecter, Will Bunch and Alan Grayson last week!
I see DAVID SHUSTER made the move to Current-TV too filling in for KO.
WATCH Thomas DeFrank on Obama’s need to run an aggressive campaign
When is SAM gonna fill in for KO again? Hmmmm?

All the links to Sam's interviews are on

Brick TeeVee WAR ON WALL STREET!
Also poking Murdoch in the eye at his own blogspot
http://filthy-rich.blogspot.com/2011/09/brick-teevee-war-on-wall-street....

GOOD MORNING SEDERVILLE! TURN IT UP!

Listen to Breakfast with the Beatles every Sunday!
9 am et & repeat at Midnight et on DISHTV 6021 or Sirius/XM 21
Listen live on KLOS Sunday: 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM PT

No time right now to wade through your swamp of words and the obvious hostility behind them. This time I think I'll try to point out your methodology, that is, what you appear to do, and apply yourself to the most at, in each encounter: You take the spotlight off the topic and put it instead on whomever you perceive to be your opponent. Because that's what the bulk of your seven posts above consists of up thread -- your continued attempts to mischaracterize me and smear me while simultaneously getting off the original topic.

So: Why turn a topic like "Global Governance" into another rant about 'nora', Nobody? Surely you have by now read at least the Wikipedia page [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_governance ] and realize that I did not pull the term out of thin air.

I even have brewed ;D
I should read your fighting posts N & N ;)

;)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150324155577708.360679.121859...

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/09/24/nyc-police-trap-peaceful-fem...
I will 'bitch' 2 NYPD plus GOV office ;)

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