Freak Hail Storm in the Spring: Seattle...

Overnight al-Mahdi Army has melted back into the population in Baghdad and Basra after its leader, the antiAmerican cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, ordered it to stop fighting government forces. In Sadr City and other militia strongholds they do not need to be seen. Their presence is felt everywhere.

A BB&T Capital Markets analyst said Monday corn rationing may be necessary this year, following a U.S. Department of Agriculture report predicting farmers would plant far fewer acres of corn in 2008.

general hoke nearly goes to jail...

General Faisal AlAsafi, commander of a Green Zone entrance-protection unit, told AlArab that American Ambassador Ryan Crocker gave the order Saturday night to more the location of the Baghdad Embassy, temporarily, from the Green Zone to an alternate location, which he didn't specify.

Sen. Barack Obama has won the overall delegate race in Texas thanks to a strong showing in Democratic county conventions this past weekend.

Lots of Clinton news over the weekend, not all bad--but bad enough to dock her another 0.6 points in the Rodhameter, bringing her chances of winning to 9.7 percent.

The credit crunch is exposing the masters of the universe as mere mortals after all

VIDEO - How the Neo Cons use the Myth of religion in politics...

The Federal Reserve, which has been credited with creating the current housing bubble and bust just as it created the credit bubble of the Roaring Twenties and the bust of 1929, is now to be given vast new powers to oversee regulation of the banking industry and promote "financial market stability." At least, that is the gist of a Treasury Department proposal to be presented to Congress on Monday, March 31, 2008. Adrian Douglas wrote on LeMetropoleCafe.com, "I would like to think that this is some sort of sick April Fools joke, but, alas, they are serious! What happened to free markets?"1

I place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. President Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

Citing absolutely no evidence whatsoever, CIA boss Michael Hayden told NBC's Meet The Press yesterday that Al-Qaeda is training new fighters that "look western" and could easily cross U.S. borders, in the latest attempt to re-focus the mammoth apparatus of anti-terror against the American people.

The 'man on the street' was recently interviewed in London... watch the following to see the results of the 'Israel Quiz'.... the ignorance and blind support of Israeli policies is what has destroyed Palestine... it's frightening.

Among the debts reported this month by Hillary Rodham Clinton's struggling presidential campaign, the $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign staff stands out.

Clinton, who is being pressured to end her campaign against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, has made her plan for universal health care a centerpiece of her agenda.

One of America's leading banking associations has given warning that the United States faces a growing educational apartheid as some lenders withdraw from student loans amid new evidence that the credit crisis has spread across all types of borrowing.

n the past fortnight, some banks, including HSBC, have pulled out of the $85 billion (£42 billion) a year US student loans market, fuelling anxiety that the turmoil that hit debt markets on Wall Street last summer is spilling over into the wider economy and making credit more difficult to secure for ordinary American households.

ROBERT MUGABE was desperately clinging to power last night, despite his looming defeat in Zimbabwe's presidential election, by blocking the electoral commission from releasing results and threatening to treat an opposition claim of victory as a coup.

The final phase or aftermath of WW III is the destruction of the United States so what remains can be folded into the North American Union. The Iranian response to the Israeli air strike will include the cut off of all oil from the Persian Gulf which should raise the price of oil to $300 or $400 a barrel. That would bankrupt more than 50% of all American families as they would have no means of buying gas to get to work. The destruction of the dollar will make food unaffordable too."

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

"The Iraq war is a success," they continuously boast. "The troop surge is working," they arrogantly brag. President George Bush, in denial, lying or both, regurgitates the spin often in a desperate attempt to salvage his reputation and his legacy. Sen. John McCain has made his support of the war and in particular the surge the cornerstone of his 2008 Republican presidential campaign.

The New York Times prepared THIS video... it's worth watching . It contains interviews with students at Rutgers University who discuss the joys and challenges of being Americans of mixed race.

The year 1948 is the worst year in Palestinian history. It is the year of the destruction of Palestinian society and the dispossession and expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their villages and cities by Zionist forces. Today, there are about five million Palestinian refugees around the world, still waiting to exercise their right of return.

Watch the following video to see how Muslims are treated in the USA.... and the reactions of the others when they witness it...

Rice has made numerous visits to Ramallah and occupied Jerusalem ever since she became Secretary of State more than three years ago.

However, the overall situation pertaining to the Palestinian plight has more or less remained unchanged. In fact, one can safely contend that the Israeli occupation and apartheid are now much worse than they were three years ago.

Recently American Society of Civil Engineers said: "That of our nation's 590,750 bridges, 27 per cent could be dangerous to drive on." And in my files, I have an editorial (May 22, 1994) from Concord Monitor newspaper called O'Leary's Alarm. Charles O'Leary is New Hampshire Highway Commissioner. He said: "If you cross NH decrepit bridges, drive fast and don't look back". The NH legislature had siphoned off gas tax revenue for non-highway needs and O'Leary did not want to risk being blamed for people being drowned if a bridge went down. By now, the bridge picture in NH may have observed much improvement. I do not know.

So now, I am asking everyone to join me to write letters to Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez and Congressman Dave Weldon to STOP supporting and Vote NO on $30 Billion to Israel and to use said money for American bridge construction and other American domestic needs.

Warner Music Group has proposed a $5/month music tax to be charged by ISPs for 24-hour access to high-quality music downloads:

What is the term for people who live under occupation for over 40 years, and pay taxes to the occupying authority, and yet do not have any rights under that same authority?

What is the term for people being issued different color ids and license plates so as to determine whether they can enter another part of their own homeland?

History may not repeat itself, but, as Mark Twain observed, it can sometimes rhyme. The crises and conflicts of the past recur, recognisably similar even when altered by new conditions. At present, a race for the world's resources is underway that resembles the Great Game that was played in the decades leading up to the First World War. Now, as then, the most coveted prize is oil and the risk is that as the contest heats up it will not always be peaceful. But this is no simple rerun of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, there are powerful new players and it is not only oil that is at stake.

This Year's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries...

Israeli Defence Minister and Labour leader Ehud Barak has suggested that his party may withdraw support from the government very soon, raising speculations about early general elections in the country.

Former First Lady Kept Insisting She Came Under Sniper Fire in Bosnia Despite Newspaper Stories to the Contrary and Backed Off Only After Video Footage Proving her Claim to be False Was Posted on YouTube -- and Picked Up By the TV Networks

VIDEO - Bush booed at 2008 Nationals home opener...

The fortified Green Zone in Iraq's capital came under mortar or rocket attack again Monday, despite the call a day before from a radical Shiite cleric for his fighters to stand down.

Japanese member of Parliament Yukihisa Fujita told the Alex Jones Show yesterday that a potential new investigation of the 9/11 cover-up could be led by global parliamentarians he has been in contact with, or even by the United Nations itself.

Fujita, an MP for the Japanese Democratic Party, and a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature), presented evidence which contradicted the official 9/11 story during a widely publicized Japanese Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting in January of this year.

Like all things these tightly-controlled-information age, I suspected there was more to it than what they were saying. I got home and started reading. Then more reading, and then even more reading and then a little more, and sure enough, there it was-the 'devil' in the details as they always say. As it turns out there was another side to the coin we were not being told about, a side just as horrible as the initial story of the shooting itself, and in an instant, I came to the realization that this school shooting held the key to resolving, or at least understanding, the Palestinian-Israeli "conflict", as most Western Media like to call it.

As it turned out, the school in question (or rather, the 'seminary' as they were referring to it) turned out to be a training camp for Jewish terrorists, not much different than the video footage we all see on mainstream news featuring Islamic militants running through obstacle courses with Kalashnikovs shouting 'Alahu Akbar'! Like most things these days, it was cleverly disguised under the very religious-sounding name 'Merkaz Harav,' or the Rabbi Center. The Merkaz was established back in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak Kook, chief Rabbi of Palestine, a fact I found rather interesting, since Israel was established in 1948. I am not sure who 'appointed' him to that post, but that is another story for another time. As it turns out, the 'good Rabbi' was rabid not only in his support of Zionism but as well in the new ideology he himself concocted in the early 1900's. Kook saw the Merkaz as the ultimate center for raising Jewish leaders who would build the "true" Jewish society in the land God had given 'His people' as a gift, the result of which would lead to universal and religious redemption. In short, the thin line separating heaven on earth from hell on earth was the Jewish people 'redeeming' the land of Palestine by whatever means were necessary.

Gov't official says HUD chief leaving...

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

BBC's killer documentary called "The Power of Nightmares". Top CIA officials openly admit, Al-qaeda is a total and complete fabrication, never having existed at any time. The Bush administration needed a reason that complied with the Laws so they could go after "the bad guy of their choice" namely laws that had been set in place to protect us from mobs and "criminal organizations" such as the Mafia. They paid Jamal al Fadl, hundreds of thousands of dollars to back the U.S. Government's story of Al-qaeda, a "group" or criminal organization they could "legally" go after. This video documentary is off the hook...

The British government encouraged the tale that Russian President Putin had sent Andrei Lugovoi to poison Litvinenko's tea at a meeting on November 1, 2006. The story appealed to people brought up on James Bond thrillers, but the story never made any sense. Polonium 2-10 is a rare and tightly controlled substance as likely to contaminate the assassin as the victim. There are far easier and more effective ways of killing someone.

Moreover, there is no evidence to connect Russia to Litvinenko's death. But this didn't stop the British government from grandstanding, sending an extradition request for Lugovoi in July 2007. The British government sent the request despite the facts that there is no extradition treaty between Britain and Russia and the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens. Epstein suggests that the purpose of the extradition request was to block the Russian government from investigating Litvinenko's death in London. Litvinenko had a false passport provided by the British government. A real investigtion might have opened up the shadowy world of security consultants in which Litvinenko rubbed shoulders with former British police and intelligence officials.

The quicker home prices find a sustainable bottom, the quicker our economy can truly recover.

Instead, the government is trying to float our allegorical collapsed beach house on a flood tide of new liquidity. But the fixes compound the problem. They're creating runaway inflation, shrinking the value of the dollar -- and heading toward unprecedented government meddling in the marketplace and a diminished sanctity of contracts.

Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the World's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday. "For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us,"

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

It appears there will never be a settlement to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Many moderate Palestinians believe Israel is an occupying army, while many Israelis want security and believe the land belongs to Israel.

Agencies such as the National Security Agency have bought servers on which Google-supplied search technology is used to process information gathered by networks of spies around the world.

Google is also providing the search features for a Wikipedia-style site, called Intellipedia, on which agents post information about their targets that can be accessed and appended by colleagues, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The contracts are just a number that have been entered into by Google's 'federal government sales team', that aims to expand the company's reach beyond its core consumer and enterprise operations.

It seems Washington used the recent visit to West Asia (Middle East) by Vice-President Dick Cheney to alert the House of Saud the U. S. has completed preparations for a missile-air attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in April. PressTV reports the Saudi paper Okaz mentioned a meeting of the Saudi Shura Council after the Vice-President's visit in which the council approved preparations to counter "radioactive fallout" due to a U. S. attack on Iran. There has also been a recent deployment of a U. S. nuclear submarine in the Persian Gulf. That is why I suspect the real reason for the current three day visit by U. S. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice to Israel is not to discuss the removal of road blocks in the West Bank but to alert Jerusalem.

It might seem odd for Obama to mention Israel and "radical Islam" in a speech focused on US race relations, especially since Wright's most widely reported comments were about America's historic and ongoing oppression of its black citizens.

But for months, even before most Americans had heard of Wright, prominent pro-Israel activists were hounding Obama over Wright's views on Israel and ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In January, Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), demanded that Obama denounce Farrakhan as an anti-Semite. The senator duly did so, but that was not enough. "[Obama has] distanced himself from his pastor's decision to honor Farrakhan," Foxman said, but "He has not distanced himself from his pastor. I think that's the next step." Foxman labeled Wright "a black racist," adding in the same breath, "Certainly he has very strong anti-Israel views" (Larry Cohler-Esses, "ADL Chief To Obama: 'Confront Your Pastor' On Minister Farrakhan," The Jewish Week, 16 January 2008). Criticism of Israel, one suspects, is Wright's truly unforgivable crime and Foxman's vitriol has echoed through dozens of pro-Israel blogs.

Efraim's dad, Michael Diveroli, told the media that he had nothing to do with his son's arms trading.

"I would prefer he became a nice Jewish doctor or lawyer rather than an arms dealer. He's never asked for my approval on the company. He doesn't always take my advice, I don't influence him. As a father of a boy genius he's hard to control," Michael Diveroli told WFOR-TV.

That's hard to believe. Fedvendor.com lists Michael Diveroli as AEY's sales manager and its government business contact. The elder Diveroli incorporated AEY in 1999 and installed his son as president in 2005. Michael Diveroli also has two businesses of his own that get government contracts for police equipment and office supplies.

You're being squeezed by these same money men so that life will become so intolerable that you'll be glad to run through the bloody trenches and razor wire to free yourself from the conditions created by the people who sent you running in the first place.

There's too many of you. You're taking up too much space. Over here and over there people are breeding like rabbits because that is what people do when they are starving and short of resources, shelter, food, opportunity and the value of their labor has disappeared because they already dug up and sold everything they had to the people who bought off their leaders and created the unbearable debt they find themselves in. Maybe they'll get lucky and these people will find something else they want and they can start all over again.

Israeli officials announced Monday plans to conduct the largest emergency drills in its history as part of lessons learned from the 2006 war with Lebanon.

Parts of Israel will effectively shut down starting April 6.

The Bush administration is proposing the most sweeping overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the Great Depression. ADVERTISEMENT

The plan would change how the government regulates thousands of businesses from the nation's biggest banks and investment houses down to the local insurance agent and mortgage broker.

Like the revolutionary movie "Matrix," every totalitarian state will eventually produce an underground resistance, which will find its own charismatic leaders, who can convince enough fellow slaves to rise-up into an irresistible critical mass. It will be the same way here in America, once Internet researchers finally manage to blow the lid off the 911 cover-up, or one of the other pressure cooker political cover-ups that are now being brought to a boil on the stove. When the people can finally get a clear glimpse of the totalitarian state rising around them, they will throw off all pretense of self-serving self-restraint.

Iraqi lawmakers traveled to the Iranian holy city of Qom over the weekend to win the support of the commander of Iran's Qods brigades in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to order his followers to stop military operations, members of the Iraqi parliament said.

Former Vice President Al Gore is set to unveil a three-year, $300 million climate change campaign Wednesday, one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history, the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin reports:

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists have been analyzing the steam and gas plume that's been gushing from Halemaumau crater at the summit of Kilauea since March 11th.

They've found something they didn't expect: the H2O in their test tubes is not from ground water. It's been released from the molten subterranean magma itself.

"Lest there be anyone left who believes the RIAA's propaganda that its litigation campaign is intended to benefit the 'creators' of the music, Hollywood Reporter reports that the RIAA is asking the Copyright Royalty Board to lower songwriter royalties on song file downloads, from the present rate of 9 cents per song -- about 13% of the wholesale price -- down to 8% of wholesale. Meanwhile, the big digital music companies, such as Apple, want the royalty rate lowered even more, to something like 4% of wholesale. So any representations by any of these companies that they are concerned for the 'creators' of the music must henceforth be taken with a boxcar-load of salt."

Sony BMG, a company known for enforcing its intellectual property rights, is now facing the other end of an Intellectual Property related lawsuit. A report (French) says the complaining company, PointDev, seized some of Sonys assets which revealed that the pirated software appeared on four of their servers.

Here's one the mainstream media isn't going to tell you: County sheriffs in Wyoming are demanding that federal agents actually abide by the Constitution, or face arrest. Even better, a U.S. District Court agreed.

The annual convention of the Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) scheduled for this weekend, appears as if it will be a vortex of political intrigue. With appearances by John Edwards, Chelsea Clinton and James Carville - there is a thinly disguised agenda operating at some level to create the impression of a pending endorsement of Senator Clinton by former Senator Edwards. However, the scene behind the arras is much more convoluted.

Have whips for state delegations and deputy whips for groups within each delegation. Have them live, eat, drink and socialize with their charges. And have a fast, nimble system in place to report any concerns, because in a close contest, small groups of delegates matter. In the 1952 GOP contest, Eisenhower received critical support from the 19 delegates pledged to Minnesota's Harold Stassen, then in his second of ultimately nine presidential bids. The 26 delegates committed to John Edwards may be critical to this year's outcome.

ALOHA AIRLINES TO SHUT DOWN PASSENGER OPERATIONS AFTER MARCH 31, 2008, ENDING A 61-YEAR TRADITION OF SERVICE TO HAWAII

I believe that aspartame can aggravate diabetes and its complications, especially eye problems and neuropathy, or it can simulate the complications of diabetes. In other words, aspartame disease can simulate diabetic retinopathy or peripheral neuropathy. When patients discontinue these products, they usually get better. In terms of aggravating diabetes, consuming aspartame either can bring out latent diabetes clinically or can lead to insulin resistance, which would require patients to take oral drugs to increase the amount of insulin required. The bottom line is that when people stop ingesting these products, the symptoms usually improve.

Deir Yassin Remembered...

The Zionist myth of "a land without a people for a people without a land" continues to be propagated despite being exposed by several Jewish historians as a fraud that has hidden the real tragedy of Palestinian dispossession.

The Fed's Board of Governors are now playing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as our economy, the USS Titanic, quickly sinks into an ocean of money and credit which the Fed created to fuel speculation, to create frothy asset bubbles and to cover up the long gash ripped into the hull of the USS Titanic by free trade, globalization, off-shoring and outsourcing...

An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.

I was recently banned from the site "Alternet" for daring to suggest "Al Qaeda" is largely a propaganda farce and hollow trap meant to deceive a rather gullible American public - which it certainly has. I didn't just up and decide to make this up, by the way. Documented authors Webster Tarpley ("Synthetic Terror") and Michael Chossudovsky ("America's 'War on Terrorism'") along with a host of other well-researched journalists, academics and government insiders have said the same and more.

Sound outrageous?

AIPAC (American Israeli Political Activity Committee) has some new competition: A new, organization, presenting itself as an alternative to AIPAC, will be operational in two weeks, the New York Magazine Jewish Week, reported recently.

LIVE INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS LATUFF...

As Israel gets underway to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding, Palestine also remembers the destruction of their state. Palestine, a nation almost completely forgotten by the world, a nation that continues to suffer daily under the yolk of zionist occupation. But, Palestine survives and will be reborn despite all odds that are against Her.

I remember the day well. I was at Ben Gurion airport, on the way to a secret meeting in London with Said Hamami, Yasser Arafat's emissary, when someone told me: "They have killed a lot of Arab protestors!"

That was not entirely unexpected. A few days before, we - members of the newly formed Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace - had handed the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, an urgent memorandum warning him that the government's intention of expropriating huge chunks of land from Arab villages would cause an explosion. We included a proposal for an alternative solution, worked out by Lova Eliav, a veteran expert on settlements.

When I returned from abroad, the poet Yevi suggested that we make a symbolic gesture of sorrow and regret for the killings. Three of us - Yevi himself, the painter Dan Kedar and I - laid wreaths on the graves of the victims. This aroused a wave of hatred against us. I felt that something profoundly significant had happened, that the relationship between Jews and Arabs within the state had changed fundamentally.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose offensive that began Tuesday in the oil-rich southern city in Basra sparked the crisis, called al-Sadr's statement ''a step in the right direction.''

Anti-War Protest in Hollywood, CA - March 15, 2008...

Gallup Daily: Obama Now at 52% to Clinton's 42%...

Best Buy calls copper on unsatisfied shopper...

"Any number of interesting subjects today. First, we have incoming gen that the top Clinton people have been holding "substantive talks" with the McCain people, trying to stop Obama's lead. Much speculation on how they plan to do this, in stupid defiance of Obama's unquestioned popular support. If they pull off a typical back door coup, they could risk a serious public explosion from millions of people who are sick to death of their lies and thieving manipulations.

'Automatic' Economic Recovery Isn't Certain, Says Economist Robert Parks

It has been almost 160 years since the first California gold rush but, with prices hitting record highs, prospectors are once again flocking to the state's rivers and deserts in search of the precious metal.

Barrack Obama appeared to have scored a clear victory over Hillary Clinton on Saturday in the second step of Texas' multi-tiered process for selecting its delegates to the Democratic National Convention. With results available from about half of the district conventions held statewide, the Associated Press reported that Obama had won 59 percent of the delegates headed to the state party's June convention to Clinton's 41 percent. That translates into 1,858 delegates for Obama and 1,270 for Clinton.

Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial - My Small Tribute to Eric Duffer...

During a daily press meeting with reporters on March 19, the State Department's spokesperson was asked about a deal recently signed between Switzerland and Iran to supply Iranian natural gas to Europe. After condemning the deal, the spokesperson explained that the US is opposed to any "investing in Iran, not only in its petroleum or natural gas area but in any sector of its economy" and questioned rhetorically the wisdom of doing business with Iranian "financial institutions that are under UN sanctions or could become under sanctions if it's found that they are assisting or aiding or abetting Iran's nuclear program in any way." A clearer expression of US desires is hardly possible.

There may be trouble for Orlando's ordinance on feeding the homeless. It bans groups from serving meals at parks without a permit and no group can get a permit for the same park more than twice a year.

The Fed is now going to go over your brokers books in the middle of the night and bet against your stocks tomorrow.

The abysmal performance of western TV and radio interviewers when dealing with issues surrounding Israel - that 'Rogue Regime' or 'Zionist Entity', as many now call it - is not only embarrassing but a blot on the escutcheon of journalism.

Even the most fearsome inquisitors purr like a pussycat. Their rottweiler instincts evaporate, their investigative skills desert them, objectivity takes a nosedive. Penetrating questions are seldom asked, lies go unchallenged. Any Israeli spokesperson or cheerleader is guaranteed an easy ride.

Have the nation's truth-seekers fallen under some wicked Zionist spell? Are their researchers on strike? Did somebody nobble the programme editors?

While we wait with mounting frustration for our broadcasters to get their act together, here are 20 simple questions the BBC and others seem anxious not to ask......

One in 6 West Virginians is on food stamps...

On May 15, Israel will celebrate its 60th anniversary. Palestinians around the world will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba or the "Catastrophe." Among other things, Al-Nakba marks the forced expulsion and destitution of 750,000 Palestinians from their indigenous homeland and the destruction of 418 villages in 1948. Its aftermath effectively decimated Palestinian identity, culture and life.

Representatives of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi authorities have begun talks to end fierce fighting between security forces and Shiite militiamen that has killed several hundred people, an aide to Sadr said on Sunday.

The weakness of the dollar makes any saving of dollar-denominated paper assets pointless. Why would any rational person, unless totally ignorant of what is happening, save a dollar in an account that pays less than 3% a year when the rate of inflation is 10% or more? Disregarding the "official" annual rates that are continual, boring lies, just reach back in your own mind to only one year ago. How much did you pay for eggs? Bread and other food items? Gasoline? And if you can buy any of those today for less than a 10% increase from 12 months ago, please tell me where to do it, because I can't. These are the true inflation indicators-- at your lunch counters, gasoline stations and supermarkets --not some figures from a government-funded, bureaucratic deceiver.

Since 2003, Chinese military hackers have been causing havoc in the computer networks of some of America's most secure military and nuclear centers. It is now believed terrorists can also see the value in launching cyber attacks against U.S. computer systems.

A prominent strategy of Israeli hasbara, or official propaganda, is to deflect criticism of its actions in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip by stressing that within the country's 1948 boundaries, it is a model democracy comparable to the societies in Western Europe and North America with which it identifies and on whose diplomatic support it relies to maintain a favorable status quo. In fact, Israeli society is in the grip of a wave of unchecked racism and incitement that seriously threatens Israel's Palestinian community and the long-term prospects for regional peace. This briefing examines societal and institutional racism and incitement by public figures against Israel's Arab population and considers some policy implications.

Chinese security forces seal off Tibet capital...

Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will not hand over their weapons as part of a move to end a week of fighting in Iraq, a top Sadr aide said.

The aide, Hazem al-Araji, also said that Sadr's followers had received a guarantee from the government that it would end "random arrests" of Sadr followers.

He added that the body of 18-year-old Tamer Dawass was hardly recognized due to the numerous gunshots he received.

Major grower ends crop, lacking workers...

If I Were A Terrorist!...

Gorenberg's piece explores why Malley was tagged with the anti-Israel label. Marty Peretz, former proprietor of the New Republic called him a "rabid hater of Israel." The New York Times idiotically reported the "charges" against Malley without explaining how ridiculous they are. And a million emails went out to Jewish primary voters warning about the dangerous Malley.

So what is the evidence that Malley is anti-Israel? As Gorenberg -- an Israeli and Orhodox Jew -- reports it stems from several articles Malley wrote following Camp David which made the claim (get ready to be shocked) that the failure of the 2000 Clinton summit was not all Arafat's fault but that Ehud Barak was also to blame.

The recent rise in corporate bankruptcies in America may well be a sign of much worse to come

If he was a Muslim, you would not find one mainstream report that neglected to shove that fact down your throat. Is this self-censorship in the press? And do I have to troll the blogs to find the kind of info about Government-funded Jewish crime paid for by our tax dollars???

All Clinton supporters have to do is to vote for McCain....

The Bush administration is proposing the broadest overhaul of Wall Street regulation since the Great Depression. But the plan, to be unveiled on Monday, has its genesis in a yearlong effort to limit Washington's role in the market.

Israel splitting Palestinian territories into cantons: Abbas...

Since the U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the incidence of cancer in Serbia, which received the brunt of the bombing, has at least doubled. Thousands of tons of bombs and missiles carrying depleted uranium were dropped on the country. The radioactive dust was inhaled not just by those nearby, but others unfortunate enough to be downwind. In addition, at least some of the deadly residue has seeped down to contaminate the water table in certain regions of Serbia.

Kosovo, whose Albanian population was supposed to be "saved" by the bombing, has become a DU dump. No one has the exact figures of the incidents of cancer among the majority Albanian population now. The United Nations, which is in charge of the civil administration of the province, is either not releasing figures, not conducting the necessary studies or not revealing what it knows. However, a number of NATO soldiers, especially from Italy, have gone home ill, some terminally.

Nearby, in Bosnia, during 1994-95, U.S. planes dropped DU ordnance on or near several population centers. In one of them, Hadzici near Sarajevo, cancer reached epidemic proportions by the late 1990s.

The thousands of overflights made by U.S. and other NATO planes on their bombing sorties heavily damaged the ozone layer above the Balkans. The thunder heard during storms for several weeks after the 78-day bombing was unnaturally loud, the lightening spectacular. On the other hand, the sun baked with a special vengeance that summer. The difference in its intensity was palpable; sunburn occurred in a matter of minutes.

All the above environmental havoc happened during the watch of Al Gore, the freshly anointed Nobel Peace Prize winner, while he served as vice president of the United States. No words of protest were heard coming from him at that time.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months -- freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

Over the past five years, US taxpayers have spent $506 billion on the Iraq War- that is over $100 billion a year just for war related expenses (and enough to fund NASA for 30 years). According to www.nationalpriorities.org the cost of the war so far works out to $1,721 per person.

Of the 4,002 US military fatalities, over 100 were women, 145 resulted from self inflicted wounds, and not included in that figure are the journalists and the military forces from other countries.

What makes the case so difficult is that it is not just a question of a battle with American troops, here from half a world away carrying out operations that Mr. Sadr and his fighters consider an abhorrent occupation. Some 3,500 troops in the Basra fight are Iraqis from outside the province, and witnesses say it is clear that few if any of the Iraqi security forces in the assault know the neighborhoods the way the Mahdi Army does. Its fighters literally pop in and out of alleys, battling a federal force of nearly 30,000 to what is, so far, a stalemate.

Both Democratic presidential candidates agree that the United States should end its combat mission in Iraq within 12 to 16 months of their possible inauguration. The Republican candidate has spoken of continuing the war, even for a hundred years, until "victory." The core issue of this campaign is thus a basic disagreement over the merits of the war and the benefits and costs of continuing it.

"Clean 'em, load 'em, stack 'em, and prepare to use 'em!"

If neither Mr Obama nor Mrs Clinton has the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination, and if both appear unable to beat Mr McCain, under one scenario a group of about 100 party elders - the "super-delegates" - could sit out the first ballot in Denver, preventing either candidate winning outright, and then offer Mr Gore the nomination for the good of the party.

Britain must be willing to talk to the Taliban and other extremist groups in order to try to stabilise the world, the Defence Secretary says today.

VIDEO - Elephant Paints Self Portrait...

Rising fuel, wheat and soybean oil prices have caused the cost of food production to spike, and product prices are expected to jump another 3 percent in 2008 after they rose nearly 5 percent in 2007, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. People are also paying 57 cents more for a pound of coffee and $1 more for a carton of large, grade A eggs than they did at this time last year, data show, although the increase in the price of eggs is expected to dwindle by at least 2 percent in 2008.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Sunday that Damascus was prepared for all scenarios in its worsening relationship with Washington, including the use of US military force.

Bush 'optimistic' ahead of Putin missile talks: report...

Fighting sparked by a government-led push against "outlaw" militias in the southern city of Basra had left more than 280 people dead by Saturday, according to Iraqi authorities.

VIDEO - Zyklon-B test on humans...

Shiite militiamen in Basra openly controlled wide swaths of the city on Saturday and staged increasingly bold raids on Iraqi government forces sent five days ago to wrest control from the gunmen, witnesses said, as Iraqi political leaders grew increasingly critical of the stalled assault.

Witnesses in Basra said members of the most powerful militia in the city, the Mahdi Army, were setting up checkpoints and controlling traffic in many places ringing the central district controlled by some of the 30,000 Iraqi Army and police forces involved in the assault. Fighters were regularly attacking the government forces, then quickly retreating.

US warplanes widen airstrikes in Iraq...

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr offered Sunday to pull his fighters off the streets of Basra and other cities if the government halts raids against his followers and releases prisoners held without charge.

Police Probe Possible Leads To More Manson Bodies...

If at first you don't succeed, try a scroll!...

Countrywide CEO to get $10M...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power.

In the recent landmark Hannah Poling case, filed in Federal "Vaccine Court," officials conceded that Hannah's underlying mitochondrial dysfunction was aggravated by her vaccines, leading to fever and an "immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic reserves."

Katrina victims may have to repay money...

A White House aide has resigned amid a Justice Department investigation into allegations that he misused an unspecified amount of U.S. grant money intended to promote democracy in Cuba.

The Oceanside Police Department on Thursday defended its investigation into an incident in which an off-duty San Diego police officer shot a woman and her 8-year-old son after a traffic altercation.

A newly surfaced memo from banking giant JPMorgan Chase provides a rare glimpse into the mentality that fueled the mortgage crisis.

The memo's title says it all: "Zippy Cheats & Tricks."

It is a primer on how to get risky mortgage loans approved by Zippy, Chase's in-house automated loan underwriting system. The secret to approval? Inflate the borrowers' income or otherwise falsify their loan application.

The spectacle of Bertie Ahern's secretary reduced to public tears has inflicted substantial political damage on the Irish Prime Minister, whose personal finances are being investigated by a tribunal in Dublin.

The battle for control of southern Iraq is continuing for a fifth day.

In one of the latest offensives, eight people died, including two women and a child, in an air raid.

Meanwhile a witness in Baghdad has told Al Jazeera he saw up to 40 Iraqi army and police surrendering their weapons to supporters of the Mahdi Army.

Its leader, Muqtada Al-Sadr, is calling on Arab nations to support his fight against US forces in Iraq.

James Bays reports from Baghdad.

One of the things that Apple has always prided itself over and promoted in no uncertain terms, has been the so-called 'robust security' offered by its OSX operating system. However this supposition of Apple's took a huge beating on Thursday when a team of researchers from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) managed to hack a MacBook Air in just two minutes using a previously unknown security vulnerability in Apple's own safari browser.

In a freak accident today on the strip of Harvard, Professor Stephen Walt was crushed to death under a Caterpillar tractor. The incident happened in front of the Kennedy Government Center. A school spokesperson said the land was being cleared for new law student settlements. The Dozer operater, A. Dershowitz, was on loan to The Harvard Defense Forces from another department when the incident occurred. Dershowitz said he did not see Walt jumping up and down in a red vest in front of the tractor nor did he hear his screams of agony.

Under pressure from federal regulators, Comcast Corp. reversed its stance over hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers and promised Thursday to treat all types of Internet traffic equally.

Virtual Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Vietnam Wall)...

The future of Iraq could be decided by the power struggle raging in the country's second city

Democrat officials want to force Clinton to quit, fearing her bitter fight with Barack Obama will cost them the presidency

Will Ben "The Mad Hatter" Bernanke Send the U.S. Economy Down the Rabbit Hole?...

Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Al-Sadr, in an interview aired Saturday by Al-Jazeera television, said his Mahdi Army was capable of "liberating Iraq" and maintained al-Maliki's government was as "distant" from the people as Saddam Hussein's.

Police say a pastor who was reported missing from his home in western New York has been found at an Ohio strip club.

As if beekeepers in the United States didn't have enough problems dealing with... a disease that has been devastating their bee colonies, now they're complaining thieves are stealing their precious insects.

"Our race is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves." Former Israeli Prime Minister Menechem Begin

The abysmal performance of western TV and radio interviewers when dealing with issues surrounding Israel - that 'Rogue Regime' or 'Zionist Entity', as many now call it - is not only embarrassing but a blot on the escutcheon of journalism.

Even the most fearsome inquisitors purr like a *censored*cat. Their rottweiler instincts evaporate, their investigative skills desert them, objectivity takes a nosedive. Penetrating questions are seldom asked, lies go unchallenged. Any Israeli spokesperson or cheerleader is guaranteed an easy ride.

Have the nation's truth-seekers fallen under some wicked Zionist spell? Are their researchers on strike? Did somebody nobble the programme editors?

The MacBook Air went first; a tiny Fujitsu laptop running Vista was hacked on the last day of the contest; but it was Linux, running on a Sony Vaio, that remained undefeated as conference organizers ended a three-way computer hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference.

Will we accept the challenge and endure the costs for those who engage in the great and arduous struggle for liberty? Or are we disposed to be those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so greatly concern our present condition? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Speaking on state television, Mr Maliki said troops would not leave Basra until "security is restored" and described the militants as "worse than al Qaeda".

This week the United States suffered its 4,000th military death in Iraq. That number will surely increase, as violence is now exploding across the country. Iraqi forces are clashing with the powerful Shiite militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. As if to offer denial in the face of disaster -- and commit the U.S. to losing many more soldiers and Marines -- the Bush administration has begun negotiations with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for years, even decades, after President George W. Bush leaves office.

A thief sneaked under the sport utility vehicle with a battery-powered saw, slicing from the Toyota's underbelly what may be one of the most expensive small parts of the auto world: the catalytic converter, an essential emissions-control device made with small amounts of metals more precious than gold. Who knew? Mr. Fernandez didn't.

In a place just a few miles from sandy beaches and soaring sky-scrapers, white stone villas and sky-blue swimming pools, it seems the epitome of irony and injustice that over 1.5 million people would be subjected to drinking sewage-contaminated water. When there is such a fine line bordering wealth and poverty, privilege and need, how unsettling to realize that just a stones throw away, mothers and fathers must nourish their families with poison. As if the occupier could not find one more creative way to torment his victim.

When the hypnotized patsy, Sirhan Sirhan, opened fire on Robert Kennedy from the front, a CIA agent fired the kill shot at close range into the back of Kennedy's head.

The same agent who coordinated the operation and was at the scene, was later brought out of retirement to "handle" the congressional investigation into the assassination.

All 3 members of the assassination team are now dead, but many of those connected to them still hold high offices in government.

"The reason why it's ... important to be successful in Iraq, is because, one, we want to help establish a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, the most volatile region of the world," President George W. Bush said at a White House news conference with visiting Australian Premier Kevin Rudd.

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