Remember this statistic the next time Fearless Leader (or one of his minions) chants the mantra: "the fundamentals of our economy are strong".
On the lookout for disturbing trends? Here's one for your pile: According to a recent article in Fortune, there has been a noticeable increase in not just fraud but arson that has kept pace with the housing depression. Professionals in the insurance and lending industry are bracing themselves for all manner of similar situations, as homeowners either trash, or simply leave their trash lying around their houses, often taking off without even claiming their furniture. This is already a dirty problem in the housing business, with owners, lenders and banks having to figure out a way to stick each other with the check when tenants destroy their property on their way out the door. Woe is the person left behind to clean up the chaos.
Notice the use of the word "tenants" in this article.
It is the banks and lending institutions which own your home until the loan is actually paid off. - M. R.
Filling in the Ovals on LA County's Super Tuesday 'Double Bubble' Debacle...
Without a clear paper trail, voters in the US don't actually have elections; they have illusions of elections, but nothing more. - M. R.
The U.S. economy has entered a recession that will be more painful and drawn out than the usual downturn, the director of the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey said on Friday.
The reports are yet to be confirmed, but if proved indicate the possibility of a sharp escalation in six months of steadily building clashes between the Israeli army and Gaza-based militants.
Consider this alleged influx of "global jihadis" the match to the tinder, in terms of Israeli propaganda, which they will use to justify a massive military strike in Gaza which will leave no Gazan Palestinian standing. - M. R.
Taxi to the Dark Side, a documentary about an innocent Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by U.S. officials at Bagram Air Base, has received wide critical acclaim since its debut in April at the Tribeca Film Festival. The New York Times’s A.O. Scott said, “If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential.”
Apparently, telling the truth about what this country does has become a crime.
So the powers that be will simply make absolutely certain that most of the general public, (which needs to see what is being done in their names and with their tax dollars) will never see this documentary. - M. R.
Acinetobacter baumannii has been found in military hospitals in Germany, the Washington, D.C., area and Texas -- the primary destinations of wounded service members from the two war zones. And it has now spread to civilians, according to the report.
In testimony before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Director of Central Intelligence Mike Hayden admitted to using contractors for "enhanced interrogation" at the CIA's secret prisons, the so-called black sites.
"Hell, we outsource darn near everything else these days: why not torture, using the services of folks who REALLY know how to make it work?" - Official White Horse Souse. - M. R.
Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to “shoot to kill” in the event of martial law.
Call me silly,but the existence of this organization, coupled with the allegation that they are given permission by the DHS to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law, doesn't make me feel much more safe. - M. R.
Could NATO lose in Afghanistan?...
The military "planners" who allegedly planned this campaign never, ever had enough boots on the ground to begin to win this kind of conflict.
You cannot win what is essentially a ground war from the air.
Other NATO countries refuse to allow their fighters to go into the southern part of Afghanistan.
So, what are the options?
Declare "victory" and go home?
Bomb the entire country to smithereens, declare "victory" and go home?
Include the people you're fighting against into the political dialogue and create some kind of fabric of agreement about what the future government will really look like?
Send in mercenaries, courtesy of DYNCORP and BLACKWATER, because there are no more actual troops available and ready?
The most logical option would be a political dialogue, which is why it will be completely ignored by NATO (and particularly US) leaders.
Unfortunately, the most likely outcome will be either bombing the country into oblivion, declaring victory, and leaving, or the introduction of mercenaries, who answer to no one, to hold off the Taliban.
Those who presented us with with the war scenario, and told the world how "easy" this campaign, and subsequent victory would be here, had absolutely no grasp of either this area's history, nor the people with whom they would be dealing.
And that is hubris of the highest order. - M. R.
VA Watchdog dot Org -- Home Page - Keeping an eye on the VA because somebody has to!...
Veterans for Common Sense...
A survey conducted in November by the American Jewish Committee found that Clinton and Giuliani boasted by large margins the most favorable ratings among Jewish Democrats and Jewish Republicans.
Notice that in this article from JTA, the issue isn't really about which candidate will be better for the US: the only thing that appears to count is how good each candidate will be for Israel.
Once that has been established, expect that which ever candidate has been vetted as best for Israel will get all the PR and money AIPAC can possibly muster. - M. R.
President Bush's Fiscal Year 2009 budget cuts federal health programs vital to the future of health and health care for all children. On top of an $18.2 billion cut in Medicaid, the nation's single largest payer of children's health care for working families, the President's budget also cuts $700 million from discretionary health programs that children depend on, ranging from poison control hotlines to funding for training children's doctors.
These kids, like our returning war veterans, have become irrelevant and disposable for this administration. - M. R.
The military trials have highlighted a secret baiting program, begun in early 2007, in which snipers placed lures like fake explosives or other weaponry to draw insurgents into the open, where they could be killed.
But Sergeant Hensley’s testimony at the base here suggested that by last spring, in addition to baiting and killing, soldiers had added a new tactic: carrying weapons to plant on bodies to deter prosecution.
Please tell me again why those Iraqis who want their country back "hate us because we are free". - M. R.
The charges, to be filed in the military commission system at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would involve as many as six detainees held at the detention camp, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the former senior aide to Osama bin Laden, who has said he was the principal planner of the plot.
"And we only had to waterboard him for a half hour to get him to admit it!" -- Official White Horse Souse - M. R.
One of the worse things I think that has happened in the last thirty years
is president Ford pardoning President Nixon
because those same people that were working for Nixon
that was a signal to them that yeah you can commit big crimes
and you can get away with it and they you can go right back to work some years later
and that's what happened.
It's not only a bad message to the rest of the world
It's a terrible message to those people who are ill inclined in our own country
because it will keep happening again and again.
You would think Wall Street would take the same approach to its own failed relationship with subprime mortgage lending. The investment banks have taken $100 billion in writedowns – and nearly as much in emergency capital infusions from foreign funds.
But Wall Street seems to still believe there’s money in them thar failed mortgages.
Why not? As long as the Federal Reserve will bail them out (and stick the taxpayers with the bill), why not go on being reckless? - M. R.
Now that George Bush and Michael Hayden have publicly confessed to government waterboarding in a press conference on February 6, 2008, and in testimony before Congress on February 5, 2008, you may find the following information useful:
The law review article referenced below (available at no cost at: http://www.law.utah.edu/_webfiles/ULRarticles/150/150.pdf ) makes clear that waterboarding is torture and is a crime and a war crime punishable under a number of treaties to which the United States is a party and several U.S. statutes.
The article also explains that there is no defense available due to either (1) prior legal advice, or (2) circumstances (including, without limitation, terrorist acts – see citations in Footnotes 21 and 25 in the article), contrary to the claims of Bush and Hayden.
The law review article (see pages 359 to 374) also establishes that under a number of treaties to which the United States is a party, the U.S. has an obligation to initiate an official investigation regarding confessed acts of torture.
Not complying with authority is now, in many cases, labeled a disease.
In Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", the population was kept permanently drugged to control them.
Looks like we are headed that way, where the government will force pills on those people suffering the "sickness" of independence. - M. R.
The controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding and used by the United States qualifies as torture, the U.N. human rights chief said on Friday.
The U.S. military says the “precision” bombing campaign goes hand in hand with the strategy of troops surging into “insurgent” areas. But there's nothing precise about these bombs. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, some 200 civilians were killed by U.S. air strikes between April and the end of 2007.
The heck with Congress' big stimulus bill. The way to get the country out of recession - and most people think we're in one - is to get the country out of Iraq, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
"Well, thank goodness for Liebold voting machines; we don;t have to listen to what those stupid taxpayers want!" -- Official White Horse Souse - M. R.
The official story of Foster's death is highly problematic. Supposedly upset at three critical Wall Street Journal editorials, Foster drove to Fort Marcy Park in Arlington, VA, and shot himself in the mouth with his revolver. However, when EMTs and Park Police found him, they couldn't locate his car keys in his pockets. Eyewitness Patrick Knowlton, who had been trained as a private investigator, reported that Foster's car was not in the parking lot during his time of death. But there had been a mysterious man there, glaring at Knowlton. Other eyewitnesses reported they saw men "in red vests" fleeing the area as Foster's body was discovered. A search of the National Archives FBI files later showed the FBI deleted details of the men in "red vests."
If Hillary Clinton was truly surprised and upset at the death of her friend, she has done a poor job of discovering why he died. The U.S. Court of appeals ordered Starr, over his objections, to include a 20-page statement by eyewitness Patrick Knowlton. There, Knowlton related how he had undergone a terrifying ordeal of FBI and OIC harassment for testifying about the car and the peculiar glaring man in Fort Marcy Park. Knowlton had voted for Bill Clinton. If Hillary had questions about Foster's "suicide" then why didn't she publicly recognize a Clinton supporter in the Starr Report who had been intimidated for saying what he saw?
Son of Concorde: New hypersonic airliner will fly to Australia in just over four hours...
NPR stories on the Army's denial of VA assistance to help soldiers file their disability papers....
The Army claimed that it had not instructed the VA to stop helping wounded soldiers with their disability paperwork, then a
memo surfaced confirming the story. - M. R.
Ron Paul has announced that he is scaling down his campaign and, has absolutely ruled out a third-party Presidential run. He plans to focus on his reelection to Congress. He faces a March 4 primary challenge in his home district.
With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies.
Credit-card issuers have drawn fire for jacking up interest rates on cardholders who aren't behind on payments, but whose credit score has fallen for another reason. Now, some consumers complain, Bank of America (BAC) is hiking rates based on no apparent deterioration in their credit scores at all.
Just as Gaza is the largest prison on the planet, Israel is the largest insane asylum in the Middle East. It is run by madmen, inspired by even some who are madder.
From here on out, from now till Election Day, the GOP will strive to make every day seem like September 12, 2001. It is already propagandistically strident almost beyond belief. Said the presumptive one just yesterday: "We all know what will happen to the United States of America if the wrong party wins in November."
Sorry, I'm afraid I don't. But thanks for the warning.
Surely, israelis are justified in wanting to protect their "shitty little country" from the threats of that "horrible madman" Ahmedinejad?
Surely, it's not too much to demand that Germany, host to the last madman who tried to "wipe them off the face of the earth," should lend israelis a helping hand?
And while they're at it, they can help put an end to Germany's infernal anti-semitic plans to TRADE IN IRANIAN GAS:
February 8, 2008
Stimulus checks welcome, but AP poll reveals desire to cut war spending.
Hillary Clinton is NOT anti-war....
It is not known where on Earth the satellite will hit. But officials familiar with the situation say about half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft is expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and will scatter debris - some of it potentially hazardous - over several hundred miles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The satellite is outfitted with thrusters, small engines used to position it in space, that contain the toxic rocket fuel hydrazine. Hydrazine can cause harm to anyone who contacts it.
Hydrazine decomposes at 850C. This is obviously far cooler than the temperatures encountered during an uncontrolled re-entry. Fuel tanks are not designed to survive re-entry intact. So, this hydrazine story is a cover for something else on the satellite that the US does not want anyone to know about.
This reminds me of the story put out the day TWA 800 was shot down, warning residents on Long Island that the plane had been carrying medical samples of disease organisms, and warning against close examination of any debris that washed up on shore.
This was, of course, to prevent anyone from stumbling across remnants of the missile that killed TWA 800. I guess they watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and just copied that plot line.
- M. R.
The New Mexico Democratic Party caucus may be tainted by three ballot boxes that spent the night in the home of the Rio Arriba County party chair or the homes of other local election officials instead of being reported to the state party.
A ship's anchor lying at the bottom of the sea was behind one of two cuts last week in undersea Internet cables around the Middle East that caused dramatic outages across the region and in parts of Asia, the cable-owner company said Friday.
Given that the Egyptian government has already stated that there were no ships in the area, where did this anchor come from? And given that it at least in theory this anchor broke the cable, why would it have been left behind?
And how do they know this anchor is connected to the cable break, since the floor of the Mediterranean is littered with shipwrecks?
- M. R.
Gambino mafia family busted...
The Bush/Clinton family hates competition. - M. R.
Bin Laden and Omar operating in Pakistan: U.S. official...
"Can we invade now? Can we? Huh? Huh? Can we? Pretty please?" -- Official White Horse Souse - M. R.
The CIA's secret interrogation program has made extensive use of outside contractors, whose role likely included the waterboarding of terrorist suspects, according to testimony yesterday from the CIA director and two other people familiar with the program.
Well, I wonder how THAT looks on a resume! - M. R.
One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law. InfraGard is "a child of the FBI," says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.
So is Wackenhut. - M. R.
Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth.
Straight from the website of the United States Department of State.
So, with Mitt Romney out, that means we are down to Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee as the leading GOP candidates. :) - M. R.
Israeli fighter jets and scouting planes violated Lebanese airspace on Thursday and flew over a number of areas, according to the Lebanese Army.
Gunmen set eight communication towers ablaze in Mosul...
Hmmmm. Is something about to happen the rest of the world is not to know about? - M. R.
The question seems to be whether creative accounting allows collection agencies to deduct the amount of the debt as shown on the 1099-C, and not the pennies on the dollar that they actually paid for the worthless debt. “In effect, “Hibbs said candidly, “screwing the taxpayer twice.”
Trent Huddleston claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he discovered an "unrestricted" account used to funnel "unusually large" sums of money through the university each month _ which would exceed US$1billion on an annual basis _ that was not used for any legitimate university purpose.
Can you say "Money Laundering?" - M. R.
Already facing hundreds of millions in claims from aggrieved investors, who lost $1.6 billion in the High-Grade Structured Credit Fund and a more levered sister vehicle, the Wall Street firm is now facing the prospect of a federal indictment.
Cheney Returning to Site of Texas Hunting Mishap...
Paramedics on stand-by. - M. R.
A real estate agent who took a prospective buyer to view a house in central England found the owner hanging dead in a closet, the agency said Thursday.
"Ummm, okay, no problem, we'll knock ten grand off the purchase price. Now then, take a look at that patio!" - M. R.
Church Could Have Avoided Scandal, Prominent Clerical Authority on Child Abuse Writes...
It isn't the crime that gets you, it's the cover-up! - M. R.
The housing slump has compelled the two entities to buy up mortgages on the secondary market that banks are backing away from. But that could end badly, charges one regulator.
Mid-East Cable Cuts Now Affecting 85-Million -- Are Terrorists Involved?...
Oh yeah, there's ol' Osama in his brand new "Al Qaeda" submarine with that large can-opener on the front. - M. R.
The Founding Fathers were a wise group insofar as their admonitions and efforts show at the birth of the nation. One has only to read Jefferson and Adams and Franklin among others to see that they were aware of the scams past, present and pending. Their commentaries on a central banking system; the potential for tyranny, corruption, the annotation of laws to the advantage of the predators tell us much of what was in their minds. They knew all about it and they warned the citizenry in many ways. They saw to the protection of individual rights and the system itself. They saw to the process of perpetuation and reminded us of the necessity for eternal vigilance.
I am viging just as hard as I can! - M. R.
"The late-twentieth century is not exceptionally warm in the new Torneträsk record: On decadal-to-century timescales, periods around AD 750, 1000, 1400, and 1750 were all equally warm, or warmer. The warmest summers in this new reconstruction occur in a 200-year period centred on AD 1000. A 'Medieval Warm Period' is supported by other paleoclimate evidence from northern Fennoscandia, although the new tree-ring evidence from Tornetraäsk suggests that this period was much warmer than previously recognised." < > "The new Torneträsk summer temperature reconstruction shows a trend of -0.3°C over the last 1,500 years."
'BURN THE HERETICS! BURN THE HERETICS!" -- The Cult - M. R.
A new article by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh offers a detailed examination of the claims that Israel bombed a nuclear facility under construction in Syria last September and finds that none of the evidence stands up to scrutiny.
Israel lied?!?
PIFFLES!
PIFFLES, I say again! - M. R.
Major IDF operation in Gaza back on the agenda
ANALYSIS: Major IDF operation in Gaza back on the agenda
Following many weeks of being kept on ice, the likelihood of a major military operation in the Gaza Strip is once more at the forefront.
All Israel is waiting for is the right time. - M. R.
Floridians were shocked last week when police announced that the spokesman for the state's Department of Children and Families had been arrested and charged with peddling child pornography. But buried in news accounts of the case was a curious detail: the official in question had listed the state's current Republican Governor, Charlie Crist, as a reference when he applied for his post in 2005.
The former chief United Nations weapons inspector and a retired Middle East diplomat recently warned that America was heading straight toward imminent war with Iran.
And while both talked about wrong-headed U.S. policy in Iraq and Iran, they also criticized Israel for its role.
Standing across the street from the site of the killings, Gerald Thornton told reporters that his brother, Charles “Cookie” Thornton, had become “a country of himself” and was forced to “go to war” after the judicial system denied his claims of mistreatment.
Have the American people reached the breaking point? - M. R.
According to the female soldier, the two Palestinian detainees were beat up while they were handcuffed and after their eyes were covered. The soldier, who witnessed some of the abuse, said that the troops kicked the Palestinians, hit them using hand restraints, and swore at them. The evidence submitted to the court includes a testimony that charges the soldiers with placing a heater against the face of one of the boys.
The IDF indulges in behavior like this all the time: they just hate like hell getting caught at it. - M. R.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto died from a severe injury when a bomb blast slammed her head into into an escape hatch on her SUV, investigators with Scotland Yard said in a report released Friday.
Well, there goes Scotland Yard's credibility.
The video clearly shows Bhutto dropping down through the sunroof BEFORE the blast. - M. R.
Screenshots of ballots from Nassau County, New York, clearly showing Ron Paul's name crossed off the ballot, along with Rudy Giuliani who had already dropped out, leaving voters only the choice of Huckabee, McCain and Romney.
Waterboard those poll workers until they reveal who ordered Paul's name taken off the ballot.
Hey, Bush says it's legal now!
- M. R.
Bush, Congress hit bottom in AP poll...
The media keeps reporting that Bush's numbers are hitting a new low, yet they always report the number as 30.
I small a big ABCNNBBCBS rat here. - M. R.
sraeli authorities say they have held off on larger ground or air offensives so as to minimize casualties. That could change, Barak said Thursday. "If the Qassam fire continues, we will intensify our activity, and the other side's losses, until we resolve the Qassam rocket problem," he said during a visit to a military base in Israel's north.
Translation: rocket fire will continue against Israel (and by precisely what faction will be hard to tell) until Israel thinks it has a reasonable chance of selling the world the entire decimation of Gaza as "self defense".
You can hear it coming in Barak's statement from yesterday. - M. R.
A California Jewish newspaper dubbed it the “Jewish primary,” but the Super Tuesday contest in California might be more accurately called the Hispanic primary. And California wasn’t alone — in a number of states, a surging Hispanic population is poised to play an unprecedented role in the 2008 presidential election and beyond.
Spies, lies, and "conspiracy theories" – what's behind the Middle East internet outage.
I am starting to wonder if whatever was supposed to follow the cable cutting was called off because of all the attention?
- M. R.
President Vladimir Putin has criticised the US and Nato for military expansion toward Russia's borders and for failing to respond to Moscow's security concerns.
Putin and his officials are no fools: they know precisely why the US is planning to fence Russia in with missile defense sites and new military bases. - M. R.
Internet advocacy website Public Knowledge has posted a highlight reel from the State of the Net Conference, where RIAA boss Cary Sherman suggests that internet filtering sorely lacks the personal touch of spyware.
The RIAA has just one the world a favor. Learning an instrument and jamming with your friends just became less of a hassle than buying commercial music.
- M. R.
U.S. military loses records for bin Laden's driver...
"Dang! We'll just have to torture him all over again!" -- Official White Horse Souse - M. R.
An earthquake measuring 6.8 struck in the Atlantic Ocean early Friday, hundreds of kilometers (miles) off the northern coast of Brazil and French Guiana, the US Geological Survey reported.
Speaking at a press conference shortly beforehand in the provincial capital Pristina, Thaci said Kosovo's imminent independence -- strongly opposed by Serbia and its ally Russia -- was set to be recognised by around 100 countries.
The big question is, what are Serbia and Russia prepared to do military if in fact Kosovo declares its independence on the 17th
And, how are the US, NATO, and the EU prepared to respond militarily if Kosovo does this on the 17th, and Serbia and Russia attack Kosovo to prevent this from happening? - M. R.
A top US envoy warned Iran Friday that its pursuit of more advanced uranium-enriching technology would intensify the long-running international standoff over its disputed atomic drive.
The US government, , ever desperate to conjure up some kind of justification for a military attack, continues to bark its warnings, trying to get traction.
But the more it barks, the more the US government reminds the citizens of this country of how the Iraq war was sold to us on a pack of lies. - M. R.
Here's a sign of how shaky the economy has become: Wal-Mart says its shoppers are redeeming their holiday gift cards for basic items — pasta sauce, diapers, laundry detergent — instead of iPods or DVDs.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Justice Department lawyers concluded that the CIA's use of waterboarding in 2002 and 2003 was legal, and therefore the department cannot investigate whether a crime had occurred.
Everything Hitler did was legal too. - M. R.
In the "informed gossip" department, we have heard that it may not be just the Republican Romney diving into the sewage pit. Sources in the Clinton Campaign say consideration is being given to comparing Obama supporters to cult members. . .with all that implies.
Cheney: 'Damn right' I back Bush use of waterboarding...
"And anyone who disagrees can go quail hunting with me!" - M. R.
US sees attacks by Iranian-backed groups up in Iraq...
Fox-5 Foreknowledge Of Wtc-7 Collapse?" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwUJ9MhzgKI" target="_blank">NEW VIDEO SURFACES PROVING FOX NEW ALSO REPORTED ON THE COLLAPSE OF WTC-7 WHILE IT WAS STILL STANDING....
Hunt is plain that the murder was managed by CIA spooks, probably working freelance (as was their wont). But precisely which ones he professes to have remained unable to say certainly.
He surmises, however, that the top conspirators within the Company were Cord Meyer and Bill Harvey. And names David Morales as a chief lieutenant.
More about JFK is
HERE - M. R.
Tasers are not a replacement for guns; they're a replacement for talking, said author Naomi Klein at a town-hall meeting last night.
"If it happened in a cell, we would call it torture and if it happens on the street we should not be afraid to call it torture," said Klein, who is the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
February 7, 2008
Six people, including two Kirkwood police officers, a Kirkwood city council woman and the gunman, were killed tonight at Kirkwood City Hall, a St. Louis County police spokeswoman said about 9:25 p.m. Two others were wounded. And one of the wounded at St. John's Mercy Medical center is in critical condition.
Ask This > The next president should open up the Bush Administration's record" href="http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00321" target="_blank">REPEAT AFTER ME, 'FAT CHANCE.'...
"It's over," Eisner said. "They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general."
Veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care, the Bush administration argues in a lawsuit accusing the government of illegally denying mental health treatment to some troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our vets coming home from these wars in Afghanistan and Iraq deserve, and should get, the best possible care for both mental and physical injuries sustained on their tours of duty.
I think it would be instructive for these attorneys for the Bush Administration to be given their fatigues and weapons, then plant them in the center of the worst fighting going on right now in either Afghanistan, or Iraq
I would be interested to see if their positions change on this issue, having witnessed what our vets experience in combat. - M. R.
Egypt threatens to break the legs of Gaza infiltrators
Egypt threatens to break the legs of Gaza infiltrators
- Egypt said on Thursday it would no longer tolerate Palestinians infiltrating the country from the Gaza Strip, and threatened to break the legs of anyone crossing the Rafah border illegally.
Egypt is the second largest recipient of United States military aid after Israel.
Put the two statements below together, and you understand the degree to which the US pulled Egypt's financial "choke chain" to get Egypt to take these measures.
Tel Aviv must be quite pleased with itself right now.
Gaza is back in the cage, just where Israel wants them. - M. R.
Four more American-registered drug planes have been seized from the 50-plane fleet of drug running aircraft amassed by Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Implants Create Insect Cyborgs...
U.S. intelligence officials are cautioning that popular Internet services that enable computer users to adopt cartoon-like personas in three-dimensional online spaces also are creating security vulnerabilities by opening novel ways for terrorists and criminals to move money, organize and conduct corporate espionage.
Murtha prepares war bill...
Memo to Representative Murtha; sir, what were you thinking?
>You know, as well as you know your own name, that the pesky little issue of a withdrawal date will be wiped out by one of Bush's "signing statements", which he has used so generously these last 7 years.
You can't be so naive as to believe that he won't.
Or, perhaps this is simply election year pandering, as you know full well that this withdrawal date provision will most likely not see the light of day. - M. R.
Cheney said that he supported President Bush's national security decisions, which included the approval of waterboarding along with other harsh interrogation tactics. "I've been proud to stand by [Bush], by the decisions he's made," said Cheney, who then asked aloud, "Would I support those decisions today?"
"You're damn right I would," he answered himself, to loud cheers.
OK, it's out in the open: we torture.
The US has just joined the despicable ranks of such "human rights' espousing states" as Egypt, Syria, Kazakhstan, and Saudi Arabia.
So Vice President, let's take this all the way to its logical conclusion.
The executive branch of the government should now, immediately, withdraw from any human rights treaty we have ever signed.
Just get them out of the way, pronto, so the entire world can know just where we stand.
And by the way; by doing this, it means that any military of any country on the planet absolutely doesn't have to play by any humanitarian rules of engagement if they capture any of our military.
They now have an absolutely free pass to torture any captured member of our armed forces, because you have stated, very clearly, that this country tortures, and you endorse that. - M. R.
We are living in a very dangerous time…. the last year of a maniac’s term as President of the United States…
We hope.
Not that the folks standing in line for his job are any better. - M. R.
The following data is taken from a job resume that is being sent out. You will notice that there are no spelling mistakes or pencil sketches close to the entries which indicates he had help in preparing this….
The rather loathed RIAA, most recently infamous for pressuring Congress to pass the PRO-IP Act, has now turned its unwanted attention upon the very people the group ostensibly exists to protect. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The RIAA is now pressing to lower the royalty payments made to musicians and artists for music tracks sold via digital distribution. Though the actual artists who make the music are presently entitled to just 13% of wholesale, the RIAA thinks they should receive only 9%.
RIAA just lost my support. - M. R.
Fox News MUST BE SEEN FOR WHAT IT IS! NOW!!
Wake up for god's sake America!
A private prison company is threatening to move all Colorado inmates out of one of its facilities if it doesn't get an increase in what the state pays to house them.
When a private prison corporation takes the larger share of a state's prison population, this kind of "shakedown" is bound to happen, sooner or later.
Unfortunately, Colorado has two options: either pay CCA what they want, or immediately accept all the prisoners CCA's prisons are housing, which could be next to impossible. - M. R.
The Israeli internal security service, Shin Bet, used systematic torture against Palestinians and regularly lied about it, according to an Israeli government report which has been released five years after it was written.
In the upcoming trial of two former pro-Israel lobbyists, the witness stand will likely alternate between top Bush administration officials called by the defense lawyers and top spy agency officials called by the prosecution.
In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
Police Swabbing Mouths During Traffic Stops In Serial Killer Hunt...
I would not put it past the FBI to have actually been behind the mailings of these anthrax letters as part of the terror campaign which the Bush Administration and its criminal minions have been waging against the American people since 9-11. A bogus war on terror which led to the Patriot Act and the most intense assault on American freedoms in the history of this country.
The seizure of electronics at U.S. borders has prompted protests from travelers who say they now weigh the risk of traveling with sensitive or personal information on their laptops, cameras or cellphones. In some cases, companies have altered their policies to require employees to safeguard corporate secrets by clearing laptop hard drives before international travel.
Memo to anyone thinking about traveling either with the US or from somewhere else in the world to the US: please just don't.
Wait until there is some element of basic common sense in in our airport security practices.
Conference calls, using cameras from desk top and lap top computers , are the real answers for right now. - M. R.
Munitions Stolen From MCAS Miramar Storage Facility...
Rice pushes for more troops in Afghanistan
Rice pushes for more troops in Afghanistan
Rice pushes for more troops in Afghanistan Rice pushes for more troops in Afghanistan...
These "frequent flier miles", being racked up by Secretary Rice And Foreign Secretary Miliband, will come to no avail.
The other NATO countries will not provide more troops than they already have (except for a small symbolic number) because they can't.
Unfortunately for the US and the UK, other NATO members are part of governments which still believe that listening to the will of the people is critical, because not doing it will mean a major opposition win in the next election.
So, Secretaries Rice and Miliband, here are your options.
You can involve the Taliban into the political process.
You can bomb the smithereens out of the country, declare victory, and go home.
Or, you can count on private mercenary providers (like DYNCORP and BLACKWATER) to supply the troop strength you need.
After all, as has been clearly demonstrated, they are accountable to no one except their corporate masters.
Not a pretty group of scenarios, is it?
But the fact the NATO planners didn't see this coming kind of makes you wonder about the degree of hubris which prevented NATO and US military to understand that they never, ever had enough boots on the ground to begin with to accomplish their mission. - M. R.
John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told conservatives.
Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip are likely to turn the territory into Somalia, European Union special envoy to the Middle East Marc Otte told Haaretz on Thursday in an interview.
"Israel's tactics in the Gaza Strip did not work," Otte said. "The blockade and the sanctions against the population failed, and only strengthened Hamas and weakened [Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad and [President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen."
What Envoy Otte doesn't realize, is that this is precisely the outcome Israel wants.
The more violence in Gaza against Israel and Israelis, the more Israeli politicians and military see their way clear for a "justification" to simply wipe Gaza off the face of the earth, with every Gazan man, woman, and child gone.
For the Israelis, it's just a matter of timing. - M. R.
US military aid to Israel for 2009: $2.55 billion Israel may use up to 25% for military equipment and arms from local defense industriesUS military aid to Israel for 2009: $2.55 billion Israel may use up to 25% for military equipment and arms from local defense industries
US military aid to Israel for 2009: $2.55 billion Israel may use up to 25% for military equipment and arms from local defense industriesUS military aid to Israel for 2009: $2.55 billion Israel may use up to 25% for military equipment and arms from local defense industries...
This is over and above the 30 billion dollars in aid that Israel is going to be getting next year.This, while homeless vets sleep in our streets, and the US economy is in meltdown?
Don't worry folks, it was never as though our vets - or people who are not in high positions in boardrooms across the world - ever mattered at all to this administration. - M. R.
The all-too-brief moment of liberation for Gaza is over. The cage doors have been slammed shut, elopers shot, and air strikes on the captive population resumed. Israel's collective punishment having been sanctified by the Jerusalem-based Supreme Court last week (the reduction of power to Gaza begins today), and its past war crimes officially denied, the IDF can rampage through its open air prison at liberty. As often as it likes. The IDF are also looking at ways to stop anything like the breach of that wall ever happening again - bad example, you see.
Warning: VERY graphic slide show at the top of this article, depicting death, wounding, and devastation what little is left of shelter in Palestinian Gaza.
But please don't turn away: this is daily life for these people.
And the country that's doing this to the tune of 30 billion (that's billion with a b, folks) dollars' worth of American taxpayer aid?
Israel.
You have to wonder how just much of your tax dollars is going to support these kind of actions, if you are a thinking and moral person. - M. R.
Russia warned the European Union and NATO on Wednesday that their presence in Kosovo would be illegal if they acted in support of a self-proclaimed independent state.
Russian ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said the EU had no basis in international law to deploy a police and justice mission in the breakaway Serbian province, since that required a United Nations mandate.
Kosovo's breaking away from Serbia, in Moscow's view, would set a really troubling precedent for semi-autonomous areas of Russia which have been making noises about wanting to become independent.
And of course, there's the little "fact" about Kosovo that no one wants to acknowledge: Kosovo has the richest mineral resources in all of Europe west of Russia. The currently Serbian-owned Trepca mining complex is worth at least 5 billion dollars, which makes it an urgently wanted prize by the West. - M. R.
Afghan poppy set for another big year, UN report warns...
And you have to wonder: for precisely whom are we making Afghanistan "safe"?
Who is really profiting from the sale of these poppy plants? - M. R.
Sen. Rockefeller Lets Slip the Spying Truth: Drift Nets To Be Legalized
Sen. Rockefeller Lets Slip the Spying Truth: Drift Nets To Be Legalized
Rockefeller makes clear that the impending changes to the law aren't about making it easier for the National Security Agency to listen in on a particular terrorism suspect's phone calls. Instead, the changes are about letting the nation's spooks secretly and unilaterally install filters inside America's phone and internet infrastructure.
Unfortunately, in Washington, there's really only one party, and that is the "war/soft dictatorship" party.
Talk about reaching across the isle; the 109th congress and 110th, both democrats and republicans, have been enablers of two administrations which hold the Constitution and Bill of Rights in complete, utter contempt. - M. R.
In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
Ahmadinejad’s trip to Iraq will bolster ties: official...
That collective thunking sound you hear is that of US foreign policy makers collectively banging their heads against a wall.
The the ultimate result of a US lead invasion and occupation of Iraq would pull Iraq even further into the orbit of Iran was something which, apparently, none of them saw coming.
The absolute winner, geopolitically, of the booby prize for unintended consequences for the last 7 years has got to go to this administration, hands down! - M. R.
The USS San Jacinto has arrived in the Israeli port of Haifa as part of U.S.-Israel naval cooperation. San Jacinto contains the Aegis missile defense system, designed to intercept medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles developed by Iran and North Korea.
Is this interesting timing, or is this just a coincidence?
Note that this article doesn't give an end date to this port call. - M. R.
The U.S. defense secretary said Pakistan realized only in recent months that al Qaeda posed a threat to the government of President Pervez Musharraf. He said the assassination of former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in December underscored that threat.
"All of a sudden what had been a nuisance is becoming a threat to the existence of the government," Gates said.
Translation: the US military is looking for another front from which a military attack against Iran can be made. - M. R.
Moscow and Beijing are charged with using their growing economic influence in the world for advancing their own political goals, and with cyber-terrorism. Kommersant’s special correspondent Dmitry Sidorov reports from Washington.
And of course, the US is absolutely not using its influence for advancing its own goals, right?
At least, Russia is not invading and occupying other countries to advance its goals: they're using business deals, which appears to be the far more civilized way of getting what you want.
The US intelligence directors are whining like spoiled children, because what we have been doing (wars of conquest and occupation) has not worked, and what Russia has been doing to cement its position in the world has. - M. R.
Lieberman Stripped Of Superdelegate Status...
Liebeman had to know this was coming.
So what did McCain offer him for his endorsement?
Perhaps some "plumb" position in the new administration if McCain gets elected? - M. R.
Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded — a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret.
You have to wonder just what is being done to these men, (and what the true circumstances of their incarceration are) that the military doesn't want anyone to know. - M. R.
While President Bush's approval rating falls to record lows, the torch is being prepared to pass on to Hillary Clinton, with full endorsement from the global elite. With support from European nobility, Clinton has been selected as the candidate of choice for the continuation of globalist policies.
... the same globalist policies that require Americans to lower their standard of living to match the rest of the world. You know, like Mexico. - M. R.
The late 1970s brought a roaring and volatile cattle market, and Refco was one of the most fast-and-loose brokerage firms in the business. In the normal course of trading, futures dealers are supposed to specify which trades are done for which customers. But this former Refco clerk says business at that stage was so brisk that Refco deals were done mainly in big blocks--far bigger than Hillary's individual recorded orders. Only later would the brokers code transactions by customer and decide which trade--meaning what profit or loss--to parcel out to whom. "When Hillary came forward and said she was doing her own trades, I knew immediately that she wasn't telling the truth," says this former clerk.
U.S. spies are looking increasingly online for intelligence and they've become major consumers of social media.
That ... explains a lot of things. - M. R.
Doubts over McCain's alleged war hero status and his support to curtail efforts to look for missing POW's contributed to torpedoing his presidential campaign in 2000 and those same questions will undoubtedly surface again should the Senator win the Republican nomination.
So McCain gets picked to lose to Hillary?
McCain should not even be running for President, not after the Keating 5 scandal! Not to mention that McCain is NOT A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN. - M. R.
It is amazing to see how many blacks today continue to revere the memory of Abraham Lincoln as though he had actually done something for them. Of course many whites do the same thing. In fact, there is an entire cottage industry operating nowadays, consisting of people, many of whom are academics, whose entire goal in life seems to be the attempted beatification of "Saint Abraham." Most of this foolishness is due to the fact that, in our government schools, we have been taught a laughable, shoddy imitation of history. The facts must never be allowed to get in the way of the fantasy.
Waterboarding is legal, White House says...
Everything Hitler did was legal, too.
Did that make it right?
Does the fact that Hitler declared everything he did to be legal grant absolution to the Germans of Nazi Germany who went along with what Hitler did ... because it was legal?
So, when George Bush says that torture is now legal in the United States, and you go along with that, what does that make you?
- M. R.
U.S. Intelligence Uncovers ‘Russian Threat’...
"Hey, if the Cold War was good enough to soak your grandparents, it oughta be good enough to soak YOU!" -- Official White Horse Souse - M. R.
Tornadoes in South kill at least 55 people...
A former Gallup FBI agent was convicted of passing on lucrative and confidential government information to inside traders in a New York courtroom Monday.
Here is another example of why the FBI should not be allowed unfettered access to our personal computers. - M. R.
A presidential conference with Asian leaders was bugged by U.S.
intelligence agencies, say high-level sources, and information was
passed from the White House to big Democratic corporate donors.
This is why Americans must resist the FBI's bugging of their computers, because for all the talk about fighting terror, what the government historically DOES with the information they take from your computers is to use it for their own personal profit!
Part 2
Part 3
- M. R.
