Saturday, December 25, 2010
How Do We Shift Power to the People and Away from Concentrated Corporate Power?
The power of concentrated corporate capital was on display in Washington last week, as it has been all year. The incoming Chair of the Congressional committee responsible for banking regulation, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) says “my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.” And President Obama sat down with the CEOs of 20 large corporations to talk about how he could help Big Business increase their already record profits. And, in the Supreme Court, 13 of 16 business cases were ruled in favor of business interests.
These actions echo a year where Sen. Durbin complained the banks “own” the Congress and where President Obama worked with the health insurance industry to keep them in control of health care while claiming it was “reform,” and where the Supreme Court in Citizens United vastly increased corporate power in elections by allowing unlimited spending.
Corporate capital dominates the government and prevents the changes urgently needed in so many crisis issues for the nation and the world.'
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Expect More Extreme Winters Thanks to Global Warming, Say Scientists
Scientists have established a link between the cold, snowy winters in Britain and melting sea ice in the Arctic and have warned that long periods of freezing weather are likely to become more frequent in years to come.
An analysis of the ice-free regions of the Arctic Ocean has found that the higher temperatures there caused by global warming, which have melted the sea ice in the summer months, have paradoxically increased the chances of colder winters in Britain and the rest of northern Europe.
The findings are being assessed by British climate scientists, who have been asked by ministers for advice on whether the past two cold winters are part of a wider pattern of climate change that will cause further damaging disruption to the nation's creaking transport infrastructure.'
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Israeli Ambassador Suddenly Leaves Cairo
With the discovery of an Israeli spy ring in Egypt, Israel's ambassador to Egypt has unexpectedly left Cairo for Tel Aviv.
Yitzhak Levanon, without any prior announcement, left for Tel Aviv with his wife on Wednesday night on an Israeli airline, El Al, following the busting of an Israeli spy ring two days earlier in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Egyptian Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, ordered the referral of the three accused defendants, two Israeli fugitives and a detained Egyptian, to the Emergency State Security Court on charges of spying for Israel and harming the country's national interests.'
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US Government Report Argues for Police Force for American Interventions Overseas
In May 2009, the federally financed RAND Corporation published a 183-page report, “A Stability Police Force for the United States: Justification and Options for Creating US Capabilities”. The report, conducted for the US Army’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) at the Army War College, examined the need for a “stability police force” (SPF), which it described as “a high-end police force that engages in a range of tasks such as crowd and riot control, special weapons and tactics (SWAT) and investigations of organized criminal groups.” Most soldiers do not possess the specialized skills an SPF officer needs to prevent violence, the report notes. “Most soldiers are trained to apply overwhelming force to secure victory, rather than minimal force to prevent escalation.” The SPF would also train indigenous police forces, much like what occurs today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the study led by Terrence K. Kelly, a senior researcher at RAND, the United States clearly needs an SPF. “Stability operations have become an inescapable reality of US foreign policy,” the report states. The RAND report estimates that creating such a paramilitary police force would cost about $637 million annually, require about 6,000 personnel and that it should be headquartered inside the US Marshals Service (USMS), not the US Army.'
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ACLU Placed on Tennessee Terror Map for Letter to Schools
The ACLU of Tennessee says it ended up on a map of potential terrorist threats after it sent a letter to school superintendents asking them to be "inclusive" in their holiday celebrations.
It is deeply disturbing that Tennessee’s fusion center is tracking First Amendment-protected activity," Hedy Weinberg, executive director of ACLU-Tennessee, said in a statement. "Equating a group’s attempts to protect religious freedom in Tennessee with suspicious activity related to terrorism is outrageous. Religious freedom is a founding principle in our Constitution—not fodder for overzealous law enforcement.".'
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C.I.A. Secrets Could Surface in Swiss Nuclear Case
A seven-year effort by the Central Intelligence Agency to hide its relationship with a Swiss family who once acted as moles inside the world’s most successful atomic black market hit a turning point on Thursday when a Swiss magistrate recommended charging the men with trafficking in technology and information for making nuclear arms.
The prospect of a prosecution, and a public trial, threatens to expose some of the C.I.A.’s deepest secrets if defense lawyers try to protect their clients by revealing how they operated on the agency’s behalf. It could also tarnish what the Bush administration once hailed as a resounding victory in breaking up the nuclear arms network by laying bare how much of it remained intact.'
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UK Plan to Block Online Pornography ‘Not Possible,’ ISPs Say
Plans to set up an online age verification scheme in the United Kingdom to limit access to pornography is not possible, according to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country.
Trefor Davies, chief technology officer at the ISP Timico, told BBC News that it is "technically not possible" to block all online pornography because of its sheer volume.
"You end up with a system that's either hugely expensive and a losing battle because there are millions of these sites or it's just not effective," he said. "The cost of putting these systems in place outweigh the benefits, to my mind."
Critics of the proposed pornography ban say it's one more step in an effort by governments around the world to seize control of the Internet. They say the system would inevitably be used to restrict access to non-pornographic websites.'
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King Co. Rejects Israeli-Gaza Bus Advertisment
The outcry over a proposed bus ad to protest Israeli actions in Gaza prompted King County Executive Dow Constantine on Friday to order the county’s transit system not to accept it or any other new noncommercial advertising.
A group called Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign paid $2,760 to place the ad on 12 buses, starting Monday, Metro Transit spokeswoman Linda Thielke said. The placard shows children and a demolished building with the caption, “Israeli War Crimes – Your tax dollars at work".'
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NATO Attacks Official Convoy, Killing Two Afghans
The latest in a growing deluge of NATO attacks killing allies and civilians in Afghanistan took place today in the Faryab Province, when a NATO helicopter inexplicably attacked an official convoy heading to an event hosted by the local provincial council.
The attack targeted a number of vehicles, killing two people, reportedly a member of the Afghan police and the brother of a national MP. Three others, including two police and a civilian, were also wounded in the attack.'
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The attack targeted a number of vehicles, killing two people, reportedly a member of the Afghan police and the brother of a national MP. Three others, including two police and a civilian, were also wounded in the attack.'
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Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Herdsman and Wound Three Youths
Scenes of mourning returned to the streets of Gaza as Israel intensifies its attacks on the besieged population of the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers today opened fire on a Palestinian herdsman as he tended to his goats in the northern area of the Strip. Salama Abu Hashish, a 22 year old Palestinian man, died from gunshot wounds in the back. Another Palestinian teenager was injured and is in a serious condition, while two other Palestinian boys aged 17 and 18 were lightly hurt.'
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Obama to the Corporate Powers: I Feel Your Pain
Guess who's whining the loudest these days, wailing that they're getting a raw deal from Barack Obama.
Not the unemployed and barely employed - even though the White House has blithely ignored their critical need for a national jobs program. Not the poor, even though their ranks are swelling as millions of Americans fall out of the middle class.
No, no, the most insistent demand for attention is coming from way above the poor and the middle class. Believe it or not, it's the CEOs of Americas biggest corporations and the top bankers of Wall Street who're stamping their little Gucci-clad feet, bawling that they should be getting more love and support from the president.'
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'Turkey Probes US Nukes at Airbase'
Turkish parliamentarians are discussing a report revealing that the United States has deployed 90 nuclear bombs at Turkey's Incirlik Air Force base, a report says.
The report, called the "US nuclear weapons in Europe," indicates that Washington currently has 90 nuclear bombs of the "B 61" variety in Turkey, all on the Incirlik Air Force base, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported on its website on Friday.
The account has been prepared by the US National Resources Defense Council and is based on figures provided last February by the US Air Force.'
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US Torturing Manning in Confinement
An American soldier, who has been kept in solitary confinement for months for revealing crimes committed by US troops against Iraqi civilians, is in critical health.
US journalist David House, who has been visiting Private Bradley Manning in a high-security military prison at Quantico marine base in Virginia since September, said the US trooper looked "frazzled."
Manning's lawyer and another journalist described his detention conditions as "extreme" and amounting to cruel and inhumane treatment, but the Pentagon has denied it is mistreating the American soldier.'
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Friday, December 24, 2010
Has The Financial Collapse Of Europe Now Become Inevitable?
What in the world is happening over in Europe? Well, it is actually quite simple. We are witnessing the slow motion collapse of the euro and of the European financial system. At this point, many analysts are convinced that a full-blown financial implosion in Europe has become inevitable. Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Belgium are all drowning in an ocean of unsustainable debt. Meanwhile, Germany and the few other “healthy” members of the EU continue to try to keep all of the balls in the air by bailing everyone out.
But can Germany keep bailing the rest of the EU out indefinitely? Are the German people going to continue to be willing to hand out gigantic sacks of cash to fix the problems of other EU nations?
The Irish were just bailed out, but their problems are far from over. There are rumors that Greece will soon need another bailout. Spain, Portugal, Italy and France have all entered crisis territory. At the same time, there are a whole host of nations in eastern Europe that are also on the verge of financial collapse. So is there any hope that a major sovereign debt crisis can be averted at this point?'
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DISTURBING VIDEO OF UK POLICE TAKING 13 YEAR OLD CHILD FROM FATHER BY FORCE
'I thought if I could show them what my son and I were about they would leave us be. We both like photography computers and making vids. My sons had massive problems with been bullied at school and in the street and this goes back years. His own mother sided with services after she tried for full cusdody but when it became obvious she had no chance she sided with them out of spite.
I've reported this to the IPCC already. I have made a police statement. They tried to get me to except a 'caution' but obviously I said no.
All these people have one thing in common, they will all tell complete lies and repeat untruths and this 'here-say' ends up being what is used in court against you.'
I've reported this to the IPCC already. I have made a police statement. They tried to get me to except a 'caution' but obviously I said no.
All these people have one thing in common, they will all tell complete lies and repeat untruths and this 'here-say' ends up being what is used in court against you.'
Fresh Humiliation for Eurozone as China Says it Will Bail Out Debt-Ridden Nations
China has said it is willing to bail out debt-ridden countries in the euro zone using its $2.7trillion overseas investment fund.
In a fresh humiliation for Europe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said it was one of the most important areas for China's foreign exchange investments.
The country has already approached struggling European countries with financial aid, including offering to buy Greece's debt in October and promising to buy $4billion of Portuguese government debt.'
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Homeowners Should Prepare for Interest Rates of Five Percent, Warns Bank of England Markets Chief Paul Fisher
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Paul Fisher, the executive director of markets and a member of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), said central bank policymakers would like rates to increase as much as tenfold from their current historic low of 0.5pc as soon as possible.
“We hope people are aware that interest rates at some point will go up again and that they will head back to a normalised position,” he said. Confirming that “normalised” rates would be “around” 5pc, he added: “What we need to do is to trigger the mindset in people that that’s where rates will eventually go back to".'
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13 Yr Old Arrested By Teacher For Marking Pen Possession
According to an Oklahoma City Police Department report, the boy was spotted “in possession of a permanent marker” by Roosevelt Middle School teacher DeLynn Woodside. The 50-year-old educator told cop Miguel Campos that the student was “writing on a piece of paper, which caused it to bleed over onto the desk.”
Woodside, pictured at right, reported that the child, whose name was redacted by police from the report, attempted to hide the marker when she asked him for it. Strangely, Woodside’s Facebook page reveals that her “likes and interests” include the official “Sharpie Permanent Markers” page on Facebook.
Campos reported that he allowed Woodside, a seventh grade math teacher, to “sign a citation” against the boy, who was then transported to the Community Intervention Center, a juvenile holding facility. A police sergeant subsequently “booked the marker into the property room".'
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The Hidden Result of Cancun: Dictators get More Gas-Guzzling Cars and Private Jets
Here’s the truest point I’ve heard a politician make about the Cancun global warming conference. UKIP’s Paul Nuttall mockingly congratulates fellow European politicians – just back from the conference – on ensuring that dictators will get more Mercedes cars and private jets.
How will this happen? Well, as Louise Gray reported, the delegates promised to pour £60 billion annually from 2020 into a “green fund” to help poor countries adapt to floods and droughts. Nuttall reckons, quite plausibly, that the fund will be diverted into dictator’s pockets – which is what happens to much of our existing foreign aid budget.'
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The Oil BP Tried to Hide Has Been Discovered, in Thick Layers on the Sea Floor Over an Area of Several Thousand Square Miles
BP and the government famously declared that most of the oil had disappeared.
But as I've noted, as much as 98% of the oil is still in the ocean.
I have repeatedly pointed out that BP and the government applied massive amounts of dispersant to the Gulf Oil Spill in an effort to sink and hide the oil. Many others said the same thing.
BP and the government denied this, of course.
But the oil is not remaining hidden.
Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal noted on December 9th:
A university scientist and the federal government say they have found persuasive evidence that oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill is settling on the ocean floor.
The new findings, from scientists at the University of South Florida and from a broad government effort, mark the latest indication that environmental damage from the blowout of a BP PLC well could be significant where it's hardest to find: deep under the Gulf's surface.'
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Net Neutrality, the FCC, Wikileaks and the Future of Internet Freedom
Regardless of what you think about the Wikileaks release of state secrets, there's no debating the astonishing fact that the internet made these leaks possible. Without the internet, no single organization such as Wikileaks would have been able to so widely propagate secret government information and make it public. In the old model of information distribution -- centralized mainstream media newspapers and news broadcasts -- such information would have been tightly controlled thanks to government pressure.'
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Piers Corbyn On Britains Coldest Winter in 100 Years
As the snow buries Britain under a freezing white blanket, Piers Corbyn has a lot to say about the weather forecasting in Britain, which is a good time to remember that the Head of the UK Met Office is a one time director of eco mentalists pressure group WWF.
The WWF along with Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Oxfam are major players in the great global wealth redistribution scam, no one really calls it Climate something or other anymore.'
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Kiwi-gate, the Final Chapter
The outcome is that data published in 2009 by New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) entitled ‘Are we feeling warmer yet’ has been abandoned and replaced with real, unadjusted data that shows a picture that warmists don’t want you to see:
NIWA makes the huge admission that New Zealand has experienced hardly any warming during the last half-century. For all their talk about warming, for all their rushed invention of the “Eleven-Station Series” to prove warming, this new series shows that no warming has occurred here since about 1960. Almost all the warming took place from 1940-60, when the IPCC says that the effect of CO2 concentrations was trivial. Indeed, global temperatures were falling during that period.'
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The Unholy Trinity: Doctors, Dentists, and Attorneys
People are probably not aware that it was the oligarchic Rockefeller family, heavily invested in the oil and pharmaceutical industries, which almost single-handedly narrowed American medical schools to their present focus of being pill pushers virtually to the exclusion of everything else. What is called the AMA is the dictatorial organization that enforces this monopoly on the American people. For over 70 years AMA monopolists have insisted on using fear tactics and implied color of law to inject our children with vaccines containing thimerosal (mercury), aluminum, and live cancer viruses. AMA doctors are pitifully educated in the field of nutrition and instead of helping their patients avoid or cure degenerative diseases, they sell them expensive drugs that mask the symptoms. There is no competing paradigm as anyone competing with the Rockefeller/AMA drug pushers is charged with a crime and locked away in prison.
They are not happy with their current monopoly and seek to expand it with a worldwide UN treaty known as Codex Alimentarius. Should it pass in the U.S., it will be illegal to purchase anything that competes with the medical drug cartel. For example, in parts of Europe it is a crime to purchase vitamin C without a doctor’s prescription and, even then, a prescription only provides very low potency vitamin C that many claim to be useless therapeutically.
Dentists are no better. These elite monopolists have priced their services out of reach for the vast majority of working people. Not being able to get any dental care because of its artificially high price is a funny way of protecting us. Denying us the right to contract with others for service “to protect you from yourself” is insane reasoning. Why doesn’t everyone see this? Could the fluoride in the water and the mercury-containing amalgam fillings that these criminals endorse have something to do with it?'
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For Sale: All of Our Forests. Not Some of Them, Nor Most of Them – the Whole Lot
We now know, thanks to the junior environment minister Jim Paice's frank evidence to a recent House of Lords select committee, that the government is considering the sale of not just "some", or even "substantial", amounts of woodland as the public was originally led to believe, but of all state-owned English trees across the commission's 635,000-acre Forestry Commission estate. This includes many royal forests, state-owned ancient woodlands, sites of special scientific interest, heathland, campsites, farms and sporting estates.'
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Bloomberg Files Lawsuit Against European Central Bank
Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, filed a lawsuit Wednesday that asks the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg to overturn a decision by the European Central Bank not to disclose documents that show how Greece used derivatives to hide its fiscal deficit.
Bloomberg editor in chief Matthew Winkler appeared on Bloomberg Television on Wednesday to talk about the suit. Winkler said, “It’s very straight forward. We are seeking full disclosure of documents that show how Greece was able to finance itself into a predicament that became the European debt crisis as we know it. It’s entirely to the benefit of all the members of the EU, all of the citizens, all the taxpayers and for sure the financial markets. Transparency is something that has a way of enlightening perspective".'
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Bloomberg editor in chief Matthew Winkler appeared on Bloomberg Television on Wednesday to talk about the suit. Winkler said, “It’s very straight forward. We are seeking full disclosure of documents that show how Greece was able to finance itself into a predicament that became the European debt crisis as we know it. It’s entirely to the benefit of all the members of the EU, all of the citizens, all the taxpayers and for sure the financial markets. Transparency is something that has a way of enlightening perspective".'
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16 Shocking Facts About The Student Loan Debt Bubble And The Great College Education Scam
They have been told not to worry about how much it costs and that there is plenty of financial aid (mostly made up of loans) available. Now our economy is facing the biggest student loan debt bubble in the history of the world, and when our new college graduates enter the "real world" they are finding out that the good jobs they were promised are very few and far between. As millions of Americans wake up and start realizing that the tens of thousands of dollars that they have poured into their college educations was mostly a waste, will the great college education scam finally be exposed?'
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Rothschild-Sponsored Third Party Effort Unveiled
Yes, the Rothschild dynasty-connected billionaire families and financial groups who own the mass media in America—interlocked with the banking interests controlling privately owned Federal Reserve System that dominates the world economic system—are planning to spring a “centrist” third party on the American people.
All-new revelations now appearing in the self-styled “mainstream” press fully confirm what AMERICAN FREE PRESS—alone among the media—first asserted seven months ago in a four-page exclusive special report published in its May 31 issue.
The opinion pages of the two most powerful newspapers in America—The New York Times and The Washington Post—have been rife with repetitive rhetoric about the need for the American people to reject both “the left” and “the right” and stand behind “centrists,” who will “end partisan gridlock.” But there has also been—behind the scenes—an ongoing, long-standing, carefully crafted scheme to set a “centrist” party in motion.'
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Angry Haitian Mobs Lynch 45 ‘Witches’ over Cholera Outbreak
Angry Haitian mobs have lynched at least 45 people in recent weeks, accusing them of spreading a cholera outbreak that has killed over 2,500 people across the country, officials said Wednesday.
The number included at least 14 suspected sorcerers previously known to have been lynched in the far southwestern region of Grand'Anse as local people feared they were spreading cholera with a magical substance. The area has been largely spared by the outbreak.
"We have counted 40 people dead in Grand'Anse department alone, where people are attacking natural healers they accuse of cholera-linked witchcraft," said communications ministry official Moise Fritz Evens.'
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Wikileaks Cable Reveals U.S. Conspired to Retaliate Against European Nations if They Resisted GM Crops
The cable reveals the words of Craig Stapleton, the US ambassador to France, who was pushing the commercial interests of the biotech industry by attempting to force GMOs into France.'
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Vermont Drafts Food Sovereignty Resolution to Protect Health, Food Freedom
In response to the recent passage of "food safety" bills S. 510 and corresponding H.R. 2751, the Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty has drafted its own resolution called "The Vermont Resolution for Food Sovereignty." Crafted to declare and protect the food and health freedom rights of all Vermont citizens, the resolution is essentially a warning to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it does not have jurisdiction over the food choices of the People of Vermont.
The resolution declares that food freedom is a "fundamental prerequisite to life," and that individuals have every right to save seeds, grow what they wish, and buy and sell the fruits of their labor without interference from an over-zealous, tyrannical government. And if any federal official tries to infringe on these rights, the People "shall resist any and all" of them.'
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The resolution declares that food freedom is a "fundamental prerequisite to life," and that individuals have every right to save seeds, grow what they wish, and buy and sell the fruits of their labor without interference from an over-zealous, tyrannical government. And if any federal official tries to infringe on these rights, the People "shall resist any and all" of them.'
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Corporate America's Plan to Loot Our Pensions
Simply put, the elderly are superfluous to capitalism. With high rates of joblessness the “new norm,” more and more people are being made disposable. This leads to an efficient if brutal logic: cutting old-age income and health care will make it easier to scrap old, useless workers. In fact, this reality is already coming to pass. One study published in 2008 found that over a 16-year period life expectancy had declined for many poor American women — precisely those who are disproportionately represented among the elderly heavily dependent on Social Security and Medicare.
Slashing social services affects everyone by increasing the pool of workers desperate for any sort of paying job, pushing down wages and benefits. This will all be pushed under the rubric of “personal responsibility,” and it will probably be successful as long as opposition is weak and divided. The main beneficiaries will be the super-wealthy who gain both from tax cuts as the social sector is chopped up and higher corporate profits as wages and benefits are slashed more deeply.'
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Italian Senate Approves Education Reforms
The Italian senate has approved controversial reforms in the education system proposed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in a bid to tackle the country's public debt.
The reforms set forth by Berlusconi sparked mass demonstrations across Italy on Wednesday as students protested the cuts which are aimed at saving the country billions of dollars.
The protests followed last week's violent demonstrations triggered when the Italian prime minister survived a confidence-vote motion.'
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Thursday, December 23, 2010
Police Told Royal Squad NOT to Drive Prince Charles and Camilla on Riot Route After Sergeant Warned of 200-Strong Baying Mob
Royalty protection officers were warned by a police colleague not to drive down Regent Street 15 minutes before Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were attacked by a baying mob, the Daily Mail can reveal.
A police sergeant told a member of the couple’s protection team that the area surrounding the road should be avoided because up to 200 thugs were in close proximity.
But the advice – logged in official police records – was not followed and Charles and Camilla’s royal limousine was driven straight into a splinter group of anarchists who had attended the student protests against the raising of tuition fees.'
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Eco-bulbs 'a Health Hazard for Babies and Pregnant Women Due to Mercury Inside'
Levels of toxic vapour around smashed eco-bulbs were up to 20 times higher than the safe guideline limit for an indoor area, the study said.
It added that broken bulbs posed a potential health risk to pregnant women, babies and small children.'
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David Cameron and George Osborne Can't be Trusted, Say Lib Dem Ministers
Paul Burstow, the care minister, told reporters from The Daily Telegraph: “I don’t want you to trust David Cameron.” And Andrew Stunell, the local government minister, said he did not know where the Prime Minister stood on the “sincerity monitor”.
Norman Baker, the transport minister, even privately compared the Conservatives within government to the South African apartheid regime, claiming that it was his job to campaign from the “inside”.'
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'Climate Change': There Just Aren't Enough Bullets
Right now I’m thinking positive thoughts about all the suffering, expense, disruption, misery, hardship, illness and death brought about by this godawful winter, because what I’m thinking is this: never before will there have been quite such an intense and widespread outburst of public fury at what is being done to our economy, our country, our public services and our freedoms in the name of “combatting global warming.”
As Kenneth Minogue argues rather more elegantly in The Servile Mind, (H/T Phaesi) it’s bloody amazing how much rubbish people will put up with without complaint, let alone revolt. Let us pray God that this winter – the third shocker in a row – will finally jerk those who have hitherto remained compliant out of their bovine complacency. And I don’t mean just in Britain. I mean every free country whose citizens’ liberty has been trampled underfoot as the result of the lies and distortions of the eco-fascist movement.'
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Banks Accused of Illegally Looting Homes
When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks.
When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos.
Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, Robert.
The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.
In an era when millions of homes have received foreclosure notices nationwide, lawsuits detailing bank break-ins like the one at Ms. Ash’s house keep surfacing.'
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Take That - SOS (with influence from Robbie?)
Save our souls we're splitting atoms
Go tell Eve and go tell Adam
Liberate your sons and daughters
Some are gods and some are monsters
We'll get a five minute warning for divine intervention
With the satellites falling prepare for ascension
Under mind control
We'll be practising our politics
Defending all our policies
Preparing for apocalypse
Don't let the hungry serpent see you no
No, no, no, no, no
She'll let you fall asleep then eat you whole
It's like a bullet to the head
It's an SOS, it's an SOS, oh yes, oh yes, it's an SOS
It's an SOS, it's an SOS, like a bullet in the head, it's an SOS
When the levee brakes
And Manhattan sinks
There won't be water fit to drink
When the winter's warm
And the summer's cold
The poison stops you looking old
You'll get a five second warning for divine intervention
And the satellites are falling prepare for ascension
As the earth looks on
The odds or probability
Of losing all capacity
To function it's hereditary
No antibiotic can save us now
No, no, no, no, no We are the virus that we talk about
Holiday Terror: Weaponized Candy Canes
It would have seemed ridiculous a decade ago, but in today’s terror prone world it’s become business as usual. The latest threat?
Candy Canes.
If reports are to be believed, administrators at Battlefield High School in Haymarket, VA punished ten members of the school’s Christmas Sweater Club for participating in the spreading of Christmas cheer, part of which included the tossing of small, individually wrapped candy canes to students.
According to accounts by several students, the school punished them with detention and cleanup work because the popular holiday treats pose a possible threat to others due to the ease of weaponizing the candy canes.
Skylar Torbett, a junior, says he was told, “candy canes are weapons because you can sharpen them with your mouth and stab people with them.” Zakk Rhine, another member of the club, was told that the candy canes could, “maliciously maim students with the intent to injure".'
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Bankers Vow to Quit if Bonus Payouts are Curbed
Nearly half of workers in the financial services sector are threatening to find new jobs if their expectations for bumper bonuses are not met this Christmas.
The dissatisfaction would (could) lead to a wave of defections — though precisely where they would defect to is not explained.'
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White House Drafts Executive Order for Indefinite Detention
The White House is preparing an Executive Order on indefinite detention that will provide periodic reviews of evidence against dozens of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, according to several administration officials.
The draft order, a version of which was first considered nearly 18 months ago, is expected to be signed by President Obama early in the New Year. The order allows for the possibility that detainees from countries like Yemen might be released if circumstances there change.
But the order establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.'
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Study: Fluoridated Water Causes Brain Damage in Children
A new study pre-published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives confirms that fluoridated water causes brain damage in children. The most recent among 23 others pertaining to fluoride and lowered IQ levels, the new study so strongly proves that fluoride is a dangerous, brain-destroying toxin that experts say it could be the one that finally ends water fluoridation.'
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Kosovo: Europe's Mafia State. Hub of the EU-NATO Drug Trail
According to sources who feared for their lives, including former KLA guerrillas, the BBC revealed that disappeared civilians "were Serbs and Roma seized by KLA soldiers and were being hidden away from Nato troops. The source believes the captives were sent across the border to Albania and killed."
In an uncanny echo of Nazi practices during the period of the Third Reich, The New York Times reported that "captives" were "'filtered' for their suitability as donors, based on sex, age, health conditions and ethnic origin. "We heard numerous references to captives' not merely having been handed over, but also having been 'bought' and 'sold,'" the special rapporteur told the Times.
"Some of the guards told investigators," the Times reports, "that a few captives understood what was about to happen and 'pleaded with their captors to be spared the fate of being chopped into pieces'."
Mercy was in short supply however, behind KLA lines.
The report states: "As and when the transplant surgeons were confirmed to be in position and ready to operate, the captives were brought out of the 'safe house' individually, summarily executed by a KLA gunman, and their corpses transported swiftly to the operating clinic".'
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Israeli Intelligence Chief Encouraged Hamas Takeover of Gaza Strip
In the latest revelation to come out of the hundreds of thousands of leaked diplomatic cables provided by the website 'Wikileaks', a diplomatic exchange between then Israeli Director of Military Intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, and US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones showed Israeli support for a Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip which Israel could then declare Gaza to be a 'hostile entity'.
The Hamas party won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006, but was prevented from forming a government as required by the Palestinian constitution. In June 2007, after months of attempted takeovers by the US-supported Fateh party, the Hamas party was able to form their government in Gaza. The cable in question was recorded just hours before the Hamas government was formed in Gaza in June 2007.
In the transcript, Yadlin told the US Ambassador that he would be "very happy" if Hamas formed a government in Gaza "as long as they have no (air or sea) port." He added that Israel would then work with the rival Palestinian political party, Fateh, to form a government in the West Bank and work to undermine the Hamas government in Gaza.'
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The Hamas party won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006, but was prevented from forming a government as required by the Palestinian constitution. In June 2007, after months of attempted takeovers by the US-supported Fateh party, the Hamas party was able to form their government in Gaza. The cable in question was recorded just hours before the Hamas government was formed in Gaza in June 2007.
In the transcript, Yadlin told the US Ambassador that he would be "very happy" if Hamas formed a government in Gaza "as long as they have no (air or sea) port." He added that Israel would then work with the rival Palestinian political party, Fateh, to form a government in the West Bank and work to undermine the Hamas government in Gaza.'
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The Death of the Peace Process
This month marked a low point in the Obama administration's attempts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Following the administration's announcement on 7 December that it was ending efforts to secure a 90-day extension of Israel's limited moratorium on settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton introduced "Plan B" for resolving the conflict three days later. Instead of emphasizing direct talks between the parties, Washington will now attempt to mediate between them to develop a framework agreement around the core issues of borders, refugees, and Jerusalem. Sound familiar? It should. The Obama administration is following the same failed path of its three predecessors to achieve peace. In other words, there is no Plan B.'
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Israeli Warplanes Attack Gaza Refuge
A heap of ruins and dust is all that remains of a dairy that Israeli warplanes destroyed yesterday in the central Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis. The ruins of the dairy are adjacent to an amusement park in the Asdaa grounds which serves as a refuge to residents of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Before the bombing, the dairy had three production lines on 400 square meters. It produced milk, cheese and butter, providing income for forty Palestinian families in Gaza and distributing goods to various parts of the Gaza Strip.
At dawn, the dairy was hit by at least two jet-fired missiles, scattering machines and equipment several meters away and rendering the factory into a pile of rubble. The attack on the dairy comes amidst increased Israeli military activity across the Strip. Israeli warplanes also hit other targets on Tuesday, injuring four Palestinians, including a guardsman in Asdaa.'
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US Deportation of Haitians Slammed
Rights activists have condemned a US decision to deport Haitian immigrants amid a cholera outbreak that is claiming more lives across the troubled country.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities said the agency had rounded up more than 350 Haitians to be deported in January, a Press TV correspondent reported.
At least 100,000 Haitian immigrants have no legal papers, and could also face deportation.
The US government, however, said it is limiting deportations to people with criminal convictions, which can range from felony offenses to the most minor violations.'
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Belarus Charges 18 Opposition Figures
Belarus has filed criminal charges against 18 leading opposition figures, including seven of the nine presidential candidates, for having a role in post-election riots.
The opponents are charged with coordinating and “inciting mass disorder” that led to violence between demonstrators and security forces.
The list also includes a swathe of the country's media elite, who have been arrested since protests erupted following President Aleksander Lukashenko victory for a fourth term in office on Sunday.
More than 700 people, including 25 journalists, were arrested during Sunday's protests.'
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Students Protest Reforms in Rome
Students hold demonstrations in the Italian capital of Rome ahead of a Senate vote on education reforms planned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.
Similar demonstrations are also being planned in other Italian cities including Venice, Modena, Perugia, Reggio Emilia, Grosseto and Barletta.
The university reform -- which would cut the number of courses and faculties, reduce funding for grants and introduce non-academic university deans -- is set to be adopted definitively by the Senate, the upper house of parliament.
Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini says reforms will save billions of euros and will create a more “merit-based' system,” according to the state-funded BBC.
The cuts are part of a wider austerity plan that the government is introducing in order to reduce its public debt.'
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Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Earthquake Shakes Cumbria Residents
Residents in Cumbria reported that items fell from shelves and walls during the tremor.
The earthquake was picked up by sensors run by the British Geological Survey across Britain The British Geological Survey confirmed that an earthquake of local magnitude 3.5, the term seismologists prefer to the Richter scale, took place shortly before 11pm centred on Coniston in the Lake District.
Cumbria Fire and Rescue service said it had dealt with hundreds of calls about the tremor but had not dealt with any damage.'
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You Are A Terrorist
Being a “nice guy,” supporting Ron Paul and talking about the Constitution all signs of terror, according to fusion centers now overseeing massive surveillance program of American people.
While the establishment constantly invokes the contrived terror threat as justification for the announcement that your every activity is being sent to federal fusion centers, those same fusion centers have been busy defining peaceful assembly, non-violent protest and criticism of the government as domestic terrorism. According to the government’s own definition of what constitutes terrorist activity – you are a terrorist.'
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While the establishment constantly invokes the contrived terror threat as justification for the announcement that your every activity is being sent to federal fusion centers, those same fusion centers have been busy defining peaceful assembly, non-violent protest and criticism of the government as domestic terrorism. According to the government’s own definition of what constitutes terrorist activity – you are a terrorist.'
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Plan to Turn Post Office Trucks Into Stasi Data Collection Nodes
Forget the StreetView data vacuum scandal. If an idea proposed for the money hole known as the U.S. Post Office is adopted, your friendly neighborhood postal person may be soon driving a high-tech data collection vehicle that would rival anything Google put to use for the government.
“The service’s thousands of delivery vehicles have only one purpose now: to transport mail,” Michael Ravnitzky, chief counsel to the chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, wrote for the New York Times last week. “But what if they were fitted with sensors to collect and transmit information about weather or air pollutants? The trucks would go from being bulky tools of industrial-age communication to being on the cutting edge of 21st-century information-gathering and forecasting".'
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Evacuations Ordered as Storm Saturates California
A storm pounding California with record rain forced authorities in the San Joaquin Valley to order 2,000 residents to evacuate the farming community of McFarland due to major flooding.
An estimated 400 to 500 homes were in danger, Kern County Fire Department spokesman Sean Collins said.
A sheriff's helicopter crew was trying to locate the source of the flooding, which possibly was coming from ditches and canals that supply water to farms, Collins said. Two evacuation centers were set up.
"We cannot mandatorily evacuate anybody," Collins said. "If a person wants to stay, we cannot arrest them".'
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An estimated 400 to 500 homes were in danger, Kern County Fire Department spokesman Sean Collins said.
A sheriff's helicopter crew was trying to locate the source of the flooding, which possibly was coming from ditches and canals that supply water to farms, Collins said. Two evacuation centers were set up.
"We cannot mandatorily evacuate anybody," Collins said. "If a person wants to stay, we cannot arrest them".'
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Pope's 'Child Porn is Normal' Claim Sparks Outrage from Victims
Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s.
In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.
“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.'
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Latest Terror Threat in US Aimed to Poison Food
In this exclusive story, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports the latest terror attack to America involves the possible use of poisons - simultaneous attacks targeting hotels and restaurants at many locations over a single weekend.
A key Intelligence source has confirmed the threat as "credible." Department of Homeland Security officials, along with members of the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, have briefed a small group of corporate security officers from the hotel and restaurant industries about it.'
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Nablus: Israel Gives Villagers 24 Hours to Hit the Road Before Leveling Tana
Israeli authorities have given the people of the east Nablus village of Tana 24 hours to evacuate their homes before demolishing them, and threatened to confiscate their livestock when the deadline falls, sources in Nablus said.
Tana is home to more than 35 Palestinian families. They have decided to resist decisions to demolish their homes and eject them from them, calling on officials to stand by them in the face of the arbitrary ruling.
The village's population has been residing there since the 1940's. They had prior to that dwelled in caves in the rock village before they began building to house themselves and their livestock, their key source of livelihood.
The village sits seven kilometers away from Beit Fourik. Villagers have fallen victim to Jewish settlers from time to time.'
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NATO Trains Afghan Army To Guard Asian Pipeline
On December 11 the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan and the energy minister of India met in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat to bring to fruition fifteen years of planning by interests in the United States to bring natural gas from the Caspian Sea to the energy-needy nations of South and East Asia.
Presidents Hamid Karzai, Asif Ali Zardari and Gurbangulu Berdimuhammedov along with Indian Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora signed agreements – an Inter-Government Agreement and the Gas Pipeline Transmission Agreement – to construct a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. The initials of the first three countries involved lend themselves to the project’s acronym: TAP, now known as TAPI.
The Inter-Government Agreement "enjoins the four governments to provide all support including security for the pipeline".'
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