US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Europe's growing aversion to military force means the NATO alliance is facing a crisis.
Addressing NATO officers at the National Defense University in Washington on Tuesday, Gates said that European countries' chronically low defense spending is damaging operations in Afghanistan.
"Right now, the alliance faces very serious, long-term, systemic problems," the US defense secretary said in a blunt message.
He went on to say that public and political opposition to the military has grown so great in Europe that it is directly affecting operations in Afghanistan.'
Read more: Europe's Pacifism Undermining NATO, Gates Says
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
MacAskill’s Gagging Law
The amendments would help stop people “stalking” or “harassing” their “victims” by text or online – strangely enough the exact charges leveled at Robert Green and the UK Column as we have been attempting to shed light on the apparent perversions of the course of justice by Grampian Police, the Procurator Fiscal’s office, Elish Angiolini and Mr MacAskill himself.
At present, the only charge which the Scottish authorities can level in such a case is Breach Of The Peace, by coincidence the precise charge leveled at Robert Green last weekend following his arrest.
The powers provided under the new legislation would allow Scottish prosecutors to go after people campaigning using the internet, including email and websites such as Facebook.
Mr MacAskill said, “Stalking can be a deeply frightening crime for victims.”
Poor Kenny. Feeling the pressure are we?
Mr MacAskill is not the only politician attempting to attack free speech in this way. A source has alleged to the UK Column that David Cameron has stated that should he become Prime Minister, he will legislate to prevent campaigners from asking difficult questions on public forums.
UK Column
The Israel Lobby – The Real Bullies in British Politics
A few, fortunately, stand up to bullies, and get a lot of stick.
One such is Baroness Jenny Tonge, often insulted, smeared and bullied; and recently sacked for the second time by her party's leadership.
In 2006, she was publicly rebuked after telling a fringe meeting at her party’s conference: “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the Western world, its financial grips. I think they have probably got a certain grip on our party.” It was so obviously true, but the Liberal Democrat leader at the time, Menzies Campbell, said he dissociated himself from her “offensive remarks” and “their clear anti-Semitic connotations”.
Who was being bullied here – Campbell by the Israel lobby? Or Tonge by Campbell? Both, I would say; and what a pathetic spectacle!
Back in 2004 Jenny Tonge was talking about Palestinian suicide bombers and said: "If I had to live in that situation – and I say that advisedly – I might just consider becoming one myself." Charles Kennedy, the then party leader, dismissed her from her front-bench spokes job, saying her remarks “are completely unacceptable. They are not compatible with Liberal Democrat Party policies and principles. There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism."
He clearly knew and cared nothing about the “circumstances” in the occupied territories or who was responsible for most of the killing.
Readers will already know that a few days ago, as speculation mounted in the media about Israel’s past involvement in human organ theft and their unexpected presence in Haiti’s earthquake zone with state-of-the-art field medical facilities, she suggested "the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti”. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called her comments "wrong, distasteful and provocative ... wholly unacceptable" and expressed concern for "the deep and understandable distress they have caused to the Jewish community..."
She was summarily sacked from her party spokes job in the House of Lords.
A petition, addressed to Clegg, asks for her to be re-instated: click here. Some of the signatories' comments are well worth reading and I hope Clegg and his senior colleagues take them on board. Here are a random sample:
“Please be clear about what Jenny Tonge has requested. It is essential not to be intimidated into reducing free speech.”
“Those who speak the truth are often vilified by those who would rather not hear it spoken.”
“...The allegations about organ theft from young Palestinians by Israel in 1991-92 require a meticulous international investigation.”
“This action against her is cowardly and despicable. Reinstate her to her post, with apology!”
“If there is to be peace in the Middle East (specifically in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) it's vital we have a political party in the UK which is seen to uphold truth and impartiality rather than the 'usual suspects' who bend to pressure from Israel.”
“Israeli foreign policy will never change unless we stop turning a blind eye to the truth. Israel was incessant in it's tracking down of holocaust perpetrators but no-one dares to point out their own war crimes.”
“Don't allow the Israeli state to claim it speaks for all Jews – it doesn't. Its war crimes must be exposed.”
“If Israel have nothing to hide then they should be happy to investigate. The daily harassment of Palestinians and international NGOs working on the West Bank continues and the world stands by. Let those who speak out to request investigations of human rights violations by Israel be applauded not condemned.”
“No one should fear the cleansing light of truthful inquiry, unless they are despicable dwellers in deception and deceit.”
“I fully endorse this petition and am gravely disturbed by the fact that foreign powers should be allowed to meddle in the internal affairs of this country and its political structure.”
“High-tech IDF field hospitals with operating theatres, the lot, in Haiti when same IDF has targeted ambulances in Gaza, refused them access to the dying and injured, blown up hospitals, blasted the brains out of babies.”
“Nick Clegg ... please ... instead of targeting and blacklisting Baroness Tonge, please initiate an investigation into Israel's countless human rights violations. I am sick and tired of successive British governments' double standards and ongoing, unquestioning support for the State of Israel.”
“It's shocking politicians lack the moral backbone to confront the abuse shown to the Palestinans by the Jewish nation. It's a sickening betrayal of the Jews, murdered in WW2, that the nation of Israel is now doing the same thing...”
Redress
Doctor Gets Court Order to Confine Pregnant Woman Against Her Will
With issues like the Stupak Amendment and Nevada's Personhood Initiative in the national spotlight, I am aware that a woman's right to choose whether or not to carry a fetus to full-term is under attack.
What I didn't realize, perhaps naively, is that her right to choose how to carry a fetus is also under fire. Last March, Florida resident Samantha Burton was in week 25 of her pregnancy when she paid a visit to her doctor. Burton was showing signs of potential miscarriage, so her physician ordered bed rest. Burton explained that, as a working mother of two toddlers, bed rest simply wasn't a viable option and then proceeded to ask for a second medical opinion. Seems reasonable, right?
Her doctor, however, was having none of that. Rather than refer Burton for the desired second opinion, he instead felt it necessary to contact state authorities, who then proceeded to force Burton to be admitted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital against her will and undergo any procedure the doctor felt like prescribing. When Burton had the audacity to request a change in the hospital in which she was being treated, the court denied her request. Three days into her forced hospitalization, Burton miscarried.'
Read more...
What I didn't realize, perhaps naively, is that her right to choose how to carry a fetus is also under fire. Last March, Florida resident Samantha Burton was in week 25 of her pregnancy when she paid a visit to her doctor. Burton was showing signs of potential miscarriage, so her physician ordered bed rest. Burton explained that, as a working mother of two toddlers, bed rest simply wasn't a viable option and then proceeded to ask for a second medical opinion. Seems reasonable, right?
Her doctor, however, was having none of that. Rather than refer Burton for the desired second opinion, he instead felt it necessary to contact state authorities, who then proceeded to force Burton to be admitted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital against her will and undergo any procedure the doctor felt like prescribing. When Burton had the audacity to request a change in the hospital in which she was being treated, the court denied her request. Three days into her forced hospitalization, Burton miscarried.'
Read more...
Citigroup Says Feds Ordered 7 Day Restriction On Bank Withdrawals
Originally reported by John Carney over at the Business Insider website, Citigroup is sending the following information to customers along with their bank statements.
“Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change".'
Read more...
The Cartel's Collection Agency
Many beleaguered, debt-ridden, jobless Americans have lost, or are about to lose, what they had left of the great American Dream: owning their own home. Lending institutions, all over the US are foreclosing on our hopes and dreams for ourselves and children with malice aforethought. These premeditated crimes of the banksters will not, however, go unrewarded by the US government, with increased income taxes, sales and value-added taxes, banker bail-outs, and "stimulus" packages, all paid for by those who are living the American Nightmare - a dark dream of intense, inescapable fear, horror, and distress.
After losing their homes to the foreign controlled Banking Cartel, many Americans will be assaulted with unexpected income taxes: Enter the Banking Cartel's collection agency - the IRS.
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Harvard Fellow Calls For Genocidal Measure To Curb Palestinian Births
Kramer proposed that the number of Palestinian children born in the Gaza Strip should be deliberately curbed, and alleged that this would “happen faster if the West stops providing pro-natal subsidies to Palestinians with refugee status".'
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The IMF Destroys Iceland and Latvia
For the past decade Iceland has been a kind of controlled experiment, an extreme test case of neoliberal free-market ideology. ... Is there a limit, a point at which government will draw a line against taking on public responsibility for private debts beyond any reasonable capacity to pay without drastically slashing public spending on education, health care and other basic services? ...
The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings. Resentment is growing not only toward those who ran up these debts -- Iceland's bankrupt Kaupthing and Landsbanki with its Icesave accounts, and heavily debt-leveraged property owners and privatizers in the Baltics and Central Europe -- but also toward the neoliberal foreign advisors and creditors who pressured these governments to sell off the banks and public infrastructure to insiders.'
Read more...
The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings. Resentment is growing not only toward those who ran up these debts -- Iceland's bankrupt Kaupthing and Landsbanki with its Icesave accounts, and heavily debt-leveraged property owners and privatizers in the Baltics and Central Europe -- but also toward the neoliberal foreign advisors and creditors who pressured these governments to sell off the banks and public infrastructure to insiders.'
Read more...
Echelon Computers Can't Cope With Bad Lines
Who remembers Echelon, the top-secret telecommunications spy network said to be run by the US and allied Anglophone nations, and to be triggered as soon as certain key words or phrases are spoken on the phone?
A lot of you, we'd guess. So it's interesting to note that Pentagon boffins have now stated that perhaps the most intriguing reputed capability of Echelon - the ability to automatically pick out words of interest and flag that conversation up as important to its human masters - doesn't work. Or anyway, it only works on good, clear lines: a noisy or degraded signal frustrates it.'
Read more...
A lot of you, we'd guess. So it's interesting to note that Pentagon boffins have now stated that perhaps the most intriguing reputed capability of Echelon - the ability to automatically pick out words of interest and flag that conversation up as important to its human masters - doesn't work. Or anyway, it only works on good, clear lines: a noisy or degraded signal frustrates it.'
Read more...
Girl Apparition – Gwrych Castle in Abergele, Wales
A company boss Kevin Horkin was taken pictures at Gwrych Castle in Abergele, North Wales and may have captured a picture of a spirit.
Kevin didn’t notice anything unusual until he downloaded the pictures to his PC. In one of the photos was the image of a pale young woman looking out a window.
Amazingly, it’s impossible for anyone to stand at that particular window because the floor in the room is completely destroyed.
North Wales Paranormal group have confirmed that many sightings have been recorded at the castle.'
Read more...
Ireland, Greece and Leaving the Euro
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Israel Approves Plans For New Settlement
Israeli authorities have approved a plan to construct a new settlement on the land across the Green Line in south Jerusalem Al-Quds.
An official for the Israeli advocacy group Ir Amim, which monitors housing issues in Arab neighborhoods, revealed the decision, Ma'an news agency reported on Tuesday.
Ahmad Laban said the regional committee of organizing and building in the Israeli municipality of Al-Quds approved the plan, which still needs to undergo some paperwork before it is finalized.
The project will see 549 housing units in five six-story buildings on 31.25 acres of Palestinian land in the town of Beit Safafa, west of the road that links Al-Quds to Hebron Al-Khalil.'
Read more...
An official for the Israeli advocacy group Ir Amim, which monitors housing issues in Arab neighborhoods, revealed the decision, Ma'an news agency reported on Tuesday.
Ahmad Laban said the regional committee of organizing and building in the Israeli municipality of Al-Quds approved the plan, which still needs to undergo some paperwork before it is finalized.
The project will see 549 housing units in five six-story buildings on 31.25 acres of Palestinian land in the town of Beit Safafa, west of the road that links Al-Quds to Hebron Al-Khalil.'
Read more...
Courthouse Bombed in Northern Ireland
The car was backed into the gates of the heavily fortified court at 2240 GMT in the city of Newry, County Down, some 35 miles south of the British province's capital Belfast.
Police said it was "a sheer miracle" that no one had been killed or wounded by the huge blast, which was heard two miles (three kilometers) away and is believed to have caused considerable damage.'
Read more...
Sarkozy Urges Creation of 'Viable Palestinian State'
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the 'rapid resumption' of the Middle East peace talks urging the creation of a 'viable Palestinian state.'
Speaking after a meeting with the acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Paris, Sarkozy said Monday, “We want a Palestinian state but we want a viable state.”
However, he challenged his Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's Sunday remarks in which the top French diplomat had called for a “proclamation of a Palestinian State, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before negotiating its borders".'
Read more...
Speaking after a meeting with the acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Paris, Sarkozy said Monday, “We want a Palestinian state but we want a viable state.”
However, he challenged his Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's Sunday remarks in which the top French diplomat had called for a “proclamation of a Palestinian State, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before negotiating its borders".'
Read more...
Monday, February 22, 2010
Now The Dead Must Pay Council Tax
Millions of householders will be encouraged to sign away their estate to foot the bill for soaring council tax demands.
Under the scheme ratepayers can defer inflation-busting council tax payments until they die.
Town hall chiefs will then be able claw back the cash, with interest, from the value of their estate. Over 20 years, for a couple with a typical home, that could amount to more than £73,000.'
Read more...
The Nazis’ Murder of Jews, Communists and Gypsies In Gas Chambers Was an AMERICAN Idea
The Rockefeller Foundation helped found the German eugenics program and even funded the program that Josef Mengele worked in before he went to Auschwitz.
Much of the spiritual guidance and political agitation for the American eugenics movement came from California’s quasi-autonomous eugenic societies, such as Pasadena’s Human Betterment Foundation and the California branch of the American Eugenics Society, which coordinated much of their activity with the Eugenics Research Society in Long Island. These organizations — which functioned as part of a closely-knit network — published racist eugenic newsletters and pseudoscientific journals, such as Eugenical News and Eugenics, and propagandized for the Nazis.'
Read more...
Much of the spiritual guidance and political agitation for the American eugenics movement came from California’s quasi-autonomous eugenic societies, such as Pasadena’s Human Betterment Foundation and the California branch of the American Eugenics Society, which coordinated much of their activity with the Eugenics Research Society in Long Island. These organizations — which functioned as part of a closely-knit network — published racist eugenic newsletters and pseudoscientific journals, such as Eugenical News and Eugenics, and propagandized for the Nazis.'
Read more...
Harriet Harman Under Attack Over Bid to Water Down Child Pornography Law
'Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and Equality Harriet Harman’s political judgement has been called into question after it emerged that she once advocated the watering down of child pornography laws. documents showing that she called on ministers to make sexually explicit photographs or films of children legal unless there was evidence that the subject had been harmed.'
Read more ...
The Warlord's Tune
Over six months an Afghani journalist, Najibullah Quraishi, has risked his life to document the practice of Bacha Bazi (boy play), where young men are forced into prostitution serving the needs of rich and powerful men.
The filmmaker follows those who make a living procuring young boys, and those who abuse them. The result is a deeply disturbing portrait of a society that publicly promotes a strict moral code while effectively condoning systematic child abuse.
Imagine being nine or ten years old. You are orphaned and living on the streets of a city in Afghanistan. You are approached by a man you do not know. He will clothe, feed and "protect" you. All you must do is learn to dance.
At first you will practice your routine with another young man. After weeks of training you will make your debut dancing before a crowd of men. Many are former warlords who helped the Karzai Government make its way to power. Others might be powerful businessmen.
Before you dance you will be given clothes and make up to make you look feminine. After the dancing, the men are excited and they bid for your company. If you please a warlord or businessman they will pay highly for your favours. Ultimately you will be traded, violated and abused by a large number of men.
This is the world of the Bacha Bereesh, which means "beardless boys". These children are groomed to become sex slaves. It is not a new practice. In Afghanistan the Warlords often kept young boys as their sexual partners. But in modern Afghanistan the practice has evolved into a lucrative and expanding business. In a country ravaged by war orphaned boys are being openly targeted by paedophiles. Some families are so poor that they are willing to sell their sons into slavery. Official reports now suggest thousands of children are at risk.
For the first time on television this practice is finally exposed. A locally born reporter has taken a camera and gone inside the world of the dancing boys. He goes with the "protector" as this man buys children. The reporter is told how the boys are trained and he is told how the "protector" will rent them out and take his "cut".
The documentary finds evidence that this practice is not confined to any one area of Afghanistan. Although it is popular in the north it is now spreading across the country.
The investigation also shows what happens when the boys mature or fall out of favour with the men who desire them. Some are abandoned, others are killed. Asked what impact this life has on the boys, one local says: "They are just boys, they will forget about it."
It is an investigation that has a special resonance for anyone watching in Australia. The people committing the abuse on these children are powerful figures in Afghan society. They are given license to commit these criminal acts by the very governments that are supposed to be our allies in the war on terror and the lethal contest against the Taliban.
"The Warlord's Tune" is produced and scripted by award winning documentary maker Jamie Doran.
It goes to air on Four Corners on Monday 22nd February at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is repeated on Tuesday 23rd at 11.35pm. Also available online.
The filmmaker follows those who make a living procuring young boys, and those who abuse them. The result is a deeply disturbing portrait of a society that publicly promotes a strict moral code while effectively condoning systematic child abuse.
Imagine being nine or ten years old. You are orphaned and living on the streets of a city in Afghanistan. You are approached by a man you do not know. He will clothe, feed and "protect" you. All you must do is learn to dance.
At first you will practice your routine with another young man. After weeks of training you will make your debut dancing before a crowd of men. Many are former warlords who helped the Karzai Government make its way to power. Others might be powerful businessmen.
Before you dance you will be given clothes and make up to make you look feminine. After the dancing, the men are excited and they bid for your company. If you please a warlord or businessman they will pay highly for your favours. Ultimately you will be traded, violated and abused by a large number of men.
This is the world of the Bacha Bereesh, which means "beardless boys". These children are groomed to become sex slaves. It is not a new practice. In Afghanistan the Warlords often kept young boys as their sexual partners. But in modern Afghanistan the practice has evolved into a lucrative and expanding business. In a country ravaged by war orphaned boys are being openly targeted by paedophiles. Some families are so poor that they are willing to sell their sons into slavery. Official reports now suggest thousands of children are at risk.
For the first time on television this practice is finally exposed. A locally born reporter has taken a camera and gone inside the world of the dancing boys. He goes with the "protector" as this man buys children. The reporter is told how the boys are trained and he is told how the "protector" will rent them out and take his "cut".
The documentary finds evidence that this practice is not confined to any one area of Afghanistan. Although it is popular in the north it is now spreading across the country.
The investigation also shows what happens when the boys mature or fall out of favour with the men who desire them. Some are abandoned, others are killed. Asked what impact this life has on the boys, one local says: "They are just boys, they will forget about it."
It is an investigation that has a special resonance for anyone watching in Australia. The people committing the abuse on these children are powerful figures in Afghan society. They are given license to commit these criminal acts by the very governments that are supposed to be our allies in the war on terror and the lethal contest against the Taliban.
"The Warlord's Tune" is produced and scripted by award winning documentary maker Jamie Doran.
It goes to air on Four Corners on Monday 22nd February at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is repeated on Tuesday 23rd at 11.35pm. Also available online.
Airport Security: Welcome to Scannergate
You can't help but marvel how enterprising security firms have the uncanny ability to sniff-out new opportunities wherever they can find, or manufacture, them.
After all, nothing sells like fear and in "new normal" America fear is an industry with a limitless growth potential.
While Republicans and Democrats squabble over who's "tougher" when it comes to invading and pillaging other nations (in the interest of "spreading democracy" mind you), a planetary grift dubbed the "War on Terror," waiting in the wings are America's new snake-oil salesmen.'
Read more...
Climate Scientists Withdraw Journal Claims of Rising Sea Levels
Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.
The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.'
Read more...
The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.'
Read more...
ADL's Abe Foxman Wets His Pants Over Sadistic Film
Foxman says of the film:
"Employing drama, comedy and romance with the quintessential Quentin Tarantino touch, the film is entertaining, yet thought-provoking. Hopefully the millions who see it will understand the horrors of the Holocaust and echo my view of “if only it were true!”
What a wonderful lesson for the millions of young people who will see the film and be taught to cheer torture and sadism.'
Read more...
California City to Charge $300 to Call 911
Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.
But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.
Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.
"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.
Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.'
Source
But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.
Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.
"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.
Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.'
Source
Big Brother Not Just Spying On Schoolchildren Through Their Laptops
The scandal surrounding kids being spied on at home via webcams in laptops provided by schools extends further than just schoolchildren – four years ago Google admitted that it was implementing similar invasive surveillance technologies that would target all Americans.
In 2006, Google announced that they would use in-built microphones to listen in on user’s background noise, be it television, music or radio – and then direct advertising at them based on their preferences.
“The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that’s adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject,” reported the Register.'
Read more...
In 2006, Google announced that they would use in-built microphones to listen in on user’s background noise, be it television, music or radio – and then direct advertising at them based on their preferences.
“The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that’s adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject,” reported the Register.'
Read more...
Millions of Anti-Terror Cash Spent on Luxury London Flats For Police Chiefs
The spending on an undisclosed number of apartments in the Westminster area is understood to be about £1.6million a year.
The money is taken directly from taxpayers’ cash given to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) by the Home Office to tackle the terrorist threat across Britain.
The funding – £33million last year – is supposed to be used to beef up regional police forces’ anti-terrorism response and pay for crucial equipment and facilities.
Instead, ACPO’s Terrorism & Allied Matters (TAM) committee, headed by Assistant Commissioner John Yates, has used millions of pounds from the budget to pay for flats.'
Read more...
Mystical Sites – U.S. Capitol
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Hospitals Consider Banning Bedside Flower Bouquets
In an effort to prevent what they believe may cause patient health complications, some British hospitals have begun banning flower bouquets from hospital rooms. Citing the possibility of infection from bacteria in the water and the ill-conceived notion that flowers may use up all the oxygen in the room - even though plants actually release oxygen - some hospital officials are up in arms over the alleged dangers posed by plants.
Researchers from the Imperial College of London decided to survey hospital patients and staff to get their take on the situation. They found that most patients appreciate having flowers around while many staffers dislike them because they can be messy. Few made any correlation between plants and an increased risk for disease or infection.
Virtually all scientific research has shown that flowers pose no health risks to patients, yet many hospitals continue to cling to antiquated superstition that they are somehow dangerous to patients. The vast majority of studies have revealed that flowers have both immediate and long-term benefits for patients.'
Read more...
Researchers from the Imperial College of London decided to survey hospital patients and staff to get their take on the situation. They found that most patients appreciate having flowers around while many staffers dislike them because they can be messy. Few made any correlation between plants and an increased risk for disease or infection.
Virtually all scientific research has shown that flowers pose no health risks to patients, yet many hospitals continue to cling to antiquated superstition that they are somehow dangerous to patients. The vast majority of studies have revealed that flowers have both immediate and long-term benefits for patients.'
Read more...
The Uranium Coup
The official story is that the members of Congress were focused on science, technology and humanitarian relief - at the very same time that the military coup was unfolding on the streets of the capital, Niamey.
This intriguing "coincidence" raises the question: Was this Congressional presence during a military coup another instance of a massive intelligence failure or something entirely different?'
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US Blitz Kills 27, Injures 15 Afghan Civilians
Fresh air strikes by the United States have killed at least 27 civilians and injured 15 others in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan interior ministry says. US-led forces said that they fired by mistake on a group of vehicles that carried women and children.'
Read more...
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Sunday, February 21, 2010
Big Pharma Criminals Now Puhsing Prozac For Depressed Dogs
'If your dog is barking mad, help is at hand. You can give it some Prozac. A dog version of the anti-depressant drug has been launched in America and will soon be available in Britain. It will be used to treat a canine compulsive disorder in which faulty genes combine with stress to produce excessive licking, whimpering and tail-chasing. The drug, called Reconcile, comes in a beef-flavoured chewy form and is also expected to curb compulsive pacing, chewing and dribbling.'
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The Sound of Silence
The physical, emotional, and psychological effects of this technology were so severe that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops surrended en masse without firing even a single shot against U.S. led coalition forces. The numbers reported in the news were staggering: 75,000 and then annother 125,000 (or more) Iraqi troops would come out of their deep desert bunkers waving white flags and falling to their knees before approaching U.S. troops and literally kiss their captor's boots or hands if given the opportunity. Why would eight year veterans of Middle Eastern warfare (with Iran 1980-1988) behave this way? Simple. They were subjected to a technology that was so extreme and incomprehensible that they were suddenly reduced to the level of compliant children and felt grateful to still be alive in the wake of their mind-wrenching experience.
This technology is about to be used, albeit in a more subtle fashion, against American citizens in a highly classified and covert operation to mind control and manipulate the entire population into 'compliance' with our New World order overlords. The technology will utilize a combination of HAARP transmitters, GWEN towers, microwave cell phone towers, and the soon-to-be-mandatory High Definition DIGITAL TV that will enter your home via A) Cable, B) Satellite, C) HD TVs, or D) those oh-so-easy -to-obtain "Digital Converter boxes" that the government is so anxious to help you obtain and underwrite most of the cost on your behalf.
But why is the government so anxious to help American citizens experience a clearer and more highly defined television picture? Does that make sense to you? Since when is the government so concerned about the visual quality of our televised entertainment that congress would pass an undebated statutory proclamation which mandated that the HD conversion take place on Feb. 17, 2009 and and then subsidze about 90% of the associated cost? I'm only guessing, but if there are 200 million "regular" televisions in America to be converted into HD, then that $40 in government subsidy per TV x 200,000,000 = 8 billion dollars. Why is the government so anxious to spend $8 billion dollars on her citizens to improve the clarity of a TV picture? Or is the recently touted "additional bandwidth" cover story that supposedly is to be gained with the HD technology the only and genuine reason for spending so much taxpayer dollars on HD conversion?
The second service that this author performs is to "out" two of our more deceptive alleged CIA/Pentagon 'assets' masquerading under the rubric of natural health advocates. Their names are Rima Laibow and her husband, former Major General Albert Stubblebine. If your e-mail Inbox has been filling with warnings and articles in recent months about the coming Codex regulations and the "wonderful" job that Rima and her retired Army husband have been doing to try and stem the tide, then you know who I'm talking about.
Folks, is it time to wake up yet? Or should we just resume our slumber and wait for them to take us away in those spiffy Gunderson prisoner train cars that Phil Schneider warned us about in 1995 (you know, the ones with the built in shackles and manacles)?
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Former IPCC Chair: IPCC Has a Warming "Bias"
The UN body that advises world leaders on climate change must investigate an apparent bias in its report that resulted in several exaggerations of the impact of global warming, according to its former chairman.
In an interview with The Times Robert Watson said that all the errors exposed so far in the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) resulted in overstatements of the severity of the problem.
Professor Watson, currently chief scientific adviser to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said that if the errors had just been innocent mistakes, as has been claimed by the current chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, some would probably have understated the impact of climate change.
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In an interview with The Times Robert Watson said that all the errors exposed so far in the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) resulted in overstatements of the severity of the problem.
Professor Watson, currently chief scientific adviser to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said that if the errors had just been innocent mistakes, as has been claimed by the current chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, some would probably have understated the impact of climate change.
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U.S. Attempts to Erase Haitian Nationhood
As Haiti writhes under the agony of hundreds of thousands dead, Bill Clinton picks through the bones in search of prime tourist spots and mango plantation sites. America’s most successful snake oil salesman is pleased to do the Haitian people’s thinking, planning and dreaming for them – and quite willing to speak for the afflicted country, as well.
"This is an opportunity to reimagine the future for the Haitian people, to build what they want to become, not rebuild what they used to be,'' Clinton told the global oligarchs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In one sweeping sentence, Clinton claimed a kind of sovereignty over the Haitian people’s very imaginations, assigning himself the right to filter what was good or bad about Haiti’s past, and what is permissible in the future. Haitians are no longer allowed to possess their own dreams and remembrances, which have apparently been placed in United Nations trusteeship, under control of UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton.
"MINUSTAH and the U.S. expeditionary force have conspired to starve out what’s left of Cite Soleil."
As one of the world’s most shameless personalities, the former president is eminently qualified to represent both the UN and the U.S. armed missions in Haiti. The 9,000 troops and police of the UN Stabilization Force in Haiti (MINUSTAH) have for years waged war on the seaside shanty neighborhood of Cite Soleil, a political stronghold of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Before the February, 2004, U.S.-backed coup, Cite Soleil was home to at least 300,000 desperately poor but politically organized people. Relentless MINUSTAH raids have drastically shrunk the slum’s population. By 2006, only 30 percent of residents still remained in some sections of Cite Soleil, according to human rights workers.
Since the earthquake, MINUSTAH and the U.S. expeditionary force have conspired to starve out what’s left of Cite Soleil. Three weeks after the catastrophe, the United Nations World Food Program described Cite Soleil as "no-go, for security reasons."
Have the people of Cite Soleil been condemned to death and dispersal because of their pro-Aristide politics – a trait they shared with at least 60 percent of the population the last time a count was permitted – or are they doomed by their choice seaside location? Either reason will do, or both. Haiti’s poor are condemned in advance, for existing where inconvenient.
"Small rice farmers were forced off the land and into the shanty-opolis."
The Haitian peasantry, which not so long ago kept the country self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs, became inconvenient after Washington forced Haiti to accept U.S. government-subsidized rice. Port-au-Prince, a town of about a quarter million in 1960, swelled to at least 2.5 million as small rice farmers were forced off the land and into the shanty-opolis, where they built what they could with the resources at hand. U.S.-imposed "structural adjustment" made Port-au-Prince a high-density death trap.
Somehow, this U.S.-mandated migration – which also contributed to the exodus abroad of many hundreds of thousands – is now numbered among the many "failures" of the Haitian people. They must now move again, to places outside Port-au-Prince where they can "reimagine the future," in Bill Clinton’s words. But whatever the Haitians might imagine, the United States is determined to deny them the right to pursue those dreams. Americans hector Haitians to summon the will to rebuild, but strangle Haitian civil society by effectively outlawing the nation’s most popular political party, Aristide’s Fanmi Lavalas. Self-determination is among those things Haitians must not be permitted to rebuild or reclaim.
"The U.S. strangles Haitian civil society by effectively outlawing the nation’s most popular political party."
The Americans seem to prefer that Haitians have no government, at all, even one as compliant as that of President Rene Preval, who collaborated in banning Fanmi Lavalas from taking part in elections. Only one cent of every dollar in U.S. "relief" money goes to or through the Haitian government, which is thus reduced to a crippled and largely irrelevant spectator. The Americans will at some point "reimagine" precisely how the Haitian "protectorate" will be managed in these extraordinary times.
The Haitian people "need democracy and self determination," said a statement by the U.S.-based Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, "not more military interventions by the U.S., which has sent more than 10,000 troops to subdue our people."
On February 20, the Black is Back Coalition will hold a National March and Rally to Defend Haiti, in Miami, Florida. "Our people in Haiti must have reparations, not self serving charity from France and the U.S."
uruknet
So Where Did All the Money Go?
It isn't really fair to add this all together – some of the cash is merely guarantees rather than actual pledged money, some isn't technically a fiscal injection; much of it will, in time come back to the Government – but if you did you would find that the total amount of cash poured, in one way or another, into the economy is well above £1 trillion. In fact, it is not far off Britain's entire annual income.'
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Destabilization in the North Caucasus: Georgian President Saakashvili 'Ready for New War'?
Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili and his supporters are ready to start a new war and plunge the country into chaos again. A statement to that effect came from the leader of the opposition “Democratic Movement – United Georgia” Party, ex-Speaker of parliament Nino Burdjanadze.
The party’s statements circulated on Saturday say the Georgian parliament is acting behind Russia’s back preparing an address to the people and legislatures of North Caucasian republics which may destabilize the situation in the North Caucasus given the current circumstances.
The opposition statements say Saakashvili is pushing the country into war because he is fully aware that his days as president are over but he prefers to be expelled by Russia rather than toppled by the people of Georgia.'
Source
The party’s statements circulated on Saturday say the Georgian parliament is acting behind Russia’s back preparing an address to the people and legislatures of North Caucasian republics which may destabilize the situation in the North Caucasus given the current circumstances.
The opposition statements say Saakashvili is pushing the country into war because he is fully aware that his days as president are over but he prefers to be expelled by Russia rather than toppled by the people of Georgia.'
Source
Credit-Card Fees: the New Traps
Banning these and other profitable tactics is expected to cost the card industry at least $12 billion a year in lost revenue, according to law firm Morrison & Foerster. This has sent the industry scrambling to find new sources of revenue. So get ready for higher annual fees, higher balance-transfer charges, and growing charges for overseas transactions.'
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RBS Braced for Bonus Row With Planned £1.3 Billion Payout
Loss-making Royal Bank of Scotland is braced for a row over City pay next week when it is expected to admit that its bonus pot for 22,000 investment bankers has reached £1.3bn – against last year's £1bn.
The Edinburgh-based bank is awaiting approval from UK Financial Investments, the body that looks after the taxpayer's 84% stake in the bank, for its proposed bonus pool. Chancellor Alistair Darling has yet to receive a formal presentation about the proposals, which he can veto. He has already said that bonuses cannot be paid in cash to anyone earning more than £39,000, which would affect most of the workforce in the investment bank.
RBS, which a year ago announced the biggest loss in British corporate history, is on Thursday expected to show that its losses have narrowed.
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The Edinburgh-based bank is awaiting approval from UK Financial Investments, the body that looks after the taxpayer's 84% stake in the bank, for its proposed bonus pool. Chancellor Alistair Darling has yet to receive a formal presentation about the proposals, which he can veto. He has already said that bonuses cannot be paid in cash to anyone earning more than £39,000, which would affect most of the workforce in the investment bank.
RBS, which a year ago announced the biggest loss in British corporate history, is on Thursday expected to show that its losses have narrowed.
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Are Mandatory Vaccinations Acts of Violence Against Children?
Most modern vaccinations are, of course, a form of chemical violence against children. If they were all formulated without chemical preservatives (like thimerosal) and dangerous adjuvants (which can harm the nervous system), that might be a different story. But far too many of today's vaccines are chemical concoctions that are entirely unnatural to the human body. To force them into the bodies of innocent children is an act of medical violence.'
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Clinics are Now Practically Begging People to Get Vaccinated Against Swine Flu
Local health officials launched the human billboard campaign at a time when health departments around the country are going to great lengths to spread the word that swine flu vaccines are in abundant supply and available for free to anyone who wants one.
Their advertising tactics include horseback banners at rodeos and wristbands handed out at nightclubs. Maine officials set up a flu clinic at the high school basketball playoffs this week, while other health departments are giving patients shots at airports, malls and even a trade show.
The fact that clinics are practically begging people to get vaccinated is a dramatic shift from just a few months ago when people stood in long lines and waited -- sometimes for hours -- to get the scarce vaccine.'
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Their advertising tactics include horseback banners at rodeos and wristbands handed out at nightclubs. Maine officials set up a flu clinic at the high school basketball playoffs this week, while other health departments are giving patients shots at airports, malls and even a trade show.
The fact that clinics are practically begging people to get vaccinated is a dramatic shift from just a few months ago when people stood in long lines and waited -- sometimes for hours -- to get the scarce vaccine.'
Read more...
'Netanyahu Authorized Dubai Assassination'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly authorized the assassination of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh early January in Tel Aviv.
According to a report published by Times Online Netanyahu held a meeting with Mossad chief Meir Dagan in early January inside the briefing room of the headquarters of the spy agency where "some members of a hit squad" were also present.
Citing Mossad sources, the report said "as the man who gives final authorization for such operations, Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh".'
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According to a report published by Times Online Netanyahu held a meeting with Mossad chief Meir Dagan in early January inside the briefing room of the headquarters of the spy agency where "some members of a hit squad" were also present.
Citing Mossad sources, the report said "as the man who gives final authorization for such operations, Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh".'
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