"From the studio that brought you 'Brokeback Mountain,' ' intones the preview for the light comedy 'Let's Go To Prison,' 'comes a penetrating look at the American penal system.' In case that was too subtle for you, the DVD box features a dropped bar of soap, just waiting for some poor inmate to bend over to pick it up -- and suffer a hilarious sexual assault in the process.
Or maybe you're not feeling up for a movie. It's more of a board-game afternoon. How about picking up 'Don't Drop the Soap,' a board game created by the son of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. The game 'is simply intended for entertainment,' said Nicole Corcoran, the governor's spokeswoman. What, after all, could be more entertaining then trying to 'avoid being cornered by the Aryans in the shower room' (one of the goals of the game, according to its promotional material)?
Here in Washington, however, the weather has been beautiful lately, so if you were bored last week, you might have wanted to do something out of the house. One option would have been going down to the Department of Justice, where, on the third floor, officials were holding hearings on prison rape, interrogating administrators from some of the worst prisons in the nation about the abuses that go on within their walls."
It took a long time for it to sink in for me, but when I saw Bart & Homer Simpson making jokes about it in the Mid '90s I knew there was something wrong.
On the mark Tom Tomorrow toon on the very specious reasons behind Hillary's Continued run. Even features Hillary's "talk" withLex Luthor, publisher of the Daily Planet, (This is actually the truth behind the corporate media. Reporters as scared children.) Richard Mellon Scaife, arguably one of the most evil men in the United States. (Hometown pride (!) by the way...)
By the way, if you're looking for reasons to like Barack keep in mind that it looks like not only does the Israel lobby not like him (not for anything Obama has done because he's sucked up to AIPAC with the best of them--
--(Real politic confession: if I was advising Obama, even as a critic of AIPAC, I'd tell him to suck up to AIPAC. Of course, that's the dream behind Obama. Unlike most black men who have woken up each morning angered and frustrated by the world around them Obama could actually wake and change some things. I truly hope he's gets that opportunity.)--
--but because his middle name is Hussein and he actually knows Moslems. He might be more sympathetic to the Palestinians than the sellout Clintons who gave us NAFTA for christsakes...) but it looks like Jewish likudnik donors are keeping Hillary in the race. I would like to think this wouldn't have to be pointed out: if Obama wins the most elected delegates, in a system that really isn't set up for blacks or progressives to win (Are there any whiter states than Iowa or New Hampshire? The Dakotas maybe, Utah?) he should get the nomination. If he doesn't, then it would probably split the party and give American blacks a great reason to ditch the dems. On the other hand, this would provide Obama a wonderful opportunity to quit the party and run as a third party. He has the money.
One more point about that cartoon: I'm not that worried about "meteors". I'm worried about bullets and Mossad. Oh, the press would cover it, right. Just like they "covered" the RFK assassination and election fraud stories of 2000 and 2004.... Are you kidding me.? Also very much worried about Obama's plane going down...that seems to happen to a lot of political people here and abroad.
"J. Marion Sims, a leading 19th- century physician and former president of the American Medical Association, developed many of his gynecological treatments through experiments on slave women who were not granted the comfort of anesthesia. Sims's legacy is Janus-faced; he was pitiless with non- consenting research subjects, yet he was among the first doctors of the modern era to emphasize women's health. Other researchers were guiltier of blind ambition than racist intent. Several African Americans, including such as Eunice Rivers, the nurse-steward of the Tuskegee study, served as liaisons between scientists and research subjects.
"The infringement of black Americans' rights to their own bodies in the name of medical science continued throughout the 20th century. In 1945, Ebb Cade, an African American trucker being treated for injuries received in an accident in Tennessee, was surreptitiously placed without his consent into a radiation experiment sponsored by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. Black Floridians were deliberately exposed to swarms of mosquitoes carrying yellow fever and other diseases in experiments conducted by the Army and the CIA in the early 1950s. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, black inmates at Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison were used as research subjects by a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist testing pharmaceuticals and personal hygiene products; some of these subjects report pain and disfiguration even now. During the 1960s and '70s, black boys were subjected to sometimes paralyzing neurosurgery by a University of Mississippi researcher who believed brain pathology to be the root of the children's supposed hyperactive behavior. In the 1990s, African American youths in New York were injected with Fenfluramine -- half of the deadly, discontinued weight loss drug Fen-Phen -- by Columbia researchers investigating a hypothesis about the genetic origins of violence."
With this kind of record, is Rev. Wright paranoid when he speculates that AIDs might be the result of an experiment gone wrong or even as some black intellectuals assert a ethnic weapon? Given these recorded instances of abuse by the government and private groups, would anybody put it pass them? The New York Times has carried a series about Eli Lily's role in distributing a drug called Zyprexa. Seems that the company knew about the dangerous side effects of this drug before they put it on the market ."Eli Lilly, the drug maker, systematically hid the risks and side effects of Zyprexa, its best-selling schizophrenia medicine, a lawyer for the State of Alaska said Wednesday in opening arguments in a lawsuit that contends the drug caused many schizophrenic patients to develop diabetes."
I have long admired Dr. Reeds, work, be it his poetry or literary prose ever since I heard him speak on campus many years ago, he is a first rate academic researcher and scholar which makes it all the more advantageous to people who read this, must read article. Reed describes what a propagenda lynching looks like in 21st Century America.
MIAMI (Reuters) - Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.
A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades.
If use of the drone wins Federal Aviation Administration approval after tests, the Miami-Dade Police Department will start flying the 14-pound (6.3 kg) drone over urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting.
"Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes," said police department spokesman Juan Villalba.
"We intend to use this to benefit us in carrying out our mission," he added, saying the wingless Honeywell aircraft, which fits into a backpack and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing, seems ideally suited for use by SWAT teams in hostage situations or dealing with "barricaded subjects."
Miami-Dade police are not alone, however.
Taking their lead from the U.S. military, which has used drones in Iraq and Afghanistan for years, law enforcement agencies across the country have voiced a growing interest in using drones for domestic crime-fighting missions.
Known in the aerospace industry as UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles, drones have been under development for decades in the United States.
If you don't want to wait for the ultra-lite version of the UAV's, you can still take a gander at the DCHDs (Domestic Control Hover Drones: note the word domestic), which the U.S. government is already mass producing, and offering for sale to selected governments for $178,000 each (that's for the stripped-down model, the price the salespeople use to get buyers through the door: extras will easily bring the price up to $350,000, not including destination fees). They're shaped like a doughnut a little over three feet across, and weigh about forty-five pounds. They have a motor in the middle.
DCHDs are designed to hover about fifty feet up, but can go as high as five hundred feet. They can stay airborne for three hours without running out of fuel, and they can travel at fifty miles per hour. They can be controlled either by satellite or by vehicles on the ground. They come in your choice of an elegant black matte for night use and a matte white and sky-blue for those days you're feeling a bit more festive. They are, of course, nearly silent, so quiet they cannot be heard from ten feet away.
Did we mention the word domestic in the title of the drone?
Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.
With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.
Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials ... Public records show that AEY’s contracts since 2004 have potentially been worth more than a third of a billion dollars. Mr. Diveroli set the value higher: he claimed to do $200 million in business each year.
In a letter to the House Speaker dated Wednesday, the backers said that position is at odds with the party's original intent on what the role of superdelegates should be. (Read full letter [PDF])
"Superdelegates, like all delegates, have an obligation to make an informed, individual decision about whom to support and who would be the party’s strongest nominee," the backers wrote.
"Both campaigns agree that at the end of the primary contests neither will have enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination," they also said. "In that situation, super-delegates must look to not one criterion but to the full panoply of factors that will help them assess who will be the party’s strongest nominee in the general election."
In an ABC interview earlier this month, Pelosi said it was her belief whichever candidate ended the round a primaries with the pledged-delegate lead should be awarded the Democratic nomination by the superdelegates. That argument would benefit Barack Obama, whose current pledged delegate lead of 171 is virtually insurmountable given the party's proportional delegation allocations, even if Clinton were to win each of the remaining 10 primary contests.
Did you know that gas price gouging almost never occurs as prices rise? Rather, it's most often when dealers keep prices artificially high even as their costs fall.
As gas costs rise to $4 a gallon and oil companies earn around $100 billion each year, it's a good time to question what really goes into the price of gas.
The numbers on the gas station sign hide a complex set of transactions. Before gas can power your car, it must be discovered as crude oil, traverse three markets, and be refined from crude into gas.
Inside, we'll explain the three markets, walk you through the role of refineries, and show how oil companies use creative tactics to manipulate gas prices...
Our country is literally falling apart around us meanwhile, the kabuki show continues unabated. If i had such grades in school I'd have serious problems at home...
the security grade is quite curious: not assigned in 2001, and incomplete in 2005... in most of the topics there has been a decrease... one wonders "will there be a surge in 2009?"
This is a quick response to Django's thoughtful piece. I'm not entirely sure what you're saying in it but I did want to comment on transhumanism. I actually am kind of a virtual card carrying transhumanist. I used to write columns for Better Humans and participated in their short lived blog "Cyborg Democracy", even though Ken Macleod and Charlie Stross never contributed much. I guess they were too "busy" writing world class science fiction novels. Tranhumanism, to me anyway, is kind of a Leftist approach to science. For example, I want to go to Mars not just because its there, but because I want a new constitution that enshrines privacy rights, guarantees my vote and is based on some form of Direct Democracy. This is a movement that is separate from, say, the eugenics movement or God Help us the Transtopians (I actually was the first person to describe them as "The Magneto side of the Transhumanist equation" and they took it as a mantra. I mean, those are your future one color jump suited Bond villains...)...
But here's the best definition of what Transhumanists want that I've seen. I don't find it all threatening. I just want to get better with science. If you don't want to evolve, then hey that's cool. Khan was just, you know, misunderstood.
I have seen a world where death and disease have been defeated by science… where food, shelter, and clothing is manufactured quickly, and without waste… where transparency makes violent crime impossible, and authorities accountable… where people walk on other planets and in endless virtual worlds… where intelligence and empathy are magnified far beyond present levels… where the diversity of sentient beings has expanded to unimaginable proportions… where the risk of human extinction has been reduced to near zero.
I will endeavor to take the fastest safe route to such a future, and direct my present-day energies towards its realization. I will be polite and understanding to skeptics and naysayers. I will thoroughly enjoy my daily life while simultaneously working for a better future. I will work towards that future for the good of all, not just myself, and try my best to maintain an altruistic point of view at all times.
Not Everything That Can Be Done Should Be Done. I am rarely flummoxed. I've been researching and trying to write an essay about the convergence of transhumanism, the technological singularity, and eugenics. I can't . . . I just bloody can not do it. I understand the damn material, but it just freezes my brain. So I'm gonna have to let you do most of the work. I'll provide some basic resources.
Let me say this before I give you some links and quotes: scientists and the power elite on the planet (1) have given up on the human species and (2) are within a micrometer of doing something about it. It is inevitable. There is nothing we can do about it. Mankind has unleashed and nearly perfected the matrix of its own extinction . . .
From the elimination of undesirables from the human race; mass culling in the name of saving the earth; to altering the genetic code of humanity with advanced technology:
Eugenics has moved into a new era.
What is eugenics?
The word eugenics comes from the Greek words eus (good or well) and genēs (born) meaning "well born". The American Heritage dictionary of the English language describes eugenics as, "The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding." Sir Francis Galton was the man who coined the term, and developed the first eugenic policies. Galton expressed distress at the lack of emphasis on the betterment of the human race during his time, comparing men and women of his day to "pariah dogs" . . .
The aristocratic, wealthy elite of America played a central role in the development of eugenics in America and abroad. Two such elite families are the Rockefellers and the Carnegies.
In 1902, Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Institute which among other things, funded the Eugenics Record Office in America. The ERO (1910-1944) operated from Cold Spring Harbor in New York. Eugenics policies, which led to the sterilization of thousands of Americans, were developed in this office.
The Rockefellers, perhaps more so, were also heavily involved with eugenics. Rockefeller influence in American eugenics can be traced to the beginnings of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. John D. Rockefeller, along with Averell Harriman gave $11 million to create the facility in the early 1900's. Rockefeller influence also spread overseas to Germany, where the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Psychiatry, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Eugenics, Anthropology and Human Heredity resided. Much of the money used to run these facilities came from Rockefeller. These weren't just average scientific institutes; the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes would become the center for Nazi eugenics programs. . . .
Since the early days of eugenics, a new "brand" of this science has emerged in modern times. The environmental branch of eugenics believes that, due to overpopulation, measures must be taken to either impede population growth through various eugenic policies, or take drastic measures to eliminate living human beings from the earth. Unlike those who advocate eugenics to strictly rid humanity of "undesirables," some advocate the culling of humanity in general in order to save planet earth. Many globalist initiatives surround environmental issues, one of which has been population control and reduction . . .
Since the founding of eugenics, the movement has changed, but it has retained its core goals over the years. Thomas H. Campbell of the University of California believes that the eugenics model of Galton is outdated and impractical, as do many other scientists. Instead of relying on breeding "better humans," without the intervention of technology, many scientists believe that technological means should be employed to further our "evolution." With the rise of advanced scientific technologies, the ability to alter the genetic code of living organisms, and the augmentation of human bodies has become a reality. Some individuals who are involved with the modern eugenics movement see the rise of these capabilities as an opportunity to create or alter human beings to acquire the most "desirable traits" and rid humanity of traits deemed "undesirable" . . .
The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature of this century. I argue in this paper that we are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth. The precise cause of this change is the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence. There are several means by which science may achieve this breakthrough (and this is another reason for having confidence that the event will occur):
There may be developed computers that are "awake" and superhumanly intelligent. (To date, there has been much controversy as to whether we can create human equivalence in a machine. But if the answer is "yes, we can", then there is little doubt that beings more intelligent can be constructed shortly thereafter.)
Large computer networks (and their associated users) may "wake up" as a superhumanly intelligent entity.
Computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent.
Biological science may provide means to improve natural human intellect.
The first three possibilities depend in large part on improvements in computer hardware. Progress in computer hardware has followed an amazingly steady curve in the last few decades [17]. Based largely on this trend, I believe that the creation of greater than human intelligence will occur during the next thirty years. (Charles Platt [20] has pointed out that AI enthusiasts have been making claims like this for the last thirty years. Just so I'm not guilty of a relative-time ambiguity, let me more specific: I'll be surprised if this event occurs before 2005 or after 2030.)
What are the consequences of this event? When greater-than-human intelligence drives progress, that progress will be much more rapid. In fact, there seems no reason why progress itself would not involve the creation of still more intelligent entities -- on a still-shorter time scale. The best analogy that I see is with the evolutionary past: Animals can adapt to problems and make inventions, but often no faster than natural selection can do its work -- the world acts as its own simulator in the case of natural selection. We humans have the ability to internalize the world and conduct "what if's" in our heads; we can solve many problems thousands of times faster than natural selection. Now, by creating the means to execute those simulations at much higher speeds, we are entering a regime as radically different from our human past as we humans are from the lower animals.
From the human point of view this change will be a throwing away of all the previous rules, perhaps in the blink of an eye, an exponential runaway beyond any hope of control. Developments that before were thought might only happen in "a million years" (if ever) will likely happen in the next century. (In [5], Greg Bear paints a picture of the major changes happening in a matter of hours.)
I think it's fair to call this event a singularity ("the Singularity" for the purposes of this paper). It is a point where our old models must be discarded and a new reality rules. As we move closer to this point, it will loom vaster and vaster over human affairs till the notion becomes a commonplace. Yet when it finally happens it may still be a great surprise and a greater unknown. In the 1950s there were very few who saw it: Stan Ulam [28] paraphrased John von Neumann as saying:
One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue . . .
Note that many involved in this movement pinpoint the year 2012 (give or take a few years) for the occurrence of the singularity event.
This rather short video illustrates some of the fundamental issues:
Transhumanism (sometimes symbolized by >H or H+), a term often used as a synonym for "human enhancement", is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of new sciences and technologies to enhance human mental and physical abilities and aptitudes, and ameliorate what it regards as undesirable and unnecessary aspects of the human condition, such as stupidity, suffering, disease, aging and involuntary death. Transhumanist thinkers study the possibilities and consequences of developing and using human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies for these purposes. Possible dangers, as well as benefits, of powerful new technologies that might radically change the conditions of human life are also of concern to the transhumanist movement.
Although the first known use of the term "transhumanism" dates from 1957, the contemporary meaning is a product of the 1980s, when a group of scientists, artists, and futurists based in the United States began to organize what has since grown into the transhumanist movement. Transhumanist thinkers predict that human beings will eventually be transformed into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman". Transhumanism is therefore sometimes referred to as "posthumanism" or a form of transformational activism influenced by posthumanist ideals.
Transhumanist foresight of a profoundly transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives. Transhumanism has been described by one outspoken opponent as the world's most dangerous idea, while a proponent counters that it is the "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity" . . .
Here's a truncated video that serves as a basic introduction:
In researching this I finally realized that I could let myself get sucked into the black hole of "complexity" or just keep it simple . . .
The human species is so arrogantly and narcissistically stupid that it doesn't realize how stupid it is. Stupid is, after all, as stupid does. Given the history of "human development", what the fuck makes you think that any of this shit will be used "for the good of mankind"???
There are really only two relevant questions. The first is, "who owns this stuff?" The second is, "what are their goals?"
Unabomber's Manifesto by Ted Kaczynski (editor's note: neither ddjango nor P! advocate a violent response to the issues presented and totally disowns Mr Kaczynski's tactics. The Manifesto is included here for informational and educational purposes only.)
You know, instead of boycotting the Olympics, you could show your unhappiness about what's happening in Tibet in other ways. There is a precedent for that sort of thing. I'm making the presumption that China won't shoot you and send payment for the bullet to your family, at least not with the whole world watching. I'm of the opinion that these kinds of boycotts only punish the athletes and don't really change anything politically.
Like everything from this band. Would have used "Be My Fucking Boyfriend" here and here but couldn't find a competitive vid for combat against this strong group of fighters.
The Assassination of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer
Mortaging America's future for a quick buck
It's one of the most amazing displays of journalistic incompetence and malpractice in recent memory.
The US news media failed to draw the obvious connection between the bizarre federal law enforcement investigation and leak campaign about the private life of New York Governor Spitzer and Spitzer's all out attack on the Bush administration for its collusion with predatory lenders.
While the international credit system grinds to a halt because of a superabundance of bad mortgage loans made in the US, the news media failed to cover the details of Spitzer's public charges against the White House.
Yet when salacious details were leaked about alleged details of Spitzer's private life, they took that information and made it the front page news for days.
To the 9/11 fiasco, the Iraq War, the travesty of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, and the shredding of the US Constitution, we can now add a deliberate and reckless undermining of the credit and banking system of the US to its list of "accomplishments."
How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers
(The following oped by Eliot Spitzer was published barely a month prior to the unfolding scandal and his demise as Governor of the State of New York. Does the scandal bear any relationship to Spitzer's intent to reveal the criminal nature of the subprime mortgage scam and the role of the Bush adminstration. Was the scandal intended to silence Eliot Spitzer?)
Here's the article in full:
By New York Governor Eliot Spitzer The Washington Post Feb. 14, 2008 Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets. Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.
Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York's, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices.
What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.
Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.
Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.
In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.
Throughout our battles with the OCC and the banks, the mantra of the banks and their defenders was that efforts to curb predatory lending would deny access to credit to the very consumers the states were trying to protect. But the curbs we sought on predatory and unfair lending would have in no way jeopardized access to the legitimate credit market for appropriately priced loans. Instead, they would have stopped the scourge of predatory lending practices that have resulted in countless thousands of consumers losing their homes and put our economy in a precarious position.
When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers. [emphasis added]
Lamperd, a "firearm training system" company, has patented a bracelet that delivers debilitating shocks when remotely triggered. Their killer app for this is aviation safety: they're proposing that the TSA could force everyone who flies to wear one of these and then flight-attendants could zap us into a stupor if we turn out to be Al Qaeda.
"A method of providing air travel security for passengers traveling via an aircraft comprises situating a remotely activatable electric shock device on each of the passengers in position to deliver a disabling electrical shock when activated; and arming the electric shock devices for subsequent selective activation by a selectively operable remote control disposed within the aircraft. The remotely activatable electric shock devices each have activation circuitry responsive to the activating signal transmitted from the selectively operable remote control means. The activated electric shock device is operable to deliver the disabling electrical shock to that passenger."
"We are now confronted by a broad bloodbath in the credit markets," Citigroup said. " The most leveraged paper is falling in value because it is leveraged, and now the least leveraged paper is also falling in value because it is owned by leveraged investors." ... Leveraged economies, like the U.S., should also be avoided, in favor of emerging market countries, which have reduced borrowing, the bank advised. With less capital sloshing around the world, and the dollar falling, the U.S. may have to compete more to finance its deficits.
"The U.S. shows up as the world's greatest consumer of external capital," Citi noted. So it "has the most to lose as this capital becomes less freely available."
Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, and other news media all lied and distorted the image of pastor Jeremiah Wright. Though Barack Obama has already given a stunning historical speech on race and Wright, it's important for voters to get full context of clips.. For example, Wright's "chicken roost" remark quotes a white US Ambassador, Peck.
* "Iraq was invaded early 2003 by a United States coalition. Twenty-nine other countries, including the UK, also provided troops... Iraq had not abandoned its nuclear and chemical weapons development program". After the first Gulf War, "Iraq did not honour the cease-fire agreement by surrendering weapons of mass destruction..."
The reality: The WMD allegation, central to the case for war, proved to be bogus. David Kay, appointed by the Bush administration to search for such weapons after the invasion, found no evidence of a serious programme or stockpiling of WMDs. The "coalition of the willing" was the rather grand title of a rag-tag group of countries which included Eritrea, El Salvador and Macedonia.
I hear-tell that, Blair just scored a gig teaching about his God at Yale; indeed, a course that looks at issues of faith and globalization cannibalization. Praise da lard!
F-16's 'dummy bomb' slams into Tulsa apartment complex
Here's a lead that got our attention: "Federal authorities are investigating why a a dummy bomb traveling about 600 mph crashed into a building at a Tulsa apartment complex Thursday evening."
The news comes to us from the Tulsa World, which reports that a military pilot thought he or she had dropped the 25-pound "inert military ordnance" over Kansas. In fact, it hit a densely populated area in Oklahoma.
"Two or three feet over and it would have actually entered apartments," police Capt. Rick Helberg tells KTUL-TV.
Of course, none of the MSM seems to have picked this up...
Could you have imagined had this been the B52 carrying the 5 live loose nuke missiles?
Thousands of Palestinian orphans protest Israeli army looting of their food, clothes Hundreds of Israeli troops, backed up by armored carriers, raided the Islamic Charitable Society in downtown Hebron earlier this week , vandalizing property and looting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of food materials, clothes, shoes and furniture donated by local and foreign donors for the benefit of the orphans.
The charitable society, the largest in Palestine, runs two orphanages and several boarding schools, which cater for as many as 7000 children who have lost either or both parents.
“Israel is treating us the way Nazi Germany treated the Jews,’ read one of the placards carried by the protesters. “Israel represents the Nazis of our time,” read another sign. A third placard read “We shall triumph.”
Demonstrators marched nearly one kilometer through the Ein Sara street, one of the Hebron’s main thoroughfares, as Palestinian police escorted them.
One of the protesters, Ahmed Natshe, accused Israel of wanting to “annihilate Muslims”
WASHINGTON (AFP) — That young American exchange student who stayed with you last summer to do a language immersion course could be part of a new program to educate the next generation of US intelligence agents.
But don't worry: even if she does end up working for the CIA, the likelihood of her becoming an undercover operative is slim.
"Intelligence doesn't just mean spying, skulking around in a trench coat," said Jim Robbins, director of the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence (IC CAE) at Trinity University in Washington, one of nine programs aimed at revamping the US intelligence community. ... Trinity opened the doors to the pilot course for the Intelligence Community Centers for Academic Excellence three years ago.
The program is funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the umbrella agency which oversees the 16 intelligence agencies in the United States, some of which -- such as the Treasury or Department of the Environment -- would not be linked automatically to intelligence activities.
Since 2005, the center has swelled, with eight more universities across the United States signing on to the program that wants to revamp the way young Americans perceive intelligence -- it isn't just spying -- and are trained to work in the very diverse field.
The program aims to "bring in groups to the intelligence community -- women, minorities, what have you -- who were previously under-represented," said Robbins. ... The ODNI grant is used to send students abroad to study a language and learn about another culture. ... "Every university that has a grant has to identify students to become IC CAE scholars," Gant explained.
"Those students are required to go abroad and study a language or study culture and they get a stipend to go abroad," she said.
Florida International University (FIU) sent 16 students abroad last year as part of its IC CAE program.
"People want to go to China, to Brazil to study Portuguese, to Spain. They want to study Arabic, which is a critical language need. So far we have had people go to Morocco, Jordan and Egypt," David Twigg, associate director of the Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies at FIU, told AFP.
"They're not going there as spies; they're going there as people who are trying to understand what's going on."
spying? us? of course not - we're just gathering intelligence...
From $30 to $2 a share over a weekend, geez...And these jackals want your 401 k's and Social security next... and they'll get it after you've paid for this bail out.
Arrested judge wore dress, women's hosiery By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI, New Hampshire Union Leader Staff Friday, Feb. 15, 2008
The federal bankruptcy judge who was convicted of DWI in Manchester this week is resigning.
According to a press release issued by the First Circuit federal court in Boston today, Judge Robert Somma will remain on leave until his resignation takes effect on April 1.
April first eh? So by that are we to believe his is, --truth be known-- as with all these thugs--, a lateral move? None of the Bush crime syndicate ever suffer detrimental consequences. Oh, and the real factor of why I post this is, the wtf factor, in that what the fuck is up with the ubiquitous sexual recidivism with these bandits?? Has anyone besides me noticed the underlying unhealthy sexual devience with these incidences?
You wanna give me a fucking break here? George Bush murders a million goddamn Iraqi men, women and children - butchers them by lying to the world and steals their oil - and yet Eliot Spitzer has sex with a female and the press is INDIGNANT, INDIGNANT! His wife aside, Spitzer's was a victimless crime - and don't give me this transporting someone across state lines for illegal activities and prostitution is illegal bullshit - because those laws need to be banished back to puritanical New England where they came from! Oh yea, but it's not illegal in Nevada so . . . [Once, driving across the country from east to west, from Utah to Nevada I hadn't actually realized these two states were side by side and fantasized about all Nevadans lining up against their border and mooning Utah at once], fackin' American hypocrites. These goddamn ancient 'morality laws' need to go the way of the Texas sex toy ban. Why the fuck is there even a vice squad? What the fuck business is it of yours what my vices are if they don't hurt anybody? No, scratch, that - sex and drugs are not vices, one is natural and the latter can be good or very bad and if bad a health problem, to be sure. [Yes, I'm all for harm reduction just like the good fictional mayor of Vancouver, B.C. Dominic DaVinci - great show, eh?]
Spitzer did good work against Wall Street corruption and predatory lenders which are most certainly not victimless crimes. Spitzer, if you're out there, unshaven and sitting in front of your computer in your darkened, locked bedroom with your favorite drink in front of you, listen man: tell these assholes what you do with your cock is your own fucking business - you and your wife's, who you will make it up to - and now you will go back to work, after admitting that when you previously used the law against prostitution it was an act of ungodly hypocrisy which you will now vow to spend the rest of your days making up for. Can someone come up with a law to take these goddamn puritanical laws off the books, please? And maybe in what passes for 'moral instruction' in this country and/or media, the new definition of that which causes righteous indignation involves the bloody, premeditated murder of another human being (and if a million, that's really bad). In that turned around, messed up world, George Bush would have long ago faced public humilation and resignation, and Eliot Spitzer would still be battling the oversized windmills of big money, dirty money.
Cynthia McKinney Announces Presidential Campaign Video News Release to follow Dec 16, 6 PM
Cynthia McKinney, a former six-term Congresswoman and an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, today officially launched her campaign as a Green Party candidate for President.
In a soon-to-be-released video news release, McKinney says "the Republicans have deceived us; the Democrats have failed us. It is time for a new beginning: A time for hope to rise from the ashes of despair."
McKinney, a former Democrat from Georgia, was one of only three members of Congress to vote "yes" on a House Resolution in 2005 calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. One of her last acts in office was introducing Articles of Impeachment naming George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice.
According to McKinney: "It is time to break the vicious cycle where the poor go to war and veterans come home wounded and ignored."
McKinney supports universal, single-payer health care; fair trade; and has been an unrelenting advocate for Hurricane Katrina survivors. No stranger to controversy and unafraid of speaking truth to power, McKinney has demanded that the Bush Administration tell the American people what the Administration knew about the events leading up to 9/11 and when they knew it.
McKinney's announcement ends months of speculation about her plans. McKinney has been traveling constantly and meeting with Green Party members and other activists across the country who have been encouraging her to seek the Presidency.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House doors were locked Thursday night as lawmakers prepared for their first closed session in 25 years to debate surveillance legislation.
Republicans requested privacy for what they termed "an honest debate'' on the new Democratic eavesdropping bill that is opposed by the White House and most Republicans in Congress.
The private session was scheduled for nighttime so the House chamber could be swept by security personnel to make sure there were no listening or recording devices.
The last such session in the House was in 1983 on U.S. support for paramilitary operations in Nicaragua. Only five closed sessions have taken place in the House since 1825.
Many Democrats initially objected, calling it a political ploy by Republicans to delay the vote. Indeed, it did: House leaders pushed off the scheduled vote until Friday, just before taking a two-week recess. If passed, the bill would have to be approved by the Senate.
President Bush vowed to veto the House Democrats' version of the terrorist surveillance bill, saying it would undermine the nation's security.
Indeed, this is the House that the democrats elected into power. Y'all proud of this?
Like the dark of night Patriot Act; We are not a democracy when our leaders decide for us in secret.
NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data Terror Fight Blurs Line Over Domain Tracking Email By SIOBHAN GORMAN March 10, 2008; Page A1
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.
The FBI has increasingly used administrative orders to obtain the personal records of U.S. citizens rather than foreigners implicated in terrorism or counterintelligence investigations, and at least once it relied on such orders to obtain records that a special intelligence-gathering court had deemed protected by the First Amendment, according to two government audits released yesterday. ... the FBI went ahead and got the records anyway by using a national security letter. The FBI's general counsel, Valerie E. Caproni, told investigators it was appropriate to issue the letters in such cases because she disagreed with the court's conclusions.
I'd like to thank the good captain over at No Touch Monkey!
ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled (sic)plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.
The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.
Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail." Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive. [...]
I can't help but wonder if this is one of those only released online no print version of the story by our wonderful and complicit media.
Join me wont you, request: here http://www.jwfc.jfcom.mil/webapps/forms/USJFCOM/feedback.jsp
Would you like half a turnip with your cabbage soup comrade?
The worst part is that Cheney knows this, too. He just doesn’t care. This is the man’s parting shot as he leaves office– to put the country into the throes of a war so vicious that no one will think of pursuing him for his long list of crimes against the nation and the Constitution.
He is guessing–and he may be right–that the American public will, sheep-like as always, rally to the cause, with a new round of yellow magnet “ribbons” on their cars. He is hoping–and he may be right–that war will be a boon for the candidacy of Republican John McCain and for embattled Republicans running for Congress.
It’s a kind of political Hail Mary.
Remember kids, Bombing Tehran assures a McCain victory in November!
Geez... this country has some serious religio/sexual dysfunction going on...
P.S., for the full monty, (pun intended?) see this comment...
$80,000 for sex...
- 75% of the value of my house - It is my next 5 cars - Health insurance for 7-8 years - Groceries for about 15 years - My salary for 4 years - 20,000 gallons of gasoline (at $4 a gallon), enough for 69 YEARS worth of driving! - My car insurance for 33 years, with enough gasoline to cover that time
In any event, it is a disgraceful amount of money, but that's how the elite roll. Now back to work slaves.
The elite laugh in your face...Sorta like his 'haves and have's not' performance, and joking around about not finding the 'weapons of mass destruction'...
Reflecting on the Spitzer post below, and it's hypocrisy, and elite perks of paying several k for short time pussy, and as you are paying nearly $4 a gal of gas*, and as food prices begin to reflect that, (i.e. as gas goes up food is sure to follow) let us not forget, the blackmail, sexual trysts and deviance of the Bush White House, goes a long way back.
*Note if I remember correctly, we were paying around $1.56 per gal in 2000 when Jr. was selected...
My friend remembereringgiap, has it about right, "the headlines are a little like a 50's tabloid - 'teacher nabbed in commie spy ring - getting moscow gold' - something like that - something that could neutralize any opposition".
This smells of rot, in other words, nasty politics, truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised to see this as mere pay back for some DC/NY Chess maneuvers. Besides, visiting a call girl, isn't the same as running the ring as they make it sound with the stenographer headlines.
See if this gets as much coverage in the propagenda press.
So...no doubt Spitzer was under surveillance by FBI/CIA/NSA to get something on him. When they had it, they waited until they NEEDED it for a diversion from White House crimes.
That's how the game is played amongst the big boys!
[Congressional Record: February 26, 2008 (House)] [Page H1065-H1072]
ADMINISTRATION NOT COOPERATING WITH CONGRESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor tonight with a heavy heart. The nature of the allegations I make speaks poorly of this administration. In my heart of hearts, I have always wanted this administration to succeed, but the issue at hand is of such magnitude that the American people need to know what is being done and what precedents are being set.
In my tenure as a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, both as chairman and ranking member of an investigative subcommittee, I have witnessed firsthand behavior by the Bush administration which I find deeply troubling.
The disdain and uncooperative nature that this administration has shown toward Congress, including Republican Members, is so egregious that I can no longer assume that it is simply bureaucratic incompetence or isolated mistakes. Rather, I have come to the sad conclusion that this administration has intentionally obstructed Congress' rightful and constitutional duties.
Tonight I will discuss some serious examples of this administration's contemptuous disregard for the authority delegated to Congress by the Constitution. This bad attitude has consistently manifested itself in a sophomoric resentment toward Congress' constitutional role as an equal branch of government. The result has been an executive branch too insecure to let Congress do its job, an executive branch that sees Congress, even when Republicans held the majority, as a rival and a spoiler, rather than as elected representatives of the American people playing a rightful role in establishing policy for our great country.
In the last Congress, I was chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In that capacity, I learned that in the time immediately leading up to the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, convicted Oklahoma City bomber and murderer Terry Nichols had been in Cebu City in the Philippines. His stay in Cebu City coincided with another visitor to that city, al Qaeda's terrorist leader Ramsey Yousef. Interestingly, both Nichols and Yousef used similar bombs and methods just 2 years apart to blow up two American targets. Yousef was the mastermind of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Nichols was a coconspirator in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995.
By the way, I would like to acknowledge that today happens to be the 15-year anniversary of that first devastating attack on the World Trade Center.
These individuals, one American and one Arab, were responsible for planning two of the most lethal terrorist attacks on our countrymen in our history. We are to believe that by coincidence they ended up in an off-the-beaten-track city in the Southern Philippines? One doesn't have to be a conspiracy nut to understand that this coincidence is certainly worth looking into.
I started an official congressional investigation sanctioned by Henry Hyde, then the chairman of the International Relations Committee, to see whether Terry Nichols or his accomplice, Timothy McVeigh, had foreign help in their murderous terrorist bombing of the Alfred Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.
In light of the fact that Terry Nichols and Ramsey Yousef were both in Cebu City at the same time prior to hauntingly similar terrorist attacks, it was no stretch for a congressional investigative committee to be looking into this matter. However, the Bush administration felt quite differently. To those I had to deal with, it was ``case closed, don't bother us.'' They had looked into the matter, and Congress should simply and blindly accept their conclusion that there was no Nichols- Yousef connection. ``Don't bother us.'' This was at times bureaucratic laziness, and at other times it was clearly based on a disdain for congressional investigations and authority. During my investigation, I secured Ramsey Yousef's cell phone records. The records were part of the phone calls that he made when he was in that New York City area in the months just prior to the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. The phone records show that Ramsey Yousef made at least two phone calls to a row house in Queens, New York.
That row house was occupied by the cousin of Terry Nichols' Filipina wife. Let me repeat that. The terrorist bomber of the first World Trade Center attack, the nephew of al Qaeda 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, made phone calls to the same row house that was occupied by Terry Nichols' cousins-in-law just 2 months before he exploded the bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center 15 years ago. Another coincidence?
Greg Laden has posted an article, Teachers Under Fire, on how to effectively and sensitively deal with the issue of evolution and creationism as it comes up in science classes.
One way to combat this is to be intellectually honest about the role of evolution in biology. These days, evolution tends to be compressed into a single textbook unit, and not discussed very much elsewhere in that text (this depends on the book). My suspicion is that by placing all of the discussion of evolutionary biology into one unit, it makes it easier for teachers to skip that chapter, or gloss it, or at least, deal with it as a very bad thing that is happening to them, work out some strategies to minimize the pain, and then move on.
The plain fact is that biology without evolution is empty. So are anthropology and geology. It shouldn’t be treated as a separate unit, or none of it “fits.”
Send the link to any teachers that you know who you think would benefit from this post.
I suspect the ever present propagenda, as most text books in American are vetted and published through a fundamentalist Christian conservative committee in Texas.
Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province.
"I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around," he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections. "She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."
Mrs Clinton has made Northern Ireland key to her claims of having extensive foreign policy experience, which helped her defeat Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday after she presented herself as being ready to tackle foreign policy crises at 3am.
"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday. But negotiators from the parties that helped broker the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 told The Daily Telegraph that her role was peripheral and that she played no part in the gruelling political talks over the years.
Lord Trimble shared the Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume, leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, in 1998. Conall McDevitt, an SDLP negotiator and aide to Mr Hume during the talks, said: "There would have been no contact with her either in person or on the phone. I was with Hume regularly during calls in the months leading up to the Good Friday Agreement when he was taking calls from the White House and they were invariably coming from the president." advertisement
Central to Mrs Clinton’s claim of an important Northern Ireland role is a meeting she attended in Belfast in with a group of women from cross-community groups. "I actually went to Northern Ireland more than my husband did," she said in Nashua, New Hampshire on January 6th.
"I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together for the first time Catholics and Protestants from both traditions, having them sitting a room where they had never been before with each other because they don’t go to school together, they don’t live together and it was only in large measure because I really asked them to come that they were there.
"And I wasn’t sure it was going to be very successful and finally a Catholic woman on one side of the table said, ’You know, every time my husband leaves for work in the morning I worry he won’t come home at night.
"And then a Protestant woman on the other side said, ’Every time my son tries to go out at night I worry he won’t come home again’. And suddenly instead of seeing each other as caricatures and stereotypes they saw each other as human beings and the slow, hard work of peace-making could move forward."
There is no record of a meeting at Belfast City Hall, though Mrs Clinton attended a ceremony there when her husband turned on the Christmas tree lights in November 1995. The former First Lady appears to be referring a 50-minute event the same day, arranged by the US Consulate, the same day at the Lamp Lighter Café on the city’s Ormeau Road.
The "Belfast Telegraph" reported the next day that the café meeting was crammed with reporters, cameramen and Secret Service agents. Conversation "seemed a little bit stilted, a little prepared at times" and Mrs Clinton admired a stainless steel tea pot, which was duly given to her, for keeping the brew "so nice and hot".
His former Harvard Business School professor recalls George W. Bush not just as a terrible student but as spoiled, loutish and a pathological liar.
"I don't remember all the students in detail unless I'm prompted by something," Tsurumi said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "But I always remember two types of students. One is the very excellent student, the type as a professor you feel honored to be working with. Someone with strong social values, compassion and intellect -- the very rare person you never forget. And then you remember students like George Bush, those who are totally the opposite."
snip
Bush once sneered at Tsurumi for showing the film "The Grapes of Wrath," based on John Steinbeck's novel of the Depression. "We were in a discussion of the New Deal, and he called Franklin Roosevelt's policies 'socialism.' He denounced labor unions, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Medicare, Social Security, you name it. He denounced the civil rights movement as socialism. To him, socialism and communism were the same thing. And when challenged to explain his prejudice, he could not defend his argument, either ideologically, polemically or academically."
Just a snippet here to give you the flavor of the piece- hardly doing justice to a portrait of a ill brought up man feeling the entitlement of the Elite and disgust for those with actual intellectual power and life experience.
"At this moment, somewhere in the world, a terrorist is planning an attack on us. I know that's inconvenient thought for some, but it is the truth," Bush said.
So... just to be clear, what was the point of bankrupting this country and sacrificing every ideal that we hold dear, Mr. Bush?
Call out the B-52's. Carpet bomb Manhattan . There's terrorists down there. Never mind collateral damage. A few Tomahawk missiles from offshore may well get the perp. why not take the shot? what's good enough for Somalia is good enough for New York after all.
Under the guise of combating the stigma of mental illness, the U.S. government will soon begin a massive campaign of psychiatric indoctrination, designed to increase the acceptance of psychiatric chemical imbalance theories and labeling, and to pave the way for national psychiatric screening, driving more Americans into seeking psychiatric drug treatment.
for those whom don't know or missed it: Bush wants to be your shrink "This month"*, President Bush plans to unveil a broad new mental health plan called the 'New Freedom Initiative.' Never mind that it couldn’t have less to do with freedom; if you’re a thinking American, this initiative should scare the hell out of you."
* Nov 29, 2006
Oh, and the APA is proud you don't Know : The American Psychiatric Association is bragging in its own membership newsletter that they are pleased the Bush Administration is successfully discouraging the mainstream media from looking into the corruption exposed by the British Medical Journal in a recent series of articles.
see,
Freedom Commission Roadmap Awaited: # 11:
The release of the first iteration of the roadmap to operationalize the findings of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health is imminent. We will disseminate the document when it is unveiled. On a related note, the British Medical Journal, in anticipation of the roll-out, alleged in a disjointed story that the Bush administration will announce a plan to screen all Americans for mental disorders and promote antidepressant and antipsychotic drug use allegations which we are told are well beyond the scope of anything the administration has planned and which seem to stem from a psychiatric survivors group. The BMJ story has gained some traction in derivative reports on the Internet, though mainstream media have not touched the story, in part thanks to APA's work, for which the administration is appreciative.
The terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, and the subsequent threats of biological warfare against U.S. citizens have prompted calls by public health officials to prepare for mass vaccination campaigns for anthrax and smallpox. National vaccination programs targeting civilians, including children, are being proposed in model state legislation that would give public health officials the power to use the state militia to enforce vaccination during state-declared health emergencies. While it is critical for the U.S. to have a sound, workable plan to respond to an act of bioterrorism, as well as enough safe and effective vaccines stockpiled for every American who wants to use them, there are legitimate concerns about a plan which forces citizens to use vaccines without their voluntary, informed consent.
In this time of great sadness, fear and confusion, Americans have a choice to make; either we defend the individual freedoms our forefathers fought and died to give us, or we sacrifice those freedoms and let the terrorists win. What we choose to do will define who we are as a nation for many years to come.
When federal and state public health officials convince your Governor to declare a "public health" emergency, they want to be able to use the state militia to:
take control of all roads leading into and out of your cities and state; *
seize your house, car, telephones, computers, food, fuel, clothing, firearms and alcoholic beverages for their own use (and not be held liable if these actions result in the destruction of your personal property); *
arrest, imprison and forcibly examine, vaccinate and medicate you and your children without your consent (and not be held liable if these actions result in your death or injury).
What YOU Can Do:
The most important action you can take is to give this information to as many people as you can and let your individual voice be heard. Let people know where you stand:
* Call and write your federal and state legislators and President and Mrs. Bush; http://congress.nw.dc.us/c-span/search.html
* Write to Attorney General John Ashcroft and Health Secretary Tommy Thompson;
Correspondence to the Attorney General, may be sent to:
U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 AskDOJ@usdoj.gov.
Correspondence to Secretary Thompson, may be sent to:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201 (202) 619-0257 Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775 HHS.Mail@hhs.gov
Contact your local newspaper, radio and television stations and give them a copy of this report; *
Talk to as many people as you can in your community, especially your community leaders. *
Sign up for NVIC's free Vaccine E-News so you can keep up-to-date on the latest news in the development of vaccines and forced vaccination laws.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, is tracking the state activities of the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act. To view the details of each bill please visit the ALEC website, www.alec.org, Here are the results of their most recent analysis:
States that have passed legislation: Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont.
because, 20 years since its launch, 40m people worldwide have taken the so-called wonder drug - but research revealed this week shows that Prozac, and similar antidepressants, are no more effective than a sugar pill.
I suspect that they not only not work, but they are dangerous. Merely another way for the pharm's to test their marketed crap. Funny that they spend three times more money on advertisement than on research. Perhaps it's not you that is in need of Rx but a fucked up soul sick, dehumanizing system. Ahhh, but don't trust me, just keep shopping. You (still)have full rights to consume, dear citizen.
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
The human species is so arrogantly and narcissistically stupid that it doesn't realize how stupid it is. Stupid is, after all, as stupid does. Given the history of "human development", 
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