Cyberray

Urgent: Surviving Radioactive Fallout

2011-06-21T11:35:00.002-05:00

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/03/14/urgent-surviving-radioactive-fallout/

The Samson Option?

2010-08-06T21:22:00.003-05:00

by Alexander Maistrovoy

“When people speak about human rights, everyone has in mind his own ones”, a German scientist and publicist Wilhelm Schwebel wrote. His words perfectly reflect the issue of “breaking” the Gaza blockade. These actions are as related to human rights as Josef Stalin’s “fight for peace”. Till now not a single person has died of hunger in Gaza . They die in the other point of the world, in Kirghizia , but nobody cares about it. The rights of Palestinians are above the rights of Uzbek people. As well as the Sudanese Christians, Iraqi Kurds, Boers in Southern Africa, “Ahmadyya” in Pakistan and Baha’is in Iran. Palestinians are the high caste of mankind because fortunately they are up against Israel , and the international community has its own rights and interests in this conflict.

What are they? Interests of all the players are very clear except for the West.

The goal of Iran is to strengthen its base on the Mediterranean Sea coast to escalate the confrontation with Israel and moderate Sunni Arab regimes, and at the same time to distract the world attention from its nuclear program.

The goal of Turkish Justice and Development Party led by Erdogan is to get points before the elections, make Turkey the leader of the Sunni world and to revive the national ambitions lost with the fall of the Ottoman Empire .

Russia is supporting Iran and Turkey in attempt to restore the previous Soviet influence, push the US out of the region, and recover the lost imperial greatness.

The aims of these powers are completely contrary to the aims of the other two leading players in the region: Israel and the moderate Arab regimes.

The goal of Israel is to provide its safety by weakening HAMAS and depriving it of its life support: weaponry, rockets and building materials to fortify smuggling and transportation tunnels and defensive bunkers.

The goal of the moderate Arab regimes coincides with that of Israel . Arabs fear of the Iranian Shiites. Nor do they want Turkey , which they dislike and fear too, to raise its role in the Middle East . Least of all they are interested in strengthening the Palestinian enclave where the Iranians and Turks will rule. First of all it concerns the Mubarak regime that fears the Muslim Brotherhood’s (of which Palestinian HAMAS is an offshoot) popularity.

Theoretically both Israel and the Arab regimes are allies of the West. So it would be right to assume that the West will protect them from regional predators. Alas! Common sense and political expediency do not work. Why? There are two reasons: irreparable losses of spiritual and cultural values by once the greatest world civilization and banal political cowardice.

The radical left and liberal part of the Western elite has voluntary deprived itself of its own heritage, values and ideals. It has refused itself right to exist, reconciled to the secondary role and even recognized its own uselessness.

The supposed “Alliance of Civilizations ” of Zapatero and Obama is nothing else but accepting voluntary the status of dhimmitude, invitation of an alien strong, dominant, and aggressive civilization to take the place of their own bankrupt and degrading one. Obama’s bows to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia , a mosque in the place of WTC, k?f?yä on Zapatero’s neck, the Libyan terrorist who had blown up the plane over Lockerby released “for health reasons” – all are the displays of this outlook. As Israel is the main irritant to Muslims, it loses its right to exist.
Zapatero recognizes the idea almost openly, Obama does it less obviously, but the essence does not change. His recent demands of Israel to open its nuclear program for IAEA oversight and to remove Gaza ’s blockade are more eloquent than any other words.

The other part of the Western political elite, European right and social-democrats, don’t accept this attitude. However, they don’t have any outlook at all. Their only goal is to keep their power up to the following elections and not to “rock the boat”.

The ideology of surviving at all costs leads to the policy of appeasement. Sarkozy (“Disproportionate application of force” by Israel ) and Kouchner (“Recognize Palestinian state before the agreement between Israel and the PA is signed”); Brown (“Labourites have a lot in common with Muslims”) and Miliband (“More respect” to Muslims), Baroness Ashton (The blockade is “unacceptable and politically counterproductive”) and Berlusconi kissing the hands of Muammar Kaddafi are certainly not anti-Semitic. Some of them are even Jews. They have nothing against Israel , as it is. They have little concern for the simple fact that the Muslim “sea” floods their own house washing away its foundations. So what use to speak about Israel , Mubarak and the Hashemite dynasty? Why to speak at all, if it is so comfortable to be silent? Especially, if there are big business, EU officials, “Greens” and anti-globalists, “Human Rights Watch” and their own cultural elite to resist? So they meekly follow the “Alliance of Civilizations”.

The more timorous is the policy of the West, the more aggressive Ahmadinejad and Erdogan become. The USA and Western Europe encourage these hysterical politicians, and their wild behavior can lead to uncontrollable consequences.

If the situation does not change (that is extremely improbable), we will witness a two-act drama. The first act will be the fall of moderate Arab regimes in Egypt , Jordan and the Persian Gulf states. If it happens, the second act will follow. Israel will be backed into his corner, surrounded by uncontrollable mad regimes. It will face the total Islamic hysteria. It will see how the circle of its enemies such as Turkey , Syria , Iran and their puppets in Lebanon and Gaza unite with “revolutionary” Muslim brothers in Egypt and Jordan .

It will see the silent indifference of the West at best and shouts of triumph and jeering at worst. The next Holocaust will cease to be an abstraction and become a reality.

Israel will be left with only two options: to die without a fight or to be lost, having destroyed the enemies. The option of falling victim to genocide or the “Option of Samson”. Zapatero and Obama believe that Israel will choose the first one. Considering the tragic and painful history of Jews, from Maccabeus and Jerusalem ’s zealots to the Warsaw ghetto and the Six-day war, I would not hurry up with conclusions. And in this case there will be no outside observers.

Man Shot While Waiting At Stoplight

2009-11-09T20:37:00.000-05:00

Posted: 6:24 am EDT March 12, 2009Updated: 5:05 pm EDT March 12, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando police are looking for two people who shot a man at gunpoint while waiting at a stoplight. When the driver tried to speed away, the suspects opened fire.
Eyewitness News spoke with the police department's watch commander and was told the victim's injuries are not life threatening.

Stanley Stinson, 45, was on his way home when he was stopped by the stoplight at Kirkman Road and Arnold Palmer Drive (see map) at about 11:15 Wednesday night. A man and a woman in another car pulled up next to him when one of them jumped out with a gun.
When Stinson tried to drive away from the suspects, gunshots were fired. One of the bullets struck the victim in the leg, but he managed to drive himself to the McDonald's parking lot at the same intersection. That's when he called 911.

"The guy pulled up into this parking space and told everybody, 'I've been shot. I've been shot,'" said eyewitness Kim Peters.

Orlando police soon surrounded the McDonald's while crime scene investigators searched the victim's four-door, black car for any fingerprints the suspects might have left. They were able to collect some of the bullet casings in the middle of the road.

"When they opened the door, one of the shell casings fell out of the door, the other one was lodged in his hip," said Peters.

As of Thursday morning, police only know they were driving a light blue Nissan Altima.
Some eyewitnesses who were inside the McDonald's restaurant believe they may have seen the car police are looking for, coming through the drive-thru just before the shooting took place.
The restaurant has surveillance cameras throughout the property. Police will check those recordings to see if they can identify the suspect's vehicle.

Stinson remained heavily sedated in the hospital. Police hope to speak with him later to see if they can get a better description of the suspect's and their car.

Technically, the incident didn't happen in Metrowest, which starts across the street. But the Orlando police department's west tactical unit has been working to reduce crime in the area since last year because residents felt like crime was out of control and some of them still do.
"You tell someone you live in Metrowest and they look at you like you live in a war zone," said Metrowest resident Eric kessous.

Last year between January and March the tactical unit made 236 arrests, 165 in 2009.

The Mystery of the Universe

2009-05-06T23:23:00.002-05:00

Why Wait for Martial Law to Cancel Trial by Jury?

2008-12-28T22:21:00.003-05:00

Many expect that in the New World Order Jury Trials will be "Thing of the Past" a waste of money that could better be employed to pay salaries and other judicial perks.

Tukwila Jury Service Budget / Financial Information. 2008 City Budget ... Since trials may be CANCELLED, it is important for you to determine if your ...www.ci.tukwila.wa.us/mayor/courtjury.html - Jury

TrialsGrand Jury. LAFCO. IHSS Advisory Board. Advisory Boards. Budget & Finance ... NOT SEE YOUR TRIAL LISTED HERE, IT HAS BEEN CANCELLED!*** Disclaimer. Contact Us ...www.co.lake.ca.us/Residents/Law_And_Justice/Jury_Trials.htm -

Full Coverage: Many NH jury trials to be put on hold to save moneyLynn said the decision to cancel jury trials, which cost the state about $73,000 ... Courts to delay jury trials in budget crunch. seacoastonline.com. Dec 7, 2008 ...www.newstin.com/rel/us/en-010-008575474 -

Cached TexomasHomepage.com Media PlayerMore Debate About Wichita County Budget. A Jury Trial for a Man Accused of Sexually Assaulting a Teenage Boy is Cancelled ... Grand Jury Indicts Two Men ...texomashomepage.com/media_player.php?media_id=1493 - 356k -

Cached Even jury hiring is frozenDelays in jury trials in 2001 and 2002, during a previous budget crisis, caused ... a Manchester attorney, received cancellation notices last week for four ...mobile.latimes.com/setDefault.jsp?key=196925&rc=top&fullArticle=1 - Cached

Judiciary’s canceling of jury trials is hardly due to budget ‘cuts’

THE JUDICIAL branch has attempted to lay the blame for its decision to cancel jury trials in five out of the next 15 months on "cuts" in the judiciary’s budget made by the Legislature. But not only were there no "cuts" in the judiciary’s budget, the Legislature actually increased the budget for jury trials by more than 25 percent.

With this context, the decision to cancel the jury trials and blame the Legislature appears to have much more to do with pressuring the Legislature into further increasing the judiciary’s budget than with economics. The judiciary spent about $880,000 during the last fiscal year on jury trials and requested an increase of about $237,000 per year over the next two-year budget cycle.

The Legislature increased the judiciary’s budget for jury trials by the amount requested. The Legislature also increased the judiciary’s overall budget. According to the Supreme Court’s own press releases, the operating budget for the 2002 fiscal year will increase to more than $52.8 million and to nearly $53.2 million for the 2003 fiscal year.So why have we been told that the jury trials were canceled on account of budget "cuts" if the judiciary received all of the budget for jury trials that it asked for and its overall budget was increased?

Because what the judges mean by "cut" is the Legislature’s decision to give the judiciary less than the 18 percent budget increase it requested. In other words, a "cut" is budgeting less than the judges want to spend, even if that amount is more than was spent last year.What really happened is that the judiciary on its own decided to transfer about $250,000 of the amount budgeted by the Legislature for jury trials to other areas of its budget.

This $250,000 is less than one-half of one percent of the entire judicial budget.The judiciary has yet to explain how it could not achieve savings of a mere one-half of 1 percent in the remainder of its budget. While it has claimed that not canceling jury trials would require staff to be cut, there should be no reason to cut staff since the overall budget was increased.

The judiciary’s request for an 18 percent budget increase included an additional 49 staff positions, so perhaps "cutting" staff means not adding some or all of these new staff positions.

Shortly after announcing that the jury trials would be canceled, the judiciary announced that it would not allow the Legislature to conduct a planned audit to determine whether the judiciary is spending taxpayer dollars appropriately. The judiciary claimed that the audit would violate the separation of powers but gave no specifics to back up this claim.

The audit would not violate the separation of powers because its scope is limited to assuring that the judiciary is operating in a fiscally responsible manner. While it would be important for the Legislature to go forward with the audit under any circumstances, it is especially important to do so now that the judiciary has claimed that the budget it has been allotted only allows jury trials two out of every three months.Our system of government is one of checks and balances.

The "power of the purse" resides with the Legislature, not the judiciary, because the Legislature, unlike the judiciary, regularly stands accountable to the people whose hard work puts money in the purse. It would be an egregious dereliction of duty for the Legislature to simply give the judiciary a blank check.The audit may indicate that there is a need to increase the budget for the judicial branch. On the other hand, it may indicate that the judiciary is already adequately funded but is spending taxpayer dollars unwisely, such as on a press secretary for the Supreme Court rather than on jury trials.

This column, originally published in the Union Leader newspaper on 11/2/01, is used with the permission of the author, Attorney Edward C. Mosca.Attorney Mosca is currently with the Soltani Law Office819 Suncook Valley Highway Epsom, NH 03234.He may be reached at: Dosputt@aol.com

http://www.nhhra.org/Judiciary%20Cancels%20Jury%20Trials.htm

A Lesson From Mumbai,India

2008-11-30T14:39:00.001-05:00

In this photograph that has dominated the world's front pages , a newspaper photographer who hid inside a train carriage as gunfire erupted all around him. Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus.

"They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but they didn't seem to care." "I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera."

The ease from which the gunmen moved about shooting unarmed citizens at will, was like shooting fish in a barrel, by the time the authorities got their act together it was too late scores of people lay dead and countless others wounded. This as well as other tragedies such as the recent shooting at Virgina Tech University in the USA that left 33 people dead ( A gun free zone). Want to know why psychos go to "gun free zones" like schools and churches and shoot up folks? It's because they know the likelihood of someone in there being armed and taking them out is next to nil.
Illinois or Wisconsin have no CCW capabilities and the rest of us are facing strong anti NRA sentiment to weasel away the rights of citizens to carry and bear arms, if there is one lesson to be learned from this is we must resists the efforts to legislate our right to bear and carry arms.

"Sadly this represents a clear danger for us, and one we can only hope our armed citizens could help prevent. But as many folks have pointed out, that puts a bullseye on the areas where the government has disarmed the populace. I read the Constitution in English and so as per the Second Amendment I recognize no government's right to disarm me. But if you are Ahmed the soon to be dead terrorist, wouldn't you rather shoot up a mall full of unarmed victims, or do you want to pull your AK and catch a .357 round to the temple joint as soon as you start spraying? Ahmed is dead either way, but the body count will be significantly different". by Jimbo of Blackfive.Net

The time to take action is Now! Write your legislator and let him know that the first line of defense against terrorists wishing us harm is an armed populace and that you oppose a gun ownership control/ban.

Related: Guns Save Lives : EXCLUSIVE: Signs Of An Attempted Coup In New Delhi

Update:Indian air and missile forces on war footing, Pakistani armored units diverted from Afghan border.-DEBKAfile's military sources report that on Sunday, Nov. 30, Asia's two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, took their first steps towards a conventional war. India, claiming evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the Islamist terrorist assault on Mumbai, placed its air and missile units on war preparedness, while Pakistan, disclaiming the charge, diverted its armed divisions from the Afghan border to its frontier with India.Military experts fear a full-blown war could spill over into combat with tactical nuclear weapons.

Victory Day In Iraq? Not so fast!

2008-11-23T00:59:00.003-05:00

I guess victory means different things to different peoples, I checked with my Iraqi source and here is what she had to say:

"I havent read much news in the past few days. Ok, Im lying, yes I read and watched news on tv and this security deal is bugging the hell out of me. I was also conversing with HUBBY on skype. Looks like Obama will win, he said. What do you think Neurotica? Wow, I was actually impressed he asked my opinion, for in the past few days he has been pretty sick and not really conversive. I wish Obama wins, I typed. I wish he wins and withdraws all the troops by end of the year. HUBBY was shocked at my answer. How come Neurotica? If the US leaves there will be chaos and Iran will jump in. We cant let that happen.

I Lol’ed so much, for Iran is ALREADY in. The government of Iraq is nothing but Iran’s puppet. “Neighbouring countries should respect the sovereignty of Iraq” is ALL BS. I really really want the troops to leave, and Im serious. Ive said it before. And Im repeating it again. I think the max they should stay if any is beginning of next year. That’s the ultimate maximum.
I want chaos to break. YES. I DO. This is the only solution. The only solution to the current Iraqi govt. They are useless, and will continue to be so because even though they say they want the forces to leave, they know it wont happen, and so every night when they go to bed, they're confident that a soft cushion awaits their empty heads. They depend on the forces. I get really angry when I talk about this subject. I get really upset, that such a rich, resourceful country has ended up in such filthy hands. Filthy, corrupt and no loyalty. No loyalty to the earth they are walking on. I want them to suffer.

Yes chaos will break from all directions. Qaeda will come back. Mahdi Militias will restart their hideous murders, awakening members will start their revenge killings on the militias, and the government. WOW. And best of all Iran will just take over. I want to see how the hell will the so called “sovereign” Iraqi govt take control? I really wanna see it.
Youre gonna tell me but it’s the average Iraqi that will become the victim. YES. Unfortunately its always been the average Iraqi. All those who were able to leave, left. And that BS of refugees coming back to their country is just that, BULSHIT!

You know why they’re going back? They are going back Because they ran out of money. Theyre living in the most dire conditions. They have been treated like trash. They have BECOME trash everywhere. Oh where are you from? People ask with a smile. When you say Iraq, they immediately frown and have that distinctive disgusted look on their faces. You know why these people are going back? Theyre going back because they have no other choice. Their bloody govt failed them! They didn’t aid them. And if they did, its peanuts compared to what they could have done. Westerners are more EMPATHETIC than the so called SOVEREIGN GOVERNMENT! GOD!!! It just pisses me off. I swear it does.

Yes, Obama, please win. Win and withdraw the troops. Personally I believe the US is wasting its time. Its time, money and effort. Try and save the fallen economy instead with the money you will be wasting on Iraq. Iraq has enough money. Iraq is rich. Unfortunately the wealth is going into Ammar al Hakeem’s pockets, and his repulsive likes. Do you know that he bought properties here in the Emirates worth millions of dollars? No you don’t know that fact. He spends millions while the children of Iraq die of starvation, cholera, typhoid, abuse, rape and torture. WELL DONE Ammar!!! Lets see what happens to you when the forces leave? I want to see you torn apart, exactly the same way a lion preys on his victim. Is what Im saying vicious? I really hope so.

I hope the security deal wont be signed, and I hope the US will carry out their threats. Its wishful thinking I know.But its good to hope. Its healthy. Right? My mood is just like a candle. A candle flickering with the weather. The Thundery Baghdadi Weather"by http://neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com/

Amid The Financial Confusion: Serious Tribulations Lie Ahead

2008-09-17T20:39:00.000-05:00

By Lord Stirling

The United States has agreed to sell to Israel 1,000 of the very advanced bunker buster GBU-39 bombs.....This indicates that the Israeli Government has succeeded in its request that America allow it to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

The Israeli political landscape is about to change. I have been expecting former Israeli Prime Minister, and super war hawk, Benyamin Netanyahu to make a well timed major move.

Count on Bibi Netanyahu lighting a blowtorch in the dry kindling that is the Middle East.

There is a real technical question if the GBU-39 can destroy all of the key known or suspected Iranian nuclear sites, as well as key military sites in Lebanon and Syria. The hardest sites are very well protected. Some experts think that several dozen to a hundred plus GBU-39s targeted at the same spot can take out even the deepest/most harden site; others say that a micro or mini nuke will be required.

The Israeli and American war planners may be counting on all sides refraining from the use of WMD. Rather like Saddam held back his 29 WMD armed (chemical and anthrax) Scud-type guided missiles during the First Gulf War and like Hezbollah did during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. If this is the strategy it is one very, very, massive risk to all involved.

Israel has most likely over 600 nuclear warheads from micro nukes to high mega tonnage hydrogen bombs, as well as advanced biological weapons, chemical weapons, radiological weapons, and fuel air explosive based weapons. The Iranian/Syrian side has radiological weapons, fuel air weapons, chemical weapons, advanced biological weapons, and maybe a crude nuclear device or two (doubtful but a remote possibility).

The Iranians have made it clear that they will close the Gulf to oil shipping in the event of a war. Americans have just had a taste of $5/gallon gasoline with Hurrican Ike. A general Middle East War could bring $10/per gallon gas prices to America. The world's economy, already headed to a global depression, will be thrust into the worst depression in human history.

The Iranians are also apt to hit American targets in the Middle East. In any case, any closing of the Gulf will bring a massive American and allied response making the Middle East War a likely global one as massive US/allied air attacks and naval attacks plummet Iran well beyond what Israel began.

If Iran feels that its population is seriously in danger or that its existance as a nation state is at risk, she is apt to use her strategic MAD (mutually assured destruction) force WMD (weapons of mass destruction) on the west and Israel. These weapons are DNA recombination, genetically engineered, advanced biological weapons; man-made viruses that are designed to spread throughtout North America and western Europe using humans as vectors ~ viruses that have never existed before and for which we humans have NO DEFENSE. Iran began an advanced biowar program years ago using out-of-work former Soviet advanced biowar experts, and currently has a world-class advanced biowar program.

Throw Russia and China into this mix and you have World War Three.

Abridged for E.A. for the uncensored story go to Rense.Com>>

A culture of Complacency on the path to Destruccion

2008-09-15T14:29:00.000-05:00

We have become complancent, as long as it doesn't take food off our table, What do we care, As long as is somone else doing the suffering and the dying, We don't want to get involved.
America want to be nice to it's enemies and put the screws to our friends.
We want to negotiate with Iran bring syria to the negotiationg table , we want the Israelis to go back to 1967 borders , we want them to give back the Golan Heights, We want them to give up the Farm, We want the Palestinians to have a Estate so they can live in peace .

We have discusions, will they even be there in 50 years, Do they have a right to exist?
Do they have a right to be there, or are the Jewish people a freak of nature, who never had claim on Holy lands, but came out the gates of hell, to invade Arab lands?

The Dragon Released to Gather The Nations for Battle

2008-09-11T07:15:00.000-05:00

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. Mark 13:12

Venenzuela Welcomes Russian Navy/Air Force

2008-09-10T19:14:00.000-05:00

CARACAS - Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday.

Plans for the naval operations come at a time of heightened diplomatic tension and Cold War-style rhetoric between Moscow and the United States over the recent war in Georgia and plans for a U.S. missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Chavez: Russian Planes Welcome

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington, has said in recent weeks that Russian ships and planes are welcome to visit the South American country.

Chavez has bought fighter jets and submarines from Russia to retool Venezuela's aging weapons and says he is also interested in a missile defense system.

Abridged MSNBC=>>

MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) - Six Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers joined on Tuesday a Russian naval task force in the Atlantic to take part in the final stage of the current naval exercise, an Air Force spokesman said.

During the exercises, Russian pilots will practice reconnaissance, missile and bomb strikes on mock adversary naval force, and will fly simulated air combat and air patrolling missions.

The current operation is the first large-scale Russian Navy exercise in the Atlantic in 15 years. All combat ships and aircraft involved carry full combat ammunition loads.

Abridged=>>

'Deja vu' Cuban Missiles Coming to 90 Miles from Key West

2008-09-10T01:09:00.000-05:00

Igor Sechin, center, one of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's closest aides, walks through the historic center of Old Havana in late July.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Nikolai Patrushev, who is secretary of the Russian Security Council and former director of the FSB, the domestic successor agency to the KGB, met with the Cuban defense and interior ministers on the trip. Afterward, the council issued a statement saying that the two countries planned "consistent work to restore traditional relations in all areas of cooperation."

Afterward, Putin said, "We need to reestablish positions in Cuba and in other countries."

The Russian Defense Ministry dismissed a report in the newspaper Izvestia in July that quoted an unidentified Russian official as saying the government intended to begin basing Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack and Tupolev Tu-95 Bear nuclear bombers in Cuba.

by Tom Cash

The US placing missiles into Poland is viewed by the Russians in the same light as the US viewed the Russians placing missiles into Cuba in 1962. It is a dangerously provocative act that backs Russia up against the wall. The really frightening aspect of it is that there are only two interpretations for the action. Either, like the Russians in 1962, America has totally failed to realize the catalytic nature of the provocation, or they are, at the very least, bent on increasing military tensions.

Whilst US Intelligence has, with a degree of regularity, failed quite spectacularly and visibly over the past decades, it beggars belief that they have not yet figured out that the Russians are very upset about being militarily encircled. One has to assume that the US is aware that they are causing military tensions which the Russians will be unable to ignore. The question has to be posed: why would the US wish to raise military tensions with Russia at the moment?

Certainly a damned good war has often been summonsed to take people's minds off the fact that their living standards are falling. Having the fear of a nuclear bomb dropping in the back garden would certainly take the edge off American's worrying about losing the family home and not being able to feed the children.

The Russians have been repeatedly threatened and lied to by the US. Assurances that NATO would not encroach on Russia's border areas after the collapse of the USSR were routinely ignored. As soon as the opportunity presented NATO was in like a rat up a drainpipe.

Newspapers in 1914 showed no awareness of that which was pending. When war came it was a major surprise to all parties. There comes a point where without a circuit breaker, namely one party backing down, simple momentum becomes sufficient to lead to war, even though no one (?) intended it. There is a sense that neither Russia nor the US are prepared to back down at the moment. Momentum is building.

The world meandered into the First World War with very little understanding of either the horrors of modern war, or its dreadful financial attendants. In 1918 the world emerged from WW1 a very different place. The UK was financially and intellectually devastated. Much like the Ancient Greeks the English never recovered their greatness and are now in permanent decline. Let us hope that the world is not meandering into another modern war without sufficient regard for the modern methods of killing. At least we don't have to worry about the economy this time. That's already destroyed.

[...from the 11-14th November 2008. It is the only seminar anywhere in the world where all aspects of the gold and silver basis are discussed. Meet and hear one of the giants of our age. Bookings for the seminar can be made through:-
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Aug 30, 2008
Tom Cash
email: tomcashgold@yahoo.com

Is Your Bank About to Implode? The FDIC is Hinting, YES!

2008-09-06T01:19:00.003-05:00

By Moe Bedard as Published in Loan Safe Solutions

The lender carnage, death and destruction litter the home page of Aaron Krowne’s Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter like the beach at Normandy on D-Day. The infamous list has grown from September 2006 when Aaron started the website with approximately 10 failed lenders to a whopping 276 major U.S. failed lending operations today.

That comes out to about one failed lender every two days over the last two years. This is no anomaly- An anomaly is an irregularity, a mis proportion, or something that is strange or unusual, or unique.

Yes, 276 failed lenders are FAR from unique.

If you truly think about what is going on in our country right now and from the actual evidence on the ML-Implode.com website, your will realize that this is really not the “twilight zone” and our banking system is on the verge of complete collapse.

I think the question now is not “if” your bank will fail, but “when” will your bank fail.
Wall Street Journal - Exhibit A is the revelation by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair that her $45 billion deposit insurance fund may not be adequate to pay off account holders as banks continue to fail. This has been inevitable for months, but neither Ms. Bair nor Treasury wanted to admit the truth in public for obvious political reasons. Yet now we learn that the insurance fund shrank by $7.6 billion in the second quarter, bringing its reserve ratio well below the minimum required by Congress.

Quick Fact - The FDIC is a government agency that insures deposits in the U.S. against bank failure; it was created in 1933 to maintain public confidence and encourage stability in the financial system.

The frightening facts are that the US Banking system is in dire straits and our government does not want you to panic and make a run on your bank. It would be the Great Depression all over again in a heartbeat if we were all to take what little cash we Americans have out of these “insolvent” banking establishments and place it under our mattresses.

That would really make them fail and fast. But will our money be safer under our mattress than these banks of cards? Ms. Bair and the FDIC may be hinting to us all, YES!

ML-Implode has listed 276 various lenders that have met their deaths and another 19 on the ailing list of lenders “about” to implode. But only the FDIC truly knows the “true” state of our nation’s banks and the hints and news coming from this mighty agency is nothing short of frightening.

Slate - You can add the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to the list of entities that may be in line for a Treasury Department bailout, the Wall Street Journal reports, following an interview with the agency’s chairwoman. The FDIC is a bit cash-strapped these days as it props up failing banks across the country. It announced on Tuesday that 117 ailing banks are now under its care and that the FDIC holds an astounding $78 billion in distressed bank assets, the Guardian points out. And, the New York Times says, the FDIC sees the banking crisis going from bad to worse.
Moe Bedard - America, get your head out of the sand, turn off American Idol, turn off Squawk Box and get a clue to the true state of our economy and failing banking system. Your bank may be next!

One of our country’s fathers warned us about the banks and the evil they create over 200 years ago. Yet, here we sit, paying the price for letting these banks run wild for the last couple hundred years.

Moe Bedard is a leading expert and trusted authority in regards to loan workouts and loan modifications. Moe is the founder and President of Loan Safe Solutions, LoanSafe.org and the main contributor to LoanWorkout.org. He has blogged on this subject more than any other person on earth and has personally been involved in over 300 loan workouts and mortgage audits.

Analyst: FDIC Will Need Half A Trillon Dollars
Chris Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, in an interview on CNBC, said:
They need about a half a trillion dollars in borrowing authority, and they need a vehicle to own these banks while we triage them and sell them.The FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund currently has approximately $50 billion in assets.

Up and Coming Surprise COG Plans

2008-09-05T18:22:00.001-05:00

Though few Americans realize it, Cheney and Rumsfeld worked through the 1980s and 1990s on emergency nuclear-response plans which allegedly suspended the American constitution and also Congress.[1] (Through these decades Rumsfeld was CEO of a major pharmaceutical firm, and in the later 1990s Cheney was CEO of Halliburton; but their private status did not deter them from continuing to exercise a supra-constitutional planning power conferred on them by Ronald Reagan.)

Even fewer Americans know that these rules, originally dealing with a nuclear attack on America, were extended by Reagan Executive Order 12656 to cover “any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.”[2] And few Americans realize that at least some of these rules, known technically as Continuity of Government or COG rules, were invoked before 10:00 AM on September 11, 2001.[3]

As he did in 2007, President Bush has again, on August 28, 2008, continued for another year the national emergency first officially proclaimed on September 14, 2001, along with “the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency:”

Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks

Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines flight 93, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2008. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

August 28, 2008.[4]

Once again appropriate personnel in Congress should learn and review what those “powers and authorities” are, since almost certainly they include COG (Continuity of Government) rules. In 2007 National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD 51), issued by the White House, also extended for one year the emergency proclaimed in 2001; and it empowered the President to personally ensure "continuity of government."[5]

NSPD 51 also contained "classified Continuity Annexes" to "be protected from unauthorized disclosure." Congressman DeFazio twice requested to see these Annexes, the second time in a letter cosigned by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Carney. The White House denied these requests, claiming that the congressmen lacked the requisite clearances. But as I wrote earlier this year,

"Congress has a right to be concerned about Continuity of Government (COG) plans refined by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld over the past quarter century….The story, ignored by the mainstream press, involved more than the usual tussle between the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government. What was at stake was a contest between Congress's constitutional powers of oversight, and a set of policy plans that could be used to suspend or modify the constitution."[6]

Oliver North, who worked on COG planning with Rumsfeld and Cheney in the 1980s, was asked in the Iran-Contra Hearings about his work on an emergency plan “that would suspend the American constitution.” Democratic Senator Inouye, who was presiding, pounded his gavel and interjected that this was a “highly sensitive and classified matter,” not to be dealt with in an open hearing.[7] Congress has never discussed COG plans publicly since that time.

According to Wikipedia, “The National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601-1651) is a United States federal law passed in 1976 to stop open-ended states of national emergency and formalize Congressional checks and balances on Presidential emergency powers. The act sets a limit of two years on states of national emergency. It also imposes certain "procedural formalities" on the President when invoking such powers, and provides a means for Congress to countermand a Presidential declaration of emergency and associated use of emergency powers (emphasis added).

Bush’s denial of the Homeland Security’s right to review the COG plans in the classified Appendices of NSPD-51 should have been seen as a constitutional crisis -- a line in the sand for Congress to assert its constitutional rights and duties. Now, one year later, I understand (although I cannot corroborate it from the Internet) that Congressman Kucinich has introduced or will introduce a bill for Congress, under the terms of the National Emergencies Act, to countermand the presidentially proclaimed national emergency. This is an important move, but it should not obviate the need for Congress to review rules which allegedly restrict its own powers under the constitution.

Between now and November the American electorate have an opportunity to present this demand to everyone running for office: that they will insist on vigorous congressional action to expose and dispose of these secret COG rules -- rules that allegedly suspend the American constitution.

Notes

[1] "One of the awkward questions we faced was whether to reconstitute Congress after a nuclear attack. It was decided that no, it would be easier to operate without them," said one of the COG planners in the 1980s, who spoke to James Mann (The Rise of the Vulcans, 141-42). James Bamford reported the same remark in his book Pretext for War (p. 74).

[2]

The provisions of Executive Order 12656 of November 18, 1988, appear at 53 FR 47491, 3 CFR, 1988 Comp., p. 585, “Executive Order 12656—Assignment of Emergency Preparedness Responsibilities,” http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12656.html. The Washington Post

(Gellman and Schmidt, “Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret,” March 1, 2002) later claimed, incorrectly, that Executive Order 12656 dealt only with “a nuclear attack.”

[3]

Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 228; citing 9/11Commision Report, 38, 326; Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terrorism (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 8.

[4]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/08/20080828-7.html .

[5]

National Security Presidential Directive 51, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html.

[6]

Peter Dale Scott, “Congress, the Bush Adminstration and Continuity of Government Planning: The Showdown,” http://www.counterpunch.org/scott03312008.html.

[7]

Scott, Road to 9/11, 9, 23, 184. The New York Times published a complete transcript of the interchange on July 14, 1987, but did not mention it in its news story about North’s testimony.

Peter Dale Scott is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Peter Dale Scott

Critize Your Government BEAR the Consecuences!

2008-08-31T15:38:00.005-05:00

The owner of a website who was a vocal critic of Moscow's policies in the Caucasus has died after reportedly being shot while in police custody, according to the Interfax news agency.

Magomed Yevloyev, who ran the website ingushetiya.ru, a major source of information in the region, died on Sunday the agency reported, quoting prosecutors.

An Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend

2008-08-31T14:18:00.003-05:00

US intelligence fears the Kremlin will supply the sophisticated S-300 system to Tehran , the S-300 can track 100 targets at once and fire on planes up to 75 miles away.

There are reports that Russia has already moved some basic components for the system to its close ally Belarus, ready for possible transfer to Iran. Dr Friedman said that if it became operational, it would effectively rule out Israeli air raids and seriously complicate any US aerial bombardment.

Dan Goure, a long-time Pentagon adviser, said: "If Tehran obtained the S-300, it would be a game-changer in military thinking for tackling Iran. That could be a catalyst for Israeli air attacks before it's operational."

A senior Iranian military commander warned yesterday that any attack on Iran would start a major conflict. "Any aggression against Iran will start a world war," deputy chief of staff for defence publicity, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, said in a statement. "The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and global Zionism... is gradually leading the world to the edge of a precipice."

"We want everybody to play by the same rules."

2008-08-30T19:47:00.001-05:00

“We don’t have any special rules of our own by which we are going to play. We want everybody to play by the same rules. These are called international law. But we don’t want anyone manipulating them - playing it one way in one region, and another way in another region, to suit their own interests. We want to have the same rules for everyone, which would take into account the interests of all members of the international community”. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Countdown to Midnight : Time To Move The Clock Forward?

2008-08-30T19:20:00.009-05:00

The number of minutes before midnight, measuring the degree of nuclear, environmental, and technological threats to mankind, is periodically corrected; currently, the clock reads: five minutes to midnight, having advanced two minutes on 17 January 2007.

07-08-2008 Iran Has Technology for a Nuclear Warhead to Fit Shehab-3 Missile

07-16-2008 Mossad Chief Empowered to Prepare Groundwork for Iran Strike

08-07-2008 Fighting between Russia and Georgia began after the Georgian military tried to retake South Ossetia by force.

08-11-2008 President Bush demanded an immediate cease-fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the conflict zone and a return to the status quo as of Aug. 6.

08-12-2008Russians move 2 SS-21 Medium Range Ballistic Missile Launchers into South OssetiaCol. Sam Gardiner notes, in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons to South Ossetia.

08-19-2008 Russia Commandeers US Humvees sensitive equipment awaiting shipment out of Georgia, says it will leave Georgia when it's military objectives have been met.

8-25-2008 Russian Lawmakers Urged the Kremlin to recognize the independence of two separatist Goergian regions heightening tensions with Georgia where the government said hundreds of Russians Soldiers remained.

Bush called on the Russian leadership to meet its commitment and not recognize these separatist regions, "Georgia territotial integrity and borders must command the same respect as every other nation's including Russia's,"he said.

Medvedec signaled the criticism was of little concern to the Kremlin Mr Medvedev said relations with the West were deteriorating sharply.

The BBC's Humphrey Hawksley, in Moscow, says the recognition is bound to dramatically heighten tensions in Russia's already fragile relationship with the West.

He says this and a series of other announcements indicate that Russia is preparing itself for a showdown. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making a strong statement. She is going to Warsaw on Wednesday and will sign an agreement under which 10 US anti-missile missiles will be stationed in Poland.

Russia's deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters Friday that Poland risks a military attack, possible nuclear, for agreeing to allow a U.S. anti-missile defense system to be based in Poland.

08-26-2008 US aid warship will defy Russian control of Georgian port of Poti
Russian forces announced they would search all incoming cargoes.

The Russians are clearly marking out their control of the Black Sea in the face of the USS McFaul guided missile destroyer’s arrival with aid for Georgia. Our sources report that the McFaul carries 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking land and sea targets.

The Black Sea confrontation between Russia and the US-led NATO forces predicted by DEBKAfile last week is building up inexorably to a climax.

Military sources report that a clash is becoming inevitable, whether among these hostile fleets or over Russian troops’ demand to search the cargoes of the two US warships when they dock at Poti Wednesday: the US Coast Guard cutter Dallas and the command and control USS Mount Whitney

The Georgian conflict over South Ossetia is spiraling into a contest between the US and Russia over control of the Black Sea region and the eastern Mediterranean.

The Russian Navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky announced that its warships in the Mediterranean region have been placed under the command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The American aircraft carrier, the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, heading a six-vessel contingent, sets sail Tuesday for the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf, with 6,000 sailors and marines aboard.Boosting the US naval buildup in the region, Tuesday, Aug. 26, the USS Iwo Jima leaves Norfolk for the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf at the head of a large group which includes the USS San Antonio amphibious transport dock ship.

Meanwhile, Russia - seen by the West as flouting international law - today demanded NATO abide by an obscure agreement signed before the Second World War limiting its warships in the Black Sea.

NATO has said it is undertaking pre-arranged exercises in the Black Sea

They will be joined Friday by the amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall , the guided missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf and the guided missile destroyer USS Ramage . Another guided missile destroyer. the USS Roosevelt and the fast attack submarine USS Hartford will be part of the group.

“The US Navy destroyer USS McFaul, which is currently docked in the Georgian port of Batumi, carries about 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles on board. They are outfitted with nuclear warheads and are meant to hit ground targets.

08-27-2008 U.S. Navy comes within seconds of opening fire on Iranian boats the Iranian boats turned away literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire in self defense.

NATO’s navy delivers weapons to Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid Mr Putin's spokesman said: 'Certainly some measures of precaution are being taken. It's not a common practice to deliver humanitarian aid using battleships.'

08-27-2008 Military help for Georgia is a 'declaration of war', says Moscow in extraordinary warning to the West

08-28-2007 E.U. Warns Russia of sanctions

08-29-2008 Russia Warns E.U. If EU introduces sanctions against Russia, Europe will have severe problems with fuel

08-30-2008 Teheran: New strides in enrichment Iran has increased the number of operating centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant to 4,000, a top official said Friday, pushing ahead with the nuclear program despite threats of new UN sanctions.

08-30-2008 Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.

08-30-2008 'Attack on Iran would cause WWIII'

Russia Issues War Warning To NATO: A top Russian military figure, the President of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies (in Moscow) Colonel General Leonid Ivashov said "We are close to a serious conflict". The British publication, 'This is London', calls the Russian position, as articulated by Ambassador Rogozin, an "extraordinary warning to the West".

Russia: We'll react militarily to US Russia successfully tests ICBM designed to beat anti-missile systems spokesman for Russia’s strategic nuclear forces said the Topol RS-12M was tested to “develop equipment for potential combat and use against ground-based missiles.”

Another leading London newspaper, 'The Mail', said "Tensions between Russia and the West were ratcheted even higher today after Moscow warned that the American naval build-up in the Black Sea could be seen as a 'declaration of war'."

8-31-08 Third US ship due in Black Sea next week The USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the US 6th Fleet

9-01-08 BRUSSELS, Belgium — Russia warned the West on Monday against supporting Georgia's leadership, suggesting that the United States carried weapons as well as aid to the ex-Soviet republic and calling for an arms embargo until the Georgian government falls."If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions," Lavrov said.

9-05-08 Georgia will be in our Nato alliance, Cheney warns Moscow Mr Cheney's warm words for Georgia's Nato aspirations are likely to cause consternation in several European capitals, particularly Berlin and Paris.As the Vice-President spoke, the USS Mount Whitney, the flagship of the Navy's 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, was steaming through the Dardanelles, heading for the Georgian port of Batumi with a cargo of humanitarian aid. Mr Cheney's comments are likely to fan tensions in the volatile region, a week after Dimitri Medvedev, the Russian President, warned the West that he was ready for a renewed Cold War.

Russia: We'll react militarily to US Russia successfully tests ICBM designed to beat anti-missile systems spokesman for Russia’s strategic nuclear forces said the Topol RS-12M was tested to “develop equipment for potential combat and use against ground-based missiles.”

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, said in a statement. "The unrestrained greed of the US leadership and global Zionism... is gradually leading the world to the edge of a precipice."

Mikhail Gorbachev compared the showdown to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war. Mr Gorbachev urged political leaders in the Kremlin and the West to act now to stop matters running out of control.

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." - Proverbs 22:3

--------------------------------

The role of an Elder Blogger is to raise consciousness as to the issues that affect us all, it is our sincere desire that Elder Protection Laws that are said to be 20 years behind child protection laws can be reformed before world events eclipse this important need.

We will always push elder reform but when world events warrant we will shift gears into survival mode as it is no longer a question of if! but rather a question of when? This guide out lines steps you can should take to protect your family ! See here=>>

You Will Survive Doomsday

2008-08-30T18:53:00.000-05:00

By Bruce Beach

Our purpose in publishing this document is to ameliorate the effects of a nuclear holocaust for as many people as we can reach, and to locate as many people as we can who are willing and able to join our nuclear survival group. Read entire Article here=>>

Who is Playing Poker and Who Is Playing Chess?

2008-08-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

by Debka file

Former Russian Black Sea Fleet commander, Adm. Eduard Baltin was quoted by Moscow media as saying Friday, Aug. 29: “Despite the apparent strength of the NATO naval group in the Black Sea… a single salvo from the Moskva missile cruiser and two or three missile boats would be enough to annihilate the entire group. Within 20 minutes, the waters would be clear.”
Adm. Baltin added: "We will not strike first, and they do not look like people with suicidal tendencies."

The Russian Fleet deploys 16 warships in the Black Sea compared with 10 NATO vessels – three American, Polish, German and Spanish frigates, and four Turkish warships, soon to be augmented by another six, including the USS Mount Whitney, which is considered one of the most advanced warships in the world.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino rejected Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin’s assertion that US personnel were in the combat zone during the war in Georgia and “someone in the United States” provoked the conflict to help one of the candidates in the American presidential race.

------------------------------

Military experts doubt the Russian claim that the naval group could be destroyed in 20 minutes, even Pearl Harbor took longer than that . As some play poker and some play chess, they are playing for pawns in this deadly game of oneupmanship? Some of us wonder what will it take, this time to wake up the sleeping giant ?

Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive ....

2008-08-30T17:49:00.001-05:00

John O. Edwards, NewsMax.com

Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.

In the magazine’s December edition, the former commander of the military’s Central Command warned that if terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government.

Discussing the hypothetical dangers posed to the U.S. in the wake of Sept. 11, Franks said that “the worst thing that could happen” is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.

If that happens, Franks said, “... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy.”

Franks then offered “in a practical sense” what he thinks would happen in the aftermath of such an attack.

“It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.”

Franks didn’t speculate about how soon such an event might take place.

Already, critics of the U.S. Patriot Act, rushed through Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, have argued that the law aims to curtail civil liberties and sets a dangerous precedent.

But Franks’ scenario goes much further. He is the first high-ranking official to openly speculate that the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government.

Americans Find Billboard Warnings Offensive

2008-08-29T19:31:00.000-05:00

After customer complaints of "scary" ads at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Republican Party Convention goers will be treated to the usual idyllic lake scenes from the local tourism board, Explore Minnesota, and similarly non-offensive advertising.

Northwest said it made the request in response to customer complaints, which referred to the ad as "scary"

Source=>>

Florida’s Food Stamp Participation Rate Up by 37.5%

2008-08-29T18:39:00.001-05:00

With jobless rates still rising in Florida (we were up .5% from April - May 08 and up 1.6% for the year) and food costs going even higher, more and more working poor are falling in to crises. According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) from March 2007-March 2008, the price of milk has risen 13.3%, egg prices rose 30%, cheese increased by 12.5% and bread costs 15% more. Caught in the squeeze many families are for the first time ever needing to reach out for help.

FRAC reports that 1.5 million more people nationwide participated in the USDA’s food stamp program in March 2008 as compared to March 2007. In Florida we saw an increase of 19% for the same time period. That’s an increase of more than a quarter million persons for our state alone. From March 2003 - March 2008 we Florida saw a staggering increase of 37.5% in the number of persons participating in the program. What is even more amazing is that the USDA estimates that approximately 1/3 of all eligible households have not even applied for benefits.

Source=>>

Besides helping families purchase nutritious food, the food stamp program provides local economic stimulus. According to the USDA, for every $5 in new food stamp benefits, $9.20 is generated in local community spending. (Click here for the story from the USDA) They further estimate that a 5% increase in the national participation rate would create 2.5 billion in new nationwide economic activity.

Navigating the system can be tricky for first time users. If you, or someone you know, wants to find out about eligibility they can either come on down to The Cooperative Feeding Program (we operate a satellite food stamp office on our campus) or check out DCF’s website for eligibility guidelines and other information.

Source=>>

US Home Foreclosures Increase 55%

2008-08-29T18:36:00.000-05:00

More than 272,000 people in the US received a foreclosure notice in July, a rise of 55% on a year earlier, according to analysts Realtytrac.

Florida and California had the highest rate of foreclosures, figures showed.

In a further indication of the severe problems affecting the US housing market, more than 77,000 homes were repossessed in July.

As a result of this increase, 17% of all homes for sale in the US are repossessed properties.

Russia as Abusive Ex, Georgia as Battered Wife

2008-08-11T04:16:00.010-05:00

Clouthier Gets it Right on Spousal Abuse Analogy
Melissa Clouthier over at Pajamas Media presents a great analogy today saying Georgia is the abused spouse to a bullying Russia. She gets it right from all angles, including the inexcusable role society plays in blaming the victim and supporting the aggressor.

I love, love, love this analogy. To play it out yet further… when abused spouse Georgia begs the courts for help, the judges offer only ineffective mediation, but do nothing while aggressor Russia plunders at will.Susan Katz Keating:

UPDATE: CHINA CONFIDENTIAL makes three good points:

Updates by : Atlas Shrugs

Danish Newspaper Protects Freedom of Speech

2008-02-17T01:54:00.003-05:00

by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) Stating they were taking a defiant stand in defense of freedom of speech, newspapers in Denmark have reprinted one of the notorious satirical cartoons of Muhammed that caused a storm of violent protest in the Muslim world over two years ago.

The decision to reprint, taken on Wednesday by 15 Danish newspapers and one in Sweden, came in response to news that Danish police had arrested three Muslim men suspected of plotting to murder Kurt Westergaard, who drew one of the cartoons.

The papers thereupon reprinted that very cartoon, which depicts Muhammed with a bomb in his turban. Calling on U.S. Papers The California-based Ayn Rand Institute saluted the latest publication, and called on American newspapers to follow suit. "Now it is the turn of American newspapers and media outlets to show their solidarity with that ideal, and reprint all 12 of the original cartoons," said Elan Journo, a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. "Newspapers in Denmark grasp that nothing should be allowed to override freedom of speech," Journo said, noting that few US newspapers did the same.

"Their refusal to bow down in the face of murder plots should be a wake-up call to editors in 'the land of the free and the home of the brave.' Few U.S. newspapers - and none of the leading ones - dared to stick their necks out, let alone raise their heads, during the cartoons crisis two years ago. U.S. media outlets, who claim to cherish freedom of speech, should realize the need to uphold it as a principle without exceptions."

Abridged=>>

Arrests follow Denmark violence

Forty three people have been arrested after a sixth consecutive night of violence in immigrant neighbourhoods in Danish cities, police officials say.

On Saturday police arrested groups of youths in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Ringsted, Slagelse and other cities after they set fire to schools, cars and rubbish bins and threw rocks at frefighters.

Abridged=>>

NATO Reform Report calls for Pre-emptive Nuclear Option

2008-01-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

A group of former senior military officials has said that Nato must be prepared to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes to "ward off the use of weapons of mass destruction by its enemies", the Telegraph reports.

The authors of the "blueprint for reforming Nato" - which was written after its authors were "briefed by senior serving military officials who are unable to speak publicly about their concerns with Nato's military strategy" - include the former British chief of the defence staff, Lord Peter Inge, and US General John Shalikashvili, former Nato commander in Europe and chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff.

In it, they stress the need to rethink "Nato's approach to defending its members and their interests" and describe first-strike nukes as an "indispensible instrument" against foes bearing WMDs. The report says: "The risk of further proliferation is imminent and, with it, the danger that nuclear war fighting, albeit limited in scope, might become possible.

"The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."

Inge reportedly comments: "To tie our hands on first use or no first use removes a huge plank of deterrence."

To make the pre-emptive strike option viable, the report proposes a major shake-up of the way Nato operates, including "abandoning consensus decision making so fast action can be taken without the threat of vetoes and caveats imposed by some nations".

It also suggests military action "without ratification by the UN" when "immediate action is needed to protect large numbers of human beings".

The report, which has been delivered to Nato and Pentagon officials, may be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April, the Telegraph notes.

Global Research Articles by Lester Haines

Cancer Fight Goes Nuclear

2007-12-25T16:59:00.000-05:00

By ANDREW POLLACK New York Times Published: December 26, 2007

Medical centers are rushing to turn nuclear particle accelerators, formerly used only for exotic physics research, into the latest weapons against cancer.The machines accelerate protons to nearly the speed of light and shoot them into tumors. Scientists say proton beams are more precise than the X-rays now typically used for radiation therapy, meaning fewer side effects from stray radiation and, possibly, a higher cure rate.“I’m fascinated and horrified by the way it’s developing,” said Anthony L. Zietman, a radiation oncologist at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, which operates a proton center. “This is the dark side of American medicine.”

Dr. Zietman said that while protons were vital in treating certain rare tumors, they were little better than the latest X-ray technology in dealing with prostate cancer, the common disease that many proton centers are counting on for business.

“You can scarcely tell the difference between them except in price,” he said. Medicare pays about $50,000 to treat prostate cancer with protons, almost twice as much as with X-rays.

Proponents say that more than 800,000 Americans — representing nearly two-thirds of new cancer cases — undergo radiation therapy each year. If only 250,000 of them could benefit from protons, they would fill more than 100 centers.Most people undergoing proton treatment are men with localized prostate cancer.

Proton therapy can help avoid the worst side-effects, like impotence, by exposing the bladder and rectum of a prostate patient to less radiation than X-rays. The stray radiation, though, from the newest form of X-rays, called intensity-modulated radiation therapy, is already low, diminishing any advantages from proton therapy.

X-rays, which are high-energy electromagnetic waves, pass through the body, depositing their energy all along the way, not just in the tumor. By contrast, protons — subatomic particles with a positive electrical charge — can be made to stop on the tumor and dump most of their payload there.Abridged =>>

Cancer a Very Lucrative Business?

With enough patients “it becomes a very lucrative system,” Mr. Phillips, a sales manager with Optivus Proton Therapy, said at the meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology held here in late October. Referring to one proton center that treats up to 175 patients a day, he added, “You can imagine what the return on investment is on that.”
-----------------------------------
I aplaud any advances in technology that might help to save lives and we have always spoken on the side advocating stem cell technology, however for the 2,400,000 Americans that will become new victims of cancer every year, becoming "Very Lucrative" business, isn't at all too comforting!

Millionaire Dog Flees Death Threats: Report

2007-12-12T12:39:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK (AFP) - A pampered pooch who inherited 12 million dollars from a late US hotel magnate earlier this year has fled to Florida under an assumed name after receiving death threats, a report said Monday.

Trouble, a white Maltese who belonged to billionaire Leona Helmsley until her death in August, was flown by private jet under tight security two months ago after receiving around 20 such threats, the New York Post reported.

It said the rich bitch was now living at an undisclosed location in Florida, a favorite with retirees escaping the winter, without naming its sources.

The paper did not say who was suspected of being behind the threats, but Trouble is said to have earned countless enemies due to a penchant for biting.

John Codey, who is in charge of the pampered pooch's trust fund, told US television network CBS last week that there had been threats to kidnap the dog.

He added that the cost of Trouble's round-the-clock security detail, medical care, chef-cooked meals and grooming were an estimated 300,000 dollars a year. The dog was previously living at a 28-room estate in Connecticut.

When Trouble dies, any remaining money from her trust will go to the charitable foundations that inherited the lion's share of Helmsley's estimated four-billion-dollar estate.

Helmsley, dubbed the "Queen of Mean" by the tabloid press, cut two grandchildren out of her will while leaving five million to two others on the proviso that they visit their late father's grave at least once a year.

Helmsley's will also stipulates that when Trouble dies she is to be buried beside her and her late husband Harry, who died in 1997.

Nuclear Missiles Mistakenly Flown Across US.- Left Alone on Tarmac

2007-11-02T07:00:00.001-05:00

Nuclear missiles mistakenly flown across US.- Left Alone on Tarmac

By Megan Levy and agencies21/10/2007The US Air Force has disciplined 70 airmen after a B-52 bomber armed with nuclear missiles was mistakenly flown across the US.

Nuclear warheads were mounted on the B-52's wingThe Air Force acknowledged an unprecedented breakdown in procedures that led to the August 29-30 incident, in which the bomber was flown from Minot, near the Canadian border, to Barksdale in Louisiana.Six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were loaded onto the B-52 before it sat overnight at Minot.

The bomber flew the next morning to Louisiana, where it sat on a tarmac for hours before anyone noticed the nuclear warheads.The missiles were supposed to have been taken to Louisiana but the warheads should have been removed beforehand.

The crew flying the plane was unaware nuclear warheads were on its wing.The incident was so serious that President George W. Bush and Defence Secretary Robert Gates were informed immediately.Among those disciplined were four officers who were relieved of their commands following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling weapons.

Announcing the results of the six-week probe into the incident, Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, said the flight resulted from an "unprecedented string of procedural errors."The errors began with a failure by airmen to conduct a required inspection of the missiles before they were loaded aboard the B-52 bomber at Minot, he said.advertisement"There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," he said.

Among the officers who were relieved of their commands this week was the 5th Bomb Wing commander at Minot, while some 65 airmen have been decertified from handling nuclear weapons.The certification process looks at a person's psychological profile, any medications they are taking and other factors in determining a person's reliability to handle weapons.An official said that security was increased as soon as the nuclear warheads were discovered.

The Air Combat Command ordered a command-wide stand-down to set aside time for personnel to review procedures, officials said.Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne said it was an unacceptable mistake and a "clear deviation from our exacting standards".

"We hold ourselves accountable to the American people and want to ensure proper corrective action has been taken."Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher, chairwoman of the House of Representatives Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, said she believed the Air Force had done a thorough investigation, but the findings were "a warning sign that there has been degradation" of attitudes toward the handling of the weapons.

"These are not just rules that people dreamed up ... just so they could check off the boxes," she said. "This is fundamentally important to the security of the country and the world."

The weapon involved was the Advanced Cruise Missile, a "stealth" weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radar.

The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle

2007-10-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

By Rob Kampia, AlterNet

What would you buy if you had an extra $42 billion to spend every year? What might our government buy if it suddenly had that much money dropped onto its lap every year?

For one thing, it might pay for the entire $7 billion annual increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program that President Bush is threatening to veto because of its cost -- and there'd still be $35 billion left over.

Or perhaps you'd hire 880,000 schoolteachers at the average U.S. teacher salary of $47,602 per year.

Or give every one of our current teachers a 30 percent raise (at a cost of $15 billion, according to the American Federation of Teachers) and use what's left to take a $27 billion whack out of the federal deficit.

Or use all $42 billion for a massive tax cut that would put an extra $140 in the pockets of every person in the country -- $560 for a family of four.

The mind reels at the ways such a massive sum of money could be put to use.

Why $42 billion? Because that's what our current marijuana laws cost American taxpayers each year, according to a new study by researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D. -- $10.7 billion in direct law enforcement costs, and $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues. And that may be an underestimate, at least on the law enforcement side, since Gettman made his calculations before the FBI released its latest arrest statistics in late September. The new FBI stats show an all-time record 829,627 marijuana arrests in 2006, 43,000 more than in 2005.

That's like arresting every man, woman and child in the state of North Dakota plus every man, woman, and child in Des Moines, Iowa on marijuana charges ... every year. Arrests for marijuana possession -- not sales or trafficking, just possession -- totaled 738,916. By comparison, there were 611,523 arrests last year for all violent crimes combined.

Basing his calculations mainly on U.S. government statistics, Gettman concludes that marijuana in the U.S. is a $113 billion dollar business. That's a huge chunk of economic activity that is unregulated and untaxed because it's almost entirely off the books.

Of course, the cost of our marijuana laws goes far beyond lost tax revenues and money spent on law enforcement. By consigning a very popular product -- one that's been used by about 100 million Americans, according to government surveys -- to the criminal underground, we've effectively cut legitimate businesspeople out of the market and handed a monopoly to criminals and gangs.

Strangely, government officials love to warn us that some unsavory characters profit off of marijuana sales, while ignoring the obvious: Our prohibitionist laws handed them the marijuana business in the first place, effectively giving marijuana dealers a $113 billion free ride.

All this might make some sense if marijuana were so terribly dangerous that it needed to be banned at all costs, but science long ago came to precisely the opposite conclusion. Compared to alcohol, for example, marijuana is astonishingly safe. For one thing, marijuana is much less addictive than alcohol, with just nine percent of users becoming dependent, as opposed to 15 percent for booze. And marijuana is much less toxic. Heavy drinking is well-documented to damage the brain and liver, and to increase the risk of many types of cancer. Marijuana, on the other hand, has never caused a medically documented overdose death, and scientists are still debating whether even heavy marijuana use causes any permanent harm at all. And then there's violence. Again, the scientific findings are overwhelming: Booze incites violence and aggression; marijuana doesn't.

Despite all that, we now arrest one American every 38 seconds on marijuana charges. And we do so at a staggering cost in law enforcement expenses, lost tax revenues, and staggering profits for criminal gangs.

The alternative is clear: Regulate marijuana just as we do beer, wine, and liquor. The only thing lacking is the political will.

Another Type of Abuse,Neglect and Negligence by U.S. Intelligence Community

2007-09-14T12:43:00.001-05:00

by Jerry Gordon interview with Dr.Jill Dekker

When news leaked out of the September 6th Israeli Air Force and commando raid on a Syrian Nuclear facility followed by revelations about the deaths of dozens of Iranians and Syrians in a Chemical warfare missile accident in July the world was jarred.Recently, it was revealed that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) had aided Syria in its chemical warfare programs.

I noted in a recent interview with former US UN Ambassador John Bolton his early concerns about the Syrian Bio Warfare threat. Questions arose, specifically about the size, nature and danger of the Syrian bio-warfare military programs.For answers and professional views on how extensive the Syrian bio-warfare threat is, we turned to Dr. Jill Dekker, a consultant to the NATO Defense Establishment in bio-warfare and counter terrorism.

Dr. Dekker is also a member of the board of advisors of the Intelligence Summit.Dr. Dekker’s answers give a foreboding picture of how large and refined the Syrian bio-warfare programs are and how little Western Intelligence knows about how the programs were developed.

For answers and professional views on how extensive the Syrian bio-warfare threat is, we turned to Dr. Jill Dekker, a consultant to the NATO Defense Establishment in bio-warfare and counter terrorism. Dr. Dekker is also a member of the board of advisors of the Intelligence Summit.

Dr. Dekker’s answers give a foreboding picture of how large and refined the Syrian bio-warfare programs are and how little Western Intelligence knows about how the programs were developed. The potential exists for a significant WMD threat in the Middle East and the West, especially, against America.

Syria is a proxy ally of Iran, North Korea (DPRK) and terror groups such as Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Thus, the supply of bio-weapons and delivery platforms that could results in mass casualties makes it a real and present danger.

We were pleased that Dr. Dekker took time out from her professional work to answer questions about the Syrian bio-warfare establishment and WMD threat.

Jill Dekker: In 2001, when the US suffered its anthrax attacks, everything changed. We went from looking at bio-safety as an aspect of protecting workers and the environment, to bio-security and trying to safe-guard High Consequence Pathogens mainly in P3 and P4 facilities from terrorists.

I now focus on state supported bio-terrorism whereby pathogens don’t need to be stolen or diverted. A state warfare lab, such as exists in Iran and Syria today, could easily provide their terrorist surrogates with the most advanced biological agents for covert operations. This is far more likely and would be far more devastating in terms of kill ratios than some lone terrorist group trying to weaponize pathogens without state support or a warfare laboratory

in Afghanistan, you may recall, the US recovered documents which Al Qaeda had on their bio-programs. I moved from an interest in bio-safety and bio-security to looking at the threat state biological warfare labs pose and the types of criteria we need to assess them. Most biological weapons research is dual use.

Contrary to how the US State Department and other agencies tend to downplay the sophistication of the Syrian biological and nuclear programs, they are very advanced. Syria has always had the most advanced chemical weapons program in the Middle East.

The US and other western agencies have in a sense been distracted by this, but their biological programs and the “concept of use” are robust. Syria’s biological weapons capability today is closely tied to the former and current Soviet and Russian programs respectively, the DPRK, Iran and the former Iraq regime. A major concern is their strategic concept of use - which has gone from one of ‘special weapons’ to incorporation into their ‘conventional arsenal.’ That is a significant shift and one that seems to have eluded the US.

Dekker: The Syrians work on most Category A pathogens: anthrax, plague, tularemia, botulinium, smallpox, aflotoxin, cholera, ricin, camelpox. Some of these they acquired during natural outbreaks, others they acquired from the Soviets, Russians, DPRK, Iran and Iraq.

US intelligence agencies denied the Soviets could possibly have such a massive program - even after the defection of high level scientists- such Vladimir Pasechnik. You have to wonder at what point they are going to sharpen up and see that nations like Syria also have a robust advanced biological weapons program.

Gordon: We heard that some of the late Saddam Hussein’s Bio-warfare research and pathogens may have been transferred to Syria during Operation Enduring Freedom. Is that accurate to your knowledge, and who facilitated the transfer? What types of bio-warfare agents and materials might have been transferred?

Dekker: Yes. It is important to remember that the Iraqi programs were far more advanced at the time than what the Syrians had, and were developing. The delivery of certain pathogens in a ‘weaponized’ form taught the Syrians new techniques they previously had not mastered. This is very problematic.

What Hussein’s transfer taught the Syrians was more sophisticated ways of weaponization and dispersal. I believe Russian special ops- their Spetsnaz teams - transported sections of the programs. Remember these are not MIRVed ICBM’s we are talking about - you don’t need to stockpile biological weapons. It is the quality of the pathogen and ‘weaponization’ or aerosolization, milling processes that count, not the quantity.

If you take something like Bot - I gram of crystalline Botulinium is estimated to kill about a million people if it were evenly dispersed

Gordon: To your knowledge what pathogens and toxins are the Syrian bio-warfare establishment developing and what is their propensity to produce mass casualties?

Dekker: Syria posesses Category A, B, and C pathogens and toxins. To my knowledge the most problematic

A particular issue I have with smallpox research conducted in rogue states is that these programs most likely are not based on vaccine preventable strains. So the US national strategic stockpile of smallpox vaccine, which has cost the US tax payers billions of dollars to stockpile, may be totally non-efficacious against a battle strain developed in Syria, Iran or the DPRK.

It creates a false sense of security to think that out of 128 strains, only four (the most prevalent previously naturally occurring strains) are the ones rogue states would choose to reintroduce smallpox. It is naive to think that states developing weapons of mass destruction are going to select a strain we can prevent. The Soviets ramped up their work on smallpox once they knew the WHO had declared it eradicated and that the United States had ceased vaccination against it.
Dekker: The Syrian biological warfare programs are administratively run under the SSRC in Damascus. They have one of the most highly developed pharmaceutical industries in the Mid East.

Gordon: What means of delivery does Syria have available for its bio weapons?

Dekker: Well they’ve mastered micro-encapsulation which is necessary for aerosol dispersal. They have experimented with parachute dispersal techniques for orthopox based on Soviet methods. They are also developing micro aerosol dispersal technologies which have no military application. This is probably the most alarming as it is designed for terrorist use.

The Syrians are perfecting advanced dispersal technologies that will be for use against civilians but far more sophisticated than the use of a crop duster.

Gordon: How much of a threat is the Syrian Bio-warfare capability to Israel and US forces in the Middle East, e.g. Iraq?

Dekker: Syria poses an immediate and imminent threat to the United States and Israel. it may be possible for Syria to contaminate water distribution systems with a pathogen like Crypto which is impervious to chlorine and will pass through most filtration systems. Such a contamination could infect significant sections of a population.

Even in the United States, there have been natural outbreaks. There is no treatment available, so it could have quite an impact. There are other concerns such as the use of pre-deployed biological agents in the event that Iran is attacked by the United States. Again, here we should pay close attention to how the Soviets planned for Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). They planned their smallpox program specifically in the event of MAD so that smallpox would wipe out whoever was left. It’s not beyond reason to consider that the Syrians and Iranians have engaged in such contingency planning

Gordon: How much does the US Bio-warfare establishment and intelligence community know about the Syrian Bio-warfare threat?

Dekker: It is similar to the US negligent underestimation and denial that the Soviets had a massive biological weapons program. The US Intelligence Community negligently underestimates and denies the sophistication of the Syrian biological weapons programs which is very unfortunate.

Former US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton has tried since 2001 to warn the US about the threat the Syrian biological weapons programs poses. His warnings have fallen on deaf ears.

The US public needs to be informed that the intelligence community is falling far short here in protecting them.

Other US allies are not, they are up to speed. Again as an American citizen it is unbelievable to see such negligence in the US intelligence community. Having lived in Europe for 20 years and working as a defense consultant on Category A warfare agents, this is not the standard approach of other NATO nations. There is something deeply disturbing with the US approach. Time will tell as unfortunately it did with 9/11.

Gordon: In your opinion, what has prevented the US from recognizing the significance of the Syrian bio-warfare threat and developing effective counter measures?

Dekker: I believe there is a specific mind-set within the US intelligence community which makes it difficult for them to procure sources in the Middle East and of course the lack of language ability..their approach is not reassuring.

they have not taken appropriate defensive measures in view of the potential consequences of a WMD attack, they have left the US exposed.

The US relies heavily on technology and has done so for a number of years. Biological weapons cannot be assessed by satellites anymore. Perhaps during the old Soviet era but now science has moved beyond this. I believe the US incompetence in this field and its arrogance could eventually lead to a successful strike on the US by a rogue nation-possibly in the very near future.

Another problem for the United States ...is their failure to inform the US public on the real threat they face. The smallpox program is a case in point. The US may not be able to protect its citizens with its ‘treasured’ national strategic stockpile of smallpox vaccine. Who wants to be the one to come out and announce that to the US public?

Who wants to say they have no idea how advanced the Syrian Botulinium or Plague programs are because they don’t have any access? It would be very unpopular if the US public knew they were potentially defenseless and that the people charged with protecting them had dropped the ball again. What is disconcerting is they don’t seem to be able to recognize, acknowledge and correct their prior mistakes, If they don’t start taking Mid-East biological weapons programs more seriously the U.S. is likely to suffer far worse attacks than 9/11. The US intelligence community is inadequately equipped to deal with this threat.

Gordon: Could Bio-weapons developed by the Syrian military establishment be used as WMD producing significant mass casualties in Israel, the EU and here in America?

Dekker: Yes, Syria is very good at conducting covert operations. They have a number of technologies available which they could provide to either Special Forces or terrorists who could release them in airports, other transportation hubs, airplane ventilation systems and that would cause mass casualties.

I certainly believe they have very advanced biological weapons capabilities and we are at a point where there really aren’t any technological obstacles for them to overcome in dispersal or deployment. This is why intelligence is so vital in this area. It is probably the last line of defense, so to neglect it, or deny that one should allocate resources for prevention, is odd. Some biological weapons use pathogens which don’t need to be ‘weaponized’.

Of all the countries Israel is by far the most prepared to handle the release of biological weapons. The nations of Western Europe are unevenly prepared and the United States is probably not prepared. In such an attack, the country would probably suffer major mass casualties. I think the Syrians are much more sophisticated than the US intelligence community realizes. This puts American lives at immediate risk. The American public should demand that the US intelligence community close the gap in their intelligence on the Syrian biological weapons programs. Additionally, they have underestimated the Syrian nuclear programs for several years as well.

Gordon: In your opinion what should America, Israel and NATO do to combat the Syrian Bio-warfare threat and its proliferation to terrorist groups?

The US intelligence community could start by acknowledging that Syria has an advanced, well developed program and take things a bit more seriously.

The US Intelligence Community seems particularly risk averse. It’s almost as if Syria couldn’t possibly have such a program because their scientific community isn’t advanced enough.

Other NATO nations are preparing for deliberate disease outbreaks and acknowledge that Syrian biological weapons programs are a threat.Biological weapons and terrorist use of them require excellence in intelligence not incompetence and denial.

Gordon: Thank you Dr. Dekker for this most informative and I’m sorry to say, frightening discussion of the Syrian bio-warfare threat and why America has not done enough to recognize and combat it.

Dr. Dekker suggests that for more information you consult “Biological Terrorism: The Threat of the 21st Century” by Marie Sultan for the types of technological advancements which might be a concern.

Comments:

Dr. Jill Dekker is a well respected scientist whose veracity is beyond repute. I have worked in the intelligence field within the Military as well as civilian law enforcement and am now retired but still giving my services to B’nai Elim (a very pro-active Jewish - Zionist organization) as their chief of intelligence and security. If Dr. Jill Dekker said that a new “Ice Age” was beginning along with rapid “Global Cooling” in January… I would go out and buy some thermal underwear. In other words, the information that she has garnered regarding the Syrian bio-weapons capabilities is totally accurate.

Doctor Dekker has merely scratched the surface regarding Syrian complicity with Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah, Al-Queda and other purveyors of terrorism.

We are standing on the brink of another World War and no matter which direction we take, we will be risking freedom as we know it today. Our Government’s egregious actions directed at Dr. Dekker in a lame effort to intimidate her signal only the beginning of the erosion of our individual liberties in the name of National Security.

Bill ManiaciChief, Intelligence and SecurityB’nai Elim / The Maccabee Group
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For whatever good it might do, I emailed the URL for Dr. Dekker’s interview to each member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. The email included the following comment: “US seems stunningly unprepared for biological weapons in the hands of rogue states.” Is there an equivalent in the House? Jerry
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America is in the most vulnerable position as they are totally unprepared and in constant denial. It is time for America to revive DUCK AND COVER DRILLS! by Jamit
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If you have friends and family in the US this interview is most disturbing, reason enough for each one of us to be writing our senators in congress and demand the US intelligence community take inmediate steps to close this gap and face this reality with effective steps to protect the american public, denial , incompentence, negligence, and looking the other way is not an acceptable way to deal with Elder Abuse, neither it is an acceptable way to deal with this potential inmediate threat.

Bank your Body

2007-04-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

Freezing your physical assets - from skin to eggs - is a controversial new trend in anti-ageing. So will you invest? CLAIRE COLEMAN investigates more:

Remember a few years ago when your skin was clearer, your body was thinner and you could run up five flights of stairs without breaking into a sweat?

And now imagine how seductive it would be if someone offered you the chance to freeze time, halt the ageing process and always look and feel as great as you did at the age of 21.

Until recently, the possibility of doing anything remotely resembling this would have been considered science fiction.

Now advances in medical technology mean that increasing numbers of us can, to a certain extent, if not stop time, at least freeze our assets at the point at which they are most valuable so that we can return to them when we need, literally, an injection of youth and vigour in the future.

Banking your body is the latest trend in anti-ageing and with the huge advances being made in cell collection, storage and replication, it looks set to grow and grow over the next decade. And the implications, for everything from our skin and our hair, to our fertility, are staggering.

COLLAGEN
As we age, the quantity and quality of collagen in our skin degenerates, resulting in skin that is less toned and prone to wrinkles. Injecting new collagen can counteract these problems and, while collagen can be obtained from various sources - including cows, pigs and even dead bodies - many people prefer the thought of autologous collagen (reinjection of one's own collagen).

in the USA some will separate it from other tissues after one type of operation (liposuction/breast reduction) and store it for use in the patient's face in the future. Dr Thierry Vidal of London's Skin Health Spa thinks that such procedures will be commonplace in the future.

there's no doubt that in the future it could be quite common for young people to store samples of collagen and other tissues that degrade with age, with a view to using them in an anti-ageing process in later life.'

SKIN

Maintaining baby soft skin forever might be a real possibility in the future. A product currently available called ReCell or CellSpray uses a sample of the patient's own skin to create a sprayable skin solution that contains all the skin cells necessary for healthy skin growth and can then be applied to a wound or damaged area of skin.

The company is also able to replicate the skin cells in a lab, should more cells be required. At the moment the technology is predominantly used on burns patients but, according to Matthieu Leclerc-Chalvet of Clinical Cell Culture, the company behind ReCell:

'The cosmetic applications for this treatment can be combined with something like laser resurfacing or dermabrasion to reduce the risks of scarring and improve healing.'

FAT

Although fat has its drawbacks as a filler for wrinkles (it tends to be reabsorbed by the body and so needs regular top ups), fat transfer, where fat is removed from one area of the body and then re-injected into another part, is a relatively commonplace procedure.

One significant advantage is that the body's own fat cells are less likely to cause an allergic reaction or be rejected by the body than a synthetic or foreign substance. In most instances, surgeons will remove and re-inject the fat at the same time.

However it is possible to freeze fat so that a patient can have top-ups of their own cells over a longer period of time, a popular practice in the US.

Danya Hoenig, a medical assistant who works with her husband, Los Angeles plastic surgeon Jonathan Hoenig explains, 'We have a clinical-grade freezer here which stores fat at minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

We will keep fat samples for around a year, defrosting small amounts at a time so it can be used for cheek augmentation and similar facial procedures.'

VEINS

The idea of taking out parts of your body that you don't want and then recycling them in ways that you do has a certain satisfying symmetry about it. And fat is not the only substance to be used in this way.

It has been reported that some cosmetic surgeons in the US are storing varicose vein tissue, that has been removed from a patient's legs, and subsequently using the collagen it contains to inject it into their face as a filler.

HAIR

Help may be at hand for those concerned about hairloss, or hair that thins with age. While hair transplants are relatively common procedures at the moment, where hair follicles are removed from one part of the scalp and reimplanted in another area, new technologies which allow scientists to replicate hair follicles in the lab could mean that, in theory, young healthy hair follicles could be removed from a small, inconspicuous area at the nape of the neck, multiplied in the laboratory and then stored to be reimplanted at strategic locations, either to thicken existing hair or where baldness has set in.

'While it's not happening at the moment, storing hair follicles in case you suffer from hair loss in later life could certainly be a possibility in the future," says Consultant Plastic Surgeon Jim Frame, of the Capio Springfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex.

He also believes this sort of hair grafting could also come in handy when performing facelifts. 'In a lot of cases, when a facelift is performed, the hairline moves and this can look unnatural,' explains Mr Frame. 'Reimplanting hair follicles to recreate a more natural hairline could be a solution to this.'

EGGS

In a society where we're increasingly having children later in life, be it due to careers or simply not finding the right man, the prospect of putting healthy, young eggs on ice is very attractive.

But while sperm banking is nothing new, egg freezing is much more complicated, less effective and, therefore, less common. However, new technologies are currently being worked on that could change all that within 12 months.

Dr Fishel estimates that while the majority of egg freezing cases Care Fertility sees are women who wish to freeze eggs for medical reasons (such as before having cancer treatment), around one in three cases are for lifestyle reasons.

And he believes that as the new techniques are introduced this trend will become more commonplace.

'If I had a daughter in her mid-20s who was on a career path and not considering conception until her mid to late 30s, I would certainly suggest that she went through a couple of cycles of egg stimulation with a view to freezing around 30 healthy eggs.'

Dr Fishel says he would not be surprised if egg freezing became routine.

'When you think about the cost of endless cycles of IVF for older women, plus the elevated risks of Down's Syndrome when using older eggs, in a society where women are increasingly having children later, freezing eggs is, frankly, a sensible thing to do.'

BODY PARTS

One of the other alternatives to egg freezing is a technique called ovarian cryopreservation where, pre-treatment cancer patients have slivers of their ovaries removed and frozen, and then subsequently reimplanted after treatment and, once transplanted, begin to release eggs and work in the same way as undamaged ovaries.

This is a procedure that Kylie Minogue underwent prior to her cancer treatment. But a company called Alcor in the US lets you go one step further and freeze your entire body. Believers in cryogenics are convinced that, one day in the future, the technology will be available to bring them back to life once more.

To be accurate, the process Alcor uses is not freezing, but vitrification, where more than 60 per cent of the water in the body's cells is replaced with protective chemicals which means that rather than actually freezing and forming ice crystals which can destroy body tissues, it is just deep cooled and then suspended in a tank of liquid nitrogen.

STEM CELLS

Stem cell banking hit the news recently as Richard Branson announced the latest Virgin venture, Virgin Health Bank, a company that offers new parents the opportunity to preserve cells from the blood of their newborn child's umbilical cord. Stem cells are the cells from which all other cells form - everything from the teeth and skin to bone and the heart.

Although the research is still in its infancy, many in the industry believe that stem cells are the future of medicine. 'Stem cells literally have the ability to turn back time,' says medical scientist, Dr Cuross Bakhtiar of London's Harley Street Cosmetic.

'They have the potential to regenerate blood cells damaged by heart attacks and even improve sight damaged by retinal degradation.'

Dr Donald Gibb, an obstetrician in private practise in London's Harley Street, has seen the number of parents looking to bank stem cells increase over the past few years.

'For several years now I've made my patients aware of the possibility of banking stem cells when their child is born and I would say roughly 20 per cent of them do so.' He believes this number could well increase further.

abridged read it all here >>

Mothers In Jail

2007-04-20T07:14:00.000-05:00

Mothers in jail; Former detainee speaks, by Rebecca Sullivan

Diana Delgado spent almost six years in and out of state prison and county jail, but her real punishment began when she was release in January and her eight year old daughter refused to live with her after she was released.

Women like Delgado are filling jails and prisons throughout the country, state and county at an alarming rate. Nationally, the number of women in prisons has grown 6.3 percent annually since 1990. In Cook County Jail, the number of women detained increased by 89 percent between 1993 and 1999. Latino women accounted for the sharpest increase at Cook County Jail, their numbers doubling between 1993 and 1999.

Drug offenses are the main reason why women 'mothers' are locked up....l
The jail population in the United States is expected to reach 2 million US makes up 5% of the total global population, it now accounts for 25% of the world's prisoners.

Studies estimate that 50% of elderly American are victims of financial explotation while only 4% to 15% case are ever reported and rarely prosecuted . Financial swindles are one of the fastest growing forms of abuse of the elderly according to NCEA , the other 85% to 96% cases of elder financial abuse victims that are never reported go totally without protection.

March 28,2007 AP attacks on a 101-year-old Queens woman as she walked to church and on an 85-year-old woman beaten by the same mugger a half hour later. The brutal attacker could face only a misdemeanor, punishable up to a year in jail.

"The way that society doesn't value these people is reflected in how we have been investigating and prosecuting these cases," said Deputy Prosecutor PageUlrey.

"It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped." -Hubert H. Humphrey (1911 - 1978)

When Laws Aren’t Enforced, Innocent People Die.

2007-04-20T07:09:00.000-05:00

Va. Tech gunman sent material to NBC, was declared a danger to himself and others in 2005.University Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his officers confronted Cho in late 2005 after two women complained separately that he had harassed them in person, through phone calls and with instant messages.

After the second incident in December 2005, Cho’s roommate warned police he might be suicidal, prompting them to issue a “temporary detention order” and send him to a nearby mental health facility for evaluation, Flinchum said.Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, the Virginia Tech gunman mailed a package to NBC News containing what authorities said were images of him brandishing weapons and a video of him delivering a diatribe about getting even with rich people.

The package included digital images of him holding weapons and a manifesto that “rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even,” according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case.MSNBC said that the package included a CD-ROM on which Cho read his manifesto.One of his former teachers, poet Nikki Giovanni, said she had insisted Cho be removed from her class in 2005 because he intimidated other students by photographing them and writing obscene, violent poetry. “There was something mean about this boy,” she told CNN. “There was a real mean streak.”

Once again, this time in a campus filled with young men and women military age, a lone bully seemed to have been able to go on a rampage without anyone trying to actively stop him. What did the students and faculty do? They either cowered behind furniture or locked their door. He, of course, went on to shoot the students next door.

Once again, as Bill Bennet noted, heavily armed men were seen swarming OUTSIDE assessing the situation!As this behavior took place on Holocaust memorial day, it is not surprising that the one man who said “Never again” was a 76 year old professor, a holocaust survivor. He did the best he could, blocked the door with his body and told his students to flee. .... it would have been better if had he told them to attack.

Of course, standing up to bullies is no longer the expected even of trained fighters. How can one expect young people at a university to behave more courageously than British marines confronting Iranian bullies? We better. For as Gandhi expected, in the current atmosphere bullies are multiplying and the price of continuing to go as sheep to slaughter is getting higher and higher by the day.

You may find more information about Professor Librescu at his new Wikipedia entry. I was quite happy to find that, because the killer also has one of his own, of course. There is still a little balance left in the world when one of the good people is not forgotten while we have to weather the all-too-typical media frenzy surrounding the evil-doer.

We can not let evil be the center of our world, nor allow great deeds to be forgotten. R.I.P, Professor Librescu.

article abridged - courtesy of Foehammer's Anvil

"Shaikh, Abu Mus’Ab Al-Virgini”Cho Seung Hui wrote "Ishmael Ax" on his arm, signed his package to NBC "A. Ishmael," and criticized Christianity in his video message. Do these things make him a jihadist? No. There is plenty of evidence that he was a deeply disturbed young man, full of rage and murderous fantasies, but none at this point to indicate that he had any actual connection to or interest in Islam or jihad.However, that did not stop some jihadists on Islamic forums from celebrating his deed as if he were one of their own, and even dubbing him "Abu Mus’Ab Al-Virgini," after the late Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi. The blogger Basharee Murtadd caught posts on two Arabic-language Islamic forums; one has been taken down, but the other is still there.

Apologize, Appease then Apologize Again

2007-04-15T07:33:00.000-05:00

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An official Iranian news agency said on Friday one man among the 15 British sailors and marines seized in the Gulf last week had admitted to entering Iranian waters illegally and apologized to the Iranian people.

The symbolic power of pictures is representative of the West moral decay.

We see a picture of a female British Marine shouldering a powerful high tech weapon, but not allowed to use it due to strict rules of engament and then we see a apologizing female with her brothers in arms wearing a Muslim headgear sitting on the floor eating bread crumbs apologizing for what she/they have done.

Gone are the days symbolized by the soldier that under intense pressure spits in the interrogator eye and says" You will never break me."

We might as well face it the sailors are representative of our society, they appease and lie and willingly wear the enemies garb in order to survive because that's what we must also do.

Allow the Imans to hold prayer meetings before boarding and terrorize other boarding passengers , lest we violate their civil right and they sue us. “CAIR will be filing a complaint with relevant authorities in the morning over the treatment of the imams...

But we must remove the Ten Commandments from the Courthouse steps, and remove prayer from school , lest we offend anyone and expose ourselves to a lawsuit.

As a society we must appease, lie, and accommodate in order to survive.

In February, the 5th Fleet's then-commander, Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh, said he had assured Arab allies that Washington was trying to avoid "a mistake that boils over into war" with Iran.

Admiral Patrick Walsh message when he said that should War break out in Iran it would be a 'mistake' that we must avoid was not lost to our enemies. Meaning the exercises are just that a Huge 'SHOW.'

ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS - American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and aircraft.

While we play war games and burn up thousands of millions of gallons of oil driving up 'real' prices and while our leaders are fighting imaginary enemies , the enemy is building real bombs and fighting real wars and taking real prisioners and making real plans.

Our imaginary enemies might be more real than our politicians are leading us to believe.

ISRO eyes mission to Mars

2007-04-13T08:53:00.000-05:00

Bangalore, April 11 (IANS) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is open to launch a mission to Mars if the government gives a green signal, a top official of the space agency said here Wednesday.

“We can undertake a mission to Mars within five years of the government’s approval. If the project is given the go-ahead now, we will be in a position to launch the mission to the red planet by 2012,” ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters.

Nair, however, hastened to add that the proposal for such a mission was under study by the space agency on the basis of a brief report prepared by the Indian scientific community.

“Our scientific community has come out with an outline of a mission to Mars. If the proposal is interesting, we will pursue it,” Nair said.

Nair’s observation on ISRO’s capability to reach Mars comes in the backdrop of China’s decision to launch a joint mission to the planet with Russia in 2009

Mission to Mars

2007-04-13T08:47:00.000-05:00

Since the earliest days of science fiction, travel to Mars has captured the imagination. However, to get to Mars and return is not an easy task. Hard as it was for man to go to the Moon, travel to Mars is many orders of magnitude more difficult. Even in 2003, when Mars will be at the closest distance of approach to the Earth, it will still remain over 50 million km away from Earth.

That distance is almost 150 times as far away as the Moon. To go to Mars in a reasonable amount of time will require much higher speeds than to go to the Moon, and that means much more fuel. Then, to return from Mars will also require great amounts of fuel. Although Mars is much smaller than Earth, and has a much smaller gravity, it will still require a very large amount of energy to escape from the Martian surface and return.

Truck Art

2007-04-08T01:06:00.000-05:00

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Anger Grows at US Jail Population

2007-03-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

BBC News

The jail population in the United States is expected to reach 2 million on Tuesday, prompting a wave of protests across America.

An explosion in inmate numbers in recent years means that although the US makes up 5% of the total global population, it now accounts for 25% of the world's prisoners.

About 1.3 million of the current jail population have been imprisoned for non-violent crimes, usually drug offences.

Studies have shown that in cities such as Baltimore and Washington at least half of all young black men are either in prison, on parole or on probation.

Jenny Gainsborough, of the research organisation, Sentencing Project, said she hoped Tuesday's protests would highlight the need for reform to stop the upward spiral in the prison population.

"We just want people to be aware of the huge numbers of people who are being locked up and the contrast between the US and other western industrialised democracies.

While the West is fighting imaginary ships and aircraft - Iran is building Real Bombs

2007-03-28T22:03:00.000-05:00

U.S. warplanes serve to warn Iran

ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS - American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.

Meanwhile, oil prices shot nearly 8 percent in a matter of minutes in after hours trading Tuesday, topping $68.

F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and aircraft.

I like the Bush and Blair's plans for fighting the enemy , lets show off our hardware and burn up some millions in oil by playing war games- then we can fight imaginary enemies.

Is anybody else impressed?

I don't know how the games are going to end, but the halftime score is :

Iranians 15
The West 0

Iran Gets in on the US and Brits 'War Games'

2007-03-27T21:54:00.000-05:00

Iran takes prisioners while the U.S. and the Brits play war games, that should make the games a bit more realistic. I would say Iran 15 - West - 0- lets the games continue.

THE brave Royal Navy woman sailor being held hostage by Iran has a three-year-old daughter.

Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, was one of the drivers of the two boats swooped on by Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday.

Her little daughter Molly and husband Adam were at home last night desperately waiting for news of her plight.

Faye is being held with 14 other Navy hostages, including 21-year-old Paul Barton, snatched by Iranian gunboats from a patrol in the Shaat-al-Arab waterway off Basra, Iraq.
The diplomatic row escalated last night as Iran again refused the UK ambassador any access to them. All the Iranians would say was the British personnel were “fit and well”.

More than 10,000 US personnel, two aircraft carriers and 100 warplanes begin biggest simulated demonstration of force in Gulf since the 2003 invasion

2007-03-27T21:35:00.000-05:00

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the exercise was launched March 27 the day before the Arab League summit opens in Riyadh, to demonstrate the Bush administration’s determination not to let Iran block the Strait of Hormuz to oil exports from the Persian Gulf, or continue its nuclear program.

Taking part are the USS Stennis and USS Eisenhower strike forces.
With Iran’s Revolutionary Guards one week into their marine maneuvers, military tensions in the Gulf region are skyrocketing and boosting world oil prices.

Intelligence sources in Moscow claim to have information that a US strike against Iranian nuclear installations has been scheduled for April 6 at 0040 hours. The Russian sources say the US operation, code-named “Bite,” will last no more than 12 hours and consist of missile and aerial strikes devastating enough to set Tehran’s nuclear program several years back.
The maneuver also occurs four days after 14 British seamen and one crew-woman were seized by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards warship, with no sign that their release is imminent.
London insists its marines were on routine patrol on the Iraqi side of the Shatt al Arb on behalf of the Iraqi government. Tony Blair has threatened “a new phase” in the crisis if the captured personnel are not speedily released.

The warplanes are flying simulated attack maneuvers on enemy shipping with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and seeking mines, off the coast of Iran.

US Navy Cmdr Kevin Aandahl declined to say when the maneuver was planned or how long it would last. He said US warships would stay out of Iranian territorial waters up to 12 miles from the Iranian coast. Tehran does not recognize this limit and claims a deeper stretch of water.

Our military sources explain the presence of the French naval strike group led by the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle which joined the two US carriers last Friday: The group will carry out security missions in the Arabian Sea and its warplanes fly in support of NATO in Afghanistan.

Do Mermaids Really Exist ?

2007-03-10T09:26:00.000-05:00

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Do Mermaids really exists? In a place in Florida called Weechi Wachi they do!

WEEKI WACHEE – In a quiet little corner of a busy part of the world are mermaids. As if in a fairytale, people come from near and far to watch them swim – they come today as they did nearly 50 years ago
Photos By Mitch Traphagen

Weeki Wachee Springs is located west of Brooksville at 6131 Commercial Way – just off the intersection of U.S. Highway 19 and State Road 50. For more information visit http://mermaid.weekiwachee.com/.

Iraqi Wife Speaks up about Conditions in Iraq

2007-03-10T08:09:00.000-05:00

by Iraqi Wife

I came to realise that this place is unhealthy. Very unhealthy for one's mental health. No matter how much you try to hide it, no matter how much you pretend that you're dealing with the situation as well as anyone, there's a point in time where you just crack.

There's nothing that I can do to bring back all the good people that lost their lives. Lost their lives because of Iraq....everyone I ever loved, everyone I ever cherished, everyone who made my childhood memories of this place beautiful, disappeared. Disappeared because of this country. Gone because of Iraq.

So yes this place takes its toll, but you wander, you wander how the Iraqi people endure all the destruction and mayhem yet their only desire in life is to go on living. You wander how these courageous people do it. Although their only goal is to live, you can see that the point of meltdown is nearing.

As for here, the Iraqi government decided to take Saddam's Swords down, the ones in the GZ. Although the action was suddenly stopped, yet it baffled me that they believe by taking monuments down, they will erase history. Oh how little do they know. History can never be erased. History is, was and always will be engraved. If not engraved in the minds, then engraved in the earth. The Iraqi earth...

More >>

Robot suits for the Disabled - Elderly

2007-03-10T07:45:00.000-05:00

Japanese companies are preparing to lauch a robot suit which helps the disabled or aged to walk. This file photo shows a university student demonstrating a prototype.

Syria Prepares for War

2007-03-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

March 9, 2007, 5:26 PM (GMT+02:00) by Debkafile

Quoting three Israeli military and two government sources, the French news agency AFP reports the Syrian army has accelerated its deployment of medium and long-range rockets capable of striking major towns across northern Israel.

Iran Has NO Brake and NO Reverse Gear

2007-03-02T20:40:00.000-05:00

From CNN: Iran: Atomic program has no brake.

Iran has no brake and no reverse gear in its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, while a deputy foreign minister vowed Tehran was prepared for any eventuality, "even for war."

"Iran has obtained the technology to produce nuclear fuel and Iran's move is like a train ... which has no brake and no reverse gear," Ahmadinejad said, ISNA news agency reported.

Iran says Washington is in no position to attack when its troops are bogged down in Iraq but says it is ready in case.

This FOX News headline says it all: Iran: We Will Never Give Up Nuke Program, but We Are Ready for Unconditional Talks. Nonetheless, the West will keep trying to negoiate, until it's too late.

Israeli Fathers Find Unique Ways to Remember Their Children Killed by Suicide Bomber

2007-03-02T20:37:00.000-05:00

Wherever Yossi Zur travels, he brings back a stone to place on the grave of his teenage son Asaf. Zur, who lives in Israel's northern port city of Haifa, is one of three parents who have found unique ways of keeping alive the memories of their children who were murdered by a suicide bomber.

Asaf, 16, Tal Kehrmann,17, and Yuval Mendellevich, 13, were among 17 people killed on March 5, 2003 when a suicide bomber boarded the bus they were riding and detonated an explosives belt packed with 37.4 pounds (17 kilograms) of explosives. Of the dead, 12 were younger than 21. Another 53 people were wounded in the attack.

2nd Chemical Attack in Iraq

2007-02-24T23:37:00.000-05:00

The second chemical attack in as many days. "Iraq insurgents use 2nd 'dirty' attack," by Brian Murphy for AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents exploded a truck carrying chlorine gas canisters Wednesday — the second such "dirty" chemical attack in two days — while a U.S. official said ground fire apparently forced the downing of a Black Hawk helicopter. All nine aboard the aircraft were rescued.

The attacks offer a sweeping narrative on evolving tactics by Sunni insurgents who have proved remarkably adaptable.

Military officials worry extremists may have recently gained more access to firepower such as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft rockets and heavy machine guns — and more expertise to use them. The Black Hawk would be at least the eighth U.S. helicopter to crash or be taken down by hostile fire in the past month.

The gas cloud in Baghdad, meanwhile, suggests possible new and coordinated strategies by bombers trying to unleash toxic — and potentially deadly — materials. "Terrorists are using dirty means," said Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said initial reports indicated the chopper was brought down by "small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades" north of Baghdad, but gave no further details. All nine aboard were taken away on a rescue helicopter, he said.
In Baghdad, a pickup truck carrying chlorine gas cylinders was blown apart, killing at least five people and sending more than 55 to hospitals gasping for breath and rubbing stinging eyes, police said.

On Tuesday, a bomb planted on a chlorine tanker left more than 150 villagers stricken north of the capital. More than 60 were still under medical care on Wednesday. Chlorine causes respiratory trouble and skin irritation in low levels and possible death with heavy exposure.
In Washington, two Pentagon officials said the tactic has been used at least three times since Jan. 28, when a truck carrying explosives and a chlorine tank blew up in Anbar province. More than a dozen people were reported killed.

A third Pentagon official said the United States has been concerned about Iraqi militants' ability to get weapons like chlorine bombs and use them effectively. But the official cautioned that chlorine bombs are just one threat on a long list of possible attacks that Iraqi fighters may try to carry out.

It was unclear whether the confluence of new insurgent tactics — attacking isolated combat posts, targeting helicopters more intensely and using chlorine bombs — was coincidental or in response to the U.S. troop increase.

W. Patrick Lang, a former official at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the insurgents are always "seeking to achieve higher levels of effectiveness" and these new tactics are part of the normal "evolution of sophistication."

Lang said trucks filled with chlorine gas are "really quite deadly" because the gas is potent and spreads easily.

Some authorities believe militants could be trying to maximize the panic from their attacks by adding chlorine or other noxious substances.

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Daily Telegraph: Israel is negotiating for US permission to fly over Iraq for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israeli Dep. Defense minister Mo

2007-02-24T23:25:00.000-05:00

February 24, 2007, Debka
The British paper’s Tel Aviv correspondent Con Coughlin quoted a senior Israeli defense official as saying that negotiations are underway for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an air corridor in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Tehran developing nuclear weapons.

"Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot)," by Andy Warhol Sells for $11,776.000.

2007-02-24T23:13:00.001-05:00

May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire collector Eli Broad paid $11.8 million last night for Andy Warhol's small painting of a can of Campbell's pepper pot soup, snagging the top lot in a $143.2 million auction of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's International in New York.
The price of the 1962 canvas fell short .

This is for you Andy wherever you are............

Chaos in the Gulf: Kuwait preparing for war

2007-02-22T08:55:00.000-05:00

As I have been pointing out for almost a year, everybody is getting ready for war in the Gulf. Latest sign: Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al Watan believes that Kuwait and NATO will sign a bilateral agreement in March. This agreement will include only Kuwait and will not concern the other monarchies in the Gulf. It will basically allow NATO to use Kuwait as “a point of safe passage made for the armies of the Alliance”. In December 2006, the two parties had already signed an agreement on intelligence sharing. Kuwait thus reinforces the Western umbrella which should protect it in the event of a regional conflict involving Iran. By Olivier Guitta

Lebanese Forces Fire On Israeli Planes

2007-02-22T02:51:00.000-05:00

The BBC is also reporting that Israeli jets were fired on in southern Lebanon today.Ya Libnan has this breaking news from southern Lebanon:

Beirut- Lebanese anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a military spokesman said, indicating that Lebanon's army is taking a new assertiveness toward Israel.The Israeli planes had "violated Lebanese sovereignty, posing a challenge to U.N. Resolution 1701," the spokesman said, referring to the Security Council resolution that ended Israel's 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon last August.The official spoke on condition of anonymity as is customary for the Lebanese military in the absence of a formal statement.Naharnet also is reporting this version of the story.Reuters has more on the story saying it was an unmanned plane:

Israeli warplanes flew at a low altitude over large areas of southern Lebanon on Wednesday, witnesses said, and the Lebanese army said it had fired on an unmanned Israeli spy plane.The Lebanese army said it fired at 10.40 a.m. (0840 GMT) on an Israeli reconnaissance plane which had flown near the southern city of Tyre. Israeli warplanes had also flown in the area, it said in a statement, giving no further details.A spokesman for the U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon confirmed the army had opened fire from a mobile anti-aircraft gun.Israeli warplanes regularly fly over south Lebanon but witnesses said Wednesday's flights, seen from the Bekaa Valley and the southern city of Sidon, were unusually frequent and at a lower altitude than normal.Voice of America says this was the first time that the Lebanese fired on Israeli planes since last year's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.

No sign of Iran backing down on banned uranium enrichment in face of negative nuclear watchdog report and US Navy buildup

2007-02-22T02:42:00.000-05:00

DEBKAfile:
Top US Navy commander in the Middle East vice Adm. Patrick Walsh told newsmen Monday that Iran had brought its war games over the past year into the busy shipping lanes in the Straits of Hormuz, through which two-fifths of the world’s oil supplies pass. The moves alarmed US officials about possible accidental confrontations that could boil over into war.

During maneuvers, Iranian sailors have loaded mines onto small mine-laying boats and test-fired a Shahab-3 missile into international waters very close to the straits, said the US vice admiral.

Iran Nuclear Report Due

2007-02-22T02:19:00.000-05:00

by Al Jazeera

A report from the UN's nuclear watchdog is expected to confirm Iran has stepped-up rather than halted its uranium enrichment programme.

Iran's president has said he will stop enrichment if the US stops too.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, due for release on Thursday, could expose Iran to wider sanctions over fears it is using its nuclear fuel programme as a cover for building nuclear weapons.

With the US expected to move a second carrier group into the Gulf region shortly, Larijani warned that no attempt should be made to resolve the issue through "force and pressure" saying Tehran would respond to any attacks.

Replying to a question about US pressure on Iran to give up enrichment, Larijani said: "If they ... move into the boxing ring, they would have problems. But if they sit at the chess table, then both sides would come to a result." Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator

Let Freedom Ring

2007-02-21T02:52:00.000-05:00

U.S. Official: Multiple groups of jihadists training in Pakistan for attacks in West

2007-02-21T02:45:00.000-05:00

This report corroborates the account in a Newsweek article last December of a twelve-man team training in Pakistan to stage attacks in Western countries. Apparently, there is more than one such team. "Qaeda camps in Pakistan to train operatives: US official," by Jim Mannion for AFP:

The carrier USS John C. Stennis arrives in the region Monday at the same time as Iranian war games

2007-02-21T02:41:00.000-05:00

February 20, 2007, 10:46 PM Debka file
Backed by a strike group with more than 6,500 sailors and marines as well as additional minesweeping ships, the Stennis joins the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in line with President Bush’s orders for the build-up as a show of strength to Iran.
Top US Navy commander in the Middle East Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh said Iran had brought its war games over the past year into the busy shipping lanes in the Straits of Hormuz, through which two-fifths of the world’s oil supplies pass. The moves have alarmed US officials about possible accidental confrontations that could boil over into war. During maneuvers, Iranian sailors have loaded mines onto small mine-laying boats and test-fired a Shahab-3 missile into international waters, said the US vice admiral, very close to the straits,

IDF worried Hamas may have advanced missiles

2007-02-21T02:35:00.000-05:00

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

There are grave concerns among the defense establishment about the possibility that Hamas' military wing in the Gaza Strip is now in possession of Sagger anti-tank missiles.

The Palestinians did take note of the fact that following the attack against the APC in the Philadelphi Route in 2004 and the destruction of another APC (with a six-man crew) the day before using an explosive device, the IDF seriously limited its offensive operations in the Gaza Strip.

Read more here >>

Big Brother Is Watching You

2007-02-21T02:22:00.000-05:00

By: Nicole Belle @ 6:22 PM - PST
Texas Kaos:
Last month I wrote about a story I've been following: the case of domestic spying on major American data carriers. At the time, using information available online as well as several news sources, I put forth some speculation.

First, that innocent Americans' data is being swept up and stored thanks to the use of the "full pipe" data gathering technique. Second, that the government's Total Information Awareness Program - which was "killed" but never defunded - was being used to build domestic spying facilities around the country.

I caught PBS's NOW program last Friday by chance, and I'm glad I did. They have resources not available to this lowly blogger. What PBS discovered will chill your bones. Yes, data on innocent Americans is being intercepted and stored. Additionally, more whistleblowers have come forward to establish the existence of another secret spy room on AT&T's network, built post 9-11.

The key findings in PBS's report:

The government is intercepting most emails sent domestically.
AT&T is collecting most emails and sharing them with the government, specifically the NSA (this is backed up by Klein's documents).
The NSA spy room at AT&T's San Francisco facility is only accessible to the NSA and AT&T employees cleared by the NSA.
The NSA's interest seems to be in MAE WEST, *the* major hub of American and international internet traffic on the West Coast.
The device installed in San Francisco is capable of intercepting 10 GIGBYTES of data per second. In layman's terms, that means it could go through all the information in all the books in the Library of Congress in 15 minutes.
Read on…

An Affair of the Head - Love is a Drug ?

2007-02-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

By Neely Tucker Washington Post Staff Writer
They say that love is actually all about brain chemistry. In that case, will you be dopamine? Better known by its street name, romantic love. Also, norepinephrine. Street name, infatuation.

"Love is a drug," says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love." "The ventral tegmental area is a clump of cells that make dopamine, a natural stimulant, and sends it out to many brain regions" when one is in love. "It's the same region affected when you feel the rush of cocaine."

Passion! Sex! Narcotics!

Why do we suspect this isn't going to end well?

Because these things are hard-wired not to last, all of them. Short shelf lives. The passion you fulfill is the passion you kill. The most wonderful, soaring feeling known to all mankind . . . amounts to no more than a narcotic high, a temporal state of mania.

"Being in love, having a crush on someone is wonderful . . . but our bodies can't be in that state all the time," says Pamela C. Regan, a professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, and author of "Mind Games: A Primer on Love, Sex and Marriage." "Your body would fizzle out. As a species, we'd die."

With St.Valentines Day coming up this article made me laugh, and I think it's appropriate to know how some people in the scientific community have it all figured out.

Cavalry Scout Putting Pork on Bullets

2007-02-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

Vacation Iraq

Anti-ism

2007-02-13T22:02:00.000-05:00

From editor of Die Zeit, Josef Joffe writes in The American Interest magazine:
"It is impossible to make a Norwegian say that Americans are intelligent", notes a Norwegian author of a book on anti-Americanism. Asked whether it didn't mean "anything that 70 percent of the Nobel Prize winners in history have been Americans", he responds: "No, it does not help. Even if all Americans were professors, we would call them stupid." Why? "Because by speaking negatively about them, we elevate ourselves. It confirms that we are the opposite. We Europeans have refinement, culture, and intellectual life. To think this way raises our image of ourselves." NoPasaran

Washington D.C. imam glorifies Khomeini, justifies suicide bombing, preaches Islamic supremacism

2007-02-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

read it all here >>

Jihad Syndrome : Teen Shot Mall Victims at Random

2007-02-13T21:39:00.000-05:00

By JENNIFER DOBNER SALT LAKE CITY Feb 13, 2007 (AP)—

A trench coat-clad teenager who opened fire on shoppers at a mall had one thing in mind: "to kill a large number of people," and he likely would have killed more than five had an off-duty officer not confronted him, the police chief said Tuesday.

Barack Obama making bid for White House official

2007-02-11T10:21:00.000-05:00

by Foehammer's Anvil
In about an hour from now, Barack Obama will announce his bid for President. I can’t say I’m surprised about it. It could be a way of preening him for the 2012 or 2016 bids, and is very likely his first step towards a 2008 Vice Presidential ticket along with a more viable Democratic hopeful like Hilary. The truth remains to be seen.

If you want to put a former (with a question mark) Muslim in the White House, then this is your chance. You should know already what I think about that proposition.

The best man for the job in the race so far is easily Rudy Giuliani, and as much as Barack would like to emulate Abraham Lincoln by announcing his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois today, that’s not going to sweep the skeletons out of his closet. Each candidate is going to get grilled in the campaign over frivolous personal issues, but when it comes to Barack’s past, I wouldn’t call any of the following things frivolous: drug use, Muslim schooling in Indonesia and using race as a ticket to the White House are three strikes against him in my book.

Related Posts:

The reason why the document had Obama listed as a Muslim
Is Barack Obama Ideologically Muslim?
Tancredo forms Presidential exploratory committee
Giuliani makes it official
A Real Move to Protect the Border? Time Will Tell

Image Problem

2007-02-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

Cox & Forkum

Of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro

2007-02-08T22:02:00.000-05:00

While a surfing a friend's' site , I found this picture of young Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and a fascinating story that went with it. I want to share this story with you.

It's called 'Armored Train'.

Don't Try this on an Airplane !

2007-02-07T23:29:00.000-05:00

If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you on a plane, train or just about anywhere...follow these instructions: (and maybe say goodbye!).

1- Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case.
2- Remove your laptop.
3- Start up.
4- Make sure the person who is annoying you, can see the screen.
5- Close your eyes and tilt your head up to the sky.6- Then hit this link:

Say Good Bye

thanks to Lori for the link, you never know who you going to sit next to, that going to ogle your stuff, and you might have to teach them a lesson.. he,he

Chirac not worried about a nuclear armed Iran

2007-02-06T23:30:00.000-05:00

Last week, French president Jacques Chirac said he was not concerned about the danger of Iran having “...one or perhaps a second bomb…”

the French president’s purported “gaffe” was in fact a backhanded admission of a proposition official quarters in Europe and some in the United States are quietly beginning to accept, that a nuclear-armed Iran is inevitable.

DEBKAfile

Hizballah plants four large shaped bombs on Israeli-Lebanese border Monday, Feb. 5

2007-02-06T00:28:00.000-05:00

prime minister Ehud Olmert that the war had succeeded in pushing back Hizballah positions from the south Lebanese border region.

Yeah Right ....

More.....

Security Crackdown In Capital Takes Shape As Attacks Kill Dozens

2007-02-05T23:32:00.000-05:00

picture by KavkazCenter

By Joshua PartlowWashington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, Feb. 5 -- Bombs and mortar shells killed more than 37 people in Baghdad on Monday, as U.S. officials said that the command structure for the new security crackdown in the capital was ready.
In the deadliest attack, a small truck rigged with explosives was detonated near a gas station in the Bayya neighborhood, killing 15 people and wounding 58, according to Col. Fakher Hussein of the Interior Ministry. A car bomb that exploded in an industrial area of central Baghdad took the lives of 13 people, he said.

The U.S. and Iraqi militaries have for months been preparing a massive security initiative aimed at quelling the daily killing in the capital.

Informed sources said about 8,000 US soldiers were expected to transfer into Baghdad or
nearby regions, joining about 15,000 US soldiers already in the capital and its suburbs.

"Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't. It's gonna be much more than this city has ever seen and it's gonna be a rolling surge," Hechman said.

Iraqis have said they will take the lead in the operation, but US officers say they would retain oversight, at least initially.

American and Iraqi commanders are pulling together a force of about 90,000 troops, for what many see as a last-chance drive to curb the sectarian violence that has turned the city of six million people into a battlefield.

Will Arming Abbas’ Military Forces Backfire On Bush?

2007-02-05T23:30:00.000-05:00

By: David Bedein , The Bulletin of Philladelphia

The day after the armed forces of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas shared credit for the bombing of a bakery in the Israeli port city of Eilat, which claimed the lives of three young Israelis, President Bush announced an aid package to Abbas’ armed forces.

Following that Bush announcement, Israel’s leading news internet magazine, a Hebrew news blog located at http://nfc.co.il, ran an unusual newsworthy headline: “Terror Attacks with U.S. funding.”

The Unites States armed Iraq under Hussain, and Iran before, so why not the Palestinians, the US does not like to discriminate by religion or skin color !

continue readingthis article >>

It seems that Iran is in the drivers seat:

2007-02-05T23:26:00.000-05:00

Iran’s government said on Monday it would not negotiate over its right to enrich uranium, the nuclear-fuel making process which six world powers have demanded Tehran stop to benefit from a package of incentives.
“Iran’s view on the nuclear fuel cycle has been announced … we have obtained this technology, it is our obvious right and we do not negotiate over our obvious nuclear rights,” Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said.

post by John Little

I don't know but I don't think this story is going to have a happy ending !

Iraqis Break Old Record Kill 130 Huge Bomb : Where is The Outrage!

2007-02-03T20:29:00.000-05:00

A huge truck bomb kills 130 people, wounds 305, in a single attack on outdoor market in central Baghdad Saturday
The suicide bomber, driving a truck full of food, detonated explosives in the crowded outdoor market in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood, destroying many stores and stalls.
Friday, a US Apache helicopter was shot down, killing the two soldiers on board, near Taji air base north of Baghdad Friday. Al Qaeda claimed the attack. more.....

as Neurotic Iraqi Wife says Alla Uno, Alla Due, Alla Thres........

do I hear 200

Why Are the United Nations Standing by, Why are not the Arab nations sending troops to Stop the slaughter Where is the OUTRAGE!

U.S.-Iran Tensions Could Trigger War

2007-02-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

By JIM KRANE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -

Citing Iranian involvement with Iraqi militias and Tehran's nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration has shifted to offense in its confrontation with Iran - building up the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf and promising more aggressive moves against Iranian operatives in Iraq and Lebanon.

The behind-the-scenes struggle between the two nations could explode into open warfare over a single misstep, analysts and U.S. military officials warn.

Iraq has become a proxy battleground between Washington and Tehran, which is challenging - at least rhetorically - America's dominance of the Gulf.

Sec'y Rice calls Hamas "a resistance movement"

2007-02-01T17:39:00.000-05:00

New York -- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has asked the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, for a retraction and apology to the victims of Hamas terrorism for describing the Islamist terrorist group, Hamas, as a "resistance movement" when speaking to reporters in Europe (State Department, January 18, 2007). Hamas' Charter calls for the destruction of Israel (Article 15) and the murder of Jews (Article 7) and quotes the anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as justification for its war on Jews (Article 32). It is listed on the State Department list of terrorist organizations. Since the start of the Palestinian Arab terrorist wave in September 2000, Hamas has murdered nearly 500 Israelis and maimed thousands more in scores of suicide bombings and hundreds of other terrorist attacks targeting civilians. Since winning Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, Hamas has explicitly refused to recognize Israel, accept its legitimacy as a Jewish state, or foreswear and denounce terrorism. by Jihad Watch

Wolfie needs a new pair of socks

2007-01-31T22:05:00.000-05:00

This is embarrasing Dude get some new socks
As president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz is clearly not short of a buck or two. So is he just too time-poor to get down to his local mall and invest in a new pair of socks? Known for his sharp suits and hawkish views, he was snapped revealing his inner slob during a visit to the Selimiye mosque in Edirne, western Turkey. The images offered proof - if it were ever needed - that even the big toenails of the world's debatably great and good are best kept under wraps.
thanks for the story Crooks and Liars

Venezuela seeks defense missiles

2007-01-31T19:03:00.000-05:00

CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuela plans to obtain air defense missiles to guard strategic sites such as oil refineries and major bridges against any air strike, a top military advisor to President Hugo Chávez said Tuesday.

Chávez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has repeatedly warned against a possible U.S. invasion. American officials insist they have no such plans, but Chávez insists Venezuelans must be ready just in case.

Russia's Interfax-Military News Agency reported Tuesday that between 10 and 12 Tor-M1 missile systems could be supplied to the South American country.

Miami Herald

Iran On Track with Military Objectives

2007-01-28T20:22:00.000-05:00

Iran is closer than ever before to the launch of a spy satellite by a BM25 ballistic missile, 18 of which were purchased from North Korea, notwithstanding Pyongyang’s denials of aid to Iran’s nuclear program. Allaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, said last week that Iran had finished building a reconnaissance satellite and converted a ballistic missile into a space launcher. If this claim is correct, then Iran has a launcher able to put 300 kg into earth orbit - and by the same definition, an ICBM that could drop more than 300 kg anywhere in the world, including Washington DC.

Debkafile Especial Report

Democracy In Action

2007-01-28T19:56:00.000-05:00

Cartoon by Cox & Forkum

Iraqi Student on Way Home From School

2007-01-28T19:49:00.000-05:00

Picture Wahington post

Video Interviews of People on the Street

2007-01-25T23:29:00.000-05:00

Duh Really ?

THE PROMISE OF DOLPHIN-ASSISTED THERAPY

2007-01-25T22:32:00.000-05:00

Author:Wolff, Robert

Deena Hoagland understands the impact a dolphin can have on a human life. Her son, Joe, was left partially paralyzed and visually impaired after having a stroke at the age of three during open-heart surgery.

Deena learned about Dolphins Plus, a nearby research center specializing in dolphin communication. Wanting to get Joe into the water, and intrigued by the prospect of exposing him to dolphins, Deena secured permission from Dolphins Plus owner, Lloyd Borguss, to bring Joe to the center.

It was at Dolphins Plus that Joe first encountered Fonzie, an Atlantic-bottlenosed dolphin. Meeting Fonzie prompted Joe to smile and laugh for the first time since his stroke. Before long, Joe was not only walking, he was bringing Fonzie buckets of fish. After 22 months of interacting with the dolphin, and participating in swim therapy and physical therapy, Joe was close to a full recovery. Now, 11 years later, Joe and Fonzie remain the best of friends.

What Is It About Dolphins?

Researchers have found, for example, that dolphin-assisted therapy aids in reducing stress and increasing relaxation, alleviating depression, boosting production of infection fighting T-cells, stimulating production of endorphins and hormones, enhancing recovery, and reducing pain.

One of the more popular theories is that the dolphin's use of sonar and echolocation produces changes in a person's body tissue and cell structure. Similar to the effect of music therapy, some researchers have suggested that the sounds dolphins emit through their whistles and clicks help produce these changes. Indeed, some individuals swimming with dolphins have reported actually sensing that they were being scanned. They say the echolocation resonated in their bones as they felt it pass through their bodies, producing a tingling sensation.

Another theory is that dolphins are uniquely sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities and seek to help them through playful expressions of concern. This is sometimes referred to as a "secret language" shared when dolphins and people with disabilities "communicate." Dr. Smith goes so far as to suggest that dolphins communicate acoustically with a variety of movements and attend to the body cues of individuals; in particular, individuals with autism, thereby seemingly understanding their thoughts and actions.

to read the rest of this fascinating article ..here....

Like Father Like Son

2007-01-23T23:35:00.000-05:00

Lebanese Bloggers Under fire

2007-01-23T23:07:00.000-05:00

The Lebanese blogosphere was insulted by Nassrallah’s speech tonight. Some reactions from Lebanese Bloggers to Nasrallah's provocations,

Raja: Nassrallah: Enough!

Beirut To The Beltway: The Decapitator’s Speech

Desmond: The Battle Begins

by Mustapha BeirutSpring.Com
The point that bugs me most in Nassrallah’s speech is that he thinks that the natural place for a debate among the Lebanese is behind closed doors among leaders. This is very telling and it shows how much respect he has for democracy. “Let us the leaders discuss your destiny behind closed doors, you just shut up and listen,” seems to be his logic. The leaders in question would do well to ignore him and keep the debate public. We want to scrutinize every point and we want to ask questions. If Mr. Nassrallah doesn’t like it we can vote for someone else.

More interesting comments on the situation in Lebanon ..Here..

Hizbullah Attempts Coup in Lebanon

2007-01-23T23:03:00.000-05:00

Arutz Sheva by Hana Levi Julian
Violence in the streets of Lebanon led to bloodshed between Hizbullah-led supporters and mostly Christian pro-government forces as two months of mounting protests were brought to a head by arch-terrorist Hassan Nasrallah.Protestors burned tires and blocked main roads in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon in a violent “general strike” against Prime Minister Fuad Siniora’s government.

Bush Insists U.S. Must Not Fail in Iraq

2007-01-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

Mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent to Ahmadinejad, but an inducement.”

2007-01-23T22:45:00.000-05:00

Woolsey Warns of Global Jihad at Herzliya Conference
“I have been told by Iranian friends that Ahmadinejad is indeed crazy, but not stupid,” Lewis warned. “He really believes in the end of days that he is heralding. There is a widespread belief among Shi’ites that that time has come. Mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent to Ahmadinejad, but an inducement.”

Woolsey proceeded to lament the fate of Europe, which he sees as already having been compromised in what he calls World War IV – the third having been the Cold War. “I wish we had a partnership with Europe, but I am afraid it is deteriorating,” he explained. “Europe is accommodating Sharia [Islamic law] and becoming increasingly affected by the Muslim demographics in their countries.”

“The media on the whole and certainly in the US is not interested in ideology and does not take it seriously. They tend to think anybody who is religiously motivated about his views is crazy – whether religious Christians, Muslims or whatever. And that is a problem, because you can be absolutely crazy about your objectives and extremely shrewd about your implementation. I think our media on the whole is very ostrich-like on this issue.”

16:01 Jan 23, '07 / 4 Shevat 5767by Ezra HaLevi

88 Killed as Car Bombs Devastate Busy Baghdad Market

2007-01-22T23:08:00.000-05:00

BAGHDAD, Jan. 22 The bombs killed at least 88 people and wounded 160 others even as the first of some 21,000 extra American troops ordered by President Bush began arriving in Baghdad, and as other troops took up positions on SunniShiite fault lines as part of a new strategy to secure the city.

This guys seem to be trying to outdo each other, will see next week if they can do top a hundred victims. Why aren't the UN sending more troops to stop the carnage ? Why aren't the Arabs nations sending troops to stop the carnage.

Why is arabs killing arabs ok, can you imajine if a Western country had deliberately killed 88 innocent civilians at a market , where is the United Nations ? Where is the Outrage ?

Australian Mufti Uncovered meat contest has a winner and a loser !

2007-01-22T01:17:00.000-05:00

And the Loser is ! The Mufti !

The winner is presented here to pick up her prize
The Loser is the Mufti Sheik Hilali claimed there's no freedom or democracy for Muslims in Australia and that English people are the most unjust and dishonest.Photo: Cairo Today TV. So the Sheik was told not to bother coming back to Australia if he doesn't like his adopted home or its people.

Acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile labelled the mufti's comments as inappropriate, asking Sheik al-Hilali why he chose to live in Australia when he did not like its laws.

''...I remind Sheik al-Hilali that if he doesn't like Australia, our heritage or our way of life, he doesn't have to come back.''
the age.com

Dead Ball

2007-01-22T01:06:00.000-05:00

Cox &Forkum

Asked whether the United States is preparing for a potential military conflict with Iran, President Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley told NBC's "Meet the Press," "No, the president has said very clearly that the issues we have with Iran should be solved diplomatically."

UDPATE -- Jan. 18: FOX News Poll: Most Think Troop Surge is Bush’s Last Chance in Iraq.

Extremely Bad day for US in Iraq with 25 killed Saturday

2007-01-22T00:38:00.000-05:00

more..

Hizballah puts UN peacekeepers on a Tight Leash !

2007-01-22T00:36:00.000-05:00

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hizballah puts a tight rein on UN peacekeepers’ movements and policing operations in S. Lebanon - with threats to their safety Hizballah warned UN commanders that monitors flouting Hizballah’s injunctions and conducting searches would be fired on.

The USS Stennis carrier with thousands of troops and 80 warplanes aboard is heading for Persian Gulf

2007-01-22T00:33:00.000-05:00

DEBKAfiles January 21, 2007, 1:27 PM (GMT+02:00)
Saturday, Jan 20, the ship picked up 2,500 troops at San Diego. The Stennis Strike Group has still to collect two ships at Hawaii before heading east with a complement of 6,500 US soldiers.

and the build up continues, wonder how much a carrier group cost to maintain per day?

Lawmakers Aiming to Legalize Pot

2007-01-20T22:54:00.000-05:00

CONCORD - A move to decriminalize the use of marijuana tops the agenda as the New Hampshire Legislature begins to hear from the public on its 1,400 bills for the 2007 session.

A new group calling itself the Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy has started collecting signatures in favor of the bill ( HB 92 ) through online petitions on its Web site, www.nhcommonsense.org. "Despite the threat of severe penalties, many responsible, productive New Hampshire citizens continue to use marijuana. As long as these individuals do not harm others, we believe it is unwise and unjust to continue persecuting them as enemies of the state," the group declares.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte's office has traditionally opposed the move and a spokesperson said that position remains the same. Lobbies for the local police chiefs and county sheriffs are expected to weigh in against the bill as well.

Doomsday Clock To Be Moved Foward

2007-01-19T00:21:00.000-05:00

Scientists Prepare to Move Doomsday Clock Forward

The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.The clock was last pushed forward by two minutes to seven minutes to midnight in 2002 amid concerns about the proliferation of nuclear, biological and other weapons and the threat of terrorism.

When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.

Judge: Bloggers Entitled to Immunity Under Communications Act

2007-01-18T16:25:00.000-05:00

Shannon P. DuffyThe Legal Intelligencer

Bloggers cannot be hit with libel suits on the basis of anonymous postings on their Web sites because federal law grants them immunity by explicitly stating that they cannot be treated as the "publisher" of such comments, a federal judge has ruled.

Arabs killing Arabs , picking up the pace

2007-01-17T03:31:00.000-05:00

January 16, 2007, 11:22 PM (GMT+02:00) Debkafiles

A car bomb followed by a suicide bomber kill 65 people, wound 110 at university in Baghdad, 25 more elsewhere in the capital

Almost all the victims were female students at Mustansiriya University in a predominantly Shiite area who were waiting for buses to take them home. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the university catching students fleeing from the car bomb attack.

Why is the world community so quiet, no world condemnation from the UN ? No outrage from Arab nations ? Can one help but think that the the deafening silence is giving the signal that Arabs don't care very much for human lives, human females lives.