Prices skyrocket as fuel and power crisis sores across Yemen

Posted in: Front Page
Written By: Mohammed al-Kibsi
Article Date: Jun 30, 2011 - 8:06:38 PM
yobserver.com

Prices of most essential food stuff, commodities and fuel raised sharply in the past few days reaching unprecedented ratio in Yemen history ever.
The price of 20 letters of vehicles gas jumped from YE Ryial 1500 up to 10,000 in the black market as vehicles queues at the gas stations extend to 2 kilometers waiting to fill their tanks with fuel.
Ahmad Hussein, a taxi driver from Sana’a said he has been queuing for the past three days so as to fill his taxi with fuel.
“I’m a taxi driver so I can’t afford 40 thousand Ryials to fill my car’s tank with fuel so I had to chose the hardest way to fill it,” said Hussein. “Queuing and waiting is the only option because I can’t convince costumers to pay five folds of the taxi tariffs,” he said.
He said he didn’t know who to blame for the fuel crisis. “The government alleges that the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) elements have been bombing oil pipes and blocking gas and fuel tankers from reaching to the different provinces whereas the JMP has been blaming the government of creating the crisis,” said Hussein.
Simple individuals have been suffering from the gas crisis, power outage and sharp rise of prices.
The power outage has reached to the peak as the power goes out for 13 hours and comes back for only an hour.
The suffering got worse in the costal and desert provinces where the temperature reaches to 45 degrees.
Ahmad al-Kibsi from Harad district said that his 84 old father goes in comma as a result of the high temperature and humidity. “There is no power and consequently no conditioners or even cold water to drink,” said al-Kibsi. He added that the price of a kilo of ice cubes has reached to YER 4500. “Many families that have money have left the town to the mountainous towns where the temperature is cooler but we could not leave because we don’t have enough money for transportation and for renting an apartment in other towns,” said al-Kibsi.
He added that there was no power in the town as a result of diesel shortage as the town has not been connected to the national power network and is depending on a small old power station that consumes large quantities of diesel.
Fayez al-Tabib a 14 old student from Old Sana’a city said he could not study for his 9th grade certificate exam because there were no light at his home at night. “I’m afraid I might not pass my exams,” he said. His father added that their cooked food always spoils in the refrigerator because the power is off most of the day and night. “God damns those rude people who caused this crisis whoever they were,” said al-Tabib. “I’m frustrated my salary is not enough to face my family requirements of even food stuff to survive,” said the old man.
“We in Yemen had suffered from several crisis in the past as a result of civil wars, draught, natural catastrophes and other economic or political hardships however the current crisis is the worst ever,” said al-Tabib.
Ali Jarallah owner of an internet café in Sho’ob zone in Sana’a city said that he lost over YER 2 millions in the past 4 months since the start of the unrest in the country as a result of the repetitive power outage that damaged his firm’s computers and for not making business anymore. “The power keeps going off suddenly for several hours so I have no costumers anymore,” said Jar Allah. “I had to buy my own generator so as to solve the power outage problem, though the diesel prices soar up to YER 70,000 a sum that I cant make from internet users,” said Jar Allah. “I got a YER 2 million loan from CAC Bank so as to launch this internet café but now most of my computers were damaged as a result of the sudden power outages and no incomes,” he added.
Who is going to compensate me of the loses? Neither the government nor the JMP and their revolutionaries is going to pay me back,” said Jarallah.
Jabir al-Mahfadi, 35 old from Sana’a said he was sacked from his job as the company he used to work for decided to close and sacked all employees.
Samih al-Hindi a 43 old state employee said that the work in the institutions he works in is stalled as a result of power outage. “We go to work every day and stay in offices from 8 morning to 13 afternoon doing nothing other than chatting with fellows because all our work relies on computers,” said al-Mahfadi.
The government and the JMP keeps accusing each other of being behind the power outage.
The government accuses the JMP elements of keep shooting at and cutting the electricity cables that link the Marib power station to Sana’a city and other cities and towns across the country. While the JMP accuses the government of being behind the power outage and gas crisis so as to pressure on the revolutionaries to end their revolution.
The ministry of interior has announced a list of 43 saboteurs accusing them of mobbing oil pipes, blocking fuel trucks from reaching to different provinces and of shooting and cutting power cables.
The ministry announced YER 3 million bounty for any information that lead into arresting them.
The ministry of interior said that the saboteurs are affiliated to the JMP.
Saudi Arabia has announced granting Yemen 3 million barrels of crude oil so as to help in ending the gas and fuel crisis. The first and second shipment of the Saudi oil donation were downloaded at Aden refinery during the last week.

Police Taser, Beat, Pepper Spray Mentally Handicapped Teen – Then Charge Him With Assault

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
June 30, 2011

Dayton police tasered, pepper-sprayed and beat a mentally handicapped teen and then charged him with assault. What did the disabled boy do to deserve this onslaught? The police officer “mistook” his speech impediment for a sign of “disrespect”.
Dayton Police

Similar to how cops think filming them is against the law, many are also under the assumption that not groveling and obeying their every order is also an arrestable offense.

17-year-old mentally handicapped teen Jesse Kersey found this out to his cost while riding his bicycle near his Dayton home recently, after Officer Willie Hooper attempted to stop and talk to the boy.

Failing to understand what Hooper was telling him, the boy attempted to ride home and fetch his mother to be able to communicate with the officer. Despite the fact that Hooper knew the boy was mentally disabled, he began yelling at Kersey and then threatened a neighbor who tried to inform him of the boy’s handicap, telling the resident he would be arrested if he didn’t go back indoors.

As Kersey’s mother Ford opened her front door, Hooper and co-defendant Officer John Howard, “fired their Tasers, striking Jesse in the back with both probes,” according to testimony heard at Montgomery County Court.

“Once inside the house, defendant Hooper and defendant Howard began to struggle with Jesse, who was standing against the back door with his hands up in front of his face, saying ‘Please quit, please quit.’

“On numerous occasions, Ford and a family friend, Christopher Peyton, informed Officer Hooper that Jesse was mentally challenged/handicapped, and that Jesse did not understand what was happening,” the complaint states.

But the mom says the cops continued their assault: “Officer Howard utilized his Cap-Stun pepper spray and sprayed Jesse … [and] struck Jesse with a closed fist in the upper chest area.”

Howard continued to beat Kersey, striking him in the upper thigh, before back-up was called and 20 other officers from different jurisdictions arrived on the scene. Apparently, tough guys Hooper and Howard, who like to prove their manhood by beating up mentally handicapped boys, couldn’t handle the situation on their own.



“At no point, even after being advised of Jesse’s mental challenge/handicap by Jesse’s family and numerous bystanders, did defendant Hooper, defendant Howard, or any other police officer present, attempt to communicate with Jesse or explain in terms he could understand as to why Jesse was being chased,” said Kersey’s mother.

The boy was subsequently handcuffed, hogtied, and thrown into the back of a police cruiser.

Of course, as is standard operating procedure for police after they beat and torture innocent and defenseless victims, Kersey himself was charged with “assault on a peace officer, resisting arrest, and obstructing official business,” charges which were later dismissed after the court declared Jesse incompetent.

Kersey and his mother are now seeking compensation from the city and the two lead officers for “false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, assault, battery, excessive use of force, infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy”.

As we have documented, there is an epidemic of police brutality that has exploded over the last decade which seems to be targeted against the most vulnerable members of society.

What has happened to our police officers? They are being trained to oppress and abuse the public as America sinks into a decaying banana republic. There seems to have developed a particular fetish amongst a cadre of steroid-addled cops that dictates they must satisfy their lust for abusing power by attacking defenseless individuals, particularly the elderly and disabled.

Police in Seattle were also caught on camera last year beating up a mentally disabled teenager for the crime of jaywalking.

Shepherding chihuahua proves size doesn’t matter

Posted on 06.29.11
By Megan Carpentier
rawstory.com
Categories: Culture, Featured

Nancy the chihuahua might not be the biggest dog on the farm, but that doesn’t stop her. She learned to herd sheep from a friendly border collie, and now keeps those sheep in line all by herself.

Watch the video, which first aired on the BBC on June 29, 2011, below:

Joyce Riley: They Are Flooding Us On Purpose! Underwater Body Bags

Feds Buying Up Farmland They Flooded; Soros In On It

By Ann Barnhardt – Cattle commodities broker
June 29th, 2011 – Originally posted June 24, 2011
theintelhub.com

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blows an 11,000-foot hole in the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, Missouri on Monday, May 2, 2011. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson/AP Photo




Two HUGE intel leads in my email box this morning from way-back contacts that I’ve had for years, that are actually somewhat connected concepts.

1. File this one under “Now It All Makes Sense.” A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY THEIR LAND.

Intentionally flood massive acreage of highly productive farmground. Destroy people’s communities and homes. Catch them while they are desperate and afraid and then swoop in and buy the ground cheap. Those evil sons of bitches.

2. Speaking of evil sons of bitches, George Soros appears to be “investing” in farmground through the same puppet company that he used to get into the grain elevator and fertilizer business.

The company is called Ospraie Capital Management and is buying up farmground in a joint venture with Teays River Investments as a partner. Here is that announcement: Click Here

Okay. Here’s the connection. This Ospraie outfit was a hedge fund specializing in commodities that was started and run by some cocky child who didn’t know how to trade bear markets and got his butt kicked into next week in the grain market of 2008.

He also lost a fortune trying to trade RARE EARTH METALS.

In fact, it was so bad that he had to shut his fund down because he had promised his investors that he would give them all of their investment money back if the fund lost more than 30% in one year. Whoopsie.

But it appears that Soros swooped in and saved the day because this Ospraie is the “co-investor” with Soros that bought the remnants of ConAgra’s trading operation and renamed it . . . Gavilon.

In the industry, it is widely acknowledged that Ospraie IS Soros. That [CNN] article is here.

As you probably remember, Gavilon just recently bought both DeBruce Grain out of Kansas City and the biggest grain elevator company in the Pacific Northwest, thus making Soros (who is the money behind Gavilon through both his own Soros Fund Management AND his de facto control of Ospraie) the third-largest grain company in the U.S. with 280 million bushels of storage capacity, behind only Archer Daniels Midland (542 million bushels storage capacity) and Cargill (344 million bushels storage capacity).

Bottom line: Soros, through Ospraie, is buying up farmground. Please also note that the hotlink citation above is dated June 26, 2009.

My contact says this has been going on for two years – and also remember what I told you about farmground prices inflating wildly, especially in Illinois.

I have personally confirmed farmground in Illinois selling for $13,000 per acre within the last month, whereas that same kind of ground in Illinois was going for $5,500 per acre the day Obama was inaugurated.

More here theintelhub.com

Foreigners must register fingerprints, facial scans

2011-06-30 20:02
koreaherald.com

Foreigners expecting to reside in Korea for longer than three months will be required to register their biometrics upon entry, the Justice Ministry announced on Thursday.

Starting Friday, foreigners planning to stay in Korea for 91 days or longer will have to register all 10 fingerprints and scans of their facial structures at their port of entry.

The new biometrics collection system is part of a revised immigration control law that passed the National Assembly in April 2010.

Some 1.1 million registered foreigners residing in Korea will be required to undergo biometric scans at immigration offices by January 2012.

The new regulation will be used for identification purposes in criminal cases, automated immigration at ports of entry and the social security system.

“Considering that some 177,000 foreigners registered here during the first half of 2011, the new system is expected to register biometrics of some 200,000 foreigners from July to the end of 2011,” said a ministry official.

Korean nationals are already required to register all 10 fingerprints.

The United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and several European countries have adopted the system obligating foreigners to have their fingerprints taken when entering the country, according to officials.

When the bill was introduced, officials said that Japan had seen a 35 percent decrease in the number of crimes by foreigners since they introduced the system in 2007.

The United States, which implemented the fingerprint registration system after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has caught 33,000 foreign criminals at airports.

But some in the expat community voiced concerns that the new measure could lead to racial profiling, an ongoing issue in the United States.

A similar fingerprint registration system was abolished in Korea in 2004.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldm.com)

FEMA, FCC Announce Nationwide Test Of The Emergency Alert System Similar to local Emergency Alert System Tests, this Test is Scheduled to Take Place on November 9, 2011

Release Date: June 9, 2011
Release Number: HQ-11-099
fema.gov


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct the first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The nationwide test will occur on Wednesday, November 9 at 2 p.m. eastern standard time and may last up to three and a half minutes.

The EAS is a national alert and warning system established to enable the President of the United States to address the American public during emergencies. NOAA's National Weather Service, governors and state and local emergency authorities also use parts of the system to issue more localized emergency alerts.

Similar to local EAS tests that are already conducted frequently, the nationwide test will involve broadcast radio and television stations, cable television, satellite radio and television services and wireline video service providers across all states and the territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

On November 9, the public will hear a message indicating that "This is a test." The audio message will be the same for both radio and television. Under the FCC's rules, radio and television broadcasters, cable operators, satellite digital audio radio service providers, direct broadcast satellite service providers and wireline video service providers are required to receive and transmit presidential EAS messages to the public. A national test will help the federal partners and EAS participants determine the reliability of the system and its effectiveness in notifying the public of emergencies and potential dangers nationally and regionally.

"A national test of our Emergency Alert System, with the vital communications support and involvement of participants, is a step towards ensuring that the alert and warning community is prepared to deliver critical information that can help save lives and protect property," said Damon Penn, FEMA's Assistant Administrator of National Continuity Programs. "Because there has never been an activation of the Emergency Alert System on a national level, FEMA views this test as an excellent opportunity to assess the readiness and effectiveness of the current system. It is important to remember that this is not a pass or fail test, but a chance to establish a baseline for making incremental improvements to the Emergency Alert System with ongoing and future testing. It is also important to remember that the Emergency Alert System is one of many tools in our communications toolbox, and we will continue to work on additional channels that can be a lifeline of information for people during an emergency."

"The upcoming national test is critical to ensuring that the EAS works as designed," said Jamie Barnett, Chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. "As recent disasters here at home and in Japan have reminded us, a reliable and effective emergency alert and warning system is key to ensuring the public's safety during times of emergency. We look forward to working with FEMA in preparation for this important test."

Over the past two years and as part of ongoing national preparedness planning efforts, FEMA, the FCC and other federal partners, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, Emergency Alert System participants and other stakeholders have been working toward making this test a reality.

As the federal, state, tribal, territorial and local governments prepare for and test their capabilities, this event serves as a reminder that everyone should establish an emergency preparedness kit and emergency plan for themselves, their families, communities, and businesses. Anyone can visit www.Ready.gov for more information about how to prepare for and stay informed about what to do in the event of an actual emergency.

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

WKUK Season 5 - Little Hitler

Poll: Texans prefer Obama over Perry

By Stephen C. Webster
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 -- 3:12 pm
rawstory.com

A poll released Wednesday showed that in a hypothetical match-up for the presidency, President Barack Obama would defeat Texas Gov. Rick Perry among Texas voters by a margin of 45-47 percent.

The findings put an exclamation point on the Republican governor's bizarre claim that he is a "prophet" because he's "not generally loved in his hometown."

Texas is dominated by Republicans, who hold a super majority in the legislature.

According to data from the Democrat-affiliated group Public Policy Polling, a large majority (59 percent) of Texans do not want their governor to seek the presidency, and only 33 percent would support him if he did.

Overall, the poll found that 55 percent of Texans rate Perry's job performance negatively, compared to 42 percent who say he's done a good job.

Perry, who took the office after the Supreme Court named George W. Bush President of the United States in 2000, is the nation's longest serving governor, having won three terms.

Since 2008, Texas has seen unemployment nearly double, alongside a doubling of the number of workers who are paid minimum wage or less.

In that same time, the state's budget deficit also widened to over $25 billion, forcing the legislature to pass dramatic cuts in their most recent session, including $4 billion in reductions for public education.

Mike Beck and the Bohemian Saints: George Orwells 113th Dream

3 students die after being hypnotized by principal

rawstory.com
Posted on 06.30.11
By David Ferguson
Categories: Featured, Nation

Three Florida high school students are dead after being hypnotized by their school principal in Sarasota County, one in a car accident and two by suicide. Principal George Kenney is believed to have hypnotized up to 75 people, including students, members of the school staff and their children. Sarasota County School District officials repeatedly warned Kenney to stop the practice, which the principal insists was only done in the interest of helping students to be motivated and focused on school work and sports.

Watch the video, from ABC news, below:

U.S. cost of war at least $3.7 trillion and counting

By Reuters
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 -- 8:10 am
rawstory.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America's wars.

Staggering as it is, that figure grossly underestimates the total cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S. Treasury and ignores more imposing costs yet to come, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The final bill will run at least $3.7 trillion and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project "Costs of War" by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. (http://www.costsofwar.org)

In the 10 years since U.S. troops went into Afghanistan to root out the al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11, 2001, attacks, spending on the conflicts totaled $2.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion.

Those numbers will continue to soar when considering often overlooked costs such as long-term obligations to wounded veterans and projected war spending from 2012 through 2020. The estimates do not include at least $1 trillion more in interest payments coming due and many billions more in expenses that cannot be counted, according to the study.

In human terms, 224,000 to 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including 125,000 civilians in Iraq. Many more have died indirectly, from the loss of clean drinking water, healthcare, and nutrition. An additional 365,000 have been wounded and 7.8 million people -- equal to the combined population of Connecticut and Kentucky -- have been displaced.

"Costs of War" brought together more than 20 academics to uncover the expense of war in lives and dollars, a daunting task given the inconsistent recording of lives lost and what the report called opaque and sloppy accounting by the U.S. Congress and the Pentagon.

The report underlines the extent to which war will continue to stretch the U.S. federal budget, which is already on an unsustainable course due to an aging American population and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

It also raises the question of what the United States gained from its multitrillion-dollar investment.

"I hope that when we look back, whenever this ends, something very good has come out of it," Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, told Reuters in Washington.

SEPT 11, 2001: THE DAMAGE CONTINUES

In one sense, the report measures the cost of 9/11, the American shorthand for the events of September 11, 2001. Nineteen hijackers plus other al Qaeda plotters spent an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 on the plane attacks that killed 2,995 people and caused $50 billion to $100 billion in economic damages.

What followed were three wars in which $50 billion amounts to a rounding error. For every person killed on September 11, another 73 have been killed since.

Was it worth it? That is a question many people want answered, said Catherine Lutz, head of the anthropology department at Brown and co-director of the study.

"We decided we needed to do this kind of rigorous assessment of what it cost to make those choices to go to war," she said. "Politicians, we assumed, were not going to do that kind of assessment."

The report arrives as Congress debates how to cut a U.S. deficit projected at $1.4 trillion this year, roughly a 10th of which can be attributed to direct war spending.

What did the United States gain for its trillions?

Strategically, the results for the United States are mixed. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are dead, but Iraq and Afghanistan are far from stable democracies. Iran has gained influence in the Gulf and the Taliban, though ousted from government, remain a viable military force in Afghanistan.

"The United States has been extremely successful in protecting the homeland," said George Friedman, founder of STRATFOR, a U.S.-based intelligence company.

"Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was capable of mounting very sophisticated, complex, operations on an intercontinental basis. That organization with that capability has not only been substantially reduced, it seems to have been shattered," Friedman said.

Economically, the results are also mixed. War spending may be adding half a percentage point a year to growth in the gross domestic product but that has been more than offset by the negative effects of deficit spending, the report concludes.

COMPREHENSIVE STUDY

Some U.S. government reports have attempted to assess the costs of war, notably a March 2011 Congressional Research Service report that estimated post-September 11 war funding at $1.4 trillion through 2012. The Congressional Budget Office projected war costs through 2021 at $1.8 trillion.

A ground-breaking private estimate was published in the 2008 book "The Three Trillion Dollar War," by Linda Bilmes, a member of the Watson Institute team, and Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. That work revealed how much cost was added by interest on deficit spending and medical care for veterans.

The report draws on those sources and pieces together many others for a more comprehensive picture.

The report also makes special note of Pakistan, a front not generally mentioned along with Iraq and Afghanistan. War has probably killed more people in Pakistan than in neighboring Afghanistan, the report concludes.

Politicians throughout history have underestimated the costs of war, believing they will be shorter and less deadly than reality, said Neta Crawford, the other co-director of the report and a political science professor at Boston University.

The report said former President George W. Bush's administration was "shamelessly politically driven" in underestimating Iraq war costs before the 2003 invasion.

Most official sources continue to overlook costs, largely because of a focus on just Pentagon spending, Crawford said.

"Over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war," Obama said in last week's speech on reducing U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan. At the very least, he was rounding down by $200 billion to $300 billion, when counting U.S. congressional appropriations for the post 9/11 wars.

"I don't know what the president knows, but I wish it were a trillion," Crawford said. "It would be better if it were a trillion."

ELUSIVE NUMBER

In theory, adding up the dollars spent and lives lost should be a statistical errand. The U.S. Congress appropriates the money, and a life lost on battlefield should have a death certificate and a casket to match.

The team quickly discovered, however, the task was far more complicated.

Specific war spending over the past 10 years, when expressed in 2011 dollars, comes to $1.3 trillion, the "Costs of War" project found. When it comes to accounting for every dollar, that $1.3 trillion is merely a good start.

Since the wars have been financed by deficit spending, interest must be paid -- $185 billion of accumulated so far.

The Pentagon has received an additional $326 billion to $652 billion beyond what can be attributed to the war appropriations, the study found.

Homeland security spending has totaled another $401 billion so far that can be traced to September 11. War-related foreign aid: another $74 billion.

Then comes caring for U.S. veterans of war. Nearly half of the 1.25 million who have served in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan have used their status as veterans to make health or disability claims at an expense of $32.6 billion to date.

Those costs will soar over the next 40 years as veterans age. The report estimates the U.S. obligations to the veterans will reach $589 billion to $934 billion through 2050.

So far, those numbers add up to a low estimate of $2.9 trillion and a moderate estimate of $3.6 trillion in costs to the U.S. Treasury. No high estimate was offered.

"We feel a conservative measure of costs is plenty large to attract attention," said report contributor Ryan Edwards, an economist who studied the war impact on deficit spending.

Those numbers leave out hundreds of billions in social costs not born by the U.S. taxpayer but by veterans and their families: another $295 billion to $400 billion, increasing the range of costs to date to some $3.2 trillion to $4 trillion.

That's a running total through fiscal 2011. Add another $453 billion in war-related spending projected for 2012 to 2020 and the total grows to $3.668 trillion to $4.444 trillion.

THE HUMAN TOLL

If the financial costs are elusive, so too is the human toll.

The report estimates between 224,475 and 257,655 have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, though those numbers give a false sense of precision. There are many sources of data on civilian deaths, most with different results.

The civilian death toll in Iraq -- 125,000 -- and the number of Saddam's security forces killed in invasion -- 10,000 -- are loose estimates. The U.S. military does not publish a thorough accounting.

"We don't do body counts," Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander in Iraq, famously said after the fall of Saddam in 2003.

In Afghanistan, the civilian death count ranges from 11,700 to 13,900. For Pakistan, where there is little access to the battlefield and the United States fights mostly through aerial drone attacks, the study found it impossible to distinguish between civilian and insurgent deaths.

The numbers only consider direct deaths -- people killed by bombs or bullets. Estimates for indirect deaths in war vary so much that researchers considered them too arbitrary to report.

"When the fighting stops, the indirect dying continues. It's in fact worse than land mines. The healthcare system is still in bad shape. People are still suffering the effects of malnutrition and so on," Crawford said.

Even where the United States does do body counts -- for the members of the military -- the numbers may come up short of reality, said Lutz, the study's co-director. When veterans return home, they are more likely to die in suicides and automobile accidents.

"The rate of chaotic behavior," she said, "is high."

Richard Hoagland NASA Preparedness Speech on Coast To Coast AM 6.15.2011

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U.S. Drug Policy Fails Sick Patients and Taxpayers

Posted by Samantha McCann on June 17th, 2011
themorningsidepost.com

Marcy Dolin, of Rohnert Park, California, smokes eight joints (marijuana cigarettes) every day, and eats a marijuana cookie before he goes to bed every night.

He prefers the peanut-butter cookies.

A seventy-one year old man who has struggled with multiple-sclerosis for over half his life, Dolin is not the typical drug user often parodied in popular culture. He does not smoke recreationally, but rather because marijuana is the only thing that takes away the pain and stops the muscles spasms.

“Without [marijuana], I would be living on morphine and other horrible drugs. I couldn’t do that to my family,” he recently told the New York Times. “That’s no life, and I would have ended it. That’s the truth.”

Dolin is not alone. Across the United States, people struggling with chronic illness increasingly are questioning U.S. policy toward marijuana, a homeopathic substance that until 1937 was, for the most part, legal and regulated.

Friday marks the fortieth anniversary of the War on Drugs. And what do we have as a result? Hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in the midst of a fragile economy, the financial and social cost of imprisoning hundreds of thousands of offenders annually, and patients like Dolin who continue to suffer due to our failed policies.

When compared to other drugs, recent clinical trials have shown that marijuana is exceedingly successful in relieving pain, without the serious side effects that often plague users of other medications.

“I used to take a drug called Neurontin, and I just never stopped crying,” Dolin continues. “I was in a fog, totally depressed. I told my doctor that I was going back to just marijuana; he said he would have me arrested if he could. What are they going to do? I’m 71-years old. Are they going to put me in jail? I’m not hurting anybody. It’s just here in my own house.”

Debilitating pain in the nervous system can be caused by cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes; this pain can also be a side effect of the recommended treatments for these various conditions.

About a third of patients with HIV/AIDS suffer from this excruciating pain in their nervous system—much of it a response to the antiretroviral therapy that is the initial treatment for HIV patients. Yet there is no adequate approved treatment to mitigate the pain. As a result, some patients reduce or discontinue treatment because they can neither tolerate nor eliminate the debilitating side effects. Marijuana has been proven to alleviate the effects of both the illness itself, and the prescribed medication used to treat it.

While the advantages of legal medical marijuana are clear, the potential benefits of full legalization should also be considered, especially when evaluating the economic advantages of its regulation and taxation.

Currently, Americans face dim economic prospects. Since the market crash of 2008, unemployment has remained staggeringly high as businesses have either closed or moved overseas. The U.S.’s debt has doubled in the past ten years, the poverty rate is the highest it has been in fifteen, and, adjusted for inflation, the median income has hardly moved since the 1950s.

Meanwhile, New York City spends $75 million per year to enforce the prohibition of marijuana. A recent study by the Drug Policy Alliance shows that between 2002 and 2010, New York City spent between $350 and $700 million dollars to arrest and charge people with low-level marijuana possession. Against this background, the city debates which schools to close, and which public employees to lay off, which will only deepen the impact of the recession.

Another report estimates that nationwide government spending on enforcing marijuana laws costs $7.7 billion per year.

A look at Montana, however, shows how the state has been given a much needed bump from the legalization of medical marijuana. Since 2004, investors have put millions of dollars into the newly legalized medical marijuana sector, creating jobs for professional horticulturists, construction workers, and electricians put out of work by the Great Recession. This small marijuana industry created 1,400 jobs last year—this in a state with less than a million people.

A change in U.S. marijuana policy would mean significant savings. Full legalization would bring in an estimated $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods, and $6.2 billion annually if it were taxed at rates similar to those on alcohol and tobacco.

In fact, legalization of marijuana—the cessation of prosecutions and tax revenue—could put more than $13 billion into government goffers. That would equal the entire budget of the Department of Labor. Maybe with a budget twice as large, it could focus on creating jobs and getting Americans back to work.

Why should sick patients like Dolin continue to suffer without the medical treatment they need? At a time when tens of millions of people can’t find work, and pay and health care benefits are being cut, why should our sick economy be deprived of so much needed revenue?

On this fortieth anniversary of the failed Drug War, we must instead envision a drug policy that is patient-centered and fiscally responsible—a policy that puts Americans first.

Texas Miracle Seen as a Not-Miracle

By: David Dayen Monday June 27, 2011 9:55 am
firedoglake.com

Rick PerryBeing in California, I hear a lot from Republican lawmakers in this state about the “Texas miracle.” They claim that businesses are decamping to Texas because of their “pro-growth” policies, and driving a boom time there. This will clearly be a signature of the Rick Perry campaign for President if he chooses to run.

Only thing about that: it doesn’t appear to be true. Texas’ economic state, in fact, has plenty to do with tough government regulation of the mortgage sector during the bubble years. Brad Plumer writes:

Texas, economists note, has long been a low-tax, loose-regulation state, but it hasn’t always thrived—between 2008 and 2010, after the U.S. economy collapsed, the state’s unemployment rose faster than in high-tax Massachusetts.
In May, Texas’s unemployment rate, at 8 percent, ranked twenty-fourth in the country, slightly worse than liberal New York’s. What’s more, not all of those vaunted jobs are great jobs: Texas has the highest percentage of minimum-wage workers in the country, and its per-capita income still sits below California’s.

What is clear is that Texas’s population has been exploding, leading to disproportionate job growth. In the past decade, the state added more people than anywhere else, partly due to fast-growing Hispanic families, but due also to migration from other states. So why are people flocking to Texas? It could be the state’s lower taxes, though that probably isn’t a big driver: As Brad DeLong of University of California, Berkeley, has noted, Texans pay, on average, 26 percent of their income in taxes, not much lower than the 28.5 percent average in California.

Suzanne Vega - Luka

INCOMING! Asteroid to Narrowly Miss Earth on Monday

Astronomer Mark Thompson reports on the large asteroid that will pass within 8,000 miles from Earth and why we were given such short notice.

By Mark Thompson
Fri Jun 24, 2011 12:20 PM ET
discovery.com

This may sound like late notice, but astronomers have just spotted a rather chunky asteroid heading our way, set to narrowly miss us on Monday.

In fact, it will be such a narrow miss that astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere should be able to spot the flyby with fairly modest telescopes.

Coincidentally, I was watching yet another re-run of Armageddon the other night when the heroic Bruce Willis and his motley crew of oil drillers-turned-astronauts saved Earth from certain asteroid doom. On arrival at the asteroid, and having sacrificed many of the team, Willis et al. succeeded in dropping a typical Hollywood-style uber-bomb into the depths of the incoming asteroid and blew it to bits, giving everyone on Earth a glitzy meteor shower.

Article continues at discovery.com

The Shift is About to Hit the Fan!

Brady Bunch mom got crabs in affair with NY mayor

By Reuters
Saturday, June 25th, 2011 -- 1:48 pm

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This would have made an interesting episode of "The Brady Bunch."

Florence Henderson, the actress who played perky mom Carol Brady in the beloved family sitcom, says she once got crabs after a one-night-stand with career politician John Lindsay, who was the mayor of New York City at the time.

Henderson, now 77, recounts in her upcoming memoir that she was cheating on her husband during the 1960s, and gave in to her better judgment when her married and unattractive friend put the moves on her over drinks at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

"I was lonely. I knew it wasn't the right thing to do. So, what did I do? I did it," she writes in "Life is Not a Stage," set for publication in September.

Henderson went home later that night, and awoke to a grisly surprise the next day as she saw "little black things" crawling over her bed and body.

Story continues at rawstory.com

Gay Marriage Equality Passes in New York State

By Steven Thrasher Fri., Jun. 24 2011 at 9:01 PM
Categories: Gay Marriage
villagevoice.com

Who do we have to blow for gay marriage? NO ONE!
To chants of "USA! USA! USA!" the galley of the Senate exploded after the Senate passed the Marriage Equality Act this evening, by a vote of to 33 to 29. The bill passed after the Senate previously passed a religious exemption amendment (which had passed earlier in the evening in the Assembly by a vote of 82 to 47).

American in Tripoli: First Hand Account

If you support the WAR in Libya, you should watch this.



Via - newzworldorder

Pakistan army rejects report on bin Laden's cell-phone

Reuters
in.news.yahoo.com
By Kamran Haider, writing by Myra MacDonald | Reuters – 19 hours ago

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Pakistan army condemned on Friday a report in the New York Times that a cell phone found in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden contained contacts to a militant group with ties to Pakistan's intelligence agency.

The newspaper, citing senior U.S. officials briefed on the findings, reported on Thursday that the discovery indicated that bin Laden used the group, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, as part of his support network inside Pakistan.

The cell phone belonged to bin Laden's courier, who was killed along with the al Qaeda leader in the May 2 raid by U.S. special forces on bin Laden's compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad, the Times said.

Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said in a statement sent by text message that the military "rejects the insinuations made in the NYT story".

"It is part of a well orchestrated smear campaign against our security organisations," he said.

The army has been angered by media reports that elements in the Pakistani security establishment may have helped bin Laden hide in Pakistan.

"Pakistan, its security forces have suffered the most at the hands of al Qaeda and have delivered the most against al Qaeda; our actions on the ground speak louder than the words of the Times," Abbas said.

In tracing calls on the cell phone, U.S. analysts determined that Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen commanders had called Pakistani intelligence officials, the Times reported, citing the senior American officials.

The officials added the contacts were not necessarily about bin Laden and his protection and that there was no "smoking gun" showing that Pakistan's spy agency had protected bin Laden.

(Reporting by Kamran Haider, writing by Myra MacDonald; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is what I think:

The Pakistan government knows that Osama bin Laden has been dead since 2001.
They decided to go along with the U.S. "raid on Osama's hideout" fraud in hopes that it would give the U.S. a face saving way to get out of Pakistan.
Osama's "cell phone" tells us nothing about bin Laden but everything about who the U.S. wants to target.
The U.S. keeps using fake information found in "Osama's lair" to justify going after whoever they want to.
I wonder if at some point Pakistan will become fed up with this fraud and come clean and tell the world what really happened. (If they haven't destroyed their credibility going along with the Osama lie.)

People that believe the bin Laden fairytale are incredibly gullible and probably also believe the 9-11 fairytale.

The Purposeful Flooding of America's Heartland

June 22, 2011
By Joe Herring

The Missouri River basin encompasses a vast region in the central and west-central portion of our country. This river, our nation's longest, collects the melt from Rocky Mountain snowpack and the runoff from our continents' upper plains before joining the Mississippi river above St. Louis some 2,300 miles later. It is a mighty river, and dangerous.

Some sixty years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began the process of taming the Missouri by constructing a series of six dams. The idea was simple: massive dams at the top moderating flow to the smaller dams below, generating electricity while providing desperately needed control of the river's devastating floods.

The stable flow of water allowed for the construction of the concrete and earthen levees that protect more than 10 million people who reside and work within the river's reach. It allowed millions of acres of floodplain to become useful for farming and development. In fact, these uses were encouraged by our government, which took credit for the resulting economic boom. By nearly all measures, the project was a great success.

But after about thirty years of operation, as the environmentalist movement gained strength throughout the seventies and eighties, the Corps received a great deal of pressure to include some specific environmental concerns into their MWCM (Master Water Control Manual, the "bible" for the operation of the dam system). Preservation of habitat for at-risk bird and fish populations soon became a hot issue among the burgeoning environmental lobby. The pressure to satisfy the demands of these groups grew exponentially as politicians eagerly traded their common sense for "green" political support.

Things turned absurd from there.

Article continues americanthinker.com

The Path of the Moon and Sun

My wife and I have noticed lately how the moon and sun seem to be rising and setting in what seem to be slightly different than normal places in the sky. We recently moved so I was just writing it off as not being use to the angle of our house. We kind of laughed at each other for even thinking such thoughts, then I see this:




And this:


Maybe it's not the angle of the house, maybe something is really going on.

Mysterious Deaths of 9/11 Witnesses (MUST SEE)

Thanks infiniteunknown.net

9/11 Truth, "Conspiracy Theories," And The Crisis of Communication

June 22, 2011
The Excavator

"We don't know when this madness will end but I do know that God is speaking. I have to believe that in my heart, and I have to know that God will use even this tragedy, to shake up the world." - Unknown. You can hear the words in this video made by OwlMedic from 1:22 - 1:54.

A psychological gap exists between the people who accept the truth that 9/11 was an inside job and the people who can not come to the same conclusion because it is too painful, depressing, and earth-shattering. I have made it my personal mission in life, along with thousands of other people, to bridge this psychological gap so that people see the 9/11 event from an entirely different perspective - from the innocent victims' point of view, not from the evil government conspirators' point of view.

Mankind's future is dependent on our understanding that 9/11 was a false flag event committed by a small faction of criminal traitors who control the governments of America., Israel, and England. These traitors will continue to commit criminal acts of state violence because they want to build a global garrison state to control people's freedom of movement and prevent a transnational revolution against the private banking occupation of America and the Western world.

As a result of the psychological divide between 9/11 truth tellers and 9/11 truth deniers there is a spiritual and emotional divide between people in modern Western culture. We have forgotten how to speak to each other. Instead of engaging in thoughtful discussions about politics people automatically use the words "cranks" "conspiracy theorists" and "racists" to smear anyone who disagrees with government narratives, especially liberals who should know better. The definitionof liberal is, "Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry."

Modern liberals have many ugly prejudices and intolerantly accuse government critics of being paranoid and racist. They degrade the work and views of a true hero, Ron Paul, by saying he supports corrupt banks on Wall Street, when in fact he is going after the one institution that enables Wall Street to steal trillions of dollars from the American people: the private, fraudulent, and foreign owned Federal Reserve Bank.

Liberals' hostility to criticism of the Federal Reserve and 9/11 truth is anti-liberal. I expect conservatives to religiously trust the voices of authority and unquestioningly accept what they say because conservatives like to go with the flow, but it is disappointing to see that liberals are matching conservatives' blind ignorance.

What all this means is that the categories of liberal and conservative are no longer relevant political terms. We have to communicate with each other and define each other with a whole new political perspective. Northop Frye said that there is "a built-in wisdom in the human mind, which is a part of its need to survive," (1). I think many of us are tapping into this built-in wisdom. It is something we must do because the prospect of a new world war threatens human survival and human civilization.

It is stupid to speak about a war between Western civilization and Islamic barbarism. Newsflash: none of us are civilized. Maybe the Swiss, but that's it. We in the West are not in a state of civilization and a state of freedom because there are demons of war running amok who are staging barbaric false flag events like 9/11 to further their corrupt agendas.

The demonic war establishment in Washington, Israel and England use the media to cast out truth-tellers out of polite society by demonizing them as cranks and conspiracy theorists. Telling the truth is poison to the arrogant ears of power. Authorities and power structures that justify their existence on lies need people to believe in the lies or else they will perish.

The U.S. war establishment should have been destroyed after the fall of Communism because it was no longer needed. But it gained so much power in the name of fighting the Soviet Union that it was able to use its academic, media, and government resources to invent a new enemy, terrorism, to keep itself alive on the backs of the American people.

On 9/11 the war establishment revealed its true wolfish nature, proving that it was no longer the protector of the American people. I doubt the war establishment was ever America's protector because America has been in the hands of private, foreign bankers ever since 1913.

The two points that need to be communicated to 9/11 truth deniers is that a free society and a war establishment cannot coexist, and that a war establishment needs to manufacture lies and myths to stay relevant in the lives of people. War makers like the neocons are natural enemies of peace, free speech, and justice. Either freedom survives, or Washington's satanic war establishment will end up destroying itself and in the process bring this world down.

The War on Terror is 3/5 a war on language and 2/5 a war on thought. Paul Craig Roberts writes in his latest article called 'Conspiracy Theory,' that language is used by the U.S. government to construct false narratives of history and take away the freedoms of the people. Roberts writes: "A country whose population has been trained to accept the government's word and to shun those who question it is a country without liberty in its future."

The reality that the truth about 9/11 reveals, which unnerves a lot of people, is that the social-political order is man made and artificial. The representatives of the war establishment said "Let There Be Terror," and there was terror on 9/11. They then said "Let There be WMDS," but their magic power failed them because no WMDs were found in Iraq. Now they are saying "Let There Be An Iranian Nuclear Bomb," to start a war with Iran and create a total war in the Middle East. Frye said: "The word comes first. The event follows," (2).

It is normal that people trust voices of authority in the West when they say 9/11 was done by Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda who represent Islamic extremists. It is so counter to our humanity that government leaders would commit a breach of faith and trust out in the open. We expect danger from beyond the village, not from in-your-face traitors like George Bush, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Dick Cheney, etc. Frye said that "we all live under a structure of authority in which there's a tendency to regard the following of that authority as good and a tendency to regard any effort to break out from it as evil. That is something that always turns out to be inadequate," (3).

Since 9/11 we have been thrown back into the state of nature. There is a historic crisis of communication and authority in America and the Western world. People are increasingly losing trust in figures of authority and their governments. We know we are on our own. The traitors in Washington and other Western capitals are conducting a covert war on the people and on freedom while spreading the illusion that they are fighting terrorism. Like primates, we have to learn how to communicate with each other all over again, beginning with how we understand and use words.

"Words," wrote Stuart Chase in his classic 1938 book The Tyranny of Words, "are active forces which give a measure of control over the environment--attract this, repulse that," (4). Words define reality. Conspiracy theorist is one of those words that immediately casts a negative spell on people and turns them into political and social outcasts. It is an anti-human act. The purpose is to direct public attention away from people who tell the truth about epochal events like 9/11 and the CIA's assassination of JFK which undermines the credibility and authority of Washington's war establishment.

The overuse of the word "conspiracy theory" to delegitimize truth-tellers is a modern example of word sorcery, and it was deliberately inserted into the popular lexicon by cultural propagandists in Washington to turn truth speech into blasphemous speech. "Blasphemy," said Chase, "ancient and modern, is a sin based primarily on word magic," (5).

Stuart Chase said that economic and social disorders had their roots in our poor use of language to relate to each other and describe reality. Chase:

I was trying to learn how to write, and found myself, for the first time in my life, learning how to read, how to listen, how to interpret language. I was looking for means to communicate ideas about correcting what seemed to me certain economic disorders, and I found that greater disorders were constantly arising from defective communication. (6).

It is a tragedy that seventy years after Chase wrote his book we as humans still haven't figured out how to listen to each other and be tolerant of one another's views. One person hears Alex Jones say that 9/11 was an inside job and calls him a kooky conspiracy theorist, while another person listens to him with an open mind and sees the truth as he does because it is so obvious. Sure, some people are more open-minded than others, but that doesn't get to the bottom of the crisis of communication.

William Cooper said in one of his lectures that a lot of people put up a mental wall of ignorance whenever the truth is spoken to them about the covert construction of a new world order and the destruction of human liberty. This wall must be broken down but it is hard because it is a psychological, invisible Berlin wall.

Exposing the modern manipulation of language to conceal the matrix of power, treachery, government lies, and systematic corruption is probably the biggest thing we can do to resolve the crisis of communication.

The government only has a monopoly on violence because the people believe that the government has a monopoly on truth. This undeserving monopoly can be abolished forever, and the mental Berlin wall will collapse upon itself, if enough of us tell the truth about the treason done on 9/11.


Sources:

1. David Cayley. 1992. Northrop Frye in Conversation. Anansi Press. Pg. 219.
2. Ibid. Pg. 194.
3. Ibid. Pg. 212-213.
4. Stuart Chase. 1938. The Tyranny of Words. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. Pg. 55.
5. Ibid. Pg. 66.
6. Ibid. Pg. 14-15.
Posted by Saman Mohammadi at 7:00 PM

RECON ALERT: Suspicious Military Convoy Seen Near Kentucky Tennessee Border

The Intel Hub
June 17th, 2011
theintelhub.com




It is important to note that these are TIPS which we believe to be true but unless otherwise noted have not independently confirmed. The difference between these type of alerts and normal articles should be acknowledged and clear from the get go.

As the police state ramps up it is more important than ever to share as much intelligence with the public as possible in an attempt to weed out the less credible information.

It should also be noted that the real worry is foreign or private military operating within the United States rather than the normal movements of the United States Military.

At Approx. 9:00 AM, I was traveling on I-75 going north entering Kentucky from Tennessee and after about 5 miles I saw an Army convoy of approx. 15-20 vehicles traveling South.

All Vehicles, with the exception of one, were Tractor-Trailers. Some were hauling trailers , others were empty. Drivers were all in uniform,and each vehicle had a passenger,the one vehicle not a truck was what looked like a Humvee. My point of destination was Williamsburg Ky.

After I had exited and took care of my business I entered I-75 south bound and to my surprise there was another convoy parked on the side of the entry ramp!!

This consisted of 10-12 Tractor-trailers,some of which had water tanks loaded on them while others were empty.

Again all drivers were in military uniforms and each truck had a passenger but I noted that none of the trucks in either convoy had any military markings on them,only camo paint. The last convoy,the one that was parked, was manned by all black military dressed men.

I live along this corridor and this is the largest convoy ive seen!. – Date: June 16th, 2011.

Here is another TIP:

I was in Walmart today in Central City, Ky. and saw a lot of troops dressed in camo and when I left
to go to my car they were getting in an unmarked white school bus. I see caravans of tanks military equipment,etc.
all the time going there on the Bluegrass Pkw. There is a new base outside of Greenville, Ky. which
hasn’t been there long. People think nothing of it because they see them all the time in town. I also saw what looked like
a dark helicoper flying today in that area.

Related;

We saw this same damn thing yesterday Friday June 17th at around 3:30 pm at the Walmart in Franklin, IN. Military personnel, fatigue uniforms, white vans. They were loading up food/water in those vans. We didn’t think much of it then BUT NOW I am reading this on the Intel Hub. Now my suspicions are up. Thought I’d pass it along.

Another Tip:

We were coming back from Branson MO to KC on 6-11-11 and saw an Army convoy heading south on why 13, just north of Springfield — It had three Humvee’s with what looked like the microwave crowd control dish on trailers there were also 6 outer vehicles.

Related: thegovernmentrag.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sounds like the beginning of a Steven King Novel huh?

Something strange is going on at Lake Delton, WI - Men carrying cases, then strangely disappear

Correction - The couple stayed at the Wintergreen Resort, not Evergreen, Wisconson Dells - upated 6/23/11
Stephanie Sledge | 20 Jun 2011
thegovernmentrag.com
Picture: Wintergreen Hotel

What on earth is going on at Lake Delton, WI? A couple, who was on a brief vacation stayed at the Wintergreen Hotel this past weekend and claimed to 'The Government Rag' that they witnessesed the most bizarrest phenomenon they have ever experienced - let alone explain...

A couple from Des Moines, Iowa decided late at night to go outside their hotel room to get some fresh air. While they were outside, they noticed five men across the street walking in the same formation, the same style, cupping their hands the same way, and carrying the same size cases. The woman described the cases from the distance (that they could see) to be approx 15'x15" and were described as perfectly square with handles. What they described happened next is the most bizarre.

They explained that while they were outside the hotel room, five men appeared on a sidewalk next to the street walking towards a sign. Once they reached the sign, they just mysteriously disappeared. Strangely enough, the couple describes two more men that just showed up out of nowhere, across the street, walking in the same formation, pattern, and carrying the same size case as the others. These two men also walked up to the very same sign as the others and then mysteriously disappeared.

A few seconds later, one last man appeared. According to the couple, the last man walked down the sidewalk in the opposite direction displaying the same formation, pattern, and was even carrying the same case as the others. Once he walked to the end of the street, he then turned around and headed back the other direction. Once he arrived at the sign where the others vanished - he too disappeared without a trace!

The couple could not believe their eyes. They described being in a state of shock as each person appeared and then disappeared. The couple described all the people as wearing different clothing but yet having a the same eery walking formation, hand posture, identical movements, as well as the same cases they were carrying. They claim they have never experienced or seen anything like it before. The men never reappeared as far as they knew and no others were seen. They did not report the incident to the police because it was just to strange...
##################################################################################

I'm not sure what's going on at the Wintergreen Hotel, but I was reminded of this:

Florida sold citizens’ driver’s license information for $62 million

By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 -- 6:04 pm
rawstory.com

The State of Florida made $62,968,946 from the sale of Floridians driver's license information in the last fiscal year, a practice that has been occurring almost unknown for years.

I-Team investigator Michael George reported that the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles sells drivers' license information, including Floridians full name, date of birth, address, and driver’s license number, to ten different companies.

The companies are Acxiom Information Securities Service, Inc., Choice Point, E-Funds, Explore Information Services, LexisNexis, Line Barge, Goggan, Blair, & Simpson, Inc., SC Services, ShadowSoft, TLO LLC, and West Services Inc.

The department said it only sells the information to companies that intend to use it for legal purposes, and not for marketing or advertising.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Shelbi Day told George that the sale of Florida citizens' personal information was a violation of privacy rights. “I would assume that most Floridians have no idea that this is even occurring, and I think that most would be deeply disturbed,” Day added.

A group of Florida residents tried to shut down the state's deal with the companies, but a judge ruled that the sale of citizens' driver's license information was legal and the group has no plans to appeal the decision.

THE LOW-CUT SHIRT - An Interactive Adventure!

Ron Paul says legalize marijuana CNBC 6-22-2011

Fear of Terrorism Makes People Stupid

washingtonsblog.com
Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Scientists note that fear of terrorism makes people stupid.

As I've repeatedly noted, FBI agents and CIA intelligence officials, constitutional law expert professor Jonathan Turley, Time Magazine, and the Washington Post have all said that U.S. government officials "were trying to create an atmosphere of fear in which the American people would give them more power".

Indeed, the former Secretary of Homeland Security - Tom Ridge - admits that he was pressured to raise terror alerts to help Bush win reelection.

In the real world, as the National Safety Council notes:

-- You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane

-- You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack

--You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack

-- You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack

--You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack

--You are 9 times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack

--You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist

--You are 8 times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack

-- You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack

(Moreover, the chair of the 9/11 Commission said that the attack was preventable).

Indeed, much of our debt is due to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere.

And yet the top American military and intelligence officials say that debt is the main threat to our national security. See this and this.

So by over-reacting, we are causing real, substantial and lasting damage to our country. (It is admitted by Bush, Cheney and others that the Iraq war was actually about oil, and the Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11, but this essay takes at face value the government's claims that the wars have been for self-defense.)

Reason noted in 2006:

Already, security measures—pervasive ID checkpoints, metal detectors, and phalanxes of security guards—increasingly clot the pathways of our public lives. It's easy to overreact when an atrocity takes place—to heed those who promise safety if only we will give the authorities the "tools" they want by surrendering to them some of our liberty. As President Franklin Roosevelt in his first inaugural speech said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." However, with risks this low there is no reason for us not to continue to live our lives as though terrorism doesn't matter—because it doesn't really matter. We ultimately vanquish terrorism when we refuse to be terrorized.

In April, Reason pointed out:

“Many people will focus, much of the time, on the emotionally perceived severity of the outcome, rather than on its likelihood.” They add, “With respect to risks of injury or harm, vivid images and concrete pictures of disaster can ‘crowd out’ the cognitive activity required to conclude and consider the fact that the probability of disaster is really small.” Activating the emotional centers in the amygdala shuts down the operation of the executive functions of the pre-frontal cortex. Taking advantage of this flaw in reasoning, the researchers observe, “In this light, it should not be surprising that our public figures and our cause advocates often describe tragic outcomes. Rarely do we hear them quote probabilities.” In other words, politicians and activists deploy sob stories to scare the public into demanding regulations on activities they dislike.

***

“If we look across dozens of cases, we can observe a pattern in which salient but extremely low probability risks are sometimes met with excessive responses,”

***

Satirist H.L. Mencken memorably summarized this democratic dynamic: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Indeed, politicians have known for thousands of years that playing the fear card gives them more power and makes their subjects more compliant:

"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector."
- Plato

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
- U.S. President James Madison

"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death".
- Adolph Hitler

"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
- Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.

"The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened".
- Josef Stalin

Unfortunately, while politicians regularly terrify people with gruesome reminders of 9/11 and exaggerated stories about future terrorism risk, they ignore the high-probability risks - like the destruction to the economy through unchecked fraud and corruption, nuclear plant and deep sea oil rig operators which cut every corner in the book, and the loss of our liberties and the rule of law.

New bill ending federal ban on marijuana to be introduced in Congress

By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 -- 7:14 pm
rawstory.com

Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce legislation on Thursday to the U.S. House of Representatives that ends the federal prohibition on marijuana.

The Oakland Tribute reported that the bill would limit the federal government to enforcing cross-border or inter-state smuggling laws, and allow people to grow, possess, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal to do so.

Although over a dozen states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical reasons, it is still outlawed under the federal Controlled Substance Act.

The legislation authored by Frank and Paul would allow each state to propose and enforce its own marijuana laws without federal interference.

Democratic Reps. John Conyers (MI), Steve Cohen (TN), Jared Polis (CO) and Barbara Lee (CA) are co-sponsors of the bill.

"The human cost of the failed drug war has been enormous -- egregious racial disparities, shattered families, poverty, public health crises, prohibition-related violence, and the erosion of civil liberties," Lee said Wednesday. "And of course the cost in dollars and cents has been staggering as well -- over a trillion dollars spent to incarcerate tens of millions of young people."

"I co-sponsored this bipartisan legislation because I believe it is time to turn the page from this failed drug war."

Rep. Cohen, another co-sponsor, called last week for an end to the 40-year war on drugs, which he said had spent trillions of dollars to incarcerate millions of people for non-violent crimes.

Name That Country

This country ranks 53rd on the HDI [Human Development Index] index, better than all other African countries and also better than the richer and Western-backed Saudi Arabia.

The government provides all citizens with free health care and [has] achieved high coverage in the most basic health areas. . . . The life expectancy rose to 74.5 years and is now the highest in Africa. .

The infant mortality rate declined to 17 deaths per 1,000 births and is not nearly as high as in Algeria (41) and also lower than in Saudi Arabia (21).

“The UNDP [United Nations Development Program] certified that this country has also made ‘a significant progress in gender equality,’ particularly in the fields of education and health, while there is still much to do regarding representation in politics and the economy.

With a relative low ‘index of gender inequality’ the UNDP places the country in the Human Development Report 2010 concerning gender equality at rank 52 and thus also well ahead of Egypt (ranked 108), Algeria (70), Tunisia (56), Saudi Arabia (ranked 128) and Qatar (94)” [3].
Ok, name that country!

If you said Libya, you are correct.

At least you were until the brutal death and destruction wrought on Libya by the relentless US/NATO bombardment because of “humanitarian concerns”.

Source: intrepidreport.com

Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding YouTube Videos

techdirt.com
from the not-understanding-the-technology dept

Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. A few weeks back, we noted that Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons had proposed a new bill that was designed to make "streaming" infringing material a felony. At the time, the actual text of the bill wasn't available, but we assumed, naturally, that it would just extend "public performance" rights to section 506a of the Copyright Act.

Supporters of this bill claim that all it's really doing is harmonizing US copyright law's civil and criminal sections. After all, the rights afforded under copyright law in civil cases cover a list of rights: reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works or perform the work. The rules for criminal infringement only cover reproducing and distributing -- but not performing. So, supporters claim, all this does is "harmonize" copyright law and bring the criminal side into line with the civil side by adding "performance rights" to the list of things.

If only it were that simple. But, of course, it's not. First of all, despite claims to the contrary, there's a damn good reason why Congress did not include performance rights as a criminal/felony issue: because who would have thought that it would be a criminal act to perform a work without permission? It could be infringing, but that can be covered by a fine. When we suddenly criminalize a performance, that raises all sorts of questionable issues.

Furthermore, as we suspected, in the full text of the bill, "performance" is not clearly defined. This is the really troubling part. Everyone keeps insisting that this is targeted towards "streaming" websites, but is streaming a "performance"? If so, how does embedding play into this? Is the site that hosts the content guilty of performing? What about the site that merely linked to and/or embedded the video (linking and embedding are technically effectively the same thing). Without clear definitions, we run into problems pretty quickly.

And it gets worse. Because rather than just (pointlessly) adding "performance" to the list, the bill tries to also define what constitutes a potential felony crime in these circumstances:

the offense consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works

So yeah. If you embed a YouTube video that turns out to be infringing, and more than 10 people view it because of your link... you could be facing five years in jail. This is, of course, ridiculous, and suggests (yet again) politicians who are regulating a technology they simply do not understand. Should it really be a criminal act to embed a YouTube video, even if you don't know it was infringing...? This could create a massive chilling effect to the very useful service YouTube provides in letting people embed videos.

Military Transporting Explosives to Joplin Mo?

Uploader Comments (migfoxbat):
CNN reporters were restricted from this road in Joplin & the DIRTY COPS told them to stop filming & turn around....

Backward at the F.B.I.

nytimes.com
Published: June 18, 2011

The Obama administration has long been bumbling along in the footsteps of its predecessor when it comes to sacrificing Americans’ basic rights and liberties under the false flag of fighting terrorism. Now the Obama team seems ready to lurch even farther down that dismal road than George W. Bush did.

Instead of tightening the relaxed rules for F.B.I. investigations — not just of terrorism suspects but of pretty much anyone — that were put in place in the Bush years, President Obama’s Justice Department is getting ready to push the proper bounds of privacy even further.

Attorney General John Ashcroft began weakening rights protections after 9/11. Three years ago, his successor, Michael Mukasey, issued rules changes that permit agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use highly intrusive methods — including lengthy physical surveillance and covert infiltration of lawful groups — even when there is no firm basis for suspecting any wrongdoing.

The Mukasey guidelines let the bureau go after people identified in part by race or religion, which only raises the danger of government spying on law-abiding Americans based on their political activity or ethnic background.

Incredibly, the Obama administration thinks Mr. Mukasey did not go far enough. Charlie Savage reported in The Times last week that the F.B.I plans to issue a new edition of its operational manual that will give agents significant new powers to search law enforcement and private databases, go through household trash or deploy surveillance teams, with even fewer checks against abuse.

Take, for example, the lowest category of investigations, called an “assessment.” The category was created as part of Mr. Mukasey’s revisions to allow agents to look into people and groups “proactively” where there is no evidence tying them to possible criminal or terrorist activity. Under the new rules, agents will be allowed to search databases without making a record about it. Once an assessment has started, agents will be permitted to conduct lie detector tests and search people’s trash as part of evaluating a potential informant. No factual basis for suspecting them of wrongdoing will be necessary.

The F.B.I. general counsel, Valerie Caproni, said agents want to be able to use the information found in a subject’s trash to pressure that person to assist in a government investigation. Um, well, yes, that is the problem. It only heightens concern about privacy, improper squeezing of individuals, and the adequacy of supervision.

Currently, surveillance squads, which are trained to surreptitiously follow targets, may be used only once during an assessment. The new rules will allow repeated use.

They also expand the special rules covering “undisclosed participation” in an organization by an F.B.I. agent or informant. The current rules are not public, and, as things stand they still won’t be. But we do know the changes allow an agent or informant to surreptitiously attend up to five meetings of a group before the rules for undisclosed participation — whatever they are — kick in.

The changes also remove the requirement of extra supervision when public officials, members of the news media or academic scholars are investigated for activities unrelated to their positions, like drug cases. That may sound like a reasonable distinction, but it ignores an inflated potential for politically motivated decision-making.

The F.B.I.’s recent history includes the abuse of national security letters to gather information about law-abiding citizens without court orders, and inappropriate investigations of antiwar and environmental activists. That is hardly a foundation for further loosening the rules for conducting investigations or watering down internal record-keeping and oversight.

Everyone wants to keep America safe. But under President Bush and now under President Obama, these changes have occurred without any real discussion about whether the supposed added security is worth the harm to civil liberties. The White House cares so little about providing meaningful oversight that Mr. Obama has yet to nominate a successor for Glenn Fine, the diligent Justice Department inspector general who left in January.

Finally, Congress is showing some small sign of interest. Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, has written to Robert Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, asking that the new policies be scuttled. On Friday afternoon, Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Charles Grassley of Iowa, the chairman and the ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, called on Mr. Mueller to provide an opportunity to review the changes before they are carried out, and to release a public version of the final manual on the F.B.I.’s Web site. Mr. Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. need to listen.