They Threw This Crap At Us And Relied On Their Factotums In The Media

Cargo Cult: Questions on the Latest Terrorist Threat

"First we were told that the recently intercepted package bombs sent, we are told, from Yemen, were targeted at synagogues in Chicago. Now we are being told that they were intended to blow up the cargo planes themselves. We are also told that the bombs' design shows the mark of a "highly sophisticated" operation by extremist Islamists, most likely al Qaeda.

All of which prompts one question. If you were indeed a "highly sophisticated" Islamist extremist operation wishing to blow up cargo planes bound for the United States with package bombs, would you really a) mail those bombs from Yemen, a country currently under intense counterterrorism scrunity by the United States, and b) address these packages, from Yemen, to Jewish institutions -- in Barack Obama's home city?

Either a) or b) alone would be enough to set alarm bells clanging all through the thick mesh of security systems that now overlay modern life. Put them together, and what you have is either a) the mark of a very unsophisticated, cack-handed, two-bit operation whose sporadic and isolated threats hardly justify a world-wide, never-ending, mass-killing, liberty-gutting, multi-trilliondollar war, or b) the mark of a highly sophisticated organization that wished to ensure maximum publicity for this attempted terrorist attack -- and even more publicity for its heroic thwarting ... especially on the eve of a national election, and after weeks of leaks and bad press about atrocities and corruption that call the whole Terror War ethos into question.

Points perhaps worth pondering in the coming weeks as we watch the ever-more profitable security mesh seize on this incident to call for ever-greater funding, and ever-greater measures of control over our lives."

Education Of The Dullards

Suicide bombing in heart of Turkey injures 32

"The bombings bear hallmarks of an Al Qaeda attack."

Parcel bombs have hallmarks of al Qaeda: Napolitano

Intercepted terror parcel carried al Qaeda hallmarks, officials say

Explosions Rock U.S. Embassy in Yemen; 16 Killed careful, Faux

"U.S. State Department Sean McCormack said that the sophisticated attack "bears all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda attack."

Deadly bombings in India have "hallmarks of an al Qaeda operation"

Mumbai Attacks Blamed On Al-Qaeda

"The majority of the corporate media has gleefully seized upon the terror attacks in Mumbai to claim that they are the work of “Al-Qaeda,” despite clear and contradictory evidence suggesting otherwise, as a pretext to increase bombing campaigns in Pakistan and beef support for the ailing war on terror in Afghanistan.
The swiftness with which the media blamed “Al-Qaeda” was staggering, especially considering the fact that the attacks had not even concluded before the boogeyman was whipped out of the closet once more to act as a poster child for the war on terror and allow the TV networks to show lots of blood, panic and authority figures pointing guns at people."

Sign At Rally

And Yes My Friends, I've Found Out My Opponent's Sister Is A THESPIAN!

Fag Politics

Emasculation in Republican Psychological Warfare, And Why It Works

"The racist lynchings of the 19th and 20th centuries featured castration as a central component of those ritualized assaults. The same appears to be true of contemporary rhetorical lynchings visible in the right wing media-scape. First aired on April 23 of this year as a news item, the latest ad by the Grand Dragon of GOP character assassins, Floyd Brown, is only the most recent example. Brown, who succeeded in turning Black rapist murderer Willie Horton into Michael Dukakis's running mate, is now going after the testicular credibility of Barack Obama. The ad cited a vote Obama cast as an Illinois state senator against a bill mandating the death penalty for gang-related murders -- a bill the state's Republican governor later vetoed for being overly broad, vague, discriminatory, and for lacking any deterrent effect. The spot's narrator concludes, "When the time came to get tough, Obama chose to be weak. So, the question is: can a man so weak in the war on gangs be trusted in the war on terror?" The closing shot is that of the rubble at New York's post-9/11 ground zero.

Not surprisingly, Factcheck.org found it to be a mendacious hodgepodge of distortions and misrepresentations. Of course, what Brown is after is not veracity but the generation of emotion in his audience, principally anxiety. As he had successfully done with Dukakis, the aim is to emasculate Obama and thus to induce in the electorate a fear that the Democratic nominee will be unable to function as a manly protector.

Some might think that this strategy is targeted at the so-called "Security Mom" demographic -- women supposedly so frightened by the terrorist bogy man that they will forsake all other concerns, like reproductive choice and health care, and vote Republican. This was certainly George W. Bush's 2004 answer to the gender gap, which since 1980 consistently disadvantaged the GOP among female voters. Unfortunately for McCain, the most recent (June 11) NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Obama with a 19% lead among women overall, and a seven-point advantage among white women in particular.

The primary audience, I would argue, is the other side of the gender gap, the "Insecurity Men," male voters unconsciously anxious about their masculinity, and who are generally well disposed toward Republican candidates. (Wednesday's poll showed McCain with a 20% lead among white men.) Men as a group tend to be much more troubled than are women over the possibility that they might have traits of the other gender. The more central that male domination is to a social order, the more anxious they are about this. In fact, in such a world, the most important thing about being a man is not being a woman. As I described in my last post, the findings of my own research and that of others have shown that conservative men are much more likely to suffer from the fear that they might be "feminine," than are liberal males. One way this femiphobia gets managed is through projection -- by hating, denigrating, and attacking other men whose masculinity is imagined as somehow deficient.

This is where Republican psy-ops masters like Brown work their crude but effective rhetorical necromancy. They know that most voters don't support typical conservative positions on issues. Many among the electorate might recoil at the liberal label (because of successful framing by conservatives), but when asked on survey after survey, people tend to embrace liberal positions. That means the burden of getting right-wing presidential candidates into office falls largely on the GOP's psychological warfare team, not the platform committee. Their most tried and true method has been to feminize their male political opponents."

I don't think one can stress the importance of the rethug projection syndrome. It's positively core to their psyche and a bedrock of their politics. They take their fears and frailties and paint the world with them. This psychological condition is the driving force behind their politics and is one huge reason why our society is being destroyed. You can see it in everything the rethugs do - from fear mongering about terror to homophobia. How many republicans have been outed as gay, especially the most vocally anti gay? Lots. They've especially gone after Obama because, you know, black men have such large penes. When it comes to war they have to appear the most butch by making others appear weak and innefectual by comparison. It's a cancer that they want to spread, hoping that the derangement in other people will validate their own insecurities and fears.

Tap Water And Gulf Seafood For Dinner

After all, they tell us it's all safe.

Toner Bomb Joins The Circus

With Shoebomber and Crotchbomber and all the rest of the fake terror perpetrated by the very people pretending to keep us safe from a non existent Al Qaida and Osama, the dead CIA stooge.

added - UPS doesn't do business in Yemen.
Here's CBS lying to you.



ELECTION WEEKEND 'TERROR'

You Want Advice With That Paycheck?

Ohio McDonald's gives voting advice in paychecks

"COLUMBUS, Ohio — A handful of McDonald's employees in northeastern Ohio received handbills in their most recent paychecks suggesting they vote for three Republican candidates.

"If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels," the insert said. "If others are elected we will not."

The fast food chain's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., distanced itself from the action by Canton franchisee Paul Siegfried, saying it was not reflective of the company's position. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, the Democratic elections chief, said she was launching an investigation because the action appeared to violate Ohio election laws.

Allen Schulman, an attorney representing one of the employees, said Friday he had forwarded the paycheck insert to Canton's city law director, citing state and federal laws against corporate advocacy in elections.

"It's no surprise to anyone that Ohio is a battleground state in this election, and for a multinational corporation like McDonald's to threaten employees like this is morally and legally wrong," Schulman said in a statement.

Siegfried issued an apology later Friday, emphasizing the value he places on employees and their freedom of choice in the upcoming election.

"Distributing this communication was an error of judgment on my part," Siegfried said in a statement. "Please know, it was never my intention to offend anyone. For those that I have offended, I sincerely apologize."

The handbill with a simple McDonald's logo at the top recommended votes for Republicans John Kasich for governor, Rob Portman for U.S. Senate, and Jim Renacci for Ohio's 16th congressional district. A Renacci campaign flier was also included."

NPR Does Some Good Research

The controversial Arizona illegal immigrant bill just got a lot more interesting.

Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

"Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.
Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.
"The gentleman that's the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger," Nichols said. "He's a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman."

What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.

"They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community," Nichols said, "the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate."
But Nichols wasn't buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years — decades even — with illegal immigrants?
"They talked like they didn't have any doubt they could fill it," Nichols said.
That's because prison companies like this one had a plan — a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona's immigration law.

Behind-The-Scenes Effort To Draft, Pass The Law

The law is being challenged in the courts. But if it's upheld, it requires police to lock up anyone they stop who cannot show proof they entered the country legally.
When it was passed in April, it ignited a fire storm. Protesters chanted about racial profiling. Businesses threatened to boycott the state.
Supporters were equally passionate, calling it a bold positive step to curb illegal immigration.
But while the debate raged, few people were aware of how the law came about.
NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them."


Plus more responsible reportage:

A Web Of GOP Influence

"These groups style themselves as independent, grass-roots organizations, though they are tightly interconnected.
The network is behind a slew of campaign ads this fall."

October 28 1919

The most hated law in american history goes into effect, pitting the original nanny state against the citizenry and firmly establishing organized crime in america.

"The Volstead Act, formally the National Prohibition Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States. The Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler conceived and drafted the bill, which was named for Andrew Volstead, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which managed the legislation."

Hammered Today

Typical crosshatch spraying. There was a colorful oily sheen behind the telephone pole that I couldn't quite capture but one can see the special treatment they gave us today. Which is surprising because over the years they've gotten this active mostly in the spring and just before a front moves in, but our weather is supposed to be clear and sunny for the next week.

Brits Slowly Coming To Realize The Fraud Of It All

Not a good couple of days for the war on terror scam artists. Yesterday British Airways chairman Martin Broughton very publicly condemned security measures the US is trying to muscle Britain into accepting:
"Broughton added that British authorities should not "kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done."
Pretty stiff stuff from a corporate bigwig so you know they're chafing.
Now today in the Guardian:

No terror arrests in 100,000 police counter-terror searches, figures show

"More than 100,000 people were stopped and searched by police under counter-terrorism powers last year but none of them were arrested for terrorism-related offences, according to Home Office figures published today."
"The figures prompted the former Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis to call for the controversial policy to be scrapped.
"This astonishing fact of no terrorism-related arrests, let alone prosecutions or convictions, in over 100,000 stop and searches, demonstrates what a massively counter-productive policy this is," said Davis."

If we actually see this in MSM then there's an awful lot more that we don't see, and if it keeps up, along with the ongoing worldwide financial collapse it will encourage the poodles across the pond to bolt from america's orbit. As amatter of fact I think it's well underway with all of Europe. The US and it's bestest little buddy the racist terror entity known as Israel are becoming isolated and increasingly despised as never before. The exclamation point pasted on US atrocities by Wikileaksalong plus Israel's naked murder on that Gaza aid ship must be opening a lot of eyes. It wouldn't surprise me if Europe turns it's back on america and Israel and their endless fascist manipulations.

French troops to leave Afghanistan in 2011

But then a few well timed false flag "events" might help them to get over their doubts.

We're #2!

Chinese Computer Trumps US One as World's Fastest

"A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower.
The computer, known as Tianhe-1A, has 1.4 times the horsepower of the current top computer, which is at a national laboratory in Tennessee, as measured by the standard test used to gauge how well the systems handle mathematical calculations, said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist who maintains the official supercomputer rankings.

Although the official list of the top 500 fastest machines, which comes out every six months, is not due to be completed by Mr.
Dongarra until next week, he said the Chinese computer “blows away the existing No. 1 machine.”
He added, “We don’t close the books until Nov.1, but I would say it is unlikely we will see a system that is faster.”

A New Chinese Train Beats Country’s High Speed Rail World Record

"With over 4,300 miles of train lines, China is clearly the world leader in terms of high speed rail innovation. And now the country’s gone and broken its own speed record for HSR.

Shanghai’s latest bullet train travels at 415km/h (about 258 mph)– beating the country’s previous record by 21 km/h (13 mph).

The train that goes from Shanghai to the capital of East China’s Zhejiang province Hangzhou (about 125 miles apart) will cost passengers almost twice the amount (around $15) they pay for regular trains, but it will get them to their destination in less than half the time (about 40 minutes). Though that has been an area of contention for some commuters, isn’t an extra eight dollars more than worth the time saved? We think so.
Liu Yulei, a China National Radio reporter who took the trial run, said she felt like she was flying when the train reached its peak speed, IB Times reported.
The train is said to launch in October.
Considering the Acela Express trains in the U.S. (the only high-speed rail in North America) currently travels at about 150 mph, we clearly have so much to learn from the Chinese."

China Trumps U.S. in Renewable Energy Investments

China tops U.S. in race to build wind power

China Surpasses U.S. In Internet Use

"Chinese Internet users spend nearly two billion hours online each week, while the U.S. audience logs on for 129 million hours per week."

Time To Get Your Money Out Of The Bank?

The scary actual U.S. government debt

"Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says U.S. government debt is not $13.5-trillion (U.S.), which is 60 per cent of current gross domestic product, as global investors and American taxpayers think, but rather 14-fold higher: $200-trillion – 840 per cent of current GDP. “Let’s get real,” Prof. Kotlikoff says. “The U.S. is bankrupt.”
"“America’s fiscal gap is enormous – so massive that closing it appears impossible without immediate and radical reforms to its health care, tax and Social Security systems – as well as military and other discretionary spending cuts.”

Insider Selling Volume at Highest Level Ever Tracked

"The largest companies in three of the most important leading sectors of the market have seen their executives classified as insiders sell more than 120 million shares of stock over the last six months. Top executives at these very same companies bought just 38,000 shares over that same time period, making for an eye-popping sell to buy ratio of 3,177 to one."

Entire Planet Calls For US To Lift Cuban Embargo

Planet's two state terror pariahs veto the measure.

Assembly Again Urges U.S. to Lift Cuba Embargo

"The annual General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to lift its longstanding economic embargo against Cuba passed by the lopsided vote of 187 to 2. Only the United States and Israel opposed the nonbinding measure, the 19th such resolution in a row, while three Pacific island allies of Washington abstained. The Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, accused President Obama of promising to change relations with Cuba but falling under the thrall of the exile community in the United States. In response, the United States said that it had expanded trade and other ties with the Caribbean nation but that improved relations hinged on greater domestic freedom."

Time Traveler Using Cell Phone In 82 Year Old Film

h^t to the wonderful site Disinformation

Head Of Brit Airline Balks At US Fascism

Expect a little "incident" to set him straight.

'UK airports should not kowtow to US,' says BA chairman

"The chairman of British Airways has attacked the "completely redundant" checks commonplace at British airports and said the UK should stop "kowtowing" to demands for increased security from the US.
Martin Broughton said there was no need to "kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done" with regard to security on US-bound flights, especially when this involved security checks on a level the US does not impose on its own domestic flights.
Speaking at the annual conference of the UK Airport Operators Association in London, Mr Broughton said: "America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do. We shouldn't stand for that."

Downsizing For The Dullards

TV commercials shrink to match attention spans

"NEW YORK — And now, a word from our sponsors. A very brief word.

TV commercials are shrinking along with attention spans and advertising budgets. The 15-second ad is increasingly common, gradually supplanting the 30-second spot just as it knocked off the full-minute pitch decades ago.

For viewers, it means more commercials in a more rapid-fire format. For advertisers, shorter commercials are a way to save some money, and research shows they hold on to more eyeballs than the longer format.

"It used to be that the most valuable thing on the planet was time, and now the most valuable thing on the planet is attention," says John Greening, associate professor at Northwestern University's journalism school and a former executive vice president at ad agency DDB Chicago.

So instead of seeing a lengthier plot line, viewers are treated to the sight of, say, the popular "Old Spice man" riding backward on a horse through various scenes for just 15 seconds.
Or the "most interesting man in the world," the suave, rugged, Spanish-accented character pitching Dos Equis beer, appearing just long enough to turn his head and weigh in on the topic of rollerblading. (Verdict? A deadpan "No.")
The number of 15-second television commercials has jumped more than 70 percent in five years to nearly 5.5 million last year, according to Nielsen. They made up 34 percent of all national ads on the air last year, up from 29 percent in 2005.
Commercial-skipping digital video recorders and distractions such as laptops and phones have shortened viewers' attention spans, says Deborah Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin. Viewers are also watching TV streamed on sites like Hulu, where advertisers have less of a presence.
So companies figure: "Why spend money on anything longer anyway? Plus, if they're going to skip our ads, at least we have a better chance of them seeing something if it's really short."
Fifteen-second ads cost about the same per second as longer ones but, of course, cost half as much. A 15-second ad on network TV cost about $20,000 on average last year, according to Nielsen.
"It becomes a very seductive thing to get your message out there at half the cost," says Mike Sheldon, CEO of advertising agency Deutsch LA, a unit of Interpublic Group."

"Shorter ads can be just as effective as longer ones. Viewers can form new associations — say, knowing about a discount — in a few seconds and then recall that information in just one second, Mitchell says. People can't help soaking up the message.

"When things are working that fast, you can't tell yourself, 'No, I'm not going to think about that,'" she says. "Your brain lights up so you don't have a choice."

Gulf Extinction Event Reaches Inland

Chemist: Chemicals from dispersed oil “coming down as rain”

BP dispersants 'causing sickness'

‘People Now Dropping Dead’ In the Gulf

How Bad Is It?

Schools open lockers to advertising


no flat surface left behind

"School lockers are becoming the latest venue for bombarding kids with advertising.

Just what that will look like is on display at the north suburban Centennial school administration building: four lockers wrapped in a bubblegum pink ad for the Mall of America's "Underwater Adventures" aquarium.

On Nov. 1, the school board is slated to decide whether it will allow the ads on up to 10 percent of the available surfaces in all of the district's seven schools. That includes lockers, walls and floors. The take for the district? $184,000 a year.

In a bleak economy, with dim prospects for any new state school funding, Centennial -- with $3.6 million in cuts this year and more likely on the way next year -- is just the latest school district looking at the ads as an alternative way to generate some cash. Paul Miller, president of Coon Rapids-based School Media's, the company that would install the ads, said he expects to have nine Twin Cities school districts signed up by the end of the year.

Nearby St. Francis schools already made that decision. Ads will start going up on lockers there this week, said district Superintendent Edward Saxton. The district's agreement with School Media's is similar to Centennial's proposed agreement. Its take: $190,000 to $200,000 a year.

"I hate to say it's all about the money, but it probably is," said Paul Stremick, Centennial school superintendent."

NY Cops Want The Power To Legally Nullify Parts Of The Constitution

Bad Driver? In Debt? Proposed NYC Law Would Ban You From Owning a Gun
Caution - link is to Faux

"New York City residents who want to own a gun may soon be denied permits if they are litterbugs, if they are bad drivers, or if they have fallen behind on a few bills.
Under proposed revisions to the police department's handgun, rifle and shotgun permit procedures, the NYPD can reject gun license applicants for a number of reasons, including:

If they have been arrested or convicted of almost any "violation," in any state; having a "poor driving history"; having been fired for "circumstances that demonstrate lack of good judgment"; having "failed to pay legally required debts"; being deemed to lack "good moral character"; or if any other information demonstrates "other good cause for the denial of the permit."

Critics say many of the restrictions are vague, have nothing to do with one's fitness to own a gun and are unconstitutional.

Supporters say the new restrictions will make gun purchasing more efficient and don't give the NYPD any more power than it already has.

According to a Report of the Governmental Affairs Division, the changes came about as the result of two recent Supreme Court decisions.
"In District of Columbia v. Heller the Court found that a District of Columbia law banning the possession of handguns in the home was invalid due to the rights conferred by the Second Amendment; in McDonald v. City of Chicago, Ill., the Court applied that right equally to the States," the report says.
As result, Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Public Safety Committee, introduced a proposal to lower the city's fees for gun permits to ones that more accurately reflect what the city spends to issue them.
"Now the fees are going to be much less and they're going to have a relationship to the amount of administrative costs that are involved, and in that way it will withstand the Constitution and the court challenge that most people expect will be coming down the road," Vallone told FoxNews.com.
The current $340 fee for all pistol licenses would be lowered to $70 for a premises license and $110 for a carry license. Rifle and shotgun permits would drop from $140 to $65. Costs for license renewals would also be significantly reduced.
With the lower fees, the New York Police Department also introduced revisions to the police department's gun permit procedures, which, unlike Vallone's bill, need only approval from the mayor's office, not the City Council.
"Although I do have oversight capability and I can have a hearing on it, I don't have any formal say in it," Vallone said.
Councilmember Dan Halloran says those revisions are intended to give the police more power to deny licenses, which could counter a possible spike in gun ownership triggered by the lower fees.
But Halloran and Vallone say the proposed restrictions give the NYPD so much authority that they violate the Second Amendment."

Stench Of Hypocrisy

Tariq Aziz is a man who knows too much

"The decision by Iraq's high tribunal to pass a death sentence on Tariq Aziz, once the international face of dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, over "the persecution of Islamic parties", has the feel of retribution about it. After all, this sentence follows from the 15-year sentence meted out to Aziz last year for his part in the killing of dozens of merchants in 1992 and a further seven years for his role in the forced displacement of Kurds from northern Iraq during Saddam's rule – quite enough to ensure that he will never leave jail.

Aziz, now aged 74, is a Chaldean Christian, who along with the Assyrian Christians, have suffered largely unreported collateral damage from the war. Aziz's presence as the only Christian in a secular Ba'athist dictatorship was a factor apparently exploited by Saddam, with veiled threats being made periodically to his family.

That is not to excuse Aziz on the grounds that he was only "following orders" (which hasn't been a defence since the Nuremberg trials in the 1940s), but it may explain why the "Andrei Gromyko" of Iraqi politics stayed even when it was obvious to him, if not Saddam, that the US and Britain were deadly serious about invading."

"Could it be, then, that the death sentence is partly an insurance against any future Iraqi government showing clemency? Tariq Aziz is old and unwell, but he has the mother of stories to tell. Throughout the 1980s, when Saddam was seen as an invaluable bulwark against the Iranian ayatollahs, a succession of western politicians and businessmen paid homage at the court of Tariq Aziz.

Donald Rumsfeld was even pictured watching Iraqi rockets being fired on the Fawr Peninsula. Perhaps Aziz, who could tell the whole story of western involvement in Iraq, before, during and after the war, simply has to be got rid of."

Hanging a frail old man who certainly has only a limited future and would spend his last days in prison anyway. Real butch. Most certainly a symbolic act urged on by the country that invaded, occupied Iraq and slaughtered at least 1,400,000 of it's citizens, and is desperate to cover up it's filthy past in the region spanning several decades.

What Are You Doing?

Twitterbooths

"A curious concept, this public Twitter
Booth in Skolkova, Russia lets social media addicts tweet away from their computers. Whether you’ve misplaced your smartphone or you’re loyal to your landline, this convenient kiosk will serve to update your followers on your whereabouts and more.

The abandoned phone booth prototype is an interesting inspiration for a virtual intermediary—many people caught up in the realm of social media keep smartphones on them at all times. All the same, if I were to stumble across this public Twitter Booth I’d be sure to tweet about it."

Corexit Mission Accomplished

U.S. researchers find oil on bottom of Gulf of Mexico

"HOUSTON, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. scientists said Monday that large amounts of oil have accumulated on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor, contradicting earlier statements by federal officials that the oil leaking from BP's damaged underwater well had largely gone.

Researchers aboard the research ship Cape Hatteras, which ended its research trip to the spill site last week, found oil in samples dug up from the seafloor 140 miles around the site of the ruptured Macondo well, Kevin Yeager, a University of Southern Mississippi assistant professor, told USA Today.

Oil found in samples ranged from light degraded oil to thick raw crude, said Yeager, the chief scientist on the research trip.

A research team on the Arctic Sunrise vessel, sponsored by Greenpeace, also said on Monday that large amounts of oil are still in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We are still seeing a lot of oil out there," John Hocevar, a marine biologist with Greenpeace, said at a news conference on Monday to mark the end of a three-month research trip by the Arctic Sunrise."

It was always "out of sight, out of mind" from the very first. I have a distinct feeling that gov/corp has been calculating this type of shit in the gulf for some time to hide the ecologically devastating results of an oil gusher, whether planned or unplanned, to relieve BP of any direct responsibolity. The fascists know that hiding the direct consequences of their actions will over time let them escape responsibility.
Think A bomb soldiers, Agent Orange, depleted uranium.
If you don't die right away, who's to know?

Talking Points

5. The Conquest of Mars vs the Iraq War (“The contrasts are stark: $145 billion to conquer an entire planet, vs a trillion dollars to fight a war which has accomplished nothing except to sew destruction, kill and maim a lot of innocent people, and enrich the few.”)

Going Down Even More

Yet another sign of our emerging status as a third rate fascist hell hole. I noted in another post our grim decline in comparison to other nations, so add this statistic to our disgraceful resume.
Notice who's occupied client states are second and third from the basement.

U.S. slips to historic low in global corruption index

"(Reuters) - The United States has dropped out of the "top 20" in a global league table of least corrupt nations, tarnished by financial scandals and the influence of money in politics, Transparency International said on Tuesday.

Somalia was judged the most corrupt country, followed by Myanmar and Afghanistan at joint second-worst and then by Iraq, in the Berlin-based watchdog TI's annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).

The United States fell to 22nd from 19th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 7.1 from 7.5 in the 178-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.

This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index's 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20."

Ostentatious Overkill Doesn't Begin To Describe This

Barack Obama's Indian delegation books 800 rooms in Mumbai



"Barack Obama and his travelling delegation have book at least 800 rooms for the president's trip to Mumbai, according to reports, including the entire Taj Mahal hotel.
The president, who is scheduled to set off on a twice-postponed Asian tour with his wife Michelle after next week's midterms, has reportedly block-booked all 570 rooms in the Taj Mahal hotel as a security measure. On top of that, US navy ships will also be deployed, as the president is staying in a hotel by the ocean."
""Obama's contingent is huge," a senior Indian security official told the newspaper. "There are two jumbo jets coming along with Air Force One, which will be flanked by security jets. The President's convoy has 45 cars."
The Economic Times also reported that Mr Obama's delegation is so large that another 300 rooms have reportedly been booked in other luxury Mumbai hotels."

Quick, Let's All Speculate What The Outcome Will Be

BP to fund Fla. seafood inspections

"TALLAHASSEE — Oil giant BP has agreed to pay Florida $20 million over the next three years to cover the cost of seafood inspections and a marketing campaign, Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson will announce Monday.
"We think the plan is sound, we believe that it will protect the consumers across the nation," Bronson said.

The agreement splits the money: $10 million for inspection programs and $10 million for marketing, Bronson said.

He stressed that no contamination of Florida seafood has been found since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana."


"Last night on the news, they reported a fish kill. Before we went to work, I went to the beach by the harbor. The seagulls were everywhere. As for the dead fish, the only ones on the beach, were ones that the tide had left when it went back out. The rest of the 'Fish Kill,' was laying underwater, on the bottom. It was mainly flounder and crab. We only spotted two dead flounder floating that day. I can only imagine how many were on the bottom ... I went back to the beach after work. The tide had gone out and the seagulls were eating all the dead fish that had been exposed. You could still see dead fish underwater, still on the bottom. Dead fish don't float anymore?"
The Tillman's primary concern is the rampant use of toxic dispersants by what they described as private contractors working in unregistered boats, that regularly were going out into the Gulf as they and other VOO teams were coming in from their days' work. There was, oftentimes, so much dispersant on top of the water, their boat left a trail."

October 25, 2002

Senator Paul Wellstone dies in plane crash

"Eight years ago today US Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others died in a plane crash on the Iron Range.
The crash occurred 11 days before the end of a tight Senate race between Democrat Wellstone and his Republican opponent Norm Coleman."


ad sent by Republicans to Minnesota voters just before Wellstone's death


A history of plane crashes that killed fascist opponents (since removed)
By Michael I. Niman, AlterNet October 28, 2002
Professor of journalism and media studies at Buffalo State College.


"Paul Wellstone was the only progressive in the U.S. Senate. Mother Jones magazine once described him as, "The first 1960s radical elected to the U.S. senate." He was also the last. Since defeating incumbent Republican Rudy Boschowitz 12 years ago in a grassroots upset, Wellstone emerged as the strongest, most persistent, most articulate and most vocal Senate opponent of the Bush administration.
In a senate that is one heartbeat away from Republican control, Wellstone was more than just another Democrat. He was often the lone voice standing firm against the status-quo policies of both the Democrats and the Republicans. As such, he earned the special ire of the Bush administration and the Republican Party, who made Wellstone's defeat that party's number one priority this year.
Various White House figures made numerous recent campaign stops in Minnesota to stump for the ailing campaign of Wellstone's Republican opponent, Norm Coleman. Despite being outspent and outgunned, however, polls show that Wellstone's popularity surged after he voted to oppose the Senate resolution authorizing George Bush to wage war in Iraq. He was pulling ahead of Coleman and moving toward a victory that would both be an embarrassment to the Bush administration and to Democratic Quislings such as Hillary Clinton who voted to support "the president."

Then he died.

Wellstone now joins the ranks of other American politicians who died in small plane crashes. Another recent victim was Missouri's former Democratic governor, Mel Carnahan, who lost his life in 2000, three weeks before Election Day, during his Senatorial race against John Ashcroft. Carnahan went on to become the first dead man to win a Senatorial race, humiliating and defeating the unpopular Ashcroft posthumously. Ashcroft, despite his unpopularity, went on to be appointed Attorney General by George W. Bush. Investigators determined that Carnahan's plane went down due to "poor visibility."
Carnahan was the second Missouri politician to die in a small plane crash. The first was Democratic Representative Jerry Litton, whose plane crashed the night he won the Democratic nomination for senate in 1976. His Republican opponent ultimately captured the seat from his successor in November.
While an article in the New York Times on Saturday pointed out the danger politicians face due to their heavy air travel schedules, the death of a senator or member of Congress is still relatively rare, with only one other sitting U.S. Senator, liberal Republican John Heinz, dying in a plane crash since World War II. Heinz, who entered office as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, later emerged as a strong proponent of health care, social services, public transportation and the environment. He also urged reconciliation with Cuba. He died when the landing gear on his small plane failed to function, and a helicopter dispatched to survey the problem crashed into his plane.
One former senator, John Tower, also died in a small plane crash. Tower was best known as the chair of the Tower Commission, which investigated the Reagan/Bush era Iran/Contra scandal.
Another member of a prominent government commission who died in a small plane crash was former Democratic representative and House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. Boggs was best known as one of the seven members of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The commission found that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting alone when he killed the president. Boggs, it turns out, had "strong doubts" that Oswald acted alone, but went along with the commission findings. Later, in 1971 and 1972, he went public with his doubts. He was presumed dead after the small plane carrying him and Democratic Representative Nicholas Begich disappeared in 1972.
Texas Democratic Representative Mickey Leland also died in a plane crash. In his case, the six-term member of Congress and outspoken advocate of sanctions against the apartheid government of South Africa, died while traveling in Ethiopia. Another American politician to die overseas in a plane crash was the Clinton administration's Commerce Secretary, Ronald Brown, whose plane went down in the Balkans.
Anyone familiar with my work knows that I'm certainly not a conspiracy theorist. But to be honest, I know I wasn't alone in my initial reaction at this week's horrible and tragic news: that being my surprise that Wellstone had lived this long. Perhaps it's just my anger and frustration at losing one of the few reputable politicians in Washington, but I also felt shame. Shame for not writing in my column, months ago, that I felt that Paul Wellstone's life, more so than any other politician in Washington, was in danger. I felt that such speculation was unprofessional and would ultimately undermine my credibility. In the end, my own self-interest triumphed, and I never put my concerns into print. Neither did any other mainstream journalist, though I know of many who shared my concern.
When I heard Wellstone's plane went down, I immediately thought of Panamanian General Omar Torrijos, who in 1981 thumbed his nose at the Reagan/Bush administration and threatened to destroy the Panama Canal in the event of a U.S. invasion. Torrijos died shortly thereafter when the instruments in his plane failed to function upon takeoff. Panamanians speculated that the U.S. was involved in the death of the popular dictator, who was replaced by a U.S. intelligence operative, Manuel Noreiga, who previously worked with George Bush Senior."

Obama Mob Bribes Pakistan With $2BillionTo Attack The Pakistani People

Reports: US Military Aid to Pakistan Conditional on North Waziristan Invasion

"Though no conditions were formally attached to the newly announced $2 billion in additional US military aid to Pakistan, diplomatic sources are reporting that the new aid is conditional on the Pakistani government launching their long-promised North Waziristan invasion in a timely fashion.
The US has been pressing for Pakistan to escalate its war in the tribal area for years, with North Waziristan almost always at the center of the targets. Previous offensives have displaced massive numbers of civilians, but netted few militant leaders.

Pakistan has committed large numbers of soldiers to the tribal areas at US behest, and launched a number of offensives, including in South Waziristan and Malakand. The invasion of North Waziristan, which is targeted almost daily by US drone strikes, remains the illusive “next step” for officials, however."

flashback a year ago - Conflict intensifies as winter closes in on displaced families in Pakistan

"Women and children in north-western Pakistan are once again on the move because of conflict in the region.
Fighting between militants and government forces has moved to South Waziristan on the Afghanistan border. In little more than a week, about 57,600 people have taken refuge in the neighbouring districts of Dera Ismail Kahn and Tank. They are the latest of some 2.7 million people who have been displaced since conflict overwhelmed the region in August 2008."

Self Righteous Busybodies Get An Earful

"We're used to seeing videos of anti-abortion activists spewing venom in front of women's clinics, but rarely do we get to see the tables turned. Thanks to Aaron Gouveia, now we do.

He and his 16-weeks-pregnant wife went to a women's clinic in Brookline, Mass. for an abortion after discovering that their baby had a congenital deformity with no chance for survival. On their way in, they were confronted by images of dismembered fetuses and two women yelling, "You're killing your unborn baby!" Enraged, Gouveia decided to confront the protesters while his wife was in surgery, and he caught the whole interaction on his cellphone."

If you want to see a no holds barred movie that accomplishes the unbelievable in exploring the abortion issue while simultaneously being highly entertaining, check out Laura Dern in Citizen Ruth.

The Littlest Terrorists

How bedbugs invaded New York

"The monsters in question may lack the muscle structure of King Kong or the fire-breathing capacity of The Beast, but boy do they bite. Cimex lectularius, the common bedbug, is on the march, steadily extending its reign of terror across the five boroughs and onwards to cities across America."

Bedbugs Invade New York's Lincoln Center

Bedbugs invade file cabinets at SSA offices

Bedbugs invade top stores and 1st class offices

Molotov Cocktail Target Practice

Riotbot

more video game oppression toys

"The Spanish company TechnoRobot has introduced here the RiotBot – a new class of unmanned platform designed for intervention in riots, prison disturbances, or other civil disorders, where neutralization of specific elements is required by law enforcement agents, avoiding direct contact with the crowd. By operating with effective non lethal means to suppress, or deactivate a target without the presence of personnel, RiotBot can eliminate potential threats while minimizing escalation typically caused by police intervention."

"The riotbot weighs about 18 kg (40 pounds) and can travel at a speed of 20 km/h (12 mph), and its weapon are controlled from a game-style hand controller and portable console, monitoring and controlling the vehicle from a distance of one mile. The weapon mount employs a PepperBall TAC700 carbine customized and adapted for safe use on the robot. A video camera is attached to the mount, monitoring the weapon’s aiming line in its field of view. RiotBot packs 450 PAVA balls of ammunition feeding at 700 rounds per minute. The carbine is designed with safety measures enabling it firing only by remote control, therefore preventing hostiles from turning it against the operators. The weapon can tilt at elevations of 30 degrees or depression of -15 degrees, and turn 150 degrees to each side. It is effective at distances from zero of 60 ft."

The Administration Is Above All That Naked Scanner Business

You just know nobody in government goes through them like they force us to do.

Body scanners unveiled at JFK Airport; Homeland Security Sect. Janet Napolitano doesn't volunteer

"Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday hailed them as an important breakthrough for airport security and the fight against terrorism.
Yet when it came to testing the devices - which produce chalky, naked X-ray images of passengers - she turned the floor over to some brave volunteers."
"Going through one is optional for all travelers, but Napolitano hoped to ease any fears that airport staff would use them to leer at passengers.
"Those who read the images are not actually physically at the gate, so they cannot associate an image with an individual person at all," she said.

"And the machines are set so that no image is retained."

And of course she stood there and spat in our faces with that last statement:

“Liar, liar, pants on fire” — Feds keep x-ray images

"As a result of efforts by private organizations — most notably the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) — to uncover the truth about the government’s use of these privacy-invasive devices, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the U.S. Marshals Service, have been forced to admit publicly that the machines in fact do exactly what the feds had assured us they would not do."

Your Talking Cremation Urn

Digital Cloning: Rise of the Cylons?

"Somewhere between epically cool and downright creepy, you can create a digital clone that looks like you, talks like you, sounds like you and takes on your personality, so that future generations can find out all about you after your death. This Intellitar, or intelligent avatar, takes virtual life after death to an entirely different plateau.

"Think of it as a digital clone," Don Davidson, the founder and CEO of Intellitar, told Alabama Local. "We want to give users the gift of immortality while giving future generations a sense of connection to their roots." Davidson intends for Virtual Eternity to take genealogy websites to a whole new level.

Virtual Eternity explains, "Through your Intellitar you will be able to preserve and share your personality, life experiences, knowledge, wisdom and memories in a way never before available."

That's great if it were a family member or someone that you would wish to interact with, but what if it happens 50 years from now? It's not like you would know the name of a great-great grandson who you could give future access to your digital clone. What if your digital clone knows all medical or health history--not something you might wish for just anyone to know?"
"These avatars are meant to be dynamic and interact with people as if the digital clone is a living, breathing real person having a real-time conversation. "An artificial intelligent brain drives it," Davidson said. "It has the ability to capture and maintain a virtually unlimited amount of content." According to this report [PDF], "If you're talking to your grandfather's avatar and you mention your favorite movie is 'The Terminator,' his avatar will remember that and may bring it up in a future conversation." This reports also mentions that Intellitar has been working on a concept of e-Mom..."

I haven't got a clue what drives people to even think about such things, except maybe they want to make money and have a lot of time on their hands.
There's so much stupid involved in this it's embarrassing. But there seems to be a drive to push the envelope with ego stroking technology and I'm sure some people will think this will be absolutely wonderful. Just one question of many - because the virtual you will have the ability to absorb data over time and incorporate it into your digital personality, when does your Intellitar stop being what you were and resemble someone else entirely? Won't that negate the whole purpose?
Just like with the the crazies who have their heads cryogenically frozen, saner future societies will simply pull the plugs to save on the electricity bills.

All About The Flavor Of The Kool Aid

Republicans, Democrats Shift on Whether Gov't Is a Threat



Our overlords love graphs like these.

Supersized Poison Jab

Quadruple-dose seasonal flu "super" vaccine now being aggressively pushed onto senior citizens

"(NaturalNews) The vaccine industry has now decided that injecting senior citizens with the "standard" vaccine dose just isn't working. (Gee, really?) So now they've decided the way to make it work better is to offer a quadruple viral potency vaccine that packs 400% more viral fragments into one toxic shot.

The target for this quadruple vaccine injection? Senior citizens, of course -- the very people most likely to suffer the most serious side effects from a vaccine overdose. The FDA reportedly approved the new vaccine in April even though no scientific tests have ever been done to show it reduces flu symptoms. Then again, since when did vaccines have anything to do with real science in the first place?

Why do people need a quadruple vaccine all of a sudden?
What's especially entertaining about all this is that the FDA's approval of this quadruple potency vaccine is a blatant admission that single-dose vaccines just don't work! Obviously, if the single-dose vaccine was working as advertised, then it would be 100% effective and there would be no need for a double, triple or quadruple-dose vaccine. But all of a sudden, now that the quadruple-dose vaccine is available, the regular single-dose vaccine "isn't good enough."

So all that propaganda about "get a flu shot and you won't get the flu" just turns out to be marketing quackery, because what you really need is a quadruple shot now! Forget the single dose. It's no longer strong enough for you.

So where does this end? When they realize the quadruple shot isn't working either (because seasonal flu vaccines just scientifically do not work on at least 99% of the people), are they going to recommend a ten times the potency flu shot?"

Ask A Rabbi

Leading rabbi encourages IDF soldiers to use Palestinian human shields

"A leading rabbi in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar has encouraged Israel Defense Forces soldiers to make use of the outlawed "neighbor procedure" while operating in Palestinian areas.
"Anything you do to keep the war tough is permissible, and obligatory according to the torah," Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, headmaster of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, wrote in fliers distributed to his students."

Major rabbi says non-Jews are donkeys, created to serve Jews

"A major Jewish religious figure in Israel has likened non-Jews to donkeys and beasts of burden, saying the main reason for their very existence is to serve Jews."

Public outcry ensues after rabbis tell Jews not to rent to Arabs

"Several MKs and nonprofit organizations demand a criminal investigation of Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and 17 other rabbis."

Rabbi declares sleeping with the enemy kosher

"Female Mossad agents are granted permission to use "an efficient weapon" that can take down "the strongest of the strong:" Seduction."

Renowned Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira Declared that Judaic Women Will Burn in Hell for Wearing Fake Wigs

Italian Protesters Celebrate Police Presence

Bureaucratic Dullards Again Instruct The Kids

school to children - don't bother

Most school garden produce is forbidden fruit in CPS lunchrooms

"It's harvest time in Chicago Public School gardens full of chubby tomatoes, heavy squash and fragrant basil.

These urban oases, carefully tended by teachers, students and volunteers, range from several square feet to several acres of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers, and some schools even grow plants year-round in school greenhouses.

But one thing the more than 40 gardens have in common is that none of the produce ever finds its way into CPS lunchrooms. Instead, because of rules set by the district and its meal provider, the food is sold or given away.

The policies are in place despite the high obesity rate among Illinois children and experts' concerns that young people are eating few fresh vegetables. Meanwhile, a studies suggest children eat and accept vegetables much more readily when they have helped grow

But in a district that touts its use of some local produce in the lunchroom, the most local of all remains forbidden fruit.

Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary of agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recently toured a CPS school garden at the Academy for Global Citizenship on the Southwest Side. There, two second-grade girls showed her the eggplant, squash and tomatoes they grew, along with the chickens they kept for eggs.

"Ideally, all of those products would make it from the garden to the lunchroom," Merrigan said.

But rules created by CPS and its meals supplier, Chartwells-Thompson, prevent that from happening."

KING5.com Story - High School Refs Could Be Penalized for Pink Whistles

$1,000,000,000 Wasted On 53 Miles Of Corruption

Not according to Boeing who was paid around $3,600 a foot.

Costly virtual border fence in tatters

"The Department of Homeland Security, positioning itself to cut its losses on a so-called invisible fence along the U.S.- Mexico border, has decided not to exercise a one-year option for Boeing to continue work on the troubled multibillion-dollar project involving high-tech cameras, radar and vibration sensors.

The result, after an investment of more than $1 billion, may be a system with only 53 miles of unreliable coverage along the nearly 2,000-mile border.

The virtual fence was intended to link advanced monitoring technologies to command centers for Border Patrol to identify and thwart human trafficking and drug smuggling. But from the beginning, the program has been plagued by missed deadlines and the limitations of existing electronics in rugged, unpredictable wilderness where high winds and a tumbleweed can be enough to trigger an alarm."

"But given that the virtual fence has yet to pass muster even in the 53-mile test area — two sections in Arizona that officials acknowledge won't be fully operational until 2013 — and the government's lack of interest in extending Boeing's contract, most do not expect the department to invest billions more in a project that has continually disappointed."

October 23, 4004 BC

Capricious Cloud Dude Jumpstarts An Earth.

Archbishop calculates biblical begets to pinpoint exact moment of creation

"He was a prolific scholar, who most famously published a chronology that purported to establish the time and date of the creation as the night preceding Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC, according to the proleptic Julian calendar."

stop laughing

related - Did Google Street View Find God Above a Swiss Lake?


"Who are those blurry, possibly robed figures hovering above a lake in Quarten, Switzerland, visible on Google Street View? Is it something on the camera lens? Or is it maybe… God and His only begotten Son? And who’s to say that God isn’t “something on the lens,” in some kind of a cosmic, metaphysical sense?"

more probably Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty

You Would Have To Be Suicidal

America declared that ninety six percent of the Gulf of Mexico is open to fishing

"On Friday seven thousand square miles or eighteen thousand square kilometers of water in the Gulf of Mexico was opened to fishing by the US authorities.

With this move ninety six percent of water of the Gulf of Mexico can be considered safe after the incident of the oil spill.

According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration the latest area that has been opened is eighty nautical miles south of Florida panhandles."

It Was Always Hot Jungle Fever

I always scoffed at what the history books said was the demise of the neanderthals, that cro magnon man somehow wiped them out with warfare or some sort of higher technology.
What happened was that everybody fucked them out of existence.



And yet more evidence dogmatic anthropology is totally wrong.
And not just wrong but an intentional body of lies. Read "Forbidden Archeology" by Michael Cremo.

250,000 year old mammoth hunters from central Mexico

"Archaeologists and anthropologists say the Hueyátlaco site is impossible. In no way were humans actively hunting mammoth and mastodon in the Valsequillo Reservoir area of south-central Mexico a quarter-million years ago. Much less could they produce elegant incised art work. And/or perhaps even nibble on maize.

Geologists say that may be true, at least according to established theory. But then you must explain away: (1) Well made stone tools associated with remains of butchered extinct Pleistocene animals dated by the uranium-series methods at 250,000 years. (2) Overlying (younger) beds of volcanic ejecta (pumice and coarse ash) giving roughly similar zircon fissiontrack dates. (3) Infinite 14C dates (no carbon remains). (4) A primitive human skull, collected in the area over 100 years ago, filled with microfossils (diatoms) including several taxa that either became extinct or first appeared during the Sangamon Interglacial 80,000 to ca 320,000 years ago. (5) A similar Sangamon-age diatom suite collected from the artifact-bearing layers and overlying sediment. (6) A layer of volcanic ash from deep within a sediment core in Mexico City, associated with grains of maize pollen, that might be the same age.

Hueyátlaco is a dangerous site. To even publicly mention the geological evidence for its great age is to jeopardize one’s professional career."

Assholes Are About To Backtrack Again Due To Publicity

Happens a lot now. Common sense over ruled, firestorm of ridicule, my bad.

Tax collector tries to squash Lewiston family's pumpkin stand

"LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) -- A Lewiston, Idaho family that's operating a pumpkin stand is scared out of its gourd after a state tax collector showed up and tried to squash the business.
The Lewiston Tribune reports the Idaho State Tax Commission has called for the closure of a family's pumpkin stand in this mill city along the Snake and Clearwater rivers.
Dan and Kami Charais told the newspaper that a Tax Commission employee informed them the stand was in violation of laws and had to shut its doors.
The couple says their 4- and 6-year-old children had been carving out a niche for themselves in the local jack-o-lantern market -- to raise money for school sports, they say.
A Tax Commission representative in Boise told The Associated Press it's gathering information but declined to immediately comment."

Tainted Leaker Cites Proven Liars

Document says Iranians crossed border to arrest hikers

driven snow pure

"Washington (CNN) -- A classified U.S. military document appears to lend credence to claims that Iran crossed the Iraqi border to arrest three American hikers.

The field report was one of 400,000 the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks released Friday concerning U.S. and coalition operations in Iraq.

The report lists a number of military grids where the Americans were believed to have been hiking or had been detained -- all on the Iraqi side of the border, according to The New York Times, which reviewed the document with aid from an American government official."

“The Hiking Division is for Mossad agents who can't quite bring themselves to assassinate someone.”

Last time the ziofascists pulled this propaganda stunt:

Iranian Vessels Seize 15 British Navy Personnel in Iraqi Waters
caution, Faux

That particular incident was right before a UN decision to possibly impose sanctions on Israel's targeted rival. Anything to discredit an intended foe.


No coincidence - Assange and Gadahn's new "leaks"

Tea Party Douchebaggery

American Troll Party, just like their brethren megaphonies.

Our Masters Of The Universe Screw The Pooch Yet Again

China Halts Rare-Earth Elements Exports to US, EU

"Market analysts reveal that China, which controls an estimated 90+ percent of the world market in this field, quietly stopped exporting the essential chemicals to the US and the European Union (EU)."

Why The Chinese Monopoly On Rare Earth Elements Is So Incredibly Dangerous

"Most Americans have no idea why rare earth elements are important or why the Chinese monopoly on them is so dangerous. But now that China is enforcing strict new quotas on the export of these metals a lot more people are going to start learning about them. So just exactly what are they? Well, "rare earth elements" is a name that has been given to 17 metals from the middle of the Periodic Table with nearly unpronounceable names such as lanthanum, cerium, tantalum, neodymium and europium. These metals are used in an increasing number of high technology products. Everything from iPods to wind turbines to missile-guidance systems use these metals. Unfortunately, today China controls over 90 percent of the world supply of rare earth elements. This puts China in an incredibly powerful position.

It was a huge mistake for the rest of the world to let China develop such a monopoly. These metals are absolutely essential in today's world.

Just consider a few of the products that use rare earth elements....

*Hybrid car batteries
*Flat screen televisions
*Cell phones
*iPods
*Radar systems
*Missile-guidance systems
*Satellites
*Aircraft electronics
*Smart bombs
*Electric car engines

Are you ready for a world without iPods or cell phones?

Well, that is what we would potentially be facing without these rare earth elements.

Now China has announced that they will be significantly cutting back on the export of these metals.

However, there are no export quotas on rare earth metals contained in finished goods from China.

So do you know what that means?

It means even more things will now be made in China.

The rest of the world can start to develop their own supplies of rare earth elements, but that is going to take time and it is going to be very expensive.
Meanwhile, China is going to be developing an increasingly tighter grip over the manufacturing of high-tech products."

The Chances of a War with China are Rising

US Sells Record Weaponry To Home Of Supposed 9/11 Terrorists

It's all a lie.

US Announces Massive Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia

"WASHINGTON – In its biggest arms deal ever, the United States announced it will sell up to 60 billion dollars worth of warplanes, helicopters and other weapons to Saudi Arabia, partly to help it counter Iran.
The plan allows for the sale of 84 F-15 fighter jets, 70 Apache attack helicopters, 72 tactical Black Hawk helicopters and 36 light helicopters, assistant secretary for political-military affairs Andrew Shapiro said.
The sale, which also includes the upgrade of 70 used F-15s, is "not to exceed 60 billion" dollars, Shapiro told reporters as President Barack Obama's administration notified Congress of its plans to make the deal."

Official: 15 of 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi

9/11 hijackers tied to Saudi government, Graham says in book


Bush mob 8/31/06 - "We have made it clear to all nations that if you harbor terrorists, you are just as guilty as the terrorists, you are an enemy of the United States, and you will be held to account."

"Let's Pretend We Actually Did Shit Out Here" White House Garden Harvest Photo Op

wearing her fierce hunter-gatherer best, Michele is frozen in a fear grimace at an unidentifiable garden thing

The Phony Liberal Side Of The Fascist Coin

The Justice Department Falsified a Judge’s Ruling in Order to Continue Unlawfully Imprisoning a Possibly Mentally Ill Man at Guantanamo

"When Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. ordered the release of a Guantánamo Bay detainee last spring, the case appeared to be a routine setback for an Obama administration that has lost a string of such cases.
But there turns out to be nothing ordinary about the habeas case brought by Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, a Yemeni held without charges for nearly eight years. Uthman, accused by two U.S. administrations of being an al-Qaida fighter and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, is among 48 detainees the Obama administration has deemed too dangerous to release but "not feasible for prosecution."

A day after his March 16 order was filed on the court's electronic docket, Kennedy's opinion vanished. Weeks later, a new ruling appeared in its place. While it reached the same conclusion, eight pages of material had been removed, including key passages in which Kennedy dismantled the government's case against Uthman.
In his first opinion, Kennedy wrote that one government witness against Uthman had been diagnosed by military doctors as "psychotic" with a mental condition that made his allegations against other detainees "unreliable." But the opinion the public sees makes no mention of the man's health and discounts his testimony only because of its inconsistencies.

The alterations are extensive. Sentences were rewritten. Footnotes that described disputes and discrepancies in the government's case were deleted. Even the date and circumstances of Uthman's arrest were changed."

"The ability to influence Kennedy's opinion gives the government a public relations advantage," Gillers said. "These battles are fought outside the court system as well as within it."

h-t to Disinformation

Fascists Want To Park Tanks In Front Of Your House As A Reminder Who's Boss

‘Exterminator’ armored truck will watch Illinois neighborhoods

"Creative law enforcement isn't new to St. Clair County Sheriff Mearl Justus.
Last year, the dean of the region's chief cops sponsored a "haunted crack house" that used an old grange hall to depict the life of a young drug addict.
Before that, Justus publicized a "drug house of the week," aimed at shaming dealers into leaving town.
On Tuesday, his deputies lifted a plastic tarp to unveil his newest idea: an armored truck to park in problem neighborhoods as a vandal-proof platform to transmit live pictures.
"I thought about a lot of names ... I thought 'The Cockroach' would've probably been appropriate, but we settled on 'The Exterminator,'" Justus told reporters.
The donated and rebuilt armored truck, once used to carry cash, is fitted with cameras, digital recorders and gear to stream live video. Deputies will park it in front of the "dwellings of troublemakers" — for days at a time, if necessary — to reduce nuisance crimes.
"It sends a message," Justus said. "We will not tolerate drug trafficking, littered lawns, loud noise and other neighborhood nuisances." He said the cameras should keep criminals on the run and give residents peace of mind.
Critics say such policing efforts are ineffectual, and just move crime down the road. Justus said the truck will address local problems one at a time. "It's that house down the street. That is their concern in their neighborhood," the longtime sheriff suggested.
Residents can request the truck by contacting the Sheriff's Department online at www.theexterminator.us, or by phoning 618-277-3505.

"I lay in bed at night dreaming this stuff up," Justus joked."

Stay very afraid.

Plane does fly-by over famous bridge

How To Ensure Utter Failure

Word will get around that it's all or nothing.

Apache crew killed insurgents who tried to surrender

"A US gunship crew was cleared to attack two insurgents on the ground even though the pilots had reported that the men were trying to surrender, the leaked Iraq war logs reveal.

The Apache helicopter pilots killed both Iraqi men after being advised by a US military lawyer that they could not surrender to an aircraft and therefore remained valid targets. A leading military law expert consulted by the Guardian has questioned this legal advice.

The Guardian can also reveal that the helicopter involved in the incident in 2007 had the same call sign – Crazyhorse 18 – as the Apache whose crew later mistakenly killed two Reuters journalists and injured two children in a notorious shooting in urban Baghdad. The killings drew worldwide condemnation in April this year when WikiLeaks obtained video footage taken from the helicopter's gun camera and released it on the internet."

It's A Miracle, The Headline Squawks

No Evidence Gulf Oil Spill Killed Fish, Says NOAA

"(CNSNews.com) – There is no evidence the Deep Water Horizon oil spill killed any fish, according to federal and state officials overseeing the oil cleanup, while captured commercial fish passed testing by multiple government agencies. But even with plenty of fish in the sea, the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico is still suffering from a big perception problem.

chow down, peasants. because the seagulls won't


added - Another nonsense headline from the corrupt MSM, designed to confuse our overlords' ambitions with the independence of the countries that oppose them.

Iran, Venezuela leaders seek 'new world order'

Steal Some Jeans, Get Some Genes

Invisible DNA body spray technology may soon be installed at a business near you

"(NaturalNews) A U.K. company has developed a technology that it says will help deter thieves from robbing local businesses. SelectaDNA Spray, as it is called, coats robbers with an invisible DNA mist that cannot be washed off and remains present on skin and hair for weeks, allowing authorities to better link culprits to the crimes they commit. The system is already used in nine other countries, and will soon be coming to the U.S., according to reports.

The SelectaDNA company says the mist "cling[s] to fib[er]s and sit[s] in creases of the skin" after being sprayed, which can then be scanned with special ultraviolet light. Proponents of the system say the mist provides the solid evidence needed to prove the guilt of criminals, but others wonder how effective and accurate the system actually is in practical terms.

When the mist is sprayed, there is no telling how many innocent bystanders will also get coated in the DNA and be potentially linked to crimes they did not commit. And if criminals are able to obtain cans of the DNA themselves, they may use it to frame other people for crimes.

Although the company claims the spray is "harmless", it is said to penetrate both hair and skin, which may cause unknown damage to health. And when sprayed, the substance is likely inhaled by everyone within close proximity, implanting microscopic DNA and other substances in their lungs.

Thus far, no businesses that have installed SelectaDNA Spray have been robbed, which indicates that it may be effective at deterring crimes. But since the technology has yet to be used in a real-life situation, it is difficult to say whether or not it actually helps to solve crimes.

Overall crime rates have remained roughly the same in areas where SelectaDNA Spray systems have been installed, as criminals have simply resorted to robbing businesses that do not use the technology, say officials."