Pushing The Envelope With Fascist Checkpoints

Arizona adopting "no refusal weekend" at sobriety checkpoints

"TUCSON - The week between Christmas and New Year's is a traditional time for celebration and parties.
Unfortunately, it's also a traditional time for drunk driving. Now, the federal government is urging states to use a new tactic - a "no refusal weekend."
If a driver refuses a breathalyzer test while driving through a sobriety checkpoint, a judge will be standing by, ready to sign a search warrant for an immediate blood sample. A nurse can then take a sample on the spot."

And we all know the cops never single out certain drivers for that 'special' treatment.
A question I would ask is this - what happens if a driver doesn't want to have a needle stuck in his/her arm? Do you get tazed and wrestled to the ground by uniformed thugs? This sort of shit simply must be stopped now or we will wind up with that knock at midnight and nice new accomodations at at a Napolitano camp.

TSA Wants To Expand Groping Of Vaginas

The thugs pretend the public is in danger from your Terrorist Twat.

The TSA's state-mandated molestation

"The holiday brought bittersweet news: unless the Transportation Security Authority disbands, I'll never see a certain friend of mine again. His long-term unemployment finally ended, and next month, he starts a great new job. But it's in Texas, too far to drive; from my place in Connecticut to his new home in San Antonio is 2,000 miles – 500 more than separates London from Moscow.
As an American – that is, someone considered lucky to get seven consecutive days off work – the only way I could possibly travel such distance is to fly. But flying includes the legal obligation I submit to having my genitalia groped by some TSA thug wearing the same latex gloves already shoved down nine dozen other strangers' underwear. There's only two ways an American flyer can reliably avoid this: be rich enough to buy your own plane, or a high-ranking congressman or other VIP exempt from the indignities they inflict upon ordinary citizens.
The ACLU maintains an ever-growing database of these indignities, many so graphic they're illegal to broadcast over public airwaves. Actions that violate FCC standards are embraced by the TSA. "Mary in Texas" reported:
The TSA agent used her hands to feel under and between my breasts. She then rammed her hand up into my crotch until it jammed into my pubic bone ... I was touched in the pubic region in between my labia ... She then moved her hand across my pubic region and down the inner part of my upper thigh to the floor. She repeated this procedure on the other side. I was shocked and broke into tears.
A woman named Chris said:
"In the four times she explored the area where my inner thigh met my crotch, she touched my labia each time, and one pass made contact with my clitoris, through two layers of clothing. I told her I felt humiliated, assaulted and abused ... In my work as a nurse, if I did what the TSA did against a patient's will it would be considered assault and battery, and I did not see how the TSA should have different rules."
Recipients of such treatment aren't allowed to show distress. Melissa from Massachusetts did anyway:
"I was shaking and crying the entire time. I was begging them to hurry up but they kept stopping and telling me to calm down. It is impossible to gain composure when a stranger has her hands in your underwear."
I couldn't. I know my limits: can't sprout wings and fly, spin straw into gold, or ooze obedience toward anyone who'd treat me as the TSA treats Melissa, Mary, Chris and countless others. And once I said something rude – even an obscenity-free comment like "Have fun on your knees, sniffing my crotch like the dog that you are" – I'd be arrested on terrorism charges and the media would run sympathetic stories about poor TSA agents disliked for merely following orders. Self-described patriots would say "Disrespecting authority is unAmerican" and recommend harsh punishment for me."

50% Of Americans One Paycheck Away From Needing Government Assistance

Nobody has shit and it's worse by the hour.
The planned looting and collapse is progressing on schedule.

Retirement account fantasy and middle class erosion – 1 out of 3 Americans has zero dollars in a retirement account. From 1950 to 1989 top 1 percent earned roughly 7 to 8 percent of nationwide income. Today it is inching closer to 20 percent resembling pre-Great Depression levels.

"Many Americans live precariously close to the edge of financial insolvency flirting with economic disaster daily. If you casually browse mainstream articles and watch any amount of television you would think that the US still had a vibrant and strong middle class. When we pull back the covers on the current financial situation we realize that many Americans are merely getting by and many would like to live in some 1984 Orwellian fantasy world where suddenly things are back to financial equilibrium. 43 million Americans are depending on government food assistance to get by. But many more millions are merely living paycheck to paycheck hidden in the cellar of the headlines. 1 out of 3 Americans has zero in any retirement account (not one slowly eroding dollar). Half of Americans have $2,000 or less which puts them one month away from needing government assistance. With the volatile job market and turbulent Wall Street middle class Americans are feeling the once prided stability being slowly washed away."

Meanwhile...

Billions More For Bank Of America, Wells Fargo Within 12 Months

Attack Of The Claims Adjusters

"Disorderly Conduct" Is The Fascist Default For Disobedience To Our Police State

Man Strips at Va. Airport to Protest Screening

"Police say a man stripped to his underwear at a Virginia airport checkpoint in a protest against security procedures. Airport police said the man took off his shirt and pants at Richmond International Airport on Thursday. He had scrawled across his chest a reference to the Constitution's 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Police identified the man as 21-year-old Aaron B. Tobey of Charlottesville, Va. He told police he was a student at the University of Cincinnati. Tobey was interviewed by airport police and federal authorities, issued a citation for disorderly conduct and released. He is scheduled for arraignment on Jan. 10."

Rogues's Gallery Of Reptilians

Zen over at Before it's News has updated the Faces Of Evil That Rule The World, check it out.
The eyes have it.


Baron Philippe de Rothschild himself

separated at birth

Burn The Witches

Europe to ban hundreds of herbal remedies

FLASHBACK: Associated Press – Prescription drug reactions kill more than 100,000 Americans a year

"Hundreds of herbal medicinal products will be banned from sale in Britain next year under what campaigners say is a “discriminatory and disproportionate” European law.
With four months to go before the EU-wide ban is implemented, thousands of patients face the loss of herbal remedies that have been used in the UK for decades.
From 1 May 2011, traditional herbal medicinal products must be licensed or prescribed by a registered herbal practitioner to comply with an EU directive passed in 2004. The directive was introduced in response to rising concern over adverse effects caused by herbal medicines."

We Hardly Knew Ye

America Has Gone Away

"Anyone who doesn’t believe that the US is an incipient fascist state needs only to consult the latest assault on civil liberty by Fox News (sic). Instead of informing citizens, Fox News (sic) informs on citizens. Jason Ditz reports (antiwar.com Dec. 28) that Fox News (sic) "no longer content to simply shill for a growing police state," turned in a grandmother to the Department of Homeland Security for making "anti-American comments."
The media have segued into the police attitude, which regards insistence on civil liberties and references to the Constitution as signs of extremism, especially when the Constitution is invoked in defense of dissent or privacy or placarded on a bumper sticker. President George W. Bush set the scene when he declared: "you are with us or against us."
Bush’s words demonstrate a frightening decline in our government’s respect for dissent since the presidency of John F. Kennedy. In a speech to the Newspaper Publishers Association in 1961, President Kennedy said:
"No president should fear public scrutiny of his program, for from that scrutiny comes understanding, and from that understanding comes support or opposition; and both are necessary. . . . Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed, and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian law makers once decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment."
The press is not protected, Kennedy told the newspaper publishers, in order that it can amuse and entertain, emphasize the trivial, or simply tell the public what it wants to hear. The press is protected so that it can find and report facts and, thus, inform, arouse "and sometimes even anger public opinion."
In a statement unlikely to be repeated by an American president, Kennedy told the newspaper publishers: "I’m not asking your newspapers to support an administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people, for I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed."

"Today the press is a propaganda ministry for the government. Any member who departs from his duty to lie and spin the news is expelled from the fraternity. A public increasingly unemployed, broke and homeless is told that they have vast enemies plotting to destroy them in the absence of annual trillion dollar expenditures for the military/security complex, wars lasting decades, no-fly lists, unlimited spying and collecting of dossiers on citizens supplemented by neighbors reporting on neighbors, full body scanners at airports, shopping centers, metro and train stations, traffic checks, and the equivalence of treason with the uttering of a truth."

12/30/1903

The deadly balance between profits and oversight.

Iroquois Theatre fire

"The Iroquois Theatre fire occurred on December 30, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. It is the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in United States history. At least 602 people died as a result of the fire but not all the deaths were reported."

"Despite being billed as "Absolutely Fireproof" in advertisements and playbills, numerous deficiencies in fire readiness were apparent. An editor of Fireproof Magazine had toured the building during construction and had noted "the absence of an intake, or stage draft shaft; the exposed reinforcement of the (proscenium) arch; the presence of wood trim on everything and the inadequate provision of exits." A Chicago Fire Department captain who made an unofficial tour of the theatre days before the official opening noted that there were no extinguishers, sprinklers, alarms, telephones, or water connections; the only firefighting equipment available were six canisters of a dry chemical called "Kilfyre", which was normally used to douse residential chimney fires.
The captain pointed out the deficiencies to the theatre's fire warden but was told that nothing could be done, as the fire warden would simply be dismissed if he brought the matter up with the syndicate of owners. When the captain reported the matter to his commanding officer, he was again told that nothing could be done, as the theatre already had a fire warden."

"At about 3:15 P.M., late in the second act, a dance number was in progress when an arc light shorted and ignited a muslin curtain."

"By this time, many of the patrons on all levels were quickly attempting to exit the theatre. Some had located the fire exits hidden behind draperies on the north side of the building, but found that they could not open the unfamiliar bascule locks. One door was opened by a man who had a bascule lock in his home and two were opened either by brute force or by a blast of air, but most of the other doors could not be opened. Some patrons panicked, crushing or trampling others in a desperate attempt to escape the fire. Some perished while trapped in dead ends or while attempting to open "doors" that were in reality windows designed to look like doors."

"Those in the orchestra section were able to exit into the foyer and out the front door, but those in the dress circle and gallery who escaped the fireball were unable to reach the foyer because the iron grates that barred the stairways were still in place. The largest death toll was at the base of these stairways, where hundreds of people were trampled, crushed, or asphyxiated.
Patrons who were able to escape via the emergency exits on the north side found themselves on the unfinished fire escapes. Many jumped or fell from the icy, narrow fire escapes; the bodies of the first jumpers broke the falls of those who followed them."

Strangely, Doobs For Food Wildly Successfull

Free pot promotion brings in tons of food donations at Calif. medical marijuana dispensary

"SOQUEL, Calif. (AP) — A California medical marijuana dispensary has raked in food donations with a unique offer: free pot.The Granny Purps dispensary in Soquel (soh-KEL'), about 60 miles southeast of San Francisco, offered a complimentary marijuana cigarette for every four cans of food a patient brought in this holiday season. Each patient was limited to a maximum of three cigarettes a day.The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that the dispensary took in 11,000 pounds of food and handed out 2,000 marijuana cigarettes between November and Christmas Eve, when the promotion ended.

The food was donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank.Second Harvest spokesman Danny Keith says Granny Purps, which only has eight employees, contributed the amount of food that would normally come from a business with 30 to 40 workers."

The Rich Shall Not Be Embarrassed

Prostitute probe skips 248 area code

"Detroit — Federal prosecutors are refusing to reveal customers from Oakland County and the 248 area code who hired hookers from a high-priced escort service but are willing to out clients from Detroit, according to federal court records.
The legal tactic was unveiled in records filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit involving the Miami Companions escort service.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and FBI busted the international escort service in July, indicted the owners and three employees on prostitution or money-laundering charges and seized a black book bulging with tens of thousands of customer names, job details and contact information.
Paul DeCailly, the attorney for Miami Companions co-owner Greg Carr, flew to Detroit last week to review the black book. He wanted to see the names of clients from Michigan and Ohio, but the U.S. Attorney's Office said he could see only the names from the 313 and 734 area codes, he said.

"There must be something there they don't want anybody to see," DeCailly said Tuesday. "In the 248 area code, a lot of influential people live there: musicians, Detroit's sports elite, politicians. ... It's the center of a lot of activity in the business community.

Proof That Wikileaks Is A Zionist Operation

ADL TO ATTACK JOURNALISTS AND PUBLICATIONS TYING ISRAEL TO WIKILEAKS

"Last week, responding to a deluge of news reports tying Israel to Wikileaks, Julian Assange announced he finally planned to release 3700 cables from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, documents previously withheld from the public. In a press release, Assange said he planned the “dump” in 6 months but didn’t indicate how many other documents involving Israel were being withheld.
Veterans Today has been informed by sources within the ADL that, in coordination with Julian Assange’s announcement, they were “tasked” by the Tel Aviv government to begin operations against journalists and online publications that had let to Wikileaks being discredited as an Israeli intelligence operation. Sources indicate that Tel Aviv values Wikileaks as a vital asset in molding public opinion and providing cover for high risk operations.
ADL’s website is loading up with warnings and attacks, all defending Wikileaks and Julian Assange and attacking news sources that print materials either critical of Julian Assange or citing Israel’s involvement in Wikileak’s agreement to allow material critical of Israel to be censored."
"It isn’t a very well kept secret that the ADL and AIPAC are agencies of Israeli intelligence. Their litany of transgressions is being dragged into the open by former AIPAC Lobbyist Steve Rosen in his defamation lawsuit against that organization. In 2004, the FBI tried to close AIPAC down for spying, only to see their criminal cases blocked by Bush administration officials.
Now, with the ADL openly going after the press for reporting ties between Julian Assange and Israel and Assange’s agreement to allow Wikileaks to be censored by both Israel and press organizations working with them, has exposed Wikileaks to even more embarrassment.

ADL actions to publicly defend Wikileaks is blowing up in their faces."

Human History Evidence Continues To Shatter Science Dogma

Far more ancient modern human remains found in Israel

"Israeli archaeologists said Monday they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans.
A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old."

Study: Neanderthals cooked, ate vegetables

"Neanderthals were more like us than we thought.
A new study shows they cooked and ate veggies, challenging an earlier theory that the early humans were carnivorous.
Researchers found starch granules from plant grains in their teeth, leading them to believe the early humans did not -- as previously thought -- have an exclusively meat-based diet. It also debunks the theory that Neanderthals became extinct because of dietary deficiencies.
Neanderthals ate various plants and included cooked grains as part of a more sophisticated, diverse diet similar to early modern humans, according to the researchers at George Washington University and The Smithsonian Institute."

Denisovans? Fossil Discovery Is Neither Modern Human Nor Neanderthal

"A 30,000-year-old finger bone found in a cave in southern Siberia came from a young girl that was neither an early modern human nor Neanderthal, but instead belonged to a previously unknown group of human relatives who may have lived throughout much of Asia during the late Pleistocene epoch, according to new research (Reich, D. et al. Nature 468, 1053-1060 2010.The fossil evidence consists of just a bone fragment and one tooth but DNA extracted from the bone has yielded a draft 3-billion-letter nuclear genome sequence (Krause, J. et al. Nature 464, 894-897 2010), enabling the scientists to make some conclusions about this extinct branch of the human family tree, called "Denisovans" after the cave where the fossils were found."

Everything we're told about ancient human history on this planet is a lie, or at the least very stupid supposition. In the 1800s science dogma literally became a religion much more important than the truth, and so any anthropological or archeological evidence that didn't conform to accepted paradigms was dismissed and ridiculed. As the evidence kept mounting that official fairy tales were hogwash, the more zealously guarded the religion became.

Read Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race by Michael Cremo.
From his website:

"In 1849, gold was discovered in the gravels of ancient riverbeds on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in central California, drawing hordes of rowdy adventurers to places like Brandy City, Last Chance, Lost Campe, You Bet, and Poker Flat. Occasionally, the miners would find stone artifacts, and more rarely, human fossils.
Altogether, miners found hundreds of stone implements - mortars, pestles, platters, grinders, and so forth. Many of the specimens found their way into the collection of Mr. C.D. Voy, a part-time employee of the California Geological Survey. Voy's collection eventually came into the possession of the University of California, and the most significant artifacts were reported to the scientific community by J.D. Whitney, then the state geologist of California.
J.D. Whitney thought the geological evidence indicated the auriferous--or gold-bearing-- gravels, and the sophisticated stone tools found in them, were at least Pliocene in age. But modern geologists think some of the gravel deposits, which lie beneath volcanic formations, are much older.
The majority of gold-bearing gravels were laid down in stream channels during the Eocene and Early Oligocene. During the Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene, volcanic activity in the same region covered some of the auriferous gravels with deposits of rhyolite, andesite, and latite.
In particular, widespread andesitic mudflows and conglomerates were deposited during the Miocene. These attained a considerable thickness, varying from more than 3,000 feet along the crest of the Sierras to 500 feet in the foothills. The volcanic flows were so extensive that they almost completely buried the bedrock landscape of the northern Sierra Nevada mountain region.
Over the course of time, rivers carved deep channels up to a couple of thousand feet below the level of the prevolcanic gravels. This allowed Gold Rush miners to reach the auriferous gravels by digging horizontal tunnels into the sides of the channels. The advanced stone tools found in these tunnels could be from Eocene to Pliocene in age. California State Geologist J. D. Whitney concluded that modern man existed in California previous to the cessation of volcanic activity in the Sierra Nevada."

50,000,000 years ago

Think The TSA Isn't A Bunch Of Thugs?

Obscene, threatening comments posted at anti-TSA website traced to Homeland Security servers

"(NaturalNews) Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seem to now be going on the offensive against those who oppose its new invasive and unconstitutional airport security protocols being carried out by agents of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA). According to George Donnelly, owner of WeWontFly.com, government workers appear to be posting hateful messages on his anti-TSA blog under the guise of anonymity.

One such comment, which has since been deleted, said, "F**k you, f**k all you c**ksuckers, you wont change anything." Another stated, "Ride the bus, TSA is here to stay there [sic] doing a great job keeping americia [sic] safe."

Donnelly says that upon tracing the origin of the comments, he discovered that they came from the servers of dhs.gov, the official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Nineteen comments in total were all posted from the same server, including the two previously mentioned. And while all were worded in different tones and voices, they all expressed hostility to those opposing the TSA."

Labor Bureau Catches Up To Reality

But watch as they somehow use this to fudge the severity of the depression.

U.S. changes how it measures LONG-term unemployment

"So many Americans have been jobless for so long that the government is changing how it records long-term unemployment.
Citing what it calls "an unprecedented rise" in long-term unemployment, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), beginning Saturday, will raise from two years to five years the upper limit on how long someone can be listed as having been jobless.

The move could help economists better measure the severity of the nation's prolonged economic downturn.

The change is a sign that bureau officials "are afraid that a cap of two years may be 'understating the true average duration' — but they won't know by how much until they raise the upper limit," says Linda Barrington, an economist who directs the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Likening recessionary unemployment spikes in recent decades to a storm at sea, she says, "The waves are getting higher, and we want to understand the intricacies of how they're made up."

The change involves the form used for the bureau's Current Population Survey, based on interviews with thousands of the unemployed. Currently, no matter how much longer than two years someone has been out of work, the form allows interviewers to check off only "99 weeks or over." Starting next month, jobless stints of "260 weeks and over" can be selected on the response form."

Revolutionary Way To Rob A Motel

Police seek two musketeers after robbery with musket

"ST. JOHN'S — Two musketeers are on the lam after a failed attempt to hold up a Super 8 motel with — you guessed it — a musket.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is seeking the public's help in identifying the young males who were caught on camera entering a St. John's motel and pointing the unusual weapon at front desk staff.
Police say the incident happened just before 6 p.m. Saturday.
The two men, one of whom was armed with a musket, demanded money from the clerk."

How Bad Is It?

Uninsured americans soar over 50 million

"As the Great Recession has sown unemployment and downgraded work even for those people who have held on to their jobs, the number of Americans lacking healthcare has swelled beyond 50 million, according to a sobering new report from the Kaiser Foundation.
Among the report's most troubling findings: The number of Americans without any health care coverage grew by more than four million in 2009. That left almost one-fifth of non-elderly people uninsured. Among those between 19 and 29 years old, nearly one-third lacked coverage.
The study underscores the degree to which the recession has accelerated the loss of basic elements once viewed as inextricable pieces of a middle class life. The number of Americans lacking medical coverage now exceeds the population of Spain."

Fuck this recession talk, it's a fucking depression. One sixth of the people in this country will not pay for needed health care out of their pockets because they have to pay for a roof over their heads and put food on their plates, thereby ensuring worse health down the road.
I'd dare anyone to argue that 1. this country is the bestest country that ever existed yadayada and 2. we don't face anything but imminent collapse.

Such Lovely Neighbors

Every disclosure isolates the pariahs more.

Mossad agent brought down Egypt's internet

"The purported confessions of Tareq Abdul Razzaq Hassan, a businessman, represent the latest evidence of growing public tensions between Israel and Egypt.
Severe disruptions to Egypt's internet service in December 2008 were blamed at the time on damage to underwater data cables caused by a ship's anchor.
But Hassan told police that the incident was, in fact, the work of Israel's foreign intelligence agency, according to interrogation records leaked to an independent Egyptian newspaper.
It is not the first time that Israel has been linked to politically motivated cyber attacks, with a number of experts suggesting that Mossad was the most likely culprit behind Stuxnet, a powerful computer worm that caused serious damage to Iran's nuclear programme."

Cops On Drugs

Magazine for N.J. law enforcement contains ads for anabolic steroid providers

"Police officers in New Jersey don’t have to look very hard to find a source of anabolic steroids. It’s all right there in the pages of a magazine written just for law enforcement.
"We’ve found the fountain of youth!" shouts an advertisement in the December issue of New Jersey COPS, a publication read by officers across the state. "Would you like to be able to lose fat, gain muscle, recover faster from physical activity, and possess the sex drive you had in your twenties?"
The full-page ad, one of two hawking hormone replacement therapy, features the image of a shirtless man with thunderous biceps, a sculpted chest and fist-size abs that bulge through bronzed skin.
As an added incentive, a text label proclaims, "Special Discount for Law Enforcement."

Cops' Use of Illegal Steroids a 'Big Problem'

"The badge and a steroid-filled syringe -- it's not the typical image most have for the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. But as more within law enforcement get nabbed in steroid investigations nationwide, observers say that usage levels among police officers could rival the seediest patches of the pro sports landscape."It's a big problem, and from the number of cases, it's something we shouldn't ignore," Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Lawrence Payne told AOL News. "It's not that we set out to target cops, but when we're in the middle of an active investigation into steroids, there have been quite a few cases that have led back to police officers."The pace of investigations into steroid use in the police ranks has picked up in recent months:
A former police officer in Canby, Ore., who allegedly took delivery of some steroids while on duty pleaded guilty in February to purchasing steroids.
An officer in South Bend, Ind., pleaded no contest in March to selling steroids.
A Cleveland police officer was sentenced to a year in prison and five years of supervised release in April after he was found guilty of illegally purchasing steroids.
A dealer in Paw Paw, Mich., allegedly told authorities that he supplied "several police officers" with steroids, which led one Kalamazoo officer to resign in May. Victor Conte, founder of the now-defunct lab known as Bay Area Lab Co-Operative that supplied numerous athletes with steroids and other banned substances, said it wouldn't surprise him if as many as a quarter of police officers were using some kind of performance-enhancing drug."

zero side effects

The Untouchable Beast

The Big (Military) Taboo

"We face wrenching budget cutting in the years ahead, but there’s one huge area of government spending that Democrats and Republicans alike have so far treated as sacrosanct.
It’s the military/security world, and it’s time to bust that taboo. A few facts:
• The United States spends nearly as much on military power as every other country in the world combined, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. It says that we spend more than six times as much as the country with the next highest budget, China.
• The United States maintains troops at more than 560 bases and other sites abroad, many of them a legacy of a world war that ended 65 years ago. Do we fear that if we pull our bases from Germany, Russia might invade?
• The intelligence community is so vast that more people have “top secret” clearance than live in Washington, D.C.
• The U.S. will spend more on the war in Afghanistan this year, adjusting for inflation, than we spent on the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War combined.
This is the one area where elections scarcely matter. President Obama, a Democrat who symbolized new directions, requested about 6 percent more for the military this year than at the peak of the Bush administration.
“Republicans think banging the war drums wins them votes, and Democrats think if they don’t chime in, they’ll lose votes,” said Andrew Bacevich, an ex-military officer who now is a historian at Boston University. He is author of a thoughtful recent book, “Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War.”

Whoring Propagandist Gets His 15 Minutes

Counter-terror ‘expert’ tells cops: Kill militant Muslims, ‘including children’

"A counter-terrorism consultant told a meeting of law enforcement officials that the way to combat militant Muslims is to "kill them ... including the children," says a news report.Walid Shoebat, a self-described "former PLO terrorist" who "now speaks out for USA and Israel," reportedly made the comment at a speech during a conference of the International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association in Las Vegas this past October, according to the Huffington Post's Chip Berlet.The comment highlights growing concerns among human rights advocates that US law enforcement is turning to extremists for training in the fight against terrorism. It also highlights concerns among senior counter-terrorism officials that standards for counter-terror training are inappropriate, and possibly harming national security."

Being a talkative "ex terrorist" nets you a handsome profit. And, by the way, a hands off policy from spook agencies unlike grandma who gets her tits groped at the airport.

Agism Is Well Under Way

Baby Boomers' Retirements in Jeopardy

"Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they're hoping to retire. Starting in January, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.
The boomers, who in their youth revolutionized everything from music to race relations, are set to redefine retirement. But a generation that made its mark in the tumultuous 1960s now faces a crisis as it hits its own mid-60s.
"The situation is extremely serious because baby boomers have not saved very effectively for retirement and are still retiring too early," says Olivia Mitchell, director of the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
There are several reasons to be concerned:
— The traditional pension plan is disappearing. In 1980, some 39 percent of private-sector workers had a pension that guaranteed a steady payout during retirement. Today that number stands closer to 15 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C.
— Reliance on stocks in retirement plans is greater than ever; 42 percent of those workers now have 401(k)s. But the past decade has been a lost one for stocks, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index posting total returns of just 4 percent since the beginning of 2000. — Many retirees banked on their homes as their retirement fund. But the crash in housing prices has slashed almost a third of a typical home's value. Now 22 percent of homeowners, or nearly 11 million people, owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. Many are boomers."

Easy to see where all this is headed, with our overlords sitting back and laughing. Divide and conquer works like a charm so we're going to see opprobrium heaped on the post world war generation as if the current economic collapse is caused by them. So as the boomers start turning 65 on January 1 this age group will be villified as parasites on society and younger people. Check out this article and tell me it wasn't penned to cause resentment.

But this planned economic bus plunge is affecting everybody in the country. It should be pointed out that millions of people who worked all their adult lives continue to be wiped out with plummeting real estate and savings evaporating in front of their eyes. When jobs disappear the older workers are the first to get the boot and the last to be hired. When social security collapses it won't be the boomers who paid into it all their lives to blame for it - starting with Clinton the government just covered its deficit by borrowing money from Social Security rather than the public. In essense social security is a piggy bank filled with IOUs that will never be paid. Two and a half trillion dollars of worthless paper. Who can blame people for retiring as soon as they can to at least get some of their money back that they've been shelling out for decades?
When the economy completely collapses it won't be the effect of baby boomers that precipitated it but instead the elites and their criminal policies, a fact for which they most definitely would rather not take responsibility.

US Ziofascists Now Feel The Need To Defend Their Own In Foreign Countries

US slams Russia for Khodorkovsky verdict

"WASHINGTON (AFP) – The guilty verdict brought against Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky will have a "negative impact on Russia's reputation," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday.
The chief US diplomat said in a statement that Khodorkovsky's conviction in his second fraud trial "raises serious questions about selective prosecution -- and about the rule of law being overshadowed by political considerations."

Russia vs. the ziomafia

The Rise and Rise of Super Fascism

Empire Is Only Fear And Death

Way past time to take a second and third look at empire's sworn enemies.

Cuban medics in Haiti put the world to shame - Castro's doctors and nurses are the backbone of the fight against cholera

"They are the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America's doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate. Except these heroes are from America's arch-enemy Cuba, whose doctors and nurses have put US efforts to shame.
A medical brigade of 1,200 Cubans is operating all over earthquake-torn and cholera-infected Haiti, as part of Fidel Castro's international medical mission which has won the socialist state many friends, but little international recognition.
Observers of the Haiti earthquake could be forgiven for thinking international aid agencies were alone in tackling the devastation that killed 250,000 people and left nearly 1.5 million homeless. In fact, Cuban healthcare workers have been in Haiti since 1998, so when the earthquake struck the 350-strong team jumped into action. And amid the fanfare and publicity surrounding the arrival of help from the US and the UK, hundreds more Cuban doctors, nurses and therapists arrived with barely a mention. Most countries were gone within two months, again leaving the Cubans and Médecins Sans Frontières as the principal healthcare providers for the impoverished Caribbean island."

flashback - Cuba offers 1100 doctors to Hurricane Katrina victims

flashback - Katrina aid from Cuba? No thanks, says U.S.

Your Stupidly Expensive, Disgusting Military

Rape rampant in US military

"Sexual assault within the ranks of the military is not a new problem. It is a systemic problem that has necessitated that the military conduct its own annual reporting on the crisis.
A 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal prompted the department of defense to include a provision in the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act that required investigations and reports of sexual harassment and assaults within US military academies to be filed. The personal toll is, nevertheless, devastating.
Military sexual trauma (MST) survivor Susan Avila-Smith is director of the veteran’s advocacy group Women Organizing Women. She has been serving female and scores of male clients in various stages of recovery from MST for 15 years and knows of its devastating effects up close.
“People cannot conceive how badly wounded these people are,” she told Al Jazeera, “Of the 3,000 I’ve worked with, only one is employed. Combat trauma is bad enough, but with MST it’s not the enemy, it’s our guys who are doing it. You’re fighting your friends, your peers, people you’ve been told have your back. That betrayal, then the betrayal from the command is, they say, worse than the sexual assault itself.”

Way To Put Society At Each Others' Throats, ABC

Divide and conquer. It seems the manipulators decided to blame the depression on oldsters.

Baby Boomers to Inherit Trillions
The Children Born to the Greatest Generation Will Be in the Money, Says MetLife

"A very nice amount. We were pleased. It reduces my anxiety about retirement." Brian is talking about the inheritance he received 12 years ago. "It's why I have a boat. It's why I drive a Lexus and can afford to belong to a private club."
Brian, 62, who asked that his last name not be used, actually inherited twice — first from his grandfather, then again later from his parents. He calls getting $900,000 "a pleasant sensation."
It's a sensation most baby boomers — adults aged 46 to 64 — can expect to enjoy, according to a new study just released. "Inheritance and Wealth Transfer to baby boomers," commissioned by MetLife from Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, says that two-out-of-three boomers should get something, with $64,000 being the median amount. The study anticipates an inter-generational transfer of wealth totaling $11.6 trillion, including some $2.4 trillion that has already been gifted.
Who'll get what? The study predicts distribution will be "highly unequal."

How Bad Is It?

Cops start giving tickets to emergency vehicles for running red lights and speeding

"Edmonton's paramedics have been told to slow down and are getting tickets for speeding.
A memo sent by Alberta Health Services to Emergency Medical Services workers on Wednesday directed drivers "to respond within the posted speed limits even when responding with lights and siren."
"It just doesn't make a lot of sense," said Elisabeth Ballermann, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents EMS workers.
The union leader said the policy doesn't respect the experience and judgment of those behind the wheel and could end up costing lives.
"So, what, I'm called to a call where a child is choking, and because I can't go past 50 kilometres an hour, I make way for the fire engine who is going to get there before the trained paramedics?" asked Ballermann."

Treacherous Ragheads And Lecherous Sand Niggers

Hollywood and the war machine

It's racial profiling, pure and simple, something that goes hand in hand with a fascist society.
Add another thing to the mix.

Fascists always do things with mutiple goals in mind. Most, if not all of the senseless bombings in Iraq, let alone elsewhere in the world, have been false flag operations by the real terrorists in the Mossad and CIA, not carried out by whatever patsies and scapegoats the government blames. After a while the frequency of the acts of carnage numbs the unwary as intended. Not only do the bombings inflame tensions and hate in the targeted societies, but they send a subtle message to american dullards that Arabs are bloodthirsty animals, barbarians who deserve to be loathed, disregarded as sub humans and anonymous when slaughtered. It's a steady background noise of bloody insanity that constantly reinforces american racism and an uncaring attitude towards murdering brown skinned people on a daily basis.

It Feels So Much Better When I Stop Hitting Myself In The Head With A Hammer

Asinine crappola like this makes me wonder if life is now a constant LSD trip from college days.

Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming

"THE earth continues to get warmer, yet it’s feeling a lot colder outside. Over the past few weeks, subzero temperatures in Poland claimed 66 lives; snow arrived in Seattle well before the winter solstice, and fell heavily enough in Minneapolis to make the roof of the Metrodome collapse; and last week blizzards closed Europe’s busiest airports in London and Frankfurt for days, stranding holiday travelers. The snow and record cold have invaded the Eastern United States, with more bad weather predicted.
All of this cold was met with perfect comic timing by the release of a World Meteorological Organization report showing that 2010 will probably be among the three warmest years on record, and 2001 through 2010 the warmest decade on record.
How can we reconcile this? The not-so-obvious short answer is that the overall warming of the atmosphere is actually creating cold-weather extremes."

This isn't science. This is stupidity. The same shitty rag that sold the Iraq invasion and slaughter to a gullible public is now trying to sell some new rotten fish to what it hopes are the same fools. This isn't science, this is a political agenda.
Don't believe your lying eyes, believe us instead.
One hot summer I once had a job that was pretty dirty and we all took showers after the shift was over. There was one guy who I worked with that happened to be in the national guard, clean cut during the hippy days, mom and apple pie, that sort of mindset. I'll never forget him for one thing he tried telling me. He said the best way to cool off was to take the hottest shower you could because when the water was turned off the hot air would actually feel a whole lot cooler to you.
That profound wisdom is just about how I feel concerning this "global warming causes record cold" idiocy.

Rape Victim Refuses Grope, Gets Arrested

"“The police actually pushed me to the floor, and handcuffed me,” she said. “I was crying by then. They drug me 25 yards across the floor in front of the whole security.”

Revolving Door Fascism

Firms' lobbying push comes amid rancor on TSA use of airport full-body scanners

"The companies that build futuristic airport scanners take a more old-fashioned approach when it comes to pushing their business interests in Washington: hiring dozens of former lawmakers, congressional aides and federal employees as their lobbyists.

About eight of every 10 registered lobbyists who work for scanner-technology companies previously held positions in the government or Congress, most commonly in the homeland security, aviation or intelligence fields, a Washington Post review of lobbying-disclosure forms and other data shows."

Useful Addition For The Burgeoning Fascist

Snitch buttons.

“PatriotApp” Lets Citizens Spy On Neighbors, Report Them To Feds Through Smart Phone

"In yet another move towards an East Germany type snitch society, a company called Citizens Concept has launched an App with the catchy name, “PatriotApp.” Apparently this App is named after the Patriot Act and we all know how wonderful and patriotic that Orwellian, Constitution destroying law has been.
Just ask Susan Lindauer who was arrested as an Iraqi agent under the Patriot Act when she was clearly working for the U.S. government but had information that the Republican leadership did not want to hear!
This App allows citizens to snitch on their neighbors just as Hitler convinced thousands of Germans to tell on their own neighbors and family.
The App essentially connects your phone to the FBI, EPA, GAO, and CDCs tip line. Why would American citizens need to report suspicious activity to the EPA, the same agency who literally let our gulf been chemically raped by millions of gallons of toxic Corexit?
Are Americans expected to report tips to the FBI so that the FBI can go out and give the “suspicious” person fake bombs and claim they were scary Muslim terrorists?"

PatriotApps -

"Citizen Concepts announces the launch of PatriotAppTM, the world’s first iPhone application that empowers citizens to assist government agencies in creating safer, cleaner, and more efficient communities via social networking and mobile technology. This app was founded on the belief that citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other maliciousbehavior."

Global Warming Media Whores Just 3 Years Ago

flashback February 2008 - WHY WINTER NO LONGER EXISTS

"Winter has gone for ever and we should officially bring spring forward instead, one of the country’s most respected gardeners said yesterday.
For climate change has wiped out the season of traditionally long, hard frosts and replaced it with brightly blossoming gardens bursting into flower months early.
The curator of Kew Gardens said that native plants which historically flower in May are already in leaf and a modern definition of the seasons was needed.
“Over the last 12 months there has been no winter,” said Dr Nigel Taylor. “Last year was extraordinary. Spring was in January, April was summer, the summer was cool, then it was warmer and sunny in autumn."
"“The climate is behaving very strangely. No one predicted winter was finished but these plants’ behaviour shows it has ended.
“There is no winter any more despite a cold snap before Christmas. It is nothing like years ago when I was younger. There is a real problem with spring because so much is flowering so early year to year. It’s hard to plan attractions as the marketing has to be planned. You do that relying on things happening at certain times.”
Dr Taylor added: “Like most scientists, I’m fairly convinced that climate change is down to man’s reckless use of fossil fuels and destruction of natural habitats."

today - Winter weather: December 'set to be coldest since 1910'

"December is on course to be the coldest since records began in 1910, the BBC weather centre has said.
Christmas Day was extremely cold in much of the UK and fresh snow fell in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, making it a white Christmas in those areas."
"Earlier, BBC forecaster Liam Dutton said December was likely to be the coldest for over a century, while the rest of the country will be dry and bright with patchy freezing fog.
Temperatures stayed below freezing in much of the UK following overnight temperatures which dropped to to minus 17C at Worcester and minus 18C at Altnaharra in northern Scotland."

and in the US - Rare white Christmas in the South

Good Year For Photoshop Phail

Top 20 Photoshop Disasters of 2010

Christmas Truce Of 1914

From the movie "Joyeux Noel"

CIA Ad On Craigslist

Osama Bin Laden Lookalike Wanted

"We need an Osama Bin Laden Lookalike immediately for various videos to post to aid in our "war on terror". Fluency in Arabic a plus but not required. Must be able to wag finger menacingly, scowl and appear actually alive. Location shoots at various caves to simulate Afghanistan, or better yet, Pakistan commencing next week. Meals and copy provided. Great for your reel!"

How To Have A Successful Xmas During A Zombie Apocalypse

Or do I repeat myself?

Fascist Manipulators May Feel The Need To Give Us A Booster Shot Of Their Terror Theatrics

Too much anti TSA sentiment. And the growing awareness of zionist crimes a la the close call with those bus ads in Seattle might require an "Al Qaeda" xmas innoculation of fear. Or at least vague references to some made up threat.

of course it's called antisemitic, it's always called antisemitic

New York City on Alert for Holiday Terror Attacks, Police Chief Kelly Says

"New York is “on alert” for possible terrorist attacks during the holiday season, although there is no information about specific threats to the largest U.S. city, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.
The police department is taking additional steps to protect the city, such as deploying about 1,200 recruits graduating next week to the area around Times Square for New Year’s Eve, Kelly told reporters today following a promotion ceremony at police headquarters in Manhattan.
“We have no specific information, but we’re on alert,” Kelly said."

White House Issues Warning of Unspecified Homeland Terror

"Once again a terror warning has been issued with an unspecified homeland threat from Al Qaeda as U.S government preps the masses for a possible (false flag) terror attack.
Keeping the fear level pumping through the general public’s adrenal glands during the holiday season is their M.O, it is what they do best."

Dukes Of Hazard Needed A Drinking Bud

Man drives muscle car onto Bush's lawn

"DALLAS — A suspect accused of driving a muscle car erratically onto the lawn at former President George W. Bush's north Dallas home Wednesday night was detained by the Secret Service.
The former president and former first lady Laura Bush were in the Preston Hollow neighborhood home at the time but were unharmed and never in danger, officials told NBC station KXAS.
The male suspect had not made any threats, KXAS said, and officials do not believe he intended to harm the former first couple.
Officials told KXAS that the suspect went to a friend's house in Bush's gated neighborhood to show off his Plymouth Barracuda.
The man told investigators he ran onto the Bushes' yard when his gas pedal became stuck.
No one was injured, KXAS reported."

But Beware The Icicles

Christmas Sweater Club Punished At Local High School

"HAYMARKET, Va. (WUSA) -- They call themselves the "Christmas Sweater Club" because they wear the craziest ones they can find. They also sing Christmas songs at school and try their best to spread Christmas cheer.
Now all 10 of them are in trouble because of what they did at their school.
"They said, 'maliciously maim students with the intent to injure.' And I don't think any of us here intentionally meant to injure anyone, or did," said Zakk Rhine, a junior at Battlefield High School.
The boys say they were just tossing small two-inch candy canes to fellow students as they entered school. The ones in plastic wrap that are so small they often break apart.
Skylar Torbett, also a junior, said administrators told him, "They said the candy canes are weapons because you can sharpen them with your mouth and stab people with them." He said neither he nor any of their friend did that.

Next thing they knew, they were all being punished with detention and at least two hours of cleaning. Their disciplinary notices say nothing about malicious wounding but about littering and creating a disturbance.
"It was at 7 in the morning, before school even starts, so I don't what we'd be really disrupting," said Cameron Gleason, also a junior."

Good Little Cowards

All too often MSM doesn't deliver news but tells you how to think.

Travel-trained: Americans take security with sigh

"NEW YORK (AP) - Explosive snow globes? You've got to be kidding, Robyn Burford thought when security inspectors at the Portland, Ore., airport demanded she hand over her two glitter-filled souvenirs.
The snow globes might contain explosive nitroglycerin, an officer informed the 16-year-old from Houston. Instead of complaining, Burford did what thousands of other travelers are doing when confronted with pat-downs, body scanners and the other indignities of air travel this holiday season.
She bit her tongue and obeyed.
"I think we're actually getting used to the fact that we have to go through so much to go places," Burford said.
As the Christmas travel week arrives, it appears Americans are getting used to flying under the specter of terrorism and the new inconveniences the government deems necessary to combat it. Most people surrender to body scans and invasive pat-downs with little fuss. Resignation has replaced fear."

"Some travelers tried to organize a boycott of the body scanners ahead of Thanksgiving, but the movement fizzled, said Airports Council International-North America, which represents airport managers. There were no signs of a revolt this time, either, the organization said.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll last month found that 64 percent of Americans support the use of body scanners.

"If it means me getting naked, I'll get naked and get right on the plane," said Gil Torres, 49, as he waited at Chicago's O'Hare International for a flight to the Philippines"

"Chris Soulia, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1234, a union that represents 1,800 TSA agents in several Western states, said officers are seeing more cooperation from passengers in recent months.
"The passengers are getting used to the new screening procedures, probably because we've had so much coverage in the press," he said. He added that people haven't made a fuss about the imaging machines."

Got that? Just shut up and take it like everybody else.

12/22/2001

Richard Colvin Reid lights a match on flight 63 from Paris to Miami, causing him to get pummeled by other passengers , tied up and tranquilized by doctors who just happened to be on the same flight. Official story is he had C-4 explosive packed in a shoe that he was trying to ignite to blow a hole in the plane's fuselage. Hundreds of millions of airline passengers suffer the stupid indignity and risk of ringworm by having to remove footwear ever since.

the criminal mastermind

Preceded by the 9/11 false flag terrorist event which was succeded by the TSA act on November 19, 2001 establishing constitution free zones at all airports.

Succeded by the liquid bomber who encouraged the TSA to restrict liquids in carry on luggage to three ounces, thereby forcing all passengers to buy expensive replacements in the secure areas for whatever they had to discard at the checkpoints, and forcing on lactating mothers the indignity of having to drink their own breastmilk.

Succeded by the crotchbomber who encouraged the TSA to adopt the backscatter pornoscanners which force passengers to choose between the indignity of a permanently stored nude image or the indignity of an enhanced public sexual assault.

No, I see no pattern here.

Here Come Da Judge

Nashville billboards claim jeebus will return May 21, 2011


"That's the message on 40 billboards around Nashville, proclaiming May 21, 2011, as the date of the Rapture. Billboards are up in eight other U.S. cities, too.
Fans of Family Radio Inc., a nationwide Christian network, paid for the billboards. Family Radio's founder, Harold Camping, predicted the May date for the Rapture."
"Predicting the second coming for Jesus dates to the first days of Christianity, when believers said he would return in their lifetimes. Since then there have been a series of failed predictions. One of the most famous, known as the Great Disappointment, happened in 1843, after William Miller and his followers sold their homes and waited out in a field for Jesus to come back."


glutton for punishment down here

Homeland For The Holidays

TSA Choir Will Sing While You Are Groped

"The LAX TSA Choir, a group of 17 singers and musicians, all of them employees of the TSA, have been surprising passengers with performances of holiday music and other tunes in the midst of one of the nation's busiest airports, reports USA Today .The choir, according to USA Today, worked through an hour-long set list that included such holiday biggies, and I kid you not, as: America the Beautiful, God Bless the U.S.A. and Battle Hymn of the Republic."

When The Money Gets Wasted Instead Of Going To Decent Education

And this during a depression, when the pool of raw meat is deepest.

APNewsBreak: Nearly 1 in 4 Fails Military Exam

"Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The report by The Education Trust bolsters a growing worry among military and education leaders that the pool of young people qualified for military service will grow too small.
"Too many of our high school students are not graduating ready to begin college or a career — and many are not eligible to serve in our armed forces," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP. "I am deeply troubled by the national security burden created by America's underperforming education system."
The effect of the low eligibility rate might not be noticeable now — the Department of Defense says it is meeting its recruitment goals — but that could change as the economy improves, said retired Navy Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett."

Here Comes The New "Al Qaeda" Infested Villain Du Jour

Ain't it oh so convenient the fascists can send in some operatives to blow some shit up and then claim that our omnipresent enemy 'Al Qaeda' is doing dastardly deeds there? Ever notice who empire wants to war with and especially where? This is all strategic theater. Any AQ are spooks and a few patsies, probably mind controlled, to strap on som explosive and splash themselves.

[As a side note Yemen was set up for villain status in October 2000 when the USS Cole had a hole blown in it in the port of Aden. It was probably a missile launched from an Israeli Dolphin submarine but someone claiming to be a member of you know who called in to claim responsibility.]

Immediately following 9/11 there was a talking point that the entire Bush mob repeated again and again. They all said the same thing many times - that the US was going to punish anybody who harbored AQ terrorists. Their agenda called for siezing control of vital areas around the globe in their quest for total domination in the years ahead, and they needed an ongoing justification to move in to those places. All those areas immediately became hotbeds of AQ activity and the fascists poured on the heat.

But take a look at where the fascists claim AQ (their own spooks, if that) has their bat caves and terrorist lairs. Always in a region where there's a shitload of oil and other resources or at a crucial geographic location. They made up the fantasy that Osama who supposedly pulled off 9/11 was based in Afghanistan (even though the designated patsies were, and still are, living in the middle east) in order to have strategic bases to control oil pipelines and the heroin profits, and for when america goes to war with Russia and China. The scumbags deliberately blurred AQ with Iraqis to sieze a stepping stone for war with Iran and to control the vast middle east oil fields. They magnified piracy off Somalia and invented you know who's presense there to move in on that country and now the big new threat is Yemen just across the gulf from Somalia.
It's so transparent it's beyond belief if you glance at a map.

One must assume the Persian gulf will be a smoking ruin and will shut down when the fascists finally do Iran. By controlling the Red Sea outlet they would have access to oil shipped by that route, especially with their despotic buddies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia on board. By paying off Saleh in Yemen to build (what are sure to be immense) bases in that country, empire would own that strategic part of the world for the forseeable future.
We can be sure that if ice becomes more valuable that Al Qaeda penguins will suddenly be found in Antarctica.
Now, if only something could be done about Sudan since they, oh...

Al Qaeda Is Entrenched In Sudan, U.N. Envoy Warns

Proliferation Of Flags Is Not A Good Sign

Awaiting the Storm

"Flags. These are always a bad sign. Hardly a politician appears on television who doesn’t stand in front of an American flag, sometimes three American flags. A venomous nationalism now poisons the air, and grows. We are off and rolling.
The trappings of fascism spread. General David Petraeus, commander of the Eastern Front, poses with the President in the White House in combat fatigues. The country is now the Homeland, reminiscent of the Nazi Fatherland and the Soviet Motherland. We hear of American Exceptionalism, the ritual self-idolization beloved of pathological nationalism. Blood and Soil. The American Dream. Ubermenschen. All we need is a short Austrian.
We may get one. The times ripen for a man on a horse. (Or perhaps a woman: Twitler of Alaska looms.) An ignorant population, unread, unfamiliar with the outside world, focuses its anxieties on troubling dark things lurking abroad, the brown hordes from the south, the rising Chinese, inexplicable Moslems who want to kill all Christians. Sooner rather than later such a mob finds solace in an angry unity. From an unhappy lower middle-class spring Brown Shirts. Wait.
Things come together: Falling standards of living across a country in irremediable decline, diminishing expectations, growing anger in search of focus, a sense of a birthright being stolen as preeminence drifts across the Pacific. Here is fertile soil for some strange crop not yet clearly seen.
It will play out against a backdrop of totalitarian watchfulness all too imaginable. A digital world lends itself to tyranny, making it, I think, inescapable. For practical purposes, the capacity to store data is infinite, to network it across the world, to track, to scan, to watch. This is not the place for a disquisition on the technology of surveillance. Just note that the machinery exists for a totalitarian watchfulness beyond Stalin’s wettest dreams. The government wants this, pushes for it daily, and gets it. You can’t spend a dollar, take a flight, or send an e-mail without a federal office watching. It is getting worse and cannot be stopped. Surveillance is too easy.
We will be told, are being told, that to be safe we must submit, that enemies within and without are upon us, that terrorists spawn plots everywhere. Where communists once hid in every closet and the House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC, hunted them, now we have Islamo-terrorists hunted by Homeland Security.
What matter civil rights when the Moslem is at our throats? The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and the vigilance ends liberty.


Hysteria darkly flowers. Homeland Security now wants to train us in how to react to a nuclear attack, à la 1950. Scare’m, keep’em scared, tell them you are protecting them, and they will kiss your boots. An Australian publishes embarrassing cable traffic from American embassies, and politicians call for him to be killed by the CIA. The agency is revered as a sort of clandestine Batman and Robin, defending America secretly where evil swirls in the coming night. Kill, kill. On subways we are told to watch each other, to report curious behavior to the authorities. Nothing can stop this.
Constitutionality becomes a fading memory. Random searches in train stations, genital examinations in airports, the decline of habeas corpus, the evasion of the duty of Congress to declare wars, on and on. The government does what it wants. There is no recourse. We are told that it is to make us safe. I haven’t asked to be made safe."

enough to wrap yourself a bunch of times

more

Lunar Eclipse Pic In Case Of Bad Weather

I live in a high, dry desert. It's been overcast and raining for days.
Three telescopes are lined up by the front door.
How sad.




h*t to BoingBoing

Stocking Stuffers

"A Harlem inventor has created a device to keep saggy pants low - but not too low.

Part garter belt and part suspenders, the "Subs" gadget fastens around the waist like a belt and is connected to expandable straps that clip onto pants, regulating how low-slung they are.

Inventor Andrew Lewis, 43, of Hamilton Heights, said he came up with the idea after watching men in drooping trousers struggle to keep them up as they climbed the steps at the 145th St. subway station.

"Sagging is a huge issue in my community," he said. "I spent a lot of time observing and I noticed that even for saggers, there is a point which even they're not comfortable with how their jeans were falling."

Lewis said he hopes the $30 fashion accessory - which is available in some stores as well as online at www.hatchventures.com - will help bridge the gap between saggers who want to express themselves through fashion and critics who say the trend shows off underwear and looks unprofessional."

Business Bibs


"As we move into a world that is more technological advanced, every aspect of our lives begin to reflect those changes. For instance more people are working from home and interacting with their co-workers via video conference calls. Suits are typically a requirement for those meetings, but won’t a business bib do the job? The business bibs allows you to fool your boss and co-workers into thinking that you’re wearing a suit when in fact it’s just a half suit. It’s perfect because for one thing you still don’t need to wear pants and it’s a shirt, tie and jacket all in one."

Who Would Jeebus Fight?

"It's behavior you wouldn't expect to see at church, and it was all caught on tape.

KOB Eyewitness News 4 obtained video that shows members of two different Roswell churches fighting with each other.
The video was taken by members of Old Paths Baptist Church in Roswell while they say they were preaching outside of another church in the city on November 28th.
Armed with signs, Bibles, and a camera, members of Old Paths Baptist Church took their message to the streets.
"They may not like out method, they may think or method is too confrontational, never the less its our right to preach in public," said street preacher Jeremy De Los Santos.
In the video, Pastor Joshua De Los Santos, his brother Jeremy De Los Santos and several other members are seen standing outside Church on the Move.
The group is seen shouting from a mobile platform and holding up signs as church goers filed into Church on the Move.
But the shouting quickly turned physical. Associate Pastor Savino Sanchez, 63, was taken to the ground by members of Old Paths Baptist Church.
Three members of Old Paths Baptist Church, including Jeremy De Los Santos, were charged for the incident.
"I believe it has gone beyond lawful matters and its now gone to personal matters. Even with the release of this video it might make things worse," said De Los Santos.
Members of Old Paths had been in at least two other incidents around the city just a day earlier on November 27th."

Church league softball fistfight