FBI enters peanut butter investigation

"Beware of what you eat. You are on your own", Senator Tom Harkin announces to Americans in Senate Agriculture Hearing

U.S. Senators say public health officials failed the public. "To say that food safety in this country is a patchwork system is giving it too much credit. Food safety in America has too often become a hit-or-miss gamble, and that is truly frightening. When Americans can't count on the safety of basic items that go into our children?s lunch boxes, then we are in big trouble."

read more @ The Emergency Email Network

British diplomat arrested over 'anti-Semitic' rant

Now why is this not a big deal that will barely upset the 'treadmill of diplomacy,' and Bishop Williamson's statements destroy 4o years of Catholic-Jewish dialog? - Ed.

Allegations that a senior British diplomat launched into an anti-Semitic rant in a London gym while watching TV footage from Gaza will not upset the "treadmill of diplomacy", the Israeli Ambassador to London said today.

In a curiously tongue-in-cheek response to a case that has provoked concern within the Jewish community in Britain, Ron Prosor added that the tirade did not reflect "the health and fitness of our relations".

Read more @ Times Online

Judges back a 1/3 reduction in state prison population

Reporting from Sacramento -- A panel of three federal judges, saying overcrowding in state prisons has deprived inmates of their right to adequate healthcare, tentatively ruled Monday that the state must reduce the population in those lockups by as many as 57,000 people.

Read more @ LA Times

Court moves to study claims of Gaza crimes

THE HAGUE: The Palestinian Authority is pressing the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate potential war crimes committed by Israeli commanders during the recent war in Gaza.

The Palestinian minister of justice, Ali Kashan, first raised the issue during a visit to the court's chief prosecutor late last month, and he and other officials are expected back again in The Hague this week, court officials said.

Read more @ International Herald Tribune

Rep Kanjorski: "$550B disappeared in electronic run on banks"

Senator: "We've seen money go out the back door of this government...

unlike any time in the history of our country...Nobody knows" where it went.

A senator has revealed that - even today - congress is as much in the dark about the financial bailouts as the American people.

Specifically, Senator Dorgan said:

“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”

Read more @ George Washington's Blog

Geithner says 'comprehensive' bailout to be costly

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner laid out what he described as a “comprehensive” attack on the financial crisis, warning that administration’s strategy will “cost money, involve risk and take time.”

“The financial system is working against recovery, and that’s the dangerous dynamic we need to change,” Geithner said in excerpts of his prepared remarks for delivery today in Washington. “Without credit, economies cannot grow, and right now, critical parts of our financial system are damaged.”

Read more @ Bloomberg

Ed Balls: minister fears rise of fascism amid economic gloom

Wait....didn't that already happen? - Ed.

Ed Balls, the Children's and Schools Secretary, said the downturn was likely to be the most serious for 100 years, and his comments appeared to raise the prospect of a return to the Far Right politics of the 1930s and the rise of Facism.

His warning, in a speech to activists at the weekend, came after a trade union baron warned that far right parties were trying to hijack the campaign for "British jobs for British workers".

The row over foreign workers has gathered momentum in recent weeks and Mr Balls seemed to suggest the recession could trigger a return to the Far Right politics that prospered in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Read more @ Telegraph.co.uk

Israel's election cliffhanger as Tzipi closes gap with Bibi

Israelis go to the polls to elect a new government tomorrow in what is becoming a cliffhanger contest between the rightwing opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his rival Tzipi Livni, the centrist foreign minister.

Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, is slightly ahead, and given the combined size of the rightwing parties that would support him he is thought most likely to lead the next coalition government. But up to a fifth of voters are thought to be undecided, according to opinion polls.

Read more @ Guardian UK

Russia: Nukes may come in handy

A senior Russian military official has said that nuclear warfare could be the only appropriate response against likely 'new threats'.

"New threats may emerge that could only be averted with the threat of nuclear weapons," said the head of the Russian General Staff on Monday, Russian information agency RBC reported.

The official, Nikolai Makarov added that possible materialization of the threats necessitate that Russia keep open the option of upgrading its nuclear firepower.

Read more @ Press TV

Iran 'ready for dialogue with US'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he would welcome talks with the US as long as they were based on "mutual respect".

Speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran, he said Iran would welcome change from the US as long as it was "fundamental".

Mr Ahmadinejad has previously said the US must apologise for past "crimes" against Iran.

The two nations cut ties in 1979 after the US-backed Shah was overthrown.

Read more @ BBC News

The Big Picture: slideshow of Australian fires

The state of Victoria in southern Australia has recently been hit with hundreds of bush fires during a record-breaking heatwave - temperatures well above 38°C (100°F). Unfortunately, these fires have proved to be the deadliest in Australian history, with at least 166 deaths reported so far. The fires mostly appear to have been started by lightning - however a few appear to have been arson, and are under investigation - entire towns being declared crime scenes. Twenty-four fires are still burning, and authorities warn that the death toll will likely rise. (36 photos total)

See photos at Boston Globe

Net closing in on arsonists as 200 feared dead in Australian fires

Police said they were closing in on the arsonists believed to be responsible for Australia's worst bushfires, as an official said the number of people killed in the blazes had risen to more than 200.

Australian towns devastated in the fires were declared crime scenes as forensic investigators began combing the charred landscape for evidence of how the infernos started, and who may have ignited some of the 400 blazes.

Read more @ Guardian UK

Is Zionism the New N-Word?

I was leaving a comment on an OpEd News article the other day and an odd message came up when I tried to submit it. The message asked me to think twice about my use of the word Zionism. In very friendly terms it informed me that the use of the word Zionism can be hurtful, offensive and hateful and asked me to please consider using another word.

I write this article because I think that this nuanced language policy should have the widest possible review. Among the many evils in the world high on the list should rank the way that words are manipulated and controlled. I don't want to suggest that I definitively know which words should be used and how, but I certainly have a strong reaction when I am asked to curtail the use of what until now has been a perfectly acceptable word.

Read more @ SOTT

Jews tell Vatican: Holocaust denial is a crime

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – World Jewish leaders told Vatican officials that denying the Holocaust was "not an opinion but a crime" when they met on Monday to discuss a bishop they accuse of being anti-Semitic.

The meetings, the first since the controversy over Bishop Richard Williamson, who denies the extent of the Holocaust, began last month, took place three days before Pope Benedict is due to address a group of American Jewish leaders.

Read more @ Yahoo News

Breaking Holocaust box means cutting Zionism vein

Tehran, Jan 28, IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that examining the issue of Holocaust is equal to cutting the vein of the Zionist regime.

“Zionists are plundering nations' resources and their wealth by making use of politicians and political parties as well as dominating most of the world’s power, wealth and media sources,” said the president in a message sent to a conference on Holocaust held in the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.

Read more @ IRNA

Of course I'm anti-semitic. Aren't you?

Prior to 9/11/01 I was very much a typical American regarding Israel/Palestine. As I was conditioned, I knew virtually nothing about what was going on in Palestine and I was reluctant to look into the matter, thinking that it was much too complex for me to even to begin to understand. And reflecting my typical American conditioning, I was sympathetic to Jews, although I had never in fact met any Jewish people in person, being from a typical mid-western town. I definitely was not anti-Semitic.

Heck, I didn’t know any Jews so the opportunity for being labeled anti-Semitic never came up. That didn’t happen until after 9/11/01 [when I was 49].

Read more @ ww3zionism

Les Vis: Welcome to the Apocalypse and Unveiling of the Truth

Friends, Skeptics and Nimrods… lend me your ears. I come to exhume the truth not to bury it. The lies that men tell are the flesh of their mortality… the truth is a fire in their bones. Sooner or later the day comes. Sooner or later critical mass is reached. The pressure of what is hidden becomes stronger than what conceals it. Then comes the mad scramble of the lie makers who are revealed in their efforts by the industry of their madness. Cracks appear in the casing and the whole ugly affair bursts forth like a new born child, smacked on the ass and crying for the attention of the world.

Read more @ Smoking Mirrors

Wikileaks Bonanza: a billion dollars of reports you paid for

Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress.

The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to the financial collapse. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress’s analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year.

Read more @ Cryptogon

US Army lab freezes research on dangerous pathogens

Money quote:

According to the memo, any materials found without a corresponding record in the database must be reported to the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. "I believe that the probability that there are additional vials of BSAT [biological select agents and toxins] not captured in our … database is high," Skvorak wrote.

Read more @ Science Insider

The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train

C. Story: Bottom line: This plan will end in hyperinflation and the collapse of the US dollar.

Handout to Banks

In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Barack Obama endorsed the compromise stimulus plan worked out by a small group of Republican senators, right-wing Democratic Senator Ben Nelson and “independent Democrat” Joseph Lieberman, a fervent supporter of the war in Iraq who backed Republican presidential candidate John McCain against Obama in the November elections.

The deal strips from the House of Representatives’ version of the stimulus plan some $40 billion in aid to states and localities and $19.5 billion in federal aid for school construction, reduces proposed health care subsidies for the unemployed, slashes new aid for the Head Start pre-school program, lowers a proposed increase in food stamps and scales back Obama’s middle-class tax cut, while adding a $70 billion tax break for upper-income families.

Read more @ Axis of Logic

Catherine Austin Fitts: Financial Coup d'Etat

In the fall of 2001 I attended a private investment conference in London to give a paper, The Myth of the Rule of Law or How the Money Works: The Destruction of Hamilton Securities Group.

The presentation documented my experience with a Washington-Wall Street partnership that had:

• Engineered a fraudulent housing and debt bubble;
• Illegally shifted vast amounts of capital out of the U.S.;
• Used “privitization” as form or piracy - a pretext to move government assets to private investors at below-market prices and then shift private liabilities back to government at no cost to the private liability holder.

Other presenters at the conference included distinguished reporters covering privatization in Eastern Europe and Russia. As the portraits of British ancestors stared down upon us, we listened to story after story of global privatization throughout the 1990s in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Slowly, as the pieces fit together, we shared a horrifying epiphany: the banks, corporations and investors acting in each global region were the exact same players. They were a relatively small group that reappeared again and again in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Asia accompanied by the same well-known accounting firms and law firms.

Clearly, there was a global financial coup d’etat underway.

Read more @ Solari

Science, harmful to Holocaust Industry

ADELAIDE: An Australian Holocaust revisionist claims he has proof a mass grave never existed at Treblinka in Poland.

Richard Krege, 30, of Canberra, said data collected during a week at Treblinka. using ground penetrating radar, found no soil disturbance consistent with 870,000 Jews having been buried there.

‘Historians say that the bodies were exhumed and cremated towards the end of the Treblinka camp’s use in 1943. but we found no indication that any mass graves ever existed," he said.

Read more @ Historical Review Press

Neocon wet dreams: Bibi ' will coax Obama into Iran war'

If anyone saw the movie "The Edge" with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, there's a part there when Anthony Hopkins says, "We have to lure the bear." Kind of reminds me of this. Hope for a similar ending. - Ed.

The Israeli prime ministerial frontrunner will win a US blessing to enter war with Iran, says a source familiar with US Mideast policies.

Aaron David Miller, the US State Department's top analyst in the 1980s, said Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to convince President Barack Obama that a military attack is the only solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

"The Israelis will be pushing [Washington] to ensure that Iran never gets to that point and failing that, they will consider a military strike," Reuters quoted Miller -- who is a former US Middle East peace negotiator and is currently an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center -- as saying late Friday.

Read more @ Press TV

Netanyahu: The leader who struts like a superpower

It was Bill Clinton who drily observed after meeting the newly elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that "he thinks he is the superpower and we are here to do whatever he requires."

If Mr Netanyahu emerges as victor in next Tuesday's election and in the process of government formation that will follow, he is unlikely to treat President Barack Obama to a repeat of what Mr Clinton's key Middle East aide, Dennis Ross, would later recall as that "nearly insufferable" performance in the White House in 1996.

Read more @ The Independent

Burn in hell you deniers of the Holocausts!

Ha! Call me a sell-out if you like, but I've decided to join with those who demand that history not be questioned. I now condemn all those who deny the Holocaust. And as a man not given to half measures I'm upping the ante. It is no longer good enough to condemn those who question the Holocaust. Since there were two Holocausts, both of them must be sacrosanct. Both of them demand that anyone who questions any aspect of either of them deserves to be jailed, broken, and have their life ruined. One is not good enough. It's both or nothing.

Read more @ nobody

My Holocaust Memoir by Ben Greenman

Dear Ms. Winfrey:

I am a great admirer of your show, and, while I do not watch every day, when I do watch I am always touched in or near my heart. Recently, I was watching “Best Life Week,” in which your guests discussed the challenges that they have overcome, and it occurred to me that the events of my early life, which are the subject of an upcoming book I have just completed, might be perfect for a future episode. I do not expect you to read the entire book, but I wanted to take a moment to review some of the highlights—though “highlights” is a crass, commercial word for such a wrenching memoir.

I was born in Chicago in 1969. Shortly afterward, in 1941, my entire family was rounded up by the authorities and sent to the Theresienstadt camp, along with tens of thousands of other Jews, who hailed principally from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany. The first few days there, separated from my family, denied even the most basic creature comforts, I was in a state of shock. I could hardly eat or sleep, and, to make matters worse, I had misplaced my cell-phone charger. I felt powerless.

Read more @ The New Yorker

Bishop defends right to question Holocaust

British Bishop Richard Williamson says his research compels him to avoid resorting to "emotions" on his questions regarding the Holocaust.

Williamson -- who raised hackles in the Jewish community after claiming that Nazis did not use gas chambers to murder Jews -- said Sunday that he would delve deeper into historical evidences surrounding the Nazi Jewish Holocaust in World War II.

"Since I see that there are many honest and intelligent people who think differently, I must look again at the historical evidence," Der Spiegel quoted him as saying in a Saturday email.

Read more @ Press TV

Final Offer: Israeli owner of MV Faina pays $3.2M Ransom, cargo of Russian tanks destined for Darfur?

The ransom went from $20M to $8M to $3.2M since last September. - Ed.

Pirates receive $3.2M for Israeli ship - Press TV

The Israeli-owner of a Ukrainian-flagged arms-loaded ship held by Somali pirates pays 3.2 million dollars in return for the vessel's release.

The MV Faina and its crew-- 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one Latvian national-were captured on September 25 in the notorious Somali waters.

The vessel was carrying a cargo of 33 Soviet-type battle tanks, rocket launchers and ammunition, allegedly expected to reach rebels in the Sudanese violent Darfur region.

On Tuesday, a plane from South Africa carrying $ 3.2 million dropped the demanded ransom onto the Faina upon an agreement between the pirates and the ship's owner, Press TV correspondent reported.

MV Faine could embarrass Kenya - Press TV

Kenyan lawmakers are demanding their government to clarify who is the owner of the military cargo aboard the released MV Faina.

The Kenyan Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense which was assigned to investigate the Faina's cargo mystery wants the government to clear the air on the controversy surrounding the real owners of the military equipment aboard the freighter, our Press TV correspondent reported Friday from Nairobi.

The Ukrainian vessel, MV Faina, released on Thursday, Feb 5, is loaded with 33 refurbished T-72 Soviet tanks and crates of light and heavy weapons.

From 10/8/08: A businessman from Odessa with an Israeli passport is the man behind Russian tanks shipment destined for Govt of South Sudan (GOSS) via Mombasa? - Kenya Watch

Nina Karpacheva, the ombudswoman for Ukrainian parliament claims that the man behind the Russian tanks deal (the tanks that are still onboard the hijacked Ukrainian ship, MV Faina, off the coast of Somalia - see latest news here below) is Vadim A., a businessman from Odessa with an Israeli passport.

Source: Der Speigel special report Monday, 06 October 2008 - Investigating the Faina - Looking for the Good Guys off the Somali Coast - By Clemens Höges, Uwe Klussmann and Horand Knaup; Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
- - -

The pirates have lowered the ransom from $20 million to $8 million

Today, Wednesday 08 October 2008, the pirates still hold Ukrainian Faina.

Yesterday, they lowered the ransom from $20 million to $8 million.

Sudan Watch: Israeli owner of MV Faina pays ransom...blogger Ingrid Jones: Last year, I followed this story closely and published several reports on the hijacking of MV Faina but this is the first time I've seen it said that MV Faina was Israeli owned and that its cargo was expected to reach rebels in Darfur. Rumours were that the cargo was destined for Southern Sudan. Interesting. Can it be true that JEM has received considerably heavy military logistical support from Israel? The world's media covered the MV Faina story and (unless I've missed something) nobody mentioned that the vessel was Israeli owned. After five years of the world's spotlight being put on Darfur, we still don't know what is going on in the secret world of the Darfur rebel leaders and their shadowy financiers. I wonder why.

Biden signals US is open to Russia Missile Deal

MUNICH — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Saturday that the United States will pursue a missile defense plan that has angered the Kremlin, but he also left open the possibility of compromise on the issue and struck a more conciliatory tone than the Bush administration on relations with Russia.

Read more @ New York Times

A conflict with Israel would mean the suicide of Israel, parts 1 and 2

by Ahmet Turan Ayhan

Let’s have a flashback about the Palestine cause:
Israel played the world like a fish and made itself seem like a big playmaker by holding the initiative consistently.

Led by Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) drove rock-throwing little children against Israel’s strategic moves, and Israel could not overcome this for a long time.

Arafat’s leadership did not allow Israel to pull all the strings in the region with its moderate and elastic policy. Holding the initiative and playing the field was not that easy for Israel in those years. Carrying out shuttle

diplomacy among Arab states, Arafat knew how to turn the Palestine issue into one of the most important causes in the Muslim world. Thus, the Palestine issue was never an easy pill for Israel to swallow; even the US did not spare its support.

Read more of Part 1 @ There Are No Sunglasses

Here is Part 2

The Angel of Financial Death Part III

Excerpt:

Since the advent of television the powers that be have had the perfect tool to lobotomize the public who no longer have much capacity to understand what is happening to them and what is about to happen so en mass people are sitting back and watching and still hoping for someone, namely Obama, to save the day. But the situation is becoming like the fall of the World Trade Towers; then there was no time to wish the collapsing buildings would somehow resurrect themselves. Starting this past month the brick and mortar are falling everywhere, economic walls and financial steel beams are falling in on us and all the wishful thinking will not change reality.

Read more @ There Are No Sunglasses

The War on Terror is a Hoax

By Paul Craig Roberts

February 04, 2009 Information Clearinghouse" -- - According to US government propaganda, terrorist cells are spread throughout America, making it necessary for the government to spy on all Americans and violate most other constitutional protections. Among President Bush’s last words as he left office was the warning that America would soon be struck again by Muslim terrorists.

If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events. As there are no events, the US government substitutes warnings in order to keep alive the fear that causes the public to accept pointless wars, the infringement of civil liberty, national ID cards, and inconveniences and harassments when they fly.

The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated.

Read more @ Information Clearinghouse

AF units failed 2 more nuclear inspections

Minuteman IIIs… Now where have we heard about those lately? Oh yeah: Captain Jonathan Bayless. Different unit. Same weapon system. Fascinating Coincidence.

Via: Stars and Stripes:

Air Force nuclear units have failed two more inspections in the past three months, The Washington Times reported Wednesday.

Read more @ Cryptogon

Pentagon spending billions on PR to sway world opinion

This budget must be immediately cut to ZERO. !! ZERO!!! - Ed.

Associated Press finds that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year

AP story @ Fox News, here you go:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/05/pentagon-spending-billions-pr-sway-world-opinion/

Charges dropped against USS Cole suspect

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. government has dropped charges against the man suspected of masterminding the bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were dismissed "without prejudice" -- meaning they could be refiled later -- by Susan Crawford, convening authority at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, CNN reported.

Crawford's actions cancels a Monday hearing in the Guantanamo court that would have set up a confrontation between President Barack Obama and the Pentagon over the prison's closure, Politico said. Now, all cases at Guantanamo are in line with the president's order to halt court proceedings at the detention center, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Read more @ UPI

Hamas' popularity soaring following Israel's Gaza Blitz

The latest public opinion survey in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has shown a dramatic rise in Hamas’ popularity among Palestinians, with a significant decline in Fatah’s public standing.

Moreover, the poll showed that a majority of Palestinians believed that the advent of the Obama administration in the U.S. wouldn’t make a big difference with regard to American efforts to resolve the Palestinian issue.

According to the poll, Turkey, Venezuela and Iran as well as Hezbullah are the most popular regional forces among Palestinians.

Read more @ Axis of Logic

Likud lead over Kadima narrows 4 days before Israeli elections

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party’s lead over Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s Kadima narrowed to two seats in the latest polls, showing a neck-and- neck race four days before parliamentary elections.

Surveys of 1,000 Israelis published today in the Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot dailies show the elections will be increasingly close. The Haaretz poll, which had a margin of error of 3 percentage points, gave Netanyahu’s party 27 seats and Livni’s 25 in the 120-member Knesset. Yediot’s survey, with a margin of error of 2.6 points, shows Likud would get 25 and Kadima 23.

Read more @ Bloomberg

Israeli settlers want government tough on Arabs

Yeah, unlike the pussies they have now. - Ed.

By Andrew Hammond

ARIEL/SALFIT, West Bank (Reuters) - Israelis in the biggest settlement in the occupied West Bank say they will vote for right-wingers vowing a tough line with Palestinians on defending Jewish settlements and halting militant attacks.

They may well get one -- polls forecast a win for opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday as well as a strong showing for his rightist former aide Avigdor Lieberman. Netanyahu is a former prime minister whose vision of peace talks has focussed on shoring up the Palestinian economy rather than a separate state.

Read more @ Reuters

Governments growing nervous at increased social tensions

JAMIE SMYTH

EUROPEAN DIARY: A continent-wide sense of injustice leaves Europe vulnerable to an explosion of unrest

ONE MILLION workers on the streets of France, wildcat strikes in Britain, rioting in Greece and the Baltic republics and sit-in protests by glass workers in Waterford: social unrest is spreading throughout Europe and no one knows where it is all going to end.

Last week the worst economic recession in at least 30 years claimed its first political victim in Europe when on Monday Iceland’s beleaguered prime minister Geir Haarde tendered his resignation following weeks of street protests. The collapse of the country’s banking system, which has shredded the value of the krona, driven interest rates to 18 per cent and unemployment to 8 per cent, put paid to his Conservative-led coalition.

Read more @ Irish Times

"Exceptional" loophole in executive compensation

Of course, that didn't stop the media from fluffing this all effing day long. - Ed.

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and hundreds of financial institutions receiving federal aid aren’t likely to be affected by pay restrictions announced yesterday by President Barack Obama.

The rules, created in response to growing public anger about the record bonuses the financial industry doled out last year, will apply only to top executives at companies that need “exceptional” assistance in the future. The limits aren’t retroactive, meaning firms that have already taken government money won’t be subject to the restrictions unless they have to come back for more.

The new guidelines are the first salvo in a broader financial-rescue plan Obama plans to announce next week. The president and Congress have had to defend billions in aid to banks that continue to provide generous bonuses and luxury perks while posting record losses. Pay caps may provide the political cover the administration needs to deliver additional infusions of capital into the financial sector that may be necessary.

Some analysts said the new rules wouldn’t have much effect.

Read more @ DU

More state legislatures drawing lines in the sand

A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: "AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN MONTANA; PROVIDING FOR THE DUTIES OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL; AND PROVIDING AN APPLICABILITY DATE."

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

NEW SECTION. Section 1. Short title. [Sections 1 through 7] may be cited as the "Montana Firearms Freedom Act".

Read bill

Cheney warns of new attacks

February 4th, 2009

Yesterday, Cryptogon reader offthereservation suggested that I look at a list of U.S. State Department notices on the U.S. Embassy site for Japan.

This person said to look at the notices dated 09/07/01 and 09/10/01. Obviously, those were just before The Big Day.

Offthereservation noted that a brand new Worldwide Caution was just released on 2 February.

I thought, “There aren’t too many World Wide Cautions, but maybe it’s a coincidence,” and left it at that.

But today, anothernut sent this interview with Cheney about how “the terrorists” are going to use nuclear or biological weapons against a U.S. city if the torture industrial complex was to scale itself back a bit.

I don’t know. Maybe something, maybe not.

Read more @ Cryptogon

He's baaaaack! And driving a Mercedes S550!

Wasn't Congress supposed to be looking into this clown? Oh yeah. One guy in Albania gets whacked and the whole thing goes right down the memory hole. - Ed.

Indicted Miami Beach weapons dealer Efraim Diveroli is still making millions of dollars from the U.S. government.

By Penn Bullock

Published on February 03, 2009 at 4:09pm

On March 15, 2008, a fireball shot into the midday sky over Albania's capital, Tirana. The blast echoed 100 miles away in Macedonia and Kosovo. Its force was comparable to that of a small nuclear weapon. But this wasn't atomic. It was an accident at an arms depot, where poor villagers had been hired to handle old ammunition and artillery shells. The explosion killed at least 26 people and injured hundreds. The village of Gerdec was obliterated.

Read more @ Miami News

ICC to mull war crimes case against Israel

While the judge is mulling over whether there is such a thing as a Palestinian state, maybe he could also mull over Israel's undeclared borders, too. - Ed.

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, the ICC prosecutor in The Hague said he would need to determine whether there was such a legal entity as a Palestinian state, a precursor to a possible probe of war crimes in Gaza.

The prosecutor said he had received a request from the Palestinian National Authority to investigate the recent assault, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said: "My work is now to analyze this in accordance with (international) law."

Read more @ Middle East News

As oil plunges, Jews the new scapegoat in Venezuela?

Get your tissues and read as far as the quote. Now ask yourself, if the armed gang took the recordings from the security cameras, how does CNN or anyone know that they didn't cover their faces? Hmm? h/t Greg Bacon. - Ed.

This isn't what I normally blog about but I think its terribly important that word gets out quickly about what is happening in Venezuela. I was told about this developing situation by my Venezuelan relatives who are trying to get the world to take notice.

This past weekend CNN reported that an armed gang of 15 men broke into Caracas' largest synagogue -- vandalizing and ransacking the place. Horrible, but sadly somewhat commonplace. What is really disturbing is this:

The men stole computers and administrative papers or documents, officials said. They did not cover their faces, but took the recordings from security cameras with them.

Read more @ Huffington Post

Perfect Timing

by Scott Creighton

I was reading an article in Haaretz about the victimization mentality prevalent in Israel these days, when I noticed one of those automatically generated ads placed in the middle of the text. Normally I have become accustomed to just ignoring ads stuck in the middle of something I am reading, but this one was simply perfect…

Read more @ American Everyman

Religious Extremists Rising Through the Ranks

By JONATHAN COOK

Nazareth.

Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth, according to critics.

In a process one military historian has termed the rapid “theologisation” of the Israeli army, there are now entire units of religious combat soldiers, many of them based in West Bank settlements. They answer to hardline rabbis who call for the establishment of a Greater Israel that includes the occupied Palestinian territories.

Read more @ South Lebanon

Israel defends killing of Gaza doctor's daughters

Israel has admitted that one of its tanks killed three girls whose father's cries on live television shocked viewers in the final days of the Gaza offensive, but said the action was "reasonable".

An Israeli army (IDF) investigation found that two tank shells were fired at a building housing the apartment of Izz el-Deen Aboul Aish on January 16 - two days before the end of its assault on the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip.

Read more @ ABC News

The Leuchter Report: The End of a Myth

A Report on the Alleged Execution Gas Chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, Poland by an Execution Equipment Expert

Read more - online book

The Holocaust is now Catholic *Dogma* (sarcasm)

The last time a Pope of the Catholic Church defined an infallible dogma was in the year 1950. Pope Pius XII used this power reserved for the Vicar of Christ when speaking ex cathedra to define the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary. It was an extraordinary event because a pope using the power of infallibly to define a dogma is done so rarely, and most popes have never used this power. Before Pius XII, the last pope to invoke papal infallibly to define a dogma was Pius IX in 1854, when he defined the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Both of these dogmas referred to events that had occurred 19 centuries before , and that had been studied by the best minds of the Church for almost as long. That’s because when making an infallible statement - it goes without saying - it can’t contain any errors! Fast forward to 2009 and Pope Benedict XVI has just defined a new dogma regarding a secular event that has nothing to do with the Faith. Moreover, this ‘dogmatic event’ only occurred in the middle of the 20th Century- and no one is allowed to investigate to see if it contains any errors!

Read more @ Truth is Beauty

Italian Lefebvrite priest questions Holocaust

Interesting comment section. - Ed.

In the wake of a global furor triggered by Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to lift the excommunication of four traditionalist Catholic bishops, including one who cast doubt on the Holocaust, another leader in the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X has questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers for anything other than “disinfection,” and said that people who hold revisionist views on the Holocaust are not anti-Semites.

Read more @ NCR

OK trying to rescind call for Federal Con Con

Subject: Oklahoma HJR 1004 rescinding Oklahoma's calls for a Federal Constitutional Convention to be heard Wednesday, February 4, 2009!

Calls and emails needed ASAP

The next meeting of the Rules Committee of the Oklahoma House of Representatives will be Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 3:00 pm in Room 412-C at the Capitol.

Among the several bills to be heard is OK Representative John Wright's HJR 1004,rescinding applications for a Federal Constitutional Convention. A Federal Constitutional Convention would open up the possibility for the entire U.S. Constitution to be open to amendments, including the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights.

Given today's current altered worldview, opening up the U.S. Constitution for a Convention by the states opens the door for a lot of damage to be done, i.e. removing the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, and states' rights under the 10th Amendment.

Please call and email Rules Committee Chairman Representative Gus Blackwell and the other committee members to let them know you support HJR 1004 and torespectfully ask them to move this bill to the floor to be heard and considered by the whole House.

Read more @ OK-safe.com

Irish civil society calls for boycott of Israel

The following letter was published in a full-page advertisement in The Irish Times on 31 January 2009:

The original ad, including signatures may be downloaded here. [PDF]

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza killed over 1,300 Palestinians, a third of them children. Thousands have been wounded. Many victims had been taking refuge in clearly marked UN facilities.

This assault came in the wake of years of economic blockade by Israel. This blockade, which is illegal under international humanitarian law, has destroyed the Gaza economy and condemned its population to poverty. According to a World Bank report last September, “98 percent of Gaza’s industrial operations are now inactive.”

The most recent attack on Gaza is only the latest phase in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people and appropriation of their land.

Read more @ Pulse

Khyber Logistics, Iran and Confidence-building measures

As Cernig noted last night, the Khyber Pass route is temporarily closed again as Taliban affiliated militants blew a bridge just fifteen miles from Peshawar. This is at least the fifth time in the past couple of months that the major supply route has been shut down, and it will not be the last time. The Taliban is able to get away with attacking a critical supply line because they have local legitimacy and relevancy with the population and the protectors were either bought off or functioning with minimal legitimacy and minimal local intelligence and trust.

Read more @ Newshoggers

Genocide is so Romantic

Genocide is so romantic, no? Nice music playing in the background...brotherly concern...grateful folks back home...the whole nine yards. Here these brave soldiers are, some from America, all worried about losing a few men while killing Palestinians. Oh, they need a little hope and support. It means so much to them. They look at each other wondering... Will they be able to kill the unarmed, trapped Palestinians without taking casualties? And all that worry for nothing!! The IOF was able to murder over 1,300 Palestinians with barely a scratch! That's what happens when you have a world-class military take on a prison camp full of little kids, and you use your American made F16s and American made White Phosphorous shells and illegal DIME weapons, as you break international laws left and right and commit crimes against humanity. You see? There was nothing to worry about. Once you have your human conscience removed and replaced with one that lives for the Jewish State alone, all atrocities are possible. - Ed.

Israeli soldier vs Palestinian kid

As Mark Glenn so aptly stated, so-called Christians in America are afraid of being called names for criticizing Israel while Palestinian children stare down tanks and armed soldiers, knowing they could be blown to pieces. At least we know who has the courage of their convictions. - Ed.

Man left to die on sidewalk as people watch

CNN reported early morning Monday on television about another incident reflecting the callousness of some people who left a man to die on a sidewalk in Washington DC and did nothing.

The incident occurred outside a grocery story in the inner city of Washington DC. Several youth were fighting. Jose Sanchez was struck, then fell and hit his head on a van parked near the curb. He lay on the sidewalk a full 20 minutes before someone reported what happened. The assailant, whose name was not disclosed at the time of CNN's early report, has maintained that he slugged Sanchez because Sanchez called him a homosexual. Sanchez was reported dead shortly after being taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Read more @ SOTT

Israel Bound and Determined to Start Another War with Someone

'We're on a collision course with Syria'

A military confrontation with Syria is likely to occur in the near future, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, who heads the Israeli Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, warned on Tuesday.

Such a clash almost occurred in the summer of 2006, and Israel was now close to returning to that point, he said.

Israeli warlord (Bibi) vows face-off with Iran

Israeli election frontrunner Benjamin Netanyahu says his first mission if elected prime minister would be to ‘thwart the Iranian threat’.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV late Saturday, Netanyahu said he fully intends to sabotage Tehran’s nuclear efforts once and for all.

“[Iran] will not be armed with a nuclear weapon… It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true,” said Israel’s leading candidate for prime minister.

Pentagon (speaking from Israel's pocket): Iran's domestic satellite launch is GRAVE cause for concern

Iran's launch of its first satellite into space is a grave cause for concern to the U.S. as the Islamic Republic continues to work toward developing long-range missile capability, the Pentagon and White House said Tuesday.

Tuesday's launch of its first domestically made satellite "does not convince us that Iran is acting responsibly to advance stability or security in the region," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Gibbs said any effort to develop missile delivery capability, continue an illicit nuclear program, threaten Israel and sponsor terror is an "acute concern to this administration."

Hillary (parroting Bibi) demands Hamas stop rocket fire

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday demanded Hamas stop rocket fire into Israel and said she will send the Obama administration's Mideast envoy back to the region within weeks. Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, declared separate, tentative ceasefires two weeks ago after more than three weeks of fighting. But, Clinton noted, "There were rockets yesterday, there were rockets this morning. It is difficult to ask any nation to do anything other than defend itself in the wake of that kind of consistent attack."

And so forth and so on....

After the Israeli elections Abbas will have to talk with Fascists who have no interest in Palestinians

After what the Gazan people have recently gone through, and, indeed, still are, one has to wonder what it is that makes ‘President’ Mahmoud Abbas so cock sure that he has any credibility left with which to govern the Palestinian people or even a mandate from the Palestinian people to continue doing so. What authority he has is that given to him and the corrupt elements within the Fatah movement by the US and the current Israeli government who consider him and Fatah the better of two evils rather than a real partner for peace and a negotiator for the creation of Palestinian state.

Read more @ Damian Lataan

A child full of light will never see again

As a Gazan journalist who is devastated by the holocaust the Israel army is perpetrating against us, I find myself at loss. The list of horrendous crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinians is endless and the crimes are countless.

Should I write about the 45 evacuees who were massacred in their refuge at the United Nations-administered al-Fakhoura school? Should I write about the most horrifying crime when Red Cross personnel found four starving children who had spent four days with the dead bodies of their mothers and other relatives in the ruins of a house in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood?

Read more @ Gaza Strip, The Untold Story

Gilad Atzmon - It is time to say 'enough'

Excerpt:

For years it has become clear that the Palestinian people have been facing almost alone the most devastating form of state terrorism. And yet, in spite of the crimes against humanity repeatedly conducted by the Jewish state, whether it was ethnic cleansing, massacres, land confiscation, or even just racist laws, the Western world kept silent. It always kept silent. Absolutely nothing had been done to stop American and Western support of the Jewish state. Nothing had been done to halt the constant flow of weapons and lethal ammunition from America to Israel. Nothing had been done to curtail the devastating influence of Jewish political lobbies in Western capitals. Time after time we have been watching American-made F16 planes decorated with the Star of David dropping bombs on innocent civilians. Yet, not a single Western state leader had the elementary ethical integrity to stand up and say, NO more, enough is enough.

Read more @ Palestine Think Tank

The angelization of Israel

Excerpt:

So why insist on the "most moral" thing? Why bring up a nonexistent spirit of self-sacrifice on the Israeli soldiers' part? Such preposterous claims only invite scrutiny -- and exposure when proved false.

But of course, the Zionists respond to this by playing the "double standards" card. "We say that we're morally superior, but if you try to check out if we're morally superior, then you're judging us by standards you don't expect any comparable country to meet." Why, of course, but that's because you claimed to meet higher standards in the first place. What you're doing is something only bad-behaved children do, and the name for it is wanting to have it both ways.

Read more @ The Hasbara Buster

Obama's cabinet woes

What is this? All of a sudden all these tax problems come out of the woodwork? We pay taxes to pay the interest on the debt owed to the private bankers for the money they created out of thin air. So is all this sudden flurry of tax problems messages from the bankers that Obama needs to pick other people? Is this how they are playing ball? While Les Blough is right that other Americans would be in jail, this also illustrates the level of corruption taken for granted in Washington DC. Obviously people in power don't worry about the same things we mortals do, because they tend to be exceedingly sloppy in their tax preparation activities, among other things. It's almost as if they just don't care. And yet, when it's time to play politics, all the little mistakes -- which have been overlooked for years -- come out like magic. - Ed.

Editor's Comment: This BBC news report is about Obama's appointment of Tom Daschle, former US Senate Majority Leader, to Secretary of Health who, turns out, cheated on his tax returns to the tune of $130,000- that's USD130,000. Any other US citizen who cheated the IRS like this would go to jail. As Jimmy Cliff wrote and sang, "The harder they come, the harder they fall". The list of Obama appointment crooks goes on - Nancy Killefer, Obama's appointment to oversee budget and spending reform, cheated on her taxes; Timothy Geither, another Obama appointment, cheated on his taxes; Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico and another Obama appointment (Commerce Secretary) - sold his soul for state contracts to campaign donors, etc. But Daschle, Killefer, Geither and Richardson are the least of Obama's cabinet and office appointment problems.

Read more @ Axis of Logic

Obama clashing with Saint Petraeus

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (IPS) - CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

Read more @ IPS News

Dozens of secret Bush surveillance, executive powers memos found; could be made public

MAKE THEM PUBLIC ALREADY. - Ed.

Details about more than three dozen secret memoranda written by Bush Administration officials now sit atop a chart created by a public interest reporting group. The memos track new details about dozens of secret Bush Administration legal positions on torture, detention and warrantless wiretapping.

Read more @ Raw Story

Reading your mind: Israeli security brings TIA 24 steps closer

Israel, go ahead and read my mind. I have a disparaging message for you. - Ed.

Israeli IT security firm MindCite boasts the capability to deliver "24"-style intelligence gathering to "the common security agency." For the right price, clients can "determine how people, things and situations meet" by hiring MindCite's program to "connect the dots" in lieu of traditional methods of detective work.

"MindCite ... parses databases, e-mail messages and other Internet communications... the system can ferret out information on objects, people, events, etc., giving clients an insight into what has already happened, and giving them a better chance at making an educated guess on what may happen next."

Read more @ SOTT

German pope becomes an embarrassment in homeland

Such a price for upsetting the Jews. I wonder what the non-prominent people say. - Ed.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Nearly four years after a rare outburst of national pride over the election of a German pope, Germans are falling out of love with Pope Benedict because of his rehabilitation of a bishop who denies the Holocaust.

Prominent Catholics, politicians and newspaper commentators in Joseph Ratzinger's homeland are pulling no punches in their criticism of his lifting of the excommunications of four bishops, including one who denies the extent of the Holocaust.

Chancellor Angela Merkel also criticized him, prompting a sharp response from the Vatican.

Read more @ Reuters

State of New Hampshire gets serious about Live Free or Die

A RESOLUTION affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 1, Article 7 declares that the people of this State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled; and

Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 2, Article 1 declares that the people inhabiting the territory formerly called the province of New Hampshire, do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other, to form themselves into a free, sovereign and independent body-politic, or State, by the name of The State of New Hampshire; and

Whereas the State of New Hampshire when ratifying the Constitution for the United States of America recommended as a change, “First That it be Explicitly declared that all Powers not expressly & particularly Delegated by the aforesaid are reserved to the several States to be, by them Exercised;” and

Whereas the other States that included recommendations, to wit Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia, included an identical or similar recommended change; and

Whereas these recommended changes were incorporated as the ninth amendment, the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, and the tenth amendment, the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people, to the Constitution for the United States of America; now, therefore, be it

Read more of HCR 0006

Our unconscious brain makes the best decisions possible

Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that the human brain—once thought to be a seriously flawed decision maker—is actually hard-wired to allow us to make the best decisions possible with the information we are given. The findings are published in today's issue of the journal Neuron.

Read more @ Physorg.com

Selfish adults 'threat to children'

Ruh roh, Shaggy. - Ed.

The belief among adults that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their own life rather than contributing to the good of others, is fuelling a range of social ills from family breakdown to premature sexualisation of children and inequality between rich and poor, The Good Childhood inquiry found.

Read more @ Yahoo News

Project Camelot: Jake Simpson

As a follow up to yesterday's weirdness with the 'end of the world,' this site has related sorts of information, including this strange interview. Also under the tab The Big Picture are some notes about the probability of various catastrophes happening, such as Planet X smashing into earth. - Ed.

Excerpt:

Jake is one of many in military/ intelligence circles who are the 'white hats'. Idealistically motivated, he made his career choice when young, wanting to work for mankind and play his part in helping Planet Earth become a better place. Despite discovering the true, bewildering complexity of the world he had entered, he retained both his idealism and his job... and many years later decided to approach Project Camelot with a portion of what he now knew.

He told us that we had many of the correct puzzle pieces - and that, furthermore, it was understood that we work with integrity, and that we're not trying to breach any legitimate national security. He stressed that we were quite liked by a number of the 'white hats' who were monitoring us closely, despite our being on a number of 'watch lists' of every kind.

Jake helped us understand that if we kept our information general and didn't try to prove anything (with documentation or by any other means), we would remain safe. He stressed that it was very important not to get too specific on certain sensitive issues, and to be very wary of ever getting hold of any definitive documentation.

Read more @ Project Camelot

Have a Nice Day!!

Series of Catastrophes for 2012: Solar Activity, Crustal Displacement, Planet X

Go. Enjoy. Stop saving for college.

Hamas to pay victims of Gaza war

Why not Israel????? Well, Israel would just send the bill to the US. - Ed.

Hamas says nearly 1,900 houses were completely destroyed in northern Gaza during the three-week Israeli military campaign in the strip.

Hamas spokesman in northern Gaza, Abdelatif al-Qanou'a, said Monday that the democratically-elected ruler of the strip, Hamas, has started paying financial compensations to victims of the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinian territory.

Read more @ Press TV

Elaborate justifications for trampling all over your Fourth Amendment rights

Homeland Security Intelligence: Perceptions, Statutory Definitions, and Approaches [pdf]
by Mark A. Randol
Specialist in Domestic Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism
January 14, 2009

for the Congressional Research Service

The winners often turn out to be the biggest losers

John Hoefle – Executive Intelligence Review January 30, 2009
During the early months of 2007, the Royal Bank of Scotland was on top of the world. RBS was battling another British giant, Barclays, for control over Dutch banking giant ABN AMRO. Allied with RBS were two other large European banks, Fortis and Banco Santander, and backed by a gaggle of powerful hedge funds, the trio blew up Barclays' deal with the Dutch bank, and took it over.

Read more @ The Truth Seeker

US warships to steel Israel for new war

Israel is set on the road to expand its naval fleet with advanced US warships amid speculation that it plans to take out Iran after Gaza.

As part of its massive, $60 billion military buildup project for a period of five years between 2008 and 2012, Israel is working to receive two US-made, multi-mission Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).

Read more @ The Truth Seeker

86 Israeli war criminals now wanted by international courts

Palestinian human rights activist Raji Al-Sourani has disclosed Wednesday that at least 86 Israeli military officers were now wanted by a number western courts for their role in the holocaust in the Gaza Strip.

In a forum held in this regard in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Sourani accused the European governments of adopting unfair stand over the Israeli massacres in Gaza Strip, opining that such behavior would bring the world back to the " law of the jungle."

Read more @ Pakistan Daily

Why these strikers may tear down the EU empire

Looks like today the British workers outside the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire have been twinned with the striking workers at the shipyards at Gdansk in 1980: and for any worker, there could be no greater honour.

Gdansk was the moment when Polish workers stood against the Soviet empire and said there would be no more submission: 'On our knees before God, but on our own two feet before all men.'

Read more @ Daily Mail online

Wildcat oil strikes: Europeans finally waking up to the demise of democracy

The peoples of Europe have finally discovered what they signed up to. I do mean "peoples" (plural) because however much political elites may deceive themselves, the populations of the member states of the EU are culturally, historically and economically separate and distinct. And a significant proportion of them are getting very, very angry.

Read more @ Telegraph.co.uk

Ask Dr. Zionstein

Dear Dr. Zionstein:

I am writing to get some help for my husband, who has a terribly explosive temper. He can get extremely violent on a moment's notice, for no reason at all, and gets into a homicidal rage when I talk about my past and how I would like to have that part of my life back.

Read more @ Goon Squad

They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity

WRITTEN BY MARY RIZZO - A very strange thing is happening at this moment within a circle of people who like to consider themselves at the cutting edge of the struggle for the Palestine, and we are referring to the individuals who classify themselves as Secular Anti-Zionist Jews, and consider themselves to be the "independent" Jewish voices, and as thus, the avant-garde of "the Pro-Palestinian movement". Following what can only be classified as a unique international event of major media importance, and perhaps also of a certain historical significance, they are protesting and stomping their feet in anger at the intervention of Erdogan on a stage shared by the General Secretary of the UN, the leader of the Arab League and the President of Israel.

Read more @ Palestine Think Tank

Minot base crew commander found dead

The body of a missile combat crew commander from the Minot Air Force was found by police and the cause of his death is under investigation, the Air Force says.

Read more @ Cryptogon

Wayne Madsen report on NSA spying via Tom Heneghan

United States of America – Today we bring a report from Wayne Madsen detailing the criminal NSA's (National Security Agency) ILLEGAL spy program “Operation Stellar Wind” that was launched against the American People in early February 2001.

Read more @ Tom Heneghan

Henry Makow: Fighting an Invisible Force

Roger, an "angry American," "patriot" and "fighter," wrote to say he is in touch with many other men who want to do something but don't know what. Do I have any ideas?

Roger is like the man who asked how much does the yacht cost and was told, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Individuals must take the initiative. That's what the enemy is most afraid of.

"There is nothing more dangerous than personal initiative if it has genius behind it. We must so direct the education of communities of the goyim that whenever they come upon a matter requiring personal initiative they may drop their hands in despair." (Protocols of Zion V.)

We must learn to think and act as individuals again. People only do what they "own" i.e. conceive themselves (unless they are paid or propagandized by paid agents.)

Read more @ The Truth Seeker

Israel and the Samson Option

The Samson Option is a term used to describe Israel’s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well.^[1] Israel refuses to admit it has nuclear weapons or describe how it would use them, an official policy of nuclear ambiguity, also known as "nuclear opacity." This has made it difficult for anyone outside the Israeli government to definitively describe its true nuclear policy, while still allowing Israel to influence the perceptions, strategies and actions of other governments.^[2]

It is estimated Israel has as many as 400 atomic and hydrogen nuclear weapons.^[3] These can be launched from land, sea and air.^[4] This gives Israel a second strike option even if much of the country is destroyed.^[5]

Read more @ CarolMoore.net

SOTT: Connecting the Dots

Excerpt:

It is a sad irony that the Israelis could actually end up becoming the victims that they fantasize they already are because of their lack of critical thinking and objectivity towards their leaders, their myths and the very foundations of their country. Indeed, since the establishment of the state of Israel, it hasn't taken a genius to realize that the project has always been a deadly formula, a time-bomb and a trap for both Arabs and Jews, who find themselves corralled in a tiny piece of land awaiting their destruction. Besides, if the Zionists are now following the path of the Nazis, we should bear in mind exactly how the Nazis era ended.

Read more @ SOTT

As the dust settles over the Gaza, Israel's genocidal intentions are revealed

The Israeli propaganda at the outset was that they merely wanted to stop the rockets and mortars being fired into Israel from the Gaza and to destroy the Hamas infrastructure. But, as the dust settled after the Israelis had pulled out, Israel’s true intentions are just now being revealed.

The stories now emerging depict a deliberately planned attempt by the Israelis to sow the seeds of the destruction of the Palestinian peoples in the Gaza Strip. Apart from destroying homes and buildings and indiscriminately murder and maim innocent civilians including hundreds of children, Israel has also methodically set out to destroy both the Gazans ability to feed themselves and also to destroy the last remnants of an economy based on horticultural and agricultural production within the Strip.

Read more @ Telling the History of the 21st Century as it really is

Hamas 'would recognize' pre-1967 Israel

Hamas would recognise Israel if it withdraws to its pre-1967 borders, a French Jewish writer said this week after meeting the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Khaled Meshaal.

"He told me that Hamas was prepared to recognise Israel on the lines of June 4, 1967. He told me so several times," Marek Halter told AFP on Monday.

The date refers to Palestinian demands for an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 war.

Read more @ TheAge.com.au

Australian news channel was invited "accidentally" to very open dialogue

After ordering a cameraman to turn off his camera, Israeli Ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem engaged in a very frank discussion about the recent Israeli war in the Gaza Strip, calling it “a preintroduction” to an attack on Iran that Israel apparently expects within the year.

Before the camera was turned off, Ambassador Rotem said “the best thing to do is to have a very open dialogue if there are no reporters or journalists here,” adding “I am far more reserved in the way I am saying my things (on camera).” Unbeknownst to him however Sarah Cummings, a reporter for Australia’s Seven News service, was actually in attendance at the meeting after having been “accidentally” invited.

Read more @ Antiwar.com

Israel Asserting Middle East Supremacy

by James Petras

January 31, 2009 "Information Clearinghouse" --- Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany bombed, invaded and annexed countries and territories as a prelude to their quest for World Empire. Israel’s drive for regional dominance has followed in their footsteps, imitating their style: Indiscriminate aerial bombings of civilian and military facilities, a savage blitzkrieg led by armored vehicles, disdain and repudiation of all criticism from international agencies was accompanied by an open, military buildup for a new and bigger war against Iran. Like the Nazi leadership, who played on the ‘Bolshevik threat’, the Israeli high command has set in motion a vast world-wide propaganda campaign led by its world Zionist network, raising the specter of ‘Islamic terror’ to justify its preparations for a military assault on seventy-four million Iranians. Just as Nazi Germany interpreted the passivity, sympathy and impotence of the West when confronted by ‘facts on the ground’ as license for aggression, the Israeli military machine receives a powerful impetus for new wars by the Western governments’ inaction and flaccid response to its invasion of Lebanon, the bombing of Syria and now its Nazi style blitz and conquest of Gaza. For the Israeli high command, the impotence and complicity of the Western states, marks the way to bigger and bloodier wars to establish Israel’s supremacy and dominance of the Middle East, from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf.

Read more @ Information Clearinghouse

Letter to Israeli Ambassador, Thanks but no thanks

by Theodoros Pangalos

The Israeli Embassy in Greece, in the name of Ambassador Ali Yahya, sent three bottles of wine as a holiday gift to Theodoros Pangalos. Pangalos returned the gift, thanking the ambassador in the following letter.

Dear Mr. Ambassador,

Thank you for the three bottles of wine that you sent me as a holiday gift. I wish you, your family, and everybody in the embassy a happy new year. Good health and progress to all of you.

Unfortunately, I have noticed that the wine you sent me was made in the Golan Heights. Since my childhood, I have been taught to neither steal nor accept the proceeds of theft. Therefore, I cannot possibly accept this gift and must return it to you.

Read more @ MR Zine

Turkey Roundup

Iranian President praises Turkish PM for Davos outburst
TEHRAN, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday congratulated Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on taking a stand over Israel on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

'Erdogan-led Turkey can't broker talks' sniffs the Jerusalem Post

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304645645&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "has lost all credibility as an honest broker in peace discussions," a senior Israeli diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post Saturday night, citing Erdogan's recent anti-Israel rhetoric.

Erdogan: Hamas is not an arm of Iran

01/02/2009 Hamas is a political party, not an “arm of Iran,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Newsweek magazine published online Saturday. “If the whole world had given them the chance of becoming a political player maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the elections that they won.”

There are some other stories floating around out there about Mossad, Turkey, CIA, etc. I'm sure at least some of it is true. There's also this angle. - Ed.

Reposted: Credit Default Swaps: The Insane Problem and the Radical but Sane Solution

The paramount reason for today's cancerous credit crisis is seldom even hinted and never explained.

First, a simple definition. A credit default swap is a form of insurance. A variant of mortgage insurance required of many home purchasers. An insurance policy that requires a company with financial strength to step up to the plate and pay the mortgage if for some reason the home buyer defaults.

A credit default swap is similar: If default occurs, an insurance company pays the income stream of the mortgage.

With one extremely important difference: Payments are made to the owner of the policy, not to the financial institution that stands to suffer a loss.

Financial institutions are allowed, through total lack of regulation, to buy and sell credit default swaps, or insurance they will be paid in event of default, on financial instruments in which they have no financial interest.

Read more @ The Geronimo Manifesto

"Too big to fail:" A Bailout Hoax

How Schemes to Rescue Wall Street Gamblers Are Prolonging this Recession
By ISMAEL HOSSEIN-ZADEH

Using the “too big to fail” scare tactic, the U.S. government has kept a number of terminally ill Wall Street gamblers on an expensive life-support system that is estimated to cost taxpayers $8.5 trillion [1]. In light of the fact that (according to IRS Data Book) there were 138 million taxpayers in 2007, this figure represents a burden of $61,594.20 per tax payer. Or, to put it differently, it represents a burden of $28,333.33 per man, woman and child for the entire U.S. population.

This massive giveaway of public money has been devoted to a wide range of fraudulent programs, including asset purchases of insolvent institutions, loans and loan guarantees, equity purchases in troubled financial companies, tax breaks for banks, assistance to a relatively small number of struggling homeowners, and a currency stabilization fund.

Read more @ Atheo News

Tips for Scavenging Perfectly Good Food

Here is some advice for those who are hungry:

My partner and I don't have enough money to eat well and neither do our friends. But we have a little secret I'd like to share with you--on one condition--you have to share the food you find with others and also use good judgment. This works best if you live in a suburb or a small city. (Those in NYC and LA might want to ignore this advice.) I live in a city of about a million people.

Find the area-wide warehouse distribution center for any of the national upscale grocery stores in your region. (I'd rather not name names, but I think you can figure out which ones I'm talking about). There will be an area where trucks are loading massive amounts of new food into the warehouse. Because these stores cater to upscale clientele, they will throw out pallets of food if some items have superficial packaging imperfections (i.e. dented but intact hard plastic, etc.) Because sales are low, they are also throwing out food that is 'less new' but perfectly edible. For example: if new produce arrives, unsold produce will be discarded en masse, even if it will stay good for another 10 days.)

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Wall St faces moment of truth over pay, perks

Gee, Wally, it sure took them a while to reach the moment of truth. - Ed.

By Jonathan Spicer and Dan Wilchins - Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - This may be the week that Wall Street finally realized a golden era of prestige, high pay and perks has ended.

Many bankers felt they could hunker down through the economic crisis without transforming their behavior.

But then this week new U.S. President Barack Obama made it clear their attitudes and compensation have to change at a time when they are being bailed out with many billions of dollars of taxpayers' money and the rest of the country is suffering from mass layoffs and declining retirement accounts.

Read more @ Reuters

Jewish Man Visits Auschwitz, Asks Too Many Questions

It is an undisputed fact of history that, during World War II, the Germans ran a network of prison and labor camps, both in Germany and in the territories they controlled. Into these camps were sent Jews, prisoners-of-war, resistance fighters, Gypsies, and other people considered enemies of the Third Reich.

The largest of these camps was the one called Auschwitz, located in Poland. Those interned at Auschwitz came from all over Europe and consisted of men, women, and children. Those able to work were used as labor for the German war effort. Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army in January of 1945. But that is where the consensus ends.


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Pope's Embrace of Renegade Bishop Dooms Jewish-Catholic Summit

From the Jewish Daily Forward
http://www.forward.com/articles/15030/

Money quote:

The Vatican’s conciliatory moves toward the four bishops have hit a chord because they come after a number of other recent decisions by the Pope Benedict XVI that have angered the Jewish community. Last winter, the pope moved to beatify Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of turning a blind eye toward the murder of Jews during World War II. A few months earlier, the pope had widened the usage of the Latin Mass, which has some prayers to which Jewish religious leaders have objected. Referring to these recent incidents, along with the revocation of the excommunications, the ADL’s Foxman said, “something is going on.”

“What it seems to some of us is that somehow there is a new priority, and the priority is unifying the Christian world almost at all costs,” Foxman said.

And we can't have that, now can we???? - Ed.

Panoramic Zoomable Photo if the Inauguration

Pretty cool. Check out the clowns in the good seats. - Ed.

Click on the link at the bottom to open picture. The control for the picture is in the upper left. Press the + sign to zoom in, or the arrows to move right, left, up or down. If the picture looks fuzzy give it a second to clarify.

This is a remarkable panorama of the inauguration. It might not work well with a dial-up modem, but you can actually focus in on faces near the back of the crowd- nearly 1/2 mile!

For fun, focus on Obama (center stage) and then look behind him. There's Clarence Thomas seemingly asleep, Dick Cheney in his wheelchair, Clinton, Gore, Bush 41 and even Dan Quayle! Scalia is sitting there looking like the Grand Inquisitor. The clarity is amazing!

The technology is truly amazing- and it's un-classified! Imagine what our spy agencies can see with classified technology!!!http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

Source: FourWinds10.com