Monday, December 31, 2007

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Year's End

Saturday, December 15, 2007

The New Dollar, Same as The Old Dollar. Silver Dollar That Is



In thinking about what our world will be like after the coming economic collapse, I have wondered what will become of our current paper as its value goes down. If you've ever shopped in Mexico, you may have suffered peso shock when the grocery bill was 500. Will we see that? Speculation has it that an new Amero will be foisted upon us, along with Canada and Mexico, as we build the North American Union. (I prefer, and wrote about in 1975, the United States of North America, USNA. 100 States in all.)


In the article below, Edgar J. Steele reveales a old-new possibility, he calls it the above-ground economy. What if we started using our old silver coins again. They are still legal tender, but much increased over face value.


Say you went to buy a new car, and with gold at $700 an ounce, you pay the dealer 50 Gold Eagles face value $2500 US Dollars. He accepts them because he knows that they are worth $35,000. (Expect a little shaving here.) The sale is recorded at $2500 and the license and tax ramifications are obvious.

Would you be happy accepting $200 per week for your services is you were paid with four US Gold Eagles (face value $50 each) worth $700 each? Income - $10,400 per year. Not bad as that will buy $72,800 worth of stuff.


Hey, it's like reverseing inflation. Now we can stick to them.


Can this be stopped? Read the article.


If you've been singing along with this blog and developed an interest in gold, silver, and the falling dollar, I urge you to read it. It's long and very lively. No pie in the sky. The change will be all about change!

Cramer with Ron Paul

Even if you are not fond of Jim Cramer, check out this video. Ron Paul in '08!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

New Horizons

Long suffering readers who do not know me personally may believe that I have interests only in gold, silver, war in Iran, Bush-bashing, etc.

I do, however, have other interests, for example podcasting. Although not a regular podcaster myself, I've been working with Dr. Dave over at www.shrinkrapradio.com for the past two years. I'm mostly been providing feedback, and in the process Dave and I have renewed our friendship over the Internet with the generous help of Skype, the Internet phone, which seems to lend itself to this sort of thing. I don't know if it's the headset, the fact that you can call any phone in the U.S. for a flat fee of $14.95 per year, or what, but it works well for us, and we are sure having fun.

Now Dave, always the entrepreneur, has branched into Internet talk radio. It's available live for call in or real-time chat Sundays at 10:00 am Pacific time. He asked me to participate in the first show which you can listen to here:



Listen to Shrink Rap Radio on internet talk radio

Spontaneous and unrehearsed as they say. But with a psychology/spirituality theme. Check us out and call in this Sunday if you have comments or questions.

Live, from the "bleeding" edge.

Watch Out, They are Starting to Snarl

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Who's Next?

In answer to the recent rhetorical question, "Who's Next? to be tasered:

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

I Call Treason!

Scottie has spilled the beans on the cover-up of the treasonous act of outing Valerie Plame. Plain and simple.

Treason.


Time for Patrick Fitzgerald to get a new grand jury and go for the throat. Subpoena the lot. His investigation was never closed. Crank it up!





Bush and company must now be impeached.

Update: Talking heads afraid to make the call. Questioning whether or not Scottie really meant what he said. Oh, come on.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Worth Waking Up For

Well, that didn't last long. This stuff was too cool to pass up.



Why You Will Never Beat a Computer at Chess





What the Internets Are Feeling
(click on Open We Feel Fine in upper right upon arrival)






Monday, November 05, 2007

Hibernation

Astounding News is going into hibernation. I've been so busy over at www.denverdirect.tv that I really haven't had time to be Astounded. I'm going to leave this site up for historical purposes, and who knows, I may just be Astounded in the future! Thanks for all your visits, and may we all keep on keeping on!

Jerry

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Friday, October 12, 2007

Right Brain, Left Brain


Go here to test yourself. I found that by looking at her stationary foot I could get it to switch, although not under my conscious control.

Not New, But Still Amazing



Thanks to Val for the tip.

Friday, October 05, 2007

I've Been Busy...


Relaxing at the above undisclosed location. See you next week.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Who Is Next?

Rev. Lennox Yearwood attacked, and hospitalized Part 1
For wearing a button - I love Iraqi people.



Rev. Lennox Yearwood attacked, and hospitalized Part 2



Keep rolling tape!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Expect More in the Future



Don't Tase Me Bro'



More complete video of incident

Saturday, September 15, 2007

It Can’t Happen Here (Can It?)


Northern Rock, the mortgage bank rescued by the Bank of England last week, could see as much as L12 billion -- nearly half its deposits -- withdrawn by worried savers, experts say.


The run on the bank continued yesterday as police were called in to keep the peace when angry and desperate customers besieged branches across the country despite assurances from the Treasury and Bank of England that their savings were secure.


Branches due to close at midday opened until 2 pm, but many hundreds of people were still trying to get their money when the branches closed and minor scuffles and arguments broke out.

Friday, September 14, 2007

The Beginning of Hyper-Inflation



Inflation is caused by increasing the money supply faster than increases in GDP (or value). Hyper-inflation is caused by manic increases in the money supply. Google it.

From today's Daily Reckoning,

Today comes word that the feds are bailing out the big banks as fast as their buckets allow. It is the biggest bailout in five years, say the reports...with big banks averaging about $2.7 billion per day in loans from the Fed. These injections of cash are said to be ‘forced’ by the Fed itself...rather that the result of desperation on the part of member banks. Still, recent estimates put the increase in U.S. money at nearly 50%, annualized.



Are you ready for prices to double in a year? You still have time. Buy real money.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Google Insures That No Work Will Ever Get Done


Google Earth, that incredible mapping program, just introduced its Flight Simulator. Ctrl-Alt-A. See ya!

Gold Breaking Out? (Finally)


On the way to $????.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Saturday, August 25, 2007

If you haven't started your business in"Second Life", you may want to get started now.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Panspermia



Prions are a very basic form of "life" just above the protein molecule. Prions cannot be destroyed: by heat, radiation or hitting with a stick. Comets (pictured above being hit by a 400 lb copper bullet we fired at it) are probably the horse we (life) rode in on.



Did Life Begin In Space? New Evidence From Comets


Science Daily

Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and colleagues at the University's Centre for Astrobiology have long argued the case for panspermia - the theory that life began inside comets and then spread to habitable planets across the galaxy. A recent BBC Horizon documentary traced the development of the theory.

Now the team claims that findings from space probes sent to investigate passing comets reveal how the first organisms could have formed.

The 2005 Deep Impact mission to Comet Tempel 1 discovered a mixture of organic and clay particles inside the comet. One theory for the origins of life proposes that clay particles acted as a catalyst, converting simple organic molecules into more complex structures. The 2004 Stardust Mission to Comet Wild 2 found a range of complex hydrocarbon molecules - potential building blocks for life.

The Cardiff team suggests that radioactive elements can keep water in liquid form in comet interiors for millions of years, making them potentially ideal "incubators" for early life. They also point out that the billions of comets in our solar system and across the galaxy contain far more clay than the early Earth did. The researchers calculate the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet at one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against.

Professor Wickramasinghe said: "The findings of the comet missions, which surprised many, strengthen the argument for panspermia. We now have a mechanism for how it could have happened. All the necessary elements - clay, organic molecules and water - are there. The longer time scale and the greater mass of comets make it overwhelmingly more likely that life began in space than on earth."

The new paper, The Origin of Life in Comets, by Professor Wickramasinghe, Professor Bill Napier and Dr Janaki Wickramasinghe is to be published shortly by the International Journal of Astrobiology.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

What Say Ye Now? (See Hoaxed below.)




Update: 8/14/07 - Hoaxed?

Home Buyers Thrown Out, Bankers Rescued



When you can’t pay, your stuff is tossed into the street. When banker’s can’t pay, the Fed steps in for the rescue.

"This is a one-in-a-100-year event in which there are extremely unusual correlations that no one prepared for," one banker warned. "We are in a situation where everyone is very scared."
And you thought your money market savings were safe:

For example, one European money market fund was closed after reportedly losing 30% of its value because it held commercial paper backed by subprime loans. Money market funds are of course supposed to be safe and without price risk. In other words, the principal one invests is not supposed to be diminished, and when shareholders decide to cash-out, everyone expects to receive their principal and interest because money markets funds only buy interest-bearing paper and not equities. But as the shareholders of this European money market fund have now found out, their fund's net asset value dropped substantially because the fund owned commercial paper backed by subprime mortgages. So the question arises, how many more money market funds around the globe are going to be infected by the growing subprime contagion because they own commercial paper backed by subprime loans?

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Global Tsunami of Credit - Best Explanation to Date

By way of GATA:

The Morning After the Open-Ended Bailout
By Michael Kosares
Centennial Precious Metals, Denver
http://www.usagold.com/Saturday, August 11, 2007

This time it IS different.

In past financial bailouts, the destruction was limited to one or two institutions. A group was put together in the private sector, or the central bank stepped in, and the troubled entity was bailed out.

When the Fed, the European Central Bank, and Bank of Japan moved last week to bail out the entire financial industry worldwide, they offered the equivalent of a credit card with no limit and subsidized rates 1 or 2 percent below what would have been the free-market rate had they not stepped in.

What's more, it was done on a global basis to the tune of hundreds of billions in "liquidity." Thus the central banks have set a dangerous precedent.

One of the points made repeatedly in the financial press today is that no one in the banking industry or the central banks knows the extent of the losses. Take it a step further and you have to assume that no one knows the extent of the ongoing bailout either.

The bailout could end up being open-ended -- AND without borders. All commercial banks and hedge funds around the world will feel that it is their birthright to be given unlimited credit -- and now, it appears, the central banks, as a matter of fairness, will be at their mercy.

When CNBC's Jim Cramer experienced a meltdown of his own on national television in the United States last week and actually screamed for a bailout by the Fed, he spoke for the financial industry as a whole. Most of the nation's trading rooms were nodding their heads and saying, "Give 'em hell, Jimmy!"

Now, in the heat of the moment, comes the bailout. As its open-ended nature begins to be recognized, we will see how the markets react -- the morning after.

What, for instance, will all this credit translate to in the real world, the real economy? This is a question that I am sure is being entertained right now at the meeting tables of the world's financial engineers.

But what the press has failed to point out in its treatment of the financial crisis is that the actions of the Fed, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of Japan last week amount to printing money.

Money was created out of thin air. When you do this, it tends to force down the value of your currency against everyone else's. But wait a minute. Practically the WHOLE WORLD, not just the United States, is printing money to put the crisis at bay. How can the dollar go down against the euro when the people in charge of the euro are printing just as much currency as the people in charge of the dollar?

Where the rubber meets the road, the open-ended bailout may translate into a massive depreciation of the world's major currencies against goods and services globally.
In other words, chances are that the cost of living is about to erupt higher -- much higher than expected, and globally.

As a result, gold demand is likely to rise considerably, driven by safe-haven buying globally -- and gold supplies are already strained.

On the other side of the ledger, paper assets -- anything denominated in and linked directly to the major currencies being printed furiously -- will be seen as suspect. Will this inflation evolve into hyperinflation? Only time will tell. But the open-endedness of the bailout is troubling. Where do the central banks stop? Who, if anyone, is going to get cut off?

When no one knows how deep the damage is, there is no way to know how much money will need to be printed.

All this is the result of just one small sector of the massive derivatives market going haywire. There are similar time bombs buried all over the markets -- more bailouts to come now that the precedent has been set.



Real Money. You've still got time.

They're Honkin' For Impeachment In Kentucky



Find a Honk-in near you.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Central Banks Pour Zeros Into Computers to Stem Market Turmoil



If you have any interest in finance/investment you've probably noticed that yesterday the world's central banks started kicking in great wads of money "in order to provide liquidity." European, Asian, and US central banks, creators of "flying" money, (as the Chinese called it when they first invented paper money way back when), have announced the addition of approximately $300 billion worth of "liquidity".

I'm guessing that there is no printing going on here. These are all computer transfers of ones and zeros into "money market accounts" all living on computers. What it really means is that system banks can avail themselves of these funds at lower than usual interest rates. These banks pay interest to the central bankers (who got the money for free by merely adding zeros) and turn around and loan it out to us at a higher interest rate. The spread, or difference, is their gross profit. So we got the central bankers and the system bankers living off of our backs - instead of congress running the show as dictated by our Constitution.

Adding the zeroes is supposed to calm the money elite down, and to discourage them from "trying to get their money back" which would mean selling the "instruments" when nobody wants to buy. But the addition of zeroes diminishes the value of all of them, so increased liquidity actually means decreased value and you should be getting all "Mogambo" right about now because your dollars are shrinking in your wallet as we speak!

Why are we collectively paying this "inflation" tax to these small groups of thieves? Ron Paul promises to stop this theft, but most Americans can't really understand what is being done to them, or what needs to be stopped.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Hold On, Here We Go! (Click for article)

ECB in €95bn move on market turmoil

By Gillian Tett in London, Richard Milne in Frankfurt and Krishna Guha in Washington
Published: August 9 2007 12:59


The European Central Bank scrambled to head off a potential financial crisis on Thursday by making an emergency injection of €94.8bn ($131bn) worth of funds into the region’s money markets, after signs that liquidity was drying up.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

This Could Be the Start of Something Big



China, holder of a vast store of US Dollars, has started to rattle our chain. Sale (even partial) of their holdings, mostly in US Treasury Bonds, could trigger a dollar collapse. Now they are hinting they might do just that if we don't behave.



China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 9:54am BST 08/08/2007

The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - that Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Just the Facts

(Click to enlarge)

Monday, August 06, 2007

When Will They Unleash the Decider Dog?





You can see the mean-spirited, toad-exploding, Decider Dog inside of GW. He’s getting ready to come out for the final act.

Well now, you were kinda hoping that Congress would save us from the Decider, eh? But now they’ve caved on FISA and you are not so sure.

Well, belly up to the bar here and have yourself a good read. I assure you the following book review will open your eyes to the fact that Congress and maybe even the courts will not be able to stop Decider Dog (appearing soon in a neighborhood near you).

Lundberg destroyed the popular myth of a government constrained by constitutional checks and balances. In fact, it can and repeatedly has done anything judged expedient, with or without popular approval, and within or outside the law of the land. In this respect, it's no different than most others able to operate the same way and often do. It's done through "the narrowest possible interpretations of the Constitution," but it's free to "operate further afield under broader or fanciful official interpretations" with history recording numerous examples.
...
A key point made is that "government is completely autonomous, detached, in a realm of its own" with its "main interest (being) economic (for the privileged) at all times." In pursuing this aim, "constitutional shackles and barriers (exist only) in the
imaginations of many people" believing in them. Regardless of law, custom or anything else, sitting US governments have always been freelancing. They've been unresponsive to the public interest, uncaring about the will and needs of the majority, and generally able to finesse or ignore the law with ease as suits their purpose. As Lundberg put it: "forget the mirage of government by the people," or the rule of law for that matter, with George Bush only being the most extreme example of how things work in Washington all the time under all Presidents. go read...

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

NoSo



I'm sure you've heard all about myspace, facebook, and other "social networking" sites. All web 2.0 cool and all of that.

Now comes NoSo. Check it out.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

That Would Explain Quite a Few Things



Report: Libby a long-time Israeli intelligence agent

by Wayne Madsen

Global Research, July 7, 2007

waynemadsenreport.com

Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby (Leibowitz) has been a long-serving intelligence agent for Israel's Mossad, according to a veteran CIA "official cover" officer who spoke to the Wayne Madsen Report on deep background. The CIA's Clandestine Service has, over the years, gathered a tremendous amount of intelligence on Libby's activities on behalf of Mossad.

Libby served as the lawyer for Switzerland- based American fugitive financier Marc Rich, aka Mark David Reich, who is also known to be an Israeli intelligence asset and someone Israel relies upon for missions that demand "plausible deniability" on the part of the Mossad. Rich heads up a worldwide empire of dummy corporations, foundations, and numbered bank accounts that have been involved in sanctions busting and weapons smuggling. The nations involved include Israel, United States, United Kingdom, Iran, Panama, Colombia, Russia, Iraq (under Saddam Hussein), Cuba, Spain, Nigeria, Singapore, Bolivia, Jamaica, Bermuda, France, Italy, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Australia, Argentina, Peru, Ireland, Zambia, Sw

In 1983, the then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York urged jail time for Rich and his partner Pincus Green for racketeering. The name of that U.S. Attorney is Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani, who is now running for president, praised Bush's decision to commute Libby's jail sentence. After Clinton 's pardon of Rich, Giuliani said he was "shocked." Paul Klebnikov, the Moscow editor for Forbes' Russian edition, wrote about the connections of Rich to Russian gangsters like Boris Berezovsky, a business partner of Neil Bush, in his book "Godfather of the Kremlin." Klebnikov was shot to death gangland-style on a Moscow street on July 9, 2004.

Libby not only provided the Mossad with a top agent inside the White House
but also an important conduit for the Russian-Israeli Mafia.

Libby arranged for Rich's eleventh hour pardon by outgoing President Bill
Clinton in January 2001. The pardon of Rich was urged in a phone call to Clinton
by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as well as Shimon Peres and Ehud
Olmert.

Yesterday, Libby received a commutation of his 30-month prison sentence from President George W. Bush. Libby was convicted on four counts of perjury, lying to a federal law enforcement officer, and obstruction of justice in the investigation by U.S. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald of the White House's leak to the media of the identity CIA non-official cover officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

Libby was denied bail by U.S. Judge Reggie Walton and was ordered to prison while appealing his sentence. Libby was assigned Bureau of Prisons inmate number 28301-016.

Libby worked for Paul Wolfowitz in the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 1982 to 1985. Libby again worked for Wolfowitz in the Pentagon as the Principal Undersecretary for Strategy and Resources. Libby later became the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and served as a chief aide to Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.



It was while Libby was working for Wolfowitz at State, the FBI arrested Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who had delivered enough highly-classified U.S. documents they could have entirely filled a garage. It was well known that Pollard had a "control officer" within the Reagan administration. The control officer was code-named "Mega."

Current British Lord Chancellor and former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that during Middle East peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, "It's a toss-up whether [Libby] is working for the Israelis or the Americans on any given day." Clinton 's Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Government Affairs Committee in 2001 that he discovered much more about Rich after Clinton 's pardon and said, "Knowing everything that I know now, I would not have recommended to the president that he grant the pardon."

It has also been reported that, in addition to pressure from leading neocons in the United States to keep Libby out of jail, Bush was urged by leading Israeli government officials to prevent Libby from going to prison.

Fitzgerald issued the following statement regarding Bush's commutation of
Libby's prison sentence: "We fully recognize that the Constitution provides
that commutation decisions are a matter of presidential prerogative and we do
not comment on the exercise of that prerogative.
We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as 'excessive.' The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencing which occurs every day throughout this country. In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the
parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals. That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.
Although the President's decision eliminates Mr. Libby's sentence of imprisonment, Mr. Libby remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process.

Wayne Madsen is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global
Research Articles by Wayne Madsen

Friday, July 20, 2007

Out in the Open


WASHINGTON, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - A former Reagan official has issued a public warning that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year.

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, blasted Thursday a new Executive Order, released July 17, allowing the White House to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies and giving the government expanded police powers to exercise control in the country.

Roberts, who spoke on the Thom Hartmann radio program, said: "When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order], there's no check to it. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule."

"The American people don't really understand the danger that they face," Roberts said, adding that the so-called neoconservatives intended to use a renewal of the fight against terrorism to rally the American people around the fading Republican Party.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Osama Bin Laden is Dead



Or so says this article. Kind of explains why Bush doesn't think about him much anymore and why the CIA unit tasked with finding him was disbanded in 2006.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Unintended Consequences

You've undoubtedly heard about Obama Girl






Now what about Hot 4 Hill?





Not so much.

What's a candidate to do? The keepers of the media keys are lost ... the gates are breached.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Impeachment

The drumbeat is getting louder




Watch the whole Bill Moyers show here.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Why Don't They Report the Good Things Happening in Iraq?

From Just Foreign Policy
Followers of Moqtada Al Sadr Thursday joined a growing chorus of Sunni, Kurdish, and Shiite opposition to a draft oil law backed by Washington, AFP reports. Sadr's supporters said that they would not support any law that would allow firms "whose governments are occupying Iraq" to sign Iraqi oil deals.

At least 12 ministers from the 38-member cabinet are no longer attending cabinet meetings, the New York Times reports. Seventy-four members of Parliament are boycotting the 275-member body, which, when combined with the members who rarely attend anyway, means that Parliament often lacks a quorum and cannot do any official business. Although Parliament can pass legislation without the Sunni bloc, it would be a hollow exercise, because the whole point of the bills now under consideration is to try to heal differences between the Sunni Arab minority and the Shiite majority.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Don't Make Me Have to Shoot You

Usually I keep my DenverDirect.tv videos separate from this site. But I'm making an exception for a video I shot in Denver on July 4th - Operation First Casualty conducted by the Iraq Veterans Against the War. Help me spread this by embedding the YouTube info in any site you can. Thanks.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Michael Moore in Denver on "SiCKO"



Check out my "local" blog, DenverDirect, for videos of Michael Moore on healthcare in the U.S. and his new movie "SiCKO".

Friday, June 22, 2007

Abolish the Federal Reserve


Actual art work (Barrels of Money) hanging at the Federal Reserve Building in D.C.

Ron Paul has sponsored a bill that would abolish the Federal (Private) Reserve (None) Bank (Cabal). This would return the power to issue currency to Congress, where it is supposed to reside (Constitution).

Everything would change.

H.R. 2755 to Abolish the Federal Reserve

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Pink Boys in Hell (Coming Soon)



Special Counsel Probe Into Rove’s Politicization Of Government Advances

The Office of Special Counsel, which has already recommended that GSA chief Lurita Doan be suspended or fired for participating in partisan activities while on the job, is now moving forward with its investigation of nearly 20 other administration agencies.

Eighteen agencies have been asked by the Office of Special Counsel to preserve electronic information dating back to January 2001 as part of its governmentwide investigation into alleged violations of the law that limits political activity in federal agencies.

The OSC task force investigating the claims has asked agencies, including the General Services Administration, to preserve all e-mail records, calendar information, phone logs and hard drives going back to the beginning of the Bush administration. The task force is headed by deputy OSC special counsel James Byrne.

The White House has admitted that roughly 20 agencies have received a PowerPoint briefing created by Karl Rove’s office “that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy.”

Politicization of the federal government has been illegal for decades. The 1939 Hatch Act specifically prohibits partisan campaign or electoral activities on federal government property, including federal agencies.

Ed and Elaine Brown (update)

Remember Randy Weaver at Ruby Hill?



He's on his way to visit the Browns

Plainfield

Ruby Ridge figure coming to Browns
Standoff survivor to advise tax protesters

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Monitor staff

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 16. 2007 9:30AM


Plainfield, meet Ruby Ridge.

Randy Weaver, who survived a standoff with U.S. marshals in Idaho that claimed the lives of his wife and son, is driving to New Hampshire this weekend to advise Ed and Elaine Brown on how to manage their own conflict with the marshal service.

"If it helps, I'm more than willing to do it," Weaver said on an internet radio show this week.

The Browns, who have been holed up in their Plainfield home for nearly five months, say that any attempt to arrest them will result in bloodshed. The couple has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for a series of crimes related to their nonpayment of federal income taxes. (continue reading)

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Just Foreign Policy News

Would you like to get an email everyday with a concise wrap-up of foreign policy news like this?

U.S./Top News
1) The top American military commander for the Middle East warned Iraq's prime minister that the Iraqi government needs to make tangible political progress - including passage of the controversial oil law - by next month to counter the growing tide of opposition to the war in Congress, the New York Times reports.

2) Despite the recent U.S. military buildup in Baghdad, "civilian casualties continue to mount" in Iraq, according to a report released Monday by U.N. Secretary General Ban, the Washington Post reports.

3) US officials in Baghdad and Washington are floating the idea of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, notes Howard LaFranchi in the Christian Science Monitor. But many Iraq and Middle East experts warn that any plan for permanent bases would cement the US image in Iraq and the region as that of an occupying force.

4) Once support for a war is lost, it is gone for good; there is no example of a modern democracy having changed its mind once it turned against a war, writes Christopher Fettweis of the U.S. Naval War College in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. So we ought to start coming to grips with the meaning of losing in Iraq.

5) Adm. Mullen, the Bush administration's nominee for chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "probably would seek political solutions to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," the Washington Post reports.

6) Senator Lieberman's call for cross-border raids into Iran, reigniting the let's-bomb-Iran discussions, is undercutting the recently initiated U.S.-Iran talks over Iraq, writes Trita Parsi of NIAC.

7) Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as men with no military service, the Washington Post reports.

Iran
8) IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, warned Iran and the U.S. their yearlong stalemate over Iran's nuclear activities was turning into a "brewing confrontation" that he said "urgently needs to be defused," the New York Times reports.

9) NATO's top general said Iran "might be" aiding the Taliban, AP reports. [The Philadelphia Inqurier ran the AP article under the headline, "NATO General Says Iran Secretly Aiding Taliban," although, according to the article, that's not what he said. -JFP]

Iraq
10) The Iraqi Parliament approved a resolution forcing the resignation of the speaker, the New York Times reports.

11) Muqtada al-Sadr is reasserting authority over his movement, McClatchy News reports. A top Sadr aide said Sadr had replaced 11 local leaders of his movement.

12) The buildup of U.S. troops in Baghdad is failing, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Ban, Bloomberg reports.

Egypt
13) Egyptian security forces barred voters from entering polling centers in opposition areas during national elections, the Washington Post reports. In areas loyal to President Mubarak's National Democratic Party, voters surged into polling sites, including some who appeared to be underage.

Ethiopia
14) An Ethiopian court found 38 prisoners guilty of charges ranging from "outrage against the constitution" to aggravated high treason in a trial international human rights groups have roundly condemned, the Washington Post reports. Relatives of the prisoners accused the U.S. of failing to pressure the Ethiopian government on behalf of the prisoners because of the Ethiopian government's support for U.S. policy in Somalia.

Latin America
15) Last month Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua announced they would withdraw from the World Bank's international arbitration body, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, notes Just Foreign Policy president Mark Weisbrot in International Business Times. Bolivia's position is that ICSID can not be an impartial arbitrator so long as it is part of the World Bank.


Go here for this excellent free service.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Oh No - I Just Blew Away My Old Template

Sorry about the mess. I'll be re-building some of the old features as time permits.

How to Opt Out of Yahoo's Web Beacons





Apparently Yahoo has a new way of keeping track of us - Web Beacons. I followed the instructions and Opted Out.

Ed and Elaine Brown (update)

Two good video interviews from the Ed Brown myspace page.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Flash!

Ed and Elaine Brown, New Hampshire tax resisters, have been surrounded by Federal, State and local police swat teams. Alex Jones claims the Revolution has started.

Starting to be covered by local press, but they are being kept away.

Previous Fox report.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Ballot Blox



from Greg Palast by way of Smirking Chimp..
President Bush carried Ohio, Iowa, and New Mexico in 2004 because vast numbers of ballots cast by minorities for John Kerry in those states were never counted, an investigative reporter says.

In New Mexico, which Bush won by 5,988 votes, 33,981 ballots were not counted; in Iowa, which Bush won by 10,059 votes, 36,811 ballots were not counted; and in Ohio, which Bush won by 118,599 votes, a whopping 239,127 ballots were not counted.

...

As for absentee ballots, in Arapahoe County, Colorado, three times more absentee ballots mailed to Democrats "failed to return" as compared to Republican ballots. As for those that were returned, a total of 526,426 absentee ballots from around the nation were received but not counted, Palast said. And guess what? In strong Kerry precincts, "voters were 265% more likely to have their absentee ballots tossed out than voters in Bush-majority precincts."
(Click on title for full story)

Friday, June 01, 2007

Worse Than You Think

Have you noticed that when you think something is bad, and then you find out more about it later, it's always worse than you think?


Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny." from DallasNews.com (click title)


Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Friday, May 25, 2007

Remembrance of Things Past

For those of you who want to probe the past, Ancestry.com has opened their files for a limited time (June 6) to search military records. You will have to register (guest) to see the actual documents, but it is well worth it. Even if your relatives never actually served in the military, they probably had to register.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Earth is a Rube

Are we all dupes? I don't watch American Idol and I really got tired of that Sanjaya guy, but what if this is true? Double dupe!

Monday, May 21, 2007

Heaven is A Cube


When my father was dying of prostate cancer spreading to his bones, Pastor Birner, our long-time minister in the Lutheran faith, came to visit. The family gathered in our parents bedroom, where Dad lived his last days.

Birner read from the Bible, Revelations 21:16.

21:16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
A furlong is 1/8 of a mile so that would be a cube 1500 miles on a side. Heaven is a giant cube.
Now some say the Bible (especially Revelations) is not to be taken literally. But if that’s true than what about the famous Water Into Wine episode? Maybe it was just red water.

I say this Revelation is to be taken literally. A giant cube 1500 miles on a side – floating in space. Crammed with billions of souls. Not good.

I always thought heaven was all of the universe, with the souls zooming along through giant rivers of plasma, streaming from one galaxy to the next. This little cube, about the size of the western US, seems very restricting. Why would god want to wall off all the good souls in a tiny cube?

Speaking of heaven (by way of a very well written blog –
The Human Race & Other Sports)

The most recent good news from the Vatican was Pope Benedict XVI’s approval of a
Vatican report released April 20 by the International Theological Commission that said there were “serious” grounds to hope that unbaptized children might get into heaven. Prior to this report it was believed that unbaptized children went to a place called “limbo”. Theologians (none of whom, I have it on good authority, has ever visited) describe “limbo” as a place where children enjoy an eternal state of perfect natural happiness. It almost certainly has enough teeter-totters and swings for everyone as well as cotton candy, lemonade, computer games and all the other things children enjoy. According to those in the know, the only thing lacking in limbo is communion with God which in the vernacular means the children there have no adult supervision, a condition that most of the children would find very much to their liking and in many cases probably comports with their idea of heaven.

If the International Theological Commission in its continuing studies of this issue concludes that the unbaptized can go straight to heaven without passing limbo and that view becomes church doctrine, there are two obvious questions. Will the new policy be retroactive and will there be an age or geographical cutoff?

With respect to the first question, it seems likely that in the divine order of things there are a certain number of unbaptized infants who die each year and if they are now permitted to enter heaven, their entry will occur in an orderly fashion. Those presently in limbo present an entirely different problem. There are surely billions of unbaptized infants cavorting about in unsupervised perfect happiness in limbo. Although all may not want to leave their perfectly happy state, others may welcome the chance to get to heaven which, even though none of them as been able to visit it, almost certainly enjoys as good a reputation in limbo as it enjoys here on earth. If billions decide all at once that they want to go to heaven, the question is can heaven accommodate what might be described in today’s parlance as a “surge”.

The second question is whether there is an age or geographical cutoff for invocation of the dispensation. At what age does failure to be baptized become an offense that
warrants limbo or, worse yet, hell, and is there consideration of where the child is located geographically. It is a lot easier to get baptized in Manhattan than in a remote village in Tibet. Those are questions that I, being a columnist and not a theologian, cannot hope to answer. I suspect the Vatican will appoint yet another commission with an appropriate Latin moniker to study the question and make appropriate recommendations to the Pope. The children in limbo as well those still on earth will eagerly await its conclusions.

Say hello to all the new babies, Dad. I hope it isn't too crowded up there.

Friday, May 18, 2007

The New "It"

Ever hear of the "It" girl? Google it yourself if you haven't.


My premise: There is a new web "it". It's a human connection over the internet. Hard to define, easy to recognize, and rare.

This lady has it. You may have seen her in the little "Take your mind off it." video to the left. Watch her sing a song or two and then check out her "it".



Update: As usual, I'm a bit behind. Catch up with Ysabella Brave - the true story - here.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Tuesday, May 01, 2007



The Dow Is Crashing! A Story in Pictures by Mike Maloney


For your convenience, this article is written in three parts. You can skip down the page to any part by clicking these links
On October 4th 2006, the Dow broke its old high of 11,750 set back on January 14th 2000, and from then on all you heard from the financial press was "Dow sets a new, all time, record high"… at least that's all you heard until the correction on February 27th, 2007.

I just don't get it. How can anyone at this point in time (including the financial press) believe they are actually making gains being invested in general equities? On February 20th, the Dow hit its "brand new, all time, record high" of 12,795, and at the writing of this article hovers at 12,560, 6.9% above its 2000 high.

A 6.9% gain over the entire 7-year period… hasn't anyone heard of inflation? Don't investors know that if their portfolio doesn't outpace inflation they are actually losing ground?

The Dow is actually crashing, but if you have not yet educated yourself on the insidious ravages that inflation can have on your portfolio, you can't see it. This is a blind spot investors must be mindful of, and guard against, if they are to prosper.

Anytime that it looks like everything is going up, stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, and virtually every kind of investment there is, you have to stop and ask yourself, "why?" The only reason the Dow looks like it is going up is because the Fed has pumped so many more dollars into the currency supply, that all asset classes are rising.

Under these conditions, the only way to see where true value lies is to eliminate the dollar from the equation… you have to measure each asset class, not with the dollar, but against another asset class. continue reading with lots of graphs

No Exit




Published on Monday, April 30, 2007
by The San Francisco Chronicle

Why There Was No Exit Plan
by Dan Hamburg

There are people in Washington … who never intend to withdraw military forces from Iraq and they’re looking for 10, 20, 50 years in the future … the reason that we went into Iraq was to establish a permanent military base in the Gulf region, and I have never heard any of our leaders say that they would commit themselves to the Iraqi people that 10 years from now there will be no military bases of the United States in Iraq

former President Jimmy Carter, Feb. 3, 2006.


For all the talk about timetables and benchmarks, one might think that the United States will end the military occupation of Iraq within the lifetimes of the readers of this opinion editorial. Think again.

There is to be no withdrawal from Iraq, just as there has been no withdrawal from hundreds of places around the world that are outposts of the American empire. As UC San Diego professor emeritus Chalmers Johnson put it, “One of the reasons we had no exit plan from Iraq is that we didn’t intend to leave.”

The United States maintains 737 military bases in 130 countries across the globe. They exist for the purpose of defending the economic interests of the United States, what is euphemistically called “national security.” In order to secure favorable access to Iraq’s vast reserves of light crude, the United States is spending billions on the construction of at least five large permanent military bases throughout that country.

A new Iraq oil law, largely written by the Coalition Provisional Authority, is planned for ratification by June. This law cedes control of Iraq’s oil to western powers for 30 years . There is major opposition to the proposed law within Iraq, especially among the country’s five trade union federations that represent hundreds of thousands of oil workers. The United States is working hard to surmount this opposition by appealing directly to the al-Maliki government in Iraq.

The attack upon, and subsequent occupation of, Iraq can be seen as a direct result of the 2001 National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as vice president Cheney’s energy task force) that was comprised largely of oil and energy company executives. This task force — the proceedings of which have been kept secret by the administration on the grounds of “executive privilege” — recommended that the U.S. government support initiatives in Middle Eastern countries “to open up areas of their energy sector to foreign investment.” As Antonio Juhasz, an analyst with Oil Change International wrote last month in the New York Times, “One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve.”

The people of the United States have indicated, in the national election last November and in countless polls, that they no longer support the Bush administration’s war. The Scooter Libby trial revealed that top administration officials, including the vice president, “cherry-picked” and distorted intelligence in order to sell a “pre-emptive” war to a spooked public. The squandering of hundreds of billions of dollars, some billions of which, according to Seymour Hersh writing in the New Yorker, is being siphoned into “black-ops” programs being run out of Cheney’s office (a stunning redux of Iran-Contra carried out by many of the same actors), has also strained the patience and credulity of the American people.

Another betrayal is the “contracting out” of “war-related activities” to corporations such as Halliburton, Bechtel, Chemonics and Blackwater. Halliburton, Vice President Cheney’s previous employer, calls itself an “energy services company” but has tentacles reaching into nearly every aspect of the war (originally dubbed Operation Iraqi Liberation until some bright bulb among the Bushies realized that “OIL” might not be the best handle for this venture). Halliburton has also profited handsomely from no-bid government contracts awarded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the construction at the national embarrassment known as “Gitmo,” and most recently, from the fiasco at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, all this corruption, mayhem and death are good for some (or it wouldn’t go on).

The U.S. military budget, larger than the military budgets of the rest of the world’s nations combined, continues skyward, even without all the “supplementals” passed regularly by Congress to fight the “war on terror.”

The question we must ask as citizens is this: Is the United States a democratic republic or an empire? History demonstrates that it’s not possible to be both.

Dan Hamburg, a former U.S. representative, is executive director of Voice of the Environment.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Be Moved

I've often wondered when these new media will start to be used in more powerful ways. To me, the secret of film and video is that it can permeate your brain and cause you to have emotions. These emotions can help bring new ideas to more cortical areas and move you to decision and action.

It is with this in mind that I refer you to the VoteVets.org project. In conjuction with MoveOn.org, they selected 23 videographers to each produce a 2-min vidi of a military/family person expressing themselves.

I was fortunate to have been asked to participate and to be paired up with Pamela Osborne. Rather than just embed our work here, use this link to the gallery. You will be moved.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Sunday, April 15, 2007

The Day the Bees Stood Still


Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

Friday, April 13, 2007

Plunge Protection Team in Action

Look Out Below


The dollar is sliding towards the edge again this morning.

Friday, April 06, 2007


Join MoveOn.org's Virtual Town Hall: Iraq


Go here to sign up.

New 9/11 Movie Focuses on Cheney


If you've watched the 9/11 movies you are probably already convinced that the buildings were demolished. Now the nagging story of Cheney hunched down in the White House Secret Bunker, getting the reports of how close "the plane" was, finally gets full exposure here. A full 4 stars out of 4.
Justice for 9/11

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Thank You Josh Wolf

US v. Wolf



Thank you Josh Wolf. Thank you for not caving in to unreasonable government demands. Thank you for your sacrifice in spending 244 days in jail. Thank you for being articulate and accurate. Thank you for posting your original video footage to the public. And most of all, thank you for having your video camera running.

Roll tape!

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Run-Up

Iran
Technorati Chart

It’s strange how this “run-up to war” thing happens. Usually we forget, from one war to the next, how it felt the time before. But this time it's recent and we can still remember the run-up to Iraq.

Cheney, aka Stentman, his brain regularly deprived of sufficient oxygen and consequently running in reptile mode, directs his secret government to ready the engines of war. Build-up of bunker busters, securing of necessary foreign bases, clandestine cross-border maneuvers, CIA financing of internal anti groups, and now kidnappings on both sides. The precursors are rolling in. Writers begin predicting, and heavy armament, aircraft carriers and missle ships, begin to move into position. You can almost hear the dull thrub across the land.

Bush is getting ready himself. He is reported to be having daily “end-time” religious instruction in the White House. Great pressure is building domestically, but he’s not paying attention, really. Fredo can speak for himself. Rove is getting down in public. All hell is breaking loose, but God and the meds make it seem far away.

Bush is starting to get that look, head thrust forward, squinty eyes darting from left to right, trying to surpress that heh-heh sadistic chortle. He’s peeved that nobody likes anything he does, but God has told him he’s right, and he knows what’s coming. That’s ‘cause He’s going to make it happen thru him, Bush, and Iraq will look like a comma in history.

That is, a comma before the run-up to WWIII.

It seems unstoppable. The following article puts the pieces together all too well.


Easter Surprise: Attack on Iran, New 9/11… or Worse
by Heather Wokusch
www.dissidentvoice.org
March 29, 2007

The Bush administration continues moving closer to a nuclear attack on Iran, and we ignore the obvious buildup at our peril.

Russian media is sounding alarms. In February, ultra-nationalist leader Vladimir Shirinovsky warned that the US would launch a strike against Tehran at the end of this month. Then last week, the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti (RIA-Novosti) quoted military experts predicting the US will attack Iran on April 6th, Good Friday. According to RIA-Novosti, the imminent assault will target Iranian air and naval defense capabilities, armed forces headquarters as well as key economic assets and administration headquarters. Massive air strikes will be deployed, possibly tactical nuclear weapons as well, and the Bush administration will attempt to exploit the resulting chaos and political unrest by installing a pro-US government.

Sound familiar? It's Iraq Déjà vu all over again, and we know how well that war has gone.

Seymour Hersh has published numerous articles in The New Yorker detailing the Bush administration's plans to invade Iran. Must read on ...

No Overlap (but if they stay, that will make 3)


US carrier deploys amid Iran tensions
Fri Mar 30, 12:01 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz will sail Monday to support US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Navy said, amid a spike in tensions over Iran's seizure of 15 British marines and sailors.

The Nimitz, and its battle group of destroyers and guided missile cruisers, will relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which this week took part in war games exercises in the Gulf with another carrier, USS John S Stennis.

The new battle group will be in position by late-to-mid April, but there will be no overlap with the Eisenhower, and the number of US carriers in the area would stay at two, a navy official said on condition of anonymity.

"If anything, there would be a point where there is only one in the region," the official said, on condition of anonymity.

The Stennis and the Eisenhower wound down their show of force involving 15 warships in the Gulf on Thursday.

The two carrier deployment in the Gulf was the highest level US naval presence in the key strategic channel since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The Nimitz will support operations in Iraq, the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan, the navy said in a press release.

The Stennis had been operating in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea but entered Gulf waters on Tuesday, escorted by the guided-missile carrier USS Antietam, the Fifth Fleet said.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Now That's Pretty Damned Specific!

by way of Rense.com

Sneak Attack By US Forces On Iran Planned
- Russian Military Sources Warn

General Ivashov Calls For Emergency Session Of
UN Security Council To Ward Off Looming US Aggression
By Webster G. Tarpley
3-25-7


WASHINGTON DC -- The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 AM on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly "Argumenty Nedeli." Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for twelve hours, according to Uglanov, lasting from 4 AM until 4 PM local time. Friday is a holiday in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

The first reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, where Russian engineers are working, is supposed to be spared from destruction. The US attack plan reportedly calls for the Iranian air defense system to be degraded, for numerous Iranian warships to be sunk in the Persian Gulf, and the for the most important headquarters of the Iranian armed forces to be wiped out. Read more...

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Hi Ho Silver, Away!

That Old Time Religion

And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a 50-amp fuse"

Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want




"Governor Mancin seems to believe that all he has to do is make promises while the children who attend Marsh Fork continue to breathe in coal dust," says Bill Price of
Charleston, WV. "We are not interested in promises. We want a new school for these kids so that they do not have to breathe in polluted air while they are trying to learn."

"This is exciting that students and community members have joined together to demand a safer school for the kids who attend Marsh Folk Elementary," says Sarah Kidder, a student at Glenville State College and a key protest organizer. "These kids should not have to endanger their lives simply by going to school and having to breathe in air polluted by coal dust."

Massey has been attempting to build a second coal silo near the school, but the WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in 2005 rejected Massey's permit request for the second silo. On Tuesday, March 13, the state Surface Mine Board overturned the DEP's order that blocked the silo.

"The situation at Marsh Fork is an embarrassment to West Virginia," said Lindsey Warf of Bluefield, WV. "People from other states can't believe this is happening in the US."

Contrary to Massey's public claim that the silo would reduce coal dust, their 2005 air quality permit application associated with the second silo's operation predicts an increase in coal dust emissions by three and a half tons of dust per year.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Global Warming Part 2

You know I like to look for contrarian evidence for views that I hold. I watched "An Inconvenient Truth" and thought it correct.
1. The earth's atmosphere is warming.
2. Polar icecaps and glaciers are melting.
3. Atmospheric CO2 is increasing.
4. Human activity is the cause.

After watching this new documentary, I remain convinced of 1, 2, and 3, but I think 4 is probably not true.

See for yourself. Yes, CO2 levels are going up, but it the result of global warming, not the cause. The ocean is the giant CO2 collector, and when it warms up it gives off much more CO2 than the puny addition by humans.

The cause of the global warming is indeed, the sun. Not the rays that heat us, but the cosmic rays which stream down on us from the solar wind. These rays vary with the sunspot cycle, which is the cause of global warming. Check out the movie.


Friday, March 16, 2007

Is Bush Cracking?











Sorry, I couldn't resist using this photoshopped picture again.

Not with the original article, but I can hope.

By way of http://www.rense.com/:

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

"March 13, 2007 --Our White House Press Corps sources report further disturbing news about President George W. Bush. Our sources have witnessed a clearly inebriated Bush approaching members of the press corps and making rude comments, including one particularly crude remark about First Lady Laura Bush. In that case, Bush, nodding toward Laura, called her a "c**t."

While Bush's drinking is no secret to the White House press contingent, that particular comment was reportedly the worst they have heard uttered by Bush.

Our sources also report that Laura Bush's stays at the White House are less frequent and that her overnight trips to the Mayflower Hotel often coincide with the president's drunken binges.

Note: Some of our female readers were shocked to see the "C" word in the above news item. This editor wants to make it clear that word was used by George W. Bush to denigrate his wife. It was his word, not mine. It is important that the public knows what kind of person Mr. Bush is by the offensive words he uses.

The editor also wants to make clear that the President chose a public press gaggle to use this word -- that is not a private moment between him and his wife. If Mrs. Bush feels her privacy has been violated, she must understand that it is her responsibility to herself, her children, and the nation to end this abusive relationship by legally separating from the President and becoming a role model for other women around the country and the world who find themselves locked into similar abusive marriages.

Nevertheless, we have "asterisked" the word in question. However, Mr. Bush cannot asterisk his own vile words."