Must-See Town Hall Meeting with US Congressman Brian Baird

I, David William Hedrick, a member of the silent majority, decided that I was not going to be silent anymore. So, I let U.S. Congressman Brian Baird have it. I was one questioner out of 38, that was called at random from an audience that started at 3,000 earlier in the evening. Not expecting to be called on, I quickly scratched what I wanted to say on a borrowed piece of paper and with a pen that I borrowed from someone else in the audience minutes before I spoke. So much for the planned talking points of the right wing conspiracy.


Added: August 22, 2009

Geithner: Auditing the Federal Reserve is a ‘line that we don’t want to cross’

Related information:
Judge: Federal Reserve Must Release Reports on Emergency Bank Loans
Federal Reserve Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion


timothy-geithner

In an interview released today by Digg and the Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was pressured about the growing popular movement to Audit the Fed spearheaded by Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

A visibly uncomfortable Geithner attempts to dismiss the question by stating “I’m sure people understand that you want to keep politics out of monetary policy.”

When Geithner is again pressed on the issue, he makes the stunning assertion that conducting an audit of the Federal Reserve-something never before done in its 96 year history-is a “line that we don’t want to cross,” proclaiming that such a move would be “problematic for the country.” Watch the interview in the player below:

Geithner’s response that auditing the Fed would give politicians dangerous control over American monetary policy is mistaken at best and a deliberate lie at worst.

Allowing the public to know what happened to their $24 trillion in bailout money does not give undue control of monetary policy to the people’s elected representatives.

Instead, such an audit would finally allow the public to see how their money has been spent in the midst of the largest spending binge in the history of the world’s economy, hardly an unreasonable demand given the well-documented revolving door between the Treasury and Goldman Sachs, the main recipient of bailout funds.

Ultimately, the Treasury Secretary is left spewing the absurdity that “I think even the sponsor of that bill recognizes how important it is to us to have the Fed independent of politics,” which can only be said to be true insofar as Ron Paul-the sponsor of House Resolution (HR) 1207– wants to abolish the Federal Reserve system altogether.

That the Wall Street Journal would even pressure the Treasury Secretary on serious issues like the Audit the Fed movement may be surprising, given that the Wall Street Journal is a mouthpiece of the financial oligarchy and that editor Paul Gigot, like Geithner himself, is a Bilderberg attendee.

Needless to say, this was not a typical inside-the-beltway interview. Instead, questions were submitted and voted on by the Digg community, with the top 10 questions being posed to Mr. Geithner.

Read moreGeithner: Auditing the Federal Reserve is a ‘line that we don’t want to cross’

Mind Blowing Speech by Robert Welch in 1958: How Insiders Plan to Destroy America

‘Obamanomics’ fulfills exactly the master plan of the elite described by Robert Welch.

I have always said that Obama is just another puppet of the elite (like Bush, McCain, Clinton etc.).


Proof that the NEW WORLD ORDER has been planned by the elite. Robert Welch, Founder of The John Birch Society, predicted today’s problems with uncanny accuracy back in 1958 and prescribed solutions in 1974 that are very similar to Ron Paul’s positions today.


President John F. Kennedy’s Secret Society Speech

“The high office of the president has been used to foment a plot to destroy America’s freedom, and before I leave office I must inform the citizens of this plight.”
– John F. Kennedy November 12, 1963.

Date of Kennedy Assassination : NOV. 22, 1963


Ron Paul on Glenn Beck: Destruction of the dollar:

Ron Paul: “Foreign policy is dictated by individuals who control both the Republican and the Democrat party”


– Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts: Americans: Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs:

“Will Americans realize that they are not ruled by elected representatives but by an oligarchy that owns the Washington whorehouse?”

“Will Americans ever understand that they are impotent serfs?”

Up to 60% of doctors may refuse swine flu vaccine

Several studies suggest up to 60% of GPs would oppose being immunised because they are concerned the safety trials will be rushed

swine-flu-vaccine
Half of GPs said they believe swine flu is too mild to justify taking a vaccine … a nurse prepares a syringe during a mass immunisation exercise at Bolton arena in 2006 to test procedures in case of a flu pandemic. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

Many GPs, as well as their patients, may be reluctant to be immunised against swine flu once a vaccine is developed, surveys suggest today.

A survey of GPs published on Healthcare Republic, the website of GP magazine, found that up to 60% of GPs may decline vaccination. Although the numbers who responded were small – 216 GPs – they are in line with a much bigger survey of nurses published a week ago by Nursing Times, which found that a third of 1,500 nurses would refuse vaccination.

A Canadian study published today in the journal Emerging Health Threats suggests the public, too, will have reservations that must be overcome if a vaccination campaign is to be successful in the autumn or winter. The study, which used focus groups to establish the likely response of different people to a vaccine, pointed to the need to win over people who believe that alternative therapies and a good diet are a better option than vaccines.

Read moreUp to 60% of doctors may refuse swine flu vaccine

British Government: Illegal Downloaders May Lose Web Access

Commentary by Max Keiser:

Britain is Appeasing the Copyright Cartel Again

Britain is completely on the wrong side of this issue. Copyrights are the public’s rights to help manage the public’s intellectual property. A limited period of time, like 28 years (per the original Constitutional statute), giving individuals monopoly rights over intellectual property is the outer most boundary of time that a society invested in the speech rights and intellectual rights of its people would allow in good conscience. Britain, and it is easy to understand, given the massive cock ups of this Labor government, is allowing themselves to be steered by the copyright cartel just like they allow themselves to be strong armed by the banking, pharmaceutical, and defense industries. This Labor government has abdicated its role as a representative of the People and their position on Copyright is yet another glaring example of their conflicted, misguided policies.

Posted: August 25, 2009
Source: Huffington Post


illegal-download

LONDON — The British government says people who illegally download music and films could have their Internet connections cut off.

Treasury Minister Stephen Timms says the move would allow “swifter and more flexible measures” to clamp down on piracy.

The plans announced Tuesday include blocking access to download sites and temporarily suspending users’ internet accounts.

The announcement drew criticism from some groups, but those representing the music industry were pleased.

The Open Rights Group — which aims to raise awareness of digital rights — said any suspension would “restrict people’s fundamental right to freedom of expression.”

Read moreBritish Government: Illegal Downloaders May Lose Web Access

CIA Report: Interrogators Threatened to Kill And Rape Family Members of Detainees

CIA interrogators threatened to kill and rape relatives of detainees, including the September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a declassified report shows.

khalid
A CIA interrogator threatened to kill the children of the the September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed if al-Qa’eda attacked the US again, according to a declassified report. Photo: AP

The report, released on Monday by the US Justice Department, said that a CIA interrogator told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that if any other attacks happened in the United States, “We’re going to kill your children”.

Another interrogator allegedly tried to convince a detainee that his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him. The interrogator later denied making the threat.

The report, written in 2004, was made public after a legal petition by the American Council for Civil Liberties. It also reportedly disclosed how interrogators conducted mock executions and threatened a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole with a gun and a power drill.

“Ten years from now we’re going to be sorry we’re doing this [but] it has to be done,” one unidentified CIA officer said in the report, predicting that interrogators would someday have to appear in court to answer for such tactics.

It was released as the government launched a criminal investigation into the spy agency’s “unauthorized, improvised, inhumane” practices in the wake of the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on the US, and as President Barack Obama ordered the creation of a new unit for interrogating terrorist suspects, taking responsibility away from the CIA.

Related article:  ‘Inhumane’ CIA terror tactics spur criminal probe

The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group will answer to the White House and be run by FBI officials from the bureau’s Washington headquarters. It will follow guidelines set by the US army’s field manual, which conforms to international law.

Read moreCIA Report: Interrogators Threatened to Kill And Rape Family Members of Detainees

Judge: Federal Reserve Must Release Reports on Emergency Bank Loans

But that will – most probably – never happen:

Alan Greenspan Admits Federal Reserve Is Above The Law and Answers To No One


If you want to watch more of this interview: Here

– Congressman Dennis Kucinich: Federal Reserve No More “Federal” Than Federal Express!

And now:  Bernanke Is Nominated for Second Term as Fed Chief



federal-reserve
The Federal Reserve building stands in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11, 2009. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve must make records about emergency lending to financial institutions public within five days because it failed to convince a judge the documents should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska rejected the central bank’s argument that the records aren’t covered by the law because their disclosure would harm borrowers’ competitive positions. The collateral lists “are central to understanding and assessing the government’s response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression,” according to the lawsuit that led to yesterday’s ruling.

The Fed has refused to name the borrowers, the amounts of loans or the assets put up as collateral under 11 programs, saying that doing so might set off a run by depositors and unsettle shareholders. Bloomberg LP, the New York-based company majority-owned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, sued Nov. 7 on behalf of its Bloomberg News unit.

“When an unprecedented amount of taxpayer dollars were lent to financial institutions in unprecedented ways and the Federal Reserve refused to make public any of the details of its extraordinary lending, Bloomberg News asked the court why U.S. citizens don’t have the right to know,” said Matthew Winkler, the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News. “We’re gratified the court is defending the public’s right to know what is being done in the public interest.”

Read moreJudge: Federal Reserve Must Release Reports on Emergency Bank Loans

Malawi’s child tobacco pickers ‘being poisoned by nicotine’ for 11p a day

malawi
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib


Children in Malawi who are forced to work as tobacco pickers are exposed to nicotine poisoning equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day, an investigation has found.

Child labourers as young as five are suffering severe health problems from a daily skin absorption of up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine, according to the international children’s organisation Plan.

Malawian tobacco is found in the blend of almost every cigarette smoked in the west. The low-grade, high-nicotine tobacco is often used as a filler by manufacturers, reflecting a long-term global shift in production.

Tobacco farms in America declined by 89% between 1954 and 2002. Three-quarters of production has migrated to developing countries, with Malawi the world’s fifth biggest producer. Seventy per cent of its export income comes from tobacco and the country is economically dependent on it.

Plan cites research showing that Malawi has the highest incidence of child labour in southern Africa, with 88.9% of five to 14-year-olds working in the agricultural sector. It is estimated that more than 78,000 children work on tobacco estates – some up to 12 hours a day, many for less than 1p an hour and without protective clothing.

Read moreMalawi’s child tobacco pickers ‘being poisoned by nicotine’ for 11p a day

British troops to be sent to Helmand, Afghanistan with just 6 weeks training

soldiers-afghanistan
Hundreds of soldiers from a leading infantry regiment are to be sent to the frontline in Afghanistan with just six weeks training

Hundreds of soldiers from a leading infantry regiment are to be sent to the frontline in Afghanistan with just six weeks’ specialised battlefield training – instead of the usual minimum of six months.

It is believed to be the first time the Army has allowed men to put their lives on the line with so little preparation for the tough fighting conditions against the Taliban.

The training cutback led to claims last night that soldiers’ lives could be put at risk as a result.

Officers in charge of the 400 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, are being recalled from leave early next week to prepare and plan for their men to deploy to Helmand province at the end of October.

But the main body of men –70 per cent of them young soldiers who have not been deployed to Afghanistan before – will not begin their battle training until the second week of September.

That leaves just six weeks for them to be fighting-fit and gain the specialised skills and knowledge required to take on a war that has resulted in the deaths of 206 British soldiers since 2001.

Read moreBritish troops to be sent to Helmand, Afghanistan with just 6 weeks training

The Fluoride Song: WATER CRIMES by Trillion feat. Tono

More from Trillion:
The Vaccine Song: SAY NO TO THE VACCINE by trillion (feat. pataphysics & nRt)

As I’ve said before: Water fluoridation worked very well in the Nazi concentration camps and the Russian gulags.


WATER CRIMES
Lyrics:

why ya wanna poison me? with chemical concoctions in my water
why ya wanna poison me? it’s gonna make my life shorter?

water is life, not just drips down the sink drain.?it’s a basic human right to sip a fountain or drink rain
instead they dump chemical waste into the reservoir
every jar contaminated – fluoride taints my weathered heart
‘let it pass’ – I can’t – there’s lead and arsenic on that measure bar
and never far behind the line of fire is that repertoire
“it’s good for bones and teeth” – they hum and sing
but real facts beneath the surface reveal some other things:
Fluoride accumulates and studies have shown
it causes major changes to the structure of bone
sensations of burning – prickling and pains
gastrointestinal disorders – feeling sickly and strange
tingling in the limbs and chronic fatigue?even that frog in the reeds has his pond under siege
neurotoxic design – a lowered IQ
lost in three lines of a poets hykoo
i know i’m like you – my body’s sorta the same
and there’s also fluoride added to my water mains
skeletal fluorosis – osteoarthritis
they misguide and deny – glossing over the entire list
then the cost of those who fight this – more stress and dismay
i don’t believe we receive blessings this way.
Criminals poison water – like the china sea
it’s a major hit on the planet in a minor key

Read moreThe Fluoride Song: WATER CRIMES by Trillion feat. Tono

Insurers admit: 50,000 employees lobbying Congress to claim profits fair

Healthcare insurers get a financial ‘bonanza’


affordable-medical-insurance-for-family

Memo tells employees to keep a low profile

A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s trade group, admitted in an article published Monday that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform.

The admission, published in the last sentence of a Wall Street Journal article, highlights the stakes of potential healthcare reform for the private health insurance industry. Insurers and investors alike are terrified at the prospect of a so-called “public option,” which would create a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers. Because the government plan wouldn’t have to earn a profit, the plan would be able to undercut the premiums of private firms, pressuring profit margins.

“The health-insurance industry is sending thousands of its employees to town-hall meetings and other forums during Congress’s August recess to try to counter a tide of criticism directed at the insurers and remain a player – and not an outsider – in the debate over the future of the health-care system,” the Journal‘s Vanessa Fuhrmans and Avery Johnson wrote Monday.

Employees of the health insurers have also been given talking points that encourage them to keep a low profile and avoid taking “the bait” when the industry is criticized in public, the reporters say. The industry’s trade group drafted a “Town Hall Tips” memo that instructs employees to stay calm and not to yell at members of Congress.

The industry’s staff have also been encouraged to write their local representatives.

Health insurers are trying to reshape the debate over the public option by fighting back against charges that they’re enjoying record profits at consumers’ expense. Most private insurers enjoy a four to six percent profit margin, which is less than many other industries, but, all told, amounts to billions and billions of dollars.

Karen Ignagni, America’s Health Insurance Plans’ chief lobbyist, says that town hall meetings are a chance for employees “to strongly push back against charges that we have very high profits.”

“It’s very important that our men and women… calmly provide the facts and for members of Congress to hear what these people do every day,” Ignagni added.

Read moreInsurers admit: 50,000 employees lobbying Congress to claim profits fair

Healthcare insurers get a financial ‘bonanza’

Insurers admit: 50,000 employees lobbying Congress to claim profits fair


Obama’s overhaul fight is being won by the industry, experts say. The end result may be a financial ‘bonanza.’

obama_change

Reporting from Washington – Lashed by liberals and threatened with more government regulation, the insurance industry nevertheless rallied its lobbying and grass-roots resources so successfully in the early stages of the healthcare overhaul deliberations that it is poised to reap a financial windfall.

The half-dozen leading overhaul proposals circulating in Congress would require all citizens to have health insurance, which would guarantee insurers tens of millions of new customers — many of whom would get government subsidies to help pay the companies’ premiums.

“It’s a bonanza,” said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.

Some insurance company leaders continue to profess concern about the unpredictable course of President Obama’s massive healthcare initiative, and they vigorously oppose elements of his agenda. But Laszewski said the industry’s reaction to early negotiations boiled down to a single word: “Hallelujah!”

The insurers’ success so far can be explained in part by their lobbying efforts in the nation’s capital and the districts of key lawmakers.

Read moreHealthcare insurers get a financial ‘bonanza’

Massachusetts ‘swine flu’ legislation: A $1000 fine per day or up to 30 days in prison for each day that you do not follow the emergency declaration rules


Added: August 23, 2009

More information on swine flu and vaccination:

Read moreMassachusetts ‘swine flu’ legislation: A $1000 fine per day or up to 30 days in prison for each day that you do not follow the emergency declaration rules

H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: October Surprise Prevention

German health expert’s swine flu warning; Does virus vaccine increase the risk of cancer?:
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg is a politician and a specialist in lungs, hygiene and environmental medicine. He is the chairman of the health committee in the German parliament and European Council.

Dr. Russell Blaylock: Harmful Effects of Swine Flu Vaccine

Swine Flu: The DynCorp ‘COINCIDENCE’


The core essence of “Greater Things” is that there is always a better way to do things — anything — whether it be religion, politics, science, academia — anything. To the extent that we get institutionalized and codified in a set belief system, is the extent that we inhibit the ability to grow and learn new and better ways. – Dr. Andrew Moulden.

vaccination

A growing number of doctors, other health professionals and citizens are attempting to prevent the humanitarian disaster planned for this October when the new H1N1 vaccine is to be deployed in a grand scale, military, war on terror manoeuvre .

Primum non nocere” (“First do no harm”), medical ethics standard attributed to Hippocrates that became obligatory for physicians prior to practicing medicine in the 4th century AD is still upheld by some doctors who oppose the worldwide October plan including what Global Research Director, Michel Chossudovsky warns is a military operation leading to global militarization control of individuals.

An under-reported first International Swine Flu Conference being held in Washington DC this weekend includes sessions on “conducting morgue operations,” “mass fatality planning” and “unwillingness to follow government orders,” and “training teachers to screen for symptoms …and “transport ill students.”(Jesse Woodrow, They have planned to take kids from schools for Mass Vaccinations and Quarantines WAKE UP!) (video)

Dr. Chossudovsky asserts that chilling reports such as those recently released in the UK about mass morgues are “totally fabricated” and “[t]here is absolutely no scientific evidence to support these claims.” (Michel Chossudovsky, Fear, Intimidation & Media Disinformation: U.K Government is Planning Mass Graves in Case of H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic, Global Research, August 21, 2009) (online)

“Realities are turned upside down. The British government is deliberately misleading the British public,” states Chossudovsky.

“There is ample evidence, documented in numerous reports, that the WHO’s level 6 pandemic alert is based on fabricated evidence and a manipulation of the figures on mortality and morbidity resulting from the N1H1 swine flu,” he advises. (emphasis added)

CBS in London reported, “Experts estimate swine flu to be about as dangerous as seasonal flu, and there usually isn’t a high demand for those vaccines.” (CBS, Gov’ts Worry About H1N1 Vaccine Contracts, London, July 16, 2009.  (online)

Read moreH1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: October Surprise Prevention

On the Edge with Max Keiser (08/21/09): Revolution is in the air in America

More on Blackwater (now XE):
CIA hired Blackwater mercenaries to try to hit al-Qaeda
“Incestuous” relationships between Blackwater and the US government
Blackwater got a new $22.2 million deal from the State Department
Paul Craig Roberts: Americans: Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs


1 of 3:

Read moreOn the Edge with Max Keiser (08/21/09): Revolution is in the air in America

Athens fires burn for second day: 120 square kilometers have been burned, ‘a massive ecological catastrophe’

greece-fires
Fire approaches houses in the suburb of Drafi, on the mount of Penteli, in Greece on Aug. 23, 2009. Photographer: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) — Greek firefighters battled a wildfire on the outskirts of the capital Athens that threatened outlying suburbs for a second day, while authorities evacuated hospitals, camping grounds and retirement homes overnight. No casualties were reported.

Strong swirling winds continued to hamper the work of firefighters and aircraft dropping water, Athens Prefect Yannis Sgouras told state NET TV. About 120,000 stremmata (120 square kilometers) have been burned, “a massive ecological catastrophe,” he said.

‘The strength of the winds has increased and the situation remains particularly difficult,” Fire Department spokesman Ioannis Kapakis said in televised statements on NET. From 6:00 a.m. yesterday to 6:00 a.m. today, 83 major fires were reported around the country, with blazes on the islands on Zakynthos, Evia and Skyros among another five considered to be of serious concern, he said.

Read moreAthens fires burn for second day: 120 square kilometers have been burned, ‘a massive ecological catastrophe’

What Soviet Medicine Teaches Us

obamacaresymbol

In 1918, the Soviet Union became the first country to promise universal “cradle-to-grave” healthcare coverage, to be accomplished through the complete socialization of medicine. The “right to health” became a “constitutional right” of Soviet citizens.

The proclaimed advantages of this system were that it would “reduce costs” and eliminate the “waste” that stemmed from “unnecessary duplication and parallelism” – i.e., competition.

These goals were similar to the ones declared by Mr. Obama and Ms. Pelosi – attractive and humane goals of universal coverage and low costs. What’s not to like?

The system had many decades to work, but widespread apathy and low quality of work paralyzed the healthcare system. In the depths of the socialist experiment, healthcare institutions in Russia were at least a hundred years behind the average US level. Moreover, the filth, odors, cats roaming the halls, drunken medical personnel, and absence of soap and cleaning supplies added to an overall impression of hopelessness and frustration that paralyzed the system. According to official Russian estimates, 78 percent of all AIDS victims in Russia contracted the virus through dirty needles or HIV-tainted blood in the state-run hospitals.

Irresponsibility, expressed by the popular Russian saying “They pretend they are paying us and we pretend we are working,” resulted in appalling quality of service, widespread corruption, and extensive loss of life. My friend, a famous neurosurgeon in today’s Russia, received a monthly salary of 150 rubles – one third of the average bus driver’s salary.

In order to receive minimal attention by doctors and nursing personnel, patients had to pay bribes. I even witnessed a case of a “nonpaying” patient who died trying to reach a lavatory at the end of the long corridor after brain surgery. Anesthesia was usually “not available” for abortions or minor ear, nose, throat, and skin surgeries. This was used as a means of extortion by unscrupulous medical bureaucrats.

“Slavery certainly ‘reduced costs’ of labor, ‘eliminated the waste’ of bargaining for wages, and avoided ‘unnecessary duplication and parallelism’.”

To improve the statistics concerning the numbers of people dying within the system, patients were routinely shoved out the door before taking their last breath.

Read moreWhat Soviet Medicine Teaches Us

US doctor is offering British couples the chance to choose the sex of their child

invitrofertilization1
In vitro fertilization process.

A US doctor is offering British couples the chance to choose the sex of their child at his New York clinic, a procedure that is illegal in the UK. Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, of Fertility Institutes, his New York clinic, provoked anger earlier this year when he said his fertility clinic could allow parents to produce “designer babies”.

He gave prospective parents the ability to choose eye, hair, skin colour and gender. In the United States, the law allows him to use pre-implentation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to allow parents to know an embryo’s sex.

Read moreUS doctor is offering British couples the chance to choose the sex of their child

Hawaii: GMO taro ban proposal goes to full council

Monsanto’s patented the genes of their GMO pigs. Now if your pigs have these genes in them and every pig on this planet has them, then you will – theoretically for now – have to pay a fee for every piglet you raise on your farm, even if those pigs belong to a very old race that had nothing to do with Monsanto’s GMO pigs.

Monsanto wants to achieve the same now with ‘ancient’ taro from Hawaii. If you would give your neighbor 10 taro saplings from your garden then you will have to pay a fee for that to Monsanto.

Monsanto’s GMO taro also threatens to alter/destroy the genetics of different varieties of taro plants on Hawaii, which have been cultivated there for thousands of years.

The organic farmers on Hawaii also have to test their papaya plants to prove that they do not have any GMO genes in them because otherwise Japan won’t buy Hawaiian fruits and vegetables!


taro
Taro plant

WAILUKU – A Maui County Council committee picked up Thursday where it left off six weeks ago to discuss a bill to prohibit genetically modified taro in Maui County.

Economic Development, Agriculture and Recreation Committee members got close to passing the measure, but instead the panel’s five members voted unanimously to forward the “confusing” issue to the entire nine-member County Council.

“So everyone can get an opportunity to participate in the discussion,” committee Chairwoman Jo Anne Johnson said.

The committee was unable to arrive at a consensus even after hearing dozens of testifiers and receiving hundreds of e-mails in support, said Council Member Bill Medeiros, who grew up in Hana eating taro and introduced the ban. It is essential to protect the sacred and healthful staple of the Native Hawaiian people, he argued.

However, Mayor Charmaine Tavares appears to be lukewarm to Medeiros’ plan to protect taro.

The mayor sent a letter to the committee, stating that she does not support a ban against genetic modification of taro, at least for now. Tavares said the law would be unenforceable because there are no “reputable scientific tests” to distinguish between authentic and genetically modified taro.

Read moreHawaii: GMO taro ban proposal goes to full council

Study: DNA can be faked by criminals, crime scene can be engineered

‘Criminals’ includes governments & intelligences.


New scientific research has shown that it is possible to fake DNA evidence, raising fears that people could “engineer crime scenes”.

dna-helix
The findings threaten to undermine the key forensic technique, which has secured thousands of convictions in Britain and around the world.

In experiments, a team of Israeli scientists were able to obliterate all traces of DNA from a blood sample and add someone else’s genetic material in its place.

The process was so successful that it fooled forensic scientists who carry out DNA fingerprinting for American courts.

The findings threaten to undermine the key forensic technique, which has secured thousands of convictions in Britain and around the world.

It demonstrates that, in theory, criminals could plant samples of blood or saliva at crime scenes to cover their tracks while leading to innocent people being wrongly convicted.

Dr Dan Frumkin, who led the research, said: “If you can fake blood, saliva or any other tissue, you can engineer a crime scene.

“You have full control of the situation. Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”

Read moreStudy: DNA can be faked by criminals, crime scene can be engineered

German health expert’s swine flu warning; Does virus vaccine increase the risk of cancer?

Swine Flu: The DynCorp ‘COINCIDENCE’

Dr. Russell Blaylock: Harmful Effects of Swine Flu Vaccine


The swine flu vaccine has been hit by new cancer fears after a German health expert gave a shock warning about its safety.

dr-wolfgang-wodarg
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg

Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg is a politician and a specialist in lungs, hygiene and environmental medicine. He is the chairman of the health committee in the German parliament and European Council.

Wolfgang Wodarg has said that there are many risks associated with the vaccine for the H1N1 virus.

He has grave reservations about the firm Novartis who are developing the vaccine and testing it in Germany. The vaccination is injected “with a very hot needle”, Wodarg said.

The nutrient solution for the vaccine consists of cancerous cells from animals and “we do not know if there could be an allergic reaction”.

But more importantly, some people fear that the risk of cancer could be increased by injecting the cells.

The vaccine – as Johannes Löwer, president of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, has pointed out – can also cause worse side effects than the actual swine flu virus.

Wodrag also described people’s fear of the pandemic as an “orchestration”: “It is great business for the pharmaceutical industry,” he told the ‘Neuen Presse’.

Swine flu is not very different from normal flu. “On the contrary if you look at the number of cases it is nothing compared to a normal flu outbreak,” he added.

The chairman of the health committee in the European Council has urged for a careful and calm reaction to the virus.

Read moreGerman health expert’s swine flu warning; Does virus vaccine increase the risk of cancer?

PE Ratio Shows That Today’s Stock Market Is Very Expensive

Considering the market heights of the recent past, it may not feel like the market is expensive. It might feel downright cheap. After all, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is hovering near 9,300 and the S&P 500 near 1,000, levels just two-thirds of indexes former glories.

pe-ratio-sp-500

Throw in the earnings factor and suddenly, those levels look particularly high – and that is the subject tackled by the folks over at Chart of the Day.

The COT guys examine price-to-earnings ratios since 1936 and what they find does not bode well for investors long in the market today.

From 1936 into the late 1980s, the PE ratio tended to peak in the low 20s (red line) and trough somewhere around seven (green line). The price investors were willing to pay for a dollar of earnings increased during the dot-com boom (late 1990s) and the dot-com bust (early 2000s). As a result of the recent plunge in earnings and recent stock market rally, the PE ratio spiked and just peaked at 144 – a record high. Currently, with 97% of US corporations having reported for Q2 2009, the PE ratio now stands at a lofty 129.

By David Weidner
August 21, 2009, 10:28 AM ET

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Japanese government turns to ads to sell national debt

‘Peace of mind. Piece of happiness.’ That’s the promise the Japanese government is making to its citizens if they’re prepared to open their wallets and buy some of the country’s ballooning debt.

darling
Alistair Darling has a lot of debt to sell. What slogan should a UK campaign use?

The suits at Japan’s Finance Ministry have called in the advertising gurus to help drum up some interest in the country’s bonds. With the recession forcing national debt up to 684.4 trillion yen (£4.41 trillion), there’s no shortage of supply.

The Japanese will soon find the adverts in taxis and on their television screens. Who knows whether the Japanese will pay any attention but there’s a department in Whitehall that may be paying close interest.

After all, the Chancellor of the Exchqeuer, Alistair Darling, has a record £220bn worth of British government debt to find a home for this year. Fast forward 12 months and it may be George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, with the same headache.

Read moreJapanese government turns to ads to sell national debt

Paul Craig Roberts: Americans: Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

“Will Americans realize that they are not ruled by elected representatives but by an oligarchy that owns the Washington whorehouse?”

“Will Americans ever understand that they are impotent serfs?”

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Paul Craig Roberts

“In a little time [there will be] no middling sort.  We shall have a few, and but a very few Lords, and all the rest beggars.”  R.L. Bushman

“Rapidly you are dividing into two classes–extreme rich and extreme poor.”    “Brutus”

Americans think that they have “freedom and democracy” and that politicians are held accountable by elections.  The fact of the matter is that the US is ruled by powerful interest groups who control politicians with campaign contributions.  Our real rulers are an oligarchy of financial and military/security interests and AIPAC, which influences US foreign policy for the benefit of Israel.

Have a look at economic policy.  It is being run for the benefit of large financial concerns, such as Goldman Sachs.

It was the banks, not the millions of Americans who have lost homes, jobs, health insurance, and pensions, that received $700 billion in TARP funds.  The banks used this gift of capital to make more profits. In the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Goldman Sachs announced record second quarter profits and large six-figure bonuses for every employee.

The Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy is another gift to the banks. It lowers their cost of funds and increases their profits.  With the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, banks became high-risk investment houses that trade financial instruments such as interest rate derivatives and mortgage backed securities. With abundant funds supplied virtually free by the Federal Reserve, banks are paying depositors virtually nothing on their savings.

Despite the Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy, beginning October 1 banks are raising the annual percentage rate (APR) on credit card purchases and cash advances and on balances that have a penalty rate because of late payment.  Banks are also raising the late fee. In the midst of the worst economy since the 1930s, heavily indebted Americans, who are losing their jobs and their homes, are to be bled into bankruptcy by the very banks that are being subsidized with TARP funds and low interest rates.

Moreover, it is the American public that is on the hook for the TARP money and the low interest rates.  As the US government’s budget is 50 per cent or more in the red, the TARP money has to be borrowed from abroad or monetized by the Fed.  This means more pressure on the US dollar’s exchange value and a rise in import prices and also domestic inflation.

Americans will thus pay for the TARP and low interest rate subsidies to their financial rulers with erosion in the purchasing power of the dollar. What we are experiencing is a massive redistribution of income from the American public to the financial sector.

And this is occurring during a Democratic administration headed by America’s first black president, with a Democratic majority in the House and Senate.

Is there a government anywhere that less represents its citizens than the US government?

Consider America’s wars.  As of the moment of writing, the out-of-pocket cost of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is $900,000,000,000. When you add in the already incurred future costs of veterans benefits, interest on the debt, the forgone use of the resources for productive purposes, and such other costs as computed by Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes, “our” government has wasted $3,000,000,000,000–three thousand billion dollars–on two wars that have no benefit whatsoever for any American whose income does not derive from the military/security complex, about which five-star general President Eisenhower warned us.

It is now a proven fact that the US invasion of Iraq was based on lies and deception of the American public. The only beneficiaries were the armaments industries, Blackwater, Halliburton, military officers who enjoy higher rates of promotion during war, and Muslim extremists whose case the US government proved by its unprovoked aggression against Muslims. No one else benefitted.  Iraq was a threat to no one, and finding Saddam Hussein and executing him after a kangaroo trial had no effect whatsoever on ending the war or preventing the start of others.

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Philip Giraldi: Vanishing Liberties

Another must read article by former CIA field officer Philip Giraldi.

Philip Giraldi was the foreign policy advisor to Ron Paul during his last presidential run.

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Philip Giraldi


If the seemingly unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ever do come to a close and a new war with Iran, Somalia, or Sudan can somehow be avoided, the most serious long term damage from the conflicts will be to the fundamental freedoms that Americans have cherished for more than two hundred years. The erosion of America’s liberties has been driven by fear of terrorism but it is enabled by leaps in technology coupled with new legislation and a police state mentality that have made every citizen a target. Hate crimes and laws targeting the internet provide a framework that relies on advanced monitoring technology to criminalize behavior that would have been considered off limits for privacy reasons ten years ago.

The National Security Agency can monitor every phone call made in the United States and quite likely every e-mail. European security agencies have the same capabilities and have gone far down the road of legitimizing state intrusion into private activities, limiting free speech and free association. In Britain, most cities and highways are now monitored by CCTV cameras and the police have begun to use aerial drones to observe and record demonstrations of groups considered to be extreme including the right wing British National Party. New legislation in Germany will require all internet users to be licensed with a backtracking feature that will enable the government to determine where any internet transmission originated. The new regulations will require all users to have a tamper proof internet ID and will be enforced by special police. All telecommunications data, to include both internet and telephone, is already retained by the German service providers for six months, a law that has been in effect since 2008. The government can obtain the stored information by court order. It is particularly interesting to note what German politicians and officials said in support of the new legislation. One commented that it is necessary to stop the internet from becoming a “lawless chaos room.” Another described the internet as a “source of criminality, terrorism, and much similar filth.” Yet another said “What is illegal offline is also illegal online.”

Countries like China and Iran already control the servers for internet as well as the cell phone centers in their country and have not been shy about shutting down communications. In many places in Europe internet services are often screened by software that blocks certain websites and the use of words or phrases that are considered objectionable. This screening is also becoming common in hotels and other public places that offer internet services in the United States. But what is really dangerous is the combination of technologies that make it possible to control the internet with legislation that gives the authorities the ability to go after users who are deemed to be breaking the law, such as is happening in Germany.

Can there be any doubt that the monitoring of the internet to control “terrorism” and “filth” will in fairly short order also be used to repress the viewpoints of individuals and groups that are considered to be politically unacceptable? And what better weapon to use against dissidents than the criminal justice system, most particularly the hate crime legislation that is becoming both increasingly more common and more draconian in both the United States and in Europe? Hate crimes are the antithesis of the old principles that there is “equal justice under law” and that “justice is blind.” They essentially create specially protected classes of people within the criminal justice system, permitting selective enforcement of the law. Normally when there is an crime, the police investigate and make an arrest and the judiciary prosecutes. The perpetrator is punished in a manner proportionate to the seriousness of the offense. But if an incident is deemed a hate crime, i.e. that it may have been motivated by prejudice or bigotry, the penalties are harsher and the federal government has the option of trying the suspect if the state court for some reason fails to convict. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid justified the dismantling of two thousand years of jurisprudence recently, saying “”There is a difference between assaulting someone to steal his money or doing so because he is gay, or disabled, or Latino or Muslim.” Reid’s interesting interpretation notwithstanding, many would argue that hate crimes create an unconstitutional special tier of justice while the ability to try someone twice constitutes double jeopardy.

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