Global News – Page 2083 – Infinite Unknown

Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Use Body-Scanners On Pedestrians, Train Passengers

March 5, 2011 by Infinite

Now the TSA denies what the DHS proposed before:

– Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Proposes Full-Body Scanners For Trains, Boats, Metro (The Hill)

– US: Full-Body Scanners Popping Up At Courthouses (AP)

Body-scanners are so ‘safe’:

– Inside TSA Body Scanners: How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart Human DNA

– Review of the TSA X-ray backscatter body scanner safety report: hide your kids, hide your wife

– Dr. Russell Blaylock: Body Scanners More Dangerous Than Feds Admit

– TSA: Top US Government Officials Exempt From Screenings

– Airport Body Scanners: Why You should REJECT ‘Routine’ NON-Diagnostic X-ray

Full documents obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act request

Epic Body Scan Foia Docs Feb 2011[1]

Updated with the TSA’s response below, which denies implementing airport-style scans in mass transit.

(Forbes) — Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.

The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy concerns. The projects range from what the DHS describes as “a walk through x-ray screening system that could be deployed at entrances to special events or other points of interest” to “covert inspection of moving subjects” employing the same backscatter imaging technology currently used in American airports.

The 173-page collection of contracts and reports, acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request, includes contracts with Siemens Corporations, Northeastern University, and Rapiscan Systems. The study was expected to cost more than $3.5 million.

One project allocated to Northeastern University and Siemens would mount backscatter x-ray scanners and video cameras on roving vans, along with other cameras on buildings and utility poles, to monitor groups of pedestrians, assess what they carried, and even track their eye movements. In another program, the researchers were asked to develop a system of long range x-ray scanning to determine what metal objects an individual might have on his or her body at distances up to thirty feet.

“This would allow them to take these technologies out of the airport and into other contexts like public streets, special events and ground transit,” says Ginger McCall, an attorney with EPIC. “It’s a clear violation of the fourth amendment that’s very invasive, not necessarily effective, and poses all the same radiation risks as the airport scans.”

S&P Warns of Further Credit Rating Downgrades on Portugal and Greece

March 5, 2011 by Infinite

LONDON (AP) — Leading credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has warned that it could further downgrade both Portugal and Greece’s debt in the coming two months, depending on the outcome of a crucial European leaders’ summit later this month.

The agency said in a report Wednesday that it is maintaining its A- rating on Portugal and its BB+ rating on Greece but has kept both countries on so-called “CreditWatch with negative implications.”

Heavily indebted Greece accepted a bailout last year, as did Ireland, and ailing Portugal is widely expected to follow suit even though it managed to raise another euro1 billion ($1.38 billion) on Wednesday

S&P said it could lower the ratings on both countries within the next two months after analyzing an expected new European bailout mechanism. EU policymakers are set to decide later this month on the key features of the European Stability Mechanism, which is due to replace the current European Financial Stability Facility from 2013.

Roubini Global Economics’ Forecast: US Municipalities Could Default On $100 Billion

March 5, 2011 by Infinite

– Meredith Whitney: US Government Will Have to Bailout States in Next 12 Months

Buyers of bonds issued by US states and local authorities are being ‘Pollyannaish’ in ignoring the state of their finances

Nouriel Roubini’s consulting firm predicts substantial, but not system-threatening, defaults in the US municipal bonds market. Photograph: Sony Pics/Everett/Rex Features

US states and local governments could default on $100bn (£60bn) of their debts over the next five years, according to a report from the consulting firm founded by economist Nouriel Roubini.

The report follows dire predictions of a wide-scale collapse in the US’s $2.7tn municipal bonds market by Meredith Whitney, the analyst who was among the first to warn of the 2008 banking crisis.

Roubini Global Economics’ forecast is less gloomy than Whitney’s, but it warns that investors are being “Pollyannaish” in dismissing the serious problems in the market.

“The municipal bond market has generated tremendous debate in the past months, with Cassandras predicting another ‘sub-prime’ disaster, while apologists (often with vested interests) claim there is little justification for these warnings,” write the authors of the Roubini report, David Nowakowski and Prajakta Bhide. They conclude that while investors do face $100bn in defaults, the problems will not prove “systemic in nature” and will not “infect the financial system, though they will dampen economic recovery.”

UN: World Food Prices Hit Record

March 5, 2011 by Infinite

A woman looks for her groceries at a supermarket in Caracas (Reuters)

MILAN (Reuters) – Global food prices hit a record high in February, the United Nations said on Thursday, warning that surprise oil price spikes induced by Middle East unrest would impact already volatile cereal markets.

Rising food prices are a fast-growing global concern, partly fuelling the protests which toppled the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt in January and February, which in turn unleashed unrest in North Africa and the Middle East from Algeria to Yemen.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Price Index hit its second straight record last month, further passing peaks seen in 2008 when prices sparked riots in several countries, driven by rising grain costs and tighter supply.

Libya: Russia, China Join France in Opposing Military Action Against Gaddafi – Arab States Warn Against Any Foreign Intervention

March 5, 2011 by Infinite

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (right) with his British counterpart William Hague

– Libya: Russia, China join France in opposing military action against Gaddafi (Telegraph):

Jiang Yu, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, said Beijing is “concerned” about the prospect about military action against Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, and expressed the hope that the violence in the country could instead be “resolved peacefully through dialogue.”

Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, also ruled out the idea of establishing a no-fly zone, saying that the world should instead “concentrate on the full implementation” of sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.

Read moreLibya: Russia, China Join France in Opposing Military Action Against Gaddafi – Arab States Warn Against Any Foreign Intervention

Hillary Clinton: ‘Viewership Of Al Jazeera Is Going Up In The United States Because It’s Real News’ – Hillary Clinton Loves Russia Today?

March 5, 2011 by Infinite

Hillary Clinton: “Viewership Of Al Jazeera Is Going Up In The United States Because It’s Real News”

Added: 02.03.2011

Hillary Clinton Loves RT?

Added: 02.03.2011

Brazilian Central Banker Plows His Car Into A Group Of Bikers, Charged With Attempted Murder (Video)

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

More news has come out about the man who plowed his car into a group of bikers last Friday in Porto Alegre.

It turns out that the driver, 47-year old Richard Neis, works at the Brazilian central bank, and he’s since been placed under psychiactric care.

According to Zero Hora, the police found Neis’ car abandoned near downtown Porto Alegre early Saturday morning.

In his defense, Neis’ lawyer says the bikers had been harassing the banker and his 15-year old son, but a biker witness says that he heard Neis say, “But I’m in a hurry,” to someone in the group of about 100 bikers who were blocking the road in a “Critical Mass” demonstration just moments before hitting the gas and running over 8 cyclists.

The bikers were later hospitalized and then released.

Neis is charged with attempted murder, according to Zero Hora.

Watch the attack at 00:50:

And for more banker craziness, click here to read the story about a banker who bit off another’s ear “Mike Tyson-style”

Sacked Indian Workers Burn Factory Boss In His Car

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

Two held after mob sets upon car carrying Radhey Shyam Roy, who dies later from his injuries

A boy runs across a parched field in Orissa state, where a steel factory executive was killed in a car fire. Photograph: Biswaranjan Rout/AP

Indian police have detained two people after an angry mob of sacked workers burned to death a senior executive of a steel factory, an official said.

After learning they had been laid off, about a dozen workers attacked a vehicle carrying Radhey Shyam Roy as he was leaving the factory in eastern Orissa state on Thursday, dousing the Jeep with petrol and setting it on fire, said police superintendent Ajay Kumar Sarangi.

Portugal: Only €4 Billion In Cash Vs €20 Billion In Bond Maturity And Deficit Outflows In 2011

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

Flashback:

– Prof. Nouriel Roubini Tells Portugal To Seek Bailout, Spain ‘Too Big To Bail Out’:

Nouriel Roubini, the US economist, said Portugal should consider asking for a bailout before its financial plight worsens as the euro fell after the €85bn Ireland bailout failed to ease eurozone debt fears.

However, he said neighboring Spain, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, is “too big to bail out.”

It seems there is just one market which the Fed is either unable, or unwilling to manipulate: that of Portuguese (and generally peripheral European) debt. And for good reason.

As the WSJ reports, Portugal started the year with about €4 billion in cash:

“Fresh borrowing and other public transactions suggest Portugal has this year likely increased that number to around €4 billion. The official said in an email that the figure had risen but didn’t elaborate.”

There is one small problem: the country has a €4 billion outflow on April 15… and has to pay down €20 billion worth of debt maturities and budget deficits through the end of this year!

Where the country will get this money… nobody knows. Just BTFD. But not in Portuguese bonds. As the charts below show that is still the only asset that can’t find a greater idiot.

Portuguese CDS:

From the WSJ:

Portugal’s leaders have said repeatedly that they don’t need a bailout, and that a program of economic reform and austerity the country has embarked upon will convince financial markets to lend it what it needs. Portugal has been able to issue both long- and short-term debt this year, albeit at high interest rates.

Read morePortugal: Only €4 Billion In Cash Vs €20 Billion In Bond Maturity And Deficit Outflows In 2011

Paul Craig Roberts: The Perfidy Of Government How We Lost Our Economy, The Constitution And Our Civil Liberties

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

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.

This essay is about three recent books that explain how we lost our economy, the Constitution and our civil liberties, and how peace lost out to war.

Matt Taibbi is the best–certainly the most entertaining–financial/political reporter in the country. There is no better book than Griftopia (2010) to which to turn to understand how stupidity, greed, and criminality, spread evenly among policymakers and Wall Street, created the financial crisis that has left Americans overburdened with both private and public debt. Taibbi walks the reader through the fraudulent financial instruments that littered the American, British, and European financial communities with toxic waste. He has figured it all out, and what in other hands might be an arcane account for MBAs is in Taibbi’s hands a highly readable and entertaining story.

Amazon.com: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

Amazon.de: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

For the first 65 pages Taibbi entertains the reader with the inability of the public and politicians to focus on any reality. The financial story begins on page 65 with Fed chairman Alan Greenspan undermining the Glass-Steagall Act leading to its repeal by three political stooges, Gramm-Leach-Bliley. This set the stage for the banksters to leverage debt upon debt until the house of cards collapsed. When Brooksley Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, attempted to do her regulatory job and regulate derivatives, the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Securities and Exchange Commission got her bounced out of office. To make certain that no other regulator could protect the financial system and its participants from what was coming, Congress deregulated the derivatives markets by passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act.

Matt Damon Says President Obama Not the Man He Voted For

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

Another Obama supporter:

Change you can believe in?
More like bullshit you can take a bath in, if you ask me.
– Prof. Dr. David Michael Green (Dec.19, 2009)

Matt Damon Calls Out President Obama, Education Policy

This is not the man he voted for.

Matt Damon sat down with Piers Morgan for an interview that will air Thursday night, and among other things, talked about his feelings on the first two years of President Obama’s administration. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Damon was a vocal Obama supporter, campaigning for the then-candidate at rallies, promoting him through a MoveOn video contest and attending fundraisers for him.

Now, he’s not so enthused about Obama. When asked if he was happy with the way the President is running the country, Damon said, point blank, “no.”

“I really think he misinterpreted his mandate. A friend of mine said to me the other day, I thought it was a great line, ‘I no longer hope for audacity,'” Damon said. “He’s doubled down on a lot of things, going back to education… the idea that we’re testing kids and we’re tying teachers salaries to how kids are performing on tests, that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We’re training them, not teaching them.

China ‘Attacks The Dollar’ – Moves To Further Cement Renminbi Reserve Currency Status

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

In a surprising turn of events, today’s biggest piece of news received a mere two paragraph blurb on Reuters, and was thoroughly ignored by the broader media. An announcement appeared shortly after midnight on the website of the People’s Bank of China.

The statement, google translated as “Pragmatic and pioneering spirit to promote cross-border renminbi business cum on monitoring and analysis to a new level” is presented below:

Reuters provides a simple translation and summary of the announcement: “China hopes to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross-border trades in the yuan by this year, the central bank said on Wednesday, as part of plans to grow the currency’s international role. In a statement on its website www.pbc.gov.cn, the central bank said it would respond to overseas demand for the yuan to be used as a reserve currency.It added it would also allow the yuan to flow back into China more easily.”

To all those who claim that China is perfectly happy with the status quo, in which it is willing to peg the Renmibni to the Dollar in perpetuity, this may come as a rather unpleasant surprise, as it indicates that suddenly China is far more vocal about its intention to convert its currency to reserve status, and in the process make the dollar even more insignificant.

International Business Times provides further insight:

This is all part of China’s plan for the internationalization of its currency, which may, in the decades to come, threaten the global ‘market share’ of other currencies like the US dollar.

Previously, China also announced that bilateral trades with Russia and Malaysia will begin to be conducted with the yuan and the ruble and ringgit, respectively.

Other moves on the part of China to internationalize its currency include allowing foreign companies to issue yuan-denominated bonds and relaxing rules for foreign financial institutions to access the yuan.

Read moreChina ‘Attacks The Dollar’ – Moves To Further Cement Renminbi Reserve Currency Status

Spain Is Still The Elephant In The European Room!

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

Flashback:

– Prof. Nouriel Roubini Tells Portugal To Seek Bailout, Spain ‘Too Big To Bail Out’:

Nouriel Roubini, the US economist, said Portugal should consider asking for a bailout before its financial plight worsens as the euro fell after the €85bn Ireland bailout failed to ease eurozone debt fears.

However, he said neighboring Spain, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, is “too big to bail out.”

Now that the world is focused on the ongoing turbulence in the Middle East, Europe gets a rest from the financial hit men. While Europe ain’t the Middle East, there are lots of connections between the two continents.

Many countries within the European Union have citizens with Arabic roots and backgrounds, and the Islam is a second largest religion. And lets face it, a few hours in a jet airplane and most Europeans can enjoy the tropical climate of the Middle East region.

But there’s more, like the large trade and financial pacts between different Arabic and European nations. Take for instance the in ‘state-of-turmoil’ Libya, who holds large stakes in Italian blue-chip companies like banking giant UniCredit or defence company Finmeccanica. That makes Italy, already a EU member in financial chaos, a first potential victim of the unrest in the Middle East.

But if we dig deeper in the EU/Middle East web, then we see more potential trouble ahead. The immense trading hub between Morocco and France, or the Turkish ‘gateway’ for Eastern Europe. No wonder few pundits are sounding the alarm bells. But hey, that’s the world we live in nowadays, with everyday a potential to chaos.

If we take a step back, away from the heat, and have a look at the bigger picture for Europe, then the real problem and threat for Europe lies within Europe, namely Spain. Spain is for Europe what Florida is for the US: one gigantic foreclosure mess! And guess what, prices of Spanish homes are still dropping, just like oversees.

The latest official drop in house prices for Q1 ’11 was 3.5 percent, which is better – or less worse – then 6.5 pc drop of last year, but still dramatic for one of the largest EU countries, with gigantic debt loads in the property market.

And there is more where that came from! Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insights touts the official housing numbers:

“As a result, prices have now fallen 13.1pc peak-to-present, and by as much as 20pc in popular tourist destinations like Alicante province (Costa Blanca), home to a large stock of holiday-homes.

The problem with the Government’s data is it tends to understate price falls, which have been more like 30pc or more (peak-to-present) in coastal regions like the Costa Blanca and the Costa del sol.”

We wouldn’t be surprised if a second leg down happens in Spanish property prices. The latest unemployment figures from the peripheral country are devastating. Last month (February ’11) the number of unemployed citizens in Spain stood at 4.3 million, more than 20 percent of the working class and above 40 percent among the youngster!

John Hathaway: $50 to $60 Silver, US Dollar in Danger

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

John Hathaway, Senior Managing Director of the Tocqueville Gold Fund:

“If we have a continuation of QE2 past June 30th, I wouldn’t be surprised to see silver in the $50, $60 an ounce territory.”

When asked would there be a waterfall decline if the US dollar were to move down and take out the 71-72 area Hathaway responded,

“Yeah, I think that would be a real sign that people had given up on the dollar. The market would basically be telling you that the verdict is in and the dollar is in effect beyond redemption in terms of any sort of respectability and I think you’d see a huge move into gold at that stage.”

Full article and interview: KingWorldNews

US Launches New Missile Defense Program For Europe

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

The Russians got it right that the missile defense shield is aimed at them and not at Iran and respond accordingly:

– Russia: Strongest Ever Nuke Warhead, Will Penetrate All Missile Defense Shields For the Next 40 Years

– Russia Threatens NATO to Deploy ‘Offensive’ Nuclear Weapons:

The Russian president has called on NATO to clarify Moscow’s role in a European missile system, warning if no agreement is reached, Russia will be forced to deploy “offensive” nuclear weapons.

“So this is not a joking matter. We expect from our NATO partners a direct and unambiguous answer,” Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with Russia’s NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin.

“In either case, we are either together with NATO, or we separately find an adequate response to the existing problem,” he said.

Under former US President George W. Bush the United States proposed a plan to deploy a missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic — a plan which was fiercely opposed to by Russia. Moscow said it would deem such a deployment a threat to its sovereignty and would properly respond to it.

– Russia Develops New Intercontinental Ballistic Missile:

In comments to Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that went largely unnoticed, the head of Rosobshemash said the new missile would be capable of overcoming any nuclear missile shield that the Americans or indeed anyone else might build.

“This applies in the fullest sense to the USA’s anti-missile defence system and to Nato’s (planned) European missile defence system,” said Artur Usenkov.

Associated Press= WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is sending a special radar-equipped warship to the Mediterranean Sea next week, the first step in the development of a broad anti-ballistic missile system to protect Europe against a potential Iranian nuclear threat, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The move marks the first of the Obama administration’s four-phase plan to put land- and sea-based radars and interceptors in several European locations during the next decade.

Endorsed by NATO during a summit in Lisbon last year, the missile shield has triggered opposition from Russia and set off lengthy negotiations over the future expanded ability to shoot down ballistic missiles in the region.

John F. Plumb, principal director for Pentagon nuclear and missile defense policy, said Tuesday that the USS Monterey will leave Norfolk, Virginia, next week, heading to a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean. The ship’s mission, he said, will lay groundwork for the unfolding missile defense plan there.

“Here is our first concrete demonstration of our commitment to the missile defense of our deployed forces, allies and partners in Europe,” Plumb said in an interview. “We said we were going to do it, and now we’re doing it.”

Under the plan laid out by the Obama administration in 2009, the missile shield would begin with ship-based anti-missile interceptors and radars. Later this year, the United States plans to add land-based radars in southern Europe. Plumb said officials are still in discussions with several nations, but the exact location for those radars had not yet been determined.

In phase two, land-based interceptors would be deployed in Romania in 2015, followed by the placement of interceptors in Poland in 2018. Each phase calls for a more sophisticated and capable interceptor, culminating at the end of the decade with the deployment of the last version planned as of now.

Four Time Bombs That Will Blow Up Wall Street – Too Late To Jail Bank CEOs, Only Revolution Will Succeed

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

“Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail,” he said. “That’s your whole story right there. Hell, you don’t even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.”

I put down my notebook. “Just that?”

“That’s right,” he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. “Everything’s fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there.”

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Put Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in jail for six months, and all this will stop, all over Wall Street and America, a former congressional aide tells Matt Taibbi in his latest Rolling Stone attack, “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail? Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them.”

Taibbi’s right, everyone knows Wall Street’s run by a bunch of dictators who are doing more damage to democracy and capitalism than North Africa’s dictators. But jail the CEOs of Goldman, Citi, B. of A. or my old firm Morgan Stanley? Too late.

Only a revolution will stop Wall Street’s self-destructive capitalism. And watching the people revolt against dictators like Mubarak and Gadhafi reminds us of the spirit that sparked America’s revolution in 1776. But today we need a 1930s-style revolution.

During the S&L crisis two decades ago America had a backbone, indicted 3,800 executives and bankers. Today’s leaders have no backbone. Besides jail time won’t reform the darkness consuming Wall Street’s soul. We’re all asleep, in denial about the moral crisis facing America. Yes, we need a new revolution.

Jail time? We’ve heard that many times before. Journalists have been beating that dead horse for three years. Jailing CEOs made sense in early 2009. But our naïve president missed that opportunity, instead surrounded himself with Wall Street insiders as Bush did with Blankfein’s predecessor. Trojan Horses manipulating a Congress filled with clueless Dems mismanaging tired Keynesian theories.

Taibbi got it right: Washington’s error was in protecting Wall Street’s billion-dollar crooks when they should have been prosecuting CEOs for criminal behavior in getting us into the 2008 mess. So today, the political statute-of-limitations has run. Jail solution is wishful thinking, like praying to the tooth fairy for a miracle. Time for action. Time for a revolution on Wall Street.

‘Fracking’ Result (= Contamination) For UK Shale Gas Will Be Kept Secret Until 2015

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

And here is what these criminals are hiding:

– GASLAND Trailer 2010 (Documentary)

• Drilling method criticised for contaminating water sources
• MPs hear US energy firm must only disclose details in 2015

Gas drilling near Calgary. The first exploratory drilling for shale gas in the UK is about to begin near Blackpool. Photograph: Todd Korol/Reuters

The results of the first attempt to extract shale gas in the UK using a controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, will be kept secret for four years, the Guardian has learned.

Cuadrilla Resources, a US private equity backed firm, told MPs at the energy and climate change committee that it will begin this month to pump 1,200 cubic metres of highly pressurised water mixed with chemicals and sand nearly 3,000 metres underground into an onshore shale gas reservoir near Blackpool.

The process is known as “fracking” because it fractures rock to release gas. Industry estimates reckon that more than a tenth of the country’s gas needs could be produced in this way by 2015. However, critics such as the Green party say that it is environmentally unsafe because the chemicals could contaminate aquifers used for drinking water and farming.

Bald Eagles Fall Out of The Sky in Canada

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

(NaturalNews) Bald eagles in the Comox Valley of British Columbia, Can., are having a difficult time finding food these days. A recent report in The Province explains that the birds are literally starving and falling from the sky, adding to the string of strange animal events that has occurred in numerous places around the world in the past few months (http://www.naturalnews.com/031041_a…).

“This is the most we have ever had,” said Maj Birch, manager of the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society, concerning the excessive number of starving and dying eagles the group has seen in recent days. “Many of them are downed before they are brought in. They are on the ground and they’re too weak to fly away. Some of them are actually falling out of the sky.”

Pentagon Contractor AeroVironment Developed World’s First Hummingbird Spy Drone

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

Five years and $4 million later, AeroVironment has developed what it calls the world’s first hummingbird spy drone.

Matt Keennon, program director at AeroVironment, demonstrates a tiny, drone aircraft known as the ‘nano-hummingbird,’ during a briefing at the company’s facility in Simi Valley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 25, 2011. With a 6.5-inch wing span, the remote-controlled hummingbird plane weighs less than an AA battery and can fly at speeds of up to 11 mph, propelled only by the flapping of its two wings. It can climb and descend vertically, fly sideways, forward and backward, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise, and hover.… Read more »
(AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

SAN DIEGO – You’ll never look at hummingbirds the same again.

The Pentagon has poured millions of dollars into the development of tiny drones inspired by biology, each equipped with video and audio equipment that can record sights and sounds.

They could be used to spy, but also to locate people inside earthquake-crumpled buildings and detect hazardous chemical leaks.

The smaller, the better.

Besides the hummingbird, engineers in the growing unmanned aircraft industry are working on drones that look like insects and the helicopter-like maple leaf seed.

Researchers are even exploring ways to implant surveillance and other equipment into an insect as it is undergoing metamorphosis. They want to be able to control the creature.

Judge: Credit Card Borrower Tortured By Lender

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

Card firms may have to be more careful about their debt collection methods after this ruling

The MBNA bank has been accused by a High Court judge of “torturing” a customer with repeated phone calls demanding he repay his credit card.

Keith Harrison had his debt of £20,270 written off by the judge, Nicholas Chambers QC, at Mold in North Wales.

The judge said MBNA had failed to give Mr Harrison the terms and conditions for the card, when he took it out.

MBNA said it was reviewing the comments and said it had been unable to have “meaningful dialogue” with Mr Harrison.

“[We] were unable to ascertain the reason for non-payment,” the bank added.

The judge denounced the tactics that MBNA and its debt collection firm had used to force him to pay up.

“In my view, the claimant rightly complains that, mainly by MBNA but also by the defendant [debt collectors Link Financial], he was hounded by telephone calls seeking payment of what was said to be due,” said Mr Justice Chambers.

“The calls were a form of torture oppressively frequent in amount and often without attribution to an identifiable number.”

Gulf Coast: More Dead Baby Dolphins Wash Ashore

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

IMMS Photo Rebecca Winstead and Megan Broadway with the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport respond to the beaching of a dolphin calf. More baby dolphins were found over the weekend and today.

GULFPORT — The phenomenon of new born or stillborn baby dolphins washing ashore from the Gulf or the Mississippi Sound continued through the weekend and today.

The total in Mississippi and Alabama alone is 36 calves and eight adults or young adults, as of mid-day today.

Supreme Court Rules That ‘Hate Speech’ Is Protected By The Constitution

March 4, 2011 by Infinite

If there is a hell – and there isn’t – then these people are already in hell, right here and now.

If your children died and you have to face such idiots, do not allow yourself to get insulted by them, because that is exactly what they want.

“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.”
– Oscar Wilde

And then stop seeing them as enemies, but as the ignorant and divine fools that they are.

And then you should tell other parents to get their ‘children’ out of the army if they can, because this is the mindset of the elite puppets that they are fighting for:

(Soldiers are) dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.
(as quoted in Woodward and Bernstein’s “The Final Days”, ch. 14)
– Henry Kissinger

Yes, even Henry (Heinz) Kissinger is only an elite puppet.

And knowing the truth, that your children are seen as cannon fodder by the elitists and died fighting in illegal wars, is even more painful then to face some ignorant fools:

– Tony Blair Was Warned By All 27 Senior Government Lawyers That Iraq War Was Illegal (Daily Express)

– Tony Blair ‘knew Iraq did not have WMD before war started’ (Times)

– US and UK knew that Iraq Didn’t Have WMDs

– Dutch Inquiry: Iraq War Was Illegal, Had ‘No Basis In International Law’ (Guardian)

Your children died for the money, power and control agenda of elite criminals and that is extremely painful.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a grieving father’s pain over mocking protests at his Marine son’s funeral must yield to First Amendment protections for free speech. All but one justice sided with a fundamentalist church that has stirred outrage with raucous demonstrations contending God is punishing the military for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.

The 8-1 decision in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., was the latest in a line of court rulings that, as Chief Justice John Roberts said in his opinion for the court, protects “even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”

The decision ended a lawsuit by Albert Snyder, who sued church members for the emotional pain they caused by showing up at his son Matthew’s funeral. As they have at hundreds of other funerals, the Westboro members held signs with provocative messages, including “Thank God for dead soldiers,” `’You’re Going to Hell,” `’God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,” and one that combined the U.S. Marine Corps motto, Semper Fi, with a slur against gay men.

Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter, said Snyder wanted only to “bury his son in peace.” Instead, Alito said, the protesters “brutally attacked” Matthew Snyder to attract public attention. “Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case,” he said.

The ruling, though, was in line with many earlier court decisions that said the First Amendment exists to protect robust debate on public issues and free expression, no matter how distasteful. A year ago, the justices struck down a federal ban on videos that show graphic violence against animals. In 1988, the court unanimously overturned a verdict for the Rev. Jerry Falwell in his libel lawsuit against Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt over a raunchy parody ad.

Why Silver Is Headed To $500 Per Oz – Backwardation Explained

March 3, 2011 by Infinite

This excellent video is an absolute MUST-SEE for all that haven’t watched it yet:

– Silver: Shortage This Decade, Will Be Worth More Than Gold (!!!)

The following video is old news for I. U. regulars.

Added: 02.03.2011

Only physical gold and silver are real, everything else is an illusion.

– Exposed: The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) Scam

More on gold and silver:

Silver:

– Silver Touches Fresh 31 Year High of $34.90, US Mint Runs Out Of Bullion Blanks, Halts American Eagle Silver Coin Production

– CNBC: Total Silver Demand At 127% ! – The Case For $130 Silver

– Dollar Ready to Collapse, Silver Squeeze to Continue

– Even The Royal Canadian Mint Now Says It’s Difficult To Secure Silver

– Unprecedented: Silver Backwardation Surges To Over $1.00

– Eric Sprott on Silver: ‘THERE IS NOTHING LEFT’

– Fractal Analysis Suggests Silver to Reach $52 – $56 by May – June 2011

Robert F. Kennedy’s Assassin ‘Was A Real-Life Manchurian Candidate’

March 3, 2011 by Infinite

– Texe Marrs: Shooter Jared Lee Loughner Is A Jewish Satan Worshipper (And Possibly A Manchurian Candidate)

Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin was programmed to shoot the politician in a real life version of the film The Manchurian Candidate, according to his lawyer ahead of a parole hearing on Wednesday.

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy lies mortally wounded on the floor of a pantry at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles Photo: AP

In June 1968, Sirhan Sirhan shot Kennedy dead in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, moments after he had clinched victory in the California Democratic primary for that year’s presidential election.

Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, cried “I did it for my country” when arrested. He kept diaries detailing his hatred of Kennedy for promising military support for Israel, a year after the region’s Six-Day War.

Yet Sirhan’s lawyer claims he was programmed to shoot the politician while under hypnosis.

Bill Pepper, the New York attorney who will today lead Sirhan’s 14th attempt to be given parole, improbably alleges his client was “hypno-programmed”.

“Sirhan was put through a process involving hypnosis and chemicals,” claimed Mr Pepper, who is also a qualified barrister in England and Wales.

“Someone, some group or some agency did this,” he said. Asked if he meant that the US government was responsible, Mr Pepper said: “Perhaps”.

Despite the fact his client was watched and apprehended by numerous bystanders, Mr Pepper also believes the conspiracy theory that there was a “second gunman” in the hotel.

Rep. Ron Paul vs ‘The Ben Bernank’

March 3, 2011 by Infinite

Here is what ‘The Ben Bernank’ is doing:

– Quantitative Easing Explained

And QE is ‘working’ as intended by the elitists:

– The Dollar Collapse Will Shock the World

– Rep. Ron Paul: Next US Crash Will Be Comparable To That Of Soviet Union, QE2 Is A ‘Total Failure’ And The Fed Is A ‘Central Planning Cartel’

March 02, 2011 C-SPAN

The must watch 5 minutes from today’s second day of Bernanke hearings before congress is the following interaction between the Chairman and his archnemesis: Ron Paul.

The first brilliant rebuttal by Ron Paul has to do with the ongoing “Federal Reserve lecturing” on why Congress should not allow out of control deficits to escalate.

As Paul so correctly put its, “the Congress and the Fed are symbiotic because the Congress spends and they know there is a moral hazard involved because they know that if interest rates go up, the Fed accommodates them.

So the Fed really facilitates this spending, and until we realize this I think the Fed is involved with our deficit and encourages it as well as the Congress.”

This is an absolutely smack on point which goes to the whole heart of the real premise behind QE2: keeping rates low so there is no prohibitive lever against runaway deficits.

That, and of course, ending up the primary holder of US debt so that the Treasury can convert “interest expense” into “revenue.”