Friday, December 4, 2009

Essay On The Gathering Storm

"You'll be saddened by the death of friends and relatives who are brave enough to fight and die for something they believe in."

From Naval Aviator, Commander Jerry Wilson

We lived in California during the winters of 2007 and 2008. We became addicted to Fox News and watched O'Reilly and Hannity and Colmes every night. When we got back home, we upgraded our cable to get Fox. I watched the Presidential campaign very closely. Initially because I thought the Democrats would nominate Hillary Clinton and then in astonishment when they chose an even more hard-left candidate. All of last year I told everyone that Obama was not a Democrat, he was a Marxist. He is far to the left of any European leader and even far left of the NDP.

I read Saul Alinsky when I was in University. I studied him and his writing carefully. When Bill Ayers and his wife were bombing and killing people at random in the Weather Underground, Weather Underground and the Black Panthers were closely allied. I read David Horowitz's account of changing from a Marxist to a conservative after seeing that the government was afraid to prosecute members of the Panthers for murdering his personal assistant. He suddenly understood the evil that Marxism really was.

After the student radicals failed in creating a Marxist revolution in the United States by violent means, they embraced Alinsky. You would be wise to read "Rules for Radicals" because it outlines how Hillary and Obama planned to get into power, and what they intended to do when they got it.

Socialism is not the correct descriptor for what Obama and the Democrats are doing. They are going to be much more far reaching than anything Sweden has ever been able to do. Obama is following Alinsky's plans, those set out in "Rules for Radicals" and his other writing. The Democrats are attempting to create one party rule in the U.S. and in achieving that, will create crisis after crisis by their own actions and use those crisis to nationalize the means of production in the U.S. You are in the middle of a communist revolution and few in the U.S. can actually see it for what it truly is.

The U.S. is now on the path of financial destruction. The Constitution has been shredded and individual human rights are being trampled. In less than 8 months Obama has used a recession to take over the two largest industries in the U.S. He will debase the Dollar and is on the road to creating an incredible energy shortage that will allow him and Congress to take over the energy industry.

But by and large I think that by the 2010 elections, the Democrats will have gerrymandered electoral districts to the point that it will be impossible for them to lose control of both houses of Congress. The incredible increase in the money supply is going to create Zimbabwe and Venezuela style inflation, and with it, controls on the currency and the amount of money that can be taken out of the country.

I love America, I cannot believe how the ignorance of the American public has created a situation whereby they are going to lose their Republic and slip into an age of repression and tyranny.

I may be nuts, but so far I have been 100% in my predictions of what Obama was going to do, because I merely had to look at "Rules for Radicals" to see what was coming next. I read Glenn Beck's book, "Common Sense" and in it re-read Thomas Paine's pamphlet with the same name. I recommend the book.

When the storm finally hits (and it will) those of you who supported the Obama administration will be affected as well. It won't just be us gun owners or Flat-Taxers, or Pro-Lifers that get hit. You'll be right there next to us.

You all thought the Conservatives were nut cases. You know - all of us who believe in God, small government, the Second Amendment, etc. You thought you could just go back to sleep after the election was over. In your world, America will continue as before. You'll still have the same rights, the same nice house, the same big screen television. After all, your high school football team won and the other team lost - go team! Even if you have bothered to look up from the daily grind since Nov 4th, you dismissed everything that has occurred as "politics as usual--the same old stuff".

In the end, it'll all be OK won't it? Not this time.

There are a growing number of citizens in the US that are ready to fight to shut down the government's grab of personal freedom, its blatant abuse of the constitution, and its attempt to replace the American way of life with socialism. You have to listen carefully to hear them, but they are there. I won't start that fight, but when it goes down I will join it.

As for you? You'll be shocked because you didn't see it coming.

And eventually you'll be saddened when you see that we have truly lost the way of life with which you grew up. You'll be saddened that your children and grandchildren live in a socialist, government-controlled gulag where their every movement from cradle to grave is tracked by the government. But most of all, you'll be saddened by the death of friends and relatives who are brave enough to fight and die for something they believe in.

You know, McCain wasn't much of a candidate. I'll give you that. He was the lesser of two evils for most of us. I don't blame you for not voting for him since, at the time, you didn't know w hat we all know now. But at least John McCain was an American. He was a supporter of the American way of life and he understood that you can't negotiate with terrorists. He understood and appreciated the sacrifice made by my father and other members of the Greatest Generation.

Mark my words friends. All across America groups are forming. They are forming out of anger and out of desperation at the thought of losing America. They're not militia groups, terrorists as the Department of Homeland security would have you believe; they are Americans, loyal to the constitution. They are mothers and fathers and grandparents. They belong to groups like the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, the Peaceful Resistance, the Constitution Party, the Young Conservatives, the 9/12 Project, and Grassfire. Right now they are fragmented, each focused on their own cause. But sometime in the next two years, our government is going to do something really stupid and these groups will come together. Watch for it, Wait for it. Get ready. It will happen.

When that event happens, whatever "it" is, our great country is going to plunge into chaos for a while. I pray to God that we make it through that time and emerge a stronger, smarter country.

Naval Aviator, Commander Jerry W,

Nebraska Abortion Doctor Plans to Expand His Operation


An abortion doctor says he will likely perform more late-term abortions at his Nebraska practice instead of opening a new Kansas clinic to meet the demand left when Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed earlier this year.

Dr. LeRoy Carhart said Friday he thinks expanding his practice in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue may be the best option.

Carhart says his lawyers are telling him he's not breaking state law by performing late-term abortions in Nebraska, but he hasn't made a final decision yet.

The Nebraska doctor has said he was a close friend of Tiller and performed abortions at Tiller's Wichita clinic.

Carhart twice has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge bans on a procedure its opponents call partial-birth abortion.

Source:


http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/78547012.html




Canadian Free Press | “Party Crashers” had five-year relationship with Obama before state dinner

Source:

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17310

Cave's Headlines | December 3, 2009



Time to Cancel the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Withdraw Nobel Prizes From Them and Gore
Canada Free Press

Gored

Al Gore is the only Nobel Prize winner, whose work was ruled politically biased and containing nine major scientific errors by a court (UK) a week before it was awarded. The Nobel Committee should have known. They could argue they’d already made their decision. Problem is there was considerable evidence about the errors easily available long before. Clearly they didn’t do their homework, so their decision was purely political. The Prize should be revoked. ....

Can America Stop The Coming Oppression? Could Climategate Unravel the UN’s Plan to Rule the World?

People for Freedom
J. Hapiak

Could Climategate Unravel the UN’s Plan to Rule the World?



In a matter of days, President Obama will write a brand new chapter in American history, one that fulfils the promise of change that the Americans asked for, but not necessarily the change that they hoped for. What I am speaking about is the Copenhagen Climate Treaty that President Obama had promised to sign around December 9, 2009, that could forever surrender American sovereignty.



Now with the emergence of Climategate as reported all over the internet, and Senator Inhofe’s calling for an investigation into that matter which implies that the top UN climate scientists had cooked the science of climate change for profit . . . the signing of this document has been supposedly postponed, but the President still has plans to make the trip to Copenhagen anyhow.



Will President Obama sign this treaty behind closed doors despite the allegations that Climate Change may be a fraud? Will he sign it like the President George W. Bush signed the Sovereign Prosperity and Partnership agreement in Ottawa, in secret? No one knows for sure.



The mainstream media isn’t saying much about anything, and they certainly aren’t warning the American people is that this treaty is less about the climate and more about establishing an international carbon tax and finalizing the framework for a new layer of government, one that is international in scope and whose “rules of law” will govern the conduct of all UN member nations. What else they aren’t saying, is that there will be no pulling back out of this agreement without the unanimous consent of every UN member nation.



This movement has been fueled for many decades, but it went virtually unnoticed until 1991 when George H. W. Bush announced to Congress, the coming of the New World Order, the first steps to setting up a global community and changing the way America conducts its business forever. A few months later on February 1, 1992, he made another speech to the United Nations General Assembly, and stated . . .



“It is the sacred principles enshrined in the United Nations charter to which the American people will henceforth pledge their allegiance.”



... Under the World Trade Organization (WTO), the states must become compliant with the United Nations mandates, in order for them to continue receiving welfare funding from Washington for the people. Under this agreement the States must also support and make preparations to adopt the following:



1) The Codex Alimentarious (UN takeover of the food code and classifying vitamins as toxins, while making outlawed toxins– legal)

2) Universal Health Care (UN takeover of health care, population control, firearms control)

3) Agenda 21 (UN takeover of America’s agricultural output, farmland and water rights, relocation of people)

4) World Trade Organization (UN takeover of all manufacturing and trade)

5) Sovereign Prosperity and Partnership agreement (open borders with Canada and Mexico, the forming of the North American Union and creating a gold or silver backed universal currency)

6) Cap and Trade, and the Copenhagen Climate Agenda (UN takeover of all taxation, transportation, energy etc.)

7) Coordination of International Regulation (The UN takeover of the Federal Reserve System, the Securities and Exchange Commission, all issuing of currency, all government loans, collateral and the economy).



The list goes on and on . . .



Let the truth be known to all, until the American people realize that the United Nations is the oppressor, despotism will always be on our doorstep.

RevolutionRadio.org | Headlines - December 4, 2009



REP. MATT SHAE INTRODUCES 5 STEP PLAN TO FREEDOM
By Dr. Laurie Roth
December 4, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
The sleeping Giant has awakened. People are marching on Washington, T parties are growing and faxes are flying to congress. We ain’t at all happy. The push for a Government health care bill is non-constitutional, immoral and we can’t afford it, while the push toward global warming this or that is based on ‘lost’ data and false science from mad magazine. Yes, indeed the people have woken up and we are grumpy, with bad breath and desperate to find our coffee.
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It’s Over, Al Gore
Abandon your lucrative carbon-scheming, admit there was never a ‘consensus’ and give back the Nobel Peace Prize

Aaron Dykes

JonesReport.com
Al Gore has just cancelled a high-profile appearance at the upcoming Copenhagen climate change conference only days after ‘ClimateGate’ revelations cast doubt on the legitimacy of the scientific ‘consensus’ (“hiding the decline” is not scientific in any respect). Just days ago, CRU director Phil Jones stepped down from his position at East Anglia University.
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Climategate: Michael ‘Piltdown’ Mann throws Phil Jones out of the sleigh as panic grows
By Gerald Warner

TelegraphUK

December 4th, 2009
When a pending investigation provokes panic among suspected wrongdoers, the first thing to collapse is any sense of solidarity in their ranks. A week ago you could not have put a fag paper between Michael “Piltdown” Mann, of hockey stick notoriety, and Phil Jones, the then director of the Creative Research Unit at the “University” of East Anglia. In those confident days, the communal line was that some hackers had stolen university property, Plod would soon be on the case, so move on, please, nothing to see here.
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Taibbi: Obama’s sellout to Wall Street creates ‘permanent bailout’
By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer

RawStory.com

If passed as it is, the financial reform bill winding its way through Congress will create a “permanent bailout mechanism,” and will give complete control over future bailouts to the White House, says columnist Matt Taibbi.
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Predictions for 2010…Good News - Bad News
Roger Wiegand

SilverBearCafe.com
Will 2010 be a 1930 or, comparable to 1937? Is it different this time? When one nation state of a formerly high productive stature destroys itself with inflation, the untouched others can soften the blow and in time bail out the fallen one. This was Germany’s fate in the 1920’s. In our current instance, most all of the world’s economies are on their knees with some hurting worse than others. Who can help with recovery this time? There is no one. It will not be China as some suppose as China shall suffer the same systemic collapse as the U.S, and all of Europe, Russia, and South America. China’s neighbors Japan, Taiwan, Korea, India, Indonesia and others will join the fallen.
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Feds Think They Have Won This Fight Against the Depression
By Bill Bonner

TheDailyReckoning.com
December 4th, 2009
What’s new in the financial world? Well, the Dow sold off a little yesterday. Gold rose another $12. Otherwise, not much new. Same scams. Same frauds. Same claptrap and bunkum.
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Obama the Desperate
The desperate war cries of a besieged president

By Alexander Cockburn

TheFirstPostUK
Ritual triumphalism about America’s righteous mission in the closing sentences of his speech did not dispel the distinct impression during President Obama’s 33-minute address to cadets at West Point on Tuesday night that we were listening to a man defeated by the challenge of justifying the dispatch of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
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The Foxes Guard the Financial Henhouse
Whom is Congress putting in charge of the market for credit-default swaps?
By Daniel Hemel

Slate.com
Ever since his inauguration, President Obama has confronted charges that he has let proverbial “foxes” stand guard over the financial henhouse. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler is a former Goldman Sachs partner, and Treasury Chief of Staff Mark Patterson is a former Goldman lobbyist. In both cases, Obama actually tapped ex-foxes: Gensler left Goldman in 1997; Patterson severed ties to the firm in 2008.

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Dump US dollar, invest in commodities: Jim Rogers
By David Lew

CommodityOnline.com
The US dollar is increasingly getting battered by global investment pundits. Singapore-settled billionaire commodities investor Jim Rogers says it is high time small-time and big-time investors dumped the American currency. Instead, Rogers says, investors should shift their money from dollar to commodities.

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Plundering California
Steven Greenhut

City-Journal.com
The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized cutbacks around the margins. To make matters worse, government employees—thanks largely to the power of their unions—have carved out special protections that exempt them from many of the rules that other working Americans must live by. California has been on the cutting edge of this dangerous trend, which has essentially turned government employees into a special class of citizens.

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AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICA’S CHRISTIANS
By Chuck Baldwin
December 4, 2009

NewsWithViews.com

I was led to Christ at the tender age of 5 while sitting on my mother’s lap. I was raised in a devout, churchgoing Christian home. I have been in Gospel ministry all of my adult life (I am 57 years old). I have attended or have degrees and/or diplomas from 4 fundamentalist/evangelical colleges or Bible schools. I have been the Senior Pastor of a local Independent Baptist congregation for 34 years and counting. I have spoken in churches and Christian gatherings all over the country. I say all of that simply to provide my Christian credentials (in much the same way that the Apostle Paul provided his Jewish credentials in Philippians 3:5,6). As such, I believe I know something about the attitudes, conduct, philosophy, mindset, etc., of America’s Christians. I am not an outsider; I speak as one within the conservative/fundamentalist Christian camp.
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NASA.gov | Picture of the Day - December 4, 2009


Dry Valleys, Antarctica

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of valleys west of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, so named because of their extremely low humidity and lack of snow and ice cover. Photosynthetic bacteria have been found living in the relatively moist interior of rocks. Scientists consider the Dry Valleys to be the closest of any terrestrial environment to Mars.

With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of about 50 to 300 feet, ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1536.html

SteveQuayle.com | Hot Headlines - December 4, 2009


TODAY'S FEATURED STORIES:









Reverse Speech Link | Obama - "Yes We Can = Thank You Satan"


An assortment of clips from the acceptance speech in Chicago - November 4, 2008

Some suspect videos like this are faked, but those able and willing to prove whether or not these are genuine perceive that this is, in fact, a rather pure form of investigative journalism.

Thomas Edison didn't have a pc but was known to play recordings backwards. You have a pc that makes it easy to do reversals, so if you're skeptical whether some trickery has been employed I challenge you to test my claim. You owe it to yourself to find out who is lying and who is telling the truth. At least, read the comments posted by others who have done so. So many people are so accustomed to being lied to that most simply cannot tell the difference - and don't really care. Rise up to the challenge.

Does the truth matter to you? How do you suppose the people of post-WWII Germany felt as those who had been deceived by Hitler were awakened to the reality? They were betrayed by those they trusted. This is your wake up call.

The solution is not political. The problem is not political. Seek the Truth with all your heart.

http://theopenscroll.com/reverseSpeec...

Joyce Riley's THE POWER HOUR NEWS | Friday - December 4, 2009



Joyce Riley was a Flight Nurse & Cardiovascular Heart Transplant Nurse - her radio program is always good and very informative. Check out archives if you can't listen when she comes on a 7am:

 

Jesse Ventura and his team head north to a remote region of Alaska to confront the military installation called HAARP -- Watch Jesse Ventura's new show, Conspiracy Theory, divided into six parts:

Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 3  -  Part 4  -  Part 5   -  Part 6
Thanks Chris!




Chinese official slams banks over derivatives -- A senior Chinese official who oversees the country’s largest state-owned enterprises has publicly slammed western investment banks for “maliciously” peddling complicated derivative products that caused huge losses for Chinese companies over the last year. In Beijing’s strongest criticism on the matter to date, Li Wei, vice director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, singled out Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup in a long and highly critical article in the latest issue of an official Communist party newspaper.

Think Climategate is non-event? Think again -- President Obama's climate czar, Carol M. Browner, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs might think that Climate-gate is a nonevent, but on Monday Pennsylvania State University announced that it was launching an investigation into the academic conduct of Michael Mann, the school's Director of the Earth System Science Center. And Tuesday, Phil Jones, the director of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia, announced that he would stand aside as director while his university conducted an investigation.


Warning: Drug ads are harmful to your health -- Currently, some members of Congress, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California), are calling for stricter FDA regulations of DTCA because the ads can lead to inappropriate prescribing. They also portray what may be a non-medical problem (such as over-active bladder, the latest "malady" discovered by Big Pharma) as a treatable medical illness requiring side-effect-laden medication.


Media ignores Navy SEALS for Tiger woods diversion -- The Media can’t be bothered to tell the story of charges filed against three Navy SEALs who captured the supposed mastermind behind the slaughter of four Blackwater security guards in Fallujah five years ago. 


Pentagon: 1 in 3 female soldiers are raped or sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers -- Watch the following video where Russia Today interviews one woman about her personal experience of being raped while serving in Iraq.


Woman gets 'kennel cough' from her dog's vaccine -- Bordetella pneumonia in a person from dogs vaccine.
 
Peter Schiff: Gold to Soar to $5,000 -- Look for the price of gold to hit $5,000 very soon, Peter Schiff, president of EuroPacificCapital tells the financial news network CNBC.

Western Pa man cited for flying flag upside down -- A western Pennsylvania man has been cited under a little used law for flying his American flag upside-down. Related Article: Portersville man says flying flag upside down was a mistake

International officials knew 9-11 was brewing -- There is evidence that officials at high levels in Syria, Germany and even inside the Central Intelligence Agency had information about the 9/11 terror hijackers' hatred for Americans and their desire to attack the U.S. before the mass murders were carried out, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Beware Windows 7 -- Frustrated Windows 7 users are facing 'black screens of death' after logging on to their computers, Microsoft have confirmed.
* Now, How to fix it -- While Microsoft investigates, British PC security firm Prevx has issued an unofficial fix. Its 11-step walkthrough promises to solve the problem free of charge. (We should say that the Monitor has not tried this approach. None of our computers have faced the dreaded black screen. But Prevx is a reliable name.)

Danish cops prepare dog kennels for Copenhagen protestors -- “The old buildings in Valby, which is intended to house the arrested protesters during the climateconference, bears all the hallmarks of a dog kennel.” “346 people are to be held in the 37 cages in the old brewery storage facilities of world wide danish corporation Carlsberg.”

Deal in works to solve some FEMA trailer claims -- Lawyers for one of several trailer manufacturers accused of supplying the federal government with toxic hurricane shelters said Wednesday they were negotiating a settlement for thousands of claims.

Australian Senate rejects climate bill -- Australia’s Senate rejected the government’s climate-change bill, frustrating Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s ambition of taking landmark legislation to global warming talks with world leaders in Copenhagen.

Another 10 year old tasered by cop in Colorado -- For at least the second time in three weeks, police officers have shocked an unruly 10-year- old child, and, once again, the child's adult guardians are supporting the move. Be sure to read the comment section!

Critics attack new "Big Brother quiz" aimed at identifying young criminals -- Troubled children as young as five are to be tracked by authorities under "Big Brother" government plans to identify the criminals of the future.

While people are distracted by fake news Obama quietly expands drone war in Pakistan -- President Obama focused his speech on Afghanistan. He left much unsaid about Pakistan, where the main terrorists he is targeting are located, but where he can send no troops.

Anguish lingers in Bhopal 25 years after chemical disaster -- Bhopal residents are still angry with Union Carbide, owner of the chemical plant that 25 years ago today released a poisonous gas cloud that killed more than 15,000 people and injured hundreds of thousands in what's been termed the world's worst industrial accident.

BPA on cash register receipts? -- Janet Raloff, writing a blog item for ScienceNews, the magazine of the Society for Science and the Public, says that a Massachusetts researcher has found a new source of BPA: cash register receipts.

UK: photographer questioned by anti terrorism police for taking too many photos of Christmas lights -- An amateur photographer taking pictures of Christmas lights was questioned by police under anti-terror laws.

Florida Turnpike recording license plates of anyone who pays with $20 bill or larger -- Supposedly to find counterfeit bills.

Command posts of the future readied for Afghan surge -- The marines heading to Afghanistan as part of this latest surge will keep track of friendly troops, enemy attacks and civilian infrastructure using Command Posts of the Future. Literally.

Crazy news: Argentine leaders throw chairs at each other -- Politicians were seen on local television hurling plastic chairs and pushing and shouting at each other.

North Korea panic after currency revaluation -- Surprise decision to redenominate its currency has prompted panic and despair among merchants left with piles of worthless notes, even driving one couple to suicide, activists said today.

Medicare part D reforms will harm seniors -- An ObamaCare change will cost taxpayers a bundle and lead to poorer drug coverage.

Drugmaker's payments draw heat -- A $112 million settlement involving alleged drug kickbacks that the Justice Dept. announced with the nation's largest nursing home pharmacy and a generic drug manufacturer on Nov. 3 is part of a wide-ranging investigation of suspected Medicaid fraud by the pharmaceutical industry.

Foot reflexology massage relieves stress & back pain -- The first step in addressing back problems through reflexology is to find a qualified reflexologist who will use specific techniques to exert deep pressure on the foot area corresponding with the specific back problem. This may be painful and several sessions may be required before the condition improves. Sore points are often the most important ones to work on, since they represent places where energy is blocked. A gentle spa type massage is probably not going to help much, pleasant as it may be.

Yucca mountain nuclear disposal site is dead -- Former Sen. Pete Domenici, a longtime advocate of nuclear power, said yesterday that it is time to give up attempts to create a permanent disposal site for the nation's nuclear waste fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. He urged the Obama administration to move ahead with a planned blue-ribbon commission to find an alternative.

Recent world events indicate impending market chaos -- We are now on the edge of winter 2009, and recent events across the globe indicate more and more that our predictions for 2010 were correct. Take a look at some of those events and their implications...

MSG causes obesity-hides behind many fake names -- MSG hides behind 25 or more names, such as "Natural Flavoring". MSG is even in your favourite coffee from Tim Horton's and Starbucks coffee shops.

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government | 04 Dec 2009



Last updated: 12/04/2009 04:26:14 
 
Gates: 'No deadlines' on troop withdrawal --Afghanistan drawdown could take 2 to 3 years, defense secretary says 04 Dec 2009 The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, scheduled to begin in July 2011, will "probably" take two or three years, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday, although he added that "there are no deadlines in terms of when our troops will all be out." The Pentagon, meanwhile, quietly acknowledged slippage on the front end of the 30,000-troop deployment that President Obama authorized for the first half of 2010. [There is no deadline on when the troops will be out, but hopefully there *will* be one on when this Administration is out. And that will be November 2012. We need an actual progressive to run for president in 2012. --LRP]
 
Obama's speech on Afghanistan: A compendium of lies By Alex Lantier 03 Dec 2009 In his December 1 speech at West Point announcing the deployment of 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, President Barack Obama attempted to justify a major escalation of a deeply unpopular war on the basis of lies and distortions. That he had to resort to such falsifications reflects both the reactionary character of his policy and the fact that it is being imposed in violation of the popular will. To justify the escalation, Obama recycled the Bush administration’s myths about the "war on terror." He cynically presented the US as an altruistic power, forced into a global war for democracy by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As he sought to frame US imperialist policy within the template of the "war on terror," however, his speech descended into utter incoherence. ['His speech descended into utter incoherence.' It began there. Then, it descended into deeper strata of incoherence.]

Hillary Clinton expects Nato Afghanistan troop pledges 04 Dec 2009 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she is confident Nato countries will pledge extra troops to help efforts in Afghanistan. "The response has been positive," Mrs Clinton said as she headed to Brussels, where she is joining Nato talks. Nato officials said on Thursday that more than 20 countries plan to send more troops following a US decision to deploy an extra 30,000 in Afghanistan. But several European nations have been reluctant to commit more forces.

C.I.A. Is Expanding Drone Assaults Inside Pakistan [So is Blackwater.] 04 Dec 2009 The White House has authorized an expansion of the C.I.A.’s [killer] drone program in Pakistan’s tribal areas, officials said this week, to parallel the president’s decision, announced Tuesday, to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. American officials are talking with Pakistan about the possibility of striking in Baluchistan for the first time... The drone program has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress and was escalated by the Obama administration in January. More C.I.A. drone attacks have been conducted under President Obama than under President [sic] George W. Bush. The political consensus in support of the drone program, its antiseptic, high-tech appeal and its secrecy have obscured just how radical it is. For the first time in history, a civilian intelligence agency is using robots to carry out a military mission, selecting people for killing in a country where the United States is not officially at war.
 
Blackwater founder says he aided secret programs --CIA asset Erik Prince carried out secret missions as recently as two months ago 03 Dec 2009 The founder of Blackwater Worldwide acknowledged in an interview published Wednesday that he had helped the CIA with secret programs targeting top al-Qaeda leaders, a role he says was intended to give the agency "unattributable capability" in sensitive missions. Erik Prince, owner of the military contractor now known as Xe Services, told Vanity Fair magazine that he performed numerous "very risky missions" for the spy agency, some of which were improperly exposed in leaks to the news media. The magazine... said the former Navy SEAL had served a dual role for the CIA as both a contractor and an "asset," or spy, who carried out secret missions as recently as two months ago, when the Obama administration terminated his contract.

'It was designed to make punishment inevitable.' Military tribunals quietly resume at Guantanamo Bay 04 Dec 2009 Military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, which President Obama suspended amid much fanfare immediately after taking office, quietly resumed this week with new signs of the legal complexities of the cases and the challenges for prosecutors. The military court had to grapple with determining where a defendant, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi -- and by extension other detainees prisoners -- stand under the new military commissions law enacted in October to provide more due process for detainees. Under the old system, Qosi and other detainees were called "unlawful enemy combatants," but the new law refers to them as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents," a moniker that military prosecutors said is more in line with the Geneva Conventions. [During the Bush regime, detainees were called "unlawful enemy combatants." Under Obama, the law refers to them as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents." See? that's change we can believe in!]

Gitmo judge denies request to expand case 03 Dec 2009 A judge in Guantanamo Bay's war crimes court has denied a request by military prosecutors to expand their case against a Sudanese detainee prisoner accused of being a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors wanted more specifications to be added to charges of conspiracy and providing support for terrorism against Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, who was one of the first prisoners brought to Guantanamo in 2002.

Hoon 'banned armed forces from preparing for Iraq war' --Ministers wanted public kept in dark over likelihood of invasion, Lord Boyce says 04 Dec 2009 Geoff Hoon held back military preparations for the Iraq invasion when he was Defence Secretary, because he wanted to keep the plans secret from the public, his armed forces chief has revealed. Admiral Lord Boyce, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, said that he was blocked from ordering equipment and mobilising troops for several months in the run-up to the Iraq war. Instead, he was limited to top secret "high-level" planning within the Ministry of Defence, meaning he was left with "some very short timelines" in which to prepare troops for the invasion.

US 'did not believe Britain would refuse to send forces to Iraq' --Former defence chief tells Iraq inquiry that US generals believed Britain would commit troops even if there were no attempts to solve the crisis through the UN 03 Dec 2009 The US believed that Britain would take an active part in the Iraq war even if there were no attempts to solve the crisis through the UN, the inquiry into the conflict heard today. During the first evidence so far from senior military and defence ministry figures, Admiral Lord Boyce, the chief of the defence staff from 2001 to 2003, told the inquiry panel that US generals and America's then-defence secretary [war criminal], Donald Rumsfeld, seemingly refused to countenance the possibility that Britain would not commit troops.

Clare Short's post Iraq war staff 'told to do nothing' 03 Dec 2009 UK development experts were told to sit in their tents and "not do anything" in the aftermath of the Iraq war, former defence chief Lord Boyce has claimed. He told the Iraq inquiry soldiers did much of the reconstruction, with the international development department "particularly unco-operative". They were not sure the Iraqis "were poor enough to deserve aid", he said. International Development Secretary Clare Short quit in protest at the lack of UN involvement in Iraq.

Iraq violence kills eight, including senior anti-terror cop 03 Dec 2009 Attacks in Iraq on Thursday killed eight people, including a senior anti-terror officer who led a key fightback against 'Al-Qaeda' in his province, police said. Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed al-Fahel, the head of the Saleheddin province anti-terror squad, and at least three of his bodyguards were among five people killed by a suicide bomber in Tikrit.

U.S. falls short in bid to gain support for Israel's settlement freeze 12 Dec 2009 The United States fell short in its efforts to gain a declaration of international support for Israel's temporary settlement construction freeze. The Americans were hoping that its partners in the Quartet - Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - would agree to such a declaration, but Moscow expressed a series of reservations and foiled Washington's effort.

Homeland Security chief warns of threat from al-Qaeda sympathizers in U.S. 03 Dec 2009 Al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] followers are inside the United States and would like to attack targets here and in other countries, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday night. The secretary's comments... came one day after President Bush Obama, in announcing his decision to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, warned that extremists have been "sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit more acts of terror." "Home-based terrorism is here. And like violent extremism abroad, it will be part of the threat picture that we must now confront," Napolitano, addressing the American Israel Friendship League in New York, said. "Individuals sympathetic to al-Qaeda and its affiliates, as well as those inspired by the group's ideology, are present in the U.S., and would like to attack the homeland or plot overseas attacks."

U.S. likely to miss cargo deadline --Napolitano says officials will seek more time for screening systems 03 Dec 2009 The Department of Homeland Security is likely to miss a 2012 deadline to screen all cargo entering the United States by ship unless Congress devotes enormous new resources to the assignment, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told senators Wednesday. Concerns were raised after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that a nuclear device or other weapon of mass destruction could be smuggled into the country by sea. In response, Congress ordered that all cargo be screened before being placed on U.S.-bound ships.

Yahoo, Verizon: Our Spy Capabilities Would 'Shock', 'Confuse' Consumers By Kim Zetter 01 Dec 2009 Want to know how much phone companies and internet service providers charge to funnel your private communications or records to U.S. law enforcement and spy agencies? That’s the question muckraker and Indiana University graduate student Christopher Soghoian asked all agencies within the Department of Justice, under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed a few months ago. But before the agencies could provide the data, Verizon and Yahoo intervened and filed an objection on grounds that, among other things, they would be ridiculed and publicly shamed were their surveillance price sheets made public. Yahoo writes in its 12-page objection letter, that if its pricing information were disclosed to Soghoian, he would use it "to 'shame' Yahoo! and other companies -- and to 'shock' their customers."

Secret Service agents could be fired for White House breach --3 agents placed on administrative leave 03 Dec 2009 Secret Service chief Mark Sullivan told a Congressional committee Thursday morning that the agents who admitted Tareq and Michaele Salahi through a White House checkpoint at last week's state dinner have been placed on administrative leave and could lose their jobs. Sullivan's testimony came during a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee, at which he took full responsibility for the security failure. He said the agents face a range of disciplinary actions, including the possibility of being fired.

Nearly 800 in California hospitalized with H1N1 flu --It's the largest one-week total since flu cases began escalating this fall, state officials say. 04 Dec 2009 Nearly 800 people in California were hospitalized with the H1N1 flu last week, the largest one-week number of hospitalizations since flu cases began escalating this fall, state officials said Thursday. The number indicates that H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu, continues to be widespread throughout California and remains a significant threat to public health. Health experts have said there could be a second wave of cases in the coming months.

Third inmate dies of swine flu in Calif prisons 03 Dec 2009 Health officials say a central California inmate who died last week was the prison system's third death from swine flu. The first two inmates died in mid-November at prisons in central and Southern California. The third inmate died Nov. 27. The receiver in charge of prison medical care says tests show the H1N1 virus killed all three inmates.

Palin: Obama birth certificate 'a fair question' 03 Dec 2009 Speaking to the conservative talker Rusty Humphries today, Sarah Palin left the door open to speculation about President Obama's birth certificate. "Would you make the birth certificate an issue if you ran?" she was asked. "I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue. I don't have a problem with that. I don't know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers," she replied. "Do you think it's a fair question to be looking at?" Humphries persisted. "I think it's a fair question, just like I think past association and past voting records -- all of that is fair game," Palin said.

GOP Senator blocks TSA confirmation over union dispute 03 Dec 2009 The nation's 50,000 airport baggage screeners - upgraded to "federal transportation officers" under the Bush administration - could get another title under the Obama administration: Union members. But not without a fight. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-Nuts-South Carolina, is blocking the confirmation of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration, saying Southers would permit screeners to seek full union representation, a move DeMint says would weaken the effectiveness of the agency.

Watchdog Group Says Ties to Health Insurance Companies Make Sen. Joe Lieberman An 'Insurance Puppet' --Online advertising campaign in Connecticut and Washington, D.C. asks if health insurers are pulling the strings 02 Dec 2009 Public Campaign Action Fund, a national campaign finance watchdog group, named Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn. Israel) its second "Insurance Puppet" in an online advertising campaign targeting Connecticut and Washington, D.C. "Senator Lieberman has received $448,066 in campaign contributions from the health insurance industry during his time in Washington," said David Donnelly, Public Campaign Action Fund's national campaigns director. "With so much money from the industry filling his campaign coffers, it's not surprising that Lieberman has spent the last year parroting any and all insurance industry talking points he could find."

£850bn: official cost of the bank bailout (and still RBS is demanding another £1.5bn in bonuses) 04 Dec 2009 Government support for Britain's banks has reached a staggering £850bn and the eventual cost to taxpayers will not be known for years, the public spending watchdog says today. The National Audit Office (NAO) revealed that £107m will be paid to City advisers called in to work on the rescue because the Treasury was too "stretched" to cope with the sudden financial crisis which broke in the autumn of last year. [See: Britain faces return to Victorian levels of poverty 30 Nov 2009.]

Bernanke defends Fed's leadership before Senate 03 Dec 2009 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday defended his record at the helm of the U.S. central bank before a skeptical Senate that is considering stripping the institution of its regulatory powers. At a hearing on his nomination for a second term as Fed chief, Bernanke admitted to some lapses in oversight but said maintaining hands-on expertise on bank supervision was crucial to the Fed's role as a custodian of financial stability. [I was hoping for a treason trial.]

Obama tells business leaders they are key to job growth 03 Dec 2009 President Obama kicked off a much-anticipated jobs summit Thursday, telling 130 business leaders and others summoned to the White House for the afternoon-long session that private business, not government, holds the key to future job growth. "Ultimately, true economic recovery is only going to come from the private sector," Obama said. Obama is hosting the forum amid increasing calls from lawmakers of his own party to develop a plan to combat the nation's highest unemployment rate in 26 years.

House votes to keep current estate tax rate 04 Dec 2009 The House approved a measure Thursday that would make the current estate tax rate permanent, setting it at 45 percent for individual estates worth more than $3.5 million. The bill passed 225 to 200, with 26 Democrats joining all Republicans present in voting no. If Congress does not act, the estate tax will disappear in 2010, then return in 2011 under the higher rates -- 55 percent and a $1 million exemption -- that existed before President [sic] George W. Bush took office.

Judge ends Enron shareholder lawsuit against banks 03 Dec 2009 Exactly eight years after Enron Corp filed for bankruptcy protection, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by investors against banks they accused of helping the energy company commit fraud. U.S. Wednesday's dismissal by U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston federal court came after Enron investors had already obtained $7.2 billion of settlements, a record for U.S. class-action litigation according to Cornerstone Research.

Copenhagen targets not tough enough, says Al Gore 04 Dec 2009 Even if a deal is reached at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen next week it will only be the first step towards the far more radical cuts that are needed in global carbon emissions, Al Gore, the former US Vice-President, told The Times last night. Mr Gore said that to avoid the worst ravages of climate change world leaders would have to come together again to set more drastic reductions than those now planned.

Copenhagen climate change talks must fail, says top scientist --World's leading climate change expert says summit talks so flawed that deal would be a disaster 02 Dec 2009 The scientist who convinced the world to take notice of the looming danger of global warming says it would be better for the planet and for future generations if next week's Copenhagen climate change summit ended in collapse. In an interview with the Guardian, James Hansen, the world's pre-eminent climate scientist, said any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch. "I would rather it not happen if people accept that as being the right track because it's a disaster track," said Hansen, who heads the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

President Obama's Secret: Only 100 al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan --With New Surge, One Thousand U.S. Soldiers and $300 Million for Every One al Qaeda Fighter 02 Dec 2009 As he justified sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year, President Barack Obama's description Tuesday of the al Qaeda "cancer" in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials have concluded there are only about 100 al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] fighters in the entire country. A senior U.S. intelligence official told ABCNews.com the approximate estimate of 100 al Qaeda members left in Afghanistan reflects the conclusion of American intelligence agencies and the Defense Department. The relatively small number was part of the intelligence passed on to the White House as President Obama conducted his deliberations. [The *real* cancer is Blackwater and KBR.]
Taliban vow to resist US surge in Afghanistan 02 Dec 2009 The Taliban vows to boost attacks against the US forces in Afghanistan, following Barack Obama's pledge to deploy thousands more troops to the war-torn country. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahamdi said in a statement on Wednesday that such moves would "provoke stronger resistance." "Obama will witness lots of coffins heading to America from Afghanistan," AFP quoted Ahamdi as saying. The statement also emphasized that the Americans would face the same fate as the Soviet troops when they retreated in defeat in the 1980s. "This is a colonizing strategy which is securing the colonizing interests of American investors, and it shows that America has dirty plans not only for Afghanistan but for the region," the statement read. [You know you're in trouble when... you realize that the Taliban makes much more sense than the US Government. --LRP]
Out-Bushing Bush: US to increase troops in Afghanistan by 40% 02 Dec 2009 The US president has decided to raise the number of American troops in Afghanistan by some 40 percent, a move that would see Washington deploy another 30,000 soldiers. In a live televised speech at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York on Tuesday, Barack Obama said the troops would be deployed in the first part of 2010. "As commander in chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan," he told the cadets.