DrudgeReport.com linked the Obama 'Aloha Bobblehead' picture with linked caption "FUN IN THE SUN!" to the following news article:
Obamas enjoy private, secure Hawaii vaction
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-12-27-obama-vacation_N.htm
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Obama 'Aloha Bobblehead' Doll - Fun in the Sun
Obama 'Aloha Bobblehead' Doll
DrudgeReport.com linked the Obama 'Aloha Bobblehead' picture with linked caption "FUN IN THE SUN!" to the following news article:
Obamas enjoy private, secure Hawaii vaction
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-12-27-obama-vacation_N.htm
DrudgeReport.com linked the Obama 'Aloha Bobblehead' picture with linked caption "FUN IN THE SUN!" to the following news article:
Obamas enjoy private, secure Hawaii vaction
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-12-27-obama-vacation_N.htm
TruthOut.org | Tsunami Recovery Hit by Corruption, Apathy
Saturday 26 December 2009by: Marwaan Macan-Markar | Inter Press Service
Bangkok - Questions that have dogged the tsunami recovery effort through 2006 coalesced in a crop of media stories and critical reports as affected countries remembered in prayer and reflection the over 220,000 people killed in that December 2004 natural disaster.
The Dec. 24 headline in the lead story of a Thai English Language daily, "The Nation," could not have expressed this concern more bluntly. "Where did our tsunami cash go?" it asked, referring to a letter written by seven Western countries to Bangkok's authorities, alleging that money sent to help this South-east Asian nation's victims "had been stolen".
See also: Tsunami Brings Sea Change in Coastal Lives
That tone was echoed Wednesday in the editorial of a Sri Lankan English language daily, "The Island." It accused "corrupt elements in the garb of public servants" having profited from the unprecedented death toll across the South Asian island following the walls of sea water that smashed the coastline on the morning of Dec. 26, 2004.
"The government's failure to bring those who have robbed the tsunami funds to book has led to a severe erosion of confidence of the public as well as the international donors who answered Sri Lanka's desperate call for help," the paper argued. "The distribution of tsunami relief is seriously flawed."
In India, the government was taken to task on the week before the tsunami memorials by the international development agency ActionAID for failing to build houses promised for the victims. "Across tsunami affected areas of India, just 28 percent of the total 98,447 required houses have been built. In the Andaman and Nicobar Island, where 9,174 homes are needed, reconstruction so far is less than one percent," the British-based agency revealed.
The tsunami, which was triggered by a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 on the Richter, off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, flattened the coastlines of 11 Indian Ocean countries. Indonesia's northern province of Aech was among the worst hit, with 165,000 deaths, followed by Sri Lanka where over 35,000 died, then southern India, where 12,405 died, Thailand, where 8,212 died and the Maldives, which recorded 82 deaths. READ MORE ....
The Dec. 24 headline in the lead story of a Thai English Language daily, "The Nation," could not have expressed this concern more bluntly. "Where did our tsunami cash go?" it asked, referring to a letter written by seven Western countries to Bangkok's authorities, alleging that money sent to help this South-east Asian nation's victims "had been stolen".
See also: Tsunami Brings Sea Change in Coastal Lives
That tone was echoed Wednesday in the editorial of a Sri Lankan English language daily, "The Island." It accused "corrupt elements in the garb of public servants" having profited from the unprecedented death toll across the South Asian island following the walls of sea water that smashed the coastline on the morning of Dec. 26, 2004.
"The government's failure to bring those who have robbed the tsunami funds to book has led to a severe erosion of confidence of the public as well as the international donors who answered Sri Lanka's desperate call for help," the paper argued. "The distribution of tsunami relief is seriously flawed."
In India, the government was taken to task on the week before the tsunami memorials by the international development agency ActionAID for failing to build houses promised for the victims. "Across tsunami affected areas of India, just 28 percent of the total 98,447 required houses have been built. In the Andaman and Nicobar Island, where 9,174 homes are needed, reconstruction so far is less than one percent," the British-based agency revealed.
The tsunami, which was triggered by a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 on the Richter, off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, flattened the coastlines of 11 Indian Ocean countries. Indonesia's northern province of Aech was among the worst hit, with 165,000 deaths, followed by Sri Lanka where over 35,000 died, then southern India, where 12,405 died, Thailand, where 8,212 died and the Maldives, which recorded 82 deaths. READ MORE ....
http://www.truthout.org/1227093
Renters Union Calls for Tent City in San Diego
by Rocky Neptun ( rockyneptun [at] gmail.com )
dignity_village.jpg
Can Life Be Lived in Dignity by Every San Diegan?
BY Rocky Neptun
November 12, 2009. East Village, San Diego……………Bill Foster rolls his tattered sleeping bag up carefully, not to disturb the layers of newspaper underneath, avoiding the dirt soiled sidewalk and looks at me with a smile. He knows I’ll be good for breakfast and plenty of coffee.
Almost clean-shaven, ruddy-faced without many wrinkles to show his 54 years, Foster often panhandles enough change for only one meal a day. He tells me he’s just no good at it, even after all these years. He sleeps in the downtown because “there is safety in numbers;” having been attacked by territorial transients along the San Diego River bank and by neighborhood youth when he moved to a creek near Bancroft Street in Spring Valley.
“I have enough left over to cover two coffees at the roach coach over at the construction site, want to join me?” he asked. To his relief, I suggested a nearby restaurant. But first, we hiked the nearly two miles to the only public restroom on the streets of downtown at 3rd Avenue and C Street, where he could change clothes and shave. Its stainless steel walls and stalls were clean, overseen by an attendant who told me that it took years for activists in support of the homeless to get the city to agree to this facility. “But, the no-fly zones, no bums allowed areas, continue to be pushed out, block by block as new condo projects go up, away from the toilet, so more and more folks just go where they are at, especially in the mornings when they can’t make it here. “
Over bacon and eggs, Foster tells me of his former home world in northern Ohio. Most of his life was centered roundabouts the neighborhood store one block over from his parent’s house. From childhood’s fetching cigarettes at twenty-five cents a pack for his parents to penny candy, he became an employee in junior high school making deliveries. Through high school he worked and dated the owner’s daughter, finally marrying her after he became a full-fledged clerk. Inheriting the title to the store, he and his wife worked 15 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep it afloat while the neighboring factories closed up and moved their jobs to Mexico. Carrying food debt for his neighbors split him from his terrified wife. After the 1980 divorce, he moved to San Diego with just under $1,000 in his pocket.
Knowing retail, he went to work on the 11 p.m. shift at a corporate convenience store in Chula Vista; where he worked for several decades, never promoted because he was told he was “too slow,” but did manage to secure health insurance from a manager because she was afraid to work the graveyard shift. Yet, in spite of his years of service, he was terminated 6 years ago, when a new district manager decided to fire everyone with health insurance and altered the books to show Foster had stolen money. Without a previous “reference” for his work in Ohio and the “thief” jacket which effectively barred him from retail anywhere, he has been unable to find a job and lives on the streets.
“Why don’t you go to a shelter at night?” I ask him rhetorically. He smiles, knowing I know why, but eyeing my notebook open, with pen ready, and the tape-player nearby, he senses my need to record his courage. “Shelters are fine institutions, but not everyone belongs in an institution,” he chortles. “I tried going a few times but it is such a demeaning process; some staff treat you as public vermin, criminals and sickos, while, others order you about like little children or mental retards.” READ MORE ...
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/26/18633631.php
"I see these guys shuffling along in these prisons of poverty where their manhood, their independence, their very identity is stripped away by the desperation of accepting charity....stop criminalizing poverty and create a legal place of refuse for every homeless person....How can we call the homeless our sisters and brothers if we treat them like stray dogs or abandoned cats, forcing them into human kennels, stripping them of their dignity, telling them they are unworthy of a place of their own?”
dignity_village.jpg
Can Life Be Lived in Dignity by Every San Diegan?
BY Rocky Neptun
November 12, 2009. East Village, San Diego……………Bill Foster rolls his tattered sleeping bag up carefully, not to disturb the layers of newspaper underneath, avoiding the dirt soiled sidewalk and looks at me with a smile. He knows I’ll be good for breakfast and plenty of coffee.
Almost clean-shaven, ruddy-faced without many wrinkles to show his 54 years, Foster often panhandles enough change for only one meal a day. He tells me he’s just no good at it, even after all these years. He sleeps in the downtown because “there is safety in numbers;” having been attacked by territorial transients along the San Diego River bank and by neighborhood youth when he moved to a creek near Bancroft Street in Spring Valley.
“I have enough left over to cover two coffees at the roach coach over at the construction site, want to join me?” he asked. To his relief, I suggested a nearby restaurant. But first, we hiked the nearly two miles to the only public restroom on the streets of downtown at 3rd Avenue and C Street, where he could change clothes and shave. Its stainless steel walls and stalls were clean, overseen by an attendant who told me that it took years for activists in support of the homeless to get the city to agree to this facility. “But, the no-fly zones, no bums allowed areas, continue to be pushed out, block by block as new condo projects go up, away from the toilet, so more and more folks just go where they are at, especially in the mornings when they can’t make it here. “
Over bacon and eggs, Foster tells me of his former home world in northern Ohio. Most of his life was centered roundabouts the neighborhood store one block over from his parent’s house. From childhood’s fetching cigarettes at twenty-five cents a pack for his parents to penny candy, he became an employee in junior high school making deliveries. Through high school he worked and dated the owner’s daughter, finally marrying her after he became a full-fledged clerk. Inheriting the title to the store, he and his wife worked 15 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep it afloat while the neighboring factories closed up and moved their jobs to Mexico. Carrying food debt for his neighbors split him from his terrified wife. After the 1980 divorce, he moved to San Diego with just under $1,000 in his pocket.
Knowing retail, he went to work on the 11 p.m. shift at a corporate convenience store in Chula Vista; where he worked for several decades, never promoted because he was told he was “too slow,” but did manage to secure health insurance from a manager because she was afraid to work the graveyard shift. Yet, in spite of his years of service, he was terminated 6 years ago, when a new district manager decided to fire everyone with health insurance and altered the books to show Foster had stolen money. Without a previous “reference” for his work in Ohio and the “thief” jacket which effectively barred him from retail anywhere, he has been unable to find a job and lives on the streets.
“Why don’t you go to a shelter at night?” I ask him rhetorically. He smiles, knowing I know why, but eyeing my notebook open, with pen ready, and the tape-player nearby, he senses my need to record his courage. “Shelters are fine institutions, but not everyone belongs in an institution,” he chortles. “I tried going a few times but it is such a demeaning process; some staff treat you as public vermin, criminals and sickos, while, others order you about like little children or mental retards.” READ MORE ...
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/26/18633631.php
Lincoln, Nebraska Journal Star | Native tribes buy back thousands of acres of land
This Jan. 30, 2009 photo shows statues depicting the various clans within the Winnebago tribe, overlooking a housing development north of Winnebago, Neb., which was built on land purchased by the tribe. Native American tribes tired of waiting for the U.S. government to honor centuries-old treaties are buying back land where their ancestors lived and putting it in federal trust. (AP)
OMAHA - Native tribes tired of waiting for the U.S. government to honor centuries-old treaties are buying back land where their ancestors lived and putting it in federal trust.
Natives say the purchases will help protect their culture and way of life by preserving burial grounds and areas where sacred rituals are held. They also provide land for farming, timber and other efforts to make the tribes self-sustaining.
Tribes put more than 840,000 acres -- or roughly the equivalent of the state of Rhode Island -- into trust from 1998 to 2007, according to information The Associated Press obtained from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Freedom of Information Act.
Those buying back land include the Winnebago, who have put more than 700 acres in eastern Nebraska in federal trust in the past five years, and the Pawnee, who have 1,600 acres of trust land in Oklahoma. Land held in federal trust is exempt from local and state laws and taxes, but subject to most federal laws.
Three tribes have bought land around Bear Butte in South Dakota's Black Hills to keep it from developers eager to cater to the bikers who roar into Sturgis every year for a raucous road rally. About 17 tribes from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and Oklahoma still use the mountain for religious ceremonies.
Emily White Hat, a member of South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux, said the struggle to protect the land is about "preservation of our culture, our way of life and our traditions."
"All of it is connected," White Hat said. "With your land, you have that relationship to the culture."
Other members of the Rosebud Sioux, such as president Rodney Bordeaux, believe the tribes shouldn't have to buy the land back because it was illegally taken. But they also recognize that without such purchases, the land won't be protected.
No one knows how much land the federal government promised Native tribes in treaties dating to the late 1700s, said Gary Garrison, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. The government changed the terms of the treaties over the centuries to make property available to settlers and give rights-of-way to railroads and telegraph companies.
President Barack Obama's administration has proposed spending $2 billion to buy back and consolidate tribal land broken up in previous generations. The program would pay individual members for land interests divided among their relatives and return the land to tribal control. But it would not buy land from people outside the tribes.
Today, 562 federally recognized tribes have more than 55 million acres held in trust, according to the bureau. Several states and local governments are fighting efforts to add to that number, saying the federal government doesn't have the authority to take land -- and tax revenue -- from states.
In New York, for example, the state and two counties filed a federal lawsuit in 2008 to block the U.S. Department of Interior from putting about 13,000 acres into trust for the Oneida Tribe. In September, a judge threw out their claims.
Putting land in trust creates a burden for local governments because they must still provide services such as sewer and water even though they can't collect taxes on the property, said Elaine Willman, a member of the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance and administrator for Hobart, a suburb of Green Bay, Wis. Hobart relies mostly on property taxes to pay for police, water and other services, but the village of about 5,900 lost about a third of its land to a trust set up for the state's Oneida Tribe, Willman said.
So far, Hobart has been able to control spending and avoid cuts in services or raising taxes, Willman said. Village leaders hope taxes on a planned 603-acre commercial development will eventually help make up for the lost money.
The nonprofit White Earth Land Recovery Project has bought back or been gifted hundreds of acres in northwestern Minnesota since it was created in the late 1980s. The White Earth tribe uses the land to harvest rice, farm and produce maple syrup. Members have hope of one day being self-sustaining again.
Winona LaDuke, who started the White Earth project, said buying property is expensive, but it's the quickest and easiest way for tribes to regain control of their land.
Tribal membership has been growing thanks to higher birth rates, longer life spans and more relaxed qualifications for membership, and that has created a greater need for land for housing, community services and economic development.
"If the tribes were to pursue return of the land in the courts it would be years before any action could result in more tribal land ... and the people simply cannot wait," said Cris Stainbrook, of the Little Canada, Minn.-based Indian Land Tenure Foundation.
Thirty to 40 tribes are making enough money from casinos to buy back land, but they also have to put money into social programs, education and health care for their members, said Robert J. Miller, a professor at the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., who specializes in tribal issues.
"Tribes just have so many things on their plate," he said.
Some tribes, such as the Pawnee, have benefited from gifts of land. Gaylord and Judy Mickelsen donated a storefront in Dannebrog, Neb., that had been in Judy Mickelsen's family for a century. The couple was retiring to Mesquite, Nev., in 2007, and Judy Mickelsen wanted to see the building preserved even though the town had seen better days.
The tribe has since set up a shop selling members' artwork in the building on Main Street.
"We were hoping the Pawnee could get a toehold here and get a new venture for the village of Dannebrog," Gaylord Mickelsen said.
BlackListedNews.com | Breaking Headlines - Evening December 27, 2009
| Venezuela and China gave a new boost to their thriving economic ties Tuesday, signing a package of agreements that advances China strategy of locking in access to the South American country’s vast oil reserves. | |
| In the past few days, the wars over the world’s natural resources have been rekindled from the Amazon to the Niger Delta. | |
| A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences demonstrates the toxicity of three genetically modified corn varieties from the American seed company Monsanto, the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen, based in Caen), which participated in that study, announced Friday, December 11. | |
| rior to the financial collapse, Goldman and others figured out a way to package risky securities, such as subprime mortgages, and sell them to investors who were told they were buying sound investments. | |
| Health Canada is proposing an unorthodox way of combatting a food ingredient suspected in some cancers: | |
CaveNews YouTube Channel | Magnetosphere Animation Update - December 27, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpQNgrFYyO0
About Real-Time Magnetosphere Simulationhttp://www2.nict.go.jp/y/y223/simulation/realtime/index.html
DECEMBER 27, 2009 AT 7:00 PM CDT
Eerie outpost unnerves US Marines with strange lights and whispers in the night
Sunday, December 27, 2009 5:11:03 PM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6969122.ece
The Marines found the bone as they scraped a shallow trench. Long, dry and unmistakably once part of a human leg, it was followed by others. They reburied most of them but also found bodies. Three of the graves were close together; in another was a skeleton still wearing a pair of glasses. The Marines covered the grave and told their successors to stay away from it. Observation Point Rock sits a few hundred metres south east of Patrol Base Hassan Abad, where a company from 2/8 Marines has been stationed for the past seven months. It is a lonely...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6969122.ece
Eerie outpost unnerves US Marines with strange lights and whispers in the night
Sunday, December 27, 2009 5:11:03 PM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6969122.ece
The Marines found the bone as they scraped a shallow trench. Long, dry and unmistakably once part of a human leg, it was followed by others. They reburied most of them but also found bodies. Three of the graves were close together; in another was a skeleton still wearing a pair of glasses. The Marines covered the grave and told their successors to stay away from it. Observation Point Rock sits a few hundred metres south east of Patrol Base Hassan Abad, where a company from 2/8 Marines has been stationed for the past seven months. It is a lonely...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6969122.ece
Democrats pose threat to President Obama’s cap-and-trade climate Bill
December 28, 2009 - Less than ten days after claiming a breakthrough on climate change in Copenhagen President Obama is facing a mutiny from senior Democrats who are imploring him to postpone or even abandon his cap-and-trade Bill.
Democratic Senators, fearful of a drubbing in the mid-term elections next year, are lining up to argue for alternatives to the scheme that is the centrepiece of the carbon reduction proposals that Mr Obama hopes to sign into law. With the Congressional battles over Mr Obama’s healthcare reforms fresh in their memory senior Democrats are asking the Administration to postpone the next big climate change push until at least 2011.
Senators from Louisiana, Indiana, Nebraska and North Dakota, some with powerful energy companies among their constituents, are falling out of love with the idea of a large-scale cap-and-trade scheme — which seeks to allocate tradeable permits to major polluters — in favour of less ambitious proposals that put jobs and the economy first. READ MORE ....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6969108.ece
NewsWithViews.com | Defund Taxpayer Supported Science Fraud - It's time we cut off the looting of our pocketbooks
By Larry Pratt
December 26, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
Trofim Lysenko was Stalin’s favorite scientist because he liked his meshing of evolution and Marxism. Comrade Lysenko “proved” that there is no such thing as a gene. A lot of money was dumped into the “research” of this crackpot, and woe to those who declared that the emperor had no clothes.
Lysenko’s gene-free view of science led to claims that wheat plants could produce rye. Any disagreement was labeled as “political sabotage” -- similar to the contemporary global warming “elite” who libel and banish those who do not worship at their altar.
It turns out that Lysenko’s spiritual children are the global warming alarmists in today’s scientific establishment. The recent dumping of their emails on the internet exposed the fact that their “research” was as invalid as Lysenko’s. As an aside, it seems that the emails were posted from a server in Tomsk, a Russian secret police city. If the Ruskies did the deed, the best guess is that this major oil producer was alarmed by the West’s efforts to commit economic suicide by forcing a cutback in petroleum consumption.
The emails were parked on computers at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England. But the scandal is not just a British booboo. America’s leading climate Casandras were also part of the scam.
Perhaps you have heard of the now-infamous “hockey stick” graph that supposedly proved the Industrial Revolution, which massively improved the lives of millions of people, was the cause of global warming? The “hockey stick” was a fraudulent representation of data which showed a straight line of constant temperatures with a sharp uptick at the end. That uptick is allegedly the time that industrialization supposedly started generating global warming. Well, it turns out the “hockey stick” graph was as valid as a three-dollar bill.
Those of us active in defending the right to keep and bear arms don’t find it surprising that when politicians fund research, you get political science, not real science. Dr. Arthur Kellerman is the Trofim Lysenko of research on guns and public health. He grabbed some of our money that was funneled by the drunken spenders in Congress through the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. READ MORE ....
http://www.newswithviews.com/Pratt/larry108.htm
NewsWithViews.com | OAS (Organization for American States): OAS: The Hemispheric Government shaping our future
OAS: The Hemispheric Government shaping our future
Former MALDEF Director New US Ambassador to OAS
CJ Graham
Former MALDEF Director New US Ambassador to OAS
CJ Graham
December 26, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
The United States has a new Permanent Ambassador to the OAS. Why should this be important to you? Why did this go almost unremarked by most in the media? Should we be concerned that this new Ambassador once had a leadership role within MALDEF and may have an agenda that would not best serve all American citizens, especially with the highly contentious immigration and amnesty issues facing our nation?
Ambassador Carmen Lomellin U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS)
(Excerpts)
[Carmen Lomellin was confirmed by the United States Senate as Permanent U.S. Representative to the Organization of American States, with the rank of Ambassador, on November 20, 2009.
During the Clinton Administration, Ambassador Lomellin held the positions of White House Liaison for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and Director of that agency’s Office of International Affairs.
Ambassador Lomellin has experience in local government (Chicago, Illinois). She worked for Mayor Richard M. Daley as Director of the Private Industry Council of Chicago and also implemented and managed one of the nation’s most successful graffiti abatement programs.
Ambassador Lomellin has worked for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund where she was the Director of Leadership Development, and for Chicago United, a civic think tank, as Director of Economic Development.] READ MORE ....
NewsWithViews.com - Former INS Agent Michael Cutler, Ret. | Greenspan Calls For Lower Wages For America's Skilled Workers
December 27, 2009
As you watch that video I also want you to consider the testimony of Alan Greenspan who, when he testified before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee at the behest of the Chairman of that subcommittee, Senator Charles Schumer, Greenspan called for opening up the H-1B visa program to lower the wages of America's skilled workers! Hard to believe, but true! Here is a direct quote from his testimony at that hearing that was conducted on April 30, 2009 and entitled, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009, Can We Do It and How?"........
http://www.newswithviews.com/Cutler/michael176.htmby Former INS Agent Michael Cutler, Ret.
InfoWars.com | Iran’s presence in South America has undermined the US: Ahmadinejad
Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA)
CoastToCoastAM.com | Linda Moulton Howe with George Noory discuss Gerald Celente past and future forecasts December 23, 2009
Investigative reporter Linda Moulton Howe discussed on Coast to Coast AM her recent interview with trends analyst Gerald Celente, he shared his insights as to what he sees coming in the new year.
This included 'The Crash of 2010' which he said will occur when the stimulus money of '09 dries up, new terrorist attacks, and a 'Shape Up America' trend in which people strive to make it through difficult times by being physically, emotionally, and spiritually fit. See the full interview. December 23-09
This included 'The Crash of 2010' which he said will occur when the stimulus money of '09 dries up, new terrorist attacks, and a 'Shape Up America' trend in which people strive to make it through difficult times by being physically, emotionally, and spiritually fit. See the full interview. December 23-09
http://www.geraldcelente.tk/
Magnitude 2.0 quake hit Victory Gardens, New Jersey - Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 5:53:13 PM (CST)
MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION
y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km
map 2.0 2009/12/26 17:53:13 40.878N 74.550W 6.0 1 km ( 0 mi) WNW of Victory Gardens, NJ
| Magnitude | 2.0 - duration magnitude (Md) |
|---|---|
| Time | Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 5:53:13 PM (CST) Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 23:53:13 (UTC) |
| Distance from | Victory Gardens, NJ - 1 km (0 miles) WNW (298 degrees) Dover, NJ - 1 km (1 miles) ESE (118 degrees) Wharton, NJ - 3 km (2 miles) ESE (122 degrees) Union, NJ - 31 km (19 miles) NW (310 degrees) |
| Coordinates | 40 deg. 52.7 min. N (40.878N), 74 deg. 33.0 min. W ( 74.550W) |
| Depth | 6 km (3.7 miles) |
| Quality | Good |
| Location Quality Parameters | Nst= 9, Nph= 18, Dmin=23.3 km, Rmss=0.06 sec, Erho=0.1 km, Erzz=0.3 km, Gp=100.8 degrees |
| Event ID# | ld1025467 |
| Additional Information | map |
RELATED:
http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/Maps/75-41.html
MAG DATE LOCAL-TIME LAT LON DEPTH LOCATION
y/m/d h:m:s deg deg km
2.0 2009/12/26 17:53:13 40.878N 74.550W 6.0 1 km ( 0 mi) WNW of Victory Gardens, NJ
2.3 2009/12/19 23:36:12 40.580N 75.191W 3.0 2 km ( 1 mi) S of Riegelsville, PA
BlackListedNews.com | Breaking Headlines - Sunday morning December 27, 2009
 | |
| Police are trying to determine whether five Americans detained in Pakistan had planned to attack a complex that houses nuclear-power facilities, authorities said yesterday. | |
| ShadowStats.com founder John Williams explains the risk of hyperinflation. Worst-case scenario? Rioting in the streets and devolution to a bartering system | |
| Eric Sprott's most recent report has generated serious ripples within financial circles due to his unique interpretation of some rather nebulous data in the latest December Treasury Bulletin. | |
| The core is too deep for scientists to directly detect its magnetic field. But researchers can infer the field's movements by tracking how Earth's magnetic field has been changing at the surface and in space. | |
| The explosion of what witnesses describe as a firecracker on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas arrives at an opportune time for the Obama administration TERROR SUSPECT WAS ON WATCH LIST New Restrictions, Tighter Security After Bombing Attempt... Officials: Only Failed Detonator Saved Flight... Screening Machines May Need To Be Replaced... Suspect Is Son Of Prominent Nigerian Banker | |
| In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed new restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability of international passengers to move about an airplane. | |
Australia exits America's orbit after crisis
December 28, 2009Whether you look back over the past year or forward to the coming decade, you reach the same conclusion: it's the developing countries of Asia and elsewhere that now do most to drive the world economy and most to influence our economy's growth.
Our biggest forecasting mistake this year was assuming that if the mighty United States economy was stuffed, we would be too. Wrong.
It was an easy mistake to make because for a long time such an assumption worked well. But the clearest lesson from the world recession - which, globally, did turn out to be the worst recession since the Great Depression - is that the US no longer makes Australia's world go round.
Had so many economists not had an almost mystical view of the power of the world's largest economy to influence our future, we might not have been so sure we were in for a terrible time this year.
This is a particular vice of people in the financial markets because developments in US financial markets undoubtedly do dominate developments in the global financial market, which makes it easy to assume the same must hold for the real economy.
But even on the financial side we got the wrong end of the stick this year. I think Dr Philip Lowe of the Reserve Bank was the first to observe that the ''global financial crisis'' is a misnomer. ''It hasn't been a crisis in all financial systems around the globe,'' he said in November.
Rather it's been a crisis in the financial systems of many of the advanced countries of the North Atlantic - the US and Europe. There's been no crisis in the financial systems of Asia (or Australia).
And while virtually all countries were adversely affected by the sudden fall in business and consumer confidence after the failure of Lehman Brothers, the plunge in international trade and the rise in borrowing costs, it's pretty much only the North Atlantic economies that have had severe recessions.
Japan has been very weak, but its problems are mainly of domestic origin. In Europe, the former communist countries have been hard hit. The Economist's Intelligence Unit has produced growth forecasts for almost 200 countries in 2010 and ranked them from fastest to slowest.
Of the 12 countries expected to continue contracting, nearly half are in Eastern Europe. Of the world's 20 slowest-growing countries, 15 are in Europe overall.
By contrast, of the 20 fastest-growing countries, five are from East Asia: China (8.7 per cent), India (6.5 per cent), Sri Lanka (6.4 per cent), Vietnam (6 per cent) and Bangladesh (5.6 per cent).
After it became clear that China's exports had been hit by the crisis, many people ridiculed the earlier theory that China had ''decoupled'' from the developed world. But though no country can be completely decoupled in a globalised economy, this year has seen the decoupling theory vindicated.
The sceptics imagined that China's growth depended on its exports to the North Atlantic. The believers were confident an economy of the size (and potential size) of China could and would switch to domestic demand-oriented growth when the need arose. It did.
People who overestimate the global influence of America and the other North Atlantic economies tend to underestimate the size and dynamism of the developing countries in general, and Asia in particular.
They don't adequately appreciate that there's a lot more to Asia than China, or even China and India. South Korea is a big economy, for one. They don't realise that a lot of world trade is trade within Asia - and only some of that trade ultimately depends on exports to the North Atlantic.
To disabuse you of the notion that the US makes the world go round, consider these figures from the International Monetary Fund. In 2008, the US economy grew by 0.4 per cent, whereas the world economy grew by 3 per cent. This year, the US is expected to contract by 2.7 per cent, whereas the world will contract by just 1.1 per cent.
Next year the US is forecast to grow by 1.5 per cent, whereas the world should grow by 3.1 per cent. And get this: if you weight the various countries according to their share of our exports, our trading partners are forecast to grow by 3.7 per cent.
That's how far we are from the American orbit. The four most important destinations for our merchandise exports this year have been China, Japan, South Korea and India. The fifth largest was the US.
Just six years ago, the US ranked second, but was first overtaken by China, then Korea and then, just recently, India. The four large Asian trading partners now account for about 55 per cent of our total exports of goods. Add the rest of Asia and you get to about 70 per cent.
It's not just that we've become more oriented towards Asia. It's also that the developing countries in general, and Asia in particular, now account for a much bigger share of the global economy and especially the growth in the global economy.
Lowe is correct in concluding that our medium-term economic prospects are more closely linked with those of Asia than ever before.
Fluctuations in Asia's business cycle are also likely to have a bigger effect on the dynamics of our cycle.
Scott Haslem, chief economist at UBS, has challenged my statement last Monday that ''this time last year, virtually all economists were as sure as sure could be that … Australia was in for a severe recession''.
I stand corrected. This time last year most business economists were expecting a mild downturn. Their move to a more pessimistic view came later as the official forecasts were revised down.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/australia-exits-americas-orbit-after-crisis-20091227-lg7x.html
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Israel summons envoys from all over the world
This is the first time a conference for all of Israel's heads of missions has been held.
December 26, 2009 - Israel's ambassadors and consuls generals from all over the world have been summoned to attend a conference to be held over global challenges facing Israel.
The meeting to be attended in Jerusalem Al-Quds on December 27-31 is hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the ministry reported on its website.
"The idea is to facilitate direct dialogue with the country's leaders, mutual updates on major diplomatic issues, and a discussion of action plans to deal with the challenges awaiting Israel in the international arena in the coming year, including the Iranian threat," it said.
This is while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a report by the UN Human Rights Council's Gaza commission a real threat to Israel.
The UN Special Rappoteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories has also urged western powers to push Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately. Richard Falk also called for economic sanctions against Israel.
Benyamin Netanyahu will also attend the conference along with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy Dan Meridor, and other senior officials.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114663§ionid=351020202
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government | 26 Dec 2009
Restrictions Rise After Terrorism Attempt 27 Dec 2009 Transportation authorities began imposing tighter security measures at airports on Saturday and ordered new restrictions governing the activities of passengers during flights as investigators conducted searches to learn more about the Nigerian engineering student accused of igniting an incendiary device aboard a Northwest Airlines jet as it landed in Detroit on Friday... According to a statement posted Saturday morning on Air Canada’s Web site, the Transportation Security Administration will severely limit the behavior of both passengers and crew during flights in United States airspace -- restricting movement in the final hour of flight. "Among other things," the statement in Air Canada’s Web site read, "during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps."
Brown reassures as bomb hunt turns to London 26 Dec 2009 The prime minister sought to reassure the public today after it was revealed a student based in the UK is suspected of trying to bomb a passenger jet. Gordon Brown spoke as the Metropolitan Police searched the home of Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, who studied engineering at University College London. The Nigerian has been named by US authorities as the man responsible for trying to blow up a plane carrying 278 passengers as it landed in Detroit on Christmas Day. Brown said the incident had posed a "serious potential threat" and the government was prepared to take "whatever action necessary" to safeguard the public from further attacks.
Terror attack on US flight to Detroit investigated in London 26 Dec 2009 Searches are being carried out at a mansion flat in central London after a man with suspected links to al-Qaida [al-CIAduh] allegedly tried to blow up a transatlantic plane, Scotland Yard said today... Security has been stepped up at UK airports for passengers flying to the US, the Department for Transport said. Gordon Brown said the UK would take "whatever action was necessary" to protect passengers. UK airport operator BAA said searches on flights to the US would increase. A statement on the British Airways website said Washington had revised its security arrangements for all travellers to the US and they would only be allowed one piece of hand luggage.
Police search London addresses after plane attack 26 Dec 2009 Police have been searching premises in London today after a Nigerian man tried to ignite an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain had been working closely with US authorities and investigating the incident since it had happened. "Because of the serious potential threat posed by the incident, I have spoken to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, whose offices have been carrying out searches of properties in London," Brown said in a statement.
Investigators: Northwest Bomb Plot Planned by al-Qaeda in Yemen --Officials Say Bomb Materials Sewn Into Suspect's Underwear by Top Terror Bomb Maker 26 Dec 2009 The plot to blow up an American passenger jet over Detroit was organized and launched by al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] leaders in Yemen who apparently sewed bomb materials into the suspect's underwear before sending him on his mission, federal authorities tell ABC News. Investigators say the suspect had more than 80 grams of PETN, a compound related to nitro-glycerin used by the military. The so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, had only about 50 grams kin his failed attempt in 2001 to blow up a U.S.-bound jet.
Man held over US plane bomb bid 26 Dec 2009 A Nigerian man believed to be linked to al Qaeda militants was in custody today after he tried to ignite an explosive device on a US passenger plane as it approached Detroit. The suspect, who suffered extensive burns, was overpowered by passengers and crew on the Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam. The passengers, two of whom suffered minor injuries
Officials say explosion on US plane was terror attack 26 Dec 2009 US authorities believe an incident involving a small explosion aboard a Delta-Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit on Friday was an attempted act of terrorism, a White House official said. The Transportation Security Administration said the person responsible for the incident was taken into custody and the plane, which departed from Amsterdam, had landed safely in Detroit. "We believe this was an attempted act of terrorism," a White House official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Airports Tighten Security After Failed Bomb Plot 25 Dec 2009 The Transportation Security Administration is enhancing security at airports around the country after a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said someone tried, but failed, to blow up a Delta/Northwest Airlines Flight 253 passenger plane. U.S officials say the passenger, Abdul Mudallad, a Nigerian citizen, claims he was acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda when he tried to blow up a flight Friday as it landed in Detroit from Amsterdam.
Police lose battle over evidence of 'British 9/11' plot --Scotland Yard must reveal whether it had CIA intelligence 26 Dec 2009 Scotland Yard has been ordered to reveal whether it has any evidence to support America’s claim that Britain was saved from a 9/11-style disaster by the CIA’s secret foreign interrogation centres. The Times has won a case under the Freedom of Information Act forcing British police to say whether the US stopped a plot to fly planes into Canary Wharf and Heathrow. The claim was made by President [sic] Bush when he first acknowledged the existence of a clandestine CIA prison network created to fight his War on of Terror. Scotland Yard has been given 35 days to comply or appeal. If it admits that there is no such intelligence, it would undermine any political defence for America’s strong-arm tactics in fighting terrorism.
Software fraudster 'fooled CIA' into terror alert --Spooks 'f*cking livid' 24 Dec 2009 A con man fooled US spooks into grounding international flights by selling them "technology" to decode al-Qaeda messages hidden in TV broadcasts, it's claimed. A long and highly entertaining Playboy article explains that in 2003, Dennis Montgomery was chief technology officer at Reno, Nevada-based eTreppid Technologies. Montgomery reportedly convinced the CIA that he had software that could detect and decrypt "barcodes" in broadcasts by Al Jazeera, the Qatari news station.
Friend of Fort Hood gunman 'killed in attack on Yemen hideout' 26 Dec 2009 An American-born radical Islamist, believed to have links to the Fort Hood gunman accused of killing 13 colleagues last month, may have been among 30 militant leaders killed when Yemeni aircraft bombed suspected al-Qaeda hideouts. Anwar al-Awlaki, who reportedly corresponded by e-mail with Major Nidal Malik Hasan before the shooting at the Texan base, was thought to have been attending an al-Qaeda meeting in Rafadh when the airstrikes took place on Thursday. At least 34 [alleged] members of the terror organisation were killed, according to the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. A similar number were killed in a raid last week.
Obusha opens new war front; lamestream media focuses on bogus terror incidents to provide popular support for 'war on terror:' U.S.-aided attack in Yemen thought to have killed Aulaqi, 2 al-Qaeda leaders 25 Dec 2009 Yemeni forces, backed by the United States, launched a major attack Thursday on a meeting of senior al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] operatives thought to include the Yemeni American cleric linked to the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings [?!?], U.S. and Yemeni officials said. U.S. officials believe that the cleric, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was probably killed in the assault, as were two al-Qaeda leaders, according to a senior Obama administration official. One of those leaders was the head of the terrorist network's operations on the Arabian Peninsula and once served as Osama bin Laden's personal secretary; the other was a Saudi national and former detainee at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yemeni officials, tribal leaders and eyewitnesses said it was not clear whether Aulaqi and the al-Qaeda leaders were killed or wounded in the strike [so they can be re-killed another day].
In Pakistan, militants blow up three more schools 25 Dec 2009 'Pakistani militants' have reduced three state-run schools to ruins across the country's volatile northwest, where the government has launched a major counterinsurgency operation. The bomb attacks targeted two schools in the Khyber tribal district near the border with Afghanistan, a Press TV correspondent reported. "Militants blew up a government boys' high school and a middle school with explosives around 3.00 am (2100 GMT)," tribal administration official Rehan Gul Khattak said. [Blowing up schools? That's (exclusively) a Blackwater-US drone-CIA black ops thing.]
Afghanistan another Vietnam, says captive US soldier 25 Dec 2009 An American trooper in Taliban captivity says that the United States has lost its grip on the Afghan war, urging the American people to help stop the 'nonsense.' "I'm afraid to tell you that this war has slipped from our fingers and it's just going to be our next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," said US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl in a video released by the militants on Friday, the AFP news agency reported... Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that the soldier "is not being tortured or tormented" by the militants [unlike how the US treats its captives].
Saudi would have nuked Houthis: Yemeni MP 25 Dec 2009 Yemeni lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi says Saudi Arabian warplanes are engaged in the relentless bombardment of civilian positions in Yemen's war-torn north. In an interview with Press TV on Friday, the Yemeni lawmaker accused the Saudi army of using internationally banned weapons in its attacks on villages in the northern province of Sa'ada, regretting the high civilian toll from the raids. If Riyadh had nuclear weapons, it would have used them against the Houthi fighters, the lawmaker charged.
In fresh Iraq violence, 18 people killed 25 Dec 2009 More than a dozen people have died as a fresh wave of violence hits Iraq despite tightened security measures for Christmas and the Shia occasion of Ashura. Six people were killed and 26 others wounded in a bomb explosion in Baghdad's eastern district of Sadr City on Friday when a roadside bomb struck a procession to mark the anniversary of the third Shia Imam's martyrdom...
Two dozen killed in blasts across Iraq 24 Dec 2009 Over two dozen people have been killed and more than 150 others have been wounded in a string of bomb attacks across Iraq ahead of Christmas and Ashura. In the worst Thursday attack in the central Iraqi town of Hilla in Babil Province, twin car bombs killed 15 people, including the provincial councilor, Naama al-Bakri, a senior member of the ruling Dawaa Party, and injured 70 others.
Probe confirms CIA black jails in Lithuania 26 Dec 2009 After the unexpected resignation of Lithuania's intelligence chief, a controversial parliamentary probe confirms the existence of CIA-run black jails in the Baltic state. The parliamentary panel report caused considerable consternation after confirming that the CIA ran at least two black prisons in Lithuania where 'terror suspects' may have been held.
Iran: US nukes biggest threat to global security 24 Dec 2009 Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili says the US should be relieved of its veto power and disarmed over the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. "The least penalty for the United States is its disarmament and disqualifying its veto power," said Jalili during his visit to Hiroshima. "Unfortunately not only was not the US condemned for Hiroshima massacre but it was also awarded with veto power in the (UN) Security Council," he said.
Israeli soldiers shoot dead six Palestinians 26 Dec 2009 Israeli soldiers have shot dead six Palestinians and left a fourth one wounded in separate incidents in the West Bank and the north of the Gaza Strip. According to a Palestinian medical source, three Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza as they were on their way to cross over a wall to work in Israel on Saturday.
Barak cracks down on army 'mutineers' 24 Dec 2009 Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier, is targeting army-linked seminaries that produce many of the country's combat troops because the young soldiers are refusing to move against Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Barak's action has incensed Israel's right wing, which supports the settlers and has vowed to oppose the 10-month freeze on settlement building announced by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, under pressure from Washington, in late November.
Their lukewarm pandemic was the dry-run. School vaccinations could expand as byproduct of swine flu pandemic 25 Dec 2009 Top public health officials see this year's swine flu vaccination efforts as an opportunity to consider large-scale immunization campaigns at the nation's schools. Local and state health departments were charged with administering the estimated 259 million doses the federal government bought to 'fight' the H1N1 influenza virus. A total of 34 states incorporated public and private schools into their campaigns. [See: Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu, though admitted sending live pandemic flu viruses to subcontractor 26 Apr 2009 and Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004.]
Cook County sheriff set to hire hundreds 24 Dec 2009 (IL) The Cook County Sheriff's Department says it is set to make hundreds of hires in coming months. Sheriff Tom Dart said Wednesday that his department is prepared to hire more than 500 correctional officers next year. The first class of recruits is to come in January. The sheriff's office says the jobs are available because of a federal mandate that more officers be added at the Cook County Jail.
Cellphone Searches (The New York Times) 26 Dec 2009 The Ohio Supreme Court has struck an important blow for privacy rights, ruling that the police need a warrant to search a cellphone. The court rightly recognized that cellphones today are a lot more than just telephones, that they hold a wealth of personal information and that the privacy interest in them is considerable. This was the first such ruling from a state supreme court. It is a model for other courts to follow.
U.S. promises unlimited financial assistance to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac 25 Dec 2009 The Obama administration pledged Thursday to provide unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress. The Christmas Eve announcement by the Treasury Department means that it can continue to run the companies, which were seized last year, as arms of the government for the rest of President Obama's current term. But even as the administration was making this open-ended financial commitment, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that they had received approval from their federal regulator to pay $42 million in Wall Street-style compensation packages to 12 top executives for 2009.
Previous lead stories: 'Good' Taliban destroy Afghan Army base 20 Dec 2009 Forces under the command of a leader considered to be one of the "good Taliban" by the Pakistani military destroyed an Afghan Army camp. Taliban forces commanded by Mullah Nazir blew up an the Afghan Army base, which was just across the border from the Angoor Adda region in Pakistan. The region is under the control of Nazir, a Pakistani Taliban commander. "Sources said the Taliban planted explosives all over the base and blew it up, destroying bunkers and installations," Dawn reported. The based was destroyed after "a contingent stationed there moved out of the fortified compound." The Taliban and "a group of tribesmen" then looted the base. [See: Rep.: US may be 'funding the very insurgents we are trying to fight' --Congress investigating charges of 'protection racket' by Afghanistan contractors 17 Dec 2009.]
US anti-drug effort in Afghanistan criticized 23 Dec 2009 The State Department's internal watchdog on Wednesday criticized the agency's nearly $2 billion anti-drug effort in Afghanistan for poor oversight and lack of a long-term strategy. The department's inspector general said the Afghanistan counter-narcotics program is hampered by too few personnel and rampant corruption among Afghan officials. [The US mission in Afghanistan is to keep the gas and opium pipelines flowing. See: Trail of Afghanistan's drug money exposed By Julien Mercille 16 Dec 2009 The total revenue generated by opiates within Afghanistan is about $3.4 billion per year. Of this figure, according to UNODC, the Taliban get only 4% of the sum... The remaining 75% is captured by government officials, the police, local and regional power brokers and traffickers - in short, many of the groups now supported (or tolerated) by the United States and NATO are important actors in the drug trade.]
Jack Straw faces Iraq inquiry grilling over Tony Blair letter --Claims that PM was told UK should not assist in overthrow of Saddam 23 Dec 2009 The former foreign secretary Jack Straw is to face potentially explosive questioning at the Iraq inquiry next month over a private letter he sent to Tony Blair on the eve of the invasion, urging the prime minister to look at options apart from pressing ahead with British military involvement in the attack. It is understood that the inquiry is to receive a copy of the personal letter sent by Straw, written after discussions with Sir Michael (now Lord) Jay, the Foreign Office permanent secretary, on 16 March 2003, two days before the Commons voted to back the war.
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