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America's Food System Nearly Broke |
As our government enacts a stimulus package and President Barack Obama announces bold initiatives to stem home mortgage foreclosures, disaster threatens family farmers and their communities. Many U.S. farmers are going out of business because they receive prices equal to about one half their cost to produce our food. How long could any enterprise receiving half the amount of its input costs stay in business? full story |
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Why Biofuels Are the Rainforest's Worst Enemy |
In 2005, a group of village men went hunting in the forest several hours from Pareh and stumbled on a clearing in which the trees had recently been felled. That was how they discovered that Perseroan Terbatas Ledo Lestari, or ptll, a subsidiary of an Indonesian company named Duta Palma Nusantara, was seizing their ancestral land to establish a massive plantation of oil palms, a tree whose oil is rendered and refined into biodiesel. full story |
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Australia's Unique Birds Slipping Away |
A five-year report card on the state of Australia's birds by Birds Australia shows many of the continent's unique native species are in decline due to habitat loss, drought and introduced predators. Dr. Graeme Hamilton, Birds Australia chief executive, said, "Although the report deals with birds, the findings have much broader implications for nature and society. Birds are indicators of national quality of life. full story |
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Government Prepares the Public
for Cradle to Grave Surveillance |
"Not only has the sheer number of tickets issued and money reaped increased, but the type of photo enforcement and surveillance the government uses has also vastly increased," notes the National Motorists Association. "There are red light cameras, speeding cameras, railroad crossing cameras, and most recently face identification cameras. Tampa Bay, Florida is now scanning the faces of pedestrians on the street to compare them to their database of criminals." full story |
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Illegals Targeted Sheriff as Gang Initiation |
Deputy Sheriff Ted Xanthakis and his K-9 police dog, Arcos, were attacked by the three illegals armed with a 12-gauge shotgun during a Feb. 8 incident in West Columbia, S.C., shortly after 3 a.m. The deputy and his dog survived. Two of the men were identified in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement report as members of the Surenos gang, or SUR-13, a collection of Mexican-American street gangs. full story |
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Resolutions to Affirm U.S. Constitution Cause Uproar |
Two resolutions to affirm the U.S. Constitution failed to get traction in the House this week, but they sure kicked up a lot of mud. HJ24 sought to urge Congress to "adopt a constitutional, sustainable, and sound monetary system and cease further credit creation and borrowing." HJ26 aimed to affirm states' rights and condemn "encroachment of those rights by the federal government and executive orders." full story |
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CIA Adds Economy to Threat Updates |
The daily White House intelligence report that catalogs the top security threats to the nation has a grim new addition: a daily update on the global financial crisis and its cascading effects on the stability of countries through the world. The addition of economic news to the daily roundup of terrorist attacks and surveillance reports appears to reflect a growing belief among intelligence officials that the economic meltdown is now preeminent among security threats facing the U.S. full story |
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Obama's War Machine Needs $800 Billion for 2009 |
Barack Obama's election promise to bring "change" to Washington and reverse the juggernaut of the Bush war machine has proven to be nothing more than a cruel hoax, emphasized by his recent actions on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and his latest demand for a total of around $800 billion in war funds and subsidiary costs just to cover the rest of 2009. full story |
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Obama Administration Defends Telecom Immunity in New Brief |
The Obama Justice Department continues to stand behind a Bush era law meant to prevent lawsuits against telecommunications companies accused of illegally sharing private customer information with intelligence agencies. The law was specifically designed to protect companies who participated in government wiretapping programs from legal claims and is one that President Obama supported as a senator when it was approved by Congress last year. full story |
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U.S. Army to Buy $6 Million of Riot Equipment |
The U.S. Army is to invest $6 million in riot equipment, a fact that has furthered fears that troops will be used inside the U.S. in order to quell any civil unrest resulting from the ongoing economic crisis. Urban warfare training drills are taking place across the country as top analysts as well as officials predict a potential "summer of rage" across Europe and America as civil unrest from the economic fallout builds. full story |
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Ex-security Chief: Fight against Terror
Must Mean End of People's Privacy |
Personal data of innocent citizens must be made available to the Government to combat terrorism, according to an influential former security chief. Sir David Omand, Whitehall's former and security and intelligence coordinator, called for unprecedented Big Brother powers to allow access to private details - including phone records, emails and travel information - to be given to the intelligence services. full story |
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Texans Unknowingly Donate Children's Blood to Research |
For almost seven years, the state has been indefinitely storing blood from nearly all newborns in Texas without their parents' consent for possible use in medical research. Starting in 2002, the state health department began collecting and keeping blood indefinitely for current or future medical research, a practice that has been the subject of a legal challenge in Minnesota. full story |
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Bill Seeks to Withhold Highway Funds to
States Who Don't Comply with Real ID |
Currently, 21 states oppose the Real ID federal mandate that would require states to spend billions collectively, in order to fulfill all the requirements. The vehement opposition by the states has forced the government plan to be pushed back to 2010. Now that many states are in the midst of a revenue downturn, a new Real ID amendment, H.R. 140, has been introduced.. full story |
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Lawmaker Warns of "Forced Servitude" under Obama |
New Hampshire state representative Dan Itse, who is one of many lawmakers leading the charge to assert state sovereignty against federal encroachment, has warned that the Obama administration seeks to institute "involuntary servitude". "This is about drawing a line in the sand and saying we've tolerated usurpations for so long but we're not going to tolerate you violating the constitution, we're going to hold you accountable." full story |
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Big Brother Spy Planes That Track the
Taliban May Soon Hover over Your Home |
Pilotless planes used to track the Taliban could soon be hovering over our streets, it has emerged. Remote-controlled drones are already used widely by the military. Now ministers believe they are likely to become 'increasingly useful' for police work. Armed with heat-seeking cameras, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles would hover hundreds of feet in the air, gathering intelligence and watching suspects. full story |
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Iraqi Police Shoot Dead Four US Soldiers |
Iraqi policemen shot dead four US soldiers and their local interpreter in the main northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, an interior ministry official said. The incident took place during a US army visit to the Mosul headquarters of the Iraqi police in charge of protecting the city's bridges, police said. The bullet-riddled body of the interpreter was taken to the local mortuary. full story |
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Judge Questions Law Giving Telecoms Immunity |
A federal judge in San Francisco is raising questions about the constitutionality of a law designed to dismiss suits against telecommunications companies accused of cooperating with government wiretapping. Walker is presiding over lawsuits in which telecommunications companies' customers have accused the firms of illegally sharing their telephone and e-mail records with federal agents. full story |
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Britain Faces Summer of Rage - Police |
Police are preparing for a "summer of rage" as victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions, the Guardian has learned. Britain's most senior police officer with responsibility for public order raised the spectre of a return of the riots of the 1980s, with people who have lost their jobs, homes or savings becoming "footsoldiers" in a wave of potentially violent mass protests. full story |
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Obama Denies Terror Suspects Right to Trial |
Less than a month after signing an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, President Obama has quietly agreed to keep denying the right to trial to hundreds more terror suspects held at a makeshift camp in Afghanistan. Now, human rights groups say they are becoming increasingly concerned that the use of extra-judicial methods in Afghanistan could be extended rather than curtailed under the new US administration. full story |
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Keyes: Stop Obama Or U.S. Will Cease to Exist |
The German Philosopher Johann Von Goethe, once said, there are none more hopelessly enslaved, than those who falsely believe they are free. Every person in the civilized world is enslaved from childhood in a prison without walls or bars few realize. The legal definition of free is not subject to the legal constraint of another. A free man is self governing. A slave follows rules and regulations. full story |
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Firestorm Brewing between U.S.
States and Federal Government |
States May Be Getting Ready To Dissolve Our Federal Government. Could this be an ominous shadow drawing on the end of the United States of America? For years the Federal Government has presumed to be the all-powerful force governing our country, but it just could be that the Federal Government only exists at the pleasure of the state governments and the citizens thereof. full story |
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Texas Reps Introduce Resolution Asserting
Sovereignty under 10th Amendment |
"A number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas hereby claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States" full story |
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Sovereignty Resolution Introduced in
Minnesota House of Representatives |
The Minnesota State Legislature web page provides the following short description of the resolution: "Federal government memorialized to halt its practice of imposing mandates upon the states for purposes not enumerated by the Constitution of the United States and affirming Minnesota's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." full story |
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From One Assault on The Constitution to Another |
The Bush brownshirt regime revealed itself as lawless, the worst criminal organization in American history. Now we have the Democrats, and the assault on civil liberty continues. President Obama doesn't want to hold Bush accountable for his crimes and violations of the Constitution, because Obama wants to retain the powers that Bush asserted. Even the practice of kidnapping people and transporting them to foreign countries to be tortured has been retained by President Obama. full story |
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Emerging Global Elite to Use New Global
Media to Educate 'Global Citizens' |
Elite members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, recently considered a proposal for a new global television network to usher in a state of "global governance." The concept strikes some as authoritarian, even totalitarian. But the parent company of Fox News was one of the sponsors of this year's gathering. full story |
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Criminalizing Dissent? RNC Protesters
Face Felony Terrorism Charges |
Amy Goodman talked to Luce Guillen-Givins who is one of the first people ever to be charged under the '02 Minnesota version of the federal PATRIOT Act. Guillen-Givins and 7 other members of the group RNC Welcoming Committee, also known as the "RNC 8", were formally charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism. However, criminal complaints filed reportedly do not allege that members of the RNC 8 personally engaged in any act of violence. full story |
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Brzezinski's Fear: Class Warfare and
Destruction of the New World Order |
Brzezinski: "there's going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots." In other words, Brzezinski is afraid that if some filthy lucre is not dispensed among the unwashed, they will rise up and burn down the banks, sack the corporations, and destroy the globalist edifice so painfully erected over the last fifty or so years.. full story |
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Obama -- President of Special Interests |
The Bush/Obama bailout/stimulus plans are not going to work. Both are schemes hatched by a clique of financial insiders. The schemes will redistribute income and wealth from American taxpayers to the shyster banksters, who have destroyed American jobs, ruined the retirement plans of tens of millions of Americans, and worsened the situation of millions of people worldwide who naively trusted American financial institutions. full story |
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Fed Downgrades Economic Forecast for This Year |
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday sharply downgraded its projections for the country's economic performance this year, predicting the economy will actually shrink and unemployment will rise higher. Under the new projections, the unemployment rate will rise to between 8.5 and 8.8 percent this year. The old forecasts, issued in mid-November, predicted the jobless rate would rise to between 7.1 and 7.6 percent. full story |
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CBO: Obama's Stimulus Will Cause
'Lower Wages' for American Workers |
The huge economic stimulus package that President Obama signed into law Tuesday will result in "lower wages" for American workers, according to the CBO. "Number one, the spending spends out very slowly, so it doesn't give you much of a pop," Ryan told CNS. "Number two, it costs much more than advertised. Number three, at the end of the day, it would have been better to do nothing for the economy given that it [the stimulus package] will reduce GDP growth and wages." full story |
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Democrats Plot "Fairness Doctrine" for Internet Talk Radio |
For Democrats, imposing draconian censorship on broadcast talk radio is only the beginning, now they are sharpening their long knives in order to impose speech restrictions on the internet. According to the Democrats and language contained in the recently passed "stimulus" bill, the internet -- and internet radio -- are part of the national infrastructure and should be controlled by the government. full story |
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Body Scanners Replace Metal Detectors
in Tryout at Tulsa Airport |
For the first time, some airline passengers will skip metal detectors and instead be screened by body scanning machines that look through clothing for hidden weapons, the TSA said Tuesday. The machines raise privacy concerns because their images reveal outlines of private body parts. "We're getting closer and closer to a required strip-search to board an airplane," said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union. full story |
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Obama's War on Terror Resembles Bush's |
In little-noticed confirmation testimony recently, Obama nominees endorsed continuing the C.I.A.'s program of transferring prisoners to other countries without legal rights, and indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects without trials even if they were arrested far from a war zone. The admin. has also embraced the Bush legal team's arguments that a lawsuit by former C.I.A. detainees should be shut down based on the "state secrets" doctrine. full story |
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Dumped in Africa: Britain's Toxic Waste |
Hundreds of thousands of discarded items, which under British law must be dismantled or recycled by specialist contractors, are being packaged into cargo containers and shipped to countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where they are stripped of their raw metals by young men and children working on poisoned waste dumps. full story |
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Is It a Crime to Take Pictures? |
From today, anyone taking a photo of a police officer could be deemed to have committed a criminal offence. That is because of a new law, Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act, which has come into force. It permits the arrest of anyone found "eliciting, publishing or communicating information" relating to members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers, which is "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". full story |
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Increasingly, Obama's Justice Dept.
Standing by 'George Bush Secrecy' |
"In only one case has the Justice Department agreed to suspend a FOIA lawsuit until the disputed documents can be re-evaluated under the yet-to-be-written guidelines," the wire service reported. "That case involves negotiations on an anti-counterfeiting treaty, not the more controversial, secret anti-terrorism tactics that spawned the other lawsuits as well as Obama's promises of greater openness." full story |
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Outrage Brewing over Proposed 1,900% Beer Tax Hike |
Five Oregon state lawmakers want to impose a hefty tax on beer and have introduced a bill that brewers say would cripple them.
Brewers say Oregon's low beverage taxation rate is what makes the state such an attractive place for crafting beers. The state's brewery guild claims it would also amount to the single largest beer tax hike in the nation's history. full story |
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$1,000,000 Insurance Policies for Gun Owners? |
Illinois, the land of Obama and the Blagojevich mafia, is serious about making the 2nd Amendment so expensive only the rich will be able to exercise it. Dunkin's amendment states "that any person who owns a firearm in this State shall maintain a policy of liability insurance in the amount of at least $1,000,000 specifically covering any damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving the use of such firearm while it is owned by such person." full story |
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Dear Federal Government, Drop Dead |
We hate you. We want you to drop dead. Or, anyway, to go away and never come back. You are not welcome anymore. We have tolerated you - and we emphasize "tolerated" - for a long time, long after whatever romance there may have been was gone. We can pretend no more. You are disgraceful, boorish, nauseating, corrupt, shameful, arrogant, dishonest, self-serving, parasitic, disgusting, hypocritical, and rotten to the core. full story |
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Dems Use "Stimulus" as Cover for More Gun Control |
The liberals are at it again. In a new bill introduced the first day of the present session of Congress, and with zero coverage from the MSM, H.R. 45 (Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009) targets all gun owners in the U.S.A. While the media the world and everyone else is focused on the "phony plan" to spend tax dollars legislation is sneaking through the House and Senate for more gun control. full story |
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G7 Sets Sights on New World Order |
The world's richest nations have called for urgent reform of global finance to save the world from the economic devastation that is dragging more and more countries into recession. Italy's finance minister called for a "new world economic order" as he wrapped up the crisis meeting of finance leaders from the Group of Seven leading economies over which he presided here. full story |
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Obama's "Stimulus" Plan Is about Debt Owed
to Bankers, Not Government Socialism |
European socialism is the model: more precisely, the globalist European Union. It is not the sort of socialism one reads about in political science books. It has nothing to do with the egalitarian distribution of wealth. It has to do with the inegalitarian distribution of wealth upward, to the bankers and transnational corporations. It is more akin to National Socialism, that is to say fascism. full story |
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Forced to Beg: New Scandal of Thalidomide |
Slumped on the pavement, they plead for coins from strangers, their drastically stunted arms too short even to hold out their hands to passers-by. One, Juan Carlos Vélez, styles himself as a "living statue", hoping to use his own immobility to garner people's spare change, while the other, known only as Carlos, openly begs on the street. Living in poverty is a constant threat for those who were victims of the antenatal drug thalidomide in Spain. full story |
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9/11 Cover-Up Connection: Black Boxes
Found 15 Hours After Buffalo Crash |
In 2004, New York firefighters Mike Bellone and Nicholas DeMasi went public to say they had found the black boxes at the World Trade Center, but were told to keep their mouths shut by FBI agents. Nicholas DeMasi said that he escorted federal agents on an all-terrain vehicle in October 2001 and helped them locate the devices, a story backed up by rescue volunteer Mike Bellone. full story |
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eBay Asked to Stop Auctions of Guided Trophy Hunts |
Canadian and U.S. wildlife advocates are asking that the eBay auction website stop the sale of guided trophy hunts for bears, wolves, cougars and other top predators. The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Big Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance say eBay auction sales of guided trophy hunts put the survival of these species at greater risk. full story |
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FEMA & DHS Preparing for Mass Graves
and Martial Law near Chicago |
In late December 2008 municipal officials were invited to Indianapolis for a briefing on the state of Indiana. There were told if industry were to collapse, for example GM going bankrupt resulting in mass unemployment, a depression would soon follow and municipalities could expect to loose 40% of their funds. FEMA inquired to where mass graves could be placed in the county and would they accept bodies from elsewhere. full story |
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Nearly 1 Billion Starving in World |
The increasing price of food has spiked the number of hunger-stricken people in the world by 40 million to reach 923 million in 2008. "With a very large population and relatively slow progress in hunger reduction, nearly two-thirds (583 million) of the hungry live in Asia," the report adds. Nearly 65% of these hunger stricken individuals live in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Congo. full story |
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Infertility Is Linked to Chemicals Found in Cookware, Clothing |
Pregnant women in the U.S. are at greater risk than previously thought for infertility and reproductive problems from exposure to chemicals found in many consumer products including food wrappers, cookware and clothing. According to scientists women with high levels of PFOA and PFOS in their blood had a harder time conceiving and were twice as likely to be diagnosed with infertility as women with lower levels of the chemicals in their systems. full story |
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If Violence Escalates in Mexico, Texas Officials Plan to Be Ready |
As drug cartels continue to terrorize Mexico, Texas officials are planning for the worst-case scenario: how to respond if the violence spills over the border, and what to do if thousands of Mexicans seek refuge in the United States. A multi-agency contingency plan is being developed, and it will focus primarily on law enforcement issues, including how to handle an influx of Mexicans fleeing violence. full story |
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Militarizing Police Depts. with Your Bailout Money |
The US Conference of Mayors has assembled the most ridiculous and repulsive example of govt. excess I think I have ever seen. Here is a PDF file of the document which stretches to 344 pages. One of the most alarming features of this civic gluttony is the gift list request for funds to buy military SWAT assault equipment for police forces like the examples offered here by Texas blogger and Reason.com contributor, Trey Garrison.. full story |
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Terror Law Overkill? Police Stop 180,000
People under Draconian Laws |
Police have used anti-terrorism powers to stop and search almost 180,000 suspects, it emerged yesterday. Yet only 255 of the individuals they targeted were subsequently detained for terrorist- related offences. The figures suggest that police may be misusing powers granted to them under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 supposedly for use only in extreme circumstances. full story |
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Out of Work and Challenged on Benefits, Too |
More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers. The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute. full story |
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The Porn Bailout |
Nobody could imagine that pornographers would be brazen enough to line up at the government trough. But sure enough, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame have asked their local Congressman Henry Waxman for $5 billion because: "People are too depressed to be sexually active," according to Flynt. Ever the patriot, Flynt says an unsexed nation is an "unhealthy" nation. full story |
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Ruin Your Health with the Obama Stimulus Plan |
The bill's health rules will affect "every individual in the United States" (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. full story |
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Internment Camps Readied for Mass Illegal Alien Influx? |
The news that Texas officials are working on contingency plans to deal with a sudden influx of illegal aliens following a collapse of the Mexican government has sparked fears that FEMA detention camps, the expansion of which is the subject of current legislation in Congress, are being readied to detain thousands of illegals as well as American citizens. full story |
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Ship of Fools |
Is there intelligent life in Washington, DC? Not a speck of it. The US economy is imploding, and Obama is being led by his government of neconservatives and Israeli agents into a quagmire in Afghanistan that will bring the US into confrontation with Russia, and possibly China, American's largest creditor. The January payroll job figures reveal that last month 20,000 Americans lost their jobs every day. full story |
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GOP Sounds Alarm over Obama Decision
to Move Census to White House |
Utah's congressional delegation is calling Obama's decision to move the U.S. census into the White House a purely partisan move and potentially dangerous to congressional redistricting around the country. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told FOX News on Monday that he finds it hard to believe the Obama admin. felt the need to place re-evaluation of the inner workings of the census so high on his to-do list, just 3 weeks into his presidency. full story |
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Senator Seeks Bush-era "Truth Commission" |
A U.S. "truth commission" should investigate Bush administration policies including the promotion of war in Iraq, detainee treatment and wiretapping without a warrant, an influential senator proposed on Monday. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, urged a commission as a way to heal what he called sharp political divides under former President Bush and to prevent future abuses. full story |
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Low-income Home Buyers Lose Out on Break |
The Senate's proposed $15,000 tax credit for home buyers would boost the ailing housing market but do little to help low-income people who need it most. Low-income people will not benefit, said Linda Couch, deputy director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "The bill is focusing a lot more of its resources on higher-income households and home ownership than it is on the lowest-income people and people really teetering on the edge of homelessness," Couch said. full story |
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Homeowner Group Protests 'Predator'
CEOs outside Their Mansions |
Monday, a group of 350 to 400 at-risk homeowners, organized by the NACA, staged a series of protests outside the mansions of wealthy bankers in a moneyed Connecticut neighborhood. "Called the 'Predators Tour' these actions were the start of NACA's 'accountability campaign,' an aggressive, confrontational protest aimed at several top executives of co.s that refuse to allow NACA to renegotiate the terms of loans on behalf of members. full story |
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Gitmo: Conditions Worsening since Election |
In Guantanamo's eleventh hour, conditions are deteriorating due to a massive hunger strike. "Binyam has witnessed people being forcibly extracted from their cell. Swat teams in police gear come in and take the person out; if they resist, they are force-fed and then beaten. Binyam has seen this and has not witnessed this before. Guantanamo Bay is in the grip of a mass hunger strike and the numbers are growing; things are worsening," Bradley said. full story |
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Is the US Govt. Preparing to Send Dissenters to Prison Camps? |
Within the last few weeks since Americans witnessed the transition between a Bush Administration to an Obama Administration, some conservatives have noticed an escalation in using the US military and military-style tactics to deal with "national security concerns." Such actions include use of army troops within US borders and the building of camps designed to house and control American citizens. full story |
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16 Illegals Sue Arizona Rancher |
An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border. Roger Barnett began rounding up illegal immigrants in '98 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home. full story |
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Netanyahu 'Will Coax Obama into Iran War' |
The Israeli prime ministerial frontrunner will win a US blessing to enter war with Iran, says a source familiar with US Mideast policies. Aaron David Miller, the US State Department's top analyst in the 1980s, said Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to convince President Barack Obama that a military attack is the only solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. full story |
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IMF Says Advanced Economies Already in Depression |
Advanced economies are already in a "depression" and the financial crisis may deepen unless the banking system is fixed, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. Ten days ago, the IMF cut its world-growth estimate for this year to 0.5%, the weakest pace since World War II. Stimulus packages alone won't succeed in dragging the global economy out of recession unless confidence is restored in the banking system, Strauss-Kahn said today. full story |
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Protectionism, Unemployment and
Riots as the Global Slump Deepens |
We are facing "a global jobs crisis", said Juan Somavia, head of the ILO. As the worst global downturn since the war tightens its grip, employers across the globe have been swinging the axe in earnest. Last Monday alone saw over 70,000 jobs cut by 7 companies across Europe and the US. Spain lost almost 200,000 jobs in January, a record monthly jump. Jobless claims are now at around 3.3 million, a 47% rise from November. full story |
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Key Bush Gitmo Advisers Still on Job at Pentagon |
A senior judge who has not followed President Barack Obama's order to halt military trials at Guantanamo Bay is among Bush administration appointees still overseeing how the Pentagon deals with terror captives. Two other senior Pentagon officials have been shunted into civil service jobs. As a result, they cannot be summarily fired because of the change in presidential administrations. full story |
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AP CEO: Bush Turned Military into Propaganda Machine |
The Bush admin. turned the U.S. military into a global propaganda machine while imposing tough restrictions on journalists seeking to give the public truthful reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, AP chief executive Tom Curley said Friday. Curley, speaking to journalists at the University of Kansas, said the news industry must immediately negotiate a new set of rules for covering war because "we are the only force out there to keep the govt. in check and to hold it accountable." full story |
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Is Your Clothesline Illegal? |
When clothes dryers account for at least 6% of the electricity used by U.S. households, is it any wonder that line-drying is coming back? In places where the practice is banned as an unsightly nuisance to neighbors, right-to-dry activists and blogging eco-moms are forming an alliance. Their cause: to reduce energy consumption and to call upon sunlight rather than bleach to get those whites even whiter. full story |
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Stabenow: Dems May Hold Talk Radio "Accountability" Hearings |
Dem senator Debbie Stabenow has said she will push for talk radio "accountability hearings" in order to impose govt.-mandated "balance" in the radio marketplace. According to Stabenow the airwaves are "dominated by one view" that "overwhelms people's opinions and, unfortunately, incorrectly." In other words, according to Stabenow, the American people are unable to formulate their own opinions and the govt. must do this for them. full story |
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Suspect Peanuts Sent to Schools |
Peanut Corp. of America sold 32 truckloads of roasted peanuts and peanut butter to the federal govt. for a free-lunch program for poor children even as the company's internal tests showed that its products were contaminated with salmonella bacteria. Yesterday, the U.S.D.A. abruptly suspended its contract with the company, which is at the center of an outbreak of salmonella illness that has killed 8 people and sickened 575. full story |
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Obama Administration Threatened Britain
to Suppress Torture Evidence |
The Obama admin. has been caught in a fresh torture controversy after it emerged that America threatened to cease all intelligence ties with Britain if it revealed that a British suspect held at Guantanamo Bay had been tortured into confessing to being part of a dirty bomb plot. The British judges declined to publish the reports after America's threat, but lambasted America for bullying Britain to conceal information that posed no threat to America's national security. full story |
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End the Fed |
Madame Speaker, I rise to introduce legislation to restore financial stability to America's economy by abolishing the Federal Reserve. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve's inflationary policies. full story |
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FDA to Approve GE Animals; Treat Them
as Corporate Intellectual Property |
The FDA has adopted new rules allowing companies to sell genetically modified animals and their products on the market, and affirming that the DNA of such animals is private property that can be held under patent. To be approved, any gm animal product must be proven to the FDA's satisfaction to be safe for human use in a process similar to that undergone by new drugs. Clinical trials like those needed for drugs will not be required, however. full story |
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Actress Judd Goes after Palin over Aerial Wolf Killing |
The ad is part of a campaign by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which has launched a Web site to counter what they say is Palin's "anti-conservation agenda." "Palin even proposed a $150 bounty for the severed foreleg of each killed wolf," Judd continues. "And now she is encouraging even more aerial killing. It is time to stop Sarah Palin and stop this senseless savagery." full story |
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Record 19 Million U.S. Homes Stood Vacant in 2008 |
The worst U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression is deepening as foreclosures drain value from neighboring homes and make it more likely owners will walk away from properties worth less than their mortgages. About a third of owners whose home values drop 20 percent or more below their loan principal will "hand the keys back to the bank," said Norm Miller. full story |
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The Reality of FEMA Camps and the Martial Law Apparatus |
There is no doubt that the government is preparing a nationwide system of detention facilities under the guise of emergency management that could be used to house large quantities of Americans during a time of civil strife. Many think that it is a conspiracy theory, but it is not. It is a fact that the federal government has many facilities right now that can be used to house large numbers of political dissidents if the need arises. full story |
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Secret Spending: Fed Lends Two Trillion without Oversight |
So, you know about the Treasury's $700 billion bailout plan. But you probably don't know that the Federal Reserve has lent out about $2 trillion since September. Few do. And that is what's irritating bulldog Congressman Alan Grayson. Will he be able to shed a light on the Fed's secret spending? full story |
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Mercury Levels Rising in Caribou, Contaminants Program Finds |
Caribou in Canada's North are showing increasing levels of mercury, a contaminant that has drifted into the Arctic from other parts of the world, researchers have found. Mercury is one of two contaminants found in northern environments that are of great concern to scientists, said Mary Gamberg, project co-ordinator with federal Northern Contaminants Program in the Yukon. full story |
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Obama: Trilateral Commission Endgame |
Barack Obama was groomed for the presidency by key members of the Trilateral Commission. Most notably, it was Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller in 1973, who was Obama's principal foreign policy advisor. For anyone who doubts the Commission's continuing influence on Obama, consider that he has already appointed no less than nine members of the Commission to top-level and key positions in his Administration. full story |
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Obama Preserves Rendition Two Days after Taking Office |
President Obama has allowed one controversial "War on Terror" tactic to remain in place: rendition. Despite frequent condemnation of the practice around the world, rendition -- the secret capture, transportation and detention of suspected terrorists to foreign prisons in countries that cooperate with the U.S. -- remains in the CIA's playbook, thanks to a recent executive order issued by President Obama. full story |
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