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Waning Wildlife |
Changes to ocean and air temperatures, rising sea levels, loss of habitat, scarcity of food, altered precipitation patterns, environmental asynchronicity, these are the concerns of wildlife biologists who are watching the increased effects of climate change on the thousands of plant and animal species. Overall, global warming threatens a third of existing species, with 50% now in general decline due to a variety of human activities. full story |
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Military Backpeddles on Troops in America |
Despite General Renuart's platitudes to the press and assurances to Congress that it would not require significant new funding from Congress, it is clear that the new task force’s deployment in the homeland most certainly is here to restore order in the event of civil unrest due to "unforseen economic collapse." Unforseen? They are clearly here to prepare for widespread dissent and food riots due to the economic collapse. full story |
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Almost 1 in 10 Floridians Are on Food Stamps |
Unemployed and strapped for cash, Floridians are asking for state assistance to feed their families in record numbers. Almost 1 in 10 Floridians is now on food stamps, and state managers say many more qualify. Evidence of the unprecedented rise was on display at the Florida Department of Children & Families office in Miami recently, where the line of people waiting for help snaked out the door and around the corner. full story |
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Half of Middle Class Home Owners Fear Their
Homes Could Be Repossessed Next Year |
The news comes after the Council for Mortgage Lenders forecast that the number of repossessions is likely nearly to double to 75,000 next year. A YouGov poll, carried out for a new report from Tory MP Grant Shapps, found that 44 per cent of mortgage holders are worried that lenders could force them out of their properties next year. full story |
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RNC Mulls Accusing Bush of 'Socialism' |
The divisions taking hold among Republicans are becoming more severe as the party prepares to accuse its outgoing president of embracing "socialism." The slur that conservatives were so fond of lobbing at Barack Obama during the presidential campaign is now being directed toward President Bush and GOP lawmakers who supported federal bailouts of the banking and auto industries. full story |
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Gaza Relief Boat Carrying Cynthia McKinney Rammed by Israelis |
An Israeli patrol boat intercepted a yacht carrying 3 tons of medical supplies to Gaza in international waters on Tues. as it attempted to run an Israeli blockade. According to those on board, the patrol boat accused the relief vessel of being involved in terrorist activity and then deliberately rammed it, forcing it to return to port in Lebanon. Among the yacht's 16 passengers were doctors, journalists, and human rights activists, including Cynthia McKinney. full story |
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Neocon Bolton Says Gaza Conflict
May Result in U.S. Attack on Iran |
Top Neo-Con John Bolton told Fox News yesterday that the conflict in Gaza could lead to a U.S. attack on Iran as the former U.S. ambassador to the UN exploited the crisis to propagandize for a new war. "So while our focus obviously is on Gaza right now, this could turn out to be a much larger conflict," said Bolton, adding that "we’re looking at potentially a multi-front war here." full story |
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Europe's 2010 Biodiversity Protection Target Slipping Away |
The populations of animal and plant species in the EU continue to decline because their habitats are fragmented by motorways, Kreiser says, pointing to roads such as the Via Baltica in Poland. Habitats are lost to agricultural intensification as the EU seems unable to reform the Common Agricultural Policy, he said, or "devoured" to make way to uncontrolled development such as that taking place at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. full story |
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Stalin Voted Third Most Popular Russian |
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was voted Russia's third most popular historical figure in a nationwide poll that ended on Sunday, despite the famine and purges that marked his rule. Millions of Soviet citizens perished from famine during forced collectivization, were executed as "enemies of the people" or died in Gulag hard labor camps during Stalin's rule which lasted for almost 30 years until his death in 1953. full story |
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Video: Homegrown Revolution - Radical Change Taking Root |
"In our society growing food yourself has become the most radical of acts. It is truly the only effective protest, one that can -- and will -- overturn the corporate powers that be." full story |
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Homeland Security: Respect Civil Rights |
In what is proving to be a sweeping Bush administration security initiative, the Department of Homeland Security has expanded use of its authority to operate within 100 miles of the border. That has come to include increasingly frequent use of roadblocks in Western Washington. It has become routine to check an intercity bus on the Olympic Peninsula at least weekly, subjecting each passenger to questioning about his or her citizenship papers. full story |
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Big Brother CCTV to Spy on Pupils Aged
Four, Complete with CPS Evidence Kit |
Schools have installed CCTV cameras and microphones in classrooms to watch and listen to pupils as young as four. The Big Brother-style surveillance is being marketed as a way to identify pupils disrupting lessons when teachers' backs are turned. Classwatch, the firm behind the system, says its devices can be set up to record everything that goes on in a classroom 24 hours a day and used to compile ‘evidence' of wrongdoing. full story |
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U.S. Edges Out Germany as World Wind Power Leader |
This year, the United States passed Germany to become the world leader in wind generation, said the American Wind Energy Association in its year-end report. By the end of September, the U.S. had over 21,000 megawatts of wind capacity up and running. Germany had 22,300 megawatts, but U.S. windpower developers sprinted to the end of the year while German wind development slowed. full story |
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Oilsands Have Trouble Shaking Dead Ducks |
As '08 draws to a close, there's still no resolution to Alberta's seminal environmental event of the year. A $25 million campaign to "brand" Alberta as a province that cares about the environment has been labelled a "greenwash" by critics, and aboriginal groups living downstream from the oilsands continue to raise concerns, and court challenges, based on their belief that oilsands discharge has polluted the Athabasca River, and is poisoning their fish and their people. full story |
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Americans Drop Dead as Police Get Taser-Happy |
Even though the news is inundated with stories of people dying after being stunned by Tasers, police departments all over the nation are adding the electric-shock weapons to their arsenals, convinced the benefits outweigh the risks. The safety of the device, however, is becoming a matter of hot debate, and, as more and more news stories are beginning to reveal, it's an electric device that can also kill. full story |
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Third of Britain's Mammals 'at Risk' |
Climate change and habitat loss have led to a dramatic increase in the number of mammals whose future survival is a cause for concern among conservationists, the study commissioned by the People's Trust for Endangered Species concludes. The Bechstein's bat, one of the country's rarest mammals, has shown a marked decline while the number of soprano pipistrelle bats has fallen by 46% in six years. full story |
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Northcom Combat Team Conducts
"Humanitarian Support" Exercise in Maryland |
The Armed Forces Press Service has initiated a propaganda campaign designed to convince the American people that deploying the 3rd Infantry Division in the US in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is a good thing. The propaganda piece appeared on the Hinesville, Georgia, Coastal Courier's website on 12/26. In order to portray the military as humanitarian saviors, the Armed Forces Press Service included a photo of a soldier wielding the "jaws of life". full story |
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Homeland Security Forecasts Five-Year Terror Threats |
Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction remains "the highest priority at the federal level." Speaking to reporters on Dec. 3, Chertoff explained that more people, such as terrorists, will learn how to make dirty bombs, biological and chemical weapons. "The other side is going to continue to learn more about doing things," he said. full story |
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Police in the U.S. Could Soon Have "Pain Ray" Guns |
Imagine a world where police have the ability to fire pain ray guns at protesters that instantly cause them excruciating pain as soon as they are activated. Imagine a world where police have the ability to torture from a distance anyone they want at the touch of a button. Does that sound like something out of a science fiction novel? It's not. It is in the final stages of development and could soon be a reality on the streets of America. full story |
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Australia: Growing Opposition to Labor's Internet Censorship |
More than 2,000 opponents of the federal Labor govt.'s plans to censor the Internet rallied in cities across Australia on Dec. 13, the 2nd national protest in the past 2 months. The demonstrations, which were convened by the DLC, are another indication of the growing concern of industry technicians, scientists and a broad range of ordinary people over the govt.'s attempts to control and regulate Internet access in Australia. full story |
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Ash Spill Deepens Safety Debate |
A deluge of coal ash sludge that broke through a dike at TVA's Kingston power plant onto a 300-acre stretch of fields, homes and rivers has made the site ground zero in a fight over how "clean" burning coal to produce electricity can be. In this case the focus is on the ash, which can hold even more lead, arsenic and other potentially toxic substances than ever as new technology makes plant air emissions cleaner. full story |
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UK Culture Secretary Wants Internet
Ratings System, Censorship |
Internet sites could be given cinema-style age ratings as part of a Govt. crackdown on offensive and harmful online activity to be launched in the New Year, the Culture Secretary says. Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama's incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites. full story |
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EU Spends £2bn Each Year on 'Vain PR Exercises' |
An English-language "information" pamphlet claimed the EU "is delivering a better life for everyone" and described the single market as "a winning formula." The researchers also found a European Commission document that admitted: "Neutral factual information is needed of course, but it is not enough on its own. Genuine communication by the EU cannot be reduced to the mere provision of information." full story |
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Security or Liberty: A Logical Fallacy |
"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." ~ Samuel Adams speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776 full story |
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Toxic Melamine Is Suspected in Seafood from China |
Reporting from Los Angeles and Shanghai -- Melamine in Chinese-produced milk powder has sickened hundreds of thousands of children and added to a growing list of made-in-China foods banned across the globe. Now, some scientists and consumer advocates are raising concerns that fish from China may also be contaminated with the industrial chemical. full story |
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Video: The Stowers Tell Their Story |
A police SWAT team conducted a food raid in rural Ohio, holding an entire family at gunpoint for hours without explanation. The Stowers talk about what happened. full story |
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Cheney: Congress Told Us We Didn't
Need Approval for Wiretapping |
In an interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace yesterday morning, Vice President Cheney defended the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, and claimed that the congressional leaders briefed on the program wholeheartedly approved. In fact, Cheney claimed, when the White House asked if it needed congressional approval for the program, they unanimously agreed it did not. full story |
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World Faces "Total" Financial Meltdown: Bank of Spain Chief |
The governor of the Bank of Spain on Sunday issued a bleak assessment of the economic crisis, warning that the world faced a "total" financial meltdown unseen since the Great Depression. "The inter-bank (lending) market is not functioning and this is generating vicious cycles: consumers are not consuming, businessmen are not taking on workers, investors are not investing and the banks are not lending. full story |
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Chertoff Says Cyber Threat Increasing | |
"As we look at this threat, it is clearly only intensifying over time," Chertoff said. "A system where one agency sits over everything, military and civilian, is not usually one that has been regarded favorably by the American public." Chertoff urged that the existing cyber-security strategy developed and shared by the Pentagon, Homeland Security and the FBI be continued by the incoming Obama administration. full story |
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Protesters Beaten as Anger Grows at Russian Car Import Tax |
A wave of protests over raised duties on imported cars is sweeping across Russia in the first sign of mass discontent with Kremlin measures to tackle the impact of the global financial crisis. The severity used to silence the demonstration highlighted Kremlin nervousness that the protests could turn into a nationwide campaign of dissent, with dissatisfaction growing over rocketing unemployment figures and high inflation. full story |
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Guantanamo Lawyer Says Gates May Have Committed Perjury |
Binyam Mohamed has said that after being seized in Pakistan in April 2002 and held for three months, he was rendered by the CIA to Morocco, where he was tortured for 18 months. His claims of torture were upheld by the British High Court in a review this summer, which took place after Mohamed's lawyers sued the British government for alleged complicity in their client’s rendition and torture. full story |
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Sex Slavery in Every American City |
Federal officials agree that the trafficking of human beings as sex slaves is far more prevalent than is popularly understood. While saying it is difficult to pinpoint the scope of the industry, given its shadowy nature, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials estimated that it likely generates more than $9.5 billion a year. Last year alone, the FBI opened more than 225 human trafficking investigations in the United States. full story |
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Coal Ash Flood Is Environmental Disaster |
A major environmental disaster occurred yesterday, but few news outlets outside Tennessee appear to be covering it: 2.6 million cubic yards (about 525 million gallons) of fly ash sludge poured out from behind an earthen dike at the Kingston coal plant. To put this into scale with the Exxon Valdez spill, this coal ash spill is presently estimated to be 48 times larger (in volume) and at least as dangerous. full story |
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EPA Veils Hazardous Substances |
Section 14 of the Toxic Substances Control Act, the foundation for all the EPA's toxic and chemical regulations, stipulates that chemical producers may not be granted confidentiality when it comes to health and safety data. "The EPA has chosen to ignore that," said Wendy Wagner. The findings are just the latest example of how EPA administrators more often than not put company interests above the needs of consumers. full story |
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$1.6B Went to Bailed-Out Bank Execs |
Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits in the calendar year 2007, an Associated Press analysis reveals.. Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found. full story |
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Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash |
Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush's '00 and '04 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed 3 miles short of the Akron airport. On 10/31, Mr. Connell appeared before a federal judge in Ohio after being subpoenaed in a federal lawsuit investigating the rigging of the 2004 election under the direction of Karl Rove. full story |
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U.S. Workers Crowding Out Immigrant
Laborers for Unskilled Jobs |
A year ago, a day-laborer center adjacent to a Home Depot here teemed with Latin American immigrants who showed up and found a sure day's work painting, gardening or hauling. These days, more than immigrants are packing the Hollywood Community Job Center: Unemployed Americans are joining them. There's little work for anybody. For the first time in a decade, unskilled immigrants are competing with Americans for work. full story |
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Young Students Often Most Vulnerable to Toxic Air |
From the front door of the aged brick school, the 4-year-olds at Wyandotte Early Childhood Center can spot the cottony plumes from a refinery just over the trees. The ExxonMobil plant, the nation's second-largest refinery, processes about a half-million barrels of crude oil each day. Its sprawling complex sits a few blocks from the school and from the swing set on the playground and about 120 pairs of developing lungs. full story |
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Continuity We Can Believe In |
Obama has chosen the rabid Zionist, deregulated hedge fund multi-millionaire Rahm Emanuel, a guy who makes even Snakehead Carville look human in comparison, as his Chief of Staff. Obama apparently surrendered foreign policy and the choice of his Senate replacement to him. Obama has begun by ceding the battered economy to the very same folks who drove it off the cliff. Obama has left Gates in place. full story |
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FDA Says Mercury in Fish Is Safe for
Infants, Children, Expectant Mothers! |
Last week, the FDA declared trace levels of melamine to be safe in infant formula. A few weeks earlier, it said the plastics chemical Bisphenol-A was safe for infants to drink. Now it says children can eat mercury, too. The FDA is a drug-pushing, people-betraying, scientifically illiterate criminal organization that, time and time again, seeks only to protect the profits of powerful corporations whose products poison the people. full story |
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From Global Crisis to "Global Government" |
Among the many things envisioned to either be completed or under way by 2025 are the formation of a global multipolar international system, the possibility of a return of mercantilism by great powers in which they go to war over dwindling resources, the growth of China as a great world power, the position of India as a strong pole in the new multipolar system, a decline of capitalism in the form of more state-capitalism.. full story |
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'Greek Syndrome' Is Catching as Youth Take to Streets |
If Greek students sneeze, or catch a whiff of tear-gas, young people take to the streets in France and now Sweden. Yesterday, masked youths threw two firebombs at the French Institute in Athens. Windows were smashed but the building was not seriously damaged. Then youths spray-painted two slogans on the building. One said, "Spark in Athens. Fire in Paris. Insurrection is coming". The other read, "France, Greece, uprising everywhere". full story |
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Secrecy Surrounds Those Receiving
Benefits of Federal Reserve's Trillions |
US taxpayers, and potentially taxpayers the world over, are subject to taxation without representation, for Congress neither sees, hears, speaks nor countenances evil, "we the people" of the world are not to be allowed to know where the money is going. And we are talking trillions here. Bloomberg filed suit on Nov. 7 under the US Freedom of Information Act, requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs. The Fed is refusing to speak. full story |
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Kissinger Calls For New International System out of World Crises |
Bilderberg luminary Henry Kissinger has repeated his routine call for a new international political order, stating that global crises should be seen as an opportunity to move toward a borderless world where national interests are outweighed by global necessities. He cited the chaos being wrought across the globe by the financial crisis and the spread of terrorism as an opportunity to bolster a new global order. full story |
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Ron Paul: Fear Based Bailouts Constitute Economic Terrorism |
"Governments that want to take over, undermine our liberties and gain more power always use the fear factor. Paul pointed out that the use of the fear factor was never more evident than in the run up to the passage of the $750 billion bailout bill earlier this year when it emerged that representatives had been threatened with an economic crash and physical martial law in America. He warned that auto-bailout could lead directly to fascism in America full story |
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Rogers: The Elite Are Turning a Recession into a Depression |
Veteran investor Jim Rogers warns that the policies of central banks and politicians are turning what would have been a recession into a new great depression, and that Barack Obama's taxation agenda will only make the problem much worse. Speaking to Bloomberg News, Rogers said that the crisis would at least be the worst since the second world war and that "it could well be" as bad as the great depression. full story |
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Police Assault 12-year-old Girl
after Mistaking Her for a Prostitute |
As the girl walked in her front yard, 3 men jumped out of a van and beat her about the face and throat, one of them telling her, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me." Police attacked her despite the fact that she didn't fit the racial description of their suspects: three white prostitutes and a black drug dealer. Three weeks after Milburn was hospitalized for her injuries, police went to her school and arrested her for assaulting an officer during the incident. full story |
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The Bill Nobody Noticed: National DNA Databank |
The House version of the bill, will: build surveillance systems for tracking the health status and health outcomes of individuals diagnosed at birth with a genetic defect or trait, use the newborn screening program as an opportunity for government agencies to identify, list, and study "secondary conditions" of individuals and their families, subject citizens to genetic research without their knowledge or consent.. full story |
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Violent Protests Flare Again in Central Athens |
The clashes on Thursday followed several days of relative calm in the capital and a peaceful protest against the police. Youth rebels, including self-declared anarchists, who had been following about 7,000 marchers began pelting the police outside the Parliament building with rocks. Police used shields to deflect the rocks, but when mobs of masked youths moved to burn down the Christmas tree, the police retaliated with tear gas. full story |
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Obama Names CFR Member, Goldman
Sachs Insider to Top Economic Posts |
Mr. Obama named Mary L. Schapiro, 53, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency has come under sharp criticism for its failure to detect signs that major Wall Street banks were in trouble before the financial crisis, and more recently, for gaps in its oversight of the New York financier Bernard Madoff, who the authorities say has confessed to running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. full story |
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Why Such Drastic Action? The Fed Is Utterly Petrified |
When the global financial system seized up in August of 2007, we said there was a risk of an economic pandemic that might plunge the world's economy into a dangerous tailspin. This was greeted with derision. The system was robust, we were told. Economies were well-placed to withstand any problems, we were told. The problem would be contained because policymakers had matters in hand, we were assured. full story |
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Cheney Claims Power to Decide His Own Case |
I am the law. That's the message Vice President Dick Cheney appeared to send in a little-noticed court filing last week, in which his lawyers asserted that the vice president alone has the authority to determine which records are turned over to the National Archives after he leaves office. But the law exempts "personal and partisan" records, which Cheney's lawyers said he will be the sole decider upon. full story |
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Obama Chooses Monsanto Creature,
Tom Vilsack, for Secretary of Agriculture |
The fever dream reality of the Obama hive mind goes something like this: Obama is just pretending to be evil so that he can get into power, but then the Hope and Change, etc. will flow. We have just lost cabin pressure, and I don't mean on the Monsanto corporate jet that Tom Vilsack uses. What's next? Obama Re-Animates Josef Mengele for Health and Human Services? full story |
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How the Government Plans to Record
Intimate Info on Every Child in Britain |
CAF includes eyewateringly intimate questions about children's sexual behaviour, their family's structure, culture and religion, their views on 'discrimination', their friends, secret fears, feelings and family income, plus 'any serious difficulties in their parents' relationship'. How has such a terrifying intrusion into private life crept, almost unnoticed, under the radar? The answer is New Labour has cleverly packaged CAF as an aid to 'child protection'.. full story |
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Career Army Officer Sues Cheney, Rumsfeld for 9/11 Complicity |
A career Army officer who was injured in the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11 is suing Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for failing to issue a warning that American Airlines Flight 77 was about to hit the building despite receiving knowledge of its approach some 20 minutes in advance. Gallop was knocked unconscious when the roof collapsed in her office her and her 2-month-old baby sustained a serious brain injury. full story |
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Children Forced into Cell-like School Seclusion Rooms |
A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out." Time-out in the boy's north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell, a concrete room latched from the outside, its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper. Called a seclusion room, it's where in Nov. 2004, Jonathan hanged himself with a cord a teacher gave him to hold up his pants. full story |
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Innocent Detainee: Guantanamo the 'Worst Place on Earth' |
An Algerian-born man who has just been freed from Guantanamo Bay has described the US "war on terror" camp as the worst place on Earth, in an interview published in a Bosnian newspaper. "For almost seven years, I was at the end of the world, at the worst place in the world,'' Mustafa Ait Idir told the Dnevni Avaz a day after arriving back in his adopted homeland of Bosnia. full story |
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US Proposes Protecting 7 Penguin Species |
Seven penguin species have reason to have happy feet: The Bush administration is moving to protect them. But three other types of penguin -- including the stars of recent movies -- got the cold shoulder. The Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list six species of penguin as threatened species and one -- the African penguin -- as an endangered species. full story |
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Army Report Says Troops May Be
Needed to Quell U.S. Civil Unrest |
The report, titled Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development, suggests that the military may have to be used to quell domestic disorder. "Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report, authored by [Ret.] Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, reads. full story |
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IMF Chief Issues Stark Warning on Economic Crisis |
The head of the International Monetary Fund urged governments to step up action to stem the global economic crisis or risk delaying a recovery and sparking violent unrest on the streets. Using a speech last night in Madrid to issue his stark warning, Dominique Strauss-Kahn argued that government efforts to tackle the economic downturn so far have been uncertain and largely insufficient, which could lead to severe consequences. full story |
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Federal Reserve Sets Stage for Weimar-style Hyperinflation |
The Federal Reserve has bluntly refused a request by a major US financial news service to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from US taxpayers and to reveal the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Their lawyers resorted to the bizarre argument that they did so to protect 'trade secrets.' Is the secret that the US financial system is de facto bankrupt? full story |
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Ron Paul on U.S. Economy: The Philosopher's Stone |
Video featuring Ron Paul and Peter Schiff on our current corporatist, neo-fascist economic state. full story |
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Court Strikes Down Patriot Act Gag Provision |
A federal appeals court ruling late Monday is the cause célèbre of the ACLU, as another provision of the Bush admin.'s Patriot Act falls to the judicial system. Until the ruling, recipients of so-called "national security letters" were legally forbidden from speaking out. The letters, usually a demand for documents, or a notice that private records had been searched by govt. authorities, were criticized as a cover-all for FBI abuses. full story |
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Bush Official Tainted Nearly Every Endangered Species Decision |
Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the FWS, did pervasive harm to the dept.'s morale and integrity and may have risked the well-being of species with her agenda, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney said in his report. The Interior Dept. last year reversed 7 rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found that MacDonald had applied political pressure in those cases. full story |
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Cheney Backs Obama's National Security Team |
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, a reflective Vice President Dick Cheney praised President-elect Barack Obama's national security team and admitted he's changed during his time in office. With 35 days left in office, the vice president also weighed in on those who will take the place of the Bush administration, assessing Obama's picks to spearhead national security. full story |
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Parents, Law Enforcement Spar Over Tasers in Schools |
Two mothers have pulled their children out of the South-Western City School District after one of their son's was shocked with a Taser. Margie Preston, whose son was shocked, said she was surprised to hear that the Franklin County sheriff's deputy who served as the school's resource officer carried the same weapons as officers who patrol the streets. full story |
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Some Mexicans Leaving U.S Never to Return |
All are leaving Colorado in time for Christmas joining a traditional holiday migration that will number almost 1 million people.. But they have no intention of returning to Colorado. Layoffs, dwindling job opportunities, anti-immigrant sentiment and the crackdown on illegal immigrants are forcing hard choices on many Mexican nationals in Colorado. Though not an exodus, some are returning to a nation they haven't seen in years. full story |
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New York Times' NSA Whistleblower Reveals Himself |
It's been three years since The Times first broke the news of the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, based on information provided by an anonymous source. Today the identity of the Times' Deep Throat is finally revealed to be a 56-year-old former prosecutor in the Justice Department named Thomas Tamm, whose "passion for justice" led him to make a fateful call to the Times one day in 2004. full story |
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12-Year-Old Girl Paralysed by Cervical Cancer Vaccine |
A 12-year-old schoolgirl has been left paralysed from the waist down by a mystery illness that came on 30 minutes after she was given the new anticervical cancer jab. Ashleigh Cave suffered dizziness and headaches soon after the vaccination at her school and then deteriorated rapidly, collapsing several times over the following days. A week later she was admitted to hospital after losing all strength in her legs. full story |
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Supermarkets' Emergency Plans to Keep Shelves Full |
Supermarket chain Asda, led by Andy Bond, is working on 'worst-case scenarios' across the board - combing its supplier base and examining alternatives to them. 'Suppliers are under a lot of pressure and there will be casualties,' said a senior executive at another store chain, which has already stepped in to pay troubled suppliers ahead of schedule. 'We need each other, it is not a zero-sum game.' full story |
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Trends Forecaster Celente: Greece-Style Riots Coming to U.S. |
Frighteningly accurate trends forecaster Gerald Celente says that America will see riots similar to those currently ongoing in Greece and that the cause will be a hyper-inflationary depression, leading to the inevitable use of troops and mercenaries to deal with the crisis as Americans are incarcerated in internment camps. The cause of the riots would be a hyper-inflationary depression, Celente said. full story |
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Do as I Say, Not as I Do |
Speaking on Friday to graduates of Texas A&M University, President Bush told them that character is more important than popularity. Well, how he would know? He enjoys neither. "If you go home at night, look in the mirror and be satisfied that you have done what is right, you will pass the only test that matters." It's such a relief to hear the man who professed his abiding Christian faith finally come clean that he is, in actual practice, a religious Humanist. full story |
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Google to Pick and Choose Search Results |
Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement and nobody has yet grasped its significance. That Google was impartial was one of the articles of faith. For if Google was ever to be found to be applying subjective human judgment directly on the process, it would be akin to the voting machines being rigged full story |
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Iraqi Reporter Throws Shoes at Bush and Calls Him Dog |
An Iraqi reporter called visiting U.S. President George W. Bush a "dog" in Arabic on Sunday and threw his shoes at him during a news conference in Baghdad. Iraqi security officers and U.S. secret service agents leapt at the man and dragged him struggling and screaming out of the room where Bush was giving a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. full story |
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Collapse of Pension Funds: The End of Retirement? |
The experts are calling this the "perfect storm" for retirement. Everything that could go wrong is in fact going wrong. This storm, however, was not created by supernatural forces, but the coordinated effort of big-business and their puppet politicians. The deliberate destruction of the pension and its replacement by the 401(k) was, of course, a giant step towards attacking retirement; but now that the economic crisis has emerged, we're beginning to see just how ruinous the effects are. full story |
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Homelessness and Hunger Rising in US Cities |
Homelessness and hunger increased in an overwhelming majority of 25 US cities in the past year, driven by the foreclosure crisis and rising unemployment, a survey showed Friday. Out of 25 cities across the United States 83% said homelessness in general had increased over the past year while 16 cities, or nearly 2/3 of those polled, cited a rise in the number of families who had been forced out of their homes. full story |
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Greek-inspired Protests Spread across Europe |
The unrest that has gripped Greece is spilling over into the rest of Europe, raising concerns the clashes could be a trigger for opponents of globalization, disaffected youth and others outraged by the continent's economic turmoil and soaring unemployment. Protesters in Spain, Denmark and Italy smashed shop windows, pelted police with bottles and attacked banks this week, while in France, cars were set ablaze.. full story |
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Fed Won't Reveal Names of Recipients of $2 Trillion |
The Federal Reserve refused a request from Bloomberg News to reveal the recipient of $2 trillion in emergency loans paid for by U.S. taxpayers. After Bloomberg filed an open records request through the Freedom of Information Act, the fed answered by arguing that it's allowed to withhold information, including memos and trade secrets. Bloomberg has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve demanding the documents be disclosed. full story |
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Russia to Scrap Jury Trials for Wide Range of Crimes |
In Russia, democracy continues to erode. Less than a year after then-President Vladimir Putin largely stage managed a transition from president to prime minister to get around a term limit law, and four years after the legislature gave Putin the power to appoint governors of his choosing, the Russian parliament has approved a measure that will strip a wide swath of suspects of their right to a jury trial. full story |
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Do We Still Need the Bill of Rights? |
There are two important points to remember about the Bill of Rights. First, the Bill of Rights does not give any rights to the American people and, second, the Bill of Rights was intended to protect us from our own federal govt. Those two points often shock ordinary Americans. Throughout their schooling they gradually come to believe that their rights come from the Constitution and, more specifically, from the Bill of Rights. full story |
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EU Carbon Trading System: Windfalls for Some, Little Benefit to Climate |
The European Union started with the most high-minded of ecological goals: to create a market that would encourage companies to reduce greenhouse gases by making them pay for each ton emitted into the atmosphere. Four years later, the carbon trading system has created a multibillion-euro windfall for some of the continent's biggest polluters, with little or no noticeable benefit to the environment so far. full story |
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World Bank's 'Wrong Advice' Left Silos Empty in Poor Countries |
About 40 million people joined the ranks of the undernourished this year, bringing the estimate of the world's hungry to 963 million of its 6.8 billion people. The growth didn't come just from natural causes. A manmade recipe for famine included corrupt governments and companies that profited on misery. Another ingredient: The World Bank's policies, which brought poor nations into global grain markets, where prices surged. full story |
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Ohio Sheriff Orders Deputies Not to Evict |
Sheriff Richard Jones says evictions in winter weather and during an economic recession are heartless and those cases should be sent back to the courts and resolved some other way. Jones on Tuesday ordered deputies to ensure that people have shelter before they're forced out of their homes. He also sent a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland asking him to issue a state order to stop forced evictions for at least the winter months. full story |
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Politics Choke Clean Air Efforts |
It was in a succession of decisions on air quality that Johnson's uneven application of science had perhaps the most severe impacts on human health. In the case of particles, a key element of Johnson's scientific justification was characterized by a top expert as "silly." For a new rule on airborne lead pollution, Johnson attempted to cripple the very panel created by Congress to advise him on all three decisions. full story |
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Police Taser Man in Diabetic Shock |
Luckily for a driver who went into severe diabetic shock last month in Oklahoma, police arrived on the scene and called in an ambulance. But not before they tasered and handcuffed him. The 53-year-old diabetic man was tasered by police after they suspected him of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol and claimed he had resisted arrest -- even though he was actually in shock. full story |
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The Election of the Greatest Con-Man in Recent History |
Within 3 weeks of his election he appointed all the political dregs who brought on the unending wars of the past two decades, the economic policy makers responsible for the financial crash and the deepening recession castigating tens of millions of Americans today and for the foreseeable future. We can affirm that the election of Obama does indeed mark a historic moment in American history: The victory of the greatest con man and his accomplices and backers in recent history full story |
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America Has No Means to Recover from a Depression |
Many economic observers have justifiably stated that the U.S. is in the midst of the greatest recession facing the nation since the Great Depression. On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research finally acknowledged what most of Americans have known for some time: that the U.S. is officially in a deep and painful recession. Few, if any, however, will dare to call the current downturn a Depression. full story |
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Gun Control: Protecting Terrorists and Despots |
History shows us that another tragedy of gun laws is genocide. Hitler, for example, knew well that in order to enact his "final solution," disarmament was a necessary precursor. While it is not always the case that an unarmed populace WILL be killed by their government, if a government is going to kill its own people, it MUST disarm them first so they cannot fight back. full story |
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NSA's Local Surveillance Industry |
Bamford describes former NSA Director Mike Hayden's goals for the data-mining center as knowing "exactly what Americans were doing day by day, hour by hour, and second by second. He wanted to know where they shopped, what they bought, what movies they saw, what books they read, the toll booths they went through, the plane tickets they purchased, the hotels they stayed in… full story |
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How PBS and Chevron Got Together
to Kill the Alternative Fuel Movement |
When it really matters, information in the US is censored. those henchmen most definitely include PBS, the so-called Public Broadcasting Service, perhaps better called the Petroleum Broadcasting Service. For a few million dollars a year, the oil industry has completely censored any reporting on the REALITY that the US does not have to - and never had to - be dependent on gasoline for transport. full story |
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Spying on Pacifists, Environmentalists and Nuns |
Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings." Investigators, the files show, targeted groups that advocated against abortion, global warming, nuclear arms, military recruiting in high schools and biodefense research.. full story |
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Liberals Voice Concerns about Obama |
Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He's hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he's stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left. Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss. full story |
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Health Risks Stack up for Students near Industrial Plants |
Using the government's most up-to-date model for tracking toxic chemicals, USA Today spent eight months examining the impact of industrial pollution on the air outside schools across the nation. The model is a computer simulation that predicts the path of toxic chemicals released by thousands of companies. USA Today used it to identify schools in toxic hot spots, a task the U.S EPA.had never undertaken. full story |
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It's Official: Men Really Are the Weaker Sex |
The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals. The research -- to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published -- shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people. full story |
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Rice Refuses to Deny CIA Transported
Suspects to Countries Using Torture |
Outgoing Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on Friday refused to deny the CIA had engaged in transporting terror suspects to countries that routinely practice torture, when asked by a Danish television reporter. A new Danish government report has drawn a blank as to whether the country's airspace was used by the CIA to spirit away targets of interest, a highly controversial practice known as rendition. full story |
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Analysis: Obama Defense Agenda Resembles Gates' |
For a Democrat whose opposition to the Iraq war was a campaign centerpiece, President-elect Barack Obama is remarkably in sync with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on many core defense and national security issues -- even Iraq. The list of similarities suggests the early focus of Obama's Pentagon may not change dramatically from President George W. Bush's. full story |
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Children 'Executed' in 1950 South Korean Killings |
Government investigators digging into the grim hidden history of mass political executions in S. Korea have confirmed that dozens of children were among many thousands shot by their own govt. early in the Korean War. Declassified records show U.S. officers were present at one killing field and that at least one U.S. officer sanctioned another mass political execution if prisoners otherwise would be freed by the N. Koreans. full story |
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Police SWAT Team Holds Entire Family at Gunpoint for Hours |
A police SWAT team conducted a food raid in rural Ohio, holding an entire family at gunpoint for hours. Agents from the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture with the S.W.A.T. team did not give any explanation to the family other than a warrant, did not provide them a phone call, did not charge the family with anything as they burst into their private home. But what they did do was make a big mess, taking over $10,000 of merchandise with them. full story |
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Delinquencies, Foreclosures Rise to 10% of US Home Loans |
A record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage were either at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of Sept. as the source of housing market pressure shifted from risky loans to the crumbling U.S. economy. Distress in the home loan market started about 2 years ago with increasing interest rates. But the latest wave of delinquencies is coming from the surge in unemployment. full story |
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Bush Reported to Be Drinking Heavily |
With less than two months remaining in office, George W. Bush, witnessing a devastating defeat for the Republican Party, worse favorability ratings than those of Richard Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal, and the most devastating economic situation since the Great Depression, is reported by a number of well-placed sources in Washington as drinking heavily. full story |
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DNA Samples of 857,000 Innocent Citizens Must Be Deleted |
The fingerprints and DNA samples of more than 857,000 innocent citizens who have been arrested or charged but never convicted of a criminal offence now face deletion from the national DNA database after a landmark ruling by the European court of human rights in Strasbourg. The court said there was a particular risk that innocent people would be stigmatised because they were being treated in the same way as convicted criminals. full story |
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Obama's War Cabinet |
December 1 brought more disappointment but no surprises. Obama's national security appointees (like all his earlier ones) aren't "change to believe in" or what people expected for their votes. They're recycled establishment figures. Their agenda is business as usual, and they'll continue the same failed Bush administration policies at home and abroad. Washington's criminal class is bipartisan. full story |
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Corporate Media Ignores Planned
Deployment of 20,000 Troops in U.S. |
On Nov. 30, in a little noticed news article appearing in the Washington Post, the Pentagon announced the planned deployment of 20,000 rapid reaction troops inside the US in direct violation of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act ostensibly to help state and local officials respond to a domestic catastrophe or terrorist attack. Congress and the Pentagon conspiring to undermine Posse Comitatus should have been big news. full story |
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New ID Scanners at Borders Raise Privacy Alarm |
The federal government has already deployed new detection machines that can scan citizens without their knowledge from as far as 50 feet away and "read" their personal documents such as passports or driver's licenses. The Homeland Security Department touts the high-tech devices as increasing security at border crossings, but privacy advocates are raising all sorts of red flags. full story |
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Berlusconi Plans to Use G8 Presidency to 'Regulate the Internet' |
Italian president and media baron Silvio Berlusconi said today that he would use his country's imminent presidency of the G8 group to push for an international agreement to "regulate the internet". Speaking to Italian postal workers, Reuters reports Berlusconi said: "The G8 has as its task the regulation of financial markets... I think the next G8 can bring to the table a proposal for a regulation of the internet." full story |
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The Big Brother State -- by Stealth |
Personal information detailing intimate aspects of the lives of every British citizen is to be handed over to government agencies under sweeping new powers. The measure, which will give ministers the right to allow all public bodies to exchange sensitive data with each other, is expected to be rushed through Parliament in a Bill to be published tomorrow. The new legislation would deny MPs a full vote on such data-sharing. full story |
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Report: Israel Preparing to Strike Iran without U.S. Consent |
Israel is drawing up plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and is prepared to launch a strike without backing from the U.S., an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. Officials in the Israeli Defense Ministry told The Jerusalem Post that while they prefer to act in consultation with the U.S., they are preparing plans that would allow them to act alone. full story |
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Fed: Economy Darkens Heading into Holidays |
The country's economic picture has darkened further as Americans hunkered down heading into the holidays, forcing retailers to ring up fewer sales and factories to cut back on production. The Federal Reserve's new snapshot of business conditions nationwide, released Wednesday, suggested the economy was sinking deeper into recession. "Economic activity weakened across all Federal Reserve districts," the report concluded. full story |
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Noisy, Acid Oceans Increasingly Harmful to Whales |
Oceans and seas are becoming noisier with more vessels, increased seismic surveys for oil and gas, off-shore construction and recreation, and a new generation of military sonars, an alliance of wildlife groups said today. They warn that the cacophony is intensifying threats to marine mammals that use sound to communicate, forage for food and find mates. full story |
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Soldiers Sue over Exposure to Toxin |
Managers for a large defense contractor wore protective suits when they visited a water-pumping plant guarded by Hoosier soldiers in Iraq 5 years ago. A month later, the company shut down the site because it was so contaminated. Now, a federal lawsuit accuses the private company KBR of publicly downplaying and privately concealing the risk faced by as many as 141 Indiana National Guard soldiers potentially exposed to a cancer-causing agent. full story |
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Contaminant Cocktail Toxic to Frogs |
A new study shows that low-level mixtures of commonly used pesticides can kill up to 99% of leopard frogs. Mixtures of pesticides are more toxic to frogs than the individual chemicals are. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Oecologia which shows that when combined, even safe levels of popular pesticides can decimate populations of leopard frogs. full story |
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UAW Grants Concessions, Exec Warns of Depression |
Worried about their jobs and warned that the cost of failure could be a depression, hundreds of leaders of the UAW voted overwhelmingly Wed. to make concessions to the struggling Detroit Three, including all but ending a much-derided program that let laid-off workers collect up to 95% of their salaries. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union must help persuade Congress to offer the loans or risk destroying what he said is the country's economic spine. full story |
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College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S. |
Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families. full story |
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The Neo-Alchemy of the Federal Reserve |
As the printing presses for the bailouts run at full speed, those in power are no longer even pretending that the new giveaways will fix our problems. Now that we are used to rewarding failure with taxpayer-funded bailouts, we are being told that this is "just a start," more funds will inevitably be needed for more industries, and that things would be much worse had we done nothing. full story |
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Big Brother Police to Get 'War-time'
Power to Demand ID in the Street |
State officials are to be given powers previously reserved for times of war to demand a person's proof of identity at any time. Anybody who refuses the Big Brother demand could face arrest and a possible prison sentence. The new rules come in legislation unveiled in today's Queen's Speech. They are presented as a crackdown on illegal immigration, but lawyers say they could be applied to anybody who has ever been outside the UK, even on holiday. full story |
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Behavioral Screening -- the Future of Airport Security? |
Keep your shoes and belts on: Waiting in long airport security lines to pass through metal detectors may soon be a thing of the past. Security experts say focus is shifting from analyzing the content of carry-ons to analyzing the content of passengers' intentions and emotions. "We are seeing a needed paradigm shift when it comes to security," says Omer Laviv, CEO of ATHENA GS3, an Israeli-based security company. full story |
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Toxic Toy Guide Lists Chemicals Found in Hundreds of Toys |
One in every three of the more than 1,500 children's toys tested in time for the holiday shopping season have been found to contain "medium" or "high" levels of chemicals of concern such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic. Researchers with the Michigan-based nonprofit Ecology Center tested for chemicals that have been associated with reproductive problems, developmental and learning disabilities, hormone problems and cancer. full story |
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A Bleak Outlook: Nov. Job Loss, Economic Weakness |
November was filled with financial concern and employment markets bleeding job losses at alarming rates, according to monthly reports released this week. Private sector employment decreased by 250,000 in November. Small business employment (representing payrolls with one to 49 employees) was down 79,000. Medium business employment dropped 130,000, while large business employment fell 41,000. full story |
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Hugo Chavez Asks for Indefinite Presidential Reelection |
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday urged his supporters to seek a new constitutional amendment, which would allow indefinite presidential reelection. According to the Venezuelan constitution, the presidential term lasts six years and the president can be reelected only once. Chavez proposed last year to extend the presidential term to seven years and abolish the reelection limit, but his proposal was voted down in a referendum. full story |
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Obama's National Security Team:
Minions of the New World Order |
President elect Barack Obama made choices today for "a broad and diverse team" in Chicago, reports the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, former Gen. James Jones, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, and Susan Rice "round" out this "change" team which is, of course, not change but a seamless transition between the Bush neocons and Obama's decidedly neoliberal choices. full story |
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Panel Warns Biological Attack Likely by 2013 |
The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists. "Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing," states the report. full story |
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Chinese Dairy Exports in Decline |
Data reported in China's state media suggests that dairy exports fell 92% year-on-year in October. Meanwhile China's Ministry of Health has revised the number of infants who died after drinking tainted products. It now says as many as 6 infants died and up to 294,000 suffered from urinary tract ailments including kidney stones. More than 850 children are still being treated in hospital; at least 150 of them are said to be seriously ill. full story |
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30-mile Debris Pile Becomes Symbol of FEMA Delays |
A 30-mile scar of debris along the Texas coast stands as a festering testament to what state and local officials say is FEMA's sluggish response to the '08 hurricane season. Two and a half months after Hurricane Ike blasted the shoreline, alligators and snakes crawl over vast piles of shattered building materials, lawn furniture, trees, boats, tanks of butane and other hazardous substances, thousands of animal carcasses, perhaps even the corpses of people killed by the storm. full story |
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Another Pesticide Linked to Diabetes |
The pesticide in question, tributyltin, had already been known to cause chemical burns and other skin irritation, dizziness, difficulty breathing and flu-like symptoms to workers exposed to contaminated dust. It had already been known that tributyltin suppresses the immune system, as well as reproductive problems and increased rates of infant mortality and deformities in lab rats. full story |
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Police State Britain: MPs Want Protection after Arrest of Tory |
MPs demanded protection from a 'police state' last night after the heavy-handed arrest of a Tory frontbencher shocked Westminster. Extraordinary details of four simultaneous raids on immigration spokesman Damian Green's homes and offices raised urgent questions about the independence of Parliament. Green was fingerprinted and required to give a DNA sample before being released on bail after nine hours. full story |
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Pentagon Plans to Station 20,000 Troops on US Soil |
The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the US by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to domestic catastrophes, according to Pentagon officials. There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act. full story |
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Kenneth City Delays Decision on Neatness Ordinance |
The proposal basically sets standards for upkeep and appearance and gives town officials the right to enter homes. If the owner refuses to allow the official to enter, the town can go to a judge for an "administrative search warrant" to allow access to the interior of buildings. Violations would cost up to $250 a day. Angry residents likened the proposal to rules created by Communist or Nazi dictatorships. full story |
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