Citizen Journalism News and Citizen Journalism Videos 3282 items | updated Mar 12 2010
Collective Journalism (CJ) is Current's citizen journalism program. If you want to get involved with telling the stories about how you and your community are affected by news and issues, this is the place. This page is curated by the staff on the CJ team, and features CJ content aired on the TV network, but this is where you can upload your work, suggest ideas, leave your webcam reactions and link to news stories. more
What is Collective Journalism?
Why ‘Collective' not Citizen?
What type of journalism do you do?
How can I contribute?
What is a Collective Work?
What's the deal with pay?
Collective Journalism FAQ
What is Collective Journalism?
"Collective Journalism" is Current's brand of citizen journalism. We produce collaborative reports or group investigations about the issues and stories that matter to our generation. Collective Journalism is open to contributions from anyone, anywhere in the world.
Why ‘Collective' not Citizen?
We're "Collective" because we're all in this together. Working on stories together means that we cover more ground, get more perspectives and include as many different voices as possible.
What type of journalism do you do?
At Current, the news is personal. That's why we like to have stories told in the first person, directly by the people who are involved. Most of our stories follow a narrative structure where it's more of short documentary than a traditional broadcast news lecture. We strive for accuracy at all costs, and all of our work is vetted by our team of staff journalists before it hits TV. Collective Journalism is not a reactionary unit that chases police cars and bright lights, rather, we encourage all of our contributors to strike out with their own original angles on stories.
How can I contribute?
Start uploading!--Its really that simple. There are many ways to get involved, like producing an element of one of our larger Collective Works, where you contribute to our group investigations of important issues. Contributing can also be as simple as recording a video diary to as ambitious as shooting your own 3-7 minute pod. Check out our assignments as posted, or let us know if you have another idea!
What is a Collective Work?
Collective Works are CJ's signature product. In our Collective Works Hub, we post all the group investigations we're working on at any given time. Feel free to start working on one of the assignments listed, or suggest your own. Unlike old school news organizations—our entire assignment board is front and center so we all can work off the same page.
What's the deal with pay?
Current TV pays for most material we put on our TV channel, with the exception of Submitted Materials (i.e. video diaries, vlogs, or blogs, etc.) uploaded to the website. In terms of Collective Journalism, the first few projects are done "on spec"--meaning we don't make an offer until we see an uploaded work. Then if we make an offer, the price is negotiated between the producer and our staff journalists. For more details please check out the Terms of Use on our website.
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Alert the Government! - Jewish Internet Defense Force
If you were worried about the U.S. Government keeping track of you....Well, now they have the support of Israeli citizens. Free Speech? Think Again! Your opinion might get you in trouble. You are now a virtual Anne Franke in the internet attic with nowhere left to hide.
Alert the Government!
1. Pro-terrorist and antisemitic content on the web poses a serious threat. Much of this content can be found on areas like Facebook, YouTube, Blogger, Wordpress, Wikipedia, etc.
This content is often against these ISP's own terms. For example, Facebook's terms state:
One cannot "upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable"
Also, one cannot "upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available content that would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party, or that would otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national or international law"
2. Despite a massive campaign to report these groups to Facebook and to the Media, Facebook barely made a dent in removing them. However, we do give them credit for removing 106 problematic groups impacting over 125,000 people active in them (due to our concentrated effort of reporting groups.)
3. There are hundreds more which have not been deleted despite thousands of complaints. There are also many more new groups created daily, so the problem is spiraling out of control.
4. Therefore hatred and cyber jihadists continue to grow stronger despite operating against Facebook's terms, and in some cases against international and regional laws.
5. We do not understand why. Perhaps this excerpt from a popular blog about Facebook might explain:
"Recently Shimon Peres suggested that Israelis and Jews worldwide use Facebook to fight anti-semitism in addition to inviting Mark Zuckerberg to Israel. I asked him about his thoughts on Facebook as a tool to fight anti-semitism and if Facebook would take proactive measures to fight against it. Mark believes that Facebook need to focus on building useful communication tools and that the users can use these tools to connect and generate more worldly perspectives. As such Facebook does not need to be proactive about it. When asked about whether he will visit Israel next year, he said maybe."
6. Politicians know that the future is in the hands of the younger generation. Let them know your concerns by writing. Please ask them to do whatever they can to help combat the serious problems of pro-terrorist and other hate groups all over Facebook (and the web.) Let them know that you feel much of the activity happening here might be illegal (since there are groups actively promoting illegal terrorist groups here) and that a proper government investigation should be considered.
7. We believe the following steps are now necessary:
-Contact the White House here: Contact the President!, Contact the Vice President!
-Contact your Attorneys General by State: http://www.naag.org/ag/full_ag_table.php
-Contact your Senators: http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index_by_state.cfm
-Contact your State Reps: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
-Contact any other local law enforcement agencies as needed.
-Keep it simple. Make sure you use your name, age, where you are from, and let them know that seeing all of this on Facebook is not making you feel comfortable online and that you would like to see our government doing more about it as you see this as another important front in the war which you feel is being neglected. Make sure you provide them a link which will take them to the most problematic material:If you were worried about the U.S. Government keeping track of you....Well, now they have the support of Israeli citizens. Free... more-
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Public input period for federal fishery strategy has ended - ESPN
Personal note: Federal control of state and private waters. Communist? Socialist?
The Obama administration has ended public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.
This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still is "fluid" and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn't issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters.
Fishing industry insiders, who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force, had grown concerned that the public input would not be taken into account.
"When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big-game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.
"Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard-working American families and small businesses are being ignored.
"In spite of what we hear daily in the press about the President's concern for jobs and the economy and contrary to what he stated in the June order creating this process, we have seen no evidence from NOAA or the task force that recreational fishing and related jobs are receiving any priority."
Unless more anglers speak up to their Congressional representatives so their input will be considered, it appears the task force will issue a final report for "marine spatial planning" by late March. President Barack Obama then could possibly issue an Executive Order to implement its recommendations.
Led by NOAA's Jane Lubchenco, the task force has shown no overt dislike of recreational angling. As ESPN previously reported, WWF, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, Pew Environment Group and others produced a document entitled "Transition Green" shortly after Obama was elected in 2008.
What has happened since suggests that the task force has been in lockstep with that position paper, according to Morlock.
In late summer, just after the administration created the task force, these groups produced "Recommendations for the Adoption and Implementation of an Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes National Policy." This document makes repeated references to "overfishing," but doesn't reference recreational angling, its importance, and its benefits, both to participants and the resource.
Additionally, some of these same organizations have revealed their anti-fishing bias with their attempts to ban tackle containing lead in the United States and Canada.
Also, recreational angling and commercial fishing have been lumped together as harmful to the resource, despite protests by the angling industry.
Morlock's evidence of collusion -- the green groups began clamoring for an Executive Order to implement the task force's recommendations even before the public comment period ended in February.
On Feb. 12, the New York Times reported on that "President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities."
Anglering for access
Click here for archive
Morlock fears that "what we're seeing coming at us is an attempted dismantling of the science-based fish and wildlife model that has served us so well. There's no basis in science for the agendas of these groups who are trying to push the public out of being able to fish and recreate.
"Conflicts (user) are overstated and problems are manufactured. It's all just an excuse to put us off the water."
In the wake of the task force's framework document, the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF) and its partners in the U.S. Recreational Fishing & Boating Coalition again voiced their concerns to the administration.
"Some of the potential policy implications of this interim framework have the potential to be a real threat to recreational anglers who not only contribute billions of dollars to the economy and millions of dollars in tax revenues to support fisheries conservation, but who are also the backbone of the American fish and wildlife conservation ethic," said CSF President Jeff Crane.
Morlock, a member of the CSF board, added, "There are over one million jobs in America supported coast to coast by recreational fishing. The task force has not included any accountability requirements in their reports for evaluating or mitigating how the new policies they are drafting will impact the fishing industry or related economies.
"Given that the scope of this process appears to include a new set of policies for all coastal and inland waters of the United States, the omission of economic considerations is inexcusable."
This is not the only access issue threatening the public's right to fish, but it definitely is the most serious, according to Chris Horton, national conservation director for BASS.
"With what's being created, the same principles could apply inland as apply to the oceans," he said. "Under the guise of 'marine spatial planning' entire watersheds could be shut down, even 2,000 miles up a river drainage from the ocean.
"Every angler needs to be aware because if it's not happening in your backyard today or tomorrow, it will be eventually.
"We have one of the largest voting blocks in the country and we need to use it. We must not sit idly by."Personal note: Federal control of state and private waters. Communist? Socialist? The Obama administration has ended public... more-
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Former CIA Pilot Tells of Guns and Drugs Shipments : Veterans Today
Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, former CIA pilot, reported the illegal shipments of guns and drugs to Congress. Plumlee said he flew into former MCAS El Toro, CA, a number of times, in unmarked C-130s in the early hours of the morning.
Colonel James Sabow, USMC
However, the death of Marine Colonel James Sabow is not some crackpot conspiracy tossed around by those with nothing else to do.
Last week’s tragic shooting of two guards at the Pentagon was definitely the result of a mentally unbalanced individual who apparently was consumed with the death of Marine Colonel James Sabow at MCAS El Toro in January 1991.
Robert "Tosh" Plumlee, Santa Elena, Costa Rica, mid-1980s
The truth is that experts outside of the Defense Department believe that the forensic evidence supports that Colonel Sabow was murdered. According to Dr. David Sabow MD, his brother, the motive was to prevent him from telling about the shipments of cocaine into the U.S. to fund the Contra war in the 80s.
Independent investigations by others and the overwhelming forensic evidence strongly suggests murder. There was no reason in the world after Vietnam, 27 years in the Marine Corps with an outstanding record, the rank of colonel and a wife and children, that Col. Sabow would commit this act.
Michael A. Jacobs, attorney and retired supervisor of the Orange County District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Division, believes that homicide is supported by:
(1) compressed fracture to the right rear occipital skull and the resulting hemorrhaging beneath the skull and
(2) the large amount of aspirated blood found in the alveoli of Colonel Sabow’s lungs.
Jacobs told Congressman Duncan Hunter that “Colonel Sabow’s death could not have been a suicide but had to have been a homicide inflicted by the hands of another.”
Former Lt. Col. Anthony Verducci, a Marine Corps JAG [attorney] who was stationed at MCAS El Toro in 1991, wrote Dr. Sabow, “I have reviewed x-rays, crime scene photos, and letters submitted by forensic pathologists and other experts about Col. Sabow’s death… these materials lead me to believe that Colonel Sabow did not die of a self-inflicted gunshot wound [my emphasis]. As a Marine, former prosecutor, and citizen, I believe that an impartial law enforcement agency must review this case.”
Deadly Setup for a Whistleblower
Colonel Sabow, Assistant Chief, MCAS El Toro, had been removed from his position a few days before his death, pending the outcome of an investigation for a minor infraction relating to the carrying of personal items on an official military flight.
Friends close to Jim Sabow say the charges were concocted strictly in an effort to keep him from blowing the lid off clandestine federal drug running that he became aware of, with the planes actually landing at El Toro.
Dr. David Sabow, a retired neurologist and the younger brother of Colonel Sabow, said his brother was pressured to retire but told others that he would accept a court martial, since he had nothing to do with the shipment of cocaine in civilian aircraft to the U.S. In doing so, Dr. Sabow said his brother unknowingly signed his own death warrant.
A former CIA pilot, Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, is very familiar with the events surrounding Col. Sabow’s untimely death. He says that the word being spread from military personnel at El Toro through his group, was that Col. Sabow had discovered illegal flights coming into El Toro Marine Air Base at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., obviously carrying illegal contraband, and that he intended to blow the whistle. He had also heard that Col. Sabow was going to be relieved of his duties because of his intention to report the drug shipments.
Plumlee is convinced that Col. Sabow was murdered to silence him.
“These trips were approved by military intelligence personnel attached to the Pentagon, with CIA logistical support. They were made in total secrecy to the extent that other government agencies were not aware of the existence of these flights, or of the operation. The pilots were given a specific coded transponder number to squawk so their aircraft would not be challenged by U.S. Customs aircraft when patrolling the U.S. border.” – Former CIA pilot Tosh Plumlee
“It is highly probable that Col. Sabow became aware of the night flights into El Toro, as his base housing was on the landing flight path. A serious hitch in the operation came when a new loadmaster assigned to El Toro complained about the unregistered planes landing at night and demanded that they be registered, but a senior officer ordered him to shut up and to stop insisting on registration. The loadmaster complained to the inspector general, which prompted the IG to come to El Toro for an investigation.”
Plumlee said, “He was willing to expose the operation that sent American weapons into Latin America on American cargo aircraft, and he would prove that he had no hand in bringing illegal drugs into the country on return trips.”
Col. Sabow’s wife Sally Sabow, told her brother-in-law that the day before her husband was killed, a senior officer entered Col. Sabow’s home, and was observed shaking his finger in Col. Sabow’s face, shouting, “You will never go to a court martial…”
Drugs, Weapons and El Toro
“These trips were approved by military intelligence personnel attached to the Pentagon, with CIA logistical support. They were made in total secrecy to the extent that other government agencies were not aware of the existence of these flights, or of the operation. The pilots were given a specific coded transponder number to squawk so their aircraft would not be challenged by U.S. Customs aircraft when patrolling the U.S. border.”
He says it began in the 1980s, when the U.S. Army’s 82nd and 101st Airborne were sent to Costa Rica for maneuvers. A large number of weapons were sent with them.
“However, some of the weapons did not return to the United States and were later taken off the books by the military, marked as either lost or destroyed and reported to the Government Accounting Office as such”.
“When the weapons were repaired and tested at China Lake and Twentynine Palms, in California, they were staged and once again flown back from El Toro Marine Air Base to Latin America, via Mexico, to be supplied to the Contras, the American-financed rebel group seeking to overthrow the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua”.
“These flyways and airstrips were secretly recorded by undercover flight crews and reported to various government interdiction agencies in the United States. In 1986, an early operation known by the code name, ‘Penetrate,’ was shut down because of the politically explosive Iran-Contra matter.”
According to Plumlee, an American DEA agent from Guadalajara, Mexico, by the name of Kiki Camarena, was killed because of his knowledge concerning the “CIA-Mexico” thing, as it was widely known among the covert civilian pilots.
Tosh Plumlee emailed a copy of a February 1991 letter from former Senator Gary Hart to Senator John Kerry, Chairman, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Communications and a redacted summary transcript of his testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from August 1991. The Senate report shows that Plumlee was a “former deep-cover military and CIA asset from 1956 to 1987 with a long history of CIA activities in Central America, Cuba, and Mexico.”
A little less than a month before Gary Hart’s letter to Senator Kerry, Marine Colonel James Sabow was found dead by his wife in his backyard at MCAS El Toro. Although there’s no connection to his death, the letter does describe in some detail the illegal arms and narcotic shipments made to fund the Contra war.
Conclusion and more at the link:Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, former CIA pilot, reported the illegal shipments of guns and drugs to Congress. Plumlee said he... more-
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Let's Be Smart and Regulate Synthetic Marijiuana 'K2,' and Drop the Prohibitionist Attitude | | AlterNet
Lawmakers have a chance to learn from the failures of marijuana prohibition and respond to K2 with enlightened policy.
March 5, 2010 |
The recent emergence in the United States of "K2," sometimes called synthetic marijuana, is testing lawmakers to see if they've been paying attention to the failures of marijuana prohibition and will respond to K2 with enlightened policy.
The first stories on K2, or "Spice," broke out with headlines labeling the mixture of herbs and spices, which are treated with a synthetic compound, as "fake pot." K2 was virtually unknown until the media hyped up its presence at tobacco and novelty shops.
Under U.S. law, and in all 50 states, the herbal product is legal, and also unregulated. People who have tried K2 often report psychoactive effects that are comparable to marijuana, but notably less pleasurable.
When lawmakers consider regulating K2, they should keep in mind that the government has waged a futile war against marijuana and people who use the drug for decades.
Elected officials have burned through billions of taxpayer dollars chasing marijuana sellers, bagging marijuana plants and jailing marijuana users.
Government-funded media campaigns have sought to scare children and adults away from marijuana with grossly exaggerated claims that using the drug will lead to death and mayhem.
Despite all of these efforts, the public has largely dismissed the myths and hysteria around marijuana and recognized that the drug has important medicinal benefits. Moreover, public opinion is leaning in favor of a regulated and taxed market for marijuana.
Researchers who have tested K2 identified synthetic chemicals that are thought to mimic the psychoactive component in marijuana. These chemicals are thought to act on the cannabinoid receptors in the brain much the way that THC -- the principal psychoactive component in marijuana -- operates.
What's notable about these synthetic chemicals is that very little is known about them, and this legal alternative designed to deliver an experience like marijuana may actually carry more risk. Thus we have a supreme irony of drug prohibition: The government continues to criminalize marijuana -- a drug with established medical value that has undergone exhaustive study -- and entrepreneurs introduce a legal alternative to marijuana with ingredients scientists know little about.
Given this potential for harm, and the growing volume of sensational media portrayals of K2, some lawmakers have ignored the lessons learned from marijuana prohibition and moved to criminalize possession and sales of K2.
Lawmakers in Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri have already written legislation to ban the herbal mix. It seems that a reporter need only write an article about an obscure bag of twigs to spur a lawmaker to criminalize more chemicals and the people who use them.
Time and time again, elected officials have dropped the ball when it comes to regulating drugs. Lawmakers have preferred to lazily pass the responsibility of controlling a drug on to law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
The problem is, we know from marijuana prohibition that law enforcement has no control over the drug market and the criminals who run it. Criminalizing K2will only worsen the devastating harm our society already suffers under drug prohibition. Rather than regulation of the supply and ingredients of K2, criminalization leaves the question of what goes into the product up to drug dealers.
Rather than passing regulations that bar K2 sales to minors, criminalizing K2 will essentially give dealers the green light to sell the product to whomever they please.
By choosing to ban K2 outright, lawmakers will also forfeit badly needed state revenue from K2 sales and instead commit millions of taxpayer dollars to investigate, prosecute and jail K2 users. Plus, researchers point out that hundreds of other known synthetic chemicals will easily reach store shelves once K2 is banned.
The sensible legislative response to K2 is to create effective regulatory controls on sale and possession. California and Maine have passed model legislation that formally regulates and taxes adult sales of salvia divinorium -- another product with psychoactive properties -- and criminalizes salvia sales to minors.
Lawmakers should deliver a knockout to prohibition and pass laws that will actually regulate and control K2.Lawmakers have a chance to learn from the failures of marijuana prohibition and respond to K2 with enlightened policy. March 5,... more-
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GORDON DUFF: 9/11 AND CURRENT ATTEMPTS TO COVER UP AN AMERICAN HOLOCAUST : Veterans Today
CAUGHT! A NEW 9/11 GAME OUTED
By Gordon Duff / STAFF WRITER / Senior Editor
Today, John Avalon wrote a piece for the Daily Beast describing those who are asking for a new 9/11 investigation as “wingnuts.” What he fails to tell us is that, as “propaganda chief” for Rudy Guliani, a man whose former chief of staff is now doing time as a Mafia “bag man” Bernie Kerik, burying the truth has long been a part of his job.
The prisoner in question, Bernie Kerik, was supposed to head Homeland Security. Think about a character from the movie Goodfellas as the nation’s chief law enforcement official and you have an idea where John Avalon comes from. The only way of going further would have been to put the ghost of the “dapper don,” John Gotti himself into the Whitehouse. Is Avalon another Kerik or just a “Kerik/Guliani associate?”
Much of the 9/11 controversy centers around the mysterious collapse of Building 7, never hit by a plane, a building Guliani is said to have been warned to leave before it was brought down by controlled demolition.
Larry Silverstein, the controller of the destroyed WTC complex, stated plainly in a PBS documentary that he and the FDNY decided jointly to demolish WTC 7 late in the afternoon of 9/11. In the documentary “America Rebuilds“, aired September 2002, Silverstein makes the following statement;
“I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, ‘We’ve had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.’ And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.”
The problem with this story is that, according to literally thousands of engineers and architects, it would take weeks to engineer the collapse of a building like this. Did Silverstein have a crystal ball or are all buildings in New York wired to explode, “just in case?” The 9/11 Commission was never allowed to look into Building 7. Guliani and Silverstein are people John Avalon worked with on a daily basis.
It has become so powerful that the “assets” are coming out of their holes. Avalon’s approach is classic:
“It is appropriate that Ahmadinejad used the phrase the “big lie,” first coined by Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf to explain the psychology behind propaganda campaigns of misinformation. “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility,” Hitler wrote, because “It would never come into [most people's] heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”
Avalon is describing a conspiracy. Who is the “wingnut” here?
Never Forget No Plane Hit Building 7Exactly what group is conspiring together? Who is financing the “9/11 truth” propaganda campaign that is part of the massive conspiracy that Avalon is referring to? What is their goal? So far, the “9/11 truth” movement is what it looks like, people unsatisfied with the explanation they got, scientists, scholars, politicians, world leaders and a few crazy people, all loosely tied to one idea, finding the truth, a truth that key members of the 9/11 Commission have said is not in their report because of a “criminal conspiracy” to mislead them.
If anything, the “9/11 truth “movement is the victim, a victim of smear campaigns and it is increasingly reported that their organizations, which number in the hundreds, have come under investigation by security agencies and their membership has been heavily infiltrated much as with the militia movements of the 80s and 90s.
Avalon’s article appears to be a small and very stupid part of the “truth debunking” movement, clearly tied to “insiders,” and there is no more of an “insider” than Rudy Guliani. Is someone figuring that if we are drowned with enough baseless charges of conspiracy, the real conspiracies can go unchallenged? This is a very common “psy-ops” deception ploy meant, frankly, to be wielded by a greater intellect and with greater skill.
Do the terms “truth debunking” and “obstruction of justice” mean the same thing? We should think about this.
“9/11 truthers” aren’t armed radicals and nothing is being threatened other than a “cover story” that fell apart years ago. If the “9/11 truth” movement is being investigated as a criminal conspiracy, as seems to be the case, using extraordinary means, even to the point of applying Patriot Act “counter-terrorism” provisions, what does this mean?
Informants are being discovered in nearly every 9/11 group, some spouting insane theories, others advocating violence. We call people like this “agent provocateurs.” This is also a classic “counter-intelligence” practice. Why is this being done and who is ordering it, financing it? It’s happening, and on an ever growing scale.
911 2nd Plane Hitting BuildingAfter dragging out Hitler, Avalon then went after poor and long dead Osama bin Laden. While in Pakistan last week, meeting with Lt. General Hamid Gul, former head of the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, and General Aslem Beg, former Chief of Staff, Army of Pakistan, along with Col “Imam,” coordinator of military activities against the Soviets, I was able to verify the December 2001 death of Osama bin Laden. This was also confirmed at the highest governmental levels, the same folks that regularly brief our own government.
If you are looking for suspects, you are now safe to start looking at anyone presenting video, audio or other “evidence” of bin Laden or statements about bin Laden, 9/11 or terror attacks after bin Laden’s death. Anyone originating such information can easily be assumed to have been involved in the planning and execution of the acts being put off on bin Laden.
Thankfully, we know who these people are and can arrest and prosecute them as soon as we come to our senses.
Not only has bin Laden been dead for years but the CIA’s own translation of bin Laden’s tapes shows him denying all involvement in 9/11. What does Avalon do? He brings out the transcript of a long discredited “phony bin Laden” tape received from former Israeli Defense Force member, Rita Katz and her organization Site Intelligence, a group that downloads things from conspiracy sites on the internet, something Avalon must know alot about.
Here is what Avalon had to say:
“Alternately, you can just take Osama bin Laden’s word for it. He’s repeatedly taken credit for the attacks, including on a videotape where he recounts the planning process and his wish for maximum damage: “We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. … Due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we hoped for.”
Of course, bin Laden never said any of this. This is a fabrication. Why would someone write something like this unless there was something to hide? Who teaches people to write like this? Did writing speeches for Rudy Guliani suddenly make a political propagandist into a journalists? Let’s check Avalon’s sources against the official record.
This is edited, more at the link:CAUGHT! A NEW 9/11 GAME OUTED By Gordon Duff / STAFF WRITER / Senior Editor Today, John Avalon wrote a piece for the Daily... more-
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15 Reasons Why We Need a Revolt in This Country | | AlterNet
Government works quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich and powerful. But it does not work for people.
March 7, 2010 |
Photo Credit: yomanimus
It is time for a revolution. Government does not work for regular people. It appears to work quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich and powerful. But it does not work for people.
The 1776 Declaration of Independence stated that when a long train of abuses by those in power evidence a design to reduce the rights of people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the peoples right, in fact their duty to engage in a revolution.
Martin Luther King, Jr., said forty three years ago next month that it was time for a radical revolution of values in the United States. He preached “a true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.” It is clearer than ever that now is the time for radical change.
Look at what our current system has brought us and ask if it is time for a revolution?
Over 2.8 million people lost their homes in 2009 to foreclosure or bank repossessions – nearly 8000 each day – higher numbers than the last two years when millions of others also lost their homes.
At the same time, the government bailed out Bank of America, Citigroup, AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the auto industry and enacted the troubled asset (TARP) program with $1.7 trillion of our money.
Wall Street then awarded itself over $20 billion in bonuses in 2009 alone, an average bonus on top of pay of $123,000.
At the same time, over 17 million people are jobless right now. Millions more are working part-time when they want and need to be working full-time.
Yet the current system allows one single U.S. Senator to stop unemployment and Medicare benefits being paid to millions.
There are now 35 registered lobbyists in Washington DC for every single member of the Senate and House of Representatives, at last count 13,739 in 2009. There are eight lobbyists for every member of Congress working on the health care fiasco alone.
At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations now have a constitutional right to interfere with elections by pouring money into races.
The Department of Justice gave a get out of jail free card to its own lawyers who authorized illegal torture.
At the same time another department of government, the Pentagon, is prosecuting Navy SEALS for punching an Iraqi suspect.
The US is not only involved in senseless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the U.S. now maintains 700 military bases world-wide and another 6000 in the US and our territories. Young men and women join the military to protect the U.S. and to get college tuition and healthcare coverage and killed and maimed in elective wars and being the world’s police. Wonder whose assets they are protecting and serving?
In fact, the U.S. spends $700 billion directly on military per year, half the military spending of the entire world – much more than Europe, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, and Venezuela - combined.
The government and private companies have dramatically increased surveillance of people through cameras on public streets and private places, airport searches, phone intercepts, access to personal computers, and compilation of records from credit card purchases, computer views of sites, and travel.
The number of people in jails and prisons in the U.S. has risen sevenfold since 1970 to over 2.3 million. The US puts a higher percentage of our people in jail than any other country in the world.
The tea party people are mad at the Republicans, who they accuse of selling them out to big businesses.
Democrats are working their way past depression to anger because their party, despite majorities in the House and Senate, has not made significant advances for immigrants, or women, or unions, or African Americans, or environmentalists, or gays and lesbians, or civil libertarians, or people dedicated to health care, or human rights, or jobs or housing or economic justice. Democrats also think their party is selling out to big business.
Forty three years ago next month, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached in Riverside Church in New York City that “a time comes when silence is betrayal.” He went on to condemn the Vietnam War and the system which created it and the other injustices clearly apparent. “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing oriented” society to a “person oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
It is time.Government works quite well for big corporations, banks, insurance companies, military contractors, lobbyists, and for the rich... more-
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Homeland Security Prepares You For Future Screening At All Large Events - Is This What You Want?
WARNING: TAKE YOUR ZOLOFT BEFORE VIEWING
Pay close attention at 3:30. Full interrogation of everyone. If this isn't a Police State, I don't know what is. Welcome to the Fourth Reich. Congratulations America, Al Quaeda, if you believe they did 9/11, has won the war and has taken away our freedom completely! If you believe we did 9/11 then the traitors wIn and have taken away our freedom completely. I woke up this morning and my clock said 1984.
IF YOU'RE NOT MAD AS HELL AFTER THIS VIDEO.....WHY NOT? THIS HAS TO STOP!WARNING: TAKE YOUR ZOLOFT BEFORE VIEWING Pay close attention at 3:30. Full interrogation of everyone. If this isn't a... more-
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And So Begins The Push For Monsanto To Control Marijuana
Hey, what did you expect? Of course when they finally legalize it they're going to give the profits to the corporate owners of our government. It's the American Way!Hey, what did you expect? Of course when they finally legalize it they're going to give the profits to the corporate owners... more-
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Joe Bageant: Americans Are "Hope Fiends" Because Honestly Looking at the Present Situation Would Destroy Just About Everything We Hold As Reality | | AlterNet
An awareness of class makes clear who is screwing whom. That's why American capitalism's official line is that we are a "classless society."
March 1, 2010 |
Near midnight and I am making tortillas on an iron skillet over a gas flame. Some three thousand miles to the north, my wife and dog nestle in sleep in the wake of a 34-inch snowstorm, while the dogs of Ajijic are barking at the witching hour and roosters crow all too early for the dawn. While my good Mexican neighbors along Zaragoza Street sleep.
Yet here I am awake and patting out tortillas, haunted by the empire that I have called home most of my life.
I like to think that, for the most part, I no longer live up there in the U.S., but southward of its ticking social, political and economic bombs. Because the US debt bomb has not yet gone off, Social Security still exists, and the occasional royalty check or book advance still comes in, allowing me to remain here. And so long as America's perverse commodities economy keeps stumbling along and making lifelike noises, so long as the American people accept permanent debt subjugation -- I can drink, think and burn tortillas. Believe me, I take no smugness in this irony.
There is a terrible science fiction-like awe in the autonomous American economic monolith, in the way that it provides for us, feeds on us and keeps us as its both its lavish pets and slaves. The commodity economy long ago enslaved Americans and other "developed" capitalist societies. But Americans in particular. The most profound slavery must be that in which the slaves can conceive of no other possible or better world than their bondage. Inescapable, global, all permeating, the commodities economy rules so thoroughly most cannot imagine any other possible kind of economy.
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It comes down to owning stuff, and that the stuff we own also owns us (as anyone paying rent for a storage locker can attest). Transmogrified by industrial materialism, we have become what we own. More specifically, what we are observed by the rest of our society as owning. In the commodified society of industrial materialism, owning is being. So much so, that politicians bandy the term "ownership society" about, not only without causing the public to gag, but to cheers. Even liberals who claim to dislike the term don't want to be in a "We don't own shit society."
Early modern capitalism was more or less understandable, if not always pleasant. One can see why a pre-industrial world that had owned less would embrace owning a bit more. Who gave a damn if it came from Adam Smith's "unseen hand," the hand that was taking care of the already rich, who in turn managed the order of the world as seen through the lens of aristocratic and bourgeoisie English commerce. "If we work our guts out Nellie, we can buy a pork knuckle every Sunday. And a featherbed, if you get my drift. Woo Hoo!"
Enter the reign of the bourgeoisie, self-appointed and self-interested middlemen to anything and everything. The sheer complexity of the industrial revolution and associated finance was a dog that could fatten many fleas.
When the bourgeoisie did not get what it felt was a good cut of the action from the monarchies, it raised hell, sometimes enough to cause revolutions. If they won, as they did in America, they took credit for establishing democracy. If they lost, they fobbed it off as a "people's revolution," leaving the working slobs, the actual producers of wealth, to face the king's hangmen.
Even when "the people" occasionally win one of those "people's revolutions", we never really win. Not in the end. For instance, here in Mexico, contrary to what we've seen in Zapata movies, there has never been a successful people's revolution in terms of lasting and real egalitarian reform. Just armed struggle, and many promises of reform, always to be abandoned after the revolution. They were subsequently wiped out by the politically potent urban middle class, in league with traditional elites, such as the haciendados and corporatists. The bourgeoisie never gives up its profitable connections to the elites. Same as in America. The bourgeoisie lives at the pleasure of the elites.
However, in the people's revolutions it was mainly "the people" who got killed. So they get naming rights. The people own their revolution only in death. Just as in the U.S., the elites here and the business classes get everything else and rent it back to us as mortgages or whatever.
You can argue that people have always screwed other people for a buck, or a drachma or a shekel. You will win with that argument every time. However, the real issue is about how many people got screwed and how hard by how few. Under 250 years of capitalism, the rising take from the ongoing screw job has grown astronomical. Enough to buy every political tub-thumper in Washington and a Supreme Court. Enough that if the elite cartels on Wall Street rip 300 million Americans for trillions, leaving them squinting at the fine print on their eviction notices, they cannot do jack about it. Except pay the next ransom demand for their credit . On their credit cards. Then sign their children into future debt slavery.An awareness of class makes clear who is screwing whom. That's why American capitalism's official line is that we are a... more-
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GORDON DUFF: IS AMERICA SUBJECT TO A DOMESTIC REIGN OF TERROR? : Veterans Today
IS AMERICA THE VICTIM OF A WAR FROM WITHIN?
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
One day you read about a break-in at a Senator’s office, the next day, you learn the Acorn “scandal” was a ruse. None of these things get any follow-up in the MSM/Corporate news. Then you find the only magazine that will report on massive spy operations against America is Hustler, and their coverage of the national security scandal involving Sibel Edmonds testimony.
This is the biggest spy scandal, biggest scandal in America’s history, best documented and most damaging and has been covered up for years. When a huge story like this breaks, we hear nothing, read nothing.
Keep thinking, “If it isn’t in the newspapers or on TV, it can’t hurt me.” You couldn’t be more wrong.
Your spam box fills with accusations, polished lies, propaganda, dozens a day sometimes and you never know who or where. It is never anything exposing the truth, always something coordinated with the MSM. They report only what they are allowed and leave the cover-up and lies that point fingers the wrong way to their friends on the internet.
Its called “psy-ops,” a form of warfare and we are the victims. The military spends billions protecting us from “cyber-warfare” but fails to note that the spam we get daily is cyber warfare, in fact it is terrorism. Every criminal organization, every terrorist group, uses psy-ops, and cyber warfare. Much of your email is part of it and it is so successful that you don’t even know who your real enemies are anymore.
An enemy calls this “winning.”
The current leaked memo showing the GOP plan to “scare,” read DESTABILIZE the United States through an organized and systematic plan of disinformation is psychological warfare, “psy-ops” and a form of cyber-terrorism. Who runs the GOP? Who runs the Democrats? Do you think we do?
If you do, you are a victim of psy-ops. Score another one for the “enemy.”
Any systematic plan to misinform and deceive Americans to undermine their ability to make informed decisions for their own welfare is an attack on the United States and, under law, a criminal act. If it is done with intent to inflict damage on the security of the United States it is treason. Anyone have a problem with this definition?
Where are those we trust, those we pay to protect us? You say you believe they are part of it?
We had an electronic voting scandal and no newspaper reported it. A witness who claimed he had been threatened by Karl Rove died in a mysterious plane crash, the financier, Ohio Republican leader, Tom Noe went to prison for 22 years and more than minor proof is available that the 2004 election for President is invalid.
This gave us the Roberts Supreme Court, whose decisions have done untold damage to the security of America. You won’t hear this on the MSM/Corporate news but 4 “minority” Supreme Court justices will glady tell you. 5 members of our Supreme Court are now defacto “enemies of the state” yet now, they control the state to the point of stepping so far outside their Constitutional mandate that our original system of government is gone.
Hijacked. Two crooked elections had a purpose, stacking the court, bring us to permanent war and looting the American financial system while undermining our civil rights and system of laws. It is done, signed sealed and delivered.
Proof is flowing in from around the country of votes being “flipped” and machines being hacked, to the point of millions of votes. Not only is this not reported, the government itself is either unwilling or unable to protect America from these basic attacks on our freedoms.
This is how we define a “failed state” when talking about others. Normally, we would ask for sanctions and plan a regime change to save the people from tyranny and injustice.
The crimes aren’t just torture and massive election fraud, it goes deeper. All the talk about the “bail outs” is part of it too, that and the hundreds of billions stolen by defense contractors in Iraq.
The GAO itself even reports 295 billion stolen so far but nothing is done, not a day of jail time, no investigation.
What does this prove?
If elections are rigged, news is managed, public opinion is twisted by phony scares, or invented news and massive deception campaigns, then anything can be done, any crime, murder, theft, spying, treason, we aren’t safe from anything.
America’s own “war on terror” has made America itself a victim of those some of us trusted to protect us. Finding proof of this is child’s play but nobody is looking, nobody reporting, nobody “minding the store.” There are no investigative journalists, not ones on TV or in Newspapers or major magazines, no curious judges or prosecutors, Congressional committees “getting at the facts.”
Could everyone be involved? Who has that kind of power, that much money?
Are there domestic black operations? Are there groups that are controlled by political parties, like the GOP’s private militia, “Blackwater” or the AIPAC/Mossad groups that can do alot more than just manage the news or harass citizens?
With hundreds of trained spies, snipers, “black-bag” crews and “hit squads” from the CIA and other spy organizations, not only working for extremists but working inside the US for years, has anyone wondered why nothing is done to investigate anything?
Is there a secret domestic reign of terror, unreported, unseen by the public but there just the same?
How many of our national leaders are being blackmailed? Check on the “retirements” and resignations. Then add to that number, those who vote for things they despise and say nothing about corruption and tyranny. It isn’t just the Whitehouse and Congress but the courts, Justice Department and, of course, the Pentagon.
Not everyone can be bribed by defense contractors or bullied by the AIPAC/Israel lobby, it has to get rougher than that, or we would be hearing more, much more. When we turned our Joint Special Operations Command over to Dick Cheney as his personal private army then began “privatization” of our black operations, rendition programs, counter-intelligence, those who are supposed to silently kill America’s enemies to “keep us safe” did we suspect it would all go so wrong?
The results are obvious. We are now in the middle of massive military operations in Afghanistan against an enemy who is laughing at us. We are waving flags, claiming victory and they, with their weapons put aside, are cheering us on. We know it, they know it, only the American people are fooled. It is all a game, dead Afghanis, broke and unemployed Americans and rich and fat defense contractors.
Oh, we also forgot to mention the drug barons in Afghanistan. Do you really believe that our new “privatized” CIA and mercenary armies are above drug running? Get real. Ask one of your kids how cheap heroin is now, any kid over 10 will know.
Can a population, can the American people be free if systematically deceived by every information source they are told to trust? It started small, with phony Osama bin Laden translations, done in Israel, that were the opposite of what he actually said. From there, where did they go?
We accept the things we seem to have once feared as though they don’t matter.
One of the best psy-ops games is to bombard us with phony conspiracies to hide the real ones. We get so many now that none seem to matter, we either deny everything out of “funk” or simply feel overwhelmed. This is what was intended and if you feel overwhelmed, “they” have done their jobs to perfection.
It is a war, a terrorist war against America, as real as crashing planes and blowing up buildings, in fact it is worse. We are slowly being beaten down with lies to where we don’t care anymore. We may have been there for years already.IS AMERICA THE VICTIM OF A WAR FROM WITHIN? By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor One day you read about a break-in at a... more-
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President Obama: Replace Rahm with Me ...an open letter from Michael Moore
http://static.michaelmoore.com/manual_img/10/03/coachmike.jpg
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Dear President Obama,
I understand you may be looking to replace Rahm Emanuel as your chief of staff.
I would like to humbly offer myself, yours truly, as his replacement.
I will come to D.C. and clean up the mess that's been created around you. I will work for $1 a year. I will help the Dems on Capitol Hill find their spines and I will teach them how to nonviolently beat the Republicans to a pulp.
And I will help you get done what the American people sent you there to do. I don't need much, just a cot in the White House basement will do.
Now, don't get too giddy with excitement over my offer, because you and I are going to be up at 5 in the morning, 7 days a week and I am going to get you pumped up for battle every single day (see photo). Each morning you and I will do 100 jumping jacks and you will repeat after me:
"THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ELECTED ME, NOT THE REPUBLICANS, TO RUN THE COUNTRY! I AM IN CHARGE! I WILL ORDER ALL OBSTRUCTIONISTS OUTTA MY WAY! IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON'T LIKE WHAT I'M DOING THEY CAN THROW MY ASS OUT IN 2012. IN THE MEANTIME, I CALL THE SHOTS ON THEIR BEHALF! NOW, CONGRESS, DROP AND GIVE ME 50!!"
Then we will put on our jogging sweats and run up to Capitol Hill. We will take names, kick butts, and then take some more names. If we have to give a few noogies or half-nelson's, then so be it. In our pockets we will have a piece of paper to show the pansy Dems just how much they won by in 2008 -- and the poll results that show the majority of Americans oppose the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and want the bankers punished. Like drill sergeants, we will get right up in their faces and ask them, "WHAT PART OF THE PUBLIC MANDATE DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, SOLDIER?!! DROP AND GIVE ME 50!"
I know this is the job Rahm Emanuel was supposed to be doing.
Now, don't get me wrong. I have always admired Rahm Emanuel (if you don't count his getting NAFTA pushed through Congress in the '90s which destroyed towns like Flint, Michigan. I know, picky-picky.). He is what we needed for a long time -- a no-apologies, take-no-prisoners fighting machine. Someone who is not afraid to get his hands dirty and pound the right wing into submission. Far from being the foul-mouthed bully he has been portrayed as, Rahm is the one who BEAT UP the bullies to protect us from them.
That's certainly what he did in 2006. After six long, miserable years of the middle-class getting slaughtered and the poor being flushed down the toilet, Rahm Emanuel took on the job of returning Congress to the Democrats. No one believed it could be done.
But he did it. Big time. He put the fear of God into the party of Rush and Newt. They had never been so scared. More importantly, though, he instilled a sense of hope in the Democrats that they could actually score the mother of all hat tricks in 2008 -- and with you, an African American no less, in the pole position!
It worked. The Darkness ended. The vast majority of nation wept with joy on the night of the election (those who weren't weeping went out and bought a record number of guns and ammo). Unlike the last president, you didn't "win" by 537 votes in Florida (although Gore won the popular vote by a half-million), you beat McCain nationally by 9,522,083 votes! The House Democrats got a walloping 79-vote margin. The Senate Dems would caucus with a supermajority of 60 votes unheard of in over 30 years. The wars would now end. America would have universal health care. Wall Street and the banks would, at the very least, be reined in. Hardworking citizens would not be thrown out of their homes. It was supposed to be the dawning of a new age.
But the Republicans were not going to go quietly into the night. You see, instead of having just one Rahm Emanuel, they are ALL Rahm Emanuels. That's why they usually win. Unlike most Democrats, they are relentless and unstoppable. When they believe in something (which is usually themselves and the K Street job they hope to be rewarded with someday), they'll fight for it till the death. They are loyal to a fault to each other (they were never able to denounce Bush, even though they knew he was destroying the party). They dig their heels in deep no matter what. If you exiled them to a lone chunk of melting polar ice cap, they would keep insisting that it was just a normal "January thaw," even as the frigid Arctic waters rose above their God-fearing necks ("See what I mean -- this water is COLD! What 'global *warming*'?! Adam and Eve rode dinos...aagghh!!... gulp gulp gulp").
We thought we were all done with this craziness, but we were mistaken. Like a beast that you just can't cage, the Republicans convinced not only the media, but YOU and your fellow Dems, that 59 votes was a *minority*! Precious time was lost trying to reach a "consensus" and trying to be "bipartisan."
Well, you and the Democrats have been in charge now for over a year and not one banking regulation has been reinstated. We don't have universal health care. The war in Afghanistan has escalated. And tens of thousands of Americans continue to lose their jobs and be thrown out of their homes. For most of us, it's just simply no longer good enough that Bush is gone. Woo hoo. Bush is gone. Yippee. That hasn't created one new friggin' job.
You're such a good guy, Mr. President. You came to Washington with your hand extended to the Republicans and they just chopped it off. You wanted to be respectful and they decided that they were going to say "no" to everything you suggested. Yet, you kept on saying you still believed in bipartisanship.
Well, if you really want bipartisanship, just go ahead and let the Republicans win in November. Then you'll get all the bipartisanship you want.
Let me be clear about one thing: The Democrats on Election Day 2010 are going to get an ass-whoopin' of biblical proportions if things don't change right now. And after the new Republican majority takes over, they, along with a few conservative Democrats in Congress, will get to bipartisanly impeach you for being a socialist and a citizen of Kenya. How nice to see both sides of the aisle working together again!
And the brief window we had to fix this country will be gone.
Gone.
Gone, baby, gone.
I don't know what your team has been up to, but they haven't served you well. And Rahm, poor Rahm, has turned into a fighter -- not of Republicans, but of the left. He called those of us who want universal health care "f***ing retarded." Look, I don't know if Rahm is the problem or if it's Gibbs or Axelrod or any of the other great people we owe a debt of thanks to for getting you elected. All I know is that whatever is fueling your White House it's now running on fumes. Time to shake things up! Time to bring me in to get you pumped up every morning! Go Barack! Yay Obama! Fight, Team, Fight!
I'm packed and ready to come to D.C. tomorrow. If it helps, you won't really be losing Rahm entirely because I'll be bringing his brother with me -- my agent, Ari Emanuel. Man, you should see HIM negotiate a deal! Have you ever wanted to see Mitch McConnell walking around Capitol Hill carrying his own head in his hands after it's just been handed to him by the infamous Ari? Oh, baby, it won't be pretty -- but boy will it be sweet!
What say you, Barack? Me and you against the world! Yes we can! It'll be fun -- and we may just get something done. Whaddaya got to lose? Hope?
Retardedly yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.comhttp://static.michaelmoore.com/manual_img/10/03/coachmike.jpg Friday, March 5th, 2010 Dear President Obama, I understand... more-
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Ethics in the Field: An Inside Look at the Israel Occupation Forces
"Family-Friendly" Community Center in Austin Texas hosts War Criminal
(Austin, Texas) Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Colonel Bentzion Gruber spoke at the Austin Jewish Community Center on March 4, 2010.
Protesters started gathering outside the center about an hour before his lecture, carrying signs "Judaism-Yes, Zionism-No" and "Bentzion Gruber, WAR CRIMES are not ethical."
The controversy arises from the fact that a community center such as the JCC-Austin would allow, and even co-sponsor, the lecture of a man who is directly involved in the violation of International Law and is responsible for directing 18,000 soldiers in human rights abuses in Occupied Palestine.
The Palestinian people suffer under apartheid conditions as inhabitants of Israel, a country where they make up almost half - 5 million - of the population. Israel is attempting to gradually cleanse its Palestinian population, to be replaced by Jewish-Israeli settlements, and the IOF plays a major role in this.
Bentzion Gruber spoke to an audience of about 100 mostly middle aged people about how ethical the IOF is, claiming it is the most ethical military in the world today.
Gruber is touring the nation to raise funds for his agenda at the same time that the UN Goldstone commission and international organizations such as UNICEF and the UN, report about Israel’s crimes against International Law and human rights.
Gruber dismissed the white-phosphorus bombs used by the IOF in Operation Cast Lead as simple smoke bombs. Jeff Zavala, who video taped portions of Gruber's speech that evening, has his statements recorded.
Gruber states "Israel didn't use phosphorus in Gaza period. If they used phosphorus shells in Gaza, where are those people? I’ve never seen one photo. We didn't use phosphorus." You can view this video on Youtube, (google Bentzion Gruber), which includes photos of people harmed by phosphorus shells.
The Goldstone Report has extensive documented evidence that the IOF used white-phosphorus bombs against civilians; one of many war crimes Israel refuses to stand trial for. Israel has already admitted to dropping phosphorus bombs on Gaza.
"According to the Israeli document, two senior officers, Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg and Colonel Ilan Malka, "exceeded their authority in approving the use of phosphorus shells". The document also mentioned that the shells were fired "in violation of the rules of engagement prohibiting use of such artillery near populated areas." It added that the officers, who still run their previous posts, have been disciplined." (source: PressTV)
As the lecture attendees left the JCC Austin, they were met with more protesters and more signs such as "read the GOLDSTONE REPORT online" and "Stop Israeli Terrorism."
Protester Jeff Zavala stated "I believe that the Palestinians under occupation are the single most oppressed people in the world today, that's why I'm here tonight." Haithem El-Zabri, tried to attend the lecture and was turned away. "After the guard looked at my id, he said 'you are not welcome here; you need to turn around and leave the premises immediately,' and then he called his supervisor, it was very clear he had been told to be on the lookout for me and had my name memorized; he didn't go back to check a blacklist or anything!"
Protests across the country are increasing due to the fact that the apartheid in Israel-Palestine is increasingly seen as a human rights issue and not an issue of religion or nationalism.
Gruber is is touring the country lecturing until late March to include Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Barbara; Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey; Miami, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Houston, and Washington D.C.
Reported by Gail Evelyn Alfar, Austin, Texas"Family-Friendly" Community Center in Austin Texas hosts War Criminal (Austin, Texas) Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)... more-
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The Video the Army Does Not Want You To See. No Justice, No Peace.
The American Military, in the name of keep us 'safe', has committed years of atrocities. Some of the soldiers go awry and become savage immoral killers. Some of the soldiers go crazy when they return home after witnessing such atrocities. We don't fight in the name of PEACE. We don't fight in the name of FREEDOM. We fight in the name of HALLIBURTON, RAYTHEON, KELLOGG, PFIZER and the rest.
How dare we claim the high moral ground when the wars we are in are for profit and lies and have nothing to do with freedom or saving anyone? Did you know that an 'insurgent' is someone who doesn't like having a foreign military stomping around on their backyards? I'd be willing to bet most of you would be insurgents if the roles were reversed. An estimated 90% of the foreigners killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been civilians...innocent. We call them collateral damage. They call them brother, sister, father and mother.
Take a good look at this video and hear the testimonies. Then, think about all of your complaints, fears, demands, petty arguments that you take for granted every day. Think about everyone asking for money, jobs, cutting back on carbon emissions. Now, answer this. How dare we complain about what we lack when we've taken so much from so many? How dare we complain about carbon emissions when our death machine is creating the majority of it? How dare we argue between Democrat and Republican when so many in our own streets are fighting for a meal? How dare we judge anyone for hating us when we've destroyed their lives, their land, their water and their future?
There will never be peace anywhere on this planet until we learn that the 'Justice' that we preach must be the 'Justice' we deliver.
No Justice, No Peace.
No Justice, No Peace!
Christopher Hignite Monkey Press 2010The American Military, in the name of keep us 'safe', has committed years of atrocities. Some of the soldiers go awry... more-
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AMERICA’S POLITICAL MESS, TIME TO START OVER : Veterans Today
TERM LIMITS, A THIRD PARTY OR EVEN REAL CAMPAIGN FINANCE RULES AREN’T ENOUGH
By Gordon Duff / STAFF WRITER / Senior Editor
start-over-governmentWhere do you start? John McCain is facing a challenge in Arizona. He is going to drag out his military record and his experience as a personal recommendation. Few Americans really know that McCain is a mental case with a “war record” he has had to have “classified” to keep himself out of prison.
The truth, is this all? Does he have lifelong ties to organized crime, a history of voting against veterans and working against POW/MIA group? It is even worse than that. We have never had a person this crazy with this much baggage running for any office in our history. McCain, the personal shadow of Josef Lieberman, the Senator from Tel Aviv, along with dozens of others, could and should all be doing time, not “serving democracy.”
We have never had a political candidate in our history so deserving of the attention of criminal profilers as John McCain. Now that there is time for reflective and intelligent thought, those who supported him should take a look at his real history. The myth of John McCain, carefully groomed by the organization was challenged by POW advocate Ted Sampley. It makes a powerful read and earned Sampley the hatred of McCain and John Kerry until his death. I can think of no better epitaph for an American.
McCain, the lovable sociopath, is not the only one, not by a long shot. We have peppered the country with junior versions of McCain, all chasing the brass ring represented by selling America to the powerful and generally evil groups that own our government. It isn’t just AIPAC, front for poor Israel, a country that touts itself as the “second most powerful nuclear power on earth” or the endless lobbies. The disappointment so many feel about President Obama tells the story.
As a veteran, I had to work for Obama, or so I thought. McCain had done so much against our POWs and their families, was so crooked, did so much to betray America’s veterans that he had to go. This left me with having to push support to Barack Obama, another of those “out of nowhere” politicians, obviously alot smarter than McCain and with some sense to know what economic disaster looks like. I knew he couldn’t be running for office unless he had been “packaged” by some group with an agenda to keep things as they were.
Here is a question. If Congress wasn’t as corrupt as we know it to be, a pile of money hogs with their noses stuck in a trough, would the health care bill have passed by now? Any idiot knows we need one, OK, any half idiot. Every American that opposed health care, or at least a public option, must be a total dupe. When we started, 40% of Americans had no coverage, it is now 55%. However, the bill we are voting on is a boondoggle for the insurance companies and, even then, the GOP isn’t happy with that.
How do I hate the democrats for their corruption and gutlessness when the entire Republican party is even worse, pawns of gangsters, totally bereft of any humanity at all?
All Americans asked of Obama was to clean up the remains of two stolen elections and investigate the criminal conspiracy at the heart of the Bush administration. At least, we need a new 9/11 Commission and a Special Prosecutor to go after those who have been accused of perjury and submitting false information to the first one. This would jail half the Bush Administration and, perhaps, open the door to a look at how things really work.
Tens of millions of Americans and most people outside the United States believe 9/11 was a conspiracy involving the Bush administration and groups from Israel. Whether this is true or not, since 9/11 we have found massive evidence that it may be true and, since the Detroit “Crotch Bombing” of 2009, we have a publicly know evidentiary trail showing how it could have been done using the Mossad and Israeli owned companies.
Even those Americans who still buy the MSM/Corporate press version of the conspiracy, there is enough proof that the Iraq invasion was part of a criminal conspiracy that should jail, not only a former President and Vice President but dozens of others also. That one is a slam dunk.
Obama has failed totally in his responsibility as president there.
Remember the Acorn scandal? Filled the newspapers with stories of buying votes and people dressing up as pimps. Now we find our “pimp” was a CIA employee, the newspaper stories were totally false and Acorn was victimized by a plot between the GOP, CIA and Israel as part of a ploy to rig a 3rd consecutive election. These are the facts as they stand, facts that will never be reported but facts just the same.
They tell you what is wrong. Nobody will ask newspapers why they take orders from lobbyists or why paid lobbyists like Tom Ridge and so many others are paraded in front of the public, them and their scripts, bringing us endless falsified news.
I was never a big one for the “grand conspiracy.” I had worked in politics, knew I was around crooks. Every American accepts this silently. It is why America is a failed state, heading down the toilet, dead in the water and, as any real economist knows, hopeless. I spent a alot of time with former Washington attorney and Senate Finance Chief Counsel, Jeff Gates over the last couple of weeks. We were on a lecture tour of Pakistan together and ended up dozens of discussions, some including alot of table pounding. We are both good at that part.
Jeff wrote tax code, the detail stuff, when working in the Senate as a lawyer. I come out of banking and finance also, so we had alot to go over. It took a couple of days, but eventually it began to sink in. What he knew and what I knew went one direction, our government had been under the control of organized crime for many years, not just since Reagan, as I had suspected. It went back long before that. Kennedy stood up against it, so did his brother Bobby.
The facts were there, not “newspaper” facts or Fox News “fair and balanced” facts. You could tie the ownership and control of newspapers, corporations and political parties to a few families. The “conspiracy theories” about the Trilateral Commission, CFR or Bilderbergers and Illuminati was a joke. It was the “mob” clear and simple. Prohibition, millions in profits buying government, not the Italian “Mafia” but a Jewish one, steeped in politics, both Republican and Democrat heading one way, the destruction of America.
Jeff’s conclusion was that the nation of Israel was established as a base for criminal operations as the legitimacy of a “nation state” was needed to gain control of America from within and without. The facts were there. His book, Guilt by Association and his website, www.criminalstate.com put it in terms that are unavoidable. I talked at length about history, where my background comes in. It all went together too well. We are continually bombarded by conspiracies to keep us off track. Everything is manipulated.
It was depressing. I keep looking within the political system and wonder why it does nothing but the same things, with Democrats moderating some aspects of financial abuse and theft but the direction keeps coming back. Our political system itself failed because we allowed money to buy power, which it did. It has never let go, it only made more money and bought more power.
More at the link:TERM LIMITS, A THIRD PARTY OR EVEN REAL CAMPAIGN FINANCE RULES AREN’T ENOUGH By Gordon Duff / STAFF WRITER / Senior... more-
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Barefoot and Progressive: Meet Christopher Hignite, LFUCG At-Large candidate (UPDATE)
City Council Candidate Runs to Expose Corruption and Murder As Documented!
Please go to the website link to view the videos mentioned in the following article:
From his campaign site's home page:
Who is Christopher Alan Hignite? Why should you vote for Christopher Alan Hignite?
Let's start by talking about who and what Christopher is not from Christopher's voice!
I'm not sure what that means, but I'm all ears!
Wait, before we go further, I must share the header pic. I'm not sure who these frightening stock photo people are, and why there is only a small blurry picture of the candidate. But we have a lot of ground to cover, so let's just move on.
undefinedOK, let's get back to who Christopher Hignite is:
I am not a politician and have no interest in becoming one. I am not tall. I don't have parents in politics. I don't have a Hollywood smile. I am not rich and have no interest in becoming rich. I am not interested in making cozy connections inherent in today's politics. I don't take money from corporate interests that will demand I vote in their interests.
Fair enough. So we have kind of a grassroots populist thing going? I'm down with that...
I am not a criminal even though some would have you believe that I am.
...(head turns) what's that?
I am not going to let murderers get a pass just because they wear a badge.
Come again?
Please read on in the following pages to find out why I decided to run for Council at Large this year. You will discover an intriguing story of the American Dream destroyed by corruption.
****
Yes, read on to find out more about my story, your story, Deborah Wardlaw's murder, government corruption and how to stop it.
Alrighty then.
So... this is what Christopher is talking about:
Mr. Hignite claims that his knowledge of this murder is why Lexington police constant follow, harrass and arrest him. He has many videos on the matter here.
He also asks:
WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY.........................?
I've been asking that for years.
Also, there is this:
Let me sum up by reminding everyone that six candidates will make it through the primary to the general for the 3 available LFUCG At-Large seats.
It's still early, but as of now I'm rooting for Christopher Hignite to be one of those 6, so we can hear his unique brand of populism over the next 9 months.
UPDATE: BONUS FOOTAGE! (be sure to keep watching until you hit the 3:27 mark. That's the kicker.)City Council Candidate Runs to Expose Corruption and Murder As Documented! Please go to the website link to view the videos... more-
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Are Electronics Ruining Your Brain?
You've seen them: The multitaskers who hang out in coffee shops simultaneously sipping lattes, checking e-mail, having cell-phone conversations, and bouncing from site to site on their laptops.Or they sit in their offices answering e-mails while writing reports and taking phone calls. Maybe you're even one of them. But is this overload of information even good for people? In other words, are Blackberries-those handheld devices that allow you to access your e-mail, the Internet, games and more-actually turning your brain to mush?
Perhaps, shows a recent study out of Stanford University. After recruiting 100 students and putting them through several memory tests, scientists there claim that folks who have several electronic media going at once around them lose focus and attention, don't remember things as well, and have trouble switching from one task to another compared with people who concentrate on one thing at a time. The proof? The students were shown a string of alphabetical letters and asked to note when a particular letter was repeated. The students who normally did a lot of electronic multitasking found it much more difficult to realize when a letter was being repeated. They also were shown sets of red rectangles either alone or surrounded by a number of blue rectangles. The images were flashed twice, and the students were supposed to let researchers know if the red rectangles had changed position the second time. They were instructed to ignore the blue rectangles. The non-multitaskers completed the task easily, but the multitaskers were constantly distracted by the blue rectangles. The more images they were shown, the worse they did. The third portion of the study had the students look at letters and numbers simultaneously but focus on only either numbers or letters. When focusing on numbers, they had to say whether they were odd or even. When looking at letters, they needed to determine if they were vowels or consonants. The multitaskers were much more distracted than the single focusers and performed poorly.You've seen them: The multitaskers who hang out in coffee shops simultaneously sipping lattes, checking e-mail, having... more-
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How the DEA Scrubbed Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Poppy Garden from Public Memory | | AlterNet
Visitors to Monticello don't learn how Jefferson cultivated poppies, and his personal opium use may as well never have happened.
March 3, 2010 |
The following is an excerpt from Jim Hogshire's "Opium for the Masses: Harvesting Nature's Best Pain Medication" (Feral House, 2009).
Thomas Jefferson was a drug criminal. But he managed to escape the terrible sword of justice by dying a century before the DEA was created. In 1987 agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency showed up at Monticello, Jefferson's famous estate.
Jefferson had planted opium poppies in his medicinal garden, and opium poppies are now deemed illegal. Now, the trouble was the folks at the Monticello Foundation, which preserves and maintains the historic site, were discovered flagrantly continuing Jefferson's crimes. The agents were blunt: The poppies had to be immediately uprooted and destroyed or else they were going to start making arrests, and Monticello Foundation personnel would perhaps face lengthy stretches in prison.
The story sounds stupid now, but it scared the hell out of the people at Monticello, who immediately started yanking the forbidden plants. A DEA man noticed the store was selling packets of "Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Poppies." The seeds had to go, too. While poppy seeds might be legal, it is never legal to plant them. Not for any reason.Visitors to Monticello don't learn how Jefferson cultivated poppies, and his personal opium use may as well never have... more-
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Anti-Pot Propaganda As Stupid As Ever -- Yet Our Alarmist Media Continues to Hype It | | AlterNet
Once again members of the mainstream media are running wild with the notion that marijuana use causes schizophrenia and psychosis.
To add insult to injury, this latest dose of reefer rhetoric comes only days after investigators in the United Kingdom reported in the prestigious scientific journal Addiction that the available evidence in support of this theory is “neither very new, nor by normal criteria, particularly compelling.” (Predictably, the conclusions of that study went all together unnoticed by the mainstream press.)
Yet today’s latest alarmist report, like those studies touting similar claims before it, fails to account for the following: If, as the authors of this latest study suggest, cannabis use is a cause of mental illness (and schizophrenia in particular), then why have diagnosed incidences of schizophrenia not paralleled rising trends in cannabis use over time?
In fact, it was only in September when investigators at the Keele University Medical School in Britain smashed the pot = schizophrenia theory to smithereens. Writing in the journal Schizophrenia Research, the team compared trends in marijuana use and incidences of schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005. Researchers reported that the “incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining” during this period, even the use of cannabis among the general population was rising.
That said, none of this is to suggest that there may not be some association between marijuana use and certain psychiatric ailments, if for no other reason than symptoms of mental illness often strike early in life — at a time, statistically, when the largest percentage of the population is likely to be already experimenting with cannabis.
In truth, marijuana use can correlate with mental illness for many reasons. People often turn to cannabis to alleviate the symptoms of distress. One study performed in Germany showed that cannabis offsets certain cognitive declines in a subset of schizophrenic patients. Another study demonstrated that psychotic symptoms predict later use of cannabis, suggesting that people might turn to the plant for help rather than become ill after use.
Of course, even if one takes the MSM’s latest ’sky is falling’ scenario at face value, health risks connected with pot use — when scientifically documented — should not be seen as legitimate reasons for criminal prohibition, but instead, as reasons for the plant’s legal regulation.
For instance, as I told AOL News: “We don’t outlaw peanuts because a small percentage of people have allergic reactions. We educate the community, we regulate where and when peanuts can be exchanged. That seems like it ought to apply to marijuana, too.”
To draw another real world comparison, millions of Americans safely use ibuprofen as an effective pain reliever. However, among a minority of the population who suffer from liver and kidney problems, ibuprofen presents a legitimate and substantial health risk. However, this fact no more calls for the criminalization of ibuprofen among adults than do these latest anti-pot allegations, even if true, call for the current prohibition of cannabis.
Placed in this context, today’s warnings latest do little to advance the government’s position in favor of tightening prohibition, and provide ample ammunition to wage for its repeal.Once again members of the mainstream media are running wild with the notion that marijuana use causes schizophrenia and psychosis.... more-
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AHMED QURAISHI: CIA’S ROGUE “DRUG FUNDED” OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN : Veterans Today
“CONSPIRACY THEORY” BECOMES REALITY IN THE NEW CIA/BLACKWATER PARTNERSHIP
By Ahmed Quereshi
“When these CIA agents killed a couple of Chinese engineers back in 2004, CIA psy-ops used the incident to put the blame on Afghan Taliban, thereby creating doubts in the minds of Chinese officials that Pakistani intelligence might have had something to do with this since Pakistan maintained ties with the Afghan Taliban government in Afghanistan before 2002.”
CIA needs authorization from US Congress before launching covert operations in other countries. Congress approves releasing funds for the operations.
Because of this requirement CIA has to give people in government details about the covert operations it is asking money for.
To avoid this disclosure, CIA has been looking for funding from other sources to launch ‘rogue’ operations, ones that are not fully endorsed by the government.
In Afghanistan, CIA has launched several covert operations since 2002 meant to target not al-Qaeda or Taliban but some of the neighboring countries whose policies may not sync with US interests.
For example, Pakistan allowed Chinese personnel to build a huge strategic seaport called Gawadar. This Chinese presence was not in US interest. So CIA used Karzai’s intelligence people and India’s offer of help to target Chinese engineers in Pakistan. CIA did this quite successfully by slipping terrorists inside Pakistan pretending to be Taliban or al Qaeda.
It was easy for CIA agents to carry out this operation because Pakistan under former president Pervez Musharraf had granted US personnel, civilian and military, unprecedented freedom of movement within the country.
When these CIA agents killed a couple of Chinese engineers back in 2004, CIA psy-ops used the incident to put the blame on Afghan Taliban, thereby creating doubts in the minds of Chinese officials that Pakistani intelligence might have had something to do with this since Pakistan maintained ties with the Afghan Taliban government in Afghanistan before 2002.
Similarly, CIA launched covert operations against Iran, western China and Pakistan. It used Afghan soil in all of them, which made logistical issues pertaining to these operations much easier.
Where did the money come from for all of these operations?
Some of the money came from the US government, which has an anti-Iran covert program running until now from the Bush days. Nothing secret here. But not all CIA operations in Afghanistan are funded by the US government.
It is believed that many CIA operations inside Pakistan and China received partial or no funding from the US government. These operations were meant to create ethnic, sectarian and political turmoil in Pakistan, and ethnic turmoil in China, especially in Tibet and Xinjiang.
CIA developed a new source of funding to finance these rogue operations.
The Afghan Taliban almost destroyed the Afghan opium trade, a feat unparalleled in the history of Afghanistan. It was near impossible for anyone to impose such discipline on a chaotic nation like Afghanistan.
After 2002, drug production and trade grew by leaps. CIA introduced latest drug production and transportation techniques to Afghanistan, learned from CIA operations in South America.
CIA also recruited all the main Afghan drug barons. Almost all of them are on CIA’s payroll, or were so until early 2010.
Some of these AFghan drug barons were actually rewarded. CIA recommended some of them to US government and military as legitimate powerbrokers who deserved a share in the Kabul government.
This is one facet of the multidimensional role that CIA played in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2010 to disturb regional balance of power and pursue US strategic interests beyond the immediate goals of America’s war on terror.“CONSPIRACY THEORY” BECOMES REALITY IN THE NEW CIA/BLACKWATER PARTNERSHIP By Ahmed Quereshi “When these... more-
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