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Humiliation and child abuse at Israeli checkpoints strip-searching children
Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens.
While organizations that focus on Israel-Palestine have long been aware that Israeli border officials regularly strip search men and women, If Americans Knew appears to be the first organization that has specifically investigated the policy of strip searching women. In the course of its investigation, If Americans Knew was astonished to learn that Israeli officials have also been strip searching young girls as young as seven and below.
According to interviews with women in the United States, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli border officials periodically force Christian and Muslim females of all ages to remove their clothing and submit to searches. In some cases the children are then "felt" by Israeli officials.
Sometimes mothers and children are strip-searched together, at other times little girls are taken from their parents and strip-searched alone. Women are required to remove sanitary napkins, sometimes with small daughters at their side. Sometimes women are strip searched in the presence of their young sons.
All report deep feelings of humiliation. Many describe weeping at the degradation they felt.
"I remember crying and pleading with my mother," Gaza journalist Laila El-Haddad recalls of an experience when she was 12-years-old, hoping that her mother could convince the Israeli official to allow her to keep her undershirt on. But parents are unable to shield their children, El-Haddad and others report.
"They had machine guns," El-Haddad explains. "We just had to submit." El-Haddad, who holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, believes that the intention of the strip searches is to humiliate Palestinians so that they won't return to Palestine.
Oregon attorney Hala Gores remembers being strip-searched at the age of 10. Her family, Palestinian Christians from Nazareth, were leaving Israel because of Israeli discrimination against Christians. Gores has never returned to her family's ancestral home in Nazareth, she says, in part because she does not want to repeat the experience of having no control over what is done to her.
The Israeli policy appears to target only Christian and Muslim children, and is equally applied to those with Israeli citizenship and citizenship in other countries, including native-born Americans. There are no reports of Jewish children being strip-searched.
New Jersey stand-up comedian Maysoon Zayid describes being strip-searched at Ben Gurion Airport when she was "seven, eight, nine years old" on family trips to visit her parents' original home in Palestine. On her most recent trip in July 2006, Maysoon, an American citizen, had her sanitary pad taken by officials in Ben Gurion Airport. When the search was completed, she says, the Israeli official in charge, Inbal Sharon, then refused to return her pad or allow her to get another.
Zayid, who has cerebral palsy and was sitting in a wheelchair, was then forced to bleed publicly for hours while she waited for her flight.
-----------------more Israeli child abuse at link
This is probably one of the sickest articles I've read on the human rights violations by Israeli government..... Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens. ... more -
Israeli Military/Settlers Severe Violence against Peaceful Palestinians Harvesting...
Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank double during 2008, while in Gaza, the Palestinian petroleum authority warns of a worsening crisis if the siege continues, as intra-Palestinian and Israeli-Palestinian talks are not progressing, these stories and more are coming up, Stay tuned.
Nonviolence Report
We begin our weekly report with the nonviolent activities this week in Palestine as October 2, marks the International Day of Nonviolence, marked by the United Nations to honor the birthday of leader of the nonviolent movement in India Mahatma Gandhi. Palestinians start the olive trees harvest season with settlers’ assaults in Ni’lin and Hebron.
In the village of Ni’lin, north of Ramallah Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers accompanied by international and Israeli activists en route to their lands to harvest the olives trees on the far side of the wall..
About 40 activists clashed with as many settlers, who claim that the olive grove to be harvested do not indeed belong to the Ni’lin residents. The settlers tried to prevent the activists and the Palestinian family from reaching the trees.
Local sources reported that the activists and the farmers managed to get the settlers off the land and to harvest the olive trees.
Meanwhile in Hebron, settlers attacked peace activists from the Israeli Rabbis for Human Rights movement as they stood protecting a group of Palestinians harvesting olives in their field.
Israeli media sources said Israeli troops operating in the area tried to stop the settlers who were trying to force the farmers off the field.
Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli leftist movement, said they are planning to accompany Palestinians in 40 different villages when they harvest their olive trees. Rabbis for Human Rights will provide these villagers with protection from the Israeli police, military and settlers who increasingly harass and assault Palestinians.
In the village of Bil’in, three civilians were wounded with rubber-coated steel bullets and dozens were treated for gas inhalation in the weekly nonviolent anti-wall protest Friday afternoon.
The villagers accompanied by International and Israeli supporters marched after the Friday prayer carrying Palestinian flags and banners calling for continuing the nonviolent resistance to remove the wall and the settlements from the West Bank.
Marchers also took to the streets chanting slogans calling for national unity among Palestinian factions.
Protestors carried ladders they use in olive trees harvesting. This harvest begins soon.. During the heaviest part of the season, Palestinians farmers often face problems from soldiers who shoot at them or booby-trap the trees.
--------------More Israeli violence at link----------------It's about time this unprovoked violence is put to an end. There are Rabbis, Israeli citizens and other peace activists stranding up for the human rights of the Palestinian people. There needs to be more done, and the Israeli government stands by and does absolutely nothing, in fact, encourages violence against innocent people.
The Internet and Time are our peaceful weapons against a government that has proved itself as one of the most selfish and greediest governments in the world. And they are practicing genocide against innocent people to boot! Genocide is the elimination of a certain group of people, and little by little, Israel is ebbing away at the Palestinians, murdering, locking up and using methods that dehumanize these poor people. Now its time Israel faces some truth..the truth will bring Israel down to its knees. Americans needs to stop their government from catering and giving trillions of dollars that enable them to commit such horrible human rights violations. And ultimately, to stop their genocide. Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank double during 2008, while in Gaza, the Palestinian petroleum authority warns of a worsening c... more -
Peaceful coexistence of different communities in Switzerland can be model for Leba...
Switzerland talks to all to help Lebanese reconciliation.The peaceful coexistence of different communities in Switzerland could be a model for Lebanon, the Lebanese social affairs minister believes.
Mario Aoun made the comment in the context of the three-day visit to Lebanon of Swiss President Pascal Couchepin, which ended on Sunday.
Couchepin told his Lebanese counterpart, Michel Sleimane, that Switzerland supports Lebanon in its efforts to achieve national reconciliation and was ready to give assistance if requested.
Sleimane came to office just over four months ago after a lengthy period of tension between the parliamentary majority and the opposition, and now presides a government of national unity tasked with creating the conditions for greater stability.
Among the major players represented in this government is Hezbollah, regarded by the US as a terrorist organisation.
But for the Swiss embassy in Beirut contacts with the group form part of its normal diplomatic work.
"We are in regular contact with their members of parliament or their ministers in the context of various dossiers we are dealing with," Swiss ambassador François Barras told swissinfo. "We have no problem with this since the party is one of the political forces in Lebanon."
In any case, Switzerland does not share the US evaluation.
"Our country does not regard Hezbollah as a terrorist group," Swiss chargé d'affaires Carine Carey explained to swissinfo. "Unlike al-Qaida, for example, there is no UN resolution to this effect. In this case Switzerland follows no recommendations other than those coming from the United Nations."
Dual role
Sheikh Naim Kassem, the deputy head of Hezbollah, and one of its founders, told swissinfo about the group's aims and policies.
For him, there is no contradiction between being a resistance movement and a political party.
"We have to differentiate between the two main lines of our action, namely resistance to Israel and our political work," he told swissinfo.
"Our resistance made it possible to liberate southern Lebanon in 2000 and we drove the enemy back in 2006. But we have never used our weapons to further our policies."
Kassem described the military action launched by Hezbollah in Beirut and its suburbs last May as "an isolated incident". He accused the pro-government Future Movement of bringing armed men into Beirut to provoke clashes, in order to use this as a pretext to call for general disarmament.
"We decided on a preventative operation," he explained.
No Islamic state
Many of Hezbollah's enemies in Lebanon accuse it of having a hidden agenda, namely to establish an Islamic state in the country – something Kassem categorically rejects.
When it comes to relations with Israel, Kassem is intransigent.
---------more at link-----------------this proves that progress can be made if communication is opened up. Just because one country says their political organization is a terrorist, doesn't mean that they are, in fact terrorists. It seems like putting that tag on anything will instantly make people hate or dislike that country/person/organization. If you want to get down to brass tacks....The Israeli intelligence community are terrorists, having carried out many missions to blow up vehicles, assassinate people and cause harm to certain societies. If it sounds like a duck, walks like a duck it IS a duck! Israel can, in fact, change their ways and seriously start to build a true peace with Palestine. But they need to get rid of their selfish, greedy infrastructure of a government that is making this world a more dangerous place to live. We of the world will not take it any more and let Israel take, take and take for themselves. We all need to live on this planet, not just Israel Switzerland talks to all to help Lebanese reconciliation.The peaceful coexistence of different communities in Switzerland could be a m... more -
Israel criticized by UN for refusing review of nuke program
"A UN nuclear conference of 145 nations indirectly criticized Israel on Saturday for refusing to put its atomic program under international purview. But the Jewish state managed to evade being targeted by Islamic countries pushing for a vote to link it to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
Iran, Israel's most outspoken foe, spearheaded the verbal attack on the Jewish state, as it has done at past general conferences of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Israel is widely considered to have nuclear arms, but has a "no tell" policy on the issue.
Chief Iranian delegate Ali Ashgar Soltanieh said Israel's nuclear capabilities represent a "serious and continued threat to the security of neighboring and other states."
He took the United States and other Western backers of Israel to task for their "shameful silence" on what he said was the menace posed by Israel's atomic arsenal.
The meeting voted for a resolution urging all nations to open their nuclear activities to outside inspection and work toward the establishment of a Mideast nuclear weapons free zone. With Israel the only country in the region considered to have atomic arms, passage of the resolution constituted indirect criticism of the Jewish state.
The resolution called on all nations in the Middle East "not to develop, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons," and urged nuclear weapons states to "refrain from any action" hindering the establishment of a Mideast zone free of nuclear weapons.
But US and the European Union managed to block an effort by Muslim nations and their supporters to submit a resolution more directly critical of Israel and its "nuclear capabilities."
Although last year's meeting followed a similar pattern, the votes for and against the two motions reflected shifting dynamics on the issues.
On Saturday, delegations had so far voted 82-0 for establishing the Mideast nuclear weapons free zone, with Israel, Syria and the U.S. among those abstaining. Last year it was 53 in favor, the U.S. and Israel against, and 47 abstentions."
More at link.
The government of Israel likes to: piss off Muslims ... be the greediest and most selfish nation in the world ... think it is a powerful nation ... think it will last forever ... think it will be backed up by western nations for ever ... think it will win any war ... think it can have nuclear weapons and hide the fact ... think it can take anything it wants without any consciousness of their actions against human beings ... think it is not practising genocide in Palestine ... think it is not the reason why there is more violence in the world.
Israel needs to wake up and smell the blood it has shed in today's world.
Israel needs to reverse its genocide in Palestine, free Palestine and free Gaza.
Israel needs to be the driving force for world peace.
Israel needs to act now! "A UN nuclear conference of 145 nations indirectly criticized Israel on Saturday for refusing to put its atomic program under int... more -
Big Bang or Big Bounce?: New theory on the universe's birth
Key Concepts: * Einstein’s general theory of relativity says that the universe began with the big bang singularity, a moment when all the matter we see was concentrated at a single point of infinite density. But the theory does not capture the fine, quantum structure of spacetime, which limits how tightly matter can be concentrated and how strong gravity can become. To figure out what really happened, physicists need a quantum theory of gravity.
* According to one candidate for such a theory, loop quantum gravity, space is subdivided into “atoms” of volume and has a finite capacity to store matter and energy, thereby preventing true singularities from existing.
* If so, time may have extended before the bang. The prebang universe may have undergone a catastrophic implosion that reached a point of maximum density and then reversed. In short, a big crunch may have led to a big bounce and then to the big bang.
Atoms are now such a commonplace idea that it is hard to remember how radical they used to seem. When scientists first hypothesized atoms centuries ago, they despaired of ever observing anything so small, and many questioned whether the concept of atoms could even be called scientific. Gradually, however, evidence for atoms accumulated and reached a tipping point with Albert Einstein’s 1905 analysis of Brownian motion, the random jittering of dust grains in a fluid. Even then, it took another 20 years for physicists to develop a theory explaining atoms—namely, quantum mechanics—and another 30 for physicist Erwin Müller to make the first microscope images of them. Today entire industries are based on the characteristic properties of atomic matter.
Physicists’ understanding of the composition of space and time is following a similar path, but several steps behind. Just as the behavior of materials indicates that they consist of atoms, the behavior of space and time suggests that they, too, have some fine-scale structure—either a mosaic of spacetime “atoms” or some other filigree work. Material atoms are the smallest indivisible units of chemical compounds; similarly, the putative space atoms are the smallest indivisible units of distance. They are generally thought to be about 10 –35 meter in size, far too tiny to be seen by today’s most powerful instruments, which probe distances as short as 10 –18 meter. Consequently, many scientists question whether the concept of atomic spacetime can even be called scientific. Undeterred, other researchers are coming up with possible ways to detect such atoms indirectly.
----------more at link
I believe this plane of existence is composed just like an atom as well. It seems like there is a Universal architecture that is huge (the solar system, Universe), to the smallest particles we know starting with the atom. No matter what, I know I am 'here' and 'now' and however the Universe is built, no matter how fascinating this subject is, I exist with the rest of the world, and my existence depends on the rest of the world, therefore, all of our existences are dependent on one another, just like the Universe is dependent on it's architecture. So, with that said, I feel we all have a responsibility to help the world in one way or more and that world peace is possible with the collective consciousnesses of all people now living. namaste Key Concepts: * Einstein’s general theory of relativity says that the universe began with the big bang singularity, a moment when all... more -
Following other states, New York may lease assets
Gov. David Paterson is proposing that New York join a growing number of states in leasing assets to private contractors to trim costs and provide long-term, steady revenue.
Under consideration for leasing could be everything from state highways and bridges to the lottery, golf courses, parks and beaches.
Paterson said this week he is creating a commission to study public-private partnerships and come up with specific recommendations by January, in time for his first State of the State address and state budget proposal.
Investment bankers have already shown interest in leasing some assets, part of a nationwide trend. Among them is the lottery, which state officials have said could bring in $4 billion up front to the state and $200 million a year after that for higher education.
Nationally, Wall Street investment houses have courted more than a dozen states to lease state lotteries to private investors. The Illinois House last month approved a plan to raise $10 billion for building roads and schools by privatizing its state-run lottery for half a century, with the Senate scheduled to vote on the measure this fall.
While leasing toll roads is more common in Europe and Asia, a handful of states have experimented with the notion.
In June 2006, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road and $1.83 billion to lease the eight-mile Chicago Skyway.
That same month, an Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.
More recently, New Jersey legislators have debated letting private firms operate toll lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike, while last month a private partnership withdrew their $12.8 billion bid to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years after the Legislature there was slow to take them up on the offer.
Several other states have leased the operation of sea ports and airports. The private firms hope to improve management and marketing to increase profits. In exchange, the states want to guarantee a reliable return and avoid rising costs for maintenance and potentially for payroll.
One possible target for leasing is the 53-year-old Tappan Zee Bridge, which spans the Hudson River north of Manhattan and will soon have to be replaced at a cost estimated around $9.3 billion. The bridge's toll is scheduled to rise to $5 from $4 next year.
Sean Patrick Maloney, a top aide to Paterson, emphasized that the Democrat isn't seeking to sell any state assets.
"I believe the private sector can be a source of innovation, allowing us to increase the value, efficiency and safety of assets like our aging infrastructure system," Patterson said.
Public employee unions will get a say in the process. ------------more at link--------------
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hmmm, I wonder if NY is going to ask for a few billion from Uncle Sam......there's more coming, so stay tuned! Gov. David Paterson is proposing that New York join a growing number of states in leasing assets to private contractors to trim costs ... more -
UBS Bank will cut 2,000 jobs in US, UK Next
Switzerland's largest bank has announced it will cut 2,000 investment-banking jobs and close its commodities business.
The move comes just one day after an extraordinary meeting in Basel, where executives assured shareholders that UBS had a plan in place to recover from recent losses totalling $43 billion (SFr49 billion).
UBS officials had made no mention of the additional cuts, but media speculation had suggested the move, which was confirmed by the bank on Friday, was likely.
UBS said it would continue to advise its investment bank clients and provide access to markets, but executives said months of weathering tumultuous financial markets had forced them to redefine their priorities.
"While the revenue outlook is uncertain, these measures will allow us to focus on our strengths, reduce the cost base to a more sustainable level and position our core businesses for growth once fundamentals improve," Jerker Johansson, chief executive of UBS's investment bank said on Thursday.
"Sensible move"
The recent cuts bring the total number of UBS jobs lost to 6,000.
Most of the cuts just announced would be in the United States and Britain and would come before the end of the year. By that time the bank plans to have reduced its investment-bank workforce to 17,000 people.
Executives said they plan to retreat from services in real estate, property trading and commodities like precious metals and raw materials.
"Looking at the markets it was very clear they would reduce these businesses dramatically, so it is not a huge surprise," Zurich Cantonal Bank analyst Andreas Venditti told swissinfo.
"Maybe some market participants would have expected further moves, but under the present market conditions it is the sensible thing to do."
At the shareholders meeting on Thursday, chairman of the board Peter Kurer said the bank was poised to turn in a profit in the third quarter of 2008 and for the full year of 2009.
He did warn, however, that "some issues will not be fixed overnight"
--------------more at the link---------------
Read between the lines people. Something new has to come about. Maybe the Google contest would be the place to post that! We need a new form of economics, capitalism and??? Switzerland's largest bank has announced it will cut 2,000 investment-banking jobs and close its commodities business. ... more -
UN president praises Free Gaza Org success breaking siege imposed by Israel, delay...
I want to thank each of you for being here this morning to participate, in person, in this short but significant ceremony. Today we celebrate the Second International Day of Nonviolent Struggle. It is a most important day, the principal purpose of which is to invite us all to reflect on the method of struggle used by one of the greatest human beings in all of history, Mahatma Gandhi, to obtain the liberation of India.
You may be asking yourselves why am I adding the word struggle and why am I spelling nonviolent as one word, instead of two, or with a hyphen.
I am doing it for the sake of clarity, for the same reason that led Gandhi to look for a better name than “passive resistance” to describe his method of struggle, which was by no means passive, and to explain, at the same time, the source of its power.
Gandhi correctly believed that the name “passive resistance” gave rise to confusion and also thought that it was shameful to allow his great struggle to be known only by an English name.
That was why he decided to sponsor a contest through his magazine, Indian Opinion, and offer a small prize to whomever came up with a better name to describe his struggle.
It was his own nephew, Maganlal, who suggested the name “sadagraha” which means firmness or relentlessness in a good cause. That word was the origin of the name that Gandhi himself would come up with in order to best describe his struggle: SATYAGRAHA.
More at this link:
http://un.org/ga/president/63/statements/idn21008.shtml
and, a letter from the Free Gaza people:
We, the members of the Free Gaza Movement, regret to announce a delay in our plans to return to Gaza this week. Last month, 44 ordinary people challenged Israel's stranglehold on the Gaza Strip, knowing that ordinary people can help create extraordinary change.
People said that it could not be done; we did it.
This week 22 of us came to Cyprus to fulfill our promise to return to Gaza. Because our two original boats were not suitable for this trip, we decided to lease or buy a sturdier boat. Unfortunately, every time we thought we reached an agreement with a boat owner, our agreement has fallen through, in part, we believe, due to outside pressure. Though it is a very difficult decision to make, we have decided to temporarily delay our voyage.
When we left Gaza at the end of August, we made promises to the people there: we will continue to tell the world that Israel still unjustly occupies Gaza; we will continue to support our friends in Gaza as they work to overcome the brutal policies of the occupation; and we will return to Gaza. These are promises we will keep
We will continue to draw attention to the suffering that Israel has imposed on ordinary people just like us, in Gaza. We will continue to support our friends in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory as they work to end Israel's occupation of their land and lives. And, very soon, in the coming weeks, we will return to Gaza.
In the meantime we call on countries to live up to their obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and to take action to challenge Israel's collective punishment of 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip.
###
--
Greta Berlin
Media Team
Free Gaza Movement
357 99 08 17 67
www.freegaza.org
www.anis-online.de/office/events/FreeGazaSong.htm
www.flickr.com/photos/29205195@N02/ I want to thank each of you for being here this morning to participate, in person, in this short but significant ceremony. Today we ce... more -
Stolen condom-mobile recovered in Mexico
Missing in Mexico: 5,000 condoms, sound equipment and a motor used to inflate a giant prophylactic, all stolen from a "condom-mobile" used to promote HIV/AIDS awareness.
The coordinator of an HIV/AIDS awareness tour, Polo Gomez, said the truck was taken Sunday from its parking spot in front of a friend's house in Mexico City.
It was recovered Wednesday in a shopping mall parking lot in a northern suburb -- minus the condoms and the equipment. Gomez said the thieves left some 800 HIV tests and a 23-foot (7-meter) inflatable prophylactic, which were also in the vehicle.
Don't Miss
The truck wasn't hard to locate. It features painted images of a peeled banana, the exposed part shaped like a condom, and a shirtless man saying: "I protect myself. Do you?"
After the theft received widespread media coverage, residents phoned police with the vehicle's whereabouts, Gomez said.
The Condomovil program has toured Mexico since 1998 promoting safe sex practices while distributing 1.2 million condoms to more than 700,000 people, Gomez said. The inflatable condom was used to draw attention from passers-by.
The group bought the truck with a grant from Mexico's federal Health Department. The department also donated the 5,000 condoms that were stolen.
The United Nations AIDS program says there are some 200,000 people living with HIV in Mexico.
------------no more at link..not even one of the missiog condoms!
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I sure hope the robbers use those condoms they took. You know how karma is! Missing in Mexico: 5,000 condoms, sound equipment and a motor used to inflate a giant prophylactic, all stolen from a "condom-mob... more -
Hitler's rise to power was based on "normal voting behaviour" accor...
Long viewed as a unique aberration of history, Adolf Hitler's rise to power can partly be put down to "normal voting behaviour", a Zurich University study has shown.
But researchers demonstrate that the voters most hurt by the depression, and most likely to oppose the government, were a disparate group who did not uniformly turn to the Nazis.
"The consequences of Hitler's election were extraordinary," the authors say, "but the voting behaviour that led to it was not."
Because of the unprecedented circumstances in which free and fair democratic elections led to the antidemocratic National Socialist Party winning control of the Weimar Republic, the question of who voted for Hitler has become the most studied in the history of voting behaviour research.
The latest study, a Swiss-US collaboration between a social scientist, statistician, mathematician and economist, sets out to discover who had an interest, specifically an economic interest, in voting for Hitler.
There is a vast existing body of literature on why the German people - eventually 38.7 per cent of the electorate in 1933 - voted for the Austrian.
Not unique
Professor Alexander Wagner of Zurich University's Swiss Banking Institute said the research team decided not to treat the elections between 1924 and 1932 as unique, in contrast to previous academic literature.
"We began with the notion that these were elections like any other. So we started with an economic explanation. We looked at all the elections and all the parties together in a statistical way," he told swissinfo.
In more than 70 years of research almost every social group has been blamed for having backed Hitler at the ballot box, and indeed support for the party was spread across the social spectrum.
However this study, published in the Journal of Economic History, identifies a set of people – "the working poor" – who stood to benefit most from Nazi policies. It also confirms that they voted proportionally more for the Nazis.
The group includes the self-employed, typically small shopkeepers, farmers and artisans, farm labourers and domestic servants, but excludes the unemployed and factory workers.
Rural labourers, domestic servants and family members helping relatives are significant groups that have been completely overlooked by previous literature, according to Wagner and his colleagues.
"We have the best data on that group and were able to look at their behaviour," he said.
« The unemployed voted proportionally less for the National Socialists and proportionally more for the communists. »
Hard times
Unlike industrial workers, these rural and domestic workers had no social security net in the form of unemployment insurance. Likewise, small shopkeepers did not officially become unemployed - they just made less money.
Therefore these groups did not have any stake in the government's unemployment policies and were more drawn to the free enterprise promises of the Nazis.
"That was our hypothesis: that blue-collar workers and the unemployed would regard either the government or the communists, who were for expropriation, as the party to vote for. Indeed, we found support for that."
------------more@link--------------pretty chilling finding I may say. If this is true, America will have to be careful of any potential new leader. We do not need another Hitler in this world. Long viewed as a unique aberration of history, Adolf Hitler's rise to power can partly be put down to "normal voting behavio... more -
Vote No Bailout!
We are witnessing a bankers' coup d’etat. In the name of saving the economy from a crisis created by their own greed and immense profits, the biggest bankers have taken a country and a people hostage.
“Give us your money and tear up what’s left of your Constitution or we will sink your economy,” is the message from Wall Street and the Bush Administration. “Give us the power and money we demand or you will be left jobless from a new economic depression."
Under the pretext of the banking crisis, the Bush Administration is changing the way this country operates. This is not simply taking trillions of dollars from the people and giving it to the richest bankers to do with as they see fit.
Click here to send your letter to Congress
vnb3
When more than 1,000 workers
demonstrated on Wall Street,
VoteNoBailout.org volunteers
were there with signs and flyers.
Congress is poised to vote to give the Executive Branch of government, and specifically the White House’s political appointees in the Treasury Department, the absolute right to take our money and give it to domestic and foreign banks and corporations without any oversight of elected officials, from the courts, or from the people.
The new legislation states: “Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” The Legislation allows the Treasury Department to appoint the same bankers who created the crisis to administer and dictate the use of trillions of our tax dollars.
We will not stand by and let the Bush Administration formalize its vision of a “government of, by and for the richest bankers."
The new system institutionalizes theft on a grand scale. Lehman Brothers bankers will receive $2.5 billion in bonuses after their company went bankrupt last week, but the new dictatorial authority under the White House and Treasury Department has ruled out any relief for the millions of working families who are being foreclosed.
We live in a $15 trillion annual economy. Instead of taking our tax dollars and giving it to the already rich and powerful, these funds should be used provide to decent paying jobs, affordable housing, health care and a good education for our children. There is another way!
Now is the time to hear the voice of the people. A spineless Congress authorized Bush’s illegal war in Iraq and rubber-stamped the Patriot Act. Now they are being herded like sheep again to give the White House and Wall Street dictatorial control over the people’s money.
Send a letter to Your Congressional Representatives We are witnessing a bankers' coup d’etat. In the name of saving the economy from a crisis created by their own greed and immense ... more -
Blasts kill one, wound 35 in India's northeast
At least one person was killed and 35 people were wounded when three bombs exploded in a town in India's remote northeast on Wednesday, police said.
Police said they suspected Muslim militant groups, based in neighbouring Bangladesh, were behind the blasts in the Radhanagar and Gulbazar areas of Agartala -- capital of Tripura state.
"One person died in hospital," police spokesman Nepal Das said from Agartala by phone. "Some of the injured are in critical condition."
Two of the blasts took place in markets, while the third was at a bus stand, in quick succession during the evening rush-hour.
Sanjiv Sen, a witness, told Reuters by phone from Agartala: "There is total chaos. There were people out shopping when the explosions occurred." He said many of the wounded were women.
The state was on alert for possible attacks ahead of a major Hindu festival starting at the weekend.
A wave of bomb attacks has hit India in recent months, killing more than 125 people. Police have blamed most of those attacks on Muslim militants.
Last month, Indian troops killed at least seven heavily armed militants from a Bangladesh-based Islamist group in a gunbattle in the troubled northeastern state of Assam.
Ringed by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, India's northeast is home to more than 200 tribes and has been racked by separatist revolts since India gained independence from Britain in 1947.
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When will the violence end.....governments need to start a dialog with groups that have a problem with something..find out what it is, try to understand each other and come to some sort of agreement. The governments responsibility is to keep its citizens safe. Without a dialog, these people are going to do more to get the attention of the people not wanting to talk. At least one person was killed and 35 people were wounded when three bombs exploded in a town in India's remote northeast on Wedn... more -
THE SCARY GUY ROCKS WHITECROSS HIGH SCHOOL!
Scary helps 1,000 high school kids at Whitecross High School realize they all have the power to choose who they are. YOU CREATE YOU. The power to create World Peace lives in each and everyone of us! Scary helps 1,000 high school kids at Whitecross High School realize they all have the power to choose who they are. YOU CREATE YOU. ... more
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Top 10 amazing physics videos
Tesla coils, superconductors, and hilarious music videos are great reasons to be excited about physics. Here are some of our favorites.
10. Musical Tesla Coil
Steve Ward can tune his Tesla coil so that the crackle of each spark sounds like a musical note.
9. Mythbusters Play with Sulfur Hexafluoride
Everyone knows that helium can make your voice sound high like a chipmunk, but what will happen when Adam Savage inhales some gas that is over five times denser than air?
8. Boomerang in Zero Gravity
Japanese astronaut Takao Doi proves that a boomerang will always return to the person who threw it -- even in outer space.
7. Helium Superfluid
At extremely low temperatures, some liquids stop playing by their usual rules.
6. Halo of Water Vapor Appears Around Supersonic F-14 Jet
The shockwave surrounding a supersonic jet can compress air so much that the ambient moisture will form a cloud.
5. Sound Waves on Fire
Reuben's tube is a classic way to demonstrate the concept of a standing wave. Pump some flammable gas into one side of a tube, and attach a speaker to the other side, and watch what happens to the columns of flames that issue from small holes along the top.
4. Water Droplets in Zero Gravity
An amazing set of experiments performed on the international space station.
3. Fun with Ferrofluid
Magnetic fields creating dynamic sculptures.
2. How Superconducting Levitation Works
A fantastic lesson about exotic materials and magnetism in just over six minutes.
1. Large Hadron Collider Rap
Kate McAlpine and her friends filmed this amazingly informative song within the caverns of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
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You can see all the videos at the link. Pretty amazing stuff. In the last ten years, mankind has progressed more than in the last 100 years before. Ten years from now, we may be seeing science that we only read in fiction novels or films...well, thats what usually happens!
ps..lovin the song at the HC Tesla coils, superconductors, and hilarious music videos are great reasons to be excited about physics. Here are some of our favorites... more -
Student celebrates $12 million lottery win
The credit crisis and tight student budgets hold no fears for a British teenager who won 7 million pounds ($12.68 million) on the Lottery.
Ianthe Fullagar, 18, from Cumbria, northern England, said she still plans to go to university next year to study law, despite her huge win on the EuroMillions game.
Although she won't need a student loan or inflated overdraft, she said she hopes to be just like the others at college.
"I'm going to live the life of a student. I'm going to live in student digs," she told the BBC on Tuesday. "I love baked beans."
The teenager said she screamed so loudly when she checked her ticket that her dog jumped up and bit her on the bottom.
She hid her winning ticket in her bra before moving it to a jewelry box and then her gym bag while she waited for her win to be confirmed.
After receiving an over-sized check at an official ceremony, she said she plans to spend her winnings on her family and friends and a new Ford Ka.
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I hope she helps some people in the UK that are needy. And maybe some of it to help the world! The credit crisis and tight student budgets hold no fears for a British teenager who won 7 million pounds ($12.68 million) on the Lott... more -
Quest for the Truth: The War For Your Mind
"This world is full of war- old wars, new wars, holy wars, greed wars. War brought to you by your favorite greed-filled corporate sponsors. There are at least seven major armed conflicts within the world today, and over 27 smaller scale armed conflicts dating all the way back to 1949."
- Excerpt from Quest For The Truth.
Why do you think man wages war against himself? Is it engrained in his nature or is it taught from society and multimedia? Read the blog and share your thoughts. "This world is full of war- old wars, new wars, holy wars, greed wars. War brought to you by your favorite greed-filled corporate... more -
Obama calls on Americans to support rescue plan
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday called for Americans to get behind attempts to salvage a $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector, saying that if Wall Street fails ordinary people will also be hurt.
"This is no longer just a Wall Street crisis. It's an American crisis, and it's the American economy that needs this rescue plan," Obama told supporters at a rally at the University of Nevada at Reno.
Obama said Congress should put aside politics and act on the legislation quickly.
"To the Democrats and Republicans who opposed this plan yesterday, I say: Step up to the plate and do what's right for this country," he said. "And to all Americans, I say this: If I am president of the United States, this rescue plan will not be the end of what we do to strengthen this economy. It will only be the beginning."
The House on Monday balked at approving the Bush administration's $700 billion proposal, its 228-205 vote sparking the largest sell-off on Wall Street since the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Obama, GOP presidential candidate John McCain and President Bush all indicated support for the plan, but the legislation was highly unpopular with the public, as well as ideological groups on the left and the right.
Obama called for bipartisanship in a time of financial crisis.
"While there is plenty of blame to go around and many in Washington and on Wall Street who deserve it, all of us now have a responsibility to solve this crisis because it affects the financial well-being of every single American," he said. "There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is the moment for us to come together and put the fire out."
Obama said he had talked with Bush, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other leaders Tuesday about resurrecting the recovery plan. He also sought to reassure the public, saying the plan had been "misunderstood and poorly communicated."
"This is not a plan to just hand over $700 billion of your money to a few banks on Wall Street," the Illinois senator said.
Without a rescue for the financial sector, ordinary people will soon begin to suffer, Obama said.
"If we do not act, it will be harder for you to get a mortgage for your home or the loans you need to go to college or a loan you need to buy a car to get to work," Obama said.
"What it means is that businesses won't be able to get the loans they need to open new factories, or hire more workers, or make payroll for the workers they have. What it means is that thousands of businesses could close around the country. Millions of jobs could be lost," he said.
Obama and McCain announced separately their backing for a plan that some House Republicans had pushed earlier: raising the federal deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000. The aim would be to reassure nervous Americans and to shore up the economy while helping small businesses.
--------OBAMA 08, or else we are in deep doodooo Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday called for Americans to get behind attempts to salvage a $700 billion rescue... more -
Do we live in a giant cosmic bubble?
Objects in the Universe that seem far away are actually closer, if this theory is true.
If the notion of dark energy sounds improbable, get ready for an even more outlandish suggestion.
Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly void of matter. Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe's expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation.
Dark energy is the name given to the hypothetical force that could be drawing all the stuff in the universe outward at an ever-increasing rate. Current thinking is that 74 percent of the universe could be made up of this exotic dark energy, with another 21 percent being dark matter, and normal matter comprising the remaining 5 percent.
Until now, there has been no good way to choose between dark energy or the void explanation, but a new study outlines a potential test of the bubble scenario.
If we were in an unusually sparse area of the universe, then things could look farther away than they really are and there would be no need to rely on dark energy as an explanation for certain astronomical observations.
"If we lived in a very large under-density, then the space-time itself wouldn't be accelerating," said researcher Timothy Clifton of Oxford University in England. "It would just be that the observations, if interpreted in the usual way, would look like they were."
Scientists first detected the acceleration by noting that distant supernovae seemed to be moving away from us faster than they should be. One type of supernova (called Type Ia) is a useful distance indicator, because the explosions always have the same intrinsic brightness. Since light gets dimmer the farther it travels, that means that when the supernovae appear faint to us, they are far away, and when they appear bright, they are closer in.
But if we happened to be in a portion of the universe with less matter in it than normal, then the space-time around us would be different than it is outside, because matter warps space-time. Light travelling from supernovae outside our bubble would appear dimmer, because the light would diverge more than we would expect once it got inside our void. Objects in the Universe that seem far away are actually closer, if this theory is true. ... more -
al Qaeda’s New Weapon of Terror-Thermobaric Bombs
Thermobaric bombs, al Qaeda’s new weapon of destruction, raises the stakes in the war on terror.
Investigators now believe the bombing on Sep. 21 that killed dozens and left massive damage at the Islamabad Marriott, including a gaping hole in the ground in front of the building, was a crude form of a device that intensifies and enhances an explosive, a thermobaric bomb.
The bomb was delivered in a truck that contained what investigators believe was aluminum powder in addition to grenades and artillery shells. The aluminum power is believed to have been responsible for the acceleration and expansion of the impact of the bomb.
While barriers around the hotel kept the truck bomb at some distance from the structure, the devastation indicated that there had to be something capable of raising the devastation level considerably
Source
Aluminum powder has long been used to boost the power of explosives. Blast weapons like the 15,000-pound BLU-82 Daisy Cutter and the 21,600-pound “Mother of All Bombs” use it to increase their destructive force.
Devices with a high proportion of metal powder to explosive are termed “thermobaric.” When the explosive goes off, the metal powder at the leading edge of the fireball burns as it contacts the air. With a crude device, the powder simply burns and adds to the fireball. In more advanced weapons, the burning metal produces a sub-sonic shockwave (known as deflagration); the most advanced produce a detonation (supersonic shockwave) of tremendous destructive power.
Normal, condensed explosives produce a very short pressure pulse. A “volumetric” one, from a detonating fireball, produces an extended blast pulse that is far more damaging to buildings. The Marriott attack left a large crater, indicating that much of the blast came from a point source. The metal powder seems to have contributed only to the incendiary effects. According to the Guardian, “the temperature had reached 400C, investigators said, which made the hotel’s sprinkler system and the fire service useless.”
By all accounts, there was a long delay before the device went off, with the truck burning sometime before the explosion.This was not a device built by master bombmakers. And the hotel’s security barrier performed a vital function of keeping the bomb away from the building. Distance is life in these situations. (Compare the Marriott blast with the Oklahoma City bombing; there was a lot of structural damage to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, because McVeigh was able to drive right up to it.) However, a thermobaric blast would extend the radius of effect of such a truck bomb significantly.
The blast and fire damage at the Islamabad Marriott were severe enough as it was. But a similar device with enhanced engineering could have leveled the building and caused far worse casualties. Terrorists showed that one of the most secure buildings in Islamabad was still vulnerable to attack, but there was far less damage than there might have been.
Source
Thermobaric weapons distinguish themselves from conventional explosive weapons by using atmospheric oxygen, instead of carrying an oxidizer in their explosives. They are also called high-impulse thermobaric weapons (HITs), fuel-air explosives (FAE or FAX) or sometimes fuel-air munitions, heat and pressure weapons, or vacuum bombs. They produce more explosive energy for a given size than do other conventional explosives, but have the disadvantage of being less predictable in their effect
---------------check out link, there's more..also---------its from the Homeland Security part of the US Gov't. Another Scare tactic? Maybe not, it seems conceivable that al Qaeda would want a weapon like this. Barriers put up now to protect buildings are no longer protective and will have to be relocated further away. Thermobaric bombs, al Qaeda’s new weapon of destruction, raises the stakes in the war on terror. ... more -
EZ Instructions on How You Can stAnd up for World Peace
Watch the video and see what these people did to Stand Up For World Peace. Then, after you have been inspired to do something for the world, contact organizations in your neighborhood, churches, and schools and ask them to participate in this program.
Now, find out when and where the Google Earth Satellite will be taking pics to update their databases....How, just mosey over to their community BB at:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/Sup...
After getting this info, this will be your date and time to schedule Stand Up For World Peace.
And, if Google is not over your area for awhile, then hire a plane to fly over to take photographs of your people peace sign.
Before and after the get together, you can organize just about anything...picnic, bbq, music, etc. But you'll probably need to contact your city officials to get the necessary licenses/permits.
This can be fun and it will make a difference in the world. Every little thing does! Watch the video and see what these people did to Stand Up For World Peace. Then, after you have been inspired to do something for the... more
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