‘Fusion center’ data draws fire over assertions
Tim Neal of Miller County was shocked recently when he heard a radio program about a strategic report compiled by state and federal law enforcement agencies to combat terrorism.
Titled “The Modern Militia Movement,” the report is dated Feb. 20 and designed to help police identify militia members or domestic terrorists. Red flags outlined in the document include political bumper stickers such as those for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, talk of conspiracy theories such as the plan for a mega-highway from Canada to Mexico and possession of subversive literature.
But when Neal read the report, he couldn’t help but think it described him. A military veteran and a delegate to the 2008 Missouri Republican state convention, he didn’t appreciate being lumped in with groups like the Neo-Nazis.
Bailout King AIG Still to Pay Millions In Bonuses
Insurance giant American International Group will award hundreds of millions of dollars in employee bonuses and retention pay despite a confrontation Wednesday between the chief executive and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.
Cops Arrest Priest For Filming Them
A Roman Catholic priest who monitors law enforcement treatment of minorities with a video camera released footage that appears to contradict the police account of his own arrest.
How and Why International Bankers Make War
In June of 1919, the victorious powers were in Paris deliberating over the best way to carve up Europe. With each national delegation came a coterie of financial advisors: Paul Warburg negotiating for the Americans and Max Warburg defending the interests of the Germans. Woodrow Wilson found his hour amongst this milieu of dignitaries.
Spies, Spies Everywhere, and Not a Trial in Sight
"Charges of obstruction of justice and espionage--the latter of which, under certain circumstances, would call for the death penalty--were dropped against Kadish. But Kadish is 85 years old, and his spying took place 20 to 25 years ago. He agreed with the judge’s assessment that what Kadish did was “for the benefit of Israel”--as if the two agreed that, as a result, all was forgiven."
Which states are worst for personal freedom?
A new study indicates the states with the most freedom are South Dakota, New Hampshire and Colorado, while Americans see the most complete government control of their personal lives in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, California and Maryland.
Swiss action sparks talk of currency war
The Swiss National Bank moved to weaken the Swiss franc on Thursday, the first time a big central bank has intervened in the foreign exchange markets since Japan sought to weaken the yen in 2004.
The bank's move, which sparked fears that other countries could follow suit, comes as the value of the Swiss franc has soared as investors seek a haven from the recent market turmoil.
Beijing comments fuel fears China could offload its dollar reserves
Worries that China may be about to jettison some of its vast reserves of US Treasury bills depressed the American credit markets yesterday, as China's premier, Wen Jiabao, expressed concerns about their integrity. However, markets globally were threatened by comments from Mr Wen that Beijing is ready to expand its fiscal stimulus if the economic situation worsens.
MSNBC producers told ‘not to incorporate’ Cramer’s Daily Show interview into their programming
TVNewser reports that “MSNBC producers were asked not to incorporate the Jim Cramer/Jon Stewart interview into their shows today.” By TVNewser’s count, Cramer’s Daily Show interview was only mentioned once on MSNBC today and that was during the White House press conference when a reporter asked for Obama’s reaction.
A thief breaks into your house, steals everything, and leaves you nearly broke. Law enforcement responds by visiting with the thief and the resellers of the thief's stolen goods in a very friendly setting, perhaps lunch at the Four Seasons. Law enforcement then takes the information to government officials who respond by writing the thief and the resellers a check from what is left of your checking account. They decide this too over lunch, perhaps also at the Four Seasons and on your dime.
Colombia's desert war
The counter-drugs strategy of the United States is clearly failing. UN figures cited in the Guardian this week show that the cultivation of coca, the plant from which cocaine is derived, has surged in the Andes. The most dramatic rise has been in Colombia, the only country in the region that allows the use of pesticides to eradicate coca leaf - a policy promoted and funded by the US.
The Obama Deception
The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order's plans. and only by exposing the con can we help to save freedom in America. The Obama Deception is not about Left or Right: it's about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves on a Global Plantation. Covered in this film: who Obama works for, what lies he has told, and his real agenda, and how his initial appointments and actions prove he serves the corporate oligarchs, not the American people.
New Army Weapon Aims to Fry Gadgets, People
Electronics-frying "e-bombs" have been discussed for decades — but rarely, if ever, deployed. Knocking out computers and communications gear with electromagnetic radiation is nice, but commanders prefer the proven method: blowing stuff up.
HK investors sue US banks over Lehman losses
Hong Kong investors in minibonds backed by failed financial services firm Lehman Brothers have filed a class-action suit against HSBC and Bank of New York Mellon, in a bid to recover at least some of their losses, their spokesman said on Saturday.
Investigator uses phony documents to get passports
Using phony documents and the identities of a dead man and a 5-year-old boy, a government investigator obtained U.S. passports in a test of post-9/11 security. Despite efforts to boost passport security since the 2001 terror attacks, the investigator fooled passport and postal service employees four out of four times, according to a new report made public Friday.
House Bill will ensure future Presidents are qualified
No offense to the citizens of Kenya, or any other nation for that matter, but the current president of the United States Barack Hussein Obama II is spending a great deal of his campaign supporter's money fending off what should be a really simple discovery: the vault version of his original birth certificate.
Beverly Hills pawnshops snap up artwork, Rolexes
An original Kandinsky, an Andy Warhol, a grand piano and Rolexes by the dozen: as the economic crisis bites even the filthy rich are hocking prized possessions to pay the bills.
A Trashed Economy Foretold
Along with the stock market and the foreclosure rate, a less-heralded barometer has signaled the arrival of hard times: the landfill.
In an extravagantly wasteful society that typically puts 254 million tons of unwanted stuff at the curb to be thrown away each year, landfill managers say they knew something was amiss in the economy when they saw trash levels start steadily dropping last year. Now, some are reporting declines as sharp as 30 percent.
Coal companies, utilities, economists and environmentalists are vying to shape legislation that could rechannel hundreds of billions of dollars from one part of the economy to others. The sense of urgency has been heightened by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman's push to have a bill ready by the end of May; the California Democrat plans to circulate a draft in about two weeks.
President Barack Obama: A Fraud You Can Believe In
By Herb Denenberg
He says almost all Americans will get a tax cut, but then proposes a carbon tax that will assure almost all Americans will get a tax increase. He promised to put the country on a pay-as-you-go basis, but he’s setting records for deficits, national debt, spending, destroying wealth and for spend-as-you-go politics.
Agent accuses Sutton of cover-up in drug murders
A Mexican national's appeal in federal court for asylum because of his work as an American government-paid informant against the drug cartel marked another chapter in a case in which a former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent continues to allege the U.S. government – including U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton – is hiding its complicity in the cartel's murder of more than a dozen people.
Pakistan Tension Rises as Zadari Aide Quits, Protests Mount
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari faces mounting public disorder after protest leaders defied arrest threats and a key minister quit over moves to block media coverage of demonstrations.
The End Of Money
By Philip Jones
As our world shakes and reels from the shock waves of the current financial crisis; there are still those who believe naively that what is now occurring is part of some cyclical `ebb and flow` in the evolution of the worlds financial markets, which will in time, begin to recover and once again, the good times will return.
I have some bad news for those `optimists`! There will be no recovery. What is happening now is as David Icke has written at length, part of a grand strategy to create a New World Order, a `One World State` with a World Government, World Army, World Bank, World Currency, World Religion and a vastly reduced population of micro chipped slaves.
Madoff's lawyers want him freed pending sentencing
Bernard Madoff’s lawyers, seeking to have the convicted money-manager released from a high- security prison before he’s sentenced in June, asked a federal appeals court set aside a judge’s order that he be jailed.
Madoff reveals $823 million life of luxury
Court documents released Friday show that Bernard Madoff and his wife Ruth lived a life of high luxury, with exclusive homes, yachts and other assets worth 823 million dollars.
Israel violates Free Trade Agreement as US loses $71 billion
According to a study conducted by the Washington DC based Institute for Research: Middle East Policy (IRmep) of documents released only last year, the United States has lost more than $71 billion in the deal and the equivalent of an average of 100,000 jobs in each of the past 10 years alone.
Obama's economics guru defends deficit spending
Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama's closest economic adviser, broke a long public silence on Friday, asserting that today's economic problems stem from an unsustainable financial model, and he defended heavy deficit spending as a necessary evil to restore the economy to health.
Obama and the Triumph of the Fabians
In 1945, the United Kingdom implemented a program of change at the hands of a new left wing government. The structure of support built up in previous decades, the way change was sold to the public, outcomes themselves have much to teach us about America's future.
Obama's New Tack: Blaming Bush
By Scott Wilson
In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics."
Oregon Bill Proposes State Grow, Distribute, Tax Medical Marijuana
The state would take over growing and distributing marijuana to patients in the medical-marijuana program under a bill introduced Wednesday. Sponsored by Rep. Ron Maurer, R-Grants Pass, House Bill 3274 imposes a $98-per-ounce tax, which would cover the state's cost of operating and securing the production center.
Pentagon plans blimp to spy from new heights
The Pentagon said Thursday that it intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant dirigible that will float 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, providing unblinking and intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below.
U.S. opposes torture lawsuit
The Obama Administration, taking its first position in a federal court on claims of torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, urged the D.C. Circuit Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit by four Britons formerly held there. In addition, the new filing argued that a recent appeals court ruling makes clear that “aliens held at Guantanamo do not have due process rights.”
Moreover, the document called for a sweeping ban on lawsuits against U.S. military officials, claiming constitutional violations by such officials. Allowing such lawsuits “for actions taken with respect to aliens during wartime,” it said, “would enmesh the courts in military, national security, and foreign affairs matters that are the exclusive province of the political branches.”
Endless pursuit of John Demjanjuk is too much
Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk is going to be 89 years old on April 3 and is accused of serving as a guard at the Sobibor Nazi concentration camp. This story is boring.
Demjanjuk has become a kind of shuttlecock in legal efforts for his conviction. But it seems to be a wild-goose chase. In 1981, he was stripped of his U.S. citizenship and later extradited to Israel and tried there. Israel's Supreme Court overturned his conviction. It's amazing that we still remain immersed in the barrage of old tales and a doctrine of revenge. Now he is being transported to Germany to be tried there again.
The Cause of Poverty
By Jacob G. Hornberger
It is the dead hand of the state that is the cause of poverty. Or to be more precise, it is massive government involvement in economic activity that prevents or inhibits a society from becoming wealthy.
Bernard Madoff and the Democratic Party scandal
It looks like longtime Democratic Party supporter Bernard Madoff will spend the rest of his life in prison. In a country with an unbiased, watchdog press corps, the Bernie Madoff scandal would have Democrat pols in Washington shaking in their suits, fearing hearings, as many Republicans did during the Jack Abramoff scandal.
So What Happens When We All Are Broke?
The quantity people receive will depend on their service to the state and their willingness to cooperate. Those who obey will be told where to live and what work to do. Those who dissent will be cut off and will starve or beg.
Two out of every three people who ask for FBI records under the Freedom of Information Act are told by the bureau no such documents exist _ a failure rate five times higher than at other major federal agencies, a private study finds.
Fraud found in Medicare billings
Fraud and abuse helped boost Medicare spending on home health services 44% over five years as some providers exaggerated patients' medical conditions and others billed for unnecessary services or care they did not provide, a Government Accountability Office report out today says
The GAO reviewed home care payments from 2002 to 2006, when spending reached $13 billion. The number of Medicare enrollees using in-home services rose 17% during that period to 2.8 million.
Illinois Income Tax May Jump 50 Percent
Gov. Pat Quinn confirmed Friday that he plans to raise taxes on some Illinois residents to combat deficits in a difficult state budget, and called for broader tax reform
Individualism and Self Defense
By Michael Gaddy
There are present in America today a very large number of citizens who believe protection of themselves and their loved ones from violent physical attack, robbery, rape and general mayhem is the sole responsibility of others. Most of these ignorant folks believe that employees of the state should be responsible for protection of the individual in our society. This view is elitist and based on false assumptions.
Oath Keepers ... Guardians of the Republic Video!
Military, Veterans, and peace officers who will fulfill their oaths to defend the Constitution, will NOT “just follow orders,” will stand for liberty, and will save the Republic, so help us God.
Sales of guns, ammo still high
Popular self-protection ammunition is often sold out at local stores, weapons are flying off shelves and the state reports an 87 percent increase in concealed carry permit applications for February 2008 over February 2009.
"People are hoarding. They're creating a shortage," Jim Prall at Sports World on 41st Street said of ammunition sales. "We've sold more ammunition in the last three months than we sold last year."
Secret emails show Iraq dossier was 'sexed up'
Secret Whitehall emails released yesterday provide damning new evidence that the notorious dossier making the case for invading Iraq was "sexed up".
Bottom Feeders at the Trough
By Sharon Smith
The federal bailout of insurance giant American International Group (AIG) swelled to $170 billion in early March after a third infusion of taxpayer dollars. Yet even as the final details were being ironed out on February 28th, AIG filed a lawsuit against the government, claiming the IRS owes it $306 million in previous overpayments on taxes, interest and penalties. "AIG is taking this action to ensure that it is not required to pay more than its fair share of taxes," a company spokeswoman explained to the Wall Street Journal without a hint of irony.
NATO's Global Mission Creep
By Diana Johnstone
NATO, the main overseas arm of the U.S. military-industrial complex, just keeps expanding. Its original raison d’être, the supposedly menacing Soviet bloc, has been dead for twenty years. But like the military-industrial complex itself, NATO is kept alive and growing by entrenched economic interests, institutional inertia and an official mindset resembling paranoia, with think tanks looking around desperately for “threats”.
Sand, whose book "When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?" ignited controversy in Israel and in Jewish circles, is the recipient of the Aujourd'hui Award, which is given to the best non-fiction political or historical work.
Fears in U.S. drug war will destabilize Mexico
Concern about a potential failed state - not Pakistan, not Somalia, but California's neighbor Mexico - is mounting in Washington as an all-out war involving 45,000 Mexican military personnel fails to quell rising drug violence that is spilling from such Mexican cities as Tijuana into the United States.
New Obama technology chief on leave after FBI office raid
An aide to President Obama is on leave from his new job after the FBI raided his old District of Columbia government office yesterday, arresting a city employee and a technology consultant on corruption charges, a White House official said.
Sarasota's Art Nadel is Manhattan jailmate to swindler king Bernard Madoff
Confessed swindler Bernard Madoff won't be the only money manager in baggy brown scrubs at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. For several weeks, the federal jail in lower Manhattan has also been home to Sarasota's Arthur Nadel.
Major Banks Grease Wheels for Corrupt Regimes
Some of the world's leading banks facilitate corruption in the poorest countries, charges a new report by Global Witness, an independent watchdog group.
The report, "Undue Diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes," shows how by doing business with dubious customers in corrupt, natural resource-rich states, banks are facilitating corruption and state looting, which deny these countries the chance to lift themselves out of poverty and leave them dependent on aid.
Mystery of Madoff's rapid confession
Legal experts were flummoxed by the fraudster's willingness to admit every criminal charge laid before him, but was he trying to protect others who may have been implicated?
USA Loses the War against Latin American Drug Cartels
DEA’s painstaking care of ensuring reliable «controllable» channels of drug trafficking to Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean countries resulted in the emergence in the region of firmly consolidated mafia groups that worked under the DEA’s protection but never failed to see to their own commercial interests.
