Headlines for the week ending June 28, 2008

1. Mandatory In-Car Breathalyzers Coming?

Preventing someone from driving drunk is a good thing. But could these breathalyzers become an eventual invasion of privacy? Technology is a good thing, but when people with evil motives are in charge, no wonder why some of think the worse in some situations.

2. Taguba: Bush administration tortured detainees, 'committed war crimes'
   

We need more higher level people in Government speaking out against evil. General Taguba should be commending for his honesty and bravery.

3. Evangelist accuses Obama of 'distorting' Bible
   

These politicians are comical. Most of them have no idea about religion and politics and should stay away from both subjects.

4. Court rejects death penalty for raping children
   

This the same court that says it's cool to torture people at Camp X-Ray who may have done nothing wrong whatsoever? We have very odd people ruling over us. What does that say about the people who choose these leaders?

5. Man caught having sex with table gets 6 months

Do I have to comment on this article?

6. U.S. Military Demands Bonus Money Back from Soldiers with Arms, Legs Blown Off
   

If you are asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for your country, can you actually put a price tag on your arms and legs?

7. Leaked NIST Docs: "Unusual" Event Before Collapse Of WTC 7

Leaked confidential NIST documents concerning the investigation into the collapse of WTC 7, the 47-storey skyscraper that was not hit by a plane but imploded in under seven seconds on 9/11, reveal that an "unusual" event preceded the collapse of the building - a "jet of flames" that shot out of several windows after most of the fire had already died down.

8. 'Agents Provocateurs' caught in the UK

Governments have been caught time and time again using agent provocateurs. This is nothing new, just another example of Governments getting caught and back peddling.

9. NJ Salutatorian has critical speech cut off

Maybe a graduation speech wasn’t the right place to complain, but you got to give the kid credit for not being a wimp and speaking up for what she thought was right.

10. Mexican Army Members Busted for Home Invasion and Murder

Police reports show that three men arrested in a Phoenix home invasion and homicide Monday may have been active members of the Mexican Army.

11. Government Permission Required For Parents To Kiss Children

A quarter of the entire adult population of the United Kingdom will be mandated to pass a state check operated by a newly formed government agency to have any physical contact with children under the age of 16 in public - including their own kids.

12. Five Myths About the New Wiretapping Law

Perhaps most controversially, the bill effectively pardons the telecom giants that assisted the Bush administration in the warrantless wiretapping program. They will now be shielded from dozens of civil lawsuits brought against them after their involvement was exposed. House Democrats insist that the telecoms are not automatically getting off the hook. Instead, the companies must go before a federal judge. But here's the catch: For the suits against them to be "promptly dismissed," they must demonstrate to the judge not that what they did was legal but only that the White House told them to do it.

13. Oil's rise is mainly dollar's devaluation, OPEC chief says

And all the while I thought that it was the big bad commodity speculators. FYI folks, the commodities are denominated in DOLLARS, which have been devalued. Welcome to economics 101!!!!!

14. Oceans clearing greenhouse gases faster than expected

Oceans clearing greenhouse gases faster than expected...someone needs to contact Al Gore and tell him that science still works. Can we get a return on that Nobel Peace Prize, if necessary, Al?

15. San Francisco to vote on George W Bush sewage works

San Francisco is to hold a vote on whether to rename one of its largest sewage treatment facilities after George W. Bush, in what supporters describe as "a fitting monument to the President's work". Call me crazy, but I’m not sure that I would like a sewage system named after me.

16. City Pension Funds Lose Billions

Taxpayers could be on the hook, AGAIN!!!! When will you learn?

17. Gun Control for Dummies
    

The FACT of the matter is that the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution states quite clearly that "the Right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It's also a FACT that the Supreme Court has already stated in their decision Miranda v Arizona: "Where rights (liberty) secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no legislation which would abrogate (abolish) them."

In Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 US 105: "No State shall convert a liberty into a privilege, license it, and charge a fee therefore."

In Sherer v. Cullen, 481 F 946 "There can be no sanction or penalty imposed upon one because of this exercise of constitutional rights."

In Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham Alabama, 373 US 262: "If the State converts a right (liberty) into a privilege, the citizen can ignore the license and fee and engage in the right (liberty) with impunity."

With the ruling that the Second Amendment does convey an INDIVIDUAL right to keep and bear arms, prior Supreme Court Rulings make it clear that gun registration and indeed even limits to the kinds of weapons the individual may choose to keep are unconstitutional.

18. The meaning of the phrase "well-regulated" in the 2nd amendment

The phrase "well-regulated" was in common use long before 1789, and remained so for a century thereafter. It referred to the property of something being in proper working order. Something that was well-regulated was calibrated correctly, functioning as expected. Establishing government oversight of the people's arms was not only not the intent in using the phrase in the 2nd amendment, it was precisely to render the government powerless to do so that the founders wrote it.

19. American 'Meltdown' is the Reason for the Money Injection by Fortis

Fortis expects a complete breakdown of the American financial markets within days or weeks. This explains, according to the bank insurer, the series of interventions on Thursday with the aim of strengthening themselves by € 8 billion. "We are ready at the last moment. The U.S. is doing much worse than we had thought," said Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens, who insists that CEO Votron shall not be replaced. Fortis expects bankruptcies of 6,000 U.S. banks that have low coverage. "But the same goes also for Citigroup and General Motors, and thereby starts a complete meltdown in the U.S."

20. HUGE CREDIT CARD CRISIS NEXT FOR AMERICA

People are using their credit cards to pay for gas and even their mortgages, just trying to hang on until the HIGH-PAYING jobs come back. But the jobs are NEVER COMING BACK. Bush actually gave huge tax credits to corporations to make it easier for them to offshore manufacturing jobs.

21. Department of Defensee Announces Force Adjustments
    

This doesn’t look like we’re going to be leaving Iraq anytime soon.

Headlines for the Week Ending June 14, 2008

1. YouTube - Syndicated Radio host Michael Reagan, adopted son of former president Ronald Reagan, publicly calls for 9/11 Truth Activist Mark Dice to be murdered.

Michael Reagan: "We ought to find the people who are doing this, take them out and shoot them. Really. You take them out, they are traitors to this country, and shoot them. You have a problem with that? Deal with it. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that's what they are, and you shoot them dead. I'll pay for the bullets."

Folks, even if you don’t agree with someone’s view or resounding questioning of an event, this is still no excuse to publicly call for the murder of people. Michael Reagan is the son of a former US President so he may just get a slap on the wrist, if that. But if you or I were to say such incendiary remarks, we just might get a visit from a pack of stormtroopers with black ski masks.

2. Nicolas Sarkozy plans to bypass Irish no vote

Diplomats and officials have no intention of letting the Irish no vote sink a blueprint to boost the EU's powers on the international stage and to create a President of Europe. Gordon Brown has already phoned Paris to promise Mr Sarkozy that Britain will ignore Ireland to continue parliamentary ratification of the EU Treaty.

This is just another example of the will of the people being thwarted. But if people continue to vote for the establishment’s racehorses, then you can expect to get the same pay off in the end. America, get a good look at how you are getting treated by this European example.

3. The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for peanuts.

This is a follow up to an article from a week ago. But the same system that many laud as a savior is showing signs of a tyrannical system of control and abuse. We, the people, are to blame; and until the people rise up, stop rationalizing everything and demand substantive change, the status quo will always prevail.

4. A New Kind of Wage Slave

So when you call directory assistance using, say, Excel Telecommunications, chances are good your inquiry might be answered by a federal prisoner. At Carswell, a fifth of the prison workforce -- most from the camp but a few from the hospital as well -- get to sit in cubicles in an air-conditioned building, start at almost double the pay of the regular prison jobs, and, if they behave and don't make mistakes, get regular raises until they reach the maximum pay of -- hold onto your hat -- $1.45 an hour. Of course, they have to work seven and a half years to reach that maximum. And since this center hasn't been open long enough for anyone to make the maximum, the highest pay at Carswell is $1.15 an hour.

Could this be the reason for such a large prison population explosion?

5. ISRAELI ARMY NOW DICTATES WHO ONE CAN MARRY

When I read the following I had flashbacks to a time in the USA when certain states had it written into law forbidding a white person from cohabiting with a black person.... the same was true under the apartheid regime in South Africa.

When will people stop being slaves? When will our law enforcement realize that they are being played like a marionette dancing on a string. Just doing your job, huh?

6. German Papers Say 'Many Have Lost Faith in America' Because of Bush

With George W. Bush visiting Germany and other parts of Europe this week, German newspapers have been slamming the U.S. president in language stronger than most American dailies use.

If an American citizen with a lot of influence said this, he/she would have been considered a traitor by the bleeding heart establishment shills and the sheeple.

7. Secretary General of Iraqi Scientists and Intellectuals Arrested

The officials said that one of the so-called Muthanna Brigade units in the Abu Ghraib arrested Sheikh Ahmad during his return from Baghdad to the city without reference to any reasons behind the arrest. The source said that a delegation of notables and the people of Fallujah will go to the brigade headquarters to know the reasons for arrest and mediating for his release. It is noteworthy that the arrest of Secretary General came one day after the Congress held by "the group of Iraqi scientists and intellectuals" against the American Treaty.

I’m wondering if this man was arrested because he was giving sensitive information to our enemies. If this is the case, then shouldn’t Bill Clinton and George Bush both be arrested for giving sensitive information to the North Koreans and to the Chinese. Never mind the man behind the curtain!

8. Iraq war could cost taxpayers $2.7 trillion

In addition to the cost of war, taxpayers pay for rising veteran health care costs, and returning soldiers faced with foreclosure and unemployment.

Now, anyone want to explain why the American people should fork over that $2.7 trillion for a war started with lies? Well, they say it’s broken now, and we have to fix it. The American people didn’t break it; so let the bankers who funded this fiasco pay for it.

9. U.S. Ranks Dead Last Among 19 Nations in Preventive Medicine

The United States ranks worst among developed nations in the number of preventable deaths, according to a study conducted by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and published in the journal Health Affairs.

Are we to think that the Pharmaceutical companies, their lobbyists and all of their “cure-alls” are partly to blame for all of this? What about changing our diet, exercise regimen, and unhealthy practices, etc? Responsibility and education are key, but so many people are lazy and spoon fed their “news” from unreliable sources, no wonder this nation is in this sad state of affairs.

10. Security scans will show sex organs

Security scanners that can see through passenger’s clothing and reveal details such as their sex organs, colostomy bags and breast size, are being installed in 10 U.S. airports.

Security is fine, but the good people of this country are doing virtually nothing and letting our government use the threat of terrorism to take away personal liberties: a right to privacy.

11. Teen Challenge: Your tax dollars, paying for institutionalised abuse

Abu Ghraib and Gitmo aren't the only abusive facilities getting tax dollars--both by direct funding and by welfare fraud, Teen Challenge gets quite a bit of your tax money for institutionalized abuse...and Bush is still bailing them out when they're caught doing something wrong.

Like I have always said, when anyone is outside of their authoritative job description, a mess or chaos always results.

12. Bush warns of pay cuts for troops

President Bush on Saturday pressed Congress to approve billions of dollars more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning that failure to quickly act could lead to mass layoffs at the Pentagon and an inability to pay the salaries of troops in combat.

How can this President even have those words come out of his mouth after the lie he and his administration told is what got the troops over there in the first place? If I was him, I wouldn't threaten to cut the troops salaries, I'd threaten to cut my own, my entire cabinet's salaries and perks, the judicial branch of Government and all of the pork barrel bills that our Government funds. How's that for leadership?

13. Kucinich presents Bush impeachment articles

Kucinich presents Bush impeachment articles.

Too little too late, Dennis. Pelosi is compromised and like I told many democrats before the republicans lost control of the House, Pelosi and the gang can accurately be depicted as the “new boss, same as the old boss.” Nothing will change, and it hasn’t. Feel better now?

14. Central bank body warns of Great Depression

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the organization that fosters cooperation between central banks, has warned that the credit crisis could lead world economies into a crash on a scale not seen since the 1930s.

What we have to remember about economics is that these types of things are cyclical and planned. It isn’t necessarily about poor people and a tanking economy; it’s about a transfer of wealth from those who don’t know the rules, to those who make the rules. Remember that! Those people who are losing their homes and their jobs don’t know the rules. The banks are being bailed, bought out, and the “higher ups” are still getting their lucrative financial payoffs. The average Joe is paying $4.00 per gallon at the pumps, inflation is going higher, and American jobs are continually being outsourced. Think about it, folks.

15. Vegan girl, 12, 'has spine of 80-year-old'

A girl brought up by her parents on a strict vegan diet has been admitted to hospital with a degenerative bone condition said to have left her with the spine of an 80-year-old.

Jesus wasn’t a vegan, the Children of Israel under the Law of God weren’t vegans, science doesn’t support a vegan lifestyle, and there is no New Testament mandate to support a vegan lifestyle. Bring on the meat!

16. Man Who Fell Off Couch Laughing at TV Show Ends Up Pepper Sprayed, Arrested

Here we go again. Cops are just doing their jobs, as usual.

17. FEMA gives away $85 million of supplies for Katrina victims

FEMA gave away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims, a CNN investigation has found. The material, from basic kitchen goods to sleeping necessities, sat in warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency's giveaway to federal and state agencies this year.

YOU voted for this administration America, and YOU got ‘em.

18. Was polygamy the only issue with the FDLS?

19. EMINENT DOMAIN: GOVERNMENT STEALING FAMILY FARM

Headlines for the week ending June 7, 2008

1. US is 'the world's leading jailer:' Human Rights Watch

The United States has 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any other country in the world and more than ever before in its history, Human Rights Watch said Friday. "The new incarceration figures confirm the United States as the world's leading jailer," said David Fahti, Human Rights Watch's US program director. "Americans should ask why the US locks up so many more people than do Canada, Britain, and other democracies," he added. Folks, you better wake up-like yesterday. There is an agenda at work that the media is purposefully not reporting to you. But if your focus and attention is on the NBA Playoffs and whether of not Big Brown won the Triple Crown, then you’re already behind the 8-ball.

2. Sun, Not Man, Is Causing Climate Change

If this is true then Al Gore has a lot of explaining to do. Can Nobel Prize winners be stripped of their award?

3. 22,000 Jobs Cut on Wall Street, With More to Come

Does this look like the Bush stimulus plan is working?

4. Obama-Hillary Ticket? Ain't Gonna Happen

If Obama even begins to consider whether a Vice President Clinton would loyally help him better govern the country, she's toast in the veepstakes. This better not happen. After all of that mud slinging with Hillary and her bunch acted like she deserved the nomination. Honestly, there isn’t too much difference between these two candidates anyway, but Hillary has enough baggage to put Samsonite out of business. Don’t do it, Barack.

5. US elections: Jimmy Carter tells Barack Obama not to pick Hillary Clinton as running mate

"I think it would be the worst mistake that could be made," said Carter. "That would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates." Hillary Clinton? Negative?

6. Artificial Sweeteners Confound the Brain; May Lead to Diet Disaster

If that theory plays out, there could be implications for those who use artificial sweeteners as a weight-control aid. Recent research indeed suggests a correlation between artificial sweetener intake and compromised health. In one large survey, diet soda consumption was found to be associated with elevated cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk. A different study reveals a possible mechanism behind this effect: rats that were fed artificially sweetened yogurt in addition to their regular feed ended up eating more and gaining more weight than rats that ate yogurt with real sugar. The study's authors suggest that exposure to an artificial sweetener may undermine the brain's ability to track calories and to determine when to stop eating. Folks, the word “artificial” is the kicker and makes this decision a no-brainer. Stop using the junk!!!! Use stevia instead.

7. NJ superdelegate accuses Clinton camp of divisive tactics

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Hillary Clinton, tells The Star-Ledger of Newark he received a call from a top member of Clinton's organization shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary. Andrews says the caller explicitly discussed a strategy of winning Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and blacks. The Clinton’s? Divisive tactics? How could he say such a horrible thing about them after all of these wonderful years?

8. Pentagon said drawing up plans for strike on Iranian camp

The Pentagon is drawing up plans for a "surgical strike" against an alleged insurgent training camp in Iran, according to the UK Sunday Times' Michael Smith.

You know, back when Clinton was President, and coincidentally on the very same day Monica Lewinsky testified, Clinton attacked a target in Sudan he insisted was making weapons of mass destruction for Al Qaeda. As it turned out, Bill's media distraction blew up a medical supply company, pretty much the only one they had in Sudan. As it turned out, there was no trace of WMDs found in the rubble, the owners of the company sued the US and you wound up paying to rebuild the company (along with the bill for those million-a-pop cruise missiles Bill used to do the job). Our government at work!

9. Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilize Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

This is what the current administration considers to be a viable plan for the future of Iraq???? A US presence in perpetuity? And just what, precisely, do the Iraqi people get out of this agreement? I think the words "absolutely nothing" come to mind here. Wait a minute, I thought that the Presidential candidates (in word only except for Ron Paul) were talking about bringing the troops home. It appears to be only rhetoric again. Am I surprised? Should you be surprised? (Shake your head)

10. Australian Troops Pull Out of Iraq

About 500 Australian combat troops pulled out of their base in southern Iraq on Sunday, fulfilling an election promise by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to bring the soldiers home this year. The current Prime Minister knows that the former Aussie Prime Minister acted hastily in committing troops to this fiasco. He’s getting out while the getting is good. Can you blame him?

11. Cheney calls Iraq withdrawal 'betrayal'

The US Vice President Dick Cheney has told Virginia Republicans that withdrawing US troops from Iraq would be 'an act of betrayal.' One has to wonder against whom Cheney would characterize a withdrawal from Iraq a "betrayal"; Haliburton? Kellogg, Brown & Root? Dyncorp? Blackwater?

All these companies have received no-bid contracts, and have been raking in money hand over fist from the privatization of our military infrastructure. In terms of betraying the Iraqi people, we have already done that by going to war in Iraq on a pack of lies, destroying their infrastructure, and poisoning many of them with exposure to depleted uranium, which causes all kinds of cancers and terrible malformations of their kids. We have also exposed our troops to this same kind of deadly poison, causing the same damages to our troops and their children. I wonder why our vets can’t get the same standard of care that Cheney gets. That sounds like betrayal to me.

12. America's house prices are falling even faster than during the Great Depression

As housing prices in America continue their rapid descent, market-watchers are having to cast back ever further for gloomy comparisons. The latest S&P/Case-Shiller national house-price index, published this week, showed a slump of 14.1% in the year to the first quarter, the worst since the index began 20 years ago. Now Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale University and co-inventor of the index, has compiled a version that stretches back over a century. This shows that the latest fall in nominal prices is already much bigger than the 10.5% drop in 1932, the worst point of the Depression. I wonder why we aren’t hearing about this on the news, while Bush and his administration act as if everything is just fine.

13. Man banned from jet for Transformers T-shirt

Airport guards stopped a man boarding a plane -- for wearing a Transformers T-shirt showing a cartoon gun. Some of these airport workers need to get a job.

14. Latest Airline Fee: Pay Toilets?

I’m starting to think that USA stands for Unsurpassed Stupidity of Americans.

15. Bush has plans to turn Iraq over to the corporations and their mercenary armies

Could the U.S. ultimately end up privatizing its entire mission in Iraq? That's what the latest round of contracts the U.S. government plans to let out in the coming months might suggest. And to think, many of them have no competition and get no-bid contracts with minimal oversight and/or accountability.

16. 400,000 Troops needed in Afghanistan

ISAF Commander McNeill has said himself that according to the current counterterrorism doctrine, it would take 400,000 troops to pacify Afghanistan in the long term. But the reality is that he has only 47,000 soldiers under his command, together with another 18,000 troops fighting at their sides as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, and possibly another 75,000 reasonably well-trained soldiers in the Afghan army by the end of the year. All told, there is still a shortfall of 260,000 men. One has to wonder; just precisely how this shortfall going to be made up. I hope that they don’t start implementing conscription (a draft) of Americans or illegal aliens.