Because of my frank criticism people sometimes question my love of country, but make no mistake, I do love this country.
Aside from a hideous past and a hideous present, what do we have to be ashamed of? I do love my country.
I love her for her promise. I love her for what she was meant to be.
I love that we as a people are finally ready for change. I’m glad that we are making history and that once again we are inspired by a leader with poetry in his soul. Some have said that words are cheap, and while that can be true, they can also mean everything.
The leaders we remember best were poetic souls who gave us little of greater importance than their uplifting and life-giving words.
Inspiration matters.
That’s all I have to say. I now present the brilliant Sarah Brightman.
I have talked about people and their levels of belief in forming their worldviews, or lack thereof by referencing this link. You may disagree with the entire concepts here but sit back and embrace the idea of the levels.
As a real life example some people are content with WWF wrestling mania or the Entertainment channel while others listen to classical music, sipping chardonnay at dinner. While we might loath Bush and the last eight years of neo-cons the impending far left shift with Obama is my Apocalyse horse ride!
This from a premier Illuminati watch site lays out Obama’s agenda.
Feed the world. We can’t afford to feed ourselves let alone “the world”. And how much? 845 billion or .7% of our ailing mostly fictional GDP.
A global tax to feed the poor, a global carbon tax, a global gun ban and the UN Biodiversity project.
Really, it is the karmic reversal toward the fascism of the far left. I know I can see you all revolting at those last few words, need I remind you of 2006?To top it off lets do the simple math.
Clinton+”sex scandal”=shift towards right
McCain+”sex scandal”=shift towards left
Is political pendulum, no? I mean they are not even creative enough to come up with something original scandal wise!
Now back to the levels. McCain, if he weathers any of this faces the total disgust of even conservatives within his own party, the massive shift away from anything republican in all but rural states. Now take the majority of the population concerned with little else but themselves. They are going to take things at face value. A dirt scandal upon a public figure put out by one of the top papers long considered solidly in the pocket of the Bilderburg Group, and masterfully done timing and execution wise, I might add.
On top of the unresponsiveness of our own “government” Obama will add the unresponsive and hostile to America taxes, laws and global government with zero representation to the mix. It is the final formation of the totalitarian oppressive New World Order. One in which all movements are watched, analyzed and dealt with.
S 1959 is not meant for swarthy middle eastern looking people, it’s meant for you and me. I know, more links to “prove” it.
And all this scumbag gets is 5 months and a $9,300 restitution payback because of his promotion on the false claims!
lying about his Army achievements and awards – including his bogus claim a Silver Star for heroism in battle – so he could get promoted faster.
Not the sentence he should have gotten.
The felony charge of knowingly making false statements carried up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Calderone was also accused of wearing false decorations between Nov. 22, 2003, and Dec. 3, 2006. That charge, a misdemeanor, carried a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
One wonders the why he was let off so easy!
Spent 2005 in Iraq, apparently lied about further tours In-Country, his qualifications, and other awards!
Falsified his DA Form 2-1 with the Silver Star, Special Forces and Ranger tabs, and Combat Infantry badge!
Than submitted a falsified DD 214, all of which led to the promotion to Major!
This clown could get himself Elected pResident in this Country, now that we’ve already lowered the bar, Way Low!!
‘CHARLOTTE COUNTY: The family of missing Marine Eric Hall says the young man made a phone call to a friend in Jeffersonville, Indiana early Wednesday morning.’
Snip
‘Hall has been missing for nearly three weeks. His family says he was wounded in Iraq and is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.’
‘Eric Hall, 24, left his aunt’s house in Deep Creek on Feb. 3 during a flashback to his service in Iraq. He was injured while on foot patrol in Fallujah in June 2005; an improvised explosive device killed a man he was with and mangled his thigh. Eric was medically retired from the Marine Corps, where his mother, Becky Hall, said he had planned to make his career. A few weeks before his disappearance, he moved from Indiana to Florida for a fresh start.’
Snip
‘Eric seemed to believe enemies were out to get him the day he disappeared, relatives said. He had previously been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and received some treatment from the Veteran’s Administration.’
Clothing: black leather jacket with patch that says “In Memory of Pops” (a memorial to a friend’s deceased father), plaid long-sleeved shirt, white T-shirt, blue jeans, possibly a motorcycle helmet
Tattoos: “sinner” written on inside of right bicep, “saint” on inside of left bicep, Chinese characters on stomach, dog tags on left side of ribcage, praying hands on left side of chest, and “established in 1983” written on lower back
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office at 941-639-0013 or Becky Hall at 502-500-7732.
There is also a message from his mother at above report!
Today UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband apologized to parliament. He admitted that US “special rendition” illegal extradition flights had landed on British soil despite earlier assurances that they hadn’t.
Join me in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Miliband said that on two occasions in 2002 US flights carrying “terrorist suspects” stopped to refuel at the airbase on the British Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia? You’ve got to be kidding. Look at the map. Why in heaven’s name would a flight between any two points ever stop in Diego Garcia? Were the people being transported from or to Indonesia? Unfortunately, you cannot be told that, even though the flights were 6 years ago, if you were told, you’d have to be silenced.
He said his concern about the case was shared by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
“We both agree that the mistakes made in these two cases are not acceptable and she shares my deep regret that this information has only just come to light,” he said.
Mr Miliband told MPs that he was “very sorry indeed” to have to correct previous statements made by then prime minister Tony Blair and foreign secretary Jack Straw that rendition flights had not used British bases.
In other words, the previous statements by Blair and Straw and Rice and heaven knows who else were false. Regardless, the details about the two admitted flights are extremely limited:
Mr Miliband said that in each of the two cases, the aircraft involved had been carrying a single detainee – neither of them British – who did not leave the plane while it was on the ground at Diego Garcia.
One of those detainees has since been released but the other is still being held by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Miliband said the Americans had given an assurance that no detainees had been held on Diego Garcia and that US records showed no record of any other rendition through Diego Garcia or any other UK territory.
Oh thank heavens that the two souls being illegally extradcited or kidnapped weren’t British. That makes this so much more palatable. Not.
Of course, the US version of the story is more detailed. It seems that CIA Director Michael Hayden told agency employees that information previously provided to the British “turned out to be wrong.” Hayden told AP AP:
One of the two prisoners is now jailed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and the other was released to his home country, where he has since been freed by that government, the U.S. intelligence official said.
The CIA didn’t interrogate or imprison either man, according to the official. In this case, the CIA only moved the two men from one country to another.
The CIA has held and interrogated fewer than 100 prisoners in its detention program, using “enhanced” or harsh interrogation techniques on about a third of them, Hayden has told Congress.
The rendition program secretly transfers alleged terrorists from one country to another without formal extradition proceedings. It can involve moving prisoners to the custody of governments where harsh interrogation techniques, including torture, are known to be used. The U.S. government insists it does not move prisoners to third countries without assurances that torture will not be used.
Does this make sense to anyone? In fact, it raises more questions than it answers.
* The CIA allegedly didn’t imprison either of the two people who were flown through Diego Garcia. They obviously were not free to leave the plane. Is keeping someone on a plane traveling between two countries who wish to or have imprisoned the person being transported something other than “imprisonment?”
* Is the CIA now some kind of secure, worldwide prison taxi service carrying prisoners from one country to another? How is it that the CIA has that particular job? And between what countries does the US ferry prisoners? Does the CIA direct or participate in deciding where prisoners should be imprisoned?
* What are the admitted “harsh interrogation techniques” in the sending and/or recipient countries and what standard is being used, if any, to determine that they do not amount to “torture?” Or put another way, when the US receives an assurance that “torture will not be used” what is the definition of torture?
* Why are third party countries and not the US imprisoning and using “harsh interrogation techniques” on these prisoners?
May we have answers to these questions? Of course not. If we were told the answers we’d imperil the safety of the free world. We’d give the terrists information we don’t want them to have. We’d be aiding the enemy. We’d be thwarting the GWOTTM. How very silly of you to ask. Did you think this was the US and that the Government would answer these questions? How very silly of you.
This icon was designed by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist in Britain. It was originally an anti-nuclear emblem for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament adopted it as their logo and thereafter it became an international icon for the 1960s anti-war movement. More about the history…
Happy Birthday Peace.com has a peace sign gallery to celebrate the occasion. Anyone can upload their own art.
The peace sign might be an expression of the search and anxiety that more and more of us feel every day…Something suggests to us that there must be another way, no matter what rational explanations we hear to justify violence…Something suggests that there must be a way that creates harmony and hope instead of disintegration and chaos…At certain times this something manifests both in history and in our personal lives
The U.S. Department of the Interior took the Northern Rockies’ Gray Wolf off the endangered list today, opening them up for hunting as described in this earlier post from The Environmentalist’s managing editor.
CNN/AP reports that the “removal from the endangered list was announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Interior. The loss of federal protection allows states to move forward with public hunts for the animals, possibly as soon as this fall.”
Environmental groups have promised to sue to keep the wolves on the list.
More below the jump…
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (February 21, 2008) – Wolves in the Northern Rockies will lose protection under the Endangered Species Act under a new plan announced today by the Bush administration. The plan to “delist” the wolves threatens to reverse one of America’s most successful wildlife recovery efforts and puts the species back at risk of extinction, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
NRDC said it will immediately notify the government of its intent to file a lawsuit challenging the delisting decision. It said that it is premature to revoke endangered species protections because the wolves have not fully recovered.
Video of the gray wolves in the wild, the press release from the NRDC and the CNN/AP article are available at this link.
A British mining company is about to begin exploratory drilling for toxic, radioactive uranium in Kaibab National Forest just outside the eco-fragile boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park.
Of course, the idea of uranium is being sold as if it were an absolute necessity.
Do these companies really care about the beauty of the Earth Mother,
This ill-conceived drilling is powerful evidence that tighter restrictions must be enacted to protect the Canyon. It further indicates the critical need to modernize the General Mining Act of 1872, which authorizes mining for economic minerals on federal public lands.
Uranium mining has been linked to high levels of cancer and areas of radioactivity on the Navajo Reservation. The tribe has banned it. The various mining techniques used all risk contaminating the groundwater aquifer or surface water.
Next, let’s consider clean energy usage from that new Navajo home verses “how the uranium mining will affect their water, livestock and their families.”
People in Wyoming and South Dakota are afraid of how the uranium mining will affect their water, livestock and their families, just like their Coloradan neighbors to the south, but they are more afraid of the ramifications of speaking up, White Face said.
Last of all, let’s consider clean energy usage from that new Navajo home verses “Uranium dust from abandoned open-pit mines in Wyoming makes its way into South Dakota, she said, and it even finds its way into the Cheyenne River, which flows into South Dakota’s Black Hills, uranium-rich in its own right.”
White Face said she’s seen firsthand the sorts of things uranium can do to public health, even in more remote parts of the United States. Uranium dust from abandoned open-pit mines in Wyoming makes its way into South Dakota, she said, and it even finds its way into the Cheyenne River, which flows into South Dakota’s Black Hills, uranium-rich in its own right.
Oh wait, we need to consider clean energy usage from that new Navajo home verses “… make(ing) yellowcake. That material can be turned into weapons-grade uranium or enhanced for use in nuclear power plants.”
Groundwater is oxidized and turned into a solution called a “lixiviant,” which is forced down into the sandstone layers, where the uranium is essentially drawn to combine with the water. The solution is pumped back to the surface and combined with resin beads in a process that works basically the same way as a home water softener. Molecules of uranium hop on to the resin beads, which are taken to a processing facility to strip the uranium off, refine it and make yellowcake. That material can be turned into weapons-grade uranium or enhanced for use in nuclear power plants.
I’d said earlier that there’s a funny thing about that capitalistic motivation,
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction–the figurative midnight–and monitors the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences and nanotechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm.
– snip –
Unfortunately, however, the possibility of a nuclear exchange between countries remains.
as uranium mining becomes more common, it may facilitate even more “possibility of a nuclear exchange between countries,” drawing us closer to midnight.
Famine sweeps the Third World. A billion people flee across borders. Vast regions become abandoned. Governments fall. Hundreds of millions die.
This is the future that might overwhelm the planet if any of the eight nuclear-armed countries – or the 35 other countries with enough weapons-grade fuel build their own bombs – start blasting their enemy’s cities with low-yield nuclear weapons.
(Take accordingly. I don’t think anyone but real intelligence has the real numbers, but the point is made)
• Where are the bombs?
• Pakistan – – 52 warheads
• India – – 85 warheads
• Israel – – 116 warheads
• Britain – – 200 + warheads
• France – – 350 warheads
• China — 400 warheads
• USA – – 10,315 warheads
• Russia – – 16,200 warheads
Think how much uranium had to be used to make all those nuclear weapons and how much beautiful land had to be ruined. Furthermore, think of how much “uranium dust from abandoned open-pit mines” caused health problems, how much uranium mining affected “water, livestock, and families,” and the cumulative effects of the “high levels of cancer and areas of radioactivity” caused by all those uranium mines.
The uranium mining companies must be soooooooooooooo concerned about the possible future of our planet,
The Guardian reports Serb protesters set US embassy ablaze in Belgrade. “Protesters set fire to the American embassy in Belgrade tonight and then attacked the neighbouring Croatian embassy after 150,000 Serbs gathered in the city to demonstrate against the independence of Kosovo… Masked attackers who entered the building tried to throw furniture and papers from the first floor, and appeared to have started the fire from inside one of the offices. The blaze spread across the front of the building. The building has been closed this week, and the ambassador was at his home”. The British and Croatian embassies were also attacked. According to BBC News, “Schools have been closed for the day and Serbian railways are offering free travel.” and told the BBC she “felt as if there if there were a million people at the Belgrade rally.”
How can we leave Iraq now that the “surge” is working so spiffily? According to Reuters, Iraqi police find bodies of 15 executed men. “Iraqi police said on Thursday they had found the bodies of 15 men, including 10 soldiers, who had been blindfolded and shot execution-style in the head. The bodies were found in ditches in Diyala province close to the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad. Police said 10 of the bodies were those of soldiers in uniform. They appeared to have been killed about a week ago.”
With Fidel stepping down, there is much speculation about what will happen in Cuba now. The Los Angeles Times reports on some predictions in Cuba expected to turn over new leaf in farming. “Cuba is more likely to launch reforms to boost food production, create oil industry jobs and put more pesos in citizens’ pockets, analysts said… Some changes, probably starting with efforts to help farmers, are likely to occur during the next year… Raul Castro, the president’s 76-year-old brother and potential successor, and other Cuban leaders for months have indicated that farmers may receive legal rights to their land and guaranteed market prices for their produce. With food production pitifully low for a country with fertile land and a year-round growing climate, farmers need more land and more autonomy in tilling it to boost output. Cuba imports at least 70% of its food, including a record $437-million worth from the United States last year.” Additionally, “opportunities to draw more investment in oil exploration and nickel mining have also emerged”.
The New York Times reports that Research explains formation of unique Martian fans. Scientists at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands “believe they now know how sediment deposits spilling out of the mouth of some water channels on Mars were shaped in a series of terraces that look like terraced rice paddies… No similar natural formations have been seen in river deltas on Earth… About 10 stepped fans have been identified, most at the base of a steep slope emptying into a basin like an impact crater… The sandbox experiment, reported in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, [suggest] the terraces form by the interaction of the sediment flow with the water’s edge, which is rising as the basin fills.” High school students helped the Utrecht University scientists with the research.
This is for the impeachment diary arguing that we must impeach now: the Republicans braced for cataclysmic fight to the death. I say we give it to them. Nothing less than the utter ruination of the political doctrine that first took hold during the Nixon administration came to full fruition during the current Bush Cheney regime will suffice.
This is unrelated but put somewhere in the story: we must show the world that America does not believe that the eight years two election cycles of the Bush Cheney administration was nothing more than an unfortunate mistake and inconvenient aberration a bad crackerjack in a box. We must show the world that we utterly reject the practices and beliefs of a regime that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people unjustly and illegally. We have to accept the fact that we are part of the world community in fact a leader of that and we must guide our actions accordingly. Does it not mean anything that a high administration official is considered a war criminal?
This is for the impeachment diary arguing that we must impeach now: the Republicans braced for cataclysmic fight to the death. I say we give it to them. Nothing less than the utter ruination of the political doctrine that first took hold during the Nixon administration came to full fruition during the current Bush Cheney regime will suffice.
This is unrelated but put somewhere in the story: we must show the world that America does not believe that the eight years two election cycles of the Bush Cheney administration was nothing more than an unfortunate mistake and inconvenient aberration a bad crackerjack in a box. We must show the world that we utterly reject the practices and beliefs of a regime that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people unjustly and illegally. We have to accept the fact that we are part of the world community in fact a leader of that and we must guide our actions accordingly. Does it not mean anything that a high administration official is considered a war criminal?
The Guardian reports