News and Developments
M5 Readers: Keep in Mind That Political News, By Nature, May Reflect Sequential Agenda
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June  2009 

 

 Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion [ 06/30/09 ]  "Military action. This is as acutely on the mind of the current chickenhawks, as the invasion of Iraq was on that of the neocons in the last couple of decades. Apparently, the authors feel compelled to give a justification for the bravura of their manuscript. ‘We chose to consider this extreme and highly unpopular option partly for the sake of analytical rigor and partly because if Iran responded to a confrontational American policy- such as an airstrike, harsh new sanctions, or efforts to foment regime change- with a major escalation of terrorist attacks (or more dire moves against Israel and other American allies), invasion could become a very “live” option.’..."

 Obama administration seeks to quash suit by 9/11 families  [ 06/29/09 ]  "The Obama administration has intervened to quash a civil suit filed against Saudi Arabia by survivors and family members of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks..."

 British embassy staff arrested in Iran [ 06/29/09 ]  "Iranian security officials have arrested eight local staff members of the British embassy for inflaming post-election tensions in the country ..."

 Apocalypse Not: Behind the Swine Flu Hysteria [ 06/28/09 ]  "At the height of the swine flu pandemic this spring, when the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was recommending that schools with cases of H1N1 be closed for 14 days and Mexico was still on lockdown, the epidemiology community already suspected the world wasn't ending. Why? The numbers came in: case fatality rate (how many infected people are dying) and replication rate (how many others an infected person will transmit the illness to — "R-zero," in disease-speak). H1N1 had an RØ of about 1.3, high enough to spread the virus but low enough that a strong isolation program could break its back. Its case fatality rate was a wussy 1.9 percent in Mexico and 0.1 percent worldwide. By comparison, the 1918 Spanish flu had an RØ of 2.7 and a case fatality rate of up to 5 percent, making it far more deadly. A real apocalypse, like the killer flu in The Stand — Stephen King's opus of epidemiologic eschatology — would be off the chart, with an RØ of 5 to 6 and a case fatality rate of 99 percent ..."

ODD: Naked ex-mayor arrested at campsite [ 06/27/09 ]  "With beer in hand, tells cops he's not the naked guy they're looking for..." Man tries to run down wife with dump truck, but crashes it  "Todd Thomas allegedly drove at his wife in his 1988 Chevrolet 3500 dump truck, missed, went off the road and crashed into some trees. He then ran. (Portland Press Herald) " Cops find woman's head, arms in boyfriend's freezer "The man also dumped body parts in a pond and trash bins. The suspect "looked like Predator," says one young man, referring to the sci-fi movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that featured a dreadlocked alien. "He looked that weird." (Columbus Dispatch) " Woman gets five years for using stun gun on cheerleading sponsor "It was not a fair ruling,” a handcuffed, tearful LeShawn Cathlene Fisher said as sheriff’s deputies took her to jail. "I love my children, my family, my friends. I don’t deserve this. (The Oklahoman)"  Police foil "potential Rambo situation," arrest unemployed man "John Rosser had been unable to find a job and after 2½ years was pushed to the brink when the property manager of his Mount Auburn apartment said she would have to evict him if he didn't pay up. That's when he apparently snapped and set out to kill his former boss. Cincinnati Enquirer) "   

 Israeli Agents entrap 21-year-old Palestinian into spying: 20 years hard labor [ 06/27/09 ]  "Divorced, unemployed and only 21 years old, she was one of the few Palestinian women convicted of treason. Her crime: collaboration with the Israeli security services. Hers is a grim story of an unhappy life and naivety. Enticed out of the occupied West Bank and into Israel, then plunged into a high-risk spying effort that lasted for five months until her capture, Tibi was lucky to escape with her life: collaborators, who are nearly always men, are so reviled among Palestinians that many are either shot in the street or sentenced to years on death row ..."

 India plans ID cards for its 1.1bn citizens [ 06/27/09 ]  "India’s government has launched one of the biggest bureaucratic exercises in the country’s history – the issue of a single identity card for each of its 1.1bn citizens. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the planning commission, said the scheme was part of the government’s “inclusive growth” programme aimed at penetrating India’s notorious red tape to deliver social services more directly to citizens, particularly those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. ..."

 White House Drafts Executive Order To Allow Indefinite Detention Of Terror Suspects [ 06/27/09 ]  "The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations ..."

 D.C. Crash Kills General Who Scrambled Jets on 9/11 [ 06/26/09 ]  "David F. Wherley Jr., the head of the Washington National Guard who scrambled jets over the city during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was among those killed in the worst commuter train crash in the city’s history, officials said."

 Doctor's Baffled By Girl Who Does Not Age  [ 06/25/09 ] "Brooke Greenberg is the size of an infant, with the mental capacity of a toddler. She turned 16 in January ... Dr. Richard Walker of the University of South Florida College of Medicine, in Tampa, says Brooke's body is not developing as a coordinated unit, but as independent parts that are out of sync. She has never been diagnosed with any known genetic syndrome or chromosomal abnormality that would help explain why ... There've been very minimal changes in Brooke's brain," Walker said. "Various parts of her body, rather than all being at the same stage, seem to be disconnected ..." See whole story on one page in print format.

 9/11 FEMA videographer at Ground Zero goes public  [ 06/25/09 ] "As official videographer for the U.S. government, Kurt Sonnenfeld was detailed to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, where he spent one month filming 29 tapes: “What I saw at certain moments and in certain places … is very disturbing!” He never handed them over to the authorities and has been persecuted ever since. Kurt Sonnenfeld lives in exile in Argentina, where he wrote « El Perseguido » (the persecuted). His recently-published book tells the story of his unending nightmare and drives another nail into the coffin of the government’s account of the 9/11 events. An exclusive interview by Voltairenet ..."   

 Kim Jong Il's Son Reportedly Takes Over N. Korea Spy Agency  [ 06/25/09 ] "North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their loyalty to his youngest son when he put the 26-year-old in charge of the country's powerful spy agency, a report said Wednesday ..."  Related:  North Korea Threatens To Wipe Out The U.S.  

 Britain Is Cocaine Capital Of Europe: UN Report  [ 06/25/09 ] "There are estimated to be 860,000 cocaine users in England and Wales and around 140,000 in Northern Ireland and Scotland combined. The report states: "The UK thus continues to be - in absolute numbers - Europe's largest cocaine market, with its second highest cocaine use prevalence rate." The report revealed a concentration of "problem drug users" in the capital, with around a quarter of all problem users in the UK living in London - a total of 74,000 people  ..."   

 Health Insurers Bilked Patients Of Billions Of Dollars: Senate Report  [ 06/25/09 ] "Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released yesterday by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee ..." Ex-Insider: Industry Uses "Fear Tactics" To Slam Public Option  

 Argentina case threatens to criminalize criticism of Israel  [ 06/25/09 ] "In what Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel has termed "a witch hunt and an attack on democratic freedoms," nine pro-Palestinian protesters in Argentina have been detained following a demonstration at an event celebrating Israel's 61st anniversary. The activists have been vilified as violent anti-Semites by politicians and the television and print media, and now face up to 12 years in prison for "ideological arrogance," under revived Juan Peron-era anti-terrorism legislation of dubious constitutionality ..."   

 U.S. CIA Predator Strike Kills At Least 60 People At Another Funeral In Pakistan  [ 06/24/09 ] "Details of the attack, which occurred in Makeen, remained unclear, but the reported death toll was exceptionally high. If the reports are indeed accurate and if the attack was carried out by a drone, the strike could be the deadliest since the United States began using the aircraft to fire remotely guided missiles at members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The United States carried out 22 previous drone strikes this year, as the Obama administration has intensified a policy inherited from the Bush administration ..."   

 Military Officials Plead Guilty To Felony Charges Over Afghanistan Defense Contracts  [ 06/23/09 ] "Christopher P. West, a U.S. Army Major from Chicago who served in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005, pleaded guilty to charges contained in the superseding indictment including three counts of bribery and three counts of conspiracy. West admitted to accepting $90,000 cash from contractors in exchange for awarding DOD contracts at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan ..."   

 DOJ: AIPAC case witness was asked to 'fake...suicide'  [ 06/23/09 ] "Two people asked a Pentagon official cooperating with prosecutors in an investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to fake his own death to avoid testifying against two pro-Israel lobbyists charged in the case, according to the Justice Department...."   

 EPA Conspires with DuPont to Allow Teflon Chemicals in Drinking Water  [ 06/23/09 ] "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signed an agreement with the DuPont corporation, imposing a new maximum level of a toxic Teflon chemical in drinking water near a factory in Parkersburg, West Virginia ..."  Note: Part of the 'depopulation' dynamic in general. Let the toxic chemicals flow...

 African women with HIV ‘coerced into sterilisation’ as 'treatment for 'AIDS'  [ 06/23/09 ] "Women in Africa are being sterilised without their consent after being told the procedure is a routine treatment for Aids, a lawsuit will claim ..." Note: Part of the 'depopulation' dynamic for Africa. This is also why main US biological testing areas are in Africa.

ODD:  Israel's richest woman gets messages, has visions  [ 06/23/09 ] "Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman and the controlling shareholder of the country's second-largest bank, said on Sunday she has visions and receives messages "from above," but they do not influence the management of her companies. Arison set off an uproar in Israel after she revealed that information in an interview with Channel Two broadcast late on Saturday. "I get a picture, I can feel it. If it's fire, I feel like I'm burning. If people are dying I feel pain," she confirmed in an interview with Reuters. The Israeli-American Arison along with her brother inherited billions of dollars from her late father Ted Arison, who founded Carnival Corp, the world's biggest cruise ship operator ..."  White man, 18, gets out of jail by pretending to be a black man, 34 "Richard Daniel Wines, 18, who was in jail on a public intoxication charge, was accidentally released early after pretending to be Jonathan Jermain Gardner, who is 34. (Myrtle Beach Sun News) "City council attorney found sleeping in overturned garbage can "The guy's family has gone through a lot lately. His ex-wife has been accused of improperly using city credit cards, a scandal that the lawyer was pulled into not only because they were married at the time, but also because he repeatedly publicly defended her. (News & Tribune) " City of Dallas to pay $500,000 in gorilla rampage incident "The money is to compensate two women and their children for their physical injuries and emotional trauma caused by a gorilla that escaped from its zoo cage. Texas law caps civil damage awards against a city government at $500,000. (Dallas Morning News) " Man who died in car-surfing accident thought he was invincible "The 34-year-old man "liked to gamble with life," says a relative. "I know when he was flying off the hood, he didn't think he would die, he was just thinking, 'This is going to hurt.'" (Fairbanks News-Miner) " Man who backed out on suicide pact is charged in pal's death "The plan was for both men to kill themselves in the woods because they hated life and the world, but one of the guys had change of heart. He left the woods without his dying, or dead, friend. The body was found four days later. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) " Frail woman, 69, pulls pink pistol on suspicious handyman  "The handyman who was supposed to be repairing Christa Taft-Mueller's door, but she says she found him eyeing her jewelry box." The guy said, 'Is that pistol loaded?’ I said, ‘Of course it is. It’s ready for you. It’s ready for you, honey.'" He says he was just looking for an outlet. (Naples Daily News) " 

 Secret Creation of Isolated Housing Units in Federal Prisons Violates Law  [ 06/22/09 ]  "The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Indiana today filed a legal complaint challenging the unprecedented and secret creation of housing units inside federal prisons in which prisoners are condemned to live in stark isolation from the outside world. Called Communication Management Units (CMUs) and designed to house prisoners viewed by the government as terrorists, they were established in violation of federal laws requiring public scrutiny and today are disproportionately inhabited by Muslim prisoners – many of whom have never been convicted of terrorism-related crimes ..."  Related: ACLU Sues DHS Over Unlawful TSA Searches And Detention 

 UK Parents Banned from Taking Pictures of Their Own Children at Sports Day  [ 06/22/09 ]  "Mrs Ethelston's Church of England Primary School, in Uplyme, Devon, prohibited photos and video filming, claiming it was due to 'changes in child protection and images legislation.' It is the first time the school has taken such measures ... A spokesman for the Devon local education authority said: "It's a decision which individual head teachers come to, usually with consultation with governors."

 ‘Insane’ file-sharing verdict could challenge law’s constitutionality  [ 06/21/09 ]  "In the first file-sharing case to go to trial in the United States, a Minnesota jury has ruled that a 32 year old woman must pay the music industry $1.92 million dollars for illegally making 24 songs available for sharing from her hard drive ..."

 US Congress okays $1.4bn Pakistan aid [ 06/21/09 ]  "The US Congress on Friday approved $1.4 billion in economic and security assistance for Pakistan as the Senate passed a $106 billion war supplemental bill, giving the Obama administration an urgently needed $225 million in relief assistance for the displaced people of Swat ..."  Note: I think they're paying for drugs, weapons or counter-insurgency ... no one cares about the people, there. See how it is already being subverted, here: Pakistan's offensive opens new forum for militants: refugee camps   

 Mossad still stalking malls for U.S. military personnel   [ 06/20/09 ]  "Cells of young Israeli intelligence operatives continue to openly solicit relationships with U.S. military personnel from shopping mall kiosks, according to an informed source. WMR has learned that one such kiosk operates at the MacArthur Center Mall in Norfolk, Virginia, where a number of U.S. Navy personnel from the nearby naval bases are regularly confronted by aggressive young Israelis selling Dead Sea cosmetic products who inquire about where the personnel are stationed and the nature of their jobs. Young Israeli women working at the kiosk also appear to want to strike up a closer relationship with some of the naval personnel. Note: I have seen this here ... a couple of years ago, there was a large change, and many of these people, who are NOT supposed to or working at all in the US with a visitors permit, were deported.  

 House Impeaches Federal Judge For First Time In 20 Years   [ 06/20/09 ]  "The House on Friday impeached a federal judge imprisoned for lying about sexual assaults of two women in the first such vote since impeaching former President Bill Clinton a decade ago. The impeachment of U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent of Texas sets up a trial in the Senate. Kent is the first federal judge impeached in 20 years. The House approved four articles of impeachment against Kent accusing him of sexually assaulting two female employees and lying to judicial investigators and Justice Department officials. All four articles passed unanimously ..."

 School bus traffic sting generates tickets, controversy in South Pasadena  [ 06/20/09 ]  "More than 160 people received $500 traffic citations Wednesday as part of an elaborate sting by the South Pasadena Police Department involving a decoy school bus complete with people walking on and off the vehicle. The sting — designed to nab motorists who fail to stop for school buses with flashing red lights — has generated debate in the city. Some think the program was unfair, charging that the location was unusual for a school bus, the officers created a distraction, and there were no schoolchildren present ..."

 U.S. Judge Fines 40 people for signing petition   [ 06/20/09 ]  Video

 Koreas negotiate as nuclear tensions grow  [ 06/20/09 ]  "North and South Korea have resumed talks on the fate of their last remaining reconciliation project as the US moved to 'defend itself' in the event of a North Korean missile strike on Hawaii ..."  Note: A propaganda move on the part of the US .... nothing can harm the US unless it wishes, for political purposes.

 29 Structural & Civil Engineers Cite Evidence for Controlled Demolition of All 3 WTC High-Rises on 9/11  [ 06/19/09 ]  "The symmetry of collapse struck Paul Mason, a structural engineer in Melbourne, Australia, and Dennis Kollar, P.E. (licensed Professional Engineer in Wisconsin). Kollar was troubled by the collapses’ “totality and uniformity” and thefact that the mass of debris remained centered on the building core all the way down. The towers should have fallen “with increasing eccentricity as the collapse progressed,” writes Howard Pasternack, P.E. These systematic collapses required that many structural connections not only fail “nearly simultaneously,” but also “in sequential order,” wrote Frank Cullinan, P.E.,who designs bridges in Northern California. That’s “impossible from asymmetrical impact loading and ...small, short-duration fires ..."  PDF

 Mystery Company To Assemble Cars in Louisiana  [ 06/19/09 ]  "A company described as a well-financed start-up reportedly is close to choosing a shuttered north Louisiana site to start a new automobile manufacturing facility -- its first, creating up to 1,500 jobs, two elected officials from the region told the Associated Press ..."

 Canada: Proposed New Law Would Let Police Snoop On What You Do Online  [ 06/19/09 ]  "It's not exactly Big Brother and the overall intentions seem to have the public's best interests at heart. But many are very uncomfortable about a proposed new law introduced in the House of Commons on Thursday that could affect anyone using the Internet in Canada. The bill, with the unwieldy name of "An Act Regulating Telecommunications Facilities to Support Investigations," would allow police to force your ISP to hand over any records of your emails, chat room conversations, website history or surfing habits to authorities without a warrant ..."

 Odious Debt  [ 06/19/09 ]  "In international law, odious debt is a legal theory which holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, such as wars of aggression, should not be enforceable. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion. More |Google Term  If the public does not benefit, there is no public debt ...

ODD: Colorado Cop Brandishes His Weapon When McDonalds Order Not Filled Quickly  [ 06/19/09 ]  "Denver police officer has been suspended after allegedly brandishing gun at a McDonald's restaurant in Aurora after his order took too long to fill..."

 Health insurers refuse to limit rescission of coverage  [ 06/19/09 ]  "An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period. t also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses ..."

 U.S. Military Tracking North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes  [ 06/19/09 ]  "The U.S. military is tracking a flagged North Korean ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday, FOX News has learned. The ship, Kang Nam, left a port in North Korea Wednesday and could be carrying weaponry, missile parts or nuclear materials ..."   Note: It could be carrying fish sauce and tires, as well. 

 BBC Caught In Mass Public Deception With Iran Propaganda  [ 06/19/09 ]  "The BBC has again been caught engaging in mass public deception by using photographs of pro-Ahmadinejad rallies in Iran and claiming they represent anti-government protests in favor of Hossein Mousavi  ..."

 The McCollum Memo: The Smoking Gun of Pearl Harbor  [ 06/19/09 ]  "The memo, scanned below, detailed an 8 step plan to provoke Japan into attacking the United States. President Roosevelt, over the course of 1941, implemented all 8 of the recommendations contained in the McCollum memo. Following the eighth provocation, Japan attacked. The public was told that it was a complete surprise, an "intelligence failure", and America entered World War Two ..."  Related:  Pearl Harbor: Mother of All Conspiracies

 Mayors steamed by Obama Administration No-Show Over Union Dispute  [ 06/19/09 ]  "America’s big-city mayors are steaming over what they view as “a very dangerous precedent” set by the Obama administration in its decision to shun the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Providence, R.I., this week ..."

 Indicted Mass. Politician Tells Federal Judge Corruption Legal   [ 06/19/09 ]  "Attorneys for former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi say they’ll argue that the North End politician, who is accused of getting kickbacks for rigging a multi-million-dollar state contract, didn’t do anything illegal. “The actions of these defendants fully conformed to state law,” DiMasi’s lawyer, Thomas R. Kiley, said after a federal court appearance yesterday. DiMasi, 64, and three co-defendants were indicted on federal corruption charges this month for allegedly pocketing thousands of dollars in exchange for helping a software company land a multi-million-dollar state contract. DiMasi alone allegedly took nearly $60,000 in payments in exchange for muscling the contract to approval ..."

 How the spooks took over the news  [ 06/18/09 ]  "In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale ... The "Zarqawi letter" which made it on to the front page of The New York Times in February 2004 was one of a sequence of highly suspect documents which were said to have been written either by or to Zarqawi and which were fed into news media. This material is being generated, in part, by intelligence agencies who continue to work without effective oversight; and also by a new and essentially benign structure of "strategic communications" which was originally designed by doves in the Pentagon and Nato who wanted to use subtle and non-violent tactics to deal with Islamist terrorism but whose efforts are poorly regulated and badly supervised with the result that some of its practitioners are breaking loose and engaging in the black arts of propaganda ..."

Win At All Costs: Government Misconduct 'In The Name of Expedient Justice'  [ 06/18/09 ] Ten Part Series "Hundreds of times during the past 10 years, federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law. They lied, hid evidence, distorted facts, engaged in cover-ups, paid for perjury and set up innocent people in a relentless effort to win indictments, guilty pleas and convictions, a two-year Post-Gazette investigation found. Rarely were these federal officials punished for their misconduct. Rarely did they admit their conduct was wrong. New laws and court rulings that encourage federal law enforcement officers to press the boundaries of their power while providing few safeguards against abuse fueled their actions. Victims of this misconduct sometimes lost their jobs, assets and even families. Some remain in prison because prosecutors withheld favorable evidence or allowed fabricated testimony. Some criminals walk free as a reward for conspiring with the government in its effort to deny others their rights ..."  Related:  False charges routine in US  "Our news media, with the help of our government, have been constantly focusing on their careless associates messing around in Iran and Korea while innocent people arrested on false charges right here in our own country are ignored..."

 Mass. Police Gets Grenade Launchers - Federal program donates surplus weapons  [ 06/18/09 ]  "Like other law enforcers, West Springfield officers carry the usual handguns, handcuffs, pepper spray and ammunition. Unlike most police departments, this particular police force is also equipped with 2 grenade launchers, 4 M-14 semi-automatic rifles and one M-21 sniper rifle. According to the Boston Globe, West Springfield is one of 82 Massachusetts police departments that have obtained military surplus weapons over the last 15 years as part of a federal program ..."   News Video included.

 AG Holder Urges Congress to Pass “Hate Crimes” Legislation   [ 06/18/09 ]  "Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that recent killings show the need for a tougher U.S. hate crimes law to stop "violence masquerading as political activism." ... Last week, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reported that in the past eight years, the number of hate groups in America has exploded - up 50 percent - from 602 in 2000 to 926 last year. "  Note: Sequential social attitudes running rampant. Notice that the sequentialized 'need' 'laws' and 'rules' because they have little, if any, inner guidance, ability for conceptualization and self-reflection.

 Fired IG Calls White House Explanation 'Baseless,' Says He's Being Targeted  [ 06/17/09 ]  "The government watchdog President Obama canned for allegedly being "confused" and "disoriented" fired back sharply Wednesday, saying the White House explanation for removing him was "insufficient," "baseless" and "absolutely wild." Gerald Walpin, who until last week was the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, told FOXNews.com that part of Obama's explanation was a "total lie" and that he feels he's got a target on his back for political reasons. .... Facing bipartisan criticism for the firing, Obama sought to allay congressional concerns with a letter to Senate leaders Tuesday evening explaining his decision. In the letter, White House Special Counsel Norman Eisen wrote that Walpin was "confused" and "disoriented" at a May board meeting, was "unduly disruptive," and exhibited a "lack of candor" in providing information to decision makers. ... "That's a total lie," Walpin said of the latter charge. And he said the accusation that he was dazed and confused at one meeting out of many was not only false, but poor rationale for his ouster. "It appears to suggest that I was removed because I was disabled -- based on one occasion out of hundreds," he said. "I would never say President Obama doesn't have the capacity to continue to serve because of his (statement) that there are 56 states," Walpin said, adding that the same holds for Vice President Biden and his "many express confusions that have been highlighted by the media." Obama mistakenly said once on the campaign trail that he had traveled to 57 states.  

Walpin concluded that his firing stems from bad blood between him and the board, as well as with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson -- an Obama supporter whom he had investigated for alleged misuse of federal funds. He said his performance at the May meeting drew criticism because he issued two reports critical of the board. In one, he criticized the settlement reached in the Johnson case; in the other, he criticized the use of millions of dollars for a program at the City University of New York. "The board at that meeting was clearly angry at my temerity," he said. The White House, in its rationale for giving Walpin the boot, also complained that Walpin was "absent" from the corporation's headquarters, "insisting" on working from home in New York over the "objections" of the board. Walpin, though, said he reached an agreement with the agency early this year that would allow him to work from home. The former inspector general, who was appointed by George W. Bush, said he originally was going to resign before Obama took office because his wife of 52 years was not happy with their "commuting marriage" -- he was commuting weekly from New York to Washington. He notified Bush of his intention to leave, but said his staff convinced him to reconsider. In the end, Walpin said he worked out an agreement with corporation leaders under which he would travel to Washington two or more times a week, and spend the rest of the time working from home in New York. He said some board members had initial reservations, but they were resolved. "I never had a single objection" before reading Tuesday's letter from the White House, he said. "

 US manufacturing must drive recovery, summit told    [ 06/17/09 ]  "A revived manufacturing sector is critical to leading a recovery of the slumping US economy, underscoring the need for new policies, business leaders told a national economic summit. The second day Tuesday of the Detroit, Michigan summit seeking an economic strategy offered more comments on the critical importance of the industrial sector in view of the global crisis. "One of the lessons we have learned from the crisis is that you cannot create create wealth in an economy simply by spinning things around and around," said Jayson Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association ..." Note: This is one of those things that demand use of the word "Duh" ... it's also impossible to reverse the negative production capabilities of the USA, after some 40 years of decline, unless they put guns to everyone's head and make us slaves, carving widgets out of branches to sell to woodless people on some faraway mountaintop, so they can bake their mud cookies ...."

 Lilly Knowingly Sold Fake Dementia Drug   [ 06/17/09 ]  "Eli Lilly & Co. urged doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for elderly patients with dementia, an unapproved use for the antipsychotic, even though the drugmaker had evidence the medicine didn’t work for such patients, according to unsealed internal company documents ..."

 Politicians share personality traits with serial killers: Study  [ 06/16/09 ]  "Using his law enforcement experience and data drawn from the FBI's behavioral analysis unit, Jim Kouri has collected a series of personality traits common to a couple of professions. Kouri, who's a vice president of the National Assn. of Chiefs of Police, has assembled traits such as superficial charm, an exaggerated sense of self-worth, glibness, lying, lack of remorse and manipulation of others. These traits, Kouri points out in his analysis, are common to psychopathic serial killers. But -- and here's the part that may spark some controversy and defensive discussion -- these traits are also common to American politicians. (Maybe you already suspected.) Yup. Violent homicide aside, our elected officials often show many of the exact same character traits as criminal nut-jobs, who run from police but not for office. Kouri notes that these criminals are psychologically capable of committing their dirty deeds free of any concern for social, moral or legal consequences and with absolutely no remorse. "This allows them to do what they want, whenever they want," he wrote. "Ironically, these same traits exist in men and women who are drawn to high-profile and powerful positions in society including political officeholders." ... "While many political leaders will deny the assessment regarding their similarities with serial killers and other career criminals, it is part of a psychopathic profile that may be used in assessing the behaviors of many officials and lawmakers at all levels of government ..."

 'Buy American' Limits Threaten Trade War  [ 06/16/09 ]  "The Buy American language in the stimulus was meant to exempt trade with countries that had ratified the World Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement or NAFTA. NAFTA members are the U.S., Canada and Mexico. But those treaties fully bind the U.S. and Canada only at the federal level. No Canadian provinces participate. While 40 states observe the pacts, most have exceptions for sensitive goods. Few U.S. cities are covered by the deals. Such distinctions made little difference before the stimulus bill became law. But now, fearing a loss of aid money, many U.S. state and local governments are going further than they need to and are rejecting contract bids from firms that use Canadian components. Canada's local governments are already threatening retaliation. On June 5, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities passed a resolution requiring that members limit government procurement from abroad to countries that themselves do not bar Canadian companies from such competition. This would give European, Japanese, Chinese and Korean firms a leg up over U.S. competitors. The federation gave the U.S. 120 days to fix the problem before the decision takes effect. There's a risk of long-term damage to North American supply chains. Much of U.S.-Canadian trade involves goods crossing the border multiple times before the products in which they're used are finally completed. Indeed, supply chain integration has long been one of the main benefits of NAFTA, given its role in increasing trade and lowering production costs. Makers of water and wastewater equipment, the manufacturers hit hardest by the stimulus bill's Buy American rules, accounted for $10 billion in cross-border trade last year. Other industries with North American supply chains will get dragged down, too, if they're unable to buy from Canada and Mexico ..."

 Key health care senators have industry ties  [ 06/15/09 ]  "Influential senators working to overhaul the nation's health care system have investments and family ties with some of the biggest names in the industry. The wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, the lawmaker in charge of writing the Senate's bill, sits on the boards of four health care companies. Members of both parties have industry connections, including Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Tom Harkin, in addition to Dodd, and Republicans Tom Coburn, Judd Gregg, John Kyl and Orrin Hatch, financial reports showed Friday ..."

 Casinos File $267M Racketeering Lawsuit Against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich [ 06/15/09 ]  "Three casino companies have filed a $267 million racketeering lawsuit against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a prominent racetrack owner over a controversial law that requires casinos to funnel part of their revenues to struggling horse tracks. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago Friday, grew out of a federal investigation into an alleged pay-to-play scheme the former governor is accused of running. A federal affidavit alleged Mr. Blagojevich attempted to pressure John Johnston, whose family owns and operates several tracks in the Chicago area, for a $100,000 contribution in return for the governor's signature on legislation to help the struggling horse-racing industry. The legislation requires the state's four top-earning casinos to give 3% of their gross adjusted annual revenues to the horse-racing industry ..."

 Secret papers 'show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests'  [ 06/15/09 ]  "... Serious questions over Shell Oil's alleged involvement in human rights abuses in Nigeria emerged last night after confidential internal documents and court statements revealed how the energy giant enlisted the help of the country's brutal former military government to deal with protesters. The documents, seen by the IoS, support allegations that Shell helped to provide Nigerian police and military with logistical support, and aided security sweeps of the oil-rich Niger Delta. Earlier this month Shell agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.6m) in a "humanitarian settlement" on the eve of a highly embarrassing US lawsuit. One of the allegations was that Shell was complicit in the regime's execution of civilians. The Anglo-Dutch firm denies any wrongdoing and said it settled to help "reconciliation". But the documents contain detailed allegations of the extent to which Shell is said to have co-opted the Nigerian military to protect its interests ..."

Opinion:  Hell Care: Health Care from Hell  [ 06/15/09 ]  "A well-written comprehensive description of all the reasons that the "insurance industry has a vested interest in your death."  A Feast of Unrepentant Wingnuts  "Egalitarian societies are more productive than societies in which a mere one percent owns more than some 90 percent of the rest of the population. Since 1980, US productivity declined with the dollar in a race to the bottom. The results may be seen quantified at the CIA's 'World Fact Book' where the US is at the bottom of a list of nations with the world's largest negative current account balance. It is not coincidental that America became the world's largest net debtor nation as it joined the ranks of the most inequitable." 

 WHO Report on World Drug Use Suppressed By US  [ 06/14/09 ]  "... At the point where mild cocaine use was described in positive tones the Americans presumably blew some kind of outrage fuse. This report was never published because the US representative to the WHO threatened to withdraw US funding for all its research projects and interventions unless the organisation "dissociated itself from the study" and cancelled publication. According to the WHO this document does not exist, (although you can read a leaked copy PDF ). Drugs show the classic problem for evidence-based social policy. It may well be that prohibition, and distribution of drugs by criminals, gives worse results for the outcomes we think are important, such as harm to the user and to communities through crime. But equally, we may tolerate these outcomes, because we decide it is more important that we declare ourselves to disapprove of drug use. It's okay to do that. You can have policies that go against your stated outcomes, for moral or political reasons: but that doesn't mean you can hide the evidence ..." 

 US ceases all further analog TV broadcasts  [ 06/14/09 ]  "...The transition ... frees up valuable airwaves for emergency communications and advanced wireless services ... The transition was originally scheduled for February 17 but was delayed ... ” 

 UK cops: No-photo areas a secret  [ 06/14/09 ]  "The Home Office has rejected a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the BJP regarding the disclosure of the list of all areas where police officers are authorised to stop-and-search photographers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 ..." 

 Weapons Makers Look Overseas As Pentagon Cuts Back  [ 06/14/09 ]   "Foreign governments looking to kick the tires of fighter jets and cargo planes at this week's air show in Paris will likely hear a clear message from U.S. defense contractors: We need your business now more than ever. With the United States looking to cut defense costs and rethinking the way it fights wars, many defense companies are looking for international buyers to take the big, pricey weapons that the Pentagon no longer wants or needs fewer of. U.S. contractors are chasing some lucrative deals, but could also face some legal and political hurdles as they hawk weapons overseas ..."  Related: GAO: No problem smuggling secret weapons out of US 

 CIA Secrecy In Pakistan Hides Abuses  [ 06/14/09 ]   "U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, combined with recent revelations that CIA operatives have been paying Pakistanis to identify the targets, suggests that managers of the drone attacks programmes have been using the total secrecy surrounding the programme to hide abuses and high civilian casualties. Intelligence analysts have been unable to obtain either the list of military targets of the drone strikes or the actual results in terms of al Qaeda or civilians killed, according to a Washington source familiar with internal discussion of the drone strike programme. The source insisted on not being identified because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue. "They can't find out anything about the programme," the source told IPS. That has made it impossible for other government agencies to judge its real consequences, according to the source ..." 

 China, India Butt Heads Over Indian Troop Movements  [ 06/14/09 ]   "China's official media has reacted sharply to reports that India was deploying more troops along the border with China with one of them saying the move will "lead to a rivalry between the two countries". "India needs to consider whether or not it can afford the consequences of a potential confrontation with China," the People's Daily and its sister publication, the Global Times said in an identical piece. This is a rare occasion when the official media has taken such an aggressive stance on India. Two major Chinese Internet portals, sina and sohu, ran the analysis suggesting that it reflects the views of a large section in the Communist Party of China. The piece, originally written by the Global Times, has been published across a wide spectrum of the Chinese media ..." 

 ACLU hits Obama hard over torture controversies  [ 06/13/09 ]   "The American Civil Liberties Union had strong words on Friday for the Obama administration’s efforts to block the release of torture photos and its attempts to end a lawsuit over extraordinary rendition ..."

 Chinese official hacked to death in tea pavilion dispute   [ 06/13/09 ]   "A Chinese government official was hacked to death by villagers when he tried to demolish a tea pavilion which was built without planning permission ..."

 Blackwater Still Working in Iraq for John McCain-linked 'Non-Profit'  [ 06/13/09 ]   "A new lawsuit reveals that the notorious mercenary firm is working, under a different name, for the International Republican Institute in Iraq ..."

 Top French court rips heart out of Sarkozy internet law  [ 06/12/09 ]   "The Constitutional Council declared access to the internet to be a basic human right, directly opposing the key points of Mr Sarkozy's law, passed in April, which created the first internet police agency in the democratic world. The strongly-worded decision means that Mr Sarkozy's scheme has backfired and inadvertently boosted those who defend the free-for-all culture of the web ..."

 Appeals Court Blocks Release Of Torture Photos   [ 06/12/09 ]  Note: Well, they have been out for a while, most of them. It's enough to make the point that sadistic psychopathic people are in the employ of the government, and that the government considers that just fine, just like a great many other governments do ....  sequentials and previously disempowered minions can be very perverse and sadistic. 

 American Medical Assn. Backtracks From Opposition To Obama Health Plan  [ 06/12/09 ]   Note: A good sign that, indeed, the 'health plan' is a nightmare.  Related: Doctor: I Just Quit The AMA

 Cop Gets 40 Months For Beating Man In Wheelchair  [ 06/12/09 ]   "A Chicago police officer caught on video beating a stabbing victim who was handcuffed and shackled to a wheelchair was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison. A federal judge imposed the 40-month sentence after viewing hospital security footage of William Cozzi, 52, handcuffing the man to the chair in an emergency room. Cozzi then shackled the man's legs to the chair and struck him with a sap, a weapon similar to a small blackjack club with a heavy center and usually covered in leather. The officer later accused the man of attacking him. "We expect the police officers to serve and protect the public and not to do the kinds of things you admit you did," U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning said in sentencing the 15-year Chicago Police veteran to half the time sought by prosecutors ..."

 Nuclear Disaster In England Averted By Dirty Laundry  [ 06/12/09 ]   "A radioactive leak that could have caused Britain's worst nuclear disaster was only averted when a worker in an adjoining room spotted water as he sorted laundry, according to a newly-obtained official report ..."

ODD:  Wrecking crew knocks down the wrong house  [ 06/12/09 ] "Longtime neighbor Vernice Parham was home when the demolition began. "I said, ‘My God, why are they tearing that house down?' I knew the family kept the place up, but you never know what’s going to happen." The demolition firm blames their paperwork and GPS coordinates for the error. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)" Woman is run over while teaching 11-year-old boy how to drive "Why this woman -- a friend of the boy's family -- was giving driving lessons to the kid isn't known by the police. (Or so they're saying.) (Salt Lake Tribune)" Bidding war for parking space results in $300,000 sale "The asking price for the uncovered and outdoor space in Boston was $250,000. (Boston Globe)" Police chief defends cop who shot growling miniature dachshund "Police Chief Philip Broadfoot declined to name the officer who shot and killed the 11-year-old dog named Killer, but says the cop "was surprised by a growling dog running through the yard directly at him from the rear, leaving him with just seconds to consider his options." (Richmond Times-Dispatch)" Battle over giant inflatable gorilla lands in federal court "Jim Purtee, who owns 450 giant balloons, is in court arguing the city of Houston violated his business’ constitutional right to equal protection in the arbitrary enforcement of city sign codes and should pay him damages of $938,241. (Houston Chronicle) " 

 Israeli Minister Peled proposes Israeli sanctions on US  [ 06/12/09 ]   "Israeli Minister without a Portfolio Yossi Peled is advocating for a new approach to the U.S. in Israel until President Barack Obama changes policies on Jewish Settlements and Iran. Amongst his suggestions is a sanctioning of U.S. military equipment, selling sensitive technology to America’s enemies and put domestic political pressure on Democratic candidates by asking American Jews not to donate to them ..."  Related: Rabbi: Obama Breeds Climate of Hate Against Jews  Israel claims to be America's only friend in the middle east, but apparently that friendship only exists so long as the USA gives Israel everything Israel wants. The friendship is only as good as the last check.

 Coleman Ordered To Pay Franken $95K By Minnesota Court [ 06/11/09 ]   "A Ramsey County court administrator entered the judgment Wednesday. It results from the two-month trial that ended with Coleman 312 votes short of Al Franken. Minnesota law required Coleman to cover some of Franken's court costs because the race's outcome didn't change. The judgment excludes Franken's attorney fees. The men have spent $50 million so far on their campaigns and legal fight over the November election. That's more than double the cost of the 2002 race when Coleman captured what had been a Democratic seat. The Minnesota Supreme Court hasn't said when it will rule on Coleman's appeal."  Note: Coleman was such a poor sport in the election, having lost to a comedian. 

 Homeland Security "Warns of Anti-Semitic Violence" : 88 Year Old Racist Attacks Holocaust Museum  [ 06/11/09 ]   "An 88-year-old gunman with a violent and virulently anti-Semitic past opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot himself by other officers, authorities said ..." Note: So they warn of 'anti-Semitic violence', and then an old career racist, known to the government, attacks a holocaust museum. Un-huh. Related: Attacks validate DHS report, some say  Some say, huh. 

 UK: London Underground Workers Go on Strike Affecting 3 Million Workers  [ 06/11/09 ] "A 48-hour strike by thousands of London Underground workers has begun after last-minute talks to try to resolve the row broke down. Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) walked out at 7pm yesterday - at the start of a stoppage which is expected to cause travel chaos across the capital. The union believes the entire network will come to a halt, causing huge problems for millions of commuters and visitors, and costing businesses tens of millions of pounds. Leaders of the union met London Underground (LU) managers at the offices of the conciliation service Acas all day yesterday ..."  

 Afghan Official: US Soldier Threw Grenade Into Crowd of Civilians  [ 06/11/09 ] "The head of the provincial council of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province reported today that a US soldier had thrown the hand grenade that struck a crowd of civilians in a bustling market, killing two and injuring 56 others. The crowd had gathered around a stalled American military vehicle when the grenade hit. The council chief said dozens of civilians had seen the soldier throw the grenade, calling it “a complete cruel crime against civilians ..."  

ODD:  Couple says they have the right to garden while nearly nude  [ 06/11/09 ] "Neighbors called police when they saw Catharine Pierce, 51, and Robert Pierce, 58, doing garden work while wearing very little garb. Their landlord complained, too, but the Pierces say they've done nothing wrong. (Boulder Daily Camera)" Remember when you could fight with a sibling and not face arrest? "A 10-year-old Texas girl has been arrested and charged with assault after she and her 13-year-old sister got into a fight. (AP via Dallas Morning News)" Man charged after burying his dead cat in neighbor's garden "Patricia Lutz, 55, said she found Patches, the dead cat, as she was about to plant tomatoes. "All I did was turn the soil over maybe 10 inches, and there were paws sticking out." She called state police, and Trooper Geraldo Martinez dug up the cat. (Allentown, PA Morning Call) " "Artsy and craftsy" woman annoys neighbors with yard toilets "Tina Asmus says she's being pressured to remove the front yard "art piece planters" she created using a couple of old toilets and a pedestal sink. "I'm very creative, artsy and crafty in this regard and I like to find old things that I can recycle and repurpose," she says. (Suburban Chicago Daily Herald) " Drama prof says being provocative is just part of his personality "An asshole or a colorful character? You decide. The 67-year-old professor has called a colleague a "slut" and "bimbo" to her face, and once referred to an overweight student as a "400-pound canary who warbles nothingness." (Seattle Times)" 

TX:  Teen with profound mental disabilities gets 100-year sentence   [ 06/11/09 ] "When an 18-year-old with profound mental disabilities performed sexual acts on a 6-year-old neighbor, the small town of Paris, Texas, was unforgiving. But Aaron Hart's punishment – 100 years in prison for a single incident – has stunned veteran disability rights advocates, who believed counseling, probation or even placement in a group home would have sufficed for a first-time offender with the mental maturity of a second-grader. ....  "Aaron is 18, never committed a felony, had no violent record. He couldn't understand the seriousness of what he did," said his father, Robert Hart. "I never dreamed they would think about sending him to prison. When they said 100 years – it was terror, pure terror to me." The sentence raises serious questions about how people with profound disabilities are prosecuted in Texas, at a time when both state lawmakers and the U.S. Supreme Court are considering the appropriate punishment for people who are young, mentally disabled, or both. Repeat child molesters and rapists routinely receive lesser sentences than Hart's. Also at issue is Hart's trial. His defense attorney hardly questioned his client's competency to stand trial, his appellate lawyer said. And though both the judge and jurors say they would have preferred not to send Hart to prison, state care facilities and group homes for disabled offenders were never presented as options. "It's not just abnormal. It's absurd. I wouldn't think a sentence would go above a few years in a situation like this," said Daniel Benson, a Texas Tech law professor and author of textbooks on criminal offenders with mental illness. "That's not helpful to society or the offender." Lamar County and District Attorney Gary Young said that while he sympathizes with Hart's "mental health challenges," he stands by his decision to prosecute Hart on five counts related to the incident. It's common for prosecutors to pursue several charges in a case involving one incident, not knowing which charge the jury will support. "I hope people will remember he committed a violent sexual crime against a little boy," Young said. David Pearson, Hart's appellate attorney, said he's never seen a worse miscarriage of justice ..."   Note: You have to wonder about some incarnational experiences ... the value seems ... almost indeterminable ... 

 North Korea would use nuclear weapons in a 'merciless offensive'   [ 06/10/09 ] "North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive" if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast ..."  

 London Police Accused Of Waterboarding Suspects  [ 06/10/09 ] "Metropolitan Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of a major anti-corruption inquiry, The Times has learnt. The torture claims are part of a wide-ranging investigation which also includes accusations that officers fabricated evidence and stole suspects’ property. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial and the suspension of several police officers. However, senior policing officials are most alarmed by the claim that officers in Enfield, North London, used the controversial CIA interrogation technique to simulate drowning. Scotland Yard is appointing a new borough commander in Enfield in a move that is being seen as an attempt by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, to enforce a regime of “intrusive supervision ..."

 Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor Turned Down Appeal Of Inmate Exonerated Of Murder  [ 06/10/09 ] "Jeffrey Deskovic heard a TV talk show host announce President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court last month, and his mind raced. That name; he remembered that name. He emerged from bed and riffled through the boxes of motions, appeals and letters he had accumulated in the 16 years he spent in a New York prison for a rape and murder he did not commit. And there it was, a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, dated April 26, 2000, and barely two pages long. It was co-written by Sonia Sotomayor. “We have considered all of petitioner-appellant’s arguments and find them to be without merit,” the ruling said ... Imprisoned at the age of 16 for the killing of a high school classmate, Mr. Deskovic, now 35, filed a habeas corpus petition in 1997 in Federal District Court contesting his conviction. The court denied the request because the paperwork had arrived four days late. Mr. Deskovic and one of his lawyers — who he said had been misinformed about the deadline for filing — appealed the decision to the federal appellate court on which Ms. Sotomayor sat. Ms. Sotomayor, along with the other judge on the panel, ruled that the lawyer’s mistake did not “rise to the level of an extraordinary circumstance” that would compel them to forgive the delay. There was no need to look at the evidence that Mr. Deskovic insisted would affirm his innocence, they said. Mr. Deskovic spent six more years behind bars, until DNA found in the victim not only cleared him, but connected another man to the crime...."

 Lieberman Threatens To Shut Down Senate Over Detainee Photos  [ 06/10/09 ] "House Democrats are insisting on hearings before they even consider signing onto the Senate's move to suppress detainee photographs, House Financial Services Committee chair Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Monday night. The Lieberman-Graham amendment, which would empower the Pentagon to block the photos for up to three years without review, has sharply curtailed House support for the congressional war supplemental, as has a $108 billion line of credit for the International Monetary Fund. The Huffington Post confirmed Monday night that Lieberman-Graham had been removed from the bill in conference. Antiwar Democrats who oppose the IMF funding can compromise on that issue, Frank said, but Lieberman-Graham, which would supersede the Freedom of Information Act, is different. "I believe it would be possible to get people to switch. I'll switch, others will switch. But not if that FOIA thing is in there," he said. "This is a bill that nobody's had a chance to debate ..."

 Detainee Photo Suppression Amendment Dropped From Supplemental  [ 06/09/09 ] "Lieberman-Graham Amendment Removed From Supplemental. Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com is reporting that the Lieberman-Graham amendment to suppress detainee photos "is out of the conference report of the supplemental." ... The IMF provision is still in the bill and is a top Obama priority. It came under fierce attack from House Republicans who wanted a "clean" war supplemental and many Democrats had no love the the extension of the credit line. Democrats on the left have long opposed the IMF for forcing developing nations to cut social spending in exchange for IMF loans. Democrats in the center were having a hard time explaining to constituents at home why now was the time to extend the credit to the IMF, especially as Republicans -- aided by the conservative blog RedState -- ripped it as a US taxpayer-funded bailout for foreign countries."

 Al Gore silent as his journalists are sentenced to 12 years hard labor  [ 06/09/09 ] "The two reporters for Al Gore’s TV Current, an on-line journal based in San Francisco, who have been held since March, were found guilty of illegal entry and sentenced to 12 years hard labor, the North Korean news agency said on Monday. Al Gore and his on-line network have yet to speak out on the actions by the North Korean government -- the arrest and now the sentencing."   Note: They needed to be sentenced in order to be pardoned and set free under coming agreements. First things first. It's how the Koreans do things.

 China moves to censor home computers  [ 06/09/09 ] "... Under the directives from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which declined to comment on the topic, computer-manufacturers will be asked to install blocking software from a company with ties to the country's military. The program, called Green Dam, is designed primarily to stop access to pornography, according to its makers, Jinhui Computer System Engineering company. "From July 1, every PC will be shipped with the software before it is sold to customers," said a member of the company's marketing department, who identified herself only as Miss Zhou. "This is very good news for users, so they should not uninstall it. It will automatically filter pornographic images and antirevolutionary content. It will not take up much space on the hard drive. It is very stable and we have conducted many tests already," she added. A second program, called Youth Escort, filters out rude or subversive words ... If the two programs are installed, they can allegedly transmit personal information and make it difficult for users to tell what access is being denied. Lenovo, the Chinese company which bought IBM and which has a 26 per cent share of the local market, said it was participating in the initiative but declined to comment. A spokesman for Dell said the company was "aware of the policy" and was working with industry groups and government representatives to "seek clarification". "We are studying it," he said, adding that no decision on whether to implement it or not had been made. Hewlett-Packard also said it was working out how to satisfy the Chinese regulators. The Chinese PC market is the second-largest in the world, after the US." 

 AP Edits Out Obama’s Speech Comments on Palestinian Suffering   [ 06/09/09 ] "... An alert reader noted that an AP transcript of Obama’s speech “as provided by CQ Transcriptions” left out the President’s comments on the suffering of the Palestinians."

Irony: Google mentor found dead  [ 06/09/09 ] "Rajeev Motwani, a Stanford University professor who advised the founders of search engine giant Google in their college days, has been found dead at his home in California." Note: He could not swim, had planned to learn, and apparently stumbled into the pool in the dark and drowned."

 'Ghost schools' paid millions for absent students  [ 06/09/09 ] "A special investigative report by Scripps Howard News Service finds taxpayers paying millions for students who never show up for class. For-profit "ghost schools" collect money even when students are absent."

 Chicago Law Banning Handguns in City Upheld by Court [ 06/08/09 ] "A Chicago ordinance banning handguns and automatic weapons within city limits was upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals panel, which rejected a challenge by the National Rifle Association. The unanimous three-judge panel ruled today that a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which recognized an individual right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, didn’t apply to states and municipalities ..."  'Criminals' will keep their weapons.

 Key figures in global battle against illegal arms trade lost in Air France crash  [ 06/08/09 ] "Amid the media frenzy and speculation over the disappearance of Air France's ill-fated Flight 447, the loss of two of the world's most prominent figures in the war on the illegal arms trade and international drug trafficking has been virtually overlooked. Pablo Dreyfus, a 39-year-old Argentine who was travelling with his wife Ana Carolina Rodrigues aboard the doomed flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, had worked tirelessly with the Brazilian authorities to stem the flow of arms and ammunition that for years has fuelled the bloody turf wars waged by drug gangs in Rio's sprawling favelas. Also travelling with Dreyfus on the doomed flight was his friend and colleague Ronald Dreyer, a Swiss diplomat and co-ordinator of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence who had worked with UN missions in El Salvador, Mozambique, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Angola. Both men were consultants at the Small Arms Survey, an independent think tank based at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies. The Survey said on its website that Dryer had helped mobilise the support of more than 100 countries to the cause of disarmament and development. Buenos Aires-born Dreyfus had been living in Rio since 2002, where he and his sociologist wife worked with the Brazilian NGO Viva Rio ..."

 Media Fawns Over 11 Year old Sequential Child  [ 06/07/09 ] "Meet Moshe Kai Cavalin, the 11-year-old who just finished setting the bar impossibly high for college students everywhere. Not only did this youngster just graduate from college at the age of 11, but he did so with honors, holding down a 4.0 GPA, and his favorite subject is astrophysics. He is also an accomplished martial artist, winning several national martial arts championships; his idols are Albert Einstein and Bruce Lee. He's going to use the next year to take up scuba diving, write a book for kids on how to succeed in school, and work on his martial arts skills. Moshe isn't into video games because "it's not helping humanity in any way ..."

 School For Blind Holds Prom  [ 06/07/09 ]  (with video [0:59]) "The Boston Globe offers a sweet story on a prom held for students at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, the oldest school for young people who are blind in the United States. "Talking about why prom night was so special," the Globe reported, one student "sounded like any high school senior readying herself for this rite of passage."  Note: Cute, though, and unusual. At least the blind are having fun in Watertown.

 N. Korea agrees to talks with S. Korea: officials [ 06/07/09 ] "The North has accepted a proposal for working-level talks on June 11 at the Kaesong joint industrial complex just north of the border, according to South Korea’s unification ministry. The two sides held their first government-level talks in more than a year on April 21. The North demanded pay rises for its workers and land-use fees at the Seoul-funded estate ..."

 Palestinian lawyers file lawsuits against the Israeli military  [ 06/07/09 ] "Israel could soon be charged with hundreds of war crimes as Palestinian lawyers file 936 lawsuits against the Israeli military five months after its three week war on Gaza ..." Related: Afghanistan to 'try criminal foreign troops'  "This is the first time that Afghanistan's parliament has decided to file a lawsuit against foreign forces based in the country and described them as "war criminals."  Note: International Court of Justice - "The United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction in 1986, and so accepts the court's jurisdiction only on a case-to-case basis. Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce World Court rulings, but such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the Council."

 Saudi FM: US aid to Israel should cease  [ 06/07/09 ] "Amidst frosty relations between Washington and Tel Aviv, the Saudi foreign minister says Washington should cut off its aid to Tel Aviv should it continue its occupation of Arab land ..."

 Brazil finds bodies from crashed Air France jet  [ 06/07/09 ] "Brazil's Air Force says it has found bodies from an Air France jet that went missing with 228 people on board over the Atlantic Ocean. "We confirm the recovery from the water debris and bodies from the Air France plane," air force spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral said Saturday, AFP reported. "We can't give more information without confirming what we have." An international fleet of aircraft and ships has been searching the open Atlantic in the hopes of finding clues of whereabouts of the Air France flight 447 that vanished mysteriously. The airliner came down early Monday as it was heading from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The cause of the incident is not known. Several Brazilian navy ships have also arrived in the area, but fears have grown that many bodies sank or were devoured by sharks. The crash was the world's deadliest air disaster since 2001 and the worst in Air France's 75-year history." 

 U.S. May Permit 9/11 Guilty Pleas in Capital Cases  [ 06/06/09 ] New York Times "The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial ..."   Note: What the New York Times article seems to be missing is that a change in the law to do this would permit the establishment of  permanent patsies for 9/11, tortured into pleading guilty and imprisoned or executed, taking the blame for what the real perpetrators have done. In reality, no one at Guantanamo Bay, or any other prisoner in custody on the planet, had anything to do with the 9/11 debacle.

 Air France plane: doomed French jet sent out 24 system failure alerts before disappearing  [ 06/06/09 ] "The Air France plane that disappeared out of the sky en route from Brazil to France sent 24 automatic messages signaling system failures, French investigators have revealed ... Among them may have been the plane's autopilot, which was disengaged for the final minutes before the plane is believed to have plunged into the sea. But officials said it was not clear whether the autopilot had been switched off by the pilots, or had cut out because it received conflicting airspeed readings. The mystery over what happened to flight AF447 deepened when French weather experts said there was no evidence the aircraft had encountered "exceptional" atmospheric conditions. The Airbus A330-200 flying from Rio to Paris disappeared 'without trace' over the Atlantic on Sunday night with 228 people on board."   

 Anxious moments for EU leaders as skeptic Irish and Czechs vote  [ 06/06/09 ] "Ireland and the Czech Republic, the two biggest obstacles to reform of the EU's Lisbon treaty, went to the polls today on the second day of the four-day election marathon for the European parliament ... With Václav Klaus, the Czech president, climate change denier and Europhobe, urging Czechs to cast a vote against Brussels, European leaders were anxiously watching to see if either of the two ­countries would copy the anti-EU triumph in the Netherlands of Geert Wilders, the anti-immigration populist ... The results in the Netherlands have upset the mainstream political elites and point to two key factors that could be replicated across Europe: the rise of ­anti-immigrant mavericks and extremists and the slump of the centre-left amid recession and rising unemployment ..."  Related: Dutch Shift To Right Unsettles Mainstream Parties

  NY Judge: Tasering a suspect for DNA legal if not ‘malicious’  [ 06/06/09 ] "A judge in Niagara County, New York, ruled Thursday that DNA evidence, obtained only after police applied a Taser to a suspect who refused to provide evidence against himself, may be used by the prosecution because the electric shock was not administered with malice. Note: There is NO way to PROVE is was NOT used with malice, as there is equally NO way to prove it was. One would think that one would not base a law on anything which is NOT provable and subject to deception. It's a weak and illogical ruling which kowtows to the system, automatically allowing the 'assumption' of 'no malice' on the part of police. It cannot be proven one way or the other ...."   Related: PA: High school student who wouldn’t stop using cell phone Tasered  " ... At Penn Hills High School this morning, Chief Burton said, a student was walking up and down a hallway, using a cell phone. School policy permits students to have cell phones but not to use them during school except in emergencies, Chief Burton said ..." 

 Republican opposition to IMF funds delays war spending  [ 06/06/09 ] "US House Democrats said Thursday they would not vote this week on a war supplemental spending bill after Republicans balked at funding for the International Monetary Fund...."

 Israel: Interior Minister seeks authority to strip Israelis of citizenship at a whim  [ 06/06/09 ] "Interior Minister and Shas Chairman Eli Yishai is planning to submit an amendment to the basic citizenship law which would give him the authority to strip Israelis of their citizenship at his discretion, without the authorization of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz or the courts ...."   

 Industry Defends Federal Loophole for Drilling Before Packed Congressional Hearing  [ 06/06/09 ] "In a packed and sometimes contentious hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, representatives of the oil and gas industry and their state regulators vigorously defended the practice of injecting toxic fluids underground without federal regulatory oversight. The House Energy and Minerals subcommittee called the hearing to explore the economic and environmental risks associated with the practice, called hydraulic fracturing, after a string of reports of water contamination related to drilling across the country were reported by ProPublica. Hydraulic fracturing is currently exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, but both the House and Senate are drawing up legislation that would close the Bush-era loophole and reinstate the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority over the fracturing process. The House version of the bill, which would also require drilling companies to disclose the names and amounts of the chemicals they inject underground, is expected to be introduced Tuesday..."   

Links: [ 06/06/09 ]  Overlawyered: Chronicling the high cost of our legal system  | Lowering the Bar: Legal humor. Seriously.

ODD:  Man's intended walk on the beach with "date" takes a bad turn  [ 06/06/09 ] "He ended up getting robbed by the woman's teenage son and his pals. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me," he says. (Naples Daily News)" Man sets fire inside Wal-Mart after he's not allowed to return items  "The 41-year-old man set three racks of clothes ablaze in the men's department. There was an estimated $500,000 in damaged merchandise from the chemicals in the extinguishers and the smoke. (Sarasota Herald-Tribune). Note: Over and above the stupid guy in this story .... I would say that Wall-Mart needs to explain why, when a couple of hundred dollars in ANYTHING catches on fire, it ALWAYS costs Wal-Mart $500,000 because of damage from THEIR chemical fire suppression system. Wal-Mart can ALWAYS collect $500,000 in insurance payments, for ANY fire related incident. Keep in mind that fire systems are also turned on manually." Reasonable Consumer Would Know "Crunchberries" Are Not Real, Judge Rules  "The woman said she had bought "Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries" because she believed "crunchberries" were real fruit. Only recently, she learned to her dismay that the "berries" were in fact simply brightly-colored cereal balls." Burger King worker refuses to cut burger for one-armed customer  "It's against the chain's policy. "I was a little flabbergasted," says disabled war veteran John Mack. The Burger King employee told the one-armed customer said that plastic knives were available if he wanted to cut the sandwich himself. Mack said he was hungry, so he bought the meal anyway. (News-Press.com)" NV: Gambler Threatens to Sue the Venetian for Bad Feng Shui  "The Venetian casino in Las Vegas is reportedly being threatened with a lawsuit by a Taiwanese man, identified only as "Yuan" (which should really narrow it down), who blames "feng shui sabotage" for a two-million-dollar losing streak last year. According to the report, Yuan contacted the Venetian through his attorney after he returned to Taiwan, and said that he intended to sue if the casino did not come up with a "reasonable solution" to the matter." MN: Teen steals autistic friend's identity, racks up $35,000 of debt  "Some friend he is! Investigators were tipped off to the 19-year-old man's operation when Kelly Goar called to say her developmentally disabled son was receiving collection calls and letters for multiple past-due accounts. (St. Paul Pioneer Press) " IL: Former high school football star just can't stop tackling things  "The 19-year-old was charged with running roughshod over 22 curbside mailboxes outside homes at about 4 a.m. The guy was drunk and had to be Tasered. (Naperville Sun) " 

OPED:  Israel controlled by religious fanaticism [ 06/06/09 ]  by Shulamit Aloni "Not very long ago, during Rabbi Meir Kahane's racist rantings, the late writer and journalist Amos Elon gave me a copy of a letter Lord Rothschild sent to Herzl in August 1902. In the letter, Rothschild explains why he refuses to support the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. He writes that he "should view with horror the establishment of a Jewish colony pure and simple; such a colony would be Imperium Imperio; it would be a Ghetto with the prejudice of the Ghetto; it would be a small petty Jewish state, orthodox and illiberal, excluding the Gentile and the Christian." Nevertheless, and despite phenomena like Kahane, the hope prevailed here over the years that Rothschild's harsh vision would prove false; that Israel would indeed "ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex," and "guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture," as stated in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State ... For 42 years we have been occupying, oppressing and stealing lands that are not ours. To be free in our land do we need to become thieving Cossacks, uprooters of trees, burners of fields and harassers of women, the elderly and the very young? "We have this land, we have it," goes the song, but what should have been said is "We have the power, we have it, we have the money, we have it, and we are allowed, we are," to starve an entire population, imprison it and annihilate it using air strikes, cluster bombs and white phosphorous ... "A unique people," wrote David Ben-Gurion. Alas, for that uniqueness. Instead of a Jewish and democratic state they have delivered us a Jewish state controlled by religious fanaticism, one that maintains the purity of the race. They have delivered a democracy in the most primitive sense - not the preservation of democratic values but rule by the demos, the populace that is dictating the transformation of Israel into a totalitarian ethnocracy. Hooray for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman - they are eradicating everything we built, everything we dreamed about and everything we fought for ..."

 UK: Two elderly Israelis arrested in 12.5 ton marijuana bust   [ 06/06/09 ] "Two elderly Israeli men were arrested by British police Tuesday night for attempting to smuggle 12.5 tons of marijuana into the country, the Sun reported on Wednesday. Moshe Kedar 81, and his younger accomplice Mordechai Hersch, 67, were arrested after Kedar was reportedly caught on surveillance video receiving a cell phone and $10,000 cash from members of a London drug gang. According to the Sun, police needed six sessions in a special incinerator to dispose of the marijuana, valued at around $50 million ..."

 AF 447 vanishes, Satellite remote guidance hijacking?   [ 06/06/09 ] "Air France Flight 447, flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, went off the radar on the morning of June 1, 2009. The Airbus 330-200 sent an automated message stating the plane had an electrical short circuit as they crossed through a thunderstorm and experienced turbulence over the Atlantic Ocean.Guardian Unlimited: Air France Plane: 'no Hope' of Survivors (June 1, 2009)1 The last contact the plane made was at about 8:30 p.m. EST, on the evening of Sunday, May 31, 2009.CNN.com: Missing Air France Jet 'hit by Electric Fault' (June 1, 2009) ...."   

 Debris 'not from Air France jet'  [ 06/05/09 ] "Debris recovered from the Atlantic by Brazilian search teams does not come from a lost Air France Flight 447 jet, a Brazilian air force official has said. Brig Ramon Borges Cardoso contradicted earlier reports that debris had been found, saying "no material from the plane has been recovered"....."  Note: So, what was the plane that was found, and why had it not been reported missing?

 Trial Begins For U.S. Journalists In North Korea  [ 06/04/09 ] "North Korea's top court began hearing the case Thursday of two American journalists accused of crossing into the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts" _ charges that could draw a 10-year sentence in a labor camp. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV, were arrested March 17 near the North Korean border while on a reporting trip to China...."

OPED:  Only Criminals Use Honest Money  [ 06/04/09 ] "Fiat money does not exist in prison. Prisoners do not dye sheets of paper green and attempt to circulate them as money. No inmate would accept this as money, not even if the penal equivalent of a Bretton Woods agreement existed between the toughest gangs ..." 

 Marine Corps recruiter on charges of felony pimping and kidnapping   [ 06/04/09 ] "Police have arrested a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter on charges of felony pimping and kidnapping and are looking into whether he used sex with a 14-year-old girl to entice potential recruits. Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham, 33, of San Pedro pleaded not guilty to seven felonies last Thursday after police in Orange discovered the teenage girl in a car with Cunningham and two other men. The two men, ages 18 and 19, were potential Marine recruits, police said ..."  Note: The few. The proud. The convicted. 

 Netanyahu cites secret deal with Bush to justify more settlements  [ 06/04/09 ] "The Israeli government of Benjmain Netanyahu is seeking to deflect Washington's demand for a total settlement freeze by complaining that it ignores secret agreements between his predecessors and the Bush administration that construction in existing Jewish settlements could continue. The rift between Mr Netanyahu's government and the US appeared to deepen yesterday, with a clear declaration by President Barack Obama that a freeze – including on "natural growth" of West Bank settlements – was among Israeli "obligations" ..." 

 Likud: "Obama has crossed the line"  [ 06/04/09 ]  "US President Barack Obama's administration's criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's policies has crossed the line into interfering in Israeli politics, top Likud ministers and MKs said Tuesday..."

OPED: The 'jobs saved' scams  [ 06/04/09 ] "After nearly twenty years in Washington I thought I've seen every trick ever conceived, but the White House claims of "jobs saved" attributed to the stimulus bill is unrivaled. What causes the jaw to drop is not just the breathtaking deception of the claim, but the gullibility of the Washington press corps to continue reporting it. News stories from President Obama's event last week hailing the 100-day mark since the stimulus was passed typically repeated the assertion that the stimulus has already "created or saved 150,00 jobs." ("And that's just the beginning," the President crowed.)..."

 Democrats express concern over Obama administration's pressure on Jewish State [ 06/03/09 ] "As Barack Obama prepares for his trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Democratic Congress members are expressing concern over the pressure exerted by the president on Israel, the Politics website reported. According to the report, the Congress members asked Obama to moderate his pressure on the settlement freeze issue ..."

 Obama: Iran Has the Right to Nuclear Power  [ 06/03/09 ] "President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful. NOte: under Article IV of the NNPT that the United States is obligated to HELP Iran build its nuclear power station, which would give the US all the access it needs to satisfy anyone (except Israel) that Iran's power station is just a power station ..."

 Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 [ 06/02/09 ] "... literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any “photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States ..."

 Statistical Significance: GM Dealership's Who Donated to Hillary Clinton Stay Open [ 06/02/09 ] "... An analysis of the closures and found a very strong correlation between dealerships that were saved, and dealerships that donated heavily to Hillary Clinton last year. Why should that matter? Because Obama’s guy in the Auto Task Force is Steven Rattner, hedge fund star, big pal to Times owner Pinch Sulzberger, former bigwig at Lazard Freres, and former journalist himself. And Rattner is married to Maureen White, who was once Hillary’s National Finance Chairman. So the theory here is that White and Rattner got together and made a Santa-Claus style list of “good” dealers and “bad” dealers ..."

 Missing French jet likely in deep ocean   [ 06/02/09 ] "A missing Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris ran into a towering wall of thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Monday, fearing that all aboard were lost ... Experts said the absence of a mayday call meant something happened very quickly. "The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion," Jane's Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press. "Potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilot on board didn't have a chance to make that emergency call." ...The area where the plane could have gone down was vast, in the middle of very deep Atlantic Ocean waters between Brazil and the coast of Africa. Brazil’s military searched for it off its northeast coast, while the French military scoured the ocean near the Cape Verde Islands off the West African coast. "  

 'U.S. may limit support of Israel to force settlement freeze'   [ 06/02/09 ] "The Obama administration is considering a series of symbolic measures to force Israel to halt all construction in West Bank settlements, the New York Times has reported. Administration officials said that measures under discussion include dropping the U.S.' near uniform support of Israel in the United Nations and withholding its usual veto on resolutions critical of Israel, according to the New York Times ... "  

 Israel's Netanyahu holds firm on Gaza blockade  [ 06/02/09 ] "We are being asked to ease the living conditions of the population and allow goods and equipment in, but we have other priorities in the Gaza Strip," a senior official quoted Netanyahu as telling a cabinet meeting ... "  

 Ex-police chief convicted of racketeering in Chicago Mob Linked Suburb [ 06/02/09 ] "Former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo was convicted today at his racketeering and extortion trial by a federal jury that deliberated for just a few hours following a seven-week trial. Scavo had been accused of forcing bars and restaurants -- and even the Kiddieland amusement park -- into hiring private guards from his security firm. Some of those guards were on-duty police officers who were essentially paid twice, prosecutors alleged. He faces up to 20 years in prison on the racketeering count alone ... "  

 British scientists ask WHO to condemn homeopathy for diseases such as HIV  [ 06/01/09 ] "Clinics throughout Asia and sub-Saharan Africa offering ineffective remedies for serious illnesses, putting lives at risk, researchers say ... " Note: Actually, the problem is people saying that there is a homeopathic remedy for 'aids', and conning people into buying it. The culprit is NOT homeopathy itself, and to imply that is irrational, telling, and pretty transparent.

 Boy Chosen By Dalai Lama Turns Back On Buddhist Order  [ 06/01/09 ] "As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped as by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him. Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha ... " 

 Former Quebec Regional Director of B'nai Brith Canada facing child-porn charges  [ 06/01/09 ] "Bill Surkis, a prominent member of Montreal's Jewish community, was led to court in handcuffs Friday to face two charges related to accessing and possessing child pornography. Surkis, 69, is the former Quebec Regional Director of B'nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group. He also worked in the education sector for 47 years, serving as academic dean at John Abbott College for more than two decades. He was released on bail, on a number of conditions that restrict his access to children and the Internet. .. When Surkis was asked how the pornographic material ended up on his hard drive, his lawyer, Steven Slimovitch, intervened...."  

 MPs' expenses scandal spreads to the US: Capitol Hill snouts also in the trough?   [ 06/01/09 ] "Politicians spending taxpayers' money to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan, a digital camera and two 46-inch Sony TVs, a top-of-the-line laptop for use in hostile environments. No, not the latest Telegraph revelations of MPs' expenses in Britain but a report by the Wall Street Journal - inspired by the Telegraph's scoop - outlining how some members of the United States Congress aren't averse to treating themselves to a few little luxuries. There's much less scope for those on Capitol Hill to line their own pockets in the way that some MPs have done. Members of Congress can't bill taxpayers for personal living expenses and their allowance covers only "official and representational expenses". Members of the House of Representatives get a government expense allowance of $1.3 million to $1.9 million [£800,000 to £1.2 million] a year while Senators get $2.9 million to $4.5 million [£1.8 million to £2.8 million]. The exact amount depends on several variables, the most significant being the distance from Washington DC of the member's district or state...."

 Israel Throws Out Proposed 'Loyalty Law'  [ 06/01/09 ] "The Israeli government on Sunday threw out a proposal aimed at minority Arabs to require an oath of loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state or risk losing their citizenship, dealing a blow to the country's ultranationalist foreign minister, who spearheaded the proposal. Avigdor Lieberman, a (former nightclub bouncer) rising force in Israeli politics, made the proposal a central plank of his election campaign last February. The message, which sought to play on the perceived disloyalty of Israel's Arab citizens, helped propel his Yisrael Beitenu Party to a strong third place finish in the parliamentary vote. ..."

 Pakistan Turns On The Taliban: Massive Battle In Swat  [ 06/01/09 ] " ... Pakistan launched an offensive against militants in Swat and surrounding districts last month after they violated the terms of a cease-fire and advanced into a region close to the capital, Islamabad. Speaking in Singapore, Pakistan's defense secretary predicted the army would clear remaining militant strongholds in the valley in "two to three days." Pakistan's military spokesman said that assessment was overly optimistic. The Swat offensive has earned U.S. praise as troops have regained large swaths of the region from an estimated 4,000 militants. The fighting has forced up to 3 million people to evacuate..."

 U.S. embassy to hold first-ever gay pride party -- in Iraq   [ 06/01/09 ] Note: This will be a mind warp for the Islamic culture.

 Facility 1391: Israel's secret prison  [ 06/01/09 ] "It has been removed from maps and airbrushed from aerial photographs. But Facility 1391 certainly exists - you just have to ask the Palestinians and Lebanese who have been imprisoned and tortured there...."

 Israel Tests 'Doomsday' Response  [ 06/01/09 ] "Israel has begun its largest-ever defence drill, testing the response of its emergency services to a "doomsday scenario" of missile attacks, bombings and natural disasters. The five-day national exercise got under way on Sunday, with defence officials playing down any connection to recent and growing tensions with Iran. The drill simulates simultaneous rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and missile attacks from Iran and Syria. It will test the way rescue services deal with attacks, including conventional, chemical and biological strikes against large population centres...."

 Convergence and Continuity: The American-Backed Terror Campaign in Iran  [ 06/01/09 ] "... Thus the attack this week in Zahedan is an integral part of a wide-ranging campaign of American-supported terrorism inside Iran -- even if the "darksiders" in the U.S. security organs had no direct involvement or knowledge of this particular attack. When you are in the business of fomenting terror (see here and here), there's no need for micro-management. You co-opt the armed extremists who best serve your political agenda of the moment; you slip them guns, money, intelligence, guidance -- and then you turn them loose on the local populace..."