"NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Home Mortgage Investment Corp (AHM.N), a large U.S. mortgage provider, said on Tuesday it can no longer fund home loans and may liquidate assets, putting its survival in doubt."
Yeah, the bubble was over. LOL. - DAVIN
1041a5Surveillance.pdf (application/pdf Object)
The same press that declares Ron Paul a non-starter when he has massive online poll results in his favor declare universal public support for government surveillance cameras? This official looking poll only has 125 people responding. Keep in mind that this is a phone poll. They cannot call cell phones so this is restricted to people with land lines and who don't have the savvy to screen calls with caller id. That excludes just about everyone I know. - DAVIN
Most vote machines lose test to hackers:
"State-sanctioned teams of computer hackers were able to break through the security of virtually every model of California's voting machines and change results or take control of some of the systems' electronic functions, according to a University of California study released Friday."
It's been 7 years since the first election debacle... and they just NOW put the machines to a test to find something people have been saying all along? - DAVIN
Inside the Beltway�-�Nation/Politics�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper:
"The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent by the leader of an EPA-member group, vowing to 'destroy' the career of a climate skeptic."
The Raw Story | Report details US refusals of foreign aid after Katrina:
"A new report reveals the US government turned down offers of help from across the globe in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, telling one diplomat 'human assistance of any kind is not on our priorities list.'"
YouTube - The Iraq War: Legal or Illegal?
A cute cartoon commentator to make an ugly topic easier to tolerate.
A wonderful example of selective enforcement at work
Attaching these signs to an upside down flag
gets you arrested... while...
...using a flag as notepaper gets you.... ?
THE FLAG CODE Title 36, U.S.C., Chapter 10 As amended by P.L. 344, 94th Congress Approved July 7, 1976
§ 176. Respect for flag: No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
. . . . (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
YouTube - The Militarization of Our Police
Whimsical video about new stormtroopers that have replaced our police.
Military To Crackdown On North American Union Protesters
A lot of effort is going in to shutting down protests of the North American Union, considering officially it is denied and anyone suggesting it is coming is a nutjob. Seems they don't want a repeat of what the WTO experienced when protesters shut down Seattle in order to prevent the meeting. -DAVIN
Slashdot | Senators Call for Universal Internet Filtering:
"'US senators today made a bipartisan call for the universal implementation of filtering and monitoring technologies on the Internet in order to protect children. Their statement came at the end of a Senate hearing in which civil liberties groups were not invited.'"
My money says the bill that comes of this does nothing to protect children (isn't that what parents are for?) and ends up being just another tool for domestic spying. -DAVIN
Ill. student accused of terrorist threat - Yahoo! News:
Terrorism? A new definition every day. With the laws that have passed recently they could send this man to Gitmo w/o a trial. -DAVIN
"The Southern Illinois University student was arrested Friday after police said they found a handwritten note in his car demanding payment to a PayPal account, threatening that 'if this account doesn't reach $50,000 in the next 7 days then a murderous rampage similar to the VT shooting will occur at another highly populated university. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!'"
Paul, Gravel challenge parties' leaders - Los Angeles Times:
"After the first debate, Gravel generated more Internet traffic than any other Democratic contender except Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Through much of June and early July, 'Ron Paul' was among the top three most frequently searched terms on the Web. Paul's YouTube videos were viewed 2.3 million times."
Yet the only real press Ron Paul gets is to discredit or minimize him like this peice tries to do. - DAVIN
Korey Rowe Interviewed by Alex Jones
One of the Loose Change producers (who has just been arrested for deserting the Army) talking about his experience in Iraq and first hand account of CNN and military lies. He also goes on to warn about the coming police state.
Congress: P2P networks harm national security | CNET News.com:
"WASHINGTON--Politicians charged on Tuesday that peer-to-peer networks can pose a 'national security threat' because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers."
Blatant lie. P2P sharing is easy to shut down by administrators. Even better it could be used to track who is sharing what. Unlike someone slipping out with a photocopy, digital records are harder to erase. This is nothing more than the usual dressing up of corporate interests as security. Nothing in Washington right now passes w/o the word security in it. -DAVIN
Coral Springs boy, 7, on no-fly list has been delayed at airport three times -- OrlandoSentinel.com:
"Michael Martin (age 7) went through a hassle trying to fly out of Fort Lauderdale recently because his name was on a no-fly list. Rather than protest to authorities, he nervously turned to his mom for comfort."
No-fly lists are of course a fraud. If the US suspected someone was dangerous enough to deny them access to air travel you would expect they would have them in custody on some charges, and probably arrest them right at the terminal trying to board. This is what a German describing life under the Nazis described as 'becoming accustomed to arbitrary and increasingly absurd government'. - DAVIN
Homeland General: Attack 'Could Happen Any Day': "The U.S. military commander in charge of defending the U.S. homeland said Tuesday that he believes there are al-Qaida cells in the United States or people working to create them.
Air Force Gen. Victor 'Gene' Renuart said that while the terrorism threat within the nation's boundaries has increased in the past year, officials have strengthened intelligence sharing, particularly in an effort to shore up weaknesses in security at U.S. ports.
'I believe there are cells in the United States, or at least people who aspire to create cells in the United States,' Renuart said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'To assume that there are not those cells is naive and so we have to take that threat seriously.'
He added, 'Am I concerned that this will happen this summer, I have to be concerned that it could happen any day.'"
Watch the BBC documentary Power of Nightmares to understand the absurdity of claiming there are sleepers cells in the US. This man fails to acknowledge that Al Queda didn't exist outside of a US courtroom, and that to date not one sleeper cell has been found in 30K plus arrests. This is part of a recent fearmonger campaign. 5 years after 9-11 they are able to 'hear' what Al Queda thinks, yet are unable to find a single member. -DAVIN
A Boost In The Polls For Ron Paul � The Understudy:
"If you look at the standard scientific polls, you’ll usually see Ron Paul at 2% (Sometimes as low as 0% or as high as 3%). But there are some serious problems with taking this at face value. Upon examination, we begin to see that Ron Paul may have a claim to a boost in the polls—a boost that for now remains elusive."
YouTube - Power of Nightmares (1-6) Part 3 'Shadows in the cave'
This section explains how Al Queda never existed and was created by a district attorney so that they could prosecute Bin Laden w/o him being present in the US.
YouTube - Power of Nightmares (5-6) Part 3 'Shadows in the cave'
This sections beginning outlines that dirty bombs aren't even a threat, yet rather than inform people of this the government fed the panic.
YouTube - Fox news Israeli arrests Wiretapping Comverse infosys amdoc1 All wiretaps and traces go through Israel. The investigation he talks about hasn't been discussed since.
RIA Novosti - World - Iraqis blame U.S. depleted uranium for surge in cancer:
"As a result of 'at least 350 sites in Iraq being contaminated during bombing' with depleted uranium (DU) weapons, Nermin Othman said, the nation is facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7,000 to 8,000 new ones registered each year."
"'What - on earth - business does the Office of the Vice President have in the internal workings of the Department of Justice with respect to criminal investigations, civil investigations, and ongoing matters?' the Senator asked.
Gonzales was stumped, 'As a general matter, I would say that's a good question.'
Whitehouse then pointed out that in the same memo, the Chief of Staff and Counsel of the Vice President were also explicitly granted the same authority.
'On its face - I must say - sitting here, I'm troubled by this,' Gonzales added."
William Blum: What If NBC Cheered on a Military Coup Against Bush?:
I have no opinion on Venezuala really at the moment, but this is an interesting argument for Hugo. - Davin
"If there was a successful military coup in the United States and a particular TV station applauded the overthrow of the president (and the dissolving of Congress and the Supreme Court, as well as the suspension of the Constitution), and if then the coup was reversed by other military forces accompanied by mass demonstrations, and the same TV station did not report any of this while it was happening to avoid giving support to the counter-coup, and instead kept reporting that the president had voluntarily resigned ... how long would it be before the US government, back in power, shut down the station, arrested its executives, charging them under half a dozen terrorist laws, and throwing them into shackles and orange jumpsuits never to be seen again? How long? Five minutes?
The Venezuelan government waited five years, until the station's license was due for renewal. And none of the executives have been arrested. And RCTV is still free to broadcast via cable and satellite. Is there a country in the entire world that would be as lenient?"
.... "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot, 18th century French encylopedist and writerWard Boston: Searching for the Truth About the USS Liberty:
"Admiral Kidd and I were given only one week to gather evidence for the Navy's official investigation, though we both estimated that a proper Court of Inquiry would take at least six months.
We boarded the crippled ship at sea and interviewed survivors. The evidence was clear. We both believed with certainty that this attack was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew.
I am certain the Israeli pilots and commanders who had ordered the attack knew the ship was American. I saw the bullet-riddled American flag that had been raised by the crew after their first flag had been shot down completely. I heard testimony that made it clear the Israelis intended there be no survivors. Not only did they attack with napalm, gunfire, and missiles, Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned at close range three life rafts that had been launched in an attempt to save the most seriously wounded.
I am outraged at the efforts of Israel's apologists to claim this attack was a case of 'mistaken identity.' "
Conservatives Endorse the Fuhrer Principle - by Paul Craig Roberts:
"Last week's annual Conservative Political Action Conference signaled the transformation of American conservatism into brownshirtism. A former Justice Department official named Viet Dinh got a standing ovation when he told the CPAC audience that the rule of law mustn't get in the way of President Bush protecting Americans from Osama bin Laden...
Former Republican congressman Bob Barr, who led the House impeachment of President Bill Clinton, reminded the CPAC audience that our first loyalty is to the U.S. Constitution, not to a leader. The question, Barr said, is not one of disloyalty to Bush, but whether America 'will remain a nation subject to, and governed by, the rule of law or the whim of men.'
The CPAC audience answered that they preferred to be governed by Bush. According to Dana Milbank, a member of the CPAC audience named Richard Sorcinelli loudly booed Barr, declaring: 'I can't believe I'm in a conservative hall listening to him say Bush is off course trying to defend the United States.' A woman in the audience told Barr that the Constitution placed Bush above the law and above non-elected federal judges."
The Raw Story | Retired Supreme Court Justice hits attacks on courts and warns of dictatorship:
"Supreme Court justices keep many opinions private but Sandra Day O’Connor no longer faces that obligation. Yesterday, the retired justice criticized Republicans who criticized the courts. She said they challenge the independence of judges and the freedoms of all Americans."
US says Iraqi rebel head is an invention - World - smh.com.au:
"IN MARCH, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared killed, and his purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV.
On Wednesday, Omar al-Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq, was declared non-existent by US military officials, who say he is a fictional character created to give an Iraqi face to a foreign-run terrorist group."
ABC News: Intel Chief Worried About U.S. Terror Cells: "The nation's top intelligence official yesterday went further than ever before in outlining what he described as a heightened threat of an al Qaeda attack on American soil."
You have to be f_cking kidding me. People still buy this crap? They've been going on about sleeper cells since the day the WTC towers fell... yet 30K+ arrests and 5+ years later not a single terrorism conviction. - DAVIN
THE ANGRY ONE: Republican senator Chuck Hagel sounds off on the sorry state of Congress, the president’s lies, and the vote for war that he now regrets.
It’s incredible that you had to ask for that.
It is incredible. That’s what I said to Andy Card. Said it to Powell, said it to Rice. Might have even said it to the president. And finally, begrudgingly, they sent over a resolution for Congress to approve. Well, it was astounding. It said they could go anywhere in the region.
It wasn’t specific to Iraq? Oh no. It said the whole region! They could go into Greece or anywhere. I mean, is Central Asia in the region? I suppose! Sure as hell it was clear they meant the whole Middle East. It was anything they wanted. It was literally anything. No boundaries. No restrictions.
They expected Congress to let them start a war anywhere they wanted in the Middle East? Yes. Yes. Wide open. We had to rewrite it. Joe Biden, Dick Lugar, and I stripped the language that the White House had set up, and put our language in it.
But that should also have triggered alarm bells about what they really wanted to do. Well, it did. I’m not defending our votes; I’m just giving a little history of how this happened. You have to remember the context of when that resolution was passed. This was about a year after September 11. The country was still truly off balance. So the president comes out talking about “weapons of mass destruction” that this “madman dictator” Saddam Hussein has, and “our intelligence shows he’s got it,” and “he’s capable of weaponizing,” and so on.
Department of State Washington File: Transcript: Fleischer's Early Morning Briefing for Reporters: Strange confidence the morning after 9-11...
Q: Ari, is there anything to suggest that this might not be over? ...
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think the Department of Transportation will give you specific information about their beefed-up safety operations. But, you know, there is just no question this was a well-coordinated, planned attack that was executed yesterday morning. And we believe that the perpetrators have executed their plan and, therefore, the risks are significantly reduced.
"Q: How do you know that? I mean, what indications do you have and what else besides what DOT is doing, what other precautionary methods are you taking to try to ensure that nothing --
MR. FLEISCHER: The reason we know this is because of the resources of the federal government are committed to learning things. And I indicated the risk is significantly reduced. Obviously, the President returned to Washington yesterday; the government is open for business today. And that is the course that we are on.
Q: But, Ari, considering the enormity of the information that U.S. resources did not know yesterday, why do you feel confident that you know enough today?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I answered the question by saying that this was a coordinated attack that was executed yesterday and we believe that the risk is significantly reduced. The United States will remain vigilant and the United States will do everything it can to continue its vigilance."
Operation FALCON - The USA is turning into a Police State: "'If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. It was no secret that this time the revolution would have to be bloody; when we spoke of it we called it 'The Night of the Long Knives.' Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot.' "
SPACE.com -- Sun's Output Increasing in Possible Trend Fueling Global Warming: "In 1996, near the last solar minimum, the Sun is nearly featureless. By 1999, approaching maximum, it is dotted by sunspots and fiery hot gas trapped in magnetic loops."
How to organise a major terrorist scare: "How easy is it to organise a major terrorist scare like the one that’s currently gridlocking the world’s airports? Dead easy. If you follow a few simple points you can panic the populace and stampede the media with virtually no risk of getting caught. All it takes is a little confidence. Here’s a simple “how-to” for aspiring top-level spooks:"
DeFazio asks, but he's denied access - OregonLive.com: "WASHINGTON -- Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack. As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure 'bubbleroom' in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents. On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED."
WorldNetDaily: Bush makes power grab
National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."
When the president determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the president can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an "enduring constitutional government.
