Chase the Poison
Distant storms rage on across the horizon,
shaking the ivory towers of Babylon
listen to the chanting of the mob, screaming for violence
suck in the venom of the lies, buy into the cobra's charm as society dies
Twisted tale of the two headed serpent,
the man in rags becomes subservient
jesters plays for the thieves, while all the angels grieves
empty thoughts, tell a story of murder and mystery
the weak minded become prey of the trickery.
The blind lead the blind in this game of insanity.
Chase the poison through your vein
then chose which regret to remain.
As you dance with the devil, they will all whisper your name
the voices screaming with desire, echoing with a distant pain
Illusions of insects, a plague that slowly infects
and a demon at the core, always wanting more.
Chase the poison through your vein,
chase it straight to your brain
comatose into an overdose.
“Demons run a muck, while the angels run out of luck”
Addicted to the dream of a dream,
hope stretched thin, and the misery can begin
trust found within the eyes of faith,
love forged by the passions of hate.
Memories become emotions, trapped within moments.
“One slip, one fall, and that could undo it all
wrong word, wrong action, that moment you would wish were undone
forgotten are those moments, those unspoken comments.
A single smile, a sly glance, a rare and unique chance.”
Lost within the maze, drones and sheep, asleep within a haze
send out a distress call, a beacon or S.O.S.
A world that is in stress and mother nature is pissed.
The sacrifice was not worthy, and now you can worry
for the gods are angry, as we define our own destiny
walk the path slow for you never know which way to go
lost and confused, raped and used
empty thoughts tell a story
Chase the poison through your vein
chase it straight to your brain
and comatose into an overdose.
(Waits the Reaper)
I'm not the one you came for,
the reaper in black waits at my door
I'm not the one laying on the floor,
I find myself estrange, these thoughts are not my own
destruction and creation is what I've been shown
I'm not the one you are looking for,
clawing at my addictions for more
with a twisted sense of irony,
we all stand behind the mirror with vanity
and I find myself at a loss, for I see the insanity.
'Take my hand, the reaper had to demand
you have no power to claim, no status to command
breath and do not forget to dream.'
I'm not the one you want,
three o.ds is a lesson I've been taught
death can be bought, at the price of a pill
and the reaper in black waits still.
Candles line your spirit, as you tread that path
a solemn tone, in a time of wrath.
The beauty of destruction, forged with the art of creation
as we all walk down the dead man's road
that can be paved in memories of gold.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says
Lobot/TheGalacticEmpireTimes
Lord Vader announced the killing of Obi-Wan Kenobi at the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. More Photos »
By DEN DHUR and HALLIS SAPER
Published: May 9, 2011
CORUSCANT — Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mastermind of some of the most devastating attacks on the Galactic Empire and the most hunted man in the galaxy, was killed in a firefight with Imperial forces near Alderaan, Darth Vader announced on Sunday.
In a late-night appearance in the East Room of the Imperial Palace, Lord Vader declared that “justice has been done” as he disclosed that agents of the Imperial Army and stormtroopers of the 501st Legion had finally cornered Kenobi, one of the leaders of the Jedi rebellion, who had eluded the Empire for nearly two decades. Imperial officials said Kenobi resisted and was cut down by Lord Vader's own lightsaber. He was later dumped out of an airlock.
The news touched off an extraordinary outpouring of emotion as crowds gathered in the Senate District and outside the Imperial Palace, waving imperial flags, cheering, shouting, laughing and chanting, “Hail to the Emperor! Hail Lord Vader!” In the alien protection zone, crowds sang “The Ten Thousand Year Empire.” Throughout the Sah'c district, airspeeder drivers honked horns deep into the night.
“For over two decades, Kenobi has been the Jedi rebellion’s leader and symbol,” the Lord of the Sith said in a statement broadcast across the galaxy via HoloNet. “The death of Kenobi marks the most significant achievement to date in our empire’s effort to defeat the rebel alliance. But his death does not mark the end of our effort. There’s no doubt that the rebellion will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi ’s demise is a defining moment in the stormtrooper-led fight against terrorism, a symbolic stroke affirming the relentlessness of the pursuit of those who turned against the Empire at the end of the Clone Wars. What remains to be seen, however, is whether it galvanizes Kenobi’s followers by turning him into a martyr or serves as a turning of the page in the war against the Rebel Alliance and gives further impetus to Emperor Palpatine to step up Stormtrooper recruitment.
In an earlier statement issued to the press, Kenobi boasted that striking him down could make him "more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
How much his death will affect the rebel alliance itself remains unclear. For years, as they failed to find him, Imperial leaders have said that he was more symbolically important than operationally significant because he was on the run and hindered in any meaningful leadership role. Yet he remained the most potent face of terrorism in the Empire, and some of those who played down his role in recent years nonetheless celebrated his death.
Given Kenobi’s status among radicals, the Imperial Galactic government braced for possible retaliation. A Grand Moff of the Imperial Starfleet said late Sunday that military bases in the core worlds and around the galaxy were ordered to a higher state of readiness. The Imperial Security Bureau issued a galactic travel warning, urging citizens in volatile areas “to limit their travel outside of their local star systems and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations.”
The strike could deepen tensions within the Outer Rim, which has periodically bristled at Imperial counterterrorism efforts even as Kenobi evidently found safe refuge it its territories for nearly two decades. Since taking over as Supreme Commander of the Imperial Navy, Lord Vader has ordered significantly more strikes on suspected terrorist targets in the Outer Rim, stirring public anger there and leading to increased criminal activity.
When the end came for Kenobi, he was found not in the remote uncharted areas of Wild Space and the Unknown Regions, where he has long been presumed to be sheltered, but in a massive compound about an hour’s drive west from the Tatooine capital of Bestine. He had been living under the alias "Ben" Kenobi for some time.
The compound, only about 50 miles from the base of operations for the Imperial Storm Squadron, is at the end of a narrow dirt road and is roughly eight times larger than other homes in the area, which were largely occupied by Tusken Raiders. When Imperial operatives converged on the planet on Saturday, following up on recent intelligence, two local moisture farmers “resisted the assault force” and were killed in the middle of an intense gun battle, a senior Stormtrooper said, but details were still sketchy early Monday morning.
A representative of the Imperial Starfleet said that military and intelligence officials first learned last summer that a “high-value target” was hiding somewhere on the desert world and began working on a plan for going in to get him. Beginning in March, Lord Vader worked closely with a series of several different Admirals serving onboard the Death Star to go over plans for the operation, and on Friday morning gave the final order for members of the 501st Legion (known commonly as "Vader's Fist") to strike.
Kenobi and a group of his followers were eventually captured while fleeing the system, and taken aboard the Death Star, which was in the midst of surveying the recent environmental disaster on Alderaan. Darth Vader called it a “targeted operation,” although officials said four tie fighters were lost because of "mechanical failures" and had to be destroyed to keep them from falling into hostile hands.
In addition to Kenobi, two men and one wookiee were killed, one believed to be his young apprentice and the other two his couriers, according to an admiral who briefed reporters under Imperial ground rules forbidding further identification. A woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, the Admiral said. Two droids were also reported missing.
“No Stormtroopers were seriously harmed,” Lord Vader said. “They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, I defeated my former master and took custody of his body.” Jedi tradition requires burial within 24 hours, but by doing it in deep space, Imperial authorities presumably were trying to avoid creating a shrine for his followers.
Lord Vader has denied requests to present photographs of the body, describing them as "too gruesome" for the general public.
:SOURCE:Monday, May 9, 2011
A Mother's Day Message by NORML
Sun, 08 May 2011 20:16:26 By: Sabrina Fendrick, NORML Women's Alliance
By Diane Fornbacher
Vice Chair of the NORML Women’s Alliance
and writer for Freedom is Green
On Mother’s Day we celebrate and honor those who gave us life. However, as a mother, every day I am reminded of a terrible war that is destroying the fabric of our families and putting our children at risk. It is the so-called War on Drugs. It happens all around us and is primarily a war on cannabis consumers. Today I hope that mothers will join me in advocating for a cease fire in the war on cannabis consumers.
As a compassionate and reasonable society, it is time to legalize cannabis for responsible adult use. Drug dealers do not card children. Prohibition has only kept our youth in constant contact with pot instead of putting it safely behind the counter. Cannabis belongs in a controlled environment where taxpaying and responsible adults can purchase it.
Let me be clear – I do not want my kids to use or abuse cannabis. But I certainly don’t want them going to jail or losing their chances at a college education if they end up getting caught with a joint. Prisons do not protect children, parents do. By legalizing marijuana we can begin to have more truthful conversations with our kids and teens about using it.
Further, legalizing marijuana will keep families together. Mothers do not deserve to be persecuted in the courts or in the delivery room for their private use of marijuana. Children should not be separated from their parents over pot. Hard working Americans should not lose good paying jobs because they medicate or recreate with cannabis. Mothers played a crucial role in calling for an end to alcohol prohibition almost a century ago. I hope mothers will join the growing effort to end marijuana prohibition today, for the sake of us all but mostly for the children.
NORML Update: A Mother’s Day Message
Slow Motion Responce
Well This project was just started as a time filler, a place for me to vent my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs on many different subjects ranging from political, medical, spiritual, and whatnot...
This is my sanctuary for my first amendment right. Here lately however I have been real busy with real life and have not had the chance to update much on this blog... but Fear not, more and many more updates will be on the way, so keep checking.. and it will come...
This is my sanctuary for my first amendment right. Here lately however I have been real busy with real life and have not had the chance to update much on this blog... but Fear not, more and many more updates will be on the way, so keep checking.. and it will come...
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The Tea Parties Now Have Their Man
Chuck Baldwin
Infowars.com
April 30, 2011
After I wrote my last column, several Tea Party activists contacted me to let me know that they had not been “neoconned.” They made it plain in no uncertain terms that they would never support establishment neocon Republicans such as Newt Gingrich for the office of President of the United States. Most assuredly, I was glad to hear from these folks; I only wish my mail box had been swamped with such correspondence–it wasn’t!
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=3425
At this point, it may be helpful if I give a little history lesson. The Tea Party movement began in 2007 as a grassroots effort to support the 2008 Presidential candidacy of Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. I am proud to say that I was part of that effort. In fact, I actively campaigned for Dr. Paul in at least four states during that election cycle: Alabama, Florida, Iowa, and South Carolina. I was even honored to represent Dr. Paul in a major South Carolina GOP banquet, in which sitting US congressmen and senators were selected from around the country to represent most of the other Republican Presidential candidates. (I wish readers could have been a fly on the wall to witness the goings on at the speaker’s table during the banquet as these GOP congressmen and senators tried to figure out who I was, and what the heck I was doing there. It was quite a sight!) I well remember that, as I came down from the speaker’s platform, one US Senator told me that my promotion of Dr. Paul’s candidacy that night was the best presentation on behalf of the Texas congressman that he had ever heard. Since then, I have spoken at numerous Tea Party events and appeared on both local and national media outlets (and numerous private videos and recordings) discussing the merits of the Tea Party movement and promoting the candidacy of Dr. Paul.
We need to get this straight: the Tea Party movement was never about electing Republicans–especially neocon Republicans! The Tea Party movement began as a grassroots effort to reduce the size and scope of the federal government; to rid America of the oppressive tax burden under which it currently groans; to eliminate the Federal Reserve; to return America to sound money; to stop the federal government’s obsession with foreign entanglements and wars; and to return America to constitutional governance. And there was only one man within the two major parties that was going to bring about those changes in 2008: Congressman Ron Paul, which is why the Tea Party was birthed as a grassroots extension of his campaign.
Since then, however, many GOP shills and toadies have jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon and have attempted to redefine its goals and objectives, including many of the talking heads on FOX News. In truth, many Tea Party activists regularly look to Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and other “conservative” celebrities to champion their cause.
Need I remind everyone that Hannity has hardly ever met a Republican that he didn’t gush over. And I couldn’t count how many times we’ve seen Mr. Neocon himself, Newt Gingrich, on Hannity’s show. And as much as many people will cringe to hear this (and as much as I appreciate many things that Beck has to say), it was Glenn Beck who literally sabotaged a legitimate Tea Party candidate, Debra Medina, on his show. I would even dare say that Medina might have been elected Texas governor had it not been for the hatchet job Beck did on her. And as much as I like Sarah Palin for her fervent pro-life and pro-Second Amendment convictions, when it comes to foreign affairs, she is just another shill for the pro-war, military-industrial complex that has dominated US foreign policy since the days of Lyndon Johnson.
In 2008, the Tea Party movement supported one candidate: Ron Paul. He was the only Presidential candidate who had the guts to say the Federal Reserve was corrupt and needed to be eliminated; he was the only candidate (with the exception of Dennis Kucinich) who said the war in Iraq was unnecessary and unconstitutional; he was the only candidate who sponsored the Sanctity of Life Act, which would recognize the right of the states to nullify Roe vs. Wade; he was the only Republican candidate to speak out against the USA Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other draconian police-state-type legislation and departments; and he was the only man from either party who had the guts to say the US should stop sending foreign aid to all countries–even Israel.
Now, here we are four years later. And, once again, the man who was responsible for the Tea Party movement coming into existence has entered the 2012 race for President. See the story, as it is reported in the National Journal:
Coinciding with his announcement that he was establishing an “Exploratory Committee” for his Presidential bid, Dr. Paul also launched his campaign web site, which is located at:
So, once again, the Tea Parties have their man. Will they support him in 2011 and 2012, as they did in 2007 and 2008? If they have not been “neoconned,” they will.
Chuck Baldwin’s article first appeared on his blog.
Texas Bill Would Make Invasive Pat-Downs a Felony
FORT WORTH, Texas -- A former Miss USA's claims of being groped during a pat-down at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport could be a felony under a bill gaining momentum in the Texas Legislature.
The bill would make it illegal for a security officer to intentionally touch someone's private areas -- even atop clothing -- unless they have probable cause to believe the person is carrying something illegal.
Bill sponsor State Rep. David Simpson says the searches are removing people's dignity.
Last fall the Transportation Security Administration started a new pat-down procedure.
Susie Castillo, crowned Miss USA in 2003, said she was "molested" during a pat-down last April.
TSA spokesman Nicholas Kimball says the agency doesn't comment on pending legislation. He says current security measures are the best ways to mitigate the risk of terrorism.
Facebook accused of removing activists' pages
- guardian.co.uk,
- Article history
UK Uncut group are among those alleged to have had their Facebook page removed. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
Facebook has removed dozens of profiles from its site, causing an outcry from campaigners trying to organise anti-austerity protests this weekend.
The deactivated pages include UK Uncut, and pages created by students during last December's university occupations.
A list posted on the Stop Facebook Purge group says Chesterfield Stop the Cuts, Tower Hamlet Greens, London Student Assembly, Southwark SoS and Bristol Uncut sites are no longer functioning.
Administrators for the profiles say hundreds of links between activists have been broken in the run up to the May Day bank holiday. When users click on URL links the message "the page you requested was not found" now appears.
Guy Aitchison, 26, an administrator for one of the non-functioning pages, said: "I woke up this morning to find that a lot of the groups we'd been using for anti cuts activity had disappeared. The timing of it seems suspicious, given a general political crackdown because of the wedding. It seems that dozens of other groups have also been affected, including some of the local UK Uncut groups."
It is not yet known how many groups have been affected in total. A Facebook spokeswoman explained that the profiles were suspended because they had not been registered correctly and denied that the removal of pages was politically motivated or instigated by law enforcement concerns before the royal wedding.
Facebook accounts that claim to represent individual people but are in fact groups or organisations contravene the company's "statement of rights and responsibilities".
The company said a number accounts were suspended at the same time.
Facebook uses technology to track relationships between groups and when one "fake" profile is found, pages that have links to it are also checked. This is done to maintain safety and security on the site and the removal of everything from fake celebrities to pages representing pets is a regular occurrence.
The company did not confirm how many activist accounts had been deactivated on Friday morning.
A spokeswoman for Facebook said activists would be contacted by email and told how to re-activate their accounts correctly. They said this would take several days.
Jim Killock, 38 who runs the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for civil liberties on the net, said: "It's pretty flatfooted of Facebook to pull profiles without notifying users. Clearly, if you just take down sites without any warning, people are going to feel aggrieved, they're going to have activities disrupted and be unable to organise politically," he said.
"It's a pretty bureaucratic move; it's almost impossible to know the difference between a profile and a page, so Facebook should have emailed people first and given them some notice. It's bizarre and upsetting and it's not a good way to treat their users," he said.
Grand Jury May Be Investigating WikiLeaks
Steven Aftergood
Secrecy News
April 30, 2011
A grand jury has been empaneled in the Eastern District of Virginia to investigate a possible violation of the Espionage Act involving the computer-based acquisition of protected government information concerning national defense or foreign relations. In other words, the Grand Jury seems to be investigating WikiLeaks.
Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com reported that a summons to appear before the Grand Jury on May 11 was served on an unidentified recipient in Cambridge, MA. He also posted a copy of the document. See “FBI serves Grand Jury subpoena likely relating to WikiLeaks,” April 27.
The initial hurdle to any possible prosecution of WikiLeaks is to identify a specific crime that it may have committed.
The subpoena suggests that the path chosen by prosecutors (as predicted) is to allege a conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act under 18 USC 793(g). But like much of the Espionage Act, the practical meaning of this statute is quite unclear. So is its application here, beyond the bare implication that WikiLeaks instigated the unlawful transfer of information in a manner that is not protected by freedom of the press.
As things stand, everyone agrees that information gained by committing a crime is not protected by the First Amendment. One cannot expect to break into a building to steal documents and publish them, and then invoke freedom of the press.
But what constitutes a crime? Is it asking a question about a topic that one knows to be classified? Buying someone lunch in the hope that he may divulge closely held information? Indicating a willingness and a capacity to receive unauthorized disclosures confidentially? These would hardly seem to qualify as criminal acts since they are ordinary conventions of national security reporting.
What makes this case both important and dangerous is that by pursuing this line of attack, the reported Grand Jury investigation of WikiLeaks may “clarify” such speculative matters, thereby generating new limitations on freedom of the press.
Confirmed: iPhone and iPad secretly track and store your location
Niamh Marnell
NaturalNews
May 1, 2011
Apple’s iPhone and iPad have been tracking the locations of users in a hidden file, according to The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/eTvBSm).
The location and time, which are tracked through cell phone towers and Wi-Fi networks and stored on the devices, are copied over to users’ hard drives when the devices are synced with a computer, the programmers said.
Apple stayed silent on the issue for a week until Google, which was also found to have a tracking program on phones that use its Android system, responded with a statement that the information collected was anonymous. Apple then followed in kind, mirroring Google’s anonymity claims, according to a recent USA Today article (http://usat.ly/l7TNXu).
“It doesn’t matter how Apple explains its way out of this,” said Chenxi Wang, a vice president of Forrester Research who specializes in security and risk. “Just the fact that consumers know that their phone is being tracked is a very big deal.”
Apple should allow customers to opt out of being tracked, said Ian Glazer, director of Gartner Research identity and privacy group.
“There is no way to really turn this tracking off,” he said. “It needs to be visually obvious, or in the settings, to see that this is happening on your phone.”
A blog post by Allan raised the issue of “how Apple intends to use [the information] — or not.” Is Apple gaining access to the information in any way? And why it is being stored at all?
Apple claims it is creating a database of cell towers and Wi-Fi hot spots that users have used, which can then help phones better orient to a signal when GPS signals are sketchy or unavailable.
Apple’s purported purpose clearly did not require the data to be stored for long periods of time, and Apple has since reduced the storage time to seven days. Google always had a shorter time period for the data stored on its Android phones.
Google and Apple have agreed to testify before a Congressional committee May 10, according to the Hindustan Times (http://bit.ly/iwu0Et), about consumer privacy issues related to mobile technologies. Apple also faces possible action by data protection regulators in the European Union, according to Bloomberg (http://bloom.bg/kUFtD1).
Friday, April 29, 2011
A Centennial Anniversary That’s Hardly Worth Celebrating
A Centennial Anniversary That’s Hardly Worth Celebrating
Self-evidently, cannabis has won.
Although many credit the passage of the federal Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 with the initiation of pot prohibition, the reality is that one hundred years ago today, Massachusetts Governor Eugene Foss signed the first statewide anti-pot prohibition into law. Following Massachusetts, over 30 states quickly followed suit — including California, Maine, Indiana and Wyoming in 1913 — leading the way for federal prohibition some two-and-a-half decades later.
Of course, cannabis use was practically non-existent in Massachusetts (as well as in most of the rest of the country) in 1911. Yet today, 100 years following the plant’s criminalization, the state boasts one of the highest rates of pot use in the nation.
Former NORML Board Member Richard Evans, author of Massachusetts House Bill 1371, the Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act, nails it:
“Despite a century of ever-zealous enforcement and thunderous propaganda at taxpayer expense, marijuana inextricably permeates our culture. Its cultivation, commerce and use have proven ineradicable. We have tried mightily and we have failed to extirpate it. If anyone, anywhere, believes that spending more money on marijuana enforcement will drive out pot, let that person come forward and tell us plainly what it will take to make that happen, how much it will cost, and where the money will come from.
The futility of enforcement, however, is not the urgent reason to legalize it. The reason is that prohibition has become a destructive force in our society.
Most perniciously, marijuana prohibition provides the tools and the excuses for the oppression of minorities. No historian denies that the early drug laws were conceived for that purpose, and today’s grotesquely disproportionate incarceration rate of African-Americans proves that the drug laws have shamefully accomplished that purpose.
Prohibition divides us. Getting caught with pot, or the fear of getting caught, divides parents and teens, employers and employees, friends, neighbors, colleagues, doctors and patients, and citizens and the police. That divisiveness weakens us as we face colossal challenges like a sick economy, the insolvency of states and municipalities, climate change and our addiction to imported oil. As long as cannabis remains illegal, it cannot be a part of the solution to those colossal challenges.
… Our immediate challenge is not to legalize cannabis, but to legalize serious talk about it, without smirks and snickers. How legalization can best protect public health and safety, and discourage abuse, and how to tax the substance, are issues not just for politicians, but for everyone. Legalization is no longer for stoners; it’s for taxpayers, entrepreneurs and grandparents, horrified at the likely state of the planet on which their grandchildren will grow up.
Let the debate begin now, lest another hundred years go by.”
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Obama Birth Certificate “Raises As Many Questions As It Answers”
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 27, 2011
Despite some political commentators insisting that the White House release of what it claims to be Barack Obama’s long form birth certificate represents the end of the “crazy birther fringe” movement, those who most fiercely pushed doubts surrounding the president’s eligibility are not convinced.
While presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump welcomed the release of the document, he was quick to cast suspicion as to why it took so long and if the certificate was even genuine.
Trump said it was “amazing” that the document surfaced “all of a sudden” after he had begun asking questions about the controversy, adding that the certificate should be analyzed to determine its authenticity.
Indeed, the Smoking Gun website has already compiled a list of inconsistencies found in the document, including asking, “If the original document was in a bound volume (as reflected by the curvature of the left hand side of the certificate), how can the green patterned background of the document’s safety paper be so seamless?”
Meanwhile, World Net Daily editor Joseph Farah, who has been at the forefront of the birther movement, heavily promoting Jerome Corsi’s investigations into the matter along with his new book, Where’s The Birth Certificate?, reacted to the news by saying the birth certificate “raises as many questions as it answers”.
At the center of the storm is the argument about whether the fact that Obama’s father was born in Kenya, which is confirmed on the document released by the White House today, makes Obama ineligible to become president because he is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States.
“Some of the cases challenging Obama have explained that he was a dual citizen through his father at his birth, and they contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born citizens,” reports WND, meaning that the document released by the White House today could even lead to proving Obama’s ineligibility.
“The news media and the political establishment were quick to rush to judgment regarding Obama’s eligibility in 2008, without any basis. It would be a big mistake for everyone to jump to a conclusion now based on the release of this document, which raises as many questions as it answers,” Farah said today.
Some political commentators have hastily insisted that the release of the document means, “The “birther” movement is now dead as a political force,” a rush to judgment given the fact that the White House’s direct involvement now means the entire controversy will only continue to generate attention.
Since the American people have been habitually lied to about everything under the sun, with trust in government at an all time low, a PDF file put out directly by the Obama administration itself isn’t going to make the furore die down at all, and will only lead to claims that the document is a carefully crafted fake.
Obama’s long form birth certificate – http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate-long-form.pdf
Correspondence with the Hawaii State Department of Health can be seen here (PDF).
—
New Study Shows Many Sunscreens are Accelerating not Preventing Cancer
Researchers at the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based nonprofit, released their annual report claiming nearly half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products may actually increase the speed at which malignant cells develop and spread skin cancer because they contain vitamin A and its derivatives, retinol and retinyl palmitate. 
Environmental Working Group’s 2010 Sunscreen Guide
READ MORE:
Furthermore, the FDA has known about the dangers of vitamin A in sunscreens since ordering a study 10 years ago, but has done nothing to alert the public of the dangers.
"Retinyl palmitate was selected by (FDA's) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for photo-toxicity and photocarcinogenicity testing based on the increasingly widespread use of this compound in cosmetic retail products for use on sun-exposed skin," said an October 2000 report by the National Toxicology Program.
According to AOL news, other problems with sunscreens include:
- The use of the hormone-disrupting chemical oxybenzone, which penetrates the skin and enters the bloodstream.
- Overstated claims about performance.
- The lack of needed regulations and oversight by the Food and Drug Administration.
Also, be careful where you discuss the danger involved with sunscreens. Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen has reportedly "infuriated cancer experts" by describing sunscreen as "poison".
Bundchen refuses to use it on herself or her family because of the chemicals they contain. According to the Daily Mail:
"[Bundchen] made the comments at the launch of her own organic skin care range, which presumably doesn't include sun care lotions."
Bundchen, incidentally, is currently the highest paid supermodel in the world. She also has said that it should be against the law for healthy mothers to give their baby infant formula full of sugar, and often soy.
Sources:
Environmental Working Group’s 2010 Sunscreen GuideREAD MORE:
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The Marijuana/hemp seed is the most Nutritional Seed on the Planet!
Main Stream media really needs to catch up to the times.... Of course Hemp seed is healthy for you!!!
Friday, April 22, 2011
24 Signs Of Economic Decline In America
The Economic Collapse
April 22, 2011
The following are 24 more signs of economic decline in America. Hopefully you will not get too depressed as you read them….
#1 On Monday, Standard & Poor’s altered its outlook on U.S. government debt from “stable” to “negative” and warned the U.S. that it could soon lose its AAA rating. This is yet another sign that the rest of the world is losing faith in the U.S. dollar and in U.S. Treasuries.
#2 China has announced that they are going to be reducing their holdings of U.S. dollars. In fact, there are persistent rumors that this has already been happening.
#3 Hedge fund manager Dennis Gartman says that “panic dollar selling is setting in” and that the U.S. dollar could be in for a huge decline.
#4 The biggest bond fund in the world, PIMCO, is now shorting U.S. government bonds.
#5 This cruel economy is causing “ghost towns” to appear all across the United States. There are quite a few counties across the nation that now have home vacancy rates of over 50%.
#6 There are now about 7.25 million less jobs in America than when the recession began back in 2007.
#7 The average American family is having a really tough time right now. Only 45.4% of Americans had a job during 2010. The last time the employment level was that low was back in 1983.
#8 Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.
#9 According to a new report from the AFL-CIO, the average CEO made 343 times more money than the average American did last year.
#10 Gas prices reached five dollars per gallon at a gas station in Washington, DC on April 19th, 2011. Could we see $6 gas soon?
#11 Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up by about 30%.
#12 Due to rising fuel prices, American Airlines lost a staggering $436 million during the first quarter of 2011.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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#13 U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.
#14 Approximately one out of every four dollars that the U.S. government borrows goes to pay the interest on the national debt.
#15 Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.
#16 Total credit card debt in the United States is now more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago.
#17 Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income. In China, average household debt is only 17% of average household income.
#18 The average American now spends approximately 23 percent of his or her income on food and gas.
#19 In a recent survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting, 74 percent of Americans said that they planned to slow down their spending in coming months due to rising prices.
#20 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another.
#21 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average length of unemployment in the U.S. is now an all-time record 39 weeks.
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#22 As the economy continues to collapse, frustration among young people will continue to grow and we will see more seemingly “random acts of violence”. One shocking example of this happened in the Atlanta area recently. The following is how a local Atlanta newspaper described the attack….
Roughly two dozen teens, chanting the name of a well-known Atlanta gang, brought mob rule to MARTA early Sunday morning, overwhelming nervous passengers and assaulting two Delta flight attendants.
#23 Some Americans have become so desperate for cash that they are literally popping the gold teeth right out of their mouths and selling them to pawn shops.
#24 As the economy has declined, the American people have been gobbling up larger and larger amounts of antidepressants and other prescription drugs. In fact, the American people spent 60 billion dollars more on prescription drugs in 2010 than they did in 2005.
Fukushima Radiation Exposure Much Higher Than Mainstream Media Admits
Brandon Turbeville
Infowars.com
April 22, 2011
Regardless, since the beginning of the disaster, government regulatory agencies such as the EPA, USDA, CDC, and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) have all claimed that there is no danger in the radiation coming from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plants. The mainstream media has obediently repeated these claims as fact. Some media pundits such as Ann Coulter even have promoted the Orwellian and absurd notion that radiation is actually good for you, and that it prevents cancer. (Coulter has yet to explain why she has not purchased an airline ticket for Japan so she can have the opportunity to bathe in it.)
Yet, while numerous states (South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington) have reported through their state agencies that radiation has been detected in drinking water, soil, and milk (among other things), the Federal regulatory agencies and their media subsidiaries refuse to admit that there is any reason for concern. Virtually every media report given about the Fukushima fallout contains the suggestion that the radiation now blanketing the United States is “harmless,” “minute,” or “miniscule,” and that there is no need for alarm.
Yet, these claims now stand in direct contradiction to the conclusions reached by the National Academies of Science released in 2005.
The BEIR VII — meaning the seventh Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation report on “Health Risks From Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation” — came to a much different conclusion than the EPA, CDC, and the NRC. NAS actually concluded that there is NO SAFE LEVEL or threshold ionizing radiation exposure.
So even if the exposure to the Fukushima radiation was “miniscule,” there would still be a cause for concern because “miniscule” exposure can still cause cancer. Indeed, in a press release dealing with the release of the BEIR VII issued from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the NIRS states that it is well known that “even very low doses [of ionizing radiation] can cause cancer” [emphasis added]. It goes on to say that, “Risks from low dose radiation are equal or greater than previously thought” [emphasis added].
Indeed, the constant reassurance given to the general public by our regulatory agencies and media that the levels of increased radiation are “miniscule” and not much different that “normal background radiation” also fly in the face of the BEIR VII report. This is because the report also concluded that “Even exposure to background radiation causes some cancers. Additional exposures can cause additional risks” [emphasis added].
In addition, as we know from our escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as many other instances, that exposure to radiation, even if it causes no visible adverse health effects in those who are directly exposed, can have serious side effects on their offspring. The BEIR VII reaffirms this previous knowledge as well.
The NIRS Energy and Health Project Director at the time of the report, Cindy Folkers, stated in regards to the BEIR VII report, “These findings confirm that all levels of radiation are harmful. Since nuclear power routinely releases long-lasting radiation into the air, water and soil, we must avoid a new generation of nuclear power to prevent unnecessary exposures” [emphasis added].
If nuclear power plants “routinely release long-lasting radiation into the air, water and soil,” what happens to a nuclear power plant when it is hit by several earthquakes, tsunamis, and explosions? How much radiation is released when the nuclear reactors meltdown? Are we really to believe that the levels of radiation are “miniscule” and “harmless” even if we are across the ocean from the reactor?
Apparently, your government thinks you will believe it. In fact, they have already begun taking measures to make sure you will.
As I have written in previous articles, the EPA has proposed changes to the PAG’s (Protective Action Guides) that would raise the acceptable levels of radiation in food, the environment, and even humans in the event of a “nuclear emergency.” Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) released a leaked email in which Charles Openchowski of the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, writing to the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, wrote:
[T]his guidance would allow cleanup levels that exceed MCL’s [Maximum Contamination Limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act] by a factor of 100, 1000, and in two instances 7 million and there is nothing to prevent those levels from being the final cleanup achieved (i.e., it’s not confined to immediate response of emergency phase).
At the same time (coincidentally of course) the EU has implemented EU Ordinance 297/2011, which raises the Maximum Levels of radiation and radioactive isotopes for food and feed.
Clearly, all levels of radiation — even what is considered “background” levels — are carcinogenic and create the potential for a host of adverse health effects. There appears to be a concerted effort by governments across the world to (at best) conceal the realities of the danger in regards to the Fukushima fallout; especially since their present claims stand at odds with the previous science conducted by their own agencies.
At worst, there may be a much more sinister side to this entire issue. Unfortunately, the more coincidences there are, the more the odds tilt in favor of the latter.
This article first appeared on the Activist Post website.
Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Mullins, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University where he earned the Pee Dee Electric Scholar’s Award as an undergraduate. He has had numerous articles published dealing with a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, and civil liberties. He also the author of Codex Alimentarius – The End of Health Freedom and 7 Real Conspiracies.
Source: Infowars.com
Aerial Robotic Vehicle at Fukushima Reveals Devastation
Matt Ryan
Infowars
April 22, 2011
The ongoing crisis at Fukushima has been all but forgotten in the minds of the mainstream media. Radiation continues to be a serious problem for residents of Japan and even here in America, increased radiation levels are being found across the country. The Japanese government has continued to downplay the magnitude of this disaster and the long-term affects it will have on the world.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the company in charge of the Fukushima plant, used a robotic aerial vehicle known as the T-Hawk to survey the damaged nuclear site last Friday. The T-Hawk was developed by Honeywell and launched through DARPA and is currently being used in Afghanistan and Iraq as a reconnaissance tool.
What the video clearly shows is the extremely devastating impact the large explosions have had on the facility. With spent nuclear fuel rods being housed directly next to the main reactor shielding (seen as a yellow dome in the videos), this new footage may only intensify concerns over their condition.
Bilderberg Wants Gas Prices at $7 a Gallon
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 22, 2011
Source: Infowars.com
In a follow-up to his original article, veteran newspaper reporter and Bilderberg sleuth Jim Tucker told Alex Jones today that the globalists fully intend to launch a ground invasion of Libya and also jack up the price of gas to $7 per gallon. (See also: Kissinger Calls For US Ground Invasion Of Libya.)
In 2007, Jose Barroso, president of the European Commission and a Bilderberg member, called for a “post-industrial revolution” under the guise of eliminating so-called greenhouse gases. The failed 2009 Copenhagen climate summit was an effort to impose a lower standard of living on the United States and much of the Western world.
In order to usher in the a new feudal society and implement authoritarian control over humanity, the global elite must slash the standard of living across the board. They plan to this through the United Nations and Agenda 21 and demands for “sustainable development.”
Maurice Strong, a commissioner of the World Commission on Environment and Development at the United Nations, spelled out the Brave New World the elite have in mind for us when he stated that “current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work-place air conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable. A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally damaging consumption patterns.”
In 2005, Tucker and fellow Bilderberg sleuth and author Daniel Estulin cited inside sources that indicated oil prices would double within a year.
During the 2006 Bilderberg meeting in Ottawa, Canada, the elite agreed to push for $105 a barrel before the end of 2008.
Crude oil futures peaked at a close of over $77 in July 2006, and in December 2006 at about $63. In September 2007, U.S. crude crossed $80. Less than a year later, on July 11, 2008, oil prices rose to a new record of $147.27. The price settled to around $125 a barrel on July 24, 2008. In March of that year, Goldman Sachs predicted a “super-spike” in crude prices that would push the price over $200 a barrel.
In order to put this into perspective, consider that oil stood at $17 a barrel in January of 1999.
On October 26, 2008, pastor Lindsey Williams, who worked closely with transnational oil corporations in Alaska, was told by his insider sources that the price of oil would fall to around $50 per barrel. On December 21, 2008, oil was trading at $33.87 a barrel, less than one fourth of the peak price reached four months earlier. Paster Williams said the elite would then take the price back up through the stratosphere, a process we are now witnessing firsthand at the gas pump.
Estulin’s insider information has proven accurate in the past. In 2006, the researcher’s Bilderberg sources told him the elite planned to implode the artificially inflated housing bubble, create an economic crash, implement a global centralization of banking power, and use the crash as an excuse to call for world government.
In 2007, during the annual Bilderberg conference, Henry Kissinger told attendees that the elite had resolved to make sure oil prices doubled within 12-24 months, “which is exactly what has happened,” Paul Joseph Watson wrote on September 17, 2007.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
10 Examples We No Longer Live In Land of the Free And Home of the Brave
The American Dream
April 21, 2011
Do you know people that still believe that America is a free country? Do you have friends or family that are proud to live in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”? If you do, just show them this article. The things that you are about to read are enough to make the blood of any red-blooded American boil. We don’t live in a free country anymore. Instead, we live in a “Big Brother” police state control grid that is becoming more restrictive every single day. Most of our politicians seem to be control freaks that are obsessed with running every single little detail of our lives. These days there has to be a “rule” or a “regulation” for everything. The radical social engineers in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and communist China never even dared to try some of the things that are going on in America today. We are all being treated little better than cattle and we are all being taught that it is best to just sit in our homes and absorb all of the television “programming” that is being provided for us. Meanwhile, our public schools have become little more than prison grids. Our children are being taught to enjoy living as docile slaves in a world where imagination, liberty, freedom and adventure are all greatly discouraged.
Unfortunately, none of this is an exaggeration. Our politicians love to give speeches about “liberty” and “freedom”, but they always seem to have excuses to justify the endless parade of liberty-killing laws that they are imposing on all the rest of us.
Almost all of the freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights have been severely eroded. In fact, a number of them are almost totally gone at this point.
The things that you are about to read should make you mad. In fact, if none of these things make you mad there is a problem. Sadly, millions of Americans have actually embraced tyranny, and if you are not outraged by any of the items listed below than you are likely one of them.
The following are 10 examples that show that we no longer live in the land of the free and the home of the brave….
#1 According to the ACLU, state police in Michigan are using “extraction devices” to download data from the cellphones of motorists that they pull over. This is taking place even if those pulled over are not accused of doing anything wrong.
The following is how an article on CNET News describes the capabilities of these “extraction devices”….
The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.
#2 In the state of New York, the Department of Health has designated wiffle ball, dodge ball, kick ball, freeze tag, red rover, frisbee tossing and tug of war as “risky recreational activities“. Any organization or program that allows kids to enjoy these games during the summer will now be subject to strict government regulation according to the New York Daily News….
Under the new rules, any program that offers two or more organized recreational activities – with at least one of them on the risky list – is deemed a summer camp and subject to state regulation.
#3 At one public school in the Chicago area, children have been banned from bringing their lunches from home. Yes, you read that correctly. Students at that particular school are absolutely prohibited from bringing lunches from home. Instead, it is mandatory that they eat the food that the school cafeteria serves.
#4 Would you like to have your face scanned and your ID recorded every time you attend a public event? Don’t laugh. The San Francisco Entertainment Commission is actually proposing a new rule which “would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID’s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request.”
#5 In Delaware, police and state government officials recently tore a basketball hoop right out of a family’s front yard and carted it away because it was “too close” to the street. They even extracted the pole for the basketball hoop out of the ground and took that away too.
#6 In Missouri of all places, two young girls named Abigail and Caitlin Mills were recently taught a lesson on how to be good citizens in the emerging totalitarian control grid going up all over the United States. After a complaint from a neighbor, the city of Hazelwood cracked down on the two girls and told them that they must stop selling girl scout cookies in their own front yard.
#7 As I have written about previously, federal bureaucrats have outlawed the incandescent light bulbs that we all grew up with and will be forcing us to switch over to new CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) light bulbs that are more expensive and that are actually worse for the environment. One new study conducted by scientists in Germany has shown that the new CFL light bulbs that we are being forced to use contain poisonous carcinogens that are likely cause cancer. In fact, the German scientists say that these CFL bulbs should be “kept as far away as possible from the human environment”.
#8 Many states are aggressively seizing “unclaimed” safe deposit boxes and are selling off the contents and using the money to pay state government bills. In the state of California, they are now going after safe deposit boxes if the owners have had “no contact” with the bank for just 3 years. Other states are being nearly as aggressive. If you have a safe deposit box that you have not opened in a while you need to go check on it right away.
#9 One Mississippi state judge recently issued an order for state officials to gather and deliver to him the names of every single child that is being homeschooled in the state. The frightening thing is that the judge did this all on his own. Nobody requested this information and there is no case pending for which this information would be required.
#10 The TSA had promised that they were going to stop groping little children at airports, but apparently that is not the case. For example, one 6 year old little girl made headlines recently when a TSA worker touched all of her private areas before allowing her to get on an airplane. Her parents were forced to stand aside and watch this outrage take place.
So what do all of you think about this list?
Does anyone out there still believe that we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Source: Infowars.com
'Decapitate' Email Prompted Complaint Against Outgoing Homeland Security Official
By Judson Berger
Published April 20, 2011 | FoxNews.com
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's outgoing communications chief is known for his combative style. But in a confrontation that was undisclosed until now, he once threatened to "f---ing decapitate" the staff at the immigration office press shop.
The email outburst from Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Sean Smith so startled one of the employees on the receiving end that she made an internal complaint against him. She described the threat as "serious misconduct" and requested a "full investigation" from the Office of Inspector General.
Emails obtained by FoxNews.com depict the exchange, which started when Smith criticized the immigration press team in response to a suspected leak. As Smith prepares to leave the department this month, Kelly Nantel, the employee who filed the complaint in late 2009, expressed concern that it was never fully addressed.
Nantel confirmed to FoxNews.com that she "took action" in response to the emails.
"I took what I thought was appropriate action," she said. Nantel was lead press secretary at Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the time; she recently left to work for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the complaint was passed on from the inspector general to the Office of the General Counsel, which conducted an inquiry and apparently did not consider the email a bona fide threat.
"After conducting a thorough review, (the agency) determined that, although the email was inappropriate, the email did not constitute a legitimate threat to Ms. Nantel," Kudwa said in a written statement. "Mr. Smith was counseled by senior departmental leaders and apologized to Ms. Nantel. They worked together amicably until she departed ICE for a position at the NTSB earlier this year."
Nantel, though, said she was "unaware that it was ever resolved."
The confrontation in August 2009 flared after an Associated Press reporter sent an email to the Homeland Security press staff asking about an upcoming detention center announcement -- a story DHS was already coordinating with The New York Times on. The reporter was apparently tipped off to the news, raising questions about the possibility of a leak.
After some back-and-forth among the staff, Smith sent an email to Nantel and her deputy Richard Rocha with the following:
"I swear to f---ing god I am going to come over to ICE and f---cking decapitate every single person in both the press shop and leg shop," he wrote. "Not only does Eileen have all this information, she also knows the NYT has it. Only 3-4 people knew that, and most of them are on this email chain."
He ended the note with, "John, we need to talk about the future of your press shop." The last part was directed toward John Morton, the director of ICE who was copied on the email along with a few other officials.
Smith evidently tried to make amends afterward. A day after he snapped at his staff via email, he sent a follow-up applauding the team for the coverage they ended up getting on the detention announcement.
"I also want to apologize for (the) email I sent yesterday," he wrote, explaining that "frustrations" with the AP's fact-finding got the better of him. "I'm sorry for saying such dumb things."
He told Nantel and Rocha that they've been "great partners."
But by that point, Nantel was already drafting her complaint, which she sent. Nantel wrote in the email that she felt "compelled" to file it in accordance with official policy and her duties as a supervisor.
She then informed Smith, telling him that while she acknowledged his "apology," his email "was wholly inappropriate and unprofessional."
"You not only attacked my professional credibility, but that of my staff without any factual information," Nantel wrote, adding that "threats against me and my staff" should not go unaddressed.
Internal emails show a handful of exchanges about her complaint following the incident. In one email sent the following week, Nantel was informed that a lawyer with the Office of the General Counsel had been assigned to "conduct the review." Nantel followed up a month later, asking another official for an "update" on the review -- she noted that "we are still under the prohibition from dealing directly with Sean." Nantel was told to expect to "hear something soon."
Nearly two weeks later, Nantel asked again, and was told "they are not helping us out."
It is unclear what other conversations took place among investigators. Kudwa described the inquiry as thorough.
Smith came to Homeland Security from the campaign trail. He had been working as the Obama campaign's Pennsylvania communications director in 2008. Before that, he worked for Sen. Joe Lieberman's 2006 re-election campaign.
Smith, as Lieberman's campaign manager in the dramatic primary battle against Democrat Ned Lamont, made waves in 2006 when he accused political opponents of sabotaging Lieberman's campaign website and email. He described the apparent service disruption as a "coordinated attack," and the campaign notified state and federal investigators of the allegation.
However, nearly two years later, the local Stamford Advocate newspaper reported on an FBI email that said investigators found no evidence of an attack, and that the website was just poorly configured.
Smith, after moving on to the Obama campaign, eventually secured the high-ranking position within the Obama administration. Nantel, by contrast, is a career employee originally hired during the prior administration.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
President Obama’s 4/20 Facebook Forum avoiding marijuana legalization question
I figured since it was 420 I would dedicate a news article to this day.. Really do you think Big business wants Cannabis legal? because then little jon doe and mary jane with a patch of dirt will grow hemp and make some money.... Bet me.
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Source: Norml.org
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Source: Norml.org
Once more President Obama wades into the online breach with yet another Facebook Town Hall to solicit questions on policy from the public. The event takes place on April 20th, a.k.a. 4/20, the unofficial national cannabis holiday, without any sense of irony that these forums have been dominated by marijuana legalization questions every time the public votes on these questions.
(President Obama’s Facebook) WHAT’S HAPPENING
President Barack Obama will hold a special “Facebook Live” townhall to connect with Americans across the country.WHERE & WHEN IT’S HAPPENING
Where? Well, everywhere! The event at Facebook’s headquarters, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg & COO Sheryl Sandberg, will be live streamed for anyone to watch. Just come back here at the right time: Wednesday, April 20 @ 1:45pm PDT / 4:45pm EDT. Unless invited to attend in person, please do not show up at Facebook HQ. You can watch and participate via the event’s live stream.WHAT IT’S ABOUT
President Obama will connect with Americans across the country to discuss the tough choices we must all make in order to put our economy on a more responsible fiscal path, while still investing in areas like innovation that will help our economy grow and make America more competitive.HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE
Facebook will be selecting questions for President Obama to answer during the event. Submit questions now by posting them right here, on this event’s wall. As an alternative, you may submit a question via WhiteHouse.gov/facebooktownhall.
So how in the world can the president avoid what will surely be voted the number one question once again by the online democracy of Facebook? Simple… don’t let the public vote. Scott Morgan from DrugWarChronicle has the scoop:
It had become clear that as long as Obama’s forums allowed the public to vote on topics for the president to address, the top-ranked questions would be about legalizing marijuana or even ending the War on Drugs altogether. Reluctant to confront the issue further, the White House recently changed its approach and announced an April 20, 2011 event on Facebook in which participants will not be allowed to vote at all. Questions can be sent in by email or posted on the Facebook page, but Obama’s staff will make selections without any public input.
The inherently democratic, vote-powered economy of ideas on the Internet has proven to be a remarkably powerful tool for discovering content of social value. The ability to click on what you like is the currency of social media and it offers insights into public opinion that may be worth more than meets the eye. The participatory nature of a vote-driven web forum makes people care about the outcome. Advocates for a wide variety of causes are inspired to spread the word and work to make sure their issue gets votes. The Obama Administration has abandoned the process simply to silence one particular idea, but the effect will be to make the forum less interesting for everyone.
Moreover, the rise of marijuana policy into the realm of mainstream public discussion should fascinate, rather than frustrate, our political leadership. It’s a phenomenon that should at least interest our elected officials, even if they don’t yet fully understand or care that marijuana prohibition funds murder in Mexico, that innocent family pets are slaughtered in botched pot raids, that precious wilderness is being devastated by black-market marijuana manufacturing, that racism defines our marijuana arrest rates, that public servants are being corrupted before our eyes, and that we blow billions each year just to keep the situation as bad as it’s been for so long.
'Texas is burning from border to border': Million acres scorched after wildfires blaze for a week. Now towns are put on red alert
- Cost of containing fires throughout the state has spiralled to more than $8million
- 22 separate blazes burning throughout Texas
- One fire in Stephen County increased in acreage by nearly 90,000 in just 24 hours
- Hundreds have been evacuated and fears grow of flames spreading to big cities
- Some fires burning dangerously close to Oklahoma border, where conditions are also ripe for spread
- Rain forecast for next few days giving weary firefighters some hope
Wildfires, raging for more than a week in Texas, have so far burned through a million acres of land and racked up more than $8million in containment costs.
Firefighters continue to battle some 22 separate blazes throughout the state, with some dangerously close to the Oklahoma border. Homes have been gutted, animals killed and hundreds of residents have been forced to leave their homes because of the advancing flames.
One of the wildfires in PK West, Stephens County, increased in size by a staggering 87,238 acres in just 24 hours - a 144 per cent increase.
Even prisons have been emptied in some towns. The drought-stricken state, that experienced its driest March on record, is desperately hoping for the rain that has been forecast in the coming days.
Dollar hits 15-month low against euro
, On Wednesday April 20, 2011, 1:52 pm EDT
The dollar took a beating Wednesday, losing ground to a range of currencies, and falling to its lowest level against the euro in 15 months.
And that's pretty much been the trend in recent months. At the start of the year, the euro was trading at $1.33 against the dollar, but has since surged to $1.45 against the beleaguered greenback.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, has fallen 5% so far this year to around 74, as jittery investors flocked to the dollar for safety. That's down from a high near 87 in June of 2009.
The continued weakening of the dollar -- if you go by reputation -- is a little puzzling. The dollar is thought of as a safe haven asset in times of turmoil. If you look at the past four months, it's hard to find anything but unsettling events. Japan. Egypt. Libya. Eurozone debt.
But the dollar has failed to appreciate.
One reason the dollar is suffering is the continued strength of equity markets. On Wednesday, the Dow was up triple digits, as investors flocked to riskier investments.
Plus, you've got the expansive monetary policy of the Fed, which some experts say weakens the dollar, and a dysfunctional U.S. political system that has put investors on edge.
Still, investors might want to hold off on hitting the panic button. The dollar remains about 8% above its all-time low against the euro set in July 2008. But more trouble might be ahead.
On Monday, Standard & Poor's turned pessimistic about the chances of a near-term resolution of the deficit problems. Gold and Silver (safe haven assets) shot up. The dollar languished.
Win Thin, global head of emerging-market strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, said currency traders aren't particularly worried about the S&P warning. At least not yet.
He said there is little hope for a debt reduction deal before 2013, something that S&P seems to suggest as well.
"We get a bit of a pass for now," Thin said. But if politicians continue to drag their feet, and S&P actually downgrades U.S. debt, that's when the bottom will fall out for the dollar.
"If the U.S. loses its AAA rating, all the metrics go away," he said.
Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dollar-hits-15month-low-cnnm-3322792671.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=
Gold Breaks $1,500 as Oil Prices Climb
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
April 20, 2011
Gold rose above $1,500 an ounce to a record in London and New York on a weaker dollar. Silver reached a 31-year high, Bloomberg reports.
Photo by Giorgio Monteforti
Crude oil spiked to $109.52 per barrel.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose $1.19, or 1.1%, to $109.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange advanced 97 cents, or 0.8%, to $122.30 a barrel, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Spot gold traded at $1,505.21 an ounce and was bid at $1,505.16 an ounce at 5:42 a.m. ET, against $1,493.90 late in New York on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
“The crisis of confidence which the global economy has been going through has been exacerbated by the Japanese nuclear crisis, the Middle Eastern upheavals and the runaway rise of oil prices, resulting in a virtual gold run for gold and silver,” notes the International Business Times.
A sustained gold and oil boom indicates that the dollar is slipping into grave danger and the economy closer to collapse, according to Daily Markets analyst Michael Snyder.
Source: http://www.infowars.com/gold-breaks-1500-as-oil-prices-climb/
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