Prayers for all those effected.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Big-Money Speculation the Cause of Oil Price Volatility
Commodity speculators crowding into markets like the NYMEX are the main cause of high crude and heating oil prices over the last 10 years, oil trader Dan Dicker said in an interview.
As the CFTC struggles to gain its footing on the path to regulating oil speculation and hopefully tamping down price volatility and manipulation, the debate over the true cause of volatility continues. Groups led by petroleum retailers like heating oil dealers and businesses that rely heavily on petroleum products like commercial airlines continue to forcefully argue that out-of-control speculation is driving up oil prices. Financial interests like investment banks and commodity markets continue to deny that speculative activity has any hand in inflating or destabilizing oil prices.
A veteran oil trader interviewed by CNBC this week offered his two cents in the debate in no uncertain terms: the new class of speculative investors in oil markets is the main cause of oil prices spikes since 2000. Dan Dicker has traded oil products at the New York Mercantile Exchange for 25 years, and “put investment banks first” on his list of those responsible for rising oil prices during his brief interview with CNBC. Investment banks, with billions of dollars of capital at their disposal, have become major participants in oil trading since the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 opened up the markets to them and other speculators. According to Dicker, the sheer volume of oil-based investment products purchased by investment banks leads directly to Americans paying more for gasoline and heating oil:
The three largest investment banks trade in oil as well and make a couple of billion dollars each trading oil a year, which directly comes out of the pockets of consumers.
Second on his blame list are individual investors in oil markets, who participate through index funds and commodity based exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Collectively, these speculative investors have the same effect on the oil market as investment banks—their combined investment wealth is theoretically large enough to move the prices of commodities like crude oil and heating oil. And because nearly all of these investment funds are buying up futures contracts and futures-derived products, essentially betting on higher prices, they nearly always move prices higher. As Dicker explained, “These new participants are exclusively buying; no one is selling and everyone wants to hold.”
It is worth noting that Dicker never uses the words “speculation” or “speculator” in his interview, though any commodity investor not interested in possessing the physical product they are buying or selling is technically a speculator. His omission of those terms likely speaks to his long-time profession: whatever its effects on prices, speculation is a big part of commodities trading, and condemning it in broad strokes could hurt a traders’ standing within his industry.
Whatever the trading activity is called, Dicker’s stance is clear: speculation on oil by investment banks, index funds, and ETFs are primarily responsible for the last decade’s volatile and steeply rising oil prices that have claimed increasingly large slices of the average American household’s budget.
It may not be the “smoking gun” that commodity speculation reform advocates are looking for, but the opinion of an oil trader with more than two decades of experience should be given considerable weight in the debate over whether and how much to regulate oil speculation.
Dan Dicker’s forthcoming book, Oil’s Endless Bid: Taming the Unreliable Price of Oil to Secure our Economy, is available for pre-order at Amazon.com. Articles about oil prices written by Dicker can be found at TheStreet.com, to which he is a Senior Contributor.
As the CFTC struggles to gain its footing on the path to regulating oil speculation and hopefully tamping down price volatility and manipulation, the debate over the true cause of volatility continues. Groups led by petroleum retailers like heating oil dealers and businesses that rely heavily on petroleum products like commercial airlines continue to forcefully argue that out-of-control speculation is driving up oil prices. Financial interests like investment banks and commodity markets continue to deny that speculative activity has any hand in inflating or destabilizing oil prices.
A veteran oil trader interviewed by CNBC this week offered his two cents in the debate in no uncertain terms: the new class of speculative investors in oil markets is the main cause of oil prices spikes since 2000. Dan Dicker has traded oil products at the New York Mercantile Exchange for 25 years, and “put investment banks first” on his list of those responsible for rising oil prices during his brief interview with CNBC. Investment banks, with billions of dollars of capital at their disposal, have become major participants in oil trading since the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 opened up the markets to them and other speculators. According to Dicker, the sheer volume of oil-based investment products purchased by investment banks leads directly to Americans paying more for gasoline and heating oil:
The three largest investment banks trade in oil as well and make a couple of billion dollars each trading oil a year, which directly comes out of the pockets of consumers.
Second on his blame list are individual investors in oil markets, who participate through index funds and commodity based exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Collectively, these speculative investors have the same effect on the oil market as investment banks—their combined investment wealth is theoretically large enough to move the prices of commodities like crude oil and heating oil. And because nearly all of these investment funds are buying up futures contracts and futures-derived products, essentially betting on higher prices, they nearly always move prices higher. As Dicker explained, “These new participants are exclusively buying; no one is selling and everyone wants to hold.”
It is worth noting that Dicker never uses the words “speculation” or “speculator” in his interview, though any commodity investor not interested in possessing the physical product they are buying or selling is technically a speculator. His omission of those terms likely speaks to his long-time profession: whatever its effects on prices, speculation is a big part of commodities trading, and condemning it in broad strokes could hurt a traders’ standing within his industry.
Whatever the trading activity is called, Dicker’s stance is clear: speculation on oil by investment banks, index funds, and ETFs are primarily responsible for the last decade’s volatile and steeply rising oil prices that have claimed increasingly large slices of the average American household’s budget.
It may not be the “smoking gun” that commodity speculation reform advocates are looking for, but the opinion of an oil trader with more than two decades of experience should be given considerable weight in the debate over whether and how much to regulate oil speculation.
Dan Dicker’s forthcoming book, Oil’s Endless Bid: Taming the Unreliable Price of Oil to Secure our Economy, is available for pre-order at Amazon.com. Articles about oil prices written by Dicker can be found at TheStreet.com, to which he is a Senior Contributor.
US behind Stuxnet worm
Computer expert says US behind Stuxnet worm
Thu Mar 3, 3:41 pm ET
LONG BEACH, California (AFP) – A German computer security expert said Thursday he believes the United States and Israel's Mossad unleashed the malicious Stuxnet worm on Iran's nuclear program.
"My opinion is that the Mossad is involved," Ralph Langner said while discussing his in-depth Stuxnet analysis at a prestigious TED conference in the Southern California city of Long Beach.
"But, the leading source is not Israel... There is only one leading source, and that is the United States."
There has been widespread speculation Israel was behind the Stuxnet worm that has attacked computers in Iran, and Tehran has blamed the Jewish state and the United States for the killing of two nuclear scientists in November and January.
"The idea behind Stuxnet computer worm is really quite simple," Langner said. "We don't want Iran to get the bomb."
The malicious code was crafted to stealthily take control of valves and rotors at an Iranian nuclear plant, according to Langner.
"It was engineered by people who obviously had inside information," he explained. "They probably also knew the shoe size of the operator."
Stuxnet targets computer control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens and commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other critical infrastructure.
"The idea here is to circumvent digital data systems, so the human operator could not get there fast enough," Langner said.
"When digital safety systems are compromised, really bad things can happen -- your plant can blow up.
Most Stuxnet infections have been discovered in Iran, giving rise to speculation it was intended to sabotage nuclear facilities there.
The New York Times reported in January that US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop the computer worm to sabotage Iran's efforts to make a nuclear bomb.
Thu Mar 3, 3:41 pm ET
LONG BEACH, California (AFP) – A German computer security expert said Thursday he believes the United States and Israel's Mossad unleashed the malicious Stuxnet worm on Iran's nuclear program.
"My opinion is that the Mossad is involved," Ralph Langner said while discussing his in-depth Stuxnet analysis at a prestigious TED conference in the Southern California city of Long Beach.
"But, the leading source is not Israel... There is only one leading source, and that is the United States."
There has been widespread speculation Israel was behind the Stuxnet worm that has attacked computers in Iran, and Tehran has blamed the Jewish state and the United States for the killing of two nuclear scientists in November and January.
"The idea behind Stuxnet computer worm is really quite simple," Langner said. "We don't want Iran to get the bomb."
The malicious code was crafted to stealthily take control of valves and rotors at an Iranian nuclear plant, according to Langner.
"It was engineered by people who obviously had inside information," he explained. "They probably also knew the shoe size of the operator."
Stuxnet targets computer control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens and commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other critical infrastructure.
"The idea here is to circumvent digital data systems, so the human operator could not get there fast enough," Langner said.
"When digital safety systems are compromised, really bad things can happen -- your plant can blow up.
Most Stuxnet infections have been discovered in Iran, giving rise to speculation it was intended to sabotage nuclear facilities there.
The New York Times reported in January that US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop the computer worm to sabotage Iran's efforts to make a nuclear bomb.
Bradley Manning forced to sleep naked in brig
WikiLeaks suspect forced to sleep naked in brig
By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press David Dishneau, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The Army private suspected of giving classified U.S. documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks was forced to sleep naked in a military jail at least once this week, the Marine Corps acknowledged Friday after the soldier's lawyer complained.
Commanders of the brig in Quantico, Va., ordered all of Pfc. Bradley Manning's clothing, including his boxer shorts, taken from him Wednesday night under provisions of the Navy Corrections Manual, which governs prisoner treatment, said 1st Lt. Brian Villiard, a spokesman for the Marine Corps base.
"It was a situationally driven event but to go into detail about it would be inappropriate because it would violate the detainee's privacy," Villiard said.
Col. Thomas V. Johnson, another Quantico spokesman, said the treatment was not punitive.
Manning, a former intelligence analyst, is charged with aiding the enemy and 33 other offenses for allegedly stealing computer files of more than 250,000 confidential State Department cables, classified video of a deadly U.S. helicopter attack and a raft of Iraq and Afghanistan war logs. The video and thousands of the documents have been published on the WikiLeaks website.
He was arrested in May and brought to Quantico July 29 from a detention facility in Kuwait.
The Navy Corrections Manual permits clothing removal for prisoners who have threatened suicide or made a suicidal gesture, or for strip searches involving suspicion of a crime. Villiard said Manning hadn't been placed on suicide watch.
The 23-year-old Crescent, Okla., native remains in maximum custody and on prevention-of-injury status — designations that keep him confined alone 23 hours a day, and require removal of all clothing except his boxer shorts at night.
Civilian defense attorney David Coombs wrote on his blog Thursday night that Manning had been inexplicably stripped of his clothing for seven hours Wednesday night.
"This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification. It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated," Coombs wrote.
In January, after Manning was placed on suicide watch for two days, Coombs filed a complaint with the base commander alleging the brig commander broke military rules and ignored the brig's own psychiatrist's recommendation regarding Manning's mental state. Coombs contends the confinement conditions are punitive.
The United Nations torture investigator is pursuing an inquiry into Manning's confinement, based on allegations by a Manning supporter.
Manning's friend and frequent visitor David House, of Cambridge, Mass., said in a teleconference with reporters Wednesday that Manning's mental state has deteriorated during his more than eight months at Quantico.
By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press David Dishneau, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The Army private suspected of giving classified U.S. documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks was forced to sleep naked in a military jail at least once this week, the Marine Corps acknowledged Friday after the soldier's lawyer complained.
Commanders of the brig in Quantico, Va., ordered all of Pfc. Bradley Manning's clothing, including his boxer shorts, taken from him Wednesday night under provisions of the Navy Corrections Manual, which governs prisoner treatment, said 1st Lt. Brian Villiard, a spokesman for the Marine Corps base.
"It was a situationally driven event but to go into detail about it would be inappropriate because it would violate the detainee's privacy," Villiard said.
Col. Thomas V. Johnson, another Quantico spokesman, said the treatment was not punitive.
Manning, a former intelligence analyst, is charged with aiding the enemy and 33 other offenses for allegedly stealing computer files of more than 250,000 confidential State Department cables, classified video of a deadly U.S. helicopter attack and a raft of Iraq and Afghanistan war logs. The video and thousands of the documents have been published on the WikiLeaks website.
He was arrested in May and brought to Quantico July 29 from a detention facility in Kuwait.
The Navy Corrections Manual permits clothing removal for prisoners who have threatened suicide or made a suicidal gesture, or for strip searches involving suspicion of a crime. Villiard said Manning hadn't been placed on suicide watch.
The 23-year-old Crescent, Okla., native remains in maximum custody and on prevention-of-injury status — designations that keep him confined alone 23 hours a day, and require removal of all clothing except his boxer shorts at night.
Civilian defense attorney David Coombs wrote on his blog Thursday night that Manning had been inexplicably stripped of his clothing for seven hours Wednesday night.
"This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification. It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated," Coombs wrote.
In January, after Manning was placed on suicide watch for two days, Coombs filed a complaint with the base commander alleging the brig commander broke military rules and ignored the brig's own psychiatrist's recommendation regarding Manning's mental state. Coombs contends the confinement conditions are punitive.
The United Nations torture investigator is pursuing an inquiry into Manning's confinement, based on allegations by a Manning supporter.
Manning's friend and frequent visitor David House, of Cambridge, Mass., said in a teleconference with reporters Wednesday that Manning's mental state has deteriorated during his more than eight months at Quantico.
Friday, March 04, 2011
NATO apologizes for killing 9 Afghan civilians
Is an apology enough?
NATO's top commander in Afghanistan apologized Wednesday for the accidental killing of nine Afghan boys and ordered attack helicopter crews to be briefed again on his directive for preventing civilian deaths.
Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the U.S.-led international force and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The president condemned the deaths, saying the victims were "innocent children who were collecting firewood for their families during this cold winter."
"Is this the way to fight terrorism and maintain stability in Afghanistan?" Karzai asked in a statement Wednesday. He said NATO should focus more on "terrorist sanctuaries" — a phrase he typically uses when referring to Taliban havens in neighboring Pakistan.
The incident on Tuesday in the Pech valley area of Kunar province came less than two weeks after tribal elders there claimed NATO forces killed more than 50 civilians in recent air and ground strikes. The coalition denied that claim, saying video showed troops targeting and killing dozens of insurgents. It said a subsequent investigation yielded no evidence that civilians had been killed. An Afghan government investigation, however, maintained that 65 civilians died in coalition operations in a remote part of the province.
Several hundred villagers in the area protested for four hours Wednesday against coalition strikes. Demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and "Death to the spies," a reference to what they said was bad intelligence given to helicopter weapons teams, said Noorullah Noori, a member of the local development council in Manogai district.
He said four of the nine boys killed were 7 years old, three were 8, one was 9 years old and one was 12. One child was also wounded, he said.
He said the children were gathering wood under a tree in the mountains about near a village in the district.
"I myself was involved in the burial," Noori said. "Yesterday we buried them."
Civilians are increasingly the victims of the escalating Afghan war, particular from planted bombs on roads and in markets. A recent United Nations report said it documented 2,412 conflict-related civilian casualties in the first 10 months of 2010. More than three-quarters of them were caused by militant activity, a 25 percent increase from the same period in 2009, the report said. At the same time, civilian casualties attributed to pro-government forces decreased.
NATO said there apparently was miscommunication in passing information to coalition helicopters about the location of militants firing on Forward Operating Base Blessing.
"We are deeply sorry for this tragedy and apologize to the members of the Afghan government, the people of Afghanistan and most importantly, the surviving family members of those killed by our actions," said Gen. David. Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. "These deaths should have never happened and I will personally apologize to President Karzai."
Petraeus said the accidental killings were particularly distressing because he recently directed his commanders to review NATO directions intended to reduce civilian casualties to the "absolute minimum." He said he has ordered all NATO leaders and members of coalition attack helicopter crews to be re-briefed on the tactical directive to emphasize the need to be sure "we protect the lives of innocent Afghans as we pursue a ruthless enemy."
He said that NATO "accepts full responsibility for this tragedy and will continue to thoroughly investigate this incident to understand why this happened and try to prevent this from happening in the future."
"Should the facts of the investigation warrant it, appropriate action, include disciplinary action if necessary, will be taken," he added.
Karzai has repeatedly called on NATO to do more to protect civilians during stepped-up military operations. In response, former NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal severely limited the circumstances in which troops could call in an airstrike or fire into buildings where civilians might be inside.
The revised rules, which are classified, never prevented U.S. troops from calling in air support, but some officers were exerting excessive caution, fearing career damage if civilians were mistakenly killed. Analysts said the rules were being interpreted and implemented unevenly across the country.
When Petraeus arrived in July, he reiterated the tactical directive, but emphasized that officers in the field should not add restrictions to his rules.
In Logar province on Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed four Afghan soldiers and their interpreter while on patrol, according to provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwesh.
In the south, Afghan security forces in Kandahar seized a car loaded with explosives as well as communication equipment, remote controls for detonating bombs, guns, mines, rocket launchers, mortars and ammunition.
___
Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/02/roadside-bomb-kills-4-afghan-soldiers-interpreter/#ixzz1FZfoD2dg
NATO's top commander in Afghanistan apologized Wednesday for the accidental killing of nine Afghan boys and ordered attack helicopter crews to be briefed again on his directive for preventing civilian deaths.
Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the U.S.-led international force and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The president condemned the deaths, saying the victims were "innocent children who were collecting firewood for their families during this cold winter."
"Is this the way to fight terrorism and maintain stability in Afghanistan?" Karzai asked in a statement Wednesday. He said NATO should focus more on "terrorist sanctuaries" — a phrase he typically uses when referring to Taliban havens in neighboring Pakistan.
The incident on Tuesday in the Pech valley area of Kunar province came less than two weeks after tribal elders there claimed NATO forces killed more than 50 civilians in recent air and ground strikes. The coalition denied that claim, saying video showed troops targeting and killing dozens of insurgents. It said a subsequent investigation yielded no evidence that civilians had been killed. An Afghan government investigation, however, maintained that 65 civilians died in coalition operations in a remote part of the province.
Several hundred villagers in the area protested for four hours Wednesday against coalition strikes. Demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and "Death to the spies," a reference to what they said was bad intelligence given to helicopter weapons teams, said Noorullah Noori, a member of the local development council in Manogai district.
He said four of the nine boys killed were 7 years old, three were 8, one was 9 years old and one was 12. One child was also wounded, he said.
He said the children were gathering wood under a tree in the mountains about near a village in the district.
"I myself was involved in the burial," Noori said. "Yesterday we buried them."
Civilians are increasingly the victims of the escalating Afghan war, particular from planted bombs on roads and in markets. A recent United Nations report said it documented 2,412 conflict-related civilian casualties in the first 10 months of 2010. More than three-quarters of them were caused by militant activity, a 25 percent increase from the same period in 2009, the report said. At the same time, civilian casualties attributed to pro-government forces decreased.
NATO said there apparently was miscommunication in passing information to coalition helicopters about the location of militants firing on Forward Operating Base Blessing.
"We are deeply sorry for this tragedy and apologize to the members of the Afghan government, the people of Afghanistan and most importantly, the surviving family members of those killed by our actions," said Gen. David. Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. "These deaths should have never happened and I will personally apologize to President Karzai."
Petraeus said the accidental killings were particularly distressing because he recently directed his commanders to review NATO directions intended to reduce civilian casualties to the "absolute minimum." He said he has ordered all NATO leaders and members of coalition attack helicopter crews to be re-briefed on the tactical directive to emphasize the need to be sure "we protect the lives of innocent Afghans as we pursue a ruthless enemy."
He said that NATO "accepts full responsibility for this tragedy and will continue to thoroughly investigate this incident to understand why this happened and try to prevent this from happening in the future."
"Should the facts of the investigation warrant it, appropriate action, include disciplinary action if necessary, will be taken," he added.
Karzai has repeatedly called on NATO to do more to protect civilians during stepped-up military operations. In response, former NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal severely limited the circumstances in which troops could call in an airstrike or fire into buildings where civilians might be inside.
The revised rules, which are classified, never prevented U.S. troops from calling in air support, but some officers were exerting excessive caution, fearing career damage if civilians were mistakenly killed. Analysts said the rules were being interpreted and implemented unevenly across the country.
When Petraeus arrived in July, he reiterated the tactical directive, but emphasized that officers in the field should not add restrictions to his rules.
In Logar province on Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed four Afghan soldiers and their interpreter while on patrol, according to provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwesh.
In the south, Afghan security forces in Kandahar seized a car loaded with explosives as well as communication equipment, remote controls for detonating bombs, guns, mines, rocket launchers, mortars and ammunition.
___
Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/02/roadside-bomb-kills-4-afghan-soldiers-interpreter/#ixzz1FZfoD2dg
Thursday, March 03, 2011
STOP RUPERT MURDOCH
In 48 hours, nearly half the British mass media could be bought by one of the world's worst media moguls.
Rupert Murdoch has exploited his vast media empire to push war in Iraq, elect George W Bush, spread resentment of muslims and immigrants, and block global action on climate change. He undermines democratic government across the world by threatening elected leaders with vicious and often false media coverage unless they do his bidding.
Britain plays a key role in Europe and the world. If Murdoch has a lock on British media, he will use it to undermine UK, EU and UN support for human rights and democracy. The UK is up in arms over the Murdoch bid, and even the government, elected with Murdoch's help, is split down the middle as it makes a decision this week. Global solidarity bolstered Egypt's pro-democracy protesters -- it can help Britain's. Let's build an urgent global outcry to stop Rupert Murdoch. Sign the petition to Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Clegg!
Source
Rupert Murdoch has exploited his vast media empire to push war in Iraq, elect George W Bush, spread resentment of muslims and immigrants, and block global action on climate change. He undermines democratic government across the world by threatening elected leaders with vicious and often false media coverage unless they do his bidding.
Britain plays a key role in Europe and the world. If Murdoch has a lock on British media, he will use it to undermine UK, EU and UN support for human rights and democracy. The UK is up in arms over the Murdoch bid, and even the government, elected with Murdoch's help, is split down the middle as it makes a decision this week. Global solidarity bolstered Egypt's pro-democracy protesters -- it can help Britain's. Let's build an urgent global outcry to stop Rupert Murdoch. Sign the petition to Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Clegg!
U.S. Backs Bahrain Royalty
If I comment it would be enough to send me to jail
The U.S. is stepping up its support for Bahrain's beleaguered ruling family, throwing a lifeline to a key ally and signaling Washington's willingness to vary its approach depending on its strategic interests and the willingness of autocratic leaders to respond to popular protests.
After backing opposition calls for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, President Barack Obama has tentatively embraced efforts by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain to ease tensions and advance reform, despite an initial wave of violence against protesters.
Mr. Obama and other officials, in statements this week, welcomed the ruling family's outreach efforts and the king's decisions to reshuffle his cabinet, pull back his forces and free political prisoners. Mr. Obama said the dialogue was an "opportunity for meaningful reform."
The U.S. military is playing a key role behind the scenes in the Obama administration's decision making, underlining Bahrain's strategic importance as the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and as a bulwark against Iran, according to officials and diplomats.
The kingdom's use of force against widespread protests left seven dead, prompting Mr. Obama to condemn the use of violence and call for restraint. The royal family later pulled its forces back, reducing tensions.
It is uncertain what will result from the latest outreach, and whether the U.S. will stand by the ruling family if more violence breaks out. Tensions in Manama, the capital, flared again this week after several days of relative calm. Several hundred protesters marched on an intersection in the financial district late Tuesday, chanting, "Down, down Khalifa."
"We're here to escalate the protests because we want the king out," said one demonstrator, Hassan Mohammed Hassan.
The show of U.S. support for the ruling family follows a lobbying push by Bahrain and its main ally in the region, Saudi Arabia, the officials and diplomats said.
In private talks in recent days, Bahraini officials have appealed to the Obama administration to lend higher-level support for the king and Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa's offer to open a dialogue with opposition groups.
"This is the support we expect because of the relationship and because of what we are doing," a senior Bahraini official said of the monarchy's message to the Obama administration. "We have taken action, solid steps, to begin dialogue with all parties."
Without Washington's support, Bahraini officials told the Americans, the kingdom risked slipping into a "sectarian divide," pitting a Shiite majority against ruling Sunnis.
Bahraini officials also warned the U.S. that Iran would be the big winner should the ruling family fall. U.S. officials are skeptical of Bahraini claims that Iran is behind the uprising.
Saudi lobbying on behalf of Bahrain underscores Riyadh's fears that it could come under pressure next, if its neighbor succumbs to the opposition, Arab officials said.
Administration officials remain cautious about the way forward in Bahrain. "Steps announced by the king thus far are positive…but obviously there's a trust deficit that has to be overcome and that will require difficult steps," an administration official said.
Anthony Cordesman, an expert on the region with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the Obama administration understood that it can't respond to the unrest sweeping the region with a "one-size-fits-all" approach. "These pressures occur in very different regimes with very different social and economic situations, and the administration has to be pragmatic," he said.
While Mr. Mubarak in Egypt and Col. Gadhafi in Libya showed a "systemic resistance to reform," the royal family of Bahrain has made "serious promises of change," Mr. Cordesman said.
In contrast to Bahrain, Mr. Mubarak's call for a "national dialogue" to address protesters' demands was met with skepticism at the White House.
An Obama administration official said the White House has articulated the "same values" in all of the countries caught up in the unrest by calling for rights for demonstrators and "meaningful" reforms. "Our core principles are the same—nonviolence, universal rights and meaningful reform," the official said. "How to get from here to there is determined by the actions of the people in the various countries."
Write to Joe Parkinson at joe.parkinson@dowjones.com
Source
The U.S. is stepping up its support for Bahrain's beleaguered ruling family, throwing a lifeline to a key ally and signaling Washington's willingness to vary its approach depending on its strategic interests and the willingness of autocratic leaders to respond to popular protests.
After backing opposition calls for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, President Barack Obama has tentatively embraced efforts by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain to ease tensions and advance reform, despite an initial wave of violence against protesters.
Mr. Obama and other officials, in statements this week, welcomed the ruling family's outreach efforts and the king's decisions to reshuffle his cabinet, pull back his forces and free political prisoners. Mr. Obama said the dialogue was an "opportunity for meaningful reform."
The U.S. military is playing a key role behind the scenes in the Obama administration's decision making, underlining Bahrain's strategic importance as the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and as a bulwark against Iran, according to officials and diplomats.
The kingdom's use of force against widespread protests left seven dead, prompting Mr. Obama to condemn the use of violence and call for restraint. The royal family later pulled its forces back, reducing tensions.
It is uncertain what will result from the latest outreach, and whether the U.S. will stand by the ruling family if more violence breaks out. Tensions in Manama, the capital, flared again this week after several days of relative calm. Several hundred protesters marched on an intersection in the financial district late Tuesday, chanting, "Down, down Khalifa."
"We're here to escalate the protests because we want the king out," said one demonstrator, Hassan Mohammed Hassan.
The show of U.S. support for the ruling family follows a lobbying push by Bahrain and its main ally in the region, Saudi Arabia, the officials and diplomats said.
In private talks in recent days, Bahraini officials have appealed to the Obama administration to lend higher-level support for the king and Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa's offer to open a dialogue with opposition groups.
"This is the support we expect because of the relationship and because of what we are doing," a senior Bahraini official said of the monarchy's message to the Obama administration. "We have taken action, solid steps, to begin dialogue with all parties."
Without Washington's support, Bahraini officials told the Americans, the kingdom risked slipping into a "sectarian divide," pitting a Shiite majority against ruling Sunnis.
Bahraini officials also warned the U.S. that Iran would be the big winner should the ruling family fall. U.S. officials are skeptical of Bahraini claims that Iran is behind the uprising.
Saudi lobbying on behalf of Bahrain underscores Riyadh's fears that it could come under pressure next, if its neighbor succumbs to the opposition, Arab officials said.
Administration officials remain cautious about the way forward in Bahrain. "Steps announced by the king thus far are positive…but obviously there's a trust deficit that has to be overcome and that will require difficult steps," an administration official said.
Anthony Cordesman, an expert on the region with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the Obama administration understood that it can't respond to the unrest sweeping the region with a "one-size-fits-all" approach. "These pressures occur in very different regimes with very different social and economic situations, and the administration has to be pragmatic," he said.
While Mr. Mubarak in Egypt and Col. Gadhafi in Libya showed a "systemic resistance to reform," the royal family of Bahrain has made "serious promises of change," Mr. Cordesman said.
In contrast to Bahrain, Mr. Mubarak's call for a "national dialogue" to address protesters' demands was met with skepticism at the White House.
An Obama administration official said the White House has articulated the "same values" in all of the countries caught up in the unrest by calling for rights for demonstrators and "meaningful" reforms. "Our core principles are the same—nonviolence, universal rights and meaningful reform," the official said. "How to get from here to there is determined by the actions of the people in the various countries."
Write to Joe Parkinson at joe.parkinson@dowjones.com
The Expended Earth
The theory of Earth expansion has remained a scientific impossibility without the support of physical fact. Despite both logic and intuitive reasoning (based on the look of the Earth's features), past attempts to create a model have been unsuccessful. Here, presented as never before, is a live model, one which is enduring and provides consistent results which are readily observed. The model offers empirical evidence of expansion.
The purpose for presenting this evidence is two-fold. The first aim is to promote a general awareness among readers of the radial expansion theory as a logical thesis of continental positioning, having found that this concept is relatively unknown or often too quickly dismissed by scholars without consideration of the substantial evidence. Furthermore, in contrast to continental drift and its supporting theories, the components of Earth expansion are far more significant in terms of understanding the origins of our planet's physical properties. Empirically supported with a live model, the theory of global expansion promoted here challenges these theories. Why the continents achieved their current position is explained with this model of an expanded Earth.
Much More
The purpose for presenting this evidence is two-fold. The first aim is to promote a general awareness among readers of the radial expansion theory as a logical thesis of continental positioning, having found that this concept is relatively unknown or often too quickly dismissed by scholars without consideration of the substantial evidence. Furthermore, in contrast to continental drift and its supporting theories, the components of Earth expansion are far more significant in terms of understanding the origins of our planet's physical properties. Empirically supported with a live model, the theory of global expansion promoted here challenges these theories. Why the continents achieved their current position is explained with this model of an expanded Earth.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Report: The Kochs
Posted for your information if you want it?
Report: The Kochs, A Nazi Past, Oil & The Foundation of The Right
Notorious Nazis Ilse Koch, her husband Karl Otto Koch and Erich Koch are the ghosts of Koch Industries, who seized the U.S. conservative political agenda years ago and seem capable of seizing the government in total through the Tea Party. Ilse Koch was the Nazi’s specialist in making objects from human skin; was the only woman charged with war crimes; and along with her husband was in charge of one of the most horrific horror camps in Nazi Germany.
Koch Industries is the child of the violence of Buchenwald, widely regarded as one of wartime Germany’s most notorious “death camps”.
Information connecting Ilse and Koch Industries is hard to find but is a string of fragments, pieces of information that connects the American and German Kochs and this connection gives us a clear image of the sentiment behind the Tea Party and conservative American politics since the 1950s. Where is the connection between the German Koch’s and Fred Koch? Besides evidence the American Koch was related to Ilse’s family, Erich Koch (a high level Nazi official in charge of Prussia) invites Fred Koch to sell his oil in Nazi Germany when he is banned from doing business in the US. After the fall of Nazi Germany, Erich Koch and Fred expand the oil empire to the Soviet Union. Erich Koch had been in charge of Prussia for Hitler so his ties to the Soviet Union ran deep. A few years later the Soviets took Fred Koch’s oil and prosecuted Erich for war crimes – Fred Koch returned to the US, became anti-communist, and was allowed to do business in the States again.
American Fred Koch, and through association the Kochs from Germany, establish the John Birch Society in the 1950s in NY, which becomes the policy center for American conservatives. The society was built on Fred Koch’s oil money in the 1950s and can be thought of as the center of neo-conservative politics as well as the Tea Party movement. The ideologies of each are not the same – but the Tea Party fits into the neo-conservative put for colonial corporate police state as a sort of consumer citizen of the neo-conservative strategy mad as hell at the government and the legacy of liberalism, postmodernism, multiculturalism, taxes….etc.
Ilse and her husband Karl were tried by the SS before the war ended, accused of corruption. Her husband Karl Otto Koch was tried and sentenced to death in Nazi Germany. After the war, Ilse was arrested in the German American Zone, tried in front of a tribunal and sentenced, but was quickly pardoned by the American general appointed leader of the zone.
More at linkSource
Report: The Kochs, A Nazi Past, Oil & The Foundation of The Right
Notorious Nazis Ilse Koch, her husband Karl Otto Koch and Erich Koch are the ghosts of Koch Industries, who seized the U.S. conservative political agenda years ago and seem capable of seizing the government in total through the Tea Party. Ilse Koch was the Nazi’s specialist in making objects from human skin; was the only woman charged with war crimes; and along with her husband was in charge of one of the most horrific horror camps in Nazi Germany.
Koch Industries is the child of the violence of Buchenwald, widely regarded as one of wartime Germany’s most notorious “death camps”.
Information connecting Ilse and Koch Industries is hard to find but is a string of fragments, pieces of information that connects the American and German Kochs and this connection gives us a clear image of the sentiment behind the Tea Party and conservative American politics since the 1950s. Where is the connection between the German Koch’s and Fred Koch? Besides evidence the American Koch was related to Ilse’s family, Erich Koch (a high level Nazi official in charge of Prussia) invites Fred Koch to sell his oil in Nazi Germany when he is banned from doing business in the US. After the fall of Nazi Germany, Erich Koch and Fred expand the oil empire to the Soviet Union. Erich Koch had been in charge of Prussia for Hitler so his ties to the Soviet Union ran deep. A few years later the Soviets took Fred Koch’s oil and prosecuted Erich for war crimes – Fred Koch returned to the US, became anti-communist, and was allowed to do business in the States again.
American Fred Koch, and through association the Kochs from Germany, establish the John Birch Society in the 1950s in NY, which becomes the policy center for American conservatives. The society was built on Fred Koch’s oil money in the 1950s and can be thought of as the center of neo-conservative politics as well as the Tea Party movement. The ideologies of each are not the same – but the Tea Party fits into the neo-conservative put for colonial corporate police state as a sort of consumer citizen of the neo-conservative strategy mad as hell at the government and the legacy of liberalism, postmodernism, multiculturalism, taxes….etc.
Ilse and her husband Karl were tried by the SS before the war ended, accused of corruption. Her husband Karl Otto Koch was tried and sentenced to death in Nazi Germany. After the war, Ilse was arrested in the German American Zone, tried in front of a tribunal and sentenced, but was quickly pardoned by the American general appointed leader of the zone.
More at link
Behind the Arab revolt
Behind the Arab revolt is a word we dare not speak
24 February 2011
Shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I interviewed Ray McGovern, one of an elite group of CIA officers who prepared the President’s daily intelligence brief. McGovern was at the apex of the “national security” monolith that is American power and had retired with presidential plaudits. On the eve of the invasion, he and 45 other senior officers of the CIA and other intelligence agencies wrote to President George W. Bush that the “drumbeat for war” was based not on intelligence, but lies.
“It was 95 per cent charade,” McGovern told me.
“How did they get away with it?”
“The press allowed the crazies to get away with it.”
“Who are the crazies?”
“The people running the [Bush] administration have a set of beliefs a lot like those expressed in Mein Kampf... these are the same people who were referred to in the circles in which I moved, at the top, as ‘the crazies’.”
I said, “Norman Mailer has written that that he believes America has entered a pre-fascist state. What’s your view of that?”
“Well... I hope he’s right, because there are others saying we are already in a fascist mode.”
On 22 January, Ray McGovern emailed me to express his disgust at the Obama administration’s barbaric treatment of the alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning and its pursuit of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. “Way back when George and Tony decided it might be fun to attack Iraq,” he wrote, “I said something to the effect that fascism had already begun here. I have to admit I did not think it would get this bad this quickly.”
On 16 February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University in which she condemned governments that arrested protestors and crushed free expression. She lauded the liberating power of the internet while failing to mention that her government was planning to close down those parts of the internet that encouraged dissent and truth-telling. It was a speech of spectacular hypocrisy, and Ray McGovern was in the audience. Outraged, he rose from his chair and silently turned his back on Clinton. He was immediately seized by police and a security goon and beaten to the floor, dragged out and thrown into jail, bleeding. He has sent me photographs of his injuries. He is 71. During the assault, which was clearly visible to Clinton, she did not pause in her remarks.
Fascism is a difficult word, because it comes with an iconography that touches the Nazi nerve and is abused as propaganda against America’s official enemies and to promote the West’s foreign adventures with a moral vocabulary written in the struggle against Hitler. And yet fascism and imperialism are twins. In the aftermath of world war two, those in the imperial states who had made respectable the racial and cultural superiority of “western civilisation”, found that Hitler and fascism had claimed the same, employing strikingly similar methods. Thereafter, the very notion of American imperialism was swept from the textbooks and popular culture of an imperial nation forged on the genocidal conquest of its native people. And a war on social justice and democracy became “US foreign policy”.
As the Washington historian William Blum has documented, since 1945, the US has destroyed or subverted more than 50 governments, many of them democracies, and used mass murderers like Suharto, Mobutu and Pinochet to dominate by proxy. In the Middle East, every dictatorship and pseudo-monarchy has been sustained by America. In “Operation Cyclone”, the CIA and MI6 secretly fostered and bank-rolled Islamic extremism. The object was to smash or deter nationalism and democracy. The victims of this western state terrorism have been mostly Muslims. The courageous people gunned down last week in Bahrain and Libya, the latter a “priority UK market”, according to Britain’s official arms “procurers”, join those children blown to bits in Gaza by the latest American F-16 aircraft.
The revolt in the Arab world is not merely against a resident dictator but a worldwide economic tyranny designed by the US Treasury and imposed by the US Agency for International Development, the IMF and World Bank, which have ensured that rich countries like Egypt are reduced to vast sweatshops, with half the population earning less than $2 a day. The people’s triumph in Cairo was the first blow against what Benito Mussolini called corporatism, a word that appears in his definition of fascism.
How did such extremism take hold in the liberal West? “It is necessary to destroy hope, idealism, solidarity, and concern for the poor and oppressed,” observed Noam Chomsky a generation ago, “[and] to replace these dangerous feelings with self-centred egoism, a pervasive cynicism that holds that [an order of] inequities and oppression is the best that can be achieved. In fact, a great international propaganda campaign is under way to convince people – particularly young people – that this not only is what they should feel but that it’s what they do feel.”
Like the European revolutions of 1848 and the uprising against Stalinism in 1989, the Arab revolt has rejected fear. An insurrection of suppressed ideas, hope and solidarity has begun. In the United States, where 45 per cent of young African-Americans have no jobs and the top hedge fund managers are paid, on average, a billion dollars a year, mass protests against cuts in services and jobs have spread to heartland states like Wisconsin. In Britain, the fastest-growing modern protest movement, UK Uncut, is about to take direct action against tax avoiders and rapacious banks. Something has changed that cannot be unchanged. The enemy has a name now.
Source John Pilger is one of my favorite people in the world.
24 February 2011
Shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I interviewed Ray McGovern, one of an elite group of CIA officers who prepared the President’s daily intelligence brief. McGovern was at the apex of the “national security” monolith that is American power and had retired with presidential plaudits. On the eve of the invasion, he and 45 other senior officers of the CIA and other intelligence agencies wrote to President George W. Bush that the “drumbeat for war” was based not on intelligence, but lies.
“It was 95 per cent charade,” McGovern told me.
“How did they get away with it?”
“The press allowed the crazies to get away with it.”
“Who are the crazies?”
“The people running the [Bush] administration have a set of beliefs a lot like those expressed in Mein Kampf... these are the same people who were referred to in the circles in which I moved, at the top, as ‘the crazies’.”
I said, “Norman Mailer has written that that he believes America has entered a pre-fascist state. What’s your view of that?”
“Well... I hope he’s right, because there are others saying we are already in a fascist mode.”
On 22 January, Ray McGovern emailed me to express his disgust at the Obama administration’s barbaric treatment of the alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning and its pursuit of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. “Way back when George and Tony decided it might be fun to attack Iraq,” he wrote, “I said something to the effect that fascism had already begun here. I have to admit I did not think it would get this bad this quickly.”
On 16 February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University in which she condemned governments that arrested protestors and crushed free expression. She lauded the liberating power of the internet while failing to mention that her government was planning to close down those parts of the internet that encouraged dissent and truth-telling. It was a speech of spectacular hypocrisy, and Ray McGovern was in the audience. Outraged, he rose from his chair and silently turned his back on Clinton. He was immediately seized by police and a security goon and beaten to the floor, dragged out and thrown into jail, bleeding. He has sent me photographs of his injuries. He is 71. During the assault, which was clearly visible to Clinton, she did not pause in her remarks.
Fascism is a difficult word, because it comes with an iconography that touches the Nazi nerve and is abused as propaganda against America’s official enemies and to promote the West’s foreign adventures with a moral vocabulary written in the struggle against Hitler. And yet fascism and imperialism are twins. In the aftermath of world war two, those in the imperial states who had made respectable the racial and cultural superiority of “western civilisation”, found that Hitler and fascism had claimed the same, employing strikingly similar methods. Thereafter, the very notion of American imperialism was swept from the textbooks and popular culture of an imperial nation forged on the genocidal conquest of its native people. And a war on social justice and democracy became “US foreign policy”.
As the Washington historian William Blum has documented, since 1945, the US has destroyed or subverted more than 50 governments, many of them democracies, and used mass murderers like Suharto, Mobutu and Pinochet to dominate by proxy. In the Middle East, every dictatorship and pseudo-monarchy has been sustained by America. In “Operation Cyclone”, the CIA and MI6 secretly fostered and bank-rolled Islamic extremism. The object was to smash or deter nationalism and democracy. The victims of this western state terrorism have been mostly Muslims. The courageous people gunned down last week in Bahrain and Libya, the latter a “priority UK market”, according to Britain’s official arms “procurers”, join those children blown to bits in Gaza by the latest American F-16 aircraft.
The revolt in the Arab world is not merely against a resident dictator but a worldwide economic tyranny designed by the US Treasury and imposed by the US Agency for International Development, the IMF and World Bank, which have ensured that rich countries like Egypt are reduced to vast sweatshops, with half the population earning less than $2 a day. The people’s triumph in Cairo was the first blow against what Benito Mussolini called corporatism, a word that appears in his definition of fascism.
How did such extremism take hold in the liberal West? “It is necessary to destroy hope, idealism, solidarity, and concern for the poor and oppressed,” observed Noam Chomsky a generation ago, “[and] to replace these dangerous feelings with self-centred egoism, a pervasive cynicism that holds that [an order of] inequities and oppression is the best that can be achieved. In fact, a great international propaganda campaign is under way to convince people – particularly young people – that this not only is what they should feel but that it’s what they do feel.”
Like the European revolutions of 1848 and the uprising against Stalinism in 1989, the Arab revolt has rejected fear. An insurrection of suppressed ideas, hope and solidarity has begun. In the United States, where 45 per cent of young African-Americans have no jobs and the top hedge fund managers are paid, on average, a billion dollars a year, mass protests against cuts in services and jobs have spread to heartland states like Wisconsin. In Britain, the fastest-growing modern protest movement, UK Uncut, is about to take direct action against tax avoiders and rapacious banks. Something has changed that cannot be unchanged. The enemy has a name now.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Corporatism... the dark side of the moon .....
Boy oh boy!!!!!!!!!
As politicians are asking ordinary Americans to sacrifice their education, their health, their labor rights, and their wellbeing to tackle budget deficits, some of the world's richest multinational corporations are getting away with shirking their responsibility and paying nothing. ThinkProgress has assembled a short but far from comprehensive list of these tax dodgers - corporations which have rigged the tax system to their advantage so they can reap huge profits and avoid paying taxes:
- BANK OF AMERICA: In 2009, Bank of America didn't pay a single penny in federal income taxes, exploiting the tax code so as to avoid paying its fair share. "Oh, yeah, this happens all the time," said Robert Willens, a tax accounting expert interviewed by McClatchy. "If you go out and try to make money and you don't do it, why should the government pay you for your losses?" asked Bob McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice. The same year, the mega-bank's top executives received pay "ranging from $6 million to nearly $30 million."
- BOEING: Despite receiving billions of dollars from the federal government every single year in taxpayer subsidies from the U.S. government, Boeing didn't "pay a dime of U.S. federal corporate income taxes" between 2008 and 2010.
- CITIGROUP: Citigroup's deferred income taxes for the third quarter of 2010 amounted to a grand total of $0.00. At the same time, Citigroup has continued to pay its staff lavishly. "John Havens, the head of Citigroup's investment bank, is expected to be the bank's highest paid executive for the second year in a row, with a compensation package worth $9.5 million."
- EXXON-MOBIL: The oil giant uses offshore subsidiaries in the Caribbean to avoid paying taxes in the United States. Although Exxon-Mobil paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009, not a penny of those taxes went to the American Treasury. This was the same year that the company overtook Wal-Mart in the Fortune 500. Meanwhile the total compensation of Exxon-Mobil's CEO the same year was over $29,000,000.
- GENERAL ELECTRIC: In 2009, General Electric - the world's largest corporation - filed more than 7,000 tax returns and still paid nothing to U.S. government. They managed to do this by a tax code that essentially subsidizes companies for losing profits and allows them to set up tax havens overseas. That same year GE CEO Jeffery Immelt - who recently scored a spot on a White House economic advisory board - "earned total compensation of $9.89 million." In 2002, Immelt displayed his lack of economic patriotism, saying, "When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China....I am a nut on China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to 5 billion."
- WELLS FARGO: Despite being the fourth largest bank in the country, Wells Fargo was able to escape paying federal taxes by writing all of its losses off after its acquisition of Wachovia. Yet in 2009 the chief executive of Wells Fargo also saw his compensation "more than double" as he earned "a salary of $5.6 million paid in cash and stock and stock awards of more than $13 million."
In the coming months, politicians across the country are going to tell Americans that the only way to stave off huge deficit and balance the budgets is by gutting programs for the poor, eviscerating support for the middle class, eliminating labor rights, and decimating the government's ability to serve the public interest. This is a lie. The United States is the richest country in the history of the world, and income inequality is higher now than it has been at any time since the 1920′s, with the top "top 1 percentile of households [taking] home 23.5 percent of income in 2007."
You Have More Money in Your Wallet Than Bank of America Pays in Federal Taxes
as for those picking-up the tab .....
The large demonstrations at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin are driven by a middle class awakening to the spectre of its destruction by the corporate reactionaries and their toady Governor Scott Walker.
For years the middle class has watched the plutocrats stomp on the poor while listening to the two parties regale the great middle class, but never mentioning the tens of millions of poor Americans. And for years, the middle class was shrinking due significantly to corporate globalization shipping good-paying jobs overseas to repressive dictatorships like China. It took Governor Walker's legislative proposal to do away with most collective bargaining rights for most public employee unions to jolt people to hit the streets.
Republicans take rigged elections awash in corporatist campaign cash seriously. When they win, they aggressively move their corporate agenda, unlike the wishy-washy Democrats who flutter weakly after a victory. Republicans mean business. A ram rod wins against a straw all the time.
Governor Walker won his election, along with other Republicans in Wisconsin, on mass-media driven Tea Party rhetoric. His platform was deceitful enough to get the endorsement of the police, and firefighters unions, which the latter have now indignantly withdrawn.
'Mad As Hell' In Madison
Source
As politicians are asking ordinary Americans to sacrifice their education, their health, their labor rights, and their wellbeing to tackle budget deficits, some of the world's richest multinational corporations are getting away with shirking their responsibility and paying nothing. ThinkProgress has assembled a short but far from comprehensive list of these tax dodgers - corporations which have rigged the tax system to their advantage so they can reap huge profits and avoid paying taxes:
- BANK OF AMERICA: In 2009, Bank of America didn't pay a single penny in federal income taxes, exploiting the tax code so as to avoid paying its fair share. "Oh, yeah, this happens all the time," said Robert Willens, a tax accounting expert interviewed by McClatchy. "If you go out and try to make money and you don't do it, why should the government pay you for your losses?" asked Bob McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice. The same year, the mega-bank's top executives received pay "ranging from $6 million to nearly $30 million."
- BOEING: Despite receiving billions of dollars from the federal government every single year in taxpayer subsidies from the U.S. government, Boeing didn't "pay a dime of U.S. federal corporate income taxes" between 2008 and 2010.
- CITIGROUP: Citigroup's deferred income taxes for the third quarter of 2010 amounted to a grand total of $0.00. At the same time, Citigroup has continued to pay its staff lavishly. "John Havens, the head of Citigroup's investment bank, is expected to be the bank's highest paid executive for the second year in a row, with a compensation package worth $9.5 million."
- EXXON-MOBIL: The oil giant uses offshore subsidiaries in the Caribbean to avoid paying taxes in the United States. Although Exxon-Mobil paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009, not a penny of those taxes went to the American Treasury. This was the same year that the company overtook Wal-Mart in the Fortune 500. Meanwhile the total compensation of Exxon-Mobil's CEO the same year was over $29,000,000.
- GENERAL ELECTRIC: In 2009, General Electric - the world's largest corporation - filed more than 7,000 tax returns and still paid nothing to U.S. government. They managed to do this by a tax code that essentially subsidizes companies for losing profits and allows them to set up tax havens overseas. That same year GE CEO Jeffery Immelt - who recently scored a spot on a White House economic advisory board - "earned total compensation of $9.89 million." In 2002, Immelt displayed his lack of economic patriotism, saying, "When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China....I am a nut on China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to 5 billion."
- WELLS FARGO: Despite being the fourth largest bank in the country, Wells Fargo was able to escape paying federal taxes by writing all of its losses off after its acquisition of Wachovia. Yet in 2009 the chief executive of Wells Fargo also saw his compensation "more than double" as he earned "a salary of $5.6 million paid in cash and stock and stock awards of more than $13 million."
In the coming months, politicians across the country are going to tell Americans that the only way to stave off huge deficit and balance the budgets is by gutting programs for the poor, eviscerating support for the middle class, eliminating labor rights, and decimating the government's ability to serve the public interest. This is a lie. The United States is the richest country in the history of the world, and income inequality is higher now than it has been at any time since the 1920′s, with the top "top 1 percentile of households [taking] home 23.5 percent of income in 2007."
You Have More Money in Your Wallet Than Bank of America Pays in Federal Taxes
as for those picking-up the tab .....
The large demonstrations at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin are driven by a middle class awakening to the spectre of its destruction by the corporate reactionaries and their toady Governor Scott Walker.
For years the middle class has watched the plutocrats stomp on the poor while listening to the two parties regale the great middle class, but never mentioning the tens of millions of poor Americans. And for years, the middle class was shrinking due significantly to corporate globalization shipping good-paying jobs overseas to repressive dictatorships like China. It took Governor Walker's legislative proposal to do away with most collective bargaining rights for most public employee unions to jolt people to hit the streets.
Republicans take rigged elections awash in corporatist campaign cash seriously. When they win, they aggressively move their corporate agenda, unlike the wishy-washy Democrats who flutter weakly after a victory. Republicans mean business. A ram rod wins against a straw all the time.
Governor Walker won his election, along with other Republicans in Wisconsin, on mass-media driven Tea Party rhetoric. His platform was deceitful enough to get the endorsement of the police, and firefighters unions, which the latter have now indignantly withdrawn.
'Mad As Hell' In Madison
Atlas Of Pollution
I do not know how Julia Gillard thinks a carbon tax will help except to make the people poorer. We need to change the way we live
The deepest recession since the 1930s has failed to reverse rising global carbon emissions, as plummeting industrial output in the west was offset by the continuing rapid expansion of China and a handful of other emerging economies, new statistics for 2009 show.
While US emissions fell substantially in 2009, to levels not seen since 1995-96, China surged ahead with an increase of more than 13% on the previous year – the equivalent of adding the yearly emissions of Germany, Greece and Peru combined.
Europe, Russia, Canada and South Africa saw their emissions dip, and India has risen to third place in the league table, with the strong growth in its carbon output driven by a ramping-up of coal burning to generate power.
Overall, by these estimates, global emissions fell by a tiny 0.1%. For short periods in the wake of less severe recessions, such as those in 1981-83, and 1991-92, emissions fell more steeply only to continue their upward trend shortly afterwards.
These statistics, from the US Energy Information Administration, track only carbon dioxide emitted by energy use – such as from coal and gas power stations, and motor vehicles. They exclude emissions from other sources such as methane from livestock, and deforestation.
The map reveals how heavily future emissions trends depend on China, which overtook the US as the world's biggest emitter in 2006-07. China's emissions have so far risen just as fast as its runaway economic growth, but the government is hoping to "decouple" the two in the next decade, reducing the country's emissions per unit of GDP by 40 to 45% by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. Doing so will be essential if global greenhouse gas emissions are to fall in line with scientific warnings.
But green campaigners want to stop western companies using the focus on China and their own falling output as an excuse for backpedalling on climate change. They have urged governments in developed countries to strengthen their emissions targets to prevent businesses from taking what would amount to an "emissions holiday".
According to calculations from Sandbag, the green campaigning group, the impact of the recession on emissions means European Union companies could do nothing more to fight climate change between now and 2016, and still meet their targets of a 20% cut by 2020.
Comparable figures for 2010 will not be compiled for months, but the key question will be whether this recession follows the pattern of all others – a short pause followed by a swift return to the relentless year-on-year emissions increases of the last three decades – or whether this time is different, and the world is genuinely on a path to greener economic growth. With scientists warning that carbon must peak around 2015 to give the world a fighting chance of avoiding dangerous climate change, the next few years will be crucial.
* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
Source/Data Graph
The deepest recession since the 1930s has failed to reverse rising global carbon emissions, as plummeting industrial output in the west was offset by the continuing rapid expansion of China and a handful of other emerging economies, new statistics for 2009 show.
While US emissions fell substantially in 2009, to levels not seen since 1995-96, China surged ahead with an increase of more than 13% on the previous year – the equivalent of adding the yearly emissions of Germany, Greece and Peru combined.
Europe, Russia, Canada and South Africa saw their emissions dip, and India has risen to third place in the league table, with the strong growth in its carbon output driven by a ramping-up of coal burning to generate power.
Overall, by these estimates, global emissions fell by a tiny 0.1%. For short periods in the wake of less severe recessions, such as those in 1981-83, and 1991-92, emissions fell more steeply only to continue their upward trend shortly afterwards.
These statistics, from the US Energy Information Administration, track only carbon dioxide emitted by energy use – such as from coal and gas power stations, and motor vehicles. They exclude emissions from other sources such as methane from livestock, and deforestation.
The map reveals how heavily future emissions trends depend on China, which overtook the US as the world's biggest emitter in 2006-07. China's emissions have so far risen just as fast as its runaway economic growth, but the government is hoping to "decouple" the two in the next decade, reducing the country's emissions per unit of GDP by 40 to 45% by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. Doing so will be essential if global greenhouse gas emissions are to fall in line with scientific warnings.
But green campaigners want to stop western companies using the focus on China and their own falling output as an excuse for backpedalling on climate change. They have urged governments in developed countries to strengthen their emissions targets to prevent businesses from taking what would amount to an "emissions holiday".
According to calculations from Sandbag, the green campaigning group, the impact of the recession on emissions means European Union companies could do nothing more to fight climate change between now and 2016, and still meet their targets of a 20% cut by 2020.
Comparable figures for 2010 will not be compiled for months, but the key question will be whether this recession follows the pattern of all others – a short pause followed by a swift return to the relentless year-on-year emissions increases of the last three decades – or whether this time is different, and the world is genuinely on a path to greener economic growth. With scientists warning that carbon must peak around 2015 to give the world a fighting chance of avoiding dangerous climate change, the next few years will be crucial.
* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Large crack opens in the earth
Puno: Large crack opens in the earth in southern Peru
The sudden appearance early in the morning of an enormous crack, measuring 100 meters wide and three kilometers long, caused confusion among residents of the Huacullani district in the Chucuito province, department of Puno.
The exact cause of the crack in the earth still unknown. Peru’s geophysical institute ruled out the occurrence of an earthquake in the region, but what is clear is that the ground opened up and large blocks of earth can be observed scattered throughout the area.
The event, recorded Wednesday morning, caused the collapse of one house located in the rural community of Llorohoco. Four people managed to escape, but the youngest in the family, five-year-old Jean Carlos Vilcanqui Acero, is missing.
Geological engineers from the regional committee for civil defense have arrived in the area to investigate the phenomenon and determine its causes, said Javier Pampamallco, Puno’s civil defense chief.
Source
The mysterious crack measures 100 meters wide and three kilometers long. (Photo: El Comercio)
The sudden appearance early in the morning of an enormous crack, measuring 100 meters wide and three kilometers long, caused confusion among residents of the Huacullani district in the Chucuito province, department of Puno.
The exact cause of the crack in the earth still unknown. Peru’s geophysical institute ruled out the occurrence of an earthquake in the region, but what is clear is that the ground opened up and large blocks of earth can be observed scattered throughout the area.
The event, recorded Wednesday morning, caused the collapse of one house located in the rural community of Llorohoco. Four people managed to escape, but the youngest in the family, five-year-old Jean Carlos Vilcanqui Acero, is missing.
Geological engineers from the regional committee for civil defense have arrived in the area to investigate the phenomenon and determine its causes, said Javier Pampamallco, Puno’s civil defense chief.
Investigating BP Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
Hum! I remember some years ago when scientists went missing or found dead?
Dead / Jailed Scientists Affiliated With The BP Oil Disaster
Can so much tragedy be merely coincidence?
LSU scientist Gregory Stone
© Unknown
February 17, 2011 - LSU scientist Gregory Stone, 54 - Unknown Illness
BP Anthony Nicholas Tremonte
© Unknown
January 26, 2011 - Anthony Nicholas Tremonte, 31 - Mississippi Department of Marine Resources officer, from Ocean Springs arrested on child porn charge
BP Thomas B. Manton
© Unknown
January 19, 2011 - Dr. Thomas B. Manton former President and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation - imprisonment and subsequent murder while jailed
BP John P. Wheeler III
© Unknown
December 31, 2010 - John P. Wheeler III, a former Pentagon official and presidential aide and a defense consultant and expert on chemical and biological weapons - was beaten to death in an assault, body was discovered in a Wilmington landfill
BP James Patrick Black
© Unknown
November 23, 2010 - James Patrick Black, an incident commander for BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died Tuesday night near Destin, Florida in a small plane crash'
BP Chitra Chaunhan
© Unknown
November 15, 2010 - Chitra Chaunhan, 33 - Chauhan worked in the USF Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research - Found dead in an apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel. She leaves behind a husband and a young child.
BP Matthew Simmons
© Unknown
August 13, 2010 - Matthew Simmons, 67 - Simmons' body was found Sunday night in his hot tub, investigators said. An autopsy by the state medical examiner's office concluded Monday that he died from accidental drowning with heart disease as a contributing factor - "It was painful as can be" to be only insider willing to speak out against the "officials" during the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
BP Joseph Morrissey
© Unknown
April 6, 2010 - Scientist Joseph Morrissey, 46 - cell biologist and college professor, a near-native Floridian who chose to return to South Florida after studying at elite universities - was fatally shot during what police say was a home invasion robbery.
Source & Photos
Dead / Jailed Scientists Affiliated With The BP Oil Disaster
Can so much tragedy be merely coincidence?
LSU scientist Gregory Stone
© Unknown
February 17, 2011 - LSU scientist Gregory Stone, 54 - Unknown Illness
BP Anthony Nicholas Tremonte
© Unknown
January 26, 2011 - Anthony Nicholas Tremonte, 31 - Mississippi Department of Marine Resources officer, from Ocean Springs arrested on child porn charge
BP Thomas B. Manton
© Unknown
January 19, 2011 - Dr. Thomas B. Manton former President and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation - imprisonment and subsequent murder while jailed
BP John P. Wheeler III
© Unknown
December 31, 2010 - John P. Wheeler III, a former Pentagon official and presidential aide and a defense consultant and expert on chemical and biological weapons - was beaten to death in an assault, body was discovered in a Wilmington landfill
BP James Patrick Black
© Unknown
November 23, 2010 - James Patrick Black, an incident commander for BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died Tuesday night near Destin, Florida in a small plane crash'
BP Chitra Chaunhan
© Unknown
November 15, 2010 - Chitra Chaunhan, 33 - Chauhan worked in the USF Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research - Found dead in an apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel. She leaves behind a husband and a young child.
BP Matthew Simmons
© Unknown
August 13, 2010 - Matthew Simmons, 67 - Simmons' body was found Sunday night in his hot tub, investigators said. An autopsy by the state medical examiner's office concluded Monday that he died from accidental drowning with heart disease as a contributing factor - "It was painful as can be" to be only insider willing to speak out against the "officials" during the BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
BP Joseph Morrissey
© Unknown
April 6, 2010 - Scientist Joseph Morrissey, 46 - cell biologist and college professor, a near-native Floridian who chose to return to South Florida after studying at elite universities - was fatally shot during what police say was a home invasion robbery.
Two planets found sharing one orbit
Buried in the flood of data from the Kepler telescope is a planetary system unlike any seen before. Two of its apparent planets share the same orbit around their star. If the discovery is confirmed, it would bolster a theory that Earth once shared its orbit with a Mars-sized body that later crashed into it, resulting in the moon's formation.
The two planets are part of a four-planet system dubbed KOI-730. They circle their sun-like parent star every 9.8 days at exactly the same orbital distance, one permanently about 60 degrees ahead of the other. In the night sky of one planet, the other world must appear as a constant, blazing light, never fading or brightening.
Gravitational "sweet spots" make this possible. When one body (such as a planet) orbits a much more massive body (a star), there are two Lagrange points along the planet's orbit where a third body can orbit stably. These lie 60 degrees ahead of and 60 degrees behind the smaller object. For example, groups of asteroids called Trojans lie at these points along Jupiter's orbit.
In theory, matter in a disc of material around a newborn star could coalesce into so-called "co-orbiting" planets, but no one had spotted evidence of this before. "Systems like this are not common, as this is the only one we have seen," says Jack Lissauer of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Lissauer and colleagues describe the KOI-730 system in a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal (arxiv.org/abs/1102.0543).
Richard Gott and Edward Belbruno at Princeton University say we may even have evidence of the phenomenon in our own cosmic backyard. The moon is thought to have formed about 50 million years after the birth of the solar system, from the debris of a collision between a Mars-sized body and Earth. Simulations suggest the impactor, dubbed Theia, must have come in at a low speed. According to Gott and Belbruno, this could only have happened if Theia had originated in a leading or trailing Lagrange point along Earth's orbit. The new finds "show the kind of thing we imagined can happen", Gott says.
Will KOI-730's co-orbiting planets collide to form a moon someday? "That would be spectacular," says Gott. That may be so, but simulations by Bob Vanderbei at Princeton suggest the planets will continue to orbit in lockstep with each other for the next 2.22 million years at least.
Source
The two planets are part of a four-planet system dubbed KOI-730. They circle their sun-like parent star every 9.8 days at exactly the same orbital distance, one permanently about 60 degrees ahead of the other. In the night sky of one planet, the other world must appear as a constant, blazing light, never fading or brightening.
Gravitational "sweet spots" make this possible. When one body (such as a planet) orbits a much more massive body (a star), there are two Lagrange points along the planet's orbit where a third body can orbit stably. These lie 60 degrees ahead of and 60 degrees behind the smaller object. For example, groups of asteroids called Trojans lie at these points along Jupiter's orbit.
In theory, matter in a disc of material around a newborn star could coalesce into so-called "co-orbiting" planets, but no one had spotted evidence of this before. "Systems like this are not common, as this is the only one we have seen," says Jack Lissauer of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Lissauer and colleagues describe the KOI-730 system in a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal (arxiv.org/abs/1102.0543).
Richard Gott and Edward Belbruno at Princeton University say we may even have evidence of the phenomenon in our own cosmic backyard. The moon is thought to have formed about 50 million years after the birth of the solar system, from the debris of a collision between a Mars-sized body and Earth. Simulations suggest the impactor, dubbed Theia, must have come in at a low speed. According to Gott and Belbruno, this could only have happened if Theia had originated in a leading or trailing Lagrange point along Earth's orbit. The new finds "show the kind of thing we imagined can happen", Gott says.
Will KOI-730's co-orbiting planets collide to form a moon someday? "That would be spectacular," says Gott. That may be so, but simulations by Bob Vanderbei at Princeton suggest the planets will continue to orbit in lockstep with each other for the next 2.22 million years at least.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Julian Assange Boy oh Boy
I have wonder of late about his ego and his being maybe conned by the glitz and glamor people but I wish him well
Julian Assange has been “caged,” to use his own expression, since his initial arrest in London on an EU warrant alleging sexual misconduct in Sweden and remains caged today with bail conditions still applying while his inept team of glamour boy barristers and drunken solicitors determine how much more they can milk from his case. A gifted person with Assange’s social awareness should have known that (ALL) lawyers are the parasites of the modern age and should be avoided at all costs. Are you regretting now the personal and other REAL costs associated with your narcissistic (conditioned) need for notoriety, Julian? Silly boy!
Assange, a self-confessed hacker, was fully cognisant of the hackers most powerful weapon outside his/her digital skills – A-N-O-N-Y-M-I-T-Y! He chose to break that code for the most trivial reason – all the material on WikiLeaks could have been revealed without anyone breaking the secrecy code, but Assange wanted to be a ‘Paris Hilton’ and was blinded by his now very apparent personality failings. Furthermore, he began to use the WikiLeaks material for personal attacks on his perceived enemies in a way identical to blackmail – so, it’s come to this!
It is clearly time to separate the concept and purpose of WikiLeaks from the dysfunctional personality of Assange, he clearly was not personally ‘up to the task’ though his/the concept of WikiLeaks was indeed a very valuable contribution to society. He is not the first flawed personality to create something revolutionary but now WikiLeaks must, to maintain its INTEGRITY, dissociate itself from its founder and continue to do its valuable job for society.
It’s over, Julian, you not only breached an inviolable hacker code but broke a critical rule of guerrilla warfare by allowing a stronger, slower opponent to apprehend you, stupid beyond belief!
Let the Assange case be a cogent lesson for all digital warriors and other fighters for Truth, Freedom and Liberty.
The Watergate material was all delivered anonymously and the real identity of the leaker was not revealed until his death.
WE are Many – we are One -- we are ANONYMOUS. [You cannot stop what you cannot see!]
Good luck Julian, you deeply flawed mamma's boy.
When is this 'gifted' mamma's boy going to wake up to the FACT that he is opposing organised crime? "Justice" exists only in your deluded dreams, Julian. As for us, we ARE the ANONYMOUS underground, a FORMIDABLE, amorphous force. When you fight criminals you do NOT surrender yourself as an open target and then hope to prevail in THEIR domain-- you've lost it, dreamboat!
Source
Julian Assange has been “caged,” to use his own expression, since his initial arrest in London on an EU warrant alleging sexual misconduct in Sweden and remains caged today with bail conditions still applying while his inept team of glamour boy barristers and drunken solicitors determine how much more they can milk from his case. A gifted person with Assange’s social awareness should have known that (ALL) lawyers are the parasites of the modern age and should be avoided at all costs. Are you regretting now the personal and other REAL costs associated with your narcissistic (conditioned) need for notoriety, Julian? Silly boy!
Assange, a self-confessed hacker, was fully cognisant of the hackers most powerful weapon outside his/her digital skills – A-N-O-N-Y-M-I-T-Y! He chose to break that code for the most trivial reason – all the material on WikiLeaks could have been revealed without anyone breaking the secrecy code, but Assange wanted to be a ‘Paris Hilton’ and was blinded by his now very apparent personality failings. Furthermore, he began to use the WikiLeaks material for personal attacks on his perceived enemies in a way identical to blackmail – so, it’s come to this!
It is clearly time to separate the concept and purpose of WikiLeaks from the dysfunctional personality of Assange, he clearly was not personally ‘up to the task’ though his/the concept of WikiLeaks was indeed a very valuable contribution to society. He is not the first flawed personality to create something revolutionary but now WikiLeaks must, to maintain its INTEGRITY, dissociate itself from its founder and continue to do its valuable job for society.
It’s over, Julian, you not only breached an inviolable hacker code but broke a critical rule of guerrilla warfare by allowing a stronger, slower opponent to apprehend you, stupid beyond belief!
Let the Assange case be a cogent lesson for all digital warriors and other fighters for Truth, Freedom and Liberty.
The Watergate material was all delivered anonymously and the real identity of the leaker was not revealed until his death.
WE are Many – we are One -- we are ANONYMOUS. [You cannot stop what you cannot see!]
Good luck Julian, you deeply flawed mamma's boy.
When is this 'gifted' mamma's boy going to wake up to the FACT that he is opposing organised crime? "Justice" exists only in your deluded dreams, Julian. As for us, we ARE the ANONYMOUS underground, a FORMIDABLE, amorphous force. When you fight criminals you do NOT surrender yourself as an open target and then hope to prevail in THEIR domain-- you've lost it, dreamboat!
Monsanto's Roundup causing animal deaths
Boy this company is a monster, hellbent on killing the planet as well as animal live including human
Roundup, GMOs linked to emergence of deadly new pathogen causing spontaneous abortions among animals
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) In a shocking warning letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, a highly experienced, ex-military pathogen researcher warns that the use of Roundup via GMO crops is resulting in the emergence of a deadly new pathogen -- previously unknown to science -- that's causing widespread spontaneous abortions among cattle. The pathogen appears in high concentrations among even non-GMO crops that are "managed" through the use of glyphosate (Roundup) for weed control.
The letter is authored by COL (Retired) Don M. Huber, a former Emeritus Professor at Purdue University. Huber was also the coordinator at the American Phytopathological Society, an organization that studies plant diseases and pathogens. Huber also sat on the committee for Emerging Diseases and Pathogens, chaired by an Agriculture Research Service (USDA) employee from Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Fort Detrick, you may remember, is also where the U.S. military conducts much of its biological warfare research through its United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._A...). A few years ago, deadly pathogens "went missing" from this lab (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...).
Huber, in other words, is not just some ranting civilian. He's someone who has worked around pathogens for many decades and whose warnings about pathogenic threats must be taken seriously. In his letter, Huber warns about a new pathogen, unknown to science, "...that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn -- suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup."
This pathogen appears to be link to widespread spontaneous abortions among cattle. As Huber explains, "450 of 1,000 pregnant heifers ...experienced spontaneous abortions."
That's a spontaneous abortion rate of 45 percent!
Finish reading at Source
Roundup, GMOs linked to emergence of deadly new pathogen causing spontaneous abortions among animals
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) In a shocking warning letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, a highly experienced, ex-military pathogen researcher warns that the use of Roundup via GMO crops is resulting in the emergence of a deadly new pathogen -- previously unknown to science -- that's causing widespread spontaneous abortions among cattle. The pathogen appears in high concentrations among even non-GMO crops that are "managed" through the use of glyphosate (Roundup) for weed control.
The letter is authored by COL (Retired) Don M. Huber, a former Emeritus Professor at Purdue University. Huber was also the coordinator at the American Phytopathological Society, an organization that studies plant diseases and pathogens. Huber also sat on the committee for Emerging Diseases and Pathogens, chaired by an Agriculture Research Service (USDA) employee from Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Fort Detrick, you may remember, is also where the U.S. military conducts much of its biological warfare research through its United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._A...). A few years ago, deadly pathogens "went missing" from this lab (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...).
Huber, in other words, is not just some ranting civilian. He's someone who has worked around pathogens for many decades and whose warnings about pathogenic threats must be taken seriously. In his letter, Huber warns about a new pathogen, unknown to science, "...that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn -- suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup."
This pathogen appears to be link to widespread spontaneous abortions among cattle. As Huber explains, "450 of 1,000 pregnant heifers ...experienced spontaneous abortions."
That's a spontaneous abortion rate of 45 percent!
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