The bell has rung
[You know that old joke where two guys fall off a cliff, and one of them says to the other one, “I don’t mind the fall, it’s the landing I have a problem with.”?
Having a problem with the fall?]
An Iranian serial killer who murdered at least 20 children has been executed in front a large crowd of spectators.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4353449.stm
Hospital staff treating a retired school teacher for a headache found a five inch knife blade wedged in his head.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1306055.html?menu=
Having spent some time with mycotic infections, I am startled to see that the Transportation Security Administration, who supposedly monitors airports, "strongly" suggests that passengers remove their shoes while passing through the lines in American airports.
http://www.rense.com/general63/acutefd.htm
And six of the nation's premier law schools, including Columbia, Duke, Stanford, UCLA, Yale and Northwestern, have each been given $1 million endowments to train future animal law attorneys.
It was a gift from Bob Barker, host of CBS' "Price Is Right" game show. Barker, a longtime advocate for animal welfare, hopes to influence a new generation of lawyers
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/18/eveningnews/main681724.shtml
The nation's undocumented immigrant population surged to 10.3 million last year, spurred largely by the arrivals of unauthorized Mexicans in the United States, according to a report released Monday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4882086,00.html
Why does the military have direct access to the private information of American high school students? Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, Sec 9528, education funding in America has been turned into a recruiting tool for our military! Buried in this legislation is a section that mandates student private information be given directly to the military unless the student's parent or guardian opts their records out -- meaning that a request letter from the parent or guardian must be submitted to the school to keep the student's records private.
http://www.rense.com/general63/mili.htm
"The claim that democracy is on the march in the Middle East is a fraud. It is not democracy, but the US military, that is on the march What has actually taken place since 9/11 and the Iraq war is a relentless expansion of US control of the Middle East, of which the threats to Syria are a part. The Americans now have a military presence in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar -- and in not one of those countries did an elected government invite them in. Of course Arabs want an end to tyrannical regimes, most of which have been supported over the years by the US, Britain and France: that is the source of much anti-western Muslim anger. The dictators remain in place by US license, which can be revoked at any time -- and managed elections are being used as another mechanism for maintaining pro-western regimes rather than spreading democracy."
http://www.rense.com/general63/manag.htm
[It’s funny how only the illegal immigrants are in search of a better life. Isn’t there a chance the guys on the other side might also be seeking a better life, via not having to compete for jobs, housing, health care and other resources against people who are here illegally, artifically depressing wages.]
The American Civil Liberties Union has warned the 950 volunteers expected to take part next month in an Arizona border vigil against illegal immigration that it is assigning monitors to ensure none of the aliens are abused.
...
Mr. Ybarra also said the organization will have lawyers on standby ready to file civil cases against the volunteers, who he described as "vigilantes" who will "attempt to take out their frustrations on a group of individuals who are simply in search of a better life."
http://www.rense.com/general63/dlfi.htm
If you’re the type who dreads being dragged kicking and screaming into the use of a cell phone, Samsung sells their Long Range Cordless Phone. With an incredible (for landlines) 30-mile range, the set includes a caller ID-capable LCD and is able to communicate with the base-station, acting as an intercom. It includes a car charger and an outdoor antenna with 50 feet of cable that could very well violate my Homeowner’s Association’s CC&Rs. Either way, if you want to use your landline anywhere in town (mountains and buildings aside) without a cell phone account, this $300 option from Samsung is one to consider.
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/wireless/samsung-30mile-cordless-phone-036608.php
THE Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug similar to LSD, according to new research
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1533605,00.html
Police hunting for the BTK serial killer kicked down Roger Valadez's door and went in with guns drawn. They handcuffed the Wichita man, then took a sample of DNA from his mouth with a swab.
That swab proved Valadez was not BTK. Now he wants it destroyed, and he wants some answers about why police took it in the first place.
...
As the case has unfolded, it proves our basic point of our report: This mass swabbing is really unproductive. This is not how they caught the guy," said Sam Walker, a University of Nebraska-Omaha professor who has conducted a national study of DNA sweeps.
Police arrested Rader last month shortly after the BTK killer sent a computer disk to a Wichita television station. Rader's pastor said police traced the disk to the church where Rader was council president.
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1007713&tw=wn_wire_story
This brings us on to the question of trading information. The AI would be programmed with a long list of items of information, together a brief summary of what each involves and how much it is ‘worth’. The aliens could then supply a similar list and the AI could trade item for item. When a trade is agreed, the AI releases the item, while the aliens convince the AI that they have transmitted their item to Earth.
There are two possible objections to this. First of all, since the valuable data is contained within the AI, the aliens might be able to extract it without any negotiation by simply examining the code of the AI program. Secondly, the aliens might trick the AI into thinking that they have sent an item to Earth when in fact they have not.
I think there are good ways round the first objection. The AI program would continually check its own integrity and its ability to modify itself. If these checks failed then it could self-destruct. The aliens would then have to start again with a fresh copy of the program which would, at the least, be irritating. The data would of course be heavily encrypted, and the AI program would, in addition to being immensely complicated, be constructed with numerous layers of self-modifying code, so that effectively the only way the aliens could find out what the program does would be to run it. Then, however, the program would be self-aware and would have the ability to self-destruct if necessary.
The second objection is perhaps more serious, but ways might be found round it. Additionally, the AI could be instructed to trade up to a particular level and then it would require authorisation from Earth confirming that the traded items had been received before proceeding. This would slow things down but it would still be a lot faster than working without the AI at all.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2268
The couple say that the rock dust means that crops don't need water to produce harvests of magnificent vegetables. "It would be perfect for Third World countries that are usually unable to grow crops because the land is so dry," Ms Thomson said. "This could hold the solution for them."
"There is no doubt that, when rock dust is mixed with compost, it has a dramatic effect on crop yields," said Alistair Lamont, president of the Chartered Institution of Waste Management, who is impressed by the Seer experiment. "Future waste strategy is going to rely heavily on the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill, and one of the treatments involved is composting so we need to find a home for that compost.
"Agricultural land is something we need to work on and the benefits of rock dust in combination with compost can be seen at the Seer Centre at harvest time. We need to get farming to take on board the value of remineralisation and re-fertilisation.
Mr Lamont added that evidence showed that, since 1940, the mineral content of vegetables had fallen dramatically in this country. "We might be encouraged to eat a lot of vegetables but many don't contain the quantities of minerals that we need," he said.
http://www.rense.com/general63/extra.htm
[It is symptomatic of how far we have declined that the guy writing this story thinks it is amazing that people might not have a problem with not being subjected to coarse music at volumes in excess of 120 decibels, or that they might actually support a drive to get people to behave more civilly.
O Western Civilization, what hast thou become?]
It is similarly difficult to find an openly hostile adult. For most, it seems, Belgorod's "model citizen", the now deceased traffic policeman, Pavel Kirilovich Grechikov, is an inspiration.
"Pavel Kirilovich was the most honest guy that ever lived," enthuses Yevgeny, a taxi driver. In the middle of a roundabout on a particularly bleak stretch of road, stands a bronze monument to Grechikov. Known as the "unbribeable" copper, the traffic policeman is portrayed next to his motorcycle and sidecar, with a whistle in one hand and a baton in the other.
"He even fined his own wife for jaywalking once when she was crossing the road to buy his dinner," says Yevgeny. "He never took bribes either. Never."
...
Mr Bespalenko, who had a damascene conversion of sorts when his 10-year-old son told him to "piss off", an incident he puts down to his playing too many violent computer games, is satisfied that the authorities' efforts to reform Belgorod are beginning to pay off.
"In the beginning it was tough," said Mr Bespalenko. "But now my own child tells me that kids are starting to swear less at school. Playgrounds and yards have become quieter and we've shown people that it's not fashionable or attractive to swear. There are other words you can use. People need to understand that they are responsible for their actions."
http://www.rense.com/general63/sov.htm
[People in DC LYING to get their way? No way. I refuse to believe it. If this is even partially true I will eat my hat.]
In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.
But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50241-2005Mar19?language=printer
[What about homes with greater than zero and less than 500 books?]
Academics will today argue that the growing use of computers in secondary school classrooms and for homework could be leading to worsening performance in literacy, science and maths.
An international study of about 100,000 15-year-olds in 32 different developed and developing countries suggests that the drive to equip an increasing number of schoolchildren in the UK with computers may be misplaced.
In a report to be given at the conference of the Royal Economic Society in Nottingham this week, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann of Munich University say the research shows diminished performance in students with computers.
"Holding other family characteristics constant, students perform significantly worse if they have computers at home," it says.
"This may reflect the fact that computers at home may actually distract students from learning, both because learning with computers may not be the most efficient way of learning and because computers can be used for other aims than learning."
But if computers don't help then plenty of books at home do. The authors of the report found that "students with more than 500 books in their homes performed better in maths and science than those with none
http://www.rense.com/general63/pup.htm
[It is intersting that the chemical companies seem to lump Nebraska in with third world countries.
It is sadly consistent with past practice that they are planning on poisoning the children of the poor and non-white.]
In 2001, the trials considered by the E.P.A. gave paid subjects doses of pesticides 100 to 300 times greater than levels that E.P.A. officials considered safe for the general public. The E.P.A. evaluated three studies that year from Dow Chemicals, Bayer Corporation, and the Gowan Company. The Bayer and Gowan studies were conducted in third-world countries, where volunteers were more readily available, while Dow conducted their study in Nebraska.
In the Dow study, human subjects were given doses four times the level that the E.P.A. knew produced adverse affects in animals. Although subjects suffered numbness in the upper arms, the Dow doctors ruled that this was “possibly” related to the pesticide. Other subjects complained of headaches, nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Again, the doctors in the Dow study determined that these symptoms were “possibly” or “probably” related to the chemical. But in the final analysis of the study, Dow concluded that the pesticide did not produce any symptoms. And yet the E.P.A. considered it.
...
It’s wasn’t surprising then that in October of last year, Johnson strongly supported a study in which infants will be monitored for health impacts as they undergo exposure to known toxic chemicals for a two year period. The Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study, dubiously known as CHEERS, will analyze how chemicals can be ingested, inhaled, or absorbed by children ranging from infants to three year olds. The study will analyze 60 infants and toddlers in Duval County, Florida who are routinely exposed to pesticides in their homes. Yet the E.P.A. acknowledges that pesticide exposure is a documented risk factor for some types of childhood cancer and the early onset of asthma.
Other aspects of CHEERS are equally troublesome. The participants will be selected from six health clinics and three hospitals in Duval County. The E.P.A. study proposal noted that “Although all Duval County citizens are eligible to use the [health care] centers, they primarily serve individuals with lower incomes. In the year 2000, 75 percent of the users of the clinics for pregnancy issues were at or below the poverty level.” The proposal also cited that “The percentage of births to individuals classified as black in the U.S. Census is higher at these three hospitals than for the County as a whole.”
The E.P.A. is targeting the poor and African-Americans for the study, presumably in the hope that they will be less informed about the dangers of exposing their children to pesticides, and will therefore continue to expose them over the two year period.
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1037
Two weeks ago, after hearing 28 Colorado citizens speak in favor of Representative David Schultheis' H.B. 1271, which prohibits illegal aliens from gaining taxpayer benefits-Democrat Terrance Carroll stood up and announced that all 28 men and women in favor of upholding the law-were racists.
Quite a few of those who spoke were grandmothers and grandfathers in their 70's. Carroll, an African-American, somehow 'knew' they were racists because they supported the rule of law. He purported they were 'racists' because they asked their representatives to abide by their oath of office to stand for Coloradans. They were 'racists' because they didn't want their tax dollars paying for federal criminals who broke into America against our laws. They were 'racists' because they expressed their First Amendment rights.
http://www.rense.com/general63/shrinker.htm
[David Duke gets around. He seems like he is all over the world.]
David Duke, a leading European rights activist, was attacked in Barcelona, Spain yesterday by a violent group of Communists while giving a speech at a Nationalist bookstore.
http://www.rense.com/general63/euro.htm
"I want to tell you about something I saw once." He lit a cigarette, and coughed a few times.
"I used to work at this school bus factory. We assembled the drive train and exhaust systems for fleets, and public transit and school systems - we shipped buses all over the world. I won't say the name of the company, or what country it was in. That's not important. I want to tell what happened there, all in a single day, a long time ago."
"One morning, one of the assembly line workers came up to me. He was as white as a ghost. He was stuttering and his face was covered with tears. I was shocked, because I had known this man for a long time- he was usually very level headed. He led me over to the assembly line, and pointed to the partially assembled buses that stretched the length of the factory."
"I dropped my daughter off at school today. I noticed, for the first time, that the exhaust from our buses is exiting at the exact height of a grade school child's face. We are poisoning our own children, and others all over the world."
"I didn't know what to say to him. I looked down at the floor."
'I figured out how to fix it,' he told me, 'Im just going to start chopping up the pipe inventory and have them reroute it through the top, back here, like a tractor trailer..."
http://www.rense.com/general63/dfeo.htm
Nearly 65 percent of the animal livestock in northeastern Badakshan province have died after contracting a form of mad-cow disease from cattle exported from Pakistan, said the head of the agriculture and livestock department, Eng. Mohammad Hassan. The disease has affected mainly animals in the districts of Shahr-e-Bozurg, Khiwa, Arghanshas and Wardaj.
"This disease, which was 1st discovered in Badakhshan 2 years ago, has been transmitted from commercial animals from Pakistan and other provinces. We have many problems with agriculture and farming, and there is only one veterinary surgeon in Faizabad city with nobody in the districts," he said. He warned that, if the disease was not controlled, it could spread throughout Faizabad.
http://www.rense.com/general63/acuted.htm
At 35,000 feet above the Caribbean, Air Transat flight 961 was heading home to Quebec with 270 passengers and crew. At 3.45 pm last Sunday, the pilot noticed something very unusual. His Airbus A310's rudder - a structure 28 feet high - had fallen off and tumbled into the sea. In the world of aviation, the shock waves have yet to subside.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1436374,00.html
Overfishing is widely recognised as a major threat to our seas, damaging marine wildlife and habitats, as well as the livelihoods of those who depend on the sea. Many of our best known fish, such as cod, haddock, halibut and skate are now threatened species - cod is on the verge of commercial collapse and the common skate is virtually extinct. Though overfishing is certainly to blame, climate change is believed to be a factor, too.
http://www.rense.com/general63/saving.htm
[I never heard of this commercial. I didn’t even know Hienz had microwavable soups.]
In an award winning 2002 ad for Heinz Microwavable soups, a man rolls off a woman after having sex. The unsatisfied woman goes to the kitchen where a microwave has been set for two minutes. She removes and eats the soup. The blatant message: consumer products, not men are the source of happiness. (See the ad at www.savethemales.ca/heinzmicro.wmv )
http://www.rense.com/general63/samak.htm
The reality is that an ignorant and blundering Bush administration has created a Shi'ite crescent from Iran to Lebanon that is revolutionizing the Middle East. The reality will not penetrate the Bush administration. Reality contradicts Bush fantasy and is "against us." Facts that don't support Bush fantasy are "liberal" and "anti-American." Truth is dismissed as anti-Bush propaganda.
It is America that has undergone regime change. The Bush administration constitutes a Jacobin revolution. Its fanatics have declared world war on political diversity. The first victim of Bush's "war on terror" is the Bill of Rights. In its place we have an incipient police state.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03212005.html
Thousands rebel against election fraud in Kyrgyzstan
03/21/2005 15:18
It has been recently reported that the protesters seized the airport and the city administration of Jalal-Abad
Members of the massive action of protest in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan seized the building of the regional administration in Osh, which is the largest city in Kyrgyzstan's south. Police officers, who were protecting the building, did not show resistance to the assaulters, Itar-Tass said. The Kyrgyz opposition currently controls the buildings of the city's internal affairs administration and the national security service, Interfax reports.
http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/93/375/15144_kyrgyzstan.html
[Rumsfeld is a liar. He screwed up whatever passed for planning for this war, and now he is trying to push the blame off on everyone else.]
The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq (news - web sites) wouldn't be so high if the U.S.-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.
Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday" that if the United States had able to get its 4th Infantry Division into northern Iraq through Turkey, more of Saddam's Baathist regime would have been captured or killed, diminishing the insurgency.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050320/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) plans to cut its North American white-collar work force, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Sunday, less than a week after the automaker warned that 2005 earnings would fall short of its target.
The cuts in salaried staff could be as deep as 28 percent in certain functions, according to the newspaper that cited industry officials and analysts. The paper did not specify a time frame for the cuts, nor did it provide an overall number for the expected job cuts.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=568&e=2&u=/nm/20050320/bs_nm/autos_gm_report_dc
[It’s all about image and spin. The substance is irrelevant]
“Casualty notification is a solemn event and deserves full honors,” said Col. John Toolan, who disagrees with the switch to alphas.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/11191177.htm
[Is the Petagon covering up an attack on the Pentagon?]
Anthrax was confirmed twice in samples collected from a Pentagon mail facility initially closed last week and then opened after being declared free of the pathogen, United Press International has learned.
The head of the company that was accused of contaminating the samples sent from that facility -- a detached building on the Pentagon grounds in Arlington, Va. - said his company had never had a false positive test before and the presence of anthrax was detected independently in the original samples by two government laboratories besides his own.
The Pentagon alarm is distinct from a second alert for anthrax that also occurred March 14 at a mail room in a Defense Department-leased building in Falls Church, Va. The entire three-building complex was closed for two days before being declared clean.
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050321-123223-7231r
[Now suppose this guy had been found with the gun as he dragged his bag through the airport or soemthing. All of a sudden he would have been some kind of terrorist mastermind. They could have been torturing him, asking him “Where’s Osama?”, and guess what he had nothing to do with it. He didn’t even know about it.]
An air passenger was stunned to find a handgun in his luggage after a flight with Israel's national carrier El Al.
The man discovered the weapon while unpacking in Israel after a visit to Germany, reports Israeli daily Haaretz.
He immediately reported the find to the police only to be told that the weapon, which had been de-activated, was part of a security drill for airline staff.
Security officers sometimes put replica guns in luggage to keep bag checkers on their toes, Haaretz says.
In theory, the weapon would be discovered during checks and removed, leaving passengers none the wiser.
This handgun, however, appears to have slipped through the net.
The airline could not confirm or deny the report.
"El Al uses different tactics to ensure the safety of its passengers," said a spokeswoman. "We won't detail our tactics."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3517570.stm
In early March, my local daily newspaper ran a story that was four paragraphs long and buried at the bottom of the page. Engineers see U.S. Infrastructure Sinking. It was one of those stories deemed newsworthy enough to include since it cited a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, but I doubt that anyone at the paper considered the full implications of the story. There was no mention of it on the broadcast news media. After all, how exciting are bad bridges and solid waste management?
Let me tell you how important it is; if some attention and a whole lot of money is not spent on the nation’s infrastructure, i.e., aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste removal, navigable waterways, parks and recreation, rail travel, roads, schools, security, solid waste, transit, and wastewater, then life in this country as we know it is going to resemble a Third World nation.
...
The Society estimates it would take a total investment of $1.6 trillion dollars over five years to bring these various elements up to acceptable levels. "If we treated our own homes like we treat our infrastructure," says William Henry, ASCE president, "we’d all live in shacks."
"The nation’s infrastructure is sliding toward failure and the prospect for any real improvement is grim," says Henry. One thing I know about civil engineers, they are not prone to exaggeration.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/caruba032105.htm
Raul Hilberg appears to have been an early skeptic. Swiss Jewish journalist Daniel Ganzfried heard rumors that Wilkomirski's story was not true. He investigated and determined that the Latvian Jew "Binjamin Wilkomirski" was actually a Swiss gentile, born on February 12, 1941, to an unwed Swiss mother named Yvonne Berthe Grosjean, and later adopted by the Dössekker family. He was never incarcerated at Auschwitz. Ganzfried's expose was published in the Swiss weekly Weltwoche during August and September 1998. Wilkomirski subsequently refused to submit to a DNA comparison with Max Grosjean, Yvonne's brother.34
Laura Grabowski was exposed as a fraud in October 1999 by the Christian magazine Cornerstone. Her real name was Laurel Rose Willson, born to Christian parents on August 14, 1941, in Washington state, and of course she was never incarcerated at Auschwitz. She had earlier written books under the name Lauren Stratford, claiming she had suffered ritual satanic abuse, citing the same scars which she later claimed were inflicted by Mengele. (The scars were apparently self-inflicted.) As such she appeared on talk shows such as Oprah to relate her ordeals. When she decided that she would also be Laura Grabowski, she transposed the stories of ritual satanic abuse to the new setting Auschwitz.35
http://www.heretical.com/miscella/butz2.html
The largest network of so-called zombie networks spied on by the team was made up of 50,000 hijacked home computers.
Data was gathered using machines that looked innocent but which logged everything hackers did to them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4354109.stm
[Even Morgan Stanley thinks we have gone off the cliff.]
Tipping points are a great concept, but virtually impossible to identify ahead of time -- let alone when they are occurring. It is only with the great luxury of hindsight that we can look back and know that the proverbial bell has rung. In my view, March 16, 2005 could end up in the running as a possible tipping point for America. Suddenly, the US has taken on a very different aura in an increasingly unbalanced world: The confluence of a record current account deficit, a disaster from General Motors, and yet another new high for oil prices all speak of an increasingly precarious role for the global hegemon. World financial markets have barely begun to sniff that out
http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20050318-fri.html
Upon further examination of the red line in the table above depicting the Caribbean banking centre and their holdings of US securities; what stands out above all else is that this line, unlike any other jurisdiction in the world, looks contrived, lacks continuity and its erratic fluctuations give the appearance that this line is being used as a "plug". Actually, the term 'skullduggery' comes to mind. It should be remembered that other jurisdictions in the world are home to hedge funds also, yet none of them exhibit such wild fluctuations in their monthly reporting. Strange, ehh?
...
So using this conservative metric of 10:1, anyone can see that in the past six weeks alone, Hedge Fund losses on their acquisition of 23 billion in additional US debt has likely resulted in losses in the neighborhood of 40 % of the principal allocated to acquire the position. In such case, this would represent nothing short of mortal body blow to their capital invested in these bonds. [Utilizing 25:1 leverage in the same example, their equity capital would have been completely wiped out] If such were the case, this would surely be front page news in the main stream financial press now wouldn't it? But we all know this is not the case, since nothing to this effect has been widely reported, or even under reported in our responsible main stream financial press.
http://www.safehaven.com/article-2764.htm
Ceasar was supposed to be a god. Julias Caesar was killed on the Ides of March. (March 15th)
Today, we don't make men gods. Instead society has made our financial system into a false god.
On March 15th, 2005, (the ides of March) we may have just witnessed the beginning of the death of our financial system as General Motors stock took a nosedive from $34/share down to $30. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=GM&t=5d&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
It does not seem like much (GM down just over 10% in one day), but as of March 17th, the stock is down to $28.35, and the market cap is down to $16 billion. (GM is down nearly 18% for the week.) It's the type of volatility that we usually only see in silver stocks!
What does this mean?
GM's stock price decline is like a dagger right into the heart of the U.S. financial system, and the dollar itself!
Why did it happen?
Apparently, someone in power did the equivalent of shouting "the emperor has no clothes" and people woke up, and are beginning to see more clearly! The media decided it was time to expose the truth that GM is nearly insolvent, and will expect to lose $1.50/share in the first quarter alone!
http://www.kitco.com/ind/Hommel/mar182005.html
U S C A M P A I G N F O R B U R M A
For Immediate Release: March 21, 2005
(http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/news-press/latestpressrelease.html)
Locked Up Forever? Burma Campaigners Seek Ruling from United Nations on Ten Imprisoned Dissidents
(USCB) Jeremy Woodrum (202) 223 0300
(AAPP) Bo Kyi (66) (1) 324 8935, Ko Tate (66) (1) 287 8751
(Washington, DC and Bangkok, Thailand) Today, two human rights organizations--the United States Campaign for Burma and Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners--asked the United Nations to issue a ruling on whether the extended imprisonment of ten Burmese dissidents stands in violation of international law.
"Our request highlights the extended detention of political prisoners in Burma under the dictator Than Shwe and his system of phony 'laws'", said Aung Din, a former political prisoner and policy director of the US Campaign for Burma. "Than Shwe creates bogus laws simply to put his opponents in jail."
"These people have committed no crime," adds Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. "They are guilty only of hoping for human rights and freedom."
The appeal came in the form of a 33-page case filed before the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The Group was set up by the UN Commission on Human Rights to investigate cases of arbitrary detention and report back to the Commission.
Nine of the ten prisoners are held under section 10 (a) of Burma's State Protection Act, a draconian law that allows the ruling dictator Than Shwe to incarcerate individuals for up to five years without trial or legal appeal. The law states that such detentions can be given to any individual whom "endangers the sovereignty and security of the state or public peace and tranquility." The law's vague and nebulous wording allows for liberal and arbitrary application, and nearly every provision stands in contradiction to international legal and human rights norms. Two of those arrested are members of parliament, elected in Burma's last democratic election in 1990.
U Tin Oo, one of the most prominent prisoners, is held under section 10 (b) of the Act. The section of the law allows for up to three years of arbitrary house arrest. He is an elected member of parliament and a leader of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi's political party the National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi is currently under house arrest as well.
Another elected member of parliament, Dr. May Win Myint, was arrested for what Than Shwe's regime called "anti-government activities with a mob" -- the mob being the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 82% of the parliamentary seats in the 1990 election. She was arrested on October 28, 1997 after she and other NLD members attempted to organize a local youth chapter of the National League for Democracy. The authorities blocked the meeting and later that night the military intelligence arrested and sentenced her to seven years in prison. She has completed the original seven-year sentence, but was recently informed her detention has been extended for a year under the State Protection Act without reason or legal appeal.
Amnesty International has characterized several of the ten as a "torture concern." Than Shwe's regime has acquired an international reputation for employing the most gruesome forms of torture. Methods include severe beatings, the rolling of iron bars over shins and forearms, electrical shocks to all areas of the body including genitals, and "water torture"--during which water is slowly dripped on the head for hours at a time, resulting in crushing pain. Other methods include the "airplane," in which prisoners are tied upside down by their feet and spun in the air, and "poun zan," in which prisoners are forced to assume difficult standing positions for long periods of time. All methods are extremely painful, and have resulted in the deaths of 93 political prisoners behind bars. Many more have died shortly after their release.
Additionally, health care in the prisons is virtually non-existent. Many political prisoners have developed severe, chronic illnesses as a result of their detention. Prisoners suffer from severe hypertension, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic liver cirrhosis, gastric ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, arthritis, depression, cervical spondylosis and nerve damage. Without health care, the health condition for each prisoner is likely to deteriorate further and result in debilitation or even death.
Myat San, who is currently suffering from tuberculosis and gastric ulcers, has serious health problems. He was a student activist arrested in 1991 for organizing a demonstration honoring Aung San Suu Kyi, who had just won the Nobel Peace Prize. The demonstrators were attacked by Than Shwe's military and were subsequently thrown in jail, beaten, and tortured. Several protestors were beaten to death or died from their wounds shortly thereafter. Myat San is currently held in a prison eight hours away from his home, making it almost impossible for family members to visit him.
Tragically, all of the ten prisoners have completed previous unjust, arbitrary and lengthy prison sentences for having broken other "laws" of Than Shwe's regime. In addition to the State Protection Act, all laws used to detain political activists are so incoherent and self-contradictory that it is unclear what constitutes a violation such laws, and what rationale is then used to determine prison sentences. Thus, no one can ascertain when or if these prisoners might be released.
The United Nations General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights have passed several resolutions calling for the release of all political prisoners in Burma. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed a special envoy to Burma, Malaysian Ambassador Razali Ismail, to promote peaceful reconciliation in the country. To date, Than Shwe has refused to engage with Ambassador Ismail. Yet, the Secretary General's office and envoy appear incapable of a robust response, even though most leaders recognize Than Shwe as a weak and unsophisticated dictator. In October 2004, the US Congress, Australian Senate, and Netherlands Parliament all passed resolutions calling on the UN Security Council to address the matter, but Annan has not responded.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates there are at least 1,400 political prisoners in Burma.
A ruling by the Working Group usually takes at least 90 days.
List of prisoners: (1) U Tin Oo; (2) Aung Khin; (3) Khin Maung Ye; (4) Dr. May Win Myint; (5) Myat San; (6) Than Naing; (7) Dr. Than Nyein; (8) Thet Khaing; (9) Tin Aung; (10) Tin Aye Kyu.
[This guy george galloway over in England was also smeared as being an Iraqi agent. I wonder if there is a connection?]
FORGED INTELLIGENCE CABLE PEGS ARKIN AS IRAQI AGENT
Some unidentified person took the trouble to forge an authentic-looking
Defense Intelligence Agency cable that purports to identify author,
analyst and gadfly William M. Arkin as a paid Iraqi agent, the
Washington Post reported on March 18.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45614-2005Mar17.html
"I am extremely concerned that someone familiar with Defense Department
classified reporting has forged this document and given it to the
press in the hope that it would be reported as genuine," Arkin wrote
in a March 17 letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, requesting
that the Pentagon undertake an investigation into the matter.
Arkin is the author most recently of the book "Code Names"
(www.codenames.org), a compilation of data on mostly classified
defense and intelligence programs.
The bogus cable was provided to Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, a
frequent press conduit for classified government documents. Mr.
Gertz, who is a professional, was not taken in by the forgery.
A copy of Arkin's letter, including the forged cable, may be found
here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/03/arkin031705.pdf
Having a problem with the fall?]
An Iranian serial killer who murdered at least 20 children has been executed in front a large crowd of spectators.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4353449.stm
Hospital staff treating a retired school teacher for a headache found a five inch knife blade wedged in his head.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1306055.html?menu=
Having spent some time with mycotic infections, I am startled to see that the Transportation Security Administration, who supposedly monitors airports, "strongly" suggests that passengers remove their shoes while passing through the lines in American airports.
http://www.rense.com/general63/acutefd.htm
And six of the nation's premier law schools, including Columbia, Duke, Stanford, UCLA, Yale and Northwestern, have each been given $1 million endowments to train future animal law attorneys.
It was a gift from Bob Barker, host of CBS' "Price Is Right" game show. Barker, a longtime advocate for animal welfare, hopes to influence a new generation of lawyers
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/18/eveningnews/main681724.shtml
The nation's undocumented immigrant population surged to 10.3 million last year, spurred largely by the arrivals of unauthorized Mexicans in the United States, according to a report released Monday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4882086,00.html
Why does the military have direct access to the private information of American high school students? Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, Sec 9528, education funding in America has been turned into a recruiting tool for our military! Buried in this legislation is a section that mandates student private information be given directly to the military unless the student's parent or guardian opts their records out -- meaning that a request letter from the parent or guardian must be submitted to the school to keep the student's records private.
http://www.rense.com/general63/mili.htm
"The claim that democracy is on the march in the Middle East is a fraud. It is not democracy, but the US military, that is on the march What has actually taken place since 9/11 and the Iraq war is a relentless expansion of US control of the Middle East, of which the threats to Syria are a part. The Americans now have a military presence in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar -- and in not one of those countries did an elected government invite them in. Of course Arabs want an end to tyrannical regimes, most of which have been supported over the years by the US, Britain and France: that is the source of much anti-western Muslim anger. The dictators remain in place by US license, which can be revoked at any time -- and managed elections are being used as another mechanism for maintaining pro-western regimes rather than spreading democracy."
http://www.rense.com/general63/manag.htm
[It’s funny how only the illegal immigrants are in search of a better life. Isn’t there a chance the guys on the other side might also be seeking a better life, via not having to compete for jobs, housing, health care and other resources against people who are here illegally, artifically depressing wages.]
The American Civil Liberties Union has warned the 950 volunteers expected to take part next month in an Arizona border vigil against illegal immigration that it is assigning monitors to ensure none of the aliens are abused.
...
Mr. Ybarra also said the organization will have lawyers on standby ready to file civil cases against the volunteers, who he described as "vigilantes" who will "attempt to take out their frustrations on a group of individuals who are simply in search of a better life."
http://www.rense.com/general63/dlfi.htm
If you’re the type who dreads being dragged kicking and screaming into the use of a cell phone, Samsung sells their Long Range Cordless Phone. With an incredible (for landlines) 30-mile range, the set includes a caller ID-capable LCD and is able to communicate with the base-station, acting as an intercom. It includes a car charger and an outdoor antenna with 50 feet of cable that could very well violate my Homeowner’s Association’s CC&Rs. Either way, if you want to use your landline anywhere in town (mountains and buildings aside) without a cell phone account, this $300 option from Samsung is one to consider.
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/wireless/samsung-30mile-cordless-phone-036608.php
THE Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug similar to LSD, according to new research
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1533605,00.html
Police hunting for the BTK serial killer kicked down Roger Valadez's door and went in with guns drawn. They handcuffed the Wichita man, then took a sample of DNA from his mouth with a swab.
That swab proved Valadez was not BTK. Now he wants it destroyed, and he wants some answers about why police took it in the first place.
...
As the case has unfolded, it proves our basic point of our report: This mass swabbing is really unproductive. This is not how they caught the guy," said Sam Walker, a University of Nebraska-Omaha professor who has conducted a national study of DNA sweeps.
Police arrested Rader last month shortly after the BTK killer sent a computer disk to a Wichita television station. Rader's pastor said police traced the disk to the church where Rader was council president.
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1007713&tw=wn_wire_story
This brings us on to the question of trading information. The AI would be programmed with a long list of items of information, together a brief summary of what each involves and how much it is ‘worth’. The aliens could then supply a similar list and the AI could trade item for item. When a trade is agreed, the AI releases the item, while the aliens convince the AI that they have transmitted their item to Earth.
There are two possible objections to this. First of all, since the valuable data is contained within the AI, the aliens might be able to extract it without any negotiation by simply examining the code of the AI program. Secondly, the aliens might trick the AI into thinking that they have sent an item to Earth when in fact they have not.
I think there are good ways round the first objection. The AI program would continually check its own integrity and its ability to modify itself. If these checks failed then it could self-destruct. The aliens would then have to start again with a fresh copy of the program which would, at the least, be irritating. The data would of course be heavily encrypted, and the AI program would, in addition to being immensely complicated, be constructed with numerous layers of self-modifying code, so that effectively the only way the aliens could find out what the program does would be to run it. Then, however, the program would be self-aware and would have the ability to self-destruct if necessary.
The second objection is perhaps more serious, but ways might be found round it. Additionally, the AI could be instructed to trade up to a particular level and then it would require authorisation from Earth confirming that the traded items had been received before proceeding. This would slow things down but it would still be a lot faster than working without the AI at all.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2268
The couple say that the rock dust means that crops don't need water to produce harvests of magnificent vegetables. "It would be perfect for Third World countries that are usually unable to grow crops because the land is so dry," Ms Thomson said. "This could hold the solution for them."
"There is no doubt that, when rock dust is mixed with compost, it has a dramatic effect on crop yields," said Alistair Lamont, president of the Chartered Institution of Waste Management, who is impressed by the Seer experiment. "Future waste strategy is going to rely heavily on the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill, and one of the treatments involved is composting so we need to find a home for that compost.
"Agricultural land is something we need to work on and the benefits of rock dust in combination with compost can be seen at the Seer Centre at harvest time. We need to get farming to take on board the value of remineralisation and re-fertilisation.
Mr Lamont added that evidence showed that, since 1940, the mineral content of vegetables had fallen dramatically in this country. "We might be encouraged to eat a lot of vegetables but many don't contain the quantities of minerals that we need," he said.
http://www.rense.com/general63/extra.htm
[It is symptomatic of how far we have declined that the guy writing this story thinks it is amazing that people might not have a problem with not being subjected to coarse music at volumes in excess of 120 decibels, or that they might actually support a drive to get people to behave more civilly.
O Western Civilization, what hast thou become?]
It is similarly difficult to find an openly hostile adult. For most, it seems, Belgorod's "model citizen", the now deceased traffic policeman, Pavel Kirilovich Grechikov, is an inspiration.
"Pavel Kirilovich was the most honest guy that ever lived," enthuses Yevgeny, a taxi driver. In the middle of a roundabout on a particularly bleak stretch of road, stands a bronze monument to Grechikov. Known as the "unbribeable" copper, the traffic policeman is portrayed next to his motorcycle and sidecar, with a whistle in one hand and a baton in the other.
"He even fined his own wife for jaywalking once when she was crossing the road to buy his dinner," says Yevgeny. "He never took bribes either. Never."
...
Mr Bespalenko, who had a damascene conversion of sorts when his 10-year-old son told him to "piss off", an incident he puts down to his playing too many violent computer games, is satisfied that the authorities' efforts to reform Belgorod are beginning to pay off.
"In the beginning it was tough," said Mr Bespalenko. "But now my own child tells me that kids are starting to swear less at school. Playgrounds and yards have become quieter and we've shown people that it's not fashionable or attractive to swear. There are other words you can use. People need to understand that they are responsible for their actions."
http://www.rense.com/general63/sov.htm
[People in DC LYING to get their way? No way. I refuse to believe it. If this is even partially true I will eat my hat.]
In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.
But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50241-2005Mar19?language=printer
[What about homes with greater than zero and less than 500 books?]
Academics will today argue that the growing use of computers in secondary school classrooms and for homework could be leading to worsening performance in literacy, science and maths.
An international study of about 100,000 15-year-olds in 32 different developed and developing countries suggests that the drive to equip an increasing number of schoolchildren in the UK with computers may be misplaced.
In a report to be given at the conference of the Royal Economic Society in Nottingham this week, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann of Munich University say the research shows diminished performance in students with computers.
"Holding other family characteristics constant, students perform significantly worse if they have computers at home," it says.
"This may reflect the fact that computers at home may actually distract students from learning, both because learning with computers may not be the most efficient way of learning and because computers can be used for other aims than learning."
But if computers don't help then plenty of books at home do. The authors of the report found that "students with more than 500 books in their homes performed better in maths and science than those with none
http://www.rense.com/general63/pup.htm
[It is intersting that the chemical companies seem to lump Nebraska in with third world countries.
It is sadly consistent with past practice that they are planning on poisoning the children of the poor and non-white.]
In 2001, the trials considered by the E.P.A. gave paid subjects doses of pesticides 100 to 300 times greater than levels that E.P.A. officials considered safe for the general public. The E.P.A. evaluated three studies that year from Dow Chemicals, Bayer Corporation, and the Gowan Company. The Bayer and Gowan studies were conducted in third-world countries, where volunteers were more readily available, while Dow conducted their study in Nebraska.
In the Dow study, human subjects were given doses four times the level that the E.P.A. knew produced adverse affects in animals. Although subjects suffered numbness in the upper arms, the Dow doctors ruled that this was “possibly” related to the pesticide. Other subjects complained of headaches, nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Again, the doctors in the Dow study determined that these symptoms were “possibly” or “probably” related to the chemical. But in the final analysis of the study, Dow concluded that the pesticide did not produce any symptoms. And yet the E.P.A. considered it.
...
It’s wasn’t surprising then that in October of last year, Johnson strongly supported a study in which infants will be monitored for health impacts as they undergo exposure to known toxic chemicals for a two year period. The Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study, dubiously known as CHEERS, will analyze how chemicals can be ingested, inhaled, or absorbed by children ranging from infants to three year olds. The study will analyze 60 infants and toddlers in Duval County, Florida who are routinely exposed to pesticides in their homes. Yet the E.P.A. acknowledges that pesticide exposure is a documented risk factor for some types of childhood cancer and the early onset of asthma.
Other aspects of CHEERS are equally troublesome. The participants will be selected from six health clinics and three hospitals in Duval County. The E.P.A. study proposal noted that “Although all Duval County citizens are eligible to use the [health care] centers, they primarily serve individuals with lower incomes. In the year 2000, 75 percent of the users of the clinics for pregnancy issues were at or below the poverty level.” The proposal also cited that “The percentage of births to individuals classified as black in the U.S. Census is higher at these three hospitals than for the County as a whole.”
The E.P.A. is targeting the poor and African-Americans for the study, presumably in the hope that they will be less informed about the dangers of exposing their children to pesticides, and will therefore continue to expose them over the two year period.
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1037
Two weeks ago, after hearing 28 Colorado citizens speak in favor of Representative David Schultheis' H.B. 1271, which prohibits illegal aliens from gaining taxpayer benefits-Democrat Terrance Carroll stood up and announced that all 28 men and women in favor of upholding the law-were racists.
Quite a few of those who spoke were grandmothers and grandfathers in their 70's. Carroll, an African-American, somehow 'knew' they were racists because they supported the rule of law. He purported they were 'racists' because they asked their representatives to abide by their oath of office to stand for Coloradans. They were 'racists' because they didn't want their tax dollars paying for federal criminals who broke into America against our laws. They were 'racists' because they expressed their First Amendment rights.
http://www.rense.com/general63/shrinker.htm
[David Duke gets around. He seems like he is all over the world.]
David Duke, a leading European rights activist, was attacked in Barcelona, Spain yesterday by a violent group of Communists while giving a speech at a Nationalist bookstore.
http://www.rense.com/general63/euro.htm
"I want to tell you about something I saw once." He lit a cigarette, and coughed a few times.
"I used to work at this school bus factory. We assembled the drive train and exhaust systems for fleets, and public transit and school systems - we shipped buses all over the world. I won't say the name of the company, or what country it was in. That's not important. I want to tell what happened there, all in a single day, a long time ago."
"One morning, one of the assembly line workers came up to me. He was as white as a ghost. He was stuttering and his face was covered with tears. I was shocked, because I had known this man for a long time- he was usually very level headed. He led me over to the assembly line, and pointed to the partially assembled buses that stretched the length of the factory."
"I dropped my daughter off at school today. I noticed, for the first time, that the exhaust from our buses is exiting at the exact height of a grade school child's face. We are poisoning our own children, and others all over the world."
"I didn't know what to say to him. I looked down at the floor."
'I figured out how to fix it,' he told me, 'Im just going to start chopping up the pipe inventory and have them reroute it through the top, back here, like a tractor trailer..."
http://www.rense.com/general63/dfeo.htm
Nearly 65 percent of the animal livestock in northeastern Badakshan province have died after contracting a form of mad-cow disease from cattle exported from Pakistan, said the head of the agriculture and livestock department, Eng. Mohammad Hassan. The disease has affected mainly animals in the districts of Shahr-e-Bozurg, Khiwa, Arghanshas and Wardaj.
"This disease, which was 1st discovered in Badakhshan 2 years ago, has been transmitted from commercial animals from Pakistan and other provinces. We have many problems with agriculture and farming, and there is only one veterinary surgeon in Faizabad city with nobody in the districts," he said. He warned that, if the disease was not controlled, it could spread throughout Faizabad.
http://www.rense.com/general63/acuted.htm
At 35,000 feet above the Caribbean, Air Transat flight 961 was heading home to Quebec with 270 passengers and crew. At 3.45 pm last Sunday, the pilot noticed something very unusual. His Airbus A310's rudder - a structure 28 feet high - had fallen off and tumbled into the sea. In the world of aviation, the shock waves have yet to subside.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1436374,00.html
Overfishing is widely recognised as a major threat to our seas, damaging marine wildlife and habitats, as well as the livelihoods of those who depend on the sea. Many of our best known fish, such as cod, haddock, halibut and skate are now threatened species - cod is on the verge of commercial collapse and the common skate is virtually extinct. Though overfishing is certainly to blame, climate change is believed to be a factor, too.
http://www.rense.com/general63/saving.htm
[I never heard of this commercial. I didn’t even know Hienz had microwavable soups.]
In an award winning 2002 ad for Heinz Microwavable soups, a man rolls off a woman after having sex. The unsatisfied woman goes to the kitchen where a microwave has been set for two minutes. She removes and eats the soup. The blatant message: consumer products, not men are the source of happiness. (See the ad at www.savethemales.ca/heinzmicro.wmv )
http://www.rense.com/general63/samak.htm
The reality is that an ignorant and blundering Bush administration has created a Shi'ite crescent from Iran to Lebanon that is revolutionizing the Middle East. The reality will not penetrate the Bush administration. Reality contradicts Bush fantasy and is "against us." Facts that don't support Bush fantasy are "liberal" and "anti-American." Truth is dismissed as anti-Bush propaganda.
It is America that has undergone regime change. The Bush administration constitutes a Jacobin revolution. Its fanatics have declared world war on political diversity. The first victim of Bush's "war on terror" is the Bill of Rights. In its place we have an incipient police state.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03212005.html
Thousands rebel against election fraud in Kyrgyzstan
03/21/2005 15:18
It has been recently reported that the protesters seized the airport and the city administration of Jalal-Abad
Members of the massive action of protest in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan seized the building of the regional administration in Osh, which is the largest city in Kyrgyzstan's south. Police officers, who were protecting the building, did not show resistance to the assaulters, Itar-Tass said. The Kyrgyz opposition currently controls the buildings of the city's internal affairs administration and the national security service, Interfax reports.
http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/93/375/15144_kyrgyzstan.html
[Rumsfeld is a liar. He screwed up whatever passed for planning for this war, and now he is trying to push the blame off on everyone else.]
The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq (news - web sites) wouldn't be so high if the U.S.-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.
Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday" that if the United States had able to get its 4th Infantry Division into northern Iraq through Turkey, more of Saddam's Baathist regime would have been captured or killed, diminishing the insurgency.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050320/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) plans to cut its North American white-collar work force, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Sunday, less than a week after the automaker warned that 2005 earnings would fall short of its target.
The cuts in salaried staff could be as deep as 28 percent in certain functions, according to the newspaper that cited industry officials and analysts. The paper did not specify a time frame for the cuts, nor did it provide an overall number for the expected job cuts.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=568&e=2&u=/nm/20050320/bs_nm/autos_gm_report_dc
[It’s all about image and spin. The substance is irrelevant]
“Casualty notification is a solemn event and deserves full honors,” said Col. John Toolan, who disagrees with the switch to alphas.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/11191177.htm
[Is the Petagon covering up an attack on the Pentagon?]
Anthrax was confirmed twice in samples collected from a Pentagon mail facility initially closed last week and then opened after being declared free of the pathogen, United Press International has learned.
The head of the company that was accused of contaminating the samples sent from that facility -- a detached building on the Pentagon grounds in Arlington, Va. - said his company had never had a false positive test before and the presence of anthrax was detected independently in the original samples by two government laboratories besides his own.
The Pentagon alarm is distinct from a second alert for anthrax that also occurred March 14 at a mail room in a Defense Department-leased building in Falls Church, Va. The entire three-building complex was closed for two days before being declared clean.
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050321-123223-7231r
[Now suppose this guy had been found with the gun as he dragged his bag through the airport or soemthing. All of a sudden he would have been some kind of terrorist mastermind. They could have been torturing him, asking him “Where’s Osama?”, and guess what he had nothing to do with it. He didn’t even know about it.]
An air passenger was stunned to find a handgun in his luggage after a flight with Israel's national carrier El Al.
The man discovered the weapon while unpacking in Israel after a visit to Germany, reports Israeli daily Haaretz.
He immediately reported the find to the police only to be told that the weapon, which had been de-activated, was part of a security drill for airline staff.
Security officers sometimes put replica guns in luggage to keep bag checkers on their toes, Haaretz says.
In theory, the weapon would be discovered during checks and removed, leaving passengers none the wiser.
This handgun, however, appears to have slipped through the net.
The airline could not confirm or deny the report.
"El Al uses different tactics to ensure the safety of its passengers," said a spokeswoman. "We won't detail our tactics."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3517570.stm
In early March, my local daily newspaper ran a story that was four paragraphs long and buried at the bottom of the page. Engineers see U.S. Infrastructure Sinking. It was one of those stories deemed newsworthy enough to include since it cited a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, but I doubt that anyone at the paper considered the full implications of the story. There was no mention of it on the broadcast news media. After all, how exciting are bad bridges and solid waste management?
Let me tell you how important it is; if some attention and a whole lot of money is not spent on the nation’s infrastructure, i.e., aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste removal, navigable waterways, parks and recreation, rail travel, roads, schools, security, solid waste, transit, and wastewater, then life in this country as we know it is going to resemble a Third World nation.
...
The Society estimates it would take a total investment of $1.6 trillion dollars over five years to bring these various elements up to acceptable levels. "If we treated our own homes like we treat our infrastructure," says William Henry, ASCE president, "we’d all live in shacks."
"The nation’s infrastructure is sliding toward failure and the prospect for any real improvement is grim," says Henry. One thing I know about civil engineers, they are not prone to exaggeration.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/caruba032105.htm
Raul Hilberg appears to have been an early skeptic. Swiss Jewish journalist Daniel Ganzfried heard rumors that Wilkomirski's story was not true. He investigated and determined that the Latvian Jew "Binjamin Wilkomirski" was actually a Swiss gentile, born on February 12, 1941, to an unwed Swiss mother named Yvonne Berthe Grosjean, and later adopted by the Dössekker family. He was never incarcerated at Auschwitz. Ganzfried's expose was published in the Swiss weekly Weltwoche during August and September 1998. Wilkomirski subsequently refused to submit to a DNA comparison with Max Grosjean, Yvonne's brother.34
Laura Grabowski was exposed as a fraud in October 1999 by the Christian magazine Cornerstone. Her real name was Laurel Rose Willson, born to Christian parents on August 14, 1941, in Washington state, and of course she was never incarcerated at Auschwitz. She had earlier written books under the name Lauren Stratford, claiming she had suffered ritual satanic abuse, citing the same scars which she later claimed were inflicted by Mengele. (The scars were apparently self-inflicted.) As such she appeared on talk shows such as Oprah to relate her ordeals. When she decided that she would also be Laura Grabowski, she transposed the stories of ritual satanic abuse to the new setting Auschwitz.35
http://www.heretical.com/miscella/butz2.html
The largest network of so-called zombie networks spied on by the team was made up of 50,000 hijacked home computers.
Data was gathered using machines that looked innocent but which logged everything hackers did to them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4354109.stm
[Even Morgan Stanley thinks we have gone off the cliff.]
Tipping points are a great concept, but virtually impossible to identify ahead of time -- let alone when they are occurring. It is only with the great luxury of hindsight that we can look back and know that the proverbial bell has rung. In my view, March 16, 2005 could end up in the running as a possible tipping point for America. Suddenly, the US has taken on a very different aura in an increasingly unbalanced world: The confluence of a record current account deficit, a disaster from General Motors, and yet another new high for oil prices all speak of an increasingly precarious role for the global hegemon. World financial markets have barely begun to sniff that out
http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20050318-fri.html
Upon further examination of the red line in the table above depicting the Caribbean banking centre and their holdings of US securities; what stands out above all else is that this line, unlike any other jurisdiction in the world, looks contrived, lacks continuity and its erratic fluctuations give the appearance that this line is being used as a "plug". Actually, the term 'skullduggery' comes to mind. It should be remembered that other jurisdictions in the world are home to hedge funds also, yet none of them exhibit such wild fluctuations in their monthly reporting. Strange, ehh?
...
So using this conservative metric of 10:1, anyone can see that in the past six weeks alone, Hedge Fund losses on their acquisition of 23 billion in additional US debt has likely resulted in losses in the neighborhood of 40 % of the principal allocated to acquire the position. In such case, this would represent nothing short of mortal body blow to their capital invested in these bonds. [Utilizing 25:1 leverage in the same example, their equity capital would have been completely wiped out] If such were the case, this would surely be front page news in the main stream financial press now wouldn't it? But we all know this is not the case, since nothing to this effect has been widely reported, or even under reported in our responsible main stream financial press.
http://www.safehaven.com/article-2764.htm
Ceasar was supposed to be a god. Julias Caesar was killed on the Ides of March. (March 15th)
Today, we don't make men gods. Instead society has made our financial system into a false god.
On March 15th, 2005, (the ides of March) we may have just witnessed the beginning of the death of our financial system as General Motors stock took a nosedive from $34/share down to $30. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=GM&t=5d&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
It does not seem like much (GM down just over 10% in one day), but as of March 17th, the stock is down to $28.35, and the market cap is down to $16 billion. (GM is down nearly 18% for the week.) It's the type of volatility that we usually only see in silver stocks!
What does this mean?
GM's stock price decline is like a dagger right into the heart of the U.S. financial system, and the dollar itself!
Why did it happen?
Apparently, someone in power did the equivalent of shouting "the emperor has no clothes" and people woke up, and are beginning to see more clearly! The media decided it was time to expose the truth that GM is nearly insolvent, and will expect to lose $1.50/share in the first quarter alone!
http://www.kitco.com/ind/Hommel/mar182005.html
U S C A M P A I G N F O R B U R M A
For Immediate Release: March 21, 2005
(http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/news-press/latestpressrelease.html)
Locked Up Forever? Burma Campaigners Seek Ruling from United Nations on Ten Imprisoned Dissidents
(USCB) Jeremy Woodrum (202) 223 0300
(AAPP) Bo Kyi (66) (1) 324 8935, Ko Tate (66) (1) 287 8751
(Washington, DC and Bangkok, Thailand) Today, two human rights organizations--the United States Campaign for Burma and Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners--asked the United Nations to issue a ruling on whether the extended imprisonment of ten Burmese dissidents stands in violation of international law.
"Our request highlights the extended detention of political prisoners in Burma under the dictator Than Shwe and his system of phony 'laws'", said Aung Din, a former political prisoner and policy director of the US Campaign for Burma. "Than Shwe creates bogus laws simply to put his opponents in jail."
"These people have committed no crime," adds Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and joint secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. "They are guilty only of hoping for human rights and freedom."
The appeal came in the form of a 33-page case filed before the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The Group was set up by the UN Commission on Human Rights to investigate cases of arbitrary detention and report back to the Commission.
Nine of the ten prisoners are held under section 10 (a) of Burma's State Protection Act, a draconian law that allows the ruling dictator Than Shwe to incarcerate individuals for up to five years without trial or legal appeal. The law states that such detentions can be given to any individual whom "endangers the sovereignty and security of the state or public peace and tranquility." The law's vague and nebulous wording allows for liberal and arbitrary application, and nearly every provision stands in contradiction to international legal and human rights norms. Two of those arrested are members of parliament, elected in Burma's last democratic election in 1990.
U Tin Oo, one of the most prominent prisoners, is held under section 10 (b) of the Act. The section of the law allows for up to three years of arbitrary house arrest. He is an elected member of parliament and a leader of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi's political party the National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi is currently under house arrest as well.
Another elected member of parliament, Dr. May Win Myint, was arrested for what Than Shwe's regime called "anti-government activities with a mob" -- the mob being the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 82% of the parliamentary seats in the 1990 election. She was arrested on October 28, 1997 after she and other NLD members attempted to organize a local youth chapter of the National League for Democracy. The authorities blocked the meeting and later that night the military intelligence arrested and sentenced her to seven years in prison. She has completed the original seven-year sentence, but was recently informed her detention has been extended for a year under the State Protection Act without reason or legal appeal.
Amnesty International has characterized several of the ten as a "torture concern." Than Shwe's regime has acquired an international reputation for employing the most gruesome forms of torture. Methods include severe beatings, the rolling of iron bars over shins and forearms, electrical shocks to all areas of the body including genitals, and "water torture"--during which water is slowly dripped on the head for hours at a time, resulting in crushing pain. Other methods include the "airplane," in which prisoners are tied upside down by their feet and spun in the air, and "poun zan," in which prisoners are forced to assume difficult standing positions for long periods of time. All methods are extremely painful, and have resulted in the deaths of 93 political prisoners behind bars. Many more have died shortly after their release.
Additionally, health care in the prisons is virtually non-existent. Many political prisoners have developed severe, chronic illnesses as a result of their detention. Prisoners suffer from severe hypertension, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic liver cirrhosis, gastric ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, arthritis, depression, cervical spondylosis and nerve damage. Without health care, the health condition for each prisoner is likely to deteriorate further and result in debilitation or even death.
Myat San, who is currently suffering from tuberculosis and gastric ulcers, has serious health problems. He was a student activist arrested in 1991 for organizing a demonstration honoring Aung San Suu Kyi, who had just won the Nobel Peace Prize. The demonstrators were attacked by Than Shwe's military and were subsequently thrown in jail, beaten, and tortured. Several protestors were beaten to death or died from their wounds shortly thereafter. Myat San is currently held in a prison eight hours away from his home, making it almost impossible for family members to visit him.
Tragically, all of the ten prisoners have completed previous unjust, arbitrary and lengthy prison sentences for having broken other "laws" of Than Shwe's regime. In addition to the State Protection Act, all laws used to detain political activists are so incoherent and self-contradictory that it is unclear what constitutes a violation such laws, and what rationale is then used to determine prison sentences. Thus, no one can ascertain when or if these prisoners might be released.
The United Nations General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights have passed several resolutions calling for the release of all political prisoners in Burma. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed a special envoy to Burma, Malaysian Ambassador Razali Ismail, to promote peaceful reconciliation in the country. To date, Than Shwe has refused to engage with Ambassador Ismail. Yet, the Secretary General's office and envoy appear incapable of a robust response, even though most leaders recognize Than Shwe as a weak and unsophisticated dictator. In October 2004, the US Congress, Australian Senate, and Netherlands Parliament all passed resolutions calling on the UN Security Council to address the matter, but Annan has not responded.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates there are at least 1,400 political prisoners in Burma.
A ruling by the Working Group usually takes at least 90 days.
List of prisoners: (1) U Tin Oo; (2) Aung Khin; (3) Khin Maung Ye; (4) Dr. May Win Myint; (5) Myat San; (6) Than Naing; (7) Dr. Than Nyein; (8) Thet Khaing; (9) Tin Aung; (10) Tin Aye Kyu.
[This guy george galloway over in England was also smeared as being an Iraqi agent. I wonder if there is a connection?]
FORGED INTELLIGENCE CABLE PEGS ARKIN AS IRAQI AGENT
Some unidentified person took the trouble to forge an authentic-looking
Defense Intelligence Agency cable that purports to identify author,
analyst and gadfly William M. Arkin as a paid Iraqi agent, the
Washington Post reported on March 18.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45614-2005Mar17.html
"I am extremely concerned that someone familiar with Defense Department
classified reporting has forged this document and given it to the
press in the hope that it would be reported as genuine," Arkin wrote
in a March 17 letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, requesting
that the Pentagon undertake an investigation into the matter.
Arkin is the author most recently of the book "Code Names"
(www.codenames.org), a compilation of data on mostly classified
defense and intelligence programs.
The bogus cable was provided to Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, a
frequent press conduit for classified government documents. Mr.
Gertz, who is a professional, was not taken in by the forgery.
A copy of Arkin's letter, including the forged cable, may be found
here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/03/arkin031705.pdf
posted by abu nakba at 3/22/2005 07:55:00 AM
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