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October 7, 2008 - Tuesday
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The Truth About Osama bin Laden
Category: News and Politics
http://infowars.net/articles/october2008/071008Baer.htm
Brad's note : Thanks to Steve Watson for the bulletin linking to this article. The contents of this article are EXACTLY what I've been saying for at least five years. What do Osama bin Laden and the Wicked Witch of the West have in common? They are both most assuredly dead! The only reason the American sheeple are unaware of this is that the criminal US government in conjunction with the corrupt corporate media have withheld the information. How on earth would the war OF terror continue without the imaginary boogeyman of bin Laden to dangle in front of the ignorant masses?
..tr>Former CIA Operative: "Of Course Bin Laden is Dead"
Warns war on terror could be eternal | ..table>
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 An important news item that flew under the radar for the most part last week was the assertion from former CIA operative turned whistleblower Robert Baer that Osama Bin Laden is long dead. The hugely respected intelligence & foreign policy expert told Terry Gross, host of National Public Radio show Fresh Air, "Of course he is dead, where are the DVDs? Bin Laden wouldn't dye his hair, all these things can be manipulated." Baer, who has has previously publicly questioned the official story of the 9/11 attacks, continued "He hasn't shown up, I've taken in the last month a poll of CIA officers who have been on his trail, and what astounded me was not a single one was sure he was alive or dead. They have no idea, I mean this man disappeared off the side of the earth." Baer, who's previous book See No Evil was the basis for the film Syriana, asked "When in history has a country fought another country or another entity when the leader may be dead?" and warned that the so called war on terror could be an eternal war if the goal continues to be to capture Bin Laden. Baer also warned that the war is shifting into Pakistan, a dangerous precedent that could see the vaguely defined conflict move anywhere. Last July it was revealed that Pakistan has an agreement to allow CIA-operated Predator drones fly over the country and strike targets in the so called "hunt" for Bin Laden. Since that time many strikes have taken place, killing civilians in the process. In addition, details of a secret Pentagon plan to send U.S. special forces into the wild tribal regions of Pakistan to find Bin Laden have also emerged. The plans have reportedly not yet been implemented due to White House in fighting. Listen to the short excerpt here. Listen to the whole interview here.
There is voluminous evidence to suggest Bin Laden is long dead. According to French newspaper Le Figaro, Bin Laden was on a kidney dialysis machine after he had one shipped to his base in Kandahar Afghanistan in 2000, and when the CIA personally visited him in a Dubai hospital. Other accounts suggest he was also suffering from Hepatitis C at the time and had only two years left to live. Journalists who met Bin Laden before 9/11 later proclaimed their disbelief about the fact that he didn't appear on video after December 2001 to brag about the fact that he had not been captured. Since that time, every single Bin Laden video tape released has contained vague non-specific messages and in many cases the footage is old and re-hashed. "With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival?" wrote the New York Times' Amir Taheri in July 2002. A very good reason for Osama remaining silent after the end of 2001 would be the fact that he probably died on December 26 of that year, according to a report in the Pakistani Observer, which cited a Taliban official as stating that Bin Laden died due to an untreated lung complication and that he had attended his funeral. In 2002 CNN reported on the fact that Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf believed Bin Laden to be dead: [A Bush administration official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days and "it is fairly obvious that that could be an issue when you are running from place to place, and facing the idea of needing to generate electricity in a mountain hideout,". Others have gone on record insisting they believe Bin Laden to be dead, they include: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, FBI counter-terrorism chief Dale Watson, Israeli intelligence sources, the late former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, Bin Laden expert Professor Bruce Lawrence, head of Duke University's Religious Studies program. In addition, a leaked French secret service memo in September 2006 concluded that Bin Laden had died of typhoid poisoning the previous month. The memo cited Saudi Arabian secret service sources who were convinced that Bin Laden had died in Pakistan. "The information gathered by the Saudis indicates that the head of al-Qaeda fell victim, while he was in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, to a very serious case of typhoid that led to a partial paralysis of his internal organs," states the French memo. Judging from all the available evidence, the White House knows for certain or at least strongly suspects that Bin Laden is dead and has been for many years, but they have chosen to maintain his myth for the purposes of political propaganda and as a hook on which to pin the advance of the imperial Neo-Con agenda.
6:55 AM
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Is This What McCain/Palin Have Sunk To?
Category: News and Politics
http://www.americablog.com/2008/10/kill-him.html
Brad's note : While I'm obviously not an Obama supporter, this is absolutely reprehensible.
Monday, October 06, 2008
"Kill him!", Palin supporter says of Obama in her presence. She says nothing.
.. type="text/javascript"> makeprofilelink("John Aravosis (DC)"); ..>John Aravosis (DC) · 10/06/2008 07:17:00 PM ET · Link
 On the heels of a McCain supporter yelling that Obama was a "terrorist" today - and McCain said nothing in response to admonish the supporter - the Washington Post reports (via ThinkProgress) that a Palin supporter at one of her rallies today yelled for Obama to be assassinated after Palin, again, told the lie that some of Obama's best friends are terrorists:"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.
"Boooo!" said the crowd.
"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.
"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.
"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.
Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago." Palin went on?
Just like she did when speakers at her church said that terrorist attacks against Israelis were "God's judgment" for Jews having the audacity not to embrace Christianity. Just like she did when a visiting witch doctor at her church lamented the fact that, as he claimed, Jews control the banking industry and that's why Wall Street is so corrupt. Not a word from Sarah Palin when her supporters talk of killing Barack Obama. Not a word from Sarah Palin when her own church talks of the propriety of launching terrorist attacks against Jews in Israel.
In one day, McCain's supporters are so enraged by McCain's new rhetoric, calling Obama an un-American terrorist sympathizer, that McCain's supporters are now labeling Obama himself a "terrorist" and calling for him to be killed.
And McCain has no problem with this. Nor does Sarah Palin.
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Hoodoo
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Alison Moyet
Release date: 1991-08-27
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11:05 AM
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Cindy Sheehan Reveals Plan for New National Party
Category: News and Politics
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260751
Cindy Sheehan Reveals Plan for New National Party, Reflects on Race Against Pelosi ..tr> Posted Oct 4, 2008 by  Stephen Dohnberg in Politics | 19 comments | 774 views | ..table>In an interview with this reporter, Cindy Sheehan (for the first time to press) reveals intentions in forming a new political party, and reflects on her chances in unseating Nancy Pelosi in her race for Congress.
Anti War activist and challenger for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Congressional Seat (CD 8, California), Cindy Sheehan has indicated her intention to launch a National political party after the U.S. Election of Nov. 4
Inspired in part by Mark Twain's involvement in The American Anti Imperialist League in reaction to the annexation of the Philippines by the United States in the late 19th Century, Sheehan said that the party will have a progressive platform and that after Nov. 4, "no matter what happens, we need to consolidate the energy against Imperialism and work on building another party movement."
While discussing a potential third party unity movement, Sheehan indicated that her own candidacy against House Speaker Pelosi has seen a broad coalition of support from Greens, independents, disillusioned Democrats such as herself (Sheehan left the Democratic Party in May of 2007 in response to the Democratic Party led House support for a funding bill to continue Iraq War funding), and Republicans, many of whom made up the traditional base of the GOP represented by Ron Paul.
Sheehan revealed that name of the new party would be The First Party. She reasoned "We don't want to do third-party politics which has a stigma in the United States" The First Party, with a populist-progressive agenda, will be the first party that "cares about the people, will work for the people, and will actually be a viable party."
"I have spoken to Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney and the Nader Campaign" and as disillusionment with the two party system increases,"this is the time to build on that energy."
Reflecting on her own chances in unseating incumbent Pelosi, she is pragmatic and acknowledges it has been "upward momentum, the only way we could go" but believes the success of the recent $700 billion bailout proposal could turn the tide in her favour. "When we're out on the streets, we have overwhelming support , especially since this bailout." Sheehan indicates that she notices that "people have a new rage and a new fire in their belly because of the corporate bailout. People are just so angry"
More importantly, some public opinions of her ability to lead have changed, and could indicate a tipping point for the Sheehan Campaign. She notes that responses have been favourable pointing to an email she recently received,"Two weeks ago I thought you should be shot, but now I'm awake, I'm not going to be a slave anymore, and I support what you do."
Sheehan believes that Members of Congress voting in favour of the bill did so at the peril of their own House seats and they have underestimated the voters."I was watching the debates on the House floor and the Congress people kept saying 'my constituents are overwhelmingly against this but I have to do it because it's for the good of the country', what a load of crap!"
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Hoodoo
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Alison Moyet
Release date: 1991-08-27
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10:32 AM
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October 6, 2008 - Monday
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Obama & the Democrats Have Betrayed Us All
Category: News and Politics
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081006_dennis_kucinich_on_the_democrats_bailout_betrayal/
Brad's note : These jackasses in both houses of Congress and of both corrupt corporate owned major political parties should all be tried for treason. For those who argue with me when I factually state that there is practically no difference between Obama and McCain, their arm-twisting of the feeble minded twits in Congress to ensure passage of this heinous bill should serve as ample proof. A vote for Obama or McCain is a vote against America.
Dennis Kucinich on the Democrats' Bailout Betrayal Posted on Oct 5, 2008 ..tr> | | AP photo / Susan Walsh | Rep. Dennis Kucinich does bailout battle in the halls of Congress. | ..table> By Chris Hedges The passing of the $850-billion bailout pulled the plug on the New Deal. The Great Society is now gasping for air, mortally wounded, coughing up blood. It will not recover. It was murdered by the Democratic Party. We are on our own. And don't expect any help from Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who lobbied hard for the bill and voted for it. Ignore their rhetoric. Look coldly at the ballots they cast against us. We, as citizens, have only a handful of representatives left in Washington, most of whom were left sputtering in rage and frustration on the House floor. The sad irony is that some of them were Republican. "This was the largest single act of class warfare in the modern history of this country," Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who led the fight in the House against the bailout, told me by phone from Cleveland. "It is a direct attack on the American people's ability to be able to stabilize their homes and their neighborhoods. This single vote will define the careers of everyone. We are back to taxation without representation, to markets that are openly rigged." "We buried the New Deal," he said of the vote. "Instead of Democrats going back to classic New Deal economics where we prime the pump of the economy and start money circulating among the population through saving homes, creating jobs and building a new infrastructure, our leaders chose to accelerate the wealth of the nation upwards. They did so in a way that was destructive of free-market principles. They ripped away all the familiar moorings. We are in an uncharted sea where the traditional roles of the political parties are being switched. The Democrats have unfortunately become so enamored and beholden to Wall Street that we are not functioning to defend the economic interest of the broad base of the American people. It was up to the Republicans to protect not just a so-called free market but the American taxpayer and attempt to block this. This is an outrage. This was democracy's Black Friday." Obama arrived on the Senate floor Brutus-like to thrust a knife into the back of the working and middle class. He lobbied hard for the bill. He did so, according to some who met with him on Capitol Hill, because he feared that if he opposed the bailout and it triggered a market collapse it could cost him the election. Better to placate the thieves on Wall Street than stand up for the masses of enraged and swindled citizens. Obama's betrayal is the betrayal of the Democratic Party. The Democrats gave us the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which ripped down the firewalls that were put in place by the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act. The 1933 act, designed to prevent the kind of meltdown we are now experiencing, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). It set in place banking reforms to stop speculators from hijacking the financial system. With Glass-Steagall demolished, and the passage of NAFTA, the Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, tumbled gleefully into bed with corporations and Wall Street speculators. They achieved fundraising parity with the Republicans. They used institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a welfare gravy train. The Democrats, including Obama, are as compromised as the Republicans. Obama's voting record in the Senate is in line with the corrupt Democratic mainstream, including Biden, who works on behalf of corporations and especially the credit card industry. Obama knows where power lies in the United States. It is not with the citizens, who with ratios of 100 to 1 pleaded with their representatives in Washington not to loot the national treasury to bail out Wall Street investment firms. Power lies with the corporations. These corporations, not us, pick who runs for president. You cannot be a candidate without their blessing and money. These corporations, including the Commission on Presidential Debates, a private corporation, determine who gets to speak and what issues candidates can or cannot challenge, from universal, not-for-profit, single-payer health care to Wall Street bailouts to NAFTA. If you do not follow the corporate script you become as marginal and invisible as Ralph Nader or Bob Barr or Cynthia McKinney. Obama has always served his corporate masters. He opposed Rep. John Murtha's call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq and supported continued funding for the war. He voted in July 2005 to reauthorize the Patriot Act. He did not support an amendment that was part of a bankruptcy bill that would have capped credit card interest rates at 30 percent. He opposed a bill that would have reformed the notorious Mining Law of 1872, which allows mineral companies to rape federal land for profit. He did not back the single-payer health care bill HR 676, sponsored by Kucinich and John Conyers. He advocates the death penalty and nuclear power. He backed the class-action "reform" bill—the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA)—that was part of a large lobbying effort by financial firms, which make up Obama's second-biggest single bloc of donors. CAFA would effectively shut down state courts as a venue to hear most class-action lawsuits. Workers, under CAFA, would no longer have redress in many of the courts where these cases have a chance of defying powerful corporations. CAFA moves these cases into corporate-friendly federal courts dominated by Republican judges.
Obama's support for the bailout, however, is his most egregious betrayal. He had a brief, shining moment to prove he could lead, to capitalize on a popular revolt that cut across the political spectrum. He never attempted to address or mobilize the aspirations and passions of the vast majority of Americans. He was as craven, servile and cowardly as the party he represents. He returned to the campaign trail after Friday's vote as a slick and polished sales representative for our corporate state, telling us to calm down and accept the inevitable. "Some of the most powerful speeches against this were given by members of the Republican Party who are on the political right," Kucinich said. "They did a superb job in poking holes in the underlying assumptions of the bailout. They say what they believe. Give me somebody who says what they believe and I can figure out how to get them to a new place. When people say one thing and do another it is very hard to be able to move a debate." So let us honor, in our moment of defeat, the handful of elected officials who valiantly defied their party leaderships in the House to stage a remarkable revolt that at first succeeded. Kucinich is one. There were others—Brad Sherman, Marcy Kaptur, Peter DeFazio, Lloyd Doggett and Robert C. "Bobby" Scott. They are about all that is left of the old Democratic Party, the party that once looked out for the poor and the working class. Send them a note of thanks. They deserve it. And if you live in their districts make sure you get to the polls in November. They did not sell you out. "We had two take-it-or-leave-it propositions and the second one was worse than the first," Kucinich said, referring to the plan that came loaded with pages of tax cuts. "Tax cuts are antithetical to a bailout. We never solved the problem. There were never any hearings on the bill. This premise, that we could prop up the stock market with a $700-billion investment and create some liquidity, was flawed. The problem is that banks do not want to loan to each other. It is not a liquidity problem. Banks are afraid they are going to collapse in short selling. There is a war going on between security firms and banks. Banks are under assault. They are not loaning. The dynamic is driven by the Accounting Standards Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Fed." The root of the financial crisis, as critics of the bailout plan point out, is that millions of homeowners cannot pay their mortgages. The bailout, as the market decline on Friday following the vote illustrated, does not address the crisis. It solves nothing for the 10 million Americans who face foreclosure. It solves nothing for the growing numbers of unemployed and underemployed. It may well be the equivalent of tossing $850 billion of taxpayer money (including $150 billion in tax cuts) into a furnace and watching passively as our economy continues its plunge. "We face a perfect financial storm," Kucinich warned. "The elements are the deficit spending for the war of 3 to 4 trillion dollars, the trillion and more tax cuts, the war itself and the lack of serious investment in the country. We are being hollowed out. We are going to see more unemployment and more people losing their homes. With $700 billion we could have made a real investment in the country, in jobs, in infrastructure and in homes. Instead, we got robbed."
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Ta-Dah
By
Scissor Sisters
Release date: 2006-09-26
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11:07 PM
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Nearly a Quarter of the World’s Mammals Face Extinction
Category: News and Politics
http://www.truthout.org/100608EA
Brad's note : This makes my heart sink. What are we doing to our precious planet?
Monday 06 October 2008 » by: Ian Sample, The Guardian UK 
Polar bears in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Photo: Reuters)
Nearly a quarter of the world's land mammal species are at risk of extinction, and many others may vanish before they are even known to science, according to a major annual survey of global wildlife. At least 1,141 of the 5,487 known species of mammal are threatened, with 188 listed in the highest risk "critically endangered" category. One in three marine mammals are also threatened, according to the five year review. The "red list" assessment, conducted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), involved more than 1,700 experts in 130 countries, and confirms the devastating impact of forest clearing, hunting, fisheries, pollution and climate change on the populations and ranges of the world's most studied class of animals. Jan Schipper, the director of the global mammals assessment, a partnership between Conservation International and the IUCN, called for countries to be held responsible for the fate of fauna within their borders and the establishment of an international coalition to save species that cross national boundaries. "We're looking at a 25% decline over the long term, yet for mammals there is no bail out plan. There is no long term conservation strategy that is going to prevent species extinction in the future," he said. "As human beings, we should be ensuring that we don't cause other species to go extinct." Disturbingly, the figures are likely to be a conservative estimate, because scientists have insufficient data on 836 species to even classify how threatened they are. If these are all at risk, it would mean 36% of the world's mammal species are in danger of becoming extinct. Among the critically endangered species is the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), with only 84 to 143 adults remaining. Experts believe 29 others may already have become extinct, including the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin, and the little Earth hutia, a small rodent endemic to islands off Cuba, which has not been seen in nearly 40 years. Two species, the Scimitar-horned oryx and PËre David's deer are extinct in the wild, and only live on in captivity. Many species, such as the grey wolf and brown bear, have experienced substantial population declines and seen their ranges contract as their natural habitats have been destroyed. More than half of the world's mammal species for which trends are known are in decline, the report found. "We are getting far too used to seeing these reports bemoaning the fate of the planet or the decline of animals. I am really concerned that we have become deadened to this sort of depressing information and now simply ignore it without stopping to think about the implications," said Mark Wright, chief scientist at WWF. "The IUCN report shows that, with our ill-considered management of the Earth and its resources, we are threatening the future of wildlife and nature and denying our children the chance to experience what we have experienced." The survey, which is published by the journal Science today, identifies extinction hotspots where vast numbers of species are under threat. Typically, these are regions with a rich diversity of species that all face a similar threat to their environment. Threatened land mammals are concentrated in south and south-east Asia. There, a staggering 79% of monkeys and apes face extinction. Other hotspots include the tropical Andes, the Cameroonian highlands, the Albertine rift and the Western Ghats in India. "Often, there is habitat loss from deforestation, either for farming or timber, and that leaves the animals living on small patches of land. Then, on top of that, you have hunting, with an enormous number of people who are entirely reliant on natural resources to feed themselves. That has really set up a perfect storm over south-east Asia," said Schipper. The greatest threats to marine mammals are being caught in fishing nets or being struck by shipping vessels, although for the Yangtze river dolphin, pollution is a major contributor. Climate change is already having an impact on amphibians and plant life, but it is expected to put increasing pressure on mammals too, either by destroying their environment, such as the Arctic ice sheets that are home to polar bears, or by forcing their prey elsewhere. Among the most threatened mammals are those only recently discovered. Since 1992, 349 new mammal species have been identified, but 51% of these face extinction, compared with 23% of species known prior to 1992. "Species may be vanishing even before they are known to science," the scientists write in the journal. There is a glimmer of hope among the bleak assessment. At least 5% of the currently threatened species now have stable or rising populations, many of which are the focus of huge conservation efforts. Populations of the European bison and black-footed ferret are both recovering. "The problem we face is that without the political and public will to spend money on species conservation we are pressed up against the wall," said Schipper. "By making this data public, we're hoping it'll reach the people who make decisions about where money is spent."
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Ta-Dah
By
Scissor Sisters
Release date: 2006-09-26
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11:00 PM
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