No Coincidence !

 

The "El Diablo" hand sign often is con-fused with the deaf hand signal of the phrase, "I love you."  While at first this appears an odd resemblance, we register an "ahh, I get it!" emotion when we discover that the person who invented, or created, the hand sign system for the deaf, Helen Keller, was herself an occultist and Theosophist. Did Keller purposely design the deaf's "I love you" sign to be such a remarkable imitation of the classic sign of Satan? Was Keller saying, basically, "I love you, Devil?" -Texe Marrs (See CODEX MAGICA).

"She invented over 60 different signs by which she could talk to her family before the age of seven.  For example, if she wanted ice cream she would wrap her arms around herself and pretend to shiver." -SOURCE

Coincidence? see all examples on Signs of Satan!

Earth's Magnetic Field Reversals Illuminated By Lava Flows Study

Earth's north magnetic pole is shifting and weakening. Ancient lava flows are guiding a better understanding of what generates and controls the Earth's magnetic field – and what may drive it to occasionally reverse direction.

The main magnetic field, generated by turbulent currents within the deep mass of molten iron of the Earth's outer core, periodically flips its direction, such that a compass needle would point south rather than north. Such polarity reversals have occurred hundreds of times at irregular intervals throughout the planet's history – most recently about 780,000 years ago – but scientists are still trying to understand how and why.

Science Daily

NWO Halloween Costumes for the Kids

Back in the day, kids dressed up like monsters, super heroes, or the Hulk… now they dress up like minions of the NWO as they go door to door and trick or treat.

I guess it’s all part of getting the little ones accustomed to the police state, now barrelling down on us like a runaway freight train. It’s also a good way to prepare them for the jobs of the future.

I didn’t see a prison guard uniform, although there is one for a prisoner. Maybe next year…

Images from Celebrate Express, Inc. catalog

Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

Big Financiers Start Lobbying in US for Wider Aid

 

Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions.

NYTimes.com and The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning (www.michaelmoore.com)

New Arms Race between Russia and USA may trigger Star Wars

“Reagan once managed to get Russia involved in the arms race with the help of the “star wars program.” The race aggravated the crisis inside the USSR against the background of the unfavourable global situation with fuel and the USSR’s war in Afghanistan, which eventually made the country collapse”

“Moscow’s goal today is to avoid the repetition of such scenario. Medvedev and Putin speak about modernization today, but they stand against militarization. The experience of Western countries shows that it is possible to promote serious military and technical programs and develop the market economy at that. However, if a country, whose military potential does not withstand competition with the US defense budget, becomes involved in an uncontrollable arms race, the country will then resort to mobilization and cut economic and social spending. This is a highly undesirable variant”

In February of 2008, Russia and China presented a joint project of a new international treaty to prevent arms race in space. The draft document touched upon the deployment of not only conventional, but nuclear weapons in space. In May of 2008, Moscow and Beijing made a joint statement for the peaceful use of space and set out their stance against the deployment of weapons in space and against an arms space in space in general.

“Two other constant members of the UN Security Council – Britain and France – are not likely to do anything against the USA as far as issues of space militarization are concerned”   Pravda.Ru

Farming roots of Belarussia's leader

As Belarus - described by the US as the last dictatorship in Europe - prepares to hold parliamentary elections, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse traces the roots of its President, Alexander Lukashenko, to a farm in the village of Gorodets.

The collective farm is a two-hour drive from the Belarussian capital, Minsk.

There are hundreds of cows, feeding, waiting to be milked.

It was here, in the dying years of the Soviet Union, amid the mud, the tractors and the smell of manure, that Alexander Lukashenko cut his political teeth before he was first elected president in 1994.

"He was a strict boss," says Tamara Krotikova, who worked on the farm in the days when the president was the manager here in the late 1980s. "A strict boss, but a good man," she adds.

As for her life, Ms Krotikova said it was getting better all the time.

All she needs, she says, is a little more money - her pension is just about $100 (£54) per month. So, who would she be voting for in these elections?

"There's only one person who can raise our pension and that's Lukashenko - only if he gives the order," she says.

"As for the rest of them, they're not going to give us anything, whatever their name is. The president makes the laws and we obey them."   BBC NEWS

The Order Electrus

This film was selected for HAFF's 2006 student competition. The astonishing power of the evolution brought forth a new insect species. Electrical insects or the order electrus.

Holland Animation Film Festival

How Sarah Palin Rallied Pakistan's Feminists

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari would have expected that his interactions with American leaders in New York this week could bring trouble at home. After all, relations between the two countries are as tense as they've ever been, erupting into an exchange of fire between U.S. and Pakistani forces along the Afghan border on Thursday. But the meeting that appears to have gotten the Pakistani leader into more trouble than any other was a brief encounter with Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.

Zardari met Palin on Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where Zardari was making his debut on the world stage and Palin was meeting with visiting heads of state in the hope of improving her much-derided foreign policy credentials. The resulting exchange turned Palin into a household name in Pakistan, but saw Zardari pilloried at home as a source of national embarrassment and accused of sexism and impropriety. (See photos of Sarah Palin here.)

 

In footage now being endlessly replayed on local cable channels and on YouTube, Palin is seen rising to introduce herself as Zardari enters, dressed in one of his signature flashy tailored suits. As custom demands, the two grip each other's hands and shake them animatedly before the cameras. But it is the remarks that follow that got Zardari into hot water back home.

TIME

NKorea may already have nuclear warheads

North Korea has likely mastered the technology for arming its missiles with nuclear warheads, a former US intelligence official said Friday.

"The fact that they have a warhead that's fitable to the Rodong (ballistic missile) is pretty much given," said Arthur Brown, who until 2005 was National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

"We (the United States) went from nothing to missile capable in seven years. The Russians went from their first test to missile capable in six... Why do we think the North Koreans can't have that kind of technology?"

What was unclear was how much uranium and, or, plutonium North Korea possessed and how much they need for each of their weapons, he told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

Spacewar.com and Wikipedia

Russia navy to fight Somali pirates

Russia has dispatched a warship to the pirate-ridden waters off Somalia, after a Ukrainian freighter was seized on Thursday.

The Belize-flagged Faina with a crew of 21 people and a cargo that reportedly included battle tanks and armoured vehicle spares, was hijacked while on its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers Assistance Programme said the cargo ship had been transporting 2,320 tonnes of military hardware from the Baltic.

Igor Dygalo, Russia's Navy spokesman, said their frigate, the Neustrashimy (Fearless), was dispatched on Friday in response to "the rise in pirate attacks, including against Russian citizens".

"In the future, the Russian navy will send its ships on a regular basis to zones where there is a danger from maritime piracy," Dygalo told Russia's Vesti-24 television station.

Al Jazeera

Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain

This is the "REAL" John McCain in living color seen belittling Delores Alfond, head of the National Alliance of POW/MIA whose brother went missing in action in Vietnam . . .

Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain

“We need a new Global Monetary Authority”

A Council on Foreign Relations member and former policy planner under prominent Bilderberger Henry Kissinger has penned a piece in the Financial Times of London calling for a “new global monetary authority” that would have the power to monitor all national financial authorities and all large global financial companies.

“Even if the US’s massive financial rescue operation succeeds, it should be followed by something even more far-reaching – the establishment of a Global Monetary Authority to oversee markets that have become borderless.” writes Jeffrey Garten, also a former managing director of Lehman Brothers.

Garten, now a professor of business at Yale, served on the policy planning staff of Kissinger during his time as Secretary of State. He also served on the White House Council on International Economic Policy under the Nixon administration and went on to become the Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade under Bill Clinton.

Citing “globalization”, A “clash of philosophies” and the “vacuum at the centre” of the current global institutional apparatus, Garten describes his vision for a new monolithic world authority to oversee all financial activity around the globe.

More on Infowars and Financial Times

who cares

made for HTBT.TV (2007)

Israelis, McCain Neocons Behind Anti-Islam “Obsession” DVD

If McCain is elected in November, come January we will see a continuation of the neocon “clash of civilizations” agenda, likely culminating in an attack launched against Iran and possibly Syria. In order to stir up anti-Islam sentiment in the long and artificially elongated wake of September 11, 2001, and stampede voters into McCain’s camp, the neocons have released “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” a virulent and misleading propaganda DVD. As reported earlier this month, the DVD was targeted at nearly 28 million households in swing or “battleground” election states. It was inserted into more than 70 US newspapers. The DVD was produced and distributed by the Clarion Fund.

As Ali Gharib, Eli Clifton, and Jim Lobe report, the DVD was a collaborative effort between a “group of hard-line US neoconservatives and former Israeli diplomats.” The Clarion Fund, tied closely to an Israeli organization called Aish Hatorah, teamed up with the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) to produce the video. Aish Hatorah, an Orthodox organization and yeshiva, shares an address with the Clarion Fund.  Infowars

David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign

Terror laws are attack on all our freedoms, says spy writer Le Carré in furious tirade against ministers

Spy novelist John Le Carré has criticised the (UK) Govern-ment for 'stripping' away British civil liberties due to the threat of terrorism.

The 76-year-old author and former MI6 agent, who rarely speaks publicly, slammed ministers for voting to extend the 42-day limit that terror suspects can be held without charge.

Le Carré, who admitted he had been labelled an 'angry old man', said: 'Partly I'm so angry that there is so little anger around me at what is being done to our society, supposedly to protect it.

'We have been taken to war under false pretences, and stripped of our civil liberties in an atmosphere of panic.

'Our lawyers don't take to the streets as they have in Pakistan. Our MPs allow themselves to be deluded by their own spin doctors, and end up believing their own propaganda'  Mail Online & John le Carré Official Author's Website

China set for spacewalk mission

Three Chinese astronauts are preparing to blast off from a remote launch site in western China on a mission that will include the country's first ever spacewalk.

The three-day journey into space is being touted as another giant leap for China's ambitious space programme, which has plans to build a space station and eventually put Chinese astronauts on the moon.

The flight on board the Shenzhou VII spacecraft is only China's third manned spaceflight, but it will be the first to carry the capsule's full complement of three astronauts.

The spacecraft is set for launch between 9:07pm and 10:27pm (13:07 and 14:27 GMT) on Thursday evening from the Jiuquan space centre in China's northwestern Gansu province.

Al Jazeera

Helping ‘people at home’ may become a permanent part of the active US Army

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

Army Times and 911 Truth

Oct. 1st 2008; Martial Law in the USA

From this channel: “Our mission is to inform Americans of the growing threat to our Constitutional Republic by the global elite. The illusion of left and right politics in America is only a distraction to keep Americans looking in the wrong direction, while the Globalists create their New World Order. We all must expose the real truth about what really happened on 911 and its implications to our freedoms under the Patriot Act.” More on Hear the truth America

Free Sarah Palin

 

CNN's Hosts Loses It, Flips Out on McCain Team For Being "Sexist" and Sheltering Sarah Palin

Gay Bosnia

Walking along any main street in Bosnia, an observer could be forgiven for thinking Bosnians are relaxed about homosexuality. Women hold hands as they stroll, and it’s common for a man to sit at a sidewalk café with a hand on a male friend’s thigh.
This tactile culture hides a strong traditional belief--often promoted by Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim clerics--that homosexuality is a disease.
“I asked my priest if I was welcome in church as a gay man. He told me I should fight my illness and come back when I was cured. I can no longer go,” Milan says.
Bosnians may have fought a war over ethnic and religious differences, but they are united in their fear and distrust of homosexuality. This puts people like Milan in a very stressful position. Gay Bosnia

Also see: Hooligans hurl stones at Bosnia's first gay fest and Go West, a highly controversial Bosnian film about a gay couple trying to survive the Bosnian conflict.

US Bailout is financial equivalent of the Patriot Act

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency," the original draft of the proposed bill says.

And with those words, the US Treasury secretary - whoever that may be in a few months - would be vested with perhaps the most incredible powers ever bestowed on one person over the economic and financial life of the United States. It is the financial equivalent of the Patriot Act, after 9/11.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr.'s $700 billion proposal to bail out Wall Street is both the biggest rescue and the most amazing power grab in the history of the American economy.

International Herald Tribune

Project Hostile Intent

Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect "hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works.

Project Hostile Intent as it was called aimed to help security staff choose who to pull over for a gently probing interview - or more.
Commentators slated the idea that sensors could spot people up to no good from their pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, or fleeting facial expressions. One likened it to the "pre-crime" units that predict criminal behaviour in the movie Minority Report.
However, last week, the DHS science unit gave an update on the project, now dubbed the less-hostile-sounding Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) programme. And, if DHS claims are to be believed, the research appears to be getting somewhere.

At an equestrian centre in Maryland, 140 paid volunteers walked through a pair of trailers kitted out with a battery of FAST sensors, including cameras, infrared heat sensors and an eyesafe laser radar, called a Bio-Lidar, that measures pulse and breathing rate from a distance. New Scientist 

Also see Project Hostile Intent on Wikipedia

Slacker Uprising

Full movie - Michael Moore's New Movie

To Serve and Protect

They all should read this book…

Extinct tortoise 'can live again'

An extinct Galapagos tortoise species could walk again, scientists believe.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report finding relatives of Geochelone elephantopus alive and well.

Cross-breeding these living tortoises might re-create the extinct species - though it could take a century.

The distribution of related tortoises between the islands was one of the pieces of evidence Charles Darwin used in formulating his theory of evolution.   BBC NEWS

U.S. Army and the High Speed Portable Portal Iris Scan

Sarnoff Corporation today announced it has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to develop and demonstrate a high speed biometric capture technology solution for iris-based identification. The system will be designed to be ruggedized for field use and quickly deployable.
The new iris recognition system will leverage Sarnoff's patent-pending Iris on the Move(R) (IOM) technology for fast and reliable identification. IOM is a proven biometric identification system that quickly captures the iris image of a person in motion. The technology is ideally suited for force protection, civil-military operations, and combat situations.

More about this on GEN and on sarnoff.com

Iris on the Move is available in three unique configurations that fit a wide range of applications.

• Portal System: With a throughput speed of 30 people per minute, the Portal suits applications that require the processing of large numbers of people in a short amount of time
• Drive-Through System: Using Pan-Tilt-Zoom technology to capture iris images at varying heights, this system eliminates the need for drivers to exit their vehicles
• Compact System: With a miniaturized design, the system is idea for areas where space is an issue while still maintaining the ability to capture iris images from moving subjects

Wing sings "Mama Mia"

Wing Han Tsang (曾詠韓), the singer popularly known as Wing, has in a few short years achieved world-wide fame and a cult following that transcends borders and languages. When Wing sings, you cannot miss her sincerity and the pure joy she has for singing. With her unique voice and determined spirit, she has achieved what many singers can only dream of doing.... More on Wing’s official website (don’t miss the samples, like CD 10: Wing Sings AC/DC)

Police officer explaining graffiti

Good explanation by expert Police Officer Ken Utter, Connecticut, USA.

What Was Mysterious Activity Going on in the Marriott Hotel Islamabad by United States Marines

Marriott Hotel has now become a ghost house which was yesterday the most beautiful and prestigious hotels in the Islamabad. While the condemnation of the blasts and the deaths and the loss of property is going on from all the quarters, some intriguing news is also pouring in.

After the blast, mysteriously fire was started at the fourth and fifth floors. It was said that this fire was the result of gas pipeline burst running through the hotel. The million dollar question is that was the gas pipeline not running through the other floors? Why the fire broke out from the fourth and fifth flours? That is the question which perhaps holds the key to the mystery as why the hotel was targeted yesterday, in which more than 60 people died including many foreigners.

Though it would never get confirmed but the fire on the fifth and fourth floor of the hotel broke out because those flours were housing the mysterious steel boxes under the heavy guard of United States marines and no one including the Pakistani security forces and the security men of the hotel were allowed to go near with the them. These boxes were shifted inside the hotel when the Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad

More on the Pakistan Daily

Also see The Guardian and Pakistan Troops Open Fire on U.S. Choppers on Fox

China's Secret: Hidden Uyghur-Turk Pyramids

Those are over 100 pyramids, made of clay, have become nearly stone hard over the centuries. Many are damaged by erosion or farming. One pyramid is as large as the Pyramid of the Sun of Teotihuacan in Mexico (which is as large as the Great Pyramid of Giza). The big pyramid is about 1,000 feet high (other descriptions estimate 1,000 to 1,200 feet high) and roughly 1,500 feet at the base, which makes it twice as large as any pyramid in Egypt. Most are flat topped, some have small temples on top.

More info on YouTube

The UN and the End of Anonymous Internet Communications

An alarming report shows that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency that coordinates global telephony policy, is quietly working to make anonymous Internet use impossible. 

The ITU’s "IP Traceback" proposal would enable governments (and some big companies) to spy on every individual’s Internet use via embedding specific technical standards in Internet communications protocols.  The surveillance proposal was originally sponsored by the Chinese government, but now the US National Security Agency (NSA) is one of it’s biggest proponents.   Companies such as Cisco Systems and VeriSign are also working closely with the ITU, NSA, and Chinese government to install this global spy network in the "Q6/17 Drafting Group". 

Anonymous communication is a well-recognized  and protected legal right in international treaties (such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and many national constitutions (such as the US), so it is deeply concerning that these governments are undermining the rights of their citizenry to communicate via the Internet.

Here are some more sources of information about the development of the standard directly from the ITU:

Rutkowski: IP traceback & callerID (pdf)

ITU meeting docs

source: IP Justice

Also see: Remaining Anonymous on the Internet Might Soon Disappear! U.N. Agency Eyes Curbs on Internet Anonymity – Loose Change

The Free Gaza Movement

Two small boats, the SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty, successfully landed in Gaza early this evening, breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The boats were crewed by a determined group of international human rights workers from the Free Gaza Movement. They had spent two years organizing the effort, raising money by giving small presentations at churches, mosques, synagogues, and in the homes of family, friends, and supporters.

They left Cyprus on Thursday morning, sailing over 350 kilometers through choppy seas. They made the journey despite threats that the Israeli government would use force to stop them. They continued sailing although they lost almost all communications and navigation systems due to outside jamming by some unknown party. They arrived in Gaza to the cheers and joyful tears of hundreds of Palestinians who came out to the beaches to welcome them.

Two small boats, 42 determined human rights workers, one simple message: “The world has not forgotten the people of this land. Today, we are all from Gaza.”

The Free Gaza Movement

Global Warming

"Smells Like Marijuana"

 

Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans

More than half of all Americans believe they have been helped by a guardian angel in the course of their lives, according to a new poll by the Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion.
In a poll of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, "I was protected from harm by a guardian angel." The responses defied standard class and denominational assumptions about religious belief; the majority held up regardless of denomination, region or education — though the figure was a little lower (37%) among respondents earning more than $150,000 a year.

More on TIME

ANC begins talks on ousting Mbeki

President Thabo Mbeki's political future hung in the balance yesterday as South Africa's ruling party debated whether to force him from office and a leading former judge said he should be put on trial for allegedly misusing his power to try to imprison the man likely to succeed him, Jacob Zuma.

The African National Congress national executive began a three-day meeting at which Mbeki's future will be decided after a high court judge accused the president and senior justice officials of being part of an illegal conspiracy to charge Zuma, the ANC's president, with corruption for political ends.

Mbeki's critics were lobbying hard for his removal, although earlier in the week Zuma was more cautious. South Africa's influential council of churches warned that ousting Mbeki could create chaos.

The Guardian

Proof of Aliens on the Moon

NASA did go to the moon, but then were told to never come back.

Wrongly convicted rape defendant freed after 26 years

Johnnie Earl Lindsey is a free man.

The wrongfully convicted rapist walked out of a Dallas courtroom this morning, nearly 26 years after a jury convicted him based on erroneous, eye witness identification.

A jury convicted Mr. Lindsey, now 56, of sexually assaulting a woman near White Rock Lake in 1981. DNA tests proved that he was not the man responsible.

After thanking state District Judge Larry Mitchell and his attorney Michelle Moore, Mr. Lindsey turned to the crowd in the courtroom and was introduced to his son, Johnnie "Jay" Cooper. Mr. Cooper, 27, was barely 1 when his father went to prison.

Sitting in the back corner of the courtroom, Mr. Cooper did not speak. Tears ran down his face as he looked at the stranger he's been told is his father.

Mr. Lindsey went to him, hugged him and whispered, "It's going to be alright."

Mr. Lindsey became the 19th man cleared by DNA testing in Dallas County since 2001, when the Legislature began allowing post-conviction DNA testing.

Dallas Morning News

List of Chinese dissidents on Wikipedia

Many Chinese political activists have been detained or jailed or exiled for their pro-democracy activities.

Among them are (period of detention in brackets, followed by current status):

• Bao Tong (1989 - ?) Imprisoned in 1992-1996 and under house arrest
• Bao Zunxin
• Gao Xingjian
• Gao Zhisheng
• He Depu
• Hu Jia
• Huang Qi (2000 - ?) Sentenced to five years jail in 2003
• Jiang Lijun
• Jiang Yanyong (2004 - 2004) Released without charge
• Li Hai (de:Li Hai) Sentenced to nine years jail in 1995
• Li Zhi
• Liu Di (2002 - 2003) Released without charge
• Liu Xiaobo
• Lu Jiamin
• Shi Tao
• Wang Dan (1989 - ?) and (1995 - 1998) Exiled to USA
• Wang Youcai (1989-?) and (1998- 2004) Exiled to USA
• Wei Jingsheng (1979(?) - 1997) Released; emigrated to USA
• Zhao Changqing - Sentenced in July 2003 to 5 years imprisonment.
• Wang Xiaoning (2002 -)Sentenced to 10 years in a Chinese Prison.
• Wang Wenyi
• Yuan Hongbing

The list goes on on Wikipedia

Wang Xiaoning and his wife

More about Chinese dissidents on Chinasite.com and the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China

War and Drought Threaten Afghan Food Supply

A pitiable harvest this year has left small farmers all over central and northern Afghanistan facing hunger, and aid officials are warning of an acute food shortage this winter for nine million Afghans, more than a quarter of the population.

The crisis has been generated by the harshest winter in memory, followed by a drought across much of the country, which come on top of the broader problems of deteriorating security, the accumulated pressure of returning refugees and the effects of rising world food prices.

The failure of the Afghan government and foreign donors to develop the country’s main economic sector, agriculture, has compounded the problems, the officials say. They warn that the food crisis could make an already bad security situation worse.

NYTimes.com

'The World As We Know It Is Going Down'

Panic is the word of the hour on Wall Street. Now even Morgan Stanley is fighting for survival. The commercial bank Wachovia and China's Bank Citic are being discussed as possible rescuers. The crisis has led President Bush to cancel a trip.
For traders, now might just be the worst of times.The original plan actually called for humor. On Wednesday evening, actress Christy Carlson Romano was supposed to ring the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to mark her debut in the Broadway musical "Avenue Q." She plays two roles on stage -- a romantic kindergarten assistant, and a slutty nightclub singer.
After that day on the floor, the stock traders could have used a bit of comic relief. But it was not to be. Instead of Christy Carlson Romano, a NYSE employee in a joyless gray suit stood on the balcony and silently pressed a button. The bell rang and he disappeared. No waving, no clapping, none of the usual jubilation.
By the end of Wednesday, no one here was in the mood for laughter. The bad news on Wall Street was coming thick and fast. All the US indexes were crashing again after Tuesday's brief and deceptive breather. In its wild, rollercoaster ride, the Dow Jones lost about 450 points, which was almost as much as it lost on Monday, the most catastrophic day on US markets since 2001. More on Spiegel Online

Another US Missile Strike in Pakistan Provokes Anger

A U.S. missile strike Wednesday in Pakistan further inflamed relations between the two anti-terrorism allies, just hours after the American military chief vowed to "respect Pakistan's sovereignty."

The strike against suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal area, which runs along the Afghan border, is thought to be the sixth such attack this month. It came as Washington is demanding that Islamabad do more to prevent Taliban and al Qaida extremists from using its territory.

Pakistani leaders have condemned the U.S. military interventions, which include the first documented American ground raid in the country earlier this month. The strikes have caused an uproar in Pakistan.

Four missiles were fired from unmanned U.S. aircraft Wednesday at a suspected militant hideout at around 7 p.m. local time in a village in South Waziristan, killing at least six people, according to a local security official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to talk to journalists.

More on Truth Out

'Smoking police' will hound smokers at bus stops to get them to quit

UK Smokers will be stopped in the street and asked to take a carbon monoxide test in London's most hard-hitting anti-smoking campaign.

'Smoking police' will target people at betting shops, bus stops and shopping centres to shock them into giving up cigarettes.

They will be asked to breathe into a monitor to show how much carbon monoxide is in their bodies, and could then be signed up to local stop-smoking services and given access to counsellors.

Pro-smoking group Forest described the campaign as a humiliating infringement of civil liberties.

Ealing Primary Care Trust, which is funding the £75,000 scheme, said it could help 2,400 people to give up.

A team of 11 young people have been employed to approach smokers, in a similar way to charity fund-raisers  -  nicknamed 'chuggers'  -  who ask passers-by for donations.  Mail Online

Dennis Leary - No Cure For Cancer (whole 62 min show)

The unravelling of a plot; a catastrophe….

Last Friday, there were five globe-bestriding Wall Street investment banks. Today there are three. Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old financial colossus, is headed for bankruptcy and oblivion. Merrill Lynch, which was following the same trajectory, was bought by Bank of America.

Tellingly, the markets greeted that acquisition by selling off Bank of America shares, despite CEO Ken Lewis’s happy prattle about the "synergies" supposedly catalyzed by this buy-out. Likewise, the bank’s credit rating took a hit following the transaction. This is exactly the opposite of what we would expect to see when one business demonstrates its vitality by purchasing another. In this case, however, it is well understood that BofA wasn’t gaining assets, but rather taking on an infection.

And there are at least 1,000 more banks headed over the edge, as well….

More on Infowars but it's fun to also see www.dealbreaker.com...

YouTube's Mass Censorship (S1959)

If we don't stop this here at YouTube and raise a HUGE CONCERN right now - the US will pass S1959. They will rationalize that we will ACCEPT the censorship and go further. While the request of Senator Lieberman SEEMS reasonable the bill itself has so many holes that you could interpret it MANY different ways. There are videos on this - I suggest you watch them or go to http://www.USA180.org and look at our analysis of the bill itself. We have to act NOW and get this message EVERYWHERE. Create your own video. ACT!

American Drug War

AMERICAN DRUG WAR shows how money, power and greed have corrupted not just dope fiends but an entire government. More importantly, it shows what can be done about it. This is not some 'pro-drug' stoner film, but a collection of expert testimonials from the ground troops on the front lines of the drug war, the ones who are fighting it and the ones who are living it. A film by by Kevin Booth.

In 12 parts (click here for other parts) and click here for the You Tube Channel or website

What do Opponents of Capitalism make of the Credit Crunch?

Daniel Cohn-Bendit was leader of the May 1968 student protests in Paris:

"This financial crisis is for capitalist neo-liberals what Chernobyl was for the nuclear lobby. It's a catastrophe. I hope we all learn lessons from it. But am I optimistic that we will? That's another question. To think that the biggest neo-liberal nation in the world would start nationalising banks ... we're rubbing our eyes in disbelief.

It's not the end of capitalism because capitalism has always had the intelligence to reform itself. It will be the end of capitalism when it's incapable of reforming. However, the belief that the market is god is over. It must now be regulated.

We fought for 20 years to bring attention to climate change. It took us a while, but we were right. This crisis will help us in our arguments for sustainable development - that we need a balance between the environment, society and the economy - but I get no joy from it; it saddens me deeply. Ordinary people lose everything, while the big bankers themselves walk away with millions."

Read what other opponents of capitalism make of the credit crunch? - The Guardian

Group With Big Pharma Ties Wants to Shut Down Vaccine “Conspiracy Theories”

Kingpins of Military-Industrial complex say they will "brand" websites they consider "trustworthy and reliable sources of information"

A foundation populated by the giants of business, banking, government and military wants to "vet" websites and limit the spread of information that it says creates "conspiracy theories".

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), fronted by Internet creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee, says it is worried about the way the web has been "used to spread disinformation".

Speaking to the BBC, Berners-Lee said that there needed to be a new system that would give websites a "label for trustworthiness" once they had been proved reliable sources. Only then would the rise of "cult thinking" be avoided according to Berners-Lee.  Infowars

Remember Eisenhower in 1961:

'Mickey Mouse Must Die'

 

The Shari'a refers to the mouse as "little corrupter," and says it is permissible to kill it in all cases. It says that mice set fire to the house, and are steered by Satan. The mouse is one of Satan's soldiers and is steered by him.

Even creatures that are repulsive by nature, by logic, and according to Islamic law have become wonderful and are loved by children. Even mice. Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases.  LiveLeak.com

The fruit of hypocrisy

Houses of cards, chickens coming home to roost - pick your cliche. The new low in the financial crisis, which has prompted comparisons with the 1929 Wall Street crash, is the fruit of a pattern of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions, and incompetence on the part of policymakers.

We had become accustomed to the hypocrisy. The banks reject any suggestion they should face regulation, rebuff any move towards anti-trust measures - yet when trouble strikes, all of a sudden they demand state intervention: they must be bailed out; they are too big, too important to be allowed to fail.

Read it all at Joseph Stiglitz: The financial crisis is the fruit of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions - The Guardian

Saudi clerics want death penalty for TV owners

Two senior Saudi clerics have issued fatwas calling for the owners of Arab television channels that broadcast shows promoting magic, debauchery and vice to be tried in court and face the death penalty.
Another senior cleric, Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan, weighed in on Sunday in response to the furor ignited by his colleague and condemned horoscope and advice shows as equivalent to sorcery and therefore apostasy worthy of the death penalty.

"Sorcerers who appear on satellite channels who are proven to be sorcerers have committed a great crime ... and the Muslim consensus is that the apostate's punishment is death by the sword," Fozan told the daily al-Madina newspaper
"Those who call in to these shows should not be accorded Muslim rites when they die," the prominent cleric added.

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