A Brief Reprieve on FISA: What Now?

But Why Did 94 House Democrats Change Their Votes on FISA?


June 25th, 2008 by DAMOZEL

In March, , the House passed an amendment that rejected retroactive immunity for telecoms that assisted the NSA in illegal wiretapping. Most of us have wondered what happened to change the minds of 94 Democrats. What happened between June 20 and March 14 to change 94 Democratic hearts and minds?

The answer might well be simple: money. Could it be that simple?

MAPLight.org has published a breakdown of contributions received from Telco PACS by the 94 Dems who experienced the change of heart. [Maplight.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Berkeley, California. Its search engine at MAPLight.org illuminates the connection between Money And Politics (MAP) via an unprecedented database of campaign contributions and legislative outcomes.’]

Here’s the bottom line:

Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:

$8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
$4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)

88 percent of the Dems who changed to supporting immunity (83 Dems
of the 94) received PAC contributions from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint
during the last three years (Jan. 2005-Mar. 2008). ( MAPLight.org)

Of course the average amount received is a bit misleading. A few of the very prominent Dems who changed their votes took a lot more than $8000. According to this website,

Nancy Pelosi [CA], Speaker of the House, allegedly received $24,500.

Steny Hoyer [MD] allegedly received $29,000.

James Clyburn [SC] allegedly received $29,500.

Rahm Emanuel [IL] allegedly received $28,000.

Frederick Boucher [VA] allegedly received $27,500.

Gregory Meeks [NY] allegedly received $26,000.


A Brief Reprieve on FISA: What Now?


November 23, 2007

Your cellphone with its GPS receiver is a great way for criminals and all of us to be tracked by the police and whomever else wants to track us with or without a court order. You didn't use those Civil Liberties anyway! Even on TV they always say on cop shows that they need to read the suspects their Miranda Rights and a warrant is needed before anything is done...BUT...that's not the case anymore. Anything can be found out about you at any time for any reason without any due process thanks to the Patriot Act.

Duhbya spins "WMD" in Iraq one more time

Bu$h's Legacy to be Honored in San Francisco

While some of my more profound thoughts seem to occur while sitting on the throne, I find myself thinking of Bu$h's legacy this morning. The folks in San Francisco have proposed that the city rename their state of the art sewage treatment plant and the news has reached even the NY Times. This is getting a lot of support by most San Franciscans, but the folks who work at the plant don't like the idea too much. Their opinion is that it would be an insult to have his name on a facility of this quality.

Hmm, I think that I can see what they're talking about. We have a series of small treatment ponds here in our small Oregon community where the waste water mellows before percolating into the Willamette River and there are times in the summer when they are quite aromatic, but I would still consider it a personal affront to have George Duhhbya Bu$h's name posted anywhere in our town...G:



Satire at the ballot box to 'honor' Bush

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

If you've attended an event or festival in San Francisco lately - or even just hung out at a city park - you've probably seen them.

Admittedly, they're hard to miss. Someone in the group is usually toting a large American flag, and another is often carrying a boom box blaring patriotic music. Sometimes one of them dresses up as Uncle Sam.

They're the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, but don't let the serious name fool you. The group's intentions are in the gutter: They want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January, when the next president is sworn in.

During the inauguration, the group also wants supporters to participate in a "synchronized flush"- a way to send a gift to the renamed plant, which supporters say, would be a "fitting monument to this president's work."

Happy Trails George Carlin & Thank's for Being

George Carlin mourned as a counterculture hero

Envelope-pushing comedian died Sunday

By Keith St. Clair, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — George Carlin, the frenzied performer whose routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

“He was a genius and I will miss him dearly,” Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin’s jokes constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the “Seven Words” — all of which are taboo on TV and radio to this day.

When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.


When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government’s authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

“So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I’m perversely kind of proud of,” he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Despite his reputation as unapologetically irreverent, Carlin was a television staple through the decades, serving as host of the “Saturday Night Live” debut in 1975 — noting on his website that he was “loaded on cocaine all week long” — and appearing some 130 times on “The Tonight Show.”

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” in 1989 — a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (and sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).

“Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?” he once mused. “Are they afraid someone will clean them?”

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

Carlin started his career on the traditional nightclub circuit in a coat and tie, pairing with Burns to spoof TV game shows, news and movies. Perhaps in spite of the outlaw soul, “George was fairly conservative when I met him,” said Burns, describing himself as the more left-leaning of the two. It was a degree of separation that would reverse when they came upon Lenny Bruce, the original shock comic, in the early ’60s.

“We were working in Chicago, and we went to see Lenny, and we were both blown away,” Burns said, recalling the moment as the beginning of the end for their collaboration if not their close friendship. “It was an epiphany for George. The comedy we were doing at the time wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction.”

That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as comedian, a position he would relish through the years.

MORE

Obama speaks out on Israel and Peace

“ ... There is no greater threat to Israel or peace than Iran,” Obama assured AIPAC. “This audience is made up of both Republicans and Democrats. And the enemies of Israel should have no doubt that regardless of party, Americans stand shoulder to shoulder in support of Israel’s security. ... The Iran regime supports violent extremists and challenges us across the region. It pursues a nuclear capability that could spark a dangerous arms race and ... its president denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. ... [M]y goal will be to eliminate this threat.”

George Galloway's take on Obama's speech...

Are we too apothetic about Iran or is the Frog Water too hot?

Here's Yesterdays headline in the Portland Oregonian. This is yet more conformation that "We The People we're lied to in the months leading up to the Iraq War and I believe that the majority of us knew it. It has taken five years to see this old news make the headlines, but our compliant congress has still refused to take the corporate crooks in the white house to task.

We demonstrated against war in Iraq, and now wonder over our lack of concern over the present situation in Iran. Is it the Frog Water syndrome that causes such apathy, or is it the old "Illegitimi non carborundum" thing that slowly erodes the revolutionary spirit of the millions of people all over the world that stood up in 2003 to say "No To War"?

Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us?

by Ray McGovern

June 20, 2008

Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

This time it will be largely the Air Force's show, punctuated by missile and air strikes by the Navy. Israeli-American agreement has now been reached at the highest level; the armed forces planners, plotters and pilots are working out the details.

Emerging from a 90-minute White House meeting with President George W. Bush on June 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two leaders were of one mind:

"We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. I left with a lot less question marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions, and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it, and intends to act on that matter before the end of his term in the White House."

~MORE~


You say you missed Olmert's account of what Bush has undertaken to do? So did I. We are indebted to intrepid journalist Chris Hedges for including the quote in his article of June 8, "The Iran Trap."

The Israeli leadership, like the Bush White House, is increasingly bellicose and threatening. The Israeli prime minister, after a 90-minute meeting with Bush in the White House on Wednesday, said the two leaders were of one mind. “We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat,” Ehud Olmert said. “I left with a lot less questions marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it and intends to act on the matter before the end of his term in the White House.”

This time around, unlike about the war with Iraq, the Washington bureaucracy, loathed by the Bush White House, did not remain silent and complicit. The National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program released last Dec. 3 distinguished Iran’s enrichment of uranium at Natanz and Arak from its formal nuclear weapons program, which it said had halted in 2003 after the American invasion of Iraq. Adm. Fallon, who put his country and his integrity before his career, spoke out against a war with Iran, tried to stop it and lost his job as the head of CENTCOM. He has been replaced with Gen. David H. Petraeus, whose devotion to his career admits no such moral impediments.

More levees at risk from surging Mississippi as Bush tours flood areas

U.S. government ignored warnings, experts say

Last Updated: Thursday, June 19, 2008

CBC News

Flooded fields are driving up food prices in the U.S. as surging waters continued down the Mississippi River on Thursday. Officials warn that 30 more levees could be breached or deluged in the coming days. Flooded fields are driving up food prices in the U.S. as surging waters continued down the Mississippi River on Thursday. Officials warn that 30 more levees could be breached or deluged in the coming days.

Floods in the U.S. Midwest moved inexorably down the Mississippi River on Thursday through Illinois and Missouri as fears grew that 30 more earthen levees could be breached or deluged by the surging water.

The river overflowed two levees in Illinois overnight Wednesday, bringing to 12 the number of riverside barriers that have failed to contain the current floods.

Further upstream, U.S. President George W. Bush will travel to Iowa on Thursday, where the floods devastated several cities and towns last week, to see the damage for himself. Bush is to visit Cedar Rapids, where 24,000 people lost their homes when the cresting Cedar River overflowed its banks.


Obama filling sandbags four days ago

Speaking to about 200 people in Wayne, a Philadelphia suburb, Obama made no new proposals but emphasized earlier ones in light of rising gas prices, inflation and job losses. They include a $1,000 tax cut for most working families; a new Social Security tax on incomes above $250,000; a "windfall profits" tax on oil companies; a $4,000 annual college tuition credit for those who commit to national or community service programs; and an end to income taxes for elderly people making less than $50,000 a year.

Obama said he could pay for his programs by eliminating the Bush administration's tax cuts for the wealthy, winding down the Iraq war and spending more on alternative energy programs that eventually will save money.

He said employers should be required to set up retirement saving plans for workers even if they contribute no money to them. Workers would automatically be enrolled unless they choose to opt out, he said. That way, he said, "most people will save more."

He also vowed to spend $150 billion over 10 years to establish a "green energy sector." It would require greater fuel efficiency in cars and devote more money to solar, wind, and biodiesel energy.

In Quincy, Obama helped volunteers fill sandbags that are being trucked to reinforce levees on both sides of the Mississippi River, less than a mile away. Authorities expected the river at Quincy to reach a near-record level of 32 feet by Wednesday. Severe flooding already has hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa, northwest of Quincy.

Offshore Oil? Bu$h's true love is in Saudi Arabia

Well folks, on Monday George Duhbya Bu$h was in Saudi Arabia talking to his buddy King Abdullah about trading nukes for oil.. Today, two days later all the headlines look like this... "Bush Will Seek to End Offshore Oil Drilling Ban". Interestingly on March 5th we seen headlines that looked like this...Bush Urges US to “Get Off Oil”. So if your head is spinning like mine is, just remember that all roads lead to Cheney, who is still calling the shots like always and Iran is still the main focus of the Neoconservative agenda.

The legacy of a sad assed sack of horse crap

Bu$h Promotes Oil for Nukes in $audi Arabia

Congressman Ed Markey asks Dept of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about President Bush’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia, where Bush discussed helping Saudi Arabia develop nuclear power.

Bush in Saudi Arabia for Nuclear Deal

By Scott Stearns
Riyadh
16 May 2008

U.S. President George Bush is in Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Washington and Riyadh. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, the two leaders are expected to reach agreement on civilian nuclear technology.

President Bush and King Abdullah inspected a military honor guard in Riyadh before private talks at the king's horse farm outside the capital.

They will discuss a deal to help the kingdom develop civilian nuclear power for medical and industrial uses as well as generating electricity. The agreement provides access to safe, reliable fuel sources for nuclear reactors and demonstrates what the Bush Administration calls Saudi leadership as a non-proliferation model for the region.

The agreement expands cooperation to better safeguard the kingdom's vast oil reserves and its pipeline distribution system, as well as borders.

As part of the deal, Saudi Arabia joins a global initiative to combat nuclear terrorism to enhance the protection of nuclear systems and improve its ability to detect and confiscate illegally held nuclear material.

The kingdom also joins an international alliance to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and related materials, including delivery systems.

President Bush says he will ask King Abdullah to boost Saudi oil production to drive down record energy prices. A similar request in January was denied as Saudi output has held steady at just over 8.5 million barrels a day.

Relations between Washington and Riyadh are strained by the war in Iraq. Unlike the first Gulf War when Saudi Arabia boosted oil production and helped pay for the liberation of Kuwait, the kingdom opposed America's 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

U.S. National Security Advisor Steve Hadley says it remains a partnership of common interests.

Read article

Duhhbya the Diplomat: "All options are on the table"

US President George W Bush says he wants to pursue diplomacy to deal with Iran's controversial nuclear programme, but "all options are on the table".

BBC News

11 June 2008 19:53 UK

Mr Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said further sanctions against Iran were possible.

"The first choice is to solve it diplomatically and that's exactly what we're doing," Mr Bush said.

Mr Bush was speaking after talks in Germany and is now in Italy on what is likely to be his last tour of Europe.

BBC Video

His talks with Chancellor Merkel also covered Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and the global issues of climate change and the cost of energy and food.

At their joint news conference in Meseberg, Mrs Merkel said: "We can't exclude further sanctions" against Iran, but they would have to be agreed in the UN Security Council.

"The last round [of sanctions] has to be put into effect," she added.

President Bush issues warning to Iran

On Tuesday, Mr Bush attended a summit with EU leaders in Slovenia, where they threatened Iran with further sanctions unless it suspended nuclear enrichment.

He said an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be "incredibly dangerous" to world peace.

Mr Bush is to meet Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on the latest leg of what is being seen as an eight-day farewell tour of Europe.

His arrival in Rome coincided with an anti-war march through the centre of the city to the American embassy.

The demonstration drew about 1,500 people and was peaceful - unlike a larger protest last year that saw scuffles between protesters and police.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says the authorities are taking no chances and exceptional security precautions are in place around the residence of the American ambassador where the president is staying.

Demonstrators hold banners during an anti-war march in Rome
Protesters called for an end to the Iraq war and for troops to come home

A no-fly zone has been imposed over the city, tram and bus services have been diverted, and electronic devices will make it impossible to use mobile phones within a wide area while the president attends a series of official engagements within the city walls.

MORE

Hairy Blobs,Evolutionary Biology. & Life on Mars

"Hairy Blobs" Discovered in Acidic Lake Could Have Evolved on Mars

At last, scientists have discovered a form of life that could have evolved on Mars. Geologists unearthed a treasure trove of fossilized remains in a salty, acidic lake in remote Australia — the creatures, probably about 250 million years old, were, according to New Scientist, "made up of a mix of inorganic crystals and 'hairs' stuck together in a mass" (pictured). The lake where they lived was filled with water whose extreme levels of salinity and acidity are a near-match for Martian water. Find out more, plus see more cool pictures of the blobs, below.

According to New Scientist:

Kathleen Benison, a geologist at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, led a team that studied the sediments formed by acidic and very salty lakes in modern day Western Australia, and those deposited around 250 million years ago in North Dakota. It is very difficult to survive in such a tough environments and few signs of life have ever been found in these sorts of lakes.

Inside the halite and gypsum "evaporate" minerals, which form as the lake waters dry up, Benison and colleagues found previously unknown fossilised blobs at both the modern and ancient sites, ranging in size from 0.05 to 1.5 millimetres. They were made up of a mix of inorganic crystals and "hairs" stuck together in a mass (pictured). They named them hairy blobs.

The team argues that each hair was in fact a separate microorganism because the hair fossils are made of disordered graphite which, unlike inorganic graphite, has irregular layers that suggest it was once a live organism..

Many of the hairs are coated with crystals of gypsum, a calcium sulphate mineral. This link with gypsum suggests that the microorganisms were fuelled by chemical interactions with sulphur in the acidic water - which helped the gypsum to form.

Scientists are still divided on whether these crystal-hair creatures actually count as "life." As they run further tests on the fossils, the mere existence of such creatures fuels hope among astrobiologists that life could indeed have evolved on Mars and we might get a chance to meet it — or at least, to find its fossilized remains.

Salutations to Dad2059’s Blog for the above, "Hairy Blobs", article...



Evolutionary bioligist Olivia Judson has some interesting information to add to all this in her always interesting blog where she talks about the organisms that live in rocks deep in the earth.


Meet the Intraterrestrials

Olivia Judson

Some weeks ago, I wrote about microbes in the air and their possible role in helping clouds form, in causing rain and in altering the chemistry of the high atmosphere. This week, I want to go in the opposite direction and plunge down into the earth. For many bacteria live deep in the oceans and deep in the earth, far from light, far from what we normally think of as good, comfortable places to live.

For example: the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This is a seam on the sea floor in the northwestern Pacific, not far from the island of Guam; it’s where the Pacific plate is sliding under the Philippine plate. The ocean is deeper here than anywhere else in the world: the seabed is 11 kilometers (almost 7 miles) below the surface of the sea. Yet even here, where the pressure of the water would crush you or me, there are bacteria. Some of them won’t grow at all unless the atmospheric pressure is at least 50 megapascals (around 7,000 pounds per square inch), and they grow better if the pressure is greater — 70 megapascals (more than 10,000 pounds per square inch). For comparison, the pressure at sea level — the pressure we have evolved to bear — is 700 times less.

Then there are the “intraterrestrials” — the organisms that live in rocks deep in the earth, the creatures of the “deep subsurface biosphere.” Bacteria have been found in rock samples taken several hundred meters below the sea floor, even when the sea floor itself is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) below sea level.

We don’t know how many organisms are living in this (to us) alien environment. But based on what’s been found in rock samples so far, the numbers are likely to be gigantic. One recent study found between 1 million and 1 billion bacteria per gram of rock (a gram is 1/28 of an ounce). It may be that a large proportion — perhaps as many as a third — of all bacteria on Earth live in rocks below the floor of the sea. That would be a lot of bacteria.

Until recently, it was assumed that the chemical alteration and decomposition of rocks in the ocean crust was due purely to elemental forces — the circulation of seawater, the grinding of rocks against one another. But increasingly, intraterrestrial bacteria are suspected of making a contribution, too. Shards of volcanic glass from basaltic rocks hundreds of meters beneath the seabed show grooves and etchings that appear to have been made by bacteria.

More

Hmm, life seems to be a bit more prolific than we thought. Perhaps a closer examination of the fossiles from astroids, comets, and such places is in order...G:

TPM interrview: International Peace Operations Association

The DynCorp-Government Connection

by Uri Dowbenko

Organized White-Collar Crime is the absolute essence of Mega-Corporate-Government Business.

As Jim Hougan wrote in his landmark book, Spooks: The Haunting of America - The Private Use of Secret Agents, "With their cultural and career investments in upholding the stereotype of the Mafia as the vehicle of organized crime, the public and the press have generally failed to grasp the felonious nature of the outfit's WASP counterparts on the Big Board. Whereas some petty hoodlums put out contracts on individuals, the multinationals have begun to place contracts on entire countries (for example, ITT versus Chile). With that difference, their operational styles are similar: offshore laundries used to wash bribes paid in clandestine support of a sales effort designed to create and satisfy the potentially lethal addictions of their would be customers. Whether the product is heroin or Starfighter jets, the result is often the same: profits that corrupt and impoverish… In short it appears that some multinationals had evolved into genuinely criminal enterprises."

Likewise, outsourcing State Terrorism is the fastest growing segment of the US Government market. In fact, white-collar criminal activities, like Federal IT, or Information Technology, which involves "privatizing" the financial database management of government agencies, accounts for some of the most lucrative contracts available anywhere on earth.

Presidential Prayer Team was promoted by Bu$hco

Well I've always thought that Source Watch contained reliable information, but being a Wiki based format is controlled by the editors. The Presidential Prayer Team was obviously not an urban legend,as they claim, but formed by the Bu$h administration. They then claim the the Presidential Prayer Team is not sponsored by the Office of President of the United States or the federal government, but is a private foundation whose promotion is being handled by The Envoy Group, a self-described "new kind of Christian advertising agency". Well, the problem with this is that The Envoy Group is involved with Bu$co, and the Christian ad agency just a convenient sideline. I won't bother to attempt an expanation for all of this, because it is a typical Neocon operation. If you follow the links I believe that you will agree that there was way more Bu$hite going on immediately after the WTC disaster than we'll ever know...G:


Presidential Prayer Team

From SourceWatch

The Presidential Prayer Team (PPT) describes itself as an "independent, nonprofit organization" with the "singular purpose ... to encourage Americans to pray daily for the President." Membership in the PPT is fee- and obligation-free.

In response to the Urban Legend that President George W. Bush was behind the formation of the Presidential Prayer Team , snopes.com responded: "After the events of September 11, 2001 President Bush declared Friday, September 14, a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance, and he has been open in asking White House guests to join him in prayer. He has not, however,
called for the creation of a 'Presidential Prayer Team', but an organization with that title operates a web site which many of our readers were misled into believing had government endorsement and approval for a variety of reasons:

* "A title and logo designed to imitate the name and official seal of a government agency.
* "Messages inviting prospective members to join sent from 'The Office of the Presidential Prayer Team' with a subject line of 'The President of the United States needs you!'
* "The lack of any information on the site informing visitors that the organization is not sponsored or funded by the President or any agency of the federal government.

* "The Presidential Prayer Team is not sponsored by the Office of President of the United States or the federal government; it is a private foundation whose promotion is being handled by The Envoy Group, a self-described 'new kind of Christian advertising agency.'"

As of October 14, 2001, "the Presidential Prayer Team placed a disclaimer on its site stating that it 'is an independent, nonprofit, non-partisan effort designed to encourage a national outpouring of daily prayer for the President' and that it 'was not formed by an agency of the government, nor does it receive funding from the government."



David Bolthouse & the Presidential Prayer Team

David Bolthouse of The Envoy Group, who responded to the query about the Presidential Prayer Team, is President and Partner with Karl Schaller, Senior Vice President/Partner. Other Principals of the Envoy Group are Randy Cantrell, Vice President, Corporate Sponsorships & Capital Campaigns; Lisa Chastain, Vice President, Promotions and Publicity; Jeff Lane, Art Director; Meagan Gillan, Copy Editor and Manager; Deborah Coult,

"....David served as the Development Director of a major nonprofit Christian radio network and later took a position with a leading Christian agency in Seattle, where he managed fundraising and marketing for such national accounts as Focus on the Family, Tyndale House Publishing, World Concern, and David C. Cook Publishing. In 1993, he founded The Envoy Group, Inc. (previously named DirectMedia Communications)....

20 Years Serving Ministries and Publishers

The Envoy Group closed its doors to consulting and agency work in 2005, choosing instead to put our knowledge to work marketing our own projects to the Christian community under the banners of SurfVantage, EnvoyInteractive andPraise Store.
We consider it an honor and privilege to have served so many quality organizations and businesses throughout theyears.

Sincerely,

David Bolthouse
Founder and CEO

I've gotta ask...does this look like a "new kind of Christian advertising agency"?

Fair & Balanced News on the Fringes of the Blogosphere

Well, one of my pet peeves is corporate media, especially when it isn't fair
and balanced news. Doug Brooks, the president of the IPOA, commented on my previous article
(A practical NWO guide for global control) and pointed out that Frontline interviewed him but didn't include it in their final version.

In all fairness to the IPOA (International Peace Operations Association), I will post this Frontlines interview with Doug Brooks, that wasn't included in their "Private Warriers" presentation, where he confronts many of the key issues they raise in the video. I may be an insignifigant voice in the fringes of the blogasphere but as a truth seeker I believe that all sides of the story should be heard...G:

Interview with Doug Brooks

some exerpts:

So what is the size of the business in both numbers and in the kind of dollars we're talking about?

It's hard to come up with because nobody's really come up with a good formula as to what counts as a private military company and what doesn't. The numbers that keep getting batted around are the whole industry is worth $100 billion to $200 billion. That may be true if you're including people mopping the Pentagon, if you're including the Korean dry cleaners next to Fort Dix or something like that. ...

If you think about it this way, though, the biggest contract in Iraq so far is KBR's contract, which since 2003 is $14 billion, which is a lot of money. It becomes very difficult to see how it could all add up to $100 billion a year if you're really thinking about companies operating in conflict, post-conflict environments.

So revise it downwards for us. You're president of the IPOA [International Peace Operations Association].

(Laughs.) Thank you. But it's hard to wrap your head around. Any number you come up with, you're basically pulling it out of a bag, because people say, "Well, those companies should be included, but those shouldn't." We focus on companies that work in conflict, post-conflict environments in other countries, and within that I would guess that your market top would be $20 billion maybe.

And now for the rest of the story.

Habeus Corpus rescued by SCOTUS

FLASHBACK:

Tuesday October 17, 2006

By NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed legislation into law Tuesday that authorizes tough interrogation of terror suspects and smooths the way for their trials before military commissions but also gives detainees some legal protections.

Bush's plan for treatment of the terror suspects became law just six weeks after he acknowledged that the CIA had been secretly interrogating suspected terrorists overseas and pressed Congress to quickly give authority to try them in military commissions.

``With the bill I'm about to sign, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent people will face justice,'' Bush said.

The bill would protect detainees from blatant abuses during questioning - such as rape, torture and ``cruel and inhuman'' treatment - but does not require that any of them be granted legal counsel. Also, it specifically bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions in federal courts.

October 20, 2006

Olbermann: Special Comment Death Of Habeas Corpus

Pelosi can go to H E double toothpicks

AIPAC liked Bill Clinton more than Poppy Bush

John Stewart @ Comedy Central

The day after Barack Obama declared victory in St. Paul, he was at a podium addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which describes itself as "America's pro-Israel lobby."

And it wasn't just Obama. McCain did it. Hillary Clinton did it too. AIPAC is a notoriously influential lobby, with organizing skills that are the stuff of legend. Following the Obama address, The Daily Show satirized AIPAC's role in politics.


Well, nothing surprises me any more after seeing some of the history of AIPAC and some of the lobbying that has been going on for many years, especially in regards Bill Clinton and the role of lobbying and big money in his winning of the Presidency. This deep pocketed dude, Harry Katz, tape recorded a phone call to president of AIPAC, David Steiner, that revealed much damning evidence of what went on with lobbying and politics in DC. Not only that, but he gave the tape to The Washington Times, which made so many waves in the media that Steiner promptly resigned from, what was and still is, the most powerful lobby in Washington DC...G:


HEAD OF AIPAC BOASTED ABOUT
HIS CONTROL OF POLITICIANS IN 1992

In 1992, Harry Katz phoned the President of AIPAC, David Steiner, to offer contributions. Steiner proceeded to make several claims, including negotiating with then-candidate Bill Clinton over who would be Secretary of State, and had already "cut a deal" with Baker for more aid to Israel. Unknown to Steiner, Katz taped the phone call and gave the recording to the media, worried that AIPAC's influence had grown to dangerous levels. Following the release of transcripts of the phone conversation, David Steiner was forced to resign the Presidency of AIPAC.

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IMPEACH BU$H AND CHAINY

NWO guide for global domination

A Guide for the New World Order

The International Peace Operations Association

Wiki

The International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) is a non-governmental trade and lobbying association representing the "peace and stability industry," sometimes referred to as private military companies (PMCs) or derogatorily by critics as mercenaries ignoring the international legal definition as well as the actual role and variety of companies. The IPOA is located in Washington DC, USA, and was founded in April 2001 by Doug Brooks, who currently serves as the association's president. The IPOA currently represents 42 companies which are required to pay dues and submit delegates to various committees within the IPOA. David Hammond, a lawyer who represents many PMCs in court, is the chairman of the general counsel committee. The IPOA also publishes The Journal of International Peace Operations.

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According to an article by Corpwatch the IPOA's aim is to "reposition the industry as for-profit providers of armed men as peace keepers. " The association's stated mission is "to promote high operational and ethical standards of firms active in the Peace and Stability Industry; to engage in a constructive dialogue with policy-makers about the growing and positive contribution of these firms to the enhancement of international peace, development, and human security; and to inform the concerned public about the activities and role of the industry." The IPOA's Code of Conduct "seeks to ensure the ethical standards of International Peace Operations Association member companies operating in conflict and post-conflict environments so that they may contribute their valuable services for the benefit of international peace and human security.".

Frontline Video

The Private Side of War


As the Army struggles to meet recruitment numbers, FRONTLINE takes a hard look at private contractors servicing U.S. military supply lines, running U.S. military bases, and protecting U.S. diplomats and generals. Between the logistics giant Halliburton and a myriad of armed security companies, private military contractors comprise the second largest "force" in Iraq, far outnumbering all non-U.S. forces combined. There are as many as 100,000 civilian contractors and approximately 20,000 private security forces.

Iraq War, Peak Oil, Rummy, and the PNAC

The American Conservative

March 10, 2008

Oil for War

After invading one of the most petroleum-rich countries on earth, the U.S. military is running on empty.

by Robert Bryce

Napoleon famously said that an army marches on its stomach. That may have been true for his 19th-century force. But the modern American military runs on jet fuel—and lots of it.

Today the average American G.I. in Iraq uses about 20.5 gallons of fuel every day, more than double the daily volume consumed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2004. Thus, in order to secure the third-richest country on the planet, the U.S. military is burning enormous quantities of petroleum. And nearly every drop of that fuel is imported into Iraq. These massive fuel requirements—just over 3 million gallons per day for Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Energy Support Center—are a key reason for the soaring cost of the war effort.

Controlling Iraq’s oil has historically been a vital factor in America’s involvement in Iraq and was always a crucial element of the Bush administration’s plans for the post-Saddam era. Of course, that’s not how the war was sold to the American people. A few months before the invasion, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared that the looming war had “nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.” The war was necessary, its planners claimed, because Saddam Hussein supported terrorism and, left unchecked, he would unleash weapons of mass destruction on the West.

In 2007 alone, the U.S. military in Iraq burned more than 1.1 billion gallons of fuel. (American Armed Forces generally use a blend of jet fuel known as JP-8 to propel both aircraft and automobiles.) About 5,500 tanker trucks are involved in the Iraqi fuel-hauling effort. That fleet of trucks is enormously costly. In November 2006, a study produced by the U.S. Military Academy estimated that delivering one gallon of fuel to U.S. soldiers in Iraq cost American taxpayers $42—and that didn’t include the cost of the fuel itself. At that rate, each U.S. soldier in Iraq is costing $840 per day in fuel delivery costs, and the U.S. is spending $923 million per week on fuel-related logistics in order to keep 157,000 G.I.s in Iraq. Given that the Iraq War is now costing about $2.5 billion per week, petroleum costs alone currently account for about one-third of all U.S. military expenditure in Iraq.

More


And all this from a Conservative magazine. It looks like peak oil has finally became a reality to the Conservatives, why even the Neoconservatives are now fleeing the scene that is evolving in the White House. As noted by GEF the other day. they have shut down their website, " Project for the New American Century", which is increasingly coming under fire for the statements in some of their documents. Like this famous one...

"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor"

The Hillary as "Commander in Chief " Fiasco

Well, in case you were wondering about Hillary as "Commander in Chief", the concept has been around for a while, as shown by the show premiered on ABC in September 2005. It didn't last long though and ended in early 2006. A sad commentary on our controlled media that shows ABC and Disney were testing out the TV audience two years before the primaries.

So today we see Hillary still spinning the "Commander in Chief" concept while telling the people what she will do for them. She doesn't seem to be operating in the here and now, and Obama has left her in the dust by including "We The People" in the role of what will be done in his administration. A giant step toward change that has gone
unnoticed by her advisers.


Hillary’s Show: Commander in Chief gets the Axe!

Well, it looks like America has rejected the new ABC show Commander in Chief. I have to admit I’ve never seen the show but it was obvious it was an attempt to get the population accustomed to a female President. The reason I feel confident to make that statement is due to the show having Hillary’s fingerprints all over it.
ABC insiders denied there’s any connection between the Hillary Campaign and the series. But look who was one of the main writers in the show, turns out to be Steve Cohen who served as the then first lady’s deputy communications director throughout the 1990’s!

More

Bu$h, Cheney, Rummy, Powell & Rice LIED 237 times about WMD

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM — MINORITY STAFF
SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS DIVISION
MARCH 16, 2004
IRAQ ON THE RECORD

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON IRAQ
PREPARED FOR REP. HENRY A. WAXMAN

Number of Misleading Statements.

The Iraq on the Record database contains
237 misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq that were made by
President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell,
and National Security Advisor Rice. These statements were made in 125 separate
appearances, consisting of 40 speeches, 26 press conferences and briefings, 53
interviews, 4 written statements, and 2 congressional testimonies. Most of the
statements in the database were misleading because they expressed certainty
where none existed or failed to acknowledge the doubts of intelligence officials.
Ten of the statements were simply false.

Timing of the Statements.

The statements began at least a year before the commencement of hostilities in Iraq, when Vice President Cheney stated on March 17, 2002: “We know they have biological and chemical weapons.” The Administration’s misleading statements continued through January 22, 2004,
when Vice President Cheney insisted: “there’s overwhelming evidence that there
was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government.” Most of the
misleading statements about Iraq — 161 statements — were made prior to the
start of the war. But 76 misleading statements were made by the five
Administration officials after the start of the war to justify the decision to go to war.


Oh yeh' Heehehehehehehehehe

John McSame: "That's not change we can believe in"

Wooah...what's going on here? I mean, like, is McSame being thrown under his own bus? Here's the mouthpiece of the corporate government, Fox News actually expressing their own opinions about this. Normally they would just change the video, or disappear it from the innertubes. Heaveeey...G?

McCain's Stump Speech for Obama

bravenewfilms.org

Barack Obama just made history by becoming our first African-American Presidential nominee. But Obama also accomplished something else last night, something completely unintentional that Democrats haven’t done successfully in a long, long time. He compelled his Republican opponent to use his frame for a change—literally.

By all accounts, there was nothing unexpected about last night’s speeches from the three Presidential hopefuls. McCain’s speech was unconvincing and wholly uninspired. Clinton refused to acknowledge Obama’s victory and continued to talk about herself, even when pretending to talk about others: “While I traveled our country talking about how I wanted to help you, time and again, you reached out to help me, to grab my hand or grip my arm, to look into my eyes and tell me, don't quit, keep fighting, stay in this race for us.” And Obama was his usual poised, eloquent self as he graciously celebrated Clinton, jabbed at McCain, and fired up the crowd once again by talking about “our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.”

With the exception of the press being much more critical of McCain than usual, these speeches appeared to be merely the next step in a seemingly endless 17-month primary marathon. And yet McCain played right into Obama’s hands by devoting his entire speech to countering Obama’s message of “change” with his own message of, well, “change.”

McCain appeared in front of a green board with the message “A Leader We Can Believe In” scrawled across it, which blogger Attaturk quipped made him look "like the cottage cheese in a lime jello salad." This was an obvious ploy by McCain to repackage Obama’s “Change We Can Believe In,” coupled with the slightly subtler green, a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Within the first couple of minutes, McCain began talking about change, which, as Tim Russert later noted on MSNBC, was a word he reiterated 32 times (33 if you count “climate change”).

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Swiss Scientists Doubt Bush Official Version of 911

mwcnews.net

Two Swiss scientists, Professors Daniele Ganser and Albert A. Stahel of the University of Zurich, reported in the largest Swiss newspaper, "Blick", have seriously questioned the "official Bush version" of what happened on 9/11.

Professor Ganser: "3,000 humans were sacrificed for strategic interests. The more we explore, the more we doubt the Bush version. It is conceivable that the Bush government was responsible. Bush has lied so much already! And we already know that the US government planned an operation in 1962 that was approved by the Pentagon that would have sacrificed innocent US citizens for the government's own interests …We only ask questions."

Of course Scholars for 9/11 and many other rational, eminent and technically expert people also have profound scepticism about the Bush version. Indeed the "penny has dropped" for even the long-suffering American people aka "mushrooms" (kept in the dark and fed manure) – recent polls indicate that one third of Americans believe that the US Government was involved (e.g. see: "More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll".

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Clinton: "Obama will be a good friend to Israel"

Hmm ..Can you believe the unpremeditated gall of this presumptive Senator in a pants suit?

Instead of admitting defeat, and calling for unification of the Democratic party, she is speaking to AIPAC about Obama when he has already shown that he speaks very eloquently for himself.

The very idea that she has mentioned her willingness to be Obamas running make makes me nauseous and p*ssed off at the same time. I can only hope that she will lose her position as a so called Democratic Senator...G:

Clinton address AIPAC Wednesday.

June 4, 2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama would be "a good friend to Israel" if elected, Sen. Hillary Clinton told a pro-Israel lobbying group Wednesday.

Though Clinton has yet to concede the Democratic race and spoke Wednesday of what she would do as president, she told the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee that Obama "understands what is at stake here."

"It has been an honor to contest these primaries with him. It is an honor to call him my friend. And let me be very clear: I know that Senator Obama will be a good friend to Israel," the New York senator and former first lady said.

"I know that Senator Obama shares my view that the next president must be ready to say to the world: America's position is unchanging, our resolve unyielding, our stance nonnegotiable. The United States stands with Israel, now and forever," she said.

Obama addressed the AIPAC conference earlier Monday, praising Clinton for "the outstanding race she has run." Some Clinton supporters have begun to campaign for him to pick Clinton as his running mate, but the two campaigns deny that discussions on the subject have begun.

Clinton said Tuesday night that she would make a decision about the future of her campaign "in the coming days." Though some of her supporters have urged her to fight on to the party's August nominating convention in Denver, a leading Clinton backer told CNN that the campaign is most likely over.

Tired of Main Stream Media?, then try ~NET CENTER~

Center for Truth

"One if by Land and the Lantern is Lit..."

** Doing What the Multi-Billion Dollar Media Won't do **

The Truth will set you free. . . But only if You share it!

The video employs clips from a 2004 "60 Minutes" Interview with 2001-2003 Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neil. O'Neil,a Permanent Member of the then formed NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC), was eventually FIRED in 2003, for what he OPPOSED and witnessed in the Early days of the JUST elected 2001 Bush Whitehouse.

He was appalled at the Secrecy and Contradictions in the George Bush he thought he knew. It was apparent a new agenda was rolling...and he wanted NO part in it. War plans were in the works, long BEFORE the 911 World Trade Center attack. Far from a tragedy, 911 was an OPPORTUNITY for the Bush/Cheney White House to proceed with Plans.

In his Presidential run at the office, Ron Paul continues to bravely disclose and reference this same "hidden agenda" that has been cloaked as "Foreign Policy" and "Patriotism", only to be ridiculed by the Main Stream Media, radio talk show Hosts, Bloggers, whether Democrat or Republican, and OTHERS (Guiliani!), who feign SHOCK at the mere suggestion, that our POLICIES are why "They Hate Us". Incumbent Politicians and the other contending Presidential Candidates just grow silent when Ron Paul Speaks. Why?

Folks, what I see here is an excellent and comprehensive archive that documents the crimes of the Bu$hite's from his first day in office to the present. I haven't looked at everything here, but so far what I see is documentation of the travesties of justice, abuse of human rights, and especially the deceit that we have witnessed by this Neoconservative gang of thieves who illegally occupy the
White House...G:

netcenter.com

What is the NIST really about?

National Institute of Standards and Technology Boulder, Colorado

We may think that we live in a Democracy, but it is pretty much controlled by the Executive part of the White House. The directors of many of the institutes and foundations that are involved in the shaping of our policies are appointed by the POTUS.

Both the director of the NIST and the director of the NSF were appointed by George W. Bu$h for six year terms. The study on WTC1 from my previous artical, by Purdue University was funded by the NSF, which was funded by the US corporate government.

The current NIST investigation of the World Trade Center disaster
is also funded by the US government and has been stonewalling a real investigation for seven years. The NIST is a non regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. and headed by A bush appointee.


NIST Director William Jeffrey

Jeffrey, 45, was nominated by President Bush on May 25, 2005, to succeed Arden Bement, who was appointed director of the National Science Foundation in November of last year. NIST Deputy Director Hratch Semerjian has served as acting director in the interim.

Jeffrey has been involved in federal science and technology programs and policy since 1988. Previous to his appointment as director of NIST he served as senior director for homeland and national security and the assistant director for space and aeronautics at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the President. Prior to that he was the deputy director for the Advanced Technology Office and chief scientist for the Tactical Technology Office with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). While at DARPA, Jeffrey developed research programs in communications, computer network security, novel sensor development and space operations.

Prior to joining DARPA, Jeffrey was the assistant deputy for technology at the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, where he supervised sensor development for the Predator and Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the development of common standards that allow for cross-service and cross-agency transfer of imagery and intelligence products. Jeffrey also spent several years working at the Institute for Defense Analyses performing technical analyses in support of the Department of Defense.

Well, one would think that this guy would come in real handy for the WTC investigation with his DARPA connections and knowledge of novel sensor development and space operations, but I doubt that we'll hear about anything except "Fire in the Skyscraper" and debunking the Twoofers.

Read more about the NIST

NIST is a nonregulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The purposes of NIST investigations are to improve the safety and structural integrity of buildings in the United States and the focus is on fact finding. NIST investigative teams are required to assess building performance and emergency response and evacuation procedures in the wake of any building failure that has resulted in substantial loss of life or that posed significant potential of substantial loss of life. NIST does not have the statutory authority to make findings of fault or negligence by individuals or organizations. Further, no part of any report resulting from a NIST investigation into a building failure or from an investigation under the National Construction Safety Team Act may be used in any suit or action for damages arising out of any matter mentioned in such report
(15 USC 281a, as amended by P.L. 107-231).

Scientists simulate jet colliding with World Trade Center

Researchers at Purdue University have created a simulation that uses scientific principles to study in detail what likely happened when a commercial airliner crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001. The simulation research, funded by the National Science Foundation, was carried out by a team that includes Christoph M. Hoffmann, a professor of computer science and co-director of the Computing Research Institute at Purdue; Mete Sozen, the Kettelhut Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering in Purdue's School of Civil Engineering; Ayhan Irfanoglu, an assistant professor of civil engineering; Voicu Popescu, an assistant professor of computer science; computer science doctoral student Paul Rosen; and civil engineering doctoral students Oscar Ardila and Ingo Brachmann.

Why was this study done at Purdue we might ask?


White House photo
by Paul Morse

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 15, 2004

Personnel Announcement

President George W. Bush meets with Dr. Arden L. Bement in the Oval Office Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004. President Bush is nominating Dr. Bement to be Director of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Bement has been serving as Acting Director since February 22, 2004. White House photo by Paul Morse The President intends to nominate Arden Bement, Jr., of Indiana, to be Director of the National Science Foundation for the remainder of a six-year term expiring August 2, 2010. Dr. Bement currently serves as Acting Director of the National Science Foundation and as Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Previously, Dr. Bement served as the David A. Ross Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering and head of the School of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University. He earned his bachelor's degree from the Colorado School of Mines, his master's degree from the University of Idaho, and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

NSF staff and management

NSF leadership has two major components: a director who oversees NSF staff and management responsible for program creation and administration, merit review, planning, budget and day-to-day operations; and a 24-member National Science Board (NSB) of eminent individuals that meets six times a year to establish the overall policies of the foundation. The director and all Board members serve six year terms. Each of them, as well as the NSF deputy director, is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.



Integrating Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization

Sunday, September 14, 2003
Chris Hoffmann, Voicu Popescu, CS & CRI
Sami Kilic, Mete Sozen, CE & CRI
Purdue University
Abstract
We describe the work of an interdisciplinary team of
researchers in geometric computing, computer graphics,
and civil engineering to produce a visualization of the
September 2001 attack on the Pentagon from physical
simulation. The immediate motivation for the project was
to understand the behavior of the building under the
impact. The longer term motivation is to establish a path
for producing high-quality visualizations of large scale
simulations that combine state-of-the-art graphics with
state-of-the-art engineering simul

Hmm, the Neoconmen seem to be like moth's, they are embedded in the very fabric that constitutes our being, and when the larva hatch there isn't much left of it...G: