President Obama - Your Turn: Join the National Online Discussion on Health Care Reform

The President asks you to submit your questions on health care reform and take part in an ongoing online discussion. He will answer some of the most popular in a town hall on Wednesday.

* Post your video questions (please keep them at 20-30 seconds) as responses to this video. *

(Video response tutorial: http://bit.ly/fZf0i)

June 27, 2009 (Public Domain)


Here's some opinions on Health Care from both sides of the fence

Dennis Kucinich Health Care



Dennis Kucinich talks about his Universal Healthcare Plan at AFSCME FORUM on 2/21/07 and how the other Democratic Candidate's Healthcare Plan's All Include a roll for the Large "for Profit" Health ...



Congressman Ron Paul on Healthcare



Having practiced medicine for over 30 years, Congressman Paul gives his perspective on the past and future of medicine in this country, and the effects of government and special interests on quality, costs and access.



The Lies About The Healthcare Public Option -- McCain and Lieberman




John Boehner Discusses Health Care, Dems' Spending on FOX News





Lindsey Graham Discusses Kennedy Health Care Plan on Fox News





Newt's Plan to Fix Health Care





Nancy Pelosi on Raising Taxes and Taxing Healthcare Benefits: Everything Is on the Table

The human condition: digital vs analog intelligence

BEING ANALOG

DONALD A. NORMAN

From Norman, D. A. (In press, Fall, 1998). The invisible computer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Copyright © 1997, 1998 Donald A. Norman. All rights reserved.

Making Sense of the World
Humans Versus Computers
Biological Versus Technological Evolution
The Ever-Increasing Pace of Change
Treating People Like Machines
The World Is Not Neat and Tidy
Making Sense of the World
Human Error
Humans & Computers as Cooperating Systems
Chapter 7: Notes

We are analog beings trapped in a digital world, and the worst part is, we did it to ourselves.

We humans are biological animals. We have evolved over millions of years to function well in the environment, to survive. We are analog devices following biological modes of operation. We are compliant, flexible, tolerant. Yet we people have constructed a world of machines that requires us to be rigid, fixed, intolerant. We have devised a technology that requires considerable care and attention, that demands it be treated on its own terms, not on ours. We live in a technology-centered world where the technology is not appropriate for people. No wonder we have such difficulties.

Here we are, wandering about the world, bumping into things, forgetful of details, with a poor sense of time, a poor memory for facts and figures, unable to keep attention on a topic for more than a short duration, reasoning by example rather than by logic, and drawing upon our admittedly deficient memories of prior experience. When viewed this way, we seem rather pitiful. No wonder that we have constructed a set of artificial devices that are very much not in our own image. We have constructed a world of machinery in which accuracy and precision matter. Time matters. Names, dates, facts, and figures matter. Accurate memory matters. Details matter.

All the things we are bad at matter, all the things we are good at are ignored. Bizarre.


All things seem to consist of vibrations expressed by waves, whether being gas,liquid,or solid. These waves all seem to behave within the laws of the octave and can influence other waves by sympathetic vibration, thus the senses that exist in all lifeforms, like in plants. The Mimosa or sensitive plant, for example would be a classic example. Our hearing, sight, touch, and any kind of extrasensory perception reflects this.
All of our thought processes seem to function in an analog fashion,so converting these processes to digital, in my opinion could only be useful as a tool. The actual perceptions have to be analog to process the vibes, and digital machines might someday come close, but never match a perfect harmony within a wavelenghth by sympathetic vibration. Just speculating, but it seems logical that maybe somewhere in time and space is a computer based on the octave that operates by sympathetic vibrations,actual wavelengths, and frequencies.

Wag The Dog in Iran?

The CIA's Iranian Plan?

Information Clearing House

June 16, 2009 - AntiDefm

In case you missed it

Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran: The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Bush sanctions 'black ops' against Iran: Mr Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilise, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs.

Rice says Iran spying charges pervert rule of law: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of perverting the rule of law by charging three Iranian-Americans with spying and denied they were involved in espionage.

Secret war report led to spy charges for Roxana: Lawyer reveals that a trip to Israel in 2006 helped to incriminate journalist

Journalist Copied Iranian Report on U.S. and Iraq: Her attorney revealed that the American-born journalist had been convicted of spying for the United States in part because she had a copy of a confidential Iranian report on the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy: How many Americans could identify the National Endowment for Democracy? An organization which often does exactly the opposite of what its name implies. The NED was set up in the early 1980s under President Reagan in the wake of all the negative revelations about the CIA in the second half of the 1970s.

Read article


........zzzzzzzZZZZZZZ*

Kudos to dad2059 for waking me up, a reality flash, so to speak. Things are not always like they seem. Just because the dog is wagging his tail, don't mean that he won't bite you in the arse...G:

Protests in Iran continue

They are yelling, "Have no fear, we are all together. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, we are all together!" and then "Down with dictator".

Source: All we want is a better world!

Main stream media does business as usual while history is being made

I was looking at CNN last night, expecting the usual MSM spin, but what I saw was a huge omission of what was happening on the streets, not only of Tehran, but throughout Iran. They even tried to show what looked like comparable demonstrations by pro Ahmadinajad groups, while downplaying the largest demonstrations since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Is it just me, or does the main stream media seem to be asleep while history is being made?


A rally in Isfahan, Iran on Monday, led by a crew of bikers.

This is it. The big one

TEDBlog 16 June 2009

Q&A with Clay Shirky on Twitter and Iran

NYU professor Clay Shirky gave a fantastic talk on new media during our TED@State event earlier this month. He revealed how cellphones, the web, Facebook and Twitter had changed the rules of the game, allowing ordinary citizens extraordinary new powers to impact real-world events. As protests in Iran exploded over the weekend, we decided to rush out his talk, because it could hardly be more relevant. I caught up with Clay this afternoon to get his take on the significance of what is happening. HIs excitement was palpable.

What do you make of what's going on in Iran right now.
I'm always a little reticent to draw lessons from things still unfolding, but it seems pretty clear that ... this is it. The big one. This is the first revolution that has been catapulted onto a global stage and transformed by social media. I've been thinking a lot about the Chicago demonstrations of 1968 where they chanted "the whole world is watching." Really, that wasn't true then. But this time it's true ... and people throughout the world are not only listening but responding. They're engaging with individual participants, they're passing on their messages to their friends, and they're even providing detailed instructions to enable web proxies allowing Internet access that the authorities can't immediately censor. That kind of participation is reallly extraordinary.

Which services have caused the greatest impact? Blogs? Facebook? Twitter?
It's Twitter. One thing that Evan (Williams) and Biz (Stone) did absolutely right is that they made Twitter so simple and so open that it's easier to integrate and harder to control than any other tool. At the time, I'm sure it wasn't conceived as anything other than a smart engineering choice. But it's had global consequences. Twitter is shareable and open and participatory in a way that Facebook's model prevents. So far, despite a massive effort, the authorities have found no way to shut it down, and now there are literally thousands of people arond the world who've made it their business to help keep it open.

More

Web Attacks Expand in Iran’s Cyber Battle

Wired.com

* By Noah Shachtman Email Author
* June 16, 2009 |

More and more of Iran’s pro-government websites are under assault, as opposition forces launch web attacks on the Tehran regime’s online propaganda arms.

What started out as an attempt to overload a small set of official sites has now expanded, network security consultant Dancho Danchev notes. News outlets like Raja News are being attacked, too. The semi-official Fars News site is currently unavailable.

“We turned our collective power and outrage into a serious weapon that we could use at our will, without ever having to feel the consequences. We practiced distributed, citizen-based warfare,” writes Matthew Burton, a former U.S. intelligence analyst who joined in the online assaults, thanks to a “push-button tool that would, upon your click, immediately start bombarding 10 Web sites with requests.”
~more~


Meanwhile, San Francisco technologist Austin Heap has put together a set of instructions on how to set up “proxies” — intermediary internet protocol (IP) address — that allow activists to get through the government firewall. And the Networked Culture blog has assembled for pro-democracy sympathizers a “cyberwar guide for beginners.” Stop publicizing these proxies over Twitter, the site recommends. Instead, send direct messages to “@stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.” Other advice:

• Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don’t retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.
• Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become ‘Iranians’ it becomes much harder to find them.
• Don’t blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don’t publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don’t signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind.
• Denial of Service attacks. If you don’t know what you are doing, stay out of this game. Only target those sites the legitimate Iranian bloggers are designating. Be aware that these attacks can have detrimental effects to the network the protesters are relying on. Keep monitoring their traffic to note when you should turn the taps on or off.

Tracking the protests in Iran

MASHABLE

This guide breaks down the best new media sources for real-time information, photos, and videos of the Iran situation, as well as ways to organize and share it with others.

Iranians using Twitter to cover Demonstrations on ElectionFraud

Huffington Post

I'm liveblogging the latest Iran election fallout. Email me with any news or thoughts.

6:15 PM ET -- Obama: 'It would be wrong to stay silent.'

# Reuters: Obama says he's deeply troubled by the post-election violence in Iran1 minute ago from BNO Headquarters

# AP: Obama says it's up to Iran to determine its own leaders.

More from CNN: Obama say he's "troubled by the situation in iran, it would be wrong to stay silent..." Still waiting for transcript and video. His remarks came at the end of an Oval Office meeting with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

6:10 PM ET -- Climbing the Freedom Tower. Literally.

A demonstrator climbs the Freedom Tower in Tehran, Iran today, as protesters continued to demonstrate against contested election results. (AP)

6:06 PM ET -- Follow the developments in Iran like a CIA analyst. This isn't what you think -- and I meant to post it earlier. Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic has some smart thoughts on getting the most out of (and avoiding the pitfalls of) the flood of human intelligence we're getting out of Iran right now.

5:50 PM ET -- The Twitter blackout. As noted below, Iranians are encouraging others to help convince Twitter to cancel its planned maintenance tonight. Twitter is the main social network still accessible within Iran, and it's amazing to think of the bonds that have been made using that technology along over the last few days.

Majority now cosponsors Ron Paul's Fed audit

Demand for transparency reaches 'crucial benchmark'

WND Exclusive
Posted: June 11, 2009 By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas

Less than 24 hours after WND reported a proposal from U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to audit the Federal Reserve was approaching majority support in the U.S. House, he is confirming the plan has reached that "crucial benchmark."

"The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for H.R. 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy," Paul said shortly after U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, became the 218th cosponsor, giving the plan, technically, majority support in the 435-member House.

Dennis Kucinich: "Federal Reserve no more 'federal' than Federal Express!"

Mike Gravel: The National Initiative for Democracy

A POPULIST CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY

“Let the People Decide”

The central power of government in a democracy is lawmaking –– not voting. Those who make the laws determine how, when, and if voters can vote. Florida and Ohio are but recent examples. Governments throughout history have been tools of oppression; they need not be. American citizens can gain control of their government by becoming lawmakers and turning its purpose to public benefit, and stemming government growth––the people are more conservative than their elected officials regardless of political party.

Are the people qualified enough to make laws directly to govern their lives? They’re qualified enough on Election Day to give their power away to political candidates who manipulate the electoral process to get elected. In fact, it’s easier to decide one’s self-interest directly than it is to guess the mind of a representative who will naturally put his or her self-interest first.

More than 70% of the voters already make laws by initiative in twenty-four states and in numerous local communities, and when voting on bond issues referred to them for decision by their representatives––serious lawmaking. American voters have made laws for the last 100 years and their record is as good as their elected legislators––with respect to fiscal matters, the people’s record is far superior.

How do Americans become lawmakers? The Congress is not likely to dilute its power by empowering the people as lawmakers. Therefore, the people themselves must enact the National Initiative for Democracy, a proposed law that empowers them as lawmakers.

The National Initiative is a legislative package sponsored by The Democracy Foundation (www.nationalinitiative.us), a non-profit IRS 501 C (3) corporation that includes an Amendment to the Constitution and a Federal Statute. The Democracy Amendment 1) amends the Constitution asserting the legislative powers of the people, 2) sanctions the national election conducted by the nonprofit corporation Philadelphia II, giving Americans the opportunity to vote on the National Initiative, 3) creates an Electoral Trust (vital to maintain citizen lawmaking independent of representatives) and defines the role of its trustees, and 4) outlaws the use of monies not from natural persons in initiative elections.

The Democracy Act is a proposed federal statute that 1) sets out deliberative legislative procedures (copied from Congress) to be used for initiative lawmaking by citizens in every government jurisdiction of the United States, 2) defines the limited powers of the Electoral Trust that administers the legislative procedures on behalf of the people, and 3) defines the electoral threshold that must be reached for the National Initiative to become the law of the land. It is important to understand that the National Initiative does not alter the existing structure or powers of representative governments. Rather, it adds an additional Check –– the People –– to our system of Checks and Balances, while setting up a working partnership between the people and their elected representatives.

How can American voters amend the Constitution and enact the National Initiative if Congress opposes it? The people must go around all three branches of government to amend the Constitution. There are only two venues within our government structure where constitutions, constitutional amendments, and laws can be enacted into law: the people or their elected representatives. The Framers in Article 7 of the Constitution provided a procedure for We, the People to ratify the Constitution and thereby create our government, but failed to provide procedures for the people to alter the Constitution, even though they repeatedly said the people had the right to change their government as they saw fit. However, the Framers did provide amending procedures for themselves in Article V, thereby perpetuating control of government be elites.

Conventional wisdom now holds that Article V is the only way to amend the Constitution. Article V is how the government amends the Constitution, not how the people do it. If the people had to use Article V to amend the Constitution they would need permission from two-thirds of the Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures. This would mean that the creator of our government, the people, would have to get permission from their elected representatives, the createes of the people, to amend the Constitution. This logic is ludicrous. The constituent power of the people––the source of all political power––cannot be subject to the power of its creation.

James Madison had it right when he said that the people could just do it. The people can amend the Constitution and make laws as long as the process they employ is fair, transparent and reasonable. The National Initiative, the ongoing people’s legislative procedures, is just that and the national election conducted by Philadelphia II to enact the National Initiative under the precedent of Article 7 is fair, transparent and reasonable. Today’s communication technology permits us to ask all American citizens if they wish to be empowered as lawmakers and if a majority of voters who voted in the last presidential election so affirm–– regardless of the view of those in government––then the National Initiative becomes the law of the land

What does it all mean?

Yep, it's the same old shadow government that's calling the shots, and the same old corporate government cronies that thrive on the profits of war. Can Obama keep his campaign promises? Probably not if he is a good friend to AIPAC.


~LINK~

911 Revisited~WTC Explosions~Ronald Wieck Expose'

9/11 Revisited: Were Explosives Used? - The funniest bloopers are right here



Arthur Scheuerman, from the above video, who has been busy posting his lengthy copy/paste comments all over the internet, has this to say about evidence of explosions in the World Trade Center buildings.

"I believe practically all the supposed 'explosive' sounds can be explained by the impacts made by the collapsing buildings after the columns were pulled in and buckled by the bowing and sagging floors and when the floors themselves began impacting the floors below. The boom, boom, boom, boom, boom repetitive 'explosive' sounds reported by firefighters running as Tower 2 was coming down were most likely caused by the sequential collision of impacting floors after the top of the building began falling. The great quantity of air on each floor being compressed in a fraction of a second by great weight and momentum would propel air, smoke, and any concrete dust and debris outward from the building at great velocity by the bellows effect of the floors coming together so quickly."

Link


The suppositions of Arthur and his friends at JREF can only be described by the term "Not Even Wrong"

There is apparently a little hanky panky going on as can be seen in the above video, where Arnold Wieck quotes Arthur's paper "The Collapse of Building 7", because he was not quoting the original paper which still exists in the NIST report.

The Collapse of Building 7
By Arthur Scheuerman
Dec. 8 2006

Wieck was quoting a revised paper that exists only on Goggle Pages and was completely fabricated when he said...

"The anticipation of collapse was a brilliant conclusion and no lives were lost when the 47 story building collapsed about an hour and a half after the evacuation order was given. The BBC somehow misheard the orders to evacuate the collapse zone and reported the building had collapsed well before it actually did."

The Collapse of Building 7
By Arthur Scheuerman
FDNY Battalion Chief, Retired
Posted February 29, 2008

More

And MORE

Who is Arthur Scheuerman

Michael Moore's Thoughts On GM's Bankruptcy

Chinese company to buy Hummer from GM? Yeh right?

That's what MSNBC sez, but whats the real deal?


Humvee Remains Dominant Despite MRAP Craze

(NSI News Source Info) NEWTOWN, Conn. - December 3, 2008:

The international market for light wheeled combat vehicles remains a highly competitive and dynamic environment. In its annual analysis "The Market for Light Wheeled Vehicles" the Forecast International Weapons Group expects the market will produce over 71,300 light wheeled vehicles, worth in excess of $21.789 billion, through 2017.
Since 2005, the Forecast International Weapons Group has considered the impact of the AM General High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle on the light wheeled vehicle market.
Prior to the emergence of the global war on terror, the HMMWV served as essentially a utility vehicle, not a dedicated combat vehicle.

SOME HUMMER HISTORY

New York Times

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and DANNY HAKIM
Published: Tuesday, August 10, 2004

EXERPTS:

The transaction, which is expected to be completed as early as today, will put Mr. Perelman in partnership with Ira L. Rennert, who bought AM General out of bankruptcy for $133 million in 1992 and who will maintain a stake in the business after selling control to Mr. Perelman, the executives said.

The Hummer line of vehicles marketed to civilians is sold through General Motors as part of a marketing deal struck between AM General and G.M.

Under the terms of the agreement, G.M. designs and markets the Hummer while AM General makes the vehicle.

Still, the company is expected to grow through orders from the military, which represents more than two-thirds of sales, the executives said.

A $400 billion military appropriations bill signed by President Bush last week included hundreds of millions of dollars for new Humvees.

Citigroup is underwriting a $600 million loan to Mr. Perelman's company, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, to finance the transaction, the executives said.

The auction for AM General is being run by J.P. Morgan and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. MacAndrews & Forbes was advised by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Hummers weigh so much that they are exempt from federal fuel economy regulations as well as many federal crash and safety tests.

They also are eligible for special tax breaks originally conceived for pickup trucks but now applied to the heaviest sport utility vehicles.

Reading between the lines

Evolution of the Automobile

1916 Detroit Electric car



Tesla Electric Sports Car 2008



Tango v Tesla @ Infineon Nov 30th



In the early years of the 20th century there were hundreds of automobile companies and several means of propulsion, including gasoline, kerosine, diesel, electricity, and steam. The Stanly Steamer set the speed record of 127 mph in 1912 and was probably the most efficient concept. No transmission was necessary because it had maximum torque at all speeds. These were the days of free enterprise when anyone with an idea could build and patent his own concepts.

Many of these companies were a flash in the pan and virtually 90% of them were decimated by Ford and General Motors. To my knowledge, none of them were bailed out by government money. $30 billion bucks in those days could have bought off the Rothchilds.

Genetically modified monkeys give birth to designer babies

Guardian

may/27/2009

Controversial work paves way for scientists to breed primates that are born with the genetic faults responsible for human conditions such as Parkinson's and motor neurone disease

The skin on the soles of the GM marmosets glows green under ultraviolet light. Some of the monkeys passed on the trait to their offspring.

Genetically modified monkeys that glow in ultraviolet light and pass the trait on to their young have been created by scientists in Japan in controversial research that "raises the stakes" over animals rights.

The work paves the way for scientists to breed large populations of primates with genetic faults responsible for incurable human conditions, but could also spark an ethical backlash for introducing harmful genes into the primate population.

Yep, there were explosions in WTC7, nuff said?

Wikipedia:
7 World Trade Center was a 47-story building, designed by Emery Roth & Sons, with a red granite façade. The building was 610 feet (186 m) tall, with a trapezoidal footprint that was 330 ft (101 m) long and 140 ft (43 m) wide. Tishman Realty & Construction managed construction of the building, which began in 1983. In March 1987, the building opened, becoming the seventh structure of the World Trade Center. The building was constructed above a Con Edison substation that had been on the site since 1967. The substation had a caisson foundation designed to carry the weight of a future building of 25 stories containing 600,000 sq ft (55,700 m²). The final design for 7 World Trade Center was for a much larger building covering a larger footprint than originally planned when the substation was built. The structural design of 7 World Trade Center included features to allow a larger building than originally planned to be constructed. A system of gravity column transfer trusses and girders was located between floors 5 and 7 to transfer loads to the smaller foundation. Existing caissons installed in 1967 were used, along with new ones, to accommodate the building. The fifth floor functioned as a structural diaphragm, providing lateral stability and distribution of loads between the new and old caissons. Above the seventh floor, the building's structure was a typical tube-frame design, with columns in the core and on the perimeter, and lateral loads resisted by perimeter moment frames.

The last part of this video shows, in slow motion, more detail of the column of windows that were blown out during the collapse and also some debris being thrown upward from above where the windows were, along with some bright flashes that look like small explosions. Hmm...?

See Barry Jennings testimony of an explosion where the stairway was destroyed when he was descending from the sixth floor.