13 posts tagged “news”
Turk Tour
In 2004, with the release of "Troy" in the movie theaters, people begin to recall the legendary history of this mysterious city. However, many people do not know that this city is located in Turkish territory. Troy was identified at the end of the XIX century by Heinrich Schliemann in the hill of Hissarlik, in Dardanelos, northwest coast of Turkey. This area contains a succession of several cities that were built over each other during centuries, one of these cities is Troy. The legend of Troy is still a mystery with few possibilities of being solved by archeologists, so do not fear … the romantic enigma of Troy will not be destroyed. Today you can not see much at the glory time of Troy, just some ruins of the city can be visited. [Source: Business with Turkey]
Founder of the Weather Channel John Coleman calls Global Warming the "Greatest Scam in History"
"It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.
Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minute documentary segment.
I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it.
I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.
In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious. As the temperature rises, polar ice cap melting, coastal flooding and super storm pattern all fail to occur as predicted everyone will come to realize we have been duped. The sky is not falling. And, natural cycles and drifts in climate are as much if not more responsible for any climate changes underway. I strongly believe that the next twenty years are equally as likely to see a cooling trend as they are to see a warming trend. "
hat tip Ice Cap
[Might want to turn this one up.]
Update from Time Goes By:Thought Crime Bill Video
[EDITORIAL NOTE: The story below was originally posted last Tuesday, but it is important that as many people as possible know about the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism and Prevention Act of 2007, so I am reposting it today with something new.
As of late yesterday, Friday, still no mainstream media has reported on this bill. It was bad enough to find out my congressman voted for this bill in the House; now I am appalled to learn that one of my Maine senators, Susan Collins, has sponsored the bill in the Senate. You can find out how your representative voted here.
And here is a new YouTube video that needs to be as widely distributed as possible, and there are several more anti-H.R.1955 videos at YouTube.]
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In colloquial usage in English since 1612, adopted in other Western languages, Nabob is a corrupted form of the Indian title Nawab, common because it was homophonous with the Bengali pronunciation. It was originally used in error to refer to Nawabs, but since at least 1764, acquired a specific meaning: commoners: a merchant-leader, of high social status and wealth. Often, in England, the term was applied to those recently returned from the colonies. Men from the East India Company frequently made vast fortunes; and resentment tended to build up against Company men returning to purchase estates traditionally the preserve of the established aristocracy.
The word was sometimes mispronounced or misspelled "nob" or "knob": this gave rise both to the name of Nob Hill, an exclusive district of San Francisco populated by nabobs suddenly rich in the Gold Rush and, in the British Isles, to an insult.
It can also be used metaphorically for people who have a grandiose style or manner (including of speech) as in Spiro Agnew's famous dismissal of the press as "nattering nabobs of negativism".
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The alternate spelling of the empire, Mogul, is the source of the modern word mogul. In popular news jargon, this word denotes a successful business magnate who has built for himself a vast (and often monopolistic) empire in one or more specific industries. The usage is a reference to the expansive and wealthy empire built by the Mughal kings. Rupert Murdoch, for example, is a called a news mogul.
While the media were pretending all other news was on hold during the California wildfires, a dangerous bill made it through the House of Representatives and has now been sent to the Senate where it has been referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Should a majority in the Senate approve the bill, all it requires to become law is the president’s signature and since it does not deprive children of healthcare, there is no reason to think he would veto it.
Designated H.R.1955 and titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism and Prevention Act of 2007, it is an amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jane Harmon [Dem-CA] and overwhelming approved by the House on 23 October by a 404 to 6 vote.
Some people have called this the “thought crime bill”, and they are not exaggerating – which is why I am straying from the topic of aging today to bring this to your attention.
This is the first terrorism-related legislation that specifically targets U.S. citizens and the vagueness of the wording is a dangerous threat to the First Amendment and to each of us in ways that have not been attempted before in the United States. The definitions in the bill hold the frightening keys to the undermining of our most basic liberty - to speak freely [bolding is mine]:
“VIOLENT RADICALIZATION - The term ‘violent radicalization' means process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change."
The difficulties here are that “extremist belief system” means anything the government wants it to mean as does the word “facilitating.”
“HOMEGROWN TERRORISM - The term 'homegrown terrorism' means the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”
Again, this refers not just to violence, but to thought and speech for any undefined “political or social objectives”. In other words, it could mean universal healthcare, equal rights, abortion or anything at all about which you or I might want to make our views known that the government objects to. And, it establishes U.S. citizens as the targets of this legislation.
“IDEOLOGICALLY BASED VIOLENCE- The term ‘ideologically based violence' means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs.”
This repeats legislative intolerance of speech and thought.
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism and Prevention Act does not establish penalties for these thought crimes; it “only” establishes a commission to study them. But it tells us where the thinking in Washington is heading.
The Commission is required to send a report about its findings to the Congress and president every six months for a year and a half. As disturbing as the bill itself is, so is the additional requirement that there be a “a public version” of the reports – that is, something different from what Congress sees.
Even with only a commission at this point, there is no way to understand the bill except as a warning of what is to come and mainstream media has not mentioned it – not The New York Times nor the Washington Post nor the Los Angeles Times, USA Today or CNN.
Please read the entire bill. It is not lengthy and there is more in it to be concerned about than I have reported in this post.
It is not extreme to say that unless you want to find out what it was like to live in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union under Stalin or Italy under Mussolini where any "wrong" thought and word could make a citizen subject to arrest and worse, this bill must be stopped. Write, email, telephone your senators and get everyone you know to do so too. You can easily do that here. It might be prudent too to ask the senators who are running for president how they will vote on this bill.
It won’t be easy to convince our senators. Any legislation that goes through Congress with the word “terrorism” in it, gets kneejerk passage. And there is no reason the Senate won't pass it, as the House did, while the country's attention is elsewhere.
The six brave representatives who stood up against the majority in voting against H.R.1955 are: Jeff Flake [Rep-AR], Dana Rohrabacher [Rep-CA], Neil Abercrombie [Dem-HI], Jerry Costello {Dem-IL], Dennis Kucinich [Dem-OH] and John Duncan {Rep-TN].
via Time Goes Byby Ronni Bennett
Ronni's original post is worth a look - great comment thread.
Here a few:
thank you, ronni. stunned by this, by how few congressmen opposed it. how did you hear about it. two items noticed in my first reading of the bill-- focus on the internet pops up very early and the empowerment of states and local government entities to take action.
feel this very personally and hope your readers do also.
Posted by: naomi dagen bloom on Nov 6, 2007 7:55:40 AM
In today's world, with today's so-called government, this shouldn't
surprise me....but in all honesty, it scares the hell out of me.
I believe it's only a very fine line of crossover for society to revert
to the ways of Nazi Germany. I've never doubted this and this
administration only confirms it for me.
I'm off to email my Senators on this very frightening bill. Thanks for the heads-up, Ronni.
Posted by: Terri on Nov 6, 2007 8:04:17 AM
It's ironic that as China is becoming more like America, America is becoming more like China.
Posted by: Paul @ Elders Tribune on Nov 6, 2007 8:35:49 AM
My e-mail box is always full of political news as I am somewhat of a junkie. You are right; not one of them covered this dangerous bill. I just subscribed to Congress.org and I thank you for the information.
The quote in the letter to the Senators says it all. "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.' Benjamin Franklin.
Posted by: Darlene on Nov 6, 2007 8:49:48 AM
You think it's as bad as it can get and then it gets worse. I told a friend we are on the road that Germany took with the Nazis and she said oh no, we're not. We're not like them. Germans seem like nice people today too. When people start down these roads, they simply don't realize where it's heading and by the time they realize, they fear trying to stop it. This is very scary
Posted by: Rain on Nov 6, 2007 9:55:58 AM
Many thanks for this post!! While America Slept might be a good subtitle. I'm forwarding this to everyone I know with pleas to call their reps in "Congress" and read 'em the riot act. And yes, what about those presidential candidates? Do they KNOW about this??
Keep pouring it on....you rock!
Posted by: m.e. on Nov 6, 2007 10:02:34 AM
At the very beginning when it says "To prevent homegrown terrorism AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," alarm bells should start ringing. Are senators allowed to think for themselves?
Posted by: sablonneuse on Nov 6, 2007 10:31:06 AM
Jumpin' Jeezus Jehosephat!
This is unbelieveable!
Even more frightening that there is not an American outcry audible all the way to the moon! First I've heard of it.
What in the world is any congressman/woman thinking in supporting this kind of legislature?
Kick the s.o.b's out that let this one through...VOTE OUT THE IDIOTS.
Posted by: Cowtown Pattie on Nov 6, 2007 10:42:23 AM
This political climate seems a lot like the 50's, when U.S. citizens were routinely accused of being Communists sympathizers. Now, it seems, U.S. citizens may routinely be accused of terrorist activities. Can a revival of jingoistic loyalty oaths be far behind?
When I was in second grade we had "drop and cover" drills, and they didn't keep us safe. The loyalty oaths didn't keep us safe either. They just kept us scared.
It sounds as if the feds are ramping up the same game again. It's enough to make anyone scream.
Posted by: Pete on Nov 6, 2007 4:53:53 PM
Brian, the paragraph you quoted was:
"Any measure taken to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism in the United States should not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, or civil liberties of United States citizens or lawful permanent residents."
Note use of the word "should" instead of "shall". I worked for years in a highly regulated industry, and the difference between these two words is significant, in the world of regulatory verbiage. I'm sure the words were carefully chosen. SHOULD means preferable but not mandatory. SHALL is the word used when nothing less is ever acceptable.
Posted by: Pamela on Nov 6, 2007 8:55:10 PM
"California Über Alles" was the first single by the Dead Kennedys. The record was released in June 1979 on Optional Music with "The Man with the Dogs" as the b-side. The title track was re-recorded for the band's first album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980), and the version that appeared on this single, as well as the single's b-side, are available on the rarities album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death (1987).
The lyrics were written by Jello Biafra and longtime childhood friend John Greenway, and Biafra solely composed the music[1] in one of his rare early efforts when he attempted to compose music on guitar (most of Biafra's musical compositions have been done with him singing the parts into a tape recorder or to the musicians he records with during sessions or rehearsals).The title is an allusion to the first stanza of the national anthem of Germany, introduced after the downfall of the German monarchy at the end of World War I. It has been Germany's national anthem ever since, still sung, though, without this first two stanzas to avoid any expressions of superiority. The anthem, "Das Lied der Deutschen" or "Deutschlandlied" is a nineteenth century patriotic song, the lyrics written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben on the then-British island of Helgoland in 1841, with music based upon an eighteenth century string quartet by Joseph Haydn. It begins with the words "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles." The word-for-word translation of this line is "Germany above all," which the author intended to mean that a unified Germany was more desirable than the continued division of the Germanophonic countries (Sprachraum) into independent states. During the days of the Third Reich, anti-German political propaganda claimed the anthem was a typical Nazi expression of racial superiority, something the Nazis did nothing to dispel. To avoid such misunderstanding, only the third verse of the anthem, "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" (literally: Unity and Justice and Freedom) is used nowadays. The lines "From the Maas to Memel (rivers), from the Etsch to the Belt" are nowadays understood as a German-expansionist claim. In the formerly communist East German GDR the anthem was forbidden.
The focus of the song is centered on Jerry Brown, the Governor of California between 1975 to 1983, and is sung from what is supposedly his perspective. In it, an imaginary Brown outlines a bizarre hippie-fascist vision for America, in which his "suede denim secret police" kill un-cool people with "organic poison gas" chambers. The song illustrates lead singer Jello Biafra's concern with the dilution of the radical and revolutionary tendencies of the 1960s by "yuppies" and their representatives, such as, one presumes, Jerry Brown. Biafra's accusation of fascism was meant to highlight his dislike for what he saw as the centrist policies of self-professed progressive Jerry Brown. Other lines, such as "Serpent's egg already hatched" (a reference to a line from William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar), simply comment on the corrosive nature of power. The line "Now it is 1984" references the totalitarian regime of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which also happens to be the year in which Brown was to be elected.
via the wicked Wiki
By: Naomi Wolf
(Naomi Wolf is the author of “The End of America — Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot,” an amazing book that discusses, among other things, the implications of the growth of paramilitary forces like Blackwater.)
The New York Times reported today that Blackwater, the infamous organization that has been accused of killing civilians in Iraq, “has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms.” A mercenary firm in Iraq with an itchy trigger finger is bad enough. But it now appears that Blackwater’s activities may be massively expanded — and not in Iraq.
In little noticed news, Blackwater, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Arinc were recently awarded a collective $15 billion — yes, billion — from the Pentagon to conduct global counter-narcotics operations. This means that Blackwater can be deployed to engage with citizens on a whole new level of intimacy anywhere around the world — including here at home. What is scarier than scary is that Blackwater’s overall plans are to do more and more of its armed and dangerous ‘security’ operations on U.S. soil.
In my recently released book, The End of America — Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot, I describe the 10 steps that would-be tyrants use to close down a democracy and produce a “fascist shift.” The third of the ten steps is to ‘Develop a Paramilitary Force.’ Without a paramilitary force that is not answerable to the people’s representatives, democracy cannot be closed down; however, with such a force available to would-be despots, democracy can be drastically and quickly weakened.
Every effective despot — from Mussolini to Hitler, Stalin, the members of the Chinese Politburo, General Augusto Pinochet and the many Latin American dictators who learned from these models of controlling citizens — has used this essential means to pressure civilians and intimidate dissent. Mussolini was the innovator in the use of thugs to intimidate what was a democracy, if a fragile one, before he actually marched on Rome; he developed the strategic deployment of blackshirts to beat up communists and opposition leaders, trash newspapers and turn on civilians, forcing ordinary Italians, for instance, to ingest emetics. Hitler studied Mussolini; he deployed thugs — in the form of brownshirts — in similar ways before he came formally to power.
In light of these historical warning, we must ask, “What is Blackwater?” According to reporter Jeremy Scahill, the firm has 2,300 private soldiers deployed in nine countries, and maintains a database of an additional 21,000 to call upon at any time. Blackwater has over “$500 million in government contracts — and that does not include its secret ‘black’ budget…” [It also did not include, at the time Scahill’s wrote this description, the massive anti-narcotics contract described above.] One congressman pointed out that in terms of its manpower, Blackwater can overthrow “many of the world’s governments.” Recruiters for the company seek out former military from countries that have horrific human rights abuses and use secret police and paramilitary forces to terrify their own populations: Chileans, Peruvians, Nigerians, and Salvadorans.
Blackwater is coming home to Main Street, and one of our key constitutional protections is at stake. The future for growth is directed at increased deployment in the US in cases of natural disaster — or in the event of a ‘public emergency.’ This is a very dangerous situation, of course, now that laws have been passed that let the President decide on his say-so alone what a ‘public emergency’ might be.
The Department of Homeland Security hired these same Blackwater contractors to patrol the streets of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — for a contract valued at about $73 million. Does Blackwater’s reputation for careless violence against civilians in Iraq, protected by legal indemnification, matter to us? Scahill reports at least one private contractor’s accounts of other contractors’ abrupt shooting in the direction of American civilians in the wake of Katrina: “After that, all I heard was moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped.”
How protected is Blackwater from prosecution for its crimes? The company’s lawyers have argued that Blackwater can’t be held accountable by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, because they aren’t part of the US military; but they can’t be sued in civil court, either — because they are part of the US military.
Does this affect the strength of our democracy? Look at how history shows thug groups have been directed at intimidating voters. Americans need to be reminded that both Italy before Mussolini and Germany before Hitler were working, if fragile, parliamentary democracies. Thugs were used in both countries to intimidate voters exercising their rights. Mussolini’s fascists stood menacingly near voting booths to make sure citizens ‘voted responsibly’; William Shirer wrote that the Austrians voted 99% in favor of their country’s annexation by Germany — not surprising, he observed, since intimidating groups of brownshirts looked through a wide slit in the voting booth where the election committee did its work. The oddly specific scene of groups of identically dressed young men — later identified as Republican staffers — crowding and shouting at the vote counters in Florida in 2000 has strong historical precedents.
The Founders knew from their own experience of standing armies, responsive only to a tyrant, how dangerous such a situation was; King George’s men — armed with blanket warrants — invaded the colonists’ homes, trashed their possessions, and even raped Colonial women. It was that bitter experience that led them to insist on the second amendment — ‘a well regulated militia’ that was responsive to the people and could not be deployed against the people of the United States by would-be despots. The founders knew that American tyranny was not only possible, it was likely, in the event of weakened checks and balances; and they knew a mercenary army was the advance guard of despots.
Blackwater is available to anyone who can write the checks. If there is a need to ‘restore public order’ in the next Presidential election — a power that the President now can define as he sees fit — Blackwater can be deployed. If the President declares an emergency, Blackwater can be deployed. And history shows us how very quickly citizen dissent and democratic processes close down when physically intimidating men — who are armed and not answerable to the people — are abroad in the land.
Those who read history should understand what we are more and more likely to see — now that a paramilitary force answerable to Bush and corporations like Halliburton but not to the people’s representatives is in place. Mussolini and Hitler began to deploy their paramilitary to patrol key public spaces early — when Italy and Germany were still parliamentary democracies and neither leader had yet seized power. These leaders deployed their paramilitary groups in the halls of Parliament and the Reichstag when these were still functioning representative democracies, thus intimidating the people’s political leaders. Then the paramilitary groups were deployed to violently contain opposition protests — again, in what were still open, if fragile, democratic societies at the time.
(According to `the blueprint’ described in my book, unless people wake up in time, we in America are likely to see a call for a `security requirement’ for Blackwater to be deployed to `protect’ Congress and to be deployed around voting areas `to maintain public order’, and, unless we intervene, we will see them start to do crowd control when there are antiwar marches or other demonstrations. Then, again according to historical models, protesters will increasingly start to get hurt for `resisting arrest’ or for `provocations.’)
Because, to my sorrow, I know `the blueprint’, I was sad but not at all surprised when a horrified friend who works in downtown New York City told me that armed private contractors — who look like members of the NYPD but who are not answerable to any government entity — have been placed around the U.S. stock exchange. I went down to check it out. Indeed, Wall Street and the entire periphery of the Stock Exchange was like a militarized zone in the hands of what was not evident to onlookers as being in fact a private army: there were barricades; three immense trucks parked to deter and investigate pedestrians; armed dog handlers with their big dogs on tightly held leashes — all of this looks like government security but it isn’t. The company, hired, the guards said, by the stock exchange itself, is neutrally called `T & M.’ (More investigation of such companies is called for.)
I went up to a guard and, chatting sweetly, established from him that, indeed, none of these men were NYPD or even US government agents.
“That’s really big gun,” I remarked admiringly of his massive firearm, encased in leather. “What kind is it?”
“It’s a Glock,” said the contractor, with shy pride.
“Heavens!,” I said. “What kind of guidelines does the company give you for shooting?”
“Use our discretion,” he said. I thanked him, my heart racing.
In Iraq, men with guns not answerable to the people’s law or government can shoot at will at Iraqi civilians. That is not freedom. As Blackwater or other renamed versions of paramilitary contractors, sometimes with intimate ties to this administration and to Halliburton, start to patrol the streets of our nation, without our debate or consent, we can easily wake up to find that we have a National Guard that is supposed to be answerable to governors, and a Congress that is supposed to oversee the military — but it’s too late anyway; the guns in our streets are already in the hands of people who are answerable to those writing the checks — and no longer answerable to the now-vulnerable American people.
Blackwater’s actions in Iraq should be a wake-up call to us here at home — to restore the constitution and the rule of law before we are too intimidated to do so.
Portions of this post appeared originally on Powell’s Book Blog
via Mnemosyne's Memes
Related: Dyncorp. I think they built our City Hall complex...same company different name?
From the wicked wiki:
DynCorp International[2] is a United States-based private military contractor (PMC) and aircraft maintenance company. DynCorp receives more than 96 percent of its $2 billion in annual revenues from the federal government.[3] Most recently DynCorp has publicly expressed interest in patrolling the border between USA and Mexico.[1]
The company, based in Falls Church, Virginia, has provided teams for the U.S. military in major theaters, such as Bolivia, Bosnia, Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, Kosovo and Kuwait.[4] DynCorp International also provided much of the security for Afghan interim president Hamid Karzai's presidential guard and trains much of Afghanistan's and Iraq's fledgling police force.[5] DynCorp was also hired to assist recovery in Louisiana and neighboring areas after Hurricane Katrina.[6][7]
Recently, Dynacorp has been criticized for losing most of $1.2 Billion
given by the state department to be used for training of Iraqi Police.[8]
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