Friday, February 10, 2006

Download the Mozilla Browser: "Spyware Barely Touches Firefox"




DOWNLOAD - http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/



(...)


Yahoo! News

Spyware Barely Touches Firefox

By Gregg Keizer
TechWeb.com Thu Feb 9, 2:15 PM ET

Internet Explorer users can be as much as 21 times more likely to end up with a spyware-infected PC than people who go online with Mozilla's Firefox browser, academic researchers from Microsoft's backyard said in a recently published paper.


"We can't say whether Firefox is a safer browser or not," said Henry Levy, one of the two University of Washington professors who, along with a pair of graduate students, created Web crawlers to scour the Internet for spyware in several 2005 forays. "But we can say that users will have a safer experience [surfing] with Firefox."

In May and October, Levy and colleague Steven Gribble sent their crawlers to 45,000 Web sites, cataloged the executable files found, and tested malicious sites' effectiveness by exposing unpatched versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox to "drive-by downloads." That's the term for the hacker practice of using browser vulnerabilities to install software, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes not.

"We can't say IE is any less safe," explained Levy, "because we choose to use an unpatched version [of each browser.] We were trying to understand the number of [spyware] threats, so if we used unpatched browsers then we would see more threats."

Levy and Gribble, along with graduate students Alexander Moshchuk and Tanya Bragin, set up IE in two configurations -- one where it behaved as if the user had given permission for all downloads, the other as if the user refused all download permission -- to track the number of successful spyware installations.

During Levy's and Gribble's most recent crawl of October 2005, 1.6 percent of the domains infected the first IE configuration, the one mimicking a na�ve user blithely clicking 'Yes;' about a third as many domains (0.6 percent) did drive-by downloads by planting spyware even when the user rejected the installations.

"These numbers may not sound like much," said Gribble, "but consider the number of domains on the Web."

"You definitely want to have all the patches [installed] for Internet Explorer," added Levy.

In the same kind of configurations, Firefox survived relatively unscathed. Only .09 percent of domains infected the Mozilla Corp. browser when it was set, like IE, to act as if the user clicked through security dialogs; no domain managed to infect the Firefox-equipped PC in a drive-by download attack.

Compare those figures, and it seems that IE users who haven't patched their browser are 21 times more likely to have a spyware attack executed -- if not necessarily succeed -- against their machine.

Most of the exploits that leveraged IE vulnerabilities to plant spyware were based on ActiveX and JavaScript, said Gribble. Those two technologies have taken the blame for many of IE problems. In fact, Firefox boosters often point to their browser's lack of support for ActiveX as a big reason why its security claims are legit.

Levy and Gribble didn't set out to verify that, but they did note that the few successful spyware attacks on Firefox were made by Java applets; all, however, required the user's consent to succeed.

Microsoft's made a point to stress that Internet Explorer 7, which just went into open beta for Windows XP, tightens up ActiveX controls by disabling nearly all those already installed. IE 7 then alerts the user and requires consent before it will run an in-place control.

Good thing, because one of the research's most startling conclusions was the number of spyware-infected sites. One out of every 20 executable files on Web sites is spyware, and 1 in 25 domains contain at least one piece of spyware waiting for victims.

"If these numbers are even close to representative for Web sites frequented by users," the paper concluded, "it is not surprising that spyware continues to be of major concern."

The moral, said Levy, is: "If you browse, you're eventually going to get hit with a spyware attack."

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060210/tc_cmp/179102616


(...)



US President George W. Bush aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. A former CIA official who coordinated US intelligence on the Middle East has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, The Washington Post reports(AFP/File/Stephen Jaffe)


Yahoo! News

Bush waged Iraq war by "cherry-picking" intelligence: former CIA official

Fri Feb 10, 5:43 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A former CIA official who coordinated US intelligence on the Middle East has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, The Washington Post reports.

The newspaper said Paul Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, also accused the administration of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.


"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq."

Pillar said mistakes made by US intelligence agencies in concluding that Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction did not drive the administration's decision to invade, according to The Post.

"It has become clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community's own work was politicized," Pillar wrote.

The paper said Pillar was an influential behind-the-scenes player and was considered the agency's leading counterterrorism analyst.

By the end of his career, he was responsible for coordinating assessments on Iraq from all 15 agencies in the intelligence community. He is now a professor in security studies at Georgetown University.

In his article, he said he believes that the "politicization" of intelligence on Iraq occurred "subtly" and in many forms, but almost never resulted from a policymaker directly asking an analyst to reshape his or her results, the report said.

Instead, Pillar describes a process in which the White House helped frame intelligence results by repeatedly posing questions aimed at bolstering its arguments about Iraq, The Post said.

The Bush administration, Pillar wrote, "repeatedly called on the intelligence community to uncover more material that would contribute to the case for war," including information on the "supposed connection" between Hussein and Al-Qaeda, which analysts had discounted.

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060210/ts_afp/usiraqpoliticscia_060210104328


(...)


Download a pair of documentaries for free to help Save The World...






911: the Road to Tyranny (2002)

http://www.archive.org/details/911theRoadtoTyranny







Martial Law 9/11: Rise Of The Police State (2005)

http://www.archive.org/details/MartialLaw911






Peace, (NOW!!!)
BK

_________________

...

Black Krishna Brand

Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/

Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm

...

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Why the hell is the website link to this story so g-ddamned long???


A 2.7 trillion dollar budget for 2007 to be unveiled by the George W. Bush administration reportedly curbs core social programs while beefing up US defense spending by five percent.(AFP/File/Jim Watson)


Yahoo! News

White House Details 141 Programs to Cut

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 9, 5:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Grants for safe and drug-free schools, vocational education and reading programs for jailed young people are among 141 federal programs President Bush wants to eliminate or cut significantly.


Bush has proposed axing most of them before, only to see Congress save them. The Office of Management and Budget released the new list Thursday.

Many of the programs proposed for elimination have an emotional pull, like one providing $107 million for food for the elderly poor.


Others are pretty arcane, like one giving the Postal Service $29 million to pay it back for the generous subsidies it once provided to nonprofit mailers.

And how many Americans know there is a $9 million "Exchanges With Historic Whaling and Trading Partners" program, which gives money to museums, aquariums and heritage centers in Alaska, Hawaii and Massachusetts?

Killing or cutting these and scores more would save taxpayers almost $15 billion, the White House estimates.

In issuing the list, Bush wants to build upon the success he had last year in killing or cutting 89 programs saving $6.5 billion. He's also hoping to take advantage of efforts on Capitol Hill to rein in lawmakers' abuse of "earmarks," special projects wanted by individual lawmakers.

But most of this year's proposed cuts were rejected by lawmakers last year and likely will be again. Of 91 programs slated to be killed altogether, to save $7.3 billion, only about one in six are new proposals.

The programs slated for elimination are congressional favorites funded through annual appropriations bills. They include $3.5 billion from the Department of Education, including grants for safe and drug free schools and vocational education grants.


Another 50 programs are slated for large cuts but not outright elimination, for savings of $7.4 billion. They include $394 million from Amtrak subsidies, $694 million from Department of Homeland Security grants and training programs and
an almost 25 percent cut from construction funding for Indian Schools.


The Office of Management and Budget said the programs on its ambitious list are those "not getting results or not fulfilling essential priorities."

The hit list is part of an annual clash with lawmakers over Congress' penchant for grant programs and parochial hometown projects.

Lawmakers like to direct funds to specific purposes such as vocational job training, scholarships devoted to math and science and several different types of grants to local law enforcement agencies.

The White House doesn't like being hemmed in by congressional directives and in many instances wants to merge programs for related purposes into a single program with more flexibility for the administration to implement.

After meeting with little success in its initial attempt to kill of congressional favorites such as construction grants for local hospitals and health clinics, the administration had much more success in the budget year just completed.

By its count, the White House succeeded in killing or weeding funds from 89 out of 154 programs proposed for cuts.


"That's a .578 batting average, which in this league isn't just good, it's terrific, particularly given the batting averages from previous years," OMB Director Joshua Bolten told the House Budget Committee Wednesday.

Congress reacted with a shrug to the White House document.

"Oldies but goodies," quipped House Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield, who said "it's going to be a very lean year and everything is on the table."


The list is studded with cuts that Congress has rebelled against in the past, including those to:

• Amtrak. The money-losing national passenger railroad is slated to absorb a $394 million cut in its subsidies, about 30 percent. That's less than last year's proposal, which was designed to drive Amtrak into bankruptcy and was resoundingly rejected by lawmakers.

• Law enforcement grants. Lawmakers and local police departments love grant programs like the Byrne grants program to direct federal funds to local law enforcement agencies. Bush proposes eliminating several Justice Department grant programs, saving $1.1 billion, including one that gives aid to states with imprisoned criminal aliens. Last year, Congress restored funding for such programs, but at less than two-thirds of prior levels.

• Community Services Block Grant. Bush proposes eliminating $630 million in grants for local social services agencies and community action centers to provide poor people with employment, housing, food and health care. A comparable plan was rejected last year.


• Agricultural research. The administration proposes to cut $196 million in local grants for agricultural research, including research into asparagus and goatgrass control.

Programs newly put on the chopping block in this year's plan include:

• Food aid. The plan would eliminate the $107 million Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides the monthly food packages to low-income seniors. The White House says it overlaps other programs such as food stamps, though advocates for the poor say the food deliveries help seniors with limited mobility or who live in isolated areas.


• Energy research. The administration seeks to kill $64 million for research into technologies to reduce the cost of oil and gas exploration, arguing that oil companies can easily afford to pay for it.

___

On the Net:

White House list: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/pdf/savings.pdf

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_program_cuts_1;_ylt=AgBXay1pOnqVKZXTZlQjTUP0vnUA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl


SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_program_cuts_1;_ylt=AgBXay1pOnqVKZXTZlQjTUP0vnUA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl


SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_program_cuts_1;_ylt=AgBXay1pOnqVKZXTZlQjTUP0vnUA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl


???


???


???


Peace, (NOW!!!)
BK

_________________

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Black Krishna Brand

Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/

Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm

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Today on The Alex Jones Show: Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) "The Last Girl Scout"




SOURCE - http://www.globalresearch.ca/globaloutlook/TOCI2.html





SOURCE - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1449864/posts





SOURCE - http://www.blackcommentator.com/11_mckinney.html



(...)


TODAY ON THE ALEX JONES SHOW

Cynthia McKinney

Alex talks with Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) the only House Representative to stand up to the Bush Whitehouse Crime Syndicate. Alex and firebrand McKinney will discuss a variety important issues including DynCorp, the FEMA induced Hurricane Katrina disaster, voter fraud, trillions missing from the Pentagon, the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, the push for war with Iran and more.


Related Information:

Cynthia Mckinney @ Project Censored:

WinMedia | Quicktime

Cynthia Mckinney Grills Rumsfeld over missing Pentagon Trillions

WinMedia | Quicktime

Matrox of Evil and check out Cynthia McKinney's powerful Speech

Cynthia McKinney's Official US House Website


SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/


(...)


*** VIDEO ***

(8 minutes)

Representative Cynthia McKinney Grills Rumsfeld On Dyncorp Sex Rings, Missing Pentagon Trillions & 9/11 Wargames

C-Span | March 24, 2005

Rumseld and Myers forced to shuffle uncomfortably and fumble for words as McKinney gets in their face about three issues seldom mentioned in official circles.

From a reader: Here is a Video of Representative Cynthia McKinney's Exchange on the House Hearing on FY06 Dept. of Defense Budget, March 11th, 2005.

Watch how McKinney asks questions about Dyncorp slave rings, the 3 trillion missing from the pentagon and the 911 wargames.

Notice the faces Rumsfeld, Myers, Jones, Hunter and others make!!

SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/mckinney_grills_rumsfeld.htm



(...)


Cynthia McKinney's Home Vandalized

Tuesday, January 31, 2006
By: Michael Ivey

Cynthia McKinneyCynthia McKinney (D-GA) found her front yard "toilet papered" with VCR tape Sunday when she returned from promoting her new documentary 'American Blackout' at the Sundance Film Festival. "Obviously, someone wants to send a message that they know where I live and can have access to my front yard to do unkind things," she said. The crime was reported to local police.

Her film 'American Blackout' chronicles voting irregularities and supposed disenfranchisement of some African Americans from 2000-2004. McKinney hopes "everyone who cares about our country" will see it. The Congresswoman has been a heavy critic of the Bush Administration and lead a national investigation into the 2000 presidential election irregularities.


Cynthia McKinney also initiated a bill in the House of Representatives last November that calls for the creation of a records collection at the National Archives pertaining to the unsolved killing of emcee Tupac Shakur. HR 4210 calls for "a second repository at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia" as well. The center opened Jun. 11, 2005.

SOURCE - http://www.nobodysmiling.com/hiphop/news/85717.php

ANOTHER SOURCE - http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=5309

YET ANOTHER SOURCE - http://www.911truth.org/index.php?topic=archive_by_topic


(...)


Plot Summary for "American Blackout" (2006)


Most people have heard of the voting irregularities that marred the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Some even know of the resulting challenges to the electoral votes by African-American congressional representatives. However, because the mainstream media shies away from reporting cases of imperiled democracy the public is left to believe these stories are at worst insignificant rumors or at best one-off incidents that result from an overburdened election system.

American Blackout chronicles the recurring patterns of disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who not only took an active role in investigating these election debacles but also found herself in the middle of one after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Some call Cynthia McKinney a civil rights leader among the ranks of Shirley Chisholm and Malcolm X. Others call her a conspiracy theorist and a 'looney.' American Blackout gains unprecedented access to one of the most controversial and dangerous politicians in America and examines the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence political dissent.


The film features interviews with: US Congressional Representatives, John Lewis, Cynthia McKinney, John Conyers, Bernie Sanders, and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones; former US Civil Rights Commissioner & Dean of UC Berkeley's School of Law, Christopher Edley; BBC journalist Greg Palast; and, Van Jones, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center. American Blackout is directed by GNN's Ian Inaba, the creator of the controversial pre-election music video for Eminem's "Mosh" (watch the video at: http://gnn.tv/videos/28/ ), and features music from: DJ Shadow, Soulsavers and Thievery Corporation, among others.

Summary written by Ian Inaba

SOURCE - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492443/plotsummary


Headlines : Civil Liberties

GNN's "American Blackout" wins Special Jury prize at Sundance

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 21:32:34 -0800

Summary:

GNN’s Ian Inaba had a great week at Sundance, garnering audience and critical acclaim for his moving and well-constructed quasi-biographical study of Cynthia McKinney and the disenfranchisement of Black voters. “Engrossing, fast-paced, stylish… a powerful examination of voting rights in America,” beamed the Hollywood Reporter, which also filed this report from the Awards Ceremony in Park City. Congratulations to Ian, his (long-suffering) producer Anastasia King and clutch-pin animator and designer Anson Vogt who gave the movie its gritty feel. Now someone just has to put it on TV...

[Posted By silverback]

[Continued...]


SOURCE - http://www.guerrillanews.com/headlines/7267/GNN_s_American_Blackout_wins_Special_Jury_prize_at_Sundance


(...)


February 08, 2006

22 US Reps Want Impeachment Probe

By Matthew Cardinale, Atlanta Progressive News

22 US Representatives–including two members of the Georgia delegation–have now signed on as co-sponsors of H. Res 635, demanding a probe which could recommend Bush’s impeachment, including the initial sponsor, US Rep. John Conyers, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.



23 US Representatives now total want Bush either to face an impeachment probe or to resign. US Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) is the representative who has called for Bush’s resignation, according to a World Can’t Wait statement issued to Atlanta Progressive News.

Five (5) Members of US Congress signed on yesterday, February 07, 2006, including US Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), John Lewis (D-GA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), according to thomas.loc.gov.

Previously, Rep. Lewis had called for Bush’s impeachment over wiretapping–an offense not referenced in the bill by Rep. Conyers–but now appears to support a broader investigation.

Also, Rep. McKinney had previously signed the World Can’t Wait statement, but now appears to have stopped waiting for Mr. Bush to resign voluntarily.


[Continued...]


SOURCE - http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_matthew__060208_22_us_reps_want_bush.htm


(...)



Katrina and the Missing Administration

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 12:17:18 -0800

By Rep. Cynthia McKinney

Bush should have wiretapped FEMA and Chertoff

Editor’s note: This Saturday, Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney hosted a Katrina Town Hall Meeting in her hometown of Atlanta. The following are her remarks to the assembled citizens:

While the Bush Administration spends time listening in on our phone and e-mail conversations, it would do well to read the memos and reports of its own employees. Setting the stage with its failure to protect the American people on September 11th, and then with its rush to war in Iraq with forged documents, no matter what the facts were, the Bush Administration has shown for the third time, with Hurricane Katrina, that when it really matters and U.S. lives are on the line, it is at best confused and negligent.



On Monday, we will turn in our report to the Special Katrina Panel chaired by Congressman Tom Davis of Virginia. I have not been reticent with my words at that panel and I will not be reticent in our report.

While New Orleans was flooding and the Gulf States were being decimated, President Bush was on vacation at the Texas ranch; Vice President Cheney was fly-fishing in Wyoming; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was booed as she took in a Broadway play and afterwards was spotted buying a reported $7,000 worth of Ferragamo shoes in New York City; Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld took in a San Diego Padres baseball game; Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff, the principal man in charge of such disasters decided to stay home.


On Friday, August 26, Mayor Blanco declares a state of emergency Saturday, August 27, Blanco asks Bush to declare a federal state of emergency; that was done on the same day, giving the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA full authority to respond to Katrina—two full days before landfall Sunday, August 28, Mayor Nagin issues first ever mandatory evacuation and Secretary Chertoff is warned by the National Weather Service that the levees could be topped; Louisiana National Guard requests 700 buses from FEMA Monday, August 29, Katrina makes landfall as President Bush flies to Phoenix to share birthday cake with Senator John McCain; Governor Blanco again asks President Bush for assistance.

She says, “We need everything you’ve got.”


[Continued...]


SOURCE - http://www.gnn.tv/articles/2096/Katrina_and_the_Missing_Administration


(...)


From Wikipedia...


On July 22, 2005, McKinney held a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill to address outstanding issues regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. The day-long briefing featured family members of victims, former intelligence agency officials, noted authors, and other experts who collectively gave a searing indictment of the 9/11 Commission and its recommendations.

First to speak were the Jersey Girls, an organization of 9/11 widows who endeavored to see the 9/11 Commission formed, only to conclude that it was "an insult to the intelligence of the American public," as member Lorie Van Auken described it in her opening statement. The four morning panels were meant to address flaws, omissions, and the lack of historical and political analysis in the commission's report. Three afternoon panels critiqued the commission's recommendations in the areas of foreign and domestic policy, and intelligence reform.


An Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial maintained that the purpose of the event was to discuss whether or not the Bush administration was involved in the 9/11 attacks, and was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the 9/11 Commission's reports, expressing surprise that McKinney was once again taking on the issue which was widely believed to have been the one that cost her her House seat, yet the Journal-Constitution refused to publish McKinney's reply.

McKinney's interest in 9/11 relates specifically to her opposition to excessive government secrecy. She has submitted to Congress two versions of the same bill, the "MLK Records Act" (one in 2003, the other in 2005,) which, if signed into law, would release all currently sealed files concerning the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.. These records were sealed in 1978 and are not due to be declassified until the year 2038. Likewise, the 9/11 Commission has sealed all the notes and transcripts of some 2,000 interviews, all the forensic evidence, and both classified and non-classified documents used in compiling its final report until January, 2009.


[Continued...]


SOURCE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_McKinney


(...)



A 2.7 trillion dollar budget for 2007 to be unveiled by the George W. Bush administration reportedly curbs core social programs while beefing up US defense spending by five percent.(AFP/File/Jim Watson)


Yahoo! News

White House Details 141 Programs to Cut

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 9, 5:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Grants for safe and drug-free schools, vocational education and reading programs for jailed young people are among 141 federal programs President Bush wants to eliminate or cut significantly.


Bush has proposed axing most of them before, only to see Congress save them. The Office of Management and Budget released the new list Thursday.

Many of the programs proposed for elimination have an emotional pull, like one providing $107 million for food for the elderly poor.


[Unfortunately continued...]



SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_program_cuts_1;_ylt=AgBXay1pOnqVKZXTZlQjTUP0vnUA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl




SOURCE - http://www.cynthiaforcongress.com/about.html

OFFICIAL SITE - http://www.house.gov/mckinney/



Peace, (NOW!!!)
BK

_________________

...

Black Krishna Brand

Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/

Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm

...

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Protesting Cartoons: "New Evidence Suggests Muslim Riots Are Staged Psyop" (Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet.com)




Infowars.com

New Evidence Suggests Muslim Riots Are Staged Psyop

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | February 8 2006

As news breaks of four more demonstrators being shot dead in Kabul, fresh evidence has surfaced lending credibility to the assertion that the Muslim riots are a staged psyop or at the very least based on false pretenses.

Yesterday leading Russian MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that the riots were a manufactured psychological operation on the part of the US in an attempt to enlist hardened EU support for a military strike against Iran.


As first highlighted by this website and others, more evidence has come to light that confirms fake and misleading caricatures were bundled in with the more tame cartoons that were printed in Danish newspapers. Muslims were misled into believing that all the images were printed in newspapers when they were not.

World Net Daily reports,

"One of three especially inflammatory but undocumented Muhammad images distributed by a Danish imam as an example of an "anti-Muslim environment" in the European country turns out to be a poorly reproduced copy of an Associated Press photo taken at a French pig-squealing contest."









"The weblog NeanderNews pointed out the image used by Imam Ahmad Abu Laban was a faxed copy of AP's Aug. 15 photo of Jacques Barrot competing at the annual French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise."

Another two images which were erroneously added to the caricatures that were actually carried by the newspapers depict Muhammad as a pedophile demon and a dog raping a praying Muslim.

Were the misleading images intended to add fuel to the fire? Many have pointed out that depictions of Muhammad appear universally throughout the world. A stone sculpture in the US depicting Muhammad has been in place since the 1930's. An Australian newspaper piece lists depictions of Muhammad, both flattering and insulting that appear regularly in the West and beyond.


"From Ottoman religious icons to market stalls in Iran, from the US Supreme Court building to the South Park cartoon, Mohammed has been frequently portrayed in flattering and unflattering lights."

Many painters, including William Blake, Gustave Dore, Auguste Rodin and Salvador Dali, have depicted Mohammed in illustrations of Dante's Inferno, where the Muslim prophet ends up in hell with his entrails hanging out."

Why the outrage now? And why were more degrading images that were not even printed thrown into the mix?

The US government is no stranger to using falsely attributed paraphernalia to fan the flames of racial tension. During the Vietnam era civil rights struggle, the FBI mass mailed coloring books that were attributed to the Black Panthers. The books portrayed white people as pigs and encouraged blacks to violently attack and kill them. Primarily mailed to white neighborhoods, the books had the effect of turning middle class sentiment against the black rights movement and leading to support of enhanced authoritarian crackdown.


The feasibility of demonstrators in Gaza having immediate access to a plethora of pristine Danish flags as soon as the furore began has also been put under scrutiny.

A CNN International news anchor reported that the United Nations had foreknowledge that protests in Beirut were going to erupt on Sunday.

"ANTHONY MILLS, CNN INTERNATIONAL: My understanding is, as well, that UN sources were reporting this morning that this was going to be a chaotic day, if you will... Or, certainly they were reporting --they were suggesting -- their workers shouldn't go to work today."

So, indications in advance, I think, probably that something was going to happen here, that some form or sort of violent protest might erupt."


As we reported on Monday, images of Muslims with signs that read "freedom go to hell" and "Europe, take some lessons from from 9/11" are playing right into the hands of the Globalists by enabling them to hold up examples of how the Muslims are dangerous barbarians who wish to take away our liberties and need to be dealt with.

Violent Muslim demonstrators should be aware that they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction by allowing the media to portray them as freedom hating, brutal and out of control. This ensures increased support for future wars that primarily target Muslim and Persian majority countries.

The seemingly artificial origins of the protests betray the true agenda behind the very real chaos that we now see engulfing the Middle East and Europe.


[More photo evidence at...]

SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/ww3/danish_muslim_riots_staged_psyop.htm






Infowars.com

Former Reagan Treasury Secretary Questions Twin Towers Collapse

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | February 8 2006

A former Wall Street Journal editor and a man credited with the success of 'Reaganomics' has finally broken ranks and brought into question the unexplained collapse of the twin towers and WTC building 7.

Former Assistant of the Treasury in the Reagan administration Paul Craig Roberts questions why it is largely accepted that the Bush administration lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and yet many still believe they told the truth about 9/11.


Roberts' columns have been a consistent source of expert analysis and no holds barred commentary but he is yet to go this far in addressing the real culprits behind 9/11.

"Many patriotic readers have written to me expressing their frustration that fact and common sense cannot gain a toehold in a debate guided by hysteria and disinformation. Other readers write that 9/11 shields Bush from accountability," wrote Roberts.

"They challenge me to explain why three World Trade Center buildings on one day collapsed into their own footprints at free fall speed, an event outside the laws of physics except under conditions of controlled demolition. They insist that there is no stopping war and a police state as long as the government's story on 9/11 remains unchallenged."

Roberts continues, "They could be right. There are not many editors eager for writers to explore the glaring defects of the 9/11 Commission Report. One would think that if the report could stand analysis, there would not be a taboo against calling attention to the inadequacy of its explanations. We know the government lied about Iraqi WMD, but we believe the government told the truth about 9/11."

Roberts cites a press release from '9/11 Scholars For Truth,' a group that comprises such credible individuals as former German Defense Minister Andreas von Buelow and former chief economist for the US Department of Labor under George W. Bush, Morgan Reynolds. The press release lists the evidence suggesting 9/11 was carried out with the complicity of the highest ranks of government and intelligence agencies.


Roberts is just the latest of a cacophony of credible individuals both in and out of government to come forward and voice grave doubts about the official story of 9/11.

In November, Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E. Jones challenged the assumption that the twin towers and Building 7 collapsed from fire damage alone, stating "It is quite plausible that explosives were pre-planted in all three buildings and set off after the two plane crashes — which were actually a diversion tactic."

"Muslims are (probably) not to blame for bringing down the WTC buildings after all," said Jones.


SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/pcr_questions_twin_tower_collapse.htm






VIDEO

PrisonPlanet.com

King eulogists jab Bush at funeral

Reuters/Karen Jacobs | February 8 2006

LITHONIA, Georgia (Reuters) - Speakers took a rare opportunity to criticize U.S. President George W. Bush's policies to his face at the funeral on Tuesday of Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil-rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery and former President Jimmy Carter cited Mrs. King's legacy as a leader in her own right and advocate of nonviolence as they launched barbs over the Iraq war, government social policies and Bush's domestic eavesdropping program.

Bush sat watching the long service before an audience of 10,000 including politicians, civil rights leaders and entertainers at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, and a national cable television audience.

Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King helped found in 1957, gave a playful reading of a poem in eulogy of Mrs. King.

"She extended Martin's message against poverty, racism and war/She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar," he said.

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there/But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here/Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor."

The mourners gave a standing ovation. Bush's reaction could not be seen on the television coverage, but after Lowery finished speaking, the president shook his hand and laughed.


Mrs. King, seen by many as the "first lady" of the American civil rights movement, died last week in a Mexican alternative health clinic at the age of 78, after complications from ovarian cancer and a recent stroke and heart attack.

Bush, speaking before his critics, said, "By going forward with a strong and forgiving heart, Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband's legacy, she built her own."

With Washington debating the legality of Bush's domestic eavesdropping on Americans suspected of al Qaeda ties, Carter also drew applause with pointed comments on federal efforts to spy on the Kings.

"It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance," he said.

Speaking later, Bush's father, former President George Bush, broke any tension by recalling his own meetings as president with Lowery and gave a score: "Lowery 21, Bush 3, it wasn't a fair fight."

Former President Bill Clinton, a favorite among mainstream civil rights leaders, was able to offer a teasing hint of the possible presidential candidacy of his wife, New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

SOURCE - http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/080206jabbush.htm






VIDEO

PrisonPlanet.com

Alberto: George Washington loves electronics too

Crooks and Liars | February 7 2006

Sometimes you just hit the jackpot.

Alberto: President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale.


SOURCE - http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/070206loveselectronics.htm








Peace, (NOW!!!)
BK

_________________

...

Black Krishna Brand

Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/

Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm

...

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Protesting Cartoons: Understanding The Angry Arabs Attacking Authoritarian A--holes...











Wow.

These dudes look scaaary.

I mean, reeeeally scaaary.

I mean, what the hell are they thinking going nuts over cartoons?


(...)


Here's some brief analysis:


1. Mike Luckovich said on CNN that the difference between other terrorist cartoons and this one is that the prophet Mohammed was depicted as the root cause of violence, including having a turban shaped like a bomb. Mike's done cartoons lambasting pedophile priests, but he's never shown that Jesus probably liked shagging little kids.

Here's a recent sample of his work:






2. The U.S.-supported dictatorships that run most Muslim countries are usually fairly authoritarian, after all, they're dictatorships. I just saw As'ad AbuKhalil, a poli-sci Professor at California State University, Stanislaus, say on DemocracyNOW.org that he's seen local Arab governments much more lenient on protestors as of late. They used to crack down much more harshly, after all, they're dictatorships. A people's uprising lead by radical Mullahs would be bad news for their regimes, as well as U.S. oil interests, so why are they allowing this now?

This strategy has parallel benefits for both the Arab and Western world.

First, anger towards the West (and America in particular) is at an all-time high with great reasons, and these protests allow the locals to blow-off some steam and see their government as supporting their right to defiantly defend Islam. It's a release-valve, pure and simple. As you can see on TV they often get close to destroying embassies but don't quite get to finish the job, and with local cops and soldiers drawing the line on what the protestors can do, they are certainly letting them act threatening for the cameras.

Second, in the West, these images are fantastic propaganda. With public support dwindling for the illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the torture and disappearing of Muslims around the world, the "crusade" needs a bit of a PR boost. Just as sympathy for anti-war efforts goes way-up in the mainstream media and public opinion starts to reflect this, this new "Protests Spread" story gets carried around the world with simplistic "they're violent" and "we like free speech and they don't" arguments. By focusing on the violence with hundreds of images to choose from, the media reinforce the demonization of Islam in our minds and justify present and future actions - including the need to immediately send troops to defend bases and embassies in foreign countries.


3. Remember "The War on Christmas"?

If you don't, FYI - it happened over Christmas.

Nobody really cared, but the Religious Right scared us into thinking this was a real "issue" thanks to a willing and complicit media. It was utter nonsense, and yet, it sure got a hell of a lot of airtime. Why the hell would so many "responsible" and "respected" media organizations take a story like "The War on Christmas" seriously?

I'll ignore that question for now. I'm sure you've got answers.

What matters is that they did.

They gave the story undeserved weighting and integrity based on our perception of the mass-media's ability to define what is important to us.

(Remember "bird-flu"?)

I had a discussion with The Monk on the Couch recently, and he suggested that it was pretty crazy how Muslims go pretty crazy rampaging through the streets, and contrasted it with how Christians get mad in America. I countered with a simple fact: in America, in a flawed yet functioning democracy, you have more options. You have the ability to influence the political process through the media, through radio, television, billboards, lobbyists, collection plates... and money.

Lots of money. And a way to use it.

Sam Seder from "The Majority Report" (with Janeane Garofalo) on Air America Radio debated a concerned Christian fearing "The War on Christmas" on CNN with hilarious results, and we'd watched it courtesy of CrooksandLiars.com. The Christian had some decent points about how some schools and municipalities were curtailing traditional celebrations, though it's worthy to note that no "people" were involved in riling up Christianity, and in fact, it was a tiny handful of curious government initiatives that were in question.

In fact, the religious breakdown in the U.S. (courtesy of Google Answers) goes something like this: 77% Christian, 13% secular, 1.3% Jewish, and so on.

There was no proof that fractional representatives of other religions had ganged-up on Christmas. No protests, no lawsuits, nothing. And yet, "The War on Christmas" was extremely valuable. Why?

Sam Seder said it: fundraising.

By riling up their fundamentalist Christian "base" and convincing them their religion was under attack, they could scam them into donating millions of dollars to defend Christianity and "Christmas", and put "experts" on the air to explain (complain) their position.

In the absence of money and a way to spend it to influence the political process, what do disenfranchised groups have?

People.

People willing to put their lives on the line in protest for what they believe in, whether we like it or not, and challenge the authoritarian security forces arrayed against them.

And, as scary as it looks to us on our big-screen TV's, that's all they got.

While we may disagree with their reasons, it is only fitting that during the funeral service of Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a distinguised civil rights activist in her own right who carried on his work, that we reserve harsh judgment on the acts of protestors who take to the streets. They've been demonized in the mainstream media for years, particularily since the WTO protests began in earnest in the early 1990's, and the very idea of civil disobedience where so relatively few gave so many so much is now in danger of being seen as an anarchic anachronism.

It's too bad that in the face of police-state conditions involving terror alerts, illegal wiretapping, indefinite Kafkaesque detentions, biometric tracking, security cameras, domestic military patrols, metal detectors, and so on, most of us don't have the guts to confront Empire boiling us like frogs on our own doorsteps, let alone support those who do.


"Hey, Johnny and Jackie Muslim, that cartoon piss you off?"

"And, you want us all to know?"

"Cool."

"Go crazy!"









R.I.P. Coretta Scott King (1927 - 2006)



Peace, (NOW!!!)
BK

_________________

...

Black Krishna Brand

Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/

Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm

...

Monday, February 06, 2006

"Qui bono?" is Latin for "Who profits?", and "Bush's $2.77 Trillion Budget Favors Defense"

And that's it.

No really, it's that simple.

Even cops say: to find the crime, follow the money.



(...)


The conspiracy here primarily involves corporate greed, and securing the war-marketplace for future profits. There are several players involved often at cross-purposes, and much like supervillains they argue over who gon' run 'tings to achieve world domination.

We all understand pieces of the game and have our fave pet-conspiracy theories, though few of us can put many together as clearly as we'd like. The war is not just about "OIL!!!" and controlling the worlds resources, as those are largely "future" profits.

I mean, who's making money right "now"?




Copies of President Bush's proposed FY2007 budget arrive on Capitol Hill Monday, Feb. 6, 2006. Staff members in the foreground are not identified. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)


Yahoo! News

Bush's $2.77 Trillion Budget Favors Defense

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer 9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush sent Congress a $2.77 trillion spending plan on Monday that would bolster the nation's war against terrorism but squeeze many other government programs in an effort to deal with an exploding budget deficit projected to hit an all-time high this year.


Bush, hoping to get his domestic agenda back on track after a year of political setbacks, sent Congress a budget blueprint that emphasizes keeping the country strong militarily while offering mostly modest initiatives to deal with voter anxiety about rising global competition, soaring energy prices and skyrocketing medical bills.

"My administration has focused the nation's resources on our highest priority — protecting our citizens and our homeland," Bush said in his budget message. "Working with Congress, we have given our men and women on the front lines in the war on terror the funding they need to defeat the enemy and detect, disrupt and dismantle terrorist plots and operations."

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060206/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_7;_ylt=AkvJSiTKbQ6N0OjXfvYEQsH0vnUA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl






About Us

The War Profiteers website is maintained and updated by CorpWatch, an organization based in Oakland, California, that counters corporate-led globalization through education, network-building and activism. The orginal site was created by the Ruckus Society, an organization that specializes in engaging nonviolent direct action, also based in Oakland, California.


The War Profiteers card deck was created by an independent crew of activists -- educators, journalists, designers, organizers, techies and others -- disturbed by the obscene concentration of power in the hands of an elite few who control the world's wealth and manipulate democracy through governments and corporations.

Warprofiteers.com and the corresponding deck of cards is our way of drawing attention to those institutions and individuals who view war, death, repression and violence as 'a safe bet.'

We are here to call their bluff.

CorpWatch mission: CorpWatch counters corporate-led globalization through education, network-building and activism. We work to foster democratic control over corporations by building grassroots globalization a diverse movement for human rights and dignity, labor rights and environmental justice.

For more information about CorpWatch, please visit our website: www.corpwatch.org.

Ruckus mission: Working with a broad range of communities, organizations, and movements - from high school students to professional organizations - Ruckus facilitates the sharing of information and expertise that strengthens the capacity to change our relationship with the environment and each.

For more information about Ruckus, please visit their website: www.ruckus.org.

SOURCE - http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=5





Blood, Sweat & Tears:
Asia’s Poor Build U.S. Bases in Iraq

by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch

October 3rd, 2005

cartoon by Khalil Bendib


Jing Soliman left his family in the Philippines for what sounded like a sure thing--a job as a warehouse worker at Camp Anaconda in Iraq. His new employer, Prime Projects International (PPI) of Dubai, is a major, but low-profile, subcontractor to Halliburton 's multi-billion-dollar deal with the Pentagon to provide support services to U.S. forces.

But Soliman wouldn’t be making anything near the salaries-- starting $80,000 a year and often topping $100,000-- that Halliburton 's engineering and construction unit, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) pays to the truck drivers, construction workers, office workers, and other laborers it recruits from the United States. Instead, the 35-year-old father of two anticipated $615 a month – including overtime. For a 40-hour work week, that would be just over $3 an hour. But for the 12-hour day, seven-day week that Soliman says was standard for him and many contractor employees in Iraq, he actually earned $1.56 an hour.


[continued...]

SOURCE - http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12675


Sunday, February 05, 2006

"BOO!!!" Like Batman, Bush needs his own cast of unique adversaries to keep escaping from Arkham Asylum to scare the crap out of us... or he's fired.


Behind bars in his courtroom jail cell, Jamal al-Badawi listens to the appeal court proceedings, in San'a, Yemen, in this Dec. 8, 2004 file photo. Al-Badawi, considered to be a mastermind of the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in a Yemeni port in 2000 was among a group of convicts who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006, in an 'urgent global security alert. (AP Photo/Yemen Times, Mohammed Al Qadhi, File)



Yahoo! News

Cole Attack Planner Escapes Yemen Prison

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 24 minutes ago

SAN'A, Yemen - An al-Qaida operative sentenced to death for plotting the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in 2000 was among a group of convicts who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said Sunday in issuing a global security alert.


Officials set up checkpoints around the capital of San'a, where the prison was located, to try to catch the escapees before they could flee to the protection of mountain tribes, according to a Yemeni security official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Some mountainous tribal areas are essentially outside the control of Yemen's central government, raising fears the fugitives could hide there before escaping the country.

The Yemeni government made no official comment Sunday.

Yemeni officials said Jamal al-Badawi — a man convicted of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the Cole bombing — was among the fugitives, Interpol said. Al-Badawi was among those sentenced to death in September 2004 for plotting the attack, in which two suicide bombers blew up an explosives-laden boat next to the destroyer as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000.

A Yemeni security official announced the escape of convicted al-Qaida members Friday but did not provide any details or names. The official said only that the escapees had all had been sentenced last year on terrorism-related charges.

Interpol said in a statement that at least 13 of the 23 escapees were convicted al-Qaida fighters.

The convicts escaped via a 140-yard-long tunnel "dug by the prisoners and coconspirators outside," Interpol said. The Yemeni official said the prison was at the central headquarters of the country's military intelligence services in a building in the center of the capital.


Another of the 23 escapees was identified as Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeiee, considered by Interpol to be one of those responsible for a 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg off Yemen's coast. That attack killed a Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

Al-Rabeiee also was convicted for an attack on a helicopter carrying Hunt Oil Co. employees a month later and the detonation of explosions at a civil aviation authority building.

"We are closely monitoring the situation at this time and we will work with our domestic and international partners to actively pursue these dangerous terrorists," FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said in Washington.

Interpol's urgent global security alert, known as an "orange notice," was issued "because the escape and unknown whereabouts of al-Qaida terrorists constituted a clear and present danger to all countries," the statement said.

Noble urged Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, to provide names, photographs, fingerprints and other information about the suspects.


He called on the agency's 184 member states "to take all relevant precautionary measures both at and inside their borders" and to help Yemen locate and capture the fugitives.

Noble also said that unless the fugitives were tracked down, they possibly "will be able to travel internationally, to elude detection and to engage in future terrorist activity."

The escape came a day before the expected start of a trial of 15 people charged with involvement in terror operations in Yemen, including Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, another suspected plotter of the Cole and Limburg bombings.

The trial was postponed indefinitely.

Yemen was long a haven for Islamic militants. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the government aligned itself with the U.S.-led war on terrorism. But many diplomats and outside experts have raised questions about Yemen's cooperation and inability to control tribal areas.

___

Associated Press reporter Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060205/ap_on_re_mi_ea/interpol_yemen_escape








February Party-Pack of Lies: Shortsighted stories to keep a (sigh) on...




Yahoo! News

40 States Re-Examining Eminent Domain

By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

LONG BRANCH, N.J. - The city wants Anna DeFaria's home, and if she doesn't sell willingly, officials are going to take it from the 80-year-old retired pre-school teacher.

In place of her "tiny slip of a bungalow" — and two dozen other weathered, working-class beachfront homes — city officials want private developers to build upscale townhouses.


Is this the work of a cruel government? Or the best hope for resurrecting an ocean resort town that is finally showing signs of reviving after decades of hard times?

Echoes of the debate are happening across the country, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision brought new attention to governments' ability to seize property through the tool of eminent domain. Some 40 states are re-examining their laws — with action in Congress, too — after the court's unpopular ruling.

"We thought this was going to be our home forever," said DeFaria, sitting in a kitchen cozy with photos of children and grandchildren, quotes from the Bible and a game of Scrabble that she plays against herself. "Now they want to take it away. It's unfair, it's criminal, it's unconstitutional."

Not according to the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 ruling last June that was greeted with widespread criticism, the court found that New London, Conn., had the authority to take homes for a private development project.


The Constitution says governments cannot take private property for public use without "just compensation." Governments have traditionally used eminent domain to build public projects such as roads, reservoirs and parks. But for decades, the court has been expanding the definition of public use, allowing cities to employ eminent domain to eliminate blight.

The high court, in its ruling, also noted that states are free to ban that practice — and legislators around the country are thinking about whether they should do just that.

New Jersey state Sen. Diane Allen, with bipartisan support, is pushing for a two-year ban on all eminent domain actions and for a bipartisan study group to re-examine its use in New Jersey.

"Right now government, I think, is using eminent domain to take people's private properties and hand it over to another owner," said Allen, a Republican. "It's really putting a hole in the American dream. Ownership of private property plays such a large role in that dream."

After the court ruling, four states passed laws reining in eminent domain. Roughly another 40 are considering legislation. In Congress, the House voted to deny federal funds to any project that used eminent domain to benefit a private development, and a federal study aims to examine how widely it is used.

The Washington-based Institute for Justice, a libertarian advocacy group that worked for homeowners in the New London case and in Long Branch, argues that state laws should be changed so property can only be seized for public uses like a park or a school — not urban redevelopment that benefits private developers.

Redevelopment usually depends on defining an area as "blighted" or a "slum," though definitions are vague, said Bert Gall, an attorney with the institute. Criteria can include a building's age, lack of compliance with building codes, even the size of a yard.

Abuses are widespread, Gall said, claiming that over a five-year period ending in 2002, more than 10,000 properties were threatened by eminent domain.

Municipal leaders across the country are pushing back, arguing that it's false to claim eminent domain is widely abused and warning that an emotional backlash to the court ruling is putting at risk an important tool that has helped turn around neighborhoods including Baltimore's Inner Harbor and New York's Times Square.

Elected officials have difficult decisions to make, and often must balance a community's needs with a few individuals, said Don Borut, executive director of the National League of Cities.

The plight of homeowners is hard to ignore, he said. "But at the same time ... there are hundreds if not a couple of thousand faces of people you don't see, of people of all levels of income who as a result of the economic development will get jobs," he added.

In Long Branch, there's no doubt the city needed to do something — a comeback wasn't happening on its own, Mayor Adam Schneider said.

"Most people wouldn't walk down those streets anymore. The worst neighborhood in our city was along our oceanfront. And that's been reversed," he said. Since the redevelopment effort began in earnest in 2002 after a decade of planning, new shops and homeowners have moved in, and new sidewalks have been installed — along with a new boardwalk, parks and an ice-skating rink, he said.

"What you do is you've improved your city, you've gotten rid of decrepit housing, you've created jobs," Schneider said. "It's easy to play it out as the city is cruel and government is stealing your property. I'm used to it. ... But this has reversed the decline that's been going on in Long Branch for more than 50 years."

Already, people are coming to new shops along the central waterfront, where the old pier burned down back in 1987. Rows and rows of new, sand-colored condominiums shadow DeFaria's one-story home when the afternoon sun sinks low.

DeFaria said she was offered $325,000 for the home she and her late husband bought in 1960 for $6,400. Where could anyone buy a waterfront view on the Jersey coast for that amount of money now?

But it's not the money, she said: $1 million wouldn't convince her. "They're taking my home away — not my house. My home. My life."

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060205/ap_on_re_us/seizing_property


(...)


The Washington Post

Rumsfeld Offers Strategies for Current War
Pentagon to Release 20-Year Plan Today

By Josh White and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 3, 2006; A08

The United States is engaged in what could be a generational conflict akin to the Cold War, the kind of struggle that might last decades as allies work to root out terrorists across the globe and battle extremists who want to rule the world, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.

Rumsfeld, who laid out broad strategies for what the military and the Bush administration are now calling the "long war," likened al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin while urging Americans not to give in on the battle of wills that could stretch for years. He said there is a tendency to underestimate the threats that terrorists pose to global security, and said liberty is at stake.


"Compelled by a militant ideology that celebrates murder and suicide with no territory to defend, with little to lose, they will either succeed in changing our way of life, or we will succeed in changing theirs," Rumsfeld said in a speech at the National Press Club.

The speech, which aides said was titled "The Long War," came on the eve of the Pentagon's release of its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which sets out plans for how the U.S. military will address major security challenges 20 years into the future. The plans to be released today include shifts to make the military more agile and capable of dealing with unconventional threats, something Rumsfeld has said is necessary to move from a military designed for the Cold War into one that is more flexible.

He said the nation must focus on three strategies in the ongoing war: preventing terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, defending the U.S. homeland and helping allies fight terrorism. He emphasized that these goals could take a long time to achieve.

Indeed, the QDR, mandated every four years by Congress, opens with the declaration: "The United States is a nation engaged in what will be a long war."

The review has been widely anticipated in Washington defense circles because of the dramatic changes in the U.S. military's global role since the last review in 2001. Adding to the high expectations is the fact that Rumsfeld and his team have now been in place for more than four years.

The QDR strategy draws heavily on lessons learned by the military from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide campaign against terrorism, shifting the Pentagon's emphasis away from conventional warfare of the Cold War era toward three new areas.

First are "irregular" conflicts against insurgents, terrorists and other non-state enemies. Iraq and Afghanistan are the "early battles" in the campaign against Islamic extremists and terrorists, who are "profoundly more dangerous" than in the past because of technological advances that allow them to operate globally, said Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England in an address on Wednesday.

The QDR also focuses on defending the U.S. homeland against "catastrophic" attacks such as with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Finally, it sets out plans for deterring the rising military heft of major powers such as China.

The strategic vision outlined in the QDR has won high marks from defense analysts for diagnosing the problems the U.S. military will likely face. However, it is less successful in translating those concepts into concrete military capabilities, the analysts say.

The review does not dramatically change the "force construct" -- the set of world contingencies that the U.S. military is expected to be able to deal with. The most important change is the recognition that U.S. forces may have to carry out long-term stability operations, or surge suddenly to a world hot spot. There are not "huge tectonic shifts," said Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an address Wednesday.

The strategy does call for devoting resources to accelerate a long-range strike capability directed at hostile nations, and for new investments aimed at countering biological and nuclear weapons -- such as teams able to defuse a nuclear bomb. But it makes relatively minor adjustments in key weapons systems, with the biggest programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter and the Army's Future Combat Systems escaping virtually unscathed. This leaves less room for investments in innovative programs and forces to address the types of problems that the QDR identifies, analysts say.

"A lot of tough choices are kicked down the road," said Andrew F. Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

One of the toughest battles facing the United States, Rumsfeld said yesterday, is recognizing the seriousness of the terrorist threat and the immediacy of fighting the nation's enemies. He said the task facing Western nations could be arduous, as terrorists operate in numerous countries around the world, hidden, and with the willingness to wait long periods between attacks. Military leaders and officials in the Bush administration have taken to calling the global war on terrorism the "long war," which defense experts say is a recognition that there is no end in sight.

"Dealing with the issue of terrorism and extremism is going to take a long time," said Robert E. Hunter, senior adviser at Rand Corp. and a former ambassador to NATO. "But we have to define success. You're never going to get rid of all terrorism."

Rumsfeld said he does not believe the war will end with a bang but, instead, with a whimper, "fading down over a sustained period of time as more countries in the world are successful," much as how democracy outlasted communism in the Cold War. He added that the early decades of the Cold War also brought confusion and doubt.

"The only way that terrorists can win this struggle is if we lose our will and surrender the fight, or think it's not important enough, or in confusion or in disagreement among ourselves give them the time to regroup and reestablish themselves in Iraq or elsewhere," he said.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

SOURCE - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/02/AR2006020202296_pf.html


(...)


Patrick Joseph Buchanan (born November 2, 1938), is an American author, syndicated columnist, and television commentator. In 2000, he ran for President of the United States on the Reform Party ticket. He had twice unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president. He has written several books on his political and religious views.

He is also one of the founding editors of and main contributors to The American Conservative magazine.

SOURCE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan


Human Events Online

Immigration & Foreign Affairs

Bush Is Running Out of Alibis

by Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted Feb 03, 2006


"The road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting, yet it ends in danger and decline," railed President Bush in his State of the Union. Again and again, Bush returned to his theme.

"America rejects the false comfort of isolationism. ...

"Isolationism would not only tie our hands in fighting enemies, it would keep us from helping our friends in desperate need. ...

"American leaders from Roosevelt to Truman to Kennedy to Reagan rejected isolation and retreat."

Why would a president use his State of the Union to lash out at a school of foreign policy thought that has had zero influence in his administration? The answer is a simple one, but it is not an easy one for Bush to face: His foreign policy is visibly failing, and his critics have been proven right.

But rather than defend the fruits of his policy, Bush has chosen to caricature critics who warned him against interventionism. Like all politicians in trouble, Bush knows that the best defense is a good offense.


Having plunged us into an unnecessary war, Bush now confronts the real possibility of strategic defeat and a failed presidency. His victory in Iraq, like the wars of Wilson and FDR, has turned to ashes in our mouths. And like Truman's war in Korea and Kennedy's war in Vietnam, Bush's war has left America divided and her people regretting he ever led us in. But unlike the world wars, Korea and Vietnam, Bush cannot claim the enemy attacked us and we had no choice. Iraq is Bush's war. Isolationists had nothing to do with it. To a man and woman, they opposed it.

Now, with an army bogged down in Afghanistan and another slowly exiting Iraq, and no end in sight to either, Bush seeks to counter critics who warned him not to go in by associating them with the demonized and supposedly discredited patriots of the America First movement of 1940-41. His assault is not only non-credible, it borders on the desperate and pathetic.

"Abroad, our nation is committed to a historic long-term goal. We seek the end of tyranny in our world," said Bush. "Some dismiss that goal as misguided idealism. In reality, the future security of America depends upon it."

Intending no disrespect, this is noble-sounding nonsense. Our security rests on U.S. power and will, and not on whether Zimbabwe, Sudan, Syria, Cuba or even China is ruled by tyrants. Our forefathers lived secure in a world of tyrannies by staying out of wars that were none of America's business. As for "the end of tyranny in our world," Mr. President, sorry, that doesn't come in "our world." That comes in the next.

"By allowing radical Islam to work its will, by leaving an assaulted world to fend for itself, we would signal to all that we no longer believe in our own ideals or even in our own courage," said Bush.

But what has done more to radicalize Islam than our invasion of Iraq? Who has done more to empower Islamic radicals than Bush with his clamor for elections across a region radicalized by our own policies? It is one thing to believe in ideals, another to be the prisoner of some democratist ideology.

Bush has come to believe that the absence of democracy is the cause of terror and democracy its cure. But the cause of terror in the Middle East is the perception there that those nations are held in colonial captivity by Americans and their puppet regimes, and that the only way to expel both is to use tactics that have succeeded from Algeria in 1962 to Anbar province in 2005.

Given the franchise, Arab and Islamic peoples from Pakistan to Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank and Egypt have now voted for candidates with two credentials. They seemed to be devout Muslims, and they appeared dedicated to tossing America out of the region and the Israelis into the sea.

With opposition also rising to his free-trade policy, Bush reverted to the same tactic: Caricature and castigate critics of his own failed policies. "Protectionists," said Bush, pretend "we can keep our high standards of living, while walling off our economy."

But it was protectionists from Lincoln to Coolidge who gave us the highest standard of living on earth. And the record of Bush's merry band of free-traders? The largest trade deficits in history, a $200 billion trade surplus for Beijing at our expense in 2005, and 3 million lost manufacturing jobs since Bush first took the oath.

If America is angry over what interventionism and free trade have wrought, George Bush cannot credibly blame isolationists or protectionists. These fellows have an alibi. They were nowhere near the scene of the crime.

It is George W. Bush who is running out of alibis.

(Download an iPod-ready MP3 file of this column read by Pat Buchanan.)

Mr. Buchanan is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of The Death of the West, The Great Betrayal, and A Republic, Not an Empire.


SOURCE - http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=12168


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Air America Radio

AAR News Banner


Rumsfeld Says "War on Terror" will Last for Many Years


In a speech at the National Press Club, Donald Rumsfeld compared the War on Terror to the Cold War. He said, the war on terror is the kind of struggle that might last decades as allies work to root out terrorists across the globe and battle extremists who want to rule the world. The speech titled, "The Long War" was delivered on the eve of the Pentagon's release of its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which sets out plans for how the U.S. military will address major security challenges 20 years into the future.


Pat Buchanan: "Bush's Foreign Policy is Visibly Failing"


Republicans are fed up with Bush and his failing policies. Click here to read Patrick J. Buchanan's take on President Bush.


Bush Wants More Money for His Wars

On Thursday, President Bush announced he will ask Congress for $70 billion in new emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He will also seek another $50 billion for both wars early in 2007. $320 billion dollars has already been allocated for the wars, but Bush wants more. White House budget deputy director, Joel Kaplan would not explain how the money would be spent. Mr. Kaplan said the additional money would be calculated in the White House's deficit projections.


Secret Service Investigates Seventh-Grader

A Rhode Island boy's homework assignment for English class was to write what he would do on a perfect day. The boy wrote that violence should be directed at the President, Oprah Winfrey, executives of Coca- Cola and Wal-Mart, police and school officials. One of the Secret Service members who looked at the essay, believed it was a "cry for help." Officials refused to identify the boy or his teacher or release a copy of the essay.


President Bush Breaks His Vows

During the State of the Union Address President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on oil. More specifically, he made an earnest promise to "cut imports from the middle east by 75 percent by 2025." Now his Energy Secretary, Samuel W. Bodman and his national economic adviser said the president didn't mean it literally. The Secretary of Energy also said "This was purely an example." One unnamed White House official said, Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American" sitting out there listening to the speech understands.


Royal Dutch Shell Posts Record Profits

Royal Dutch Shell announced it made profits upwards of £13.12 billion pounds or $22.94 billion dollars. The figure is a third higher than the record set last year. The bulk of Shell's profits come from retrieving oil and gas from the ground. The record profits comes at a time when crude oil prices in the U.S. jumped from below 45 dollars a barrel to 70 dollars a barrel.


SOURCE - http://www.airamericaradio.com/


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Star-Gazette

Letters to the Editor


President raises fear, takes away freedoms

February 2, 2006

President Bush has fed us conservatives' patriotic rhetoric and legislative doggie biscuits with one hand, while sucker-punching our constitutional freedoms with the other.

The war on terror is being used to control the world's oil and frighten the American people into trading their freedoms for security. An Orwellian-scale protection racket; the new Gestapo. Your freedoms are the real target.

Our troops are only following orders and should be supported and encouraged.

The war in Iraq can be summed up with one word: oil. The oil companies, utilities and their political cronies will emerge the only winners.

Political news Web site Capital Hill Blue, citing three people present at an Oval Office meeting, reported that Bush angrily told congressmen that the Constitution is "just a piece of paper." Historically, dictators have seized power under the guise of protecting those they mean to enslave.

Seems it has become trendy for those who enforce the law to presumptuously legislate and enforce their own arbitrary law. After all, the Constitution and democratic process are so very cumbersome. A police state is much more productive.

MARTY WILSON

SOURCE - http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060202/OPINION02/602020330