Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Obama’s Guantánamo dilemma
By giving his most detailed speech so far on terrorist detainees on Thursday, Barack Obama was hoping to persuade others to drop the subject.
Unfortunately for Mr Obama, who wants to direct the conversation to more forward-looking topics, such as healthcare reform and a possible Arab-Israeli peace process, the turmoil surrounding treatment of alleged terrorists is likely to persist.
That is partly because he has adopted a messy position himself. On the one hand Mr Obama has said he will close the Guantánamo detention centre by next January. On the other, his administration continues to use George W. Bush’s definition of the “war on terror” to detain the most dangerous ones indefinitely – just not on Cuban soil, or American, if Congress continues to get its way.
Mr Obama is unlikely to get much help from his Democratic colleagues. From the left, he faces a growing cry of betrayal. His decision to “look forward, not back” means that the Bush lawyers who drafted the memos reclassifying torture as legal are unlikely to be prosecuted.
Nor does Mr Obama want to set up a “truth commission” to investigate post 9/11 torture. Such a move might put the politics on ice for a few months. Then it would return squared. Mr Obama would be faced with a dilemma: choose again to “look forward” and be branded a traitor to the high ideals on which he campaigned; or prosecute those found culpable and risk igniting a real backlash against his presidency.
It is worth remembering that half the American people believe “waterboarding” is justified, according to polls – a far higher number than those who do not. A small majority also believe it is wrong to close Guantánamo. These are not diehard conservatives. Many are Democrats.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, Mr Obama is getting little help from centrist colleagues. Last week, almost all Democrats joined their Republican counterparts in the Senate to vote down an $80m (€57m, £50m) appropriation to pay for the closure of Gitmo. They argued that it was wrong to close the facility before a policy had been devised to rehouse its 240 detainees.
This is understandable. Mr Obama made an error in announcing the closure before he had devised a new policy. But their real motive was more prosaic. Democrats don’t want alleged terrorists to set foot on American soil. And they will not permit reason to get in the way of a good argument.
No prisoner has ever escaped a federal “supermax” prison. Even if it were a possibility, it would surely be less frightening to have a terrorist suspect escape into your community than a convicted paedophile or psychopath. The latter two would know how to blend in. More importantly, America will have little chance of persuading other countries to take some of the Gitmo detainees if it refuses to take any itself.
All of which makes Dick Cheney’s increasingly bitter interventions fairly useful for Mr Obama. Leaving aside the suspicion that his real target is Mr Bush, who put an end to most “enhanced interrogation techniques” in 2004, Mr Cheney’s stridency has served to blunt much of the disillusion felt by Mr Obama’s liberal friends.
It also focuses attention on the fact that the shrinking Republican party is letting Mr Cheney stand in as its leader. Since Mr Cheney has had much to do with why it is shrinking, this can hardly be a bad thing for Mr Obama. Mr Cheney has asked for information about the results of the interrogations to be declassified. Mr Obama should comply.
That way we could establish the accuracy of allegations, by two intelligence officers, that Mr Cheney and others pushed for the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah in the forlorn hope of turning up evidence linking al-Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.
The timing fits the build-up to the Iraq war. The first was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003. The second 83 times in August 2002.
“They were legal, justified, essential and entirely the right thing to do,” Mr Cheney said.
Mr Obama should let the facts speak for themselves. Did these two waterboardees tell interrogators what they wanted to hear? And what was that precisely? If Mr Obama cannot change the conversation, then he should send it back to where it belongs.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Ancient Human Ancestor 'Ida' Discovered
Known as "Ida," the nearly complete transitional fossil is 20 times older than most fossils that provide evidence for human evolution
From LiveScience | LiveScience.com
The newly claimed primate genus and species Darwinius masillae, said to be an ancestor of humans. The fossil dates to 47 million years ago. The abdomen contains organic remains of food in the digestive tract. The skeleton was split into two parts before scientists put it all back together, leading to today's announcement.
Credit: PLoS One, Hurum et al.
A discovery of a 47-million-year-old fossil primate that is said to be a human ancestor was announced and unveiled today at a press conference in New York City.
Known as "Ida," the nearly complete transitional fossil is 20 times older than most fossils that provide evidence for human evolution.
It shows characteristics from the very primitive non-human evolutionary line (prosimians, such as lemurs), but is more related to the human evolutionary line (anthropoids, such as monkeys, apes and humans), said Norwegian paleontologist Jørn Hurum of University of Oslo Natural History Museum. However, she is not really an anthropoid either, he said.
The fossil, called Darwinius masillae and said to be a female, provides the most complete understanding of the paleobiology of any primate so far discovered from the Eocene Epoch, Hurum said. An analysis of the fossil mammal is detailed today in the journal PLoS ONE.
"This is the first link to all humans ... truly a fossil that links world heritage," Hurum said.
Here is some context for the age of the new primate fossil: Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) first emerged about 200,000 years ago, but early humans such as Australopithecus afarensis and Australopithecus anamensis, reach back to 3 million or 4 million years ago, or earlier. Humans are thought to have split off from a group that includes chimpanzees and gorillas about 6 million years ago. And a group that includes all the great apes (including us) and old world monkeys (called simians or anthropoids) diverged from new world monkeys in the Eocene, just after the time of Ida. So our primate roots reach back to this time.
History of discovery
For the past two years, an international team of scientists led by Hurum has conducted a detailed forensic analysis of the fossil.
The fossil was apparently discovered in 1983 by private collectors who split and eventually sold two parts of the skeleton on separate plates: The lesser part was restored and, in the process, partly fabricated to make it look more complete.
This part was eventually purchased for a private museum in Wyoming, and then described by Jens L. Franzen, part of Hurum's team, who recognized the fabrication. The more complete part has just come to light, and it now belongs to the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo.
Ida was preserved in Germany’s Messel Pit, a mile-wide crater containing oil-rich shale that is a significant site for fossils of the Eocene Epoch. Opposable big toes and nail-bearing tips on the fingers and toes confirm the fossil is a primate, and a foot bone called the talus bone links Ida directly to humans, Hurum said.
The fossil also preserved the primate's gut contents, including fruits and leaves. X-rays reveal both baby and adult teeth, plus the lack of a "toothcomb" or a "grooming claw," which is an attribute of lemurs (which are also primates, like us, but are considered more primitive and part of a different family than all the great apes and us).
The scientists estimate Ida was about 9 months at death, and measured about 3 feet in length. Her forward-facing eyes are like ours — which would have enabled her fields of vision to overlap, allowing 3-D vision and an ability to judge distance. She was probably nocturnal, Hurum and his colleagues say.
Ida lived at a time when mammals were evolving quickly on a planet that was basically a vast jungle. Early horses, bats, whales and many other creatures, including the first primates, thrived at this time when the climate was subtropical. The Himalayas were being formed.
Death scenario
X-rays reveal that a broken wrist may have contributed to Ida’s death — her left wrist was healing from a bad fracture, Hurum said.
She could have been overcome by carbon dioxide gas whilst from drinking from the Messel lake: the still waters of the lake were often covered by a low-lying blanket of the gas as a result of the volcanic forces that formed the lake and which were still active.
Hampered by her broken wrist, Ida possibly slipped into unconsciousness, was washed into the lake, and sunk to the bottom, where the unique conditions preserved her for 47 million years, Hurum said.
A replica of Ida will go on display later this week at the American Museum of Natural History's new "Extreme Mammals" exhibition.
35,000-year-old ivory carving found: Busty sculpture could be world's oldest
This figurine, found in 2008 in a cave in Schelklingen, southern Germany is allegedly the world's oldest reproduction of a human with an estimated age of at least 35,000 years. (AP/Daniel Maurer).
A 35,000-year-old ivory carving of a busty woman found in a German cave was unveiled Wednesday by archaeologists who believe it is the oldest known sculpture of the human form.
The carving found in six fragments in Germany’s Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts.
“It’s very sexually charged,” said University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, whose team discovered the figure in September.
Carbon dating suggests it was carved at least 35,000 years ago, according to the researchers’ findings, which are being published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.
“It’s the oldest known piece of figurative sculpture in the world,” said Jill Cook, a curator of Paleolithic and Mesolithic material at the British Museum in London.
Maria Malina, scientific employee, presents the photo of a carved ivory female figurine during its presentation in Tuebingen, southern Germany, Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
Stones in Israel and Africa almost twice as old are believed to have been collected by ancient humans because they resembled people, but they were not carved independently.
The Hohle Fels cave discovery suggests the humans, who are believed to have come to Europe around 40,000 years ago, had the intelligence to create symbols and think abstractly in a way that matches the modern human, Conard said.
“It’s 100 percent certain that, by the time we get to 40,000 years ago in Swabia, we’re dealing with people just like you and me,” Conard told The Associated Press, referring to the southern German region where the sculpture was recovered along with other prehistoric artifacts.
Conard believes the 2.4-inch-tall (6-centimeter) figure may have been hung on the end of a string. The left arm is missing, but Conard said he hopes to find it by sifting through material from the cave.
The Hohle Fels sculpture is curvaceous and has neither feet nor a head, like some of the roughly 150 so-called Venus figurines found in a range from the Pyrenees mountains to southern Russia and dating back about 25,000-29,000 years.
But Cook warned against trying to draw any connections between the Venuses and the Hohle Fels figure, saying that would be like comparing Picasso to a classical sculptor — too much time had passed.
“I wonder whether at this point we’re looking at figures which are unique within themselves and unique within the cultures that they’re arising in,” she said.
Archaeologist Paul Mellars, of the University of Cambridge, suggested a clearer continuum.
“We now have evidence of that sort of artistic tradition of Venus figurines going back 6,000 years earlier than anybody ever guessed,” he said.
Neanderthals also lived in Europe around the time the sculpture was carved, and frequented the Hohle Fels cave. But Mellars said layered deposits left by both species over thousands of years prove the sculpture was crafted by humans.
“Nothing within a million miles of this has ever been found in a Neanderthal layer,” Mellars said.
The archaeologists agreed the sculpture’s age and features invite speculation about its purpose and the preoccupations of the culture that produced it.
Cook suggested it could be symbol of fertility, perhaps even portrayed in the act of giving birth.
Mellars suggested a more basic motivation for the carving: “These people were obsessed with sex.”
Conard said the differing opinions reinforced the connection between the ancient artist and modern viewer.
“How we interpret it tells us just as much about ourselves as about people 40,000 years ago,” he said.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Fed Reserve Cannot Account for $9 Trillion (Video)
As for the pittance of $9 trillion in Fed off-balance sheet transactions over the past 8 months, well, yeah, that's also somewhere out there... Just don't ask the Federal Reserve where.
Rep. Alan Grayson summarizes it best "I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve is keeping track of anything."
(P.S. Zero Hedge uses the term "anyone" generically, with the presumption that the Fed's Inspector General should traditionally receive most memos on memorandum items that deal with a dollar sign and +/- 12 zeros after it).
hat tip g llc
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Dozens quarantined after China confirms first mainland case of swine flu
China today confirmed a 30-year-old student just back from the U.S. as its first case of swine flu on the mainland and has quarantined dozens of other people who were on a flight with him.
The 30-year-old patient whose surname is Bao tested positive for Type A H1N1 influenza, said an official with China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Bao, who was studying at the University of Missouri in the U.S., is the first case of swine flu confirmed on the Chinese mainland and the country's second in the global outbreak that has killed at least 53 people but has largely spared Asia.
Alert: Police outside a hospital where the 30-year-old swine flu victim is being quarantined after returning from the U.S.
Bao left St. Louis, Missouri, on Thursday on a flight that went to Tokyo via St. Paul, Minnesota.
In Tokyo he took a Northwest Airlines flight to Beijing on Friday that arrived the next day, and then got on a different plane to Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, the Health Ministry said.
On the last flight, Bao started experiencing symptoms that included a fever, sore throat, cough and a runny nose. He went straight to a hospital for treatment upon arrival and was diagnosed as a suspected Type A H1N1 influenza case, the health ministry said.
Bao was tested twice and found to be 'weakly positive' for swine flu, after which he was transferred to the city's specially equipped infectious disease hospital.
Sixty-three of the 150 passengers from the flight from Beijing to Chengdu have been located and placed in quarantine, while Bao's condition is stable.
Some reports say the total number in quarantine had risen to 84, while the official Xinhua News Agency gave the figure of 130.
Authorities have notified passengers on board the flight from Tokyo to Beijing on May 8 and the Beijing to Chengdu flight the following day to report to the disease prevention bureau.
Deng Haihua, a Health Ministry spokesman, told reporters that of the 233 people on board the flight from Tokyo, 106 were foreigners, about a quarter of them Japanese.
All but one of the passengers on the Beijing-Chengdu flight was from mainland China, Deng said.
'The local health authorities are doing their utmost now to try to track down these passengers,' he said.
Bao was transferred to the Chengdu Infectious Disease Hospital and people who came into close contact with him during his medical examination have also been put under medical watch.
The Chinese territory of Hong Kong earlier reported a case of swine flu diagnosed in a 25-year-old Mexican who flew to the city via Shanghai.
According to the World Health Organisation, swine flu has infected 4,379 people worldwide.
Of the deaths, 45 have occurred in Mexico and two in the U.S.Hate Bill Put On Hold In Senate Judiciary
There was no discussion of the hate bill in Judiciary on Tuesday.
Instead, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Judiciary chairman, said he will inform us when he has decided to move the hate bill through Judiciary, or hold hearings -- if hearings are to be held. He says he will give one week's notice at www.judiciary.senate.gov if the hate bill is to be considered. This means at least a week's delay -- if we can trust Leahy, which I don't.
Yet, possible delay is very good news! It gives lovers of freedom time to thoroughly blacken the reputation of S. 909, accurately describing it as a pedophile-protecting hate bill. Complete documentation for this claim is provided by NPN's latest 9-minute video "Stop the Pedophile-Protecting Hate Bill!" on the home page at www.truthtellers.org.
With Democrats in control of Congress and a President pledged to sign the hate bill, they are in a position of great advantage. We have known it would take a great deal of activism by American patriots and a miracle of God to defeat the hate bill, and we have been watching to see what He would do. Viewing hearings in the House Judiciary Committee on April 22-23, I recognized His way of deliverance when Democrats refused Rep. King's amendment excluding homosexual pedophiles from special federal protection. As soon as the bill passed out of committee, I issued an e-alert and was on the radio dramatizing this unbelievable error of judgment and urging all lovers of freedom to call members of the House, urging them not to vote for a bill that protects pedophiles.
Then, when Rep. Alcee Hastings defiantly proclaimed on the floor of the House last week that not only pedophilia but all of the other 546 sexual deviancies, or paraphilias, listed by the American Psychiatric Association would be specially protected under the hate bill, I knew the Lord had delivered the hate bill forces into our hands. We had been given an issue capable of defeating the hate bill where other arguments would fail. Every American, whether conservative or liberal, religious or non-religious, has a visceral disgust at those who rape little boys and girls.
Within hours of Hastings' verbal indiscretion, I increased my media warnings that the hate bill was a pedophile-protecting bill! The next day, our new video, making visual and audible Hastings' declaration, was posted at
I was very gratified that two of the most outspoken evangelical watchdog groups, Janet Porter's Faith2Action and Traditional Values Coalition, soon appreciated what the Democrats had given us.
In a conference call last week with evangelical leaders, hosted by Dr. Wiley Drake, I explained to Janet and others why the pedophile-protecting issue should be magnified. She had me on her syndicated radio show (85 affiliates) to explain this new approach to her evangelical audience. This morning, WorldNetDaily (circulation seven million) published her dynamic and incisive call for Christian protest of what she calls the "Pedophile Protection Act."
Similarly, I was able yesterday to reach a very large evangelical audience. Janet interviewed me again, as did Pat Kiley and Dr. Laurie Roth -- interviews broadcast over at least 325 radio stations, largely Christian, Salem Media affiliates. The seven national broadcasts I did yesterday, ending with Jeff Rense, reached well over a half million Americans, challenging them to call Congress demanding an end to the "pedophile-protecting hate bill."
Democrats Reconnoiter
Without a doubt, massive protest calling, which largely jammed phone lines of Senate Judiciary members Monday morning, is causing Democrats to pause. Cocky and overconfident after their stunning House victory last week, they now seem to be proceeding with caution. Sen. Kennedy's office would betray nothing of strategic importance on Tuesday, nor would Sen. Leahy's. With Democrats one vote shy of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, are they considering waiting until Al Franken is seated, something that could consume months? Or will they move the hate bill forward rapidly without hearings, counting on pro-hate bill Republicans to give them the necessary advantage? At this time, no one but Democrat power brokers knows the answer to these questions.
One thing we do know: Even though the liberal media and most of the largest mainstream conservative talk shows and print media remain silent regarding even the existence of the hate bill in Congress, you and I, through venues such as talk radio and the internet, are capable of wielding a very large black brush -- a brush that can tar the federal hate crimes bill as the most despised legislation in American history.
Call 1-877-851-6437 toll free or 1-202-225-3121 toll. Names of all Senate members are posted on the action page at www.truthtellers.org.
Tell all Senators: "Please don't vote for the pedophile-protecting federal hate crimes bill, S. 909. Please insist on Judiciary hearings to debate this very dangerous, freedom-threatening legislation."
Don't let up on your calling to the Senate. Leahy, Kennedy, and Reid are counting on the furor to die down, as other issues and manufactured distractions compete for our attention. They think time is on their side. Actually, it's on ours. In the days, perhaps weeks to come, we have the opportunity to drive home again and again and again to every Senator that voting for a pro-pedophile hate bill is potential political suicide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Watch the dynamic 10-minute educational video How to Kill the Hate Bills at www.truthtellers.org which explains how the hate bill, S.909, ends freedom. Please tell the offices of members of Congress to watch it! Also at www.truthtellers.org, watch our gripping 82-minute documentary http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/watchpikesvideosgoogle.htm
Hate Laws: Making Criminals of Christians.
Guess Who's Behind The 'Pedophile Protection Act'?
Leaders of the Christian conservative right quickly respond, "Liberals and the homosexual lobby!"
Yes, these two groups lead a list as long as your arm of hate bill supporters. They inhabit the perverted legislative whore-house called "hate crimes law." Yet they did not design and build the house. To know who did, visit
ADL's orchestration of hate laws in over 55 Western nations, in addition to the US, is a long, dark story. This article presents a brief chronology of their conspiracy to steal freedom of speech. That attempt is now reaching a momentous climax, for good or evil, in the US Senate.
What is ADL?
B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant) is an international Jewish religious, fraternal and educational, liberal activist organization. It describes itself as the heart and soul of organized world Jewry. It was founded in New York City in the mid-nineteenth century to further Jewish interests and community in America. In 1913, their Anti-Defamation League was created, ostensibly to combat emerging anti-Semitism.
ADL/B'nai B'rith does not represent the thinking of all Jews. Most American Jews are liberal (AP reported 81% voted for House Democrats in 2009); but a minority vehemently oppose ADL's secularist agenda and bullying tactics. Rabbi Daniel Lapin warns that ADL (which he calls secular Judaism) is "in relentless attack" on evangelical Christians. His website has even listed a toll-free number for Christians and conservatives to call and report harassment and accusations of "anti-Semitism" from ADL. (1)
Today, there are roughly 200,000 members of B'nai B'rith International (with chapters and lodges in 55 Western nations). Many are Jewish activists who work behind the scenes in governments to pass hate crimes legislation and run hate crimes bureaucracies. ADL efforts have been spectacularly successful. Whether in California, Canada, Iceland, England or Australia-ADL's terminology, twisted definitions and pretexts for hate crime indictments are identical. ADL phrases such as "bias-motivated hate crime," "gender identity," "actual or perceived sexual orientation," etc., are enshrined in the hate crime laws of most Western industrialized nations today. If a yellow plastic arch rises from an urban horizon in Beijing, you know it comes from McDonald's in America. So, too, we recognize ADL when pastors in Holland or Australia are indicted for "hate speech," slapped with severe penalties and physically and financially exhausted in endless attempts to get free from hate crime indictment. ADL of America and Canada, ADL Europe, and ADL Australia are the super-powerful architects and enforcers of hate laws on three continents.
How powerful is ADL? Congressman John Rarrick (in the Congressional Record December 6, 1971) quoted Senator Jack Tenney of California: "The FBI and CIA are tinker toys compared to ADL."
A History of Hate for Christian Values
Let's trace ADL/B'nai B'rith creation of hate laws over the past 38 years.
1971. After ten years lobbying, B'nai B'rith Canada and the Canadian Jewish Congress persuaded Ottawa to enact their federal "anti-hate" law, the Canadian Human Rights Act. Its Sec. 319 and subsequent provincial hate laws criminalize any speech even "likely" to cause hatred or contempt against specially federally protected groups-especially homosexuals, Jews, Muslims, immigrants, but never Christians.
1985. ADL began massive programs to end "bias," "hate," and Christian "homophobia" in American businesses, local governments and schools. Since its inception, ADL's World of Difference program has instructed, according to ADL, "more than 375,000 elementary and secondary school teachers, responsible for nearly 12 million students" toward "tolerance" of homosexuality.(2)
1988. ADL sponsored a nationwide competition open to all law students in America, to craft a "model" anti-hate law for the US. Jewish law student Joseph Ribikoff won first prize with his proposal to criminalize all Christian/conservative leaders who criticize homosexuality as well as all loyal members. (3) Through the 1990s, ADL persuaded roughly 45 states to adopt some version of its refined model hate law. Visit
1990. ADL was convicted in a California court of violating the civil rights of more than 10,000 conservatives, pro-lifers, members of the political right and Muslims on whom ADL had spied over the years, keeping secret surveillance files. (4) My father and I were listed in these files gathered in cooperation with West coast police departments.
1990. Congress passed ADL's Hate Crimes Statistics Act. It mixed synagogue with state, making ADL the hate laws teacher to the US Justice Department, FBI and every police precinct in America. Since then, ADL's twisted definitions, hate law enforcement methods, and criteria for statistics reporting inform the thinking and reflexes of the US law enforcement system. (5)
1998. ADL introduced its Hate Crimes Prevention Act to Congress, confident of easy passage. Republican leaders in the House and Senate instructed everyone to vote for it. Yet independent-thinking Republicans, dominating Conference between the House and Senate, examined the bill closely. Aghast at its sinister intentions, they stripped it out. Since then, ADL's federal hate bill has been reintroduced and defeated by Republicans in every session of Congress. Today, with a Democrat-dominated government, ADL eagerly anticipates victory: an ADL-dominated hate crimes bureaucracy in America, ending free speech and persecuting Christians from a hate crimes command center in Washington.
2004. Acting on authority of ADL's Pennsylvania hate law, ADL national executive board member and Philadelphia DA Lynne Abraham arrested and imprisoned for 21 hours 11 Christians for the "hate crime" of peacefully witnessing to homosexuals. Penalty if convicted of the seven charges would be 47 years in prison and $90,000 fines each. After 3 months they were acquitted.
2004. ADL introduced their No Place for Hate program, which boldly encourages American families to embrace homosexuality, same-sex marriage, etc. No Place for Hate literature is promoted in Barnes and Noble bookstores and at local chapters across the nation. One piece encourages families with young children to invite a homosexual couple for an evening of dinner, fun and fellowship. This, ADL says, will help destroy any "homophobic" attitudes developing in their young minds.
2004. ADL Europe and B'nai B'rith International set up a 56-member hate law bureaucracy in Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). They also persuaded the European Union and Council of Europe to promote the ADL hate law agenda. As part of OSCE, ADL created the International Network Against Cyber-Hate (INACH) dedicated to ending online "hate speech" (really, free speech, such as criticism of homosexuality and Israel). (6)
2006. ADL persuaded Congress to create its Global Office of Anti-Semitism in the US State Department. Every year this ADL front reports on an "epidemic" of anti-Semitism gleaned from ADL statistics gathered worldwide. In last year's report to Congress, it accused Christians who believe the New Testament account that Jewish leaders had Christ crucified of being "classic anti-Semites"-as was Adolf Hitler. (7) In Canada, any public statement that Jewish leaders killed Christ is considered the hate crime of anti-Semitism, punishable by a minimum $5,000 fine and prison if repeated.
2007. The ADL-inspired Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act was introduced into Congress. It would set up a federal commission to study and make legislative recommendations to Congress on how to end Christian, conservative, and far right "hate speech" that streams the internet, possibly inciting violent hate crimes. It was unanimously passed by the House. (8)
2008. ADL, through Jewish lesbian activist and state Rep. Sheila Kuehl helped pass California's SB777, banning criticism of homosexuality in public schools. If any child now criticizes sodomy, he will be expelled. If a teacher or administrator does, they are fired. (9) At the same time, ADL submitted an extensive amicus brief to the California Supreme Court in favor of same-sex marriage. (10) It undoubtedly influenced the Court's pro-homosexual decision.
2009. With another Jewish activist group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, ADL directed Missouri state police to consider white Christian conservatives, Ron Paul supporters, tax and immigration protestors, pro-lifers, etc., as possible domestic terrorists. (11) Soon after, Janet Nepolitano, who recently delivered an extensive and flattering speech to an ADL convention, issued a very similar directive from the Department of Homeland security, warning America of this threat from the Christian conservative right. (12)
2009. ADL's federal hate crimes bill passed the House of Representatives 249-175. (13) The Senate version will probably be considered in the Senate Judiciary Tuesday, May 12 at 10am EDT. (14)
ADL Hate Laws Target Christians
Get the picture? Do you see the trajectory of ADL's hate law agenda? It means persecution of Christians and other free thinkers.
ADL is a cesspool of anti-Christian, anti-freedom social "civil rights" initiatives. For decades its pipeline of legislative sewage has flowed directly and interminably into Congress. If Americans defeat one ADL-inspired bill, ADL has lined up six more. But unlike most evangelical Christians, ADL will never, never give up-until it has created an "anti-hate" bureaucracy in America, like Canada's, ending free speech.
What is ADL's ultimate objective? National director Abraham H. Foxman, author of Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism, is a devout Orthodox Jew. In 1991, he angrily vacated his seat in the Orthodox synagogue of Teaneck, New Jersey, because he felt its members and leadership were not praying for Israel as passionately as they should! (15) Foxman says he earnestly looks forward to Israel's Biblically prophesied "messiah." Christians know this is not Jesus Christ but that prophesied "man of sin" (John 5:43) whom Jesus said Jews would someday accept in place of Himself. Contemporary Jewish activists, like Foxman, think "the messiah is the Jewish people"- i.e., when Jewish power finally ascends over Christians and Gentiles, Jewish power by itself will make "messiah" happen.
Why does Foxman promote homosexuality, same-sex marriage, pornography (he gave pornographers Hugh and Christy Hefner special "free speech" awards)? (16) Why do ADL and other Jewish "civil liberties" groups, such as the ACLU (17), Southern Poverty Law Center, People for the American Way, etc., do all they can to tear down our crosses, Ten Commandments, manger scenes, Christian symbols (18) and passionately support the killing of 50 million babies through abortion? For that matter, why did the Jewish forefathers of these Jewish supremacists invent and facilitate Communism and socialism (liberalism)-dedicated to breaking down the capitalist free enterprise system? (19) Why does Jewish-dominated media (20) relentlessly corrupt our morals and those of our children, casting aspersions (as in the Da Vinci Code) on the deity and legitimacy of Christ? (21)
Simple.
The Jewish supremacists of ADL/B'nai B'rith know that if Christian nations remain strong, virtuous and industrious, they will never realize their messiah in sovereignty over the nations, ruling the world from Jerusalem. (22)
Even if Christian or conservative leaders know of such demonic aspirations, they will never say it. ADL has them convinced they will be ruined if they do-smeared as "anti-Semites" and abandoned by Israel-first followers who have been conditioned to loathe any hint of criticism of "God's chosen people."
If America is to survive, this must change. ADL has brought us the very brink of slavery-intending to herd America into a one-world, international police state. A great abyss of darkness lies just before us.
But it's we who should push ADL back into this abyss of its own making. Everyone, leaders and followers, should speak out against ADL now! When we collectively identify ADL as the greatest threat to freedom in our history, it will be ADL, not us, who will be ruined.
How can we stop ADL? Begin by defeating its federal hate crimes bill S. 909, now entering a probable first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Tuesday May 12 at 10am EDT.
Call your senators and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If you have time, call all the senators. Their names are listed on the Action page here at www.truthtellers.org. Call 1-877-851-6437 toll-free or 1-202-225-3121 toll. Tell them, "If the senator votes for the pedophile-protecting hate bill, I and all my friends will never, never forgive or forget!"
Endnotes
Unless otherwise noted, the following are articles I have written, posted in the archives of www.truthtellers.org.
1. "Rabbi Lapin: Christians Under 'Relentless Attack' by 'Secular Judaism'" August 19, 2005.
2. "How the Bible Became 'Hate Speech' in California," October 30, 2007. "ADL Expands Pro-Gay Education for Teachers" August 12, 2008.
3. Ribikoff's prize-winning proposal is thoroughly documented in my 82-minute video, Hate Laws: Making Criminals of Christians, viewable on the homepage at www.truthtellers.org.
4. ibid.
5. ibid.
6. "Global Hate Crimes Gestapo Being Created," September 20, 2005.
7. "Bible is Hate, says US Government," April 9, 2008
8. "In Search of 'Homegrown Terrorists'," November 5, 2007
9. "How the Bible Became 'Hate Speech' in California," October 30, 2007
10. "Did ADL Influence California's 'Gay Marriage' Ruling?" May 19, 2008
11. "Missouri MIAC Documents Scandal Leads to Advisory on SPLC and ADL," Americans for Legal Immigration, March 26, 2009, www.alipac.us.
12. "Chorus of Protest Grows Over Report Warning of Right Wing Radicalization," FoxNews.com, April 15, 2009.
13. "Hate Bill Passed in House!," April 30, 2009.
14. "Hate Bill Hearing Next Tuesday?," May 6, 2009.
15. "ADL's Foxman: Man of Faith?," February 27, 2006.
16. "Talmud: Wellspring of Jewish Pornography Industry," October 24, 2006, "Pedophilia: The Talmud's Dirty Secret," October 11, 2006, "Judaism and Homosexuality: A Marriage Made in Hell," September 6, 2006.
17. "ACLU Top Heavy with Jews," October 4, 2006.
18. "ADL's 'December Dilemma'," December 5, 2007
19. "Jewish Activists Created Communism," June 11, 2007
20. "Jews Confirm Big Media is Jewish," June 28, 2006
21. "The Jews Behind the Da Vinci Code," May 26, 2006.
22. "Israel: On the Way to Empire in the Middle East," August 1, 2006- Israel's Biblically-prophesied ascendance is considered in depth in my 60-minute video The Other Israel, viewable at the NPN Theater at www.truthtellers.org. Even more extensive development of this Biblical eschatology is found in my book, Israel: Our Duty, Our Dilemma, available at www.truthtellers.org.
Will Obama keep Israel to its promises?
The idea of two states – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace is endorsed by most of the world. The one-state solution that some support is a non-starter. Yet the chance of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict is diminishing. It is imperilled by unceasing growth in the number of Jewish settlers on the West Bank, known officially in Israel by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria. In 1972, 1,500 Jews lived there; now, it is more than 289,000. The more settlers and the bigger their settlements, the less possibility of creating an independent and viable Palestinian state. The Gaza Strip is out of the equation at this stage because of failure by Fatah and Hamas to agree on a joint government.
Israel has repeatedly promised to halt expansion on the West Bank. It has done so through its leaders and by going along with the road map of 2003, the Wye Plantation agreement before that, the Annapolis accord and so on. Despite this, last year the number of settlers increased by 4.9%, and the year before by 5.5%.
The ongoing process will be challenged on 18 May when the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be in Washington DC for his first meeting with US president Barack Obama. The extent to which Obama insists that Israel keep its promises – and more importantly, how far he will go for fulfilment – will determine the future of the Middle East.
Obama has already declared his aim: the two-state solution. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton agrees. It's also the policy of the Palestinian Authority. The European Union wants it. So does Russia. The Arab League has offered acceptance, with qualifications, through its Saudi peace initiative.
Former president George W Bush also wanted two states. Israel told him it would curb settlement growth. It did not. Every now and again secretary of state Condoleeza Rice visited Israel and gave a press conference to announce that she was telling the government to curb settlements. She was ignored.
The three years up to January this year tell the story. Ehud Olmert was prime minister. He began as a rightwinger, believing in Israel's continued settlement of the West Bank, which it has occupied since the 1967 war. But he changed: during his last two years in office he increasingly supported a Palestinian state; by his last cabinet meeting he was saying passionately that Israel had to end its occupation. He warned that Israel was doomed if it stayed: its Jewish majority was threatened by Arab numbers and an apartheid situation would arise if it remained.
However, his government's actions consistently contradicted his words. Statistics provided by the Peace Now movement, using census and UN details show that 5,111 new "housing units" (meaning anything from one to 20 apartments) were built from January 2006 to January 2009, and tenders were issued for more than 1,500 housing units.
The same pattern occurred in the "illegal outposts" set up without formal government permission. Israel has promised to evacuate them. But not one was evacuated during the three years; instead, the outposts acquired 560 new structures – mainly caravans but also permanent buildings. At the start of Olmert's tenure, 475 roadblocks and checkpoints existed in the West Bank. Their purpose was and is security. With less tension and suicide bombings ended, the number was supposed to be reduced. Instead, according to the UN, by January this year there were more than 600.
East Jerusalem also features. It is intended to be divided and be a shared capital for Israel and Palestine. But the 250,000 Palestinians who live there have vast difficulty in getting permits to build houses and when they build illegally they are targets for demolition orders. At the same time, housing for Jews is fostered: during the three years, tenders were issued for 2,437 new housing units. These will add to the existing Jewish residential areas in East Jerusalem, which occupy 35% of the area and house 190,000 people. As far as is known, Olmert – who resigned as prime minister to face corruption charges – has never explained the discrepancy between his words and official deeds.
The fact is that the settlers do pretty much as they want. Many are driven by religious messianic belief that God gave Judea and Samaria to Jews and it is their right and duty to keep it so forevermore. Although the settlers are a tiny minority of the Israeli population they have become the tail that wags the dog. Successive governments have backed away from reining them in out of fear of violent resistance.
The settlers and their supporters – who include those who believe in possession of the West Bank for security purposes – permeate the government. That has enabled the illegal siphoning off of millions upon millions of shekels from departmental budgets to provide houses, build roads and lay on electricity and water to settlements and outposts – and to guarantee permanent protection by the army.
A government lawyer, Talia Sasson, appointed to investigate the illegal outposts, reported four years ago that the state was undermining its own rule of law. She has been ignored. None of it could be possible without the army's active connivance. No Israeli can do anything on the West Bank unless the army agrees and helps. That is also a cause for government apprehension: the officer corps has changed in character and the proportion who are religious has increased to about one-fifth. They live in settlements, or have family or friends there. Will they accept orders to evacuate, if necessary by force?
The settlers and others who support them are deliberately creating facts on the ground to undermine the chance of a Palestinian state; and even if one comes into being to ensure that it is so divided and weak as not to present any security threat. The intention is also to establish a ring of Jewish settlements around Jerusalem to cut off the city from the West Bank so that it cannot serve as a Palestinian capital. Meanwhile, the new rightwing government's policy on dealing with Palestinians is still being prepared and its statements are confused. Netanyahu, for example, says he wants to resume peace negotiations without conditions with Palestinians; in the next breath he says Palestinians must first accept Israel as a Jewish state.
Washington is sending strong signals: on Tuesday, Joe Biden and John Kerry told the pro-Israel Aipac lobby annual conference that Israel must freeze all West Bank building and make further concessions to the Palestinian Authority. It's also reported that two weeks ago Obama proposed a new deal on Palestinian refugees to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.
But will Obama wield a stick if Israel does not embrace a two-state solution and work with Palestinians to get swift agreement on the core issues of ending the occupation, borders, Jerusalem, the Holy Basin and refugees? How big a stick is available as he contends with the economic catastrophe, domestic problems and Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan? How can he drive an Israeli government to do what it doesn't want to do?
Saturday, May 9, 2009
US jobless at 26-year high
Employers made 539,000 workers redundant in April, according to US Labour Department statistics - the fewest job cuts in six months and far better than the 620,000 reduction that economists had expected.
Mr Obama said that there was a “long way to go before we can put this recession behind us”, but added: “The gears of our economic engine do seem to be slowly turning once again.”
The figures were boosted by a spate of hiring by the Government, which took on 66,000 part-time workers to conduct next year's census.
Related Links
* US will begin recovery this year, says Fed chief
* US inflation negative for first time in 54 years
However, the newly unemployed continued to struggle to find new jobs, pushing the unemployment rate from 8.5 per cent to 8.9 per cent, the highest level since late 1983.
When the number of job-seekers who gave up their search for work or took part-time jobs was included, the unemployment rate hit 15.8 per cent.
About 5.7million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession started in December 2007.
Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve Chairman, said this week that he expected the country to emerge from recession by the end of this year, but warned that the job market would remain sluggish because employers would take time to regain confidence and resume hiring.
Paul Ashworth, senior US economist at Capital Economics, had reservations about the figures because job-loss estimates earlier in the year have since been revised upwards.
In March, companies made 699,000 workers redundant, a figure that had been revised up from 663,000, while 681,000 workers lost their jobs in February, up from a previous estimate of 651,000. “Revisions to previous months increased the net job losses in February and March by a total of 66,000,” he said. “April's decline could eventually turn out to have been much bigger than it looks now.”
Real Unemployment at 15.8%: Highest Level Since ADA Began Tracking
The real rate includes marginally attached workers which the BLS reports “are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule.”
Since April 2008, 6 million people have lost their job. ADA’s Real Rate of Unemployment represents a staggering 23 million people who are unemployed or underemployed.
The increase of another 563,000 jobless claims for April 2009 was the smallest rise in 6 months, providing some evidence that government stimulus is working but underscoring the urgent need to put more government dollars to work motivating the private sector to begin hiring laid-off workers.
ADA National Director, Amy Isaacs, said: “While the Republican Party of No is looking backwards, rather than coming up with new ideas to help America’s working families, President Obama and Democrats in Congress are moving forward with a bold agenda. There is still much to do as record lay-offs continue and economic challenges abound, but we share the optimism of leading economists who believe the worst is behind us.”
###
ADA is America's most experienced independent liberal lobbying organization. In the spirit of the New Deal and ADA founders Eleanor Roosevelt, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, and former Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey we lobby through coalition partnerships, through direct advocacy, and through the media.
US Jobless At 26 Year High
Employers made 539,000 workers redundant in April, according to US Labour Department statistics - the fewest job cuts in six months and far better than the 620,000 reduction that economists had expected.
Mr Obama said that there was a “long way to go before we can put this recession behind us”, but added: “The gears of our economic engine do seem to be slowly turning once again.”
The figures were boosted by a spate of hiring by the Government, which took on 66,000 part-time workers to conduct next year's census.
Related Links
* US will begin recovery this year, says Fed chief
* US inflation negative for first time in 54 years
However, the newly unemployed continued to struggle to find new jobs, pushing the unemployment rate from 8.5 per cent to 8.9 per cent, the highest level since late 1983.
When the number of job-seekers who gave up their search for work or took part-time jobs was included, the unemployment rate hit 15.8 per cent.
About 5.7million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession started in December 2007.
Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve Chairman, said this week that he expected the country to emerge from recession by the end of this year, but warned that the job market would remain sluggish because employers would take time to regain confidence and resume hiring.
Paul Ashworth, senior US economist at Capital Economics, had reservations about the figures because job-loss estimates earlier in the year have since been revised upwards.
In March, companies made 699,000 workers redundant, a figure that had been revised up from 663,000, while 681,000 workers lost their jobs in February, up from a previous estimate of 651,000. “Revisions to previous months increased the net job losses in February and March by a total of 66,000,” he said. “April's decline could eventually turn out to have been much bigger than it looks now.”
Feingold Bill Gives ALL US Water To The Feds!
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:S787:
SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES.
Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended--
(1) by striking paragraph (7);
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (8) through (25) as paragraphs (7) through (24), respectively; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
`(25) WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES- The term `waters of the United States' means all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting these waters, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution.'.
SEC. 5. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) is amended--
(1) by striking `navigable waters of the United States' each place it appears and inserting `waters of the United States';
(2) in section 304(l)(1) by striking `NAVIGABLE WATERS' in the heading and inserting `WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES'; and
(3) by striking `navigable waters' each place it appears and inserting `waters of the United States'.
FIND OUT WHAT THIS MEANS - WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqHaUadsapc
Friday, May 8, 2009
'Big Brother' DNA database plan will place innocent people under suspicion for 12 years
| President Shimon Peres is urging the government to yield control of key Christian holy sites to the Vatican, a position believed to be opposed by Interior Minister Eli Yishai. The Vatican's longstanding demand that Israel transfer sovereignty of key Christian sites to the Holy See has created dissension among senior officials in Jerusalem. The Interior Ministry has vowed to retain control of the sites, calling relinquishment a "sacrifice" of Israeli sovereignty.
Peres is pressing the government to agree to the Vatican's request that Israel surrender control of six religious sites, among them the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth; the Coenaculum on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, where Jesus is said to have held the Last Supper; the Gethsemane, which sits at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem; Mount Tabor; and the Church of the Multiplication, which hugs the Kinneret's shore. Peres is lobbying Yishai to concede the sites to the Catholic Church, Army Radio reported, but not all officials agree. "If we were sure that this great gift to the Christian world would bring millions of Christian pilgrims here, then we would have a good reason to think about [agreeing to the demand]," Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov told Army Radio. "But since we are not certain that this will happen, why should we hand out gifts?" The dispute between Jerusalem and the Holy See threatens to cast a pall over next week's visit to the Holy Land by Pope Benedict XVI. Vatican officials have made clear they intend to reiterate their demand during the visit that Israel hand over control of the Coenaculum, Army Radio reported. | ||
 | ||
Probe of the members of the Royal Order of Jesters' carousing goes national
To hear the leadership of the Royal Order of Jesters tell it, the illegal activities that ensnared three Buffalo-area members in a federal investigation are isolated events not in keeping with Jesters traditions.
But sources close to the investigation and former Jesters from other parts of the country tell a different story, one of bizarre activities — including routinely hiring prostitutes for gatherings, sex competitions and degrading initiation rites for new members — at many Jesters outings, with off-duty police hired to keep nonmembers away.
“I quit the Jesters more than 20 years ago, and this kind of thing has been going on at least 40 or 50 years,” said Malcolm “Mutt” Herring, 90, of Montgomery, Ala. “I quit because I don’t drink, and I don’t mess around with other women, other than my wife. Going to one of their events was like going to a whorehouse.”
Royal Order of Jesters "The Actor"
While the case against the three Buffalo-area Jesters is wrapping up, with sentencings expected soon, federal agents have expanded their investigation and are looking into allegations that illegal activities occurred at outings sponsored by more of the Jesters’ 191 chapters. The local men who pleaded guilty in the Buffalo case, and others, have cooperated with the feds, providing information about Jesters events in other cities.
Gary N. Martin, president of the 22,000-member Jesters, says he is disturbed about the allegations. But Martin said that, to his knowledge, such conduct is extremely isolated and never condoned by the organization.
“We believe that this is isolated, inappropriate, indeed illegal conduct by only an extremely small fraction of our membership,” said Martin, a Houston car dealer. “We have, however, taken a number of significant steps to make it abundantly clear to [members] that such behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
The Jesters, a 98-year-old, nationwide fraternal group whose past members have included movie stars, judges, prominent businessmen and two presidents, is a tax-exempt organization that admits it is dedicated to one thing: the pursuit of mirth and merriment. Last year, the group put its Buffalo chapter on probation, after investigators from a human trafficking task force learned that Buffalo members took prostitutes—some of them illegal aliens — to Jesters weekend gatherings, known as “books.”
A Jesters spokesman said a chapter in Big Sandy, Ky., also was put on probation because of incidents uncovered in the same federal probe.
Code of secrecy
Retired State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Tills; his former law clerk, Michael R. Stebick of Orchard Park; and retired Lockport police Capt. John Trowbridge all pleaded guilty to transporting prostitutes across state lines. Trowbridge is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in Buffalo’s federal court, and Tills is scheduled for a pre-sentencing conference Thursday.
With rare exceptions, the Jesters’ 22,000 members operate under a strict code of secrecy.
“When I joined, they told me their motto was, ‘What you hear here, what you see here, stays here when you leave here,’ ” said J. L. Edwards, a former member from South Carolina. “Everybody’s told to keep the secret.”
Edwards, a farmer in his 60s, said he belonged to the Jesters for seven years, ending in 1998. Edwards said he quit because he felt guilty about things he saw at the Jesters’ gatherings.
Edwards told The Buffalo News the incidents he witnessed included:
• Prostitutes walking around parties, wearing only panties, soliciting Jesters to meet them later in their hotel rooms.“You had prominent people at these books — ministers, police chiefs. It’s an elite group, people like Judge Tills,” Edwards said. “A lot of these guys were prominent men in their 60s and 70s. They have beautiful young women with them, and it makes them feel like they’re a young buck again.”
• “Sex contests” involving prostitutes and Jesters members, performing in front of large groups of Jesters.
• Off-duty cops in uniform, making sure that no non-Jesters entered the rooms where activities were going on.
A national Jesters spokesman, Robert Leonard, said the organization is unaware of any such activities. And if they ever did occur, he said, they were not part of the official functions.
The case involving Tills, 74, of Hamburg, sent shock waves through the national Jesters organization.
A former assemblyman and State Supreme Court justice, Tills hastily retired in March 2008 from his $300-a-day job as a hearing officer for the court. His resignation from the part-time post occurred shortly after he became aware that members of the Western New York Human Trafficking Task Force were investigating him and other Jesters.
Tills case a shocker
Last September, Tills pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Between 2001 and 2007, Tills admitted, he arranged for prostitutes to perform at Jesters events in Dunkirk; Brantford, Ont.; Niagara Falls, Ont.; and unspecified cities in Florida, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
As the former director of the Buffalo Jesters, Tills has cooperated extensively with federal agents who are investigating other chapters, sources close to the case said.
And court papers filed by Assistant U. S. Attorney Robert C. Moscati make clear that investigators do not believe Tills was the only Jester involved in procuring prostitutes.
“This organization maintained chapters throughout the United States. [It] was the custom of these chapters to host periodic meetings, usually on weekends,” Moscati said of the Jesters.
“At most of these meetings, some members of the organization would be tasked to arrange for the presence of women at the meeting, for the specific purpose of utilizing the women to engage in sexual intercourse and other sexual activity with the organization’s members in exchange for money,” Moscati said.
Martin, the group’s president, is working to distance himself from what happened with the Buffalo chapter.
Last August Martin sent a directive to all 191 local chapters, forbidding the following conduct during initiation ceremonies:
• “Any type of physical brutality, such as whipping, beating, striking, branding, electronic shocking [or] placing of a harmful substance on the body.”“The warning was sent out in an abundance of caution,” Leonard said. “It was based on some prominent lawsuits filed about hazing at college campuses. It had nothing to do with any specific incident involving Jesters.”
• Sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement to small spaces, or other activity that subjects Jesters to “an unreasonable risk of harm.”
• Any activity involving consumption of food, liquor, drugs or other substances that would expose a Jester to “an unreasonable risk of harm.”
Many Masons upset
The Jesters are a division of the Freemasons, one of the world’s largest and oldest fraternal organizations. Many Masons are upset and angry about what has happened with this subgroup.
Some feel it may be time to disband the Jesters, said Christopher L. Hodapp of Indianapolis, co-author of the book “Freemasons for Dummies.”
“They’ve got no business being Masons,” Hodapp said of the Jesters who cavort with prostitutes. “It’s completely opposed to the obligations we take in joining a Masonic lodge. The Masons are about family, community and faith-oriented activities that make good men better.”
According to Leonard, five former Buffalo Jesters — Tills, Trowbridge, Stebick and two other men he declined to name — resigned from the Jesters because of the federal probe.
He added that, as far as national leaders know, the only Jesters events featuring prostitutes were those identified in the federal case in Buffalo.
But some investigators doubt that.
“I don’t believe that,” said Elizabeth Fildes, an Erie County sheriff’s deputy and program director of the Human Trafficking Task Force. “It seems like it went on for a very long time.”
The task force includes investigators from the FBI, U. S. Border Patrol, U. S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, and the Erie and Niagara sheriffs’ offices.
“From my conversations with the government, it seems they believe a lot of the other Jesters chapters were doing the same things as the Buffalo guys,” said Joel L. Daniels, Stebick’s attorney.
Critics of the Jesters — including Sandy Frost, an online journalist from Tacoma, Wash. — said it is outrageous the group gets tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service since, as stated in its own literature, its sole purpose is to have fun.
Source: buffalonews.com
Man Detained for Displaying “Don’t Tread on Me” Bumper Sticker
Our friends at The Patriot Depot just received a call from Rosemarie in Ball, Louisiana alerting Patriot Depot that her brother-in-law was stopped by small town Louisiana police and detained by the roadside for half an hour. A background check was conducted to determine whether he was a member of an “extremist” group. Why? Her brother-in-law (name not disclosed for privacy) had purchased and displayed a conservative “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper sticker on his car.
The bumper sticker is based on the famous flag designed by American Revolution era general and statesman Christopher Gadsden. The yellow flag featured a coiled diamondback rattlesnake ready to strike, with the slogan “Don’t Tread on Me!” underneath it. Benjamin Franklin helped make the rattlesnake a symbol of Americans’ reluctance to quarrel but vigilance and resolve in defense of their rights. By 1775 when Gadsden presented his flag to the commander-in-chief of the Navy, the rattlesnake was a symbol of the colonies and of their need to unite in defense of threats to their God-given and inherited rights. The flag and the bumper sticker symbolize American patriotism, the need to defend Americans’ rights, and resistance to tyranny’s threats to American liberty. Those threats included-and include-illegal taxation, profanation of Americans’ rights, and violation of the fundamental principles of American law.
The notorious Department of Homeland Security memo, which was apparently based on the infamous Missouri State Police Report that described supporters of presidential candidates Bob Barr, Ron Paul, and Chuck Baldwin as “militia”-type potential extremists and potential terrorists, is not the first effort of leftist radicals to slander their political opponents as “extremists.” Some observers have noted that similar “reports” emerged during the Clinton administration. But “liberals” and other leftists have been calling defenders of traditional American limited, constitutional government, free enterprise, and individual liberty “extremists” since at least the 1964 election.
The political left’s attempts to establish a false equivalence between genuine left wing extremists and those who oppose the left’s assault on our culture, law, and liberty is more than propaganda to fool the ignorant and manipulate public opinion. Combined with the power of government, it is an attempt to harass, intimidate, and silence all political opposition-and probably an attempt to demonize them as a prelude to governmental oppression and persecution. Keep in mind that the First Amendment states,
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Small town police misled by phony left wing “reports” are bad enough. Federal government agencies and their armed agents under the direction of leftist radicals are exponentially worse. They will tread on us. The time has come to let our voices be heard!
Fed Sees Up to $599 Billion in Bank Losses
The federal government projected that 19 of the nation's biggest banks could suffer losses of up to $599 billion through the end of next year if the economy performs worse than expected and ordered 10 of them to raise a combined $74.6 billion in capital to cushion themselves.
The much-anticipated stress-test results unleashed a scramble by the weakest banks to find money and a push by the strongest ones to escape the government shadow of taxpayer-funded rescues.
Interactives: Compare Banks Tested
Bank by Bank Findings
The Federal Reserve's worst-case estimates of banks' total losses and capital shortfalls were smaller than some had feared. Optimists interpreted the Fed's findings as evidence that the worst is over for the industry. But questions remain about the stress tests' rigor, in part since the Fed scaled back some projected losses in the face of pressure from banks.
The government's tests measured potential losses on mortgages, commercial loans, securities and other assets held by the stress-tested banks, ranging from giants Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. to regional institutions such as SunTrust Banks Inc. and Fifth Third Bancorp. The government's "more adverse" scenario includes two-year cumulative losses of 9.1% on total loans, worse than the peak losses of the 1930s.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that he is "reasonably confident" that banks will be able to plug the capital holes through private infusions, alleviating the need for Washington to further enmesh itself in the banking system.
Banks also said they will consider selling businesses or issuing new stock to meet the toughened capital standards.
The information provided by the stress tests will "make it easier for banks to raise new equity from private sources," Mr. Geithner said. Still, he added, "We have a lot of work to do...in repairing the financial system."
Some of the banks told to add capital raced to accomplish that by tapping public markets. On Thursday, Wells Fargo & Co., which the Fed said needed to raise $13.7 billion, laid plans for a $6 billion common-stock offering. Morgan Stanley, facing a $1.8 billion deficit, said it will sell $2 billion of stock and $3 billion of debt that isn't guaranteed by the U.S. government.
If successful, the offerings "should be a meaningful step in restoring a modicum of confidence to the banks," said David A. Havens, a managing director at Hexagon Securities. "It indicates that even the big messy banks are able to attract private capital."
Shares of more than a dozen stress-tested banks rose in after-hours trading as the government's announcement soothed jitters about the industry's immediate capital needs. Bank of America shares climbed 3.6% to $13.99, while Citigroup was up 6.3% to $4.05. Fifth Third jumped 19% to $6.35. SunTrust fell 2.5% to $18.05, and Wells Fargo slipped 0.9% to $24.54.
No Need to Stress Over Bank Stress Tests
2:14WSJ's Dave Kansas tells you what to do if your bank has failed the government's stress tests.
Stress Test: Complete Coverage
- Banks Race to Raise New Capital
- Heard on the Street: U.S. Banks' Not-So-Stressful Test
- How Tests Stopped the Market Bleeding
- Raising Capital After Stress Tests
- Results Overview | Compare 19 banks
- Test of Transparency | Where Do Markets Go?
- Statements: Bernanke | Geithner
- Updated: Inside the Fed's Balance Sheet
- Q&A: What If My Bank Fails The Stress Test?
- WSJ.com/Finance: More stress test news
Vote and Discuss
Nine of the stress-tested banks -- including titans like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wall Street's Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as well as several regional institutions -- have adequate capital. That finding essentially represents a seal of approval from the Fed.
The others need to raise anywhere from about $600 million for PNC Financial Services Group Inc. to $33.9 billion for Bank of America. In between are several other regional lenders: Fifth Third, which needs to raise $1.1 billion; KeyCorp, $1.8 billion; Regions Financial Corp., $2.5 billion; and SunTrust, $2.2 billion.
Experts warn that the tests could have a serious unintended consequence: Loans could be harder to come by for consumers and businesses. That's because the government's intense focus on thicker capital cushions might prompt banks to hoard cash and further curtail lending, said Jim Eckenrode, banking research executive at TowerGroup, a financial consulting firm. He said banks will have less room to offer consumers low interest rates, while corporate customers may have a tougher time getting financing for commercial real-estate and property development.
That would undercut a key goal of the Obama administration, which has been pushing banks to lend more in order to jump-start the economy.
The test results were vigorously contested by some banks, which argued they were superficial and didn't reflect significant differences in the health of various banks' loan portfolios.
In a news release Thursday, Regions publicly criticized the testing process. The Birmingham, Ala., bank said the Fed's loss assumptions were "unrealistically high." Regions said it "questions whether it should be required to raise additional capital now to provide for a two-year adverse economic scenario," given recent hints that the economy may have hit bottom.
With the tests complete, Washington's effort to clean up the banking system now shifts into a new, potentially messy phase. While most of the banks that need capital are likely to be able to find it, analysts and bankers say a few others are likely to end up being largely owned by the U.S. government due to their inability to raise capital from private investors.
Meanwhile, the tests don't address a sea of problems confronting many midsize and smaller banks.
Federal officials have repeatedly vowed to support the 19 banks, which essentially have been labeled too big to fail. Those reassurances have propelled the companies' shares to their highest levels in months. The White House, Treasury Department and Fed hope that by restoring confidence in the industry, private investors will help troubled banks shore up their finances, eliminating the need for taxpayer-financed rescues.
There are some encouraging signs. In recent weeks, a handful of healthy banks -- ranging from giants like Goldman Sachs to Denver's 34-branch Guaranty Bancorp -- have raised money by selling stock in public offerings. That represents a seismic shift from earlier this year, when many investors refused to touch any bank stocks.
"What we're starting to hear from investors is a view that these companies were oversold and, although things are bad, they're not as bad as was baked into the assumptions," said Brian Sterling, co-head of investment banking at Sandler O'Neill & Partners in New York.
Some Fed-blessed banks are likely to pursue public equity or debt offerings to flex their financial muscles and help pay back the funds that the government invested in them.
Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, left, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gathered in Geithner's office at Treasury on Thursday.
State Street Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Ronald E. Logue said the government's conclusion that the Boston company needs no additional capital puts it "in a position to consider repayment of the TARP preferred stock and warrants under the appropriate circumstances."
State Street, one of the largest managers of index funds, got a $2 billion taxpayer-funded infusion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal incorrectly reported that State Street had been told to come up with more capital.
Bankers acknowledge that investors' appetites are limited. Investors say not enough private funds are available to fill the big banks' financial holes.
"I think there is some demand in the market to raise a certain amount, but whether you could find $60 billion of capital in the next couple of months is highly unlikely," said Joshua Siegel, managing principal at StoneCastle Partners LLC, a New York firm that invests in banks.
Banks that can't coax private investors have some other options. They can sell assets or business lines, a strategy already under way at Bank of America and Citigroup. They can push investors to swap so-called preferred shares for common stock, padding a measure of capital known as tangible common equity.
During a Thursday conference with investors, Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said, "Our game plan is designed to help get the government out of our bank as quickly as possible," and vowed to abandon a loss-sharing agreement with the U.S. on $118 billion in assets.
But bankers and analysts say at least a few lenders are in a vise. Too weak to lure investors, and lacking a large pool of privately held preferred stock, these banks likely will have to turn to Washington for help. Fifth Third and Regions both said in statements Thursday that they hope to raise private funds.
The 19 tested banks, which all have at least $100 billion in assets, accounted for most of the industry's total loans. But the companies represent a sliver of the roughly 8,000 banks nationwide.
Among that vast field, many banks -- from regional institutions to tiny community lenders -- are holding huge portfolios of rapidly souring loans. Unlike their larger rivals, these banks lack the diverse income streams to overcome the brutal operating environment.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets estimate that 60% of the top 100 U.S. banks that weren't included in the stress tests would need to raise new capital based on the Fed's loss assumptions.
—Jane J. Kim contributed to this article.Right then, fall into line you 'orrible little pupils! Government wants the military to run state schools
The Armed Forces will be drafted in to run state schools under plans to drive up discipline and respect in classrooms.
Ministers are in talks with defence chiefs about taking over a handful of schools and turning them into military academies.
Alongside daily lessons, pupils would be expected to take part in activities such as drills, uniformed parades, weapons handling and adventure training.
The first state schools set to gain 'military academy' status are understood to be based in Portsmouth and Colchester.
The controversial scheme will initially be in areas where there are a large number of military families, but is set to be rolled out across the country.
Ministers believe that children in failing schools would particularly benefit from a military-style education because it would give them role models and a more structured existence.
But the plan is likely to raise fears among teaching unions that the academies could turn into tough 'boot camps' or recruiting stations.
Last year, union leaders accused the Army of giving children 'misleading propaganda' about life in the Armed Forces.
The National Union of Teachers also vowed to back any teachers who wanted to boycott the services' recruitment drives.
The latest idea comes as the Government prepares to launch a major extension of the 'school cadet force' scheme in deprived areas.
Gordon Brown is a strong supporter of the military's involvement in schools, which he believes teaches young people discipline and pride their country.
The first academy school dedicated entirely to the Armed Forces was announced last week, giving the Ministry of Defence a role in state education for the first time.
The Duke of York's Royal Military School in Dover, which offers boarding places for the children of military personnel, will also offer 200 extra places to youngsters from non-military backgrounds.
Force for good: The military could teach misbehaving pupils lessons in respect
But senior Whitehall sources have revealed that the Army is looking at taking over a secondary state school in Portsmouth, while the Parachute Regiment is considering running a secondary school in Colchester.
Last night, critics of the scheme cast doubts over whether the over- stretched Armed Forces have the funding or resources to take on extra educational responsibilities.
The sources also stressed that no pupil would be forced to take part in any activity against their will.
One said: 'This is not about teaching pupils to shoot people. The Armed Forces can be a force for good in our schools and teach important skills including teamwork and respect.'
Schools Minister Jim Knight said: 'Academy status for the Duke of York's is ideal and will mean they can continue to march to the beat of their own drum by retaining their military ethos and curriculum.
'I hope this is just the beginning of an even closer relationship between our Armed Forces and schools, particularly with providing boarding facilities for those families who are often on the move and in garrison town communities.'
However, David Laws, Liberal Democrat Education spokesman, called the policy 'yet another Labour gimmick'.
'While many schools would no doubt benefit from a dose of Army discipline, there is real doubt as to whether this is a clear policy or just another Gordon Brown gimmick,' he said.
The UN, Eugenics and the Mass Media
A March 2009 policy brief by the United Nations Population Division reveals that the long-term plan for worldwide population reduction is not going fast enough, not by a long shot. Under the desperate headline ‘What would it take to accelerate fertility decline in the least developed countries?’ the policy brief gives an overview of the progress made by developing countries in regards to the globalists set goal of reducing population and proposes several ways of speeding up the death. Richly draped with graphic illustrations on the state of global population and the progress made by the UN to bring back fertility to ‘acceptable’ levels, the policy brief advises an increased effort on the part of governments to commit to a strict family planning- policy and other measures designed to bring a halt to life.
 | |
 | |
| In New York in December 1994, the United Nations’ participants came up with some practical solutions to the ‘population problem’ — one of which is the integration of population issues with matters of ‘environment’ and ‘human development.’ | |
‘The persistence of high fertility in the majority of the least developed countries and the slow fertility reductions observed among them are associated with high levels of unmet need for family planning.(…) The reduction of fertility could be accelerated if effective measures were taken to satisfy the existing unmet need for family planning.’
After these recommendations, the authors plunge into a long, wailing lament about the slow progress of the desired reducing of the population. They also point the finger to a lack of commitment of the governments concerned and, as expected, the need for a global intervention in order to avoid certain destruction.
This recent policy brief was just one update out of many in regards to the long-term plan by the elite to significantly bring down the numbers of the existing earth population. From the moment the Rockefeller funded ‘family planning’-machine was widely kicked off in the 1960s and 70s, numerous meetings have been held in the last couple of decades where various strategies were discussed to implement population-reduction on as large a scale as possible. The strategies in question were especially directed towards the third world as the globalists had virtual carte blanche in the impoverished developing countries. The famous 1994 population conference in Cairo outlined some of the proposed strategies to be implemented. Then Secretary-General of the UN, Boutros Boutros-Ghali in his opening statement on the International Conference on Population and Development, stated that:
‘I am not exaggerating when I say that not only does the future of the human society depend on this Conference but also the efficacy of the economic order of the planet on which we live.’
During a follow-up-meeting held in New York on December 1994, the United Nations’ participants came up with some practical solutions to the ‘population problem’ - one of which is the integration of population issues with matters of ‘environment’ and ‘human development.’ Another part of the agenda of pressing people to cut down on the number of children was to combine the issue of family-planning with environmental issues:
‘Several priority areas were identified that needed immediate action by the participants. These included creation of awareness of the interrelationships between environment, population and development; advocacy; education; training; population management; gender concerns; monitoring and evaluation; and information dissemination and networking.’
Under the headline: ‘Youth NGOs Agree to Integrate Environment and Population Issues in their Activities’ were mentioned the following activities to brainwash young NGO’s into the right mindset by, again, mixing in environmental issues with population issues:
‘To cooperatively address development problems from the youth perspective, which will ensure their maximum participation, a Working Group of the Regional Consultation of Youth NGOs in Asia and the Pacific was organized in 1994 to mobilize a network of youth NGOs in the region. Among the current issues identified by the Working Group as requiring priority attention were the problems dealing with population, environment and sustainable development. Hence, a Working Group Meeting of the Regional Consultation of Youth NGOs in Asia and the Pacific was held from 19-21 April 1995 at the UNESCO PROAP to discuss and shape a plan of action integrating issues on environment, population and development for consideration by the youth NGOs. (…) To help them develop a relevant plan of action, the participants were exposed and sensitized to the current policies and programmes adopted by FAO, UNEP, UNFPA, and UNESCO in the areas of population, environment and development.’
Further on the use of mass-media is being proposed as effective ‘carriers of population-information’ to hammer dehumanization into the collective consciousness:
‘With more than 2 billion radios in the world, roughly one for every three people, and growing number of televisions, the electronic media plays an increasingly important and influential role in building awareness of population and other development issues.’
The report continues with a prime example of predictive programming:
‘Radio and television soap operas featuring family planning themes, popular songs on population-related issues, and phone-in question-and-answer sessions have all had an impact in different countries. The use of such media can be very important where literacy is low or where written information is not widely circulated. A TV soap opera series is credited with bringing thousands to family planning clinics in Mexico, and night-time drama series integrating family planning themes have proved successful in Egypt, Nigeria and Turkey.‘
In a January 1994 preparation meeting for the Cairo conference called ‘Family Planning Communications Strategies Examined’ the issue was discussed how best to use the media to create tolerance among the general public and ‘how attitudes and beliefs could be changed through the innovative use of traditional and mass media.’
‘The meeting featured case studies and presentations by communication practitioners and covered a wide range of subjects, such as: the use of folk tradition and drama to organize community action in Egypt; the use of micro-communications to encourage acceptance of family planning in the Philippines; the use of traditional and modern media in Ghana; and the use of songs to propagate family planning messages in Latin America. The success in India and Mexico of radio and television soap operas and films on family planning subjects was also discussed.’
During the meeting the Executive Coordinator of the ICPD, Jyoti Shankar Singh, stressed the importance of using mass media to ‘convey family planning and reproductive health messages’:
‘Electronic media, print media (and) interpersonal interventions were all part of the kind of comprehensive information, education and communication (IEC) strategies we need in pursuit of population goals.’
In another technical report (‘Guidelines on Basic Education with special attention to Gender Disparities for the UN Resident Coordinator System’) the message is repeatedly conveyed that:
‘It is important that information be disseminated through various channels including traditional means and packaged in various forms to allow both literate and illiterate persons to understand the key messages.’
In 1997 the UNFPA organized a ‘Regional Media Seminar on Population and Development’ for the role of the mass media in (euphemistically called) ‘Information Repackaging’ for the Pacific islands. The UN officials boasted on the success of the seminar:
‘The seminar brought together journalists in the print and radio media from 9 countries of the South Pacific to explore both the role and potential of mass media as a vehicle for population advocacy, information, education and communication. (…) The seminar explored the role of the media in developing and packaging population materials for identified target groups. The meeting also provided development partners with an opportunity to forge networks with media personnel and develop effective strategies to better address population and development goals and accelerate the implementation of the ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development) Programme of Action.’
In other words: every possible resource should be utilized for propagandizing different target audiences. But the people burdened with designing and implement population education on a large scale emphasized the need for a common tongue and sequence of arguments with which the different UN-divisions sell the people on the idea of dehumanization.
‘Mr. Michael Vlassoff, Senior Technical Officer, Technical and Evaluation Division, UNFPA, introduced the work of the Working Group on Policy-Related Issues. He explained that the Working Group had decided to address the “common advocacy” concern by drawing up a Statement of Commitment that would then be issued by all agencies and organizations involved in the IATF. The aim of such a statement would be to ensure that all UN agencies and organizations use the same language regarding population and development issues.’
The report goes on to list these arguments with which populations worldwide should be lured into embracing modern-day eugenics as a sensible policy:
‘The “Statement of Commitment on Population and Development by the United Nations System”, drafted by the Working Group, is divided into three sections: a general introduction stressing the commitment by the UN agencies and organizations to implement ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development); a section on the linkages between population issues and other development issues; and a concluding section calling for global partnership in addressing these interrelated issues.’
In short- a great part of the 1990s were occupied with a great mobilization of mass media for propaganda purposes by the global elite, a test case so to speak, before implementing the same strategies worldwide in the first decade of the 21st century. And lo and behold! The great global warming swindle arrives just in time as an environmental as well as a development issue to attach the basic message to: there are too many of us- and our numbers should be reduced before the planet is destroyed. Because the warming is global, the response should be so as well. However eloquently the message may be presented by hopelessly compliant media outlets, it is the tyrant’s voice we discern amidst the chatter- and all with ears to hear should educate their neighbor in this all-out information war. Let’s not forget what the elite who have funded the UN from the moment of its very conception have always aspired. In the words of the aristocratic fiend Prince Philip:
‘If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.’
Sources:
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/UNPD_policybriefs/UNPD_policy_brief1.pdf
http://www.un.org/popin/icpd/conference/offeng/addproga.html
http://www.un.org/popin/unfpa/taskforce/guide/iatfb-ed.gdl.html
http://www.un.org/popin/unfpa/taskforce/guide/iatfrep2.gdl.html
http://www.un.org/popin/regional/asiapac/fiji/news/97dec/p6.htm
