MARCH  2010

Today in History Wednesday March 31, 2010
1831 - Quebec and Montreal were incorporated as cities.
1854 - The U.S. government signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan. The act opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakotade to American trade.
1862 - Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces took place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.
1870 - In Perth Amboy, NJ, Thomas P. Munday became the first black to vote in the U.S.
1880 - Wabash, IN, became the first town to be completely illuminated with electric light.
1889 - In Paris, the Eiffel Tower officially opened. 
1900 - In France, the National Assembly passed a law reducing the workday for women and children to 11 hours.
1906 - The Conference on Moroccan Reforms in Algerciras ended after two months with France and Germany in agreement.
1908 - 250,000 coal miners in Indianapolis, IN, went on strike to await a wage adjustment.
1917 - The U.S. purchased and took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
1918 - For the first time in the U.S., Daylight Saving Time went into effect.
1932 - The Ford Motor Co. debuted its V-8 engine.
1939 - Britain and France agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened invasion.
1940 - La Guardia airport in New York officially opened to the public.
1941 - Germany began a counter offensive in North Africa.
1947 - John L. Lewis called a strike in sympathy for the miners killed in an explosion in Centralia, IL, on March 25, 1947.
1948 - The Soviets in Germany began controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
1949 - Winston Churchill declared that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the U.S.S.R. from taking over Europe.
1949 - Newfoundland entered the Canadian confederation as its 10th province.
1958 - The U.S. Navy formed the atomic submarine division.
1959 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) began exile by crossing the border into India where he was granted political asylum.
1960 - The South African government declared a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the death of more than 50 Africans.
1966 - An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.
1966 - The Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which became the first spacecraft to enter a lunar orbit.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1970 - The U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, it was the first since September 1968.
1980 - U.S. President Carter deregulated the banking industry.  
1991 - Iraqi forces recaptured the northern city of Kirkuk from Kurdish guerillas.
1998 - U.N. Security Council imposed arms embargo on Yugoslavia.
1998 - For the first time in U.S. history the federal government's detailed financial statement was released. This occurred under the Clinton administration.
1999 - Three U.S. soldiers were captured by Yugoslav soldiers three miles from the Yugoslav border in Macedonia.
2004 - Air America Radio launched five stations around the U.S.
2004 - Google Inc. announced that it would be introducing a free e-mail service called Gmail.

VIDEO: 9/11 Commissioner slips up, says missile hit Pentagon?

159 Ways the Senate Bill Is a Government Takeover of Health Care--Here is a list of new boards, bureaucracies, and programs created in the 2,733 page Senate health care bill, which serves as the framework for President Obama's health proposal

VIDEO: Obama's Civilian Army is now LAW and is Funded

Militia Chief's Mistrust Festered, Friends Say -- The leader of a Michigan militia group charged this week with conspiring to kill law-enforcement officers was described Tuesday as a private, family-oriented man who nurtured a festering mistrust of governmental authority, according to people close to the family.

FBI Agent Discovered at Center of Alleged Hutaree Conspiracy -- The FBI had an informant inside the Hutaree group and he participated in the alleged conspiracy to kill law enforcement officers, according to The Wall Street Journal today.

UK: Fingerprint system 'stigmatises pupils' -- Schools are denying pupils their civil liberties by fingerprinting them without seeking the consent of their parents, teachers warned yesterday.

Family Defends Christian Militia Group, Says Hutaree Did Nothing Wrong -- The fiancee of one of the members of a Christian extremist group arrested this week in a federal raid defended the Hutaree, saying that if group members had had plans for violence, "they would have done it already."

Legislature gets raw milk bill -- Twenty-five states allow some form of unpasteurized milk sales. Advocates say milk straight from the cow's udder is a bacteria-rich food that can help fend off illnesses and has kept farm families healthy for generations. Critics dismiss claims that raw milk is healthier than pasteurized milk, and they say the raw version is dangerous because of harmful bacteria it may carry. By an 8-1 vote, the Assembly Committee on Rural Economic Development recommended approval of Assembly Bill 628 that would allow unpasteurized milk sales direct from farms licensed by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
 * Related Article:  Doyle may sign bill allowing raw milk sales -- Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday he may favor legalizing raw milk sales to the general public, under the right circumstances."I think we all understand what the issues here are," Doyle said when asked about the raw milk bill at a news conference in Verona. "There are some people who prefer to drink raw milk, and I think under certain circumstances that's fine. But I think we also need to know that the mass-milk market is one that is healthy and in control."

Judge OKs Police Tasing Woman Who Was 7 Months Pregnant -- Being pregnant doesn't mean you're special, and if you're in Seattle, it doesn't mean police won't tase you if you fail to comply with even the most minor of instructions.

U.K. Climate Science 'Damaged' by Leaked E-Mails -- Britain's global warming scientists damaged their reputation with the "unacceptable" withholding of data in response to freedom of information requests, said a panel of lawmakers probing the so-called climategate scandal.

New Homeland Security Report Claims 'Right Wing Extremism' is on the Rise Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization -- Several months ago, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a simliar report targeting conservatives and ideals as "Right-wing Extremism". After intense public scrutiny and a strong back-lash from Congressional conservatives, the report was retracted.

The Growing Threat of Female Suicide Bombers -- Two women believed to be Chechen rebels blew themselves up in Moscow's metro during morning rush hour Monday, killing at least 35 people and injuring 100 more.

More Guatanamo Detainees Are Returning to Terror Upon Release -- Prior to his release in December, Abdul Hafiz was Prisoner Number 1030 at Guantanamo Bay. Now, less than four months later, he's back home in Afghanistan and working for the Taliban -- just the latest of more than 100 released detainees who have returned to terrorism, according to the Pentagon.

US Transit Security Gets Boost After Blasts -- Millions of U.S. subway riders Monday morning saw extra police, some of them heavily armed, as transit agencies stepped up security following suicide bombings in Moscow's subway.

'Obamacare' Cops: $1 Billion to Force New Tax Compliance -- Collecting taxes under the Democrats' newly passed health-care plan will cost the federal government more than $1 billion a year in salaries alone, Republicans in Congress estimate.

Obama Set to Sign Health Care 'Fixes' Bill -- President Obama is set to claim final victory on his top domestic priority Tuesday by signing into law a package of changes to the newly enacted health care reform bill.

Saturday Mail Cut Loophole: Post Office Boxes -- Under the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service's plan to cut Saturday delivery and trim its delivery schedule from six days a week to five, mail would continue to be delivered on Saturdays to the more than 13 million P.O. boxes across the country.

Iowa Town Renames Good Friday -- One week before the most solemn day in the Christian year, the city of Davenport, Iowa removed Good Friday from its municipal calendar, setting off a storm of complaints from Christians and union members whose contracts give them that day off.

Israel Fears Obama Heading for Imposed Mideast Settlement -- U.S. President Barack Obama's demands during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday point to an intention to impose a permanent settlement on Israel and the Palestinians in less than two years, political sources in Jerusalem say.

Clinton's Push for Iran Sanctions Meets Cool Response from G8 -- The United States on Tuesday failed to win overwhelming support from world economic powers for sanctions to block Tehran's nuclear ambitions as G8 foreign ministers issued an insipid statement on Iran.

Cern LHC Sees High-Energy Success -- Scientists working on the European machine have smashed beams of protons together at energies that are 3.5 times higher than previously achieved.

Scientists Stumped as Bee Population Declines Further -- The decline in the US bee population, first observed in 2006, is continuing, a phenomenon that still baffles researchers and beekeepers.

Obama Medicare Pick Urges 'Radical Transfer of Power' -- President Obama's reported pick to run Medicare and Medicaid, Donald Berwick, has argued for a "radical transfer of power" in the health industry and claimed patients' quality of care in the U.S. medical system is currently measured by the "color of their skin," WND has learned.

Obama Signing Student Loan Reform In Virginia -- Finalizing two major pieces of his agenda, President Barack Obama on Tuesday sealed his health care overhaul and made the government the primary lender to students by cutting banks out of the process.

Oath Keepers: Hutaree 'Set Up' -- These guys make the Oath Keepers look like model citizens. The FBI raided a Michigan-based Christian militia group this weekend for allegedly plotting a campaign of violence against police officers, and to use WMD against Americans. The Feds claim the Hutaree "conspired to oppose by force the authority of the U.S. government."

States' Debt Woes Grow Too Big to Camouflage -- California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay.

Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture -- Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets—all without so much as charging you with a crime.

Feds Thinking Outside the Box to Plug in Intelligence Gap -- Three recent events — the foiled Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner, the Dec. 30 assassination of seven CIA officers and contractors by a Jordanian double agent in Afghanistan and the difficulties that U.S. Marines in Marjah, Afghanistan, have encountered — all have something in common: inadequate intelligence.

Rigged US Elections Exposed -- This testimony is not news to the readers of this site, but it is admitted into court records that elections are fixed. Vote fraud is nothing new, but this is just another chink in the armor that is destroying this country.

US Military Doing 'Limited" Drug War Work in Mexico -- "Our military, in certain limited ways, has been working with the Mexican military in their efforts against the drug cartels" inside Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told NPR's Robert Siegel this morning. Her comments were among the most extensive to date from a U.S. official about the U.S. military's role in the drug war raging across the border.

States Seeking Cash Hope to Expand Taxes to Services -- In the scramble to find something, anything, to generate more revenue, states are considering new taxes on virtually everything: garbage pickup, dating services, bowling night, haircuts, even clowns.

A Bomber Jacket Doesn't Cover the Blood -- On Sunday, during his first presidential trip to Afghanistan, Obama stood before thousands of American troops to proclaim the sanctity of the war effort. He played the role deftly – a commander in chief, rallying the troops – while wearing a bomber jacket.

North Korea on Verge of Collapse? -- The recent sinking of a South Korean vessel in suspicious circumstances makes this report quite timely. The situation in North Korea is presently sliding downward and will likely halt with a contraction of the population. A people who are dying of starvation do not do rebellion very well so that part will simply be awful.

Humans are too Stupid to Prevent Climate Change -- Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory.

VIDEO: Anderson cooper Talks of the New World Order

Obama Says Wants Sanctions on Iran in Weeks -- President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he would like to see new U.N. sanctions placed on Iran in a matter of weeks as he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented a united front on Tehran.

Supreme Court Hands Victory to Mutual Fund Industry -- The Supreme Court handed a victory to the $11 trillion mutual fund industry by endorsing a 1982 legal standard to decide the fairness of fund fees, a ruling that gives companies considerable freedom to set investment adviser charges.

Health Overhaul to Hit Corporate Profits -- U.S. companies have started to tally up the financial hit they say they will take as a result of the U.S. healthcare overhaul signed into law last week by President Barack Obama.

Vit B3 Beats Big Pharma's Zetia Cholesterol Drug -- The utter worthlessness of Big Pharma's cholesterol drugs was demonstrated recently by a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed that niacin (a low-cost B vitamin) out-performs Merck's drug Zetia for preventing the build-up of arterial plaque, a symptom of cardiovascular disease.

Researchers Discover Papaya is Effective Against Breast, Pancreas and Other Cancers -- Originally native to southern Mexico and now cultivated in many tropical countries (including Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Vietnam and Sri Lanka), the papaya plant has been touted by traditional healers for centuries as a source of powerful medicine.

Breastfeeding Significantly Lowers Breast Cancer Risk -- Women who breastfeed their infants have a significantly lower risk of breast cancer, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.


Today in History Tuesday March 30, 2010
1855 - About 5,000 "Border Ruffians" from western Missouri invaded the territory of Kansas and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. It was the first election in Kansas.
1858 - Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patented the pencil.
1867 - The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.
1870 - The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, was passed by the U.S. Congress.
1870 - Texas was readmitted to the Union.
1903 - Revolutionary activity in the Dominican Republic brought U.S. troops to Santo Domingo to protect American interests.
1905 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt was chosen to mediate in the Russo-Japanese peace talks.
1909 - The Queensboro bridge in New York opened linking Manhattan and Queens. It was the first double decker bridge.
1916 - Pancho Villa killed 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.
1936 - Britain announced a naval construction program of 38 warships.
1944 - The U.S. fleet attacked Palau, near the Philippines.
1945 - The U.S.S.R. invaded Austria during World War II.
1946 - The Allies seized 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
1950 - The invention of the phototransistor was announced.
1950 - U.S. President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
1964 - John Glenn withdrew from the Ohio race for U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall.
1970 - "Applause" opened on Broadway.
1970 - "Another World - Somerset" debuted on NBC-TV.
1972 - The British government assumed direct rule over Northern Ireland.
1972 - The Eastertide Offensive began when North Vietnamese troops crossed into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the northern portion of South Vietnam.
1975 - As the North Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets in desperation.
1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington, DC, by John W. Hinckley Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady were also wounded.
1982 - The space shuttle Columbia completed its third and its longest test flight after 8 days in space.
1984 - The U.S. ended its participation in the multinational peace force in Lebanon.
1994 - Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to fight each other.
1998 - Rolls-Royce was purchased by BMW in a $570 million deal.
2002 - An unmanned U.S. spy plan crashed at sea in the Southern Philippines.
2002 - Suspected Islamic militants set off several grenades at a temple in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Four civilians, four policemen and two attackers were killed and 20 people were injured.

Thought For The Day from our friend Mike Tawse in the UK -- Read many "thoughts of the Day' by clicking here.

Magnesium: The Superpower Mineral? by Mike Tawse -- Magnesium is known to be extremely important in more than 300 processes throughout the body, needed to maintain good health, but doctors are often unaware that their patients are deficient in magnesium having, largely, overlooked this vital mineral. It may seem shocking that laboratory blood tests are not the most effective way to measure magnesium, even when a specific test is ordered.

Heal yourself in 15 days with the people around you -- Three steps to uplifting the health of those around you - Did you know that living among healthy-minded, high-energy individuals who remain engaged in the pursuits of health and happiness has an extremely powerful rubbing off effect on you. These people can lift your spirits, inspire you to embrace positive changes and serve as shining examples of the health results you wish to achieve.

Michigan Christian Militia Hutaree Targeted Law Enforcement -- A family of four was behind an anti-government militia plot to kill law enforcement officers with improvised explosive devices and projectiles before being foiled by an FBI raid Sunday that netted nine members of a Christian extremist group, federal authorities said today.

Sarah Palin Still Endorses McCain -- Her perspective, in fact, is one the Republican party in America has stood for, for decades. It combines militarism with free-market rhetoric but ends up putting free-markets and freedom below national security and global adventurism. She is therefore putting empire over peaceable trade, a perspective that continually degrades what is left of American civil society. We had hoped that Sarah Palin, who is an attractive an energetic personality, would not adopt such conflicting stances. They have characterized the mainstream approach to free-markets throughout the 20th century, but in the 21st century, they are giving way, gradually, to the principled positions of such free-market thinking individuals as Republican Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex).

Stocks Soar, but Many Analysts are Asking Why -- Judging from stock prices alone, one would think the economy was poised for a roaring comeback. But the federal government plans to unplug the economic life-support programs that stimulated production, kept interest rates low and placed a thick cushion under the real estate market.

Hayworth Slams McCain on Immigration at Tea Party Rally -- Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, who has emerged as a formidable primary challenger to McCain, seized on amnesty for illegal immigrants and border control, which have become defining issues in the state's GOP Senate primary race. "It is unconscionable that nearly a decade after 9/11 the backdoor of the United States remains open," Hayworth told hundreds of Tea Party members gathered at the Radisson Hotel in Flagstaff. "Our senior senator is looking at this entirely the wrong way."

Another Poll Reveals Most Americans Oppose Obamacare -- Yet another poll reveals the obvious — large numbers of Americans oppose Obamacare. “A Mason-Dixon poll of Florida voters released over the weekend offers the dose of cold water Democrats may need to temper their expectations on health care’s electoral impact,” writes Politico.

Gold Report - China Buys Gold! -- Rising 85% by weight since 2004, China's private gold demand has more than quadrupled in Dollars. It pretty much doubled by value in terms of both Dollars and the Renminbi in the last two years alone, rising to $13.6 billion in 2009.

Specter pushes for stronger federal privacy laws -- Broadening wiretap laws to include videotaped surveillance could either safeguard privacy or thwart efforts to recover stolen property, a U.S. senator was told Monday at a hearing not far from a school that's being sued for trying to find missing laptops by activating their webcams.

Grasshopper Plague threatens US Farms -- Farmers and ranchers across the West are bracing for a grasshopper infestation that could devastate millions of acres of crops and land used for grazing.

Nuclear Waste Costing Taxpayers Billions -- A 30-year failure to develop a permanent site for storing nuclear waste has cost the federal government billions of dollars in fines paid to power companies. After putting all of its hopes in the Yucca Mountain repository, Washington now is starting over with finding a location following the Obama administration’s rejection of the Nevada underground site.

H1N1 Flu May Be On Rebound in Southeast -- But the H1N1 flu virus isn't gone. In fact, the southeastern United States, including Tennessee, has seen a slight increase in H1N1 cases. Clusters of cases have been reported in Nashville and Knoxville, according to Tennessee health officials.

Biblical Plagues Really Happened Say Scientists -- Researchers believe they have found evidence of real natural disasters on which the ten plagues of Egypt, which led to Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, were based.

Ka-Ching! Shoppers Keep Registers Humming -- The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumers boosted their spending by 0.3 percent in February, marking the fifth straight monthly gain.

Israel to Focus on Key Nuclear Targets in Any Strike -- Should Israel attack Iranian nuclear facilities, it would probably carry out precision strikes while making every effort not to hit the oil sector or other civilian sites.

Chipped Pets Develop Fast-Growing, Lethal Tumors -- Highly aggressive tumors developed around the microchip implants of two American dogs, killing one of the pets and leaving the other terminally ill.

ACTA Would Make Internet Service Providers Copyright Police -- After nearly two years of excuses for the secrecy of negotiations over ACTA, the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a full draft of the proposed treaty has been leaked online and it looks just as bad as critics have suggested.

A US Biometrics Agency -- As of last week, there is now a U.S. Government national security agency called the Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA). It supersedes a Biometrics Task Force that was established in 2000.

Sky Spy to Stop People Traffickers -- Unmanned drone planes are to be used to stop illegal immigrants heading for Britain.

UAE: Head of Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Missing -- RABAT, Morocco -- Rescue workers were scouring an artificial Moroccan lake Saturday in search of the head of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund -- the world's largest -- who went missing after his glider crashed.

Beijing To Sweeten Stench of Rubbish Crisis with Deodorant Guns -- Beijing is to install 100 deodorant guns at a stinking landfill site on the edge of the city in a bid to dampen complaints about the capital's rubbish crisis.

It's Official - America Now Enforces Capital Controls -- It couldn't have happened to a nicer country. On March 18, with very little pomp and circumstance, president Obama passed the most recent stimulus act, the $17.5 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2487), brilliantly goalseeked by the administration's millionaire cronies to abbreviate as HIRE.

Economic Power Grab by EU: Plan to Control Britain's Economy As Europe Bails Out Greece -- Britain could be forced to have its Budget signed off by European leaders under plans to impose an 'economic government of the EU', it emerged
yesterday.

ATA Truck Tonnage Index Declines in February -- The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 0.5 percent in February, following a revised 1.9 percent increase in January [revised down from 3.1%]. The latest drop put the SA index at 108.5 (2000=100), down from 109.1 in January.

M2 Money Growth Collapses -- The information that it imparts explains why the dollar has been so strong against the euro and most other currencies. It explains the weakness in gold. And, I believe it signals an eminent crash in the U.S. stock market--which will lead to the second leg of the double dip recession.

VIDEO: Double Suicide Bombings on Rush Hour Moscow Subway Kill at Least 38, Wound More Than 60

Europe Has Left Greece Hanging in the Wind -- However you dress it, the Greek package agreed by EU leaders is a capitulation to German-Dutch demands. There will be no European debt union as long as Angela Merkel remains Iron Chancellor of Germany.

Washington Considers a Decline of World Oil Production as of 2011 -- The U.S. Department of Energy admits that “a chance exists that we may experience a decline” of world liquid fuels production between 2011 and 2015 “if the investment is not there”, according to an exclusive interview with Glen Sweetnam, main official expert on oil market in the Obama administration.

Lawyer Who Found Documents Has Long Pursued the Church -- Jeff Anderson has filed thousands of lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests and won tens of millions of dollars for his clients, but he has had a bigger goal in mind for nearly two decades. He wants to bring his career-long legal crusade against misconduct in the Roman Catholic Church right to the top.

Exorbitant Fees Offered to Human Egg Donors -- Fertility companies are paying egg donors high fees that often exceed guidelines, especially for donors from top colleges and with certain appearances and ethnicities, a new study finds. The upshot: Parents with infertility problems are willing to pay up to $50,000 for a human egg they hope will produce a smart, attractive child.

Obama Eyeing Your Retirement Account -- The Obama administration is quietly exploring strategies that would require hundreds of billions of dollars in programs such as 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts to be invested in U.S. Treasury bonds, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

Take Two: Gov't Tries New Fix for Mortgage Crisis -- The government's bold new plan to stem the foreclosure crisis aims to succeed where previous efforts have fallen flat. Yet just as before, the odds are long, and many struggling borrowers won't qualify.

Commercial real estate to see 'storm' of foreclosures -- And though the most recent numbers are low, Roddy said the number of sales made during the 2007 peak of the market are the most concerning. "Lots of sales means lots of loans and many of these were five-year balloons," he said, adding that the high number of sales in 2005 to 2007 will have loans maturing from 2010 to 2012 and with the current state of the financial system - and several banks' unwillingness to extend loans - that means higher levels of foreclosures." "Loans will come due and because of the tightness of the financial market, they won't be refinanced," he said. "...We feel 2010 is basically going to be the peak of commercial real estate foreclosures because of the numbers of sales five years ago ... and until we see a change in monetary policy, a freeing up in the financing, we're going to continue to see the same thing at least for the next two years."

Obama Announces 15 Recess Appointments, Scolds GOP -- Fed up with waiting, President Obama announced Saturday he would bypass a vacationing Senate and name 15 people to key administration jobs, wielding for the first time the blunt political tool known as the recess appointment.

VIDEO: Cops Shock Man and Watch Him Fall

Leading heart Surgeon Calls for Ban on Butter -- A British heart surgeon has issued a call for a ban on butter, citing excessive consumption of saturated fats which he believes has rapidly increased the number of heart disease cases in the Great Britain. Dr. Shyam Kolvekar expressed concern that people as young as 30 years old are now getting heart bypass surgery, an issue that he believes could be remedied by switching from butter to margarine or other "healthy" spreads.

Elderly Patients Being Executed with Medicine in UK Hospitals -- Concern is growing that the United Kingdom's Liverpool Care Pathway, intended to ease the comfort of patients whose death is inevitable, is being misused to railroad elderly patients onto a path toward early death.

New Field of Nutrigenomics Reveals How What You Eat Now Can Prevent Future Disease -- Kansas State University (K-State) researchers have joined a growing number of scientists who say a relatively new medical field known as nutrigenomics could change the future of public health forever. How? By tailoring strategies to prevent diseases before they can happen -- diseases that might otherwise be in a person's future because of his or her genetic makeup.

Stunning Research Shows High Potential for DNA Damage from Nanoparticles -- Nanoparticles may be able to damage the DNA of cells without ever coming into contact with it, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Bristol Implant Research Center and published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Sell-Off in US Treasuries Raises Sovereign Debt Fears -- Investors are braced for a further sell-off in US Treasuries after dramatic moves last week raised fears that the surfeit of US government debt is starting to saturate bond markets.


Today in History Monday March 29, 2010
1882 - The Knights of Columbus organization was granted a charter by the State of Connecticut.
1903 - A regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.
1906 - In the U.S., 500,000 coal miners walked off the job seeking higher wages.
1913 - The Reichstag announced a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget.
1941 - The British sank five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.
1943 - In the U.S. rationing of meat, butter and cheese began during World War II.
1946 - Gold Coast became the first British colony to hold an African parliamentary majority.
1961 - The 23rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment allowed residents of Washington, DC, to vote for president.
1962 - Cuba opened the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.
1966 - Leonid Brezhnev became the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounced the American policy in Vietnam and called it one of
 aggression.
1967 - France launched its first nuclear submarine.
1971 - Lt. William Calley Jr., of the U.S. Army, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 Vietnamese civilians. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment. The trial was the result of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968.
1971 - A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. The
death sentences were later commuted to live in prison.
1973 - "Hommy," the Puerto Rican version of the rock opera "Tommy," opened in New York City.
1973 - The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam.
1974 - Mariner 10, the U.S. space probe became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury. It had been launched on November 3, 1973.
1974 - Eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. All the guardsmen were later acquitted.
1975 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declared that he would reopen the Suez Canal on June 5, 1975.
1979 - The Committee on Assassinations Report issued by U.S. House of Representatives stated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the
result of a conspiracy.
1986 - A court in Rome acquitted six men in a plot to kill the Pope.
1992 - Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton said "I didn't inhale and I didn't try it again" in reference to when he had experimented with marijuana.
1993 - The South Korean government agreed to pay financial support to women who had been forced to have sex with Japanese troops during World War II.
1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment that would have limited terms to 12 years in the U.S. House and Senate. 
1999 - At least 87 people died in an earthquake in India's Himalayan foothills.
1999 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time.
2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia became members of NATO.

Christian Militia Group Targeted in FBI Raids--The FBI conducted weekend raids in three states and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one raid was a Christian militia group.

South Korean navy ship was 'split in two' by mystery explosion -- The mysterious explosion which sank a South Korean naval ship split the vessel's hull in two, officials say.
 * Related Article: S. Korea Naval Ship Sinks Near N. Korea -- Word that a South Korean naval ship sank in the tense waters around the disputed maritime border with communist North Korea set off panic: The president convened an emergency meeting and the military dispatched a fleet of ships.

Obama announces 15 recess appointments, scolds GOP -- Fed up with waiting, President Barack Obama announced Saturday he would bypass a vacationing Senate and name 15 people to key administration jobs, wielding for the first time the blunt political tool known as the recess appointment.

Bank Closures

STUPID News: CIA Baked Suicide Bomber Birthday Cake -- CIA officers in Afghanistan were so eager to meet the spy they believed would help them crack al Qaeda's leadership they planned a birthday celebration for his visit in December, current and former U.S. officials said.

Summary Timeline for Major Items in Senate Healthcare Bill

Companies say health care costs hard to swallow -- With more than 3,500 companies now getting the tax break as an incentive to keep providing coverage, others are almost certain to announce similar cost increases in the weeks ahead as they sort out the impact of the change. Figuring out what it will mean for retirees will take longer, but analysts said as many as 2 million could lose the prescription drug coverage provided by their former employers, leaving them to enroll in Medicare's program.

Paying Workers to Live Healthier Lives -- While just under way, the drive to align financial incentives with healthy behavior seems promising, experts say. "If this were the Olympics, it would be a demonstration sport - not there yet, but clearly coming," said Dr. David J. Brailer, chairman of Health Evolution Partners, a private equity fund, which has not invested in a health-incentive management company to date.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo probably won't pay income tax for 2009 -- Bank of America probably won't pay federal taxes because it lost money in the U.S. for the year. Wells Fargo was profitable, but can write down its tax bill because of losses at Wachovia, which it rescued from a near collapse.

Suicide bombers kill 37 in Moscow’s subway -- Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow's subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers Monday, killing at least 37 people, officials said.

FBI Raids Michigan Militia -- Seven people have been arrested for allegedly selling pipe bombs in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, Fox News has learned. The arrests and raids in Michigan and Indianapolis are related to alleged militia activity in the region, but are not related to international terrorism. There is not a current threat to the public, according to a law enforcement source. (Righttttttt...)

Obama headed back to U.S. after surprise visit to Afghanistan -- President Obama is expected to return to the United States on today after a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he met with his Afghan counterpart and reiterated the need to wipe out terror networks.

Obama Sets Sights on Merging Mexico and US? -- The pressure to extend health care privileges to Mexicans and others in America illegally will grow inexorably. And it will be used as a lever to pry apart the opposition to a de-facto merger between the two countries. Again, this is no surprise. The Bush administration gave this sort of effort a push toward the end of the George Bush's last term. The administration wanted a kind of amnesty and other legal affirmations that would essentially have provided guest worker status to Mexicans - and begun the process as well (in earnest) of harmonizing American and Mexican laws.

Modified rice that once seemed good pits farmers against chemical company in court after court -- Two key things happened since the early 1990s. Concerns grew about foods marketed directly to consumers that were raised using genetically altered seeds. And the experimental, Liberty-resistant strain of rice - called Liberty Link - got loose and made its way into the stream of commercially marketed rice. The announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in August 2006 that traces of Liberty Link rice had been found in the nation's rice supply was not welcome news to rice farmers. No nation has approved genetically modified rice for the marketplace. Rice futures plummeted by $150 million immediately afterward. European nations quit accepting shipments of rice from the U.S. that hadn't been extensively tested to show they weren't contaminated. Japan banned all American rice.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo May Pay No Taxes for 2009 -- The tax news has been all good lately for some of the nation’s leading banks. First, JPMorgan Chase found out it will receive a fat refund from the federal government, and now Bank of America and Wells Fargo won’t have to pay federal income taxes for 2009.

Scientist: Directed Energy Weapons Turned World Trade Centers Into Nano-Particles -- n his article “False Flag Operations, 9-11 and the Exopolitical Perspective” Dr. Michael E. Salla states, “The fourth exopolitical factor [of false flag operations] concerns the use of weather modification technologies that former Secretary of State William Cohen confirmed as existing in 1997.” (Dr. Judy Wood is in this article)

VIDEO: New Paycheck Deduction

Rate the President -- With President Obama completing his first year in office this week, we are giving you the chance to weigh in on how you think he has done on the job.

Hoyer Decries Talk of Reprisals Against Lawmakers -- House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer voiced concern Thursday over warnings of violent reprisals against members of Congress who voted for landmark health care legislation, saying the threats are being taken "very seriously."

Health Bill: A Transfer of Power, Kills the Constitution -- I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

Hutaree Christian Militia Among Targets of FBI Raids -- The FBI said Sunday that agents conducted weekend raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one raid was a Christian militia group.

Anti-Hate Group Finds Another Group It Hates -- The Southern Poverty Law Center (or as I like to call it, ADL South), has published a post on yet another group of people it hates (because it doesn’t fit into the SPLC’s socialist view of the world): FEMA conspiracy theorists.

CFTC Whistleblower Injured in London Hit-and-run -- London metals trader Andrew Maguire, who warned an investigator for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in advance about a gold and silver market manipulation to be undertaken by traders for JPMorgan Chase in February and whose whistleblowing was publicized by GATA at Thursday’s CFTC hearing on metals futures trading-– was injured along with his wife the next day when their car was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the London area.

CBO: Debt Will Rise to 90% of GDP -- President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, and raise the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation's economic output by 2020, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday.

Pfizer to Pay $142 Million for Drug Fraud -- Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been ordered to pay $142 million US in damages for fraudulently marketing gabapentin, an anti-seizure drug marketed under the name Neurontin.

Supply Fears Start to Hit Treasuries -- The bond vigilantes are finally flexing their muscles. A long period of stability for the US government bond market showed signs of cracking this week as a lack of investor appetite for new debt sent the benchmark 10-year yield to its highest level since last June.

CIA Paper Reveals Plans to Manipulate European Opinion on Afghanistan -- 'Out-of-the-box' CIA think tank proposes concerns over women's rights, fear of terrorism as ways to boost support for Afghan war.

American Terror Suspect Worked for DEA -- An American charged with helping plan the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, moved effortlessly between the United States, Pakistan and India for nearly seven years, training at a militant camp in Pakistan on five occasions, according to a plea agreement released by the Justice Department last week.

Iran-Contra Operative Linked to Questionable Spy Program -- A former high-ranking CIA official who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal has worked on an alleged ad hoc spy program that the Pentagon is investigating, CNN has learned.

S. Korea Navy Ship Sinking In Waters Near N. Korea -- A South Korean navy ship carrying 104 people sunk near the North Korea border on Friday after an explosion onboard, Yonhap news agency reported.

N. Korea Vows 'Nuclear Strikes' in Latest Threat -- North Korea's military warned South Korea and the United States on Friday of "unprecedented nuclear strikes" over a report the two countries plan to prepare for possible instability in the totalitarian country.

EU Draws Up Plans for Single 'Economic Government' to Prevent Crisis -- Germany and France have tabled controversial plans to create an "economic government of the European Union" to police financial policy across the continent.

Engdahl: Wall Street Pulled Greek Plug to Distract from Dollar Disaster -- In the following RT video author William Engdahl talks about how large Wall Street firms are using the Greek economic crisis to deflect attention from the dollar’s weakness onto the Euro.

Eurozone Bags Greek Rescue Deal to Involve IMF -- Euro nations late on Thursday agreed a deal to involve the IMF in a rescue package for Greece's ailing economy, as European leaders sought to re-boot the euro currency.

DARPA Radar System Will Track Cars Anywhere -- This is something they will love over at “24” and its fictitious and nearly omnipotent Counter Terrorist Unit. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing a radar system that can track suspects or vehicles around corners and “down into urban canyons”— essentially anywhere in a city.

East Asia Launches $US 120 Bn Currency Swap -- East Asian nations Wednesday officially launched a $US120 billion ($A130.58 billion) regional currency swap agreement, giving them a safety net against future liquidity shortages.

Airport Security Guard John Laker Ogled Woman Colleague In Body Scanner -- Jo Margetson, 29, reported John Laker, 25, after he took her picture with the X-ray gadget and made a lewd comment.

Mock Shooting of Teacher at British School Left Young Students Terrified -- A frightening school shooting in England turned out to be fake, and was designed as a lesson to students about studying a crime scene.

Nano-Foods Coming to a Store Near You -- In one corner of the convention center, a chemist, a flavorist and two food-marketing specialists clustered around a large chart of the Periodic Table of Elements (think back to high school science class). The food chemist, from China, ran her hands over the chart, pausing at different chemicals just long enough to say how a nano-ized version of each would improve existing flavors or create new ones.

China Seeks Russia Alliance to Counter US Dominance -- Looking to form a counterbalance to the power of the US, Beijing called on Moscow, as one of the emerging market economies, to enter into an alliance with China seeking to increase their leverage in global affairs.

Woman Who Invented Credit Default Swaps is One of Key Architects of Carbon Derivatives -- As I have previously shown, speculative derivatives (especially credit default swaps or "CDS") are a primary cause of the economic crisis. They were largely responsible for bringing down Bear Stearns, AIG (and see this), WaMu and other mammoth corporations.

VIDEO: Arizona Activists Invade Nevada

Gun Rights Supporters Tote Weapons at Rally Outside Kentucky's Capitol -- March 27: People listen to speakers near the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., during a second amendment rally.

Obama Gets His Civilian Army in the Healthcare Bill....!!!!!

White House Visitors List Show Unsavory Characters Obama Denied Knowing -- Major news is breaking concerning the White House visitors list. The log shows that several unsavory characters, at least 2 of whom Obama denied knowing personally, have been regular visitors at the White House.

L.A. budget office offers sharply reduced estimate of red-light camera revenue -- The traffic cameras, which a new study say help reduce accidents, generate about $3.8 million a year in ticket revenue, just breaking even after operating costs, the office says.

The Coming of an American Reichstag?? -- A federal intelligence source reported in an interview last evening that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have been called in to “actively investigate incidents of violence and threats” made to at least ten Democrats and one Republican lawmaker since Sunday.

Resistance -- "Time to end this! Enough is enough!" With those words, Officer Troy Meade of the Everett, Washington Police Department fired seven rounds into the body of Niles Meservey, killing him instantly.

The Great 911 Insurance Bonanza -- “An Insurance Policy that had been set up for the WTC Complex only weeks before the Twin Towers went down” says Investigative Journalist Laurence De Mello.

Bill Murphy of GATA Reveals Whistle-Blower in Gold Suppression -- Bill Murphy, Chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee delivers his testimony about a whistle-blower in the gold price suppression scheme to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on 3/25/10.


Today in History Friday March 26, 2010
1790 Congress passes Naturalization Act, requires 2-year residency
1804 Louisiana becomes a US territory.
1863 Voters in West Virginia approve gradual emancipation of slaves
1872 Thomas J Martin patents fire extinguisher
1886 1st cremation in England
1930 Congress appropriates $50,000 for Inter-American highway
1942 20 tons of gelignite kills 21 in a stone quarry in Easton PA
1943 1st woman to receive air medal (US army nurse Elsie S Ott)
1951 USAF flag approved
1953 Dr Jonas Salk announces new vaccine to prevent polio [myelitis]
1970 500th nuclear explosion announced by the US since 1945
1999 Dr. Jack Kevorkian is found guilty of second degree murder for euthanizing a patient suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease.
2000 The Russian people elect Vladimir Putin as their president

House Judiciary Chairman Says Constitution's Non-Existent --  'Good and Welfare Clause' Authorizes Congress To Force Americans to Buy Health Insurance -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the “good and welfare clause” gives Congress the authority to require individuals to buy health insurance as mandated in the health care bill. However, there is no “good and welfare clause” in the U.S. Constitution.

Scorecard.org  -- Get an in-depth pollution report for your county, covering air chemicals, and more.

ID card officials back away from scandal-hit database -- The CIS database holds information on 85 million citizens, and is the government’s main citizen database. It is available to 140,000 users from eight government departments, and to 445 local authorities.But it is proving difficult for the Department of Work of Pensions to allow thousands of public workers and local authorities to access the CIS Oracle-based database, yet keep it demonstrably secure.

Bank seizes money from school districts embroiled in risky investments -- A European bank that lent money to five Wisconsin school districts that made risky investments has seized $5.6 million from district-controlled trusts to try to compel district officials to repay the debt. DEPFA Bank took the action earlier this week after a year of fruitless efforts to work out a restructuring of $165 million worth of loans to the districts' trusts that have been in technical default for more than two years.

Police in Wales have taken DNA samples from more than 55,000 innocent people -- Human rights campaigners Liberty called for the database to simply hold details of sexual and violent offenders, which would save millions of pounds of public money. Liberty’s legal officer, Anna Fairclough, told Wales on Sunday: “The Government is fond of justifying its retention of innocents’ DNA with the trite phrase: ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’. Those affected do not agree. They have done no wrong and they deeply resent their DNA profiles being held alongside those of murderers and rapists.”

C. H. Guenther & Son, Inc. Announces Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Chili Man Seasoning Mix due to Possible Health Risk -- This is one of many black pepper recalls in the last week or so.
  * Related Article: Red & Black Pepper Spice Recalls Linked to the Salmonella Montevideo Outbreak Investigation

Russia Claims Breakthrough in Historic Nuclear Reduction Agreement with US -- Barack Obama's ambitious goal of freeing the world of nuclear weapons won a significant boost tonight when Russia indicated that it had reached agreement with the United States on a historic nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Bin Laden: Americans Will Die if Alleged 911 Mastermind is Executed -- Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden threatened in a new audio recording released Thursday to kill any captured Americans if the U.S. executes the accused mastermind of the Sept.11 attacks or any other Al Qaeda suspects.

Biden: Without Health Care Obama Would Be Absolutely Done -- Although President Obama repeatedly said he had no idea how health care politics would play out, Vice President Joe Biden told a fundraising audience Wednesday the White House would have been doomed without it.

Radical's Deadly 'Booby Trap' -- The shocking new al-Qaeda tactic involves radical doctors inserting the explosives in women's breasts during plastic surgery — making them "virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines".

Violations: Health Bill to Face Fresh House Vote -- "After hours of trying to find a way to block this, they (Republicans) found two relatively minor provisions that are violations of Senate procedure which means we're going to have to send it back to the House," Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told AFP.

Prisoners Forced to Submit to Radiation Experiments for Private Foreign Companies -- In Illinois, federal judges have allowed at least two lawsuits to proceed against correctional officials for using full body scanners to reveal the anatomy of both prisoners and visitors without removing their clothing. This is the very same device that airports are seeking to implement on some inbound flights to the United States.

Navy Laser Weapon Goes Through Early Tests -- A new laser weapon designed for naval deployment has gone through initial design tests as one of the first steps before it is adopted for active service, most likely by the U.S. Navy before any other force.

91% of Americans Use Cell Phones -- The survey of wireless carriers revealed that over 285 million Americans are mobile subscribers, about 91 percent of the total population.

The SPLC, 3 Percenters & Broken Windows -- The article centers around a man named Mike Vanderboegh, who the SPLC claims is an extremist and a radical militia member. Here is a snippet from their article regarding his blog post, (Mike was on the Power Hour on Friday Dec 4, 2009 if you want to hear a Patriot!)

COP Program Has Cab Drivers Helping Local Police -- "Just like our squad cars they have 2-way radios, they have cell phones and they have mobile data terminals," says Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers. He feels this is a win-win situation for our community. "So by just increasing their awareness a little bit on how to watch the unusual, how to identify things that could be criminal activity in progress, it's just a short stretch to get them to take the extra time to pick up the mic and call dispatch," says Chief Myers.

What in the World Are They Spraying? -- What would you do if you were told that toxic substances being sprayed into the sky are falling to the ground and decimating eco-systems around the world?

VIDEO: Sugar: The Bitter Truth -- Lecture by Dr. Lustig - one hour 29 mins.

After One Year, Obama Plan to Help Modify Second Mortgages Modifies NONE -- Well, woohoo! It’s been just a few weeks shy of one year since the Obama Administration announced its plan to help 1.5 million homeowners modify their second mortgages, and the program has actually done something I did not think was possible. It’s actually managed to help… no one!

Rights Groups Fear Graham Bill will Sanction Indefinite Detention -- News that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is negotiating with the White House on legislation to create a framework for handling terrorism detainees has some civil rights groups alarmed at the prospect of indefinite detention without trial being encoded into US law.

ObamaCare: Civil Disobedience Not Just a Leftist Tool Anymore -- Liberals have traditionally cornered the market on civil disobedience. Protests, anti-war rallies and refusal to comply have all been familiar staples of evening newscasts over the last 50 years. With the passage of the liberty-gobbling intrusiveness that is ObamaCare, the Right might utilize the Left’s tactics and decide that Alinsky had it right: Personalize, demonize, resist.

Bad News for America: US CDS Now Wider Than Europe, Treasury Auctions Bomb -- Three stories from the Wall Street Journal hint at bad news for the U.S.

Bills to OK Carrying Concealed Guns Without Permits Advance -- Lawmakers have amended Senate Bill 1108 and House Bill 2347 so they consist of identical language that would, among other things, eliminate the requirement for concealed-carry weapon permits for U.S. citizens 21 and older.

Fructose Battle Warms Up -- This is early days, but all the ingredients are in place for a national public relations battle aimed at ending the general use of common sugar and high fructose products in the North American diet. The first shots have been fired and it is a good bet that school kids will shortly be forced to either bring soda pop to school or to buy it outside the school.

U.N. health organization praises U.S. health reforms -- The head of the U.N. World Health Organization on Wednesday praised U.S. healthcare reforms signed by President Barack Obama this week as a breakthrough, stepping into a sharp domestic political debate.

GOP Lawmaker Darrell Issa Poised to Call for Special Prosecutor to Investigate White House -- Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight committee, told CBS News Wednesday that he will call for a special prosecutor to investigate the White House if it does not address Rep. Joe Sestak's claim that he was offered a federal job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary.

No Deaths From Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids or Herbs -- The new 174-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from any of the B vitamins; zero deaths from vitamins A, C, D, or E; and zero deaths from any other vitamin.

Coffin Placed on Carnahan's Lawn -- A coffin was placed on a Missouri Democrat’s lawn, another in a string of incidents against lawmakers after their vote Sunday on a health care overhaul.


Today in History Thursday March 25, 2010
1609 - Henry Hudson left on an exploration for Dutch East India Co.
1776 - The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.
1807 - The first railway passenger service began in England.
1807 - British Parliament abolished the slave trade.
1813 - The frigate USS Essex flew the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.
1821 - Greece gained independence from Turkey.
1865 - During the American Civil War, Confederate forces captured Fort Stedman in Virginia.
1900 - The U.S. Socialist Party was formed in Indianapolis.
1901 - 55 people died when a Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, IA.
1901 - The Mercedes was introduced by Daimler at the five-day "Week of Nice" in Nice, France.
1905 - Rebel battle flags that were captured during the American Civil War were returned to the South.
1905 - Russia received Japan's terms for peace.
1913 - The Palace Theatre opened in New York City.
1940 - The U.S. agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.
1941 - The first paprika mill was incorporated in Dollon, SC.
1947 - John D. Rockefeller III presented a check for $8.5 million to the United Nations for the purchase of land for the site of the U.N. center.
1953 - The USS Missouri fired on targets at Kojo, North Korea.
1954 - RCA manufactured its first color TV set and began mass production.
1957 - The European Economic Community was established with the signing of the Treaty of Rome.
1960 - A guided missile was launched from a nuclear powered submarine for the first time.
1965 - Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of 25,000 to the state capital in Montgomery, AL.
1970 - The Concorde made its first supersonic flight.
1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew. The nephew, with a history of mental illness, was beheaded the following June.
1981 - The Down Jones industrial average of selected stocks on the New York Stock Exchanged closed at its highest level in more than eight years.
1983 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation to rescue the U.S. social security system from bankruptcy.
1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered emergency aid for the Honduran army. U.S. helicopters took Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.
1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.
1992 - Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth after spending 10 months aboard the orbiting Mir space station.
1993 - President de Klerk admitted that South Africa had built six nuclear bombs, but said that they had since been dismantled.
1994 - United States troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.
1996 - The U.S. issued a newly redesigned $100 bill for circulation.
1998 - A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.

FDIC Bank Watch List -- There are now 957 E-Rated Banks! According to BankRate.com's third quarter data just released on October 6, there are now 872 banks that rate only one star.

Shocking Audio: Rep. Dingell Says ObamaCare Will Eventually ‘Control the People’
         * Related Article: Rep. Dingell states government, 'to control the people'

Health Law Surprise Is Page 1,617 Demanding Which Drugs Work -- the 43-page measure tucked inside the bill may have a far greater effect on medical care. The overhaul creates an institute, funded with $500 million or more annually, to spur studies of which drugs, devices and medical procedures work best. Read More...

Abel Danger: Field McConnell & David Hawkins: March 2010

Curcumin 'could slow liver disease' -- A study has shown The Indian spice curcumin may slow down the progress of liver disease.

Health Bill A TRANSFER OF POWER, Kills The Constitution -- A retired Constitutional lawyer has read the entire proposed 'healthcare bill.' Read his staggering conclusions.The Truth About The Health Care Bills.

Indian military to weaponize world's hottest chili -- The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world's hottest chili. After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized "bhut jolokia," or "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday.

VA tests system for electronic disability claims -- Without a system overhaul, the VA estimates that by 2015, that backlog of disability claims will increase tenfold to about 2.6 million. Those with service-connected injuries already wait an average of about five months to have a claim processed, and there are frequent complaints about lost paperwork and inaccuracy.

Soldiers Take Psychiatric Medications for Stress -- After years on the battlefield or in the trenches, many American soldiers are showing signs of psychological distress. An increasing number of soldiers are turning to medication to alleviate their symptoms.

Houston Police To Begin Training Officers To Staff Checkpoints--The Houston Police Department is poised to do what no other civilian police department in the United States has yet to publicly do. On the desk of the Chief of Police is the authorization to begin training officers to staff checkpoints at key infrastructure points throughout the city.

Water plant visitor says he's been there before -- Solvay fluoride’s own data safety sheets admits chronic toxic effects of the skeleton, thyroid, testes, kidney, liver was observed. In addition, ambiguous carcinogenic & mutagenic effects observed, along with fetotoxic ( meaning toxic to fetuses) and fertility effects.

Cops in N.J. Town Given Keys To Homes -- It's a novel program designed to improve the safety of senior citizens in New Jersey. The program would allow police quick access into a home to help anyone having a medical emergency – without having the break down the door.
Related Article: Houston police chief wants cameras on homes, streets (Chief Harold Hurtt)

The 40 Deadliest Fast-Food Meals -- The new health-care law requires fast-food chains to post calorie counts next year. So what “sticker-shock” can you anticipate in 2011? Just follow the links to see!!

Pope: World Needs New Financial System -- At a meeting with members of the Union of Industrialists and Businesses of Rome last Thursday, Pope Benedict xvi reinforced his call for a new global financial order.

Jim Rogers Says a Eurozone of 10 Members is a 'Wonderful Thing' -- However, you can’t keep hiding financial problems forever. When these countries start to collapse, voters will be furious—and justifiably so. People are already very unhappy in California, Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere. If things keep getting worse, social unrest will escalate. History shows that when standards of living dramatically fall, social unrest results.

Understanding the EMP Threat Could Save Your Life -- EMP – electromagnetic pulse – is a phenomenon first discovered by scientists doing nuclear testing in the 1940s. They observed that this high frequency pulse, produced by the explosion of a nuclear weapon in the earth’s atmosphere, could create a pulse that destroys electronics and electrical systems. Under certain conditions, an EMP could bring down America’s digital infrastructure.

Cyber-Attack on US Firms, Google Traced to Chinese -- The cyber-attack on Google and other U.S. companies was part of a suspected Chinese government operation launched last year that used human intelligence techniques and high-technology to steal corporate secrets, according to U.S. government and private-sector cybersecurity specialists.

Barack Obama Has Awakened A Sleeping Nation -- Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips — they've gotten off the fence. They've woken up. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven't seen since the American Revolution, and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.

TSA Nominee Wants More 'Behavior Detection' -- President Barack Obama's nominee to oversee security at U.S. airports said on Tuesday he wants to shift screening closer to the Israeli model to include more behavior detection in a bid to thwart terrorism plots.

Injection Could Cure Phobias -- A team of researchers have found that the brain may be able to be 're-programmed' to overcome some of our most basic fears. Scientists claim that because fear is a learned habit, they could be able to switch off the part of the brain that generates those emotions with a simple jab.

Health-Care Changes to Start Taking Effect This Year -- Indoor tanning salons will charge customers a 10 percent tax beginning in July in one of the changes Americans will see as a result of the U.S. health-care overhaul signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Judge Rules No Prom But Lesbians Rights Violated -- The prom's still off at a Itawamba County high school that canceled it instead of letting a lesbian student bring her girlfriend, but a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the district's actions did violate the teen's constitutional rights.

VIDEO: Border Patrol Violation of 4th Amendment

Census Blamed for Roundup and Internment of Japanese Americans -- So you think that the Census Bureau is merely collecting data such as GPS coordinates and race for purely innocent reasons. Think again. Those that are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.

Lawmakers Eyeing National ID Card -- Lawmakers are proposing a national identification card — what they’re calling “high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security cards” — that would be required for all employees in the United States.

States Sue Over Overhaul That Will Bust States Budgets -- President Barack Obama faces a fight over the health-care overhaul from states that sued today because the legislation’s expansion of Medicaid imposes a fiscal strain on their cash-strapped budgets.

Tax-Refund Law Could Benefit JP Morgan -- J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is nearing a deal that would allow it to benefit from a tax refund of as much as $1.4 billion, becoming the latest company to tap a little-noticed plank in an economic stimulus bill.

France Ditches Carbon Tax as Strikes, Mass Protests Threatens to Shut Down Country -- President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday scrapped the country’s proposed carbon tax and reshuffled his cabinet in populist tilt after suffering a crushing electoral defeat over the weekend, when his Gaulliste UMP party lost every region other than in its bastion of Alsace and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

Wall Street Despised in Poll Showing Most Want Regulation -- Americans are leery about creating a new federal agency to make consumer-protection rules for mortgages and credit cards and would prefer to enhance the existing powers of banking regulators.

German Pensioners Jailed for Kidnapping and Torturing Financial Adviser Over Investment Losses -- A gang of old age pensioners who kidnapped and tortured their financial adviser because he had 'taken us for a ride' were jailed in Germany today.

Experts to Say Health Care Lawsuits Don't Stand a Chance -- The top prosecutors in 13 states — 12 of them Republicans — filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the health-care bill minutes after President Barack Obama signed the landmark legislation into law.
 

Today in History Wednesday March 24, 2010
1664 - A charter to colonize Rhode Island was granted to Roger Williams in London.
1720 - In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis.
1828 - The Philadelphia & Columbia Railway was authorized as the first state owned railway.
1832 - Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.
1837 - Canada gave blacks the right to vote.
1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was formed.
1882 - In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus).
1883 - The first telephone call between New York and Chicago took place.
1898 - The first automobile was sold.
1900 - Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke the ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1900 - In New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Corporation was formed.
1906 - The "Census of the British Empire" revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world.
1920 - The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC.
1924 - Greece became a republic.
1934 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.
1938 - The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
1944 - In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up over 300 innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen.
1946 - The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.
1947 - The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.
1976 - The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military.
1980 - In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass.
1981 - "Nightline" with Ted Koppel premiered.
1989 - The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound after it ran aground.
1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.
1998 - A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
1999 - In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.
1999 - NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia's refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo.
1999 - The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France was an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught on fire. At least 30 people were killed.
2006 - In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire.

Health issues are at heart of raw milk debate -- The claims are appealing: Milk straight from the cow's udder is a "living food" that can help fend off illnesses, such as asthma, and has kept farm families healthy for generations. Anecdotally, the claims are supported by people who drink raw, unpasteurized milk. Some have said it has reduced behavioral problems in children and has cured autism.

It won't be just the states suing to nullify unconstitutional health care "law" By: Devvy Kidd -- "As I write this, Virginia is set to file a lawsuit as soon as the usurper in the White House signs these junk bills into "law." The criminal syndicate in Comrade Obama's Politburo and Department of Justice will scoff at the notion that this "law" violates many Amendments: Fifth, Ninth, Tenth."

Cindy Sheehan arrested at DC war protest -- Seven protesters, including activist Cindy Sheehan, have been arrested at an anti-war rally and march in Washington. Sheehan began shouting "arrest that war criminal" through a bullhorn and pointing to the White House from an area of sidewalk park police had closed off Saturday afternoon. The other six protesters were among a group of more than a dozen who had lain down on the sidewalk next to a row of flag-draped cardboard coffins outside the White House fence. The rally and march drew thousands to the park near the White House on the seventh anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
 * Related Article: US May Try Sheehan for Anti- War Campaign -- US authorities have arrested a number of anti-war protesters, including high-profile activist Cindy Sheehan, during a demonstration in Washington DC.

(Oh So Stupid News) British Officials Chop Down 6,000 Trees to Stop Sex in the Woods -- Six thousand trees were chopped down at a British beauty spot, partly to discourage strangers who were regularly having sex in the woods, it emerged Tuesday.

Are cosmic rays really causing Toyota's woes? -- It may sound far-fetched, but federal regulators are studying whether sudden acceleration in Toyotas is linked to cosmic rays. Read More...

Exploring the World's Secret Power Structure -- Criminal Politics Magazine!

Massive Job Cuts Projected For New York City -- Mayor Says If Albany Slices City Aid, As Many As 19,000 Will Be Laid Off; 3,100 Less Cops, 1,000 Less Firefighters.

VIDEO: Gerald Celente on Russia Today - 'Crash of 2010'

Flowers Losing Scent Due to Climate Change -- This is the concern of environmentalists as flowers are losing their scent due to climate change and air pollution. And their fragrance may be lost forever. (Chemtrail exposure more likely.)

It Won't Be Just States Suing to Nullify Unconstitutional Health Care -- I watched Comrade Pelosi on the boob tube before the vote for the obscene health care "reform" bill in the House. Another giant step towards the Sovietization of these united States of America. A few days earlier, Pelosi had commanded her brassiere brigade to a ho down. The stage was set for political theater.

Israel's New Enemy: America? -- Despite Vice President Joe Biden's recent pledge of unswerving fidelity to Israel during his recent visit there, the rhetoric and pressure directed by the Obama administration against the only fully functioning democracy in the Middle East more accurately resembles the behavior of an enemy.

Health Care Mandate to Be Enforced by IRS Bounty Hunters -- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will see its largest expansion since withholding taxes were first enacted during WWII to enforce the glut of new tax mandates and penalties included in the Democrats’ latest health care plan, according to Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) (Now, why would they need IRS goon squads to enforce something good????)

30 Million Kids Got Rotarix Vaccine Tainted with Pig Virus -- Federal health authorities recommended Monday that doctors suspend using Rotarix, one of two vaccines licensed in the United States against rotavirus, saying the vaccine is contaminated with material from a pig virus.

Graham Proposes Framework for Handling Terrorism Suspects -- Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) has submitted draft legislation to the White House in an effort to create a broad framework for handling terrorism suspects, mapping out proposals that appeal to the administration and others that do not, officials said.

PUKE: China Recycles Cooking Oil ... From Raw Sewage -- Chinese cooking oil siphoned from restaurants' waste tanks and stripped out of raw sewage is being resold on the cheap and has for years tainted approximately one out of every ten meals cooked in the eastern nation, according to a recent study.

Nano-Based RFID Tag, You're It -- Rice researchers, in collaboration with a team led by Gyou-jin Cho at Sunchon National University in Korea, have come up with an inexpensive, printable transmitter that can be invisibly embedded in packaging. It would allow a customer to walk a cart full of groceries or other goods past a scanner on the way to the car; the scanner would read all items in the cart at once, total them up and charge the customer's account while adjusting the store's inventory.

New Taxes In the Health Care Bill -- A 40% tax on health insurance plans exceeding determined levels. Those levels are projected for 2013 to be $8,500 for self only and $23,000 for any other level.

Airport Device Follows Flier's Phones -- The Transportation Security Administration is looking at installing devices in airports that home in and detect personal electronic equipment. The aim is to track how long people are stuck in security lines.

Battle for Budget -- Recently the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published its scoring of President Obama's budget for the next 10 years. It shows a budget deficit of $9.8 trillion. That is just shy of $4 trillion worse than the CBO’s baseline budget, a budget that includes only the laws as currently enacted, with no estimates of any new programs lawmakers may add that worsen future projections.

Judge Orders Detainee Abused at Guantanamo to be Freed -- A federal judge on Monday ordered the Pentagon to release a long-held Mauritanian captive held at Guantanamo Bay who was once considered such a high-value detainee that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld designated him for "special interrogation techniques."

Health Law Will Make Calorie Counts Hard to Ignore -- A requirement tucked into the nation's massive health care bill will make calorie counts impossible for thousands of restaurants to hide and difficult for consumers to ignore. More than 200,000 fast food and other chain restaurants will have to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards and even drive-throughs.

Bernake Wants to End Federal Reserve Requirements Completely: Does It Matter? -- "The Federal Reserve believes it is possible that, ultimately, its operating framework will allow the elimination of minimum reserve requirements, which impose costs and distortions on the banking system."

Hilary Clinton Threatens Iran with "Painful Consequences' -- Stating that a nuclear-armed Iran would touch off an arms race in the Middle East and embolden Iran’s “terrorist clientele” to take new actions, Clinton said, “This … is unacceptable to the United States. It is unacceptable to Israel. It is unacceptable to the region and the international community.”

Existing Home Sales Double Dip Deteriorates With Biggest Increase In Months Supply Inventory In 20 Years -- The double dip in housing is getting worse by the month. After hitting a nearly 6.6 million in existing home sales in late 2009, the number has now plunged to 5.02 million, a decline of 0.9% sequentially, and a major drop from the artificially induced peak.

Obama to Sign Health Bill, Celebrate with Allies -- President Barack Obama's yearlong health care overhaul drama featured dozens of speeches, contentious debate and a televised summit with lawmakers before a divided Congress passed the bill. An elaborate White House signing ceremony kicks off the next act: selling the sweeping changes to a skeptical public.

Rent-a-Rambos -- A fascinating scandal has erupted in Washington that is exposing the sordid underbelly of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

DoD: The Biggest Corporation of All -- President Obama called his $3.8-trillion budget a big step in restoring America’s economic health. Last year he promoted TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program to bail out the financial sector at a mere $700 billion. Anyone – even billionaire bankers — can make mistakes that wreak ruin on the rest of us!

Study: Daylight Saving Time a Waste of Energy -- The result of the study showed that electricity use went up in the counties adopting daylight saving time in 2006, costing $8.6 million more in household electricity bills.

Inside the Pelosi Sausage Factory -- Never before has the average American been treated to such a live-action view of the sordid politics necessary to push a deeply flawed bill to completion. It was dirty deals, open threats, broken promises and disregard for democracy that pulled ObamaCare to this point, and yesterday the same machinations pushed it across the finish line.

Rep. Giffords' Tucson Office Vandalized After Health Care Vote -- The front door was smashed out at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ congressional office last night.

ACORN Folds -- The national group ACORN is folding, an official there, Kevin Whelan, said in an emailed statement.

GOOGLE Shuts Up Shop in China in Row Over State Censorship -- China hit back at Google last night after the internet search giant closed its flagship Chinese site, carrying out a threat issued two months ago in a dispute over censorship.

Joe Biden Says Health Care is a 'Big F---ing Deal' -- After Biden introduced Obama, he whispered, "This is a big bleepin' deal" (only he didn't say "bleepin'").

Where Were You When the Republic Died? -- In November 2008, Americans elected a socialist as their president. In March 2010, they woke up stunned to find themselves living in a socialist country.

Health Care Bill Spurs Assassination Calls on Twitter -- "ASSASSINATION! America, we survived the Assassinations and Lincoln & Kennedy. We'll surely get over a bullet to Barrack Obama's head," wrote one Twitter user.

Obama Awarded Hundreds of Thousands in Airport Grants to Stupak's District Two Days Before Vote -- Three airports in the district of infamous fence-sitting and ultimately kowtowing Democrat Bart Stupak were awarded $726,409 in grants by the Obama Administration just two days before a vote on Obama and Pelosi’s government takeover of healthcare.

Houston Police To Begin Training Office to Staff Checkpoints -- The Houston Police Department is poised to do what no other civilian police department in the United States has yet to publicly do. On the desk of the Chief of Police is the authorization to begin training officers to staff checkpoints at key infrastructure points throughout the city.

The Cost of Denying Obamacare: $2,250 a Month and IRS Goons Pointing Guns at You -- The cost of defying Obamacare by withholding compliance on your income tax return will not be for the faint hearted – families will be forced to cough up $2,250 a month while being closely scrutinized by an army of new IRS agents with fresh “combat training,” armed to the teeth with 12 gauge pump action shotguns.

Judge Napolitano video: Is Healthcare Reform Unconstitutional?


Today in History Tuesday March 23, 2010
1775 - American revolutionary Patrick Henry declared, "give me liberty, or give me death!"
1806 - Explorers Lewis and Clark, reached the Pacific coast, and began their return journey to the east.
1835 - Charles Darwin reached Los Arenales, in the Andes.
1836 - The coin press was invented by Franklin Beale.
1839 - The first recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] was used in Boston's Morning Post.
1840 - The first successful photo of the Moon was taken.
1857 - Elisha Otis installed the first modern passenger elevator in a public building. It was at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.
1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner patented the cable streetcar.
1868 - The University of California was founded in Oakland, CA.
1880 - John Stevens patented the grain crushing mill. The mill increased flour production by 70 percent.
1889 - U.S. President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization.
1901 - Shots were fired at Privy Councilor Pobyedonostzev, who was considered to be Russia's most hated man.
1902 - In Italy, the minimum legal working age was raised from 9 to 12 for boys and from 11 to 15 for girls.
1903 - The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent.
1903 - U.S. troops were sent to Honduras to protect the American consulate during revolutionary activity.
1909 - British Lt. Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.
1912 - The Dixie Cup was invented.
1922 - The first airplane landed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
1925 - The state of Tennessee enacted a law that made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school to teach any theory that was in contradiction to the Bible's account of man's creation.
1937 - The L.A. Railway Co. started using PCC streetcars.
1942 - During World War II, the U.S. government began evacuating Japanese-Americans from West Coast homes to detention centers.
1951 - U.S. paratroopers descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.
1957 - The U.S. Army sold the last of its homing pigeons.
1965 - America's first two-person space flight took off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard.
1965 - The Moroccan Army shot at demonstrators. About 100 people were killed.
1967 - Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. called the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement.
1972 - The U.S. called a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris.
1983 - U.S. President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles. The proposal became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative and "Star Wars."
1990 - Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood was ordered to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for the 1989 oil spill.
1996 - Taiwan held its first democratic presidential elections.
1998 - Germany's largest bank pledged $3.1 million to Jewish foundations as restitution for Nazi looting.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that term limits for state lawmakers were constitutional.
1998 - The movie "Titanic" won 11 Oscars at the Academy Awards.
1998 - The German company Bertelsmann AG agreed to purchase the American publisher Random House for $1.4 billion. The merger created the largest English-language book-publishing company in the world.
1999 - NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave formal approval for air strikes against Serbian targets.

Rotarix rotavirus vaccine contaminated, officials say -- Federal health authorities recommended Monday that doctors suspend using Rotarix, one of two vaccines licensed in the United States against rotavirus, saying the vaccine is contaminated with material from a pig virus.

Judge orders release of Guantanamo detainee -- A federal judge ordered on Monday that a man accused of having ties to some of the hijackers in the September 11, 2001, attacks, be released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bank For International Settlements (BIS): How The Rothschilds Control And Dictate To The World -- For decades, people have urged me, pushed me, prodded me, practically peeled off my skin, pulled out my eyes, and yanked out my brain to prove it, i.e. show them the data, the results, the books, manuals, pamphlets, journals, monographs, voice and video recordings, all the resources I have used to make the statements I do about the Brzezinski Cartel and the Rothschilds.

U.S. Iran Sneak Attack? -- It has been revealed that hundreds of powerful U.S. “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California in the U.S. to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. Although Diego Garcia is part of British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

Randy Neugebauer Revealed As 'Baby Killer' Shouter: Texas Republican Apologizes -- Andy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) identified himself as the member of congress who shouted "baby killer" during Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Sunday night.

The Communist Takeover Of America - 45 Declared Goals -- You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As you read this, 39 years later, you should be shocked by the events that have played themselves out. I first ran across this list 3 years ago but was unable to attain a copy and it has bothered me ever since.

Florida says several states to file heatlhcare lawsuit -- Florida's attorney general will file a lawsuit with nine other state attorneys general opposing the healthcare legislation passed by Congress, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

VIDEO: Viva Reform: Nearly 200,000 pack into Washington, DC saying the time for change is now -- Nearly 200,000 people packed the Mall on Washington. While inside the U.S. Capitol, President Obama and lawmakers were focused on passing health care reform, immigrant activists asked that they are next in line.

Depleted Uranium Research - DU Affects DNA -- The research on depleted uranium comes out of French researchers that examined the manner DNA is affected by enriched and depleted uranium. The metal or chemical effect it seems is the more important in depleted uranium exposure.

VOTE -- The House Has Passed an Historic Healthcare Overhaul. Are You Excited or Angry?

Charges possible against ex-Blackwater officials -- Federal prosecutors are considering filing weapons charges against former top officials of the Blackwater Worldwide private security company on allegations that they illegally stockpiled automatic rifles at its headquarters, The Associated Press has learned.

Thousands of over-60s are hooked on tranquillisers that have turned them into virtual zombies -- Many of today's addicts are the elderly, a lost generation who were prescribed the drugs decades ago. Some continue to suffer debilitating-side effects as a result of taking the tablets, including feelings of paranoia, lethargy, fatigue, dizziness, and memory and balance problems. Many won't realise the drugs are the problem.

A China boost for gold -- Gold prices, which have taken a breather in the last two days, could get help in coming months from Chinese demand for bullion, says one analyst. Bank of America/Merrill Lynch expects China “to provide continued support to gold prices going forward,” and maintained a medium-term gold price target of $1,500 an ounce for gold. China’s demand for gold has flourished thanks to a slew of regulatory changes, analyst Michael Widmer wrote in a recent report.

The Biggest Abuse of Power and Arrogance Washington Has Ever Seen -- The change we can believe in has resulted in something that is virtually unbelievable. We know that there is now one thing left to do: since Speaker Pelosi couldn’t drain the swamp as she pledged to, the American people will have to do it for her.

Abortion Bill Earns Ire of Critics On Both Sides -- "The executive order promised by President Obama was issued for political effect. It changes nothing," the group said. "It does not correct any of the serious pro-abortion provisions in the bill."

Healthcare Mandate to be Enforced by IRS Bounty Hunters -- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will see its largest expansion since withholding taxes were first enacted during WWII to enforce the glut of new tax mandates and penalties included in the Democrats’ latest health care plan, according to Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX).

Research shows Snacking on walnuts 'helps to prevent prostate cancer' -- A handful of walnuts a day could help keep prostate cancer at bay. Snacking on the nuts can cut the size of tumours and slow their growth, research shows. Although the experiments were carried out on mice, the researchers believe they are relevant to humans.

Pet Shelters Suffer in Economic Downturn -- It’s time for spring cleaning! So before you throw out those old blankets and towels, that printer/fax you’re not using, or that igloo your dog refuses to use, consider donating them to a shelter. Your trash could be a shelter animal’s treasure.

Health-Care Stocks Up After House OK's Obamacare -- Health-care stocks led the stock market higher Monday after the U.S. House Sunday approved a historic health-care overhaul designed to bring health insurance to 32 million more Americas while subjecting U.S. industries to a dramatically redrawn and newly regulated marketplace.

Underemployment At Record 20% -- Just in case anyone needed confirmation that the DOL data is just a little, how should we say it, cooked, here comes Gallup with their March 15 undermployment number, which just hit a 2010, and series, high of 20%.

CIA Authorizes Every Drone Strike -- CIA Chief Leon Panetta has said the US counter terrorism polices in Pakistan are legal and highly effective and that he is acutely aware of the gravity of some of the decisions thrust upon him.

US Turns Blind Eye to Opium in Afghan Town -- From Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal on down, the military’s position is clear: “U.S. forces no longer eradicate,” as one NATO official put it. Opium is the main livelihood of 60 to 70 percent of the farmers in Marja, which was seized from Taliban rebels in a major offensive last month. American Marines occupying the area are under orders to leave the farmers’ fields alone.

US Information Warfare Operation Takes Down Website Used to Plan Attacks on Americans Inside Iraq -- By early 2008, top U.S. military officials had become convinced that extremists planning attacks on American forces in Iraq were making use of a Web site set up by the Saudi government and the CIA to uncover terrorist plots in the kingdom.

Chinese Media: Google Is Tied to US Intelligence -- Chinese media organs lashed out at Google (GOOG) in an apparently coordinated assault on Saturday — with one paper suggesting Google is linked to the U.S. intelligence agencies — just days before the Web giant may announce plans to close its Chinese-language search engine.

Bank for International Settlements(BIS): How the Rothschilds Control and Dictate to the World -- The list below shows 165 different ways how The First Sphere of Influence (Rothschilds and Brzezinski Cartel) controls the world. One hundred and sixty-five reasons to believe what I say to be 100% accurate and true.

Bonds Show US Losing AAA -- The bond market is saying that it’s safer to lend to Warren Buffett than Barack Obama.

US Police to Get Robocop's Car -- The Ford Taurus Interceptor will replace the US police's aging Crown Victoria cop cars, which is the first time the Taurus has been used other than in the Hollywood blockbuster.

Israel to Ask US for Bombs in the Fight Against Iran's Nuclear Sites -- Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will use a visit to Washington this week to press the US to release sophisticated bunker-busting bombs needed for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.

IMF Warns Wealthiest Nations About Their Debt -- The International Monetary Fund warned the world's wealthiest nations Sunday to watch their surging levels of government debt, saying it could drag down the growth needed to ensure continued economic recovery.

More Homeowners are Opting for 'Strategic Defaults' -- Wynn Bloch has always dutifully paid her bills and socked away money for retirement. But in December she defaulted on the mortgage on her Palm Desert home, even though she could afford the payments.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Prompts Considerably More Weight Gain -- In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

Idaho Leads States Revolt Against Naked Body Scanners -- Idaho has set the example for others states to follow in the continuing revolt against naked body scanners, by passing a law that limits the use of the x-ray scanning devices in airports and government buildings and also forces Homeland Security to disprove health concerns.

Lebanese Army Fires on Israeli Jets -- The Lebanese army says it has opened fire on two Israeli warplanes that were violating the country’s airspace at medium altitude.

Healthcare Reform Passes - article by Ron Paul -- Of course, the most troubling aspect of this bill is that it is so blatantly unconstitutional and contrary to the ideals of liberty. Nowhere in the constitution is there anything approaching authority for the Federal government to do any of this.

Toyota Hybrid Horror Hoax -- So why did he do it? Sleuth work at the Web sites Jalopnik.com and Gawker.com reveals that Sikes and his wife Patty in 2008 filed for bankruptcy and are over $700,000 in debt. Among their creditors is Toyota Financial Services for a lease on a 2008 Toyota Prius, with value at time of bankruptcy of $20,494.

How Far Down the Rabbit Hole Must We Go? -- Bernanke and Paulson, and now Geithner, know that this attempted "reflation" won't - and can't - work. They have put forward this path not because it is the right thing to do, but because the alternative means a lot of people with power and money will go bankrupt and the Government of The United States will have to change how it finances itself, removing the corrupt influences that have been used to "cook" the books - and outcomes - for the last 30 years.

Cordyceps Mushroom is an Effective Cancer Treatment -- Researchers from the University of Nottingham have found that a rare, wild mushroom called cordyceps is an effective treatment for cancer.

Health Care Reform Dooms America to Pharma-Dominated Sickness and Suffering -- Today the medical mafia struck another devastating blow to the health and freedom of all Americans. With the support of an inarguably corrupt Congress that has simply abandoned the real needs of the American people, the sick-care industry has locked in a high-profit scheme of disease and monopoly-priced pharmaceuticals in a nation that can ill afford either one.

House Roll Call -- Find Out How Your Rep Voted.
 

Today in History Monday March 22, 2010
1733 - Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water (seltzer).
1765 - The Stamp Act was passed. It was the first direct British tax on the American colonists. It was repealed on March 17, 1766.
1775 - Edmund Burke presented his 13 articles to the English parliament.
1790 - Thomas Jefferson became the first U.S. Secretary of State. 
1871 - William Holden of North Carolina became the first governor to be removed by impeachment.
1894 - The first playoff competition for the Stanley Cup began. Montreal played Ottawa.
1903 - Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.
1904 - The first color photograph was published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine containing up to 3.2% alcohol.
1934 - The first Masters golf championship began in Augusta, GA.
1935 - Persia was renamed Iran.
1946 - The first U.S. built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a height of 50-miles.
1948 - The United States announced a land reform plan for Korea.
1948 - "The Voice of Firestone" became the first commercial radio program to be carried simultaneously on both AM and FM radio stations.
1954 - The first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.
1965 - U.S. confirmed that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.
1972 - The U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment. It was not ratified by the states.
1974 - The Viet Cong proposed a new truce with the U.S. and South Vietnam. The truce included general elections.
1981 - U.S. Postage rates went from 15-cents to 18-cents an ounce.
1981 - A group of twelve Green Berets arrived in El Salvador. This brought the total number of advisors to fifty-four.
1982 - The Space Shuttle Columbia was launched into orbit on mission STS-3. It was the third orbital flight for the Columbia.
1988 - The Congress overrode U.S. President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.
1989 - Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington, DC.
1990 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill. 
1993 - Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident in Florida. Bob Ojeda was seriously injured in the accident.
1993 - Intel introduced the Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.
1997 - Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women's world figure skating champion.
2002 - The U.S. Postal Rate Commission approved a request for a postal rate increase of first-class stamps from 34 cents to 37 cents by June 30.
2002 - A collection of letters and cards sent by Princess Diana of Wales sold for $33,000. The letters and cards were written to a former housekeeper at Diana's teenage home.

Health Care Bill Passes -- The Senate bill passed the House, 219 to 212. Delivering a hard-fought victory in President Barack Obama's year-long pursuit of a national healthcare overhaul, a divided House tonight narrowly approved legislation which both supporters and opponents call historic in its sweep.
 * How They Voted...!!

Today's date is 3/22. Coincidence? -- He promised new world order, proclaimed by George H. W. Bush, has arrived today in the form of tyranny under Barack Hussein Obama. Bush, who is a member of Skull and Bones, has the number 322 under the Skull and Bones insignia. Is it any wonder that today's date is 3/22?

Navy Exercise: Solid Curtain 2010 -- Exercise Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield 2010 will be conducted on naval bases and installations throughout the continental United States, Hawaii and Guam from March 22-26, 2010. This will be the first year installations in Hawaii and Guam participate in the exercise, and it is the largest Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection exercise conducted nation-wide. This annual exercise is designed to enhance the training and readiness of Navy security personnel to respond to threats to installations and units. Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield 2010 is not in response to any specific threat, but is a regularly scheduled exercise.
* Related Article: False Flag Imminent?

Regulators Shut 7 Banks in Five States -- Regulators on Friday shut down seven banks in five states, bringing to 37 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year.

Money-market funds see biggest outflow since Lehman bankruptcy -- Investors pulled $60 billion out of money-market funds in the latest week, the biggest shift since Lehman filed for bankruptcy at the height of the credit crisis in September 2008, according to Merrill Lynch. That was also when the Reserve Primary Fund collapsed.

Democrats Predict Win in Historic US Health Vote -- As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to use a rare Sunday session to vote on President Barack Obama's health care reform bill, Democratic leaders say their party is poised to win the historic vote.

Obamacare: It's About Enriching Bankers and Wall Street -- In an effort to push through his totalitarian care bill, Obama promised the sky. One such promise was that he would give federal authorities the power to block unreasonable rate hikes. Just like the promise to put negotiations on C-SPAN, the promise to check rate hikes evaporated.

Clinton Returns to Washington, Needling Himself, Obama and the Press -- Elsewhere in his remarks, he noted he was speaking on the night before the start of spring, “otherwise known to Al Gore as proof of global warming.” Of the current vice president, he said: “Vice President Biden, God bless his mouth.”

ACORN on Brink of Bankruptcy -- The community organizing group Acorn, battered politically from the right and suffering from mismanagement along with a severe loss of government and other funds, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, officials of the group said Friday.

Latvia Government Collapses Amid Economic Crisis -- But he said remained confident that an emergency IMF bail-out worth £6.7bn would remain unaffected by the political instability.

Newly Released FBI Documents Support Explosive Claims by Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds -- These documents add further support to many of the allegations that former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has claimed, in public and in Congress, since 2002. The documents were released under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into an organization called the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA), an organization repeatedly named by Ms. Edmonds as being complicit in the crimes that she became aware of when she was a translator at the FBI.

Private Army Sets Sights on Iceland -- The company in question is known as ECA Program. They are a private company that works in military training and support for governments around the world, and have most recently worked with India.

Bank of England Deliberately Created 'Consumer Boom' -- The Bank of England deliberately stoked the consumer boom that has led to record house prices and personal debt in order to avert a recession, the former Bank Governor Eddie George admitted yesterday.

Homeland Security Wants Clearance to Fly Drones Over Texas -- The federal government may soon send unmanned aircraft to scour West Texas and the state’s coastal waters in an effort to boost border security, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a letter to the governor sent Friday.

US Forest Service Admits Putting Surveillance Cameras on Public Lands -- Last month, Herman Jacob took his daughter and her friend camping in the Francis Marion National Forest. While poking around for some firewood, Jacob noticed a wire. He pulled on it and followed it to a video camera and antenna. The camera didn't have any markings identifying its owner, so Jacob took it home and called law enforcement agencies to find out if it was theirs, all the while wondering why someone would station a video camera in an isolated clearing in the woods. (Orwell would be pleased.)

Temple Bomb Suspects: The Feds Put Us Up to It! -- Defense attorneys say an alleged plot to bomb New York synagogues was hatched and directed by a federal informant.

US Kids Even Fatter Than Believed -- Extreme obesity among American children is much worse than previously believed, putting them at greater risk of serious health problems as they age, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Markets Spooked as Greek Rescue Plan Crumbles -- The inability of the eurozone to put together a viable package after a month of talks has dismayed markets, which thought the terms of a deal had already been agreed.

Army Sees Document Web Site as a Potential Threat -- To the list of the enemies threatening the security of the United States, the Pentagon has added WikiLeaks.org, a tiny online source of information and documents that governments and corporations around the world would prefer to keep secret.

European Fraudsters Steal -- Fraud within Europe's carbon credit trading system has cost taxpayers more than $7 billion in the last 18 months, European police said Friday.

Alien Abduction Day -- March 20 is Alien Abduction Day, when "the skies are carefully watched by those expecting / wishing to be abducted by an alien life form," states eHow.com.

Thousands Rally on Anniversary of Invasion of Iraq -- At least eight people, including activist Cindy Sheehan, were arrested by U.S. Park Police at the end of the march, after laying coffins at a fence outside the White House. Friday marked the seventh anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Hit the Brakes: State Governments Raise Traffic Fees -- Cash-strapped cities and states consider measures ranging from expansion of red-light camera systems to charging drivers for cleanup after accidents.

Netanyahu Won't Restrict Settlement Construction -- Israel's prime minister says he would not restrict construction in east Jerusalem, a step requested by the U.S., but would upgrade upcoming indirect talks with the Palestinians to include the main issues dividing them.

Antibiotics Don't Cure Colds, So Why Do Patients Think They Do? -- So while prescribing antibiotics had marginal benefits at best, it hugely enhanced belief in antibiotics, and intention to go back to the GP. Researchers returned to the same patients one year later and found that the patients who had been prescribed antibiotics originally were 39% more likely to go back to the GP when they had a sore throat.

Medicating the Military -- At least one in six service members is on some form of psychiatric drug.

Happy 1st Birthday: Mother Keeps McDonalds Happy Meal for Whole Year -- Glancing at the two McDonald's Happy Meals pictured here, you may feel they look pretty much identical. Astonishingly, however, this is the same meal, photographed 12 months apart.

Spokeo - personal info on net -- Yesterday an Internet friend alerted me to Spokeo. It is a personal database on YOU. It posts your age, gender, home value, home address, length of residence, locator map, occupation, family info plus a slew of other stuff.

FEMA Detention Site 215 -- If, God forbid, Americans are ever rounded up in large numbers during a natural or manmade disaster, where could they be detained? Well, perhaps look no further than the school building next door, the office building around the corner or the stadium downtown. And besides existing military installations, state fair grounds, horse stables, airports “and maybe even a hotel” also could be used as detention centers.

There's a New Buzz in Gardening -- "The bees get the pollen for their young, and we get the cross-pollination for the fruit. They're wonderful. They do the job, and don't hurt the humans," Critchley says. "We don't hurt them; they don't hurt us. We help them; they help us. Everybody's happy."

Obama Blocks Delivery of Bunker-Busters to Israel -- Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia.

Spread of Africanized Honey Bees - Map

US-Russian Deal on Nukes Nearly Completed -- Nearly a year after President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered negotiators to work on a new treaty to reduce their nuclear arsenals, the two countries say they are finally close to completing a deal.

Geneva Atom Smasher Sets Record for Beam Energy -- Operators of the world's largest atom smasher on Friday ramped up their massive machine to three times the energy ever previously achieved, in the run-up to experiments probing the secrets of the universe.

The Hidden Meaning of Lady Gaga's Telephone -- The video refers to mind control and, more specifically, Monarch Programming, a covert technique profusely used in the entertainment industry. We’ll look at the occult meaning of the video “Telephone”.


Today in History Friday March 19, 2010
1628 - The Massachusetts colony was founded by Englishmen.
1687 - French explorer La Salle was murdered by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, in the Gulf of Mexico.
1822 - The city of Boston, MA, was incorporated.
1831 - The first bank robbery in America was reported. The City Bank of New York City lost $245,000 in the robbery.
1895 - The Los Angeles Railway was established to provide streetcar service.
1903 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.
1906 - Reports from Berlin estimated the cost of the German war in S.W. Africa at $150 million. 
1917 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional.
1918 - The U.S. Congress approved Daylight-Saving Time.
1918 - A German seaplane was shot down for the first time by an American pilot.
1920 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty for the second time maintaining an isolation policy.
1931 - The state of Nevada legalized gambling.
1945 - About 800 people were killed as Japanese kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan.
1953 - The Academy Awards aired on television for the first time.
1954 - The first rocket-driven sled that ran on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.
1963 - In Costa Rica, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to fight Communism.
1977 - France performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.
1977 - The last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired.
1981 - During a test of the space shuttle Columbia two workers were injured and one was killed.
1985 - IBM announced that it was planning to stop making the PCjr consumer-oriented computer.
1985 - The U.S. Senate voted to authorize production of the MX missile.
1990 - The first world ice hockey tournament for women was held in Ottawa.
1998 - The World Health Organization warned of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.
1999 - 53 people were killed and dozens were injured when a bomb exploded in a market place in southern Russia.
2001 - California officials declared a power alert and ordered the first of two days of rolling blackouts.
2002 - Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation.
2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces had launched a strike against "targets of military opportunity" in Iraq. The attack, using cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs, were aimed at Iraqi leaders thought to be near Baghdad.

Idaho first to sign law aimed at health care plan -- Idaho took the lead in a growing, nationwide fight against health care overhaul Wednesday when its governor became the first to sign a measure requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government if residents are forced to buy health insurance. Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states.

Obama Postpones Asia Trip to Focus on Health Care -- President Barack Obama has postponed his trip to Asia until June so he can stay in Washington for a possible Sunday vote on his health care overhaul plan.

Democrats Post Health Care Bill On-Line, Setting Up Possible Sunday Vote -- House Democrats on Thursday unveiled their highly anticipated package of changes to the health care reform bill, setting up a potential floor vote for Sunday and putting pressure on Republicans to figure out a way to stop it.

Pelosi Tactic for Health-Care Vote Would Raise Legal Questions -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be creating new grounds for a court challenge to the proposed U.S. health-care overhaul as she considers using a mechanism that would avoid a vote on the full legislation.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes....Read More....

Federal Employees Owe IRS Back Taxes -- That's why Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is irked that nearly 100,000 civilian federal employees owe the IRS $962 million in back taxes. He thinks they should pay up or be fired.

Newly signed jobs bill unlikely to spur hiring -- Don't look for a burst of hiring by small businesses in Wisconsin as a result of the federal jobs bill signed into law on Thursday. A number of small-business owners in the state say they make hiring decisions based on the business they generate, not whether they can save nine months' worth of Social Security payroll taxes per newly hired worker, which is the main feature of the law.

Judge allows genetically engineered beet harvest -- A federal judge on Tuesday said farmers can harvest their genetically engineered sugar beets this year, ruling the economic impact too great and that environmental groups waited too long to request that the crop be yanked from the ground and otherwise barred from the market. Nearly all sugar beets planted are genetically engineered and the crop accounts for half the nation's sugar supply.

Census 2010 Plagued by Technical Difficulties -- But certain "delete" operations malfunctioned, causing some major glitches. And after the successful completion of the address verification phase, the devices were phased out for any further use. The total cost, meanwhile, grew from an original $600 million computer contract to up to $3 billion.

Obama Surrenders Gulf Oil to Moscow -- The Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast.

Rebellion in America Heats Up as 5th State Exempts Guns -- A fifth state – South Dakota – has decided that guns made, sold and used within its borders no longer are subject to the whims of the federal government through its rule-making arm in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and two supporters of the growing groundswell say they hope Washington soon will be taking note.

Health-Care 'Trickery' Called Overthrow of Constitution -- America's system of government based on the U.S. Constitution is being overthrown through illegal legislative "trickery" Congress is using to pass controversial health-care reform.

Rise in Tuition Breaks for Illegal Immigrants -- Amid a budget crisis that’s negatively impacted public education across the country, the number of illegal immigrants benefiting from discounted tuition at colleges and universities in Texas continues rising, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in the last few years.

Man Puts Infant in Cold Oven for 2 Hours -- Charges have been filed against a Kentucky man accused of putting his infant in an oven.

Govt Rewarded Bank Auditors with Big Bonuses -- As banks gambled on the risky mortgages that helped create the worst financial crisis in generations, the U.S. government handed out millions of dollars in bonuses to regulators at agencies that missed or ignored warning signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown.

Ex-Pfizer Worker Cites Genetically Engineered Virus in Lawsuit Over Firing -- Medical experts will be watching closely Monday when a scientist who says she has been intermittently paralyzed by a virus designed at the Pfizer laboratory where she worked in Groton opens a much anticipated trial that could raise questions about safety practices in the dynamic field of genetic engineering.

Germany Mulls Sending Spies to Wall Street -- Germany's finance minister says his government is considering sending spies to London and New York to monitor the activities of currency speculators.

TSA To Make Full Body Scans Mandatory at US Airports -- In a new attempt to curb terrorism on airplanes and in airports, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced this week that they plan on making full body scanners mandatory.

Hundreds of Americans File Complaints Over Naked Body Scanners -- Despite establishment media spin that naked body scanners are being meekly accepted by a compliant public, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that there have been more than 600 formal complaints about the devices in the last year.

Iranian Warships Set Sail for Gulf of Aden -- Iran has sent a naval battle group to international waters, including the Gulf of Aden, to confront threats to the country's shipping lanes.

Boeing Completes Design of Shipboard Laser -- The U.S. military is bankrolling all kinds of projects to harness the power of directed energy, from laser-equipped aircraft that can shoot down ballistic missiles to smaller beam weapons mounted on Humvees that could zap mortars or artillery shells.

Carte Blanche for the Banksters: The Next Big Bailout "Any Day Now" -- The Fed has indicated that it's finished helping the banks for the time being. Now it's Treasury's turn. Bernanke will keep the Fed funds rate at zero, but he is not going to expand the Fed's balance sheet anymore. Geithner understands this and is working frantically to put together the next bailout that will reduce the mortgage principal for underwater homeowners.

Families Face Fine for Using Wrong Bin in Household Waste Crackdown -- Householders could be fined up to £1,000 if they fail to comply with complex new rules on refuse sorting.

CBO (CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE) HR 4872 -- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have completed a preliminary estimate of the direct spending and revenue effects of an amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010; that amendment (hereafter called “the reconciliation proposal”) was made public on March 18, 2010. The estimate is presented in three ways:   Read More....

Southern California City Says Home Bible Group Must Get Permit -- For the second time in six months, a Southern California city has ordered a group of Christian worshippers who meet inside homes to get a permit or shut down.

Obama Endorses Immigration Blueprint -- President Obama on Thursday gave a thumbs-up to the framework of a plan to legalize illegal immigrants and create a flow of low-skilled foreign workers for the future, saying the bill being worked on by a Republican lawmaker and his Democrat counterpart is "promising."

Putin Vexes Us Over Iran Nuclear Power -- Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, promised on Thursday that Moscow would help Iran complete a civil nuclear power station by this summer, drawing criticism from Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state.

Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars -- More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Money Out of Thin Air: Now Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake Wants to Eliminate Reserve Requirements Completely? -- The Federal Reserve believes it is possible that, ultimately, its operating framework will allow the elimination of minimum reserve requirements, which impose costs and distortions on the banking system.

Tracking Electric Use Could Allow Utilities to Track You too -- Smart electric grids are championed by the federal government, conservation groups and industry as good for the economy and the environment. The digital meters in homes enable measurement and two-way communication with utilities so consumers can trim electricity use. But some technology policy organizations worry that smart meters pose a potential threat to privacy and could be exploited by online marketers, government agencies, criminals and others.

VIDEO: The DHS Global Biometric Plan

Corn Madness - title misleading - this is by a Russian living in the US -- I hope you don't mind that this is in Russian. I think that this way I can be more completely honest. I am a relatively recent graduate of one of the many faceless post-Soviet institutions of higher learning, with a degree in philosophy. Last year I moved to the USA and married an American woman. The question of when the modern capitalist system is going to collapse has interested me since my student years, and I have approached it from various directions: from the commonplace conspiracy theories to the serious works of Oswald Spengler and Noam Chomsky.

To Fill Budget Gaps, 'Stealth' Taxes are Creeping Up -- As a result, analysts say, taxpayers from California to Copenhagen should brace themselves for more “stealth taxes” — indirect levies like sales taxes, or microcharges on services once provided free, like registering a pet.

'Wall Street' Sequel an Omen of US Collapse -- He says he can't predict the future. Don't believe him: Even if he's unaware of his "source," it's stirring again, rising from deep in what Carl Jung would call the "collective unconscious" of the "American Soul," warning us again of a collapse, using Stone as a stock trader's "alert."


Today in History Thursday March 18, 2010
1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act.
1813 - David Melville patented the gas streetlight.
1818 - The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.
1834 - The first railroad tunnel in the U.S. was completed. The work was in Pennsylvania.
1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo founded American Express.
1874 - Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the U.S.
1881 - Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens.
1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short wave transmitter to become the first person to broadcast as a "ham" operator.
1910 - The first opera by a U.S. composer performed at the Met in New York City.
1911 - Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, AZ. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time.
1931 - Schick Inc. displayed the first electric shaver.
1938 - Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil.
1942 - The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.
1944 - The Russians reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans during World War II.
1945 - 1,250 U.S. bombers attacked Berlin.
1948 - France, Great Britain, and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was ratified.
1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.
1961 - The Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
1963 - France performed an underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria.
1968 - The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve.
1969 - U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia.
1970 - The U.S. Postal Service experienced the first postal strike.
1971 - U.S. helicopters airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos. .
1975 - Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.
1977 - Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation.
1981 - The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.
1986 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.
1986 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.
1987 - The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site.
1989 - 12 paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.
1989 - A 4,400-year-old mummy was discovered at the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.
1990 - The 32-day lockout of baseball players ended.
1992 - White South Africans voted for constitutional reforms that would give legal equality to blacks.
1997 - A Russian AN-24 crashed killing 50 people.
2003 - China's new president, Hu Jintao, announced that his country must deepen reforms and raise living standards of workers and farmers.

Copblock.org -- Standing Your Ground Against Police.

Walgreens: No New Medicaid Patients as of April 16 -- Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won't take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.

Washington lobbyists cashing in despite recession -- While Americans across the country tightened their belts, companies, organizations and other entities spent an average of 5% more on Washington lobbyists last year. The total amount spent on federal lobbying reached a record $3.5 billion in 2009, according to the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics.

Modified raw milk legislation moves ahead -- State legislation to allow the sale of raw farm milk to the general public moved a step forward Wednesday with some key changes, including the removal of an immunity clause for farmers. By a 5-0 vote, the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education recommended approval of the bill that would allow raw-milk sales direct from farms.

No CBO (Congressional Budget Office) Score Wednesday Night; Saturday Healthcare Vote Unlikely -- House Democratic leaders on Wednesday night said the long-awaited Congressional Budget Office score of the reconciliation bill will not come out until Thursday, forcing an acknowledgement that a Saturday healthcare vote is likely off the table.

New Health Care Whip Count: 190 YES, 206 NO -- The leadership says they have the votes, but projecting an aura of confidence has been a key to their pressure strategy. Bart Stupak says Democrats are 16 votes short, but pessimism has been, well, part of his strategy. So I prefer to actually, you know, count the votes.

Obama's HealthCare Plan Picks Up Support -- Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, long a supporter of Medicare-for-all, voted against the House Democratic bill in November because it did not go far enough in creating a robust government-run plan to compete with private insurance. But Kucinich said Wednesday that the bill coming before the House represents the best chance to expand coverage to the uninsured, even if it does not include a public plan.

Healthcare Bill Not Yet Law, but Republicans Already Organizing to Repeal It -- Can Republicans win election this fall by campaigning to repeal the health-care legislation now nearing passage in Congress?

Detroit Family Homes Sell for Just $10 -- He said there were homes on the market for $100 (£61), but an offer of just $10 (£6) would be likely to be accepted.

Virtually all kidney disease patients on dialysis have vitamin D deficiency -- Research abounds that adequate vitamin D is essential for good health. Unfortunately, however, millions of Americans are not getting enough of this so-called "sunshine" vitamin. Read the full story...

High-dose vitamin C therapy proven effective -- There is a double standard in Western medicine when it comes to assessing the efficacy of vitamins compared to pharmaceutical drugs. While medical science recognizes that dose levels affect how well a drug works, the same principle is not considered valid for vitamins. As a result, 75 years of physician reports and clinical studies about the success of high-dose vitamin C therapy has been largely ignored.

Gov't bank auditors got big bonuses -- Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations. The government also was handing out millions of dollars to bank regulators, rewarding "superior" work even as an avalanche of risky mortgages helped create the meltdown.

FEMA's Sale of Katrina Trailers Sparks Criticism -- Consumer advocates and environmentalists are outraged that the government resold products it deemed unsafe to live in, saying warning stickers attached to the units will not keep people from misusing them. Besides formaldehyde, units might be plagued by mold, mildew and propane gas leaks, FEMA acknowledged.

Meet the 'Chubby Boy with the Curly Hair' -- Grinning happily at the camera, this is Barry Soetoro, the cherubic little boy who went on to become America's first black president.

Newsweek: US in Terminal Decline -- Why would the Anglo-American power elite want to convince Americans that their country is on the way down? Because the elite is apparently after global consolidation and if Americans are convinced that the US is finished, they may be more amenable to joining forces with, say, Canada and Mexico in a super-state. This sounds strange to some, but remember, please, that the Bush administration, a so-called conservative administration, attempted basically to begin a merger of America and Mexico by legislative means only a few years ago. In Texas, Republican Governor Rick Perry spent a good deal of time in the mid-2000s trying to push forward a trans-continental superhighway between Mexico and Canada that would have cut America in two.

DARPA MIND’S EYE PROGRAM -- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will conduct a briefing to Industry, on April 20, 2010, in support of the anticipated Mind’s Eye program Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). This announcement serves as a pre‐solicitation notice and is issued solely for information and program planning purposes. Read More...

Gov't orders recall of 1.2 million high chairs -- The government is announcing a recall of some 1.2 million high chairs, saying they pose a fall hazard to children. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall Thursday involving the product made by Graco Children's Products, Inc., of Atlanta.

Who Could Eat All This? -- Jesse Martin camped out overnight this month outside a San Marcos, Texas, Chick-fil-A for a chance to win a year's worth of chicken sandwiches. The Atlanta-based fast-food chain gives away free meals for a year to the first 100 customers at new stores' grand openings. So far, Mr. Martin, a 34-year-old college pastor from Austin, Texas, has been to five Chick-fil-A grand openings and won at four of them. (Comment: How sad that people are camping out for free fast food.) Thanks Jimm!

Darpa Wants Self-Guiding, Storytelling Cameras -- Darpa is already after all kinds of highly intelligent robo-critters. In the past few months, they’ve launched projects to create a real-life C3PO and a surveillance system to pinpoint threats in heaps of visual data. Now, the agency wants artificial intelligence-powered cameras that can recognize objects — and then tell a story about them. Next month, Darpa will host a one-day conference to launch the project, which has been given a slightly Orwellian title: “The Mind’s Eye.” (.pdf) The idea is to create machines that are endowed with what remains an exclusively human ability: visual intelligence.

US Shipping Arms Ahead of Strike on Iran -- Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean ahead of a possible attack on Iran, The Herald reported Wednesday.

Pelosi Calls All Female Democratic Members into Meeting -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is asking all female Democratic Members to attend a hastily called meeting Wednesday morning but isn’t saying what the meeting is about.

Wal-Mart worker fired over medical marijuana -- A Michigan man says he was fired from his Wal-Mart job for using medical marijuana. The use of medical marijuana is legal in Michigan, but Wal-Mart claims it did nothing wrong.

Census Threat: $5,000 -- How many people live in your home? Are any of them Hispanic? Are the people who live in your home citizens? How big is your home? Do you have difficulty making decisions or climbing stairs? How much do you pay for your sewage system? Are you married? What's your rent or mortgage payment? Do you own an automobile? Are you on food stamps? How much money do you make?

Census Law -- I pass this along letter on the census for your information, only. I do not counsel anyone to break the law. Of course, I’m not real sure of what the law is. A direct and literal reading of the U.S. Constitution it seems to me, a non lawyer, is clear as to what the law is: people are legally obligated, only, to cooperate in a head count for political representation purposes.

Economy Kept On Life Support While Global Governance is Organized -- While the mainstream media puts on the recovery song and dance, the fundamental problems of the collapse remain the same, and in some cases are growing ever more precarious. Subsections of the public, unaware of the real issues at hand, are holding a misguided jubilee in the tranquil eye of a hurricane, wrongly assuming that the storm has passed.

Food Shortage 'The Next Global Challenge' -- Climate change, rising fuel costs, water shortages: now experts are warning Australia's food producers have a new crisis to consider: Food Insecurity.

Foreclosure Starts Up Nearly 20% in California -- After reaching the lowest level in a year in January, Notice of Defaults, the start of the foreclosure process, increased by 19.7 percent in February, according to a report Monday from ForeclosureRadar Inc., a Discovery Bay-based foreclosure information company that says it tracks every California foreclosure.

Senate Bill Wipes Out Indian Tobacco Industry -- Handing big tobacco corporations a huge victory, the U.S. Senate has passed the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act – an act tribal leaders say is an attack on tribal sovereignty and economies that will devastate Indian tobacco businesses across the country.

Did the CIA Test LSD in the New York Subway System? -- But 22 years later, the Rockefeller Commission report was released, detailing a litany of domestic abuses committed by the CIA. The ugly truth emerged: Olson’s death was the result of his having been surreptitiously dosed with LSD days earlier by his colleagues.

New RFID Tech Tracks You to the Tomb -- A new product, the RosettaStone (www.personalrosettastone.com), guarantees that RFID will follow you straight to your grave.

Slaughter House Rules -- We're not sure American schools teach civics any more, but once upon a time they taught that under the U.S. Constitution a bill had to pass both the House and Senate to become law. Until this week, that is, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving to merely "deem" that the House has passed the Senate health-care bill and then send it to President Obama to sign anyway.

Sony Chairman Michael Lynton Calls for Healthy Alternative to Popcorn in Cinemas -- For many, a night out at the movies would not be complete without the sound of popcorn and chocolate wrappers from the stalls. One of the most powerful studio bosses in Hollywood, however, would like to see cinemas selling healthier snacks. (Can we not have some choices left in Amerika?)

Mass. Dentist Used Paper Clips in Root Canals -- A former Massachusetts dentist is accused of placing paper clips instead of stainless steel posts inside the teeth of root canal patients while billing Medicaid for the more expensive parts.

Bernake to Wage Fresh Battle for Fed Powers -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke plans to wage a fresh battle against Senate efforts to scale back the Fed's role in supervising the nation's banks. (Let's see, give the fox even more powers over the sheeple?? NOT. I say audit the fed and then get rid of Bernake!)

Internet Rehab Clinic for 'Screenager' Children Hooked on Modern Technology -- Children who are hooked on computer games, the internet and mobile phones are to be offered help at what is thought to be the first dedicated technology addiction service for young people in Britain.

Hawaii Considering Law to Ignore Obama Birthers -- As the state continues to receive e-mails seeking Obama's birth certificate, the state House Judiciary Committee heard a bill Tuesday permitting government officials to ignore people who won't give up.

States May Hold Onto Tax Refunds for Months -- Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months.

Code Red Moves Cardoza and Costa to 'YES' Votes on Gov't Healthcare Takeover After Water Deal -- As a vote approaches on Obama and Pelosi’s government takeover of healthcare, Code Red is now considering two supposedly “undecided” California Democrats, Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa, to now be “yes” votes.

Hand Germs Could Join Fingerprints, DNA Forensics Labs -- Researchers led by Noah Fierer of the University of Colorado at Boulder swabbed individual keys on three personal computer keyboards, extracted bacterial DNA from the swabs and compared the results with bacteria on the fingertips of the keyboards' users. (And we all know how accurate they are with DNA now eh?)

Riots Erupt Across Jerusalem as Hamas Leader Calls for Renewed 'Intifada' -- Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces across east Jerusalem on Tuesday in the worst rioting in years, as a senior Hamas leader called for a new "intifada" or uprising.

Revealed: Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld Warned 911 Commission About 'Line it Should Not Cross' -- Senior Bush administration officials sternly cautioned the 9/11 Commission against probing too deeply into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to a document recently obtained by the ACLU.

Hurt Dog Limps Into NW ER -- The patient was only slightly injured when he limped into a hospital in the northwest New Mexico city of Farmington.

PG&E Customer Refuses to Take a Smart Meter -- When Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced it was installing smart meters, they weren't exactly giving customers the option of turning down the device. But one Bay Area man demanding his constitutional rights told CBS5 that he doesn't want a new meter. Period.

Obama: 'Procedural' Spat Over Health Bill Vote Doesn't Worry Me -- Instead, under a process called a "self-executing rule," the House could simultaneously approve the Senate bill while voting on a package of changes to it. This would "deem" the Senate bill to be passed, without compelling members to vote for it directly.

Sheriff: Man Sold His Wife for Sex on Craigslist -- Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says 32-year-old Clinton Danner from Rockford, Minn., convinced his wife she would never see their preschooler again if she didn't have sex with strangers for money.


Today in History Wednesday March 17, 2010 - Saint Patrick's Day!
1756 - St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time. The event took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.
1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies.
1776 - British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War.
1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent was issued.
1870 - Wellesley College was incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its first name, Wellesley Female Seminary.
1884 - John Joseph Montgomery made the first glider flight in Otay, California.
1891 - The British steamer Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar.
1909 - In France, the communications industry was paralyzed by strikes.
1910 - The Camp Fire Girls organization was founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick. It was formally presented to the public exactly 2 years later.
1914 - Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.
1917 - America’s first bowling tournament for ladies began in St. Louis, MO. Almost 100 women participated in the event.
1930 - Al Capone was released from jail.
1941 - The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.
1942 - Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific.
1944 - During World War II, the U.S. bombed Vienna.
1950 - Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they had created a new radioactive element. They named it "californium". It is
 also known as element 98.         
1958 - The Vanguard 1 satellite was launched by the U.S.
1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.
1962 - Moscow asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.
1966 - A U.S. submarine found a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean off of Spain.
1970 - The U.S. Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.
1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.
1973 - Twenty were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.
1973 - The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
1982 - In El Salvador, four Dutch television crewmembers were killed by government troops.
1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada.
1992 - White South Africans approved constitutional reforms to give legal equality to blacks.
1999 - A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.
1999 - The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal.
2000 - In Kanungu, Uganda, a fire at a church linked to the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments killed more than 530.
2009 - The iTunes Music Store reached 800 million applications downloaded.

Two Original Thoughts For The Day from our friend Mike Tawse in the UK -- To Be Truly Free and Every Day Is A gift.

Chinese Inflation - the Final Unraveling? -- But as we have pointed out umpteen times, the Chinese miracle may be, at least to a degree, something of a fiat-money mirage. Economies in the modern era can certainly be fueled by the endless over-printing of paper money and the immediate "wealth effect" that large-scale, central-bank money-printing can, and often does, generate. But woe betide such an economy in the ensuing decades as the distortive effects of fiat money printing take hold. A crash is seemingly inevitable. And the higher the economy has rocketed, the farther it has to fall.

5th state exempts guns. Is Washington noticing? -- A fifth state – South Dakota – has decided that guns made, sold and used within its borders no longer are subject to the whims of the federal government through its rule-making arm in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and two supporters of the growing groundswell say they hope Washington soon will be taking note.

FDA Approved Diabetes Drug Despite Hints at Cancer Risk -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is defending its decision in late January to approve a new diabetes drug, Victoza (liraglutide), even though animal studies suggest it might increase the risk for a rare thyroid cancer.

Break the law and your new 'friend' may be the FBI -- The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, too. U.S.law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting.

Many Canadian firms learning to cope with strong dollar says think tank report -- With the loonie once again nearing parity with the U.S. dollar, a new report on the currency is giving hope it may not be the menace to the economy many believe it to be. The Conference Board weighed in on the subject Monday with a surprising argument - a strong loonie and currency volatility are a net negative for the economy, but not a major impediment, particularly if firms take steps to adapt.

U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks -- Wikileaks.org specifically cited 2,000 pages of leaked US Army documents with information on the Tables of Equipment (TOEs) for US and Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. These documents provided information on the US forces, a description of equipment and total number of equipment that were assigned to actual military units assigned to US Central Command in April 2007. Not a good thing!!

Pelosi Says Democrats to Have Votes for Health Bill -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, still shoring up support for legislation to overhaul the U.S. health- care system, vowed that Democrats will be ready to pass the bill when the time comes. “When we bring the bill to the floor, we will have the votes,” Pelosi told reporters.

Pelosi: "Once we kick through this door, more reform will follow" -- "My biggest fight has been between those who wanted to do something incremental and those who wanted to do something comprehensive," Pelosi said, according to an account by Washington Post reform advocate Ezra Klein. "We won that fight, and once we kick through this door, there'll be more legislation to follow."

House May Try to Pass Senate Health-Care Bill Without Voting On It -- After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Kucinich in Obama's Crosshairs -- Obama invited Kucinich and undecided Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) to the ultimate pressure cooker as he tries to nail down a majority for his top domestic priority.

Drug Industry Preparing Pro-Reform Ads - COMING SOON –- The drug industry, which has held off running ads until officials sign off on the final reconciliation bill, is growing more comfortable with the emerging legislation and is preparing a substantial pro-reform ad buy in 43 Democratic districts, according to a senior industry source.

Obama Runs Out of Patience with Israel -- The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday strongly defended Jewish settlement construction in East Jerusalem in the face of US pressure and what one of his own top diplomats described as the worst crisis in relations with Washington for more than three decades.

Clinton: Israel Must Prove Commitment to Peace -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says Israel must prove it is committed to the Mideast peace process with actions, but brushed aside suggestions that U.S.-Israeli relations are in crisis.

US Israel Criticism Ignites Firestorm in Congress -- The Obama administration's fierce denunciation of Israel last week has ignited a firestorm in Congress and among powerful pro-Israel interest groups who say the criticism of America's top Mideast ally was misplaced.

ACORN Branches Rename, Rebrand After Video Scandal -- Affiliates of the once mighty liberal activist group ACORN are remaking themselves in a desperate bid to ditch the tarnished name of their parent organization and restore federal grants and other revenue streams that ran dry in the wake of a video scandal.

Junk Bond Avalanche Looms for Credit Markets -- Maybe they should have, because 2012 also is the beginning of a three-year period in which more than $700 billion in risky, high -yield corporate debt begins to come due, an extraordinary surge that some analysts fear could overload the debt markets.

Monsanto Admits Their Technology Doesn't Work -- In a setback for genetically engineered cotton, Monsanto, innovator of the strain, confirmed what skeptics had said might well happen, that the pests it was supposed to resist better than natural cotton would also innovate.

Climate 'Fix' Could Poison Sea Life -- Fertilizing the oceans with iron to absorb carbon dioxide could increase concentrations of a chemical that can kill marine mammals, a study has found.

Future Bio-Nanotechnology Will Use Computer Chips Inside Living Cells -- Continuing miniaturization has moved the semiconductor industry well into the nano realm with leading chip manufacturers on their way to CMOS using 22nm process technology.

Can You Alter Your Memory? -- Is it possible to permanently change your memories? A group of scientists thinks so. And their new techniques for altering memories are raising possibilities of one day treating people who suffer from phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety-related conditions.

In Bizarre, Soviet Style Move, White House Threatens to Veto Intelligence Budget Unless FBI's Anthrax Frame-Up Is Accepted -- In a bizarre, Soviet-style move, the White House has threatened to veto the intelligence budget unless everyone accepts the FBI frame up of Dr. Bruce Ivins.

Nationwide Study Finds More People Growing Edibles -- There was an increase in edibles gardening in 2009 from both experienced and new gardeners. Among those that grew edibles in 2009, 92% were experienced and 7% were new to edibles gardening.

Day of Rage - Jerusalem -- The day dubbed "the day of rage" by Hamas and extremist Islamic groups opened with riots – both in the holy city and on the way to it.

City That Banned Bible Studies Has Judgment Day -- Officials in an Arizona city where workers recently told members of a small church they are not allowed to hold Bible studies in a home and then backed up the warning with an official opinion from the city planner – an issue on which WND reported – say they now hope to make changes that will allow such religious activity.

Construction Unemployment Rate Hits 27.1% As Another 64,000 Construction Workers Lost Jobs in February 2010 -- The construction unemployment rate jumped to 27.1% and construction employment dropped to a 14-year low as another 64,000 construction workers lost jobs in February, according to federal employment figures released recently.

Solar Flare Alert -- A solar wind stream is heading for Earth, and so is a coronal mass ejection (CME). Together, they add up to a geomagnetic storm alert for March 17th and 18th. The impact of the solar wind plus CME will brighten Arctic skies already alive with Northern Lights.

Is the US Preparing For "The Total Destruction of Iran?" -- Is war just around the corner? While in theory it would make perfect sense to distract Americans from the long road to US insolvency, and other more pressing issues such as the endless criminality all around us, in practice we have so far heard merely rumors.

US Consulate Aid, Husband Die in Mexico Border Violence -- Gunmen believed linked to drug traffickers shot and killed an American consulate worker and her husband in the violence-racked border town of Ciudad Juárez over the weekend, leaving their baby wailing in the back seat of their car, authorities said Sunday.

Dictyostelium Found in Morgellons -- The reason that dictyostelium discoidium is important is because this cellular slime mold has unique properties that lend itself to mutating other substances. These eukaryotic microorganisms have a simplistic genetic makeup and produces what are know as chemotaxis.

HR 646: US Preparing for Civil Unrest -- A bill entitled the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (HR 645) was introduced in the US Congress in January. It calls for the establishment of six national emergency centers in major regions in the US to be located on existing military installations.

Jihad Jane: Terror by Reason of Insanity -- And so who is Jihad Jane? Is she a real terrorist, or is she a disturbed woman who never played the cards of life very well — and perhaps not with a full deck?

Top Ratings Agency Warns Austerity Riots Could Hit America and UK -- Top ratings agency Moody’s has predicted that the U.S. and the UK could witness similar riots to those seen in Greece in response to emergency austerity measures imposed by governments in an effort to retain their AAA credit status.

FBI Uses Phony Profiles on Social Networking Sites -- The FBI and other federal agencies are going undercover on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and other social networks with phony profiles to gather information and communicate with suspects, according to an internal Justice Department document. (COINTELPRO anyone?)

California's Budget Crisis Could Cost Nearly 22,000 Teachers Their Jobs -- California's budget crisis could cost nearly 22,000 teachers their jobs this year.

Arizona To Approve Real ID, Mandatory ID Today -- The legislature declares that the intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona. The provisions of this act are intended to work together to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence of aliens and economic activity by persons unlawfully present in the United States.

Humans Have Sixth Sense for Fat -- New research suggests that humans may have a previously unidentified sixth taste sense — for fat.

Babies Are Born to Dance -- "Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants," said researcher Marcel Zentner, a psychologist at the University of York in England.

Contestants Turn Tortures in French TV Experiment -- Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological experiment for French television, zapping a man with electricity until he cries for mercy -- then zapping him again until he seems to drop dead. (There is a DVD out now called "Live" that goes along with these - only in "Live" the contestants play Russian Roulette - sadly the people love and accept the game show. Is there where we are going mankind?)

$17.5 Billion Jobs Bill Nears Final OK -- The first of several Democratic job-creation efforts cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday and appeared to be headed toward final congressional approval.

Detroit to City Workers: Leave Smelly Perfumes, Deodorants, and Candles at Home -- Detroit officials are telling workers in city offices to leave smelly perfumes, deodorants, and other strongly scented toiletries and items at home. The signs are going up in response to a federal lawsuit, which also awarded $100,000 to Susan McBride, who sued the city under the Americans with Disabilities Act, claiming a coworker's perfume made it difficult for her to breathe and do her job.

Bland CBO Memo, or Smoking Gun? -- This weekend, the Congressional Budget Office released “a very strange memo” titled, “Budgetary Treatment of Proposals to Regulate Medical Loss Ratios.” You wouldn’t know it from the title, but that little memo is the smoking gun that shows how congressional Democrats have very carefully hidden more than half the cost of their health care bills.

Medical Pot Patient Robbed, Beaten; Cops take the Plants While He is Dying -- A Washington medical marijuana patient has died after being attacked by robbers who were after his pot crop. When local police were called to the scene, rather than investigating the assault, they started questioning mortally injured Michael Shane Howard about how many plants he had.

Blog: Questions for Thoughtful ObamaCare Supporters, Part III

Stifling Innovation with Subsidies

ObamaCare Cost Estimate Watch: Day #180
 

Today in History Tuesday March 16, 2010
1802 - The U.S. Congress established the West Point Military Academy in New York.
1836 - The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.
1850 - The novel "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published for the first time.
1871 - The State of Delaware enacted the first fertilizer law.
1882 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty allowing the United States to join the Red Cross.
1883 - Susan Hayhurst graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. She was the first woman pharmacy graduate.
1907 - The world's largest cruiser, the British Invincible was completed at Glasgow.
1909 - Cuba suffered its first revolt only six weeks after the inauguration of Gomez.
1913 - The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, VA.
1915 - The Federal Trade Commission began operation.
1926 - Physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket.
1928 - The U.S. planned to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.
1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered a German rearmament and violated the Versailles Treaty.
1945 - Iwo Jima was declared secure by the Allies. However, small pockets of Japanese resistance still existed.
1950 - Congress voted to remove federal taxes on oleo margarine.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion war on poverty program to Congress.
1968 - U.S. troops in Vietnam destroyed a village consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known as the My-Lai massacre.
1982 - Russia announced they would halt their deployment of new nuclear missiles in Western Europe.
1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen. He died while in captivity.
1985 - Terry Anderson, an Associated Press newsman, was taken hostage in Beirut. He was released in December 4, 1991.
1988 - Indictments were issued for Lt. Colonel Oliver North, Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council, and two others for their
          involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
1993 - In France, ostrich meat was officially declared fit for human consumption.
1994 - Tonya Harding pled guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She  
          was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating.
1994 - Russia agreed to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.
1995 - NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.
1998 - Rwanda began mass trials for 1994 genocide with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders.
1999 - The 20 members of the European Union's European Commission announced their resignations amid allegations of corruption and financial
          mismanagement.

What You Do Not Know About Fish Oil Supplements Will Hurt You -- A group of three plaintiffs very recently filed a suit against eight supplement companies for violating California Proposition 65, which mandates that consumers must be warned on product labels of dangerous toxins beyond established "safe harbor" limits. The plaintiffs intend to prove that the eight supplement manufacturers knowingly passed on PCB contaminated fish oils without Prop 65's required warnings.

$5.4 million dollars for crystal stemware for American embassies!! -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's State Department is spending $5.4 million to buy fine crystal stemware for American embassies -- but it won't give the US economy much of a boost. The contract was given to a tiny Washington, DC, interior designer, which in turn subcontracted the crystal work to a Swedish firm -- snubbing such US companies as the famous manufacturer in Clinton's own back yard, Steuben Crystal of upstate Corning.

Guns Used in Pentagon and Las Vegas Courtroom Shootings Originated with Tennessee Police -- Talk about improbable odds. The guns used in the Pentagon and Las Vegas courthouse shootings came from the police and court system in Memphis, Tennessee. “Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.”

Bees Busier Than Ever as Disease Besieges Colonies -- These are not normal times for bees, or for commercial beekeepers, so Hackenberg's pollinators will skip the citrus gig to reduce their exposure to pesticides and get some rest. "Everybody is seeing [bee] losses this winter," said Hackenberg, of Lewisburg, Pa. "This was probably the worst year ever."

7 Deaths Reported Across Northeast -- A torrential rainstorm that brought heavy winds to the Northeast, causing damage and flooding, created some minor headaches for commuters Monday.

VIDEO: Sugar: The Bitter Truth -- Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine]

Magnitude 6.6 Quake Sways Buildings in Tokyo -- A strong magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit off the eastern coast of Japan on Sunday, rattling buildings across a broad swath of the country, including the crowded capital.

Indonesia Earthquake -- Indonesia Earthquake 2010 a 6.4 Quake Rocks Indonesia.  Earthquakes are happening everywhere, and the country of Indonesia experienced a 6.4 earthquake today.  In addition to their event, Japan also incurred a 6.6 quake earlier in the day.

Judge Kithil Highlights Most Atrocious Sections of Health Care Reform -- "I have reviewed selected sections of the bill, and find it unbelievable that our Congress, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, could come up with a bill loaded with so many wrong-headed elements."

PDF File of the Healthcare Reform Reconciliation

House Democrats Short on Healthcare -- House Democratic leaders still do not have enough votes to pass health care reform, the chamber's top vote counter said Sunday, even though the administration is aiming to have the bill passed this week. (Yet another episode of 'Healthcare Takeover')

Hilary Rodham Clinton's Harsh Words Stun Israel -- Beginning as a spat over a single housing project, a dispute this week between the Obama administration and Israel has ballooned into the biggest U.S.-Israeli clash in 20 years, adding to months of strain between Washington and one of its closest allies.

Israeli Envoy: US Ties in 'Crisis of Historic Proportions' -- U.S.-Israeli relations have hit a 35-year low over a contentious east Jerusalem building project that threatens to derail peacemaking efforts with the Palestinians, Israel's envoy to Washington was quoted as saying Monday.

Obama Administration Monitors Jews on Temple Mount -- A member of the U.S. government met with organizers of Tuesday's "International Temple Mount Awareness Day" to pepper the activists about their intentions regarding Jewish ascent to the holy site.

Asian Fruit Fly Invasion Could Ruin Oregon Crops -- Farmers, researchers and entomologists are racing to battle a destructive new fruit fly that first appeared in Oregon last summer and quickly wiped out much of the late-season peach and berry crops.

US, UK Move Closer to Losing AAA Credit Rating -- The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Gender-Bender Chemicals are Turning Boys into Girls -- The report centers on chemicals like PVC, flame retardants, phthalates, dioxins, PCBs and bisphenol-A, all of which mimic the action of estrogen in the body. The researchers concluded that due to the prevalence of these chemicals, children could easily be exposed to high enough levels to place them at “critical risk” of harm.

Child Rape Charge Rocks TSA -- A Transportation Security Agency worker who pats down members of the flying public was charged with multiple child sex crimes targeting an underage girl yesterday.

Man in 'Freedom or Die' Shirt Told to Turn Inside Out at Airport -- London's Gatwick Airport has apologized after a man wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Freedom or Die" was asked to turn it inside-out because it could be threatening, a spokesman said Monday.

Corporpate Entity Becomes 'Candidate,' Kicks Off Bid -- "Until now, corporations only influenced politics with high-paid lobbyists and backroom deals," the company's YouTube account declares. "But today, thanks to an enlightened supreme court, corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us. That's why Murray Hill Incorporated is taking democracy's next step-- running for Congress."

Secretive Catholic Order Founded by Accused Pedophile Under Fire -- As sex abuse scandals rock the Vatican, the results of an investigation into a rich, ultra-conservative and secretive Roman Catholic order founded by a priest accused of pedophilia and incest are due to be filed in Rome tomorrow.

Proposal for European Monetary Fund Meets Resistance -- The German proposal to establish a European monetary fund ran into skepticism at home and abroad Tuesday, highlighting the political and legal hurdles that such an undertaking would face.

Panic in Georgia (the country) After Mock News Broadcast -- Some people placed emergency calls reporting heart attacks, others rushed in a panic to buy bread and residents of one border village staggered from their homes and dashed for safety — all after a television station in Georgia broadcast a mock newscast on Saturday night that pretended to report on a Russian invasion of the country. (WTH??)

US to Lobby for Endangered Species Listing for Polar Bear -- This time, the tale comes with an unexpected twist. This weekend, the US will warn that the threat from climate change to the survival of the polar bear is so great that the world must grant it the highest possible protection. (Pull the empathy card, uh huh.)

Cocaine Users 'Making Global Warming Worse' -- Group chairman Keith Vaz said: "We were horrified to learn for every few lines of cocaine snorted in a London club, four square metres of rainforest is destroyed." (Gimme a break!)

Central Figure in CDC Vaccine Cover-Up Absconds with $2 Million -- A central figure behind the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) claims disputing the link between vaccines and autism and other neurological disorders has disappeared after officials discovered massive fraud involving the theft of millions in taxpayer dollars. Danish police are investigating Dr. Poul Thorsen, who has vanished along with almost $2 million that he had supposedly spent on research.

New Syndrome Affecting Potentially Thousands of Hospital Patients -- Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a new syndrome affecting potentially thousands of hospital inpatients. Coined SHAKE (Supplement-associated Hyperammonemia After C(K)achetic Episode), the condition, which results in altered mental status and difficulty walking, can be prevented by excluding high protein dietary supplements in a patients' diet if they have experienced poor eating for more than a week prior to their admittance.

Hillary Rodham Clinton Contracts Purchases of $5.4 Million in Crystal Stemware for American Embassies to Swedish Firm -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's State Department is spending $5.4 million to buy fine crystal stemware for American embassies -- but it won't give the US economy much of a boost.

Google '99 Certain to Shut China Engine -- In a hardening of positions on both sides, the Chinese government also on Friday threw down a direct public challenge to the US search company, with a warning that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship to stop Google leaving.

China Trims Holdings of Treasury Securities -- China retained its spot as the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt in January although it trimmed its holdings for a third straight month. The string of declines are likely to underscore worries that the U.S. government could face much higher interest rates to finance soaring budget deficits.

NYT: Probe Finds Widespread US Fraud in Iraq -- Investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 new cases in six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions — involving banks, land deals, loan payments, casinos and even plastic surgery — made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion program.

Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants -- Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.

Banished! City Forbids Bible Studies in Homes -- The city of Gilbert, Ariz., has ordered a group of seven adults to stop gathering for Bible studies in a private home because such meetings are forbidden by the city's zoning codes.

NASA Finds Shrimp Dinner on Ice Beneath Antartica -- In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.

Dodd Unveils Bill That Puts Consumer Agency at Fed -- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Monday unveiled a bill to revamp U.S. financial rules that would place a consumer protection agency within the Federal Reserve and give the central bank new powers over non-bank financial firms.

International Community Seems to Be Comfortable with Afghan Drug Trafficking -- “There is nothing surprising about that. The USA refuses to destroy narcotic plantations in Afghanistan, and the effectiveness of the international cooperation in the destruction of the infrastructure of the Afghan drug production declines considerably,” the official said.

Is China's Politiburo Spoiling for a Showdown with America? -- Within a month the US Treasury must rule whether China is a "currency manipulator", triggering sanctions under US law. This has been finessed before, but we are in a new world now with America's U6 unemployment at 16.8pc.

To War, To War, America's Going to War with Iran -- At least it sure looks like it according to this news release. It seems that the United States has shipped 387 “Blu” bombs to a U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. These “Blu” bombs are used specifically for destroying hardened and underground structures (like, uh, alleged underground nuclear bomb facilities in Iran?).

Beck, Palin Kick Off 'Taking Our Country Back Tour' -- Conservative superstars Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck called for Americans to demand a smaller government that adheres to the principles of its founding fathers during a rally in downtown Tulsa on Saturday.

George Soros Conspires with United Nations to Kill Second Amendment -- In the video below, we learn that Rebecca Peters, director of of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), is working with the United Nations and governments around the world to grab guns. Peters and IANSA are funded by the globalist George Soros.


Today in History Monday March 15, 2010
1493 - Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first New World voyage.
1820 - Maine was admitted as the 23rd state of the Union.
1864 - Red River Campaign began as the Union forces reach Alexandria, LA.
1875 - The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal.
1892 - New York State unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.
1904 - Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
1907 - In Finland, woman won their first seats in the Finnish Parliament. They took their seats on May 23.
1909 - Italy proposed a European conference on the Balkans.
1910 - Otto Kahn offered $500,000 for a family portrait by Dutch artist Frans Hals. Kahn had outbid J.P. Morgan for the work.
1913 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson held the first open presidential news conference.
1916 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 troops, under General Pershing, over the border of Mexico to pursue bandit Pancho Villa. Mission failed.
1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated himself and his son. His brother Grand Duke succeeded as czar.
1919 - The American Legion was founded in Paris.
1922 - Fuad I assumed the title of king of Egypt after the country gained nominal independence from Britain.
1934 - Henry Ford restored the $5 a day wage.
1937 - In Chicago, IL, the first blood bank to preserve blood for transfusion by refrigeration was established at the Cook County Hospital.
1938 - Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.
1939 - German forces occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and part of Czechoslovakia.
1951 - General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.
1955 - The U.S. Air Force unveiled a self-guided missile.
1968 - The U.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling gold.
1977 - The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.
1985 - In Brazil, two decades of military rule came to an end with the installation of a civilian government.
1989 - The U.S. Food and Drug administration decided to impound all fruit imported from Chili after two cyanide-tainted grapes were found in Philadelphia.
1989 - The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.
1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
1991 - Four Los Angeles police officers were indicted in the beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton extended the moratorium on nuclear testing until September of 1995.
2002 - Libyan Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi began his life sentence in a Scottish jail for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 12/ 21/1988.
2002 - In the U.S., Burger King began selling a veggie burger. The event was billed as the first veggie burger to be sold nationally by a fast food chain.
2002 - In Texas, Andrea Yates received a life sentence for drowning her five children on June 20, 2001.
2002 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Associated Press that the U.S. would stand by a 24-year pledge not to use nuclear arms against states that don't have them.

Two Thoughts of the Day from our friend Mike Tawse in the UK -- True Belief In Freedom and Defend The Rights Of Others,

Fosamax, Actonel, Didronel & Boniva Linked To Esophageal Cancer -- According to the FDA, several osteoporosis drugs are now being linked with esophageal cancer. Among them are Merck & Company’s Fosamax, Proctor & Gamble’s Actonel and Didronel and Roche’s Boniva. Read More...

3 Banks failed this weekend -- Statewide Bank Covington LA - Old Southern Bank Orlando FL - The Park Avenue Bank
 * Related Website: Comptroller of the Currency -- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks. It also supervises the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the OCC has four district offices plus an office in London to supervise the international activities of national banks. Check out your bank!!

FDA targets processing of spices in bid to make supply safer -- Jeff Farrar, the FDA's associate commissioner for food safety, said the government wants the spice industry to do more to prevent contamination. That would include using one of three methods to rid spices of bacteria: irradiation, steam heating or fumigation with ethylene oxide, a pesticide.

US court rules again against vaccine-autism claims -- Vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal cannot cause autism on their own, a special U.S. court ruled on Friday, dealing one more blow to parents seeking to blame vaccines for their children's illness. The special U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that vaccines could not have caused the autism of an Oregon boy, William Mead, ending his family's quest for reimbursement. (and we're suppose to believe this)??????
 * Related Article: 3 Rulings Find No Link to Vaccines and Autism -- In a further blow to the antivaccine movement, three judges ruled Friday in three separate cases that thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury, does not cause autism.

US to Roll Out Major Broadband Policy -- U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours.

Ron Paul Defends Oath Keepers -- Ron Paul Defends Oath Keepers March 8, 2010 Newport Music Hall near Ohio State University.

Brain scan can read people's thoughts say researchers -- A scan of brain activity can effectively read a person's mind, researchers said Thursday. British scientists from University College London found they could differentiate brain activity linked to different memories and thereby identify thought patterns by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Prepare for What May Be the Largest Food Recall in American History -- A large batch of the flavor enhancer known as hydrolyzed vegetable protein or HVP, supplied by Basic Food Flavors, a North Las Vegas food ingredient company, was found to be laced with salmonella. Thus far, over one hundred products containing the ingredient have been recalled in both the U.S. and Canada. The company produces about 20 million pounds of the food additive annually. (Laced????)
 * List of items in HVP Recall

FEMA's Sale of Katrina Trailers Sparks Criticism -- Consumer advocates and environmentalists are outraged that the government resold products it deemed unsafe to live in, saying warning stickers attached to the units will not keep people from misusing them. Besides formaldehyde, units might be plagued by mold, mildew and propane gas leaks, FEMA acknowledged.

The Video That Will Put Geithner Behind Bars -- "If this doesn’t convince you that the Timothy Geithner knew about the securities shenanigans that were going on at Lehman, than I don’t know what will."

Drugs in Our Drinking Water -- No, not just fluoride, which is bad enough - much of our drinking water, in the U.S., Canada and U.K. at least, is contaminated with Prozac and a "vast array" of other drugs. And you wonder why everyone around is sleepwalking and/or sick?

Unemployment rate for young veterans hits 21.1 percent -- The unemployment rate last year for young veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars hit 21.1 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, reflecting a tough obstacle that combat veterans face as they make the transition home from war.

US Mercenaries Hired to Track and Kill Suspected Militants -- Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States. Read More...

Oh so stupid - Stinky Feet Plague Florida Airport Workers -- Security Personnel at Palm Beach International Airport Complain of Stench Left by Passengers' Bare Feet. (What did they expect)???

IPCC Rainforest Eco-tastrophe Claim Confirmed as Bunk -- The UN body came under attack earlier this year for suggesting that 40 per cent of the Amazonian rainforests – dubbed the “lungs of the planet” by some for their ability to turn CO2 into oxygen, and also seen as vital on biodiversity grounds – might disappear imminently. This disaster would be triggered, according to the IPCC’s assessment, by a relatively slight drop in rainfall of the sort to be expected in a warming world. Unfortunately it now appears that just such conditions have already occurred, and in fact the Amazonian jungles were unaffected.

Social Security to Start Cashing Uncle Sam's IOU's -- The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration. It's time to start cashing them in. (The death rattle of social security???)

Primary Schoolchildren in Tears After They are Told They Will Be Removed From Families As Part of Holocaust Game -- A group of stunned primary schoolchildren began crying when their teacher told them during a bizarre Holocaust game that they were to be taken away from their families.

IRS Visits Sacramento Carwash in Pursuit of Four Cents -- The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff’s on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was … 4 cents. Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv’s with an obligation of $202.35. (Another "Oh so STUPID" story)

Search for Death Star That Throws Out Deadly Comets -- Nasa scientists are searching for an invisible 'Death Star' that circles the Sun, which catapults potentially catastrophic comets at the Earth.

Putin in Deal to Build Nuclear Reactors for India -- India and Russia today signed a nuclear co-operation agreement, which paves the way for the building of about a dozen nuclear reactors in India, with Russian help, over the next few decades.

Forests are a Planetary Asset and No Longer the Concern of Individual Countries -- The conference, with closed-door working groups, is looking to translate measures adopted at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in December into concrete mechanisms - and funds. World Bank representatives and lending nations were also attending the meeting.

Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest -- Gerstein posts a televised interview of Obama and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted. The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime. (Can anyone say 'police state'?)

Mexican Military Copter Over US Neighborhood -- The Zapata County sheriff Thursday was questioning why a Mexican military helicopter was hovering over homes on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

Pentagon Gun was from Tenn. Police -- Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.

China Wants US Reassurance Over Dollar -- China's premier expressed concern about the U.S. dollar and called on Washington on Sunday to take "concrete steps" to reassure Beijing about the safety of its huge Treasury bond holdings.

Arrogant Senator Marsh Spits in the Eye of a Virginia Giant -- The controversy began when Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax) and Courts of Justice Chairman Henry Marsh (D-Richmond) created a special subcommittee to consider several gun bills passed by the Republican-controlled House, including an attempt to repeal Virginia’s ban on buying more than one handgun a month.

Americans Are Still 21 Percent Poorer Than Before the Recession -- Even with the gain, Americans' net worth would have to rise an additional 21 percent to get back to its pre-recession peak of $65.9 trillion. That shows the vast loss of wealth people have suffered from the worst downturn since the 1930s.

Detroit Family Homes Sell for Just $10 -- He said there were homes on the market for $100 (£61), but an offer of just $10 (£6) would be likely to be accepted.

Underwater Homeowners Leave Behind Mortgages, but Lenders Can Still Come Calling -- People are walking away from their mortgages by the thousands, making a financial decision that it's better to take the hit on their credit score than try to recover $300,000 of negative equity on a $600,000 home purchased at the peak of the housing bubble. They're called "strategic defaults."

Massachusetts SIC Rules 2nd Amendment Does Not Apply to States -- The right to bear arms as defined in the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, so Massachusetts can regulate who can have firearms and how those weapons are to be stored, the state's high court ruled Wednesday.

Girls Scouts Distribute Planned Parenthood Sex Guide at UN Meeting -- The World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides hosted a no-adults-welcome panel at the United Nations this week where Planned Parenthood was allowed to distribute a brochure entitled “Healthy, Happy and Hot.” The event was part of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which concludes this week. (Oh my gosh - people should be outraged at this?? Is this how we want our girls to act and behave??)

Georgia Considers Outlawing Abortions Based on Race -- Are health care providers using abortion to curb the growth of the U.S. black population? That question will be at heart of a debate among Georgia lawmakers, who are poised to take up a controversial bill that would outlaw abortions prompted by the baby's race or gender.

Big Ax Looming at the New York City Fire Department: Threat of 1,000 Layoffs, Closing of 62 Companies -- The department will be forced to close a staggering 62 fire companies and lay off more than 1,000 firefighters if the bad-news state budget becomes reality, Commissioner Salvatore Cassano told the City Council Wednesday.

Weight Watchers Says Eat at McDonalds to Lose Weight -- Weight Watchers has now officially endorsed Chicken McNuggets as a "healthy meal" in New Zealand, where McDonald's restaurants will begin carrying the Weight Watchers logo on several menu items.

Free Greg Caton from FDA Tyranny -- Herbalist Greg Caton remains under arrest in the United States after having been illegally kidnapped and extradited from Ecuador by the FDA. He faces a hearing on March 17th in a Louisiana court, and he needs your help.
 * Related Article: FDA dupes Interpol to achieve illegal kidnapping and deportation of herbal formulator Greg Caton

Suit grows out of florists law -- In Louisiana, you don't need a license to peddle pets, paintings or cars — but sell no flowers. A 7-decades-old state law requires florists to pass a test and get a license to arrange and sell flowers, making Louisiana the only state in the USA with such a requirement. Supporters of the law say it ensures florists know what they're doing and deliver quality products.


Today in History Friday March 12, 2010
1789 - The U.S. Post Office was established.
1809 - Britain signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French to leave the country.
1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.
1863 - President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
1889 - Almon B. Stowger applied for a patent for his automatic telephone system.
1894 - Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time.
1904 - After 30 years of drilling, the tunnel under the Hudson River was completed. The link was between Jersey City, NJ, and New York, NY.
1909 - The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.
1909 - Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.
1912 - The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides.
1923 - Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated phonofilm. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the "Fireside Chats."
1940 - Finland surrendered to Russia ending the Russo-Finnish War.
1944 - Britain barred all travel to Ireland.
1947 - U.S. President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
1959 - The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.
1966 - Bobby Hull, of the Chicago Blackhawks, became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 51 points in a single season.
1974 - "Wonder Woman" debuted on ABC-TV. The show later went to CBS-TV.
1980 - In Chicago, IL, a jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys.
1984 - Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war.
1985 - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.
1985 - Larry Bird, of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, scored a club-record 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks.
1985 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.
1989 - About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.
1992 - Mauritius became a republic but remained a member of the British Commonwealth.
1993 - In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.
1993 - Several bombs were set of in Bombay, India. About 300 were killed and hundreds more were injured.
1993 - Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.
1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster was confirmed to be a hoax. The photo was taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached.
1994 - The Church of England ordained its first women priests.
1997 - Police in Los Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev for the shooting of Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis. He was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
2002 - In Houston, Andrea Yates was convicted of murdering her five children in the family bathtub.
2002 - U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.
2002 - Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed merger worth $15.6 billion.
2003 - In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.
2003 - The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.
2004 - In Spain, millions of people marched to protest train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people the day before.
2009 - It was announced that the Sear Tower in Chicago, IL, would be renamed Willis Tower.

NYC to pay up to $657M to settle WTC health cases -- A settlement that could pay up to $657.5 million to more than 10,000 ground zero rescue and recovery workers sickened by dust from the destroyed World Trade Center goes before a judge Friday, and he has said he favored a settlement but planned to analyze it carefully to make sure it was fair.

Dept of Education buying shotguns!! -- The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts. The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.

CDC uses shopper-card data to trace salmonella -- As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time — the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.

Fed. appeals court upholds 'under God' in pledge -- A federal appeals court upheld the use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments Thursday that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.

Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors -- A little–noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old.

New Zealand's internet filter goes live -- New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs' (DIA) internet filter is now operational and is being used by ISPs Maxnet and Watchdog. "Filtering out child pornography is also very much in line with our company values -- our customers would be disappointed to hear if we weren't participating. So participation for us has always been a no-brainer."

Internet helped Flight 253 suspect radicalize, attack plane 'within weeks' -- The Internet allowed extremists to contact, recruit, train and equip the suspect responsible for the attempted Flight 253 bombing on Christmas Day "within weeks," a top Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday.

Iran Said to Deploy For Gulf Attack -- Iran was said to have been deploying a range of naval assets for a massive strike on its Gulf neighbors.

IF You Are Going To "Demonstrate".... -- Then aim your "demonstrating" at the people who are bankrupting your state - and you personally. I speak specifically of people such as those that The Daily Illini pointed out - all employees for the University of Illinois. Let's see what we have here....The head of the football team - the coach - makes $1 million. For coaching a college football team. (Seems to be the ways things go today - mega bucks for ball players and college professionals that teach nothing).

Gates Clarifies US Iran Policy in Riyadh After Biden Fails in Israel -- US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Riyadh Wednesday, March 10, flying in unexpectedly from Kabul in Afghanistan, after the Saudis demanded urgent clarifications of the Obama administration's Iran policy. debkafile's military sources report that the demand followed the failure of US Vice President Joe Biden's talks with Israeli leaders to resolve their differences on Iran.

Final 'Reform' Push: Twisting Arms -- President Obama's attempts to ram health- care reform through an increasingly reluctant Congress are starting to resemble a really eventful episode of "The Sopranos."

Fox News on 'Swinging' -- “Swinging saves you from cheating – there’s no lies and deception. It’s letting people have the variety they crave, but their partners get to have power and choice in the matter.”

DHS: Cell-All: Super Smartphones that Sniff Out Suspicious Substances -- When a threat is sensed, a virtual ah-choo! ensues in one of two ways. For personal safety issues such as a chlorine gas leak, a warning is sounded; the user can choose a vibration, noise, text message, or phone call. For catastrophes such as a sarin gas attack, details—including time, location, and the compound—are phoned home to an emergency operations center. (Knowing that this was spearheaded by Dept. of Homeland Security - one has to wonder what they are up to??? Could it be more false flags that will make everyone paranoid?)

Obama Relies on a 'Spiritual Cabinet' for Prayer, Inspiration -- President Obama, who rarely attends public church services, turns often to a wide range of Baptists, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews for prayer and spiritual and moral discussion, according to a new report.

Scientists Reveal Negative Impact of Roundup Ready GM Crops -- Five studies published in the October 2009 issue of The European Journal of Agronomy reveal the negative impacts of using Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, a formula developed specifically for the company’s line of genetically modified (GM) “Roundup Ready” crops. The papers, which were not released in the United States, offer a solid indictment against GM crops and the plight of using the Roundup herbicide.

Inside Norway's 'Doomsday Vault' -- In a remote mountainside on the Norwegian tundra sits the "doomsday vault," a backup against disaster -- manmade or otherwise. Inside lives the last hope should the unthinkable occur: a global seedbank that could be used to replant the world.

Review of UN Panel's Report on Climate Change Won't Reexamine Errors -- An outside review of a U.N. panel -- promised after flaws were uncovered in the panel's most recent report on climate change -- will not recheck that report's conclusions and will instead focus on improving procedures for the future, officials said Wednesday.

Subprime Lending Crisis: Auto Loans Thrive, Housing Down -- The financial crisis was supposed to ring the death knell for companies that make loans to people who have had problems with debt. But a year and a half later, so-called subprime lending is alive and well.

World Airlines See Blues Skies Ahead -- Global airlines are undergoing a surprisingly strong recovery with Asian and Latin American carriers leading the way, the leading industry group said Thursday as it halved its loss forecast for 2010 to $2.8 billion. (Maybe in their dreams.)

Animal Suicide Sheds Light on Human Behavior -- Whether it's a grieving dog, a depressed horse or even a whale mysteriously beaching itself, there is a long history of animals behaving suicidally, behavior that can help explain human suicide, says newly published research.

Mystery as Scores of Starlings Fall Out of the Sky and lay Dying -- It was like a grisly scene from a horror film. On Sunday night, over a quiet Somerset house, scores of swooping starlings tumbled out of the sky and fell, dead, into a single front garden. Covering an area 12ft across, more than 100 birds carpeted the garden, each with blood oozing from its beak and curled up claws. (Gosh, are they playing with their scalar weapons?)

Billionaires and Mega-Corporations Behind Immense Land Grab in Africa -- Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13-million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 7.5 million acres of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world's most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.

Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Breast Augmentation -- The U.S. military keeps plastic surgeons on the payroll to help restore those soldiers badly wounded during their service. But in some cases the doctors are performing cosmetic surgeries and letting the government pay for it.

French Bread Spiked with LSD in CIA Experiment -- For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War. (Mystery solved!)

Nationwide Strike Brings Greece to Standstill -- Public and private sector unions ground flights and halt services in a second national strike against government plans to cut spending and raise taxes to shrink the huge deficit and get Greece's faltering economy back on track. (Please remember the National strike in America next month - listen to The Power Hour for updates from Karen Tostado!)

NSA Communication System Interfering with Garage Door Openers -- Thinking he might be closing in on an answer, Lopez called the office of Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, who was hearing complaints, too. Gonzalez called the NSA, which acknowledged that a Land Mobile Radio antenna used by construction and security personnel at the NSA site was operating on a radio frequency also used by many garage door manufacturers. It turned out the same problem had arisen near federal facilities elsewhere.

Parents Angry Over CCTV In School Toilets -- Outraged parents have hit out at a school in Birmingham after pupils discovered CCTV cameras in the school's toilets.

US Monthly Budget Deficit Balloons to a Record $651.60 Billion -- The U.S. government ran its largest ever monthly budget deficit in February as the country's fiscal year-to-date deficit ballooned more than 10% to a record of $651.60 billion. (YIKES!)

Bowles Says "We're Going to Mess with Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid -- Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the commission on U.S. deficit reduction, said entitlement programs such as Social Security will turn the nation into a “second- rate power” if their costs aren’t reduced.

Brain Scan Can Read People's Thoughts -- A SCAN of brain activity can effectively read a person's mind, researchers say.

Detroit Attempts to Sell $250 Million In Bonds Without Financial Disclosure Via Goldman -- Here comes the first municipal Hail Mary: Detroit is attempting to sell $250 million in debt, while disclosing in the associated prospectus of the possibility of filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

Minneapolis Schools Remain On Lockdown Thursday -- Minneapolis Public Schools remain on lockdown after an Internet threat raised suspicious Wednesday morning.

Gov't Plan Mandate 'Low-Flow' Xboxes and PS3's -- Even when we're not playing, millions of us are using more electricity on our Xboxes, PlayStations and other gaming gizmos than on appliances like refrigerators and washing machines. And Congress and the Obama administration may be ready to do something about it.

VIDEO: Message from Judge Napolitano

Oregon Dept. of Pre-Crime Detains Man for Mental Health Evaluation After Buying Guns -- Concerns about an Oregon Department of Transportation employee who purchased several guns after being placed on leave prompted law enforcement across Southern Oregon to step in. Negotiators and a SWAT team from Medford police safely took a man — whose name wasn’t released — into protective custody Monday morning in the 500 block of Effie Street, Medford police said in a news release. (SHEESH!)

Congress, Ariz. School District Sues Taxpayers to Stop Questions -- A handful of taxpayers in a small community north of Wickenburg, Arizona are being targeted by the local school district in a lawsuit that asks a judge to declare they have no right to request public records, sue the district, or complain to outside agencies.


Today in History Thursday March 11, 2010
1861 - A Confederate Convention was held in Montgomery, Alabama, where a new constitution was adopted.
1865 - Union General William Sherman and his forces occupied Fayetteville, NC.
1888 - The "Blizzard of '88" began along the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard shutting down communication and transportation lines. More than 400 people died.
1901 - Britain rejected an amended treaty to the canal agreement with Nicaragua.
1901 - U.S. Steel was formed when industrialist J.P. Morgan purchased Carnegie Steep Corp. The event made Andrew Carnegie the world's richest man.
1905 - The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated.
1907 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt induced California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
1927 - Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened the famous Roxy Theatre in New York City.
1927 - The Flatheads Gang stole $104,250 in the first armored-car robbery near Pittsburgh, PA.
1930 - Babe Ruth signed a two-year contract with the New York Yankees for the sum of $80,000.
1930 - U.S. President Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
1935 - The German Air Force became an official organ of the Reich.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the act of providing war supplies to the Allies.
1964 - U.S. Senator Carl Hayden broke the record for continuous service in the U.S. Senate. He had worked 37 years and seven days.
1965 - The American navy began inspecting Vietnamese junks in an effort to end arms smuggling to the South.
1965 - The Rev. James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died after being beaten by whites during a civil rights disturbances in Selma, Alabama.
1966 - Three men were convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.
1969 - Levi-Strauss started selling bell-bottomed jeans.
1977 - More than 130 hostages held in Washington, DC, by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.
1978 - Palestinian guerrillas on the Tel Aviv Haifa highway killed 34 Israelis.
1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev was named the new chairman of the Soviet Communist Party.
1986 - Popsicle announced its plan to end the traditional twin-stick frozen treat for a one-stick model.
1988 - A cease-fire was declared in the war between Iran and Iraq.
1990 - Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. It was the first Soviet republic to break away from Communist control.
1990 - In Chile, Patricio Aylwin was sworn in as the first democratically elected president since 1973.
1991 - In South Africa a curfew was imposed on black townships after fighting between political gangs had left 49 dead.
1992 - Former U.S. President Nixon said that the Bush administration was not giving enough economic aid to Russia.
1993 - Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the first female attorney general.
1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty refusing to open sites for inspection.
1994 - In Chile, Eduardo Frei was sworn in as President. It was the first peaceful transfer of power in Chile since 1970.
1997 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant caused 35 workers to be exposed to low levels of radioactivity. The incident was the worst in Japan's history.
1998 - The International Astronomical Union issued an alert that said that a mile-wide asteroid could come very close to, and possibly hit, Earth on Oct. 26, 2028. The next day NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that there was no chance the asteroid would hit Earth.
2002 - Two columns of light were pointed skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
2003 - Fort Drum, NY, 11 troops were killed and two were injured during a training mission when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed.
2004 - In Madrid, Spain, several coordinated bombing attacks on commuter trains killed at least 190 people and injured more than 2,000.

Thought For The Day from our friend Mike Tawse in the UK -- It Is Necessary To Change Your Mind

Amish farmer wins livestock registration case -- An Amish farmer in Clark County, Wisconsin has won his fight against the state's livestock registration law, which he argued violates his religious beliefs. Read More...

Bank of America sued for seizing parrot -- Bank of America has apologised to a woman in Pennsylvania after one of its contractors entered her house, damaged furniture and confiscated her parrot. A BoA spokesman said it had erroneously believed Ms Iannelli was defaulting on her mortgage and the house was vacant. Forty-six-year-old Angela Iannelli sued the bank Monday. She claims her mortgage was up-to-date when one of the banking giant's contractors damaged furniture, took her pet parrot, Luke, and padlocked her Allison Park door in October.

Airlines Will Cancel Flights to Avoid Risk of Fines for Delays -- Several airlines, including Fort Worth-based American and Houston-based Continental, say they will cancel flights rather than risk paying stiff penalties for delaying passengers on the runway.

Citibank exposes 600,000 customers' Social Security numbers -- In late January, Citibank mailed year-end tax statements to 600,000 Citi customers via the U.S. Postal Service that included the customers' Social Security numbers ... on the outside of the envelope. Citi called the mistake a "processing error." (WHAT!? A processing 'mistake?')

Canadian dollar likely to trump US greenback says experts -- The Canadian dollar, or loonie as it is affectionately called here, is likely to soar above parity with the US greenback this year, experts at a Canadian bank said Wednesday.

Hundreds pack raw milk hearing in Eau Claire -- Hundreds of raw milk advocates packed a legislative hearing Wednesday, demanding the right to buy and sell unpasteurized dairy products that some claim have powerful health benefits but that detractors call dangerous. Raw milk advocates want the law changed, saying consumers should be able to decide whether the health benefits of drinking unpasteurized milk outweigh the risks. "It is not the role of the state to protect people by eliminating all risks and intruding unnecessarily into their lives," testified Margo Redmond, a raw milk consumer from Madison. "Please don't protect me from myself, telling me what I can and cannot drink."

Father caught in legal morass dies of pneumonia -- Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are medical conditions. But combative patients can find themselves placed by the courts into mental health facilities. Even near the end of Richard Petersen's life, his family was almost left in the dark. They had been notified earlier Tuesday that he was going to be released from the county mental health facility and placed at Waukesha Memorial Hospital, where a bed in a behavioral unit had become available. It was only when one of his daughters called the county mental health facility that the family learned his condition had worsened.
 * Related Article: 3 daughters battle health system, legal maze as father fights Alzheimer’s

Alphabetic Index of Websites of the United Nations System of Organizations -- Thanks to Bill Mauldin!

'Jihad Jane' : Arrest of Colleen LaRose Raises Fears About Homegrown Terrorists -- The arrest of a suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias Jihad Jane, who allegedly plotted with Islamic radicals abroad to kill a Swedish cartoonist, has raised fears about homegrown terrorists in the United States who may be difficult to spot.

Obama Calls 'Entrepreneurship Summit' with Muslims -- In the closely watched address, Obama said the United States was seeking a "new beginning" with the Islamic world to rebuild relations that had sharply deteriorated over the past decade. (Yet they continue to call everyone 'terrorists.')

Silver Bullet from US States Kills 'Mandatory' Obamacare -- At least 36 state legislatures are considering legislation that would allow citizens to opt out of a key component of President Obama's health-care "reform" – an "individual mandate" requiring that all Americans have health insurance.

Obama Using 'Bounty Hunters' to Root Out Fraud -- The bounty hunters in this case would be private auditors armed with sophisticated computer programs to scan Medicare and Medicaid billing data for patterns of bogus claims. The auditors would get to keep part of any funds they recover for the government. The White House said a pilot program run by Medicare in California, New York and Texas recouped $900 million for taxpayers from 2005-2008.

Texas Textbook Wars Would Affect All of Our Nations Students -- The Texas State Board of Education is considering history curriculum standards that would change the way certain events are taught to children – if they are taught at all.

Increased Seismic Activity Near South Iceland Volvcano -- After decreasing seismic trends in the past days, earthquakes are growing in strength and number in the area around Eyjafjallajökull glacier, which covers an active volcano, in south Iceland.

Israel Warns That 'Bad Options' are Nearing -- UNITED NATIONS — The two "bad options" for Iran — letting the country develop nuclear weapons or using force to destroy its nuclear capabilities — are closer than they were a year ago, Israel's U.N. ambassador warned Tuesday.

Sun Begins New Solar Cycle, Flinging Radiation at the Earth -- As a new solar cycle of activity begins this year, the Earth will once again be bombarded with increased radiation from the sun. This effect may damage satellites and interfere with GPS, television and communications.

Cell-Phone Radiation Health Warning Alarm Spurs Studies -- In March, Maine's legislature will begin debating a bill she submitted that would require manufacturers to put a warning label on every cell phone sold in the state declaring, "This device emits electromagnetic radiation, exposure to which may cause brain cancer."

Inside the Cat and Dog Meat Market in China -- But these local restaurants may have to find a new specialty. The Chinese government is considering legislation that would make eating cats and dogs illegal.

LHC to Shut Down for a Year To Address Design Faults -- The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) must close at the end of 2011 for up to a year to address design issues, according to an LHC director. (Oh something isn't right, but don't shut it down for over a year, then we'll fix it?)

The Mayor of Detroit's Radical Plan To Bulldoze One Quarter of the City -- So his plan is to bulldoze approximately 10,000 houses and empty buildings over the next 3 years and direct new investment into stronger neighborhoods.  In the areas that the city plans to bulldoze, the residents would be offered the opportunity to relocate to a better area.  For buildings that have already been abandoned, the city could simply use tax foreclosure proceedings to reclaim them.  Of course if there were some residents that did not want to move, eminent domain could be used to force them out.

US Housing Giants Are City-Sized Property Owners -- It’s a tiny part of their operations for now. But if the housing market doesn’t turn around soon, they could find themselves reluctantly managing more properties. And no-one expected — or wants — Fannie and Freddie to become giant public sector landlords.

US Cap and Trade Rebranded Pollution Reduction -- Like a savvy Madison Avenue advertising team, senators pushing climate-control legislation have decided to scrap the name "cap and trade" and rebrand their product as "pollution reduction targets."

Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control -- The Pacific Coast Leaders signed two action plans. The first being- Innovation, the Environment and the Economy which, “sets out a series of co-operative initiatives to promote renewable and low-carbon energy and energy conservation, including developing Interstate 5/Highway 99 as a green transportation corridor. It also promotes development of high-speed rail from San Diego to Vancouver and the move to ‘Green Ports’ through co-operation to reduce local air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.” (Oh my gosh!! This is NAU with a heaping addition of Agenda 21!)

Four Bronx Buddies Facing Year in Jail After Hitting Off-Duty Transit Cop - With a Snowball! -- Four Bronx buddies are facing a year in jail for criminal possession of a weapon - a snowball that hit an off-duty transit cop.

Chief Exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth Says Devil is in the Vatican -- Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".

Drudge Report Malware Accusations Coincides With Cybersecurity Agenda -- Democrats in the Senate are attempting to scare people away from alternative news websites by falsely claiming the sites contain dangerous software viruses.

FCC May Set Aside Free Wireless Spectrum for Internet Broadband -- Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn during a speech at the Digital Inclusion Summit suggested that the FCC may look at some wireless spectrum being set aside for at little or no cost for anyone’s use.

Billboard Watches You Shop -- Cameras in the advert hoardings identify the age and sex of passers-by then display relevant products.

Minneapolis Schools on Lockdown Amid Internet Threat -- All schools across the busy midwestern US city of Minneapolis were put on lockdown early Wednesday after a vague threat was posted on two social networking sites, a spokeswoman said. The lockdown, which affected around 50 schools in the Minneapolis public school district, meant children were told to remain in their classrooms while access to outside visitors was strictly limited.

VIDEO: Ron Paul on National ID Issue -- states clearly that there may be a GPS Chip in them! Must hear!!!

VIDEO: Will Nancy Pelosi bring health care to vote by March 18?

Riots in Athens As Thousands Protest Against Cutbacks -- Masked youths stoned police outside Greece’s parliament today in protest at cutbacks proposed to try to end the country’s debt crisis.

Federally Funded Ticketing Blitz in Virginia -- A federally funded ticketing blitz in the state of Virginia landed a total of 6996 traffic tickets this weekend. The blitz, dubbed “Operation Air, Land & Speed” coincided with frantic efforts by state officials to close a$2.2 billion budget deficit.

Stop The Federal Reserve From Shredding Its Records -- Should the policymaking committee of the most powerful peacetime entity in the United States government be allowed to destroy their source records? The Federal Open Market Committee of the nation’s central bank, an intricate part of the United States government may be continuing to destroy its source records, a policy it began in 1995 with an unrecorded vote -no fingerprints – conducted by then Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens Reveals Method for Reversing Diabetes with Raw Living Foods -- In this audio interview, you'll hear Dr. Cousens describe why and how consuming raw foods really works to initiate dramatic reductions in fasting blood sugar levels, effectively reversing diabetes in a matter of just a few weeks. (Of course The Power Hour Listeners already know this)!!

Moviegoer Tells California Woman to Stop Talking On Cell Phone, Gets Stabbed in the Neck -- The woman's boyfriend allegedly attacked and stabbed the "shusher" in the neck with a meat thermometer.

Hormone replacement therapy now linked to cataracts -- For decades, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was pushed by the medical establishment as a kind of youth elixir that offered all sorts of remarkable benefits. Take the hormones Big Pharma concocts from pregnant horses' urine and chemicals and middle-aged and older women would supposedly have better sex lives, fewer wrinkles, protection from heart attacks and no more hot flashes. Only, it was all a huge myth.
 

Today in History Wednesday March 10, 2010
1776 - "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine was published.
1785 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin.
1792 - John Stone patented the pile driver.
1804 - The formal ceremonies transferring the Louisiana Purchase from France to the U.S. took place in St. Louis.
1814 - In France, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by a combined Allied Army at the battle of Laon.
1848 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war with Mexico.
1849 - Abraham Lincoln applied for a patent for a device to lift vessels over shoals by means of inflated cylinders.
1864 - Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union armies in the U.S. Civil War.
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful call with the telephone. He spoke the words "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
1880 - The Salvation Army arrived in the U.S. from England.
1893 - New Mexico State University canceled its first graduation ceremony because the only graduate was robbed and killed the night before.
1903 - In New York's harbor, the disease-stricken ship Karmania was quarantined with six dead from cholera.
1912 - China became a republic after the overthrow of the Manchu Ch'ing Dynasty.
1924 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a New York state law forbidding late-night work for women.
1927 - Prussia lifted its Nazi ban allowing Adolf Hitler to speak in public.
1933 - Nevada became the first U.S. state to regulate drugs.
1945 - American B-29 bombers attacked Tokyo, Japan, 100,000 were killed.
1947 - The Big Four met in Moscow to discuss the future of Germany.
1969 - James Earl Ray pled guilty in Memphis, TN, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray later repudiated the guilty plea and maintained his innocence until his death in April of 1998.
1971 - The U.S. Senate approved an amendment to lower the voting age to 18.
1975 - The North Vietnamese Army attacked the South Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thout.
1980 - Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, lent his support to the militants holding American hostages in Tehran.
1987 - The Vatican condemned surrogate parenting as well as test-tube and artificial insemination.
1991 - "Phase Echo" began. It was the operation to withdraw 540,000 U.S. troops from the Persian Gulf region.
1994 - White House officials began testifying before a federal grand jury about the Whitewater controversy.
1995 - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher told Yasser Arafat that he must do more to curb Palestinian terrorists.
1998 - U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf began receiving the first vaccinations against anthrax.
2003 - North Korea test-fired a short-range missile. The event was one of several in a patter of unusual military maneuvers.

Limbaugh ‘leaving the country’ if health reform passes -- The decidedly non-liberal Rush Limbaugh has made a move, telling his audience he will move to Costa Rica if health care reform becomes law. And now the only question that remains is whether Limbaugh will make good on his word, or join the ranks of the empty-promisers.

Radio legend George Noory to run for president?? -- Among the possible candidates is Coast to Coast AM radio talk-show host George Noory, who told WND right away that there would be no questions about his eligibility as there are about Obama's qualifications under the Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural born citizen."

South Korea does what the US refuses to do: Restrict junk food advertising to children -- The health ministry of South Korea has announced that advertisements for foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt, will be limited during the prime time television hours of 5 and 7 p.m. and during any children's programming. In support of national efforts to curb childhood obesity, the limitations will include foods such as hamburgers, instant noodles, and pizza as well as desserts like chocolate, candy, and ice cream.

'Jihad Jane's' Arrest Raises Concern About Homegrown Terrorists -- Experts Say Suburban Pennsylvania Woman Was Easy to Find but There Could be More Like Her. The arrest of a suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias Jihad Jane, who allegedly plotted with Islamic radicals abroad to kill a Swedish cartoonist, has raised concerns about homegrown terrorists in the United States who may be difficult to spot.

Researchers back cancer-fighting properties of papaya -- Researchers said Tuesday that papaya leaf extract and its tea have dramatic cancer-fighting properties against a broad range of tumors, backing a belief held in a number of folk traditions.

Chevron shedding 2,000 jobs -- Chevron Corp. said today it will cut 2,000 jobs this year and sell some overseas operations as it revamps its struggling refinery, marketing and transportation operations. The job cuts represent almost 12 percent of its 17,000 workers in the so-called downstream part of its business and just over 3 percent of its overall work force.

UK: Patients' medical records go online without consent -- At present 1.29 million people have had their details placed on the system. A further 8.9 million records are due to be added by June. Doctors have accused the Government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object.

SENATE WARNS EMPLOYEES TO AVOID THE DRUDGE REPORT -- Just as the healthcare drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT! The Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is 'responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.' Seems like a lot of folks in government read visit the Drudge website - The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]

2 of the oldest people in US die: in NH 114, Mich. 113 -- Two of the oldest people in the world have died on the same day. Mary Josephine Ray, who was certified as the oldest person living in the United States, died Sunday at age 114 years, 294 days. Daisey Bailey, who was 113 years, 342 days passed away the very same day. "It's very rare that two of our supercentenarians die on the same day."

Microsoft warns of new IE bug; attacks under way -- Microsoft Corp. warns of a critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer that is already being exploited by hackers; it was the company's second such admission in the past two months.Internet Explorer 6 and its 2006 successor, IE7, contain a vulnerability that can be used by attackers to inject malicious code into a Windows PC. The oldest and newest of Microsoft's supported browsers, IE 5.01 and IE8, respectively, are not vulnerable to such attacks.

Israeli Banks Urge America Clients to Close Israeli Accounts -- Obedient to intensifying U.S. government pressure to crack down on offshore tax evaders, in January Israeli banks began ordering clients they identify as "Americans" or "U.S. tax residents" to close investment accounts they hold in Israel. It is apparently an anticipatory measure, ahead of changes in U.S. law. Local banks are apparently responding to changes in American regulations as their legal counsels interpret them.

Tom Delay: People Are Unemployed Because They Want to Be -- Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay called Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) "brave" on Sunday for launching a one-man filibuster of unemployment benefits, arguing that they dissuaded people from going out and finding work. (One has to wonder if he has tried to find a job that you make enough money to pay for the gas??)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy. Furthermore, we believe that health care reform, again I said at the beginning of my remarks, that we sent the three pillars that the President’s economic stabilization and job creation initiatives were education and innovation—innovation begins in the classroom—clean energy and climate, addressing the climate issues in an innovative way to keep us number one and competitive in the world with the new technology, and the third, first among equals I may say, is health care, health insurance reform. (Um, what happened to transparency BEFORE anything was passed? Guess they forget that.)
 * RELATED: VIDEO: Pelosi: we have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it.

FDIC: Hackers took more than $120M in three months -- Ongoing computer scams targeting small businesses cost U.S. companies $25 million in the third quarter of 2009, according to the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Online banking fraud involving the electronic transfer of funds has been on the rise since 2007 and rose to over $120 million in the third quarter of 2009, according to estimates presented Friday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, by David Nelson, an examination specialist with the FDIC.

Dire Warning: Israel Must Strike Iran Now -- The only action that can stop Iran from building nuclear weapons is an Israeli strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities, argued John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under the Bush administration.

Proof That 911 Truthers Are Dangerous -- (Read carefully as the title is a bit misleading) - Most Americans don't know what kind of people 9/11 truthers really are. So they can't figure out whether or not they are dangerous. Below is a list of people who question what our Government has said about 9/11. The list proves - once and for all - that people who question 9/11 are dangerous. Email this list to everyone you know, to prove to them that 9/11 truthers are all dangerous nut cases.

Cyberwar Declared as China Hunts for West's Intelligence Secrets -- Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China.

Massa: Rahm Emanuel "Would Sell His Own Mother for Votes" -- "Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn, Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) said. "He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."

Vitamin D 'Triggers and Arms' the Immune System -- The so-called sunshine vitamin, which can be obtained from food or manufactured by human skin exposed to the sun, plays a key role in boosting the immune system, researchers believe.

First Big Twister of Season Destroys Five Homes in Oklahoma -- Five homes were destroyed and several others damaged Monday when a tornado passed through Hammon in Roger Mills County, authorities reported. The storm also destroyed a county barn and caused other debris about 6 p.m.

Chile Quake Moved the Earth 10 Feet -- This is the preliminary solution obtained by Project CAP (Central and Southern Andes GPS Project) for the coseismic displacement field associated with the recent M 8.8 Maule earthquake in south-central Chile. Peak measured displacement is 3.04 m near the city of Concepcion, Chile. Significant displacements are evident as far east as Buenos Aires, Argentina (2-4 cm) and as far north as the Chilean border with Peru.

High Waves Wound 5 on Cruise Ship -- In the Strait of Gibraltar is a cruise ship struck again yesterday by high waves.

Dark Magnetic Filament Curling Over Sun -- For the 4th day in a row, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is tracking a dark magnetic filament curling over the sun's northeastern limb.

Poll Shows Obama, Dems Losing Ground -- The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin -- 51 percent to 41 percent -- Americans think the standing of the U.S. dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama's presidency.

How Long Can You Live Without Food? -- Although not as critical as going without water, missing even just a few meals can cause a host of undesirable complications for the would-be survivor. Although we will not starve while going without food for several days or even a week, being underfed for even just one day can cause.

Water is Life, Not a Commodity -- WWC's agenda is profits through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) wanting to privatize global water resources, sell them to the highest bidder, promote destructive dam and water diversion projects, extort high prices, and make an element of life available only to those who can afford it.

New Zealand Woman Sells Souls to Highest Bidder -- She said they were the spirits of an old man who lived in the house during the 1920s, and a powerful, disruptive little girl who turned up after a session with a spirit-calling Ouija board. Since an exorcism at the property last July led to their capture, there has been no further spooky activity in the house, she said.

US Slams Jerusalem Housing Plan -- "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem. The substance and timing of the announcement ... is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel," Biden said in a statement issued by his office Tuesday afternoon.

New Regulations Will Ban Sport Fishing -- Obama’s latest assault on your rights – He wants to ban sport fishing.

Europe Bars Wall Street Banks From Government Bond Sales -- European countries are blocking Wall Street banks from lucrative deals to sell government debt worth hundreds of billions of euros in retaliation for their role in the credit crunch.

Don't Blame Fast Food For Making You Fat -- Because there's probably more at work here than just calories in/calories out. More and more research is indicating that America's obesity crisis can't be blamed entirely on too much fast food and too little exercise. (Or on these seven habits of highly obese people.) A third factor may be in play: a class of natural and synthetic chemicals known as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), or as researchers have begun to call them, obesogens.

Failed Banks May Get Pension-Fund Backing as FDIC Seeks Cash -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to encourage public retirement funds that control more than $2 trillion to buy all or part of failed lenders, taking a more direct role in propping up the banking system, said people briefed on the matter.

Vilsack Announces New Budget for 2011 for USDA -- Vilsack made clear in his speeches that although NAIS was said to be dead, it would continue under its new name, “National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA)”.  Going on to cite the fact that premises ID had seen less than 35% participation (he never mentions that a large percentage of those claimed to be participating had been enrolled either without their knowledge or under threat) he then claimed that USDA had little to no opposition from sheep herders, poultry & pork producers.

Tax Soda, Pizza to Cut Obesity, Researchers Say -- U.S. researchers estimate that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda can push down U.S. adults' calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year. (They just want to take their 'fat' in money.)

Census Spends $52 Million On Letter Alerting Americans That They'll Be getting Another Letter -- That $52 million number is a calculation I did based on the reported 120 million letters that were reportedly sent out at a cost of $0.44/letter.

Utah Senate Votes to Grade US Senators -- The Utah Senate continued its session long pursuit of states' rights Monday by passing a bill that would seek to rein in U.S. senators who otherwise might ignore the state government's wishes. SB250 would allow political parties to develop bylaws asking their caucuses within the state House and Senate to evaluate the performance of U.S. senators and create a ratings system for Senate candidates.

Worker ID Card at Center of Immigration Plan -- Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain. (Last time I knew anything, Obama wanted to legalize the aliens - so why the ID?? Could it be for us??)

H1N1 'Protection' Added to Next Season's Flu Shots -- That shouldn’t be a problem during the next flu season, as the Food and Drug Administration has decided to include a pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus in the Northern Hemisphere’s 2010-11 seasonal influenza vaccine.

Senate Tells Employees Not to Read Drudge Report -- The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is ‘responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.’


Today in History Tuesday March 9, 2010
1788 - Connecticut became the 5th state to join the United States.
1793 - Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America. The event was witnessed by U.S. President George Washington.
1820 - The U.S. Congress passed the Land Act that paved the way for westward expansion of North America.
1822 - Charles M. Graham received the first patent for artificial teeth.
1832 - Abraham Lincoln announced that he would run for a political office for the first time. He was unsuccessful in his run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.
1839 - The French Academy of Science announced the Daguerreotype photo process.
1860 - The first Japanese ambassador to the U.S. was appointed.
1863 - General Ulysses Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.
1905 - In Manchuria, Japanese troops surrounded 200,000 Russian troops that were retreating from Mudken.
1906 - In the Philippines, fifteen Americans and 600 Moros were killed in the last two days of fighting.
1909 - The French National Assembly passed an income tax bill.
1911 - The funding for five new battleships was added to the British military defense budget.
1916 - Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico. 17 people were killed by the 1,500 horsemen.
1933 - The U.S. Congress began its 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
1936 - The German press warned that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections would be arrested.
1945 - During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan.
1949 - The first all-electric dining car was placed in service on the Illinois Central Railroad.
1954 - WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV), in New York, broadcast the first local color television commercials. The ad was Castro Decorators of New York City.
1957 - Egyptian leader Nasser barred U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.
1964 - The first Ford Mustang rolled off of the Ford assembly line.
1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam.
1975 - Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline.
1975 - Iraq launched an offensive against the rebel Kurds.
1977 - About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, DC. They killed one person and took more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later.
1986 - U.S. Navy divers found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.
1989 - The U.S. Senate rejected John Tower as a choice for a cabinet member. It was the first rejection in 30 years.
1989 - In Maylasia, 30 Asian nations conferred on the issue of "boat people".
1989 - In the U.S., a strike forced Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy.
1989 - In the U.S., President George H.W. Bush urged for a mandatory death penalty in drug-related killings.
1993 - Rodney King testified at the federal trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of violating his civil rights.
1995 - The Canadian Navy arrested a Spanish trawler for illegally fishing off of Newfoundland.
2000 - In Norway, the coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned as a result of an environmental dispute.

Auditors find misuse of stimulus money in California -- Officials in the heart of recession-battered central California misspent about $1 million in federal stimulus funds that were supposed to help adults and teenagers find jobs, state auditors said Tuesday. California's Inspector General Laura Chick said the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board used nearly $1 million in Recovery Act funds to pay for their own rent and utility bills, when the bulk of the money should have gone to finding youth summer jobs.

Utah base dealing with rash of suicides - mostly civilians!!! -- Utah’s Hill Air Force Base has hired a psychologist to deal with a rash of suicides, mostly among civilians complaining of harsh working conditions. Nearly 75 percent of the people at the base are civilian employees or contractors, and they make up 21 or 22 of at least 25 confirmed suicides since 2006, according to its senior ranking officer, Maj. Gen. Andrew Busch, commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Center.

Solar Industry Learns Lessons in Spanish Sun -- Armed with generous incentives from the Spanish government to jump-start a national solar energy industry, the city set out to replace its failing coal economy by attracting solar companies, with a campaign slogan: “The Sun Moves Us.”

Increase tax on soda, pizza to reduce obesity, US researchers suggest -- The US researchers estimate that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda can push down the US adults’ calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds (two kilograms) per year.

N. Korea Says It Is Ready to 'Blow Up' US -- North Korea's army said Monday it is ready to "blow up" South Korea and the U.S., hours after the allies kicked off annual military drills that Pyongyang has slammed as a rehearsal for attack.

Growing Low-Oxygen Zones in Oceans Worry Scientists -- Lower levels of oxygen in the Earth's oceans, particularly off the United States' Pacific Northwest coast, could be another sign of fundamental changes linked to global climate change, scientists say.

Vitamin D deficiency now so widespread that rickets is on the rise once again -- A clinical review paper published in the British Medical Journal is warning the public that widespread vitamin D deficiency is resurrecting the once-obsolete disease called rickets. According to Professor Simon Pearce and Dr. Time Cheetham, authors of the paper, people are getting far too little sunlight exposure which is necessary for the body to produce adequate levels of vitamin D. Rickets is a disease in which a person's bones do not properly develop and harden, results when a person is getting too little vitamin D and most likely not enough calcium.

Celery Juice Every Day Keeps High Blood Pressure at Bay -- One of the most common vegetables we use today - celery - with its stringy stems and crisp texture provides a natural way to lower blood pressure. It decreases a potentially dangerous situation without the risk of possible side effects that might accompany prescribed medication.

University of California Campus Erupts in Riots; Student Loan Scam Drives Up Cost of Education: Expect More Riots -- Students at the University of California’s flagship Berkeley campus took to the streets on Friday night, vandalizing university buildings, burning trash cans and clashing with police in the latest expression of frustration over cuts to the educational budget in California.

Philippines: Food Security Warnings Over El Nino -- Warnings have been raised over food security in the Philippines as the El Niño phenomenon wreaks havoc across vast agricultural areas, leaving staple crops such as rice dying in parched earth, officials say. (More great possible food-shortage news.)

Ionia Kindergartener Suspended for Making Gun with Hand!!! -- To the little boy's mother, it was just a 6-year-old boy playing around. But when Mason Jammer, a kindergarten student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, curled his fist into the shape of a gun Wednesday and pointed it at another student, school officials said it was no laughing matter. They suspended Mason until Friday, saying the behavior made other students uncomfortable, said Erin Jammer, Mason's mother.

Climate Change: Methane Escaping from Arctic Faster Than Expected and Could Stoke Global Warming -- The potent greenhouse gas methane, is bubbling out of the frozen Arctic much faster than expected and could stoke global warming.

Eric Massa Details 'Salty' Comment that Led to Resignation, Slams Dems Leaders -- A "salty" comment made in the company of drunken staff members at a wedding reception on New Year's Eve was all the Democratic "forces that be" needed to push him out of the House of Representatives and prevent him from possibly casting the vote that would kill health care reform, says outgoing New York Rep. Eric Massa.
 * Related Article: Former congressman Massa says Democrats set him up over health care

Monsanto 'Warrior' Grant Fights Anti-Trust Accusations -- For a man trying to feed the world, Monsanto Co.’s Hugh Grant has no shortage of people trying to disrupt his dinner plans, from activists fighting genetically modified crops to the U.S. Department of Justice probing his company’s sales practices.

Attack of the GMO's: GMO Alfalfa Will Make Organic Dairy Impossible -- Genetically engineered alfalfa would be the first perennial GM crop, and would result in a huge increase of toxic RoundUp in the environment. It would widely expose livestock to both genetically-engineered genes and pesticide residues. It would especially affect cows and horses - their health, their reproduction, and their byproducts, particularly milk.

US Voting Machine Makers' Merger Nears Approval -- At a value of $5 million, the deal was too small to trigger a federal antitrust review. It has generated opposition from election officials and others concerned it would deprive voting precincts of choice and leave the country's election system more vulnerable to failures.

How Do you Plead, Guilty or Not Guilty? 'I Plead Muslim' -- The situation here is not whether Faleh Hassan Almaleki deserves the death penalty. It is totally irrelevant which side of the death penalty argument you advocate. This decision should concern each and every one of us because of the big picture. By removing the death penalty from this case, Maricopa County is setting a precedent that will have ramifications far reaching and far beyond the death penalty. This is only the beginning of a slippery slope that none of us should allow. (how about wrong is wrong and law is law no matter your religion?)

US Currency Soon to be Radically Altered -- the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed a lawsuit interpreting the Act as requiring the government to design its currency in such a way as to be easily identifiable by the blind and the visually-impaired. This change is being forced on the American people because of creative advocacy by a special-interest organization which was able to convince a handful of unelected federal appeals court judges to expansively interpret a federal statute, that arguably was not even intended to reach an issue such as currency design. (Gosh, all those people that have stashed money back will now have to exchange it - so now banksters will know how much 'cash' one has.)

Greek Debt Crisis: Germany 'Will Not Offer Greece a Cent' -- But this was the scene in Athens yesterday as riot police clashed with protesters outraged by cutbacks designed to slash the country's huge budget deficit. The violence came as Germany ruled out offering Greece 'a cent' of financial aid, insisting it should sort out it own problems.

AIG Bankers Caught on Tape Complaining About the Bailout and Idiot Americans -- Yet they did see that money, at least most of it. Last month, under a deal in which employees agreed to take a cut in their upcoming retention bonuses in return for an accelerated payment, AIG paid out about $100 million to employees at the firm. AIG is scheduled to pay the last of the bonuses this month. Even so, neither time nor money has softened the employees' feelings of wrongful persecution and their anger over becoming the subjects of scorn and ridicule. Seldom was that sense of victimhood more clear or more visceral than in the conference call of March 23, 2009.

And Now: US Government Program Pays People to Sell Homes at a Loss -- Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed. (Then the FDIC pays the banks - so the banksters win all the way around.)

Fed Announces Expansion of Reverse Repo Program; Adds Money Market Funds to List of Eligible Counterparties -- Today, the Fed goes one step further, after noting increasing pressure by its own members to commence a tightening policy, and has announced the expansion of its reverse repo program with Primary Dealers, by adding additional counterparties. And guess who the first expansion wave focuses on - why Money Market mutual funds of course. Let's just do all we can to drain the money market system asap, shall we.

FDA Recalls Some Foods with Flavor Enhancer HVP -- Federal health authorities announced Thursday the recall of a commonly used flavor enhancer after samples of the product were found to contain salmonella.

Video: How Goldman Sachs runs the government! -- Great Video!

IMF Suggests How to Raise Climate Change Funds -- The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the Fund is concerned about the huge amount of funding needed and the effect that will have on the global economy. He added that the proposal may help efforts to reach a binding agreement on climate change later this year.

Large Hadron Collider Performing Well -- A detailed check of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) running at a low energy has showed that it is "performing well," the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said on its website Thursday.

13 Magical Uses for Cucumbers -- The humble cucumber is actually a little gem. And not just for its nutritional benefits...

FBI Warns Brewing Cyberwar May Have Same Impact as "Well Placed Bomb" -- NATO and America's European allies are sounding the alarm over what they say are increased cyber attacks originating from China that are targeting key government and intelligence computers.

Shooting Hurts 3 at Dallas Office Tower -- There has been a shooting at an 18-story office tower in North Dallas housing the United Texas Bank, among other businesses.

Another shooting in Texas - This time at a Wal-Mart -- Texas Wal-Mart Shooting: Suspected Gunman Killed By Police -- In Commerce, Texas a man walked into a Wal-Mart in Texas carrying at least two guns before engaging in a shootout with police outside the store, authorities said. The man was killed and an off-duty officer in the store who had tried to stop him was injured. (Thanks Erin)


Today in History Monday March 8, 2010
1702 - England's Queen Anne took the throne upon the death of King William III.
1853 - The first bronze statue of Andrew Jackson is unveiled in Washington, DC.
1855 - A train passed over the first railway suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, NY.
1880 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes declared that the United States would have jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmus of Panama.
1887 - The telescopic fishing rod was patented by Everett Horton.
1894 - A dog license law was enacted in the state of New York. It was the first animal control law in the U.S.
1907 - The British House of Commons turned down a women's suffrage bill.
1909 - Pope Pius X lifted the church ban on interfaith marriages in Hungary.
1911 - In Europe, International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time.
1917 - Russia's "February Revolution" began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg.
1921 - French troops occupied Dusseldorf.
1933 - Self-liquidating scrip money was issued for the first time at Franklin, IN.
1942 - During World War II, Japanese forces captured Rangoon, Burma.
1943 - Japanese forces attacked American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville. The battle lasted five days.
1945 - Phyllis Mae Daley received a commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She later became the first African-American nurse to serve duty in WWII.
1946 - The French naval fleet arrived at Haiphong, Vietnam.
1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools was unconstitutional.
1953 - A census bureau report indicated that 239,000 farmers had quit farming over the last 2 years.
1954 - France and Vietnam opened talks in Paris on a treaty to form the state of Indochina.
1959 - Groucho, Chico and Harpo made their final TV appearance together.
1961 - Max Conrad circled the globe in a record time of eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes in the Piper Aztec.
1965 - The U.S. landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam. They were the first U.S. combat troops to land in Vietnam.
1966 - Australia announced that it would triple the number of troops in Vietnam.
1973 - Two bombs exploded near Trafalgar Square in Great Britain. 234 people were injured.
1982 - The U.S. accused the Soviets of killing 3,000 Afghans with poison gas.
1985 - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that 407,700 Americans were millionaires. That was more than double the from just five years before.
1986 - Four French television crewmembers were abducted in west Beirut. All four were eventually released.
1988 - In Fort Campbell, KY, 17 U.S. soldiers were killed when two Army helicopters collided in midair.
1999 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Timothy McVeigh for the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
1999 - The White House, under President Bill Clinton, directed the firing of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The firing was a result of alleged security violations.
2001 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
2005 - In norther Chechnya, Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed during a raid by Russian forces.
2008 President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from suspected terrorists.

Mike Tawse, our friend from the UK, with his original 'Thought For The Day' -- Inspired by our mutual friend, Jennifer Allie Friedrich of  http://www.theflopside.com - "Neither success nor failure will ever be assured, but each becomes more likely for anyone who believes that it is possible. To make something possible, you must believe that it can be."

Iceland Voters Reject Repayment Plan -- Iceland’s voters expressed their outrage on Saturday against bankers, the government and what they saw as foreign bullying, overwhelmingly rejecting a plan to pay $5.3 billion to Britain and the Netherlands to reimburse customers of a failed Icelandic bank, Sarah Lyall reported in The New York Times.

Vitamin D deficiency is why you get flu and other infections -- A new study led by researchers at the University of Copenhagen has confirmed that vitamin D plays an important role in activating immune defenses against infectious diseases like flu. Vitamin D deficiency has already been linked to a wide spectrum of diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, autoimmune disease and many others.

Obama to nominate retired Army general for TSA -- President Barack Obama plans to nominate retired Army Major Gen. Robert Harding to head the Transportation Security Administration after his first pick withdrew under political pressure, an administration official said Sunday.

F-16s intercept aircraft over restricted D.C. airspace -- A slow-moving small private airplane violated the restricted airspace over the Washington region Sunday morning, causing the U.S. military to send Blackhawk helicopters and two F-16 fighter jets to intercept it.

MCCAIN'S DRACONIAN DIETARY SUPPLEMENT BILL DEAD -- Hundreds of thousands of messages poured into the Senate opposing Senator McCain's bill, the bill that would have wiped out current legislative protections for dietary supplements. More and more messages were arriving by the day. The entire Congress began to take note. Senator McCain was embarrassed by our ad whose headline pointed out that he was misrepresenting and did not seem to understand his own bill.

6.0 earthquake hits eastern Turkey, kills 57 -- A strong, pre-dawn earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6 struck eastern Turkey on Monday, killing 57 people as it knocked down stone or mud-brick houses and minarets in at least six villages, the government said.

Drill Held at D.C. Transit Station Day Before Pentagon Shooting -- Coincidence? Several days before John Patrick Bedell attacked two Pentagon cops and was killed, D.C. police staged a drill at the Friendship Heights Metro station in in Northwest Washington.

Iran's Ahmadinejad Call Sept 11 "Big Fabrication" -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the September 11 attacks on the United States a "big fabrication" that was used to justify the U.S. war on terrorism, the official IRNA news agency reported.

5 Surprising Ways Your TV is Slowly Killing You -- You’ve accepted the idea that TV makes you dumber. You know there are lots of more edifying things you could be doing with your time than cheering on the contestants on "Survivor."

McCain's Draconian Dietary Supplement Bill Dead -- Word is now racing around Capitol Hill that Senator McCain met with Senator Orin Hatch, a champion of natural medicine, and told him that he is withdrawing his support for the bill he authored, the so-called Dietary Supplement Safety Act (S 3002). This means that the bill as written is now dead. (Expect this to come back renamed.)

Met Office Claims to Have Found AGW Fingerprint -- In fact, there are two articles in the Guardian that “know” in advance that the Met Office will “strengthen” the case for human-induced climate change: the witches and prophets told them. The second article has a title that unmasks what is the real motivation behind the Met Office report.

Pentagon Shooting: Now Everyone's A Terrorist -- But the most disturbing aspect surrounding yesterday’s incident is the fact that people like Glenn Beck on the establishment right and establishment liberal media outlets like CNN and MSNBC on the left have been aggressively promoting for months the notion that people who express dissent against the government are intent on killing people. It’s no coincidence that the last two targets of low-level domestic terrorism were the IRS and the Pentagon, and in both cases the propaganda victory enjoyed in the aftermath by the same establishment registered a far greater impact than the actual attacks.

Obama Czar's Shocking Communist Connections -- John Holdren, President Obama's "science czar," served on the board of editors of a magazine whose personnel were accused of providing vital nuclear information that helped the Soviet Union build an atom bomb.

Anti-Lobbyist' Obama Administration Recruited Left-Wing Lobbyists to Sell Bogus 'Green Jobs' -- After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies.

Iceland Voters Reject Repayment Plan -- Iceland’s voters expressed their outrage on Saturday against bankers, the government and what they saw as foreign bullying, overwhelmingly rejecting a plan to pay $5.3 billion to Britain and the Netherlands to reimburse customers of a failed Icelandic bank, Sarah Lyall reported in The New York Times.

Wall Street Took Your House and Your Retirement, Now They are After Your Social Security -- The Peterson/Walker plan would have slashed social security entitlements at a time when Wall Street has destroyed the home equity and private retirement accounts of potential retirees. Worse, it would have increased the Social Security tax, disguised as a "mandatory savings tax." This added tax would be automatically withdrawn from your paycheck and deposited to a "Guaranteed Retirement Account" managed by the Social Security Administration.

China Ready to End Dollar Peg -- Many economists expect China to allow the yuan to appreciate slightly this year, but the cautious tone by Mr Zhou means that any change may not happen for some time. He said that the central bank would maintain the “basic stability” of the currency. So, despite the fact that the Chinese economy grew by 10.7pc in the fourth quarter of last year, the country’s loose monetary policy looks set to continue.

Postal Service Urged to Weigh Three-Days-a-Week Mail -- The U.S. Postal Service, facing a $238 billion budget deficit by 2020, should consider cutting delivery to as few as three days a week as the agency attempts to pare costs, a consulting firm said.

YouTube: Obama Denies Flyover -- from last summer just in case you missed it!

Birth Defects in Fallujah on the Rise Since US Operation -- A high number of children are being born with birth defects in an Iraqi city where U.S. forces may have used chemical weapons during a fierce battle in 2004. Children in Fallujah are being born with limb, head, heart and nervous system defects. There is even a claim that a baby was born with three heads. The number of heart defects among newborn babies is said to be 13 times higher than the rate in Europe.

Vaccines are Making Our Dogs Sick -- 'The latest scientific research shows that after the first course of injections as a puppy most dogs are immune against these diseases for at least seven years, if not for life. (As an RVT, I can tell you the good vets vaccinate when necessary and do not give vaccines if not warranted. There is such thing as toooo many vaccines for animals as well.)

Sugary Soft Drinks Lead to Diabetes -- More people now drink soft, sport and fruit drinks daily, and the increase has led to thousands more diabetes and heart disease cases over the past decade, according to research presented to the American Heart Association's annual conference. (Duh...really?)

US Public Will Pay Obama's $90 Bn Bank Levy -- In a report on the White House's plan to impose a 0.15pc fee on liabilities of banks with more than $50bn in assets in order to recoup money lost through the $700bn Troubled Assets Relief Programme, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the impact on banks would be "small".

CFTC to Shutdown Currency Trading for Individuals -- The Commodities Futures Commission is proposing new rules that would, for all practical purposes, shutdown the ability of individuals to trade in foreign currencies.

The Last Straw: HB 3200 pg 429, line13 -25: Govt to Specify which doctors can write an end-of-life order -- So Much for Choice. Check it out for yourself. Population control.

The Self- Sustainers Herbal Garden -- Before you begin to cultivate your herb garden, it’s helpful to know something about the soil conditions. As with almost any garden plant, herbs want soil that drains well, has good organic matter like compost and other materials, and a correct PH balance suited to each plant.

Obama Plans 10 Million Acre Land Grab -- As I have warned in previous posts the agenda to “fundamentally transform America” is following the Cloward/Piven handbook of community organizing. While the attention of the nation is focused on the health care debate, the administration has multiple agenda items moving full speed ahead and going relatively unnoticed. Their strategy is an elaborate shell game designed to keep us off balance and unable to keep up with the all changes in motion at any given time. Their plan to grab over 10 million acres of land is an excellent example of one such item. (Can anyone say Agenda 21 and Sustainability???)

Firearms Freedom Act Passes -- Legislation asserting that firearms made, sold and kept only in Wyoming are exempt from all federal gun laws is set to become law after it easily cleared the Wyoming Legislature on Wednesday.

Ariz. Senate Backs Bill to Restrict Local Local Gun Laws -- It would prohibit local governments from enacting laws more restrictive than state law and specifically prohibit ordinances that limit possession of guns in parks.  Also, local governments could not regulate the discharge of firearms.

Once Again Just Perusing the Latest Updates from the St. Louis Fed -- What is completely related and totally relevant is DEBT to INCOME. In fact, in regards to debt, income is the only thing that really matters. Our Nation’s Income is crashing as shown in this chart expressed in year over year (yoy) change in Billions of dollars.

Banks Shuttered in Fla, Ill, Md, Utah -- Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession

Obama, Politics and Nuclear Waster - Closes Yucca Mtn -- Yucca Mountain’s death by budgetary axe defies logic. It coincides with Obama’s stated support for expanding nuclear power. More reactors mean more waste, now piling up above-ground at sites scattered around the country. In February, Obama announced $8.3 billion in government loan guarantees for two nuclear reactors in Georgia. They would be the first new plants since the 1979 nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, an accident that caused no casualties but became a rallying symbol for the anti-nuclear movement.

Indiana Faces a Wave of 'Sovereign Citizens' -- An increasing number of Indiana residents are declaring themselves "sovereign citizens" and personally seceding from the United States, says a report from ABC channel 6 in Indianapolis. (Uh, I don't think that declaring your home an embassy is really the right way to go...)

YouTube: Fake Money Circulating at an Alarming Rate.

Seeds of Action Community Support Program -- The Heirloom Organics Seeds of Action! program provides seeds and assistance, free of cost, to non-profit groups and organizations throughout North America, who are using seeds for community service projects.

Votes Uncertain as Healthcare Endgame Looms -- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said a new Goldman Sachs report, which says profits are rising and competition decreasing for private health insurers, showed the need for reform at a time when 15,000 Americans lose their coverage each day. (Does anyone trust Sebelius or Goldman Sachs???)



Today in History Friday March 5, 2010
1623 - The first alcohol temperance law in the colonies was enacted in Virginia.
1624 - In the American colony of Virginia, the upper class was exempted from whipping by legislation.
1750 - "King Richard III" was performed in New York City. It was the first Shakespearean play to be presented in America.
1766 - The first Spanish governor of Louisiana, Antonio de Ulloa, arrived in New Orleans.
1770 - "The Boston Massacre" took place when British troops fired on a crowd in Boston killing five people. Two British troops were later convicted of manslaughter.
1793 - Austrian troops defeated the French and recaptured Liege.
1836 - Samuel Colt manufactured the first pistol (.34-caliber).
1842 - A Mexican force of over 500 men under Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They briefly occupied San Antonio, but soon headed back to the Rio Grande.
1845 - The U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000 to ship camels to the western U.S.
1868 - The U.S. Senate was organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson.
1900 - The American Hall of Fame was founded.
1901 - Germany and Britain began negotiations with hopes of creating an alliance.
1902 - In France, the National Congress of Miners decided to call for a general strike for an 8-hour day.
1905 - Russian troops began their retreat from Mukden in Manchuria, China. Over 100,000 had been killed in 3 days of fighting.
1910 - In Philadelphia, PA, 60,000 people left their jobs to show support for striking transit workers.
1918 - The Soviets moved the capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.
1922 - Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She hit 98 out of 100 targets.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a four-day bank holiday in order to stop large amounts of money from being withdrawn from banks.
1943 - Germany called fifteen and sixteen year olds for military service due to war losses.
1946 - Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech".
1946 - The U.S. sent protests to the U.S.S.R. on incursions into Manchuria and Iran.
1953 - Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died. He had been in power for 29 years.
1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ban on segregation in public schools.
1970 - A nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.
1976 - The British pound fell below the equivalent of $2 for the first time in history.
1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter appeared on CBS News with Walter Cronkite for the first "Dial-a-President" radio talk show.
1982 - John Belushi died in Los Angeles of a drug overdose at the age of 33.
1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities had the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Christmas display.
1984 - The U.S. accused Iraq of using poison gas.
1993 - Cuban President Fidel Castro said that Hillary Clinton is "a beautiful woman."
1997 - North Korea and South Korea met for first time in 25 years for peace talks.
1998 - It was announced that Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins would lead crew of Columbia on a mission to launch a large X-ray telescope. She was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.
2004 - Martha Stewart was found guilty of lying about the reason for selling 3,298 shares of ImClone Systems stock, conspiracy, making false statement and obstruction of justice.

THE 9/11 MASS MURDER IS EXPLODING IN THEIR DIRTY FACES -- " I was surprised to learn on February 24 that the most popular story on the paper's website (The Washington Times) for the past three days was the "Inside the Beltway" report, "Explosive News", about the 31 press conferences in cities in the US and abroad on February 19 held by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, an organization of professionals which now has 1,000 members." The newspaper reports that Richard Gage, the spokesperson for the architects and engineers said: "Government officials will be notified that "Misprision of Treason,' US Code 18 (Sec. 2382) is a serious Federal offense, which requires those with evidence of treason to act. The implications are enormous and may have profound impact on the forthcoming Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial".

Vitamins stored in bathrooms, kitchens may become less effective -- The high humidity present in bathrooms and kitchens can degrading the vitamins and health supplements stored in those rooms, even if the lids are on tight, a Purdue University study shows. Crystalline substances like vitamin C, some vitamin B forms and other dietary supplements, are prone to a process called deliquescence in which humidity causes a water-soluble solid to dissolve. Keeping those supplements away from warm, humid environments can help ensure their effectiveness. "In a week you can get complete loss of vitamin C in some products," said Lisa Mauer, an associate professor of food science.

How to determine organically grown fruit in your supermarket by PLU code
 * Also check out: http://www.plucodes.com/docs/IFPS-plu_codes_users_guide.pdf

Wag The Dog Story?? - Ex-Gitmo detainee now a Taliban commander -- A man who was freed from the Guantanamo Bay after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the US-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials said.

The 2009 Financial Report Of The U.S. Government Is Out - America's Economic Goose Is Cooked -- The 2009 Financial Report Of The U.S. Government has finally been released, and the news is not good. It basically confirms much of what we already know - that the United States government is a complete financial mess.

Fake Weed, Real Drug: K2 Causing Hallucinations in Teens -- Teens are getting high on an emerging drug called "fake weed," a concoction also known as K2 and "spice" that is also causing hallucinations, vomiting, agitation and other dangerous effects.

DoD Releases Records of Illegal Surveillance -- Defense Department agencies improperly collected and disseminated intelligence on Planned Parenthood and a white supremacist group called the National Alliance, an Air Force briefing improperly included intelligence on an antiwar group called Alaskans for Peace and Justice, and Army Signals Intelligence in Louisiana unlawfully intercepted civilian cell phone conversations.

More fake gold -- Largest Private Refinery Discovers Gold-Plated Tungsten Bar.

One in Three Killed by US Drones in Pakistan is a Civilian -- One in three "militants" killed in US Predator Drone attacks in Pakistan's remote tribal areas is in fact a civilian, according to a report by an American think tank.

FDA: Labels Misleading on Major Food Brands -- The FDA today warned 17 food makers -- including POM Nestle -- that their "misleading" product labels violate federal law.

Area Shaken by Two Different Earthquakes Saturday - New Madrid -- A couple of earthquakes happened Tuesday afternoon in Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri. The US Geological Survey reports a 3.2 magnitude earthquake happened near Cairo, IL shortly before 1:40 pm Tuesday. Then a 3.7 magnitude quake rocked the area around Sikeston and New Madrid, MO around that same time. No word if any damage was done from both quakes at this time.

Gold Going Higher, Even George Soros Agrees With Marc Faber -- Last month it was revealed that Soros more than doubled his fund's holding in the biggest gold exchange-traded fund (GLD) in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Soros Fund Management LLC held nearly 6.2 million shares of GLD valued at about US$663 million as of December 31, adding 3.728 million shares valued at US$421 million That’s up from roughly 2.5 million shares at the end September. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, on the fringe of the World Economic Forum, Soros said: "When interest rates are low we have conditions for asset bubbles to develop, and they are developing at the moment". The ultimate asset bubble is gold," he added.

Will the US Devalue the Dollar? -- The three hundred year economic expansion fueled by debt-based capital markets is coming to an end and with it, the hegemony of the West over the East. During that period, debt-based paper money propelled first England then the US to world dominion because of the ability to wage war on credit and to print money ad infinitum.

More Consumers File for Bankruptcy Protection -- The economic recovery effort has not slowed consumer bankruptcy filings. They surged 14% in February compared with a year earlier, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Is Moving Out of the United States A Way to Escape the Coming Economic Collapse -- First of all, it is very important to realize that moving some to another country can cause a massive culture shock. Even a nation that you would think would be somewhat similar such as the U.K. can be radically different from what most Americans are accustomed to. In addition, in some cases there can be huge taxes and fees imposed on those moving to a new country.

100% of Fish in US Streams Found Contaminated with Mercury -- In a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), every single fish tested from 291 freshwater streams across the United States was found to be contaminated with mercury.

VIDEO: Rogue Waves Part 1

Freak Tsunami-Like Waves Kills Two in Spain -- Freak tsunami-like waves measuring almost 30ft high have ploughed into a Mediterranean cruise ship, sweeping two passengers to their deaths and injuring many others.

Over 250 Significant Earthquakes Shook the World in Past 7 Days -- In the past seven days there have been more than 258 recorded earthquakes of a magnitude higher than 4.5 on the Richter's scale.

159 Ways the Senate Bill Is a Government Takeover of Health Care -- Here is a list of new boards, bureaucracies, and programs created in the 2,733 page Senate health care bill, which serves as the framework for President Obama’s health proposal:

Obama Now Selling Judegeships for Health Care Votes? -- Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson's brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Anti-Obama Sentiment Sweeps the Nation -- Obama’s relationship with Republicans has chiefly consisted of a few meetings in which he’s reminded them he’s president and they’re not. He’s offered them the opportunity to endorse Democratic legislation as written. Not much room for compromise there.

Chilean Earthquake's Tremors May Be Felt in American Consumers Stomachs -- But due to the quake, fewer varieties of Chilean apples, pears, and plums will be harvested this year, says Chile-based market analyst Isabel Quiroz of IQonsulting. And although the Chilean harvest is not over -- it's now the end of summer in the Southern Hemisphere -- the damage done to Chile's roads, irrigation systems, electric grid, packing houses, and other infrastructure will hamper the task of getting the fruit to market in the coming weeks.

New Wave of Adoption of GM Crops -- The countries that grow GM crops in descending order are: US, Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada, China, Paraguay, South Africa, Uruguay, Bolivia, Philippines, Australia, Burkina Faso, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania, Poland, Costa Rica, Egypt, and Slovakia.

Russia, India to Sign $4 Billion Military Technical Cooperation Contract -- Russia and India are expected to sign three contracts in military technical cooperation totaling $4 billion, including retrofitting the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India, Vedomosti Russian daily reported.

Fidel Castro Is Back in Charge of Cuba -- Fidel—who relinquished his titles as head of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, but remains leader of the Communist Party—still has taken no additional government post since his return fitness. But he has made leadership changes that some analysts suspect are aimed at preserving his vision of the revolution. Key among them is the promotion of Ramiro Valdés, a former Interior minister regarded as a diehard Fidel loyalist and a brutal enforcer. Despite a history of strained relations with Raúl, Valdés is now effectively the No. 3 man in the regime after the Castro brothers. "That was a Fidel appointment," says Gomez. Valdés "is Fidel's eyes and ears on a daily basis within the inner circle."

Weekly Jobless Claims Fall 29,000 to 469,000 -- New claims for jobless benefits in the United States fell last week in a sign that layoffs may be easing as the economy slowly recovers. The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 469,000. That nearly matches Wall Street analysts' estimates of 470,000. Still, any improvement in the job market is likely to be slow, as companies remain reluctant to hire. Last week's drop only partly reverses a sharp rise in claims in the previous two weeks

US Debt-Based Money Printing Biggest Theft in History -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserts that the lingering global financial crisis has exposed the dark side of the capitalist economic system in the West, adding that the US will go down in history as the biggest thief ever.

Christian Couple Touches the Koran With Dirty Hands; Gets 25 Years in Prison -- A court in Kasur district, Punjab, convicted a Christian couple, Munir Masih and Ruqqiya Bibi, to 25 years in prison. According to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), Judge Ajmal Hussein convicted the couple for touching the Koran without washing their hands.

Rain to be Created in Drought Provinces -- In an effort to create rain, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said that weather bureaus in the affected regions are ready to "bomb clouds" with 2,116 doses of silver iodide, a compound used in cloud seeding, for which 2 million yuan ($294,000) has been allocated.

Iraq Early Voting Shattered by Deadly Blasts -- A string of deadly blasts shattered an early round of voting in Iraq Thursday, killing 17 people and highlighting the fragile nature of the country's security gains ahead of crucial parliamentary elections this Sunday.

Man Sues to Protect His Right to Flip Off Cops - Twice in 2007, Robert Ekas flipped off police in Oregon for no apparent reason than to express his First Amendment right to do so. And twice he was pulled over.

Taxpayers Hit as TARP Takes a New Turn -- Midwest Banc Holdings Inc (MBHI.O) agreed to swap $84.8 million of preferred shares it sold to the U.S. government in 2008 for securities that will convert into about $15.5 million of common shares -- roughly an 80 percent loss to taxpayers.

US Steps Up Diplomatic Pressure on China Over Iran Sanctions -- Chinese and Russian opposition derailed attempts to impose across-the-board financial and trade sanctions on Iran to punish Tehran for its nuclear programme. But in recent days Moscow has signalled its readiness to back measures targeting the Iranian regime and its central bank.

How 12 Year Old Girl Saved Her Chilean Island -- Martina Maturana, the daughter of the community's policeman, was at home when she felt a tremor, according to Chile's La Tercera newspaper. Her father was on the telephone to the mainland when Martina peered out of the window at the pitching boats and acted decisively. She ran 400 metres from her home to the town square to ring the emergency bell and rouse the fishing community from their sleep.

California Man Gets Eight Years for Stealing Cheese -- A California man has been sentenced to up to eight years in prison for stealing a $3.99 (£2.60) bag of shredded cheese in a case critics say shows the need for reform of the state's criminal justice system and the overcrowded state of its prisons.

Barack Obama: I'll Steamroll Health Reforms Through Congress -- President Obama declared for the first time yesterday that he was prepared to steamroller his troubled health reform legislation through Congress with only Democratic support; a move Republicans denounced as the “nuclear option”.
 

Today in History Thursday March 4, 2010
1634 - Samuel Cole opened the first tavern in Boston, MA.
1766 - The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the U.S. colonies.
1778 - The Continental Congress voted to ratify the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance. The two treaties were the first entered into by the U.S. government.
1789 - The first Congress of the United States met in New York and declared that the U.S. Constitution was in effect.
1791 - Vermont was admitted as the 14th U.S. state. It was the first addition to the original 13 American colonies.
1794 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. The Amendment limited the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state. Later interpretations expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.
1826 - The first railroad in the U.S. was chartered. It was the Granite Railway in Quincy, MA.
1837 - The state of Illinois granted a city charter to Chicago.
1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag.
1877 - Emile Berliner invented the microphone.
1904 - In Korea, Russian troops retreated toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese troops advanced.
1908 - The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.
1914 - Doctor Fillatre successfully separated Siamese twins.
1917 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.
1925 - Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office in Washington, DC. The presidential inauguration was broadcast on radio for the first time.
1933 - U.S. President Roosevelt gave his inauguration speech in which he said "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
1933 - Labor Secretary Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in a Presidential administrative cabinet.
1947 - France and Britain signed an alliance treaty.
1952 - U.S. President Harry Truman dedicated the "Courier," the first seagoing radio broadcasting station.
1954 - In Boston, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital reported the first successful kidney transplant.
1974 - "People" magazine was available for the first time.
1977 - More than 1,500 people were killed in an earthquake that affected southern and eastern Europe.
1993 - Authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh. He was later convicted for his role in the World Trade Center Bombing in New York City.
1994 - Four extremists were convicted in the World Trade Center bombing in which six people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.
1997 - U.S. President Clinton barred federal spending on human cloning.
1998 - Microsoft repaired software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court said that federal law banned on-the-job sexual harassment even when both parties are the same sex.
1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton went on sale in the U.S.
1999 - U.S. Marine Captain Richard Ashby was acquitted in a military court of the charge of recklessly flying his jet. 20 people were killed in Italy when his jet hit a gondola cable.
2002 - Canada banned human embryo cloning but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.
2005 - Martha Stewart left federal prison after serving five months for her role in a stock scandal.
2009 - The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

YouTube: US Policy To Assassinate US Citizens -- Congressman Paul speaks on the floor about assassinations of Americans by their own government.

Windows XP users: Don't press F1 -- If you're browsing the web today and see a notice that you should press the F1 key (the traditional button used to get "help" in any application), don't do it. Read More...

Illegal Immigrants Caught Sabotaging American Train Tracks -- Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is requesting that Federal authorities charge the illegal aliens caught stealing over 500 railroad spikes in North Carolina with terrorism charges, since they entered America illegally and worked to sabotage train tracks in a way that could have resulted in mass casualties.

Several Got Yellow Fever Contaminated Blood -- The CDC has reported that, in March 2009, several people accidentally received blood products with yellow fever vaccine in them. The investigation documents evidence for transmission of vaccine virus through infected blood products.

Child Cocaine Treatment Rises by More Than 65% -- The number of under-18s receiving treatment for cocaine addiction in England has increased by more than 65%, NHS figures reveal.

Army Awards Lucrative Iraq Support Contact to KBR -- Defense giant KBR Inc. was awarded a contract potentially worth $2.8 billion for support work in Iraq as U.S. forces continue to leave the country, military authorities said Tuesday.

New Psychiatric Disorders Flag Normal Human Behaviors as Diseases -- Another new disease is "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" (ODD), which includes anyone who disagrees with authority. All those who are skeptical about the safety of vaccines, for example, are about to be diagnosed with ODD.

How to Get Genetically Modified Foods Out of Your Diet -- Disbelief? Sadness? Fear? Anger? Retribution? All of the above? Well, surely the first thing you should do is: STOP EATING THEM! Genetically modified crops such as corn, canola and soy are being used in over 70% of the processed foods available in your local grocery store. So you might be forgiven for thinking that if genetically modified ingredients are so widespread, they must be safe to eat, right? Wrong. It’s just a shame the FDA and the corporate-controlled North American mainstream media persist in turning a blind eye.

Obama Takes Charge, Demands Vote -- The end game at hand, President Barack Obama took command Wednesday of one final attempt by Democrats to enact bitterly contested health care legislation, calling for an "up or down vote" within weeks under rules denying Republicans the ability to kill the bill with mere talk.

Taliban Cave Network Found in Pakistan -- The tunnels, which are thought to have been created over five to seven years, were carved into sheer rock within view of the snow-capped peaks of eastern Afghanistan. The network was found during an offensive against Islamist militants in the country's semi-autonomous tribal areas in which 75 militants were killed.

Zero Tolerance Bill Moves to Senate Rules Committee -- A bill that would give principals and school systems more discretion in how they handle disciplinary cases in their schools passed a key Georgia Senate committee Tuesday, pushing it closer to a full Senate vote.

Lots of Anger, Some Aid, in Chile Disaster -- Facing angry survivors who had little warning of the coming tsunami, and who still are waiting for aid three days after the devastating earthquake, Chile's government used helicopters and boats to step up food deliveries on Tuesday as the death toll rose to nearly 800.

Foodbourne Illness Costs US $52 Billion Annually -- It turns out that tainted food can not only make people sick, but it can also cost them a bundle in the process.

Some Companies Drop Health Insurance, Don't Tell Employees -- As if having to pay higher health insurance premiums each year isn't bad enough, now workers have another worry: companies that drop their health insurance coverage and don't bother to tell employees.

An 'Astonishing' Rise in Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Government Groups -- On Tuesday, the SPLC released its quarterly intelligence report, titled "Rage on the Right," in which it charted what officials described as "an astonishing" rise in "nativist extremist" and anti-government "Patriotic" groups. The former, which includes institutions that "go beyond mere advocacy of restrictive immigration policy to actually confront or harass suspected immigrants," saw its numbers bulge from 173 groups in 2008 to 309 in 2009.

Strong Earthquake Hits Taiwan -- A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Taiwan on Thursday morning causing buildings to sway hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the north. Local news reports said at least one person was injured.

Huge Wave Kills 2 on Cruise Ship in Mediterranean -- A 26-foot wave smashed into a cruise ship carrying nearly 2,000 people in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, smashing glass windshields and killing two passengers, according to officials and news reports.

Stocks End Mixed as Fed Points to Slow Recovery -- Early gains in stocks unraveled Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled that the economic recovery will be slow. Stocks ended mixed after the Fed's announcement that economic activity has improved in nine of its 12 districts but that the gains are "modest."

Scientists Catalog Zoo of Bacteria in Our Guts -- The human gut is a virtual zoo, full of a wide variety of bacteria, a new study found. And scientists say that's a good thing. The first results of an international effort to catalog the millions of non-human genes inside people found about 170 different bacteria species thriving in the average person's digestive tract. The study also found that people with inflammatory bowel disease had fewer distinct species inside the gut.

JFK Airport: Boy Directs Air Traffic Control Caught on Tape -- "Jet Blue 171, clear for takeoff," the young boy said, according to audio recordings from LiveATC.net. The boy was speaking to Sacramento bound Airbus A320 that departed JFK airport at 7:56pm, according to flightstats.com, a Website that tracks flight information.
   * Related Article: FAA Suspends Pair After Kids Radio Pilots at JFK -- Authorities suspended the controller and a supervisor Wednesday after a recording of the radio calls was posted on the Internet, then reported by a Boston television station.

"Coffee Party" Founder is Obama Campaign Operative -- The slogan is “Wake Up and Stand Up.” The mission statement declares that the federal government is “not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face as Americans.”

VIDEO: Gun Control in Mojave County, Arizona

Israeli Raid Called Off After Facebook Slip -- The Israeli military says a planned raid on a West Bank village was called off after an Israeli soldier disclosed its details online. The military says the combat soldier posted the time and location of the raid on his Facebook page saying that troops were planning on "cleaning up" the village.

Pelosi Laid Groundwork for Obama's Transformation of America -- Like Pelosi, many of her Dem cohorts including Senators Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, Diane Feinstein among others,  are long past their due date.  In ending their careers for ObamaCare they have nothing to lose.  How many of them will live out the rest of their lives in fabulous wealth?  Are Dems being paid off with funds stolen from the American till during the destructive Obama administration?

How They Distort Global Temperatures: The Urban Heat Island Effect -- How much do calculations of global temperatures represent the real temperature of the Earth? Every day new stories appear about temperature records with errors or deliberate omissions.

Water and the War on Terror -- While leaders in Washington have been war-gaming the national security risks of climate change, they’ve only started to connect the dots to the closely related threats emanating from the growing crisis of global freshwater scarcity.

President Obama to Say Democrats Will Use Reconciliation to Pass Senate Health Care Reform Fix -- White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will suggest that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial "reconciliation" rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill, as opposed to the 60 votes to stop a filibuster and proceed to a vote on a bill.

Dubai Police Chief Says to Seek Netanyahu Arrest -- Dubai's police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel's spy agency over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported.

Did They Know? Israel-US Startup Linked to Dubai Hit -- Employees at the Payoneer are still trying to understand what hit them: the Israeli startup company has faced a wave of unwanted publicity after Dubai police claimed that suspects in the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh used its credit card technology.

Muslim Woman Barred from Flight After Refusing Body Scan -- She was warned she would not be allowed to board the Pakistan International Airlines flight if she did not comply with the request but she decided to forfeit her ticket.

UK Muslim Leader: Islam Is Not a Religion of Peace -- "You can't say that Islam is a religion of peace," Choudary told CBN News. "Because Islam does not mean peace. Islam means submission. So the Muslim is one who submits. There is a place for violence in Islam. There is a place for jihad in Islam."

How Chinese Hacked Google, and Why India Should Be Worried -- The recent announcement by the United States giant search engine Google that it might withdraw from China made the headlines in world media. The Google decision highlighted the aggressiveness of the Chinese hackers who had been penetrating cyber fortresses like the Pentagon or the White House (as well as the PMO or the MEA in India!).

IMF "Economic Medicine" Comes to America -- In addition to mandatory private health insurance premiums, we may soon be hit with a “mandatory savings” tax and other belt-tightening measures urged by the President’s new budget task force.  These radical austerity measures are not only unnecessary, however, but will actually make matters worse.  The push for “fiscal responsibility” is based on bad economics.

'Revolution' Warning Over EU Bailout -- A revolution will erupt if billions of euro more in taxpayers' money is handed over to Anglo Irish Bank, Enda Kenny has warned. The Fine Gael leader said people can no longer tolerate massive public funding of the nationalised bank as it stands. Expected record losses at the bank, to be announced later this month, have fuelled speculation it will seek another six billion euro from the Government, on top of the four billion it has already pumped in.

Suspected Colorado School Gunman Participated in Strange NASA Funded Medical Study in 2005 -- In 2005, Eastwood participated in a NASA-funded medical study in which he spent 10 days in a hospital bed so scientists could study muscle wasting, an affliction experienced by astronauts during long flights, according to a story in the Rocky Mountain News at the time.

White House Declassifies Secretive Cyber-Security Plan -- Since the existence of the document was revealed, privacy advocates have also raised concerns about the plan's implementation and have pressured the government to see it. President Obama promised last year that he would appoint someone to ensure the plan is carried out without violating civil liberties.

Greenhouse Gas Tax to Push Gasoline to $7 Gallon -- To meet the Obama administration’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the cost of driving must simply increase, according to a forthcoming report by researchers at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

US Deficit: Higher Taxes Needed to Cut Rising Debt -- Never mind about mortgaging the future. By running up a monster deficit as it struggles to keep the economy growing, the Obama Administration is setting the stage for sharply higher taxes down the road. Of course, it's not an absolute certainty. The easier option is even more quantitative easing - a euphemism for printing money, which is a dirty phrase economists never like to use. This would devalue the country's currency and sovereign debt, triggering a cycle of hyperinflation of the likes the U.S. has never seen.

Jerusalem Mayor Plans to Raze Palestinian Homes for Tourist Park -- Jerusalem's mayor yesterday unveiled details of a controversial and long-expected plan to demolish Palestinian homes and make way for an Israeli-sponsored tourist park in a neighborhood of the city's Arab eastern sector.

Oz Ban on Freedom of Speech Worsens -- Dear Henry, I am an avid reader of your posts on www.rense.com. However, as of 3rd March 2010, the Australian government have decided that the Rense website is not longer suitable for access by free-thinking Aussies. It has been censored. It is no longer accessible.

Olberman to Be Axed? -- Dwindling ratings, erratic behavior, and a bloated salary are leaving television insiders to conclude that cable news network MSNBC may soon fire its lead talker, the left-leaning Keith Olbermann.

Stephen Hawking 'Considers Leaving Britain Over Cuts -- Prof Hawking, who is almost completely paralysed by motor neurone disease, would follow his former colleague Neil Turok, an authority on mathematical physics, who left for the institute in 2008.

Barack Obama's Top Insults Against Britain -- Last week’s appalling declaration by Washington that the US would remain neutral in the conflict between Britain and Argentina over the Falklands, has prompted this list of the ten biggest insults so far by the Obama administration against America’s closest friend and ally.

Alleged Iranian Spies in Italian Arms Trading Arrest -- Two more Iranians on the run as police hold seven people on suspicion of conspiring to illegally export weapons.

FUSION CENTERS: A Locally Owned and Operated Intelligence Machine -- The Department of Homeland Security’s network of fusion centers operate under the auspices of state police or even large local police forces, thus sidestepping the guidelines enacted under the Privacy Act of 1974 that limit information sharing by federal agencies.

NY Gov Paterson Mum as Scandal Claims Top Cop -- New York Gov. David Paterson remains defiant in the midst of a rapidly growing domestic violence scandal that has now claimed two top law enforcement officials and threatens to take down his administration.

Inquiry Is Told of Paterson's Bid to Quiet Sherr-una Booker -- A key figure in the domestic abuse scandal bedeviling Gov. David A. Paterson told investigators that the governor phoned to enlist her help in quieting the accuser, according to a person with knowledge of her account.

Money Supply Growth Grinds to a Halt -- The latest money supply numbers show that non-seasonally adjusted money supply has gonad to a near complete halt. For the three month period ended January 31, 2010, non-seasonally adjusted money is growing at only 1.2% on an annualized basis. The seasonally adjusted number, which is the number the Fed watches, actually recorded an annualized decline of 0.9% for the three month period.

The Latest Ramlinology -- The implication, of course, is that Rahm met with the two Republicans on his own. If so, at the very time Rahm was letting Lindsey Graham demand the shredding of the Constitution, Greg Craig was executing the ham-handed report that, though transparently lame, managed to free Rahm of the taint of Rod Blagojevich.

Dodd Proposes Putting Consumer Protection Agency at the FED -- I felt certain when I read the Financial Times headline, “Proposal sees consumer watchdog role for Fed,” that I must have woken up in a bizarre parallel universe (but that is probably unfair to pretty much all universes parallel to ours: I imagine it would be very difficult to have one more perverse than ours). But no, sadly, this headline is for real; the only possible good news in this account it that this dreadful idea is far from a done deal.

Massive Pharaoh Head Unearthed in Egypt -- The leader of the expedition that discovered the head described it as the best preserved sculpture of Amenhotep III’s face found to date.
 

Today in History Wednesday March 3, 2010
1791 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution that created the U.S. Mint.
1803 - The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.
1812 - The U.S. Congress passed the first foreign aid bill.
1817 - The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans was opened.
1845 - Florida became the 27th U.S. state.
1849 - The U.S. Congress created the territory of Minnesota.
1851 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest U.S. silver coin.
1857 - Britain and France declared war on China.
1863 - Free city delivery of mail was authorized by the U.S. Postal Service.
1875 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 20-cent piece. It was only used for 3 years.
1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company.
1885 - The U.S. Post Office began offering special delivery for first-class mail.
1900 - Striking miners in Germany returned to work.
1903 - In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.
1903 - The U.S. imposed a $2 head tax on immigrants.
1906 - A Frenchman tried the first flight in an airplane with tires.
1908 - The U.S. government declared open war on on U.S. anarchists.
1909 - Aviators Herring, Curtiss and Bishop announced that airplanes would be made commercially in the U.S.
1923 - The first issue of Time magazine was published.
1931 - The "Star Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as "Defense of Fort McHenry."
1945 - During World War II, Finland declared war on the Axis.
1952 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld New York's Feinberg Law that banned Communist teachers in the U.S.
1959 - The San Francisco Giants had their new stadium officially named Candlestick Park.
1969 - Apollo 9 was launched by NASA to test a lunar module.
1969 - Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1974 - About 350 people died when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris.
1978 - The remains of Charles Chaplin were stolen from his grave in Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. The body was recovered 11 weeks later.
1980 - The submarine Nautilus was decommissioned. The vessels final voyage had ended on May 26, 1979.
1991 - Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers. The scene was captured on amateur video.
1994 - The Mexican government reached a peace agreement with the Chiapas rebels.
1995 - A U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia ended. Several gunmen were killed by U.S. Marines in Mogadishu while overseeing the pull out of peacekeepers.

How to Get Rid of Head Lice Naturally -- Head lice are easily transmitted by head-to head contact or by sharing combs, brushes or caps. Infestations are common in school children but this is not an indication of poor hygiene or dirty hair. Lice lay their eggs along the base of the hair shaft, close to the scalp. Conventional cures include the application of strong smelling insecticides or shampoos which can be harmful to health, especially in the case of small children. Go the natural route in preventing and treating head lice infestations.

Unemployment Map -- Just click "play" to view.

Officials Puzzle Over Millions of Dollars Leaving Afghanistan by Plane for Dubai -- A blizzard of bank notes is flying out of Afghanistan -- often in full view of customs officers at the Kabul airport -- as part of a cash exodus that is confounding U.S. officials and raising concerns about the money's origin.

Oops! Brain Cancer Patients Over-Irradiated with Miscalibrated Radiotherapy Machine -- Numerous patients have already been killed by miscalibrated chemotherapy pumps that drip poison in to the bodies of patients. And now there's news from Springfield Missouri where an actively-used brain cancer

Merck's cervical cancer vaccine ads are inaccurate and misleading -- Several doctors and women's groups in India are lambasting advertisements puts out by drug giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Merck for their human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine. Objecting to the claims being made that the vaccine protects against cervical cancer, The Sama Resource Centre for Women and Health, Saheli Women's Resource Centre, and a group of doctors are sounding the alarm that the ads are misleading and inaccurate. irradiation machine has been miscalibrated since 2004.

California couple who removed lawn plead not guilty -- A California man who tried to save water and money by removing his front lawn is being taken to court. Quan Ha pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a misdemeanor count for violating Orange city code. He faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

NAIS is Not Dead, Just Renamed -- On February 10, 2010 USDA announced that it will revise the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) policy and offer a new approach to achieving animal disease traceability.
 * USDA APHIS Factsheet - Questions and Answers: New Animal Disease Traceability Framework

Apple admits child labouor was used to build iPods and Iphones in Chinese factories -- At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple.

Postal Service Seeks 5-Day Delivery -- The U.S. Postal Service will move this month toward reducing mail delivery from six days a week to five, a change Postmaster General John Potter has said is critical to reducing its massive debt.

Russian Oil, Gas Company's Top Manager Found Shot Dead in Moscow Office -- The board chairman of Russian oil and gas company Trans Nafta was found dead in his company office in the Russian capital on Saturday, a source in Moscow police said.

Extended Jobless Benefits Start Ending -- Because the Senate did not act, the jobless will now stop getting checks once they run out of their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits. (Perhaps the senate was distracted by the health care fiasco on purpose? Hasten the demise?)

Bankruptcy Looms, Greek PM Warns -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said Tuesday his country was fighting for survival against bankruptcy and urged civil servants and pensioners to accept sacrifices to save the debt-burdened nation.

Quake Torn Haiti Hit by Floods -- Heavy rain has caused flooding in Haiti, killing at least 13 people as swollen rivers forced people on to roofs and trapped people in cars and homes.

Justices signal they're ready to make gun ownership a national right -- The Supreme Court justices, hearing a 2nd Amendment challenge to Chicago's ban on handguns, signaled Tuesday that they were ready to extend gun rights nationwide, clearing the way for legal attacks on state and local gun restrictions.

New IAEA Chief Takes Hardline Towards Iranian Nuclear Program -- In his first board meeting as the new chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr. Yukiya Amano made clear that he does not believe Iran has been cooperating with the agency’s efforts to assess the current state of the Iranian nuclear program.

Mandatory ID in Germany -- A new electronic personal identity card will be introduced in Germany on 1 November 2010. The complex overall system for managing the mandatory card and its contactless chip is on display at CeBIT 2010. The card has three functions: 1. biometric identity verification, 2. electronic identity verification, 3. authenticated electronic signature.

Nine Congressmembers Who Voted Against Health Care Reform Could Flip -- A small number of House Democrats who opposed health overhaul legislation on the first go-round may be President Barack Obama's most important constituency when he unveils a revised proposal on Wednesday.

Mossad Agents Fled to US After Killing in Dubai of Hamas Leader -- At least two suspected Israeli agents behind the murder of a senior Hamas official fled to the US during their escape, Dubai police now believe.

There Was a War Council in Damascus -- “The timing of the meeting, the way it was undertaken and the ensuing press conference that was held at its conclusion, all point to a strategic coalition being reinforced. This is the build-up of a new front that will spearhead the confrontation with the US-Israeli alliance and whichever Arab countries that may, expressly or implicitly, be affiliated with it.”

Voodoo Priest Announces War on Christians -- Haiti’s supreme Voodoo leader and hundreds of his followers intend to wage “war” upon Christian Evangelicals after they attacked a Voodoo ceremony in which chickens were beheaded to honor the Haitians killed in last month’s massive earthquake.

Secret Service Uses Outdated Computers -- A classified review of the United States Secret Service's computer technology found that the agency's computers were fully operational only 60 percent of the time because of outdated systems and a reliance on a computer mainframe that dates to the 1980s, according to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

Chile Quake May Have Tipped Earth's Axis -- The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted the Earth's axis and created shorter days, scientists at NASA say. (Makes one wonder what's next)?

Whistleblower: Pursuit of Madoff Was a Death Sentence -- For almost ten years Harry Markopolos tried, and failed, to alert regulators and investors of Bernie Madoff's $65 billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

Bitter Melon Stops Breast Cancer Cells From Growing and Spreading -- A vegetable commonly eaten in India and China called bitter melon (also known by the botanical name Momordica charantia), has been shown in previous studies to have a beneficial impact on blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It turns out that's not all the health benefits bitter melon offers. A new study by Saint Louis University scientists provides evidence the vegetable triggers a chain of events on a cellular level that stops breast cancer cells from multiplying and also kills them.

Free Porn On 'Tube Sites' Puts a Big Dent in Industry -- "We're dealing with the perfect storm: declining DVD sales, rampant piracy, free content and a weak economy," says Steven Hirsch, founder of porn heavyweight Vivid Entertainment. He says its DVD sales plunged 20% last year. "This is the worst I've seen in this industry in 25 years."

Most Detailed Pictures of Earth Revealed by NASA -- The space agency produced the stunning series images using thousands of “satellite-based observations” hundreds of miles above the planet. (Looks peaceful, but looks are deceiving.)

UK Muslim Leader to Put Fatwa on Jihad -- A revered mainstream Muslim scholar is set to announce in London on Tuesday a fatwa (Muslim ruling) against terrorism and suicide bombing in the name of Islam.

Afghanistan Censors Coverage of Taliban Attacks -- Afghanistan on Monday announced a ban on news coverage showing Taliban attacks, saying such images embolden the Islamist militants, who have launched strikes around the country as NATO forces seize their southern strongholds.

15 Years Ago, the Combined Assets of the 6 Biggest Banks Totaled 17% of GDP -- Fifteen years ago, the combined assets of our six biggest banks totaled 17 percent of our GDP. By 2006, that number was 55 percent. Right now, it stands at 63 percent.

Baby Girl Survives After Being Shot in the Chest by Parents in Global Warming Suicide Pact -- A seven-month-old baby girl survived three days alone with a bullet in her chest beside the bodies of her parents and toddler brother. Argentines Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their children before killing themselves after making an apparent suicide pact over fears about global warming.

US-Canada Border Security and Military Partnership -- Under the pretext of the war on terror and through initiatives such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), as well as other commitments, there has been an ongoing effort to further harmonize North American security priorities.  The militarization of the continent, along with U.S.-Canada integration is taking place in areas of law enforcement, border services and the armed forces.

German Gold Foundry Apparently Discovered a Tungsten Filled Gold Bar that was Due for Melt -- German TV station ProSieben finds what appears to be some evocative proof of gold counterfeiting, in the form of tungsten gold substitutes coming to the W.C.Heraeus foundry, which is the world’s largest privately-owned precious metals refiner and fabricator, located in Hanau, Germany. The foundry has isolated at least one 500-gram tungsten bar due for melting, originating from a (so far) unnamed bank, which as the head of the foundry stated made the unpleasant discovery that “not all the glitters is gold.”

Now You Can Wear Your Windows -- Imagine your smartphone feeding information to a 15-inch virtual Microsoft Windows PC display that sits in front of one eye (leaving the other free) while you speak commands using a hands-free natural speech recognition interface to control your phone and wireless access to the Internet.

Corporate Lobbyists and Public Relations Firms Behind Cable News Outlets -- Since 2007, at least 75 registered lobbyists, public relations representatives and corporate officials have appeared on cable news broadcasts "with no disclosure of the corporate interests that paid them," The Nation magazine (March 1) reveals.

Soros: I am Not Satisfied with Barck Obama, But He Saved the Country from Recession -- “He is paying a very heavy price for actually saving the country from going into a very deep recession or a depression, because people don’t — haven’t experienced it,” Soros said. “He wanted to be the great uniter and he wanted to carry the country, sort of bring it together. But the other side has absolutely no incentive to do it. So it takes two to tango. So that approach has failed.”

Common Weedkiller Turns Male Frogs into Females -- Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported.

Millions of Tons of Water Ice Found at Moon's North Pole -- A moon probe has found millions of tons of water on the moon’s north pole, NASA reported Monday. The vast source of water could one day be used to generate oxygen or sustain a moon base.

Farrakhan Predicts White Right Trouble for Obama -- Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, boasting his divine stature, on Sunday predicted trouble ahead for President Barack Obama and urged him to do more to improve the lives of blacks and the downtrodden.

UK: Open Wi-fi 'Outlawed' By Digital Economy Bill -- This would leave many organizations open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the internet, leading legal experts to say it will become impossible for small businesses and the like to offer Wi-Fi access.

CERN Nuclear Team Restarts Large Hadron Collider -- Operators of the world's largest atom smasher restarted their massive machine today in a run-up to experiments probing secrets of the universe. After a cautious trial period, Cern (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) plans to ramp up the energy of the proton beams travelling around the 17-mile tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border at Geneva to unprecedented levels – and start record-setting collisions of protons by late March.

Hazmat Crews, FBI Storm IRS Building in Utah, White Powder Found -- Ogden, United States - Early news report found that Hazmat crews and the FBI were called to the scene in Utah to deal with a "a possible chemical situation". A powder may have been found in the mail at the facility but that information has not yet been confirmed.

Cyberware Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet -- The biggest threat to the open internet is not Chinese government hackers or greedy anti-net-neutrality ISPs, it’s Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence.

US Special Forces in the Congo; Coup in Niger -- In February 2010 we learned that U.S. special forces have begun training Congolese troops.
These same Congolese troops have been accused of attacking civilians and committing extreme abuses. "The government army came to the village... They raped and killed people and burned them in their houses."


Today In History Tuesday March 2, 2010
1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.
1861 - The U.S. Congress created the Territory of Nevada.
1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress.
Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
1897 - U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.
1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.
1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.
1901 - The first telegraph company in Hawaii opened.
1901 - The U.S. Congress passed the Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
1903 - The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
1906 - A tornado in Missouri killed 33 and did $5 million in damage.
1908 - In Paris, Gabriel Lippmann introduced three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.
1917 - The Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.
1917 - Citizens of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act.
1925 - State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker.
1929 - The U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals was created by the U.S. Congress.
1933 - The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.
1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.
1949 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.
1969 - In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde made its first test flight.
1985 - The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.
1986 - Corazon Aquino was sworn into office as president of the Philippines.
1989 - Representatives from the 12 European Community nations all agreed to ban all production of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of the 20th century.
1995 - Nick Leeson was arrested for his role in the collapse of Britain's Barings Bank.
1998 - The U.N. Security Council endorses U.N. chief Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.
1998 - Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.
2000 - In Great Britain, Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was freed from house arrest and allowed to return to Chile. Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw had concluded that Pinochet was mentally and physically unable to stand trial. Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland had sought the former Chilean leader on human-rights violations.
2003 - Over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounted in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.
2004 - NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.

Doritos Ads Represent Sick, Demented Nature of Junk Food Companies -- One Doritos ad portrays a man backing out of a parking lot when his car strikes an innocent person who drops a bag of Doritos and falls to the ground behind the car. Rather than trying to help the innocent victim, this man throws his car into reverse and drives over the victim, killing him with the vehicle and stealing the bag of Doritos.
Doritos YouTube Videos:
* A second Doritos ad shows two loser-looking gym bums being attacked by an insane junk food ninja who uses Doritos chips as throwing stars to murder the guy who stole his bag of Doritos. The message here? Doritos are so valuable that it's okay to kill others to defend your snack. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bRS)
* A third Doritos ad shows one elderly man attacking a young man with a stun gun in order to buy the last bag of Doritos from a vending machine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4YN...). Same gratuitous violence. Same message: Committing violent acts against others is perfectly acceptable when you're pursuing a bag of Doritos.
* Yet another Doritos ad shows two grown men smacking each other in the face to decide which loser has to go buy more Doritos. The loser ends up with a black eye after being punched so hard he flies through the air and lands on a coffee table, shattering it. Gee, why not just use the women in this role and make it a wife-beating commercial? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpRb...)

ACT TODAY! Or Kiss Your Organics Goodbye! -- ACT TODAY: comments are due by close of business Wednesday, March 3rd.

GMO Alfalfa Will Devastate Organic Dairy Industry -- Organic Valley farmers are joining the Center for Food Safety in a fight against the sale of Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) alfalfa seed. The 869 dairy and beef farmers of Organic Valley "feed their animals an all-organic diet that is on average 60 percent alfalfa. Each cow eats approximately 32.5 pounds of certified organic alfalfa a day." Siemon goes on to say "contamination of organic alfalfa stands or seed stock will devastate the organic farmers who market milk."

Brownfield Man Going to Prison for Selling Conventional Crops as Organic -- During an investigation by the TDA in late June 2008, Coronado furnished the TDA investigator several false documents/statements relating to his source of organic commodities. These documents/statements were false in that they represented that Sel-Cor was purchasing/selling large quantities of organic grain, beans, and peas when in fact, the products were not organic. The documents/statements included....

US manufacturers face skills shortages -- Manufacturing companies in the US are struggling to find workers with technical skills even though the sector has shed more than 2m jobs in the past two years. The shortage of skilled staff could restrict companies’ ability to step up production as the economic recovery gathers pace. In interviews with the Financial Times, groups ranging from Boeing – one of the US’s biggest manufacturers and exporters – to small companies also said they faced a wave of skilled workers reaching retirement age in the next few years, with a shortage of younger workers to replace them.

Concern as baby-boomers prepare for retirement -- The “skills gap” results from the confluence of two trends. First, the “baby-boomers” who have made up the bulk of US skilled manufacturing labor in recent decades have started to reach retirement age – a demographic pattern that will accelerate over the coming decade. Second, young people are increasingly spurning both manufacturing jobs and education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. With signs of industrial demand recovering, many expect this to spark a “war for talent” in the coming years, pushing up labor costs and forcing some companies to make do with less qualified workers. “As manufacturers recover, as they ramp up capacity, the skills gap could get more acute,” says John Oleniczak, Midwest leader of PwC’s audit practice.

LIBERTY DOLLAR NEWS: February 2010 Vol. 12 No. 02 -- For articles such as: 1. Aspen Silver Dollar Shines Forth - 2. South Carolina Questions the Currency - 3. Ron Paul - Is at it Again - 4. Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right. Read More.....

Chile Troops Impose Curfew in Quake-Stricken Towns -- In Concepcion, angry survivors camping along roads took out their frustration on firefighters who were distributing drinking water in thermoses and tea kettles, damaging their vehicles. Police arrested scores of people for looting and violating the curfew.

Fed Vice Chairman Says He Will Step Down -- Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn's decision to step down at the end of June gives President Barack Obama a chance to put a bigger imprint on the central bank.

Why did Sgt. Thomas die? -- His death leaves a medical mystery, one similar to those posed by hundreds of other American military personnel battling exotic cancers or struggling with rare respiratory problems.

Depleted Uranium for Dummies -- The Most Toxic Battle In Western Military History by Irving Wesley Hall. Be sure to check out the many articles on our Depleted Uranium section at: http://www.thepowerhour.com/du.htm

Military Suicides are Causing Civilian Casualties too -- Last month, the Defense Department reported that there were 160 reported active-duty Army suicides in 2009, up from 140 in 2008. Of these, 114 have been confirmed, while the cause of death in the remaining 46 has yet to be determined.

Bonuses for Wall Street and Unemployment Elsewhere Continue to Grow -- The troubles that countries are having with sovereign debt are growing exponentially.

Unemployment Benefits Denied! Over a Million Families Destroyed -- They did it! The government of your nation did it! They just turned their backs on over a million people on unemployment and denied the extensions! Congress, in the most nefarious and pernicious move seen since “post economic collapse period,” has walked away, went home for the weekend and did not extend unemployment benefits to over a million America families.

Chinese Fluoride is a Homeland Security Matter -- Recently, it has come to my attention in an engineering report for the city of Boulder, Colo., that they did an evaluation of fluoridation chemicals and sources and found that much of the fluoride chemicals used for water fluoridation are now coming out of China with arsenic and lead levels of 50 and 40 milligrams respectively per bag and non-existent regulatory monitoring of the salt or acid compounds from these imports.

Commercial Real Estate: More Trouble Ahead -- “The largest commercial real estate loan losses are projected for 2011 and beyond; losses at banks alone could range as high as $200-$300 billion. The stress tests conducted last year for 19 major financial institutions examined their capital reserves only through the end of 2010. Even more significantly, small and mid-sized banks were never subjected to any exercise comparable to the stress tests, despite the fact that small and mid-sized banks are proportionately even more exposed than their larger counterparts to commercial real estate loan losses.”

American Reliance on Government At All-Time High -- Without record levels of welfare, unemployment and other government benefits as well as tax cuts last year, the income of U.S. households would have plunged by an astonishing $723 billion — more than four times the record $167 billion drop reported last month by the Commerce Department.

Al Gore Takes Aim at Climate Change Skeptics -- Former Vice President Al Gore took aim at skeptics who doubt the reality of human-caused climate change, saying he wished it were an illusion but that the problem is real and urgent.

Plastic Chemical Triggers Allergic Asthma -- A plastic chemical commonly used in baby bottles and the lining of food and beverage cans may at least partially responsible for allergic asthma, a new study suggests.

Germany and France Agree to Rescue Greece, With Conditions -- Sources close to the German finance ministry said Germany’s state-owned KfW bank will buy Greek bonds or provide guarantees to other banks to buy them. France’s state-owned Caisse des Depots will also be involved in the aid package, according to Greek newspaper Ta Nea.

Now the Government Wants Competence Test Before You Can Be a Dog Owner -- Every dog owner will have to take a costly ‘competence test’ to prove they can handle their pets, under new Government proposals designed to curb dangerous dogs.

Euro Has Become a 'Subprime' Currency  -- The euro has become another "subprime" currency, afflicted by debts, funny bookkeeping, regulatory failure and widespread street protests in Greece and Spain. It's ironic that more violence-prone Americans didn't hit the streets, and throw rocks, when their living standards were sliced dramatically. Not yet anyway.

US Sponsors Terrorists to Overthrow Iran's Government Again! -- Abdolmalek Rigi, leader of the assassination/terrorist group, Jundallah, was announced as captured by Iran’s government on February 23, 2010. Iran televised Mr. Rigi making a statement that the US government funds Jundallah, provides weapons, and assists with logistical management.

Bush's Torture Psychologists Wanted to Use 'Mock Burials' -- "Yet after mock burial was specifically excluded as a torture technique, CIA torturers went on to threaten detainees with a power drill and a gun. In other words, someone at that CIA had already been told, specifically, that they could not use the threat of imminent death on detainees. But on at least two occasions, they did so anyway."

China Insiders Sees Revolution Brewing -- China's top expert on social unrest has warned that hardline security policies are taking the country to the brink of ''revolutionary turmoil''.

Nanotech May Tap into Your Mind -- New sensors built using nanotechnology could read and write information directly into the brain.

Augmented Identity App Helps You Identify Strangers on the Street -- By this point, we're all familiar with augmented reality, but Swedish mobile software firm The Astonishing Tribe is taking information overload to the next logical step: augmented identity. Mashing up face recognition technology, computer vision, cloud computing, and augmented reality with the complex digital lives many of us lead on the Internet, TAT has created an app that allows you to gather information on a person and their social networking life simply by pointing your camera phone at their face.

Step Aside Greece: How Gustavo Pigs Exposed Europe's Enron in 2001 -- Yet a 2001 report prepared by Gustavo Piga, in collaboration with the Council of Foreign Relations and the International Securities Market Association, not only fits that particular smoking gun description, but the report itself was damning enough of another country, a country which used precisely the same off-market swap arrangement to end up with an interest expense of LIBOR minus 16.77% (in essence the counteparty was paying Italy 16.77% of notional each year as a function of the swap mechanics), in that long ago year of 1995. The country - Italy (for confidentiality reasons referred to in the report as Country M), was at the time panned as the Enron of the European Union due to precisely this kind of off-balance sheet arrangement by the Counsil of Foreign Relations.

Russian Politician Says Wants to be Cloned for Nation's Sake -- Leader of the Russian Liberal Democrats Vladimir Zhirinovsky said on Friday cloning should be permitted in Russia and proposed cloning himself "for the nation's benefit."

Internet Overtakes Newspapers As Primary Source of News -- National and local TV stations still dominate the news cycle for most Americans, but the Internet now stands third in the list, ahead of national and local newspapers. Additionally, the majority of news consumers say they use two to five websites per day to get their fix—a number we think sounds about right—but a surprisingly high number (21 percent) rely on that one favorite site to get everything they need.

Supreme Court Gun Case Could Imperil State Laws on Everything -- But the case goes much further than the typical bickering over the Second Amendment. That's because it has more to do with the 14th Amendment than it does with the Second.

Senate Panel Said to Scrap Obama's Consumer Agency -- The negotiations focused on President Barack Obama’s Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which stalled talks on the overhaul, with Dodd proposing a bureau in the Treasury and Senator Richard Shelby, the committee’s top Republican, suggesting such powers go to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Neither proposal advanced, a Senate aide said. Talks between the two lawmakers on the bill collapsed last month.

Senate Panel Said to Scrap Obama’s Consumer Agency -- Senate Banking Committee negotiators, working through the weekend, agreed to drop the stand-alone consumer agency sought by the Obama administration and opposed by the banking industry, removing an obstacle that has stalled new U.S. financial rules.

The US and UK Lost Three Nuclear Weapons Each! -- UK, March 1, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) -When one reads about the pressure that the US and UK Governments put on such countries as Iran and North Korea I find it hard to believe that they themselves are so negligent in taking care of their own weapons. I also find it so hard to believe that they have such high moral standards when trying to stop Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) but are prepared to use such evil weapons themselves.

California Delays Payments, Ponders IOU's Again, Demands 80% Income Tax Before it it Even Earned -- Tactics in California to shore up its municipal bond rating are quite humorous. Supposedly, by delaying payments to schools, California can boost confidence in its bonds.

Why Pharmaceuticals Might Be Called Weapons of Mass Prescription -- Most people are familiar with traditional weapons of mass destruction such biological weapons, nuclear weapons and chemical weapons. The point of all such weapons of mass destruction is to inflict a large number of casualties on civilian populations as a way to cripple a nation into political or military submission.

Jerusalem Teeters on the Brink of Violent Revolution -- Israeli defense officials on Sunday warned that Jerusalem and the rest of Judea and Samaria are teetering on the brink of a new Palestinian explosion of violence, and charged "moderate" Palestinian leaders like Prime Minister Salam Fayyad with fueling the unrest.

Winter-Damaged Crops Drive up Tomato Prices -- The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, an agricultural cooperative, reports that much of the crop has been devastated by the freezing temperatures. And some retailers in Michigan and elsewhere are turning to Mexican tomatoes to stock their shelves.

5,200 Australians Bare All In Sydney Photo Shoot -- About 5,200 naked people embraced each other on the steps of Sydney's iconic Opera House on Monday for a photo shoot by Spencer Tunick. (Anyone remember modesty?)

It's Raining Frogs and Fish -- What's the real explanation of frogs and fish raining from the sky? Hint: It's not waterspouts.

Legal drugs have deadly impact -- While the investigation found one community could have done more to prevent the death of one girl, it also suggests that misuse of prescription drugs poses a threat to young and old across the metropolitan area. Of the 1,200 deaths, which do not include suicides, just more than half were caused by prescription drugs.
 

Today In History Monday March 1, 2010
1692 - In Salem Village, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Salem witch trials began. Four women were the first to be charged.
1781 - In America, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.
1790 - The U.S. Congress authorized the first U.S. census.
1803 - Ohio became the 17th U.S. state.
1811 - Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali massacred the leaders of the Mameluke dynasty.
1845 - U.S. President Tyler signed the congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.
1864 - Louis Ducos de Hauron patented a machine for taking and projecting motion pictures. The machine was never built.
1867 - Nebraska became the 37th U.S. state.
1869 - Postage stamps with scenes were issued for the first time.
1872 - The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. It was the world's first national park.
1873 - E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, NY, began the manufacturing the first practical typewriter.
1900 - In South Africa, Ladysmith was relieved by British troops after being under siege by the Boers for more than four months.
1907 - In Odessa, Russia, there were only about 15,000 Jews left due to evacuations.
1907 - In New York, the Salvation Army opened an anti-suicide bureau.
1912 - Captain Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
1932 - The 22-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped. The child was found dead in May.
1937 - U.S. Steel raised workers’ wages to $5 a day.
1937 - In Connecticut, the first permanent automobile license plates were issued.
1941 - FM Radio began in Nashville, TN, when station W47NV began operations.
1947 - The International Monetary Fund began operations.
1954 - The United States announced that it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1954 - Five U.S. congressmen were wounded when four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1961 - The Peace Corps was established by U.S. President Kennedy.
1966 - The Soviet probe, Venera 3 crashed on the planet Venus. It was the first unmanned spacecraft to land on the surface of another planet.
1966 - Ghana ordered all Soviet, East German and Chinese technicians to leave the country.
1969 - Mickey Mantle announced his retirement from major league baseball.
1974 - Seven people were indicted in connection with the Watergate break-in. The charge was conspiring to obstruct justice.
1987 - S&H Green Stamps became S&H Green Seals. The stamps were introduced 90 years earlier.
1989 - In Washington, DC, Mayor Barry and the City council imposed a curfew on minors.
1990 - In Cairo, 16 people were killed in a fire at the Sheraton Hotel.
1992 - King Fahd of Saudi Arabia announced major political reforms that ceded some powers after 10 years of disciplined rule.
1993 - The U.S. government announced that the number of food stamp recipients had reached a record number of 26.6 million.
1994 - Israel released about 500 Arab prisoners in an effort to placate Palestinians over the Hebron massacre.
1995 - The European Parliament rejected legislation that would have allowed biotechnology companies to patent new life forms.
1995 - Yahoo! was incorporated.
2002 - Operation Anaconda began in eastern Afghanistan. Allied forces were fighting against Taliban and Al Quaida fighters.
2003 - In the U.S., approximately 180,000 personnel from 22 different organizations around the government became part of the Department of Homeland Security.

FDIC Bank Closures - Two Closed Friday Feb 26 2010

Commercial Mortgage Default Rate in U.S. More Than Doubles -- The default rate for loans on office, retail, hotel and industrial properties surged to 3.8 percent from 1.6 percent a year earlier, the New York-based real estate research firm said yesterday in a report. The default rate for loans on apartment buildings climbed to 4.4 percent from 1.8 percent.

Bernake Delivers Blunt Warning on US Debt -- With uncharacteristic bluntness, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Congress on Wednesday that the United States could soon face a debt crisis like the one in Greece, and declared that the central bank will not help legislators by printing money to pay for the ballooning federal debt.

Obama signs one-year extension of Patriot Act -- President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation's main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act. Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday without Obama's signature Saturday.

Chile quake toll limited by good planning -- Chileans accelerated their rescue, aid and security efforts in damaged regions Sunday but also took pride in the comparatively low death toll, a result widely attributed to the country's meticulous planning and preparation.
Chile sends 10,000 troops to quash looting -- Chile's government scrambled on Monday to provide aid to thousands of homeless in coastal towns devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunamis as 10,000 troops moved into stricken areas to quell looting.

2010 Census: 10 Questions in 10 Minutes -- Look For Your Census Form In Mid-March.

IMF Chief Suggests Look at New Reserve Currency -- The I.M.F. leader, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also floated the idea of creating a global reserve currency that could serve as an alternative to the dollar.

Toxic towns: People of Mossville, Louisiana 'are like an experiment' -- Community suspects 14 chemical plants play a role in cancer and diseases in area. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will investigate pollution and health in Mossville, Louisiana, and across the country.

1 in 4 parents believes unproven vaccine-autism link, but most do what doctor says is best -- A statement from a group practice near Philadelphia outlines its doctors' adamant support for government recommended vaccines and their belief that "vaccines do not cause autism or other developmental disabilities." "Furthermore, by not vaccinating your child you are taking selfish advantage of thousands of other who do vaccinate their children ... We feel such an attitude to be self-centered and unacceptable," the statement says, urging those who "absolutely refuse" vaccines to find another physician. "We call it the manifesto," said Dr. Bradley Dyer of All Star Pediatrics in Lionville, Pa. (Comment: Manifesto as in "Communist Manifesto"?)

Simple home saliva test that tells your risk of going blind -- A saliva sample is sent off for analysis to assesses a person's genetic risk of developing Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness in the UK, which affects more than half-amillion people.

College Students Urged: Trade Bible for Playboy -- In the lobby of the University of Texas at San Antonio's humanities building, a hand-drawn poster announces, "Free porn: Just trade in your holy books (Bible, Koran, Vedas) for porn."

Short Selling Restrictions: A Great Indicator of Imminent Market Crashes -- Inquiring minds are investigating Fannie Mae's stunning $72 billion loss for 2009 as well as new short selling curbs. The two are actually related. Let's take a look.

Rescuers Search for Chile Quake Survivors; Death Toll Jumps to 708 -- The death toll nearly doubles as rescuers reach isolated and devastated towns. About 2 million people are hurt or without their homes in the aftermath of the 8.8 quake.

2/3 In Poll Think US Women Should Fight in Combat -- Every day, CNN has a feature called, "Quick Vote." They post a question and viewers can vote by clicking one of the buttons. Most of the time, the questions are lame, but today's question grabbed my attention. CNN asked, "Should the Pentagon allow women to serve in full combat roles?" I was shocked, but not really surprised. Two-thirds responded, YES.

CNN Poll: Majority Says Government a Threat to Citizen's Rights -- A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Cybersecurity Bill to Give President New Emergency Powers -- The president would have the power to safeguard essential federal and private Web resources under draft Senate cybersecurity legislation.

23 CIA Officials Convicted in Italy -- An Italian court has convicted 23 Americans of abducting an Egyptian terror suspect under the CIA's so-called "extraordinary rendition" programme. Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen discusses the news with RT.

Greece's Worst Fears Confirmed -- "Our duty today is to forget about the political cost and think only about the survival of our country. Past policies make it necessary to proceed to brutal changes and reduce accumulated privileges."

Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro' -- A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.

City of Angels on Brink of Abyss -- "The city is facing a budget crisis unlike any it has ever experienced … The enormity of our current fiscal crisis forces the City to take swift action now and lay out a financial plan for the future."

Louisiana Sheriff Launches Operation Exodus -- The Bossier Parish sheriff's office is launching a program called "Operation Exodus," a policing plan for an end-of-the-world scenario involving a mostly white group of ex-police volunteers and a .50-caliber machine gun, inspired in part from the Book of Exodus in the Bible.

Bill Gates: Lower World Population with Vaccines -- “Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services—we could lower that perhaps ten or fifteen percent.”

1997 DoD Briefing: 'Others' can set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely using electromagnetic waves
  * Transcript: DoD News Briefing: Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen

It's Raining Fish...No Really! -- WHILE the Top End and Central Australia have been battered by torrential rains, a Territory town has had fish falling from the sky.

Obama to Seek New Assault Weapons Ban -- The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

Oops! Brain Cancer Patients Over-Irradiated with Miscalibrated Radiotherapy Machine -- Numerous patients have already been killed by miscalibrated chemotherapy pumps that drip poison in to the bodies of patients. And now there's news from Springfield Missouri where an actively-used brain cancer irradiation machine has been miscalibrated since 2004.

Massive Bank Failures Due -- Close to 3,000 banks are currently classified as having a risky concentration of commercial real estate loans, according to a recent report by the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP). All of them are small to mid-sized banks, already weakened by the financial crisis.

Officials Puzzle Over Millions of Dollars Leaving Afghanistan By Plane -- A blizzard of bank notes is flying out of Afghanistan -- often in full view of customs officers at the Kabul airport -- as part of a cash exodus that is confounding U.S. officials and raising concerns about the money's origin.

UN Still Pushing for Global Environmental Control -- Despite the debacle of the failed Copenhagen climate change conference last December, the United Nations is pressing full speed ahead with a plan for a greatly expanded system of global environmental governance and for a multitrillion-dollar economic transfer scheme to ignite the creation of a "global green economy."

Weaponizing Mozart -- In recent years Britain has become the Willy Wonka of social control, churning out increasingly creepy, bizarre, and fantastic methods for policing the populace. But our weaponization of classical music—where Mozart, Beethoven, and other greats have been turned into tools of state repression—marks a new low.

US Refuses to Endorse British Sovereignty In Falkland Oil Dispute -- Washington refused to endorse British claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands yesterday as the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and at the UN.

Doritos Ads Represent Sick, Demented Nature of Junk Food Companies -- One Doritos ad portrays a man backing out of a parking lot when his car strikes an innocent person who drops a bag of Doritos and falls to the ground behind the car. Rather than trying to help the innocent victim, this man throws his car into reverse and drives over the victim, killing him with the vehicle and stealing the bag of Doritos.

Guns at Starbucks? Pushing the Right to Bear Arms in Public -- Gun owners in California have been wearing their handguns in coffee shops and restaurants. The guns are unloaded and legal, but some citizens and police departments are wary.

GOP Blacks Better Off Under Slavery -- "And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery."

Bountiful Baskets Food C0-op Now in Vegas -- Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op is a group buy using the power of bulk purchasing to get great prices on produce and other goods from wholesalers. This group operates in the southwest states and was recently expanded to include Las Vegas. Produce is delivered twice monthly and the reception was so great, you can expect new locations next time around and the option for an organic basket for $10 more. What a fantastic new food option for us all in southern Nevada!

Supreme Court Scrutinizes State. Local Gun Control -- The justices will be deciding whether the right to possess guns guaranteed by the Second Amendment — like much of the rest of the Bill of Rights — applies to states as well as the federal government. It's widely believed they will say it does.

Farmers, Others Sue USDA Over Monsanto GMO Alfafa -- Opening another front in the battle over genetically modified crops, the lawsuit contends that the US Department of Agriculture improperly is allowing Monsanto Co to sell an herbicide-resistant alfalfa seed while failing to analyze the public health, environmental, and economic consequences of that action.

Bribes Let Tomato Vendor Sell Tainted Food -- Days later, federal agents descended on Kraft’s offices near Chicago and confronted Mr. Watson. He admitted his role in a bribery scheme that has laid bare a startling vein of corruption in the food industry. And because the scheme also involved millions of pounds of tomato products with high levels of mold or other defects, the case has raised serious questions about how well food manufacturers safeguard the quality of their ingredients.

ATF Seizes 30 Toy Guns -- A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.

License Plate Software Stirs Privacy Concerns -- “It’s a huge Pandora’s box,” Jack Gillis, a spokesman for the Consumer Federation of America, said. “There are possibilities for tremendous violations if it is used to find out where people are at a given time. Until the access to this technology can be controlled, it has scary potential.”

How Mobile Phones Let Spies See Our Every Move -- The technology ’sees’ the shapes made when radio waves emitted by mobile phone masts meet an obstruction. Signals bounced back by immobile objects, such as walls or trees, are filtered out by the receiver. This allows anything moving, such as cars or people, to be tracked. Previously, radar needed massive fixed equipment to work and transmissions from mobile phone masts were thought too weak to be useful.

Israeli troops storm and encircle Aqsa Mosque -- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Sunday stormed the courtyards of the Aqsa Mosque and cordoned off its premises where dozens of Palestinian worshipers are still maintaining a vigil and refusing to leave for fear of attacks by Israeli extremists.

US to Spend $50 Million on Media in Pakistan -- The Obama administration plans to spend nearly $50 million on Pakistani media this year to reverse anti-American sentiments and raise awareness of projects aimed at improving quality of life, confirms a Washington insider.

Iran Unexpectedly Surfaces Hidden Nuclear Stockpile -- Iran has left international weapons inspectors stunned over the past two weeks as it suddenly moved virtually all of its underground nuclear fuel stockpile to an above-ground plant, and now the international community is struggling to determine what the country might be planning.

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