Troops' Debt a Growing Security Concern

The Pentagon contends financial problems can distract personnel from their duties or make them vulnerable to bribery and treason. As a result, those who fall heavily into debt can be stripped of the security clearances they need to go overseas.

What's inflation?

giving credit where credit is due: thanks Sh#t guyFirst, let's not let politicians deceive us, and escape culpability, by defining inflation as rising prices, which would allow them to make the pretense that inflation is caused by greedy businessmen, rapacious unions or Arab sheiks. Increases in money supply are what constitute inflation, and the general rise in the price level is the result. Who's in charge of the money supply? It's the government operating through the Federal Reserve...
If you lend me $100, and over the term of the loan the Federal Reserve increases the money supply in a way that causes inflation, I pay you back with dollars with reduced purchasing power. Since inflation redistributes (steals) wealth from creditors to debtors, it helps us identify inflation's primary beneficiary. That identification is easy if you ask: Who is the nation's largest debtor? If you said, "It's the U.S. government," go to the head of the class.

Venezuela, Guatemala battle for UN Security Council seat

Fierce US critic Venezuela and US-backed Guatemala fought a bitter battle for Latin America's open seat on the UN Security Council, forcing voting into a second day under pitched lobbying by the United States.
Guatemala led in all but one of the 10 rounds of voting, which was a tie, but Caracas held on to enough support to deny Guatemala the two-thirds majority of votes cast in a particular round needed to win...
UN rules allow for indefinite rounds of voting. A previous battle between Cuba and Colombia ended in January 1980 after two months and 154 rounds with the election of a third candidate, Mexico.

By 2016, cameras on 'almost every block'

"By the time 2016 [rolls around], we'll have more cameras than Washington, D.C. ... Our technology is more advanced than any other city in the world -- even compared to London -- dealing with our cameras and the sophistication of cameras and retro-fitting all the cameras downtown in new buildings, doing the CTA cameras," Daley said.

Just Consider

Many well known and respected senior members of the U.S. intelligence services, military, and government have expressed significant criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report. Several even allege government complicity in the terrible acts of 9/11. This web site is an effort to collect and summarize their public statements and make them easily accessible. It should be made clear that none of these individuals are affiliated with this web site.

And this was before the overturning of habeas corpus

Javaid Iqbal's lawyers say the Pakistani cable repairman was snatched in the post-September 11 dragnet and held for over a year at a Brooklyn detention center, where guards beat him mercilessly.

Iqbal, like hundreds of Muslims or Arabs detained in the days after the attacks but never charged, sued the U.S. government, saying that he was held and abused for no legitimate reason....
"The government can't be allowed to reflexively target people on the basis of race, religion and national origin even in times of chaos," the lawyer said.

...he was abused in the high security unit of the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Aside from repeated body-cavity searches and beatings while shackled, Elmaghraby said guards stuck a flashlight into his anus.

North Korea: A Nuclear Threat

On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Pyongyang pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." In return, Washington agreed that the United States and North Korea would "respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations."
Four days later, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sweeping financial sanctions against North Korea designed to cut off the country's access to the international banking system, branding it a "criminal state" guilty of counterfeiting, money laundering and trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

Condi's 9/11 Foreknowledge Denial Follies

If it weren't for the current media frenzy over Congressional youth abuse, the US public might be getting a much more educational eyeful of Condi Rice's serial 9/11 truth abuse. Outed in Bob Woodward's new book "State of Denial" for "brushing off" July 10, 2001 warnings of an imminent attack from CIA leaders Tenet and Black, Condi first disputed the claims, denied the meeting happened, then said she couldn't remember, and finally admitted to it but said it contained nothing new (yet apparently told the CIA team to report it to Rumsfeld and Ashcroft which they claim to have done on July 17). The 9/11 Commission was briefed on this dramatic encounter, but it somehow escaped mention in their final report, and finger pointing and official contradictions continue to this day. Although there are plenty of mainstream articles now recounting this high stakes he said/she said blame game, the following blog piece focuses on a critical facet--the role of the 9/11 Commission's executive director, Phillip Zelikow, in covering it all up for his old and new boss, and further shredding the credibility of the Commission's report.

How Did Human Remains End Up Miles From Flight 93's Crash Site?

Are we supposed to believe that hijackers armed with only box cutters forced an angry mob to jump from the plane seconds before the crash? Or are we supposed to believe that people simply felt compelled to jump from the plane? If the official story is true then people jumping from the plane is the only way human remains could have been found miles from Flight 93's crash site.

A more logical explanation is that people inside the plane were sucked out because of a sudden depressurisation.

corruption file

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.

take the time to watch

Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve

Ayn Rand's view on money

the leader of the House of Commons, has called on Muslim women to lift their veils

Mr Straw said he had been mulling over the issue ever since a veiled woman attended his surgery and said she was pleased to meet him face to face at last.

Here's the case I mentioned on Sunday

Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, says he was taken off a bus in Macedonia in south-central Europe while on holiday on Dec. 31, 2003...Finally released months later, the still-mystified Masri was deposited on a deserted road leading into Macedonia

Documents disclose 'shadow government'

The documents, a total of about 1,000 pages, are among the first to be released to Corsi through his FOIA request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, which describes itself as an initiative "to increase security and to enhance prosperity among the three countries through greater cooperation."

"The documents clearly reveal that SPP, working within the U.S. Department of Commerce, is far advanced in putting together a new regional infrastructure, creating a 'shadow' trilateral bureaucracy with Mexico and Canada that is aggressively rewriting a wide range of U.S. administrative law, all without congressional oversight or public disclosure," Corsi said.

Tough on crime

Rookie District Attorney Cracks Down on Drunk Drivers
She cannot fathom why so many people - more than 4,100 arrested in her community last year - turn the ignition after having a few drinks. More troublesome, she said, is that one-third have been caught before.

"Look, if I'm a one-term DA, then I'm a one-term DA, but I am going to do everything that I can to make the changes in this county," Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press.

More voting machine concerns

Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it secure.Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it

More voting machine concerns

Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it secure.Black Box Voting blows through memory card seal:
Black Box Voting projects in Leon County, Florida on May 26, 2005 and Dec. 13, 2005 demonstrated that by altering the information on the memory card, the election can be hacked without a trace.

San Diego, June 6 2006: Sent these voting machines home with poll workers for sleepovers. They said the seal on the memory card bay made it secure.

King County, Washington Aug. 29 2006: Says they are using the door and plastic tab seal as shown in these pictures, and they are sending the voting machines home with poll workers for the September primary election. They say the seal makes it

HUD staff told to favor allies

I suppose this could be considered irrrellavant since the investigation didn't find "direct evidence" of favourism, but I'm reminded of our own HUD scandal in Kansas City.

SADDAM'S TRIAL WAS ADJOURNED BACK IN JULY - BUT HIS SENTENCING IS BEING HELD OFF UNTIL - YOU GUESSED IT - DAYS BEFORE THE FALL ELECTION

The closing arguments in Saddam Hussein's trial have already been given. Why should we still be paying to keep him captive, to feed and house him, for all of August, all of September, and part of October as he just sits there? There was such a rush to war to get this man, why the sudden delay and delay and delay?

You don't really need to ask, do you?

This is such an obvious ploy to use war, once again, as a flat out GOP political product during the last weeks of the election that the Democrats should be screaming bloody murder.

Let's review history: in 2002, President Bush launched the idea of invading Iraq shortly before the election, and scheduled the big UN vote on the matter for, you got it, the week before the election. He said it had to be rushed and happen that week.

In 2004, Fallujah. The massive, publicly touted Fallujah invasion was announced two weeks before the election and touted by all media outlets as something that would break the back of the insurgency. It was all a lie of course, as we documented, and the public warning to the insurgents cost American lives and guaranteed failure.

So here we are again. It's coming up on October. And this time the plan to use the Iraq war with a last minute media-dominating story is obvious. Saddam could be sentenced today. He could have been sentenced a month ago. But he is sitting there waiting for the date that has been made public - "mid-October." Yes, the sentencing will be the dominant story in the final weeks before the election. And the since the Democrats didn't cry foul back in July when this came out and demand he be sentenced then and our elections be respected, it will work as usual.

I love Freepers

If a piddling little war like Iraq is stretching the Army, it is clear that we need a bigger Army. And more money to fund it...