Filed under: 1st amendment, Oppression, Police State, Protest, Seattle, US Constitution, free speech, freeway blogging, police brutality, washington
Cop Rips Down Protester’s Freeway Sign
A Washington State Trooper accosts a small group of University of Washington students protesting the criminal justice system. February 24th, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hofo9H6MKfw
Filed under: 1984, Child Abuse, Guantanamo, Oppression, Police State, Texas, florida, police brutality, prison industrial complex
Caught on tape: More deputies accused of brutally beating inmate
Mike Deeson
Tampa Bay 10 News
February 29, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZFxmS23w-8
Tampa, Florida- Former teacher Paul King says he used to be one of those people who said lock ‘em up throw away the key.
However King has changed his mind since being arrested on public intoxication last July. A video shows deputies pushed him against a glass wall as he was being frisked, threw him to the ground for no apparent reason, held his neck back more than 2 minutes as he was being put into a restraint chair, put a hood over his face and then appeared to try to hide the action from cameras by moving paperwork to cover his head.
King says it’s something like out of Guantanamo.
King says when he was out of camera view, two deputies took him out of the restraining chair and says they both started kneeing him up against a bench or a wall, as he was pleading please, please, please.
But it didn’t stop there. King says they made him say you’re a f***ing p***y. And he says they were hurting him so he said ” I’m a f***ing p****y and the deputies all laughed.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has ordered an inquiry into all the allegations, however a spokesman for the McCollum says it is too early to determine whether these are isolated incidents or there is a pattern of abuse occurring.
But despite the fact the attorney general and the sheriff’s office each launched separate investigations, some have said they fear this is an attempt to sweep things under the rug rather than to find the truth.
Attorney John Trevena, who represents some of the people claiming abuse, met with McCollum’s office on Thursday and says he believes there is a need for federal oversite in this. Trevena says he hopes he is wrong but he is losing confidence in the state’s ability to handle this.
And those who claim they have been abused in the jail are losing confidence in the system. King says when he was going through this he thought it was something like the Orwell novel, “1984.” King says they can do whatever they want.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_56314.html
Police In Riot Gear Respond To Miami School
http://www.local10.com/news/15456319/detail.html
A Prison That Holds Children and Pregnant Women in Taylor, Texas
http://rinf.com/alt-news/multimedia/video-americas-family-prison/2567/
Film a cop with a camera phone, go to jail
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid56680.aspx
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, Britain, Ehud Barak, Eugenics, Genocide, Holocaust, Israel, Matan Vilnai, Population Control, Propaganda, Saber Rattling, Zionism, jerusalem, neocons, palestine, yasser arafat
Israeli War Minister Threatens Palestinian Holocaust
Media who became obsessed with “wipe Israel off the map” misquote scurry to defend Vilnai after disgraceful comments
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
February 29, 2008
Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has provoked outrage after threatening Palestinians with a “holocaust,” but the same media who obsessed about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “wipe Israel off the map” misquote are scurrying to defend Vilnai’s disgraceful comments.
“The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves, “Vilnai told the Army Radio on Friday.
However, in a Reuters report, despite the fact that the rest of the statement was translated into English, the incendiary word “holocaust” remained in its original Hebrew version – “shoah”.
Why Reuters would choose to print the rest of the statement in English yet cherry-pick one word to remain in Hebrew is obvious – they don’t want to draw any attention to the fact that Vilnai is threatening the Palestinians with a holocaust.
Vilnai’s spokesman has attempted to diffuse the controversy by claiming Vilnai was speaking in terms of a “disaster” and not a holocaust.
But you can’t have your cake and eat it.
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allegedly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” the media blindly repeated the quote ad infinitum, and it became second nature for them to carelessly drop it into any propaganda piece intended to hype Iran’s supposed threat to Israel and the world.
Barely a day goes by that Israeli, American and British warhawks don’t spew the phrase like a broken record in an attempt to create a catchy cliché and brand market the next jaunt of imperial blood-letting.
No matter that, according to numerous different translations, Ahmadinejad never used the word “map,” instead his statement was in the context of time and applied to the Zionist regime occupying Jerusalem. Ahmadinejad was expressing his future hope that the Zionist regime in Israel would fall, not that Iran was going to physically annex the country and its population.
To claim Ahmadinejad has issued a rallying cry to ethnically cleanse Israel is akin to saying that Churchill wanted to murder all Germans when he stated his desire to crush the Nazis. This is about the demise of a corrupt occupying power, not the deaths of millions of innocent people.
On the other hand, even as Reuters is forced to admit, Vilnai’s use of the word “shoah” is intrinsically allied to the context of “Discussions of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews,” adding, “Many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other contemporary events.”
So will the media make reference to one of Israel’s top minister’s expressing his wish to inflict a Palestinian “holocaust” in all future reports about Israel’s geopolitical motives, just as they do with Ahmadinejad’s supposed call to wipe Israel off the map?
There’s more chance of Yasser Arafat and Menachem Begin coming back from the dead to broker a peace settlement.
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/260107offthemap.htm
Filed under: Abu Ghraib, Detainee, Iraq, Sabrina Harman, Torture, War On Terror, nation building, occupation
New Abu Ghraib Photos Released
Raw Story
February 29, 2008
The following images, published today at Wired.com, have been compiled so viewers can see them in their entirety without having to reload pages. Wired obtained them from an expert defense witness in the Abu Ghraib case, psychologist Philip Zimbardo.
Zimbardo speaks tomorrow at a conference, delivering a talk that reflects on his book, “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.” Read about it here.
In their publication, the magazine wrote, “Many of the images are explicit and gruesome, depicting nudity, degradation, simulated sex acts and guards posing with decaying corpses. Viewer discretion is advised.”
Perhaps the most comprehensive multimedia compilation of images from the troubled US prison in Iraq is available at Salon.com, which published 279 photos and 19 videos in 2006.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Air Force, Censorship, DoD, Eugenics, FOIA, Genocide, Hamid Karzai', Iraq, Military, NATO, Pentagon, Taliban, Troops, Vaccine, War On Terror, anthrax, anthrax vaccine, defense department, fda, health and environment, mandatory vaccinations, marine, mass graves, nation building, occupation, surge
Afghanistan Mission Close To Failing
Guardian
February 29, 2008
After six years of US-led military support and billions of pounds in aid, security in Afghanistan is “deteriorating” and President Hamid Karzai’s government controls less than a third of the country, America’s top intelligence official has admitted.
Mike McConnell testified in Washington that Karzai controls about 30% of Afghanistan and the Taliban 10%, and the remainder is under tribal control.
The Afghan government angrily denied the US director of national intelligence’s assessment yesterday, insisting it controlled “over 360″ of the country’s 365 districts. “This is far from the facts and we completely deny it,” said the defence ministry.
But the gloomy comments echoed even more strongly worded recent reports by thinktanks, including one headed by the former Nato commander General James Jones, which concluded that “urgent changes” were required now to “prevent Afghanistan becoming a failed state”.
Judge OKs mandatory anthrax vaccine
Judge Dismisses Challenge to Military’s Mandatory Anthrax Vaccine
Raw Story
February 29, 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2dHeG0aTwVw
The Pentagon can require its troops be vaccinated against anthrax, a federal judge said Friday.
Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said the Food and Drug Administration acted appropriately when it found the vaccine to be safe and approved its use. She dismissed a lawsuit by military officials who argued the drug is unproven and the scientific data unsound.
“The court will not substitute its own judgment when the FDA made no clear error of judgment,” Collyer wrote.
The dispute has languished in the court system for years. A federal judge suspended the vaccination program in 2004 after faulting the FDA’s process for approving the drug. After the FDA redid the process and again found it to be safe, the military announced plans to reinstate mandatory vaccinations.
That prompted this latest lawsuit by eight military members who argued the vaccine should be optional.
“We owe it to our service members to give them every possible protection,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. “Force protection is the number one priority in the Defense Department and the anthrax inoculation program is an important force-protection measure.”
Mark Zaid, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the FDA relied on outdated studies that didn’t prove the vaccine is safe or effective against inhaled anthrax.
“It would appear the court has condoned an agency’s manipulation of decades-old data to support a present-day policy objective,” Zaid said. “We are absolutely going to appeal.”
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Soldie..g_himself_shot_to_0226.html
More troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, Defense Department says
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0227/p99s04-duts.html
US patrol shoots Iraqi civilian
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7268645.stm
US Air Force censors blogs
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/..02/28/air-force-censors-blogs
Marines Call New Body Armor Impractical
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,333154,00.html
Iraqi Hospitals Unable To Cope With Bombings
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=60570
PHR Files Suit Against Defense Department in FOIA Dispute Over Documents Concerning Mass Grave in Afghanistan
http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/news-2008-02-19.html
U.S. Expects 140K Troops In Iraq By July
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25602446.htm
‘We scrounge for everything’: U.S. soldier in Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/0..login&pagewanted=all
Filed under: Big Banks, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, Economy, Federal Reserve, Great Depression, Greenback, Inflation, Stock Market, US Economy, Wall Street, bernanke, economic depression, housing market, interest rate cut, interest rate cuts, rate cut
Fed Chief Signals Another Rate Cut
Bernanke Says Fed’s Priority Is Shoring Up the Economy, Pledges to Cut Interest Rates
AP
February 27, 2008
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress that the nation is in for a period of sluggish business growth and sent a fresh signal Wednesday that interest rates will again be lowered to steady the teetering economy.
“The economic situation has become distinctly less favorable” since the summer, the Fed chief told the House Financial Services Committee.
Since Bernanke’s last such comprehensive assessment last summer, the housing slump has worsened, credit problems have intensified and the job market has deteriorated. Bernanke said that the confluence of these factors has turned people and businesses alike toward a more cautious attitude toward spending and investment. This, he said, has further weakened the economy.
Incoming barometers continue to “suggest sluggish economic activity in the near term,” Bernanke told lawmakers. At the same time, he added, the Fed must keep a close eye on inflation given the recent run-up in energy and other prices paid by consumers and businesses.
Were energy prices to continue to rise at a sharp clip — which the Fed doesn’t anticipate — it would “create a very difficult problem” for the economy. It would spread inflation and would put another damper on growth, Bernanke said. If that happened, he added, it would be a “very tough situation.”
For now though, the No. 1 battle is shoring up the economy.
Bernanke pledged anew to slice a key interest rate to help the wobbly economy, which many fear is on the verge of a recession — or possibly has already toppled into one.
The Fed “will act in a timely manner as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks,” Bernanke said, hewing closely to assurances he offered earlier this month.
The central bank, which started lowering a key interest rate in September, has recently turned much more aggressive. Over the span of just eight days in January, it slashed rates by 1.25 percentage points — the biggest one-month reduction in a quarter century. Economists and Wall Street investors predict the Fed will cut rates again at its next meeting on March 18.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080229/..d_credit_crisis&printer=1
Bernanke: ‘I expect there will be [bank] some failures’
http://www.cnbc.com/id/2338..%7Cquote%7Ctext%7C&par=yahoo
Filed under: Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, Economy, Great Depression, Greenback, Inflation, OPEC, Oil, Petrol, Stock Market, US Economy, economic depression, gas prices
Oil Could Reach $300 A Barrel in 5 Years
Arabian Business
February 28, 2008
Oil prices could top $300 per barrel within the next five years, according to one industry expert.
Matthew Simmons, chairman and founder of specialised energy investment banking firm, Simmons & Company International, said the current highs of $100 per barrel are “cheap”.
“I think the supply is showing some very troubling signs that we might well have already peaked and started [to slow] down. If we haven’t, we are very close to it,” he told Arabian Business. “Demand on the other hand shows absolutely no sign of slowing down because we are now at $100 a barrel, which I still think is a preposterously cheap price. It works out at just $0.15 a cup.
“A cup of gas will get a car with six passengers in, with the air conditioning on and go two miles. It’s a bargain,” he added.
Simmons also told Arabian Business he is more concerned about energy shortages than the rising price of oil. “What I am worried about most is not high prices but shortages because then people worry.”
He noted that in the UK’s capital, London, where typically the price per gallon can reach as much as $9, it hasn’t deterred motorists from continuing to use their cars.
“[That price] doesn’t seem to have slowed anyone down. It works out as much as $378 a barrel. Yes [I can see it reaching that high],” he said.
“We’ll never run out. What we will run out of is light sweet oil because it is the easiest to get out of the ground. So all we will be left with are massive amounts of oil in places but it is going to tend to be stains on rocks or oil sands,” he continued.
Simmons is a leading expert in his field and author of the controversial book, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. In the book Simmons argued that Saudi Arabia will, in the coming decades, be unable to maintain its current level of oil production, with huge economic repercussions. Simmons said that the peak oil issue is poorly understood and the world’s data on production, demand and inventories is inaccurate.
Last week oil reached a new record of $102, closing in on its inflation-adjusted peak, as a slumping dollar on lacklustre US economic data triggered a surge across commodities markets. Opec’s president said members would agree not to raise production in part because of fears of a demand slowdown.
