Sarah Palin: The view from Alaska

(Salon.com) - Oct. 11, 2008 | JUNEAU, Alaska — I sat on the bank of the Kobuk River in northwest arctic Alaska on a mid-September morning. Upstream somewhere, wolves were howling — their chorus filling the silence, close enough that I could hear the aspiration at the end of each wavering call. Behind me, the slate-gray heave of the Brooks Range spilled off toward the north, the shapes of some peaks so familiar I’ve seen them in my sleep. The nearest highway lay 250 miles away. This is the Alaska where I spent half my life, and the only place that’s ever felt like home — the land of Eskimo villages, waves of migrating caribou and seemingly limitless space.

Though I was beyond the reach of the Internet and cellphones, and life was filled with rutting bull moose, incandescent autumn light and fresh grizzly tracks, I knew that thousands of miles to the south, the rest of the country was getting a crash course on our governor, Sarah Palin — someone who believes that climate change isn’t our fault; is dead set against a woman’s right to choose; has supported creationism in the schools; and was prayed over by a visiting minister at her church to shield her against witchcraft.

READ MORE HERE

Angry anti-Obama taunts grip McCain, Palin events

(Associated Press) - LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Some of the anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is mostly letting it flare. A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Barack Obama. They’re making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of “traitor,” “terrorist,” “treason,” “liar,” and even “off with his head” have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Associated Press, Philip Elliott and Beth Fouhy, Oct. 11, 2008 ]

Alaska probe finds Palin abused power

(Taiwan News, Reuters) - An Alaska ethics inquiry found that Gov. Sarah Palin, the U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate, abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper involved in a feud with her family, a report released on Friday said.

The investigation also found that the removal of Walt Monegan, the state’s public safety commissioner whose firing triggered the probe, was likely due in part to his refusal to fire Michael Wooten, the trooper involved in a contentious divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister.

The inquiry found that while it was within the governor’s authority to dismiss Monegan, Palin violated the public trust by pressuring those who worked for her in a way that advanced her personal wishes.

READ MORE HERE

Chapter 11 of NAFTA Remains a Threat to National Sovereignty

(BorderFireReport.net) - Watching the Canadian English leader’s debate probably didn’t have a defining moment for most people. Instead, they were treated to five party leaders saying what they thought would be best for the country, and how as prime minister, they would do a better job than the others. The dynamics of the debate were different than previous ones as it was the first time that a Canadian Green Party leader was allowed to participate. Elizabeth May held her own and injected some new ideas, bringing up some critical issues such as Chapter 11 of NAFTA. Her position is that it needs to be re-opened and fixed. Jack Layton has also vowed that an NDP government would make it a priority to fight to re-open NAFTA, including removing Chapter 11 from the agreement.

READ MORE HERE

Beware government deals made secretly

(The Calgary Herald) - Before you go into the voting booth next week and do your part to help give Stephen Harper’s Conservatives a parliamentary majority, there’s something you need to think about.

Though underreported in the media, over the past few years Canada has been involved in disturbingly secretive negotiations aimed at further integrating our country with the United States.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America was officially launched in 2005, though there have been multiple efforts in the same vein by various governments and think tanks for a lot longer than that.

READ MORE HERE

Scotiabank forecasts recession for Canada

(CTV.ca) - A Scotiabank report is forecasting recessions for both Canada and the United States that could last well into 2009.

 

But the report says a potential recession in Canada would not be nearly as bad as one in the U.S. The bank expects Canada’s housing market to continue to slow, exports to the U.S. to drop and unemployment to rise as companies cut back on expenses.

 

The economic report for the bank’s customers, exclusively obtained by CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife, also forecasts particularly gloomy news ahead for Canada’s ailing auto sector.

 

“We expect 2008 U.S. passenger vehicle sales to fall to 13.7 million units — the lowest level since 1993 — from our previous estimate of 14.1 million. Our 2009 forecast has also been reduced to 13.5 million units, compared with an average of 16.7 million over the past decade,” the report says.

 

The report that September’s job numbers, to be released this week by Statistics Canada, will show a “mild decline in employment.”

 

The report says Canada’s housing market should continue to slump going into 2009, but the impact will not be as severe as the sub-prime housing crisis in the United States.

 

“Canada’s sub-prime market is only (five to six per cent) of outstanding mortgages whereas the U.S. is over three times that amount. Canadians are also more conservative and have lower debt tolerance than the U.S. while the funding model is also completely different,” the report says.

 

The bank is also forecasting that the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve will cut rates by a full percentage point, taking the overnight rates down to one per cent.

 

The Scotiabank report could put Conservative Leader Stephen Harper in a difficult position during the last full week of campaign for the 2008 election.

 

Conservative insides say that Harper has been playing it safe on the economy because he doesn’t want to rattle the market. His opponents, however, have been playing up the economic slowdown as an election issue.

 

But as incumbent prime minister, Harper’s words have more impact than his opponents and if he starts to say that the economy is in trouble, there could be an adverse reaction on the stock market.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CTV.ca, Oct. 5, 2008 ]

Conservatives losing support in key ridings: poll

(CTV.ca) - The Conservatives are losing steam in key swing ridings in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, a development that could put a majority government out of arm’s reach for Stephen Harper.

 

“The numbers are going in the wrong direction for them to win a majority,” pollster Peter Donolo of The Strategic Counsel told CTV.ca. “This is the third time this has happened to them in a row.”

 

In the both the 2004 and 2006 elections, the Conservatives lost a significant amount in the final days leading up to the election.

 

The new Battleground 2008 poll of 45 close races, conducted by The Strategic Counsel for CTV and the Globe and Mail, comes slightly more than a week before Canadians head to the ballot boxes on Oct. 14.

 

The findings also come just days after the leaders’ debates, in which Stephen Harper was put on the defensive by his opponents over his economic and environmental record.

 

“(Harper) has to do something to regain momentum,” Donolo said. “The Conservatives are doing much better in these battleground ridings than they did last time, but they were doing much better just a few days ago.”

 

In Quebec’s battleground polling from Oct. 1-4, which looked at 15 close races in the province, the Conservatives were neck-and-neck with Liberal support and well behind the Bloc Quebecois (brackets show percentage-point change from Sept. 30-Oct. 2 poll):

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CTV.ca, Oct. 5, 2008 ]

SNL: US Election 2008 Spoof / Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton Address Sexism in Media

September 20, 2008
Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton Address Sexism in Media

SNL: US Election 2008 / Interview Spoof / Couric and Palin Interview

September 27, 2008
Couric / Palin Interview

SNL: US Election 2008 / VP Debate Spoof / Palin vs. Biden

October 4, 2008
VP Debate: Palin vs. Biden

Did American Flight 77 Strike the Pentagon? The Debris Deficit

(The Canadian) - According to the official account of 9/11, Wedge 1 of the Pentagon was struck by Flight 77, which was a Boeing 757. If so, there surely would have been debris from the plane to support this claim. But, it appears, there was not. People who inspected Wedge 1 shortly after the attack almost universally reported an absence of the kind of debris that would have been left by the crash of a large airliner. I will give several examples.

F-16 pilot Dean Eckmann, who was asked to fly over the Pentagon and report on the extent of the damage, said that he suspected that the damage had been caused by “a big fuel tanker truck because of the amount of smoke and flames coming up and … there was no airplane wreckage off to the side.” [1]

READ MORE HERE

Canadians showing laziness on defending sovereignty against NAU agenda

(The Canadian) - Canadians seem to be demonstrating to the world, that without the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau to champion the cause of nationhood, they are generally apathetic. This critical observation does not include those Canadians who have been kept ignorant of the fascistic North American Union (NAU) agenda. Rather, this critical observation refers to those Canadians who are aware of the NAU agenda, and elect to do nothing, other than whine and bitch in their cliques. Keep whining and bitching about the corporate media (and its cover-up of these matters), and let’s see how that actually saves Canada.

The current 2008 Federal Election, has provided those with NAU awareness, so-called “activists”, with a potentially great opportunity to further raise awareness. However, the supposed Canadian so-called “activists” have apparently sought to favour more whining and bitching over actually constructive action.

Let’s see CTV, CBC, Global, TVOntario, the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Macleans, the National Post, Radio Canada, TVA, and other the other Establishmentarian media organizations ignore 20,000 Canadians on Parliament Hill requesting political party leaders to give account for their participation in the sell out of Canada. Imagine Canadians on Parliament Hill with Canadian Maple Leaf flags, various signage, and eloquent speakers, demanding answers.

READ MORE HERE

Wary of Public Outcry, Revised $800B Wall St. Bailout Stuffed with Earmarks to Sway Election-Year Incumbents

(DemocracyNow.org) - On Capitol Hill, the House is preparing to vote again on the revised $800 billion Wall Street bailout plan after rejecting a similar bill on Monday. All 432 seats in the House are up for election next month, and many “no” votes on Monday reflected lawmakers’ fears of a voter backlash for the unpopular bill. An array of “pork barrel” projects have been inserted into the legislation to win support from nervous incumbents.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: DemocracyNow.org, Oct. 3, 2008 ]

Canada recalls White Rabbit candies over melamine concerns

(CBC.ca) - Canadians should not eat, distribute or sell White Rabbit brand candy, a popular Chinese confection that may be tainted with melamine, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned Thursday.

The candy is normally available for sale at retail stores throughout Canada in a variety of flavours, the agency said.

Health officials in Hong Kong and Singapore said they have found trace amounts of melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer, in some of the candy.

READ MORE HERE

Cadbury the latest global firm caught up in China milk scandal

(CBC.ca) - British chocolate maker Cadbury, the latest foreign company affected by China’s tainted milk scandal, ordered a recall of its Chinese-made products on Monday, saying that tests have “cast doubt” on their safety.

Tests “cast doubt on the integrity of a range of our products manufactured in China,” Cadbury said without elaboration in a statement issued from its office in Singapore.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the tests revealed melamine, the industrial chemical at the center of China’s recent milk scandal.

READ MORE HERE

Hong Kong tests find melamine in Cadbury candies

(CBC.ca) - Tests have found unsafe levels of the chemical melamine in two Cadbury chocolate products made at a Beijing factory, Hong Kong’s food safety agency said Sunday.

British chocolate maker Cadbury ordered a recall of its Chinese-made products last Monday. At the time, the company said its own preliminary tests had “cast doubt on the integrity” of the chocolate.

The two items were among 11 Chinese-made products that have already been recalled by Cadbury in parts of Asia and the Pacific.

READ MORE HERE

Sarah Palin Wins Debate by Darn

(dissidentvoice.org) - The vice-presidential debates proved one thing. At the very least, Sarah Palin can be trained.

For several days, she had camped out in one of John McCain’s Arizona houses, where she underwent Debate Boot camp conducted by drill instructors who make Marine DIs appear to be slaggers.

With a few “darns,” “betchas,” and “ya”s, Palin managed to get all her talking points into the debate, even if she constantly changed the question to suit her note cards.

During the 90-minute debate, Palin six times referred to her experience as the mayor of a 6,000 resident village. Seven times, she specifically mentioned Ahmadinejad. Iran’s president, proud she knew the name, proud that she could pronounce it. No one asked if she knew his first name or anything else about him. Shades of George W. Bush in his first term trying to prove he knew something about foreign affairs by enunciating the names of a few world leaders?after several gaffes early in the campaign. Of course, twice Palin was wrong about the name of the U.S. commander in Iraq. Several times she noted she and John McCain are mavericks. About the sixth time she mentioned it, Joe Biden finally unleashed his debating skills. John McCain is no maverick he said in measured response. The Republican nominee voted with President Bush four times to extend the budget deficit, said Biden, who also pointed out that McCain went along with Bush on numerous health care and education issues, most of which were regressive rather than progressive, was one of the strongest backers of going to war with Iraq, and opposed tax cuts.

READ MORE HERE

Foreign Invasion Sends Markets Reeling

(dissidentvoice.org) - The realization of how foreign central banks contributed to our current financial maelstrom has been lost in the debate over resuscitating the US economy and saving failing financial institutions. For over two decades foreign central banks, particularly Japan’s and China’s, have been pumping money into America, de facto loaning us money, so that we could buy their goods, thereby stimulating their economies. This deliberate policy choice, to build their economies on the backs of US consumers not only led to a deterioration of our country’s balance sheet but contributed to the excesses we are know suffering from.

Push Versus Pull

Whether foreign capital is “pushed” or “pulled” into a country has important implications. Money that is pulled into a country does so because its investments are attractive. Money that is pushed into a country does so for a variety of factors extraneous to the host country. In this case the host country, the US, is getting money not because of the investment opportunities it provides but rather because foreign countries want to stimulate Americans to buy their goods. History shows that money pushed into a country can lead to financial bubbles and borrowing binges in the host country as it must readjust to the inflow. Think of it like giving your college age child large sums of money each week.

READ MORE HERE

Are You Ready for President Palin?

(dissidentvoice.org) - Despite setting extremely low expectations, Republicans showed relief that Sarah Palin didn’t blow the vice presidential debate.

The difference between the two candidates was glaring. Senator Biden has participated in many momentous decisions since entering Congress in 1972. Being mayor of a town of 6300 at the remote edge of the U.S. and the governor of Alaska for 20 months pales in comparison.

“My experience as mayor will be of great use to the country,” Sarah said, before she gushed excitedly over meeting Biden at the end of the debate. Agree or disagree with his positions, Biden was elegant in his arguments. Sarah was a Lulu.

Hearing the debate on the radio missed Sarah’s winks and frozen smiles, but focused on what was said. Sarah sounded like a bright, if immature, 19-year-old on the college debate team. She avoided questions, changed or evaded the subject, delivered well-rehearsed statements, and went off on totally unrelated subjects. She avoided details and gave vast platitudes about “victory,” “mavericks,” “greed,” “U.S. exceptionalism,” and “energy independence.”

READ MORE HERE

Harper foes whip up a net storm

(rabble.ca news) - This isn’t the U.S. yet, and the results of this fall’s peculiar electoral mix won’t be decided mano-a-mano. We are a country full of different contests with their own dramas. In many ridings, unpredictable vote splits could alter the outcome. And perhaps because Stéphane Dion is so weak and the vote-shifting opportunity is so ripe, the grassroots are starting to sprout.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: rabble.ca news, Alice Klein, Sep. 18, 2008 ]

The climate crisis: Five parties, no solutions

(rabble.ca news) - Despite much sound and fury, none of the major political parties is proposing effective measures for dealing with the climate change crisis. The differences between them amount to ?Don’t do anything? versus ?Don’t do much.?

READ MORE HERE [ Source: rabble.ca news, Ian Angus, Sep. 23, 2008 ]

Indigenous people lead Bolivian democracy struggle

(rabble.ca news) - On September 11, rightist gangs massacred more than 30 unarmed supporters of the government of Evo Morales in the Bolivian state of Pando. The government of Stephen Harper has said not a word about the political terrorism in Bolivia.

A popular uprising in Bolivia is defending its government and democratic institutions against U.S.-inspired minority violence.

On September 23, about 20,000 peasants and miners marched on the eastern city of Santa Cruz, where the right-wing government has been encouraging terrorism and intimidation of Bolivia’s indigenous majority and trying to oust the government of President Evo Morales.

Popular assemblies in La Paz, Cochabamba and elsewhere in the country added to the pressure against this disruptive minority, whose supporters have killed dozens of Bolivians in recent weeks. The right-wing opposition’s banner is “autonomy” for the provinces they rule, but their real goal is to return the rich oligarchy to power.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: rabble.ca news, John Riddell, Sep. 29, 2008 ]

Hurricane Harper

(rabble.ca news) - As Nova Scotia faced up to the fearful prospect of Hurricane Kyle, all of Canada must now face the prospect of a Harper majority government. Hurricane Harper does not threaten the Atlantic provinces directly, people remember all to well the “culture of dependence” theme which Harper once evoked in talking about the region.

The Harper threat is receding in Quebec, as his negative comments about the arts and culture, and the announced intent of his government to imprison 14-year-olds with adults, has caused the popularity of his government to plummet.

Ontario is where Harper has picked up the pace and can win the seats he needs to form a majority government. Coupled with continued support on the prairies, and Liberal weakness in B.C., if the Conservatives hold on to their existing seats East of the Ottawa river, major gains in Ontario will unleash Hurricane Harper.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: rabble.ca news, Duncan Cameron, Sep. 30, 2008 ]

An open letter to Stephen Harper

(rabble.ca news) - Monsieur le premier ministre,

We are neighbours. We work across the street from one another. You are Prime Minister of the Parliament of Canada and I, across the way, am a writer, theatre director and Artistic Director of the French Theatre at the National Arts Centre (NAC). So, like you, I am an employee of the state, working for the Federal Government; in other words, we are colleagues.

Let me take advantage of this unique position, as one functionary to another, to chat with you about the elimination of some federal grants in the field of culture, something that your government recently undertook. Indeed, having followed this matter closely, I have arrived at a few conclusions that I would like to publicly share with you since, as I’m sure you will agree, this debate has become one of public interest.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: rabble.ca news, Wajdi Mouawad, Oct 1, 2008 ]

Conservative support slipping, poll suggests

(CBC.ca) - Voter support for the Conservative party has fallen a bit while that of the Liberals remains stable, the four-day running poll released by Harris/Decima on Sunday suggests.

The results are “the first bit of good news for the Liberals in a while,” Harris/Decima president Bruce Anderson said in a commentary.

The Conservatives will need to reverse the momentum suggested by the poll if they are to win a majority, Anderson said. READ MORE HERE

Climate change policy vague: Dunn

(The Edmonton Journal) - EDMONTON - Alberta’s $4-billion climate change policy is too vague and lacks an effective plan for reaching its targets, the province’s auditor general said Thursday in his annual report.

The result is that the province has no way of measuring if it’s on track to meet its goals of reducing emissions intensity by 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010 and 50 per cent by 2020, Fred Dunn said.

“Alberta could spend substantial resources and not achieve emission targets. Or Alberta could achieve its targets, but not cost-effectively,” Dunn wrote.

READ MORE HERE

House prices fall for first time in 12 years

(NationalPost.com) - It took 12 years, but the housing boom in Toronto is finally over.

For the first since 1996, prices in the city have begun to fall. Houses are now sitting on the market longer and less of them are selling, in a trend that appears to be picking up steam.

The Toronto Real Estate Board said yesterday that the average price of a home sold in September in the City of Toronto dipped to $393,647, a 6% decline from a year earlier. Across the Greater Toronto Area the average price of a home sold last month was $368,549, a 3% drop from a year ago.

TREB president Maureen O’Neill maintained the market remains stable and the board noted prices in the city are still up 6% from 2006.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: NationalPost.com, Gary Marr and Danielle Wong, Oct. 4, 3008 ]

House prices tumble amid freefall in sales

(TheStar.com) - It’s a new reality for some vendors when realtor Duncan Fremlin appraises a property for sale in the increasingly choppy waters of today’s real estate market.

“It’s a tough conversation to have, because sellers don’t want to hear that they may not be getting what they expected,” said Fremlin.

“When you do the comparables it’s not about what you may have got last year, it’s what the houses in your area got this month.”

So far, it hasn’t been a good month.

Prices in the Greater Toronto Area market fell for the first time in more than a decade, down by 3 per cent from year-ago levels, according to figures released yesterday.

Average existing home prices dropped to $368,549 in September, from the $380,132 recorded in the same month last year, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: TheStar.com, Tony Wong, Oct. 4, 2008 ]

 

Government spies could scan every call, text and email

(Telegraph.co.uk) - The huge eavesdropping programme would involve the creation of a mammoth central computer database to store hundreds of billions of individual pieces of communications traffic.

Supporters say it would become one of the security services’ most comprehensive tools in the fight against terrorism but critics described it as “sinister”.

MI5 currently has to apply to the Home Secretary for warrants to intercept specific email and website traffic but, under the new plan, internet and mobile phone networks could be monitored live by GCHQ, the Government listening post.

The Home Office said no decision had been taken but security officials claim live monitoring is necessary to pick up terrorist plots.

It would allow them to capture records like chat room discussions on password-protected Islamic extremist websites.

The annual number of phone calls and other electronic communications in the UK is predicted to nearly double from 230 billion in 2006 to 450 billion by 2016.

Last year 57 billion text messages, or 1,800 a second, were sent. That rose from one billion in 1999.

The number of broadband internet connections rose from 330,000 in 2001 to 18 million last year. Three billion e-mails are sent every day, or 35,000 every second.

One of the spurs for a central database is a concern over how that electronic communications data is currently stored by hundreds of different internet service providers and private telephone companies.

Records may only be held for limited periods of time and are then lost which makes it impossible for police and the security services to establishing historical links, or so-called “friendship trees”, between terrorists.

If all communications information was centrally stored then links could be made between terrorist cells and other sympathisers could be identified.

The telephone and internet companies are currently required to give records of calls or internet use to law enforcement agencies if a senior officer authorises that it is needed for an inquiry.

Last year there were more than half a million such requests.

The cost of monitoring everything, and keeping it on a central database, has been estimated at £12 billion and would dwarf the proposed cost of the identity cards programme.

Critics also claim it would be virtually impossible to keep such a vast system secure and free from abuse by law enforcement agencies.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: “It would mark a substantial shift in the powers of the state to obtain information on individuals.

“Given the Government’s poor record on protecting data, and seeing how significant an increase in power this would be, we need to have a national debate and the Government would have to justify its need.”

The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has already called for a public debate about Government proposals for the state to retain people’s internet and phone records.

A spokesman for the commissioner said: “He warned that it is likely that such a scheme would be a step too far for the British way of life. Proposals that threaten such intrusion into people’s lives must be properly debated.”

Richard Clayton, a security expert at Cambridge University, said the proposal would mean installing thousands of probes in telephone and computer networks which would re-route data to the central database.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Telegraph.co.uk, Nick Allen, Oct 5, 2008 ]

Government will spy on every call and e-mail

(TimesOnline.com) - Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain.

GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project.

Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers. READ MORE HERE

DrumBeat: October 5, 2008

(The Oil Drum) - Reactor shortage to sour India’s nuclear dream

In the 1980s, there were about 400 nuclear suppliers and 900 nuclear-certified companies in the US. These have shrunk to fewer than 80 suppliers and 200 certifications.

The euphoria of the nuclear deal will soon die down and it will be time to deliver on the promise to supply electricity. The crucial problem of supply of uranium is said to have been resolved, but little has been said about the shortage of critical components for building new nuclear reactors worldwide. The problem starts with the heart itself — the reactor.

READ MORE HERE

“Hijacking Humanity”

(911blogger.com) - From the LC Crew:

Hi Everyone,

Your support of “Loose Change” and 9/11 Truth has helped stir debate in the public arena and awakened literally millions of people to the possibility of Government complicity in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

It has inspired many of us, concerned people, to ask real questions and demand real answers from those who claim authority over us.

The tragedy of 9/11 has provoked anger, sadness, outrage, empowerment, awareness and activism. But what if the 9/11 attacks were just the tip of the iceberg of something deeper and more sinister?

We met this guy, Paul Verge, when he came out from Vancouver Canada to NYC for the September 11th, 2006 events organized by Louder than Words. He said he was working on a film called “Hijacking Humanity”. Even though we all thought he was a little weird, he seemed nice enough, so we allowed him to interview us, unsure of what kind of movie he was making…

Since many of us seek a greater understanding about who really pulled the strings behind the 9/11 attacks, especially if the official story is false… We recommend checking out Paul’s film… “Hijacking Humanity”.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: 911blogger.com, Joe, Oct. 4, 2008 ]

Article by Aidan Monaghan published in the Journal of 911 Studies; also a reminder to PREPARE

(911blogger.com) - We are pleased to announce that an article by Aidan Monaghan (B.Sc., EET) article has successfully passed the peer-review process at the Journal of 9/11 Studies. The article was published Oct 3, 2008: Plausibility Of 9/11 Aircraft Attacks Generated By GPS-Guided Aircraft Autopilot Systems. Link here: http://journalof911studies.com/volume/2008/AutopilotSystemsMonaghan.pdf

The editors continue to accept submitted scholarly papers, with the proviso from the Introductory page at this Journal, which states that we encourage contributors to first consider submission to mainstream established journals. And frankly, the editors themselves are busy doing research and writing on such papers (one of which is now undergoing the peer-review process with such an established journal, on the subject of anomalous red/gray chips observed in the WTC dust).

READ MORE HERE [ Source: 911Blogger.com, Aidan Monaghan, Oct. 4, 2008 ]

The Impact of the Credit Crunch on Energy Markets

(The Oil Drum - Discussions about Energy and Our Future) - The credit crunch is already having an impact on energy markets. New projects are harder to fund. Highly leveraged companies are sometimes finding it necessary to shed assets. Some players are finding themselves to be the indirect casualties of other players, like Lehman, that have already failed. Long term, we will probably see consolidation and lower production than would have been the case without the credit crunch. Of course, if there is a major recession, it is possible that we won’t need as high production.

In this post, I have tried to bring together some of the impacts of the credit crunch on the energy industry that are already being felt. If you are seeing other impacts, please make note of them in the comments.

One article seems to suggest that speculators are being driven away from the oil and gas industry, and that more care is being taken with counter-party risk:

READ MORE HERE

Massive U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan; $3B in Patriots

(Wired: Danger Room) - The U.S. is moving ahead with a sale of six billion dollars’ worth of weapons to Taiwan — including 330 Patriot interceptor missiles.

The anti-missiles and associated gear account more than $3.1 billion of the approximately $6 billion arms package, announced by the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Also included are 30 Apache helicopters, 34 sub-launched Harpoon missiles, fighter jet spare parts, and 182 Javelin guided missile rounds.

The U.S. has long been concerned that China is building up new fleets of ships, submarines, fighter jets, ballistic and cruise missiles in preparation for an attack on Taiwan. “Consistent with a near-term focus on preparing for offensive Taiwan Strait contingencies, China deploys its most advanced systems to the military regions directly opposite Taiwan,” a recent Pentagon report noted.

READ MORE HERE

Never Mind the Bailout, Pentagon Wants Mega Cash

(Wired: Danger Room) - Last week, a key Congressman predicted that the mega-expensive Wall Street bailout would naturally force the government to cut back defense spending.

Well, not if the Pentagon has anything to do with it.

The Defense Department “wants an increase of$57 billion in fiscal 2010, about 13.5 percent more than this
year’s budget of $514.3 billion,” according to Bloomberg News.

READ MORE HERE

There Is More to Green Than Global Warming

(AlterNet.org: Environment) - We are facing crises of freshwater, food, deforestation, and ocean health. We need leadership in the protection of all our natural resources.

There is more to being green than the fight to stop global warming. All of our natural resources are in peril because of what we do and what that does to our planet. Yet, to hear the battle cry of environmentalists these days you’d think there’s only one war to be fought — over our energy supply and its consequences.

We are facing a fresh water crisis. We are facing a food crisis. We are facing a crisis over deforestation. And we are facing crises in our oceans. While carbon emissions from fossil fuels pollute the air, so does a lot of other stuff.

Now is the time to press for leadership in the protection of all our natural resources. We’ll have let an opportunity for a better planet — in this election of “change” — to pass us by if we just focus on the cause celebre that global warming is today.

We must increase our freshwater supply by about 20 percent by the year 2025 to meet world demand, and 90 cities still dump sewage into the Great Lakes, which supply water to 10 percent of the US population. The Lakes’ resource is so great, we are going to great lengths to protect it: Congress last week passed a law formally banning the export of water from the Great Lakes beyond its basin. The price of most food has doubled over the past year, forcing millions deeper into poverty and malnourishment. There is now six times as much plastic as zooplankton in parts of the Pacific Ocean, and 90 percent of the big fish on Earth have disappeared.

Meanwhile, we have an ever-increasing waste and electronic-waste burden on our hands. We each create twice as much trash per day as we did 40 years ago. The average size of our landfills has multiplied 25 times in that period as well. And our e-waste burden is so bad that we ship 80 percent of it overseas to countries with weak environmental standards. These countries in turn make products from our discards and ship them right back to us. (And we wonder how lead paint gets in toys.)

As well, up to 40 percent of global wood production is from illegal timber operations. Deforestation not only displaces people and endangers species, it is the second biggest cause of cli