As a formerly dumbed down Democrat, I start this blog to counter the division created by the left / right paradigm. There are the the Elite and then there are the rest of us. This left / right paradigm is used to divide and conquer. This technique is as old as time.
President Barack Obama, pressuring lawmakers to urgently approve a massive economic recovery bill, criticized Republicans who have balked at the legislation Monday night and said, "I can't afford to see Congress play the usual political games."
Obama used the first prime-time news conference of his presidency to warn that a failure to act swiftly and boldly "could turn a crisis into a catastrophe."
With the nation falling deeper into a long and painful recession, Obama defended his program against Republican criticism that it is loaded with pork-barrel spending and will not create jobs.
"The plan is not perfect," the president said. "No plan is. I can't tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans."
Obama addressed the nation from the East Room of the White House in a news conference that lasted almost exactly one hour. He hit repeatedly at the themes he has emphasized in recent weeks, including at a town hall meeting to promote his plan earlier in the day in Elkhart, Ind.
When the stimulus bill passed the House last month, not a single Republican voted for it. On Monday an $838 billion version of the legislation cleared a crucial test vote in the Senate by a 61-36 margin, with all but three Republican senators opposing it.
Obama said he had made a deliberate effort to reach out to the GOP, putting three Republicans into his Cabinet, and "as I continue to make these overtures, over time, hopefully that will be reciprocated."
"So my bottom line when it comes to the recovery package is: send me a bill that creates or saves 4 million jobs."
Obama acknowledged the difficulty of mending political divisions between Republicans and Democrats.
"Old habits are hard to break," he said. "We're coming off an election, and people sort of want to test the limits of what they can get. There's a lot of jockeying in this town and who's up and who's down, testing for the next election."
Obama said the federal government was the only power that could save the nation at a time of crisis, with huge spending outlays and tax cuts.
"At this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life," he said.
Rejecting criticism that the emphasis on federal action was too great, he said that 90 percent of the jobs created by the plan would be in the private sector, rebuilding crumbling roads, bridges and other aging infrastructure.
"The plan that ultimately emerges from Congress must be big enough and bold enough to meet the size of the economic challenge we face right now," Obama said.
Again and again, he stressed that the economy is in dire straits.
"This is not your ordinary, run of the mill recession," he said. Obama said the United States aims to avoid the kind of economic pain that Japan endured in the 1990s - the "lost decade" when that nation showed no economic growth.
"My bottom line is to make sure that we are saving or creating 4 million jobs," he said, and that homeowners facing foreclosure receive some relief.
While Obama focused on the economy in the opening minutes of the news conference, he also faced questions on foreign policy. He was asked how his administration would deal with Iran, a nation accused by the United States of supporting terrorism and pursuing nuclear weapons.
The president said his administration was reviewing its policy toward Iran "looking at places where we can have constructive dialogue." He also said it was time for Iran to change its behavior.
"My expectation is in the coming months we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table face to face," Obama said.
He said that Iran must understand that funding terrorist organizations and pursuing nuclear weapons are unacceptable.
Obama tried to brace the U.S. for tougher sacrifices ahead in Afghanistan, where he said the national government is limited and terrorists still find places to hide and hinder coalition efforts.
An estimated 33,000 U.S. troops currently are in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon is expected to almost double that presence. So just as Obama is planning to pull troops out of Iraq, he is sending more into Afghanistan.
"I do not have a timetable for how long that's going to take," he said. "What I know is I'm not going to allow al-Qaida and (Osama) bin Laden to operate with impunity, planning attacks."
Ohio budget plan breaks previous pledges February 03, 2009 15:08 EST
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Gov. Ted Strickland's new $55 billion budget proposal is a step back from previous priorities and pledges.
He included several business tax credits in his spending plan released Monday, even though he opposed such credits two years ago.
And while he promised not to raise taxes on average Ohioans, he's calling for 120 fee hikes instead.
Those fees, if enacted, will make it more expensive for Ohioans to register a vehicle, obtain a birth certificate and dump garbage.
Strickland is also putting a plan on hold to make high-speed Internet access available throughout Ohio. He ordered in July 2007 that broadband be extended to all 88 Ohio counties.
State Budget Director Pari Sabety says the initiative has to be halted because of the tight budget.
Mary Hicks appeared on the Friday, January 30, 2009 "The Late Show". Letterman played Hicks' routine in its entirety. Letterman took full responsibility for the original censorship, apologized to Mary Hicks, Bill's mother, and declared he didn't know what he had been thinking when he pulled the routine from the original show.
Part 1
part 2
part 3 -THIS IS THE STAND UP !
Bill Hicks discusses the Letterman Show censorship.
Today, Alex welcomes back to the show occult researcher, speaker, and radio talk show host Jordan Maxwell. Alex also has Infowars webmaster and journalist Kurt Nimmo in-studio. Alex tackles the important issues of the day and takes your calls.
Videos: Jimmy Carter - 28 Jan 09 AlJazeera - Riz Khan
Israel Hamas Gaza Palestinians
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Kevin Annett Charles Slepian Alex Jones
The Alex Jones Show
January 28, 2009.
Alex talks with Rev. Kevin Annett, a Canadian writer and former minister of the United Church of Canada. He has authored two books about Canadian aboriginals: Love and Death in the Valley and Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust. Alex also talks with attorney Charles Slepian about the mother charged with terrorism for spanking her child on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver in 2007. Alex also discusses the issues of the day and takes your calls.
Hour-1: News and open lines Hour-2: Rev. Kevin Annett Hour-3: Charles Slepian then news and open lines Hour-4: News and open lines
Today, Alex welcomes forecaster, author, and CEO of The Trends Research Institute, Gerald Celente back to the show. Alex also talks with journalist, former intelligence officer in the US Navy and communications security analyst with the National Security Agency, Wayne Madsen. Alex also discusses the important issues of the day and takes your calls.
In the seventh installment of his new audio blog, Alex Jones and his wife Violet discuss various government propaganda, as well as television programs, which advance the idea that those who don’t vaccinate will contaminate the rest of society.
Violet discusses an episode of Private Practice which features a scenario where the mother of an autistic child had refused to vaccinate another child out of concern about the link between vaccine & autism. That action is portrayed as a dangerous misjudgment leading to the second child spreading measles– which the doctors see as evidence that the woman’s children should be taken by CPS.
Alex also discusses USA Service ads that are promoted by Obama, government propaganda about the supposed dangers of marijuana smokers, the pro-abortion culture, and other issues.
Campus security watches over surveillance cameras in Blankenship Hall. The control room features cameras from all over the university campus..
With more than 500 security cameras covering the campus area, it is likely that every student has passed under the lens of Ohio State Public Safety.
"Our camera monitors, just this past year, have helped the police catch a criminal suspect breaking into vehicles at the vet hospital, suspects who were stealing bikes, and on several occasions people who were vandalizing property," said Ron Balser, director of University Security and Protective Services.
Since the installation of the first cameras in 1989 at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the surveillance operation has expanded as far as the Lazarus building Downtown, and includes campus from the Medical Center to the Gateway.
Until 2005, though, only the Wexner and Medical centers used security cameras.
"Sometime in 2005, technology changed to where you no longer had to run a wire to carry the signal from the camera to the location you were going to monitor," Balsar said. "The camera installation costs and the monitoring costs went way down."
Today the entire operation is monitored out of one location in Blankenship Hall, which headquarters OSU Public Safety.
The system has allowed police officers to more efficiently arrest suspects, and has given prosecutors the evidence to convict them. Thanks to this success, there are plans to add more than 200 cameras in the near future.
"Before this past year we were getting four or five requests a year for camera footage, and today we are receiving that many requests in a month," Balser said.
Police officials and prosecutors are not the only ones who use the security cameras, though; the system has recently broken into the realm of academia as well.
With the help of some of his doctoral students, professor Jim Davis of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at OSU is developing a system known as "Smart Surveillance."
While most commercial monitoring software produces flat, panoramic images, this new technology captures a 360-degree view from the camera.
This software will allow security staff to develop a better sense of typical events on and around campus. It will then be easier to recognize atypical circumstances and maintain constant footage of potential suspects.
"If you're doing something strange, we want to be able to detect that and figure out what's going on," Davis said.
Balser said that the current monitoring system is a cost-effective way to fight crime. "We, at Public Safety, would have had to drastically increase the number of security and police officers without them," he said.
Students at branch campuses, including Wooster, should expect new monitoring systems in the near future, Balsar said.
Madeline Smith can be reached at smith.5896@osu.edu.
Alex welcomes back to the show Russell Blaylock, M.D., a retired neurosurgeon, and author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills and The Blaylock Wellness Report. Dr. Blaylock has demonstrated the link between food additives and degenerative diseases.
Alex welcomes back to the show author, former professional football player, reporter, television sports presenter, and former spokesman for the Green Party, David Icke. David will talk with Alex about the "naked emperor," Barack Obama.
Alex talks with Lakota tribal leader and former nominee of the Libertarian Party for president Russell Means. On December 20, 2007, Means announced the withdrawal of a group of Lakota Sioux from all treaties with the United States government and declared the Lakota a sovereign nation.
Jason Bermas & Bob Dacy talk with Jack McLamb, the most highly decorated police officer in Phoenix history and host of the Jack McLamb radio show. Gerald Celente On The Alex Jones Show - 12/18/08
Alex welcomes back to the show Gerald Celente, the world's number one trends forecaster, who has predicted a severe depression and riots in the streets.
Alex talks with author (Mysterious Monuments: Encyclopedia of Secret Illuminati Designs, Masonic Architecture, and Occult Places) and radio talk show host Texe Marrs.
Israel has threatened to launch a new strike against Gaza after having failed to diminish Hamas's power through three weeks of offensive. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday "If we are forced to, there will be more attacks" . IDF Soldiers have been deployed along the border in order to provide a quick response should the need arise.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon demanded a full explanation from Israel regarding its attacks on UN schools and other facilities during the 22-day war in the Gaza Strip, which he called “outrageous.” Ban, after completing a tour of the Gaza Strip, said “those responsible will be held accountable for their actions.”
First war tally: 1,284 Gazans dead, 4,336 wounded As the last Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip before dawn Wednesday, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights which counted the casualties of the 23-day war on Gaza, released a final tally . The report found that 1,284 Gazans were killed and 4,336 wounded. The group said 894 of the dead were civilians, including 280 children and minors 17 and under, as well as 111 women. The remaining 390 dead were members of Hamas or other militant groups.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it will open an investigation into Israel's alleged use of depleted uranium during the 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip. Arab nations sent a letter the agency asking the UN to investigate whether the controversial munitions were used in the war.
Israel refuted allegations of war atrocities in Gaza after Palestinian children described how their parents had been "executed" in front of them by Israeli troops. A psychiatrist treating children described the deaths as a "massacre". One Jordanian doctor said civilians, including children, were rounded up and killed . Israel dismissed the claims as Hamas propaganda.
Israel's concerns about international lawsuits following Operation Cast Lead is apparently growing. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's trip to Brussels remained uncertain until the very last minute, fearing she may face legal action in Belgium for alleged war crimes. Livni's trip was put on hold Wednesday, after a Nazareth journalist reported the possiblility of legal action. However, Livni will address EU foreign ministers as scheduled.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Bioterror imminent? Vote and be Vaccinated
Ohio Forced To Borrow Federal Money For Unemployment
nbc4i.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio—It’s a sign of the times: The state of Ohio’s unemployment fund has run out of money and how Ohio has been forced to borrow from the federal government to keep paying out benefits.
What if you lose your job next week? What if you own a small business? NBC 4‘s Patrick Preston got answers.
Last week, unemployed Ohioans waited on the phone for hours to sign up for benefits after high demand and technical glitches crashed the state’s benefits Web site.
The Web site has been fixed, but the state’s funding formula remains broken, with too many unemployed workers collecting payments and not enough money coming in.
“Should workers be worried if they lose their job that there won’t be any benefits to collect?“ Preston asked.
“They absolutely should not be worried,“ said Sara Hall Phillips, Labor Policy Analyst with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “The benefits will be there for them. We’re federally required to provide benefits.“
The federal government will continue loaning money to keep payments going as long as needed. The bad news is for businesses paying the taxes that fund the unemployment benefits.
“We’re realistic enough to know that employers are probably going to have to put more money into the system,“ said Andy Doehrel, president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
Doehrel said there are only two ways to fix the current funding formula: increase taxes or reduce or freeze the payouts—or a combination of the two.
If the legislature doesn’t fix the problem by 2012, business taxes will increase.
As it stands, the state paid an estimated $1.5 billion in unemployment benefits in 2008 and are averaging $43 million in payouts each week in 2009—on pace to exceed $2 billion by year’s end.
“This will get fixed. It’s been broken before. It will be fixed again,“ Doehrel said.
An Arab charity based in the Columbus suburb of Dublin helped pay for a university laboratory building in Gaza that Israeli warplanes destroyed on Dec. 29.
The Israeli military said Hamas was using the building to develop explosives "under the auspices of university professors," according to the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
But Ishaq Y. Al-Qutub, director of the nonprofit Arab Student Aid International, said the attack has him surprised and concerned. He said Kamalia Shaath, the president of the Islamic University of Gaza, told him the building had not been used to make explosives.
"I asked him if there were any activities related to explosives and what the faculty members are producing in those labs," said Al-Qutub. "He emphatically said 'no let them come and prove it.' So far, there is no evidence of what this claim is all about. We're taking his word as trustworthy."
All of Arab Student Aid's funding - raised through donations from around the world - is used for education at 10 Arab universities, Al-Qutub said. To verify how the money is used, school administrators submit regular reports to Al-Qutub at his offices on Wilcox Place in Dublin.
Al-Qutub said Shaath confirmed that the laboratory building the university built six years ago using $425,000 in Arab Student Aid money was destroyed on Dec. 29.
Arab Student Aid provides interest-free loans and grants to needy and deserving students, according to its Web site. Since 1981, nearly 5,000 students have earned degrees, including about 2,000 who earned doctorates. The organization also supplies grants for infrastructure and equipment.
Born in Hebron in the West Bank and raised in Jerusalem, Al-Qutub received educational assistance from Rolla Foley, an Illinois Quaker who helped more than 30 Palestinian students receive their education in the 1950s and '60s. Al-Qutub earned a doctorate in sociology in 1966.
"We trust the universities, that they are employing these funds to expand or improve the facilities," he said. "We trust the words of the university presidents."
Yet he concedes that there is a possibility for abuse: "What goes on afterward we cannot really know."
Some student loans are never repaid because "it is difficult to locate the student" for a variety of reasons, according to footnotes in the association's financial statements.
Al-Qutub has been subjected to inflammatory remarks on blogs trying to link his charity to terrorism.
"There has been a serious misunderstanding and misinterpretation of what we do," he said, adding that they eventually will consider legal action.
When the group moved from New Jersey to Dublin three years ago, Al-Qutub let the FBI's Columbus office know what the charity does. FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas declined to comment. Dublin police have received no reports or complaints.
International law typically prohibits strikes on hospitals, churches or schools, unless there is evidence they are being used as military bases.
Even if Islamic University did produce weapons, that alone doesn't justify an Israeli attack, wrote Neve Gordon and Jeff Halper of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
"Weapon development and even manufacturing have, unfortunately, become major projects at universities worldwide - a fact that does not justify bombing them," they wrote.
Islamic University was established 30 years ago by the founder of Hamas, a group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. The University has about 18,000 students, more than half of them women.
Dr. Russell Blaylock On The Alex Jones Show - 1/05/09
Alex welcomes back to the show Russell Blaylock, M.D., a retired neurosurgeon, and author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills and The Blaylock Wellness Report. Dr. Blaylock has demonstrated the link between food additives and degenerative diseases.
Statement on Brandon Darby, the 'Unnamed' Informant/ Provocateur in the "Texas 2" by The Austin Informant Working Group Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008 at 9:16 PM texas.solidarity@gmail.com
Below is a statement by a group of Austin-based community organizers that documents that a local activist, Brandon Michael Darby of Austin, is a government informant/provocateur.
Sometimes You Wake Up and It's Different: Statement on Brandon Darby, the 'Unnamed' Informant/Provocateur in the "Texas 2" Case from Austin, Texas
Dear friends and allies,
Below is a statement by a group of Austin-based community organizers that documents that a local activist, Brandon Michael Darby of Austin, is a government informant/provocateur.
Brandon now publicly acknowledges that he is working with the FBI and has been for some time.
Sometimes You Wake Up and It's Different: Statement on Brandon Darby, the 'Unnamed' Informant/Provocateur in the "Texas 2" Case from Austin, Texas
As part of the wave of government repression against activists protesting at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota in September, 2008, the FBI arrested two men from Texas, Bradley Crowder (22) and David McKay (23), and indicted them for allegedly possessing molotov cocktails. Crowder and McKay have been in jail since the RNC. They have not been granted bail and their trial has been postponed indefinitely. They are facing 7 to 10 years in federal prison.
As outlined in the affidavit against Crowder and McKay (found here: http://media.houston.indymedia.org/uploads/2008/09/090808_mckay_affidavit.pdf), the case was built almost entirely on the statements of two informants covertly working with the FBI, identified in the affidavit as "Confidential Human Sources" or just "CHS".
One of these informants was working in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area ("CHS 2" in the affidavit) and has been previously identified as Andy/Panda by people familiar with the situation and the informant. This statement ends speculation and anticipation concern about the identity of the other informant who was operating in Texas and Minnesota.
Using FBI documents previously unknown to us, but recently provided by one of the defendant's defense teams, we have positively confirmed the identity of the unnamed informant ("CHS 1" in the affidavit) as Brandon Michael Darby of Austin, Texas, based on the following evidence:
1) The FBI documents detail private conversations between Darby and several individuals named in the documents, including scott crow and Lisa Fithian, who have closely reviewed the documents and confirmed that they had the conversations in question with only Darby. In addition they can confirm his participation in events reported in the documents.
2) In verbatim reports from the informant to the FBI, the language, personality, skills, and interests of Darby are readily apparent to those who know him.
3) Cross-referencing the time line provided by the FBI in the documents with people familiar with the situation and course of events shows that Darby was in a position to have the incriminating conversations with McKay referenced in the affidavit.
4) In all of the documents Brandon Darby's name is conspicuously absent from any and all meetings and events which he attended and was involved in. In fact Darby's name only appears at the end of all the documents in a confession made by David McKay upon his arrest in Minnesota.
Numerous people familiar with both Brandon Darby and the legal situation of Crowder and McKay have verified this information.
Over the years Brandon Darby has established strong ties with individuals in many different radical communities across the United States. While it is not yet clear how long or to what extent Darby has been acting as an informant, the emerging truth about Darby's malicious involvement in our communities is heart-breaking and utterly ground-shattering to those of us who were closest to him.
Darby operated in and around the Austin community for about 6 years, and this is the same Brandon Darby who participated in the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans during 2005-2006. Based on the evidence we have, Brandon has been giving the state information since at least November 2007, but there is also information that suggests his informant activities may go back further, at least to 2006 or earlier. In the documents, Darby makes numerous remarks that are inflammatory and often untrue or grossly taken out of context. There is also compelling evidence to suggest that Darby, more than just reporting on Crowder and McKay's activities, was actively encouraging, enabling, and provoking the two men to take illegal action.
We recognize that suspicions and accusations of Darby have been circulating for some time now, including one corporate media article by David Hanners in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on October 29, 2008. Our aim in releasing this information is to clear the confusion that has circulated in the last few months.
We want to point out that while the conclusions of these suspicions and accusations turned out to be correct, these conclusions were not based on any verifiable facts, and thus, their public airing was inappropriate and irresponsible. When these accusations surfaced, we did what we could to quash them, trusting what we believed to be true about people in the absence of any compelling evidence to the contrary. Having been presented with new evidence, we are acting on it promptly and deliberately.
Through the history of our struggles for a better world, infiltrators and informants have acted as tools for the forces of misery in disrupting and derailing our movements. However, even more dangerous to our communities than setting people up, turning them in, or gathering information, informants sow seeds of fear, paranoia, and distrust that fester and grow in paralyzing and destructive ways. We must be forever vigilante against deceptive, malicious and manipulative actors, while we defend the trust and openness that give our communities cohesion and power.
Now we must get on with the work of supporting the "Texas 2". In light of these revelations and what we know about Brandon Darby, we believe they were set up and that the charges should be dropped. We urge you to join us in a campaign to "Free the Texas 2"
An Austin-based activist named Brandon Darby has revealed he worked as an FBI informant in the eighteen months leading up to the Republican National Convention. Darby has admitted to wearing recording devices at planning meetings and wearing a transmitter embedded in his belt during the convention. He is expected to testify on behalf of the government later this month in the trial of two Texas activists who were arrested at the RNC on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails.
We turn now to a story out of Austin, Texas that has shocked social justice activists nationwide. A prominent Austin-based activist named Brandon Darby has revealed he worked as an FBI informant in the eighteen months leading up to the Republican National Convention. Darby has admitted to wearing recording devices at planning meetings and wearing a transmitter embedded in his belt during the convention. He is expected to testify on behalf of the government later this month in the trial of two Texas activists who were arrested at the RNC on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails.
In a statement, a group of Austin-based activists called the Austin Informant Working Group condemned Darby. The group says: “[T]he emerging truth about Darby’s malicious involvement in our communities is heart-breaking and utterly ground-shattering to those of us who were closest to him.” The statement goes on to raise suspicions Darby may have gone beyond spying on the accused activists but in fact encouraged and provoked them into breaking the law.
But in an open letter to the activist community, Darby maintained he only acted to prevent violent actions by a small group that, he says, would have undermined the cause of social justice. Darby writes: “I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter… [W]hen people act out of anger and hatred, and then claim that their actions were part of a movement or somehow tied into the struggle for social justice only after being caught, it’s damaging to the efforts of those who do give of themselves to better this world. The majority of the activists who went to St. Paul did so with pure intentions and simply wanted to express their disagreements with the Republican Party. It’s unfortunate that some used the group as cover for intentions that the rest of the group did not agree with or knew nothing about… I made the choice to have my identity revealed and was well aware of the consequences for doing so. I know that the temptation to silence or ignore the voice of someone who you strongly disagree with can be overwhelming in matters such as this one… I have confidence that there will be a few people interested in discussion and in better understanding views different from their own, especially from one of their own. My sincere hope is that the entire matter results in better understanding for everyone.”
Darby has been involved in several activist groups. He is best known as a founder of the New Orleans-based group Common Ground Relief, which he helped start after Hurricane Katrina.
Lisa Fithian, Austin Informant Working Group. She is a longtime organizer and activist based in Austin.
Carly Dickson, Member of the Austin People’s Legal Collective.
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