Poll: 70% of Americans see Israel as US friendThis is how we treat a friend?
Iraqi PM to visit Syria for security talks
Oh I feel more secure already.
US military delegation starts visit to Syria
A U.S. military delegation arrived in Damascus on Wednesday to hold talks with Syrian officials on the possibility of cooperation on regional issues, the independent Syria-News website reported. The visit has bee confirmed by U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley in Washington, who said the delegation will follow up on a meeting with Syrian officials in June. The delegation is headed by a general from the U.S. Central Command and with the participation of State Department official Frederick Hoff, an aide to U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell, said Crowley. The talks between the United States and Syria would focus on Syria's "ongoing efforts to help stabilize the situation in Iraq," the spokesman said. The visit is the second by the U.S. Central Command since June, and came only two weeks after Mitchell's latest visit to Damascus.
Syria plays mediator in Iran-France tensions
Uucchh !
Mother of missing IDF soldier: No doubt my son is in Syria
FACTBOX-Final results of Fatah Central Committee vote
Ooo can I make a guess? 2 dead, 16 wounded, incarcerated terrorist murderer voted Dear Leader?
List of Fatah Central Committee members
I was close!
Jailed Terror Leader Elected to Fatah Leadership
Hamas: no large prsence of foreign Islamic militants in Gaza
There's no one here but us Indigenous Terrorists!
New Temple model unveiled
AUDIO: Devil on the Temple Mount?
The abomination that causes desolation, standing in the holy place ...
Israeli archaeologists excluded from Ramallah confab
The Israel Antiquities Authority said it was excluded from an international archeological conference in Ramallah. The IAA condemned the World Archeological Congress in a letter to its president. The conference, called "Overcoming Structural Violence," discussed in part several regions in Jerusalem where excavations are being conducted by the IAA. "In this way the organization is introducing the [Palestinian-Israeli] conflict into the professional side of archaeology," the IAA said in a news release issued Thursday.
The IAA was informed of the conference by e-mail this week as the meeting was opening in the West Bank, according to the letter. Conference participants visited the Temple Mount, which the conference refers to by the Muslim term, Haram al Sharif, and the City of David Archaeological Park in Jerusalem without coordinating with the IAA, deputy director Dr. Uzi Dahari charged. "It would be best if the World Archaeological Congress would focus on archaeology and not on politics," Dahari said.
"We remind you that this is a conference organized by the World Archaeological Congress and not a Palestinian archaeological organization," the letter said. "This requires you to make it universal. The omission to include or invite Israeli speakers to address issues that directly affect their daily work shows that this conference is certainly not that. We need not remind you that one of the principles governing the WAC is the promotion of dialogue between archaeologists, but this conference is a monologue."
The letter adds that the conference program is "full of abstracts condemning Israeli archaeology" containing "huge numbers of inaccuracies."
SEC examining AMD's ties to Iran and SyriaOy..... the hypocrisy!
The Wall Street Journal first reported today that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the possibility that Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is making computer chips for Iran and other Middle East companies that have ties to terrorism.Ihsanoglu Calls For Iraqi Unity
The story is based on a May 8 letter that the SEC sent to AMD, asking the company to clarify its business relationships with Iran, Syria and Sudan, all of which are identified as state sponsors of terrorism by the U.S. State Department.
That letter also mentions a December 2007 news report that talks about Iran using AMD chips to build a modest supercomputer.An AMD spokeswoman said today that the company does not export its chips to Iran or any other countries that are embargoed by the U.S. and it also prohibits its distributors from exporting its chips to those countries.AMD, of course, is one of the owners of GlobalFoundries Inc., the Sunnyvale, Calif., company building a $4.2 billion computer chip fab in Malta.AMD is GlobalFoundries' largest customer, and it is possible that AMD chips would be made in Malta, although GlobalFoundries has been adding new customers.
The largest shareholder of GlobalFoundries is the Advanced Technology Investment Co., a government-run fund in Abu Dhabi.
No no no, don't kill each other.... Glow Ball Peace Through Dead Juden, My Friends!
Iraqi Christians in Danger of Extinction
This is what we sent our sons there to fight and die for?
Archbishop Fernando Filoni, who served as the Vatican's nuncio to Iraq from 2001 to 2006, said it was important that Iraqi Christians stem the widespread emigration of their community. That can only happen if they are given a sound basis for hope in the future, he said.Clinton Urges Overhaul of Nigeria Elections
"The authorities must do everything they can so that Christians are a respected and integral part of the life of the country, even if they are a minority," Archbishop Filoni said in an interview Aug. 11 with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "The Iraqi government meets regularly with church leaders and in theory is committed to protecting Christians, but "this also has to be translated into concrete facts," he said.
The archbishop pointed to the recent restitution of three church-run schools as an important step in the right direction. The schools, two in Baghdad and one in Kirkuk, will be run by Chaldean Catholic nuns, who managed them before they were nationalized under Saddam Hussein. "This seems to be an important signal that offers hope and indicates appreciation for the contribution Christians can give to the future of the Iraqi nation," he said.
It is to laugh.
During a town-hall meeting in the capital city on Wednesday marked by clapping and hooting, Mrs. Clinton urged Nigeria to fix its "flawed electoral system." The meeting, which was by invitation, included democracy activists, several state governors and business leaders, including the country directors of U.S. oil companies Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp.Chavez forges socialist economy with laws offensive
If this sounds familiar to you it is because it is.
Iran cleric says obeying Ahmadinejad like obeying GodYah ... OK... if your GOD is Ba'al.
"PRESIDENT'S WORD LIKE GOD'S" A senior Iranian cleric seen as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor said obeying the head of government was like obeying GodReports: Baha'is trial due to start next week in Iran
State Dept: US does not know location of Americans in Iran
LOVELY!
Iran opposes US base deal for Colombia
Naturally!
Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that his country opposes an impending deal to expand the U.S. military's presence in Colombia.Manouchehr Mottaki spoke in Bolivia on a tour of Latin America, where Tehran has cultivated closer ties especially with leftist-led nations that are pushing for more distance from U.S. policy."The Islamic Republic of Iran is against foreign military bases anywhere in the world," he saidIran's Next Minister of Intelligence?
SNIPSeveral credible reports from Tehran indicate that at least a dozen other senior officials in the Ministry have either resigned to protest the purge, were fired, or forced into retirement. Some had protested the fact that many members of the intelligence unit of the IRGC (referred in Iran by the reformists as the “parallel intelligence organization”) had been brought by Ahmadinejad into the Ministry, and had taken effective control of it, in an effort to purge from the Ministry those who are deemed disloyal to Ahmadinejad. There was so much discussion about the Ministry that it was forced to issue a statement, asking the press not to report on its internal developments.
After firing Ejehei, Ahmadinejad asked one of Ejehei’s remaining deputies to be the caretaker Minister until a permanent Minister was selected; Ahmadinejad was turned down. Ahmadinejad then announced that he himself would be the caretaker Minister, and appointed an ally, Majid Alavi, as his deputy.
The question is now who is going to be the next Minister of Intelligence? According to the law passed in 1983 when the Ministry was being set up, the Minister must be a Mojtahed, or a learned Islamic person. This has meant that all of Iran’s Ministers of Intelligence have come from the ranks of the clerics. So, by appointing himself as the caretaker Minister, Ahmadinejad is already violating the law regarding the Ministry.
A leading candidate for the post is Ruhollah Hosseinian, a hard-line clerical ally of Ahmadinejad. Born in 1955 in Shiraz, he began his theological studies at Valiasr School, but then joined the Haghani School in Qom, which is run by the reactionary cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, who also serves as Ahmadinejad’s spiritual leader. [All five of Iran’s Intelligence Ministers have been graduates of the Haghani School.] Hosseinian has held various positions, including a prosecutor in the revolutionary court of Mashhad, a city in northeast Iran, and in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan, in southeastern Iran on the border with Pakistan; and deputy prosecutor in the same court in Tehran. He was also a prosecutor for the special court for the clerics, an extra-judicial organization meant to control dissident clerics.
Hosseinian was also a deputy to Ali Fallahian, the notorious former Minister of Intelligence who has been implicated in many crimes. While there, he became a close friend of Saeed Emami, the notorious ring leader of a group of intelligence agents who murdered six intellectuals and dissidents in the fall of 1998 (they were involved in many lesser known murders from 1988-1998), referred to in Iran as “the Chain Murders.” When Emami was arrested, Hosseinian strongly defended him and accused the Khatami administration, in a nationally broadcast TV program, of being behind the murders. He once said, “We have been a murderer ourselves. This [murder of the dissident] is not the way things were done.” But, he also contradicted himself when he said,
I do not deny that Saeed Emami might have been involved in the murders. He actually believed that the enemies of the Islamic Republic must be wiped off the face of the earth. He had a lot of experience in this matter.When the government announced in the spring of 1999 that Emami had committed suicide in jail (a claim that most did not believe), Hosseinian openly mourned his death. He said that, “Hajj Saeed [Emami] sacrificied himself for Iran’s Islamic path. Emami was killed in order to prevent identification of higher authorities who had ordered the murders.”
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The slow boat to KazakhstanDouglas Whitehead endures a hellish two days attempting to cross the Caspian Sea on an Azerbaijani cargo ship.
"This was Soviet Union," explained one of the ship's staff, cryptically.Kazakhstan raises 2009 uranium output target
Sumitomo (JAPAN) in deal with Kazakhstan to supply rare earth minerals
Sumitomo, the Japanese trading house, has struck a landmark deal with Kazakhstan's state nuclear power company in a bid to secure supplies of rare earth metals — the "green" minerals whose global supply is dominated by China and which are used to make environmentally friendly products such as wind turbines.Cameco Says Utilities in China Stockpiling Uranium
Sumitomo's plan is to establish a refinery operation at Kazatomprom's nuclear facilities — uranium ore is one source of rare earth metals, and the Kazakh facility is refining that at its plant to extract the uranium.
The country is also temptingly full of abandoned Soviet-era uranium mines, over which Japan and China are expected to tussle. The move is expected to spark tit-for-tat dealmaking by Beijing, which has moved quickly to crush any assault on its 98 per cent worldwide monopoly on rare earth production.
It may also create a "gold rush" for Kazakhstan's crumbling Soviet-era uranium mines. A resource war is now inevitable, say observers in Tokyo. Governments and consumers around the world may be getting excited about the dawning of the era of the electric car, but the proposition depends on minerals which, increasingly, China is making sure stay at home.
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Cameco Corp., the world’s second- largest uranium producer, said power utilities in China are continuing to stockpile uranium, making them the market’s single-largest group of buyers.Kazakhstan Oil and Gas Report Q3 2009Utilities in China have bought an estimated 8 million pounds of uranium, the raw material in nuclear-reactor fuel, on the spot market this year, said George Assie, Cameco’s senior vice president of marketing.
“Keep in mind they have 13 reactors under construction,” Assie said today on a conference call with investors and analysts. “The stockpile there is for a very specific reason and that is to feed those reactors under construction.”
Uranium purchases by Chinese utilities this year confirm the world’s most populous country is becoming a more significant force in nuclear-fuel markets, said Dustin Garrow, a Denver- based executive general manager of marketing for Paladin Energy Ltd., the world’s ninth-largest uranium producer.
“There’s no question the Chinese will become more active buyers as they increase their installed nuclear capacity,” Garrow said. Chinese activity in uranium spot markets was “minimal” last year, he said.
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UZBEKISTAN: AUTHORITIES TAKE STEPS TO TIGHTEN CONTROL OVER JOURNALISM STUDENTS
Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education Azimjon Parpiev is preparing to introduce measures to ensure that young journalists are properly steeped in the political values of President Islam Karimov’s administration.Uzbekistan Invites Malaysian Investors
Classes currently titled "Introduction to Journalism" are to be renamed "Introduction to Journalism in Uzbekistan," and include the recent works of President Islam Karimov, sources at two state universities told the opposition the news site Uznews.net on August 12. If nothing is done, media outlets will soon be staffed by a "generation of apolitically minded young terrorists," sources who attended a recent meeting with Parpiev quoted the minister as saying.
Karimov’s books include "The Global Financial-Economic Crisis, Ways and Measures to Overcome It in the Conditions of Uzbekistan," "The Uzbek People Will Never Depend on Anyone" and "Morality is Invincible Power."
US neither supports nor opposes establishment of new military base in Kyrgyzstan
"It is normal relations between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. We have no special position. We neither support nor oppose it"KYRGYZSTAN: US AIR HUB AT MANAS BUSIER NOW THAN BEFORE
The American air hub outside Bishkek may have a new name -- the Manas Transit Center -- but its operational capabilities remain largely unchanged. The new lease agreement covering activities at the American facility does not differ substantially from the previous pact. The only major change is that Washington is now paying Bishkek a whole lot more in rent.
The Manas facility has been operating under its new name since July 14. The new agreement covers not just America’s use of airport-side property but "any associated objects and types of real estate in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic." Crucially, the agreement allows for all manner of goods and personnel to be ferried across Kyrgyzstan’s airspace and roads. Sources familiar with the negotiation process tell EurasiaNet the agreement provides for "troops, weapons and everything else."
The agreement further defines "any associated facilities and types of real estate" as meaning "all land, buildings, installations and associated communications, located at the Manas international airport, near it or in other places in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, and made available for use by the US Department of Defense."
A review of both the old and new agreements, copies of which were obtained by EurasiaNet, indicate that on many points the pacts do not appear to differ much. For example, in the original agreement, aircraft are "not subject to inspection", while under the new agreement, "aircraft belonging to US military forces, or used by them, are not to be inspected."
Rules covering personnel in both the new and old pacts are essentially the same. US military personnel will continue to enjoy quasi-diplomatic status, including tax-exempt standing. Contractors will also enjoy tax-free status.
As outlined in the first agreement, negotiated in 2001; "contractor companies and contractors personnel are exempt from any taxes or any similar charges imposed on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic." Similarly, the new agreement says; "The US Department of Defense, its personnel, contractor companies and contractor personnel are exempt from the payment of any taxes or similar charges imposed on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic."
SNIP
Avalanche In Kyrgyzstan Kills Russian Tourist
Local minister shot dead in Russia's IngushetiaSudden Putin Death Syndrome: Far more fatal than Swine Flu, mine proples.
Gunmen shot dead a regional minister at close range in his office in Ingushetia on Wednesday, six weeks after the president of the turbulent Russian region was seriously wounded in a suicide bomb attack. Growing lawlessness and Islamist violence in Russia's North Caucasus region, including Ingushetia and neighbouring Chechnya, are undermining the Kremlin's control of its southern flank.Russia Lawmakers Plan 'Cash for Clunkers' Program
Construction Minister Ruslan Amerkhanov, was shot dead "at point-blank range and died of his wounds at the scene," the local interior ministry said in a statement. Two unidentified gunman then fled the office in the heavily fortified regional capital Magas, the statement said.
The deputy minister, a nephew of Amerkhanov, was also injured in the attack, Interfax news agency reported. Corruption is rife in Russia's Caucasus regions with much of the graft focused on state infrastructure spending, analysts say.
"Ingush officials are a target, not because they implement certain policies or because they symbolise Russia, but because it's a local conflict that is linked to corruption and injustice," said Grigory Shvedov, editor of Caucasianknot.info, a web site that tracks violence in the North Caucasus. "Events in Ingushetia remind me of a spring that is becoming a river. The flow is increasing because there is no proper strategy to deal with this violence," Shvedov said.
Russia's Arctic Plays Concern Region
Took yez long enough.
Russia Joins Search For Cargo Ship Last Seen In Channel
Medvedev, Putin meet in Sochi, take a walk
Just like the Mafia bosses would "take walks", they do not want to be recorded.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took a walk along the Sochi embankment after a working meeting on Wednesday. The prime minister had arrived in the centre of Sochi a couple of minutes ahead of the president. Dmitry Medvedev came to the summer theatre in Sochi in a car, which he drove himself. During the walk the two politicians continued discussing their work. Nevertheless, they found time to greet vacationers on the embankment.Putin pledges massive military spending in Abkhazia
2 Babies Named After Putin
Be my baby. NOW!
Putin, Erdogan seal 'grand bargain'
Unholy Gog and Magog action, Batman.
Germany: Finance Ministry under fire for bank law outsourcingEarly this year, Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg commissioned UK-based firm Linklaters to draft an amendment to current bank nationalisation laws. The move was in response to a cabinet request for both the Economy and Justice Ministry to design a restructuring model for lasting financial market stability in the wake of the economic crisis.GM To Export Wuling Autos To N Africa, S America, Mideast
But just one week before Linklaters had helped ailing German bank IKB sell €2.6 billion in credit products, which critics say is a conflict of interest. “Either the ministry in really not in a position to accomplish this, or Guttenberg doesn’t trust his own people,” Greens MP Wolfgang Wieland told Der Spiegel. “Commissioning a firm that has earned money from ailing banks is a bit like assigning the frog to drain the pump,” he said, adding that it was “suspicious.”
SNIP
BEIJING (Dow Jones)--General Motors Corp. (GM) said Thursday it signed agreements to sell mini-commercial vehicles made by one of its joint ventures in China to markets in North Africa, South America and the Middle East. GM and its Chinese joint venture partners will export the Wuling N200 and N300 series of vehicles and sell them under the Chevrolet brand through GM's distribution networks in those regions, the U.S. auto maker said in a statement. The first shipment of 150 Wuling N200 series vehicles is scheduled to depart from the port of Guangzhou today, it said. The autos are made by GM's joint venture in China with SAIC Motor Corp. (600104.SH) and Wuling Automobile Co. GM owns about a third of the venture. SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. began exporting the N200 series to Peru in July 2008 as the Chevrolet N200.Unfinished Business for Wall Street's 'Death Panel'
If it feels like déjà vu all over again, it's because nothing has really changed. The thing about the government-run death panel is not that it put some of these firms out of their misery, it's that it let those carrying the disease live.Czar Paulson and Goldman Sachs, The Plot Thickens
Seattle Genetics Gets $136M TotalBut the plot has thickened over the connections between the former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and his former company Goldman Sachs (GS). It centers on the decision made to bailout AIG, which saw some $13 billion of US taxpayers money go to Goldman, its biggest counterparty. On this blog last week I wrote:
‘Fascinatingly, Mr Paulson was aware of the potential for a conflict of interest in those decisions so he went to the lawyers. “It would have been wrong to rescue myself, so I got a waiver from the ethics agreement from the Government ethics office,” he recently told Congress, in little-reported remarks.
That waiver has now been published here after sterling investigative work from the New York Times. It can be viewed here.
It was granted by a White House counsel on the day of the decision about AIG, which is not the normal course of events according to the New York Times. The newspaper also found out through freedom of information about the disproportionate number of telephone calls being made by Paulson to Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s CEO at the time of the bailout.
JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs led the offering
The Real Housewives of Goldman Sachs
The Hamptons may be one of the summer playgrounds of the wives of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS); but the two lately don't seem to mix very well. Last week, a report surfaced that Laura Blankfein, wife of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and the wife of another prominent executive of the New York bank made an embarrassing scene at a Hamptons social event.Now, evidently Jane Iwanowski, wife of former Goldman hedge fund trader Ray Iwanowski, had some trouble she wishes the media hadn't dug up. The New York Post reports Jane, 48, was arrested on July 26 in East Hampton on a misdemeanor charge of DWI after driving her 2003 BMW into a tree near the Iwanowskis' house. No word if anyone was injured.
But the news may be another thorn to the side of Lloyd Blankfein. He may possibly want to give his talk again to the Goldman troops -- and this time include a memo to retirees about keeping a low profile with personal purchases as well as keeping their loved ones' public behavior in check.
Ray Iwanowski with partner Mark Carhart announced their retirement in April from Goldman's Global Alpha hedge fund, after its assets fell from $12 billion to $2.5 billion. Global Alpha was once the largest Goldman hedge fund. - Gerald Magpily
Upbeat Fed views recession as near an end
AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!
Government Proposes Massive Shift in Online Privacy PolicyTime to toss Your Cookies, Proles!
WASHINGTON - August 10 - The American Civil Liberties Union submitted comments today to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) opposing its recent proposal to reverse current federal policy and allow the use of web tracking technologies, like cookies, on federal government websites. Cookies can be used to track an Internet user's every click and are often linked across multiple websites; they frequently identify particular people.Vibrant Response Aftermath - Death of the CCMRF's?
Since 2000, it has been the policy of the federal government not to use such technology. But the OMB is now seeking to change that policy and is considering the use of cookies for tracking web visitors across multiple sessions and storing their unique preferences and surfing habits. Though this is a major shift in policy, the announcement of this program consists of only a single page from the federal register that contains almost no detail.
"This is a sea change in government privacy policy," said Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Without explaining this reversal of policy, the OMB is seeking to allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website. Until the OMB answers the multitude of questions surrounding this policy shift, we will continue to raise our strenuous objections."
The use of cookies allows a website to differentiate between users and build a database of each user's viewing habits and the information they share with the site. Since web surfers frequently share information like their name or email address (if they've signed up for a service) or search request terms, the use of cookies frequently allows a user's identity and web surfing habits to be linked. In addition, websites can allow third parties, such as advertisers, to also place cookies on a user's computer.
"Americans rely on the information from the federal government to research politics, medical issues and legal requirements. The OMB is now asking to retain the personal and identifiable information we leave behind," said Christopher Calabrese, Counsel for the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project. "No American should have to sacrifice privacy or risk surveillance in order to access free government information. No policy change should be adopted without wide ranging debate including information on the restrictions and uses of cookies as well as impact on privacy."
The Department of Defense (DoD), has come to the conclusion after "Vibrant Response 2009", that the current chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive (CBRNE), Consequence Management Response Force's, or CCMRF's (“Sea-Smurf's”), "lack sufficient capacity in some capabilities".Fishy Congressman who will soon find himself under a bus speaks political blashpemies in public:
We had previously reported on the Government Accountability Office (GAO), report entitled, "Preliminary Observations on Defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-Yield Explosives Consequence Management Plans and Preparedness", which had pointed this fact out.
Rumors are now circulating that the Pentagon is reviewing the creation of more robust CCMRF's called Rapid Homeland Defense Response Units, that would be capable of dealing with multiple CBRNE events, enforcing "quarantines" and crushing a civil insurrection.
"This is a stinking, rotten fish, and they don't want you to smell it, and they want to shove it down your throat and make you eat it before you smell how rotten and stinky it is," he said.
"They're trying to develop an environment where they can take over," he said. "We've seen that historically."
More of Obamanable "Science Czar: John Holdren’s Eugenobabble:SNIPThe purpose of eco-science isn’t to test hypotheses; it’s to eliminate challenges to your hypothesis. Remember that.
Despite the controversy, there was sympathy for Holdren among many eco-scientists. “John has been scrupulous to avoid accuracy for thirty years,” implored a leading population control researcher who is on the board of the Margaret Sanger Fund for Reproductive Choice in Colored Communities. "This shouldn’t be held against him. He was young, and sometimes the young blurt out the truth before they can be stopped. He didn’t understand eco-science back then."This commentator asked the population scientist, who wished to remain anonymous: What is there to understand about eco-science that is different from other science?
The population researcher confided:
“You don’t understand about the relationship between eco-science and data. The purpose of eco-science isn’t to test hypotheses; it’s to eliminate challenges to your hypothesis. In normal science, let’s say that A is your hypothesis. If you test hypotheses A, B, C, and D against the evidence, and the evidence supports A, you’ve established two things. First, A is supported by the evidence, and second, the conclusion that A is true is dependent on the evidence.”He leaned forward:“But eco-science is true, regardless of the evidence. So eco-scientists use a different method. Let’s say A is our hypothesis. If we are asked to test A, B, C, and D against the evidence, we say that advocates of B are industry-funded shills, advocates of C are endangering the ecosystem by obstinate delay, and advocates of D are Climate Change Denialists. We eliminate challenges to A, using political, not scientific, arguments. Then the evidence is only tested against A, and then A of course is verified. A is independent of data. It’s not really a hypothesis; it’s merely the justification for what we want to do. That’s eco-science“He smiled.“In eco-science, one must at all costs avoid accurate predictions. Accurate predictions reinforce the idea that data matters. We don’t want accurate predictions, because the purpose of our work is to rid ecological science of dependency on data. Our conclusions have nothing to do with data. We dictate; we don’t ‘test’”
This commentator was confused. Are bizarre predictions -- "civilization will end in 15 years…" -- essential to eco-science?
SNIP
Behind the Deal: Life Sciences
SNIPWTF are "Life Sciences anway, you may ask me?This provision in the Life Sciences deal would address that problem. If the S.E.C. now requires disclosures of Life Sciences’ buyer or the buyer’s lenders (including the back of the debt commitment letter) then the buyer can simply terminate its obligations. It is a nice game of chicken with the S.E.C.
But if you read through the Life Sciences background-to-the-transaction section, and then the entire proxy and the merger agreement, you see that there is something else odd: no one wants to be associated with this company. This is the first merger agreement I have seen in years where the lawyers are not listed in the notice provisions — in fact, they are unidentified; the lenders on the financing are also not disclosed; nor is the auditor — disclosed in its Form 10-K, expect a local one I have never heard of.
SNIP
Well, I'll tell you!
We define "Life Sciences" to encompass companies in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biomedical technologies, life systems technologies, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, food processing, environmental, biomedical devices, and organizations and institutions that devote the majority of their efforts in the various stages of research, development, technology transfer and commercialization. More generally we define 'Life Sciences' as all sciences that have to do with 'organisms', like plants, animals and human beings.Dem Congresswoman Admits ObamaCare Covers Elective Abortions
Proponents of government health care, including President Barack Obama himself, have made claims that abortion will not be allowed in the government health care plan. In doing so, they engage in the very deception and misinformation of which they accuse opponents of socialized health care.Obama and other socialists say that because the health care plan does not specifically allow abortion, this means it will not be allowed. Yet when abortion opponents in congress have attempted to add amendments specifically prohibiting abortion, they are rebuffed and voted down.
Any reasonable person would ask, “If they claim the bill won’t support abortion, yet they adamantly refuse to specifically prohibit it, what does that tell me?” Any reasonable person would also conclude: “That means it does –or will at some point–allow abortion.”
Also, anyone who has watched how modern liberal government operates knows that unless something is specifically and totally without exception prohibited, lawless people will exploit to infer permission. The same observant person knows that abortion advocates are particularly determined to kill inconvenient children, and will leave no loophole or excuse unexploited.
But now a Democratic Congresswoman admitted to her California constituents gathered at a town-hall meeting what the Obama administration has tried desperately to keep quiet: the health care reform bill covers abortions.
LifeSiteNews reports on a San Jose town-hall where Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) let the cat out of the bag:
“We know that over 90 percent of abortions are purely elective, not medically necessary. Why is this being covered when abortion is not clearly health care,” Ignacio Reyes, a local pro-life advocate, asked Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cali.) at a San Jose town-hall meeting.
As the applause for Reyes subsided, Lofgren, who represents California’s 16th Congressional District, responded that the proposed Congressional reforms included “a basic benefit plan developed by health professionals.”
“Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the healthcare plans available to Americans, and I think it should be,” said Logren, eliciting jeers and protests from the crowd.
You can see that exchange in the video below.
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Palm Pre Phone Secretly Used GPS to Report User's Location to Company Hess was not having an emergency every day. And he was not being notified that his location was being transmitted to the company. Also, Palm was uploading a record of many of the applications, such as messaging, he was using. Palm didn't deny it was getting the information. In a brief, vague press statement, the company said its privacy policy "includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer's information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience."Raytheon reviews bribery compliance
RENDER UNTO SEIZER!
COMPLY AL YE MFers OF THE GLOW BALL DHIMMING!
CACI International logs record results
No doubt.
US Defense Intelligence Agency awards contract to ManTech
MANTECH! Jive Software! Multiple classifications with appropriate controls!
After Hours - Textron Inc System DevelopsThe provider of technologies and solutions for national security programs said the new, competitively awarded prime contract is valued at USD11m with a base year and two option years and includes Jive Software, NavStar and SAIC as teammates.
A-Space is a Director of National Intelligence and DIA initiative designed to provide analysts secure access to large amounts of text, graphics, imagery and video intelligence spanning multiple classifications with appropriate controls. The application, similar to Web 2.0 social networking programs, has over 10,000 users within the Intelligence Community (IC).
CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER ALERT:
Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, recently announced the combination of Overwatch Geospatial Systems and Overwatch Tactical Operations into a single Operating Unit called Overwatch. It is said to deliver a stronger position to accelerate the development and delivery of the advanced integrated intelligence solutions being sought by the U.S. and international defense and intelligence communities.
Whatever Happened to That New Justice Department Policy on 'State Secrets'?The Obamanable Bushman gwan git you. He gwan eat you! Render Unto Seizer, MFers.
Pending legislation would limit the executive’s ability to use this confidential evidentiary privilege to dismiss outright legal challenges to government conduct. The administration so far has avoided taking a position on the legislation.Property owners refuse to leave Iowa flood plainAs I reported almost two months ago, Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 17 that he would issue a new policy on when the government will invoke the state secrets privilege to conceal evidence from the public — and even from federal court judges — “in a matter of days.”
Well, it’s August, and still nothing. After Ed asked me the question, I followed up with Dean Boyd, spokesman for the Justice Department’s national security division, asking him if that policy had ever been issued. After all, maybe we’d just missed it.
Boyd’s response: “Not yet; still in the works.”
They must to prevent you from undermining the system, fishy pipple.
SNIPFamilies set to leave Texas facilty within monthsThe city has said it won't use eminent domain to force the property owners off their land. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could designate the properties as risks to the flood-protection system and force the owners to sell for pre-flood assessed values plus improvements. Fournier said that would be a last resort.
Some business owners in Cedar Rapids' flood plain say they've received a worse deal than homeowners: They were offered only the value of their land. And if they stay, there's no guarantee the Army Corps won't remove electric, water and sewer lines from under the levee to prevent them from undermining the system.
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DHS, Pentagon Battle Over National Guard at the BorderDALLAS — Detained immigrant children and their families were expected to be out of a former Central Texas prison in the next few months, the Department of Homeland Security's special adviser on detention said Wednesday.
Although the government is giving itself until the end of the year to stop using the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor to hold families, Dora Schriro told The Associated Press she expects the men, women and children there will be deported from the country or released under supervision sooner.
Hutto had 127 men, women and children as of last week, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs, which oversees the facility. Schriro said she expects that in the next few months, families currently in the facility will "be removed or have received relief and be out in the community." She said the agency is working on deciding whether some families could be assigned to "alternative detention."The change is part of a plan by DHS to change its detention policies by placing monitors at large detention centers, hiring a medical expert to review health care, naming Schriro to the new position of director of the Office of Detention Policy and Planning and other reforms. Although children and their families are no longer being sent to Hutto, the government will still hold families at the Berks Family Residential Center in Pennsylvania.
Immigration officials say Hutto tries to keep families together while they seek asylum, await deportation or seek other outcomes to their immigration cases. All of those detained at Hutto are non-criminal immigrants, many of them asylum seekers from Latin America and Iraq.
Critics point out the facility is a former prison run by a for-profit private corrections company. Children live in tiny cells furnished by bunk-beds and a steel toilet. Many of the Hutto detainees have complained of guards disciplining children by threatening to separate them.
Advocates sued the government and reached a settlement that required ICE to soften the facility. It called for changes that include installation of privacy curtains around toilets in the cells, a full-time pediatrician and elimination of a counting system that required families to be in their cells for hours a day.
STFU, YOU FISHY MOB, CAUSE NONE OF THIS IS HAPPENING, SEE?The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are fighting over who will pay for National Guardsmen ordered to help protect the southwest border from Mexican drug violence, reports The Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press
Word of the Obama administration's plan to deploy guardsmen to the border came to light at the end of June
According to the article, the Pentagon and DHS drew up a $225 million plan to deploy 1,500 guardsmen to the southwest border to ease the strain on border patrol agents. But deciding who will pay for the deployment has lead to interdepartmental wrangling.
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A freedom of information act request has revealed that the Department of Homeland Security’s now infamous “rightwing extremism” report, released in April, was not based on any reliable supporting evidence whatsoever. According to the DHS, the report was compiled based purely on around 50 internet articles, the credibility of which is severely questionable.
The revelation comes from the group Americans for Limited Government (ALG), which bills itself as an “independent, nonpartisan political movement that fights for hardworking taxpayers against the special interests that continually push for big government nationwide.”
The group filed it’s FOIA request shortly after the release of the leaked security intelligence assessment which equated veterans and gun owners with violent terrorists.
The document, entitled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment (PDF link) characterized concerns about the economy, unemployment, the loss of U.S. sovereignty and the move towards global government as “rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet” which itself is defined as a potential tool for terrorists to network, build bombs, and send encrypted messages to each other.
It also listed those opposed to abortion or immigration as potential extremists, and cited groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority as potential sources of hate crime. ALG asked for all data, studies, reports and documents that had led the DHS to these conclusions.
The shocking response from the DHS indicates that it undertook no statistical analysis at all, failed to conduct any interviews with the groups it went on to demonize and complied the report based purely on a scattering of web posts from some extremely dubious sources.
“We expected to receive back some hard-core analysis, some data analysis, looking at crime statistics and current trends that would back up conclusions in the report,” said Nathan Mehrens, a news contributor to Americans for Limited Government and a former Labor Department official. “Instead what we got was a list of URLs to various Web sites, all kinds of news stories across the board,” Mehrens told FOX News.
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Invader works it's way up riversThe invader is a fish found normally only in the Caspian and the Black Sea...
Poos, a doctoral candidate in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto, said data he collected shows the invasion began within the last three years. "We don't know why," he conceded.Poos.
Hot fill from uranium mine is removed
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - Dirt and rock taken from an old uranium mining site and used for fill dirt has been removed from private properties south of Tusayan and at Grand Canyon Village. The Bureau of Reclamation says its contractor excavated materials from two private residences south of Valle, from a Grand Canyon sanitary plant, from a business near the airport at Valle, and from a South Rim trailer park. The Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency said it wasn't consulted about the clean up. Agency director Aubrey Godwin said his agency would have advised nearby residents to stay indoors last week during the removal because of blowing winds.Uranium One buying Wyoming uranium facilities
The time to tackle the tantalum supply chain is now
~ by The Gerson Lehrman Group
Oh there will be bloody warring over this shit too. You will see. Follow the oil, the uranium the tantalum and what the Gold Man Sacks upgrades and downgrades and you will be able to make all sorts of seemingly amazing predictions, comrades. A regular Kreskin you will be!
Tantalum is a critical raw material for the electronics, aerospace and power generation industries. Computer logic chips, portable devices and turbine blades all rely on the metal. However, there is a looming and profound supply problem stemming from potential increases of supplies of conflict tantalum from tantalum. The article provides context, a timefame, and recomendations to OEMs and leading ore processors for actions to be taken now.TANTALUM REVEALED:
Tantalum is a rare metal used in the production of electronics capacitors which find their way into cell phones, DVD players, personal computers, digital cameras, gaming platforms, LCD monitors and wireless devices. In other words, tantalum keeps us entertained, productive and connected. Tantalum is also used to make super alloys for jet engines, turbines, space vehicles, nuclear reactors, power plants and cutting tools. Its high strength, high ductility, high reliability, high corrosion resistance and high thermal conductivity support the diversity of applications.Early Human Hunters Had Fewer Meat-Sharing Rituals
Consequently, the demand for tantalum raw material has been on the rise but the inventories in the supply chain currently are low. The US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Tantalum-Niobium International Study Centre (TIC) predict the annual demand growth for tantalum to be 7% over the next 20 years. In other words from an estimated 6 million lb. world consumption in 2007, tantalum is expected to record a four-fold consumption increase in 20 years! To meet the future demand, the market will require additional production from new projects as well as expansions from existing operations.
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Much of the tantalum from primary sources reportedly comes from Australia with Africa, Brazil, Asia and Canada accounting for the remainder. Primary and secondary sources account for 70% and 30% of the tantalum supply respectively. A large majority of the primary raw materials derives from one source; Talison Minerals' Wodgina mine in Western Australia. Several other smaller mines are found in Central Africa, Brazil, China and Canada.
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Listen, Og, eat your meat over there, see.
Powerful quakes strike Japan, IndiaA University of Arizona anthropologist has discovered that humans living at a Paleolithic cave site in central Israel between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago were as successful at big-game hunting as were later stone-age hunters at the site, but that the earlier humans shared meat differently.
Earthquake Strikes South of Tokyo; Third in Four Days
Expert warns of 'preludes' to quake disaster as Glow Ball shakes like a broke whore's ass
I, not an officially recognized expert on any freaking thing, also warned. Long time before they did. So gimme mah freakin' medal already.
As the Indian Ocean shook for a second time this week, the head of the Earth Observatory at Dhaka University warned on Thursday that Bangladesh could be teetering on the verge of an earthquake disaster with two abutting tectonic plates heading for a clash, and a high risk too of being inundated by a tidal wave.
The warning came as three quakes had shaken the region within 72 hours. A major 7.6 quake off the Andamans in the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami alert on Tuesday and a medium 5.6 tremor jolted northern districts in Bangladesh on Wednesday.
"Bangladesh is an earthquake prone area due to her geological and tectonic structures, especially Sylhet, Chittagong and Chittagong Hill Tract areas," geology professor Syed Humayun Akhter, also in charge of the Earth Observatory at Dhaka University, told bdnews24.com on Thursday. As he was speaking, the Indian Ocean shook again near the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
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