15 Things More Important Than the GOP Nomination (The Story That Soaks Up Endless Attention from the News Media)

Modified slightly from David Swanson's blog:

1. Stop the war on Iran.
Resources: http://DontAttackIran.org
Protest on February 4: http://worldcantwait.net

2. What happened to the Occupation of DC? The Park Service planned to try to remove all tents from both DC occupations (Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square) on Monday, January 30th.

3. California could solve a huge healthcare issue. California has until Tuesday and is two senators away from enacting single-payer healthcare. This is far more significant that anything that has been done at the national level for healthcare. This solves the problem in one state and creates a model for the other 49. You can help: http://warisacrime.org/node/60764

4. Corporate personhood is on the defensive. The Montana Supreme Court has refused to comply with Citizens United. Cities and states are taking action. Stronger bills are being introduced in Congress all the time. The latest is HJRes 100. Rallies were just held in over 100 towns and cities. Join this movement: http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5236

5. They're raising military spending and calling it "cuts." The supposed cuts in all the headlines are cuts to dream budgets, leaving actual increases. Small but real cuts would result from following the law after the Super Committee's failure (remember them?). But bills in both houses would block all actual cuts to the military, and President Obama agrees with that agenda. This will mean severe cuts to education, transportation, and -- as Obama indicated in his State of the Union speech -- to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. http://warisacrime.org/node/60747

6. "Why Peace"-- an amazing new book that you will treasure has just been published. It is first-person stories of war and peace and activism from all over the world, from victims, refugees, journalists, lawyers, and participants in numerous wars. Every story is personal and moving. There is not a drop of corporate media disinterestedness in the book. You may know some of the authors and now you'll know them better. It's 600 pages but you'll be sorry when you reach the end. http://www.amazon.com/Why-Peace-Marc-Guttman/dp/0984980202

7. Guess who says the anthrax attacks were pinned on the wrong guy (again)? The Department of Justice. Anybody else, and Obama would have charged them with "espionage". http://warisacrime.org/node/60765

8. We're re-occupying the Philippines, by jingo! On the plus side, we have not yet been told that this will benefit "our little brown brothers" (whether they like it or not). http://warisacrime.org/node/60746

9. Prevent Fukushima in Vermont. A Fukushima-style nuclear power plant in Vermont legally must shut down, but in reality is up and running. We can close it. http://warisacrime.org/node/60745

10. They hate us for our bases. As in many other places around the world, in Japan and Korea, people are risking their lives to resist U.S. military base construction. Japan: http://warisacrime.org/node/60718 -- Korea: http://warisacrime.org/node/60743

11. Torture lawyer John Yoo badly loses debate. Professor Yoo agreed to debate a sane person, with predictable but still satisfying result: http://warisacrime.org/node/60738

12. The State of the Union speech only sounded good if you were screaming in terror. http://warisacrime.org/node/60727

13. United National Antiwar Coalition Conference on Feb. 4th. Don't miss this! https://nationalpeaceconference.org

14. Occupy Spring! The National Occupation of Washington DC starts on March 30, 2012. http://nowdc.org

15. No Immunity for Mortgage Fraudsters! The Obama Administration has been working on a mortgage fraud settlement that itself amounts to fraud, but attorneys general in several states are pushing back. Obama's speeches stress fairness and equality, but a settlement granting immunity to big banks is not fair. Robosigning and other fraudulent practices are ongoing. The White House is offering the banks a plea bargain in the middle of a crime spree. Attorneys general in Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, California, and other states are pushing in the right direction. Tell leading state attorneys general not to settle for less than an adequate settlement. http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5322

Libya and Iraq

Just as terrible now as they have been for years, despite hundreds of thousands of human lives and insane amounts of US dollars.

Basically, both countries still have horrible dictatorial regimes who torture the opposition.

Just fuck the US media and the politicians who supported these catastrophes.

Deep Thought of the Day

If there were no religion, all the screaming about Israel and Jews and Muslims and Iran and Palestinians, the bullshit from all sides, would so easily just disappear.

Electromagnetism and Conspiracy Issues -- "Alan Avalon"

Very interesting discussion with Jim Fetzer-- many things I hadn't heard before.

For instance, he brings up this fascinating bit about the center of the earth being molten due to ongoing fission of unstable elements-- and not so much from the initial hot formation event that is slowly cooling (which is typically taught in school). This concept brings a new meaning to the idea of the China Syndrome!


So, one reason I liked this was because of some synchronicity-- I was reading just this week about free energy and quaternions and so forth. This site, cited by Avalon, looks very useful: http://world.std.com/~sweetser/quaternions/qindex/qindex.html

Note, I haven't listened to the whole show yet-- and it looks like he is veering strongly into Judy Wood territory. An additional worrisome bit is he mentions how he used to travel by air regularly for the military -- not something a regular enlisted man does. Plus, he started going on about the idea that the US has secret UFO technology, which is a standard denial for people covering who the real PTB are. Starting to sound like intel. He's clearly using a fake name. He has a very strong Minnesota accent. Fetzer says he knows him. Possibly, he's a prof at UMinn where Fetzer is?

UPDATE-- so have listened to the whole thing and thankfully there was no whole-hearted endorsement of Wood's beam weaponry, though Avalon definitely liked her book. Unfortunately, he does seem to support the ridiculous meme that the reports of high heat at ground zero were false. It does seems that Avalon has some military connection-- talks about SCIFs at the Pentagon, and says he has familiarity with that. The "funny" thing is that Avalon dances all around nukes-- talks about neutron bombardment, EMPs, using dirt to cover the ground at ground zero but never mentions nukes directly for what happened at the WTC. So it's a classic case of misdirection, that I've seen over and over in this regard.

The guy finishes by saying that he thinks 9/11 was really about destroying certain info at the Pentagon, and the WTC was kind of a red-herring. Thinks there was an EMP device at the Pentagon. All in all, an interesting show, in terms of the physics discussed but ultimately disappointing to see the same misdirection about nukes.

"Fun" Wikipedia Reading

Examination of Apollo Moon photographs
Are they fake? Of course not!!!

By the way, apparently they are able to see stars and Venus in some Apollo photos exposed longer; it would be awesome if someone with astronomy expertise could determine if these bodies actually look right for the perspective of viewing from the moon.

Free energy suppression
Another ridiculous conspiracy theory!

Newt for President!

"America WILL Have A Permanent Lunar Base By End Of My Presidency"

As he says, Newt Gingrich thinks grandiose thoughts. Today’s pitch to Florida’s Space Coast: a lunar base within the next eight years.

“By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” he said. According to Newt, the base would be used for “science, tourism, and manufacturing” and create a “robust industry” modeled on the airline business in the 20th century.

From there, Gingrich suggested moving towards a Mars mission by the end of the next decade. He proposed setting aside 10% of NASA’s budget in prize money for private research into interplanetary exploration.

This is all just pandering to Florida of course. I just wonder how long they will keep the charade up, that we can go to the moon...

Way Off Topic

But this is pretty freakin' awesome!

Classical piano version of Yes' "Soundchaser"

Subtle Apocalyptic Numerology in Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove"

The classic movie is about a rogue US General who starts a pre-emptive nuclear attack by sending nuclear bomb-laden B52s into Russia during the cold war.

If you haven't seen it, it is a must-see masterpiece.

I just watched it this morning, after not having seen it in 25 years or so. I was particularly interested if there was a 33 in it, since I have been keeping track of 33's in movies.

Despite many numbers being used throughout the movie, bombing codes and the like, I didn't see an overt 33. However, the was a very subtle 33 that was not even directly mentioned.

34 B-52 bombers were sent into Russia. There is a frantic attempt to recall the planes, and initially it is agreed that the planes' locations will be given to the Russians, who will then shoot them down. Finally, the recall code it found, and 30 of the planes were called back from the attack. It turns out that four planes were attacked by Russian defenses, and three shot down. The 34th plane was damaged by a missile, and cannot be recalled due to an inoperable radio. This 34th plane, commanded by Slim Pickens in a quintessential role, continues on, to deliver its nuclear bomb to a USSR nuclear base, thus detonating the so-called Doomsday Device, that destroys all life on the planet.

Thus, 33 planes from the mission never finish the mission. However, the critical 34th plane does break away, and starts doomsday.

This fits perfectly with what Anonymous physicist has written about, where 33 is symbolic of our evil, quarantined powers that be, and 34 is symbolic of a quarantine breakout, which likely involves nuclear destruction of the earth and destruction of humanity.

Thus, 33 planes do not complete the mission, but the 34th does, and starts the doomsday destruction of the planet, the quarantine breakout attempt by the evil PTB.

The numerology is subtle and brief within the movie, but an amazing verification of the 33/34 hypothesis.
-----------

A more minor but interesting point, in a kind of weird sub-theme, is how freaking DETERMINED the B52 crew is to deliver their nuclear bombs, and start the doomsday event, despite all sorts of things going wrong due to damage on the plane. It's like against all odds that this plane manages to drop it's bomb on the target, due to the "heroic" efforts of the crew and especially Slim Pickens' character. I wonder if this is just a dramatic plot device, or actually some sort of message about how determined the real PTB are, about destroying us and getting off the planet.

Conclusive Proof That UA93 Didn't Crash in Shanksville, PA

Pilots for Truth finds an ACARS smoking gun:

Furthermore, according to the NTSB animation reconstruction, the aircraft allegedly crashed in Shanksville at 10:03am(4). How can the aircraft possibly receive a message activating an audible signal in the airplane at 1410 (10:10am Eastern)? It can't if it crashed in Shanksville, it can if were in the vicinity of CMI. Finally, there is no possible way that an aircraft can receive a message from a remote ground station which is 500+ miles away. The range for remote ground stations is 200 miles, and that is only guaranteed above 29,000 feet(5).

We now have several levels of corroboration demonstrating the aircraft were still airborne after their alleged crashes -

- From our first article, the logs themselves showing time sent and received based on statements made by Ed Ballinger,
- Ground station routing based on flight tracking protocols,
- Expert statements,
- And now, messages that were received well out of range from Shanksville, PA after the time of the alleged crash.

It is conclusive, the 9/11 Aircraft were airborne long after their alleged crashes.

THIS IS SOLID *PROOF* FOR THE OFFICIAL UA93 STORY BEING FALSE.

Also, up to 120 now. Also, adding this to the Flight93 hoax blog.

UA175 Shown Flying North of NY City, AFTER WTC2 Went Down

Well, THIS is interesting--


Certainly something to add to my no plane list!

Martin Luther King Jr Day

What the media really doesn't want you to know about Dr. King's work and The Ultimate Truth of the Assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In particular, the latter is what EVERYONE in the criminal media and the lamestream blogosphere will ignore. But really, the evidence that Pepper assembled, showing the US govt conspiracy against King, is the most tight case I've ever seen for a massive conspiracy to assassinate a leader. And it is completely ignored.

UPDATE: And it does get nauseating to see how people ignore this. Much like 9/11, the JFK assassination and so forth-- all ignored, and all hard to live with, in terms of the ignorance.

Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don’t mix, they say. Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live. . . .

It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through [Lyndon Johnson's] poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such . . . .

As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked — and rightly so — what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. . . .

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land. . . .

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

Another Odd Thing About the Moon Missions

Overall, this seems like a huge deal yet there is almost nothing on the internet about it--

In 1960, before the Apollo missions, Encyclopedia Britannica reported the neutral point to be 20,520 miles from the Moon. A Moon with 1/6 Earth's gravity should have a Neutral Point between 22,078 - 25,193 miles from the Moons surface. Yet after the Apollo missions, Time magazine July 25, 1969 said "At a point of 43,495 miles from the moon, lunar gravity exerted a force equal to the gravity of the Earth, then some 200,000 miles distant"* In 1973 Encyclopedia Britannica, gave a new neutral point distance of 39,000 miles. The problem with all of this is, a neutral point of 43,495 miles would make the moon with not 1/6th (16%) the Earth's gravity, but 64%. A moon with 64% of Earth's gravity would require way more fuel and power than was supposedly available in the Apollo missions.

--from a good just-discovered site that questions the moon landing. The unanswered questions are really good, solid refutations of a NASA landing.



*apparently famed Nazi rocket scientist Werner von Braun gave out this new neutral point calculation, and then left NASA shortly thereafter.

Is It Just Me, or Is It Almost Impossible to Find Good 9/11 Stuff These Days?

Anonymous Physicist isn't active. 911 Blogger is even more boring than usual, as if that were even possible. The DU 9/11 site is no longer supported and is now some "creative speculation" bs group, and I was banned anyway. Killtown isn't doing anything, Ace Baker's psy-opera site is down, Judy Wood is not doing anything new. I'm not even getting any mass emails from the likes of Webfairy, NicoHaupt, Morgan Reynolds, Jon Lear, Ron Weick, and the likes... the worst now someone has spammed my email account and Marcus Icke's and apparently Steven Jones Hard Evidence account; they are sending out crap so I'm getting tons of bouncebacks. Simon Shack's forum is pretty much boring/unreadable; Pumpitout is taken over by shills. Never did much with Above Top Secret or other group sites, but even those places, nothing new. Citizen's Investigation Team forum-- dead.

What the hell happened with that big Toronto 9/11 conference? Anything?

I know it's 10 years ago, but still... fucking horrible evil inside job.

Madness, More Madness and Pure Insanity

Fucking NYTimes-- (from the “public editor” of the NYT):

I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.

Fucking Israel terrorists:

Iran expressed deepening fury at Israel and the United States on Thursday over the drive-by bombing that killed a nuclear scientist in Tehran the day before, and signaled that its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps might carry out revenge assassinations.

"Video appears to show troops urinating on corpses". Jesus. Can we fucking get out of Afghanistan NOW??? There's NO *SANE* REASON to be there.

Legacy of Shame-- Gitmo Edition

10 years of abuse, 10 years of shame, 92% prisoners not even linked to al-CIA-duh.

Deep Thought of the Day

Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.

Washington Post Asks Why "We" Ignore the Dead Civilians in America's Foreign Wars

Who is this "we", paleface?

But clearly, the topic is too insignificant and slightly unpleasant for our glorious elites to worry their pretty minds about.

The other possibility is that our elites secretly revel in the deaths, but know they have to publicly mask their pleasure over needless killing.

What the Iraq War Was Really All About???

It really was about WMD after all-- planet-busting WMD! Very interesting conversation here about the ancient Sumerian texts being unearthed in Iraq, and how they may well have contained descriptions of ancient secret alien technology for massive destruction. The idea is that the Americans and Brits wanted to get their hands on it, before anyone else, presumably for the reasons held by the ultimate PTB-- to break out of the quarantine.

Congratulations Monsanto! On Being Incredibly Evil Motherfuckers

Also this-- fucking Monsanto OWNS fucking Blackwater/Xe, the mercenary/intel group.

Many military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related companies created to divert attention from their bad reputation and make more profit selling their nefarious services-ranging from information and intelligence to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary training – for other governments, banks and multinational corporations. According to Scahill, business with multinationals, like Monsanto, Chevron, and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center. These officers and directors share Blackwater.

One of them, Cofer Black, known for his brutality as one of the directors of the CIA, was the one who made contact with Monsanto in 2008 as director of Total Intelligence, entering into the contract with the company to spy on and infiltrate organizations of animal rights activists, anti-GM and other dirty activities of the biotech giant.

Contacted by Scahill, the Monsanto executive Kevin Wilson declined to comment, but later confirmed to The Nation that they had hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and 2009, according to Monsanto only to keep track of “public disclosure” of its opponents. He also said that Total Intelligence was a “totally separate entity from Blackwater.”

However, Scahill has copies of emails from Cofer Black after the meeting with Wilson for Monsanto, where he explains to other former CIA agents, using their Blackwater e-mails, that the discussion with Wilson was that Total Intelligence had become “Monsanto’s intelligence arm,” spying on activists and other actions, including “our people to legally integrate these groups.” Total Intelligence Monsanto paid $ 127,000 in 2008 and $ 105,000 in 2009.

No wonder that a company engaged in the “science of death” as Monsanto, which has been dedicated from the outset to produce toxic poisons spilling from Agent Orange to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), pesticides, hormones and genetically modified seeds, is associated with another company of thugs.

Almost simultaneously with the publication of this article in The Nation, the Via Campesina reported the purchase of 500,000 shares of Monsanto, for more than $23 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which with this action completed the outing of the mask of “philanthropy.” Another association that is not surprising.

It is a marriage between the two most brutal monopolies in the history of industrialism: Bill Gates controls more than 90 percent of the market share of proprietary computing and Monsanto about 90 percent of the global transgenic seed market and most global commercial seed. There does not exist in any other industrial sector monopolies so vast, whose very existence is a negation of the vaunted principle of “market competition” of capitalism. Both Gates and Monsanto are very aggressive in defending their ill-gotten monopolies.

Although Bill Gates might try to say that the Foundation is not linked to his business, all it proves is the opposite: most of their donations end up favoring the commercial investments of the tycoon, not really “donating” anything, but instead of paying taxes to the state coffers, he invests his profits in where it is favorable to him economically, including propaganda from their supposed good intentions. On the contrary, their “donations” finance projects as destructive as geoengineering or replacement of natural community medicines for high-tech patented medicines in the poorest areas of the world. What a coincidence, former Secretary of Health Julio Frenk and Ernesto Zedillo are advisers of the Foundation.

Like Monsanto, Gates is also engaged in trying to destroy rural farming worldwide, mainly through the “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa” (AGRA). It works as a Trojan horse to deprive poor African farmers of their traditional seeds, replacing them with the seeds of their companies first, finally by genetically modified (GM). To this end, the Foundation hired Robert Horsch in 2006, the director of Monsanto. Now Gates, airing major profits, went straight to the source.

Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates are three sides of the same figure: the war machine on the planet and most people who inhabit it, are peasants, indigenous communities, people who want to share information and knowledge or any other who does not want to be in the aegis of profit and the destructiveness of capitalism.

Oh fuck, this is so nauseating.

Monsanto and the Obama Administration-- Intent on Poisoning Us

Fucking Monsanto:

Wholesale Approval of Genetically Engineered Foods
Obama Administration Disappoints/Angers Public
Agent Orange Herbicide Ingredient Would be Widely Used

WISCONSIN - January 4 - Over the holidays, the United States Department of Agriculture announced its approval of a novel strain of genetically engineered corn, developed by Monsanto, purportedly being “drought tolerant.”

Despite receiving nearly 45,000 public comments in opposition to this particular genetically engineered (GE) corn variety (and only 23 comments in favor), the Obama administration gave Monsanto the green light to release its newest GE corn variety freely into the environment and American food supply, without any governmental oversight or safety tracking.

“President Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack just sent a clear message to the American public that they do not care about our concerns with genetically engineered food and their questionable safety, adverse environmental impacts, and detrimental effects on farmers, especially organic farmers,” says Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst with The Cornucopia Institute.

“This is just the latest in a string of approvals of genetically engineered crops, and it is clear that despite campaign promises of change from Obama, he has not had the courage to stand strong against the powerful agribusiness and biotechnology lobbies,” Kastel added.

In addition to its announcement approving Monsanto’s newest GE corn variety, the USDA also opened a 60-day public comment period for two additional petitions – one for Monsanto’s GE soybean containing higher levels of an omega-3 fatty acid, that does not naturally occur in soybeans, and the other from Dow AgroSciences for corn that has been genetically engineered to better resist the poisonous herbicide 2,4-D.

The public can comment on Dow's 2,4-D corn at:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2010-0103-0001

While the USDA attempts to assure the public that 2,4-D is safe, scientists have raised serious concerns about the safety of this herbicide, which was used as a key ingredient in “Agent Orange,” used to defoliate forests and croplands in the Vietnam War.

2,4-D is a chlorophenoxy herbicide, and scientists around the world have reported increased cancer risks in association with its use, especially for soft tissue sarcoma and malignant lymphoma. Four separate studies in the United States reported an association with chlorophenoxy herbicide use and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

"The concern is that, just like Monsanto's genetically engineered corn that is resistant to RoundUp™ (glyphosate) herbicide, the approval of a cultivar resistant to 2,4-D will cause an exponential increase in the use of this toxic agrichemical," Kastel stated.

Research by the EPA found that babies born in counties with high rates of 2,4-D application to farm fields were significantly more likely to be born with birth defects of the respiratory and circulatory systems, as well as defects of the musculoskeletal system like clubfoot, fused digits and extra digits. These birth defects were 60% to 90% more likely in counties with higher 2,4-D application rates.

The results also showed a higher likelihood of birth defects in babies conceived in the spring, when herbicide application rates peak.

In its petition, Dow AgroSciences states that 2,4-D is increasingly important for chemical farmers because of the presence of weeds that have developed resistance to glyphosate, as a result of the widespread use of Monsanto’s genetically engineered glyphosate-resistant crops.

When Monsanto introduced glyphosate, it was touted as a safer and less toxic alternative to herbicides like 2,4-D. Now, an emerging body of scientific literature is raising serious concerns about the safety of glyphosate as well.

“The concern that the use of GE crops, which are resistant to particular herbicides, leads to the creation of 'superweeds' is now shown to be valid and serious, as even the chemical companies now recognize and admit this is a problem,” says Kastel.

“In 2012 the USDA is proposing approving a new GE corn variety that is resistant to a different toxic herbicide, escalating the toxic treadmill in chemical-dependent agriculture,” said Jay Feldman, Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides. “This is nothing more than a band-aid solution to a serious problem, and will only give rise to more superweeds, more herbicide pollution in our environment, more herbicide poisoning, while likely leading to the need for even more toxic herbicides a couple of years down the line. This foolish circle has to end,” Feldman said.

Farm research groups like The Cornucopia Institute are also concerned with the impact of genetically engineered crops on organic farmers, whose organic crops are already at risk of contamination with Monsanto’s unnatural DNA, from pollen drift.

In its Environmental Assessment of the “drought tolerant” Monsanto corn, the USDA conceded that gene flow of corn pollen is likely to occur. It is well-established that corn pollen travels, and pollen from genetically engineered plants will contaminate natural corn plants.

“The irony, of course, is that organic fields and crops are much more drought tolerant, because common sense and field trials show healthy and biologically active organic soil retains moisture much better than tired and depleted soil on conventional monoculture farms, and organic crops are healthier and more robust than conventional crops,” said Charlotte Vallaeys, a researcher at Cornucopia.

“But Monsanto cannot profit from healthy soil and healthy organic crops, while they can profit from genetically engineering, patenting, and owning new life forms,” Vallaeys continued. “It’s unfortunate that the Obama administration is equally misguided by supporting Monsanto and Dow’s petitions and ignoring citizens' demand for an immediate end to approving these genetically engineered crops in our food supply.”

The newest genetically engineered soybean petitioned by Monsanto is one of the first to claim a public health benefit, since it has been engineered to contain higher levels of an omega-3 fatty acid, stearidonic acid.

“Genetically engineering a ubiquitous monoculture crop to contain higher levels of just one particular nutrient will not solve our public health crisis, and might even exacerbate it, since a healthy diet is about much more than simply increasing the levels of one particular omega-3 fatty acid,” said Vallaeys. “It’s another band-aid solution that will do little to address the root of the problem with our nation’s “nutrition” problem, which is people eating too many processed foods containing corn and soybean derivatives, and not eating a varied diet of nutrient-rich wholesome foods.”

The USDA surveyed 43 foods and compared their nutritional content in 1999 to original testing that took place in 1950. Half of the nutrients measured declined by 6 to 38%. "Industrial agriculture, as compared to organics, have relegated our diets to a lot of empty calories," Vallaeys added.

On the campaign trail in 2007, the President said that genetically modified foods should be labeled because Americans “should know what they are buying.”

Despite promises of change, Mr. Obama appointed former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as USDA Secretary, who had gained notoriety in agricultural circles after being named Governor of the Year by the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Obama subsequently appointed two pro-GMO agrochemical company lobbyists to powerful positions in his administration. Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lobbyist, became food czar at the Food and Drug Administration. Islam Siddiqui, a lifelong pesticide lobbyist and GMO advocate, was appointed Chief Agricultural Negotiator.

These appointments revealed the tight grip that Monsanto and other biotech corporations have on elected officials, and raised further doubts regarding the promises for change by the current administration.

Adding insult to injury, the Obama USDA’s timing for announcing notices related to genetic engineering mirrors the Bush administration's approach of burying the news and actively discouraging public participation. The FDA declared GMO salmon was safe, on the Friday before the long Labor Day weekend in 2010.

Then the USDA made their highly controversial decision to deregulate GMO alfalfa during the busy holiday season of 2010. Their decision is being challenged by The Cornucopia Institute, Beyond Pesticides, Center for Food Safety and scores of other plaintiffs in federal court.

More recently, the announcement that Monsanto’s newest genetically engineered corn had been deregulated, and that Monsanto and Dow had petitioned for additional approval of GMO corn and soybeans, came the week between Christmas and the New Year Day holiday.

"When attempting to bury controversial news, it's not uncommon for the government to issue press releases on days when the public isn't paying attention and the news media is on vacation," noted Cornucopia’s Mark Kastel. "The Bush administration did the same thing when announcing that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) had entered the domestic food chain."

More evil here:

33 of the Day

Indian activists have reacted angrily after 12 doctors were fined less than $100 each for conducting secret drug trials on children and patients with learning disabilities.

(snip)

“All drug trials were performed on patients who had gone to these government hospitals for routine treatment. It’s a criminal offence to put them under drug trials without their consent.”

Ajay Singh, the leader of opposition in the Madhya Pradesh assembly, described the fine as “ridiculous”.

The doctors, two of whom denied any wrongdoing to AFP, are alleged to have been paid by companies to conduct trials on 233 patients over two years in the city of Indore testing drugs to treat sexual dysfunction and other problems.

Question of the Day

Is anyone doing INTERESTING AND QUALITY 9/11 research these days?

Or is there even any new evidence?

I can't find anything interesting at all, lately.

Not Good-- US Troops Being Sent to Israel

Such bullshit:

U.S. European Command (EUCOM) has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent U.S. military presence on Israeli soil.

More than a dozen aircraft, including C-5s and C-17s, helped with the Sept. 21 delivery of the AN/TPY-2 Transportable Radar Surveillance/Forward Based X-band Transportable (FBX-T), its ancillary components and some 120 EUCOM personnel to Israel's Nevatim Air Base southeast of Beersheba, said sources here and in Stuttgart, Germany.

Among the U.S. personnel is at least one representative from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), though officials said the agency had little to no say in the deployment decision. MDA involvement has been confined to providing equipment and advice on technical aspects of its deployment, one official said.

The Raytheon-built FBX-T system is the same phased-array radar that was deployed to northern Japan with the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) in 2006. The high-powered, high-frequency, transportable X-band radar is designed to detect and track ballistic missiles soon after launch.

Its ancillary gear included cooling systems, generators, perimeter defense weaponry, logistics supplies and dozens of technicians, maintenance specialists and security forces to operate and defend the U.S. installation.

EUCOM has repeatedly deployed troops and Patriot air defense batteries for joint exercises and Iraq-related wartime contingencies, but has never before permanently deployed troops on Israeli soil.

A EUCOM spokesman declined to comment. MDA officials referred to the U.S. State Department, which did not provide comment by press time.

An Israeli military spokesman said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) enjoys longstanding strategic cooperation with all branches of the U.S. military.

"This cooperation is varied and comes in multiple forms, and it is not our practice to discuss details of our bilateral activities," he said.

Nevertheless, in previous interviews, U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed that the X-band deployment plan was approved in July, first by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi; and then by. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Obama Teleported to Mars as part of a CIA Mission?

Whoah, dude. Don't even know what to make of this freaky shit.

Deep Thought of the Day

Everything is moving at the speed of light, except light, which stands still.

Deep Thought of the Day

The Nazis were never really defeated. They merely re-incorporated themselves as the CIA.

Your Daily Moment of Zen

Either United Airlines crashed into the South tower of the World Trade center on 9/11/2001... or it didn't.

Ringing In the New Year with Indefinite Detention

Obama Makes It Official: Suspected Terrorists Can Be Indefinitely Detained Without a Trial

An analysis of the signing statement from Emptywheel.

Obama’s Re-elect Strategy: Vote for Me, or Newt Will Have Authority to Indefinitely Detain You.

Obama's Codification of Imprisonment Without Trial Aimed at Occupy, Not Al Qaeda

At least someone is protesting this shit sandwich: Jan. 1, 2012-- Arrests at White House Over NDAA Military Detention of Americans, Occupy Wall Street Joins Fight.

Liberals sell-out: