The Obama administration is claiming "state secrets" to try to suppress evidence of the US government's "extraordinary rendition" program. If the court buys the White House line (as courts usually do) there will be no legal recourse for five men who were kidnapped by American intelligence and taken to foreign countries where they were tortured. This isn't the change America voted for. This is secrecy over human rights, and it's exactly the same argument the Bush-Cheney administration made.
[ Salon ]
But Attorney General Holder has ordered a review of Bush-Cheney era "state secrets"
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part. You've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. You've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."
Mario Savio
At that British trial of accused terrorist Binyam Mohamed, the records suppressed by the court would have shown the extent of Mr Mohamed's torture at the hands of Americans and Brits at Guantanamo. According to the London Times, the 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, quote, is very far down the list of things they did, unquote". Mohamed's original crime, the deed that got him incarcerated at Guantanamo, was that he visited a website that ran a satirical article on building a dirty bomb. The article claimed that a nuclear weapon could be made with liquid uranium, if it's poured into a bucket and swung around. So this is what Americans and Brits are being protected from, by slicing genitals.
[ Daily Telegraph (London, UK) ]
No-one really knows how many Iraqis have died from the American war and occupation. Gravediggers were working nearly non-stop in 2006 and 2007, paperwork is nearly nil, and again we see that the numbers from Iraq Body Count are designed to be deceptively low. I doubt there will ever be a death toll that's widely accepted as accurate within, say, a quarter-million, and the only thing that's certain is that "liberation" by America brought Iraq the greatest hell it's ever seen. And it's not over yet.
[ AlterNet ]
Most worries about the MMR vaccine date back to Dr Andrew Wakefield's article, published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1988. Guess what? Doc Wakefield's research was largely faked.
[ London Times ]
California is starting its distribution of IOUs in lieu of welfare, food stamps, and state payments to counties for social services. Have I mentioned that the weak-kneed and watered down so-called stimulus bill passed by Congress is nowhere near enough?
[ San Francisco Chronicle ]
Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania) says that an electronic run on the bank happened in September, leaving the US three hours from complete economic and political collapse.
[ Daily Kos ]
In England, big-time bank mucky-mucks say they'll sue if the government bans their million-pound-plus bonuses.
[ London Daily Mail ]
Homeowners facing foreclosure held a protest last weekend, in front of the multi-million-dollar mansion of Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack.
[ Associated Press ]
Take a visual tour of un-sold new cars from around the world. The shivers running up my spine are getting excellent mpg.
[ Silver Bear Cafe ]
"Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th."
[ Newsweek ]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he's ready and willing to talk with US President Barack Obama, in a "fair atmosphere with mutual respect".
[ Indo-Asian News Service ]
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) has proposed establishing a Bush-Cheney era "Truth Commission" to look into "abuses of detainees, politically inspired moves at the Justice Department, and whole range of decisions made during the Bush administration." If its mandate is unfettered with artificial restrictions, if its results are made public, and if its make-up doesn't include the usual DC hacks, I'm in favor of the idea. But Barack Obama has signaled that he's opposed. Now is the time to call the White House at (202) 456-1111 and tell Obama not to stand in the way of the truth.
[ Associated Press ]
The American mainstream media continues its profound disinterest in the Bush-Cheney administration's illegal spying on journalists and political activists.
[ On the Media ]
Raw Story is worried that Bush-Cheney era "burrowers" in career posts might already be undermining the Obama presidency. I don't doubt that there's some of that going on, but let's also remember that Obama isn't a liberal and never has been a liberal, so when his moves don't seem liberal there's perhaps an easier and less nefarious explanation.
[ Raw Story ]
On their way out the door, the Bush-Cheney administration arranged well-paid World Bank jobs for several aides.
[ Washington Post ]
The Somalian government is very enthusiastic about killing journalists. So Ahmed Ould Abdallh, the United Nations Special Envoy in Somalia, stupidly says worldwide media should stop reporting from Somalia.
[ At Largely ]
Andy Vollmer, the general counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission, is refusing to answer Congressional investigators' questions about the Bernie Madoff scandal, claiming executive privilege. He's also advising other SEC officials to stonewall. Vollmer is a Bush-Cheney holdover, so the executive whose privilege he's citing is now in Texas, not in Washington DC. If this isn't grounds for firing Vollmer and everyone who refuses to answer questions, then government work just isn't like any other job in the world.
[ Crooks & Liars ]
Obama has come out in favor of a rule change that would allow judges to modify first mortgages and prevent many home foreclosures. It's an excellent move that would've been done by the previous President if he'd had a soul or a conscience.
[ Reuters News Agency and Associated Press ]
Republicans are furious over the Obama administration's rejiggering of the census. It will now come under the purview of Rahm Emanuel's office in the White House, instead of under the control of Obama's ghastly Commerce Secretary nominee Judd Gregg. Even a stopped clock is right twice daily, and the Republicans' complaint is valid. Emanuel is a political operative to his bones, and the switch gives the unmistakable impression that Obama is politicizing the census and its resulting redistricting.
[ Washington Post ]
President Obama held a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, on Sunday, an area where he lost to John McCain by a landslide margin. And yet, in a very un-Bush move, tickets were first-come first-served -- the audience wasn't politically screened.
[ ThinkProgess ]
Congressman William Delahunt (D-Massachusetts) has proposed a bill that would allow Americans the freedom to travel to Cuba without breaking the law. Dunno if it stands a whisper of a chance. Freedom doesn't usually do too well in Congress.
[ South Florida Sun-Sentinel ]
KBR will pay the federal government $402-million to have charges dropped regarding its bribery in Nigeria during the time Dick Cheney was in charge of KBR's owner, Halliburton.
[ The Public Record ]
Dirt-poor Zimbabwe is planning a heck of an 85th birthday bash for President Robert Mugabe.
[ London Times ]
It made me stop and think
"The fact of the matter is, the banks are in very bad shape. The US government has poured in hundreds of billions of dollars to very little effect. It is very clear that the banks have failed. American citizens have become majority owners in a very large number of the major banks. But they have no control. Any system where there is a separation of ownership and control is a recipe for disaster. Nationalization is the only answer. These banks are effectively bankrupt."
[ Joseph Stiglitz ]
A tiny town in Missouri has legalized medical marijuana. Says the mayor, "This is symbolism, pure and simple. I would like to be the brave one who grows the first plant, but they've built a lot of cages for the people who stick their necks out."
[ Kansas City Star ]
A jury in Illinois has refused to convict a man found with "25 pounds of marijuana and 50 pounds of marijuana plants". Smells like jury nullification, since there's really not much doubt about the pot.
[ The Times (Munster, IL), distilled by The Rag Blog ]
A judge in California has "tentatively" ordered the state to release tens of thousands of prisoners, to ease prison overcrowding. I'm sure there will be much hand-wringing and the right-wing liars will go apoplectic, and I'm just as sure that the decision is just and proper. Start by releasing the 13,000 Californians imprisoned for simple possession of drugs, then release the 20,000 imprisoned for other "drug crimes".
[ Associated Press ]
A top drug war official wants you to know that the worldwide financial crisis is giving the Mafia new opportunities to use banks for money laundering. "I insist that the (globalized) crime industry has become so gigantic, destabilizing so many countries, that it is emerging in areas where we have not seen it before. They're buying more than just industry, real estate, elections, power," says Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The article has Costa speaking about the evidence of this several times, but the evidence presented is scant. The war on drugs has been a fountainhead of lies since your grandfather's time, so when the guy in charge of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime talks to a reporter my assumption is that he's full of sh*t.
[ Reuters News Agency ]
The feds have raided a defense lobbying firm with close ties to Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pennsylvania). We're clinking our soda-pop-filled champagne glasses, in hope that the flamboyantly corrupt Murtha's days in Congress are numbered.
[ Associated Press ]
It sure looks like Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) doesn't want people to see his sweetheart mortgage.
[ ProPublica ]
FEMA has rejected almost 90% of the applications for housing aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike ...
[ Associated Press ]
They've made eight arrests so far -- read, ruined eight people's lives -- in the case of marijuana being smoked by Michael Phelps at a party.
[ WIS-TV ]
For decades, the Iowa town of Atalissa has rented a shanty-like "bunkhouse" to a meat-processing firm called Henry's Turkey Service, which brought in mentally retarded workers, housed them in the city's deteriorating building, and charged these workers for their living quarters.
[ Des Moines Register ]
Officials in dirt-poor Zimbabwe and planning a decadent 85th birthday bash for President Robert Mugabe.
[ London Times ]
Mark Nickolas thinks Obama may have scored a decisive victory against Republicans in the stimulus battle, with what looked to me like a failed effort at bipartisanship. Maybe the writer is right, but I'm more concerned that Obama has just spent his honeymoon political powers -- a popularity he might never have again -- pushing through a watered down and heavily Republicanized economic bill at a time when the nation's economy desperately
needs something much bigger and better focused. If and when Obama realizes that this so-called stimulus isn't anywhere near stimulus enough, will he still have the political capital to push through the reforms our economy needs?
[ Political Base ]
The Republican Party has, of course, kicked out Tennessee State Rep. Kent Williams, the shrewd rookie and moderate who got himself named Speaker of the State House solely with the backing of Democrats.
[ Chattanoogan ]
It's apparently policy at Bank of America, after the death of credit card holders, to try to guilt grieving family members to pay the balance.
[ WCVB-TV ]
This guy's got an intriguing idea -- his website sells reasonably priced investigative journalism, by having readers fund the footwork.
[ Los Angeles Times ]
A Texas court has exonerated a man falsely convicted of rape. Nice gesture, considering that the man died in prison.
[ Associated Press ]
Shepard Fairey, the artist who created that iconic Obama "hope" poster, isn't waiting to be sued by the Associated Press. After receiving two legal letters claiming that his poster, based on an AP photo, infringes on AP's rights, Fairey has filed suit against the Associated Press.
[ Associated Press ]
Rush Limbaugh is a big fat freeloader, says Ralph Nader.
[ nader.org ]
Porn star Stormy Daniels is reportedly considering a run for the Senate, to challenge David Vitter (R-Louisiana), who's best known for patronizing prostitutes.
[ The Daily Beast ]
A long-time Fox News producer faces felony charges for possession of child pornography. I assume Bill O'Reilly will do an in-depth report.
[ Media Bistro ]
Duracell's "My child is missing! He's been kidnapped!" commercial gnaws at my nerves a little more every time I see it. We put up with the Bush-Cheney administration's non-stop fearmongering for eight years because we didn't have any choice. When it comes to batteries, though, we do have a choice, and we're done buying Duracell.
[ YouTube ]
Please send your news tips, comments, and criticisms to <unknownnews at inbox.com>. If that address ever fails, check our contact page for our alternate email addresses.
#
There isn't anything left in the so-called US economy.
BECAUSE there isn't anything left in the so-called CULTURE of the United States.
There is an idea firmly planted in the minds of the vast majority of Americans that the "Real World" is a zero-sum game in which an individual can only profit from a transaction which results in the rip-off of a sucker.
This is the secret that Joe the plumber believes separates grown-ups from little kids. This is what Chad the banker believes separates the men from the boys, the wink and the nod that Ricky Jay knows separates the grifter from the mark.
The money, the value, comes out of one pocket and goes into another: PERIOD. That is what the word "business" MEANS.
It was not always so.
There was a time when people scrambled like the dickens to attract customers with VALUE.
Products were called GOODS, because there was something good about them; A legitimate exchange.
Of course, of course, the rip-offs were always there, but they were looked down upon and periodically trimmed back by a society that did draw a line somewhere between legitimacy and bunk.
Then somewhere along the way, something went wrong.
Perhaps high wages in the field of sales drew a little too much talent. Maybe some hot-shots got a little restless.
Sooner or later a salesman of serious potential might ask himself: "Where is the challenge in selling snow tires in Chicago when I am capable of selling canned salt water in Myrtle Beach?"
Things progressed.
Something... unfortunate happened.
In some mysterious way a situation developed in which the global market acquired the equivalent of a negative immune reaction to the presence of truly valuable goods and services.
Actions of the "Brooklyn Bridge Sales Brigade" which had run amok as the all-ruling corporate marketing departments of the world's most influential institutions actually caused the preferred diet of salesmen, the rip-off, to completely displace all other forms of commerce in the marketplace and in the mind of America.
It is all-encompassing. There is no floor to bounce off of. There is nothing in the center of our paper sun god to resist the collapse,
When it all shuts down, and it will, there will only be one thing left to do.
We are heading for a War. A World War.
It is the fault of everybody who ever sat on their ass in an office and did nothing but senseless busy work, content to dress up, talk shop and collect a check.
You've had to go along to get along.
And it's my fault for using my talents to feed television's poison to the minds of the world while I checked to see who was watching me drive up and wave that little card that opened up the somebody-gate for me in Hollywood.
There wasn't anything we could do to make money that wasn't a racket. And now we've traded all our paper coupons for plastic ducks and its over.
If you forgive me I will forgive you.
If you hold my hand when it gets scary, I will return the favor.
If you get real, and stay real, then you are one of the good guys, and you will find help in the dark.
HappySysiphus
#2/12/2009:
We don't have a culture, we never have. Places like Japan, China, Europe, etc have cultures. We've only been a nation for under 300 years. In Japan there's a school that's been teaching Ichibana (flower arranging) for more than 300 years. We are an amalgamation of multiple cultures but we have no "American Culture" of our own. The only real American culture, imo, is that of the Natives who have lived here for thousands, not just hundreds, of years.
NegativeZero
#
Here's your new bailout plan: Change we can smell. Geithner's new "plan" is actually just a concept. No details provided on how to price the "bad assets". What a clusterf*ck.
Thanks, Obama! You hired a guy who helped create the problem and is obviously incapable of solving it.
In other news, a question was posed, should Ben & Jerry's create a new ice cream flavor for ex-president Bush. My answer, yes -- "Flaming Sh*t In A Bag"! It is a brown rice-paper bag containing a couple of big piles of Rocky Road and Chunky Monkey. The customer takes the bag home, pours on Jack Daniels and sets it aflame. When the flames have consumed the bag, extinguish any remaining flames with a whipped cream can. Garnish with a cherry and enjoy!
You can participate in these auctions online, on the phone, or in person. Every few
months the L.A. Times sends me an e-mail about them. Other than having registered online to
read L.A. Times articles, I don't recall doing anything to get me on their list.
SirJ
#
Eric Margolis of the Toronto Sun writes "Time for America to get small (excerpt follows link.) The problem is that TPTB -- the powers that be -- are totally unwilling to admit to reality, they are in complete denial. So massive inflation is far more likely once the immediate situation passes, which is characterized by economic distress, fire sales and other countries tightly coupled to the US (and dumping their product here.
Excerpt: Politicians everywhere are panicking as voters demand they do something to keep their debt-driven economies running in high gear. This is impossible. The debt bubble has burst. But politicians are afraid to tell voters the hard truth: The party is over. Retrench, stop borrowing, cut spending, start saving, live smaller.
Here is Marc Faber, one of the sharpest tools in the shed, and with a great track record, esp. during recent years! (Excerpt follows link.)
Excerpt: "In the US, we have a totally new school, and it's called the Zimbabwe school," Faber said. "And it's founded by one of the great leaders of this world, Mr Robert Mugabe, that has managed to totally impoverish his own country. And that is the monetary policy the US is pursuing."
The government's increased intervention in the economy is likely to slow down economic growth because history shows that every time the private sector shrinks to make way for the government sector, the economy suffers, he said.
Asked whether the US risked being faced with 200 percent inflation, Faber answered: "Well, not yet. Not yet. But I think eventually. If I look at government debt in the US, and debt in general, I think the only way they will not default physically on their debt is to inflate."
The Federal Reserve's policy of printing money and the government's intervention in the economy might undermine the US's economic and political clout, Faber warned.
"Well, I wrote two years ago a report entitled 'Is America becoming a banana republic?' And there are some features that characterize banana republics -- totalitarian states, very strong government intervention into the economy, and the polarization of wealth," he said.
"And we have all these trends occurring in the US. We are not yet there. And in theory it could be reversed, but I doubt it will be," Faber added.
Because of these factors, US government and corporate bonds, including that of CNBC parent General Electric GE should be downgraded, he said.
Theo Lipschitz
#
Here is an interesting article/blog-post, and the blog itself is quite interesting:
What this article expresses matches what many have been saying/thinking -- and it relates to the new bailout plan to be announced Tuesday, Feb. 10. The terminology is different, as is the analytical framework, but the end result is identical.
Here is what is going on (then read the article):
1. We are in Kondratieff Winter -- massive debts must be written off (though the government will not publicly admit this).
2. As M. Rivero says, "The final act of any government is to loot the treasury." -- and that is what is happening now.
3. The new bailout plan will, reportedly, only use the previously allocated 2nd round of TARP funding, but it will provide loss guarantees to private "partners" to avoid having to admit now that the government will be spending far more later (and w/out a congressional vote -- recall that the Fed and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac are continuing to expend massive sums every week!) A couple more trillion in bad debts held by banks need to be written off, just in the US, but instead of shutting down the losers and firing the management, the Obama regime will continue to subsidize them -- and w/out publicly stating that trillions more dollars of funds will be given to corporations and their shareholders/bondholders.
4. Obama and Geithner are continuing the Bush Regime's failed policies and disasters. At best, the recession may appear to be coming to an end, but the instant that the government credit/printing presses are turned off, the recession will resume.
Siegfried Lemelson
PS. The more I think about this article, the less I believe his endpoint prediction of "depression" is likely to occur -- at least in the next few years (which is the operative timeframe for most of us...)
P.P.S. The OODA diagram is interesting.
#
Well, as long as we're sharing recipes, I'm really pleased with this black-bean burger recipe. It's cheap and it's quick -- about fifteen minutes from opening a can of beans to eating a delicious non-beef-burger. It's a bit of work mashing the ingredients together, and you won't mistake it for a hamburger, but to my tongue it tastes better than a hamburger. There's no gristle to get stuck in your teeth, no queasy greasy tummy half an hour later, the patties don't shrink, there's no danger if it's undercooked, and it's a thousand times yummier than the factory-made tofu burgers you pay an arm and a leg for in the grocery store. And it's good for your bowels. I might buy hamburger again for some other recipe, but if I'm making hamburgers, I'm making them out of beans.
It sounds like part of Japan's problem is it tried emulating US
Republican policies towards the non-rich, thereby weakening itself
internally just as America has.
I believe a month or so back I sent you the link to a study which
determined there WAS NO GOOD REASON for the vast majority of patients to
have to wait more than a few minutes in a waiting room-- or even to have to
schedule an appointment whatsoever. So why do we suffer the exact opposite
of that? Because we've simply allowed it to be set up that way. That's what
the study concluded.
I personally on average wait 40 minutes in the FIRST waiting area of a
doctor's office, before being ushered into a SECOND waiting area or period
lasting on average perhaps 20 more minutes. And even then I might only see a
nurse or assistant for some preliminaries, with the actual doctor not
showing up for another 20 minutes. And all this is often atop a 45 minute
drive to get to that office. All for a SCHEDULED APPOINTMENT made possibly
weeks or months before!
And that's what I am forced to consider a GOOD day, with minimal waiting.
Bad days can consume far more time at any or all stages described.
I often wonder how people with more onerous restrictions on their time than
me manage to cope with such huge gobs of wasted time and unnecessary added
stress and frustration.
Also note the great related drain on American productivity and efficiency
and competitiveness, as described in the article.
This is the state of the US patchwork healthcare system.
I worked for an arrogant but brilliant small businessman once, many years ago -- a very fair employer if you did your job well, and a man you'd curse forever if you didn't. He once told me that he never waited more than five minutes to see his doctor, because he had told his doctor at his first visit that he would prorate his bill and pay only for the percentage of time at the doctor's office that was spent receiving medical care. Of course, he was rich and lawyered enough to get away with making such a statement. If you or I said something along those lines we'd receive no medical care whatsoever.
H&HH
Excerpt: Fact: At present, the dollar is, in effect, backed by China -- an increasingly reluctant China. Every dollar we print is a prayer that China won't turn us away. "The value of outstanding American Treasury bills now reaches $10.6 trillion. ... Worry centers on the possibility that foreigners could come to doubt the American wherewithal to pay back such an extraordinary sum" (The New York Times, Dec. 28, 2008, p.WK1). How will a country that's lost its manufacturing base pay back $10.6 trillion and counting? It is not possible. When the world faces that fact is when our troubles really start. What's happened so far is mere rehearsal. There's a line going around that just about says it all: "It's gonna get worse before it gets worse.
Something else in our favor: the world has nowhere else to go. I expect most experts figure if the US goes obviously and calamitously bust, that that's it. THE END. Of the world as we know it. Maybe of civilization itself. Armageddon. So even our enemies (or those with sense, anyway) have to be secretly rooting for us to get our act together.
I wish to hell the article would tell how people are getting their
broadband after canceling with their cable TV company, as most subscribers
get both from the same company, and it's my understanding you can't just
cancel the TV and keep the internet. Plus, in lots of places the combo cable
TV/broadband provider is the only one around.
Around here the ads offer bundles (cable, phone, and internet) at a discount, but the companies still sell each product alone if that's what the customer prefers. Our ISP is Charter, where they've shrunk the service department until it's three guys at a call center in Mexico, but their sales department calls 2-3 times a year to try to get us to add cable and phone. I always tell 'em if they provide phone service like they provide internet service, we could end up waiting three days to call 9-1-1 in an emergency. And cable is a waste of money we can't afford, especially with (as that article notes) more and better TV content becoming available on-line.
H&HH
Excerpt: "Broadly speaking, reaction to the speech broke down into five areas:
1. There really is no 'change'..."
Note the markets are perceiving the same thing about the Obama
Administration that I am: that there is frankly way too little change from
the Bush Administration so far. Virtually the same sort of guys who got us
into this mess are still running the show -- including an overwhelming number
of Republicans.... and NOBODY -- I mean NOBODY -- is going to jail. Or even
appears to be at risk of legal pursuit.
Notwithstanding the ignorance of the denial of what is called "THE
HOLOCAUST" Why the uproar over the Bishops' comments? Most comments by
religious theologians are ridiculous in one issue or another so far as I can
determine.
Excerpt: The ACLU's Romero said: "The latest revelation is completely at odds with
President Obama's executive orders that ban torture and end rendition, as well
as his promise to restore the rule of law."
Alas, as usual it's of no use to shmoes like me. Blue Cross keeps telling me my policy only covers "life threatening" illnesses. And I'm afraid that the only way to prove something is "life threatening is to die from it.
Excerpt: Even if Livni could overcome the formidable obstacles and become Israel's second female prime minister after Golda Meir, the early results suggested she would have to rely on the participation of right-wing parties opposed to her vision of giving up land in exchange for a peace deal with the Palestinians.
"Giving up land in exchange for a peace deal" is (and always has been) a sham. The Israelis have so divided up the West Bank that there is no possibility of there being a united state. There are only scattered isolated plots isolated by Israeli settlements and barriers.
Wig
#
It's taken a while (I don't like changes in things I like) but I'm becoming comfortable with the changes you've made to Unknown News in the past few months. I spent ten minutes reading your new debunking page and it felt like taking a shower. There are so many out-and-out lies being spread by right-wingers, and so many people absorb these lies without ever knowing they've been lied to. Along with your gentle rebuff of "out there" 9/11 thinking, it looks to me like you're hitting a new stride.
Heidi Papademetriou
#
REMEMBER OBAMA WAS ONE OF THE SENATORS TO VOTE IN THAT NOVEMBER (BAILOUT
FIRST ONE!) FOR NO OVERSIGHTS!
THIS KARMA MR PRESIDENT.
NOW HE HAS TO DEAL WITH IT.
RIGHT NOW O'S COVERING HIS ASS BY CONSTANTLY SAYING IT'S GOING TO GET
WORSE AND IT MAY NOT WORK BUT WEV'E GOT TO WORK NOW!
AT THE SAME TIME HE TALKS FROM BOTH SIDES OF HIS MOUTH BY SAYING THE
BAIL OUT HAS TO BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN OR THINGS WILL GET WORSE.
and....
SAYING NOTHING ABOUT ISRAEL'S TREATMENT OF PALESTINIANS IS A DAMN
DISGRACE. VERY HEARTLESS JUST LIKE BUSH! ALSO IT SHOWS WHAT A HYPOCRITE
HE IS.
MY GOD PEOPLE I KNOW MANY OF YOU ARE JUST SO HAPPY YOU DON'T HAVE TO
LOOK AT BUSH ANY MORE BUT NEED I REMIND YOU THAT THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED
BUSH THE FIRST TIME AROUND WERE HAPPY THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO LOOK AT BILL
CLINTON TOO. AND SO ON AND SO!
SORRY FOLKS BUT RIGHT NOW THE WAY THINGS ARE, JUST DOING SOMETHING IS
NOT ENOUGH and DOING THE WRONG THING AND TELLING EVERY ONE IT MAY BE THE
RIGHT THING CAN and WOULD VERY WELL MAKE THINGS WORSE!
WHEN YOU'RE ON THE TITANIC AND IT'S SINKING YOUR PLAN TO GET OFF THE
THING BETTER WORK YOU WILL NEVER BE SITTING AROUND TALKING ABOUT A PLAN
THAT DIDN'T WORK!
WHY ARE SO MANY INSISTING AND ASKING GOVERNMENT TO HELP US WHEN
GOVERNMENT IS THE VERY THING THAT BETRAYED US WORKED AGAINST US STOLE
FROM US TAXED US TO DEATH, DID NOT WORK IN OUR BEST INTERESTS AND NOW HAS
US IN DEEP ECONOMIC TROUBLE, IS ABOUT TO WAGE MORE WARS. A GOVERNMENT
THAT SIDES WITH A NASTY VICIOUS BUNCH OF ZIONISTS.
WHY WOULD ANY ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WANT THIS DEPLORABLE OUTSIDE FORCE
TO HELP IN ANY WAY.
IT'S TIME WE STORMED WASHINGTON AND GRABBED ALL of THEM BY THEIR THROATS
AND THREW THEM OUT ON THEIR ASSES. AND TOOK OVER OUR HOUSE IN OUR COUNTRY!
BTW It's called a REVOLUTION.
I'LL WAIT TILL EVERY ONE IS OUT OF WORK and no one has any thing better
to do!
#2/12/2009:
Now I know people are really upset and stressed out but seriously -- all caps? Let's all just take a breath. Everyone is entitled to their opinions but for cripes sake I actually read UnknownNews. I'd like for my eyeballs to stay in their sockets please.
#A note from your editors: While surfing the web for news, I always prefer sites where clicking a link opens a new window, so we're thinking of making that the default setting for Unknown News links. If you have an opinion pro or con, please let me know.
Like the URL says, this website is about "unknown news". It's a thrice-weekly round-up of reports we think merit more attention, from mainstream, professional journalists, or (rarely) other sources we trust entirely.
We assume our readers are well- informed before they click here, so we focus on news that's generally unknown or under-reported. We don't usually mention the murders, kidnappings, house fires, auto wrecks, celebrity crap, wacky fluff, and other nonsense that's pushed real news right out of the newscasts.
We're not at all interested in Area 51, the Bilderberger Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, eyeballs inside pyramids, flying saucers, FreeMasons, Paris Hilton, "Holocaust revisionism," the Illuminati, JFK's assassination, Vince Foster's suicide, the North American Union or its alleged Amero, Planet X, Protocols of the Elders, the Rockefellers, Rosicrucians, Rothchilds, Skull & Bones, space aliens, technologies supposedly suppressed, the Trilateral Commission, or theories you don't really understand about the collapse of the World Trade Center.
We'll never link to 'news' from nutball or unreliable sources such as americanfreepress.net, Art Bell, cloakanddagger.ca, Tom Flocco, David Icke, Lyndon LaRouche, Wayne Madsen, Henry Makow, Al Martin, Prison Planet, Sherman Skolnick, Edgar Steele, Webster Tarpley, or your brother-in-law. We don't knowingly link to sites that do link to such sites.
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We believe in liberty and justice for all, so of course, we oppose many US government policies. This doesn't mean we're anti-American, redneck scum, pinko commies, militia members, or terrorist-sympathizers. It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliché.
We believe you have the right to live your own life as you choose, and others have the equal right to live their lives as they choose. It's not complicated.
We believe freedom leads to peace, progress, and prosperity, while its opposite -- oppression -- leads to war, terrorism, poverty, and misery.
We believe it's preposterously stupid to hate people because of their appearance, their race or nationality, their religion or lack of religion, how they have sex with other consenting adults, etc. There are far more apropos reasons to hate most people.
We believe in questioning ourselves, our assumptions, each other -- and we especially believe in questioning authority (the more authority, the more questions). We believe obedience is a fine quality in dogs and young children, but not in adults.
Like America's right-wingers, we believe in
individual responsibility,
hard work to get ahead,
and stern punishment for serious crimes.
We believe big government should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most right-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like America's left-wingers, we believe in
equal treatment under law,
war as a last (not first) resort,
and sensible stewardship of natural resources.
We believe big business should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most left-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like libertarians, we believe it's wrong and reprehensible to arrest people for what they think, believe, look like, wear, eat, smoke, drink, inhale, inject, or otherwise do to themselves.
But unlike many libertarians, we're not obsessed with the gold standard, we don't believe incorporation is humanity's highest achievement, and we don't believe everything in life comes down to dollars and cents. We've read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's novels, but we understand that they're works of fiction.
We're skeptical, and we're sick of so-called 'journalists' who aren't skeptical at all.
A reader asks, what are our solutions? We propose no solutions except common sense, which is never common. We like the principles of democracy, and the ideals broadly described as 'American'. The US Constitution is a fine and workable framework for solutions, when it's actually read and thoughtfully understood by intelligent statesmen and women. So, no manifestos from us. We don't dream that big, and if there's one thing the world doesn't need it's yet another manifesto.
Our suggestion is: think. A fact-based instead of faith-based approach leads to solutions for most of the recurring issues of our time, from abortion to global climate change, pollution to universal health care, careful but real regulation of industry and economy, hunger, war, terror, human rights for humans not for corporations, science not religious doctrine in public schools, equal protection and prosecution under law, etc. Approach problems without glorifying stupidity, without demonizing intelligence, and answers usually come into focus.
These pages are published by Harry and Helen Highwater, happily married low-income nom de plumes and rabble-rousers from Madison, Wisconsin (with a few friends scattered around the world helping out).
We try to spotlight news that hasn't gotten enough (or appropriate) attention in American media, along with our opinions and yours.
We bang our keyboards against the wall, because it doesn't hurt as much as banging our heads.
Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several states as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution. viz: Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress and Ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Of course not. Nobody will know the answers until there's an open and honest investigation.
But anyone courageous enough to think can see that the pertinent questions for any serious "investigation" were never asked, let alone answered, by the official investigators.
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