HartmannWatchWatch

Is agriculture a key component of commerce?

Is interfering with commerce an act of terrorism?

could racism be used as an aggravating factor in a terrorism charge?

Obama needs to bolt on a pair of truck nuts and make a statement first thing in the morning saying just two simple things that can not be taken out of context

Shirley Sherrod is reinstated at her job. It is a result of realizing information was
from tainted sources.

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — Robert G. Heft, who is credited with designing and sewing America's first 50-star flag, has died. He was 67.

By ANDREW VANACORE (AP) – 6 hours ago

NEW YORK — The Nielsen Co. is selling some of its most prominent trade journals — including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard — and shutting down Editor & Publisher, which has chronicled the newspaper business for 108 years.

In all, Nielsen is selling eight titles to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed by private equity firm Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, a financial services company. James Finkelstein, who founded Pluribus this year with George Green and Matthew Doull, will serve as e5's chairman.

Thursday's closure of E&P "was a shock," said its editor, Greg Mitchell. "We knew that something big was happening but we didn't think the aftermath was that we wouldn't be sold and it would be folded."

Mitchell said Editor & Publisher appeared to have turned things around after struggling at the beginning of the decade. The magazine switched to a monthly format from weekly in 2003 and heightened its focus on the Web.

Nielsen said both the print and online operation will shut down immediately. But Mitchell hopes Editor & Publisher will return in another form.

"I would hope because of our special history and our role as a watchdog in journalism that it would be more likely in this case that there will be someone that's going to say, `Hey, we're not going to let this die.'"

Along with Editor & Publisher, Nielsen is also shuttering the book review title Kirkus Reviews. The two publications have 18 employees combined. Nielsen would not reveal details about the financial performance of E&P or Kirkus.

Spokesman Gary Holmes said Nielsen is still reviewing its properties to make sure the company is focused on businesses with "the highest potential for growth." Nielsen is keeping a handful of other media properties, including Contract Magazine and Progressive Grocer.

Lachlan Murdoch, 38, the eldest son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was expected to be among the buyers of the Nielsen publications, but he was not part of the deal, according to two people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A message left early Friday with Murdoch's investment firm in Australia was not immediately returned.

AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 The Vancouver Observer -  
Lalo Espejo

Posted: Dec 3rd, 2009

Now that Canada's border services agency has put Vancouver's Olympic Paranoia on the radar across Canada and to our neighbors to the south, thanks to their treatment of journalist Amy Goodman, it's probably a good time to try to explain a few things, such as why Vancouver and British Columbia are acting as paranoid as the high school pot-head trying to avoid the vice principal after a BC bud and hash brownie lunch.

To recap, Ms. Goodman was held up at the border because she was giving some talks in Vancouver and Victoria about Afghanistan, Iraq, health care, and a few other topics that could be grouped under the heading “Not the Olympics.” But the only thing the border guards were concerned with was if she was planning on talking about the 2010 winter games. She was incredulous that they were incredulous that she didn't plan on talking about it. It was a veritable vertigo of incredulity.

The comment sections on sites carrying the story were filled with people wondering, in the manner of comedians everywhere, What's the deal with Vancouver and the Olympics? Well, here's the deal: We Canadians are a sensitive peoples. So when we offer to host the Olympics and pass city by-laws restricting basic rights in order to satisfy corporate sponsors, our feelings get hurt when these actions are misconstrued as sinister by dirty hippies.

You see, when it comes to citizens' rights during the Olympics, the government treats them the way I treat a red light at 4 am on empty streets – as merely a suggestion. Granted, restricting rights and falling prostrate to the Olympic overlords may seem like conduct unbecoming of a first world country and wannabe-world-class city, but hey, we're nothing if not polite, and we want to make the IOC happy – hence the internal conflict. We can't stand the idea of people not liking us.

When the Beijing Olympics announced that there would be “free speech zones” far away from any venues, there was an international outcry against that move. Now, Vancouver is planning to do the same thing, without the attendant dictator to say, “Whaddaya gonna do about it?” The governments' only recourse is to try to convince us it's for our own safety, of which it is eminently concerned. Don't believe them? Their feelings get hurt. I mean, what's wrong with calling for celebratory-signs-only near sports venues? Okay, then. So, no to “Free Tibet”, but yes to “HOORAY! I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT FREEING TIBET!”

Now, due to public pressure, and the BC Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit, the city is reconsidering the language in the by-law.

But still, negative press started building, and the city and the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) tried to play it all down (It reminds me of a line from The Flintstones. Barney: Hi Betty what makes you think there's a body in the trunk?).

Then, the Vancouver police buy some military grade hardware (the LRAD), originally developed to combat pirates, as a public address system. It's main use is usually to emit ear-splitting noise, perfect for use in Fallujah and dispersing protesters, which is what it was used for at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh recently. Some people find it hard to believe it wouldn't be used in this manner, and the VPD public relations department resents having to work so hard to convince us otherwise.

And, of course, there's that other perennial problem for the Olympics – what to do with the homeless? British Columbia has a terrible record on dealing with the issue, but, just in time for the Olympics, it passes the Assistance to Shelter Act. Against our own Charter of Rights, it would allow police to sweep up the homeless and deliver them to shelters against their will. No shelter provider in Vancouver thinks this is a good idea.

Shelters are overcrowded and some people don't like to be packed in like that unless it's a four-man bobsled, preferring to bundle up and sleep outside. Actually, they prefer adequate housing, and a crammed shelter doesn't qualify. “I consider it to be a draconian piece of legislation, which I hope will receive...a court challenge,” said Miloon Kothari, the former United Nations special rapporteur on adequate housing.

And so the paragon of virtue becomes a parvenu with a retinue of goons, and that's bad optics.

So, yeah, authorities are smarting a little from having their good intentions misinterpreted. They're terrified of protests and they don’t want to see any embarrassment for the different levels of government; they don’t want to see it on the national or international news.

You have to understand, this paranoia is a particularly acute Canadian problem. I get the feeling that China didn't give a rat's ass what anybody thought about its “free speech” zones. And when the Americans host the Olympics, well, what?—you gonna tell the Americans what to do? Didn't think so. They will not go gently into that fortnight.

And then there's Maude, er, I mean Canada. We care deeply about what people think about us. “Does France think I'm fat? What does Holland think about my bong policy? Does hiking up my skirt to the Olympic Franchise make me look cheap?”

Most Vancouverites know that people are being hurt by the Olympics, but they choose to disavow this knowledge in favour of the Olympics....”I know what I see on the streets before my eyes, but I pretend otherwise, because the authorities tell me that the Olympics are a good thing...”

In psychoanalysis, this 'disavowal' of the real has the structure of psychosis, and man, does that ever make some people PARANOID. And that makes us feel like the Amy Goodman's of the world are out to get us. Not gonna happen. People will like us. Must make people like us. Please like us.

Raw Story

By Daniel Tencer

Monday, December 7th, 2009 -- 1:55 pm

snip

On the night of June 9, 2006, three detainees at Guantanamo's Camp Delta were found hanged in their cells. The US military initially described their deaths as "asymmetrical warfare" against the United States, before finally declaring that the deaths were suicides that the inmates coordinated among themselves.

The Seton Hall report questions virtually every major element of the Pentagon's story, and suggests a cover-up of the events of that night. But, lacking a clear picture of what happened, the report has nothing to offer as to what it was that was covered up.

The report's description of the military investigation into the matter suggests a less-than-exhaustive review:

Raw Story

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 -- 9:20 pm

Some Republican senators are taking heat for voting against an amendment that would allow employees of military contractors to sue their employers if they are raped at work -- and they want the Democratic senator who wrote the amendment to help them fight off the bad publicity.

Below is the list of thirty legislators who were brave enough to stand up in defense of rape and vote against Senator Al Franken's anti-rape amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. We applaud these courageous men! Roll over the portraits with your mouse to see the Senator's phone number, or click on a portrait to visit the Senator's contact page. We encourage you to send your kind words to these gentlemen!

Stone Age man took drugs, say scientists 
Scientists have discovered evidence suggesting Stone Age man used herbal mixtures to get high. 
 

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones 
Last Updated: 12:50AM BST 19 Oct 2008

It has long been suspected that humans have an ancient history of drug use, but there has been a lack of proof to support the theory.

Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to prehistoric South American tribes.

Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitzpatrick, an archeologist from North Carolina State University, made the breakthrough on the Caribbean island of Carriacou.

They found ceramic bowls, as well as tubes for inhaling drug fumes or powders, which appear to have originated in South America between 100BC and 400BC and were then carried 400 miles to the islands.

While the use of such paraphernalia for inhaling drugs is well-known, the age of the bowls has thrown new light on how long humans have been taking drugs.

Scientists believe that the drug being used was cohoba, a hallucinogen made from the beans of a mimosa species. Drugs such as cannabis were not found in the Caribbean then.

Opiates can be obtained from species such as poppies, while fungi, which was widespread, may also have been used.

Archeologists have suggested that humans were extracting mind-expanding drugs from mescal beans and peyote cacti as far back as 5,000 years ago, but have not found direct evidence that this is true.

They consider that drugs were being used to induce spiritual or trance-like states by people who had religious beliefs.

Mark Jacoby, who was arrested in Ontario and owns a firm hired by the California Republican Party, violated state registration laws, authorities say.

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 

2:38 PM PDT, October 19, 2008 

SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.

Several agencies had launched investigations into Jacoby's activities, including the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury.

Efforts to reach Jacoby were unsuccessful.

RawStory

Turley: 'GOP challenges look like suppression'David Edwards and Andrew McLemore

Published: Saturday October 18, 2008

The McCain campaign's allegations of voter fraud "look like" an attempt to suppress voting in battleground states, said a professor of George Washington University.

Professor Jonathan Turley said there is an "uncanny similarity in term of timing," drawing a comparison with voting scandals shortly before the previous two presidential elections.

"I think it is fair to say that some of these challenges do look like suppression efforts," Turley said in an interview on MSNBC. "So I think there is really grounds to be concerned here."

Currently he claims
"As soon as they found out my dad was an Admiral.. they offered me
early release"

But in his 1973 interview they didnt offer release until Months or
YEARS after his capture. (Either his dates are wrong or he wasnt in
solitary confinement for 2 years before offering him release) He
claims in the interview they refused medical treatment until they
learned of his dad. THEN gave him treatment

Or was it a lie when he claims in the article that he was in solitary
confinement for 2 years before being offered release??

Which lies are lies and which lies are true?

full personal account from 1973 in USNews and World Report


Notice in the same account he mentions Christmas 5 times but NEVER the Cross in the Sand!!!!

RAW STORY 

Rove said Gulf War Syndrome, vaccine political stumbling block


The Department of Defense continued its controversial mandatory anthrax vaccinations program despite high ranking Bush administration officials acknowledging there were problems with the vaccine within months of the Bush administration taking office—well before the 9/11 attacks and the October 2001 anthrax letters.

 Buried deep in section D1 of the Washington Post is a report that Brewster Kahle of Archive.org, served with secret national security letter tells the FBI to shove it. With the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU, not only was it crammed but brought back into the sunlight after Judge lifts the gag order contained  in the letters. This makes a whopping 3 known cases where the gag has been lifted.

  According to this Newsweek article, the newbie Police Chief of Flint, Michigan has his panties all in a bunch over "sagging", and seems to have decided to take the law into his own hands. Chief David Dicks has ordered his officers to arrest "offenders". In the opinion of this blogger, "sagging" is a form of expression, regardless of how laughable it is to see someones drawers hanging half off of their (_|_) butt. the ACLU is stepping in to protect our freedoms of expression, but willl they also protect us from the police from creating their own laws??

Labels: police state

By COLLEEN SLEVIN – 3 hours ago

DENVER (AP) — The evangelist forced out of his job after being caught up in a sex scandal involving a male prostitute has left a "spiritual restoration program" and no longer has any ties to the megachurch he founded, the congregation's new pastor said Sunday.

Article Reposted Here

BreakingNews.ie:
04/07/2006 - 22:08:32

North Korea test launched a missile early Wednesday morning that landed in the Sea of Japan, it was reported today.

North Korea launched the missile at 3.32am Japan Time (7.32pm Irish time) and it crashed into the Sea of Japan several minutes later, public broadcaster NHK reported.

NHK said Japanese government officials were trying to determine whether the missile was a long-range ballistic missile that had been readied for launch recently, or whether it was a different missile.

North Korea had been believed to be preparing a test launch of its Taepodong 2 missile, which is believed able to reach parts of the US.

Tampa Bay's 10

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA says efforts to hunt down Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever, despite a report that the agency has shut down a unit that hunted for the al-Qaida leader and his top lieutenants.

The New York Times reports two dozen analysts in the unit were re-assigned to other counter-terrorism duties late last year.

Officials tell the newspaper the move came amid growing concern in the agency about al-Qaida-inspired groups carrying out attacks independent of bin Laden. But officials stress that finding the elusive terror leader remains a high priority.

The recent book “Ghost Wars” says some in the C-I-A were uncomfortable with the unit, saying its zeal for capturing bin Laden took on a cult-like atmosphere.

A former senior C-I-A official who once headed the unit tells the Times that the move reflects the view that bin Laden is no longer the threat he once was. But he says that view is mistaken.

Yahoo! News: Wed Jun 21, 12:35 PM ET

The resolution, which passed on a voice vote, must be approved by the full House of Representatives before it is sent to the Bush administration. However, the administration would not be required to comply because a resolution does not carry the force of law.

But it is a step by House lawmakers to investigate a USA Today report that telephone companies turned over millions of call records without a court warrant to the National Security Agency to help track terrorist plots.

The Bush administration has not confirmed the report, which if true would indicate that a controversial program that monitors international phone calls without a warrant is much broader than previously known.

The measure, introduced by Florida Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler (news, bio, voting record), would direct President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to turn over all documents related to the program. The committee rejected another proposal that would have asked for information about an aborted internal Justice Department investigation of the program.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is also pressing for more details of the program and is trying to get Gonzales to testify about it at a hearing.

Separate from congressional action, some 20 class action lawsuits have been filed against Verizon Communications, AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp about the call records. Five other lawsuits are pending against the Justice Department related to the surveillance program.

On Monday, the Justice Department asked a court to consolidate all of the lawsuits into a single proceeding in the Washington, D.C. federal court.