1 year later…
Thank you for all of your generous support.
Add comment July 4th, 2008
Planets Align for the 4th of July
~NASA
News Flash: On 4th of July weekend, NASA forecasts lights in the sky.
No, not those lights. Look beyond the fireworks. Almost halfway up the western sky, just above the twilight glow of sunset, a trio of worlds is gathering: Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon.
The show gets going on Friday, July 4th. Red Mars and ringed Saturn converge just to the left of the bright star Regulus. The three lights make a pretty 1st-magnitude line in the heavens: sky map.
But that is just the beginning. On Saturday, July 5th, with weekend fireworks at fever pitch, a lovely crescent Moon joins the show. Saturn, Mars, and the Moon trace an even brighter line than the night before: sky map.
Scan a small telescope along the line. You’ll see Saturn’s rings, the little red disk of Mars, a grand sweep of lunar mountains and craters, and just maybe—flash!—a manmade incendiary. How often do you see fireworks through a telescope?
This is, however, more than just a flashy gathering of planets—it is also a gathering of spaceships and robots.
Each of the three worlds is orbited or inhabited by probes from Earth. Saturn has the Cassini spacecraft, studying the gas giant’s storms, moons and rings. The Moon has two probes in orbit: Kaguya from Japan and Chang’e-1 from China. The pair, operating independently, are mapping the Moon and scanning for resources in advance of future human landings. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will join them later this year.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Bush says US to send more troops to Afghanistan
BY BEN FELLER~AP NEWS
Grappling with a record death toll in an overshadowed war, President Bush promised Wednesday to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan by year’s end. He conceded that June was a “tough month” in the nearly seven-year-old war.
In fact, it was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the conflict began.
“One reason why there have been more deaths is because our troops are taking the fight to a tough enemy, an enemy who doesn’t like our presence there because they don’t like the idea of America denying safe haven (to terrorists),” Bush told reporters. “Of course there’s going to be resistance.”
Bush said it was a tough month too for the Taliban. But the once-toppled Islamist regime in Afghanistan has now rebounded with deadly force.
More U.S. and NATO troops have died in the past two months in Afghanistan than in Iraq, a place with triple the number of U.S. and coalition forces.
In June, 28 U.S. troops died in Afghanistan. That was the highest monthly total of the entire war, which began in October 2001.
For the full U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan the death toll was 46, also the highest of the war.
Bush confronted the grim direction of the Afghanistan conflict during a sun-splashed Rose Garden appearance. The president used the event to tout his agenda for an upcoming Group of Eight meeting in Japan with world leaders, then addressed Iran, climate change and gasoline prices in a short Q&A session with reporters.
The Pentagon predicts the pace of attacks in Afghanistan by a resurgent Taliban is likely to rise this year, despite U.S.-led efforts to capture key leaders.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Something Big is Going On
By Ron Paul~Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty
The following statement is written by Congressman Paul about the pending financial disaster. He will introduce this statement as a special order and insert it into the Congressional Record next week. Fortunately, we have the opportunity to debut it first on the Campaign for Liberty blog. It reads as follows:
I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America. The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days—growing more frequent all the time—when I’m convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.
Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world—unless we quickly change our ways.
America, with her traditions of free markets and property rights, led the way toward great wealth and progress throughout the world as well as at home. Since we have lost our confidence in the principles of liberty, self reliance, hard work and frugality, and instead took on empire building, financed through inflation and debt, all this has changed. This is indeed frightening and an historic event.
The problem we face is not new in history. Authoritarianism has been around a long time. For centuries, inflation and debt have been used by tyrants to hold power, promote aggression, and provide “bread and circuses” for the people. The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and a massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.
Today things are different from even ancient times or the 1970s. There is something to the argument that we are now a global economy. The world has more people and is more integrated due to modern technology, communications, and travel. If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age—a globalism we could accept.
Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.
I’m fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Evangelist to Senate: My financial records belong to God
By David Edwards~Raw Story
They preach the “Prosperity Doctrine” - that God can make you healthy and wealthy - and they live what they preach.
Every year America’s best known TV evangelists bring in hundreds of millions of dollars from donors all over the world. But as BBC’s Jonathan Beale reports, some of the evangelists’ own lifestyles have begun to ring alarm bells and have prompted a Senate investigation into their activities.
Last fall, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, began probing the finances of six TV evangelists whose lifestyles include mansions, Rolls-Royces, and private jets, all paid for out of church funds. Grassley told BBC, “I would not contribute to an organization that is Christian and evangelical with money being wasted that way.”
Four of the ministers have since complied with the probe, but Rev. Kenneth Copeland, whose congregation recently bought him a $20 million private jet to preach the gospel, is holding out against the inquiry, which he claims is “aimed at publicly questioning the religious beliefs of the targeted churches.”
“It’s not yours, it’s God’s, and you’re not going to get it,” Copeland says of his financial records. He has launched a website to publicize his crusade and has received support from several leading conservatives, including Paul Weyrich and Kenneth Blackwell.
This video is from BBC, broadcast July 2, 2008.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Video shows cop choking marijuana suspect
This video is from WKRN News 2, broadcast July 1, 2008.
WKRN News 2 reports that “the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating after video shot from inside a Mount Joliet patrol car shows an officer choking a suspect.”
In the video, the officer has both hands around the neck of the suspect and is telling him to “stick your tongue out.” The suspect, James Anders, then passes out.
According to WKRN, “The incident began with a traffic stop. Officer Cosby said he smelled burning marijuana, ordered Anders out of the car and told him to spit out something he had in his mouth. … Cosby didn’t find any marijuana in Anders’ mouth but did find a small bag of the drug inside his car.”
Anders was arrested on charges of possessing marijuana, resisting arrest, and tampering with evidence. The charges were later dismissed because of the police officer’s behavior. Cosby was reprimanded and the tape was handed over to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
US teacher is suspended for letting pupils read bestseller
By Suzanne Goldenberg~The Guardian
An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.The effective book ban by the school authorities in Perry Township has outraged teachers and education reformers.
The Writers Diary, a series of true stories written by inner-city teenagers, was put together by a teacher, Erin Gruwell, and has been celebrated as a model for transforming young lives. It was made into a film with Hilary Swank last year.
Connie Heermann, a teacher for 27 years, sought permission to introduce the book to her students last autumn after attending a training workshop held by the Freedom Writers Foundation. “If you read the whole book you will see how these inner-city students grow and change and become articulate, compassionate, educated young people who want to do something good in their lives despite the environment in which they were raised,” she told the Guardian. “I thought my students would very much relate to those kids.”
Her head agreed and Heermann got written permission from nearly 150 parents, but the Perry Meridian high school board urged her to wait for its decision.
Teachers’ union officials say that a single board member objected to swearing in the book. The school board member allegedly persuaded the other six officials to ban Heermann from teaching the book. It remains available in school libraries.
Heermann and the union say there was no explicit ban on the book when she handed it out to pupils on November 15. But later that day she received an email from the board advising her not to teach the book. “That was the pivotal moment of my life, when I saw how my students were taken with the book, how they loved it, and then I am told not to let them read it? I said no,” she said.
After being threatened with dismissal, Heermann was eventually suspended. The union is deciding whether to take the case to court.
The school board denies book banning and accuses Heermann of insubordination. Barbara Thompson, the school board president, wrote in an email yesterday: “She knew she had defied her supervisors’ direction in her work and that her defiance was ‘insubordination’ and ‘neglect of duty’.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
6th straight month of US job losses
Employers shed 62,000 jobs amid lingering slowdown: govt. report.
The world’s biggest economy lost jobs for a sixth straight month in June as US employers shed 62,000 nonfarm jobs amid a lingering slowdown, a Labor Department report showed Thursday.
The unemployment rate held steady last month at 5.5 percent.
The volume of job losses was slightly worse than the markets had expected, as most economists had predicted that 60,000 posts were cut in June.
“Unemployment is still on a rising trend, payrolls are falling, and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel here, so the tax rebates may have pushed up consumer spending, but it doesn’t seem to have improved the labor market yet,” said Ian Morris, chief US economist at HSBC North America.
Employers started laying off substantial numbers of workers in January following several years of solid employment gains that were boosted by a booming housing market and confident consumers.
But the job picture has changed dramatically this year amid a lingering housing market slump, a credit squeeze, a sharp downturn on Wall Street and rocketing oil prices which broke above a record 146 dollars a barrel Thursday.
The US economy has shed jobs every month of this year so far, and June’s job cuts followed a loss of a revised 62,000 positions in May. The government had originally said that 49,000 jobs were cut in May.
HSBC’s Morris said the “continued rate of deterioration” in the job market could see the unemployment rate peak above six percent in coming months.
Economists say America’s giant economy needs to create about 100,000 jobs every month to absorb new labor market entrants.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Dollar drops 41% during Bush term
WSJ officially calls a bear market. GM shares drop to lowest since 1954.
By James G. Neuger~Bloomberg
When President George W. Bush went to his first Group of Eight summit in 2001, a dominant issue was the dollar — the strong dollar, that is. The U.S. currency was on a record-setting streak, and the free-marketeering president wasn’t going to stand in the way.
On the eve of Bush’s last G-8 appearance, the dollar’s gyrations are again in the crossfire. This time, it is a weak currency, upended by slumping growth, a housing recession and record gas prices, that is gnawing away at the world economy.
The dollar’s 41 percent drop against the euro during Bush’s term writes the economic epitaph of an administration that set out to restore American preeminence. Instead, Bush heads to Japan next week for his final international summit with diminished leverage as Russian and Chinese influence grows.
“Between the economic duress facing the United States and the global community at large and the fact that the clock is running out on the Bush administration, Bush does not hold a good hand,” said Charles Kupchan, an international-relations professor at Georgetown University in Washington. He called the summit a “damage-limitation” exercise to show the world that governments are trying to contain food and oil prices.
Global economic-confidence building crowds the agenda at the three-day summit starting July 7 in Toyako, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, that was meant to tackle climate change, recommit the rich world to development aid for Africa and strengthen nuclear non-proliferation controls.
Growth Lags
Bush represents the worst-performing economy in the G-8 after Italy, with growth of 0.5 percent this year set to lag behind 1.6 percent in the U.K., 1.4 percent in the euro area, 1.4 percent in Japan and 1.3 percent in Canada, according to International Monetary Fund forecasts.
Russia, brought into the G-8 by Bill Clinton in 1998, will eclipse the rest of the club with growth of 6.8 percent this year, the IMF says. Russia’s oil and commodity wealth puts it at odds with the western goal of cutting reliance on fossil fuels. China, seen expanding 9.3 percent, has also frustrated the fight against global warming by locking up energy deals in Africa to slake its economic thirst. China will be among eight non-G-8 members that take part on the summit’s last day.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Texas lawyer: Police taking blood for DWI cases is illegal
SEE VIDEO HERE
By David Edwards and Muriel Kane~Raw Story
Texas law enforcement officials have the right to take blood samples from suspected drunk drivers, even against their will. However, one Dallas-area lawyer argues that the procedure is illegal when the blood is drawn by police officers instead of by licensed medical personnel or trained technicians.
Defense attorney Avery McDaniel represents a client who was stopped by police in December 2005 and had blood taken from her forcibly, leaving bruises along her arm. He is asking the judge to throw out the blood evidence that he says was obtained illegally.
McDaniel told CBS 11 News, “If an officer believes that you’re intoxicated and you refuse, they will get a search warrant and they will physically hold you down and take your blood.”
“What if someone is diabetic, or if the person’s on blood thinners,” McDaniel asks. “They’re not prepared or trained if something goes wrong.”
The officers do undergo a 20-hour training course modeled on one from a school of phlebotomy — the practice of drawing blood — in Phoenix. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Richard Alpert insists that “everybody drawing a blood sample as a part of this program … has been medically certified as qualified to draw blood samples.”
However, an Arizona lawfirm that specializes in DWI cases explains on their website why this is not sufficient: “Up until a few years ago, when officers opted for a blood test, they would transport the DUI suspect to a hospital or other similar type medical facility where trained medical personnel would draw blood in a clinical setting. … The vast majority of the police officers calling themselves phlebotomists are not graduates of a full phlebotomy program and certainly cannot be considered medical personnel. … While these police ‘phlebotomists’ are performing an invasive medical procedure, their first concern is not for the safety of the blood draw subject, but gathering evidence.”
A transcript of this video is available here.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Bush to Close Guantanamo?
By Jan Crawford Greenburg~ABC News
President Bush will soon decide whether to close Guantanamo Bay as a prison for al-Qaeda suspects, sources tell ABC News. High-level discussions among top advisers have escalated in the past week, with the most senior administration officials in continuous talks about the future of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay–and how it will be dramatically changed and/or closed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that gave detainees there access to federal courts.
Sources have confirmed that President Bush is expected to be briefed on these pressing GTMO issues–and may reach a decision on the future of the naval base as a prison for al Qaeda suspects–before he leaves for the G8 on Saturday. An announcement, however, is not expected before he leaves the country.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
TSA: Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bags Coming
By Austin Modine~UK Register
US airline travelers may have an opportunity to skip one particular round of manhandling by Transportation Security Administration agents this year.
The agency says passengers using new specially designed “checkpoint friendly” laptop bags won’t need to remove their portable from its case when passing through x-ray inspection.
TSA director Kip Hawley told The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/business/01road.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all) the agency will accept the new cases without the need for additional disrobement as soon as they come to market.
That should be late September or early October, according to two of the leading luggage brands, Pathfinder and Targus.
According to the TSA, travelers must place their laptops into a separate inspection tray because the case is often so stuffed with power cords and accessories that inspectors can’t see inside with an x-ray to the computer.
The new bags will either have a fold-down section or a separate sleeve for easier scanner inspection. Hawley told The Times the agency has been working with luggage manufacturers to develop the new designs.
Although the bags will supposedly get a pass at inspection points, the TSA said it’s not formally certifying any bag designs because of the red tape required for an official government nod. Hawley claims, however, there won’t be any confusion about what passes or not because security officers will be well informed about them.
Hawley said luggage manufactures will be encouraged to properly advertise their wares as “checkpoint friendly.”
Now if only they can come up with human-sized bags. ®
Related stories
US bars ID refuseniks from planes - but not ID losers (10 June 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/10/absurd_tsa_policy_change/
No-fly list grounds US Air Marshals (2 May 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/no_fly_list_grounds_us_air_marshalls/
Homeland Security takes pity on terror list Ted Kennedys (29 April 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/29/homeland_securtity_eases_watchlist_restrictions/
‘Virtual strip search’ arrives at JFK and LAX (22 April 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/22/tsa_millimeter_wave_rollout/
US allows visual inspections of nipple rings (31 March 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/31/tsa_cans_pliers/
US airline pilot pops a cap in cockpit (25 March 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/25/accidental_discharge/
Of laptops and US border searches (24 March 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/24/us_border_control_laptop_searches/
US buys in to QinetiQ’s millimetre wave technology (14 January 2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/14/qinetiq_spo_sale/
16,000 namesakes cry foul over US terror watch list (9 November 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/09/16000_complain_about_terror_watch_list/
US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly (12 October 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/12/flying_into_data_hell/
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Citigroup Says Long Term Gold Could Triple
By Dorothy Kosich~IB Times
Citigroup forecasts that “gold is likely to regain $1,000/oz by end-08 and to work higher through 2009-2010.”
In their recent Gold Commodity Update, Citigroup metals analysts John H. Hill and Graham Wark also predicted that “longer term, we believe that gold is capable of doubling or tripling from current levels.”
The Citi global metals forecasts have an upward bias, at $906/$950/1000 average in 2008/09/10.
The analysts said “secular and seasonal factors favor gold” during the second half of this year. “We remain positive on gold, based on macro and supply/demand factors. The forces that have propelled gold for 5 years are firmly in place.”
During the second quarter of this year, gold has averaged $896/oz, up 34% from the same quarter of 2007 and down 3% from the first quarter of this year. “Following a series of downside fundamental tests gold appears to have found a floor, and quietly climbed back to $917/oz.”
“Despite extensive hand-wringing, the ‘floor in the dollar’ has inflicted minimal damage,” the analysts noted. “We believe the drivers of the gold bull market remain intact, heading into a favorable period.”
“We see gold as well-positioned heading into Autumn, when fabrication tends to heighten the market,” they added.
Nevertheless, Hill and Wark warned, “It will be important for seasonal/volatility dampened fabrication demand to recover, before gold can move higher.” However, they added,” Longer term, we would not be surprised to see gold double from current levels as the global policy prescriptions for the credit crunch remain powerfully and uniformly re-flationary.”
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
ACLU Prepares Lawsuit Against Denver DNC Plans for ‘Free Speech Zone’
By Nick Langewis~Raw Story
The infamous “free speech zone,” set to make a comeback at Denver’s upcoming Democratic National Convention, needs to be within earshot of delegates, a coalition of civil liberties advocates backed by the ACLU said Monday.
Chain link fencing or chicken wire at the end of the parade route, about 700 feet away from the Pepsi Center under the current plan, would separate demonstrators and protesters from other convention attendees, the Rocky Mountain News reported. The coalition have amended their pending lawsuit against the United States Secret Service and the City and County of Denver, filed in May, saying that the plan could violate the visitors’ First Amendment rights, echoing the corralling and effective silencing of protesters at the 2004 gala in Boston. A judge in that case had ruled the “free speech zones” unconstitutional, but said that the suit was filed too late to order that plans be changed.
“No human voice, or any other sound,” ACLU counsel said in Monday’s amended complaint, “can ever hope to reach a person at the entrance.”
The case will go to trial on July 29.
Preparations for the upcoming convention, for which Denver has been federally granted $50 million, may include military choppers, as seen during a mid-June Department of Justice drill, details of which could not be revealed by the Denver Police Department. Lt. Nathan Potter, a military spokesperson with Special Operations Command, called the exercise “routine preparation for the global war on terrorism,” completely unrelated to the upcoming convention.
Denver Sheriff division chief Marie Kielar also told Colorado Confidential in May that her department is preparing for convention-related arrests to top 1,200. The City and County of Denver will not make publicly available detention plans, such as where those arrested will be held, before the convention. In addition to the May suit, the ACLU has demanded that the City and County make publicly available the procedures it plans to follow in processing those arrested at its downtown jail.
The Monday complaint called not only for a protest zone closer to the Pepsi Center, but also that it large enough to host all demonstrators, and for searches to be conducted only when there is probable cause.
“Simply put, we are going to abide by the Constitution,” Denver city attorney David Fine said Monday.
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Texas PC Repair Now Requires PI License
By Brian Heater~Extreme Tech
From its Texas Rangers to its enthusiastic take on the death penalty, the Lone Star State has long been known for its aggressive stance on law enforcement. Thanks to a strange new law, it’s a sting that may soon be felt by a number of the state’s computer-repair people.
A recently passed law requires that Texas computer-repair technicians have a private-investigator license, according to a story posted by a Dallas-Fort Worth CW affiliate.
In order to obtain said license, technicians must receive a criminal justice degree or participate in a three-year apprenticeship. Those shops that refuse to participate will be forced to shut down. Violators of the new law can be hit with a $4,000 dollar fine and up to a year in jail, penalties that apply to customers who seek out their services.
Some of the area’s larger companies already employee technicians with PI licenses, a fact which generally doesn’t apply to small computer repair shops.
Originally published on Gearlog
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Provocateurs Planning Violence At DNC
We Are Change Colorado has now become aware that another group, Unconventional Action, is planning on being violent at the DNC protests. Violence is a broad term. Some argue that property damage is violent, others might tell you it sends a message. To most of the Truth Alliance and We Are Change Colorado activists, there is no message to property damage and is in fact, a form of violent behavior. In the eyes of the law, property damage is completely, without debate, illegal.
To make the long story short, Unconventional Action seems to be open about their plans for the DNC. Their website, which can be found here: http://www.unconventionalaction.org/ has one link which is pretty disturbing.
Under the link, “The Strategies: How We Win,” a section titled: Denver: Disrupt the DNC, clearly outlines for “Anarchists and Anti-Authoritarians” to “join (them) in Denver, Colorado, August 24th-28th as (they) engage in coordinated Direct Actions against the Democratic National Convention, its corporate sponsors, and the military/police occupation of public space.”
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Direct Action is further defined on their website as getting directly involved rather than relying on a representative to do the framework. Their website goes on to further state that they are:
“currently organizing meetings, propaganda, and consultas in our communities and encourage those in other regions to do the same.
(They) aim to organize militant direct action that manifests opposition to both the Democratic and Republican Parties. As anti-authoritarians, (They) oppose so-called representational politics, but even those who still believe in it must understand that we can only have leverage over our rulers by showing our own power, that we must back our demands by demonstrating that we can interfere with their business as effectively as they interfere with our lives”
This can all be found on their website at the top link titled, What Is Unconventional Action?
See Also: Agent Provocateur at Parliament Square Demo
SPP Agent Provocateur Cops Caught Red Handed Attempting To Incite Violence
Police accused of using provocateurs at summit
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Hersh: Cheney ‘Privately’ Says He Prefers U.S. — Not Israel — Strike Iran Because ‘We’ll Get Blamed Anyway’
Earlier this week, in an article called “Preparing the Battlefield,” the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh reported that late last year, “Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran.” On MSNBC today, Andrea Mitchell asked Hersh if the U.S. was “planning military action” against Iran or “planning to support Israeli military action?”
“Oh, you know, how the hell do I know,” replied Hersh. “What I can tell you is we’re loaded for bear. And we’ve been looking at it for three years.” He then said that Vice President Dick Cheney “privately” is against an Israeli attack because the U.S. will “be blamed anyway”:
HERSH: If Israel goes — I’ll tell you what Cheney’s says privately, and whether or not you, how I know this is, — what he says privately is, “we can’t let Israel go because, first of all, they don’t have the firepower, we do. We have much more firepower. And secondly, if they go, we’ll be blamed anyway.”
Asked by Mitchell if that meant Cheney wanted the U.S. involved, Hersh replied, “there you go.”
Add comment July 3rd, 2008
Sick patients used as human guinea pigs in GM foods experiment
By Christian Evans~Natural News
Patients have been fed genetically modified (GM) Russet Burbank potatoes in an experiment to determine their nutritional effects on the human body. Developed by Monsanto, a multinational biotech company, the potatoes, modified to resist Colorado beetles, were dispensed to Russian heart and blood pressure patients as part of a recent study.
• This experiment is detailed in an unpublished report by the Nutrition Institute of the Russian Academy of Medical Science.
• The report describes the patients as “volunteers” and states that they are “suffering from hypertensive disease and ischemic heart disease.”
• According to the research, rats that ate similar potatoes suffered reductions in the weight of their hearts and prostate glands, but all changes were “within permissible physiological fluctuation.”
• These same rats suffered “increases of kidneys’ absolute weight” when compared to ones fed conventional potatoes.
• Some scientists believe that the trials were too short, and performed on too few humans, to produce meaningful results of long-term effects.
• “A certain risk of GM food products for human health does exist, as there can be by-effects of inserted genes besides the designed ones,” according to the report.
• The report concludes: “The genetically modified potato provided by Monsanto did not reveal toxic, mutagenic, immune modulating and allergic effects within the examined parameters of the present experiment”.
• Last year alone, over 10 million farmers grew 250 million acres of GM crops in 22 countries - home to over half the world’s population, according to The Guardian.
Add comment July 2nd, 2008
