«l'oracolo di omaha» ha una fortuna stimata in 58 miliardi di dollari

Crisi finanziaria: Warren Buffett ridiventa

l'uomo più ricco del mondo

Nella classifica di Forbes il finanziere di Omaha sorpassa

Bill Gates in testa per quasi 15 anni

Fonte: corriere.it

Povero Bill... chissà come sarà arrabbiato!

Warren Buffett has overtaken Bill Gates to become the richest American in the Forbes 400 list, Bloomberg said, citing a recalculated list to be published later this month.

The magazine, in its October 27 issue, recalculates the effect of September's financial news on the wealthiest Americans, those who make up its Forbes 400 list, the agency said.

The Berkshire Hathaway chairman added $8 billion to his net worth in a 33-day period, August 29 to October 1, to reach $58 billion, the agency said, citing the magazine.

Buffett overtook the Microsoft co-founder, whose net worth declined $1.5 billion to $55.5 billion during the 33-day period, the agency said.

Bill Gates had been number 1 on the Forbes list for 15 consecutive years.

Bill is probably heartbroken, eh?

I don't want to be the one to say I told you so........But__________so!  Are you still letting your money sit in the stock market?  That is plain insanity!  I am begging you to start thinking outside of the box.  There are many safe investments out there that will allow you to rebound from this crazy stock market. 

 But before I get into that, I would like to comment on an investor who has a ton of money in the market.  I introduced the concept of private money to him a couple a few months back.  He seemed to be very interested in what my company had to offer as far as a safe return on their investments. He   went and did there research on Equity Trust Company.  They found out that everthing  I said was true.  He couldn't believe that you can get double digit returns on your money (tax free*). 

 This couple had never heard of a self directed IRA, so obviously they didn't know that you can buy real estate in their IRA. 

So everything was great until He went and talked to his broker.  first of all, he didn't even know that you can buy real estate in your IRA.  So what do you think his advice was to them ?  Exactly!  He told them that it was a bad idea. 

 This so called "expert" told him that he should diversify, and only take a little bit of his money out.  So he did.  He came back and told me that his "broker" (salesman) advised him to keep his money there.  Now even if you do live under a rock, you know what has happened in the market lately.

I can't tell you how many of these horror stories I hear about people who only listen to conventional wisdom.  The only silver lining here is that he did take some of his money out of the stock market to invest with  a self directed IRA.

Take Action Now!

How many of you are still procrastinating with this valuable information that I freely give away every day to the masses.  Are you telling your loved ones that there is a better way?  Please email me at cljones2008@gmail.com if you have any questions about self directed IRAs.

Worlds Safest Investment

Many people overlook this precious investment vehicle that the government has given us.  It guarantees your return on your money.  Its not fickle like the stock market.  You will never wake up broke.  And if you take the time to do your due dillegence, it will make you a fortune.  Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about Tax Liens! 

Do to time restraints, I am going to leave you with those two powerful words for you to study.  I will do an introduction on Tax Liens tomorrow.  Please check back here tomorrow and every day for free life changing information that I share with Intellient Investors Only!   Are you one?    We'll see!

Until tomorrow,

Keep God 1st, Invest in  People

CL Jones

No More Stock Market Woes

Why are so many people worried sick about the stock market today?  The stock market is just one of several strategies to acquiring wealth. When the stock market crashes shouldn't people look for the other opportunities that are out there?

It blows my mind that even in this market, people aren't  trying to educate themselves on how to invest their money.  Well, I'm glad that this isn't a problem with our intelligent investors

Intelligent investors understand that wealth is created in times of chaos!  I have to say it again........Intelligent investors understand that wealth is created in times of chaos!

This is the time that you are supposed to find out how to invest the right way.  When I say the right way, I mean that you need to educate yourself, and stop leaving your money and your future in the hands of a salesman who works off of a commission.  I'm sorry if I offend any brokers out there, but I have to tell the truth.

I believe that any broker worth a grain of salt should educate themselves on  self directed IRAs so that they can in turn educate their clients.

Attention Brokers!

If brokers are really interested in helping their clients they should find out how the self directed IRA blows the stock market away!  Remember this investors, your broker may not be so quick to endorse what I'm saying because it will be a conflict of interest.

They would be telling you to take your money out of their company's hands (and out of their pockets) to put somewhere that it can really grow!  Does this make sense intelligent investors?  I have taken my time and money to make commercials to get the word out.

I need people that want to help others.  Please contact me if you are a rebel and want to help me bring this message to your town.  My team does seminars on this all over the country.  We require 100 people in attendance to  come to  your town.

Please leave comment and email me if you are interested.  We will even come to your REIA. (see video below)

[viddler id=44a94571&w=437&h=370]

Do you remember Maria?  Scroll down to look at Maria's video clip in this blog.

People all over the country are moving their money to Equity Trust Company so that they can team up with proven investors like myself, to make their returns explode!  You can get 10-12% returns tax free that are secured by below market real estate.

You get a mortgage, promissory note, title insurance, and hazzard insurance.  Everything the bank would want is given to you as a private investor.

I'm sure you know that the best deals in real estate are going on in your back yard every day.  When will you get a pieces of the Dream?  To me, it's all about building a real estate empire for my son, Tavon.

I don't have a college degree, but real estate has allowed me to obtain financial freedom, and it can do the same thing for you if you give it a chance.

Conventional wisdom is almost always wrong!

Stop listening to the so called experts!  Especially the ones that work for other people.  My take is that if they were such an expert, they would have others working for them. It wouldn't be the other way around.   Does that make sense?

Please don't think that I'm bashing brokers or the stock market, but it is time for you to start looking out for yourself.  Your family needs you to become an Intelligent Investor.  Get educated.  Learn how to invest in other things as well.  Gold and silver are always great buys.

You should also learn to  operate inside of trusts.

I think I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to conclude now.  I hope this has been inspiring to you.  If it has please tell at least ten of your family and friends about this blog.

My membership site is due to be release in the next few weeks.  If you think this free blog is a blessing to you, imagine what my paid membership site is going to be like.

Do your own research! Don't just listen to me.  If  you only listen to one  person you are a follower.  If you listen to a little bit from different people and do your own due dilligence, you become a student of life.  That is the blessing of God.

Please leave a comment if this blog has blessed you.  It should be an awakening for your soul.

Until tomorrow,

Keep God 1st, Invest in People

CL Jones

Proverbs 8

Listen to Wisdom

Wisdom calls to you like someone shouting;
       understanding raises her voice.
 On the hilltops along the road
       and at the crossroads, she stands calling.
Beside the city gates,
       at the entrances into the city, she calls out:
Listen, everyone, I'm calling out to you;
       I am shouting to all people.
You who are uneducated, seek wisdom.
       You who are foolish, get understanding.
Listen, because I have important things to say,
       and what I tell you is right.
 What I say is true,
       I refuse to speak evil.
 Everything I say is honest;
       nothing I say is crooked or false.
 People with good sense know what I say is true;
       and those with knowledge know my words are right.
 Choose my teachings instead of silver,
       and knowledge rather than the finest gold.
Wisdom is more precious than rubies.
       Nothing you could want is equal to it.

"I am wisdom, and I have good judgment.
       I also have knowledge and good sense.
 If you respect the Lord, you will also hate evil.
       I hate pride and bragging,
       evil ways and lies.
 I have good sense and advice,
       and I have understanding and power.
 I help kings to govern
       and rulers to make fair laws.
 Princes use me to lead,
       and so do all important people who judge fairly.
I love those who love me,
       and those who seek me find me.
 Riches and honor are mine to give.
       So are wealth and lasting success.
 What I give is better than the finest gold,
       better than the purest silver.
I do what is right
       and follow the path of justice.
I give wealth to those who love me,
       filling their houses with treasures.

 "I, wisdom, was with the Lord when he began his work,
       long before he made anything else.
  I was created in the very beginning,
       even before the world began.
  I was born before there were oceans,
       or springs overflowing with water,
  before the hills were there,
       before the mountains were put in place.
  God had not made the earth or fields,
       not even the first dust of the earth.
  I was there when God put the skies in place,
       when he stretched the horizon over the oceans,
  when he made the clouds above
       and put the deep underground springs in place.
  I was there when he ordered the sea
       not to go beyond the borders he had set.
  I was there when he laid the earth's foundation.
  I was like a child by his side.
  I was delighted every day,
       enjoying his presence all the time,
  enjoying the whole world,
       and delighted with all its people.

  "Now, my children, listen to me,
       because those who follow my ways are happy.
  Listen to my teaching, and you will be wise;
       do not ignore it.
  Happy are those who listen to me,
       watching at my door every day,
       waiting at my open doorway.
  Those who find me find life,
       and the Lord will be pleased with them.
  Those who do not find me hurt themselves.
       Those who hate me love death."

New Century Version (NCV)The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Oslo - Krisis finansial global tengah menghantui dunia dan mengancam ekonomi Amerika Serikat. Chief Executive Microsoft, Steve Ballmer juga mengakui bahwa krisis tersebut bakal melemahkan pengeluaran kalangan bisnis maupun konsumen dan berpengaruh pada semua perusahaan termasuk Microsoft.

"Kami mempunyai banyak bisnis dengan sektor korporat maupun konsumen dan apapun yang terjadi pada perekonomian tentu akan berpengaruh pada Microsoft," papar Ballmer pada jurnalis di Oslo, Norwegia.

Ballmer menandaskan bahwa tidak ada satupun perusahaan yang kebal terhadap dampak krisis finansial tersebut. Pernyataan Ballmer ini dipandang para investor sebagai indikasi bahwa pendapatan Microsoft bakal terpengaruh oleh krisis yang terus berlanjut.

Di sisi lain, Ballmer juga menanggapi munculnya pesaing di ranah sistem operasi mobile seperti Google Android. Meski para pesaing tersebut menggratiskan softwarenya, Ballmer menegaskan bahwa mereka tetap bakal menarik biaya untuk sistem mobile Microsoft.

Selain itu, Microsoft juga menegaskan belum akan terjun ke bisnis ponsel seperti yang sering diprediksi para analis. Seperti dikutip detikINET dari Reuters, Rabu (1/10/2008), Ballmer menyatakan bahwa Microsoft tidak berencana membuat ponsel.

No BS Real Estate Investing

I have just returned from the sunshine state, and I'm ready to start taking down more deals all over the country.  I pride myself in teaching NO B.S. Real Estate Investing techniques that make sense in todays market.  Please check with me before you make the mistake that thousands of new investors make.  That is overpaying for yesterdays information. 

 This business has changed so much in the last six months.  I have shifted my whole business model so that I can compete and continue to acquire wealth for my family.  So without further waiting, I would like to introduce the launch of the

Fairfield County REIA        

Our first meeting will be on October 15, 2008 at Liedles Caterers, located at 337 Kenyon Street in Stratford CT.  The time will be from 6-9pm.  Our special guest will be Attorney Gary Seymour. 

Atty Seymour has found a way to legally stop foreclosures.  He will start to speak at 7pm sharp! So make sure that you arrive early.  There will be a cash bar available or those who would like  cocktails.

The only downside to todays blog is that it only benefits those who are in the Tristate area!  But don't worry investors, we will have something real soon for those who can't make it out to our reia meetings. (stay tuned).

We will have some great door prizes!  If you have any questions please email me at cljones2008@gmail.com

 Buy Land in your Self Directed IRA& Always Beat the Stock Market! (tax free)

Also, don't forget about the self directed IRA.  It can truly change your life.  Please email me so that I can show you how we can work together to accumulate great wealth.   You will want to get familiar with equity trusts website.  Don't forget to go to their site at www.trustetc.com .  Shoot me an email if you want to speak directly to my rep. 

These lots are a steal for only $15,000.  Buy yours today in your self directed roth ira and reap tax free profits for life!  What a great way to pay for the kids college.  These lots sold for $40,000-50,000 only 3yrs ago.  what do you think will happen when the market comes back.  Do you want to be in a strong financial position?  Then invest with CL Jones, "The Real Estate Genius"

 [viddler id=746be94e&w=247&h=227]

Please spread the word if you are in the tri-state and surrounding areas about October 15, 2008 in Stratrord, CT..... Fairfield County REIA.  The only place to get great support, networking, education, and training.

Until tomorrow,

Keep god 1st, Invest in People

CL Jones

Pagetable.com has an interesting article on a Microsoft easter egg. "If you type 'WAIT6502,1' into a Commodore PET with BASIC V2 (1979), it will show the string 'MICROSOFT!' at the top left corner of the screen. Legend has it Bill Gates himself inserted this easter egg 'after he had had an argument with Commodore founder Jack Tramiel', 'just in case Commodore ever tried to claim that the code wasn't from Microsoft'. In this episode of Computer Archeology, we will not only examine this story, but also track down the history of Microsoft BASIC on various computers, and see see how Microsoft added a second easter egg to the TSR-80 Color Computer - because they had forgotten about the first one."

Investor Alert!!!>>>>>>Great deals in Florida!! Do you want one?

Good Morning Investors,

I am blessed to be with you another morning to give you advice that only intelligent investors pick up on.  I leave out for a two city trip that starts in Florida and ends in Charlotte, North Carolina.  This trip will be quite lucrative for my students.  We will be purchasing beautiful lots in Florida that we will purchase at historic lows and sit on them for a few years.  We are also open to selling them to anyone who would love to have lot for a bargain basement price. (email me at cljones2008 for a great lot at yesteryears price. )

Hopefully, you understand the value of land.  If you own all the land, you will truly become an intelligent investor with options. (Let's face it, the good lord isn't making anymore land.)

Here are a few options:

• hold it in your self directed ira
• build your dream home on it
• lease it
• sell the trees for cash
• sell it with owner financing
• sell it to reia members

Any of these options can be very profitable if you have the right knowledge!  Education is why my students are cashing $10,000.00 checks (remember Maria?).  Members of my network get the absolute best education and support on how to construct the very best deals in the industry.  Respond to this blog if you would like more information on the CL Jones Real Estate Network.

Economy

Don't let this economy take you out!  Your thoughts have brought you to this precise point in your life.  Knowledge and action will take you to the next point in your life.  Learn about self directed IRA's. The tax free benefits will make your family very wealthy.

Equity Trust Company

I can say it enough, Equity Trust Company has helped transform my business, and my life.  It as allowed me to have freedom and control over my life.  I have eliminated most of the chaos (still working on it....lol).  I now get tax deferred and tax free profits on my real estate deals.  ETC has allowed me to really live my dream of traveling and buying real estate on a regular basis.  I also get to help many people by telling them about the benefits of Equity Trust Company vs the stock market.  I don't see why anyone would keep their money in the market when ETC can help make sure that you never lose your money again.

Word to the Wise

There really isn't any reason for you to struggle with finances anymore.  You can open up an account with Equity Trust Company for as little as $500.00.  I am going to give you a "golden nugget" right now.  Call ETC today and ask for Jeff Walker.  He can be reached at 1-888-382-4727 ext 169.  I believe Jeff's hours are 10am -5pm cst  Monday -Friday.  Tell him CL Jones sent you.

Here is my closing thought for today:

To get what you never had, you have to do what you've never done"  - unknown

Hopefully this blog will help inspire you to take action today.  Maybe you will be my next student to cash a $10, 000 check.

until tomorrow,

Keep God 1st, Invest in People

CL Jones

Początkowo Ziemia była tylko kamienną bryłą. Słońce uznało po trzech dniach, iż życie w samotności jest nudne i stworzył hakerów, po czym zesłał ich na Ziemię. Hakerzy powstali z promieni Słońca, więc mieli umiejętność promieniowania swą euforią i wiedzą, zarażajac nią nawzajem. Pierwsi hakerzy otrzymali komputery z systemami wsadowymi. Programowali nimi świat, przy pomocy kart performowanych. Stworzyli niebo, morze, grunt – ziemię. Po pewnym czasie hakerzy zaczęli skarżyć się Słońcu, że programowanie świata w tym systemie jest niewygodne, pracochłonne i męczące. Odrzekło na to Słońce: „Idźcie przed siebie i szukajcie inspiracji. Gdy je znajdziecie to stwórzcie swój własny język, w którym oprogramujecie świat.”

Hakerzy wyruszyli w podróż. Każdy z nich przyglądał się czemuś i szukał inspiracji. Każdy szukał jednak inspiracji gdzie indziej. Stało się to problemem, gdyż hakerzy nie rozmawiali ze sobą o swych inspiracjach, a zajmowali się tylko sobą i obiektem swych westchnień. Jedni pasjonowali się nadzwyczajnością drzew, inni nie mogli powstrzymać się od zachwytów obserwując wodę. Gdy powrócili wszyscy w swe pierwotne miejsce, Słońce spytało ich o zasady działania języka programowania, który wymyślili. Okazało się, że każdy mówił o innych zasadach, gdyż każdy z nich wymyślił inny język. Słońce zdenerwowało się, po czym schowało za horyzontem. Zapanowała długa noc. Hakerzy, nie dostrzegajac żadnych rozrywek zasiadli do swych komputerów i zaczęli programować, każdy w swoim języku. Stała się rzecz nadzwyczajna. Okazało się, że każdy język miał swoje indywidualne przeznaczenie. W jednym łatwiej programowało się drzewa, w innych rośliny, niebo, a w końcu ziemię. Słońce cały czas przebywało za horyzontem, więc rośliny zaczęły usychać. Zrozpaczeni hakerzy rzucili się za programowanie roślin tak, by przeżyły. Okazało się, że każdy z nich posługując się innym językiem, nie był w stanie programować w grupie. Hakerzy doszli do porozumienia i stworzyli uniwersalny język – C, w którym następnie programowali świat. Okazało się, że gdy używali jednego języka – praca była efektywniejsza, gdyż pracowali grupowo. Słońce, mające uszy i oczy wszędzie, dowiadując się o tym, ponownie wyszło zza horyzontu.

Po pewnym czasie Słońce uznało, iż na Ziemi nie mogą żyć sami hakerzy. Ktoś musi tworzyć świat przy pomocy kompilatora, ale ktoś musi umieć dbać o świat i bez niego. Próbowało już uczyć hakerów życia bez kompilatora, jednak próby te kończyły się niepowodzeniem.Hakerzy zachowywali się w takich momentach jak Lemingi. Chodzili w jedną i drugą stronę, nie wiedząc, co ze sobą zrobić. Chodzili tak w kółko, nie jedząc, nie robiąc nic. Gdy zaczęli padać z głodu – Słońce uznało, że próba nauczenia hakerów życia bez kompilacji była niezbyt mądrym pomysłem. Postanowiło jednak stworzyć istoty, które będą potrafiły żyć w ten sposób. Nie chciało jednak ryzykować i zdecydowało, że nowe istoty, ni w ząb nie będą potrafiły kompilować. Stworzyło więc Słońce z RAM-u hakerów istotę, którą nazwał kobietą. Wykreował tyle kobiet, ile było hakerów, z takimi osobościami, jakich oczekiwali poszczególni hakerzy. Hakerzy zaczęli płodzić potomstwo. Rodzili się kolejni hakerzy, którym przekazywano podstawową prawdę życiową „kompiluj dla dobra ludzkości, dziel się kodem, gdyż jak mówi stare hakerskie przysłowie - wystarczająca liczba przyglądających się oczu sprawia, że wszystkie błędy stają się banalne.” Kobiety odcisnęły olbrzymie piętno na ówczesnej cywilizacji, gdyż potrafiły zadbać o Ziemię – podlewały rośliny, pielęgnowały ziemię – czego nie potrafili hakerzy.

Ideologia hakerska była przekazywana poszczególnym pokoleniom. Niestety, pewnego dnia narodził się haker Bill Gates. Od dziecka sprawiał problemy i nie stosował się do obowiązujących reguł. Dołączył on do stowarzyszenia Microsoft, które łamało wszelkie konwenanse. Wkrótce został jego przedstawicielem. Stowarzyszenie Microsoft specjalizowało się w programowaniu świata, nie mówiąc nikomu, w jaki sposób to robią, co tworzą i jak ich twory działają. Sam dzień narodzin Billa był Dniem Przeklętym. W momencie jego przyjścia na świat, wielu hakerów na całej Ziemi postradało zmysły. Bill był Omenem. W dniu jego narodzin wielu hakerów przestało mówić innym o swoim kodzie. Hakerzy zaczęli zamykać się na siebie nawzajem. Przestali ze sobą rozmawiać. Zaczęli opatentowywać swoje twory. W tamtym okresie miało miejsce trzęsienie Ziemi. Kontynent podzielił się na dwie części. Jedną z nich nazwano UNIX. Kontynent UNIX był programowany w sposób promowany przez Omena. Nikt nikomu nie mówił o tym, co i jak tworzy, przez co ludzie znali się tylko na tym, co sami zrobili. Doprowadzało to do ludziej głupoty.

Całe szczęście, że na Ziemi żyła trójka hakerów czystej krwi. Nie ulegli oni Omenowi. Pierwszy z nich, człowiek bardzo buntowniczy, zwany Richardem Stallmanem, postanowił odwrócić sytuację do góry nogami, tak, by na kontynencie UNIX znów zapanowała wolność słowa i dzielenie się kodem. Był bardzo mądrym człowiekiem. Był w stanie obserwować twory innych hakerów, zawładniętych przez Omena, po czym tworzyć rzeczy identyczne, jednak mówiąc wszystkim jak je zrobił i jak działają. Doprowadziło to do rewolucji. Wkrótce wymieniono wszystkie rzeczy UNIX-a owiane tajemnicą na identyczne, jednak takie, o których wszyscy wszystko wiedzieli. Nowe rzeczy zostały ochrzczone mianem GNU. Mimo tego podstawowa część UNIX-a – grunt – pozostał skażony zamkniętością kodu.

W tym samym czasie Omen zaczął przebudowywać drugi kontynent. Ogłupił wszystkich ludzi, nazwał się królem i kazał sobie płacić za wszystko. Kontynent Billa został nazwany Windows.

Richard Stallman zaczął budować od nowa wyspę Hurd. Przeprogramowywał cząsteczki wody w cząsteczki ziemi. Było to trudne zajęcie, jednak nie poddawał się.Wkrótce nieopodal półwyspu, zwanego przez starych hakerów Finlandią, z oceanu wypłynął bóg Linus i opowiedział zebranym o małej wyspie zwanej Linux. Miała to być wyspa miodem i mlekiem płynąca. Uwierzyła w to znikoma część ludności, jednak wśród wierzących znalazła się trójka najwspanialszych hakerów. Oni i kilkaset innych ochotników popłynęli na wyspę Linux, zabierając ze sobą wszystko co do tej pory stworzyli, zabierając gatunki roślin i zwierząt parami, tak, by mogły płodzić się na wyspie.Wszystko to co zabrali było GNU, zatem po ich przybyciu na Linuksa i osadzeniu na nim GNU, wyspa zmieniła nazwę na GNU/Linux. Hakerzy, którzy pozostali na kontynencie UNIX byli zdegustowani. W najbliższym czasie większość z nich przepłynęła przez ocean na kontynent Windows, gdzie wmówiono im, że nie są hakerami, a programistami. Na Windowsie hakerzy całkowicie wymarli, istnieli tylko programiści, jednak ci nie płodzili nowych programistów, a zwykłych ludzi. Naród ludzki powstał właśnie z tych programistów.

Richard Stallman poświęcił się GNU/Linuksowi i Hurdowi, który wkrótce także uzyskał przedrostek GNU. Jego dwaj koledzy, hakerzy – Bruce Perens i Eric Raymond zajęli się utrzymywaniem kontatków z kontynentami UNIX i Windows. Głosili prawdy dotyczące wyspy na której żyją i wolności związanej z życiem na niej. Duża część ludzi zrozumiała swą głupotę i doznała oświecenia. Przybyła ona na GNU/Linuksa, zabierając piasek z Windowsa. Dosypywali piasek na wyspie, na którą przybyli, dzięki czemu zacząła się ona rozrastać.

Tak powstał świat, w którym żyjemy. Wciąż rodzimy się jako zwykli ludzie, nie rozumiejący tego jak działa i do czego służy kompilator. Nie rozumiemy też wielu różnych rzeczy, gdyż nikt o nich nie mówi, są owiane tajemnicą. Tylko dlatego, że rodzimy się na Windowsie. Istotą oświecenia jest odkrycie GNU/Linuksa i przybycia na niego. To jest najważniejsza prawda, to jest cel życia każdej żywej istoty.

b.YISK, z drobnymi poprawkami Pani Anny Królak.

10/3/2008

How long , you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

Turn you at my reproof:  behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Because I have called and you refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded:  But you have set at nought all my counsel, and would non of my reproof:   I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes upon you

Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer, they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:  For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:  They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices;

For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them,

But whoever pays attention to me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil

King Solomon/Proverb 1 KJV 

Translated  into modern English:

Wisdom is like a woman shouting in the street; she raises her voice in the city squares. 

 She cries out in the noisy street and shouts at the city gates: "You fools, how long will you be foolish? How long will you make fun of wisdom and hate knowledge?

If only you had listened when I corrected you, I would have told you what's in my heart; I would have told you what I am thinking. 

I called, but you refused to listen; I held out my hand, but you paid no attention.  You did not follow my advice and did not listen when I corrected you. 

So I will laugh when you are in trouble. I will make fun when disaster strikes you, when disaster comes over you like a storm, when trouble strikes you like a whirlwind, when pain and trouble overwhelm you.  

"Then you will call to me, but I will not answer. You will look for me, but you will not find me. 

 It is because you rejected knowledge and did not choose to respect the Lord.  You did not accept my advice, and you rejected my correction.  So you will get what you deserve; you will get what you planned for others.  

Fools will die because they refuse to listen; they will be destroyed because they do not care.  But those who listen to me will live in safety and be at peace, without fear of injury."

King Solomon/Proverb 1 NCV

1. "But I'm still very proud of Gage, thank God they are doing this, because even if the USA endures for a thousand years, how shameful it would be if future generations will point back to us and say "Holy Shit, is it possible they were all THAT stupid?" So even though it is doomed to failure, I salute Gage and Griffin and the rest, in the same way that we can admire the Roman slave rebel Spartacus. Even though Spartacus ultimately failed, at least his actions stand against the accusation of posterity - all those generations of slaves and NOBODY ever hit back? These guys are the intellectual, non-violent equivalent and will be well-regarded by history."

http://www.911blogger.com/node/17794

2. It's kind of hard to believe that NATO might actually be interested in the truth:

"One thing was already clear to the officers at NATO headquarters in Brussels: They thought that the Georgians had started the conflict and that their actions were more calculated than pure self-defense or a response to Russian provocation. In fact, the NATO officers believed that the Georgian attack was a calculated offensive against South Ossetian positions to create the facts on the ground, and they coolly treated the exchanges of fire in the preceding days as minor events. Even more clearly, NATO officials believed, looking back, that by no means could these skirmishes be seen as justification for Georgian war preparations."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,578273,00.html

3. " What leads me to remark on this matter, however, is not its technological nuts and bolts or its connection with master-puppet relations in southwest Asia, but rather the complete insouciance with which the American public greets reports of deaths by drone. I do not exaggerate if I say that the general reaction is "ho-hum." Well, the average American says, that disposes nicely of another "bad guy." The gratuitous murder of the bad guy’s family members, neighbors, and other innocent persons in the vicinity appears to create no blip on the average American’s moral radar screen. Perhaps Americans do not consider Yemenis, Afghanis, and Pakistanis to be real human beings whose right to life we are obliged to respect?"

http://www.lewrockwell.com/higgs/higgs88.html

4. "Earlier this month, the Iraq war, arguably the biggest mass murder expedition of the twenty-first century, was branded by Republican vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin as a "task that is from God."

The fervent Christian evangelist has implied that the slaughtering of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, as well as the displacement of more than four million others is actually "God's plan."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20769.htm

September 15, 2008

1. And of course we already know that steel melts at 2,800 degrees:

"Dr. Shyam Sunder repeated several times that any combustibles at any one location in the building took about 20 minutes to be consumed. It
is, of course, self-evident that fires cannot last for very long in one place in an office building, as there is not so much burnable material available.
...
the temperature of fireproofed steel members remains under 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) during a 20-minute fire exposure in normal office fires"

http://www.911blogger.com/node/17785

2. "Even if there would have been perfectly ideal fires around every column on every floor, the "collapse" could not have happened as observed. It is thermodynamically impossible for fire to cause the floor by floor simultaneous failures of the columns which must have been occurred in WTC. The idea is absurd."

http://www.911blogger.com/node/17781

3. "Brown said that the plan to kill JFK had its origins in the 1960 Democratic Convention, at which John F. Kennedy was elected as presidential candidate with Johnson as his running mate, where H.L. Hunt, an American oil tycoon, and Lyndon Johnson hatched the assassination plot."

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/300806jfk.htm

4. "The United States has just invaded Cambodia. The name of Cambodia this time is Pakistan, but otherwise it’s the same story as in Indochina in 1970.

An American army, deeply frustrated by its inability to defeat an anti-American insurgent movement despite years of struggle, decides that the key to victory lies in a neighboring country. In 1970, the problem was the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. Today it is Taliban and al-Qaida bases inside Pakistan, which the United States has been attacking from the air for some time, with controversial “collateral damage.”

George W. Bush has now authorized independent ground assaults on Taliban and al-Qaida targets in Pakistan’s Tribal Territories, without consultation with Pakistan authorities. These already have begun.

...

The eventual outcome of the American intervention in Cambodia in 1970 was Communist overthrow of the American-sponsored military government in that country, followed by genocide. The future consequences in (nuclear-armed) Pakistan await."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080911_quagmire_phase_2_the_invasion_of_pakistan/

5. "White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
...
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20767.htm

6. Why is someone who can't handle community college being taken seriously?

"In 1982, Palin enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester, transferring in 1983 to North Idaho College and then to the University of Idaho. She attended Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska for one term, returning to the University of Idaho to complete her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.^[11][12]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

September 15, 2008

1. "ust supposing you were physically fit enough to scale a power station chimney stack, wouldn't you be daunted by the prospect of a night in the nick, a trial up against the best barristers that money can buy, or the very real threat of losing your job? Most seasoned campaigners, trade unionists, professional activists employed by NGOs, veterans of conference motions, council votes, demonstrations, petitions, rallies, vigils and all, baulk at putting themselves so much on the line, no matter how much they believe in the issue at stake.
Even the most engaged, active citizens throw in the towel when they have exhausted all lawful, established mechanisms for action. Seasoned campaigners become resigned to defeats, but then you get those surprising people - the retired Quaker accountant at the back row of the meeting, the previously apolitical housewife who has never been involved in any campaign to date - who are just so outraged at a decision or event, that they are prepared to go much further than the usual suspects, even if that means taking wire cutters to an MoD fence, or breaking into a nearby incinerator plant.

People like these are essential to the proper functioning of democracy. Not everyone is so tenacious. After the watershed of the Iraq war, many of us have retreated into defeatism and frustration. We feel alienated from the the ritualistic cut and thrust of party politics, let down by our elected representatives at all levels, local, national, global, so much so that we can't see the point of voting."
http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.2446099.0.small_protests_can_beat_the_big_guys.php

2. http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008093712/firing-back-ten-myths-about-national-security

September 14, 2008

"The abuse of power investigation against Sarah Palin, Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, took a potentially ominous turn for her party on Friday when state lawmakers voted to subpoena her husband.
...

Palin, cast at last week's Republican National Convention as a supportive husband, oil rig worker and championship snowmachine racer, has emerged in the days since as also a powerful figure in his wife's administration. Despite holding no government position, he attends official meetings and is copied on e-mails concerning state business."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/palin_troopergate

September 14, 2008

1. No wonder Bush/McCain like her so much:

"Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials," The Times wrote.
The paper said that its investigation had shown that in Alaska, Palin was running an administration that "puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080914/pl_afp/usvote

2. So many people say we have nothing to worry about from overly intrusive anti-terror rules. They are just sheeple, and they should stop acting like ostriches and pull their heads out of the sand:

"Anti-terror powers were used to spy on a member of the public after his neighbour complained about his noisy wardrobe doors and loud footsteps.
...
"No one wants to stand in the way of the detection of crime but with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act the pendulum has swung too far. Some of these surveillance operations are quite costly and counterproductive. [No kidding.]

"They are costing more than some of the problems they are designed to tackle.

Mr Parker went on: "There is a danger that council staff will begin to behave like police officers. They will come to regard themselves as super-sleuths and everyone will be under suspicion." [Exactly.]

The Fife case has come to light as more councils admit to using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to tackle apparently minor misdemeanours such as littering and smoking in public places.

Last week The Sunday Telegraph revealed that 89 out of 115 councils contacted under the Freedom of Information Act had used the legislation to tackle problems such as noisy children, barking dogs and unruly car-boot sales."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/2910962/Council-uses-anti-terror-rules-to-spy-on-man-with-noisy-wardrobe.html

3. Unbelievable - or at least it was prior to this decade:

"Britain is playing a key role in efforts to block the prosecution of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for the carnage in Darfur.

Human rights activists yesterday accused the government of a 'shocking abdication' of its commitment to justice after it emerged that Britain is backing moves by Libya, the Arab League and several African countries to halt the indictment of Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

...

But Steve Crawshaw of Human Rights Watch said bargaining with justice will permanently undermine the ICC's credibility and independence. 'The idea that you can do deals on justice is both short-sighted and a shocking moral abdication on Britain's part. It can only be damaging to the court.

'Justice is not a tradeable option. We have seen again and again that Sudan makes empty promises. To think that Sudan is likely to act in good faith is either naive or cynical,' said Crawshaw."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/14/sudan.humanrights

4. "Not to mention, one staffer said sheepishly, Palin wears pretty thick Tina Fey glasses, and can't actually even see who she is talking to, much less all the way to Russia. She only agreed to run with John McCain, he explained, because she mistook him for Fred Thompson and thought it would be neat to appear as a judge sometime on "Law and Order."
...
The campaign finally broke down and admitted that Palin is not even governor of Alaska and only ever visited it once, on spring break in the 1980s. Palin admitted that it was an unusual choice for a spring break fling, but explained that she had been heading for Ft. Lauderdale when she and some friends tried some weed in the car and that she "couldn't remember very much else about the trip." She said it was the "spring break of a lifetime," though, and she'd like to visit Alaska again someday after she dealt with the charges stemming from impersonating a politician."

Satire alert.

5. "The FBI claims that mail-sorting equipment crushed the killer anthrax in the letters to Senators Daschle and Leahy down to a fine powder.
...
1/4 of an inch equals 6,350 microns. So the FBI is trying to say that a mail-sorting machine which is designed to process letters 6,350 microns thick crushed something down to 3 microns . . . 2,116 to 4,232 times smaller than the type of envelope sorting machines are designed to handle (the smaller number is compared to 3 micron thick anthrax powder and the larger is compared to 1.5 micron powder) .

I don't know about you, but my mail isn't crushed into oblivion when I get it."

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/09/fbis-mail-sorting-theory-doesnt-add-up.html

6. "

In what may be the first case of its kind, American citizens have been arrested and charged as terrorists for no other act than planning to protest and obstruct a political event. In this case the occasion was the nominating convention of a party chiefly responsible for policies detested by the majority of Americans, including the war in Iraq and the enrichment of a tiny layer of the enormously wealthy. (Tom Eley, "Political dissent as terrorism: 'Minnesota Patriot Act' charges filed against RNC Eight," World Socialist Web Site, 11 September 2008)

As Eley points out, "more alarming than the case itself, however, is the fact that it has gone virtually unnoted by the national news media. This reporter could also find no mention of the case on the web sites of left-liberal publications such as the Nation, the Progressive, or In These Times."

But as with all such repressive actions, the goal of "preemptive policing" and the mass surveillance that accompany the run-up to "cops-gone-wild" events like St. Paul, their purpose is to intimidate--and serve as a warning--to the population as a whole. In this respect, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative like the NSA's warrantless spying programs are clearly designed to insure a seamless transition from surveillance to wholesale repression."

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10200

7. No kidding:

"All this is rationalized by various brands of racism, cultural superiority, social Darwinism, historical determinism, “dominion of the Elect,” “God’s chosen people,” etc. Or, simply, “might makes right.”
...

The bluster of Kissinger, Brzezinski, the Kristols, the Christian fundamentalists, and their paid-off politicians and media millionaires notwithstanding, America —indeed, the entire West—has been found out, perhaps even checkmated on the world stage."
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10191

8. "And I support academic freedom, but using that to defend John Yoo is as misguided as using confidentiality of sources to defend Judith Miller. A liar is not a source. And a facilitator of torture about whom the evidence is public knowledge has lost the right to freedom of any sort, academic or otherwise.
...
What we want is for them to immediately introduce a bill stating roughly this:
The presidential pardon power shall not include the power to self-pardon the president, or to pardon any staff or contractors of the executive branch, including the vice president, of crimes authorized by the president, or to preemptively pardon any individuals of crimes for which they have not yet been convicted."
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10190

9. "While the foreign policy segments of the Democratic Party platform as outlined in my most recent article is disappointing in many respects, the Republican Party platform is downright scary."

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10189

10. We already know the US is trying to break up Bolivia into smaller parts. Now we learn the US ambassador to Bolivia was in charge of forcing the secession of Kosovo from Yugoslavia. What a surprise:

"George Bush sent to Bolivia his Ambassador of Ethnic Cleansing [original title translated from the Spanish]

He presented his credentials before President Evo Morales on October 13, 2006; but three months before his arrival in Bolivia, when he was still in Pristina fulfilling his role as head of the US mission in Kosovo, it was already being said that the new US ambassador designated by George Bush for this Andean country, Philip Goldberg, would come to take part in the separatist process that was being cultivated in the background to pierce the Bolivian regime."

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10187

11. "It's certainly reasonable to argue that, in some respects, the Bush Doctrine has no precise meaning and is subject to debate, and Gibson provided some vague definitional parameters when asking the presidential candidates about it. None of that negates that Palin appeared quite clearly never to have even heard of the term "The Bush Doctrine" before ("His world view?"), leading one to wonder if she has paid any attention at all to the central foreign policy debates over the last eight years and whether she even watched or was vaguely aware of the presidential debates this year and many of the most critical expressed differences between the candidates -- including the one with whom she's running.
...
More alarming than the extremism of the positions that she has clearly formed is the fact that, as her startling ignorance of "the Bush Doctrine" reflects, she doesn't seem to have clearly formed positions on very much of anything. She's clearly willing to spout standard right-wing talking points, and perhaps that's all she'll ever end up embracing, but it's one's inability to know any of that, and the McCain campaign's commitment to ensuring that we won't find out between now and November, that makes her potential ascendancy to that office so deeply disturbing."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

12. "New Transcripts of Kissinger's Role in Chilean Coup
...

Kissinger: the President's view is to do the maximum possible to prevent an Allende takeover, but through Chilean sources and with a low posture."

The next day, during a 15 minute meeting at the White House attended by Kissinger, Nixon instructed CIA director Helms that Allende's election was "not acceptable" and ordered the agency to "make the economy scream" and "save Chile," as Helms recorded in his notes. The CIA launched a massive set of covert operations--first to block Allende's inauguration, and, when that failed, to undermine his ability to successfully govern. "Our main concern in Chile is the prospect that [Allende] can consolidate himself and the picture projected to the world will be his success," Nixon told his National Security Council on November 6, 1970, two days after Allende took office."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20751.htm

September 13, 2008

Are you comfortable with a "Christian" candidate whose theology doesn't appear to incorporate very much of the New Testament, and who doesn't seem to have ever made any public statement of sympathy for the 1.2 million dead Iraqis since 2003?

"‘Dominionists teach that men can be coerced or compelled to enter the kingdom. They assign to the Church duties and rights that belong Scripturally only to Jesus Christ. This includes the esoteric belief that believers can ‘incarnate’ Christ and function as His body on Earth to establish His kingdom rule. An inordinate emphasis is placed on man’s efforts; the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is diminished.’5"

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10167

(And no, I'm not hinting that you - or anyone else - should vote for Obama. Remember, there are already two independent Pres. candidates whose main goal is to stop the killing.)

September 13, 2008

1. Could this possibly be any more incestuous?

"Judge Mukasey has also presided over high-profile civil cases, including World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein's battle with the insurers of the trade center. "

"Born in the Bronx, Judge Mukasey went to work as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan during the 1970s, rising to become chief of the official corruption unit. He befriended Rudolph Giuliani there and is the subject of a passage in Mr. Giuliani's book describing how the two would prepare for trial together, with Mr. Mukasey playing the role of a witness while Mr. Giuliani practiced his cross-examinations. As a federal judge, Mr. Mukasey swore in Mayor-elect Giuliani in 1994 and 1998."

At the same link, and even worse:

"The changes would give the FBI's more than 12,000 agents the ability at a much earlier stage to conduct physical surveillance, solicit informants and interview friends of people they are investigating without the approval of a bureau supervisor. Such techniques are currently available only after FBI agents have opened an investigation and developed a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or that a threat to national security is developing...

The overhaul touches on several sensitive areas. It would allow, for example, agents to interview people in the United States about foreign intelligence cases without warrants or prior approval of their supervisors. It also would rewrite 1976 guidelines established after Nixon-era abuses that restrict the FBI's authority to intervene in times of civil disorder and to infiltrate opposition groups..."
http://www.911blogger.com/node/17750

2. Should we make this our group motto?

"The Constitution is NOT going to "collapse" into pulverized dust no matter how much thermate/explosives or planes they throw at it."

3. "Make no mistake. George W. Bush has been a horrible president and is one of the worst in U.S. history. But of the 42 men who have served as president, these four men – Polk, McKinley, Wilson, and Truman – were probably worse.
...

Although Bush lied us into a war, many presidents have done that, and he appeared to have at least some vague conception that it was in U.S. security interests to do so (even if safeguarding U.S. oil supplies was the real reason). In 1846, President James Polk lied to Congress in starting a war with the much weaker Mexico just to blatantly grab huge amounts of its land – the American Southwest, including California.

In 1898, President William McKinley attacked the frail Spanish Empire to grab its colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. He annexed Hawaii to boot. Strangely, the Filipinos were not so grateful about their "liberation" from Spain. They started a guerrilla war when they found out that instead of gaining their independence, they were going to become the anti-colonial United States' first colony. In the U.S. repression of the insurgency in the Philippine islands, about 200,000 Filipinos died from torture, atrocities, combat, starvation, and disease. The Spanish-American War made the U.S. a military power and began the long quest for a U.S. overseas empire. The war also allowed McKinley to become the first modern president – that is, permanently expanding the president's powers (vis-à-vis the other branches of government) past what the nation's founders and the Constitution had ever envisioned."
http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=13452

4. "No shield law protects journalists or their sources who plant phony evidence in a terror investigation.
...
The Judiciary Committee has the power to call Matsumoto, Ross, Spertzel and Jacobsen and force them to either tell the truth or go to jail for refusing to provide the malevolent sources that led the US toward war."

http://www.truthout.org/article/congress-asks-who-misled-anthrax-investigation-pointing-iraq

5. After US covert forces caused so much trouble in Georgia over South Ossetia, it now looks as US covert forces have moved ACROSS the border into Russia to cause trouble in North Ossetia - dangerous and stupid:

" A declaration addressed to the Council of Europe by Russian human rights activists said that 'the situation in the North Caucasus republics has became greatly more agitated since the war [between Russia and Georgia] in the South Caucasus.'"

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1430440.php/Separatist_passions_heating_up_in_Russias_restive_North_Caucasus_

6. Finally. What an asshole. I had hoped that he had died a painful death decades ago:

"General Jaruzelski goes on trial for the imposition of martial law in 1981"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4742093.ece

7. At least a little bit of good news:

"The government must obtain a warrant based on probable cause of criminal activity before directing a wireless provider to turn over records that show where customers used their cellphones, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, in the first opinion by a federal district court on the issue.

...

"This is a great ruling for location privacy and for people who think the government should have probable cause before they track you,"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091103292_pf.html

8. The Bolivian death squads are funded by the US, and US "trainers" are on the ground there organizing actions like this:

"Roberto Tito, one of the rural workers who was on this bridge when the shooting against the defenseless people began, testified that they were marching unarmed, and soon they heard shots and people began falling, mortally wounded.

Snipers located in the treetops fired at the group without caring who they hit: children, women, and old people were amongst the farmers, whose only weapons were sticks and machetes."

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10184

9. A GREAT article that explains in detail just exactly how stupid, and vicious, Palin's

lust to kill as many small brown people as humanly possible "Christian" philosophy of domination and war is:

"‘Dominionists teach that men can be coerced or compelled to enter the kingdom. They assign to the Church duties and rights that belong Scripturally only to Jesus Christ. This includes the esoteric belief that believers can ‘incarnate’ Christ and function as His body on Earth to establish His kingdom rule. An inordinate emphasis is placed on man’s efforts; the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is diminished.’5"

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10167

10. Russian warships in the Caribbean:

"Worryingly, the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great, a vessel with massive firepower whose missiles can deliver nuclear or conventional warheads, will participate in the Caribbean maneuvers. The ship is armed with the Granit long-range anti-ship missile system, which is known in military circles as the Shipwreck missile. It also has a sophisticated air defense missile system capable of striking both air and surface targets.

Jon Rosamund, editor of Jane's Navy International, a specialist maritime publication, said the Peter the Great is large and heavily armed with both surface-to-surface and around 500 surface-to-air missiles. “On paper it's an immensely powerful ship,” he said. “We are not really sure if this is a show of force or if it poses a viable operational capability at this stage.”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10177

11. "In a reckless and criminal attempt to suppress the growing insurgency in Afghanistan, President Bush has secretly authorised the use of US Special Forces against targets inside the border areas of Pakistan. The first publicly acknowledged operation took place on September 3 when helicopter-borne soldiers landed at a village in South Waziristan, attacked three compounds and slaughtered at least 20 people.
...

The New York Times cautiously noted: “It is unclear precisely what legal authorities the United States has invoked to conduct even limited ground operations in a friendly country.” In fact, military attacks on the territory of any nation—allied or not—constitute an act of war. While a US official claimed that Islamabad had “privately assented to the general concept of limited ground operations,” the Pakistani government has publicly opposed any intrusion by US troops and issued a formal protest over the September 3 operation.:
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10179

12. "2008 In February, McCain votes against a bill that would supposedly ban torture, and then applauds Bush for vetoing the bill.
2008 McCain runs for president, and almost nobody mentions his positions on torture, not even his fiercest critics. It is as if the most repulsive moral collapse in U.S. political history has never happened.

And yet McCain and his campaign rarely open their mouths without taking us back to 1968 when McCain was tortured. McCain critics even make lists and videos of his "flip-flops" and never mention the most frightening reversal of position imaginable. Are they scared to do so? Are they not really serious about keeping this tortured torturer out of the White House?"
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10176

September 13, 2008

I actually hold out more hope that Congress won't give up on the anthrax story (unlike their capitulation on 9/11) because it is so much easier to understand:

Ft. Detrick did not have the required equipment to aerosolize the anthrax, or to coat the spores with silica, so by definition Ivins couldn't have done it. Further, Ivins was an immunologist with no training in weaponizing anthrax.

Since the whole story can be summed up in two sentences, a Congressman determined to pursue it won't be so easily put off the trail.

September 12, 2008

1. "Sarah Palin revealed herself in the Charlie Gibson interview on ABC to be nervous,uninformed, green and generally not ready for prime time. The interview was full of stock phrases she was made to memorize, and which she repeated over and over again when stumped. She knows nothing about how Iran is run, or about Pakistan, or about al-Qaeda, and even is ignorant of the Bush doctrine of preemptive warfare. It was a shockingly bad performance.

She had the hubris to suggest that her lack of knowledge and experience is a virtue. Why Americans, practical people, would fall for this line is beyond me. Would you want your car to be worked on by an inexperienced and ignorant mechanic? Would you want a plumber messing around with your pipes who did not know his way around wrenches?"

http://www.juancole.com/

2. ""You have to realize that what they’re trying to do is to roll back the Enlightenment, roll back the moral philosophy and social values of classical political economy and its culmination in Progressive Era legislation, as well as the New Deal institutions. They’re not trying to make the economy more equal, and they’re not trying to share power. Their greed is (as Aristotle noted) infinite. So what you find to be a violation of traditional values is a re-assertion of pre-industrial, feudal values. The economy is being set back on the road to debt peonage. The Road to Serfdom is not government sponsorship of economic progress and rising living standards, it’s the dismantling of government, the dissolution of regulatory agencies, to create a new feudal-type elite."

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-time-is-it.html

3. " Bob Schiefer, long-time CBS newsman told Dan Rather,”I’m a block north of the White House some miles from the Pentagon, as you look over my shoulder…you can see there’s still these huge clouds of smoke billowing out of the Pentagon. This was no small explosion. It can be seen literally for miles.”
A plane crash into a building would not produce such an explosion or a massive amount of smoke. The huge Russian AN-124 that crashed into a building and an El Al Boeing 747 crashing into a 12-story apartment complex in Amsterdam produced no large explosions or billowing clouds of smoke and flame."
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10158

September 12, 2008

2. "Nearly three decades later, during the Gulf War, columnist Sydney Schanberg warned journalists not to forget "our unquestioning chorus of agreeability when Lyndon Johnson bamboozled us with his fabrication of the Gulf of Tonkin incident."

Schanberg blamed not only the press but also "the apparent amnesia of the wider American public."

And he added: "We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth."

http://www.911blogger.com/node/17725

3. What in the world is wrong with her?

"Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091103789_pf.html

4. "Solzhenitsyn theorizes that evildoing has a threshold magnitude, and when individuals cross that threshold they leave humanity behind. George Orwell's doublethink is the power "to tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them." In his celebrated essay "On Bulls***," Professor Harry G. Frankfurt suggests that what bulls***ters misrepresent has nothing to do with their beliefs, that the only value they recognize is expediency.
...
Here's what Solzhenitsyn had to say about the bad men of his time and place: In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundation s of justice from beneath new generations… Young people are acquiring the conviction that foul deeds are never punished on earth, that they always bring prosperity.

It is going to be uncomfortable, horrible, to live in such a country!

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,175239_1,00.html

September 12, 2008

As you may have noticed recently, while I always argued with you that, economically at least, things were not as bad as the scare stories say, this bailout and nationalization of the US mortgage market is a different kettle of fish. I'm VERY worried about our economic future now.

Go back and read the debt peonage article again:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20709.htm

And here, scroll down to the graph, and make the effort to learn the economics of what it is warning us about:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20707.htm

So far, at least, what that graph warns us about is not yet occurring this week since the bailout (and may never occur), but it clearly identifies the problem. If that graph ever comes true, we're through.

September 12, 2008

One of the ways that modern discourse has been coarsened and cheapened is the overuse of "nerd" and "geek". Many folks, when coming in contact with someone smarter than they are, will refer to the person as a nerd or geek to bring the person down a notch in their eyes, to make themselves feel better and less inadequate when faced with a big brain. Whether the target of the insult has memorized baseball statistics, learned all the members of 70s classic rock and English punk bands, or just gotten really good at Jeopardy, the common reaction of many folks is to call the person a geek or nerd, and to think that type of knowledge is useless.

I'm pleased to discover that Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling thought differently:

“…He believed strongly that memory of isolated facts lay at the core of intellect and creativity….In the mid-1930s, he was riding a train from London to Oxford. To pass the time, he came across an article in the journal, Nature, arguing that proteins were amorphous globs whose 3D structure could never be deduced. He instantly saw the fallacy in the argument — because of one isolated stray fact in his memory bank — the key chemical bond in the protein backbone did not freely rotate, as was argued. Linus knew from his college days that the peptide bond had to be rigid and coplanar. He began doodling, and by the time he reached Oxford, he had discovered the alpha helix.”

http://tweetmedicine.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/medicine-memory-and-balanced-equations/

Nerd and geek are never used with any positive connotation, and thus should never be used at all, especially in polite conversation.

September 11, 2008

"(7) In addition to the absence of evidence for hijackers on the planes, there is also evidence of their absence: If hijackers had broken into the cockpits, the pilots would have "squawked" the universal hijack code, an act that takes only a couple of seconds. But not one of the eight pilots on the four airliners did this (NPHR 175-79).
...
(13) Wedge 1 would have been the least likely part of the Pentagon to be targeted by foreign terrorists, for several reasons: It was as far as possible from the offices of Rumsfeld and the top brass, whom Muslim terrorists presumably would have wanted to kill; it was the only part of the Pentagon that had been reinforced; the reconstruction was not finished, so there were relatively few people there; and it was the only part of the Pentagon that would have presented obstacles to a plane's flight path (NPHR 76-78).

[By way of contrast, if the US blew up the Pentagon itself, it makes sense that it picked the least populated part of the building so as to kill fewer Pentagon employees.]
...

(16) Given the fact that the Twin Towers and WTC 7 had steel columns running from their basements to their roofs, they simply could not have come down as they did---straight down at virtually free-fall speed---unless these columns had been sliced by means of explosives. Therefore, the official theory, according to which the buildings came down because of fire plus (in the case of the Twin Towers) the impact of the planes, is scientifically impossible (NPHR 12-25).

(17) The destruction of the Twin Towers had many other features---such as the horizontal ejections of steel beams, the melting of steel, and the sulfidation and thinning of steel---that can be explained only in terms of powerful explosives. For example, the fires could not have come within 1000 degrees Fahrenheit of the temperature needed to melt steel (30-36)."
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10145

September 11, 2008

A memorial dedicated to the Pentagon 9/11 victims is being dedicated today:
"The Pentagon Memorial contains 184 memorial units, each of which are dedicated to an individual victim by its unique placement within the collective field.

...

Each memorial unit is specifically positioned in order to distinguish victims on board American Airlines Flight 77 from victims within the Pentagon. The memorial units representing the 59 lives lost on American Airlines Flight 77 are positioned so that a visitor to the park will face the sky when reading the name of the victim to whom that unit is dedicated."

http://www.defenselink.mil/home/features/2008/0708_memorial/index.html

Bastards. Why isn't this memorial going to be located at the military base where the passengers on Flight 77 were frog-marched off the plane into a hangar where each received a bullet in the head?

September 11, 2008

"The truly aggravating thing is watching opportunity after opportunity pass by the Obama campaign. Here's some advice to them: you are not living in subtle times. You are living in an era in our nation where people only react if you use a fucking mallet, not a stiletto, to get your point across. The choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate was a brilliant read of the national zeitgeist. She's like the winner of America's Next Top Model, not a qualified politician, and as such, idiot America thinks they relate.
...
And it's not only the issue of lying. Go after their personal weaknesses. You should be making ads that imply McCain is too old to be president. And if you're criticized for it, you gotta say, "I think it's up to Senator McCain to demonstrate he has the necessary energy for this job."

Stay angry. Again: The McCain campaign just said that Barack Obama wants to teach 6 year-olds how to fuck. That deserves a little more of a response than it's "perverse" or whatever shit the Obama campaign just put out.

You want the best route? Here it is: emasculate John McCain. Use Palin to cut his nuts off. Constantly say shit like, "Am I running against John McCain or Sarah Palin?" or "If the Republicans wanted her to be president, they should have nominated her" or "Maybe Republicans are used to a vice president that runs the show" or whatever. Make McCain have to defend himself. Turn him into Palin's bitch. It'll make him insane. And if there's one thing that Republicans hate most about women, it's the perception of the castrating bitch telling men what to do (see all the shit about Hillary Clinton).

In other words, Obama campaign, as so many others have advised, go on offense, and that means you have to offend."

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2008/09/note-to-barack-obama-use-sex-ad-to.html

September 10, 2008

1. "The much vaunted liquid bomb “terror plot” that provoked paranoid airport security measures, an overnight change in baggage procedures, and at one point led to mothers having to drink their own breast milk, completely collapsed yesterday in court after the alleged ringleader was completely acquitted and none of the other suspects were charged with conspiracy to blow up an airliner.

“Mohammad Gulzar, 27, who Scotland Yard accused of being a ringleader in the plot, was cleared of all offenses,” adds the Register.

the “liquid terror plot” was a complete fabrication became apparent from the very start.

In every single major terror bust or terror alert we have proven the evidence to be flawed and the charges to be cooked up nonsense aimed at prolonging the illusion that terror cells are lurking around every corner waiting to cause mayhem. The geopolitical agenda of the U.S., Britain and Israel depends on the proliferation phony terror threats in order to continue the farcical war on terror and take more of our innate freedoms at home to stifle dissent against the plot for worldwide hegemony.

“None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn’t be a plane bomber for quite some time,” said Murray.

The embarrassing collapse of another government-concocted terror fairytale should immediately mandate the repeal of ridiculous measures in airports that do nothing to stop would-be terrorists and everything to hassle and inconvenience innocent travelers - but don’t expect the authorities to give up a key aspect of their prototype police state without a fight."
http://www.infowars.com/?p=4429

2. ""David Ray Griffin stands at the center of one of the most impressive citizen research projects in history. In this superb new volume, he draws together a great quantity of recent evidence and demonstrates beyond question the fraudulent nature of the official account of 9/11."

http://www.911blogger.com/node/17649

Nice long book review at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Pearl-Harbor-Revisited-Cover-Up/dp/1566567297/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221009067&sr=1-1

By the author:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Was-America-Attacked-by-Mu-by-David-Ray-Griffin-080909-536.html

3. "Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home - Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008090900325&s_pos=

4. "The reader said that Palin wasn’t actually saying that the Iraq invasion and occupation were part of God’s plan but instead was simply requesting people to pray that the operation is part of God’s plan.

The reader might have a point, but isn’t it a distinction without a difference? Praying that the commission of sin is part of some plan of God is ludicrous. God doesn’t have plans that involve people in the commission of sin. Sinners, not God, are responsible for their sins.

The simple, undeniable truth remains: The U.S. government did not have the right to attack a country that had not attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. Therefore, the CIA and the troops did not have the right to kill any Iraqi, much less a million of them. Hoping and praying that such killings are part of some plan of God is ridiculous. Again, God does not have plans that involve people in the violation of His sacred commandments."

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2008-09-09.asp

September 10, 2008

"The much vaunted liquid bomb “terror plot” that provoked paranoid airport security measures, an overnight change in baggage procedures, and at one point led to mothers having to drink their own breast milk, completely collapsed yesterday in court after the alleged ringleader was completely acquitted and none of the other suspects were charged with conspiracy to blow up an airliner.

“Mohammad Gulzar, 27, who Scotland Yard accused of being a ringleader in the plot, was cleared of all offenses,” adds the Register.

the “liquid terror plot” was a complete fabrication became apparent from the very start.

In every single major terror bust or terror alert we have proven the evidence to be flawed and the charges to be cooked up nonsense aimed at prolonging the illusion that terror cells are lurking around every corner waiting to cause mayhem. The geopolitical agenda of the U.S., Britain and Israel depends on the proliferation phony terror threats in order to continue the farcical war on terror and take more of our innate freedoms at home to stifle dissent against the plot for worldwide hegemony.

“None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn’t be a plane bomber for quite some time,” said Murray.

The embarrassing collapse of another government-concocted terror fairytale should immediately mandate the repeal of ridiculous measures in airports that do nothing to stop would-be terrorists and everything to hassle and inconvenience innocent travelers - but don’t expect the authorities to give up a key aspect of their prototype police state without a fight."
http://www.infowars.com/?p=4429

September 10, 2008

Looks as if I was right with my theory that all of the absurd airport "security" measures have absolutely nothing to do with protecting us, and everything to do with the harassment of the public by the government, at a minimum forcing us all to participate in a shadowplay that wastes everyone's time:

"Security theater consists of security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.^[1] The term was coined by Bruce Schneier for his book Beyond Fear, but has gained currency in security circles, particularly for describing airport security measures. It is also used by some experts such as Edward Felten to describe the security measures imposed after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Security theater gains importance both by satisfying and exploiting the gap between perceived risk and actual risk.
Security theater has been defined as ostensible security measures which have little real influence on security whilst being publicly visible and designed to demonstrate to the lesser-informed that countermeasures have been considered. Security theater has been related to and has some similarities with superstition.

Security theater has real monetary costs but does not necessarily provide tangible security benefits. Security theater typically involves restricting certain aspects of people's behaviour in very visible ways, that could involve potential restrictions of personal liberty and privacy, ranging from negligible (where bottled water can be purchased) to significant (prolonged screening of individuals to the point of harassment).

The direct costs of security theater may be lower than that of more elaborate security measures. However, it may divert portions of the budget for effective security measures without resulting in adequate, measurable gain in security. In many cases, intrusive security theater measures also create secondary negative effects whose real cost is hard to quantify and likely to dwarf the direct expenses.

Security theater encourages people to make uninformed, counterproductive political decisions. The feeling of (and wish for) safety can actually increase the real risk.

The disruption, cost, and fear caused by security theater acts as positive feedback for those who wish to exploit it: even if they fail to take lives, they can cause large economic costs.

Security theater is a component of the culture of fear.

• The American government has introduced a screening system called Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System. This system relies on static screening of passenger profiles to choose which people should be searched. Systems of this nature have been mathematically demonstrated to reduce the effectiveness of searching below that of random searches since terrorists can test the system and use those who are searched least often for their operations.^[3]
• With the aim of preventing individuals on a No Fly List from flying in commercial airliners, U.S. airports require all passengers to show valid picture ID (e.g. a passport or driver's license) along with their boarding pass before entering the boarding terminal. At this checkpoint, the name on the ID is matched to that on the boarding pass, but is not recorded. In order to be effective, this practice must assume that 1) the ticket was bought under the passenger's real name (at which point the name was recorded and checked against the No Fly List), 2) the boarding pass shown is real, and 3) the ID shown is real. However, the rise of print-at-home boarding passes, which can be easily forged, allows a potential attacker to buy a ticket under someone else's name, to go into the boarding terminal using real ID and a fake boarding pass, and then to fly on the ticket that has someone else's name on it.^[4][5][6][7] Additionally, recent investigations show that obviously-fake IDs can be used when claiming a boarding pass and entering the departures terminal.^[8][9] (Another assumption that must be made in order to justify this system in the first place, let alone to conclude it is effective, is the assumption that the No Fly List is a reliable list of potential attackers, i.e. that a name is on the No Fly List if and only if that person is a probable attacker)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater

September 9, 2008

1. "At first, LAX Security was very upset because it seemed to Security that none of the FAA's Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) tracking the hijacked airliners had notified NORAD as required. More chatter revealed that ATCs had notified NORAD, but that NORAD had not responded, because it had been "ordered to stand down."

This report made Security even more upset, so they tried to find out who had issued that order. A short time later the word came down that the order had come "from the highest level of the White House." Security was puzzled and very upset by this and made attempts to get more details and clarification, but these were not forthcoming while I was still there.

Another piece of information that I heard, shortly after my arrival, was that the Pentagon had been "hit by a rocket." It's possible that the word was "missile," although I'm quite certain it was "rocket." I was, in any case, quite surprised when I later got home and learned that the media were reporting that an airliner had hit the Pentagon.

...

This station also reported that two fighter jets had been scrambled and had successfully shot down a hijacked airliner over Pennsylvania. The point of deployment of the fighter jets was also mentioned, but I can't remember the name of the military base.

...

During the conversation, I told her that I heard everything Security was discussing on 9/11 at Guard Post II and that I did not see how the attacks could have succeeded without inside participation. She replied that LAX security was well aware that 9/11 was an inside job."
http://www.911blogger.com/node/17614

2. "And perhaps this is a good time to respond explicitly to your apparent assumption that, to challenge the official conspiracy theory, one must have an alternative theory of equal specificity, with answers to all the questions that could conceivably be raised about it. But this is not true. Let's say that you were accused by the authorities of murdering Bill Jones. You would assume that, to get the case dismissed, all you and your lawyer had to do was to prove that you could not possibly have killed Jones. But imagine that, after you had done so, the judge then declared: "Sorry, that's not good enough. You must also tell us who did kill Jones, how the murder was committed, and why." You would surely consider that unreasonable. By analogy, the 9/11 Truth Movement has provided abundant evidence that the 9/11 attacks could not have been carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists. We need not also specify exactly who did organize and carry out the attacks, all their motives, and why they handled each part of the operation and the cover-up as they did. So there is simply no need for us to try to explain why Zubaydah was not liquidated."

http://www.911blogger.com/node/17604

3. "So what is being alleged is essentially that the United States (Rumsfeld & Paul Bremer) installed on the Debaathification Commission a secret agent of Iran who was running Iran-backed death squads based on the information to which he became privy by virtue of being on the commission!
...
So you've been having Iran-backed assassination teams running all over the place killing Sunnis and helping ethnically cleanse them so Iran can nail down Baghad as a Shiite city, extending the region of Shiite dominance in Iraq west and north. And they have been working out of government ministries and agencies!
...
The Surge was a dirty war. It was a vast effort at identifying, finding and assassinating the leaders of the Sunni Arab resistance.
...
Crowing about the success of Surge wouldn't look so pretty if you were actually celebrating an assassination campaign.
...
The French won the Battle of Algiers in the capital of their colony, 1954-1960. By 1962 they had nevertheless been forced out of Algeria anyway, by nationalist fighters outside Algiers. I am not saying the same thing will necessarily happen in a pacified Iraq. But it could."

http://www.juancole.com/

4. "In response, Yglesias correctly pointed out that McCain's ability to get away with endless lying actually has "something to do with the way the campaign press reports news" and that -- in stark contrast to how the press invented multiple false stories in the 2000 election to depict Al Gore as a chronic liar -- the media simply passes along McCain's lies (sometimes debunking them) without ever embracing the narrative that the McCain campaign is continuously spouting falsehoods.
...
many journalists perceive that meek and passive or complict coverage of the Bush administration or the McCain campaign advances their self-interest -- by allowing them to curry favor with important sources, gain access, please their bosses, develop relationships with the next potential President of the U.S."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

September 8, 2008

1. " Anti-terrorism laws used to spy on noisy children

Councils are using anti-terrorism laws to spy on residents and tackle barking dogs and noisy children."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2696031/Anti-terrorism-laws-used-to-spy-on-noisy-children.html

2. As I said at the time:

"Dr. Assaad said of Ivins:

"He's a great man. He's honorable, sincere, honest and most important, he didn't kill five people and he didn't kill himself".

If Ivins didn't kill himself, that can only mean that he was murdered."

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/09/colleague-of-ivins-says-he-was-murdered.html

3. "The irrefutable fact is that nothing attracts ratings for MSNBC -- and nothing has attracted ratings in the entire history of that channel -- the way that Olbermann does. Yet here is MSNBC removing him from the anchor position, reducing his role in its political coverage, and clearly diminishing his stature (and implicitly criticizing his coverage). That is extraordinary for a media company to publicly embarrass, diminish and tarnish its own principal asset. It is plainly doing so for ideological, not ratings-based, reasons: namely, it fears doing anything to anger the White House, the McCain campaign and the Right in this country."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

September 8, 2008

1. "Georgia tortures people. Every year since 2004, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported on Abu Ghraib-like treatment of prisoners in Georgian jails and prisons: Suspects have been suspended between poles and beaten with truncheons or burned with candles until they hemorrhaged from various parts of their bodies; there have been threats to beat their mothers and children if they do not confess to charges against them, according to Amnesty. In 2005 and 2006, Human Rights Watch detai