The Raw Story | US House votes to tighten Iran nuclear sanctions

The Raw Story | US House votes to tighten Iran nuclear sanctions: "The US House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelming passed legislation calling for Iran's Revolutionary Guard to be designated a terrorist organization and tightening sanctions on Tehran. The legislation passed by 397 votes to 16 as tensions spiked between Washington and Iran during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the United Nations."

Wow, you would think that the democrats would at least pretend not to support or believe the propaganda. If they believe it they are sheep, if they support it, they are absolute traitors to America. This is another step towards war with Iran, and it is taking the same path of lies that the war in Iraq did.

Police officer taped ranting at driver fired - CNN.com

Police officer taped ranting at driver fired - CNN.com: "A police sergeant whose berating of a driver was captured on videotape has been fired. Aldermen in the town of St. George, a St. Louis suburb, voted 5-0 in a closed meeting Monday to fire Sgt. James Kuehnlein. Notice of the firing was posted Wednesday at City Hall. Kuehnlein's attorney, Travis L. Noble, said the officer received a letter Thursday detailing the reasons for his firing. Noble said he would review the letter with Kuehnlein before deciding on a course of action. Brett Darrow, 20, had a video recorder inside his car when Kuehnlein approached him in a commuter lot in the early hours of September 7."

Congratulations, Mr Darrow!!! He has managed to get one of the many corrupt thugs off the street. It is nice to see every once in a while that the police get the treatment they deserve for such abusive actions, instead of the common "paid suspension."

High School: Won't give info to Military Recruiters? Forget about the graduation ceremony...

"If you chose not to participate, your child's name will also not be able to appear in anything associated with this school such as the graduation program, honor roll list, sports programs and the annual yearbook."

That's correct... If you do not want to be harassed by military recruiters, this public high school, Broadalbin-Perth in Broadalbin, NY will blacklist you, make you a non-entity...

-No Listing on the Honor Roll, despite achievements...
-No mention of participation in sports programs. How does that affect college prospects?
-Your name is removed from the yearbook, the center of school memories...
-And forget about going to the Graduation Ceremony!!!

When I was in school, the recruiters harassed me constantly, and it did not stop when I graduated. They would call me every month or two after I was out of high school, try to visit the house, etc. So if you opt out of that kind of harassment, the school will punish you for it... This is simply ridiculous, and an invasion of privacy, as far as I am concerned. I intend to email the principal and superintendent to protest this kind of abuse, and I invite all others who feel the same to email them as well. Think of your children being fooled by the unscrupulous military recruiters, and possibly ending up in Iraq, because the school punishes you for not allowing the recruiters to have your child's information.

rojeks@bpcsd.org superintendent

blowersm@bpcsd.org principal

Below you will find more of the letter... (It was sent to the parents of my nephew)

"Dear Parents/Guardians of Juniors and Seniors:

Congress has passed two major pieces of legislation that require local education agencies (high schools) receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to give military recruiters the same access to secondary school students as they provide to post secondary institutions or to prospective employers. Local education agencies are also required to provide students' names, addresses, and telephone listings to military recruiters, and higher education learning when requested.

Under FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act), this letter provides notice to you of the types of student information that it releases publicly. This type of student information, commonly referred to as "directory information," includes the students' names, the names of the student's parents/guardians, the student's address, the student's date of birth and telephone numbers and is information generally not considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. If you chose not to participate, your child's name will also not be able to appear in anything associated with this school such as the graduation program, honor roll list, sports programs and the annual yearbook."

U.S. commander: Iran supplying Taliban - Yahoo! News

U.S. commander: Iran supplying Taliban - Yahoo! News: "KABUL, Afghanistan - A top American commander on Friday accused Iran of supplying powerful roadside bombs to militants in Afghanistan and said the U.S. would 'act decisively' if the cross-border flow continues.

Heavy battles in the violence-plagued south, meanwhile, killed 75 Taliban and at least six civilians, and a suicide car bomb in the capital killed a French soldier and an Afghan bystander. Adm. William Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command, said Iran's Revolutionary Guard is supplying roadside bomb parts for the type of sophisticated and deadly bombs found in Iraq known as explosively formed penetrators."

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran. The propaganda is becoming more frequent...

The Raw Story | MoveOn's Pariser: Bush 'rallies support' for whoever he's attacking

The Raw Story | MoveOn's Pariser: Bush 'rallies support' for whoever he's attacking: "Anti-war group MoveOn.org has a message for President Bush: 'Bring it on.' Responding to President Bush, who called the ad 'disgusting' in a press conference earlier in the day, MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser says the president's comments did little to tarnish MoveOn's image or undermine its mission."

I still can believe that congress took the time to pass a measure condemning MoveOn.

Meanwhile...

The war in Iraq is still going on...

Warrantless wiretapping is still going on...

Habeas Corpus has not been restored...

Bush/Cheney and their criminal gang have not been impeached...

And all signs are pointing to an imminent bombming of Iran...

But our do-nothing, non-representative congress can take time out of the schedule to condemn an ad that was telling the truth?

The Raw Story | Iraqi forces take lead in only 8 percent of Baghdad: US general

The Raw Story | Iraqi forces take lead in only 8 percent of Baghdad: US general: "Iraqi forces have taken the lead for security in only about eight percent of Baghdad's neighborhoods more than eight months after the start of the US troop surge, a senior US commander said Friday. Major General Joseph Fil said violence has declined sharply in the city and more than half of its 474 neighborhoods, or 'mahalas,' are under the joint control of US and Iraqi forces, up from about 19 percent in June. But the percentage of neighborhoods that have moved to what the military terms the 'retain' phase of the security operation, in which Iraqi forces are in the lead and US troops are on standby, has remained stubbornly small."

It is a good thing that that "surge" is working so well...

The Raw Story | Blackwater back on the streets of Baghdad

The Raw Story | Blackwater back on the streets of Baghdad: "Despite opposition from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, US security company Blackwater was back on the streets of Baghdad on Friday, four days after being grounded over a fatal shooting incident. Maliki, meanwhile, was in the firing line over a damning report by the US embassy made public Friday detailing corruption plaguing his government, which said the attitude of his office to tackling the problem was 'openly hostile.' Blackwater guards, whom a furious Maliki wanted replaced after they opened fire in Baghdad killing 10 people, were on Friday protecting US personnel on limited missions, US spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP."

In other word's, screw you Iraq, the United States will do what it wants to, forget about your "sovereign" government...

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright - Telegraph

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright - Telegraph: "Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright Ben Bernanke has placed the dollar in a dangerous situation, say analysts 'This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar,' said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.

'Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States,' he said.

The Saudi central bank said today that it would take 'appropriate measures' to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar peg.

As a close ally of the US, Riyadh has so far tried to stick to the peg, but the link is now destabilising its own economy."

Ooops, another country is about to drop the dollar, in order to avoid collapse with the US, which will further hasten the US's economic downturn...

Wheelchair-Bound Woman Dies After Being Shocked With Taser 10 Times - Yahoo! News

Wheelchair-Bound Woman Dies After Being Shocked With Taser 10 Times - Yahoo! News: "Within an hour of her call to 911, Delafield, a wheelchair-bound woman documented to have mental illness, was dead.

Family attorney Rick Alexander said Delafield's death could have been prevented and that there are four things that jump out at him about the case.

'One, she's in a wheelchair. Two, she's schizophrenic. Three, they're using a Taser on a person that's in a wheelchair, and then four is that they tasered her 10 times for a period of like two minutes,' Alexander said.

According to a police report, one of the officers used her Taser gun nine times for a total of 160 seconds and the other officer discharged his Taser gun once for a total of no more than five seconds.

A medical examiner found Delafield died from hypertensive heart disease and cited the Taser gun shock as a contributing factor, the report said. On her death certificate, the medical examiner ruled Delafield's death a homicide."

To protect and serve. How hard is it to deal with someone in a wheel chair? Call for backup, and find another way...

Effort to Shift Course in Iraq Fails in Senate

Effort to Shift Course in Iraq Fails in Senate: "Washington - A proposal that Democrats put forward as their best chance of changing the course of the Iraq war died on the Senate floor on Wednesday, as Republicans stood firmly with President Bush. With other war initiatives seemingly headed for the same fate, Senate Democrats, who only two weeks ago proclaimed September to be the month for shifting course in Iraq, conceded that they had little chance of success. They said their strategy would now focus on portraying Republicans as opposing any change and on trying to chip away support for the White House as the war continued. The proposal that failed Wednesday fell 4 votes short of the 60 needed to prevent a filibuster and would have required that troops be given as much time at home as they had spent overseas before being redeployed."

I guess it is just a bad news day for the congress. That's okay, we did not actually expect them to do anything, like, say, listen to the people...

Bush Asks Congress to Extend NSA Program

Bush Asks Congress to Extend NSA Program: "President Bush today called on Congress to make permanent a law that gives the government broad authority to eavesdrop without warrants on phone calls, e-mail and other communication between people in the United States and suspected terrorists abroad. The president wants Congress to extend the law, set to expire in February, that allows spy agencies to intercept the communications of suspected terrorists that pass through U.S. switching facilities. '

It is the job of Congress to give the professionals the tools they need to do their work as effectively as possible,' Bush said during a visit to the headquarters of the National Security Agency in Fort Meade.

The Bush administration, facing harsh criticism over its warrantless eavesdropping program, has launched a new effort to win support for the law, which Congress temporarily extended last month. In recent days, the administration has sent top intelligence officials to Capitol Hill in an effort to assure Democratic lawmakers that the law will not result in domestic surveillance without a court order, as some critics have charged."

Let's hope that congress is not scheduled for another vacation near February... Vacation or not, they will probably pass Bush's proposal. They just love to roll over and play dead for the administration.

AlterNet: Health and Wellness: Google Wants to Track Your Medical History -- And Your Genome

AlterNet: Health and Wellness: Google Wants to Track Your Medical History -- And Your Genome: "With that low mark in mind, you might find the idea of Google's having its virtual hands on your medical history a bit disturbing. The company, and its rival Microsoft, are each taking the first steps toward the burgeoning, and lucrative, industry of electronic health-records management.

Having your medical records in an accessible, searchable and consistent format is certainly appealing. But you, and your doctor, would also become a magnet for advertisers offering services based on your particular medical history.

Eminent technology investor and pundit Esther Dyson isn't worried about privacy policies, her personal records being hacked, or these companies cooperating with the National Security Agency. In fact, she wants you to turn over not just your medical records, but your personal genetic sequence as well."

This is certainly a very scary prospect. Between the corporations and the government, there are many different privacy and other concerns that this plan would bring about. For instance, the government could secure your genetic profile with a National Security Letter, and compare it to recent cases, even if you have never been arrested before. Insurers could deny you based on genetics, which is pretty hard without this database. And, that is just the tip of the iceberg...

Bush, Congress at record low ratings: Reuters poll | Politics | Reuters

Bush, Congress at record low ratings: Reuters poll | Politics | Reuters: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy. Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July."

If the congress had actually done what the people wanted, perhaps the numbers would be stronger. Unfortunately, our representatives are not representing us.

The Raw Story | Senate deals legal blow to Guantanamo prisoners

The Raw Story | Senate deals legal blow to Guantanamo prisoners: "The US Senate Wednesday narrowly rejected an attempt to allow 'war on terror' prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detention in federal courts. Senators voted 56-43 in favor of the bill, but the final tally was short of the 60 votes needed under Senate rules for it to move forward. The bill would have restored the ancient writ of habeas corpus to inmates, giving them recourse to the US civil justice system."

What a surprise, congress fails again. I cannot fathom why any Senators would vote against this most basic of rights.

The Raw Story | Author of tasered student's 'mystery book' points to irony in incident

The Raw Story | Author of tasered student's 'mystery book' points to irony in incident: "What Meyer was referring to, according to Palast, was a chapter in the book called 'Kerry Won. Now Get Over It,' in which he says millions of votes cast in the 2004 election were discarded, not counted or prevented from being cast in the first place--a fact the author says has special relevance to the locale of Meyer's arrest. 'There's an entire dimension here that's not being covered here,' Palast said of the controversy. 'The interesting thing to me as a journalist, is that the [Meyers incident] occurred in Alachua County, Florida, one of the worst places in the country for black voters.'"

Yes, Meyers was addressing vote counting fraud, though many of the clips shown in the mass media omitted that part of the question, only showing the "skull and bones" portion. The cool thing is that Palast is contacting Meyer, and may cover the trial...

Cops on leave after Taser incident, student's behavior under scrutiny - CNN.com

Cops on leave after Taser incident, student's behavior under scrutiny - CNN.com: "Two University of Florida police officers were placed on leave with pay after using an electronic stun gun to subdue a student who was questioning Sen. John Kerry at a campus forum, the school's president said Tuesday.

But the student's behavior and past activities are prompting questions about whether the incident was part of a stunt."

I love it when police are put on paid leave for their indiscretions. Here in Schenectady, it is very rare for an officer to get suspended without out pay, much less fired, no matter what they have done. The police union has way too much power in this city, and I assume it is like that elsewhere.

Also, leave it to CNN to decide that this might have been some kind of joke or something... The videos make it obvious what happened, and until there is any proof otherwise, a respected "news" organization should not be making such baseless remarks... Everyone has pulled a practical joke or two, that does not mean that everything they do is a joke...

Nebraska state senator sues God - Yahoo! News

Nebraska state senator sues God - Yahoo! News: "LINCOLN, Neb. - The defendant in a state senator's lawsuit is accused of causing untold death and horror and threatening to cause more still. He can be sued in Douglas County, the legislator claims, because He's everywhere.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God last week. Angered by another lawsuit he considers frivolous, Chambers says he's trying to make the point that anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody.

Chambers says in his lawsuit that God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused 'widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants.'"

I thought this was satire when I first clicked the link...

The Raw Story | Student Tasered at Kerry speech

The Raw Story | Student Tasered at Kerry speech: "Police Tasered and arrested a University of Florida student Monday when he engaged in 'combative diatribe' following a question of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) at a student forum about why he didn't contest the 2004 presidential election or impeach President George W. Bush.

According to the Gainseville Sun, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications student Andrew Meyer 'approached an open microphone at the University Auditorium and demanded Kerry answer his questions. The student claimed that University Police Department officers had already threatened to arrest him, and then proceeded to question Kerry about why he didn't contest the 2004 presidential election and why there had been no moves to impeach President Bush.'"

This guy was arrested for asking a question, what freaking country are we living in here? Check out the video at the bottom of the story... The student was charged with disrupting a public event. He asked the hard questions, the questions that Kerry wants to avoid, and that the media wants to avoid, and he is arrested for it.

You also have to love the sheeple in the background that start to cheer as he is being arrested, again, for asking a question. Then there is Kerry, who keeps talking, and even jokes about the situation, almost as if nothing happened. Apparently he does not care about the abuse happening in front of him. Several police officers are hovering over the questioner just before he is shot with a taser. All those cops, and they cannot restrain the guy without resorting to a taser? Police are supposed to use THE MINIMUM AMOUNT OF FORCE to effect an arrest...

Here is the web page of the University Police, perhaps emails/phone calls are necessary...

Update, my Sister found the full video of the question, shot from another perspective. It is below:




And here is another:

The Raw Story | Soldier faces threats from military after refusing anthrax vaccine

The Raw Story | Soldier faces threats from military after refusing anthrax vaccine: "Private First Class Leif Hamre, 22, is currently serving out a Field Grade Article 15, a non-judicial punishment for disciplinary offenses, for refusing to take the Pentagon’s anthrax vaccine, BioThrax, earlier this summer.

According to Hamre, 22, the military gave him an ultimatum in late June: Either take the mandated six-shot anthrax series or face military punishment. He was given 24 hours to decide.

After conducting several hours of research into the drug and its history of triggering serious adverse reactions, the Minnesota native concluded that the “vaccine was dangerous” and “should probably still be in a lab right now for further testing.”

He decided to refuse it. In March, RAW STORY revealed that Walter Reed is investigating links between the vaccine and life-threatening autoimmune diseases."

One of our soldiers decided to not be a guinea pig, and the military is threating to punish him, or even vaccinate him, by Force!!!

Clinton to offer health care plan - Yahoo! News

Clinton to offer health care plan - Yahoo! News: "The centerpiece of Clinton's plan is the so-called 'individual mandate,' requiring everyone to have health insurance — just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance."

This is great on so many levels. First, requiring insurance by law is a HUGE gift to the corporations. Second, look how good the auto insurance industry made out with the laws requiring it. In NY, when i financed a vehicle, which requires full-coverage, I was paying 260 a month for the car, 280 for the insurance. Insurance is supposed to divide risk amongst a pool of people, but I was paying more for insurance than I was for the vehicle. I could just imagine the type of chaos that would be caused by that plan...