Monday, October 31, 2011

Occupy 10/31/2011/Goodstuffs going on in Occupied cities

I hafta tell you that flying all over the net looking for 'Occupy' stuffs is fun.  I've found lots of good things going on all over the world.  ...and then and then and then I found UnOccupy Iraq and it stopped me short in my tracks.  It reminded me of Depleted Uranium.... and then I started thinking about all the things that I can't afford NOT to think about:

Monsanto
Codex Alimentarius
Chem Trails
Depleted Uranium
Japan's Tsunami  (Wow, I had adyslexic moment with that one (Tsumani) and had to come back in and respell it........)  OMG, time to go off to zzzzzzzzzzland.)  ...cal
yadayadayada  :(
........and I start to cry as I'd much prefer to fly around and do the Occupy thingys as it is more upbeat and happy for the most part.  ALLs I'm saying is IAM going to try and delegate my time to all of it.  OMG!!! asif I'm in this 'ALL BY MYSELF'.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONm1xbf_bA   Celine Dion  (I don't even live by myself but in the middle of all the brainwashing and crazy crap going on it sure feels like it.)  ...cal


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016653386_apwaoccupyseattle.html
Excerpt:

College teachers focus lessons on Occupy Seattle

Beginning Sunday evening, instructors at Seattle Community College campuses are teaching classes in support of Occupy Seattle.
The Associated Press
SEATTLE —
Beginning Sunday evening, instructors at Seattle Community College campuses are teaching classes in support of Occupy Seattle.
The classes are scheduled to be held in the plaza of Seattle Central Community College. They will focus on subjects such as legislative lobbying, the art of the protest sign and filming to document human rights violations.
According to Occupy Seattle and the Washington branch of the American Federation of Teachers, classes were scheduled throughout the night.
Occupy Seattle is moving is its month-long protest to the Seattle college campus.


Occupy Chico Calif rally Oct 15 2011.3gp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leH20dIwhwQ&NR=1

Indeed, we are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call "the Arab Spring" has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world, its foundations lie in years-long struggles by people and popular movements. The moment that we find ourselves in is nothing new, as we in Egypt and others have been fighting against systems of repression, disenfranchisement and the unchecked ravages of global capitalism (yes, we said it, capitalism): a system that has made a world that is dangerous and cruel to its inhabitants. As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/10/occupy_portland_expands_to_sch.html
Excerpt:
Michael Moore speaks to Occupy Portland at Schrunk Plaza Michael Moore speaks to Occupy Portland at Schrunk Plaza Filmmaker Michael Moore says Portland's is the largest occupation he's seen, calls it the seat of our new democracy, and urges the demonstrators to stay involved. Watch video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/occupy-oakland-egyptian-protesters_n_1035959.html
Excerpt:
Indeed, we are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call "the Arab Spring" has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world, its foundations lie in years-long struggles by people and popular movements. The moment that we find ourselves in is nothing new, as we in Egypt and others have been fighting against systems of repression, disenfranchisement and the unchecked ravages of global capitalism (yes, we said it, capitalism): a system that has made a world that is dangerous and cruel to its inhabitants. As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme.

Occupy Oz: Your days are numbered bourgeois swine!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpyZqUY-MOU

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19211213
Excerpt:

Occupy Oakland makes plans for citywide general strike

Updated: 10/27/2011 10:44:38 PM PDT
OAKLAND -- Occupy Oakland protesters debated Thursday evening the practical difficulties of organizing a citywide general strike with the aim of shutting down the city of Oakland on Nov. 2. Speakers urged teachers, students, union members and workers of all stripes to participate in whatever way they could, and said the entire world was watching Oakland. "Oakland is the vanguard and epicenter of the Occupy movement," said Clarence Thomas, a member of the powerful International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union who urged the hundreds of assembled people to support the strike.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/updated-occupy-atlanta-to-1213111.html
Excerpt:

Updated: Occupy Atlanta to occupy Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter

By Jeremiah McWilliams

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After a search for a home that has sent them from Woodruff Park to the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site, members of Occupy Atlanta say they've found a new place to stay: the homeless shelter at Peachtree and Pine streets.
Johnny Crawford, Jcrawford@ajc.com This is the exterior photo of the homeless shelter at Peachtree and Pine Street on Friday, Oct. 29,2011.
Johnny Crawford, Jcrawford@ajc.com These are some of the bunk beds inside the homeless shelter at Peachtree and Pine Street on Friday, Oct. 29,2011.
The space is currently used by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, which owes the city more than $147,000 in unpaid water and sewer bills and has been threatened with eviction.

http://www.homelesstaskforce.org/programs.html  (Please click the ART STUDIO link and watch the enclosed 2 videos)  ...cal
Excerpt:
ABOUT US | GET INVOLVED | ART STUDIO | PROGRAMS & SERVICES | STAY INFORMED | OUR VISION
24-HR HOMELESS ASSISTANCE HOTLINEThe initial point of contact for many individuals with the Task Force is through our 24-Hour Homeless Assistance Hotline. The 24-Hour Homeless Assistance Hotline is a toll-free, statewide hotline and is the central component of Task Force service delivery. The Hotline provides a crucial first link between those who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and the resources that they need, such as shelter, food, housing, employment, or other support. This toll-free, statewide Hotline is a fully computerized, constantly operating service linking more than 10,000 callers and their households each year with shelter, food, clothing, permanent housing, employment services and other support.


(IPS) Occupy Movement Divides Civil Rights Activists

(IPS) Occupy Movement Divides Civil Rights Activists

This article first appeared on the Inter-Press Service website at: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105667

ATLANTA, Oct 31, 2011 (IPS) - While some veterans of the Civil Rights Movement have joined forces with the Occupy Movement, other civil rights advocates, some of a new generation, have been more critical, even as the city government's response to the movement reached new levels.
After two weeks of camping out at Atlanta's downtown Woodruff Park, unofficially nicknamed "Troy Davis Park", 52 Occupy Atlanta protesters were arrested with the permission of Mayor Kasim Reed at about 1 am local time (05.00 GMT) the morning of Oct. 26. 
That same night, as even more extreme and brutal police activity was seen in Oakland, California, Reed deployed about one hundred Atlanta police officers on foot, in addition to others on horseback and motorcycles and in helicopters, in a display of force estimated to cost taxpayers approximately 300,000 dollars. 
Among the 52 arrested was Joe Beasley, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as more contemporary progressive civil rights activists such as Vincent Fort, a state senator, and Derrick Boazman, a former city councilman. 
Beasley is the president of African Ascension and southern director for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, a national organisation founded by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. 
In an interview with IPS prior to the arrests, Beasley called for Reed's ouster, saying that he had requested a recall petition from the Atlanta municipal clerk's office. 
"It's a gross abuse of power and waste of taxpayers' money because he mobilised the Atlanta police, put them on a twelve-hour shift. He's got them walking around the park in great numbers as if there's some great threat to public safety," Beasley said. 
Beasley said the actions demonstrated Reed's "unsuitability to hold office. If he's got that poor judgment, he shouldn't be mayor. There's no danger whatsoever, except in his imagination." 
Shortly after the arrests, however, Rainbow/PUSH issued a statement distancing themselves from Beasley and the Occupy Movement. 
"The Occupy Movement is less than two months old. Its goals – fairer distribution of income, more meaningful regulation of banks and other global corporate interests, fairer criminal and civil justice systems, more consumer protections – are worthy, even noble," Rainbow/PUSH said. 
"But they won't come from the mere act of occupying Woodruff Park or any other space. Eventually, those goals will be achieved (if at all) with a focused, peaceful, strategic effort to influence policymakers and others," the group said. 
Meanwhile, Atlanta City Councilman Michael Julian Bond, son of civil rights leader Julian Bond, who recently led the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), withdrew his support after only a few days for Occupy Atlanta's encampment. 
The younger Bond was originally among those urging Mayor Reed to be cautious with the protesters, but after a few days said, "Enough is enough." 
In a recent interview with the newspaper the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he said it was unfair to allow Occupy Atlanta protesters to camp in the park after not allowing homeless people to camp even when the latter do not have a place to live. 
"But when it's twenty-something white kids, it's allowed to go on. That kind of stuck with me," Bond said. 
As previously reported by IPS, Mayor Reed initially issued an executive order allowing Occupy Atlanta to stay in the park temporarily. He then issued a second executive order extending the first until what was supposed to have been a Nov. 8 deadline. 
However, relations between Reed and Occupy Atlanta changed after the movement held a hip-hop concert in the park Oct. 22 without a permit from the city. 
Reed took issue with the lack of security given the number of people at the park, as well as the use of a small electric generator. Reed then said he would revoke his executive order at a time of his choosing. 
Reed said the final straw was when, the day before the arrests, a man began walking around the park with an AK-47 rifle. Occupy Atlanta said they did not know who he was. 
But civil rights advocates like Beasley, Fort, and Boazman were there with Occupy Atlanta participants during their last days in the park, becoming their strongest advocates. 
Indeed, the presence of respected, long-time Atlanta advocates lent some additional credibility to the movement. 
Ironically, Occupy Atlanta, the very group initially so wary of establishment politicians that they would not allow Representative John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia, to speak at their General Assembly the night they occupied the park came to rely on more established activists to stand with them in their final days at the park. 
One of these more established activists, Richard Cobble, president of Concerned Black Clergy, said he has been "on the cutting edge for these past twenty-eight years". 
"The tenants and the people around this park are angry, they're angry because they've made money on the backs of the poor. It's time to bring an end to all of this. If they're angry, let's make them mad, because we are tired. And I want to encourage you," Cobble said in a speech. 
"Keep it up! Let's do it! Let's make them angry, mad, and what have you," Cobble said. "We're not afraid of law enforcement. We're not afraid of what the mayor's going to do... We're going to be out here loud and clear. This is not the end. I don't want it to be an end. We cannot let it be an end. We cannot give in." 
(END)
ATLANTA, Oct 31, 2011 (IPS) - While some veterans of the Civil Rights Movement have joined forces with the Occupy Movement, other civil rights advocates, some of a new generation, have been more critical, even as the city government's response to the movement reached new levels.
After two weeks of camping out at Atlanta's downtown Woodruff Park, unofficially nicknamed "Troy Davis Park", 52 Occupy Atlanta protesters were arrested with the permission of Mayor Kasim Reed at about 1 am local time (05.00 GMT) the morning of Oct. 26.
That same night, as even more extreme and brutal police activity was seen in Oakland, California, Reed deployed about one hundred Atlanta police officers on foot, in addition to others on horseback and motorcycles and in helicopters, in a display of force estimated to cost taxpayers approximately 300,000 dollars.
Among the 52 arrested was Joe Beasley, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as more contemporary progressive civil rights activists such as Vincent Fort, a state senator, and Derrick Boazman, a former city councilman.

To: PeaceFresnoFriends <peacefresno-friends@lists.riseup.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2011 1:47 PM
Subject: [pf-friends] URGENT Occupy Fresno Sun 6 p.m. & Mon


Occupy Fresno writes:
Subject: SUNDAY GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND MONDAY, RESIST THE EVICTION

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY!

To All Occupy Activists and Supporters--

Please come out for tonight's, Sunday's, General Assembly, 6 pm at Courthouse Park. The county has issued notices that Occupy Fresno will be evicted on Monday night at midnight. We need to be prepared for that. We will develop a plan for resiting the eviction tonight.

The County is engaging in a smear campaign, falsely claiming that Occupy Fresno members were openly defecating and urinating in Courthouse Park and that we were destroying public property (i.e., using chalk to draw on the sidewalks). What we have been doing is peacefully exercising our constitutional rights of free expression and freedom of assembly. PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE WORLDWIDE OCCUPATION MOVEMENT AND FOR OCCUPY FRESNO! JOIN US ON MONDAY NIGHT AS OCCUPY FRESNO WILL RESIST THE COUNTY'S ILLEGAL EVICTION NOTICE. EVEN IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO BE ILLEGALLY ARRESTED YOU CAN HELP US. WE NEED LEGAL OBSERVERS, FOLKS TAKING VIDEO, AND A LARGE SHOW OF PUBLIC SUPPORT.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/30/18696193.php
Excerpt:

Santa Cruz Indymedia | Anti-War | Education & Student Activism

Sun Oct 30 2011 Community Gathers to Honor Victims and Urge Stop to Violence
18th Annual Peace & Unity March in Watsonville On October 29, the 18th Annual Peace & Unity March was held in Watsonville. The march was organized to honor victims of gang-related violence in Watsonville and to push for an end to the violence in the community. Sandino Gómez, historian for the Watsonville Brown Berets, recounted how the march began in 1994 to honor Jessica and Jorge Cortéz, 16 and 9 years old, who were gunned down because they had witnessed a gang–related crime. Gómez emphasized that “violence is not the solution” and that everyone present “must be part of the solution”. A representative of the mothers of victims, Rose de Ramirez, who lost her son to gang-related violence sixteen years ago, emphasized, “We need support from the community to stop violence”.

The march is part of multiple efforts on the part of the Watsonville Brown Berets and other community groups to stop gang-related violence in the Watsonville area. According to Brown Beret Diego Espinoza, one challenge is that public after-school programs have been cut and there are limited spaces for youth to express themselves besides getting involved in gangs. The Brown Berets seek to fill this gap by providing an open space at the Bike Shack in Watsonville for youth to participate in workshops on Youth & Power, art and music, indigenous and Latino culture, and to organize around important community issues, such as the struggle to ban the use of methyl iodide on crops in California.

http://www.anngarrison.com/content/natos-occupy-libya-action-is-not-for-the-99
Excerpt:
NATO didn't bomb Libya for the 99%

Primary tabs

U.S. drones fired Tomahawk Cruise missiles over Libya, at the outset of the U.S./NATO invasion and occupation of Libya. It was not part of the global Occupy Movement.
Contrary to what the video below suggests, the U.S./NATO invasion and occupation of Libya, behind the National Transition Council (NTC), does not belong on the growing map of  global movements identified with the phrase "We are the 99%."  The video, featuring Libyan rebels backed by the U.S./NATO, appears on the OccupySouthAfrica web page, and on the Youtube, under the heading Evolution of Revolution - World Revolution Day 15 October 2011, where it's winning thousands of viewers, most of whom, excepting myself, seem enthusiastic.
But the U.S./NATO did not bomb Libya in the interests of the 99%, not the 99% in Libya or anywhere else. They bombed in the interests of the 1%, which is hungry for control of Libya's sweet crude oil, uranium, gold, and other resources, and its militarily strategic location.
Why is Syria, which is most likely next on the U.S./NATO list, also in this video?  Why not Uganda, where demonstrators  have marched in the streets and been shot and jailed to protest a fraudulent election followed by soaring food and fuel prices?  Why not Congo, where political opposition is struggling against all odds for a free and fair election?  Why not Rwanda, where opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is on trial for challenging Rwandan President Paul Kagame's official, Constitutionally codified version of the genocide in Rwanda, and opposition leader Bernard Ntaganda is already in prison?  The presidents of these three countries, Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo, all facilitate the extraction of tens of billions of dollars worth of African natural resources to Western investors, as the Libyan NTC will, even as it struggles, with U.S./NATO support, to conquer ongoing Libyan resistance.

Militarizing US Police, what did Bill Clinton have to do with it? Racism???

Militarizing US Police
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/the-secret-government/militarizing-us-police.html

American Militarized Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hOLq9Fp1C0&feature=related

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-01-10/news/17943437_1_hillary-clinton-bill-clinton-game-change
Excerpt:

Bill Clinton told Ted Kennedy that Obama 'would be getting us coffee' a few years ago: 'Game Change'

Bill Clinton helped sink his wife's chances for an endorsement from Ted Kennedy by belittling Barack Obama as nothing but a race-based candidate.
"A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee," the former president told the liberal lion from Massachusetts, according to the gossipy new campaign book, "Game Change."
The book says Kennedy was deeply offended and recounted the conversation to friends with fury.
After Kennedy sided with Obama, Clinton reportedly griped, "the only reason you are endorsing him is because he's black. Let's just be clear."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Change
Excerpt:
Harry Reid was heavily criticized for comments he previously made about Barack Obama, which had not been made public until they were published in Game Change. According to the book, Reid said he believed Obama could become the country's first black president because he was "light-skinned" and had "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one". Reid acknowledged and apologized for the comments, and his apology was accepted by Barack Obama. The disclosure came at a time Reid was facing a difficult reelection campaign in his home state of Nevada.[8][9][10] National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair John Cornyn, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Jon Kyl called on Reid to step down as majority leader for his remarks.[11]
Also reported for the first time was a comment Bill Clinton supposedly made in trying to convince Ted Kennedy not to back Obama's candidacy but rather that of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton reportedly said to Kennedy that a few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee; the belittling of Obama's candidacy helped lead to Kennedy's endorsement of Obama shortly thereafter.[12] Reverend Al Sharpton condemned Clinton's remark, saying, "I think that's far more disturbing [than Senator Reid's comments] because this is someone seeking to stop Mr. Obama's campaign... If someone said that he would have been getting us coffee like that in the context they said he said it, that would be very offensive to me, and I would definitely take Mr. Clinton on".[12]


http://swans.com/library/art16/barker62.html
Excerpt:
Bill Clinton's Philanthropic Propaganda  

"Through their donations and work for voluntary organizations, the charitable rich exert enormous influence in society. As philanthropists, they acquire status within and outside of their class. Although private wealth is the basis of the hegemony of this group, philanthropy is essential to the maintenance and perpetuation of the upper class in the United States. In this sense, nonprofit activities are the nexus of a modern power elite."
—Teresa Odendahl, 1990. (1)

(Swans - August 9, 2010)   Philanthropic propaganda provides a powerful rhetorical discourse that is used to maximum effect to shield leading members of the ruling class from critical scrutiny. Through consuming such propaganda we find out that the people who organize Empire against the interests of the majority of humanity are just like the rest of us, except, that is, that they want to help make the world a safer place for capital, not humans. This murderous prioritization is however glossed over by unrelenting public relations campaigns that maintain just the opposite. Bill Clinton is a master of such propaganda and just a few years ago he published his own opus on this subject, Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (Knopf, 2007). Clinton is "convinced... that almost everyone -- regardless of income, available time, age, and skills -- can do something useful for others and, in the process, strengthen the fabric of our shared humanity." (2) Yet while he may be correct in stating that almost everyone can lend a hand, arguably the only people who should be excluded from intervening in this process are members of the power elite, like Clinton.

http://news.yahoo.com/school-police-union-slammed-edgy-t-shirts-185602644.html
Excerpt:
NORTH HIGHLANDS, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California school police officers union has angered a town after it sold T-shirts with a picture of a child behind bars and the slogan: "U raise 'em, we cage 'em."
Town leaders said the fundraising shirts are highly offensive and fuel mistrust of the Twin Rivers Police Department in North Highlands, the Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/sDbEnl ) reported Tuesday.

http://hoboken411.com/archives/8862
Excerpt:
5/2/2011 HOBOKEN411 EXCLUSIVE:

$2 Million settlement proposed in Hoboken SWAT case,

Dawn Zimmer protects Andriani and Roberts while taxpayers pay

The lawsuit that brought national attention to the Hoboken SWAT Team is about to be settled. Hoboken411 has learned Mayor Dawn Zimmer is asking the City Council to approve a $2 million dollar payout to five police officers who sued the city over treatment by former Lieutenant Angelo Andriani.
The rub? Zimmer’s settlement will relieve Andriani and former Mayor David Roberts of any burden they faced in the lawsuits related to the SWAT case. The $2 million would be split among the five Hispanic officers who brought the case.

How this all started, and the SWAT scandal that followed

Back in October 2007 (see original reporting on the case after the jump), Sgt. Edwin Pantoja, Det. Cesar Olavarria, Det. James Perez, Det. George Fonseca and Det. Mario Novo filed suit against the city charging Angelo Andriani was a white supremacist who discriminated against them because of their ethnicity.
After the suit was filed, Hoboken411 showed the world the pictures of the post-Hurricane Katrina exploits of Andriani and his SWAT team. As a City Council member, Dawn Zimmer voted (along with Peter Cunningham) to allow former Police Chief Carmen LaBruno to retire with a $525,000 cash payout and full pension of $148,000 a year (plus full benefits for life) rather than face an investigation for his management of Andriani and the department.
Zimmer and Cunningham allowed LaBruno to leave with a golden parachute rather than shine light on the problems of the department. Now, Zimmer is again looking to settle a case without further exposure to the people who may have been most culpable.

http://hoboken411.com/archives/36448
Excerpt:

http://usaintelreport.blogspot.com/2011/01/militarized-police-after-giffords.html
Excerpt:
Bill Clinton gave a commencement speech at Michigan State University and during that speech he urged the House and the Senate to pass his anti-terror legislation in response to Oklahoma City. In this extremely controversial proposal, the Department of Defense would've been assigned an increased role in domestic terrorism incidents. Civil liberties experts warned that it would violate the tenants of "civil supremacy over the military". Rush Limbaugh on his television show expressed dismay for Clinton wanting using the military in domestic police action. After the recent shooting, there's no telling what legislation could be coming in the name of protecting government officials. I'd say it's unlikely that Obama would pass such extreme legislation such as this. Obama does not seem to be anxious for power as Clinton and Bush were.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/06/us/terror-in-oklahoma-excerpts-from-clinton-s-commencement-speech.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm
Excerpt:
If you appropriate our sacred symbols for paranoid purposes and compare yourselves to colonial militias who fought for the democracy you now rail against, you are wrong. How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on earth live in tyranny? How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes?
I say to you, all of you, the members of the class of 1995, there is nothing patriotic about hating your country or pretending that you can love your country but despise your Government. There is nothing heroic about turning your back on America or ignoring your own responsibilities. If you want to preserve your own freedom, you must stand up for the freedom of others with whom you disagree, but you also must stand up for the rule of law. You cannot have one without the other.

Clinton How Dare You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr0dvW9jmtY

http://www.chomsky.info/books/roguestates08.htm
Excerpt:

Plan Colombia Noam Chomsky
Excerpted from Rogue States, 2000
In 1999, Colombia became the leading recipient of US military and police assistance, replacing Turkey (Israel and Egypt are in a separate category). Colombia receives more US military aid than the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean combined. The total for 1999 reached about $300 million, along with $60 million in arms sales, approximately a threefold increase from 1998. The figure is scheduled to increase still more sharply with the anticipated passage of some version of Clinton’s Colombia Plan, submitted to Congress in April 2000, which called for a $1.6 billion “emergency aid” package for two years. Through the 1990s, Colombia has been by far the leading recipient of US military aid in Latin America, and has also compiled by far the worst human rights record, in conformity with a well-established and long-standing correlation.1 In theory, “Plan Colombia” is a two-year Colombian government program of $7.5 billion, with the US providing the military muscle and token funds for other purposes, and some $6 billion from the Colombian government, Europe, the IMF, and the World Bank for social and economic programs that Colombia is to prepare. According to non-US diplomats, the draft of “Plan Colombia” was written in English, not Spanish. The military program (arms, training, intelligence infrastructure) was in place in late 1999, but “the Colombian govern-ment has yet to present a coherent social investment program” as of mid-2000, and few governments are “willing to climb aboard what is widely perceived as an American project to clean up its backyard,” by means that are familiar to those who do not choose what has been called “intentional ignorance.”2

http://www.rense.com/general16/coop.htm
Excerpt:
William Cooper Killed In SWAT Raid

SierraTimes.com

11-6-1
"...God bless my family. I love my wife & children more than life itself. Everything I do is for the future of all my children. They may not understand why I have sacrificed so much, why I am so dedicated to this work; but someday they will. I want them to know they are the most important People in my life, and how very, very much I love them..." - William Cooper
 
EAGER, AZ - William Cooper has been killed and an Apache County sheriff's deputy wounded in a shootout, authorities said.
http://www.davekopel.com/cj/chap/afterprohibition.htm
Excerpts:
1) One of the most significant trends of law enforcement in the last twenty fifteen years has been militarization. That militarization is the direct result of the drug war, and it is the direct cause of the deaths of Enrique Hernandez, Donald Scott, and other innocents—and of assaults on the persons and property of many more innocents.

2) More significant than the semantic change is the fact that the JTFs often pay no attention to their legal constraints. For example, the JTF responsible for the Canadian border area provided “counterdrug” sniper training at Camp Perry, Ohio. Among the trainees were state prison guards; while prison guards perform important jobs, the notion that training prison guards how to kill people at long distances with military-style sniper rifles has something to do with “counterdrug” activity is ludicrous.
The military’s lawyers are members of the JAG Corps (“Judge Advocates General”). Like all government lawyers, their duties are to the People, and they are required to ensure that their government clients stay within legal boundaries. But in practice, when JAG lawyers object to particular JTF missions which appear to violate the law, military liaison officers for  the JAG Corps usually inform the lawyers that objections are “not career enhancing.”
An example of what happens to people who don’t use drugs as a result of the absence of strong checks of use of the military in the drug war can be seen in the tragedy at Waco, Texas.
As part of the planning for the Waco raid, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms went to the Joint Task Force Six, which covers Texas, and asked for training, medical, communications, and other support. The JTF-6 staff explained that they could only be involved if the case were a drug case.[xv] If the case were not a drug case, BATF could obtain assistance from other parts of the military; JTF units could only be used for drug enforcement. And while military training and equipment were available from other units, BATF would have to pay for military help, if the Waco raid were not drug-related.
Immediately thereafter, BATF began asserting phony claims that the Waco case was a drug investigation; Branch Davidian prophet David Koresh was supposedly running a methamphetamine laboratory.
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/29/110005.shtml
Excerpt:
In November 2005 the Associated Press reported that Senate Minority Leader Reid had accepted tens of thousands of dollars from an Abramoff client, the Coushatta Indian tribe, after interceding with Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton over a casino dispute with a rival tribe.
Reid "sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002," the AP said. "The next day, the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second tribe represented by Abramoff sent an additional $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1896042/posts
Excerpt:
Posted on Thursday, September 13, 2007 12:59:08 PM by Fedora
Caught in the Searchlight: Hsu, Reid, and the Searchlight Leadership Fund
Harry Reid’s Mob Money, Part 5
By Fedora

Fugitive fundraiser Norman Hsu’s donations to Hillary Clinton have understandably grabbed the limelight, but there is another story lurking in the shadows of the affair. Federal Election Commission documents record that on May 17, 2007, Hsu donated $1,000 to the Searchlight Leadership Fund, a political action committee associated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On the same day, Searchlight received a $1,000 contribution from Winkle Paw, described by Hsu’s lawyer as a business associate of Hsu. Also donating $1,000 to Searchlight that day was Paul Su of Dilini Management Group, a company Hsu listed on a form while making a political contribution to Senator Dianne Feinstein.
These donations to Searchlight expose a funding conduit reaching to the heart of Harry Reid’s political machine. The financial trail stretches back to Reid’s hometown, his longtime business associate Jay Brown, and his Nevada gambling industry patrons; and it connects the Hsu affair to scandal-ridden lobbyists William Oldaker and Jack Abramoff, Reid’s financial consigliere Claude Zobell, and a political action committee targeting freshmen Congressmen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_influence_of_Jack_Abramoff
Excerpt:
Reid also intervened on government matters in ways that Abramoff's tribal clients might have deemed helpful, once opposing legislation on the Senate floor and four times sending letters pressing the Bush administration on tribal issues. Reid collected donations around the time of each action. Reid's office said none of the senator's actions were affected by donations or done for Abramoff.
Reid sent a letter they wrote on March 5, 2002, to Interior Secretary Gale Norton asking her to reject an application from the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, which was seeking to open a casino outside its Louisiana reservation. An Abramoff client fighting the Jena casino, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, donated $5,000 to Reid's political action committee, the Searchlight Leadership Fund, the next day, at Abramoff's request. While Abramoff never donated directly to Reid, the lobbyist did instruct the tribe to send $5,000 to the fund. The Washington Post reported that Abramoff sent a list to the tribe titled "Coushatta Requests" recommending donations to campaigns or groups for 50 lawmakers. Alongside Reid's name, Abramoff wrote, "5,000 (Searchlight Leadership Fund) Senate Majority Whip." Reid was Democratic whip at the time.























http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Telecommunications_Act_of_1996
Excerpt:
The consumer activist Ralph Nader referred to these concessions as "one of the single biggest giveaways in U.S. corporate welfare history." [3] The spectrum was estimated to be worth between $11 billion and $70 billion. [4] Even the onetime GOP presidential candidate, former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas, came out vehemently against the handout: "We don't give away trees to newspaper publishers. Why should we give away more airwaves to broadcasters?" he wrote in a 1997 editorial published in The New York Times. "The airwaves are a natural resource. They do not belong to the broadcasters, phone companies or any other industry. They belong to the American people." [5]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Intellectual_Property_Protection_Act_of_2007
Excerpt:

Carlyle Group/What about Climategate, huh?

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Synagro
Excerpt:
Synagro, according to its website, is the largest processor of sewage sludge in the United States. [1] The company is owned, since 2007, by The Carlyle Group, a formal corporate partner of the Environmental Defense Fund. [2]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Environmental_Defense_Fund
Excerpt:
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), run by Fred Krupp, is a US-based Environmental organization and is considered a Big Green environmental group, one of the largest and most prominent in the world. It describes itself as being "dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food, and a flourishing ecosystem. Guided by science, Environmental Defense evaluates environmental problems and works to create and advocate solutions that win lasting political, economic and social support because they are nonpartisan, cost-efficient and fair." EDF prides itself on the formal corporate partnerships it forms with companies such as McDonald's, Walmart, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and most recently The Carlyle Group, home of Synagro the sewage sludge giant.

EDF Partners with Synagro, The World's Leader in Dumping Sewage Sludge on Farms and Gardens

EDF creates formal corporate partnerships between itself and major corporations, such as the Carlyle Group with which it partnered in March, 2010. [3] The Carlyle Group, a private investment corporation, owns Synagro, the world's largest company producing sewage sludge "compost" and "fertilizer," often called "biosolids," that is dumped on farms and gardens.

http://www.edf.org/people/fred-krupp
Excerpt:
In his 26 years as head of Environmental Defense Fund, Fred Krupp has overseen the growth of EDF from a small nonprofit with budget of $3 million into a recognized worldwide leader in the environmental movement. Under his direction, EDF’s full-time staff has increased from 50 to 350, membership has expanded from 40,000 to more than 500,000 and new offices have opened in Raleigh, Austin, Boston, Sacramento and Beijing, China.
Fred is widely recognized as the foremost champion of harnessing market forces for environmental ends, such as the market-based acid rain reduction plan in the 1990 Clean Air Act that The Economist hailed as “the greatest green success story of the past decade.” Today, this approach has become the leading model for solving the problem of global warming.
Fred broke new ground by engaging American companies to lessen their impact on the environment. Strategic partnerships with McDonald’s, FedEx, and DuPont, among others, have resulted in the elimination of millions of pounds of waste, the adoption of hybrid delivery vehicles, and an accord to reduce the environmental risks of nanotechnology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Krupp
Excerpt:
He has served on the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

http://www.marcgunther.com/tag/fred-krupp/
Excerpt:
Business is business, they say, but I’m often reminded that business is personal, too.
Back in about 2005, Lee Scott, who was then Ceo of Walmart, traveled with Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, to the top of Mount Washington, to visit a weather research station and meet with environmental scientists, including Steve Hamburg, who’s now the chief scientist at EDF. On their way, Scott stopped to visit with a New Hampshire maple farmer who told him that warmer weather was threatening the maple syrup business his family had operated for four generations. By the end of the trip, Scott had seen the impacts of climate change for himself – and seen how they could evolve into business issues for Walmart.

http://www.theclimategatebook.com/ice-cold-lies-the-glacier-chapter-i-choose-to-leave-out/
Excerpt:
THE HILLARY/MCCAIN BIPARTISAN PROPAGANDA TOUR
In August, 2005, network television newscasts and major newspapers carried the story of the U.S. Senators who visited Alaska in search of evidence for man-made global warming.  Led by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, this trip was nothing more than a well-planned photo-op designed to pretend that these politicos were on the cutting edge of environmental issues.  But the reports, themselves, actually exposed them for what they were.
The Anchorage Daily News reported, “Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton, touring Alaska this week to view melting permafrost and shrinking glaciers, said the evidence is mounting that global warming is real and human activity is significantly to blame.”[21]
Now, my guess is that Clinton and McCain weren’t shown the growing Hubbard Glacier.
The story included this “insight” from McCain:  “‘The question is how much damage will be done before we start taking concrete action,’ McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters at the Hotel Captain Cook Wednesday morning.  ‘Go up to places like we just came from.  It’s a little scary.’”[22]
Note, also, that the senators were visiting in mid-August—a time when Alaska usually experiences its most significant melting.  Even advancing glaciers look a bit weepy when the summer temperatures get above freezing.  Those not knowledgeable about the contour and climate of the region, like the caring senators, can easily be duped into believing that what they were witnessing was actually global warming in action, rather than the normal August melt that it was.
The media tour didn’t get much better.
“Clinton, D-N.Y., said the scientists and Native people she’s spoken to on this trip to Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory make the case with convincing and moving particulars.  ‘So I don’t think there’s any doubt left for anybody who actually looks at the science,’ she said.  ‘There are still some holdouts, but they’re fighting a losing battle.  The science is overwhelming.’”[23]
Clinton’s response was a typical tactic used by global whiners,  that is, using labels such as “holdout” or “fighting a losing battle” against anyone who questions or disagrees with their “informed” conclusions.  But no one dared ask how much or how little science was actually presented to the Washington delegation.  For example, were they told that the highest temperature ever recorded in Alaska (91°) occurred in 1931 in Anchorage?  What was occurring in the blistering global heat-up of the planet back in the 1930s to have caused such unprecedented warmth?  Seems to me the constituents of these “public servants” would want to know.
How about the actual temperature trends in Alaska?  If the senators were honestly concerned with the science, certainly it would have been valuable to visit the Alaska Climate Research Center (ACRC) and speak with some of their brilliant people.  Dapper white lab coats and professorial black horn-rimmed safety spectacles would have made a great photo-op.  But they passed on that one because they would have no doubt heard a lecture from scientists regarding a well-known phenomena called Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).
Every two to three decades water currents in the Pacific Ocean mysteriously shift dramatically enough to allow Arctic air temperatures to sharply spike upward.  Like the much-publicized El Nino weather pattern, which periodically warms the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the western United States by many degrees, the PDO does the same thing in its northern waters and lasts longer.  It was last “switched on” between 1976 and 1977.
We can imagine that Hillary might have interrupted, “Obviously what we are talking about is a correlation between anthropogenic CO2 concentrations and the PDO,” and that the news media would have been awestruck at her knowledge.
But her “brilliant” moment surely would have been left on the cutting room floor as the ACRC scientists would have assured her there is no such correlation.  The PDO just occurs.  Again, climate happens.  The pattern has been observed in temperature data derived from tree rings, reaching back at least 1,000 years.[24] Moreover, a look at the temperature data in Alaska after the PDO kicked in shows something the global warmers want to hide:  “since 1977 little additional warming has occurred in Alaska.”[25]
The following graph illustrates ACRC’s findings regarding the giant temperature jump associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation in Alaska.  Notice after the 1976 rise, the average temperature is at least flat or perhaps slightly cooling.
The Hillary/McCain story does not end here, but rather gets more Hillary-ous.  Covering their coverage of the propaganda tour, the press reported, “She [Hillary] was struck by the account of a 93 year-old woman she met at a fish camp they helicoptered to from Whitehorse, Yukon.  The woman told her she’d been fishing there her whole life but that lately the fish have strange bumps on them, growths Clinton said sounded like some sort of tumor.”
In their desperation to provide an ad hominem example of climate change, they risked the life of the 93 year-old woman by flying her in by helicopter to meet with Hillary.  And there, before God and man, “Dr.” Clinton distinctly diagnosed the first man-caused, global warming fish tumors!  And no one in the media even questioned it! Something they are prone to do, even when the irony is glaring.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iraq_Foundation
Excerpt:

Neoliberal agenda

"Digging a little deeper, however, reveals powerful ties between the Iraq Foundation and the neo-liberal agenda. The two founders of the Iraq Foundation are merchant bankers and currency traders. One of these individuals, Basil Al Rahim, heads MerchantBridge, one of the most high profile investment banking groups in the Middle East. MerchantBridge was the first private equity fund to focus on the Middle East and in 2004 was appointed by the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Materials to advise on the leasing of state owned firms to the private sector. (http://www.mbih.com/)"

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-05/merchantbridge-ceo-al-rahim-dies-in-iraq-plane-crash-update1-.html
Excerpt:
MerchantBridge & Co., a London-based private equity group, said founder and Chief Executive Officer Basil Al-Rahim was killed in a plane crash in Iraq that also claimed the lives of a business partner, two JPMorgan Chase & Co. bankers and three crew.
Group partner Abdallah Lahoud was among those who died in the incident yesterday, MerchantBridge said in a PRNewswire statement today.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Starbuck's worker fired after singing Rant song

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/barista-fired-starbucks-rant-song-viral/story?id=14582329
Excerpt:
"If people are offended by the song, I'm sorry but I can't make everybody happy," says the 25-year-old Chowchilla, Calif., resident.
"I'm going to make the people laugh that I intended to write the song for," says Cristwell.
But, it's nothing personal. "I stand by the satire. I stand by the comedy," he adds.
After around four years on the job, Cristwell says he had built good relationships at the store and, other than the occasional disgruntled customer, has no ill-will towards Starbucks patrons.
"It was a comedy song, and, ironically, it is not autobiographical. The customers that come into that store, I really love them a lot, I treat them well, and they treat me well. I sang the song to get a laugh," said Cristwell.
After being fired, Cristwell says there are no hard feelings. "I think they could have handled it a little differently but I'm not trying to tell them how they should do it. The song did poke fun at people employing baristas. I understand their position," Cristwell told ABCNews.
"I'm ok with it. I'm not bitter. I'm not trying to be a martyr," he continued.
What's up next? Cristwell is continuing his quest for Emergency Medical Technician certification and looking for a new place of employment.
"I really do need to get a job," says Cristwell. "I have a lot of bills I need to pay still. It's kind of unfortunate this made big headlines, it's probably going to be really hard to find a job."

http://www.maderatribune.com/life/lifeview.asp?c=220279
Excerpt:
What? I sincerely doubt that my parents would have been proud of me for kidnapping 26 schoolchildren and burying them alive, even if I had collected the $5 million. Still, some people, like former Madera County Sherif's Officer Dale Fore, who started working for the Woods family in 1998, have argued for the release of the three felons.

If the "Lindbergh Law" [Federal Kidnapping Act 18 USC § 1201(a)(1)] had not been watered down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the early 1970s, the three would have been sentenced to death. Although this law applied to interstate cases, similar laws, known as "Little Lindbergh Laws," were adopted by many states, including California. In any case, kidnapping was no longer considered to be a capital offense.

In California, Penal Codes 207-210 apply. As almost everyone knows, laws are usually complex. Here is the "meat" of Penal Code 209(a): "Any person who ... kidnaps ... another person ... with the intent ... to commit extortion ... is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life without possibility of parole ..." This section goes on to state specifics and exceptions, but the intent of the law is clear.

On Nov. 10, 1976, the trial for the defendants was moved to Alameda County, and on July 25, 1977, all three pled guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping for ransom. Eighteen counts of robbery were dropped by the prosecution and the three were found guilty and sentenced for three counts of kidnapping with bodily harm. The addition of "bodily harm" is covered in Penal Code 209 and demands a life sentence without possibility of parole.

However, although the Schoenfeld brothers and Woods did receive life, each has come up for parole on many occasions. I'm neither a lawyer nor an expert on California law, but this seems like a cut and dried case to me. Richard Schoenfeld will appear before the parole board in the very near future, and I hope that Mr. LiCalsi will be present to assure that justice is carried out.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/03/local/la-me-chowchilla-kidnapping-20110404/2
Excerpt:
After they imprisoned Ray and the children, they left to call in a $5-million ransom demand to the Chowchilla Police Department. The phone lines were busy. They took naps and awoke to the news that the children had escaped.
A key issue at sentencing was whether they had kidnapped with bodily harm — a circumstance warranting life in prison with no parole. Prosecutor David Minier convinced Superior Court Judge Leo Deegan that the nosebleeds, stomach upset and fainting suffered by three of the girls constituted injury. But an appeals court ruled in 1980 that there was no bodily harm, and the kidnappers were eligible for parole.
Since then, each has been denied parole dozens of times. Supporters say their continued imprisonment makes a mockery of the idea of rehabilitation. Minier, now a retired judge, favors parole for all three kidnappers.

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/7521/l-a-temple-fends-off-lewinsky-inquiries/
Excerpt:
Bernard Lewinsky is an oncologist who lives in the upscale West Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood. His medical career began with a residency at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco, where he grew up and where Monica Lewinsky was born. The doctor and his parents were longtime members of Congregation Beth Sholom. His mother still lives in San Francisco.

Bernard Lewinsky is affiliated with the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and UCLA Medical Center, and maintains private offices in Sherman Oaks and West Hills, two San Fernando Valley communities in suburban Los Angeles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Newhall
Excerpt:
Henry Mayo Newhall (May 13, 1825–March 13, 1882) was an American businessman, whose extensive land holdings became the current communities of Newhall, Saugus, Valencia, and the city of Santa Clarita, in Southern California.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhall_Land_and_Farming_Company
Excerpt:

http://mvgazette.com/article.php?29164
Excerpt:
Edwin Newhall Woods was born in San Francisco on Oct. 4, 1917, a son of Frederick Nickerson Woods and Frances Henrielle Newhall Woods. He made his first trip to the Vineyard, the home of his mother’s forebears, when he was less than a year old. The family — his mother and Granny Newhall Woods, his brother Fred and sister Virginia, dogs and cats — crossed the country in a car at a time, according to family legend, when there were only 20 miles of paved roads between the East and West Coasts. During this childhood period Edwin acquired the nickname Bob; his mother decided Edwin Newhall was much too much a name for a little boy and cheerily called him Bobolink, soon shortened to Bob.

http://www.securityeyeinc.com/history/history_chowchilla.htm
Excerpt:
The 100-acre Portola Valley estate of the quarry owner, Frederick Nickerson Woods, was searched. Woods' son, Fred Newhall Woods IV, 24, was missing.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,914434,00.html
Excerpt:
Shortly before dawn one day last week a 25-car caravan descended upon the 100-acre estate of Frederick N. Woods III near Portola Valley, Calif., 34 miles from San Francisco. Out of the vehicles burst 62 sheriffs deputies and federal agents armed with riot guns and tear-gas canisters. Their quarry, wanted on 27 counts of kidnaping and 16 counts of robbery: Woods' son, Frederick Woods IV, 25; James Schoenfeld, 24; and his brother Richard, 22, both sons of a podiatrist in Atherton, Calif.
The three, said police, are "armed and dangerous" and should be arrested "on probable cause." At week's end...

Excerpt:John Bruce Schoenfeld
Menlo Park podiatrist
John Bruce Schoenfeld, who ran a podiatry practice in Menlo Park for 45 years, died October 5 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Santa Clara after suffering a stroke at his Mountain View home. He was 77.
A native of Portland, Dr. Schoenfeld moved to California when he was 3.
In 1943, he enlisted in the Navy and served in a Seabees construction battalion in the South Pacific during World War II.
After the war, he returned to the Bay Area, where he obtained a doctorate in podiatric medicine from the San Francisco School of Podiatry. He ran a practice in Menlo Park for 45 years, until he retired in 1994.
Dr. Schoenfeld was active in the Boy Scouts of America (all three of his sons became Eagle Scouts), as well as the Masonic Lodge of Menlo Park.
Stories of Tarzan fascinated Dr. Schoenfeld when he was young, and after visiting Africa several times, he described it as his favorite place in the world, according to his family.
Dr. Schoenfeld is survived by his wife, Merry; his sons, John of Belmont, James and Richard; his sister, Jean of Los Altos; and two grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, October 21, at Unity Palo Alto Community Church, 3391 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.
Dr. Schoenfeld had a history of diabetes. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the American Diabetes Association.

Excerpt:
Famous quotes
  • "This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President Woodrow Wilson signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized....the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill."[6]
Also quoted as:
  • "This Act establishes the most gigantic trust on Earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized, the people may not know it immediately but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed.... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill."
  • "A radical is one who speaks the truth."[6]
  • "The Aldrich Plan is the Wall Street Plan. It means another panic, if necessary, to intimidate the people. Aldrich, paid by the government to represent the people, proposes a plan for the trusts instead." - The Aldrich Plan (History of central banking in the United States) was a forerunner to that which spawned the Federal Reserve.
  • "To cause high prices, all the Federal Reserve Board will do will be to lower the rediscount rate..., producing an expansion of credit and a rising stock market; then when ... business men are adjusted to these conditions, it can check ... prosperity in mid career by arbitrarily raising the rate of interest. It can cause the pendulum of a rising and falling market to swing gently back and forth by slight changes in the discount rate, or cause violent fluctuations by a greater rate variation and in either case it will possess inside information as to financial conditions and advance knowledge of the coming change, either up or down. This is the strangest, most dangerous advantage ever placed in the hands of a special privilege class by any Government that ever existed. The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money. They know in advance when to create panics to their advantage, They also know when to stop panic. Inflation and deflation work equally well for them when they control finance."
  • "The financial system [...] has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That board administers the finance system by authority of [...] a purely profiteering group. The system is private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money."[6]
http://www.nexport.com/company.cfm?company=4474766_Newhall_Land_Farming_Co_Ranches_Firebaugh_CA  (My best friend's brother worked at Newhall Ranch when he first got out of high school.  He had interviewed with th Bureau of Reclamation at about the same time but made the decision to work at Newhall.  hmmmm)  ...cal
Excerpt:
newhall land & farming co is a Ranches specialist located in firebaugh,CA .

10302 Avenue 7 1/2
Firebaugh, CA

93622-9611
Phone: 559-659-1483
Fax: 559-659-2483

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/09/local/la-me-0609-condors-20110609
Excerpt:

Newhall Ranch builders won't be allowed to harm condors, agency says

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it would allow Newhall Ranch developers to relocate a single condor, if necessary, during construction.

June 09, 2011|By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this week that it would not tolerate the harm or killing of an endangered California condor during construction of a proposed Newhall Ranch community of 60,000 residents along the Santa Clara River.

http://www.ci.chowchilla.ca.us/city%20facts/history.htm
Excerpt:
  In the beginning of the days of Chowchilla as the streets were completed, they were given different names.  One unconfirmed story is that the names of the streets were derived from Robertson’s female friends.  The names were: Kathryn (Ventura), Florence (Kings), Julia (Sonoma), Edith (Trinity), Isabel (Monterey), Henrietta (Lake), Gertrude (Riverside), Dorothy (Orange), Caroline (Humboldt), Bernice  (Alameda), and Anice (Colusa).  The names were changed to the present names in the 1920’s to represent State counties.

First establishment of California counties
  1. On January 4, 1850, the California constitutional committee recommended the formation of 18 counties. They were Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mount Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Sutter. On April 22, the counties of Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba were added. Benicia was renamed Solano, Coloma to El Dorado, Fremont to Yolo, Mt. Diablo to Contra Costa, San Jose to Santa Clara, Oro to Tuolumne, and Redding to Shasta. One of the first state legislative acts regarding counties was to rename Branciforte County to Santa Cruz, Colusi to Colusa, and Yola to Yolo.
The last county in California to be established is Imperial County on August 7, 1907.
California's postal abbreviation is CA and its FIPS state code is 06.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_California
Excerpt:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_County,_California
Excerpt:




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda_County,_California
Excerpt:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_County,_California
Excerpt:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_County,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_County,_California
Excerpt:


http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/meet-millionaires-and-billionaires-suddenly-buying-tons-land-africa-0
Excerpts:
1)

Kevin Godlington (who's linked to Tony Blair) and his company haven't provided any documentation to prove their land ownership

Kevin Godlington (who's linked to Tony Blair) and his company haven't provided any documentation to prove their land ownership
Image: Podge
Who's buying: Kevin Godlington, the CEO of Crad-l and Director of SLA, the Sierra Leone Agriculture (SLA) and its parent company, the UK-based CAPARO Renewable Agriculture Developments (Crad-I), and CAPARO's founder, the British Industrialist Lord Paul of Marylebone. Also, local people in the SLA lease area are under the impression that Tony Blair is linked with the project and with SLA. Godlington says he works “closely” with Hon Angad Paul, the Office of Tony Blair and other investors and sponsors to run this “African development company specializing in former conflict nations” and to lead “investment teams in setting up large scale agricultural, resource and extractive business’s [sic].”
The land they're buying: 43,000 hectares in the Port Loko region of Sierra Leone
The future development: Godlington says it's to establish palm oil plantations on the lease to produce palm oil for the local market, and the project will involve mills and processing plants. In 2010, SLA cleared 5 hectares of forest bush to plant palm oil seedlings. It aims to have palm oil plantations in over 40,000 hectares within 7 years.
The scandal: Godlington hasn't made his plans public in the country, nor is there any documentation that verifies his claims, according to OI. The chief who granted him the lease says that he insisted SLA build schools, health centers, and resettle any villagers the development displaces. However the chief also says that the lease has to be renewed every 7 years, whereas the SLA director says the lease is not up not for renewal, but for rate re-negotiation every 7 years.
Source: Oakland Institute (PDF)

2) Source: Oakland Institute
Muammar Gaddafi is accused of negotiating a deal where he gets 100,000 hectares of land for free to build a large water canal
Image: LeStudio1.com via Flikr
Who's buying: Malibya, a subsidiary of Libya Africa Investment Portfolio. The deal was reportedly negociated between Libyan head of state Muammar Gaddafi and Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure. However the agreement was signed between Tiémoko Sangare, (then) Malian Minister of Agriculture, and Dr. Aboubaker al Mansoury, Secretary of the Popular Committee for Agriculture, Livestock and the Fishery, representing the Arab Libyan Popular and Socialist Grande Jamahiriya.
The land they're buying: 100,000 hectares in the Office du Niger, west of Macina in Mali.
The future development: The construction will create the largest canal in Mali and one of the largest in Africa, and a road, both 40 kilometers in the first phase. The construction of an irrigation canal of 40km has been subcontracted to the Chinese operator CGC, which is owned by SINOPEC. The land will produce hybrid rice, livestock, and it will process tomatoes. Between January and May, it will produce wheat, maize, soya and various vegetables.
The scandal: The agreement grants Malibya use of the land for free for 50 years. It charges negligible fees for water extraction from the Niger River, and places no limits on how much can be extracted. To build the canal, houses were razed and a cemetery was unearthed.

http://press.clintonglobalinitiative.org/press_releases/president-bill-clinton-opens-the-2011-clinton-global-initiative-annual-meeting/
Excerpt:
New York, NY – President Bill Clinton opened the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) with a session on climate change, convened by President Felipe Calderón of Mexico and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa. This ground-breaking session brought together nine distinguished Heads of State, including Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg; President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso; Prime Minister of Mali, Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé; President of Slovenia, Danilo Türk; Prime Minister of Grenada, Tillman Thomas; and Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina to highlight opportunities for collaboration and share effective strategies to address the global climate challenge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciss%C3%A9_Mariam_Ka%C3%AFdama_Sidib%C3%A9
Excerpt:
Prior government positions
  • Minister of Planning and International Cooperation (from August 1991 to June 1992 during the transition)
  • Minister of Agriculture and Environment, concurrently with the portfolio of Planning and International Cooperation (May 1992-June 1992)
  • Minister of Rural Development (March 2002-June 2002)[13]
http://unesco.usmission.gov/partnership-girls-women-education.html
Excerpt:
Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister of Mali Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé gave remarks on the positive impact of girls' and women's education on families, local communities and society at-large. The launch was also accompanied by a High-Level Panel discussion moderated by CBS News Correspondent Sheila MacVicar, which included other participants ranging such as His Highness the Aga Khan, and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network Foundation, to U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer to representatives of the program's corporate partners, among them Nokia and Microsoft.

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12919.html
Excerpt:
Monday 26 September 2011

Kenya: UNESCO and GEMS Foundation to Train 3000 Principals

The training to be offered by GEMS Education, the world’s largest kindergarten to grade 12 education provider, The Varkey GEMS Foundation and UNESCO, is part of the ‘10,000 Principals Leadership Programme’ which was announced by President Clinton as a ‘commitment to action’ at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York Friday.
By Staff Writer

Nairobi--- More than 3,000 Kenyan school Principals are set to undergo training in what is considered to be the largest Principals training programme in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) history.

 The training to be offered by GEMS Education, the world’s largest kindergarten to grade 12 education provider, The Varkey GEMS Foundation and UNESCO, is part of the ‘10,000 Principals Leadership Programme’ which was announced by President Clinton as a ‘commitment to action’ at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York Friday.

 President Bill Clinton is the honorary Chair of the Varkey GEMS Foundation.