#Newspurge: Gimme the Finga

Geopolitiks:
Prize-winning NYTimes writer dies on assignment in Syria*
2 More Western Journalists Killed as Syria Shells Homs*
Marie Colvin's killing piles pressure on Assad as civilian death toll rises*
Clinton Suggests Syrian Rebels Will Get Arms*
Video: Washington WarWhores Call for Arming Syrian Rebels*
Meanwhile, Airborne Laser Program Dumped After 16 Years and Billions Spent in Development*
India Allows Request to Charge U.S. Citizen in 2008 Attacks*
Video: US Senate Backs Military Force on Iran*

Media/Memes:
Nicki Minaj kind of blue for Vogue's eye-catching photo shoot*
Adele flips the bird at Brit Awards*
Betty White Flips Off Shocked Driver in LA*
Video: Black Sheep 'Gimme the Finga'*
'Amazing Race' prod. Jeff Rice may have died from cocaine overdose, not poison attack*

Obamessiah Updates:
Rahm, Daley Named Obama's Chicagoland Campaign Muscle Co-Chairs*
Maher pledges $1M to Obama PAC*
Sheriff says he's gay, quits Mitt*
Santorum Criticizes Education System*

Oregon Oddities:
NY Judge Sets $5M Bail for Head of Oregon Firm*
Detention hearing for man in fraud case*
U.S. Postal Service To Close 4 Oregon Mail Processing Facilities*

Police State Updates:
Supreme Court Justices Remain Security Exceptions*
Northampton "opts out" of federal law*
Video: NYPD monitored Muslim college students*
Terror scenario rehearsed in pre-Olympics security test*
Video: C-SPAN audience rejects 'Underwear Bomber' farce*

WV Worry:
West Virginia mine boss charged with fraud*
West Virginia Report On Mine Disaster Points To State's Shortcomings*

blago guilty in chicagoland corruption & selling soetoro's senate seat

from dpa: Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was on Monday found guilty on 17 of 20 corruption charges in connection with trying to sell the Senate seat held by US President Barack Obama before he took office. Blagojevich was found guilty last year of making false statements to federal investigators, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the other counts, setting the stage for a second trial.

He was found guilty of racketeering, extortion, soliciting a bribe and conspiracy. Some of those charges included shakedowns of a children's hospital and a horse racing executive. He was acquitted on one count of shaking down a construction executive and a verdict was not reached on two other counts, the Chicago Tribune reported. The newspaper reported he faces a significant prison sentence.

Leaving the Chicago courtroom, Blagojevich said he was 'very disappointed' by the verdicts. 'I, frankly, am stunned,' said Blagojevich, who has professed his innocence.

Blagojevich, 54, had been accused of trying to sell Obama's seat after he was caught on wiretap by federal investigators during a previous investigation. As governor, he had the power to appoint Obama's successor in the Senate until an election could be held be held.

Blagojevich, a Democrat, was arrested in December 2008 - weeks after Obama won the presidential election - after being recorded in a profanity-laced conversation describing the Senate vacancy as a 'golden' asset for which he was seeking political or financial returns. The Illinois General Assembly impeached Blagojevich the following January and removed him from office.

related obamessiah updates:
audio: cynthia mckinney & the anti-war left steps up against obama*
video: maher says obama 'sucking up to the people he should be fighting'*
obama dismisses libya criticism as political 'fuss'*
video: msnbc suspends political analyst mark halperin for obama remark*
libya folly may cost barry the black vote in 2012*
video: the routine that got obama impersonator yanked off stage*

econocrash: dead malls, dead dollars & dead ceo's

the world's largest shopping mall - is empty*
uk faced 'bank runs, riots' as rbs & hbos neared collapse*
timmy's telephone travesty:
geithner only talks to goldman, citi & morgan*
'death bonds': wall street’s shocking new plan to reap billions off dying americans*
kaptur: there has been a financial coup d'etat*
US dollar: condition terminal*
dollar reaches breaking point; banks shift reserves*
gold: the big picture*
debunking the 'too big to fail' myth*
media mogul sumner redstone to sell nearly $1b in stock, maintains empire*
dow closes above 10k for 1st time in more than a year*
geithner aides made millions on wall street*
lazard ceo bruce wasserstein dies at 61*
goldman sachs breaks record with $16.7b bonus pot*
ongoing coverup of the truth behind the financial crisis may lead to another crash*
oil settles above $75, sets new 2009 high*
video: federal reserve exposed by richard belzer*

update: fdic fund in the red until 2012*

obamessiah & the apostles of war: unhappy birthday

obama joker posters popping up in los angeles as
the tide of public opinion may be turning against obama
from danny schechter: The tide of public opinion may be turning against the President. Pollsters report growing skepticism about health care reform, and more active hostility on racial matters, thanks to that “uncalibrated” expression of opinion on the arrest of Professor Gates in his own home. That remark turned him, in the eyes of some, from a small b black President into a militant Black Panther, or at least someone who can bashed as such. These are the new controversial issues with no one right answer, and a noisy debate everywhere, but something else is also going on. With Democrats fussing among themselves, with Obamacrats forced to rely on corporate media, the right-wing TV and radio stations close ranks behind the most self-righteously-correct ranters having a filed day poking, prodding, pummeling, and peeing into cups of their own resentment, hate and venom. There is no smear that is beneath them, no inference or insult out of bounds. Lou Dobbs blesses the birthers while that Elmer Gantry of demagoguery, Glenn Beck, meditates on his mountain and pronounces Obama a racist. An Israeli settler refers to our President as “that Arab,” and worse. These are the nattering nabobs of negativity of our times, to resurrect an old canard once aimed at the left. The Yes We Can advocates seem to be taking refuge in the No We Won’t center. The next thing you know, the removal of a democratically elected President that worked in Honduras might be attempted here at home. Some of us are still singing “We Shall Overcome” when our adversaries are chanting “We Shall Overthrow.”

trilateral member, robert hormats, nominated to state dept

obama considers 'military-civilian' prisons for suspected terrorists
from infowars: “The Obama administration is looking at creating a courtroom-within-a-prison complex in the U.S. to house suspected terrorists, combining military and civilian detention facilities at a single maximum-security prison,” the Associated Press is reporting. Administration officials said the new prison will be set-up at a soon-to-be-shuttered state maximum security prison in Michigan and the military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The AP reports the “courtroom-within-a-prison complex” will be for “the 229 suspected al-Qaida, Taliban and foreign fighters now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba,” that is to say the dirt farmers and cab drivers abducted and held in violation of international law for nearly a decade. “As many as an estimated 170 of the detainees now at Guantanamo are unlikely to be prosecuted. Some are being held indefinitely because government officials do not want to take the chance of seeing them acquitted in a trial. The rest are considered candidates for release, but the U.S. cannot find foreign countries willing to take them. Almost all have yet to be charged with crimes,” the AP continues. Fort Leavenworth Prison has a population of nearly 2,000 people (with a capacity of 1,197). It is not explained if the current population — consisting largely of gang members from the likes of the Aryan Brotherhood, Bloods, Crips, and the El Rukns — will be moved and the prison dedicated to housing “terrorists.” The Standish prison in Michigan holds 4,600 inmates. The Obama administration and the AP do not explain why two prisons with the capacity to hold nearly 7,000 prisoners are required — that is unless they plan to abduct a few thousand more people. Since the false flag attacks of 9/11, the government has increasingly portrayed the terrorist threat as coming from “white al-Qaeda” (consider the current case in North Carolina) and “rightwing extremists,” as characterized by the Department of Homeland Security. “The facility would operate as a hybrid prison system jointly operated by the Justice Department, the military and the Department of Homeland Security,” notes the AP.

poll: majority of republicans are birthers
(says fake-left foundation-front thinkprogress)

town halls gone wild:
congress critters going home to angry constituents
from politico: Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety - welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress. On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

bill maher says those birthers must be stopped!

purported kenyan obama birth certificate surfaces
from paul joseph watson: California attorney Orly Taitz has released a copy of a birth certificate that purports to show Barack Hussein Obama was born in Kenya, which if authenticated would plunge the United States into a constitutional crisis and potentially herald a catastrophic loss of confidence in the legitimacy of the government. The Obama birth certificate issue has been rumbling on for over a year, with researchers demanding to see a complete birth certificate proving that President Obama was born in Hawaii as he claims, yet none has been forthcoming. Mainstream media attention on the issue has intensified over the past few weeks, even forcing the White House itself to publicly dismiss the controversy. However, Taitz’ bombshell discovery blows the whole story wide open and its ramifications could be monumental. According to World Net Daily, Taitz has filed a new motion in U.S. District Court seeking authentication for the document.

video: msnbc hosts stay cool as birther lawyer rants


again, my feeling is that - whatever the 'truth' is about the birther issue: coverup, psyop, racewar provocation, etc. - taitz is most likely a wrecker... a shill who gets out in front of an explosive issue & misdirects the info. having said that, if it does come out that obama is illegitimate, we'll race headlong to change the constitution overnight and then it's hello arnold!

from hero to zero: schwarzenegger hits all-time low in polls

updates from aug6:
obama visits white house press room on birthday*
video: stewart says media gave obama a pass on 48th birthday hoax*
soros-funded blog attempts to malign opposition to obamacare*
video: obama transformed into the joker,
cnn says not everyone is laughing*
obama as joker explained*
obama plans to use more than bombs & bullets to fight terrorism*
former copyright lobbyist is obama’s top pick for US attorney*
freshman dem lawmaker 'physically assaulted at a local event' by activists*
obama's dissident database could be secret - and permanent*
kenyan birth certificate forgery - punkin’ the birthers: priceless*
senate confirms sonia sotomayor, 1st hispanic, to supreme court*
obama approval rating sinks to 50%: poll*

history/mystery: unspeakable, kennedys, elites & freemasons

oliver stone, the relaunch of 'jfk & the unspeakable' & 9/11*

flashback: 'jfk & the unspeakable' author speaks in portland*
shocking revelations of US business & nazis*
some suspect conspiracy in holocaust museum case*
it's a very nice house in the country (but not for an orgy)*
bohemian grove protest 2009*
freemasons jailed in fiji over sorcery claims*
jfk jr.'s death: 10yrs later*
video: 10yrs already since jfk jr died*

flashback: the assassination of jfk jr*

police state int'l: embedded empires, mass graves & inciting mcveighs

is america already a police state?

737 US military bases = global empire
from global research: With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.

schenectady mayor considers martial law over police woes

schenectady mayor responds to martial law report

marines embedded at los angeles county coroner's office
from latimes: Marine Corps Reserve Lance Cpl. Matthew Barlow rides along with Los Angeles County coroner's personnel to retrieve the body of a homeless man found in Hazard Park in Boyle Heights. He is among 14 Marines who were embedded at the coroner's office for three weeks to learn how to collect bodies and personal belongings and identify the dead. The troops are in a special unit that soon will deploy to Iraq, where they will receive the bodies of fallen troops and prepare them for the flight home to the United States.

why the end of america is closer than you think

maher says talk of fema camps could incite the mcveighs

'wonder woman' says 'right wing' is 'spreading hate'

guardsmen train for urban conflict
from nevada daily mail: More than 200 soldiers from the newly formed 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment of the Missouri Army National Guard came to Camp Clark from across the state on Saturday, March 14, to take part in training in several different combat scenarios. This is the first time Missouri has had an infantry unit in more than 35 years. The new unit, headquartered in Kansas City, has companies and detachments across the state and will have more than 800 soldiers when it reaches full strength, according to a Missouri Army National Guard press release.

mass graves being prepared in arizona?
(update: video footage of 'phoenix mass grave site')

britain trains civilian anti-terror force
from presstv: Britain has launched a clandestine alliance that recruits citizens and trains them to act as undercover agents against terror suspects. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the initiative is vital for safety in the UK. According to him, tens of thousands of civilians have already been trained for the purpose. Brown said Sunday that the individuals range "from security guards to store managers" who know how to "deal with an incident and know what to watch for as people go about their daily business in crowded places such as stations, airports, shopping centers and sports grounds." British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the strategy, called Contest Two, would be more open than past counter-terrorism efforts.

cia has 3,000 docs on torture tapes

dozens in cps have criminal records
from sacbee: Drug possession, domestic violence, repeatedly driving drunk, assault with a deadly weapon – any one of these charges or convictions could lead child protective services workers to remove children from a home or force a parent into counseling. But all of those crimes and many others appear in the backgrounds of employees of Sacramento County's Child Protective Services, a Bee investigation has found. A review of the agency's 969 workers employed as of Oct. 1 found that at least 68 individuals – 7 percent of the work force – have criminal records in Sacramento County alone. The number is likely to be even higher because some names were too common to retrieve all criminal complaints linked to them, and records in other counties were not searched.

the public is 'finally waking up' to the fascist 'one-party govt'
(but thinkprogress says it like it's a bad thing)

giant shipment of weapons seized at airport
from local12: Customs and Border Protection now say a paperwork error may be partly to blame for guns it confiscated at the international airport. The weapons were seized on Monday. Officers say the shipment was listed as "toys" from Turkey. It contained sixty 12-gauge shotguns and 177 pistols. Federal agents say they tested a shotgun and it fired live ammo. The pistols are designed for theatrical use. No charges have been filed, because the investigation is on-going.

missouri apologizes to paul, barr & baldwin over miac report & missouri retracts police memo which labeled activists as 'militia'

despite protests, dekalb goes with marines school
from ajc: DeKalb County school officials are forging ahead with plans to open a first-of-its-kind military-style public high school, despite a growing campaign by activists upset at the involvement of the U.S. Marines. “It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in Georgia education,” said Michael Burke, a DeKalb resident and spokesman for the Georgia Veterans Alliance, a group that aligns itself with the work of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, among others. “The whole thing is just a ploy” to help the Marines recruit, Burke said. “We expect to fight it tooth and nail.” That response irritated DeKalb school system officials. They said it stereotypes the proposed Marine school and students who may be interested in it. The protests — mounted largely through e-mails and letters — have not deterred them, they said.

force congress to end the 'state of emergency'...
norad move raises concerns*
15 more cities on homeland security terror-risk list*
nashville mayor pushes new 'emergency volunteer initiative'*
americans largely silent as their nation is systematically destroyed*

real time w/ ron paul: america's war on drugs must end

from raw story: Congressman Ron Paul is the most conservative, grandfatherly man to ever be admired by America's marijuana enthusiasts. On Friday night's episode of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, he reminded those who may have been suffering an impaired short-term memory at that late hour why, exactly, they should like him. Speaking live from Clute, Texas, the libertarian-leaning Republican did what few other members of Congress will and openly called for the United States' War on Drugs to be abolished... "I don't like pot," said the congressman. "But I hate the drug war, so I would repeal all of prohibition... It makes no sense whatsoever," he insisted. "Amen, stoner," joked Maher. This video is from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, broadcast Feb. 20, 2009.

california lawmaker introduces bill to legalize marijuana
from ap: A state legislator is reviving the debate about legalizing marijuana as a way of raising money for cash-strapped state and local governments. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat, introduced a bill Monday that if approved by the California Legislature would put pot on the same legal footing as alcohol. Adults over the age of 21 would be allowed to buy it, and driving under the influence of marijuana would be prohibited. Under Ammiano's proposal, which has been endorsed by some law enforcement officials, pot would be taxed at a rate of $50 per ounce and bring an estimated $1 billion into state coffers. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana.

syria & saudi's ready, war profiteering & protest

syria says ready in case of US military action
from afp: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Sunday that Damascus was prepared for all scenarios in its worsening relationship with Washington, including the use of US military force. "A prudent person must make all his calculations, especially when we have to deal with an administration which knows how to strike but does not know how to withdraw," Muallem told reporters at the end of an Arab summit in Damascus.

saudi kingdom 'braces for nuclear war'
from press tv: Saudi Arabia is reportedly preparing to counter any 'radioactive hazards' which may result from a US strike on Iran's nuclear plants. Popular government-guided Saudi newspaper Okaz recently reported that the Saudi Shura Council approved of nuclear fallout preparation plans only a day after US Vice President Dick Cheney met with the Kingdom's high ranking officials, including King Abdullah.

police arrest 80yr old anti-war protester at mall
from newsday: An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War. Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as "graphic anti-war images."

john cusack movie takes on war profiteers
from raw story: John Cusack was on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher and spoke about his upcoming film, War. Inc., which according to Cusack focuses on the military-industrial complex. The film, says Cusack, differs from other films inspired by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because, it "has a much more absurdist take on [war]."

flashback: cusack: coffin photo ban 'most cowardly political act'

9/11 hecklers take down bill maher... in real time

from brad blog: Bill Maher... had to throw out the first of the 9/11 hecklers himself. Things went downhill from there...

Members of the "9/11 Truth Movement" have been a bit angry with Maher since he suggested they needed to be medicated in a "New Rules" segment in September. That video is here.

Tonight, Maher got a bit angry in return as audience members repeatedly interrupted the panel discussion with Maher, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Rep. Shiela Jackson Lee (D-TX), and LA Times columnist Joel Stein.

After the last of the hecklers - who ground the show to a halt (of sorts), for a few minutes - is removed from the studio audience, Maher says that folks from the movement have been holding protests outside of his studio ever since his comments last month. Tonight, a few of 'em got tickets to the show.

While things got a bit rough, and Maher called for an "ass kicking," nobody was tased, bro...at least to our knowledge.

naomi klein: america is succumbing to fascism

from raw story: Author Naomi Klein sits down with Bill Maher to discuss her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

The Shock Doctrine shares a sentiment that, while corporations are engineered to profit off of situations, planned or otherwise, the United States under President Bush has corporations opportunistically poised to collect taxpayer-funded payouts from disasters such as 9/11, Katrina and the Iraq occupation.

Calling it the "mission statement of the Bush administration," Klein says that politicians are seeing themselves as facilitators between disasters and their friends in the private sector. Each time there's a disaster, says Klein, politicians use the "shock" felt by the citizenry to "push through a further privatization agenda" with little opposition...

The following video is from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, broadcast on October 12, 2007.

maher: 9/11 truthers need professional help, not publicity

from raw story: Bill Maher takes a jab at the 9/11 Truth movement in a recent "New Rules" segment."

Crazy people who still think the government brought down the Twin Towers in a controlled explosion have to stop pretending that I'm the one who's being naive...

How big a lunatic do you have to be to watch two giant airliners packed with jet fuel slam into buildings on live TV, igniting a massive inferno that burned for two hours, and then think 'Well, if you believe that was the cause...'

Stop asking me to raise this ridiculous topic on the show and start asking your doctor if Paxil is right for you."

The following video is from HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, broadcast on September 14, 2007

is maher doing this because on the previous episode of real time mos def called the official conspiracy theory a bunch of bullshit?

'bin laden didn't blow up the projects...'

ron paul is bill maher's new hero

from you tube/ron paul 2008: Ron Paul is winning the hearts and minds of America more every day. Dr. Paul talks about his recent reading assignment to Rudy Giuliani.

'real time' with ron paul

from the constant american: Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) on "Real Time with Bill Maher" talks about getting rid of the CIA, how every slave-holding nation in the world except the U.S. managed to end slavery without civil war, foreign policy, oil, global warming, health care, the Veterans Administration, and more.

bill maher discusses bush's 9/11 non-reaction

from blacklisted news/prison planet: Bill Maher is asked if there is one question he would put to Bush, what would it be? Maher says he would confront Bush on why he completely failed to immediately react after he was told America was under attack on 9/11.