#OperationBohemianGrove begins as elites gather in the california redwoods for the 133rd annual secret enclave from press democrat: San Francisco Giants' boss Bill Neukom and Vaughn Walker, the retired federal judge who threw out Proposition 8, will be among the featured speakers at the Bohemian Grove encampment of rich and powerful men beginning Friday in Monte Rio.
Also scheduled to present Lakeside Talks during the 17-day Bohemian Grove retreat are Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and energy expert; Willie Smits, a conservationist and defender of Borneo's orangutans; and former Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker, according to a source.
Nothing like that actually happens, according to Matt Oggero, the club's general manager. “It's a group of guys out in the woods having a good time,” he said.
from jonathan elinoff: Most people can't resist getting the details on the latest conspiracy theories, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. At the same time, many people quickly denounce any conspiracy theory as untrue ... and sometimes as unpatriotic or just plain ridiculous. Lets not forget all of the thousands of conspiracies out of Wall Street like Bernie Madoff and many others to commit fraud and extortion, among many crimes of conspiracy ... "Conspiracy theory is a term that originally was a neutral descriptor for any claim of civil, criminal or political conspiracy. However, it has come almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by conspirators of almost superhuman power and cunning."
from corbett report: In a move sure to send shockwaves through the online activist community, Jonathon Elinoff—activist, researcher, and the filmmaker behind the Core of Corruption documentary series—has released a video archive of dozens of network news broadcasts detailing controversial and suppressed news stories. The archive, compiled over a period of several years, features actual network news coverage of the Trilateral Commission, the shadow government that went into operation on 9/11, the Bohemian Grove and numerous other topics that the nightly news almost never mentions. Many of the videos (if not all) are being released online for the first time.
from vanity fair: Members of the ultra-exclusive Bohemian Club — 2,500 of America’s richest, most conservative men, including Henry Kissinger, George H. W. Bush, and a passel of Bechtels, Basses, and Rockefellers — are known to urinate freely against the ancient redwoods that cover their 2,700-acre property. Have they been chopping down the trees as well? According to one former member turned whistle-blower, the San Francisco–based society may have logged some of its old-growth forest. Drawing on his own Ivy League ties, the author investigates, with a daring sortie into the ceremonial kickoff of the Bohemians’ annual encampment.
a guide to the bohemian grove from vanity fair: Conspiracy theorists believe the Bohemian Grove’s idyllic grounds, in northern California, are host to right-wing, old-boy machinations about the New World Order. Honorary member Richard Nixon, meanwhile, called it “the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine.” For V.F. contributing editor Alex Shoumatoff, who was arrested for trespassing at last year’s encampment while investigating the club’s forestry practices, the most suspicious activity that takes place in the grove is the alleged logging of old-growth redwood trees. But common to all reports from the two-week-long gathering of the country’s rich and powerful old guard — members have included every Republican president since Coolidge — is an account of profuse outdoor urination. With gin fizzes being poured at seven a.m., so many enlarged prostates, and such majestic natural urinals, who’s surprised? We present to you a guide to the Bohemian Grove, including a map of the premises, highlights of the events, and a list of prominent members and regular guests, from the club’s founding, in 1872, to today.
from aaron dykes: During a somewhat gimmicky Today Show interview with George H.W. Bush, the elder ‘41′ reminisced about his debates with Geraldine Ferraro, the only other woman to run for Vice President in a major party, who sat alongside him in a discussion about gender roles and discussed the significance of Sarah Palin’s VP candidacy in anticipation of the debate. At about 2:20 into the interview, the Today Show cuts to another location where the former President is wearing a ballcap displaying the Bohemian Grove owl logo along with his boastful ‘41′ wind jacket. As the screenshot indicates, the owl is distinctly that of the Bohemian Club, as shown in the noted designs. The elder Bush’s wearing it during a televised interview should be read as a ‘thumb up’ at the democratic will of the people and a reminder that the electoral process is little more than a sham thinly concealing the rule by secrecy that really goes on behind the scenes.
mexican drug cartels & islamic radicals working together from proceso: According to a U.S. government intelligence report obtained by Proceso, Hamas, Hezbollah and other radical Islamic groups have become associates of the Mexican drug trafficking cartels: they are furnishing them weapons and helping them to distribute drugs in Europe and the Middle East. Ahead of time, DEA and Justice Department officials told this weekly that “in coming days” they will conduct an operation in the border area shared by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay – where the radical Islamic groups have settled – that will show their ties with the Mexican drug traffickers... (infowars note: Of course, this is utter nonsense. The CIA — in collaboration with Wall Street banks and the Pentagon, is behind the Mexican drug cartels — not Muslims. “The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as is by now well-known by anyone who has cared to be informed, has long been deeply involved in the international trafficking of the addictive drugs heroin and (since the early 1980s, if not earlier) cocaine, the enormous profits from which have financed, and continue to finance, both U.S. covert operations and the U.S. military (via payments to Pentagon contractors).” — The CIA: America’s Premier International Terrorist Organization.)
contaminated US site faces ‘catastrophic’ nuclear leak from new scientist: One of "the most contaminated places on Earth" will only get dirtier if the US government doesn't get its act together - clean-up plans are already 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050. More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at Hanford in Washington State. Most are over 50 years old. Already 67 of the tanks have failed, leaking almost 4 million litres of waste into the ground. There are now "serious questions about the tanks' long-term viability," says a Government Accountability Office report, which strongly criticises the US Department of Energy for delaying an $8 billion programme to empty the tanks and treat the waste... The DoE's plan, however, is "faith-based", says Robert Alvarez, an authority on Hanford at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. "The risk of catastrophic tank failure will sharply increase as each year goes by... and one of the nation's largest rivers, the Columbia, will be in jeopardy."
the process of indoctrination: how the public is being conditioned to accept the existence of an elite ruling class from corbett report: It seems that a unique moment in human history is at last coming to an end. Just a few short years ago, anyone who dared talk about the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg group or the Bohemian Grove as organizations through which the financial oligarchs wielded power was dismissed with that ultimate debate-ending phrase: 'conspiracy theorist.' Now, however, these secretive organizations and the corporate moneymen who pull their strings are finally allowing the public a glimpse behind the façade of representative democracy at the way elite institutions are really shaping global geopolitics. People are at last free to talk about how world politics are shaped by a few thousand of the ultra-wealthy and well-connected… provided, of course, those people are closely tied to Henry Kissinger and tend to think that global government is the best way of organizing 21st century society.
wolfowitz: US future hinges on another ‘crisis’ from aaron dykes: In a response to PNAC associate Robert Kagan, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has suggested that a ‘compelling crisis’ such as Pearl Harbor or 9/11 may help bolster America’s stature in the world, which, Wolfowitz clearly hints, has been damaged by the Bush administration:
"America’s future leadership role may depend even more on how threatening the world appears. Historically, that leadership role has often emerged out of a compelling crisis: Pearl Harbour, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, or the attacks of 9/11.
the pope reunites with his old buddy the serpent from this is london: The image was practically Biblical: Pope Benedict XVI face to face with a serpent. But the hint of a good vs evil face-off dissipated when the pontiff next squared up against a koala - and, smiling, gave the fuzzy furball a little scratch behind the ears. The Pope was meeting native Australian animals during the World Youth Day celebration in Australia, where young Roman Catholic pilgrims attended religious classes then chowed down on sausages at barbecues.
7ys on, no answer on anthrax attacks from raw story: It's been almost seven years since - in the weeks immediately following 9/11 - anthrax powder sent through the mail killed five people, threatened the lives of two Democratic senators, terrorized the entire nation, and helped prod a panicky Congress into passing the so-called Patriot Act. In the intervening years, not only has the killer remained free, but missteps in the investigation have had major negative consequences.
masters of the universe have a gay old time at grove from sacramento news review: The dark woods on the outskirts of this run-down Russian River resort town are silent now, save the occasional rustle of wind through the towering redwoods. In two weeks, however, the thick moss-laden trunks of the Bohemian Grove will reverberate with the sounds of drag queens making merry, mock human sacrifices and the tinkling hiss of piss on trees.
Such events are unremarkable in themselves—one may witness similar scenes, minus the redwoods, in the alley behind SN&R any night of the week. But these are no mere ordinary mortals prancing about the forest, drinking themselves blind, urinating and defecating at will.
The super-secret Bohemian Club and its guests meet each summer in the 2,700-acre Monte Rio grove for what they say is fellowship and good-natured high-jinx — a break from the grueling grind of leadership.
But critics, who until recent years mounted protests outside its gates, say the gatherings serve as strategy sessions for a New World Order operating outside democratic institutions.
While the grove’s motto — “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here” — specifically targets arachnids, the club excludes all but the nation’s most powerful and well-connected individuals, according to critics.
will earthquakes topple idol at site of elite's pagan rituals? from renew america: The Bohemian Grove is a place where many of the wealthiest societal leaders — from business, government, and the news media — gather each mid-summer for drunken fellowship and pagan rituals. They worship before a 40-foot idol of an owl. (One such ceremony was caught on video by Alex Jones.) This writer's above-linked column goes into detail about idol worship and how it angers God. This paragraph is a brief overview to show readers that there is a connection between the idol worship at the Bohemian Grove, the endorsement of homosexual "marriage," the lightning-ignited wildfires, and the increased threat of earthquake in California... The Bohemian Grove is located between the major San Andreas Fault line and a "minor" line in that fault system.
Bohemian Grove is a 136-year-old all-male encampment complete with restaurants, bars, stages and lodges, which caters to around 2,000 members of the global elite along with Californian hoi polloi on a yearly basis in July. The camp is set within a 2,700 acre secluded forest replete with giant redwood trees.
Former attendees include Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, who both went on to become President, as well as regulars like Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan, David Rockefeller, Colin Powell, as well as George W. Bush and his father.
pnac site goes down from thinkprogress: Eleven years ago, the neoconservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC) set out its statement of principles advocating the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, putting the country on the road to a preventative invasion of Iraq. Signatories included future Iraq war architects Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliott Abrams, as well as neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan... But just as the neocons are attempting to run from responsibility for the Iraq war, it appears PNAC may be abandoning its own website.
un racism investigator to visit US from reuters: A special U.N. human rights investigatorwill visit the United States this month to probe racism, an issue that has forced its way into the race to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. The United Nations said Doudou Diene would meet federal and local officials, as well as lawmakers and judicial authorities during the May 19-June 6 visit. "The special rapporteur will...gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," a U.N. statement said on Friday.
huckabee jokes about obama ducking gunman from cnn: During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee - who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain - joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obamalooking toavoid a gunman.
1-child policy decimates china after quake from wufu: After their daughter was born, Bi Kaiwei and his wife, Meilin, decided to adhere to China's one-child policy and its slogan, "Have fewer kids, live better lives." For them and other couples who lost an only child in this week's massive earthquake, the tragedy has been doubly cruel. Robbed of their sole progeny and a hope for the future, they find it even harder to restart their shattered lives, haunted by added guilt, regret and gnawing loss.
illegally spy on americans ... win fabulous prizes! from global research: Fingered by whistleblower's Mark Klein and Babak Pasdar (450kb PDF) for their role in illegally spying on Americans, AT&T and Verizon were awarded a major contract by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Washington Technology reports: "Verizon Business will perform the lion's share of the work on the Homeland Security Department's OneNet telecommunications contract with support from AT&T Government Solutions."
bohemian grove to cut tress for cash from washington post: Immense power and staggering wealth are as deeply imbedded in the traditions of the Bohemian Club as they are in the grove itself, 100 acres of old-growth redwoods spared from timber companies a century ago in the name of preservation. Which only deepens the dismay that has greeted the club's request to the state of California for permission to log as much as 1 million board feet from the place to raise some cash.
premier says china will stick with one-child policy from afp: China will stick with its strict family planning rules, Premier Wen Jiabao said Wednesday, in an apparent rebuttal to officials who raised the possibility of changes to the one-child policy. "We will adhere to the current policy of family planning, keep the birthrate low, improve the health of newborns and adopt a full range of measures to address the gender imbalance in babies," Wen told the annual parliament. Last week, Zhao Baige, vice minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said the policy had "become a big issue among decision-makers".
overstock ceo: russian mafia in bed with wall street from daily utah chronicle: Every day, thousands of Americans look to invest their money in stocks, and many of them go through brokers and traders to simplify the process. Unfortunately, according to Overstock.comCEO Patrick Byrne, a majority of those purchasers will be victims of Wall Street's criminal tactics and will help line the pockets of corrupt brokers and lawyers... In his efforts to stop this charade, Byrne filed a $3.5 billion lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and nine other well-known brokers. Byrne said numerous publications, including the New York Post and Forbes magazine, have protested his "crusade," painting him as a crazed lunatic who is angry about Overstock.com's own stock price drop. Byrne said the Mafia has become a silent player in the Wall Street game. "You don't have to dig very far into this before you get to organized crime," he said.
more fbi privacy violations confirmed from press tv: The FBI has acknowledged that it improperly accessed the citizens' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006. This is the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies.
a machine that can look into the mind from guardian: Scientists have developed acomputerised mind-reading technique which lets them accurately predict the images that people are looking at by using scanners to study brain activity... Then a computer was able to correctly predict in nine out of 10 cases which image people were focused on. Guesswork would have been accurate only eight times in every 1,000 attempts. The study raises the possibility in the future of the technology being harnessed to visualise scenes from a person's dreams or memory.
ibm's blue brain project from seed: In the basement of a university in Lausanne, Switzerland sit four black boxes, each about the size of a refrigerator, and filled with 2,000 IBM microchips stacked in repeating rows. Together they form the processing core of a machine that can handle 22.8 trillion operations per second. It contains no moving parts and is eerily silent. When the computer is turned on, the only thing you can hear is the continuous sigh of the massive air conditioner. This is Blue Brain. The name of the supercomputer is literal: Each of its microchips has been programmed to act just like a real neuron in a real brain. The behavior of the computer replicates, with shocking precision, the cellular events unfolding inside a mind. "This is the first model of the brain that has been built from the bottom-up," says Henry Markram, a neuroscientist at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the director of the Blue Brain project. "There are lots of models out there, but this is the only one that is totally biologically accurate. We began with the most basic facts about the brain and just worked from there."
"America rose to power behind a Republican tariff wall. What has free trade wrought? Lost sovereignty. A sinking dollar. A hollowing out of U.S. manufacturing. Stagnant wages. Wives forced into the labor market to maintain the family income. Mass indebtedness to foreign nations, and a deepening dependency on foreign goods and borrowings to pay for them. We have sacrificed our country on the altar of this Moloch, the mythical Global Economy."
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our good friend clyde lewis invited us to 'ground zero' on the day that anonymous launched 'operation bohemian grove'. "There are many people who have heard of the Bohemian grove and there are still many others who are unaware of the barb wired, walled-in city that becomes refuge for our leaders and the global elite in the month of July..."
on the first wednesday of every month, media monarchy joins bob tuskin on oracle broadcasting for a rundown on some of the most important moves on the grand chessboard ... this month's appearance covers the 'culture of fear' & more conscious music mixtapes + the return to bohemian grove, grocery stores & much more...
from press democrat: San Francisco Giants' boss Bill Neukom and Vaughn Walker, the retired federal judge who threw out Proposition 8, will be among the featured speakers at the Bohemian Grove encampment of rich and powerful men beginning Friday in Monte Rio.
monday - bigfoot crossing* 
video: tarpley says china will lap US* 
nyc subway bomb plot linked to british al-qaeda cell, feds say* 
from jonathan elinoff: Most people can't resist getting the details on the latest conspiracy theories, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. At the same time, many people quickly denounce any conspiracy theory as untrue ... and sometimes as unpatriotic or just plain ridiculous. Lets not forget all of the thousands of conspiracies out of Wall Street like Bernie Madoff and many others to commit fraud and extortion, among many crimes of conspiracy ... "Conspiracy theory is a term that originally was a neutral descriptor for any claim of civil, criminal or political conspiracy. However, it has come almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by conspirators of almost superhuman power and cunning."
abc says no to gop ads during obama healthcare special*
from vanity fair: Members of the ultra-exclusive Bohemian Club — 2,500 of America’s richest, most conservative men, including Henry Kissinger, George H. W. Bush, and a passel of Bechtels, Basses, and Rockefellers — are known to urinate freely against the ancient redwoods that cover their 2,700-acre property. Have they been chopping down the trees as well? According to one former member turned whistle-blower, the San Francisco–based society may have logged some of its old-growth forest. Drawing on his own Ivy League ties, the author investigates, with a daring sortie into the ceremonial kickoff of the Bohemians’ annual encampment.
from vanity fair: Conspiracy theorists believe the Bohemian Grove’s idyllic grounds, in northern California, are host to right-wing, old-boy machinations about the New World Order. Honorary member Richard Nixon, meanwhile, called it “the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine.” For V.F. contributing editor Alex Shoumatoff, who was arrested for trespassing at last year’s encampment while investigating the club’s forestry practices, the most suspicious activity that takes place in the grove is the alleged logging of old-growth redwood trees. But common to all reports from the two-week-long gathering of the country’s rich and powerful old guard — members have included every Republican president since Coolidge — is an account of profuse outdoor urination. With gin fizzes being poured at seven a.m., so many enlarged prostates, and such majestic natural urinals, who’s surprised? We present to you a guide to the Bohemian Grove, including a map of the premises, highlights of the events, and a list of prominent members and regular guests, from the club’s founding, in 1872, to today.
from aaron dykes: During a somewhat gimmicky Today Show interview with George H.W. Bush, the elder ‘41′ reminisced about his debates with Geraldine Ferraro, the only other woman to run for Vice President in a major party, who sat alongside him in a discussion about gender roles and discussed the significance of Sarah Palin’s VP candidacy in anticipation of the debate. At about 2:20 into the interview, the Today Show cuts to another location where the former President is wearing a ballcap displaying the Bohemian Grove owl logo along with his boastful ‘41′ wind jacket. As the screenshot indicates, the owl is distinctly that of the Bohemian Club, as shown in the noted designs. The elder Bush’s wearing it during a televised interview should be read as a ‘thumb up’ at the democratic will of the people and a reminder that the electoral process is little more than a sham thinly concealing the rule by secrecy that really goes on behind the scenes.
from 9/11 blogger: Activists from truthaction.org have obtained the official guest list for Bohemian Grove's 2008 midsummer encampment along with a map of the Grove's facilities. According to the guest list, this year's attendees include George H. W. Bush, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and several former CIA directors. Also attending are two members of the Grateful Dead, one of whom is camping with the elder Bush. During an action at the entrance of the elite retreat, several 9/11 truth information packs were accepted by Bohemian Grove campers and taken into the grove, including one by former CIA Director James Woolsey's bunkmate.
from oakland focus: Alex Shoumatoff, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine, tried to sneak into the exclusive Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, Calif., this week. He was hoping to get an inside look at the exclusive retreat of some of the world’s most prominent CEOs, business leaders and politicians. Of course, he stuck out like a seersucker suit at a funeral and was promptly handcuffed and arrested. Most embarrassing for him: he was arrested by a part-time security guard whose day job is a plumber.
from danger room: The Tupperware-style parties, the combo stun-gun-MP3-players, the pink models for her, and the poker-and-Playboy themed charity events were just the start. Taser International's newest marketing technique: selling their stun guns in truck stops.
from ap: A U.S. Army deserter who fled to Canada three years ago was deported July 15 to the United States, marking the first time a resister to the war in Iraq has been removed by Canadian authorities. Paula Shore, spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, confirmed that Robin Long, 25, was deported, but she could not discuss specifics of the case, including Long's destination.
from this is london: The image was practically Biblical: Pope Benedict XVI face to face with a serpent. But the hint of a good vs evil face-off dissipated when the pontiff next squared up against a koala - and, smiling, gave the fuzzy furball a little scratch behind the ears. The Pope was meeting native Australian animals during the World Youth Day celebration in Australia, where young Roman Catholic pilgrims attended religious classes then chowed down on sausages at barbecues.
from sacramento news review: The dark woods on the outskirts of this run-down Russian River resort town are silent now, save the occasional rustle of wind through the towering redwoods. In two weeks, however, the thick moss-laden trunks of the Bohemian Grove will reverberate with the sounds of drag queens making merry, mock human sacrifices and the tinkling hiss of piss on trees.
from press democrat: Legions of summer camp-goers spreading out around Sonoma County will be joined this weekend by some of the nation’s most powerful campers as the annual two-week encampment at the Bohemian Grove opens Friday night.
from renew america: The Bohemian Grove is a place where many of the wealthiest societal leaders — from business, government, and the news media — gather each mid-summer for drunken fellowship and pagan rituals. They worship before a 40-foot idol of an owl. (One such ceremony was caught on video by Alex Jones.) This writer's above-linked column goes into detail about idol worship and how it angers God. This paragraph is a brief overview to show readers that there is a connection between the idol worship at the Bohemian Grove, the endorsement of homosexual "marriage," the lightning-ignited wildfires, and the increased threat of earthquake in California... The Bohemian Grove is located between the major San Andreas Fault line and a "minor" line in that fault system.
from paul joseph watson: Outgoing President George W. Bush and both of his presumptive replacements John McCain and Barack Obama are rumored to be in attendance at this year’s Bohemian Grove gathering, an annual get-together of the global elite staged inside a sprawling forest encampment which kicks off tonight and runs until July 27.
from thinkprogress: Eleven years ago, the neoconservative Project for a New American Century (PNAC) set out its statement of principles advocating the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, putting the country on the road to a preventative invasion of Iraq. Signatories included future Iraq war architects Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliott Abrams, as well as neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan... But just as the neocons are attempting to run from responsibility for the Iraq war, it appears PNAC may be abandoning its own website.
from reuters: A special U.N. human rights investigator will visit the United States this month to probe racism, an issue that has forced its way into the race to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. The United Nations said Doudou Diene would meet federal and local officials, as well as lawmakers and judicial authorities during the May 19-June 6 visit. "The special rapporteur will...gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," a U.N. statement said on Friday.
from cnn: During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee - who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain - joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.
from wufu: After their daughter was born, Bi Kaiwei and his wife, Meilin, decided to adhere to China's one-child policy and its slogan, "Have fewer kids, live better lives." For them and other couples who lost an only child in this week's massive earthquake, the tragedy has been doubly cruel. Robbed of their sole progeny and a hope for the future, they find it even harder to restart their shattered lives, haunted by added guilt, regret and gnawing loss.
from global research: Fingered by whistleblower's Mark Klein and Babak Pasdar 
(450kb PDF) for their role in illegally spying on Americans, AT&T and Verizon were awarded a major contract by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Washington Technology reports: "Verizon Business will perform the lion's share of the work on the Homeland Security Department's OneNet telecommunications contract with support from AT&T Government Solutions."
from washington post: Immense power and staggering wealth are as deeply imbedded in the traditions of the Bohemian Club as they are in the grove itself, 100 acres of old-growth redwoods spared from timber companies a century ago in the name of preservation. Which only deepens the dismay that has greeted the club's request to the state of California for permission to log as much as 1 million board feet from the place to raise some cash.
from afp: China will stick with its strict family planning rules, Premier Wen Jiabao said Wednesday, in an apparent rebuttal to officials who raised the possibility of changes to the one-child policy. "We will adhere to the current policy of family planning, keep the birthrate low, improve the health of newborns and adopt a full range of measures to address the gender imbalance in babies," Wen told the annual parliament. Last week, Zhao Baige, vice minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said the policy had "become a big issue among decision-makers".
from daily utah chronicle: Every day, thousands of Americans look to invest their money in stocks, and many of them go through brokers and traders to simplify the process. Unfortunately, according to Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, a majority of those purchasers will be victims of Wall Street's criminal tactics and will help line the pockets of corrupt brokers and lawyers... In his efforts to stop this charade, Byrne filed a $3.5 billion lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and nine other well-known brokers. Byrne said numerous publications, including the New York Post and Forbes magazine, have protested his "crusade," painting him as a crazed lunatic who is angry about Overstock.com's own stock price drop. Byrne said the Mafia has become a silent player in the Wall Street game. "You don't have to dig very far into this before you get to organized crime," he said.
from press tv: The FBI has acknowledged that it improperly accessed the citizens' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006. This is the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies.
from guardian: Scientists have developed a computerised mind-reading technique which lets them accurately predict the images that people are looking at by using scanners to study brain activity... Then a computer was able to correctly predict in nine out of 10 cases which image people were focused on. Guesswork would have been accurate only eight times in every 1,000 attempts. The study raises the possibility in the future of the technology being harnessed to visualise scenes from a person's dreams or memory.
from seed: In the basement of a university in Lausanne, Switzerland sit four black boxes, each about the size of a refrigerator, and filled with 2,000 IBM microchips stacked in repeating rows. Together they form the processing core of a machine that can handle 22.8 trillion operations per second. It contains no moving parts and is eerily silent. When the computer is turned on, the only thing you can hear is the continuous sigh of the massive air conditioner. This is Blue Brain. The name of the supercomputer is literal: Each of its microchips has been programmed to act just like a real neuron in a real brain. The behavior of the computer replicates, with shocking precision, the cellular events unfolding inside a mind. "This is the first model of the brain that has been built from the bottom-up," says Henry Markram, a neuroscientist at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the director of the Blue Brain project. "There are lots of models out there, but this is the only one that is totally biologically accurate. We began with the most basic facts about the brain and just worked from there."
from rogue government: Pat Buchanan in a recently published opinion editorial that is critical of NAFTA made a surprising reference to the demon Moloch. Each year establishment cronies descend on a place called the Bohemian Grove in Northern California where they engage in an occult mock human sacrifice ritual to the demon Moloch...