#NewWorldNextWeek: Episode226 - Plane Hacking, Genetic Editing, Peak Obesity

NewWorldNextWeek.com: Episode226 -
Plane Hacking, Genetic Editing, Peak Obesity

obama accused of waging 'class warfare' with millionaire tax plan

from foxnews: A top House Republican accused President Obama of appealing to Americans' "fear, envy and anxiety" by pushing a new tax rate on people making more than $1 million annually, saying the "class warfare path" will only hurt the economy. "Class warfare ... may make for really good politics, but it makes for rotten economics," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee, told "Fox News Sunday."


related econocrash updates:
lloyd's of london pulls deposits from banks on debt crisis*
study: child abuse rose during recession*
video: max keiser interviews bill still of 'the money masters'*

related obamessiah updates:
obama admin officials brief reporters on transparency plans... anonymously*
perry, romney, paul: gallup numbers show gop nomination is three way race*
man with backpack hops over white house fence*

9/11 + 9: makeshift patriots

the anniversary of 9/11:
from reagan & the soviet-afghan war to bush, 9/11 & beyond*
history of wirt dexter walker: russell & co, cia & 9/11*
do the majority of americans blame bush for 9/11?*
america was attacked from within*
construction complete on 9/11 truther memorial*
american muslims nervous about ramadan's end coinciding with 9/11*
obama plans to observe anniversary at the pentagon*
palin to join beck at anchorage 9/11 event*
US wants to buy 1st printing of reservist's memoir*
this 9/11, will terror sites get hacked again?*
list of anniversary events in nyc*
cognitive infiltration: david ray griffin's new book*
condoleezza: i told bush not to come back after 9/11*
condi hung up on george in the the aftermath of 9/11*
secret service tossed 'non-essentials' from bunker*
distress signals indicated planes crashed minutes before flights 11 & 175 hit the wtc*
building 7 implosion: the smoking gun of 9/11*
video: 'zapruder film of 9/11' w/ daniel sunjata*
1,270 architects/engineers reveal hard evidence of explosive demolition on 9/11*
new videos from nist cumulus database posted*
new wtc7 video posted*
9yrs on, no trial in sight for alleged 9/11 plotters*
9yrs + $7b after 9/11, US still waiting for emergency radio networks*

9/11 + 8 flashbacks:
the day before 9/11:
'missing' trillions from the pentagon*
11 points of contention with the 'official story of 9/11'*
9/11 anniversary updates: past, present & future*
9/12 updates: drills & the day after*

mysterious bush-bush-obama meeting at oval office

from trail blazers blog: President Barack Obama hosted a pair of Bushes this morning in the Oval Office: former President George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Two weeks ago, Jeb's brother, former President George W. Bush, was at the White House talking about Haiti relief with Obama and ex-President Bill Clinton.

The White House described it as a social call, but feel free to speculate. Jeb Bush's presence was unexpected - the White House hadn't said anything about him being invited. It's all very... bipartisan. The Bushes were at the White House for just over a half-hour, emerging in a driving snow that over the next few hours will blanket the capital with several inches of fluff.

"Good meeting, good meeting," the elder Bush, 85 and walking with a cane, said in response to a question called out by a reporter. Bush the elder hosted Obama at Texas A&M a few months back, at an event celebrating community service/volunteerism and marking the 20th anniversary of his Points of Light project.

obamessiah & the apostles of war: troops, tech, tv & more

obama approved 13k more troops to afghanistan*
obama vows to allow open gays into military service*
video: gay-rights marchers 'divided on obama'*
obama loosens missile technology controls to china*
flashback: kenyan-born obama all set for US senate*
gallup: obama poll numbers spike after nobel win*
leaked network memo reveals: obama controls your television set*
white house: fox news is 'arm of the republican party'*
obama's cia ties?*
video: hillary says she will not run again*
rage at govt for doing too much & not enough*
video: scalia says cross no longer represents christians*
maria shriver breaks husband's cell phone law*
video: huffington says biden should resign over afghanistan*

updates:
government propaganda to infest network tv shows*
majority of nobel jury 'objected to obama prize'*
obama's unrestrained fbi: is this america?*
naomi klein: obama isn't helping, at least the world argued with bush*

white house won't release photos of air farce one stunt

from nypost: The $328,835 snapshots of an Air Force One backup plane buzzing lower Manhattan last week will not be shown to the public, the White House said yesterday. "We have no plans to release them," an aide to President Obama told The Post, refusing to comment further. The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city. "The photos... are classified -- that's ridiculous," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., said. The photos have not technically been "classified," a White House aide said, but they are being kept from public view. New Yorkers said they could not understand how a president who shares intimate snapshots from the White House could justify keeping these secret. "So we're not gonna see the fruits of this cruel joke?" said Frank Antonelli, 39, one of the Wall Street traders spooked by last week's flyover. "I'm not surprised. Obama... wouldn't further all the bad publicity by putting out those pictures."

update: now white house will release photo from flyover
from foxnews: The White House plans to soon release a photo from the controversial Air Force One-style flyover of Manhattan last week, despite claiming earlier that there was no need to release any official images from the incident. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that an internal report will probably be completed this week. "We'll release its findings and release a photo," he said. That was after Gibbs indicated Tuesday that the White House would not release any images. "I've watched CNN," he said at the time, noting the considerable coverage from amateur footage. "I didn't notice a lack of archival material from that flight." The flyover triggered panic among New Yorkers as well as the internal review by the Obama administration... White House Military Office Director Louis Caldera accepted responsibility and apologized for allowing the exercise.

taxday 2009 & the great american econocrash

white house locked down after threat from tea bag

2,000 crowd capitol 'tea party' to protest taxes
from oregonian: On a day already loathed by tax haters, 2,000 people crowded the Capitol steps to protest corporate bailouts, higher taxes and the state of government in both Oregon and in the United States. The demonstration in Salem was one of 20 scattered throughout Oregon on Wednesday, all modeled after the Boston Tea Party in 1773 when people dumped tea to protest British taxation. From California to New York, thousands of people joined in more than 500 such tea parties across the country.


and the rest of the updates:
natl guard on alert for tea party protests*
video: libertarians say republicans have hijacked tea party movement*
reckless spending & taxation prolonged great depression*
video: obama’s spending to result in mass protests*
more americans wary of the tax man this year*
republicrats determined to turn tea parties into circus sideshow*
perry fires up anti-tax crowd*
perry’s cynical effort to exploit the tea party & state's rights movement*
'grassroots' chicago tea party organized with help from right-wing heartland institute*
obamas report '08 income of $2.6m*
obama vows to reform 'monstrous' tax code*
fox-driven 'tea parties' fail to ignite popular uprising among US conservatives*

the masonic boston tea party
from copycat effect: Today is April 15th, and there will be "tea parties" throughout the USA. Few carrying out these 2009 symbolic acts understand the origins of the Boston Tea Party, which occurred on December 16, 1773. The Masonic background to the Boston Tea Party is part of the twilight history of the nation.



napolitano can’t say if illegals will get stimulus money

debtors' prison - again
from st petersburg times: In a little-noticed trend blamed on the state's hard economic times, several courts in Florida have resurrected the de facto debtor's prison — having thousands of Floridians jailed for failing to pay assessed court fees and fines. The shortsighted plan threatens to run afoul of the U.S. Constitution. It appears to generate little additional revenue relative to the misery it causes, and it should be stopped.

video: sacramento tent-city residents issued moving papers

goldman sachs tries to shut down financial blogger
from global research: Mike Morgan is a registered investment adviser and a scrappy shoot-from-the-hip guy who doesn't mince his words. Recently Morgan has come under fire from investment giant Goldman Sachs for his hard-hitting web site "Facts about Goldman Sachs". According to the U.K. Telegraph: "Goldman Sachs is attempting to shut down a dissident blogger who is extremely critical of the investment bank, its board members and its practices. The bank has instructed Wall Street law firm Chadbourne & Parke to pursue blogger Mike Morgan, warning him in a recent cease-and-desist letter that he may face legal action if he does not close down his website. According to Chadbourne & Parke's letter, dated April 8, the bank is rattled because the site "violates several of Goldman Sachs' intellectual property rights" and also "implies a relationship" with the bank itself. Unsurprisingly for a man who has conjoined the bank's name with the Number of the Beast – although he jokingly points out that 666 was also the S&P500's bear-market bottom – Mr Morgan is unlikely to go down without a fight. He claims he has followed all legal requirements to own and operate the website – and that the header of the site clearly states that the content has not been approved by the bank. On a special section of his blog entitled "Goldman Sachs vs Mike Morgan" he predicts that the fight will probably end up in court. "It's just another example of how a bully like Goldman Sachs tries to throw their weight around," he writes."

is goldman sachs running the plunge protection team?

23 banks closed in '09 & counting...
from bloomberg: Banks in Colorado and North Carolina were shut as rising unemployment and a loss of jobs shrinks household wealth in the deepest recession in a quarter century, pushing the toll of U.S. bank failures to 23 this year. New Frontier Bank in Greeley, Colorado, with $2 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits, and Cape Fear Bank in Wilmington, North Carolina, with $492 million in assets and $403 million in deposits, were shut today by state regulators.

general motors told to prep for bankruptcy

lehman sits on bomb of uranium cake as prices slump
from bloomberg: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is sitting on enough uranium cake to make a nuclear bomb as it waits for prices of the commodity to rebound, according to traders and nuclear experts. The bankrupt bank, in the throes of paying off creditors, acquired uranium cake “under a matured commodities contract” and plans to sell it when the market improves “to realize the best prices,” Chief Executive Officer Bryan Marsal said. Lehman, once the fourth-largest investment bank, has an estimated $200 billion in unsecured liabilities left to pay. The uranium, which may be as much as 500,000 pounds, might fetch $20 million at today’s prices of about $40.50 per pound, said traders who asked not to be named because of the confidential nature of the data. Marsal said the traders’ estimate of Lehman’s uranium holding is “reasonable,” while declining to be more specific. Uranium has dropped for five straight months from $55 a pound on Dec. 1 on concerns that countries including China and India would delay nuclear power projects because of the global economic crisis, and because Lehman might dump its radioactive material on the market, the traders said. More than 43 million pounds of uranium-oxide concentrate, or yellowcake equivalent sold on the spot market last year, more than doubling the 2007 trading volume, according to Roswell, Georgia-based Ux Consulting Co.

pets left homeless as owners face foreclosure

bush/obama regimes to run transition/terror drill in january

from usa today: What would happen if terrorists attacked the United States at the start of Barack Obama's presidency? The Bush administration doesn't want to wait to find out. It's planning to test the incoming government's readiness next month in a series of tabletop exercises involving top Bush and Obama officials. Concerned about the first handoff of presidential power since Sept. 11, 2001, the White House also is preparing briefing books and office manuals designed to bring the incoming Obama administration up to speed in a hurry. "This is the first wartime transition in 40 years, and it's probably the first transition in a couple of centuries in which our homeland itself has been under threat," says White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten, who's supervising the effort. The goal is to "make sure that those who are coming in are as well prepared as they can be to deal with an actual threat here in this country."

totalitarian olympic updates

white house press corps plane detained in china
from ap: A charter airplane carrying the White House press corps was detained for nearly three hours Friday at Beijing's international airport not long after President Bush arrived to attend the Olympic Games. The flight crew of the Northwest Airlines 747 had been expecting to park at a VIP terminal, but after landing was instead directed by the control tower to a normal international gate. White House officials would say only there were "logistical problems" getting clearance to unload the aircraft. The flight crew was told the Chinese were insisting that all luggage be inspected.

relative of US coach killed in beijing

from washington times: A Chinese man stabbed the in-laws of the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball coach, killing one and injuring the other while they visited a Beijing tourist site near the main venue where Olympic competitions began Saturday. The victims were Todd and Barbara Bachman of Lakeville, Minn., parents of former Olympian Elisabeth Bachman, who is married to men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, according to the U.S. Olympic Committee. Bachman's father was killed.

heat & humidity taking toll on athletes at olympics
from mcclatchy: If it's not the smog, it’s the heat and humidity. The thick gray cap of haze over the Chinese capital abated slightly Saturday, but temperatures soared into the mid-90s, and some Olympic athletes wilted. Several cyclists pulled out of the road race, unable to cope with the sticky heat, and a Swiss men's beach volleyball team resorted to a medical break to catch a brief respite from the sizzling sun and the high humidity that just wouldn’t allow sweat to evaporate... Many athletes were worried less about heat than air pollution upon arriving in Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world. Microscopic particles that comprise the city’s thick haze can aggravate those who suffer from asthma, and irritate eyes and nasal passages.

chinese fireworks & olympic tv fakery
from sky news: Parts of the spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony were faked, it has emerged. The global television audience of more than three billion people watched in amazement as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks proceeded through the night sky from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest stadium - except they were watching a computer animation. Even the giant television screens within the stadium itself broadcast the fake images. Stunned viewers thought they were watching the string of fireworks filmed from above by a helicopter. But in reality they were watching a 3D graphics sequence that took almost a year to produce. It even included a 'camera shake' to mimic the effect of filming from a helicopter. The dupe was revealed by China's Beijing Times. Speaking to the paper, the man responsible for the animation said he was pleased with the result.


chinese defend olympic ceremony lip-synch
from msnbc: Chinese officials defended their decision to pass off the voice of a 7-year-old songbird as that of another girl at the Olympic opening ceremony, calling it a simple casting choice. Critics said it was a step too far in China’s obsession with the perfect Olympic Games.

suskind: white house interrogation room & 9/11 link lie

bush white house has its own interrogation room
from thinkprogress: In Ron Suskind’s new book, Suskind describes a disturbing case in Washington, D.C., where security officials detained and interrogated Usman Khosa, a Pakistani U.S. college graduate, because he was “fiddling” with his iPod near White House gates. Officials took Khosa to an interrogation room “beneath” the White House:

suskind defends charge that bush faked iraq link to 9/11
from raw replay: NBC’s Meredith Vieira talked with Ron Suskind about his new book that alleges the Bush White House ordered the CIA to create a fake letter linking Saddam Hussein on the 9/11 attacks. This video is from NBC’s Today Show, broadcast August 5, 2008.

7th anniversary of osama 'determined to strike' memo

from thinkprogress: Today marks seven years since the day President Bush received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” (See the pdf memo here.) At the time, Bush was vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, TX and stayed on vacation the rest of August 2001. Here’s how the administration reacted, according to the 9/11 Commission report

— [President Bush] did not recall discussing the August 6 report with the Attorney General or whether Rice had done so. [p. 260]

— We have found no indication of any further discussion before September 11 among the President and his top advisers of the possibility of a threat of an al Qaeda attack in the United States. DCI Tenet visited President Bush in Crawford, Texas, on August 17 and participated in the PDB briefings of the President between August 31 (after the President had returned to Washington) and September 10. But Tenet does not recall any discussions with the President of the domestic threat during this period. [p. 262]

The day after he received the memo, “Bush seemed carefree as he spoke about the books he was reading, the work he was doing on his nearby ranch, his love of hot-weather jogging, his golf game and his 55th birthday,” the Washington Post noted. Today — 2,557 days later — Bin Laden still remains free and “determined to strike in U.S.”

white house briefed for 'potential for life' on mars

from universe today: It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix scientists about the discovery of something more "provocative" than the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith on Thursday. Whilst NASA scientists are not claiming that life once existed on the Red Planet's surface, new data appears to indicate the "potential for life" more conclusively than the TEGA water results. Apparently these new results are being kept under wraps until further, more detailed analysis can be carried out, but we are assured that this announcement will be huge…

So why is there all this secrecy? According to scientists in communication with Aviation Week & Space Technology, the next big discovery will need to be mulled over for a while before it is announced to the world.

bush aide caught offering access for donations

from raw replay: The Times of London reports: “A lobbyist with close ties to the White House is offering access to key figures in George W Bush’s administration in return for six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.” Stephen Payne is a Bush pioneer and a political appointee to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. RAW STORY has more details here. This video is from TimesOnline.co.uk, broadcast July 13, 2008.


update1: dhs & house oversight committee open investigations into payne’s cash-for-access scandal
from thinkprogess: Stephen Payne, a longtime Bush associate who was revealed to be selling access to top Bush administration officials in return for contributions to the Bush library, is now under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Payne currently serves on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. A spokesman for DHS called the revelations a “horribly unfortunate story” and said the Department is currently “looking into the facts.”

update2: payne’s ‘perceived bribery’ costs him dhs post

change we can spy on

obama supports telecom amnesty
from threat level: Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama supports the spy bill compromise passed by the House Friday, despite having opposed retroactive amnesty to telecoms that helped with the President's secret, warrantless wiretapping.

The measure expands the government's ability to install blanket wiretaps inside domestic communication infrastructure and frees the nation's phone and internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of massive violations of their customers' privacy. The Senate is expected to take up and pass the Bush-approved bill next week.

The bill is widely perceived as a victory for the White House, and was agreed to by Democrats out of a fear of being labeled soft on terrorism in the upcoming elections.

does the white house have a secret laser defense?

from danger room: There are all kinds of stories about how the White House is defended. One urban legend says Stinger anti-aircraft missiles are supposedly perched on the roof. According to this 1998 report by Human Rights Watch, Pennsylvania Avenue may be protected by a laser weapon, meant to ward off 9/11-style suicide attacks...

The latest version is the Compact High Power (CHP) Laser Dazzler, described as a 500 Milliwatt, 532nm Green Flashing Laser. As with the WWII dazzling strobelights, the flashing is said to increase effectiveness and produce disorientation in the target. It is effective out to a one-mile range, and has been urgently requested in Iraq as an alternative to lethal means of stopping drivers approaching checkpoints.

We do not know whether the Secret Service had such lasers to protect the White House on 9/11 - or if they have them now. Beyond the 1998 report, there's not much evidence. But we do know that in 2001 the makers were touting a bigger version of their Dazzler to the Navy. It was ten times as powerful as the handheld model, and was suitable for use on ships and other in "area defense" situations.

do americans even care about big brother?

from time: Pity America's poor civil libertarians. In recent weeks, the papers have been full of stories about the warehousing of information on Americans by the National Security Agency, the interception of financial information by the CIA, the stripping of authority from a civilian intelligence oversight board by the White House, and the compilation of suspicious activity reports from banks by the Treasury Department. On Thursday, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine released a report documenting continuing misuse of Patriot Act powers by the FBI. And to judge from the reaction in the country, nobody cares.

white house torture advocate william haynes resigns

from thinkprogress: Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes, who was a “prime mover” in the Bush administration’s efforts to bypass the Geneva Convention, announced today that he “is returning to private life next month.” Already a controversial figure due to his torture advocacy, the negative spotlight on Haynes increased last week when former Gitmo prosecutor Col. Morris Davis told The Nation that Haynes had insisted that the administration “can’t have acquittals” at Guantanamo Bay. More on Haynes’ role in the Bush administration here.

still catapulting the propaganda

rummy resurfaces & calls for US propaganda agency
from danger room: One of the many things I love about Donald Rumsfeld is that he's totally unrepentant. Back in 2001, the Pentagon under his leadership created the controversial Office of Strategic Influence, which was closed down just a few months later after its existence became public. Rightly or wrongly, the Pentagon was accused of creating a propaganda office. Now, the former defense secretary has a bigger vision: he is advocating a "21st century agency for global communications." This was one of the major themes in one of Rumsfeld's first post-Pentagon public comments at a conference today on network centric warfare sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement. According to Rumsfeld, the United States is losing the war of ideas in the Muslim world, and the answer to that, in part, is through the creation of this new government agency.

bush establishes financial propaganda council
from rogue government: The amount of insanity coming out of the United States government has reached a new level today. George W. Bush has issued a new executive order establishing a group called the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. The insanity of this executive order is unparalleled. The so called purpose of this Council is to keep this nation economically competitive and encourage the financial literacy of the American people. The government working in conjunction with the Federal Reserve has done everything in their power since the implementation of the Federal Reserve to ensure that the American people know nothing about how our monetary system really works.

white house 'reused e-mail tapes'

from ap: The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages - including those pertaining to the CIA leak case - have been taped over and are gone forever... The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide... If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records.

cia man 'can take white house down'

from press tv: Former head of the CIA's clandestine service Jose Rodriguez claims he can take the White House down over a torture cover-up scandal.

Rodriguez said he may testify before the House Intelligence Committee if he is granted immunity from prosecution, The Sunday Times reported.

Intelligence sources believe Rodriguez is now quite determined not to become the fall guy in the controversy over the destruction of CIA videotapes showing the torture of terrorist suspects.

The hundreds of hours of videotapes reportedly showed the interrogation of two al-Qaeda leaders, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, while they were held in a secret military prison.

A former CIA officer has testified that the videotapes showed Zubaydah being subjected to water-boarding, a form of torture that simulates drowning.

Despite the Bush administration's denial of any involvement in the destruction of the tapes, the CIA and White House have been accused of torturing detainees in the so-called war on terror launched in the aftermath of the 9/11.