from new york sun: The federal government's attempt to stop a group of gold-standard activists from minting an alternative to the greenback is about to face its first legal test.
A dozen people around the country filed suit in U.S. District Court in Idaho this week demanding the return of all the copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins - more than seven tons of metal in all - that the FBI and Secret Service seized in November during raids of a mint in Idaho and a strip mall storefront in Indiana.
"About a quarter of a million people holding liberty dollars are almost up-in arms - not up in arms yet, but almost - about having their property seized, and rightly so," Mr. Von NotHaus told The New York Sun yesterday.
from ap: Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.
The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.
The sense of helplessness is even reflected in this year's presidential election. Each contender offers a sense of order - and hope. Republican John McCain promises an experienced hand in a frightening time. Democrat Barack Obama promises bright and shiny change, and his large crowds believe his exhortation, "Yes, we can."
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 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.
Leslie Adgar, 42, of Decatur, Andre Mays, 24, of Atlanta, and Jon Patton, 44, of Lawrenceville, pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine and heroin.
Patton and Mays were Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security guards working at Hartsfield-Jackson. Adgar worked for Delta Air Lines. Federal prosecutors said the trio was arrested after helping an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency officer ship drugs from Atlanta to New York.
episode080 of media monarchy features west virginia psyop drills, dc dirty bomb, black hawk denver & martial law training, wiretap, recession & secession, g.i. lab rats, obama, osama, russert & beck, water cars, war resisters, music byelvis costello and tons more...
media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authorityevery friday at 10am pacific/1pm eastern and can also be heard on the revere radio networkevery sunday at 4pm pacific/7pm eastern...
from thinkprogress: Under a “compromise” wiretapping bill the House is expected to approve tomorrow, U.S. phone companies that cooperated with President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program after Sept. 11 “could be shielded from lawsuits” as long as “there is written certification that the White House asked a phone company to participate and assured it” of the program’s legality. However, as critics of the deal have noted, there isn’t much to the bill that constitutes a “compromise”:
– Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI): “The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation... Allowing courts to review the question of immunity is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the court to grant immunity.”
– Marcy Wheeler: “All it takes to get off scott free, in this bill, is for the President to have said the program was legal, regardless of whether it was or…whether the telecoms should have questioned whether the directives were legal.”
– Glenn Greenwald: “[W]e’ll have a new law based on the premise that the President has the power to order private actors to break the law, and when he issues such an order, the private actors will be protected from liability of any kind on the ground that the Leader told them to do it — the very theory that the Nuremberg Trial rejected.”
Referring to the bill’s text, Greenwald added, “Seeing the words in print, though, adds a new dimension to appreciating just how corrupt and repugnant this is.”
charging by the byte to curb internet traffic from nytimes: Some people use the Internet simply to check e-mail and look up phone numbers. Others are online all day, downloading big video and music files. For years, both kinds of Web surfers have paid the same price for access. But now three of the country’s largest Internet service providers are threatening to clamp down on their most active subscribers by placing monthly limits on their online activity. One of them, Time Warner Cable, began a trial of “Internet metering” in one Texas city early this month, asking customers to select a monthly plan and pay surcharges when they exceed their bandwidth limit. The idea is that people who use the network more heavily should pay more, the way they do for water, electricity, or, in many cases, cellphone minutes.
isp's confirm '2012: the year the internet ends' from ipower.ning.com: Editors Note: I was tipped to this article and have talked with several others in trying to confirm its legitimacy. It has over 11,000 diggs and it seems legit.
Update: Bell Canada and TELUS (formerly owned by Verizon) employees officially confirm that by 2012 ISP's all over the globe will reduce Internet access to a TV-like subscription model, only offering access to a small standard amount of commercial sites and require extra fees for every other site you visit. These 'other' sites would then lose all their exposure and eventually shut down, resulting in what could be seen as the end of the Internet.
Dylan Pattyn *, who is currently writing an article for Time Magazine on the issue, has official confirmation from sources within Bell Canada and is interviewing a marketing representative from TELUS who confirms the story and states that TELUS has already started blocking all websites that aren't in the subscription package for mobile Internet access. They could not confirm whether it would happen in 2012 because both stated it may actually happen sooner (as early as 2010). Interviews with these sources, more confirmation from other sources and more in-depth information on the issue is set to be published in Time Magazine soon.
paulson to urge new fed powers from washington post: Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. plans to call today for the Federal Reserve to be given new, explicit powers to intervene in the workings of Wall Street firms to protect the financial system, adapting his vision of how the financial world should be regulated to reflect the lessons of the collapse of Bear Stearns. "Our nation has come to expect the Federal Reserve to step in to avert events that pose unacceptable systemic risk," Paulson plans to say in a speech today, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Washington Post. But the central bank "has neither the clear statutory authority nor the mandate to anticipate and deal with risks across our entire financial system."
rbs issues global stock & credit crash alert from telegraph: The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks. "A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared," said Bob Janjuah, the bank's credit strategist. A report by the bank's research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as "all the chickens come home to roost" from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets. Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century.
abu dhabi to buy chrysler building from ny post: The latest Big Apple trophy being coveted by oil-rich sovereign wealth funds is the landmark Chrysler Building. Sources say the super-rich Abu Dhabi Investment Council is negotiating an $800 million deal for a 75 percent stake in the Art Deco treasure that has defined the Midtown skyline since 1930... The deal follows last month's sale of the GM Building and three other Macklowe/Equity Portfolio properties for $3.95 billion to a group of investors including the wealth funds of Kuwait and Qatar and Boston Properties.
why you shouldn’t spend that 'stimulus' check from alternet: If we refused to cash our checks, the value of the dollars in our pockets would go up by more than the face value of the stimulus refund... The reason being that America does not have a hard-money economy, it’s a debt-based fiat currency economy. All the money in circulation in America has been borrowed and then re-lent. So borrowing more money ($168 billion for the stimulus package) and then re-lending it to Americans, as Bush is doing, only increases the debt load and debases the value of the currency outstanding (against a backdrop of stagnant wages and minuscule interest rates for savers).
bush renews attempts to capture osama bin laden from raw story: In a last ditch effort to capture Osama bin Laden before leaving office, President Bush has enlisted the help of British special forces, the Times Online reported Saturday. The article cited “defense and intelligence sources in London and Washington” as having confirmed the information. “If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place,” said a US intelligence source.
9/11 victims want bin laden money share from livenews: As the United States continues its long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, victims of September 11, 2001, terror attacks are in the midst of their own bin Laden pursuit - for his family's vast fortune. Victims and survivors of the attack and insurance companies say the bin Laden family failed to cut off ties with their infamous relative after learning he was devising terrorism plots and should be held liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
from raw replay: MSNBC Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist talked with Ron Paul about how the United States is conducting the war on terror. This video is from MSNBC’s Morning Joe, broadcast June 18, 2008.
los angeles to resume controversial cloud-seeding project from xinhua: Facing severe water supply shortage, Los Angeles plans to launch a controversial cloud-seeding project that they believe will boost rainfall and raise the levels of local reservoirs, a newspaper report said Monday. The project, which will rely on injecting clouds with silver iodide particles, has won approval from Los Angeles county supervisors and is slated to begin this winter. Officials decided to resume the program after a seven-year lapse caused by concerns over mudslides in some mountain areas ravaged by brush fires, according to the Los Angeles Times. With California gripped by dry weather and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declaring a statewide drought, cloud-seeding is attracting both fresh attention and skeptics.
cdc begins investigation into morgellons from natural news: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is launching an investigation into a still-unexplained collection of symptoms known as Morgellons disease. The condition known as Morgellons disease is characterized primarily by skin lesions that do not heal, as well as unexplained sensations of crawling, biting or stinging on the skin; the presence of foreign materials, such as fibers, on or under the skin; fatigue; joint pain; memory loss; mental confusion and vision changes.
an about-face on natural health products & bill c-51 from vancouver sun: In a surprising about-face, Health Minister Tony Clement has agreed to key demands of the natural health products industry after the sector launched a grassroots campaign against restrictions on homeopathic medicines and herbal remedies in new legislation. When Clement proposed amendments to the Food and Drugs Act in April, natural medicines were lumped in with pharmaceutical drugs, raising concerns they would be subject to the same type of oversight. He now admits it was a mistake not to create a separate category under the law.
scientist says dolphin deaths look like a mass suicide (caused by military sonar yet again) from guardian: The dolphins that died after becoming beached in Cornwall had ingested debris and mud, leading one of the scientists who examined some of the corpses to compare their deaths to a "mass suicide". Vic Simpson, who has been involved in the postmortem examinations of some of the 26 dolphins that died, said yesterday: "On the face of it, it looks like some sort of mass suicide - but the question is why?"
2 more girls die after getting gardasil from natural news: The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has reported that two young women died shortly after receiving Merck's Gardasil, a vaccine against several varieties of human papillomavirus (HPV).
fruit, veggies & tea may rotect smokers from cancer from intern daily: Tobacco smokers who eat three servings of fruits and vegetables per day and drink green or black tea may be protecting themselves from lung cancer, according to a first-of-its-kind study by UCLA cancer researchers.
the US hs no remaining grain reserves from tri-state observer: Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. “According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are only 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be only 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory,” warned Matlack.
bird flu can mix with human influenza virus: research from asd: A worrying new research paper has been published in the United States. It proves that H5N1 bird flu, which has so far only killed people in its pure form is capable of combining with conventional human flu viruses. A mutated virus combining human flu and bird flu is the nightmare strain which scientists fear could create a worldwide pandemic. The research was conducted in a laboratory by the US Centers for Disease Control... Listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.
the grass-roots marijuana wars from time: Don Duncan says he is not a pot smoker. "I haven't in eight or nine years now," says Duncan, 37. "It wasn't the right thing for me." Which is ironic, since he spends most of his day around plenty of cannabis as part owner of a West Hollywood, Calif. dispensary of medical marijuana... Lately, however, Duncan directed more energy toward his role as California director of Americans for Safe Access, a group of merchants, doctors and patients that aims to make it easier to dispense and obtain marijuana for medical purposes. The organization's central mission: fighting U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raids on dispensaries.
emergency drill in west virginia from wowk-tv: The Cabell County Office of Emergency Services was activated early Tuesday morning to participate in an emergency drill. More than 20 West Virginia Counties particpated. First responders had to set up a comfort station in order to take care of thousands who theoretically had to evacuate Washington D.C. due to a dirty bomb explosion.
dirty bomb disaster drill held across the state from cbs59: Emergency crews across the country started participating in a drill Tuesday morning. The test was to help prepare for possible terrorist attacks on Washington D.C. The massive evacuation would cause an influx of people into the Mountain State. Greenbrier County's Deputy Emergency Operations, Al Whitaker says about a tank of gas will get evacuees to Lewisburg. But handling crowds is something they practice every year during the state fair. Crews focused on testing Internet and radio communications through all EOC systems. This is the second year West Virginia has participated in the drill.
drill tests wv's readiness to host evacuees from examiner: Emergency officials are testing West Virginia's ability to host thousands of potential East Coast evacuees. Officials in 25 counties are participating in the two-day drill that's designed to test the state's ability to receive, help and send evacuees on their way to safer locations. The effort is part of a national preparedness drill and is to end Wednesday. State Homeland Security spokesman Joe Thornton says the drill will help identify gaps in West Virginia's emergency response plans. Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary James Spears has said the state has to be ready if a disaster hits the nation's capital or East Coast population centers. Thornton says officials from Maryland, Ohio and Virginia are observing West Virginia's drill.
wv conducts improbable, expensive terror exercise from west virginia holler: "The sky is falling, the sky is falling"; Homeland Security plays 'Chicken Little' again, at the cost of West Virginia taxpayers. The probability of this happening is microscopic! See our previous article, OVERBLOWN, to put all this into more rational perspective.
dirty bomb exercise tests wv's emergency services from cecelia mason: The scenario: A dirty bomb falls somewhere in the Washington D.C. area. Thousands of people evacuate to West Virginia. The state Homeland Security Department staged a major exercise yesterday to test whether West Virginia can handle such a scenario.
psyop prep for denver dem convention... from raw replay: Military helicopters flew low over parts of Denver Monday night as part of a security drill organized by the U.S. Department of Justice. Denver police said they were aware of the operation, but could provide no details. This video is from CBS 4 Denver, broadcast June 16.
denver stocking up on pepper weapons from rocky mountain news: Denver police are stocking up on guns that fire a pepper spray-like substance instead of bullets - a less-lethal weapon used to disperse crowds - in advance of the Democratic National Convention. The department recently ordered 88 Mark IV launchers and projectiles at a cost "in the low six figures," the company that makes the weapons stated in a news release Monday. The request was for delivery in advance of the DNC, according to Louisville- based Security With Advanced Technology Inc. The convention, scheduled for Aug. 25 to 28 at the Pepsi Center, is expected to draw thousands of protesters to sites throughout Denver.
denver hospitals hold disaster drill from denver post: Eight Denver hospitals held drills Tuesday to test their abilities to respond to a disaster that would injure thousands of people. The mock exercise - a "dirty bomb" explosion at a Pepsi Center packed with 20,000 people - was one of the largest-ever cooperative drills for the city's hospitals, organizers said. It comes just two months before the Democratic National Convention, when the city will host thousands of people from around the world.
martial law exercises continue in denver from kurt nimmo: The Rocky Mountain News, after an unflattering article on the Black Hawks — yes, tinfoil hatters, black helicopters — invading Denver, came back with a clarification. It’s all part of the GWOT, or Global War on Terrorism, in response to the reservations of mayor John Hickenlooper. “The federal agencies sponsoring the ongoing multi-agency training in Denver agreed to make the proper notifications regarding the exercises to prevent surprise and inconvenience to Denver residents,” Hickenlooper said. “There seems to have been a misunderstanding about the reach and scope of these notifications, and they did not occur in the manner expected by the City.”
clueless citizens cheer black helicopters in denver from infowars: Talk about misunderstanding a concept. In the videos here, the citizens of Denver cheer on GWOT helicopters as they buzz skyscrapers, apparently clueless about what this means. It means the Department of Defense is free to “surprise and inconvenience” Denver residents, as the Denver Post reported.
socially engineering the public for martial law from rogue government: The terrorists in the federal government are continuing their push to have a fully functioning martial law apparatus. The city of Denver was recently invaded by a large number of military helicopters without any sort of warning given to the general public. It was originally speculated that this training exercise had something to do with the upcoming Democratic National Convention, but a spokesman with Special Operations said that it wasn’t related and that the exercises would last all week. It is interesting that this spokesman said it had nothing to do with the upcoming DNC. If that’s the case, than what is the real purpose of this exercise?
dod warns residents away from urban combat training from raw replay: A Dept. of Defense spokesperson has warned Denver residents to keep their distance from military helicopters conducting urban combat training in the city. Lt. Steve Ruh said, “we don’t want you guys to be impaled from flying debris from our helicopters.” Lt. Ruh would not tell the CBS affiliate in Denver why citizens were not warned in advance of the exercises. He did say that Denver residents had been vigilant in contacting authorities after the exercises began. “Denver has some amazing citizens. I am happy to see that Denver is very proactive - the citizens are - with reaching out, contacting 911 and contacting the news media saying, ‘Hey, look, something is out of the norm here.’” >At least one Denver resident complained that turbulence from the helicopters had strewn items around the yard and shattered a window. Michelle Simpson described the proximity of the exercises to her home as “creepy.” CBS News 4 has more more details here. This video is from CBS 4 Denver, broadcast June 18, 2008.
let's start at the beginning, here's the oldest report on google news from june 8...
blaze destroys texas governor's mansion from necn: Texas state officials say a four-alarm fire has caused "catastrophic" damage to the Texas Governor's Mansion in Austin. Governor's spokesman Robert Black says said no one was inside the 150-year-old home when the fire began shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday. He says the cause is not yet known. The mansion had been undergoing a $10 million renovation and Gov. Rick Perry and his wife had moved out last fall. Black says the damage to the mansion "is extraordinary, bordering on catastrophic." He says more than 100 firefighters are at the scene and the roof of the mansion is very unstable.
and then the mention of arson with the perry's conveniently out of town...
was governor's mansion fire arson? from ap: Fire investigators are asking for the public's help in identifying who may be to blame for a blaze that badly damaged the historic Texas Governor's Mansion.
and then contradictions & controversy...
order of 911 calls received causes controversy from news8austin: Officials received the first 911 call alerting them to the fire at the Governor's Mansion at 1:43 a.m., Sunday. Alonzo Perez made that call as he walked to his car from a night out on Sixth Street. The Austin Fire Department confirms Perez made the first call... "I didn't see nobody out here for about 8-10 minutes," Perez said. "It's kind of crazy. There was no security out here, nothing. I would think security would have been around here, you know." ... To hear the 911 calls, click here.
austin's reichstag fire? from mack white: As noted in my earlier blog posts on the Governor's Mansion fire, the failure of security is very strange to say the least. I have been a resident of Austin for over 30 years and am very familiar with the Capitol and Governor's Mansion area... Could the fire have been an inside job?Certainly, the failure by DPS to protect the building from arson has the look of a security stand down. But, until the BATF-assisted investigation and an arrest is made, we cannot know for sure. Time will tell...
governor mansion alarms broken when arsonist struck from houston chronicle: An alarm system designed to alert state troopers if someone penetrated the walled grounds of the Governor's Mansion was not working when an arsonist torched the 152-year-old Texas landmark, sources familiar with the mansion's security said Friday. The system has been inoperative for at least four weeks, despite complaints by some Department of Public Safety troopers that it could imperil mansion security.
official: mansion fire may have been politically motivated from dallas morning news: The arsonist who set the fire at the Texas Governor's Mansion this month may have been politically motivated, the state fire marshal said Monday. He also offered a $50,000 reward for information about the crime.
from nikkei business publications: Genepax Co Ltd explained the technologies used in its new fuel cell system “Water Energy System (WES),” which uses water as a fuel and does not emit CO2. The system can generate power just by supplying water and air to the fuel and air electrodes, respectively, the company said at the press conference, which took place June 12, 2008, at the Osaka Assembly Hall.
from guardian: George Bush arrived in the UK today for his last presidential visit to the country before leaving the White House next January. Airforce One touched down at Heathrow just before 2pm. On the final leg of his European tour Bush will take tea with the Queen, dine with Gordon Brown and have breakfast with Tony Blair.
His arrival has prompted planned demonstrations and a heavy security operation. The Stop the War coalition are planning protests at Windsor and Parliament Square. They are also expected to defy a police ban and march past Downing Street. The Metropolitan Police said it has mounted a "significant" operation involving 1,000 officers.
bush dines with rupert murdoch as protests go on from thinkprogress: Yesterday, President Bush “arrived at Downing Street for a private dinner hosted by Gordon Brown and attended by Rupert Murdoch, a clutch of ministers and a mini-faculty of historians.” Thousands of Britons turned out to protest the President, chanting, “George Bush terrorist” and “Arrest George Bush.”
pope to meet bush in st john's tower from reuters: Pope Benedict will unusually host talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in a restored medieval tower on Friday, to repay him for a warm reception at the White House, the Vatican said. The pope usually receives heads of state in his private study in the Apostolic Palace, overlooking St Peter's Square. But Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the change was to repay Bush for "the cordiality of the meeting at the White House" when the pope visited the United States in April. St. John's Tower is a round structure on a hilltop inside the Vatican gardens that is sometimes used as a residence for important guests... The late Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963, restored the tower as a place where he could work in peace.
bush protesters clash with police in uk from raw replay: Protests were staged as George Bush visited Downing Street and Windsor on day one of his trip to the UK. The US president is in London with his wife Laura as part of his ‘farewell’ tour of Europe. This video is from BBC, broadcast June 16, 2008.
The Respect Party MP details incitements that the officer made towards police and how the man encouraged other protesters to charge baton-wielding officers and hurl projectiles at them. Galloway cites an article from last Weekend’s Mail On Sunday in which author Yasmin Whittaker-Khan detailed how she bumped into a known senior police officer, dressed like a press photographer with a large expensive camera, who shouted “Pigs out!” and enticed others to the front of the police-protestor clashes.
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from new york sun: The federal government's attempt to stop a group of gold-standard activists from minting an alternative to the greenback is about to face its first legal test.
