John Sez: So Obama signed the bill that he ‘ordered’ Congress to fashion which will keep the torture photos from ever coming before the eyes of the public. This means that Obama is an INTENTIONAL accessory to the war crimes of the Bush administration. If ever Bush and company comes before the Hague (a real long shot, but one can hope), there is no choice now but to have Obama sitting in the defendants row along with them.

Think about the message this sends to the rest of the world about who we
are as Americans. Folks, we have become the BAD GUYS.


And to all you good folks who voted for this mockery of a man, is this the change you voted for? If you support this then you are no better than the people on the other side of the aisle who backed the last administrations torture policies that you were so vehemently against.

Story from Raw Story (I am using a link to the PrisonPlanet posting of the original story as the Raw Story link is acting funky):

Obama signs law blocking release of torture photos
Daniel Tencer
Raw Story

President Barack Obama received a great deal of media attention on Wednesday for signing a historic hate-crimes bill into law. But, on the same day, the US president also signed a Homeland Security spending bill that received far less attention, even though it effectively blocks efforts by activists to reveal photos of detainee abuse in US custody.

“We are disappointed that the president has signed a law giving the Defense Department the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and we hope the defense secretary will not take advantage of that authority by suppressing photos related to the abuse of prisoners,” Jameel Jaffer, national security director for the ACLU, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the House and Senate inserted language into the Homeland Security appropriations bill that would shield photos of detainees in the US’s war on terror from the Freedom of Information Act. The language, which was added at the prodding of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), effectively blocks an ACLU lawsuit currently before the courts that would have forced the government to release the photos under Freedom of Information statutes.

As Daphne Eviatar noted at the Washington Independent, “President Obama initially agreed to release the photos, but changed his mind after consulting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others at the Pentagon, who warned the photos would endanger US servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

READ MORE


 
 
John Sez:  Waitamiute…I thought that it was being widely reported that there were huge lines and not enough vaccine to go around? If so, how can there be all that much (if any) left-over which will have to be discarded?

Considering that billions upon billions of our tax-dollars have already been spent on a vast amount of vaccine, that means that the companies who are making it are going to get paid either way.

Story from Reuters:

UPDATE 3-U.S. may end up discarding unused H1N1 vaccine

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. government may end up throwing away unused doses of swine flu vaccine if people cannot get it soon enough, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

Members of Congress questioned whether federal officials were too rosy in their estimates of how much vaccine would be available and when, and companies said they were still struggling to produce immunizations against H1N1.

READ MORE


 
 
John Sez: I recently posted that the CDC was simply making up numbers of swine flu cases as they went  due to the fact that they stopped counting actual cases at the end of June. But now the CDC has come back and stated that even when they WERE counting cases the numbers were so far off it that it seems to prove just how inept the organization has become. And to prove it they are throwing out the actual confirmed count that they had for the month of April…and simply inserting numbers that they again made up. HUH?

 C’mon folks, does anyone out there really believe this pile of stinky, slimy hogwash that is being poured down our throats regularly by the CDC, the executive branch, local governments, and the TV news media anymore?

Think about this: if six million people in April had the Swine Flu, and it’s as deadly as they would have us believe, where are the piles and piles of bodies? Let’s suppose that their numbers are indeed correct for just a moment and ask: if six million people had the swine flu in April and only 1,000 people have died from it in the entirety of the run of the disease, does that warrant the massive scare tactics and vaccine roll-out that we have seen so far?

I think not.

Story from NBC:

CDC: Up To 6 Million Swine Flu Cases In First Few Months

ATLANTA (AP) - As many as 5.7 million Americans were infected with swine flu during the first few months of the pandemic, according to estimates from federal health officials.
     
Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between 1.8 million and 5.7 million Americans were infected from mid-April through July 23. The figures are the CDC's most specific calculation to date.
     
They also estimated that between 9,000 and 21,000 hospitalizations occurred during that time. The estimates are in a CDC publication, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and were posted on the journal's Web site this week.
     
To come up with the numbers, the scientists assumed that most people infected with swine flu had only mild illnesses and did not get medical care or get tested. For every confirmed case, they estimated that probably 80 others occurred. And for every confirmed hospitalization, there were probably three others.
     
Rates of testing and hospitalization have dropped since the pandemic began, so the same calculation couldn't be done for cases since late July.
     
For that reason, CDC officials are saying simply that "many millions" of Americans have been infected to date, the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat said at a press conference Thursday in Atlanta.

READ MORE

 
 
John Sez: There are a few things in this story that seem like either the management of the fast-food joint or the police were overreacting. First off, if the kids were really imitating the YouTube video (which is included below), then obviously their ‘prank’ was done to be funny with no harm intended. Secondly, if there was an employee who felt their safety was an issue, and there was nothing more than a copy of the video being done (and it seems that this was indeed the case) then the employee seems to be more than a tad sensitive for working with the public.

But the most interesting tid-bit (and the thing which leads me to believe that these kids did nothing wrong) is there is no mention of the drive through video being reviewed by the police to substantiate the claim made by the fast-food manager before any charges or citations were handed out.

Now these kids may be guilty as charged, but it seems to me that they were charged with something simply on the word of one person..and that’s simply not the way the law is supposed to work.

 

Story from the Daily Herald:

McPrank: 4 American Fork teens cited for McDonald’s rap

AMERICAN FORK -- A rap by four teenagers at a McDonald's has gotten them a bad rap in one Utah city.

The teens were cited by American Fork police earlier this week for disorderly conduct after they rapped their order at a McDonald's drive-through.

The teens said they were imitating a popular video on YouTube. They rapped their order, which begins with, "I need a double cheeseburger and hold the lettuce ..." once quickly before repeating it more slowly.

Spenser Dauwalder said employees at the restaurant told him and his friends they were holding up the line and needed to order or leave.

The 18-year-old said nobody was in line. He and his three 17-year-old friends left without buying anything.

American Fork Police Sgt. Gregg Ludlow says a manager wrote down the car's license plate number and called police. The teens were later cited by officers at a high school parking lot outside a volleyball match.

"We thought, you know, just teenagers out having fun," Dauwalder told KSL Newsradio. "We didn't think it would escalate to that."

READ MORE


 
 
John Sez: Ahmed Wali Karzai is a suspected big-wig in Afghanistan’s drug trade, which is a large part of the funding for the forces our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan - and is also receiving a check from our tax dollars via the CIA.

The brother of the President of Afghanistan is apparently getting paid to recruit and direct a private mercenary force which acts at the behest of the CIA. Considering we already have a great many boots on the ground (as well as mercenaries  and contractors hired by our government), the only reasons that I can think of which would explain why the CIA would need to bankroll yet another mercenary force in Afghanistan is to grease the palms of the power players (in this case the Karzai family)and to have a group of killers for hire that will commit themselves to acts of violence that our military would consider illegal according to their charter and rules.

Additionally, such a mercenary force would not fall under the direct scrutiny of congressional oversight, which mean that they could be directed to do just about anything. Indeed, it seems that these mercenaries (known as the Kandahar Strike Force) have already been used in a political assassinations and thuggery, one instance resulting in the bloody murder of Kandahar’s provincial police chief.

According to the New York Times, hundreds of millions of dollars are being made from the drug trade in Afghanistan, with a good portion of that money going into the coffers of the Taliban. So, in effect, the CIA has on its payroll a man who is funding the very people our military claims we are fighting; in other words, our tax dollars are being used to create a perpetual war footing in Afghanistan, as well as being spent to fund the very same groups that are killing our soldiers.

And our President and Congress are allowing it to happen.

Story from the New York Times:

Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A. By DEXTER FILKINS, MARK MAZZETTI and JAMES RISEN

KABUL, AfghanistanAhmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America’s war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.

The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate America’s increasingly tense relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an American puppet. The C.I.A.’s practices also suggest that the United States is not doing everything in its power to stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a major source of revenue for the Taliban.

READ MORE

 

 
 
John Sez: Recently the German military, as well as their government, were given swine flu vaccines without Mercury and Squalene. And here is the state of Missouri giving wavers so that certain people can get an additive free shot. Obviously, no matter what the talking heads on TV say, mercury is in the largest amount of the current crop of Swine Flu vaccines. So, this begs the question: it is obvious that the vaccines can be made without these potentially dangerous additives, so why not simply take them out of everyone’s shots?

 

Story from the Joplin Globe:

State department grants exemption for flu vaccine
By Wally Kennedy

In a move that is sure to generate controversy, Missouri’s top public health official granted an exemption Thursday that allows pregnant women and parents of children younger than 3 to choose whether to receive H1N1 flu vaccine containing a mercury-based preservative.

Critics of the mercury-based vaccine lobbied the state Legislature a few years ago to prevent its use because of alleged connections to childhood autism.

Dr. Keith Grebe, medical director at McCune-Brooks Regional Hospital, praised the relaxation of the rule on Friday.

“We had a clinic scheduled for (Friday) at McCune-Brooks where up to 80 patients, including pregnant women, would have received the (H1N1) vaccine with the preservative in it because the supply of vaccine without the preservative is in very short supply,’’ he said.

READ MORE

 
 
John Sez: This is a result of the Obama declaring a National Emergency. But using an untested drug on American citizens (which make us guinea pigs of a sort) is in our best interest, right?

 

Story from Fox News:

FDA Allows Use of Experimental Antiviral Drug to Treat H1N1

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is allowing the use of an experimental antiviral drug to treat severe cases of H1N1 or swine flu. The drug, Peramivir, is currently being developed by BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. and is undergoing testing required for regular FDA approval.

The FDA issued a so-called emergency use authorization late Friday that allows doctors to use Peramivir, which is delivered intravenously, in certain hospitalized adult and pediatric patients with confirmed or suspected H1N1 influenza.

A handful of doctors have already treated patients with severe cases of H1N1 using Peramivir obtained through the agency's expanded access rules that allow individual patients to obtain experimental drugs if certain conditions are met. The emergency-use authorization allows use of the drug without prior FDA approval.

READ MORE


 
 
John sez: The lead researcher for Gardasil and Cevarix, Dr. Dianne Harper, has publicly come out swinging against the hype over those vaccines – and what she has to say is a bombshell of biblical proportions.

While speaking at an engagement which was supposed to promote the drugs, she claimed that the vaccines will not reduce the cervical cancer rates, that they have not been tested properly (especially for children under 15), and that she doesn’t understand why there is a need to vaccinate for HPV at all.

She added that she had been trying to get this information to the media, but that no one was willing (until now) to run with the story (gee, I wonder why).

When asked why she had decided to speak out against a marketed drug that she was largely responsible for creating, Dr. Harper replied, “I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night”.

I greatly applaud the bravery of Dr. Harper; it takes a lot of guts to not only face down Merck (the maker of Gardasil), but the vaccine industry as a whole.

Additionally, this begs a whole new series of questions about exactly what the big pharma companies are trying to push on us, and why our government seems to rubber-stamp mandates disguised as laws (remember folks, there is no LAW anywhere in the US which says you or your children must take a vaccine for any reason) in order for us to be injected (or nasal sprayed) with vaccines which are not only probably ineffective but potentially life threatening.

Story from the Bulletin:

Gardasil Researcher Drops A Bombshell

Harper: Controversal Drug Will Do Little To Reduce Cervical Cancer Rates

By Susan Brinkmann

Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.

Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, made these remarks during an address at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2-4. Although her talk was intended to promote the vaccine, participants said they came away convinced the vaccine should not be received.

“I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all,” said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor at the Population Research Institute.

Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.

READ MORE

 
 
A Genesis cover tune that i put together a while back that i though came out pretty well.

Enjoy!

 
 
John Sez: Of course, the obvious question to this most recent move by the executive branch is – WHY?

 As I already posted a few days back, the CDC has admittedly fudged the numbers of swine flu cases, so no one – not even the President himself  – knows exactly how many people actually have the Swine Flu, not to mention how many people have died from it. Additionally, the numbers that were reported make the severity of the Swine Flu, regardless of all the scare tactics by the government or the apparently government-run news agencies, far less serious than they seem to be reacting to. On top of that, the actual flu symptoms seems to be quite mild, with those affected complaining of typical (and mild) flu like symptoms for a few days before they are back on their feet.

(Here’s the video of the CBS news report about the CDC making up the swine flu numbers as they go, then apparently trying to cover it up):

So why is Obama making this apparent leap to declare a national emergency over a situation which seems to warrant a far lesser flexing of executive power? It could be a number of different scenarios: the flu outbreak is worse than the public is being told (unlikely, but if true it would indicate that we are being lied to by our government…again), the president is attempting to hype up the danger level in order to justify the expenditure of millions upon millions of tax dollars over an apparent non-emergency (a justification which is hard to explain for the president considering we are in an economic depression), the executive and the president are completely inept (although this one would be very easy to believe, track record shows that although presidents might be buffoons, the people behind them always have an agenda –generally based on power or monetary greed -  and will make the right moves to forward it, no matter what the public thinks the figurehead’s motivations are), or there is something more nefarious afoot, as the declaration of a national emergency allows for a suspension of constitutional rights, including quarantine zones and outright martial law.


 Perhaps I have missed something, but I can’t really see any reasons for this flexing of executive muscle other than those mentioned above. In my opinion NONE of those reasons are justified nor anything less than a total denouncement of the entire Obama administration. This declaration of a national emergency should not be taken lightly.