Governor Walker's approved Wisconsin State Budget includes deep spending cuts in public education, expansion of "Voucher School" Program
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Low solar energy output continues
Editor: The 24th solar cycle due to commence 3 years ago is simply not happening.
This means that the earth will continue to cool down with prolonged cold winters and cool wet summers, on average, in the northern hemisphere. Changes in plasma flows in the sun's inner regions have been observed and are likely associated with a decrease in solar energy radiation. This has happened before in recorded history with frozen rivers in Europe in June (The River Thames in England and the River Rhine in Germany). Chart origin here
Tripoli bombed but steadfast
Muammar Gaddafi’s bedroom after a NATO bombing. Two other rooms in the building were also destroyed, those of his son and grandchildren all of whom were killed. The Leader himself was absent.© Voltaire Network
by Thierry Meyssan
An international team of investigators from Voltaire Network is currently in Libya where it visited the bombing sites. With the support of the Libyan authorities, and not withstanding the war conditions, they were able to meet with a number of political leaders and security officials. What they witnessed is diametrically opposed to the accounts conveyed by the western media. Thierry Meyssan shares their initial observations
Editor: Please take note of this paragraph in a very interesting article:
"Colonel Gaddafi has armed the population. Approximately two million machine guns have already been distributed to the civilians. The idea is that each adult, man or women, should be in a position to defend his or her home. The Libyans learned the Iraqi lesson. Saddam Hussein had rested his power on the Ba’ath ruling party and the army, excluding the people from political life. When the party was decapitated and several generals defected, the State suddenly collapsed leaving the country with no resistance and floundering in chaos. Libya instead follows an original system of participative democracy, similar to the grassroots assemblies in Vermont. People are used to being consulted and assuming responsibilities. Hence, it is easy to mobilize them en masse."
Editor: With all those guns, why wouldn't Libyans simply overthrow Gaddafi if they don't like him? Full article published here
Thousands of G-20 Detentions Illegal: Ontario Ombudsman
Paul Jay asks Ombudsman Andre Marin who is responsible and who has been held accountable for "the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history"
Noted historian Howard Zinn explains the role of mainstream media in fomenting war
Editor: This interview was conducted some time ago, before Howard Zinn's passing. He refers to Al Jazeera's headquarter being bombed. The "Al Jazeera reporting problem" has now been solved: The network has been incorporated into the mainstream media empire and is now being used for propaganda purposes along with the other major networks, specializing in skewed reporting on conflicts in Libya and Syria.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Libyan response to International Criminal Court (ICC) Indictement of Gaddafi
GPC for Justice: " so called ICC is a cover for Nato's repeated attempts for the assassination of the leader and his family."
2011-06-28
GPC for Justice affirms that a so called ICC is a political cover for Nato's repeated operations for assassinating the leader and his family.
In its statement issued on Monday, JPC for Justice announced that Libyan government would sue Nato for its crimes.
" Libya is not a party to Roma basic system, so as it does not accept the specialties of ICC , which are a political tool for the blackmail of countries of the third world. In contrast, the powerful countries are fully protected from being threatened by this court, said GPC for justice through its statement.
After reviewing the arrest warrants ordered by ICC for three Libyan citizens, whom being unfairly accused of committing crimes against humanity, the committee asserted the follows;.
- The leader Muammar Al-Kaddafi and his son Seif al-Islam have no official positions within the Libyan government, so as they are protected from the allegations by ICC's chief prosecutor.
- Libya is not a party to ICC's basic system, so it does not accept the specialties of it, which are a tool for exerting the political pressure against the countries of the third world, while the powerful countries are protected from being threatened by it.
- The chief prosecutor of the ICC has built his allegations based on forged charges, while he would have to form a fact finding committee or would have to visit Libya himself to stand on the facts.
- To sue citizens who are responsible for events of Feb 15.2011, the thing that is a specialization of Libyan courts.
- GPC affirms that this court means noting to the Libyans because they are not a party to it . but it is a tool for exerting the political pressure and blackmail against countries of the third world. Article source here
2011-06-28
GPC for Justice affirms that a so called ICC is a political cover for Nato's repeated operations for assassinating the leader and his family.
In its statement issued on Monday, JPC for Justice announced that Libyan government would sue Nato for its crimes.
" Libya is not a party to Roma basic system, so as it does not accept the specialties of ICC , which are a political tool for the blackmail of countries of the third world. In contrast, the powerful countries are fully protected from being threatened by this court, said GPC for justice through its statement.
After reviewing the arrest warrants ordered by ICC for three Libyan citizens, whom being unfairly accused of committing crimes against humanity, the committee asserted the follows;.
- The leader Muammar Al-Kaddafi and his son Seif al-Islam have no official positions within the Libyan government, so as they are protected from the allegations by ICC's chief prosecutor.
- Libya is not a party to ICC's basic system, so it does not accept the specialties of it, which are a tool for exerting the political pressure against the countries of the third world, while the powerful countries are protected from being threatened by it.
- The chief prosecutor of the ICC has built his allegations based on forged charges, while he would have to form a fact finding committee or would have to visit Libya himself to stand on the facts.
- To sue citizens who are responsible for events of Feb 15.2011, the thing that is a specialization of Libyan courts.
- GPC affirms that this court means noting to the Libyans because they are not a party to it . but it is a tool for exerting the political pressure and blackmail against countries of the third world. Article source here
Monday, June 27, 2011
Emergency Status Unchanged as Secondary Flood Berm Collapses at Neb. Nuclear Plant
Nuclear Street News Team
Mon, Jun 27 2011 7:09 AM
A water-filled berm at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant deflated Sunday, the Omaha Public Power District reported. Apparently punctured by heavy equipment operating nearby, the berm was among several barriers protecting plant buildings from extreme flood conditions on the adjacent Missouri River.
"This was an additional, a secondary, level of protection that we had put up," OPPD spokesman Mike Jones told CNN. "The plant remains protected to the level it would have been if the aqua berm had not been added."
The plant remained under an unusual event declaration, the lowest of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's four-tiered emergency classification system. The plant's 500-megawatt Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor has been out of operation since refueling in April. Downstream, the power district's Cooper nuclear plant also remains under an usual event declaration and is still operating.
River levels at Fort Calhoun recently stood at 1,006 feet above sea level and are not expected to exceed 1,008 feet above sea level – six feet below the maximum flood level anticipated in the plant's design. A number of flood control measures have been taken at both plants, including sandbag barriers and extra diesel shipments for emergency generators.
On Sunday, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko visited the Cooper plant and reiterated that it was operating safely. He plans to visit Fort Calhoun today. Article posted here
Mon, Jun 27 2011 7:09 AM
A water-filled berm at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant deflated Sunday, the Omaha Public Power District reported. Apparently punctured by heavy equipment operating nearby, the berm was among several barriers protecting plant buildings from extreme flood conditions on the adjacent Missouri River.
"This was an additional, a secondary, level of protection that we had put up," OPPD spokesman Mike Jones told CNN. "The plant remains protected to the level it would have been if the aqua berm had not been added."
The plant remained under an unusual event declaration, the lowest of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's four-tiered emergency classification system. The plant's 500-megawatt Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor has been out of operation since refueling in April. Downstream, the power district's Cooper nuclear plant also remains under an usual event declaration and is still operating.
River levels at Fort Calhoun recently stood at 1,006 feet above sea level and are not expected to exceed 1,008 feet above sea level – six feet below the maximum flood level anticipated in the plant's design. A number of flood control measures have been taken at both plants, including sandbag barriers and extra diesel shipments for emergency generators.
On Sunday, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko visited the Cooper plant and reiterated that it was operating safely. He plans to visit Fort Calhoun today. Article posted here
Bill 36 - It hangs around like a bad smell!
Comments by Joe Anglin
In response to the Calgary Herald’s article, “Alberta transmission plan gold standard for Canada Infrastructure investment key to economic success” by Dina O’Meara, on June 27, 2011.
Pierre Guimond, the head of the Canadian Electricity Association, called the Alberta government’s plans to build a non-constrained electricity system, “essential to the province’s future needs.” Mr. Guimond’s description would be more accurate if he referred to Alberta’s plan to build a non-constrained electricity system as a massive pork-barrel scheme that enriched only a handful of industry players – at the expense of every ratepayer of Alberta.
Only an incompetent government would endeavour to build a non-constrained electricity system. Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iju6CU8bug to view some of the cabinet ministers who made this decision. Any private business attempting such folly would soon be bankrupt. No other jurisdiction in the world is attempting to build a non-constrained system, and for very good reasons.
In planning for electricity systems there is a breakeven point for removing constraints. The cost of operating the system with constraints is always balanced, or measured, against the economic costs of removing the constraints. When the cost of removing a constraint is greater than the cost of operating the system with that constraint, no additional upgrades are required. Removing constraints beyond this breakeven point only increases the total costs to the ratepayer, and it makes the system less efficient!
In summary, building a non-constrained system requires 10’s of billions of additional dollars to build unnecessary infrastructure that has no redeemable value for the rate paying consumers.
The Alberta government’s plan to build a non-constrained electricity system is detrimental to the province’s future needs. It will add unnecessary costs and increase electricity bills. In reality, it will jeopardise Alberta’s competitiveness, and will result in job losses.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The Military as a Jobs Program: There are More Efficient Ways to Stimulate the Economy
By Ellen Brown
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. . . . We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people."
–Dwight David Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace," speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953
In a Wall Street Journal editorial on June 8 bemoaning the failure of the Obama stimulus package, Martin Feldstein wrote:
"Experience shows that the most cost-effective form of temporary fiscal stimulus is direct government spending. The most obvious way to achieve that in 2009 was to repair and replace the military equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan that would otherwise have to be done in the future. But the Obama stimulus had nothing for the Defense Department."
You can’t make this stuff up. The most obvious way to stimulate the economy is to replace military equipment? And the Obama stimulus had nothing for the Defense Department? When veterans’ benefits and other past military costs are factored in, the military now devours half the U.S. budget. If military spending is such a cost-effective stimulus, why have the trillions poured into it in the last decade left the economy reeling? Full article here
Why is there a Media Blackout on Nuclear Incident at Fort Calhoun in Nebraska?
By Patrick Henningsen
Since flooding began on June 6th, there has been a disturbingly low level of media attention given to the crisis at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Facility near Omaha, Nebraska. But evidence strongly suggests that something very serious has in fact happened there.
On June 7th, there was a fire reported at Fort Calhoun. The official story is that the fire was in an electrical switchgear room at the plant. The apparently facility lost power to a pump that cools the spent fuel rod pool, allegedly for a duration of approximately 90 minutes.
FORT CALHOUN NUKE SITE: does it pose a public risk?
The following sequence of events is documented on the Omaha Public Power District’s own website, stating among other things, that here was no such imminent danger with the Fort Calhoun Station spent-fuel pool, and that due to a fire in an electrical switchgear room at FCS on the morning of June 7, the plant temporarily lost power to a pump that cools the spent-fuel pool.
In addition to the flooding that has occurred on the banks of the Missouri River at Fort Calhoun, the Cooper Nuclear Facility in Brownville, Nebraska may also be threatened by the rising flood waters.
As was declared at Fort Calhoun on June 7th, another “Notification of Unusual Event” was declared at Cooper Nuclear Station on June 20th. This notification was issued because the Missouri River’s water level reached an alarming 42.5 feet. Apparently, Cooper Station is advising that it is unable to discharge sludge into the Missouri River due to flooding, and therefore “overtopped” its sludge pond.
Not surprisingly, and completely ignored by the Mainstream Media, these two nuclear power facilities in Nebraska were designated temporary restricted NO FLY ZONES by the FAA in early June. The FAA restrictions were reportedly down to “hazards” and were ‘effectively immediately’, and ‘until further notice’. Yet, according to the NRC, there’s no cause for the public to panic. Article, audio and video here
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Experts fear Israeli design to balkanise Arab states
Posted: 2011/06/24
Developments in Libya have raised fears among Egyptian analysts and political figures of the possible break-up of the North African nation into two warring halves.
FOR THREE months, Libya has suffered internationally sanctioned air-strikes by the western Nato alliance, launched with the stated aim of supporting the ongoing popular uprising against the Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. Revolutionary forces based in Ben Ghazi now hold most of the country’s eastern half, while forces loyal to Gaddafi continue to control the country’s western half from the capital Tripoli.
Yet the fact that Nato – despite its overwhelming air superiority – has so far failed to dislodge the Gaddafi regime has led many local observers to question the western alliance’s intentions.
“The western campaign against Libya wasn’t undertaken to protect human rights or foster democracy,” said Mohamed al-Sakhawi, leading member of Egypt’s as-yet-unlicensed Arabic Unity Party. “It was launched with the aim of breaking Libya up politically so as to prevent the unification of three revolutionary Arab states – Egypt, Libya and Tunisia – which together might pose a threat to Israeli regional dominance.” Full article posted here
My Story
by Bill White
In 2008, I was arrested because a federal informant—Harold Turner—claimed, falsely, that I was planning to assassinate President Barack Obama by detonating a truck bomb at the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Va. I was never charged with this crime, however. Instead, I was charged with a series of free speech violations for publishing a website and magazine critical of the government. It took me 83 days to prove to the satisfaction of the feds that there was no assassination plot; it took them two and a half years to release me, acquitted. If they had a choice, I would still be in prison today.
When I was arrested for speech offenses, I assumed I would receive bond. No one had ever been hurt, and the organization I was involved in, the American National Socialist Worker’s Party, had never been involved in violence. But, two days after my arrest, when I attended a detention hearing, I was ruled dangerous, based solely on my dangerous political views.
After my detention, I was tortured by the Obama government. Initially, I was held in a small room under a bright light 24 long hours a day and subjected to sleep deprivation. I was denied showers, a shave, even a toothbrush, and it was in this condition—dirty and half dead from lack of sleep—that I was repeatedly taken to the courts and paraded before the news cameras.
I was held in a cell with no heat in the 20-below Chicago winter. At one point I was placed in a cell that was then flooded with human feces. The U.S. marshals wanted to know, “Where was the bomb?” I had no idea what they were talking about, and didn’t until almost a year later, when Turner was put on trial for, in part, lying about the “truck bomb plot.”
I later learned the government had been following me since 1996. When I was a teenager, someone—the police still don’t know who—firebombed the home of a police officer. There were no suspects, but a detective told the FBI that he couldn’t imagine anyone who would have a problem with the police except a little anarchist group I was involved in. Based upon this, and despite no evidence linking me to any crime, I was indexed by the FBI as a “domestic terrorist.”
In 2007, the American National Socialist Workers Party began publishing a magazine with a small distribution. Even so, big newspapers such as The New York Times began covering our efforts, and in February 2007, the FBI sought and obtained approval to open a “terrorism enterprise investigation” into our activities. A special prosecution team was set up within the Department of Justice for the sole purpose of prosecuting us, and, eventually, me, “at all costs.”
As an “act of violence,” necessary for opening a “terrorism enterprise investigation,” the 1996 statement that I was part of a group suspected in an arson was used.
Though the government determined there was no bomb, I was in and out of “supermax” for the next two-and-a-half years. The conditions were brutal. After one seven-month stretch, the ligaments in my knees atrophied until I couldn’t walk for two weeks.
The government knew I was innocent but didn’t want to admit they’d made a mistake. They pressured witnesses to lie to grand juries. Two were eventually convicted of that—Turner and another man, Timothy Bland, who used his FBI witness stipend to come to where I lived and try to find and murder my wife and daughter.
By April 2010, the Obama administration knew I was innocent, but they had other uses for me. They wanted me to testify to a “neo-nazi domestic terrorist conspiracy” and perjure myself before a grand jury and Congress, implicating their political enemies. I refused and was returned to supermax.
In January 2011, I was again approached and told that, if I would “cooperate,” I would be immediately released—all charges would be dropped and my record cleared. In April 2011, thankfully, I was acquitted of my fifth federal criminal case, and released regardless.
This is what communism looks like in the United States. I was innocent and eventually acquitted. I was not involved in any plot to bomb any federal building or assassinate Obama.
But, I was arrested, detained, tortured and held in solitary confinement because I refused to lie for the benefit of the federal government and falsely accuse myself and others of crimes.
[Bill White has returned to Virginia on his release and is attempting to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Good luck, Bill. Stay strong and keep it real, man.]
In 2008, I was arrested because a federal informant—Harold Turner—claimed, falsely, that I was planning to assassinate President Barack Obama by detonating a truck bomb at the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Va. I was never charged with this crime, however. Instead, I was charged with a series of free speech violations for publishing a website and magazine critical of the government. It took me 83 days to prove to the satisfaction of the feds that there was no assassination plot; it took them two and a half years to release me, acquitted. If they had a choice, I would still be in prison today.
When I was arrested for speech offenses, I assumed I would receive bond. No one had ever been hurt, and the organization I was involved in, the American National Socialist Worker’s Party, had never been involved in violence. But, two days after my arrest, when I attended a detention hearing, I was ruled dangerous, based solely on my dangerous political views.
After my detention, I was tortured by the Obama government. Initially, I was held in a small room under a bright light 24 long hours a day and subjected to sleep deprivation. I was denied showers, a shave, even a toothbrush, and it was in this condition—dirty and half dead from lack of sleep—that I was repeatedly taken to the courts and paraded before the news cameras.
I was held in a cell with no heat in the 20-below Chicago winter. At one point I was placed in a cell that was then flooded with human feces. The U.S. marshals wanted to know, “Where was the bomb?” I had no idea what they were talking about, and didn’t until almost a year later, when Turner was put on trial for, in part, lying about the “truck bomb plot.”
I later learned the government had been following me since 1996. When I was a teenager, someone—the police still don’t know who—firebombed the home of a police officer. There were no suspects, but a detective told the FBI that he couldn’t imagine anyone who would have a problem with the police except a little anarchist group I was involved in. Based upon this, and despite no evidence linking me to any crime, I was indexed by the FBI as a “domestic terrorist.”
In 2007, the American National Socialist Workers Party began publishing a magazine with a small distribution. Even so, big newspapers such as The New York Times began covering our efforts, and in February 2007, the FBI sought and obtained approval to open a “terrorism enterprise investigation” into our activities. A special prosecution team was set up within the Department of Justice for the sole purpose of prosecuting us, and, eventually, me, “at all costs.”
As an “act of violence,” necessary for opening a “terrorism enterprise investigation,” the 1996 statement that I was part of a group suspected in an arson was used.
Though the government determined there was no bomb, I was in and out of “supermax” for the next two-and-a-half years. The conditions were brutal. After one seven-month stretch, the ligaments in my knees atrophied until I couldn’t walk for two weeks.
The government knew I was innocent but didn’t want to admit they’d made a mistake. They pressured witnesses to lie to grand juries. Two were eventually convicted of that—Turner and another man, Timothy Bland, who used his FBI witness stipend to come to where I lived and try to find and murder my wife and daughter.
By April 2010, the Obama administration knew I was innocent, but they had other uses for me. They wanted me to testify to a “neo-nazi domestic terrorist conspiracy” and perjure myself before a grand jury and Congress, implicating their political enemies. I refused and was returned to supermax.
In January 2011, I was again approached and told that, if I would “cooperate,” I would be immediately released—all charges would be dropped and my record cleared. In April 2011, thankfully, I was acquitted of my fifth federal criminal case, and released regardless.
This is what communism looks like in the United States. I was innocent and eventually acquitted. I was not involved in any plot to bomb any federal building or assassinate Obama.
But, I was arrested, detained, tortured and held in solitary confinement because I refused to lie for the benefit of the federal government and falsely accuse myself and others of crimes.
[Bill White has returned to Virginia on his release and is attempting to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Good luck, Bill. Stay strong and keep it real, man.]
Friday, June 24, 2011
Lesson for Global Warming enthusiasts
What's to Blame for Wild Weather? "La Nada"
Author: Dauna Coulter
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard; man's nature cannot carry
The affliction nor the fear … from Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Lear
June 21, 2011: Record snowfall, killer tornadoes, devastating floods: There’s no doubt about it. Since Dec. 2010, the weather in the USA has been positively wild. But why?
Some recent news reports have attributed the phenomenon to an extreme "La Niña," a band of cold water stretching across the Pacific Ocean with global repercussions for climate and weather. But NASA climatologist Bill Patzert names a different suspect: "La Nada."
"La Ni̱a was strong in December," he says. "But back in January it pulled a disappearing act and left us with nothing РLa Nada Рto constrain the jet stream. Like an unruly teenager, the jet stream took advantage of the newfound freedom--and the results were disastrous."
La Niña and El Niño are opposite extremes of a great Pacific oscillation. Every 2 to 7 years, surface waters across the equatorial Pacific warm up (El Niño) and then they cool down again (La Niña). Each condition has its own distinct effects on weather.
Wild Weather (La Nina, 558px)
The blue and purple band in this satellite image of the Pacific Ocean traces the cool waters of the La Niña phenomenon in December 2010. (from Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite, Credit: NASA JPL)
The winter of 2010 began with La Niña conditions taking hold. A "normal" La Niña would have pushed the jet stream northward, pushing cold arctic air (one of the ingredients of severe weather) away from the lower US. But this La Niña petered out quickly, and no El Niño rose up to replace it. The jet stream was free to misbehave.
"By mid-January 2011, La Niña weakened rapidly and by mid-February it was adiosLa Niña, allowing the jet stream to meander wildly around the US. Consequently the weather pattern became dominated by strong outbreaks of frigid polar air, producing blizzards across the West, Upper Midwest, and northeast US."1
The situation lingered into spring -- and things got ugly. Russell Schneider, Director of the NOAA-NWS Storm Prediction Center, explains:
"First, very strong winds out of the south carrying warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico met cold jet stream winds racing in from the west. Stacking these two air masses on top of each other created the degree of instability that fuels intense thunderstorms."
Extreme contrasts in wind speeds and directions of the upper and lower atmosphere transformed ordinary thunderstorms into long-lived rotating supercells capable of producing violent tornadoes.2
In Patzert's words, "The jet stream -- on steroids -- acted as an atmospheric mix master, causing tornadoes to explode across Dixie and Tornado Alleys, and even into Massachusetts."
Wild Weather (La Nada, 558px)
This satellite image, taken in April 2011, reveals La Niña's rapid exit from the equator near the US coast. The cool (false-color blue) water was gone by early spring. (from Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite, Credit: NASA JPL)
All this because of a flaky La Niña?
"La Niña and El Niño affect the atmosphere's energy balance because they determine the location of warm water in the Pacific, and that in turn determines where huge clusters of tropical thunderstorms form," explains Schneider. "These storms are the main energy source from the tropics influencing the large scale pattern of the jet stream that flows through the US."
In agreement with Patzert, he notes that the very strong and active jet stream across the lower US in April "may have been related to the weakening La Niña conditions observed over the tropical Pacific."
And of course there's this million dollar question: "Does any research point to climate change as a cause of this wild weather?"
"Global warming is certainly happening," asserts Patzert, "but we can't discount global warming or blame it for the 2011 tornado season. We just don't know ... Yet."3
What will happen next? And please don't say, "La Nada."
Article source here
Author: Dauna Coulter
Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder,
Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never
Remember to have heard; man's nature cannot carry
The affliction nor the fear … from Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Lear
June 21, 2011: Record snowfall, killer tornadoes, devastating floods: There’s no doubt about it. Since Dec. 2010, the weather in the USA has been positively wild. But why?
Some recent news reports have attributed the phenomenon to an extreme "La Niña," a band of cold water stretching across the Pacific Ocean with global repercussions for climate and weather. But NASA climatologist Bill Patzert names a different suspect: "La Nada."
"La Ni̱a was strong in December," he says. "But back in January it pulled a disappearing act and left us with nothing РLa Nada Рto constrain the jet stream. Like an unruly teenager, the jet stream took advantage of the newfound freedom--and the results were disastrous."
La Niña and El Niño are opposite extremes of a great Pacific oscillation. Every 2 to 7 years, surface waters across the equatorial Pacific warm up (El Niño) and then they cool down again (La Niña). Each condition has its own distinct effects on weather.
Wild Weather (La Nina, 558px)
The blue and purple band in this satellite image of the Pacific Ocean traces the cool waters of the La Niña phenomenon in December 2010. (from Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite, Credit: NASA JPL)
The winter of 2010 began with La Niña conditions taking hold. A "normal" La Niña would have pushed the jet stream northward, pushing cold arctic air (one of the ingredients of severe weather) away from the lower US. But this La Niña petered out quickly, and no El Niño rose up to replace it. The jet stream was free to misbehave.
"By mid-January 2011, La Niña weakened rapidly and by mid-February it was adiosLa Niña, allowing the jet stream to meander wildly around the US. Consequently the weather pattern became dominated by strong outbreaks of frigid polar air, producing blizzards across the West, Upper Midwest, and northeast US."1
The situation lingered into spring -- and things got ugly. Russell Schneider, Director of the NOAA-NWS Storm Prediction Center, explains:
"First, very strong winds out of the south carrying warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico met cold jet stream winds racing in from the west. Stacking these two air masses on top of each other created the degree of instability that fuels intense thunderstorms."
Extreme contrasts in wind speeds and directions of the upper and lower atmosphere transformed ordinary thunderstorms into long-lived rotating supercells capable of producing violent tornadoes.2
In Patzert's words, "The jet stream -- on steroids -- acted as an atmospheric mix master, causing tornadoes to explode across Dixie and Tornado Alleys, and even into Massachusetts."
Wild Weather (La Nada, 558px)
This satellite image, taken in April 2011, reveals La Niña's rapid exit from the equator near the US coast. The cool (false-color blue) water was gone by early spring. (from Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite, Credit: NASA JPL)
All this because of a flaky La Niña?
"La Niña and El Niño affect the atmosphere's energy balance because they determine the location of warm water in the Pacific, and that in turn determines where huge clusters of tropical thunderstorms form," explains Schneider. "These storms are the main energy source from the tropics influencing the large scale pattern of the jet stream that flows through the US."
In agreement with Patzert, he notes that the very strong and active jet stream across the lower US in April "may have been related to the weakening La Niña conditions observed over the tropical Pacific."
And of course there's this million dollar question: "Does any research point to climate change as a cause of this wild weather?"
"Global warming is certainly happening," asserts Patzert, "but we can't discount global warming or blame it for the 2011 tornado season. We just don't know ... Yet."3
What will happen next? And please don't say, "La Nada."
Article source here
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Big demonstrations in Syria, June 21
Several million Syrians throughout the country took to the streets on Tuesday, 21 June 2011. The crowds were particularly dense and impressive in Damascus Alep, Tartous and Homs.
They turned out to express their support for the reform measures announced by President Bashar Al-Assad the previous day in the speech he delivered at the University of Damascus.
The scale of the demonstrations, unprecedented in the history of Syria, are a token of the huge popular support enjoyed by the «regime», so widely demonized by Western media and political leaders.
For the sake of comparison, at the peak of the anti-government rallies of the past three months, the overall number of protesters in the entire country amounted was between 150 000 and 200 000.
The Syrians living in the country and whose children are serving in the army don’t swallow the disinformation dished out by satellite channels that portray them as being under the yoke of a dictatorship, where the police is torturing children and the army is bombarding villages. Instead, what they do know is that their country is prey to a destabilization plot at the hands of armed groups piloted from abroad, a prelude to a possible NATO aggression.
Editor: Below is some footage from Daraa where all the opposition to the government is supposed to be, according to Western mainstream media
In your opinion, who is telling the truth: the Syrian people or the Western media?
Article and more video footage here
Big earthquake, FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
Magnitude: 7.2 Date: 2011/06/24 Time: (UTC)03:09:40 Latitude: (Degrees)52.008 Longitude: (Degrees) -171.859 Depth: (Km)62.6 Details here
This post was removed from YouTube
Editor: The black hole above was originally a video showing a customer "foreclosing"on a branch of the Bank of America. It was posted on Monday, June 6 on this blog under the title "Sweet". The video was likely removed by YouTube's owner Google following a request from friends at the Bank of America.
Latest from the Military/Industrial Complex
One of the revolutionary bullets which can be pre-programmed to explode to hit troops that are hiding...
New U.S. Army Rifles!
No hiding place from new U.S. Army rifles that use radio-controlled smart bullets
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has a range of roughly 2,300 feet - and is to be deployed in Afghanistan this month. The rifle's gunsight uses a laser rangefinder to determine the exact distance to the obstruction, after which the soldier can add or subtract up to 3 metres from that distance to enable the bullets to clear the barrier and explode above or beside the target.
Soldiers will be able to use them to target snipers hidden in trenches rather than calling in air strikes. The 25-millimetre round contains a chip that receives a radio signal from the gunsight as to the precise distance to the target.
Lt. Col. Christopher Lehner, project manager for the system, described the weapon as a 'game-changer' that other nations will try and copy. He expects the Army to buy 12,500 of the XM25 rifles this year. Lehner told FoxNews: 'With this weapon system, we take away cover from [enemy targets] forever.'Tactics are going to have to be rewritten. The only thing we can see [enemies] being able to do is run away.' Experts say the rifle means that enemy troops will no longer be safe if they take cover.
The XM25 appears perfect weapon for street-to-street fighting that troops in Afghanistan have to engage in, with enemy fighters hiding behind walls and only breaking cover to fire occasionally.
The weapon's laser finder would work out how far away the enemy was and then the U.S. soldier would add one metre using a button near the trigger. When fired, the explosive round would carry exactly one metre past the wall and explode with the force of a hand grenade above the Taliban fighter.
The army's project manager for new weapons, Douglas Tamilio, said:'This is the first leap-ahead technology for troops that we've been able to develop and deploy.'
A patent granted to the bullet's maker, Alliant Techsystems, reveals that the chip can calculate how far it has travelled.
Mr Tamilio said: 'You could shoot a Javelin missile, and it would cost USD$43,000. These rounds will end up costing USD$15.50 apiece. They're relatively cheap.Lehner added:'This is a game-changer. The enemy has learned to get cover, for hundreds if not thousands of years. 'Well, they can't do that anymore. We're taking that cover from them and there's only two outcomes: We're going to get you behind that cover or force you to flee.'
The rifle will initially use high-explosive rounds, but its makers say that it might later use versions with smaller explosive charges that aim to stun rather than kill..
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
He beat them all
Taliban leader Mullah Omar is now very likely to be returned to power in war-torn Afghanistan, as the U.S. prepares to pull up stumps and head home. After nearly 10 years of war the U.S. admits is time to do a deal and allow its enemy back into the government it formed.
June 22, 2011
President Obama announces a withdrawal of about 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this year, leaving U.S. combat power largely in place through the next two summer fighting seasons and signaling to a weary public the beginning of the end of America's role in the 10-year war. Video of announcement here
Editor: The Americans are now pulling out of Afghanistan, focusing instead on emerging conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, after wasting billions of dollars and untold human lives. It is Vietnam all over. There was a winner in Vietnam, and there is one winner now: The Military/Industrial Complex, feeding off the misery and suffering of innocent people.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
China growth to cool as credit, trade ebb: Duncan
Economist and author Richard Duncan
By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China’s era of rapid economic growth is drawing to a close, with a great moderation now inevitable, according to economist and author Richard Duncan.
“I don’t think [China] will be able to achieve their current rates of growth in the next five years,” Duncan told MarketWatch in a telephone interview from Bangkok.
Among reasons for the changes, he said, Beijing won’t be able crank up credit growth further without inflicting self-damage, nor is its export-led growth model viable as the taps tighten on worldwide easy money.
Duncan believes it’s only government life-support in the form of deficit spending that’s kept the global economy from falling into a depression since the 2008 credit crisis, and if the slowdown spreads as he expects, China won’t have an easy time shielding its economy from a slump in consumer demand.
“The whole story of the global economy is that there’s too much supply of everything and insufficient global demand,” said Duncan. Full story here
Monday, June 20, 2011
African American unemployment very high
The unemployment rate for African Americans is now at Depression-era levels and the government is having to deal with the poor job showing.
One of the issues troubling Washington is unemployment among blacks, with the percentage of jobless at 16.2 percent higher than in the general population.
In isolation, African American males fare even worse.
The most recent figures show African American joblessness at 16.2 percent.
For black males, it's at 17.5 percent.
For black teens, it's nearly 41 percent.
In New York, it has been estimated that 34 percent of the city's young black men age 19 to 24 are not working. Article source here
More war. Whatever happened to peace and prosperity?
Turkey to take in NATO ground forces
Turkey has agreed that NATO can turn its airbase in Turkey into a base for ground operations into Syria.
The country will become the main base in the area for the US-led military alliance’s ground forces.
NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the alliance will transfer the bulk of its ground forces from a military base in the city of Heidelberg in southwestern Germany.
Other troops will arrive from Spain to be placed at the Izmir Air Station in western Turkey, which will now become the centre for ground troops.
Turkey has recently toughened its opinion on neighbouring Syria, where unprecedented civilian unrest has led to the deaths of many people.
Ankara has already created its own military bases close to the common border with Syria. Story source here
The plan to destabilize Syria
by Thierry Meyssan
The operations conducted against Libya and Syria involve the same actors and strategies. However, their respective outcomes will differ since the situations in these countries are not comparable. Thierry Meyssan analyzes the semi-failure experienced by the colonial and counter-revolutionary forces, and predicts a pendulum reversal in the Arab world.
The efforts to overthrow the Syrian government have a lot in common with what has been undertaken in Libya. However, the results are substantially different owing to each country’s social and political background. The project to break up these two States simultaneously was initially brought up by John Bolton on 6 May 2002 when he was serving as Undersecretary of State in the Bush administration. It’s implementation by the Obama administration nine years down the line - in the context of the Arab Awakening - is not without problems.
Like in Libya, the original plan intended to bring about a military coup, but it soon proved impossible owing to the lack of willing Syrian military officers. According to our sources, an analogous plan had also been envisaged for Lebanon. In Libya, the plot was leaked and Colonel Gaddafi proceeded to have Colonel Abdallah Gehani arrested [1]. In any case, the initial plan had to be revised in light of the unexpected "Arab Spring" scenario. Full article published here
Conspiracy Theory
By Paul Craig Roberts
While we were not watching, conspiracy theory has undergone Orwellian redefinition.
A "conspiracy theory" no longer means an event explained by a conspiracy. Instead, it now means any explanation, or even a fact, that is out of step with the government's explanation and that of its media pimps.
For example, online news broadcasts of RT have been equated with conspiracy theories by the New York Times simply because RT reports news and opinions that the New York Times does not report and the US government does not endorse.
In other words, as truth becomes uncomfortable for government and its Ministry of Propaganda, truth is redefined as conspiracy theory, by which is meant an absurd and laughable explanation that we should ignore. Full article here
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Happy birthday David
Bilderberg 2011: The Rockefeller World Order and the "High Priests of Globalization"
By Andrew Gavin Marshall
Happy 96th birthday, Mr. David Rockefeller! But I am sorry to say (or perhaps not so sorry) that while the mainstream media have “respected their promises of discretion,” the new media – the alternative media – have not. As you said yourself, “It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years,” it seems that the “lights of publicity” are now descending upon your “plan for the world,” making it all the more difficult to come to pass. Indeed, “the world is more sophisticated,” but not because the world is ‘ready’ for your plan, but because the world is getting ready to reject it. While national sovereignty certainly has problems and is hardly something I would consider ‘ideal’, the “supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers” is about the worst scenario one could imagine. So as a birthday present to you, Mr. Rockefeller, I promise (and I am sure that I am speaking for a great many more than simply myself) that I will continue to expose your “plans for the world,” so that your dream – and our nightmare – will never become a reality. The light will shine, and in due time, the people will be ready to follow its path.
Very informative article posted here
SOLAR CYCLE 24: EXPECTATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
David Archibald and Professor David Bellamy, City Beach, August 2008
By David C. Archibald
Summa Development Limited, Perth, WA, Australia
E-mail: david.archibald@westnet.com.au
ABSTRACT
Archibald (2006) predicted that climate during the forthcoming Solar Cycles 24 and 25 would be significantly cold. As at late 2008, the progression of the current 23/24 solar minimum indicates that a severe cool period is now inevitable, similar to that of the Dalton Minimum. Adecline in average annual temperature of 2.2°C is here predicted for the mid-latitude regions over Solar Cycle 24. The result will be an equator-ward shift in continental climatic conditions in the mid-latitudes of the order of 300 km, with consequent severe effects on world agricultural productivity.
Editor: This article and others are available on David Archibald's website
Saturday, June 18, 2011
NATO Incorporates Libyan Experience For Global War Template
By Rick Rozoff
As the West's war against Libya has entered its fourth month and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has flown more than 11,000 missions, including 4,300 strike sorties, over the small nation, the world's only military bloc is already integrating lessons learned from the conflict into its international model of military intervention based on earlier wars in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.
What NATO refers to as Operation Unified Protector has provided the Alliance the framework in which to continue recruiting Partnership for Peace adjuncts like Sweden and Malta, Istanbul Cooperation Initiative affiliates Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates and Mediterranean Dialogue partnership members Jordan and Morocco into the bloc's worldwide warfighting network. Sweden, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates also have military personnel assigned to NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the nearly ten-year-long war in Afghanistan. In the first case, troops from the Scandinavian nation has been engaged in their first combat role, killing and being killed, in two centuries in Afghanistan and has provided eight warplanes for the attack on Libya, with marine forces to soon follow.
Full article published here
The Destabilization of Syria and the Broader Middle East War
AP. Thousands of supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad carry a 2,300-metre-long Syrian flag in a demonstration in Damascus on Wednesday, June 15. By Michel Chossudovsky
What is unfolding in Syria is an armed insurrection supported covertly by foreign powers including the US, Turkey and Israel.
Armed insurgents belonging to Islamist organizations have crossed the border from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The US State Department has confirmed that it is supporting the insurgency.
The United States is to expand contacts with Syrians who are counting on a regime change in the country.
This was stated by U.S. State Department official Victoria Nuland. "We started to expand contacts with the Syrians, those who are calling for change, both inside and outside the country," she said.
Nuland also repeated that Barack Obama had previously called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to initiate reforms or to step down from power." (Voice of Russia, June 17, 2011)
The destabilization of Syria and Lebanon as sovereign countries has been on the drawing board of the US-NATO-Israel military alliance for at least ten years.
Full article posted here
Friday, June 17, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
REPORT FROM TRIPOLI: More NATO "Humanitarian Intervention:" The Bombing of Al Fateh University, Campus B
Global Research, June 14, 2011
By Cynthia McKinney
Since coming to Tripoli to see first hand the consequences of the NATO military operations, it has become clear to me that despite the ongoing silence of the international press on the ground here in Libya, there is clear evidence that civilian targets have been hit and Libyan civilians injured and killed.
This Tuesday morning I was taken from my hotel across the city through its bustling traffic to the Al Fateh University.
On 9 June, Dean Ali Mansur was outside in the parking lot. The sky was blue like Carolina blue. The clouds were white--no chemtrails in sight. Puffy and white. Dean Mansur was visibly upset. It seems that some of the young men at Al Fateh University, Campus B were fighting over girls. He explained to me that Libyans are hot blooded. With a gleam in his eye, he whispered to me that girls are important to young men.
Yes, that was clearly evident today as I approached the campus of Al Fateh University, Campus B, formerly known as Nasser University. Under the trees, throughout the lawn as we approached the campus gates, I could see young men and women talking to each other, talking on cell phones, walking to and fro, assembled, probably talking about the latest campus news--whatever that might be. Today, on the Al Fateh campus, life was teeming. Student life seemed vibrant. This feel and ambiance of this university was not unlike the hundreds of other universities that I have visited in the US and around the world.
Libyan boys and girls are like ours. My son would easily fit into the life of this university.
The campus seemed vibrant, too. Cranes everywhere indicated a healthy building program, adding new buildings to enhance the student learning environment. Despite the students' fracas, Dean Mansur had everything to be happy about as he saw his university becoming bigger, better, and stronger. Her told me that they had even signed an agreement with a British university to begin programs in the English language. Not English studies, Dean Mansur emphasized, but an entire curriculum of study taught in the English language! Of course, he entoned, that's all disappointingly ended now.
Al Fateh University, Campus B consists of about 10,000 undergraduates, 800 masters degree candidates, and 18 Ph.D. students; 220 staff, 150 ad hoc professors, 120 employees. It has eight auditoriums, 19 classrooms, 4 extra large classrooms. It also has a rural campus at Al Azizia where 700 students are taught and are a part of the university system. Dean Mansur compares himself to a mayor because he has so many responsibilities presiding over a large community of students engaging in a rich and vibrant academic life.
Dean Mansur told me that life at the university and, for him personally, changed forever on the afternoon of Thursday 9 June, 2011.
He recalled that the university opened as usual around 8:00 am and was to close later that evening at about 8:00 pm.
Thursday, 9 June, he thought, was going to be just like any other day, except for the fracas over the girls that had cleared the campus of many of the students who didn't want to have any part in the fighting. So, outside in the campus parking lot, Dr. Mansur told me he was preoccupied thinking how he would deal with the disciplinary issue before him.
Then, out of nowhere and all of a sudden, he heard something loud up in the sky.
He said it began out of no where, a loud roar. Then a frightful high pitched the hissing sound. He said he looked up into the sky and couldn't hardly believe his eyes: something shiny up in the sky appeared dancing in front of him. He said it moved about like an atari game or something. It danced and zig-zagged all over the sky. He said he was transfixed on the object for what seemed like minutes but in truth must have only been seconds.
Up and down and sideways it raced in the sky and then, without warning, it just came crashing down into the ground nearby. It was a NATO missile.
Tragically it had found its target: Al Fateh University, Campus B.
Dean Mansur said he saw one missile, lots of fire, lots of different colors all around it, and then a huge plume of smoke. He saw one missile, but heard what seemed like many explosions. He said he now can't honestly say how many.
Dr. Mansur said the force and shock of the blast held him frozen in his place. He said his heart stopped for a moment. He wasn't afraid, just frozen. He didn't run away; he didn't cower; he said he just stood stupefied.
The force of the blast cracked thickened concrete wells, shattered hundreds of windows and brought numerous ceilings down in lecture halls.
Whether it was a wayward Tomahawk Cruise Missile or a misdirected laser guided bomb, no one knows.
His immediate thoughts were for the thousands of his students in the university and for his own three children who study there.
After about 30 minutes, the Libyan press came to see what had happened. the University President and other officials of the school all came. But to Dr. Mansur's surprise not the international press.
And what did they see?
The media saw the widespread structural damage to many of the buildings, all of the windows blown out in every one of the eight auditoriums. Doors blown off their hinges. Library in a shambles. Books and debris everywhere. The campus mosque was damaged. Glass heaped up in piles. Some efforts at cleaning up had begun.
Dr Mansur says that they have kept the university, wherever practicable, in much the same condition as it was on the day of the attack. Except that the main classroom area that students work in has been cleaned and will be renamed the Seif Al-Arab auditorium complex in memory of Muammar Qaddafi's son murdered on April 30, 2011 in his home by NATO bombs.
On Thursday, NATO missiles. Friday and Saturday are considered the weekend here. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the students are back to school undaunted by the bombing. In many of the classrooms I saw today, students were taking final exams amid the debris. As I walked around the campus, one male voice shouted out and spoke to me in Arabic: "Where's Obama?"
Good question I thought.
I've always wondered if the politicians who regularly send our young men and women away to war and who regularly bomb the poor peoples of the world have ever, themselves, been on the receiving end of a Cruise Missile attack or placed themselves and their family at the mercy of a laser guided depleted uranium bomb. Maybe, just maybe I thought, that if they had experienced first hand the horror of a NATO attack on a civilian target they might just stop and question for a minute the need to dispatch our armed forces to attack the people of Libya.
I didn't want to disturb the students taking exams so I found some students standing outside not taking exams to talk to. I asked them if they had anything to say to President Obama. One professor, a woman, spoke up readily and said, "We are working under fire: physical and psychological." One student spoke up and said that President Obama should "Free Palestine and leave Libya alone." He continued, "We are one family."
More on that later, but briefly, every Libyan is a member of a tribe and every tribe governs itself and selects its leaders; those leaders from all of the tribes then select their leaders, and so on until there is only one leader of all of the tribes of Libya. I met that one tribal leader yesterday in another part of Tripoli and I am told he is the real leader of this country. He presides over the Tribal Council which constitutes Libya's real policymakers. So when the young man said "We are one family," that is actually the truth.
Dr. Mansur, trained in the United States and spoke fondly of his time in the US and the many friends he made there. He is proud of his students and the richness of his university's community life. He was just like any University Dean in the United States.
In my view God intervened on Thursday 9 June, 2011.
On the day that the missile struck, not one student was killed. It could so easily have been different. It could have been a catastrophe taking the lives of hundreds of teenagers.
I am told that in the surrounding area immediately outside the university others were not so fortunate.
Reports are that there were deaths in the nearby houses.
It's a funny thing about war. Those who cause war become oblivious and removed from its consequences; they seem happy to inflict harm on others and become numb to its ill effects while war's victims find a way to normalize the abnormal and live with the constant threat of death and destruction.
After visiting Tripoli, I remain as opposed to war as ever before.
The students at Al Fateh University continue their studies despite the siege that their country is under.
And oh, that second group of students that I randomly spoke to? I asked them how much they pay for tuition. They looked at me with puzzled faces even after the translation. I asked them how much they pay for their books. Again, the same puzzled face. Tuition at Al Fateh University is 16 dinars per year--about $9. And due to the NATO embargo on gasoline imports, the school now has started 10 free bus lines to its surrounding areas in order to make sure that the students can get to school, free of charge.
I told them that I was about to enter a Ph.D. program in the US myself and that I needed tuition and book money costing tens of thousands of dollars. I continued that my cousin is in debt $100,000 because she went to the schools of her choice and received a Master's degree.
They said to me, "We thank Muammar Qaddafi. Because of Muammar Qaddafi we have free education. Allah, Muammar, Libya obes!"
Well as for NATO, they still cling to the chimera that their strikes are against military targets only and that theirs is a "humanitarian intervention."
I'm still waiting to find evidence somewhere in the world that bombing poor civilian populations of the Third World from the air is good for their voting rights, democracy, medical care, education, welfare, national debt, and enhancing personal income and wealth distribution. It seems clear to me that complex life issues require more complex intervention than a Cruise Missile could ever deliver.
Article source here
US Naval and Troop Movements Toward North Africa, Middle East Reported As Syrian Destabilization Escalates
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D.
June 15, 2011
Washington DC – US Special Forces units based at Fort Hood, Texas, have been told to prepare for deployment to Libya no later than July, according to a US military source. The Special Forces would then be followed in September or October by heavy armored units of the First Cavalry Division, currently located in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with other components of the US III Corps. This report was broadcast today on the Alex Jones radio program, and comes against the backdrop of escalating US destabilization operations against Syria and sharpening US condemnation of Damascus and its ally, Tehran.
Observers point out that US Special Forces have been in Libya since February. They also note that, while the Libyan destination is highly plausible, some of these units may also find themselves on the way to Yemen, Syria, or beyond.
Another anonymous military source speaking on the Alex Jones broadcast reported that US stocks of depleted uranium (DU) munitions are currently very low. This may be the reality behind outgoing Defense Secretary Gates’ complaint last week that NATO is “running out of bombs” in Libya, and similar remarks by French NATO General Stephane Abrial in Belgrade.
A source at US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that US forces are being lined up for new foreign missions, and added that his unit had recently processed two deceased US Army soldiers and three deceased US civilians, possibly mercenaries. The source attributed these cases to Libya, although US operations in Libya are widely thought to be controlled by the new US African Command (AFRICOM).
These reports should be taken together with the energetic protests from the Russian Foreign Ministry over the presence of the US Aegis cruiser Monterrey (a vessel with anti-ballistic missile capabilities) in the Black Sea, along with the arrival of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan off the coast of Syria.
According to the Israeli site DebkaFile, which often reflects the views of the Mossad, “Western sources additonally report a build-up of ship-borne anti-missile missile strength in the Mediterranean basin. This huge concentration of naval missile interceptor units looks like preparations by Washington for the contingency of Iran, Syria and Hizballah letting loose with surface missiles against US and Israeli targets in the event of US military intervention to stop the anti-opposition slaughter underway in Syria. Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, in particular, are taking this exceptional spate of American military movements in and around the Mediterranean as realistically portending American intervention in Syria.” Debka also says that Hezbollah is in the process of moving some of its formidable missile assets from northern Lebanon to the central regions of that country, closer to Israel.”
The Obama administration is thus on a collision course with the Congress over the War Powers Act, which requires legislative approval of the Libyan war by June 20. If Obama continues to bomb Libya beyond next Monday, or compounds his air assault with a ground invasion, he will be impeachment bait. Article source here
June 15, 2011
Washington DC – US Special Forces units based at Fort Hood, Texas, have been told to prepare for deployment to Libya no later than July, according to a US military source. The Special Forces would then be followed in September or October by heavy armored units of the First Cavalry Division, currently located in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with other components of the US III Corps. This report was broadcast today on the Alex Jones radio program, and comes against the backdrop of escalating US destabilization operations against Syria and sharpening US condemnation of Damascus and its ally, Tehran.
Observers point out that US Special Forces have been in Libya since February. They also note that, while the Libyan destination is highly plausible, some of these units may also find themselves on the way to Yemen, Syria, or beyond.
Another anonymous military source speaking on the Alex Jones broadcast reported that US stocks of depleted uranium (DU) munitions are currently very low. This may be the reality behind outgoing Defense Secretary Gates’ complaint last week that NATO is “running out of bombs” in Libya, and similar remarks by French NATO General Stephane Abrial in Belgrade.
A source at US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that US forces are being lined up for new foreign missions, and added that his unit had recently processed two deceased US Army soldiers and three deceased US civilians, possibly mercenaries. The source attributed these cases to Libya, although US operations in Libya are widely thought to be controlled by the new US African Command (AFRICOM).
These reports should be taken together with the energetic protests from the Russian Foreign Ministry over the presence of the US Aegis cruiser Monterrey (a vessel with anti-ballistic missile capabilities) in the Black Sea, along with the arrival of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan off the coast of Syria.
According to the Israeli site DebkaFile, which often reflects the views of the Mossad, “Western sources additonally report a build-up of ship-borne anti-missile missile strength in the Mediterranean basin. This huge concentration of naval missile interceptor units looks like preparations by Washington for the contingency of Iran, Syria and Hizballah letting loose with surface missiles against US and Israeli targets in the event of US military intervention to stop the anti-opposition slaughter underway in Syria. Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, in particular, are taking this exceptional spate of American military movements in and around the Mediterranean as realistically portending American intervention in Syria.” Debka also says that Hezbollah is in the process of moving some of its formidable missile assets from northern Lebanon to the central regions of that country, closer to Israel.”
The Obama administration is thus on a collision course with the Congress over the War Powers Act, which requires legislative approval of the Libyan war by June 20. If Obama continues to bomb Libya beyond next Monday, or compounds his air assault with a ground invasion, he will be impeachment bait. Article source here
Firestorm of Star Birth in the Active Galaxy Centaurus A
Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A.
Hubble's panchromatic vision, stretching from ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths, reveals the vibrant glow of young, blue star clusters and a glimpse into regions normally obscured by the dust.
The warped shape of Centaurus A's disk of gas and dust is evidence for a past collision and merger with another galaxy. The resulting shockwaves cause hydrogen gas clouds to compress, triggering a firestorm of new star formation. These are visible in the red patches in this Hubble close-up.
At a distance of just over 11 million light-years, Centaurus A contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive black hole or the jets are visible in this image.
This image was taken in July 2010 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.
Image source here
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Solar forecast hints at a big chill
The sun unleashes a powerful solar flare from the right side of its disk on June 7, as seen in this image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Scientists say the sun is heading toward a peak in its activity cycle in 2013 or so, but may enter a period of hibernation afterward.
By Alan Boyle
The latest long-range space forecast predicts a prolonged drop in solar activity after the next peak — and scientists say that might cool down temperatures here on Earth, or at least slow down the warming trend a bit.
Scientists have studied sunspots and the sun's 11-year activity cycle for 400 years, and they're getting increasingly savvy about spotting the harbingers of "space weather" years in advance, just as meteorologists can figure out what's coming after the next storm.
Storms from the sun are expected to build to a peak in 2013 or so, but after that, the long-range indicators are pointing to an extended period of low activity — or even hibernation.
"This is important because the solar cycle causes space weather ... and may contribute to climate change," Frank Hill, associate director of the National Solar Observatory's Solar Synoptic Network, told journalists today.
In the past, such periods have coincided with lower-than-expected temperatures on Earth. The most famous example is the Maunder Minimum, a 70-year period with virtually no sunspots from 1645 to 1715. Average temperatures in Europe sank so low during that period that it came to be known as "the Little Ice Age." Full article here
Rape in Libya: America’s Recent Wars have all been Accompanied by Memorable Falsehoods
When the war-going get tough, the professional P.R.Campaigns get Going
by Prof Peter Dale Scott
June 13, 2011
It is a troubled Time for NATO’s campaign against Libya. President Obama has seen a near-revolt in Congress against the costly war, while Defense Secretary Gates in Brussels has warned his European allies that their tepid response “is putting the Libya mission and the alliance's very future at risk.”1 Back home, according to the London Daily Mail, “Mr Gates has requested extra funds for Libya operations, but has been rebuffed by the White House.”2
The past history of American wars tells us that, when the war-going begins to get tough, the professional p.r. campaigns get going, often with wholly invented stories. For example, when in 1990 Defense Secretary Colin Powell was expressing doubts that the United States should attack Kuwait, stories appeared that, as revealed by classified satellite photos, Saddam had amassed 265,000 troops and 1500 tanks at the edge of the Saudi Arabian border. Powell then changed his mind, and the attack proceeded. But after the invasion a reporter from the St. Petersburg Times viewed satellite photos from a commercial satellite, and “she saw no sign of a quarter of a million troops or their tanks.”3
Hawks in Congress, notably Tom Lantos and Stephen Solarz, secured support for the attack on Iraq with a story from a 15-year-old girl, that she had seen Kuwaiti infants snatched from their incubators by Iraqi soldiers. The story was discredited when it was learned that the girl, the daughter of the Saudi ambassador in Washington, might not have visited the hospital at all. She had been prepped on her story by the p.r. firm Hill & Knowlton, which had a contract for $11.5 million from the Kuwaiti government.4
Full article here
Editor: Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of Drugs Oil and War, The Road to 9/11, and The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War. His most recent book is American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection and the Road to Afghanistan. Peter Dale Scott is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Canada has now been co-opted into another military mess on the other side of the world.
Our recently elected parliament has already proven its profound ineptitude in failing to examine the facts before wasting more Canadian lives and taxpayers' money in yet another exercise in colonialism.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
American manufacturing slowly rotting away: How industries die
June 14, 2011
By Ian Fletcher
I wrote in a previous article about why America’s manufacturing sector, despite record output, is actually in very deep trouble: record output doesn’t prove the sector healthy when we are running a huge trade deficit in manufactured goods, i.e. consuming more goods than we produce and plugging the gap with asset sales and debt.
But this analysis of the problem only touches the quantitative surface of our ongoing industrial decline. Real industries are not abstract aggregates; they are complex ecosystems of suppliers and supply chains, skills and customer relationships, long-term investments and returns. Deindustrialization is thus a more complex process than is usually realized. It is not just layoffs and crumbling buildings; industries sicken and die in complicated ways.
To take just one example, when American producers are pushed out of foreign markets by protectionism abroad and out of domestic markets by the export subsidies of foreign nations, it is not just immediate profits that are lost. Declining sales undermine their scale economies, driving up their costs and making them even less competitive. Less profit means less money to plow into future technology development. Less access to sophisticated foreign markets means less exposure to sophisticated foreign technology and diverse foreign buyer needs.
When an industry shrinks, it ceases to support the complex web of skills, many of them outside the industry itself, upon which it depends. These skills often take years to master, so they only survive if the industry (and its supporting industries, several tiers deep into the supply chain) remain in continuous operation. The same goes for specialized suppliers. Thus, for example, in the words of the Financial Times‘s James Kynge:
"The more Boeing outsourced, the quicker the machine-tool companies that supplied it went bust, providing opportunities for Chinese competitors to buy the technology they needed, better to supply companies like Boeing." Full article here
Heading for the heavens
Last Shuttle "ENDEAVOR" flight from KSC, 5-16-2011. A seriously nifty photo of the LAST shuttle launch, from the best seat in the house...
an F-15E Strike Eagle at 26 thousand feet over the east coast flying protective combat air patrol for the launch.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Land rights in Alberta
Keith Wilson and Joe Anglin will host public meetings in the Sundre Community Centre (June 16, 7pm) and the Rocky Community Centre (June 15,7pm) to explain the implications of Bills 19, 36 and 50 for landowners. For more information, phone 780 458-6332 or email- info@landownersagainstbills.com
Website: landownersagainstbills.com
Website: landownersagainstbills.com
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