© Lance Page/Truthout; Adapted: Carl Mueller/Flickr
Puppet Masters
John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman,describes how the United States of America, through corporations and the CIA, wages economic wars against Third World countries in order to control their resources. Where economics fail, the CIA will come in creating dissent to overthrow a non-compliant government. Where that fails, assassination is employed. Only after all these options have failed will the U.S. military become involved.
© greenisthenewred.com
Groups like Compassion Over Killing are targeted under this bill for exposing animal welfare abuses.
Groups like Compassion Over Killing are targeted under this bill for exposing animal welfare abuses.
The bill, HB187, targets anyone who videotapes or takes photograph on a farmer's property without permission. It creates the crime of "agricultural operation interference," a class A misdemeanor which is elevated to a third-degree felony on the second offense.
It comes at at time when the FBI has considered "terrorism" charges against undercover investigators.
Rep. Mathis' opening remarks at a hearing by the Utah House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on February 14th are indicative of the good ol' boy network that is attempting to pass this legislation:
"It's fun to see my good ag friends in this committee," Mathis said. "" all my good friends are here."
© Jason Reed/Reuters
Jeb Bush, right, with his brother President George Bush at an Orlando fundraiser in 2006.
Jeb Bush, right, with his brother President George Bush at an Orlando fundraiser in 2006.
Speculation that a late challenger might still emerge in the increasingly bitter race for the Republican presidential nomination is set to surge after former Florida governor Jeb Bush made remarks criticising the current field.
Bush, who is the brother of President George W Bush and son of President George Bush Sr, is a beloved figure among many conservatives who see him as a strong and charismatic leader who is popular in the must-win swing state of Florida.
That contrasts with a widespread unease among many Republican leaders and grassroots activists with the remaining crop of Republican candidates and the vitriolic nature of the fight between frontrunner Mitt Romney and his main challengers Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.
In answers to questions from the audience after a speech in Dallas on Thursday, Bush cautioned the remaining Republican campaigns from drifting so far to the right that they put off the key independent voters needed to beat President Barack Obama in November.
"I think it's important for the candidates to recognise though they have to appeal to primary voters, and not turn off independent voters that will be part of a winning coalition," Bush told the audience according to CBS news.
President Obama jets to Florida today for a mix of official and political business that will steal some headlines in the Sunshine State and line his campaign coffers with at least $4 million.
The act of presidential piggybacking -- coupling official duties, in this case a speech on the economy, with political fundraising -- was not pioneered by Obama but is prominently on display this year.
Obama has taken four trips outside Washington, D.C., since Jan. 1, including 18 re-election fundraisers interspersed with various activities related to his duties as president. Most recently, Obama concluded a three-day, three-state swing when he attended eight fundraisers and two official events.
The president's jet-setting has drawn the usual criticisms from his political opponents but also raised the curiosity and questions from taxpayers about who bears the sky-high costs.
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
And they have done it with the permission of the governor's office - granted in 2005 by former Gov. Richard Codey, state records show.
It was only two years later that the NYPD began a spy operation in Newark, sending in street operatives to compile reports on Muslims living and working in the state's largest city.
The set of executive orders were put on the books in July 2005, following a series of terror attacks that tore through three London subway trains and a double-decker bus. The two orders gave the NYPD open-ended legal authority to operate in New Jersey in limited circumstances, without the need to seek additional local clearance. The orders - Nos. 43 and 44 - can be found on the state government website.
© REUTERS/Jason Reed
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at a news conference after the London Conference on Somalia in London February 23, 2012.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at a news conference after the London Conference on Somalia in London February 23, 2012.
Speaking directly to Russia and China, which have blocked U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to end the violence in Syria, Clinton said the government's "brutality" against its own people was unsustainable in the internet age.
"The strategy followed by the Syrians and their allies is one that can't stand the test of legitimacy or even brutality for any length of time," Clinton told reporters in London.
"There will be increasingly capable opposition forces. They will
"It is clear to me there will be a breaking point," Clinton said. "I wish it would be sooner, so that more lives would be saved, than later, but I have absolutely no doubt there will be such a breaking point."
© unknown
Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Referring to the burning of "radical Islamic material" that included the Qurans, the former House speaker said the situation had been "blown into a huge incident by various fanatics in Afghanistan." He told a crowd gathered at a campaign rally at the Bing Crosby Theater that while the president had apologized for the burning, he had not called on the Afghan government to issue an apology for the deaths of two NATO soldiers who were killed by a man wearing an Afghan army uniform during increasingly violent protests of the desecration of the Muslim holy book.
"There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama's attention in a negative way," Gingrich said, "and he is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the president of the United States, period."
Obama sent a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in which he wrote, "I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident. I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies," according to the New York Times, quoting Karzai's press office. Obama did not release the text of what it called a three-page letter on a "host of issues" between the two countries, "several sentences of which relate to this issue," the Times reported.
© Reuters
A man stands amid debris after a bomb attack in northern Baghdad
A man stands amid debris after a bomb attack in northern Baghdad
Most of the attacks, which were carried out with car bombs and small arms, appeared to target security forces in the capital and other cities, authorities said. At least 55 people were killed and more than 220 wounded, according to local security officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
Although Thursday was not the deadliest day in Iraq since US forces completed their departure in late December, the attacks represented the most widespread operation yet mounted by suspected Sunni insurgents who have tried for years to topple the Shia-led government in Baghdad.
The victims included several civilians and some schoolchildren, security officials said.
© Francois Lo Presti/AFP/Getty Images
Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves in car after a daylong-plus interrogation in Lille about a prostitution sex-orgy ring.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves in car after a daylong-plus interrogation in Lille about a prostitution sex-orgy ring.
Ex-French presidential hopeful says he was in orgies, but didn't know women worked for money
French powerbroker Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from police custody in Paris on Wednesday after a 30-hour grilling over a prostitution sex-orgy ring.
The ex-head of the International Monetary Fund and one-time French presidential hopeful appeared haggard as he left the police station in Lille, France.
"He is entirely satisfied to have been heard," said his lawyer Frederique Beaulieu. Strauss-Kahn is expected to be summoned back to court again next month.
French police are investigating a suspected international prostitution ring that organized sex orgies at luxury hotels in Lille, Paris, and Washington, D.C.
Strauss-Kahn has admitted participating in the orgies, but insists he did not know the women were hookers and denied organizing the swinger bashes, one of his lawyers said.
Comment: For a clear picture of what is actually going on check out the following Focus Pieces: Syria's Bloody CIA Revolution - A Distraction?
Wake Up and Smell the Hypocrisy, Mrs Clinton
Or this recent Article: Washington's Ministry of Truth: Silencing the Critics
Perhaps you'd prefer a picture, to sort of get a more simple clear glimpse of how this goes - by the numbers?
It's looking like we're in the area of step five. The next step these days can be called "Democracy in Action." There's no doubt truly pathological creatures, the stuff of nightmares, are ruling this world.Where else in the Middle East have we seen or are we seeing the exact same thing happen-ing?