I find this to be truly diabolical. I'm reminded of someone I know who grew up in the eastern bloc, telling me that if you didn't join the right party-sponsored organizations as a young student, then you'd find yourself having trouble getting into college, getting a decent job, etc. You had to be on the "inside" and "vetted" by the state to really get anywhere in society. In America, this TWIC and SWAC stuff smacks of exactly that sovietization, and, as usual, is already creeping incrementally. And the TSA is involved in it, extending their reach way beyond what we might have expected.

DHS is leaning on NYC unions, via a "directive," to encourage member construction workers to get TWIC (transportation worker identity credential), a biometric ID, that requires you submit to a government background check and give the government your DNA! You know the rest of the story -- either get vetted by the TSA or you don't work (shall be able neither to buy nor sell).

A message from deceptions filmmaker :

I always seem to find confirming evidence that things are horribly wrong. Nightmares about corruption and control have crept into my consciousness and are now giant objects of reality for me. I firmly believe that by controlling money and media a very small cadre of ultra elites are also controlling an unsuspecting public. They are marching us into a stark Orwellian future, a world of elite rulers and a sea of debt slaves totally dependent upon government for their very existence.

In his book "1984," which was published in 1949, George Orwell was warning us. Sixty-one years ago he saw it coming, a totalitarian world run by the power elite with party slogans of "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength." Words like doublespeak and doublethink (a willingness to believe contradictory statements when theParty demands it), a Ministry of Truth (an organization to ensure that the Party's version of the past is never questioned), the perpetual surveillance of Big Brother and the specter of Thought Police and Thought Crimes. What were mere novel terms in 1949 now pervade our society. Even the most ignorant and naïve among us cannot fail to see the parallels.

Doublespeak and doublethink are always in full force whenever the G-20 (Group of Twenty) meets. Massive public austerity was this group's answer when they met in Toronto. Entitlement programs, massive debts and run away government spending had to be curbed. While calls for "belt tightening" sprang from the board room, $1 billion was spent on security for a two day summit to protect these people from the public. Trillion dollar wars and trillion dollar bank bailouts occur at the same time that public benefits and state budgets are slashed. The cost of privatized medical care has escalated beyond belief including the salaries of every health company CEO which are in the millions. Tax cuts have also now been extended to this group of parasites. After all, the masters, the elite, the "inner party," as Orwell would say, must be taken care of.

Doubtful it stood, as two spent swimmers that do cling together, and choke their art.

- Shakespeare, Macbeth

The Greek bailout was supposed to be an isolated case, a test of the EU's ability to quarantine an infected member, preventing it from spreading "debt contagion."

But that was before Ireland failed. Ireland was the poster child for how to conduct a successful austerity program. Unlike the Greeks, who were considered profligate spendthrifts, the Irish did everything their creditors asked. The people sacrificed to pay for the excesses of their banks, but still the effort failed. Ireland was the second domino to fall to an IMF/EU bailout. On December 17, Moody's Investors Service rewarded it for voting to accept the "rescue" package with a five-notch credit downgrade, from AA2 to BAA1, with warnings that further downgrades could follow.

Spain is rumored to be the next domino poised to fall. If it falls, it could bring down the EU.

TV host, Jesse Ventura, former Navy Seal, former Governor of Minnesota, hosts a documentary on prime-time American television and makes an open and shut criminal case tying Cheney, Rumsfeld and officials throughout the US government with complicity in the planning, execution and subsequent cover-up of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

Take the 43 minutes to watch this and then try and convince yourself "Muslim terrorists" were responsible.

A conservative commentator recently made headlines by claiming 10 percent of all of the world's Muslims are terrorists. An amazing claim, considering that equals 150 million terrorists and if each were to pull off an attack killing just 40 people, they could exterminate all non-Muslim life on earth.

Either they're not all that dedicated to terrorism, or the claim is utter insanity.

Well, if there's one thing everyone thinks of when they hear "Cracked.com" it's "friend of Islam." Which is why we feel compelled to clarify a few misconceptions for our readers. Also, there is no way this article will ever come back to haunt us in any way.

The Justice Department targets nonviolent solidarity activists.

September 24 began like any other Friday for Joe Iosbaker and Stephanie Weiner. Then, at 7 a.m., FBI agents knocked on the door of the Chicago couple's house in the city's North Side.

Armed with a search warrant, more than 20 agents examined the couple's home, photographing every room and combing through notebooks, family videos and books, even their children's drawings. Some items were connected to their decades of anti-war and international solidarity activism, but others were not. "Folders were opened, letters were pulled out of envelopes," says Weiner, an adult education professor at Wilbur Wright College. "They had rubber gloves and they went through every aspect of our home." (See video interview with Weiner and Iosbaker below.)

Ten hours after their arrival, as television news crews filmed and activist supporters stood on the sidewalk, the agents drove away with nearly 30 boxes of material, including t-shirts and a photograph of Malcolm X. By that time, Iosbaker and Weiner had been served subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating "material support" for "foreign terrorist organizations." And they knew theirs wasn't the only home invaded that day. More than 70 FBI agents had raided seven residences in Chicago and Minneapolis and questioned activists in Michigan, California and North Carolina, serving subpoenas to 11 people. A few days later, the Justice Department subpoenaed members of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), whose office was also raided on September 24, raising the number to 14. (Editor's note: five additional Chicago-area activists were subpoenaed in early December; see update below.)

Eons ago man's violence was limited to throwing stones and wooden spears. Advances in metallurgy led to the use of sharp blades, swords, and lances. Guns, rifles and cannons soon followed - along with machines doing yet more violence to nature such as cutting down entire forests and strip mining.The last century's violence, however, was unparalleled. According to the World Watch Institute, the 20th century saw the highest percent of humans ever dying in war - via atomic weapons and gas chambers. Environmental violence accelerated in ways that parallel human violence.

However, these transgressions may turn out to be but child's play compared to what is now under way - a selective elimination/recreation of virtually all of life on earth, for profit. Conglomerates, for example, have bought up competing seed companies, destroying most of their heritage seed stocks and replacing them with only patented genetically altered seeds - what Time magazine has called the Death of Birth. Such waves of "bioviolence" actually begin when companies microscopically attack and breach a seed's tiny nuclear membrane using a gene ballistics gun. A fish's genes, for example, can be blasted into a tomato's foreign nucleus, a snake gene into a flower's, and so on. Due to this hidden micro-violence, new forms are artificially and forcibly created. Some are employed for food, fiber, chemical and pharmaceutical production, with the latter process called biopharming.

The Miami 7, the Fort Dix 6, the Newburgh 4, the Underwear Bomber, the Portland Car Bomber... The FBI has set up then knocked down dozens of terrorist straw men in an effort to convince you that the 'war on terror' is real. This is a very real war for your mind and we may all pay a high price for ignoring it.

Tehran - Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar charged on Friday the CIA was involved in the suicide bombing in southeast Iran as the death toll rose to 36.

"From the inspection of equipment obtained from the terrorist elements of this crime, it has become clear that the CIA and other spy agencies were involved," he was quoted as saying on state television's website.

Najjar did not give details.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, accused the West of working to divide the Muslim world.

"Our people know the objective of the enemy. They realise that the arrogance (West) does not want the Muslim world to be sovereign," Khamenei said in a message read out at a funeral for victims of the attack.

"Enemies do not want to see the unity of Muslims," he added.

Iranian officials previously accused US and British intelligence services of having a hand in Wednesday's attack in the city of Chabahar but without naming any specific agency.

The attack on a Shiite religious procession was claimed by Sunni militant group Jundallah (Army of God), which says it is fighting for the rights of the region's Sunni ethnic Baluchi community against Iran's Shiite regime.

Iranian media on Friday said the death toll has climbed to 36 from the suicide bombing during the annual Shiite mourning rituals of Ashura, while dozens of others were wounded.

Former President George H.W. Bush and ex-Secretary of State James Baker were part of a negotiating team that convinced Nigerian government officials to drop bribery charges against Dick Cheney and Halliburton, the oil services firm he led prior to becoming vice president.

Bush and Baker, whose law firm was hired by Halliburton in 2004 to handle the bribery allegations, participated in conference call discussions with senior Nigerian government officials, including the country's attorney general, Mohammed Adoke, last weekend on behalf of Cheney in an attempt to work out a settlement, according to a report published by an African news agency.

The negotiations took place in London and included Halliburton represenatives.