Puppet Masters

'Land Grabs Threaten Africa Food Security'

Seed Daily
Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:39 UTC

Large land grabs by foreign countries and corporate entities are endangering food security in sub-Saharan Africa, an area already under pressure from famine, drought and endemic conflict, the State of the World 2011 report said.

The report didn't outright oppose large land transactions, reported both in Africa and Latin America but called for "fairer deals" to ensure better opportunities for African farming communities marginalized by the transactions.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of international investor funds, including hedge and pension funds, are known to have gone into the massive land deals on the two continents.

Unless properly managed, large-scale land acquisitions by foreign governments and firms could trigger "xenophobia, riots, coups and more hunger," the report warned.

And No One Finds It Interesting and Highly Suspicious? Mystery Surrounds Loss of Records, Art on 9/11

Cristian Salazar
The Associated Press
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:47 UTC

© AP Photo/National September 11 Memorial & Museum
In this undated photo provided by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a damaged photographer's proof sheet, with photos of William DeCosta, the aviation Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is shown. The document was found by a recovery worker a few blocks away from ground zero and he eventually traced it to DeCosta, who continued to work for the Port Authority until his death about 2 years ago. Besides ending nearly 3,000 lives, destroying planes and reducing buildings to tons of rubble and ash, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks destroyed tens of thousands of records, irreplaceable historical documents and art.

Letters written by Helen Keller. Forty-thousand photographic negatives of John F. Kennedy taken by the president's personal cameraman. Sculptures by Alexander Calder and Auguste Rodin. The 1921 agreement that created the agency that built the World Trade Center.

Besides ending nearly 3,000 lives, destroying planes and reducing buildings to tons of rubble and ash, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks destroyed tens of thousands of records, irreplaceable historical documents and art.

In some cases, the inventories were destroyed along with the records. And the loss of human life at the time overshadowed the search for lost paper. A decade later, dozens of agencies and archivists say they're still not completely sure what they lost or found, leaving them without much of a guide to piece together missing history.

Norway Attacks Expose U.S. Media's Double Standard on "Terrorism"

Democracy Now!
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:00 UTC

Numerous news outlets and commentators initially blamed the attacks in Norway on Islamic militants. Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper, The Sun, ran a front-page headline that read, "'Al-Qaeda' Massacre: Norway's 9/11." In the United States, Murdoch's Wall Street Journal also initially blamed "jihadists," reporting that "Norway is targeted for being true to Western norms." Meanwhile, on the Washington Post's website, Jennifer Rubin wrote, "This is a sobering reminder for those who think it's too expensive to wage a war against jihadists." To discuss the media coverage of the attacks, we're joined by Glenn Greenwald, constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger who has written about the media coverage of the attacks in Norway for Salon.com. "When it became apparent that Muslims were not involved and that, in reality, it was a right-wing nationalist with extremely anti-Muslim, strident anti-Muslim bigotry as part of his worldview, the word 'terrorism' almost completely disappeared from establishment media discourse. Instead, he began to be referred to as a 'madman' or an 'extremist,'" says Greenwald. "It really underscores, for me, the fact that this word 'terrorism,' that plays such a central role in our political discourse and our law, really has no objective meaning. It's come to mean nothing more than Muslims who engage in violence."

Max Keiser: 'America will lose its sovereignty'

RTAmerica
Russia Today
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 12:54 UTC

The countdown to armadebtdon carries on and we are just 3 days away from the debt ceiling deadline. If a discussion is not reached will the US lose its AAA rating? The problem is we are not taking in enough revenue to continue spending like we are. Max Keiser of Keiser Report gives us his insight on what that means to the US.

US debt crisis: Wall Street warns feuding politicians

Larry Elliott, Phillip Inman and Graeme Wearden
guardian.co.uk
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

Chief executives of major banks write to the White House warning that failure to break deadlock would be 'very grave'

Wall Street's stark message to President Barack Obama on Thursday was that failure to end the war between Democrats and Republicans over US debt would smash business confidence, cripple the economy and send financial markets plunging.

Chief executives of all the major banks wrote to the White House warning that a continued deadlock over raising the debt ceiling "would be very grave".

With the 2 August deadline rapidly approaching and a vote in the House of Representatives scheduled on Thursday night, the bankers said they wanted to see "meaningful and concrete steps to put our nation on a sound fiscal footing".

The warning from Wall Street came amid renewed concerns over the fate of the eurozone, with bond yields in Italy and Spain back to the levels seen before the debt package for struggling members of the single currency was agreed a week ago and Cyprus starting to look like the next country in need of a bailout.

Signed by Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, the letter said: "Our economic recovery remains very fragile. A default on our obligations, or a downgrade on America's credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to investor confidence - raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the dollar and roiling stock and bond markets - and, therefore, dramatically worsening our nation's already difficult economic circumstances."

US: This Country Defaulted Long Ago

Jim Quinn
The Burning Platform
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 02:50 UTC

"There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." - Ludwig von Mises

The final collapse of our credit expansion boom approaches. We have a choice over the next week. We could voluntarily abandon further credit expansion by voting for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution or we can raise the debt ceiling, pretend to cut spending far in the future, and allow our currency system to experience a catastrophic final collapse.

We'll take what's behind door #2 Johnny. The vested interests in Washington DC and Wall Street only care about power and wealth. They will never abandon credit expansion. It's their drug. They must have it. They are addicted to it. They will keep injecting it into our system until they overdose America.

Israel: A Strike Against Free Speech

Ahmad Tibi
The New York Times
Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

Free speech in Israel was dealt a severe blow this month when the country's Parliament passed antiboycott legislation that targets individuals or organizations publicly calling for a boycott against Israel or any area under its control.

Because I believe in ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, equal rights for Palestinians and Jews, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees forced from their homes and lands in 1948, I support boycotting - and calling on others to boycott - all Israeli companies that help perpetuate these injustices.

But this new legal limit on free speech could bankrupt me.

Israeli officials will not throw me in jail for publicly supporting such boycotts, but settler groups can claim financial damages without even having to show any harm done. Furthermore, organizations supporting boycotts could be denied tax-deductible contributions and state funding. This week, I appealed the law to the high court.

Already, a member of the Knesset, our Parliament, Alex Miller, has threatened to sue me for my words - specifically my call, which I continue to make today, to boycott the illegal Jewish settlement of Ariel. Such a call would be unremarkable in a proper democracy with untrammeled free speech. The right to criticize a population that has dispossessed Palestinians and discriminated against us for decades should be protected speech.

Norway's ambassador tells Haaretz: More restrictive societies not an answer to terror

David Sheen and Raphael Ahren
Harretz
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:19 UTC

Svein Sevje expresses support and solidarity for Israel; says hopes conflict can be resolved in the spirit of Oslo Accords.

Israelis have shown an outpouring of sympathy regarding last weekend's horrific attacks in and near Oslo, Norwegian ambassador to Israel Svein Sevje told Anglo File on Wednesday.

Ambassador Sevje returned to Norway yesterday to see his family, but he told Haaretz before departing for Oslo that the embassy in Tel Aviv has received a "tremendous" stream of visitors wishing to convey their sympathies for the victims of the cruel killings. Sevje underscored that he received "lots of letters and mail from Israelis expressing their condolences and support and solidarity, which was quite touching."

At the same time, he says he is not ignorant of the anger expressed by some Israelis, who accuse the Norwegian government of insensitivity to the security concerns of Israelis, and even anti-Semitism, because it supports efforts to create an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. "Maybe Israelis didn't understand how much compassion there was [in Norway] when you were attacked," says Sevje, referring to the wave of Palestinian bombings and shootings that Israelis faced in the 1990s.

US: Quartzsite, Arizona: Blueprint For A Police State Takeover

Madison Ruppert
The Intel Hub
Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

First the town Mayor is forced out of office, then a state of emergency is declared in secret and if matters couldn't get any worse for the unfortunate townspeople of Quartzsite, the majority of the police force is now being forced to stay in their own homes during working hours.

Nine out of a total of fourteen Quartzsite, Arizona police officers have been suspended, all of which just happened to be whistle blowers who exposed their corrupt police chief.

The Mayor, Ed Foster, was elected on the platform of investigating the corrupt goings-on in the Quartzsite city council. Therefore, it is not quite surprising that they would force out the man who intends to prove them to be criminals.

The city has now become a fascist authoritarian police state with the criminal police chief Jeff Gilbert at the helm.

Gilbert has been accused of violating federal medical privacy laws, intimidation of officers and members of the community with whom he disagrees, using police resources to find "dirt" on political candidates and citizens with whom he disagrees, favoritism to the point of not arresting friends who have warrants, targeting certain citizens for traffic stops and arrests due to their beliefs or political ideas, disciplining officers not on merit but "loyalty" to Gilbert and his illegal activity, publicly humiliating officers he decides are "unfit," and last but not least selectively promotes his friends in direct violation of police department regulations.

Scientology Book Author Reveals Church's Inner Workings

Brent Lang
Reuters
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:03 UTC

© Reuters/Paul Hanna
U.S. Actor Tom Cruise gives a speech at the inauguration of a Scientology church in Madrid Sepember 18, 2004.

Scientology operates more as a business than as a church, relying on techniques perfected by car salesmen to attract new members and celebrities to its rolls.

That's just one of the takeaways from Janet Reitman's controversial book about the world's most controversial and secretive religion. Inside Scientology chronicles L. Ron Hubbard's creation of Scientology six decades ago and traces its development into the faith of choice for movie stars such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

In an interview with TheWrap, Reitman, a Rolling Stone contributing editor, addressed blackmail rumors and talked about why Kabbalah may represent a bigger threat to it than any South Park parody.

Comment:

Quote of the Day

The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim: nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences.

- Carroll Quigley

Wonderful bit of the Queen's English there! But, you know... Leicester....

PDX

Centuries ago, the prophet St Malachie spoke of the end times, as culturally being a grotesque buffoonery. Here we are. To those who are...

dom38

How did they miss to just spell it right : Fecebook .

dom38

Eerie to have Bollène and beheading in the same phrase. Made me think of Anne Boleyn.

ROEL

Height & Weight for this tyrannical pile of shit? Gotta know these things ahead of time.

DeliciousTears

Puppet Masters

'Land Grabs Threaten Africa Food Security'

And No One Finds It Interesting and Highly Suspicious? Mystery Surrounds Loss of Records, Art on 9/11

Norway Attacks Expose U.S. Media's Double Standard on "Terrorism"

Max Keiser: 'America will lose its sovereignty'

US debt crisis: Wall Street warns feuding politicians

US: This Country Defaulted Long Ago

Israel: A Strike Against Free Speech

Norway's ambassador tells Haaretz: More restrictive societies not an answer to terror

US: Quartzsite, Arizona: Blueprint For A Police State Takeover

Scientology Book Author Reveals Church's Inner Workings

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