Puppet MastersS


Vader

If Monsanto Were a Person

Alexis Baden-Mayer
Organic Consumers Association
Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:05 UTC
The following video is from the March 16, 2012, action that shut down a Monsanto research facility in Davis, CA. In the video, a young boy, Ci Yin Oliveira, tells Monsanto's story as if (as the Supreme Court has ruled) Monsanto were actually a person. Click here for a transcript of Oliveira's speech. Please watch the video, then read on to learn more about the problem of giving corporations the legal rights of people and what we can do to control corporations like Monsanto.

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Heart - Black

Romney Justifies Denying Health Care To People With Pre-Existing Conditions: 'We Can't Play The Game Like That'

Alex Seitz-Wald
ThinkProgress.org
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:28 UTC
romney
© Unknown

As Mitt Romney tries to distance himself from Obamacare, he ran into some trouble last night when he got stumped by comedian Jay Leno. Leno asked Romney what he would do to help people with preexisting medical conditions, who are often denied coverage today by insurance companies worried about increased costs.

Romney's answer was essentially nothing. Someone who has forgone insurance doesn't deserve to get medical coverage, Romney suggested, because, "we can't play the game like that." Asked what he would do to help people with pre-existing conditions, Romney replied:
ROMNEY: People with pre-existing conditions, as long as they have been insured before, they are going to be able to continue to have insurance.

LENO: Suppose they haven't been insured before?

ROMNEY: Well, if they are 45 years old and they show up and say I want insurance because I have heart disease, it's like, 'Hey guys. We can't play the game like that. You've got to get insurance when you are well and then if you get ill, you are going to be covered. [...]

We'll look at a circumstance where someone is ill and hasn't been insured so far, but people who have the chance to be insured - - if you are working in the auto business for instance, the companies carry insurance, they insure their employees, you look at the circumstances that exist - - but people who have done their best to get insured are going to be able to be covered. But you don't want everyone saying, 'I am going to sit back until I get sick and then go buy insurance.' That doesn't make sense. But you get defined rules and get people in who are playing by the rules.
Watch it here (beginning 2:15)
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Info

Italy Seize 1.1 Billion Euros of Gaddafi Family Assets

Silvia Aloisi
Reuters
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
Gaddafi
© Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi arrives at Khartoum airport, Sudan, December 21, 2010.
Milan - Italian tax police have seized 1.1 billion euros of assets belonging to members of the Gaddafi family, including stakes in top Italian companies, bank deposits and a Harley Davidson, at the request of the International Criminal Court.

In a statement on Wednesday, police said the assets included stakes in Italy's largest bank UniCredit, oil and gas giant Eni, defence group Finmeccanica, carmaker Fiat, truck-maker Fiat Industrial and Turin-based soccer club Juventus.

Bank deposits, a chunk of forest on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria and two motorbikes including the Harley Davidson were also seized.

Lieutenant Colonel Gavino Putzu told Reuters all the assets seized were held by Libya's sovereign fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, on behalf of the Gaddafi family.

He said the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague had ordered the seizure of assets worldwide in view of possible compensation claims by victims of Muammar Gaddafi's rule in Libya following his overthrow last year.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Sarkozy's Coup d'État: Mohamed Merah was French Intelligence Asset

Alex Lantier
World Socialist Web Site
Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:10 UTC
French President Nicolas Sarkozy stands by soldiers
© AP Photo/Jacques BrinonFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy stands by soldiers carrying a coffin during a ceremony honoring the three soldiers killed by a suspect identified as Mohammad Merah.
Press reports and comments by top intelligence officials suggest that Mohamed Merah, the alleged gunman who killed seven people including three Jewish schoolchildren in a nine-day shooting spree in Toulouse, was a French intelligence asset.

These revelations raise questions about French intelligence's failure to stop Merah, and whether this failure was dictated by political considerations. The investigation of Merah was led by the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI), run by Bernard Squarcini - a close associate of incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy, previously running far behind Socialist Party (PS) candidate François Hollande in next month's presidential elections, has benefited from massive media coverage after the attacks and now is catching up to Hollande in polls.

In a March 23 Le Monde interview, Squarcini had confirmed that Merah had traveled extensively in the Middle East, even though his legal earnings were roughly at the minimum wage: "He spent time with his brother in Cairo after having traveled in the Near East: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and even Israel. ... Then he went to Afghanistan via Tajikistan. He took unusual routes and did not appear on our radars, nor those of French, American, or local foreign intelligence services."

Squarcini apparently aimed to bolster the official explanation for Merah's ability to escape police: he was an undetectable "self-radicalized lone wolf." This story is being shattered by revelations that French intelligence agencies were apparently in close contact with Merah, trying to develop him as an informant inside Islamist networks.

Comment: Just as the FBI Organizes Terror Plots in the US, so the French intelligence apparatus is manipulating public opinion to favour Sarkozy's Backers.

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Eye 1

FBI Said to Have Gathered Intelligence on California Muslims

Dan Levine
Reuters
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
FBI logo
U.S. civil liberties advocates said on Tuesday the FBI had engaged in secretly collecting intelligence about Muslims in the San Francisco Bay area in recent years, including details about a sermon delivered at a mosque.

The American Civil Liberties Union called for an inquiry into the FBI's data collection, citing investigative practices from between 2004 and 2008 that it said raised the possibility of privacy violations.

The FBI defended its actions, saying the information in question was gathered as part of authorized law-enforcement activities, some intended to bolster ties with the Muslim community.

Police monitoring of Muslim organizations has been a concern across the country. According to reports by the Associated Press, the New York Police Department kept tabs on Muslim neighborhoods in New York and surrounding areas by sending undercover officers into mosques, meetings of college campus groups and local businesses, and keeping records of what they found.

The ACLU said records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request showed FBI agents visited the Seaside Mosque in northern California five times in 2005. Government personnel documented the subject of a sermon and discussions about a property purchase for a new mosque.
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Video

Lone wolf's accomplice sends doctored footage of Toulouse murders to Al Jazeera


The Guardian
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:58 UTC
Image
TV channel says it will not screen footage that appears to show Mohamed Merah's deadly attacks at a school and a barracks

Al-Jazeera has decided against airing a video that purports to show the attacks on soldiers and a Jewish school in south-western France, which was apparently filmed by the killer, and includes the cries of his victims.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, other French officials and family members of the victims had asked for it not to be broadcast.

The station later posted a brief statement on its website, saying: "al-Jazeera will not air video of French shootings.

"In accordance with al-Jazeera's code of ethics, given the video does not add any information that is not already in the public domain, its news channels will not be broadcasting any of its contents." The footage was contained on a USB key sent with a letter to the Paris office of the Qatar-based television company, Zied Tarrouche, the station's Paris bureau chief, said on the French TV station BFM.

Comment: Yes, the headline is absurd, but so is this whole story. Nothing makes sense because it's all based on LIES.

Toulouse Attacks: The Official Story of the Death of Mohamed Merah is a Lie

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Laptop

French Advisory Council Speaks Out Against Sarkozy's Plan to Criminalize Visiting Extremist Websites

Nancy Messieh
Thenextweb.com
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:37 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Philippe Wojazer
France's National Digital Council (CNNum), an advisory committee created by President Nicolas Sarkozy himself, has spoken out against a plan to punish frequent visitors of extremist websites.

CNNum was established in April last year and plays an advisory role with the French government, under the supervision of the French Minister of the digital economy. CNNum is consulted by the government on any legislation that may impact the country's digital economy.

In a statement addressed to Sarkozy, the committee has requested to be consulted in regard to the drafting of any legislation criminalizing Internet activity. It emphasized the fact that fighting against any form of cybercrime must be reconciled with the principles of freedom of expression and communication.
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MIB

Israeli spies in Iran: In an attempt to find "smoking gun" evidence that Iran is building a nuclear warhead


Ynet
Sun, 25 Mar 2012 08:30 UTC
Image
© ReutersIranian nuclear site
Israel using permanent base in northern Iraq to launch intelligence missions in Iran in search of nuclear evidence, Western intelligence sources say.

Israel is using a permanent base in Iraqi Kurdistan to launch cross-border intelligence missions in an attempt to find "smoking gun" evidence that Iran is building a nuclear warhead, the Sunday Times reported Sunday.

According to Western intelligence sources, Israel has used sensitive equipment during its covert operations to monitor the radioactivity and magnitude of explosives tests. It was also reported that Israeli special forces used Black Hawk helicopters to carry commandos disguised as members of the Iranian military and using Iranian military vehicles.
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Cowboy Hat

Repsol and Canary Snake Oil

Pablo Madeira
Sott.net
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:38 UTC
Image
Part of the dune ecosystem of northern Fuerteventura. Photo © PMadeira
Or: 7000 admitted accidents and counting.

Repsol the Spanish oil company infamous for more than 7000 oil prospecting related accidents, not least of which in Nigeria and now off the coast of Brazil, has just signed the convening of a BP style deepwater prospecting contract with the Spanish Govt off the tourist islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Canary Islands, both of which are designated UNESCO Biospheres.

Notable not least for their high economic dependency on year round tourism, both have high levels of marine and terrestrial protections under both Spanish and European laws (please don't laugh) which relate as much to the marine environments as well as the beautiful beaches (notably Fuerteventura) along the eastern seaboard, the designated prospecting sites.

The Gulf style deepwater prospecting in 1600mts of water within the Canary Current will extend down to 3,500mts in some 19 different areas along a seaboard of some 100kms (64miles) and as close as 12kms offshore from the tourist venues of Caleta Fustes and Gran Tarajal.

The potential was laid off for some years during the socialist Zapatero government, but now that the PP - Popular Party or Conservative (Aznarist) Rajoy administration has taken over the reins with over 5million unemployment and rising, it's up to the usual corruptive activities of money first, environment & islands nowhere!
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Bad Guys

Trial Delayed in Nashville for Somalis Accused in Child Sex Trafficking Ring

Kristen M. Hall
Startribune.com
Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:22 UTC
Nashville, Tenn. - A federal judge has delayed the start of a trial for more than a dozen people accused in a sex trafficking ring run by Somali gangs that reached from Minnesota to Tennessee.

Opening arguments were scheduled to start Monday, but over the weekend the U.S. attorney's office released to defense attorneys hundreds of pages of investigator notes and hours of telephone recordings of one of the juvenile female victims.

The indictment said three gangs called the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws were forcing teenage girls into prostitution and operated in St. Paul, Minn.; Minneapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville.
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