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Open thread 7/1
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted July 1, 2007 at 1:05 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
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Is this like “The Pot Calling The Kettle Black”
“US military accuses media of reporting ‘false’ Iraqi claims”
Sat Jun 30, 4:14 AM ET
BAGHDAD (AFP) – The US military accused the international media on Saturday of exacerbating Iraq’s violent tensions by reporting false claims of massacres which it said were deliberately fabricated by extremist groups.This week several newspapers and agencies reported that Iraqi police had found 20 beheaded corpses in Salman Pak, just south of Baghdad.
AFP did not carry the report after its sources were unable to confirm the rumour.
“It now appears that the story was completely false and fabricated by unknown sources,” a statement from the US military said.
“Anti-Iraqi forces are known for purposely providing false information to the media to incite violence and revenge killings, and they may well have been the source of this misinformation,” the statement alleged.
Central Iraq is in the grip of a brutal war between rival political and sectarian forces, and insurgent death squads often murder civilians. It is often hard to find independent information on specific incidents.
“Extremists promote falsehoods of mass killings, collateral damage and other violence specifically to turn Iraqis against other Iraqis,” Rear Admiral Mark Fox, chief spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq, said.
“Unfortunately, lies are much easier to state, the truth often takes time to prove,” he added, in the statement which urged the media to give US and Iraqi officials time to check out reports of violence.
——————————–Saturday June 30, 2007 08:42 EST
Our rotted press corps, a division of “Camp Victory”
On June 22, the BBC — under the headline: “‘Al-Qaeda gunmen’ killed in Iraq” — reported, along with virtually every major American media outlet, the following claim, without any challenge or questioning:
US helicopters have killed 17 gunmen with suspected al-Qaeda links in Iraq’s Diyala province north of Baghdad, the US military says.
But unlike the American media outlets which mindlessly reported these “Al Qaeda kills,” the BBC at least followed up on this story and found that there are substantial grounds, to put it mildly, for believing those claims were false. In a follow-up article — prompted by protests from residents of the village where the “Al Qaeda kills” occurred — the BBC reported:
A group of villagers in Iraq is bitterly disputing the US account of a deadly air attack on 22 June, in the latest example of the confusion surrounding the reporting of combat incidents there. . .
On 22 June the US military announced that its attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen who had been trying to infiltrate the village of al-Khalis, north of Baquba, where operation “Arrowhead Ripper” had been under way for the previous three days.The item was duly carried by international news agencies and received widespread coverage, including on the BBC News website.But villagers in largely-Shia al-Khalis say that those who died had nothing to do with al-Qaeda. They say they were local village guards trying to protect the township from exactly the kind of attack by insurgents the US military says it foiled.
Minutes before the attack, they had been co-operating with an Iraqi police unit raiding a suspected insurgent hideout, the villagers said.They added that the guards, lightly armed with the AK47 assault rifles that are a feature of practically every home in Iraq, were essentially a local neighbourhood watch paid by the village to monitor the dangerous insurgent-ridden area to the immediate south-west at Arab Shawkeh and Hibhib, where the al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed a year ago.
According to local witnesses, then — none of whom were interviewed by the media outlets obediently reciting the U.S. military’s dramatic narrative about “17 Al Qaeda fighters killed” — those who were killed by the U.S. strikes had absolutely nothing to do with “Al Qaeda,” but instead were guarding their own villages against the very Sunni insurgents whom we now call “Al Qaeda.”
The entirety of the screaming headlines on June 22 about the Glorious Military Victory which Killed Al Qaeda was based exclusively on this Press Release issued by the U.S. military (specifically, the Public Affairs Office of “Camp Victory”) — entitled “Coalition Forces kill 17 al-Qaeda gunmen near Khalis” — and read as follows:
“Coalition Forces attack helicopters engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen southwest of Khalis, Friday.”Iraqi police were conducting security operations in and around the village when Coalition attack helicopters from the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade and ground forces from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, observed more than 15 armed men attempting to circumvent the IPs and infiltrate the village.
“The attack helicopters, armed with missiles, engaged and killed 17 al-Qaeda gunmen and destroyed the vehicle they were using.”That Press Release, with no investigation or modification, immediately became the headlines and lead paragraphs of every major American media outlet. Our news organizations, which claim to have learned so many valuable lessons from their profound failures in the run-up to the Iraq war, “reported” on this incident by doing one thing and one thing only: reading the Press Release and then copying it down and reporting it as Truth. — Glenn Greenwald
You call that proof “????????????” ?
That “some villagers” said this? Who are these “some villagers” and what were their names? Did they villagers stamped on their forehead?
Yeah proof, sure thing buddy.
Obstruct The Obstructionists
In its first 40 hours, the new majority of the House of Representatives kept their promise to voters and passed legislation—increasing the minimum wage for the first time in a decade, empowering Medicare to negotiate lower prices on drugs, cutting interest rates on student loans in half, revoking big oil subsidies and using the money to invest in renewable energy—that provided a down payment for a new direction for this country.
These bills are overwhelmingly popular, and are simply common sense reforms. Yet every one of them—and many more—got held up in the U.S. Senate.
Conservatives boast about the “success” of their strategy in discrediting the new majority. As Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., put it, “the strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail. So far it’s working for us.”
How is it working? It’s dragging the reputation of the Congress down to the level of the failed president. Conservatives lie in the road of progress and then complain that nothing is moving.
Maybe we should fire the Democratic Congress for Political Reasons. :)
Tragic Humor – Although in bad taste, the commment did bring a smile to my face.
The London Bomb–What a Crock of CrapSource: Daily Kos
“You know what you call a vehicle with 50 gallons of gas? A Cadillac Escalade. The media meltdown over this incident is simply shameful.”
The Secret Campaign of President Bush’s Administration to Deny Global Warming
Tim Dickinson June 20,2007
Lot of good stuff here in here for Cosmos to hyperlink to and a sharp stick right into cosmos eye on the reality of the situation. :)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15148655/the_secret_campaign_of_president_bushs_administration_to_deny_global_warming/3
No, I think the BBC is calling “it” proof. Their story, my copy and paste.
Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny
June 30, 2007BY JAMES M. TAYLORIn his new book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore pleads, “We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public’s ability to discern the truth.” Gore repeatedly asks that science and reason displace cynical political posturing as the central focus of public discourse.
If Gore really means what he writes, he has an opportunity to make a difference by leading by example on the issue of global warming.
A cooperative and productive discussion of global warming must be open and honest regarding the science. Global warming threats ought to be studied and mitigated, and they should not be deliberately exaggerated as a means of building support for a desired political position.
Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ”An Inconvenient Truth,” have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.
For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate reported, “Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame.”
Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, “Although it’s tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain’s foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests’ humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine.”
Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.
Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.
Gore claims global warming is causing an expansion of African deserts. However, the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of New Scientist reports, “Africa’s deserts are in ’spectacular’ retreat . . . making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa.”
Gore argues Greenland is in rapid meltdown, and that this threatens to raise sea levels by 20 feet. But according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Glaciology, “the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain.” In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s.
Gore claims the Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of global warming. Yet the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of Nature magazine reported Antarctica as a whole has been dramatically cooling for decades. More recently, scientists reported in the September 2006 issue of the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, that satellite measurements of the Antarctic ice sheet showed significant growth between 1992 and 2003. And the U.N. Climate Change panel reported in February 2007 that Antarctica is unlikely to lose any ice mass during the remainder of the century.
Each of these cases provides an opportunity for Gore to lead by example in his call for an end to the distortion of science. Will he rise to the occasion? Only time will tell.
James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at the Heartland Institute.
http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=6731396
This is an absolute outrage. Sumner County needs to FIRE someone really damn fast.
A 14 year old rape victim is being PROSECUTED because her rapist was only 13.
The “Heartland Institute” is hardly a quotable source considering it’s an ultra-right-wing shill service.
“The Heartland Institute, according to the Institute’s web site, is a nonprofit organization “to discover and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems”. [1] It campaigns on what it calls “junk science”, “common-sense environmentalism” (i.e. anti-Kyoto, pro-GM), the privatization of public services, smokers’ rights (anti-tobacco tax, denial of problems from passive smoking), the introduction of school vouchers, and the deregulation of health care insurance. It also provides an online resource for finding right-wing think tank policy documents called PolicyBot.”
“Although Heartland calls itself “a genuinely independent source of research and commentary,” its has been a frequent ally of the tobacco industry can be documented by searching the industry’s internal document archives.”
“Roy E. Marden, a member of Heartland’s board of directors, was until May 2003 the manager of industry affairs for the Philip Morris (PM) tobacco company”
“While Heartland once disclosed its major supporter, it now refuses to publicly disclose who its corporate and foundation funders are.”http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute
False reporting by all sorts of USA industries:
WHY NOT “DRINK LOCAL?”Friday, June 29, 2007Posted by Jim Hightower
In a triumph of marketing over reasoning, the bottled water industry has turned us into conspicuously silly consumers.
Controlled by a handful of global conglomerates (such as Coca Cola and Nestle), the water industry has created the fantasy that if it’s in a bottle, it’s purer than what comes out of the tap. But wait – the EPA stringently regulates the public water systems, requiring tests several times a day for bacteria and other contaminants, and these test results are public information. The corporate bottlers, on the other hand, are overseen by the more lackadaisical FDA, which requires them to test their water sources only once a week – and the results are kept secret by the corporations.
One group that is beginning to rebel is one you might not expect: upscale restaurants. Such places profit handsomely from offering Perrier, San Pellegrino, Fiji, or other designer waters, paying a dollar or two for each bottle and selling them for eight or ten bucks. Yet, Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and Del Posto in New York City are among the pioneers who are foregoing this profit center, substituting free filtered tap water or house-made sparkling water that’s also drawn from the tap.
Why would they do this? Because they are part of a growing sustainable food movement that prides itself in using local, seasonal ingredients for their menu items. Think about it: In terms of energy, environment, and sustainability, it makes no sense to load cargo ships with millions of bottles of water, haul them thousands of miles to our shores, truck them hundreds of miles to our restaurants, then chuck the bottles into our overloaded landfills – when the local, public water system supplies perfectly good water available at the turn of a faucet.
Just as it makes economic and environmental sense to “eat local,” it also makes sense to “drink local.”
“Fighting The Tide, A Few Restaurants Tilt To Tap Water,” The New York Times, May 30, 2007.
The Heartland Institute, according to the Institute’s web site, is a nonprofit organization “to discover and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems”. [1] It campaigns on what it calls “junk science”, “common-sense environmentalism” (i.e. anti-Kyoto, pro-GM), the privatization of public services, smokers’ rights (anti-tobacco tax, denial of problems from passive smoking), the introduction of school vouchers, and the deregulation of health care insurance. It also provides an online resource for finding right-wing think tank policy documents called PolicyBot.
No agenda there, is there?
What about those journalists who accept pay from the white house tax dollars to back up the BUSHCO administration?
The CIA and Blackwater Inc are exactly the nicest people in the world not even to USA citizens.
Opps . . . sorry XXX. Too early to fully read previous posts:-) But great minds do think alike, what?
“Conservatives boast about the “success” of their strategy in discrediting the new majority. As Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., put it, “the strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail. So far it’s working for us.”
What we Democrats have to do is gain about 3 more seats in the Senate and the Presidency. Right now, it is too tight and a few of “our” Senators like Liberman are questionable. If we can get a 54 to 46 margin, we need to go for the “nuclear option” and get rid of the rules for the fillibuster. The fillibuster is a terrible rule and never should have been there anyway. I was actually hoping the Republicans would get rid if it when they were threatening to. We should carry through and do it and then pass our programs with a simple 51 vote majority.
“This is an absolute outrage. Sumner County needs to FIRE someone really damn fast.
A 14 year old rape victim is being PROSECUTED because her rapist was only 13.”
The story sounds fishy. The other 2 girls “left the room”? I can hear a yell and a scream all through my house. Sounds consential to me. Did the 13 year old have a weapon? A gun? A knife? The how did he make the 14 year old be so quiet while he “raped” her? I have a daughter and, when she was 14, believe me you could hear her hoot and holler all over the house when she was upset.
Immigrants coming to the USA for jobs and some are now coming in from Iraq. So where are the jobs? Corporate america and our legislators work together in support of outsourcing. Some immigrant labor is free because their employers refuse to pay them as they know being illegal is against the law so why pay for the fruits of their labor.
Get this:Maybe you’ve noticed that America’s call-center jobs are largely being outsourced to India. Well, you say, I’m more skilled than that, so I can’t worry about it. Then you note that our accounting jobs, legal research, and architectural drafting work is being taken to India, too – but, hey, you do sophisticated stuff, so you can’t sweat those losses. Lately though, you’ve also seen that our country’s high-tech computer jobs are being shipped to India – and uh-oh, that’s getting close to what you do. Still, you say, I’m a professional, by gollies, so I’m okay.
Well… good luck. The latest surge of jobs heading to India might well include yours. Such outfits as Citigroup, Boeing, and Eli Lilly are now moving out the work of white-collar elites – including investment banking, aircraft design, and the clinical testing of drugs. “High-end outsourcing” is the new wave, and it’s pulling away the professional work of well-educated Americans who’ve been enjoying six-figure salaries, nice homes, and the good life.
http://www.jimhightower.com/node/6149
“Opps . . . sorry XXX. Too early to fully read previous posts:-) But great minds do think alike, what?”Posted by: J M Walker | July 01, 2007 at 07:24 AM
Apparently so, my friend. Try more coffee. Sometimes it works for me.
Something interesting from this morning’s Opinion Line:
“If I don’t let gang members come into my bar, can I be arrested or sued for discrimination, racism, profiling or all of the above?”
This may be a valid question considering that gangs seem to be comprised of 2-3 racial groups. Here in Wichita, gang members seem to be mostly Hispanic or Black.
One of those things that makes one say Hmmmmmm…..
XXX, my dear friend, I don’t think that the amount of coffee, my other dear friend Walker is gulping is a life-threatening condition worthy of two old friends going to the mat.
Friends don’t throw coffee at each other, and as my circle of friends ever shrinks, I stands poised between you two, with arms holding y’all back from combat, as only a dear friend would come to such a rescue…with, of course, an alternative motive.
Good morning Ed!Always a pleasure to see you on the blog.
Fear not! Walker and I go back a long way…I count him as one of my best friends.
But your concern is always appreciated, my friend.
Oh Kev you know so little about the way these things work. Just because one doesn’t yell out doesn’t mean squat. And you don’t know she didn’t. The others could have either not known what to do, or were part of the plan.
Often, when girls are friendly with the person who is “date” raping them, they don’t quite know how to handle it at the time it’s happening. I’d say that would be true in a stranger rape as well. There is a great deal of disbelief that it’s actually happening.
P-Mom — It would still be interesting to hear the Sumner County report on this one… You know, some folks out there dont believe a female can rape a male… because the males “are always wanting it…”
P-mom,Regarding the “rape”, one must consider what state we live in. Shades of the “Kline syndrome.”
I have to wonder WHERE were the parents when this incident occurred?
We NEVER allowed our boys to go unsupervised to anything!
My son turned 21 today. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t do drugs, works and goes to school, has never been arrested and doesn’t belong to a gang. He volunteers at local charity events and hands out food to the homeless on Saturday nights. And… he still wears a “purity” ring and loves God.
I am so very proud of him!
the Sumner county rape case is just another in the long list of the failures of our so called justice system.
The “Heartland Institute” is hardly a quotable source considering it’s an ultra-right-wing shill service. Posted by: XXX | July 01, 2007 at 06:57 AM
Let’s check some alternative sources of how much of what Heartland reported is true and backed up through other publications or agencies.===================BBC NEWS”Researchers at Newcastle University looked at temperature trends in the western Himalaya over the past century.
They found warmer winters and cooler summers, combined with more snow and rainfall, could be causing some mountain glaciers to increase in size.”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/5283278.stm
Some Glaciers Growing Due to Climate Change, Study SuggestsBrian Handwerkfor National Geographic NewsSeptember 11, 2006
“Some glaciers in Pakistan’s Upper Indus River Basin appear to be growing, and a new study suggests that global warming is the cause.”
===================
American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate reported, “Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame.”
===================United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.
From IPCC Papers”No systematic changes in the frequency of tornadoes, thunderdays, or hail events are evident in the limited areas analysed.”http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:8IBSlNwz0-kJ:www.ipcc.ch/pub/spm22-01.pdf+IPCC+panel+no+link+of+increased+tornados&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a
===================
Journal of Glaciology, “the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain.” In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s.Originally published in Science Express on 20 October 2005Science 11 November 2005:Vol. 310. no. 5750, pp. 1013 – 1016DOI: 10.1126/science.1115356
Recent Ice-Sheet Growth in the Interior of GreenlandOla M. Johannessen,1,2* Kirill Khvorostovsky,3 Martin W. Miles,4,5 Leonid P. Bobylev3
“Averaged over the study area, the increase is 5.4 ± 0.2 cm/year, or ~60 cm over 11 years, or ~54 cm when corrected for isostatic uplift. Winter elevation changes are shown to be linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation.”
======================Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ”An Inconvenient Truth,” have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.
But I bet the GORACLE won’t admit to his false claims as there is too much money and power in it for him.
:)
2008 Platform “Let Voters/Taxpayers Decide”
Public Funding would eliminate all special interest groups. What more could anyone ask?http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/27/1428224
With public funding the following could be accomplished:
*Universal HealthCare – would provide boost to economic growth
*Outsourcing seriously reduced – would provide boost to economic growth by returning wealth generation to the USA
*Alternative Energy – would provide boost to economic growth,less dependence on outside sources plus create millions of new jobs thus wealth generation for the USA.
*Pull the troops from the mideast as natives do NOT want our military presencewhich is the cause of this BUSHCO war due to oil supplies.
* Fuel efficient motor vehicles would be the order of the day simply because it would be smart.
* Eliminate special interest funding of political campaigns which would reduce our cost of living thus creating wealth for more taxpayers.
* All parks nationwide become herbicide/pesticide free
I have just presented what should be the primary objectives of the 2008 elections and and i further contend all of the above including Fair Vote http://www.fairvote.org/irv/ and Public Fundinghttp://www.publicampaign.org/ of elections should be placed on the 2008 ballot.
Ah Richard Heckler, the promoter of “fair” organizations like moveon.org(vomits)
I offer this sermon on a Sunday morning with even more rain expected, and many neighbors dealing with flood waters.
We have a contingent of National Guard troops here in town; most of them, and their equipment, still working in Greensburg, helping rebuild after the tornado. The flood here in Southeast Kansas is not good, but First-Responders have done their jobs well, and the creeks aren’t so far out of their banks, most of the victims have at least mentally prepared for the crisis they’re now experiencing. I spent nine hours yesterday helping a friend move all his furniture to the second floor of his house. This morning his living room is ankle-deep in creek water. It could be worse. I’m not sure what National Guard response might be helpful, but it’s a moot point. All the local National Guard troops are 250 miles away helping the people of Greensburg. But I digress…
Here’s an entirely different concept to consider on this “Open Thread.”
It’s by Kurt Vonnegut, from a speech he gave in 1981 to the ACLU.
It pretty much addresses the problems we Americans have when we deal with questions of religion and morality and democracy. He was speaking in response to some school districts burning his novel “Slaughterhouse 5.”
Vonnegut speaks:
“I will speak of Thomas Aquinas. I will tell you my dim memories of what he said about the hierarchy of laws on this planet, which was flat at the time. The highest law, he said, was divine law, God’s law. Beneath that was natural law, which I suppose would include thunderstorms, and our right to shield our children from poisonous ideas, and so on.
“And the lowest law was human law.
“Let me clarify this scheme by comparing its parts to playing cards. Enemies of the Bill of Rights do the same sort of thing all the time, so why shouldn’t we? Divine law, then, is an ace. Natural law is a king. The Bill of Rights is a lousy queen.
“The Thomist hierarchy of laws is so far from being ridiculous that I have never met anybody who did not believe in it right down to the marrow of his or her bones. Everybody knows that there are laws with more grandeur than those which are printed in our statute books. The big trouble is that there is so little agreement as to how those grander laws are worded. Theologians can give us hints of the wording, but it takes a dictator to set them down just right–to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. A man who had been a mere corporal in the army did that for Germany and then for all of Europe, you may remember, not long ago. There was nothing he did not know about divine and natural law. He had fistfuls of aces and kings to play.
“Meanwhile, over on this side of the Atlantic, we were not playing with a full deck, as they say. Because of our Constitution, the highest card anybody had to play was a lousy queen, contemptible human law. That remains true today. I myself celebrate that incompleteness, since it has obviously been so good for us. I support the American Civil Liberties Union because it goes to court to insist that our government officials be guided by nothing grander than human law. Every time the circulation of this idea or that one is discouraged by an official in this country, that official is scorning the Constitution, and urging all of us to participate in far grander systems, again: divine or natural law.
“Cannot we, as libertarians, hunger for at least a little natural law? Can’t we learn from nature at least, without being burdened by another person’s idea of God?
“Certainly. Granola never harmed anybody, nor the birds and bees–not to mention milk. God is unknowable, but nature is explaining herself all the time. What has she told us so far? That blacks are obviously inferior to whites, for one thing, and intended for menial work on white man’s terms. This clear lesson from nature, we should remind ourselves from time to time, allowed Thomas Jefferson to own slaves. Imagine that.
“What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.
“Most teachers and parents and guardians do not teach this vital lesson because they themselves never learned it, or because they dare not. Why dare they not? People can get into a lot of trouble in this country, and often have to be defended by the American Civil Liberties Union, for laying the groundwork for the lesson, which is this: That no one really understands nature or God. It is my willingness to lay this groundwork, and not sex or violence, which has got my poor book in such trouble in Island Trees–and in Drake, North Dakota, where the book was burned, and in many other communities too numerous to mention.
“I have not said that our government is anti-nature and anti-God. I have said that it is non-nature and non-God, for very good reasons that could curl your hair.
“Well–all good things must come to an end, they say. So American freedom will come to an end, too, sooner or later. How will it end? As all freedoms end: by the surrender of our destinies to the highest laws.
“To return to my foolish analogy of playing cards: kings and aces will be played. Nobody else will have anything higher than a queen.
“There will be a struggle between those holding kings and aces. The struggle will not end, not that the rest of us will care much by then, until somebody plays the ace of spades. Nothing beats the ace of spades.”
oh repuke
Sunday Morning and still more crap and drivel from you
oh well, some things never change
you are still ignorant fleecing the Govt that would spit on you for what you do
We need to liberate Mexicans from their yoke of economic oppression, we would be welcomed with pinatas an mariachi bands, it would take weeks not months.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=32d_1182427382
this is really winning hearts and minds
Republican,
Follow the money. When a think tank like Heartland Institute gets part of it’s funding from ExxonMobil, I wouldn’t exactly call them unbiased.
Founded in the early 1990s, Heartland Institute claims to apply “cutting-edge research to state and local public policy issues.” Additionally, Heartland bills itself as “the marketing arm of the free-market movement.” http://www.capitalresearch.org/search/orgdisplay.asp?Org=HEA100
The Heartland Institute created a website in the Spring of 2007, http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org, which asserts there is no scientific consensus on global warming and features a list of experts and a list of like-minded think tanks,”MANY OF WHOM HAVE RECEIVED FUNDING FROM EXXONMOBIL AND OTHER POLLUTERS”.
The Heartland Institute networks heavily with other conservative policy organizations, and is part of the State Policy Network, a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition (as of 4/04), and co-sponsored the 2001 Fly In for Freedom with the Wise Use umbrella group, Alliance for America. Heartland also co-sponsored a New York state Conference on Property Rights, hosted by the Property Rights Foundation of America. The Institute puts out several publications, including “Environment & Climate News” which frequently features anti-environmentalist and climate skeptic writing. They also published “Earth Day ‘96,” a compilation of articles on environmental topics. The publication, distributed on college campuses, featured “Adventures in the Ozone Layer” by S. Fred Singer, and “the Cold Facts on Global Warming” by Sallie Baliunas. The articles denied the serious nature of ozone depletion and global warming. “”"Walter F. Buchholtz, an ExxonMobil executive, serves as Heartland’s Government Relations Advisor,”"” according to Heartland’s 2005 IRS Form 990, pg. 15.
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2005/363/309/2005-363309812-0295fbb2-9.pdf
The Heartland Institute formerly sponsored and hosted http://www.climatesearch.org, a web page ostensibly dedicated to objective research on global warming, but at the same time presenting heavily biased research by organizations such as the American Petroleum Institute as an FAQ section.
http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=41
——————————–James M. Taylor Senior Fellow, Heartland InstituteManaging Editor of Environment & Climate News, Heartland Institute publication
In the past, Taylor has served as a legal analyst for Defenders of Property Rights, an intern at the Cato Institute, and a member of the Federalist Society.
Taylor previously served as managing editor of CCH Incorporated’s disability law publications, where he became a nationally known expert and frequent speaker on a variety of employment law topics. Prior to that he was a legal analyst for Defenders of Property Rights. While at Syracuse University College of Law, he was president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society and founder and editor-in-chief of the Federalist Voice. B.A. Dartmouth College J.D. Syracuse University.
http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=631
Republican, can’t you do better than to post an article written by this person?
———————————Follow some more of ExxonMobil’s money.
“Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study”
Ian Sample, science correspondentFriday February 2, 2007The Guardian
Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered.The UN report was written by international experts and is widely regarded as the most comprehensive review yet of climate change science. It will underpin international negotiations on new emissions targets to succeed the Kyoto agreement, the first phase of which expires in 2012. World governments were given a draft last year and invited to comment.
The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI’s board of trustees.
The letters, sent to scientists in Britain, the US and elsewhere, attack the UN’s panel as “resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent and prone to summary conclusions that are poorly supported by the analytical work” and ask for essays that “thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs”.
Climate scientists described the move yesterday as an attempt to cast doubt over the “overwhelming scientific evidence” on global warming. “It’s a desperate attempt by an organisation who wants to distort science for their own political aims,” said David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
“The IPCC process is probably the most thorough and open review undertaken in any discipline. This undermines the confidence of the public in the scientific community and the ability of governments to take on sound scientific advice,” he said.
The letters were sent by Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar at AEI, who confirmed that the organisation had approached scientists, economists and policy analysts to write articles for an independent review that would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC report.
“Right now, the whole debate is polarised,” he said. “One group says that anyone with any doubts whatsoever are deniers and the other group is saying that anyone who wants to take action is alarmist. We don’t think that approach has a lot of utility for intelligent policy.”
One American scientist turned down the offer, citing fears that the report could easily be misused for political gain. “You wouldn’t know if some of the other authors might say nothing’s going to happen, that we should ignore it, or that it’s not our fault,” said Steve Schroeder, a professor at Texas A&M university.
The contents of the IPCC report have been an open secret since the Bush administration posted its draft copy on the internet in April. It says there is a 90% chance that human activity is warming the planet, and that global average temperatures will rise by another 1.5 to 5.8C this century, depending on emissions.
Lord Rees of Ludlow, the president of the Royal Society, Britain’s most prestigious scientific institute, said: “The IPCC is the world’s leading authority on climate change and its latest report will provide a comprehensive picture of the latest scientific understanding on the issue. It is expected to stress, more convincingly than ever before, that our planet is already warming due to human actions, and that ‘business as usual’ would lead to unacceptable risks, underscoring the urgent need for concerted international action to reduce the worst impacts of climate change. However, yet again, there will be a vocal minority with their own agendas who will try to suggest otherwise.”
Ben Stewart of Greenpeace said: “The AEI is more than just a thinktank, it functions as the Bush administration’s intellectual Cosa Nostra. They are White House surrogates in the last throes of their campaign of climate change denial. They lost on the science; they lost on the moral case for action. All they’ve got left is a suitcase full of cash.”
On Monday, another Exxon-funded organisation based in Canada will launch a review in London which casts doubt on the IPCC report. Among its authors are Tad Murty, a former scientist who believes human activity makes no contribution to global warming. Confirmed VIPs attending include Nigel Lawson and David Bellamy, who believes there is no link between burning fossil fuels and global warming.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2004397,00.html
Truth Seeker,
Regardless of what you think of Heartland, it listed credible scientists and agencies including the IPCC.
So you are saying all the people lie too?
Or is it your feeble attempt to disguise what the GORACLE had written in his first book has been proven wrong? :)
“Or is it your feeble attempt to disguise what the GORACLE had written in his first book has been proven wrong? :)
Did I type one thing about Al Gore or GORACLE as you so childishly call him?I think you are a little too fixated on Mr. Gore? I don’t know if that could be call healthy.
On one hand you are saying that Heartland Institute is credible because they site something The IPCC wrote in a report, but letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Something smells here. The truth is never easy to come by.
———————————History of the IPCC and its relationship with UNFCCCAt the occasion of the UNFCCC 10 years anniversary, IPCC prepared a brochure describing the history of the IPCC and its relationship with the convention.
Mandate and Membership of the IPCC
Recognizing the problem of potential global climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. It is open to all members of theUN and WMO.
The role of the IPCC is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The IPCC does not carry out research nor does it monitor climate related data or other relevant parameters. It bases its assessment mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific/technical literature. Its role, organisation, participation and general procedures are laid down in the “Principles Governing IPCC Work”
General information about the IPCC, its membership, procedures and ongoing activities is provided in the official languages of the UN in the following fact sheets:
Introduction Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Spanish | Russian
Membership – Who is who in the IPCC Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Spanish | Russian
Procedures – How IPCC reports are prepared Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Spanish | Russian
Ongoing IPCC Activities Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Spanish | Russian
Organisational Structure
The IPCC has three Working Groups and a Task Force
Working Group I assesses the scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change.Working Group II assesses the vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, negative and positive consequences of climate change, and options for adapting to it.Working Group III assesses options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and otherwise mitigating climate change.The Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories is responsible for the IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme.
The Panel meets in plenary sessions about once a year. It accepts/approves/adopts IPCC reports, decides on the mandates and work plans of the Working Groups and the Task Force, the structure and outlines of its reports, the IPCC Principles and Procedures, and the budget. The Panel also elects the IPCC Chair, the IPCC Bureau and the Bureau of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The IPCC Bureau meets two to three times per year and assists the IPCC Chair in planning, co-ordinating and monitoring progress in the work of the IPCC.
The IPCC is managed by the IPCC Secretariat, which is hosted by WMO in Geneva and supported by UNEP and WMO. In addition each Working Group and the Task Force has a Technical Support Unit. These Technical Support Units are supported by the government of the developed country co-chair of that Working Group or Task Force and hosted by a research institution in that country. A number of other institutions provide in kind support for IPCC activities.
Main Activities and Products
A main activity of the IPCC is to provide in regular intervals an assessment of the state of knowledge on climate change. The IPCC also prepares Special Reports and Technical Papers on topics where independent scientific information and advice is deemed necessary and it supports the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through its work on methodologies for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. A number of IPCC reports are published commercially. Summaries, CD ROMs and Technical Papers can be obtained free of charge. A limited number of full reports are avaible from the IPCC Secretariat for developing countries and countries with economies in transition.
The First IPCC Assessment Report was completed in 1990. The Report played an important role in establishing the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by the UN General Assembly. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. It provides the overall policy framework for addressing the climate change issue.
The IPCC has continued to provide scientific, technical and socio-economic advice to the world community, and in particular to the Parties to the UNFCCC through its periodic assessment reports and special reports. Its Second Assessment Report, Climate Change 1995, provided key input to the negotiations, which led to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC in 1997.
The Third Assessment Report (TAR), Climate Change 2001, was completed in 2001. It was submitted to the 7th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and Parties agreed that it should be used routinely as a useful reference for providing information for deliberations on agenda items of the Conference of the Parties.
The IPCC has decided to continue to prepare comprehensive assessment reports and agreed to complete its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.
http://www.ipcc.ch/about/about.htm
Republican, here is a quote from Buddha that I try to live by:
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
And here is another quote I’m very fond of:
It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so—Josh Billings
Now, here is a story that brings joy to my heart. There was no typical, cowardly black on White rape, torture, murder or drano poured down the throat, just dead criminal scum, the way it should be!
The moral of the is this; never let any evil leftists take away your guns!
Police: Victims Use Stashed Weapons To Kill, Injure Home Invaders
POSTED: 5:33 am EDT June 21, 2007UPDATED: 1:46 pm EDT June 21, 2007
E-mail this story | Print this storySign Up for Breaking News Alerts
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An alleged home invader was shot and killed and another was stabbed early Thursday morning when six victims scattered during the break-in, found stashed weapons and attacked the assailants, according to police.
Orange County sheriff’s investigators said at least three people broke into a home located at 2672 Muscatello Street in the Peppermill subdivision, fired a shot into the air and screamed, “We mean business.”
Deputies said the victims scattered to safe places in the home where they knew that they had weapons stashed and fought back.http://www.local6.com/news/13542239/detail.html
No Truth Seeker,
That was the main theme of the article. That Al Gore’s book was incorrect on many facets, but he has yet to admit to any of it.
You obviously didn’t read the article.
If you see Buddha, kill him. Because it’s not the real Buddha.
Republican,
You misunderstood. Maybe I didn’t make my point clearly enough. What is truth to one is a lie to another. Everyday I find I’m not knowledgeable enough about everything to figure out if I’m reading a lie or truth and if you think you are, than so be it.
“There are two kinds of fools: those who can’t change their opinions andthose who won’t.”–Josh Billings
“Do not speak harshly to any one; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful: blows for blows will touch thee.” Buddha
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.” Buddha
Republican,
You misunderstood. Maybe I didn’t make my point clearly enough. What is truth to one is a lie to another. Everyday I find I’m not knowledgeable enough about everything to figure out if I’m reading a lie or truth and if you think you are, than so be it.
“There are two kinds of fools: those who can’t change their opinions andthose who won’t.”–Josh Billings
“Do not speak harshly to any one; those who are spoken to will answer thee in the same way. Angry speech is painful: blows for blows will touch thee.” Buddha
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.” Buddha
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=32d_1182427382
HEY REPUKE>>>what is your take on this?
how ya gonna spin this
Republican,
“That was the main theme of the article. That Al Gore’s book was incorrect on many facets, but he has yet to admit to any of it.”
Taylor’s article has misquotes and falsehoods.
That’s why if you Google– james taylor “Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny” — you get only a few RW sites, like the SunTimes, freepers, blogs, etc.
‘FACTSHEET: James M. Taylor’http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=631
waiting…
no answer???
“Something interesting from this morning’s Opinion Line:
“If I don’t let gang members come into my bar, can I be arrested or sued for discrimination, racism, profiling or all of the above?”
If you keep the skinheads out too, I suspect you would be fine.
“P-Mom — It would still be interesting to hear the Sumner County report on this one… You know, some folks out there dont believe a female can rape a male… because the males “are always wanting it…”
I don’t believe it either. A male has to become aroused and form an erection to have sex. He really cannot do that at the point of a gun or under threat.
Rape is more than just an aroused and erect penis.
You can rape somebody with an object, finger or anything else that penetrates.
The same argument is given to sex offenders who are male and people suggest castration as punishment and a reassurance that the person would never violate again. But that person still can and will.
So a woman can rape a man regardless if the man is erect or not.
I never said that a woman couldn’t rape a man. However, I seriously doubt that’s what is going on here.
“If you keep the skinheads out too, I suspect you would be fine”
Dear Mr. kev:
Truly and honestly. Have you ever, and I mean ever, seen a skinhead gang in Wichita. Please respond with the one story that is cool to relate and is probably second hand, but, really, is the only one you got.
Actually, I have seen several skin head gangs in this town in past years… not sure about current numbers!! BUT, there is a group belonging to Aryan Nations in Wichita…
The real question in this town is how much Skinhead, or Aryan Nations type crap will Wichita put up with, before some vigilante group tries to take matters into their own hands?? And that’s a scary thought!!
There is nothing wrong with vigilantism, not at all. If the government fails to act, then the people will eventually put things right themselves. I think that the feds should deputise the militia groups and pay them a bounty to hunt down and kill the gang members. Declare the cowardly gang bangers domestic terrorists and annihilate them!
The only thing wrong with vigilantism, is that it happens to be Illegal in most states…
Sorry but I don’t agree. American justice says a person has the right to a fair trial. And I believe in that. Take action to correct the wrong by legal means.
Y’know, the “Sgt. Slaughter” attitude is more dangerous than gang violence.
As frustrating as constitutional rights sometimes become, they’re the single-most important foundation of what it is to be the United States of America.
It’s not as if the government is “granting” rights; it’s a fundamental limitation on the powers of government.
Regardless of your concealed-carry handgun; regardless of the arsenal you keep of shotguns, rifles, semi-automatics, and/or easily adapted from semi- to full-automatic firearms, I guarantee you the government has more firepower than you do. And, unless they are constrained, they will use it against you should the need arise.
Vigilantism is never a viable option for civilized people. As long as there are people such as “Sgt. Slaughter” walking the streets, the threat of anarchy is just a hair-trigger away.
Anarchy is better than the status quo, our “justice” system has failed. If our government can’t fulfill its’ basic mandate of protecting life and property then they deserve to go, as do all tyranical and incompetent governments.
Our vaunted government can’t even subdue a few thousand inbred arab savages in Iraq. Tell me, what do you think they will do when confronted by MILLIONS os well armed and angry Americans?
Sgt… YOU are a very dangerous person… Be very afraid people… Very afraid!!
This is the mindset that was behind Ruby Ridge, the Branch Davidians, and OK City bombing…
Sgt… I believe your idea of vigilantism is more dangerous than the terrorists who MIGHT threaten us… Because we DONT know who you all are!!!