30 Nov - Quick Selected Essays

Dial M for Morons
(Thousands of abuse reports to a DCF hot line go unheeded every month because of a new screening process intended to keep the strained system functioning.)
Among the screened-out allegations: reports of kidnapping, rape, aggravated child abuse, medical neglect, malnutrition, kids roaming the streets unsupervised and domestic violence that threatens to harm the children.

Financial Crisis in Dubai: Towards a Nightmare Scenario? 
Recently by Mike Whitney: When the Dollar Rallies, the Market Will Crash
Arnab Das of RGE Monitor sums it up like this: "We’re bound to see a rise in risk aversion. The Dubai situation signifies that although the major central banks around the world have stabilized the financial system, they can’t make all the excesses simply disappear. We still have to work out those balance sheet stresses. The recovery is proceeding, but significant challenges still lie ahead.” (Bloomberg News)
Second, when these incidents take place, there's likely to be considerable collateral damage from the unregulated insurance policies (credit default swaps) which underwrite the bonds. These CDS derivatives are not sold on a public exchange so no one knows who holds them, in what amount, or whether the issuer has sufficient capital reserves to pay off claims. We should expect a repeat of AIG over and over again (although smaller) until the system is either regulated or CDs are banned. The bottom line, is that the current financial architecture is not designed to work; it is designed to make a handful of speculators very rich.

Underwater mortgage? Walk away, law school prof says 

Wisconsin’s war against agriculture: Fines, imprisonment and property seizure
“The first thing they did when they got the authority to write rules … was to grant themselves the authority to conduct warrantless searches. Wisconsin is in the process of coercing farmers and backyard producers … into NAIS, and the accompanying Premises ID program, by threatening to withhold any of the licenses they control.” Paul Griepentrog
Q: Does the Animal Health Protection Act of 2003 actually authorize the Animal Identification System or Premises ID?

A: There is nothing in that bill giving them authority to create or establish the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Q: Do citizens have the right to demand a full disclosure of the exact laws and basis under which USDA and Wisconsin have charged them? Is there any defense against these attacks?

A: There seems to be none. In the cooperative agreement it states all applicable federal laws shall apply. There are certain major State and Federal Constitutional issues that these laws are in conflict with.
Q: Who exactly is asking for this information?

A: The Department of Agriculture, State of Wisconsin administered by Assistant State Veterinarian, Dr. Paul McGraw; both knowing this has nothing to do with livestock or food safety. This comes from The World Trade Organization and their trade program OIE. http://www.oie.int/eng/en_index.htm World Organization Animal Health.

Q: Who is storing the information?

A: Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and then to Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium with (WLIC) as final repository in Canada. The WLIC is comprised of various agriculture groups, breed associations and companies selling RFID tags.

Rep. Obey & Sen. Kohl helped to get WLIC started and moved the data base to Canada. The head of WLIC initially was Gary Tauchen who is now a Wisconsin representative and sitting on the house AG committee.Paul Griepentrog shows that, in the end, what was billed and sold to Wisconsin farmers and herders as a strictly “voluntary” system turns out to be a mandatory system operated much like a police state enforcement policy. There can be no doubt, especially in light of the hyped up investigation and enforcement policies that this law in Wisconsin is less about disease and more about property seizure and forfeiture.

Wisconsin is the blueprint for the remaining states: what happens there is going to happen to all independent ranchers, farmers and producers across the country if any of these fake food safety bills, or National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is passed into law.

The war against our children
The statistics are undeniable. Americans are the least healthy people among the world’s developed nations.
But one of the root cause is something the corporate giants and their friends in the news media and government have done a first class job of keeping out of public consciousness…until now.

The school lunch scam

Corporate pigs at the trough

Good Farming Was More Advanced a Hundred Years Ago 

Codex and ‘the Face of Controlled Opposition’ 
We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom (29 mins, 2005), a film by Kevin P. Miller, narrated by Judi Dench (pictured left), covering Codex Alimentarius, which seeks to criminalize nutrients and dietary supplements.

This is a MUST READ about Afghanistan by Grantcart 
( That's the actual header - and yes, I recommend it too )

Simply because the original reason for going to Afghanistan has been eliminated does not mean that no other reason now exists.
( In a store it's called "Bait and Switch" : in politics and war it's 'foreign policy' )

Do you think you really know what is happening in Afghanistan? 
The big lie of Afghanistan

My country hasn't been liberated: it's still under the warlords' control, and Nato occupation only reinforces their power

Malalai Joya
The Guardian, Saturday 25 July 2009

You must understand that the government headed by Hamid Karzai is full of warlords and extremists who are brothers in creed of the Taliban. Many of these men committed terrible crimes against the Afghan people during the civil war of the 1990s.

For expressing my views I have been expelled from my seat in parliament, and I have survived numerous assassination attempts. The fact that I was kicked out of office while brutal warlords enjoyed immunity from prosecution for their crimes should tell you all you need to know about the "democracy" backed by Nato troops.