The Writing on the Wall Series #55: You Have to be Blind to Not See What's Happening

PEACE WILL PREVAIL ON EARTH

January 11, 2008

The Writing on the Wall Series #55: You Have to be Blind to Not See What's Happening

Hello everysoul!

To make sure you don't miss this important aspect of this compilation in which there are several related items, may I suggest you read first...

Clear Evidence Of Widespread Vote Fraud In New Hampshire (Jan 9, 2008)
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/010908_widespread_fraud.htm
Paul and Obama cheated out of 3rd and 1st by voting machines, hand count fraud.

If you are a US citizen and if you can afford it, please help defend the rights of American voters through supporting financially Dennis Kucinich who is asking a recount of ballots cast in New Hampshire.

And don't miss to the 2 powerfully revealing articles on Sibel Edmonds.

There are also some noteworthy financial crash items at the top of the "Also recommended" section.

Plus, to balance things out a bit, there is also a quite interesting Message from SaLuSa and much much more as usual, including several important articles on the environment.

I know I networked my previous compilation only 4 days ago, but there is much important stuff that came to my attention and I cannot wait any longer to send it out.

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com

P.S. Your feedback is as always welcomed and may be included in a coming compilation - unless you prefer it is not. Circulating this compilation (or any part of it) and personally inviting your correspondents to subscribe to this list would also help enlarge the circle of people who have access to this material. Please include the following note and the URL address for the archived copy below along with your forwards, so others may have the opportunity to explore the original copy, if they so choose.

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LAST MINUTE ADDITION

This is outrageous!!

NBC un-plugs Kucinich from Presidential debate http://cms.dennis4president.com/go/homepage-items/nbc-un%11plugs-kucinich-from-presidential-debate/ Re-writes criteria to exclude candidate with ÕdissentingÕ positions -- Less than 44 hours after NBC sent a congratulatory note and an invitation to Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich to participate in the Jan. 15 Democratic Presidential debate in Las Vegas, the network notified the campaign this morning it was changing it announced criteria, rescinding its invitation, and excluding Kucinich from the debate.NBC Political Director Chuck Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that, although Kucinich had met the qualification criteria publicly announced on December 28, the network was Òre-doingÓ the criteria, excluding Kucinich, and planning to invite only Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards.The criteria announced last month included a fourth-place or better showing in a national poll. The USA/Gallup poll earlier this month showed Kucinich in fourth place among the Democratic contenders. CLIP

THE QUOTES

"Analysts at the Election Defense Alliance (EDA) have confirmed that based on the official results on the New Hampshire Secretary of state web site, there is a remarkable relationship between Obama and Clinton votes, when you look at votes tabulated by op-scan v. votes tabulated by hand:

Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%

The percentages appear to be swapped. That seems highly unusual, to say the least."

- Taken from KUCINICH CALLS FOR 'RECOUNT' OF NEW HAMPSHIRE BALLOTS

"Matthew had told me that according to Earth monitors in Nirvana, the votes would be rigged so different candidates would win in the primaries. The Illuminati choice is Hillary, but they want to vary the winners to keep the most popular ones, as reported by mainstream media, under Illuminati control. By November's elections enough truth about the candidates and the rigged vote count will be out in the public so that what's happening now won't be influential."

- Suzanne Ward (suzy@matthewbooks.com) 11 January 2008

"State of the World 2008 finds growing evidence suggesting that the global economy is now destroying its own ecological base," the report's authors said. In order to stave off "economic collapse at the global level," the study's authors call for "major reforms of government policy to steer investment away from destructive activities such as the extraction of fossil fuels and toward a new generation of environmentally sustainable industries." In fact, 27 leading American corporations, including Dow Chemical, General Motors, and Xerox, have joined joining many U.S. states and municipalities in demanding that the federal government pass stricter legislation regulating greenhouse gas emissions. But many analysts suggest that a global economic transformation will require sustained action not only from policy makers, but also from entrepreneurs, investors, consumers, and manufacturers.

- Taken from Environmental Action Driving Global Economy - Report (Jan 10)

"You are spiritual Beings that wield a mighty power if you did but know it and use it. These are times when your concentrated efforts to visualize success will immensely help achieve it. Carry those who represent your aspirations in your thoughts, and see them surrounded in the powerful white light. Send them your love and it will truly make a difference. It will help deflect the dark energies and negativity that will thrown at them. These courageous souls that have stepped forward in the Light will become the focal point of much discussion, and you will need to cut through the rhetoric and lies that will be leveled against them. As always be intuitive and do not allow others to muddy they waters of truth."

- Taken from a Message from SaLuSa (9 January 2008)

CONTENTS

1. Message from SaLuSa
3. Peace Now or Never!
3. Clinton Received a 4.5% Boost In "Diebold" Towns
4. KUCINICH CALLS FOR 'RECOUNT' OF NEW HAMPSHIRE BALLOTS
5. PRIMARY CONCERNS: Hoisting a few red flags about the elections
6. Vote Fraud Proven In New Hampshire...
7. Chris Matthews: Raw EXIT POLL Data 'Indicated Significant Victory' for Obama in NH
8. Worldwide Coverage of the Sibel Edmonds Bombshell! And in the United States of America...um....
9. The Bomb in the Shadows: Proliferation, Corruption and the Way of the World
10. Whales Win Big!
11. Cradle to cradle is the Best solution
12. Project Camelot: Preparing for catastrophe in Norway
13. Matthew's take on Planet X
14. Rupert Murdoch Calls Fox News Viewers Morons And White Trash
15. Free BBC Documentary "Power of Nightmares" Exposes Terror Manipulations
16. Bring On The Tinfoil
17. This person needs a job - but who would ever want to hire such a crooked underperformer?
18. State of the World 2008: Environmental Woes Sow Seeds of Sustainability
19. PLAN B 3.0 – A PLAN OF HOPE
20. New Bans on Plastic Bags May Help Protect Marine Life
21. Stop agriculture from killing the climate

WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION

Freedom of Speech and H.R. 1955 pt. 1 (9 min 44 sec) ABSOLUTE MUST WATCH!!! Freedom of expression and any form of political or even social dissent will be stamped out in the US if the Senate agrees to this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wJsovPRTEM
Though the authors of H.R. 1955 would likely deny that the bill could be used to crack down on free speech and legitimate political opposition, the talking heads on the main stream networks have made it very clear that they would like this kind of legislation to do just that. Can H.R. 1955 be used to silence the voices of dissent? Let's have a look. Recommended by Larry Stell (lstell@glasgow-ky.com) who wrote: "There is pending legislation in the US that would criminalize speech on topics the government deems "threatening." The law is called H.R. 1955. It goes by the Orwellian name: "The violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism prevention act." It quietly passed the House by a 404 to 6 vote and at least one Congressman admits voting for it without reading it. Language in this bill makes it theoretically possible for government agents to shut down sites like Brasscheck TV by claiming that the information we share *may* insight violence. Here's how I need your help... Few Americans even know of the existence of this legislation let alone know what's in it. The Internet can change that - and your help is needed. Please go to the site, view the video, and if you are a YouTube member (it's easy to join) rate it, favorite it, and post a comment. Frequent viewings and frequent posts help. With enough activity in the next 24 hours, we may be able to make this one of the most popular news videos of the day and raise the profile on this very important subject. "
Check also: THOUGHT CRIME BILL HR 1955 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeZdaF5Oln0 and read this ignominious bill for yourself at http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/bills.text/110/h/h1955.pdf

Homeland Security Finalizes National ID Card Rules (January 11, 2008)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011108E.shtml
Washington - Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled today by federal officials. (...) The American Civil Liberties Union has fiercely objected to the effort, particularly the sharing of personal data among government agencies. By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a Real ID-compliant driver's license, with the notable exception of those older than 50, Homeland Security officials said. The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses. By 2017, even those older than 50 must have a Real ID-compliant card to board a plane.

Ron Paul On Aaron Russos' America Freedom To Fascism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBOIZmuP1P8
Ron Paul On America Freedom To Fascism with Aaron Russo discussing national id cards the I.R.S. and federal reserve. OUTLINES THE TRUE PURPOSE H.R. 1955: TO PREVENT ANYONE FROM OPPOSING A FULL-BLOWN POLICE STATE.

America: Freedom to Fascism (1-11) IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS YET...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M19jzF8AwEA

Ron Paul Needs to Wake Up - Stop Dreaming! Ron Paul Exposed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ptU2GzwOMs&feature=related

Transcript of Jay Leno Interview with Ron Paul, The Tonight Show, Jan. 7, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-paultrans8jan08,0,3574978,full.story

Ron Paul Dismisses 9/11 Truth
http://youtube.com/watch?v=t-lxZmrqLxU

9/11 Planes Flew Directly Into Secure Computer Rooms In Both Towers
http://www.rense.com/general80/comprooms.htm
(...) The two airplanes that struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11 flew directly into secure computer rooms in both buildings. Is that simply a coincidence or were the computer rooms equipped to play a role in the crime?Were there homing devices, for example, in these rooms that guided the planes to their targets? Were there pre-placed explosives or Thermite on these floors to destroy the evidence and assist with the collapses?Let's look at the evidence. CLIP

Ron Paul Info BLITZ on January 26, 2008
http://www.seektress.com/infobomb.htm
In response to the ever increasing marginalization of the Ron Paul for President 2008 campaign message by the so called Main Stream Media, the exclusion of Ron Paul from participating in FOX's forum in New Hampshire on January 6, and the general continued disrespect for WE the PEOPLE's airwaves.... We are hereby calling upon Ron Paul supporters around the world to create on January 26, 2008 a Ron Paul Info BLITZ!

Cops applaud presidential candidate (January 7, 2008)
http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0108/0108copspaul.htm
While most of the politicians vying for their party's nomination for President of the United States pay lip service to the nation's law enforcement officers, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) is actually doing something to earn the respect and gratitude of America's cops, according to many police officers and organizations.For example, the American Federation of Police -- with well over 100,000 members -- recently praised Ron Paul for introducing a bill that would help cops obtain topnotch body armor that would withstand rounds fired from most firearms. Rep. Paul's bill -- HR 3304 -- would amend the Internal Revenue Code to provide for a tax credit to law enforcement officers who purchase their own body armor."I urge all police officers and concerned citizens to contact their congressmen and ask them to support Rep. Paul's bill," said Deputy Sheriff Dennis Wise, president of the American Federation of Police. "I would also like to applaud Congressman Ron Paul for his support and forward thinking in trying to help make law enforcement officers across our nation safer each day," said Wise. (...) In addition, Congressman Ron Paul believes that the Second Amendment is "not about duck hunting." It is an individual right that is guaranteed. He stated that he believes it is about the citizenry having the ability to restrain tyrannical governments and would be dictators.He believes the Second Amendment is about self-defense from criminal attack and from governments that break away from the chains of the Constitution. According to a poll conducted by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, more than 75% of the nation's police officers agree with Rep. Paul's stance on gun ownership including private citizens carrying concealed weapons for personal protection. CLIP

Obama And His Warmonger Cabinet The Changing Face Of WWIII (1-7-8)
http://www.rense.com/general79/obam.htm
Presidential candidate Barak Obama -- main announced project so far: BOMB PAKISTAN - Obama's main foreign policy guru -- Zbigniew Brzezinski. Main project: THE DESTRUCTION OF RUSSIA - the surest path to World War III. Mark Brzezinski, son of Zbigniew, former Clinton NSC official and top Obama advisor. Architect of the 2004 "people power" color revolution/coup in Ukraine. Main project: THE DESTRUCTION OF RUSSIA. Top Obama advisor and ex Asst. Secretary of State for African Affairs, Susan Rice. Main project: BOMB SUDAN Top Obama terrorism advisor Richard Clarke, former terror czar of the Clinton and Bush administrations. Main project: originating the official myth of 9/11. - Obama's top Middle East adviser, Dennis Ross, former Middle East negotiator for Bush and Clinton. Main project: play the Arabs against the Iranians to perpetuate Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. RESULT: A WORLD CATASTROPHE WORSE THAN BUSH. DON'T BE DUPED BY OBAMA AND HIS CABINET OF WARMONGERS

2008 presidential charade promises deepening of government criminality and expansion of war (Jan 10/08)
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2824.shtml
Every election in modern US history has been a criminal manipulation, choreographed and rigged by political elites and performed by hand-picked elite puppets, each backed by their teams of corrupt war criminals, intelligence/security “advisors” and think tank assets. The 2008 affair will be no different.It is time once again to dispel the mass insanity and unfounded hopes as another fresh election hell ensues. There will be no savior, no end to the continuing world crisis, and absolutely no “change." The monsters behind each candidate - As the American public once again gets swept up into another beyond, ridiculous carnival over which “presidential personality” is most “likeable," which preselected puppet makes a better speech, etc., there is little or no attention paid to the individuals behind each candidate; the forces that are pulling the strings, and actually setting the geopolitical agenda. The Washington Post has provided a complete list of each puppet’s respective “masters," which must be studied line by line: The War Over The Wonks: A list of national security and foreign policy advisors to the leading presidential candidates from both parties - This list holds the key to the central issue: war. As the names reveal, every major candidate (the favored puppets with any real chance of being selected) fronts for agendas set by current and former neoconservative and neoliberal “security” officers and politicos, members of the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, and apparatuses such as the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, AIPAC, the Hoover Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, and others. Some of the most nightmarish individuals who walk the earth today can be found behind the candidates, as follows: CLIP

The War Over the Wonks (Very revealing!)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/documents/the-war-over-the-wonks.html
A list of the national security and foreign policy advisers to the leading presidential candidates from both parties.

Primaries: All But Kucinich & Paul Get Jewish Stamp Of Approval http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerPage.jhtml

Can the Vote in New Hampshire be rigged? - Recommended by Larry Stell (lstell@glasgow-ky.com)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiiaBqwqkXs
From: BlackBoxVoting: One man's private, sole source company programs 81% of the election in New Hampshire, 100% in Connecticut, almost all of Massachusetts and most of Vermont. Never before seen video of the under-the-radar elections contractor John Silvestro as he tangles with master security expert Harri Hursti. MUCH MORE ON THIS BELOW IN "Clinton Received a 4.5% Boost In "Diebold" Towns" etc.

The Winning Ticket: Hillary and Diebold in 2008 By Mike Whitney
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19050.htm
Something doesn't ring true about Hillary's "upset" victory in the New Hampshire primary. It just doesn't pass the smell test. (...) The primary was stolen. End of story. Now, it's our move.

Will Your Vote Be Counted in 2008? Electronic Voting Machines and the Privatization of Elections (Jan 10,08)
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/10/will_your_vote_be_counted_in
With less than a month before Super Tuesday, every vote counts. But will every vote actually be counted? One-by-one, states across the country are finding critical flaws in the accuracy and security of electronic voting machines. We speak with Clive Thompson, the author of a New York Times Magazine cover story titled “Can You Count on Voting Machines?” CLIP

The Voter ID Fraud
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011108F.shtml
Garrett Epps writes in The Nation: "There's a war on across the country over who will be allowed to vote in 2008. One of the key battles in the election was fought on January 9 before the Supreme Court."

Road to the Greenhouse
http://www.peta.org/feat/greenhouse/index.asp
PETA's outrageous new political parody takes the idea of greenpolitics to a new level. Don't miss the action as this year's crop of prize vegetables-including Celery Clinton, Fruity Giuliani, Broccoli Obama, and Dijon McCain-debate the hottest issue facing our country today: Isn't it time that we gave peas a chance?

Campaign to put human rights back on Canada’s political agenda - For ALL Canadians
http://www.rightoncanada.ca/

Ron Paul Vs. Mike Huckabee and John McCain - American soldier speaks out on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI0keH8sKHs
"They Deem Him Their Worst Enemy Who Tells Them The truth" - PLATO -- Recommended by Antares (magickriver@gmail.com) who wrote: "View this fast before it's taken down again!" "This war is about profiteering and money!"

Photos - Harbin Ice and Snow Festival 2007
http://rtoddking.com/chinawin2007_hb_zp.htm

UFO FOOTAGE NEAR SAN DIEGO (January 1, 2008) http://dailymotion.alice.it/relevance/search/UFO/video/x3ypem_newsufo-footage-near-san-diego-1120_news

ALSO RECOMMENDED

On Rejecting "The System" (09/01/08)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19032.htm
(...) This being the case, the number of millionaires in the world swelled to 8.7 million. Meanwhile, is there any mystery about whatever most of them are trying to do rather than spread their wealth in service to humanity or improvement of the natural environment? No. Instead of promoting widespread benefits, they are, for the most part, striving to become billionaires (called "kleptocrats" in a related Wikipedia citation below as they are thievishly parasitic on the body politic). Indeed, many are wildly successful in achieving this objective. 'The number of billionaires around the world rose by 102 to a record 793... and their combined wealth grew 18 percent to $2.6 trillion, according to "Forbes" magazine's 2006 rankings of the world's richest people [5].' In addition, their group has been expanding steadily. All the while they, also, command vast stores of resources (obtained through their purchasing power), manipulate their governments (through lobbies and other means) and control others (via military might and other kinds) to keep everything solidly behind their acts of racking in ever more dollars and possessions, including huge tracts of land and factories, for themselves. The flip side to this situation is that US jobs are disappearing overseas to second and third world countries in which the populations are paid measly salaries of ~ a dollar a day for their hard work. Moreover, these laborers will get fired if they dare to complain about their income, work conditions, or other aspects of their jobs. Furthermore, they are, for the most part, easily replaced as there often exists the condition of large unemployment in their locations. Therefore, they'd better, meekly and gratefully, do as they're told by management. Meanwhile, the goods that they produce are sold to eager consumers in first world countries, consumers whose own economies are crumbling due to a growing deficit of work at reasonable wages. For example, one in five Americans now lives on less than seven dollars a day according to fairly recent US census figures [6]. All the same, it is primarily the near poor, who give the most to charities -- not the middle and upper classes. It is because they are almost poverty struck and know the degree that being so can be horrendously grim to the point of being even life threatening. CLIP

Credit Card Debt Soars as House Prices Plunge
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010908B.shtml
Dean Baker, writing for The Center for Economic and Policy Research, reports: "The current rate of house price decline will destroy $2.2 trillion of wealth this year. The Federal Reserve Board reported yesterday that credit card debt rose at an 11.3 percent annual rate in November after rising at an 8.5 percent rate in October. By comparison, credit card debt rose at a rate between 2 percent and 4 percent from 2003 to 2005."

How a credit crunch may hurt the world economy (Jan 10)
http://real-us.news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080110/wl_csm/o2008credit_1
The old watchword in buying real estate is "location, location, location." But troubles in the US housing market have rippled outward to become a problem without borders. Now the health of banks has become one of the biggest financial uncertainties for 2008. The risk: that a cutback in lending will restrain an already cooling world economy. For now, economists say that no full-scale credit crunch has arrived. But the end of the US housing boom has caused billion-dollar losses for banks in places like New York, London, and Frankfurt, Germany.That has consequences for borrowers. After years of relatively easy lending worldwide, the general trend now is toward tighter conditions: Loans are growing more expensive and harder to get. Here's a rundown on the credit challenge, and how it may play out this year: (...) But she says a pessimistic scenario is also possible, if global economic growth decelerates more than expected. That could push down prices of many assets – real estate, stocks, and more. Bank losses would multiply, and lending would be curbed more sharply. The downward pressure on asset prices could come partly from investors such as hedge funds if they are forced to "deleverage," to sell assets to cover losses on other investments made with borrowed money."It's like a lake where parts of the ice are very thin" for the economy to keep skating on, Packard says. CLIP

US could spark global fall - UN (January 10, 2008)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23031893-12335,00.html
THE apparent US economic slowdown could trigger global recession this year and stymie years of robust growth in Asia and Africa, the UN said."The major uncertainty for 2008 now emanates from the US economy," according to the world body's World Economic Situation and Prospects 2008. "A further slowdown in the world's major economy will hit many of the poor nations hard, as it will slow world trade and put an end to the boom in commodity prices that benefited them over the past years," it said. The report said the economies of Japan and Western Europe, already operating near production potential, were not capable of taking up the slack. "The domino effect of a US recession would be to knock down export growth from China, Europe and Japan, in turn reducing their demand for exports from developing countries," it said.The report forecast that the world economy would grow at 3.4 per cent this year, down from 3.7 per cent in 2007 and 3.9 per cent in 2006.It stressed that world growth was "robust and broad-based" last year, with more than 100 economies posting 3 per cent growth of per capita output or more.It said developing economies and those in transition boosted their share of world trade from 35 per cent in 2000 to over 40 per cent last year. "Remarkably, economic growth in Africa strengthened in 2007 to near 6 per cent," the report said. But it cited "a clear and present danger of the world economy coming to a near standstill" linked to the housing slump in the US and the subsequent credit crunch as high-risk borrowers defaulted on mortgage payments. "The ongoing housing downturn in the United States became much more serious in the third quarter of 2007, with the meltdown of sub-prime mortgages triggering a full-scale credit crunch that reverberated throughout the global financial system," the report said. In addition to the US subprime home loan crisis, where billions of dollars have been lost on mortgage-backed securities, other factors feeding fears of a global recession include the sharp decline of the US dollar and a gloomy outlook for the US labor market. The report noted that while central banks in major economies had acted to alleviate the financial stress, these measures "do not address the root causes of huge imbalances" between financial surplus nations, such as China, Japan and major oil-producing nations on the one hand and deficit countries such as the US on the other. The UN said a realignment of exchange rates was one way of addressing global imbalances, although it could lead to a loss of confidence in and a run on the dollar. The report instead recommended economic stimulus through stronger demand in countries with large savings and current account surpluses, such as China, Japan and oil-exporting countries.

Recession may already be here (January 10 2008)
http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/09/news/economy/recession/index.htm?postversion=2008011004
Economists shift from wondering if there will be a recession to asking if the U.S. economy has already shifted into reverse. -- NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The question for many economists is not if the U.S. economy will fall into a recession. It's whether it already has. The formal recognition of a start of a recession probably wouldn't come for at least six months if not more than a year, as official judges from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) pour through various economic readings. But top economists from two of the major Wall Street firms - Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs - say recession is likely already here.The tipping point for both economists was the report released last Friday that showed a sharp jump in the unemployment rate in December, coupled with little growth."Friday's employment report strongly suggests that an official recession has arrived," wrote David Rosenberg, North American economist for Merrill, in a note this week entitled "Recession a reality." CCLIP

More through Full Coverage: U.S. Economy

Bush Visits His Odious Saudi Friend
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011108P.shtml
Amitabh Pal writes for The Progressive: "How do you punish the principal global purveyor of fundamentalist Islam, someone who backed the Taliban and continues to harshly suppress political freedoms, women and religious minorities? If you're President Bush, you reward him with a state visit, of course!"

New York Mayor Bloomberg Weighs 2008 Run
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011008O.shtml
Sara Kugler reports for The Associated Press, "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has quietly been polling and conducting a highly sophisticated voter analysis in all 50 states as he decides whether to launch an independent presidential bid, associates said Wednesday."

Taped Voices May Not Have Come From Iranian Boats
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011008R.shtml
Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl for ABC News report: "Just two days after the US Navy released the eerie video of Iranian speedboats swarming around American warships, which featured a chilling threat in English, the Navy is saying that the voice on the tape could have come from the shore or from another ship."

Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011108J.shtml
Gareth Porter reports for Inter Press Service, "Despite the official and media portrayal of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz early Monday morning as a serious threat to US ships from Iranian speedboats that nearly resulted in a 'battle at sea,' new information over the past three days suggests that the incident did not involve such a threat and that no US commander was on the verge of firing at the Iranian boats."

Doubts grow over Iranian boat threats (January 11, 2008)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2239119,00.html
Pentagon climbdown over 'you will explode' video· Mystery remains over where voice came from.
Doubts intensified last night over the nature of an alleged aggressive confrontation by Iranian patrol boats and American warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, after Pentagon officials admitted that they could not confirm that a threat to blow up the US ships had been made directly by the Iranian crews involved in the incident.Several news sources reported that senior navy officials had conceded that the voice threatening to blow up the US warships in a matter of minutes could have come from another ship in the region, or even from shore. The concession came on the day that a formal American complaint was lodged with Iran over the incident, and just 24 hours after President George Bush, on tour in the Middle East where he will be discussing policy towards Iran, warned Tehran to desist from such aggression and said any repetition would lead to "serious consequences". CLIP

'A Heartbeat Away' From War With Iran and Pakistan (January 9, 2008)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7761
As the American people amuse themselves with the illusion that they have any say in the way they are presently governed, our rulers are moving toward war. Two recent incidents underscore the imminence of this prospect. The Iranian "provocation" in the straits of Hormuz has set the stage for a new "crisis" manufactured wholly by the War Party, the rationale for which is uncritically accepted by our passive "mainstream" media. We are expected to believe that five minuscule speedboats "menaced" the USS Hopper, a destroyer armed with missiles; the cruiser USS Port Royal; and the USS Ingraham, a frigate. That's rather like five gnats "menacing" a trio of elephants. (...) The commander of one of the U.S. warships has been quoted as saying that they were "a heartbeat away" from opening fire on their Iranian tormentors, and that just about sums up the chances of an armed conflict breaking out – we're an incident away from going to war with Tehran, and there is every indication that the administration is marshaling its forces, political and diplomatic as well as military, to launch an assault before Bush leaves office.This latest incident also underscores the significance of the recently-passed Kyl-Lieberman resolution, which Hillary Clinton voted for, that designates the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization. The Iranian navy has withdrawn from the Gulf, and it is the Guards who constitute Iran's first line of defense. American warships and troops in the area are therefore empowered and even encouraged to engage in "hot pursuit" of these alleged "terrorists" – and embroil us in a conflict that will make the Iraq war seem like the "cakewalk" it was supposed to be. (...) More evidence of America's aggressive intentions comes in the form of news reports of U.S. plans to intervene more directly in Pakistan (...) In any case, recent events – and especially this ominous Middle East trip, which you can bet has little to do with a "peace plan" – ought to make us all very nervous.

Drones on the Rise in the US for Surveillance (January 10, 2008)
http://www.NewsTarget.com/022482.html
Drones are now on the rise in the US for local, federal and private use. Taser International, the company that supplies American police and military forces nationwide and is being funded by our taxes, has announced development of a flying drone version of their hand-held electric shock Taser gun which administers 50,000 volts via two wires shot into a victim (...) A Military Technologies Conference in Boston last year unveiled 'Unmanned Aerial Vehicles' (UAV) "that are well suited for urban warfare", according to an article in Military and Aerospace Electronics. These small, portable flying weapons can operate in groups and "prowl cities looking for terrorists". "The all-electronic weaponry could be remotely controlled by a human operator, or could operate autonomously in a hunter-killer UAV configuration..." says the sales director of the private company that develops these micro-UAVs.Their company profile lists "various payload and sensory technologies with our unmanned aircraft. Deliverable systems are available for autonomous or remotely piloted unmanned [vehicles] for military, law enforcement, civil, media, surveillance, scientific and research applications."(...) "In a scene that could have been inspired by the movie "Minority Report", one North Carolina county is using a UAV equipped with low-light and infrared cameras to keep watch on its citizens. The aircraft has been dispatched to monitor gatherings of motorcycle riders at the Gaston County fairgrounds from just a few hundred feet in the air (close enough to identify faces) and many more uses. Egging on Congress and the FAA are manufacturers of UAVs, who see a lucrative market in domestic surveillance and aerial photography.""It is quite easy to envision a future in which (UAVs), unaffected by pilot fatigue, provide 24-7 border and port surveillance to protect against terrorist intrusion," said Mike Heintz on behalf of the UNITE Alliance which represents Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. "Other examples are limited only by our imagination."Blackwater Worldwide, the paramilitary group contracted by the Bush Administration in Iraq and the US, also announced plans to produce unmanned surveillance airships.

Pregnant woman held down, tasered
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22847362-2,00.html
FOOTAGE of a pregnant woman being held down on her stomach while being Tasered by a police officer has emerged in the middle of a US federal investigation.

The "Good Good War" Is A Bad War By John Pilger
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19041.htm
John Pilger describes how the invasion of Afghanistan, which was widely supported in the West as a 'good war' and justifiable response to 9/11, was actually planned months before 9/11 and is the latest instalment of 'a great game'.

US to Send 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan (How many more innocent civilians will perish?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7214517,00.html
The Pentagon is preparing to send at least 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan in April to bolster efforts to hold off another expected Taliban offensive in the spring, military officials.

Depleted Uranium Crisis in Iraq http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/01/depleted-uranium-crisis-in-iraq.html

Illegal logging and road building threatens tigers and tribes of the Heart of Sumatra
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/28861
Field investigations in central Sumatra have found that the home of two tribes of indigenous people and endangered elephants, tigers and orang-utans faces “being split in half” by the construction of “a legally questionable highway” for logging trucks servicing one of the world’s largest paper companies.The investigation, by WWF Indonesia and other scientific and conservation groups, also found the crucial Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape threatened by illegal logging, clearing for plantations and other roadbuilding — much of it linked to operations of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and its partners.The forest is one of the last large forests in Sumatra, boasts some of the richest biodiversity on earth and is one of Indonesia’s most important habitats for numerous species. It is the location of a successful conservation project to reintroduce orangutans, which now reside in a part of the landscape that is proposed for protected status but is already being cleared by APP-affiliated companies, the report found.Clearing for the highway, which allows logging trucks easier access to APP’s pulp mills in Jambi Province, appears to have taken place after APP’s forestry operations in neighboring Riau Province were halted due to a police investigation of illegal logging. APP partners have cleared an estimated 20,000 hectares of natural forest in the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape, with some clearing appearing to be in violation of Indonesian law.“With its high conservation values, the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape should be protected and thus all natural forest clearance in the area has to be stopped,” said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s Forest Program Director. (...) Part of the area being cleared is in a proposed Specific Protected Area that serves as habitat for about 90 Sumatran orangutans recently introduced into the area for the first time in more than 150 years. Unplanned and illegal road building is especially devastating to such areas, opening them up to poaching, illegal settlement and plantation activities and undermining the viability of indigenous communities. CLIP

Grass biofuels 'cut CO2 by 94%' (8 January 2008)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7175397.stm
Producing biofuels from a fast-growing grass delivers vast savings of carbon dioxide emissions compared with petrol, a large-scale study has suggested. A team of US researchers also found that switchgrass-derived ethanol produced 540% more energy than was required to manufacture the fuel.One acre (0.4 hectares) of the grassland could, on average, deliver 320 barrels of bioethanol, they added.Their paper appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The five-year study, involving 10 farms ranging in size from three to nine hectares, was described as the largest study of its kind by the paper's authors. (...) "We were able to take this information and put it into this model and able to come up with a very real-world estimate."The energy inputs required to produce the crops included nitrogen fertiliser, herbicides, diesel and seed production. However, he added that as there were no large-scale biorefineries in operation, the team did have to estimate how much bioethanol such a plant would be able to produce in order to calculate the net energy gain. "Right now, the Department of Energy is co-funding the construction of six biorefineries in the US. These plants will be completed around 2010, and will be above the pilot plant scale." Although the process to produce ethanol from switchgrass was more complex than using food crops such as wheat or corn, the so-called "second generation" biofuel could produce much higher energy yields per tonne because it utilised the whole plant rather than just the seeds.Carbon cutsThe team also calculated that the production and consumption of switchgrass-derived ethanol cut CO2 emissions by about 94% when compared with an equivalent volume of petrol. Burning biofuels releases carbon dioxide, but growing the plants absorbs a comparable amount of the gas from the atmosphere. CLIP

When Will Global Warming Reach a Political Tipping Point?
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011108EA.shtml
Sierra Magazine says that although historically the environment has not been a top election concern, in a recent poll that asked voters how important global warming will be in their vote for US president in 2008, more than half of respondents answered "extremely" or "very."

Environmentalists Target Airlines Over Oilsands Fuel
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011008EC.shtml
The Canadian Press: "One of the largest environmental groups in the United States wants to ground the growing use by American and Canadian airlines of fuel derived from Alberta's oilsands."

Corn... fuel... fire! U.S. corn subsidies promote Amazon deforestation (January 8, 2008)
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/28859
Amazon deforestation and fires are being aggravated by US farm subsidies, claims STRI’s staff scientist William Laurance. According to Laurance, whose findings are reported this week in Science (December 14), a recent spike in Amazonian fires is being promoted by massive US subsidies that promote American corn production for ethanol. The ethanol is being blended with gasoline as an automobile fuel."American taxpayers are spending $11 billion a year to subsidize corn producers—and this is having some surprising global consequences," said Laurance. The US is the world's leading producer of soy, but many American soy farmers are shifting to corn to qualify for the government subsidies. Since 2006, US corn production rose 19% while soy farming fell by 15%. The drop-off in US soy has helped to drive a major increase in global soy prices, which have nearly doubled in the last 14 months. In Brazil, the world's second-largest soy producer, high soy prices are having a serious impact on the Amazon rainforest and tropical savannas."Amazon fires and forest destruction have spiked over the last several months, especially in the main soy-producing states in Brazil," said Laurance. "Just about everyone there attributes this to rising soy and beef prices."High soy prices affect the Amazon in several ways. Some forests are cleared for soy farms. Farmers also buy and convert many cattle ranches into soy farms, effectively pushing the ranchers further into the Amazonian frontier. Finally, wealthy soy farmers are lobbying for major new Amazon highways to transport their soybeans to market, and this is increasing access to forests for loggers and land speculators. Laurance emphasized that he was not the first person to suggest that US corn subsidies could indirectly harm the Amazon. "But now we're seeing that these predictions-first made last summer-are being borne out. The evidence of a corn connection to the Amazon is circumstantial, but it's about as close as you ever get to a smoking gun."

Tata reveals world's cheapest car (Jan 10, 2008)
http://tinyurl.com/2dlspa
NEW DELHI - For millions of people in the developing world, Tata Motor's new $2,500 four-door subcompact — the world's cheapest car — may yield a transportation revolution with as great an impact as Henry Ford's Model T, which rolled off an assembly line one century ago. The potential impact of Tata's Nano has given environmentalists nightmares, with visions of the tiny cars clogging India's already-choked roads and collectively spewing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air. Industry analysts, however, say the car may soon deliver to India and the rest of the developing world unprecedented mobility. (...) Tata initially plans to manufacture some 250,000 Nanos per year. That would be about a quarter of all cars sold in India last year. The emergence of the Nano has fueled a host of concerns. With developing countries like India and China putting more and more cars on the roads, it has created a greater demand for fuel, contributing to sky-high global oil prices. India consumed nearly 120 million tons of petroleum products in 2006-2007, according to the Petroleum Ministry, up from 113 million tons the previous year. And the idea of such a low-cost vehicle has environmentalists petrified, conjuring images of traffic jams at midnight, hours-long commutes and rolling clouds of pollution.Chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize, said last month "I am having nightmares" about the car. CLIP

Tata to Sell Nano for $2,500; Targets Indian Families
http://tinyurl.com/367685
(...) "The global race to get a cheap, fuel-efficient car is on furiously,'' said Rajan. "As long as the design looks good and the safety standards are met, then there will be thousands of hungry buyers.''Renault SA, France's second-largest carmaker, is in talks with Pune, India-based Bajaj Auto Ltd. to build cars that may cost about $3,000, and Renault would eventually export such vehicles to the U.S. and sell them for $5,000 with modifications, Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said Oct. 26.Tata's car could "jam cities'' and raise pollution, according to the Centre for Science and Environment, which has led a campaign for cleaner air in New Delhi. Average vehicle speed in India's capital has dropped to 15 kilometers an hour in 2002 from as much as 27 in 1997, it said. "As congestion builds up and vehicles slow down, emissions increase up to five times,'' it said on its Web site.

Can the World Afford the Tata Nano?
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011108EB.shtml
It's either the start of a people's revolution or the trigger for social and environmental headaches across the globe.

'No clear trend' in forest loss (8 January 2008)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7175617.stm
Data on tropical forest cover is so poor that we do not know if the forests are declining, a study has found. Alan Grainger from the UK's University of Leeds examined UN analyses going back almost 30 years, and found that "evidence for a decline is unclear". Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), he proposes a global forest monitoring system. The UN admits there are problems with the data, but says tropical forests are certainly in retreat. Dr Grainger is not so sure. "People have been assuming that forest cover is shrinking," he told BBC News, "and certainly deforestation has been taking place on a large scale." But, he says, there is also evidence that in some countries, forests are expanding spontaneously. (...) Despite these difficulties, she believes the assessments have shown clearly that tropical forest cover is declining."We saw this clearly for example in the 2000 assessment, where we undertook a remote sensing survey of tropical countries and it was very clear there had been a decline during the period 1980-2000." (...) "What is happening to the tropical forests is so important, both to the peoples of tropical countries and to future trends in biodiversity and global climate, that we can no longer put off investing in an independent scientific monitoring programme that can combine satellite and ground data to give a reliable picture," he said. Political initiatives to tackle climate change have renewed the interest of some western governments in tropical forestry. If richer nations are to pay poorer ones to protect forests - a concept which appears likely to form a centrepiece of a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol - monitoring changes in cover will become a high priority.

Excess Ozone Chokes Plants, Accelerates Global Warming (January 10, 2008)
http://www.NewsTarget.com/022481.html
The chemical known as ozone may be making a much more significant contribution to global warming than scientists had previously thought, according to a new study published in the journal Nature."Ozone could be twice as important as we previously thought as a driver of climate change," said study co-author Peter Cox.Ozone occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere, but is produced in the lower atmosphere when sunlight strikes industrial pollutants such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxides.Scientists have long known that ozone is a greenhouse gas, trapping radiation within the atmosphere and leading to rising global temperatures. But the new study suggests that ozone may have a much more significant climate impact by adversely affecting plants' ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.According to the researchers, high concentrations of ozone and carbon dioxide damage plants' ability to engage in photosynthesis. This weakens the plants, causing their stomata (pores in the leaves) to close. In turn, this reduces that amount of carbon dioxide or ozone that the plants are able to absorb. CLIP

2007 SECOND WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD - Northern Hemisphere Temperature Highest Ever (Jan 10, 2008)
http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/Temp/2008.htm
With the record for 2007 now complete, it is clear that temperatures around the world are continuing their upward climb. The global average in 2007 was 14.73 degrees Celsius (58.5 degrees Fahrenheit)—the second warmest year on record, only 0.03 degrees Celsius behind the 2005 maximum. January 2007 was the hottest January ever measured, a full 0.23 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous record. August was also a record for that month and September was the second warmest September recorded. (...) The year 2007 fits into a pattern of steadily increasing global average temperature, with the eight warmest years on record all occurring in the last decade. (...) Although 2007 did not post a new record high, the year stands out as being extremely warm despite several natural factors that usually cool the planet. El Niño conditions in the southern Pacific tend to increase the global average temperature, and yet the second half of 2007 saw the opposite develop—a La Niña, which would usually depress global temperature. This is in stark contrast to conditions in 1998, the third warmest year, when temperatures were boosted around 0.2 degrees Celsius by the strongest El Niño of the century. In addition to the moderate La Niña, solar intensity in 2007 was slightly lower than average because the year was a minimum in the 11-year solar sunspot cycle. The combination of these factors would normally produce cooler temperatures, yet 2007 was still one of the warmest years in human history. This strongly suggests that the warming effect of increased greenhouse gas concentrations is now dwarfing other influences on the Earth’s climate.The impact of the exceptional warmth in 2007 was especially apparent in the Arctic, where several feedback mechanisms amplify the effect of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic Ocean shrank dramatically to a new low, 23 percent below the previous 2005 record. This opened the Northwest Passage for the first time in recorded history and prompted a scramble to claim large swaths of the newly exposed Arctic. CLIP

Rapid and Decisive Solution of the World Energy Crisis and Global Warming (Dec 2007- Slow download)
http://cheniere.org/articles/index.html
The present energy paradigm—that one must almost always consume fuel and dirtily provide EM energy and power—has failed. Applying it has caused—and thus cannot solve—the escalating world fuel crisis, hence the escalating energy crisis, and its accompanying and escalating global warming, climate change, and biospheric pollution crises. Catastrophic national economic collapses and more intensive global changes are looming, with additional severe drought and water shortages, and increasing changes and violence in climate and weather. Yet the worldwide demand for energy rapidly escalates while the world’s fuel shortage is also rapidly increasing. (...) We need a prompt and massive shift to a new energy paradigm that provides the necessary energy without consumption of fuel, taking the energy freely from the energetic vacuum/spacetime and thus producing no “dirt”. We must have it and implement it as rapidly as is humanly possible. (...) We urgently need a Manhattan-type “energy from the vacuum” project to produce and implement the new energy paradigm area. CLIP - Recommended by Susan M. LaFleur (sluzen@sbcglobal.net" who wrote: "Retired Col. Tom Bearden is a scientist. Listed in Who’s Who, working with other scientists to produce devices whose product is clean free energy for the world. Here, he puts out a scientific paper to the world, and seven solutions (in the middle of the paper) to end our energy crisis quickly and cheaply and without the use of wind turbines, solar energy, and the like, which is not the solution."

High degree of resistance to antibiotics in Arctic birds (11-Jan-2008)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/uu-hdo011108.php
In the latest issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Swedish researchers report that birds captured in the hyperboreal tundra, in connection with the tundra expedition “Beringia 2005,” were carriers of antibiotics-resistant bacteria. These findings indicate that resistance to antibiotics has spread into nature, which is an alarming prospect for future health care.The scientists took samples from 97 birds in northeastern Siberia, northern Alaska, and northern Greenland. These samples were cultivated directly in special laboratories that the researchers had installed onboard the icebreaker Oden and were further analyzed at the microbiological laboratory at the Central Hospital in Växjö, Sweden.“We were extremely surprised,” says Björn Olsen, professor of infectious diseases at Uppsala University and at the Laboratory for Zoonosis Research at the University of Kalmar.“We took samples from birds living far out on the tundra and had no contact with people. This further confirms that resistance to antibiotics has become a global phenomenon and that virtually no region of the earth, with the possible exception of the Antarctic, is unaffected.” (...) “Our findings show that resistance to antibiotics is not limited to society and hospitals but is now spreading into the wild. Escalating resistance to antibiotics over the last few years has crystallized into one of the greatest threats to well-functioning health care in the future.”

1.

Forwarded by Ricardo (ricardos@auroville.org.in)

From: http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/mike_quinsey/channeled%20messages/January%202008/01.09.08SaLuSa..htm

SaLuSa 9 January 2008

The political arena of life is where the first stirrings of a change in the peoples consciousness is being registered. You are seeing first hand a movement away from the old paradigm, and the manifestation of a new one that is breaking the mould that has held you back. Against your normal experiences of political maneuvering and the backing given to the Illuminati’s choice, what you are seeing is nothing short of miraculous and has sent shock waves through their dark supporters. There is a long way to go yet, but the signs for a dramatic change of direction are there. It will as usual get nasty, when all attempts are made to stop the success you are currently enjoying. Beware of the character assassination that will inevitably take place, but will not alter the eventual outcome.

Dear Ones, you are at last making your opinions count where they make a vast difference, by your choice of candidate. The media have been aware of your discontent for quite some time, but have deliberately ignored or played down your reactions. With or without them, you are starting a momentum that will escalate into a mountain slide of demands for change. The publicity that the media have denied you has not prevented people worldwide noticing what is taking place. They too are going to be supportive of those who seek change for the people of your planet, and that will bring fear to governments elsewhere who cannot hide their own dark deeds or agendas.

Your government has always been aware that people power would in the end decide their fate, and their panic is reaching new levels as they seek to prevent your ultimate success. Now is the time for much care and attention to their moves to bring a halt to the election process, as they will resort to any covert operation that will do so. You have called for change for a long time, and peace across the world is high up in your expectations once the old regime and its policies are removed. For our part we are allowed to intervene, inasmuch we can protect you from attempts to create an incident that would lead to Martial Law. We are monitoring all of those who would unleash such draconian measures upon you, and are well aware as to what is planned.

Our orders are twofold, and first and foremost it is to ensure that this time your elections do finally result in an honest and true outcome. Secondly we keep you on track so that regardless of what happens, there is no lasting effect to your progress where Ascension is concerned. We represent the highest office and councils that oversee the destiny of the people of Earth, and we are not going to let you down. We experience no doubt whatsoever as to the outcome, and fear has no place in our thinking or actions. We know that you have already achieved the victory you seek, and it simply remains to await its manifestation.

You are spiritual Beings that wield a mighty power if you did but know it and use it. These are times when your concentrated efforts to visualize success will immensely help achieve it. Carry those who represent your aspirations in your thoughts, and see them surrounded in the powerful white light. Send them your love and it will truly make a difference. It will help deflect the dark energies and negativity that will thrown at them. These courageous souls that have stepped forward in the Light will become the focal point of much discussion, and you will need to cut through the rhetoric and lies that will be leveled against them. As always be intuitive and do not allow others to muddy they waters of truth.

The world is going to be in a state of chaos for a while, as the ramifications of what is taking place becomes apparent. Those in power never give it up easily, but see that the spreading changes are inevitable and that their positions will become untenable. People are waking up at an unprecedented rate, and initially as you have already seen they are not always prepared to wait for democratic and orderly change. The direction of Man is not readily understood by the vast majority, but that will not prevent the New Age from coming into your lives. The choice is stark, as it is one of utter destruction unless this opportunity is grasped to lead Man onto a new path of Light. The leaders that are up to this task are ready and waiting for their call, and it is up to you to ensure they are appointed.

The Galactic Federation has specific orders that still allow for your freewill to determine your individual future, and nothing will prevent the pathway opening up for those who desire to complete their time in this cycle of duality. You have worked diligently and kept your focus on your goal, and you will not be denied your success in these end-times. In the greatness of the Love of the Creator for all mankind and life of all types, provision has been made for their continuing evolution. Some species are already leaving Earth, and many souls have also contracted to do so as their lives have provided the experiences they needed. There comes a point when it no longer serves any purpose to overstay your time, and you are released from your bonds to Earth.

Do not be worried or unduly concerned about the effect of the changes, as they cannot avoid some degree of instability and uncertainty. For many they see no further than what is before their eyes, and much love and kindness is needed to assure them of the future. The voice of those who are enlightened is essential to balance the fear, that is being created by those who expect a violent and disastrous end to this cycle. You are in a completely different phase to that which was visualized over the last century, and you have lifted up to a new level that has overcome the path of the apocalypse. It is you have who changed your destiny through your awakening to the Light.

I am SaLuSa and have come again at such a critical time where everything is in the balance, yet is heading for a victory for the Light. See beyond the daily happenings, and note the move towards a new expression of life that leaves the old ways behind. Freedom and peace beckon and that is what your thoughts should be upon. The months will pass as quickly as ever, and you will be in for a roller coaster of a ride, and we shall be forever with you. Be assured there can ultimately only be one outcome – your unmitigated success and upliftment in Love and Light.

Thank you SaLuSa,

Mike Quinsey
michael@brookwood96.orangehome.co.uk

To "subscribe" to the ET First Contact List go to :
http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/new_subscribe.html
or go to http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com and click on the "Subscribe" button.

2.

From: Stan Penner (stanp@mts.net)
Subject: Peace Now or Never!
Date: 8 Jan 2008

Violence causes dehumanization, and, as we all know, a lot of violence is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in many other places on this planet of ours. In a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, young Calvin questions his father, "Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?" Calvin's Dad has no answer. Killing people, soldiers or not, can be extremely difficult. A soldier wrote home, "It's so hard when I am up close. When I see the faces of the people, I can't bring myself to kill them. But when I am farther away just shooting artillery shells then I can do it, as long as I don't see their faces." Sad to say, young men, and now sometimes women, too, often not past their teens, are expected to be hardened killers. As George McGovern, during his 1972 presidential campaign put it, "I'm sick and tired of old men dreaming up wars in which young men do the dying." Or let's listen to some words from the book Soldiers by John Keegan, et al., "Old soldiers never die, but ninety-nine soldiers in a hundred are pitiably young, and they die in their millions, without beginning to guess why it is that life asks that of them." Who speaks for them? MOTHERS OF THE WORLD, DON'T ALLOW THAT! SPEAK UP! Don't let your children die in their millions, and when they're pitiably young yet, and, according to Keegan, most don't even know why they're fighting, killing, and dying. Make friends with mothers in other countries than yours, join Mothers Against War (M.A.W.) and other like-minded groups, let your politicians know that you want international disagreements settled without the horrors of war (As Winston Churchill put it, "To jaw, jaw, is better than to war, war.), etc., etc. Fathers, of course, too, should speak up but if fathers can't, or won't stop wars, maybe the women will. When Dan Rather was on a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War, he went into the hold of the ship and heard only one word from the lips of those wounded young soldiers, some with multiple amputations. What was the word? you may well ask. It was "Mother." As Dan Rather puts it, "None called for father, or for doctor or nurse. Only mother." Mothers, the world over, are you listening?

Yours sincerely,

Stan Penner

P.S. Editor: Dan Rather's words are from "THE CAMERA NEVER BLINKS TWICE" by Dan Rather with Mickey Herskowitz in a Reader's Digest book "Today's Best Nonfiction."

"As far as I am concerned, war itself is immoral," Omar Bradley, U.S. five star general, known as the "GI's" general, and field commander of 1.3 million men in World War II.

"A memory of fallen comrades whose deaths show there is absolutely no glory in war."

- Val Werier, former soldier and now editorial writer (Winnipeg Free Press)

"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?"

- Eve Merriam

All the arms we need are for hugging.

- Author Unknown

“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”

- Jeanette Rankin

“In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.”

- José Narosky

“The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.”

- Henry Fosdick

“The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.”

- Omar Bradley

“The military don't start wars. Politicians start wars.”

- William Westmoreland

“Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.”

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, "A Declaration of Rights"

“To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.”

- Michael Servetus

“If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people.”

- Tony Benn

“Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.”

- Otto Von Bismark

“War hath no fury like a noncombatant.”

- Charles Edward Montague, Disenchantment

“If you wish to be brothers, drop your weapons.”

- Pope John Paul II

“A day of battle is a day of harvest for the devil.”

- William Hooke

“O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it.”

- Mark Twain, "The War Prayer"

“Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction!”

- Helen Keller

“The loud little handful will shout for war. The pulpit will warily and cautiously protest at first. The great mass of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes, and will try to make out why there should be a war, and they will say earnestly and indignantly: ‘It is unjust and dishonorable and there is no need for war.’ Then the few will shout even louder. Before long you will see a curious thing: anti-war speakers will be stoned from the platform, and free speech will be strangled by hordes of furious men who still agree with the speakers but dare not admit it... Next, statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

- Mark Twain

3.

Forwarded by Lillian Akersborg (lillakers@yahoo.com)

From: http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/01/clinton-received-45-boost-in-diebold.html

January 9, 2008

Clinton Received a 4.5% Boost In "Diebold" Towns

Do NH Primary Statistics Show Election Fraud?

(Updated Below)

I don't intend to sound off alarm bells, but the question does need to be asked, as we have seen signs of this in the past, such as in Ohio during the 2004 general election. I just spent the last two hours putting together a spreadsheet of the Democratic results of the NH primary for each town with almost all but a few towns reporting, and the results were somewhat surprising. (Note: This is also without including nearly 2500 write-ins due to time constraints.)

I say "somewhat" because some people will say this entirely foreseeable. What the informal statistics show is that Hillary Clinton received a 4.5% boost in towns using Diebold voting machines compared to towns that didn't. Meanwhile, Obama was hurt in these towns showing a 2.5% decrease in the Diebold towns.

One thing to note before looking too much into these statistics is that the Diebold machines were concentrated in the less rural areas. I say less rural, because there really is no "urban" areas in New Hampshire. This then begs the question as to whether rural voters really were more likely to vote for Obama than Clinton.

The possibility of election fraud is even more important considering the predictions heading into NH primaries. All the polls were showing Obama with at least a 7 point lead over Clinton, with a few showing a double-digit lead, which is no surprise considering Obama's win in Iowa over Clinton who placed third in the caucuses.

I don't have enough information or time to compare this data with anything else. No matter what, the results were still significantly closer than the blow-out that was predicted. Does this show election fraud? Right now I'm not sure, but the possibility definitely remains and must not be taken off the table.

Update: Some more statistics from the data shows that Obama in non-Diebold towns garnering 38.7% of the vote to Clinton's 36.2%. The results in Diebold towns show the exact opposite: Clinton with 40.7% of the vote and Obama with 36.2%. Not only are the positions swapped but the informal statistics have the second place candidate holding 36.2% in both cases, which could easily be a pure coincidence. What doesn't make a lot of sense to me right now and this could be a mathematical mistake on my part is where Clinton got the extra 2% of votes in Diebold towns. All the other numbers almost exact for every candidate, even Edwards who received 17% of the vote in Diebold towns compared to 17.6% in non-Diebold towns. That still doesn't make up for the extra 2% vote Clinton is receiving when she leads in certain towns compared to when Obama has the lead. More through...

Diebold says Hillary won NH, hand count says Obama (January 9, 2008)
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/01/abc-news-it-is-simply-unprecedented-for.html

81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier") (January 8, 2008)
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/01/81-of-new-hampshire-ballots-are-counted.html

New Hampshire exit polls: Obama 44%, Clinton 35%, Edwards 14% !!!!
http://www.latimes.com/la-exitpoll-nh-graphic,0,7161708.htmlstory?coll=la-home-center

Ron Paul Votes Not Counted In New Hampshire District (January 9, 2008)
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/january2008/010908_not_counted.htm
Major allegations of vote fraud in New Hampshire are circulating after Hillary Clinton reversed a mammoth pre-polling deficit to defeat Barack Obama with the aid of Diebold electronic voting machines, while confirmed votes for Ron Paul in the Sutton district were not even counted.

99 Ways to Steal Elections: The Story of John Fund and Ron Paul (January 9, 2008)
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2008/01/99-ways-to-steal-elections-story-of.html
(...) The Corporate types who have worked so diligently to ignore the only real Republican running in this primary made a mistake. They thought that they could use their Diebold Machines to steal the primary in New Hampshire for John McCain and it would be believed. No one is buying it. According to Sally Castleman of Election Defense Alliance every county where a hand count was done came in exactly as predicted by Zogby. Where Diebold was in control we see what happens. Sally is getting me more information; stay tuned. CLIP

Hand Count Shows 15% For Ron Paul (January 9, 2008)
http://www.ronpaulwarroom.com/?p=749

Bad News from New Hampshire (2008-01-09)
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/29950
The news from the "Live Free or Die" state was bad. It was bad for peace and the anti-war movement (such as it is), and it was bad for progressives and progressive issues in general.The two candidates who won, John McCain on the Republican side, and Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side, are both fervent supporters of the Iraq War and of American militarism. Clinton talks of permanent US bases in Iraq. McCain says the US will be in Iraq for a century. What could the voters in New Hampshire be thinking?As for progressives and progressive issues, there are two problems. One is that Hillary Clinton is no progressive. Like her wayward husband Bill, she is a “triangulator” who will betray every item on the liberal Democratic agenda, in the unlikely event that she ends up in the White House. The whole Clintonian project has been to talk like a liberal while cutting deals with Republicans that destroy any prospects for progressive change. Healthcare reform? Keep it in the hands of the insurance industry. Crime? Build more prisons, keep the death penalty machine running, and make it harder for criminals to appeal their railroaded convictions. Abortion rights? Only if you have money and can pay for one yourself. Global warming? Tokenism and nuclear power. Jobs? Go back to school and retrain—we need free trade. International crisis? Bomb it.

Diebold Variations
http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm

---

January 09, 2008

This is from Bev Harris of Black Box Voting.org. She is now taking reports and looking into this big time. I also believe that Obama actually won the New Hampshire primary and there is absolutly no way that Ghooliani ended up with 9% of the vote last night in New Hampshire.

In the town of Sutton, there was a person who's whole family voted for RP and then when the totals came out they were zero for RP. This was reported by this person and then Bev was on the case. Bev called the election board and wala, they made a "mistake" He actually had 31 votes. This is also showing up in other towns in the New Hampshire Vote. There are other large anamolies going on.

The campaign has been bombarded with calls demanding a recount in New Hamshire. I cannot confirm but I am sure the Obama campaign has been made aware. The RP groups are thinking about a fund for the recount right now along with "other" things that can be done.

Bev Harris says...

"I called the Town of Sutton. Ron Paul got 31 votes, they reported zero, she said it was "human error", that doesn't cut it, that's the story there."

Are you in Pima or Maricopa County? Glad to see you're on the case there.

Bev Harris Founder - Black Box Voting
http://www.blackboxvoting.org

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

- Communist Tyrant and mass murderer Josef Stalin

---

Clinton's Win Enriches Bettors Facing 100-to-1 Odds (Jan. 9)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aDwt8YHCf1kY
(Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton isn't the only person who won big in New Hampshire last night.Online traders who placed a $100 bet on Clinton, the 60- year-old Democratic senator from New York, were rewarded with payoffs of as much as $10,000 after her upset victory over Barack Obama in the New Hampshire presidential primary, trading on Intrade, a Dublin-based online prediction market, indicated.Her chances of winning in New Hampshire plummeted to a record low of 1 percent yesterday after her defeat in last week's Iowa caucuses prompted online traders to shift almost all their bets to 46-year-old Illinois Senator Obama, Intrade data showed.Obama's chances surged to as high as 99 percent yesterday after polls indicated that he was also poised to win in New Hampshire. Clinton, who won by 3 percentage points, trailed Obama by an average of 6.3 points, according to Pollster.com, a Web site that compiles U.S. poll results.

4.

From: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5544">ttp://www.bradblog.com/?p=5544

KUCINICH CALLS FOR 'RECOUNT' OF NEW HAMPSHIRE BALLOTS

1/10/2008

Cites Concerns About 'Unexplained Disparities' in Hand and Diebold Machine Counted Ballots - Says 'It’s about establishing whether 100% of the voters had 100% of their votes counted exactly the way they cast them'

Kucinich asks for New Hampshire recount in the interest of election integrity

DETROIT, MI – Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, the most outspoken advocate in the Presidential field and in Congress for election integrity, paper-ballot elections, and campaign finance reform, has sent a letter to the New Hampshire Secretary of State asking for a recount of Tuesday’s election because of “unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots.”
...
He added, “Ever since the 2000 election – and even before – the American people have been losing faith in the belief that their votes were actually counted. This recount isn’t about who won 39% of 36% or even 1%. It’s about establishing whether 100% of the voters had 100% of their votes counted exactly the way they cast them.”

Kucinich, who drew about 1.4% of the New Hampshire Democratic primary vote, wrote, “This is not about my candidacy or any other individual candidacy. It is about the integrity of the election process.” No other Democratic candidate, he noted, has stepped forward to question or pursue the claims being made.

“New Hampshire is in the unique position to address – and, if so determined, rectify – these issues before they escalate into a massive, nationwide suspicion of the process by which Americans elect their President. Based on the controversies surrounding the Presidential elections in 2004 and 2000, New Hampshire is in a prime position to investigate possible irregularities and to issue findings for the benefit of the entire nation,” Kucinich wrote in his letter.

“Without an official recount, the voters of New Hampshire and the rest of the nation will never know whether there are flaws in our electoral system that need to be identified and addressed at this relatively early point in the Presidential nominating process,” said Kucinich

---

Related article and comments:

Velvet Revolution Offers $100,000 Reward For Information About E-Fraud In New Hampshire (1/10/08 ) http://www.velvetrevolution.us/#011008
Primary Tips can be confidentially given at 1-888-VOTETIP

Kucinich asks for NH recount, but he'll have to pay for it (January 11, 2008)
http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/primarysource/2008/01/kucinich_asked.html
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is calling for a recount of the New Hampshire primary, not because he believes it will show him the winner, but for the integrity of the process. Kucinich received just 1.4 percent of the vote in Tuesday's primary that was won by Hillary Clinton. The New Hampshire Secretary of State's office said Kucinich can have a recount but he will have to pay for it. Under state law if a candidate loses by less than 3 percent they can pay a flat $2,000 for the recount. If they lose by more than 3 percent they have to pay the entire cost. Kucinich asked for a recount after hearing about reports that Barack Obama did better in places where votes were hand counted versus larger cities where votes are tabulated electronically. In truth, polling had suggested that Clinton was doing better in the larger cities prior to the vote.In 2004 a Michigan activist demanded a recount of the presidential race on behalf of the Ralph Nader campaign. As The Nation reported they were satisfied of the integrity of the New Hampshire process after the recount.

Help Defend the Integrity of Our Voting System
http://www.dennis4president.com/go/homepage-items/help-defend-the-integrity-of-our-voting-system/
Dennis Kucinich has asked for a recount of the New Hampshire Primary vote and we need your help to raise the funds for this important action. Dennis is asking for a recount of Tuesday’s election because of "unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots."
Please help with a contribution.

Kucinich%20stepping%20into%20trap%20with%20recount?%20(1-10-08)
Kucinich stepping into trap with recount? (1-10-08)
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
The election integrity community is abuzz with news that candidate Dennis Kucinich will ask for a recount in New Hampshire, and Ron Paul fans have been pushing him to recount as well. Careful. NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION INTEGRITY ADVOCATE NANCY TOBI IS CORRECT: "We have no control over the ballot chain of custody and we have learned the pain from the 2004 Nader recount, in which only 11 districts were counted, chosen by a highly questionable person, and then nothing showed up. Now all we hear is how the Nader recount validated the machines." As Tobi says, "A candidate asking for a recount may well be a tool used to 'prove' everything was okay and then that candidate will be further discredited." I'll go further than that. The only way a recount makes any sense at all in New Hampshire is AFTER an assessment is made of the chain of custody issues. If the chain of custody isn't intact the recount won't be worth a cup of warm spit. CLIP

---

From: http://www.dailypaul.com/node/23643#comment-207167

This Was Predicted Before The NH Primary

On January 11th, 2008 EileenMac says:

This was all predicted BEFORE the NH Primary....I refer you to these and others videos on YouTube which explained what and how the NewHampshire and other elections can be manipulated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JESZiLpBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkKdJoWG3qQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNYA5ggwG84

Yes, there should be a recount, not only by Ron Paul, but by ALL the candidates who were hurt by this. Dennis Kucinich has already requested recount of his votes.

Obama should request a recount, as should Huckabee and John Edwards. Maybe even McCain because, even though he "won" in NH, many of his votes were also siphoned off by the Establishment GOP. McCain is NOT the choice of the neocon GOP and will be dumped by them on Tsunami Tuesday, February 5th.
A different kind of vote manipulation is already a "done deal" for the February 5th Republican Presidential Primaries, which is where the bulk of "delegates" will be determined. Why do you think that Giuliani, Romney and Thompson are so nonchalant and blase' about the Iowa Caucus and the NH Primary?? NH will NOT matter one bit when it comes to determining the Republican nominee at the GOP Convention in September, one week AFTER the Democratic Convention.

The neocon Rep party has already determined who they want to POSSIBLY be the "winners" in most of these 22 "Tsunami Tuesday" Prez Primaries, by quietly changing the rules for registration over a year ago. What they did, when no one was watching or even interested, was CLOSE the GOP Prez Primaries, instead of leaving them OPEN, as had been in the past in states such as CA.

Originally, the intended target of this calculated decision was John McCain who, in states like CA and NH, receives MOST of his support from independents and Republican-LEANING voters, who are NOT registered officially as Republicans. Ron Paul was not even on the radar, but this regulation of the voter registration process will be even MORE effective against a candidate like Ron Paul.

I am NOT saying that a recount does not matter, and should not be done. It should. However, it would better serve Ron Paul if ALL the candidates who were hurt by this OBVIOUS fraud worked together, at least UNofficially, in an effort to show the American People that it was the NEOCON GOP who was probably behind it and why.

Who does a Giuliani/Romney/Thompson ticket want to run against? The answer is Hillary Clinton, NOT Barack Obama or John Edwards. So read between the lines. This is a CHESS game, NOT a series of Checker matches. There WAS, IS, and WILL BE a manipulation of Voter Registration, the Voting PROCESS and the vote count, by the Party who wants to win and will go to any length to do it.

Do not get me wrong. I am NOT being pessimistic about Ron Paul or discouraging that we continue to do whatever we can to educate and encourage Americans to vote for the ONLY real American running for the Presidency. No matter what the outcome in November 2008, we have already won because the American People KNOW the truth and are going to keep on fighting for our Constitution and our freedom.

And, everything that we can do NOW to explain NewHampshire AND the upcoming Primaries to the American People will only serve to heighten the integrity of Ron Paul, his campaign, and his efforts to bring truth and justice back to the voting process.

However, I AM being REALISTIC about what has happened and what is going to happen on February 5th and beyond. Which is why we must continue to act and speak, like Congressman Dr. Paul, with integrity and honesty and common sense. We must pick our battles wisely, and continue to use TRUTH as our weapon against the evil ones.

Kucinich on Paul again
http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=196&topic_id=8803
If Kucinich won the Democratic nomination, whom would he pick as his vice presidential nominee?

5.

Note from Jean: Daniel Stafford (aqmstaffo@mailbag.com) also suggested this to our attention:

"I would also recommend keeping a close eye on Brad Friedman's site, www.bradblog.com . He has one of the best sites around focusing on the issues of electronic voting and other dirty tricks in US elections and he has been all over this since prior to 2004. Between Bradblog and Black Box Voting, you'll get 99% of the real story. He was already on top of this on election night."

SO HERE IS WHAT I FOUND RECOMMENDED THERE:

From: http://commonwonders.com/archives/col429.htm

PRIMARY CONCERNS: Hoisting a few red flags about the elections

By Robert C. Koehler
Tribune Media Services

As the breathless sports coverage of the presidential primaries bursts around me this morning, I’m doing my best to resist surrendering to the contrived drama about “comeback kids” and the flying shrapnel of numbers and hold onto my troubled skepticism about the electoral process, or at least most of it.

First of all, before we get too enthusiastic about feminist solidarity or wax knowingly about New Hampshire Democrats’ traditional soft-heartedness toward the Clinton family, let’s ponder yet again the possibility of tainted results, which is such an unfun prospect most of the media can’t bear to remember that all the problems we’ve had with electronic voting machines — and Diebold machines in particular, which dominate New Hampshire polling places — remain unsolved.

Did the Hillary campaign really defy the pollsters? She had been trailing Barack Obama by 13 percentage points, 42 to 29, in a recent Zogby poll, as election watchdog Brad Friedman pointed out. And the weekend’s “rapturous packed rallies for Mr. Obama,” as the New York Times put it, “suggested Mrs. Clinton was in dire shape.”

So when she emerged from the Tuesday primary with an 8,000-vote and 3-percentage-point victory over Obama, perhaps — considering the notorious unreliability, not to mention hackability, of Diebold machines — the media might have hoisted a few red flags in the coverage, rather than immediately chalk the results up to Clinton’s tears and voter unpredictability. (Oh, if only more reporters considered red flags patriotic.)

The fact is, whatever actually happened in New Hampshire voting booths on Tuesday, our elections are horrifically insecure. For instance, Bev Harris, of the highly respected voting watchdog organization Black Box Voting, recently wrote that the Diebold 1.94w optical scan machines used in some 55 percent of New Hampshire precincts (representing more than 80 percent of the state’s voters) are “the exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County (Florida)” a few years ago. They haven’t been upgraded; the security problems haven’t been fixed.

National, or at least media, denial about this situation doesn’t say much for the strength of our democracy.

The other recent chill I felt over the state of that democracy was symbolized by the gleeful thumbs up that ABC president David Westin gave his staff 20 minutes before airtime for Saturday’s candidate debate, when word came in that a judge had ruled against Dennis Kucinich’s last-minute lawsuit to gain inclusion in the debate. The staff cheered, the Hollywood Reporter noted with barely concealed satisfaction, as though to say: A-list celebrities only, Dennis!

The exclusion of Kucinich from the debates, and the mainstream media’s indifference to and/or tacit approval thereof, strikes me as part of the same phenomenon as their inability to incorporate news of ongoing voting-machine insecurity into actual election coverage.

The unacknowledged backstory of the election process, you might say, is that it’s primarily entertainment; and downer stuff like unreliable numbers or a short, pedestrian candidate who insists on talking about real — and possibly unpleasant — issues just don’t belong in the package presented to the public. No grit, please! No matter the current administration has trashed the Constitution, dragged us into a disastrous war, abandoned New Orleans, blown national security and made torture fashionable, this election is about . . . feelings, personal drama.

So with Kucinich out of the debates and out of mainstream consciousness, the simmering concerns of far more than 1 percent of the population are also excluded from these debates that, after all, are about the nation’s and the world’s future. I was dreading the onset of the primary season because I knew it would not be what it affected to be: something, uh, related to reality.

Thus impeachment, that unpleasant topic, is not something any of the top-tier, media-vetted Democratic candidates will be talking about, no matter that it has far more support among the electorate than the impeachment of Hillary’s husband ever did. And the Iraq war itself is reduced to a yes or no question, with no discussion of the bloated U.S. defense budget on the table, or the role of aggressive neocon-style militarism in our national security. Westin’s thumbs up signaled media exclusion of all such matters from the national debate.

That said, I acknowledge taking wary heart in Obama’s remarkable road to national prominence and (hypothesizing fair elections) his reasonable shot at the Democratic presidential nomination. He is energizing African-Americans and many other disaffected voters, and just maybe, as he ascends to the highest levels of power, he really intends to represent them.

---

Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You can respond to this column at bkoehler@tribune.com

6.

Forwarded by Nattanya (nattanya@telus.net)

From: Joel (underground@uniserve.com)
Date: Jan 9, 2008
Subject: Vote Fraud Proven In New Hampshire...

Hi, Vote fraud in the New Hampshire election is just starting to come forward.

Many New Hampshire districts reported no votes, that's zero, for Ron Paul. Some districts are now changing their stories because people who voted for him are starting to come forward.

The story below is just one example of fraud. After public complaints in Sutton Township, zero votes has been changed to 31 votes. That doesn't sound like much, but this was done on a massive scale..

Barack Obama is a completely bought and paid for phony (ie, CFR member). This is why he's not complaining about the huge voting fraud he experienced thanks to the Diebold voting machines. Barack is willing to take the fall for his fellow CFR member, and criminal, Hillary Clinton.

It's hard to compete against Diebold voting machines that were invented, and are fully controlled by CIA front companies.

Black Box Voting is tracking the fraud. See link below.

Clinton would not have beat Obama without the aid of Diebold voting machines. In precincts where electronic voting machines were used, Clinton got a 7% swing over Obama, having gained 5% in comparison to hand-counted ballots and Obama losing 2%.

Mitt Romney profited the most from the Diebold swing, he received 7% more votes compared to hand counted ballots.

More...

2008.1.9 New Hampshire District Admits Ron Paul Votes Not Counted, Sutton Township Reported Congressman Had Zero Votes, Actual Number Was 31
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/010908_district_admits.htm

2008.1.9 Ron Paul Votes Not Counted In New Hampshire District, Vote Fraud Confirmed, Clinton Reversed Mammoth Pre Polling Deficit To Beat Obama, Diebold Machines Aid Giuliani, Romney
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/010908_not_counted.htm

Black Box Voting (Bev Harris)
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

NEW HAMPSHIRE-GATE IS NOW CLINTON-BUSH DIEBOLD-GATE (January 9, 2008) http://blog.myspace.com/tom_heneghan_intel

7.

Date: 10 Jan 2008
From: Daniel Stafford (aqmstaffo@mailbag.com)
Subject: Chris Matthews: Raw EXIT POLL Data 'Indicated Significant Victory' for Obama in NH

From: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5535

Chris Matthews: Raw EXIT POLL Data 'Indicated Significant Victory' for Obama in NH
'Was Ahead an Average of 8 Points, Even in Our Own Exit Polls'

Even the Exit Polls showed that Obama should have won, according to Chris Matthews on Hardball today. It's the first specific indication that we've seen that the raw, unadjusted Exit Poll data, which only corporate mainstream media folks, not mere mortals, are allowed to see, confirmed all of the pre-election polling which predicted an Obama win.

He introduced his segment today this way (video at right):

MATTHEWS: So what accounts for Hillary Clinton's victory in New Hampshire? What we don't know is why the victory is so much different in fact, then the polling ahead of time, including what we call the Exit Polls were telling us. Obama was ahead in those polls by an average of 8 points, and even our own Exit Polls, taken as people came out of voting, showed him ahead. So what's going on here?

Good question. And one that we asked, verbatim, all night long last night.

"Why were the polls taken, of people coming out of the booth, so off?," Matthews tries to ask his guests again and again. And again.

All of them twisted and turned and contorted and grappled and speculated, coming up with every possible unverifiable, backwards-engineered explanation, save for the one that must not be named. The 600 lb. canary in the virtual living room...the fact that no human being has bothered to check what was actually on NH's vast majority of ballots (80%) which were "counted" by error-prone, hackable Diebold optical-scan machines, all controlled by one bad, horribly irresponsible private company, who has no business being anywhere near a public election.

We've yet to see that raw Exit data ourselves, as mentioned. But we're working on it. Even while we're still working on getting the never-released raw data from 2004, when the Exit Polls were done then, as now, by Mitofsky/Edison.

(BTW: They disavow their own Exit Polling from 2004. So, naturally, the MSM news consortium hired the same folks to do the job again in 2008. Perhaps it was the company's apparently spot-on Exit Polling in Ukraine, in December of 2004, cited as evidence of fraud by George W. Bush and Colin Powell, that the challenger should have won, rather than the incumbant, as the election results announced, in contradiction of the Exit Polls...but don't get us started.)

And yet, as all the talking heads continue to use data from those post-election-adjusted Exit Polls, as speculative reasons why Clinton was announced the winner ("higher than expected female turnout" "voters who make less than $50k"), Politico's Roger Simon, at the end of the Hardball segment, asks the question about NH '08, that we've been asking about 2004 for years: "If the exit polls got the results wrong, why do we think they got the demographics right?"

Did anything go wrong in New Hampshire? Who knows? The Pre-Election Polling indicates it did. The unadjusted Exit Polling, at least according to Matthews, indicates it did. But until we realize we need to actually count ballots --- openly and transparently --- in our American elections, we expect these same questions and nightmares will continue, over and over and over, for a very long time to come...

(Hat-tip Alan Breslauer for the video)

---

From: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5527

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 1/8/2008

Worldwide Coverage of the Sibel Edmonds Bombshell! And in the United States of America...um....

Good news! The bombshell report on the front page of London's Sunday Times on charges made by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, has finally led to press coverage by the mainstream media!

From one side of the globe to the other, as expected, the explosive whistleblower allegations concerning highly-placed, well-known U.S. officials in the Departments of State and Defense involved in an illicit, for-profit scheme to develop and protect a network of spies, who then stole and sold American nuclear secrets to the international black markets via Turkey, Israel and Pakistan, is now worldwide news!

That, even though the Times only covered "about 20%" of the story she has to tell, according to Edmonds, with whom we spoke late last night. Sunday's British blockbuster, detailing how nuclear secrets were then proliferated to Iran, Libya, North Korea, and potentially even al-Qaeda, was picked up on Monday and reported by international mainstream outlets such as The Times of India, Pakistan's Daily Times, Iran's PressTV, Israel's Haaretz and even the Turkish Daily News.

Here in the United States, the mainstream media coverage included:

That's right. Nobody. None of them. Zilch. Not a one.

Edmonds told The BRAD BLOG last night that her phone had been ringing of the hook since the Times story hit. From reporters around the globe, she said. As to America: "Not a single mainstream media channel, not even a newspaper."

Apparently American nuclear secrets, stolen by "moles" at America's most sensitive nuclear installations, sold on the black market with the help and protection of highly placed American officials, which then found their way into the hands of America's enemies, is not notable news to Americans. According to the American corporate mainstream media, anyway. We suppose they're all too busy fighting the War on Terror in New Hampshire or something.

And you wonder how our country got into this mess?

Edmonds was no longer amazed by it all. We still are.

UPDATE 6:22pm PT Credit where it's due. Independent American broadcast media outlet, INN World Report, seen on some satellite TV providers, covered the report in detail, including an interview with yours truly... Go at http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5527 to watch this TV news report

---

Related websites:

Let Sibel Edmonds speak
http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/

JUST A CITIZEN
http://www.justacitizen.com/

Sibel Edmonds’ State Secrets Privilege Gallery
http://www.justacitizen.com/images/Gallery%20Draft2%20for%20Web.htm

8.

From: http://tinyurl.com/2xtdsr

The Bomb in the Shadows: Proliferation, Corruption and the Way of the World

Written by Chris Floyd

8 January 2008

This week, the Sunday Times lifted the lid on one of the most important stories of the last quarter-century: how American officials sold nuclear arms technology to illegal proliferators -- including ideological allies of al Qaeda -- in return for bribes and other inducements. This widespread corruption has been protected from exposure by the highest levels of the U.S. government, which has gone to enormous lengths to protect the truth from coming out. The entire planet has been put at grave risk by the greed -- and geopolitical gamesmanship -- that lies behind this criminal enterprise, which actually is even more extensive, and goes back further in time, than the newspaper's remarkable revelations.

The Sunday Times story is based on the evidence provided by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who has been subjected to an unprecedented campaign of state-enforced muzzling by the Bush Administration since she first tried to speak out about the corrupt connections between American officials and foreign agents she discovered when reviewing transcripts associated with the 9/11 investigation. As even the leaders of the whitewashing 9/11 Commission themselves now admit, that investigation was deliberately sabotaged by the Bush Administration – in part to cover up the nuclear proliferation network that has directly or indirectly enriched so many in the American elite over the past decades – including the sitting president of the United States, George W. Bush.

Edmonds' revelations should be seen in their larger historical context, as an outgrowth of the activities of BCCI, the "Bank of Credit and Commercial International," a supposed financial group that a U.S. Senate investigation called "one of the largest criminal enterprises in history." BCCI was a prime vehicle for clandestine nuclear proliferation, among many other illegal activities, and was also used by the CIA and the White House for various covert operations, including secret military and financial support for Saddam Hussein. It also paid numerous grandees of the Democratic and Republican parties to front its operations – and gave George W. Bush $25 million to rescue one of his many business failures.

Although BCCI as a "bank" eventually failed, spectacularly, costing its unsuspecting customers more than $10 billion, almost no one was punished for its myriad crimes, and the full extent of the organization's activities continue to be shielded by the many national governments that became entangled in its operations, including the United States and Great Britain, where the Labour government has made extraordinary interventions in court cases to protect BCCI's secrets, invoking the most draconian state secret laws to quash a lawsuit against the Bank of England for the blind but knowing eye that the regulator turned toward BCCI's deadly fraud.

Before exploring these deeper connections further, let's review the tip of the iceberg that Edmonds has courageously exposed, despite the very real threat of retaliation from the U.S. government. From the Times:

CLIP

This is the way the world works. Behind the glitz and gossip of presidential campaigns, behind all the earnest "policy debates" on Capitol Hill, behind all the "position papers" and "vision statements" of think tanks and political parties, behind all the great panoply of state and our august Establishment institutions, thieves and murderers have their way, in league with the great and good.

Anyone who ascends to national power has to make a deal with the devil: either directly to plunge their hands into filth and blood, or else swaddle themselves in "plausible deniability," looking away from the grubby details but knowing full well that their minions, agents and backers are doing "whatever it takes" to keep the machine of power and money rolling on.

This doesn't mean that leaders can't also try to do good things as well, and occasionally accomplish them. After all, Al Capone was famous for his acts of benevolence. Indeed, some leaders pursue idealistic or ameliorative policies in order to "justify" the crimes and lies that sustain the system which has raised them on high. But the devil will have his due, and the price of power must always be paid – and it is ordinary people, especially the most innocent and vulnerable among us, who always end up paying it.

9.

Forwarded by Julie Weston (julie.weston@hausmann.com.au)

From: alerts@nrdcactionfund.org
Sent: 9 January 2008
Subject: Whales Win Big!

Fantastic news! A federal court in California has just imposed the strongest-ever protections for whales against an onslaught of military sonar.

The new controls are the result of an NRDC lawsuit that demanded the Navy rein in its deadly sonar before beginning two years of maneuvers near the Channel Islands -- one of the world's most sensitive environments and home to five endangered species of whales.

The Navy itself estimates that the booming sonar would harass or harm marine mammals some 170,000 times -- and cause permanent injury in more than 400 cases.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said the Navy's existing plan for protecting marine mammals was "grossly inadequate." And she has ordered the Navy to put a series of precautionary measures in place -- many of them recommended by NRDC -- that will go a long way toward protecting whales from needless injury and death.

For starters, the Navy will not be permitted to use its dangerous mid-frequency sonar within 12 miles of the California coast, a zone that is heavily used by migrating whales and dolphins. Sonar will also be banned in the Catalina Basin, an underwater canyon with a high density of whales.

The Navy will also have to monitor for marine mammals -- from the ship and from the air -- both before and during its sonar exercises. If any marine mammals are spotted within 2200 yards of the ship, the Navy will have to shut down its sonar.

These safeguards represent a giant leap forward in our decade-long campaign to make sure that whales don't have to die for the sake of military practice.

I want to thank you for advancing our campaign for whales through your tenacious online activism. Needless to say, this fight is far from over and many more court battles lay ahead.

But case by case, we are accomplishing what many thought impossible: forcing the Navy to obey our environmental laws and stop its needless killing of whales -- and all without compromising military readiness.

Thank you for standing with NRDC in defense of the world's marine mammals.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke President NRDC

P.S. In the wake of this landmark victory, please help us build nationwide opposition to a separate Navy plan that would put a sonar range right next to a key migratory route for endangered whales by clicking here: http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/whales_nc_tell_friends

10.

From: robineagle@worldcitizen.org
Date: 8 Jan 2008
Subject: Cradle to cradle is the Best solution

Dear Jean,

You posted a link to a video about the dumping of eWaste and then it was suggested that the answer for dealing with it was to insist that local legislation be passed that says these things cannot be shipped out of the place that they are BOUGHT. While this is certainly not the worst of ideas, we certainly can and must do better than this. The law that we pass should say that eWaste and any and all other toxic substances must be processed responsibly by the producer of the waste in such a way that it provides no harm to anyone or any ecosystem at all. Such a law should be passed at the national level and a full on campaign is needed that it be passed at the global level as well as soon as possible.

This is called producer responsibility; and the overall goal that we should be working for is that the producer of any and all goods and services must take full responsibility for their product or service throughout its lifetime—cradle to cradle—as it is called and described by Bill McDonough. It should be the manufacturers responsibility to collect and take apart any and everything that is produced, so that it can be reused or reprocessed until it is totally inert.

Every country, every community, including our global one, must make plans to move as rapidly as possible towards full sustainability. We are rapidly depleting natural resource base and poisoning our natural environment. If we do not act now, we are likely to discover that global warming is the least of our problems. With India and China growing economically at 9% a year and heading towards a world population of well more than 7 billion people within 15 or 20 years, we are going to be in big trouble if we don't change how we do things, as a society and humanity, quick.

Rob Wheeler
UN Representative, Global Ecovillage Network http://www.ecovillage.org
Chair, Intl Steering Committee, World Movement for Global Democracy http://www.wmgd.net
robineagle@worldcitizen.org

NOTE FROM JEAN: I recommend you give a look at http://www.wmgd.net to discover what long-time ERN subscriber Rob Wheeler is doing - which is MOST excellent! Here is their Manifesto which you may want to sign through http://www.wmgd.net/breakthrough/signup.html

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From: http://www.wmgd.net/breakthrough/index.html

Breakthrough 2007-2012

Think Responsibly - Act Responsibly

Join the International movement for global democracy, peace and human rights:

• Because the year 2007 must be a new beginning for “people power” to be effective agents of transformation towards a more peaceful and sustainable world.

• Because a BREAKTHROUGH is urgently needed by a world wide 'people movement'; for peace and international cooperation by bringing together like - minded individuals, lending fresh impetus to projects of economic cooperation and inter cultural understanding.

• Because we need electronic parliament, linking parliamentarians world wide to provide a forum for debates on the best ways to save the common good.

• Because the civil society organizations need to link up through the internet and develop shared strategies to restore peace and revitalize war-torn regions and environments, they promote socially and ecologically responsibly policies in local and national governments and in business.

• Because local, national and global business respond to the increasingly forceful calls by governments and civic society for corporate social and ecological responsibility.

Background

"Our global village is inequitable, full of frustration and hate, and is neither economically nor ecologically sustainable. This condition cannot be prolonged indefinitely. We either achieve peace and a higher level of sustainability, or risk a global holocaust.

Half a century ago Albert Einstein noted that we cannot solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that gave rise to it. Nobel scientists now agree. A Declaration signed by one hundred Laureates at the conclusion of the Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Symposium in December of 2001 noted, “The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed.”

They ended the Declaration saying, “To survive in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way.”

The urgently required local and global transformation calls for timely changes in the way we think. With new, more responsible thinking we could head towards better, more peaceful and sustainable conditions on this planet."

- Ervin Laszlo, Author "You Can Change the World" & President, International Club of Budapest

The ten commandments of responsible living

1. Satisfy your needs without detracting from others.
2. Live to respect the right to life and development of others.
3. Safeguard the right to life and health of all growing and living things
4. Pursue happiness, freedom and fulfillment for self and in others.
5. Help those less privileged to live without hunger and penury.
6. Preserve or restore the integrity of the environment.
7. Help children and young to discover ways of thinking and acting of their own.
8. Ask your government to deal peacefully and cooperatively with other nations and cultures.
9. Patronize businesses that provide without impairing the environment.
10. Use media with reliable information on trends and events that affect life to make sound decisions.

FIND OUT MORE THROUGH http://www.wmgd.net/

11.

Note from Jean: I've decided to pass on to you this material below even if I'm utterly skeptical about this. Reading my reply to a subscriber -- Nathan Stevens (nathancstevens2@yahoo.com) -- who had suggested to me to look into this Planet X scare story as a possible explanation for Earth's global warming, a suggestion I initially turned down, you will understand the reasons for my reticence on this... Now that this story is out there (many of you probably heard about it already), I prefer to deal with it directly rather than simply ignore it. Of course, in the end each one of you is responsible for making your own judgement and how y