What The Fucks Going On Blog

The PEN: Anybody But Kagan for Supreme Court - Corporations are not People

from The PEN

 

In this part 9th of our series of analyses cutting up the Supreme
Court's dreadful corporate personhood decision, as it relates
specifically to the worst choice that could be made, current
Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

Even we would have to admit that the government's (Kagan's) argument
in this case did not even rise to the level of lameness. This,
Kennedy (who wrote the opinion, but with Roberts piling on too)
thought gave him the excuse to say that the people must lose because
Kagan was so muddle headed in her argument, which she was. It is a
specious excuse of course, because the Supreme Court has an
independent obligation to respect precedent regardless of how poorly
cited by the party for the people. Moreover, Seth P. Waxman (who also
argued the people's side in oral argument) made the points that
needed to be made, even if they flew right by Kagan herself.

And the first and most important of those points was that the Supreme
Court was rushing into this decision in the stark absence of any
record of testimony in the Court below to develop findings of fact on
the issues they themselves wanted to resurrect (having previously
been abandoned by the corporations' advocate). This was one of the
first points we made (in the second installment in this series), and
it should have been the first words out of Kagan's mouth.

While Kagan in her written filings kind of made the procedural point
that the Supreme Court should not revive the waived argument
(Supplemental brief of appellee Federal Election Commission, pp.
3-5), at NO time did she argue that even if the Court were inclined
to do so, it still could not do so fairly without returning the case
back to the lower court for further proceedings there (what is called
a "remand"). What a remand would do is preclude an immediate (and in
this case ill-advisedly hasty) decision by the Supreme Court, but
allowing that it could be reviewed again after those necessary
findings of fact were conducted, presuming one of the parties wanted
to again appeal the subsequent decision by the lower court.

For her part, Justice Sotomayor did as valiant a job as she could to
hand Kagan the ball, raising this issue herself when questioning
attorney Olson. (Oral argument, p. 25, lines 16-22.) Attorney Seth
Waxman himself did indeed put up a glove to try to catch this ball by
the end of his own presentation. (Oral argument, p. 75, line 10 - p.
77, line 2). But it should have been the government's first bulwark.
Kagan did more than drop the ball, she did not even notice that there
was a ball.

And the reason is, Kagan was so self-absorbed with the sound of her
own voice, wandering miles away from any point persuasive on the case
actually before the court, she did not even have a coherent
presentation in mind stepping into that chamber. Kennedy ridiculed
her, describing the "litigating position of the Government" with the
word "uncertainty". (Opinion, p. 23). Roberts was even more pointed
in his concurring opinion mocking her for discarding the original
reasoning (the only righteous basis for stare decisis in the first
place) which supported the cases they were unilaterally determined to
reverse. (Roberts opinion, pp. 12-13).

Instead of making a strong defense of the Austin case based on its
essential holding, which as we have already told you (part 5 of this
series) is the only thing binding as precedent, Kagan walked in with
a grab bag of alternative theories, including a vague one of her own,
namely "something related to the shareholder interest that is in
truth my view of Austin". (Oral argument, p 48, lines 14-15).

Hey, Kagen, who gives a flying fig what YOUR view of the case is?
Your job as Solicitor General was to argue what the view was of the
Supreme Court justices who wrote the opinion you were there to
preserve, not egotistically invent fatuous new theories on the spot
in oral argument to demonstrate what a brilliant legal mind you have.

So utterly disconnected was Kagan from what was actually going on in
that oral argument that Justice Stevens himself had to correct her
for getting wrong the point that he was trying to help her with.
(Oral argument, p. 43, lines 3-5).

Oh, but it gets so much worse. Behold this black pearl of oral
argument advocacy out of Kagan's mouth.

"If you asking me, Mr. Chief Justice, as to whether the government
has a preference as to the way in which loses, if it has to lose, the
answer is yes." (Oral argument, p. 40, lines 4-7).

Yes, that's the ticket, let's go to the Supreme Court so we can tell
them how they can rule against us. Good grief!!

The most important quality of Justice Stevens, and why his
replacement is so important, was his ability to build consensus in
persuading other judges to join him, were they to be fair minded at
all. In Kagan we would have the exact opposite, a self-indulgent
self-marginalizer, who doesn't even possess the listening skills to
even hear what would be her fellow justices, were she unfortunately
to be appointed, are saying. She not only hasn't got the legal mental
weight to stand up to Kennedy or Roberts, she couldn't even stand toe
to toe with Thomas. He didn't even have to open his mouth for her to
make a fool of herself.

There is a sophomoric tradition in the Supreme Court that when a new
justice is appointed they become the designated coffee fetcher for
the rest when they conference together. Based on her abysmal
performance in this case, we can predict with certainly that if we
are stuck with Kagan as the next appointee she will never (without
massive clerking help) rise above the level of legal coffee fetcher.
We say anybody but Kagan. Enabling by her fumbling incompetence the
worst Supreme Court decision of the last century is enough damage for
one legal career.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm

DU used in Afghanistan and Iraq 100,000 times more toxic than Gulf war DU

EARL NASH,  WTFG  "  Depleted Uranium"  Correspondent      

>>>>>  “It’s news to you…”  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The DU used in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is 100,000 times more toxic than the Gulf War DU.

In the materials of the DU weapons used in Iraq and Afghanistan; a report found that in addition to U-238, today’s munitions contain plutonium, neptunium, and the highly radioactive uranium isotope U-236. An isotope is one of several slightly different atomic
structures within the same element, in this case uranium.

According to a 1991 study by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, these elements are 100,000 times more dangerous than the U-238 in so-called depleted uranium.

At last count, more than 1,000 tons of DU have been used in Afghanistan and more than 3,000 tons in Iraq.

 

Three quarters of today’s troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have served multiple tours: 26% are on their first tour of duty, 45% are on their second tour, and 29% are in Iraq for a third time or more. Some are now being ordered to a fourth tour of duty.

Significantly, most Gulf War tours of duty were short.

Simple math suggests that depleted uranium may eventually prove a hundred times more deadly to our forces than all the Iraqi resistance fighters’ improvised explosive devices (IED’s) and rocket propelled grenades (RPG’s) combined.

Leonard Dietz is a retired physicist from the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in upstate New York. Dietz, who pioneered the technology to measure uranium isotopes, is quoted as saying,

“Anybody, civilian or soldier, who breathes these particles has a permanent dose, and it’s not going to decrease very much over time. . In the long run. . .veterans exposed to ceramic uranium oxide have a major problem.”

Nearly 700,000 American Gulf War Veterans returned to the US from a war that lasted just a few weeks. Today more than 240,000 of those soldiers are on permanent medical disability, and over 11,000 are dead.

Radioactive poisoning from depleted uranium shells as the deadliest element in the Gulf War Illness “cocktail.” In the 1991 war the Pentagon fired more than 340 tons of DU projectiles at targets in Iraq and Kuwait. More than a half million Gulf era veterans are on medical
disability.

In a US Government study on post-Gulf War babies born to 251 veterans, 67 per cent of the babies were reported to have serious illnesses or serious birth defects. They were born without eyes, ears, had missing organs, fused fingers, thyroid or other malfunctions.

Depleted uranium in the semen of the soldiers internally contaminated their wives.

Severe birth defects have been reported in babies born to contaminated civilians in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan and the incidence and severity of defects is increasing over time. Women in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq are afraid now to have babies, and when they do give birth, instead of asking if it is a girl or a boy, they ask ‘is it normal?’.

U-236 is another man-made metal. It is created inside operating nuclear reactors and is intensely radioactive. U-236 has been found in the urine of sick
Afghan and Iraqi villagers and on the ground next to bomb craters.

Geologist Leuren Moret is an independent scientist and internationally recognized expert on radiation, DU, and public health. She estimates that “one millionth of a gram [of depleted uranium] accumulating in a person’s body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment.”

Quiet and Invisible Guests That Never Leave

Why the wide variety of illnesses?

Depleted uranium contamination causes virtually every known illness from acute skin rashes, severe headaches, muscle and joint pain, and general fatigue, to major birth defects, infection, depression, cardiovascular disease, brain tumors, and every other type of cancer. Uranium replaces calcium, destroying teeth and bones.

DU is causing permanent disability and death for hundreds of thousands of American veterans who served in the Middle East.

For more information, every military family should watch Beyond Treason, and every high school should play the DVD for students subjected to military recruitment. According to experts interviewed on the DVD, some soldiers return home contaminated with billions of radioactive ceramic particles.

Let’s follow the journey of these microscopic invaders after they are inhaled. They attach first to the trachea and stick to lung tissue. The heavy metal ceramic specks are practically insoluble; so they so don’t easily dissolve into the bloodstream. They cling to the respiratory system for years, even decades, and irradiate the surrounding tissues, damaging neighboring organs.

Gradually they pass through the lung-blood membranes into the bloodstream and lymphatic system, causing illnesses and damage to the entire body. Radiation mutates cells, causing cancers, leukemia, lymphoma, congenital disorders, and birth defects.

Here’s what happens when these microscopic radioactive particles are ingested through the mouth or penetrate the body through buried DU shrapnel or open wounds. They enter the bloodstream and circulate freely throughout the body, emitting radiation as they travel. Some concentrate in the lymph nodes and cause lymphatic cancer. DU also damages the immune system by hastening the death of white blood cells, and impairing their ability to attack bacteria.

Other ceramic particles cause “low-level” cell irradiation in the bone marrow and the stem cells that the body creates there. Stem cells are the progenitors of all the other cells that the body manufactures in order to renew itself.

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, formerly in charge of Nuclear Medicine Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, was ailing veteran Terry Riordan’s doctor whom we cited in the March 8 installment. Dr. Durakovic is now the Director of the Uranium Medical Research Institute.

“Stem cells are very vulnerable,” he says. “Bombarded with alpha particles, their DNA will fall apart, potentially affecting every organ.”

The process is similar to building a house with defective materials or cooking a meal with spoiled ingredients. If malfunctioning stem cells become new liver cells, then the liver will malfunction. Hence defective stem cells cause many veterans to suffer kidney failure, brain damage, and poorly functioning joints
and muscles.

DU may transform semen into a caustic alkali, which explains Terry and Susan Reardon’s experiences during lovemaking that we described the March 8 installment. This explains the severe urinary problems among veterans just back from Iraq to be described in the April 18 installment. Dr. Malcolm Hooper, at the University of Sunderland, is familiar with 4,000 such cases among UK Gulf War veterans.

Radiation expert Leuren Moret calls D.U, “The Trojan Horse of nuclear war . . . There’s no way to clean it up, and no way to turn it off because it continues to decay into other radioactive isotopes. . .”

As far back as 1979, Leonard Dietz, the retired New York State physicist, discovered that aerosolized DU particles less than a millionth of a meter in diameter can travel long distances. Some months ago, Leuren Moret told Dr. Elias Akleh, an Arab-American writer, “DU dust is now everywhere. A minimum of 500 tons to 600 tons now litter Afghanistan, and several times that amount are spread across Iraq.” As you will read April 18, a serious level of depleted uranium particles reached the UK nine days after the United States’ 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing of Iraq. It’s likely that I am inhaling them as I peck on my keyboard, and so are you as you read my words.

Compare the latest tonnage to the 340 tons used in the Gulf War. Dr. Doug Rokke, the health physicist for the U.S. Army, who oversaw the partial clean up of depleted uranium bomb fragments in Kuwait in 1991, reminded Alliance of Atomic Veterans writer Vincent L. Guarisco that, in Bush and Cheney’s new war, the massive radioactive arsenal has been used mainly in Iraqi urban centers and civilian neighborhoods, rather than in desert battlefields.

Over time, the health of all foreign troops will be affected. The health effects on the natives of Iraq and Afghanistan will be catastrophic.

Based on the increase in cancer rates in the aftermath of the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island nuclear meltdowns, many Iranians, Saudis, Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Israelis will die prematurely thanks to our government’s unprovoked nuclear attack on Iraq.

As you will read on April 18, because of their more rapid cellular development, children are the most vulnerable to depleted uranium poisoning.

Radioactive Showers and Chow

In Iraq’s arid climate, sandstorms blow tiny particles of DU away from the blast epicenter, impacting the surrounding environment without geographical limitations. It enters the soil, polluting the water table, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and infecting the food chain. Fertile, DU-contaminated grasslands west of Basra in southern Iraq produce vegetables and grains for livestock that are consumed by American troops as well as Iraqis.

Thanks to George Bush Sr. and Dick Cheney’s decision to use depleted uranium munitions in 1991, the Tigris river, the Bible’s Edenic river of life, has become a modern river of death. And our brothers and sisters are drinking the forbidden water, with knowing it—despite informational videotapes produced for them by Major Doug Rokke and his team.

Our troops inhale depleted uranium with every single breath. Radioactive particles the size of a virus cannot be filtered outside a laboratory. Even the 800,000 gas masks provided Gulf War troops were useless because the charcoal filters became inert within days. The only protection is airtight MOPP suits connected to oxygen tanks.

No place in Iraq is free from radioactive contamination, including today’s supposedly “safe” Green Zone in Baghdad where top military officers, civilian occupation authorities, international journalists, and the Iraqi government leaders live and work.

UPI reported last December that Wilder Gutierrez Rubio, 38, had died a few hours after returning home to Lima, Peru. He had been diagnosed by doctors at Ibn Sina Hospital in Baghdad with severe leukemia, which they attributed to depleted uranium exposure, even though he had served in Baghdad only a short time. Gutierrez was part of a contingent of Latin Americans recruited by a U.S. company to provide security for Baghdad’s Green Zone.

Is Poisoning Your Entire Army an Impeachable Offence?

Can you understand why a majority of Americans polled agree that Bush and Cheney should be impeached if they lied to Congress and the American people in order to launch this war? According to the latest poll, a plurality of Americans say that it’s time for impeachment, period.

The troops want to come home.

"DEPLETED URANIUM SCARE" - Claimed by President George W. Bush on the official White House website:

"During the Gulf War, coalition forces used armor-piercing ammunition made from depleted uranium, which is ideal for the purpose because of its great density. In recent years, the Iraqi regime has made substantial efforts to promote the false claim that the depleted uranium rounds fired by coalition forces have caused cancers and birth defects in Iraq. Iraq has distributed horrifying pictures of children with birth defects and linked them to depleted uranium. The campaign has major propaganda assets..."

The report sent to the UK government warned "in their estimation, if 50 tons of residual DU dust remained ‘in the region’ there could be half a million extra cancers by the end of the century [2000]." Estimates of depleted uranium weapons used in 1991, now range from the Pentagon’s admitted 325 tons, to other scientific bodies who put the figure as high as 900 tons. That would make the number of estimated cancers as high as 9,000,000, depending on the amount used in the 1991 Gulf War. In the 2003 Gulf War, estimates of 2200 tons have been given — causing about 22,000,000 new cancer cases. Altogether the total number of cancer patients estimated using the UKAEA data would be 25,250,000. In July of 1998, the CIA estimated the population of Iraq to be approximately 24,683,313.

Ironically, the UN Resolution 661 calling for sanctions against Iraq, was signed on Hiroshima Day, August 6, 1990.

 

"Our collective gene pool of life, evolving for hundreds of millions of years has been seriously damaged in less than the past fifty. The time remaining to reverse this culture of ‘lemming death’ is on the wane. In the future, what will you tell our grandchildren about what you did in the prime of your life to turn around this death process?" (Rosalie Bertell, 1982)

 

 

 

Depleted uranium (DU) is the weapon that keeps on killing civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, as well as all the troops who fought in these countries since 2003, when the wars began.  For how long?

 

a.  one generation.

b.  1000 years.

c.  10,000 years.

d.  25 BILLION years.

 

Long after all the soldiers have gone home--with radiation in their bodies--civilians will continue to die and deformed babies will be born; depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, and total disintegration estimated after 25 billion years.

There is no way to turn it off, and there is no way to clean it up. It meets the US Government’s own definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

DEPLETED URANIUM: U. S. War Weapon that keeps killing long after the wars end

EARL NASH,     WTFG  "  Depleted Uranium"  Correspondent      

>>>>>  “It’s news to YOU…”  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

 

Depleted uranium (DU) is the weapon that keeps on killing civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, as well as all the troops who fought in these countries since 2003, when the wars began.  Q:  For how long?

 

a.  one generation.

b.  1000 years.

c.  10,000 years.

d.  25 BILLION years.

 

Long after all the soldiers have gone home--with radiation in their bodies--countless civilians will continue to die and many thousands of deformed babies will be born; depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, and total disintegration estimated after 25 billion years.

There is no way to turn it off, and there is no way to clean it up. It meets the US Government’s own definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Since it seeps into the water tables and is blown by global wind patterns, DU will enter the food chain and will kill and deform humans in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, and other countries, as the spread is measured for the next 25 billion years.

 

Here is a map of the DU seeded by the Bush Wars:

DU was intentionally introduced for two purposes:

To blur and break down the distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons.

To make it easier to reintroduce nuclear weapons into the US military arsenal.

As of June 1998, the U.S.  had 496,000 metric tons. ^14b

Storage of DU is very complicated and problematic since corrosion of DU storage cylinders often occurs over relatively short periods of time.

The half-life of U²³⁸ (DU is 99% U²³⁸) is 4.5 billion years¹³

Before 2003, the Gulf War doctors in Iraq were seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically."

The rise in frequency is stark – from ONE admission a month a year ago to two a day now.

 "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," he said. "There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."

VIDEO HERE: WARNING: VERY DISTURBING IMAGES !!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defects

Depleted uranium aerosols will permanently contaminate vast regions and slowly destroy the genetic future of populations living in those regions, where there are resources which the US must control, in order to establish and maintain American primacy.

"Our collective gene pool of life, evolving for hundreds of millions of years has been seriously damaged (by Depleted Uranium) in less than the past fifty [years]. The time remaining to reverse this culture of ‘lemming death’ is on the wane. In the future, what will you tell our grandchildren about what you did in the prime of your life to turn around this death process?" (Rosalie Bertell, 1982)

After forming microscopic and submicroscopic insoluble Uranium oxide particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air and travel around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and moisture remove it from the atmosphere.

Global radioactive contamination from atmospheric testing was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, and still contaminates the atmosphere and lower orbital space today.

The amount of low level radioactive pollution from depleted uranium released since 1991, is many times more (deposited internally in the body), than was released from atmospheric testing fallout.

UN Human Rights Commission determined in 1996 that depleted uranium is a weapon of mass destruction that should not be used:

RESOLUTION 1996/16 ON STOPPING THE USE OF DEPLETED URANIUM - DU

The military use of DU violates current international humanitarian law, including the principle that there is no unlimited right to choose the means and methods of warfare (Art. 22 Hague Convention VI (HCIV); Art. 35 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva (GP1); the ban on causing unnecessary suffering and superfluous injury (Art. 23 §le HCIV; Art. 35 §2 GP1), indiscriminate warfare (Art. 51 §4c and 5b GP1) as well as the use of poison or poisoned weapons.

The deployment and use of DU violate the principles of international environmental and human rights protection. They contradict the right to life established by the Resolution 1996/16 of the UN Subcommittee on Human Rights.

The devastation from tanks and heavy equipment destroyed the desert ecosystem. The long term and far reaching effects, and dispersal of at least 340 tons of depleted uranium weapons, had a global environmental effect.

Downwind from the radioactive devastation in Iraq, Israel is also suffering from large increases in breast cancer, leukemia and childhood diabetes.

Depleted uranium was used beginning in 1991 for three reasons:

To blur and break down the distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons.

To make it easier to reintroduce nuclear weapons into the US military arsenal.

 

To test the radiobiological effects of 4^th generation nuclear weapons, which are still under development

 

http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm

More on Mindfully.org by Leuren Moret

Uranium is one of the heaviest elements found in nature and is emits alpha, beta, and gamma particles. It is 1.7 times denser than lead.¹² The half-life of U²³⁸ (DU is 99% U²³⁸) is 4.5 billion years!¹³ Uranium byproducts(such as Thorium (Th²³²)) have even longer half-lives, making uranium an element that gets more radioactive during its own decay process.⁵ Natural uranium is 99.274% U²³⁸, 0.720% U²³⁵, and 0.0055% U²³⁴.^14a Uranium is enriched when its contents of U²³⁵ reaches 3.2-3.6% (since U²³⁵ is fissible). Weapon-grade uranium is +90% U²³⁵.^14a What is depleted uranium? We start out with natural uranium and extract enriched uranium for nuclear fuel and weaponry. The leftover from the extraction process is something very similar to natural uranium, known as “depleted uranium”. The only difference is that DU has 0.202% of U²³⁵ and 0.0008% of U²³⁴.^14a How much DU do we currently have? As of June 1998, we have around 57,800 huge steel cylinders of DU or 496,000 metric tons. ^14b Storage of DU is very complicated and problematic since corrosion of DU storage cylinders often occurs over relatively short periods of time.¹⁵

 

Websites:

·         International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan written opinion of Judge N. Bhagwat: also at http://www.traprockpeace.org/tokyo_trial_13march04.doc

·         Question 11: What does the US Government know about depleted uranium: http://traprockpeace.org/moret_25nov03.pdf 

·         World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference: http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de 

·         Radiation and Public Health Project: http://www.radiation.org 

·         "A comparison of delayed radiobiological effects of depleted-uranium munitions versus fourth-generation nuclear weapons" by A. Gsponer, J.-P. Hurni, and B. Vitale, 4^th International Conference of the Yugoslav Nuclear Society, Belgrade, September 30-October 4, 2002. http://arXiv.org/abs/physics/0210071

·         "Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons: The Physical Principles Of Thermonuclear Explosives, Inertial Confinement Fusion, And The Quest For Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons" by Andre Gsponer and Jean-Pierre Hurni http://www.inesap.org/publ_tech01.htm

·         54 minute VPRO Dutch TV "Carlyle Group" documentary on internet: http://www.vpro.nl/info/tegenlicht/index.shtml?7738514+7738518+7738520+11838857 

o        Real Player Video Documentary on the Carlyle Group, by VPRO Dutch television [500 kbps real video]

o        Real Player Video Documentary on the Carlyle Group, by VPRO Dutch television [100 kbps real video]

o        Overview of documentary - Interactive Flash Animation - with links to biographies and articles (Dutch) and specific sections of video.

o        English translation of Dutch introduction Translation of the first one minute forty seven seconds of this program.

The war in Iraq is over.

The rubble is still smoking While the first dozers are already entering the country.
After the coalition forces destroyed Baghdad it is now primarily American companies who are to rebuild Iraq.

An interesting point is that these companies usually have people on the payroll who have been politicians. Is this a conflict of interests or a new (global) way of doing business?

One of the corporations that work this way is the Carlyle Group. On their payroll are people like : George Bush (Sr.), James Baker III and old premier John Major.

The Carlyle Group is a private investment bank which doesn't come to the publics attention very often but it is one of the biggest American (ed: USA) investors of the defense industry, telecom, property and financial services.

What is the Carlyle Group? Who are the people behind the name? And how much power does Carlyle have?

·         Global Outlook: http://www.globalresearch.de 

·         An interesting response. . .

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leuren Moret" <[email protected]>
To: < [US Army Col Special Ops Green Beret] >
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 12:56 AM
Subject: Re: Treachery And Treason

Hi John - Here is an article coming out in July in World Affairs Journal. Can you please tell me what you think and whose decision it could have been to use DU on the Arab world? It looks to me like it was in the 1970s.

Leuren

-------- Response ---------

From: < [US Army Col Special Ops Green Beret] >
To: "Leuren Moret"  <[email protected]>  
Subject: Re: Treachery And Treason
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 11:10:01 -0700

Hi Leuren,

Your report is very comprehensive and compelling.

It begs the question WHO and WHY re the responsibility for the decision to create an area of deniability that covers the Arab world.

It seems credible that the decision to isolate the Arab occupied areas of the world was and is intentional for the express purpose of controlling the flow of oil from Russia, through the mid-east countries of Afghanistan and Iraq (with eventual expansion to Syria and Iran and North Africa, and Saudi Arabia) while simultaneously destroying the current population to preclude resistance.

Deaths in the contested area as a direct result of DU is, in my opinion, the covert means by which CONTROL over these lands will be accomplished.

Systems must be in development to eventually provide automated CONTROL of the oil production mechanisms with minimum human exposure for maintenance. High altitude observation will CONTROL the threat of sabotage in ways perfected to secure Area 51 in Nevada.

Whose Idea was this scenario? Henry Kissinger's fingerprints are all over this project. The Carlyle Group is in perfect position to carry out Henry's design.

Take for example the exposure of Kissinger's genocidal action by configuring over 3000 secret B-52 strikes (using multiple aircraft) on Cambodia (1969-72) as written in the book "Side Show". B-52's would take off from Guam with assigned targets in North and South Vietnam only to receive in-flight changes of the coordinates to targets in Cambodia. Only the Command Pilot and the Navigator were aware of the changes, by design, to keep the bombing of Cambodia compartmentalized from other crew members to minimize compromising the illegal acts of war on a neutral country. This dovetails with the covert DU attack on the Arab World. It also provides the reason the US. Air Force ran out of 750 bombs during the Vietnam War. This also provides insight as to the diversion of the war on terrorism which began in Afghanistan only to be shifted, without justification, to Iraq, thereby cutting off the available resources to go after bin Laden and al Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan. It is now apparent that the United States only wanted the appearance of going after bin Laden since he is an integral part of the Carlyle Group. These are the "sources and methods" which must be kept compartmented from the clueless.

Henry's other quote re military is; "they are mindless cattle". But, then again, the military leadership excepts it's existence as "expendable assets".

He would have made a wonderful Nazi. Right up there with Goebbels, Eichmann, Erlichman, Haldeman, und Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.

We have definitely become the Aggressor Nation. I fear we will pay dearly for the criminal greed of those responsible.

I will wait until your material is published before passing it on to interested parties.

Strangely enough, the Trojan Horse inside a shield was the Green Beret emblem of the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany in the fifties and sixties....that was my first exposure to diabolical thinking and the "sources and methods" of the Agency.

Best,
John

 

Bibliography:

 

1.     1.      “120mm Ammunition.” FAS (Federation of American Scientists): Military Analysis Network. 3/8/2002.

<http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/120.htm>

2.     2.      Bertell, Rosalie. “Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium.” Hague Peace Conference. [May 1999]. 2/27/2002. <http://ccnr.org/du_hague.html>

3.     3.      “Bullets for Beginners.” FAS (Federation of American Scientists): Military Analysis Network. 3/8/2002.

<http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/bullets.htm>

4.     4.      Department of the [US] Army. “Chapter 2 – Hostilities.” U.S. Army's Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land Warfare. [15 July, 1976]. 3/5/2002. <http://nile.ed.umuc.edu/~nstanton/FM27-10.htm>

5.     5.      Edwards, Gordon and Chenier, Marc. “Wanted: An Ethical Stance Against Depleted Uranium Weapons.” The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. 2/27/2002. <http://www.ccnr.org/du_ethics.html>

6.     6.      Kirby, Alex. “A Soldier’s Experience.” BBC News. [10 June, 1999]. 2/22/2002.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_362000/362543.stm>

7.     7.      Kirby, Alex. “Depleted Uranium: The Lingering Poison.” BBC News. [7 June, 1999]. 2/22/2002.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/newsid_362000/362484.stm>

8.     8.      Kirby, Alex. “Depleted Uranium: The Next Generation.” BBC News. [18, January, 2001]. 2/22/2002. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1122000/1122566.stm>

9.     9.      “M829 120mm, APFSDS – T.” FAS (Federation of American Scientists): Military Analysis Network. 3/6/2002.

<http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m829a1.htm>

10.                        10.  “M919 Cartridge 25mm, Armor Piercing, Fin Stabilized, Discarding Sabot, with Tracer (APFSDS – T).” FAS (Federation of American Scientists): Military Analysis Network. 3/6/2002.

<http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m919.htm>

11.                        11.  “Should NATO’s Uranium Weapons be Banned?” BBC News. [16 January, 2001]. 2/22/2002.

<http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_1100000/1100430.stm>

12.                        12.  “The Military Uses of DU.” BBC News. 2/22/2002. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsod_1108000/1108058.stm>

13.                        13.  “What is Depleted Uranium?” 2/27/2002. <http://cadu.members.gn.apc.org/whatisdu.htm>

14.                        14.  Zajic, Vladimir S. “Review of Radioactivity, Military Use, and Health Effects of Depleted Uranium” [1 August, 1999]. 2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com>

14a) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 1 – Radioactivity.” [1 August, 1999]. 2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/1stchapter.html#top>

14b) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 2 – Origins” [1 August, 1999].

2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/2ndchapter.html#top>

14c) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 3 – Applications” [1 August, 1999].

2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/3rdchapter.html#top>

14d) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 4 – Manufacturers” [1 August, 1999].

2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/4thchapter.html#top>

14e) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 5 – Ammunition Testing” [1 August, 1999]. 2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/5thchapter.html#top>

14f) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 6 – Combat and Accidents” [1 August, 1999]. 2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/6thchapter.html#top>

14g) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 7 – Radiological Effects” [1 August, 1999]. 2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/7thchapter.html#top>

14h) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 8 – Chemical Toxicity” [1 August, 1999]. 2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/8thchapter.html#top>

14i) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 9 – Gulf War Illness” [1 August, 1999].

2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/9thchapter.html#top>

14j) Zajic, Vladimir S. “Chapter 10 – Conclusion” [1 August, 1999].

2/27/2002. <http://vzajic.tripod.com/10thchapter.html#top>

15.                        15.  “Depleted Uranium Legacy.” Right Livelihood Foundation. Earth Island Journal. v16 i4 (2001): 22

16.                        16.  “What is [depleted] uranium.” 2/27/2002. <http://www.balkansyndrome.com/depleteduranium.html>

17.                        17.  Kirby, Alex. “Q&A: Depleted Uranium Weapons.” BBC News. 2/22/2002. <http://news.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1101000/1101447.stm>

18.                        18.  Koppel, Naomi. “UN Scientists: Yugoslavia still contaminated by depleted uranium three years after NATO bombing.” Associated Press. March 27, 2002. 

19.                        19.  Arkin, William M. “Still Glowing.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. V53 n5 (1997): 64.

20.                        20.  “No ammunition with depleted uranium in Russia army – official.” ITAR/TASS News Agency. January 11, 2001.

 

female orgasm studied through brain imaging

Barry Komisaruk studies the female orgasm. But not in the way most men do, between the sheets. His research is done in a laboratory.

The Rutgers neuroscientist analyzes brains in their most enthusiastic state, hoping to strengthen women’s orgasms and aid the climax-challenged.

“We want to find ways to increase pleasure in people’s lives,” he says.

To do this, Komisaruk selects volunteers to self-stimulate inside an fMRI machine so he and his team can study which areas of the brain — the body’s sexiest organ — are activated by arousal.

And this is why I’m here. Today I will donate an orgasm to science.
Dr. Barry Komisaruk, a Rutgers' based neuroscientist, works with Pat Singh, MRI technologist, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, as they look at the brain scan of a 31 year old female volunteer while she masturbates in an fMRI machine at the lab in Newark. The purpose of the experiment is to analyze where the stimulation activates the brain.Patti Sapone/ The Star Ledger
While the 68-year-old Komisaruk has been witness to more than 200 live-action orgasms in his lab, he’s too busy nerding out on stuff such as surging hormones, bonding peptides and synapsing neurons (when amplified, he says they sound like popcorn popping) to view the process in any way other than clinically.

Though he does maintain a sense of humor about his research. “I got into vaginal stimulation about 25 years ago,” he says. “That is, professionally speaking.”

Among the things Komisaruk has discovered so far is that orgasm is a natural pain-blocker,  lessening it by up to 50 percent.

Orgasm also maintains or heightens a woman’s sensitivity to touch, making a lover’s caresses all the sweeter. (The business-savvy Komisaruk already has taken out a patent on the peptide that creates this response.)

But plenty of mysteries remain. The comprehension of this bodily function is still in its infancy. Despite our ability to plow through the atmosphere and land on the moon, we have yet to figure out the reasons behind what makes our own bodies undulate.

Some contend it’s just evolutionary leftovers from the man’s ejaculatory climax. Others, such as Komisaruk, believe there’s a purpose to a woman’s flush-faced ecstasy — but he’s not quite sure what it is yet. It could be that the contractions of the uterus during orgasm help draw semen into the Fallopian tubes to aid pregnancy, that the pleasure tempts the woman to copulate repeatedly, or that orgasm allows a healthy release of muscle tension from the body.

On the day I donate my orgasm, I bring along my hot pink dildo. But as I enter the sterile lab, I wish I had chosen something subtler. Komisaruk and his four associates, all in white lab coats, greet me. As they hand me my very unsexy pale blue gown to change into, I have second thoughts — “How am I going to orgasm with five scientists watching me?” — but decide to push myself.

Science needs my climax!

The first thing I am asked to do is give a urine sample.

This is for a pregnancy test: There must be no fetus endangerment under the fMRI’s three teslas of magnetic strength.

Then my dildo must be checked for metals — anything magnetic will fly toward the machine. I try to remain calm as a vision of dangerous flying dildos passes through my mind.

The scientists load me into the machine and put a sheet over me, preserving my modesty.

Next step: They strap my head down, because any movement distorts the brain imaging. Ever try to have an orgasm without facial contortions?

I feel as if I’m being shoved into the middle of a toilet paper roll, the walls so close my eyelashes almost graze them.

Then I hear a voice through the earphones I’m wearing. It’s Komisaruk.

“You okay in there?” he asks.

Graduate student Nan Wise, 52, puts a dollop of lube on my hand before running around to join the other scientists in the control room.

Born and raised in Jersey City, Wise now lives in West Orange and works closely with Komisaruk. She began her career as a therapist because she was interested in what makes people tick and wanted to help them “regulate their emotions.”

With the invention of the fMRI only 20 years ago, along came the ability to look at brain activity. She says that by understanding a function as gigantic as the orgasm, a response that hijacks all of one’s attention, she might also learn how smaller emotions affect behavior and decision making.

“The more we understand how the brain works,” she says, “the more we will be able to help people modulate its activity.”

Wise once volunteered to donate her orgasm. During the experiment, she lost her grasp and her purple dildo went flying. It remains a popular subject during many grad-student happy hours.

“It was the worst orgasm I ever had,” she says.

As the machine switches on, it sounds like a jackhammer. I follow Komisaruk’s instructions and as I do, the group watches my brain on their computer monitors.

Komisaruk, who lives in Maplewood, is the co-author of “The Science of Orgasm” and “The Orgasm Answer Guide” (both of the Johns Hopkins University Press). He never expected his interest in science to lead to a career researching women’s sexual responses.

He grew up in Brooklyn and went on to attend City College of New York. From there, he got a doctoral degree from Rutgers, did a post-doc at UCLA and then returned to Rutgers to join the faculty. He’s been at the New Brunswick campus since 1966, and now is also associate dean of the graduate school.

From the beginning, one question shaped his research: How do neurons produce awareness? When he was just starting out, he met with scientists, many of whom became mentors, and participated in their projects. He cut his teeth manipulating the hormones of doves and rabbits. Working with the celebrated psychologist B. F. Skinner, endocrinologist C. H. Sawyer and psychologist James Olds, he even inserted rods into rats’ genitals to study the rodents’ pseudo-pregnancy response.

He discovered that during vaginal stimulation, the rats looked somewhat paralyzed. They wouldn’t respond to sensory input. Through trial and error with the rats, Komisaruk found vaginal stimulation was causing not paralysis, but a painblocking response.

Around this time, Komisaruk’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was often in a lot of discomfort or extreme pain. She died in 1982 at just 40 years old, and her experience affected her husband’s career path. Having watched her suffer, Komisaruk decided to apply his research with animals to humans.

“I felt like a dummy standing there helplessly watching my wife in terrible, unrelenting pain,” he says. “I felt I should use what I was taught as a scientist to do something that would be directly useful to people, and there is a real need to control people’s pain.”
The volunteer raises her hand to indicate that she is having an orgasim. Dr. Barry Komisaruk, a Rutgers' based neuroscientist and his team do a brain scan of a 31 year old female volunteer while she masturbates in an MRI machine at the lab in Newark. The purpose of the experiment is to analyze where the stimulation activates the brain. Patti Sapone/ The Star Ledger
Komisaruk was able to reconfigure a lot of the experiments he did on female rats to women. He found many similarities, even the pain-blocking peptide that is released during vaginal stimulation. As most answers in research lead to more questions, so did this.

These days, Komisaruk is trying to learn how to augment pleasure, which goes hand in hand with lessening pain.

Research and teaching take up most of his time, but when he has a spare moment, he visits with his two adult sons. He says they have always supported his interests. “They’re never embarrassed, at least not to my face.”

During my first hour in the fMRI machine, researchers map my genitals to find out which parts — cervix, uterus, clitoris — correlate to which regions of the brain. A similar map, called the cortical homunculus, was published for the male body in 1951. The one Komisaruk is working on will be the first of its kind for women. (Wise calls it the “hermunculus.”)

Finally, it’s time for the climax. And thank goodness, because I’m getting sleepy touching myself to the rhythm of the machine’s droning.

“You have 10 minutes,” Komisaruk says through my earphones. “Stimulate to orgasm."

I’m told to signal orgasm by raising my left hand.

The goal-oriented part of myself overwhelms my embarrassment. On the other side of the glass pane, the scientists can see my brain getting happy. Regions light up as sensation begins building. They are watching my brain on orgasm — brain porn.

“The brain becomes very active as someone approaches orgasm,” Komisaruk explains. He, Wise and the other research associates have found that four different pairs of nerves — hypogastric, vagus, pudendal and pelvic — carry information from the woman’s genital area via the spinal cord to her brain.

As this information registers in the brain, chemical messengers start doing their work.

Dopamine and oxytocin are let loose — the dopamine stimulates the pleasure sensations as oxytocin, which is released throughout the bloodstream, initiates the uterine contractions that often accompany orgasm.

A woman also experiences accelerated heartbeat, blood pressure, flushness, pupil dilation and sweating — orgasm is a full-body workout. Because there are so many pathways for sensation, Komisaruk believes a woman has the capacity to experience a more intense and complex orgasm than a man.

Wise, who also is a relationship psychotherapist, says it’s worth knowing your nerves. “To know how to play your instrument,” she says, “you have to learn your range.”

Komisaruk proudly discusses what his research — and knowing another’s range — has done for his own sex life. “I understand better how to elicit sexual pleasure in a woman,” he says, “and it seems to work. It’s a validation of my own research.”

Some women can create the sensation of orgasm from thought alone, without touch. In slang, the phenomenon is called “thinking off.” Komisaruk and Wise have studied these women with extreme interest.

“Our mind is much more powerful than we imagine,” says Wise. “If we can become aroused by thoughts, why not orgasm from them?”

Traci, a 30-year-old woman who has given an orgasm to Komisaruk’s fMRI, discovered her ability to “think off ” while chatting online. “It just kind of happened,” she says, “I don’t know how it happened. I think I’m just really horny.”

Though she has harnessed a skill many women would pay big money for, she rarely will just pop one out while she’s out and about. “I haven’t really done it much,” she says, “but you know what? I probably should.”

When she went through the fMRI, she brought herself to orgasm using her special skill — without touching herself.

“If it could somehow help people who’ve never had an orgasm before, that’d be cool,” she says.

Komisaruk is not sure if women such as Traci are tricking their brains into thinking there is real sensory input — or, if the ability is actually a shortcut to an “orgasm center” of the brain.

“If we can understand their process,” says Komisaruk, “we might be able to teach these techniques to women who have trouble with orgasm.”

One of Komisaruk’s ideas for a therapeutic practice is to put people who are having trouble with orgasm into the fMRI and do neurobiofeedback, meaning they will see their own brains in close to real time and have the chance to try to manipulate the regions of their brains that are activated — and hopefully, in this way, learn to achieve orgasm.

At about the five-minute mark through my own path to orgasm in the lab, I’m worried I’m going to let everyone down. They had paid me a $100 subject fee, and I wanted to give them their money’s worth.

After all, it’s not easy to get funding for this stuff — Komisaruk says he spends at least half of his time applying for grants. Once, he had to agree to take out the word “vaginal” from the title of one of his studies before a foundation would release funds already allocated to him.

“There’s no premium on studying pleasure in this society,” he tells me as Wise murmurs, “What do you expect? We were founded by Puritans.”

So I am really glad — not to mention pleased, sensationally — when I start to feel those familiar contractions. I raise my left hand in the nick of time and break into a smile inside my little toilet paper roll.

Komisaruk and Wise run into the room and high-five me.

It’s strange at first, but then I start to think that all orgasms should end that way. They can’t stop talking about my brain: “Your brain — it’s such a good brain!”

I regain my embarrassment and hide my dildo under the sheet. The scientists will first store all my data, then convert it and analyze it.

The data takes two hours to convert, but it can take much longer to make sense of it.

“We’ll be at this for a while,” Komisaruk says.

One of the biggest conundrums of the orgasm turns out to be a nagging question for all mankind: The orgasm activates the same part of the brain — the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula — as pain.

Komisaruk gives me a visual example, showing me images of people making O-faces. Their faces are tweaked completely sideways with mangled mouths and eyes shut tight. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d told me they all had just had their feet run over by a semi truck.

“What is the difference between pleasure and pain?” Komisaruk asks. “What makes something feel good?” He begins slipping more and more into his thoughts. “Neurons, little bags of chemicals, create awareness,” he says, “but how? How does the brain create the mind?”

I see that at the heart of all his orgasmic research, there is a philosopher trying not only to augment pleasure, but also figure out the nuts and bolts that make up the human experience.

“It’s the hard question I want to answer,” he says. “What creates consciousness?

“I find that,” he adds, “and I find the Nobel Prize.”

 

Rutgers lab studies female orgasm through brain imaging

By Inside Jersey Staff

April 20, 2010, 4:18AM

By Mara Altman

 

MONEY: "I know it may sound funny, but people ev'ry where are runnin' out of money."

"I know it may sound funny
But people ev'ry where are runnin' out of money
We just can't make it by ourself."

["Mr. President have pity on the working man"--Randy Newman]

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and their homes, and millions more Americans are on the verge of losing their jobs and homes.

There are approximately 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.

RealtyTrac projects that there will be 4.5 million home foreclosures in 2010.  The economic nightmare just keeps going from bad to worse.

Sarah Palin has earned approximately 12 million dollars since last July.

According to Forbes magazine, Glenn Beck made 32 million dollars in the 12 months ending March 1st.

INTERNET: a free-wheeling multilayered Mad Max public square

"Internet users are a bunch of ideological Jack Kerouacs.

They’re not burrowing down into comforting nests. They’re cruising far and wide looking for adventure, information, combat and arousal. This does not mean they are not polarized. Looking at a site says nothing about how you process it or the character of attention you bring to it.

It could be people spend a lot of time at their home sites and then go off on forays looking for things to hate. But it probably does mean they are not insecure and they are not sheltered.

If this study is correct, the Internet will not produce a cocooned public square, but a free-wheeling multilayered Mad Max public square. The study also suggests that if there is increased polarization (and there is), it’s probably not the Internet that’s causing it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/opinion/20brooks.html?th&emc=th

"Anybody's Son Will Do" Censored Anti-War Film Posted on YouTube

In 1983, the National Film Board of Canada produced a 57-minute film, "Anybody's Son Will Do". Arguably the best anti-war film ever made, and tailored for public television, it scared the hell out of the U.S. military machine, which has done its best to "disappear" it. For years it has been nearly impossible to find a copy, but some kind soul has posted it on YouTube where it can be seen in six segments.

http://www.countercurrents.org/willers200410.htm

Anybody's Son Will Do

By Bill Willers

20 April, 2010
Opednews.com

FREE BOOK TODAY ! MARIJUANA IS SAFER,,,

Is Marijuana Really Safer Than Alcohol? Find Out For Free On 4/20

As part of a special promotion to raise public awareness, Chelsea Green Publishing, publishers of the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (2009) is making copies of the acclaimed title available for free for 24-hours on Tuesday, April 20.

Starting at 12am tonight, copies of the book will be available for free download on the website Scribd.com. Users will be able to download the book in its entirety, print and share.

According to a Chelsea Green press statement, the book giveaway is intended to raise awareness of marijuana’s relative safety when compared to alcohol in the face of California’s impending referendum for legalization in November. April is also coincidentally National Alcohol Awareness month.

“This promotion is all about getting the message out there,” said Kate Rados, Chelsea Green’s Director of Digital Initiatives. “Via our partners and web communities, we’ll be offering the free download to more than 200,000 people; we’re poised to make a massive impact on people’s perceptions of marijuana.”

Marijuana is Safer, written by nationally recognized marijuana-policy experts Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert, compares compares and contrasts the relative harms and legal status of the two most popular recreational substances in the world – marijuana and alcohol. Through an objective and comprehensive examination of the two drugs and the laws and social practices that regulate them, the book poses a simple yet rarely considered question: Why do we punish adults who make the rational, safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol?

Says Armentano: “Expert reviews by the World Health Organization, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and many others have each separately concluded that cannabis poses far less risk to the consumer than does alcohol. It makes little sense for our society to condone, if not encourage, the use of alcohol – an intoxicant that directly contributes to tens of thousands of deaths annually and countless social problems – while simultaneously stigmatizing and criminalizing the use of cannabis, a substance that is incapable of causing lethal overdose and is associated with far fewer societal costs.”

Critical praise for Marijuana Is Safer has come from a diverse variety of political pundits and commentators including: former Republican Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, New York Times best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed), former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, PBS television host Rick Steves, and nationally syndicated columnist David Sirota.

The free download offer will remain in from 12am Tuesday morning until effect until midnight, eastern standard time. To download your copy, visit: http://www.scribd.com/doc/30178916/Marijuana-Is-Safer-FREE-DOWNLOAD.

About the Authors

Paul Armentano is the deputy director of NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and the NORML Foundation. A recognized national expert in marijuana policy, health, and pharmacology, he has spoken at dozens of national conferences and legal seminars and has testified before state legislatures and federal agencies. He appears regularly as a guest on national television, including Fox News and MSNBC, and his work has appeared in over 500 publications. Armentano is the 2008 recipient of the Project Censored Real News Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism. He currently lives in California with his wife and son.

Mason Tvert is the cofounder and executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and the SAFER Voter Education Fund. He appears frequently in the news and travels the country promoting the “Marijuana Is Safer Than Alcohol” message. He resides in Denver, where he serves on the city’s Marijuana Policy Review Panel appointed by Mayor John W. Hickenlooper.

Steve Fox is the Director of State Campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the nation’s largest organization dedicated to reforming marijuana laws. From 2002–2005, he lobbied Congress as MPP’s Director of Government Relations. He cofounded Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) in 2005 and has helped guide its operations since its inception. He is a graduate of Tufts University and Boston College Law School and currently lives in Maryland with his wife and two daughters.

Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of NORML and the NORML Foundation. He has spoken at numerous national conferences and legal seminars, testified before state legislatures and federal agencies, and assisted as a consultant and expert witness in dozens of criminal drug cases. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, and is a faculty member at Oaksterdam University in Oakland, where he lectures on the medicinal properties of cannabinoids. Mr. Armentano is a prolific writer on the subject of marijuana and marijuana policy. His work has appeared in over 500 publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor. His writing has been featured in more than a dozen textbooks and anthologies, and he is a frequent contributor to AlterNet, The Huffington Post, and the Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill. Mr. Armentano is a 2008 recipient of the 'Project Censored Real News Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.' In 2009, Mr. Armentano co-authored the book Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (2009, Chelsea Green), which rose to #14 on Amazon.com's best-sellers list and was recently selected by Publishers Weekly as one of "20 titles from independent presses that show big promise."

 

PTB Puppet will take over in Poland - CFR, NWO, TLC, World Bank, Goldman Links

The PTB (Powers That Be) are poised to take over Poland.  Andrzej Olechowski will enter a presidential race in Poland to replace Lech Kaczynski.

Put your money on Andrzej Olechowski; he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. He was also an economist for the World Bank.He also appears to work closely with the banksters: Olechowski sat on the supervisory boards of a number of European banks and corporations. Most notably he was on the advisory board of Goldman Sachs (see this biography on Olechowski’s personal home page; in Polish).

The plane "accident" offers a convenient opportunity for another Bankster soldier to rule a country that was at odds with the European Union and the one-world project.

 

“The Polish Peasants’ Party, the junior partner in the governing coalition, will probably nominate its leader, Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak, and Andrzej Olechowski, a former foreign minister and finance minister, will run as an independent,” it is reported.

 

Unheralded Woman who lead the Civil Rights' Movement - Womens' Movement

Dorothy Height, key figure in the civil rights movement, dies at 98

Though not as well known as her male peers, Height was a strong presence in the movement. She was president of the National Council of Negro Women and played an important role in integrating the YWCA.

Dorothy Height, a leading female voice of the 1960s civil rights movement, shown in 1974. (Associated Press)

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart

April 20, 2010 | 9:26 a.m.

Dorothy Height, who was called the queen mother of the civil rights movement through seven decades of advocacy for racial equality -- including 41 years as president of the National Council of Negro Women -- has died. She was 98.

Height, who also played a key role in integrating the YWCA, died Tuesday of natural causes at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., the council announced.

Though not nearly as well known as her male contemporaries, Height was a steadfast presence in the civil rights movement. Often the only woman at strategy meetings with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders, she was a determined voice pressing the importance of issues affecting women and children, such as child care and education.

"We African American women seldom do just what we want to do, but always do what we have to do. I am grateful to have been in a time and place where I could be a part of what was needed."

Beginning in the 1930s, she helped shape the national agenda for the YWCA. Traveling throughout the nation, she prodded local chapters to implement interracial charters at a time when racial segregation was still the order of the day and resistance to integration was often fierce.

As president of the National Council of Negro Women from 1957 to 1998, she led the group to expand its mission. Her initiatives included training thousands of women --housewives, teachers, office workers, students -- to work as community advocates. Back in their own communities, they pushed for better housing, schools and stores. It was a way to help women escape what Height called the "triple bind of racism, sexism and poverty."

One of Height's most visible accomplishments was the Black Family Reunion Celebration, a three-day cultural event in Washington, D.C., with related events around the country. Founded to counter negative images of the African American family, it has been held annually since 1986.

"Her fingerprints are quietly embedded in many of the transforming events of the last six decades as blacks, women, and children pushed open and walked through previously closed doors of opportunity," Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, wrote in 2006 in the Baltimore Times.

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, told The Times in an interview, "Dorothy understood from the beginning the importance of both the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement and how they're intertwined. She's always tried to keep people together and united."

The daughter of a nurse and a building contractor, Height was born March 24, 1912, in Richmond, Va., and grew up in Rankin, Pa., where she earned top grades in school and distinguished herself with her oratory skills.

After graduating from high school at 16, she was accepted into Barnard College in New York but was told she had to delay her entrance a year because the school had met its annual quota of two African American students.

Instead she entered New York University, which had no such quota. In four years she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in social work.

Height never married and had no children.

She joined the YWCA in 1937 and was there during a critical period in the organization's history as it grappled with the issue of race. In the 1940s, she pushed to end the YWCA's practice of separate conferences -- one for black leaders and another for whites -- and traveled the country helping local chapters implement the organization's interracial charter.

Heads of local chapters in the South would not meet with her, and she was forced to spend nights with local African American families because hotels would not admit blacks as guests. A white police officer once threatened her life when she defied his order to wait for a train in the "colored waiting room," rather than on the platform with her white colleagues.

"He yelled again for me to go in the colored waiting room," she later wrote. " 'This is my train,' I called, starting to run, and he growled, "Don't you go straight on that train or I'll blow your brains out.' "

White colleagues surrounded her and together they entered the train. Later she reported the incident to Roy Wilkins, one of the leaders of the NAACP. "He said, 'Dorothy, had you been a black man, you would have been dead.' "

Height was a 25-year-old assistant director at the YWCA in Harlem when then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and National Council of Negro Women founder Mary McLeod Bethune paid a visit. Height was assigned the job of greeting and escorting the first lady, but a conversation with Bethune, the daughter of former slaves, altered the course of Height's life.

We need you at the council, Bethune said to Height.

"I remember how she made her fingers into a fist to illustrate for the women the significance of working together to eliminate injustice," Height wrote in her 2003 memoir "Open Wide the Freedom Gates."

Height began volunteering at the council and became the organization's fourth president in 1957 as the civil rights movement mobilized for major battles in the South.

In 1963 she traveled to Selma, Ala., to support a group of children who were arrested after fighting for their parents' right to vote.

She also organized "Wednesdays in Mississippi," a program that brought Northern white and black women to the South for dialogue aimed at defusing tension.

In 1965 Height was named head of the YWCA's newly established Office of Racial Justice, charged with leading the organization's campaign against discrimination. Through such work she collaborated with the civil rights movement's key leaders, including King, Wilkins, James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph and Whitney Young, a group often referred to as the Big Six. Height made seven, but her role was often overlooked because of the times in which she lived.

As King and his associates planned what would become the historic March on Washington, Height pushed to add a woman to the list of leaders scheduled to address the marchers, but the idea was met with great resistance.

One of the main antagonists was march organizer Bayard Rustin.

"Even on the morning of the march there had been appeals to include a woman speaker," Height recalled in her memoir. "But Bayard Rustin held fast, insisting that women were part of all the groups -- the churches, the synagogues, labor -- represented on the podium. In the end, Mahalia Jackson, who sang the national anthem, was the only female voice.

"That moment was vital to awakening the women's movement. Mr. Rustin's stance showed us that men honestly didn't see their position as patriarchal or patronizing. They were happy to include women in the human family, but there was no question as to who headed the household!"

Under her leadership, the National Council of Negro Women offered job training, set up a school breakfast program in Mississippi, registered voters and pushed to ensure that African Americans were included in the census. In the 1980s, Height also led African American Women for Reproductive Rights, a pro-choice group.

A major NCNW event held in several cities, including Los Angeles, was the Black Family Reunion. The festival challenged the premise of "The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black America," a documentary by Bill Moyers that described the disintegration of two-parent black families. Height envisioned the reunion as a way to honor and encourage the extended family that had been a source of strength in the African American community.

Height retired from the YWCA in 1977 but continued to lead the National Council of Negro Women for two more decades. The council celebrated Height's birthday every year with an "Uncommon Height" gala fundraiser.

On her 90th birthday in 2002, well-wishers such as Oprah Winfrey and boxing promoter Don King helped raise $5 million, enough to pay off the mortgage on the organization's national headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

In 2004, President Bush awarded Height the Congressional Gold Medal for her many decades of service. Inscribed on the medal is a classic Height quote: "We African American women seldom do just what we want to do, but always do what we have to do. I am grateful to have been in a time and place where I could be a part of what was needed."

Stewart is a former Times staff writer.

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