Monday, March 28, 2011

Obama's Libya speech: Not in the Oval Office, and that's okay - Lynn Sweet

Obama's Libya speech: Not in the Oval Office, and that's okay - Lynn Sweet

EU to ban cars from cities by 2050

EU to ban cars from cities by 2050

EU to ban cars from cities by 2050

The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.

The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.

Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of "zero" for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.

Cost of Libya Intervention $600 Million for First Week, Pentagon Says

Cost of Libya Intervention $600 Million for First Week, Pentagon Says

One week after an international military coalition intervened in Libya, the cost to U.S. taxpayers has reached at least $600 million, according figures provided by the Pentagon.

U.S. ships and submarines in the Mediterranean have unleashed at least 191 Tomahawk cruise missiles from their arsenals to the tune of $268.8 million, the Pentagon said.

U.S. warplanes have dropped 455 precision guided bombs, costing tens of thousands of dollars each.

A downed Air Force F-15E fighter jet will cost more than $60 million to replace.

And operation of the war craft, guzzling ever-expensive fuel to maintain their positions off the Libyan coast and in the skies above, could reach millions of dollars a week, experts say.

Read more HERE from my colleagues Luis Martinez and Devin Dwyer.

'Motorcyle Kill': | Rolling Stone Politics | Photos

'Motorcyle Kill': | Rolling Stone Politics | Photos

Globalism - The Full Spectrum with Travinyle1 Chemtrails 3/28/2011 - ResistanceRadio | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Globalism - The Full Spectrum with Travinyle1 Chemtrails 3/28/2011 - ResistanceRadio | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Revolutionary Politics::Revolutionary Politics : Senator Lieberman maybe US should intervene in Syria next

Senator Lieberman maybe US should intervene in Syria next

Congress Awaits Answers On U.S Mission In Libya

Congress Awaits Answers On U.S Mission In Libya

March 28, 2011

Rebel forces in Libya are continuing their march towards Sirte, a stronghold of Moammar Gadhafi. That's after regaining control of two oil towns over the weekend. President Obama is expected to address the situation in a speech tonight. He's been pressed by both parties in Congress for clarity on U.S objectives in Libya and the scope of the military campaign. Host Michel Martin discusses the political implications of America's role in Libya with the highest ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.

Idiot Names Gas Station After Obama

In another example of what is wrong with America a man has named his gas station after President Obama. Despite Obama breaking literally every single campaign promise this man continues his loyal worship to the leader. This is a very sad example of how much trouble were all in.



More Dead Sealife Continues to Plague U.S. Beaches

More Dead Sealife Continues to Plague U.S. Beaches

By Elena Arteaga - Web Producer
Monday, March 28, 2011 - 3:01pm

ALABAMA— Months after the hundreds of birds fell dead from the sky and after thousands of dead fish, crabs, sardines, dolphins, and whales washed ashore worldwide, more dead fish washed ashore in Alabama, and a dead whale washed ashore in Virginia.

There's still no cause for the hundreds of dead fish that were found dead along the gulf shores over the weekend. They were also found along the gulf state pier Saturday morning. Park officials said it was unusual to see spade fish in that area this early in the year. The dead sigh spanned about three miles of shoreline.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will take the fish in for testing.

In Sandbridge, VA, the carcass of a Sei whale was found Sunday morning. The whale measured 35 to 40 feet long. Staffers from the Virginia Beach Aquarium were called to the site so that it could be secured and would not wash back into the ocean.

The aquarium is planning to perform a necropsy on the dead animal to determine a cause of death.

Sei whales are not common to the Virginia Beach area.

Libyan rebels to start oil exports soon

Libyan rebels to start oil exports soon

BENGHAZI, Libya: Oil fields in rebel-held territory in Libya are producing between 100,000 and 130,000 barrels a day, and the opposition plans to begin exporting oil "in less than a week", a rebel representative said on Sunday.

"We are producing about 100,000 to 130,000 barrels a day, we can easily up that to about 300,000 a day," said Ali Tarhoni, the rebel representative responsible for economy, finance and oil, at a news conference.

He said the rebel government had agreed an oil contract with Qatar, which would market the crude, and that he expected exports to begin in "less than a week".

Tarhoni said he had signed the contract with Qatar recently and that the deal would help ensure "access to liquidity in terms of foreign denominated currency".

"We contacted the oil company of Qatar and they agreed to take all the oil we export and market that oil for us," he said.

"We have an escrow account... and the money will be deposited in this account, and this way there is no middle man and we know where the money is going."

Tarhoni said the main obstacle to exporting oil would be finding shipping companies, and other representatives from the Provisional Transitional National Council opposition body have said they are having difficulty finding companies to insure oil tankers taking exports from rebel-held territory.

-AFP/wk

Latest helicopter footage of Fukushima, zoom-in on ruined reactors

The latest footage of the destroyed reactors


Sixth study in recent months links mercury in flu shots to brain damage, autism

Sixth study in recent months links mercury in flu shots to brain damage, autism

March 28, 2011

The toxic effects of the mercury, also known in vaccines as Thimerosal, have once again been confirmed, this time by researchers from the University of Brazil. Marking the sixth major study in recent months to condemn the use of mercury in medicine, the new study reveals that mercury causes serious brain damage, and is linked to autism and other developmental diseases in children and Alzheimer's disease in adults.

Dr. Jose Dorea and his colleagues conducted an extensive, peer-reviewed analysis of various studies and available information in major databases that address the effects of low-dose Thimerosal, or ethylmercury, on neural tissue and behavior. They found conclusively that Thimerosal accumulates in brain tissue, negatively affects brain development, and harms brain cells.

"Mercury is known to cause serious harm, especially to fetuses and children because of their smaller size," said Lisa Sykes, president of the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD), a non-profit group dedicated to removing mercury from medicine. "Why remove Thimerosal from pediatric vaccines only to inject it into pregnant women and children with recommended flu shots? They removed Thimerosal from other vaccines, so it should also be removed from flu shots."

Several other recent studies confirm the numerous dangers posed by mercury, including one recently published in the Folia Neuropathologica that links the toxin directly to autism (http://www.naturalnews.com/031678_m...). Mercury is also known to disrupt proper immune function, damage DNA, inhibit healthy embryonic development, and cause cancer.

The vast majority of the flu shots administered in the US still contain Thimerosal, as they come from multi-dose vials that require a preservative in order to prevent contamination. However, CoMeD says there is no reason to continue using Thimerosal since safer alternative preservatives already exist and are currently in use in many pediatric vaccines that used to contain Thimerosal.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...

Gingrich fears ‘atheist country … dominated by radical Islamists

Gingrich fears ‘atheist country … dominated by radical Islamists

Posted by keith on Mar 28, 2011 | 1 Comment

Editors Note: Newt Gingrich is a particularly evil man with no shame. Here’s what he said to a group of demented Christian Zionists:

“I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9,” Gingrich said at Cornerstone Church. “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.”

Christian Zionists are the most easily duped fools on the planet. They’re selfish, scared and extremely stupid. Unfortunately, they’re 70 million strong–about 1/5 of the population of the US–and the largest and most coveted voting block in America.

Dan Gilgoff
CNN

Hours after declaring Sunday that he expects to be running for president within a month, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he’s worried the United States could be “a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists,” in the foreseeable future, according to Politico.

Gingrich was addressing Cornerstone Church, a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas, led by the Rev. John Hagee, an influential leader among American evangelicals.

Hagee’s endorsement of then-presidential candidate John McCain in 2008 was plagued by controversy.

McCain ultimately rejected the endorsement over remarks Hagee had made about the Holocaust, in which he appeared to say that Adolf Hitler had been fulfilling God’s will by hastening the desire of Jews to return to Israel, in accordance with biblical prophecy.

Read Entire Article

The Alex Jones Show 3/28/11: Pseudo-Intellectual Hit Piece Emblematic Of...

Radiation levels reach new highs as conditions worsen for workers

Radiation levels reach new highs as conditions worsen for workers

By Chico Harlan and Brian Vastag, Monday, March 28, 1:35 AM

TOKYO — As radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant reached a new high Sunday, workers contended with dark, steamy conditions in their efforts to repair the facility’s cooling system and stave off a full-blown nuclear meltdown. Wearing respirators, face masks and bulky suits, they fought to reconnect cables and restore power to motor pumps the size of automobiles.

Leaked water sampled from one unit Sunday had 100,000 times the radioactivity of normal background levels, although the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, first calculated an even higher, erroneous, figure it didn’t correct for hours.

Tepco apologized Sunday night when it realized the mistake; it had initially reported radiation levels in the leaked water from the unit 2 reactor as being 10 million times the norm, which prompted an evacuation of the building.

After the levels were correctly measured, airborne radioactivity in the unit 2 turbine building still remained so high — 1,000 milli­sieverts per hour — that a worker there would reach his yearly occupational exposure limit in 15 minutes. A dose of 4,000 to 5,000 millisieverts absorbed fairly rapidly will eventually kill about half of those exposed.

The latest confusion in the operation to stave off a full-scale nuclear meltdown at the crippled facility underscores the immense challenges for the several hundred workers in a desperate battle to restart the critical cooling systems. Seventeen workers have been exposed to high levels of radiation, including three who were hospitalized last week, as technicians conducted highly nuanced electrical work in dark conditions that one nuclear industry expert termed “hellish.”

Japanese authorities say efforts to control Fukushima’s overheated reactors will take months and during that time radiation will continue to leak into the environment, extending a nuclear emergency that already ranks as the world’s most serious in a quarter-century. Several hundred workers now shoulder the responsibility for limiting the crisis, amid potentially lethal radiation levels, and on Saturday the chief of Japan’s nuclear agency called on Tepco to improve its worker safety.

What's up with Glenn Beck having G. Edward Griffin on his Show?

This is a very informative and interesting take on why Glen Beck allowed G Edward Griffin to come on and talk about the Federal Reserve


Liberals Willing to Trade Blood and Treasure for Oil Company Profits Under Obama

Liberals Willing to Trade Blood and Treasure for Oil Company Profits Under Obama

Eric Blair
Activist Post

It's perplexing to see a high level of support for the unprovoked bombing of Libya on so-called "progressive" websites.

There has been an endless stream of humanitarian propaganda flowing from these sites trying to convince average liberals that the "human thing to do" is to rain down tomahawk missiles with depleted uranium to bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed people.

Huffington Post ran a piece by Ed Schultz titled Why I Support President Obama's Decision to Invade Libyawhere he described his reasoning as follows:
...President Obama explained this won't be a long-term operation.
Matter of days, not a matter of weeks. Not even months.
...He's (Obama) trying to give the rebels, those who want democracy, a fighting chance at just that and trying to stop Gaddafi -- this is the human thing to do -- from slaughtering his own people.

Utah House stamps gold, silver as legal tender

Utah House stamps gold, silver as legal tender

It may not fold as conveniently as dollar bills, but the Utah House took a first step Friday to recognize gold and silver as legal tender.

It voted 47-26 to pass HB317 by Rep. Brad Galvez, R-West Haven, and sent it to the Senate. The measure would recognize as legal tender gold and silver coins issued by the federal government — not just their face value, but also their value in gold and silver or to a collector.

It also would order the state to study whether Utah should establish an alternative form of legal tender, such as one backed by silver and gold.

“This is a step in preparedness, a step in security,” Galvez said, “that allows us to be able to help hold up our economy as the dollar continues to shrink.”

Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, said, for example, that a 1960s John F. Kennedy half-dollar coin — 90 percent silver — would have bought three gallons of gasoline with its face value in the mid-60s. But the value of the silver in it today would buy about five gallons of gas, while the face value of the coin would buy only a fraction of a gallon.

Ivory said the bill is “a way for us to preserve for the citizens of Utah … the purchasing power of the money they hold.”

The bill would not require anyone to accept gold and silver coins as legal tender. It also would exempt the sale of such U.S. coins from state sales taxes and from capital-gains taxes.

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, a certified public accountant, opposed the bill, saying it could create tax loopholes. He said people seeking to escape capital-gains taxes on other assets — such as gold bullion — might be able to do so by selling it for coins under the bill.

ldavidson@sltrib.com

I-95 cameras snap speeders, spark controversy - Yahoo! News

I-95 cameras snap speeders, spark controversy


In this March 8, 2011 photo, a sign warns motorists on Interstate 95 in Ridgeland, S.C., about a speed camera system in use on the expressway in the t

RIDGELAND, S.C. – As Interstate 95 sweeps past this small town along South Carolina's coastal plain, motorists encounter cameras that catch speeding cars, the only such devices on the open interstate for almost 2,000 miles from Canada to Miami.

The cameras have nabbed thousands of motorists, won accolades from highway safety advocates, attracted heated opposition from state lawmakers and sparked a federal court challenge.

Ridgeland Mayor Gary Hodges said the cameras in his town about 20 miles north of the Georgia line do what they are designed to do: slow people down, reduce accidents and, most importantly, save lives.

But lawmakers who want to unplug them argue the system is just a money-maker and amounts to unconstitutional selective law enforcement.

"We're absolutely shutting it down," said state Sen. Larry Grooms, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Earlier this month, Ridgeland Police Officer David Swinehamer sat in a van beneath an overpass as a radar gun in a thicket of electronic equipment outside clocked passing vehicles: 60, 72, 73, 67.

Then a Mercedes with South Carolina tags sped by going 83 — 13 mph over the speed limit. A camera fired and pictures of the tag and driver appeared on a monitor in the van. The unaware motorist continued north, but could expect a $133 ticket in the mail in a couple of weeks.

"I just don't think it's right," said James Gain of Kissimmee, Fla., one of the lawsuit plaintiffs who got a ticket last year while driving between his home and Greensboro, N.C. "If you get a ticket you should be stopped by an officer, know you have been stopped and have an opportunity to state your case."

Gain paid the fine, saying it was less expensive than driving six hours back to Ridgeland for court.

Motorists do get a warning. As they enter town, a blue and white sign says they are entering an area with "Photo-Radar Assisted Speed Enforcement."

Speed cameras are used in 14 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The only other place with a camera on I-95 is in a Maryland work zone.

The cameras have sparked controversy in other places around the nation as well.

Last year, Arizona ended a two-year program with cameras on Phoenix-area expressways and other roads, in part because of perceptions they were being used to raise revenue.

But Cedar Rapids, Iowa, began using cameras last summer on busy I-380. Police there said during the first month of operation, violations dropped 62 percent.

Hodges said since Ridgeland, working with iTraffic Safety, became the first community in South Carolina to deploy cameras in August, motorists are also driving slower along the 7 miles of I-95 passing through the town limits.

From January to July of 2010, there were 55 crashes and four fatalities. From August through the end of last month, there were 38 crashes and no deaths. And since the cameras started operating until last month, there has been almost a 50 percent drop in the number of motorists driving 81 or more.

"You can't argue with the results and the only reason you would be upset is because you are speeding," said Tom Crosby, a spokesman for AAA Carolinas. "All it's doing is enforcing the law and even then you have to be doing over 80 to get a ticket."

Police use driver's license photos or physical descriptions from licenses such as a driver's hair, eye color and weight to identify the motorist. No ticket is issued if there is any question about the driver's identity.

Grooms, the legislator, said since not all speeders are ticketed, it's selective enforcement. He added that while the system may issue a ticket, it doesn't get violators off the road.

"You are driving down the road at 100 mph or you are driving down the road drunk. The camera takes your picture and three weeks later you get a ticket in the mail. There is no element of public safety," he said.

Grooms said the cameras are only a money-maker for the town. Hodges discounts that, saying the town just wants to recover the cost of police and ambulance service for millions of motorists passing through. Two-thirds of ticket money goes to the state, he said.

The town has about $20,000 invested in the van. The contractor, iTraffic Safety, pays the other costs in return for a share of ticket revenue.

While state law prohibits issuing tickets solely on photographic evidence, the mayor said that doesn't apply in Ridgeland because an officer is also there to see the speeder from the van.

But the state Senate, in a 40-0 vote, recently gave approval to changing that and banning speeding tickets from photographs whether the camera is attended or not. The law would also require tickets to be handed directly to a motorist.

The federal lawsuit contends it's unconstitutional to send motorists tickets by mail and to addresses outside town limits.

Ridgeland is one of almost 90 jurisdictions nationwide using cameras to nab speeders and "to our knowledge, every single one of them mails the tickets," Hodges said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration calls speed cameras "a very effective countermeasure" to crashes but said they should supplement, not replace, officers patrolling. Ridgeland still uses officers on the interstate.

Hodges is not surprised by opposition to the cameras, particularly with South Carolina's history of motorists' rights. South Carolina was one of the last states to enact a .08 blood-alcohol level for drunken driving and took a long time to pass a primary seatbelt law.

"We went through similar things when breathalyzers came out. We went through similar things when radar guns came out," Hodges said. "It's the same type of mentality."

Artificial clouds to cool Qatar for 2022 World Cup | Mail Online

Artificial clouds to cool Qatar for 2022 World Cup

By SPORTSMAIL REPORTER Last updated at 1:53 PM on 26th March 2011

Qatar have developed artificial clouds to provide shade for stadiums and training grounds at the 2022 World Cup.

The extreme heat in summer months in the Middle Eastern country has led to concern about conditions at the tournament, with some suggesting it should be played in the winter.

Qatar say they will air condition the stadia via solar power and now scientists at Qatar University have designed the 'cloud' which can be produced at a cost of US $500,000 (£310,000) each.

State of the art: An artitist's impression of the Al-Rayyan stadium which will play host to World Cup matches

State of the art: An artitist's impression of the Al-Rayyan stadium which will play host to World Cup matches

Saud Abdul Ghani, head of the mechanical and industrial engineering department, told Gulf News the 'clouds' are made from a lightweight carbon structure carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas.

Four solar powered engines move the structure via remote control.

The decision to award Qatar the tournament sparked controversy when it was announced following a vote by the 22-man executive committee in December. Russia were named hosts for 2018 at the same time.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1369525/Artificial-clouds-cool-Qatar-2022-World-Cup.html#ixzz1HtV6WwWs