Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Ron Paul Now Clear Favorite To Win Iowa
Highly accurate collated figures show Congressman trouncing Romney & Gingrich
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
A New York Times Iowa primary projection, using figures collated from all the latest poll results and surveys, shows that Ron Paul is the clear favorite to win the crucial first Republican primary set to take place in just 13 days time.
“These forecasts are formulated from an average of recent surveys, with adjustments made to account for a polling firm’s accuracy, freshness of a poll and each candidate’s momentum,”reports the NY Times, noting that the method “improves accuracy” of the result.
The current figures show Ron Paul’s chance of winning the Iowa primary at 49 per cent, with Romney in second at 27 per cent and Gingrich in third at 15.5 per cent.
The numbers are collated from ten different polls that were conducted over the course of the last three weeks, including surveys undertaken by Rasmussen, PPP and InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research. The results underscore how Paul has surged into first position over the last ten days, having been placed third at the start of the month.
The two most recent polls in Iowa have both found that Ron Paul is the current frontrunner in the crucial first primary state.
The results of a Iowa State University poll released today reported Paul in the lead with 27.5 percent of 333 likely caucus-goers, with Gingrich in second at 25.3 percent and Romney in third with 17.5 percent.
A survey released Sunday night conducted by Public Policy Polling showed Ron Paul in first place ahead of Romney in second and Gingrich in third, whose campaign was described as “imploding”.
- A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A recent CNN report also entertained the strong possibility that Paul could take Iowa, noting that his campaign was far more aggressive than Mitt Romney’s in that Paul’s campaign office was a “hive of activity,” whereas Romney’s was still closed at mid-morning.
In addition, another new poll conducted by CNN / ORC released today finds that Ron Paul is the strongest GOP candidate when it comes to a hypothetical head to head with Barack Obama, firmly debunking the establishment Republican talking point than a Ron Paul win would ensure Barack Obama’s re-election.
In a direct head to head with Obama, Paul does better than all of his GOP rivals in a wide and diverse range of population categories, including males; persons ages 18 to 34; persons under 50 years of age; persons earning less than $50k per year; persons who have attended college; crossover Democrats; self-identified liberals; self-described moderates; residents of the Northeast and Midwest geographic regions; and those residing in urban areas.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.
Chuck Baldwin Endorses Ron Paul for President
Having voted for Chuck Baldwin in 2008 it is wonderful to see such a well articulated man of God endorse a true champion of freedom like Dr. Paul.
When it comes to endorsements I dont put much stock in them except when great man like Chuck Baldwin gives one.
When it comes to endorsements I dont put much stock in them except when great man like Chuck Baldwin gives one.
Cops Ready for War
Nestled amid plains so flat the locals joke you can watch your dog run away for miles, Fargo treasures its placid lifestyle, seldom pierced by the mayhem and violence common in other urban communities. North Dakota’s largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005, and there’s not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the last decade.
But that hasn’t stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.
Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation—if it ever occurs—officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic, where it’s been parked near the children’s bounce house.
“Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here,” says Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. “There’s no terrorism here.”
Like Fargo, thousands of other local police departments nationwide have been amassing stockpiles of military-style equipment in the name of homeland security, aided by more than $34 billion in federal grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Daily Beast investigation conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
Interactive Map: States Spend Billions on Homeland Security
The buying spree has transformed local police departments into small, army-like forces, and put intimidating equipment into the hands of civilian officers. And that is raising questions about whether the strategy has gone too far, creating a culture and capability that jeopardizes public safety and civil rights while creating an expensive false sense of security.
“The argument for up-armoring is always based on the least likely of terrorist scenarios,” says Mark Randol, a former terrorism expert at the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. “Anyone can get a gun and shoot up stuff. No amount of SWAT equipment can stop that.”
Local police bristle at the suggestion that they’ve become “militarized,” arguing the upgrade in firepower and other equipment is necessary to combat criminals with more lethal capabilities. They point to the 1997 Los Angeles-area bank robbers who pinned police for hours with assault weapons, the gun-wielding student who perpetrated the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, and the terrorists who waged a bloody rampage in Mumbai, India, that left 164 people dead and 300 wounded in 2008.
The new weaponry and battle gear, they insist, helps save lives in the face of such threats. “I don’t see us as militarizing police; I see us as keeping abreast with society,” former Los Angeles Police chief William Bratton says. “And we are a gun-crazy society.”
Adds Fargo Police Lt. Ross Renner, who commands the regional SWAT team: “It’s foolish to not be cognizant of the threats out there, whether it’s New York, Los Angeles, or Fargo. Our residents have the right to be protected. We don’t have everyday threats here when it comes to terrorism, but we are asked to be prepared.”
The skepticism about the Homeland spending spree is less severe for Washington, D.C., Los Angelesand New York, which are presumed to be likelier targets. But questions persist about whether money was handed out elsewhere with any regard for risk assessment or need. And the gap in accounting for the decade-long spending spree is undeniable. The U.S. Homeland Security Department says it doesn’t closely track what’s been bought with its tax dollars or how the equipment is used. State and local governments don’t maintain uniform records either.
To assess the changes in law enforcement for The Daily Beast, the Center for Investigative Reporting conducted interviews and reviewed grant spending records obtained through open records requests in 41 states. The probe found stockpiles of weaponry and military-style protective equipment worthy of a defense contractor’s sales catalog.
In Montgomery County, Texas, the sheriff’s department owns a $300,000 pilotless surveillance drone, like those used to hunt down al Qaeda terrorists in the remote tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Augusta, Maine, with fewer than 20,000 people and where an officer hasn’t died from gunfire in the line of duty in more than 125 years, police bought eight $1,500 tactical vests. Police in Des Moines, Iowa, bought two $180,000 bomb-disarming robots, while an Arizona sheriff is now the proud owner of a surplus Army tank.
The flood of money opened to local police after 9/11, but slowed slightly in recent years. Still, the Department of Homeland Security awarded more than $2 billion in grants to local police in 2011, and President Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contributed an additional half-billion dollars.
Law enforcement officials say the armored vehicles, assault weapons, and combat uniforms used by their officers provide a public safety benefit beyond their advertised capabilities, creating a sort of “shock and awe” experience they hope will encourage suspects to surrender more quickly.
“The only time I hear the complaint of ‘God, you guys look scary’ is if the incident turns out to be nothing,” says West Hartford, Conn., Police Lt. Jeremy Clark, who organizes an annual SWAT competition.
A grainy YouTube video from one of Clark’s recent competitions shows just how far the police transformation has come, displaying officers in battle fatigues, helmets, and multi-pocketed vests storming a hostile scene. One with a pistol strapped to his hip swings a battering ram into a door. A colleague lobs a flash-bang grenade into a field. Another officer, holding a pistol and wearing a rifle strapped to his back, peeks cautiously inside a bus.
The images unfold to the pulsing, ominous soundtrack of a popular videogame, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Though resembling soldiers in a far-flung war zone, the stars of this video are Massachusetts State Police troopers.
The number of SWAT teams participating in Clark’s event doubled to 40 between 2004 and 2009 as Homeland’s police funding swelled. The competition provides real-life scenarios for training, and Clark believes it is essential, because he fears many SWAT teams are falling below the 16 hours of minimum monthly training recommended by the National Tactical Officers Association.
Pedophile heads up children's unit for Queensland health
A CONVICTED pedophile and a man ordered to pay damages for software piracy are on Queensland Health's payroll.
The Courier-Mail newspaper reports the pedophile, convicted in 1994, works in Queensland Health's mental health section.
An IT manager who was ordered by the Federal Court in 2001 to pay damages of $210,000 was employed by Queensland Health in 2006 and two years later was promoted.
Police Minister Neil Roberts said people with criminal convictions should be forgiven at some stage and allowed to move on.
"Certainly they need to be held accountable for that," he told ABC Radio.
"But we also want people to get back on the straight and narrow and lead productive lives in the community.
"We have to draw a line in the sand at some point.
"That's why under current legislation, after a period of time, people are able to not declare certain offences.
"Some need to be declared, but this is the system we have and I think it works well
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/more-failed-checks-on-bureaucrats/story-e6frfkvr-1226227232641#ixzz1hCAkYHAf
Louisiana State Officials Call For Troops On Streets!!
National Guard engaged in door-to-door gun confiscation during Hurricane Katrina
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.prisonplanet.tv/
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Lawmakers in Louisiana are calling for National Guard troops to patrol the streets of New Orleans after a toddler was killed in a drive-by shooting. The last time troops were involved in domestic law enforcement in the state, they were used to confiscate legally owned firearms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Keira Holmes Gordon was caught in the crossfire of two separate groups of men in cars who were targeting another man stood near a B. W. Cooper Housing development on Sunday. The toddler, four days shy of her second birthday, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Citing soaring crime levels, state lawmaker Austin Badon Jr. told CNN he "wants the government to step and help control the violence," by sending troops to patrol troubled areas, although he admitted that just "a select few people" were responsible for the crimes.
The CNN host makes clear that Badon is just one of several officials calling for National Guard troops.
"I have called on the Governor to bring in the National Guard," said Badon, asserting that residents were "more comfortable" after seeing the Guard patrol the streets in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina.
"We are at war and when you're at war, you have to bring in soldiers," said Badon, describing the situation as "urban warfare," and complaining about people who own guns.
A spokesman for Governor Bobby Jindal's office said no request had been made from the mayor to send National Guard troops to patrol the streets.
Unmanned Border Kiosks--US-Mexico
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNMANNED_BORDER_CROSSING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-11-15-14-49
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, Texas (AP) -- The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence.
This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in this rugged, remote West Texas terrain where wading across the shallow Rio Grande undetected is all too easy, federal authorities are touting a proposal to open an unmanned port of entry as a security upgrade.
By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles away.
The crossing, which would be the nation's first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counterintuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.
"People that want to be engaged in illegal activities along the border, ones that are engaged in those activities now, they're still going to do it," said William Wellman, Big Bend National Park's superintendent. "But you'd have to be a real idiot to pick the only place with security in 300 miles of the border to try to sneak across."
The proposed crossing from Boquillas del Carmen leads to a vast expanse of rolling scrub, cut by sandy-floored canyons and violent volcanic rock outcroppings. The Chihuahuan desert wilderness is home to mountain lions, black bears and roadrunners, sparsely populated by an occasional camper and others visiting the 800,000-acre national park.
Customs and Border Protection, which would run the port of entry, says the proposal is a safe way to allow access to the town's residents, who currently must travel 240 road miles to the nearest legal entry point. It also would allow park visitors to visit the town.
If the crossing is approved, Border Patrol would have eight agents living in the park in addition to the park's 23 law enforcement rangers.
"I think it's actually going to end up making security better," CBP spokesman William Brooks said.
"Once you've crossed you're still not anywhere. You've got a long ways to go and we've got agents who are in the area. We have agents who patrol. We have checkpoints on the paved roads leading away from the park."
A public comment period runs through Dec. 27 on the estimated $2.3 million project, which has support at the highest levels of government from both countries.
But U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican member of the House Homeland Security committee, questioned the wisdom of using resources to make it easier to cross the border.
"We need to use our resources to secure the border rather than making it easier to enter in locations where we already have problems with illegal crossings," McCaul said in an email. "There is more to the oversight of legal entry than checking documents. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) needs to be physically present at every point of entry in order to inspect for contraband, detect suspicious behavior and, if necessary, act on what they encounter."
While CBP will run the port of entry, the National Park Service is the driver behind the project, which it hopes will help conservation efforts on both sides of the border. Even as the National Park Service has increased cooperation with its Mexican counterpart, joint conservation has been limited by the inability of personnel to cross the border without making a circuitous 16-hour drive, Wellman said.
So the National Park Service is building the contact station just above the Rio Grande. It will house CBP kiosks where crossers will scan in their documents and talk to a customs officer in Presidio, the nearest port of entry, or another remote location. Park service employees will staff the station, offering information about the park and guiding people through the process.
Similar ports of entry are already in operation on remote parts of the border with Canada.
"We think we can do this without doing any damage to national security and possibly enhance security along the border by having better intelligence, better communication with people in Mexico," Wellman said.
The crossing would also restore a long-running relationship between the park, its visitors and the residents of Boquillas del Carmen, the town of adobe dwellings set a short distance from the river in Mexico.
For years, U.S. tourists added an international dimension to their park visit by wading or ferrying in a rowboat across the shallow Rio Grande to the town. There they bought handicrafts and tacos, providing much-needed cash in the isolated community.
But US officials discouraged such informal crossings in 2002 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompted calls for tighter border security. Without access to tourists or supplies on the U.S. side, the town of just more than 100 people has seen a 42 percent drop in population from 2000 to 2010.
Gary Martin, who manages the Rio Grande Village store at a nearby park campground, recalls many Mexican residents crossing the river to pick up groceries and other necessities.
"We're their supply," Martin said. "They don't have any electricity over there. So they would come here and buy frozen chicken, cake mixes and things that they couldn't get over there."
Martin tried to stock food items Boquillas del Carmen residents wanted, such as eggs and big sacks of beans.
"After the border closed, well, I got rid of most of my food and went back to gifts because I wasn't making any money," Martin said. He estimated about 40 percent of the store's revenue came from Boquillas residents.
Few have risked crossing to the store since. "If they get caught over here they get shipped off," he said. "They get deported all the way to Ojinaga and then they've got to find their way home. It's not really worth it."
Still, most days some Boquillas del Carmen residents wade across the river a short distance downstream of the old crossing and scramble up to a paved overlook perched high above the river.
On boulders near the parking spots they lay out painted walking sticks, scorpions and roadrunners crafted from copper wire and colorful beads. Each craftsman's work occupies a different rock and operates on the honor system with the hope tourists will drop four or five dollars in their jar.
"Sometimes we don't sell anything," said Boquillas del Carmen resident Guillermo Gonzalez Diaz. "Sometimes we sell one." And other times authorities confiscate everything.
Gonzalez, a 34-year-old father of three, described his town as "very sad, very hard" and said there was no work. Without access to the Rio Grande Village store, residents depend on a bus that runs once a week to Melchor Muzquiz, a larger town about 150 miles away, for supplies.
A small military presence protects the town from the drug-related violence that has engulfed other Mexican border towns. Now with news of the port of entry, residents are already making plans for restaurants and shops, he said.
"When it closed nobody crossed and everything went downhill. People began to leave," he said. "Now people are going to return."
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Ron Paul Takes The Lead
Texas Rep. Ron Paul is now atop the field in Iowa of Republicans looking to unseat President Obama next year.
Paul has the support of 27.5 percent of likely voters for the Jan. 3 caucuses, which kick of the 2012 race for the Republican nomination for president in less than two weeks, according to a poll conducted by Iowa State University/Gazette/KCRG.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich finished a close second, with 25.3 percent, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who took 17.5 percent.
Paul's support could be stronger than other candidates who have led in Iowa in the months since the August straw poll, which Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won.
FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists
Green Is The New Red
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists, according to a new document uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act.
This new information comes as the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional because its vague wording has had a chilling effect on political activism. This document adds to the evidence demonstrating that the AETA goes far beyond property destruction, as its supporters claim.
The 2003 FBI file details the work of several animal rights activists who used undercover investigation to document repeated animal welfare violations. The FBI special agent who authored the report said they “illegally entered buildings owned by [redacted] Farm… and videotaped conditions of animals.”
The animal activists caused “economic loss” to businesses, the FBI says. And they also openly rescued several animals from the abusive conditions. This was not done covertly in the style of underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front — it was an act of non-violent civil disobedience and, as the FBI agent notes, the activists distributed press releases and conducted media interviews taking responsibility for their actions.
Based on these acts — trespassing in order to photograph and videotape abuses on factory farms — the agent concludes there “is a reasonable indication” that the activists “have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a).”
The file was uncovered through a FOIA request by Ryan Shapiro, who is one of the activists mentioned. The file is available for download here. [Please note that this document has additional redactions in order to protect the identities of the other activists, at their request.] Shapiro is now a doctoral candidate at MIT.
“It is deeply sobering to see one’s name in an FBI file proposing terrorism charges,” he said in an email. “It is even more sobering to realize the supposedly terroristic activities in question are merely exposing the horrific cruelty of factory farms, educating the public about what goes on behind those closed doors, and openly rescuing a few animals from one of those farms as an act of civil disobedience.”
- A D V E R T I S E M E N T
When I testified before Congress against the AETA in 2006, one of the primary concerns I raised is that the law could be used to wrap up a wide range of activity that threatens corporate profits. Supporters of the AETA have repeatedly denied this, and said the law will only be used against people who do things like burn buildings.
So how do we explain that such a sweeping prosecution was being considered in 2003, under the law’s somewhat-narrower precursor?
One possibility is that FBI agents lack training, education, and oversight. They are spying on political activists without understanding or respecting the law.
Another explanation is that this document is no mistake, nor is it an isolated case. It is a reflection of a coordinated campaign to target animal rights activists who, as the FBI agent notes, cause “economic loss” to corporations.
At the state, federal, and international levels, corporations have orchestrated an attempt to silence political activists, and a key target has been undercover investigators. For example:
- An “Ag Gag” bill has been introduced in Florida to criminalize investigations. Its lead sponsor calls these investigations “terrorism.” Four similar attempts failed in other states this year.
- These state bills are similar to model “eco-terrorism” legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate front group.
- A recent EUROPOL report on international terrorism includes a section on undercover investigations by animal rights and environmental activists.
- 12 Spanish activists have been charged with terrorism for their investigations.
- Two activists in Finland faced similar charges.
The FBI makes clear that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is not about protecting public safety; it is about protecting corporate profits. Corporations and the politicians who represent them have repeatedly lied to the American public about the scope of this legislation, and claimed that the law only targets underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front. The truth is that this terrorism law has been slowly, methodically expanded to include the tactics of national organizations like the Humane Society of the United States.
This document illustrates how the backlash against effective activism has progressed within the animal rights movement. However, if this type of legislation is not overturned, it will set a precedent for corporations to use this model against Occupy Wall Street and anyone else who threaten business as usual.
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