Bacteria research scientist suddenly dies of the Plague, apparently caused by a vaccine supposedly to prevent it.

People genuinely get angry at me, furious, really, as if I had insulted someone they loved, when I tell them that vaccines are medical quackery. It really touches a nerve with them; I don't know why. I'm sure many of you have had similar reactions. But here is one pretty solid example of why. Add to this the fact that vaccines being given in Africa to prevent polio are actually giving people polio. But of course, that's purely accidental, just like Baxter dishing out live Avian flu in vaccine materials to 18 countries, killing god-knows how many people, and Bayer sending HIV-infected blood plasma to hemophiliacs around the world, and the FDA covering it up for them. After all these years, they're still just so innocently clumsy, like a child playing with his first chemistry set. It's so adorable.

WLS-TV Chicago (ABC) -

A University of Chicago researcher died after being exposed to a strain of bacteria that causes plague. And Malcolm Casadaban's family wants answers.

The Chicago Department of Public Health says there's no sign anyone else was exposed to the bacteria.

VIDEO: Family wants answers.

The tragic irony is that Professor Casadaban had been trying to develop a vaccine so that thousands of people around the world wouldn't die a painful, ugly death from a bacterial infection related to the plague. But it was that bacterium that appears to have killed him.

"We really thought he was so strong, we didn't see this coming at all," said Leigh Casadaban, daughter.

Not only did they not see it coming, but sisters Leigh and Brooke Casadaban say their father never knew what killed him.

"It was just so much of a shock, even the time he was in the ER, from the moment he got accepted to the time he passed away. We had no idea, we didn't even get to say goodbye to him," said Brooke Casadaban.

Malcom Casadaban was a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Chicago for 30 years.

For the past eight years, his daughters say, he'd been working with a strain of bacteria called yersinia pestis, trying to develop a stronger vaccine for the plague, once the world's worst health scourge.

The weakened strain he was using, however, isn't supposed to make healthy people sick.

And that is the big mystery now for investigators with the Centers for Disease Control and the state and city public health departments who've been looking for clues at the U. of C. labs.

"Was it a change in the organism, something about the person infected that made him uniquely susceptible? We don't really know the answers yet," said John Easton, University of Chicago Medical Center.

"It was hurtful because we remember our father as very healthy. He rode his bike to work, never smoked, never drank," said Brooke Casadaban.

Brooke and Leigh Casadaban say they're not satisfied with the answers they've been given so far.

How did their father, who had flu-like symptoms, enter the hospital a week ago Sunday morning and die 12 hours later with no one suspecting that it could be related to the plague?

Leigh, who is following in her father's footsteps, now attends her father's alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it may be up to her to solve this.

"I plan to go to the lab to read his papers and notes and go and really understand what he was trying to do," said Leigh Casadaban.

Leigh and Brooke say they've been told that their father is the first person in the Chicago area to die from this bacterium, an infection that is usually cured with antibiotics. They say they're not eager to file a lawsuit. But they are wondering now if someone at the hospital or the university should have been able to spot this before it was too late.

IV Vitamin C Used to Recover Terminal Swine Flu Case

This did not make the hospital happy at all, oh goodness no. I realize this may offend your delicate sensibilities about the nature of medicine and the canonization of anyone in the medical profession, but they're really not interested in your health and well-being. If you're healthy, you're of no use to them. There's no money in health, no money in curing you. And a lot of doctors would have no qualms with letting you die of a weak and silly virus that nobody should be dying of, rather than have word get out that they cured you with natural remedies. Here in America, the FDA tells us that only one of their drugs can cure or treat a disease, which should alarm anyone with half a brain.

Anyone out there?

Mercola.com -

Dr. Thomas Levy sent me a case report where vitamin C was used to completely cure a case of swine flu. He says that adequately dosed vitamin C, to his knowledge, has never failed to cure an acute viral syndrome.

According to information he received from a colleague in New Zealand, John Appleton, the following occurred:

A Waikato farmer went to Fiji for a holiday and started developing flu-like symptoms, but decided to tough it out. He arrived back in New Zealand very sick with swine flu.

Tauranga Hospital was not able to treat him (what was not known at the time is that he has leukemia -- he didn't know either.) They sent him to Auckland Hospital, but he continued to deteriorate, despite the use of Tamiflu and antibiotics.

His brother-in-law (who knows a bit about vitamin C) contacted Dr. Thomas Levy in the U.S., who referred him to John Appleton.

John Appleton provided a lot of information on vitamin C and referred the family to CAM (Centre for Advanced Medicine), www.camltd.co.nz in Auckland. The family pushed to get him some IV vitamin C, but the hospital refused. CAM doctors encouraged the hospital to try vitamin C.

The patient deteriorated further and was on life support. The family was told nothing more could be done and life support would be switched off. His lungs were not functioning. The family said NO -- not until everything has been tried.

The hospital was pushed hard to give him IVC and reluctantly agreed, saying if there was no improvement by Friday, that's it.

The patient showed signs of improvement by Wednesday, to the hospital’s surprise.

Concerns were expressed about his kidneys, and a new specialist wanted to stop the vitamin C use -- the family was told his liver was failing, “caused by vitamin C”.

John Appleton gave them data showing the liver is more likely to be affected by antibiotics.

Patient recovery continued to the point where he could be transferred to Waikato (closer to home). He was still on a ventilator and NG tube feeding. The doctors there were more receptive to vitamin C, but wouldn't agree to continue the treatment.

The family got a high profile lawyer involved who wrote a letter about patient rights and called the hospital to recommend that they sort it out with the family.

As a result, the hospital continued with IVC, albeit at a much lower dose. A CAM doctor traveled to Waikato to endorse the treatment and recommend IVC at higher doses. The patient continued to recover -- he was now conscious.

The hospital staff was stunned -- they had never seen anything like this.

The patient was told by his brother-in-law that IVC had saved him. The patient’s wife had not lost her husband and the children have their father. The patient was by this time fully 'with it' and talking normally with family and taking Lypospheric vitamin C (6 grams daily).

For those doctors wondering about doses, Dr. Levy communicated directly with the brother-in-law to find out.

• On the Tuesday following the initial "deadline," 25 grams were given intravenously.
• On Wednesday, 25 gram infusions were again repeated twice.
• Thursday the patient received 75 grams.
• Starting on Friday he received 100 grams intravenously and stayed at this dose daily for another 4 to 6 days.

Then the new consultant had the vitamin C discontinued completely.

One week later, the IVC was restarted at only one gram twice daily.

Dr. Levy encourages everyone to resend this case history to any and all who you think could benefit, including your friends and contacts in the government.

Obviously, a reasonable daily dose of vitamin C could be expected to do an even better job at preventing H1N1 while having no downside relative to the mass vaccinations getting ready to take place.

Visit the link to read Dr Mercola's commentary on this story.

G. Edward Griffin addresses the issue of psychiatry and mind-altering drugs as weapons for controlling and punishing political dissidents

G. Edward Griffin, political lecturer & author of The Creature from Jekyll Island, the critically acclaimed book about the U.S. Federal Reserve, discusses how psychiatry merges with politics to eliminate political dissenters. In China today, political dissidents, whistleblowers and government petitioners are being labeled mentally ill, incarcerated in psychiatric wards and subjected to drugs & electroshock — a tactic reminiscent of Soviet Russia. This alliance between psychiatry and police states is not limited to China, Cuba or Uzbekistan, all of which currently employ psychiatric incarceration of citizens for political protest. In the UK, a specialized unit called the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre has been granted the authority to incarcerate anyone that has given inappropriate or threatening communications to a member of government into a psychiatric ward. The assessment teams are made up of police, psychiatrists and psychologists who have been given the authority to evaluate, accuse and detain anyone considered a threat into a mental facility — indefinitely.

If you think this couldn’t happen in the U.S., think again.

Click here to see PBS special report on political dissidents and petitoners in China who are being sentenced to psychiatric hospitals: http://3.ly/F5d

Gore Vidal: ‘We’ll have a dictatorship soon in the US’

I love this man.

Times of London -

A conversation with Gore Vidal unfolds at his pace. He answers questions imperiously, occasionally playfully, with a piercing, lethal dryness. He is 83 and in a wheelchair (a result of hypothermia suffered in the war, his left knee is made of titanium). But he can walk (“Of course I can”) and after a recent performance of Mother Courage at London’s National Theatre he stood to deliver an anti-war speech to the audience.

How was his friend Fiona Shaw in the title role? “Very good.” Where did they meet? Silence. The US? “Well, it wasn’t Russia.” What’s he writing at the moment? “It’s a little boring to talk about. Most writers seem to do little else but talk about themselves and their work, in majestic terms.” He means self-glorifying? “You’ve stumbled on the phrase,” he says, regally enough. “Continue to use it.”

Vidal is sitting in the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair, where he has been coming to stay for 60 years. He is wearing a brown suit jacket, brown jumper, tracksuit bottoms; his white hair twirled into a Tintin-esque quiff and with his hooded eyes, delicate yet craggy features and arch expression, he looks like Quentin Crisp, but accessorised with a low, lugubrious growl rather than camp lisp.

He points to an apartment opposite the hotel where Churchill stayed during the Second World War, as Downing Street was “getting hammered by the Nazis. The crowds would cheer him from the street, he knew great PR.” In a flash, this memory reminds you of the swathe of history Vidal has experienced with great intimacy: he was friends with JFK, fought in the war, his father Gene, an Olympic decathlete and aeronautics teacher, founded TWA among other airlines and had a relationship with Amelia Earhart. (Vidal first flew and landed a plane when he was 10.) He was a screenwriter for MGM in the dying days of the studio system, toyed with being a politician, he has written 24 novels and is hailed as one of the world’s greatest essayists.

He has crossed every boundary, I say. “Crashed many barriers,” he corrects me.

Last year he famously switched allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama during the Democratic nomination process for president. Now, he reveals, he regrets his change of heart. How’s Obama doing? “Dreadfully. I was hopeful. He was the most intelligent person we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.” America should leave Afghanistan, he says. “We’ve failed in every other aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to call it.” The “War on Terror” was “made up”, Vidal says. “The whole thing was PR, just like ‘weapons of mass destruction’. It has wrecked the airline business, which my father founded in the 1930s. He’d be cutting his wrists. Now when you fly you’re both scared to death and bored to death, a most disagreeable combination.”

His voice strengthens. “One thing I have hated all my life are LIARS [he says that with bristling anger] and I live in a nation of them. It was not always the case. I don’t demand honour, that can be lies too. I don’t say there was a golden age, but there was an age of general intelligence. We had a watchdog, the media.” The media is too supine? “Would that it was. They’re busy preparing us for an Iranian war.” He retains some optimism about Obama “because he doesn’t lie. We know the fool from Arizona [as he calls John McCain] is a liar. We never got the real story of how McCain crashed his plane [in 1967 near Hanoi, North Vietnam] and was held captive.”

Vidal originally became pro-Obama because he grew up in “a black city” (meaning Washington), as well as being impressed by Obama’s intelligence. “But he believes the generals. Even Bush knew the way to win a general was to give him another star. Obama believes the Republican Party is a party when in fact it’s a mindset, like Hitler Youth, based on hatred — religious hatred, racial hatred. When you foreigners hear the word ‘conservative’ you think of kindly old men hunting foxes. They’re not, they’re fascists.”

Another notable Obama mis-step has been on healthcare reform. “He f***ed it up. I don’t know how because the country wanted it. We’ll never see it happen.” As for his wider vision: “Maybe he doesn’t have one, not to imply he is a fraud. He loves quoting Lincoln and there’s a great Lincoln quote from a letter he wrote to one of his generals in the South after the Civil War. ‘I am President of the United States. I have full overall power and never forget it, because I will exercise it’. That’s what Obama needs — a bit of Lincoln’s chill.” Has he met Obama? “No,” he says quietly, “I’ve had my time with presidents.” Vidal raises his fingers to signify a gun and mutters: “Bang bang.” He is referring to the possibility of Obama being assassinated. “Just a mysterious lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital,” he says in a wry, dreamy way.

Vidal now believes, as he did originally, Clinton would be the better president. “Hillary knows more about the world and what to do with the generals. History has proven when the girls get involved, they’re good at it. Elizabeth I knew Raleigh would be a good man to give a ship to.”The Republicans will win the next election, Vidal believes; though for him there is little difference between the parties. “Remember the coup d’etat of 2000 when the Supreme Court fixed the selection, not election, of the stupidest man in the country, Mr Bush.”

Vidal says forcefully that he wished he’d never moved back to the US to live in Hollywood, from his clifftop home in Ravello, Italy, in 2000. His partner of 53 years, Howard Austen, who died in 2003, collated a lifetime’s-span of pictures of Vidal, for a new book out this autumn, Gore Vidal: Snapshots in History’s Glare (an oddly clunky title). The cover shows what a beautiful young man Vidal was, although his stare is as hawkish as it is today.

He observes presidential office-holders balefully. “The only one I knew well was Kennedy, but he didn’t impress me as a good president. It’s like asking, ‘What do I think of my brother?’ It’s complicated. I’d known him all my life and I liked him to the end, but he wrecked his chances with the Bay of Pigs and Suez crises, and because everyone was so keen to elect Bobby once Jack had gone, lies started to be told about him — that he was the greatest and the King of Camelot.”

This is a lengthy article. Read it all!!

Vaccine Refusing Nurse Verses CDC Bootlicker Shepard Smith

Make sure you watch this on an empty stomach, because the term 'bootlicker' is an understatement. Shep really goes to bat for the State here, and falls over himself trying to convince the viewership that the CDC is infallible and healthcare workers are just plain idiots and fearmongers. It's really grotesque.

Private Paramilitary Security Force Takes Over a Montana Town

Yet another conspiracy theory that somehow turned out to be true, like the FEMA camps. And yet doublethink takes over, and stupid Americans everywhere tune it all out and go about their lives, pretending not to notice the police state control grid being developed for them. They tell themselves, our troops wouldn't fire on their own countrymen (yes, they would). And no, the government would never hire foreign mercenaries to police our cities so our troops don't have to worry about firing on their own countrymen. That's crazy. Not anymore. But pretend you don't see it. Pretend not to notice. These aren't the droids you were looking for.

William Norman Grigg -

Five years ago, the city government of Hardin, Montana decided to build a large jail — 144,000 square feet, 464 beds — in an attempt to capitalize on the detention boom. A development agency called the Two Rivers Authority (TRA) was created; it issued $27 million in bonds to pay for the project.

The jail was built. It remains empty. The bonds have gone into default.

Several months ago, the TRA negotiated a deal — the details of which remain secret — with a private security firm called American Police Force (APF), which was incorporated in Santa Ana, California last March.

The deal reportedly includes $2.6 million for APF to run the jail, plus $23 million to run a 30,000-square foot training facility for military and police personnel on property managed by the TRA.

In addition, APF promises to shower the city will all kinds of amenities — computers for the local schools, donations to the local food bank, tricked-out cars for the local police force…. Whoops, did I mention that last item out loud?

Hardin has no police force; it receives police coverage through the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office. So it caused a stir last Thursday when APF officials arrived in Hardin in grand style — a convoy of black Mercedes SUVs bearing the logo of a non-existent “City of Hardin Police Force.”

The APF hired Becky Shay, a reporter from the Billings Gazette who had covered the story of the Hardin jail, as its new spokesperson (for the enviable salary of $60,000 a year). It also began negotiating an employment deal with mayoral candidate Kerri Smith. Her husband, Greg Smith, is the Executive Director of the TRA and the fellow responsible for working out the deal with APF. Greg Smith was immediately put on “administrative leave” and has effectively disappeared. (He didn’t answer messages I left at his business telephone number.)

Local residents are understandably curious about this mysterious private “security firm” that appears to be taking over their town.

There was initial speculation that American Police Force (the organization’s website conveniently went dark as this story broke) is a tentacle of the mercenary firm once known as Blackwater and now called Xe (pronounced “Zee”). A press spokesperson at Xe informed me that she had never heard of APF before news broke of recent developments in Hardin.

APF insists that it has plenty of money to make good on its promises, but pointedly refuses to say where it comes from. Its new press spokesman deflects such questions by saying that she’s confident that her paychecks will clear. Civic leaders either aren’t talking or don’t have anything useful to say.

There are some in Hardin who suspect that their town is essentially being taken over by a corporatist mercenary firm. As things stand, that suspicion is entirely justified.

US Condemns Violence Against Guinea Protesters

OK, granted, there were deaths in these protests - nobody died in Pittsburgh (that we know of). But it would be funny if it weren't so infuriating and sad that the State Department has something to say about violence in Guinea, a country 99% of Americans couldn't find on a map, yet had nothing to say of the grotesque spectacle displayed at the G20 summit last week. But probably the same percentage of Americans who have no clue where Guinea is have no clue that the police and military turned Pittsburgh into East Berlin for three days. And the government sure as hell isn't going to enlighten them.

And why is our government "deeply concerned" about violence against civilians when our military routinely and wantonly bombs civilians in Afghanistan? Is this some sort of psychological method being employed against the rest of the world? Get them so used to our hypocrisy that it becomes totally routine and no one notices it anymore?

Voice of America -

The United States has condemned the Guinean military's brazen and inappropriate use of force against demonstrators in Conakry Monday. News reports say at least 157 people were killed and more than 1,200 others wounded in a confrontation in the capital of the west African state.

The United States has joined the African Union, the European Union, the United Nations and others in condemning the attack by troops on civilians in Conakry Monday, one of the most severe incidents of violence in the region in many years.

Troops of the presidential guard of the country's military leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, are reported to have opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators who had gathered in Conakry to protest his plans to run in presidential elections in January.



" title="Junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, speaks at meeting at Camp Alpha Yaya Diallo military camp in Conakry, 27 Dec 2008 " src="http://www.voanews.com/english/images/ap_guinea_camara_speech_27dec08_eng_175.jpg" border="0" height="190" hspace="2" vspace="2" width="189">

Junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, speaks at meeting at Camp Alpha Yaya Diallo military camp in Conakry, 27 Dec 2008

When he took power in a coup last December, Captain Camara - who has ruled the country in an erratic fashion - had said no one on his ruling junta would run for public office.

A written statement by State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States condemns the Guinean military's brazen and inappropriate use of force against civilians, and also took note of reports that military personnel carried out brutal rapes and sexual assaults on women protestors and bystanders.

Kelly called for the immediate release of opposition leaders and a return to civilian rule in Guinea as soon as possible and said the United States insists that junta members respect their commitments not to contest the upcoming elections.

Earlier Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley said the casualty reports from Conakry were a matter of great concern to the Obama administration.



P.J. Crowley, US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (file)

"We are deeply concerned about the general breakdown of security in Conakry," said P.J. Crowley. "We encourage the Guinean government to exercise restraint and insure the safety and security of all Guineans and foreign nationals. We are very concerned about violations of basic human rights and we call upon the regime to release all political prisoners.

N.Y. health care workers protest mandatory H1N1 flu shots

The irony in this should be obvious to anyone, although there are probably very few who would notice, excluding anyone reading this blog. If this vaccine is totally benign, and so completely and utterly wonderful and necessary, why would the state of New York have to make it mandatory for them to get vaccinated - wouldn't they just naturally demand the shot on their own? - and why are health care workers throwing a fit because they're being forced to take it?

USA Today -

ALBANY — Several hundred health-care workers, civil libertarians and members of anti-vaccine groups on Tuesday railed against a mandate that medical professionals get seasonal and swine-flu vaccines.

But the state health commissioner said their arguments are baseless.

Nurses and other health-care workers said they shouldn't be forced to get a vaccine that they don't believe has been tested appropriately as a condition of keeping their jobs.

"There's no proof this vaccine will protect us from swine flu or protect us from spreading it to others," said Sue Field of Poughkeepsie, a registered nurse who works in a hospital maternity ward and a primary organizer of the rally.

Field, who declined to name her employer, said there are other things health-care workers can do to help prevent patients from getting sick, such as not allowing them to have visitors with contagious illnesses.

But Dr. Richard Daines, state health commissioner, disputed that, telling reporters that the seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines are safe and vaccination is the most effective way to prevent the flu.

In an earlier blog, I posted an article from Mike Adams in which he listed the top 10 vaccine lies. One lie he mentioned was a lie of omission, that the media only talked about vaccines as a method of prevention from getting sick, when in fact there are far better natural methods of preventing yourself from getting the flu, methods they never dared tell you about. Here you see this lie out in the open: the New York State health commissioner saying the best way to keep from getting the flu is the vaccine. That's a grotesque lie.

He criticized anti-vaccine groups for protesting the H1N1 shots.

"This isn't the time to pump air into a completely deflated argument about vaccine safety," he said.

The state Hospital Review and Planning Council unanimously approved a requirement that health-care workers in hospitals, outpatient clinics and home-care programs receive seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccines by Nov. 30, unless they have medical reasons why they cannot. Legislation to apply the same standard to nursing-home workers has been proposed.

Years of voluntary vaccines for flu led to vaccination levels of between 30% and 50% of health-care workers, which is not high enough to provide herd immunity — protection to the remaining unvaccinated population, Daines said.

It's up to the institutions to decide how to comply and what actions to take for employees who do not. Health-care workers are "going to come around on this," he said.

"I know nurses and doctors too well. I've never seen them walk away from a patient problem," he said.

Historically, there is one flu outbreak season each year, with about 2,000 deaths in New York and 36,000 nationwide, Daines said. Because of H1N1, there will likely be three outbreaks this year, he said.

Other groups representing health-care workers oppose the mandatory vaccinations, although they were not connected with the rally.

The state Nurses Association encourages nurses to get immunized but doesn't think that should be a condition of employment, spokesman Mark Genovese said. Not all institutions are requiring the vaccine, he said.

The association disputed the accuracy of the rally organizers' message, Genovese said. Its members have been in discussions with state officials.

The Public Employees Federation, which represents health-care workers, wants the regulation reversed, union President Ken Brynien said in a statement. There are reports that some employees at institutions where vaccines are mandated have retired or been fired because they refuse to get it, he said.

"No other state mandates vaccination for influenza, nor has the federal government done so. New York health care workers should not be used to test an unproven policy," he said.

The Healthcare Association of New York State anticipates that the vast majority of health-care professionals who are required to get the vaccine will, said William Van Slyke, a spokesman for the group.

Outside the Capitol Tuesday, protesters held hand-made signs with sayings like, "We're not lab rats," and "No flu shot, no job?" Groups like the Autism Action Network, which said it plans to sue the state on the issue, and the Campaign for Liberty helped organize the protest.

Deborah Gerhardt, a 37-year-old registered nurse from Walworth, Wayne County, said deciding whether to get an injection should be a personal choice. Just because the FDA approved the H1N1 vaccine "doesn't mean it's safe in my book," she said.

"Where is this so-called emergency situation that is wreaking havoc?" asked Gerhardt, who works at Brighton Surgery Center and Rochester General Hospital.

"The real havoc is New York state is taking our jobs away for no reason at all," she said.

Cherryl Robbins, a patient-care technician from Staatsburg, Dutchess County, said that in troubled economic times, it is hard to understand why health-care workers are forced to choose between what they think is right for their bodies and what they do for a living. She is 22 weeks pregnant with her first child.

"Up until this year, the choice to forego the vaccine has been there for me," said Robbins, 33. "This year, at a time when I'm pregnant with my first child, and I feel more responsibility for what I put in my body than at any other point in my life, that choice has been taken away from me."

Barbara Jones of Wallkill, Ulster County, said she has never gotten a flu vaccine and has been a registered nurse since 1985. There is an implication that if health-care workers don't get the vaccine, they don't care about their patients. That couldn't be further from the truth, she said.

"I think people should have the right to get it or to opt out of it," said Jones, 47.

UK Green Police rummage through trash

Where do I sign up for this job? I try not to focus too much on the police state in other countries, but it seems our government is bent on emulating Britain, which is becoming a grotesque nanny, police, and surveillance state. How long before the green gestapo are rummaging through American trash cans? Oh, and by the way, seriously, I don't want the job.

Daily Mail UK -

Worried residents thought their rubbish was being stolen when council 'spies' dressed in hoodies started rifling through their bins.

Concerned neighbours saw mysterious men emptying their bins into black sacks and loading them into an unmarked white van.


When homeowners questioned the official binmen an hour later they learned their council was conducting a survey of what was being thrown away.



Sneaky: A council snooper takes rubbish from a wheelie bin in this photograph taken by a resident. Homeowners thought their rubbish was being stolen

The 'spies' were part of a week-long waste analysis study by the Northamptonshire Waste Partnership, a collaboration of eight local authorities working to reduce rubbish going to landfill. An external contractor was told to go through the bins of residents.

One thousand houses were targeted as part of the survey, including 780 in Northamptonshire.

But none of the inhabitants of Cedar Close, Irchester, near Wellingborough, Northants, had received any notice from their council about what was going on.

Resident Gillian Barnett, 61, said the snoopers made her feel 'very uncomfortable'.


She said: 'Three young men parked outside my house and just started going through my bins - I thought they were pinching my rubbish. It was very suspicious.


'We haven't had a leaftlet or a letter, all my neighbours were going round asking each other what was happening.


'If they'd had "County Council" marked on their van it would have been less concerning but as it was nobody knew what was going on.


'It made me worry about what I had put in the bin - I didn't know I was going to be fined or what.


'I heard this was happening in nearby streets like Pine Close too.'

Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous, slammed the council for using 'Big Brother' tactics.

She said: 'I'm cross they're doing this without our knowledge or permission and I'm concerned about their motives.


'The people doing this didn't even look official, they were just teenage-looking lads in hoodies.


'It's such an underhand "Big Brother" thing to do, spying on local people like this. It's alarming.


'It puts your back up and makes you feel vulnerable; we didn't know if we'd get a fine or if they were just looking at what was being thrown away.'

Another resident who asked to be anonymous said she was 'furious' about the council rifling through her rubbish.

She said: 'How is this information going to be used? You just don't know. We weren't told anything.

'I'm still annoyed. It feels like an invasion of our privacy.'

Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough Borough Councils have authorised waste experts Resource Futures to go through the bins of people living in their boroughs as part of this survey.


This was to provide Project Reduce - a £138million government-funded enterprise headed by Northamptonshire County Council and Milton Keynes Council - with information about what was being sent to landfills.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive at the TaxPayers' Alliance, condemned Northampton County Council for what he described as an 'aggressive' campaign.


He said: 'This sneaky behaviour on the part of the council is underhand and alarming.


'Taxpayers are sick and tired of being spied on by their councils, it is an infringement of both their dignity and personal space.

'People are doing all they can to recycle, if they are throwing something away it's because they have to.


'This approach is unnecessarily aggressive and a waste of taxpayers' money and precious resources.'

But a Northampton County Council spokeswoman insisted the survey was purely for informative purposes.


She said: 'This is not a punitive measure and all data gathered will be kept strictly confidential.

'We just want to gather more information about what people are throwing away so we can target our resources to better meet their needs.'

Yeah...I laughed too. Read all of it...

NYC pharmacies offering 100,000 free shots to unemployed

Hey, who needs a vaccine more than people who sit around at home all day, not really interacting with anyone? I suppose that's an unfair generalization, but I thought making a crack about eliminating 100,000 undesirables would've been too obvious.

CBSTV NY -

The swine flu vaccine is expected to be available in a few days.

The number of people seeking treatment for the flu is already at unprecedented levels for this time of year.

But you may find flu prevention where you least expect it.

Half of all Americans. Health officials are aiming to vaccinate 50 percent of us in order to reduce the chances of a pandemic from the H1N1 flu virus. So where can you get your flu vaccine?

"Large employers tend to provide, small companies do not. Doctors have, and pharmacies have it this year," said Greg David, editorial director at Crain's NY Business.

Pharmacies like Duane Reade, Rite Aid and CVS are all offering flu and other vaccines, enticing patients with the lure of no appointment and for as little as $30.

"Pharmacies don't make a ton of money off drugs they sell you. They have a ton of other stuff and that's where they make the money," David said.

CVS is going even further, handing out 100,000 free flu shots to anyone who's unemployed. New York City schools will all have free H1N1 vaccinations for kids and many counties are offering free flu vaccines as well.

And with pharmacies now weighing into the fray it has lots of patients asking questions. Is this the right place for me to come and get my vaccinations?

"I took my mom recently to the doctor he felt it was too early, that she should wait until next month," said Kelly Gibson of Millington, N.J. "So I like having my doctor's opinion."

"At least at my doctor's office they have gloves on and the office is sterile. I've seen my pharmacy and I barely like buying my drugs there, let alone anything else," another local resident said.

And one group being forced to roll up their sleeves is all 522,000 New York State health workers. By saying that "annual influenza vaccinations are mandatory," New York is the first state to demand immunizations for workers at hospitals, hospice and home health care agencies. It nearly doubles the current vaccination rate of just about half of healthcare workers.

Oakland, PA, Police Response Characterized as “Military-style Occupation”

It will be a pretty solid indicator on the health of our freedoms in this country if Pittsburgh is allowed to get away with their grotesque Stalinist show of brute excessive force last week during the G20 summit. First to watch out for is the response by the people who were gassed, beaten, and attacked by LRAD sound cannons indiscriminately. Will they lay down like slaves and take it, or will they make the city pay for their transgressions? And then of course, we wait to see what the courts think of this obvious bastardization of constitutional rights.

Regardless of what the outcome is, the police state will march forward, because it was all designed for us, the enemy: the American people, and they're not going to let a setback or two in court stop them, what with all the time and resources they've invested in enslaving us all.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -

Activists with the Thomas Merton Center and other groups today blasted the police response to a Friday night protest in Oakland following the G-20 summit, calling it a "military-style occupation" that resulted in the gassing and arrest of dozens of bystanders, including students and journalists.

During a press conference at the center's Garfield headquarters, some activists threatened lawsuits against the city and placed responsibility for the confrontation with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and top public safety officials.

"I'll say it very bluntly: The mayor should be fired. The city council should hold his feet to the fire," said David Meieran, an organizer with Three Rivers Climate Convergence.

He and others called for authorities to release anyone who remains in custody because of G-20 arrests and to drop any charges against those arrested. He also said police should return all property, including cameras and video footage, confiscated Friday night.

The city today released a list of 190 people arrested during three days connected to the G-20 Summit.

"The police were beating people and gassing people who were wandering out of restaurants . . . wandering out of their dorms," said Nigel Parry, a journalist with Twin Cities Indymedia who came to Pittsburgh from Minnesota for the summit.

Melissa Hall, also a journalist with Twin Cities, was one of more than 100 people arrested Friday near the Cathedral of Learning, and she said today that police damaged her camera and erased her video footage.

Nathan Lanzendorfer, 23, said police shot him four times with beanbag rounds at close range as he was trying to leave the area. He showed reporters large, purple blotches on the backs of both legs and an arm.

"This was unjust," he said. "I was peaceful. I had done nothing wrong."

Police officials have said they gave several loud dispersal orders using a Long-Range Acoustic Device, instructing everyone gathered to leave, no matter their purpose.

Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the city's Citizen Police Review Board, said she was "very disturbed" that police had arrested journalists --- including Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Sadie Gurman -- who were there to observe the protest.

She said the board so far has received 50 complaints related to police activity during the summit, mostly from the Oakland events.

She said the board would be undertaking a comprehensive investigation of how police handled the summit.

"The huge police presence -- it was overwhelming," she said.

At an afternoon news conference, Mr. Ravenstahl defended the actions of police.

"As a group, the police responded admirably," he said, pledging an internal evaluation of what went right and wrong on the streets during and shortly after the summit.

"We kept our city safe," he said while sending "a message to the out-of-town anarchists that this is our town."

Pittsburgh Police Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson said he made the much-discussed decisions on how to handle large Oakland gatherings.

On Thursday night, he said, the order to disperse was given when police became "concerned with the crowd size" not far from the Phipps Conservatory, where world leaders were gathered.

On Friday at 10:42 p.m., he said, police who were monitoring a Schenley Plaza gathering determined that "conditions had deteriorated," and gave the order to disperse to prevent the kind of damage they had seen the night before.

"When we moved them from the park, they then re-formed at Forbes Avenue," he said. "We didn't see any movement by the protesters to disperse until we started to effect arrests."

At that point, people were not dispersing, but were instead fleeing arrest.

Officials said just six of the 190 people arrested for summit-related activities are still in custody. Claims by some arrestees that they were just caught up in the flow of the crowd will be evaluated, and in some cases charges may be dropped. Those whose lost property can claim it at the police headquarters property room.

Public Safety Director Michael Huss said that the city's Office of Municipal Investigations has gotten five complaints about the police, including one from a business that was affected by gas used to disperse crowds.

Pregnancy Is No Time to Shy Away From Poisoning Yourself

Comon, moms ... your baby's gonna get fried by massive doses of mercury one way or the other, so be a good citizen and dose yourself and your baby up with as much violent neurotoxins as possible. And just think of the benefits of having your immune system short-circuited while your body is caring for two people. It's a win-win situation!

Incidentally, the New York Times, as can be expected, is red hot with flu and swine flu fear mongering and propaganda.

New York Times -

Pregnant women are deluged with advice about things to avoid: caffeine, paint, soft cheese, sushi. Even when evidence of possible harm is weak or purely theoretical, the overriding caveat is, “Don’t take it, don’t use it, don’t do it.”

In a few contexts, the admonition is warranted; in most, it is merely inconvenient and anxiety provoking. But in the case of pandemic influenza, it may be deadly. With the second wave of swine flu at hand, and up to 50 percent of the public at risk, the usual mode of thinking about pregnancy and medications threatens to make a worrisome situation worse.

The dangers of this mentality became frighteningly apparent this summer, when a study in The Lancet reported strikingly high rates of death and of complications like pneumonia in pregnant women with H1N1 influenza. Pregnancy meant a fourfold risk of hospitalization, sometimes with a tragic outcome; all the pregnant women who died had been relatively healthy to begin with.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have since put pregnant women at the top of the priority list for the vaccine, and have recommended that pregnant women start antiviral medications as soon as possible after exposure to the virus and after the onset of flu symptoms.

But if experience is any indication, even these forceful recommendations may not be enough to overcome reluctance among pregnant women and those who care for them. Even though the seasonal flu vaccine is recommended for pregnant women in particular, in one study only 15 percent received the vaccine — a rate far lower than any adult group for whom it is recommended.

And despite recommendations that antiviral drugs be started as soon as flu symptoms appear, many pregnant women in the Lancet study were not treated soon enough. Delays ranged from 6 to 15 days from the time that symptoms started, and 2 to 14 days from the time the women were seen by a doctor. Not one of the six pregnant and relatively healthy women who died received medication within 48 hours of the onset of her illness.

This is a sadly familiar pattern. After the thalidomide disaster of 1960s, and the very real concerns it raised about the impact of drugs on fetal development, many ended up viewing the use of any medicine by pregnant women as anathema. As a result, doctors and women alike often eschew or discontinue medications for serious illnesses, even when the harms of untreated disease, for women and the children they bear, are worse than any risks of medication.

Poorly treated asthma during pregnancy, for example, is associated with higher rates of pregnancy complications for women, as well as growth problems in the fetus and premature delivery. By contrast, women whose asthma is controlled with medication do as well as women without asthma, and so do their babies. Untreated diabetes early in pregnancy elevates the chances of severe birth defects to as high as 1 in 4.

And yet even when the evidence is clear, pregnant women find it hard to fight against the “don’t take it, don’t use it, don’t do it” mentality, which focuses our minds and emotions only on the risks of taking a drug. Obscured from view are the risks of the disease itself.

Overcoming this mindset will take work on several fronts. Every effort needs to be made to alert pregnant women and clinicians about the special risks of H1N1 in pregnancy. Educational efforts need to be honest about the reasoning behind these important recommendations, including both the limits of what we know and the reasons that concern for pregnant women is now so great.

But the key to success, now and in the future, will be the conduct of research that is specific to the needs of pregnant women. Concerns about the ethics of research involving these women mean that we know far less about how to treat or prevent disease during pregnancy than for other adults and children. The urgent threat of H1N1 flu has brought into sharp relief the fact that pregnant women can and should be protected through research, not from it.

Studies enrolling pregnant women in trials of vaccines for swine flu, financed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are now under way at six major medical centers. Researchers are also studying ways to guide the use of antiviral drugs to suit pregnant women’s changed metabolisms. Experts suggest that studying blood samples from as few as two dozen women is all we need to determine whether the standard adult dose of antivirals is effective for treatment or protection during pregnancy.

If there was ever a time to rewrite the playbook on how to think about drugs, vaccines and pregnancy, this is it. The lives of women and babies depend on it.

U.S., Allies Seek New Ways to Sanction Iran

LewRockwell says this better than I ever could:

When the neocons say "sanctions", they actually mean impoverishment, sickness, starvation, and death. As an act of war intentionally directed at civilians (including women, children, old people, and non-combatant men), sanctions are war crimes—and those who implement them are war criminals. Those who propagandize for them are accessories to murder.

Indeed.

Wall Street Journal -

UNITED NATIONS -- The Obama administration and its Western allies are looking at new ways to constrict Iran's energy, transportation and financial sectors in the wake of last week's revelation that Tehran had secretly developed a second nuclear-fuel facility.

But the White House will still face numerous challenges matching its rhetoric on sanctions with real international action, said American and European officials involved in the process. That makes the U.S. Treasury -- and not the United Nations -- the main focus of the West's financial campaign against Iran for now, said U.S. and European officials.

China and Russia are still seen as only half-hearted partners in any effort to push forward expansive new financial penalties through the U.N. Security Council. And France and Germany are voicing skittishness about targeting Iran's gasoline imports, a strategy that is seen by the U.S. and Israel as inflicting particular pain on Tehran's leadership.

European officials stressed Monday that they are likely to seriously consider new sanctions on Tehran only at year-end, citing a December deadline -- replacing President Barack Obama's September deadline -- that has now been set to see if diplomacy with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad works.

The Treasury has pursued dozens of unilateral sanctions against Iranian banks, government officials and defense companies in recent years in an attempt to pressure Tehran. The U.S. has widened its campaign in recent months by targeting Iranian shipping, insurance and trading firms that play a broader role in Iran's economy.

U.S. officials said they have improved their ability to target key Iranian industries, because of intelligence that has been gathered on the Iranian economy in recent years. Even as Mr. Obama has promoted engagement with Tehran, Treasury officials have continued traveling through the Middle East and Asia to warn foreign governments about dealings with Tehran.

The Treasury and its point man on Iran sanctions, Undersecretary Stuart Levey, have sought to use U.S. sanctions to pressure European and Asian firms to curb their own dealings with Iran. Washington could potentially ban foreign firms from conducting business inside the U.S. if they are in violation of Treasury restrictions on commerce with Iran.

Congress is considering legislation that would target any foreign firms aiding Iran's oil and gas sector. U.S. lawmakers said the bill could be passed into law by year-end, though the White House would have flexibility over how to implement it.

Read all of it...

The Ron Paul smear campaign continues

Either former pseudo-libertarian-turned-neocon Bruce Bartlett is completely ignorant of economics, or he's blatantly lying about the consequences of auditing the Fed. Bartlett says it is Ron Paul's meddling with the Fed's so-called "independence" that would induce Zimbabwe-style hyper-inflation, when in fact it is the Fed's economic policies - massive money creation, loose credit - that will be the culprit. This is the sort of excrement you have to wade through when a private cartel has a monopoly on money creation, and buys the media, buys economists, buys the education system - in other words, buys out the entire establishment. Or, perhaps, at least in this instance, Bartlett is just a complete idiot.

The Daily Dish (Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic) -

Bruce Bartlett calls Ron Paul's attempt to audit the fed a "crackpot idea":

Whatever one thinks of the Fed's policies in recent years--and there certainly are grounds for criticism--there is no reason whatsoever to believe that undermining its independence and putting the Congress in control of monetary policy--Ron Paul's goal--would improve matters at all. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that full congressional control of monetary policy would be a disaster. Instead of getting Switzerland-like stability, as Paul foolishly imagines, the more likely result would be Zimbabwe-like hyperinflation.

The “PATRIOT” Act and Your Local Pharmacy

William Norman Grigg -

Last March, Sally Harpold of Clinton, Indiana bought a one box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband. A few days later, she bought a single box of Mucinex-D for her adult daughter, who is the mother of triplets.

Four months later, Mrs. Harpold and her husband were awakened at daybreak by the always unwelcome sound of police banging on their front door. She was arrested and taken away in handcuffs for the purported crime of purchasing more than 3.0 grams of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine (PSE) within a seven-day period.

The grandmother saw her picture plastered on the front page of the local statist media organ (also known as the Terre Haute Tribune-Star newspaper) under the headline “17 Arrested in Drug Sweep.” Charged under Indiana “law” 35-48-4-14.7, Mrs. Harpold faced the prospect of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine — as punishment for buying legal over-the-counter cold preparations in quantities the state’s parasite class considers inappropriate.

Vermillion County Prosecutor Nina Alexander, of out the supposed goodness of what passes for her heart, allowed the innocent grandmother to go through a “deferral” program: In exchange for paying the court costs run up in prosecuting her for doing nothing, Mrs. Harpold (who had never been in trouble with the “law” before) would have her record expunged.

Alexander acknowledges that the grandmother is innocent of criminal intent, and that her actions were not criminal in se. However, she maintains, “I’m simply enforcing the law as it was written,” and that she will continue to monitor pharmacy records to “prosecute people who violate this law.”

“Sometimes mistakes happen,” comments Sheriff Jon Marvel of neighboring Vigo County. “But for the good of everyone, the law was put into effect. I feel for [Mrs. Harpold], but if she could go to one of the area hospitals and see a baby born to a meth-addicted mother….”

Marvel didn’t finish that thought, because it was a crashing non-sequitir. Harpold has never had anything to do with the production or consumption of methamphetamine. Nothing the government of Indiana is doing to restrict purchases of ephedrine or PSE has depleted the available supply. The same is true of other state-level efforts nation-wide to enforce the “Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005,” which was grafted onto the renewed USA PATRIOT Act.

During World War II,the government actively encouraged amphetamine consumption by combat pilots to fight fatigue (and it still permits — or even compels — the use of amphetamine by those it dispatches on killing errands abroad). Meth itself is a by-product of the so-called War on Drugs: When the government in 1988 clamped down on the P2P precursor used to produce amphetamines, some chemists switched to ephedrine, and the latest civilization-imperiling “plague” was born.

It bears repeating: The only things that government “makes” are criminals out of innocent people, and corpses out of living human beings.

More scenes from East Berlin - I mean Pittsburgh

"We the people have a right to assemble!"

The media keeps telling us these protesters "rampaged" through the streets, but I haven't seen one instance where police were using this obscene force in response to anything other than people just standing where the authorities demanded they not stand. But this is America, and you can stand and assemble anywhere you damn well feel like, so long as you're not on private property, and so long as you don't infringe on the rights of others. This should never happen in America, and any red-blooded, constitution-loving American should be disgusted and outraged. Sadly, the neocons who speak of their love of "freedom" and their reverence for the constitution, even as they wipe their asses with it, find this all funny. They won't be laughing when the police state comes to their town.

And it will.

US Tapes of the OKC Bombing Doctored

Lew Rockwell writes in his blog:

The feds have finally released, 14 years later, some of the security tapes showing some aspects of the bombing. But as the heroic lawer Jesse Trentadue points out, there are blank spots and some editing as well. Come on, federales: release all the tapes, undoctored. Or is there some reason you are still withholding evidence and obstructing justice?

If I may, Lew, I'd like to answer: because they're culpable, and the tapes, to some extent, prove this.

**UPDATE**

David Kramer also writes in Lew Rockwell's blog:

Lew—apropos your blog on the OKC Bombing, here is an independent report done by Brigadier General Benton K. Partin, USAF (Ret.) a few months after the bombing took place. What I “love” about cases in which government employees are involved as victims is that the prosecuting side (the government) is either the only side that is allowed to examine the evidence or, even if that is not the case, their “official” report is always the last word on the subject, e.g., the Warren Commission Report and the 9/11 Commission Report. Did Timothy McVeigh’s attorneys even bother to send their own investigators to the OKC bombing site? How come the evidence—i.e., the building site—was torn down a few months after the incident? I remember hearing at the time that it was because the sight of it “upset” the citizens of Oklahoma City. Actually, that lame excuse has now been replaced with: “For safety reasons, the building was to be demolished shortly afterward.” The “safety” of what—protecting a possible government lie?

Dear slaves, just wanted to make sure you know, that if you get sick, it wasn't the vaccine

You think they don't know this whole thing is gonna be a massive catastrophe? I mean, your first hint came several weeks ago, when the government bestowed legal immunity upon the makers of the vaccines, including the criminal Baxter Pharmaceuticals, who oh so mischievously put live Avian flu into vaccine materials and shipped them to 18 countries, and was rewarded by the government for this crime by being allowed to reap obscene profits from making swine flu vaccine. But trust the government, trust big pharma, and if you get sick, if you wake up and you can't move your limbs, because your immune system attacked your brain stem, or if you don't wake up at all, don't come crying to them. It wasn't the vaccine. Got it?

THE VACCINE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE.

NY Times -

As soon as swine flu vaccinations start next month, some people getting them will drop dead of heart attacks or strokes, some children will have seizures and some pregnant women will miscarry.

But those events will not necessarily have anything to do with the vaccine. That poses a public relations challenge for federal officials, who remember how sensational reports of deaths and illnesses derailed the large-scale flu vaccine drive of 1976.

I had to pause to laugh for a second...it was just reports of deaths and illnesses, and sensational reports at that. Perhaps it was sensational that a whopping one person died from the actual virus, yet by the time the government was forced to stop the program because of these "sensational reports" (only reports, mind you, not actual deaths or illnesses), the government had already vaccinated 45 million people and would have happily vaccinated 45 million more, were it not for these "sensational reports". Why am I citing the New York Times, and scoffing at their lack of journalistic integrity? That's like being surprised the sun rose in the morning.

This time they are making plans to respond rapidly to such events and to try to reassure a nervous public — and headline-hunting journalists — that the vaccine is not responsible.

Read all of it...

Indoctrination program - AKA "public school" - failing, longer school days, school year needed

This whole world government eugenics plot is falling apart, because kids just haven't been indoctrinated enough. They're thinking too much, they're asking too many questions, they just don't trust authority enough. We need to get 'em back in line. Kill their recess. Keep them totally inactive, so they're fat and lazy. And kill their summer vacation. Can't have them running around enjoying childhood.

The United States gets the education it pays for. Every administration heaps billions and billions of dollars at education, and our kids just keep getting dumber and dumberer. Do you really think this is some sort of accident? Some kind of bureaucratic SNAFU? Franklyn Delano Roosevelt, in one of his rare lucid moments, once said, "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." Our failing education, along with our crumbling social fabric, is purely by design. They don't want you healthy. They don't want you to be upright. They don't want you to be intelligent, and inquisitive. They want you to be obedient. Docile. Subservient. And in this they have achieved great success. To highlight this example, read the following quote from Bertrand Russell:

In like manner, the scientific rulers will provide one kind of education for ordinary men and women, and another for those who are to become holders of scientific power. Ordinary men and women will be expected to be docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and contented. Of these qualities probably contentment will be considered the most important. In order to produce it, all the researches of psycho-analysis, behaviourism, and biochemistry will be brought into play.... All the boys and girls will learn from an early age to be what is called `co-operative,' i.e., to do exactly what everybody is doing. Initiative will be discouraged in these children, and insubordination, without being punished, will be scientifically trained out of them. (The Scientific Outlook, 1931)

And one more, for good measure:

Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences between rulers and ruled will increase until they become almost different species. A revolt of the plebs would become as unthinkable as an organized insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mutton.
[...]
Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so. (The Impact of Science on Society, 1953)

Kinda makes you think, doesn't it? Or maybe it doesn't. Here's 56 channels of NFL. Go back to sleep. Your government has everything under control. You are free ... to do what you are told to do.

Yahoo (AP) -

WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.

Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.

"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."

Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?

___

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

Are you as shocked as I am that, albeit casually, this article had the gall - the gall - to point out the government lied about the amount of hours our kids spend in school compared to other countries? Read all of it.

Propaganda campaign devised to tackle inevitable vaccination side effects

They're ready for you to get sick, so they can tell you it was anything other than the swine flu vaccine.

Associated Press -

WASHINGTON — More than 3,000 people a day have a heart attack. If you're one of them the day after your swine flu shot, will you worry the vaccine was to blame and not the more likely culprit, all those burgers and fries?

What if you don't eat burgers and fries? Then what?

The government is starting an unprecedented system to track possible side effects as mass flu vaccinations begin next month. The idea is to detect any rare but real problems quickly, and explain the inevitable coincidences that are sure to cause some false alarms.

"Every day, bad things happen to people. When you vaccinate a lot of people in a short period of time, some of those things are going to happen to some people by chance alone," said Dr. Daniel Salmon, a vaccine safety specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Health authorities hope to vaccinate well over half the population in just a few months against swine flu, which doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain. That would be a feat. No more than 100 million Americans usually get vaccinated against regular winter flu, and never in such a short period.

How many will race for the vaccine depends partly on confidence in its safety. The last mass inoculations against a different swine flu, in 1976, were marred by reports of a rare paralyzing condition, Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Do you see the distortion? They were only "reports" of Guillain Barre syndrome. Later in the article they'll claim it was never determined whether the vaccine was connected to GBS, yet the campaign was such a disaster it had to be halted 10 weeks in. That's because it was so much more than the 500 cases of GBS this story reports, and far more than 25 deaths. You can always trust the controlled media...to lie to you.

And when people start having heart attacks, or their immune system attacks their brain stems and paralyzes or kills them, etc, they'll be more worried about explaining how it wasn't really the vaccine than they will be with dealing with the consequences of mass vaccinating people when they knew it was going to cripple and kill a lot of people. They knew, because that was their intent.

"We don't have any reason to expect any unusual problems with this vaccine," said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of Hopkins' Institute for Vaccine Safety, who is directing the e-mail surveillance.

After all, the new H1N1 vaccine is a mere recipe change from the regular winter flu shot that's been used for decades in hundreds of millions of people without serious problems. Nor have there been any red flags in the few thousand people given test doses in studies to determine the right H1N1 dose. They've gotten the same sore arms and occasional headache or fever that's par for a winter flu shot.

What they don't tell you is, the test shots didn't contain adjuvants like squalene, or thimerisol - mercury. What is not being considered is the possibility that this vaccine will be made to be relatively benign, so the people trust the government when they release the next bioweapon, and people accept the next vaccine without question. It's also possible that, with the massive amount of information available on vaccine dangers, the government knows there will be an uprising if people start dying again. We will never know if our activism headed off a genocide. Would they have added squalene to the vaccine if we hadn't raised a red flag? Would they have added thimerisol to them had we not warned people? What we do know is, if you know your history, there is no reason to trust the government's good intentions in this case. The government is filled with lunatics like John Holdren who want to depopulate the planet, and don't mind it one bit if the depopulation begins in America. Remember, they're not Americans - not in their own minds. They may or may not have been born here, but they don't consider themselves Americans; they're globalists...citizens of the world. Killing an "American" doesn't mean anything in particular to them, anymore than it does to kill a Kenyan or a Russian or a European. It's all the same.

We know that the WHO releases pandemic viruses into the population, viruses that never existed before they created them in a lab. We know the CDC is combining H1N1 swine flu with H5N1 Avian flu, you know, just in case the two viruses combine on their own - then they'll be ready for it. And people won't question whether the government released their engineered weapon into the population, they'll just think, sure, they anticipated this happening and it did and thank God they were ready for it. The government protects us! What? The government created it in a lab and then released it? That's a conspiracy theory. Why would they do something like that? Don't be fooled. Stay awake.

U.S. drone crashes into Iraq political party office

My goodness what an aweful, horrible coincidence. What a good laugh they're having right now, at anyone's expense who's dumb enough to believe this was an accident.

Reuters -

An unmanned U.S. reconnaissance drone crashed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul early on Saturday, hitting the offices of one of Iraq's biggest political parties, the U.S. military said.

No injuries were reported, and there was no indication the aircraft was shot down, said Major Derrick Cheng, a military spokesman in northern Iraq.

Cheng said it was a coincidence that the drone struck the local offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab political group, the military said.

The U.S. military frequently deploys drones in Iraq as part of measures to counter roadside bombs. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

U.S. consumers say spending habits changed for good

They don't call it a correction for nuttin'. This can't be good news for Keynesian lunatics who want us to spend ourselves into bankruptcy for the good of the economy.

Reuters -

A majority of U.S. consumers say they have permanently changed their spending and savings habits in response to the global financial markets crash and recession, according to a Citigroup survey released on Friday.

About 63 percent of Americans polled said the way they spend and save has "forever changed" due to the downturn. Only 29 percent said they would go back to their previous patterns of spending and saving.

Eighty percent of consumers making less than $50,000 said they would most likely cut back on everyday expenses, while 68 percent of those earning $75,000 to $150,000 said they would make such cuts, according to the survey.

Across all income levels, 62 percent of people said they had cut back on credit card purchases, with 61 percent saying they would continue to do so.

And 57 percent of people surveyed said they had already cut down their debt, while 63 percent said they planned to do so in the future. Thirty-four percent said they were saving or investing more money, while 60 percent said they would invest or save more going forward.

Citi surveyed 2,005 adults nationally between September 1 and September 5. The survey has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Where Did the H1N1 Flu Virus Come From?

From a bioweapons lab, of course.

Bill Sardi (LewRockwell.com) -

If your understanding is the current H1N1 late-2009 season flu pandemic began in Mexico as it spread from herds of pigs to humans there you are probably among the millions who have been misled as to the origins of this flu outbreak.

Only one group of virologists that I could find has asked the right questions and has properly investigated the origins of the H1N1 swine flu virus of 2009. Yet even these virologists are off the mark when it comes to understanding the current flu pandemic.

Professor Adrian Gibbs and Dr. Jean Downie, virologists writing at the Institute of Science in Society, provide much of the following data for the origins of the current late-season flu outbreak that is sweeping the globe.

It is easy to get confused when reading about H1N1 flu viruses. When referring to H1N1 flu variants, these do not necessarily refer to the triple reassortant H1N1 late-2009 flu virus that is completely novel and unprecedented. The Spanish Flu of 1918 was an H1N1 flu variant, but not the exact variant currently in circulation. These flu variants need to be distinguished from each other.

Furthermore, pay careful attention here because the H1N1 late-2009 season flu virus is now the prevalent flu virus in circulation in the North American population and for unexplained reasons the seasonal flu threat has ceased to exist, at least at the date of writing this report (Sept. 24, 2009). The seasonal flu has vanished this year.

Here are the facts surrounding an investigation into the origins of the H1N1 swine flu of 2009 as Professor Gibbs and Dr. Downie present them, along with cited references to other important facts I uncovered in my own investigation:

• The swine flu virus of 2009 appeared suddenly and without warning, and evaded all routine flu surveillance and quarantine.
• This flu is not like other flu viruses seen in the past. It is a triple-reassortant flu virus.
• Examination of the longer phylogenetic branch length compared to its nearest genetic neighbors indicates that the appearance of this novel H1N1 swine flu virus of 2009 is unlikely to be a recent event. [Virus Genes, early online, August 20, 2009] But this would mean it had to be in circulation for many years, for which there is no evidence. However, a long development period assumes natural variation and gene mutation rates, not mutations induced by artificial means, or the actual creation of this virus in a laboratory and subsequent instillation into human populations.
• Six of this flu virus’ genes came from a "triple-reassortant" influenza virus (or viruses).
• These viruses were found in North American pigs more than a decade ago, then completely disappeared, and have never been found in Europe. The other two genes came from Eurasian "avian-like" viruses common in Europe for longer, but never found in North America. However, both groups of H1N1 viruses have been found recently in pigs in southeast Asia.
• Movement of live pigs between Eurasia and North America may have facilitated mixing of diverse swine influenzas, leading to the multiple reassortant events. This goes unquestioned. But there is a strong reason to think the possibility of swine-to-human transmission is a misdirection.
• While pigs are exported from one country to another, they are exported from North America to Asia, not the other way around.
• Strict quarantine measures are employed when pigs are exported so as not to contaminate an existing herd with disease. Usually imported pigs are kept in quarantine, away from a larger herd, for a period of two weeks. If an imported herd brought a suspect gene sequence with it, it would have had to somehow evade quarantine measures.
• The development of this virus would require at least two trans-continental trips to get together in one place, and hence this theory requires at least two quarantine failures, probably three say Drs. Gibbs and Downie. This is not likely.
• None of the genes found in this swine influenza had been in current circulation. The NA (nearuaminidase) gene had not been identified in samples for 17 years before it reappeared in early 2009, and the others, including the MP gene, for around 11 years. Drs. Gibbs and Downie say this suggests the virus emanated from a swine herd vaccine. Or it could have emanated from an accidental release from an infected human working at a vaccine plant, or it was intentionally induced into human populations in Mexico.

If this virus had originated earlier then most likely it would have spread to the human and/or pig populations earlier, and would probably have been detected as there are hundreds of influenza monitoring stations across the globe.

Laboratories house a range of flu viruses which could explain why the swine flu of 2009 escaped detection for years and reappeared. Such a laboratory escape would not require generations to produce mutations or variations and reassortants.

• Labs that develop and combine viruses in multivalent swine herd vaccines are a likely source of recombination. This avenue of investigation has not been adequately pursued. But again, there is strong reason to believe contaminated animal vaccines are not involved here.
• According to Drs. Gibbs and Downie, the simplest scenario is that a contaminated multivalent vaccine was not fully sterilized.
• There has been no report of an outbreak of a H1N1 swine flu virus in a pig herd in the USA, whereas it has been reported among unvaccinated pig herds in other parts of the world; two each in Canada and Australia, and one in Argentina. This would suggest animal vaccination may have something to do with the origins triple reassortant flu viruses. But again, strong skepticism of this idea should be expressed.
• Historically, influenza was not first recognized clinically in pigs until the late summer and fall of 1918 in the midwestern United States. This gives rise to the notion that the Spanish flu of 1918 was spread to swine herds from humans. This is why this year’s late-season flu outbreak has health officials worried. Is this a re-play of the deadly 1918 Spanish flu pandemic?
• The H1N1 influenza lineage that circulated in the human population for four decades after the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic, disappeared during the 1957 Asian influenza pandemic and reappeared in 1977. Drs. Gibbs and Downie note that the H1N1 that reappeared was found to be genetically close to an H1N1 isolate collected in 1950, indicating that it had probably been held in a laboratory freezer between 1950 and 1977.
• Drs. Gibbs and Downie recommend immediate action to:
• Obtain samples of all flu variants used in swine herd vaccines in North America.
• Identify stocks of refrigerated swine viruses which should be checked for gene sequencing.
• Examine quarantine measures when swine herds are moved from one part of the world to another to determine if quarantine measures are adequate.

But these efforts may prove to be fruitless in determining the origin of this flu outbreak.

• Since 1997, novel viruses of three different subtypes and five different genotypes have emerged as agents of influenza among pigs in North America. The appearance of these viruses is remarkable because there were no substantial changes in the overall epidemiology of swine influenza in the United States and Canada for over 60 years prior to this time. Viruses of the classical H1N1 lineage were virtually the exclusive cause of swine influenza only from the time of their initial isolation in 1930 through 1998. [Virus Research 2002 May 10;85(2):199–210]
• Since 1998 triple reassortant swine influenza viruses have been isolated from pigs in the United States and a human case of a triple reassortant swine flu infection was reported in the US as early as 2005. This patient was exposed to freshly-killed pigs. [Emerging Infectious Diseases 2008 Sep; 14(9):1470–2]
• A report published in The New England Journal of Medicine in June of 2009 indicates triple-reassortant swine flu influenza A H1 viral infections were reported among a few humans who worked closely with pigs from 2005 to 2009. [New England J Medicine. 2009 Jun 18; 360(25):2616–25] However, this is not the exact flu virus that is currently sweeping globe with a late season onset in 2009.
• Michael Gregor MD claims crowding in pig farms is a factor in the development of the current triple reassortant flu virus infecting humans, asserting its precursor was first discovered in pig herds in North Carolina in 1998. North Carolina is the home of the nation’s largest pig farms. And it’s true, 3/4ths of the genetic material in the H1N1 human swine flu of 2009 comes from this 1998 pool of swine viruses. [Humane Society, August 26, 2009] But again, this may be a misdirection.
• Sometimes the obvious is not recognized. With all of the prior discussion about swine-origin influenza, this H1N1 late-2009 flu season virus is not currently found in pig herds, says Vincent Racaniello PhD, Professor of Microbiology at Columbia University Medical Center. The virus may have originated in a human! Asking the question "where did ‘pig zero’ come from?" may be the wrong question. Wikipedia accurately acknowledges that "the 2009 H1N1 virus is not zoonotic swine flu (zoonotic = transmitted from animals to people), as it is not transmitted from pigs to humans, but from person to person."
• The tracking of the lineage of this virus has been perplexing if for no other reason than the misdirection to investigate herds of pigs. News reporters may have been misled from the outset. For example, Karen Kaplan of The Tribune Newspaper wrote on Sept. 13, 2009 that "Somehow, a single pig became simultaneously infected with that virus and a pure swine flu strain found in pigs in Europe and Asia. The two strains swapped genetic material to produce the new H1N1 strain, which then began to infect humans." But the virus has not been detected in swine herds so far. It is similar to other reassortant flu viruses, but not the same.
• The current H1N1 outbreak in Mexico in early 2009 was predicted by Replikins, a Boston-based biotech company in April of 2008 using human, not pig data. Replikins also indicates it alerted public health authorities and government agencies of its prediction. Replikins says changes in Replikin Count have been shown to precede the clinical reality by six to 12 months in all other influenza outbreaks of record. The company says it has demonstrated that all influenza pandemics and epidemics, and their cessation, over the last 90 years have been associated with statistically significant changes in the concentration (Replikin Count™) of a particular group of genomic peptides of the virus associated with rapid replication (Replikins). Was government tipped off ahead of time over the appearance of this triple reassortant flu virus?
• Replikins bases their predictions upon analysis of something called the "Replikin Count™" – or number of Replikins per 100 amino acids. The company claims, in all three of the last century’s influenza pandemics (H1N1 in 1918; H2N2 in 1957; and H3N2 in 1968) the amino acid sequences of the reported strains exhibited a strain-specific increase in the Replikin Count™ peptide quantities.
• Replikins also claims the Replikin Count™ reached 7 – the same level achieved during the H1N1 1918 Pandemic. However, this dreaded H1N1 late-season flu outbreak of 2009 has not produced a significant increase in mortality to even approach the mortality rate of the 1918 Spanish Flu. About 10–20% of those who were infected with the Spanish Flu of 1918 died. [Wikipedia] The fatality rate for the late-season 2009 flu outbreak is estimated at 0.5%, or 5 deaths per 1000 people infected.
• Replikins also claims at its website that "This month (July 2009), Replikins, Ltd. was contacted by and reached out to senior government health officials in dozens of countries to offer the FluForecast® service. Many countries plan to introduce the service to their public health surveillance programs both for early warning and for tracking epidemics." But the Replikins system did not accurately predict severity. Did the Replikins predictive technology mislead governments throughout the world, who had foreknowledge of the flu outbreak in Mexico, of its severity?
• The origin of the late-2009 seasons H1N1 flu virus, or "patient one" may be a person in Mexico or elsewhere who was given a multivalent seasonal flu vaccine and/or anti-viral drugs (i.e. Tamiflu) and in whom mutations occurred. But even then, this does not explain the wide and near-impossible gene segments that originated from different continents and would have had to reassort more than twice.
• If a pig was not the origin of the novel H1N1 late season flu virus of 2009 then did this influenza reassort in a human? Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, using an unnamed virologist as the source of his information, is the only journalist that I can find to claim the late-season triple reassortant flu virus of 2009 emanated from a laboratory strain that was implanted into a human, who served as a "guinea pig" to permit the exchange of genes seen in this virus. All that is known is that the first late-2009 season H1N1 flu virus occurred in a human and that it is not a "swine virus" but a "human virus." Madsen’s unnamed expert virologist also says, contrary to many news reports, there is no evidence that RNA/DNA from the 1918 influenza virus has been detected in this 2009 H1N1 strain. Madsen’s virologist throws up his hands to explain the exact origin of this pandemic H1N1 flu virus of 2009 by saying "technology can create any kind of virus you want." [Wayne Madsen Reports Sept. 16, 2009]
• Fear of a mutated flu virus which no one has antibodies towards is the great fear of all public health officials.
• Over-reliance upon vaccination and anti-flu drugs increases genetic pressure for flu viruses to mutate into treatment-resistant forms. Genetic mutation is accelerated with the use of vaccines and antivirals. [PLoS One 4(3):e4915, March 18, 2009; Virology Journal 5: 133–39, October 2008]
• Just how do flu viruses mutate within a human? It is known that bursts of free radicals can induce gene mutations in viruses. [FASEB Journal 2000 Jul; 14(10):1447–54] Vaccination of birds and humans against the flu has been shown to apply genetic pressure and induce more rapid genetic drifts. [Virology Journal 2008; 5: 15]
• Bursts of free radicals emanate from what is called a "cytokine storm." Cytokines are substances that are secreted by specific cells of the immune system and can increase 1000-fold during infection. Over-reactive cytokine response is attributed to the fatality rate of flu viruses. [Mikrobiyol Bulletin 2008 Apr;42(2):365–80]
• Whole inactivated or so-called "killed" viral vaccines, which are the most commonly used, are plagued by their inability to activate antibodies. So they generally require strong adjuvants and several injections to be fully effective. [Clinical Microbiology Review 2007; 20: 489–510] Adjuvants are pharmacological or immunological agents that modify the effect of other agents (e.g., drugs, vaccines).
• MF59, the favored squalene-based adjuvant employed in both swine herd and human vaccines, could possibly trigger mutations that make flu viruses treatment resistant. Researchers indicate MF59 does indeed induce greater immune response due to its ability to generate cytokines! [Proceedings National Academy Sciences U S A. 2008 Jul 29; 105(30):10501–6]
• It has been repeatedly shown that nutritional deficiencies, particularly of vitamin E and the trace mineral selenium, exacerbate the immune response to replicating flu viruses and that this then leads to alterations in the gene makeup of the viral genome, resulting in a mortal outcome. [Trends Microbiology 2004 Sep;12(9):417–23] Nutritional deficiency not only affects the host response to the virus but also the viral genome itself. [Proceedings Nutrition Society 1999 Aug;58(3):707–11] To limit mortality, public health officials should be fortifying foods with selenium and vitamin E to head off the possibility of gene mutations among flu sufferers. [J Trace Element Med Biol. 2007;21(1):52–62]

It’s obvious that public health officials are more intent upon preparing a vaccine to address an impending flu outbreak late this fall in North America than asking where this H1N1 swine-origin triple-assortment influenza virus came from and how it developed.

The low mortality rate associated with this flu outbreak does not deserve the attention the news media has given it or the widespread preparations that public health authorities have made.

The $9 billion the U.S. allotted to fight a flu that has crossed continents, that did not spark a deadly flu outbreak in South America during their flu season, and which so far has resulted in fewer deaths than recent past seasonal flu outbreaks in North America, speaks for intentional misdirection or even possible conspiracy involving vaccine makers and politicians to create a flu pandemic.

That the so-called swine flu was first observed in Mexico just at the same time Nicholas Sarkozy, president of France, was visiting there to announcement the establishment of a new French vaccine plant in Mexico, has to be more than coincidence.

It is obvious, cash-strapped local health authorities want the money being offered by the federal government and are being bribed into stirring up flu hysteria. According to the latest survey, about 49% of Americans are ready and willing to be vaccinated for this unusual flu strain that struck North America late in the 2008–09 flu season, in an alleged pattern similar to the deadly flu pandemic of 1918.

It appears governments around the world had foreknowledge of this viral pandemic. Not only did Replikins, a Boston-based biotech company, warn governments in 2008 of developing flu viruses that were of concern, but The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began drills to administer vaccines in South Texas prior to the first cases this flu in Mexico beginning March 18, 2009. FEMA began pandemic flu preparations as early as 2007. The US Treasury Department also began coordinated flu pandemic preparations with Homeland Security also in 2007.

September 26, 2009