Pagans at the Air Force Academy



Cadets gather for the dedication ceremony of the Air Force Academy's Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle worship center this spring. The center serves cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of “Earth-based.”



Freedom of Religion  -  It is also for Druids, Witches and Pagans


Paganism and Druids may not be what the Founding Fathers were thinking about when they wrote the first Amendment, but freedom is still freedom and must be respected.

The Air Force Academy this year dedicated an $80,000 outdoor worship center — a small Stonehenge-like circle of boulders with propane fire pit — high on a hill for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of "Earth-based." Those include pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches and followers of Native American faiths.

There are no witches among the cadets this year. But the two spiritual leaders for all Earth-based religions — one a civilian, one an Air Force reservist — are witches and regularly cast spells, which they say is not so different from offering prayer. There also are no druids this year. But there could be next year reports the Los Angeles Times.


A Pagan Patriot
Patriots come in all shapes, sizes, colors and religions.

 "We're here to accommodate all religions, period," Chaplain Maj. Darren Duncan says. The building of the Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle on the hilltop, he says, is no different from the past conversion of chapel rooms into worship spaces that serve this year's 11 Muslim, 16 Buddhist and 10 Hindu cadets.

"It is very nice to have our own space," says Cadet 1st Class Nicole Johnson, a 21-year-old senior from Florida who became a pagan after entering the academy.

A small gathering of pagans, led by two witches, begins preparations for the coming winter solstice.  the pagan cadets decorated yule logs with bits of ribbon and glitter. Yule logs, whose ritual burning symbolizes faith in the reappearance of the sun, will be displayed alongside the Christmas trees and menorahs in next month's crowded religious calendar at the academy.

And though Johnson acknowledges that her beliefs are often misunderstood, she says she has taken no serious grief from other cadets, save occasional questions about whether pagans dance naked (she doesn't) or whether she can cast a spell on commanding officers (she wouldn't even if she could).

The rule is no spells cast without someone's permission. There is a prevailing tenet of her faith, she says: Do as you will, but harm no one.


"Freedom of religion is great.  Now we can join the Air Force too."

For more on this story

U.S. Senate wants martial law in America

Rand Paul tries to kill provision allowing the military to detain individuals without trial or due process

(UPDATE  -  An amendment by Democrat Senator Mark Udall drew support from civil liberties groups but was defeated on a rare bipartisan vote, 60 to 38. Fifteen Democrats and one independent joined almost all Republicans to uphold the detainee provisions. Two Republicans — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mark Kirk of Illinois — joined 35 Democrats and one independent in voting to strip the provisions. Two senators did not vote.)

With the bill expected to be up for a vote within 48 hours, Republican Senator Rand Paul has offered an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will kill a provision allowing the military to detain individuals, including American citizens, without trial or due process.

The “indefinite detention” sections of the NDAA bill would turn the whole of the United States into a “battlefield” and hand the executive branch the power to have the military arrest U.S. citizens and hold them without trial.



Senator Rand Paul



The provision is merely an update to the “parallel legal system” had been in place under the auspices of the war on terror for over a decade, “In which terrorism suspects — U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike — may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system,” as the Washington Post reported in December 2002.

In attempt to kill the indefinite detention provision of the legislation, Senator Rand Paul aims to strike Section 1031 from the bill, which reads as follows.

“Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force…includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons…Detention under the law of war without trial”.

Republican Congressman Justin Amash also warned that the bill had been “carefully crafted to mislead the public,” in suggesting that the indefinite detention provision didn’t apply to American citizens when it clearly does.

“Note that it does not preclude U.S. citizens from being detained indefinitely, without charge or trial, it simply makes such detention discretionary,” Amash wrote on his Facebook page.

For more on this story

Thank You

50,044 Pageviews!

I cannot thank the readers of this Blog enough for their support.

As of this morning we broke the 50,000 pageview mark. 

Wow, over 50,000 views for a brand new six month old political Blog.  I am both shocked and grateful.

This Blog began in May, 2011 with a "massive" 834 pageviews for the entire month.

By August we jumped up to 6,588 views.

In October we hit our highest numbers yet with 11,829 page views in a single month.

Not bad for the new kid on the internet news block. 

I know there are a million internet news choices available for a reader.  The fact that so many have chosen to visit and re-visit this site makes this labor of love worth the work. 

In my own way I try to find as many interesting stories as possible that have been ignored or given little to zero coverage by the Big Media Complex.

Spreading the word about Liberty and the need for a strong, but limited Constitutional Republic is vital if we are to have any chance in standing against the creation of an all-powerful 1984 state. 

Please mark this site as a favorite to re-visit.  Also if you find any given article interesting share it with friends on Facebook and other media.

Again, thank you all.

Gary

Judge Andrew Napolitano asks if the Constitution means anything

In the video here, Judge Napolitano explains how we have let the government destroy the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.


The light of Freedom is flickering out.
Our Federalist Founding Fathers would not recognize the current monster authoritarian United States with a centralized Beltway Elite fixing elections with billions in special interest money in order to rule over the people and loot the Treasury.

Barney Frank retires - Now comes more lies



Hannity and Limbaugh have lied to you.
If you listened to right-wing politicians and their media supporters you would think Barney Frank caused the real estate meltdown and financial collapse.  Wrong.  Republican Congressman Mike Oxley of Ohio was Chairman House Committee on Financial Services from 2001-2007.   Not Frank.


GOP Bullshit Alert  -  Beware of GOP lies about Barney Frank


By Gary;

Rep. Barney Frank (Socialist Democrat - Mass.) announced Monday that he is not seeking reelection, ending a 32-year career in the House.

Goodbye Barney . . . don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Frank is a Socialist pig.  But readers of The Federalist know they get the real truth here and not partisan bullshit.  The truth is Beltway corruption is totally bi-partisan.

Lies and damn lies  -  For the last three years right-wingers have made Barney Frank their political pinata.  To hear it from them Frank wrote all the laws that brought down the American real estate and banking industries in a market crash.

That is pure 100 % bullshit.

FACT  -  Barney Frank did not become Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee until January 2007.  Some 90% plus of the phony bad loans had already been made by that point.  From January 2006 on the housing market had already started to contract and home sales were starting plummet downward somewhere south of Hell.

FACT  -  The Republican Party controlled Congress from 1995 to 2007.  Having the majority the GOP was totally responsible for making all laws, chairing and running all committees and conducting all oversight investigations over all government programs.  Period.

Barney Frank was not in charge of jack shit.  Frank was a powerless member of the minorty party.  The Republicans were totally in charge.

I cannot stand liars no matter what their politics.  It has angered me for years to hear the so-called "Conservatives" rip on Barney Frank in order to cover up their own failures.

The real truth is the Republican Party has been the party of Big Government for over 100 years.  Just like the Democrats they are in bed with the corrupt Wall Street rip-off artists who have raped the taxpayers of their money.

The recent report of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich being paid about $1.6 million by Freddie Mac is an example of the bi-partisan Beltway corruption.  The special interests cannot legally bribe you while in office.  But once the Beltway hacks "retire" the retroactive bribes start to kick in for years of loyal service to their Masters.

So as you hear the right-wing attack Frank or the left-wing attack some Republican keep in mind that it is all a distraction to keep you from finding out the truth that they are all corrupt bastards.

Republican Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa (not Barney Frank) was the committee Chairman from 1995-2001.



BIG BROTHER - The drones are coming



The Big Brother Eye in the Sky.
This spy drone manufacturer is planning to market their product to the 18,000 state and local police departments across the United States.  The drone fits in the trunk of a car and is controlled remotely by a tablet computer.



1984 is here . . . and the Sheeple walk like lambs to the slaughter


Big Brother is bi-partisan.  For reasons of their own, both Socialist American political parties are working overtime to tear up the Bill of Rights and stomp the remains into the mud of history.

Liar political hacks from both parties are falling over each other to authorize new ways to bypass the Bill of Rights and spy on an ever more helpless population.

All this is nothing new to readers of this Blog.  See our article  THE FEDERALIST - "BIG BROTHER now has an eye in the sky."

The Federal Aviation Administration (FCC), which plans to propose new rules for the use of small drones in January, a first step toward integrating robotic aircraft into the nation's skyways.

The agency has issued 266 active testing permits for civilian drone applications.

Police departments in Texas, Florida and Minnesota have expressed interest in the technology's potential to spot runaway criminals on rooftops or to track them at night by using the robotic aircraft's heat-seeking cameras.

Drone maker AeroVironment Inc. of Monrovia, California is the nation's biggest supplier of small drones to the military.  The company has developed its first small helicopter drone that's designed specifically for law enforcement. If FAA restrictions are eased, the company plans to shop it among the estimated 18,000 state and local police departments across the United States reports the Los Angeles Times.

The tiny drone with four whirling rotors swoops back and forth about 200 feet above the ground scouring the landscape and capturing crystal-clear video of what lies below.  The new drone weighs 51/2 pounds, fits in the trunk of a car and is controlled remotely by a tablet computer. AeroVironment unveiled Qube last month at the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, headed by Republican Sheriff Lee Baca, recently bought 12 new helicopters at a cost of $1.7 million each.

Party has no meaning . . . it is all about power and control.  


"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face...; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime..."
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5



For more on this story

Pissing on Pakistan



Heavily guarded: On Sunday, Pakistani soldiers buried 24 troops killed in a NATO cross-border air raid.


Supplies are cut off to American troops

ar·ro·gant/ˈarəgənt/

Adjective:

Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.

By Gary;

Bottom line.  The shit has hit the fan in Pakistan.  You have two dozen dead Pakistani troops and the overland supply roads to NATO forces in Afghanistan are cut off.

Add in Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrzgyzstan's new president-elect, in virtually his first act since being elected, has told the US it will have to give up its airbase in Central Asia by 2014.  The action seriously impacts the ability of the United States to supply the war in Afghanistan.

See our article on Kyrzgyzstan  THE FEDERALIST - "Democracy is a Bitch."

The Americans have brought on much of this reaction themselves.  For years the brainless talking heads in the media and many politicians have publically insulted and pissed all over Pakistan on live TV.  One moronic attack after another has been lodged against an important friend with never a thought about the massive problems Pakistan faces every day in order to stand at the side of America.

This is not just rude.  It is arrogant.

Braindead Americans have attacked Pakistan for not sealing a very long and very difficult border.  Never mind that border of the United States itself is far from "sealed" with millions of illegals and drug lords simply walking into our nation at will.  Americans hold Pakistan to a standard that they themselves cannot match.

The question is will the supply lines to Afghanistan reopen?  Perhaps this will act as a lesson for all Americans to be less arrogant and more grateful to our friends and allies.


Pakistan holds funerals for troops killed by NATO raid

Nearly 300 trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan clogged the Pakistani border crossings Sunday, leaving them vulnerable to militant attack a day after Islamabad closed the frontier in retaliation for coalition airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.

As Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani attended the funerals of the victims, including a major, the U.S. sought to minimize the fallout from the crisis, which plunged Washington's already troubled relationship with Islamabad to an all-time low.

Pakistan also ordered the U.S. to vacate an airbase that is used by American drones to target al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the country's tribal region along the Afghan border.


Nearly 300 trucks carrying coalition supplies are now backed up at Torkham in the northwest Khyber tribal area and Chaman in southwestern Baluchistan province. Last year, Pakistan only closed Torkham.


For more on this story

Gary Johnson to run as a Libertarian?



GOP Governor Gary Johnson may run for President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2012.



"They (the GOP) certainly don't want anything to do with ideas, only protecting the status quo."  - - - Governor Gary Johnson



By Gary;

Is GOP Governor Gary Johnson a sore loser?  or has his party abandoned him?

I would have to say a little bit of both. 

Johnson is being slapped in the face with the most horrible of all realities  -  that no one in the world really gives a rat's ass what any of us think.  Johnson was a good Libertarian-Republican Governor, but no one cares.  New Mexico is a small state and GOP voters around the country are not interested in Johnson or his state.  Sorry.  Such is life.

On the other hand, the GOP has indeed abandoned the small government ideas that Johnson supports.  Ron Paul is on his 2nd GOP Presidential campaign and even with multiple debates Paul still ranks this week at only 8% nationally.  Translation.  After listening to Paul's small government ideas in 2008 and 2011 some 92% of GOP voters have no interest.

That lack of Republican interest in the small, Constitutional government established by our Federalist Founding Fathers is reflected in the real legislative actions of the GOP Congress from 1995 to 2007 and in this year's 2011 GOP House.  Under GOP control spending was never cut and in fact grew.  

Based on the big government programs they support, Republicans in Congress would be considered radical FDR New Dealers back in 1933.  Republicans like big government programs.  They just don't want to pay for them.

Now former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is considering running on the Libertarian Party ticket.

"I feel abandoned by the Republican Party," Johnson told The New Mexican of Santa Fe in a phone interview. "The Republican Party has left me by the wayside. If I'd have been included in 16 of the last debates we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

The Libertarian Party has had more staying power than many minor parties and plans to run in all 50 states this year. But Johnson acknowledges its presidential candidates have generally received no more than 1 percent of the national vote.

While Johnson did better than former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and tied with businessman Herman Cain in a CNN poll in August, he has not been included in more recent polls. He blames the national news media for deciding who the candidates are and the Republican National Committee for giving the press that power.

"They certainly don't want anything to do with ideas, only protecting the status quo," he said.

Johnson filed a complaint last week with the Federal Election Commission about his near shutout from the many Republican debates. In response, the RNC's chief counsel, John R. Phillippe Jr., pointed out 21 candidates have filed for the New Hampshire primary.   (UPI.com)



Classical Liberal President Grover Cleveland had the last administration that truly favored a limited Constitutional Republic.  Since then Presidents of both parties have grown a centralized Big Brother State, big spending Federal programs to buy votes and the Marxist re-distribution of wealth through the income tax.  



Russians are Rushing out of Russia

Russians line up for visas outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

(Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)


Russian Immigration  -  "For many years the joke was that Israel had become the 51st state of the US.  Instead we have become just another Soviet republic."



Roughly 1.25 million Russians have left the country in the last 10 years, Sergei Stepashin, head of the national Audit Chamber, told the radio station Echo of Moscow. The chamber tracks migration through tax revenues.

He said the exodus is so large, it's comparable in numbers to the outrush in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution.

"About as many left the country after 1917," he said.

The wave of emigration, which has included large numbers of educated Russians, has grave implications for a country of 142 million with a death rate significantly higher than its birthrate. A study published this year by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development called Russia a waning power and predicted its population would shrink by 15 million by 2030 reports the Los Angeles Times.

Experts believe that 100,000 to 150,000 people now leave the country annually and warn that the exodus reached dangerous dimensions in the last three years.



The Russian-American population is estimated between 4 and 5.5 million people.  The major areas of concentration are NY Tri-State Area, CA, IL, PA, MA, FL and Washington DC/Maryland.  The main cities of residence are New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington DC.



About 20% of Russians are thinking about leaving the country and trying their luck abroad, according to various Russian polling agencies, from the independent Levada Center to the Kremlin-friendly VTsIOM. Among 18- to 35-year-olds, close to 40% of respondents say they'd like to leave.

They don't leave like their predecessors of the Soviet 1970s and '80s, with no intention to return. They don't sell their apartments, dachas and cars. They simply lock the door, go to the airport and quietly leave.

The reasons are varied. Some, like Irtenyev, chafe at life under Putin's rule, which seems all but certain to continue with the prime minister's expected return to the presidency next year. But for many others, economic strictures are the prime motivation. With inflation on the rise, and the country's GDP stuck at an annual 3% growth rate the last three years — compared with 7% to 8% before the global economic crisis — Russians are feeling pinched.

"I just can't bear the idea of watching Vladimir Putin on television every day for the next 12 years," the 64-year-old Igor Irtenyev said of the Russian leader who has presided over a relatively stable country, though one awash in corruption and increasing limits on personal freedoms. "I may not live that long. I want out now."

Russian nuclear physicist Vladimir Alimov, who now works at the University of Toyama in Japan, said he couldn't survive on the $450 monthly salary of a senior researcher at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"Yes, I miss Russia, but as a scientist I couldn't work there with the ancient equipment which had not been replaced or upgraded since the Soviet times," Alimov, 60, said in a phone interview. "Here in Japan, I have fantastic work conditions. I can do the work I enjoy and be appreciated and valued for it, everything I couldn't even dream of back in Russia."


Israel’s Moldova-born foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman. His Yisrael Beiteinu party has been successful mainly as a result of its support among Russian-speaking immigrants.


Russian immigration impact on Israel

Jews in the former Soviet Union were largely banned from migrating to Israel before the collapse of the empire. But from 1990 onwards they came in their thousands, and they now constitute around 15% of Israel's 7.7 million population.

Now in the heart of Jerusalem, you can down vodka shots in homage to the former Russian president. In Ashdod – also known as Little Moscow – you might pop into the Tiv Ta'am supermarket for pork and black bread. On Israeli TV there's Channel 9 if you want to watch broadcasts in the mother tongue round the clock.

The million-plus citizens of the former Soviet Union who migrated to Israel in the past 20 years have not only made new lives of their own but they have transformed their adopted country. They have influenced the culture, hi-tech industry, language, education and, perhaps most significantly, Israeli politics.

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics around 30% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s were not Jews or not considered Jewish under Orthodox law. In 2005 that figure leapt to 59%. Only around 5% of the non-Jews have converted says the UK Guardian.

Some came to pursue the Zionist dream; some came to escape antisemitism; and a large number came for better economic prospects. They brought culture – art, theater, music – and a new entrepreneurialism.

But they almost overwhelmed Israel, causing a severe housing crisis. Many eventually settled in Russian enclaves in cities such as Ashdod, Petah Tikva and Haifa – and in expanding West Bank settlements, such as Ariel.

"It was a very different type of immigration," said Lily Galili, an Israeli journalist writing a book about the impact of the tidal wave from the former Soviet Union. "They didn't want to integrate. They wanted to lead. They changed the nature of the country."

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Israeli politics, particularly in the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Moldova-born foreign minister, and his far-right party, Yisrael Beiteinu. Now the third largest force in Israeli politics and a key member of the ruling coalition, Yisrael Beiteinu has enjoyed success mainly as a result of its support among Russian-speaking immigrants.

Lieberman and his party have pursued a relentlessly rightwing agenda, opposing concessions in peace negotiations with the Palestinians, supporting settlement expansion, seeking to curb the rights of Israel's 20% Arab population and attacking leftist NGOs and campaigners.

A year ago the former US president Bill Clinton caused a furore when he said Russian-speaking Israelis were "an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians".

Russian immigrants were among "the hardest-core people against a division of the land ... They've just got there, it's their country, they've made a commitment to the future there. They can't imagine any historical or other claims that would justify dividing it," Clinton was quoted in Foreign Policy magazine as saying.

Galili pointed to "some sense of alienation between Russian immigrants and native-born Israelis. There is not much social interaction. There are still places for 'Russians' that 'Israelis' don't go and aren't wanted – and vice versa."

But, she added, there would be no going back. "For many years the joke was that Israel had become the 51st state of the US. Instead we have become just another Soviet republic. It's quite a twist in the story."   (UK Guardian)


The million-plus citizens of the former Soviet Union who migrated to Israel in the past 20 years have not only made new lives of their own but they have transformed their adopted country.

 For more on this story

Belgian Conservatives say - 'Return Turks to Turkey'



Right-wingers from Belgium and France protesting



“I am not a racist. I am not anti-Turk. I just want to live in a country that is still my country.”  - - - Johan Deckmyn, Members of Parliament


Belgium’s right-wing conservatives are campaigning to fund the return of Turkish migrants living in the city of Ghent to Turkey with the ironic slogan “Emirdağın sana ihtiyacı var” (Emirdağ needs you).

The Vlaams Belang party’s campaign attempts to convince the Turks in Ghent, many of whom were from the city of Emirdağ in the Afyonkarahisar province of Turkey, to return to their hometown.

“There are a lot of Turks who are not happy here,” Johan Deckmyn, Vlaams Belang parliamentary member, told Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. “You cannot tell these people to return if you do not have an initiative for them.”

Islam in Belgium:  Muslims want Sharia

He said their campaign addressed Turks who could not adapt to Belgian culture and those who wanted to return to Turkey even though they had emigrated. Pointing to many failed government projects such as the attempt to send funds to African nations, Deckmyn said funds could be used for their project instead.

The Turkish community in Ghent called the project racist, but Deckmyn denied the claims: “I am not a racist. I am not anti-Turk. I just want to live in a country that is still my country.” The parliamentary member complained the Turkish population in Ghent was making the city “Turkish.”

“Some parts of Ghent are becoming Turkish. My native neighborhood is becoming Turkish. I don’t recognize it anymore,” Deckmyn said about the change of shop names in the city. “I’m sure Turks would not like to have Swedish quarters in Ankara.”   (Hurriyet Daily News)


Brussels will be an Islamic city in 10 years (Fox News)

Army forces chaplain to remove the cross

The Army forced the chaplain to take the cross off his chapel.
Servicemen at Camp Marmal in northern Afghanistan, a German base for NATO forces, said they found the cross 'inspiring' and 'motivating'

Fuck the Government  -  An Army chaplain was forced to take down the Christian cross because the Army manual bans the permanent display of ‘distinctive religious symbols’


By Gary;

U.S. soldiers at a remote base in Afghanistan were left outraged after a large cross outside a chapel was taken down because it broke Army rules.

I have totally had it with the liars and slime that run this craphole government.

From the safety of their Beltway offices the old windbag liars in D.C. will send Americans off to war in Hellholes all over the planet.  Then once the troops are on the front lines the politicians take away the religious symbols of our soldiers in some knee-jerk Liberal masturbation of political correctness.

I say FUCK THE GOVERNMENT.  Our Founding Fathers died to give us the Bill of Rights which allows freedom of religion not freedom from religion.

Remove this Star of David?
A religious symbol on
government land must offend
some politically correct
Democrat left-winger. 

At this point I say to young people, do not enlist in the military and to those serving do not re-enlist.  Fuck the bastards right up the military chain of command to Congress and the White House.  If the higher ups are not going to show respect for the troops and the Bill of Rights then let them fight their own damn wars.

Servicemen at Camp Marmal in northern Afghanistan, a German base for NATO forces, said they found the cross ‘inspiring’ and ‘motivating’, reports the UK Daily Mail.

But the base chaplain was forced to take it down because his Army manual bans the permanent display of ‘distinctive religious symbols’.

‘Not having it there is really upsetting,’ one soldier told Politico. ‘Seeing the cross is a daily reminder of my faith and what Jesus accomplished for me.’

Another admitted that some of his fellow soldiers only get through foreign deployments because they can openly express their faith.

‘The chapel is the one place that feels like home,’ one soldier told Politico, adding that is a 'constant reminder for all of us that Jesus is here for us'.

One soldier claimed the chaplain simply told him he ‘had to take it down’ - and a Pentagon spokesman confirmed it was removed.

‘The removal was, in fact, in accordance with Army regulations,’ Commander William Speaks told Politico.   (UK Daily Mail)



The Founding Fathers are rolling over in their cross marked gaves.
The liar hack politicians and the political hack generals they favor for promotion don't want their troops to have a Christian cross while they are alive . . . Will the troops be allowed to have a cross when they are dead?  Whould not a cross in a government cemetery "offend" some left-wing politically correct Democrat?



What next?  -  Will we be digging up and replacing the cross?
US soldiers salute at the Colleville-sur-Mer military cemetery, Omaha Beach.
The cemetery is the resting place of two of Theodore Roosevelt's sons.
Link to American military cemeteries in Europe



Will the political hack Generals be ripping down crosses in Europe?
The World War One Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium.



South Africa cracking down on a free press

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu attacked a new "state secrets" law that
imposes 25 year jail terms on journalists and others for possessing "classified" government documents

Archbishop Desmond Tutu  -  The new State Secrets law "makes the state answerable only to the state.”



South African MPs have overwhelmingly approved a controversial media bill despite widespread criticism.

Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu called it “insulting” and warned it could be used to outlaw “whistle-blowing and investigative journalism”. South African journalists wearing black have staged a protest against the so-called “secrecy bill” outside the headquarters of the governing African National Congress.

The ANC says the law will safeguard state secrets and national security reports the Zimbabwe Independent.

The Protection of State Information Bill still proposes tough sentences of up to 25 years for anyone possessing classified government documents, with no defense of acting in the public interest.

The bill’s critics see it as an assault on a vigorous media, which has drawn attention to allegations of corruption by senior ANC officials.

The ruling African National Congress rams through a state secrets law attacking the media and
helping to create a more authoritarian nation.

The ANC has a two-thirds majority in A 400-seat National Assembly — the bill passed by 229 votes to 107, with two MPs choosing not to vote.

The bill has still to be passed by the upper house — likely to happen next year — and signed by the president before becoming law.

The office of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first post-apartheid president and also a Nobel peace laureate, also has expressed reservations about the bill.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance told parliament that it would petition the Constitutional Court to have the bill declared unconstitutional if the president signed it in its current form.

Archbishop Tutu appealed to lawmakers not to approve the bill.  He said it was “insulting to all South Africans to be asked to stomach legislation that could be used to outlaw whistle-blowing and investigative journalism... and that makes the state answerable only to the state”.

South African Nobel prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer has also condemned the bill, which she said was taking South Africa back to the years of white minority rule, the Johannesburg-based Times Live news site reports.

The bill was “totally against” freedom, she said.

“The corrupt practices and nepotism that they [politicians] allow themselves is exposed if we have freedom of expression,” Gordimer is quoted as saying.

South Africa’s National Press Club (NPC) — backed by the Right2Know campaign group — called on people to wear black and dubbed the day of the vote “Black Tuesday” in a reference to apartheid-era press restrictions.   (Zimbabwe Independent)

People protesting against the Secrets Bill in Cape Town, South Africa.  Sign at right reads “Give Us Our Rights”.

BIG BROTHER is at the Mall



Philip K. Dick  (1928 - 1982)
Author of Total Recall, Minority
Report and Blade Runner.



"There will come a time when it isn't 'They're spying on me through my phone' anymore. 

 

Eventually, it will be 'My phone is spying on me."
— Philip K. Dick

Corporate Big Brother is watching your cell phone 


Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. -- will track guests' movements by monitoring the signals from shopper's cell phones.

These days it is a mad 100 yard dash between runners from government and multi-national corporations on who will claim the title of Big Brother.  I suspect the two will merge into one force.

But all this is nothing new to followers of this Blog.  See our article  THE FEDERALIST - "Big Brother goes Corporate."

The data collected at the malls that's is supposed to be anonymous.  But it can follow shoppers' paths from store to store while you shop, reports CNN.

The goal is for stores to answer questions like: How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks?

How long do most customers linger in Victoria's Secret? Are there unpopular spots in the mall that aren't being visited?

While U.S. malls have long tracked how crowds move throughout their stores, this is the first time they've used cell phones.

The management company of both malls, Forest City Commercial Management, says personal data is not being tracked.

"They" are already following your every move through debt cards and facial recognition technology.  The hangman's noose is getting tighter and tighter. . . . . . and the Sheeple bleat on and on never understanding the fate that awaits them at the slaughter house.

The Sheeple keep shopping at the malls.  They bleat on and on never understanding the fate that awaits them at the slaughter house.



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Happy Thanksgiving

OBAMA PAY YOUR &*%$#% BILLS

It does not get better than this.  The comedian Felonious Munk telling Obama to pay his fucking bills.

Thanks to The Right Guy for a heads up on this video.


Felonious Munk Presents:
Stop It B!  OBAMA PAY YOUR &*%$#% BILLS

Chinese demand return of land illegally seized by Communist Party



Residents protest outside the city government building in Lufeng, China, to demand the return of land they say was illegally seized.   (Photograph: Reuters)



Still no property rights under Communism.

Thousands march to denounce corrupt officials and factory strikes spread as sluggish demand hits workers' pay.

The great circle of life  -  The Communists steal the land from its owners and "give" it to the peasants to farm.  Then they steal the land from those farmers and give it back to the "evil" business owners in corrupt deals.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Thousands of villagers angry that officials failed to address their grievances after riots two months ago marched to a government office in southern China to demand the return of land they say was illegally seized, witnesses and media said.

The protest came after a series of strikes in factories in Guangdong province, China's economic powerhouse.

Rural land disputes are increasing and spreading to the undeveloped west of the country, according to a poll published in October in a magazine run by Xinhua news agency.

One witness identifying himself by his surname Yang said by phone that 4,000 villagers and farmers from Wukan surrounded government offices in Lufeng City on Monday. The protesters denounced local officials as greedy and corrupt. They dispersed after an hour without incident reports the UK Guardian.

A villager surnamed Zhang, who sent photographs of the protest to Reuters, said authorities had failed to tackle collusion between developers and local officials. No progress had been made in renegotiating inequitable land deals back to 1998.

The Chinese Communist Party says the farmers are so happy under their rule . . . even
when their land is stolen away from them by corrupt party hacks.

"They have done nothing for us. They lied," Zhang said by phone from Wukan.

Residents of Lufeng ransacked government offices two months ago over the same issue.

There are also reports of a round of industrial disputes over pay and benefits in export hubs such as Guangdong, as overseas demand for Chinese goods weakens amid a sluggish western economy.

Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily said on Tuesday at least 500 female workers at a bra factory in Shenzhen had protested in the past few days about overtime pay.

Thousands of workers at a factory in Dongguan city, Guangdong, manufacturing shoes for brands including New Balance, Nike and Adidas went on strike last week over wage cuts and redundancies, Ming Pao Daily reported.

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A Stalin Show-Trial in America



The late Senator Ted Steven was the victim of a phony Stalinist show-trial in order to elect a Democrat to the Senate.


Total Corruption
Federal Prosecutors hid evidence that would have cleared Ted Stevens and no one goes to jail.

• A phony trial held days before election day in order to get a Democrat in the Senate.
• “serious, widespread and at times intentional” illegal concealment of evidence by prosecutors.
• In 2009 a Federal judge formally set aside the verdict and threw out the indictment, based on what the judge called the worst case of prosecutorial misconduct he'd ever seen.
• Extreme corruption and no one goes to jail.

Alaska Democrat Senator Mark Begich should resign his seat because of election fraud.  This crooked bastard won a slim 47%  -  46% victory Senator Ted Stevens based on a phony corruption trial timed for election day.

If Begich had any honor as a man he would resign.  But he is a Democrat, and the words honor and Democrat cannot be used in the same sentence.

A court-appointed investigator has found that the high-profile prosecution of the late Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was “permeated” by the prosecutors’ “serious, widespread and at times intentional” illegal concealment of evidence that would have helped Mr. Stevens defend himself at his 2008 trial, a federal judge disclosed.

But the 500-page report by the investigator, Henry F. Schuelke, recommends that none of the Justice Department officials involved in the case be prosecuted for criminal contempt of court. 

The reason?

Because the judge who presided over the trial, Emmet G. Sullivan, of Federal District Court in Washington, did not issue an order specifically instructing prosecutors to obey the law by turning over any exculpatory evidence reports the New York Times.

Pure 100% Bull Shit and a pure 100% cover-up.

The judge quoted Schuelke as saying that the investigation and prosecution of Stevens, an Alaska Republican, had been “permeated by the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence which would have independently corroborated his defense and his testimony, and seriously damaged the testimony and credibility of the government’s key witness.”

Schuelke also “found evidence of concealment and serious misconduct that was previously unknown and almost certainly would never have been revealed — at least to the court and to the public — but for their exhaustive investigation.”

After the Stevens case melted down, members of the government’s trial team and the head of the public integrity section of the Justice Department, William Welch, came under intense scrutiny.

Among other things, both Welch and his deputy chief, Brenda Morris — who had led the trial team — were reassigned, along with two other lawyers from the section. One of the lawyers, Nicholas A. Marsh, committed suicide last year.


The Democratic Party learned a lot from the Stalin Show-Trials and put that knowledge
to good use against Republican Ted Stevens.


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Newt tries to lose the election

Are Republicans Idiots?  Part XVII.
For some strange reason Republican candidates want to commit political suicide on live TV.

GOP - A party of idiots?  -  Stupid people on parade!


Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich proposed allowing younger workers still decades away from retirement to bypass Social Security and instead choose private investment accounts.

I have to ask, what the Hell is wrong with the GOP?  Are they fucking stupid? 

The nation is imploding.  Millions of unemployed.  Millions of home foreclosures.  Businesses and banks closing left and right. . . . . and the moron Republicans like Newt can't help themselves from talking about Social Security.  They go out of the way to give Democrats ammo to frighten the GOP base of senior citizens to death.

It is as if the GOP has a Death Wish or that they are being paid off by Democrats to commit suicide on live TV.

The former House speaker would allow younger workers to take their share of the payroll tax that funds Social Security and put it in a private account.  Employers would still pay their share of the tax, which would be used to pay benefits for current retirees, reports the Associated Press.

"Wouldn't you rather control your account?" Gingrich asked an audience of students at St. Anselm College.

At a business leaders' breakfast earlier in the day in Nashua, Gingrich predicted that the program "would save literally trillions over the next generation."

Under the plan, workers would be able to do one of two things: continue sending their share of Social Security taxes to the popular, safety-net program or give it to private firms that would compete for those dollars - as much as $20,000 a year, Gingrich estimated.

"No one is ever forced into the (private account) system," he said after the speech.

Under Gingrich's plan, the federal government would regulate the private accounts run by private firms to ensure the portfolios were diversified enough to prevent one company or sector from taking down the entire system.

Government approved firms then would compete for consumers, who could move their money among accounts based on fund performance.

The Republican Party  -  Always willing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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