Annie Rose Strasser: 7 Shocking Statements from One

of the nuttiest GOP Congressmen in the House. Rep. Don Young, (R-AK) on Thursday invited a wave of criticism, after using a racial slur to characterize Latinos, saying that he and his father used to hire 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes. Young refused to apologize outright for the slur, and several GOP leaders have since called on him to do so. But it's not new for Young, one of the most senior Republicans in the House, to go off the rails. He has said a long string of crazy, offensive or outright bizarre things during his 40 year tenure as a member of Congress. Here's a look back at just a few of his most outrageous comments: 1. Drink alone to avoid domestic violence. On the same day as his racial slur comment, Young also held a press conference, in which he advised that the best solution to domestic violence, is for people to do more imbibing in private: Watch the alcohol and the drugs, he said. You look at the relationship between violence against the loved ones you love, it is usually related to either one of those, and I'm going to suggest for those that may be drinking together, Stop it! If you want to drink by yourself, you may do it, But when you drink together, the possibility of harm becomes greater every day. Members of Congress should be hanged: Young once misattributed a quote to Abraham Lincoln, on the floor of the House of Representatives. That quote called for members of Congress, who opposed war, to be hanged. Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime, that damages morale and undermines the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged, Young claimed Lincoln had said. In fact, a conservative academic, not the storied former president, was responsible for the quote. 3. Environmentalists are waffle stomping, Harvard graduating, intellectual idiots. Young, who was a big advocate for drilling in the arctic, and strongly disbelieves in climate change, said that environmentalists are a self centered bunch of waffle stomping, Harvard graduating intellectual idiots, and are not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans. 4. Members of Congress are like mink. They bite. When Young was in an education funding battle in 2007, he likened members of Congress to the mink in my state, that kill their own. He went on: There's always another day, when who bite will be killed, too, and I am very good at that.

Kristen Gwynne: Meet the College Racist Trying to Get

Armed to defend whites from Blacks on Campus. Some seriously bigoted students at Towson University, have formed a White Student Union to save the campus from the threat of black people. Led by a flaming racist, who complained "Why can't we just have segregation?" at CPAC, the White Student Union is being especially diligent to protect, with force, pure white female bodies from the not so looming threat of Black rape. It's like they watched the Birth of the Nation, and thought it was a PBS documentary. From their blog: The frequent robberies, sexual assaults, and acts of vandalism at Towson University, are not often reported in the local media. For those who are not Towson students, it seems hard to fathom, that every single day, black predators prey upon the majority white Towson University student body. White Southern men have long been called to defend their communities, when law enforcement and the State, seem unwilling to protect our people. The virtue of white Christian womanhood, is under attack at Towson University, by degenerate criminals, seeking to rob our women of their God given innocence. Through armed thuggery, the money of law abiding Towson students, earned by the sweat of their brow, is stolen, and their lives threatened, for simply walking down the street. White Student Union member Scott Terry, thinks Black people belong under threat of the white man's gun, which he shoots at ranges with his fellow White Student racists. At CPAC, where the group first made headlines, Terry mocked Frederick Douglass for forgiving his former slave owner, asking "For what? For feeding him and housing him?" His unapologetic displays of hate, include his admission that he'd be fine, if black people were subservient to whites, because he believes white people are systematically disenfranchised by the law. He said, The white, blue collar vote, is being completely ignored by Republicans. We all know how much the GOP loves people of color. Now, allow me to introduce you to WSU President Matthew Heimbach, AKA Commander Heimbach. He was super stoked to learn that the Southern Poverty Law Center categorized the WSU as a hate group: Members of the Towson White Student Union, were pleased to find this morning,, that the left wing Southern Poverty Law Center has decided that our stand against the genocide of the European people from the face of the earth. 
        

Michael Farrell: Soles worn thinner than my smile!

My friend, Katey Laurel of Denver and Steamboat, Colorado is sort of a contradiction, persona and attitude of a hippie Dale Evans, which she loved when I called her, admitting to having proudly swung a Dale Evans lunch box, as a kid, despite being younger by a decade or two, of those who were truly Roy and Dale's TV family. She counters that sunny and positive vibe, with a deeply reflective nature, and a depth that is often missing in sing songwriters. She's not really a country singer, she's not a rock singer, she's a singer songwriter, who takes her craft seriously, while staying true to whom she seeks to be. I got to know her through social media, chat with her often, and she has kindly listened to some of my Musical advice, not saying she followed it, but hearing a fan tell you the same thing, producers tell you, makes it a bit harder to ignore. I'd like to see more edge, and a bit of darkness to her work, more realism, less "Happy Trails", and more "Last Gunfighter Ballad." She's working on it, but I think no matter what she does, it will have that optimism and hope,that the world needs. Katey's family includes a number of vets including her father, I believe as well, as various uncles and cousins, and I think an aunt or two. She's very active in the Denver Music scene, which is really interesting in a lot of ways. We normally think of Denver as John Denver country. Well, there was a great Tucson Country Swing band, that migrated to Denver back in the 80's, Chuck Wagon and the Wheels, now playing as Chuck Maulsby and That Band, I believe. Neither Tucson nor Denver is Music City Mountain States, but they could be. Lots of music, lots of art, lots of strong visions. In addition to her music, Katey also is an artist, and some of the premiums in her recent Kick Starter effort to fund her new CD "Up Periscope"included some of her original work. In full disclosure, I opted for the signed CD, a download and a T-shirt. She's very talented, and I will follow her work with a great deal of interest going forward. In October, Katey performed at a Wounded Warrior Benefit in Denver. This was a reasonably big deal, and the local acoustic music community, as well as some rockers, came out to help raise money, awareness, and to show the Vets and their families, that somebody not only knew what they had done, but wanted to thank them, and honor them for it.    

Jack Lessenberry: The Real Stolen Government:

A bloodless coup has taken place in Michigan. Detroit now has an emergency manager, and there's a lot of rumbling, that as a result, government in our state has been stolen,and democracy has died. Greg Bowens, for example, had an eloquent column, arguing that in the Free Press last Sunday, "A bloodless coup of the largest democratically elected government in our state has occurred," he began. Well, let's leave aside, for now, the question of whether an emergency manager here, was legal or necessary. Regardless of that, here's the elephant we are all missing. Forget Detroit: A bloodless coup has taken place in this state, at a far higher level, state government itself. Fanatical right wingers first gerrymandered the legislature to make sure that it would always elect a majority of Republicans, even if, as happened last fall, more citizens voted for Democratic candidates. That would have been bad, but not that big a deal, back in the 1980s, say, when most Republican lawmakers were pro business interests, but not screaming irrational yahoos. But times have changed. The GOP itself has been almost entirely taken over by zealots, whose priorities are both irrational and totally at odds with the desires and interests of Michigan citizens, and they are destroying our state. That's no exaggeration. Greg Bowens, by the way, made an error, when he called Detroit the largest democratically elected government in our state. That's no exaggeration. Greg Bowens, by the way, made an error, when he called Detroit the largest democratically elected government in our state. In fact, that description would apply to Michigan itself, the governor and the Legislature. Like him or hate him, Rick Snyder was fairly elected by the people, winning a large majority, 58 percent of those who bothered to vote three years ago, but that can't be said for the Legislature. Seven years ago, 54 percent of voters chose Democratic candidates for the state Senate. That was meaningless, however, thanks to the gerrymandering in effect then, Republicans won a majority of the seats, something that has ballooned to a 25-11 super majority since. Since the last election, the gerrymandering has been rejiggered to make it even worse. Democrats last had a majority in the Michigan Senate 30 years ago. Unless there is some cataclysmic change, we may well not live long enough to see the day, when they control it again.  

Ajamu Baraka: War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity

The Story of US Exceptionalism in Iraq. This month marks the tenth anniversary of the US attack on Iraq, one of the most egregious expressions of naked power, and imperial ambition since the Second World War. The attack defied both an outraged world opinion, expressed by global mass demonstrations, and the United Nations charter. It also marked a change, from the previous veiled decorum of supposed adherence to international law, that defined post war international relations. The Bush administration, armed with the ultimate expression of the arrogance of US exceptionalism, legislation passed by the US Congress, unleashed a murderous assault on the people of Iraq, dubbed Operation Shock and Awe. Ten years later, the awesome consequences of that criminal assault are clear. More than a trillion dollars spent, almost five thousand American lives lost, more than 32,000 Americans wounded, estimates of a million dead Iraqis, and almost five million displaced, an epidemic of Iraqi birth defects from depleted uranium, daily bombings, devastated public services, and the dismemberment of the country, yet ten years later, no one, not one government official, has been held accountable. The obvious question is: how is it that, in light of one of the most heinous crimes ever committed by a State, there have been no investigations, prosecutions or convictions of the officials responsible for this assault? The lack of accountability is even more incomprehensible in light of the fact, that it is now widely acknowledged, that the real reason for the Western invasion of Iraq had little to do with its concern about weapons of mass destruction, and everything to do with its desire to steal Iraq's oil. American officials have long since broken their silence, on the phony excuses proffered to the American people, to sucker them into supporting a war of choice against an Iraqi regime, softened up by a decade of crippling sanctions. Antonia Juhasz, in an article written for CNNs website, pointed out that the historical record, is now unambiguously replete with evidence, that the real motivation to attack Iraqs oil, and that plans were being made, as soon as ten days after the Bush Administration took power, to figure out how to accomplish that objective.

Franklin Lamb: Is Kuwait trying to scapegoat the Palestinians? r

Beirut, The Imam Musa Sadr, Sheik Mohammad Yaacoub, and journalist Abbas Badreddine case, like the Tell Tale Heart in Edgar Allen's Poe novel, will not stop crying out for justice, despite more than three decades of political efforts to close the file. Recent visits to Egypt and Libya, as well as common knowledge here in Lebanon, make plain that there is much interest in finally solving this mystery. But while the fall of the Gadaffi regime initially led to much speculation, that the Sadr Yaacoub case would finally be solved by new factor's, including Egyptian Libya Lebanese economics and political relations, among other factors, are including Egyptian Libya Lebanese economics and political relations, among other factors, are slowing the investigation. Against this backdrop, comes the most recent speculation about the Lebanese trio's fate, this time from Kuweit's Al Rai newspaper. Without revealing its claimed source for the sensational story, which has been denied by former Gaddafi operatives in both Cairo and Tripoli, including investigators at the Libyan Justice and Interior ministries, Al Rai weaves a most improbable story, that Sunni Palestinians murdered the Shia delegation. At first glance, the tale does lead one to at least take notice, because for years, Libyan intelligence was closely involved with Abu Nidal, and funded his Fatah: The Revolutionary Council, commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). Following the US bombing of Gadaffi's residence on April 15, 1986, when US warplanes launched a series of bombing raids from British bases against Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 45 Libyan soldiers and 15 civilians, in claiming retaliation for the bombing, ten years earlier, of a Berlin nightclub, used by US service personnel, that relationship solidified fast, with Abu Nidal becoming the recently appointed head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah Senussi's favorite mercenary. In June of 1986, this observers visited Abu Nidal's office, which was being set up in an apartment building, four blocks from Green Square. The visit was arranged by former Libyan Ambassador Omar el Hamdi, now laying low in Cairo. Omar served as Secretary General of the Sennusi created "International Secretariat For Solidarity With The Arab People And Their Central Cause Palestine, on which this observer served five years as North American Representative, while working at the US Congress.     

Dahr Jamail: America, You Crushed My Country,

and now it has no future: Back then,everyone was writing about Iraq, but it's surprising how few Americans, including reporters, paid much attention to the suffering of Iraqis. Today, Iraq is in the news again. The words, the memorials, the retrospectives are pouring out, and again the suffering of Iraqis isn't what's on anyone's mind. This was why I returned to that country, before the recent 10th anniversary of the Bush administration's invasion, and why I feel compelled to write a few grim words about Iraqis today. But let's start with than. It's April 8, 2004, to be exact, and I'm inside a makeshift medical center in the heart of Fallujah, while that predominantly Sunni city is under siege by American forces. I'm alternating between scribbling brief observations in my notebook, and taking photographs of the wounded and dying women and children, being brought into the clinic. A woman suddenly arrives, slapping her chest and face in grief, wailing hysterically, as her husband carries in the limp body of their little boy. Blood is trickling down one of his dangling arms. In a few minutes, he'll be dead. This sort of thing happens again and again. Over and over, I watch speeding cars hop the curb in front of this dirty clinic, with next to no medical resources, and screech to a halt. Grief stricken family members pour out, carrying bloodied relatives, women and children, gunned down by American snipers. One of them, an 18 year old girl,, has been shot through the neck, by what her family swears, was an American sniper. All she can manage are gurgling noises, as doctors work frantically to save her from bleeding to death. Her younger brother, an undersized child of 10, with a gunshot wound in his head, his eyes glazed and staring into space, continually vomits, as doctors race to keep him alive. He later dies, while being transported to a hospital in Baghdad. According to the Bush administration at the time, the siege of Fallujah was carried out in the name of fighting something called terrorism, and yet, from the point of view of the Iraqis, I was observing at such close quarters, the terror was strictly American. In fact, it was the Americans, who first began the spiraling cycle of violence in Fallujah, when US troops from the 82nd Airborne Division killed 17 unarmed demonstrators on April 28th of the previous year, outside a school they had occupied and turned into a combat outpost.        

Michel Chossudovsky: Dangerous Crossroads, The Threat of a r

Preemptive Nuclear war directed against Iran. For more than a decade, Iran has been doggedly accused, without evidence, of developing nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic is relentlessly portrayed by the Western media, as a threat to the security of Israel, and of the Western World. In a bitter irony, the assessment if America's Intelligence Community, concerning Iran's alleged nuclear weapons capabilities refutes the barrage of media disinformation, as well as the bellicose statements, emanating from the White House. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, judges with high confidence, that in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program. "We assess with moderate confidence, Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program, as of mid 2007, but we do not know, whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons. We continue to assess, with moderate to high confidence, that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon. Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons program, suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons, than we have been judging since 2005. Our assessment, that the program probably was halted, primarily in response to international pressure, suggests Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue, than we judged previously. In February 2011, The Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, while presenting the 2011 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, intimated with some hesitation, that the Islamic Republic was not seeking to develop nuclear weapons capabilities. We do not know if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons. The 2011 NIE, largely confirms the findings undertaken by the US intelligence community in the 2007 NIE, which remains, according to The New York Times, the consensus view of America's 16 intelligence agencies. First formulated in the Bush administration's 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, the preemptive nuclear war doctrine, integrated into the Global War on Terrorism, started to take shape in the immediate wake of war in Iraq. A preemptive defensive nuclear attack on Iran, using tactical nuclear weapons, was envisaged to annihilate the Islamic Republic's non existent nuclear weapons program. So called mini nukes were identified as the ideal weapon to conduct a pre emptive nuclear attack. In 2003, the mini nukes, consisting of bunker buster bombs with nuclear warheads, were re-categorized by the US Senate as bona-fide conventional weapons.  

Harold Saive: Global Coolong Back In Forecast

After IPCC Steers Global Warming Into Iceberg! The Mayan's didn't use their calendar to predict doom in 2012, but their 394 year Baktun cycle, may predict a long period of low solar activity, and years of extreme global cooling, starting now. Marking the end of the thirteenth Baktun on December 21, 2012, places the onset of solar events that led to the Maunder Minimum, also referred to as the "Little Ice Age". Are we ready yet for potentially disastrous impacts of space weather? Comparing a future solar event to the 1859 Carrington event: Directly or indirectly, a comparable geomagnetic storm today, and in the foreseeable future, would likely include widespread, and long term disruptions on transportation and commerce, agriculture and food stocks, medical facilities, satellite based communication and navigation systems, national security, etc. By Steve Trackton, The Capital Weather Gang, a review of the 2012 Space Weather Enterprise Forum, presented by The National Space Weather Program Council. Are we ready yet, for potentially disastrous impacts of space weather? Comparing a future solar event, to the 1859 Carrington event: Directly or indirectly, a comparable geomagnetic storm today, and in the foreseeable future, would likely include widespread, and long term disruptions on transportation and commerce, agriculture and food stocks, medical facilities, satellite based communication, and navigation systems, national security, etc. By Steve Trackton: The Capital Weather Gang, A review of the 2012 Space Weather Enterprise Forum,presented by The National Space Weather Program Council. Our Sun is losing Energy: The typical peak to peak solar cycle have long been established to be about 11 years. The last solar minimum began in 2001, following an unremarkable maximum, but in April 2009, the solar minimum was officially recognized as having lasted far longer than normal. It was not until the middle of 2010, when sunspot numbers began to increase, signalling an overdue, but very weak return to a solar maximum. Relative to Earth, the maximum would be even weaker, than forecast, due to to a mysterious absence of earth directed solar flares, a persistent event, that continues to defy the label of "coincidence." The health of Earth's atmosphere, extending out to the magnetosphere, relies on the energy of solar flares to maintain, what we have come to expect as a "normal" electrical balance between Earth, Sun and the solar system.  

Valerie Tarico: How Some Organized Religion Leads

to mental health problems. At age sixteen, I began, what would be a four year struggle with bulimia. When the symptoms started, I turned in desperation to adults, who knew more than I did, about how to stop shameful behavior, my Bible study leader, and a visiting youth minister. If you ask anything in faith, believing, they said. It will be done. I knew they were quoting the Word of God. We prayed together, and I went home, confident that God had heard my prayers, but my horrible compulsions didn't go away. By the fall of my sophomore year in college, I was desperate and depressed enough, that I made a suicide attempt. The problem wasn't just the bulimia. I was convinced by then, that I was a complete spiritual failure. My college counseling department had offered to get me real help, which they later did. But to my mind, at that point, such help couldn't fix the core problem. I was a failure in the eyes of God. It would be years, before I understood, that my ability to heal bulimia through the mechanisms offered by biblical Christianity, was not a function of my own spiritual deficiency, but deficiencies in Evangelical religion itself. Dr. Marlene Winell is a human development consultant in the San Francisco Area. She is also the daughter of Pentecostal missionaries. This combination has given her work an unusual focus. For the past twenty years, she has counseled men and women in recovery from various forms of fundamentalist religion, including the Assemblies of God denomination, in which she was raised. Winell is the author of Leaving the Fold, A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion, written during her years of private practice in psychology. Over the years, Winell has provided assistance to clients, whose religious experiences were even more damaging than mine. Some of them are people, whose psychological symptoms weren't just exacerbated by their religion, but actually caused by it. Two years ago, Winell made waves, by formally labeling what she calls Religious Trauma Syndrome, (RTS) and beginning to write and speak on the subject for professional audiences. When the British Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychologists published a series of articles on the topic, members of a Christian counseling association protested what they called excessive attention to a relatively niche topic. One commenter said. "A religion, faith or book cannot be abused, but the people interpreting can make anything abusive."
   

J.B. Gerald: America's Political Prisoners!

Political prisoners are those currently in prison, because of their race, religion, political convictions, or care for others. Removed from the community, because they seek justice for their people, some are branded with inappropriately long sentences, and are often in solitary confinement to destroy their beliefs. Some are falsely charged, or unjustly convicted. Others are guilty of their innocence and caring for others. Their imprisonment reveals points, where the people's conscience, and necessity are greater than society's injustice can sustain. Political prisoners, the status is not officially recognized under North American law, provide a country with its first defense against extremes of injustice, war crimes, crimes against humanity, economic crimes, and genocide. Often these men and women are simply the most articulate, and innocent of those, society assigns to pay for its faults. Albert Woodfox: Amnesty International has launched a campaign to keep Louisiana Attorney General James D Caldwell from appealing the court's decision, which once again overturned Woodfox's conviction, finding his trial flawed by racial discrimination. Woodfox, one of the Angola 3, was initially targeted in prison for Black Panther Party organizing to the benefit of both black and white prisoners. Louisiana has previously appealed, rather than honor court decisions in Woodfox's favor. While Amnesty asks Woodfox to be retried or freed, since he was unjustly convicted, having served forty years in solitary confinement, a retrial would only prolong an absolute injustice. Albert Woodfox should be freed immediately. Partial sources online: State of Louisiana Must Not Appeal Federal Ruling Overturning Conviction in Angola 3 Case, February 27, 2013, Amnesty International. Lynne Stewart: The petition for compassionate liberation of Lynne Stewart, is available through Justice for Lynne Stewart. Denied treatment for 18 months, she is currently under prison medical care for terminal cancer. Her sentencing to ten years, for an infraction of legal protocol by a judge informed of her medical condition, was a death sentence, pandering to the propaganda efforts of the government's war on terror. Its effect highlights a flaw in American justice, previously noted in the Salem Witch Trials, and Senator Joseph McCarthy's hunt for Communists. Bradley Manning: The Freedom of the Press Foundation has published the initial court statement of Pfc Bradley Manning, whom military prosecutors are trying to incarcerate for life. Manning released to Wikileaks, the video of a US military action, firing on Reuters cameramen and good Samaritans caring for the wounded.     

Jonas E. Alexis: Me and Louis Gavin!

And don't you think that being deceived about truth is a bad thing, while having a grasp of the truth is good? And don't you think that having a grasp of the truth is having a belief, that matches the way things are? Plato, The Republic. Louis Gavin just recently accuses me of consistently framing every conceivable evil around Jews, a ridiculous notion, which Gavin has summoned, in order to make a point. Is Gavin going to accuse me of saying that Jews are responsible for Robert Mugabe's racist attitude toward white people and Christians in Zimbabwe? Are they responsible for Joseph Koney's mass murder in Uganda? Gavin has to invoke these types of arguments, because this is the only way he can make a point. He cannot justify his points from my articles, and therefore he has to take the easy route. He has to summon the greatest work of fiction imaginable, and then demolish it with great relish. In that sense, his feet are firmly planted in mid air. Gavin takes issues with the fact, that the Bolshevik Revolution was largely Jewish. In response, he says, "Do you have the slightest idea, what Jewish communities went through, during those murderous years, what level of discrimination they were subject to, how they were excluded from owning land, participating in the economy, and attending institutions of higher learning?" Gavin makes my job very easy. For those who want to know the issues surrounding Jews in Russia, I would highly recommend Erich Baberer's Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth Century Russia, published by Cambridge University Press in 2004. For further studies, I would also recommend Sarah Gordon's Hitler, Germans, and the Jewish Question, published by Princeton University Press in 1984. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Two Hundred Years Together, is yet to be published in English, for obvious reasons. To summarize, discrimination was largely a reaction to Jewish revolutionary activity around that time, and it had little to do with who the Jews were as people. Even some of the universities in Russia, were functions of Jewish revolutionary cells, and the government had to take drastic actions, in order to restore civility and balance. People like Veniamin Osipovich Portugalov, Lev Moiseevich Zelenskii, Nikolai Utin, Mark Natanson, among others, created subversive activities, which ended up in political upheavals and unrests.         

Zack Kopplin: Why I Took a Stand Against the Right Wing

Christian Anti Science Crusade. In 2008, the summer before my sophomore year in high school, my home state of Louisiana passed a creationism law. The misnamed and misguided Lousiana Science Education Act, allows creationism to sneak into public schools science classrooms, through supplemental materials that critique evidence based, but politically controversial science, like evolution. This law also promotes the denial of climate science. Defenders of this law, often claim it's only meant to teach critical thinking, and provide academic freedom to teachers, who want to challenge evolution scientifically. There is no scientific controversy over evolution, or climate science, for these teachers to discuss, though. The only reason to have this law, is to sneak non science, like creationism, into classrooms. The purpose of the law, becomes even more clear, if you listen to its legislative sponsor. Louisiana state Senator Ben Nevers said that that the Louisiana Family Forum, a powerful lobbying group for religious rights, suggested the law to him: The Family Forum believes that Scientific data, related to creationism, should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory. These anti science laws are not just a Louisiana problem, they are an American problem. In 2012, Tennessee passed its own creationism law, based off the model in Louisiana. Each year, dozens of states around the country, have creationism bills introduced. This year, bills have already been killed in states including Oklahoma, Colorado, Montana, and Arizona. We still have a creationism bill in Missouri to defeat this year. Next year, a whole new set of creationism bills will be introduced. I was furious, when the Louisiana Science Education Act passed. I couldn't believe that I lived in the only state in the US, that had a creationism law at that time. I should have fought it, but I was only 14, and too young. I didn't stand up and speak out. Instead, I wrote a research paper for my high school English class, on why the law should be repealed. I assumed an adult would be the one to take on the law. By my senior year of high school, I realized that no one older than me, was willing to stand up against the Louisiana Science Education Act. I had a moral responsibility to stand up against the Louisiana Science Education Act. I had a moral responsibility to stand up for science, and for what was right. I decided to launch a campaign to repeal the law.       

Richard Escow: The 147 People Destroying the World

Can 147 people perpetuate economic injustice, and make it even worse? Can they subvert the workings of democracy, both abroad and here in the United States? Can 147 people hijack the global economy, plunder the environment, build a world for themselves,, that serves the few, and deprives the many? There must be some explanation for last week's economic madness. Take a look: Cyprus: The European Union acted destructively, and self destructively, when it tried to seize a portion of the insured savings accounts of the citizens of Cyprus. They were telling anyone with a savings account, in the financially troubled nations of Euro-zone: Forget your guaranteed deposits. If we need your money, in order to bail out the big banks, banks which have already gambled recklessly with it, we'll take it. That didn't just create a political firestorm in Cyprus. It threatened the European Union's banking system, and perhaps the Union itself. The fact that the taxon deposits has been partially retracted, doesn't change the basic question: What were they thinking? The Grand Bargain: The President and Congressional Republicans, reportedly moved closer to a deal, that would cut Social Security and Medicare, while raising taxes, mostly on the middle class, without doning more to create jobs. A Grand Bargain like that, would run counter to both public opinion. and informed economic judgement. Who would impose more economy killing austerity, when there's so much evidence of the harm it does? Why would the White House want to become the face of a deal to cut Social Security, killing its own party's political prospects for a generation? There's more: Him again: Washington reporters one again sought the opinion of Ex Wyoming senator Alan Simpson, a vitriolic blowhard, with no discernible knowledge of either economics or social insurance, and then wrote up his opinions on those topics in flattering pieces like this one. Derivatives, the Sequel: Four short years, after too big to fail banks nearly destroyed the world economy, as the nation continues to suffer the after effects of the crisis they created, a Congressional committee, moved to undo the already insufficient safeguards in the Dodd Frank law. Within days of a Senate Report, which outlined the mendacity, extreme risk, and potentiality criminality surrounding JP Morgan Chase's London Whale fiasco, the House Agricultural Committee approved new bills, that would legalize trades like the London Whale. Above the Law: The Attorney General of the United States remained silent over his recent admission , that banks like Dimon's were too big to face prosecution.    

Steve Watson: More Footage of Military Vehicles

being delivered surfaces online: Footage of hundreds of armored trucks, similar to ones reportedly purchased recently by the Department of Homeland Security, has appeared online, raising more questions over their intended use. The first video was uploaded to YouTube last week, by a user who stated, that it was shot in the middle of the desert, between Hackberry and Peach Springs, Arizona. It shows hundreds of military style trucks loaded on a train, presumably in the process of being delivered domestically for law enforcement or military purposes. The video raises significant questions, in the wake of reports, that the Department of Homeland Security, headed by Janet Napolitano, recently purchased around 2,700 MRAP trucks, that many believe, are to be deployed to local law enforcement agencies around the country. It is clear, that the DHS does have fleets of armored vehicles, intended for use in the US. Here is a demonstration video of such a vehicle by ICE agents. Does the latest video show these same type of trucks in the process of being delivered? The footage is the latest, in a spate of similar videos, to surface on the internet in recent months, showing huge amounts of military equipment packed into trains en route within the US. As we reported today, the DHS' mass arms build up continues, with the report that the agency has bought another 360,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition, to add to the roughly 2 billion bullets already bought over the last year. Such stark activity, with little to no background detail, has prompted several Congressmen to ask the federal government for an explanation. According to some elected representatives, the DHS has refused to answer specific questions on the purchases, stating only that the ammunition is for training purposes over the next five years, and has been bulk ordered to save money. As we have pointed out numerous times, military experts have noted, that hollow point bullets are unsuitable for training, and much more expensive than full metal jackets. Efforts by government media mouthpieces to dismiss the story, have only caused it to become more viral. The DHS has also purchased 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles, as well as cementing a $2 million dollar relationship with a contractor, that recently had to apologize, for producing shooting targets of pregnant women, children and elderly gun owners, depicted in residential settings. The DHS has also been busy, buying large supplies of body armor, leading to shortages. Last year, the agency put out an urgent order for riot gear, in anticipation of civil unrest. The agency has also ordered bullet proof checkpoint booths, and hired hundreds of new security guards, to protect government buildings, over the course of the last 12 months. None of this has been addressed by the mainstream media.     

Robert Parry: Have We Ever Wondered Why Bush Invaded Iraq?

A decade after President George W Bush ordered the unprovoked invasion of Iraq, one of the enduring mysteries has been why. There was the rationale, sold to a frightened American people in 2002 to 2003, that Saddam Hussein was plotting to attack them with Weapons of Mass Destruction, but no one in power really believed that. There have been other, more plausible explanations. George Bush the younger, wanted to avenge a perceived slight to George Bush the elder, while also outdoing his father as a war president. Vice President Dick Cheney had his eye on Iraq's oil wealth, and the Republican Party saw an opportunity to create its permanent majority behind a glorious victory in the Middle East. Though George W Bush's defenders vigorously denied being motivated by such crass thinking, those rationales do seem closer to the truth. However, there was another driving force behind the desire to conquer Iraq: The neoconservative belief that the conquest would be a first step toward installing compliant pro US regimes throughout the Middle East, and letting Israel dictate final peace terms to its neighbors. That rationale has often been dressed up as democratizing the Middle East, but the idea was more a form of neocolonialism, in which American proconsuls would make sure, that a favored leader, like the Iraqi National Congress' Ahmed Chalabi would control each country, and align the nations' positions with the interests of the United States and Israel. Some analysts have traced this idea back to the "neocon" Project for the New American Century in the late 1990s, which advocated for regime change in Iraq, but the idea's origins go back to the early 1990s and two seminal events. The first game changing moment came in 1990's to 91, when President HW Bush showed off the unprecedented advancements in US military technology. Almost from the moment that Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuweit in 1990, the Iraqi dictator began signaling his willingness to withdraw, after having taught the arrogant al Sabah ruling family in Kuweit a lesson in power politics, but the Bush 41 administration wasn't willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Kuwait invasion. Instead of letting Hussein arrange an orderly withdrawal, Bush 41 began baiting him with insults, and blocking any face saving way for a retreat. Peace feelers from Hussein, and later from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, were rebuffed, as Bush 41 waited his chance to demonstrate the stunning military realities of his New World Order, even as the US field commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf favored Gorbachev's plan for letting Iraqi forces pull back, but Bush 41 was determined to have a ground war!   

Prof. James Petras: The Obama Kerry Hagel Regime.

Selling death, and buying Assassins in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. As President Obama enters his second term with a new Cabinet, the foreign policy legacy of the past four years, weighs heavily on their strategic decisions, and their empire building efforts. Central to the analysis of the next period, is an evaluation of the past policies, especially in regions, where Washington expended its greatest financial and military resources, namely the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa. We will proceed, by examining the accomplishments and failures, of the Obama Clinton regime. We will then turn to the ongoing policy efforts to sustain the empire building project. We will then turn to the ongoing policy efforts to sustain the empire building project. We will take account of the constrains and opportunities, which define the parameters resulting from imperial military ambitions, Israeli Zionist influence in shaping policy, and the ongoing anti imperial struggles. We will conclude by examining likely policies and outcomes, resulting from current strategies: The Accomplishments.The greatest success of the Obama Clinton Imperial legacy was the virtual elimination of organized domestic anti war dissent, the demise of the peace movement, and the co option of virtually the entire progressive leadership in the US, while multiplying the number of proxy wars, overt and covert military operations and defense spending. As a result, the entire political spectrum moved further to the right, toward greater militarization abroad, and increased police state measures at home. Facing mass revolts, and the overthrow of long standing client regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, the Obama Clinton Administration moved rapidly to reconfigure new client regimes, while preserving the state apparatus, the military, intelligence, police, judicial and civilian bureaucracy. The empire dumped incumbent regimes, in order to save the repressive state, the key guarantor of US strategic interests. Washington successfully engineered a political pact between conservative Islamist leaders, and parties of the old military elite. The new political blocs in Egypt, upheld Israeli annexation of Palestine, the brutal blockade of Gaza, and the neo liberal economic order. Washington repeated the reshuffle of clients in Yemen and Tunisia. The OC intervention temporarily aborted the pro democracy, anti Zionist and anti corruption popular revolt.       

Scott Thill: 4 Things You Should Know About Your Third Eye

Located in nearly the direct center of the brain, the tiny pine cone shaped pineal gland, which habitually secretes the wondrous neuro-hormone melatonin, while we sleep at night, was once thought to be a vestigial leftover from a lower evolutionary state. Indeed, according to recent research, we could be increasing our chances of contracting chronic illnesses like cancer, by unnecessarily bathing its evenings in artificial light, working night shifts. or staying up too late. By disrupting the pineal gland, and melatonin's chrono biological connection to Earth's rotational 24 hour light and dark cycle, known as its circadian rhythm, we're possibly opening the doors, not to perception, but to disease and disorder. A recently published study from Vanderbilt University has found associations between circadian disruption and heart disease, diabetes and obesity. By hacking what pinealo-philes call our minds third eye, with an always on techno culture, transmitting globally at light speed, we may have disadvantaged our genetic ability to ward off all manner of complicated nightmares. No wonder the pineal gland is a pop culture staple for sci-fi, fantasy and horror fandom, as well as a mass attractor of mystics and mentalists. Its powers to divide, and merge our light and dark lives, only seems to grow, the more we take it seriously. We still lack a complete understanding of the pineal gland, University of Michigan professor of physiology and neurology, Jimo Borjigin, a pioneer in medical visualization of the pineal gland's melatonin secretion, told me. Numerous molecules are found in the pineal, many of which are uniquely found at night, and we do not have a good idea, of what their functions are. The only function, that is established beyond doubt, is the melatonin synthesis and secretion at night, and we do not have a good idea of what their functions are. The only function that is established beyond doubt, is the melatonin synthesis and secretion at night, which is controlled by the central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and modulated by light. All else is speculative. Discerning between the science and speculation of the pineal gland hasn't been easy, since long before Rene Descartes called it the principal seat of the soul, after studying it at length nearly four centuries ago.           

James F. Tracy: False Flags, Fake Media Reporting, Deceiving the Public.

Social Engineering and the 21st Century Truth Emergency. On March 9, 1995, Edward Bernays died at the age of 103. His professional endeavors involved seeking to change popular attitudes and behavior, by fundamentally altering social reality. Since he laid the modern groundwork for deceiving
the public, we are for better or worse, living out his legacy today. Several years ago, Project Censored directors Peter Phillips, and Mickey Huff, identified and explained the truth emergency that is among the greatest threats to civil society and human existence. This crisis is manifest in flawed or non existent investigations into 9/11, and other potential false flag events, fraudulent elections, and illegal wars, vis a vis a corporate controlled news media, that fail to adequately inform the public on such matters. While neglecting or obscuring inquiry into such events, and phenomena, major media disparage independent, and often uncredentialed researchers as conspiracy theorists or, more reavealingly, truthers. The truth emergency continues today, ans social engineers like Bernays, long understood the significance of undermining the use of reason, for it is only through reason, that truth may be determined and evaluated. To be sure, individuals and institutions, that have successfully achieved legitimacy in the public mind, are recognized as having a monopoly on the capacity to reason, and are thus perceived as the foremost bearers of truth and knowledge. Through the endorsement of experts, figures perceived as authoritative in their field, the public could easily be persuaded on anything from tobacco use, and water flouridation, to military intervention abroad. Today, reason is defined one dimensionally. Its relationship to truth is largely taken for granted. Yet as Leibniz observed, reason marks our humanity, suggesting a portion of the soul capable of a priori recognition of truth. With this in mind, the modern individual in the mass, has been rendered at least partially soulless through her every day deferral to the powerful persuasive notion, and representation of expertise. However narrowly focused, under the guise of objectivity, the institutionally affiliated journalist, academic, bureaucrat, and corporate spokesperson have become the portals of reason, through which the public is summoned to observe truth. These agents of reason are largely bereft of emotion, moderate in temperament, and speak or write in an unsurprisingly formulaic tone. The narratives they relate and play out, present tragedy, with the expectation of certain closure.         

Alex Kane: Obama Ignores the Ugly, Brutal Reality of

Occupation and Colonization on his Israel Trip. Round after round of tear gas, was shot by a group of Israeli soldiers on a hill overlooking a protest of about 100 Palestinians, in support of a hunger striking prisoner. The smell of rubber tires filled the air, and the fired tear gas made protester's eyes water, as they ran back on a road in the central West Bank town of Beitunia after throwing stones at the soldiers. The demonstrators, most of them young, were there to show their support for Samer Issawi, a Palestinian prisoner, reportedly close to death, after being on hunger strike for well over 200 days, in protest of being held in jail on secret evidence. Issawi's hearing was scheduled to be held at Ofer prison, in the occupied West Bank on March 21, but he was too sick to show up. Hunger striking prisoners, angry youth protesters, living under a nearly 46 year old grinding occupation, and tear gas, and rubber bullets  fired at abandon, that injure and maim Palestinians, this was the part of occupied Palestinian life, that President Obama avoided. The president arrived in Israel on March 20, and promptly set the tenor of his trip, by giving a speech at Ben Gurion Airport, that did not mention the word Palestine or Palestinian. While he did eventually speak of the indignities Palestinians suffer under occupation, during his big speech in Jerusalem, to Israeli youth on March 21, the words, for many Palestinians, rung hollow. Barack Obama's visit skirted the reality of what occupation, and an institutionalized set of unequal rules, based on ethnicity, means to ordinary Palestinians living within Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The big Obama visit to Israel, his first as a sitting president, cemented the unbreakable alliance, as the official slogan for his trip "put it", between the US and Israel, an alliance that comes at the expense of the human rights of Palestinians. The scene at Ben-Gurion Airport, as Obama first arrived, was a sign of things to come. Israeli and American flags, waved everywhere you went. An Israeli military band launched into a song, that said a lot about the trip. The song, "Jerusalem of Gold" echoed through the air, a tune that celebrates the so called unification of Jerusalem under exclusive Israeli rule, a unification that has meant expulsion, and illegal settlements, for the Palestinians, living in what Israel considers its capital, though the international community has not recognized the Israeli annexation.        

Dr. Anthony Hall: Flanagan's Last Stand?

Decoding the encounter between Professor Tom Flanagan and Idle No More at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta Canada. Professor Tom Flanagan was instrumental in mentoring, grooming and handling Steven Harper, during the most formative stages of the meteoric career of Canada's current prime minister. Professor Flanagan is a US trained political scientist, who was hired by a transplanted Pentagon intelligence expert, to help make Calgary safe for Houston, and Dallas based oil companies in Texas North. Professor Flanagan was politically disowned recently, by many of his former students and associates, including by Stephen Harper, for characterizing the consumption of child pornography, as a victimless crime, that should be met with counseling, rather than incarceration. Professor Flanagan made the comments in response to questions from Aboriginal supporters of the Idle No More movement, who look at the denigration entailed in child pornography through the lens of many of their people's harsh experiences as victims of the child sexual exploitation in Canada's federally funded system of Christian residential schools for Aboriginal youths. On March 13, I devoted a three hour university class to looking at the media coverage, political fallout, historical background, and future implications of Tom Flanagan's controversial presentation two weeks earlier. I did so, as a long serving member of the Arts and Science Faculty at the University of Lethbridge where, on February 27, Professor Flanagan delivered his talk, including the now notorious comment, displaying his libertarian extremism on the subject of child pornography and the law. Professor McCormick and Professor Flanagan, are like minded political scientists, who have applied their academic expertise to helping the transmutation of the Reform Party, and then the Alliance Party, into the governing Conservative Party of Canada. As has been widely reported, the subject of Professor Flanagan's presentation at my school was the Indian Act, a topic in which he and I share considerable professional interest. Over the years, Professor Flanagan and I, have exchanged opposing interpretations on Aboriginal matters in a number of venues, both academic and journalistic. In August of 2000, I reviewed a book by Tom Flanagan's in the Globe and Mail. In the late 1990s, I debated him for an hour on the airwaves of CBC Radio, in an Alberta wide show, known as Wildrose Forum. During this period, I invited my colleague from the Political Science Department at the University of Calgary, to lecture my students, many of them Aboriginal, in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge. This academic unit was the first of its kind to be established in western Canada.