Mitt Reagan

Is that a horse race or what?

)))))>>>Across the Iowa finish line by a noze!!!<<<(((((

Sheesh.

Is anyone else wondering where the fresh air has gone?

Imean, I used to take little breaks in the evening to walk out on the porch and stretch and get a nice fresh air break -- crisp winter air is refreshing after washing the evening dishes, brushing the pets, or some other/any other task.

But now when I open the door it's like walking into a wall of sickening cheap perfume-y smells. It's my guess the nauseating smell is coming from those toxic petroleum fragrances they put in laudry soap and so-called dryer sheets -- permeating the air from people's dryers. Who would have ever expected dryer fumes would toxify our air so thoroughly?

Does this kind of pollution bother anybody else?

I think another cause of the lack of fresh air could be -- oddly -- the practice of "romantic" individuals who like to use their fireplaces even when it isn't cold, and who set ablaze numerous scented candles in and around their fireplaces. I know a couple of people who saw this in a movie and just adore eating up oxygen and creating pertrochemical wax and fragrance pollution fumes this way.

This "fragrance" stench is right there on my list with a number of other disgusting, UNNECESSARY AND BAD HABITS like lawnmowers, leafblowers, burning wood products (like treated wood and fiberboard) in fireplaces (as well as any fire for mere cozy effect), starting BBQs with petroleum lighters....

Wikileaks shows a USA memo trail of collusion for the support of Monsanto and GMOs and punishment for those who don't go along...

http://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/leaked-us-to-start-trade-wars-with.h...

Chinese invest in biz to frack America...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/01/03/china-set-to-fr...

developement! GRRR!

The GOP Savages Itself, While Wall Street Backs the Black Guy, Again

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“Why in the world would Wall Street consider for one second trading in Obama for whatever wounded animal emerges from the Republican presidential menagerie?”

...Mitt can barely buy a break.

The Lords of Finance Capital, who, like their multinational corporations, have no home team (or national) loyalties, put their money on Barack Obama last time around and have profited beyond their most speculative dreams. Obama may not have saved finance capital from terminal decline, but he temporarily rescued Wall Street from its inherent self-destruct mechanisms (contradictions) through what they hope is a permanent umbilical to the American State. Their early investment in candidate Obama bought them resurrection from the 2008 meltdown and a pipeline in perpetuity to the financial innards of the U.S. treasury. It’s the sweetest deal ever bribed or brokered. Why in the world would Wall Street consider for one second trading in Obama for whatever wounded animal emerges from the Republican presidential menagerie?

“The last thing the smart cookies on Wall Street need is to associate themselves with Republican presidential contenders’ crude and fawning wealth-worship.”

A factoid in the January Harpers magazine Index brings the point home. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, employees of the investment firm Bain Capital, co-founded by Romney, donated $69,500 to their former boss’s campaign. They gave considerably more to Obama: $119,900. That’s about the ratio of Wall Street’s lopsided contributions to Obama in 2008 – before he funneled tens of trillions of the dollars into their coffers. This marriage has been consummated.

On the foreign front, where most of Wall Street’s money is made, Obama has in less than three years managed to renew the U.S. global offensive that was shattered by the Iraqi resistance under Bush’s watch, with catastrophic damage to American prestige in the world. Where Bush the Cowboy managed to isolate the U.S. from its imperial allies, the First Black President has led NATO to become an expeditionary force under American tutelage with the 7-month bombing campaign against Libya, and blunted the Arab Spring through deepening ties to autocracies in the Persian Gulf. The Empire is on a roll in service of multinational capital. Cosmetic regime change in Washington would not serve Wall Street’s purposes.........

White madness will feed Black fears. In the saddest of historical ironies, the group hurt worst by Wall Street’s crimes will once again wind up on the same side as Wall Street’s money in the presidential race. Some will even fantasize that Obama will show his “true, Black” side in his second term. The Republicans aren’t the only ones that are crazy.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/gop-savages-itself-while-wall-s...

California lawmaker cited for possessing loaded weapon at the Ontario airport Wednesday for why he brought a briefcase containing a loaded .45 caliber firearm into Ontario International Airport: He goofed.

...Donnelly said he "tends to always be armed" because of death threats he has received since launching a referendum to overturn the Dream Act, a new law to permit some undocumented immigrants to qualify for state-funded college aid. The 45-year-old Republican, in a radio interview, said his problems began Saturday when he was in his garage with the gun on a work bench nearby.

"My wife came home and I haven't wanted to go into a lot of the detail with her about this, so I stuck it in the nearest bag," said Donnelly, a businessman and founder of a chapter of the Minuteman Project, a citizens group that monitors the border to combat illegal immigration....

...Robin Swanson, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, said that Donnelly had neither reported death threats nor requested extra security to Assembly officials...

...it was not immediately clear what authorization, if any, Donnelly had to carry a loaded weapon. The lawmaker had not obtained a concealed weapons permit from San Bernardino County or from the Assembly, according to officials of both jurisdictions. Ownership of the .45-caliber handgun was not immediately clear, either. The Department of Justice said gun registration records are confidential....
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/01/04/134854/california-lawmaker-cited-f...

When:
Feb 17, 2012 8:00 am - Feb 20, 2012 12:00 am
Time Zone:
(GMT-7:00) America: Denver
Location:
100 S. West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101 |
http://www.justicepartyusa.net/events/view/2696/?date=2012-02-17

Pinochet "dictatorship" textbook row erupts in Chile
A political row has broken out in Chile after it emerged that the centre-right government is changing the way school textbooks refer to the military rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet.

From now on, it will be described as a "regime", and not a "dictatorship".

Left-wing opposition parties have accused officials of trying to whitewash history.

The government says the decision to use what it calls a more general term is not politically motivated.....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16420413

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Union_Facts

[excerpt]

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

The Center for Union Facts is a secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities. It is part of lobbyist Rick Berman's family of front groups including the Employment Policies Institute. The domain name www.unionfacts.com was registered to Berman & Co. in May 2005.

...

[read more at link]

Austere Challenge 2012…

Thousands of US troops deploying to Israel

Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran…

…Under the Austere Challenge 12 drill scheduled for an undisclosed time during the next few weeks, the Israeli military will together with America host the largest-ever joint missile drill by the two countries. Following the installation of American troops near Iran’s neighboring Strait of Hormuz and the reinforcing of nearby nations with US weapons, Tehran authorities are considering this not a test but the start of something much bigger.

In the testing, America’s Theater High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile system will be operating alongside its ship-based Aegis system and Israel’s own program to work with Arrow, Patriot and Iron Drone missiles…

…The Jerusalem Post quotes US Commander Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc as saying the drill is not just an “exercise” but also a “deployment” that will involve “several thousand American soldiers” heading to Israel. Additionally, new command posts will be established by American forces in Israel and that country’s own IDF army will begin working from a base in Germany…......
http://my.firedoglake.com/ctuttle/2012/01/05/austere-challenge-2012/

obama accomplished AC11 by his phony "payroll tax holiday." The task of AC12 is to complete Tel Aviv's takeover of the Pentagon.
AC13's task will be to use the "threat" of China to increase the percentage of federal income going to the military form a mere 50% to 90%.
Worse than Bush? Definitely.

Thursday, April 7, 2011
An “Austere Challenge” for Sure
By Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director
Don’t you just love these names the Pentagon invents for its military operations? From the makers of Operation Odyssey Dawn, coming in May 2012, it’s Austere Challenge!
If you thought U.S.-Israeli military cooperation was already tight, it’s about to get a whole lot closer. According to an April 4 article in Defense News, U.S. and Israeli military planners are busy at work on an exercise that would entail an “unprecedented expansion of security cooperation” between the countries. The article makes clear that this is no ordinary military exercise, but one aimed at “enabling the two countries to func­tion in wartime as a joint task force (JTF).” Yikes. Exactly what contingency planning for a joint U.S.-Israeli war is in the offing? Israeli military planners appear giddy at the prospect. “We’re talking about a huge step up in substance, size and proce­dures,” an Israeli officer told Defense News. “It’s an historic upgrading of strategic cooperation that extends beyond interoperability into how to jointly plan and execute contingency op­erations.” No wonder the Obama Administration can lay a legitimate claim to being the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House, notwithstanding its much-ado-about-nothing feigned brouhaha over Israel’s ongoing expansion of its illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Between record-breaking appropriations of military aid to Israel and unprecedented levels of military cooperation, President Obama has made clear that Israel will be rewarded, rather than sanctioned, for its intransigence in maintaining its illegal military occupation of Palestinian land. So much for change we can believe in. No doubt that it will be an “austere challenge” for us to confront effectively this increased military coordination, but keep your eyes peeled and be ready to take action when we launch an advocacy campaign about this in the future. Meanwhile, we’re continuing to move ahead with our work to end U.S. military aid to Israel. Here are ways you can plug in, along with some teasers for upcoming stages of the campaign we’ll be rolling out over the next few months: * Check out our website How Much Aid to Israel?.................
http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2011/04/austere-challenge-for-sure.html

...Try Hopelessly to Persuade George Galloway We Should Bomb Iran
http://warisacrime.org/content/listen-some-schmuck-try-hopelessly-persua...

;)

enters Shasta County on journey

By DAMON ARTHUR and RYAN SABALOW-Redding Record-Searchlight

This Nov. 14 photo from a trail camera in Oregon appears to show OR-7, the young male wolf that...
The gray wolf that made history by crossing into California last week wandered into eastern Shasta County sometime Thursday.
The male wolf, known to biologists as OR-7, meandered from Siskiyou County into eastern Shasta County sometime between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, Jordan Traverso, a Department of Fish and Game spokeswoman, said Thursday.
"We cannot predict what he will do next," Traverso said in an email.
Though biologists are able to track the wolf because it's wearing a satellite-tracking collar, they have declined to identify his exact location to keep him safe from those who might wish to harm him.
That's troubling to Pam Giacomini, a Hat Creek rancher and candidate for District 3 supervisor.
"It would be nice ... if we could call Fish and Game and say, 'Hey, can you give us kind of a location so we know whether we need to be concerned and keep our eyes out?'" she said.
Wolves were re-introduced into the northern Rocky Mountains in the mid-1990s. The first wild wolf crossed out of Idaho into Oregon in 1999. In September, OR-7 began a southwest trek across the state's highways, mountains and deserts, gathering national media attention along the way.
For much of November and December, he stayed in the Klamath and Jackson counties area of southern Oregon before crossing into California on Dec. 28.
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_19686871

In an interview last week with the Los Angeles Times, Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong said the wolf should be shot on sight because of the threat it poses to livestock and people.

-----------------
"It's unfair to ask people to live with this dangerous predator," she told the Bee. "It's romantic, maybe, for urban people. But this affects our quality of life. It affects when we go out to get mail from the mailbox: Do we have to carry a gun?"

BREAKING NEWS- California is now experiencing an event that has been the fervent wish of many people for decades. This event serves to remind that for some past environmental wrongs, there is the potential for rectification -- and that a species that was reviled as vermin and rendered nearly extinct through a wholesale extermination campaign can return to its rightful place in ecosystems from which it has long been banished. After a 300+ mile trek across Oregon, with a few loping strides, wolf OR-7 has crossed the border into California, in a region of our state that has excellent wolf habitat. Since he is the first confirmed wild wolf in California since 1924, it's an extraordinarily exciting moment in the natural history of this species and this state. When it comes to their role in the ecosystem, wolves are about as important a player as there can be. Though its return to any location always stirs controversy, due to the myths and folklore surrounding wolves, OR-7 brings with him the opportunity for Californians to learn about and appreciate a once-native species, and that's something to celebrate.

In discussing the history of wolves in the southwestern United States, Brown (1983) reported that despite an abundance of what appear to be suitable habitats; virtually no wolves have been seen in California. Schmidt (1987, 1991), however, came to a different conclusion based on his review of historical records. He found clear records from 1750 to 1850 indicating that wolves were present in the Coastal Range from San Diego to Sacramento when these areas were first being explored and settled. From 1850-1900, wolves were seen in Shasta County and in the central Sierra Nevada. These historical reports of wolves appear in divergent areas of the state; reports surfaced in different areas over time as European exploration and settlement shifted from the coasts toward the inland forests, mountains and plains. Geddes-Osborne and Margolin (2001) reported that the wolf was known among many California tribes statewide, as demonstrated in language, artwork, ceremonial garb, and creation stories. The most compelling evidence of widespread wolf presence is found in tribal languages; more than 80 distinct languages were spoken in California when Europeans first arrived and most had clearly differentiated words for wolf, coyote, fox and dog.
http://www.californiawolfcenter.org/learn/wolves-in-california/

MUMIA STILL HELD IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT – A LEGAL UPDATE
Mumia is still in Administrative Custody (AC)—the hole—at SCI Mahanoy. The confinement conditions in all the Restricted Housing Units (RHU) are degrading and tortuous.
Mumia is on a cellblock that houses AC as well as disciplinary custody inmates. He is in solitary confinement, with lights glaring 24/7, without adequate food, or the opportunity to buy food to supplement his diet. He is shackled and handcuffed whenever outside his solitary cell—including when he goes to shower. And he is isolated without regular phone calls, or access to his property, including legal materials, books and typewriter. His visiting hours are limited. In short, Mumia is being subjected to conditions in AC that are more onerous than those on death row.
There is no legal basis for Mumia to be confined in AC. At the point he was no longer under a death sentence, he should have been transferred into general population. This is not dependent on a court date for Mumia to be formally resentenced to life imprisonment.
On January 3 and January 6, 2012 I submitted demand letters on Mumia's behalf to John Wetzel, Secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC), and to John Kerestes, Superintendent SCI Mahanoy, to immediately transfer and assign Mumia to general population with full visitation, phone and commissary privileges and access to all programs and services. The stated legal grounds are the following: The degrading, dehumanizing, tortuous conditions of Mumia Abu- Jamal's confinement in administrative custody at SCI Mahanoy are an abuse of authority, counter to DOC regulations, punitive, discriminatory, in violation of his protected liberty interests and his civil rights, including First Amendment rights.
The DOC regulations allow only two permanent categories of imprisonment, death row and general population. AC is by law only a temporary placement. It must be based on defined grounds, justified and implemented subject to procedural due process. None of the grounds listed in the DOC regulations for placement in AC apply to Mumia. In fact, on December 8, 2011 the DOC transferred Mumia from death row at SCI Greene and onto a cellblock that does not house capital inmates. On December 14, the DOC ordered Mumia moved to a medium security facility, SCI Mahanoy, which by regulation cannot hold death row prisoners.
The response by the DOC via telephone by Chief Counsel Suzanne Hueston was that Mumia is in AC pending resentencing and further evaluations. These are bogus explanations. The December 2001 federal court ruling that Mumia's death sentence is illegal has been upheld on appeal. The District Attorney has stated there will be no trial to obtain a new death sentence. Therefore Mumia should be in general population.
Nor is there a reason or basis for "further evaluation." Mumia has been confined in Pennsylvania prisons for some thirty years. The DOC unquestionably knows his history, conduct and behavior. There is nothing in Mumia's personal record to justify holding him in Administrative Custody.
The DOC's treatment of Mumia is punishment for depriving the FOP and Philadelphia District Attorney of his execution. This is the latest attempt by this frame-up system to silence Mumia, an innocent man, and to subject him to tortuous, punitive conditions in the hole.
Rachel Wolkenstein, Attorney
January 7, 2012

1) Write Call Phone and email the Secretary of Corrections

Tell them that Mumia must be immediately transferred to General Population.

John Wetzl, Secretary Department of Corrections
2520 Lisburn Road,
P.O. Box 598
Camp Hill, PA 17001-0598
717) 975-4928 Email: ra-contactdoc@pa.gov

2) Write Call Phone and email the Secretary of Corrections

John Kerestes, Superintendent
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Road
Frackville, PA 17932
(570) 773-2158
fax 570-783-2008
3) Write Call Phone and email the Philadelphia DA

Seth Williams, DA Philadelphia
Three South Penn Square
Philadelphia, PA 19107-3499
(215) 686-8000
Email: DA_Central@phila.gov
and finally if you can send Mumia a note or a card.

Write to Mumia

Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Road
Frackville, PA 17932