THE CAT THAT CONTROLS NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION PROGRAMMING
John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has exclusive programming contracts for ALL New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote in the primary. And as to Super Tuesday and beyond: Silvestro also has the programming contracts for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
Silvestro IS the New Hampshire chain of custody in New England -- Or at least, a very large component in it.
Last fall, with the help of citizens like you, Black Box Voting began working on "Chain of Custody" projects, in which we identified some of the areas of concern that might affect many jurisdictions at once. First on the list for the Northeast U.S. is LHS Associates, a vendor with inside access to every memory card, as well as to the chips containing the "brain" of the Diebold optical scan machines.
RARE VIDEO FOOTAGE
In an unusual confluence of available video, we obtained footage of Silvestro grappling with Harri Hursti, the master hacker who had his way with the Diebold optical scans in Leon County, Florida in the famous exploit that was showcased in the film Hacking Democracy.
The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Because the voting machine locations tend to be urban, this represents about 81 percent of the New Hampshire voters.
The video shows Harri Hursti testifying on Sept. 19 before the New Hampshire legislature, attempting to explain significant vulnerabilities requiring urgent mitigations; throughout his testimony, Silvestro inserted his own comments, opinions, misstatements and speculations.
VOTING MACHINE CHECKUP
One area of disagreement between Hursti and Silvestro was the amount of expertise needed to exploit the Diebold 1.94w optical scan system. Silvestro claimed (in a strange contortion of reasoning) that he doesn't hire very skilled programmers, implying that this makes New Hampshire elections more secure.
Hursti pointed out that hiring programmers with a lack of knowledge is generally not considered a security feature, and also that an average high schooler can learn to exploit the system in two days to two weeks.
WE THINK IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG
Black Box Voting purchased a Diebold optical scan with 1.94w firmware, and chose a computer repair shop out of the phone book, took it in, grabbed the first available technician. It took him less than 10 minutes to zero in on the memory card as a point of critical vulnerability -- and oh my, did he point out some other intersting things!
NEW HAMPSHIRE HASN'T UPGRADED SYSTEM SECURITY
Silvestro tries to claim that the security problems have been fixed in newer editions. Whether or not they have been, it's a moot point in New Hampshire where the upgrade is not made unless the Ballot Law Commission meets, and they have not met for ages.
Silvestro then points to extraordinary measures taken by other states to enact special procedural safeguards, but of course none of those were implemented in New Hampshire either, because the Ballot Law Commission has not bothered to meet since March 2006.
IN FACT, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED MITIGATIONS FOR KNOWN RISKS
Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.
LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.
CONTROL OVER THE "BRAINS" OF THE MACHINE: ACCESS TO THE CHIP
Since LHS maintains the machines, repairs the machines, and replaces the machines -- often on Election Day -- when they malfunction, they have intimate access to the chips, sockets, ports, communications devices and other electronic components.
Silvestro stated that the chip has "read only memory" and cannot be reprogrammed without frying it under ultraviolet light overnight.
Hursti never had a chance to examine the hardware, nor have most of the recent university studies had access. But our friendly neighborhood computer repair guy differed with Silvestro on the point of plug & play reprogramming of the guts of the machine.
After I push the button to send this message out to the media and the citizenry, I'll work on getting a short YouTube video of the Accuvote checkup by our local computer repairman. And before you say, "But wait! He's not a world class expert!" -- That's just the point.
Our local computer repairman may hit or miss on some of his analyses. You'll all be able to try your hand at second guessing him as soon as the next video is up. But if he hits even one of his ideas for how to exploit the machine to steal votes, that's all it takes. From someone who is not, certainly, a world class hacker or even a hacker at all.
Please feel free to distribute, reprint or excerpt, with link to Black Box Voting and the video link above.
Bev Harris
Black Box Voting
bev@blackboxvoting.org
Informant: Russ Hallberg
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Bev Harris: New Hampshire Recount a "Criminal Enterprise"
Vote fraud expert convinced chain of custody is corrupt
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet
Monday, January 28, 2008
Fresh from her confrontations in New Hampshire during which public officials were grilled about slapdash chain of custody and ballot box tampering issues, Bev Harris is now convinced that a "criminal enterprise" is running the primary recount.
Harris was fundamental in the vetting and production of the HBO special Hacking Democracy, and has contributed towards bringing charges against vote fraudsters who cheated in Ohio in 2004.
Harris traveled to New Hampshire personally to discover for herself the disgraceful lapses in chain of custody for the memory cards and ballot boxes used in the recent primary.
(Article continues below)
Harris is featured in the video below (uploaded today) asking public officials about slits in ballot boxes as they bizarrely deny that the slits are big enough to allow tampering, amongst a myriad of other disturbing questions about chain of custody.
Die Energie- und Klimawochenschau: Die Staatsfonds der Öl- und Gasförderländer erobern die Finanzwelt. Der Ölpreis beschert den großen Förderländern prall gefüllte Kassen. Geld mit dem sie auf Einkaufstour gehen und sich im Großmaßstab in die Wirtschaft der Industriestaaten einkaufen.
Mike Huckabee propagiert eine neue US-Außenpolitik. Tatsächlich will der ehemalige Baptistenprediger als Präsident den Kurs von George W. Bush fortsetzen, ihn aber besser erklären.
Justin Rood, reporting for ABC News, writes, "The Defense Department's top watchdog has declined to investigate allegations that an American woman working under an Army contract in Iraq was raped by her co-workers."
Andrew Taylor, reporting for The Associated Press, writes, "The federal budget deficit inched up in the first quarter of the fiscal year, congressional budget estimators said Monday, as the growth in tax revenues slowed along with the softening economy."
When Congress returns to Washington on 1/15, Congressman Robert Wexler plans to present his fellow members of the House Judiciary Committee with the list of signatures on his petition at http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com and a request to join him in signing a letter to Chairman John Conyers asking for Cheney impeachment hearings to begin.
We're trying to organize all pro-impeachment organizations to Email their members on 1/15 or in the morning on 1/16 asking them to make 1/16 a national call-in day on impeachment. We need everyone to call their member of Congress, especially if their member is on the House Judiciary Committee, and ask for support for Cheney impeachment hearings.
It's an easier ask than signing onto articles of impeachment or introducing new ones, but we'd love for them to do both of those things. It's a harder ask than just more pointless non-impeachment investigations. The investigations have been done. The high crimes and misdemeanors are known and established. What we need is for every member of Congress to ask Chairman John Conyers to begin the Cheney impeachment hearings right away.
Optional: Ask your members once they've made that phone call to also phone and Email the media to ask for coverage of the impeachment movement.
Can you help? Can your organization send out this call?
A tech company with ties to a school district plans to test a tracking system by putting computer chips on grade-schoolers’ backpacks, an experiment the ACLU ripped Monday as invasive and unnecessary. The pilot program set to start next week in the Middletown school district would have about 80 children put tags containing radio frequency identification chips, or RFID chips, on their schoolbags. It would also equip two buses with global positioning systems, or GPS devices. The school and parents will be able to track students on the bus, and the district hopes the program will improve busing efficiency, Superintendent Rosemarie Kraeger said. The devices are intended to record only when students enter and exit the bus, and the GPS would show where the bus was on its route...
President Bush said Monday that if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the No Child Left Behind education law, he’ll make as many changes as he can on his own. Bush also said that if Congress does renew the law but weakens it in the process, he’d ’strongly oppose it and veto it’...
Über 1000 km zu Fuß, von Dortmund nach München. 30 Konzerte in 30 verschiedenen Städten der Republik. Zu Gunsten von Wohnungslosen und gegen die soziale Härte: Heinz Ratz läuft vom 22.01. - 22.02. den Lauf gegen die Kälte 2008.
„«Rathauskümmerer» bewachen Gemeinnützig - mit göttlichen Segen von Caritas und Diakonie. Auch im neuen Jahr kommt Köln bei Hartz IV nicht zur Ruhe. Heute wurde die Rekrutierung von Ein-Euro-Jobbern der Kölner Gesellschaft für Arbeits- und Berufsförderung (KGAB) ad absurdum geführt.
(…) Lediglich zwei(!) eingeladene Personen waren pünktlich erschienen, acht weitere hatten sich selbst eingeladen und outeten sich als durchaus interessierte AktivistInnen der «Agenturschluss»-Bewegung. Unterdessen hissen zwei weitere engagierte Erwerbslose ein Transparent vor der Tür des Gebäudes, um auch den Besuchern der gegenüberliegenden ARGE Süd in Köln auf «Zwangsarbeit» bei der KGAB aufmerksam zu machen…“ Bericht vom 7. Januar 2008 beim Elo-Forum http://www.elo-forum.net/aktionen/aktionen/-200801071563.html
59 per cent of respondents have a negative view of the way the current administration has fought terrorism, and 57 per cent are dissatisfied with how it has protected civil liberties.
Kenya's violent crisis threatens to destabilise one of the United States' key counter-terrorism partners in Africa and could influence Washington's decision on where to site its new military command for the continent.
US President George W Bush will not win any support for military action against Iran when he visits four Gulf Arab allies later this month, political analysts in the region say.
Most Pakistanis want their country to be a democratic Islamic state but are deeply distrustful of the United States and its war on terrorism, according to a poll released on Sunday.
Today's New York Times features another of the in-depth reports for which Tim Golden has become famous; this one looks into conditions in the massive prison facility at Bagram built by the Soviets and continued by the United States.
The death rate in Iraq in the past 12 months has been the second highest in any year since the invasion, according to figures that appear to contradict American claims that the troop "surge" has dramatically reduced the level of violence across the country.
"The war is not against Bin Laden. We are the enemy"
- Audio -
Interview with investigator and author, Daniel Estulin, on his book, "The True Story of the Bilderberg Group", which describes an annual gathering where the European and American political elite, and the wealthiest CEOs of the world, all come together to discuss the economic and political future of humanity. Highly secretive, the press has never been allowed to attend, nor have statements ever been released on the group's conclusions or discussions. Also discussed are the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.
In The Nation, Max Fraser says, "This past September, the National Labor Relations Board issued a startling sixty-one decisions in a legal blitzkrieg on working Americans. The NLRB has been led by a pro-business majority of Bush appointees since 2002. Its bias was never more apparent than during this latest round of decisions, labeled a 'September massacre' by the AFL-CIO."
An editorial in The San Francisco Chronicle states that "The Environmental Protection Agency can't say it wasn't warned. By denying California - and another 16 states - a chance to set tailpipe limits on greenhouse gas emissions, the fumbling feds are lining up for a painful ordeal in the courtroom and on Capitol Hill."
Deborah Zabarenko of Reuters reports: "The US government will soon decide whether polar bears are in danger because global warming is melting their icy habitat. But last week, the government offered some of that habitat as a place to drill for oil."
Oil Leases Cited in US Delay on Polar Bear's Status
The San Francisco Chronicle's Jane Kay writes: "Environmental groups fear that political meddling and a rush to sell oil leases in Arctic waters are behind the Bush administration's announcement Monday that it will miss a legal deadline to determine whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act."
The Boston Globe's Anna Badkhen says, "No mortar rounds slam into Kim Luce's two-story house in Central Massachusetts. No medevac helicopters throb outside at 3 a.m. No wounded soldiers moan to get her attention. After a year as a chief ward master for an American military hospital in Iraq, Army Reserve Master Sergeant Luce is back in her spacious Shrewsbury home."
That the Establishment would hate Ron Paul should not surprise us. It does not even surprise me that many pastors and Christians despise Ron Paul. (After all, many of them still worship at the altar of George W. Bush.) What is yet to be seen is, How will the American people receive him? His strong showing in Iowa surprised most of the "experts." I believe he will do even better in New Hampshire today. How Dr. Paul's campaign fares in future primaries is still to be seen.
A colleague has just posted a very important video on a very important topic.
There is pending legislation in the US that would criminalize speech on topics the government deems "threatening."
The law is called H.R. 1955.
It goes by the Orwellian name: "The violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism prevention act."
It quietly passed the House by a 404 to 6 vote and at least one Congressman admits voting for it without reading it.
Language in this bill makes it theoretically possible for government agents to shut down sites like Brasscheck TV by claiming that the information we share *may* insight violence.
Here's how I need your help...
Few Americans even know of the existence of this legislation let alone know what's in it.
The Internet can change that - and your help is needed.
Please go to the site, view the video, and if you are a YouTube member (it's easy to join) rate it, favorite it, and post a comment.
Frequent viewings and frequent posts help.
With enough activity in the next 24 hours, we may be able to make this one of the most popular news videos of the day and raise the profile on this very important subject.
Zu Forderungen der Jungen Union nach "Erziehungscamps" für jugendliche Straftäter erklärt der jugendpolitische Sprecher des Parteivorstandes Sascha Wagener:
Sprache ist verräterisch: Mit ihrer Forderung nach "Erziehungscamps" machen die Konservativen deutlich, worum es ihnen geht. Sie wollen das amerikanische Konzept der Bootcamps auch für Deutschland. Die Junge Union liefert in einer Presseerklärung eine wortgenaue Beschreibung dieser amerikanischen Umerziehungslager. Ein ähnliches Camp gibt es bereits im hessischen Kreis Waldeck-Frankenberg. Hier hat der Staat seine Verantwortung in der Erziehung Jugendlicher an eine private Institution abgetreten, die Jugendliche durch das Brechen ihres Willens und ihres Stolzes zu besseren Menschen umerziehen möchte. Diese privaten Camps sind keine Alternative zum Jugendstrafvollzug. In den amerikanischen Bootcamps gehören seelische Misshandlungen zum Programm. Jugendliche können, das Einverständnis der Eltern vorausgesetzt, mit Gewalt zur Beteiligung an den Trainingsprogrammen gezwungen werden. Die Befürworter gehen davon aus, dass ein Straftäter nach dieser Tortur nicht mehr rückfällig werden will, um diese nie mehr durchmachen zu müssen. Mehrere Dutzend Jugendliche sind in den letzten Jahren in diesen Camps ums Leben gekommen. Ich kann keinen Unterschied zwischen den von der Jungen Union geforderten Erziehungscamps und dem System der Bootcamps erkennen. Ich fordere Angela Merkel als Vorsitzende der CDU auf, den menschenunwürdigen Vorschlägen der Jungen Union und des hessischen Ministerpräsidenten Roland Koch deutlich entgegenzutreten.
Chalmers Johnson, writing for TomDispatch.com, says, "I have some personal knowledge of Congressmen like Charlie Wilson (D-2nd District, Texas, 1973-1996) because, for close to twenty years, my representative in the 50th Congressional District of California was Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence for soliciting and receiving bribes from defense contractors."
It makes the U.S. government look like it is populated by a bunch of whoring, drunken sleazebags, so in that sense it's accurate enough. But there are a number of things both the book and the film are suppressing.
Paul Krugman, writing for The New York Times, says: "The unemployment report on Friday was brutally bad. Unemployment rose in December, while job creation was minimal - and it's highly likely, for technical reasons, that the job number will be revised down, showing an actual decline in employment."
Iranian Revolutionary Guard gunboats harassed three U.S. Navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday, in what the U.S. military officials described as a "significant provocative act."
Just hours before US President George W. Bush was to embark on his Middle East tour, the White House and US military in the region said Iran was engaging in "provocative acts".
Persian Gulf incident part of U.S. psyops: Iran's Majlis speaker
Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel has described U.S. reports about a confrontation between Iranian speedboats and U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf as "part of a psychological and propaganda campaign against the Islamic Republic."
US warns Iran of consequences of any new naval crisis : U.S. President George W. Bush warned Iran on Wednesday of "serious consequences" if it attacked U.S. ships in the Gulf and said all options were on the table.
Video purports to show Iranian 'provocation' of US forces
The Pentagon has released footage of Iranian boats threatening three US ships in The Gulf, in what President George W Bush described as a "provocative act".
Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of fabricating video and audio released by the Pentagon showing Iranian boats confronting U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
Iran: Pentagon sends up Gulf of Tonkin trial balloon
Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
01/08/08
An Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged at and threatened to blow up a three-ship U.S. Navy convoy passing near Iranian waters, then vanished as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire, the top U.S. Navy commander in the area said Monday. No shots were fired an an Iranian official in Tehran said the incident amounted to ’something normal’...
Die EU beschleunigt mit ihrem Ziel, den Anteil von Agrosprit am Gesamtkraftstoffmarkt bis 2020 auf zehn Prozent zu steigern, die Zerstörung der letzten Urwälder Südostasiens.
Jared Diamond unterscheidet zwischen Erster und Dritter Welt und zeigt, dass unsere Verschwendung problematischer ist als mehr Kinder in den Dritten Welt.
Die Union setzt auf innere Sicherheit und Ressentiments gegen Ausländer und Zuwanderung, nach einer Umfrage ist die Mehrheit der Deutschen von dem Wahlkampfthema nicht überzeugt.
Letter to Nature Biotechnology: Systematic bias in favour of no adverse impacts from GM feed
I am writing in response to your article defending the ‘new format’ of your Feature on Ermakova’s findings of adverse health and reproductive impacts on rats fed genetically modified (GM) soya, and on the validity of the ‘scientific criticisms’ of her work.
You are still being unfair to Ermakova, especially in allowing the panel of critics in your original Feature2 - all well known for their writings and public appearances if not in declared financial interests to be strongly pro-GM - to have the last word.
You asked for suggestions regarding the format you might use for Features of this kind. The real issue, however, is not the format but the journal’s policy on reviewing. When there is a debate or a controversy about an issue, reviewers must apply the same standards to papers on both sides, and that Chassy et al did not do. They explicitly wrote that Ermakova’s work should be judged by a more rigorous standard because it contradicts earlier work that showed no adverse effects from GM food. Yet the crucial earlier work that they repeatedly cited was indeed, not subjected to same rigorous standard they are demanding for Ermakova’s study; far from it. The same applies to other earlier research purportedly demonstrating that GM food is safe.
I have decided that after years of not getting anyone to publish what I have found out about the Edmonds case, I am simply going to give you folks some names.
Sibel Edmonds, the FBI whistle-blower who has been gagged for years by the Bush administration over intercepts she translated while at the bureau, was willing to go to prison to get her story told. She spent years trying to get her day in court, but the State Secrets gag against her prohibited her from telling her story even to a FISA judge.
Jonathan Saltzman reports for The Boston Globe, "The chief federal judge in Boston has urged the new US attorney general to crack down on prosecutors who commit misconduct and to force Justice Department lawyers to be truthful in court."
Tim Golden reports for The New York Times, "The American detention center, established at the Bagram military base as a temporary screening site after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, is now teeming with some 630 prisoners - more than twice the 275 being held at Guantanamo."
Truthout's Jason Leopold reports, "Harman's letter provides a more thorough account of the possible reasons CIA officials destroyed the videotaped interrogations, which, according to public accounts took place in November 2005, more than two years after Harman sent a letter to Muller voicing disapproval about purging the videotapes. It also suggests intelligence officials heeded prior warnings to preserve the videotapes and destroyed the videotapes only after evidence of the agency's covert interrogation practices were revealed publicly in news reports."
According to the counters, Ron Paul came in fifth in Iowa with an alleged 10% of the GOP vote. Many believe had Dr. Paul not been the target of a deliberate media smear (i.e., WorldNetDaily.com's news item January 5, 2008 with the caption ‘GOP gadfly’ in describing Ron Paul), he would have been in the high teens, possibly 20%.......
"Jeden Tag eine neue Filiale", so lautet das Motto des Textildiscounters Kik. 2500 Läden gibt es schon, 3000 sollen es künftig werden – der Profit ist offenbar verlockend. Hohe Umsätze, von denen auch die Arbeitnehmer profitieren könnten – doch offenbar ist das Gegenteil der Fall. Martina K., gelernte Einzelhandelskauffrau, arbeitet seit mehreren Jahren als Aushilfskraft bei Kik, ihr Stundenlohn: 5,20 Euro. Damit ist sie sogar eine der "Mehrverdienerinnen", einige Kolleginnen bekommen nur um die 4,50 Euro. Auch Lohnfortzahlung bei Krankheit oder bezahlten Urlaub hat Martina K. nie erhalten. Denn um expandieren zu können, spart der Billiganbieter bei der Belegschaft. Das deutsche Arbeitsrecht wird dabei häufig ignoriert. Die Video der Sendung Panorama vom 03.01.2008 über Lohndumping als Wettbewerbsprinzip. http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/archiv/2008/t_cid-4491846_mid-4497542_.html
Siehe dazu auch:
Hauptsponsor des Vereins für Leibesübung (VfL) Bochum wegen Lohnwuchers angeklagt - Ver.di: KiK zahlt sittenwidrige Hungerlöhne
“Der Name KiK steht für ein einzigartiges Konzept, Textilien in guter Qualität zu vergleichbar dauerhaft niedrigen Preisen anzubieten.” So wirbt der VfL Bochum auf seiner Webseite für seinen Hauptsponsor “KiK”. Das ARD-Magazin “Panorama” berichtete gestern unter dem Titel “Wenig Lohn, wenig Rechte - Rückkehr der Lohnsklaverei in Deutschland” über die Praktiken der Firma KiK. Die Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft ver.di hatte bereits im November Strafanzeige wegen Lohnwuchers gegen KiK gestellt. Nach Ansicht von ver.di sind die Löhne des Textildiscounters sittenwidrig: “Sittenwidrige Löhne liegen immer dann vor, so die Rechtssprechung, wenn die ortsüblich Tarifvergütung um mehr als ein Drittel unterschritten wird. Der Tariflohn einer ausgelernten Verkäuferin beläuft sich in Nordrhein-Westfalen auf 12,30 Euro. Nach Abzug eines Drittel müsste er mindestens 8,21 Euro betragen. Damit nicht genug. Bei der weiteren Prüfung stellte sich heraus, dass es bei den KIK-Aushilfen scheinbar der Normalzustand ist, dass sie den gesetzlichen Urlaub von vier Wochen nicht erhalten. Sie werden lediglich unbezahlt von der Arbeit freigestellt.“ Meldung bei Bo-Alternativ vom 04.01.2008 http://www.bo-alternativ.de/2008/01/04/verdi-kik-zahlt-sittenwidrige-hungerloehne/
Aus: LabourNet, 7. Januar 2008
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Lohnwucher: Ver.di erstattet Strafanzeige wegen 2,71 Euro Stundenlohn
„Er war gelernter Maschinenbautechniker, doch das kümmerte eine Wuppertaler Zeitarbeitsfirma nicht. Sie bot dem Mann einen Stundenlohn von 2,71 Euro - die Gewerkschaft Ver.di hat deshalb Strafanzeige erstattet…“ Artikel in Spiegel online vom 03.12.2008 http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,594216,00.html
Porsche: Moderne Arbeitssklaven
„Leiharbeiter gelten als effektive Maßnahme zur Bekämpfung der Arbeitslosigkeit. Doch die Bedingungen, unter denen sie schuften müssen, sind teilweise skandalös. Der Arbeitsvertrag ist vier Seiten lang. Es sind vier Seiten, die mich bei der Lektüre ungläubig staunen ließen und zugleich schockierten. Sofort schoss mir der Gedanke durch den Kopf: Hierbei kann es nur um ein Arbeitsverhältnis in irgendwelchen Billiglohnländer wie Polen oder Rumänien gehen. Doch das Ganze spielt in Deutschland. Genauer gesagt im Leipziger Porsche-Werk. Dort, wo der Luxuswagenhersteller sein begehrtes Premium-Produkt Cayenne montieren lässt…“ Artikel von Kayhan Özgenc in Focus online vom 27.11.08 http://www.focus.de/finanzen/news/oezgenc_oekonomie/porsche-moderne-arbeitssklaven_aid_351450.html
‘The assassination of Benazir Bhutto was not an attack on this brave woman alone; it was an attack upon democracy, freedom and the United States.’ This statement by Asa Hutchinson, former undersecretary of homeland security, was typical of the reaction of the American political and media establishments. The claim that the assassination was an attack on democracy and freedom is dubious because Bhutto’s two spells as prime minister of Pakistan were not notable for either one...
This is something I’ve never really quite subscribed to. You think the war is lousy and evil and counter-productive, yet you support the brave men and women in uniform fighting it. It’s a mantra these days. You have to add that caveat to any anti-war sentiment, lest you be declared un-American, and invoke imagery of the boys returning from tours of duty in Vietnam to spitting crowds of hippies...
For many years I labored under the false conclusion that the practice of human bondage had been abolished by the latter decades of the nineteenth century. But, as I grew older and began to pay closer attention to the political climate in the United States, I realized that slavery had not disappeared. It did fade from public view from the latter part of the nineteenth century into the early decades of the twentieth century. However, after the 1930’s we can actually find slavery rising again in society. It is a ‘New Slavery’...
We have just ended the season when every environmental group to whom we’ve contributed, the NWF, WS, Sierra Club, and others, sends appeals for more funds. If you have ever contributed to these groups, you’ve no doubt been approached to join the Global Warming Crusade. Will this crusade become America’s Fourth Great Awakening? The First Awakening fostered the American Revolution by providing pre-Revolutionary America with a radical and democratic social and political ideology. The Second applied Christian teaching to politics. Stressing social reform as part of God’s plan, it amplified abolitionist sentiments and helped precipitate the Civil War. The Third Great Awakening of the late 1800s and early 1900s gave rise to the reforms of the ’social gospel’ movement and fostered Progressive Era reforms...
Soldiers returning from war don’t need to exhibit any scars on their bodies to be injured. Many — as many as 65 percent — have witnessed and survived the trauma of explosions and detonations. Those jolts and their aftermath can do a number on them, be it through brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder. The two afflictions are often linked. The long-term effects of a brain injury can be brutal and debilitating, while PTSD, left undiagnosed and untreated, can rob a person of peace of mind, sleep, the ability to maintain relationships, etc. And this is what our troops are up against after returning from their tour in hell. We can only imagine the shape they must be in when they’re redeployed...
Listen closely to the descriptions of cars given away on The Price Is Right, and you’ll hear “California emissions” listed among the options. This is good news for Golden State contestants who can breathe easier knowing they can drive their new car home to the O.C. because it won’t just meet federal emissions standards but California’s more stringent laws, as well. You see, throughout most of the 44 years since the Clean Air Act was passed, California has exceeded national emissions guidelines, thanks to more than 50 waiver requests granted by the Environmental Protection Agency, but the state’s ability to lead the charge toward cleaner air has now been hampered by the very agency that should be cheering it on...
Forests.org a project of Ecological Internet http://forests.org/
January 6, 2008
TAKE ACTION Demand the Polish government stop exploitation of the ancient Bialowieza forest, preserve the whole complex as a national park, and end permanently extensive logging that threatens Europe's last remnant old-growth northern temperate forests
Situated on the Polish/Belarussian border, the Bialowieza Forest is a priceless relic of lowland European forests, a place where the last fragments of primeval temperate old- growth forest on the Central European lowland have survived. It is home to many species extinct elsewhere including the European Bison, the largest terrestrial mammal of Europe; and also contains lynx, wolves and other threatened wildlife and plants. Yet approximately 90% of the forest remains unprotected... For many years environmental NGOs, scientists, concerned citizens in Poland and abroad have asked successive Polish governments to protect the forest, asking them to ban cutting of old growth and for enlargement of the Bialowieza National Park to protect the whole forest complex. Until now there has been little success. After the autumn elections Poland has a new government, so we are trying anew. Please help influence Polish politicians by sending the protest email below. After doing so please note the exciting update on our New York City rainforest timber campaign.
First the whales! Will the humans be next? Please read the story below.
Seeking a tempory injuction, may be a good method of stopping high exposure levels of electro magnetic pollution, when it is known that people and animals are being harmed by a particular source!
William (Bill) O’Reilly, stooge for Rupert Murdoch, mouths the thoughts of his master in his afternoon radio and nightly TV propaganda … “my explicative deleted.” It’s TV nightly program along with clueless Sean and second banana Colmes and their dog and pony show is just a speck or less tolerable than the ranting of loudmouth Bill. Fox at night exploits our society’s bottom dwellers. It provides nothing but mindless, cheap tabloid propaganda reflecting Rupert’s reputation for exporting sleaze.......
Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium, writes: "The first year of the 110th Congress closed with a great deal of spilled blood, and few victories for liberals. In just the last weeks of the past session, Democrats fought a series of gladiator battles over issues like energy, the Iraq war, and government spending - and lost every one of them in the Senate. But on the one issue that Democrats had by-and-large decided to cede to their opponents, they were … still unable to get very far."
Sen. Hillary Clinton, finding herself in an unexpectedly close race with freshman Sen. Barack Obama, flexed her national security muscles in Saturday night's Democratic debate, raising the possibility of loosing nuclear weapons on countries that harbor terrorists who plot a nuclear attack on the US.
Trump and His Allies...
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/21/trump-and-his-allies-are-clear-and-present-danger-american-democracy?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_op
rudkla - 22. Jun, 05:09
The Republican Party...
https://truthout.org/articles/the-republican-party-is-still-doing-donald-trumps-bidding/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=804d4873-50dd-4c1b-82a5-f465ac3742ce
rudkla - 26. Apr, 05:36
January 6 Committee Says...
https://truthout.org/articles/jan-6-committee-says-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conspiracy-to-undo-election/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=552e5725-9297-4a7c-a214-53c8c51615a3
